Cisco's New Succession Plans

Articles covers departure of top exec

Cisco's No. 2 exec to resign
GIANCARLO OUT DEC. 31
By Mark Boslet
Mercury News
Article Launched: 12/21/2007 01:39:58 AM PST


Cisco Systems' No. 2 executive and heir apparent, Charles Giancarlo, abruptly resigned from the company Thursday, stirring speculation about succession planning at the big network-equipment provider.

Chief Executive John Chambers, who shows no immediate signs of leaving, said he tried to talk 14-year veteran Giancarlo out of joining Silver Lake Partners, where he will be managing director and an investor.

But instead, Giancarlo announced he would leave the company, where he has steered acquisitions and developed markets strategy, on Dec. 31. Cisco said it does not plan to fill his role as chief development officer.


http://origin.mercurynews.com/business/ci_7776941?nclick_check=1

Bottled Water And The Environment

Here is a recent piece on the Global Warming impact of buying bottled water

Our guilty gallons
BOTTLED WATER'S IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENT
By Mark Boslet
Mercury News
Article Launched: 12/16/2007 01:42:59 AM PST

Drinking a bottle of water might seem innocent enough, but each bottle has a downside many people overlook - a contribution to global warming.

That's because bottles create carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas, when they are made, trucked to a store and disposed of in a landfill or recycled. Their impact can quickly add up.

"Bottled water is an energy-intensive luxury for Americans," said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, an environmental think tank in Oakland. "It's certainly much less necessary than the other things we use energy for."


http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7736341?nclick_check=1

We've been keeping an eye on Facebook.


Facebook does an about-face to soothe privacy advocates
Users must consent to sharing purchase information
By Mark Boslet
Mercury News
Article Launched: 11/29/2007 07:35:34 PM PST

Red-hot social networking site Facebook made a concession to privacy advocates Thursday by promising a significant change to an embattled advertising program that shares information about a member's purchases with his or her friends.

The change could go a long way toward satisfying critics, who have been calling on the Internet site to give users a permanent way to shield the information.

The Palo Alto start-up, which had 52 million visitors to its site in June alone, announced it would no longer publish information about purchases - such as a member's decision to buy a movie ticket - unless users approve it.

By doing so, it backed away from a growing confrontation with privacy advocates, who had been organizing a campaign against Facebook's Beacon advertising program.

http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_7594654

I liked this article of mine about the broadband race. The U.S. is falling behind.


U.S. in the broadband slow lane
GAP WITH OTHER COUNTRIES IS WIDENING
By Mark Boslet and John Boudreau
Mercury News
Article Launched: 11/22/2007 01:39:31 AM PST

The United States invented the Internet. But it's falling behind in the global broadband race.

In 2001, it was fourth in the number of broadband subscribers per capita. Now it's 15th.

What's more, high-speed Internet service in countries like Japan, France and South Korea is many times faster than in the United States and noticeably cheaper. In Japan, the average connection speed is 93.7 megabits per second, or more than 10 times faster than the average speed in the United States, according to a recent study. Yet average monthly prices are lower: $34.21 compared with $53.06 here. Subscribers in Sweden pay an average of $34 a month and get speeds that are more than twice as fast.

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_7531570

Here is one of my articles from August. I do periodic pieces on global warming.


Knowing your carbon impact increasingly important
By Mark Boslet
Mercury News
Article Launched: 08/27/2007 01:37:48 AM PDT

Never mind the carbon footprint, needled the New York Times earlier this month when Nicolas Sarkozy, the new president of France, whisked to Paris and back to the United States hours later.

Sarkozy jaunted to a funeral from his vacation hideaway in New Hampshire and then to Kennebunkport, Maine, where he had lunch with President Bush the following day.

Global warming, indeed.

A typical commercial flight to Paris and back to the East Coast coughs out at least a couple of thousand pounds of carbon dioxide per person or a significant share of the 26,000 pounds experts say an average Californian generates in a year. Carbon dioxide is the most prevalent of the greenhouse gases building up in the Earth's atmosphere.

http://www.mercurynews.com/greenenergy/ci_6729438?nclick_check=1