Aviation News, Boeing, Airbus

Longview Solutions, a leading provider of performance management software, announced today that it has been selected as one of the Top Business Performance Management (BPM) vendors for 2007 by BPM Partners, a widely-respected analyst and consulting firm specializing in BPM.

(PRWEB) January 31, 2007 — Longview Solutions, a leading provider of performance management software, announced today that it has been selected as one of the Top Business Performance Management (BPM) vendors for 2007 by BPM Partners, a widely-respected analyst and consulting firm specializing in BPM. In addition, Longview received a 4.4 out of 5 ranking in early results from the annual BPM Pulse Survey. Longview received top marks for customer support and the price/value ROI of Longviews performance management platform.

The results are part of BPM Partners annual BPM Pulse Survey which is completed by end users and documents their level of satisfaction with their current BPM provider. In addition, in its annual Beyond the Hype webcast BPM Partners announced their “Core 9″ top BPM vendors for 2007 which included Longview. For a replay of the Beyond the Hype” Webcast, go to http://www.bpmpartners.com/events_webinars.shtml.

style='text-decoration:none;color:#748DA7; font-size: 16px; font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold'>To be part of the Core 9 BPM vendors for 2007, BPM Partners examined four key aspects of vendor capability: completeness of BPM solution, level of functional capabilities, success in real-world implementations, and BPM focus of the vendor organization

“To be part of the Core 9 BPM vendors for 2007, BPM Partners examined four key aspects of vendor capability: completeness of BPM solution, level of functional capabilities, success in real-world implementations, and BPM focus of the vendor organization,” said Craig Schiff, President and CEO of BPM Partners. “Through the 2007 BPM Pulse Survey, Longview demonstrated its focus on high customer satisfaction and its ability to deliver a cost-competitive performance management solution.”

“What makes the BPM Pulse Survey unique is that it is completed by end user customers,” said Mark E. Burton, President and CEO of Longview Solutions. “It is very encouraging to see our customers validate two key Longview differentiators - very high levels of customer satisfaction and the best price to value ratio in the industry. In addition, to be recognized as one of the “Core 9″ vendors for 2007 reinforces Longviews ability to deliver the industrys most technically advanced, scalable and robust software application for performance management.”

About BPM Partners

BPM Partners is a privately held professional services firm with an exclusive focus on business performance management (BPM) solutions. The firms BPM experts help companies understand the value of business performance management, provide insight on how to collect and analyze the right information to address specific business goals and lead clients through the evaluation and implementation of departmental or enterprise-wide BPM systems. For more information, go to www.bpmpartners.com.

About Longview Solutions

Longview Solutions helps companies manage the business of finance with speed, visibility and financial integrity. Since 1995, hundreds of the worlds most respected companies including Boeing, Cisco, GE Healthcare, Home Depot, Ingersoll Rand, JC Penney and many other industry leaders have used our software to create a single repository of financial truth from which Consolidation, Management Reporting, Corporate Planning, Modeling, Analysis, Budgeting, Forecasting, and Tax processes can be performed simultaneously, enterprise-wide.

Longview Solutions has a focus on finance, and expertise that covers all industry sectors including energy, natural resources, media and entertainment, financial services, healthcare, higher education, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and retail. For more information go to www.longview.com.

For more information please contact:

North America:

Jennifer Bentley

905-513-5210

UK/International:

Clive Jefferies

Many chief executives pursue the four Ps - pay, power, perks and prestige rather
than profits for the company.

Recently, there are more and more CEOs falling from grace. In the United States, forced
exits accounted for 39% of CEO departures in 2002 up from 25 % in 2001, according to
Booz Allen Hamilton. In 2002, Enron Chairman Ken Lay, Tyco chief Dennis
Kozlowski, Qwest’s Joe Nacchio, Worldcom’s Bernie Ebbers. Year 2003 saw the
departure of CEOs from Raytheon, Kmart, Spiegel, Scherling Plough, Motorola, Freddie
Mac, Boeing, American, etc.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) in 13 April 2004 reported that Professor David Yermack of
New York University Stern School of Business found that the average shareholder gains
underperformed market benchmarks at companies where the chief flies by luxurious
corporate jets. In the study, “Flights of Fancy: Corporate Jets, CEO Perquisites and
Inferior Shareholder Returns”, Professor Yermack said: “The central result of this study
is that CEO’s personal use of company aircraft is associated with severe and significant
under-performance of their employers’ stock….Firms’ stock prices drop an average of 2
percent around the date of initial disclosure of corporate plane use.”

Some of the CEOs may not be justifiably fired as the economy turns bad through no
faults of theirs’ but they were held accountable. However, the days of fat cats running
corporations are over.

Uncontrolled and unnecessary costs destroy businesses. If your competitor has a limo and
you do not, you are already winning. He has a leaky bucket. There are six self-made
multi-billionaires. And all of them were paragons of simplicity and prudence in self-aggrandisement.

In 1991, Sam Walton founder of Wal-Mart drove an eight-year-old red Ford pickup. He
always fetched his own coffee. As President of EDS, Ross Perot paid himself $70,000 a
year. However, when Perot sold EDS to General Motors, the President of General
Motors, Perot’s new boss, made $2.4 million salary plus a bonus. Finally, he paid Perot
$2.5 billion to go away because GM executives were embarrassed by the folksy Perot,
who did not demand a fat salary or swanky office or specially tuned cars. David Packard
never had an enclosed office before he left Hewlett-Packard for government service. Bill
Gates of Microsoft often rode coach on planes, until they finally got so big they ran their
own fleet of aircraft. Warren Buffet manages Berkshire Hathaway’s billions and billions
with a staff of 24. When they lunch together, it is McDonald’s. Warren still stayed in the
same house that he bought thirty years ago and drew on a salary of US 100,000 per
annum. Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea takes the company bus to his stores.

Indeed examples of executive abuses dominated the news during 2002. Many Enron
employees were fired whilst Senior Executives used $200,000 to fund its luxury box at
the formerly named Enron Field. Though founded on the innovative idea of instant
photography, Polaroid’s management failed to save the company from the shift to digital
cameras. Polaroid reportedly cancelled health-care benefits for the company’s retirees in
the wake of its Chapter 11 filing. However, management reportedly petitioned the
bankruptcy court for permission to dole out roughly $19 million in bonuses to keep key
executives from leaving. Webvan is another example. It failed to compete against the
traditional supermarkets with its online shopping services and home delivery. Before it
ceased operations, the company reportedly agreed to pay its resigning CEO, George
Shaheen, $375,000 per year for life although the Webvan’s stock price plunged 99
percent during his tenure.

Flying into the future is Boeing’s new Dreamliner, renamed as the 787. Lightweight, fast and efficient this 50% build composite aircraft looks to break all records, including sales records. The Boeing company, the premier airline manufacturer in the Solar System in the present period has already secured orders for over 250 of these state-of-the-art, leading edge, envelope busting birds.

A private jet overran a runway at Bob Hope Airport on Friday and was stopped by an arresting system. The aircraft was carrying New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez and six others.

Fortunately none of the seven passengers were injured. This incident took place only two days after Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle’s plane failed to execute a U-turn and slammed into the side of a high-rise in Manhattan, killing Lidle and his flight instructor.

The jet, a Gulfstream G-II, carried five passengers and two crew members. The aircraft, registered to a Wilmington, Del., corporation, departed from Las Vegas earlier the same day, on Friday. At 11:35 the twin-engine jet approached the airport to land from the west but could not stop and landed on one of the airport’s two runways. Eventually it was brought to halt by the Engineered Materials Arresting System. The system is a 200-foot-long stretch of pavement injected with air bubbles designed to collapse under the weight of an aircraft as large as a Boeing 737 jet travelling as fast as 50 knots. The jet managed to be stopped and very little damage to the aircraft could be seen.

An investigator from NTSB has been sent at the airport the incident. The investigation will include retrieving the cockpit voice recorder, gathering radar data and evaluating how well the arresting system worked. Apparently the crew onboard did not report any problems or wet runway before landing or that the runway was wet. Investigators will now have to determine if the jet had already arrived and was taxing at the time of the accident or if it overran the runway upon landing.

What impression do you give you want your visitors to get when they tour your facilities? Are all visitors treated the same? Is a funder treated the same as a potential client? Does any thought what-so-ever go into planning the outcome of a tour? What do you want your visitor to do when they leave your agency? My husband often recounts the story of the young man who gave the tour of Earlham College. He clearly knew who the decision maker was, Frank’s parents. Everything was pitched to them. Frank and his parent’s were so impressed with this young man, that not only did Frank go to Earlham College, but Frank also followed this young man to Washington University to Medical School. That was a guy who knew how to give a tour!

I started to think about this whole subject of tours when I visited a site last year. I know a teacher isn’t suppose to fall in love with her students. I’m not sure if the same holds true for a consultant. I know I fell in love with Bittersweet Farms last year when I went to work with them. Vicki Obee-Hilte, their executive director, has given me permission to share our story.

After I gave a keynote address for the Ohio Association for Nonprofit Organizations, some of the trustees for Bittersweet Farms decided that I would be the right person to facilitate their board retreat. They called me, hired me. I then began to call staff and board to set goals for their retreat. The love affair began. The mission of Bittersweet Farms is to provide both day and residential care for adults with autism. I have a nephew with autism. His sister lives with us because his behavior has been so problematic. I was fascinated that there might be a place for Matt to live if something happened to my brother and sister-in-law.

I completed my interviews, we set the goals for the retreat, and I arrived early the day before the retreat to meet with staff and board and to tour the farm. And this is when I had my epiphany.

There are so many people like me who want to fall in love with a charity. We need you as much as you need us. We have family members who need your services. We have a need to be a part of something. We have money. We have wills and some of us have trust funds.

I was taken on a tour by a wonderful social worker. I am a social worker. She talked about treatment plans. She showed me the beautiful group homes. She showed me the animal pens and told me about their therapeutic use of animal care. She showed me the craft rooms. La, la, la, la, la. At no time did she tell me that there was a waiting list of 150. That they could use another 80 acres for a second site, that they have a single provider, the state of Ohio, and that they could lose all of their funding. What she left out was where could I fit in. Where was my place at Bittersweet Farms? When we finished the tour, I started asking her questions. I asked her if they had enough sewing machines and fabric for their fiber arts room. She said no. My sister Nancy is an avid quilter. I knew that she and her quilt guild would be glad to send fabric and perhaps some sewing machines. I had no idea how they were funded. I didn’t know what their challenges were. I didn’t know what they needed. Ultimately, I didn’t know where I could fit in.

For those of you who have been to London and ridden the tube or subway, the recording announces, “Mind the Gap.” I have the same message. “Mind the Gap.” Where is the gap and how can you bring it to the front of mind to the people who are touring? What is your vision?

The aerodynamics of the human body are very interesting indeed. This may sound somewhat funny, because human beings can’t fly, however our desire to fly has enabled us to adapt and innovate to achieve the same purpose. Man has always dreamed of being able to fly like the birds. The aerodynamics of the human body are quite serious in many sports. To confirm this, just at Lance Armstrong in a tour to France.

http://www.fascatcoaching.com/f_one.html

Bicycle racing aerodynamics against the relative wind are quite serious. In most bicycle races the riders are doing in excess of 60 mph for a large part of the race and the aerodynamics of the human being are as serious as they are in it modern day automobile performance, fuel economy and directional control. Wind Tunnel testing for bicycle racing gear such as helmets, racing frames, racing attire are coming place. We know that NASA material science is also used in modern sports from everything from skies to golf clubs, Jamaican Bobsleds to swimming suits and from marathon running shoes to those bicycle components.

Aerodynamics, material sciences and human geometry (biometrics, ergonomics) are as common in the Olympics as they are in Auto Racing, Dick Rutan and the X-Prize, Reno Air Races, Space Flight and in modern military equipment operation. In the Wright Brothers first aircraft the pilot laid out on the wing so he was fully part of the aerodynamics from the first flight.

Now we have parachutes, parasailing, ultra-lights, Gyro-Copters, Jet packs, etc, where the aerodynamics of the human being is a huge factor. Having had the chance to race competitively street motorcycles in my day, I can tell you it is a huge component to performance. The human body is what it is, the bike is already quite aerodynamically designed, how the body is placed when you accelerate the motorcycle to 185 plus mph makes a huge difference. Whether you are shooting a man out of a cannon or jumping off the pier into the Annual Human Powered Flight Contest into the Hudson Bay, this is no joking matter, aerodynamics of the human body is just as important in racing, sport as it is for the birds in the sky or the fish which fly.

The aerodynamics and fluid dynamics of many species especially species of prey will ultimately decide their survival, if they fail to have the adequate speed, then they will not be able to eat. If a species, which is hunted cannot dodge or move fast enough then it will have no other option than to massively reproduce to avoid extinction or maintain tight formations, swarms, herds or social order to use the safety in numbers principle. The fastest bird, the peregrine falcon was clocked at 217 mph in Germany while in a dive. Most Falcon’s can catch their prey in midair are at speed of around 100 mph, although usually much less. No wonder the Military named the F-16 the Falcon?

The spine-tailed swift has a maximum speed a high of 106 mph in level flight. Thus the Falcon might have a tough time extending its wings at that speed for the proper speed to catch it, thus it can live near Falcons without being eaten and the Falcon will then go after lesser prey with better odds of eating. If you look at the F-14 it has the ability to bring its wings out for slow flight and keep them swept for accelerated and sustained cruising speed, very similar to the bird. The first moveable winged jet aircraft was the well-known X-5, which variable in-flight wing configurations as did the F-111, B-1 and several others. Many aircraft have been designed to change various other configurations for many reasons, the F-8 Crusader changed its angle of attack and the SST and Concorde change its nose on take offs.

Most modern fighters have speed brakes to slow them down. All techniques stolen from nature, as birds adjust their heads in flight for visibility, adjust their angle of attack when approaching relative wind for faster climb, adjust wings for diving and stick out their feet to slow down. Well, yes these techniques were stolen from nature alright, that is pretty much the case, yet we have obviously improved on natures designs in this dimension. After all we are now building aircraft capable of Mach 5 and others, which can carry many hundreds of tons in payloads. In skydiving you learn quickly how to maneuver your body to achieve your intended path. A bird would do much the same only be 100 times better at it since it practices all day long everyday.

Airbus announce ‘plans to lay off 8,000′, say union sources
Airbus announce ‘plans to lay off 8,000′, say union sources 28 Apr 07 bbj.hu French-based aircraft manufacturer Airbus will lay off around 8,000 employees as part of its Power8 restructuring plan, trade union sources said In the company’s headquarters in

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 07:49:00 GMT
Boeing Monomail Model 221 Airplane Side View 8×10 Photo - $12.99
This is a side view of the Boeing Monomail 221 6 passenger aircraft. PHOTOGRAPHER / CREDIT: Unknown DATE: 1930

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Rada Cutlery Quick Edge Knife Sharpener For Rada Knives (Hardened Steel Wheels)

Two specially hardened steel wheels are positioned at the optimum angle for quickly restoring a sharp edge. Specifically designed for Rada Cutlery’s enormously popular kitchen knives. All you need to do is pull the blade through the wheels a few times and like magic, a sharp edge is restored!
Misc.: 
High carbon stainless steel blade, Hollow ground for maximum edge retention and sharpness, Handcrafted in USA, Lifetime manufacturer guarantee

Company: Rada Manufacturing 

List Price: $6.60
Amazon Price: $3.00

Leahy Fails To Admit Shortcomings
Without turning this blog into some vitriol against Airbus , the troubles its faced over the last 24 months allow us to rightfully ask questions as to just why things are going wrong and more… today that Airbus was caught napping was an equally bizarre if not downright idiot comment.
He… what Airbus had to offer. And after the A350 launch, we have an airplane that contests the 10 year old 777-200ER model and not the 787 family .
Airbus was far from caught napping. It was hiding

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 00:50:28 GMT
First circuit in an Airbus A320! April ‘07

Absolutely magic, things happen a bit quicker than in the Cessna!

Author: ShaunLking
Keywords: Shaun King A320
Added: April 27, 2007

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 21:53:01 -0700
Ghosts
Perhaps typically for a band based in Bristol, Airbus use their fair share of trip-hop effects to enhance their musical palette. Crucially though, their debut album ‘Ghosts’ adds a rockier, almost grunge-like angle which perhaps make them pioneers in this field. ‘Gravity’ boasts an excellent riff-filled chorus whilst ‘All My Wishes’ is darker, restrained and more mysterious, its falsetto vocals evoking comparisons with the similarly-styled Six By Seven on one of their best tracks, ‘European Me’. The other outstanding song is ‘Secret’ which merges the best elements of the aforementioned tracks into something quite captivating. Overall, this is a fine beginning for a group with original ideas and the ability to turn these into a highly likeable product.
Audio CD: 
Import

Company:  
(2006-10-31)

List Price: $14.99
Amazon Price: $12.70
Used Price: $8.00

New Tech Spy: Boeing 797 to take on Airbus with (1000 seat) giant Blended Wing plane

Tags: boeing, 797, airbus, plane, technology, news

Mon, 24 April 2006 15:41:17 PDT