Ebusiness Source

Cloud computing offers increased productivity and cut IT investment budget for small business. If your small business runs a website, cloud-based hosting can offer you something that conventional web hosting can’t offer you. Be sure to read web hosting review on cloud hosting before you make your decision.

When you run a business website, especially if your business website IS the actual business, such as an online store, ensuring the accessibility of the site is one of your top priorities. You don’t want a potential buyer who visits your online store to see an error page; that would be bad for your brand reputation and you could lose potential sales. The

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THE organisers of Liverpool Design Festival have honoured Merseyside’s future “design stars”.

The Design Stars final marked the end of a competition designed to encourage young people to consider design as a career.

Almost 200 pupils entered the competition, with 38 nominees chosen to attend workshops with professional designers including Liverpool product designer Ilsa Parry.

All nominees will see their work exhibited at the Design Show at this year’s Liverpool Design Festival.

In the video games category, pupils were asked to create a game suitable for all ages.

The winner was Nicole Riley, 15, from St John Bosco Arts College, who created the “brilliantly executed” game, Run Buttercup Run.

The game, which Design Initiative said was “possibly the first video game to feature a veggie theme”, sees loveable cow Buttercup trying to escape the farmer’s clutches. The player has to “help Buttercup know her life is at steak”.

In the product category, pupils had to design an everyday object that “evokes a positive emotion in the user”.

The category was won by Christie Sherlock, 15, from King David High, who created the Expand cup. The cup has a second hand

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Get out your auction paddles and … draw! The only known surviving photo of notorious outlaw Billy the Kid has sold for a whopping $2.3 million, nearly six times the predicted sales price, notes ABC News. The scratched 1880 tintype shows the Kid with a lazy devil-may-care sneer on his face, wearing a black hat and packing a Colt pistol in his holster. It was purchased by Florida billionaire William Koch at the Annual Old West Show and Auction in Denver over the weekend.

“When the bidding ended, the whole room erupted in clapping and people leapt to their feet,” said a spokeswoman for the auction. “Ive never experienced anything like this before.” Koch told the Denver Post: “I love the Old West. I plan on enjoying the photo and discreetly sharing it. I think Ill display it in a few small museums.” The Kid, also known William H. Bonney, is believed to have killed anywhere from 9 to 21 people. He was shot dead by a sheriff at the age of 21.

REDROW, the Ewloe-based housebuilder, has sold its Scottish operation for £49m.

The disposal is in line with a board announcement in April this year.

Springfield Properties, a private construction and property development firm based in Elgin, will pay £5m in cash, and £44m over a period of three years as developments are completed and sold.

Redrow’s Scottish operations comprise eight sites with planning permission which, in the year ended June, 2010, generated sales of £31m and a pre-tax loss of £1.7m.

Cash from the disposal will be invested by Redrow in land acquisitions, particularly in London and the South East.

Chairman Steve Morgan, the Liverpool entrepreneur who founded Redrow, said today: “The board is pleased to have secured a buyer for our operation in Scotland following a competitive process that we outlined in our April statement.

“Springfield is a successful Scottish house builder and the transaction will substantially increase its presence in the central belt.”

He added: “The transaction will also provide our customers and employees with a good home for the future, while enabling Redrow to increase its investment in land in London and the South East.”

Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays. It celebrates the birth of a great nation founded by men and women who understood the meaning and value of disruptive thinking, service, honor, leadership, and above all, freedom. As we approach this 4th of July weekend I can’t help but think of our founding fathers and the sacrifices they made when they fought to establish our nation’s independence. Those thoughts of respect and admiration in turn led me to think about of our troops overseas currently fighting to protect our way of life and preserve our freedom. The more I began to ponder the heroism of our military (past and present), the more I began to consider the traits possessed by our nation’s warriors. I believe the same characteristics that are present in the heart of a warrior are also present in the most successful executives and entrepreneurs.

Here’s the thing – you really can’t separate leadership from independence. Leadership

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