Lavi blog

Cable news hosts cover Palin more since leaving office

The Cutline isn't counting on the media to ever really agree to aIndeed, thebetween the two sides shows no sign of weakening.

Today, the Hollywood Reporter addressed columnist Dana Milbank's recent pledge for a "Palin-free February" and considers whether cable news hostsespecially the liberal ones on MSNBC

One might assume that cable hosts are talking about Palinherself a paid Fox News contributorless since she left office (July 2009) or was campaigning for the vice presidency (November 2008). But the Reporter found that's not the case.

At Fox and MSNBC, every major program at those networks has been ratcheting up the Palin coverage, according to LexisNexis. In 2008, Olbermann mentioned her in 67 news segments, a year later it was 146 and a year after that 179. In 2009, Hardball ran 141 stories mentioning Palin and a year later it ran 184. Over at Fox, Hannity ran 94 stories mentioning Palin in 2009 and 145 the following year. The O'Reilly Factor ran 82 Palin stories in 2009 and 108 in 2010.

(Photo Palin sitting down with ABC's Robin Roberts in her home studio in Wasilla Alaska on Dec. 16, 2010: AP/ABC, Matt Hage)

Motive Systems Growth in 2010 Driven by Rapid Adoption of M-Files Easy Document Management Solutions

Strong 2010 Caps off Five-Year Growth Rate of over 370 Percent and Selection to the Deloitte Fast 500

Dallas, TX (Vocus/PRWEB) January 26, 2011

Motive Systems, the developer ofeasy document management software and the cloud-based document management service M-Files Cloud Vault, today announced strong sales and user base growth during 2010. The number of M-Files licenses sold in 2010 increased 94 percent over 2009, with the M-Files user base growing by 60 percent over the same period. Motive System’s reseller channel was a key driver of the company’s worldwide growth in 2010, with total revenue generated through the company’s reseller network growing by over 56 percent. Motive Systems is also rapidly adding new channel partners; the company currently has 118 resellers operating in 43 countries, which represents an increase of 60 percent from the prior year.

For the fifth consecutive year, Motive Systems has experienced rapid, year-over-year growth in sales, revenue and its user base, which is a testament to the company’s vision: to solve the problem of managing, finding, and tracking documents and information in companies and organizations of all sizes. Currently, over 120,000 individuals at more than 14,000 customers in over 70 countries worldwide use M-Files to manage their documents.

“The great results we achieved during 2010 validate our business strategy, as well as the demand for easy to use professional document management solutions,” said Antti Nivala, CEO of Motive Systems. “Our customers rely on us to simplify the process of organizing and managing their documents in order to become more productive, and our dramatic growth during challenging economic conditions demonstrates our continued ability to deliver the most effective and affordable document management system available.”

Awards and Accolades Received by Motive SystemsThe industry took note of Motive Systems in 2010, with the company receiving several awards and accolades, including:

: Motive Systems was included in this prestigious list, with a five-year growth rate of over 370 percent. The 10th annual Deloitte Technology Fast 500 ranks the fastest growing public and private technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies from 24 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Motive Systems also ranked 19th in the Deloitte Finland Fast 50 list, which is a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology firms in Finland.

Finnish Technology Entrepreneurship Award: The Technical Society of Tampere, Finland granted Motive Systems this highly-respected award for successfully combining business skills with technological know-how.

: Motive Systems was selected as a finalist for Red Herring's Global 100 award, a prestigious list honoring the year’s most promising private technology ventures from around the world. The Red Herring editorial team selected the most innovative companies from a pool of 1,200 companies from across the world – the finalists from its Red Herring Asia, Europe and North America Awards.

New Services and Products Announced by Motive Systems in 2010: The latest version of M-Files focuses on maximizing the efficiency of daily operations through enhancements to email and workflow management, improved search capabilities for instantly locating documents, and numerous user interface improvements. In addition to new features specifically associated with Microsoft Office, M-Files 7.0 user interface and search enhancements make it even easier to manage important business information such as documents, customers, and projects, while also ensuring that the right information can be found quickly when it is needed. With the volume of documents rapidly increasing in many companies, M-Files 7.0 also adds support for large document vaults that contain millions of documents. In addition, support for six new languages was added, for a total of 21 languages supported. M-Files 7.0 also provides the foundation for M-Files Cloud Vault, a new cloud-based document management service.

: M-Files Cloud Vault is a new hosted document management service based on proven M-Files technology that enables any document to be tagged, organized and stored in the "cloud" for instant retrieval by simply typing in a tag, or any word contained in the document using full-text search. Emails and scanned paper documents are fully supported.With M-Files Cloud Vault, there's no need to purchase or configure a server, so it is easy and fast to get up and running. M-Files Cloud Vault is extremely affordable, starting at less than $20 a month, per user. By offering a complete, hosted document management system at an affordable price, Motive Systems aims to make this technology accessible to any organization. Companies can also deploy M-Files as an on-premise solution if specific IT, security and/or compliance policies require that certain documents remain behind the company firewall.

: M-Files for Salesforce CRM is a professional document management solution tightly integrated with Salesforce CRM that provides direct access to customer-related documents directly from Salesforce CRM, or via M-Files’ easy Windows Explorer interface without having to launch Salesforce CRM. Built using Force.com, Salesforce.com’s enterprise cloud-computing platform, M-Files for Salesforce CRM is available on the , and is offered as either a cloud-based service for an affordable monthly fee - just like Salesforce CRM, and as on-premise software solution. With the cloud-based option, there is no need to purchase or configure a server, so it is easy to get started without a large initial investment or IT resources. The on-premise solution provides a valuable option for those companies with a massive amount of documents that would make cloud storage cost-prohibitive, or for those with specific security or compliance policies that require certain documents to remain stored behind the company firewall.

: M-Files for Microsoft Dynamics CRM enables businesses to enhance Microsoft's popular customer relationship management (CRM) software with professional document management functionality, enabling any customer-related document to be instantly available to users of the CRM software.

Support for Regulatory Compliance: Additional enhancements in 2010 were made in the area of standards and regulatory compliance. With comprehensive security and data encryption, tracking and auditing of all document activity, and support for electronic signatures, M-Files provides the controls necessary for companies to ensure compliance with industry standards and regulations such as:     FDA 21 CFR Part 11     Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and other SEC and IRS regulations     ISO 9000, ISO 9001 and other manufacturing standards     Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

“2011 is shaping up to be every bit as exciting and successful as 2010,” added Nivala. “In addition to continuing to deliver superlative customer service to our customers around the world, we have launched a major new initiative to aggressively pursue multiple vertical markets in which M-Files is successfully deployed in production today. We’re hard at work developing a number of major new enhancements across our family of solutions. It’s going to be a busy and productive year.”

About Motive SystemsMotive Systems develops M-Files easy-to-use, professional document management software and the Cloud-based document management service M-Files Cloud Vault that enable companies and organizations of all sizes to make dramatic gains in efficiency and productivity by improving the way they organize and manage their business documents, information and processes. Over 120,000 individuals at more than 14,000 customers in over 70 countries worldwide use M-Files to manage their documents. M-Files is available in 21 languages and is in use at customers such as AstraZeneca, BSA LifeStructures, EADS, FinnComm Airlines, Parker Hannifin, and Tupperware. For more information, visit our Web site at , the M-Files , and follow us onor .

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Matthew MeigsMotive Systems415-686-6178Email Information

Theoni V. Aldredge, Costume Designer of 'Annie, La Cage, A Chorus Line', Dead at 78

Theoni V. Aldredge, the three-time Tony Award-winning costume designer, died Jan. 21 in a Stamford, CT, hospital after an illness, her husband actor Tom Aldredge announced.

Ms. Aldredge worked on everything from Shakespeare to Sondheim, but was best known for her designs for musicals. She won Tony Awards for her costumes for the original Broadway productions of Annie, Barnum and La Cage aux Folles. She was Tony-nominated a total of 15 times, and created iconic costumes for such shows as A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls and 42nd Street. She was called on to recreate her simple, yet memorable work for A Chorus Line when the musical was revived in 2006. It was her final Broadway credit.

She was born Theoni Athanasiou Vachlioti on Aug. 22, 1932, in Salonika, Greece, and, despite spending the majority of her life in the U.S., never quite lost her accent. He mother died when she was five; her father was active in Greek politics and encouraged her to travel. She was educated at the American School in Athens and then went to the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, to which she won a scholarship to study design. There she met actress Geraldine Page, who told her to look her up when she came to New York.

Ms. Aldredge did, and Page remembered her. The designer's first of more than 100 Broadway jobs was creating the costumes for Page in 1959 premiere of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth. In the next few years, she worked on a long-running comedy, Mary, Mary, the Gore Vidal drama The Best Man and the musical I Can Get It For You Wholesale, which introduced theatregoers to Barbra Streisand. She garbed the actors in the original productions of Any Wednesday, Anyone Can Whistle, Luv, Cactus Flower, A Delicate Balance, Annie, Woman of the Year, The Secret Garden and Barnum.

She frequently worked for producer Joe Papp, where she was the principal designer for more than 20 years. ''Papp made me learn my craft, whether I liked it or not,'' she told the New York Times in 2001. ''He paid me $80 a week. I'd say, 'Joe, that's not enough for my cigarettes.' He'd say, 'You have to stop smoking.' ''

She designed costumes for the landmark premieres of Sticks and Bones, That Championship Season, the musical Two Gentleman of Verona, Short Eyes, and, most famously, A Chorus Line, which began at the New York Shakespeare Festival before transferring to Broadway for a long run. That show also resulted in a long collaboration with director-choreographer Michael Bennett, whose Ballroom and Dreamgirls she worked on. Her showy creations for the Dreamgirls cast were among her most remarkable. Critic Stanley Kauffmann called them "tropical foliage gone artfully insane."

Ms. Aldredge was known for the large budgets her opulent costumes often required, and in recent years she bemoaned the limitations that shrinking funds and rehearsal schedules placed on her art.

According to fellow costume designer, Martin Pakledinaz, she did not possess a big ego and was press shy. "People didn't always realize the scope of her work on Broadway plays and musicals, which I think changed design on Broadway," said Pakledinaz. "Then, she also had an amazing ability to design for movies as diverse at 'Network,' 'The Great Gatsby' and 'Ghostbusters.' But I must admit what she taught me most was respect for actors. She loved actors."

She won Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Costume Design for a 1970 production of Peer Gynt, a 1973 Much Ado About Nothing for the NYSF, Annie, 42nd Street, La Cage Aux Folles and Two Gentleman of Verona. She won an Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. Also active in film, she received an Oscar for her work on the 1974 film "The Great Gatsby." Her designs for the movie were adapted for a clothing line sold at Bloomingdale's. Subsequent movie work included "Network," "The Rose," "Annie," "Ghostbusters," "Moonstruck," "Addams Family Values," and "The First Wives Club."

She is survived by her husband. There will be no services. Ms. Aldredge's ashes will be flown to Greece.

Playbill.com looks back at Aldredge's work:

[flipbook]

Federer reaches record 27th straight quarterfinal

MELBOURNE, Australia – Defending champion Roger Federer added another record to his vast collection Sunday at the Australian Open, matching Jimmy Connors' mark for consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinals appearances with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Tommy Robredo.

Federer has reached the quarterfinals in 27 consecutive majors since his third-round loss in the 2004 French Open, equaling Connors' Open-era record.

French Open champion Francesca Schiavone also established a Grand Slam women's record later Sunday, needing 4 hours, 44 minutes to beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 1-6, 16-14 in a fourth-round match. Schiavone saved six match points, then converted on her third match point in the longest match at a major in terms of time in the Open era. The longest previous women's match in a Grand Slam tournament was here last year when Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova beat Regina Kulikova 7-6 (5), 6-7 (10), 6-3 in a match lasting 4:19.

Schiavone will meet top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals.

Shortly after, 2008 champion Maria Sharapova lost 6-2, 6-3 to Andrea Petkovic, who had a relatively easy run into the fourth round when Venus Williams retired after just four minutes in their third-round match.

Petkovic will now take on China's Li Na in the quarterfinals.

Federer didn't concede a point on his serve in the first set, but had a lapse in the second when Robredo's serve was dominant and he took a set off Federer for only the third time in 10 matches.

"I was struggling with my return — I couldn't get the balls into play I wanted to," Federer said. "I didn't have the best of games at 4-3 down — we don't have much margin at the very top and it shows."

Federer regained control in the third set and dominated after getting an early break to lead 2-0.

"It's a lot of hard work. I'm sweating bullets right now," he said. "I'm excited to be in the next round."

He admitted he'd had a tough first week, including a five-set win over Gilles Simon.

"I'm in another quarterfinal. Got all the chances to make it to the semis again," Federer said, "so I'm very pleased."

Federer, aiming to be only the second man to win five Australian Open titles, will play either Andy Roddick or 19th-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland in the quarterfinals. Roddick and Wawrinka play their fourth-round match Sunday night.

No. 3-ranked Novak Djokovic is aiming for his second Australian crown. The 2008 champion advanced to the quarterfinals for the 13th time in the last 15 majors with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 win over No. 14 Nicolas Almagro and will next play last year's Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych, who beat Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.

Wozniacki moved into the Australian Open quarterfinals for the first time with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Anastasija Sevastova and is just one victory from ensuring she'll retain the top ranking.

The 20-year-old Dane, playing her first major as world No. 1, can keep her top ranking with an appearance in the semis.

The questions about Wozniacki's worthiness of the top ranking are starting to diminish. Asked which player she feared most, she said: "I don't fear anyone actually."

"I'm feeling confident. I feel like I can beat anyone on a good day. I think they have to fear me when they're playing me," she said. "I just go out there and do my best. If they're better than me that day, it's just too good."

Wozniacki lost three of the first four games of the match before reeling off six in a row, including a break in the first game of the second set. Sevastova, ranked No. 46, rallied and the pair traded breaks until Wozniacki regained control.

Wozniacki now has reached the quarterfinals at all four majors, and she's navigated some troublesome ground. According to the WTA, only one of the last five women to be ranked No. 1 went beyond the first round in the first major they played with the top ranking.

She also steered herself in and out of trouble after telling a story in a post-match news conference about being scratched by a kangaroo.

After her match, she described an up-close encounter with a baby kangaroo that had scarred her.

She said she tried to pet the kangaroo and it scratched her, and noted she had seen a doctor and rejected advice to get stitches.

But she later tweeted: "Round 2 with the media:) hope you enjoyed my kangaroo story, hope you know i was just kidding:) see you on tuesday for round 3!"

She later returned to Melbourne Park to clarify she'd made up the story and to apologize, saying she didn't think anyone would believe it.

Li Na, already China's most successful player, reached the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-3 win over eighth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.

The ninth-seeded Li was one of two Chinese players to reach the semifinals at Melbourne Park last year, her run ending with a loss to eventual champion Serena Williams in two tiebreak sets.

Geiger helps Idaho defeat North Dakota 63-42

MOSCOW, Idaho – Deremy Geiger had 13 points and hit three 3-pointers as Idaho beat North Dakota 63-42 on Friday night in the Basketball Travelers Classic.

Brandon Wiley added 12 points and five rebounds to help the Vandals (3-3). Shawn Henderson scored eight points and pulled down 11 rebounds.

The Fighting Sioux (2-4) were led by Patrick Mitchell, who scored 13 points. Josh Schuler added 10.

North Dakota trailed 31-26 at the half, and Idaho dominated to start the second half with a 16-6 run.

The Sioux struggled from the field in the second half, shooting 21 percent, and just 26.3 percent (15 of 57) for the game. Idaho shot 48.1 percent (25 of 52).

The Vandals outrebounded the Fighting Sioux 43-27.

This was North Dakota's lowest-scoring game this season.

This was the first time the schools had met.