Walmart

See the following -

Attention CEO’s: You Are In The Software Business. Now What?

Jim Zemlin | Linux.com | October 4, 2012

Whether you’re Nissan or Toyota, Walmart or Nordstrom, NYSE or NASDAQ, you are in the software business. Every company today, regardless of whether or not they’re a “technology” company, is in the business of building software. Today’s consumers demand it.

Read More »

Couchbase and the Future of NoSQL Databases

Couchbase is a NoSQL, document-oriented database for building interactive applications. Trends in the open source database industry show positive growth as NoSQL is used for web, mobile, and the Internet of Things (IoT). In this interview, Arun Gupta, VP of Developer Advocacy at Couchbase, shares his views on how open source has made an impact on the database industry, and the challenges that lie ahead for the NoSQL industry. Also, find out which open source tools and methodologies Couchbase has adopted...

DIY Health to the Rescue

Experts often compare how slowly the health care system is "reforming" to how hard it is to turn a battleship.  They're so big that they can't turn on a dime (much less on $3 trillion!), and there is as much risk in trying to oversteer as in not turning at all.  Things are changing, we're assured, but it will take time to get on the desired new course. Maybe.  But maybe it is time to jump off the obsolete battleship onto something more nimble. Some call it Do-It-Yourself Health (there are both .org and .com sites devoted to the topic, among others).  PwC declared it to be one of the top ten trends of 2015.  Dave Chase believes that "DIY health reform is now leading the way for the highest performing reform" -- not Medicare, health insurers, not even employers...

Dossia Launches New Livli Social Network To Promote Better Consumer Health

Press Release | Dossia | October 24, 2012

Dossia, a leading electronic health management provider, announced the launch of Livli -- www.livli.com -- a free, online social network and resource center dedicated to consumer health and well-being. Read More »

Globalised Slavery: How Big Supermarkets Are Selling Prawns In Supply Chain Fed By Slave Labour – Video

Staff Writer | The Guardian | June 10, 2014

A six-month Guardian multimedia investigation has, for the first time, tracked how some of the world's big-supermakets, Tesco, Aldi, Walmart and Morrisons, are using suppliers relying on slave labour to put cheap prawns on their shelves. Slavery is back and here's the proof. Read More »

How Walmart Is Embracing the Open-Source OpenStack Model

Sean Michael Kerner | eWeek | October 25, 2016

Walmart wasn't always an open-source advocate, but now it's one of the biggest consumers of open-source technology and is actively building a culture that fosters open-source development. Read More »

Lessons From AWS Part I: The Crush Of The Boa Constrictor

Gabriel Lowy | Tech-Tonics | June 12, 2013

The cloud industry is often portrayed as a race between Amazon’s AWS, Google’s Compute Engine and Microsoft’s Windows Azure.  The reality however, at least to date, is more like AWS and the also-rans.  The lesson is scale and the classroom is Walmart. Read More »

Lessons From AWS Part II: Is Open Source Lock-In Better?

Gabriel Lowy | Tech-Tonics | June 15, 2013

In Part I, I drew comparisons between AWS and Walmart, and emphasized differentiation as the key component to compete with the 800-pound cloud gorilla.  For over a decade, I have held that open source is the antidote to vendor lock-in and dis-innovation.  In Part II, I maintain that advocacy, but with a caveat... Read More »

Patients Are Not Consumers...But Who Is?

It has become an article of faith in some health policy circles over the past 20 years that the "solution" for our health care system's woes is to make us better health care consumers -- the so-called consumer-driven movement. After all, we've known for at least forty years that increased cost-sharing does influence how much health care we consume, so, in theory, higher deductibles and coinsurance, plus better cost/quality information, should give us the right incentives to shop. Most health care professionals are equally convinced patients aren't, and are never going to be, "consumers" in any meaningful sense.  Health care is too scary, relies on too much specialized information, and is too often "consumed" at times when we are least able to make thoughtful decisions...

Revealed: Asian Slave Labour Producing Prawns For Supermarkets In US, UK

Kate Hodal, Chris Kelly, and Felicity Lawrence | The Guardian | June 10, 2014

Thai 'ghost ships' that enslave and even kill workers are linked to global shrimp supply chain, Guardian investigation discovers Read More »

Rise of Drones for Medical Supply Delivery

This is not going to all be about getting your books, or your socks, or even your new HD television faster. It is going to impact many industries -- including health care. And that impact has already started to happen. Zipline International, for example, is already delivering medical supplies by drone in Rwanda. They deliver directly to isolated clinics despite any intervening "challenging terrain and gaps in infrastructure." They plan to limit themselves to medical supplies, but not only in developing countries; they see rural areas in the U.S. as potential opportunities as well. Last fall they raised $25 million in Series B funding. Drones are also being considered for medical supply delivery in Guyana, Haiti, and the Philippines...

The Conservative Case For A Higher Minimum Wage

Ron Unz | The Unz Review: An Alternative Media Selection | February 3, 2014

Over the last couple of months the minimum wage has moved into the political headlines, but most of the arguments for raising it have come from liberals. That’s fine, but since I’m not a liberal, I’d rather focus on the conservative reasons for supporting a much higher minimum wage, which are just as compelling. Read More »

The Money In Open-Source Software

Max Schireson and Dharmesh Thakker | Tech Crunch | February 9, 2016

It’s no secret that open-source technology — once the province of radicals, hippies and granola eaters — has gone mainstream. According to industry estimates, more than 180 young companies that give away their software raised roughly $3.2 billion in financing from 2011 to 2014. Even major enterprise-IT vendors are relying on open-source for critical business functions today. It’s a big turnaround from the days when former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer famously called the open-source Linux operating system “a cancer” (and obviously a threat to Windows)...

Read More »

The Walmartization Of Agriculture

Josh Sager | The Progressive Cynic | April 27, 2013

Walmart has become an icon of the corporate rush to keep costs low and profits high, regardless of the effects on society. [...] It is this business strategy that catapulted them to be among the largest corporate interests in the world and allowed them to spread into virtually every corner of the United States. Read More »

The ‘Avon Ladies’ Of Africa

Tina Rosenberg | New York Times | October 10, 2012

What if every time people came up with a new product, they also had to devise a completely new way to sell it?   Imagine that we had no Amazons, eBays, Targets or Walmarts — no distribution chain at all, and no stores near potential buyers.  Nor is there a way for potential customers to learn about the product. Oh, and they can’t afford it anyway — they can’t afford much of anything... Read More »