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HPE Tempts VMware Users, Partners With Year of Free Virtualization Software

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Hewlett Packard Enterprise's (HPE) new virtualization software promotion will likely pique the interest of end users and resellers who are unhappy with Broadcom's pricing of VMware. During its HPE Discover event in Las Vegas this week, HPE announced that customers could use its "HPE Morpheus Software -- VM Essentials" offering for free for "up to one year," per a press release. HPE's website describes its virtualization platform as a "VMware alternative." It includes a hardware virtual machine (HVM) hypervisor and unified management and lets users "manage VMware ESXi and HVM clusters from one console and migrate when you're ready," HPE's website says. "New VM Essentials customers can receive up to one free year of licenses for VM Essentials, a year of HPE Zerto for $1 to support non-disruptive migration to HPE virtual machines, and 0 percent interest on software through HPE Financial Services," HPE's announcement reads, referring to HPE's group for helping IT teams manage funding.

Free for a year is cheaper than what Broadcom has charged for VMware vSphere since taking over. VMware prices have skyrocketed due to VMware's parent company eliminating perpetual licenses and bundling products into expensive packages. Notably, per its website, HPE recommends charging $600 per CPU socket per year for VM Essentials; Broadcom has controversially shifted vSphere licensing pricing to a per-core basis. "Customers are feeling quite a bit of pain in the change that some of the virtualization companies have put there, specifically Broadcom," Jeremiah Jenson, VP of HPE's North American channel and partner ecosystem, told CRN. The executive claimed that VM Essentials could bring up to 90 percent cost savings compared to VMware while also helping to "eliminate vendor lock-in and simplify hybrid IT."

From March 1 to June 30, HPE has also been offering a free year of VM Essentials via rebate to customers who buy an AMD server and a one-year VM Essentials license. VM Essentials is only available through channel partners, a stark contrast from Broadcom's VMware approach, where the chip giant has drastically reduced the number of resellers that can sell VMware products. HPE's new promotion aims to entice customers to more deeply consider migrating off VMware. [...] HPE also announced that it would give 600 reseller partners who earn the HPE partner program's Private Cloud with Virtualization competency by the end of the year free VM Essentials software licenses for three years. Partners still have to pay support costs, though. The benefit is "a step in the correct direction," said Dean Colpitts, CTO of Canadian managed services provider (MSP) Members IT Group (MITG), which VMware cut from its reseller program after 19 years of partnership a year ago. However, limiting the promotion to 600 partners is "very shortsighted." He believes that HPE should give all of its partners VM Essentials "to facilitate getting [VM Essentials] into customer sites and displacing the competitors."

"They need to fling [VM Essentials] as far and as fast as they possibly [can] to immediately gain traction and draw ISVs to them, which will increase adoption even more," he said.

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Country diary: Everybody loves to hate the stinging nettle – don’t they? | Derek Niemann

Frome, Somerset: This much-maligned midsummer menace has few friends among humans, but look closely and you might find an orgy of eating and mating

Eyes smarting, throat tickling, nostrils dog-wet, I pick my way along a thready footpath up the combe, only half-prepared for the next irritation. Nettles, I am watching you. But not well enough it seems, for a sneaky one hidden under the skirts of encroaching grasses and umbellifers grazes the back of my bare calf. It induces that tingling somewhere between pain and pleasure – one that quickly develops into a needling throb.

It is hard to love a nettle. This much-loathed plant may be one of the first that many children learn to identify, for their own protection. It has a secondhand look, with wrinkly, crinkly jagged hearts for leaves. It has no sheen; it does not shine. Near-invisible fine hairs on the upper surfaces give the dulled green a dusty, soiled appearance.

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They were forced into marriage and abused. Now women facing exploitation in China have a glimmer of hope

Female activists are working in the shadows to find and support vulnerable women they fear are being failed by authorities

Last summer, Xiaocao, a softly spoken woman in her 40s, received a tip-off that in Lüliang, a small city in China’s Shanxi province, vulnerable women were being forced into marriages. Along with another volunteer, she wanted to investigate.

After leaving Beijing, the two volunteers travelled south for hours, on trains and in rental cars. A few villages turned out to be dead ends. But on the final day of their trip, the women stopped in a county where they’d heard about a woman with learning disabilities who was “married” to two brothers. Soon, they found her.

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Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

Winkeliers zetten meer om, vooral online groeit door

DEN HAAG (ANP) - Winkeliers hebben in het eerste kwartaal gemiddeld 2,2 procent meer omgezet dan in dezelfde periode een jaar eerder. Dat blijkt uit cijfers van het Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS). De opbrengsten uit onlineverkoop stegen het sterkst.

Bij supermarkten steeg de omzet 2,5 procent in het eerste kwartaal, terwijl speciaalzaken zoals bakkerijen en slagerijen juist een daling van 1,2 procent zagen. Bij non-foodwinkels steeg de omzet van drogisterijen met 4,3 procent, van consumentenelektronica met 3,8 procent en winkels in schoenen en lederwaren met 3,2 procent. Bij drogisterijen en kledingwinkels lagen de prijzen ook hoger dan een jaar eerder.

Detailhandelaren boekten online de grootste groei. Daar werd 4,7 procent meer omgezet. Daarbij was er meer groei voor winkeliers die online erbij doen (plus 5,5 procent) dan de pure onlinespeler (plus 4,2 procent).

Het aantal retailfaillissementen kwam in het eerste kwartaal uit op 68. In dezelfde periode vorig jaar waren dat er 69. Het ondernemersvertrouwen kreeg wel een flinke knauw en kwam aan het begin van het tweede kwartaal uit op min 11,8. Dat is het laagste niveau in drie jaar.


Gemiddelde WOZ-waarde woningen met ruim 10 procent gestegen

DEN HAAG (ANP) - Een Nederlandse woning heeft dit jaar een gemiddelde WOZ-waarde van 439.000 euro. Dat is 10,3 procent hoger dan vorig jaar, toen de gemiddelde WOZ nog 398.000 euro bedroeg. Dat meldt het Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS).

De waarde steeg voor het elfde jaar op rij en groeide harder dan de twee jaar daarvoor. Wel is de groei fors kleiner dan in 2023, toen de waarde met ruim 16 procent steeg.

Gemeenten gebruiken de WOZ-waarde om de hoogte van gemeentelijke belastingen en heffingen te bepalen. De waarde volgt de prijsontwikkeling van bestaande koopwoningen, maar met een jaar vertraging. De WOZ-waarde van woningen in 2026 wordt dus gebaseerd op de waarde van 1 januari 2025. Gemeenten kijken daarbij onder meer naar verkoopprijzen van woningen. Ook sloop, huurwoningen en nieuwbouw hebben invloed.

Groningse Pekela

In alle gemeenten nam de WOZ-waarde toe. Vorig jaar daalde deze nog in vier gemeenten. De gemiddelde WOZ-waarde nam dit jaar het sterkst toe in het Groningse Pekela. Daar steeg deze met 19 procent tot 254.000 euro.

In Laren in Noord-Holland was de gemiddelde waarde het hoogst: 993.000 euro. Ook in Bloemendaal en Blaricum lag de waarde dicht tegen de miljoen euro. In het Limburgse Heerlen was de WOZ-waarde met 238.000 euro het laagst.

Provinciebreed stijgt de gemiddelde WOZ-waarde, net als vorig jaar, het sterkst in Limburg: bijna 11,9 procent tot 348.000 euro. Huizen in Utrecht hebben een gemiddelde WOZ-waarde van 534.000 euro, het hoogste landelijke gemiddelde.


Wat is gezonder: staand of zittend plassen?

Zittend zou je beter kunnen uitplassen. Is dat echt zo? En wat is daar het voordeel van?


Marbled Gecko, Adelaide Aquatics Centre, full story at https://www.weekendnotes.com/adelaide/writer/452/

Naturallysouthaustralia.com has added a photo to the pool:

Marbled Gecko, Adelaide Aquatics Centre, full story at https://www.weekendnotes.com/adelaide/writer/452/