Google freebie puts school system in the Apps cloud
July 7, 2009 |12:23 | Freebie News | Gossips By : Team X
The freebie that Google is offering to educational institutions for its Google Apps service is sending some school systems into the cloud for e-mail and archiving.
The Prince George's County Public School System near Washington, D.C., for example, about a year ago elected to shift the e-mail for its staff to Google Apps. Laurie Tranmer, e-mail services manager for Prince George's schools, says there are about 28,000 Google Apps accounts for staff and others, and in the process her department has migrated off several Microsoft Exchange servers and storage-area networks.It's meant saving a much-appreciated $1 million per year in the midst of a fiscal crisis, Tranmer says. But the school system, which gets Google Apps Education Edition for free, does pay for other security-related and archiving services it elected to use, including Google Message Discovery, the Google Postini service that lets authorized users search for past e-mail needed to respond to informal or official legal inquiries.
Of all the Spice Girls, Emma Bunton tended to disappear into the background. Her four partners in the group all had powerful personas, and Bunton's bland sweetness simply could not compete next to Victoria Beckham's sultry ice queen Posh Spice or Geri Halliwell's brassy, sassy Ginger Spice. So, when the Spice Girls parted ways after 2000's abortive Forever it seemed inevitable that she would simply fade away. Then again, at one time it seemed inevitable that Gary Barlow would eclipse his former Take That bandmate Robbie Williams on the pop charts, and it didn't turn out that way, so first impressions shouldn't be trusted when it comes to British teen pop groups a theory that receives further support with the release of Emma Bunton's superb second album, Free Me. It, quite simply, isn't just the best Spice Girls solo album which, given such disasters as Geri's Scream if You Wanna Go Faster, isn't that hard it's the best Spicerelated record, and the best mainstream British pop album since Robbie at his heyday. Taking a cue from the stylish update on swinging '60s London that Saint Etienne pioneered in the '90s, Free Me is a breezy, effervescent set of light pop. Hints of Bacharach and bossa nova are scattered throughout the album, strings sweep songs into their choruses, beats are strong but take a backseat to melody. This music is stylish without being flashy, thanks in large part to the charmingly tuneful, sturdy songs (all but one bearing a writing credit from Emma). While Bunton may still have a small, sweet voice, she's developed a stronger presence on record, giving this album not just a face, but a fetching persona that's hard to resist. Unlike the Spice Girls albums, or most other danceoriented pop albums, this is not a singlesandfiller record it's a collection of strong, effervescent tunes that are immediately winning and get better with repeated listens. If Bunton weren't a former Spice Girl, Free Me would still be a terrific album, but given her past and how she was pretty much considered a hasbeen, the strength of this record is all the more remarkable. 
