Bits Blog: IBM Plans Big Spending for the Cloud

Oprah Winfrey Dad Admits Oprah Paid For Divorce Because Ex-Wife Was Spending Too Much Money

Vernon Winfrey, 79, decided to break up with Barbara, his wife of 12 years, after becoming sick of her spendthrift ways, which he says almost cost him his barbershop business, and after confiding his fears to his daughter’s long-term partner Stedman Graham, Oprah stepped in to help.

Vernon said: “One day when Stedman was in town for a speaking engagement, I told him over dinner what was going on and that I didn’t know how I was going to handle it but I wanted out of my marriage.

“He asked if I needed help and I said ‘Yes I believe so’. He immediately told Oprah and she told me to hire attorneys and she would take care of it.”

Refusing to leave Vernon filed for divorce in June and claims his wife spent most of his money and is refusing to leave the $1.6m Nashville home Oprah bought for him.

He told National Enquirer magazine: “I’ve filed for divorce and moved out of the beautiful home Oprah bought me to live in but I don’t own it.

“Barbara was spending money as if I were Oprah.”

No more free rides boo!

Oprah has always looked out for her daddy Vernon despite his immature behavior, philandering and potentially outing his daughter. She is the better person for turning the other cheek. The soon to be ex step mother needs to become gainfully employed and self supporting because Oprah’s legal team will ensure her ride is over.

Bits Blog: Information Technology Spending to Hit $3.6 Trillion in 2012, Report Says

Rainier Ehrhardt/Getty Images

Fueled by an accelerating move to cloud computing, and by a boom in associated telecommunications services, worldwide information technology spending is increasing somewhat faster than expected, according to industry analysts at Gartner.

Over all, people will spend $3.6 trillion on information technology in 2012, the research firm said. This represents a 3 percent increase from 2011, when $3.5 trillion was spent, Gartner said, and is up from the 2.5 percent increase projected three months ago.

The increase, while modest, is notable because it is happening in the face of a financial crisis in Europe, slow growth in the United States, and a slowdown in China’s economic growth.

Spending on public cloud services is expected to increase 20 percent, to $109 billion, from $91 billion in 2011. By 2016, Gartner said, this expenditure could nearly double, to $207 billion.

That would still be a relatively small portion of the total spending, though it tends to represent considerable computing power and potentially more efficient I.T. systems.

The greatest spending in the field, by far, remains telecommunications services. Gartner forecast that companies would spend $1.69 trillion on telecommunications this year, up only 1.4 percent from 2011. Fees for these services tend to be dropping, but Gartner cited increased demand from developing economies, as well as the rising demand generated by the boom in connected devices, like tablets and game consoles.

Gartner said over 200 business and technology analysts worldwide contributed to the report. These analysts also saw a 2.3 percent increase, to $864 billion, in fees for technology service. The consultants said consulting was in high demand, as companies try to manage things like their own complex systems, cloud computing, and the rise of analytics.