I do a lot of watch writing but I rarely tell you good people where to start your own collection. In a new series (or maybe not), I present to you something that we support unconditionally. Today’s WSU? The Poor Man’s Watch Forum.

When I started out reading watch blogs, the PMWF was a ray of hope in an otherwise strangely expensive and exclusive world. For every $1 million watch, there were plenty of great $200 watches for you and yours in the Sales and Trade forum while the main forum dedicated itself to the discussion of watches most folks would overlook.

While I can’t support their love of Invicta, their appreciation of Seiko is almost magical to behold, with entire threads dedicated to the vagaries of straps to regular “what are you wearing today” threads (”Morning! NICE one Kevin! Thumbs up! Smile Going with this today…”). Totes a good time.

So check them out. They’re good guys. If you have an idea for upcoming WSU stories, let us know. We want to share the love.

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

Motion blur! It doesn’t just ruin photos. It’s also something that can be used for artistic effect, when done properly. And for the results of this week’s Shooting Challenge, we’ve got 117 photographers who did just that.

First Runner Up

This is my favorite Korg, and I thought this would be pretty cool to capture “In motion!”
I used a Canon Rebel T1I
f/25
20 Second Exposure
18-55mm Lens (shot at 27mm)
ISO 100
Developed in Lightroom2
And my lighting was a small fluorescent tube light, the size you would put in a closet and such… -Marcel Maynard

Second Runner Up

Camera:Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Lens: 18-55m F/3.5
Exposure:3.2
Aperture:f/22.0
Focal Length:28 mm
ISO Speed:100
Exposure Bias:-1/3 EV
-Shant Meguerdichian

Winner

Camera: Canon S90
Shutter Speed: 0.81 sec
Aperture: F/8
Focal Length 6mm
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 step
-David McGibbon

PGP and the Ponemon Institute have just announced results of the fifth annual U.S. Cost of a Data Breach Study. The overarching conclusion is that breaches are getting more expensive.

Data breaches cost U.S. companies $204 per compromised customer record in 2009. That compares to $202 in 2008. Despite an overall drop in the number of reported breaches — the Identity Theft Resource Center reports 498 in 2009 vs 657 in 2008 — the average total per-incident cost in 2009 was $6.75 million. In 2008, that number was $6.65 million.

“In the five years we have conducted this study, we have continued to see an increase in the cost to businesses for suffering a data breach,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. “With a variety of threat vectors to contend with, companies must proactively implement policies and technologies that mitigate the risk of facing a costly breach.”

The Good, Bad and Ugly

The bad news is that data breaches as the result of malicious attacks and botnets in 2009 were the most costly and severe. The most expensive data breach in last year’s study cost a company nearly $31 million to resolve. The least-expensive cost for a company was $750,000.

Noteworthy is the fact that third-party organizations accounted for 42 percent of all breach cases, a 44 percent decline from 2008. These remain the most costly form of data breaches, due to the need for additional investigation and consulting fees. The study also revealed organizations are spending more on legal defense in the face of increasing fears about successful class-action suits related to data breaches.

The good news is that negligent insider breaches have decreased in number and cost, most likely resulting from training and awareness programs that are making a positive impact on employee sensitivity about protecting personal information. And…

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Apple Financial

Last September, Vodafone announced their intention to sell the iPhone in the UK and Ireland “…in early 2010.” They spent most of 2009 prepping their networks for the traffic that the iPhone would bring. Now they’ve finally thrown the switch and sold 100,000 iPhones in just seven days. Vodafone announced the milestone via Twitter on Friday.

Wider distribution in the UK has benefited Apple. Orange’s exclusivity in France ended last April when the Paris Appeals Court ruled that the intended 5-year exclusivity arrangement was uncompetitive to other French carriers. Since then, Apple’s market share jumped to 32 percent in the latest quarter from 21 percent just three months earlier.

It makes one wonder what kind of dark pact Apple has with AT&T that maintains exclusivity in the US. In my own experience, “Fewer bars in more places” is a hindrance that hurts the iPhone. Most consumers don’t separate the network’s performance from the iPhone’s capabilities, and walk away saying, “My iPhone just couldn’t make calls.”

Vodafone is the fourth network in the UK to carry the iPhone, the other three being O2, Orange, and Tesco Mobile. Come on, Apple. Look to our European neighbors and give AT&T the boot.

TUAWVodafone sells 100K iPhones in 7 days originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

We’re pleased to announce the launch of ReadWriteWeb’s third subsite: ReadWriteCloud. This channel will cover Cloud Computing and Virtualization, focusing on the strategic business and technical implications. ReadWriteCloud is sponsored by Intel and VMware.

We’ve hired a couple of experienced practitioners of cloud computing as our daily writers for ReadWriteCloud. Mike Kirkwood is a seasoned Enterprise Architect from Berkeley and has been a Sr. Manager supporting large consumer applications. Tim Hastings is a hands-on Technical Architect of web services, based in England. In addition, ReadWriteEnterprise editor Alex Williams will oversee the site and be a contributing writer.

Sponsor

ReadWriteCloud aims to combine knowledgeable editorial and active community involvement around virtualization and cloud computing. We hope it will become the best source available for IT managers who want honest discussion and practical solutions on these topics. Its editorial focus is not on specific products – but on ideas, innovative solutions and new ways of thinking for cloud computing and virtualization.

With our two highly experienced topic experts and the editorial hand of Alex Williams, we’re sure that ReadWriteCloud will help you gain new levels of efficiency and control over your web-based infrastructure. Check out ReadWriteCloud here.

Discuss

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

Barack Obama’s rise to fame in the years leading up to the 2008 presidential election caused many to compare the then young Illinois senator to John F. Kennedy. Like Kennedy, Obama mobilized an enormous following across racial boundaries and of all ages with his charismatic and inspirational speeches of hope for a brighter future. But according to New York Times contributor and multi Pulitzer Prize winning author Thomas Friedman, while Kennedy continued to inspire after his eventual election, Obama has not.

Sponsor

In a New York Times op-ed column from this weekend, Friedman calls on Obama to reignite the nation’s innovative and entrepreneurial flames and to make 2010 “the year of Start-Up America.” Friedman says doing so would be Obama’s “moon shot,” a reference to President Kennedy’s campaign to send American astronauts to the moon in the 1960s.

“What the country needs most now is not more government stimulus, but more stimulation,” writes Friedman. “We need to get millions of American kids, not just the geniuses, excited about innovation and entrepreneurship again.”

Friedman points to two organizations Obama should be promoting to America’s youth – National Lab Day and Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). National Lab Day invites teachers to request local scientific professionals in their area to come in and work hands-on with students. NFTE provides teachers with resources for teaching entrepreneurship and also hosts a nation-wide startup contest for students with a $10,000 grand prize.

As Friedman points out, Obama needs to make sure every student and teacher in America knows about these programs if his very own moon shot of inspiration is to take place. After all, when President Kennedy gave his speech declaring his goal of reaching the moon, he didn’t stand before congress and ask them to legislate. He stood before students at Rice University and urged them to innovate.

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy,” said Kennedy in September of 1962. “But because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.”

Disclosure: ReadWriteWeb is a syndication partner of the New York Times.

Photo by Flickr user Beth Rankin.

Discuss

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

BRUSELAS, EFE

La Comisión Europea (CE) se mostró decidida a fijar nuevos objetivos de protección de especies en la Unión Europea (UE) para remontar el fracaso que supuso no haber logrado detener la pérdida de biodiversidad antes de 2010.

El Ejecutivo comunitario presentó un conjunto de ideas que servirán como base para definir la posición europea de cara a la Cumbre sobre Biodiversidad que se celebrará en Nagoya (Japón) a finales de año y para desarrollar una nueva política de la UE sobre la materia.

Plantearse una meta
Bruselas entiende que lo primero es identificar el nivel de ambición que la UE quiere adquirir en 2020 en la lucha contra la pérdida de especies y aclara que, en su opinión, hay cuatro posibilidades.

Los Veintisiete pueden optar por reducir “de forma significativa” la pérdida de biodiversidad o bien por “detenerla”.

Asimismo, pueden decidir no sólo parar el fenómeno sino restaurar la pérdida lo antes posible o ir más allá y sumar a la restauración la prevención a escala mundial.

“Necesitamos una perspectiva y unos objetivos nuevos en materia de biodiversidad”, indicó en un comunicado Stavros Dimas, comisario de Medio Ambiente.

La CE reconoce que pese a los esfuerzos realizados hasta la fecha, la extinción de especies sigue registrando “índices alarmantes”, entre 100 y 1.000 veces superior al ritmo normal.

TIP ECOLÓGICO

No tire el aceite por los fregaderos. Flota sobre el agua y es muy difícil de eliminar.

Fuente Bibliográfica

Echoecho is a location-based mobile application that wants to make it easier for you to locate your friends, family members and colleagues in the real world. Echoecho only tries to get you the answer to one straightforward question: Where are you? Unlike other location-based application, echoecho doesn’t force you to constantly broadcast your own location. Instead, the application takes the opposite route. Instead of telling people where you are, you ask others where they are. You could use echoecho to check where your children are, for example, or simply to meet up with your friend without having to give a long and complicated description of where exactly they can find you.

Sponsor

Echoecho is compatible with the iPhone (iTunes link), Android, Nokia Symbian, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile. The service offers apps and push notifications for all of these platforms.

Where are You?

Nick Bicanic, the CEO of Purpose Wireless, the company behind echoecho, told us that he came up with the idea for echoecho because he was tired of signing up to location-based social networks, just to find that none of his friends were on there anyway. Instead, Bicanic decided to harness the power of the social network that is already build into every phone: the address book. Thanks to this, you don’t have to sign up for a new social network if you want to use the service – echoecho simply uses the contacts in your address book.

If your friend has already signed up for echoecho, the program will route your request through its own network and send a push notification to your friend’s phone. If the service realizes that your friend hasn’t signed up yet, it will send out a text message instead. On Android, for example, the text message will include a link to echoecho’s mobile site, which will redirect you to the Android Market.

Once your friend has been located, you will get a notification on your phone and a map that shows your location in relation to that of your friend will appear in the app.

Permission-Based Location Sharing

One problem that has hindered the widespread adoption of location-based services like echoecho is the fact that sharing location data with random people is something that a lot of people feel rather uneasy about. Echoecho routes around this problem by using a very nifty permission-based solution. Whenever you request somebody’s location, your friend has the option to completely ignore your request. At the same time, if somebody responds to your request, that person will also be able to see your own location. This should help to alleviate some of the social issues that are often associated with location-based social networks.

The next version of the echoecho mobile app will also include an augmented reality view that will allow you to see where exactly your friends are. For now, echoecho only allows you to ping one of your contacts at a time. The echoecho team plans to implement a way to ping groups in future versions of the application.

Getting Started

To get started, you just have to install the application on your phone. You don’t have to sign up for yet another social network, though the application will ask you for your phone number. Echoecho will send you an SMS with a PIN code and once you enter this code into the application, you are good to go.

For Developers: EchoEcho’s API

Echoecho also offers a free and open API for developers who want to implement the company’s service into their own applications. You can find more info about the API here.

Discuss

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

A host of reasons conspire against the general population in whether or not they use a cell phone – smart or otherwise – to use the Internet. According to research by UK-based Essential Research, 76% of mobile phone users don’t use their mobile to access the Internet and there are several barriers keeping them from doing so, whether actual or perceived.

The study, which focused on 2,000 people over the age of 16 living in the UK, found, among other things, that only 10% of mobile phone owners access the Internet on a daily basis. How can this be and why?

Sponsor

The Majority: Unconnected and Unconcerned

While we might wonder who wouldn’t want to have a GPS-enabled Google Maps at their fingertips while they’re out and about or the ability to unchain themselves from a desk and still respond to those important work emails, the study finds that 60% of respondents claim their phone is not capable of accessing the Internet and just 30% of those respondents would like to change this fact.

Even the most basic phones offered these days have Internet capabilities, but the fact that people believe they don’t is key. In actuality, of those questioned, nearly 90% had at least GPRS internet connectivity. How can you lead a horse to water if the horse doesn’t believe there’s a path down to the stream?

In addition to this, cost and perceived usefulness are two of the biggest factors in keeping the mobile web at bay. Over three quarters of respondents said that they thought it was too expensive to use, while 60% said that the effort necessary to learn how to use a smart phone wasn’t worth it to them.

Who Is Using the Mobile Web?

A majority of mobile Internet users are young, affluent, urban-dwelling professionals. That is, they are on average between the ages of 16 and 34, living in a city and making more than $65,000 a year. Nearly three quarters of daily users are professionals.

Unsurprisingly, one of the biggest drivers of mobile Internet use is social media – web sites like Facebook and Twitter. For daily mobile-Internet users, 70% user their phones to access social networking sites.

Overall, the study seems to contrast the general hype around mobile Internet and serve as a gentle reminder that, while we may surround ourselves with the technologically affluent, this isn’t yet the norm for the whole of society. There is a definite demographic that uses the Internet on their mobile phones and, outside of that, it remains a costly, unusable, and unavailable option in the public’s eyes.

Discuss

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

e-conservation magazine (Hussein Hassan M.H. Mahmoud)

The entire article is available at the above page.

By Hussein Hassan M.H. Mahmoud

Abstract

This work aims to establish an analytical database of some painted plasters dating back to the 19th dynasty (1314-1304 BC) and recently discovered during the excavations of Cairo University at Saqqara area in Egypt. Appropriate representative samples were carefully chosen and collected from areas that had no aesthetic value or that were seriously damaged. In order to identify the stratigraphy, pigment particle size and texture of the paint layers, polished cross-sections of samples were analyzed by optical microscopy (OM). Scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive X-ray analysis system (SEM-EDS) showed the elemental microanalysis of the various materials used in construction of these paintings. The obtained results revealed the characterization of some inorganic pigments and plaster layers used in this period of the Egyptian history.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

From ZeroHedge:

Recently Zero Hedge did an expose on the increase of FX reserves held by China. The main hypothesis portrayed is that the increase in these reserves might be a function of a “stealth” quantitative easing. While it is functionally impossible to disprove this theory, this article first takes a look at the rise in reserves and then takes a closer look at the original source of the data, the quarterly Treasury Bulletin.

The period in question for analysis of the reserves comes into play in the period between September 1st, 2008 and October 1st, 2009. What should be noted during this period is that between September 1st to March 31st, there were a series of currency swaps established by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and several nations, including Japan (USD $29.3 Billion), Malaysia ($11.7 Billion), Belarus ($2.9 Billion), Argentina ($10.25 Billion), South Korea ($26.3 Billion), and Indonesia ($14.7 Billion).

Continue readingat Zero Hedge >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The Federal Reserve Subsumes Washington, As Everything Turns Into An Extension Of Bernanke’s Quantitative Easing
• Bernanke Tips Hand On FED’s MBS Purchases: More Quantitative Easing Straight Ahead
• Japan Preparing To Launch Quantitative Easing; What Are Three Lost Decades Among Hyperdeflationary Friends?

Filed under: Chicago Auto Show, Spy Photos, Coupe, Performance, Japan, Nissan

The crew over at Inside Line got its hands on some rather curious spy photos of the new 2011 Nissan 370Z 40th Anniversary Edition. Why curious? Most of the time, spy photographers work from behind massive lenses at long distances because the secretive engineers don’t want themselves or the car they’re testing to be photographed. But these shots look almost… composed. Or at least like the person manning the camera is on a first name basis with the folks at Nissan.

Regardless, these are clearly photographs of the soon to be released 370Z 40th Anniversary Edition. As we’ve known for some time, there’s not too much to the 40th Anniversary Z above and beyond a couple of badges. The slate gray body color and matching wheel color are unique to the limited edition coupe, as are the red brake calipers, but the wheels themselves are the optional 19-inchers from the standard 370Z.

Inside, IL claim’s you’ll find the “standard Z Touring seats” covered in red leather. But how can they tell what specific type of seats are in a car by looking at photos? Mechanically, we all have to wait until the Chicago Auto Show before we get the details, but Inside Line confirms a rumor we heard that the 40th Anniversary car might be more NISMO than standard Z. If Nissan decides to imbue the 40th Anniversary model with 350 horsepower (or more), along with the more sporting suspension in a less boy racer-ish body, they’ll have quite a compelling performance package on their hands.

According to Inside Line the only exterior badging that distinguishes the 40th Anniversary car from lesser Zs is a small plaque on the car’s rear bumper, just below 370Z. What’s odd is that this little badge isn’t visible in any of the photographs Inside Line posted. Look for yourself. And as far as we’ve seen, Nissan hasn’t released any official photos of the 40th Anniversary car’s rump. So how do they know? Could it be that Inside Line has additional “spy photos” of the 40th Anniversary Z’s rear and isn’t posting them? We kind of doubt that. And what’s with the guys standing in front of a dark 1971 Datsun 240Z, seen next to the white Volkswagen GTI? And why would Nissan engineers be driving a VW? We’re thinking Inside Line might know a bit more about the 40th Anniversary 370Z than they’re telling.

[Source: Inside Line]

Spy Shots: 2011 Nissan 370Z 40th Anniversary Edition spotted originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref)

A FEW steps away from Al-Muizz Street, which is now preserved as an open-air museum of Islamic monuments, stands the area of Gammaliya which now awaits its turn to be revamped and returned to its glorious heyday once the dust of centuries has been brushed away, and the monumental and historical edifices and accumulated debris removed from the streets, says Nevine El-Aref. The alleyways will be properly lit and the district will become an architectural showcase.

On 7 January, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, accompanied by senior government officials and journalists, embarked on a tour of inspection of Gammaliya to reassure residents and assess the current situation of the area and its buildings.

Time has taken a heavy toll on these historic edifices. Encroachment and misuse by residents have in some cases caused irreparable harm, while environmental pollution has undermined foundations and the 1992 earthquake left visible marks on the threatened historical zone.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

NPR

With two good photos.

Luxor is set to become one of the world’s largest open-air museums when a multimillion dollar project to restore the “Sphinx Alley” is complete in March, the governor of Luxor, Samir Farag, said Sunday.

The project to restore the two-mile (three-kilometer) alley that links the grand temples of Luxor and Karnak on the east bank of the River Nile in Luxor has cost $45 million.

Sphinx Alley was originally built with 1,200 statues, with one side lined up with ram-headed sphinxes and the other with regular sphinxes with human heads.

The alley was built by Amenhotep III in the 12th century B.C.

Over the years, the alley was buried under sand.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

OsirisNet

Thanks to the OsirisNet newsletter for the following information.

Dear friends,

We are pleased to present to you the tomb of Sennefer, TT96, in its entirety.

You will find not only the underground complex (TT96B), the famous “Tomb of the Vines”, but also the description of the surface chapel (TT96A) which is currently under restoration (for which the MANT mission of the Free University Brussels has kindly provided advice).
http://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/nobles/sennefer/e_sennefer_01.htm

Finally, a 3D virtual reality tour of the underground part of the complex completes this presentation.

Enjoy!

Thierry BENDERITTER & Jon HIRST
www.osirisnet.net
Monuments of Egypt

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Ancient World Online / AWOL (Chuck Jones)

Thanks so much to Chuck Jones, as usual, for all his hard work assembling this valuable resource of 576 links on the above page. Here’s what he says.

I first assembled here an alphabetical list of all open access journals in Ancient Studies (with some hot pursuit forays into related disciplines) cited here in AWOL since its beginning in January 2009 in observance of Open Access Week (October 19-23, 2009). At that time the list included more than two hundred titles – a surprisingly large number I thought at the time. In a effort to make the List canonical and comprehensive, I began adding additional journals in groups of twenty. All of these have been accessible via Abzu for varying lengths of time. This process offered me the opportunity to verify all the links and repair the broken ones.

I trust that users of the list will offer suggestions for correction of errors and addition of new titles in the comment field available at the bottom of the posting.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

As confirmed by Spyker earlier this morning, GM CEO Edward Whitacre confirmed during a press conference that there has been no deal on the sale of Saab.

“As of today we have not changed our direction of winding down the operations (of Saab),” Whitacre said. “Obviously there have been advanced talks with Spyker Cars to acquire Saab – however, we do not have a deal to announce this morning. If and when that changes, we’ll let you know and that’s going to be my only comment this morning on that issue.”

Spyker said earlier today that ”talks are ongoing, the outcome of which is still uncertain.” It said that talks must end soon since Saab is currently in liquidation.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Bryn Mawr Classical Reviw (review by L. R. Siddall)

R. B. Parkinson, Reading Ancient Egyptian Poetry: Among other Histories. Chichester/Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

Preview

“This book has been written for fun, and it is in a sense a love letter to these three poems and the places that produced them,” so R. B. Parkinson describes Reading Ancient Egyptian Poetry. This “love letter” investigates how three of Egypt’s best known ancient poems, the Tale of Sinuhe, the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant and the Dialogue of a Man and his Soul, were written, read, performed and received from the Middle Kingdom period to the modern age. The book is organized in three parts and each focuses on the poems’ surviving manuscripts, the process of composition, reception and meaning in the respective historical periods with an emphasis on the poems’ social, archaeological and historical contexts. With 69 excellent black and white photographs and illustrations, chronological tables and translations of the 12th Dynasty papyri, this book is a significant contribution to the study of ancient Egyptian literature.

Reading Ancient Egyptian Poetry is Parkinson’s third monograph on ancient Egyptian literature. His previous studies have established him as one of the leading scholars in the field. For Parkinson, this book completes the triad on Egyptian literature, but it is the most divergent.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes