Author: Serkadis

The “Rapture Metro Pack” DLC of Bioshock 2 was supposed to come out early this week, but due to unspecified reasons, 2K decided to push back the content. So what can we expect in this long overdued

The performance of Volkswagen AG in the first quarter was stellar but its stake in Porsche AG weighed down its earnings, according to VW’s finance chief. VW accounts for a 49.9% stake in Porsche at equity.

This means that it books the share of profits or losses at Porsche proportional to the size of its stakeholding. Under IFRS regulations on the allocation of the purchase price (PPA effects), the 3.9 billion euro ($5.2 billion) acquisition cost from December 2009 for the Porsche stake is subject to continual non-cash writedowns. In a conference call, CFO Hans Dieter Poetsch said that these accounting charges more than offset VW’s share of profit from Porsche. Within the next year, Volkswagen will seek to subsume Porsche AG’s majority parent, Porsche Automobil Holding SE, giving it full control over the brand as well. When it comes to the group level, it’s notable that all of VW’s core brands posted improvements, driving up by nearly three times the first-quarter operating profit. In particular, this report reveals how quickly the turnaround had been for the flagship VW brand.

[via autonews – sub. required]

Source: Car news, Car reviews, Spy shots

Here are some tips to get cheap car insurance for woman in the UK. You can actually get cheap car insurance in the UK for woman, girls, or lady driver. All you need to do is follow some of the tips and know how that shared here by thousands of woman, young girl drivers, and lady drivers from UK. It cost you nothing but 5 minutes to read through the tips.

Car insurance for woman in the UK

Car insurance seems to be one of the most resented financial products in the UK. It may be truth when you think of car insurance have no tangible return unless any accidents happen. This perhaps understandable why people willing to spend a lot of time look for the best car insurance that suitable for their needs, and that lead a lot of car insurance companies create different type of insurance package to support the demand especially in the UK.

Many consumers believe the progress to get a car insurance is a time consuming task with all headache documents, troublesome approval process, requirements and among others especially car insurance for young people. See car insurance UK young drivers.

However, there are always some simple way to get cheap car insurance for woman in the UK. All you need to do is to follow some of the simple tips that shared by woman who has successfully bought a car with cheap car insurance. One of the main reasons is the statistic around the world shows woman’s claims cost lesser than man.

Tips to get cheap car insurance for woman

Buy a car with safety features

A good way to get cheaper car insurance is to purchase a car with more safety features. Car insurance company will consider giving cheaper quote base on what car you going to buy. These features can be ABS brakes, alarm systems, theft systems, auto-lock, GPS tracking system will help to get extra point!

Good driver’s background

It is often insurance company will consider about driver’s background. A woman with 3 kids will always drive carefully as she has the responsible for the family. Have you ever seen a car with infant car seat or baby car seat drive fast? This is also one of the reason car insurance claims for woman cost less for the insurance company.

Get car insurance quote for woman online

Many car insurance companies in UK offer special discount when you request for insurance quote online. For example Diamond offer up to 10% discount for online insurance quote. You can save up to £100 if the policy cost you £1000.

Zip code in the UK

Zip code or area of where you stay did play some role in getting a cheap car insurance. Insurer usually will check the accident rates base on the statistic of where you live. The lower accident rate of where you live probably allow you to get cheaper insurance.

Woman tends to have minor road accidents than man, woman drive slower than man, woman usually drive shorter distances on average, drink and drive seldom happen to woman. That is all the reasons allow you to get cheap car insurance for woman in the UK.

Source: Cars, Fast Cars, Cool Cars, Sports Cars

How many computers do you use in a single day? How about in a work week? In today’s digital world, we are rarely in the same place for very long. The large majority of people are regularly on two, three, and even more digital devices every single day. These devices may include PCs, Macs, smart phones, and even the iPad. With your data spread out across all of these machines, keeping everything synchronized and up to date can be a real challenge.

Enter SugarSync– utilizing the power of the cloud to make sure that you are never without your essential data, anywhere, anytime. The SugarSync program will keep your life in sync across Macs, PCs, smart phones, and even the Apple iPad automatically. Imagine taking a picture on your smart phone which is then instantly and automatically uploaded to your SugarSync account and downloaded onto all your other computers. It’s as simple as installing the software on the computers you want to keep in sync, identifying which files and folders you want to be synchronized, and then forgetting the program even exists. Everything is automatic and updated within seconds. As you edit and change your files, they get uploaded to the SugarSync servers and downloaded onto any other computer you want.

Not only will your files stay in sync, they are also mobilized and accessible anywhere. You can share specified files, folders, and documents with friends and family very easily. They can even make changes to the files if you want and then they are automatically updated on your computer. Don’t worry about loosing data either, SugarSync features integrated file versioning, saving up to five previous versions automatically of any file, so it’s very simple to revert to previous copies. Previous saved versions don’t count towards your storage allotment either.

Business collaboration just got a whole lot easier as well. I know personally from running a business with 10 other members spread across the globe, that SugarSync’s features can and will make our collaborations much easier. GoogleDocs, various Wiki’s, a file storage service, all of these things are made obsolete with SugarSync.

Your data is safe and secure as well on SugarSyncs servers. All connections are protected behind SSL encryption, and 128-bit AES encrypted secure servers that are redundantly backed up on multiple data centers. Everything is password protected, and you can even hand out security codes to friends and family for special access to certain files.

Full installation and setup takes 5 minutes max. There are two different options offered to you for syncing your files- Full Sync and Lite Sync. Full sync will store a backup of the file as you edit it on the SugarSync servers and download it automatically onto any machine you specify. Lite sync will store the file online, and allow it to be viewed and edited online, however it will not automatically saved onto your other machines and smart phones (which may not be able to use the file anyway).

This service is still relatively new, and the developers are constantly refining and adding more and more features. For example- soon you will be able to keep your Outlook contacts and Mac address book synced across your network. Also automatic Flickr and Facebook update capabilities are going to be rolled out shortly for photos which is great news for digital photographers and smart phone photographers.

There is even an iPad app for SugarSync which has recently been updated with document editing capabilities to make it even more versatile and capable. You can open and edit documents and spreadsheets in other iPad apps like Numbers and Pages. One drawback however with the SugarSync iPad app is that files are not automatically synced back to your account on the server as you edit them. To update your files across your network with your iPad, you need to make use of the update by email feature. SugarSync is currently working with Apple though to make the experience truly seamless on the iPad.

Pricing is very reasonable and starts at $4.99 a month for 10 GB of space and goes as high as $39.99 a month for 500 GB of storage space.

There is another company that offers similar service called DropBox. It too is cross-platform compatible and has similar pricing. They do offer a full free service of up to 2 GB of online storage, and the Mac client is more robust and stable since SugarSync’s Mac client is still in beta. DropBox also supports Linux where SugarSync does not yet, but it does not support mobile devices which is a big gap in their compatibility. Debates have raged over which company is better, and in the end it comes down to personal preference. Overall, SugarSync is the winner in our books because of it’s ease of use and mobile device/iPad compatibility. They are an exciting company with a team that seems very interested in making it the best file syncing system on the internet. You can check them out for yourself with their free 45 day trial.

(DOE, April 28, 2010) Washington, DC — Secretary Steven Chu testified today before the Senate Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development on current energy policies and future energy goals.  His opening statement is as follows:  Chairman Dorgan, Ranking Member Bennett, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to discuss our nation’s energy policy.  We are driven to change our energy habits by several serious challenges.  America is highly dependent on oil.  Our climate is changing as a result of our carbon emissions.  In order to mitigate the considerable risks of climate change, the world must transition to a sustainable energy future, which will require nothing short of a new industrial revolution.  America’s future jobs and prosperity may well depend on whether we lead or follow in this transformation.  The leaders in China now recognize that if the world continues on its current path, climate change will be devastating to China and to the rest of the world.  They acknowledge that China’s growth in carbon emissions is environmentally unsustainable and are working hard to lessen their emissions growth.  Click here to read more…

By Mark Harden

(Denver Business Journal, April 27, 2010) The University of Colorado at Boulder has received another large contribution toward construction of the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building on the university’s East Campus — this one from the federal stimulus initiative.  The university announced the $15 million grant Tuesday. The funds are distributed under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  It is the latest of several large donations and grants in recent years for the research and teaching facility, whose construction began last September.  The 266,400-square-foot Caruthers building is going up on CU-Boulder’s east campus, at Colorado Avenue and the Foothills Parkway. It will house the university’s Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology, the department of chemical and biological engineering, and the biochemistry division of the department of chemistry and biochemistry.  Click here to read more…

NSF/DOE Partnership on Thermoelectric Devices for Vehicle Applications – The Directorate for Engineering at the National Science Foundation has established a partnership with the U.S.Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Program in order to address critical fundamental and applied research challenges associated with harvesting waste heat in vehicle applications. The goal of the partnership is to leverage the complementary missions of deployment and commercialization (DOE) and fundamental research and education (NSF) to address issues of national importance that impact our reliance on foreign sources of oil. The Directorate for Engineering seeks proposals with transformative ideas that will impact national needs and priorities in energy conservation and climate change, specifically as pertains to novel thermoelectric devices and systems for harvesting waste heat in vehicle applications. Proposals must meet the detailed requirements delineated in this solicitation. Total Funding: $1M to $1.5M.  Eligibility: All.  LOI Due Date: May 21, 2010.  Full Proposal Due Date: June 22, 2010.

Posted Date: March 23, 2010

Solicitation Number: 10-549

————————————————————————————-

FY2010 Vehicle Technologies Program Wide Broad Agency Announcement – The Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) intends to issue, on behalf of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Vehicle Technologies Program, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “FY2010 Vehicle Technologies Program Wide Broad Agency Announcement.” The FOA will involve near and mid-term projects in technology areas that support the vehicle technologies mission and goals. (See link: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/).  The FOA may include the following Areas of Interest with specific subtopics: 1) Advanced Fuels and Lubricants Technologies; 2) Lightweighting Materials; 3) Hybrid and Electric Systems R&D for Advanced Energy Storage and Electric Drive Technologies; and 4) Advanced Thermoelectrics and Enabling Technologies for Energy Efficient Powertrains.  DOE envisions awarding multiple financial assistance awards in the form of cost-shared grants/cooperative agreements. The estimated period of performance for each award will be approximately two to three years in duration.  Non-federal cost share will be required for all recipients.

Posted Date: December 2009

Solicitation Number: DE-FOA-0000239

Support Services for the TFHRC Hydraulics Laboratory – The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has a requirement for engineering and technical support services for the J. Sterling Jones Hydraulics Laboratory (the Laboratory) at Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center.  The contract involves support for the FHWA Hydraulics Research Program in the following areas: 1) Developing intelligent remote sensing systems and rapid deployment sensing systems to capture hydraulic/aerodynamic parameters during storm events; 2) Working in five areas to improve durability: smart, resilient, durable countermeasure materials; hydrodynamic bridge systems to resist flooding, overtopping, scour, surge and wave damage; analytical and modeling capabilities for assessing countermeasures; scour analysis capabilities & countermeasures; multi-hazard (Flood/Seismic/Wind) modeling; multi-hazard experimental work, in and with, FHWA Structures and FHWA Aerodynamics Laboratories; 3) Developing retrofits/designs that facilitate fish/wildlife passage through hydraulic structures; tracking tools for climate-change impacts (e.g. Flooding); and, examining alternative energy generation/transmission concepts; and, 4)Development of intelligent piers/abutments/bridge deck shapes using biomimetic concepts (smart materials) with scour countermeasures for shallow foundations. A tour of the J. Sterling Jones Hydraulics Laboratory (located at Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, VA) is planned for May 6, 2010 at 10am.  Advance registration is required.  Registration Deadline: May 4, 2010.

Posted Date: April 27, 2010

Solicitation Number: DTFH61-10-R-00024

The IFPI has put out its latest report on the state of the music business (sent in first by Nastybutler77). There aren’t too many surprises. Some of the data in the report (such as the growth in the UK and elsewhere) were already covered a few weeks ago in a presentation by Will Page, the chief economist for PRS in the UK. But there were some interesting points in the report that suggest the industry is still in quite a bit of denial. Thirteen markets saw “a return to growth” in music sales — though, amusingly, the IFPI chooses to highlight two of them — South Korea and Sweden — both of which passed ridiculously draconian anti-piracy laws, mostly due to pressure from folks like the IFPI.

Not surprisingly, the IFPI credits the “improving legal environments” in those countries for the increasing sales. Similarly, it notes that sales declines happened in Spain and Canada — two of the countries most regularly singled out by the entertainment industry for having consumer friendly copyright laws. Of course, that’s not how the industry describes it. They talk about how those countries’ laws are “out of touch” or not in line with “international standards.”

Of course, what the IFPI totally ignores (not surprisingly, since they only represent record labels) is that while the sales of music directly may have declined in some markets, the overall market for music grew tremendously. In other words, the decline in sales of recorded music has not done harm to the music industry, but just to a few record labels. This new report is really just an attempt to pretend (yet again) that the “music industry” is really “the recording industry.” And, of course, what this report doesn’t come close to acknowledging, is that in putting in place these “legal environments” in places like Sweden and South Korea, it has cut off many more efficient and effective ways for musicians to create, promote and distribute their works.

That’s what this report really shows. It shows that the IFPI wants to be the gatekeeper to make sure that more of the money going through the music ecosystem goes to its labels, rather than to others. It doesn’t care if the overall market for music is smaller, just as long as more of the money goes to its members.

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If you live in the United States of Mexico(Okay, America,) you should know about a fun game for Xbox that includes the coolest droid ever. Well we can have the great looking Fallow out theme on our WVGA devices. Created by horrorview, its a new theme that’s capable with CHT Mod, and comes with many icons for you to get the full experience.

We have made several different packages for the theme, making it totally customizable!

[StarView] Fallout Theme.cab
This is the entire theme WITHOUT Icons and Wallpapers. (Run as any install, but you’ll need to manually install Wallpapers and Icons as detailed below)

[StarView] Fallout Icon Pack.rar
70 icons for the theme covering most of the widely used apps and base programs! Use your favorite icon editor to set them.(we recommend JWMD)

[StarView] Fallout Wallpapers
Three different wallpapers – Home, Lockscreen, and Landscape home. We have decided to give you them as the raw jpg’s so you can set them in whichever way you prefer, be it HDWall, Voldeus Transparent Mod, BG4All or just as normal.

This is a FIRST release, so, while Star and myself haven’t experienced any major bugs, we must warn you that you install this at your own risk, we’re not responsible for any explosions or deaths that may occur as a result, and, please, for the love of god, don’t take the brown acid.

(Compatible With CHT)

You can Download this new Theme over at XDA

The market has been in full-on panic about Greece for awhile now — hence the parabolic spike in short-term rates — and now it seems the wise men of the market are fully on board.

Felix Salmon points to new pieces from both Mohammad El-Erian and Paul Krugman, both of whom see nothing but bad news right now.

El-Erian, in so many words, says Greece will default. Krugman is talking about the real possibility of unwinding the euro and ends his piece with: “I think I’ll go hide under the table now.”

That’s some seriously gloomy language from arguably the most influential public economist in America.

What’s amazing is that we seem to have a full-on financial crisis in Europe. Yes, Greece itself is small, but Portugal, Spain, and Italy are not small at all. And the the interconnected European banking system isn’t small, and yet for the most part, domestic markets in the US don’t seem all the concerned, which is pretty astounding.

Meanwhile, the New York Times has a good piece on the political pressures mounting on Angela Merkel. The world wants her to act, but big elections are coming up nex wil month that could upset her coalition, and a Greece bailout will prove toxic.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Why Should You Be Freaked Out About Greece? Remember, The Great Depression Had Two Parts
• Peter Boockvar: Greece Crisis Marks The Unwind Of The Largest Monetary Easing In History
• Here’s What Germany Did To Make The Greece Crisis Even Worse

Here’s your first look at the upcoming trailer of highly anticipated sci-fi survival horror sequel, Dead Space 2. Watch the teaser after the jump.
 

You may recall Bev Stayart (or Beverly Stayart), the woman who insisted that she was such an upright citizen that it was scandalous (and apparently illegal) that when you did a Yahoo search on her name, some of the links went to questionable sites. So she sued Yahoo. After we wrote about it, she also threatened to sue us as well. She hasn’t done that (yet) thankfully. Either way, the court quickly dismissed her lawsuit against Yahoo, seeing as Yahoo was protected by Section 230 of the CDA. She later sued Yahoo again, because Yahoo’s “suggested search” connected her name to the pharmaceutical Levitra. As we noted at the time, however, part of the reason for those suggestions were not (as she claimed) that Yahoo “knowingly connected” her name to that drug (along with Viagra and Cialis), but because of her original lawsuit, which noted that a search on her name pointed to websites relating to those drugs.

Of course, given more news coverage of her quixotic legal quest, it seemed only natural that this connection would actually get stronger, since more people were legitimately writing stories about her, and her concerns about being connected to Levitra, Viagra and Cialis. So, I guess it should come as no surprise that she’s now suing Google as well, for also “suggesting” “bev stayart levitra” when you start doing a search on “bev stayart.” The problem, which she still doesn’t seem to get, is not that Google (or Yahoo) are deliberately doing this to her, but the more she complains about it, the stronger the algorithmic connection becomes. As Eric Goldman notes in his post about this latest lawsuit:

Some unsolicited advice for Bev Stayart: stop suing search engines, and stop running vanity searches on the search engines. Life is too short to fret about sploggers!

Indeed.

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Today the FOMC announced that rates would stay unchanged, though more significantly was the fact that there wasn’t even a slight change in language.

It was, as several folks noted, a copy & paste job.

But even if you think it’s too early to take the training wheels off the economy (and several folks think that, including Jan Hatzius at Goldman) there’s reason to be concerned about the Fed’s consistency.

Notes Mike O’Rourke at BTIG:

Despite the recent round of rampant dovishness out of the Fed, we believed the FOMC should have taken “baby steps” towards tightening language and restored the 100 basis point spread between the Discount Rate and the Fed Funds rate.  Needless to say, the FOMC did not see the situation as we do.  The Fed decided to remain with the status quo. 

Not that he expects an imminent tightening, but…

We have always asserted that the earliest potential timing for a real tightening move is the end of  2010, but it would be more likely that rates do not rise until 2011.  Nonetheless, when it comes to the use of words and jawboning, the FOMC cannot be permitted to fall into the same pattern as 2002-2005.  During that time period, for 29 consecutive FOMC meetings, the statement used the word “accommodative” to reference monetary policy. 

The problem:

It is widely believed among the investment community (ourselves included) that such predictability of interest rate policy over the course of years fueled the housing bubble, credit bubble, SIV’s and reckless carry trades.  The Fed Chairman does not share this view, he still blames the “global savings glut,” but we remain convinced it was the leverage.  The “exceptionally and extended” language in its current form has been in the statement for just over a year, or 9 meetings.  But remember, the current level of monetary policy is “accommodative” on steroids. 

O’Rourke goes on to voice support with the Fed’s one dissenter, KC President Thomas Hoenig who, if you recall, recently leveld a blistering attack on ZIRP.

Hoenig’s basic view is simple and important. Seeing bubbles ahead of time is nigh impossible. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be smart enough to know the policies that lead to them, and free money is one such policy.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Essential Reading: Fed’s Hoenig Plays Cassandra And Blasts Our Persistent 0% Interest Rates
• FOMC Minutes: No Change, Markets Rallying

Our favorite console modder, Ben Heckendorn, is back to show off his latest shiny creation, a brand new PS3 Slim laptop with even more features and a stylish black look.
 

Filed under: Etc.

In the May issue of Car and Driver, the pub peered through the looking glass to see what kind of product enthusiasts can look forward to in the next few years. The feature, entitled “25 Cars Worth Waiting For,” combines some astute speculation and a few foregone conclusions with a rendering of each vehicle. However, one particular depiction caught the eye of ace auto artist Jon Sibal.

A rendering of the 2011 BMW M5 commissioned by C/D and created by artist Mark Neeper bore a striking resemblance to an image Sibal says he penned this past December. Considering both artists were working with existing information, the number of similarities – particularly the sculpted front bumper and side sills – could’ve been mere coincidence. But Sibal delved deeper and came across several disturbingly exact parallels.

In Sibal’s own post, he breaks down each of the distinct items he included in his rendering, and while the first few examples could be taken as fluke coincidences, details like the precise lighting glare on the silver side mirrors, a swapped tow hook cover and the highlighting on the side sills were exact duplicates. More telling is Sibal’s admission that he made a slight mistake on one side of the intake (not blending it in properly) which mysteriously made it onto Neeper’s image. Additionally, Sibal added his own “watermark” – an odd, pinched line on the front bumper – which he claims, “was left in there purposely… to track and identify the parts of the car I’ve painstakingly designed and created.”

To his credit, Sibal isn’t out for blood or even monetary compensation; he’s just looking for some attribution. And when we spoke with him earlier today, Sibal made it clear that he respects Neeper’s work.

Neeper, who has yet to return our emails, is a well-respected artist who’s been creating drawings and renderings for various publications for the better part of two decades.

Sibal says he has contacted C/D, but apparently has yet to receive a response. We’ve spoken with C/D and they’re just as flummoxed as Sibal and are taking the matter very seriously as they embark on an investigation.

Check out the examples below for more proof, and get the full details on Sibal’s site.

[Source: JonSibal.com]

Artist hired by Car and Driver swipes rendering from Jon Sibal? originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Review: 2010 BMW 550i Gran Turismo is the Ultimate Passenger Machine

In the wake of BMW’s new “Joy” ad campaign comes the 5 Series Gran Turismo, the first Ultimate Driving Machine that’s more interested in shuffling passengers in comfort than providing thrills behind the wheel.

Infographic: One car stolen every 33 seconds… and other fun grand theft auto facts

Car theft is no laughing matter, but a quick look at these stats will have you cracking a smile.

C/D: Next Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 all but confirmed

The all-new Grand Cherokee is right around the corner and that means Jeep is probably planning a hotter, 500+ hp version to take the place of the aging SRT8.

Also of interest:

• Video: Drifting Cadillac thwarts purse snatching
• TVR rebirth hinges on hybrid tech and Chevrolet Corvette power
• Honda in the black, fourth quarter profits up by 28%
• 2003 Toyota Sequoia to be recalled over traction control
• Top Gear America caught filming on Mullholland

Browse our archive of Daily U-Turn posts or subscribe to the RSS feed

Daily U-Turn: What you missed on 4.28.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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