Category: News

O modelo acaba de ser apresentado no Salão de Deli. Segundo a marca o monovolume vai ser lançado nos mercados emergentes.

O R3 Concept vai ser exclusivamente para os mercados emergentes, pois terá as mesmas características de um carro popular e terá a produção de baixo custo.

No seu interior o modelo promete acomodar até seis passageiros sem muito aperto, sendo assim a Suzuki está trabalhando mais no seu interior.

O conceito da marca que está sendo apresentado esta semana no Salão de Deli deve chegar ao mercado indiano no final do ano.

Fonte: Auto Portal

Overly sympathetic for hometown girl

Editor, The Times:

In all fairness, I do not believe the following statement made in [“A trying time to name a park after Perugia,” Opinion, Jan. 5] is justified: “Yet all of that does not smooth legitimately bad feelings about the trial of Knox, who is either innocent or did not get a fair trial that proved her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”

We are all sympathetic to a hometown girl who ran up against the law during her studies abroad. But her origins in Seattle do not change the fact that a jury of her peers heard all the evidence and concluded “beyond a reasonable doubt” that she should be held responsible for her roommate’s death. We all wish her good fortune in her legal appeals but justice is not served well by misplaced hometown bias in your publication.

— Joe Dray, Edmonds

Rename is a disappointment

The flap over Perugia Park’s name reminds me of a few years ago when many of our brighter wits wanted to rename French fries to Freedom fries. Isn’t this just about the same? I thought Seattle was a city of intelligent, caring people. Now I find out that we like jumping on the bandwagon just like everyone else. What a disappointment!

— Mark Miller, Seattle

Maybe Perugia should reject Seattle as sister city

I totally agree with Mike James, the president of the Seattle-Perugia Sister City Association, and Mayor Boccali of Perugia. It is totally ridiculous to let the outcome of a criminal trial — just because the crime took place in Perugia — influence the decision to name a park in Seattle.

Following this reasoning maybe Perugia should reject Seattle as a sister city for the injuring of 30 Italian prisoners of war by American servicemen at Fort Lawton in August of 1944 and the death of Pvt. Guglielmo Olivotto.

— Rod McNae, Freeland

Name it after the deceased

Name it Meredith Kercher Park. Surely we should give serious consideration to naming the park after the unfortunate young woman who lost her life in Perugia. Just think how Meredith Kercher’s family and loved ones would be overwhelmed with gratitude and appreciation by our unselfish act of naming the new park in her memory. The Kerchers would recognize the great sacrifice the people of Seattle made in honoring Meredith.

I am sure that the Kerchers would be so overwhelmed and pleased with this magnanimous gesture on our part that they would immediately throw their support behind [Seattle Preparatory School president] Kent Hickey’s Amanda Knox Legal Defense Fund. To seal the deal Hickey could promise the Kerchers that a portion of the funds collected would be used to pay off Knox’s share of the $9 million in civil damages issued to her family by the misguided Italian court.

Let us not forget that Knox is where she is because Meredith is no longer with us.

— Stephen Finn, Seattle

Seattle Prep and Knox

I am not sure why Nicole Brodeur thinks she has to pontificate about something a private organization is doing [“Prep’s Misguided Lesson,” NWTuesday, Jan. 5]. I think she has chosen the wrong forum. I certainly agree that she has every right and privilege to have and share her opinions, but why this organization on this issue?

I think it would have been more appropriate for her to express her opinions about Amanda Knox in relation to the city park naming decision. Does she have an ax to grind about Seattle Prep? I suggest that Nicole address public concerns in this forum and share her private concerns about a private organization in another.

— Ken Schuh, Spokane

Seattle Prep does help other communities

Nicole Brodeur criticizes Seattle Prep’s support for alumna Amanda Knox and asks: “Why not raise money for a food bank?” It’s not either/or.

Seattle Prep regularly collects money and food for food banks, but it does even better: It teaches all students in the ways of Jesus’ mandate to help the poor.

All sophomores at the school serve brothers and sisters in our community in evening and daytime settings as part of a retreat. All juniors enter into yearlong relationships serving the marginalized among us with the explicit intent that the relationship will be ongoing after the assignment is finished.

These experiences are transformative for students and have ripple effects in families and communities. Yes, the Seattle Prep community is reaching out to Amanda Knox’s family and this outreach is making headlines. But it is only one among hundreds of outreach efforts during the school year.

— Liz Tidyman, Bellevue

We’re looking to hire a junior system administrator to help manage our growing infrastructure. Have a look at the jobs board posting if you think you might fit the bill.

That freshly-popped Popbox media streamer looks as good connected to a TV as we were hoping for yesterday. Shown off at the CES Unveiled stand, the size difference between the last model was noticeable, and yup, the price is $130.

I had a quick fiddle with the remote on the stand, with the screen-hopping proving fast and the interface just as fresh as the Popcorn Hour. There are little tweaks on the interface, animations that you’re not quite expecting—like in the weather—which made me quite shocked that they’re only asking $130 for it.

Netflix, Facebook and Twitter are supported, and as you can see from the screengrabs over here it’s laid out in a really nice, clean manner. Further driving the point home was the popcorn machine on the stand, as you can see in the last pic. Smells gooood.

[Note: I’m republishing this article from last year with minors edits as it is once again relevant]

It’s 5 days into the new year… how are your New Year’s Resolutions coming along? Maybe I’m just Lazy (wait, I am), but this is around the time each year that I start running into troubles. This is around the time that work starts getting going again. Right now, I’m trying to write articles in advance (failed on this one), starting a new job, battling cold, and hundred other things. That’s the problem with New Year’s resolutions, you get busy, put it off, and then it gets forgotten. The best way to stop that from happening this year is by being SMART with your goals.

SMART Goals

Many of you have heard about SMART goals in the past. It’s common in the realm of project management. SMART is simply an mnemonic device to help you remember the steps necessary to achieve your goals. Though some of the specific terms are debated (more on that later), one interpretation is that stands for:

• Specific – What is the goal that I want to accomplish? Do I want to get my TPS reports submitted with coversheets? Do I want to get that T.G.I. Friday’s Chotchkie’s waitress to go out with me? Or do you want to just want to get your red stapler back? (Note: Those goals won’t make sense unless you’ve seen Office Space)
• Measurable – How do I measure the goal? Am I successful if I submit my TPS reports with coversheets 80% of the time? Sounds like a good start. Having I gotten to know what the Chotchkie’s waitress likes? Am I successful if I find that she likes kung-fu? Yep.
• Attainable – Is my goal reasonable? If my goal is learn to fly by flapping my arms, I need to go back to the drawing board. In this case it is possible to acheive the TPS report/coversheet goal… and contrary to what any logic in my head says, I guess it’s finding Jennifer Anistons working at Chotchkie’s and get them to go out with you is “attainable” (maybe this is where my Office Space analogy breaks down).
• Relevant – Does the goal matter to you and your life? Do you really care about achieving the 80% TPS report/coversheet goal? No you don’t. Does going out with Chotchkie’s waitress matter? I’m going to go on a limb and say that in example it’s something worth caring about.
• Time-bound – When do expect to reach this goal? Maybe you want to start out with getting your TPS Reports up to par for just a month… then raise it to a fiscal quarter… then go for the full year… Maybe you want to find out three things that the Chotchkie’s waitress likes in the next week.

I mentioned earlier that there are some variations to SMART goals. Some use Appropriate and Realistic instead of Attainable and Relevant. If you think about it, Appropriate is similar enough to Relevant, and Realistic is similar enough to Attainable that it doesn’t really matter. As long as you cover the main five concepts you are ready to tackle any goal… or are you?

SMARTER Goals

I’ve noticed some people are getting a little clever with SMART Goals and trying to make them even SMARTER Goals. They do this by adding a couple more steps such as

• Exciting – Your goals should exciting you. I think this is captured in Relevant step mentioned above. This could be debated, but in the example above, I think it’s safe to say that Peter should be excited about the idea of taking Jennifer Aniston’s character on a date.
• Recorded – You should record your progress at set intervals. I like this one. It’s a little like Measurable, but reminds you to go back and look at how you are doing

Another variation is:

• Evaluate – Same concept as the recorded above – evaluate your goal progress on an on-going basis
• Re-do – After evaluating your goal’s progress, go back and adjust your goal accordingly. You know some things that the waitress likes, ask her to come over and watch the Kung-Fu marathon on channel 39.

SMARTEST Goals

I’m not going to revise the acronym again. Instead I’d like to add a couple of important tips for achieving your goals that I believe get lost in the steps above:

• Assess Where You Start – Before you create a goal, you should assess where you stand currently. It will help you with various steps in the process.
• Divide and Conquer – You may need to break big goals into smaller ones. Some goals may seem break the “attainable” guideline, but in smaller chunks it becomes easier. Paying off $100,000 of debt a year may not be attainable to some people, but paying of $15,000 may be possible.
• Get Some Motivating Help – How do I keep up with my goals? Here are some things that I’ve found helpful:
  • StickK to Your Goals – This website can help make you accountable for not achieving your goals
  • Buddy System – My wife and I are implementing a buddy system for going to the gym. She motivates me to go to the gym and I motivate her. Together we improve the chances of accomplishing our goals.
  • Reminders – It can be easy to forget your goals. I would recommend setting up reminders on a regular basis on Google Calendar or 30 Boxes. If you are low-tech type, you could put a picture that reminds you of your goal on your bathroom mirror.

If you take just one thing away from this article, I hope it’s this… Lazy Man has seen Office Space far too many times.

Related posts:

1. My 2008 Goals In case you missed it, I wrote about my 2007…
2. A Look Back at 2007 Goals You know how to take the [rental car] reservation, you…
3. 2008 Goals: A Look Back Yesterday I got a little ahead of myself as I…
4. StickK to Your Goals Have you ever made a goal and resolution only to…
5. Planning and Goal Setting Week: Lazy Man’s 2007 Goals Almost like a great high school guidance councilor Flexo has…

The one surprise left, besides the price, for the Boxee Box: A full keyboard on the back of the remote, so you don’t have to deal with onscreen keyboard. Crucial, frankly, to get the most out of it.

Also, we’ve got a full list of all the formats and codecs it supports, which are the same as the software running on any other computer—so yeah, MKV, Dvix, the works. We still have to wait to see what “under $200” means exactly—though given how crowded the media streaming box field is, lower would be better.

D-LINK DEBUTS BOXEE BOX AT CES 2010, DIRECTLY LINKING INTERNET ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES TO TVS EVERYWHERE

Networking pioneer and popular entertainment software
create the best way to get the free entertainment the Internet has to offer with no monthly fee

LAS VEGAS, Booth 36232, South Hall, LVCC, Jan. 5, 2010 – D-Link made lots of geeks and early adopters happy today by introducing the revolutionary Boxee Box by D-Link, winner of the CES Best of Innovations award in the Home Entertainment category.

The Boxee Box by D-Link reinterprets what TV should be. The Boxee Box delivers movies, TV shows, music, and photos from a user’s computer, home network, and the Internet to their HDTV with no PC needed. Additionally, Boxee’s core social features make it easy for friends to discover new content from each other through social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and more.

Internet Entertainment
Boxee is a popular PC, Mac, and Linux software program that lets users watch hundreds of thousands of popular TV shows and movies. Instead of sifting through millions of confusing Web sites, when users search on Boxee, TV shows and movies are delivered to them with the click of a remote control. Nearly a million Internet users around the world have already downloaded Boxee to enjoy their online entertainment.

The Boxee Box by D-Link takes the same popular software and offers it up as a great device — the perfect companion to a high definition TV. The Boxee Box by D-Link provides access to more than just traditional TV content. It includes a huge library that spans the Internet, such as university courses, panel discussions, academic lectures, presentations, web-only videos and more from TED, Stanford, FORA.tv, Kid Mango, Next New Networks and others. Boxee also makes it easy for users to add their own favorite entertainment sources with simple RSS or XML feeds available for most online video.

In addition to video content, Boxee users can access great music from sites like Pandora, last.fm, shoutcast, and We are Hunted as well as stunning photos from sites like flickr, Picasa and Facebook.

Personal Entertainment
For entertainment lovers who have built their own collections of digital media stored on their computer hard drive or home network, Boxee automatically identifies their content and downloads relevant cover art, synopses, reviews, subtitles, lyrics and more. This feature turns boring files and folders into beautiful media libraries that make it simple and appealing to navigate a collection of favorite movies, TV shows, and playlists with a simple remote. Furthermore, the Boxee Box by D-Link has extensive format support (see below) which ensures that when users hit the play button, they get instant gratification, with no need to download codecs or drivers. Also, with built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi support, it can transfer files without delay and from longer distances within a user’s home.

Social Features
The Boxee Box by D-Link keeps people connected with social features to help users discover new content from friends, experts, and tastemakers.

The first step to discovery is sharing, and Boxee makes this easy by letting people recommend any playing content to friends. Additionally Boxee automatically uses recommendations from a user’s Twitter and Facebook friends so they can find new content and instantly enjoy it on the big screen. Since anyone can build on top of Boxee’s open App platform, users can craft their own truly custom experience by creating or downloading plug-ins, add-ons, games, and more.

“We are pleased to partner with Boxee and to be the first with such a ground-breaking device,” said Nick Tidd, vice president of sales of D-Link Pan America and vice president of marketing for D-Link North America. “This powerful device with its unique form factor truly leverages Boxee’s service and is the best way for consumers to quickly access the growing volume of Internet content, organize it and stream it to their TVs and home entertainment centers.”

“D-Link’s successful track record in bringing to market, award-winning digital home networking products, and its global marketing, distribution and channel sales capabilities made them a great fit for our first hardware vendor.” stated Andrew Kippen, vice president of marketing for Boxee, “The Boxee Box by D-Link gives consumers what they want – an easy way to watch Internet or personal entertainment in their living rooms with a simple set-top box that costs under $200 and has no monthly fees.”

The Boxee Box by D-Link is scheduled to ship in the first half of 2010 through the company’s vast network of retail and e-tail outlets, and at D-Link’s online store, www.dlinkshop.com.
Supported Codecs & Formats
Boxee can be used to play/view practically all common multimedia formats, including:

VIDEO:
Adobe Flash 10.1
H.264  (MKV, MOV)
VC-1
WMV
MPEG-1
MPEG-2
MPEG-4
AVI
Xvid
Divx  
PCM/LPCM
VOB

AUDIO:
MP3
WMA
WAV
AIFF
FLAC
AAC
DTS
Dolby Digital
Ogg Vorbis

PHOTO:
JPEG
TIFF
BMP
PNG

[D-Link]

Let’s clarify two things right away: first, the Ideapad U1 hybrid notebook tablet is still in the very rough stages of development. Second, it’s going to be awesome—if it can live up to its potential.

Let’s review the concept quickly before we get into the details. The U1 is literally two separate devices, joined together and made to play nice. One is a multitouch tablet that runs Linux and has a speedily efficient Qualcomm ARM 1Ghz Snapdragon processor running the show. The other is a Windows 7 notebook with an Intel Core 2 Duo SU 4100 processor.

The build is like Lenovo’s other IdeaPads, except for the translucent red top that houses the tablet. When the base and the slate are linked up, the latter acts as an 11.6-inch, 720p (1366×768) monitor that looked crisp despite being saddled with Intel’s integrated graphics. The (non-chiclet) keyboard is based on the current lineup of IdeaPads, and both it and the touchpad worked smoothly. The U1 we saw wasn’t set up to do much other than web browse, and pages loaded quickly. The notebook has built-in Wi-Fi, but can also run off of the tablet’s 3G connection, which I can see being a pretty great benefit for times when wireless isn’t readily accessible.

The fun part, though, is unclasping the tablet from its shell. It’s firmly latched in, which is more reassuring than frustrating. Once removed from the notebook, there’s a two or three second lag before the Snapdragon processor kicks in. It’s not seamless, but it’s close enough. Tablet mode greets you with a six-panel screen of apps similar to that of Lenovo’s Skylight smartbook. The selection is limited for now, but Lenovo will be opening up the SDK to developers soon to give you more to play with than the standard YouTube, Gmail, and Facebook-type options.

You can also enter a type of content mode, which divides up your stored files between music, video, images, and documents. With the multitouch interface, you can quickly jump among all four, and adjust how much of the screen is devoted to each. The resistive screen was good, but not great—it at times took some pretty insistent pressing to get the response I was looking for. The viewing angles could also use work; unless you’re looking nearly dead-on at the display, you’re pretty much out of luck.

I was impressed by the sound quality—not excellent by any means, but better than I expected from a tablet device. One immediately obvious downside is the total absence of ports on the tablet other than the docking—there’s not even a headphone jack. It’s configured for Bluetooth, but I’d still like the option to plug in my buds. The tablet also currently lacks an accelerometer, so there’s no way to orient documents or images based on its position. This is hopefully something that will be addressed before its release.

I said the two devices are totally separate, and I meant it. There are advantages and disadvantages to this set-up. On the plus side, while the tablet is undocked, you can hook the base up to a monitor and get full notebook functionality. If you remove it during web browsing, the tablet remembers which site you were on and places you there automatically (and vice versa). In fact, when I had Gizmodo in notebook mode and removed the slate, it automatically took me to the mobile version of Giz.

The down side is that right now, web pages are the only things that are transferable this way. If I were working on a document in notebook mode, there’s no on-the-fly transition once I pop out the tablet. You can drag and drop, but a more seamless transfer would be helpful. It would also be nice to be able to control the tablet remotely with the base, but once they’ve separated there’s no interaction between the two. Again, these are things that may or may not be addressed by the time the U1 comes out in the second half of this year.

About that release: it’s up in the air right now as to when you can get your hands on one of these, because of all of the tweaks that need to be made. It will also be crucial for Lenovo to be able to build up a decent store of apps for the U1 and the Skylight if these are going to have any functionality beyond very basic web browsing and media playback. And for an estimated retail price of $999—minus whatever subsidy they’re able to get from a partner carrier—that functionality had better be there.

All in all, the U1 is a slick device, if a little undercooked. If nothing else, I’m excited to see how far they can take this concept once they put it in production. But no rush, Lenovo. If you take the time get it right, it’ll be something special.

The Public Service Commission is looking into allegations about FPL Group in a letter it received this week from three anonymous people who say they work for the company’s alternative energy arm. The letter says it was written by “concerned and …

Q: My husband has been having some scary issues with choking, and so for the time being has been put on a strict non-solid-foods-only diet (basically, nothing that requires being chewed).

Naturally I’m grateful to have a solution that’s working, but, as you can imagine, am quickly running out of foods to make! We’ve done the obvious — smoothies, Cream of Wheat, veggies steamed and pureed, and pureed soups — but I’ve cycled through all the interesting options I can think of.

What else can I make that’s safe for him to eat? He’ll eat pretty much anything. The only criterion is it has to be choke-proof. (Perhaps this is good practice for when we have babies — I imagine little ones’ eating habits might look somewhat similar!)

Sent by Kelly

Read Full Post

She needs to enroll in Ethics 101

Thank you for your excellent article on the financial abuse of power by our leading educators [“Provost’s Nike ties draw fire at UW,” NWTuesday, Jan. 5]. You are right on target.

Speaking as a University of Washington alumna, I am discouraged by educators who constantly shout loudly for more state public education funding while, at the same time, are receiving outrageous state salaries and benefits.

Also, UW Provost Phyllis Wise should take a refresher course in Ethics 101 if she cannot see that a conflict of interest exists when she receives a huge salary from a company that has a $35 million contract with the UW.

Irresponsible acts such as these undermine community support for the UW. We have the right to expect better, less expensive leadership at the University of Washington.

— Merle Hanley, Seattle

Como todos sabem Toyota e Honda são eternas rivais, para confirmar isso que digo a Toyota acabou de apresentar seu novo conceito, o Etios. Agora a Honda acaba de exibir o seu mais novo conceito.

A Honda nega que foi só para competir com a Toyota e diz que o modelo foi criado para ser seguro e oferecer um espaço interno que acomode cinco pessoas.

O modelo deverá entrar no mercado brasileiro a partir do fim do ano que vem, com preço mais acessível diz a marca.

Fonte: Motor Pasion

Promoting fear and hatred

About your report on “life-and-death gay-rights fight” [page one, Jan. 4]: Three evangelicals travel to Uganda, speaking of homosexual persons as “evil and promiscuous” and accusing gays of pursuing a “hidden and dark agenda.”

They claim to be surprised when they inspire a Ugandan legislator to propose a law which threatens to hang homosexuals. These three are not following Jesus. Pledged to ignorance, they seek to control a part of human life they choose not to understand.

Though your article speaks of them as representatives of the “Christian right,” I say they are not. In place of love, they promote fear and hatred. Into the sunless world they seek, let light shine.

— Rev. Brooke Rolston, Bothell

Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Acura, Audi, Cadillac, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz

The Acura RL came in second with a “Very Good” road test score of 80. The Acura was given high marks for technology but was marked down for a less than sporty ride and a less than best-in-class rear seat. The Mercedes E350 and Audi A6 3.0T followed with “Very Good” scores of 79. Interestingly, CR says the E350 was marked down because it didn’t handle as well as the last generation E-Class, adding “handling is still capable, but not exceptional, and the ride isn’t as absorbent as before.” The A6 is given generally high marks all around including interior, ride and handling, but its performance evidently wasn’t enough to elevate it to the head of the class. The Lincoln MKS Ecoboost brought up the rear of the group with a “Very Good” score of 75. CR says the MKS has an “ordinary” driving experience, but the testers gave it good marks for a well-resolved interior.

As a bonus, CR engineers also tested the new Lexus HS250h. The dedicated luxury hybrid was given an “Excellent” score of 83 – just above that of the Toyota Prius – though the publication dings the Lexus because it “doesn’t have the refinement, quietness, and ride comfort associated with the Lexus brand.” CR says the HS250h makes up for these shortcomings, though, with terrific real world fuel economy – they achieved an average 31 miles per gallon during its testing.

Though the CTS took top honors in Consumer Reports’ road test, the quality-driven publication still does not recommend the vehicle due to reliability issues. Only the Acura was given a “Recommended” nod, though the A6 and the MKS contain engines that are too new to receive a recommendation. The luxury test appears in the February issue of the magazine. Hit the jump to read over the official press release.

Continue reading Cadillac CTS wins Consumer Reports luxury sedan comparo, still not recommended

Cadillac CTS wins Consumer Reports luxury sedan comparo, still not recommended originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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