Category: News

Online video is growing every year and will inevitably replace TV watching like we know it in the not-so-distant future. We’re not quite there yet, thanks in part to the established media companies, especially the distribution part, doing everything in their power to stop it or at least slowing it down. A new move in the UK is getting closer to bringing on-demand online video to the TV screen, as the BBC’s Project Canvas is expected to get the go-ahead from the BBC Trust, the governing body which oversees its operations.

The project is a joint venture from the biggest names in British TV, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five and is also supported by the biggest two broadband providers in the country BT and Carphone Warehouse. It aims to allow access to various online video services, like the BBC’s successful iPlayer, through a set-top box enabling users to get all the content on their TVs without needing a PC.

“By seamlessly converging broadband and broadcast content, project canvas can help secure the future of free-to-air broadcasting and create an open platform that gives online services a route to the TV set,” Richard Halton, Project Canvas programme director said. “The potential for innovation goes far beyond bringing video-on-demand to the TV set and there’s a huge opportunity for a wide range of … (read more)

The main attraction with the LG eXpo and LG IQ is its pico-projector, but we have not seen this accessory being shown off much.

MobileSyrup fortunately has us covered, and have published this short review of the projector and appears to have come away pretty impressed.  Their only complaint was that after about 10 minutes of use the projector had become somewhat hot, but like all projectors this is to be expected.

Read more at MobileSyrup here.

AFP reports that oil exports in northern Iraq were sabotaged Sunday after an attack on a pipeline caused a large oil spill.

The attack marks the fourth incident in six weeks, and comes just a week after contracts for seven oil fields were awarded to international consortiums. 

Beefed up security had limited the number of attacks to the pipeline in recent years, but after 18 months without disturbance, attacks began again in late October.

These attacks come just days after international oil firms spent billions securing oil rights long into the future.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The Iraqi Oil Auction Was Like A High-Stakes American Idol
• The Growing Crisis With Iraq’s Oil

The usual suspects are out in force on the op-ed pages, declaring that the health reform bill doesn’t control costs, it’s a huge cost, etc..

And I had a new thought: part of what’s going on here, aside from the fact that these people just hate the idea of expanding social insurance, is that they haven’t looked at all at the actual numbers involved…

The key thing to understand in the coverage debate has always been that it costs surprisingly little to cover the uninsured.

Continue reading at the NYT »

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Senate And House Healthcare Bills May Be On Impossible Collision Course
• Healthcare Reform Is One Step Closer To Reality After Huge 1:00 AM Vote Gets To 60
• With Healthcare, Democrats Commit Unprecedented Act Of Political Suicide

Below list of Linux cheat sheets can be used by everybody who administer Linux operating system including beginners/newbies and bearded gurus.

PDF | Command Line Interface (CLI), Security, Networking

• Unix/Linux Command Reference by fosswire.com
• THE ONE PAGE LINUX MANUAL (A summary of useful Linux commands)
• LINUX System Call Quick Reference
• LINUX Admin Quick Reference
• Linux quick reference card
  
• Linux Shell quick reference guide
• Linux Security Quick Reference Guide
• tcpdump cheat sheet
• Wireshark display filters
• Netcat cheat sheet

HTML | CLI, Gnome/KDE

• DOS to Linux cheatsheet
• Unix toolbox
• Treebeard’s Unix cheat sheet
• Linux terminal shortcuts
• Just Linux cheat sheet
• Computerworld’s Linux cheat sheet
• Linux CLI reference for common operations
• Peter Lombardo’s Linux cheat sheet
• EZ Linux Cheat Sheet
• Gnome/KDE shortcuts
• Linux related reference sheets by suso.com
• Bonus: Linux/UNIX and Microsoft Cheat Sheet

HTML | Linux Distributions Cheat Sheets

• Ubuntu
• Debian

HTML/PDF | vi, sed, awk

• Vi Cheat Sheet
• Vim Tips Cheat Sheet
• Awk, Nawk Cheat Sheet
• Sed Stream Editor Cheat Sheet
• Vi/Vim Cheat Sheets (Lessons)

Le constructeur nippon Mazda vient d’annoncer un accord prochain avec Toyota sur le partage de la technologie hybride du géant de Tokyo.Par ailleurs,la Kepler Motion,supercar hybride,refait parler d’elle.

Pour commencer par l’essentiel,l’accord entre Mazda et Toyota serait proche de la conclusion.Ne resterait qu’à fixer les prix pour l’utilisation par le premier des composants lui permettant de produire ses propres hybrides.

Mazda espère ainsi pouvoir commercialiser plusieurs dizaines de milliers de véhicules par an à compter de 2013.Toyota fournira l’essentiel des composants liés à l’hybridation de sa Prius.Quant-aux batteries,elles seront fournies par une joint-venture Toyota-Panasonic.

Le budget R&D de Mazda étant le 1/8 de celui de Toyota,on a jugé chez le constructeur qu’il était plus approprié de procéder ainsi que de développer son propre système.Toyota y trouve bien évidemment son compte,puisque cet accord lui permet d’amortir davantage son gros investissement dans le secteur de l’hybridation.

Il semble qu’il y ait de grandes chances pour que la première hybride signée Mazda apparaisse dans un peu plus de 2 ans et soit dérivée de la future 3,aussi appelée Axela sur d’autres marchés.Cet accord met fin aux développements communs entre Ford et Mazda dans ce domaine,hérités de la tutelle de Ford sur le japonais.

Notez que Toyota s’est empressé de déclarer à toutes fins utiles qu’il s’agissait d’un accord isolé et qu’il n’y avait aucun projet de rapprochement quelconque entre les 2 firmes.

La première hybride Mazda devrait être la future 3 de 2013.Ici le modèle 2010.

Pour rester dans l’hybride,mais cette fois dans un tout autre genre,la possible future supercar de Kepler,la Motion,a été vue au salon de Dubaï.Parallèlement,le (futur) constructeur a mis en ligne une vidéo de la voiture.Mais il en va de celle-ci comme de la voiture; ça reste du virtuel.Kepler est une nouvelle société US,créée par un ancien pilote,en Californie,et qui espère parvenir à produire une cinquantaine d’exemplaires de cette voiture,pour un prix unitaire tournant autour du million de $ US.La bête devrait développer 800 cv.provenant pour 550 d’entre eux d’un V6 Ford,en propulsion,et pour les 250 restants d’un moteur électrique accouplé aux roues avant.Les détails techniques restent assez sombres,notamment la provenance des autres composants,et il est difficile à ce stade de faire un quelconque pronostic sur la viabilité du projet.Mais il parait assez excitant.Voici la vidéo:

Nouveau: pour profiter facilement et rapidement des notifications de nouveautés sur le site,pensez à vous abonner via Twitter.Chaque modification,nouvel article ou nouvelle vidéo sur notre chaîne Youtube,fait l’objet d’un Tweet immédiat!

It was a tough weekend for me. On Friday I received an e-mail from “Bank of America” saying that my account was locked, and that “During our regular update and annual scheduled maintenance of Bank of America Online Services, we could not verify your current information. As a result of this, your access to use our online services has been limited. You are hereby advised to immediately update your information by using the attached website.” What was I going to do? I wouldn’t be able to shop for Christmas presents, buy food or gas, and care for my kids! Then I remembered that I don’t even bank with BofA, and certainly don’t use any of their online services. Phew! I wonder if this was a scam…

Wanna buy a bank? Now is a good time to give that someone special a little something special – like a failed bank. Seven U.S. banks were taken over on Friday, and the FDIC could not find buyers for three of them. It brings the total to 140 for the year, the most since ‘92. Heck, even ex-IndyMac (now OneWest Bank) picked up the assets and 39 branches of First Federal Bank after it was closed Friday. OneWest was formed by a group of private equity and hedge fund investors to take over IndyMac’s assets earlier this year. Added to the list of banks this year who have experienced deteriorating loan portfolios and related liquidity and capital issues are Imperial Capital Bank of La Jolla CA, Peoples First Community Bank of Panama City FL, New South Federal Savings Bank of Irondale AL, Independent Bankers’ Bank of Springfield IL, RockBridge Commercial Bank of Atlanta GA, and Citizens State Bank in New Baltimore MI. City National Bank bought assets of Imperial Capital, Beal Bank bought the assets of New South, and Hancock Bank bought the assets of Peoples First Community Bank. The other three: zip.

PMI, well-known mortgage insurance company, tweaked their “Distressed Markets List”, although it doesn’t take effect until February.

more news on PMI, MGIC, Genworth Financial, Fannie foreclosure suspension, Amtrust is back, US Bank Wholesale, mod troubles, economic calendars, and joke of the day … <<< CLICK HERE

While most business companies have avoided a big celebration or lavish Christmas party, The Go Daddy Group has gone all out for its employees this holiday season. After experts from Inc.com and Domain Name Wire have estimated the companies’ earnings at around $600 million, at this year’s Christmas party, Bob Parsons, Go Daddy’s CEO, announced that the group “topped $750 million in revenue in 2009.”

Mr. Parsons also made it very clear that because the company did so well and while the rest of the economy flunked in all other domains, its employees deserve all the credit and didn’t spare any dime for their entertainment. Topping last year’s figures with a 22% growth, the company broke its 2008 record of $2 million dollars for its Christmas party with this year’s price tag of $3 million.

Also, because of this year’s record-revenue, it donated about $2.5 million to charity, topping last year’s $1.7 million. Most of the money ($500 000) went to the creation of the “Danica Patrick GoDaddy.com Domestic Violence Center,” which will be built as a wing at the Phoenix UMOM New Day Center.

$100 000 also went to the renowned “Make-a-Wish” Foundation, to help in granting 20 wishes for ill children with terminal diseases. Employees contributed too, by bringing unwrappe… (read more)

According to a report by Business Week’s Spencer E. Ante, Twitter’s search deals with Google and Microsoft made the company about $25 million – enough to turn Twitter into a profitable business in 2009. According to these reports – which Twitter did not comment on – the deal with Google made Twitter about $15 million this year and a similar deal with Microsoft generated about $10 million in revenue.

Sponsor

The idea that Twitter made a profit from these deals is based on the assumption that the company’s annual operating costs are roughly $25 million. Twitter, of course, doesn’t release any information about its operating costs or the revenue it made from these deals, so we have to take this estimate with a grain of salt.

Bringing Costs Down

Business Week’s Ante also argues that Twitter was able to reduce operating expenses by renegotiating its deals with the telecom carriers that support the service’s text message system. Until this year, the cost of supporting the SMS system represented Twitter’s largest expense, though according to one source quoted by Ante, “now people are the biggest line item.”

Generating More Income

Earlier this year, Twitter also announced that it plans to create a revenue-sharing scheme that would allows Twitter to share in the profits generated by third-party applications and vice versa. The details of this plan are still under wraps, however, though at LeWeb, Ryan Sarver, Twitter’s director of platform, announced that the company would announce details about this plan early next year.

Chances are that Twitter is still looking into creating revenue from advertising as well. If the company really managed to be profitable based on the search content deals with Microsoft and Google, however, then Twitter will at least have a longer runway before it has to open up this revenue channel, which is likely to alienate quite a few users.

Discuss

Filed under: Volkswagen, Earnings/Financials

We have a feeling historians will spending a fair portion of next few years finding new words to describe just how bad this year was for the auto industry. And then, at some point, they’ll get around to Volkswagen, a company that has been zagging while almost all others zigged. Over the last twelve months, VW has taken a stake in Suzuki, bought Karmann, won European Car of the Year, won the Dakar Rally, turned its eye to F1, released a litter of well received cars, put autonomous cars everywhere, thrown huge money at hybrids and electric cars, and made recycling fun. And it’s building a $125 million dealership in Manhattan. And then there was that whole Porsche thing. And it took the crown of No. 1 automaker. We could continue, but there’s a post to finish…

When it comes to mergers and acquisitions, remarks from company CEO Martin Winterkorn suggest that VW is finished doing its impression of 18th century England. “We are satisfied with the current line-up,” he has told Automotive News. “I don’t see any need (for further M&A activity).” That, in spite of his assertion that other companies “want to come under our roof.”

VW will focus on what is sure to be a busy year ahead, integrating Porsche and its interest in Suzuki, at the same time as it gears up Karmann’s factory for the Boxster, and builds its U.S. plant and prepares its new NMS model. Winterkorn is expecting VW’s market share to increase in 2010, which might solidify a place at the top position; although after the shellacking General Motors and Toyota took while they wore the crowns, we don’t know why VW would want the attention. And as for the end of M&A, perhaps Winterkorn hasn’t heard the rumor about Piech’s eyes on Ducati…

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req.]

REPORT: VW finished eating companies, will now focus on digestion originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We all know that babies and young children put just about anything they can in their mouth and that’s why most of us work so hard to baby-proof our homes to avoid tragedy. The holiday season is full of things that can harm little ones and it’s important to think of the things we may  not consider as dangerous.

Many years ago, when my “baby” sister was a baby, I was minding her while my parents were out. I must have been about 14 or 15 and she was about a year and a half old. We had a piano in our dining room, which was an extension of the living room, where my sister’s playpen was – just beside the Christmas tree. I remember I was practicing the piano while she played in her pen – or so I thought.

At some point, I turned around and her mouth was dripping with blood. In her hand, she was holding a broken, red Christmas tree ball. A broken, red *glass* Christmas tree bulb, that she had been biting and chewing on.

I remember panicking, having no idea what to do. I didn’t know how long she’d been munching on this glass bulb and if she’s swallowed any glass. All I knew was if anything happened to her, I’d be in big, big trouble.

All these years later, this sister is now in her mid-thirties and I remember that incident as if it was yesterday. As far as I know, she suffered no ill effects from the Christmas tree ball incident, but I know I never forgot. My kids were never allowed unsupervised near the tree and I limited the use of the glass bulbs as much as I could. The ones we did have were gifts.

It turns out that my sister’s and my experience isn’t unique. The results of a new study out of Boston and published in the most recent issue of Pediatric Emergency Care (Holiday Ornament-Related Injuries in Children), found that glass ornaments were one of the worst safety hazards of Christmas decorations. Children who were injured were about 2 years old (ranging from 1.17-3.3 years) and with more boys (44.7% were girls).

After examining 76 cases found over a 13-year period, the study’s authors concluded:

Holiday ornament-related injuries primarily involve foreign body ingestions and glass-related injuries. Over half of the injuries involved small light bulbs and ornaments made of glass placed at the level a toddler can reach.

Broken down:

• 56% of the children ingested ornaments or fragments of ornaments or light bulbs into the mouth – only one was not made of glass
• 28% of those who ingested the glass or bulbs experienced bleeding of the mouth or gastrointestinal tract
• 27% of the children sustained lacerations (cuts), most of whom needed surgery to repaire
• 85% of the children needed tests, such as x-rays or scans
• 23% of the time, a specialist had to be consulted, most often for advice or help in removing the object(s)
• 3 children were checked for toxin exposure
• 2 children experienced minor electrocution

~~~

Image: PhotoXpress.com

Post from: Blisstree

Warning: Glass Ornaments & Baby’s Mouths

With the news that Australia has decided to censor the internet, a group of protesters decided to set up a website complaining about this effort by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy (who laughably called internet filters “100% effective” based on absolutely no metrics). In setting up this protest site, they were able to register the domain stephenconroy.com.au. Not surprisingly, that got some press attention, and suddenly the Australian domain authority, AuDA, took notice. As Slashdot points out, AuDA completely circumvented its usual due process mechanism, and it gave the holders of the site a grand total of 3 hours to defend themselves. When they asked for more time, they were shut down. Now, there are legitimate questions about whether or not they deserve this domain name. But you would think that AuDA would be willing to at least give them the normal amount of time to craft a reply and defend why the site is legit. The speed of the takedown certainly suggests political motivations — more than a typical review process — and highlights the very problem the site was set up to illustrate: why it’s bad when the government can suddenly snuff out websites with views it does not like.

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While some parts of the U.S. economy show early signs of an economic rebound, for small business, the situation remains extremely tough.

Latest December small business conditions reported by the National Federation of Independent Business makes this very clear.

None of the optimism shown by major U.S. corporations can be found.

Until this dichotomy ends, we shouldn’t expect major improvement on the U.S. employment front given that small businesses are the most important employers in America.

The real reason jobs aren’t being created right now >>>

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Bring In The New Year With A New Job!
• We Need 140,000 New Jobs A Month To Keep Unemployment From Going Higher
• Collapse In Tax Withholdings Refutes Improvements In Either Unemployment Or Corporate Profitability

Chrome OS is very much in the early stages and the release we saw last month is likely very different from the one we’ll be getting about a year from now. So, it’s no surprise that things, even fundamental ones, are changing sometimes significantly so. Recently Chromium OS, the open source project on which Chrome OS is based, developers introduced a brand new login system using the web browser to manage the process rather the built-in, Linux-based one with which Chromium OS came when the source code was released.

The plans to move the login from the operating system to the browser were being fleshed out even before the source code was released, but have only recently the actual code was added to the project. “Using Chrome as our login manager has a number of potential benefits. Explore these tradeoffs and decide what to do about the login manager,” the first entry read inviting developers to add their opinions. 

“An early version of this change is finally in. It’s not ready for daily use yet, and we haven’t gotten the network picker on there or anything yet, but at least we’ve got a baseline in there. I’m filing issues for the follow-on work,” reads the announcement that the code was available in the Chromium OS repository.

There are a couple of advantages of usi… (read more)

Obama came in with the best brand as a candidate in the last fifty years; through mismanagement, he’s frittered a lot of the value away. It costs a lot to create a brand, and once it’s gone, it’s almost impossible to rebuild. Here’s neuroscientist Drew Westen on the topic:

Somehow the president has managed to turn a base of new and progressive voters he himself energized like no one else could in 2008 into the likely stay-at-home voters of 2010, souring an entire generation of young people to the political process. It isn’t hard for them to see that the winners seem to be the same no matter who the voters select (Wall Street, big oil, big Pharma, the insurance industry). In fact, the president’s leadership style, combined with the Democratic Congress’s penchant for making its sausage in public and producing new and usually more tasteless recipes every day, has had a very high toll far from the left: smack in the center of the political spectrum.

What’s costing the president and courting danger for Democrats in 2010 isn’t a question of left or right, because the president has accomplished the remarkable feat of both demoralizing the base and completely turning off voters in the center. If this were an ideological issue, that would not be the case. He would be holding either the middle or the left, not losing both.

What’s costing the president are three things: a laissez faire style of leadership that appears weak and removed to everyday Americans, a failure to articulate and defend any coherent ideological position on virtually anything, and a widespread perception that he cares more about special interests like bank, credit card, oil and coal, and health and pharmaceutical companies than he does about the people they are shafting.

The problem is not that his record is being distorted. It’s that all three have more than a grain of truth. And I say this not as one of those pesky “leftists.” I say this as someone who has spent much of the last three years studying what moves voters in the middle, the Undecideds who will hear whichever side speaks to them with moral clarity.

Read the whole article.

It’s fitting that there is a kids version of the cookbook Sticky, Gooey, Messy, Chewy for kids – because as much as grown-ups like indulgent desserts that fall into one (or all four) of these categories, kids are the ones who really appreciate something a little bit messy. Sticky, Gooey, Messy, Chewy Treats for Kids is a cookbook designed for kids, with recipes that kids will want to eat and make themselves.

The book covers both breakfast and dessert, since they’re the two meals where you’re most likely to find sweet, gooey foods. The recipes included things like Banana Split Pancakes, Chocolate Pudding Cake and Bumblebee Sting Cupcakes. They are divided into three chapters and grouped by topic, breakfast food, holiday food and party/celebration food, though the recipes are easy enough to make on a daily basis. All of the recipes are well-laid out in a traditional cookbook design (unlike some kids books where you have to search a too-colorful page for the list of ingredients!), and the book is spiral-bound to lay flat while you read it. The recipes are made from scratch, so you won’t find things that start with a log of cookie dough, but are well-explained and easy to follow along with.

There are only 30 recipes in the cookbook, but they are varied and that is more than enough for most kids to choose from. It also means that they’re likely to remember the things that they’ve made and want to go back for more. If you needed any more incentive, the photos in the book are outstanding and really make your mouth water.