Category: News

The old saying “a stitch in time saves nine” couldn’t be more applicable than when it comes to launching a new website. It pays to take the time “make your list and check it twice.” Making the right choices before you launch a website can save a lot of time later.

Obviously, one of the of the most important decisions you’ll need to make when launching a new site is your domain. Since about ⅔ of consumers use search engines to help make buying decisions, search engine traffic is critical to the success or failure of most websites. This results in SEO being a common decision-making factor for choosing a domain.

How will my domain name impact SEO?

There are two primary ways your domain will impact your future SEO efforts and search rankings:

• Keywords
• Branding

Let’s examine each of these in more detail.

Keywords

Historically, many SEOs chose domain names that included their target keyword phrases. For example, if you wanted to rank for the keyword green widgets, you might use a domain such as greenwidgets.net (exact match domain or EMD) or greenwidgetsshop.com (phrase match domain or PMD). The presence of the keyword phrase in the domain made it easier to gain a high ranking for that keyword phrase.

With the introduction of recent algorithms such as the Penguin update and the Exact Match Domain (EMD) update, Google has changed how they view domains that include keywords. Is it still worthwhile to choose a domain that includes your target keyword phrase? Let’s look at the data.

Should you choose a domain name with your keywords in it?

Our recent Google’s EMD Update study found that after the Google EMD Update:

• Average EMD site ranking decreased from #13.4 to #26.6
• Average PMD site ranking decreased from #39.7 to #47.7

Dr Pete also has some excellent data on EMDs in his article Are Exact-Match Domains (EMDs) in Decline?

From this data, we can draw the conclusion that EMDs (and PMDs) no longer provide the same ranking boost that they used to. However, EMDs can, and in many cases do, still rank well. Our advice regarding keywords in your domain is:

• If you already own an EMD or PMD, you don’t necessarily need to get rid of it
• If you’re buying a new domain, an EMD or PMD isn’t necessarily bad, but branding factors are more important
• If you can buy a domain that includes one or more of your keywords without sacrificing any branding considerations, that may be a good choice

Branding

It may interact with SEO in a less obvious way, but branding is actually the most important SEO consideration for purchasing a new domain. Your online brand (how people perceive and remember you) will directly impact your SEO efforts and results. Why? It’s simple:

• “Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.” ~Google CEO Eric Schmidt
• Google likes brands, because users like brands. Which site would you rather read, link to, or share with your friends – NYtimes.com or your-ny-news-stuff.com ?

See The Rise of Brands in Google’s Relevancy Algorithms.

A strong online brand means users are more likely to click on, read, share, and link to a website…all of which will help the site gain higher Google rankings.

Choosing a domain as the foundation of your online brand

The first step in building a strong online brand is choosing a good domain. Choose a domain that is:

• Memorable. You have no hope of building a brand if users can’t remember your name.
• Unique. A generic sounding name, such as musicsite.com won’t have the same impact as a unique domain name.
• Relevant. Some domains are industry-neutral, whereas others are clearly relevant to a specific industry (example: WebMD).
• Not error-prone. For instance, a domain such as example.ws is a branding nightmare, because users will tend to type example.com instead. Delicious changed its domain name because so many users got confused by their non-standard domain.
• Short. Most well-known online brands are 1-2 words or less. SEOmoz suggests sticking to a domain of 15 characters or less.

Remember that your domain is just the start of building a brand – an essential step, but only the first step.

Bonus Tip: Avoid Hyphens

If mysite.com is taken, should you buy my-site.com? No. Here are 3 reasons to avoid hyphenated domains.

• Domains that include hyphens may be a negative SEO ranking factor.
• Many users will type the domain without the hyphens and end up on a different site.
• Hyphenated domains are often perceived as lower quality.

A new study has shown that much of the Middle East lost freshwater reserves over the past decade.

The study, to be published this week in the journal Water Resources Research, was based on data from NASA‘s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites. The findings show that, starting in 2003, parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran in the Tigris and Euphrates river basins lost 144 cubic kilometers (117 million acre feet) of stored freshwater – nearly the same about of water found in the Dead Sea.

“GRACE data show an alarming rate of decrease in total water storage in the Tigris and Euphrates river basins, which currently have the second fastest rate of groundwater storage loss on Earth, after India,” said Jay Famiglietti, principle investigator of the study and a hydrologist at the University of California, Irvine. “The rate was especially striking after the 2007 drought. Meanwhile, demand for freshwater continues to rise, and the region does not coordinate its water management because of different interpretations of international laws.”

The GRACE satellites measure water reserves using gravitational measurements. Since the level of water reserves alters the Earth’s mass, the satellites can precisely measure local gravitational effects to estimate a region’s change in water reserves.

The study blames around 60% of the loss to the pumping of groundwater from underground reservoirs. Around another 20% was attributed to soil drying and snowpack shrinkage. The final one-fifth was attributed to the loss of surface water from lakes and reservoirs.

“The Middle East just does not have that much water to begin with, and it’s a part of the world that will be experiencing less rainfall with climate change,” said Famiglietti. “Those dry areas are getting dryer. The Middle East and the world’s other arid regions need to manage available water resources as best they can.”

Passengers on a flight to Salt Lake City were stunned on Sunday when a man on the plane suddenly died.

The man, believed to be in his 30′s, has not been publicly identified yet. Passengers say he was snoring loudly for a while before the plane landed and then suddenly was quiet.

“You could tell something was wrong. I asked, ‘Hey, sir, are you awake?’ ” passenger Jared Noall said. “I shook him a bit, trying to see if I could get a response out of him. We checked his throat for a pulse, and it wasn’t there, so we laid him down in the aisle and started CPR.”

Noall and two others on board attempted CPR for more than thirty minutes, but to no avail. Passengers were visibly distraught as they left the plane to go on to their destinations, say officials. An investigation is ongoing.

“They tried their very best; the family of the deceased man would be glad to know he did everything possible to revive him.” said fellow passenger Kevin MacIsaac. “It was sad to see the flight attendant remove his bag from the overhead rack — what shocking news for his family.”

Tech reviews aren’t anything but shills for the latest hardware anymore. It’s just another advertising vehicle used by a publication’s corporate masters to sell you a product under the guise of objectivity. Whatever happened to the days of honest to goodness objective reviews?

The folks at the Edyge have come to the rescue with a completely honest review of the Paperchase Kraft Notebook. You’ll marvel at its glorious display and abundance of free apps. It’s no wonder Sonny Ericksen likes it so much.

Well, I’m sold.

[h/t: Reddit]

Having previously told you about some of my favorite BlackBerry smartphone training apps for runners, I also wanted to note that I like to exercise my mind as well as body, and have been known to take advantage of yoga apps from the BlackBerry World storefront. But to reach a state of zen or nirvana, I recently learned of a new technique called brainwave entrainment.

Now, entrainment is more than just entertainment spelled incorrectly; it is a principle of physics. It is defined as the synchronization of two or more rhythmic cycles. Brainwave entrainment is the brain’s electrical response to rhythmic sensory stimulation, like a binaural beat.

When tones of slightly different frequencies are heard separately in the left and right ears, the listener recognizes only a single tone, or binaural beat. If the rhythmic stimulation becomes consistent enough, it can start to resemble the natural rhythm of brainwaves. It is believed that by manipulating brainwaves, different mental states, like sleep, can be reproduced. The concept has also been applied to mental states of concentration, creativity and meditation.

So, let’s get to the fun stuff. Grab your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet or BlackBerry Z10 and try a brainwave entrainment app such as Beats Brainwave Entrainment by Jamie Beach or Beats Brainwave for BlackBerry 10. Beats Brainwave Entrainment can be used for focusing attention, practicing meditation and assisting with relaxation or sleep.

Let us know if you reach your favorite state of mind in the comments below.

Nielsen has released findings from its Global Survey of New Product Purchase Sentiment. To come up with the data, they surveyed 29,000 people with Internet access from 58 countries.

The findings indicate that a mix of media and word of mouth advertising bring about the most success in raising consumer awareness, and the most persuasive awareness drivers include a mix of activities like in-store discovery, TV, print advertisements, advice from family/friends, free samples, searching the Internet, and professional/expert word-of-mouth advice.

“Consumers increasingly find the Internet and mobile are compelling vehicles to get information about new products,” the firm says. “However, potential reach and ease of execution varies substantially.”

As you can see, all other methods listed are more effective than text messages. It appears that marketers may be better off reaching consumers on their mobile devices via Internet channels like search, websites,articles, forums, social media, video sharing sites, and even banner ads.

Google Glass took everyone by surprise when it was revealed at last year’s Google I/O, and quickly became one of the most anticipated pieces of hardware in development. Since then, the company has been working on the hardware and software, while setting up the first hackathons for those who invested in Glass.

Unfortunately, the rest of us will have to wait until Google can get Glass out on the mass market. According to Google’s own Sergey Brin, that might be later this year.

While we wait, check out E.B. Studios‘ latest investigative piece into Glass and the people behind the project. The report also features a Glass mockup created on a 3D printer to better illustrate how one wears the hardware. Check it out:

To learn more about Glass from Google itself, check out this recent TED talk where Google’s Tom Chi spoke on how the company used rapid prototyping to make variations on the hardware.

Today’s winner for parody Twitter account you need to be following comes to you from Everywhere, Florida. It’s Florida Man, which features “real-life headlines about the world’s worst superhero.”

The account tweets out any and all headlines that involve a “florida man” doing something. For instance, “Ketchup-covered Florida Man arrested for yelling profanities at tourists” or “Florida Man arrested with sex toy in rectum.”

For some reason, men in Florida tend to make the news for doing some of the most ridiculous things. And this account perfectly demonstrates that by simply tweeting out news stories involving any man in Florida doing something insane.

Simply beautiful.

Here, take a look at some of Florida Man’s exploits:

Follow @_FloridaMan

Florida Man
@_FloridaMan

Drunk Florida Man Tries To Use Taco As ID After His Car Catches Fire At Taco Bell | http://t.co/omqOoSNv

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
1 day ago via Twuffer · powered by @socialditto

Follow @_FloridaMan

Florida Man
@_FloridaMan

Florida Man Accidentally Shoots Off Penis And Testicles While Cleaning Gun | http://t.co/KRBTTRo8

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
5 hours ago via Twuffer · powered by @socialditto

Follow @_FloridaMan

Florida Man
@_FloridaMan

Florida Man Caught Masturbating In Front Yard, Left “Unknown Clear Liquid Substance” On Door Knob | http://t.co/RjaMKO1f

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
21 hours ago via Twuffer · powered by @socialditto

Remember, these are all links to real stories (mostly from local Florida news outlets). The tweets read like stories from The Onion, but they all really happened. And that’s the beauty of Florida Man. He’s everywhere, doing hilariously stupid things at all times. He’s the hero Florida deserves. He’s Florida Man.

With the return of “The Walking Dead” this past Sunday came a record-breaking viewership for the show, pulling in 12.3 million zombie-hungry watchers as the story picked up from a mid-season hiatus.

While many fans came to the show fresh off a love for the comic books (which were written by fellow Kentuckian Robert Kirkman, I feel obliged to say), the AMC hit has appealed to thousands who never followed the books and simply love the story, the gore, and the drama that spins out between characters who are often at odds with one another. But there’s still a lot fans may not know about how the show operates, or what goes on behind the scenes. That’s where this infographic comes in.

Courtesy of TvDuck.com. Shoutout to Jude Fiorillo for the heads up.

TV Duck Watch The Walking Dead Online

http://www.tvduck.com/The-Walking-Dead.html

Ever since Halo Reach was released in 2010, fans of developer Bungie have been waiting patiently for the next major release from the company. Today, Bungie has finally begun to talk about its new project, Destiny.

From the announcement at Bungie’s website:

In a matter of days, we’re going to give you your first glimpse into the vision and ambition that’s driving the creation of our brave new world. To make room for the resulting chatter, we’ve launched some official social media channels.

According to the new social feeds created for the game, the big reveal for Destiny will take place on February 17. The game now has Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ pages for fans to follow, and all of them contain the following message:

Follow @DestinyTheGame

Destiny The Game
@DestinyTheGame

You can be the first to see the reveal of #Destiny right here on Feb. 17 (T-Minus 5 days).

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
29 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

In addition, a new Destiny sub-forum has now appeared on the Bungie forums. Currently, members of the forum are deciphering a Destiny-related alternate reality game (ARG) that Bungie began this week.

Details on Destiny are sparse at this point, but leaked images last year teased that the game will be an ambitious science fiction game with spaceships.

For nearly three decades, extraordinary Americans who exemplify the themes and ideals laid out in the State of the Union Address have been invited to join the First Lady in her viewing box. From students to teachers and innovators, to entrepreneurs and those serving in our armed forces – use the interactive feature below to learn more about the remarkable individuals who will join First Lady Michelle Obama for the 2013 State of the Union Address.

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The First Lady's Box at the 2013 State of the Union

First Lady Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama is the First Lady of the United States. Continuing a longstanding tradition, extraordinary Americans who exemplify the themes and ideals laid out in the President’s State of the Union Address attend the event as guests of the First Lady.

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Dr. Jill Biden

Jill Biden is the wife of Vice President Biden. An educator and a proud Blue Star mom, Dr. Biden works to highlight the importance of community colleges, to raise awareness about the sacrifices made by military families, and to bring attention to women’s health issues.

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Valerie Jarrett

Valerie B. Jarrett is a Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama. She is also the Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls and she oversees the Offices of Intergovernmental Affairs; Public Engagement; Urban Affairs; and Olympic, Paralympic, and Youth Sport.

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Sergeant Sheena Adams
Vista, California

A native of Kauai, Hawaii, Sergeant Adams joined the Marine Corps in 2003. Sergeant Adams was deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan as a member of the Female Engagement Team (FET) from September 2010 to April 2011. Sergeant Adams received her Combat Action Ribbon and Navy and Marine Corp Achievement Medal (second award) after successful completion of the deployment. In September 2011, Sergeant Adams returned to 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Advisor Training Cell, as Team Advisor/Liaison and lead FET instructor, where she re-engineered the Period of Instruction for future FETs.

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Alan Aleman
Las Vegas, Nevada

Alan Aleman was born in Mexico City, Mexico and attended high school in the U.S. Determined to get a good education, Aleman was one of the first to sign up when he heard the news that the Obama Administration was going to provide Deferred Action for undocumented youth like him to emerge from the shadows. When his application was approved, Aleman said, “I felt the fear vanish. I felt accepted.” Today, Aleman is in his second year at the College of Southern Nevada, studying to become a doctor and he hopes to join the Air Force.

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Jack Andraka
Crownsville, Maryland

Jack Andraka, 16, of North County High School, was awarded first place for his new method to detect pancreatic cancer at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2012. Motivated by the death of his uncle due to pancreatic cancer, Jack created a simple dipstick sensor based on diabetic test paper to test blood or urine to determine whether or not a patient has early-stage pancreatic cancer. His study resulted in over 90 percent accuracy and showed his patent-pending sensor to be 28 times faster, 28 times less expensive and over 100 times more sensitive than current tests.

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Susan Bumgarner
Norman, Oklahoma

Susan Bumgarner has been an early educator for more than twenty years in Oklahoma, which is a national leader in providing access to high quality preschool for all children. Bumgarner, who was educated at the University of Oklahoma, has written curriculum, trained Head Start teachers, taught infants and toddlers, and prepared parents through Early Birds readiness classes. In 1992 Bumgarner began teaching pre-kindergarten at what is now Wilson Arts Integration Elementary School. “My work is enthralling and my students are amazing, creative, intelligent people,” she said. “It is an honor to facilitate their playful transition into the formal world of learning.”

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Deb Carey
New Glarus, Wisconsin

For Deborah Carey and her husband Dan, a master brewer, New Glarus Brewing Company is a true family effort. In 1993, they sold their home and raised $40,000 in seed money, but still needed more funding, which came after investors heard the story Carey pitched to local newspapers. Today, New Glarus Brewing Company has grown to 50 full-time employees, and registered growth in profits of 123 percent from 2007 to 2009, becoming Wisconsin’s number one micro-brewery relative to sales volume.

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Sergeant Carlos Evans, USMC
Cameron, North Carolina

Sergeant Carlos Evans, born in Puerto Rico, was on his fourth overseas deployment when he sustained injuries in Afghanistan that resulted in the loss of both of his legs and his left hand. Sergeant Evans credits the support he has received from private organizations to the First Lady and Dr. Biden’s efforts in Joining Forces. In 2012, he received a custom home from Operation Coming Home and now resides in North Carolina with his wife and two young daughters.

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Tim Cook
Cupertino, California

Before being named CEO in August 2011, Tim Cook was Apple‘s Chief Operating Officer and was responsible for all of the company’s worldwide sales and operations. He also headed Apple’s Macintosh division and played a key role in the continued development of strategic reseller and supplier relationships, ensuring flexibility in response to an increasingly demanding marketplace. Cook earned an M.B.A. from Duke University, where he was a Fuqua Scholar, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University.

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Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton and Nathaniel A. Pendleton Sr.
Chicago, Illinois

Cleopatra and Nathaniel’s daughter Hadiya Pendleton was murdered on January 29, 2013, when she was shot and killed in Harsh Park on Chicago’s South Side. Hadiya had participated in President Obama’s public inaugural celebration on January 21, 2013. She was an honor student and band majorette at King College Prep High School. First Lady Michelle Obama attended Hadiya’s memorial service on Saturday, February 6.

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Menchu de Luna Sanchez
Secaucus, New Jersey

When Hurricane Sandy cut the power at NYU Langone Medical Center, Menchu Sanchez, a Registered Nurse, devised a plan to transport twenty at-risk infants to intensive care units around the city, directing the staff to carry the babies down eight flights of stairs with cell phones lighting the way. Sanchez’s own home was flooding, but she thought only of the babies in her care. Sanchez immigrated to the United States from the Philippines in the 1980s and has worked as a nurse in New York for over 25 years. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children, both of whom are in college.

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Bobak Ferdowsi
Pasadena, California

Bobak Ferdowsi, aka NASA’s “Mohawk Guy,” is a member of the Mars Curiosity rover team at NASA and Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. After the Curiosity’s successful landing in August 2012, President Obama called to congratulate the team on their success, and singled out Ferdowsi for the unique haircut that captured the imagination of millions of people around the world. Ferdowsi is an Iranian-American and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professional who, in addition to his work on the Mars mission, volunteers as a FIRST robotics mentor to get more boys and girls excited about STEM education.

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Bradley Henning
Louisville, Kentucky

His high school had one of the best machining programs in the state, and upon graduation Bradley Henning had taken enough vocational classes to get hired as a full-time apprentice with Atlas Machine and Supply in Louisville, Kentucky. Today, at 23, he is a card-carrying Journeyman Machinist at Atlas, and responsible for mentoring the next generation of apprentices. Henning is committed to a career in manufacturing and sees a bright future ahead. “This will be my lifelong career,” he said. “I come in every day with a smile on my face. I learn something new every day…I love that.”

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Tracey Hepner
Arlington, Virginia

Tracey Hepner is a co-founder of the Military Partners and Families Coalition (MPFC), which provides support, resources, education, and advocacy for LGBT military partners and their families. Hepner works full time for the Department of Homeland Security as a Master Behavior Detection Officer. She is married to the first openly gay or lesbian general officer in the military, Army Brigadier General Tammy Smith.

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Peter Hudson
Evergreen, Colorado

Dr. Peter Hudson, the co-founder and CEO of iTriage, is a physician and entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience founding and growing healthcare-related businesses. His focus has been on creating efficiencies within the healthcare delivery system, and empowering healthcare consumers with technology. Using open government data, in 2009 Dr. Hudson launched his company focused on prompting citizens to actively engage in their own healthcare. His app enables smartphone users to locate nearby providers based on their symptoms, make appointments, store their personal health records, save medication refill reminders, and learn about thousands of medications, diseases and procedures.

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Governor John Kitzhaber (D-OR)

Governor John Kitzhaber has built on his experience as a former emergency room doctor to transform health care delivery in Oregon. Now in his third term, Governor Kitzhaber is working with the Obama administration to scale up innovative models that show how government can do more with less. These performance partnerships, which emphasize federal flexibility and local accountability, are key to building the infrastructure we‘ll need to unleash the 21st century economy and achieving improved health care outcomes and efficiencies and better results for our students.

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Mayor Marie Lopez Rogers
Avondale, Arizona

Marie Lopez Rogers served on the Avondale City Council for 14 years before being elected as the city’s first Latina Mayor in 2006. Growing up in migrant farm labor camps and picking cotton alongside her parents, Mayor Rogers never imagined that she would be guiding the transformation of the region. In Dec. 2012, she was named president of the National League of Cities, an organization dedicated to helping city leaders build better communities. She and her husband Ed have been married for 43 years and have three children and six grandchildren.

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Amanda E. McMillan
Jackson, Mississippi

For years Amanda McMillan worked as a secretary, doing many of the same duties as male salespeople but at lower pay. When she repeatedly asked for a promotion, McMillan was told sales was too dangerous for a woman, and that she would not be a good mother if she were on the road meeting customers. She sued the company for sex discrimination, and won. McMillan brought the suit because, “it was wrong. I could never look my girls in the face and then tell them they live in America and could be anything they wanted to be.” A mother of three, she lives in Jackson, MS.

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Lee Maxwell
Wilton, Iowa

In 2012, Lee Maxwell graduated from Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Maxwell gained twenty six separate certifications in everything from reading blueprints to driving forklifts, and today, he’s responsible for turning on the power for new wind turbines that are being built all around the country. Kirkwood started its wind technician training program three years ago in partnership with Iowa-based Clipper Windpower, combining an industry-based curriculum with donated equipment to give students the hands-on experience they need to succeed.

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Lieutenant Brian Murphy
Oak Creek, Wisconsin

Lieutenant Brian Murphy was the first police officer to arrive at the scene of the tragic Sikh temple shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin last August. Lt. Murphy confronted the shooter, and took fifteen bullets to his head, neck, and body before the rest of the police force arrived. Lt. Murphy has served as a police officer for over twenty years and previously served in the Marine Corps and the United National security force. He lives with his wife and children in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

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Lisa Richards
Arlington, Virginia

Lisa Richards was one of thousands of Americans who shared stories about what paying $2,200 more in taxes would mean for them. The single mom wrote, “It‘s 20 weeks of groceries, two years worth of gasoline, 1/3 of a new roof (which I need), six months of utilities.” With the passage of the middle class tax cuts at the beginning of the year,Richards and millions of Americans like her did not see did not see an income tax increase. Richards and her seven-year old daughter live in Arlington, Virginia.

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Katlin Roig
Greenwich, Connecticut

Kaitlin Roig has been a first grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School for six years. Passionate about education and working with children, Roig received her Master’s degree from the NEAG School of Education at the University of Connecticut, where she was a member of the Order of Omega Honor Society, the Historical Honor Society, and the NEAG honor society. Roig started a running club called Marathon Mondays for third and fourth grade students at Sandy Hook Elementary. She will be running the New York City Marathon this year.

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Abby Schanfield
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Abby Schanfield would have lost coverage upon turning 21 and would not have been able to obtain care due to her several pre-existing conditions. Schanfield was influenced by her experiences growing up with a chronic illness, and the privileges that come with being insured. A recent graduate of the University of Minnesota, Schanfield hopes to work in public policy, focusing on women’s and community health.

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Haile Thomas
Tuscon, Arizona

At 12, Haile Thomas is a Youth Advisory Board member with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and the Co-Founder/Director of the HAPPY Organization, an Arizona nonprofit dedicated to improving the health and wellness of youth through education, outreach, and advocacy about proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle choices. Haile produces online cooking videos aimed at encouraging kids to get cooking, created the Healthy Girl Adventures Club to inspire girls to embrace healthy habits, and hosts an annual H.E.A.L. (healthy eating, active lifestyle) Festival in Tucson.

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Desiline Victor
Miami, Florida

Desiline Victor, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Haiti and retired farmworker, is 102 years old. On October 28, Victor inspired other early voters with her determination to cast her ballot, waiting three hours in vain, and then returning a second time. Mission accomplished, she emerged with an “I Voted” sticker as thousands of waiting voters erupted into applause. Known as “Granny” among the city’s Haitian community, Victor enjoys attending church services and cooking her own meals.

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Check out WhiteHouse.gov/sotu for an enhanced viewing experience of President Obama's State of the Union address and check out opportunities to engage online with White House officials and even President Obama himself.

Learn more about the State of the Union:

• Inside the process of making  a State of the Union Address
• Watch the enhanced version of the 2012 State of the Union Address
• Video: Go behind the scenes as the President prepared his 21012 State of the Union speech
• Photo Gallery: Scenes from the 2012 State of the Union

John Kerr, the stage and film actor whose credits included “Tea And Sympathy” and “South Pacific”, has died of heart failure. He was 81 years old.

Kerr was well-known for his role as Tom Robinson Lee, a student suspected of being a homosexual, in the 1953 Broadway production of “Tea And Sympathy”. He later played the character once more for the film version, which was considered very risque in those days and dealt with a topic many would have preferred to sweep under the rug. The film ended with a very famous last line: “Years from now, when you talk about this – and you will – be kind.”

Playwright and screenwriter Bob Anderson once said of the story, “I have always seen the play basically as a love story…Of course the meanings of the play are various, the chief one being that we must understand and respect differences in people. Along with this is the whole concept of what manliness is. I attack the often-fostered notion that a man is only a man if he can carry Vivien Leigh up a winding staircase. I stump for essential manliness which is something internal, and consists of gentleness, consideration, other qualities of that sort, and not just of brute strength.”

The role of Tom Lee gave Kerr a sudden career boost and earned him critical acclaim. He went on to star in over 75 titles, including films and television.

Image: John Kerr’s website

There has been a lot of news recently about Surface Pro. The new tablet made quite a splash over the weekend, but the jury still is out about the real success of the launch. However, Bluestacks is interested enough to bring its wares to the new platform and carry 750,000 Android apps along.

That may sound like a nice gesture towards Microsoft, but it also represents somewhat of a dig at the company. In fact, the website launched by Bluestacks is titled Get your Apps Back. The site even has a headline — Missing your apps on Windows 8? While a dig at the lack of apps proliferating the new Windows Store, it is also a nice little bonus for Surface Pro early-adopters and other Windows 8 users.

For those of us who run Windows 8 in our computing environment, but prefer our mobile devices to be of an Android-persuasion, this is a big win. After all, we have invested money in our mobile apps and we want to be able to use those apps everywhere, including on our PC’s and Surface tablets.

While this is touted as being “optimized for Surface” the new Bluestacks will run just fine on any Windows 8 device and add a lot of new options for any user, including thousands of free games. At first glance, a niche item, it really is more like a second app store for customers and is a win-win proposal for everyone.

Seventh in a series. Editor: Classic 1991 tome Accidental Empires continues, looking at a uniquely American cultural phenomenon.

The founders of the microcomputer industry were groups of boys who banded together to give themselves power. For the most part, they came from middle-class and upper-middle-class homes in upscale West Coast communities. They weren’t rebels; they resented their parents and society very little. Their only alienation was the usual hassle of the adolescent — a feeling of being prodded into adulthood on somebody else’s terms. So they split off and started their own culture, based on the completely artificial but totally understandable rules of computer architecture. They defined, built, and controlled (and still control) an entire universe in a box — an electronic universe of ideas rather than people — where they made all the rules, and could at last be comfortable. They didn’t resent the older people around them — you and me, the would-be customers — but came to pity us because we couldn’t understand the new order inside the box — the microcomputer.

And turning this culture into a business? That was just a happy accident that allowed these boys to put off forever the horror age — that dividing line to adulthood that they would otherwise have been forced to cross after college.

The 1980s were not kind to America. Sitting at the end of the longest period of economic expansion in history, what have we gained? Budget deficits are bigger. Trade deficits are bigger. What property we haven’t sold we’ve mortgaged. Our basic industries are being moved overseas at an alarming rate. We pretended for a time that junk bond traders and corporate disassemblers create wealth, but they don’t. America is turning into a service economy and telling itself that’s good. But it isn’t.

America was built on the concept of the frontier. We carved a nation out of the wilderness, using as tools enthusiasm, adolescent energy, and an unwillingness to recognize limitations. But we are running out of recognized frontiers. We are getting older and stodgier and losing our historic advantage in the process. In contrast, the PC business is its own frontier, created inside the box by inward-looking nerds who could find no acceptable challenge in the adult world. Like any other true pioneers, they don’t care about what is possible or not possible; they are dissatisfied with the present and excited about the future. They are anti-establishment and rightly see this as a prerequisite for success.

Time after time, Japanese companies have aimed at dominating the PC industry in the same way that similar programs have led to Japanese success in automobiles, steel, and consumer electronics. After all, what is a personal computer but a more expensive television, calculator, or VCR? With the recent exception of laptop computers, though, Japan’s luck has been poor in the PC business. Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore have fared similarly and are still mainly sources of cheap commodity components that go into American-designed and -built PCs.

As for the Europeans, they are obsessed with style, thinking that the external design of a computer is as important as its raw performance. They are wrong: horsepower sells. The results are high-tech toys that look pretty, cost a lot, and have such low performance that they suggest Europe hasn’t quite figured out what PCs are even used for.

It’s not that the Japanese and others can’t build personal computers as well as we can; manufacturing is what they do best. What puts foreigners at such a disadvantage is that they usually don’t know what to build because the market is changing so quickly; a new generation of machines and software appears every eighteen months.

The Japanese have grown rich in other industries by moving into established markets with products that are a little better and a little cheaper, but in the PC business the continual question that needs asking is, “Better than what?” Last year’s model? This year’s? Next year’s? By the time the Asian manufacturers think they have a sense of what to aim for, the state of the art has usually changed.

In the PC business, constant change is the only norm, and adolescent energy is the source of that change.

The Japanese can’t take over because they are too grownup. They are too businesslike, too deliberate, too slow. They keep trying, with little success, to find some level at which it all makes sense. But that level does not exist in this business, which has grown primarily without adult supervision.

Smokestacks, skyscrapers, half-acre mahogany desks, corporate jets, gray hair, the building of things in enormous factories by crowds of faceless, time card-punching workers: these are traditional images of corporate success, even at old-line computer companies like IBM.

Volleyball, junk food, hundred-hour weeks, cubicles instead of offices, T-shirts, factories that either have no workers or run, unseen, in Asia: these are images of corporate success in the personal computer industry today.

The differences in corporate culture are so profound that IBM has as much in common with Tehran or with one of the newly discovered moons of Neptune as it does with a typical personal computer software company. On August 25, 1989, for example, all 280 employees of Adobe Systems Inc., a personal computer software company, armed themselves with waste baskets and garden hoses for a company-wide water fight to celebrate the shipping of a new product. Water fights don’t happen at General Motors, Citicorp, or IBM, but then those companies don’t have Adobe’s gross profit margins of 43 percent either.

We got from boardrooms to water balloons led not by a Tom Watson, a Bill Hewlett, or even a Ross Perot but by a motley group of hobbyist/opportunists who saw a niche that needed to be filled. Mainly academics and nerds, they had no idea how businesses were supposed to be run, no sense of what was impossible, so they faked it, making their own ways of doing business — ways that are institutionalized today but not generally documented or formally taught. It’s the triumph of the nerds.

Here’s the important part: they are our nerds. And having, by their conspicuous success, helped create this mess we’re in, they had better have a lot to teach us about how to recreate the business spirit we seem to have lost.

Reprinted with permission

Photo Credit: NinaMalyna/Shutterstock

Back in November 2012, HP announced its dismal quarterly results and blamed around $5 billion of its $8.8 billion impairment charge on “serious accounting improprieties, misrepresentations, and disclosure failures” at Autonomy prior to its purchase by HP in 2011. Autonomy founder Mike Lynch shot back at HP immediately, starting a website and issuing an open letter accusing HP of mismanagement.

Though HP did not address the criticism directly, it did cheekily reply that it “look[s] forward to hearing Dr. Lynch and other former Autonomy employees answer questions under penalty of perjury.” Since that time HP’s comment on the matter has been that the case is in the hands of authorities such as the U.K. Serious Fraud Office and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

This week it was revealed that the U.K.’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is investigating Autonomy’s books from 2009 to 2011. The FRC investigation will take place in consultation with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

Through the website created by Lynch, former Autonomy execs boldly proclaimed that they “welcome” the FRC investigation. The statement, in full:

We note the announcement by the UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) that it has begun an investigation of the financial reporting of Autonomy for the period from 1 January 2009 to 30 June 2011. As a member of the FTSE 100 the accounts of Autonomy have previously been reviewed by the FRC, including during the period in question, and no actions or changes were recommended or required.

We welcome this investigation. Autonomy received unqualified audit reports throughout its life as a public company. This includes the period in question, during which Autonomy was audited by Deloitte. We are fully confident in the financial reporting of the company and look forward to the opportunity to demonstrate this to the FRC.

Depending on what the FRC uncovers, either Lynch or HP will have some serious explaining to do. Besides embarrassment and possible criminal implications, the investigation could end up playing a large role in the lawsuits HP’s allegations have spawned.

Roads need constant repair. Rain, snow and other moisture seeps into the asphalt and — if it freezes — expands, breaking it apart and creating potholes.

Erik Schlangen: A "self-healing" asphalt

In today’s talk, given at TEDxDelft, civil engineer Erik Schlangen reveals a fascinating solution: a road that is able to heal. He gives a demonstration of a new type of asphalt, which incorporates tiny strands of steel. He breaks a piece of it in half and puts it in the microwave for two minutes. He takes it out, fully formed again.

The application? This asphalt can be laid on a road. According to Schlangen’s tests, it will last about four years before it gets damaged. At that point, an induction machine would drive over the road, catalyzing its ability to repair itself. Schlangen imagines that roads could last twice as long if made of this material.

To see this amazing demonstration, watch the talk. And here, more TED Talks about infusing inanimate materials with life-like qualities.

Theo Jansen: My creations, a new form of lifeTheo Jansen: My creations, a new form of life Theo Jansen makes animal-like sculptures out of plastic tubing, drink bottles and foam. And yet, they are able to walk and move — even live on their own in herds on the beach and protect themselves from storms. At TED2007, Jansen shows us these creatures in motion.

Lee Cronin: Making matter come aliveLee Cronin: Making matter come alive It’s amazing that the organic, living world arose out of inorganic, dead matter. In this talk from TEDGlobal 2011, chemist Lee Cronin wonders: can we create life, if we define life as anything that can evolve? (See our playlist of talks to celebrate Charles Darwin’s birthday.)

Todd Kuiken: A prosthetic arm that "feels"Todd Kuiken: A prosthetic arm that “feels” Both a doctor and an engineer, Todd Kuiken is creating a prosthetic arm that not only performs tasks — but that is able to connect to a person’s nervous system. At TEDGlobal 2011, he brings a patient on stage to demonstrate how it gives more control and a sensation of feeling.

Reuben Margolin: Sculpting waves in wood and timeReuben Margolin: Sculpting waves in wood and time Kinetic sculptor Reuben Margolin creates stunning, meditative pieces that move — emulating the patterns of falling raindrops and undulating waves. In this talk at TED2012, Margolin introduces us to his sculptures, including “Double Raindrop,” which he calls “the most talkative” of his works.

Thomas Heatherwick: Building the Seed CathedralThomas Heatherwick: Building the Seed Cathedral At TED2011, architect Thomas Heatherwick shows off his bio-inspired designs, including a moving bridge that “kisses itself,” constricting into a circle and then unfurling over a body of water. He also shows us the “Seed Cathedral,” a building made of plants and dedicated to growth.

Suzanne Lee: Grow your own clothesSuzanne Lee: Grow your own clothes Cloth can be sewn and worn. But can it be grown? In this talk from TED2011, Suzanne Lee shares how she creates living material for her fashion designs. Get ready to see how kombucha — a mix of bacteria, yeasts and micro-organisms — ferments into a vegetable leather.

Matt Mills: Image recognition that triggers augmented realityMatt Mills: Image recognition that triggers augmented reality Aurasma is a app that can make paintings dance and newspapers talk. At TEDGlobal 2012, Matt Mills and Tamara Roukaerts demonstrate this technology, which uses a smartphone to overlay video content over something static — thanks to an image trigger. (Give Aurasma a test drive through this TED Blog post.)

Today, Amazon beats Apple in a way that doesn’t specifically pertain to tablets, ebooks, digital music, streaming content, or any other area in which the two routinely do battle. Today’s victory is all about the consumers and their views on the companies as a whole.

We’re talking Harris Interactive’s annual Harris Poll RQ, which measures the perceived reputations of the sixty most-visible companies in the United States.

And this year, it’s Amazon that takes top honors.

Last year’s winner, Apple, falls to second place in the 2013 poll.

Google also had a strong placement, coming in 4th. Rounding out the top 5 were The Walt Disney Company and Johnson & Johnson.

The RQ looks at 6 different dimensions to corporate reputation. Amazon ranked in the top five in five of the six dimensions.

“Amazon had a five point advantage over any other company in the study in the dimension of Emotional Appeal, despite an entirely virtual relationship with the public. Amazon also achieved the top rating in the dimension of Products & Services,” says Harris.

“Our results show that Amazon has managed to build an intimate relationship with the public without being perceived as intrusive,” said Harris Interactive VP of Reputation Management Robert Fronk. “And as the company that is so widely known for its personal recommendations, more than nine in ten members of the public would recommend Amazon to friends and family.”

Here are the winners in each of the six different categories. You can see that five are tech companies.

Unsurprisingly, AIG and Goldman Sachs logged the two worst RQ scores.

[All Images via Harris Interactive]

“Storage Wars” star Mark Balelo was found dead in his home on Monday morning of an apparent suicide, and some think he was depressed over a recent arrest.

Balelo was picked up for a drug-related offense on Saturday and expressed fear to his fiancee that he might hurt himself. After his release, he went home to rest and seemed to be doing better. However, the 40-year old was found dead in his garage this week of apparent carbon-monoxide poisoning. An autopsy will be completed today.

Balelo had issues with the law before, after an earlier arrest on a felony drug offense and complications with the custody of his children. Nicknamed “Rico Suave” because of his flamboyant style, Balelo was a popular contributor on “Storage Wars”, often bringing thousands in cash with him to bid at auctions. His Facebook profile hinted at new reality projects in the works.

“I fly private planes, race cars and love going to Las Vegas and put on a show. I own several businesses and participate in many TV shows including Storage Wars. I am currently working on a new reality show of my own,” he wrote.

Google’s Matt Cutts has proven once again that no user-submitted question is too mundane to warrant an answer. In the latest “Webmaster Help” video, Cutts semi-mockingly responds to the question:

It would be a really great feature to mark an email as important in Gmail. Will this ability ever be added?

After “going back in time to add that feature,” and “using the time machine,” (which involves some Wayne’s World-esque hand gestures and sound effects) he discusses Google’s Priority Inbox feature, which was launched in 2010.

Cutts has never been particularly uptight in these videos, but in recent ones, he seems to really be cutting loose. See these recent videos of Cutts impersonating a dinosaur.