So far at least — with over an hour to go before trading commences in New York — US futures are pointing up; this is in spite of an overnight selloff in Asia, and a decline in Europe due to fears of a Greece blowup and the demolition of the Euro.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Content: Crash Time 3 – Single Player Demo
Price: Free
Availability: European Xbox LIVE Regions
Dash Text: Play the demo and experience pure action with Crash Time 3, including a cool night driving scenario.
Add Crash Time 3 – Single Player Demo to your Xbox 360 download queue
Content: QIX++
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: Not available in Australia, India, Korea or New Zealand
Dash Text: Includes sleek graphics and cool sound effects! Reloaded with new features and a multiplayer mode! There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
Add QIX++ to your Xbox 360 download queue
Last week we sampled a pair of festive holiday punches – and our readers shared some of their own great recipes as well. This week we’re going to take a look at one last important detail: Ice.
Filed under: Suzuki, Volkswagen, Earnings/Financials
As you can see from the image above depicting Osamu Suzuki, chairman and CEO of Suzuki Motor Corp. and Martin Winterkorn, his counterpart at Volkswagen AG, the two auto companies have agreed to link arms. Volkswagen has properly announced that it has “reached a common understanding to establish a close longterm strategic partnership” with Suzuki Motor Corporation. The union means VW will buy 19.9% of Suzuki, then Suzuki will spend half the money they just received from Volkswagen reciprocating by buying VW shares.
Beyond that, Suzuki gains access to VW technology and the comforting warmth of a hugely profitable big brother. Volkswagen gets a nearly turn-key solution to boosting its small car development and piggybacks on Suzuki’s presence in India and Southeast Asia. Suzuki, and of course, VW, will remain independent, but unofficial word suggests that VW might increase its stake to 33% or more at some point down the road, which could shift the balance of power.
VW’s press release is after the jump, and there will be a press conference and webcast (you’ll need a user name and password to watch) at 5 p.m. with more details.
[Source: Volkswagen | Image: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty]
Continue reading Officially Official: VW and Suzuki tie the knot
Officially Official: VW and Suzuki tie the knot originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Writing about metadata is risky business, since every post and every tweet potentially starts the same discussion: what exactly is metadata, anyway? So here’s my ambitious attempt to cut to the chase, and open the can of worms again.
Why would you care, anyway? Isn’t this just some highly technical or theoretical debate? Well, to some extent it is, but the fact remains that for any content technology, metadata is essential. Metadata is what allows us to use a system to manage content in the first place. Even if you take the brute force approach of using enterprise search, rather than meticulously tagging all your content with metadata, you’ll find results will be disappointing, at best. (In fact, if there’s no useful metadata available, search engines will have to create it themselves.) Metadata is so important that we now even get court rulings to define it.
Of course, the essence is easily defined. Metadata is data about data. The problem is that, in the end, you can’t really define the distinction between data and metadata.
The examples are abundant: a document’s author, the date content was created or published, the name of a database column, even the filename is metadata. You can see it in any system dealing with content, and often, helpfully, it will actually be marked as "metadata." There are standards for what metadata you could have (like Dublin Core, or EXIF) or how to store it in a document itself (like XMP). If that’s all you want to know, now might be a good time to stop reading. Because from there, it starts getting tricky.
Some argue that the concept of metadata is just not very intuitive, because it’s artificial, something we’re not used to "in real life." I doubt it. (You need to look no further than the cover of a book to understand why.) In fact, we’re quite used to those meta-levels of looking at things. We need them to communicate. ("The color of my car is green.") So used to them, in fact, you could argue that any kind of content is metadata, since it always describes something else. (Even a picture of a chair is not really a chair, just a reference to it; and this blog post is not just text — it’s about…)
In content management, we tend to define metadata by content’s use or purpose, rather than its nature. Something is metadata, because we want to use it as metadata. A CMS will use that metadata as a "hook," to instigate an action, such as displaying content on a particular page in a certain way. A developer may want to sort based on date, an information architect or knowledge manager may want to display content based on how it’s classified, or users need facets to refine the results in their search interface. Those uses are quite different, and sometimes at odds with each other.
Your records manager may want to keep all the metadata together with the data, as one "document." A developer would often prefer a system to treat metadata just as it does any data (because then it’s accessible through the APIs in a uniform way, and the developer doesn’t need to jump hoops to get to it). On the other hand, for performance purposes, you might want to keep metadata and data separate (store the "about" stuff in the database, and the huge video itself on the filesystem – as DAM systems often do). But a web editor will often wonder why some important fields (their distinction will often seem entirely arbitrary) are marked "metadata" and hidden two tabs and several clicks away.
You’re unlikely to resolve those conflicts by arguing who’s right. Some of these particular debates have been raging for thousands of years. Plato would say that you should consider metadata to be external to what it describes. Aristotle would tell you that these are inherent attributes of a file or record. A point excellently illustrated by Raphael’s painting in the Vatican, with Plato, at left, pointing to The Cloud, obviously, and Aristotle controlling the files.
 |
You may want to hire several expert philosophers to argue on your behalf, while you get on with the job of actually managing content. Because in the end, everybody is going to disagree on what metadata is, and nobody is going to be "right". For any content management project, you’ll want to be clear on what everybody needs, and how the system needs to use content. That’s what should define your metadata.
(And by the way, if you completely disagree with me on this — have your philosopher contact my philosopher, and they can work out the epistemological and ontological fine print.)
They were supposed to be a relic from the days of cheap gas, ever-expanding suburbs, and an American consumer with unlimited access to credit.
But that was a premature obituary. Like many different things expected to die during the crisis, things have actually come back nicely.
Investor Bill Ackman — who profited enormously on the way down — remains a super-bull on malls.
The Investment Linebacker blog got a hold of his amazing presentation at the International Council of Shopping Centers on the state of mall REITs. We highly recommend checking it out.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Rose M. Welch alerts us to the news that game developer Rebellion has decided not to resubmit an edited version of its game Aliens vs. Predator after it was rejected by the Australian Classification Board for being too violent. The company stated that it agrees the game is not suitable for children:
“We agree strongly that our game is not suitable for game players who are not adults… it is bloody and frightening, that was our intent.”
But Australia apparently doesn’t have an option for such “mature” content, and Rebellion seems to recognize how ridiculous that is:
“We will not be releasing a sanitized or cut down version for territories where adults are not considered by their governments to be able to make their own entertainment choices.”
Hopefully, things like this will make Australia reconsider its censorship of such content.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
It could save your company a shed load of time and money…
Interested?
OK, here’s some research by Aberdeen Group, which I presented at several of the recent Solutions Expos. First off, the Mechanical Analysis Division’s customers choose Mentor’s tools because they recognise them as being the best. They don’t just make do with tools available as part of another software suite, as shown below in the graph below. (more…)
Asha Bangalore of Northern Trust estimates that the economy will need to add 140,000 jobs a month next year to keep unemployment flat (let alone bring it down). Next year, the number may be a slightly lower but still high 86,000.
Why?
Because the “civilian labor force” grows about 1.2% a year (slightly slower in recovery years). (See chart above.) As a result, we need an impressive number of new jobs each month just to stay even.
The average growth of the civilian labor force in the last twenty years (1989-2008) was 1.2% and
the median also works out to be 1.2%. During the business expansion of November 2001 –
December 2007, the labor force grew at an average pace of 1.1% (median =1.1%).
For a steady unemployment rate, the rate of increase in employment should match the rate of
growth of the labor force. Based on the average growth of the labor force in the last 20 years, it
appears that roughly 140,000 jobs have to be created each month in 2010 to meet the increase in
the labor force. We computed this number by using the level of employment in the household
survey for November 2009 (138.502 million) as the starting point and raised the reading by 1.2%
(growth of the labor force). [Monthly increase in employment = 138.502 * 1.012=140.164,
(140.164-138.502)/12 = 138,502 jobs per month].
The labor force of the nation has recorded gains during the entire post-war period, with the exception of 1951. Data from the first eleven months of 2009 suggest that the labor force most likely held steady in 2009. The labor force typically grows at a sluggish pace compared with the historical average in the first year of an economic recovery (see chart 1), which leads us to
consider a slightly lower growth rate for 2010. By implication, the prediction of the necessary
increase in employment to match the growth of the labor force will be smaller than our estimate
of approximately 140,000 per month. Considering a 0.75% increase in the growth of the labor
force (one standard deviation below the 1.2% growth rate) would roughly require 86,600 jobs per
month. The main result of this exercise is that employment has to increase roughly 86,600 each
month in order for the unemployment rate to hold steady in the near term and a decline in the
jobless rate would entail a much larger gain.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
We have just stumbled over this demo of a new Windows Mobile today screen launcher/shell for Windows Mobile, and it looks pretty nice.
The main feature which differentiates it from others appears to be its interesting use of screen real estate, which should suite our ever enlarging screens quite well. It also seems to borrow some ideas from our favourite UI design company TAT, which can never be a bad idea.
The application if currently in version 0.82 and does not seem to have a downloadable version yet , but we look forward to further development of the software.
I’m pleased to say that it seems that the foot can be saved. I intentionally did not name the person as I was not sure if it was public knowledge, but have just found that he has spoken to a newspaper about his scare. This young man is a friend of my brothers, they got to know each other when my Brother lived in Florida (where Brendan lives for a lot of the year) and my Brother dated Brendan’s daughter. The have remained friends ever since. I never knew he had diabetes. Here is the article:
Brendan Grace speaks out on dangers of diabetes – The Irish Times – Wed, Dec 09, 2009
|
COMEDIAN BRENDAN Grace has urged people with symptoms of type 2 diabetes to get tested before it is too late. Grace (57) said he could have lost his foot as a result of an infection which is a symptom of the diabetes he was diagnosed with 14 years ago. He was forced to cancel all his pre-Christmas engagements, including book signings for Amusing Grace, in which he addresses the issue of his diabetes for the first time. Grace said that, contrary to rumours, he would not be auditioning for the part of Long John Silver, but wanted to raise awareness of the dangers of diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle disease associated with obesity. The Institute of Public Health estimates that the number of people with the disease in Ireland will reach almost 200,000 by 2015 and 400,000 within 25 years. It is treatable if caught early and can be alleviated with a change in lifestyle. Symptoms include fatigue, increased thirst and urination. |
Hopefully, Brendan will have learned from this scare and it will also serve as a wake up call to others.
What would America do if it couldn’t “solve” its problems by printing boatloads of its own currency?
We’d probably look something like Ireland, where the new budget for 2010 is being unveiled.
Irish Independent: Finance Minister Brian Lenihan will reveal Budget 2010 during his speech in Dail Eireann this afternoon.
A cut to the Taoiseach’s salary is expected and social welfare is also likely to face a reduction as the numbers on the Live Register continue to increase. The old age pension is thought to be safe from any possible decrease.
A 4-6% pay reduction for public sector workers is thought to be among the other expected cuts.
Could you imagine such a public sector compensation cut here? In the US, merely freezing wages during a time of deflation is considered the height of austerity.
And if you don’t appreciate what all this government largess is doing for the economy, look at the employment outlook in countries like Ireland and Spain. These charts come from Manpower’s survey of global hiring. While most Western countries are forecast to return to hiring growth in 2010, these two bad boys are nowhere close.
We haven’t seen a Greece chart yet, but we probably don’t want to.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Photographer Troy Snow takes some of the most amazing animal photos I’ve ever seen. He specializes in capturing animals in their natural environment, having worked as a photographer at Best Friends Animal Society for six years. His collection of feral cat photos is incredible, showing how patient he is and how he knows just which angle to use to get the perfect shot.
Twelve of Troy’s feral cat photos have been compiled into a 2010 wall calendar available from lulu.com. $2.00 from each calendar will be donated to Alley Cat Allies, the leading organization in the US advocating for the humane care of feral cats.
You can see more of Troy’s amazing photos on his Flickr page. Get your calendar from lulu.com today!
Believe it or not, oil is set to become less and less important relative to other sources of energy going forward.
While the last few decades have been all about access to the best oil reserves, the next few decades will be about something new -- access to natural gas.
As Exxon argues, natural gas is set to become the world's second most important energy source...
And Americans are uniquely positioned to get ahead of it.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Bonds:
*GREEK 10-YEAR GOVERNMENT BONDS FALL; YIELD RISES TO 5.40%
GREEK-GERMAN 10-YR BOND YIELD SPREAD WIDENS 4 BPS TO 225 BPS
CDS:
5-YEAR GREEK CDS RISES TO 226.8 BPS VS 209 BPS IN NEW YORK CLOSE ON TUESDAY – CMA DATAVISION
Traders:
Greece is getting slaughtered again today, the street basically hits ANY bid they can find.
5-year’s 25-35 bps wider.
make that 50 bps now
no more prices in Greece on screens
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
People think that now but it hasn’t always been the case. The first white Australian colonists were not at all sentimental about the animal, and shot millions of the creatures for their dense, ash-grey fur. Two million skins had been exported out of Australia by 1924.
As a result, the koala appeared to be heading for extinction by the 1930’s, and only strict protection allowed the population in some parts of its range to recover to a healthy level. Paradoxically, some areas are now over-populated by koalas. In small, isolated forests it is easy for the animals to eat all their food supply, and on several occasions koalas have been removed from such areas by conservationists and released in places where food is more abundant.
The Koala is strictly a wild animal and does not keep well in captivity of any kind. It is now a protected species and people recognise its value as an indigenous Australian marsupial, rather than for its cute appearance.
Want to add a little twist to your mug of cocoa tonight? Since it started getting chilly outside, we’ve been experimenting with steeping various teas in our hot chocolate and getting surprisingly delicious results. Peppermint and sweet vanilla teas are only the beginning!
Today, I have Janice Lynne Lundy here, sharing a story of beauty and love.
Jan is an author, speaker, retreat leader, and spiritual director. She also writes deeply meaningful articles at her two blogs, Awake Is Good and Awakened Living. When I first connected with Jan, I was drawn into the honest and caring space she has created in her writing. Stop by for a visit, and you too will feel the warmth of being in her presence.
As Jan and I talked over the last couple of months, she indicated she had a special story she would like to share. Today, that story is a gift I am honored to share here.
Jan will be taking us back to an earlier time in her life, and how a very special gentleman gave her a beautiful gift – the gift of his time and caring. This is a wonderful story of how we can all touch another person's life through our caring and love. Please read along, as Jan shares:
Frank and Me: A Legacy of Mentoring
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." ~ Maya Angelou
It was the early 1990s and I was the mother of three small children, earning a part-time living as a rep for a direct sales company. I enjoyed my work, sharing an exceptional line of self-esteem based products to parents, teachers, and counselors.
It was at our annual convention in Salt Lake City that I met Frank, the mentor who would change my life. This is his story—and mine—and how I came to know the importance of reaching out and helping others through mentoring.
Actually, I never met Frank at the convention that year. I saw him from a distance, an energetic and affable consultant they’d brought in to fire up the sales reps. Rumor had it that he was a retired multi-millionaire, having started, or bought and sold ten companies. He didn’t need this gig as a consultant; he was doing it for the pure pleasure of it, and as a favor to the owners.
I also heard he was cherry picking reps, working with them one-on-one to improve their sales. The thought terrified me. With three kids, a multitude of household and volunteer duties, I sure didn’t want someone breathing down my neck to urge me to do more than I was already doing.
I remember the day all that changed. The phone rang, I answered it, and a voice boomed, “Hi, Jan, it’s Frank ____, from the convention. Have you got a minute?”
I was immediately struck with feelings of terror. I did not want to talk to this man; I did not want to perform better or achieve sales goals. But for whatever reason—now it’s known to be Divine Providence – I said, sure, I had a minute.
“I’d like to mentor you,” he announced. He went on to explain how he would do this and what would be involved on my part. Actually, it all sounded pretty good, more supportive than scary, but I was still puzzled. Why had he honed in on me? So, I asked him.
“Jan,” he replied, “I see something in you that you don’t even see in yourself. I’d like to help make that picture a reality.” I was intrigued so I agreed, hesitantly, and we were off. Thus, began the mentoring relationship that changed my life, a relationship that, in time, steered my own life path toward mentoring.
Frank called me every week for one year, on his dime. He told me what books to read, what tapes to listen to (no CDs then!). We started with Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, and my eyes were opened. What seminars to attend—Tony Robbins, Dan Kennedy, Denis Waitley, and my world shifted a bit more. Frank taught me how to motivate myself; to set daily, weekly and monthly goals in all areas of my life, though we focused primarily on income, work performance, and another of his passions, health. He taught me how to visualize and manifest.
Soon, my goals were being met, income was rising, and my self-esteem was off the charts. At the next annual convention, my efforts were recognized. I’d made it into the Top 10 in the nation in sales. And, within months, Frank had me training other reps at regional conventions. Before I knew it, I was a full fledged personal and professional growth speaker and trainer.
And then the day came, a day I will never forget. Frank called me for our usual weekly phone conference, but this time, his tone was different. Serious, quiet.
“Jan,” he said, “this is the last time you’ll be hearing from me. Our time together is done. You’ve done a great job and I couldn’t be prouder.” My heart sank. Tears filled my eyes. I had come to deeply love this man. As a mentor, he’d accepted me as me, something I’d rarely experienced with others. He gave of himself in such unselfish ways. When I failed or experienced self-doubt, he was there to encourage. He looked for the light within me and helped fan it to flame. I had grown by leaps and bounds under Frank’s tutelage.
I couldn’t believe our relationship was over. Surely, we’d be in touch? “Nope,” he said, “but I will be in touch one way, because I know, beyond a doubt, that someday I will be listening to your tapes and reading your books. (With that pronouncement, I remember thinking to myself, ‘Ridiculous.’)
“Now, I need you to do something for me. I need you to do the same thing for others as I’ve done with you. That’s what life is all about, you see.” With that invitation, Frank said goodbye. I never heard from him again.
Though I did try to contact him, I never imagined myself an author, so when I did write my first book in 1998, I sent Frank a copy. No response. I sent him a letter, just wanting to touch bases; to thank him for all that he’d done for me. Nothing. It was true, he was not reachable. All I had were memories, and Frank’s voice echoing in my head reminding me to do for others what he had done for me.
And so I have. In 2000, I dedicated myself to mentoring others, though the form was different than Frank’s. It was focused on the spiritual. Via a formal, three-year training program, I found my way beyond Zig, Tony, and Og to Meister Eckhart, Rumi, and Teresa of Avila; to Jesus and Buddha and beyond.
To mentor, to offer myself in support of the life path of another has been a profound experience, even beyond teaching or writing. To see a spark of the Divine in each person and help fan it to flame; to encourage him or her to see their innate beauty and light, what joy!
This, I believe, is what we all must do for one another, especially now, with the world being what it is. In this pivotal time when so many are suffering or confused; anxious or depressed; weary or overwhelmed, we can mentor. Offer an outstretched hand, a listening ear, an affirming blog response, a phone call or handwritten note of encouragement. In whatever way you do it best, bear witness to another’s heart and lend a piece of your own. Be a supportive presence.
I pass the baton, today, from Frank, through me to you. Mentor. Mentor with all your heart. Will you accept?
Who crossed your path today? To whom can you give a kind word, a gentle touch, pockets of your time? Everyone wants to be validated, valued, and understood. Will you accept my invitation and mentor someone? Frank would be really happy. I will be, too.
Special Note: Jan has graciously offered to give away one copy of her recent book, Your Truest Self: Embracing the Woman You Are Meant to Be, to one lucky winner. Alternatively, if you would rather have one of her earlier books, they are available also: Awakening the Spirit Within or Perfect Love.
Winner will be chosen at random, from the comments below, on Saturday, December 12th. (Edit December 12, 2009: Winner is Erin Prais-Hintz. Congratulations Erin!)
Learn more about Jan Lundy, her programs, books, and spiritual mentoring at her website: awakenedliving.com. She blogs there, and at awakeisgood.com.
Google’s dedication to speed doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone and a faster web is one of the main goals of the company. It tackles the problem on several fronts, building its own browser , its own Internet protocols and continually optimizing its own apps and services, but it can’t really do that much for the web at large, at least not directly. It can, however, do its best to help web developers build better and faster apps and it has several projects on this front as well. Recently, it launched an updated version of the Chrome dev tools with a couple of new features and now it’s releasing a new tool for the Google Web Toolkit, Speed Tracer.
“Speed Tracer is a Google Chrome extension that enables developers to identify performance problems in their web apps using a “Sluggishness Graph,” in combination with many other metrics. In the spirit of clean, simple design, developers need only look at the Y-Axis of their application’s Sluggishness Graph to see how they’re doing,” Bruce Johnson, engineering director, wrote. “We think developers will find that Speed Tracer looks under the covers of web applications like never before.”
It’s an interesting use of the new extensions platform which Google just launched for Chrome. Of course, loading times measuring tools … (read more)
