8

Mar

xoot Obama to call for partial budget freeze_107

Posted by admin  Published in Electronic

Fierce assaults on Obama’s agenda, including his ambitious health reform plan, were one factor in the Republican victory in a Massachusetts seat last week that stripped away the Democratic supermajority in the Senate.

Obama to call for partial budget freeze
STEPHEN COLLINSON January 26, 2010

President Barack Obama will Wednesday call for a three-year partial freeze on spending that would save 250 billion US dollars over a decade, in a bid to show he is serious about cutting the huge deficit.

The spending is therefore optional, and the product of a choice by the government, unlike spending on entitlements like health care programs, or Social Security retirement schemes which is mandatory.

The US government closed its 2009 fiscal year with a record 1.416-trillion-dollar budget deficit and the White House forecasts an even bigger gap of 1.502 trillion US dollars in fiscal 2010. Related article: Debt looms over Obama’s prime-time address

Departments likely to be hit will include Agriculture, Energy and Transportation,timberland classic boots, for instance, but the freeze will not, however, apply to departments and agencies tasked with national security, including the Pentagon.


Obama will unveil the plan to cap discretionary non-security government spending in his State of the Union address, a showpiece event shaping up as a chance to recast his presidency amid a fierce political storm.

It may also force Obama to scale back the size of his ambitious reform agenda, just one year into his four-year term of office. Related article: One good term better than two bad ones: Obama

Those mandatory spending commitments will not be touched in the new plan, to begin with the 2011 budget,The North Face Outlet, which will be rolled out on Monday.

“We are proposing a hard freeze in non-security discretionary spending in 2011, and then continuing that freeze in 2012 and 2013,” a senior administration official said on condition of anonymity.

Under the top line figure, some government departments could see spending rise,mbt walking shoes, while others could lose part of their allowance.

“The savings from the three-year freeze will amount to 250 billion US dollars over the next decade,” the official said.

Discretionary spending is made of expenditures that are appropriated on an annual basis by Congress, in a budget submitted by the president.

“You can’t afford to do everything you might have always wanted to do,” said one senior Obama administration official.

The bill would establish an 18-member task force of 10 Democrats and eight Republicans with bipartisan co-chairs and seek to examine all aspects of the financial condition of the US government.

The president has also made populist assaults on Wall Street, and last week traveled to an economic blackspot in Ohio to show everyday Americans that he cares about their plight amid 10-percent unemployment.

“That’s the decision-making process the president and the economic team went through. It’s the very same process American families have gone through for the past several years.”

Discretionary spending in the fiscal 2010 budget amounted to 447 billion US dollars — around a sixth of total outlays — a figure that will remain constant in US budgets until 2013, the official said.

“We are in the midst of fighting a war and have security needs — we are going to fund those security needs as necessary,” one official said.

The size of the deficit is one factor along with high unemployment and the sluggish economic recovery from the worst financial crisis in decades that is helping to drag down public perceptions of Obama’s economic management. Related article: Obama vows to help middle class

The freeze will save between 10 and 15 billion US dollars on the 2011 budget, increase over the next two years and rise to the 250 billion dollar figure, the official said.

On Saturday, Obama offered support for a bi-partisan attempt in Congress to create a fiscal task force intended to tackle the burgeoning deficit.

Republicans have hammered Obama for big spending programs, including a 787-billion-dollar economic stimulus plan, and dismiss administration claims that the program saved or created two million jobs.



The fiscal straitjacket will lead to painful decisions on some government programs beloved of Democratic leaders and lawmakers in Congress and will crimp the spending plans of some of the members of Obama’s own cabinet.

no comment

8

Mar

Wfvs Not so fast, Twitter- ‘Tweet’ isn’t yours_290

Posted by admin  Published in Electronic

Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.


“We have applied to trademark Tweet because it is clearly attached to Twitter from a brand perspective but we have no intention of ‘going after’ the wonderful applications and services that use the word in their name when associated with Twitter,” Stone wrote on July 1. “In fact, we encourage the use of the word Tweet. However, if we come across a confusing or damaging project, the recourse to act responsibly to protect both users and our brand is important.”

Stone’s blog post was written before the company apparently learned of the Patent Office’s preliminary rejection notice. But it is noteworthy that in that post, Stone said that the company “applied” for the trademark. He didn’t say that it was held by the company, like its correspondence claimed in the e-mail to the developer.

It went on to say that Twitter’s tweet mark “may be refused registration under Trademark Act Section 2(d) because of a likelihood of confusion between the two marks.” It couldn’t say for sure that it would be refused registration, since the three previous applications were still pending.

But after reviewing Twitter’s application and sifting through its listing of pending applications, the Patent Office found that three companies had already applied for trademarks that contained “tweet” in their names. They were simply too close to the trademark Twitter wanted.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But the events surrounding that blog post, namely that Twitter asked a developer to find a new name and user interface because of their similarity to its own service, have become even more interesting with the knowledge that “tweet” isn’t a Twitter trademark.

Not so fast, Twitter: 'Tweet' isn't yours

“Tweet” might be a word that has been popularized by Twitter, but that doesn’t mean that the social network will be able trademark it.

According to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office documents found by blogger Sam Johnston,The North Face Coats, Twitter’s application for a trademark on “tweet” has been preliminarily denied.

In either case,womens ugg boots, one thing is certain: Twitter, so far, does not hold the trademark to “tweet.” And at this point, it doesn’t look like the company will be getting it anytime soon–if ever.

In an e-mail sent to that developer, Twitter wrote that it was “uncomfortable with the use of the word Tweet (our trademark) and the similarity in your UI and our own.” The e-mail was made public on July 1.

Twitter originally filed for the trademark on April 16. In the application, the company expressed its desire to use tweet “through the applicant’s related company or licensee the mark in commerce on or in connection with the identified goods and/or services.” It seemed like a standard application that, once reviewed, would make “tweet” one of Twitter’s registered trademarks.



The Patent Office attached applications sent by those three companies–TweetMarks,ghd styler, Cotweet, and Tweetphoto–with Twitter’s rejection notice. In that notice dated July 1, the Patent Office explained that each of those trademark applications were filed with its office before Twitter’s application.

The Patent Office notification to Twitter shows it was sent out the evening of July 1. Ironically, that morning, co-founder Biz Stone wrote a blog post citing his company’s willingness to allow developers to use “tweet.”

Regardless of the timing, Twitter did not hold the trademark, even though its correspondence with the developer claimed it did.

“Marks in prior-filed pending applications may present a bar to registration of applicant’s mark,” the office wrote.

no comment

8

Mar

izpn Nvidia loss reflects lingering chip defect is

Posted by admin  Published in Electronic

Nvidia on Thursday posted a smaller loss than the year-earlier period but the graphics chip supplier is still grappling with costs related to a chip defect first addressed by the company last July.

Jen-Hsun Huang, the president and chief executive officer, said the company’s “business is recovering. Product demand is improving, and our strategic investments are leading to new growth.” Nvidia expects revenue in the third quarter–ending October 25, 2009–to be up 5 to 7 percent over the second quarter.

In July 2008, a $196 million reserve was accrued for the purpose of supporting affected customers around the world. The weak die/package material combination is not used in any products currently in production, the company said.

Nvidia reported a second-quarter loss of $105.3 million, or 19 cents a share, better than the year-earlier period when it posted a loss of $120.9 million, or 22 cents a share.

However, Nvidia’s results were negatively affected by an additional net charge of approximately $119.1 million “to cover costs related to a weak die/packaging material set that was used in certain versions of its previous-generation chips. Although the number of units impacted by this issue remains consistent with the company’s initial estimates a year ago, the cost of remediation and repair of impacted systems has been higher than originally anticipated,” the company said in a statement.



Gross margin, a critical profit indicator, was 20.2 percent, above the 16.8 percent reported last year.

Revenue was $776.5 million, down 13 percent, from $892.7 million reported in the second quarter of last year. 

Nvidia loss reflects lingering chip defect issue

Updated at 6:40 p.m. PDT, addingMicrosoft Windows 7 and AppleSnow Leopard discussion.

Microsoft’s Windows 7 and Apple’s Snow Leopard will including programming features called Direct Compute and OpenCL, respectively, that accelerate graphics-based processing for everyday computing tasks.

On a more positive note,timberland waterproof boots, Huang said that future operating systems from Microsoft and Apple will “stimulate growth” in 2010 because of new technologies that take better advantage of the graphics processor, making it a “powerful co-processor” that works in conjunction with Intel processors.

Excluding items (non-GAAP basis),uggs for sale, Nvidia reported a profit of 7 cents a share, better than analyst estimates of a loss of 2 cents a share.

Brooke Crothers has served as an editor at large at CNET News, an editor at Dow Jones’ Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, and a senior editor at InfoWorld. His CNET blog covers chip technology and computer systems, and how they define the computing experience. He also contributes to The New York Times’ Bits and Technology sections. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. Follow Brooke on Twitter @mbrookec.


Shares of the Santa Clara,ugg sales, Calif.-based company were up in after-hours trading.

As early as 2007, Hewlett-Packard listed laptop models affected by the defect. In August 2008, Dell also listed affected models. And Apple said in October that it would repair faulty graphics chips.

no comment

8

Mar

tkys North Korea Detains Second US Citizen_12

Posted by admin  Published in Electronic


,buy ugg boots

North Korea Detains Second US Citizen
(Jan. 28) — For the second time in the last month, a U.S. citizen has been detained in North Korea.

In a brief news dispatch today,ugg australia boots, North Korea said it arrested an American man for illegally entering the country from the Chinese border. The unidentified man was detained on Monday and is being questioned, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment today. The U.S. embassies in Beijing and Seoul offered no comment.
Frederic J. Brown, AFP/Getty ImagesNorth Korean soldiers talk at a guard post along the Chinese border in April. North Korea said Thursday it had arrested an American who crossed over from China.
Another U.S. citizen,ugg boots usa, Robert Park, was detained in North Korea late last month and accused of illegally crossing the North Korean-Chinese border. The state did not identify Park, a 28-year-old Korean-American missionary, but activists in the U.S. said Park was apprehended after he traveled to North Korea to call attention to the country’s human rights abuses. Park is believed to have entered North Korea by crossing the frozen Tumen River that demarcates part of the border.

With no diplomatic ties to North Korea, the U.S. is seeking access to Park through the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, according to U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, who addressed reporters Wednesday in Washington. A similar avenue may have to be taken in order to gain consular access to the man arrested this week.

At the time of Park’s arrest, U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters, “We are concerned by these reports and we are looking into them.”

Last year, American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling were detained for illegally entering North Korea and sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp. They were released after four months as part of a diplomatic mission led by former President Bill Clinton.

The second arrest of a U.S. citizen comes the same week North Korea is exchanging fire with South Korea. The North initially fired artillery shells into the water near its maritime border with the South, prompting warning fire from the South. North Korea continued firing into the water for a second day today, after making a statement that the activity was part of a military drill. Filed under: World, Only On AOL News

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

2010 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.


no comment

8

Mar

glhv Notebook shopping, with help from CNET’s frie

Posted by admin  Published in Electronic

What our data shows is that the number of considered users looking at notebooks climbed 31 percent from July 2007 to July 2008 and–despite Depression 2.0–the number of these users climbed another 25 percent in the past 12 months (sorry, the data guardians at CNET won’t let me publish the actual totals but I’m working on them). That’s healthy growth that could be the result of several factors. As the site editor, I’ll list the two I think are most plausible: our superb laptop editors, led by Dan Ackerman, are cranking out more reviews than ever before, and our SEO team has made sure their reviews rank extremely high on Google and other search engines. Even if people aren’t buying as much in this economy, they are certainly researching for when they are ready.

The big winner has been Asus, which Ackerman calls “masters of the Netbook.” And right now, Netbooks are hot on CNET. After unveiling its first Eee PC in late 2007, Asus has climbed from 2 percent in July 2007 to 13 percent a year later to 20 percent in July 2009.

HP: IDC shows HP hovering at around 25 percent for the past couple of years,timberland for sale, with a jump to about 30 percent in the first quarter of 2009. CNET also shows HP tracking at around 25 percent until October of last year, when it topped 30 percent (where it has remained since).

After notebooks, we’ll be collecting the data for the other key categories on CNET, particularly TVs and mobile phones, and coming up with novel ways to incorporate the information into the site. For example, we can see which phones are popular with people who live in your area.

The macro numbers are interesting, but the more intriguing stuff can be found in the micro picture. Within the notebook category, the two-year trend lines reveal how the major manufacturers have fared versus their competition. For example, in July 2007, Dell products or prices were viewed by 40 percent of all considered users on CNET, but that number dipped to 25 percent last summer and it has continued to sink in 2009 to less than 20 percent.

Apple: IDC has Apple ranging from 7 percent to 11 percent for the past couple of years. CNET also shows Apple in a similar band, with the notable exception of some sharp monthly spikes around the publication of new product reviews (which typically occur within a day or two of a new notebook being released on the market).

As a result, we think you will find the CNET numbers to be another piece of the puzzle when trying to determine which notebook to buy. Just like a single product review, or user opinion, or even a friend’s recommendation, they aren’t the whole or the final answer. But they are useful for seeing in a very timely way which notebook manufacturers are getting most of the attention on our site and how they are faring each month. (CNET also produces lists of specific products that users are interested in,Discount North Face Shoes, but this new data focuses on manufacturers to provide another view into the current market.)

This is where CNET can help, if you’re willing to stretch your definition of “friend.” Each day, hundreds of thousands of like-minded people click around our sites doing research and deciding what to buy. If you could see what these people are viewing most often, wouldn’t you find that to be valuable information? It would be like walking into a Best Buy or Wal-Mart and seeing a throng of people gathered around one or two laptops on display. Of course you would join the pack to see what the buzz is about: is it a low price, hot new hardware, or both?

Of course, this data is only part of the picture, and one obvious question is how closely CNET’s numbers track actual sales figures. For those numbers I’ll turn to IDC, which issues quarterly shipments for the major notebook makers, and compare four notable names:

For now, our foray into this new area is modest–just this blog post and the above charts. In the near future, we will be injecting this data into the site in various ways. For example, the product-filtering tool on the notebook category door and elsewhere will show how certain manufacturers are trending on CNET (the manufacturer choice is the most commonly used filter in this tool, so we know readers are concerned about who is making their hardware).

Imagine that you’re looking for a new laptop and you ask your friends what they own, what their experience has been with that manufacturer, and whether they would buy the same machine again. Chances are the responses will be useful, to a point. It’s likely your friends have not purchased a notebook in a while, so they have little insight into the current crop. And their experience with breakage and customer service–whether it’s good or bad–is valid but anecdotal.



Notebook shopping, with help from CNET's friends

At CNET, we take great pride in the quality and thoroughness of our reviews. We know they play an important role in helping millions of consumers to determine which tech products to buy and which to shun.

As a potential buyer or follower of the tech industry, please leave a comment below on the type of data you would find useful and how you would like to see that information presented on the site: in monthly blog posts, trend lines on the categories doors, or as part of our product-sorting tools?

Who benefited from Dell’s tumble? Hewlett-Packard began at 24 percent in July 2007, slipped to 20 percent by the spring of 2008, and now sits at 30 percent, giving it the largest share of considered users of any notebook maker on CNET.

CNET Editor in Chief Scott Ard has been a journalist for more than 20 years and an early tech adopter for even longer. Those two passions led him to editing one of the first tech sections for a daily newspaper in the mid 1990s,ugg usa, and to joining CNET part-time in 1996 and full-time a few years later.


Apple tends to hover at about 10 percent, but its share can spike to 15 percent or 20 percent when new models are reviewed. Other manufacturers also see such spikes around new products, but they aren’t as pronounced. (See the above chart, which tracks the major manufacturers and calls out newly published product reviews that resulted in traffic spikes.)

CNET tracks what it calls “considered users,” defined as visitors who clicked on a product review, like this one of a new Sony Vaio, and/or on a pricing link on the review page or elsewhere on CNET. In industry parlance, the people reading product reviews, checking out specs, viewing a video, and so on, are described as being “up funnel” because they are thinking about buying something but are still in research mode. “Down funnel” users are those who have clicked on a pricing or merchant link, because they are that much closer to making a purchase. In either case, they are all “considered users” because they are considering a product.

But we’re also realists. We know that a CNET review is just one part of the research that goes into picking out a new phone, laptop, or TV–especially in this economy. The other sources you’re likely to turn to include other review sites, manufacturer information such as specs, reviews from other users, and advice from friends.

U.S. notebook shipments by manufacturer

As you can see, the trends observed by CNET and IDC are similar. The key difference is that CNET is tracking people while they research and shop, and IDC is following actual shipments. CNET is also compiling stats each month, versus quarterly for IDC. The two reports together are very complementary, but CNET is tracking the consideration phase, so we theoretically can spot trends before they manifest in actual sales, and sooner.

Dell: IDC shows Dell peaking at nearly 28 percent during the last three months of 2007 and then steadily drifting down to 23 percent in the first quarter of this year. CNET shows Dell at about 30 percent in the final quarter of 2007 before sliding to between 24 percent and 26 percent during the first three months of 2009. Since then Dell has slid further to its current 19 percent.

The online equivalent to seeing what people are checking out in a store is CNET’s Business Intelligence group, which crunches a “Matrix”-worthy amount of data about activity across CNET’s many sites. Their reports are typically used by the sales team to demonstrate the power of the CNET brand and its influence on buyers. Now, however, we are taking the first steps to making that information available to you as one of the tools we provide to meet our core mission: connecting buyers and sellers.

For years, CNET has had you covered on all those points except the part about friends. Well, we’re aiming to change that.

Asus: According to IDC, Asus has risen from almost nothing a couple of years ago to 3.5 percent in the first quarter. CNET’s monthly numbers for the first three months show Asus running between 7 percent and 10 percent, and as of July it was up to 20 percent. (It’s my guess that CNET is a leading indicator when it comes to the popularity of Netbooks and that Asus will show a jump in IDC’s second-quarter numbers–perhaps not as dramatic as the 16 percent to 20 percent seen on CNET, but a nice gain nonetheless.)

no comment

8

Mar

Yawz Nvidia graphics tech set for future Intel chi

Posted by admin  Published in Electronic

The previous agreement that Del Rizzo mentioned was announced in February for a prior generation of Intel motherboards.

Nvidia SLI graphics boards

Monday’s licensing agreement is not related to an ongoing dispute between Intel and Nvidia over chipset licensing, Del Rizzo said.

“What’s exciting is that Intel signed on before the launch (of new chips). Before, they came on after the launch,” said Nvidia spokesman Bryan Del Rizzo. “This makes it easier for system builders and OEMs (PC makers),” he said.

The leading graphics chip supplier for game PCs has licensed its Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology to Intel and makers of PC motherboards, including Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI for future Intel chips. SLI is a technology for linking two or more graphics boards and used typically in high-end gaming boxes. 

Nvidia graphics tech set for future Intel chips

Nvidia said Monday that Intel and a bevy of circuit board makers have licensed Nvidia graphics technology for future Intel chips.



(Credit:Nvidia)

Brooke Crothers has served as an editor at large at CNET News, an editor at Dow Jones’ Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, and a senior editor at InfoWorld. His CNET blog covers chip technology and computer systems, and how they define the computing experience. He also contributes to The New York Times’ Bits and Technology sections. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. Follow Brooke on Twitter @mbrookec.


The licensing deal will allow Intel and others to offer SLI technology in “P55″ motherboards that are used with Intel Core i7 and i5 processors. The latter series of processors have yet to ship. A motherboard is the main circuit board in a PC.

In addition to Intel Core i7 and Core i5 processors, Nvidia’s SLI technology is also available for Advanced Micro Devices’ Phenom II processor.

Nvidia said this is significant because Intel is licensing the technology before it rolls out new chips,hair straightners, a departure from how SLI licensing was worked out earlier this year between the two companies.

“Nvidia SLI technology is a perfect complement to the processing prowess of our new Core i7 and Intel DP55KG desktop board,ugg store,” said Clem Russo,buy ugg boots, VP and General Manager of Intel Client Board Division at Intel Corporation, in a statement. “This combination will surely be attractive to anyone building or purchasing a brand new PC this fall,” he said.

no comment

8

Mar

Byxc Northern Ireland crisis talks continue_212

Posted by admin  Published in Electronic

Micheal Martin, Irish foreign minister, also expressed his determination to resolve the crisis on Monday.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Irish counterpart Brian Cowen jetted into Northern Ireland on Monday to lead talks with parties who share

Sinn Fein chief Gerry Adams has accused the DUP of derailing the talks by demanding concessions on policing controversial Protestant Orange Order

“What I fundamentally detect between the party leaders is a desire to make this work,” said Shaun Woodward, Britain’s minister for Northern Ireland.

resolve the crisis.

The sense of crisis has been heightened by a sex and funding scandal involving the wife of first minister Peter Robinson, who had an affair with a

“We believe that the problems that exist in devolving policing and justice are soluble problems,” said Brown.

“We believe it’s very important that we get a successful outcome to these discussions,” Cowen told reporters before flying to Belfast.

The sectarian violence in Northern Ireland was largely ended by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, and all the main paramilitary groups from both sides

Most recently,timberland winter boots, a policeman lost a leg in a car bomb attack earlier this month. Two men aged 34 and 33 were arrested over his attempted murder on Monday.

The transfer of police and justice powers from London to Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government is the final part of the devolution process.

After Monday’s London meeting, Brown and Cowen expressed hope that a deal could be done.

Northern Ireland crisis talks continue
January 26,genuine ugg boots, 2010

AFP

Negotiations between the parties sharing power – the nationalist Catholic Sinn Fein and pro-British Democratic Unionists (DUP) – have not succeeded in

Britain and Ireland helped broker the original power-sharing deal, part of a process that ended three decades of violence between Catholic republican opponents of British rule and Protestant unionists who supported it.

have now disarmed, although some dissident groups remain active.


parades. However, Robinson has insisted progress is being made.

Sinn Fein has warned that it could pull out of the government altogether unless progress is made, raising fears of increased political instability in

reaching an agreement.

Sinn Fein called Monday’s emergency meeting in Belfast between its deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, the DUP’s Robinson, to address the lack of agreement.

the province.

“Where there’s a will there will be a way and we stand ready to help however we can.”

Initial discussions between the former foes on Monday lasted just half an hour before Brown and Cowen jetted in for emergency talks.

Politicians held crisis negotiations through the night at Hillsborough Castle on the vexed issue of policing, County Down, and voiced determination to

talks.

“We are prepared to stay overnight to ensure that we can bring these talks to a conclusion and to get the key issues agreed upon,timberland chukka boots,” he said.

The British and Irish prime ministers are battling to bring Northern Ireland’s divided leaders to an agreement and avert the collapse of the province’s fragile administration.

Robinson, the leader of the DUP, has stood aside temporarily as first minister vowing to clear his own name but remains engaged in the devolution



power in the province, as negotiations to finalise devolution stalled.

19-year-old whom she helped financially, triggering a police investigation.

no comment

8

Mar

uykc Rusal slumps on debut, remains upbeat on Chin

Posted by admin  Published in Electronic

“Just because the company is listed now, I don’t think it means a lot of people will be rushing into it,Paul Smith Handbag,” he told AFP.

The billionaire oligarch — once Russia’s richest man before metals prices plummeted last year in the global financial crisis — said debt-laden Rusal was a good long-term bet as it taps the fast-growing market in China.

The world’s largest aluminium producer touched 9.66 Hong Kong US dollars per share during early trading, down 10.56 percent from its initial public offering (IPO) price of 10.80 US dollars. It picked up slightly to 9.80 in the afternoon.

The state of Rusal’s balance sheet marks a fall from grace for Deripaska,timberland boot, who was among a small group of entrepreneurs who scooped up formerly state-owned assets after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991.

Along the way, Deripaska locked horns with fugitive Israeli businessman Michael Cherney, who is suing him for four billion US dollars over a disputed stake in Rusal.

“You see what’s happening in markets all over the world,” the 42-year-old,timberland chukka boots, who is dogged by unproven allegations that he has links to organised crime, told reporters at the Hong Kong exchange.


Rusal chief executive Oleg Deripaska told reporters the listing price, which was at a premium to rivals in the sector, was “reasonable”.

Among those assets was the Sayansk aluminium smelter in Siberia, the flashpoint in a bloody feud known as the “aluminium wars” that saw gangland slayings and private armies battle it out for control of the sector.

The move created the world’s biggest aluminium concern in 2006 which now employs 75,000 people in 19 countries, and accounts for 12 percent of the world’s aluminium output.

Controversy swirled around Rusal’s share sale after the exchange repeatedly delayed approving its IPO amid concerns about its huge debt of 15 billion US US dollars.

In 2004, Deripaska bought out his then-partner, current Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich, and merged Rusal with rival firm Sual and the aluminium operation of Switzerland-based Glencore.

Separately, the West African nation of Guinea is suing Rusal for one billion US US dollars in damages stemming from a privatisation dispute.

“We believe this is the first step — there will be more Russian companies on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange,” Deripaska said. “More Russian money will come into Hong Kong.”

Rusal slumps on debut, remains upbeat on China
PETER BRIEGER January 27, 2010

Russian metals giant UC Rusal tumbled on its Hong Kong stock market debut Wednesday but the controversial firm’s boss expressed confidence about tapping the resources-hungry Chinese market.

But Howard Gorges, vice-chairman of Hong Kong-based South China Securities, said Rusal’s prospects could be dim and said the stock’s trading debut tumble was “a warning to punters”.

In a highly unusual move, the city’s Securities and Futures Commission effectively restricted the IPO to institutions and so-called professional investors by mandating a minimum investment of about 130,000 US US dollars.

Rusal reached a deal to restructure its debts with creditors last year. But its 1,100-page IPO prospectus outlined a laundry list of possible risks, including potentially crippling lawsuits, its debts, and even the company’s demise should metals prices plunge again.



Deripaska and Rusal have dismissed both legal actions as without merit.

“We believe in the growth in Asia,” he said. “This company is best in class.”

Moscow-based Rusal became the first Russian firm to list in Hong Kong. Its IPO, worth 2.2 billion US US dollars, was the city’s biggest by a company from outside Asia.

Cherney is wanted by Interpol over Spanish allegations of money-laundering.

“Rusal has had a cloud hanging over it.”

no comment

8

Mar

sjyu RIM’s Torch acquisition leaves Apple in contr

Posted by admin  Published in Electronic

As the proud owner of four MacBook Pros and three iPhones, I’m not bashing Apple. I love what it produces.

RIM's Torch acquisition leaves Apple in control

It was announced Monday that smartphone maker Research in Motion had acquired Torch Mobile, a provider of browsers and other applications based on the open-source WebKit project. Though Webkit has become the unofficial standard formobile browsers, as Don Reisinger reports, it seems to be a largely Apple-controlled open-source community, one that has the potential to leave RIM, Palm, Google, and other WebKit users constantly playing catch-up to Apple.

Coincidence? Um…no. After all, the WebKit blog is called (get this): “Surfin’ Safari. Think the blog is going to change its name anytime soon to “Surfin’ RIM”? Don’t hold your breath.

Is WebKit open source? Absolutely. But is it truly an open, level playing field for RIM and other would-be competitors to Apple? Likely not.

But if part of RIM’s interest in Torch Mobile was influence in the WebKit project, it could have saved its money. WebKit, for better or worse, is largely an Apple project, with serious support from Google. For everyone else, WebKit may be the best game in town, but it’s Apple’s town. It almost certainly will result in a better Blackberry browser for RIM customers,buy ugg boots, but not one that RIM has as much control over as it would like.

There’s Mozilla’s Fennec,ugg usa, of course, but its development has been slow. WebKit may be the best option for RIM and others, but it would be an even better option if Apple took its hands off the wheel to open up the project further.

Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay.


Yes, there are other developers from Nokia, Torch Mobile, and Google involved with the project, but Apple controls the project, if by no other means than sheer numbers. Apple employs the majority of WebKit developers (30),ghd mk4, with Google coming in second (19). Torch Mobile? It employs just eight of the WebKit development team members.

More pertinently, Apple employs far more of the WebKit reviewers than anyone else, which gives it much more control. Most of the other participants are committers, which are important but not equal in control to reviewers.

Safari logo

Not that you need to look too deeply to see Apple’s grip on the project. Just look at the logo:

WebKit logo

There are some technologies that make less and less sense as proprietary software. The browser is one of them. With MozillaFirefox and Google Chrome actively gaining at Internet Explorer’s expense on the “desktop,” it would be nice to see a truly open-source project–open in source, and open to outside involvement–standardize the mobile browsing experience, too.

Look familiar? It should. Here’s Apple’s logo for itsSafari browser, which is based on the WebKit project:



Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.

I’ve even heard that WebKit is not accepting outside contributions at present, though I have not yet been able to verify this.

no comment

8

Mar

orxe Sandbag is bagging carbon credits_679

Posted by admin  Published in Electronic
Sandbag is bagging carbon credits
(Credit:Sandbag)

Part environmental watchdog and part social-networking site, Sandbaglobbies the United Nations and European Union for tighter caps on carbon emissions and permits, while buying up carbon credits.

The U.K.-based not-for-profit community organization, whose motto is “real action on climate change,” launched in September 2008. It uses donations to buy up EU carbon credits and cancel them in an effort to drive up the price of carbon credits in the marketplace.

The report goes on to say that as a result of the economic downturn, there is a glut of permits and no real economic incentive for companies to reduce pollution.

“Industry is likely to have nearly 400 million tonnes worth of surplus permits across the period 2008-2012. (As a result, industrial sectors will not have to reduce their emissions.) They will either be able to sell their surplus for windfall profits of over 5 billion euros (at current market value) or bank them for future use depressing the price of carbon in the next phase of trading,” Sandbag said in its July 2009 report.

Sandbag asserted in the report, as it’s been widely reported, that pollution has been reduced not so much as a result of big industry cleaning up their processes but because production itself has been down due to the recession.

The group’s pitch, which is explained through a silent video “Sandbag in 60 seconds,” is that if polluting is made expensive enough, companies will invest more in technology to clean up their processes rather than buying emissions credits to cover their excess pollution.

In addition to its carbon credit report and buy-back plan, Sandbag has also mapped out by country how emissions credits have been allotted.

Interested people can use the organization’s Web site tools to view Google Maps plotting emissions data for 2008 in relation to how many permits are allotted or needed for a given area. Maps are by country with an option to zoom in to a particular area of interest.

Sandbag has been lobbying the EU to address the issue by following the suggestion made by France and Ireland, which is to essentially reduce the amount of carbon permits made available going forward, according to its report.

(Credit:Sandbag) In a software-driven world, it’s easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it’s cars,The North Face Outlet, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET,ugg discount, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. E-mail her at candacelombardi@gmail.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.


A map of the U.K. showing areas with excess carbon permits to sell.



In July 2009, Sandbag put out a report (PDF) on the European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading System (EU-ETS),timberland boots usa, the EU’s current program that regulates about 50 percent of carbon emissions in the EU and doles out about 2 billion tradable permits each year.

The group has started to gain a following. The Guardian Newspaper Group became a corporate sponsor earlier this year, and on Monday, two London hospitals agreed to sell Sandbag 2,000 tonnes worth of carbon credits. It’s the equivalent of taking 1,000cars off the road, according to Sandbag’s founder Bryony Worthington.

no comment
« Previous Page — Next Page »