HOUSTON INTERNET MARKETING | Get Sales With Joe

Thursday, 31 May 2012 16:11 Last Updated on Thursday, 31 May 2012 16:11 Written by admin

BEGIN WITH A SOLID WELL ORGANIZED STRATEGY Starting with a specific goal is a way to guarantee a successful internet marketing plan. Asking yourself questions like what you plan to do along the way and when will discounts be offered are helpful in composing a good Internet Marketing Strategy. In order to truly compete today, you must have more than just a good looking website. It is important to leave a digital trail with the use of blogs, articles, directory submissions, social media, RSS feeds, and video. SO HOW DOES THIS HELP YOUR BUSINESS? Think back to the last time you did an internet search, and there was one company that dominated the first page. That?s the result of proper Internet marketing. Internet marketing helps your business by giving you domination on the web while targeting the proper audience. OUR TEAM IS EXPERT IN THE FOLLOWING:

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Gadget Of The Week: The Parrot AR.Drone 2.0

There are plenty of ways to get your flight school kicks with your smartphone or tablet ? this missile shooting Griffin chopper comes to mind ? but few manage to ooze as much style (or cost as much money) as Parrot?s AR.Drone 2.0. Getting the thing ready to fly is surprisingly simple. Once you?ve popped the battery into place, and turned the thing on, the Drone creates its own Wi-Fi network that the control device connects to. From there, just fire up the FreeFlight app on your iOS or Android device and you?re off to the races.

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A state-by-state look at the road to 270

An analysis of the state-by-state race to 270 electoral votes, the total needed to win the presidency, and where Democratic President Barack Obama and probable Republican nominee Mitt Romney stand now. The numbers reflect electoral votes:

SOLIDLY DEMOCRATIC (186):

California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

LEANING DEMOCRAT (61):

Michigan (16) ? Despite lingering economic pain in the auto capital, Michigan has large minority and union voting blocs that favor Obama. Romney, a native son whose father was governor, won the GOP primary but his opposition to the 2008 auto bailout will hurt him.

Minnesota (10) ? Low unemployment and a long streak of Democrats carrying Minnesota give Obama confidence. But Minnesota was competitive in 2000 and 2004, and includes a length of the Mississippi River Valley, among the Midwest's most pivotal swing regions.

New Mexico (5) ? Gave narrow victories to Democrat Al Gore in 2000 and Republican George W. Bush in 2004, and an influx of Hispanic and younger voters now moves this state toward Obama's column. No advertising yet from Obama, Romney or any super political action committees.

Pennsylvania (20) ? Pennsylvania has tipped Democrat in the final month in recent presidential races. Romney has continued campaigning in the state, but a nearly 1 million Democratic edge in voter registration makes the state a reach for the GOP.

Wisconsin (10) ? Embattled Gov. Scott Walker's improving chances of winning a June 5 recall election helps Romney better compete in Wisconsin, where Ronald Reagan was the last Republican presidential candidate to win. Romney aides say Wisconsin leaps ahead of Michigan in priorities if Walker prevails.

UP FOR GRABS (85):

Colorado (9) ? Long a reliable GOP state, but Colorado's conservative profile is changing. Young professionals and Hispanic voters were central to Obama's victory in 2008, but the sluggish economy has hurt his standing. Female voters in Denver's suburbs could play a big role.

Florida (29) ? Florida is the prime target for both campaigns. Obama won in 2008, but the housing crisis, high unemployment and gas prices are dogging him. Romney won the primary in January and has picked up the endorsement of GOP Sen. Marco Rubio. Obama's organization has a large advantage.

Iowa (6) ? An important Bush-state pick-up for Obama in 2008. Iowa has been a national popular-vote bellwether for 20 years. Obama's attention in the state where his caucus victory launched him in 2008 is countered by Romney's two caucus campaigns. Conservatives are wary of Romney's Mormon faith and social issues profile, but he's got GOP Gov. Terry Branstad on his side.

Nevada (6) ? One of three Southwestern states Obama flipped in 2008. Nevada is also the prime example of the economy's struggles. Unemployment was 12.3 percent in February, a point Romney will press. There's a strong labor and Hispanic vote, a plus for Obama. A higher Mormon population helps Romney.

New Hampshire (4) ? Romney has a vacation home in New Hampshire, which is next to Massachusetts, where Romney was governor. He won the 2012 primary big, but Obama peeled off this Bush state in 2008 and has worked hard to keep it. Vice President Joe Biden visited Friday. But the GOP is back in power in the Legislature, and freshman Sen. Kelly Ayotte is seen as asset for Romney.

Ohio (18) ? This Midwestern state has been a general election bellwether since 1980. Romney won the 2012 primary and has support from establishment figures such as Sen. Rob Portman. Obama has the organizing advantage, although the economy remains a sticking point, especially in the industrial northwest.

Virginia (13) ? Long a GOP bastion, Obama carried Virginia in 2008 by turning out young and minority voters. An influx of under-35 crowd, especially from the Washington area, has continued. But Republicans roared back in 2010, ending consecutive Democratic administrations in governorship by electing up-and-comer Bob McDonnell.

LEANING REPUBLICAN (47):

Arizona (11) ? 2008 GOP nominee John McCain's single-digit victory in his home state, and Hispanic and young voter boom, give Obama hope that Arizona is trending as others in the Southwest. But Romney won big in February's primary, helped by the support of GOP Gov. Jan Brewer, in a state where Republicans and the tea party are in charge.

Indiana (11) ? Obama broke a 44-year GOP trend in 2008 by winning Indiana, albeit by a single percentage point. Unemployment is high and the tea party is a new factor, both working against Obama.

Missouri (10) ? Democrats have contested Missouri in the past three elections, only to lose each time. Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill is in a tough re-election fight, and Obama's approval has dipped below 40 percent.

North Carolina (15) ? Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue's decision not to seek a second term this year, union anger about the Democratic National Convention in this weak union state, plus Obama's support for gay marriage, rejected in a May 8 referendum, are warnings that a repeat for Obama will be tougher.

SOLIDLY REPUBLICAN (159): Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

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The Same, Only More ? Figment of My Cogitation

My husband and I live a pretty simple life by American standards. The way we do things is equal parts destiny (teacher?s salary) and design. We drive old Toyotas, don?t have cable TV, and stay in our iffy neighborhood because the mortgage is paid off. The house is small, so we have to keep the volume of our possessions under control. Both our wardrobes fit into one 6-foot closet and two dressers.?After?recycling and composting, we only toss out one kitchen-size bag of trash per week. I?ve been out of the workforce for years and that, too, was a choice. Less income but more time. It works for us.

With the money we save in other areas, we make travel a priority. If I want to see my family back East, I go. When Mike lost a close friend a few months ago and needed to fly to Kentucky, he went. Last week, we flew to Texas to visit friends.

Over the years, their family has done well in business so when we visit, we enter a very different world where people are polished, well-dressed, and comfortable socializing. In contrast, I spend most of my days alone, writing at my computer in clothes too shabby to wear to the grocery store. My circle of friends can be counted on my fingers and toes, with toes left over. I don?t think about these differences often, but prepping for a stay in someone else?s home always stirs up a few minor insecurities that cause me to wonder if my jewelry looks cheap and how I will answer when someone asks what I do all day.

For the five days of our visit, we lived in great abundance. Both(!) refrigerators and the pantry were always full. The bar was well-stocked.?The house is three times the size of ours, although it also contains more people. During our visit, the flow of extended family was ongoing, peaking with a luncheon and baby shower that included about two dozen guests. Lots of conversation, lots of kids, lots of activity. If anyone noticed my lack of pedicure or thought my purse was tacky, they were far too decent and well-bred to let on.

Unlike at home, I used the clothes dryer with abandon, did not recycle the paper tube when the toilet paper ran out, and tossed away Ziploc bags instead of washing them. I luxuriated under a shower head that wasn?t the least bit water-saving. We rode in a comfortable car, ate in excellent restaurants and drank wine by the bottle, instead of by the glass. It was lovely.

It was lovelier still to realize that I didn?t feel the tiniest speck of envy.

Now at home again, I notice that we have more fur lurking in the corners of our house than our friends do because we have more pets.?There is more empty space inside our (one) fridge, but there are also more blank spots in our schedules.?We have more tofu as well as more chocolate. We watch more geeky documentaries, although there is a lot more quiet for those of us who need that, too.

We have everything: a house, transportation, clothes, food, family and friends. We even get to take vacations once in awhile. Some people have more of those things, or perhaps they have a newer, bigger version, but we?re doing fine. While other people?s lives are fun to visit, we don?t wish for what they have. Except maybe their DVR. That would be cool.

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Sage Releases Intuitive Construction-Specific Cloud Service ...

BEAVERTON, OR?(Marketwire ? May 22, 2012) ? Sage North America today announced the release of Sage Construction Anywhere, a cloud-based platform that increases accessibility to project data, fosters collaboration, and increases operational efficiency. It is designed to help construction and real estate companies get critical project information into the hands of those who need it most ? anytime, anywhere.

Sage Construction Anywhere enables everyone involved in a construction project to work together with common information and keep all projects, people, documents, and data securely in one project hub in the cloud. It is built upon Microsoft's industry-leading cloud services platform, Azure, which provides the highest available levels of data integrity and confidentiality. The Sage Construction Anywhere platform provides the administrator control over who sees what projects and which details as well as makes it easy to invite new companies, people, and contacts to a project. Designed specifically for the construction industry by the market leader in construction business management solutions, Sage Construction Anywhere uses terms and processes that are instantly familiar to builders and contractors, making it an intuitive tool that requires virtually no training.

?In the construction industry, a building project can involve dozens ? even hundreds of trades and other team members that all need to be in lock step to drive the project's performance,? said Jon Witty, vice president and general manager of Sage Construction and Real Estate. ?Sage Construction Anywhere is the quickest and easiest way to bring together all the people, documents, data, discussions and interactions related to the project. It changes the way we think from simply asking whether we got the project done in time and made money, to managing how quickly we performed and the ability to maximize profit at every step of the project.?

Sage Construction Anywhere will aggressively rollout new functionality several times a year. Each major update will be built around improving a core aspect of project collaboration and operational excellence for the construction industry. The first cloud services are focused on the ability to access Sage Timberline Office (becoming Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate) reports anytime, anywhere. For more information or to order Sage Construction Anywhere, call 1-877-541-1642 or visit SageConstructionAnywhere.com.

Sage construction and real estate products are part of a broad portfolio of Sage business management solutions that are designed to help make business life easier. They include Sage Timberline Office (soon to be renamed Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate), Sage Timberline Enterprise (Sage 300 Trade Specialty), Sage Timberline Estimating (Sage Estimating), Sage 100 Contractor (formerly Sage Master Builder), and Sage Peachtree (Sage 50 ? U.S. Edition) software, which are industry-tailored to help companies optimize financial and operational performance. With over 40 years in the industry and more than 40,000 construction and real estate customers, Sage product lines have been recognized as the most widely used applications for construction estimating, job costing, accounting, payroll, and project management in the mid-market, according to the Construction Financial Management Association's (CFMA) 2010 Information Technology Survey for the Construction Industry.

About Sage Sage is a leading global supplier of business management software and services for small and midsized businesses. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs more than 12,300 people and supports more than 6 million customers worldwide. For more information about Sage in North America, please visit the company website at na.sage.com/. Follow Sage North America on Facebook, facebook.com/SageNorthAmerica, and Twitter, twitter.com/sagenamerica.

Tags: functionality, Construction Industry, project collaboration, team members

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Miracle sweetener stevia may have a sour note

PARIS (Reuters) - The meteoric rise of a natural, healthy alternative to sugar - a holy grail for the food industry - might just be a little too good to be true.

In two years stevia, a plant used for centuries by Paraguay's Guarani Indians, has shot to prominence in products by Coca-Cola, Danone and Merisant.

Encouraged by distrust of artificial sweeteners and demand for natural products, they have turned to extract of stevia, which is up to 300 times sweeter than traditional beet or cane sugar.

The problems are the aftertaste, the cost, and possible hurdles in defining it as natural in some European Union markets.

Initial sales and projections are impressive but the plant's extracts have a strong aftertaste, often compared to liquorice, and are far more expensive than artificial sweeteners including aspartame, saccharin and sucralose.

To ease stevia's taste products like French sugar maker Tereos' Beghin-Say and Coca-Cola's Fanta Still - trialed with stevia - still include sugar in their recipe

Tereos PureCircle said that out of the 604 new products containing extracts of stevia launched worldwide in 2010 - up from 373 in 2009 - 60 percent still contained sugar.

Poor consumer feedback also led dairy giant Danone to work on a new recipe for its stevia yoghurts marketed under its leading low-calorie brand Taillefine in 2010.

"We are trying to find solutions to erase this liquorice taste but it's not easy," Marilise Marcantonio, communication director for Danone Fresh Products, said. "Consumers are looking for natural products - but not at any price."

Some scientists also note that a technique to extract Rebania-A, derived from stevia leaves, through ethanol, rather than water, to obtain purer and sweeter products could mean stevia may not be able to be marketed as "natural" in some EU countries, undermining the current marketing strategy.

"They are advertising stevia as a miracle," marketing consultant Sam Waterfall said. "If consumers begin to feel they are misled, this could be a real disaster."

KEY FRENCH MARKET

France is keenly watched as a testing ground for Europe, having cleared stevia-based products in late 2009. New checks and administrative hurdles delayed its approval at EU level until November 2011.

Stevia has been used for decades in Japan and has spread in the United States since 2008, where sales rose over 60 percent in 2011.

Since early 2010 its extracts have been used in France in low-calorie products ranging from soft drinks to yoghurts, jam and tabletop sweeteners, with some products recording triple-digit rises in sales last year.

"It's a revolution. In two years an ingredient has been able to turn the sweetener market upside down," said Olivier Badinand, marketing director for Europe of Merisant, maker of Canderel, leader in France's tabletop sweeteners market.

Stevia's market share among high-intensive sweeteners is still less than 1 percent but growth rates are impressive. Volumes jumped over 50 percent in France last year, and are expected to more than double in 2012 and quadruple by 2014.

"We are in a market that is really taking off," said Michel Laborde, head of sales and marketing at France's largest sugar maker, growers-owned Tereos, which has stepped into the stevia market through a joint venture with the world's leader PureCircle.

Paris will host on Thursday the World Stevia Organisation's fourth conference, gathering academics, industrials and sellers.

NEW PRODUCTS

Despite taste and cost misgivings, the surge in sales to date, EU clearance and growing demand for low-sugar products correlated with a rise in obesity, has prompted food giants to launch new products.

Coca-Cola's flagship drinks Sprite and Nestea's recipes have been modified to include stevia in a bid to cut the sugar level by up to 30 percent and will soon be available in French stores, Claire Meunier, nutrition manager at Coca-Cola France said.

The world's main producers of compounds from stevia's leaves like Rebaudioside A (Reb A) are Malaysia's PureCircle and U.S. agrigiant Cargill.

Tereos PureCircle Solutions, created in late 2010, sells stevia-based sugar products to food and drink makers in several EU countries including Belgium, Italy and Spain.

Tereos also replaced aspartame with stevia in some of its low-calorie tabletop sugar Beghin-Say Ligne and sales trebled in the year to March, Laborde said, adding that the firm was in the process of launching a stevia powder sugar in France.

"The French market was absolutely key. In light of the success, we had a model to apply, time to look at the results and adapt our strategy to other countries," Merisant's Badinand said. The firm has now deployed stevia in around 20 EU states.

Merisant sells a stevia version of its flagship product Canderel and created a separate brand, PureVia, whose products - powder and cubes - look like sugar but contain none.

PureVia sales grew by 81 percent and Canderel Stevia by 115 percent in the year to end-February to a total of 14.7 million euros and Merisant targets 20 million in 2012, Badinand said.

(Additional reporting by Naomi O'Leary in London; Editing by William Hardy and Veronica Brown)

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Scientists turn skin cells into beating heart muscle

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World powers, Iran haggle over new nuclear package

World powers pressing Iran to scale back its nuclear programme Wednesday offered a new batch of incentives that however fell short of the sanctions relief sought by Tehran, which made a counter-proposal.

A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the lead negotiator for the P5+1 -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- said its proposals made at the meeting in Baghdad were "of interest to Iran."

The meeting, which follows a preliminary first gathering in 15 months in Istanbul in mid-April, was meanwhile expected to go into a second, unscheduled day on Thursday, an official with the Iranian delegation said.

"There are things we can do for Iran. We hope the Iranians will come back with a positive reaction to our proposals to deal with the concerns of the international community," Ashton's spokesman said.

He gave no details but media reports said they included a revival of previous attempts at a deal whereby Iran would ship abroad its stockpiles of enriched uranium in return for fuel for a reactor producing medical isotopes.

Other incentives were reportedly easing Iranian access to aircraft parts and a possible suspension of an EU insurance ban on ships carrying Iranian oil.

But beyond a pledge not to impose any more, the package made no mention of easing the barrage of sanctions that have been piled -- with more to come in July -- on Iran over suspicions the country wants nuclear weapons.

In return for the sweeteners the P5+1 want Iran to suspend 20-percent enrichment, which they see as the most worrying part of Tehran's activities since the capability reduces the theoretical "breakout" time needed to get the bomb.

Iran however is loath to give ground on what it proudly sees as its right to a peaceful nuclear programme without the prospect that the international community will cut its economy some slack.

Iran made a counter-proposal in the Baghdad talks -- which were due to resume at 1500 GMT -- of "five items based on the principles of step-by-step and reciprocity," the official with Tehran's delegation said.

"And we are waiting for the reaction of the P5+1 during meetings this afternoon," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity and without giving more details on what the offer consisted of.

"We said to the other side that we need a comprehensive approach. We need the steps that both sides have to take to be clearly defined and there is no possibility of going back on them," the source said.

"For example, that they lift sanctions that they cannot then readopt two months later under a different pretext."

Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili was due to hold bilateral meetings with Ashton and with China's representative Ma Zhaoxu but not with Washington's envoy Wendy Shermann, before the next session, the official added.

US President Barack Obama took office in January 2009 offering a radical change in approach to his predecessor, George W. Bush, in dealings with Iran, famously offering an "extended hand" to Tehran if it "unclenched its fist."

This failed, however, and Iran has since dramatically expanded its programme, including by starting in 2010 to enrich uranium to 20 percent and from January in the Fordo site deep inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom.

Israel, Washington's closest ally in the region, feels its very existence would be under threat if its arch foe gets the bomb and has refused to rule out a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted on Wednesday that the "production and use of weapons of mass destruction is haram (forbidden) and have no place in the Islamic Republic of Iran's defence doctrine."

One key way for Iran to win the confidence of the P5+1 was implementing the additional protocol of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which allows for more intrusive inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA also wants Iran to address allegations made in its November report that until 2003, and possibly since, Tehran had a "structured programme" of "activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device."

IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said on Tuesday after talks in Tehran that a deal on ways to go over these accusations with the Iranians would be signed "quite soon." Western reaction though was circumspect.

Ashton's spokesman meanwhile played down expectations of a dramatic breakthrough, saying that the Baghdad talks were part of what will need to be a lengthy process.

"This is the second meeting. Istanbul kicked off the process of discussions. Now we're getting on to the real substance of the matter," Michael Mann said. "We are keen to get a move on but these things can't be solved overnight."

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Golf Town agrees to buy American specialty retailer Golfsmith

RBR Staff Writer
Published 15 May 2012

Golf Town, a Canada-based specialty golf retailer, has agreed to buy US-based retailer Golfsmith International for about $97m. The transaction will result in the creation of the world's largest specialty golf retailer.

Omers Private Equity owned Golf Town has 54 stores across Canada and seven stores in the greater Boston area. Golfsmith operates 85 retail outlets in the US and sells through its internet site and various catalogs.

Golf Town interim chief executive officer Ron Hornbaker said together, the businesses will have a broad multi-channel offering of retail, online, mobile and catalog throughout North America.

Omers Private Equity senior managing director and Canadian country head Don Morrison said this transaction will give the company a formidable footprint in North America and will also provide a strong platform for future growth.

"Together with management we look forward to enhancing the value proposition for the companies' loyal customers," Morrison said.

After the completion of the transaction, Golfsmith chief executive Martin Hanaka will assume the role of CEO of the combined company. Sue Gove, presently the president, COO and CFO of Golfsmith, will become president and COO of the combined firm.

The closing of the acquisition, which is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2012, is subject to limited closing conditions.

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Conserve Up Funds By Conducting A DIY Car Repair | Carolina Skies

Are you on a tight price range proper now simply because your funds are reduced as well as your debts are higher? Are you currently thinking of performing a vehicle fix by yourself to conserve up cash? In the event you are wondering regarding the benefits and drawbacks of conducting a DIY restore in your auto or truck, then you are within the appropriate internet site due to the fact I?m going to lay out all of the information that you just require.

DIY automobile repairs are great because you can conserve lots of cash on the replacement parts as well as the auto repair providers. Labor fee is always pricy in the state. The car components that you need to have in order to replace usually provided by mechanics or vehicle specialists, but nowadays you can get them on-line. You are going to be capable of conserve cash by looking for out the least expensive car elements and just pay out a fairly low quantity for your labor or service. Some vehicle stores also earn earnings from selling the parts on prime from the principal service that they give out to their consumers. You can find car elements on the market which are less expensive so that you can have that advantage of paying less.

For small upkeep, such as tire replacement and dent fixing, you would be capable of save money if you know the ways how to adjust your own tire even though you are a woman. For example, if you let a car shop adjust a tire for you, you definitely are anticipated to pay out for that service and that?s an additional price or expense from your finish. Today many online video shows people how to fix many things on their own for free. The cash you earned from functioning too tough have to be effectively spent so feel about the little items you can save on like repair expenses.

Really, you will find minimal cons of carrying out an auto restore yourself. If you know you can do it or in case you possess the abilities to accomplish it on your own without having or with very little assist and supervision, then by all signifies give it your best shot. DIY automobile repairs would only be a disadvantage in the event you realize that you cannot get it done, but you do it anyways. In case you tend not to know how to modify a tire, then do not alter 1 because you could finish up getting a loose tire that is dangerous. You would not need to drive close to like a ticking bomb now, would you? Have an expert do the tough repairs such as fixing the transmission or the brakes of the vehicle, in case you do not have the experience to complete such repairs.

Shelling out money within the more difficult repairs you could not do by yourself is quite significantly acceptable so usually do not fear should you get your car fixed by an expert. Always keep in mind that your very own as well as your passengers? safety are far more crucial than cash. Go ahead and get your car repaired at a vehicle shop for that far more complex needed repair. The advantages of undertaking small repairs oneself actually outweigh the disadvantages, so save money for that rainy days more successfully and efficiently.

We offer AAA saint louis auto repair shop and AAA auto repair maintenance in saint louis.

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Natural gas prices plunge on building supplies

[ [ [['A picture is worth a thousand words', 5]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/why-facebook-bought-instagram-4-theories-160400376.html', '[Related: Why Facebook bought Instagram: 4 theories]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 9]], 'http://contributor.yahoo.com/join/yahoonews_virginiabeach', '[Did you witness the jet crash? Share your story with Yahoo! News]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Dick Clark', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/dick-clark-dies-at-82-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/c/21/c217c61aa2d5872244c08caa13c16ec5.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'Reuters', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['Titanic', 7]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/titanic-anniversary/', ' ', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/b/4e/b4e5ad9f00b5dfeeec2226d53e173569.jpeg', '550', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

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From On High: Why We Need More Legal Immigration

Because American students are ignorant. ?And are allowed to be:

The [Florida] Board of Education decided in an emergency meeting Tuesday to lower the passing grade on the writing portion of Florida's standardized test after preliminary results showed a drastic drop in student passing scores.

Turns out, two-thirds of Florida students were going to flunk the test. ?So the threshold for "flunking" was altered.

Hence, everyone is smarter!

For the love of God.

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Light from alien 'super-earth' seen for first time

NASA's Spitzer space telescope has detected a light source coming from a large earth-like planet.

Light from an alien "super-Earth" twice the size of our own Earth has been detected by a NASA space telescope for the first time in what astronomers are calling a historic achievement.

Skip to next paragraph

NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope spotted light from the alien planet 55 Cancri e, which orbits a star 41 light-years from Earth. A year on the extrasolar planet lasts just 18 hours.

The planet 55 Cancri e was first discovered in 2004 and is not a habitable world. Instead, it is known as a super-Earth because of its size: The world is about twice the width of Earth and is super-dense, with about eight times the mass of Earth.

IN PICTURES: Exoplanets

But until now, scientists have never managed to detect the infrared light from the super-Earth world.

"Spitzer has amazed us yet again," said Spitzer program scientist Bill Danch of NASA headquarters in Washington in a statement today (May 8). "The spacecraft is pioneering the study of atmospheres of distant planets and paving the way for NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to apply a similar technique on potentially habitable planets."

Spitzer first detected infrared light from an alien planet in 2005. But that world was "hot Jupiter," a gas giant planet much larger than 55 Cancri e that orbited extremely close to its parent star. While other telescopes have performed similar feats since then, Spitzer's view of the 55 Cancri e is the first time the light from a rocky super-Earth type planet has been seen, researchers said.

Since the discovery of 55 Cancri e, astronomers have pinned down increasingly strange features about the planet. The researchers already knew it was part of an alien solar system containing five exoplanets centered on the star 55 Cancri in the constellation Cancer (The Crab). [Gallery: The Oozing Planet 55 Cancri e]

But 55 Cancri e stood out because it is ultra-dense and orbits extremely close to its parent star; about 26 times closer than the distance between Mercury and our own sun.

The new Spitzer observations revealed that the star-facing side of 55 Cancri e is extremely hot, with temperatures reaching up to 3,140 degrees Fahrenheit (1,726 degrees Celsius). The planet is likely a dark world that lacks the substantial atmosphere needed to warm its nighttime side, researchers said.

And to top it all off, the planet is oozing.

Past observations of the planet by the Spitzer Space Telescope have suggested that one-fifth of 55 Cancri e is made up of lighter elements, including water. But the extreme temperatures and pressures on 55 Cancri e would create what scientists call a "supercritical fluid" state.

Supercritical fluids can be imagined as a gas in a liquid state, which can occur under extreme pressures and temperatures. On Earth, water can become a supercritical fluid inside some steam engines.

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A very Happy Mother?s Day to MMA Moms

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms of fighters and the moms who fight. For a reminder of how cool MMA moms are, check out Urijah Faber's mom holding off a burglar, Rashad Evans getting pre-fight advice from his mother, and Diego Brandao buying his mom a house after winning "The Ultimate Fighter." Also read parts one and two about what it's like to be a fight mom, featuring the mothers of Joe Lauzon, Clay Guida, Evans and B.J. Penn.

Before heading to brunch with your mom, check out how these champs celebrated their special moment with the women who supported their children on the way to the belt.

UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson hugs his mother after winning the belt in February.

Ronda Rousey headed straight to the woman who supported her through Olympic judo and MMA careers after winning the Strikeforce bantamweight belt in March.

UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz took his mother to the World MMA Awards.

Jon Jones celebrates with his parents after defending the UFC light heavyweight belt.

A very Happy Mother's Day to all the Cagereading Moms out there, and to my own mother, for taking me for ice cream after I first threw a punch.

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Blink-182 Cancel Dates After Travis Barker Medical Emergency

Drummer Barker is recovering after an emergency tonsillectomy.
By Gil Kaufman

Travis Barker
Photo: MTV News

TheBlink-182 reunion tour has hit a snag. On Wednesday, the group announced that it was cancelling a string of live dates this month due to a medical emergency involving drummer Travis Barker.

"Blink-182's drummer, Travis Barker, required an urgent tonsillectomy with a recovery period expected to extend beyond the scheduled tour dates," read a note on their official site. "The band apologizes for any inconvenience as a result of these cancellations and thanks their fans for their ongoing support.
"

Though two upcoming dates at the Winstar Casino in Thackerville, OK have been rescheduled for September 13 and 14, the other six dates on their itinerary will not be rescheduled. Those dates include:

» 5/15 -- Rochester, NY @ Blue Cross Arena
» 5/17 -- Manchester, NH @ Verizon Wireless Arena
» 5/18 -- Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun
» 5/19 -- Asbury Park, NJ @ The Bamboozle
» 5/20 -- Bethlehem, PA @ Sands Bethlehem Event Center
» 5/22 -- Quebec City, CA @ Colisee Pepsi Arena

Refunds will be available for each show at the point of purchase, except for the Bamboozle gig, where no refunds are being offered. New Jersey natives My Chemical Romance have stepped into the breach and will take over Blink's headlining slot at the May 19 Bamboozle gig.

"Blink-182 will be greatly missed, and all of us here with Travis a speedy recovery," the show's promoters said in a statement about what would have been Blink's debut Bamboozle appearance. Other acts on this year's three-day Bamboozle roster include: Foo Fighters, Skrillex, Bon Jovi, Gaslight Anthem, Mac Miller, Incubus and DJ Pauly D.

The band is slated to kick-off a two-month European tour in June and at press time Blink's Facebook page said those shows have not been affected.

Related Artists

• blink-182

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Shavenu Delivers Razor Blades to Your Doorstep Every Month

European newcomer Shavenu is now offering shaving blade subscriptions to scruffy Brits, Canadians, and Deutschlanders using the DollarShaveClub.com model that set the shaving world alight last month.

For ?1 per month, a pack of 5 two-blade cartridges is sent to your home every month with a handle in the first package. Unfortunately, this competitive price does not include shipping cost. If you have higher standards, cartridges with three and five blades are available as well for ?5 and ?8 per month respectively. For these models, shipping is included.

Shavenu?s founder Marc Uthay hated to wait in line at the supermarket in order to buy new Gillette cartridges he lacked at home. He faced the dilemma of losing some precious time or keeping his stubble for the day ? something he would have liked to avoid. Then he came up with the idea of Shavenu.

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Penultimate (for iPad)

Apple's iPad gives you numerous ways to take notes, from typing on the virtual keyboard to writing on the touchscreen with a stylus or your finger. The note-taking app Penultimate (99 cents), recently purchased by the note-syncing and storage app company Evernote, is one of the best iPad note-taking apps around. It's fast, friendly, flexible, and at less than a buck, a bargain, all reasons it's an Editors' Choice. Using the app is second nature because it's nearly the same as doodling in a paper notebook. While the app's touch-based sophistication will no doubt impress consumers, when paired with a touch stylus like the Kensington Virtuoso ($24.99), Penultimate can scale to the professional demands of engineers, architects, and industrial designers. Not to mention that the app is optimized for the new iPad's high-resolution retina display.

The Penultimate iPad app doesn't have a keyboard, so it's not useful for typing notes. And it isn't quite as feature-rich as our other Editors' Choice Note Taker HD ($4.99, 4.5 stars)?although the latter costs five times as much. (For more recommendations, see "Note-Taking Apps for the iPad.")

Broad Strokes
Penultimate's interface looks familiar, though if there's any uncertainty, an interactive walkthrough takes just a couple of minutes to complete. You write in a virtual notebook, filled with blank, grid, or lined pages. The tools, a pen?fine, medium, or broad tipped, in ten shades?and eraser follow your finger or stylus across the page. New pages appear when you flip forward by touching the top corner of a page. Flipping between pages is nearly as smooth as thumbing the pages of a physical book, a testament to the app's speed.

Also worth mentioning are two controls through which you can improve usage. From the settings,you can move the toolbar?buttons for clearing a page, writing, and erasing?from the bottom of a page to the top. There's also a clever feature called Wrist Protection, which, automatically disregards stray marks from a resting wrist. Sometimes, especially when doodling, Wrist Protection can be overly protective, ignoring quick swipes, but when it comes to writing, it's a must.

Finger Painting
Penultimate organizes your work in terms of "Notebooks." Accessing different notebooks is as easy as returning to "My Notebooks" and swiping through the covers. Inside a notebook, you can create as many pages as you like. Unlike a notebook that comes in one style?blank, lined, or grid?with Penultimate, you can alternate between the three paper background styles. An in-app connection to The Paper Shop allows you to buy additional paper styles, such as sheet music paper, should you choose. A few are free, but most cost about a dollar.

If you make mistakes, as you will at first while getting used to writing with your finger or a new stylus, you can use either an eraser or an "undo" button. Multiple undos are supported, thankfully, and a redo button lets you toggle back if you undo too many actions.

The Penultimate iPad app doesn't have handwriting-to-text OCR, as the app Notes Plus ($7.99) does. So if you write by hand, the text stays in your handwriting, for better or worse. The iPad display doesn't tent to make handwriting look any worse than it already is, and if anything, smooths it slightly. Penultimate is fine for quick notes, and amazing for sketching or mind-mapping, but we wouldn't recommend it for heavy writing.

Art Gallery
Whether you're sharing in real time through a projector, distributing sketches as PDFs, or backing up files in iTunes, Penultimate is a capable companion. If you're looking to collaborate with colleagues, you can connect your pad to a projector via the Apple iPad VGA Adapter ($29). You can also share sketches via email. From inside a notebook, you can select either page or a full notebook to be attached as either a standard PDF or the proprietary .pen format.

Exported PDFs look great. There's even an option to include the paper background image, or convert it to flat white. You can import image files into your notebooks and mark them up with notes or just place them on a page and resize them however you want. Penultimate integrates well with Dropbox, Evernote (Penultimate is now owned by the company Evernote), and iTunes.

Your Last Pen
Penultimate for iPad, a PCMag Editors' Choice, is an excellent and ridiculously inexpensive note-taking app that is especially handy for those who have to sketch diagrams and images in their notes. Typists will lament the lack of a keyboard and should stick to Note Taker HD, our other Editors' Choice, instead. Tight integration with Dropbox and Evernote, two big players in the cloud syncing space, given Penultimate a little more utility than it would otherwise have on its own. Now that the product has been picked up by Evernote, we're excited to see what's in store next for this capable and already impressive app.

More iPad App Reviews:
??? Penultimate (for iPad)
??? Apple iOS 5.1.1 (for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch)
??? Pixlr-o-matic (for iPad)
??? iSimplyConnect (for iPad)
??? Adobe Photoshop Touch (for iPad)
?? more

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Set Phasers to Litigate (Theagitator)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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A non-investors guide to Facebook's IPO

Eduardo Munoz / Reuters

Why is this hoodied guy smiling? Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is escorted by security guards as he departs New York City's Sheraton Hotel May 7, 2012.

By John W. Schoen, Senior Producer

The media frenzy over Facebook's IPO has a lot of people wondering how the process works and how well it's going, even though most small investors won't be able to get in on the opening day action.?

When a company like Facebook sells shares to the public, its stock is bought in an open market that seems a lot like purchasing?something on eBay. But the process of getting those first shares to?market is a lot more complicated than uploading a picture of that guitar your son never used.

Here?s a rough guide to one of the biggest initial public offerings ? or IPOs ? in stock market history.

What?s an underwriter, and why do companies need them to go public?

Because the process has so many moving parts, companies typically hire experts, in the form of investment bankers, to help?them handle the details and advise them. On the day the stock is finally sold, the underwriters act as middlemen, buying shares directly from Facebook and then selling them to investors. They?keep a piece for themselves, of course.

Morgan Stanley got the nod as lead underwriter for Facebook, a role that gives the firm the biggest piece of the offering, prestige that could help attract new business and the honor of top billing on an offering announcement known as a "tombstone." Another 30 or so banks will help distribute the stock to investors on the day of the offering.

Why does it take so long to arrange the offering?

To go forward with its offering, Facebook has to spell out to potential investors exactly what they?re getting in?a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, known as an S-1. It's?the first of many filings the company will have to make once its shares are in public hands. The S-1 also becomes the formal offering document, or prospectus. Typically, the underwriters and SEC go back and forth on several drafts, making changes until both sides are satisfied. So far, Facebook?is on its fifth filing and the S-1 weighs in at more than 200 pages.

In its S-1, Facebook offers details of its financial condition and management structure, includind the names of its top executives, how much they make and how much stock they hold. The law also requires Facebook to spell out numerous ?risk factors.? Some of them are fairly routine (?Unfavorable media coverage could negatively affect our business.?) Some of them are not so routine (?Yahoo is suing us for patent infringement.?)

The reason for all of this candor is more than altruism. If the company gets into financial trouble for reasons it hasn?t disclosed in the prospectus, investors can sue.

Doesn?t that just scare off potential investors? ?

That?s why companies going public stage a ?road show? ? a series of meetings with underwriters and potential investors to drum up interest in the stock. These are usually a series of lunches with PowerPoint presentations touting the company?s successes and laying out its bright future. Facebook hit the road this week after posting a 30-minute video featuring gushing monologues by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other company principals explaining how Facebook, with its 900 million monthly users, plans to become nothing less than the flywheel of global commerce. ?(Click here to watch the video.)

Apparently, the video wasn't ready for prime time. Though senior managers adhered to a strict Silicon Valley dress code as they described the brave new world they?re creating, there was plenty to make a stodgy investor comfortable, including talk of ?inflexion points? and a ?compelling value proposition.? After the presentation bombed in its New York opening, it was scrapped on the road in favor of a more conventional live presentation.?

OK, I?m sold. How can I get in on the ground floor?

You can't. Not unless you?re a large institutional investor like a pension fund or your stock broker is unusually well plugged into one of those 30 underwriters. Facebook plans to sell 337 million shares ? which sounds like a lot. But because it?s widely expected to be a hot stock (after all, it?s going to be at the center of global commerce forever), demand is likely to be much bigger than the first batch of shares.

Facebook met with roughly 200 investors at Boston's Four Seasons, reports CNBC's Kayla Tausche.

Why not sell more shares? Wouldn't Facebook make more money?

In Zuckerberg?s case, the more stock he sells the less control he has over the company. And Facebook?s CEO will retain an unusual level of control over the company he founded.

Unlike most public companies, Facebook has set up two types of stock with different rights to vote on decisions about the company?s business. Class A shares, which the public can buy, get one vote each. Class B shares, some 28.4 percent of which are held by Zuckerberg, get 10 votes apiece. Facebook?s 27-year-old CEO has also made side agreements with other Class B holders, giving him control over their votes, for a total of 57 percent of the voting rights after the IPO is completed. If Class B holders sell their stock, those shares revert to one-vote Class A shares, which could concentrate Zuckerberg?s control even further over time.

For the underwriters, there?s always the risk that if the offering is too big, they may misjudge demand and get stuck with unsold shares. That rarely happens. When it does there?s usually a clause in the deal requiring the company to buy shares back. In Facebook's case, Morgan Stanley also has the right to sell another 50 million shares if it sees strong demand. (On Wall Street, this is called the ?green shoe? option ? named for the company that first allowed this in 1960.) By adjusting the number of shares of the initial offering, the underwriter can exert some control over the first-day pricing.

So how much will the stock go for on Day One?

Facebook says in its latest SEC filing that the stock will be priced somewhere between $28 and $35 a share, raising up to $13.6 billion. That would value the company at a total of $77 billion to $96 billion. The exact amount will be set after the stock market closes on the day before the offering, based on market conditions and the underwriters' best guess on how much demand there will be. The company's ticker symbol is expected to be FB.

Pricing an IPO is something of an art. If you price it too low, and the stock soars the next day, you?ve left money on the table. If you price it too high, and the stock falls, your company?s stock is widely seen as a dud. ?

Who makes money from the IPO?

A lot of people. First, Facebook stands to rake in an estimated $5.8 billion ?on the 180 million shares it will be selling from its treasury. That money can be used for general operating expenses, research and expansion. In theory, that?s the reason companies go public in the first place.

The rest of the shares are being sold by individuals ? managers, employees, early stage investors ? who were given stock valued, in some cases, at a tiny fraction of a cent. Expect a flood of stories about the exploits of Facebook?s suddenly wealthy 20-something employees. Not everyone can cash in right away; like most new companies, Facebook puts restrictions on some stock awards the prevent them from all coming to market at once and forcing down the share price. ?

If all goes well, the inner circle of well-connected institutional and private investors will also profit from the ?first-day pop? in the price once the stock begins trading. Even if the stock settles only modestly higher than the offering price, it?s not a bad one-day return.

And the underwriters will get their piece, though in Facebook?s case it will be relatively small. Underwriters typically take home as much as 7 percent of the value of the offering in fees, commissions and the spread between what they pay the company and what they charge investors. But in competing so fiercely for the company?s business, Morgan Stanley apparently gave Zuckerberg a terrific deal. According to published reports, Facebook will pay a little over 1 percent of the offering?s value to get its stock in public hands.

That should be worth at least a ?Like? from him on their Facebook page.?

Related:

Road show hits Boston sans Zuckerberg, video

IPO could value Facebook at $96 billion

Full coverage of the Facebook IPO

Discuss your thoughts about this story -- where else? -- on our Facebook page

?

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HP outs new 23-inch 2311ix IPS LED backlit monitor

Along with tons of new notebooks, HP is unveiling a 23-inch display, the 2311xi. The screen has a 1920 x 1080 resolution with a brightness of 250 nits, and it makes use of an IPS panel to promise wide viewing angles (178 degrees both horizontally and vertically). For connecting your PC, there's also VGA, HDMI and DVI-D input. The display will go for $240 starting June 24th. Check out the gallery of press photos below and, if you're really curious, feast your eyes on HP's demo video below the break.

Gallery: HP 2311xi

Continue reading HP outs new 23-inch 2311ix IPS LED backlit monitor

HP outs new 23-inch 2311ix IPS LED backlit monitor originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 23:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft Expression Studio 4 Web Professional

The biggest and most powerful app isn't always the one that works best for you?and the app that proves that point for me is Microsoft's Expression Studio 4 Web Professional?($149 direct; upgrade $79). In the small field of website editors, Adobe's Dreamweaver continues to hold the lead in its range of features and power, and Dreamweaver CS6 ($399.99; upgrade $199.00, direct, 4 stars) is the first Web editor that's fully at home in a world where cutting-edge designers need to build sites for phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. But, for me, Expression Web is still the app I choose for editing websites.

Laptop Friendly
I don't design enterprise-level sites, the kind that Dreamweaver is ideal for?and that Expression Web can also build?but I want a flexible and straightforward set of tools for working with current Web technologies, and Expression Web offers exactly that. With all its strengths, Dreamweaver sometimes seems sprawling and muscle-bound, and it works well only when you give it more screen space than you have on a laptop. Expression Web feels at home on both a desktop monitor and a cramped laptop. I also like the fact that Expression Web costs less than half the price of Dreamweaver.

Expression Web 4 is one of three components in a package called Expression Studio 4 Web Professional , which also includes Expression Encoder (also available as a free download), a limited tool for encoding AVI and QuickTime video into Windows Media format, and Expression Design, a vector-graphics program that can import Photoshop assets. This review covers Expression Web 4 only.

Features
I sometimes think Expression Web is Microsoft's best-kept secret. Its feature set is smaller than Dreamweaver's, but everything is easy to find and intuitively easy to use. The main editing screen, as in Dreamweaver, can display a code view or editable WYSIWYG view of your page, or it can split to show both views side by side. A separate, uneditable "snapshot" view displays the current page as it will appear in a browser. A terrific fine-tuning feature is the SuperPreview window that lets you preview your site in multiple browsers at once, including any browsers on your disk and multiple browser versions hosted at Microsoft. SuperPreview includes an optional tree-style view of the elements in your page, so you can navigate through the page elements to find the one that causes layout problems in specific browsers. This feature outclasses the similar BrowserLab in Dreamweaver.

Like Dreamweaver, Expression Web surrounds the main editing window with tabbed controls for selecting files, applying CSS styles, inserting tags and form controls, and other features. All these panels make clever use of limited screen space?for example, the Folder List tab displays a tiny thumbnail of the selected image file, making it easy to select the right asset to insert on a page. Expression Web's menu system is mostly spare and easily navigable, compared with the cascade of choices in Dreamweaver, which has 35 items on its View menu.

The first release of Expression Web 4 came out two years ago, but both Service Pack 1 and the recent Service Pack 2 add enough features and conveniences that Microsoft would have been justified in promoting each one as a new release. The latest version (like Dreamweaver) includes surprisingly flexible and intuitive IntelliSense support for jQuery scripts, making it easy to create custom-styled lightbox-style images and other modern design features.

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802.11-2012 WiFi freshens up spec with 3.7GHz bands, mesh networking

It's hard to believe that 802.11 WiFi has only had three major revisions since it was started up 15 years ago. The IEEE must be equally surprised, as it's introducing a new 802.11-2012 standard that unites 10 technologies from various amended WiFi versions under one big tent. Among the picks are new support for 3.65 and 3.7GHz bands, to avoid clashing with 2.4GHz or 5GHz networks, as well as better support for direct linking, faster cellular hand-offs, in-car networks, roaming and mesh networking. You can pay $5 to have a peek at the 2012 WiFi spec today, although we'd brace for a significant wait before smartphones and routers ship with the new 802.11 format -- we know how long it can take for a WiFi standard to become a practical reality.

Continue reading 802.11-2012 WiFi freshens up spec with 3.7GHz bands, mesh networking

802.11-2012 WiFi freshens up spec with 3.7GHz bands, mesh networking originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 May 2012 17:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Romney Plays Up Past Laurels (WSJ)

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