Google's Ultra-Real-Time Messaging Tool Lives On

When Google Wave launched in 2009, the company suggested the program was a "new category" of communication because it combined the virtues of e-mail, instant messaging, and methods for sharing pictures, links, and other documents. Among its other features, Wave went a step beyond IM by letting people see what their message partners were writing as they typed it. That meant that the people on the receiving end of your messages would see characters appear onscreen even before you had finished formulating a sentence. It was a radical approach. I tried Wave myself and found it very distracting to watch people type, delete, retype, and misspell their thoughts. People I had persuaded to try it with me never signed in again, unsure as to how it was useful. We weren't alone in our confusion: last year, Google announced it would stop developing Wave.

And yet, Google Wave lives on?in business software.

Google allowed other companies to incorporate some of the programming code behind Wave, and that's what Novell, a maker of business software, did for its new collaboration tool, Novell Vibe Cloud. The program, which is in beta now and is due to launch fully this spring with a free version and a paid subscription service for businesses, offers the real-time "co-editing" function of Wave, along with file sharing and other messaging functions, in an interface similar to Google Wave's. Additionally, Cloud incorporates something called Google Federation, a set of code that could allow different online collaboration tools to work together (in the same way that different e-mail addresses can exchange e-mails). But why would this succeed where Google Wave didn't?

Wendy Steinle, director of product marketing for Novell's collaborative solutions, says Vibe Cloud has a more specific purpose than Google Wave did: to help people collaborate within a company and between companies.

"By being particularly targeted toward workplaces, it makes a lot more sense," she says. "People don't need to real-time collaborate as much for social messaging as they do brainstorming for business ideas."

Social networking alone won't help companies become more productive, she says. Enterprise programs that only mimic Twitter or Facebook updates?"micromessages"?don't give employees the tools to develop a short exchange into a fuller idea or business plan. In contrast, Novell's Vibe Cloud "is designed so you can start a conversation as a short micromessage ... [and] grow that message into a full document or strategy," she says.

Thousands of companies are using the beta version of Novell's program, Steinle says. Her own team has used Vibe Cloud and its real-time messaging function for meetings and brainstorming. Even though that means "your process for getting work done is definitely more visible to the people you're working with," she says, overall the function is useful. "People are much more engaged and present," she contends. "If you see notes being taken before your eyes, you want to participate in that," says Steinle. "The record is occurring live, and you can correct records on the fly right there."

Judd Antin, a research scientist at Yahoo who studies the psychology of online collaboration, questions whether real-time co-editing is really helpful. "Maybe that harms collaboration, because you don't have a chance to construct yourself and your sentence," he says. "One of the beautiful things about the ability to hit return [to send your message] is that you get to backtrack and take out that awful thing that you probably shouldn't say."

But Steinle says real-time tools better reflect how people's brains work "and help us come together the way our thoughts do, flowing seamlessly from one thing to the next."

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feeds | Amazon WordPress PluginHud 1

Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=ed0c38889e4459c62afe1d0442047820

stephanie seymour and son david nelson the chipmunks seattle public schools worldstarhiphop the game season 4 episode 1 freddie mitchell simon chipmunk lebron james twitter jimmer fredette

HP TouchPad launching in June, webOS beta for PCs this year

While answering a question at the HP Summit, HP CEO Leo Apotheker revealed that the TouchPad will launch in three months and that a beta of webOS running in a browser on Windows will arrive by the end of this year. PreCentral has the full quote:
The TouchPad will come out in June and from that date onwards there will be wave after wave of technology coming out to support the webOS platform. There will be a beta version for webOS running on a browser on PCs available at the end of the year and you'll see us putting webOS on that technolgoy on PCs, on Windows PCs I should add, starting from that point onwards and we hope to read 100 million devices a year. We'll put the same technology on our printers, we'll put them on PCs, we'll put them on TouchPads, we'll put them on smartphones, so you'll see this become a very massive, very broad platform.

The HP TouchPad is a 9.7-inch slate (1024x768 resolution), powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8060 processor, 16GB or 32GB of built-in storage, HP's Beats audio, a micro-USB 2.0 port, Bluethooth 2.1+EDR, a front-mounted camera, as well as a light sensor, gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, and GPS (3G model only). It measures 242 x 190 x 13.7mm and weighs around 740g. The device is running a WebOS 3.0 with true multitasking, Flash 10.1, a paneled e-mail application, a pop-up notification system like Growl, Skype support, wireless printing, calendar and e-mail integration via HP Synergy, as well as compatibility with Amazon's Kindle ebook store, Google Docs, QuickOffice, and more. Now that we know it's coming in June 2011, all we have to do is wait for pricing details.

As for webOS on PCs, we only learned last week that HP plans to put it on all of its PCs next year. A beta in 2011 therefore isn't too surprising, although its tie-in with Windows was definitely unexpected. We're not too sure how we feel about having it run in a browser, but we're willing to see what HP cooks up before giving our thoughts.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feeds | Amazon WordPress PluginHud 1

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/42816-hp-touchpad-launching-in-june-webos-beta-for-pcs-this-year.html

the game tv show lasso of truth terrence j most popular thanksgiving side dish the game bet lights out nyc school closings scelestious stephanie seymour and son david nelson

Budget Stalemate Leaves Chaos at Many Agencies

Officials at various agencies have frozen hiring, canceled projects, delayed contracts, reduced grants and curtailed training, travel and upgrades in information technology.

In northern New Hampshire, a new federal prison, with space for 1,280 inmates, sits vacant because the federal government has not been able to hire correctional officers and other employees.

For some Head Start programs around the country, federal officials are renewing grants at 60 percent of last year?s levels. Local Head Start managers say parents, unsure of the whether there will continue to be space for their children, are trying to arrange alternative child care for preschoolers.

Michael J. Astrue, the commissioner of Social Security, said the agency had cut back distribution of annual earnings and benefit statements and had suspended plans to open eight hearing offices that would tackle a huge backlog of appeals by people seeking disability benefits.

Like most of the government, the Social Security Administration has been financed for more than five months with short-term spending bills known as continuing resolutions. Congress is expected to pass another three-week spending bill this week that will continue to pare back financing from last year?s level.

?Because of the uncertainty of our budget,? Mr. Astrue said, ?I have had to make choices that will begin to erode service.?

The Federal Transit Administration is parceling out grants in proportion to the time covered by stopgap spending bills.

Jacob Snow, general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, in Las Vegas, said his agency had received 40 percent of its usual federal grant ? $10 million, rather than $25 million. As a result, he said, the agency has deferred purchases of buses and a security system for bus terminals, as well as construction of a new park-and-ride lot.

Budgetary uncertainty has caused the Defense Department to delay equipment repairs, the construction of a new Virginia-class submarine, the purchase of Chinook helicopters and the rebuilding of war-damaged Humvees. The Army has temporarily stopped some work on the Stryker Mobile Gun System, an armored fighting vehicle.

The Army and the Marine Corps have imposed a freeze on the hiring of civilian employees, who perform myriad duties, including payroll, security and air traffic control.

?The continuing resolution represents a crisis at our doorstep,? Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said. One result, he said, is ?inefficient, start-and-stop management? of the armed forces, with greater use of one- and two-month contracts, which are inherently inefficient.

Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said the repeated use of stopgap spending bills not only hurt military readiness, but also imperiled jobs at shipyards, factories and military installations.

The budget impasse has stalled contracts for companies like NitroSecurity, a cybersecurity concern that does work for the Defense Department, NASA and the Food and Drug Administration.

?We have been selected for additional contracts, but the money is in limbo because of the continuing resolution,? said Kenneth R. Levine, the chief executive of NitroSecurity.

The federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1, and Congress is supposed to pass annual appropriations bills before that date but often misses the deadline for one or more agencies. To fill the gap, Congress typically passes bills that allow agencies to continue spending temporarily at last year?s rates, with some adjustments.

For the current fiscal year, Congress has passed five stopgap spending bills that cover consecutive intervals of two months, two weeks, three days, 10 weeks and two weeks. The most recent one expires Friday. The next one will probably run for three weeks, during which Congressional leaders and President Obama hope to negotiate a broad agreement on spending, though they remain far apart.

Elizabeth M. Robinson, the chief financial officer at NASA, said: ?Most agencies have pushed the renewal of major contracts into the winter and spring. Uncertainty has slowed down our spending. That uncertainty takes a toll.?

The Securities and Exchange Commission has been particularly hard hit. It is operating at 2010 spending levels, which were fixed before Congress vastly expanded its duties under a law signed last July.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feeds | Amazon WordPress PluginHud 1

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=cf4b59ea4a5edc51447773f3eb972ee9

lasso of truth terrence j most popular thanksgiving side dish the game bet lights out nyc school closings scelestious stephanie seymour and son david nelson the chipmunks

N.R.A. Declines to Meet With Obama on Gun Policy

On Tuesday, officials at the Justice Department will meet with gun control advocates in the first of what will be a series of meetings over the next two weeks with people on different sides of the issue, including law enforcement, retailers and manufacturers, to seek agreement on possible legislative or administrative actions.

The effort follows Mr. Obama?s call, in a column on Sunday in a Tucson newspaper, to put aside ?stale policy debates? and begin ?a new discussion? on ways to better enforce and strengthen existing laws to keep mentally unstable, violent and criminal people from getting guns.

But the National Rifle Association, for decades the most formidable force against proposals to limit gun sales or ownership, is refusing to join the discussion ? possibly dooming it from the start, given the lobby?s clout with both parties in Congress. Administration officials had indicated they expected that the group would be represented at a meeting, perhaps on Friday.

?Why should I or the N.R.A. go sit down with a group of people that have spent a lifetime trying to destroy the Second Amendment in the United States?? said Wayne LaPierre, the longtime chief executive of the National Rifle Association.

He named Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has almost no role in gun-related policies, and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

?It shouldn?t be a dialogue about guns; it really should be a dialogue about dangerous people,? Mr. LaPierre said, adding that his group has supported proposals to prevent gun sales to the mentally ill, strengthen a national system of background checks and spur states to provide needed data.

Despite his opposition to joining the administration?s table, by his comments in an interview Mr. LaPierre sounded at times like the White House.

For example, a White House adviser on Monday said Mr. Obama wanted to redefine the gun debate to ?focus on the people, not the guns.? The president, in his column, cited the same policy areas Mr. LaPierre mentioned as fertile ground for consensus. And Mr. Obama emphasized, ?First, we should begin by enforcing laws that are already on the books? ? a line long used by the gun lobby.

Mr. Obama?s column in The Arizona Daily Star reflected his continued political caution toward an issue that for decades has polarized the country. In past weeks, aides had suggested he might give a public address expanding on his views about gun safety ? an option that has now been put aside.

Mr. Obama spoke at a memorial service in Tucson four days after a gunman on Jan. 8 killed six people and wounded 13, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords. But gun safety advocates, including a group of mayors headed by Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, called on Mr. Obama to do more, including endorsing legislation to ban high-capacity magazines like those used in the Arizona attack.

Several factors have inhibited him. With Republicans now a majority in the House, legislation restricting guns has little chance of passage. And many Democrats, including Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, are opposed to stirring controversy and provoking the N.R.A.?s membership to oppose them.

Also, the White House is focused on its economic message ? when it is not consumed by events abroad ? and likewise has little interest in distracting from that before the 2012 election season, aides say.

In the op-ed article, Mr. Obama did not recommend particular legislative remedies, including proposals that he had backed as a presidential candidate to reinstate a ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004 and to close a loophole for gun-show sales in the federal law requiring background checks of purchasers.

Instead, he emphasized his belief that the Constitution guarantees individuals? right to bear arms and boasted that ?my administration has not curtailed the rights of gun owners ? it has expanded them, including allowing people to carry their guns in national parks and wildlife refuges.?

Mr. Obama is trying on many issues, including deficit reduction, to stake out a middle ground that appeals to independent voters. Aides said polls showed that the gun issue was not a big one for independents, but that they did abhor political fights and favored politicians who compromise. The president played to that sentiment in his op-ed article ? and anticipated the rifle association?s rebuff.

?Some will say nothing short of the most sweeping antigun legislation is a capitulation to the gun lobby,? he wrote. ?Others will predictably cast any discussion as the opening salvo in a wild-eyed scheme to take away everybody?s guns.?

?But,? he added, ?I have more faith in the American people than that.?

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feeds | Amazon WordPress PluginHud 1

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=0a4e80cabcea08d97a31630b931b1cb0

worldstarhiphop the game season 4 episode 1 freddie mitchell simon chipmunk lebron james twitter jimmer fredette thomas tew rum issaquah school district the game tv show lasso of truth

Google's Ultra-Real-Time Messaging Tool Lives On

When Google Wave launched in 2009, the company suggested the program was a "new category" of communication because it combined the virtues of e-mail, instant messaging, and methods for sharing pictures, links, and other documents. Among its other features, Wave went a step beyond IM by letting people see what their message partners were writing as they typed it. That meant that the people on the receiving end of your messages would see characters appear onscreen even before you had finished formulating a sentence. It was a radical approach. I tried Wave myself and found it very distracting to watch people type, delete, retype, and misspell their thoughts. People I had persuaded to try it with me never signed in again, unsure as to how it was useful. We weren't alone in our confusion: last year, Google announced it would stop developing Wave.

And yet, Google Wave lives on?in business software.

Google allowed other companies to incorporate some of the programming code behind Wave, and that's what Novell, a maker of business software, did for its new collaboration tool, Novell Vibe Cloud. The program, which is in beta now and is due to launch fully this spring with a free version and a paid subscription service for businesses, offers the real-time "co-editing" function of Wave, along with file sharing and other messaging functions, in an interface similar to Google Wave's. Additionally, Cloud incorporates something called Google Federation, a set of code that could allow different online collaboration tools to work together (in the same way that different e-mail addresses can exchange e-mails). But why would this succeed where Google Wave didn't?

Wendy Steinle, director of product marketing for Novell's collaborative solutions, says Vibe Cloud has a more specific purpose than Google Wave did: to help people collaborate within a company and between companies.

"By being particularly targeted toward workplaces, it makes a lot more sense," she says. "People don't need to real-time collaborate as much for social messaging as they do brainstorming for business ideas."

Social networking alone won't help companies become more productive, she says. Enterprise programs that only mimic Twitter or Facebook updates?"micromessages"?don't give employees the tools to develop a short exchange into a fuller idea or business plan. In contrast, Novell's Vibe Cloud "is designed so you can start a conversation as a short micromessage ... [and] grow that message into a full document or strategy," she says.

Thousands of companies are using the beta version of Novell's program, Steinle says. Her own team has used Vibe Cloud and its real-time messaging function for meetings and brainstorming. Even though that means "your process for getting work done is definitely more visible to the people you're working with," she says, overall the function is useful. "People are much more engaged and present," she contends. "If you see notes being taken before your eyes, you want to participate in that," says Steinle. "The record is occurring live, and you can correct records on the fly right there."

Judd Antin, a research scientist at Yahoo who studies the psychology of online collaboration, questions whether real-time co-editing is really helpful. "Maybe that harms collaboration, because you don't have a chance to construct yourself and your sentence," he says. "One of the beautiful things about the ability to hit return [to send your message] is that you get to backtrack and take out that awful thing that you probably shouldn't say."

But Steinle says real-time tools better reflect how people's brains work "and help us come together the way our thoughts do, flowing seamlessly from one thing to the next."

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feeds | Amazon WordPress PluginHud 1

Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=ed0c38889e4459c62afe1d0442047820

the game season 4 episode 1 freddie mitchell simon chipmunk lebron james twitter jimmer fredette thomas tew rum issaquah school district the game tv show lasso of truth terrence j

Enermax to launch CPU coolers

Enermax to launch CPU coolers

Posted on 19th Feb 2011 at 10:32 by Richard Swinburne with 18 comments

During a brief discussion with Enermax recently, a PR person let slip that the company's planning to launch a new CPU cooler range, which will be based on the principles of vortex generator flow technology, while featuring a couple of Enermax's Twister bearing fans.

The cooler has six heatpipes that get direct contact with the CPU, while a Twister fan sits on either side of the tower. Meanwhile, the LEDs can be switched off using the little buttons below each fan in the picture. The fans *should* feature 4-pin PWM power connectors as well, but we don't know whether they'll be tied together with a single connector yet.


More information about the coolers is likely to start doing the rounds soon, though, as Enermax is encouraging folk to visit its booth in the usually wet (sometimes snowy), cold and miserable surroundings of the CeBIT tradeshow in Hannover, Germany, at the start of March.

Does this design look like a winner to you? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feeds | Amazon WordPress PluginHud 1

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/v-oENFSSRoA/

the game tv show lasso of truth terrence j most popular thanksgiving side dish the game bet lights out nyc school closings scelestious stephanie seymour and son david nelson

Mormon Politicians From Utah Feel Tea Party Heat

But in the muscular arena of Tea Party and so-called Sept. 12 groups that have surged into dominance in Utah over the last year, places like Coalville and the Smith house have become unlikely stations for politicians to come kiss the ring.

Senator Orrin G. Hatch, a six-term Republican who faces re-election next year, has been among Ms. Smith?s supplicants, seeking the endorsement of her group, the STAR Forum, for Save The American Republic, and others like it. Ms. Smith is not sold on Mr. Hatch yet, and she does not think too many others in the Tea Party community are either.

?I don?t think he?s winning over anyone,? Ms. Smith said, smiling sweetly on a couch in her living room decorated with patriotic bunting and a giant engraved plaque of the Declaration of Independence.

In addition to Mr. Hatch, two other Republicans closely associated with Utah are likely to be in the national spotlight next year ? Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, and Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former governor of Utah, both possible presidential candidates.

And the three, Mormons all, are facing varying degrees of revolt where they might least like it or expect it ? in their own backyard among mostly Mormon Tea Party members who are pushing for still more conservative fortitude.

?We oppose all three,? said David Kirkham, a businessman who helped found one of Utah?s first Tea Party groups.

Mr. Romney, who has family roots in Utah, blazed further into local life with his leadership of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. But he has since been besmirched, Mr. Kirkham and others said, by his involvement with a Massachusetts health care overhaul that is anathema to many Tea Party members who see it as a model for the Obama plan passed last year.

Mr. Huntsman took a moderate stance on many social issues as governor and also supported carbon emissions cap-and-trade legislation to reduce heat-trapping gases, another Tea Party no-no.

?On a good day, he?s a socialist,? said Darcy Van Orden, a co-founder of Utah Rising, a clearinghouse group, referring to Mr. Huntsman. ?On a bad day, he?s a communist.?

As for Mr. Hatch, Mr. Kirkham said, ?We have exactly the same game plan as we did last time with Bennett.?

That would be former Senator Bob Bennett, a Republican whose long political career was unceremoniously ended in 2010 when Mr. Kirkham and other Tea Party-inspired delegates swept into control at the party?s state convention.

In a few quick votes, the delegates denied Mr. Bennett?s renomination. One of their favorites, Mike Lee, a former clerk for Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. of the Supreme Court, ultimately won the general election.

That event, many Republicans here say, set the stage for everything leading to the 2012 election. The Tea Party showed it could throw a knockout punch, and the candidates the Tea Party now opposes saw how it was done and are thus forearmed.

Mr. Hatch, in particular, is taking pre-emptive action by meeting with as many Tea Party groups as he can, said his campaign manager, David Hansen.

?Do I think we?ve made progress? Absolutely,? Mr. Hansen said. ?They may not agree with everything he has done, but they appreciate that he is listening to them and talking to them.?

In at least 25 to 30 meetings over the last year, by Mr. Hansen?s count, Mr. Hatch has ?emphasized things they believe in and he has supported,? Mr. Hansen said. ?It?s an ongoing process; it will continue.?

A spokeswoman for Mr. Romney declined to comment about Tea Party criticism in Utah. A person close to Mr. Huntsman, who announced his resignation as American ambassador to China in January, said he was not commenting on his future until he returned from China.

What amplifies the Tea Party?s role is that Utah, more than perhaps any other state, is dominated by the Republican Party. No Democrat has won statewide office here since a two-term attorney general in the 1990s. That means Tea Party activists do not need to think much, or talk much, about the Democrats, who can largely be dismissed as irrelevant; they can thus concentrate fully on remaking the Republican Party from within, by shaping it and handpicking candidates.

The prospect of two Mormon candidates for president and a bruising Senate fight could give those homegrown views an even louder voice, said the Republican Party?s state chairman, Thomas E. Wright. ?Every Utahan?s voice is going to be heard across the nation,? Mr. Wright said.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feeds | Amazon WordPress PluginHud 1

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=c62cad4134b53ba552d6841b95ca8118

the game bet lights out nyc school closings scelestious stephanie seymour and son david nelson the chipmunks seattle public schools worldstarhiphop the game season 4 episode 1

Administration Invites N.R.A. to Meeting on Gun Policies, but It Declines

On Tuesday, officials at the Justice Department will meet with gun control advocates in the first of what will be a series of meetings over the next two weeks with people on different sides of the issue, including law enforcement, retailers and manufacturers, to seek agreement on possible legislative or administrative actions.

The effort follows Mr. Obama?s call, in a column on Sunday in a Tucson newspaper, to put aside ?stale policy debates? and begin ?a new discussion? on ways to better enforce and strengthen existing laws to keep mentally unstable, violent and criminal people from getting guns.

But the National Rifle Association, for decades the most formidable force against proposals to limit gun sales or ownership, is refusing to join the discussion ? possibly dooming it from the start, given the lobby?s clout with both parties in Congress. Administration officials had indicated they expected that the group would be represented at a meeting, perhaps on Friday.

?Why should I or the N.R.A. go sit down with a group of people that have spent a lifetime trying to destroy the Second Amendment in the United States?? said Wayne LaPierre, the longtime chief executive of the National Rifle Association.

He named Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has almost no role in gun-related policies, and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

?It shouldn?t be a dialogue about guns; it really should be a dialogue about dangerous people,? Mr. LaPierre said, adding that his group has supported proposals to prevent gun sales to the mentally ill, strengthen a national system of background checks and spur states to provide needed data.

Despite his opposition to joining the administration?s table, by his comments in an interview Mr. LaPierre sounded at times like the White House.

For example, a White House adviser on Monday said Mr. Obama wanted to redefine the gun debate to ?focus on the people, not the guns.? The president, in his column, cited the same policy areas Mr. LaPierre mentioned as fertile ground for consensus. And Mr. Obama emphasized, ?First, we should begin by enforcing laws that are already on the books? ? a line long used by the gun lobby.

Mr. Obama?s column in The Arizona Daily Star reflected his continued political caution toward an issue that for decades has polarized the country. In past weeks, aides had suggested he might give a public address expanding on his views about gun safety ? an option that has now been put aside.

Mr. Obama spoke at a memorial service in Tucson four days after a gunman on Jan. 8 killed six people and wounded 13, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords. But gun safety advocates, including a group of mayors headed by Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, called on Mr. Obama to do more, including endorsing legislation to ban high-capacity magazines like those used in the Arizona attack.

Several factors have inhibited him. With Republicans now a majority in the House, legislation restricting guns has little chance of passage. And many Democrats, including Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, are opposed to stirring controversy and provoking the N.R.A.?s membership to oppose them.

Also, the White House is focused on its economic message ? when it is not consumed by events abroad ? and likewise has little interest in distracting from that before the 2012 election season, aides say.

In the op-ed article, Mr. Obama did not recommend particular legislative remedies, including proposals that he had backed as a presidential candidate to reinstate a ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004 and to close a loophole for gun-show sales in the federal law requiring background checks of purchasers.

Instead, he emphasized his belief that the Constitution guarantees individuals? right to bear arms and boasted that ?my administration has not curtailed the rights of gun owners ? it has expanded them, including allowing people to carry their guns in national parks and wildlife refuges.?

Mr. Obama is trying on many issues, including deficit reduction, to stake out a middle ground that appeals to independent voters. Aides said polls showed that the gun issue was not a big one for independents, but that they did abhor political fights and favored politicians who compromise. The president played to that sentiment in his op-ed article ? and anticipated the rifle association?s rebuff.

?Some will say nothing short of the most sweeping antigun legislation is a capitulation to the gun lobby,? he wrote. ?Others will predictably cast any discussion as the opening salvo in a wild-eyed scheme to take away everybody?s guns.?

?But,? he added, ?I have more faith in the American people than that.?

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feeds | Amazon WordPress PluginHud 1

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=0a4e80cabcea08d97a31630b931b1cb0

thomas tew rum issaquah school district the game tv show lasso of truth terrence j most popular thanksgiving side dish the game bet lights out nyc school closings scelestious

Google?s Street View site gets a massive update

While we?ve heard some great stories about Google?s Street View over the years, it?s not often that we get to see the technology behind that makes it all happen. As Google has traveled the world, gathering Street Views for Google Maps and more, the team has collected some amazing images that we?ve not gotten to see as of yet.

According to the Google Lat Long Blog, a revamp of the Street View page should fix these matters.

While we?ve been able to photograph most places in Street View with our cars, plenty of unique and interesting locations around the world aren?t accessible by car. To help us visit places with smaller paths or unpaved terrain, we?ve developed the Trike, Snowmobile and Trolley, which have enabled us to share parks, ski trails, and even museums with you in Street View. You can now check out pictures and 3D models, and learn more about all of these platforms on the site.

It?s an interesting read, especially when you consider the tech behind the whole project. We all knew about the Street View cars, but did you know that there are even tricycles, for those hard-to-reach spots?

It?s fun stuff to explore, so drop by and let us know your thoughts.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feeds | Amazon WordPress PluginHud 1

Source: http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/03/14/googles-street-view-site-gets-a-massive-update/

issaquah school district the game tv show lasso of truth terrence j most popular thanksgiving side dish the game bet lights out nyc school closings scelestious stephanie seymour and son

Campaigning as All Things to All Republicans

Few audiences are too small for Mr. Pawlenty, who turns up at Tea Party rallies, church forums and beer and pizza parties with College Republicans. He even hit the ice to play hockey here, with a local television crew following closely along.

Mr. Pawlenty, a former governor of Minnesota, is trying to make equal appeals to the diverse constituencies of the Republican Party as he introduces himself as a potential candidate. He stands out among the major contenders in trying to assertively court all factions that will help select a nominee to challenge President Obama.

?I want to be every person?s candidate ? that?s my goal,? Mr. Pawlenty said. ?The notion that you can?t do more than one thing at a time, I think, is a flawed premise.?

At a recent Tea Party Patriots rally, he pronounced, ?The government?s too damn big!? To an evangelical audience, he declared, ?The Constitution was designed to protect people of faith from government, not to protect government from people of faith.? And to Republicans in New Hampshire, he closed with a gentle plea: ?Please leave with hope and optimism.?

It is an uncertain gambit for Mr. Pawlenty, who rose through the ranks of state politics over nearly two decades and now faces the tumult of a Republican presidential primary in which the path to the nomination is far from clear. And seeking to keep a foot in all Republican camps, rather than concentrating on a more targeted slice of voters, could leave the impression that he is trying too hard.

His record as a fiscally conservative governor in a politically divided state is solid, but he still faces stiff competition winning over Tea Party supporters. An evangelical Christian, Mr. Pawlenty has yet to build a loyal following among religious conservatives. He lacks a deep fund-raising network and his name recognition is low, but he was among the finalists Senator John McCain was considering for his running mate in 2008.

Yet in a prospective field whose most prominent members have some heavy baggage as well as higher profiles, one of Mr. Pawlenty?s strongest assets could be the opportunity to sell himself on his own terms ? in policy and personal style.

Unlike Newt Gingrich, he does not have the political scars that come with a long career under intense scrutiny. He does not enjoy the intensity of support directed at Sarah Palin, nor does he generate the passion of her detractors. And Mitt Romney?s efforts to remake himself as more of a social conservative provide an object lesson in handling questions about authenticity.

?I think the people who get tossed around in this process are people who don?t have their compass set, who don?t have their feet firmly planted on the ground,? Mr. Pawlenty said in an interview. ?And then they start to just grab for the wind and they flop around. That?s not me.?

He is taking an old-fashioned approach, hoping to earn respect for showing up nearly everywhere. He seldom leaves a room before talking to all who are waiting. Then he makes time for reporters, unlike some of his rivals, particularly Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, who exited through a side door at an appearance last week as journalists approached.

Mr. Pawlenty, 50, has been a fixture at Republican events in Iowa and New Hampshire for more than a year. He barely climbs above the margin of error in national polls ? three percentage points or so ? but those surveys do not measure the importance of face-to-face introductions he has been making.

The knock on Mr. Pawlenty, according to conversations with voters, is that his speeches sound sincere but do not always sizzle. At a faith forum last week in Iowa, he displayed vigor. But the next day at the Statehouse, the talk among several Republicans was that it seemed he had suddenly developed a Southern accent as he tried connecting to voters by speaking louder and with more energy.

The political blog of Radio Iowa heard it too and noted, ?Pawlenty seems to be adopting a Southern accent as he talks about his record as governor.? As he spoke of the country?s challenges, he dropped the letter G, saying: ?It ain?t gonna be easy. This is about plowin? ahead and gettin? the job done.?

Mr. Pawlenty is positioning himself as a leading alternative to Mr. Romney, who starts the race with a significant fund-raising advantage in his second bid for the party?s nomination. But that is the most sought-after role in the Republican field, one that Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi is also hoping to fill.

Mr. Pawlenty has benefited from Senator John Thune of South Dakota and Representative Mike Pence of Indiana opting to stay out of the race. But his efforts to win Tea Party support may be complicated by a fellow Minnesotan, Representative Michele Bachmann, who spent the weekend in New Hampshire, testing her own presidential bid.

At a Republican gathering here last week, as people waited for handshakes and autographs, Diana Lachance of Derry stood about three feet from Mr. Pawlenty as she told a reporter, ?I love Michele Bachmann!? She said that she appreciated Mr. Pawlenty?s sincerity, but that she needed to learn more about him.

James Kirkpatrick, who met Mr. Pawlenty last summer, became the first Republican county chairman in Iowa to support him. He said Mr. Pawlenty?s appeal included his ability to perform well in the Midwest, including Minnesota, which last voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 1972. ?When other candidates come up,? Mr. Kirkpatrick said, ?I ask them, ?What states can you bring to the table?? ?

Mr. Pawlenty presents himself to audiences as a Republican who trimmed government and stood up to labor unions, prevailing in a 44-day transit strike that led to pension and benefits changes for bus drivers. He tells his up-by-the-bootstraps story about growing up in a working-class neighborhood, his mother dying when he was 16, working in a grocery store and being the first person in his family to go to college.

Mr. Pawlenty has been considering a presidential bid for so long that he is already on his second stump speech. Last year, he opened nearly every appearance with a quip about ?my red-hot, smoking wife, the first lady of Minnesota.? That crowd pleaser has been replaced by a pair of partisan jokes, with the punch line aimed at Mr. Obama.

?I do have to give him credit on at least one thing,? Mr. Pawlenty told a New Hampshire audience. ?He?s accomplished something that is really almost impossible: he has proven that somebody can win a Nobel Prize and deserve it less than Al Gore.?

As the crowd laughed lightly, he added: ?I?m not one of those who question President Obama?s birth certificate, but I do question what planet he?s from.?

Mr. Pawlenty, a year older than Mr. Obama, is one of the youngest prospective Republican candidates. He is sensitive to questions about his experience, which came to light here when a voter asked how he believed the president had handled Libya and other foreign policy challenges.

?For a governor, I?ve got an unusual amount of foreign policy or international security experience,? he said. ?I?ve been to Iraq five times. I?ve been to Afghanistan three times. I?ve been all over the Middle East, including Israel, Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait and other places.?

After the soliloquy about himself, Mr. Pawlenty answered the question.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feeds | Amazon WordPress PluginHud 1

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=cc9a36551421a962d0f323d270eb781e

scelestious stephanie seymour and son david nelson the chipmunks seattle public schools worldstarhiphop the game season 4 episode 1 freddie mitchell simon chipmunk lebron james twitter