What is on that screen?

What is on that screen?

Posted on 18th Dec 2010 at 12:30 by James Gorbold with 88 comments

One of the first things I do when proof reading an article that is about to be published on bit-tech or Custom PC is check whether the URL at the top of the review does correctly link to the product manufacturer's homepage.

So while proofing the review of the MSI X58A-GD65 motherboard I came across this image which I just had to share with you. It's an advert admitedly, but the artwork is so bizarre that I thought it worth a caption competition.

What is on that screen? *What is on that screen?

To get things started, this is what some of the bit-tech/CPC editorial's team suggestions:

1. MSI has installed fans in the screen.

2. He's just seen a video of his parents having sex.

3. He's just seen the first benchmarks of a LGA2011 CPU.

Over to you...

Powered by WizardRSS | Work At Home Jobs

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/LPDShzRvIU0/

panama city shooting wsmv weather news channel 5 weather weather richmond va

The Year in Computing

The last 12 months changed the shape and definition of computers, which no longer necessarily involve a keyboard, a monitor, and a mouse. Apple started the year by launching its tablet (The iPad, Like an iPhone, Only Bigger), which soon spawned many imitators (Androids Will Challenge the iPad). Google started the year by showing off the most powerful smart phone yet (Google Reveals its New Phone) and ended it with a personal computer that relies entirely on the Web, by way of Chrome OS (The Browser Takes All).

Another new category of computers grew out of the industry's obsession with adding computing power to television. Google's ambitious but troubled effort (Google TV Faces Some Prime-Time Challenges) joined a more established apps-for-TV scheme from Yahoo (Yahoo Brings Apps to TVs) and a stripped-down entrant from Apple (Apple Shows a Facebook Rival and Apple TV 2.0). All put Web-streamed content and social networking at the heart of their strategies, trying to connect living-room viewing with online friends (Making TV Social, Virtually).

The new kinds of computers required new kinds of controls. 2010 saw enhancements to touch technology, such as a way to simulate the sensation of texture on a flat screen (Touch Screens that Touch Back) and a more powerful version of the laptop track pad (Upgrading the Laptop's Touch Pad). New physical interfaces were also introduced, such as Microsoft's technology for gestural control (Hackers Take the Kinect to New Levels) and a prototype device that the user controls by tapping a forearm (Putting Virtual Controls on Your Arm). More speculative projects showed that it's possible to control a cell phone with your eyes (Eye Tracking for Mobile Control) or brain (Mobile Phone Mind Control).

All these innovations were made possible by continuing advances in the power and compactness of computer components. One route that both Intel (Computing at the Speed of Light) and IBM (Electricity and Light in One Chip) explored was to try to overcome the limitations of electricity by developing computers that run on light instead. Another radical idea, realized by a startup, was to create chips that work with probabilities, not 1s and 0s, an approach that could speed cryptography and other statistical calculations (A New Kind of Microchip).

Meanwhile, Apple (What's Inside the iPad's Chip?) and the Chinese government (China: a New Processor for a New Market) each took chip design in a new direction. Apple is striving to make chips for the iPad that balance portability and power, and China to make computing power available inexpensively to parts of the huge country that are as yet unwired.

Online Business Consulting | Internet Business Consulting

Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=098aee6cefac9dace046bb9f5995b055

weather nashville tn rock and roll hall of fame whnt 19 weather robin williams

Netflix considers overseas expansion in 2011

Bringing Down the High Costs of Business Forecasting

It may not look like a crystal ball, but Microsoft's venerable spreadsheet software, Excel, is often used as one by businesses trying to peer into their financial future.

The problem is that many companies have so many different budgets and divisions that many different spreadsheets need to be linked together. Errors crop up if formulas are off or different departments have different budgeting styles. That makes it difficult to "drill down" from one spreadsheet to the next, or to come up with a financial forecast for the whole enterprise.

Yet for many companies, this low-cost option made sense compared with the traditional alternative: sophisticated but expensive packages from giant vendors such as SAP, IBM, and Oracle. Those typically require new IT equipment and training that can send total costs for big companies into the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars. Now, a third path has opened up?thanks to a new class of cloud-hosted forecasting services that are sold through subscriptions that cost about $500 per user, renewable each year.

These new tools, from Silicon Valley companies such as Adaptive Planning and Host Analytics, are "[letting] companies of all sizes replace their legacy Excel spreadsheet models with a more automated, less error-prone, packaged application," says Craig Schiff, CEO of BPM Partners, an advisory firm focused on performance management. And because the software is hosted with the provider, companies avoid capital outlays for new IT resources. The systems can typically be up and running in less than a month.

When spreadsheets are used, typically only one or two people truly understand how they work?a situation that's not conducive to collaboration and checking accuracy, Schiff says. "Adaptive Planning has adopted the ease-of-use mantra more than any of the other vendors in this category," he adds. For instance, managers sometimes want to create new "what-if" scenarios. With spreadsheets, that means creating multiple versions that are hard to track. The Adaptive Planning software has built-in version management so that managers can browse the different scenarios.

That's why fast-growing companies such as Zipcar and Pandora have signed up for these cloud-based tools. Such companies "undergo rapid?and significant?changes as they grow," says Adaptive's acting CEO, Greg Schneider. Those changes include introducing new products and services, expanding to new locations, adding new distribution channels, and changing pricing structures. Companies typically forward spreadsheets among teams of people, so that each member can review them and make changes in turn. But with the new software, managers can log in to a single version that tracks everyone's notes and comments. The result is a system that promotes collaboration.

Any company that wants to grow fast requires this kind of agility?the flexibility to come up with new scenarios about the future and change plans accordingly. A recent survey by Adaptive Planning of some of its 750 customers revealed that the percentage of companies that re-plan, re-forecast, or run what-if scenarios more than three times a quarter has doubled. "It has always been important to know whether or not you are going to be able to meet your targets, and if not, what can be done to adjust your business in order to do so," says Christopher Reale, director of corporate planning and analysis for Konica Minolta USA, a maker of imaging equipment that is among Adaptive Planning's newer customers.

With these kinds of customers signing on, the new tools are disrupting the market for higher-end predictive modeling software?finally bringing this technology within reach of almost any company, no matter what its size. The lower costs and the simplicity, Reale says, mean "we're able to involve more people, and include more detail in the budget and forecast processes."

Online Business Consulting | Internet Business Consulting

Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=503520ac8afcbf6d84b381f4dbe6cd5f

nicole richie wedding dress weather nashville tn rock and roll hall of fame whnt 19 weather

iPhone Review: Hook Worlds

iPhone Review: Hook Worlds

Posted on 16th Dec 2010 at 11:39 by Joe Martin with 3 comments

Hooks are a recurring motif for Rocketcat Games, it seems - as 'Cry' is to Crytek, perhaps. It's a motif that has taken center stage in both of Rocketcat's previous titles, Hook Champ and Super Quick Hook.

Now, it shows up again in Hook Worlds - albeit under three different guises.

You see, there are three games in Hook Worlds. The first of these, Curse of the Watcher, doesn't anything new or wholly unfamiliar to fans of Rocketcat's previous games. A cross between Super Quick Hook's endless Avalanche mode and Hook Champ's story-driven levels, Curse has players using rocketboots and a grappling hook to flee a pursuing ghost. The controls have changed about since Super Quick Hook, but it's still super accessible; a tap on the left or right is all you need to whip through the scenery.


The second and third games are a slightly different affair, however, and offer a radical change of pace. The first of these, Bounty Gunner, is more action-orientated than the others and casts players as Zelle, a DLC character from the original Hook Champ. Tasked with cleansing a haunted cove of the ghost pirates that possess it, Zelle constantly charges forward automatically and uses her rifle to dispatch enemies and knock down barricades. There's nobody chasing Zelle, but as she gains speed the game gets much more difficult.

The final game, Cybergnome 202X, brings another change of pace and is by far the hardest of them all, though. Set in a dystopian future where it's illegal to be a gnome, Cybergnome couples the usual grappling hook controls with the ability to invert gravity as you try to dodge the police. It's a difficult feature to get to grips with, especially when you hit a stretch of the level that forces you to grapple across the city upside down, but it's also one of the most fun and rewarding.


Unfortunately, while Hook Worlds brings some welcome changes, it's also noticeably lighter on character and charm than the previous Hook games. The dialogue that introduces each game is even lighter than it was in Hook Champ, while none of the items that players can buy with their points bring anything but cosmetic tweaks. Most of all, we miss the ability to converse with other characters in the in-game store, a feature introduced in Super Quick Hook.

The upside to this, however, is that Rocketcat has already assured fans that there'll be plenty of updates in the future - including a fourth, retro-inspired game mode and a variety of unlockable endings that will bring more humour to the game. Normally we'd hesitate before praising a game based on nothing more than promises, but Rocketcat has a history of supporting titles, so it's a safe bet.

Conclusion: Hook Worlds lacks the aesthetic variety and scope of previous titles in the series, but it compensates for these failings with it's extra game modes. We wouldn't say it's as essential as Super Quick Hook, but that could easily change after a few updates.

Powered by WizardRSS | Work At Home Jobs

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/wX6by1oHz9s/

weather richmond va bellagio robbery nicole richie wedding dress weather nashville tn

10 Things We Learnt About Smartphones In 2010 [TNW Mobile]

We were lucky enough to witness another bumper year for new smartphones.

Mobile handsets that are almost as powerful as computers that are doubling as satellite navigation devices, keeping us connected with friends via a number of different networks and bringing much amusement with some hilarious auto-correct messaging suggestions.

Not all news about smartphones was necessarily good over the past year, but it wasn?t all bad. Here are ten things that we learnt about smartphones in 2010.

1. Antenna Placement Is Vital

When Apple launched the new iPhone 4, it received overwhelmingly positive reviews.Soon after owners spent some time with their devices, it became apparent that hardware issues were being reported with alarming frequency.

At first, users were reporting yellow lines or dots on the iPhone 4?s much-vaunted retina display. Soon after, a bigger and ultimately disastrous problem for Apple was discovered ? if the phone was held in a certain way, it lost signal.

The signal problem on the iPhone 4 (now referred to as Antennagate) occurred when touching the antenna on the side of the phone in such a way that would induce interference due to the electro-conducive nature of skin.

At first Apple denied it was a problem, Steve Jobs went as far as to say iPhone 4 users were holding it wrong. Then came a dedicated page on the Apple website that showed smartphone owners to replicate signal issues on other smartphones which was pulled not soon after it went up.

As complaints mounted and the media started to report on the signal issues, Apple then gave its customers the option of ordering a free case to cover the offending antenna and stop the interference altogether.

The signal issues only provided a momentary blip on Apple?s radar, it still sold 1.7 million units in three days. It just went to show that a company as successful as Apple, a company that poured millions of dollars into design and antenna placement, could still falter.

2. Smartphones Are Soon To Become Gaming Consoles

We knew that smartphones were already credible gaming platforms, just look at the success of Angry Birds. What we didn?t realise was that manufacturers such as Sony Ericsson were looking to bridge the smartphone and the games console, creating what came to be known as the PlayStation Phone.

The PlayStation Phone, going under the possible name Xperia Play, is an Android smartphone with a joypad that can be extended out from the body of the phone. It is thought that owners of the device will be able to wirelessly download gaming titles, utilising a Playstation dashboard on the device that will connect them to leaderboards and friends.

The device is expected to be formally announced at CES 2011 in January and it has been suggested that the handset will be released in April.

3. Smartphone Users Have A Lot Apps To Choose From

Part of the success of smartphones is down to the number of high-quality applications available on the various smartphone app marketplaces. In 2010, Apple?s App Store grew to over 300,000 applications, just yesterday it emerged that the Android Market had (unofficially) eclipsed the 200,000 applications barrier with Microsoft?s new Windows Phone 7 operating system hitting 5,000 apps not more than a month after launching.

As manufacturers continue innovating the hardware available in its smartphones, app developers have been able to develop applications that can push the limits of what smartphones can offer. With technologies like NFC making their way into smartphones, we could see another wave of exciting new applications that can connect and interact with other devices wirelessly, pushing the boundaries of what smartphones can offer.

4. Manufacturer Locks Can?t Stop Users Modifying Their Smartphones

Whether it?s Apple playing a cat and mouse game with the jailbreaking community or smartphone users thinking Motorola has set up its Droid X to blow up if the bootloader is tampered with, locks placed by manufacturers on smartphones are almost certainly going to get circumvented.

HTC and T-Mobile worked to stop modders tampering with the T-Mobile G2 ? each time the firmware was changed, the device would roll back to its original settings. It took developers just over a month to achieve root privileges on the device but root was obtained all the same.

Each time the iPhone gets a firmware update, the jailbreaking community immediately gets to work sourcing new ways to achieve root access and unlock their iPhones. Not a new process by any means, its the techniques that are getting more and more complex.

5. The Nexus One Was A Successful Flop

Launching in January, the Nexus One was Google?s first attempt at selling a smartphone directly. Manufactured by HTC, the handset was one of the most powerful Android devices on the market at the time, offering a vanilla version of Android that would bring with it regular updates directly from Google, not the manufacturer.

Google called the retailing of its own phone ?an experiment?, selling the device online only. Google didn?t do much in the way of promotion, instead relying on the more technologically aware to help drive demand for the device (a few writers have a Nexus One here at The Next Web). The device sold over 135,000 units in its first 72 days, the iPhone selling one million and the Motorola Droid 1.05 million ? compared to its competition, the Nexus One flopped.

It wasn?t all bad for Google, as it said, it was an experiment. Google didn?t partner with many operators and it didn?t allow the device to be offered in bricks-and-mortar stores, limiting its sales potential (this was reserved for HTC with the HTC Desire, the same handset minus the Google branding).

The device is successful because it still holds its own. Ask Nexus One owners if they will be swapping their phones soon, many won?t until something truly game changing comes along.

6. 4G Is The Future

Fourth-generation services are known by different names and are offered by a number of different operators, all we need to know is that it is definitely a step in the right direction for mobile. Back in June, HTC and Sprint unveiled the first 4G Android smartphone, the HTC Evo 4G, a phone that was able to take advantage of high-speed data and voice transfers at the same time.

As devices have become available, operators have been pumping money into developing their high-speed networks, especially across the US where 4G adoption is starting to gain momentum.

With a range of 4G smartphones available from Samsung and many more 4G-enabled devices coming in the new year, 3G could soon be a thing of the past in more established regions.

7. The Emergence Of Android

The release of Android 2.2 (FroYo) breathed a new lease of life into some Android devices with speed improvements, exchange capability, a faster browser, new API?s and new additions to the Android Market. Some devices were able to then run Flash as a result, something that Apple users could only dream about.

Google is now thought to be activating 300,000 Android devices a day, the operating system is said to be the most popular smartphone OS in Asia and is eating into Symbian?s dominance worldwide, now holding a 25.5% share of the worldwide smartphone market.

Android 2.3 is just around the corner, having been incorporated into the new Samsung Nexus S. It?s possible 2011 could be an ever bigger year for Android.

8. The iPhone Can Finally Multitask

?We weren?t the first to this party but we?re gonna be the best.? said Steve Jobs at Apple?s April event, addressing what was quite possibly the most desired missing iPhone feature ? multitasking.

The iPhone finally got multitasking, a feature that had been available for quite some time on other devices. Instead of running application icons in a toolbar like on Android, Apple went with a hidden menu that could be brought to focus with a simple double tap of the home button.

Whilst its not full multi-tasking in the true sense of the word, the feature does help many iPhone users that were frustrated with losing progress in a game or having to exit an app to find some extra information.

9. Symbian Is [Almost] Dead

We noted above that Android was dominating its rivals, growing immensely in 2010. On the flipside, Symbian suffered a rotten year, mainly because key members supporting the platform resigned, it lost a great deal of its market share, the Symbian Foundation passed over development of the platform to Nokia and many manufacturers dropped support for Symbian completely.

Nokia has said it will continue supporting Symbian whilst developing a new smartphone OS called in MeeGo, in a collaboration with Intel. There are also reports that Nokia is looking to work with Microsoft to develop new Windows Phone 7 handsets. If true, Symbian?s days could be numbered.

10. Windows Phone 7 Is Slick But Has A Lot Of Catching Up To Do

Microsoft?s Windows Phone 7 opertaing system launched in the UK at the end of October and at the beginning of November in the US, signalling the Redmond giants intention to claw back some of the smartphone market.

The OS and the devices from HTC, Samsung and LG were generally well received, Microsoft has said that 1.5 million have been sold to operators since launch. However, the operating system still lacks important features like copy & paste, true multitasking and a limit on notification messages.

That said, Windows Phone 7 does a very good job of displaying information where it needs to be, reducing the need for extra button presses and wasted time using the device. The marketplace is growing rapidly and Microsoft is sinking millions of marketing dollars into the platform to boost its profile.

Apple and Google will be launching new additions to their operating systems in the near future, Microsoft will need to make sure its updates drop when planned and continue to innovate for risk of losing out to iOS and Android before it even got the chance to compete.

Conclusion

Its been a big year for smartphones, you can?t go for long without hearing about a new handset leaking on the internet. With so much news we will have missed some developments and this is where you come in. Do you think we have missed something or did something happen that you don?t think we adequately covered? Let us know, the usual way, by dropping us a line in the comments.

Online Business Consulting | Internet Business Consulting

Source: http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2010/12/29/10-things-we-learnt-about-smartphones-in-2010/

news channel 5 weather weather richmond va bellagio robbery nicole richie wedding dress

iPhone Review: Hook Worlds

iPhone Review: Hook Worlds

Posted on 16th Dec 2010 at 11:39 by Joe Martin with 3 comments

Hooks are a recurring motif for Rocketcat Games, it seems - as 'Cry' is to Crytek, perhaps. It's a motif that has taken center stage in both of Rocketcat's previous titles, Hook Champ and Super Quick Hook.

Now, it shows up again in Hook Worlds - albeit under three different guises.

You see, there are three games in Hook Worlds. The first of these, Curse of the Watcher, doesn't anything new or wholly unfamiliar to fans of Rocketcat's previous games. A cross between Super Quick Hook's endless Avalanche mode and Hook Champ's story-driven levels, Curse has players using rocketboots and a grappling hook to flee a pursuing ghost. The controls have changed about since Super Quick Hook, but it's still super accessible; a tap on the left or right is all you need to whip through the scenery.


The second and third games are a slightly different affair, however, and offer a radical change of pace. The first of these, Bounty Gunner, is more action-orientated than the others and casts players as Zelle, a DLC character from the original Hook Champ. Tasked with cleansing a haunted cove of the ghost pirates that possess it, Zelle constantly charges forward automatically and uses her rifle to dispatch enemies and knock down barricades. There's nobody chasing Zelle, but as she gains speed the game gets much more difficult.

The final game, Cybergnome 202X, brings another change of pace and is by far the hardest of them all, though. Set in a dystopian future where it's illegal to be a gnome, Cybergnome couples the usual grappling hook controls with the ability to invert gravity as you try to dodge the police. It's a difficult feature to get to grips with, especially when you hit a stretch of the level that forces you to grapple across the city upside down, but it's also one of the most fun and rewarding.


Unfortunately, while Hook Worlds brings some welcome changes, it's also noticeably lighter on character and charm than the previous Hook games. The dialogue that introduces each game is even lighter than it was in Hook Champ, while none of the items that players can buy with their points bring anything but cosmetic tweaks. Most of all, we miss the ability to converse with other characters in the in-game store, a feature introduced in Super Quick Hook.

The upside to this, however, is that Rocketcat has already assured fans that there'll be plenty of updates in the future - including a fourth, retro-inspired game mode and a variety of unlockable endings that will bring more humour to the game. Normally we'd hesitate before praising a game based on nothing more than promises, but Rocketcat has a history of supporting titles, so it's a safe bet.

Conclusion: Hook Worlds lacks the aesthetic variety and scope of previous titles in the series, but it compensates for these failings with it's extra game modes. We wouldn't say it's as essential as Super Quick Hook, but that could easily change after a few updates.

Powered by WizardRSS | Work At Home Jobs

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/wX6by1oHz9s/

bellagio robbery nicole richie wedding dress weather nashville tn rock and roll hall of fame

What is on that screen?

What is on that screen?

Posted on 18th Dec 2010 at 12:30 by James Gorbold with 88 comments

One of the first things I do when proof reading an article that is about to be published on bit-tech or Custom PC is check whether the URL at the top of the review does correctly link to the product manufacturer's homepage.

So while proofing the review of the MSI X58A-GD65 motherboard I came across this image which I just had to share with you. It's an advert admitedly, but the artwork is so bizarre that I thought it worth a caption competition.

What is on that screen? *What is on that screen?

To get things started, this is what some of the bit-tech/CPC editorial's team suggestions:

1. MSI has installed fans in the screen.

2. He's just seen a video of his parents having sex.

3. He's just seen the first benchmarks of a LGA2011 CPU.

Over to you...

Powered by WizardRSS | Work At Home Jobs

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/LPDShzRvIU0/

panama city shooting wsmv weather news channel 5 weather weather richmond va

News Analysis: In ?Daily Show? Role on 9/11 Bill, Echoes of Murrow

And does that make that comedian, Jon Stewart ? despite all his protestations that what he does has nothing to do with journalism ? the modern-day equivalent of Edward R. Murrow?

Certainly many supporters, including New York?s two senators, as well as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, played critical roles in turning around what looked like a hopeless situation after a filibuster by Republican senators on Dec. 10 seemed to derail the bill.

But some of those who stand to benefit from the bill have no doubt about what ? and who ? turned the momentum around.

?I don?t even know if there was a deal, to be honest with you, before his show,? said Kenny Specht, the founder of the New York City Firefighter Brotherhood Foundation, who was interviewed by Mr. Stewart on Dec. 16.

That show was devoted to the bill and the comedian?s effort to right what he called ?an outrageous abdication of our responsibility to those who were most heroic on 9/11.?

Mr. Specht said in an interview, ?I?ll forever be indebted to Jon because of what he did.?

Mr. Bloomberg, a frequent guest on ?The Daily Show,? also recognized Mr. Stewart?s role.

?Success always has a thousand fathers,? the mayor said in an e-mail. ?But Jon shining such a big, bright spotlight on Washington?s potentially tragic failure to put aside differences and get this done for America was, without a doubt, one of the biggest factors that led to the final agreement.?

Though he might prefer a description like ?advocacy satire,? what Mr. Stewart engaged in that night ? and on earlier occasions when he campaigned openly for passage of the bill ? usually goes by the name ?advocacy journalism.?

There have been other instances when an advocate on a television show turned around public policy almost immediately by concerted focus on an issue ? but not recently, and in much different circumstances.

?The two that come instantly to mind are Murrow and Cronkite,? said Robert J. Thompson, a professor of television at Syracuse University.

Edward R. Murrow turned public opinion against the excesses of Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. Mr. Thompson noted that Mr. Murrow had an even more direct effect when he reported on the case of Milo Radulovich, an Air Force lieutenant who was stripped of his commission after he was charged with associating with communists. Mr. Murrow?s broadcast resulted in Mr. Radulovich?s reinstatement.

Walter Cronkite?s editorial about the stalemate in the war in Vietnam after the Tet Offensive in 1968 convinced President Lyndon B. Johnson that he had lost public support and influenced his decision a month later to decline to run for re-election.

Though the scale of the impact of Mr. Stewart?s telecast on public policy may not measure up to the roles that Mr. Murrow and Mr. Cronkite played, Mr. Thompson said, the comparison is legitimate because the law almost surely would not have moved forward without him. ?He so pithily articulated the argument that once it was made, it was really hard to do anything else,? Mr. Thompson said.

The Dec. 16 show focused on two targets. One was the Republicans who were blocking the bill; Mr. Stewart, in a clear effort to shame them for hypocrisy, accused them of belonging to ?the party that turned 9/11 into a catchphrase.? The other was the broadcast networks (one of them being CBS, the former home of Mr. Murrow and Mr. Cronkite), which, he charged, had not reported on the bill for more than two months.

?Though, to be fair,? Mr. Stewart said, ?it?s not every day that Beatles songs come to iTunes.? (Each of the network newscasts had covered the story of the deal between the Beatles and Apple for their music catalog.) Each network subsequently covered the progress of the bill, sometimes citing Mr. Stewart by name. The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, credited Mr. Stewart with raising awareness of the Republican blockade.

Eric Ortner, a former ABC News senior producer who worked as a medic at the World Trade Center site on 9/11, expressed dismay that Mr. Stewart had been virtually alone in expressing outrage early on.

?In just nine months? time, my skilled colleagues will be jockeying to outdo one another on 10th anniversary coverage? of the attacks, Mr. Ortner wrote in an e-mail. ?It?s when the press was needed most, when sunlight truly could disinfect,? he said, that the news networks were not there.

Powered by WizardRSS | Work At Home Jobs

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=efa721acd4ed522ba9c120715e5c2878

rock and roll hall of fame whnt 19 weather robin williams panama city shooting

White House Memo: A Firmly Drawn Presidential Line Between Work and Play

Mr. Obama arrived on the island of Oahu in the middle of the night as Wednesday turned into Thursday and slipped on a green lei as he descended the steps of Air Force One. Then he sped off in an S.U.V. toward this laid-back residential community on the windward side of the island, far from the bustle of Waikiki Beach, where the bulk of his traveling White House stays, in Honolulu, the city he lived in as a boy.

Then, the most visible man in America promptly dropped out of sight.

Mr. Obama?s disappearance behind the palm trees reveals much about his presidential style, and also his thinking about how to balance work and play. He tends to separate the two, as much as any president can. Other presidents, especially those who owned secluded homes or vacation retreats, often mixed them, using their homes outside Washington as tools of the presidency ? another means of advancing their goals and agendas.

Mr. Obama?s predecessor, George W. Bush, dangled invitations to his ranch in Crawford, Tex., as perks to favored foreign leaders. Lyndon B. Johnson often hosted members of Congress at his Texas ranch. Theodore Roosevelt turned Sagamore Hill, his home in Oyster Bay, N.Y., into the ?Summer White House?; he invited diplomats from Russia and Japan there to begin talks to end war between their nations, thus earning for himself the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr. Obama has a home in Chicago but no vacation place; he stays here in a luxury beachfront rental. Yet even if he did have his own hideaway, there is little indication that he would turn it into an extension of his White House. He rarely goes to Camp David, the presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland, and when he does, it is not to conduct business. After Democrats took a drubbing in the midterm elections, though, Mr. Obama hinted that may change; he said he intended to meet with leaders of both parties more frequently, ?including at Camp David.?

This surprised even allies, some of whom think Mr. Obama could use his free time to greater political effect. ?It?s a great idea,? said Tom Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader, who recalled spending time with President Bill Clinton at Camp David. ?It?s a setting that is quieter and slower and a perfect environment for relationship building.?

Yet Mr. Obama is not a politician who uses circumstances and relationships to cajole. He is not one to say, ?Let?s have a couple of drinks and hash this out.? He does not confuse his work friends with his real friends. He jealously guards his time with his wife and daughters and the tight circle of intimates like Eric Whitaker and Martin Nesbitt from Chicago, who are with him here. And he is perfectly content to leave his public persona at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and slip, however briefly, into private life.

?Hawaii is a place that is extraordinarily special to him, so being able to come here and spend time with his family is something that really recharges him,? said Bill Burton, Mr. Obama?s deputy press secretary, who is here as well. ?Even something as simple as getting into the ocean is really important to him. The goal is to spend as much time with his family and his friends as he possibly can.?

That is not to say Mr. Obama is not working. He receives his daily intelligence and economic briefings as usual, and on Thursday he called President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia to talk about the New Start arms pact. On Saturday, he dropped by the Marine base during Christmas dinner. But he has no public events scheduled and managed to duck television cameras, despite the networks? best efforts, when he left his compound to play golf.

?I think it speaks volumes about the man?s temperament,? said Robert Dallek, the presidential historian. ?He doesn?t crave the spotlight the way some of these other presidents have. They needed to be constantly in the eye of the public; it propelled them into politics in the first place. Obama is less that way; he is more of a self-contained person, someone who can genuinely spend time by himself with his family.?

He is not the first. Ronald Reagan played host to the queen of England at his mountaintop ranch in Santa Barbara, Calif., but he rarely invited members of his own cabinet there. He regarded it as ?his and Nancy?s special place,? said Kenneth M. Duberstein, his former chief of staff, and he resented the photographers with their long lenses who angled for a shot of him on horseback.

?It bothered Reagan that he couldn?t just go off camera for a while,? Mr. Duberstein said.

Still, the urge to seclude oneself can get a president in trouble, as Mr. Obama discovered last year when the authorities thwarted an effort by a Nigerian man to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day. The president did not emerge to address the nation until two days later ? a serious public relations blunder. By that time, his homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, had drawn ridicule for saying ?the system worked,? and it was up to Mr. Obama to repair the damage.

Mr. Duberstein says, ?There is no such thing as seclusion and the president in the same sentence.? But here in Kailua, Mr. Obama can come close. The place oozes ?live and let live.? Boys with tousled, sun-bleached hair tuck surfboards under their arms as they skateboard home from the beach.

At Island Snow, Mr. Obama?s favorite shave-ice shop, where the flavors include koolau lychee and maunawili mango, all the locals knew precisely where he stays. But as Dawn Horn, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who lives here, said, ?Hawaiians? perspective is that we like to let our visitors, especially if they are well known, have some space.?

Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who knew Mr. Obama?s parents when they were students in Honolulu, says that what the president finds here is not so much privacy but ?acceptability? ? the protective cocoon that comes with being in the warm embrace of a familiar place, where people regard him as ?ohana,? Hawaiian for ?extended family.?

?He?s not living in isolation; he?s living in the middle of the Kailua neighborhood,? the governor said. ?So what I mean by acceptability, rather than privacy, is that everybody accepts that concept of ohana and family, and that it extends to him, most especially to him. We consider him a keiki o ka aina, a child of the land.?

Powered by WizardRSS | Work At Home Jobs

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=bb10f8ee11a9bf28dc2325505fee0a61

bellagio robbery nicole richie wedding dress weather nashville tn rock and roll hall of fame