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Sandisk, Sony, Nikon propose 2TB/500MBps memory card

SanDisk, Sony, and Nikon have announced the joint development of a set of specifications for a new memory card format. The three companies have officially proposed the details to the CompactFlash Association (CFA), the international standards organization, with the intent to standardize the format.

To address the need of professional photography and High Definition video applications, the trio have outlined specifications that achieve data transfer rates of up to 500MBps (theoretical maximum interface speed) using the PCI Express interface. The current CompactFlash specification (CF6.0), released in November 2010, uses the PATA interface and only offers a maximum performance of up to 167MBps. The new memory cards would also meet the future space requirements of professional imaging applications: the proposed new format has the potential to extend theoretical maximum capacities beyond 2TB.

The faster speeds and larger capacities will enable continuous burst shooting of massive RAW images. The enhanced performance also allows users to quickly transfer storage-intensive high-resolution photos and videos from the card to a computer. Furthermore, battery life would be extended thanks to a combination of high-speed data transfer with low power consumption. All in all, the new format is looking good, at least at this stage, and the CFA seems to agree.

"This ultra high-speed media format will enable further evolution of hardware and imaging applications, and widen the memory card options available to CompactFlash users such as professional photographers," Mr. Shigeto Kanda, chairman of the CFA board, said in a statement. "This next generation format is expected to be widely adapted to various products, including those other than high-end DSLRs."

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The Caucus: Second Hat in the Ring for Republican Leader

In a video announcement to members of the national committee, Ms. Wagner said the party needed new leadership to prepare for the 2012 presidential campaign, as well as a renewed focus on fund-raising, transparency and accountability.

?We must be efficient, relevant, professional and credible,? Ms. Wagner said. ?We must start immediately to erase past debt and to restore the confidence of our donor base. We must have these resources in order to take back the White House and complete the job that was started this year.?

Ms. Wagner, a former national co-chairwoman of the committee who also served as an ambassador to Luxembourg under President George W. Bush, is the second person to formally announce intentions to run for the post. This month, a former Republican chairman from Michigan, Saul Anuzis, declared his intention to run.

Several other top Republican officials are considering making a bid, including Maria Cino, a longtime Republican leader with close ties to the Bush administration, and Gentry Collins, who recently left his position as political director for the national committee.

The current chairman, Michael Steele, whose term expires in January, has not said whether he intends to seek re-election. His stewardship of the party has been sharply criticized by many Republicans, especially his handling of fund-raising, even though the party scored sweeping victories in the midterm election and captured control of the House.

The 168 members of the Republican National Committee are scheduled to meet in Washington in January to elect a leader.

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House Censure: Humbling to Some, but Not All

In the genteel parliamentary history of the House of Representatives there lurk rowdy days of rough-and-tumble brawls, beatings, chokings, fistfights, upended hairpieces, stentorian demands for apologies unheeded and a lot of sneaky conduct and foul-mouth talk. Some did nothing bad, or almost nothing.

But they all wound up where Representative Charles B. Rangel, a Democrat from Harlem, is expected to find himself this week: in the well of the House, facing the shame of formal censure. The choreographed mortification ritual has played out more than a score of times since 1832. Convicted by peers, the transgressor ? all have been men ? stands before the assembled members and a packed gallery of spectators and reporters as the speaker reads the rebuke.

?What it?s saying is you?ve brought disgrace to the House of Representatives, you?ve discredited the institution that you serve in,? said Ilona Nickels, an author and expert on Congressional affairs. ?You have impugned the integrity of our proceedings. You?re a disgraceful person. And you?re going to stand there in the well of the House and we?re going to read these charges against you and we?re going to, in essence, say, ?Shame on you.? It doesn?t really help your résumé, or your obit for that matter.?

It is also a moment of truth, not for the fainthearted.

On Oct. 27, 1921, Representative Thomas L. Blanton, Democrat of Texas, faced it with deep anxiety. He had been convicted of entering in The Congressional Record a letter that was, in a colleague?s words, ?unspeakable, vile, foul, filthy, profane, blasphemous and obscene.? It involved a squabble between union and nonunion printers, and by today?s standards was relatively mild stuff.

As the speaker finished his condemnation, Mr. Blanton turned ashen and fled the chamber. ?In the corridor he fell exhausted, striking his head on the marble floor,? The New York Times reported. ?He rested a few minutes on a couch, refused medical aid and shuffled to his office, tears running down his face as he forced his way between spectators and members who were leaving the session.?

Not all of them cry and carry on. Depending on the offense, its probable fallout and the thickness of a politician?s skin, censured members have shown humility or defiance, perhaps relieved that the practical consequences are only dishonor and a need to face voters at the next election, well short of immediate expulsion, if slightly more humiliating than a slap-on-the-wrist reprimand. (Officially, there have been 22 acts of House censure, but some are debatable because the censures appear to have been politically motivated.)

As censurable violations go, the seriousness of Mr. Rangel?s fall somewhere in the middle. He was convicted by a subcommittee of the House ethics committee of 11 violations, including improper fund-raising, failing to pay taxes on rental income and failing to report income on Congressional financial-disclosure forms ? not of stealing fortunes, battering colleagues or cornering pages in the anterooms.

It was much worse in 1873, when Representatives Oakes Ames, Republican of Massachusetts, and James Brooks, Democrat of New York, were censured for bribery in the Crédit Mobilier scandal, in which millions were skimmed from stock sales during construction of the nation?s first transcontinental railroad, the Union Pacific.

In 1870, three Republican congressmen ? Benjamin F. Whittemore of South Carolina, John T. Deweese of North Carolina and Roderick R. Butler of Tennessee ? were censured for selling appointments to Annapolis and West Point. And in 1979, Representative Charles C. Diggs Jr., Democrat of Michigan, was censured and resigned after being convicted of mail fraud and padding his staff payroll.

Many 19th-century censures were for ?unparliamentary language,? a grab-bag for name-calling, mud-slinging and insults, mostly in Civil War-era debates. But in 1864, Representatives Alexander Long of Ohio and Benjamin G. Harris of Maryland, both Democrats, were cited for ?treasonable utterances? ? backing the Confederacy.

?When you look at the list for all the various reasons people were disciplined, it really is a function of the times,? Ms. Nickels said. ?Every era has its own ethos ? what?s considered horrible and what?s not considered horrible.?

Kerri MacDonald contributed reporting.

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Sandisk, Sony, Nikon propose 2TB/500MBps memory card

SanDisk, Sony, and Nikon have announced the joint development of a set of specifications for a new memory card format. The three companies have officially proposed the details to the CompactFlash Association (CFA), the international standards organization, with the intent to standardize the format.

To address the need of professional photography and High Definition video applications, the trio have outlined specifications that achieve data transfer rates of up to 500MBps (theoretical maximum interface speed) using the PCI Express interface. The current CompactFlash specification (CF6.0), released in November 2010, uses the PATA interface and only offers a maximum performance of up to 167MBps. The new memory cards would also meet the future space requirements of professional imaging applications: the proposed new format has the potential to extend theoretical maximum capacities beyond 2TB.

The faster speeds and larger capacities will enable continuous burst shooting of massive RAW images. The enhanced performance also allows users to quickly transfer storage-intensive high-resolution photos and videos from the card to a computer. Furthermore, battery life would be extended thanks to a combination of high-speed data transfer with low power consumption. All in all, the new format is looking good, at least at this stage, and the CFA seems to agree.

"This ultra high-speed media format will enable further evolution of hardware and imaging applications, and widen the memory card options available to CompactFlash users such as professional photographers," Mr. Shigeto Kanda, chairman of the CFA board, said in a statement. "This next generation format is expected to be widely adapted to various products, including those other than high-end DSLRs."

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Rumor: first Windows Phone 7 update will be massive

Chris Walsh, the creator of the first jailbroken app and one of the developers of ChevronWP7, is making some bold claims about the first update to Windows Phone 7 via his Twitter account. Rumored to be coming January, the first update will apparently be massive (rumors suggest Bing turn-by-turn directions, custom ringer support, copy and paste, as well as multitasking support), according to Walsh.

Here are the five most important Walsh made regarding the update, in chronological order:

I'm hearing the first #wp7 update is going to be MASSIVE!
@tomhounsell Haha, they've been working on this update long before they actually shipped v1 :
@keyboardP As @tomhounsell said, MS took 3 months to do what Apple did in 3 years. ;-)
@danvy Can't disclose the sources, but can disclose the details. More to come #wp7
@adamUCF Let's just say, they could have called it Windows Phone 8 :P

The first update to Windows Phone 7 will be arguably more important than any other. First of all, it will be the first attempt by Microsoft to update its new mobile OS and test its system to do so. Microsoft has tested its mobile OS update system before, but only internally, and never on a large scale. Secondly, it will show exactly how significant Windows Phone updates will be. Is Walsh right in that the update will be massive or will it mainly include bugfixes?

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Launch Party 10 In Their Own Words: OpenCal [TNW Canada]

OpenCal?We?ve spent the past year and a half building OpenCal ? the web?s most beautiful and easy-to-use online appointment system. With OpenCal, service-based businesses (think hair salons, massage therapists, anyone that sells their time) can receive appointments online 24/7, manage their staff?s schedules, track clients, create insightful reports, and lots of other cool things.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/ca/2010/12/01/launch-party-10-in-their-own-words-opencal/

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Amid Deficit Fears, Obama Freezes Pay

?The hard truth is that getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifice, and that sacrifice must be shared by employees of the federal government,? Mr. Obama told reporters. He called federal workers ?patriots who love their country? but added, ?I?m asking civil servants to do what they?ve always done? for the nation.

The pay freeze amounted to an opening bid as the president and Republican Congressional leaders begin jousting in earnest over tax and spending policy. It also illustrated how Mr. Obama can use his office on occasion to get ahead of newly elected Republicans; they had been talking about making such a move when they assume control of the House and additional Senate seats in January.

But while the move represents a gesture toward public anger over the anemic economic recovery and rising national debt, the $5 billion to be saved over two years will barely dent a deficit that has exceeded $1 trillion for the past two years. And even those savings would be swamped by the multitrillion-dollar costs of the bigger issue dividing Mr. Obama and the Republicans ? what parts of the Bush-era tax cuts to extend beyond their Dec. 31 expiration, and for how long.

That issue and others will be on the agenda on Tuesday when Mr. Obama will host the House and Senate leaders of each party at the White House for the first time since the midterm elections.

Tuesday will also be the last day for emergency federal assistance for about two million Americans who have been unemployed for long periods, and on Friday a temporary measure providing money for government operations will run out. The two parties are at odds over both matters, with many Republicans opposed to additional unemployment aid and demanding more cuts from domestic spending for the fiscal year that began in October.

Mr. Obama nonetheless expressed optimism that the meeting would be a productive fresh beginning.

?We can?t afford to fall back onto the same old ideologies or the same stale sound bites,? he said.

As Mr. Obama made his comments at the announcement of the pay freeze, the bipartisan commission he established in February to propose ways to reduce the growth of the national debt entered a final two days of negotiations over combinations of spending cuts and revenue increases. In a sign of the struggle to find a compromise that could attract Democratic and Republicans votes, the commission chairmen ? Alan K. Simpson, a former Senate Republican leader, and Erskine B. Bowles, a chief of staff to President Bill Clinton ? decided to meet privately with members one at a time on Monday and Tuesday instead of convening all 18 members.

The Republicans on the panel are generally opposed to raising taxes and the Democrats to big changes in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Mr. Bowles and Mr. Simpson revised their draft debt-reduction package over the Thanksgiving holiday break to reflect members? criticisms. Their goal is to reduce projected deficits by nearly $4 trillion over the coming decade. That is roughly the same amount that would be added to the national debt by extending the Bush-era tax rates ? a juxtaposition that underscores the contradictory impulses of elected officials as constituents demand smaller deficits and low taxes.

In advance of Tuesday?s bipartisan White House meeting, Mr. Obama and Democratic Senate leaders conferred by phone to try to coordinate strategy.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi planned to have the House vote on the approach that she, Mr. Obama and the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid, prefer, which would extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for income up to $250,000 a year for couples and $200,000 for individuals. But faced with defections from Democrats in swing districts and states, they are considering fallback plans, including one that would keep the Bush-era rates in place for income up to $1 million.

Senator Charles E. Schumer, a Democratic Senate leader from New York, is the main proponent of that plan, which he is labeling the ?millionaires? tax.? He has picked up adherents among Democrats facing re-election challenges in 2012, including Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Claire McCaskill of Missouri.

The lame-duck session of Congress could end up passing a temporary extension that kicks the matter, like other issues, into the next Congress, which convenes in January. On Monday, the House approved a Senate measure that blocks until Jan. 1 a scheduled 23 percent cut in doctors? reimbursements from Medicare ? once again buying time to resolve the costly issue.

The pay freeze Mr. Obama announced wiped out plans for a 1.4 percent across-the-board raise in 2011 for 2.1 million federal civilian employees, including those working at the Defense Department, and it would mean no raise in 2012. The freeze would not affect the nation?s uniformed military personnel, and civilian workers who are promoted would still receive the higher pay that comes with the higher grade or position.

The move would save $2 billion in the 2011 fiscal year that ends Sept. 30 and $5 billion by the end of two fiscal years. Over 10 years, it would save $60 billion, according to Jeffrey Zients, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and the government?s chief performance officer.

While Congress has final word on federal pay, the president?s freeze seemed certain, given the political environment; if anything, lawmakers may go further by cutting pay. Republicans noted that some of them had called for a pay freeze for months. ?We are pleased that President Obama appears ready to join our efforts,? said Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the incoming Republican majority leader.

With Republicans vowing to make deep budget cuts, Mr. Obama must decide how far he is willing to go and where he will draw a line. He pointed out that he has already called for a three-year freeze on domestic discretionary spending, found $20 billion in savings from eliminating or scaling back unnecessary programs, identified $150 billion in improper payments.

The federal work force is an obvious first target, if one fraught with political risk for a president who relies on union support. Opponents of big government have been trying to build a political case that federal employees are being overpaid. In a report in June, Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute, a libertarian research organization in Washington, found that federal civilian workers had an average annual wage of $81,258 in 2009, compared with $50,464 for the nation?s private-sector workers. Average federal salaries rose 58 percent from 2000 to 2009, compared with 30 percent in the private sector.

Union leaders, though, cited other data showing that federal workers were paid 24 percent less than their private sector counterparts, and they accused Mr. Obama of playing politics. ?Sticking it to a V.A. nurse and a Social Security worker is not the way to go,? John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in an interview.

David M. Herszenhorn contributed reporting.

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Amid Deficit Fears, Obama Freezes Pay

?The hard truth is that getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifice, and that sacrifice must be shared by employees of the federal government,? Mr. Obama told reporters. He called federal workers ?patriots who love their country? but added, ?I?m asking civil servants to do what they?ve always done? for the nation.

The pay freeze amounted to an opening bid as the president and Republican Congressional leaders begin jousting in earnest over tax and spending policy. It also illustrated how Mr. Obama can use his office on occasion to get ahead of newly elected Republicans; they had been talking about making such a move when they assume control of the House and additional Senate seats in January.

But while the move represents a gesture toward public anger over the anemic economic recovery and rising national debt, the $5 billion to be saved over two years will barely dent a deficit that has exceeded $1 trillion for the past two years. And even those savings would be swamped by the multitrillion-dollar costs of the bigger issue dividing Mr. Obama and the Republicans ? what parts of the Bush-era tax cuts to extend beyond their Dec. 31 expiration, and for how long.

That issue and others will be on the agenda on Tuesday when Mr. Obama will host the House and Senate leaders of each party at the White House for the first time since the midterm elections.

Tuesday will also be the last day for emergency federal assistance for about two million Americans who have been unemployed for long periods, and on Friday a temporary measure providing money for government operations will run out. The two parties are at odds over both matters, with many Republicans opposed to additional unemployment aid and demanding more cuts from domestic spending for the fiscal year that began in October.

Mr. Obama nonetheless expressed optimism that the meeting would be a productive fresh beginning.

?We can?t afford to fall back onto the same old ideologies or the same stale sound bites,? he said.

As Mr. Obama made his comments at the announcement of the pay freeze, the bipartisan commission he established in February to propose ways to reduce the growth of the national debt entered a final two days of negotiations over combinations of spending cuts and revenue increases. In a sign of the struggle to find a compromise that could attract Democratic and Republicans votes, the commission chairmen ? Alan K. Simpson, a former Senate Republican leader, and Erskine B. Bowles, a chief of staff to President Bill Clinton ? decided to meet privately with members one at a time on Monday and Tuesday instead of convening all 18 members.

The Republicans on the panel are generally opposed to raising taxes and the Democrats to big changes in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Mr. Bowles and Mr. Simpson revised their draft debt-reduction package over the Thanksgiving holiday break to reflect members? criticisms. Their goal is to reduce projected deficits by nearly $4 trillion over the coming decade. That is roughly the same amount that would be added to the national debt by extending the Bush-era tax rates ? a juxtaposition that underscores the contradictory impulses of elected officials as constituents demand smaller deficits and low taxes.

In advance of Tuesday?s bipartisan White House meeting, Mr. Obama and Democratic Senate leaders conferred by phone to try to coordinate strategy.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi planned to have the House vote on the approach that she, Mr. Obama and the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid, prefer, which would extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for income up to $250,000 a year for couples and $200,000 for individuals. But faced with defections from Democrats in swing districts and states, they are considering fallback plans, including one that would keep the Bush-era rates in place for income up to $1 million.

Senator Charles E. Schumer, a Democratic Senate leader from New York, is the main proponent of that plan, which he is labeling the ?millionaires? tax.? He has picked up adherents among Democrats facing re-election challenges in 2012, including Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Claire McCaskill of Missouri.

The lame-duck session of Congress could end up passing a temporary extension that kicks the matter, like other issues, into the next Congress, which convenes in January. On Monday, the House approved a Senate measure that blocks until Jan. 1 a scheduled 23 percent cut in doctors? reimbursements from Medicare ? once again buying time to resolve the costly issue.

The pay freeze Mr. Obama announced wiped out plans for a 1.4 percent across-the-board raise in 2011 for 2.1 million federal civilian employees, including those working at the Defense Department, and it would mean no raise in 2012. The freeze would not affect the nation?s uniformed military personnel, and civilian workers who are promoted would still receive the higher pay that comes with the higher grade or position.

The move would save $2 billion in the 2011 fiscal year that ends Sept. 30 and $5 billion by the end of two fiscal years. Over 10 years, it would save $60 billion, according to Jeffrey Zients, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and the government?s chief performance officer.

While Congress has final word on federal pay, the president?s freeze seemed certain, given the political environment; if anything, lawmakers may go further by cutting pay. Republicans noted that some of them had called for a pay freeze for months. ?We are pleased that President Obama appears ready to join our efforts,? said Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the incoming Republican majority leader.

With Republicans vowing to make deep budget cuts, Mr. Obama must decide how far he is willing to go and where he will draw a line. He pointed out that he has already called for a three-year freeze on domestic discretionary spending, found $20 billion in savings from eliminating or scaling back unnecessary programs, identified $150 billion in improper payments.

The federal work force is an obvious first target, if one fraught with political risk for a president who relies on union support. Opponents of big government have been trying to build a political case that federal employees are being overpaid. In a report in June, Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute, a libertarian research organization in Washington, found that federal civilian workers had an average annual wage of $81,258 in 2009, compared with $50,464 for the nation?s private-sector workers. Average federal salaries rose 58 percent from 2000 to 2009, compared with 30 percent in the private sector.

Union leaders, though, cited other data showing that federal workers were paid 24 percent less than their private sector counterparts, and they accused Mr. Obama of playing politics. ?Sticking it to a V.A. nurse and a Social Security worker is not the way to go,? John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in an interview.

David M. Herszenhorn contributed reporting.

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