Friday, January 28, 2011

personal finance




Best Mobile Personal Finance Tool?





Earlier this year we took a look at best money management web sites, but often, tracking money on-the-go is just as important. What's your favorite tool for managing your money on the go?

Photo by Erik Hersman.


Whether you're using a mobile-optimized web site or an application specific to the iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and so on, we want to hear from you. What mobile money management tool makes it easy to manage your money when you're away from your computer?


Hive Five nominations take place in the comments, where you post your favorite tool for the job. We get hundreds of comments, so to make your nomination clear, please include it at the top of your comment like so: VOTE: Mobile Personal Finance Tool. Please don't include your vote in a reply to another commenter. Instead, make your vote and reply separate comments. If you don't follow this format, we may not count your vote. To prevent tampering with the results, votes from first-time commenters may not be counted. After you've made your nomination, let us know what makes it stand out from the competition.


About the Hive Five: The Hive Five feature series asks readers to answer the most frequently asked question we get: "Which tool is the best?" Once a week we'll put out a call for contenders looking for the best solution to a certain problem, then YOU tell us your favorite tools to get the job done. Every weekend, we'll report back with the top five recommendations and give you a chance to vote on which is best. For an example, check out last week's Five Best Resources for Free Games.





Send an email to Jason Fitzpatrick, the author of this post, at jason@lifehacker.com.










Eight resolutions for retirement savers in 2011 [MarketWatch] "Now that 2010 year-end statements are arriving in the mail it's time to get back on the grid — and to make sure you start 2011 on the right foot, especially with your retirement accounts."

Extra Income Online: 5 Websites That Can Seriously Pad Your Pockets [Wise Bread] "Instead of taking on a second, or in some cases, third job to elevate your earnings, consider making use of these websites that can take you from rags to debatable riches."

11 Tricks to Cutting Travel Costs in 2011 [NY Times] " Here are 11 strategies — and some useful Web sites — to help you save on travel this year."

30 Things Broke People Say (That Keep Them Broke) [Smart on Money] "Why save money? You can't take it with you when you die!"

Save Money on Gas, Food and Travel: 13 Smart Tricks [MoneyWatch] "Here are 13 ways to trim some of these everyday expenses."

— FREE MONEY FINANCE








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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

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Fox <b>News</b>&#39; Bret Baier: A rapping delight? - The Week

The cable-news fixture revealed some fierce hip-hop talent at a golf tournament. Is he the Eminem of political reporters?

Are You Ready For Some Big Playstation <b>News</b>?

It's going to be a long day and a long night especially if you have any interest in the future of the Playstation Portable.

CBS <b>News</b> Finds North Korea-Like Approval for SOTU

Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...



yaSWezF

Fox <b>News</b>&#39; Bret Baier: A rapping delight? - The Week

The cable-news fixture revealed some fierce hip-hop talent at a golf tournament. Is he the Eminem of political reporters?

Are You Ready For Some Big Playstation <b>News</b>?

It's going to be a long day and a long night especially if you have any interest in the future of the Playstation Portable.

CBS <b>News</b> Finds North Korea-Like Approval for SOTU

Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...



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Fox <b>News</b>&#39; Bret Baier: A rapping delight? - The Week

The cable-news fixture revealed some fierce hip-hop talent at a golf tournament. Is he the Eminem of political reporters?

Are You Ready For Some Big Playstation <b>News</b>?

It's going to be a long day and a long night especially if you have any interest in the future of the Playstation Portable.

CBS <b>News</b> Finds North Korea-Like Approval for SOTU

Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...



cqUUnf

Fox <b>News</b>&#39; Bret Baier: A rapping delight? - The Week

The cable-news fixture revealed some fierce hip-hop talent at a golf tournament. Is he the Eminem of political reporters?

Are You Ready For Some Big Playstation <b>News</b>?

It's going to be a long day and a long night especially if you have any interest in the future of the Playstation Portable.

CBS <b>News</b> Finds North Korea-Like Approval for SOTU

Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...



qrKYNh

Fox <b>News</b>&#39; Bret Baier: A rapping delight? - The Week

The cable-news fixture revealed some fierce hip-hop talent at a golf tournament. Is he the Eminem of political reporters?

Are You Ready For Some Big Playstation <b>News</b>?

It's going to be a long day and a long night especially if you have any interest in the future of the Playstation Portable.

CBS <b>News</b> Finds North Korea-Like Approval for SOTU

Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...



rQFrP

Fox <b>News</b>&#39; Bret Baier: A rapping delight? - The Week

The cable-news fixture revealed some fierce hip-hop talent at a golf tournament. Is he the Eminem of political reporters?

Are You Ready For Some Big Playstation <b>News</b>?

It's going to be a long day and a long night especially if you have any interest in the future of the Playstation Portable.

CBS <b>News</b> Finds North Korea-Like Approval for SOTU

Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...



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Fox <b>News</b>&#39; Bret Baier: A rapping delight? - The Week

The cable-news fixture revealed some fierce hip-hop talent at a golf tournament. Is he the Eminem of political reporters?

Are You Ready For Some Big Playstation <b>News</b>?

It's going to be a long day and a long night especially if you have any interest in the future of the Playstation Portable.

CBS <b>News</b> Finds North Korea-Like Approval for SOTU

Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...

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Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: CBS <b>News</b> Finds North Korea-Like Approval <b>...</b>

Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Golf Swing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Golf Swing FAIL.

Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error.


eric seiger

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: CBS <b>News</b> Finds North Korea-Like Approval <b>...</b>

Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Golf Swing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Golf Swing FAIL.

Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error.


eric seiger

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: CBS <b>News</b> Finds North Korea-Like Approval <b>...</b>

Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Golf Swing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Golf Swing FAIL.

Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error.


eric seiger

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: CBS <b>News</b> Finds North Korea-Like Approval <b>...</b>

Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Golf Swing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Golf Swing FAIL.

Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error.


eric seiger

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: CBS <b>News</b> Finds North Korea-Like Approval <b>...</b>

Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Golf Swing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Golf Swing FAIL.

Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error.


eric seiger

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: CBS <b>News</b> Finds North Korea-Like Approval <b>...</b>

Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Golf Swing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Golf Swing FAIL.

Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error.


eric seiger
eric seiger

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: CBS <b>News</b> Finds North Korea-Like Approval <b>...</b>

Yet CBS News ran an "online poll," which is getting plenty of attention, showing that 92% of people "approve of the proposals the president made in his [State of the Union] speech." The polling method used 500 supposedly representative ...

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Golf Swing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Golf Swing FAIL.

Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Black Ops PS3 patch has Xbox Live error.

Monday, January 24, 2011

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Whenever you hear a business executive or politician use the term "American competitiveness," watch your wallet. Few terms in public discourse have gone so directly from obscurity to meaninglessness without any intervening period of coherence.



President Obama just appointed Jeffry Immelt, GE's CEO, to head his outside panel of economic advisors, replacing Paul Volcker. According to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, Immelt has "agreed to work through what makes our country more competitive."



In an opinion piece for the Washington Post announcing his acceptance, Immelt wrote "there is nothing inevitable about America's declining manufacturing competitiveness if we work together to reverse it."



But what's American "competitiveness" and how do you measure it? Here are some different definitions:



  • It's American exports. Okay, but the easiest way for American companies to increase their exports from the US is for their American-made products to become cheaper internationally. And for them to reduce the price of their American-made stuff they have to cut their costs of production in here. Their biggest cost is their payrolls. So it follows that the simplest way for them to become more "competitive" is to cut their payrolls -- either by substituting software and automated machinery for their US workers, or getting (or forcing) their US workers to accept wage and benefit cuts.


  • It's net exports. Another way to think about American "competitiveness" is the balance of trade -- how much we import from abroad versus how much they import from us. The easiest and most direct way to improve the trade balance is to coax the value of the dollar down relative to foreign currencies (the Fed's current strategy for flooding the economy with money could have this effect). The result is everything we make becomes cheaper to the rest of the world. But even if other nations were willing to let this happen (doubtful; we'd probably have a currency war instead as they tried to coax down the value of their currencies in response), we'd pay a high price. Everything the rest of the world makes would become more expensive for us.


  • It's the profits of American-based companies. In case you haven't noticed, the profits of American corporations are soaring. That's largely because sales from their foreign-based operations are booming (especially in China, Brazil, and India). It's also because they've cut their costs of production in the US (see the first item above). American-based companies have become global -- making and selling all over the world -- so their profitability has little or nothing to do with the number and quality of jobs here in the US. In fact, it may be inversely related.


  • It's the number and quality of American jobs. This is my preferred definition, but on this measure we're doing terribly badly. Most Americans are imprisoned in a terrible trade-off -- they can get a job, but only one that pays considerably less than the one they used to have, or they can face unemployment or insecure contract work. The only sure way to improve the quality of jobs over the long term is to build the productivity of American workers and the US overall, which means major investments in education, infrastructure, and basic R&D. But it's far from clear American corporations and their executives will pay the taxes needed to make these investments. And the only sure way to improve the number of jobs is to give the vast middle and working classes of America sufficient purchasing power to get the economy going again. But here again, it's far from clear American corporations and their executives will be willing to push for a more progressive tax code, along with wage subsidies, that would put more money into average workers' pockets.



It's politically important for President Obama, as for any president, to be available to American business, and to avoid the moniker of being "anti-business." But the president must not be seduced into believing -- and must not allow the public to be similarly seduced into thinking -- that the well-being of American business is synonymous with the well-being of Americans.



Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.











“We wanted to be the Bose of the digital world,” Cullen said. But in order to do that, the Sonos crew had to figure out how to make a product that was easy to use and could deliver a sound quality that audiophiles and those listening to MP3s would appreciate (as an aside for digital music junkies, Cullen says he stores his audio files as 320 kbps MP3 files). Improvement is ongoing, with the latest advancements being the way it built its S5 boombox-style device. Sonos, not longer content to shuttle bits around the home network through a proprietary wireless system, designed a new speaker for the S5 that digitally controls the output from the different parts of the speaker.


An advantage of this is that the S5 sounds the way most consumers prefer their speakers to sound (at least according to the gurus at Lucas Arts who vetted the sound quality for Sonos) and that the speaker profile can be changed via a DSP programmer tweaking the settings. Expect those advances to be seen in future Sonos products. Cullen also notes that the home audio market is the focus today, but people listen to music in other places, such as in their cars or via headphones — an area Sonos will one day explore. As it does, it’s staying focused on providing the best sound for digital music and continuing to refine the way it builds its products in the service of that goal.


Lesson#2: Consider Usability Before You Build



It took the guys at Sonos a few months to build their first prototype, and at the end, they were left with a product only a geek could love. Realizing this, they sought help from a usability expert, who told them they didn’t need a usability expert until much later in their process. What they needed was an industrial designer who could get in early and help them build the hardware and software with an eye toward the consumer. The team eventually hired Meiko Mieko Kusano, a designer for Phillips, who told them, “Usability is in the bones of the product, not the skin.” Cullen still credits that mentality with Sonos’ success.


“Most consumer electronics companies build out hardware and then add software to update it and change their designs every 18 months. We turned that on its head, building hardware that will last and software that we can update whenever we need to in order to improve the experience.” Cullen credits that shift to Kusano, and offers up Sonos’ Zone Player products as an example. “You should be able to stream music over that for the next 15 years.”


Lesson#3: Don’t Be Afraid to Cannibalize Yourself



That long-term vision for the hardware is part of the success of the Sonos platform, but the other is the philosophy the company has about working with partners and even introducing new products to expand its base. When it launched, a Sonos system could run a user about $99 for a wireless router, another $350 to $500 or so for something that picks up that signal and connects to speakers in one room (each room would need another of these), and a special controller for about $350 to drive the system. But in 2008, Sonos released a free app for the iPod that mimicked the functionality of the controller and thus brought down the cost of the system. Sales surged. The loss in controller revenue was more than offset by sales of the new system, Cullen said.


It now has a free app for the iPad, and as mentioned earlier, Cullen says support for other platforms will come. But last year, Sonos introduced a much more disruptive product: its S5 boombox. For $400, the S5 has speakers and allows someone to create a Sonos network with the addition of a Zone Bridge for $99. The launch of that product has changed the profile for Sonos, moving it out of the specialty market and into the mainstream. At the time of this writing, items No. 3 and No. 6 on Best Buy’s Top 10 bestselling wireless and streaming audio products were S5s. However, Sonos’ S5 cracked the top 100 of Amazon’s Bestsellers in Home Audio & Theater Products list at No. 73, behind rivals Logitech and Bose. But Cullen says the fear of cannibalizing sales of its more expensive gear hasn’t been realized; instead people buy an S5, then tend to add more onto their networks.


Lesson #4: A True Platform Doesn’t Pick Winners

As a platform, Sonos plans to release a breadth of hardware and software to ensure a better digital music experience, but it also extends that to partnerships it signs with music providers. Sonos currently supports Spotify in the U.K. and Scandinavia, and that partnership alone has enabled it to boost sales of its system in those countries by a non trivial amount. In the U.S., a partnership with Pandora has had a smaller but still noticeable affect on sales as well. Cullen said Spotify and other some partners have offered to pay Sonos for providing access to their content to Sonos users, but Sonos doesn’t play that game. “We don’t take revenue from people,” Cullen said. “We don’t want any incentives to guide our behavior rather than the user choosing what they want to listen to. We don’t want to be picking winners and losers.”


So far, Sonos’ strategy is working. The company has now raised $65 million,and while Cullen wouldn’t discuss IPO plans, he says the company has been approached by buyers. However, the $15 billion home audio market beckons, and Sonos believes it has learned how to play the game well and can take the disruption provided by digital music and home networks to give the industry giants a run for their money.


Related GigaOM Pro Content (sub req’d):



  • Will Sonos Ever Be the Next Big Thing?


  • 5 Connected Consumer Companies to Watch in 2011


  • Connected Consumer 2011: Rise of the Virtual Video Operator



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Hype Is Not <b>News</b> But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Transfer <b>news</b>: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez <b>...</b>

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Hype Is Not <b>News</b> But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Transfer <b>news</b>: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez <b>...</b>

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Hype Is Not <b>News</b> But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Transfer <b>news</b>: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez <b>...</b>

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Hype Is Not <b>News</b> But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Transfer <b>news</b>: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez <b>...</b>

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Hype Is Not <b>News</b> But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Transfer <b>news</b>: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez <b>...</b>

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Hype Is Not <b>News</b> But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Transfer <b>news</b>: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez <b>...</b>

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Hype Is Not <b>News</b> But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Transfer <b>news</b>: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez <b>...</b>

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Hype Is Not <b>News</b> But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Transfer <b>news</b>: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez <b>...</b>

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Hype Is Not <b>News</b> But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Transfer <b>news</b>: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez <b>...</b>

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Hype Is Not <b>News</b> But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Transfer <b>news</b>: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez <b>...</b>

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Hype Is Not <b>News</b> But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Transfer <b>news</b>: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez <b>...</b>

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Hype Is Not <b>News</b> But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Transfer <b>news</b>: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez <b>...</b>

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Hype Is Not <b>News</b> But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Transfer <b>news</b>: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez <b>...</b>

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.


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Hype Is Not <b>News</b> But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Transfer <b>news</b>: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez <b>...</b>

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Transfer <b>news</b>: Blackpool skipper Charlie Adam ready to go to war <b>...</b>

Charlie Adam is poised to tell the Seasiders that he wants out, worried the Anfield move may pass him by.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

budgeting personal finances

The theory is simple: "If you don't have the money, don't charge it. Try to leave your credit card at home and only use it to pay bills," advises April Lewis, director of education for Consolidated Credit Counseling Services. Then immediately pay off your credit-card balance. As for old credit-card debt, sit down and commit to paper a plan for paying them off. Go for a quick hit, like paying off the smallest balance first, or decide to take on the highest rate card first. Get the job done.

Here's a second tip: Be proactive about managing your credit. Call up your lender and ask it to lower your interest rate. Usually, lenders will lower callers' rates by 2% to 3%, says Scott Gamm, founder of HelpSaveMyDollars.com. Also check your credit report. You can check your credit for free at annualcreditreport.com, for example. If you see mistakes, contact the credit agencies and get those mistakes corrected. If errors are dragging down your score, eliminating them can boost it to where it belongs and make you eligible for better rates.

2. Think automation

Free online banking tools can make it easier to manage your finances with less work. To help grow your savings, for example, you can schedule regular transfers from your checking account. Manisha Thakor, author of Get Financially Naked: How to Talk Money With Your Honey, suggests setting up the transfer of a set amount of money into your savings account every pay day.

Also automate recurring bill payments so you never miss a due date or pay a late fee, which sends money down the drain. Even without late fees, timely payments are key: 35% of your credit score is based on your ability to make payments on time. If you sign up for automatic payments, however, make sure to check your monthly bills for errors. One other caveat: "Make sure you have enough cushion in your checking account to avoid any overdrafts" before setting up auto-payments, money coach Lora Sasiela says.


Best Mobile Personal Finance Tool: Mint





Earlier last week we asked you to share your favorite mobile personal finance tool. We rounded up the nominations and put the top five before you for a vote. Now we're back with your favorite.

Leading the pack by a brutal landslide; Mint's mobile finance application took home 76% of the vote. Following behind Mint, Pageonce pulled in 14%. Rounding out the bottom of the Hive were Pocket Money (3%), EasyMoney (2%), and ProOnGo (1%).


Click on the chart below to see the results in graph form.



Have an idea for the next Hive Five? Shoot us an email at tips@lifehacker.com with "Hive Five" in the subject line and we'll do our best to get your idea the attention it deserves.





Send an email to Jason Fitzpatrick, the author of this post, at jason@lifehacker.com.







Source:http://removeripoffreports.net/

Shelf Life: Broadcast <b>News</b> - The Moviefone Blog

Although almost no one saw it, James L. Brooks released a film in December. Its name was 'How Do You Know,' and it disappeared after just a week or two.

Perfect Market, <b>news</b> ad firm, lands $9 million in funding round <b>...</b>

Perfect Market Inc, a start-up that seeks to help news organizations make more money through online advertising, has won $9 million in new funding in a round led by Comcast Interactive Capital, the cable giant's venture arm.

Arnold Schwarzenegger set to make Hollywood comeback as a nice <b>...</b>

Look out, Hollywood. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a warning for.


Friday, January 14, 2011

personal finance manager

Yes, joking.


Greedsters and fraudsters, SEC, government....how to tell them apart?!  http://seekingalpha.com/article/214999-goldman-settlement-the-sec-s-real-failure"Goldman Settlement: The SEC's Real Failure (by Sam E. Antar)July 18, 2010

The Securities and Exchange Commission's settlement of a lawsuit against Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) over a certain subprime mortgage product sold to investors misses a key issue. That is, concerning the company's duty to provide timely and transparent disclosures to its own shareholders about government subpoenas, investigations, and pending enforcement actions against the firm. In this particular case, Goldman did not make timely disclosures about the regulator's investigation and pending lawsuit against the firm, right under the SEC investigator's noses.


Goldman Sachs chooses to keep shareholders in the dark about SEC investigation and pending enforcement action


During the summer of 2008, the SEC started investigating Goldman's marketing of a certain subprime mortgage product, known as ABACUS CDO, to investors who lost over $1 billion from that transaction.
At that time, Goldman Sachs knew that the SEC was investigating its failure to disclose material information to investors in violation of SEC Rule 10b-5 in connection with that transaction. However, Goldman Sachs did not disclose the SEC's investigation in its financial reports.


In July 2009, the SEC sent Goldman Sachs a Wells notice informing Goldman of its intention to file a lawsuit against the company. Still, Goldman Sachs chose not to disclose the SEC's pending enforcement action in its financial reports.


On Friday, April 16, 2010, the SEC filed a surprise lawsuit against Goldman Sachs and Executive Director Fabrice Tourre alleging securities fraud in connected with the company's marketing of the ABACUS CDO to investors. That day, Goldman Sachs shares plummeted from $183.31 per share to $160.30 per share or about 13%, wiping out about $12 billion of shareholder wealth.


Clearly, investors deemed the surprise news of the SEC complaint against the company as material information, unlike the management team running Goldman Sachs.


Goldman Sachs settles SEC charges


Yesterday, Goldman Sachs settled SEC charges against the firm. According to the SEC's press release:


...Goldman, Sachs & Co. will pay $550 million and reform its business practices to settle SEC charges that Goldman misled investors in a subprime mortgage product just as the U.S. housing market was starting to collapse.



 


 Robert Khuzami

 


In agreeing to the SEC's largest-ever penalty paid by a Wall Street firm, Goldman also acknowledged that its marketing materials for the subprime product contained incomplete information.



In a news conference, Director of SEC Enforcement Robert Khuzami spoke about Goldman's duty to provide full and transparent disclosure to its customers but ignored the company's duty to likewise provide such disclosures to its own shareholders:


They acknowledge that their marketing materials for the ABACUS CDO contained incomplete information, and that they failed to disclose both Paulson & Company's role in the portfolio selection process, and that Paulson's economic interests were adverse to CDO investors.


The settlement also contains forward-looking reforms. Goldman has agreed to tighten internal controls and assess the roles and responsibilities of Goldman personnel and others to insure that disclosures in future offerings of mortgage and CDO products are full and accurate.


In agreeing to the settlement, we also took into account that Goldman is engaging in a broad-based self-assessment of their overall business practices that will increase transparency, evaluate and remediate conflicts, and take other steps that collectively will reduce the chances that investors in the future will be misled.


This resolution achieves the goals of accountability, punishment for past misconduct and prospective reforms that are the hallmark of a successful outcome.


Today's settlement is a stark reminder that there will be a heavy price to be paid if firms violate the principles fundamental to our securities laws - full disclosure, honest treatment and fair dealing - and those principles do not change, even if the product is complex or the investor sophisticated.



By ignoring Goldman's failure to inform shareholders in a timely manner about the SEC's investigation of the company and then pending enforcement action, the SEC is sending a message that surprising investors about investigations and enforcement actions is fair game. Moreover, a resolution requiring self-assessment is meaningless, as anyone not sleeping soundly through the last decade should know.


Friday, news of the settlement sent Goldman shares 4.43% higher to close at $145.22 per share, still far lower than its $181.31 price per share the day before the SEC filed its complaint against the company.


Disclaimer: I am a convicted felon and a former CPA. As the criminal CFO of Crazy Eddie, I helped Eddie Antar and other members of his family mastermind one of the largest securities frauds uncovered during the 1980's. I committed my crimes in cold-blood for fun and profit, and simply because I could.


If it weren't for the efforts of the FBI, SEC, Postal Inspector's Office, US Attorney's Office, and class action plaintiff's lawyers who investigated, prosecuted, and sued me, I would still be the criminal CFO of Crazy Eddie today.


There is a saying, "It takes one to know one." Today, I work very closely with the FBI, IRS, SEC, Justice Department, and other federal and state law enforcement agencies in training them to identify and catch white-collar criminals.


I do not seek or want forgiveness for my vicious crimes from my victims. I plan on frying in hell with other white-collar criminals for a very long time.


Recently, I exposed financial reporting violations by Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) as an independent whistleblower. The Securities and Exchange Commission is now investigating Overstock.com and its CEO Patrick Byrne for securities law violations (Details here, here, and here).


In addition, the SEC is now investigating possible GAAP violations by Bidz.com (NASDAQ: BIDZ) after I alerted them about the company's inventory accounting practices."


 


Yes, joking.


Greedsters and fraudsters, SEC, government....how to tell them apart?!  http://seekingalpha.com/article/214999-goldman-settlement-the-sec-s-real-failure"Goldman Settlement: The SEC's Real Failure (by Sam E. Antar)July 18, 2010

The Securities and Exchange Commission's settlement of a lawsuit against Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) over a certain subprime mortgage product sold to investors misses a key issue. That is, concerning the company's duty to provide timely and transparent disclosures to its own shareholders about government subpoenas, investigations, and pending enforcement actions against the firm. In this particular case, Goldman did not make timely disclosures about the regulator's investigation and pending lawsuit against the firm, right under the SEC investigator's noses.


Goldman Sachs chooses to keep shareholders in the dark about SEC investigation and pending enforcement action


During the summer of 2008, the SEC started investigating Goldman's marketing of a certain subprime mortgage product, known as ABACUS CDO, to investors who lost over $1 billion from that transaction.
At that time, Goldman Sachs knew that the SEC was investigating its failure to disclose material information to investors in violation of SEC Rule 10b-5 in connection with that transaction. However, Goldman Sachs did not disclose the SEC's investigation in its financial reports.


In July 2009, the SEC sent Goldman Sachs a Wells notice informing Goldman of its intention to file a lawsuit against the company. Still, Goldman Sachs chose not to disclose the SEC's pending enforcement action in its financial reports.


On Friday, April 16, 2010, the SEC filed a surprise lawsuit against Goldman Sachs and Executive Director Fabrice Tourre alleging securities fraud in connected with the company's marketing of the ABACUS CDO to investors. That day, Goldman Sachs shares plummeted from $183.31 per share to $160.30 per share or about 13%, wiping out about $12 billion of shareholder wealth.


Clearly, investors deemed the surprise news of the SEC complaint against the company as material information, unlike the management team running Goldman Sachs.


Goldman Sachs settles SEC charges


Yesterday, Goldman Sachs settled SEC charges against the firm. According to the SEC's press release:


...Goldman, Sachs & Co. will pay $550 million and reform its business practices to settle SEC charges that Goldman misled investors in a subprime mortgage product just as the U.S. housing market was starting to collapse.



 


 Robert Khuzami

 


In agreeing to the SEC's largest-ever penalty paid by a Wall Street firm, Goldman also acknowledged that its marketing materials for the subprime product contained incomplete information.



In a news conference, Director of SEC Enforcement Robert Khuzami spoke about Goldman's duty to provide full and transparent disclosure to its customers but ignored the company's duty to likewise provide such disclosures to its own shareholders:


They acknowledge that their marketing materials for the ABACUS CDO contained incomplete information, and that they failed to disclose both Paulson & Company's role in the portfolio selection process, and that Paulson's economic interests were adverse to CDO investors.


The settlement also contains forward-looking reforms. Goldman has agreed to tighten internal controls and assess the roles and responsibilities of Goldman personnel and others to insure that disclosures in future offerings of mortgage and CDO products are full and accurate.


In agreeing to the settlement, we also took into account that Goldman is engaging in a broad-based self-assessment of their overall business practices that will increase transparency, evaluate and remediate conflicts, and take other steps that collectively will reduce the chances that investors in the future will be misled.


This resolution achieves the goals of accountability, punishment for past misconduct and prospective reforms that are the hallmark of a successful outcome.


Today's settlement is a stark reminder that there will be a heavy price to be paid if firms violate the principles fundamental to our securities laws - full disclosure, honest treatment and fair dealing - and those principles do not change, even if the product is complex or the investor sophisticated.



By ignoring Goldman's failure to inform shareholders in a timely manner about the SEC's investigation of the company and then pending enforcement action, the SEC is sending a message that surprising investors about investigations and enforcement actions is fair game. Moreover, a resolution requiring self-assessment is meaningless, as anyone not sleeping soundly through the last decade should know.


Friday, news of the settlement sent Goldman shares 4.43% higher to close at $145.22 per share, still far lower than its $181.31 price per share the day before the SEC filed its complaint against the company.


Disclaimer: I am a convicted felon and a former CPA. As the criminal CFO of Crazy Eddie, I helped Eddie Antar and other members of his family mastermind one of the largest securities frauds uncovered during the 1980's. I committed my crimes in cold-blood for fun and profit, and simply because I could.


If it weren't for the efforts of the FBI, SEC, Postal Inspector's Office, US Attorney's Office, and class action plaintiff's lawyers who investigated, prosecuted, and sued me, I would still be the criminal CFO of Crazy Eddie today.


There is a saying, "It takes one to know one." Today, I work very closely with the FBI, IRS, SEC, Justice Department, and other federal and state law enforcement agencies in training them to identify and catch white-collar criminals.


I do not seek or want forgiveness for my vicious crimes from my victims. I plan on frying in hell with other white-collar criminals for a very long time.


Recently, I exposed financial reporting violations by Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) as an independent whistleblower. The Securities and Exchange Commission is now investigating Overstock.com and its CEO Patrick Byrne for securities law violations (Details here, here, and here).


In addition, the SEC is now investigating possible GAAP violations by Bidz.com (NASDAQ: BIDZ) after I alerted them about the company's inventory accounting practices."


 



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Dyane Jean François: Breaking <b>News</b>: The President Has Feelings?

It seems safe to say that as a political leader Barack Obama probably had an agenda to hit with his speech in Arizona. But what was in his heart? Well, we will never know .

Wind warning expires - Chicago Breaking <b>News</b>

A wind warning for northern Illinois expired this evening after two days of high winds, with gusts today topping 50 mph through much of northern Illinois and northern Indiana. The warning was in effect today until 7 p.m., according to ...

The Write Stuff For Test Anxiety - Science <b>News</b>

Students score higher after jotting down worries before a big exam.


Thursday, January 13, 2011

online reputation management now online

Enhanced digital camera:
The 3.15 mega pixel camera from the Apple iPhone 3GS has been abandoned and instead a new and superior 5 mega pixel has been used, which features a high pixel resolution of 2592x1944 pixels. The new camera also boasts LED flash, touch focus, online reputation management online without prescription Autofocus and geo-tagging as part of the image enhancing options. It is also capable of shooting video in 720p high definition quality. Additionally, the second camera located on the front of the phone is to establish video calls through Wi-Fi networks online reputation management on-line with other iPhone 4 users via the FaceTime app which is installed as standard.Retina display:
The quality of the iPhone 4 has been significantly improved by Apple, as the retina display features a 640x960 pixel resolution inside the TFT capacitive 3.5 inch online reputation management online viagra touch-screen. The "retina display" name comes from the fact that the pixel resolution of the screen is actually higher than the human eye can recognize. Consequently, the resulted image is incredible clear and crisp with up to 16 million colours. Thus, users can enjoy their photos and videos in stunning quality and its full splendour.
online reputation management online
We have listed just some of the amazing things and features the Apple iPhone 4 has to offer to its users. It is perhaps the most resourceful smartphone out there, while access to the AppStore offers unlimited possibilities for further expansion and personalization. online reputation management where It is not only for entertainment purposes but for common daily functionality, as the iPhone 4 is a very efficient tool to achieve numerous daily tasks. As it is also available in a white version, it is most certainly a gadget that you can't afford to miss.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Twitter Tycoons

With just 140 characters, Twitter has changed what it means to communicate. And, in case you haven't noticed, the way we do business too. If you aren't using.

Sarah Palin Appearing On Sean Hannity&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Show Monday (VIDEO)

Sarah Palin will give her first interview since the Arizona shootings--and her controversial "blood libel" video--to Fox News' Sean Hannity. Palin will appear on "Hannity" on Monday, Jan. 17.

Ex-deacon accused of stealing from Catholic church - Chicago <b>...</b>

A Roman Catholic parish in West Chicago that has been beset with bad news in recent months received more on Wednesday. The former deacon and bookkeeper at St. Mary's Parish was charged with stealing more than $315000 from the parish to ...

Monday, January 10, 2011

Making Money Online With




or if you aim big you can even advertise with Google Adwords and pay only if someone clicks your add:http://google.com/adwords4. Consider me your real business friend and start your first link exchange with my blog: ad my link to your blog or website and I shell do the same adding your link over here on  http://realbucksonline.blogspot.com/ Also consider that I will post a new method of making real bucks online every week so stay connected here via bookmark or RSS feed. 
 Ok: I am just a average guy like you, who aims to make a real buck on the net.
Now let*s face it: it is hard enough to put cents on cents in a few ptc sites and expect to earn a decent living by that. Plus that all this so called business to be payed to click it*s like rolling the dice: you*re never sure finally you get the money. So what*s the catch with this game?
The most important thing in it is to get referrals : directly or rented ones. And the second important thing is to relay on the most trusted and stable sites. This is like betting on the most probable winner with a Team of Betters behind you.
Now,the first rule in business is to MEAN it. Not necessarily to be mean but to be serious about it. So if you think to make a living online you must be serious, hard working and learn it every step of the way. By all means you will get to SUCCEED IN TIME. With the second important thing, related to paying and stable sites you can get help from average experience or custom search on the net for top paying sites on Google. The really heavy duty thing is to build a Team of Referrals. According to this, the most affordable approach is to rent them with the amount of money you already earned on a site. The difficult part is to convince a direct referral to join in your   downline and be active on every day. This is like direct-sales in the real world: 50% chances (or less) to make them buy something which is more a game than a business. The rest of 50% is advertising or make believe (super-fantasizing) that something is useful and generates a sort of monthly real income. This fantasies go from promises of other great deals to even promises of 10(ten!) dollars per click:) And believe me, there are sites which ”offer” more than that, even the moon from the sky, just to get you join their scam. There are two kind of experiences related to this ”make believes”: one is to be a realistic guy by nature and the second is to try things until they prove lies. Everyone is preferring the first category except the advertisers, who are preferring the second one. Well, if you want to really be in the first category, and play this ptc game, you have to discern between a real buck and a promised one, in Neverland. You may say that each and every dime is just a promise in the ptc virtual world, until that dime profs it*s real in your pocket. It*s true but that does not mean you stop discerning reality from dreams. You must keep your goal to make real money online, gather experience and build a system that really works keeping you satisfied with your decent earnings and little, indecent losses.  
That is why I thought of a system for everyone to get referrals. Scroll down and find out how much you will pay for it!
(just kidding Stay tuned on this site and you will found it soon. Have a winning day everyone! 







No one at Trion Worlds has promised that the company’s first fantasy role-playing online game, Rift: Planes of Telara, will be a World of WarCraft killer. Indeed, many makers of massively multiplayer online games have tried to knock out Blizzard Entertainment’s online subscription game, but WoW has ruled for six years and it just got a major upgrade with World of WarCraft: Cataclysm, which sold 3.3 million units in a day. But that doesn’t intimidate the folks at Trion Worlds, which has raised more than $100 million and has more than 200 people working on a variety of MMOs. Of course, beating WoW is the ultimate prize, since WoW has more than 12 million paying subscribers and it generates more than $1 billion in revenue per year for Activision Blizzard.


Rift is in the midst of closed beta testing, and I’ve had a look at the beta version up close. The graphics are beautiful and the unscripted dynamic events, where the world can change in an instant, are working as advertised. We had a chance to catch up with David Reid, head of marketing at Trion Worlds in Redwood City, Calif. (and former marketing chief for Microsoft’s Xbox 360) about the upcoming game, and here’s what he had to say:


VB: You’ve been working for a long time on this game — more than five years. What are you doing with the beta testing now?


DR: The beta process is about testing scalability. How many players can we support? It’s about getting some feedback from a number of real users so that we can tune some of these last knobs. But in a lot of ways, beta will be almost like a launch for us. We know that a number of MMO companies have made the mistake of going out with the beta with a product that really should not have been characterized as a beta. They paid for it. We are not doing that kind of a beta. [Laughs]


VB: You’re getting close to release?


DR: We feel like we are very close to release-level quality. We are tuning. We are polishing. We are scaling.


VB: So after five years, you’re not making money on this game yet.


DR: Not yet, but really darn soon. What day of the month is it?


VB: How will the launch proceed?


DR: Here’s probably how it works. The best game companies launch their newest titles with a presale program. That is the point where the consumer can put money down for the game. Technically, when that happens, the game won’t be formally live. It will still be in testing. But we are going to treat it as if it were the real launch. We will have 24/7 support in all languages. We will treat these players as if they are paying customers. We’re very close to that right now. We’ll open it up to the public for a large beta test soon.


VB: At that point, you will have tens of thousands of people playing?


DR: Absolutely. I can’t disclose specific numbers of the beta, but we are in the midst of some very large beta test events now and we just keep scaling it up. The first beta event was just the data center in Dallas, and so Europeans were in the beta, but they were playing on Dallas servers. We are opening a data center in Amsterdam for the European users. Operationally, that’s very important for us. We’ll bring up the different languages over time.


VB: The whole idea of a “Rift” is that you can open up a portal into the world and flood it with monsters. Then the players all go to that area and fight off the invasion. How many people can you concentrate in one place in the world?


DR: That’s a question with many potential answers. Because there’s the geographic point of it and then there is the hardware server part of it. The servers have multiple sections, or shards. Right now, we are figuring out how many people on a shard is too many. But what is unique about our game is that you can have a very large number of players all in one place and you can interact with all of them. You don’t have to worry that you can’t find your friends because they are in a different region or a different server. When a Rift opens, it is a dynamic event. The Rifts can happen in any geographic location and you can have lots of them at once. We have shown in our beta testing that all of that is working properly. We will ramp this up to an industrial scale.


VB: Is the game designed to be split into shards at all?


DR: It is a game with shards. But we are being very careful about not locking people to particular servers and things like that. MMOs have always had that kind of problem. MMO’s, by their nature, are incredibly social experiments, right? And people in Europe want to play with people in North America, and people in North America want to play with people in Australia, and that’s just how these communities have been built online as opposed to a pick-up basketball game in your neighborhood.


So if you lock those servers and you’re not letting those people play with friends, then you are, by definition, fracturing those communities. We have to do this well because we are going into a territory where there are well-established brands that already have communities rallied around them. We want to win with the people who play these games regularly. If they have a guy in their group who is in New Zealand, you have to bring them all into the game together. This is something we’ve been really focused on.


VB: So you can manage this game by throwing in more servers when you have peak usage?


DR: In full transparency, I’m probably not the ideal guy to answer that level of question. But what I can tell you is that we do have with both the Dallas data center and the Amsterdam data center. We have servers operating in a beta process and we can fire more of them up as the population grows. We can add more firepower to the servers if there are more people or if we are going to amp up the events in the game, such as create sharper artificial intelligence, better physics, or more Rifts. One thing we are looking at is how many Rifts should be occurring in a given zone of the game so that a player can feel like they have a lot to choose from. What level of that is fun? One thing we want to communicate to the player is that they will start with all of the features that they expect to have in a AAA quality game. You have your zones, dungeons, quests, character classes, fashions, monsters — and on top of that is this dynamic layer where the Rifts open in the world and change the environment of the game dynamically. The dynamic layer is what causes the social play, because you have to rally with your friends to stop the Rifts. It impacts your decisions as a gamer and the decisions of the groups of gamers as well.


VB:  What is your marketing message these days about your game being the “WOW killer”?


DR: Well, to be clear, no one in Trion has ever said that, and I don’t think anybody in Trion ever will. If you look at the lineage of great MMOs, starting with Ultima Online, you see generational improvements. Ultima Online was the first commercial success in the MMO business, but it was two-dimensional and weighted toward players fighting other players. That wasn’t much fun for the new players. EverQuest came along with 3D animation and players fighting against the environment. It was a real commercial success and it was prettier. Still, it had its bugs. World of WarCraft came along in 2004. It was an improvement on what came before and it was very polished. Within that game, you could have some great solo experiences. Other games have tried to emulate it.


We think of Rift as the next step in that evolution of product. We’ve taken a look at what World of WarCraft and others in that generation of MMOs have done and done really well. There were really innovative things that happened in Warhammer Online and in the Age of Conan. But those two products, in particular, didn’t, of course, capture everything that a World of Warcraft player was looking for. The players didn’t migrate from WoW.


In part, Rift is our love letter to the players who played the games that came before us. We love those games and we think this is the next generation, much like players move on to a new console with every generation.


VB: So WoW just went through that big change with Cataclysm. I guess you can do the same kind of upgrade just about every day?


DR: Yes. And that is a bit of what the engine of the Rift game and our End of Nations game is about. For all of the interconnected play that you have in an MMO, those worlds are still remarkably static. There isn’t much to do until a patch or a giant expansion comes out. And what the portal mechanic in Rift does is add a level of real life variability. It’s the first time really that in an MMO, you have the beginnings of emergent game play of things that will happen in this game that the developers aren’t able to predict and that the players are going to have a real hand in deciding. If a Rift opens on a town, you can help save it or you can wait for it to do its work.


VB: Is the audience for these games as large as ever, or are the free games sucking out a lot of the paying players?


DR: It has been fun to watch the industry evolve. We sit right here next door to one of the world’s largest publishers (Electronic Arts). Those kinds of publishers are putting  a lot of focus on what I’ll call the shallow end of online gaming: the casual, the mobile, the social. Those are all really fine businesses, but at the end of the day, we still think that it is the gamer who spends the most money especially in tough economic times. These are people who will forego other things and will eat ramen noodles for weeks if that’s what it takes to pay for their Xbox Live subscription or their MMO subscription. That audience is very demanding. For them, you have to build a great, immersive product. In the past couple of years, the MMO businesses have not served this customer well. They have launched games that needed more time or innovation or just better quality.


We are capitalized well enough here that we’re not making that same mistake. As I said, for us, the beta test is really like a launch in a lot of ways. We’re not bringing a half-finished product to market.


VB: You made a reference to All Points Bulletin, which failed miserably after five years of development. You don’t interpret that failure as bad for the whole MMO market?


DR: No, we don’t. I think a lot of people could see those things coming and it wasn’t just APB. Final Fantasy XIV had a very rough start. There are other games over the past few years. It isn’t that the market isn’t there. It just comes down the fact that if you have quality product, gamers are willing to pay for it. But don’t try to convince them your product is high quality and charge them a high price if it’s not. That is the road to death.


VB: Are you tempted to play around with different business models because the industry has changed so much?


DR: Sure. There is a lot to think about there. It is, you know, from a business perspective, a very exciting time. Innovation is important, in both the game, the marketing and the business model. With Rift, we will use the standard approach. We will sell a premium product in digital form as a download or in a retail store. We will charge an appropriate price and have a monthly service fee that you pay after your first 30 days have passed.


VB: You have developed a flexible server infrastructure for your game. How will you make use of that?


DR: We can do updates. We will do some handcrafted design and launch it on a regular basis. But we can also change just a bit every single day, every couple of hours, whatever, as players react to and encounter dynamic content. Now, we have big plans on this front because this is part of what’s really new and special about what we’re doing. Those plans are nothing I can talk directly about yet, but I will tell you that it is something that makes you think hard about how the customer encounters your product and experiences it. There are critical moments in a consumer’s mindset of, ‘Am I having enough fun to continue paying for this game?’ and we think very hard about when to uncork more awesomeness in our dynamic layer of things to satisfy a very difficult customer who is used to some very high quality product.


VB: I saw a report that said someone had reached the highest level possibly in Cataclysm on the day it came out.


DR: That kind of gamer is going to be part of our audience. I am not surprised. Again, it only added five new levels. I’m impressed with that player, but I’m not shocked. People take a lot of pride in being the first to race through the content. As a publisher, that terrifies you. It means your work is never done. But it’s also something you admire in the audience.


VB: So, that’s the kind of thing you will be ready for?


DR: It is different for us. We have a very different kind of MMO with dynamic content. When you hit the highest level, you haven’t finished all the content. When you hit our level cap, you don’t have to leave the game. The challenge for the publisher is that once someone hits the highest level, they will still have awesome game play experiences.


VB: If you look back on the five-plus years, how would you say you made good use of that time? Sometimes when a game takes that long to finish, it’s a bad sign because of the cost overruns or because the design becomes outdated.


DR: That’s right. It’s a hard business, right? And you look back and there’s probably any number of small things you look at and say, “Yes, we could have squeezed that a little more efficiently. But a large amount of what you get with the time and the financing that the time gives you is the ability to bring in a great team of people. Then you give them the time to get the chemistry right and build what they want to build. The soul of this product is the ambition behind it and the polishing that has gone into making it right. You can’t do these games without huge investments, awesome talent, and a lot of time. For venture financing, $100 million sounds like a lot. But these are really ambitious projects, and you have to be in this league to be competitive. We have used that money to build not one game but to commission a number of games that are all very groundbreaking.


VB: Did you guys get some benefit from seeing Blizzard’s leaked release schedule?


DR: It got headlines everywhere and we looked at it like everyone else. But I don’t think we would change any of our plans based on internet rumor.


Check out a video recording of one of the unscripted Rift scenes in action below.



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The State <b>News</b> :: The Snyder Effect

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News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.

The State <b>News</b> :: The Snyder Effect

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News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.

The State <b>News</b> :: The Snyder Effect

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An F.D.A. panel considers what to do about menthol flavoring in cigarettes.

Harry Shearer: The <b>News</b> Doesn&#39;t Sleep -- Except on Weekends

News organizations have lately opted to hire fewer reporters, and to cut newsrooms' Saturday staffs. As NPR and Reuters issued erroneous reports of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death this weekend, the downside of such cuts seems clear.

The State <b>News</b> :: The Snyder Effect

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