Friday, August 31, 2012

SmartVault Releases SmartVault for iPad?Expanding Mobile Strategy to Further Enhance the Ability to ?Work the Way YOU Work?

SmartVault, a leading provider of online document storage and sharing solutions, recently released its app for iPad?offering convenient mobile access to users to browse, search, view, and share documents with ease. In response to the explosive growth of mobile devices by businesses to increase productivity, SmartVault, a leading provider of SaaS document storage and sharing solutions, announced today the availability of its new application for the Apple iPad. SmartVault, a leading provider of Software as a Service document storage and sharing solutions, provides accounting professionals and businesses with an easy and affordable solution for users to store, view, and share files securely any time and from anywhere. SmartVault?s unique integration with popular small- and medium-sized business applications such as QuickBooks creates a seamless user experience for scanning, attaching, and finding documents within a familiar application. SmartVault has earned top honors from Intuit as a QuickBooks Gold Certified Developer, has won both a Readers? Choice Award and a Technology Innovation Award from The CPA Technology Advisor, and has earned Awesome Add-on awards for QuickBooks from The Sleeter Group.

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'Hunger Games', 'Lorax' Fend Off New Releases on Home Entertainment Charts


Sacha Baron Cohen's "The Dictator" debuted at No. 3 despite a robust $59.7 million theatrical gross.

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US STOCKS-Wall St rebounds in volatile post-Bernanke trading

* Bernanke: Fed ready to act, but no mention of stimulus
right now

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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Clouds align for good start to Brazil's 2013 coffee crop

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Prospects for an abundant, high-quality 2013 Brazilian coffee crop look good, thanks to some of the most cooperative weather in at least two years, said a meteorologist at Somar, a Brazilian forecasting service.

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Why Job-Hopping Is Essential For Startups

A lot of people in Silicon Valley are down on job-hoppers these days. They?re flaky, they?re bad employees, they steal all the Sharpies when they leave, blah, blah, blah. But it turns out that all that job-hopping is an important part of what makes the Valley so special. 

Everyone loves a good game of musical chairs. The tune kicks on, everyone jumps up and runs in a circle laughing and the party is good. That?s Silicon Valley over the past few years. A lot of people whirling around and having a grand old time. But what would happen if the music started and nobody got up to play? What if companies want to hire but all the workers stay firmly seated in their current positions?

The truth is that Silicon Valley startups depend on job-hoppers to fill their open positions - and a lot of them would struggle if the job-hoppers stopped hopping.

Job Hopping Makes Silicon Valley Hum

?That?s why employers populate Silicon Valley, because they have access to great talent,? said Kathryn Shaw, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, who researches ways that firms attract top talent in knowledge industries. ?They want people to be relatively mobile, because when they have a need for a particular skill, they want people to be available.?

Job-hopping means startups have an easier time finding a match for their needs. If job-hopping ceased, Silicon Valley would lose a lot of its appeal as a location, Shaw said. ?You need job-hopping to continually update the matching process between employer and employee. That?s why we have Silicon Valley. Otherwise people would be more scattered.?

So job-hoppers are a vital commodity for tech companies. But what about the other side of the chip? Conventional wisdom among startups workers is: move around as much as you can and you?ll benefit from ever-increasing compensation as firms seek to attract your talents.

Surprise: Job Hoppers Make Less Cash

In fact, that?s not true. In her research, Shaw has discovered that people who stay longer at one company get paid more. A few years ago she did a study of 50,000 Silicon Valley software employees and found that those with at least five years? experience at the same employer typically earned annual raises of 8%, compared to 5% for those with a history of job-hopping. She also found that employees who stay in place longer are more productive and creative. (Perhaps because they don?t waste so much time in orientation sessions.)

Shaw?s data included stock options vested as they were realized. She drew her data from the state of California, not survey forms.

?To constantly hop between jobs to try to chase the greatest pay is not advisable,? she said. ?If you take someone who has high income right now and look at the sources of that income, what they did to achieve that high income, how they did it was staying with one or two employers, not by hopping [among] employers.?

The Future Of Job Hopping

So will startup workers keep on job-hopping? Culture is the key to the decision-making process. When workers see a culture in which every employee at Instagram gets filthy rich overnight, it?s only natural for them to decide to chase the next Instagram. When they look around and see their friends jumping from one startup to another for more stock options and cooler rooftop parties, it?s easy for them to do the same.

But what happens if the bubble pops and everybody sobers up and admits the reality revealed in research by people like Shaw? it?s likely there will be less mobility in Silicon Valley. Exactly how much job-hopping continues could hold long-term implications for companies big and small - not to mention their employees.

IBM, anyone?

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.


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How CNN?s Facebook Election Tool Spreads Misinformation

As election season nears, more and more people are discussing the candidates and their positions online. Facebook and CNN want to be at the center of that conversation - but they have a long way to go if they really want to add to the debate.

The two organizations announced Facebook-CNN Election Insights, a real-time tool that shows which candidate Americans are talking about online, sliced into a number of user-configurable demographics. The tool was architected by Mass Relevance under CNN?s guidance. Mass Relevance also provided a curated Twitter tracker during the recent Olympic games.

Following on the heels of election-oriented services from Twitter (The Twitter Political Index) and Amazon (the[Amazon Election Heat Map 2012), Facebook-CNN Election Insights may be a noble first step, but it lacks the essential data and context it needs to be truly useful.

For Viewers And Reporters

CNN sees this as a online resource both for viewers as well as its own reporters. Facebook-CNN Election Insights will be used during CNN broadcasts, including regular segments on CNN?s ?The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer? as well as in CNN.com and CNN Mobile campaign coverage, the news network explained. CNN?s daily ?Political Gut Check? newsletter and the U.S. Politics on Facebook page will feature highlights from the tool.

?Facebook is naturally a place where friends engage in political discourse, and we?re pleased to announce that the Facebook-CNN Election Insights tool will offer an interactive, real-time glimpse into how and where this conversation is taking place across the country,? said Elliot Schrage, vice president of corporate communications and public policy at Facebook, in a statement.

The problem - or perhaps the benefit to CNN - is that the tool is sadly lacking in context. On the CNN site, for example, Election Insights shows that President Obama showed a spike in online conversations mentioning his name around Aug. 25 at 8 AM. But why? Were the mentions positive or negative? In what context was Obama?s name mentioned? None of this is explained, and it?s up to the reader, or the on-air CNN anchor, to explain.

In a sense, there?s even less information than the ubiquitous stock-market graphs so common on nightly business reports. Those, at least, display both the relative change as well as the absolute value. The CNN tool reports that 19% more people are talking about Romney ?day over day?, and 19% fewer people are talking about Obama. It?s not even clear what that means, given that users can adjust the time periods from 7 days down to the last 12 hours.

A Shortage Of Context And Transparency

Facebook data is being used, of course, and it is being pulled and anonymized from Facebook's entire U.S. member base. We still don't know actual numbers, however, and any pundit worth his salt would appreciate knowing if Obama?s name is being mentioned 50 million times, or just 5,000.

Amber Quist, director of marketing for Mass Relevance, said that her company had ?special access? to the Facebook data, but declined to comment on whether or not the company had access to its social graph API. She also wasn?t able to say whether Mass Relevance and the CNN tool taps into all of Facebook?s U.S. users, or just a subset. (Facebook representatives didn?t respond to requests for additional comment.) ?It?s capturing the buzz coming across the Facebook platform,? Quist said.

Mass Relevance doesn?t provide the kind of detailed sentiment analysis that Radian6 and other competing companies offer. Mass Relevance?s ?poor man sentiment analysis,? Quist said, can provide only positive or negative assessments. More to the point, ?it?s not incorporated into this experience at all,? she said.

The Election As A Big Data Problem

If there?s one big data problem that users will care about this fall, it?s the election.

A ?Facebook election? could radically rewrite democracy with a simple request: in late October, a site message could simply ask the site?s users to ?like? either candidate. That poll would most likely be the most comprehensive poll any agency would issue, outside of the election, especially if Facebook was able to provide demographic analysis of which users preferred which candidate. And if Facebook asked its worldwide userbase to participate, global sentiment could be factored in.

Until we know more about what data Facebook is providing to CNN, however, Election Insights cannot fulfill its potential. As with any poll, greater transparency equals a corresponding increase in credibility.

If Facebook or CNN does provide this transparency, Election Insights could become a useful tool. But without it, this might be the polling equivalent of the ?hologram? CNN used during the 2008 election: something to provoke conversation among viewers, but adding little value to the company?s core mission - delivering relevant news.


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Churches go high-tech to serve members

[...] throughout the week, it's likely that church members will be chatting on the church's Facebook site, submitting online prayer requests or using the Internet to catch up on missed sermons. Susan Converse, director of operations for St. Mark Lutheran Church & School, agreed that technology has greatly expanded horizons for churches. For many churches, websites provide an opportunity to connect members to services and resources while letting those browsing the web get a sample of what their congregations are like. Visitors also can: download event registration forms; read blogs; access photos and videos; and connect to volunteer opportunities. Members also have the option of creating an account on the website to access its member portal, MYSBC Life, and individual class websites. First-time visitors can link to Google Maps through the site to get directions to the Woodway campus and take a virtual tour of the campus through the website. [...] Baptist recently developed its own prayer-and-care software that assists with what staff members call "catch and dispatch" of the prayer requests and needs of the church membership. From these, we average 179 follow-up calls, 578 hand-written encouraging notes, 244 hospital visits made by both staff and volunteers and 9,134 prayers prayed by our staff and volunteer prayer intercessors. An extension of this software is the church's online prayer room, where staff or volunteers can log in through the website and pray through each of the prayer requests. At St. Mark's, staff members and volunteers turn to technology to enhance worship services and share information.

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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Loss of radio contact prompts Amsterdam plane hijack scare

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Netherlands intercepted a Spanish airliner with two fighter planes and then sent security forces to surround it on the tarmac at Amsterdam's airport in a hijack scare caused by a loss of radio contact.

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Isaac Waters Top La. Levee, Some Homes Flooded

Hurricane Isaac was beginning to move inland Wednesday on a slow, drenching slog toward New Orleans seven years to the day after the much stronger Katrina hit the city.

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Nokken-3 Subsea Exploration Robot

Eirik Taylor’s Nokken-3 ROV is the latest iteration of his long-running submersible project. The ROV housing itself was constructed using a sheet of plexiglas, which was welded first using acetone to hold the pieces in place, then glued later with epoxy. The potting substance used this time is laminating epoxy, [...]

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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

NFL Great Ray Lewis Teams Up With Actor Paul Rudd in 'Madden NFL 13' Viral Clips (Video)


New series of promotional videos reveal that the long-time best buddies have been playing Madden video games and helping each other?s careers for many years.

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'Breaking Dawn': New Photos And A Chat With The Director!

Bill Condon talks to MTV News about the film's 'beautiful' visual effects and why filming was the 'biggest party ever.'
By Kara Warner


Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2"
Photo: Andrew Cooper / Summit Entertainment

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Historic sites in danger, says Rome?s mayor

Aug. 22 - Rome's mayor warns that austerity measures are affecting the upkeep of historical sites after nine metres of wall surrounding one of the city's piazzas collapses. Tara Cleary reports.

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Make: Talk 017 ? Backyard Ballistics with William Gurstelle

Interview with Backyard Ballistics author William Gurstelle.

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