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Microsoft launches Windows 8 later this month after a year of gradually making the new operating system more and more available, hoping for a big hit that will drive sales this holiday season and beyond, and giving the company new hope of grabbing a bigger share of tablet sales. But what if Windows 8 flops? For businesses, the problem won't be that dire, says Paul DeGroot, principal consultant at Pica Communications. Businesses that are Microsoft shops already have an operating system, likely Windows 7, but if not, Windows XP with a plan to adopt Windows 7 soon before support for...

IBM has taken the wraps off the first of its Power Systems machinery to make use of its cache-heavy Power7+ processors, and as El Reg anticipated from the hints in the announcement invitation put out two weeks ago, Big Blue is starting near the top of the line as it upgrades systems that run AIX, IBM i (formerly known as OS/400), and Linux. As has been the case for the past several generations, the rollout for the Power7+ chips will be a gradual one. "The rest of the products will get the Power7+ next year, with the exception of the...

Now down to 65%. He lost about 8 points during last night's debate, and has lost a couple more today. He was around 80% a couple of days ago.

Is this because of Romney's performance in the debate or coincidence?

Since the U.S. and E.U. first enacted sanctions against Iran, in 2010, the value of the Iranian rial (IRR) has plummeted, imposing untold misery on the Iranian people. When a currency collapses, you can be certain that other economic metrics are moving in a negative direction, too. Indeed, using new data from Iran’s foreign-exchange black market, I estimate that Iran’s monthly inflation rate has reached 69.6%. With a monthly inflation rate this high (over 50%), Iran is undoubtedly experiencing hyperinflation. When President Obama signed the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act, in July 2010, the official Iranian rial-U.S. dollar...

Saturday Night Live had fun at President Barack Obama's expense last night in another special Thursday installment leading up to the election, mocking the president for a message that the economy will get better — sometime in the not-specific future. Jay Pharoah, cast as Obama this season, was at a town-hall-style rally in Ohio, where he found it difficult to find a supporter who was "better off" under his economy — or who had a job at all. "I understand your frustration," Pharoah said to one woman who said she had been unable to find a job since 2009. "I...

Kyle Cater’s teacher said he was respectful and honest, but if you needed a ‘thing’ to deal with a beef, he was the man to call Kyle Cater was in gym class at J.L. Ilsley High School when the police came to arrest him on Jan. 15, 2009. Officers had first gone tohis father’s house that morning — and other sites — as part of Operation Intrude, a major sweep that targeted a Spryfield drug-dealing operation. They found guns and ammunition in his father’s house and that allowed them to apprehend the Grade 12 student, later described as polite and...

College skeptics are whipping out the B-word. Many students are bulking up on loans and coming up empty on the job market while schools keep hiking tuition. Pretty soon, critics say, the bubble has to burst. My former colleague Megan McArdle lays out a thoughtful version of that argument in the most recent issue of Newsweek. She's correct that there are lots of people now who aren't benefiting much from their education. But in spite of the country's growing load of education debt and the rough job market for recent grads, most students who make it through with a diploma...

I just received a letter from Residential Capital, parent company of my mortgage company (GMACMortgage) that says for several months they have been persueing Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This letter said they were informing motgagees in case they "had a claim" and then just went on with a bunch of spin how everything is fine. Smart FRiends, is everything fine? I don't have any mortgage issues so I don't see how it can really effect me, maybe I'm just naive. Is this just old news I was unaware of? Yes, I know there's been a mortgage crisis but is Residential Capital...

Princeton University grads capitalize on their diploma more than any other school's alumni, a new study finds. Research from PayScale.com revealed that Princeton alumni have the highest mid-career salaries at $137,000, with starting salaries averaging close to $57,000 a year. As a whole, the top 10 highest earning schools' graduates make an average of $122,500 at mid-career, up nearly 5 percent over last year's top 10, the study found. "Given that the economy isn't roaring back and student debt continues to spiral out of control, it is imperative that future college students educate themselves on the earnings they can expect...

In response to recent articles in mainstream military journals discussing the use of the U.S. Army to quell insurrections on American soil, I offer an alternate vision of the future. Instead of a small town in the South as the flash point, picture instead a score of U.S. cities in the thrall of riots greater than those experienced in Los Angeles in 1965 (Watts), multiple cities in 1968 (MLK assassination), and Los Angeles again in 1992 (Rodney King). New Yorkers can imagine the 1977 blackout looting or the 1991 Crown Heights disturbance. In fact, the proximate spark of the next...

Dear Dave, I’m in college with a full scholarship. I work part time and should be able to graduate with no debt. What can I do now to best utilize the money I make?TylerDear Tyler,You’re in a fantastic position right now. First, I think your main goal is to study hard and be 100 percent certain you’re graduating on time with no money issues. The next thing is to make sure you have plenty of cash on hand to make the transition to the real world. In a case like this, transition can mean anything from moving to a new...

Some budgeteers argue that the 15% tax rate on long-term capital gains should be raised as part of efforts to cut the federal deficit. Do you agree? Yes. This is the primary reason that income inequality has grown in the U.S. No. A low capital gains rate is the key to encouraging investment in our economy. Not sure

Paul Campos acknowledges a certain "tension" between his dual roles as law professor and author of the blog "Inside the Law School Scam." "Of course I feel conflicted," Campos told Business Insider. "I should emphasize that when I started as a law professor [in 1990] it cost literally $3,000 to go to law school." My, how things have changed. Tuition at University of Colorado where Campos teaches has climbed to $32,000 a year. Costs have risen even higher at elite universities, while the job outlook for most law school grads remains bleak. Campos – whose book "Don't Go To Law...

When I recently spoke before an Orange County crowd of Republicans at a ballot forum as the “No on Proposition 31” speaker, I was not surprised to find opposition. One person offered the observation that it was all those “country club Republicans” that stood to benefit from the corporate welfare of Prop. 31 who were in favor of it. To the contrary, it is libertarian ideology that has blinded Republicans to what Prop. 31 really is all about.

Ok it all started when I harmlessly pointed out that Obama was up by two points in Rasmussen and five points in the Fox News poll. Then I get this twitter reply:

WASHINGTON -- With the recession hit in 2008, Congress put the idea of a "skills shortage" and a need for more H-1B visas in a closet. That didn't mean, though, that interest in raising the H-1B cap went away for everyone. New York City Mayor Bloomberg, for instance, last year called the limits on both temporary and permanent employment-based immigration a "form of national suicide." Microsoft has long advocated for more work visas. But the company's advocacy was quieted during the recession as well, as it announced in 2009 a layoff of 5,000 workers. Circumstances at Microsoft have since changed...

Over the past few centuries, science can be said to have gradually chipped away at the traditional grounds for believing in God. Much of what once seemed mysterious—the existence of humanity, the life-bearing perfection of Earth, the workings of the universe—can now be explained by biology, astronomy, physics and other domains of science. Although cosmic mysteries remain, Sean Carroll, a theoretical cosmologist at the California Institute of Technology, says there's good reason to think science will ultimately arrive at a complete understanding of the universe that leaves no grounds for God whatsoever. … Another role for God is as a...

But they were unsuccessful in getting away with the biggest prize of all - the nearly 14lb Fricot Nugget - a giant crystalline gold mass unearthed in the Gold Rush era. During their attempt to grab the rock, the robbers triggered an alarm that alerted authorities who swarmed the museum but were unable to apprehend the thieves. At least two robbers wearing hoods and armed with pickaxes threatened workers during the heist Friday at the California Mining and Minerals Museum in Mariposa, the California Highway Patrol said.. The site is home to more than 13,000 artifacts. No suspects have been...

Recovery is in full force today. Nevada which leads the Nation in unemployed, started the week of with a bang. Round Table Pizza announced today they were closing all of their restaurants effective today 200 people laid off Defense contractor in Fallon lost contract today laid off 100 people, Tahoe, casino announced it was closing all of it's restaurants, laid off 200. How is this recovery working for you????

A new film starring Matt Damon presents American oil and natural gas producers as money-grubbing villains purportedly poisoning rural American towns. It is therefore of particular note that it is financed in part by the royal family of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates....(Excerpt)

Has anyone found, or know of,a good link for watching the debate on Wednesday (future ones, too)? Was going to have cable turned back on for the election information, but decided network TV was so filthy I didn't want it in the house after all. If there is a "play by play" I do NOT want it to be from one of the MSM talking heads. Please post here. Thanks

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Some illegal immigrants could get California drivers licenses under a bill that Gov. Jerry Brown announced he signed into law late Sunday. AB2189 by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, will let the Department of Motor Vehicles issue licenses to illegal immigrants eligible for work permits under a new Obama administration policy. The bill requires the department to accept as proof of legal residence whatever document the federal government provides to participants in its deferred action program. Cedillo said his bill will make roads safer while letting young immigrants drive to school and to work. His reasoning drew...

Anybody in the audience live in Texas and have any opinion(s) regarding the insurance vendor Texas Wasatch, one way or the other?

'But there was like a tail, and a foot and leg sticking out of the garbage can and they wheeled it straight back into the kitchen.' The restaurant owner's son admitted they had found the roadkill along the side of the I-75 but insisted they had not intended to serve it to their customers. Marveling at the irony with disgust Ms Hopkins said: 'We were actually joking about the, you know, the whole Chinese restaurant. You know some rumors that you hear.' Stomachs turned at a Chinese restaurant in Kentucky last week when in the middle of enjoying a buffet...

If you had the chance what would you tell the Gov to bring up in the debates?

New hybrid AMD Trinity processors for desktop systems haven’t been officially launched yet. However, we prepared a detailed review of their graphics omponent.I am sure no one doubts that the today’s fastest PC processors do not come from AMD. And this didn’t happen overnight. Since Intel had switched from Pentium 4 to various Core processors, AMD products rolled back to the second place. In fact, all current AMD processors are either entry-level or some special niche products, which are not particularly interesting to the majority of users out there, who value performance the most. However, not very high performance, as...

Lorie Miller bends over her grandparents' grave in north Philadelphia. She holds a two-inch brass square she's going to attach next to the headstone's names and dates. Printed onto that square is a QR code — that square digital bar code you can scan with a smartphone. Miller peels off the back of her square to expose the adhesive and pushes it into place. The headstone, which otherwise looks the same as many others around it, has just jumped into the modern age. Miller hopes other grieving families will do the same. She and her husband, Rick, are launching a...

A group of Japanese scientists announced Wednesday that they have finally synthesized the elusive element 113, which has been called ununtrium. If confirmed, the feat would mark the first time Japanese researchers have been first to synthesize an element of the periodic table. It would also be the first time an Asian research team has had the honor of naming an element. …

Off-Color Remark Lands Ice Cream Maker In Hot Water By Ben Popken The CEO of a 100-year old Montana ice cream maker has offered to resign after he made what was perceived to be a racist remark on the company's Facebook wall. The brouhaha began when a self-identified Muslim customer asked on the Facebook page if the Wilcoxson Ice Cream contained pork in the gelatin used to make it. “We don't deliver outside of Montana, certainly not Pakistan,” CEO Matt Shaeffer wrote back. The customer replied that the comment was “rude” for assuming he lived in Pakistan. Underneath the customer's...

Here’s the dirty secret of Gov. Jerry Brown’s Proposition 30 tax increase of $8.5 billion. Most of it would not go to education, as advertised. Instead, it indirectly would go to plugging a gaping budget hole created by the Obama Administration’s policy of taking people off unemployment rolls and putting them on permanent disability benefits. The Obama policy blew a $11.7 billion budget hole in California’s budget. The Obama Administration’s loosened eligibility requirements for Social Security Disability have swelled the number of those on Medicaid in California. It is Obama’s relaxed requirements for Social Security Disability — put into place...

On June the 30th 2009 oil mysteriously jumped by more than $1.50 a barrel during the night, to reach its highest price in eight months, the kind of swing that is caused by a major geopolitical event. The amazing, true cause of this price spike has now been released by a Financial Services Authority investigation (FSA). Although not authorised to invest company cash in trades Steve Perkins, a long standing, senior broker at PVM Oil Futures, had managed to spend $520 million on oil futures contracts throughout the night. On the morning of the 30th an admin clerk called Mr...

Dr. Barbara Bellar, a former nun, Army major, medical doctor and Illinois politician recently put this into perspective. I quote: "So let me get this straight. We are going to be gifted with a health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don’t, which purportedly adds 10 million more people without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that didn’t read it but exempted themselves from it and signed by the president who smokes, with funding...

Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, who guided The New York Times and its parent company through a long, sometimes turbulent period of expansion and change on a scale not seen since the newspaper’s founding in 1851, died early Saturday at his home in Southampton, N.Y. He was 86.

I left the Space Program as a contractor back in 2009, my wife and I have been raising Alpacas on our farm though since 2005. My wife is big into the Social Networking thing especially Facebook and various Yahoo Groups. Last night she was reading a very interesting post from a Fellow Alpaca Rancher in the South. He stated that he was getting multiple phone calls from Chinese students at a nearby university asking about the Alpacas and how easy they were to raise, The fiber products made from them, etc. He then stated that he was now having carloads...

Electron microscope photos of an Apple A6 processor lifted out of an iPhone 5 confirm the presence of a dual-core ARM CPU within the system-on-a-chip plus a trio of Imagination Technologues PowerVR graphics cores. The SoC was pulled from the handset by the team at iFixit.com, and the die extracted from its ceramic package and then photographed by Chipworks. Source: iFixit.com/Chipworks Close-up snaps of the transistors show the part to be fabbed - by Samsung - on a 32nm process using high-K metal gate technology. The SoC 9.70 x 9.97mm die is labelled 'APL0589B01'. The CPU element's dual-core design is...

Pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG on Wednesday said it was "disappointed" with an Indian ruling that allows a local firm to produce a cheaper copy of its patented drug Nexavar for liver and lung cancer. The German company's reaction came after India's Intellectual Property Appellate Board patents' watchdog this month rejected its appeal to suspend the sale of the drug's cheaper copy by Natco Pharma Ltd.The watchdog in March had ruled the price Bayer charged for Nexavar was "exorbitant" and "out of reach" of most Indian patients.It ordered Bayer to give a so-called "compulsory licence" to Natco to produce the drug...

Election Infographic: Are You Better Off Now?

Subbing for Fudd Fan & Biggirl...

President Obama seems to inspire a historically high level of criticism and suspicion, for example: Thomas Sowell, author and columnist, says: “Barack Obama is one of those people who are often wrong but never in doubt.” Adam Carolla, entertainer, says that Obama is like a bad Adam Sandler movie, and that Americans are smart enough to know they don’t want a sequel. Burgess Owens, former NFL star, calls Obama an “empathy-free president” and urges blacks not to vote for him. European Union Times (website) reports: “French Leader Sarkozy Slams Obama, Warns He Might Be Insane.” Bettina Viviano, Hollywood producer who...

EBENSBURG, Pa., -- A Pennsylvania municipality is seeking a buyer or tenant for a unique property -- the former county prison. The Ebensburg Borough Council said the back portion of the facility, which is newer than the front, is being used to house county records, but the front portion, which was the original Cambria County Prison, has been vacant for 15 years, WJAC-TV, Johnstown, Pa., reported Thursday. "If it wasn't the landmark that it is in town, if it wasn't on the national list of historic places, we still couldn't tear it down," Ebensburg Borough Manager Dan Penatzer said. "I...

I have an acquaintance that works at a Sun Trust bank in Richmond, VA who told me yesterday that Sun Trust charges $7 to cash a business check drawn from a SUNTRUST account. That is a lot of money for a day laborer! That is highway robbery. The bank is holding the business's money AND charging the customers to have access to it. Unbelievable.

There are some jobs that just don't attract as much attention as others. For example, telling someone you're a mechanic probably isn't going to get as much curious glances as telling them you're a pilot. But sometimes, these underrated jobs are more fulfilling because of the "high growth, low stress and rewarding opportunities" that come with them. “The pay is better, the hiring outlook is better, the level of stress tends to be lower, and the physical demands aren’t that great,” said Tony Lee, publisher at CareerCast.com. However, you "never saw a movie about a civil engineer or a TV...

VAUGHN, N.M. (AP) — A drug-sniffing dog now is the only certified member of the police force in the small eastern New Mexico town of Vaughn. Police Chief Ernest "Chris" Armijo decided to step down Wednesday after news stories reported that he wasn't allowed to carry a gun because of his criminal background. "He decided the attention was distracting," said Dave Romero, an attorney for the town. State officials said Armijo couldn't carry a gun since acknowledging that he owed tens of thousands of dollars in delinquent child support payments in Texas. Armijo also faces new felony charges after being...

Thursday, September 27, 2012 Most voters still think the economy will get worse or stay about the same, no matter which candidate wins the White House and which party wins control of Congress in November. But they’re now a little more confident in economic gains if Mitt Romney and the Republicans come out ahead. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 34% of Likely U.S. Voters think the economy is likely to get better if President Obama is reelected and Democrats regain full control of Congress, marking little change from early July when the two sides ran...

Just saying, since no one else has!

As America's mania with cell phones as an aspirational status fad hits new records every day, this borderline addiction to "thinner, longer" mobility and a sub-1 year upgrade cycle, is starting to extract its pound of flesh: average cell phone bills that have risen by over 10% in one year (from $1,110 to $1,226), even as total household spending rose by half, or $67. In a word: iNflation. It gets worse. As the WSJ reports, "spending on food away from home fell by $48, apparel spending declined by $141, and entertainment spending dropped by $126." Like a true faux status/gadget...

The Men Who Built America - Series Premiere Tue., Oct. 16 at 9/8chttp://www.history.com/shows/men-who-built-america/articles/about-men-who-built-america John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan rose from obscurity and in the process built modern America. Their names hang on street signs, are etched into buildings and are a part of the fabric of history. These men created the American Dream and were the engine of capitalism as they transformed everything they touched in building the oil, rail, steel, shipping, automobile and finance industries. Their paths crossed repeatedly as they elected presidents, set economic policies and influenced major events of the...

Burger King is currently celebrating their 5th year in Japan.  But in an already saturated fast food market the famous American chain is a little late to the game.So, in an effort to truly stand out from the crowd, Burger King Japan has designed fast food’s first black hamburger.  Dubbed the Kuro Burger (lit. Black Burger), it will go on sale for a limited time starting 28 September.

Worker productivity is among the most critical measurements used when evaluating businesses and national economies. One way to measure productivity is sales per employee. Companies that can achieve the highest revenue with fewest employees ordinarily find it easier to also create high profit margins. However, companies with very low revenue per employee operate less efficiently and often have a greater challenge generating high margins. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is an almost perfect model of a public company with a high revenue yield per employee. Although it employs a small percentage of retail workers, many of its workers are engineers who...