Family Hotel in Miami | "Google and Opera move to new rendering engine Blink"

Source:       http://www.ghacks.net/
By:             Martin Brinkmann
Category:   Family Hotel in Miami
Posted by: Inn and Suites In West Miami

Family Hotel in Miami

Mozilla yesterday announced that it entered a partnership with Samsung to develop a new rendering engine called Servo and if that was not enough excitement already for the technical inclined, Google and Opera too announced that they would be replacing WebKit in their browsers with the new rendering engine Blink.

Before we look at that closer, we should take a look at some of the terminology so that everyone can understand the implications. A rendering engine determines among other things how a website is rendered in the browser. Mozilla is using Gecko as a rendering engine, while Opera up until now used Presto, and Google with its Chrome browser WebKit.

Google and Apple use WebKit as the rendering engine for their browser, but the implementation differs on many levels. Google for instance uses its own JavaScript engine and a different multi-process architecture as well.  This, according to Google, has led to "increasing complexity for both the WebKit and Chromium projects" and "slowed down the collective pace of innovation".

Another likely reason though is that the fork is the result of a power struggle between Google and Apple. It is not clear who is to blame, and if there is anyone to blame for it, as there are reports that Google refused to contribute their multiprocess support to WebKit while others state that Apple pushed out WebKit2 with no prior notice or collaboration. So, control may have played a role in the decision making process as well.

The rendering engine Blink is a WebKit fork which means that it will use the same code base initially. The Blink team plans to optimize it though making it leaner and slimmer in the process which may have an effect on overall stability and bugs experienced. Blink will be Open Source and welcome outside contributors as much as Chromium or WebKit do.

Developers and users won't notice much of a difference for now, even though it is likely that Google will begin to ship Blink in the Canary and Dev builds of the browser soon before the new rendering engine lands in the Beta and Stable versions of the browser eventually.

Google's and Opera's move to Blink increases the number of rendering engines back to four when you look at the top five browsers for the Windows operating system.

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/04/18/2540194/microsoft-3q-earnings-beat-street.html#storylink=cpy

Hotel Near Miami | " Samsung Launches Smart TV With Aussie Accent "

Source:       http://www.perthnow.com.au/
By:             Rod Chester
Category:   Hotel Near Miami
Posted by:  Inn and Suites In West Miami


SAMSUNG has launched the first voice-controlled TV that responds in an Australian accent.

Hotel Near Miami

The technology company developed its system with linguists at Macquarie University to determine a database of about 250,000 questions people might ask their television, from what Tom Cruise movies are on tonight to what time does the football start on Friday night.

The televisions are programmed to respond with one of 18,000 recorded answers, with people choosing between either a male or female Australian voice.Samsung Australia's director of AV Brad Wright said people were used to speaking to technology by typically issuing specific commands, unlike the natural language of this system.

"And really importantly, (the TVs) will be speaking back in Australian English."Mr Wright said the natural language system had the potential to change the way people found what to watch on their TV.
"There's lots of content out there. I went to that TV today and said 'is there any sport showing tonight?'," he said.

"I think it's a genuinely different and unique way to interact with technology."The language system, which will be in Samsung's new high-end smart TVs, was part of a package of announcements made at a national launch in Sydney, including the launch of the $40,000 ultra high-definition 85-inch Samsung S9 that will go on sale next month.

Philip Newton, vice-president of Consumer Electronics for Samsung Australia, said the top end 4K TV was the biggest TV Samsung has ever released in the Australian marketplace."It's not designed for everybody," he said.

"No doubt in the future we will have UHD products at affordable price levels, that's not where we are now.
"But it is the emergence of a new technology."Mr Newton said there were more than a dozen people already wanting to buy the $40,000 TV in Australia.

Mr Newton also announced new content available through its smart TVs through a range of optional apps, including a sports app which he said would give people access to 90 percent of all globally televised sports.
The Samsung Foxtel app currently allows people to watch Foxtel content on their smart TVs. Samsung will launch a Foxtel Go app in June which will let those customers watch Foxtel content on Samsung tablets and smartphones.
Samsung said the smart TV penetration in Australia grew by a third last year.

La Jolla Cove Attractions - Apple Profit Probably Fell Amid Growth Slowdown for IPhone

Source - http://www.bloomberg.com/
By - Adam Satariano
Category - La Jolla Cove Attractions
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

La Jolla Cove Attractions

Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s quarterly profit is projected to shrink for the first time in a decade, hurt by products with lower profit margins and slower iPhone-sales growth.

Fourteen analysts have reduced their estimates for Apple in the past four weeks, as shares in the world’s most valuable technology company continue their slide from a September record high. Competition from Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) is also weighing on the stock, and pressure is mounting for Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook to introduce hit products to reignite sales.

An earnings report tomorrow may show that fiscal second- quarter net income declined 18 percent to $9.53 billion, or $10.02 a share, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue is projected to show a rise of 8 percent to $42.4 billion, the slowest growth rate since 2009.

“The market is in show-me mode for Apple,” said Laurence Balter, an analyst at Oracle Investment Research who is based in Fox Island, Washington, and has a buy rating on Apple. “The market needs to see some evidence that the future looks bright because that candle is flickering.”

To placate investors, Apple may increase its dividend or boost share buybacks. Katy Huberty, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said an announcement may come with the earnings release. Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., predicts it will come later.

Apple may raise its current quarterly dividend by 17 percent to about $3.10 a share, according to a Bloomberg estimate, based on payouts of other large technology companies, Apple’s projected earnings and the amount of cash it holds.

Growth Engine

Apple had $137.1 billion in cash and investments at the end of December and has faced pressure from investors including hedge fund manager David Einhorn to return more to shareholders.

The company’s profit margins have been squeezed by higher component costs and the introduction of lower-priced products such as the iPad mini. Apple probably sold 35.4 million iPhones in the latest quarter, compared with 35.1 million a year earlier, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Bernstein’s Sacconaghi predicts 25 million units will be sold in the current quarter.

The slide comes as Samsung prepares to start selling its Galaxy S4 smartphone this week. The Suwon, South Korea-based company is Apple’s biggest rival and has challenged the iPhone’s dominance by selling a slew of handsets with different styles, screen sizes and prices.

“Things have changed for Apple,” said Alex Gauna, an analyst at JMP Securities in San Francisco. “The competition is more intense.”

Balboa Park San Diego - Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) May Be Mystery Owner Of Project Catapult

Source - http://www.marketnewscall.com/
By - Marc Nielsen
Category - Balboa Park San Diego
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

Balboa Park San Diego

One of the longest unsolved mysteries in the data center industry may well be on the way to be being solved, according to a report.

Facebook Inc(NASDAQ:FB) may be the company behind Project Catapult, a data centre facility in Iowa that is coming up at a cost of $1.5 billion. While the cost is not staggering, the indemnity of who could be behind this unit has been long remained under wraps.

Cnet, which has been following developments, said that the The Des Moines Register cited legislative sources in reporting the news, in a story that was picked up by insider data blog Data Center Knowledge.

The Register described the facility as the “most technologically advanced”. It said that the 1.4 million square foot project is expected to be built in two $500 million phases. Data Center Knowledge says the facility will include three 466,000 square foot data centers.

The project has already been approved by government officials and local authorities and it will also be extended tax credits and other sops.

According to the various reports swirling around about the project, Facebook is seeking wind energy production tax credits, and a new payment rate on water is also part of the negotiations.

The reason why Facebook’s name has cropped up in connection with the project is that the site plan submitted to Altoona officials is very similar to that of Facebook projects in Oregon and North Carolina.

On the other hand, there is also speculation that Apple might the owner of the project due to the use of solar cells.

Attractions In San Diego - Microsoft CFO Exits; Company Tops Earnings Expectations

Source - http://www.nbcnews.com
By - Press Release
Category - Attractions In San Diego
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

Attractions In San Diego

Microsoft said on Thursday that Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein was leaving the company, as it struggles with sharply declining personal computer sales and a lukewarm reception for its new Windows 8 operating system.

Klein, an 11-year Microsoft veteran with 3 1/2 years as CFO, is the latest in a line of top-level executives to leave the company, following Windows head Steven Sinofsky last November. Some have questioned whether Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is still the right leader for Microsoft, whose shares have remained essentially flat for the last decade.

In announcing Klein's departure to employees, Ballmer praised Klein's part in the acquisitions of Skype and the social network Yammer, and said Klein "has had a profound impact on the finance profession overall, and exhibited good oversight on cost controls as CFO."

In his resignation letter, Klein wrote: "I am proud of the work that finance has done and the impact we have had on the Company. One reason that now is a good time to leave is that the organization is very strong, and I am delighted we will be naming an internal candidate. I couldn't be more optimistic about both the Company's and Finance's future."

Shares of world's largest software company clicked up after the closing bell, following the news.

What is Microsoft's stock doing now? (Click here for the latest after-hours quote.)

The software giant also reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that exceeded analyst expectations.

Earnings rose to $6 billion, or 72 cents per share, from $5.1 billion, or 60 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue improved 18 percent to $20.49 billion from $17.41 billion a year ago.

Analysts had expected the company to report earnings of 68 cents a share on $20.5 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

Microsoft's profit was boosted by some deferred revenue from its Windows, Office and videogame operations, but cut severely by a big fine by European antitrust regulators for breaking promises relating to expanding the choice of Internet browsers on Windows.

Analysts have been pulling back profit forecasts for Microsoft in the light of flagging PC sales as consumers flock to tablets and smartphones.

In his letter, Ballmer wrote: "Our long term bets on the cloud are paying off, and while the mobile device environment is challenging, the decisions we made with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 set us up well for long term growth."

CFO Peter Klein's resignation letter:

One noteworthy characteristic of Finance is the regularity of its rhythm – month end, quarter end, year end. Every one of those milestones marks the passage of time. And as time passes, and milestones are marked, we all periodically reflect on our lives, our goals, and our priorities. As we approach the end of the fiscal year, I have been reflecting in that way. And I have decided that now is a good time for me to step away from Microsoft and take some time to spend with my family in a way that I haven't had the opportunity to do in the 30 years I have been working.

This has not been an easy decision. I love Microsoft. I love my job. When I joined Microsoft 11 years ago I had this loosely held belief that people were one of the most important elements of any job or any company. I had no idea how profoundly true that is, but I do now. People are everything. Microsoft is the most amazing collection of talented, passionate and caring people I could ever imagine being associated with. It's been an honor and my good fortune to have been part of that.

I am proud of the work that Finance has done and the impact we have had on the Company. One reason that now is a good time to leave is that the organization is very strong, and I am delighted we will be naming an internal candidate. I couldn't be more optimistic about both the Company's and Finance's future.

Looking ahead, I have no specific plans. In the short term I will work to ensure a smooth transition. After that I intend to spend time with my extended family which is dispersed throughout the country and hopefully get to some long deferred travel. For the last 11 years Microsoft has been my family and now I am going to focus on my other family.

Thanks for being such a great team – I will follow your success with great interest and pride.

Peter

CEO Steve Ballmer's announcement to employees:

Today in our earnings release, we announced that after nearly four years as CFO and 11 years at Microsoft, Peter Klein has decided to step down as CFO and leave Microsoft at the end of our current fiscal year. I will be naming a new CFO from our finance leadership team in the next several weeks.

Peter has been a key part of my leadership team and a strong advisor to me during his tenure. He helped drive the successful Skype and Yammer acquisitions, has had a profound impact on the finance profession overall, and exhibited good oversight on cost controls as CFO. I have really enjoyed working with Peter, and appreciate his many contributions to the finance organization, to Microsoft and to me.

I'm sure all of you have seen media coverage from the last two weeks. As I said in our earnings release, our long term bets on the cloud are paying off, and while the mobile device environment is challenging, the decisions we made with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 set us up well for long term growth. Highlights of our earnings are below. I encourage you to listen to our earnings webcast at 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time today at http://microsoft.com/investor.

Hotels San Diego Downtown - U.S. Stocks Fall as Energy Stocks, Apple Weigh

Source - http://online.wsj.com/
By - Jonathan Cheng
Category - Hotels San Diego Downtown
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

Hotels San Diego Downtown

The week's volatility extended into Wednesday, as investors pulled out of U.S. stocks amid weak economic data from Europe and disappointing domestic earnings reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 135 points, or 0.9%, to 14621 in midmorning trading Wednesday, for a third straight day of triple-digit moves for the blue-chip index. On Monday, the Dow suffered its biggest one-day loss this year, falling 266 points, before recovering most of those losses on Tuesday.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index gave up 20 points, or 1.3%, to 1554, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 55 points, or 1.7%, to 3209.

Leading the declines were energy, technology and financial stocks on a day that saw all 10 sectors of the S&P 500 fall and more than 95% of the S&P 500 stocks trading in negative territory

Among blue-chip names, Bank of America fell most among Dow components, declining 4.3% after it reported first-quarter earnings that missed analysts' expectations, with losses widening in its consumer real-estate division. Fellow financial concern J.P. Morgan Chase gave up 2.5%, while Caterpillar and Chevron were also weak, shedding 1.9% and 1.7% respectively.

Intel lost 1% after the semiconductor maker's first-quarter earnings fell just short of analysts' forecasts and provided a revenue outlook that was in line with current projections.

"We're going to be in a choppy period until we get through the heart of earnings season," said Reed Choate, a portfolio manager at Neville, Rodie & Shaw, a New York firm with $1.2 billion under management. "Investors are trying to see how investors are doing after the first quarter with the fiscal cliff and tax changes, and whether or not we're going to see sustainable earnings and revenues growth to validate the multiples that we're putting on stocks."

Weakness in European markets helped pull U.S. stocks lower. The Stoxx Europe 600 fell for a fourth straight day, declining 1.3% amid more signs that the region's economy is slowing. February construction output in the euro zone fell 0.8% on the month, a fourth-straight decline.

Meanwhile, in London, the FTSE 100 shed 0.9% after unemployment rose to 7.9%, higher than expectations, while the number of unemployed rose 70,000 in the three months ended February, the highest increase in nearly 18 months.

"The continued anemic growth in Europe begs the question of how long this is going to last," Mr. Choate said. "They're not showing vast signs of improvement, which makes me wonder, What's the next shoe to drop there?"

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rebounded on the back of a weakening yen, gaining 1.2% after falling 2.4% the previous three sessions.

At 2 p.m. EDT, the Federal Reserve's "beige book" report of economic conditions will be released.

Gold futures edged up 0.1% to $1,389.30 per troy ounce, while crude-oil futures fell 1.5% to $87.38 a barrel. The dollar surged against the euro and edged up against the yen, while demand for U.S. Treasurys rose, pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year note down to 1.70%.

Yahoo fell 0.9% after quarterly revenues at the Web portal fell short of forecasts amid a sharp year-over-year decline in display-ad sales.

Apple was also one of the weakest stocks on the S&P 500, tumbling 4.7% to just above the $400 level. The stock last traded below $400 in late 2011. 

San Diego Hotel Meeting Space - Live Music’s Charms, Soothing Premature Hearts

Source - http://www.nytimes.com/
By - PAM BELLUCK
Category - San Diego Hotel Meeting Space
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

San Diego Hotel Meeting Space

Even the Beatles would have had trouble recognizing their peppy song in the lullaby that Andrea Zalkin sang to the tiny, fragile baby clutched to her chest in the neonatal unit. But there was something unintentionally poignant in the title she chose for her son: “Eight Days a Week” is more time than can fit on the calendar. Ms. Zalkin’s baby, Hudson, born 13 weeks early, has had too little time.

 As she sang, monitors showed Hudson’s heartbeat slowing and his oxygen saturation increasing. Effects like that were among the findings of a new study on the use of music as medicine.

Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City led the research, conducted in 11 hospitals, which found that live music can be beneficial to premature babies. In the study, music therapists helped parents transform their favorite tunes into lullabies.

The researchers concluded that live music, played or sung, helped to slow infants’ heartbeats, calm their breathing, improve sucking behaviors important for feeding, aid sleep and promote states of quiet alertness. Doctors and researchers say that by reducing stress and stabilizing vital signs, music can allow infants to devote more energy to normal development.

And while the effects may be subtle, small improvements can be significant. Premature births have increased since 1990, to nearly 500,000 a year, one of every nine children born in the United States.

The study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, adds to growing research on music and preterm babies. Some hospitals find music as effective as, and safer than, sedating infants before procedures like heart sonograms and brain monitoring. Some neonatologists say babies receiving music therapy leave hospitals sooner, which can aid development and family bonding and save money.

Dr. Thomas Truman, the director of neonatal and pediatric intensive care at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital in Florida, which was not involved in the study, said infants who had music played to them went home earlier “at least by a couple of days, compared to babies that weren’t getting music therapy.”

The music, he said, “helps decrease their stress response” and “really devote more of their oxygen and calories to developing and growing.”

One reason may be that music is organized, purposeful sound amid the unpredictable, overstimulating noise of neonatal units. “Loud machinery, medical rounds coming through with 12 people, alarms on ventilators and pumps, the hiss of oxygen,” said Helen Shoemark, a music researcher at Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia. “Sound can be damaging. But meaningful noise is important for a baby’s brain development.”

Scientists are far from done determining music’s impact, and there are certainly those who are skeptical about its medical value.

Dr. Manoj Kumar, a neonatologist at Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, said that while “studies have shown a benefit in heart rate and respiratory rate,” it is unclear whether that prompts clinical improvements, like removing oxygen or feeding tubes sooner, questions that the Pediatrics study did not tackle.

The two-year study, larger and more systematic than many efforts to scientifically evaluate art’s impact, separated musical elements — rhythm, melody, timbre — to see effects on heartbeat, breathing, sucking, alertness and sleep.

Over two weeks, 272 premature babies underwent several sessions of two instruments, singing and no music at all. The instruments and lullaby singing style were intended to approximate womb sounds, said Joanne Loewy, the study’s leader and the director of Beth Israel’s Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine.

Accommodation In San Diego - Korean Rapper Psy's "Gentleman" Climbs YouTube Heights

Source - http://www.reuters.com/
By - Press Release
Category - Accommodation In San Diego
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

Accommodation In San Diego

South Korean rapper Psy's new video, "Gentleman", rocketed up the YouTube heights with more than 82 million views on Tuesday, chasing the success of his megahit "Gangnam Style" after smashing the previous record for first-day views for songs.

"Gangnam Style", which holds the YouTube record for most views ever with more than 1.5 billion, made the corpulent Korean a global star and one of the best-known faces to come out of the growing K-pop music scene.

The video to "Gentleman" racked up more than 20 million hits in the first 24 hours after its release on Saturday night. That easily outstripped the 8 million views for Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" in its first 24 hours.

"51 million views in 40 hours!!My God!!" Psy tweeted on Monday.

The song was also climbing music charts around the world, hitting 8th in Britain and 7th in Australia, according to the Apple store's iTunes ranking, and holding top place in most of Scandinavia. It ranked 21st for songs overall, compared with 90th place on Saturday before the video was released.

"He is good. I love his energy," one woman commented on YouTube. Others said the video was hilarious and the sunglass-wearing 35-year-old's dancing "smooth."

Some were less complimentary, with a few saying the video was arrogant and "too sexual". It shows Psy playing tricks on women such as splashing coffee in their faces and untying a bikini top.

"Meh. 'Gangnam Style' was better," one woman wrote.

"Gangnam Style" racked up digital sales of 3.59 million units in the United States and Canada last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen BDS, 9th in the best-selling list. It was third on Amazon's MP3 song bestseller list for 2012.

Affordable Hotels In San Diego - Scientists Make 'Laboratory-Grown' Kidney

Source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/
By - James Gallagher
Category - Affordable Hotels In San Diego
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

Affordable Hotels In San Diego

A kidney "grown" in the laboratory has been transplanted into animals where it started to produce urine, US scientists say.

Similar techniques to make simple body parts have already been used in patients, but the kidney is one of the most complicated organs made so far.

A study, in the journal Nature Medicine, showed the engineered kidneys were less effective than natural ones.

But regenerative medicine researchers said the field had huge promise.

Kidneys filter the blood to remove waste and excess water. They are also the most in-demand organ for transplant, with long waiting lists.

The researchers' vision is to take an old kidney and strip it of all its old cells to leave a honeycomb-like scaffold. The kidney would then be rebuilt with cells taken from the patient.

This would have two major advantages over current organ transplants.

The tissue would match the patient, so they would not need a lifetime of drugs to suppress the immune system to prevent rejection.

It would also vastly increase the number of organs available for transplant. Most organs which are offered are rejected, but they could be used as templates for new ones.

Scaffolding

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have taken the first steps towards creating usable engineered kidneys.

They took a rat kidney and used a detergent to wash away the old cells.

The remaining web of proteins, or scaffold, looks just like a kidney, including an intricate network of blood vessels and drainage pipes.

This protein plumbing was used to pump the right cells to the right part of the kidney, where they joined with the scaffold to rebuild the organ.

It was kept in a special oven to mimic the conditions in a rat's body for the next 12 days.

When the kidneys were tested in the laboratory, urine production reached 23% of natural ones.

The team then tried transplanting an organ into a rat. Once inside the body, the kidney's effectiveness fell to 5%.

Yet the lead researcher, Dr Harald Ott, told the BBC that restoring a small fraction of normal function could be enough: "If you're on haemodialysis then kidney function of 10% to 15% would already make you independent of haemodialysis. It's not that we have to go all the way."

He said the potential was huge: "If you think about the United States alone, there's 100,000 patients currently waiting for kidney transplants and there's only around 18,000 transplants done a year.

"I think the potential clinical impact of a successful treatment would be enormous."

'Really impressive'

There is a huge amount of further research that would be needed before this is even considered in people.

The technique needs to be more efficient so a greater level of kidney function is restored. Researchers also need to prove that the kidney will continue to function for a long time.

There will also be challenges with the sheer size of a human kidney. It is harder to get the cells in the right place in a larger organ.

Prof Martin Birchall, a surgeon at University College London, has been involved in windpipe transplants produced from scaffolds.

He said: "It's extremely interesting. It is really impressive.

"They've addressed some of the main technical barriers to making it possible to use regenerative medicine to address a really important medical need."

He said that being able to do this for people needing an organ transplant could revolutionise medicine: "It's almost the nirvana of regenerative medicine, certainly from a surgical point of view, that you could meet the biggest need for transplant organs in the world - the kidney."

Trip To San Diego - Actress Suing IMDb Faces Tough Questions on Second Day of Trial

Source - http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/
By - Venkat Balasubramani
Category - Trip To San Diego
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Trip To San Diego

Huong Hoang, the actress suing IMDb for revealing her age, got her second day at trial to prove her case after opening arguments were delivered on Monday.

On Tuesday, the jury heard testimony from three witnesses -- Hoang, her agent Joe Kolkowitz and IMDb’s customer service manager Giancarlo Cairella.

It was a lively day, full of discussion about an actor's livelihood, how actors are cast and more about the relationship between a prominent website and the people who use it. And, of course, on a day that put a spotlight on the roles that people play, there was an O.J. Simpson cameo.

Ultimately, the trial continues to investigate IMDb's right to use Hoang's personal information as well as the conduct of both sides in living up to their respective responsibilities. The trial is now moving towards a conclusion.

Here's a look at what was said on Day 2:

More testimony from Hoang:

Taking questions on direct examination, Hoang spoke about her work and how she has been compensated as an actress.

Hoang emphasized that her income decreased following IMDb's display of her true birthdate. She testified that she amended her tax returns and that the amounts of money disclosed in tax filings did not present the full extent of her income. She also told the jury how she had read and relied on IMDb’s privacy policy when signing up for an IMDb Pro account and how it was her understanding that the policy protected her “legal name” (as opposed to her nickname).

The plaintiff was sharply questioned on cross-examination.

Harry Schneider, IMDb’s lawyer, walked Hoang through her tax returns. Without coming out and saying it, he highlighted that Hoang didn’t make very much money from acting, and that she deducted a fair amount of expenses for the amount of money she made. For example, her acting income in 2010 was between $1000 and $2000, but she deducted amounts for hair and makeup ($987), shoes ($318.86) and miscellaneous expenses ($523). The implication was that Hoang's acting was more of a hobby and less of a serious occupation.

STORY: Actress Suing IMDb Takes the Witness Stand

The most grueling part of the cross examination came when Schneider walked Hoang through the IMDb user agreement and its provisions where users promise to submit accurate information.

“You knew you were obligated to make sure the information you provided [to IMDb] was true and accurate, didn't you?”  Schneider asked Hoang repeatedly.

Place To Visit In San Diego - Tablets Conspire With 'Good Enough' PCs To Nuke Windows 8

Source - http://news.cnet.com/
By - Brooke Crothers
Category - Place To Visit In San Diego
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

Place To Visit In San Diego

Maybe the PC isn't dead, but the upgrade cycle may be at death's door, according to an IDC analyst.

In the wake of very ugly numbers released today by market researchers IDC and Gartner, Windows 8 is getting a lot of the blame.

But there's more going on than just a lack of interest in Microsoft's latest operating system.

The problem begins with the tablet -- a market dominated by Apple's iPad and to a lesser extent Android tablets. "When you buy a tablet you use your PC 25 to 30 percent less. That's what the research tells us," IDC's Bob O'Donnell -- one of the author's of today's report -- said in a phone interview.

"If I use [the PC] less, my need to upgrade decreases," he said, referring to the consumer market.

That doesn't mean consumers will stop buying PCs. It just means purchases will happen a lot less often.

"We are truly in an era of good-enough computing. People are holding on to their machines longer," O'Donnell said.

He continued. "Eventually they do upgrade their PC, but they're going to wait."

Plus, there is no incentive to run out and buy a Windows 8 PC right anyway. The average selling price of a Windows laptop is $599, but touch-capable Windows 8 PCs and hybrids average about $799, according to O'Donnell.

"In the case of Windows 8, they'll wait until they can get a touch machine at a more reasonable price point," he said.

And here's another scary trend for PCs. Chinese consumers' apparent tendency to buy a tablet as their first "PC."

"The China [growth] numbers are off-the-charts low. Is it because those first time buyers are skipping a PC?"

If that is indeed a trend, things may get a lot uglier for Microsoft -- and Intel.

SeaWorld San Diego - Obama Budget Catching Hell From Both Sides

Source - http://www.thedailybeast.com/
By - Press Release
Category - SeaWorld San Diego
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

SeaWorld San Diego

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall catch hell from both sides.”

So said a sign on the Justice Department wall of Burke Marshall at the height of the civil rights era. But it could also apply to President Obama’s new budget, finally offered up two months late and on the heels of competing Democratic Senate and House Republican proposals.

But this budget is not like all the others. It is not a positional bargaining document, designed simply to rally the base at the outset of negotiations. One way you can tell is that liberal activists and congressmen are already screaming “sellout” at the White House for offering Social Security reform as part of a balanced plan to reduce the deficit and debt.

The Republican response so far has been crickets, and that throat clearing you hear in the distance might just be a recalibration before another reflexive “tax and spend liberal” attack on the president.

But resorting to the same old bumper sticker is going to strain credulity when the president is catching hell from real socialists like Sen. Bernie Sanders, who declared that “I am terribly disappointed and will do everything in my power to block President Obama’s proposal to cut benefits for Social Security recipients.”

“The first sign it’s a good plan or at least a step in the right direction is that Obama is getting hell from both sides,” says former Bush and McCain strategist Mark McKinnon, a fellow Daily Beast columnist and No Labels co-founder. “If they’re not barking, then the proposal has no teeth and ain’t biting.”

By offering entitlement reform through the cost-of-living formula adjustment for future retirees sonorously known as “Chained CPI,” saving almost $125 billion over the next decade while exempting the most elderly and impoverished seniors, the White House is formalizing offers made in negotiations with House Speaker John Boehner in the past, putting them down in the black and white of the proposed budget.

In total, the Obama budget offers an additional $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade, bringing the White House’s self-scored tally of deficit reduction to more than $4 trillion over the decade. That falls well short of the Republicans’ post-election call for a balanced budget in 10 years. But the presence of a Democratic president proposing serious entitlement reform is significant and should represent a step toward a grand bargain if Republicans are serious that deficits and debt represent an existential threat.

For a long time, conservative congressional talking points have focused on the claim that Obama only offers tax increases when faced with the sequester and other opportunities for a grand bargain. Simultaneously, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell mused that a grand bargain to “save the country” would be possible only if the president offered up entitlement reforms like “altering how inflation is calculated to reduce cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security recipients,” according to a paraphrase of remarks McConnell gave to a Kentucky Chamber of Commerce audience last month, recounted by Politico’s Manu Raju.

Happily, that has now occurred. So we can all march toward a grand bargain now, right?

Obviously, it isn’t going to be that easy. Republicans can gripe that past talk about increased means testing for Medicare isn’t included in the Obama budget proposal (though increased payroll taxes for the wealthy is included). And proposals designed to delight liberals, like a $9 minimum wage or paying for more free pre-K programs in the states through higher cigarette taxes, aren’t going to send the Chamber of Commerce into the arms of the administration. In addition, the president is proposing an additional $50 billion in infrastructure spending to help spur economic growth.

But with this budget, we are finally seeing substantive outreach on entitlement reform as part of a balanced plan. It cannot be wisely ignored.

Moreover, there are other areas of substantive policy overlap, such as the Obama administration’s call for “Making the Tax Code More Simple and Fair.” His vision of simplification doesn’t dovetail with Paul Ryan’s, but at least there is agreement on re-examining the tax expenditure breaks that cost the government $1 trillion a year and a specific proposal on how to limit deductions (excluding charitable giving) to 28 percent. There are also cuts to proposed to federal farm subsidies and federal retiree benefits along with some 215 specific items recommended for reductions in the Obama budget. And while some corporate tax loopholes are targeted for closure, the R&D tax credit is stabilized in the name of encouraging business innovation.

La Jolla Cove Attractions - What Business Gets More Customers Every Year But Keeps Losing Money?

Source - http://www.washingtonpost.com/
By -Press Release
Category - La Jolla Cove Attractions
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

La Jolla Cove Attractions

WASHINGTON — What business gets more customers every year, yet keeps losing money?

The U.S. Postal Service delivers mail to 11 million more homes, offices and other addresses than it did a decade ago, even as the amount of mail that people in the United States receive has dropped sharply.

That combination may be financially dicey, some analysts say.
“The more delivery points they have to service, the higher their costs” in fuel, time spent, etc., says Rick Geddes, associate professor in Cornell University’s department of policy analysis and management.
“But it doesn’t mean their revenue goes up — it doesn’t necessarily mean people are mailing more stuff,” he says.
Indeed, the volume of mail has decreased steadily as people stay in touch with email, Facebook and other electronic services more. Total mail volume handled by the financially shaky postal agency dropped to 160 billion pieces last year from its all-time high, 213.1 billion in 2006. Revenue fell to $65.2 billion last budget year from a high of $74.9 billion in 2008.
The cost of delivery is the agency’s largest fixed expense. It takes tens of billions of dollars a year and 300,000 people, or 60 percent of the agency’s workforce, to handle deliveries, says Postal Service spokeswoman Sue Brennan.
The service isn’t losing money on delivery, but adding addresses while losing volume is an issue, she says.
“In 2007, we could deliver 10 or 15 pieces of mail to a house and we were making a lot of money just because the volume was so high,” Brennan says.
Those times have ended, but the mail carrier is still required to go to every address, six days a week, whether taking 15 pieces there or one.
The number of new addresses had been rising by roughly 2 million almost every year since 1989, but was cut in half to 1 million or less annually during the recession and housing crisis this decade.
With the economy improving, the constant march upward in the number of places the postman has to travel is expected to accelerate. The Commerce Department reported last week that spending on home construction rose in February to the highest level in more than four years and also was up for office construction and health care facilities.
Some analysts see more addresses as an opportunity for the Postal Service as long as the agency can adjust to changing times and demand.
Scott Van Derven, a letter carrier of 30 years, says he expects to see a couple thousand new delivery points on his downtown Milwaukee route in the next year. Projects that stalled when the housing bubble burst are starting to go forward now — new buildings will go up and old industrial ones will be turned into apartments or other housing he believes will draw young professionals.
Van Derven envisions bringing them mail sacks full of professional magazines and catalogues from home furnishing stores as they decorate their new homes. And he predicts more packages in his future — lots of packages, which are the Postal Service’s fastest growing business because more people are buying things online.

Balboa Park San Diego - Survivors Angry Over 'Pain & Gain' Depiction

Source - http://movies.yahoo.com/
By - SUZETTE LABOY
Category - Balboa Park San Diego
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

Balboa Park San Diego

MIAMI (AP) — The real-life murder, torture and kidnapping case from South Florida that's behind the coming movie "Pain & Gain" indeed reads like a script — just not a funny one.

The fact that the film, starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, is an action-comedy has angered survivors of the Sun Gym gang's crimes and those who investigated them nearly two decades ago.

"You are talking about real people. And in this particular case, especially when you're talking about the murder victims, these were innocent victims," said retired Miami-Dade Police Sgt. Felix Jimenez.

Zsuzsanna Griga told The Miami Herald that the movie's depiction of the gang as sympathetic bumblers just trying to get ahead is "ridiculous." Gang members murdered and dismembered her brother and his girlfriend.

"It's horrible what happened to them," said Griga, who lives in Hungary. She could not be reached by The Associated Press. "I don't want the American public to be sympathetic to the killers," she said.

The Paramount film, which opens April 26 and is directed by Michael Bay of "Transformers" and "Armageddon" fame, is adapted from a series of Miami New Times articles about a group of 1990s bodybuilders who hatched a brutal get-rich-quick kidnapping scheme that eventually escalated to murder. Paramount declined comment.

The New Times series told of mastermind Daniel Lugo, played by Wahlberg, his sadistic muscleman Noel Doorbal, played by Anthony Mackie, and Jorge Delgado, who is not portrayed in the movie, who were denizens of the Sun Gym, which was known for its hardcore bodybuilders. Johnson plays Paul Doyle, a fictional member of the crew.

Lugo, a charming conman who had served prison time for defrauding seniors, was the gym's manager. He hired Doorbal, a gym rat and steroids abuser, as a part-time employee and cut him in on a lucrative Medicare fraud scheme. Delgado, one of Lugo's clients at the gym, had once worked for Marc Schiller, a wealthy Miami businessman whom they targeted for kidnapping.

Attractions In San Diego - Detroit Electric Launches SP:01: A Telsa Rival

Source - http://news.cnet.com
By - Brooke Crothers
Category - Attractions In San Diego
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

Attractions In San Diego

Little-known -- but storied-brand -- Detroit Electric has launched its electric alternative to the Tesla.

The SP:01 is a limited-edition, two-seat pure-electric sports car, according to the company's announcement today.

With its Lotus Elise-like design, the SP:01 boasts a top speed of 155 mph and goes from 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds.

Other marquee features of the SP:01:

    Electric motor: rear-wheel-drive with a mid-mounted 200 bhp electric motor made in the USA.
    Body: carbon-fiber body, with a total weight of 1,070 kg (2,359 pounds).
    Driving range: With a power rating of 37 kWh, the lithium polymer batteries deliver a range of 180 miles (288 km) when tested to the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) standard. (Note: the Tesla Model S delivers about 208 miles.)
    Infotainment: a smartphone application manages the car's infotainment system.
    Transmission: Four-speed manual transmission.
    Assembly: Michigan.
    Price: Starts at $135,000 and will vary according to specification and local taxes. (Note: Telsa Model S starts at about $57,000.)

The SP:01 sports car will "spearhead a diverse family of all-electric production cars," including two other high-performance models that are scheduled to enter production by end of 2014, the company said.

Hotels San Diego Downtown - Macular Degeneration: Cholesterol Drugs 'May Save Sight'

Source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/
By - James Gallagher
Category - Hotels San Diego Downtown
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

Hotels San Diego Downtown

Eye drops designed to lower cholesterol may be able to prevent one of the most common forms of blindness, according to US researchers.

They showed how high cholesterol levels could affect the immune system and lead to macular degeneration.

Tests on mice and humans, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, showed that immune cells became destructive when they were clogged with fats.

Others cautioned that the research was still at an early stage.

The macula is the sweet spot in the eye which is responsible for fine detail. It is essential for reading, driving and recognising people's faces.

Macular degeneration is more common in old age. It starts in a "dry" form in which the light-sensing cells in the eye become damaged, but can progress into the far more threatening "wet" version, when newly formed blood vessels can rapidly cause blindness.
Fatty clues

Doctors at the Washington University School of Medicine investigated the role of macrophages, a part of the immune system, in the transition from the dry to the wet form of the disease.

One of the researchers, Dr Rajendra Apte, said the role of macrophages changed and they triggered the production of new blood vessels.

"Instead of being protective, they accelerate the disease, but we didn't understand why they switched to become the bad cells," he told the BBC.

Normally the cells can "eat" fatty deposits and send them back into the blood.

However, their research showed that older macrophages struggle. They could still eat the fats, but they could not expel them. So they became "bloated", causing inflammation which in turn led to the creation of new blood vessels.

Dr Apte said: "Based on our findings, we need to investigate whether vision loss caused by macular degeneration could be prevented with cholesterol-lowering eye drops or other medications that might prevent the build-up of lipids beneath the retina."

Clara Eaglen, from the charity RNIB for the visually impaired, said: "This new research is very interesting as it shows that cholesterol-lowering drugs could be used to prevent thousands of people losing their sight unnecessarily from conditions such as AMD [age-related macular degeneration] - the biggest cause of sight loss in the UK.

"The more aggressive of the two forms, wet AMD, can take your central vision in as little as three months if left untreated.

"Clearly this research is still at an early stage but it will be exciting to watch how it progresses and at some point cholesterol-lowering eye drops may become part of a growing army of treatments for sight-threatening eye conditions.

San Diego Hotel Meeting Space - YouTube Co-Founder Announces New Video-Creation Website

Source - http://mashable.com/
By - Seth Fiegerman
Category - San Diego Hotel Meeting Space
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

San Diego Hotel Meeting Space

YouTube may soon have a little more competition in the online video space, and it comes from two of the company's founders.

Chad Hurley, one of YouTube's three co-founders, unveiled a new website on Monday called MixBit that promises to give users a new way to share and create videos. The website isn't live yet, but users can sign up to be invited when it officially launches.

Hurley announced the website on Twitter and tied it to the fake April Fools' news that YouTube is shutting down.

While the YouTube announcement is a joke, the news about MixBit is not. Hurley first leaked the plan for a new video tool earlier this month during an interview SXSW. He said he planned to launch a new website in about a month that would be "primarily video-based" and provide "flexibility for people to work together and create content."

Hurley and co-founders Steve Chen and Jawed Karim sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion in 2006. Hurley and Chen now run AVOS, the parent company for several Internet startups including Delicious and Zeen.

When we last spoke with Hurley a few months ago, he said that AVOS had about 50 staffers working on these two startups as well as "two or three" other projects in the pipeline, one of which may have been MixBit. MixBit is listed as being located in San Mateo, Calif, the same place where AVOS is based.

Hurley and AVOS did not immediately respond to our request for comment for more details on the new project.