InsideTech

Why Many Stores No Longer Accept Personal Checks

Maria Halkias/The Dallas Morning News — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:24:00 -0800

Nov. 21 - Don't be surprised while shopping this season to find that some stores no longer accept checks.

Diesel, True Religion, Ed Hardy and Lululemon Athletica are among a growing list of stores that don't accept personal checks.

Gap Inc. has tested the idea. Austin-based Whole Foods Market is trying it out at a few stores in California and Arizona. The organic grocer hasn't come to any conclusions yet, a spokeswoman said.

Check fraud is a costly problem for the retail industry, and stores just don't see many shoppers pulling out a checkbook anymore.

Only 4 percent of consumers say they'll be writing checks to pay for purchases this holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation's 2009 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions survey conducted by BIGresearch.

Generational differences really show up, with a minuscule 0.3 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds and 1.4 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds saying they'll write checks. You guessed it. The numbers rise with age, peaking at 9.8 percent of shoppers 65 and older.

How are people paying? One in four will pay with cash. More than 42 percent will use debit cards; 28.3 percent will put their purchases on credit cards. Only 0.3 percent plan to use gift cards, according to the NRF survey.

In October, the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank stopped processing paper checks at its Uptown facility. As recently as 2006, it had several hundred employees working in that division.

Dozens of Fed Bank check-processing facilities across the country have closed in the last five years. Paper checks are now processed only at the Cleveland Fed and by private companies such as big commercial banks.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is aggressively integrating its stores and Web site this year.

On Black Friday, many shoppers will be able to stay in their pajamas. Some Black Friday in-store specials are going to be available this year online at Walmart.com.

Walmart.com is charging 97 cents for home delivery of any consumer electronics item, whether it's a 50-inch TV or a pocket camera. (Site-to-store orders are still free.)

And the Web site will have about 50 online-only specials on the day after Thanksgiving.

Raul Vazquez, president and chief executive of Walmart.com, said the company's online business is in the "multiple billions of dollars" and is growing at a rate faster than Amazon.com's 20 percent annual increase. Wal-Mart won't break out its dot-com business, but it's safe to say it's less than Amazon.com's $19 billion last year.

Last year, some shoppers noticed that an item was priced lower online than in Walmart stores. That's because the online store has staff dedicated to searching the Internet, independently lowering prices when necessary.

"Walmart.com is applying the same playbook that worked in stores," Vazquez said.

Build-A-Bear Workshop's inventive holiday campaign is integrating its stores and interactive Web site with a new movie to try to lift sales that are down 15 percent so far this year.

The make-your-own- stuffed-animal store cleverly announced it had merged with Santa's Workshop to carry the theme into its stores. Cardboard elves positioned around the store talk back once activated by secret messages. Children get free virtual gifts to use at buildabearville.com.

Next week, it will broadcast a one-hour movie based on brother and sister characters Holly and Hal Moose. The moose debuted in the chain's first book published last year.

Holly and Hal Moose: Our Uplifting Christmas Adventure will air on ABC Family at 6 p.m. Tuesday and 9 a.m. Nov. 28. (The retailer has invited some of its customers in eight cities, including Dallas, for a theater sneak peek today.)

Build-A-Bear is hoping the special will become a new holiday family classic. The St. Louis-based chain's average customer is a 10-year-old girl who spends $35.

Video game consoles have been treated by many households as a family gift - a giant stocking stuffer, if you will. Here's something similar that you probably don't have yet.

Blockbuster Inc. is selling Yoostar Interactive Home Entertainment System for $169.99, beginning Dec. 5. Yoostar makes you the star of famous movie and television scenes. It comes with a Web cam, portable green screen with stand, remote control and a dozen scenes, with hundreds of others available for download.

A Few Ways to Save Money While Holiday Shopping

Claudia Buck/The Sacramento Bee — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:18:00 -0800

Nov. 22 - Feeling frugal this holiday season? It's OK, so are most American consumers, according to numerous surveys.

As the shopping season gets into full swing this week, here are some ways to save - and some ways to be safe.

First, the savings. Whether it's online or at the mall, there are lots of ways to trim your holiday spending.

One of the easiest: Start early and work from a list for each person. You'll be less inclined to panic on last-minute spending or overdo the individual gifts.

And Thanksgiving can be a great occasion to divvy up names so everyone buys for one special person, rather than all 17 family members.

Here are some other tips:

- Think creatively. One family we know used a recycled theme last year: every gift had to be purchased from a used bookstore, thrift shop, consignment store or other "gently used" boutique. Wrapping had to be something recycled.

- Carry cash. When it's gone, you're done shopping for the day. And using cash means you'll be less likely to splurge or fritter it away on those small, frivolous "what-was-I-thinking" purchases.

If you're using a credit card, leave your checkbook and extra credit cards at home, in case your purse or wallet is lost or stolen.

- Check your limit. With so many credit card companies lowering their limits in recent months, you may not have as much shopping capacity as you think. Read your monthly statement or call the company to see if your credit limit has changed. If you exceed it, you could be hit with fees or penalties.

If you're shopping online, look for bundled discounts, combining dollars-off and free shipping.

"It used to be there was one or the other," said Mike Allen, founder and "chief executive shopper" of Shopping-Bargains.com, a coupon Web site. "This year, I'm seeing a lot more of both combined: free shipping and 15 percent off a $100 order, for instance. They're 'double-incentivizing' you to buy."

He also recommends looking at the online minimums for discounts. If you're buying $65 worth of sweaters, for instance, it might be worth bumping up your order to $75 to take advantage of free shipping. And try to group multiple orders from a single retailer, so you're only paying shipping and handling fees once.

Aside from deals, online shoppers should also be on the lookout for the dangers posed by cyber-crooks.

"The bad guys know that at holiday times people are engaging in more Internet activity - looking for low prices on gifts, looking for bargains," said Dave Marcus, director of security research for McAfee, the Santa Clara-based security software company.

There's also the seasonal flurry of fake job sites, offering "Earn More Money for Holiday Shopping," which Marcus said are often money-laundering sites for cyber-criminals.

That means you need to be vigilant about where you shop and to whom you give personal financial details.

And anyone can get hit. "It's happened to me," said Joanne McNabb, head of the state's Office of Privacy Protection, who said she got snagged while buying flowers online.

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After completing her floral order, a small pop-up window appeared on McNabb's computer: "Get 10 percent off your next order!" She clicked on it, without paying attention to the details. A few months later, she noticed an unfamiliar $3.95 monthly charge on her credit card statement. Sure enough, it was a subscriber service that she'd inadvertently signed up for when she clicked on the pop-up ad.

McNabb immediately called her credit card company and canceled the "service."

McNabb's advice: "Read the fine print before you accept anything online. And monitor your credit card statement for any unfamiliar charges. Even if it's a small amount that you don't understand, question it."

To protect yourself online, here are additional tips:

- Don't click on any links sent to you. Instead, type in the retailer's name or the Web site address yourself. "It takes a few extra seconds but saves you from potential identity theft or credit card theft," said McAfee's Marcus.

- Beware of "too good" deals. If they sound too good to be true, chances are they're fake. And look out for too-low prices on upscale, luxury brands like Cartier or Tiffany. Scamsters know that consumers are price-shopping, so be certain the Web site you're perusing is legitimate.

This time of year, phony online auction sites are especially prevalent, says Marcus, who's seen pseudo Craigslist sites and phony eBay Web sites in Chinese, French and German.

- Beware of holiday cheer. Holiday Web sites surface every year, offering free downloads of Christmas carols, ringtones or festive screen savers. Aside from merriment, they often harbor malicious software that can infect your computer.

- Beware of "phishing." It could be a phony FedEx invoice or a heartfelt appeal from a real-sounding charity. Official-looking e-mails, with company or charity logos, can pop up, asking you to verify credit card and other financial information. Even if you think the e-mail is legitimate, contact the company yourself to verify the request.

- Don't shop in public. Avoid using open Wi-Fi connections while making purchases online. Use a secure network.

- Update your security software. Don't assume it's being done for you. Click on your computer's security icon and hit "Auto Update" to be sure it's automatically updating with the latest protection against viruses and other gremlins.

- Mix up your passwords. Don't use the same passwords for online accounts. Use a combination of letters, numbers and symbols.

And above all, shop well and prosper.

10 Reasons You Should Do Your Holiday Shopping Online

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:13:00 -0800

The crowds, the fluorescent lights, the sales clerks who ignore you and the lines, lines, lines. Some people love Christmas shopping. I assume they also like sleeping on a bed of nails.

Here are 10 reasons you should consider shopping online.

1. Unique gifts: You can find the coolest and most unusual stuff online. From remote-controlled Ferraris at hipstergifts.com to Gummi Army Guys at stupid.com, it's all out there. You just have to look. And as with all shopping, looking is half the fun.

2. Find exactly what you want: Need a Hello Kitty purse for your niece or a Transformer action figure for your nephew? It's all there and Google makes it easy to find. The "toy of the year" may be sold-out early on toy sites, but check eBay and you'll probably find it. Of course the eBay price will be higher than retail on that hot item, but your daughter won't be disappointed come Christmas morning _ if that's your goal.

3. Crowds: IMHO, not having to fight overzealous crowds is the very best part of shopping online. Plus, you can cook dinner while sitting at your computer, so no pizza dinner after an exhausting day of dealing with overzealous shoppers.

4. Sleep in: It's beyond my understanding why anyone would camp out in front of Best Buy on Black Friday, only to find the five rock-bottom-priced laptops advertised in the Thanksgiving newspaper were picked off by employees before the doors opened. Online shopping allows you to sleep in and leisurely stroll to your computer at a reasonable hour. Heck, you can even shop at midnight, after the kids are in bed and you have some private time.

5. Keep it secret: Have your gift-wrapped purchases delivered close to Christmas and you don't have to worry about hiding them from inquisitive little fingers (or the bigger fingers of nosey spouses).

6. No germs: How many people ignore a cold and still go shopping, where they spread all those yucky germs? There's no chance of catching swine flu (sorry, H1N1) from your computer, although you can catch a virus.

7. No snarky clerks: Sure many of the clerks have a reason to be irritated. Shoppers can be nasty, aggressive and cheap. My girlfriend works at Eddie Bauer and says she wants to slice the achilles tendon of customers who say they're "Just browsing." Worst of all, many clerks know they'll be canned immediately after post-Christmas sales. Blessedly, there are no clerks online and, thus, no one to hassle you.

8. Dress code: You can shop online in your pajamas or sweat pants. Need I say more? And that coffee your drinking is homemade _ not an expensive mocha drink from Starbucks that you waited half an hour in line to buy and the "barista" got it wrong.

9. Better deals: Super hot deals offered by brick-and-mortar stores are picked off by the first 10 people in line. You can easily compare prices and find great deals online without the chance of being trampled.

10. Shipping: Have your gifts shipped directly to your home or to the recipient; whichever works best for you. If you like, online stores will even gift-wrap presents and slip in a personalized card. You'll reduce your holiday stress and avoid the lines at the post office. Many online stores offer free shipping.

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(Coupon Sherpa is the penny pinching, coupon clipping, deal digging, Himalyan haggling, he-man of bargains. Visit http://www.couponsherpa.com/ for more shopping advice, insider tips, and coupons.)

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Personal Guide to the Holiday Door-Buster Bargains

Jonathan Takiff/Philadelphia Daily News — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:06:00 -0800

Have you noticed? The holiday bargain hunting has already begun for electronics gizmos.

Major retailers like Wal-Mart, Sears and Best Buy are already into the "Black Friday" (day after Thanksgiving) sales frame of mind, in recent weeks offering crazy come-ons like name-brand Windows 7 portable computers for as low as $249, 10 megapixel digital still cameras under $100 and GPS trail blazers as low as $69.

Come Monday, Amazon.com starts running its full array of Black Friday promotions _ four days early!

Pundits predict that sharp pricing will remain in place long after the leftover turkey is gone.

Clearly, the recession has both manufacturers and retailers running scared this year. According to the market research group In-Stat, 34 percent of respondents have no plans to purchase a CE product this year, compared with 19 percent in 2006 and 2007 and 24 percent in 2008.

Yet other analysts believe the picture remains pretty good, with sales improving this year vs. last for high-definition TVs _ thanks to pent-up demand, the end of analog broadcasts and steadily dropping set prices.

iSupply notes the average price for a 42-inch LCD TV will fall to $639 in the fourth quarter, down from $768 a year ago, and that pricing for premium brand, 32-inch LCD and 42-inch plasma sets will be as low as $299 and $499 respectively on Black Friday (Nov. 27).

Getting revved up to bring home some goodies? These tips will start you out on the right foot.

PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER: If you're determined to score an extra-cheap Black Friday doorbuster, you might as well stay up the night before.

Best Buy starts handing out reservation tickets for its limited-quantity loss-leader items at 3 a.m. And to avoid a repeat of last year's tragedy at a Wal-Mart store in Valley Stream, N.Y., where an employee was trampled to death by the opening bell rush, that discount chain will keep all stores open around the clock Thursday into Friday and will have clearly marked displays where you can line up peacefully for a goody going on sale at 5 a.m. Nov. 27.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK: Are you positive your daughter wants a pink phone? Are you sure your son will be happy with a "mere" 8GB iPod Touch? It pays to ask ahead of time.

Also useful, get a firm grasp on the return policies of online and "bricks-and-mortar" stores. While 30-day returns are the norm, there are often exceptions for such things as computers and camcorders, with some retailers charging a "restocking" fee as high as 25 percent of the purchase price if the item's been opened. (Stores have finally figured out the scam of "buying" a camera to shoot a wedding or party, then returning it the next day.)

PREPARE TO NEGOTIATE: Memorize these mantras: "Is that your best price?" "I saw it online for less."

In this economy, wheeling and dealing sometimes works!

AVOID EXTENDED WARRANTIES AND SUCKER-PUNCH ACCESSORIES: Stick with a reputable, "first tier" electronics brand and the likelihood that the product will fail is greatly reduced, so why buy an expensive extended warranty?

If you're buying a TV, audio component or video game system, take it home, turn it on and leave it on for a day or two. Most defects appear when a gizmo heats up.

If the finked-out item is merely a few days old, the retailer will often feel shamed to take it back, even if the product guarantee says "return to the manufacturer."

A premium-priced ($50-$150) HDMI cable to connect your new HDTV set to a cable TV or satellite box is another big profit source for the retailer. If your cable needs to be only one or two meters (3.28 to 6.56 feet) long, you can get away with a bargain ($10 or less) cable from an online outlet.

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BUNDLE UP!

There's sometimes truth to the expression, "The more you spend, the more you save." Target is offering a $10 gift card for every $100 spent from 5 a.m. to noon on Black Friday, plus gift card bonuses of up to $30 for buying an iPod or Nintendo DS bundle. So if you buy groceries there on Friday, that rebate will subsidize the purchase price of the nonessentials.

"Special" Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 hardware/software bundles being touted for Black Friday also make sense, since you're got to have something to play on that new system, right?

Several retailers will have a $299 deal on the new PS3 Slim that tosses in, "for free," two worthy video games _ "Gran Turismo 5 Prologue" and "Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction," plus the Blu-ray movies "Step Brothers" and "Black Hawk Down" _ also playable on this extra-dexterous, multimedia machine.

AVOID BUYER REMORSE: The $100 (or less) Magnavox and Sylvania brand Blu-ray players that some retailers will be pushing next Friday are fine for watching high-def and standard-def movie discs. But these bargain boxes don't allow for the Internet connectivity needed to access "BD-Live" downloadable content and interactivity (available with many Blu-ray movie titles), or for streaming movies, TV shows and music from sites like Netflix, Vudu, YouTube and Pandora, as players in the $150 and up price range do offer.

You'll also pay a bit more, up front, for a high-def TV that sports on-demand, Internet-access features _ but you'll likewise be happier with it in the long run.

20 Years of Malpractice Web-based Data Still Mostly Closed to Public

Gavin Off/Tulsa World — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:58:00 -0800

Nov. 23 - More than 20 years ago Congress created a federal database to track incompetent and unprofessional health-care practitioners.

The database, compiled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, includes some 460,000 records of malpractice lawsuits whose judgments total $69.7 billion.

It includes information on 23,788 patient deaths, 8,100 major permanent injuries and 3,896 cases that resulted in quadriplegics, brain damage or lifelong care.

But much of the data is closed to the public.

Although the full database is open to hospitals, managed care organizations and state licensing agencies, the public can view only limited information, such as the lawsuit's allegation and the patient's health.

Meanwhile, the doctors' names remain hidden, preventing patients from using the data to look up information on their practitioner.

"I can certainly see the advantage to the general public or the patients to have all the information available," said Lyle Kelsey, director of the Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision. "The other side of that is not all of that information may be correct. There's a lot of criticism that some of the information is misleading."

For years, the American Medical Association

has argued that the data bank should remain closed to the public. The data are incomplete and unreliable, association representatives said.

A 2000 Government Accountability Office report found 30 percent of the data it surveyed was submitted late and 11 percent contained false or misleading information about the severity or number of times a practitioner was disciplined.

"As a physician, there is not an interest in having the database open because it is a flawed program," said Oklahoma City pediatrician and American Medical Association member Mary Anne McCaffree. "We support patients having access to reliable information."

That information is already open and available through a state's medical board, McCaffree said.

The Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision publishes disciplinary actions taken against health-care practitioners on its Web site, tulsaworld.com/okmedical . Some of that information comes from that national data bank, which Kelsey said the state uses almost daily to check background information on license applicants and targets of an investigation.

Therein lies part of the problem, said Sidney Wolfe, a physician and director of the Health Research Group for Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization out of Washington, D.C.

If the data bank is reliable enough for state medical boards to use on a daily basis, why should it be considered too incomplete for curious patients, Wolfe asked.

"It's a silly argument," he said. "That's just a way to protect doctors."

Wolfe said that most of the problems cited in the GAO report have since been corrected, and, if there is a problem with the data, it's under-reporting.

Despite possible under-reporting, Oklahoma doctors had to pay a combined $394 million following malpractice lawsuits since 2000, according to the data bank's public use file.

Reasons for the lawsuits vary. They include everything from giving an incorrect diagnosis and failing to order the appropriate medication to prescribing the wrong dosage and performing an unnecessary procedure.

They also include more uncommon allegations.

For example:

-28 lawsuits in Oklahoma concerned a procedure on a wrong body part and totaled $2.9 million in payments.

-Nine suits concerned sexual misconduct and totaled $166,000.

-Three suits concerned assault and battery and totaled $300,000.

-One suit concerned failure to resuscitate a patient and totaled $175,000

"There's some extraordinary information," said Wolfe, who added that it would take a Congress willing to battle the medical association for the data bank to become open.

Kelsey said he wouldn't mind seeing that happen.

"If you want to make a decision, you ought to have as much information as you can," Kelsey said. "Based on that, it's hard to say that it wouldn't be of some value."

Bad Medicine: A look at problem doctors This is the second in a two-part series examining the consequences doctors face in Oklahoma for medical errors and unethical behavior.

Sunday's stories examined Oklahoma's system for disciplining bad doctors and detailed how to check out your doctor.

Today's stories focus on malpractice lawsuits and secrecy of a federal database that tracks them.

To search a Tulsa World database of disciplined doctors from 2000 through 2009, go to tulsaworld.com/okmedical.

Top Gadgets for the Holidays

Troy Wolverton/San Jose Mercury News — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:50:00 -0800

Nov. 23 - The holiday season is as much a time for tech as for toys.

Electronic gadgets are at the top of many wish lists and account for an ever-growing share of holiday shopping budgets. Fortunately for shoppers, tech gifts don't have to break their budgets.

One big trend this year is sharp discounts on products in many of the most popular categories. Many televisions, video game consoles, cameras and other tech goods are cheaper than last year, with more features.

Here are some electronics gift ideas for the special people in your life. You shouldn't have a problem finding something they'll like at a price you can afford.

TVs

If you're shopping for a television this year, get ready to spend a lot less money. You can find name-brand 40-inch 1080p LCD TVs with 120Hz refresh rates for less than $1,000 at Best Buy. Such TVs would have sold for at least $2,000 as recently as two years ago.

If you're willing to spend several hundred dollars more, you can get a TV with newer picture technologies, most notably LED backlighting. These sets, often called "LED TVs," are illuminated by a collection of LED light bulbs rather than a fluorescent picture tube and tend to be more energy-efficient and thinner than older LCD TVs. They also can display pictures with more contrast and deeper blacks. You can find a 40-inch LED-backlit TV for about $1,500 to $1,600.

Many of the newer and more expensive televisions also can be connected to the Internet. Through that connection, they'll display weather reports, sports scores and pictures, and show streaming movies from Netflix and YouTube, without need of a computer or a set-top box.

Video games

The game industry has had a tough year. That's a good thing for consumers, because in recent months, hardware makers have cut prices and added features.

Nintendo's Wii ($200) is $50 cheaper than a year ago. Sony's PlayStation 3 ($300) and Microsoft's Xbox 360 Elite (also $300) each cost $100 less than last year, even though they have larger hard drives and, in the PlayStation's case, a new, smaller, more energy-efficientï»¿ design. And the game machines all have new features or accessories, such as MotionPlus for the Wii, which gives users more precise control over their on-screen movements. Both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 provide access to sites like Facebook and new movie streaming services.

The handheld game systems also got a refresh this year. Sony recently released the PSP Go ($250), a smaller version of the PlayStation Portable that plays only digitally downloaded games. Meanwhile, Nintendo introduced the DSi ($170), the latest version of its DS handheld, which has two digital cameras and the ability to download simple games from an online store.

Sony and Nintendo also have some new competition. Apple's iPod touch, a sibling of Apple's iPhone that can surf the Web and play music, has been gaining traction as a game machine. Prices range from about $200 to $400, depending on the model. Touch owners can choose from thousands of games available at Apple's App Store, including versions of ones they'd find on more traditional game machines, often at lower prices.

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Among the top game choices this holiday season: "Super Mario Bros. Wii," and "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Smart-phones

Computing is quickly shifting from PCs to smart-phones, which are pocket-size computers with always-on Internet connections and the ability to make phone calls.

The leader of the pack is the iPhone 3GS, which is noticeably faster than the previous iPhone models and adds the ability to take videos. It ranges from about $100 to $300, depending on the model, with a two-year AT&T contract.

Other smart-phones worth considering include Motorola's Droid ($200 with a contract), which includes a free turn-by-turn navigation program from Google; Palm's Pre and Pixi ($150 and $100, respectively, on Sprint), which feature perhaps the most elegant smart-phone operating system on the market; and the Motorola Cliq ($200 on T-Mobile), a device that integrates messages and contacts from a variety of social networks and online sources.

For consumers who aren't interested in a full-blown smart-phone but still want special features, there are lots of choices. Garmin's nuviphone G60 ($200 from AT&T) includes a sophisticated turn-by-turn navigation program. Samsung's Instinct s30 ($100, Sprint), is a touch-screen device, and the LG enV Touch ($100, Verizon), offers both a touch screen and a full keyboard.

Digital music players

In digital music, it's still an iPod world. The biggest changes in Apple's lineup of music players have been in the iPod nano line (about $150 and $180, depending on storage size). Apple added an FM tuner and a video camera to the slender, flash-based players. Other models got less noticeable tweaks: The new iPod touches have faster processors; the hard drive-based iPod classic (about $250) was given more storage space; and the small iPod shuffle comes in a new $60 version with less storage.

For those wanting something different, Microsoft offers two models of the Zune HD ($220 for the 16-gigabyte model and $290 for the 32-gigabyte one), which have a revamped design and interface, a touch screen, an HD Radio tuner and the ability to download a limited number of games and other applications.

Computers

The number of netbook models has grown in recent months and they've gotten new features. Netbooks fully capable of doing the basics are available for less than $400.

One new feature for these compact computers is Windows 7, the new version of Microsoft's operating system. Asus, Toshiba and Samsung, among others, are now offering Windows 7-powered netbooks for about $350 to $500.

Another new feature available on some netbooks is a built-in 3G antenna that allows them to connect to the Internet through the cell-phone networks. If you subscribe to a data plan with one of the carriers, you often can get a discount of up to $200 or more on the price of such netbooks. AT&T, for instance, is offering the Lenovo S10 for $100 with a two-year contract.

Manufacturers have started to promote a new class of laptops dubbed ultraportables or ultrathins, which typically sell for between $550 and $1,000. They generally include larger displays, bigger keyboards, more memory, larger hard drives and faster processors than netbooks. Computers in this category include models from Toshiba, Dell, HP and Asus.

Another feature gaining popularity is touch-sensitive screens, which are found in Hewlett-Packard's TouchSmart series of all-in-one desktops and laptops and Toshiba's Satellite U500 and M500 laptops.

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On the Mac side, Apple has refreshed its laptops and desktops and upgraded its operating system - the latest version is dubbed Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard. Its consumer-oriented MacBook laptops start at $1,000, while its professional MacBook Pro line starts at $1,200.

E-books

Electronic book readers aim to do with books what the iPod did with albums and songs: allow consumers to carry around entire collections on a portable device. Amazon.com sparked renewed interested in the devices two years ago with its release of the Kindle.

This year, Amazon introduced a new version of the Kindle with a thinner design, a screen that more quickly shows new text, longer battery life, more storage space and a text-to-speech feature that allows the device to "read" some books aloud. The company also introduced a new, larger screen model, the Kindle DX ($490), and cut the price on the smaller Kindle to about $260, down from $300.

Barnes & Noble's nook ($260) distinguishes itself from the Kindle by including a Wi-Fi antenna that can tap into faster Internet hot spots and a second, full-color, touch-sensitive screen.

Meanwhile, longtime e-book maker Sony has upgraded its Reader line. The company now offers the Daily Edition ($400) with a built-in Internet connection, as well as two other models that require users to download books first to their PC. Those are the Touch Edition ($300), which has a touch screen, and the Pocket Edition ($200).

Gift cards and subscriptions

These are always a favorite around my house, because they allow you to get the gift you want.

Among the best choices is Amazon.com, because of its broad selection of products and its digital music store, which rivals Apple's iTunes in selection. If the person you're buying for has an iPod or an iPhone, an iTunes gift card can be used to buy not only music, movies or television shows, but also games and other software programs from Apple's burgeoning App Store.

Finally, you can give the gift of movie rentals and streaming Internet video through a subscription to Netflix. Rates start at $9 a month.

Scientist: Hackers' E-mail Leaks Undermine Global Climate Summit

David Stringer — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:40:00 -0800

LONDON - A leading climate change scientist whose private e-mails are included in thousands of documents that were stolen by hackers and posted online said Sunday the leaks may have been aimed at undermining next month's global climate summit in Denmark.

Kevin Trenberth, of the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Colorado, said he believes the hackers who stole a decade's worth of correspondence from a British university's computer server deliberately distributed only those documents that could help attempts by skeptics to undermine the scientific consensus on man-made climate change.

Trenberth, a well respected atmospheric scientist, said it did not appear that all the documents stolen from the university had been distributed on the Internet by the hackers.

The University of East Anglia, in eastern England, said hackers last week stole from its computer server about a decade's worth of data from its Climatic Research Unit, a leading global research center on climate change. About 1,000 e-mails and 3,000 documents have been posted on Web sites and seized on by climate change skeptics, who claim correspondence shows collusion between scientists to overstate the case for global warming, and evidence that some have manipulated evidence.

"It is right before the Copenhagen debate, I'm sure that is not a coincidence," Trenberth said in a telephone interview from Colorado.

At least 65 world leaders will attend the Copenhagen climate summit in December as representatives of 191 nations seek agreement on a new global treaty on limiting emissions of greenhouse gases.

Trenberth, a lead author on the 2001 and 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments, said he had found 102 of his own e-mails posted online. "I personally feel violated," he said. "I'm appalled at the very selective use of the e-mails, and the fact they've been taken out of context."

In one of the stolen e-mails, Trenberth is quoted as saying "we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't."

He said the comment is presented by skeptics as evidence scientists can't explain some trends that appear to contradict their stance on climate change. Trenberth explained his phrase was actually contained in a paper he wrote about the need for better monitoring of global warming to explain the anomalies - in particular improved recording of rising sea surface temperatures.

In another e-mail posted online, and unrelated to Trenberth, the British research center's director, Phil Jones, wrote that he had used a "trick" to "hide the decline" in a chart detailing recent global temperatures. Jones has denied manipulating evidence and insisted his comment had been misunderstood. He said in a statement Saturday that he'd used the word trick "as in a clever thing to do."

Trenberth acknowledged that language used by some colleagues in the hacked e-mails "looks awkward at best," particularly messages which criticize climate change skeptics.

Woman Loses Benefits Over Facebook Photo

Amy Luft — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:33:00 -0800

BROMONT, Quebec - A Canadian woman on sick leave for depression says she lost her benefits after her insurance agent found photos of her apparently having fun on Facebook.

Nathalie Blanchard said Monday she was diagnosed with major depression and was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits until payments dried up this fall.

When Blanchard called her insurance provider, Manulife, to find out why she says she was told the Facebook photos showed she was able to work.

"If you have insurance, be careful. This is a major battle and it's not going to be easy," Blanchard, 29, said in a telephone interview from her home in Bromont Quebec.

She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on Facebook, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday.

Blanchard said Manulife told her it was evidence she is no longer depressed.

Her lawyer, Tom Lavin, said Blanchard was wrongfully dismissed from her benefits, and she had the right to go on holiday.

"The issue for me is that they stopped her disability benefits without the proper medical recommendations. Her doctor recommended she go on vacation," he said.

Blanchard said she took three four-day trips when she was feeling especially low, on her psychiatrist's advice.

Manulife declined to comment on the case specifically but has said in a statement that "we would not deny or terminate a valid claim solely based on information published on Web sites such as Facebook."

Blanchard's case will be before Quebec Superior Court Dec. 8.

Firm Looks at Class Action Lawsuit on Behalf of XBox "Modders"

Shane McGlaun — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:00 -0800

Gamers are really into tweaking their gear for fun and to achieve
the best performance during gameplay. PC gamers overclock their
hardware to get more performance for less money and console gamers
have modded their Xbox 360 consoles for many reasons (some for
innocent reasons, some for nefarious reasons).

Microsoft
appears to feel that the only reason to mod an Xbox 360 is to allow
the console to play pirated download software. A law firm based in
Texas that specializes in IP has launched a new website to gather
Xbox 360 users who have been banned for modding their consoles. The
main goal of the firm is to find out whether there are enough console
owners that were banned to start
a class action suit against Microsoft.

The law firm wrote
on its website, "Microsoft has chosen to use one of the most
indiscriminate "weapons" in its arsenal in an effort to
combat piracy -- as a result, use of this "weapon" has
resulted in a great deal of collateral damage -- many people were
affected who had nothing to do with piracy."

According to
the law firm, AbingtonIP, the bans were strategically timed so that
they didn’t interfere with the sales and new Xbox Live
registrations that were seen around the launch of HALO ODST
and the recent launch of Modern Warfare 2. AbingtonIP states
that had the bans happened before the launch of these games the
profits reaped by Microsoft would have been diminished.

So far
the Xbox 360 ban has led to more than 1
million consoles being banned from the network with the official
recourse for the banned players being to buy a new console and not
mod it this time around. A potential fix for banned consoles that
doesn't involve buying a new Xbox 360 surfaced. The workaround is
called iXtreme LT and the goal of the workaround is to provide a minimum amount
of security checks and make the firmware as close to stock as
possible to avoid detection and the resulting ban.

The fix
arrived but was rather complex and required that the Xbox 360 not
have been updated or the player to have access to the CPU key of the
console. DailyTech has also spoke
with an attorney - Jeffrey Johnson - about the banning of Xbox
360 console form the Xbox Live network.

Microsoft's official
statement on the banning of certain consoles reads, "Our
commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure
gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox Live
community remains a top priority,” he wrote. “All consumers
should know that piracy is illegal, and that modifying their Xbox 360
console to play pirated discs, violates the Xbox Live terms of use,
will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live."

Large Hadron Collider Ready to Restart

Jason Mick — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:01:00 -0800

When it comes to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), it was a
Herculean enough task simply to build the $10B USD device -- a
17-mile-long circular tunnel between the Franco-Swiss border lined
with some of the world's most sophisticated electronics.
However, that proved only to be the first of many challenges in
building and bringing online the world's largest particle
accelerator.

In September 2008, scientists fired
its first beams, however, the celebrations were soon replaced by
disappointment when an
electric fault caused serious damage to one of the sectors of the
circular track. The accelerator's work was set back and repairs
began. The repairs were further delayed by the onset
of winter.

Now, the repairs are complete,
and last week scientists fired the reactor up cautiously for a second
time. The accomplishment was the latest in a series of baby
steps that occurred over the last two months. On October 8, the
accelerator completed its chilling cycle, using its vacuum chamber to
reach 1.9 degrees Kelvin or about -271 degrees Celsius.

Next,
particles were injected on October 23. Then on November 7,
beams were steered through three octants of the machine.
Finally, on November 18, beams were fully
circulated around the LHC, an important milestone.

CERN
Director General Rolf Heuer states, "It’s great to see beam
circulating in the LHC again. We’ve still got some way to go
before physics can begin, but with this milestone we’re well on the
way. It’s been a herculean effort to get to where we are
today. I’d like to thank all those who have taken part, from
CERN and from our partner institutions around the world."

This
week another integral step will be carried out - completing
collisions to provide calibration data. This landmark step will
mark the accelerator's first collisions. It will be followed by
a slow ramp-up to full-strength collisions, at an energy of 7 TeV
(3.5 TeV per beam).

The full-strength collisions are feared
by some in the public who worry that they may produce out of
control mini-blackholes or strangelets, theoretical particles.
Theoretical physicists insist that after extensive review they have
found the risk of such dangers to be virtually nonexistent, and the
collisions to be safe.

Despite these reassurances, the
LHC has provoked a diverse response, including in literature and the
media. It is centrally featured in the novel FlashForward
by Robert J. Sawyer, and in the television series based on the work.
It is also a major plot device in the Dan Brown book Angels &
Demons, in which the Vatican's enemies try to use antimatter
created by the accelerator as a weapon of mass destruction.

CERN
is set to hold a press conference on Monday afternoon which should
hold more juicy details about the reactor's restart. The LHC's
primary mission is to find the Higgs boson, a theorized, but never
observed particle. Many other secrets of our universe's
physical properties should be unraveled along the way.

UCSD: Defective Carbon Nanotubes are Great for Energy Storage

Shane McGlaun — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:56:00 -0800

Nanotechnology may one day usher in a
new era for electronics and other products with smaller portable
devices that run longer than the electronics we use today. Much
research is being conducted on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for a myriad
of uses including electronics and batteries.

Battery research
is being conducted in several different areas. Researchers at MIT are
using viruses to create batteries that can hold more power and run for longer
periods. Battery research is a hot bed of activity because the
batteries can be used in automobiles to help reduce pollution and our
need for oil. Improvements in battery technology will also lead to
smaller computers and mobile phones that offer more run time with
each charge.

One of the hallmarks of carbon nanotubes is that
fact that the CNTs are just about perfect according to researchers. A
professor and a graduate student at UC San Diego have discovered that
by introducing purposeful defects into CNT structures the defective
CNTs work better for the development of super capacitors.

Professor
Prabhakar Bandaru said, "While batteries have large storage
capacity, they take a long time to charge; while electrostatic
capacitors can charge quickly but typically have limited capacity.
However, super capacitors electrochemical capacitors incorporate the
advantages of both."

Bandaru is working with graduate
student Mark Hoefer on the research program studying CNTs. The pair
discovered that introducing
purposeful defects into the CNT structure created additional
charge sites and enhanced the charge storage properties of the
CNT.

Hoefer said, "We first realized that defective CNTs
could be used for energy storage when we were investigating their use
as electrodes for chemical sensors. During our initial tests we
noticed that we were able to create charged defects that could be
used to increase CNT charge storage capabilities."

The
researchers also found that other methods could increase or decrease
the charge capacity of the CNTs with defects such as bombarding them
with argon or hydrogen.

Bandaru said, "It is important to
control this process carefully as too many defects can deteriorate
the electrical conductivity, which is the reason for the use of CNTs
in the first place. Good conductivity helps in efficient charge
transport and increases the power density of these devices."

The
interesting part of this research is that one of the things that
first drew scientists and researchers to study CNTs was the fact that
the CNTs are nominally considered to be perfect structurally. In this
instance, the CNTs are better when they have a certain amount of
defects.

The two researchers think that their discovery could
lead to electronics that charge faster and last longer than what we
have today. Bandaru understands that much more research is required
on the subject and hopes that more researchers and engineers will
investigate the discovery.

Hoefer said, "We hope that our
research will spark future interest in utilizing CNTs as electrodes
in charge storage devices with greater energy and power densities."

McCafee: Countries are Building Cyber Armies

Michael Barkoviak — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:52:00 -0800

A report compiled by security company
McAfee notes there are a growing number of governments across the
world that are preparing for potential cyber conflicts with other
nations.

The United States continues to receive
cyber attacks against computer networks from numerous sources
overseas, though other nations also are becoming worried about the
cyber capabilities of other nations. China, for example, said
its defense ministry computer network has been attacked
more than 2 million times since launching a few months
ago.

"There are at least five countries known
to be arming themselves for this kind of conflict," McAfee
Europe analyst Greg Day told the BBC. "To go to physical
war requires billions of dollars. To go to cyber war most people can
easily find the resources that could be used in these kinds of
attacks."

The 2009 Virtual Criminology report also
indicates nations are stockpiling tools and techniques -- similar to
the Cold War conflict between the United States and Russia -- in case
a cyber standoff does take place. A major difference between
the two conflicts, however, is that smaller, more unstable nations
also can easily have a hand in cyber conflicts with other
countries.

Large-scale organized cyber attacks would likely
focus on a city or region's infrastructure, with the ability to shut
off electricity, water, and other vital services necessary.
However, companies operating in the private sector are highly likely
to get caught up in rival nations launching cyber attacks
against one another.

New iPhone Worm Targets ING Bank Customers

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:32:00 -0800

By most accounts, the iPhone is the most likely of all smartphones to
be used on the internet to access files on the go. There are also a
growing number of iPhone users who are jailbreaking the devices to
use unauthorized Apple software or to use the devices on other
carrier networks.

Over the last few weeks, a worm targeted
specifically at iPhones which are jailbroken and have SSH installed
with the default password was found. The original worm was nothing
more than an irritation and would change
the background image of the iPhone to a picture of washed up pop
star Rick Astley. Embarrassing for sure, but hardly what most would
consider malicious.

A similar worm targeting jailbroken
iPhones with SSH and the default password - alpine - is making its
rounds in the Netherlands. The new worm is different from the first
in that the latest is clearly
malicious and has a financial motive behind it for the worm
maker. BBC News reports that security firm F-Secure discovered
the worm and that it targets users of Dutch online bank ING. The worm
infects the iPhone and redirects the user to a fake login page.

Mikko Hypponen from F-Secure told BBC News, "It's
the second iPhone worm ever and the first that's clearly malicious -
there's a clear financial motive behind it."

At least for
now the worm is limited to the Netherlands. However, the security
firm points out that the worm could spread to more countries. The
number of iPhones thought to be infected numbers only in hundreds.
The worm is capable of spreading itself to other vulnerable iPhones
that are connected to the same hotspot. A representative from ING
told BBC News that it has alerted call center personal and
that an official message would be placed on the ING bank website.

How Much Would You Pay for News Online?

Ken Robertson/Tri-City Herald — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:04:00 -0800

Nov. 18- A New York Times story that seems to have gone largely unnoticed could be the seed of some good news for newspapers with strong websites.

The Times article presented as bad news a report from the Boston Consulting Group that 48 percent of regular Internet users would be willing to pay to read the news online.

The bad part, the Times said, was that Americans who are willing to pay for online news would shell out only $3 a month, whereas Italians say they would pay up to $7.

John Rose, a senior partner in the consulting firm, told the Times, "Consumer willingness and intent to pay is related to the availability of a rich amount of free content. There is more, better, richer free (content) in the United States than anywhere else."

Rose's point was that all that free stuff makes people reluctant to pay much, if anything. But it also creates a readership habit - something newspapers have been able to capitalize on for decades. Interestingly, avid newspaper readers were the most willing to pay for online news.

As "old media," there are plenty of new things we might not do so well. But we have learned a lot about what makes people come to our print newspapers and websites for news and information.

So, as a newspaper editor, I find it heartening that web users would pay - never mind the amount. Popular wisdom long has been that almost no one would pay.

Now, it seems the pay-to-read conversation may be changing from "Hell no!" to "How much?"

For the Herald, which has 18,000 to 20,000 website visitors daily, that $3 each could produce a substantial amount each month - perhaps $50,000 to $60,000, if I'm judging the brief story accurately.

Adding $500,000 to $700,000 annually to the Herald's revenues with little or no added cost would make our bean counters drool, especially after the last few years in which revenue totals have declined by double digits.

Even if only 48 percent would pay, $200,000 to $300,000 still isn't chump change. As the last phrase of the Times report said, "... since the cost of reaching internet readers was very low, it could significantly increase profit."

Computer Glitch Causes Widespread US Air Travel Delays

Harry R. Weber — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:00:00 -0800

ATLANTA - Air travelers nationwide scrambled to revise their travel plans Thursday after an FAA computer glitch caused widespread cancellations and delays for the second time in 15 months.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the problem, which lasted about five hours, was fixed around 10 a.m., but it was unclear how long flights would continue to be affected.

Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Union, said controllers were still entering flight plans manually in some locations.

Aviation officials told The Associated Press that the problem began at the computer center in the Salt Lake City area. The officials asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

FAA spokesman Paul Takemoto said the problem started between 5:15 and 5:30 a.m. and affected mostly flight plans but also traffic management, such as ground stops and ground delays.

Airplane dispatchers had to send plans to controllers, who entered them into computers by hand.

"It's slowing everything down," Takemoto said.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world's busiest, has been particularly affected. Chicago and Washington, D.C., and New York metro airports also reported delays due to the glitch. The problem was exacerbating delays caused by bad weather in the Northeast. Orlando International Airport, Florida's busiest, also reported about a dozen delays due to the chain reaction around the country, and flights in Tampa, Fla., were also delayed.

Mary Rulo, an educator from Atlanta, was trying to get to Philadelphia for a conference. She said her 9 a.m. flight was delayed until 3 p.m. and AirTran was not able to help with other arrangements.

"This is really going to affect my conference schedule," she said. "It's really frustrating."

AirTran canceled at least 22 flights and dozens more flights were delayed as of 8 a.m. Delta Air Lines was also affected.

Passengers were asked to check the status of their flights online before going to airports.

At Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Va., nearly all departures were still on time. But passengers on AirTran flight 63 to Atlanta were trying to make other arrangements after that flight was canceled due to the glitch.

Hilda Ruffin of Manassas said the airline urged passengers to head to nearby Reagan National Airport to catch another flight to Atlanta. But for Ruffin, a senior citizen who uses a wheelchair, that proved difficult. She eventually lobbied the airline for a free shuttle pass to get her to Reagan.

"I really fought for it...I don't have the money to pay for a cab," said Ruffin, who was her way to San Antonio.

Flight plans are collected by the FAA for traffic nationwide at two centers - one in the Salt Lake City area and the other in the Atlanta area.

Victor Santore, the National Air Traffic Controllers Union southern region vice president, said he began getting e-mail messages from air traffic controllers around 7 a.m. EST Thursday that the Atlanta-area computers had stopped processing flight plans.

Santore said some controllers were pulled away from their normal duties talking to airplanes or pulled off breaks to help enter the flight plans.

"When something crazy like this happens, we'll pull everybody onto the floor," Santore said. "Every airport at some point some will be affected ... (The delays) are going to ripple through the entire system."

In August 2008, a software malfunction delayed hundreds of flights around the country.

In that episode, the Northeast was hardest hit by the delays because of a glitch at the Hampton, Ga., facility that processes flight plans for the eastern half of the U.S.

The FAA said at that time the source of the computer software malfunction was a "packet switch" that "failed due to a database mismatch."

President Obama Answers Questions from Controversial Cuban Blogger

Will Weissert — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:30:00 -0800

HAVANA - President Barack Obama has answered questions submitted by a celebrated Cuban blogger, saying he isn't interested in "talking for the sake of talking" with Raul Castro and indicating he won't visit the island until the communist government changes its ways.

In an unusual written response to Yoani Sanchez, who has gained international acclaim for daring to criticize her government online, Obama also said it is up to Cuba to act if it wants normal relations with Washington, saying that a true thaw in nearly 50 years of deep-freeze "will require action by the Cuban government."

His comments were posted Thursday on Sanchez's blog, "Generacion Y," which like most sites critical of the Cuban government is blocked on the island.

Sanchez uses caustic, often witty posts to provide an inside look at a communist state, writing about such daily hardships as food shortages and tensions caused by a lack of freedom of expression and assembly.

Obama assured Sanchez that the United States "has no intention of invading Cuba," a Cold War concept that top Cuban officials insist is still a possibility.

Raul Castro, who took over the presidency from his ailing brother Fidel in February 2008, has said he would be willing to meet with Obama and has even suggested they should sit down at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay. Obama told Sanchez he doesn't want empty dialogue.

"I am not interested ... in talking for the sake of talking," he wrote. "In the case of Cuba, such diplomacy should create opportunities to advance the interests of the United States and the cause of freedom for the Cuban people."

Obama answered seven questions from Sanchez, with his responses running more than 1,000 words. Sanchez said he wrote in English but that his office provided a Spanish translation, which she posted. The White House confirmed the responses came from the president.

Reached at home, Sanchez declined to comment, referring all queries to her blog. But her husband and fellow blogger Reinaldo Escobar said that she had sent printed copies of her questions and electronic versions to the White House more than three months ago.

"We had very little hope (Obama) was going to answer," Escobar said. "He's the president. He is very busy with other things."

Escobar said Obama's response arrived Wednesday night but declined to give details, saying only that they came "through official channels," a possible reference to the U.S. Interests Section, which Washington maintains in Havana instead of an embassy.

Sanchez then prepared seven questions for President Castro, turning in a copy at an office of the Council of State, Cuba's supreme governing body, on Thursday.

While Sanchez has been deeply critical of Cuba's government, she also opposes Washington's 47-year-old trade embargo against her country. On Wednesday, she used her blog to call the sanctions "clumsy."

Obama has said he doesn't plan to lift the embargo, but has removed limits on Cuban Americans who want to send money to or visit their relatives on the island.

[page]

Legislation has been introduced in both the U.S. House and the Senate to end the travel ban for other U.S. citizens. Currently, visitors to Cuba must usually obtain a license from the Treasury Department for official government, journalistic, religious or humanitarian purposes.

Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee debating the travel ban in Washington on Thursday read portions of a statement Sanchez sent to them in support of lifting it.

"Over the course of several decades, Cuban exiles and tourists have brought part of the information that has served to undermine the myth of the supposed 'paradise' in which we live," she wrote.

Asked if he planned to travel to Cuba, Obama told Sanchez he "would not rule it out" but indicated he wouldn't do so until the government embraced political reform.

Obama said he looks forward to visiting "a Cuba in which all citizens enjoy the same rights and opportunities as other citizens in the hemisphere."

He also said he was personally disappointed the Cuban government in October denied Sanchez permission to travel to New York to accept a journalism prize. It was the second time this year she has been barred from leaving the island.

As she walked to a march against violence in Havana on Nov. 6, Sanchez says two men in plainclothes forced her into an unmarked sedan, pulled her hair and kicked her. The confrontation was so violent, Sanchez said, that she thought the men might kill her, but instead they dropped her off near her apartment.

She blames state security agents, who routinely follow members of Cuba's tiny political opposition.

Time magazine recently named Sanchez - whose blog gets about 1 million hits a month - one of the world's 100 most influential people. But her popularity exists overseas since Internet access on the island is extremely limited and her blog is blocked.

Dell's Profit, Stock Drop Fast on Weak Quarterly Report

Jordan Robertson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:11:00 -0800

SAN FRANCISCO - Some of the computer industry's biggest players - such as IBM Corp., Intel Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. - have wowed Wall Street this fall with stronger-than-expected profits.

Dell Inc. didn't join them Thursday.

The company reported a 54 percent drop in net income and a 15 percent decline in revenue in its latest quarter, both steeper than analysts had forecast.

Dell's shares fell $1.43, or 9 percent, to $14.44 in morning trading Friday.

The numbers show that Dell isn't fully benefiting from the industry's fledgling recovery, even though the company is seeing improvement in some areas.

"We are already seeing more client activity in the last 30 to 60 days than we have in a long time," Michael Dell, the company's CEO, said on a conference call with analysts.

Dell has been hurt more than its peers because of tightened spending by corporations and large government agencies, which make up 80 percent of Dell's revenue.

Meanwhile, rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Acer Inc. have boosted their market share by exploiting their bigger presence in retail stores. That has been a big weapon because consumer interest in little laptops called "netbooks" has helped the PC industry start to pull out of its worst slump in years.

In the last quarter, Acer replaced Dell as the world's No. 2 personal computer maker. Dell has said it is willing to lose some market share rather than lower prices too much. That is a key part of Dell's strategy to improve profitability - an effort that has included a huge restructuring.

Dell's work force was trimmed by 9,300 last year to 78,900 at the end of January, the last time the company gave employment figures. It also has changed the way it makes and sells computers, leaning more on contract manufacturers and retailers instead of doing everything in house.

Dell is also trying to expand into more profitable markets through acquisitions. The most significant is Perot Systems Corp., a technology-services company that Dell is buying for $3.9 billion. The deal is a move against HP, which paid $13.9 billion for another services company, Electronic Data Systems Corp.

The changes haven't been enough to lift Dell's profit. Net income fell to $337 million, or 17 cents per share, in its latest quarter, which ended Oct. 30. That compares with $727 million, or 37 cents a share, in the same period a year ago.

Revenue fell 15 percent to $12.9 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected Dell to earn 28 cents per share on $13.2 billion in revenue in the latest quarter.

Dell, which is based in Round Rock, Texas, said it expects revenue in the current period to be better than in the prior quarter, but it attributes that to the seasonal benefit of consumers buying PCs around the holidays.

Dell's restructuring hasn't won over investors. The stock has fallen more than 30 percent over the last two years. Its shares fell 92 cents to $14.95 in extended trading after the earnings report.

HP reports its quarterly numbers Monday. The company has already revealed preliminary results that topped Wall Street's expectations and raised its 2010 guidance.

Suit Over Google Keywords Brings New Look at Privacy Laws

Dinesh Ramde — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:52:00 -0800

MILWAUKEE - A lawsuit in Wisconsin is bringing a fresh challenge to the practice of paying for keywords on Google and other search engines to boost one company's link over a rival's.

The practice has occasionally prompted a rival to file legal challenges alleging trademark infringement. Now a Wisconsin law firm is trying a new angle - accusing its competitor of violating privacy laws.

Habush Habush & Rottier is one of Wisconsin's largest law firms, specializing in personal-injury cases. But search for iterations of "Habush" and "Rottier" and a sponsored link for Cannon & Dunphy attorneys often shows up, just above the link for the Habush site.

Habush alleges that Cannon paid for the keywords "Habush" and "Rottier," in effect hijacking the names and reputation of Habush attorneys.

Cannon acknowledged paying for the keywords but denied wrongdoing, saying it was following a clearly legal business strategy.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Milwaukee, where Habush is headquartered. Cannon is based in nearby Brookfield.

Habush based its lawsuit on a Wisconsin right-to-privacy statute that prohibits the use of any living person's name for advertising purposes without the person's consent.

"We believe this is deceptive, confusing and misleading," firm president Robert Habush said of Cannon's strategy. "If Bill Cannon thinks this is a correct way to do business he needs to have his moral compass taken to the repair shop."

William Cannon, the founding partner of Cannon & Dunphy, said every business uses the same tactic to remind consumers of their choices.

"This is equally available to Habush if he weren't so cheap to bid on his own name," Cannon said.

One legal expert said it wasn't clear how successful Habush's lawsuit would be.

Ryan Calo, a fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, said the statute seemingly was meant to protect people from having their names and images misused to suggest they endorse or represent something. That's not the case here, he said.

"Although (Cannon's) conduct may run afoul of the literal words of the statute, I don't think the conduct at issue goes to the core of this particular aspect of privacy," he said.

Similar lawsuits have been filed over the keyword issue, with some differences. An American Airlines lawsuit targeted not a rival but Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., and alleged not a privacy violation but that the search giants infringed on its trademarks.

American was upset that Web users who entered search terms such as AAdvantage, the trademarked name of its frequent-flier program, saw results that included links to American's Web site but also to its rivals under sponsored links.

Google compared its policy to magazines that publish a Ford ad on the page opposite a story about Chevrolets. Yahoo said it had confidence in its policies, which allow advertisers to use others' trademarked terms if they do so without creating "a likelihood of consumer confusion."

A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit against Google last year. The case against Yahoo is ongoing.

Paying a company like Google for keywords is a common business practice. Based on how much a business pays, along with other search criteria, someone who searches for those keywords will see the company's link at the top of the page, labeled as a sponsored link.

The Associated Press searched for "Habush" and "Rottier" on Thursday morning. Cannon's sponsored link appeared on Google and Bing, Microsoft Corp.'s search engine, but not Yahoo. By Thursday afternoon, the link was no longer on Google.

Cannon said his company didn't take down the Google keywords, and speculated that Habush turned the tables Thursday afternoon by paying even more for the same keywords to bump out Cannon's link.

But Habush surmised his rival faced a budget issue. A search engine like Google places ads based in part on users' clicking patterns and on the advertiser's prepaid budget for a certain number of views. Habush figured that so many people ran the search terms after news of the lawsuit emerged Thursday morning that the budget had run out.

On the Net:

Habush Habush & Rottier: http://www.habush.com

Cannon & Dunphy: http://www.cannon-dunphy.com

Flurry of IPOs Signals a Market Rebound

Tali Arbel — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:42:00 -0800

NEW YORK - The flurry of initial public offerings this week is confirmation that this fall's rebound in the market wasn't a fluke and sets the stage for more companies to raise money through IPOs in 2010. But the response to two of the newly public companies shows that investors continue to be careful about where they place their bets.

This week was the second-biggest for new issues - with five IPOs - since the market began heating up in mid-September. There have been 22 new offerings so far this quarter, compared to just one in the final three months of last year. There are more than 90 companies in the 2010 IPO pipeline.

"This week has been a preview of coming attractions next year," said John Fitzgibbon of IPOScoop. "There is a demand for IPOs."

But while increasingly robust, this IPO market isn't for the faint-of-heart. These days, investors want to see IPOs return cash to the company. Friday's IPO of Cloud Peak Energy Inc. - a spin-off coal producer Rio Tinto PLC's western U.S. assets - provided a payday for Rio Tinto. Cloud Peak failed to fetch the offering price the company had wanted and its shares fell further on their first day of trading, closing down 16 cents at $14.84.

"What people really want is IPOs where the money is used to finance growth," said Francis Gaskins of IPOdesktop. "There'll be more of those companies next year."

Investors are also turning a blind-eye to smaller deals. Global Defense Technology & Systems Inc. which was looking to raise as much as $73.6 million, but was only able to collect $59.8 million after its shares failed to attract enough attention to price in its desired range of $14 to $16 per share. McClean, Va. Global Defense's shares rose 8 cents to close at $13.08 in their first trading day.

"The bar's been raised in terms of size," Gaskins said. Investors aren't paying attention to IPOs raising less than $100 million, he said.

The three companies that put in a good showing this week, Archipelago Learning Inc., 7 Days Group Holdings Ltd. and Fortinet Inc., have the qualities investors want, analysts said.

Chinese lodging chain 7 Days soared 13 percent to close at $12.50 on its debut after pricing at $11 - the high end of the range expected by the deal's underwriters. While it hasn't shown sustainable earnings growth, turning in its first profit since 2006 in the latest quarter, it represents a "growth story IPO investors are used to," said Matt Therian of Renaissance Capital. Between 2004 and 2008, China's hotel sales grew at an average of almost 16 percent each year.

Meanwhile, sales at Archipelago Learning, a Dallas-based online education provider for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, grew 46 percent in the first three quarter of this year. The company believes it can expand despite cuts in school budgets as schools emphasize student testing and teacher accountability to comply with the federal government's No Child Left Behind Act. It's shares rose $2.27, or nearly 14 percent, to close at $18.77.

And network security provider Fortinet Inc., which jumped 33 percent in its first day of trading on Wednesday, is a leader in its field, said Gaskins. Earlier this week, IPOfinancial President David Menlow said the Sunnyvale, Calif. company was a straightforward bet for investors, with continually improving sales growth.

Cellulosic Ethanol-Maker Cuts Costs Significantly

Jason Mick — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:47:00 -0800

While GM's
partner Coskata may be stealing the most glory in the cellulosic
ethanol industry, claiming that it will soon be offering ethanol at a
production
cost of $1/gallon, other companies are quietly making impressive
gains of their own with different approaches.

POET
ethanol is among those whose future is looking particularly bright.
The company recently built a pilot-scale plant in Scotland, SD which
opened just over a year ago on November 18, 2008. In the year
since, the plant produced 20,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol from
plant waste (corn cobs).

When the plant first started
production, its per-gallon costs were $4.13 per gallon -- decent, but
hardly something to write home about. Now, its costs are $2.35
per gallon, and the company is determined to reach $2 per gallon by
the time it opens its first commercial scale plant. In other
words, the company is finally set to start raking in profits by
offering a relatively affordable non-food source-derive alternative
fuel on a broad scale.

The company will soon open a 25
million-gallon-per-year cellulosic ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, IA.
The project, dubbed Project Liberty, will likely make POET among the
nation's largest suppliers of the new biofuel. Describes Jeff
Broin, CEO of POET, "POET has been working on cellulosic ethanol
for close to a decade and there were some days that I wasn’t sure
we’d be successful. While we still have some challenges ahead, I
can say unequivocally that Project LIBERTY will be commercially
viable by the time we start up the plant."

The pilot
plant cut its costs drastically in many ways. First it used
alternative energy (wind/solar) to provide all of its electricity and
the energy used to produce the fuel was cut in half over the year.
Second, it cut its chemical raw materials costs, reducing the cost
per gallon by $0.20. Finally, the biggest cuts came from
reducing the cost of the enzymes that POET uses. The cost of
enzymes has already been cut in half, and POET expects that number to
drop lower.

Dr. Mark Stowers, Senior Vice President of Science
and Technology for POET, says his company isn't done cutting costs.
He states, "There are still several opportunities to make the
process more efficient, particularly in fermentation. Additionally
our enzyme partners have committed to significant additional cost
reductions. But significant gains can also be made once we start up
the commercial facility and POET uses its 20+ year history in
biorefining to drive cost reductions and efficiency improvements in
the process."

While there's significant doubts about the
economic and social impact of adopting some alternative energy
technologies or alternative fuels, cellulosic ethanol certainly seems
a smart pick. First, it does not use any food sources, limiting
any economic impact. Secondly, it promises to put to use energy
stored by plants that typically goes to waste in the form of wood
waste, landscaping waste, and farm waste. Third, it provides
the opportunity to harvest fuel from fast growing renewable sources
such as switchgrass. In this respect, the effort parallels the
efforts to produce biofuel
from algae.

Despite its promise, the cellulosic
ethanol industry won't launch without effort -- its success will
require innovation like that demonstrated by POET.