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Friday, December 28, 2012
Snag a copy of ?Old Computer, New Life: Restoring Old Hardware With Ubuntu?
Old Computer, New Life: Restoring Old Hardware With Ubuntu [affiliate link] is a guide that will help you breathe new life into that old desktop, laptop or netbook that you thought was obsolete and gathering dust on the shelf. There are a few hoops to jump through to get this guide, but it helps The [...]
H5N1: CIDRAP: News scan for December 27
Via CIDRAP:?NEWS SCAN: Pertussis peak in Minnesota, cholera in Cuba. Excerpt:
A cholera outbreak in the Cuban capital of Havana may be related to flooding that occurred in eastern Cuba as a result of Hurricane Sandy in late October, according to a recent story from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), an international not-for-profit group that focuses on issues in crisis-racked regions.?
A doctor who requested anonymity said 47 cases have been identified in Habana Vieja (Old Havana), a tourist area in the city center, and that 33 of the cases originated in the hurricane-hit areas.?
Authorities have responded to the outbreak by setting up special hospital wards, cleaning up streets and buildings in parts of Habana Vieja, and distributing medications to prevent dehydration, the story said.?
Meanwhile, in Holguin province in eastern Cuba, officials said Vladimir Lenis Hospital is admitting three to five new cholera patients daily.This is one of those cases where the news is the absence of news. The IWPR report is a rehash of posts like this one on Hablemos Press, and now it's recycled again. But no one seems to be taking an interest in confirming a story going back to last summer?certainly not the official Cuban media, and not WHO, and even the Cuban exile media aren't talking much about it. Nor are the media of other Caribbean countries showing any interest.?
But there are certainly a lot of foreign correspondents in Cuba, and you'd expect at least one or two would be willing to risk being kicked out of the country if they could get something solid on the cholera story. Apparently not.
Source: http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2012/12/cidrap-news-scan-for-december-27.html
Thursday, December 27, 2012
'Leaked' BlackBerry 10 info shows video chat and screen sharing in BBM, new task manager
Top dog at RIM Thorsten Heins heavily implied that video chat would be added to BBM when BlackBerry 10 showed up, and now possible confirmation of the feature has come from what are thought to be leaked presentation slides. Originating on CrackBerry's forums, the images have been taken down on various sites, leading us to believe they're legit and that strongly worded requests have led to their removal. Not only do they suggest BBM video chat is coming to BB10, but also the ability to screen share during these video calls. Another slide details a new task manager for the OS called "BlackBerry Remember," which can sync with Outlook and -- based on its description and what was uncovered in the gold SDK -- may include Evernote integration. We've contacted RIM for comment and will update you with any response, but until then, take a look at the slide above and the pair hidden after the break to assess for yourself whether they're the real deal.
Via: All About Phones
Source: CrackBerry (1), (2)
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/27/blackberry-10-leak-bbm-video-calling-new-task-manager/
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New Video Series Unwraps Ethical Behavior | Texas MBA Insider
Why do good people do bad things? That?s the topic of interest for McCombs? recently launched ?Ethics Unwrapped? project, a free video series which aims to?stimulate thought and discussion on business ethics.
Ethics Unwrapped is a project of the relatively new Business, Government & Society department at McCombs, formed as part of a renewed commitment to teaching business ethics at the university. The department?focuses on the regulatory, political, legal and ethical environment of business and aims to help students cultivate?the skills needed to?successfully manage the dynamic business environment of the future.
?Today?s global marketplace is more competitive, more transparent, more culturally and politically diverse, and more fluid than ever before,? said Robert Prentice, interim department chair and head of the Ethics Unwrapped?project. ?Future business leaders will need to be able to navigate?the legal, ethical and cultural demands of government and society.?
The videos include a documentary featuring disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and more than a dozen animated shorts featuring ethics concepts, including those from one of the hottest areas in current ethics education ? behavioral ethics.Teaching notes are available for each video in the series, which is appropriate as continuing education for business leaders as well as students.
?Our goal is to provide a high quality and entertaining educational resource that anyone with access to the Internet may use,? said Prentice.
To see all of the videos, watch our ?Ethics Unwrapped? YouTube playlist.
Source: http://blogs.mccombs.utexas.edu/mba-insider/2012/12/26/new-video-series-unwraps-ethical-behavior/
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Storm's high winds, snow, sleet lash Northeast
Traffic moves in the U.S. 41 By-Pass in Henderson, Ky., Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012 as a snow storm moves through the area making travel treacherous. (AP Photo/The Gleaner, Mike Lawrence)
Traffic moves in the U.S. 41 By-Pass in Henderson, Ky., Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012 as a snow storm moves through the area making travel treacherous. (AP Photo/The Gleaner, Mike Lawrence)
Snow blowers funnel snow onto Cannonsburg's main runs during Cannonsburg Ski Hill's opening day on Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012 in Belmont, Mich. (AP Photo/The Grand Rapids Press, Matthew Busch)
Samantha Fox, 18, looks uphill as she scouts an opening for her friend Skylar Rundle, not pictured, to take off during Cannonsburg Ski Hill's opening day on Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012 in Belmont, Mich. (AP Photo/The Grand Rapids Press, Matthew Busch)
Former Owensboro Catholic High School basketball player Mary Kate Clemens, 19, left, and her younger sister, Sarah Beth Clemens, 11, enjoy the thrill of sledding down the big hill at Chautaqua Park in Owensboro, Ky., on Wednesday morning, Dec. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/The Messenger-Inquirer, Gary Emord-Netzley)
A tree blown over by a storm sits in the home of Martha Cavin in Centreville, Miss. on Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. According to Centreville Police Chief Jimmy Ray Reese, Cavin had to be cut out from her home. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital to treat a gash to her head. More than 25 people were injured and at least 70 homes were damaged in Mississippi by the severe storms that pushed across the South on Christmas Day, authorities said Wednesday. (AP Photo/The Enterprise-Journal, Philip Hall)
A powerful winter storm system that pounded the nation's midsection, wrecking holiday travel plans and dumping a record snowfall in Arkansas, began lashing the Northeast on Wednesday with high winds, snow and sleet.
The storm, which knocked out power to thousands of utility customers mainly in Arkansas, was blamed in at least six deaths.
Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed, scores of motorists got stuck on icy roads or slid into drifts and blizzard warnings were issued amid snowy gusts of 30 mph that blanketed roads and windshields, at times causing whiteout conditions.
"The way I've been describing it is as a low-end blizzard, but that's sort of like saying a small Tyrannosaurus rex," said John Kwiatkowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Indianapolis.
The system, which spawned Gulf Coast region tornadoes on Christmas Day, pushed through the Upper Ohio Valley and headed into the Northeast Wednesday night. High winds, snow and sleet slickened roads in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, causing dozens of minor accidents and spinouts. Forecasts called for 12 to 18 inches of snow inland from western New York to Maine into Thursday.
The National Weather Service said early Thursday that snow was falling heavily in Pennsylvania, upstate New York and some New England states. Among the highest snow totals were 2 to five inches in southeastern Massachusetts, 3 to 6 inches in Connecticut, up to a foot in some Pennsylvania counties and 10 to 11 inches in some parts of western New York.
The system was expected to taper off into a mix of rain and snow closer to the coast, where little or no accumulation was expected in such cities as Philadelphia, Boston and New York.
The storm left freezing temperatures in its aftermath, and forecasters also said parts of the Southeast from Virginia to Florida would see severe thunderstorms.
Schools on break and workers taking holiday vacations meant that many people could avoid messy commutes, but those who had to travel were implored to avoid it. Snow was blamed for scores of vehicle accidents as far east as Maryland, and about two dozen counties in Indiana and Ohio issued snow emergency travel alerts, urging people to go out on the roads only if necessary.
About 40 vehicles got bogged down trying to make it up a slick hill in central Indiana, and four state snowplows slid off roads as snow fell at the rate of 3 inches an hour in some places.
Two passengers in a car on a sleet-slickened Arkansas highway were killed Wednesday in a head-on collision, and two people, including a 76-year-old Milwaukee woman, were killed Tuesday on Oklahoma highways. Deaths from wind-toppled trees were reported in Texas and Louisiana.
The day after Christmas wasn't expected to be particularly busy for AAA, but its Cincinnati-area branch had its busiest Wednesday of the year. By mid-afternoon, nearly 400 members had been helped with tows, jump starts and other aid, with calls still coming in, spokesman Mike Mills said.
Jennifer Miller was taking a bus Wednesday from Cincinnati to visit family in Columbus.
"I wish this had come yesterday and was gone today," she said, struggling with a rolling suitcase and three smaller bags on a slushy sidewalk near the station. "I'm glad I don't have to drive in this."
Traffic crawled at 25 mph on Interstate 81 in Maryland, where authorities reported scores of accidents.
"We're going to try to go down south and get below" the storm, said Richard Power, traveling from home in Levittown, N.Y., to Kentucky with his wife, two children and their beagle, Lucky.
He said they were well on their way until they hit snow in Pennsylvania, then 15-mph traffic on I-81 at Hagerstown, Md.
"We're going to go as far as we can go. ... If it doesn't get better, we're going to just get a hotel," he said.
More than 1,600 flights were canceled, according to the aviation tracking website FlightAware.com, and some airlines said they would waive change fees. Lengthy delays were reported Wednesday at the three major New York City-area airports, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
In Arkansas, some of the nearly 200,000 people who lost power could be without it for as long as a week because of snapped poles and wires after ice and 10 inches of snow coated power lines, said the state's largest utility, Entergy Arkansas.
Gov. Mike Beebe, who declared a statewide emergency, sent out National Guard teams, and Humvees transported medical workers and patients. Snow hadn't fallen in Little Rock on Christmas since 1926, but the capital ended Tuesday with 10.3 inches of it.
Other states also had scattered outages. Duke Energy said it had nearly 300 outages in Indiana, with few left in Ohio by early afternoon after scores were reported in the morning.
As the storm moved east, New England state highway departments were treating roads and getting ready to mobilize with snowfall forecasts of a foot or more.
"People are picking up salt and a lot of shovels today," said Andy Greenwood, an assistant manager at Aubuchon Hardware in Keene, N.H.
As usual, winter-sports enthusiasts welcomed the snow. At Smiling Hill Farm in Maine, Warren Knight was hoping for enough snow to allow the opening of trails.
"We watch the weather more carefully for cross-country skiing than we do for farming. And we're pretty diligent about farming. We're glued to the weather radio," said Knight, who described the weather at the 500-acre farm in Westbrook as being akin to the prizes in "Cracker Jacks ? we don't know what we're going to get."
Behind the storm, Mississippi's governor declared states of emergency in eight counties with more than 25 people reported injured and 70 homes left damaged.
Cindy Williams stood near a home in McNeill, Miss., where its front had collapsed into a pile of wood and brick, a balcony and the porch ripped apart. Large oak trees were uprooted and winds sheared off treetops in a nearby grove. But she focused instead on the fact that all her family members had escaped harm.
"We are so thankful," she said. "God took care of us."
___
Associated Press writers Rick Callahan and Charles Wilson in Indianapolis, Kelly P. Kissel in Little Rock, Ark.; Jim Van Anglen in Mobile, Ala.; Holbrook Mohr in Jackson, Miss.; Julie Carr Smyth and Mitch Stacy in Columbus, Ohio; Amanda Lee Myers in Cincinnati; David Dishneau in Hagerstown, Md.; Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H.; and David Sharp in Portland, Maine, contributed to this report.
___
Contact Dan Sewell at http://www.twitter.com/dansewell
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Toyota settlement will top $1 billion
11 hrs.
Toyota Motor Corp. has agreed to pay as much as $1.4 billion to settle U.S. litigation claims that its vehicles suddenly and unintentionally accelerated, according to court filings made public Wednesday.
The company said the deal will resolve hundreds of lawsuits from Toyota owners who said the value of their cars and trucks plummeted after a series of recalls stemming from claims that Toyota vehicles accelerated unintentionally.
Steve Berman, a lawyer representing Toyota owners, said the settlement is the largest in U.S. history involving automobile defects.
"We kept fighting and fighting and we secured what we think was a good settlement given the risks of this litigation," Berman told The Associated Press.
The proposed deal was filed Wednesday and must receive the approval of U.S. District Judge James Selna, who was expected to review the settlement Friday.
Toyota said it will take a one-time, $1.1 billion pre-tax charge against earnings to cover the estimated costs of the settlement. Berman said the total value of the deal is between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion.
Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against Toyota since 2009, when the Japanese automaker started receiving numerous complaints that its cars accelerated on their own, causing crashes, injuries and even deaths.
The cases were consolidated in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana and divided into two categories: economic loss and wrongful death. Claims by people who seek compensation for injury and death due to sudden acceleration are not part of the settlement; the first trial involving those suits is scheduled for February.
The deal includes direct payments to customers as well as the installation of a brake override system in about 3.25 million vehicles, plaintiff attorneys said.?The terms also?include a $250 million fund for former Toyota owners who sold vehicles at reduced prices because of bad publicity, and a separate $250 million fund for owners not eligible for the brake override system.
The settlement would also establish additional driver education programs and fund new research into advanced safety technologies.
"In keeping with our core principles, we have structured this agreement in ways that work to put our customers first and demonstrate that they can count on Toyota to stand behind our vehicles," said Christopher? Reynolds, Toyota vice president and general counsel.
Current and former Toyota owners are expected to receive more information about the settlement in the coming months. Some information is also available at http://www.ToyotaELsettlement.com, a website created for Toyota owners affected by the settlement.
"We are extraordinarily proud of how we were able to represent the interests of Toyota owners, and believe this settlement is both comprehensive in its scope and fair in compensation," Berman said.
Toyota has recalled more than 14 million vehicles worldwide due to acceleration problems in several models and brake defects with the Prius hybrid. Toyota has blamed driver error, faulty floor mats and sticky accelerator pedals for the unintended acceleration.
Plaintiffs' attorneys have spent the past two years deposing Toyota employees, poring over thousands of documents and reviewing software code, but the company maintains those lawyers have been unable to prove that a design defect ? namely Toyota's electronic throttle control system ? was responsible for vehicles surging unexpectedly.
Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and NASA were unable to find any defects in Toyota's source code that could cause problems.
The company has been dogged by fines for not reporting problems in a timely manner.
Earlier this month, NHTSA doled out a record $17.4 million fine to Toyota for failing to quickly report floor mat problems with some of its Lexus models. Toyota paid a total of $48.8 million in fines for three violations in 2010.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda appeared before Congress last year and pledged to strengthen quality control. Recent sales figures show the company appears to have rebounded following its safety issues.
Information from the Associated Press and Reuters was included in this report.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/toyota-settlement-over-acceleration-problems-top-1-billion-1C7659318
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