text:
China and India Are Hungry for Your Products
Now, the two most populous countries also are the fastest-growing; their burgeoning middle classes are developing Western cravings.
It's been going on since time immemorial, but more attention seems to be paid these days to the rising economies in the "developing world." And, for food and beverage marketers, a holy grail is the rising middle classes in countries such as China and India.
"Heinz is strategically focused on accelerating our growth in emerging markets like Brazil, China and India because these countries have higher birth rates, increasing numbers of middle-class consumers and growing economies," says Michael Mullen, vice president of corporate & government affairs for H. J. Heinz Co. While it's based in Pittsburgh, Heinz claims to be "the most global U.S. food company." And with nearly two-thirds of its sales coming from outside the U.S., that's no exaggeration.
"Emerging markets have become the primary growth engine for Heinz and are on track to generate more 20 percent of total company sales [about $2.5 billion] this year [fiscal 2012], more than double their contribution in fiscal 2005," he says.
A report from the Wharton School (of business) at the University of Pennsylvania states: "A new global middle class is rising up from poverty in emerging economies around the world, providing competition for labor and resources, but also enormous promise for multinationals that tailor products and services to the burgeoning ranks of first-time consumers." (Learn more about the report at The New Global Middle Class: Potentially Profitable -- but Also Unpredictable)
"…that tailor products," the report says. That's the key point. For some products and some emerging-markets consumers, a bag of Lay's potato chips or an American-style fried chicken leg is perfect as-is. For other markets, maybe the chips should be namkeen (Indian fried dough strips). And maybe they should carry the Kukure brand rather than Lay's.
The World Bank estimates the global middle class will grow from 430 million in 2000 to 1.15 billion in 2030. In 2000, developing countries were home to 56 percent of the global middle class, according to the Wharton School report, but by 2030 that figure is expected to reach 93 percent. China and India alone will account for two-thirds of the expansion, with China contributing 52 percent of the increase and India 12 percent, according to the World Bank.
The world's middle class has, until recently, been concentrated in Europe, North America and Japan. In the 1970s and 1980s, countries such as South Korea, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina also built sizeable middle-class populations. "Nowadays, it's China and India," says Mauro Guillen, a Wharton management professor.
"The driver is economic growth. As the economy expands, the domestic market starts to become bigger, and it is typically a middle-class market."
As a result, multinationals that so far have viewed developing nations largely as a cheap source of labor are now poised to benefit again as many of the workers they paid to build their products are increasingly able to afford Western consumer goods. "Countries like India consist of young consumers who are ambitious and save quite a bit, but are also willing to spend on small luxuries like Western brands of consumer packaged goods," says Jagmohan Raju, another Wharton marketing professor.
The Chongqing plant is the first food & beverage plant in China and the first international PepsiCo site to receive LEED gold certification.
China is expected to become the world's third-largest consumer market by 2025, as an expected transition from an investment-led economy to a more consumer-focused model brings about continued growth. The McKinsey Global Institute (www.mckinsey.com/mgi), the consulting firm's independent economic research arm, projects China's middle class will increase from 43 percent of the population today to 76 percent by 2025. "The shift from investment to increasing consumption overall -- and as a share of GDP -- is very important to sustainable growth in the long-term," says Diana Farrell, the institute's director. "China has maxed out on the input model."
The institute projects India's middle class will grow from 50 million to 583 million people in the next two decades. At the same time, the country will advance from the world's 12th largest consumer market to the fifth.
"Clearly this broad expansion of a middle class with discretionary income to buy more than life's necessities presents a remarkable opportunity for multinational corporations," the Wharton report continues. The middle class in any country is at the forefront of consumption and leads important business trends. Marketers must pay close attention to this population to reap the benefits.
At the same time, even though millions of individuals are now reaching middle-class status in their own countries, they still do not have the same levels of income as their counterparts in mature economies. To capture customers in these markets, companies must create new products that take into account price sensitivity.
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text:
Demonstrating once again that a sound bite is worth 10,000 words, President Barack Obama has been raked over the coals in recent days for what amounted to a six-word aside: "The private sector is doing fine." He said it a press conference last Friday in the context of how the economy is recovering, and how jobs are being created overall but certain segments (housing, construction, teachers, police and firefighters) are not performing as well.
Never mind that he later in the day clarified his remark to note that the economy is "not doing fine" or that Mitt Romney subsequently made his own gaffe — responding to President Obama by saying the country does not need more police, firefighters or teachers. Somehow, Mr. Obama's failure to be sufficiently downbeat about the private sector was all the buzz, at least inside the Beltway.
But if Mr. Obama made a mistake, it was not a lack of pessimism but a failure to be sufficiently encouraging. While recent economic indicators have been subpar, the overall recovery is doing remarkably well considering the European Union's continuing debt crisis and the failure of the current Congress to approve the president's jobs program.
The numbers tell the story. For more than two years, the private sector has been hiring more workers — 4.3 million new jobs altogether. That the unemployment rate remains relatively high is primarily a result of the depth of the recession the White House inherited. It simply takes time to recover from the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression.
But even with the disappointing monthly jobs report and the apparent slowing of the economy, May marked the 27th straight month of growth in the private sector. It's the public sector that's lagging these days, but apparently those are jobs that don't count in the eyes of the Republicans.
This need to see the U.S. economy in the most dire of circumstances — to insist that all be seen through the prism of melancholia and despair — is something the GOP seems to wrap itself around like Linus holding his favorite blanket. There's a name for a national leader who insists on such a morose world view: Jimmy Carter.
It's an outlook that President Obama should not allow himself to share. At some point, despair is a self-fulfilling prophecy. To the extent that the public outlook affects the economy, such doom-and-gloom can deter investment, leave badly-needed capital on the sidelines and reduce demand for products and services by panicked consumers.
During the last comparable situation in our nation's history, you didn't see Franklin D. Roosevelt repeatedly reminding the public that things were terrible. No, he not only offered comfort and optimism but expected public investment in the labor market, too. "The only limits of our realization of tomorrow are our doubts of today," he famously said.
No doubt there will be a lot of "gotcha" moments, sentence fragments taken out of context, and used to build an unflattering view of the candidates between now and November. It's hard to believe the election will turn on those particular six words.
But it's not a phrase that Mr. Obama should run and hide from. Instead, it reflects a point — the recovery is gradually moving forward — that he should press harder. The public needs to understand the reality of their circumstances, including the favorable trends, if only to offset the ceaseless malaise coming out of the GOP and its standard-bearer.
The auto industry has improved miraculously since the Big 3 were teetering on the brink. Interest rates are at record lows, which is helping those who can refinance their homes. Even the housing outlook appears somewhat brighter — with few predicting further declines in home values nationwide. Growth may be slow, but it's still growth.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan didn't run on a platform of doom and gloom but on the nation's limitless potential. The public still wants a president who believes in the American dream. Doing fine? Yes, we are. Capable of doing better? Absolutely. A president doesn't inspire his countrymen by wearing sack cloth and ashes and wringing his hands when times are not perfect but by celebrating what Americans have achieved and encouraging them to do even better.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Fed Boosts View of Economy
Bond-Buying Program Wind-Down Continues; Rate Debate Heats Up
WASHINGTON—The Federal Reserve said it would scale back its purchases of mortgage and Treasury bonds to $25 billion monthly and delivered a modestly more upbeat assessment of inflation, jobs and the economy, hours after a stronger-than-expected U.S. growth report.
"Economic activity rebounded in the second quarter," the Fed said in its July policy statement, noting the labor market is improving, the jobless rate declining and inflation moving closer to its 2% objective. It included a qualifier noting that a range...


text: Another important consideration to keep in mind as you're deciding who to vote for this fall: how intolerable with the White House Correspondants' Dinner be if they're given several uninterrupted minutes in which to tell jokes? With Mitt Romney, we'll get Readers Digest jokes from 1965. The sort of joke that would highlight the generation gap between Roger Sterling and Don Draper. Take my wife! No, really! Take my wife! Women! Amirite?!


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Lice Happens featured on the Greater Annapolis Patch! Thursday, September 30, 2010 It's embarrassing, it's itchy, it's expensive to treat, and it is a big nuisance for everyone involved. No rumor spreads faster through a school or a group of parents..
Lice Happens featured on the Greater Annapolis Patch!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
It's embarrassing, it's itchy, it's expensive to treat, and it is a big nuisance for everyone involved. No rumor spreads faster through a school or a group of parents than word of a head lice infestation. An average of 1,000 cases of head lice are found among county students each year, according to the Anne Arundel County Department of Health.
Head lice are neither a health hazard nor a sign of poor hygiene but some parents fear the blood sucking, six-legged insects more than the flu.
"Head lice infestation is associated with little morbidity but causes a high level of anxiety among parents of school-aged children," according to Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
Head lice are different than body lice, which are often associated with people (especially homeless people or refugees) who don't have the ability to wash their clothes regularly. Body lice are also larger than head lice, which can be so small that you can't see them without magnification.
Parents at Rolling Knolls Elementary (RKE) panicked last week when their kids came home talking about lice. It turns out there were only two reported cases of live lice at the school, according to Bob Mosier, public information officer for Anne Arundel County Public Schools. Mosier added that the parents of both RKE students elected to keep their children home for treatment, and were screened upon returning to school and found to be "lice free."
The Anne Arundel County Department of Health has a "no live lice" policy based on the recommendations of the AAP and the National Association of School Nurses. If a child is screened at school and found to have live lice or nits less than 1/4 inch from the scalp, the school will contact that child's parents. In most cases, students can remain in school until the end of the day but must be treated (with either an insecticide shampoo or have all the nits removed) before returning.
"In collaboration with the individual school's administrators and according to our Head Lice Policy, it is determined if a classroom letter should be sent home to parents," stated Elin Jones, public information officer for Anne Arundel County Department of Health. "It is rare that middle or high school students have head lice issues, as in that age group they do not share brushes, combs and caps as frequently."
Mosier said that each case is considered separately and factors that are considered include how many students were found to have lice and how their belongings are stored (whether they are in lockers).
Jones stated that school nurses often tell parents that they should routinely monitor their children's heads for lice or nits. Parents should report cases of head lice to the school nurse, who can determine if screenings at school are necessary.
"Parents whose children are screened by school health nurses for head lice — whether they are positive or negative — get a 'Head Lice Alert' letter," according to Jones, who added that school nurses can provide parents with resources for treatment and information about mitigation/prevention.
Some parents are upset that they're not automatically notified by the school when a student in their child's class has lice. One parent, whose daughter had head lice, said that when the school doesn't tell parents that one student has lice, they're not giving busy parents the "heads up" they need to take the time to inspect their child's hair.
"There is no such thing as a school infested with lice," said MJ Eckert, a registered nurse and former school nurse. "Lice must be on the head to feed several times a day and survive."
Eckert and Nancy Fields are co-founders of Lice Happens, an Annapolis-based company that offers services to families "at their nits' end" who are infested with lice. Eckert says that people have heard about bed bugs in the news and are mistakenly attributing their properties to lice.
"Any louse off the head is a dead louse," Eckert said, who added that lice can survive off the head for about 24 hours and then they die.
Parents mistakenly blame the school environment for helping to spread lice when it's actually more common that children get lice when they are outside of school.
"Children get lice when they have direct head-to-head contact," explained Eckert.
That kind of contact may happen at school when kids put their heads together to share a book or tell a secret, but it's more likely to happen at home or during sleepovers when children share pillows, use the same brushes, or play with each other's hair.
Eckert said that parents should operate under the assumption that there is head lice in all of the schools and screen their children frequently at home. She said that 50 percent of people never itch so they may not realize they have lice for months.
Lice Happens' motto is "no shame, no blame." When a child has lice, Eckert strongly encourages people to tell the parents of their child's friends as well as the school nurse.
So, how do you get rid of lice? Eckert warned against using the special shampoo unless live lice were found, saying insecticide treatment is not necessary for nits — the best way to remove nits is by combing them out. She said that some parents will use an over-the-counter insecticide shampoo, which usually instructs users to reapply in seven to ten days. Eckert said most parents see a live lice a day or two after treatment and "freak out." They use the shampoo again instead of waiting, which makes the lice resistant to the treatment.
"It's similar to antibiotics," said Eckert. "If they [shampoos] are overused, they become ineffective over time."
The insecticide shampoo attacks the adult nervous systems of lice so it doesn't do anything to the nits, which are just eggs on the hair shafts. Lice like clean hair because it's easier for a louse to put some sticky saliva on the hair shaft and lay the egg close to the scalp. A louse can lay five to ten eggs per day. No product will get rid of nits, she explained, so you just have to keep combing since the eggs are all on different hatching schedules.
Eckert said that their hair services include examining, sectioning, manual combing and nit-picking using pesticide-free non-toxic products. They charge $100 per hour and see about five families a day. The biggest part of her business is training people in prevention because she said they're "not looking for repeat business."
Signs of Lice
The professional nit-pickers at Lice Happens offer their wisdom for determining whether your child has lice:
Many symptoms are mistakenly diagnosed as head lice. Dandruff, gobs of hairspray and even small insects like aphids that have been blown into the hair on a windy day have all sent panicky parents to the pediatrician for treatment. The only foolproof diagnosis for pediculosis (a head lice infestation) is to catch sight of the elusive bugs, but look for these signs as well:
- Persistent scratching of the scalp
- Pink rash behind the ears and at the nape of the neck, resembling an allergic reaction
- Tiny lice eggs (called "nits") on the hair shafts, close to the scalp, that cannot be brushed off
- The presence of tiny light brown bugs (the size of a sesame seed)


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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Saer Sène scored the eighth-fastest goal in MLS history after just 28 seconds and goalkeeper Matt Reis made it stand up with three saves – including the 1,000th of his illustrious career – as the New England Revolution claimed a 1-0 win over the Portland Timbers on Saturday afternoon in the 2012 home opener at Gillette Stadium.
It was the first career victory for head coach Jay Heaps after the Revolution (1-2-0, 3 pts.) suffered back-to-back losses on the road to start the season, while it was the sixth straight year the Revs won their home opener. The loss was Portland's (1-1-1, 4 pts.) first of the season after starting the campaign with one win and one draw.
The absences of Darrius Barnes (L calf strain), John Lozano (R hip flexor strain) and Stephen McCarthy (suspension) forced Shalrie Joseph into emergency center back duty for New England, while the injury-plagued Revs were also without playmaker Benny Feilhaber (L peroneal strain).
Shut out in their first two matches on the road, the Revs wasted little time getting off the mark in their home debut as Sène opened the scoring before many fans had the chance to take their seats. Chris Tierney was afforded room down the left flank and whipped a curling cross into the middle for Sène, who buried a powerful header off the underside of the crossbar less than 30 seconds into the match. It was Sène's first career MLS goal in just his second appearance.
Stunned by the early goal, Portland quickly went to work on the task of finding an equalizer. The visitors almost found it in the 13th minute when Eric Alexander's square pass found Diego Chara in the box, but the Colombian's first-time shot bounced wide of the left post. Burly target man Kris Boyd followed up by twice directing headers wide to the same side.
New England had a golden chance to double its lead before the halftime break when Sène sprang Kelyn Rowe on a breakaway in the 43rd minute. Rowe held off the challenge of a recovering Timbers defender but lost control as he tried to round Portland goalkeeper Troy Perkins and the ball rolled out for a goal kick.
The Revs continued to press following the interval and Lee Nguyen forced a quality save from Perkins after weaving through a trio of Timbers defenders in the 56th minute. Six minutes later Boyd was again off target at the other end, sending a free header wide of the right post from eight yards out.
Reis made his 1,000th save count as he became the sixth goalkeeper in MLS history to reach the milestone with a crucial stop on a Franck Songo'o 20-yard drive in the 85th minute.
The Revs will head back on the road for their next two matches as they'll depart for a two-game road swing through California and Texas next week. First up is a meeting with the LA Galaxy on Saturday, March 31, with kickoff from The Home Depot Center set for 11 p.m. ET.
New England Revolution vs. Portland Timbers
March 24, 2012 – Gillette Stadium (Foxborough, Mass.)
New England Revolution 1, Portland Timbers 0
Scoring Summary:
NE – Saer Sène (Chris Tierney) 1
New England Revolution: Matt Reis, Chris Tierney, A.J. Soares, Shalrie Joseph ©, Kevin Alston (Alec Purdie 70), Kelyn Rowe, Clyde Simms, Lee Nguyen, Ryan Guy, Saer Sène (Fernando Cardenas 70), Blake Brettschneider
Substitutes Not Used: Bobby Shuttleworth, Diego Fagundez, Kenny Mansally, Tyler Polak, Jeremiah White
STATS: Shots 9, Shots on Target 5, Corner Kicks 6, Saves 3, Fouls 10, Offsides 1, Passes Completed (percentage) 318 (65.4%), Possession 43.3%
Portland Timbers: Troy Perkins, Lovel Palmer, Hanyer Mosquera (Andrew Jean-Baptiste 24), Eric Brunner, Rodney Wallace (Jorge Perlaza 76), Kalif Alhassan, Diego Chara, Jack Jewsbury ©, Eric Alexander (Franck Songo'o 60), Darlington Nagbe, Kris Boyd
Substitutes Not Used: Joseph Bendik, Freddie Braun, Mike Chabala, Bright Dike
STATS: Shots 13, Shots on Target 3, Corner Kicks 6, Saves 4, Fouls 17, Offsides 4, Passes Completed (percentage) 414 (72.7%), Possession 56.7%
* Note that all statistics are unofficial
Misconduct Summary:
POR – Jewsbury (caution) 16
NE – Tierney (caution) 18
POR – Palmer (caution) 35
POR – Songo'o (caution) 65
Referee: Hilario Grajeda
Assistant Referees: Kermit Quisenberry, Bill Dittmar
Fourth Official: Daniel Fitzgerald
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 55 degrees
Attendance: 12,935
Team Records
New England Revolution: 1-2-0 (3 pts.)
Portland Timbers 1-1-1 (4 pts.)
· With the win, the Revolution is now 1-1-1 all-time against Portland after the two teams met for the first time during Portland's expansion season in 2011
· The Revs are now 1-0-1 at home against the Timbers … the two teams played to a 1-1 draw at Gillette Stadium on April 2, 2011
· The Revs picked up their first win at Gillette Stadium since a 2-0 shutout on Sept. 10, 2011 against Dallas … the Revs went 4-7-6 at home in 2011
· The Revs have now won six consecutive home openers at Gillette Stadium dating back to 2007 and are 8-3-0 in home openers since Gillette Stadium opened in 2002
· Saer Sène recorded his first Revolution goal of the season – as well as his first MLS goal – in the first minute on a cross from Chris Tierney
· Although Saer Sène's goal will be technically recorded as a first-minute goal, it came 28 seconds into the game, which is tied for the eighth-fastest goal in MLS history
· Saer Sène's first-minute goal also snapped the Revs' scoreless streak of 224 minutes adding in minutes from the team's 2011 season finale at Toronto … the Revs went scoreless in the first two matches of the season and today's goal snapped the 15th longest goalless drought in team history
· Saer Sène's first-minute goal was the second-fastest Revolution goal in Gillette Stadium history, and was the fifth first-minute goal in club history … Jose Cancela recorded the most recent first-minute goal on June 25, 2005 at Gillette Stadium against the MetroStars
· Chris Tierney recorded the first club assist of 2012 after Saer Sène headed home a first-minute goal … the assist was Tierney's 12th career assist and first since his pair of assists at Philadelphia on Sept. 7, 2011
· Shalrie Joseph became the club's all-time leader in minutes today in the 54th minute, passing Jay Heaps (21,619 minutes) … Joseph entered the season as the club's leader in starts (241) and passed Heaps for the club record in appearances (245) in the season opener at San Jose on March 10
· When Kevin Alston went down with a facial injury in the 60th minute, Ryan Guy shifted from right wing back to cover on the backline before Alec Purdie came in for Kevin Alston in the 70th minute, moved to right wing and Guy remained at right back
· Rookie Alec Purdie made his Revolution and MLS debut in the 70th minute when he replaced the injured Kevin Alston … Purdie was selected in the second round (22nd overall) of the 2012 MLS Supplemental Draft
· Matt Reis recorded save number 1000 tonight in his 257th career goalkeeper appearance … entering tonight, Kevin Hartman led all goalkeepers with 1,379 saves, followed by Joe Cannon (1,235), Tony Meola (1,136), Nick Rimando (1,068) and Scott Garlick (1,021)
· Matt Reis also recorded his 65th career shutout tonight, moving him into fifth on the all-time shutouts list, passing Pat Onstad who entered tonight with 64 … Kevin Hartman leads all goalkeepers with 106 shutouts, followed by Nick Rimando (88), Joe Cannon (78) and Zach Thornton (76)
· Today's match against Portland wrapped up a Gillette Stadium doubleheader -- the first multiple-game event day since hosting a CONCACAF Gold Cup tripleheader on July 11, 2009 – with Canada's Women's National Team defeating Brazil's Women's National Team, 2-1 … Gillette Stadium has now hosted six doubleheaders and two tripleheaders, and the Revs have picked up at least a point in six of those matches in Foxborough


text:
HARTSVILLE, S.C. – The Coker men's volleyball team was defeated 3-0 by the Saints of Limestone College Thursday (Jan. 30) night in men's collegiate volleyball action.
The Saints jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead by taking sets one and two 25-21 and 25-15, respectively. However, the Cobras would come out blazing in the third set taking an early 7-2 lead, but the Saints would rally and eventually take the set 25-23 and ultimately the game.
Leading the attack for the navy and yellow's was Jared Geizer with nine kills. Leshon Alexander and Luke Hansen chipped in six and five kills, respectively. Cooper Lyon led the defense with a team-high six digs, while Ricardo Ferrer had a game-high 32 assists.
The Cobras will hit the road this weekend (Jan. 31-Feb. 1) as they take part in the 2014 Lindenwood University Tournament. Coker will play three games over the two days and open the tournament with McKendree University on Friday (Jan. 31) night.
Release written by: Sharod Williams, Coker sports information graduate assistant.


text:
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House(s) in Houghton Park, Harare South, Harare
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text:
- Overall Length:10.50"
- Blade Length:5.50"
- Cutting Edge:5.25"
- Blade Thickness:0.25"
- Blade Material:A2
- Hardness:57-59 RC
- Blade Style:Drop Point
- Blade Grind:Flat
- Finish:Black
- Edge Type:Plain
- Handle Length:5.00"
- Handle Material:G-10
- Color:Tan
- Weight:10.50 oz.
- Sheath:Nylon
- Knife Type:Fixed Blade
- Brand:Hogue
- Model:EX-F01
- Model Number:35177
- Designer:Allen Elishewitz
- Country of Origin:USA
- Best Use:Tactical
- Product Type:Knife
Be sure to view our other Hogue Fixed Blade Knives in stock!
Hogue, well known for their gun grips, has ventured into the knife world. Hogue Knives' second offering in the Extreme Series is the EX-F01 Tactical Fixed Blade Knife, designed by Allen Elishewitz.
The EX-F01 knife is tough, with a 1/4" thick A2 tool steel blade this tactical fixed blade isn't the type to let you down. The 5.5" KG Gun-Kote finished drop point blade is full tang with an extended breaker at the base. The shape and contour of the handle offers extreme comfort and grip with the index groove below and spine notches up top. The tan G-10 handle scales feature a stylish "G-Mascus" pattern. Securely tucked on the front side of the handle is a Torx wrench so you can remove the scales, revealing a little storage inside. The EX-F01 includes a black Milspec ballistic nylon sheath with a MOLLE compatible back.
Warranty: Limited lifetime warranty to the original owner against defects in materials and workmanship.


text:
1. Re: S5000PSL - No Post / No VideoDan_O Dec 30, 2010 10:57 AM (in response to aschorer)
Red Off Red Red is "Resetting fixed media device" - see the TPS, page 91 (102 of 112) at http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/s5000psl/sb/CS-022619.htm
When you tried removing all peripherals, did you also try unplugging the HDs and CDROM?
2. Re: S5000PSL - No Post / No Videoaschorer Dec 30, 2010 3:20 PM (in response to Dan_O)
Yes, this included unplugging all disks / optical drives / expansion cards (1 IDE HDD, 1 IDE optical drive, 1 RAID card w/3 attached SATA drives). The LED code sequence is the same however, whether the drives are present or not.
3. Re: S5000PSL - No Post / No VideoDan_O Jan 3, 2011 3:28 PM (in response to aschorer)
You could also try going down to just one processor and one DIMM, if you haven't already. But that's as bare as I can think of stripping it.
4. Re: S5000PSL - No Post / No VideoDoc_SilverCreek Jan 16, 2011 10:41 PM (in response to Dan_O)
You could try clearing CMOS
and then the force BIOS bank jumper to roll over to the back up image.
Low chanc of either working since it died while in opperation, but these would be the next most likly after the other things you have done already.
5. Re: S5000PSL - No Post / No Videoyanming.hu Jan 19, 2011 8:14 AM (in response to aschorer)
You could try to recovery your BIOS since your problme looks like BIOS crash.
6. Re: S5000PSL - No Post / No VideoDoc_SilverCreek Jan 19, 2011 4:11 PM (in response to yanming.hu)
(that is what I said. The S5000PSL uses rolling BIOS so the oly NBios recovery is to use the BIOS bank jumper to force the BIOS to the back-up bank)
7. Re: S5000PSL - No Post / No Video
Did you get this solved ? am having almost the same problem and did what you did but still "dead" board
Any helped would be appreciated.
8. Re: S5000PSL - No Post / No Video
I am having the same issues. Has anyone had any luck?
9. Re: S5000PSL - No Post / No Video
I have the same issue, a few days the server automtically resets without previous warnings, the system comes slow, and today finally the same lie aschorer
1) off off red green
2) red off red red
3) off off off amber
4) red amber red off
5) off off red green
6) red off red red
7) repeat 3-6 (each loop through this sequence is accompanied by a click/pop from the motherboard; system status LED shows green)
The board is dead, maybe someone know how solve this issue?
10. Re: S5000PSL - No Post / No Videocklatik Aug 13, 2012 11:47 AM (in response to aschorer)
Because I think this question will get more attention in the Server Tech Support Forum, I have moved this discussion to http://communities.intel.com/message/164133#164133 .
- Cory
11. Re: S5000PSL - No Post / No VideoJason Aug 15, 2012 11:45 AM (in response to aschorer)
As far as I know, if you don't hear beeps when you power on the system, then remove RAM and hear 3 beeps, this means the memory needs to be verified. See if you can run Memtest86+ against your memory. Or, you could power on the system with minimum RAM and rotate through the DIMMS until you find working or faulty DIMMS.
12. Re: S5000PSL - No Post / No VideoKris Bodenheimer Sep 9, 2012 1:07 PM (in response to Rony )
I have this EXACT same problem. same circumstances, no post. Any ideas, different CPU perhaps? Thanks guys!


text:
|Pre-School Rhyme Time
Event Type: Children
Age Group(s): 0 - 12
Date: 3/15/2018
Start Time: 10:30 AM
End Time: 11:30 AM
Features stories, songs, fingerplays and simple crafts for ages 3 to 5, accompanied by an adult. Family and siblings are welcome. Library story times are a fun way to help your child develop skills they will need to be ready to read.Get parking information and directions to the library
Location: Main Library -- Second Floor Meeting Room


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Data Sets, Linkages, Quality, and Evaluation
When Every Dollar Counts: Comparing Reported Earnings of Social Security Disability Program Beneficiaries in Survey and Administrative Records
This article examines differences between survey- and administrative data–based estimates of employment and earnings for a sample of Social Security Administration (SSA) disability program beneficiaries. The analysis uses linked records from SSA's National Beneficiary Survey and administrative data from the agency's Master Earnings File. The authors find that estimated employment rates and earnings levels based on administrative data are higher than those based on survey data for beneficiaries overall and by sociodemographic subgroup. In proportional terms, the differences between survey and administrative data tend to be greater among subgroups with survey-reported employment rates that are lower than that of beneficiaries overall.
Social Security Administration Payments to State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies for Disability Program Beneficiaries Who Work: Evidence from Linked Administrative Data
This article's authors use linked administrative data from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Education's Rehabilitation Services Administration to evaluate SSA's investment in services provided by the federal-state Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program. A unique data resource permits a comparison of the value of SSA payments to state VR agencies for services provided to disability program beneficiaries who find and maintain a substantial level of work with the value of the cash benefits those beneficiaries forgo because of work. The authors find that the value of cash benefits forgone by beneficiaries after applying for VR services is substantially greater than the value of SSA payments to state VR agencies for those services, although the portion of the difference that is attributable to VR services cannot be determined.
An Introduction to the Understanding America Study Internet Panel
This article provides an overview of the Understanding America Study (UAS), a nationally representative Internet panel of approximately 6,000 adult respondents that is administered by the University of Southern California. The UAS, which began in 2014, represents one of the richest sources of panel data available in the United States. It includes over 50 survey modules on topics such as retirement planning, economic well-being, and psychological constructs. This article reviews the UAS methodology; describes how external researchers may commission UAS surveys, incorporate their own survey questions and methodological experiments, and conduct randomized controlled trials; highlights selected publicly available data from UAS surveys on cognition, personality, financial literacy and behaviors, political views, and other topics; and discusses opportunities for external parties to work with UAS administrators in developing new surveys and future lines of research.
Economic Conditions and Supplemental Security Income Application
In this article, the authors examine the relationship between prevailing economic conditions and the likelihood of application for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments by jobless adults with disabilities. Using data for 1996–2010 from the Survey of Income and Program Participation linked to Social Security administrative records, the authors observe samples of jobless individuals and examine the state-level unemployment rates at both the time their unemployment spell began and at the time they applied for SSI.
The Importance of Social Security Benefits to the Income of the Aged Population
Social Security benefits are the most important source of U.S. retirement income. Over time, however, trends in employer-provided pension offerings, societal changes, and Social Security program rule changes have altered the distribution of income by source among the aged population. In this article, the authors examine the reliance on Social Security benefits of people aged 65 or older using data from the Current Population Survey, the Survey of Income and Program Participation, and the Health and Retirement Study.
Why Researchers Now Rely on Surveys for Race Data on OASDI and SSI Programs: A Comparison of Four Major Surveys
Policy interest in the sociodemographic characteristics of beneficiaries of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) and Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI) programs is increasing as the minority share of the senior and disabled population grows. This note discusses using four major surveys—the Current Population Survey, the Survey of Income and Program Participation, the American Community Survey, and the Health and Retirement Study—to examine OASDI and SSI program use by race and ethnicity. Survey profiles highlight each survey's history, design, and methodology; the categories with which each collects race and ethnicity data; and their strengths and limitations for analyzing SSA's program data.
Longitudinal Patterns of Disability Program Participation and Mortality Across Childhood SSI Award Cohorts
This article follows six annual cohorts of childhood Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability awardees between 1980 and 2000, for a time horizon up to 30 years after initial SSI award, in many cases well into adulthood. The authors compare trajectories of successive awardee cohorts as the SSI program evolves from 1980 to recent years. The results show that the proportion of awardees in SSI-only status declines over the life cycle, with over half transitioning to other statuses roughly after 10 to 15 years. Many awardees transition from the SSI program to concurrent or Disability Insurance–only benefit status, and increasing proportions of awardees are deceased or off the rolls and alive. These patterns are common for all awardee cohorts, but there are major changes in trajectories across cohorts. Compared with the early cohorts, the more recent cohorts display sharper declines in mortality and steeper increases in the proportion off the disability rolls for other reasons. These two trends have opposite effects on the duration of disability program participation over the life cycle, with important policy implications.
Source, Form, and Amount of In-kind Support and Maintenance Received by Supplemental Security Income Applicants and Recipients
This article examines the in-kind support and maintenance (ISM) received by Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program applicants and recipients. Social Security defines ISM as unearned income received by SSI applicants and recipients in the form of food and/or shelter from anyone living within or outside their households. About 9 percent of SSI recipients have their benefit rates reduced because of ISM during any given year. Using data from the Modernized SSI Claims System, the author quantifies the source, form, and amount of ISM received by SSI recipients. The article reveals that SSI recipients are more likely to receive ISM from outside than inside their homes, receive assistance in the form of shelter rather than food, and allege assistance that is equal to or less than the current ISM caps.
Social Security Income Measurement in Two Surveys
The deduction of Medicare premiums from Social Security benefit payments complicates the estimation of Social Security income in household surveys. Although the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS) and Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) both aim to collect and record gross Social Security benefit income before Medicare premium deductions, comparing the survey data with Social Security records indicates that the CPS and SIPP estimates differ and suggests that some survey respondents may report net benefit income.
Identifying SSA's Sequential Disability Determination Steps Using Administrative Data
The authors document the steps used by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and state Disability Determination Service (DDS) agencies to make initial determinations about eligibility for Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income. For both adults and children, SSA/DDSs record the basis for initial disability determinations using codes that correspond to the steps of the process. The resulting data element, the Regulation Basis Code, permits researchers to distinguish allowances based on the Listings from those based on medical/vocational factors for adults (or functional factors for children). It can also be used to identify denials based on severity, residual functional capacity, or other reasons.
The Impact of Retirement Account Distributions on Measures of Family Income
The income of the aged is composed largely of Social Security benefits, asset income, and pension income. Over the past three decades, the primary form of employer-sponsored pension has shifted from the traditional defined benefit plan to defined contribution plans, such as the 401(k). That trend creates problems for measuring the income of the aged because most household surveys of income either do not collect information about distributions from defined contribution retirement accounts or do not include those distributions in their summary measures of income. This article examines the impact of including distributions from retirement accounts on the estimated income of families headed by persons aged 65 or older.
Outcome Variation in the Social Security Disability Insurance Program: The Role of Primary Diagnoses
This article investigates the role that primary impairments play in explaining heterogeneity in disability decisions. Using claimant-level data within a hierarchical framework, the author explores variation in outcomes along three dimensions: state of origin, adjudicative stage, and primary diagnosis. The findings indicate that the impairments account for a substantial portion of claimant-level variation in initial allowances. Furthermore, the author finds that the predictions of an initial and a final allowance are highly correlated when applicants are grouped by impairment. In other words, diagnoses that are more likely to result in an initial allowance also tend to be more likely to receive a final allowance.
Workplace Injuries and the Take-Up of Social Security Disability Benefits
Workplace injuries and illnesses are an important cause of disability. States have designed their workers' compensation programs to provide cash and medical-care benefits for those injuries and illnesses, but people who become disabled at work may also be eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) and related Medicare benefits. This article uses matched state workers' compensation and Social Security data to estimate whether workplace injuries and illnesses increase the probability of receiving DI benefits and whether people who become DI beneficiaries receive benefits at younger ages.
Comparing Earnings Estimates from the 2006 Earnings Public-Use File and the Annual Statistical Supplement
The Social Security Administration recently released the 2006 Earnings Public-Use File (EPUF). The EPUF contains earnings information for individuals drawn from a systematic random 1-percent sample of all Social Security numbers issued before January 2007. This note presents the process of evaluating the earnings data in EPUF. It also identifies and explains four key differences between the data in EPUF and the estimates published in the Annual Statistical Supplement to the Social Security Bulletin. The note specifically compares EPUF data with Annual Statistical Supplement estimates of earnings, number of workers with earnings, median earnings by sex and age group, and percentage of workers with earnings below the taxable maximum by sex. After accounting for the expected differences, the remaining discrepancies between EPUF and Annual Statistical Supplement estimates are relatively small.
What Can We Learn from Analyzing Historical Data on Social Security Entitlements?
Data from administrative records of the Social Security Administration allow us to examine patterns of initial entitlement to Old-Age Insurance benefits as well as Disability Insurance benefits. We follow cohorts born in different years over their lifetimes to identify changes in entitlements by age over time. Breaking out single birth cohorts shows close adherence in entitlement ages to rule changes as well as increasing shares of cohorts relying on the Disability Insurance program in middle age.
The 2006 Earnings Public-Use Microdata File: An Introduction
This article introduces the 2006 Earnings Public-Use File (EPUF), a data file containing earnings records for individuals drawn from a 1-percent sample of all Social Security numbers issued before January 2007. The EPUF contains selected demographic and earnings information for 4.3 million individuals. It provides aggregate earnings data for 1937 to 1950 and annual earnings data for 1951 to 2006.
Longitudinal Statistics on Work Activity and Use of Employment Supports for New Social Security Disability Insurance Beneficiaries
Longitudinal statistics on the employment activities of Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries offer a different perspective than the Social Security Administration's published statistics, which are based on annual data, and have important policy implications.
Longitudinal Patterns of Participation in the Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income Programs for People with Disabilities
We analyze longitudinal interactions in benefit eligibility between the Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs and the lags arising from processing time in receiving the first payment, based on Social Security administrative records. We find that longitudinal interactions enhancing the bundle of cash benefits available for awardees over a 60-month period is much more common than apparent from cross-sectional data and identify distinct patterns of longitudinal interactions between the two programs. SSI plays an especially important role in providing benefit eligibility during the 5-month DI waiting period. Transition to nonbeneficiary status is more prevalent among SSI awardees because of exits attributable to the SSI means test. We also find that there is substantial variation in the lag in receiving the first disability payment.
Assessment of Retirement Plan Coverage by Firm Size Using W-2 Tax Records
Of particular interest in this article is the relationship between firm size and pension coverage and participation because small businesses tend to be less likely to offer retirement benefits to their employees than do large businesses. This relationship is particularly important given the current administration's retirement proposals to create automatic individual retirement accounts. Obviously, accurate information is important not only in formulating retirement income security policies that target workers without retirement plan coverage, but also to assess the impact of such policies on workers' retirement plan participation.
Defined Contribution Pension Participation and Contributions by Earnings Levels Using Administrative Data
This article examines the relationship between earnings levels and participation and contribution rates in defined contribution (DC) retirement plans. Specifically, the article estimates DC plan participation and contribution rates in 2006 both by the worker's current earnings and by the annual average of real earnings over the 10-year period 1997–2006. Using these two different measures of earnings allows us to assess whether employing a longer period of earnings, such as a decade, provides a better representation of pension outcomes than the short-term measure of current earnings.
Expanding Access to Health Care for Social Security Disability Insurance Beneficiaries: Early Findings from the Accelerated Benefits Demonstration
The Accelerated Benefits (AB) demonstration project provides health benefits to Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries who have no health insurance during the 24-month period most beneficiaries are required to wait before Medicare benefits begin. This article describes the project and presents baseline survey results on health insurance coverage among newly entitled beneficiaries and the characteristics of those without coverage. A 6-month follow-up survey provides information on the effects of the AB health benefits package on health care utilization and on reducing unmet medical needs. The article also reports the costs of providing the health benefits package during the 24-month Medicare waiting period.
Using Matched Survey and Administrative Data to Estimate Eligibility for the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy Program
This article uses matched survey and administrative data to estimate, as of 2006, the size of the population eligible for the Low-Income Subsidy (LIS), which was designed to provide "extra help" with premiums, deductibles, and copayments for Medicare Part D beneficiaries with low income and limited assets. The authors employ individual-level data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and the Health and Retirement Study to cover the potentially LIS-eligible noninstitutionalized and institutionalized populations of all ages. The survey data are matched to Social Security administrative data to improve on potentially error-ridden survey measures of income components and program participation.
Selected Characteristics and Self-Perceived Performance of Individual Social Security and Supplemental Security Income Representative Payees
Social Security beneficiaries and Supplemental Security Income recipients who are unable to manage their own benefits may be assisted by relatives, friends, or other interested individuals, called representative payees. This note examines the characteristics of these payees, the payees' assessment of their own performance, and whether they believe their beneficiaries' needs are met. Using results of a survey of representative payees conducted by Westat, Inc. for a 2007 National Research Council report, this note also examines the importance of indicators of potential misuse identified in that report.
Social Security Research at the Michigan Retirement Research Center
The Office of Retirement and Disability Policy at the Social Security Administration created the Retirement Research Consortium in 1998 to encourage research on topics related to Social Security and the well-being of older Americans, and to foster communication between the academic and policy communities. The Michigan Retirement Research Center (MRRC) has participated in the Consortium since its inception. This article surveys a selection of the MRRC's output over its first 10 years and highlights several themes in the Center's ongoing research.
An Empirical Study of the Effects of Social Security Reforms on Benefit Claiming Behavior and Receipt Using Public-Use Administrative Microdata
In the past few years, the Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance benefit system in the United States has undergone some of the most significant changes since its inception. Using the public-use microdata extract from the Master Beneficiary Record, we are able to uncover a number of interesting trends in benefit claiming behavior and level of benefit receipt, which can help us understand how the changes in the system are shaping the retirement benefit claiming behavior of older Americans.
Social Security Administration's Master Earnings File: Background Information
The Social Security Administration (SSA) receives reports of earnings for the U.S. working population each year from employers and the Internal Revenue Service. The earnings information received is stored at SSA as the Master Earnings File (MEF) and is used to administer Social Security programs and to conduct research on the populations served by those programs. This article documents the history, content, limitations, complexities, and uses of the MEF (and data files derived from the MEF). It is intended for researchers who use earnings data to study work patterns and their implications, and for those interested in understanding the data used to administer the current-law programs.
Access Restrictions and Confidentiality Protections in the Health and Retirement Study
Organizations involved in statistical surveys of human subjects face two important and competing challenges: protecting data confidentiality while maximizing data accessibility to potential researchers. This note examines how the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), conducted by the Institute for Social Research of the University of Michigan, attempts to balance data confidentiality with the desire to broaden the pool of potential data users. Current HRS procedures are summarized and compared with those of organizations with similar programs, and potential ways to expand HRS use without compromising confidentiality are discussed.
Elderly Poverty and Supplemental Security Income
Provided here are the absolute and relative poverty status of 2002 elderly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients. Official poverty estimates are generated from the Current Population Survey's Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS/ASEC). The poverty study presented here differs from previous studies in that it is based on CPS/ASEC income and weight records conditionally adjusted by matching Social Security administrative data. This effort improves the coverage of SSI receipt and the accuracy of SSI estimates. The adjusted CPS/administrative matched data reveal lower 2002 poverty rates among elderly persons (with and without SSI payments) than those generated from the unadjusted CPS/ASEC data.
Uses of Administrative Data at the Social Security Administration
This article discusses the advantages and limitations of using administrative data for research, examines how linking administrative data to survey results can be used to evaluate and improve survey design, and discusses research studies and SSA statistical products and services that are based on administrative data.
Trends in Elective Deferrals of Earnings from 1990–2001 in Social Security Administrative Data
Benefit Adequacy Among Elderly Social Security Retired-Worker Beneficiaries and the SSI Federal Benefit Rate
The federal benefit rate (FBR) of the Supplemental Security Income program provides an inflation-indexed income guarantee for aged and disabled people with low assets. Some consider the FBR as an attractive measure of Social Security benefit adequacy. Others propose the FBR as an administratively simple, well-targeted minimum Social Security benefit. However, these claims have not been empirically tested. Using microdata from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, this article finds that the FBR is an imprecise measure of benefit adequacy; it incorrectly identifies as economically vulnerable many who are not poor, and disregards some who are poor. The reason for this is that the FBR-level benefit threshold of adequacy considers the Social Security benefit in isolation and ignores the family consumption unit. The FBR would provide an administratively simple but poorly targeted foundation for a minimum Social Security benefit. The empirical estimates quantify the substantial tradeoffs between administrative simplicity and target effectiveness.
The Impact of Survey Choice on Measuring the Relative Importance of Social Security Benefits to the Elderly
This article provides insight into how measures of elderly economic well-being are sensitive to the survey data source. In Social Security Administration's publication Income of the Population 55 or Older, data are based on the national Current Population Survey (CPS). The preciseness of the survey statistics depends upon the willingness and ability of CPS respondents to answer questions accurately. This article contrasts income statistics calculated using the CPS and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Administrative data for Social Security benefits and SSI are also used to evaluate the accuracy of the income estimates.
Measuring the Relative Importance of Social Security Benefits to the Elderly
Provided is a discussion of the cumulative effects of the measurement alternatives described in the three previous articles: considering family income of persons rather than aged units, using administrative data in place of survey reported data, and switching the data source from CPS to SIPP. The current-methodology CPS statistic of 17.9 percent of beneficiary aged units receiving all of their income from Social Security in 1996 falls to a substantially smaller estimated 4.5 percent of elderly beneficiary persons based on family income when using the SIPP and Social Security administrative data.
Estimates of Unreported Asset Income in the Survey of Consumer Finances and the Relative Importance of Social Security Benefits to the Elderly
Through the 1990s and the early 2000s, the Income of the Population 55 or Older has reported a decline in the proportion of the elderly receiving asset income and the corresponding rise in the proportion receiving all of their income from Social Security. This analysis uses the Survey of Consumer Finances from 1992 to 2001 to examine financial asset holdings of the elderly and to determine if those who do not report asset income in fact might hold assets that are likely to generate income. Imputing asset income from likely income-producing holdings, the article examines the impact of probable missing asset income information upon measures of elderly income.
Characteristics of Noninstitutionalized DI and SSI Program Participants
Benefit Adequacy in State Workers' Compensation Programs
This article summarizes several different methods used to measure the adequacy of wage replacement in state workers' compensation systems in the United States. Empirical research casts serious doubt on benefit adequacy, especially in the case of more serious disabilities.
[Errata: The electronic versions of this article that were originally posted contained incorrect labels on the lines in Chart 3. The labels have been updated in the electronic versions and are correct in the print publication.]
Poverty-level Annuitization Requirements in Social Security Proposals Incorporating Personal Retirement Accounts
In the current discussions of Social Security reform, voluntary personal retirement accounts have been proposed. Recent research and debate have focused on several aspects of these accounts, including how such accounts would affect aggregate saving, system finances, and benefit levels. Little attention, however, has been paid to policies that would govern the distribution of account balances. This analysis considers such policies with respect to the annuitization of account balances at retirement using the Social Security Administration's Modeling Income in the New Term (MINT) model and a modified version of a recent legislative proposal to evaluate the effects of partial annuitization requirements.
Social Security Benefit Reporting in the Survey of Income and Program Participation and in Social Security Administrative Records
The quality of Social Security benefit reporting in household surveys is important for policy research on the Social Security program and, more generally, for research on the economic well-being of the aged and disabled populations. This is particularly true for the aged among whom receipt of Social Security benefits is nearly universal and reliance on such benefits is considerable. This paper examines the consistency between Social Security benefit amounts for May 1990 as reported in the Survey of Income and Program Participation and given in the Social Security Administration's administrative records for the respondent.
The Social Security Administration's Death Master File: The Completeness of Death Reporting at Older Ages
To provide a more detailed assessment of the coverage of deaths of older adults in the Social Security Administration's Death Master File (DMF), this research note compares age-specific death counts from 1960 to 1997 in the DMF with official counts tabulated by the National Center for Health Statistics, the most authoritative source of death information for the U.S. population. Results suggest that for most years since 1973, 93 percent to 96 percent of deaths of individuals aged 65 or older were included in the DMF.
Attrition in the New Beneficiary Survey and Followup, and Its Correlates
In this article we explore the extent of and reasons for attrition in the New Beneficiary Survey (NBS) between the first interview in 1982 and the followup interview in 1991. We examine a variety of potential determinants of attrition, separating the probability of attrition due to death from a refusal to be interviewed. Because the NBS sample is drawn from and linked to Social Security administrative records, information on mortality as a cause of attrition is exact. Hence, we are able to examine differences in the patterns and predictors of attrition due to these two causes of attrition and differences between attrition among retired and disabled workers.
Who Is "62 Enough"? Identifying Respondents Eligible for Social Security Early Retirement Benefits in the Health and Retirement Study
Workers are not instantly eligible for Social Security retirement benefits on their 62nd birthdays, nor can they receive benefits in the month they turn 62. This note discusses how well researchers can do using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to identify respondents old enough to receive and report early Social Security retirement benefits. It shows that only some workers aged 62 at the time of an HRS interview will be "62 enough" to have received a Social Security benefit and reported it in the survey.
Linkages With Data From Social Security Administrative Records in the Health and Retirement Study
The Health and Retirement Study (HRS is a major longitudinal study designed for scientific and policy researchers for study of the economics, health, and demography of retirement and aging. This note describes the data from SSA records that have been released for linking to HRS data, linkage rates resulting from the consent process, and subgroup patterns in linkage rates.
Who Is "62 Enough": Identifying Eligibles for Social Security Early Retirement in the Health and Retirement Study
Either the normal retirement age (NRA) or the earliest eligibility age (EEA) for Social Security retirement benefits would be increased under many proposals for Social Security reform. As a consequence, research interest in who retires at early ages and the potential effects of an increase in the NRA or EEA has grown. This note discusses how well researchers can do using data from the Health and Retirement Study in identifying the pool of respondents who could have received early Social Security retirement benefits.
The Development of the Project NetWork Administrative Records Database for Policy Evaluation
This article describes the development of SSA's administrative records database for the Project NetWork return-to-work experiment targeting persons with disabilities. The article is part of a series of papers on the evaluation of the Project NetWork demonstration. In addition to 8,248 Project NetWork participants randomly assigned to receive case management services and a control group, the simulation identified 138,613 eligible nonparticipants in the demonstration areas. The output data files contain detailed monthly information on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Disability Insurance (DI) benefits, annual earnings, and a set of demographic and diagnostic variables. The data allow for the measurement of net outcomes and the analysis of factors affecting participation. The results suggest that it is feasible to simulate complex eligibility rules using administrative records, and create a clean and edited data file for a comprehensive and credible evaluation. The study shows that it is feasible to use administrative records data for selecting control or comparison groups in future demonstration evaluations.
Linkages with Data from Social Security Administrative Records in the Health and Retirement Study
The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is a major longitudinal study designed for scientific and policy researchers for study of the economics, health, and demography of retirement and aging. The primary HRS sponsor is the National Institute of Aging, and the project is being conducted by the Survey Research Center of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Several agencies, including the Social Security Administration, are supporting the project. This is the second paper describing SSA's data support for the HRS. It describes the data from SSA records that have been released for linking to HRS data, linkage rates resulting from the consent process, and subgroup patterns in linkage rates.
The Accuracy of Survey-Reported Marital Status: Evidence from Survey Records Matched to Social Security Records
Many researchers have concluded that, in surveys, divorced persons often fail to report accurate marital information. In this paper, I revisit this issue using a new source of data—surveys exactly matched to Social Security data. I find that divorced persons frequently misreport their marital status, but there is evidence that the misreporting is unintentional. A discussion of possible improvements in surveys is presented. Implications for the study of differential mortality and the study of poverty among aged women are discussed.
The Development of a New Geographic Coding System for the Continuous Work History Sample
This article describes the statistical development of the geographic coding system used to identify worker location for the Continuous Work History Sample. The new system—which is planned for implementation for data year 1993—will provide more accurate geographic distributions of workers within a residence concept than the old system could provide within an employer location concept. The article also presents the results of a pilot study that tested the operational aspects of the new system. The results provide some preliminary estimates of the effect of the revised codes on the geographic distribution of workers.
Statistical Notes from the New Beneficiary Data System
Sampling Variance Estimates for SSA Program Recipients From the 1990 Survey of Income and Program Participation
Statistical Notes From the New Beneficiary Data System
Average Wages for 1985–90 for Indexing Under the Social Security Act
The Development and Use of Industry Data by the Social Security Administration
The New Beneficiary Data System: The First Phase
The Social Security Administration's 10-Percent Sample File of OASDI Beneficiaries
Two Papers on a New SIPP-Based Microsimulation Model of SSI and OASDI
This working paper includes two interrelated papers presented at the annual meeting of the American Statistical Association in August 1991. The papers outline the central ideas and the progress to date associated with the development of a new microsimulation model for program analysis at the Social Security Administration (SSA). The first paper, Rationale for a SIPP-Based Microsimulation Model of SSI and OASDI, relates the analytical potential of the proposed model to data development efforts intended to overcome specific information gaps. It also suggests areas in which the model can enrich SSA's ability to address issues specifically related to either the Supplemental Security Income or Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance programs or issues requiring comparative analysis of both programs. The second paper, Implementing an SSI Model Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation, describes progress on a preliminary version of the model focusing on the SSI program. It includes a brief description of the model, presentation and discussion of initial results, and comparisons with other studies.
Development of Diagnostic Data in the 10-Percent Sample of Disabled SSI Recipients
The Decline in Establishment Reporting: Impact on CWHS Industrial and Geographic Data
The Social Security Administration's Continuous Work History Sample
Reflections on the Income Estimates from the Initial Panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)
The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) represents a major effort on the part of the Federal statistical community to improve the quality and comprehensiveness of information on the economic resources of the household sector and to permit a more accurate portrayal of the impact of government tax and transfer programs on the economic status of the population.
This paper will not offer a comprehensive and definitive statement on the quality of SIPP income data. Neither the time nor resources available to the author, nor indeed, the state of SIPP data products, would permit making such a statement. However, enough information is available to offer a tentative interpretation of important aspects of the income data available from the first SIPP panel. Two broad themes will be touched upon. Since it is generally believed that the major technical defect of income surveys is the substantial tendency to underidentify the sources and amounts of income received by the population, the issue of the completeness of the SIPP money income estimates will be the central issue. A second important aspect of income data has to do with its suitability for analytic purposes.
The Monthly OASDI One-Percent Sample File
Development and Evaluation of a Survey-Based Type of Benefit Classification for the Social Security Program
A Note on Sampling Variance Estimates for Social Security Program Participants From the Survey of Income and Program Participation
The 1973 CPS-IRS-SSA Exact Match Study
Commentary: Interagency Data Matching Projects for Research Purposes
Commentary: Continuous Work History Sample
The 1982 New Beneficiary Survey: An Introduction
Commentary: Survey Research in Social Security
Retirement History Study: Introduction
The 1982 New Beneficiary Survey: An Introduction
The Income Survey Development Program: Design Features and Initial Findings
Adjusted Estimates of the Size Distribution of Family Money Income for 1972
It is well-known that for most purposes income size distribution data collected in household surveys are far from ideal. The problems with those data can be separated into two types: the data items that are collected, and the accuracy of the data collected. Usually, although there are important exceptions, the income data collected are confined to cash income before taxes, thus ignoring the effects of both taxes and noncash income of all types. Also, the income estimates usually are for one year, which often is not the best accounting period for analysis. Furthermore, there usually is a lack of adequate detail by income type, and the data ordinarily are not sufficiently detailed to adjust for changes in the composition of the family unit during the income accounting period.
An Example of the Use of Statistical Matching in the Estimation and Analysis of the Size Distribution of Income
This paper discusses the use of statistical matching in the estimation and analysis of the size distribution of family unit personal income. Statistical matching is a relatively new technique that has been used to combine, at the single observation level, data from two different samples, each of which contains some data items that are absent from the other file. In a statistical match, the information brought together from the different files ordinarily is not for the same person but for similar persons; the match is made on the basis of similar characteristics. In contrast, in an "exact" match, information for the same person from two or more files is brought together using personal identifying information.


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'X-Men: Days of Future Past': A Guide to the Mutants
This weekend's "X-Men: Days of Future Past" redefines the comic book team-up film. Forget "The Avengers" and its measly six super-heroes. "Days of Future Past" has more than 20 mutants teaming up to save the world, including multiple versions of the same characters thanks to the movie's time-travel storyline that flips from a dystopian future to 1973. The cast ranges from 23-year-old Jennifer Lawrence to 74-year-old Ian McKellan and includes Halle Berry, who first played Storm in 2000's original "X-Men" but hasn't returned in eight years, and Hugh Jackman, who was seen as a mutant on the big screen last summer.
Read Joe Morgenstern's review of 'X-Men: Days of Future Past.'
With a broadly appealing ensemble cast and reviews that are overwhelmingly positive so far, "X-Men: Days of Future Past" is poised for a huge $100 million-plus opening over Memorial Day weekend, with even more expected from its 118 foreign markets.
Non-fanboys, however, might just be a little confused by a movie that simultaneously continues the stories from 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand" (whose cast struggle in the future) and 2011's prequel "X-Men: First Class" (whom we find in 1973, 10 years after their last film). Here's a guide to the mutants you need to know, as well as a new villain:
Wolverine/Logan | Played by Hugh Jackman. Last seen in 2013's "The Wolverine." The most famous of the X-Men is the only actor to appear in all six "X-Men" films (including two of his own spin-offs). He once again takes a leading role and provides a bridge between the two X-Men casts as he travels back in time to try and prevent a future in which killer robots are hunting them down.
Professor X/Charles Xavier | Played as a young man by James McAvoy and in his advanced years by Patrick Stewart. Last seen in 2011's "X-Men: First Class" (McAvoy) and 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand" (Stewart). The leader of the X-Men, with telepathic powers, who organized the team and advocates peace between super-powered mutants and the rest of humanity.
Magneto/Erik Lehnsherr | Played as an older man here by Ian McKellan. Last played by McKellan in 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand." Head of the Brotherhood of Mutants, a former ally of Professor X's turned foe, he controls magnetic forces and believes mutants and humans are inevitably at war.
Mystique/Raven | Played by Jennifer Lawrence. This shape-shifting mutant, a former friend of Professor X's who switches alliances to Magneto, was last seen in 2011's "X-Men: First Class." She plays a critical role in "Days of Future Past" helping Wolverine to change the future.
Magneto/Erik Lehnsherr | Played here as a young man by Michael Fassbender. The yin to Professor X's yang was last seen in 2011's "X-Men: First Class."
Bishop/Lucas Bishop | Played by Omar Sy. He'll be seen for the first time in "Days of Future Past" as a new X-Man in the future. Can absorb and redirect energy.
Dr. Bolivar Trask | Played by Peter Dinklage. Creator of the Sentinel mutant-hunting robots in the past that lead to a dark future for mutant- and human-kind.
Beast/Hank McCoy | Played as a young man here by Nicholas Hoult. Last seen in 2011's "X-Men: First Class." This shy scientist whose mutant gene turns him super-strong, fuzzy and blue, was played as an older man by Kelsey Grammer in 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand."
Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde and Iceman/Bobby Drake | Played by Ellen Page and Shawn Ashmore. This pair of young mutants -- she can turn intangible and he projects cold-- hasn't been seen since 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand."
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Positive motivational track based on warm acoustic guitars backed by a bright piano and driven by strong drums. A subtle glockenspiel adds a nice melodic line.
This feel-good tune will bring warmth and authenticity to your project!
If you enjoyed this track, you'll want to check out Shine On.
Along the Way is included in Acoustic Pack. Save your money with this great pack containing three warm acoustic tracks!
Enjoyed the music? Then check out the rest of my portfolio and get the track you need, now!


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Jean Mariette, better known under his pseudonyms Mittéï and Hao, studied at the École Supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Liège for eight years. He began a career in commercial art afterwards. His first comic, 'La Course au Timbre' appeared unfinished in the short-lived Journal de Paddy in 1955. After making some vertical strips for the dailies Le Soir and De Standaard, he joined Studio Greg.
There, he did cartoons for La Libre Junior and worked on such series as 'Luc Junior'. He also assisted Dino Attanasio on 'Bob Morane' and Tibet on 'Ric Hochet', and additionally worked with Édouard Aidans ('Les Franval'), Paul Cuvelier ('Line'), Maurice Maréchal ('Prudence Petitpas') and Renoy ('Nanouche'). He also created 'Nana et Mitsou' in Line and joined Tintin magazine in 1959, where he started out with 'Rouly-la-brise'.
Modeste et Pompon (Dutch edition, Kuifje #48, 1971)
Mittéï made the illustrations for the Tintin-Auto section and created 'L'Indésirable Désiré' in 1960. Three years later, he took over the Franquin creation 'Modeste et Pompon' from Dino Attanasio and continued it until 1975. At the same time, he drew 'Les 3 A' in cooperation with Tibet and with scripts by André-Paul Duchâteau from 1962. He transferred to magazine Spirou in 1976, where he created 'Bonaventure', a little boy who causes misfortune when he takes of his glasses, and made his comic adaptations of Alphonse Daudet's 'Lettres de Mon Moulin' stories.
He also became a versatile writer for other artists, like Pierre Seron ('Les Petits Hommes'), Laudec ('Les Contes de Curé-la-Flûte'), Walthéry ('Natacha'), Marc Hardy ('Badminton') and Arthur Piroton ('Les Casseurs de Bois'). For his scenario work, he mostly used the pseudonym Hao. In later years, he devoted almost all of his time to waterpainting. He returned to comics in 1994 by taking over 'P'tit Bout de Chique' from Francois Walthéry. Jean Mariette died on 16 April 2001.
Les 3A


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A few weeks ago, in "Swivel Puts a New Twist on BI for the Masses" ( http://www.sqlmag.com/Articles/Print.cfm?ArticleID=94588 ), I wrote about Swivel ( http://www.swivel.com ), a novel site devoted to amateur data analysis. I pondered whether this new site would become the "next big thing" and finally bring BI to the masses or quickly fade away into nothingness. I'm still not sure if Swivel will be a bang or a bust, but an aside at the end of a reader reply to my first Swivel editorial fascinated me:
"Thanks for the heads-up! My brother's a high-school AP stats teacher, so I'm passing it on to him too."
That's exactly what I'm talking about when I suggested that Swivel, or something like it, might actually bring BI to the masses. People who aren't functional experts--such as high school statistics students--could "do BI." Will these unwashed masses, as I suggested in my editorial a few weeks ago, learn to publish, analyze, and understand complex data sets? And will we see a significant increase in the amount of data analysis that happens worldwide?
Here's another thought: Will the amateur nature of such BI proliferation create a sort of universally skewed view of what BI is? I wonder this because I notice on the Swivel site that many of the "data sets" that are published are from people who are just having fun comparing irrelevant or unrelated data to see what happens. We already live in a culture that is highly skeptical of statistical data. Like the boy who cried wolf, will this kind of data dumping create a world in which we don't believe ANY statistics, even those that might be important and relevant?
Actually, I suspect that a large amount of "analysis" done on Swivel--like much of what's on the Internet in general--will be random noise. But I do expect that putting analysis tools into the hands of subject matter experts who don't have access to traditional data-analysis tools will produce some very interesting stuff, and I wonder whether this trend will ever reach a point at which the amateurs start to shape the direction of BI by doing things that the "professionals" didn't originally consider?
The reader I mentioned above offered several other interesting comments about Swivel as it might relate to "more traditional" (i.e., corporate IT) BI needs. But the fact that he thought his brother would be interested is telling. I presume his brother who teaches high school AP statistics doesn't masquerade as a corporate BI IT jock on the weekends. If his brother likes it, will he tell two friends, and will they tell two friends, and so on--like the old shampoo commercial from the 1970s? Will BI-style tools and technologies like Swivel ever be adopted by the masses? And how will wider adoption of BI affect "real" BI's impact in the business world? Send me your thoughts on this subject at [email protected]


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Detect, analyze, adapt, and respond
to the attacks that matter to you
Today's most damaging attacks are targeted specifically at your people, your systems, your vulnerabilities, and your data. Advanced persistent threats (APTs) are stealthier and more sophisticated than ever, using insidious social engineering techniques to quietly penetrate your organization to deploy customized malware that can live undetected for months. Then when you are least expecting it, cybercriminals can remotely and covertly steal your valuable information—from credit card data to the more lucrative intellectual property or government secrets—potentially destroying your competitive advantage, or in the case of government even putting national security at risk.
Many organizations feel that they have been targeted. The Ponemon Institute found that 67 percent of organizations admit that their current security activities are insufficient to stop a targeted attack. Not surprisingly, Trend Micro found that 55 percent are not even aware of intrusions, and fewer know the extent of the attack or who exactly is behind it. While necessary to thwart the majority of today's attacks, standard defenses have proven insufficient to handle APTs and targeted attacks. A custom attack requires a custom defense.
The Trend Micro Network Defense is the industry's first advanced threat protection solution that enables you not only to detect and analyze APTs and targeted attacks, but also to rapidly adapt your protection and respond to specific attacks. The comprehensive Network Defense solution integrates software, global threat intelligence, and specialized tools and services to provide custom insight about the specific threat and cybercriminals involved. Recent advances in command and communication (C&C) response help you stop suspicious behavior even before it endangers your intellectual property. With in-depth access to the information you need to fight back against your attackers, you can block APTs and shut them down before real damage occurs.
The Trend Micro Network Defense is a comprehensive solution that equips you to detect, analyze, adapt and respond to the attacks that matter most to you. We provided the most comprehensive advanced protection solution in the industry to address advanced targeted attacks that may be targeting your organization.
At the heart of the Trend Micro Network Defense solution is Deep Discovery, a specialized threat protection platform that performs network-wide monitoring to detect zero-day malware, malicious communications, and attacker behaviors that are invisible to standard security defenses. Uniquely integrated with other Trend Micro security control points across the network, the solution can detect and block attacks occurring via corporate and personal email, social media applications, mobile devices, and more . It can also detect and block command and control communications back to the cybercriminal, or attempts to move laterally to other valuable systems within the network. Unlike competitive offerings that use generic 'sandboxes' in the hope that one will trigger and detect the attack, the Trend Micro Network Defense allows for multiple, customer-defined sandboxes that better reflect your real-life environment and allow you to determine whether you have been breached. The Trend Micro Network Defense sandbox detonates suspect code in a safe, controlled environment optimized to evade hacker techniques that are on the lookout for sandboxing solutions.
Upon detection, the Trend Micro Network Defense solution best enables you to profile in depth the risk, origin and characteristics of the attack, and uniquely delivers actionable intelligence that guides rapid containment and remediatiation. To aid in the threat investigation, Threat Connect offers a customized view of threat intelligence that is specific to your environment, and offers you the ability to tap into the power of a global, cloud-based threat intelligence network.
To immediately adapt and strengthen protection against further attacks, the Trend Micro Network Defense helps you create custom responses to these targeted attacks, such as IP blacklists, custom spear phishing protection, and coming soon, custom signatures—all specific to each attack. The solution automatically updates the Smart Protection Network and issues these custom security updates to Trend Micro gateway, endpoint, and server enforcement points. Built using an open and extensible platform, the solution can also send security updates to non-Trend Micro security products that may already be an important part of you defense in-depth strategy.
Finally, the solution delivers 360-degree contextual visibility of the attack, arming you with the insight needed to respond to your specific attackers. The solution can deliver insight such as what information is being targeted, how the attack works, who the attacker is, and perhaps most importantly, who is actually sponsoring the attack. Armed with this information you can more rapidly contain and remediate the attack and contact appropriate authorities for further action.
Trend Micro Deep Discovery uniquely detects and identifies evasive threats in real-time, and provides the in-depth analysis and relevant actionable intelligence that fuels the Trend Micro Network Defense solution. Only Deep Discovery provides:
As part of the Trend Micro Network Defense solution and for better protection across the network, advanced threat detection capabilities are integrated into Trend Micro mail gateway and server security products. Trend Micro™ ScanMail™Suite for Microsoft® Exchange™, Trend Micro™ ScanMail™ Suite for IBM® Lotus® Domino™, and Trend Micro™ InterScan™ Messaging Security have been integrated with Deep Discovery to send suspicious files for sandbox analysis and detection of previously unknown malware. In addition, these products feature an exploit detection engine that identifies email attachments that contain exploits for vulnerabilities in major Adobe, Microsoft Office, and other programs and blocks or quarantines them, furthering the level of protection provided.
All Trend Micro protection products will integrate more tightly with the adaptive updates of Deep Discovery. Additional product integrations will be announced soon.
The Trend Micro Smart Protection Network cloud security infrastructure rapidly and accurately identifies new threats, delivering global threat intelligence to secure data wherever it resides. It looks in more places for threat data, and uses big data analytics to deliver actionable threat intelligence across mobile, physical, virtual and cloud environments.
The Threat Connect information portal is accessible via Deep Discovery. It provides you with the full breadth of relevant Trend Micro threat intelligence about specific threats— aiding in the rapid assessment, containment, and remediation of an attack.
For years, Trend Micro has been helping its customers effectively identify and remediate targeted cyber-attacks. A full suite of tools and services enables Trend Micro support engineers to discover and analyze advanced threats in mail stores and network traffic, as well as for searching log files for traces of attack activity. Proven effective for incident response and forensics, these tools are now available to Trend Micro customers and the Trend Micro partner ecosystem.


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Goldstein Wins Prestigious Smith Breeden Prize
The honor marks the second consecutive year a Carlson School faculty member was chosen by the American Finance Association
Finance Professor Robert Goldstein is a winner of the prestigious 2013 Smith Breeden Prize for his paper, "On the Relative Pricing of Long-Maturity Index Options and Collateralized Debt Obligations."
The prizes are awarded annually to the top three papers in The Journal of Finance as chosen by the publication's editors. Goldstein and co-authors Pierre Collin-Dufresne (Columbia Business School) and Fan Yang (Carlson School PhD student) will receive $5,000 for earning the honor of Distinguished Paper.
This honor marks the second year in a row that a member of the Carlson School faculty received a Smith Breeden prize. In 2012, Jianfeng Yu won first prize for his paper, "Technological Growth and Asset Pricing."


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Following a strong rally in hard-currency Russian corporate debt throughout the second quarter, Mitch Reznick, Co-Head of Hermes Credit, visited Moscow to gain an insight into the nation's economic troubles and assess whether the market is being too optimistic.
The Russian economy is on a rough road: GDP is likely to fall by 3%-4% this year, inflation could be as high as 15% for 2015, unemployment is rising by more than 1% to reach over 6%, and budget deficits are certain for the foreseeable future. Geopolitical tensions in eastern Ukraine, the severe decline in oil prices and a weak rouble led Moody's and S&P to "junk" the country's sovereign debt ratings. The agencies also feared that Russia was rapidly depleting its wealth of foreign-exchange reserves, which have supported domestic companies as sanctions bar them from global fixed income markets.
As you would expect, the sentiment expressed by companies and investors in Moscow last week was that the worst is behind them. What was less predictable is how aligned credit markets are with this view. The spread between Russian corporate debt and the BofA Merrill Lynch Emerging Markets Corporate Plus Index (EMCB) has collapsed from 800bps in mid-December 2014 – when the rouble was in freefall, oil prices had collapsed and bank failures were being discussed – to about 170bps now.
Option-adjusted spreads: Russia v emerging markets
What is behind this strong relative outperformance of Russian spreads?
The Minsk II ceasefire agreement of early February was the catalyst: the basis between Russian corporate debt and the EMCB rallied some 175bps in that month. Also, beyond these negotiations lay Russia's substantial foreign-currency reserves, which it has used to cushion domestic companies and its economy from the hard road they are travelling.
At the end of 2012, Russia had $473bn in reserves, providing a foreign-exchange facility for banks locked out of global capital markets and helping to defend the rouble. The country's reduction in its reliance on foreign debt – from $130bn in 2000 to $10bn in 2007 – has also lowered default risk for external creditors. But rough roads will, in time, wear down even the best shock absorbers: Russia's reserves are forecast to decline to $300bn by the end of 2015, and it seeks ways of rebuilding them while things are relatively quiet.
The rest of 2015 will be tough going for Russia – but the forecasts for all of 2015 are no longer as bad as they were. Russians themselves have made some adjustments that have helped ease the pain of the macroeconomic conditions. Although consumption is much lower year-over-year, one economist described the adjustment as an "import substitution" because Russians are buying more domestic goods and are taking holidays in Russia as opposed to abroad. Also, while the weaker rouble is helping to boost revenue for exporters, we will keep an eye on the impact inflation is having on wage growth. To date, however, the growth in unemployment has suppressed wage growth. This, combined with inflation, could erode living standards and therefore the popularity of Vladimir Putin's government. With a struggling domestic economy and oil being much cheaper than what it was before Russia's annexation of Crimea, Putin's extraterritorial ambitions are likely to be more subdued. That said, if Russians lose patience with their deteriorating welfare, he could stoke the fires on the western border as a distraction. But this would spur talk of further sanctions, and we are not convinced that Putin wants to further isolate Russia from much of the world.
Given these dynamics, what are the implications for Russian corporate credit?
Following a powerful springtime rally, Russian credit spreads have generally outperformed. Although we still see some value, our exposure has fallen as spreads have collapsed. More specifically, we continue to favour higher-quality global exporters and, as ever, security selection is as critical as choosing the right companies – as the recent tenders for front-end bonds from several companies has shown.
Hermes: The iron ore meltdown in three charts


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Innovation from Redmond...
Film at 11.
Microsoft has sued TiVo. Why? Because TiVo sued AT&T. Not to mention some allegations of patent infringement. Dow Jones reports that Microsoft filed suit against the leading DV recorder manufacturer late Tuesday in the US federal court. Redmond claims that in displaying programming information, TiVo illegally uses technology …
Film at 11.
I clearly should have been a patent lawyer. They must be the only people really profiting from this dumb as hell tit-for-tat behaviour.
Nokia wikk sure Microsoft, then Apple will sure Nokia, then IBM will sue Apple, then Rambus will sue IBM all over this. (Im sure I missed some one in this list but you get the idea)
/kicks back with a bottle of beer and some popcorn. This should take the better part of a decade to finish off. Fun times.
Trolls trolls trolls, here we go again.
This is similar to the recent UK patent ruling where the judge ruled the programme scheduling etc was software (I think that was it - can't be bothered to search) so there was no case. This seems similar as it appears to be about the same thing. Whats the bet that this won't be thrown out in the US?
And yes, when I read it the first thing I thought was Microsoft want an agreement out of TIVO. Obviously Microsoft are after some of their technology so they can put it into their crappy media centre.
Given a choice between Tivo and Windows Media Centre (or Center), I'll be spending my money on Windows Media Center (and with the imminent release of the Ceton Cable-card tuner, I'll have that choice). There are features of Tivo that are better than the equivalent features in Media Centre, but overall, WMC is a far more flexible solution than Tivo (which is why it's taken this long for CableLabs to allow end users take full advantage of it).
Tivo is suing AT&T for using a technology that Microsoft delivered to AT&T. Microsoft is responding because it's Microsoft's patent that is under attack, not AT&T's.
So Tivo are displaying programming information, which is sent to them in the broadcasts.
How can a patent be allowed regarding displaying this?
Akin to a book library program displaying the list of held books for a particular author.
and then sue the lot of them.
...and all others like them.
That is all.
something useful, it's a pity MickySoft don't send as much effort into finding the bugs in their crapware.
So can somebody please clearly identify the MickySoft/AT&T technology/product/hardware involved in this case... SO THAT I CAN MAKE SURE I NEVER BUY ANY OF THEIR FUCKING CRAP!!!
I think the 'merkins have got the war on terror all wrong; Obama should immediately launch a B-52 strike wing against MickySoft and turn Redmond into a big crater in the ground. Then the world will be safe for normal people.
Is there any coincidence that in the Star Wars series of films on of the machines of the evil empire is called an AT-AT (AT&T)
And yes, when I read it the first thing I thought was Microsoft want an agreement out of TIVO. Obviously Microsoft are after some of their technology so they can put it into their crappy media centre.
Did you read the article ?? if Tivo wins against ATT they can then sue Microsoft as its a microsoft product that ATT is being sued over .
If you look at the situation with AT&T and MS, you will find that the agreement between the two has MS indemnifying AT&T for any suit growing out of AT&T's use of the MS product (this is a standard license clause - The user if sued will be reimbursed and/or defended by the supplier of the software). Thus MS is actually the one being sued with AT&T being used as a surrogate (who TIVO selected to try to avoid going after the actual claimed infringer - ie: MS).
"Obviously Microsoft are after some of their technology so they can put it into their crappy media centre."
That explains why they waited until Tivo started a patent spat.
Oh, hold on a second, surely if this was about Microsoft wanting something from Tivo, they wouldn't have waited for Tivo to throw the first stone?
Suing the radio times for displaying programme information in a graphical form.