text:
First Commandment of User Interface design: I'm the computer, your platform. Thou shall have no other platforms before me.
Not even Especially not the shiny, web2.0 ones.
Plasma is a project with a solid foundation in the open source movement. For years open source communities have changed the way we think of software development and they are constantly challenging our expectations of what is possible through free and open collaboration of dedicated individuals. Today large parts of the technological infrastructure driving the civilized world are relying on open source software and life there would simply break down without it.
In the near future the open source collaboration model is also about to change the corporate landscape as businesses around the world, spurred by the current success of open collaboration in the realm of the web2.0, are realizing the potential of giving employees, as well as customers, a more active role across various communication channels.
As a subproject of one of the largest open source projects to date, Plasma is well aware of that cultural heritage and builds on that, adding at least two new aspects:
Traditionally the strong point of open source projects has been their exemplary treatment of humans as collaborators in the process of creating software. But open source projects, just as closed source projects, lacked an understanding of putting the human also into the center of their design considerations. User centered design is a fairly new topic in the field of software engineering and Plasma is one of only a few projects to truly use it as a guiding principle to create better software.
Doing so is also a bold experiment, since the open source development model lends itself perfectly to incremental improvements, but will first have to prove itself suitable also for genuine innovation, where not the competition but one's own imagination is the only guiding light.
Venturing something like this usually requires a shared vision among large parts of the involved parties. This document is intended to serve as a central scaffolding around which the necessary discussions for this shared vision can be had.
An interesting exercise to understand what user centered design is all about, is imagining oneself as an interface designer for an automobile's interior. Today every part of a driver's cockpit is, or could be, activated electronically; not just navigation systems or car stereos, also steering, braking and shifting can be done "by wire". This would potentially allow designers to create an in-car experience any way they pleased. Yet, designers hold off, because they understand, that they can not interfere with what the user is actually doing: driving a car. Regrettably such modesty is seldom to be seen in designers of computer user interfaces. Granted, their failure may not be as fatal as failure in interface design for automobiles would be, but survival of the user is hardly a measure of good user interface design. A clear notion of what the user is actually trying to achieve is of paramount importance to start a user centered design process.
While the look of computer user interfaces has changed a lot in past decades, the interfaces have hardly become better. The reason for that seems to be, that the undeniably ingenious ideas of former generations of software engineers have been "improved" without a proper understanding of their ingenuity; windows, icons, panels or files come to mind. Although they were good solutions in their time, no user needs these; but every computer user still needs solutions to the problems that they solved. Plasma is unique in its effort to not simply create fancier icons, panels and system trays, but to understand the problems icons solved for the user and create new and modern solutions to these problems.
In earlier user interfaces it was not always possible to directly interact with content. For different kinds of content different sets of functionality had to be loaded to provide suitable means of interaction, think text processing or image manipulation. So due to limited resources at that time it seemed more economical to not have all functionality loaded at all times and have some interactions be executed on representations of the actual content, instead of on the content itself.
Initially those representations were just text based, namely the file name of the file containing the relevant content. This brought with it the problem that all content was suddenly "the same". Imagine looking at ten pictures: it is instantly obvious which content is which, but looking at a list of the ten file names of these pictures, takes considerably more cognitive effort to discern the pictures. This remains true, even when not all pictures are named "IMG_#####.JPG", but have descriptive names.
So to help users to better get along with just representations of their content, icons were introduced. With icons it was possible to create a richer and more visual experience for the user.
As systems became more and more powerful, it was possible to play with the icon-metaphor to enhance user interfaces even more. Different kinds of icons could be used to represent different kinds of content, so the user's facility to discern content at a glimpse was restored; at least partially, since obviously content of the same kind still had to be identified by means of a file name.
Today systems are so powerful that it is possible to use an actual rendering of the content as an icon. So obviously one would think that representations of content could now be superseded by real content, at least in many places of an user interface. Real content allows for a much richer and immediate user experience and is more expressive than its representations, textual or iconic, could be.
Yet, in most user interfaces content is still represented as icons along with a file name. This puts an unnecessary cognitive strain on the user. Perhaps plasma can provide means to remedy this situation.
As others have so aptly put it: Let content be content; or as humorous natures might say: I am your content, thou shall not make for yourself an idol.
Another example of a fine idea drowned in current user interface misconceptions is the "Recent documents" menu. Giving users quick access to all the projects they are currently working on, is an excellent idea. But in the current user interface landscape, this idea was bound to fail. It is near impossible to represent the notion of a project in terms of what is currently available: files and applications.
The only remedy, when leaving all the other user interface concepts untouched, is to give in and embed the "Recent documents" idea inside every single application as an application specific "Recently opened" menu.
This works to a certain extent, but that way the user has to memorize his projects in terms of applications (, which violates the First Commandment: it renders the computer as a platform virtually useless, since the user has to use the text processing platform, to compose a letter or a paper or has to use the graphics editing platform to touch up photographs. While the underlying platform remains completely unaware of the projects the user is indulging in).
Funnily everything in the realm of digital machines is based on "ones" and "zeros" and to tap into the power of digital machines to process ones and zeros, abstractions have been devised, to make it easier for humans to handle ones and zeros. But sadly those abstractions stopped short of the abstractions that are actually needed to build user interfaces that don't get in the user's way.
In this regard current developments, of users "living on the internet" instead of on their desktops, might actually be beneficial. The notion of a file might soon be supplanted as bookmarks, text documents and photo collections are no longer file based but are accessed through specialized APIs. This current trend of vanishing files in user interfaces could be cleverly exploited by plasma, to adopt more usable user interface primitives, that help users get their work done.
Applications have been a really great part of user interfaces. In a command line environment a user could install new applications and thereby extend the functionality of the whole system. Imagine for example the sort(1) command, after a user installs it, he has, by means of a universal IPC mechanism, sorting functionality throughout his system.
With the advent of graphical user interfaces applications have been "stuffed" inside windows and despite the many advantages of this new approach, a lot of great features have been lost.
Today the system itself remains pretty useless, no matter how many applications are installed. It's applications instead, that offer functionality and usefulness to the user. But they don't add to the system as a whole. This increasingly becomes a problem as digitalization progresses. The feature set that even an inexperienced user uses to work, for example, with digital photographs is enormous and all this functionality has to be bundled with the application. This leads to functionality duplication among applications, which is a source of confusion for the user and system bloat.
But probably the most severe drawback is, that content becomes bound to applications and is not free for users to use on their systems. Of course a "JPEG" image can appear in many places across the system and in various applications: in a picture viewer, an image manipulation program or a desktop background chooser, but the interactions a user can have with this content are limited to specific applications. Although generally limitations are not a bad thing, since they could be applied strategically, the way current graphical user interfaces impose limitations on the way users interact with their content is a sign of fundamentally wrong design.
Related to how applications are used on today's desktops are surely windows. The basic role of windows in user interfaces is, to visually bundle functionality together to allow interaction with multitasking environments.
The problems associated with windows are probably the easiest to cope with, since they will dissolve almost on their own, when the whole concept of multitasking has to be rethought with multi-touch and especially multi-user input lurking just around the corner.
The best feature of windows is perhaps, that they make the common mantra: "Think outside the box!" almost tangible.
The usefulness of a system tray is also closely related to the problems we have in today's windowing environments.
The very rigid form of displaying information along with the possible interactions, that windows afford, is hardly suited to all information visualization needs on a users system. Some pieces of information are just of marginal importance, yet current windowing environments dictate either full representation or no representation at all.
Windows can of course be of different size, but their scalability applies not to the information displayed, but to the viewport, making the scale operation rather useless in many cases.
A system tray brings some limited form of semantic ZUI to the game. It essentially introduces a third form of representation. Besides a minimized application and an application running in a full window, the application can also be reduced to its system tray icon. There it can display various forms of status information or tooltips and also present a specialized set of interactions.
It is actually a promising idea, but it blatantly shows how its designers tried to just improve the current system, instead of searching for solutions that solve the real problem in terms of what the user is actually doing.
In the following we will sketch out a handful of usage scenarios, that take into consideration the troubles outlined so far.
These are ideas, that may or may not be implemented through Plasma in the future. Their sole purpose is to show how an unimpeded view on user interface design may yield interesting and new concepts for interaction of humans with computers.
Imagine a young student of mathematics, call her Maria, who's researching a topic for a presentation for one of her seminars.
She's starting her work by opening the lid of her laptop computer and her system wakes to a mind map of all her digital life. Instead of looking at a regular computer desktop cluttered with a panel and an oftentimes wild assortment of icons, symbolizing various things, ranging from applications to hardware, to files, she's presented with her work as she sees it. There are "University", Hobbies" and "Private" prominently standing out on her desktop as the main topics in her life.
Instead of clicking through a start menu full of applications, Maria is navigating through her work as she visualizes it. Related to "University" there are the entries for all her seminars, with her current ones being larger than past ones. And then there's a "Logic Theory" node in her mind map. This represents the seminar she's doing the research for. Maria creates a child node there, representing the task of researching for her presentation. She names it "presentation on modal logic" and if she wants to, she can also give a short summary for her new node.
When Maria zooms in on that newly created node, she sees a project management view of the task. Its name and her short summary are there, but additionally she can also set a due date, give a priority or can select a number of collaborators from her address book: her supervisor and probably other students, who work together with her. This project management view is customizable. Maria can finetune the level of control she can exert for managing the node "modal logic". She can even download new types of nodes directly from the internet. If she needs an integrated Gantt chart for a larger project, she will find node types that provide that, as well as nodes, that are very basic or ones so specific that they are shared only among the pupils in one class (think of a "herbarium" node on an educational computer for school kids).
At this zoom level Maria can also choose what kind of task "modal logic" is. This most closely corresponds to what current computer users do, when they navigate through a start menu and select the application that they see most fit to complete a specific task. Maria's selection at this level determines how the next zoom level will look like and what tools she has at her disposal.
Maria chooses "Research project (department of Mathematics)" as the type of the "modal logic" task, so when she zooms in yet again, she finds a workspace perfectly suited to her research project. The type "Research project (department of Mathematics)" is provided by her department at the university. Other types can again be downloaded from the internet and of course be created by users themselves. A generic "research project" might perhaps start a note taking application and a web browser showing results for a search for "modal logic", but the full power of Plasma was harnessed when Maria's department created a special project type. A project type corresponds to a combination of what computer users today may know as sessions, profiles and templates.
At this third zoom level Maria has a note taking application at her disposal. For her text research she uses a generic template, but if she worked at a chemistry lab, for example, her department could have included special templates for her note taking application to jot down chemical formulas. Maria has also an applet on her desktop that plugs directly into her universities library. It uses Maria's address book to get the link to one of her identity providers, in this case: her university; this way Maria is authenticated for many online services her university offers, one of them being the library. Maria can search for books and even order them directly from this little applet, without having to start a web browser.
Another applet lets Maria collect bookmarks. If she also uses digital resources for her research, she can collect those in a little tray, that can be seen as a bookmark manager. It is already preloaded with links to her departments homepage or regulations for what is expected from her for a presentation. In short everything digital, that is related to the task at hand, is part of Maria's workspace. In honour of the many brave Plasma developers Maria also has an abundance of clocks on her desktop.
At the end of the day Maria still thinks that geeks are kind of funny, but she's glad that they finally start to create usable software.
to be continued ...


text:
We live blogged all the action in the stock market on Thursday. For a concise rundown of the day\'s trading activity, see Market Snapshot.
- Sort by:
- Oldest
- Newest
- 9:28 am
- Poised for a sharp drop
- by Victor Reklaitis
- Add a Comment
Good morning.
U.S. stock futures are pointing to a sharply lower open for Wall Street, with Dow futures off 171 points or 1%, and S&P 500 futures off 19 points or 1%.
Investors are weighing a range of issues, as always, but what's getting the most attention is trouble in Portugal's banking sector.
This is sparking worries about the health of banks in the euro zone's periphery.
Read more about the trouble in Portugal here.
- 9:33 am
- Decidedly negative start
- by Victor Reklaitis
- Add a Comment
Lots of red on the screen in the early going.
Dow -152 points or -0.9%
S&P 500 -18 points or -0.9%
Nasdaq -64 points or -1.5%
- 9:38 am
- First 1% drop since April
- by Victor Reklaitis
- Add a Comment
The S&P 500 might fall 1% or more for the first time in about three months, said Jonathan Krinsky, chief market technician at MKM Partners, in a note this morning.
"There hasn't been a 1% down day since 4/10," Krinsky writes in the note.
- 9:41 am
- French, Italian data also hitting stocks
- by Victor Reklaitis
- Add a Comment
European stocks have been hammered today, and it's not just that troubled Portugese bank that's weighing on shares.
Disappointing French and Italian industrial-production highlighted concerns about euro-zone growth, reports MarketWatch's Sara Sjolin from London.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index is sliding to levels last seen two months ago.
- 9:49 am
- Today's drivers
- by Victor Reklaitis
- Add a Comment
This live blog has already mentioned fears about Portugal's banking sector and that weak French and Italian industrial data.
But other things that are getting some of the blame for today's slide include Chinese trade data for June that surprised to the downside. MarketWatch's Michael Kitchen has more here.
Plus hawkish Fed official James Bullard told Bloomberg that a drop in U.S. unemployment will fuel inflation, boosting his case for an interest-rate increase early next year.
There's also U.S. economic news that topped forecasts: Weekly jobless claims in the U.S. came in better than expected.
Photo credit: Getty Images
- 9:55 am
- Video on today's drivers
- by Victor Reklaitis
- Add a Comment
Your live blogger stopped by WSJ Live's AM News Hub earlier this morning to talk about some of today's drivers and 3 stocks to watch.
- 10:08 am
- S&P -0.7%; Russell -1.5%
- by Victor Reklaitis
- Add a Comment
More than 30 minutes into today's session, the big-cap indexes are managing to keep their losses to less than 1%. Though the Dow is still off triple digits.
The small-cap Russell 2000 is getting hit hard.
Dow -0.8% or -129 points
S&P 500 -0.7% or -14 points
Nasdaq -1.1%
Russell 2000 -1.5%
- 10:10 am
- How much due to Europe?
- by Victor Reklaitis
- Add a Comment
Hmmm… the folks at Bespoke Investment Group are arguing that people shouldn't be blaming Europe so much for today's selloff:
Hard to blame Europe for the sell-off when the Russell 2000 (minimal international exposure) is the worst performing US index. $IWM
— Bespoke (@bespokeinvest) July 10, 2014
- 10:14 am
- More on IWM
- by Victor Reklaitis
- Add a Comment
Traders are definitely keeping an eye on the iShares Russell 2000 ETF /quotes/zigman/260873/delayed /quotes/nls/iwm IWM .
IWM is down 1.6%, but it's off its session low and seems to be finding support at its 50-day moving average.
Here's what some traders are saying on Twitter:
Looks like a lot of guys on twitter bought the $IWM right off the open this morning. So far they're right as we're paring losses.
— Ryan Morse, CFP® (@ryanmorse33) July 10, 2014
Still stalking $IWM it may get below the 50 day &to the 30 RSI on the daily. I would take a maximum position in that range. Using $IWM calls
— Steve Burns (@SJosephBurns) July 10, 2014
- 10:26 am
- Lumber Liquidators, Potbelly dive
- by Victor Reklaitis
- Add a Comment
After Alcoa kicked off earnings season on a positive, note, there are some negative earnings headlines today.
Potbelly /quotes/zigman/21306639/delayed /quotes/nls/pbpb PBPB dived 24% after warning on its second-quarter results late yesterday. The fast-casual restuarant chain, which came public in October, has slumped to an all-time low.
Lumber Liquidators /quotes/zigman/581086/delayed /quotes/nls/ll LL has plunged 22% after cutting its full-year outlook late yesterday. The flooring retailer said: "The improvement in customer demand we experienced beginning in mid-March did not carry into May, and June weakened further."
Before the open, Family Dollar /quotes/zigman/226252/delayed /quotes/nls/fdo FDO posted quarterly earnings that beat forecasts, and revenue that missed expectations. The stock is actually up 1.7% at last check, as it's reversed to the upside after falling out of the gate.
Read more about today's jumpiest stocks in our Movers & Shakers column.
Photo credit: Dwight Burdette/Wikipedia
- 10:41 am
- Ongoing downtrend for $PBPB
- by Victor Reklaitis
- Add a Comment
What a difference 9 months make.
Back in October, Potbelly /quotes/zigman/21306639/delayed /quotes/nls/pbpb PBPB priced its IPO at $14 a share, then saw shares close above $30 in their first day of trading.
But today the stock has traded below the $11 mark, hitting an all-time low.
- 10:42 am
- MarketWatch Radio newscast
- by Anora Mahmudova
- Add a Comment
Steep slide for Wall Street. Plus, Uncle Sam is the victim of a hack attack. MarketWatch's Ann Cates reports.
- 10:44 am
- Wells 2Q Earnings
- by Sital S. Patel
- Add a Comment
Wells Fargo Inc. kicks of bank earnings season on Friday at 7am E.T.
The nation's largest mortgage provider is expected to report second-quarter earnings of $1.01 a share, compared with 98 cents a share in the year-ago period, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet.
The bank has had 17-straight quarters of rising profits, despite sluggish results from its peers.
For revenue, the bank is expected to report a drop. The consensus estimate is for $20.83 billion for the quarter, compared to $21.38 billion a year ago.
- 10:50 am
- Wieting: investors found an excuse to sell
- by Anora Mahmudova
- Add a Comment
Steven Wieting, global chief investment strategist at Citi Private Bank, downplayed the concerns about Portugal for U.S. stocks. He said investors are just using downbeat economic and banking news from Europe and Asia as an excuse to sell.
"The reality is that we had a 6% rally in just six weeks, and markets were looking for an excuse to correct. Nothing has changed fundamentally, neither in the U.S., nor in Europe.
Rising markets tend to ignore single data points, but in falling markets, fear gets amplified that someone else will sell."
- 10:59 am
- A look at that Portugese banking turmoil
- by Victor Reklaitis
- Add a Comment
Just what Europe needed: another banking crisis, writes MarketWatch's Sara Sjolin over in London.
There are striking similarities to daily headlines from the crisis two years ago, when ECB President Mario Draghi was forced to calm panicky bond markets with his famous "do whatever it takes" speech, she adds in her story, which features the adjacent chart.
Read Sjolin's story: Portugal's banking turmoil revives darkest nightmares about Europe
- 11:07 am
- Hulbert on Markets column
- by Anora Mahmudova
- Add a Comment
From Mark Hulbert's newsletter: Has the long-awaited correction arrived?
With the stock market plunging today, on top of a triple-digit decline on Tuesday, many suspect that it is. And if it were to have begun, there would be no shortage of reasons: We're right in the middle of the seasonally unfavorable "sell in May and go away" period, for example, and the Fed has just announced that it would end its bond-buying stimulus program in just three months. And then, earlier today, one of Portugal's biggest banks announced that it would have to delay a debt repayment—rekindling worries of a European debt crisis that many investors had thought was long since resolved.
- 11:14 am
- Markets trimming losses
- by Anora Mahmudova
- Add a Comment
Quick market update: stocks have trimmed opening losses.
S&P 500 /quotes/zigman/3870025/realtime SPX -0.49%
Dow /quotes/zigman/627449/realtime DJIA -0.54%
Nasdaq /quotes/zigman/12633936/realtime COMP -0.6%
- 11:47 am
- That strange company everyone is talking about
- by Anora Mahmudova
- Add a Comment
This is a classic example of pure irrational exuberance.
CYNK is now bigger than… http://t.co/X3yWbnMpp7 pic.twitter.com/anyiT0YBGH
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 10, 2014
- 11:49 am
- Treasurys gain
- by Anora Mahmudova
- Add a Comment
Via Ben Eisen: Treasurys gain for 4th day on Portugal banking woes
Treasury prices climbed Thursday, putting benchmark yields on track to drop for a fourth consecutive session as investors bought into the safety of U.S. government debt amid fears about Portugal's banking system.
- 11:53 am
- Tech stocks retreat
- by Anora Mahmudova
- Add a Comment
Technology stocks were mostly lower Thursday as the group joined a broad market retreat on new worries about the European economy, writes Benjamin Pimentel.
Apple /quotes/zigman/68270/delayed /quotes/nls/aapl AAPL -0.9%
Yahoo /quotes/zigman/59898/delayed /quotes/nls/yhoo YHOO -0.9%
- 12:01 pm
- FBR reiterates buy rating on Microsoft
- by Sue Chang
- Add a Comment
Analysts at FBR were upbeat on Microsoft's outlook for fiscal 2015 after getting a glimpse of CEO Satya Nadella's email to employees in which he outlined the company's strategy going forward.
We believe the key takeaway from the email was Mr. Nadella's reiteration of the company's commitment toward its cloud/mobile focus, which we think will ultimately help reignite optimism out of the gates for FY15.
The analysts maintained their outperform rating on the stock. Microsoft shares edged up 0.1% to $41.71.
- 12:30 pm
- Gold miners gain as gold rallies
- by Sue Chang
- Add a Comment
Gold producers were mostly higher on Thursday in the wake of stronger gold prices as investors moved away from stocks on signs of an imminent end to the Federal Reserve's bond-buying program.
A sell-off in European stocks sparked by fears over financial problems in Portugal's banking system further added to gold's safe-haven appeal.
Newmont Mining /quotes/zigman/235723/delayed /quotes/nls/nem NEM climbed 0.9%.
Barrick Gold a /quotes/zigman/12772/delayed /quotes/nls/abx ABX is up 1.1%.
Agnico-Eagle Mines /quotes/zigman/16580/delayed /quotes/nls/aem AEM rose 1.9%.
Yamana Gold /quotes/zigman/28132/delayed /quotes/nls/auy AUY added 2.2%.
Eldorado Gold /quotes/zigman/15641/delayed /quotes/nls/ego EGO gained 0.5%.
- 12:53 pm
- Lumber Liquidators shares fall through floor
- by Sue Chang
- Add a Comment
Home-improvement stocks are having a rough day after Lumber Liquidators /quotes/zigman/581086/delayed /quotes/nls/ll LL projected weak second-quarter earnings late Wednesday.
Home Depot /quotes/zigman/229488/delayed /quotes/nls/hd HD is off 1.7% and Lowe's /quotes/zigman/232508/delayed /quotes/nls/low LOW is down 1.1%.
Lumber Liquidators' downbeat forecast prompted several analysts to cut their own projections. "Given consecutive quarterly EPS misses and limited near-term visibility, we think investors will view LL as a show-me stock over the next few months," said analyst Laura Champine at Canaccord Genuity.
Champine also slashed Lumber Liquidators' price target to $100 from $122 but reiterated the stock's buy rating.
Shares of the flooring retailer slumped 21% to $55.94.
- 1:09 pm
- Stocks fall as amid overseas concerns
- by Anora Mahmudova
- Add a Comment
Renewed worries about Europe's banking system may be an excuse rather than a reason for the market's pullback, says J.C. Parets, founder and president of Eagle Bay Capital. He says the market is typically weak in July and in August as well.
- 1:23 pm
- Crumbs skyrockets 1,500% on investor financing report
- by Wallace Witkowski
- Add a Comment
It's not often you get a stock jumping more than 1,500% in one day, but shares of beleaguered cupcake chain Crumbs Bake Shop Inc. /quotes/zigman/35808413/delayed /quotes/nls/crmb CRMB have done just that.
Following a report on CNBC that Crumbs, which closed all its remaining stores on Monday after a Nasdaq delisting the week before, will get financing in preparation for an eventual takeover by an investors group. Shares went from 3 cents to as much as 51 cents in about two hours.
Crumbs CEO and General Counsel Edward Slezak said the chain is pursuing restructuring options but didn't name names of investors, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The original CNBC report is here.
- 1:29 pm
- Market update
- by Anora Mahmudova
- Add a Comment
Stocks are still recouping opening losses and but still in the red.
Dow -0.31%
Nasdaq -.0.17%
- 1:36 pm
- Stocks continue to walk off bruising from Portugal
- by Wallace Witkowski
- Add a Comment
Stocks keep working their way back from a big early morning drop.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/zigman/627449/realtime DJIA was down 45 points, or 0.3%, at 16,940, after touching an intraday low of 16,805.38.
The S&P 500 Index /quotes/zigman/3870025/realtime SPX was down nearly 5 points, or 0.2%, at 1,968, after touching an intraday low of 1,952.74.
The Nasdaq Composite Index /quotes/zigman/12633936/realtime COMP was down 7 points, or 0.2%, at 4,412, after hitting an intraday low of 4,351.04.
- 1:51 pm
- Gold futures settle at highest since March
- by Myra Saefong
- Add a Comment
Gold futures settled at their highest level since March, finding support as a decline in U.S. equities lured investors to the perceived safety of precious metal.
August gold /quotes/zigman/11829489/delayed GCQ4 tacked on $14.90, or 1.1%, to settle at $1,339.20 an ounce on Comex. Tracking the most-active contracts, that was the highest close since March 19.
- 2:11 pm
- TRW Automotive surges on taker bit
- by Anora Mahmudova
- Add a Comment
TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. confirmed it has received a nonbinding buyout offer and said it is evaluating the bid as well as other options.
Shares surged in recent trading, rising as 9% to $99.67, a record high. With those gains, its market value is approaching $11 billion.
- 2:18 pm
- Add a Comment
If we somehow close positive today, the bears are going to have a fit. $SPX $SPY
— PWC Capital (@PWCCAPITAL) July 10, 2014
- 2:35 pm
- Silverblatt: Market is stronger than thought
- by Anora Mahmudova
- Add a Comment
From Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P DOW JONES INDICES
I'm not looking for the market to decline, but given the global reaction (and reviews) to Espírito Santo, the U.S. initial reaction seems mild. Volume did not spike up, the S&P 500 was off 1.01% at one point (the last 1% decline was on April 10th for a 2.09% decline), and now stands off 0.50%.
Remember at the start of the year when the top-down earnings estimates from economists were so much higher than bottom-up (sell-side), with the explanation being that the economy was stronger than thought (takes a licking and keeps on ticking). The rational was that the economy had taken everything Washington , mother nature, a fickled consumer, and a cash-hording board room could throw at it, and still survived (please don't get me started on Q1 GDP, because while most written reports play it down, the few I speak to do seem to have concerns).
I may regret suggesting this (maybe even today), but perhaps the market is stronger than thought. The underlying fundamental are good – earnings, cash-flow, debt levels, cash, dividends,…, but the perception is not. Fund and money managers have stayed in the market, with the joke being that they are too scared to be out of it, and new money has not significantly come in, even as markets have set new highs.
It is going to take an event to get either of these two to change their course – but at this point Portugal does not appear to do it for fund managers. Earnings season starts tomorrow with the banks (Wells Fargo), with Monday being C, Tuesday JPM, GS, JNJ, and YHOO and INTC after the close. If we do better than the current high expectations call for, we could move over the 2K and back over 17K level and stay there, at least for through earnings season, however, if they disappoint, we could get that correction we keep talking (and talking, and talking) about.
- 2:44 pm
- Nymex oil logs first gain in 10 sessions
- by Myra Saefong
- Add a Comment
Oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange rebounded on Thursday to log their first gain in 10 trading sessions.
"Sellers simply became exhausted and began to book profits," said Tyler Richey, an analyst for the 7:00's Report.
August crude /quotes/zigman/2196851/delayed CLQ4 tacked on 64 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $102.93 a barrel.
- 2:44 pm
- More on Cynk Technology
- by Anora Mahmudova
- Add a Comment
If one stock captures the bubbliness of this market, it's this one, writes Shawn Langlois
It's "Throwback Thursday", starring Cynk Technology CYNK .
As of Wednesday's close, the stock had rallied almost 25,000% over the past few weeks, pushing its nosebleed valuation toward $5 billion and sending traders (and markets reporters) on an Internet goose chase to figure out what it's all about.
They discovered, well, almost nothing. Literally. No revenue, no assets, no discernible product and just one employee. For some fun with numbers, check out this SEC filing.
- 2:59 pm
- Wells Fargo reports
- by Anora Mahmudova
- Add a Comment
Wells Fargo is almost ready to roll with the good times, writes Philip van Doorn.
Investors would be wise to look past some ugly second-quarter numbers.
Investors in Wells Fargo & Co., the first of the big U.S. banks to release second-quarter earnings, will undoubtedly feel a bit of pain Friday, with lower mortgage-banking revenue and squeezed net interest margins crimping profits.
Wells Fargo shares are trading down 0.8%, but the stock returned 14% since the start of the year, more than double of the S&P 500.
- 3:21 pm
- Potbelly plunges
- by Anora Mahmudova
- Add a Comment
Potbelly Corp. plunged 25% : The restaurant chain forecast weaker-than-expected sales in the second quarter and lowered its 2014 per-share earnings outlook to range of 18 cents to 21 cents versus 43 cents to 46 cents.
- 3:26 pm
- Frozen yogurt to go the way of cupcakes?
- by Anora Mahmudova
- Add a Comment
Is frozen yogurt the next big food trend to fade? Stocks fade on European banking concerns. Adrienne Mitchell reports.
- 3:55 pm
- Losses cut in half
- by Victor Reklaitis
- Add a Comment
With just a few minutes to go in the session, the main indexes are set to end lower, but well off the day's lows.
The Dow had plunged as much as 180 points, but it was just down 69 points at last check.
Dow -0.4%
Nasdaq -0.5%
- 4:01 pm
- The close!
- by Victor Reklaitis
- Add a Comment
And that's the closing bell…
Dow -0.4% or -70 points, according to preliminary FactSet data
Nasdaq -0.5%
- 4:08 pm
- That's all, folks
- by Victor Reklaitis
- Add a Comment
Well, that was a pretty decent comeback, though stocks ended in the red.
Why did stocks recover most of their losses? Strategists are saying fears about Portugal's banking sector abated as the session progressed, and there was some buy-the-dip behavior by investors.
That's a wrap for today's live blog. Thanks for checking it out.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Wabash Hosts State Music Conference
by Eileen Bowen
October 6, 2010
Get directions to Wabash College Fine Arts Center
For more than 120 years, the
Indiana Music Teachers Association
(IMTA) has fostered the instruction, study and performance of music. On Friday and Saturday, the Wabash College Music Department will host the 2010 IMTA state conference.
With the theme
"Teaching Music—Making a Difference,"
50 college professors, college students, and independent music teachers will gather for discussions, presentations, and, of course, recitals, master classes, and concerts. The music events on the conference schedule are open to the community.
Cheryl Everett, Wabash adjunct instructor of piano and organ, has organized this year's conference.
The Friday schedule features Conference Clinician Reid Alexander and Conference Artist
Edward Auer
(photo right)
Alexander, professor of piano and pedagogy at the University of Illinois, is one of the most widely published pedagogues in his field.
In conjunction with the Visiting Artists Series and the Music Department, Auer, a leading interpreter of the works of Frederic Chopin and faculty member at Indiana University, will present an 8:00 p.m. recital in Salter Concert Hall.
In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth, Auer's recital will include a sonata by Franz Schubert and Chopin's 24 Preludes.
Jeff Sparks, founder and CEO of the Heartland Truly Moving Pictures, will speak to the members at their Friday evening banquet in a talk entitled "The Amazing Mrs. Miller—How One Incredible Lady Changed My Life."
Two Wabash seniors will perform for—and be critiqued by—Prof. Auer in the master class on Saturday morning from 8:45 - 10:15 a.m. in Salter Concert Hall.
Stephen Maynard '11
will play Schubert's
Op. 90, No. 3, and
Tian Tian '11
(photo left)
will offer Chopin's
No. 1, Op. 23.
The world premiere of the IMTA's commissioned 2010 composition, written by
Don Freund
, professor of composition at Indiana University, will be Saturday's highlight.
for piano, violin, and cello, will be performed in Korb Classroom at 3:50 p.m.
The IMTA's 24,000-member parent organization, the Music Teachers National Association, was founded in 1876 by Theodore Presser, who is remembered not only as the publisher of
The Etude
music magazine and the founder of the Presser Music Publishing Company, but also as a philanthropist in the cause of music education.
The focus of the IMTA—and the conference this week—is to support efforts to retain music as an essential element in a complete education. The IMTA offers certification programs to recognize pedagogical competence, and organizes composition and performance competitions for student participation.
Wabash College
301 W Wabash Ave Crawfordsville, IN 47933 765.361.6100


text:
At some point today, 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' will officially pass 'Iron Man 3' at the box-office to become the biggest movie of 2013 with just over $409 million.
This may not sound like a huge deal, but this marks the first time a female-led movie has topped the yearly box-office chart in almost 50 years.
As it stood yesterday, 'Iron Man 3′ has grossed $409 million domestically with 'Catching Fire' at $407.1 million, but with 'Iron Man 3′ out of theaters and 'Catching Fire' still playing in over 2,000 theaters, the latest 'Hunger Games' movie will take the number one spot by the day's end.
It's an impressive win for Lionsgate and their 'Hunger Games' franchise for two reasons.
First, 'Catching Fire' is one of only two movies in the 2013 box-office top 10 that wasn't released in 3D (with 'Fast and Furious 6' being the other).
That it was able to catch 'Iron Man 3,' which was released in 3D and IMAX 3D in a prime summer slot, is surprising actually.
Is this proof that audiences have had enough of 3D and are more interested in good movies? (We should note that the performance of 'Iron Man 3′ overseas was much higher than 'Catching Fire' where 3D returns are often much higher.)
Secondly, and perhaps more important, 'Catching Fire' will be the first female-led movie to top the yearly box-office since Julie Andrews climbed ev'ry mountain in 1959′s 'The Sound of Music.'
Combined with 'Gravity' (another female-led film in the top 10), movies with strong female leads grossed over $660 million.
In a system where we, among others, have openly wondered why it's so hard to make a good female superhero movie, maybe this is the evidence Hollywood needs that women can be just as much the action stars as men. We can all bitch about it until we're blue in the face, but money talks, and this strong performance by Jennifer Lawrence and Sandra Bullock might be too much money to ignore.


text:
Production of the Mustang began in Dearborn, Michigan on March 9, 1964 and the automobile was introduced to the general public on April 17, 1964 at the New York World's Fair. It is Ford's 3rd oldest nameplate currently in production. Original sales projections predicted less than 100,000 units for the first year. This mark was surpassed in three months from rollout. Another 318,000 would be offered during the design year (a record), and in its very first eighteen months, more than one million Mustangs were constructed.
When the 1969 ford mach mustang was outfitted with the 428 Cobra Jet engine the vehicle ended up being an outright powerhouse. Simply beginning the engine of among these mustangs advertised its power and capacity. There were engines available with less power readily available for the 1969 ford mach mustang but few people choose this calmer variation of the brand-new mustang. Those who thought to inquire desired the most effective engine their cash might by and a lot of car sellers only evaluated and advertised the much admired Cobra Jet engine.
Ford Mustangs For Sale
All of these were VIN-identified as 1965 models, however several changes were made at the traditional opening of the new design year (beginning August 1964), consisting of the addition of back-up lights on some models, the intro of generators to replace generators, and an upgrade of the V8 engine from 260 cu into 289 cu in. When it comes to at least some six-cylinder Mustangs fitted with the 101 hp 170 cu in Falcon engine, the rush into production consisted of some unusual quirks, such as a horn ring bearing the 'Ford Falcon' logo design below a trim ring emblazoned with 'Ford Mustang.' These qualities made enough difference to call for classification of the 121,538 earlier ones as "1964 1/2" model-year Mustangs, a distinction that has actually withstood with purists. Mustangs For Sale in Caldwell TX are easy to find now with online shopping.
The 1973 OPEC oil embargo brought with it more rigid pollution laws and the desire for fuel-efficiency. This was also the very first time in vehicle history that the Huge 3 were having to compete with imports. The brand-new Mustang II was smaller than the first variation but, due to the additional devices needed to satisfy brand-new United States emission and safety policies, was much heavier than the very first design. Efficiency was reduced and in the first year just 385,993 cars were offered.
Second generation Mustangs for sale in Caldwell TX were offered between 1974 and 1978 and readily available in a coupe and hatchback version. 1979 the Mustang was upgraded a 3rd time. This time it was based on the bigger Fox platform and the interior was really large enough for 4 people. The trunk was bigger and so was the engine bay. The body designs readily available included a coupe, hatchback and in 1983 a convertible. In 1979 the 3rd generation Mustang served as an Indianapolis 500 rate vehicle and Ford built 10,478 celebratory replicas. The 3rd generation Mustangs were produced from 1979 to 1982.


text:
The Greek stock market is not reacting positively to the news that the government managed to pass its austerity vote yesterday.
The Athens market is down 2.5%, and as Efi Efthimiou notes on Twitter, banks are down 8%!
So what's the bad news? One possibility is that it was clearly a Pyrrhic victory for the Greek government.
As explained by Ekathimerini, the government had to eject several lawmakers for voting against the bill, meaning its already narrow ruling majority is reduced even further, presaging more trouble ahead.


text:
If you know of any issues that customers might encounter during the transition to IPv6, please add a subheading to this page and explain both the problem and how to address it.
«Broken» users unable to access dual-stacked content
A small number of users have some kind of misconfiguration or bug in their internet connection that makes them unable to properly access dual-stacked web sites. More often than not, these users have no problems accessing IPv4-only sites, which causes them to perceive the dual-stacked site as the one having problems. A web site operator can detect these users using JavaScript and potentially warn them about the problem, see Warning broken users with JavaScript.
The existence of these users is unfortunately causing content providers to put off enabling IPv6. For more information, see these presentations by Yahoo (https://sites.google.com/site/ipv6implementors/2010/agenda/07 Fesler Y\!atGIPv6ImpConf.pdf?attredirects=0), Google, and Redpill Linpro. There's also an article about the problem in Wikipedia.
This section attempts to document the most common causes as to why this happens, and how end users can solve it. It is based on real operational experience from running dual-stacked web sites.
Use of transitional IPv6 connectivity
Transitional IPv6 connectivity (6to4 or Teredo), is usually less reliable than IPv4. For this reason, the end user's web browser should prefer to use IPv4 when attempting to access dual-stacked site. This is well documented in I-D.vandevelde-v6ops-harmful-tunnels, as well as by researchers Emile Aben and Geoff Huston.
6to4 router functionality is implemented and often enabled by default in a large number of home gateway products made by several different vendors. This is unfortunately in accordance with Microsoft's requirements for Windows-compatible home routers. Due to the fact that not all operating systems and applications de-prefer transitional IPv6 connectivity, it is recommended to disable it (especially 6to4) whenever possible.
Earlier versions of Android preferred transitional IPv6 connectivity above IPv4, as its system resolver did not implement RFC 3484.
Solution: Upgrade Android to version 2.2 Froyo or later.
Apple Mac OS X
Mac OS X, in versions earlier than 10.6.5, do not de-prioritize 6to4 compared to IPv4.
Solution: Upgrade Mac OS X to the latest available version.
Versions predating 10.6.x «Snow Leopard»
At the time of writing, the patch that de-prioritizes 6to4 is only available for the «Snow Leopard» series (10.6.x). Avoiding 6to4 entirely is the best solution, but might not always be possible or feasible when another device in the network is announcing itself as a 6to4 router.
Users on old PowerPC systems have no upgrade path from 10.5.
Work-around: Disable IPv6 completely in the operating system: System Preferences -> Network -> Advanced -> TCP/IP -> Configure IPv6 -> Off.
The GNU C Library will de-prefer transitional IPv6 connectivity if the local IPv4 address is not a private one (RFC 1918), due to a strict interpretation of RFC 3484 (see SW#11438).
Solution: Upgrade the Linux distribution to Debian Squeeze, Fedora 13 Goddard, Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, Mandriva 2010.1 Spring, openSUSE 11.3, Gentoo 2010-04-25, or any later versions.
Alternative solution: Add the following lines to the file /etc/gai.conf (create it if it doesn't exist):
Microsoft Windows
MS Windows automatically enables Teredo and 6to4 whenever possible. The system resolver library will de-prioritize their use, but not all applications use the system resolver library and will therefore end up preferring the less reliable transitional IPv6 connectivity.
Solution: Disable 6to4 and Teredo, by entering the following commands in an Administrator shell:
Internet Connection Sharing
If Internet Connection Sharing is enabled on any interface (it doesn't even have to be connected), the Windows hosts will announce itself as an IPv6 router to the local network. This will in turn cause problems for other operating systems that doesn't de-prioritize transitional IPv6 connectivity, notably Mac OS X (see above).
Solution: Disable 6to4 and Teredo as described above, and also ensure Internet Connection Sharing is disabled whenever unused.
Opera web browser
The Opera web browser uses its own resolver library, and would in versions earlier than 10.50 (on Microsoft Windows) and 10.63 (on Mac OS X and Linux) prefer transitional IPv6 connectivity above IPv4.
Solution: Upgrade Opera to the latest available version.
Home gateways and broadband routers
The AirPort and Time Capsule wireless base stations will advertise the prefix ::/64 on their LAN interfaces if they are set up with IPv6 mode tunnel while having a private (RFC 1918) address assigned to their WAN interfaces. As the resulting auto-configured addresses are invalid, hosts on the LAN will suffer dual-stack breakage. The bug was last reported in firmware version 7.4.2, and is confirmed to be fixed in firmware version 7.5.2).
Solution: Upgrade the firmware of the AirPort/Time Capsule to the latest available version (instructions).
Certain AVM FRITZ!Box models (at least 7270 International v2) is known to have ULA (RFC 4193) functionality based on recommendations from I-D.ietf-v6ops-ipv6-cpe-router revision 07 or earlier. When enabled, this leads to dual-stack problems for all hosts behind the router due to the fact that ULA addresses aren't special-cased by any modern operating system. ULA addresses cannot be used for connectivity to the global IPv6 internet.
Solution: Ensure ULA functionality is disabled. This can be done from the router's web interface - instructions follows:
- Open http://fritz.box/ with your web browser.
- Enter your FRITZ!Box password.
- Click Settings (towards the top of the window).
- Click Internet.
- On the left, click Account Information.
- Select the IPv6 tab on the right side, towards the top of the window, under the heading Account information.
- You are now on the IPv6 settings page. The last section of this page is called Unique Local Addresses. In this section, select do not assign unique local addresses (ULA) (not recommended).
- Click Apply.
Cisco Linksys
E2000, E3000, and E4200
These models (and possibly others which share the same code) offers by default DHCPv6 service that assigns addresses to the LAN hosts from the documentation prefix 2001:db8::/32. However, no ICMPv6 Router Advertisements are being sent in this case, which causes the LAN hosts to not have a default route, thus causing the host operating stack to generate fast internal failures when IPv6 is attempted.
They also enable 6to4 router functionality by default. If 6to4 is active (i.e. if the WAN interface is numbered using a public IPv4 address), ICMPv6 Router Advertisements will be transmitted to the LAN segment, containing a Prefix Information Option for the 6to4 prefix.
Luckily, the networking stack in Microsoft Windows will immediately remove the DHCPv6-assigned bogon address from 2001:db8::/32 upon receiving an ICMPv6 Router Avertisement. As Microsoft Windows is the only major operating system that supports DHCPv6 (and uses it even when there are no ICMPv6 RAs), end users are unlikely to experience brokenness due to this issue.
The recent firmware revisions disable both 6to4 and the DHCPv6 service with the bogon addresses by default, solving all known problems.
Solution: Upgrade the router firmware to the firmware version indicated below (or newer):
- E2000: 1.0.04 (build 07)
- E3000: 1.0.04 (build 06)
- E4200: 1.0.04 (build 07)
Select the Downloads tab on the pages linked to above in order to acquire the latest firmware image and its corresponding release notes.
IPv6/6to4 settings can be configured from (assuming 192.168.1.1 is the IPv4 address of the device):
- E4200: http://192.168.1.1/SystemConfig.asp
- E3000: http://192.168.1.1/System.asp (the on/off toggle is labeled Vista Premium)
- E2000: Unknown - probably one of the above.
This model (and possibly others) uses the bogon range 2005:123:456:789::/64 as its default DHCPv6 pool. These addresses cannot be used to communicate with the IPv6 internet, and their presence on end-user hosts will cause end-user brokenness.
Solution: Ensure the router is operating in IPv4-only mode. This setting is found under Setup -> IP Versions in its web interface.
Several D-Link models from the DSL series (at least DSL-584T, DSL-G624T, DSL-G664T, and DSL-G684T), do not correctly forward DNS responses for hostnames with both A and AAAA records published. What it does is to stuff the first 32 bits of the AAAA record into the A record that's being returned to the end user's computer. In other words, getipv6.info will incorrectly resolve to 22.214.171.124 (the 2001:0500: part of the IPv6 address). If the operating system or web browser prefers to use IPv4, it will be unable to connect to the destination.
Italian ISP Wind/Infostrada is reported to have distributed the DSL-G624T to its customer base over a period of several years.
It doesn't happen all the time - it appears to be timing-dependent. Older Mozilla Firefox browsers are hit particularly bad, due to the fact that they will request AAAA lookups even if the local host does not have an IPv6 address.
Solution: Attempt to upgrade the firmware of the router to the latest version. If that doesn't help, replace the router.
Solution/work-around: If the user is using Mozilla Firefox, upgrade to version 4.0 or newer.
Alternative work-around: Disable IPv6 in the operating system, which will in most cases suppress AAAA lookups.
Bugs in operating system TCP/IP stacks
Apple iOS
No fallback from IPv6 to IPv4
Apple iOS is not able able to fall back from IPv6 to IPv4, if the initial IPv6 connection attempt fails due to blackholing. An error message is displayed after a timeout of about 60 seconds instead. If errors are generated by the network, on the other hand, it will successfully fail over; either instantly (TCP RSTs), or after four seconds (ICMPv6 unreachables).
Short of ensuring that any IPv6 connectivity present work perfectly, there is no known workaround. IPv6 cannot be disabled in iOS.
This bug is reported to Apple in #8702877. The latest iOS version the bug has been confirmed to be present in is 4.3.
Apple Mac OS X
Use of IPv6 with only link/site-local addresses
When attempting to connect to a dual-stacked destination when the system has only link-local IPv6 addresses (but at the same time a default IPv6 route), a 75 second timeout is incurred per AAAA record. IPv6 is preferred over IPv4 in this case due to lack of support for RFC 3484 in Mac OS X's system resolver. A system will be vulnerable to this bug if it has received an ICMPv6 Router Advertisement message that does not contain any Prefix Information Options, for example.
Portugese ISP SAPO is known to distribute a CPE to its customers (Pirelli A1000G) that emits such RAs by default, and the D-Link DIR series of routers will do so as well (at least DIR-655, DIR-825, and DIR-855).
Hosts running Microsoft Windows (at least Vista) with Internet Connection Sharing enabled can also emit such prefix-less RAs, in certain situations (possibly limited to when two network interfaces are bridged).
This will especially affect users of Mozilla Firefox older than version 4.0, as it will request AAAA records even though the system does not have any global IPv6 addresses (see bug #614526), and will attempt to connect to the IPv6 addresses in preference to falling back to IPv4. Safari also suffered from this problem up until Mac OS X 10.6.4. It will also affect users of the virtualisation software Parallels Desktop (regardless of the browser used), because its virtual network interfaces have site-local IPv6 addresses assigned, in turn making the AI_ADDRCONFIG flag to getaddrinfo() ineffective.
Solution/work-around: If the user is using Mozilla Firefox, upgrade to version 4.0 or newer.
Work-around: Disable IPv6 completely in the operating system: System Preferences -> Network -> Advanced -> TCP/IP -> Configure IPv6 -> Off.
Similarly, the "ssh" client application (accessible in a MacOS X shell) initiates connections to global scope IPv6 addresses even if the OS only has link-local addresses in its interfaces.
Solution: None. Bug with ID 8820407 is open with Apple.
Handling of Router Advertisements with a lifetime of 0
When receiving an Router Advertisement packet with a lifetime of 0, Mac OS X-based hosts will incorrectly install a default route. It appears that a Prefix Information Option must be present in the RA packet for the bug to take effect.
The technique of using a lifetime of 0 to announce an IPv6 router without global connectivity is used by devices conforming to I-D.ietf-v6ops-ipv6-cpe-router in the case where ULA addressing are used within the residental site. In this situation the Mac OS X host will attempt to use ULA IPv6 addresses for global connectivity, leading to timeouts towards dual-stacked content.
Apple bug ID: 8705091.
Work-around: Disable IPv6 completely in the operating system: System Preferences -> Network -> Advanced -> TCP/IP -> Configure IPv6 -> Off.
Handling of ICMPv6 Destination Unreachable
When a router in the network responds to a TCP SYN packet with an ICMPv6 Destination Unreachable, Mac OS X will re-transmit the TCP SYN packet five times with intervals of one second before giving up, even though the ICMPv6 code indicates that the situation is permanent and further attempts are pointless (e.g. Code 2 - Beyond scope of source address). In other words, an avoidable four-second timeout is incurred for every outgoing TCP connection.
Microsoft Windows
Handling of ICMPv6 Destination Unreachable
Microsoft Windows appears to ignore received ICMPv6 Destination Unreachable completely, instead falling back on the overall connection timeout mechanism. This causes a completely avoidable 21 second long timeout to occur for every outbound TCP connection.
Bugs in web browsers
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox does not set the AI_ADDRCONFIG flag when looking up names using the system getaddrinfo() library function, which causes it to solicit AAAA records even though the system has no IPv6 addresses (non-loopback and non-linklocal). This can trigger other problems, such as the D-Link AAAA mangling bug and the Mac OS X bug regarding the use of link-local IPv6 addresses when connecting to global destinations. The bug is fixed as of Firefox 4.0, see the bug report
Solution/work-around: Upgrade to Firefox version 4.0.
When Opera, in versions older than 11.10, is used on a Mac OS X machine that has Parallels Desktop installed, it is unable to connect to dual-stacked web sites (except if the machine in question also has connectivity to the IPv6 internet). The bug is reported to Opera Software; ID is DSK-326913.
Solution: Upgrade Opera to version 11.10 or later (currently only available as a beta release)
Work-around: Enable Opera Turbo (the setting is available in the Quick Preferences menu).
If the use of pre-release software, or Opera Turbo, is not desired by the user, either un-install Parallels Desktop (using the recommended method), or use another web browser.
Firewall Config Issue
Especially if you have users on Vista.
It does this IPv6 tunnelling thing that on the surface
appears really cool. When you try and talk IPv6 to
something other than link-local: (in order)
- If you have a non-RFC1918 (ie. 'public') address, it fires up 6to4.
- If you have an RFC1918 address, it fires up Teredo.
Seems cool in theory, and you'd think that it would really help global IPv6 deployment - I'm sure that's how it was intended, and I applaud MS for taking a first step. But in practice, however, this has essentially halted any IPv6 /content/ deployment that people want to do, as user experience is destroyed.
You can help, though - here's the problem:
6to4 uses protocol 41 over IP. This doesn't go through NAT, or stateful firewalls (generally). Much like GRE.
Because of this, if you're a enterprise-esque network operator who runs
non-RFC1918 addresses internally and do NAT, or you do stateful firewalling, PLEASE, run a 6to4 relay on 220.127.116.11 internally, but return
ICMPv6 unreachable/admin denied/whatever to anything that tries to send data out through it. Better yet, tell your firewall vendor to allow you to inspect the contents of 6to4 packets, and optionally run your own 6to4 relay, so outgoing traffic is fast.
Even if you don't want to deploy IPv6 for some time, do this at the very least RIGHT NOW, or you're preventing those of us who want to deploy AAAA records alongside our A records from doing so. If you need configs for <vendor/OS B/C/J/L>, post a message to the NANOG list and I'll write some templates.
I see this sort of IPv4 network quite commonly at universities, where students take their personal laptops and throw them on the campus 802.11 network. While disabling the various IPv6 things in Vista at an enterprise policy level might work for some networks, it doesn't for for a university with many external machines visiting. So, if you're a university with a network like this (ie. most universities here in NZ, for example), please spend a day or two to fix this problem in your network - or better yet, do a full IPv6 deployment.
--Nathan Ward
Increased Latency to your IPv6 Content
If you do deploy an IPv6 network for your content, set up a Teredo relay, and point 2001::/32 at it. Your viewers/users will automatically use this relay when accessing your content, and their traffic to you will be over IPv4, all they way from their PC to your network - so, equivalent performance as IPv4. Note that I say relay here, not server.
Mozilla.org are doing this for example. Cue Matthew Zeier.
--Nathan Ward
Check out Enabling IPv6 on a Mail Server.
Unfortunately, not all Domain Registrars are providing IPv6 Glue yet
It may be tough to get IPv6 AAAA records for your nameservers into the DNS Glue records, depending on your registrar.
Check out DNS Registrars IPv6 Support Status, let's build a list of who does and does not.


text:
Description:HP StorageWorks DAT 24 Array Module (Carbon) Offline Hot-Swap drive for Tape Array 5300Manufacturer Part# C7498A
Overview:The HP StorageWorks DAT 24 SCSI Tape Drive provides a dependable value-line solution for data protection for smaller servers and workstations. With its economical price the DDS-3 format DAT 24 drive provides outstanding value with a compressed capacity of 24GB and a transfer speed of 7.2 GB/hr (assuming 2:1 data compression). The DAT 24 comes in a choice of models - internal (which also fits in the 1U and 3U rack-mount kit) external and offline Hot-Swap array module - to suit most environments. It reads and writes DDS-3 DDS-2 and DDS-1 formats making it compatible with many older drives. The DAT 24 drive is available with a SCSI interface only.


text:
Model and reality TV star Gia Allemand died of suicide Wednesday in a New Orleans hospital, according to E! News.
The former cast member of "The Bachelor" and "Bachelor Pad" was taken Monday night to University Hospital following "a serious emergency medical event," according to her publicist.
TMZ reported that Allemand committed suicide and that she was found Monday night by her boyfriend, NBA player Ryan Anderson. She had suffered "critical loss of brain and organ function." Her mom, Anderson and other friends were in the hospital when she was taken off life support.
The website quoted "multiple" people close to 29-year-old Allemand as saying she was recently extremely upset about her relationship with Anderson.
A couple of hours after the family made their initial announcement concerning Allemand's hospitalization, her friend and beauty expert Melinda Farina tweeted "@GiaAllemand is on life support w little pulse and barely breathing ..cause unknown ..next 48 hours critical please pray for Gia everyone," she wrote. "I'm so sad about my best friend right now…how could this have happened to such an incredible person..she needs to come out of it!"
Allemand is best known for making the final three in Season 14 of "The Bachelor," before Jake Pavelka eventually picked Vienna Girardi.
Contact Tony Hicks at Facebook.com/BayAreaNewsGroup.TonyHicks or Twitter.com/insertfoot.


text:
To contact Eclipse Direct Marketing, please call our New York office directly at 212-931-8344.
For all other inquiries, please click here.
• Unparalleled team experience with multiple layers of expertise
• Aggressive negotiations and significant list cost reductions based on our historic overall volume and extensive network of sites and partners.
• Analysis expertise, extensive research and experience enables us to filter through poor and poorly managed data
• Longstanding client relationships with best-in-class brands
• Unmatched passion and commitment to your success
• Proactive response to industry changes
• Consistent, appreciable results
• Leading the industry in new initiatives


text:
Josh Mendelsohn's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
from the the-engine-edition deptWhen a group of entrepreneurs, early-stage investors, and others in the startup community started Engine Advocacy almost a year ago, we set out to help policy makers understand startups while also bringing awareness of the importance of the policymaking process back to startups. Techdirt was a guiding source.
This week, I offer my perspective gained in Washington as an Engine steering committee member learning about the sausage-making process. I've grown to respect and reject elements of lawmaking and bring that back to the startup world.
A recurring theme any reader of Techdirt can't miss is the horrible exploitation of the patent system. What started with Patent Trolls is beginning to turn the tech community on itself. But the courts are largely to blame as well, either through miseducation and ignorance or opportunism. This week, when the USPTO announced the introduction of third-party commenting, they presented some potential opportunities for startups to formally engage in the fight against overbroad patents. It will be important experiment.
Despite this step in the right direction, recent "reform" that moved the country to a first-to-file system requires startups to be vigilant and show proof of prior work or suggest why a patent should not be granted when overbroad. This significant burden has been painted as reform but it will provide cover to those who have been granted vague or overbroad protections.
On the same theme, the Techdirt team has another good post recapping the decision against RIM that assessed $147.2m in damages for accused infringement on a questionable patent. The cycle continues.
AT&T's ambiguity this week around plans to charge users an additional fee for accessing Apple's Facetime product over 3G/4G was also disappointing given the potential chilling effect it poses. Many users are already paying outsized fees for data plans that aren't keeping pace with technological development. Should carriers follow this path, they will limit user choice, establish further precedent for restricting content, and effectively double-charge users.
Further, Engine is generally concerned about the allocation and use of the nation's spectrum resources and committed to making sure innovative wireless technologies are not limited by poor policymaking. Engine recently co-hosted an event with Stanford's Center on Internet and Society and Gigaom emphasizing the importance of innovation and opportunity on unlicensed spectrum.
Finally, on a lighter note, Techdirt reported this week on three separate and equally laughable Olympic flaps all related to "brand" protection. These range from the brand police to the restaurant forced to change its name. Nevermind the White House's call for Americans to throw Olympics-related parties. The absurdity of the IOC has been an amusing theme this spring, though awash in the sea of brand-related marketing hype surrounding the events. But then again, this is an IOC that requires 3000 chauffeured cars for the events -- and each driver needs to be in black hat.
Snarkiness aside, Engine has been up to some pretty neat work. We'll shortly be issuing a policy briefing book to help educate congressional candidates as well as a detailed report helping demonstrate startups' massive impact on the U.S. economy. If you'd like to stay informed, sign up here. If your company would like to join our 300+ members, you can do so here. There's no cost to become a member, but signing up helps us understand where our membership is located and invite your company to relevant events -- say a district meeting with your member of Congress.


text:
Angry Birds Star Wars 2 Trailer: Carbonite Flings Jabba and Lando into the Mix
A new update to Angry Birds Star Wars 2 brings a frozen Han for you to fling at all those evil hams.
New playable characters in Rovio's Carbonite Pack include Han Solo in Carbonite, Lando, Jabba the Hutt, Wicket the Ewok, the Jedi Kit Fisto, Palpatine's Royal Crimson Guard, a Red Shock Trooper and a Tusken Raider. Wicket the Ewok will split mid-launch into an army of Ewoks to help raise terror against the Emperor's Piggies. Carbonite Han flies like a brick but provides a heavy amount of damage with each pull. Kit will swing in multiple circles with his lightsaber out, maximizing the number of things that he hits (a shame he couldn't hit Palpatine). Of course, Jabba is the head of a giant, green piggy and has a ton of endurance.
Beware the Pork Side now that Angry Birds Star Wars 2's Carbonite Pack is finally available with its eight new characters, four secret levels and a variety of new physics mechanics for you to experiment with.


text:
Mitered Knitting with Laura Bryant and Barry Klein, from Knitting Daily TV Episode 805
Explore form and function in your knitwear on this episode of Knitting Daily TV, hosted by editor of Interweave Knits magazine Eunny Jang and experts Kristin Omdahl and Shay Pendray.
On this show's How-To segment, Eunny welcomes Laura Bryant and Barry Klein to talk about mitered magic. Mitered square knitting is an easy technique that can be the stepping stone to building fun and functional pieces of knitwear. Download the Jane Mitered Purse pattern seen on this episode, made completely out of mitered squares.
Sponsored by Prism Arts, Inc. and Trendsetter Yarns.
Get the entire Series 800 of Knitting Daily TV on a 4-Disc DVD Collection! Click here to purchase DVDs and individual episodes of this season or previous seasons of Knitting Daily TV.
ABOUT THE SHOW: Knitting Daily TV is an exciting needle crafts how-to program on public television covering everything from knitting and crochet to stitching, felting, and spinning. The show guides viewers in learning to make fun yet smart one-of-a-kind designs using the latest products in yarn and fiber. Download free patterns, meet trendsetting knit and crochet designers, and improve or learn new skills and techniques.
Click here to find the PBS station nearest you airing the program. (You can enter your zip code or click "view all schedules/get listings" to see all the cities that air the show and when.)
Knitting Daily TV is airing on PBS stations nationwide and new markets are being added to the schedule all the time. Each individual public television station chooses when and if to air the program. If it is not airing in your local market, please call, write, or email and let them that know you are a viewer of the station and would like to see Knitting Daily TV. You can help bring Knitting Daily TV to your local PBS Station. Thank you!


text:
SF311 Featured Space SF311 Featured Space
For a police, fire, medical, or other emergency, call 911 immediately
Need help or language assistance? Dial 3-1-1 (within SF) or 415-701-2311 (TTY 415-701-2323) - 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
Carousel Carousel
Learn how to become a jury member
To learn more, visit sfcdcp.org/flu
Find out what you can do to prepare for the rains at sfwater.org/RainReadySF
If you love it, don't leave it
What would you like to get rid of? Find the highest and best use.
What would you like to get rid of? Find the highest and best use.
Business Registration Online.
Check out our Calendar of Events!
Cold Weather Safety Preparedness
Most Requested Info Most Requested Info
- Birth Certificates
- Boards and Commissions
- City Employee Phone Book Directory
- Events in San Francisco
- Explore SF311 Data
- Garbage & Recycling
- Healthy San Francisco
- Holiday Parking Meter Enforcement
- Homeless Concerns and Resources
- How to Start a Business
- Muni Bus Arrival Time Information
- Noise Issues / Complaints
- Police - File a Non Emergency Report
- Property Tax Resources
- Track Service Requests


text:
Carlos Barquin necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 88 diseños de 29 diseñadores freelance.
High end wedding photographer looking for boutique style logo for new photography buseiness. This would be a separate business from my established children's photography business.
Barquin Photography
I'm looking for a boutique style design for my wedding photography business.
I currently have a children and family portrait studio http://www.lppgallery.com but I'm looking to create a separate brand for my wedding clients. I'm looking for a classy, clean sheek artisic design with a fine boutique feel.
I'd really like to have something that would work with my current lppgallery.com so that I can work both business from the same studio.
It must be easy to read.
I would like to stay within 3 colors the blue and brown in my children's website and the green in the
But feel free to show me your creativity if you see something different.
I'd like to have a B used in the design so that I can use it on it's own.
Looking forward to seeing your logo ideas.
I would like the final logo in layers so I can use it in parts if needed and I would like to be able to change the colors.
I also would like to see a b/w version.
Here are some websites of logos that catch my eye. Please use them as a source for inspration only.
- Should not have any camera graphic, film graphic or anything like that.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


text:
They came with music in their hearts and lyrics on their lips.
An audition pool of nearly 50 hopefuls from across Orange and Los Angeles counties and the Inland Empire has now been whittled to four.
The finalists of the Pacific Symphony production "OC Can You Sing?" know that it's almost time for a victor to emerge.
Nearing the end of its second run, this is a competition for amateur singers over the age of 18 who filmed themselves singing and submitted video clips between October and November. An initial screening by a panel of Pacific Symphony judges reduced the group to 15 performers, who were invited to Segerstrom Hall for an audition Dec. 15. Public voting ensued between Dec. 17 and Jan. 23.
With nearly 1,500 votes spread almost evenly among the four singers, Richard Kaufman, the principal Pops conductor for Pacific Symphony, decided to send the entire group to the next round. At 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, each finalist, accompanied by an approximately 80-piece orchestra, will belt out Broadway hits during the first half of Pops concerts, which will later star sax star Kenny G. Voters will cast ballots for their favorite, the results of which will be revealed Feb. 18.
Once crowned, the winner will sing a solo spot in an upcoming Pops concert.
The Daily Pilot invited Brooke deRosa, 33, a Burbank-based singer and composer; Monty Linton, 44, of Tustin, a member of the Men Alive Chorus; Amanda Strader, 27, a tutor from Dana Point who enjoys singing show tunes and opera; and Grant Yosenick, an 18-year-old USC music student from Laguna Niguel, to chat about the journey thus far.
Excerpts from those interviews follow.
Why singing? What does it mean to you?
Yosenick: For me, singing has been a way to express myself and channel my energy. Not being very athletic, singing has been my passion and it's given me a voice, an avenue to freely explore my real ability within the arts.
Strader: I think singing is something you have to take personally and enjoy yourself before you share it with others. When you think about instruments, pianos, violins, clarinets and whatnot, they have keys, and you're reading a sequence of notes, playing keys at a very specific time, and there's expression within your air. But your voice is you, your body and your air — it's all you.
Linton: Singing, for me, was something that came naturally, so I didn't have to study it. I stood out compared to the average person, so I took that avenue and it got me into a lot of fun experiences. [I've] been able to travel and meet a lot of interesting people.
DeRosa: I was a really awkward and unpopular person, and singing, for me, no matter what I was singing, was an opportunity to be some other character. I suppose I saw it as an escape from my life and was able to go into the shoes of somebody else for a while.
Who's your all-time music idol, and why?
Yosenick: Even though I haven't heard a ton of his music, Andrea Bocelli has been an inspiration to me. I was born with a chronic visual disability and so was he, but from that he rose to such heights, and his voice is just phenomenal, of course. God gave him this great voice, and he was able to use it to move people.
Strader: I have a series of favorites, but as a musical performer, I think Celine Dion is the current superstar diva. Her show in Vegas is something else, production value aside. She sings a couple numbers in French, and I don't speak French, but when she ends up in tears, I'm in tears right there with her. To suck somebody in that deep when they have no clue what's going on is an immense talent.
Linton: I admire Linda Eder because she is kind of a normal person. She is just like everybody else — she wears plaid shirts and seems like she would grab a beer with you after a show. She always seems to be amazed that the songs are coming out of her mouth. I admire Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand and others too, but they seem so out of reach, whereas Linda Eder seems reachable.
DeRosa: It's a tough one, but I would have to say Julie Andrews. I love her classical and Disney music. She's been in films, consistently worked very, very hard and has had an extremely long career, and that's something any singer should strive for.
Who or what inspired you to sign up for "OC Can You Sing?"
Yosenick: My girlfriend's mother suggested I sign up for the contest. One day I received an email from her saying, "Oh, Grant should enter this because he's 18 and he qualifies." And now I'm here.
Strader: I was in this competition two years ago, which is what inspired me to do it again. It was the most incredible feeling.
Linton: I came and saw it when everybody sang, and I thought it was cool. I got an email from Pacific Symphony and decided to do it.
DeRosa: I actually saw the ad on Lauris List and wasn't going to send anything because I'm in this terrible world where opera people think I do too many musicals to do opera, and musical people think I do too many operas to do musicals. But I looked at the repertoire and all the songs were great soprano songs that I've sung before, and so I thought, "Ah, why not!"
What song did you sing for your audition?
Yosenick: "Bring Him Home," from "Les Misérables."
Strader: "I Dreamed A Dream," from "Les Misérables."
Linton: "This Is The Moment," from "Jekyll and Hyde."
DeRosa: "If I Loved You," from "Carousel."
What was the most nerve-wracking moment of the competition thus far?
Yosenick: The afternoon after the live auditions. It was a day of hopeful anticipation and wondering if I was or wasn't going to make it. I felt good about my audition, but there was one moment in the song where, it wasn't terribly obvious, you can hear a subtle voice crack. The rest of the song was perfect, but I was really nervous if that was going to blow it for me.
Strader: I have sung for Richard before and was nervous to do so again. I didn't know what his expectations of me were going to be — was it that I needed to be better than I was two years ago, or had I done something maybe stupidly, or was it a habit that he didn't like? But then how could I change a habit if I don't know whether or not he likes it?
Linton: The audition was the most nerve-wracking of nerve-wracking moments. My leg shakes every now and then and I don't know why, because I'm not as nervous as it would indicate I would be, and then I get nervous about the leg shaking, about not being nervous. So in my head I'm thinking, "It's going fine, I'm singing the way I want to be," and then your leg starts shaking and then your focus goes to that.
DeRosa: I don't know what planet I was living on that day, but I didn't realize that Lisa Vroman would be in the audition, and I've seen her on Broadway in "Phantom" and I've got great respect for her. As soon as I walked in, I went, "Oh my God, I have to do this in front of another soprano who's amazing," so that was my freak-out moment.
Who have you turned to for support during the competition?
Yosenick: My girlfriend's mom recommended this competition to me, and she helped me make my tape and get everything together. And of course, there's my family who I love and adore, and my girlfriend. Not to put myself down here, but I can be a nervous wreck sometimes, so their support means a lot.
Strader: My family is very different than Grant's — they think that music is a waste of time, money, effort. So I have a network of friends who love music, who I've met through the business and by doing community theater. When you find people who love music just as much as you do, they become your support group.
Linton: Facebook has supported me, and my kids. If you want the truth, you go to a child — I have a 12- and 14-year-old, and when I ask them if something sounded OK, they would say, "No."
DeRosa: All my family is on the East Coast, but [I rely on] my mom, sister and dog Dobby, who I talk to about my day and he seems sympathetic to my plight. And then my colleagues and singer friends are just always pulling for me.
What's your biggest takeaway from this experience?
Yosenick: The real prize is sort of yet to come, but for me this was the first competition I have done on my own. I really have made this competition my own — it's kind of my brainchild. I've gone for it and really been self-motivated, and the exposure is great — it's a good introduction to what the real world is like.
Strader: We all kind of felt like the greatest takeaway would be the 14th, 15th and 16th, which is yet to come. But win or lose that round, the greatest feeling is going to be onstage for us, I think.
Linton: My biggest takeaway is that I should do more stuff like this. I guess I've been really hard on myself. I know I'm not the best singer out there, so I tend not to do anything at all, or stay in a choir or in the background. But I've realized that I can get out there and do more such stuff. It doesn't have to be the greatest thing ever — it's just something to do and enjoy.
DeRosa: Winning would be the biggest takeaway, but I already feel like I've won a lot already. I'm going to get to coach with Lisa Vroman, who I'm a big fan of, I'm going to sing under Richard's baton, and I'm going to sing one of my favorite songs with an 80-piece orchestra to — give or take — 1,800 people. I'm taking that away and very happy with it.
What would victory on this platform mean to you?
Yosenick: It would be a really big achievement for you, especially considering that I'm the youngest one of the group here. It would show that I could do this whole music thing on a professional level. We're all winners here in the sense that we're getting this opportunity. But if I was to win the competition, it would prove to me that I can make it in this industry.
Strader: I think that by winning this and getting to come back and sing in the Fall Pops concert, it would validate that I haven't wasted that time on music that my family thinks I have, that it's not just in my head, and people actually enjoy and want to hear me sing. It's a huge investment when you're working against your family. Everybody tells you to do whatever makes you happy. This really does make me happy. Winning would just really help me self-confidence-wise. It feels good already — victory would just be that next level of great.
Linton: Winning would mean that I can do more of this.
DeRosa: I'm at the stage where a lot of people say that I'm too old, so it would be a huge validation. We spend so much money on lessons, coaching, shoes, auditions, copying music, buying books — I really don't know if people understand how much blood, sweat and tears goes into this.
What is your dream role?
Yosenick: I was Jean Valjean from "Les Miserables" in my high school production, so I've already kind of had my dream role. But, I mean, every role is different, and you can't really compare contemporary music to that which was written in the '40s and '50s. That said, on a musical level, I really admire what Tony in "West Side Story" gets to sing, and from a character standpoint, I like the role of the Russian in the musical, "Chess."
Strader: I think there are some great roles being written, some modern musicals being written. If I were to go to New York right now, being heavier, there are character roles that are phenomenal: I love Paulette in "Legally Blond." In a perfect world, "Wicked" would be wonderful, but it's not necessarily unique. I was thrilled with Jason Robert Brown's "The Last Five Years" — it was a great role for me vocally and a great show. To do that on a bigger stage for a longer run would be ideal at the moment.
Linton: I don't have a dream role because there is a bunch of stuff that I'd like to do. My other problem with picking one is that there isn't a single role in which every song is perfect. Maybe Ryan Seacrest's job.
DeRosa: Hands down, and by a long shot, Christine Daaé in "Phantom of the Opera."
What advice would you offer to other amateur singers considering taking the plunge on this type of contest?
Yosenick: Go for it. If you really want to do this and singing is what you love, go out there and try to make your dreams come true. It's like they say, "Do what you love, and love what you do."
Strader: Yeah, go for it. The worst thing that can happen is they will say, "No." I mean, really, there is no harm or foul. You have to be willing to put yourself out there, but if you want to do it, do it.
Twitter: @RMahbubani


text:
Beckham, Konerko help clinch Crosstown Cup
CHICAGO -- The Crosstown Cup has returned to the South Side by virtue of the White Sox 8-3 victory over the Cubs on Wednesday night at U.S. Cellular Field and a third straight dominant performance over their North Side rivals.
To be honest, this piece of hardware isn't nearly as important as the quality of baseball being played by the White Sox (18-17) with far less than the full complement of their everyday players.View Full Game Coverage
CHICAGO -- The Crosstown Cup has returned to the South Side by virtue of the White Sox 8-3 victory over the Cubs on Wednesday night at U.S. Cellular Field and a third straight dominant performance over their North Side rivals.
To be honest, this piece of hardware isn't nearly as important as the quality of baseball being played by the White Sox (18-17) with far less than the full complement of their everyday players.View Full Game Coverage
"That's great and all," said White Sox second baseman Gordon Beckham of the Cup-clinching win. "But it feels weird going to hold a trophy in the beginning of May.
"As players, we aren't taking a lot of stock in that. We are going out and playing. If we win a trophy for winning a series, then so be it."
Beckham stood out as one of the major contributors during the team's fourth straight win. The game was tied at 1 in the fourth when Beckham connected on a 1-0 slider from Travis Wood (2-4) and knocked out his second homer of the season and his second in two games.
This drive to left gave Beckham six homers and 16 RBIs over 26 career games against the Cubs. It also picked up teammate Marcus Semien, who was picked off first base by catcher Welington Castillo one batter earlier.
"Beck had his big homer, he's been swinging it pretty good," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. "I think power-wise it's a nice time to have it come."
"They put some swings on some pretty good pitches," Wood said. "Beckham made me pay when I left one up."
Wednesday's victory received additional boosts from other White Sox veterans.
John Danks (3-2) struck out a season-high eight and limited the Cubs to three runs on four hits over six innings. He thwarted a rally with runners on second and third and one out in the fifth by fanning Junior Lake off a wild swing on a changeup and then getting Anthony Rizzo looking on two changeups that appeared to be just out of the zone. His slick work kept the White Sox ahead by a 4-3 margin.
"We score three in the bottom half of the inning and go back out there and flirt with giving it right back, so yeah, it was good," said Danks of his escape act. "I was able to make some pitches and work my way out of it. I certainly don't want to give those runs back."
"He does a nice job of getting through Lake and then with Rizzo, he makes some pitches and you get out of that," Ventura said. "You get some momentum going back into your dugout, start swinging the bats."
Paul Konerko delivered the knockout punch, literally and figuratively with a bases-clearing double that chased Wood from the game in the fifth. His shot down the left-field line scored Jose Abreu, who had two doubles and a single, Dayan Viciedo and Alexei Ramirez.
Konerko is hitting .300 lifetime against the Cubs and .298 lifetime against left-handed pitchers. He also ranks second all-time with 174 RBIs in Interleague games. And when Konerko connects, even in his limited playing time, it serves as an extra lift for the entire team.
"Huge. I was top step. Proud of dad," said Beckham with a smile on his mentor. "He hasn't had as much playing time. But he knew what he signed up for and him coming through like that is a product of being around a bunch of guys that want each other to do well and are pulling for each other."
"I thought the whole lineup, up and down, had a really good approach at the plate and we stuck with it. We took our walks," Konerko said. "He likes to pitch inside a lot and guys were getting inside and hitting the ball to center field. That just led to a lot of god things. It was fun for me. It was good to get out there and help the team. That's how you draw it up."
Jake Petricka and Maikel Cleto combined to throw three hitless innings, dropping the White Sox bullpen ERA to 0.48 over the last 11 games and 1.47 since April 20. Cleto got a boost from Ramirez's spectacular back-to-the-infield running catch on a Castillo popup, which he turned into a double play with a strike to first to nail Starlin Castro.
It was one year ago when a three-game sweep at the hands of the Cubs (11-21) started the White Sox on a downward spiral that would reach 99 losses before completed. The Cubs won one more game in July for good measure.
Now, the White Sox have a chance for their own four-game whitewash. It's a chance to give the fan base another boost of pride, even with less intensity in this rivalry.
"Listen, Cubs-Sox, it's always great; there's no way it's not," Konerko said. "Is it what it was 10 years ago? It doesn't feel like it. But it's better than losing three out of four or the series.
"When I got to this team, winning this season series was just about as important if not more important than making the playoffs for some reason. It was ingrained in me early on that this was a big deal for our fans. Our fans care a lot about how we do against the Cubs. I would venture to say more than their fans care about how they do against us. I've never taken that lightly. I've known that from the beginning, so I've always tried to show up in these games and do well."
Scott Merkin is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Merk's Works, and follow him on Twitter @scottmerkin.


text:
Congratulations to the Santa Clara Sporting '97 Girls Green Team for winning the 2009 Clovis Challenge Cup. This is the teams' third consecutive championship. The girls went undefeated in their bracket taking on some of Central California's best teams. They beat the local favorites, Bullard FC (4-0) and California Odyssey (6-0) to advance to the semi-finals against a tough SVU team. The Sporting girls prevailed and advanced to the finals with a 3-0 shutout! In the finals the Sporting girls met up with the fifth ranked team in NorCal, the EDYSL Konfusion. The Sporting girls got out to an early lead and never looked back. The matched ended in a 6-0 Sporting win and the girls were crowned the 2009 Clovis Challenge Cup Champions!
The team scored 25 goals over the weekend and have accumulated 51 goals this month for GFaC. One more weekend!


text:
If passed by Congress and vigorously enforced by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Labor, an Employers Responsibility Act would ensure full-time, permanent and productive employment for millions of capable, job-seeking Americans.
Among its remaining provisions:
(7) Employers would be encouraged to hire to their widest possible limits, through a combination of financial incentives and legal sanctions. Among those incentives: Employers demonstrating a willingness to hire would receive substantial Federal tax credits, based on the number of new, permanent employees hired per year.
Employers claiming eligibility for such credits would be required to make their financial records available to Federal investigators. Employers found making false claims would be prosecuted for perjury and tax fraud, and face heavy fines and imprisonment if convicted.
(8) Among those sanctions: Employers refusing to hire could be required to prove, in court:
- Their economic inability to hire further employees, and/or
- The unfitness of the specific, rejected applicant.
Companies found guilty of unjustifiably refusing to hire would face the same penalties as now applying in cases of discrimination on the basis of age, race, sex and disability. Employers would thus fund it easier to hire than to refuse to do so. Job-seekers would no longer be prevented from even being considered for employment because of arbitrary and interminable "hiring freezes."
(9) Employers refusing to hire would be required to pay an additional "crime tax."
Sociologists and criminologists agree that "the best cure for crime is a job." Thus, employers who refuse to hire contribute to a growing crime rate in this Nation. Such non-hiring employers would be required to pay an additional tax, which would be earmarked for agencies of the criminal justice system at State and Federal levels.
(10) The seeking of "economic incentives" by companies in return for moving to or remaining in cities/states would be strictly forbidden.
Such "economic incentives" usually:
- allow employers to ignore existing laws protecting employees from unsafe working conditions;
- allow employers to ignore existing laws protecting the environment;
- allow employers to pay their employees the lowest acceptable wages, in return for the "privilege" of working at these companies; and/or
- allow employers to pay little or no business taxes, at the expense of communities who are required to make up for lost tax revenues.
(11) Employers who continue to make such overtures would be prosecuted for attempted bribery or extortion:
- Bribery, if they offered to move to a city/state in return for "economic incentives," or
- Extortion, if they threatened to move their companies from a city/state if they did not receive such "economic incentives."
This would protect employees against artificially-depressed wages and unsafe working conditions; protect the environment in which these employees live; and protect cities/states from being pitted against one another at the expense of their economic prosperity.
(12) The U.S. Departments of Justice and Labor would regularly monitor the extent of employer compliance with the provisions of this Act.
Among these measures: Sending undercover agents, posing as highly-qualified job-seekers, to apply at companies—and then vigorously prosecuting those employers who blatantly refused to hire despite their proven economic ability to do so.
This would be comparable to the long-time and legally-validated practice of using undercover agents to determine compliance with fair-housing laws.
(13) The Justice Department and/or the Labor Department would be required to maintain a publicly-accessible database on those companies that had been cited, sued and/or convicted for such offenses as
- discrimination,
- harassment,
- health and/or safety violations or
- violating immigration laws.
Employers would be legally required to regularly provide such information to these agencies, so that it would remain accurate and up-to-date.
Such information would arm job applicants with vital information about the employers they were approaching. They could thus decide in advance if an employer is deserving of their skills and dedication.
As matters now stand, employers can legally demand to learn even the most private details of an applicant's life without having to disclose even the most basic information about themselves and their history of treating employees.
(14) CEOs whose companies employ illegal aliens would be held directly accountable for the actions of their subordinates. Upon conviction, the CEO would be sentenced to a mandatory prison term of at least ten years.
This would prove a more effective remedy for controlling illegal immigration than stationing tens of thousands of soldiers on the U.S./ Mexican border. With CEOs forced to account for their subordinates' actions, they would take drastic steps to ensure their companies complied with Federal immigration laws.
Without employers eager to hire illegal aliens at a fraction of the money paid to American workers, the invasions of illegal job-seekers would quickly come to an end.
(15) A portion of employers' existing Federal taxes would be set aside to create a national clearinghouse for placing unemployed but qualified job-seekers.
* * * * *
Corporations can–and do–spend millions of dollars on TV ads, selling lies, about:
- How patriotic they are.
- How much they want to hire but can't.
- How well they treat their employees.
But Americans can choose to reject those lies–and demand that employers behave like patriots instead of predators.