Friday, December 28, 2012

Ring sparks talk of Wozniacki-McIlroy engagement

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) ? Australian media reported Friday that Caroline Wozniacki arrived to play at the Brisbane International with a diamond ring on her left ring finger, sparking speculation that she and boyfriend Rory McIlroy had become engaged.

The Australian Associated Press and other media outlets said Wozniacki wore the ring at the airport and as she prepared for her afternoon practice session at the Queensland Tennis Centre but removed it to play on court.

McIlroy, the world's No. 1 golfer, accompanied Wozniacki on her trip Down Under.

The Brisbane International begins Sunday with Wozniacki's first match in a tournament that includes Serena Willliams and Maria Sharapova, if fit.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ring-sparks-talk-wozniacki-mcilroy-engagement-133905233--spt.html

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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Five Best Thursday Columns

Jeffrey Rosen in?The New Republic?on Robert Bork?American history's most controversial Supreme Court justice nominee?died yesterday, and many are conflicted about how to remember Robert Bork. Jeffrey Rosen remembers him as the guy his boss wanted to prevent from being seated on the bench. Rosen interned for then-Senator Joe Biden in the summer of 1987, and he was pleased when Bork's nomination was defeated. But he worries about the precedent the confirmation hearing set. "The Borking of Bork was the beginning of the polarization of the confirmation process that has turned our courts into partisan war zones, resulting in more ideologically divided opinions and less intellectually adventurous nominees on the left and the right," writes Rosen.

RELATED: How Is the Fiscal Cliff Still a Bigger Deal in Washington Than Gun Violence?

Ezra Klein in Bloomberg View on determining the quality of a fiscal cliff deal?When?or if?a fiscal cliff deal emerges, how will we know whether it's a good one or not? Ezra Klein says we shouldn't get our hopes up, but we can expect one of three types of deal: small, medium, and grand. "Viewed from one angle, the tentative Obama/Boehner deal is surely small-ball. It includes about $1 trillion in tax revenue and $1 trillion in spending cuts, for a total of about $2 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years. That?s not nothing, but it?s on the small side of the various fiscal plans circulating Washington," Klein writes. But throw in 2011's Budget Control Act and potential savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we might actually be making headway on deficit?reduction, Klein argues.

RELATED: Britain Would Treat the Collapse of the Euro Like a Natural Disaster

Adam Gopnik in?The New Yorker?on gun control?The number of American children who died from gunshots reached 5,740 in a recent two-year period, and Adam Gopnik has no idea why we aren't taking demonstrably effective steps to stop that. "The overwhelming majority of those children would have been saved with effective gun control," he writes. "We know that this is so, because, in societies that?have?effective gun control, children rarely, rarely, rarely die of gunshots. Let?s worry tomorrow about the problem of Evil. Let?s worry more about making sure that when the Problem of Evil appears in a first-grade classroom, it is armed with a penknife."

RELATED: Five Best Tuesday Columns

Andres Oppenheimer in?The Miami Herald on Obama's pivot toward Latin America?If John Kerry is confirmed as Secretary of State, the U.S. may start to pay more attention to Latin America, argues Andres Oppenheimer. That's because Kerry's vacant seat as chairman of the?U.S. Senate Relations Committee would likely be filled by Senator Bob Menendez, a Cuban-American with expertise on the region. And Rep. Eliot Engel seems primed to become a member of the?House Foreign Affairs Committee. "The likely promotion of Menendez and Engel to top congressional jobs, as well as the growing political weight of Latinos in the United States following the crucial Hispanic support for Obama in the Nov. 6 elections, may push the president to pay more attention to Latin America over the next four years," writes Oppenheimer, who thinks immigration reform, drug war policies, and trade ties could all be affected by the shift.?

RELATED: EU Members Pledge Fiscal Good Behavior, Except U.K. and Czechs

Timothy Garton Ash in?The Guardian?on Britain's place in the EU?The U.K.'s continued membership in the European Union is in doubt, with nationalist voices calling for Britain to break from Europe?and they're growing louder. Timothy Garton Ash isn't afraid of that debate, because he believes U.K. citizens will ultimately stick with Europe. "Unlike many of my pro-European friends, I think we will win," he writes. "I do not believe the brains of the British people have been so addled by the Sun and Daily Mail that they will, confronted with the facts about what it is really like to be Norway (without the oil) or Switzerland, decide that exit?Brexit or Brixit?is the best option for this country."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/five-best-thursday-columns-144151114.html

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SAC Capital's top consumer trader draws U.S. scrutiny

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. authorities are examining trading by one of SAC Capital Advisors' most successful portfolio managers, Gabriel Plotkin, as part of a probe into the $14 billion hedge fund firm's investment in Weight Watchers International Inc last year, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

Plotkin, a specialist in consumer and retail stocks who makes investment decisions for more than $1.2 billion worth of assets, is among several SAC portfolio managers whose trades are being investigated, said the source, who did not want to be identified. The source would not name the other managers.

Federal authorities are trying to determine whether any of SAC Capital's retail and consumer portfolio managers traded Weight Watchers shares and options based on nonpublic confidential information about the diet company, said the source and another person familiar with the investigation.

The two sources said it was too soon to conclude if there was any insider trading. Authorities have not charged Plotkin with any wrongdoing.

Plotkin, who is based in New York and works for SAC Capital's Sigma Capital Management division, did not return a request for comment.

"Gabe Plotkin has built a successful career on a commitment to sound fundamental research," said an SAC Capital spokesman, who declined to comment on the Weight Watchers probe.

With a hedge fund the size of SAC Capital, which was founded 20 years ago by Steven A. Cohen, it is not uncommon for many portfolio managers to be trading the same stocks.

Last year, Plotkin and his team of a half-dozen traders and analysts produced between $150 million and $200 million in profits for Cohen's fund, some of which came from trades of shares of Weight Watchers, said a person familiar with the hedge fund, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak for SAC Capital.

Over the past two years, Plotkin, 34, has emerged as one of the most successful portfolio managers at SAC Capital, said this person. Plotkin and his wife own a condo on Manhattan's Upper East Side, as well as a home in Southampton, which is part of the Hamptons' summer playground for the city's wealthy.

The Weight Watchers inquiry, first reported by Reuters on December 7, is focusing on trading by SAC Capital in the first half of 2011, when the Stamford, Connecticut-based hedge fund bought and sold some 2.1 million shares during a period when the diet company's stock price roughly doubled.

The probe is the latest in a long line of investigations by federal authorities dating back to at least 2007 that have looked into whether some of SAC Capital's outsized performance is the result of trades relying on insider information.

A spokesman for U.S. prosecutors in New York declined to comment.

Plotkin is one of 11 portfolio managers at SAC Capital who trade consumer and retail stocks. It is not clear how many of those managers, all of whom manage less money than Plotkin, are being scrutinized by federal authorities.

Plotkin, who came to SAC Capital in 2006 from North Sound Capital, is widely known in the $2 trillion hedge fund industry as one of the top consumer and retail traders, said several people who know him.

Last year, the Northwestern University graduate was one of several guest speakers at a Wharton Investment Management Conference. Also in 2011, Plotkin was named a consumer stock "top gun" investor by Brendan Wood International, a company that specializes in ranking top investors for corporations.

Plotkin's name recently surfaced in several emails that federal prosecutors introduced into evidence in a separate insider trading case. In that case, Todd Newman, a former portfolio manager at Diamondback Capital Management, and Anthony Chiasson, co-founder of Level Global Investors, on Monday were convicted of illegal trading in Dell Inc shares.

The emails involved discussions by Jon Horvath - a former trader at SAC Capital's Sigma division who pleaded guilty in September to trading on inside information - with his former supervisor, Michael Steinberg, and Plotkin. The prosecutors used the emails to persuade a federal judge to declare Steinberg an uncharged co-conspirator for the purposes of the trial.

In the emails, reviewed by Reuters, there was a discussion between Steinberg and Horvath about Dell's upcoming earnings. These emails were also sent to Plotkin. In an August 2008 email to Steinberg and Plotkin, Horvath writes he has a "2nd hand read from someone at the company" about gross margins and earnings.

Steinberg, whose lawyer did not return a request for comment, has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

U.S. prosecutors, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission have been gradually ratcheting up pressure on Cohen, 56, one of the hedge fund industry's best-known managers.

Two weeks ago, U.S. prosecutors charged a former SAC Capital employee, Mathew Martoma, with using inside information to generate profits and avoid losses totaling $276 million in shares of two drug stocks. Martoma has not entered a plea, but his lawyer has said he expects to be exonerated.

The SEC also has formally warned SAC Capital that the firm could face civil charges.

Martoma is the seventh person once associated with SAC Capital to be either charged or implicated by federal authorities in insider trading. Authorities have not charged Cohen with any wrongdoing, and the firm has repeatedly said it has strong compliance measures in place.

The investigations have not had a visible impact on SAC Capital's investor redemptions or employee turnover.

The investigation into trading in Weight Watchers comes as federal authorities are also looking at trading by SAC Capital in shares of biotech company InterMune Inc in 2010. A person familiar with the InterMune and Weight Watchers investigation said authorities are looking into some of the trading done by former SAC Capital portfolio manager Nikej Shah.

Shah, who left SAC Capital last year, did not return several calls seeking comment.

InterMune declined to comment. Weight Watchers said it had not been contacted about any investigation.

(Reporting By Matthew Goldstein, Emily Flitter and Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Martin Howell, Steve Orlofsky and Lisa Von Ahn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sac-capitals-top-consumer-trader-draws-u-scrutiny-142520560--sector.html

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Take off, eh: Canada's Hadfield blasts off for 5-month space station visit

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - Chris Hadfield has successfully blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a mission that is to see him become the first Canadian to command the International Space Station.

Hadfield is travelling to the space station on board a Russian Soyuz capsule for a five-month visit to the giant orbiting space lab.

He is sharing the trip to the space station with NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko.

During his stay, the 53-year-old space veteran, an avid guitar player, plans to do some strumming to help him deal with homesickness.

He will also be involved with more than 130 experiments including Micro-flow, a Canadian blood-sampling experiment which he compared to a hospital in a box.

During the second half of his mission, Hadfield will become the first Canadian to command the space station.

This is Hadfield's third space journey.

His first space trip was in November 1995 when he visited the Russian Space Station Mir. His second voyage was a visit to the International Space Station in April 2001, when he also performed two space walks.

Marc Garneau, who was the first Canadian to shuttle into outer space, said he's proud of Hadfield's accomplishments and wished him well.

"This is a first," he said Tuesday. "The first (Canadian) commander of the International Space Station."

"That's an incredible accomplishment. He's an incredible guy."

Garneau admits he'd like to be in space again.

"I'd love it, it's fun," he told The Canadian Press.

Garneau has moved on to more earthly challenges. The Liberal member of Parliament is running to become the federal party's next leader.

Today's launch was from Russia's manned space facility in the freezing steppes of Kazakhstan, where temperatures were at minus 30 degrees Celcius earlier this week.

Gov. Gen. David Johnston joined other officials at the Canadian Space Agency south of Montreal today to watch Hadfield blast off.

This morning's launch marked a return to use of the launch pad known as Gagarin's Start, where Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin blasted off in 1961 for the first human orbital space flight. Another launch site was used for the previous mission, which set off in October.

The Soyuz craft Hadfield and his colleagues are travelling on is a variation on the vehicle that has been in constant use by the Soviet and then Russian manned space programs since 1967.

With the decommissioning of the U.S. shuttle fleet, the Soyuz is now the only vehicle able to carry astronauts to the space station.

Source: http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/article/856363--take-off-eh-canada-s-hadfield-blasts-off-for-5-month-space-station-visit

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Minister Ejected From Florida Supermarket for Support of Farmworker Justice

We have reached that point in the year when the images we are inundated with show off variations on a theme: the Norman Rockwell-esque holiday gathering. They are a testament to the ability of advertising to tug on our heartstrings as the large, joyful family sits down to a table lavishly set with the antique china, candles twinkling, and a feast spread as the Christmas meal in all its glory looms and the joy and generosity of the season is palpable.

Photo via Interfaith Action of SW Florida

Photo via Interfaith Action of SW Florida

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Send a letter to your state leaders telling them to vote against harmful immigration bills, and to support federal immigration reform.

Here in Florida, the grocery store chain Publix is as ubiquitous to holiday celebrations as pie.?Publix has been a part of our Christmas celebrations for generations and yet this year impromptu runs to the family-owned grocer will simply not be an option for the Reverend Clay Thomas, or for those who stand with him.?

As it turns out, earlier this year?Reverend Thomas was ejected and then banned from a Sarasota, Fla., Publix.?

His crime?

He supports the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW).

For years, this grassroots farmworker group and people of faith have urged Publix to join the Fair Food Program, a statewide collaboration among farmworkers, 90 percent of Florida?s tomato growers, and national corporate buyers like Whole Foods, McDonald?s, and in October, Chipotle Mexican Grill.

The CIW?s Fair Food Program drastically improves the rights and pay of Florida?s tomato pickers in an agreement the New York Times has called??possibly the most successful labor action in the U.S. in 20 years.?

Over Labor Day weekend, the CIW had just finished a peaceful picket on the sidewalk in front of Publix and Rev. Thomas ??taking a break from sermon writing ??stopped by to greet CIW members and convey his support before heading to the deli to buy a sandwich.?

Instead, he was served a yearlong ban from the store. Publix?s labor relations manager Mark Codd had three police officers called to document the supermarket?s issuance of the trespass warning and to escort Rev. Thomas from the store.

Rev. Thomas reports he is no longer hungry for Publix subs.

Neither am I.

So, outraged, I joined more than 200 others for an interfaith assembly where we prayed and sang before walking a mile together through Sarasota?s downtown to the very Publix Rev. Thomas could not enter for another eleven months.?

The signs we carried read ?Our Faith is Not a Crime? and ?My Faith Calls Me to Do Justice? as well as Micah 6:8, ?And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice ...?

Approaching Publix we put down our signs and I, along with a dozen of my clergy brothers and sisters, went inside to shop. Our list was short and intentional: Publix?s own brand of fair-trade coffee. Each bag proudly reads: ?Fair Trade prices help small farmers provide employees with livable wages and work conditions.? Which fosters the same values we do: community, well-being, and a nicer world.?

After checking out, we politely requested to meet with the store manager to ask about Publix?s promotion of fair pay and work conditions for coffee harvesters abroad and yet their continued refusal to do the same for their fellow Floridians, who harvest Publix?s tomatoes.?

We delivered a?letter signed by over 40 local clergy members?to ?decry Publix Supermarket?s treatment of the Rev. Thomas and its refusal to join the Fair Food Program.?

Rabbi Jonathan Katz, of Temple Beth Israel on Longboat Key, then asked: If we were all free to shop that day despite our openly expressed hopes that Publix will join the Fair Food Program, then will Rev. Thomas?s yearlong shopping ban also be dropped??

A Tale of Two Holidays from Coalition of Immokalee Workers on Vimeo.

The manager looked us in the eye ? in our clerical collars, stoles, robes, and kippahs ? and confidently said it was out of his hands, we would have to take our frustrations up with the county sheriff?s office.?

The Rev. Tricia Dillon Thomas, a Lakewood Ranch minister, spoke up; ?That?s just not true. It was you! I?m his wife.???

She knew firsthand it was Publix ? not the police ? who issued the ban and Publix alone has the power to lift it.?

Sheepishly, the manager acquiesced. ?We decided,? he finally said, making it clear that the power to rescind the ban did not lie with the police as he had just said.??

?Who is ?we??? someone pushed.??Me.? he quietly responded.

Suddenly, two hovering Publix corporate officials interrupted to demand that we leave immediately.

This Publix manager?s patent falsehood, told to a sizable circle of local clergy, is just another to add to a growing pile of untruths Publix has been telling to avoid signing onto the Fair Food Program, prompting the Tampa Bay Times to call Publix?s excuses for not joining ?disingenuous?.?

Throughout the holiday season we will gather at tables to enjoy the company of those we love and the food of our hearts. I encourage you to take a moment and give thanks for those hands who struggle day in and day out in Florida?s fields to produce the meal before you. Ask yourselves and those gathered if that meal would taste just a little bit better if it were harvested with integrity and justice and then?write a letter to Publix CEO Ed Crenshaw?asking him to do the right thing and join us in the Fair Food Program.?

Rev. Libby Shannon is co-moderator of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and associate chaplain at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sojourners/gods-politics/~3/GxDux2Yhn4I/minister-ejected-florida-supermarket-support-farmworker-justice

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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Orange County mayor wants deputy in every school

Orange County's schools may soon have a deputy on every campus.

To do what Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs wants, an armed deputy assigned to each and every elementary school, it would cost the county between $2 million and $3 million.

But that?s a price Jacobs said is worth paying, especially after what happened in Connecticut Friday.

?My reaction was the same reaction as every other mom across the country and every other dad,? said Jacobs.

But Jacobs said it?s not just emotion driving her call for more deputies.

?I can tell you that my reaction today and my decision to try to get deputies in every elementary school is beyond an emotional response," Jacobs said. "I think it?s a fiscally responsible decision, to know that we have the best plans in place.?

Currently, there are deputies assigned to each middle and high school.? But deputies rotate among the elementary schools in unincorporated Orange County, and there's one for every four schools.

?I think if there had been a deputy there, we would have not seen what we saw," Jacobs said. "I just want our schools equipped when somebody walks in and they?re not supposed to be there, to handle it so we don?t see this situation repeat itself.?

Mayor Jacobs said this would require 60 deputies already on the force to work overtime. She said initially the money would come from reserve money that?s usually leftover in the budget.

?We can afford it," Jacobs said. "Can we afford it as an ongoing measure? It would be difficult to do year in and year out, and that?s why we need to look at what?s the best way to handle this. This year, absolutely we can afford it.?

Mayor Jacobs said she will ask county commissioners for their support at Tuesday?s Board of County Commissioners meeting.? She wants deputies at every elementary school by the time students return from Christmas break. The idea is that this will ensure their safety for now, until county leaders can figure out what to do long-term.

The mayor said Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings has already stepped up security at elementary schools since the mass shooting.

Latest News: Orange County

Source: http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2012/12/17/orange_county_mayor_/?cid=rss

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Pentagon front-runner has strong Obama ties

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel is a contrarian Republican moderate and decorated Vietnam combat veteran who is likely to support a more rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

As President Barack Obama's top candidate for defense secretary, Hagel has another credential important to the president: a personal relationship with Obama, forged when they were in the Senate and strengthened during overseas trips they took together.

Hagel, 66, emerged last week as the front-runner for the Pentagon's top job, four years after leaving behind a Senate career in which he carved out a reputation as an independent thinker and blunt speaker.

Wounded during the Vietnam War, Hagel backed the Iraq war, but later became a fierce and credible critic of the Bush administration's war policies, making routine trips to Iraq and Afghanistan. He opposed President George W. Bush's plan to send an additional 30,000 troops into Iraq ? a move that has been credited with stabilizing the chaotic country ? as "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam, if it's carried out."

While Hagel supported the Afghanistan war resolution, over time he has become more critical of the decade-plus conflict, with its complex nation-building effort.

Often seeing the Afghan war through the lens of his service in Vietnam, Hagel has declared that militaries are "built to fight and win wars, not bind together failing nations." In a radio interview this year, he spoke broadly of the need for greater diplomacy as the appropriate path in Afghanistan, noting that "the American people want out" of the war.

If nominated ? an announcement could come this week ? and confirmed by the Senate, Hagel would succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Panetta has made it clear he intends to leave early next year, but has not publicly discussed the timing of his departure. He took the Pentagon job in July 2011.

At the same time, Obama is considering one of Hagel's former Senate colleagues, Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts, for the job of secretary of state.

To political and defense insiders, Obama's preference for Hagel makes sense.

The former senator shares many of the same ideals of Obama's first Pentagon leader, Republican Robert Gates. When Obama became president in 2009, he asked Gates to remain as defense secretary. Both Hagel and Gates talk of the need for global answers to regional conflicts and an emphasis on so-called soft power, including economic and political aid, to bolster weak nations.

"A Hagel nomination signals an interest in, and a commitment to continuing a bipartisan approach to national security," said David Berteau, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He said that Hagel's two terms in the Senate, before he retired in 2009, spanned the latter years of the post-Cold War military drawdown and the post-Sept. 11 buildup. "From a budget point of view he has seen both ends of the spectrum and that gives him a good perspective to start from."

Hagel's possible selection has been met with initial praise from key members of the Senate, including the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who said Hagel would be "terrific."

The choice could trigger opposition from some Jewish groups and may worry Democrats concerned about Israel-related issues. Hagel has criticized discussion of a military strike by either the U.S. or Israel against Iran. He also has backed efforts to bring Iran to the table for talks on future peace in Afghanistan.

"The appointment of Chuck Hagel would be a slap in the face for every American who is concerned about the safety of Israel," said Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Hagel often straddled party lines and had some high-profile dustups with his Republican colleagues.

In 2008, he criticized GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, saying she lacked foreign policy credentials and that it would be "a stretch" to consider her qualified to become president. His wife, Lilibet Hagel, endorsed Obama in his first run for president. Hagel also was mentioned as a possible candidate for Pentagon chief when Obama was first elected.

As defense secretary, Hagel would preside over the withdrawal of combat troops from Afghanistan and the waning days of the war and would direct some of the steepest cuts in Pentagon spending in years. His task would be to restructure a pared down military that can step away from the grinding wars of the past 11 years and refocus on a swath of regional challenges from Syria, Iran and North Korea to terrorism in Africa and the defense buildup in the Pacific.

A big benefit will be his experience and his allies on Capitol Hill.

"Certainly his name coming forward is one I'm very open to," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who served with Hagel on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "I had good relations with him while he was in the Senate. Certainly (he's) a veteran and someone who also spent a lot of time around the world understanding the relations other countries have with the U.S. and vice versa."

Defense analyst Loren Thompson, of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute think tank, said Hagel knows the political system and is known for thinking outside the box, which would help as budget cuts move forward.

"He's a veteran who understands how Congress works and has stayed plugged in to developments in defense policy," Thompson said. "He is not tied to the status quo and will think creatively about how to manage America's military forces."

___

Associated Press writer Donna Cassata contributed to this report.

___

Lolita C. Baldor can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lbaldor

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pentagon-front-runner-strong-obama-ties-160900710--politics.html

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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

The Fear is Gone: My PC Is My Next-Gen Console

The Fear is Gone: My PC Is My Next-Gen ConsoleThere was a moment on Sunday when I thought the PC gamers had been hiding something from me.

They'd been telling me that PC gaming wasn't the complicated hobby that it used to be, that it was more streamlined and less of a pain. They'd told me that I didn't need to be an auto mechanic if I didn't want to be, that I could just drive without ever flipping up the hood.

And yet there I was trying to be a PC gamer on Sunday and having a tough time of it. I was feeling stymied yet again. I was having what I now hope are my last doubts, because today I've just about run out of excuses to fear PC gaming. And I'm beginning to wonder what the point of a gaming console is in these modern times of December 2012.

My problem on Sunday was maddeningly simple. I'd plugged my computer?a gaming laptop (yes, yes, I know)?into my surround sound system, which was plugged into my TV. And? the image of my computer's desktop on my TV was cropped. I could barely see Windows' bottom toolbar. In X-Com Enemy Unknown I couldn't read the full names of my troops. In Far Cry 3 my peripheral vision was hemmed in.

This problem shouldn't have existed, I thought.

What's on my computer screen should have been on my TV screen. My computer was plugged into my TV set-up through one simple HDMI wire. If this was a console, it would have just worked.

You not only can't tell me that my consoles are better than my PC; you can't tell me that the concept of a gaming console has much on the PC any more. Unless we're talking about price.

I started Googling to find a solution. I Tweeted about my problem. I called colleague Kirk Hamilton. And what do you know? A lot of people seemed to know about this. A lot of people seemed to have the same problem. A lot of people seemed to know that, yeah, PC gaming still has weird issues that turn things that should work into conundrums that force you to consider, oh, maybe I'll just play this game without being able to see all of it.

I felt tricked. PC gaming, I feared, was as much a hassle as ever.

My problem on Sunday was an echo of my problems with PC gaming of old. In the late 90s and early 2000s, the computers I had were almost immediately obsolete. I'd go to the store and read far too much fine print on the spines of game boxes. Sure, I had a PC, but it didn't mean I could play the PC games I wanted to play. I hated this. I was in college and then just out of college and couldn't afford to keep up with ever-changing standards for graphics cards, sound cards and whatever else. My drivers never seemed to be up to date and I hated the hassle of trying to figure out how to update them or what to do when even updating them didn't seem to enable me to run games on computers that should have been able to run them.

Other than to play the occasional indie, I bailed out of PC gaming for many years. I returned this past summer.

In September, I got myself a gaming laptop (yes, yes, I know, but it's a powerful one). I installed Steam and started downloading games through my press account. These games started updating themselves, snatching whatever files they needed, installing Direct X and god knows what else. I was trusting Steam and it was making my return to PC gaming a cinch.

Then the fall came and I reverted to playing games on consoles. I played some Xbox 360 and some PlayStation 3. I rediscovered my 3DS and spent a lot of time on the Wii U.

At an event for BioShock Infinite just two weeks ago, I was given the chance to play the first four hours of the game on PS3, Xbox 360 or PC. A PR person there was nudging me toward PC. I figured I'd play the game on something I was more familiar with, more comfortable with. I'd like to play it on console, I said. That's when I realized that the anxiety was creeping back.

The Fear is Gone: My PC Is My Next-Gen Console So, since then, I've tried playing games on my PC. I plugged the thing into my TV to even try Steam's Big Picture mode and more or less turn my gaming laptop into a glorified console. This would be my return to PC gaming via the shallow end of the pool. I'd play it safe by playing games in a manner I've played them so often before: on my TV, controller in my hands.

I was loving it.

I was beginning to doubt that I'd care much about console gaming again, because, well, I'll get to all of my revelations and excitement about PC gaming in a moment.

Let me tell you how the Sunday problem was resolved. The folks on Twitter and Kirk Hamilton were only able to guess solutions. Check your NVidia control panel? Tried that. The "display" options aren't in there, for some reason. Maybe it's the Bose surround system? Nope. I saw the same cropped display when I plugged directly into the TV. Maybe it's your TV? Yeah, it was the TV. It was "overscanning" my PC's video signal, whatever that means. I had to tell it to stop doing that. I then shared that advice:

Problem solved. Xcom and Far Cry 3 have looked wonderfully un-cropped since then.

And that brings me to a tune that I didn't expect to be singing when 2012 began. It goes like this:

  • PC gaming makes my consoles look like a joke. This isn't because Far Cry 3 or some other game looks so much better on my PC, but because the interconnectedness of modern games feels so much more appropriate for a system like the PC. I didn't expect I'd ever say this, but?
  • I'm finding that PC gaming is giving me more peace of mind as a gamer. The inevitable bugginess of modern games is patched immediately on PC, not left in some long certification queue by a console creator. By gaming on PC, I feel a step closer to the makers of the game; I don't feel the intermediating influence or obstruction of a Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. And I feel I have access to a suite of features?mod support among them?that the developers actually considered part of the game's complete experience. I also feel like I'm no longer unable to get to some of the most interesting and unexpected games being made.
  • I don't mind peeking under the hood a little. I'm not completely comfortable with worrying about whether I should keep my "Vegetation" on "Very High" or my "Geometry" on "Ultra," but if I have to spend a half an hour on a Sunday monkeying with my TV in order to get these games running on a TV and another 10 minutes finding the Windows setting that spits my game audio out in 5.1, it's worth it, because?
  • PC gaming is making my life easier. Whatever streamlining of my gaming life that the Nintendo 64 or PS2 gave me back of the day is now being trumped by a single device that is holding a couple dozen games I'm excited to play (no discs!), that's updating them constantly (man, Steam's great, huh?) and that, thanks to Big Picture, lets them run just fine on my TV but can also run them on a laptop if I don't feel like using the TV or the TV is being used by someone else (shades of the Wii U!). Caveat: Uplay on PC does indeed seem kind of dumb.

Do I sound born again?

Do I have the zealotry of the prodigal son re-converted?

I suspect I might be blind to the pitfalls ahead of me. I figure that my gaming laptop won't keep pace with seven years' worth of ever-improving games the way my Xbox 360 has. I am sure there will be a moment when I again yearn for a Microsoft or Sony to slow down the rate of patching on a new game. Right now, however, you can't convince me that a 100-friend-limited Xbox 360 that requires me to swap discs almost any time I want to play a major new game and that won't allow a single mod is giving me a better gaming set-up in my living room than my PC. You can argue that something unique might be going on in the Wii U, since it is built for two-screen gaming, but you can't tell me that the PlayStation 3 has anything on my PC other than a batch of very cool Sony-published games.

You not only can't tell me that my consoles are better than my PC; you can't tell me that the concept of a gaming console has much on the PC any more. Unless we're talking about price. I did pay $1700 for my PC. But then again, I bought a laptop. Yes, yes, I know.

Last night, I merrily played some games on my TV using a standard game controller. A console wasn't even involved. I finally have no problem with that.

As 2012 fades, my fear of PC gaming is gone. Did you hear about those next-gen consoles? I think I have one. Had it since September.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5969372/the-fear-is-gone-my-pc-is-my-next+gen-console

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The Voice Recap: Top 3 Perform Once More, With Feeling

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/12/the-voice-recap-top-3-perform-once-more-with-feeling/

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Saturday, December 15, 2012

'Two-faced' cells discovered in colon cancer

Friday, December 14, 2012

Northwestern Medicine researchers have discovered a "two-faced" group of cells at work in human colon cancer, with opposing functions that can suppress or promote tumor growth. These cells are a subset of T-regulatory (Treg) cells, known to suppress immune responses in healthy individuals

In this previously unknown Treg subset, the presence of the protein ROR?t has been shown to differentiate between cancer-protecting and cancer-promoting properties.

The Northwestern team, led by Khashayarsha Khazaie, research associate professor at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, recently reported their findings in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

"The subset of Tregs that expand in human colon cancer is different from the Tregs that abound in healthy individuals in their ability to suppress inflammation," said Khazaie. "Since their discovery, Tregs have been assumed to be harmful in cancer based on the knowledge that they suppress immunity. More recent clinical studies have challenged this notion. Our work shows that Tregs, by suppressing inflammation, are normally very protective in cancer; it is rather their switch to the expression of ROR?t that is detrimental."

The Northwestern team's work builds on observations, which demonstrated that the transfer of Tregs from healthy mice to mice with colitis or colitis-induced cancer actually protected the mice from colitis and colitis-induced cancer.

After identifying the abnormal Treg subset in mice with hereditary colon cancer, Khazaie and lead author Nichole Blatner, research assistant professor at Lurie Cancer Center, worked with Mary Mulcahy, MD, associate professor of hematology and oncology, radiology, and organ transplantation, and David Bentrem, MD, Harold L. and Margaret N. Method Research Professor in Surgery, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, to look for the same cells in colon cancer patients.

"To our delight, we found the same Treg alterations in cancer patients," said Khazaie.

Of cancers affecting both men and women, colorectal cancer (cancer of the colon and rectum) is the second leading cancer killer in the United States. In 2012, approximately 140,000 Americans were diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer, while more than 50,000 deaths occurred from either cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

"The significance of our discovery became apparent when by inhibiting RORgt in Tregs we were able to protect mice against hereditary colon cancer," Khazaie said.

He notes that several ongoing clinical trials exist based on targeted elimination of all Tregs in cancer patients. However, the discovery of Treg diversity in cancer, and its central role in control of cancer inflammation, may lead to new approaches for therapeutics.

"Tregs are actually very useful in the fight against cancer," he says. "We can do better by targeting ROR?t or other molecules that are responsible for the expansion of this Treg subset, instead of indiscriminately eliminating all Tregs. We are very excited about the therapeutic options that targeting specific subsets of Tregs could provide in human solid tumor cancers, and that is our next immediate goal."

Khazaie's team is moving forward with plans to test novel drugs that inhibit ROR?t.

###

Northwestern University: http://www.northwestern.edu

Thanks to Northwestern University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125931/_Two_faced__cells_discovered_in_colon_cancer

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Ash fungus genetic data released

The first genetic data on the fungus afflicting British ash trees has been released on the web by UK scientists.

Part of the RNA of the fungus has been sequenced, revealing information about how the disease spreads.

Researchers at The Sainsbury Laboratory and the John Innes Centre want international researchers to help analyse the preliminary data.

The long term goal is to find out how the Chalara fungus causes ash dieback and where in the world it originated.

Professor Sophien Kamoun, head of the Sainsbury Laboratory, said the tiny amount of data generated so far - in a matter of weeks - is already giving interesting insights.

Rather than keeping the data to themselves, the experts have released it on the web so that others can start analysing it immediately.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

It's a step towards understanding the mechanism by which the fungus produces the disease ?

End Quote Professor Michael Shaw University of Reading

A similar approach was taken in last year's E coli outbreak in Germany, enabling researchers to track the source and spread of the infection.

"This is the first insight into the genetics of this fungus," Prof Kamoun told BBC News. "It's not the complete picture yet."

First step

The RNA was extracted from the twig of a diseased tree in Ashwellthorpe wood in Norfolk. Experts sequenced the RNA of the fungus, which was mixed up with that of the plant.

Other scientists can now use existing databases to sort out the information, and look at the genes involved in the spread of the fungus.

Professor Michael Shaw, a plant health expert at the University of Reading, who was not involved in the research, said it was a step towards understanding why certain strains of the fungus cause disease while others are benign.

"It's a step towards understanding the mechanism by which the fungus produces the disease and why this fungus is different from the one that lives in ash naturally in this country, which is closely related," he said.

Dr John Morgan, head of the Forestry Commission's plant health service, said the work would help shed light on "the history and nature of the introduction of new pests like Chalara, and in helping to understand how we tackle the disease that's arrived and to understand what the risk of spreading is".

UK spread

Chalara dieback of ash is caused by the Chalara fraxinea fungus.

The disease was first observed as a new form of ash dieback in Poland in 1992, and has since spread to ash trees in many European countries.

Ash dieback was first confirmed in the UK in ash plants in a nursery in England in February 2012.

Cases have since been confirmed across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20719507#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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U.N. agency sees deal soon to check Iran nuclear work

VIENNA (Reuters) - The United Nations nuclear agency expects to reach a deal with Iran next month enabling it to investigate whether the Islamic state has carried out atomic bomb research, the chief U.N. inspector said after returning from Tehran on Friday.

Even though the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) failed to gain requested access to the Parchin military complex during Thursday's visit to the Iranian capital, IAEA delegation head Herman Nackaerts said progress had been made.

"We had good meetings," Nackaerts, deputy director general of the U.N. watchdog, told reporters at Vienna airport.

World powers seeking to resolve a decade-old dispute over Iran's atomic activity and avert the threat of a new Middle East war closely watched the IAEA-Iran talks for any indication of Iranian readiness to finally start addressing their concerns.

In Washington, the U.S. State Department sounded a cautious note, saying Iran had repeatedly raised obstacles to real progress.

"While we do commend the IAEA for its efforts, we're disappointed that Iran did not grant access to the Parchin site which Iran has been sanitizing in advance of re-engaging with the IAEA," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said.

"We understand there's going to be a meeting in January between the two sides and we hope that Iran starts the immediate, substantive cooperation that is long overdue."

U.S. ally Israel - believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal - has threatened military action if diplomacy and economic sanctions intended to halt Iran's uranium enrichment work do not resolve the standoff.

The IAEA and Iran, which denies Western allegations it is seeking to develop a capability to assemble nuclear weapons, will meet again on January 16, Nackaerts said.

"We expect to finalize the structured approach and start implementing it then shortly after that," he said, referring to a framework agreement on how to tackle the IAEA's suspicions about possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program.

Nackaerts did not give details on what had been achieved.

But one stumbling block in previous, fruitless meetings was Iran's request for access to intelligence documents at the basis of the IAEA's concerns that Iran has conducted past, and possibly still ongoing, experiments relevant for atomic arms.

Another bone of contention has been Iran's insistence that each specific area of the investigation should be declared closed once the IAEA's questions had been settled, while the U.N. agency wants to be able to return to the issue if needed.

The IAEA had said after talks in May it expected a deal soon, but that failed to materialize.

"We have now had so many false starts that there are grounds to be skeptical," said Shashank Joshi, a senior fellow and Middle East specialist at the Royal United Services Institute.

PARCHIN VISIT STILL 'USEFUL'

Western diplomats, who often accused Iran of stonewalling and playing for time, want Iran to engage in substance on the IAEA's long-stalled inquiry and immediately give it access to sites, officials and documents it needs.

"There will likely be many in Washington and Israel skeptical that this ... is anything but a delaying tactic on Iran's part," said Miles Pomper, senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful bid to generate electricity. But its refusal to curb activity which can have civilian and military purposes, and lack of openness with the IAEA, have drawn increasingly tough Western sanctions.

The IAEA - which said before the trip it hoped to visit Parchin - was unable to go there this time but it would be part of the "structured approach" accord, Nackaerts said.

The Vienna-based agency believes Iran has tested explosives with possible nuclear applications at Parchin, southeast of Tehran, and has repeatedly asked for access. Iran says Parchin is a conventional military site and has dismissed allegations that it has tried to clean it up before any visit. It says it must first agree a framework deal with the IAEA before allowing any visit.

A senior Iranian diplomat said Tehran was open to an inspection of Parchin. But, Mostafa Dolatyar added in New Delhi, "if they want do it as a mouse-and-cat game of course it is not possible".

Western diplomats say Iran has carried out extensive work at Parchin in the past year, including demolition of buildings and removal of soil, to cleanse it of any traces of illicit activity. The IAEA says going there would still be useful.

The IAEA-Iran talks are separate from but closely linked to broader efforts by six world powers to resolve the nuclear row.

Analysts and diplomats say there is a window of opportunity to make a renewed diplomatic push after last month's re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama.

The six powers - the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China - want Iran to scale back its uranium enrichment program and cooperate fully with the IAEA. Iran wants the West to lift punitive measures hurting its economy.

(Additional reporting by Nidhi Verma and Frank Jack Daniel in New Delhi and Andrew Quinn in Washington; Editing by Michael Roddy and Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-n-agency-sees-deal-soon-check-iran-200735499.html

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Cory Booker Balances Promise And Reality In Examining Run For Higher Office

The New York Times:

When snow blanketed this city two Christmases ago, Mayor Cory A. Booker was celebrated around the nation for personally shoveling out residents who had appealed for help on Twitter. But here, his administration was scorned as streets remained impassable for days because the city had no contract for snow removal.

Read the whole story at The New York Times

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/14/cory-booker_n_2299842.html

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Friday, December 14, 2012

mankesune: Sixth Semester cse Syllabus ~ Education For U ...

THEORY OF COMPUTATION ? ? ? ? ??L T P M C ??3 1 0 100 4
UNIT I 9

Church-Turing thesis: Turing machines ? Variants of Turing Machines ? Hilbert?s
problems. Decidability: Decidable languages ? Halting problem.

UNIT II 9

Reducibility: Undecidable problems from Language theory ? A simple Undecidable
problem ? Mapping Reducibility. Advanced topics in Computability Theory: The
Recursion Theorem ? Decidability of logical theories ? Turing Reducibility.

UNIT III 9

Time Complexity: Measuring Complexity ? The Class P ? The class NP ? NPcompleteness
? Additional NP-complete Problems.

UNIT IV 9

Space Complexity: Savitch?s Theorem ? The Class PSPACE ? PSPACE-completeness
? The classes L and NL ? NL-completeness ? NL equals coNL. Intractability: Hierarchy
Theorems ? Relativization ? Circuit Complexity.

UNIT V 9

Advanced topics in complexity theory: Approximation Algorithms ? Probabilistic
Algorithms ? Alternation ? Interactive Proof Systems ? Parallel Computation ?
Cryptography

TUTORIAL 15 ??TOTAL : 60

TEXT BOOKS:

1. Michael Sipser, Introduction to the Theory of Computation, Thomson Brook/cole,
1997.(2006)
2. John E. Hopcroft, Rajeev Motwani, Jeffrey D. Ullman, Introduction to Automata
Theory, Languages and Computation, 3/E, Pearson Education, 2009.
REFERENCES
1. Peter Linz, An Introduction to formal Languages and Automata, 4/ E, Jones &
Bartlett Pub, 2006.
2 Kamala Krithivasan, Rama R, Introduction to Formal Languages, Automata
Theory and Computation, Pearson, 2009
3. Dr. B. N. Srinivasa Murthy, Formal Languages and Automata Theory, Sanguine
Publishers, 2006.

OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE ? ? ? ??L T P M C ?3 0 0 100 3

UNIT I INTRODUCTION 9

Introduction to Open sources ? Need of Open Sources ? Advantages of Open Sources?
Application of Open Sources. Open source operating systems: LINUX: Introduction ?
General Overview ? Kernel Mode and user mode ? Process ? Advanced Concepts ?
Scheduling ? Personalities ? Cloning ? Signals ? Development with Linux. .

UNIT II OPEN SOURCE DATABASE 9

MySQL: Introduction ? Setting up account ? Starting, terminating and writing your
ownSQL programs ? Record selection Technology ? Working with strings ? Date and
Time? Sorting Query Results ? Generating Summary ? Working with metadata ?
Usingsequences ? MySQL and Web.

UNIT III OPEN SOURCE PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES 9

PHP: Introduction ? Programming in web environment ? variables ? constants ?
data;types ? operators ? Statements ? Functions ? Arrays ? OOP ? String Manipulation
and regular expression ? File handling and data storage ? PHP and SQL database ?
PHP and LDAP ? PHP Connectivity ? Sending and receiving E-mails ? Debugging and
error handling ? Security ? Templates.

UNIT IV PYTHON 9

Syntax and Style ? Python Objects ? Numbers ? Sequences ? Strings ? Lists and
Tuples ? Dictionaries ? Conditionals and Loops ? Files ? Input and Output ? Errors and
Exceptions ? Functions ? Modules ? Classes and OOP ? Execution Environment.

UNIT V PERL 9

Perl backgrounder ? Perl overview ? Perl parsing rules ? Variables and Data ?
Statements and Control structures ? Subroutines, Packages, and Modules- Working
with Files ?Data Manipulation.
Total: 45

Text Books:

1. Remy Card, Eric Dumas and Frank Mevel, ?The Linux Kernel Book?, Wiley
Publications, 2003
2. Steve Suchring, ?MySQL Bible?, John Wiley, 2002
References:
1. Rasmus Lerdorf and Levin Tatroe, ?Programming PHP?, O?Reilly, 2002
2. Wesley J. Chun, ?Core Phython Programming?, Prentice Hall, 2001
3. Martin C. Brown, ?Perl: The Complete Reference?, 2nd Edition, Tata McGraw-Hill
Publishing Company Limited, Indian Reprint 2009.
4. Steven Holzner, ?PHP: The Complete Reference?, 2nd Edition, Tata McGraw-Hill
Publishing Company Limited, Indian Reprint 2009.
5. Vikram Vaswani, ?MYSQL: The Complete Reference?, 2nd Edition, Tata McGraw-
Hill Publishing Company Limited, Indian Reprint 2009.

OBJECT ORIENTED SYSTEM DESIGN
L T P M C
3 0 0 100 3

Unit I 9

Introduction
Introduction to Object Orientation - Development - Themes-Evidence for Usefulness of
OO Development-OO Modeling
Modeling Concepts
Modeling-Abstraction-The Three Models-Class Modeling-Object and Class Concepts-
Link and Association Concepts-Generalization and Inheritance-A Sample Class Model-
Navigation of Class Models-Practical Tips

Unit II 9

Advanced Class Modeling
Advanced Object and Class Concepts-Association Ends-N-ary Assocations-
Aggregation-Abstract Classes-Multiple Inheritance-metadata-Reification-Constraints-
Derived Data-Packages- Practical Tips
State Modeling
Events-states-Transitions and Conditions-State diagrams-state diagrams behaviorpractical
tips-Advanced state Modeling-Nested State Diagrams-Nested States-Signal
Generalization-concurrency- A sample state Model- Relation of class and state models
Interaction Modeling
Use case Models-Sequence Models- Activity Models- Use Case Relationships-
Procedural Sequence Models- special constructs for Activity Models-Class Model-State
Model-Interaction Model

Unit III 9
Analysis
Process Overview-Development stages-Development Lifecycle-System conceptiondevising
a system concept-Elaborating a concept-preparing a problem statement-
Domain analysis-overview of analysis-Domain class model-Domain state model-Domain
Interaction Model-Iterating the analysis-Application Interaction Model-Application Class
Model-Application state Model-Adding operations

Unit IV 9

Design
Overview of system Design-Estimating performance- Making a reuse plan-Breaking a
system into sub systems-identifying concurrency-Allocation of subsystems-
Management of Data Storage-Handling Global Resources-Choosing a software control
strategy-handling boundary conditions-setting Trade-off Priorities-common architectural
styles-Architecture of the ATM System
Class Design
Overview of class Design-Bridging the gap-Realizing use cases-Designing Alogrithms-
Recursing Downward-Refactoring-Design optimization-Reification of behavioradjustment
of inheritance-organizing a class design-ATM Example

Unit V 9
\Implementation
Implementation Modeling-overview of implementation-Fine-tuning classes-fine tuning
generalizations-realizing associations-oo languages-introduction abbreviated ATM
Model-implementing structure-implementing functionality-practical tips
Database
Introduction-Abbreviated ATM Model-Implementing structure-Implementing structure -
Implementing structure for the ATM Example-Implementing Functionality-Object
oriented Databases
Programming style
Object-oriented style-reusability-extensibility ? robustness - programming in large
Total : 45

TEXT BOOKS
1. Object-Oriented Modeling and Design with UML, Michael Blaha, James
Rumbaugh, Second Edition, Pearson Education,2004.
2. Object-Oriented Software Engineering using UML, Pattens, and Java second
Edition Bernd Bruegge, Robert S
3. Object-Oriented Software Engineering using UML, Pattens, and Java second
Edition Bernd Bruegge, Allen H.Dutoit(200x?)
References
1. Object Oriented System Development, Ali Bahrami, McGraw-Hill International
Edition,1999
2. Object Oriented analysis and Design, Booch G, Addison-Wesley Publishing
company,1994

NUMERICAL METHODS
L T P M C
3 1 0 100 4
UNIT I SOLUTION OF EQUATIONS AND EIGENVALUE PROBLEMS 9+3
Linear interpolation methods (method of false position) ? Newton?s method ? Statement
of Fixed Point Theorem ? Fixed point iteration: x=g(x) method ? Solution of linear
system by Gaussian elimination and Gauss-Jordon methods- Iterative methods: Gauss
Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel methods- Inverse of a matrix by Gauss Jordon method ?
Eigenvalue of a matrix by power method.
UNIT II INTERPOLATION AND APPROXIMATION 9+ 3
Lagrangian Polynomials ? Divided differences ? Interpolating with a cubic spline ?
Newton?s forward and backward difference formulas.
UNIT III NUMERICAL DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION 9+ 3
Derivatives from difference tables ? Divided differences and finite differences ?
Numerical integration by trapezoidal and Simpson?s 1/3 and 3/8 rules ? Romberg?s
method ? Two and Three point Gaussian quadrature formulas ? Double integrals using
trapezoidal and Simpson?s rules.
UNIT IV INITIAL VALUE PROBLEMS FOR ORDINARY DIFFERENTIAL
EQUATIONS 9+ 3
Single step methods: Taylor series method ? Euler and modified Euler methods ?
Fourth order Runge ? Kutta method for solving first and second order equations ?
Multistep methods: Milne?s and Adam?s predictor and corrector methods.
UNIT V BOUNDARY VALUE PROBLEMS IN ORDINARY AND PARTIAL
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS 9+ 3
Finite difference solution of second order ordinary differential equation ? Finite
difference solution of one dimensional heat equation by explicit and implicit methods ?
One dimensional wave equation.
TUTORIAL 15
TOTAL : 60
TEXT BOOKS
1. Gerald, C.F, and Wheatley, P.O, ?Applied Numerical Analysis?, Sixth Edition,
Pearson Education Asia, New Delhi, 2002.
2. Balagurusamy, E., ?Numerical Methods?, Tata McGraw-Hill Pub.Co.Ltd, New
Delhi, 1999.
REFERENCES
1. Kandasamy, P., Thilagavathy, K. and Gunavathy, K., ?Numerical Methods?,
S.Chand Co. Ltd., New Delhi, 2003.
2. Burden, R.L and Faires, T.D., ?Numerical Analysis?, Seventh Edition, Thomson
Asia Pvt. Ltd., Singapore, 2002.

COMPUTER GRAPHICS
L T P M C
3 0 0 100 3
UNIT- I Introduction to Computer Graphics & Scan conversion 10
Overview of Computer Graphics, Computer Graphics Application and Software, Display
Technologies, Storage Tube Graphics Displays, Calligraphic Refresh Graphics
Displays, Raster Refresh (Raster-Scan) Graphics Displays, Cathode Ray Tube Basics,
Color CRT Raster Scan Basics, Video Basics, The Video Controller, Random-Scan
Display Processor, LCD displays.
Scan Converting Lines, Mid-point criteria, Problems of Aliasing, end-point ordering and
clipping lines, Scan Converting Circles, Scan Converting Ellipses, Filling Polygons,
edge data structure, Clipping Lines algorithms? Cyrus-Beck, Cohen-Sutherland and
Liang-Barsky, Clipping Polygons, problem with multiple components.
UNIT-II Two-Dimensional Transformations 8
Transformations and Matrices, Transformation Conventions, 2D Transformations,
Homogeneous Coordinates and Matrix Representation of 2D Transformations,
Translations and Homogeneous Coordinates, Rotation, Reflection, Scaling, Combined
Transformation, Transformation of Points, Transformation of The Unit Square, Solid
Body Transformations, Rotation About an Arbitrary Point, Reflection through an
Arbitrary Line, A Geometric Interpretation of Homogeneous Coordinates, The Windowto-
Viewport Transformations.
UNIT-III Three-Dimensional Transformations 9
Introduction, Three-Dimensional Scaling, Three-Dimensional Shearing, Three-
Dimensional Rotation, Three-Dimensional Reflection, Three-Dimensional Translation,
Multiple Transformation, Rotation about an Arbitrary Axis in Space, Reflection through
an Arbitrary Plane, Matrix Representation of 3D Transformations, Composition of 3D
Transformations, Affine and Perspective Geometry, Perspective Transformations,
Techniques for Generating Perspective Views, Vanishing Points, the Perspective
Geometry and camera models, Orthographic Projections, Axonometric Projections,
Oblique Projections, View volumes for projections.
UNIT-IV Solid Modeling & Visible-Surface Determination 9
Representing Solids, Regularized Boolean Set Operations, Primitive Instancing, Sweep
Representations, Spatial-Partitioning Representations - Octree representation, B-Reps,
Constructive Solid Geometry, Comparison of Representations.
Techniques for efficient Visible-Surface Algorithms, Categories of algorithms, Back face
removal, The z-Buffer Algorithm, Scan-line method, Painter?s algorithms (depth sorting),
Area sub-division method, BSP trees, Visible-Surface Ray Tracing, comparison of the
methods.
UNIT-V llumination and Shading & Graphics Programming using OPENGL 9
Illumination and Shading Models for Polygons, Reflectance properties of surfaces,
Ambient, Specular and Diffuse reflections, Atmospheric attenutation, Phong?s model,
Gouraud shading, some examples.
Why OpenGL, Features in OpenGL, OpenGL operations, Abstractions in OpenGL ? GL,
GLU & GLUT, 3D viewing pipeline, viewing matrix specifications, a few examples and
demos of OpenGL programs.
TOTAL :45
Text books :
1. J. D. Foley, A. Van Dam, S. K. Feiner and J. F. Hughes, Computer Graphics -
Principles and Practice, Second Edition in C, Pearson Education, 2003.
2. D. Hearn and M. Pauline Baker, Computer Graphics (C Version), Pearson
Education, 2nd Edition, 2004.
References:
1. D. F. Rogers and J. A. Adams, Mathematical Elements for Computer Graphics,
2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill International Edition, 1990.
2. F. S. Hill Jr., Computer Graphics using OpenGL, Pearson Education, 2003.
OPEN SOURCE LAB
L T P C
0 0 3 2
1. Installation in different modes (user mode, GUI, Single user, Server )
2. MySQL installation
3. Apache installation
4. PHP with Database connectivity
5. PHYTON programming
6. Perl script and CGI
7. Network simulator (NS2) installation and simple tcl scripts


OBJECT ORIENTED SYSTEM DESIGN LAB
L T P C
0 0 3 2
Solving Simple problems using CASE tools for design, testing with structure analysis
and design method and object oriented analysis and design method
i) SRS DOCUMENT (IEEE Standard)
ii) Design document
iii) Implementation
iv) Test case generation and test document preparation
1. Payroll system
2. Online shopping
3. Online voting system
4. Banking system

COMPUTER GRAPHICS LAB
L T P C
0 0 3 2
1. Implementation of Bresenham?s Algorithm
Line
Circle
Ellipse
2. 2D and 3D transformation
Translation
Rotation
Scaling
Reflection
Shearing of objects
3. Cohen Sutherland 2D clipping and windowing

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Source: http://mankesune.blogspot.com/2012/12/sixth-semester-cse-syllabus-education.html

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Source: http://ivutveam.posterous.com/mankesune-sixth-semester-cse-syllabus-educati

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What You Can Do To Achieve Internet Promotion Success

Internet marketing is one of the most useful tools to ensure that your business is reaching as many people as possible. This article offers tips and techniques on Internet promotion. After you have read this article, you should have a much better grasp on what you need to do to market your business and products on the web.

You need to use everything you can in Internet promotion. If your company fails at using technology, your customers will notice and may begin to not trust your company. Show your customers that you are on the ?up and up? and are familiar with new ideas so that you can retain their respect.

If you want people to really be compelled to visit your site, you might want to think about offering them free items. You could, for instance, offer a free webinar to anyone who orders a product. You can even begin an ad campaign and use that to sell additional items.

TIP! Be sure to take care of customer?s complaints yourself. You may think it is easier to have someone else do it and want to contract an outside company for the work, but you should do this yourself.

Try making changes to your headlines and switching up your content daily to see how it may affect your sites traffic. You will soon be able to determine the most beneficial tone to represent your business and products in. Once this is determined, you can stick to this tone and create a new image. This will pay off in the future with increased customer visits.

It is in your best interest to try get your customers emotionally involved with your service or product. Encourage the reader to imagine how his or her life would be easier or better as a direct result of using your product. Your ad should be so good that people should be able to imagine using your products while they are reading about them.

On the check-out page, add in specials so that your customer can see what else is for sale. You could give a choice of three different half-price items. This will allow you to move any older inventory, increase profits, while giving the customer a great deal.

TIP! Always offer to give your customer their money back if they are not satisfied. This way, you will appear to be a legitimate business and your potential customers will feel like they are safe to trust you with their money.

Keep an eye on competitors and their tactics, and react accordingly. If you find yourself wanting to be a potential customer of the competition, then obviously their advertising is working. Therefore you need to exploit their methods for your own products.

Add a chat feature to your Internet business website to encourage your customers to converse. People will identify with your brand if they can discuss things they enjoy with people who have similar interests. People like the sense of belonging to a group, and providing them with a reason to consider your business a group should make them stick around longer.

Current content is very important on your website. When people come to your website and see information that is dated, they think that the business is not performing and may be leery of initiating contact with you. If you site is orderly, functioning properly and is regularly maintained you will find that you have more visitors that stick around.

TIP! Be careful not to go to far in advertising spending. There is no point in spending money on advertising techniques that will not work.

Allow customers to leave ratings and (screened) reviews of your products, including explanations of why they chose those ratings. By getting honest feedback to your website, you give readers a credible perspective on the benefits and negatives associated with a particular item.

One interesting way of doing internet promotion for your site is taking advantage when it comes to image searches. Try to pack your site with relative images to get more interest in your site. People who are just trying to find pictures might end up on your site and look around. This will help get you more traffic and more business.

Focus on building a quality site before you worry about marketing it and obtaining a ranking. This needs to be the beginning step for anyone who is creating an online business. Making your site look good and operate well from the beginning means less work as time goes on to re-do or fix mistakes.

TIP! One online marketing strategy is encouraging your visitors to purchase your product by offering discounted prices. You should always have some kind of promotional offer going on and base your marketing campaign on advertising these offers.

As mentioned earlier, your company can see a great increase in visibility through Internet marketing. Traditional advertising methods just cannot give you the visibility and the worldwide presence that Internet promotion can provide. Use what you?ve just learned, and plan the Internet promotion strategy that meets your needs.

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Source: http://www.maynaseric.com/what-you-can-do-to-achieve-internet-promotion-success

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

Minnesota Agricultural Exports Hit Record $6.8B ? CBS Minnesota

(credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

(credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) ? Minnesota?s agricultural exports hit a record $6.8 billion last year.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture says that?s up 13 percent, or about $750 million over the previous year.

Minnesota?s top exported commodities ? soybeans, corn, pork, beef, wheat, sugar, dairy, and feeds ? accounted for more than 80 percent of the state?s total agricultural exports.

Nationally, Minnesota is the 6th largest agricultural exporter in the U.S. Its major markets include China, Mexico, Japan, and Canada.

Agriculture Commissioner Dave Frederickson says more than one-third of the state?s total agricultural production is exported, representing a significant economic contribution to the state and its rural communities.

The department says agricultural exports support more than 54,000 jobs in Minnesota and generate additional economic and business activities in many non-farm sectors.

(? Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Source: http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/12/12/minnesota-agricultural-exports-hit-record-6-8b/

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How a Texas neighborhood became hybrid heaven

5 hrs.

?This is one of the few places where you can see a Chevrolet Volt traffic jam,? laughs Scott Hinson, the lab director for Pecan Street Inc., an alternative energy project in Austin, Texas.

More precisely, Pecan Street is a one-square-mile neighborhood in Austin, Texas, that has become the heart of an ambitious project aimed at testing out alternative technologies ? such as plug-in hybrids like the Chevy Volt ?as well as ?smart grid? electric distribution ? and also running an incredibly detailed analysis of how effective such technologies really are at reducing energy consumption.

The project has drawn the support of General Motors and a wide range of utilities and high-tech firms, such as computer maker Dell and chip-making giant Intel. The U.S. Department of Energy has so far kicked in $10.4 million, private partners another $14 million.? But the critical piece of the puzzle has been getting local residents to sign up.?

"The project is focused squarely on consumers, enlisting real people to gather data from these homes to help structure next-generation energy systems," Brewster McCracken, the project?s executive director, explained in a statement.

So far, about 600 homes and commercial buildings have agreed to participate.? What that means can vary: The most basic requirement is?hooking up to a smart grid system and then permitting Pecan Street Inc. to closely monitor each home?s consumption of energy at a level akin to the slow-motion camera networks now use to watch an NFL quarterback?s throw.?

Disasters such as Superstorm Sandy, as well as major blackouts, have routinely demonstrated that?the nation?s electric grid is creaky, at best. ?It?s not getting better,? John Wellinghoff, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, told the public interest research group ProPublica.? ?It?s getting worse.?

Complicating matters, utilities are facing the prospect of having to handle the potential demands of electric vehicles like those Chevy Volts. There are already 60 electric?cars in use in the Pecan Street community, most of them Chevrolet plug-ins. Eventually, however, utilities could be asked to power up millions of electric vehicles.

?The electric car represents the largest electric load introduced into a residential home in the last 50, maybe 75 years,? notes Hinson.

Smart grid systems are designed to help maximize both the efficiency and robustness of America?s electric utility network ? and make sure there?ll be enough power to go around without necessarily adding hundreds of new generating stations.? Among other things, Pecan Street participants agree to have power to such things as air conditioning and battery car chargers temporarily interrupted if grid demand peaks.

Meanwhile, the monitoring system takes about 1,440 snapshots every 15 minutes revealing how power is being used in each participating home or business.? The data generated is so precise it can reveal when a low-power light bulb is turned on and where ? though steps have been taken to maintain participants? privacy.

Ultimately, the information gathered by the project should help utilities ? as well as consumers ? understand the literal ebbs and flow of electric demand.

The Pecan Street project also will help create?a better understanding of the role utility customers can play in the generation of renewable energy. About 200 participants now have added rooftop solar panels to their homes.?

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While there?s a nationwide push to increase the use of renewable energy there?s also some pushback from utilities who warn not only of the cost of solar and wind generators but their potentially erratic nature.? Several years ago, Texas utilities faced an unexpected brown-out situation when winds becalmed the state?s largest wind farms, creating a sudden energy shortage.

General Motors, which has been active in the Pecan Street program, is betting that those Chevy Volts may play a role. The maker is looking at ways to modify the vehicles in subsequent generations so consumers could tap the energy stored in their batteries in the future should a home be hit by a blackout.

An even more expansive program would tap into batteries after the vehicles they?re used in are sent to the scrapyard. The automaker expects that even after a decade of driving there?ll still be plenty of life left in those lithium-ion battery packs.?

GM is now partnering with Duke Energy, a major U.S. utility, and ABB, one of the world?s largest suppliers of electric grid equipment, to test the potential of using old electric-vehicle batteries to create an energy backup system. That?s ?the Holy Grail,? suggests Duke?s new technology project manager Dan Sowder, because it could ?help enable the safe and reliable integration of renewable energy into the grid.?

The partners are testing a prototype battery-backup system that could handle four to five homes.? Eventually, such devices might be placed throughout the Pecan Street neighborhood ? though even smaller units might be used in individual homes, the partners suggest.

Programs like Pecan Street are helping consumers and utilities alike get a better sense of what the nation?s energy future might look like, one neighborhood at a time.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/how-texas-neighborhood-became-hybrid-heaven-1C7577890

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