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Karachi killings: Pak minister blames wives, girlfriends

July 15, 2011 By admin

ISLAMABAD: After initially pointing fingers at the Taliban, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik has come out with a bizarre theory on the raging violence in Karachi, blaming “wives and girlfriends” for 70 % of the killings in the city where ethnic and political rivalries have claimed scores of lives.

In comments that were ridiculed all over the media, Malik told reporters during an interaction in Quetta yesterday that more people had been killed by those who wanted to get rid of their wives, girlfriends and boyfriends than those responsible for “target killings” in Karachi.

He was responding to a question on the killing of more than 150 people in recent clashes in the port city.

“According to my personal experience in Karachi, if, let&

#039;s say, it is said that 100 people have died in target killings, when I did the investigation, I found that there were only 30 target killings,” Malik said.

“Seventy % were those people who wanted to be rid of their wives and girlfriends or girlfriends who wanted to be rid of their boyfriends. All the figures are with me, they killed them,” he added.

The Interior Minister's comments invited ridicule of TV talk show hosts and users of popular micro-blogging website Twitter, who posted the video footage in which Malik was seen making the remarks.

Dunya News channel, in a report posted on its website, said: “However, one fails to understand if the Interior Minister knows this much, what is stopping him from taking meaningful action”.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: clashes, Islamabad, killings, Meaningful Action, pointing fingers, target, twitter, video footage

Researchers use Twitter tweets to measure moods

July 30, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

(Reuters Life!) – Twitter is for more than just tweeting.

Using millions of Twitter messages, or tweets, from the popular social networking site, researchers at Northeastern University in Boston have created a Twitter Mood Map to measure the moods of the nation.

People are happiest in the morning and in the evening, with happiness peaking on Sunday morning and dipping Thursday night, they found. Twitter users appeared most gloomy at mid-afternoon, shifting to better moods in the evening.

Not surprisingly, people appeared happier on the weekends, with residents of California, Miami and southern states among the most content, they learned.

A colorful time-lapse video on the website here shows the happy moods pulsating from the U.S. east coast to the west coast and back again.

The researchers are the first to admit the findings are not terribly scientific — Twitter users tend to be tech-savvy, live in large cities and are a fraction of the total population — but according to the results they have potential as a tool for providing real-time analysis of critical issues.

“Even though individual tweets are pointless to anyone besides your followers, in aggregate there is a lot of meaningful information that can be an instrument to see how people feel about things, whether it’s public reaction to a politician’s speech or a consumer attitudes about a brand,” said Sune Lehmann, one of the researchers.

Lehmann and others used a psychological word-rating system to analyze key words in some 300 million Twitter messages as happy or sad. They then created maps based on the location of the messages and the general moods they evoke.

The map could be useful not only to collect public opinion but to mobilize users quickly, such as in a drive for emergency relief donations.

“The potential there is tremendous, on both an individual and societal level,” said Johan Bollen, a computer scientist at Indiana University not involved in the project. “It’s absolutely crucial to have real-time indicators about how the public feels, not in months, but in a matter of hours and days.”

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Colorful Time, Computer Scientist, Consumer Attitudes, Critical Issues, East Coast To The West Coast, emergency relief, Indiana University, johan bollen, lehmann, Mid Afternoon, moods, northeastern university, reuters, social networking site, Societal Level, Southern States, Time Analysis, Time Lapse Video, total population, twitter

Twitter moving into its own data center

July 23, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Twitter hopes to improve the reliability of its service by moving into its own, custom-built data center later this year, the company said on Wednesday.

The announcement comes a day after Twitter suffered yet another outage that prevented users from logging in or posting updates to its service. After a fairly good start to the year, Twitter has suffered several outages since June, partly due to traffic spikes during the World Cup but also for other reasons.

Moving into its own data center probably won’t solve all the problems — the issue on Tuesday had to do with a database glitch — but it should help, especially with those related to its fast-growing user base. The company says it has been signing up more than 300,000 new users a day this year on average.

“Keeping pace with these users and their Twitter activity presents some unique and complex engineering challenges,” Twitter said in a blog post Wednesday. “Having dedicated data centers will give us more capacity to accommodate this growth in users and activity on Twitter.”

It will also give it more control over how its networks and systems are configured, and allow it to make adjustments more quickly as its infrastructure needs change.

Web giants like Yahoo, Facebook and Google already have their own data centers, but many smaller companies work with hosting providers that manage their IT equipment for them. Twitter’s provider is NTT America.

Its new data center — the first that Twitter will manage itself — will be in the Salt Lake City area. It will give it “a much larger footprint in a building designed specifically around our unique power and cooling needs.” It will house “a mixed-vendor environment for servers running open source OS and applications,” Twitter said.

It’s unlikely that having its own data center would have prevented Monday’s problems, however. They occurred when the company’s user database, which stores records for more than 125 million users, “got hung up running a long running query.”

Twitter forced a restart of the database, which took 12 hours and then didn’t solve all the problems anyway. So it replaced the database with another copy that was working properly — “in the parlance of database admins everywhere, we promoted a slave to master.”

“We have taken steps to ensure we can more quickly detect and respond to similar issues in the future. For example, we are prepared to more quickly promote a slave database to a master database, and we put additional monitoring in place to catch errant queries like the one that caused Monday’s incidents,” it said.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: challenges, Change Web, complex engineering, facebook, footprint, glitch, google, Infrastructure, keeping pace, Ntt America, Open Source Os, reliability, Runn, salt lake city, smaller companies, Traffic Spikes, twitter, Unique Power, Web Giants, World Cup

Be the New Face of Plus Size Fashion-With Simply Be!

July 20, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

LEEDS, UNITED KINGDOM, Jul 19 (MARKET WIRE) —
Are you plus size model material? Can you walk the catwalk like a pro and
pose on demand? Then Simply Be want to hear from you!

Simply Be are searching for the new face of plus size fashion. So if
you’re a size 14 or above, a natural in front of the camera and full of
confidence this could be your chance to shine!

The prizes are almost too good to be true. First, the winner will be
whisked away for a shoot with Best magazine. One makeover, lots of
pictures and a short wait later, they’ll be named Simply Be’s Plus Size
Model 2010! Then it’s down to work. The new face of the Simply Be Style
Files can expect more shoots, more portfolio shots and more exposure.

Simply Be’s newest model will need to look every bit the part, so the
lucky winner will also receive GBP 10,000 to spend on fabulous Simply Be
fashion! And to kick start the winner’s modelling career, Simply Be will
even arrange a consultation with 12 + UK model management, a prize that
money can’t buy!

All the information about how to enter can be found at SimplyBe.co.uk but
aspiring models can also get regular updates via Twitter and Facebook.

The deadline for entries is 27th August 2010 – don’t miss out on this
amazing opportunity!

New Limited Edition Collections

Simply Be continue at the forefront of plus size fashion, with two new
limited edition collections in sizes 14-32 released this month. Following
on from the success of their two previous sell-out micro-collections, the
‘Urban Clash’ and ‘Military Miss’ ranges look set to capture the hearts
of fashion-savvy shoppers yet again.

The Urban Clash collection mixes industrial grey with pops of electric
colour. Studs, fringes and bold lightening motifs lend a striking style
while key piece the white biker lifts every line.

Military Miss sees utilitarian meet feminine. The must-have military
jacket adds edge to sweet florals and lace while camouflage patterns and
rope embellishment toughen up pretty tees and dresses.

Fashionistas are advised to snap up their favourite pieces before they go
- they’re hot property!

Contacts:
Charlotte Bleasdale
+44 (0)161 238 2000
Charlotte.Bleasdale@jdwilliams.co.uk

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: aspiring models, Camouflage Patterns, catwalk, Edition Collections, Fashion Collections, Florals, Fringes, leeds united, lucky winner, military jacket, Model Management, Model Material, new face, Portfolio Shots, Savvy Shoppers, Size Model, Striking Style, Style Files, twitter, Uk Model

Airshow-Boeing Dreamliner makes first overseas landing

July 19, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

England, July 18 (Reuters) – Boeing’s (BA.N) new 787 Dreamliner touched down in Britain on Sunday on its first trip outside the United States, thrilling hordes of eager planespotters who came out to see the breakthrough carbon-composite plane.

It is expected to take the spotlight at next week’s Farnborough Airshow and was the talk of British TV and Twitter in the moments leading up to its landing. Last-minute technical issues had raised some fears in recent weeks that the plane might not make its long-anticipated trip to the show.

The aircraft promises greater fuel efficiency, and its lightweight materials and innovative design have captured the imagination of both the industry and the broader aviation fan community. Dozens of journalists and throngs of flight enthusiasts assembled near the runway to watch the landing. (Reporting by Kyle Peterson, Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: boeing, Boeing Dreamliner, british tv, dozens, Fan Community, Farnborough Airshow, fears, first trip, Flight Enthusiasts, Fuel Efficiency, Hordes, imagination, innovative design, journalists, Kyle Peterson, Lightweight Materials, Planespotters, reuters, Throngs, twitter

Clampdown rumoured as China “twitter” sites down

July 15, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

July 14 (Reuters) – Chinese social networking websites that provide Twitter-like services have suddenly reverted to testing mode and access has been spotty amid reports of a government clampdown.

Although Twitter has been banned for more than a year in China, Chinese Internet companies have been quick to fill the void, providing microblogging services that allow users to post frequent updates and follow other posters.

On Wednesday, NetEase.com Inc’s (NTES.O) microblog (t.163.com) was inaccessible. A notice said the site had been down since 7 p.m. on Tuesday and was under maintenance.

Sohu.com Inc’s (SOHU.O) microblog (t.sohu.com) was also shut down for more than a day earlier in the week and all Chinese “twitters” now display the notice “in testing mode”.

Company sources told Reuters that the developments were the result of tightened government controls over the new services.

“Nobody will publicly announce the reason, but it is as obvious as a fly on a bald head,” one source said, declining to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post cited unnamed “industry sources” as saying that the websites were under pressure from Chinese censors.

News content on Chinese Internet websites is under intense government censorship, and online news editors with major Internet portals often receive dictats from the government on what can and cannot be published. But the new microblogs of Internet portals, with less government censorship, have proved to be freer for carrying news and comments.

Nevertheless, in July 2009 Fanfou.com, a budding replica of Twitter, was shut down by the government amid a major campaign to tighten Internet controls.

Beijing has been trying to tighten controls on the country’s booming Internet industry, the world’s largest by users, since the second half of last year, introducing new regulations concerning online gaming, online mapping and e-commerce.

Sina Corp (SINA.O), China’s largest Internet portal, launched a microblog in August last year. Yet, earlier this week, the company put an “in testing mode” notice on the website.

“We are constantly upgrading the site. Even though we launched in August last year it is still in testing mode,” said Sina spokesman Liu Qi.

Sina and NetEase both denied government intervention and said the notices and sporadic site access were due to upgrading of features.

“NetEase’s micro-blog is very popular and growing fast, so we had to perform maintenance to upgrade features,” said NetEase spokesman Liu Youcai.

Sohu could not be reached for comment. (Editing by Chris Lewis and Alex Richardson)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: China chinese, Chinese Censors, Chinese Internet Companies, clampdown, company sources, Frequent Updates, Government Censorship, Government Controls, industry sources, Internet Controls, Internet Portals, internet websites, Netease Com Inc, News Editors, Ntes, Oriental Morning, sina, social networking websites, Sohu Com Inc, twitter

The Perfect End to the July 4th Holiday Weekend: A Free Junior Deluxe Sandwich From Arby’s

July 6, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Arby’s® Restaurants Nationwide Offer Sneak Preview of New Value Menu Item

PR Newswire

ATLANTA, July 5

ATLANTA, July 5 /PRNewswire/ — Now that the July 4th weekend is winding down, it’s time to get some relief…for your wallet! Arby’s is offering its new Junior Deluxe sandwich free, with any drink purchase, today, Monday, July 5.

The latest addition to Arby’s Value Menu, the Junior Deluxe features oven-roasted, thinly sliced roast beef, topped with crisp, fresh lettuce, ripe tomato and mayo on a toasted sesame seed bun. The Value Menu, which launched in April, features Arby’s signature offerings starting at $1.

“We’re thrilled about adding the Junior Deluxe to the Arby’s Value Menu,” says Steve Davis, chief marketing officer, Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc. “The July 4th fireworks are over, but this sandwich helps people close out the weekend with another kind of explosion – a little ‘kaboom’ for their buck. Think of Arby’s as the home of the free and the delicious.”

The free Junior Deluxe Sandwich offer will be available during normal business hours today, Monday, July 5, with any drink purchase, excluding Value drinks and coffee, at participating Arby’s locations nationwide. This offer is limited to one per person while supplies last. Consumers will need to ask for their free Junior Deluxe with drink purchase to receive the offer.

For more information about Arby’s Junior Deluxe giveaway, please visit http://www.facebook.com/arbys or follow Arby’s on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Arbys.

About Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc.

Known in the fast food industry for creating unique, premium sandwiches, Arby’s has been in the roast beef business since 1964 when the Raffel Brothers first opened an Arby’s restaurant under a glowing neon cowboy hat in Boardman, Ohio. Today, headquartered in Atlanta, Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc. is the second largest quick-service sandwich chain in the U.S. with nearly 3,700 restaurants system wide. In addition to its classic, slow-roasted, freshly sliced roast beef and Beef ‘n Cheddar sandwiches, Arby’s one-of-a-kind menu also includes a deli-style Market Fresh® line of sandwiches, toasted subs and salads, Curly Fries, Jamocha shakes and the 2010 introduction of a national Value Menu, starting at only $1. Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc. is a subsidiary of Wendy’s/Arby’s Group, Inc. (NYSE: WEN). To learn more about Arby’s, please visit www.arbys.com.

SOURCE Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Arby S Restaurant, Arby S Restaurants, Arbys, Beef Business, Boardman Ohio, Chief Marketing Officer, Deluxe Features, Deluxe Sandwich, July 4th Fireworks, Kaboom, Neon Cowboy, Pr Newswire, PRNewswire, Raffel Brothers, Restaurant Group, Ripe Tomato, Sesame Seed Bun, Signature Offerings, twitter, Value Menu

Google, Twitter bat for Theflyonthewall in Wall St research case

June 23, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

June 22 (Reuters) – Google Inc (GOOG.O) and Twitter Inc have asked a U.S. appeals court to overturn a lower court’s decision to bar Theflyonthewall.com from issuing immediate news on analyst research from several Wall Street banks, court documents showed.

Theflyonthewall.com posted headlines from research reports and press releases on its website, often before banks could share their recommendations with their clients.

In March, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said Theflyonthewall.com engaged in “systematic misappropriation,” essentially getting a “free ride” from its quick publication of upgrades and downgrades that can move stocks higher and lower. [nN18238958]

The ruling was made in favor of Bank of America Corp’s (BAC.N) Merrill Lynch unit, Barclays Plc (BARC.L) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N), which had earlier sought court intervention to ban Theflyonthewall from using their research reports.

However, in a filing with an appeals court late on Monday, Google and Twitter argued that in the age of Internet and instantaneous communication, banning of Theflyonthewall.com’s immediate news dissemination was “obsolete”.

“News reporting always has been a complex ecosystem, where what is ‘news’ is often driven by certain influential news organizations, with others republishing or broadcasting those facts — all to the benefit of the public,” the companies said in the filing.

Google and Twitter argued that upholding the district court’s decision would give those who obtained the news first strong incentives to block others from obtaining the same information.

The companies also said it was tough to implement “any period of exclusivity” for news.

It would be impossible to craft and enforce a rule restricting the dissemination of readily accessible factual information, the companies said. They requested the court to recognize that “hot news” misappropriation could no longer be practically or fairly applied.

“How, for example, would a court pick a time period during which facts about the recent Times Square bombing attempt would be non-reportable by others?” the companies said in the filing.

The case is IN re: Barclays Capital et al v Theflyonthewall.com, Case No. 10-1372, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Valerie Lee)

((sakthi.prasad@thomsonreuters.com; within U.S. +1 646 223 8780; outside U.S. +91 80 4135 5800; Reuters Messaging: sakthi.prasad.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: FLYONTHEWALL/

(C) Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution ofReuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expresslyprohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuterssphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group ofcompanies around the world.nSGE65L05Z

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Analyst Research, Bank Of America, Bank Of America Corp, barc, Barclays Plc, Court Intervention, Factual Information, Goog, google, google inc, Immediate News, Instantaneous Communication, Merrill Lynch, misappropriation, morgan stanley, reuters, Theflyonthewall, twitter, Upgrades And Downgrades, Wall Street Banks

Brightcove Unveils Comprehensive Solution for Delivering Video on Android Mobile Devices

June 23, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

App SDK for Android and mobile templates for Flash Player 10.1 address video use
cases including native applications and mobile Web browsing
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(Business Wire)–
Brightcove, the leading online video platform, today unveiled a comprehensive
solution for delivering high quality video on Android mobile devices. The new
suite of platform capabilities, which includes the Brightcove App Software
Development Kit (SDK) for Android and new mobile templates for Adobe Flash
Player 10.1, spans both native apps and mobile Web experiences to enable
customers to address wide-ranging video use cases on Android devices.

“Publishers of all kinds want to make sure their content is available regardless
of device or platform and to deliver the same experience available on the
desktop to mobile devices,” said David Mendels, Brightcove president and chief
operating officer. “Brightcove is committed to removing the complexity and costs
associated with cross-platform, multi-device video publishing, and our expanded
capabilities for delivering high quality video on Android mobile devices with
support for Flash Player 10.1 and our app SDK are examples of how we are
delivering on this promise.”

The Brightcove App SDK for Android expands the delivery options available to
website publishers to include Android applications. The SDK provides a robust
collection of resources for developers who want to create native, video-rich
applications that consumers can download, install and use on their Android
devices. These resources include pre-built components for playback, content
discovery, and hooks into the Brightcove Media API services. In the near future,
the Brightcove App SDK for Android will enable one touch sharing to popular
social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, Cover Flow playlist navigation,
and the ability to surface related and popular video content.

Brightcove`s mobile templates for Flash Player 10.1 enable organizations to
deploy video that adapts on demand to the playback environment to deliver a
superior viewing experience across mobile platforms, including Android devices.
The player templates offer user interface controls that are specifically
designed for optimizing video viewing on compact screens found on Android and
other leading smartphone platforms, as well as plug-ins available to standard
Brightcove-powered video published on the Web. The mobile-optimized templates
are available in addition to the complete suite of Brightcove player templates,
which are fully compatible with Flash Player 10.1 and bring the benefits of
secure multibitrate streaming, complete analytics, advertising, third party
extensions and other Flash platform innovations.

“Flash Player 10.1 delivers the full Web including video, animations, audio and
other rich content across devices, enabling developers and content publishers to
deliver feature-rich mobile content and applications to users regardless of
device or platform,” said David Wadhwani, vice president and general manager,
Platform Business at Adobe. “Brightcove`s continued innovation around mobile
video is essential in helping content providers distribute high quality video
experiences across Flash enabled mobile devices worldwide.”

Flash Player 10.1 is available on the Android Market today for smartphones and
tablets once upgraded to Android 2.2, which is codenamed “Froyo”. Flash Player
10.1 will also be supported on devices based on BlackBerry, webOS, Windows Phone
7 Series, MeeGo, LiMO and Symbian OS platforms, and is expected to come
pre-installed on smartphones, tablets and other devices in the coming months.
For more information, see Adobe`s press release from today at

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/201006/06222010FlashPlayerAvailability.html.

“The rise of mobile video presents a unique opportunity to reach, engage and
monetize new audiences for our organization,” said Raymond Ostor, general
manager of digital media at Sun Media. “We are excited to take advantage of the
new suite of capabilities for delivering video to Android mobile devices as we
look to expand our video offerings to additional devices and platforms.”

“Brightcove continues to bring to market significant innovations to reduce the
cost and complexity of delivering high quality mobile video experiences,” said
Marcos Enriquez, general manager at Advernet, a company of Grupo Vocento. “We
continue to leverage these innovations across our Web properties, including for
dalealplay.com, our highly popular Spanish video portal, and look forward to
taking advantage of the new Android SDK and Flash Player 10.1 mobile templates
immediately.”

“The French market is experiencing increased demand for mobile video initiatives
that are compatible across devices and smartphone platforms,” said Eric Dumain,
president and founder of Hub`Sales. “Brightcove continues to deliver a rapid
pace of innovations around mobile video that make it easy for organizations to
introduce high quality, mobile-focused video initiatives. We are proud to
partner with Brightcove in France and help our joint customers achieve their
goals with video.”

Today`s announcement is the latest in a series of Brightcove mobile video
innovations, and builds on the company`s existing support for native apps and
mobile Web video for other smartphone platforms.

About Brightcove

Brightcove is a cloud-based online video platform. Media companies, businesses
and organizations worldwide use Brightcove to publish and distribute video on
the Web. Founded in 2004, Brightcove has offices across North America, Europe
and Asia and customers in 45 countries. For more information, visit

http://www.brightcove.com.

Cover Flow is a trademark of Apple, Inc.

Android is a trademark of Google Inc. Use of this trademark is subject to Google
Permissions.

North America
SutherlandGold Group for Brightcove
Erika Shaffer, 206-972-5514
erika@sutherlandgold.com
or
Europe
AxiCom for Brightcove
Sheena Riviera , +44 20 8392 4064
sheena.riviera@axicom.com
or
Japan
LBS Co., Ltd. for Brightcove
Rie Kubota, +81 3 3769 1351
rkubota@lbs.co.jp

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Flash Player 10, brightcove, Cambridge Mass, Comprehensive Solution, Content Discovery, Flash Player 10, Mendels, Mobile Web, Native Applications, Native Apps, Platform Capabilities, rich applications, Robust Collection, Software Development Kit, twitter, video content, Video Platform, Video Publishing, Web Experiences

Yahoo! Provides Millions of Sony Customers in More Than 100 Countries with an Enhanced TV Viewing Experience

June 17, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Yahoo! Dramatically Expands Availability of Yahoo! TV Widgets on Sony`s BRAVIA
LCD Televisions
SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(Business Wire)–
Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced the expanded availability of the Yahoo!
Widget Engine on Sony`s Internet-connected BRAVIA LCD TVs, providing consumers
easy on-demand access to thousands of content sources, movies, TV shows, and
Internet content.

Consumers can check the latest videos on Showtime® and the latest sports scores
on USA Today®, shop on eBay®, play games, or catch up with their friends on
Twitter® and Facebook®, all while watching TV. BRAVIA Internet Widgets powered
by Yahoo! are now available in more than 100 countries across North America,
Europe, Latin America, and Asia.

“Sony is the world leader in entertainment with the unique position of not only
creating content, but also delivering highly advanced devices that allow
consumers to view that content in their homes,” said Toshifumi Okuda, senior
general manager, Home Entertainment Business Group, Sony Corporation. “Extending
our relationship with Yahoo! is another example of how Sony is focused on
delivering attractive features to worldwide consumers.”

“Our expanded partnership with Sony increases the number of countries where
Yahoo! TV Widgets are available by nearly seven-fold, enabling us to connect
millions of additional consumers to compelling Internet content and services
right on their TV,” said Jeff Kinder, senior vice president, Media Products and
Solutions, Yahoo! Inc. “Yahoo! is delivering the right content on the right
platforms – across mobile, PC, TV, and tablets – ensuring the best experiences
for our users, publishers, and developers.”

The increased distribution of the Yahoo! Widget Engine provides developers and
content creators with unmatched scale and the ability to reach millions of
engaged consumers around the globe. With new Web-based development interfaces,
publishers can easily create TV Widgets with the Yahoo! TV Widget Development
Kit (WDK).

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! attracts hundreds of millions of users every month through its innovative
technology and engaging content and services, making it one of the most visited
Internet destinations and a world-class online media company. Yahoo!’s vision is
to be the center of people’s online lives by delivering personally relevant,
meaningful Internet experiences. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale,
California. For more information, visit pressroom.yahoo.com or the company’s
blog, Yodel Anecdotal (yodel.yahoo.com).

For additional information about Yahoo! Connected TV, including images, please
visit: http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/newsroom

Yahoo! is the trademark and/or registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc. All other
names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Yahoo!
Cory Pforzheimer, +1 408-349-2686
coryp@yahoo-inc.com

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: attractive features, Content Creators, content sources, ebay, Enhanced Tv, Jeff Kinder, Lcd Televisions, Lcd Tvs, nasdaq, north america europe, number of countries, Sony Corporation, Sports Scores, twitter, usa today, Web Based Development, Worldwide Consumers, Yahoo Inc, Yahoo Widget Engine, Yhoo

Twitter’s service disruptions and outages persist

June 16, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Twitter’s persistent and disruptive service outages entered a second week, as the company scrambles to bring its site availability back to acceptable levels.

After multiple incidents brought Twitter.com and its platform for third-party applications down several times last week, the company said on Friday that it had identified the causes and had taken concrete steps to resolve the problem.

Specifically, Twitter blamed errors in planning, monitoring and configuring its internal network, and said that in response it had doubled the capacity of its internal network, sharpened its monitoring and improved its load balancing,

“By bringing the monitoring of our internal network in line with the rest of the systems at Twitter, we’ll be able to grow our capacity well ahead of user growth. Furthermore, by doubling our internal network capacity and rebalancing load across the internal network, we’re better prepared to serve today’s tweets and beyond,” wrote Jean-Paul Cozzatti from Twitter’s engineering team on the company’s official blog.

However, problems continued throughout the weekend and into Monday morning, as acknowledged on the official Twitter Status blog, as the site returns its notorious “fail whale” error message.

Not even at its halfway point yet, June is already the worst month in terms of downtime for Twitter since October of last year, according to Web performance monitoring company Pingdom. So far this month, Twitter has been down for 3 hours and 3 minutes.

Twitter, launched in March 2006, had frequent and lengthy outages in 2007 and the first half of 2008, but then steadily improved its site uptime by beefing up and revamping its systems. In 2009, it had very solid months but also bad ones, like August, when it was down for more than 6 hours, according to Pingdom.

“If you look at the type of outages out there, they seem to be largely related to relatively new or fast-growing services. Often fast changes are harder to manage, especially by small, new startup teams that have not yet built lots of operational discipline and maturity,” said IDC analyst Al Hilwa.

Such services often face patterns of use they don’t fully understand and workload peaks of unknown scope for which they don’t have defined response plans, he said via e-mail. “This is a also a by-product of new architectures often used as the back-end of the cloud services supporting these types of new social networks or Web sites,” Hilwa said.

The predominant architectures to handle such scale require factoring the workload on many engines and having them collaborate as a distributed system. In the long run such architectures will mature, but for now operators are clearly challenged to provide the right level of robustness, he said.

“Finally, the main ways to achieve higher levels of availability involve spending money on redundant engines, which of course drives up the costs and is particularly challenging for start-up ventures or high-growth businesses, some of which are still trying to figure out what the revenue model will look like,” he said.

This year, Twitter’s worst month had been January with 89 minutes of downtime, but things have taken a turn for the worst in June. The difference now is that Twitter launched in April its Promoted Tweets advertising program, a key to its revenue-generating strategy.

Having repeated outages can’t help Twitter’s efforts to lure big-name corporate marketers. These companies will expect a certain level of system stability when committing to spending on an advertising campaign, especially when Promoted Tweets ads will be generated and posted in the same manner and with the same format as regular Twitter posts.

Twitter launched Promoted Tweets with a limited number of partners like Starbucks and Best Buy. Twitter hasn’t responded to a request seeking an update on the status of the program.

Twitter has been growing dramatically in the past two years, becoming the preferred tool for individuals to provide updates on their personal lives and for companies and public figures to promote themselves, their brands and products. Users posted about 2 million messages on Twitter in May, according to Pingdom.

Twitter has also been very popular with external developers, who have created more than 50,000 Twitter applications.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: acceptable levels, blog, concrete steps, downtime, engineering team, Error Message, Halfway Point, Load Balancing, Monday morning, party applications, S Engineering, Service Disruptions, Service Outages, several times, Site Uptime, third party, tweets, twitter, Web Performance Monitoring, whale

“Karate Kid” crunches “A-Team” at box office

June 14, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – The Will Smith family acting dynasty is officially open for business.

Entertainment | Film

The actor’s 11-year-old son, Jaden, kicked his way to the top of the North American box office on Sunday in a remake of “The Karate Kid,” one of two new films cashing in on 1980s nostalgia.

Columbia Pictures’ “The Karate Kid” earned an estimated $56 million during its first three days, vanquishing 20th Century Fox’s “The A-Team,” a distant No. 2 with $26 million. Both films had been expected to vie for the top spot, each in the $30 million range.

Last weekend’s champion, “Shrek Forever After,” fell to No. 3 with $15.8 million. The top five was rounded out by a pair of comedies that debuted modestly last weekend: “Get Him to the Greek” ($10.1 million) and “Killers” ($8.2 million).

The two new arrivals helped the sluggish summer box office end a three-week year-on-year decline. The top 12 films grossed $146 million, up about 11 percent from the year-ago period, according to tracking firm Hollywood.com Box-Office.

“The Karate Kid,” a $40 million kung fu picture co-starring Jackie Chan as the mentor of Smith’s troubled inner-city kid, played strongly across all demographics. Exit surveys indicated that 94 percent of moviegoers rated it either “excellent” or “very good,” said distributor Columbia Pictures.

“It’s got tremendous heart, humor and depth,” said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution at the Sony Corp unit. He said the film’s underdog plotline and exotic locale — most of it was shot in China — worked in its favor.

THUMBS UP FROM JUSTON BIEBER

It did not hurt to get some help from Canadian teen heartthrob Justin Bieber, who sings the theme song and has been recommending the film to his young female fans. On the other hand, Ralph Macchio, the star of the 1984 original, said on Twitter that his film’s legacy “remains untouched.”

Jaden Smith previously co-starred with his father in 2006′s “The Pursuit of Happyness” and as Jennifer Connelly’s stepson in 2008′s “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” The opening of his latest picture almost quadruples the $15 million debut of Will Smith’s most recent picture, the 2008 drama “Seven Pounds.” Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith were among the producers of “Karate Kid.”

“The A-Team” did not inspire as much enthusiasm. The $95 million action drama about a team of renegade soldiers of fortune took years to make and was trashed by critics. But 20th Century Fox said the film played well with moviegoers aged under 25, a demographic with no first-hand memory of its camp, small-screen progenitor.

The film stars Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the Mr. T role. Fox is a unit of News Corp.

Elsewhere, the four-week total for the DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc-produced “Shrek Forever After” rose to $210.1 million. But that’s far short of what 2007′s “Shrek the Third” ($283 million) and 2004′s “Shrek 2″ ($347 million) had made at the same time in their runs.

“Sex and the City 2″ is also falling short of its predecessor. The romantic comedy sequel, from Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros. Pictures, has earned $85 million after 18 days, boosted by a $5.5 million weekend at No. 8. The first film had earned $121 million at the same stage in 2008.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: 20th Century Fox, Bruer, Canadian Teen, City Kid, columbia pictures, Entertainment Film, Exit Surveys, female fans, Jackie Chan, Justin Bieber, karate kid, new films, plotline, pursuit of happyness, Ralph Macchio, Smith Family, Sony Corp, twitter, Will Smith, Worldwide Distribution

UPDATE 1-’Karate Kid’ crunches ‘A-Team’ at box office

June 14, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

LOS ANGELES, June 13 (Reuters) – The Will Smith family acting dynasty is officially open for business.

The actor’s 11-year-old son, Jaden, kicked his way to the top of the North American box office on Sunday in a remake of “The Karate Kid,” one of two new films cashing in on 1980s nostalgia.

“It’s got tremendous heart, humor and depth,” said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution at the Sony Corp (6758.T) (SNE.N) unit. He said the film’s underdog plotline and exotic locale — most of it was shot in China — worked in its favor.

THUMBS UP FROM JUSTON BIEBER

The film stars Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the Mr. T role. Fox is a unit of News Corp (NWS.O).

Elsewhere, the four-week total for the DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc (DWA.O)-produced “Shrek Forever After” rose to $210.1 million. But that’s far short of what 2007′s “Shrek the Third” ($283 million) and 2004′s “Shrek 2″ ($347 million) had made at the same time in their runs.

“Sex and the City 2″ is also falling short of its predecessor. The romantic comedy sequel, from Time Warner Inc’s (TWX.N) Warner Bros. Pictures, has earned $85 million after 18 days, boosted by a $5.5 million weekend at No. 8. The first film had earned $121 million at the same stage in 2008.

After 10 days of release, Universal’s Russell Brand comedy “Get Him to the Greek” has earned $36.5 million, and Lionsgate’s Katherine Heigl-Ashton Kutcher romp “Killers” $30.6 million. Universal is a unit of General Electric Co (GE.N). Lionsgate is a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp (LGF.N). (Editing by Eric Walsh) (please visit our entertainment blog via www.reuters.com or on blogs.reuters.com/fanfare/)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: 20th Century Fox, Bruer, Canadian Teen, City Kid, columbia pictures, Exit Surveys, female fans, Hap, Jackie Chan, Justin Bieber, karate kid, new films, plotline, Ralph Macchio, Smith Family, Sne, Sony Corp, twitter, Will Smith, Worldwide Distribution

Whiskey Maker Close to Releasing Bids on $28 Million Distillery Expansion in Kentucky, an Industrial Info News Alert

June 12, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

SUGAR LAND, TX, Jun 11 (MARKET WIRE) —
Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) — Jim Beam
Brands Company, a business unit of Fortune Brands Incorporated (NYSE:FO)
(Deerfield, Illinois), has begun construction on an expansion of a
distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky.

For details, view the entire article by subscribing to Industrial Info’s
Premium Industry News at
http://www.industrialinfo.com/showNews.jsp?newsitemID=161634, or browse
other breaking industrial news stories at www.industrialinfo.com.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market
intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing
and energy markets. IIR’s quality-assurance philosophy, the Living
Forward Reporting Principle(TM), provides up-to-the-minute intelligence
on what’s happening now, while constantly keeping track of future
opportunities. For more information send inquiries to
foodgroup@industrialinfo.com or visit us at www.industrialinfo.com.

Contact:
Joe Govreau
713-783-5147

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: business unit, Deerfield Illinois, distillery, Energy Markets, Fortune Brands, Frankfort Kentucky, global market, Heavy Manufacturing, Industrial News, Industrialinfo, Info News, Info Resources, Jim Beam Brands, market intelligence, Nyse, Quality Assurance, Sugar Land Texas, Sugar Land Tx, twitter, Whiskey

Masdar Unveils Largest Concentrated Solar Power Project, an Industrial Info News Alert

June 12, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

GALWAY, IRELAND, Jun 11 (MARKET WIRE) —
Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info
(Galway, Ireland) — The world’s largest concentrated solar plant (CSP)
and the first for the Middle East was unveiled by Abu Dhabi Future Energy
Company (Masdar) (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) and the company’s
partners at this week’s Power-Gen Europe 2010 Show in Amsterdam.

Other companies featured: Total S.A. (NYSE:TOT)

For details, view the entire article by subscribing to Industrial Info’s
Premium Industry News at
http://www.industrialinfo.eu/showNews.jsp?newsitemID=161635, or browse
other breaking industrial news stories at www.industrialinfo.eu.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market
intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing
and energy markets. IIR’s quality-assurance philosophy, the Living
Forward Reporting Principle(TM), provides up-to-the-minute intelligence
on what’s happening now, while constantly keeping track of future
opportunities. For more information send inquiries to
powergroup@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at
www.industrialinfo.com.

Contact:
Joe Govreau
713-783-5147

-0-

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates, concentrated solar power, Dhabi United Arab Emirates, Energy Company, Energy Markets, european news, future energy, Galway Ireland, Heavy Manufacturing, Industrial News, Industrialinfo, Info Resources, market intelligence, news alert, news editor, Nyse, Power Gen Europe, Solar Plant, twitter, United Arab Emirates

Masdar Unveils Largest Concentrated Solar Power Project, an Industrial Info News Alert

June 12, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Other companies featured: Total S.A. (NYSE:TOT)

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market
intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing
and energy markets. IIR’s quality-assurance philosophy, the Living
Forward Reporting Principle(TM), provides up-to-the-minute intelligence
on what’s happening now, while constantly keeping track of future
opportunities. For more information send inquiries to
powergroup@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at
www.industrialinfo.com.

Contact:
Joe Govreau
713-783-5147

-0-

Tornados Force Great Lakes Region Power Plants Offline, an Industrial Info News Alert

June 11, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

SUGAR LAND, TX, Jun 10 (MARKET WIRE) —
Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) — Tornados
from different weather events have ripped through the Great Lakes Region
during the past few days causing havoc and shutting down power plants. On
June 6, the Fermi Nuclear Station, which is in Newport, Michigan, and is
owned by Detroit Edison Company (NYSE:DTE) (Detroit, Michigan), went
offline due to an off-site power loss that was caused by tornados. On
June 5, three separate tornados ripped through the Powerton Power Station
that is owned by Edison International (NYSE:EIX) (Rosemead, California),
near Pekin, Illinois, creating major infrastructure damage and taking
1,786 megawatts of power generation capacity offline.

For details, view articles on each of these events by subscribing to
Industrial Info’s Premium Industry News at
http://www.industrialinfo.com/showNews.jsp?newsitemID=161557, or browse
other breaking industrial news stories at www.industrialinfo.com.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market
intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing
and energy markets. IIR’s quality-assurance philosophy, the Living
Forward Reporting Principle(TM), provides up-to-the-minute intelligence
on what’s happening now, while constantly keeping track of future
opportunities. For more information send inquiries to
powergroup@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at
www.industrialinfo.com.

Contact:
Joe Govreau
713-783-5147

-0-

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Details View, Detroit Edison Company, Edison International, Eix, Heavy Manufacturing, Industrial News, Industrialinfo, Infrastructure Damage, market intelligence, Newport Michigan, Nuclear Station, Pekin Illinois, power generation capacity, power plants, Rosemead California, Sugar Land Texas, Sugar Land Tx, Texas Tornados, twitter, Weather Events

Tornados Force Great Lakes Region Power Plants Offline, an Industrial Info News Alert

June 11, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market
intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing
and energy markets. IIR’s quality-assurance philosophy, the Living
Forward Reporting Principle(TM), provides up-to-the-minute intelligence
on what’s happening now, while constantly keeping track of future
opportunities. For more information send inquiries to
powergroup@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at
www.industrialinfo.com.

Contact:
Joe Govreau
713-783-5147

-0-

Lindsay Lohan’s drinking leads to near arrest

June 10, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – A judge on Tuesday issued a new arrest warrant for Lindsay Lohan that was quickly revoked in fast-changing set of events after the troubled actress’s court-ordered alcohol bracelet detected she had been drinking.

Entertainment | People

The warrant was recalled when Lohan’s representatives posted a portion of a new $200,000 bail amount after the actress was ordered by a judge to forfeit her original $100,000 bail on a 2007 drunken driving charge.

The new measures were taken after Judge Marsha Revel summoned prosecutors and Lohan’s lawyer to an emergency meeting in her Beverly Hills court Tuesday afternoon.

Revel said a report from the alcohol monitoring ankle device that she ordered Lohan to wear on May 24 had detected an infringement of the ban on drinking and drugs imposed on the actress.

“She was in violation of the conditions of her bail, so her bail is forfeited,” Revel said after the meeting. She set the new bail based on five counts of violating probation. Lohan is due back in court on July 6 where she risks being sentenced to jail time.

Lohan’s attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, said in a statement that ankle bracelet “indicated the presense of a small amount of alcohol on Sunday night.”

Holley said she only recently received the report herself and could not “speak to its accuracy or validity, however Ms. Lohan maintains that she has been in complete compliance with all of the terms of her probation and her bail.”

Indeed, Lohan took to her Twitter early on Tuesday saying the bracelet, called a SCRAM device, could not have been set off, and she blamed the tabloids and paparazzi for fomenting speculation.

“My scram wasn’t set off-it’s physically impossible considering I’ve nothing for it to go off-All of these false reports are absolutely wrong,” Lohan, 23, said in Tweet on Tuesday.

Earlier this week, reports citing unnamed sources surfaced saying the actress was drinking alcohol after Sunday’s MTV Movie Awards.

In 2007, the 23-year-old was charged with reckless driving, drunken driving, and driving under the influence of cocaine. She was sentenced to probation and mandatory alcohol education classes.

Last month, Lohan missed a date in Judge Revel’s courtroom because she said her passport had been stolen while she was at the Cannes film festival in France.

Judge Revel, saying Lohan had missed some of her classes, issued an arrest warrant in May that was also recalled after Lohan’s representatives posted bail.

She also ordered the “Mean Girls” actress to undergo random drug and alcohol tests, and had her ankle fitted with the SCRAM monitoring bracelet.

Lohan rose to fame in Disney movies such as “Freaky Friday” and as a teenager was considered one of Hollywood’s best young actresses. But in recent years, her hard-partying ways have led to trouble and her career has stumbled.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Ankle Bracelet, Arrest Warrant, drinking alcohol, Drinking And Drugs, holley, jail time, Lindsay Lohan, Marsha, Mtv Awards, mtv movie awards, Presense, reuters, Scram Device, Shawn Chapman, tabloids, Tuesday afternoon, tweet, twitter, unnamed sources, Violating Probation

Wall Street Media presents Rich Gordon: Evolving Con`Census` Calls V-Shaped Recovery into Question

June 10, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

NEW YORK–(Business Wire)–
Wall Street Media presents exclusive video of Rich Gordon, the highly regarded
Fixed Income Market Strategist of Wells Fargo Securities (NYSE:WFC). He touches
upon Friday`s disappointing nonfarm payroll summary. In particular, low jobs
growth, indicating a lack in the momentum necessary to sustain a V-shaped
recovery, have caused risk markets to re-price accordingly. In turn, investors
are keeping a close eye on the stock market, as most other risk assets have
shown a close correlation to stock prices since May. Rich stresses that in terms
of rate markets, it is likely that US Treasury yields (NYSE:TLT) will get pushed
higher this week. Europe`s issuance calendar is also of great importance this
week. Rich emphasizes the particular importance of watching Spain, due to its
ability to cause larger spillover effects for markets outside of Europe, on
Thursday. The combination of the aforementioned heavy treasury and foreign
sovereign debt supply should bring optimism to the mortgage market.

Please visit the following link to view the video:

http://wsmco.com/show.aspx?1662_Market_Summary

Very Positive DCTH Results – Dr. Eric Whitman
(http://drericwhitman.wordpress.com/) joins us to talk about the positive DCTH
(Nasdaq:DCTH) results from this past weekend`s ASCO meeting

Please visit the following link to view the video:

http://wsmco.com/show.aspx?1661_Very_Positive_DCTH_Results

New Feature on StockTwits – Howard Lindzon (http://howardlindzon.com/) details
the new and exciting Zecco Zap Trade feature on StockTwits

Please visit the following link to view the video:

http://wsmco.com/show.aspx?1652_New_Feature_on_StockTwits

Follow and learn from Wall Street Media on Twitter at:

http://twitter.com/wsmco

Wall Street Media presents exclusive insights from the leading transparent
investors on the planet:

http://wsmco.com

After catching up on stock news and making money, visit DateTwit to send a free
smile or a virtual drink to anyone on Twitter without blowing your social media
capital:
www.DateTwit.com

Wall Street Media
Claire McCurry, 212-354-1102

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Asco Meeting, Dcth, dr eric, Eric Whitman, Fixed Income Market, market strategist, Money Visit, Mortgage Market, nasdaq, Nonfarm Payroll, Nyse, Risk Markets, sovereign debt, spillover effects, stock news, stock prices, Tlt, twitter, Wells Fargo, Zecco

Karachi killings: Pak minister blames wives, girlfriends

Twitter moving into its own data center

Be the New Face of Plus Size Fashion-With Simply Be!

Airshow-Boeing Dreamliner makes first overseas landing

The Perfect End to the July 4th Holiday Weekend: A Free Junior Deluxe Sandwich From Arby’s

Google, Twitter bat for Theflyonthewall in Wall St research case

Brightcove Unveils Comprehensive Solution for Delivering Video on Android Mobile Devices

Yahoo! Provides Millions of Sony Customers in More Than 100 Countries with an Enhanced TV Viewing Experience

Twitter’s service disruptions and outages persist

“Karate Kid” crunches “A-Team” at box office

UPDATE 1-’Karate Kid’ crunches ‘A-Team’ at box office

Whiskey Maker Close to Releasing Bids on $28 Million Distillery Expansion in Kentucky, an Industrial Info News Alert

Masdar Unveils Largest Concentrated Solar Power Project, an Industrial Info News Alert

Masdar Unveils Largest Concentrated Solar Power Project, an Industrial Info News Alert

Tornados Force Great Lakes Region Power Plants Offline, an Industrial Info News Alert

Tornados Force Great Lakes Region Power Plants Offline, an Industrial Info News Alert

Lindsay Lohan’s drinking leads to near arrest

Wall Street Media presents Rich Gordon: Evolving Con`Census` Calls V-Shaped Recovery into Question

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