I’m Eric Morse, the Director of Emerging Ecosystems at Microsoft. Though my title may sound like I don hip boots to discover new species of salmon spawning in northwest rivers, I’m actually more jazzed about enabling new technologies to take hold and provide opportunity where perhaps there was not before. That’s why I’m particularly excited about the Azure™ Services Platform. It occurred to me, however, that not everyone may be as on board as I ...

Last week there were several companies that cut or suspended their dividend payments. As part of my studies to uncover market inefficiencies pertaining to dividend stocks I am measuring the performance of those dividend suspenders or cutters. As part of my sample I am measuring stocks which trade at least several hundred thousand shares per day. I am also measuring the decline or advance based off the opening price for the day on which the ...

Every time I visit my grandpa in my hometown of Indianapolis, he asks me "So, have you tried out for any of those big shows in New York?" Flattered as I am that Grandpa likes my singing, I have to remind him that actors have to have "credits" and "equity" and join the actor's union and have agents and headshots and resumes and be able to dance like the Rockettes if they want to be ...

It appears the legendary Korean film Old Boy is going to be remade by the superstar Hollywood team of Spielberg and Smith. We get the scoop from our friends at comingsoon: Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are in early discussions to collaborate on a remake of Chan Wook-park’s Oldboy, says Variety. DreamWorks is in the process of securing the remake rights, and the new film will be distributed by Universal. In the 2003 Korean original, ...

四、不明真相的围观群众昨天深夜，台北市经历了自中华民国总统直选以来最血腥的暴力之夜，将近二十年都没有出现的汽油弹随着抗议人群越发激动的情绪，点燃了台北的夜空。直到今天凌晨1点，警方发动第五波强制驱离（或称镇暴）行动，于2点30分恢复了瘫痪十个小时的交通秩序。民进党——中华民国有史以来最无耻的暴力党就在这些被民进党及其党主席蔡英文发动上街的“围观群众”遭到警方强行镇暴驱散之后，民进党开始全面推卸责任。针对围城行动引发众多暴力事件，党主席蔡英文强调圆山暴动的人并非民进党所动员，发生的地点也和他们无关，今天上午党内同仁将暴动归咎于黑道，撇清一切关系。这种嘴脸比闻名全球的大陆城管更令人作呕。想当年，民进党的街头抗争，面对国民党政权调动军队镇压，施明德、许信良、黄信介、林义雄，率领群众义无反顾向前冲，正因为这种对抗专制的坚定意志，瓦解了国民党的鹰犬，成功废除了戒严令。但如今的民进党，一句游行结束了，“不愿离去的群众与我无关”，甚至是“有黑道分子寻衅滋事”。这和大陆人民经常听到的“一小撮论”、“不明真相的围观群众”有何不同？陈云林到来之前，民进党如神经错乱般抬出蒋介石的反共抗俄，全然忘了当初“去蒋化”行动的始作俑者就是自己。既然如此反共，为何又要学共产党对付群众的那一套把戏？马政府极端无能 公权力前倨后恭话说晶华酒店围困陈云林八小时的前后经过，台北市警方放着《中华民国集会游行法》不用，放任酒店四周所有出入口都被围堵，面对明显违法的示威者一味姑息纵容，令人误以为警方怕事。之后，在内政部长和警政署长当机立断撤换现场指挥官后，迅速下令镇暴。或许有论者会不以为然，觉得台北市的警察不伤人是正确的，要真的像大陆公安虐待人民，还叫民主社会吗？但我认为，同样的事情在两岸就是有不同的处理方式。差别就一个：法律。大陆的集会与游行，本身并没有一部完整的法律，公安机关的随意裁量权过于强大，以至于人民的宪法权力遭受践踏。然而，台湾却制定了详细的法律，明确约束游行者与管理者各自的权力、义务，即便是最后的清场、镇暴都是有法可依的。无论是谁，违法就要受到制裁，这是法治社会最重要的共识。所以，昨天的围城抗议，民进党申请了路权与游行权，在与警方约定的既定时间过后，抗议者依然不离开，警方自然有足够的法理进行镇压，这是法律赋予警察的权力。此时此刻，抗议者在法律上已经由守法公民变成了违法嫌疑犯，为什么要同情他们？同情了他们，谁又来同情其他遵纪守法的台北市民？对此，南方朔今天撰文谴责蓝绿两大党：“民进党硬是有本领把没道理拗成有道理；民进党也硬是敢公开的说反暴力，但它在啸聚人群搞出暴力后，则又敢说那是自动自发的百姓跟它无关。而马政府及国民党却从来就见绿矮半截，它不敢也不会说出自己的主张，而只是以另一种方式在讨和及讨好绿色。马政府及国民党的无思想，已使它早就失去了借着创造论述及方向而主导台湾形势的能力。而最荒唐的乃是第一线警察正搏命维安，党政高层却说「不要执法过当」这种讨好的话。一个畏首畏尾的政府，将无法解决问题，这就是证明。陈云林来台，对两岸关系有何等重大的意义，马政府自己讲不出一个道理，卒致以喧闹暴力收场，这是何等严重的无能！”为什么受伤的永远都是围观群众？政客是自私的，政治又是无情的。为了攫取最大限度的私利，政客们纠集了被情绪控制大脑的群众来示威。不过我隐约听见一个微弱的声音说道：“明年又要选举了！”沉浸在扁家惊天弊案和多位县市长相继被捕的大环境下，民进党再不有点行动，明年底的县市长选举过后，他们都将被逐出政治舞台。诚然，围观群众会跟随民进党上街也是被逼迫，麻木不仁的政府对他们相信暴力、重回街头起到了推波助澜的作用，但是当反对者的合理主张逾越了法律的红线，这种主张就不再合理。维护主权与尊严不是靠着贴近陈云林大声嚷嚷就能得到的，打了张铭清的结果不是台湾的胜利，而是受人轻蔑的开始。民主社会的前提是文明，天天呼喊大陆要民主的台湾人，连起码的文明守法都做不到。这不是在帮助大陆拥抱民主，而是给予某些保守势力越发拒绝民主的借口。台湾同胞就是这样促进大陆民主的？今天的《中国时报》、《联合报》社论都提到了北京亟需正视中华民国的问题，而这种很老套的呼吁又一次证明了一个残忍的事实：偏见与成见是阻碍两岸和平的最大绊脚石。正当央视主播柴璐在晶华酒店外被围攻的隔天，大陆媒体一概使用台独分子的称呼来泛指抗议者，这是什么居心？是谁告诉你们，围攻柴璐的人都是支持台独的？同样，看到五星红旗和操着大陆口音的人，绿色群众就血脉喷张、情绪激动，又是谁告诉你们，所有大陆人就一定对台湾怀有敌意了？当瞬间的偏见升格为长久性的成见，遭遇对方歧视的命运注定在劫难逃。在强烈谴责政客居心叵测的时候，也请围观群众们擦亮自己的一群眼睛，同时扪心自问，自己的牺牲究竟值不值得？注：【圆山筑梦】系列完结。

Filed under: Hardware, OS, Hacks Here's a video and setup instructions for getting Mac OS X to run on a HP TouchSmart. The machine's main feature, of course, is the touch screen. It kind of works with OS X in that elements respond to touch, but the calibration is way off and, as the guy in the video says, there's no way to adjust it. He does offer to test out any other aspect of ...

Google Android has one of the best features designed for Google maps. Makes sense, doesn’t it? But while the newly released Android is getting all the hype in the news as of late, it seems Apple isn’t going to let Google get away with that title just yet. With the software 2.2 update, the iPhone will now support Google Street View as well as mass transit directions. With this feature, people will be able to ...

“There’s no logical end to it,” Cato Senior Fellow Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr. said to Neil Cavuto on Fox Business. He’s talking about the incredible expanding bailouts. It started with Bear Stearns in March and then homebuilders in April. Then Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September, and after that the deluge. AIG, announced at $85 billion but quietly increased to $123 billion so far, and the $700 billion centerpiece and then money market funds ...

Nikon CoolPix 8 Megapixel Camera I’ve talked with a lot of people in the last few days, and several of them suggested that I conduct a SparkplugU survey to expand our course offerings based on your input. I thought this was a fab idea. So I’d like to request that you take a few minutes to fill out our very short 9 question survey. As a thank you, we’ll be doing a drawing for a ...

By: MiCol Chan, MadisonBoom副笔最近一直看了很多广告公司全球CEO的采访，当所有记者问他们遇到的最大问题是什么？不约而同的回答：不是经济衰退，是人才！为什么是“人才”？说到底，所谓宏观上的经济，其实都是一个个人轮着铁锤、笑脸服务、坐在电脑前做PPT给做出来的。广告公司是什么？这个最忽悠的行业靠的是什么？不是您的系统，不是AC Neilson提供的庞大数据，不是你所谓的独特的ROI或者USP或者360度传播概念。是每家公司从Intern到CEO的团队！因为他们把自己的热情、把自己的生命投入到这个行业中来。但是非常Fucked的是，以我个人这简短的四年时间看来，90%的Agency People缺失了这份热情！他们都记得这只是每个月可以收到工资袋的工作，仅此而已。无论创意、媒介代理、公关或者线下营销，无非就是把付你钱的客户大人的传播做好，让他们的品牌传播到更大范围，让他们的品牌名声更响亮，让他们的生意蒸蒸日上。而不是，如何较劲脑子拿回扣，如何台湾帮干掉香港帮，如何老外干掉中国经理，如何溜须拍马获得提拔!!!!上个月，广告行业有三个较为知名的广告人离开了这个世界。它会shock到你吗？ 不会！明天你还是会加班到半夜三更。因为你很Hungry! 因为比你便宜而年轻的人满大街是！因为别人开了宝马，你也想要！

Daniel posted a few weeks ago this blog entry about a code camp he and others have been running for ISVs to port and develop their applications on the GlassFish Application Server. Don't be put off by the page being in German, all of the GlassFish Workshop documents are in English and very good IMHO. They cover from GlassFish fundamentals such as basic installation steps to much more advanced details about how to adapt applications ...