Tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, Americans across the country will sit down together, count our blessings, and give thanks for our families and our loved ones. American families reflect the diversity of this great nation. No two are exactly alike, but there is a common thread they each share. Our families are bound together through times of joy and times of grief. They shape us, support us, instill the values that guide us as individuals, and make possible all that we achieve. So tomorrow, I'll be giving thanks for my family -- for all the wisdom, support, and love they have brought into my life. But tomorrow is also a day to remember those who cannot sit down to break bread with those they love. The soldier overseas holding down a lonely post and missing his kids. The sailor who left her home to serve a higher calling. The folks who must spend tomorrow apart from their families to work a second job, so they can keep food on the table or send a child to school. We are grateful beyond words for the service and hard work of so many Americans who make our country great through their sacrifice. And this year, we know that far too many face a daily struggle that puts the comfort and security we all deserve painfully out of reach. So when we gather tomorrow, let us also use the occasion to renew our commitment to building a more peaceful and prosperous future that every American family can enjoy. It seems like a lifetime ago that a crowd met on a frigid February morning in Springfield, Illinois to set out on an improbable course to change our nation. In the years since, Michelle and I have been blessed with the support and friendship of the millions of Americans who have come together to form this ongoing movement for change. You have been there through victories and setbacks. You have given of yourselves beyond measure. You have enabled all that we have accomplished -- and you have had the courage to dream yet bigger dreams for what we can still achieve. So in this season of thanks giving, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to you, and my anticipation of the brighter future we are creating together. With warmest wishes for a happy holiday season from my family to yours, President Barack Obama
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Thanksgiving wishes from Barack Obama
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Opera 10.10: Web Browser and Web Server In One
With version 10.10, Opera (
“Our devices will evolve. From in-dash computers in trucks to entertainment systems in airplanes, and from a netbook in North Dakota to a phone in North Africa, every device is both a consumer and a provider of content.”
The idea is certainly interesting, but the web has been moving in another direction in the past couple of years: the cloud. Instead of having stuff run on your computer, your applications and your data reside in the cloud, with all the resources and the know-how provided by a company like Google (
Other interesting features in the new Opera 10.10 include Opera’s Turbo technology, which speeds up browsing by compressing web pages on Opera’s servers and delivering you the “lite” version, Opera Link, which lets you synchronize data across several computers, a slick new look with a resizable tab bar, and a BitTorrent-enabled download manager. See the full list of features here.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Re:hi q
Their contact Email: sanhuany@188.com . MSN: sanhuany@hotmail.com
Regards
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Miley Cyrus - 7 Things
I probably shouldn't say this
But at times I get so scared
When I think about the previous
Relationship we've shared It was awesome but we lost it
It's not possible for me not to care
And now we're standing in the rain
But nothing's ever gonna change until you hear, my dear The 7 things I hate about you [Chorus:]
The 7 things I hate about you (oh you)
You're vain, your games, you're insecure
You love me, you like her
You make me laugh, you make me cry
I don't know which side to buy
Your friends they're jerks
And when you act like them, just know it hurts
I wanna be with the one I know
And the 7th thing I hate the most that you do
You make me love you It's awkward and silent
As I wait for you to say
But what I need to hear now
Is your sincere apology
And when you mean it, I'll believe it
If you text it, I'll delete it
Let's be clear
Oh I'm not coming back
You're taking 7 steps here [Chorus] And compared to all the great things
That would take too long to write
I probably should mention
The 7 that I like The 7 things I like about you
Your hair, your eyes, your old Levi's
And when we kiss, I'm hypnotized
You make me laugh, you make me cry
But I guess that's both I'll have to buy
Your hand in mine
When we're intertwined everything's alright
I want to be
With the one I know
And the 7th thing I like the most that you do
You make me love you
You do (oh)
Grappling with a wealth of guilt
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 20, 2009
Young heirs seek moral balance between inherited windfalls, social responsibilities
One night in Adams Morgan, the sons and daughters of lawyers and corporate executives padded into a friend's rowhouse for a kind of group therapy session about their families' wealth.
They are young people who have inherited or stand to inherit big money, and they are spending their post-college years living modestly and working to address the needs of the poor, hungry and politically disadvantaged. But the privilege they grew up with and the money coming their way nag at them in ways few people not in their position can fathom.
Burke Stansbury, 33, a nonprofit administrator who inherited $1 million in stock three years ago, opened up about how his newborn's breathing problems were forcing him to reconsider how much of his fortune he should use for his family and how much to give away.
"Those of us with wealth and progressive values resist the privilege and actually deny it because of this inequality that exists in society," said Stansbury, who has spent his time since college working for a nonprofit organization devoted to labor issues in Latin America.
"We're not going to accept that form of privilege," he said. "But when it comes to [my son's] health care, we're not going to mess around. You're going to take advantage of [the money]. It's a real blessing, but it's not fair."
The dinner in Adams Morgan was held at the home of a private school teacher who inherited $1.5 million. It was a rare chance for members of the Resource Generation, a nonprofit group whose 35-and-younger members devote themselves to philanthropic work for social justice, to talk about their guilt and their views on social inequalities without fear of eye-rolling from people who might view them as spoiled rich kids playing at helping the downtrodden.
"Can I share something on my mind?" asked Liz Goldberg, 25, a nonprofit development associate whose father is a partner at the consulting firm KPMG. "I have epilepsy, and I require certain things over the year. Most recently, it was an MRI, and I can't afford it on my own, so I am forced to rely on my parents. I think of myself as independent, but I am not able to reconcile that payment."
"In Vermont [this year], I broke my finger and didn't have insurance," said Treibitz, whose father is chief executive of a Colorado company that designs visual presentations for court trials. "I got my X-ray and gave [the hospital] a fake name and walked out. Is that okay that I am doing that -- taking up resources because I am refusing to take money from my parents?"
Inspired and challenged
The young wealthy are keenly aware that there is little public sympathy for the moral doubts they struggle with. In a harsh economy, few people worry about the insecurities of heirs in their 20s and 30s who choose to work in social change philanthropy.
But these young people represent a huge amount of money, and some feel not only inspired but also challenged by the choices they face.
Since the late 1990s, after a Boston College study concluded that $41 trillion would be passed from one generation to the next over the first five decades of the 21st century, several banking and nonprofit organizations have initiated programs catering to the emotional and financial literacy needs of young heirs. (The tally of wealth that will be inherited has since risen to about $50 trillion, according to the college.)
This year, the Council on Foundations started a Next Generation task force to explore ways to support young philanthropists.
Washington's chapter of the Resource Generation, many of whose members work in the arts, education and other nonprofit groups, has forged connections by giving young heirs a place where they can divulge their insecurities. At the recent dinner, those who have not inherited their wealth grappled with their decisions to live a low-wage existence in Washington.
"I definitely feel like I am at war between my desires instilled in me to eat out at nice restaurants and my better sense and principles," Treibitz said in an interview. "If I make different choices when I am older, I hope to God they're coming out of principles. Everyone changes. My great-grandmother was a communist in her 20s and a total conservative in her 90s. I won't rule out anything."
The stratosphere of wealthy Americans of any age has shrunk in the past two years. The number of children of millionaires has decreased from 26 million in 2007 to 19 million, according to the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College. The number of millionaire homes in which the head of household is 35 or under has also dropped, from about 370,000 in 2007 to about 250,000, according to the center.
Juggling ambivalence
For Stansbury, who works at the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, housed above a Mount Pleasant church, his $1 million inheritance at age 30 triggered crosscurrents of ambivalence.
He grew up in Seattle, the son of a lawyer and interior decorator, went to private school, played lacrosse and enrolled at Georgetown University. But he disliked the college's preppy scene, so he dropped out after a year and traveled around Mexico with a friend in an orange 1974 Volkswagen pop-top van.
"In Mexico, I saw really extreme poverty," said Stansbury, who lives in a $1,600-a-month one-bedroom basement apartment in Mount Pleasant with his partner, Krista Hanson, and their newborn, Lucas. "I saw deforestation. I saw more problems in the world than I saw in my private school. I saw an uprising in Chiapas of indigenous people -- corn farmers -- against trade policies, and I discovered solidarity activism."
When he returned, he transferred to the University of Montana. After graduating, he began working on behalf of Salvadorans. He was making $25,000 a year at the Solidarity Committee and now works there part time. At 30, he inherited $1 million in a trust set up by his grandfather, John G. Molz, who made his money in real estate and a wine business.
Stansbury has invested his inheritance in "socially responsible" mutual funds, he said, and monitors his investments closely.
When he learned that Costco was opening a store in Mexico that would entail cutting down trees and displacing a "sacred community, I put together an action at a shareholders meeting," he said. "They opened the store but made concessions. People were still upset, but the company clearly got the message."
At Resource Generation meetings, Stansbury vents about politics and critiques his inheritance, which he says perpetuates social inequalities and what he views as an insulated upper class. (He supports increasing estate and capital gains taxes.)
Life's complications
When Nigel Greaves joined Resource Generation, he found the members' hand-wringing about inherited money a bit much.
"The conversations were hard for me to hear at first," said Greaves, 32, a filmmaker who does not come from wealth but joined the group because he believes in its social change mission.
"This idea of guilt and not understanding or knowing what you can do with the money can be frustrating for someone who doesn't have a familiarity with the group. But I have more of an appreciation of that journey now."
But for those with money coming their way, the questions seem to get harder. Now that he has a child, Stansbury said he can no longer view his inheritance as a pot of money to be donated to causes. "We've just started thinking about it. I want to provide the best health care for Lucas, which is going to be a real need."
What about nannies and private school?
"I'd like to have my kids be exposed to more diversity, something less sheltered than where I went to school," said Stansbury, sitting in his living room and surrounded by books on subjects such as Karl Marx and the farm crisis in Mexico. "It depends on where we live."
How to get local results on ShopSavvy
The most compelling feature about ShopSavvy is NOT the ability to scan a barcode, instead it is the ability to expose inventory and pricing information from local retailers. In the Android version of ShopSavvy our standard screen had a Web tab and a Local tab that exposed the number of results for each. If the user scans an item that we don’t have a local result for we show “0″ as the number of results. Over the past year we have regretted this decision as users will email us letting us know they aren’t pleased we don’t have local results. In our iPhone version we fixed this issue.
In the iPhone version of ShopSavvy if you scan an item WITHOUT local prices we simply show a tab that says “Prices”. If we have local prices we show the two tabs, i.e. Web and Local price. By not calling attention to the fact that we don’t have a local price for an item we don’t get many emails from annoyed users relative to local results. Of course, in our world, not many is hundreds so I thought I would explain how to get local results on ShopSavvy.
Most new users (i.e. the vast majority of support emails) download ShopSavvy at their house and begin scanning items they already to own. Many of these items are grocery related and we don’t cover groceries very well (read more here). The rest are old books and DVDs – many of these are still available online, but they are no longer in local stores. These ‘DEMO’ scans often yield poor results, a) the items are no longer sold in local stores, b) they are of groceries and c) the barcodes are hard to read. We have received hundreds of negative ratings from these users even though they have never actually tried to use ShopSavvy to shop. My advice? Use ShopSavvy when you shop – you will be surprised how helpful ShopSavvy can be.
The reason ShopSavvy performs well in retail stores is fairly obvious. First, the items sold in one retail store are likely sold in other retail stores – meaning we will have local inventory and price. Major local retailers carry between 10,000 and 100,000 items – this is out of millions of items. Second, the lighting in retail stores is often far better than the lighting in your house – this means scanning will be faster. Third, the barcodes are almost always printed on flat surfaces – this means scanning will be faster. Trying to scan items in your house means you are scanning items that might not be currently sold, might have hard to read barcodes and scanning in low light. Before you give us a poor review or rating, please actually use ShopSavvy when you are shopping for Christmas.
via: http://www.biggu.com/2009/11/21/how-to-get-local-results-on-shopsavvy-2/
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Untitled
A Balanced Assessment of the Criticisms of Engaging Social Media:
Determining the advantages and disadvantages of particular activities for people and organizations is an important task. Why else would education, books, think tanks, and presidential debates exist. I thought fleshing out my personal experience with the advantages and disadvantages might be instructive in determining “the truth” about social media, web 2.0, and blogging technologies.
Advantages of Social Media
• Democratization of media.
• Relationships and conversation.
• Creativity and re-mix culture.
• Embrace your passion and identity.
• Community, sharing, and connecting.
• Increase transparency in government and organizations.
Criticisms of Social Media
• Lots of great content still gets overlooked. Current lack of good filters creates problems finding the best content.
• Writers have problems delivering content consistently.
• Anonymity can engender polarization and hate.
• Information overload and social networking overload.
• Work/Life balance is hard to achieve.
As society and technology moves forward we stand at a watershed moment and history, so it is vitally necessary to stop and think about our societal trajectory. Thoughts? Did I miss an advantage or disadvantage?
How you can learn more or learn how to make your corporate blogging efforts more strategic and productive:
If you liked this post you might be interested in a more comprehensive criticism of social media which suggests that its a little early to drink the social media and web 2.0. Alternatively, if you want to strategically blog or productively use social media and web 2.0 tools which addresses many of these concerns, you should check here. Finally, the problems with the traditional social media agency.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Part II: The Risk of a Web 2.0 Bubble
This presentation by Dave in January of 2008 outlines the economics and cultural stresses which might cause one to be wary of the web 2.0 wave, and as a very astute venture capital investor he ultimately concludes with a happy future for the world of Web 2.0:
(image credit: pikkus)
