New York City has these special video billboards at the top of subway stops playing silent movies for Lexus, Chanel, and NBC play on them. It's kinda beautiful, and kinda annoying.
Full Story: consumerist.com
Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts
Monday, May 14, 2007
Faster: DirecTV may try broadband on power lines
NEW YORK - Satellite television provider DirecTV Group Inc. may test delivering high-speed Internet service through power lines in a major U.S. city in the next year, its chief executive said on Monday.
DirecTV and others are talking to companies that specialize in providing broadband through the electrical grid, Chief Executive Chase Carey said at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York.
"We're not the only ones talking to them," Carey said, in response to a question on whether DirecTV would consider a test in a major city. "I think you'll see some meaningful tests in this arena."
DirecTV would like to test delivering Internet access on power lines in a "top 50 city where you're covering at least half the city."
While DirecTV and fellow satellite TV operator EchoStar Communications Corp. have managed to keep increasing their subscriber base in the face of stiff competition from cable operators, Wall Street analysts have long questioned what broadband strategy the satellite operators will employ to counter competitive pressures.
"We think it would be a good thing to have a third, a fourth or a fifth entrant in broadband and if we can be helpful in pushing that forward and if there's an opportunity for us to intelligently invest in doing so, we would," said Carey.
Full Story: REUTERS
DirecTV and others are talking to companies that specialize in providing broadband through the electrical grid, Chief Executive Chase Carey said at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York.
"We're not the only ones talking to them," Carey said, in response to a question on whether DirecTV would consider a test in a major city. "I think you'll see some meaningful tests in this arena."
DirecTV would like to test delivering Internet access on power lines in a "top 50 city where you're covering at least half the city."
While DirecTV and fellow satellite TV operator EchoStar Communications Corp. have managed to keep increasing their subscriber base in the face of stiff competition from cable operators, Wall Street analysts have long questioned what broadband strategy the satellite operators will employ to counter competitive pressures.
"We think it would be a good thing to have a third, a fourth or a fifth entrant in broadband and if we can be helpful in pushing that forward and if there's an opportunity for us to intelligently invest in doing so, we would," said Carey.
Full Story: REUTERS
Vegas run by gays and Jews, says magician
Swedish magician Joe Labero has provoked a strong reaction with suggestions that Las Vegas is controlled by "Jewish business syndicates, American dollar millionaires and homosexual booking agents".
The magic master's comments were made in an interview with rail company SJ's on-board magazine Kupé
As a prelude to his controversial thesis, Labero explained that he has long been close to getting his own show in Las Vegas.
"But at the end of the day it seems to be impossible - unless you are a homosexual, a Jew or an American.
"I don't mean to sound prejudiced of course, I'm just cynical. A blond Swedish Viking will have a hard time breaking through the hierarchies that control Vegas, where power rests in the hands of Jewish business syndicates, American dollar millionaires and homosexual booking agents.
"But I will get there, sooner of later," Labero told the magazine.
Joe Labero is the stage name of Lars Bengt Roland Johansson.
Sören Andersson, chairman of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL) took exception to the illusionist's remarks."
I think it's rather nasty to say things like this. The implication is that everybody who is not ether Jewish or homosexual is being discriminated against," he told The Local. "
It is reminiscent of the world-famous Jewish conspiracy, now extended to also include gays. But these are two groups that have typically been the victims of discrimination."
Putting the blame on specific groups says more about Joe Labero than anybody else," he added.
Full Story: THE LOCAL
The magic master's comments were made in an interview with rail company SJ's on-board magazine Kupé
As a prelude to his controversial thesis, Labero explained that he has long been close to getting his own show in Las Vegas.
"But at the end of the day it seems to be impossible - unless you are a homosexual, a Jew or an American.
"I don't mean to sound prejudiced of course, I'm just cynical. A blond Swedish Viking will have a hard time breaking through the hierarchies that control Vegas, where power rests in the hands of Jewish business syndicates, American dollar millionaires and homosexual booking agents.
"But I will get there, sooner of later," Labero told the magazine.
Joe Labero is the stage name of Lars Bengt Roland Johansson.
Sören Andersson, chairman of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL) took exception to the illusionist's remarks."
I think it's rather nasty to say things like this. The implication is that everybody who is not ether Jewish or homosexual is being discriminated against," he told The Local. "
It is reminiscent of the world-famous Jewish conspiracy, now extended to also include gays. But these are two groups that have typically been the victims of discrimination."
Putting the blame on specific groups says more about Joe Labero than anybody else," he added.
Full Story: THE LOCAL
A baffling Texas Supreme Court ruling could make juries irrelevant
soft drink business in East Texas was a relatively friendly affair when Jerry Dudley started out 40 years ago. Family-owned companies bottled colas and fruit drinks, and sold them to local grocers or mom-and-pop convenience stores. There was competition, but it wasn’t cutthroat.
There weren’t international conglomerates trying to muscle you out of the market, and maybe drive you out of business.
But in the early 1990s, that all began to change. Dudley, president and general manager of Harmar Bottling Co. in Paris, Texas, began seeing his soft drinks nudged from prime shelf space—even out of stores entirely—to make way for a competitor’s products. He watched local bottlers disappear one by one, losing the struggle to stay in business.
It got so bad that Harmar and some of his fellow independent bottlers banded together and sued the heavyweights of carbonated beverages—Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. and Coca-Cola Inc., Pepsico Inc. and Pepsi’s bottler, Delta Beverage Group—claiming that in their zeal to dominate the region’s soft drink market, the corporate titans had broken Texas law by engaging in predatory, anticompetitive business practices.
Pepsi settled before trial. Coke—with its never-say-die litigation strategy—fought the suit. In 2000, after a six-week trial, a jury in Daingerfield, Texas, found Coca-Cola Enterprises—a bottling company 40 percent-owned by Coca-Cola—guilty of breaking state antitrust laws.
Although a far cry from the $100 million they were hoping for, Harmar and the other regional bottlers won a $15.6 million judgment. Almost seven years later, they have yet to see a dime.
In late 2006, after sitting on the case for nearly two years, the Texas Supreme Court finally ruled on Coke’s appeal of the suit. By a 5-4 vote, the state’s highest civil court threw out the verdict.
Reversing a multimillion dollar judgment is not out of character for a court packed with conservative judges, six of them appointed by Gov. Rick Perry before winning pro forma elections. But the legal reasoning that the slim majority used to justify its ruling was so alarming—and sets such an unappetizing precedent—that it has spawned incredulity in Texas legal circles.
In effect, the court reviewed the evidence and decided the jury was wrong. It was a remarkable reach beyond the court’s usual exercise of power.
Ordinarily, appeals courts give great deference to a jury’s conclusions. Jurors, after all, are the ones who hear the witnesses, review evidence, and deliberate the case. A court usually has a compelling reason when it decides to disregard the jury’s conclusions.
What that reason might be is not clear in this case. More than a few scholars argue that the state Supreme Court doesn’t have a sound legal principle with which to justify its decision. Worse, they fear it opens the door for other Texas courts to begin arbitrarily tossing aside jury verdicts with which they disagree. If the high court continues on this course, they say, the constitutional right to a civil jury trial could be in jeopardy.
Dudley and the bottlers have asked the court to reconsider its decision, because they’d still like to get their money. Law professors from across the state have joined that request, arguing there is now much more at stake then who sells the most diet sodas in East Texas.
“It’s elitism versus egalitarianism,” says Nelson Roach, who represented Harmar Bottling during trial. “It’s whether or not you believe that ordinary people have the capability to collectively judge the facts of the case. There is a movement that has been very hostile to the rights of juries to make decisions, and this case is part and parcel of it.”
Full Story: THE TEXAS OBSERVER
There weren’t international conglomerates trying to muscle you out of the market, and maybe drive you out of business.
But in the early 1990s, that all began to change. Dudley, president and general manager of Harmar Bottling Co. in Paris, Texas, began seeing his soft drinks nudged from prime shelf space—even out of stores entirely—to make way for a competitor’s products. He watched local bottlers disappear one by one, losing the struggle to stay in business.
It got so bad that Harmar and some of his fellow independent bottlers banded together and sued the heavyweights of carbonated beverages—Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. and Coca-Cola Inc., Pepsico Inc. and Pepsi’s bottler, Delta Beverage Group—claiming that in their zeal to dominate the region’s soft drink market, the corporate titans had broken Texas law by engaging in predatory, anticompetitive business practices.
Pepsi settled before trial. Coke—with its never-say-die litigation strategy—fought the suit. In 2000, after a six-week trial, a jury in Daingerfield, Texas, found Coca-Cola Enterprises—a bottling company 40 percent-owned by Coca-Cola—guilty of breaking state antitrust laws.
Although a far cry from the $100 million they were hoping for, Harmar and the other regional bottlers won a $15.6 million judgment. Almost seven years later, they have yet to see a dime.
In late 2006, after sitting on the case for nearly two years, the Texas Supreme Court finally ruled on Coke’s appeal of the suit. By a 5-4 vote, the state’s highest civil court threw out the verdict.
Reversing a multimillion dollar judgment is not out of character for a court packed with conservative judges, six of them appointed by Gov. Rick Perry before winning pro forma elections. But the legal reasoning that the slim majority used to justify its ruling was so alarming—and sets such an unappetizing precedent—that it has spawned incredulity in Texas legal circles.
In effect, the court reviewed the evidence and decided the jury was wrong. It was a remarkable reach beyond the court’s usual exercise of power.
Ordinarily, appeals courts give great deference to a jury’s conclusions. Jurors, after all, are the ones who hear the witnesses, review evidence, and deliberate the case. A court usually has a compelling reason when it decides to disregard the jury’s conclusions.
What that reason might be is not clear in this case. More than a few scholars argue that the state Supreme Court doesn’t have a sound legal principle with which to justify its decision. Worse, they fear it opens the door for other Texas courts to begin arbitrarily tossing aside jury verdicts with which they disagree. If the high court continues on this course, they say, the constitutional right to a civil jury trial could be in jeopardy.
Dudley and the bottlers have asked the court to reconsider its decision, because they’d still like to get their money. Law professors from across the state have joined that request, arguing there is now much more at stake then who sells the most diet sodas in East Texas.
“It’s elitism versus egalitarianism,” says Nelson Roach, who represented Harmar Bottling during trial. “It’s whether or not you believe that ordinary people have the capability to collectively judge the facts of the case. There is a movement that has been very hostile to the rights of juries to make decisions, and this case is part and parcel of it.”
Full Story: THE TEXAS OBSERVER
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Users failing to interact with Web 2.0 sites
Stats released by internet traffic research company Hitwise have raised doubts over the success of Web 2.0 sites such as YouTube, Flickr and Wikipedia.
Speaking at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco on Tuesday, Bill Tancer, general manager of Hitwise, said that the company's data showed that only a tiny fraction of users contributed content to community media sites.
Just 0.16 per cent of YouTube users upload videos, and only 0.2 per cent of Flickr users upload photos.
Wikipedia returned a more reasonable percentage, with 4.6 per cent of visitors actually editing and adding information.
The figures show that, while users are flocking to these sites in droves, the vast majority only passively absorb the content, rather than actively participate, which is considered by many to be a vital part of the Web 2.0 model.
Full Story: VNUNET.COM
Speaking at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco on Tuesday, Bill Tancer, general manager of Hitwise, said that the company's data showed that only a tiny fraction of users contributed content to community media sites.
Just 0.16 per cent of YouTube users upload videos, and only 0.2 per cent of Flickr users upload photos.
Wikipedia returned a more reasonable percentage, with 4.6 per cent of visitors actually editing and adding information.
The figures show that, while users are flocking to these sites in droves, the vast majority only passively absorb the content, rather than actively participate, which is considered by many to be a vital part of the Web 2.0 model.
Full Story: VNUNET.COM
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Mortgage defaults in California near decade high
The number of mortgage default notices sent to California homeowners last quarter rose to its highest in nearly 10 years as home prices stagnated and rates on adjustable loans pushed higher, a report released on Monday said.
Mortgage lenders filed 46,760 notices of default from January through March, marking an increase of 23.1 percent from the previous quarter and 148 percent from the year-earlier period, according to a report by DataQuick Information Systems, a real estate information service.
The first quarter's default level was the highest for the most populous U.S. state since the second quarter of 1997. It came amid a sharp rise in defaults on mortgages held by subprime borrowers, or borrowers with blemished credit, across the United States.
The low introductory interest rates on the their mortgages have been expiring, replaced by much higher rates that have made monthly mortgage payments too expensive for many households to maintain. Additionally, their options for refinancing their mortgages have been limited because home prices in many markets have been largely flat or slipping.
Full Story: REUTERS
Mortgage lenders filed 46,760 notices of default from January through March, marking an increase of 23.1 percent from the previous quarter and 148 percent from the year-earlier period, according to a report by DataQuick Information Systems, a real estate information service.
The first quarter's default level was the highest for the most populous U.S. state since the second quarter of 1997. It came amid a sharp rise in defaults on mortgages held by subprime borrowers, or borrowers with blemished credit, across the United States.
The low introductory interest rates on the their mortgages have been expiring, replaced by much higher rates that have made monthly mortgage payments too expensive for many households to maintain. Additionally, their options for refinancing their mortgages have been limited because home prices in many markets have been largely flat or slipping.
Full Story: REUTERS
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