The use of Google Glass specs could make driving safer than when using traditional in-car devices, according to one developer creating apps for the future-thinking device.
This week, the UK government's Department for Transport suggested the device will suffer the same fate as mobile phones and be banned from use while driving, with offenders incurring up to ?90 in fines.
While the DfT said Google Glass could be a distraction for drivers, the maker of the TeslaGlass app, said using his Google Glass Explorer Edition behind the wheel has helped his focus.
Sahas Katta told Stuff.tv he'd stopped checking his phone while driving thanks to Google Glass notifications in his eye line and claimed the device had negated the need for a distracting satnav on the dashboard.
No distractions
He said: "Cellphones are extremely distracting in a vehicle. But I've been using Glass for about three months now and my experience so far is that I've completely stopped touching my phone ... Glass has eliminated that necessity for me."
Katta added that, while performing complex tasks like browsing the web could certainly be distracting for road users, Glass has proved to a safer solution for navigation compared with traditional sat navs.
He said: "With navigation, it's the best technology I've used to date ? there's no in-car, mounted or smartphone navigation system that can beat the experience of having Glass so far.
"With a dashboard navigation, at night it's glowing and is very distracting, and through the day it's reflective and sometimes you can't see it. With Glass on the other hand, your entire dash is completely clear, there's nothing on the windshield.
"With Glass, as you approach a turn it makes a little sound and tells you there's a turn coming up, and then once you're closer, it turns on for a second time to remind you that it's time to turn. It removes any constant distraction so you're not seeing anything on the screen."
'OK Glass: Save my life'
The developer, whose app gives drivers limited control over Tesla electric cars, says Glass has already made him a safer driver, but suggested future innovations could even save lives.
He said eye sensors rumoured to be present within the device could alert drivers if detects their eyes have been closed for too long. It's interesting stuff, but will the tech ever be given the opportunity the opportunity to flourish?
The vast majority of people who are bearish on China's economy and stock market now were?cheerleaders just 18 months ago. It represents a remarkable 180 degree turn that's little talked about. Rather than focus on the mix of self-interest and self-delusion involved?in this, I want to instead look at why so many got China wrong in the first place. The finance industry isn't known for introspection but it seems to me that there are valuable lessons to be learned from this episode.
Because?the list of those who were positive on China?from 2009 to 2011 and called it incorrectly?is as high profile as it is lengthy. It includes the man known as Britain's Warren Buffett, Anthony Bolton, famed investor Jim Rogers, star economists such as Stephen Roach, almost every stockbroker, and thousands of companies who bet big on China and lost. All were wrong. Some disastrously so.
This newsletter isn't about rubbing their noses in it. For the record, I still have immense respect for the likes of Bolton, Rogers and Roach. But it's clear that they made significant errors, ranging from buying companies in industries with immense over-capacity issues, to having misplaced faith in Chinese leaders' ability to manage the economy and a belief that Chinese demand for goods, overinflated by extraordinary stimulus, would continue unabated for many years. The aim here is to?examine these errors to help you to avoid?making similar mistakes in future.
On the wrong side of the trade
When Anthony Bolton strode into Hong Kong to run Fidelity's China Special Situations Fund in early 2010, he had a reputation that few investors on the planet could match. He'd run?the UK-focused Special Situations Fund which returned 19.5% per annum for the 28 years to 2007. An astonishing track record, and along the way, the UK press had dubbed him the "quiet assassin" and "Britain's Warren Buffett".
Bolton came to Hong Kong as he saw China as the big investment story of the next decade. And he wanted a part of it. I remember attending a speech by Bolton at a conference?held by?my old employer, CLSA, in late 2009. What struck me most was that he was cool, methodical and had an extraordinary breadth of knowledge.
Notably though, Bolton?had?limited emerging markets experience. He also came at a time when China's immense stimulus package was kicking in, providing a flood of liquidity into the economy.
And these two things proved part of his downfall. The first couple of years for his fund?were a disaster. Only in the third year did?it make up some ground. The fund ended up?largely matching the 15% decline of the MSCI China index for the more than three years to June 2013. Recently, Bolton announced that he would be?retiring early next year. No doubt with his reputation slightly tarnished.
While it's difficult to fully judge Bolton's performance without knowledge of the dynamics of his portfolio, it's clear he got caught out on several fronts. He invested in?a number of?U.S.-listed, China-based companies which proved to be frauds. For those that don't know, many Chinese companies chose to list in the U.S. rather than China for a variety of reasons, including to get money out of China and due to America's relatively lax listing standards for reverse mergers.
Bolton also got caught investing in companies involved in industries where there were significant over-capacity issues. No matter how good the company, these issues overwhelmed everyone in the industry. The problems?proved a landmine for many so-called value investors, including Bolton, as many industries in China experienced over-capacity. Particularly as the initial economic stimulus wore off and the hangover began, starting in 2011.
It wasn't just the "bottom-up" investors - those focused on stocks?rather than?industries or countries - who got burned in China though.?"Top-down" or macro investors were hurt too.
Investment guru, Jim Rogers, was one of them. Rogers is a U.S. raised, now Singapore-based investor who once partnered with Soros and made?enough?to retire at the age of 37.
Rogers has been bullish on China since the 1990s and he's been largely right on this call as well as a host of others. But he wrote a book called "A Bull in China" in 2007,?close to the peak of the market.?It's evident that?he didn't pick the extent of the Chinese economic slowdown now underway or the impact that it would have on the stock market (down around 65% from the 2007 peak).?And he put?too much?faith in the ability of Chinese leaders to manage the economy (he?seems to have nothing positive to say about western leaders but nothing negative to say?about their?Chinese counterparts).
To be fair, Rogers is a long-term investor who thinks in decades rather than years. And he's done well on other Chinese investments such as the yuan.
Star economists were wrong-footed on China too.?Stephen Roach, the former chief economist at Morgan Stanley and new senior fellow at Yale University, was among the more prominent.
Roach is well known?for having warned about problems in the developed world in the lead-up?to the 2008 financial crisis. He's failed to issue similar warnings about China's prospects in recent years though. Like Rogers, Roach seems to have placed an enormous?amount of faith in Chinese leaders' management of the economy. Even though they were largely responsible for the unfolding credit crisis.
Strangely, Roach?hasn't admitted his errors. Instead, he's recently written an article?insisting that China doesn't have the serious issues that most people believe:
"Far from crashing, the Chinese economy is at a pivotal point. The wheels of rebalancing are turning. While that is not showing up in the composition of final demand (at least not yet), the shift from manufacturing and construction toward services is a far more meaningful indicator at this stage in the transformation.
So too are signs of newfound policy discipline - such as a central bank that seems determined to wean China off excessive credit creation...
Slowly, but surely, the new China is coming into focus. China doubters in the West have misread the Chinese economy's vital signs once again."
I happen to agree with Roach on positive signs for China on the reform front but any optimism shouldn't overshadow an economy that's clearly in trouble. Roach hasn't owned up to this.
Lastly, we can't leave out the thousand of companies who either entered China or were already there and subsequently beefed up?their investments?between 2009-2011. In fairness, the West was on its knees during this period and China seemed to offer one of the few opportunities for growth. What they didn't see, however,?was that China's growth was anything but normal.
The mining companies were at the forefront of this. They saw Chinese demand in this period, extrapolated it out to?the next decade and invested accordingly. Now, that demand is slowing and many commodities are dealing with excess supply issues.
I remember going to several presentations by BHP Billiton's?then CEO, Marius Kloppers, who talked continually of Chinese and emerging market demand driving bull markets in many commodities for?several years to come. Amazingly, Kloppers tried to buy Rio Tinto at the top of the market in 2007, tried to buy Canada's Potash Corporation near the peak?of the potash market in 2010 and spent ludicrous amounts of money on mining exploration and expansion, and he's still remembered fondly by many investors!
My mistakes
Just so that you don't get the impression that I'm just a guy who likes beating up on others, it's time for me to come clean on some of my own mistakes when it comes to investing in China. From 2011, my scepticism towards China's economic growth quickly turned to bearishness and that bearishness hardened by late 2011. That didn't stop me from making errors along the way though.
For those that don't know, I was a portfolio manager for a large institution that ran two funds, a China A-share fund and an Asia ex-Japan fund,?between July 2010-July 2012. The China A-share fund invested solely in stocks on the mainland and it had a very good performance record during this period. However, that didn't stop us having several blow-ups in Chinese stocks which led to underperformance in the Asia-ex Japan fund. We were far from?alone?in making?these mistakes but they probably hurt us more than most.
One of these blow-ups was in a Chinese retailer, which was?included in?the portfolio on my recommendation. The loss that ensued led to much introspection on my part. I found that like Bolton,?I'd underestimated the extent of over-capacity in this company's niche and the potential impact that it might have.
But there was much more to it than that. And I?discovered many of the answers in a book called Capital Account, a collection of reports from highly successful UK-based global fund manager, Marathon Asset Management.
The book details Marathon's capital cycle theory. The theory attempts to tie the stock market to business cycles. In short, when a company is valued at a premium to replacement cost, there is a strong incentive to increase investment. Or, as the book puts it, "when a hole in the ground costs?$1 to dig but is priced in the stock market at $5, the temptation to reach for a shovel becomes irresistible."
Increased investment?results in rising industry supply which is normally accompanied by optimistic demand projections. Investment banks encourage the increased investments via IPOs, financing and mergers and acquisitions activity. And, not to mention, glowing research reports to get clients to buy?into these companies. Which leads to even?more industry investment.
Fund managers are sucked into the?game as share prices of these companies rise and they buy them not because they believe in their investment merits but because they don't want to underperform respective benchmark indices.?To do so?would cost them their jobs.
When?an industry's supply-demand?situation gets?totally out of whack, a downturn eventually takes place and weaker companies get consolidated into stronger ones. And then the cycle starts to work in reverse.
Many investors in China, myself included, could have saved a lot of money had they applied the capital cycle theory.
Anyhow, I moved from portfolio manager to writer of the Asia Confidential newsletter?in August?last year. Since then, I've been?relatively consistent in?having a negative outlook on?the Chinese economy.
The one exception?is that I did expect a very short term pick up in?the economy mid this year as stimulus from late last year started to filter through. That hasn't happened and the call has been wrong. It's now apparent that stimulus is having less and less impact in China.
So there you have it, warts?and all.
The lessons
Here are some of the key takeaways?from investor errors?in China in recent years:
If you want to make money in emerging markets, you better know the nuances of these markets. Bolton didn't and paid the price. Emerging markets are very different from developed markets. They are far more volatile, less transparent, and more prone to investment fads, with less mature companies and management teams.
Never extrapolate the present into the future. Things change and today's heroes often become tomorrow's enemies. China is?a perfect example of that.
Growth aided by stimulus isn't normal growth. China illustrated that and it should?serve as?a warning to those that believe developed markets such as the U.S. can recover without further QE.
Be very sceptical of any politician or central banker's ability to successfully manage an economy. You can't centrally manage an economy towards perpetual growth but it's amazing how many in the finance industry believe that you can. Roach and Rogers?thought that China's leaders were superior to those in the West but events didn't bear that out.
If there's excess capacity in an industry, be very wary of investing in any company in that industry. Usually, everyone suffers, as I found out.
If you invest in a company, make a thorough study of the financials. Yes this is simple but you'd be amazed how many professional fund managers failed to do basic due diligence on the Chinese companies that they invested in. They deserved what came to them.
If it's too good to be true, walk away. There were many Chinese companies which were delivering +100% earnings growth in 2010-2011 and investors continued to chase them to their detriment.
Don't become?so cynical that it blinds you to potential opportunities. Many investors got burned in China and will never return. That's the wrong attitude as there are bound to be opportunities?in the wreckage. You just have to be open to them.
The minority who got it right
It would be remiss?of me not to give a brief mention to those?investors who either successfully side-stepped?China's stock market woes or profited from them. First State, Aberdeen and Platinum Asset Management are?among the Asia funds that did well to avoid much of the carnage and to a limited extent, make money from it. These funds recognised the macro-economic?and company risks at an early stage.
There are several global fund managers who did likewise. The most well-known is U.S. short-seller Jim Chanos. He recognised the developing credit bubble in 2009 and likely made a lot of money from it. Others included U.S. hedge fund, Pivot Capital Management and highly regarded U.S. asset manager, GMO. See this excellent compilcation on how these funds identified the impending China downturn.
This list is far from exhaustive but covers the more prominent investors. One thing to note is that almost?all of the funds mentioned had managers who weren't based in China. It makes a nonsense of the asset consultants and others that push for?China or Asia funds to have people on the ground in China. The theory being that by doing this, there's a better chance of outperformance. There's?no evidence to support the theory and it should therefore be given zero credibility.
This post was originally published at Asia Confidential: http://asiaconf.com/2013/08/02/investors-wrong-on-china/
File - The Harry S. Truman Building, headquarters for the State Department, is seen in Washington, in this March 9, 2009 file photo. The United States issued an extraordinary global travel warning to Americans Friday Aug. 2, 2013 about the threat of an al-Qaida attack and closed down 21 embassies and consulates across the Muslim world for the weekend. The alert was the first of its kind since an announcement preceding the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
File - The Harry S. Truman Building, headquarters for the State Department, is seen in Washington, in this March 9, 2009 file photo. The United States issued an extraordinary global travel warning to Americans Friday Aug. 2, 2013 about the threat of an al-Qaida attack and closed down 21 embassies and consulates across the Muslim world for the weekend. The alert was the first of its kind since an announcement preceding the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, speaks to staff members at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. The Obama administration hasn't sent its top diplomat to Pakistan since 2011, and Kerry's trip is a chance for the former senator to get to know the newly elected prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who came to power in Pakistan's first transition between civilian governments.
Map shows U.S. embassies and consulates that will close; 3c x 3 inches; 146 mm x 76 mm;
Secretary of State John Kerry gives policy address on same-sex spouses applying for U.S. visas, Friday, Aug. 2, 2103, at the U.S. Embassy in London. The U.S. will immediately begin considering visa applications of gay and lesbian spouses in the same manner as heterosexual couples, Kerry said on Friday. (AP Photo/Jason Reed. Pool)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The United States issued an extraordinary global travel warning to Americans Friday about the threat of an al-Qaida attack and closed down 21 embassies and consulates across the Muslim world for the weekend.
The alert was the first of its kind since an announcement preceding the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This one comes with the scars still fresh from last year's deadly Sept. 11 attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, and with the Obama administration and Congress determined to prevent any similar breach of an American Embassy or consulate.
"There is a significant threat stream and we're reacting to it," said Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He told ABC News in an interview to be aired Sunday that the threat was "more specific" than previous ones and the "intent is to attack Western, not just U.S. interests."
The State Department warning urged American travelers to take extra precautions overseas, citing potential dangers involved with public transportation systems and other prime sites for tourists and noting that previous terrorist attacks have centered on subway and rail networks as well as airplanes and boats. It suggested travelers sign up for State Department alerts and register with U.S. consulates in the countries they visit.
The statement said that al-Qaida or its allies might target either U.S. government or private American interests. The alert expires on Aug. 31.
The State Department said the potential for terrorism was particularly acute in the Middle East and North Africa, with a possible attack occurring on or coming from the Arabian Peninsula.
U.S. officials pointed specifically to Yemen, the home of al-Qaida's most dangerous offshoot and the network blamed for several notable terrorist plots on the United States, from the foiled Christmas Day 2009 effort to bomb an airliner over Detroit to the explosives-laden parcels intercepted the following year aboard cargo flights.
"Current information suggests that al-Qaida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks both in the region and beyond, and that they may focus efforts to conduct attacks in the period between now and the end of August," a department statement said.
The alert was posted a day after the U.S. announced it would shut many diplomatic facilities Sunday. Spokeswoman Marie Harf said the department acted out of an "abundance of caution" and that some missions may stay closed for longer than a day. Sunday is a business day in Muslim countries, and the diplomatic offices affected stretch from Mauritania in northwest Africa to Afghanistan.
"I don't know if I can say there was a specific threat," said Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, the House Foreign Affairs Committee's top Democrat, who was briefed on the State Department's decision. "There is concern over the potentiality of violence."
Although the warning coincided with "Al-Quds Day," the last Friday of the Islamic month of Ramadan when people in Iran and some Arab countries express their solidarity with the Palestinians and their opposition to Israel, U.S. officials played down any connection. They said the threat wasn't directed toward a specific American diplomatic facility.
The concern by American officials over the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is not new, given the terror branch's gains in territory and reach during Yemen's prolonged Arab Spring-related instability.
The group made significant territorial gains last year, capturing towns and cities in the south amid a power struggle in the capital that ended with the resignation of Yemen's longtime leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh. A U.S.-aided counteroffensive by the government has since pushed the militants back.
Yemen's current president, Abdo Rabby Mansour Hadi, met with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House on Thursday, where both leaders cited strong counterterrorism cooperation. Earlier this week, Yemen's military reported a U.S. drone strike killed six alleged al-Qaida militants in the group's southern strongholds.
As recently as June, the group's commander, Qasim al-Rimi, released an Arabic-language video urging attacks on U.S. targets and praising the ethnic Chechen brothers accused of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings. "Making these bombs has become in everyone's ... reach," he said, according to the English subtitles on the video, reposted by private U.S. intelligence firm the IntelCenter.
"The blinking red intelligence appears to be pointing toward an Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula plot," said Seth Jones, counterterror expert at the Rand Corp., referring to the branch of al-Qaida known as AQAP.
Britain also took action Friday in Yemen, announcing it would close its embassy there on Sunday and Monday as a precaution.
Britain, which closely coordinates on intelligence matters with Washington, stopped short of releasing a similar region-wide alert but added that some embassy staff in Yemen had been withdrawn "due to security concerns." British embassies and consulates elsewhere in the Middle East were to remain open.
Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, said the embassy threat was linked to al-Qaida and concerned the Middle East and Central Asia.
"In this instance, we can take a step to better protect our personnel and, out of an abundance of caution, we should," Royce said. He declined to say if the National Security Agency's much-debated surveillance program helped reveal the threat.
The New York Times reported Friday night that American officials said the U.S. had intercepted electronic communications among senior operatives of al-Qaida.
Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence panel, also supported the department's decision to go public with its concerns.
"The most important thing we have to do is protect American lives," he said, describing the threat as "not the regular chitchat" picked up from would-be militants on the Internet or elsewhere.
The State Department issued another warning a year ago about potential violence connected to the Sept. 11 anniversary. Dozens of American installations were besieged by protests over reports of an anti-Islam video made by an American resident, and in Benghazi, Libya, the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed when militants assaulted a diplomatic post.
The administration no longer says Benghazi was related to the demonstrations. But the attack continues to be a flashpoint of contention with Republicans in Congress who say Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and others in the government misled the country about the nature of the attack after failing to provide adequate diplomatic protection.
___
Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Sagar Meghani and Kimberly Dozier in Washington and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
Production artwork, courtesy of York Shakespeare Company. Producer Albert Podell and the York Shakespeare Company have announced their world premiere production of Alexander Harrington's The Great Society. Seth Duerr will direct the four-week limited engagement at the Clurman Theatre. Performances are set to begin August 3 in advance of an August 8 opening, and will run through August 24.
Playwright Alexander Harrington is the son of Michael Harrington, author of The Other America: Poverty in the United States, which profoundly impacted President Kennedy's administration and helped to spark President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty. The Great Society continues this political legacy, following President Johnson after being unexpectedly thrust into power as he fights to end legal segregation and wage war on poverty. Harrington's interest in President Johnson was inspired by his father's comment "Jack Kennedy was a dilettante when it came to poverty; Lyndon Johnson was serious about doing something for the poor of this country."
The Great Society stars Mitch Tebo (The Revenger's Tragedy) as Lyndon Johnson; Elena McGhee (Blue Bloods) as Lady Bird Johnson; Yaakov Sullivan as Richard Russell; James Lurie (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as J. William Fulbright; Curtis Wiley (Broadway National Tour: The Lion King) as Martin Luther King, Jr.; Charles Gray (Broadway: The Color Purple) as Bayard Rustin; Reed Armstrong (Broadway: Miss Saigon) as Robert McNamara; Charles F. Wagner IV (Regional: The Tempest) as Hubert Humphrey and Seymore Trammell; Robert Ierardi (West End: West Side Story) as Everett Dirksen and Nicholas Katzenbach; Jeff Burchfield as Strom Thurmond and George Wallace, and Mac Brydon (Lipstick Jungle) as Jack Valenti, as well as Wayne Morse.
The creative team features scenic design by Michael Minahan, costume design by Sean Sullivan, lighting design by Dana Sterling, props design by Preesa Adeline Bullington, and music/sound design by John D. Ivy.
AT&T is the absolute bee's knees in customer care among the big four carriers. That's if you're listening to J.D. Power, anyway, which finds that longtime champion Verizon is no longer the best at solving its customers' problems. As a precaution, this study is rather narrow in scope and considers just three components of customer care: telephone assistance, online support and in-store personnel. Naturally, this is just one component of customer satisfaction, and factors such as coverage, data speed and call quality aren't considered -- look to Consumer Reports for insight on those. Still, customer care is important and J.D. Power suggests that it's now at its highest levels since 2009. Sadly, not everyone's a winner, as the study also finds that Sprint and T-Mobile both fall below the industry average.
On the prepaid side, MetroPCS is keeping its position as the front-runner, but even more curious, it's said that a whopping 69 percent of non-contract customers use carrier apps to manage their accounts. What's more, customer satisfaction is reportedly considerably higher among prepaid carriers that provide these management apps to their subscribers. In this context, it seems that well-targeted bundled apps aren't necessarily bloatware, but we still think its carriers should let you remove that stuff.
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"Michael Dell and Silver Lake add $350m to buyout offer in last-minute bid"?V3?11:31 AM
"Michael Dell & Silver Lake up bid to buy Dell; deal vote bumped to Sept. 12"?VentureBeat?10:36 AM
"Dell board agrees terms of buyout offer"?BetaNews?11:46 AM
"Dell OKs new shareholder vote plan on raised offer from Michael Dell: The new shareholder vote is set for Sept. 12"?Computerworld?11:46 AM
"Dell raises takeover offer again"?CNNMoney?10:36 AM
"Icahn Tweets 'War' Over Dell 'Far from Over'"?Nasdaq?11:38 AM
"Business as usual: Dell deal delayed (again)"?GigaOM?10:25 AM
"Dell raises takeover offer again"?CNNMoney?10:25 AM
"Michael Dell increases bid again; board delays meeting until Sept. 12"?Los Angeles Times [Paid Membership Required]?10:06 AM
"Michael Dell Sweetens LBO With Dividend to Sway Investors"?Bloomberg?9:57 AM
"Dell's Special Committee accepts founder's new deal, adds dividend"?CNET News?9:49 AM
"Icahn sues Dell's board over Big Mike's buyout bid"?The Register?9:49 AM
"Michael Dell Sweetens Deal for His Namesake Company"?24/7 Wall St.?9:24 AM
"Takeover Group Makes Final Dell Offer As Icahn Looms"?TheStreet?9:24 AM
"'Dell sets buyout deal with Michael Dell': "??9:24 AM
"Michael Dell and Silver Lake Reach Last-Minute Buyout Deal"?AllThingsD?9:01 AM
"Dell committee and buyout group close to deal: source Add to ..."?The Globe and Mail [Free Registration Required]?8:59 AM
"Michael Dell Offering A Dime And Dividend To Save Deal"?Forbes?8:41 AM
"Dell deal reportedly near"?GigaOM?8:41 AM
"Dell Reaches New Deal With Founder"?WSJ.com [Paid Membership Required]?8:41 AM
"All Of The Sudden, Things Are Looking Really Bad For Carl Icahn On Dell"?Business Insider?9:00 AM
"Icahn files lawsuit over latest Dell buyout offer"?Associated Press [Free Registration Required]?8:38 AM
"Carl Icahn sues Dell in a last ditch attempt to stop Michael Dell"?The Inquirer?8:38 AM
"Icahn files suit to force Friday vote on Dell buyout"?Computerworld?8:34 AM
"Dell Is Said to Be Near Buyout Deal With Special Dividend"?Bloomberg?8:26 AM
"'Dell sets buyout deal with Michael Dell': "??9:24 AM
"IBM CIO's Great Refresh: No, Sales Guy, you can't JUST use DropBox"?The Register?8:33 AM
"Report: HP Confirms Android Convertible Selling Now"?The VAR Guy?9:30 AM
"HP Advances Network Industry Economics With Lifetime Warranty 2.0"?Technology Digital?9:29 AM
"Report: HP Poised to Pass Lenovo as Top PC Maker"?PC Magazine?8:48 AM
"Google's Motorola intervenes in Microsoft lawsuit against U.S. Customs, moves for outright dismissal"?Foss Patents?3:44 PM
"Microsoft details security improvements in Windows 8.1: Hardware, access, sensitive data, and malware resistance"?The Next Web?11:32 AM
"Microsoft to ditch SkyDrive name after BSkyB legal retreat"?PC Advisor?9:28 AM
"Microsoft to Rename SkyDrive in Trademark Deal With BSkyB"?PC Magazine?8:43 AM
"Researchers demo exploits that bypass Windows 8 Secure Boot"?InfoWorld?8:41 AM
"Advertising body reports Oracle's IBM attack ads to the FTC"?Information Age?9:33 AM
"Intel's TV Device Won't Watch You Back"?PC Magazine?8:48 AM
"Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) Television Device Won't Boast Facial Recognition"?NYSE Post?9:31 AM
"Intel Corporation (INTC) Key Takeaways From 10-Q Filing"?ValueWalk?9:31 AM
"Intel's Evolution to Wireless: Second Quarter's Report Card"?The Motley Fool?11:34 AM
"AMD Unveils Ultra-Low Power APU for Embedded Designs"?PC Magazine?8:49 AM
"Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD) announced its new low-power Accelerated Processing Unit (APU)"?Financials Trend?9:30 AM
"The Internet of Everything will create business opportunities: Cisco"?ARN?9:28 AM
Capitola Beach will be closed at 10 p.m. on the Fourth of July until 5 a.m. Friday to minimize enforcement issues, according to Capitola police.
A DUI checkpoint will be in effect within the city limits. Additional patrols will be added, especially along the cliffs and nearby neighborhoods, and light poles to help illuminate beach areas will be erected along the Esplanade and Wharf.
Fireworks, alcoholic beverages, dogs, smoking, open fires and glass containers are prohibited on the beach.
Anyone caught violating the closure hours may be cited at a cost totaling more than $120. If you see illegal activity, you can report it at 471-1141 or 911.
SANTA CRUZ
Annual Portuguese parade set
The Colonia Portuguesa do Divino Espirito Santo of Santa Cruz will host the 84th annual Holy Ghost Parade beginning at 9 a.m. Sunday. The parade will travel from Cathcart Street up Pacific Avenue to Holy Cross Church, where there will be a Mass.
The parade will reconvene after the service and march to the Portuguese Hall, 216 Evergreen St., for sopas and carne. There also will be an auction, bazaar, music and dancing.
Other events at the hall will include a rosary at 7 p.m. Friday and music and dancing by The Revivals at 8 p.m. Saturday before the queen, Chelsea Jamison, is presented.
For information, visit www.santacruzportguesehall.com.
APTOS
Dance school offers free class
Santa Cruz Performing Arts Dance will offer a free hip-hop and jazz dance class at 3:45 p.m. July 22 for children 7 and older. The class will be at DanceSynergy, 9055 Soquel Drive.
The studio's annual summer raffle will occur after class at 4:45 p.m. Raffle tickets will be sold until 4:30 p.m. Prizes include gift certificates and gifts from local businesses. The proceeds from the raffle will go to fund scholarships for the dance program.
Raffle tickets can be purchased at the event or by emailing dancescpa@gmail.com.
WATSONVILLE
Class of 1973 plans reunion
The Watsonville High School class of 1973 will host a 40th reunion event at 6:30 p.m. July 13 at the Watsonville Elks Lodge, 121 Martinelli St.
To RSVP, mail checks to WHS class of 1973, 18 Brook Court, Watsonville, CA 95076.
RIO DEL MAR
Group to host beach cleanup
The Rio del Mar Improvement Association will host a cleanup of Hidden Beach at 10 a.m. July 17 under the leadership of Save Our Shores.
Volunteers are welcome, and comfortable shoes, gloves and hats are recommended.
For questions, email fayjoe1@yahoo.com or visit http://www.rdmia.org/.
SANTA CRUZ
Festival del Nopal returns
The fourth annual Festival del Nopal will be July 28 at 176 Lincoln St. The market will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and there will be programs from noon to 6 p.m.
There will be food, music, ballet folklorico, a recipe contest and catcus cooking.
The festival, which celebrates the catcus, is free.
SANTA CRUZ
Wharf to Wharf race coming up
The annual Wharf to Wharf race will be July 28.
Thousands of runners will make their way from the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf to the Capitola Wharf beginning at 8:30 a.m. Many roads in the area will be closed.
Parking will be limited in the Beach Street area, but there will be free shuttles from the parking area at the Santa Cruz County Governmental Center, 701 Ocean St., and the parking garage at River and Water streets. There will be no shuttles from the finish line to the start line before the race.
SANTA CRUZ
Antiques Faire coming up
The 10th annual Antiques Faire will be on Lincoln Street in downtown Santa Cruz from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 14. The faire features 50 vendors selling collectibles and other items.
The event will stretch from Pacific Avenue to Cedar Street, and Lincoln Street will be closed to vehicular traffic.
SANTA CRUZ
Class on iPad planned Saturday
An intermediate iPad class will be 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday ?at Cruzio, 877 Cedar St.
This class covers applications of the iPad, including email, editing, keyboard shortcuts, Internet surfing, bookmarks, address book, calendar, maps, iCloud syncing and backup.
Cost is $65. Details are at www.idoreen.com. To register, call 831-588-9651 or email doreen13@mac.com.
Mashups, intellectual property laws, bootlegs, copyright. While those are all valid concerns today, they're hardly anything new. Just ask Charlie Chaplin.
Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett resigned Thursday amid claims that, in his former position as superintendent of public instruction in Indiana, he manipulated the state?s system for evaluating school performance. Bennett, a Republican who created an A-to-F grading protocol for Indiana schools as a way to promote educational accountability, is accused of raising the mark for a school operated by a major GOP donor. Bennett calls that charge, which arose from emails among Bennett?s staff obtained by the AP, ?malicious and unfounded? and ?frankly so off base.? He offered a different explanation for why the grades for Indianapolis charter school Christel House Academy?whose mark soared from a C to an A?and 12 other schools were changed at the last minute. According to Bennett, he was just correcting a simple math mistake.
Bennett?s explanation is perfectly mathematically reasonable, and it would get him off the hook. The only problem is that the story he?s telling appears to be totally false.
Bennett told AEI?s Rick Hess, ?As we were looking at the grades we were giving our schools, we realized that state law created an unfair penalty for schools that didn't have 11th and 12th grades. Statewide, there were 13 schools in question had unusual grade configurations. The data for grades 11 and 12 came in as zero. When we caught it, we fixed it.?
Bennett?s stated rationale makes sense. Here?s an analogy. You?re teaching a course with three exams, and each student?s overall exam grade for the class is computed as an average of her three individual exams
But what happens if a student misses exam 3, with a justified absence, and the test can?t be made up? Then we have what?s called a ?missing data? problem?we have to infer something about the student?s performance without the full complement of data we have for everybody else. One natural approach is to compute that student?s overall exam grade as the average of the exams she did take:
(1/2) * (exam 1) + (1/2) * (exam 2).
What you shouldn?t do is give the student a zero for the exam and average it into her grade.
Christel House had started out as a middle school and was adding one high school grade each year; for the 2011-12 school year, it served students through the 10th grade. High schools, according to Indiana statute, were to be graded on four metrics, averaged like so:
But, as Bennett said in an official statement, ?Christel House only served students in grades K-10, thus the graduation rate and college and career readiness measures could not be calculated because the school did not serve grades 11 and 12.? So it faced a missing data problem, like the student who had to miss an exam.
Indeed, it wouldn?t be fair to count those scores as zero! The obvious fix, just as with the student, is to grade such a school on the two scores that it does have:
50% * (English scores) + 50% * (Algebra scores)
Does that mean Bennett really did get railroaded, and he was just fixing an obvious error?
No?because the ?fixed? version of the grade was what Indiana was already using before Bennett started tinkering with the gears. When you dig into the numbers, the story about the unfair zeroes looks like a complete fabrication.
Christel?s ninth- and 10th-grade students got brutally low scores on the English and math tests, with only 70 percent passing English and just a third passing math. Here?s how Jon Gubera, then the Education Department?s chief accountability officer, described Christel?s performance in one of the emails released by the AP:
?OK, here is their breakdown ...
They served grades K-10 in 2011-12 so they are a combined school but do not have any graduates. So their grade is a combination of the standard E/MS model and the HS 9&10 model which only counts ECA proficiency.
E/MS results: 3.00 on E/LA (no growth bonuses) and 4.00 on math (bottom 25% bonus) = 3.50 points (B)
HS results: 2.00 on E/LA (70% pass rate) and 0.00 on math (33% pass rate) = 1.00 points (D)
Final Combined results: E/MS 3.50 x .76 (76% of school is in grades 3.8) = 2.66 + HS 1.00 x .24 (24% of school is in high school) = .24. Thus overall grade is 2.66 + .24 = 2.9 (C).
Bottom line: their terrible 10th grade Algebra I results (33% passing) was the principal factor in earning a C grade."
Christel?s grade 3?8 scores came to a 3.50, or a B, and their high school scores, thanks to the algebra fiasco, were a 1.00, or a D. The school?s score is then an average of the grade 3?8 scores and the 9?10 scores, weighted according to the proportion of students in each group.
Where are the zeroes for the graduation rates and readiness score that got averaged into Christel?s score?the ?unfair penalty? that Bennett claims he fixed? They?re not there, because that?s the part that Bennett, as far as I can tell, simply made up.
Fuzzy math turns a C into an A.
