Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/287850078?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Thursday, February 28, 2013
PayPal co-founder launches competitor start-up
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Max Levchin, co-founder of online payment giant PayPal, launched a rival business on Tuesday called Affirm that will compete in the crowded but fast-growing mobile payments business.
Affirm's technology helps shoppers complete online purchases more quickly and easily when they are using smart phones and other mobile devices, according to the firm's website.
PayPal, owned by eBay Inc, is the leader in online payments, however, the company is being challenged by a host of start-ups, including Square Inc, that focus on new opportunities and problems created by the boom in mobile commerce.
Affirm is focusing on streamlining the mobile checkout process online, which can involve typing in lots of information, such as an address and card numbers, using a small type pad.
Affirm said it has whittled the online buying process down to two taps on a smart phone screen - one to tap the Affirm button on participating merchant websites and a second to confirm the order.
Affirm is using Facebook Inc to confirm users' identities, so for first-time users the process includes a third step which involves logging into their Facebook accounts and accepting the Affirm application.
Levchin co-founded PayPal with Peter Thiel and was its Chief Technology Officer for four years, before it was acquired by eBay. He designed and built PayPal's pioneering online security and fraud-prevention systems.
While PayPal led the way on security, its service has been criticized as not very user-friendly. That has left room for new rivals to develop more consumer-focused payment services.
"This is a very big market therefore it's extremely attractive for a lot of players," Bob Swan, chief financial officer of eBay, said during a presentation to investors on Tuesday.
As more consumers shop using mobile devices, it is very important for PayPal to have a fast mobile checkout service that is "brain-dead simple," Swan added.
Affirm said it gives users 30 days to pay for their purchases, comparing the service to a charge card. It makes money by charging participating merchants a small fee.
However, if users do not pay their balance, Affirm can charge "reasonable" fees on delinquent accounts, according to the company's terms of service.
Affirm users can pay off their balances using credit cards, bank transfers or physical checks. PayPal was not included as a method of payment in its terms of service.
(Reporting By Alistair Barr; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/paypal-co-founder-levchin-launches-mobile-payment-start-005948476--sector.html
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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
A Family that Eats Together, Stays Healthy Together | balanced care
Studies have shown that there are significant benefits of sitting down for dinner as a family. Families tend to eat healthier meals at home, have better communication with their children (especially important during the teenage years), less adolescent problem behavior, less disordered eating problems, and have less problems with obesity. A Minnesota study showed that cooking dinner at home vs ordering take-out or eating out, also results in lower body fat, cholesterol, and insulin levels. The odds of being obese or overweight were greatly increased when families consumed even just 1 restaurant meal per week for dinner.
There is a clear association between?better family relationships?and those who eat dinner together, but its also important to eat the best foods to keep your family healthy. Dr. Katie can help you make sure the right foods are on your plates!
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Source: http://balancedcarend.com/2013/02/27/a-family-that-eats-together-stays-healthy-together/
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Wrestling diplomacy cuts tension at nuclear talks with Iran
ALMATY (Reuters) - For a brief moment on Tuesday, the nuclear dispute between Iran and the United States took a back seat to sport.
U.S. diplomats found rare common ground with the Islamic Republic at a fresh round of nuclear negotiations between Tehran and world powers, noting Iran's victory in the freestyle wrestling World Cup held in the Iranian capital last week.
Sports officials from the two countries - which are at odds over the nuclear issue and many others - have expressed dismay at a surprise recommendation by the International Olympic Committee this month to drop wrestling from the 2020 Games.
"During the plenary, we did note Iran's success in the recent wrestling World Cup and our shared view that wrestling should continue to be an Olympic sport," a U.S. official said on Tuesday after the start of high-stakes nuclear talks.
Iran and six world powers are holding their first meeting in eight months in the Kazakh city of Almaty this week, to try to start resolving a dispute over Tehran's nuclear program that threatens to trigger another war in the Middle East.
Diplomatic ties between Iran and the United States have been cut since 1980 after Iranian students took 52 U.S. diplomats hostage in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
But wrestling, one of Iran's most popular sports, has proven a rare arena in which the two countries have friendly relations.
U.S. wrestlers visited Tehran last week to compete in the World Cup, where 2012 Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs was cheered on wildly by Iranian fans at the capital's Azadi stadium.
"Iran has amazing fans!" Burroughs tweeted, posting a picture of Iranian supporters eagerly reaching down over a barrier at the stadium to touch his hand.
A second U.S. official told reporters in Almaty prior to the start of the February 26-27 talks that Iran and the United States agreed that wrestling should continue as an Olympic sport.
"Although we cannot come to agreement yet where it comes to Iran's nuclear program, clearly our wrestlers get along just fine," the U.S. official said.
"We and Iran agree completely that the Olympics should continue to have wrestling as a sport ... so we will be working vigorously with them to make that come to pass."
There was no immediate reaction to the U.S. statement from Iranian diplomats. Wrestling is a major source of Iran's Olympic medals, and Iranian sports officials have said they will work with other countries to lobby for it to stay in the Games.
"The issue of removing wrestling from the Olympics is very serious," Mohammad Aliabadi, the head of Iran's Olympic committee, told state news agency IRNA this month.
"We must prevent this action with the help of many of the major countries in the world," Aliabadi said, without naming any specific nation.
(Editing by Jon Hemming)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wrestling-diplomacy-cuts-tension-nuclear-talks-iran-135507489--spt.html
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Beppe Grillo Online Success - Business Insider
Rome, Italy ? The actual outcome of the Italian election remains in doubt, but there's no question who the big winner of the night was: Independent rabble rousing comedian Beppe Grillo.
His party, the 5 Star Movement, took over 25% of the vote. And actually his party took a greater % of the vote than any other party in the lower house (however due to how coalitions work, he will not actually control the biggest block of seats).
In addition to being a manifestation of anti-establishment anger, there's another big story: The internet.
You've heard a lot about how awesome Barack Obama's campaign has done online.
But they have nothing on Grillo, whose entire campaign was basically built on 3 employees, a blog, and a bunch of meetups among his fans.
Back in January, The Guardian's John Hooper profiled Roberto Casaleggio, the digital guru who turned Grillo's blog into a political phenomenon.
The M5S is pioneering "a new, direct democracy that will see the elimination of all barriers between the citizen and the state". Like Julian Assange, Casaleggio combines unshakable confidence in his ability to interpret the impact of the internet with an air of boyish ingenuousness. The latter is particularly noticeable when he smiles to reveal a gap between his two front teeth.
He first met Grillo "about 10 years ago" after the comedian read a book he had written. By then, Casaleggio was a successful information technology executive, former head of the Italian operations of the British firm Logica. In 2004, he founded his own company, Casaleggio Associati.
"Without the web, Beppe and I would not have achieved a thing," he said. "It is the web that has altered all the balances."
The first step was the creation of Grillo's blog, which by 2007 had become the seventh most popular in the world, even though written in the language of a country with less than a fifth of the population of the US and one in which fewer than 40% of households had a computer.
In addition to the blog, there are Beppe Grillo meetups all around the world. Check out this list of 639 of them. It's reminiscent of that first Howard Dean campaign, except Grillo is always screaming.
Grillo himself went around Italy in basically an RV with just a couple employees, drawing staggering crowds in each city he went to. He called it the "Tsunami" tour.
Given the impact of yesterday's election, that term was apt.
SEE ALSO: The 50 hottest people in online politics >
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/beppe-grillo-online-success-2013-2
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Google Had a Big Ol' Hole In Its Two-Step Verification System
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Wary of crises, Americans tune out budget cut talk
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is pulling out all the stops to warn just what could happen if automatic budget cuts kick in. Americans are reacting with a collective yawn.
They know the shtick: Obama raises the alarm, Democrats and Republicans accuse each other of holding a deal hostage, there's a lot of yelling on cable news, and then finally, when everyone has made their points, a deal is struck and the day is saved.
Maybe not this time. Two days before $85 billion in cuts are set to hit federal programs with all the precision of a wrecking ball, there are no signs that the White House and Republicans in Congress are even negotiating. Both sides appear quietly resigned to the prospect that this is one bullet we just may not dodge.
Still, for all the grim predictions, Americans seem to be flipping the channel to something a little less, well, boring. They wonder, haven't we been here before?
It's like deja vu, says Patrick Naylon, who runs an audiovisual firm in San Francisco: "The same stuff, over and over again."
Texas native Corby Biddle, 53, isn't losing sleep over the cuts. No way the government will let vital services collapse, he said as he visited tourist attractions this week in downtown Atlanta.
"It will get resolved. They will kick the can down the road," Biddle said.
Usually, that's exactly what happens. Even the cuts behind the current panic were originally supposed to kick in on Jan. 1 ? part of the fiscal-cliff combo of spending cuts and tax hikes that economists warned could nudge the nation back into recession. For all the high drama, lawmakers finally acted on New Year's Day, compromising on taxes and punting the spending cuts to March 1.
And the blunt instrument known as the "sequester" that's set to deliver the cuts? That too was the progeny of another moment of government-by-brinksmanship, a concession that in 2011 made possible the grand bargain that saved the U.S. from a first-ever default on its debt.
Even if the current cuts go through, the impact won't be immediate. Federal workers would be notified next week that they will have to take up to a day every week off without pay, but the furloughs won't start for a month due to notification requirements. That will give negotiators some breathing room to keep working on a deal.
But you can only cry wolf so many times before people just stop paying attention.
"I know you guys must get tired of it," Obama told a crowd in Virginia on Tuesday. "Didn't we just solve this thing? Now we've got another thing coming up?"
Three out of 4 Americans say they aren't following the spending cuts issue very closely, according to a Pew Research Center poll released this week. It's a significant drop from the nearly 4 in 10 who in December said they were closely following the fiscal-cliff debate.
Public data from Google's search engine shows that at its peak in December, the search term "fiscal cliff" was about 10 times as popular as "sequestration" has been in recent days. Even "debt ceiling," not a huge thriller for the web-surfing crowd, maxed out in July 2011 at about three times the searches the sequester is now getting.
"We're now approaching the next alleged deadline of doom. And voters, having been told previously that the world might end, found it did not in the past and are becoming more skeptical that it will in the future," said Peter Brown of the nonpartisan Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
And let's face it: When it comes to policy issues that can really put an audience to sleep, "sequestration" is right up there with filibuster reform, chained CPI and carried interest.
For all the angst about layoffs, furloughs and slashes to government contracts, the markets don't seem to be rattled, either. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, after falling below 13,000 at the height of the fiscal cliff debacle, has been buoyant ever since, spending the last month hovering just below 14,000.
"I shrug my shoulders because I don't believe any of those severe cuts will go through," said Karen Jensen, a retired hospital administrator who stopped to talk in New York's Times Square. "Life goes on as it has before."
But if the Obama administration hasn't managed to convince Americans these spending cuts could be the real deal, it's not for lack of trying.
Each day the cuts grow nearer sees a new dire warning from the White House about another government function that will take a hit if they go into effect ? what White House chief of staff Denis McDonough has called a "devastating list of horribles." Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned Monday that her agency will be forced to furlough 5,000 border patrol agents. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said 70,000 preschool kids could be removed from Head Start. Fewer air traffic controllers could mean 90-minute delays or longer in major cities, and visiting hours at all 398 national parks are likely to be cut, the administration has said.
The White House has circulated 51 reports ? one for each state, plus the District of Columbia ? localizing the effects of the cuts. On Tuesday, Obama took his cautionary tale to a shipbuilding site in Newport News, Va., calling attention to how the cuts could impede the military. The White House says in Virginia alone, about 90,000 civilians working for the Defense Department would be furloughed, for a nearly $650 million reduction in gross pay.
"The president needs to stop campaigning, stop trying to scare the American people, stop trying to scare the states," Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said Monday after governors from both parties met with Obama behind closed doors. "Now's the time to cut spending. It can be done without jeopardizing the economy. It can be done without jeopardizing critical services."
The age-old Republican desire for a scaled-back federal government makes it clear why, on the one hand, the GOP isn't scrambling to avert the cuts ? especially when Obama insists on more tax revenues in any deal to turn them off. On the other hand, Obama is banking on polls that show if the cuts go through, Republicans are likely to bear most of the blame.
Both parties agree that if you're going to cut spending, an indiscriminate mechanism like the sequester is the wrong way to do it. After all, the whole point of the endeavor was to set in motion ramifications so unbearable that lawmakers would be forced to come together and hash out a better plan before the deadline.
Count James Ford of Louisville, Ky., among those still holding out hope.
"They'll come up with something to keep the thing going," he said. "They always do."
___
Associated Press writers Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Jake Pearson in New York and Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Ky., contributed to this report.
___
Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wary-crises-americans-tune-budget-cut-talk-080137738--finance.html
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Viewing black bodies through photography | The Statesman
From the first caricatures of controversial character Sarah Baartman to posing in photos to female empowerment and exploiting stereotypes, Deborah Willis, the chair of photography and imaging at New York University?s Tisch School for the Arts, said the practice of taking pictures of the black body has changed.
Willis gave a presentation about taking photographs of the black body and how those images resonate with viewers on Thursday at the Charles B. Wang Center. During her speech, she went through pictures from the early 19th century to the present- day.
?What made you afraid of black people?? Willis said about the time that whites would use the black body for entertainment. ?What made you afraid of this??
In the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, people looked at black bodies as a humorous activity. Sarah Baartman, who was called the ?Hottentot Venus,? was put on display because of her enlarged buttocks and genitals.
When she died, her genitals were preserved and put on display in a French museum. Even after her death, her body was used for ridicule and one can still see this in pop culture and art.
Other photos showed women with their dresses pushed down and their breasts highlighted.
?Keep in mind what we know about images and what we know about people in terms of those images,? Willis said.
Frederick Douglass, a prominent abolitionist, who was one of the most photographed men of the 1800s, posed looking at the camera and looking off into the distance. According to Willis, Douglass knew that he was posing for his biography when he looked away in certain images.
Sojourner Truth, an abolitionist and women?s rights activist, posed for some photographs without her fancy drape to show her femininity. ?A photo of a Civil War major depicted him with a handkerchief that was meant to tell his story.
However, these posed photos also showed more humanized versions of the black body. One photo depicted a woman looking over her shoulder at the welts on her back from having been beaten.
?We see families of two young brothers and sisters,? Willis said. ?We are reminded that they are human.?
More recently, shooting photos of the black body has become more of a fabulist activity.
One photo shows a building that is shaped like a woman. The woman has an hourglass figure and the entrance is in her skirt. Willis called the skirt sexualized because to enter the building, one has to enter her skirt.
Willis showed Renee Cox?s image of one woman in a blue gown and another in a superhero costume, calling the vigilante ?Wonder Woman?s half-sister.?
?They are superwomen by taking care of their families,? Willis said.
Another photo that was meant to show how black men perceive black men showed a muscular gentleman in feminine garb. The photo was meant to emasculate men and empower women.
Advertising companies looking to expand their black consumer populations have been exploiting black stereotypes.
One automobile ad was a close-up photo of someone?s teeth. There was a gold car on one tooth, going off the stereotype that ?black people like to put gold on their teeth.? Another advertisement depicted a plain wooden table with a white plate. On the plate, there was a piece of watermelon and a scooper. The ad was for the scooper, but the advertisement stereotypically figured that black people like watermelon and would respond more positively to the campaign.
Willis ended the lecture by showing one of her own photo projects. ?The photo had boxes of pregnant women?s stomachs and pieces of motherly advice such as choosing the right person to marry.
Source: http://www.sbstatesman.com/2013/02/25/viewing-black-bodies-through-photography/
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Shakira, Gerard Piqu? thank fans for raising food, supplies through ...
Shakira and boyfriend Gerard Piqu? may be focused on celebrating the birth of their son Milan, but they?ve also taken the time to thank the thousands of fans ? make that hundreds of thousands of fans ? who donated money that will go towards supporting needy children around in the world.
?We are thrilled by the generosity that has been shown by the visitors to our World Baby Shower site,? said Shakira in a statement. ?Thanks to you, over 80,000 children will be protected from polio, almost 200,000 oral rehydration salts sachets will be distributed in times of need, the 3.8 tons of therapeutic food collected will save many children from severe acute malnutrition, among other life-saving tools that were purchased to protect babies and children.?
Turning to her online fans ? who number more than 19 million on Twitter and 61 million on Facebook ? the ?Hips Don?t Lie? singer set virtual baby shower through UNICEF, for whom she has been a global ambassador since 2003. Dubbed ?Shakira & Gerard Piqu??s World Baby Shower to Help UNICEF Save Children?s Lives,? the philanthropic project raised charitable donations for poverty-stricken children worldwide.
I want to thank all of you! Thanks to you hundreds of thousands of children will be protected in times of need. bit.ly/VTlLmm
? Gerard Piqu? (@3gerardpique) February 22, 2013
The shower ? which ran from Jan. 16 through Feb. 15 ? allowed donors to choose from a number of ?Inspired Gifts,? which included a baby scale ($37), polio vaccine ($10) or even a $5 malaria net. ?As a further incentive, Shakira periodically released exclusive pictures through the UNICEF site, which allowed her global fans access her ?virtual living room? in order to see her maternity photos, as well as the first snapshot of baby Milan.
Baby Milan held by proud father Gerard Piqu?. (Photo/Courtesy UNICEF)
With the purchase of more than 1,000 insecticide-treated mosquito nets and 150 portable scales, all going towards children in danger of malaria ? a disease from which a child in Africa dies every 50 seconds ? Shakira can be assured that she?s carrying out her hopes of setting a great example for her son.
?When the baby is born, I?ll take him with me on charity trips,? she told Germany?s RTL in October of her approach to motherhood. ?He shall learn that he is able to change the world.?
And while Shakira has met the challenges of raising funds for her latest UNICEF philanthropic outreach, another challenge lies ahead: She?ll be joining Usher, Adam Levine and Cee-Lo on the upcoming season of NBC?s??The Voice??in March.
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Asus Padfone Hands On: A Sleek Two-For-One Device That Makes You Pay for Both
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Falcon Northwest Mach V (Triple Titan)
The launch of Nvidia's new GeForce GTX Titan graphics card has lit a fire underneath multiple boutique computer manufacturers. Falcon Northwest has built a new version of its Mach V desktop tower?the Mach V (Triple Titan)?to take advantage of the Titan's capabilities, with support for up to three of the new graphics cards and a six-core Intel Core i7 3970X CPU overclocked to 4.7GHz. The system's price tag as configured was $7,394. Yes, you read that right. The three graphics cards account for about $3000 of the eye-popping figure; this much power doesn't come cheap. The system's performance blew away the competition for the most part, setting a new standing for PC gaming. Thus, the Mach V (Triple Titan) takes the Editors' Choice for high-end gaming rigs.
Design and Features
The Mach V uses the same vertical chassis design as the Maingear Shift Super Stock (Core i7-3930K) ($5289 4.5); both cases orient video cards and components upwards to take advantage of the fact that hot air naturally rises. From the outside, the chassis design is simple, even understated, but the hardware inside the box is some of the most powerful that money can buy. There's 32GB of DDR3-1866 RAM, the aforementioned Intel Core i7-3970X, and a 256GB Crucial M4 SSD, backed up by a 2TB Western Digital Caviar Green hard drive. The entire system is powered by a 1200W PSU; optical storage comes courtesy of a 16x Asus DVD-RW drive.
The disadvantage to this triple-GPU configuration is that the GPUs consume every available slot; there's literally no room for any additional hardware. Falcon Northwest makes up for the lack of free PCI-Express ports with a whopping nine USB 2.0 ports and six USB 3.0 ports. Two of the latter are mounted at the top of the case for convenient access while working.
The vertical design presents two other challenges. First, a desk that's designed to exhaust hot air at the back may end up trapping that air if the system exhausts at the top. Second, there's the cabling issue. If you don't have many external drives or peripherals, the Mach V presents a very clean, crisp profile. Add three monitors' worth of cables, a few external drives, and a keyboard + mouse, and the top of the system looks like a rat's nest.
The trade-off is that cooling performance is typically better in a vertical case?and with three GPUs and a 4.7GHz overclocked CPU, the Mach V needs to balance cooling performance and noise. It does so quite well. The next-generation GPU Boost technology built into the Titan family keeps each GPU's temperature pegged at 80C. Customers can override this manually if they wish, but the system automatically adjusts frequencies to ensure that even a three-GPU system runs no risk of overheating.
Performance
The three Titan graphics cards are the showcase of the system and its strongest point. The Mach V (Triple Titan) sweeps even the Maingear F131 Super Stock (GTX Titan) in our 3D benchmark tests. Its 3DMark 11 Extreme score of 12,505 is 18% faster than the previous record-holder ? the Falcon Northwest Mach V (Intel Core i7-3770K), which was equipped with a pair of dual-GPU GTX 690s (four GPUs in total). In Aliens vs. Predator at 1,920-by-1,080 with 4x anti-aliasing (AA) and 4x anisotropic filtering (AF) turned on, the Mach V (Triple Titan) turned in 222 frames per second (fps) compared with the dual-Titan-equipped Maingear F131's 182fps. Performance in version 3.0 of Unigine's Heaven benchmark test at 1,920-by-1080 with 4x AA / AF was 198fps, compared to 155fps for the Maingear F131.
In other areas, the Maingear F131 and Mach V (Triple Titan) came in neck and neck. Both systems completed a Handbrake decode in 23 seconds. The Maingear F131 led in PCMark 7 (6,523 vs. 6,241 for the Mach V) and in Photoshop CS6 (2 minutes, 35 seconds to apply a dozen filters, vs. the Mach V's time of 2:41). The Mach V (Triple Titan) outperformed Maingear F131 in Cinebench, where the hexa-core 3970 got to stretch its legs. The multithreaded Cinebench R11.5 score for the Mach V (Triple Titan) was 13.62. Only the Origin Genesis (Core i7-3930K), with its 4.9GHz CPU, was faster.
Those performance figures provide an accurate model of how the Falcon-Northwest compares to other gaming systems. What they don't explain is how Falcon and its boutique competitors have leveraged the new cards to create better gaming experiences. We had the opportunity to test the Mach V in a 5,760-by-1,080 configuration across three 27-inch displays. A standard 1,920-by-1,080 display contains two megapixels? 5,760-by-1080 more than triples that, to 6.2MP. For comparison, 2,560-by-1,600 is 4 MP.
Yes, three GTX Titan GPUs pushing nearly 200fps in Heaven is impressive. What's more impressive yet is seeing the Mach V (Triple Titan) maintain 90fps in the same benchmark test when running across three displays at once. It's not a capability that's limited to synthetic benchmark tests?while multi-monitor gaming is still not standard, many recent titles like Shogun 2, Serious Sam BFE, World of Warcraft, and Batman: Arkham City all support it.
With three GTX Titan GPUs, the Falcon Northwest Mach V (Triple Titan) is capable of fielding game experiences that other configurations don't offer. Serious Sam BFE at 5,760-by-1,080 with 4x super-sampled AA, 16x AF, and all GPU and CPU options set to maximum, for example, still maintains a consistent 75fps.
The three-monitor experience isn't perfect?the view on the side panels is often distorted and, in some games, magnifies the landscape and enemies to appear closer than they are. Despite these flaws, multi-monitor gaming support is growing, and the immersion in these games is superior to single-panel play. Game for a few hours across three monitors, and you'll find that dropping back to one is jarring.
That said, what's also jarring is the Mach V (Triple Titan)'s price tag. At $999 each, there's no such thing as a cheap Titan GPU, but gamers who are interested without having quite that much scratch to spare should consider a single GPU configuration built around one of Falcon's lower-cost alternatives like the Tiki or FragBox.
If you've got the funds, this is an excellent system. It's a configuration that can handle multi-monitor gaming, 3D gaming, or both without breaking a sweat. Given the strength of the underlying hardware, this Mach V could be the center of a gaming platform for years to come. Buyers who prefer to buy a high-end system and use it for a number of years rather than upgrading on a regular basis should give the Mach V (Triple Titan) serious consideration. Of course, if you want to use this to replace the high-end gaming rig you bought last year because that system was the "fastest," that's also your prerogative. Regardless, with its record-breaking performance, triple-monitor capability, and smart power-saving functionality, the Falcon Northwest Mach V (Triple Titan) earns our Editors' Choice for high-end gaming desktops.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/cDU1aZ7ed-o/0,2817,2415720,00.asp
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Monday, February 25, 2013
Legal pot in Colo., Wash. poses growing dilemma
In this photo taken on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, THC University co-founder Matt Jones, center, speaks to the first class as co-founder Freeman LaFleur, left, looks on at THC University that was held at the Tivoli in Denver. Watery failure is what inspired the ?Marijuana 101? class, which was organized by Matt Jones, a 24-year-old Web developer who wanted to get in the marijuana business without raising or selling it himself. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
In this photo taken on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, THC University co-founder Matt Jones, center, speaks to the first class as co-founder Freeman LaFleur, left, looks on at THC University that was held at the Tivoli in Denver. Watery failure is what inspired the ?Marijuana 101? class, which was organized by Matt Jones, a 24-year-old Web developer who wanted to get in the marijuana business without raising or selling it himself. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
In this photo taken on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, Instructor Ted Smith holds up a chemical that is recommended in growing marijuana during the first class at THC University in Denver. Smith told the first-time marijuana growers that chemical fertilizers work so quickly that some are called ?bud rocket.? (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
In this photo taken on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, instructor Ted Smith uses a slide to demonstrate different types of damage to marijuana plants during class at THC University in the Tivoli in Denver. Chemical fertilizers can be finely crafted to target a specific deficiency in the plants, whether they?re lacking phosphorus, evident by telltale ?purple vein,? or potassium, a likely culprit when leaves show brown spots between the veins. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
In this photo taken on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, instructor Ted Smith, left, shows Ginger and Heath Grider how to cut and plant a section of a tomato plant during class at THC University at the Tivoli in Denver. Marijuana can be grown from seed, or from a clipping off a ?mother? marijuana plant. Clones, as the clippings are called, grow faster and produce smokeable marijuana much more quickly than seeds. But seeds can be worth the wait, producing hardier marijuana. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
In this photo taken on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, a textbook on Marijuana Horticulture sits on a desk during the first class at the THC University in Denver. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) ? It may be called weed, but marijuana is legendarily hard to grow.
Now that the drug has been made legal in Washington and Colorado, growers face a dilemma. State-sanctioned gardening coaches can help folks cultivate tomatoes or zucchini, but both states have instructed them not to show people the best way to grow marijuana. The situation is similar in more than a dozen additional states that allow people to grow the drug with medical permission.
That's leaving some would-be marijuana gardeners looking to the private sector for help raising the temperamental plant.
"We can't go there," said Brian Clark, a spokesman for Washington State University in Pullman, which runs the state's extension services for gardening and agriculture. "It violates federal law, and we are a federally funded organization."
The issue came up because people are starting to ask master gardeners for help in growing cannabis, Clark said. Master gardeners are volunteers who work through state university systems to provide horticultural tips in their communities.
The situation is the same in Colorado, where Colorado State University in Fort Collins recently added a marijuana policy to its extension office, warning that any employee who provides growing assistance acts outside the scope of his or her job and "assumes personal liability for such action."
The growing predicament is just the latest quandary for these states that last year flouted federal drug law by removing criminal penalties for adults over 21 with small amounts of pot. In Washington, home-growing is banned, but it will be legal to grow pot commercially once state officials establish rules and regulations.
In Colorado, adults are allowed to grow up to six marijuana plants in their own homes, so long as they're in a locked location out of public view.
At least two Colorado entrepreneurs are taking advantage of that aspect of the law; they're offering growing classes that have attracted wannabe professional growers, current users looking to save money by growing their own pot and a few baby boomers who haven't grown pot in decades and don't feel comfortable going to a marijuana dispensary.
"We've been doing this on our own, but I wanted to learn to grow better," said Ginger Grinder, a medical marijuana patient from Portales, N.M., who drove to Denver for a "Marijuana 101" class she saw advertised online.
Grinder, a stay-at-home mom who suffers from lupus and fibromyalgia, joined about 20 other students earlier this month for a daylong crash course in growing the finicky marijuana plant.
Taught in a rented room at a public university, the course had students practicing on tomato plants because pot is prohibited on campus. The group took notes on fertilizer and fancy hydroponic growing systems, and snipped pieces of tomato plants to practice cloning, a common practice for nascent pot growers to start raising weed from a "mother" marijuana plant.
Ted Smith, a longtime instructor at an indoor gardening shop, led the class, and warned these gardeners that their task won't be easy. Marijuana is fickle, he said. It's prone to mildews and molds, picky about temperature and pH level, intolerant to tap water.
A precise schedule is also a must, Smith warned, with set light and dark cycles and watering at the same time each day. Unlike many house plants, Smith warned, marijuana left alone for a long weekend can curl and die.
"Just like the military ... they need to know when they're getting their water and chow," Smith said of the plants.
The class was the brainchild of Matt Jones, a 24-year-old Web developer who wanted to get into the marijuana business without raising or selling it himself. As a teenager, Jones once tried to grow pot himself in empty Home Depot paint buckets. He used tap water and overwatered, and the marijuana wilted and died.
"It was a disaster," he recalled. Jones organized the class and an online "THC University" for home growers, but his own thumb isn't green. Jones said he'll be buying his marijuana from professional growers.
The course showed would-be grower Cael Nodd, a 34-year-old stagehand in Denver, that marijuana gardening can be an intimidating prospect.
"It seems like there's going to be a sizable investment," he said. "I want something that really tastes good. Doesn't seem like it will be that easy."
___
Wyatt reported from Denver and can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APkristenwyatt
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Afghan president orders US troops out of volatile province on Kabul's flank
President Hamid Karzai has asked US Special Forces to leave Wardak Province, raising concerns about how security might be affected in Afghanistan's capital city.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a press conference at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, last month. The Afghan government?s announcement, which was made on Sunday, ordered US Special Forces to immediately cease operations in Wardak Province and to entirely leave the area within two weeks.
Ahmad Jamshid/AP
EnlargeThe Afghan government has demanded that US Special Forces leave a strategic province that lies just to the west of Kabul, claiming in a written statement that American soldiers operating in the region have been ?torturing and even murdering innocent people.? The US-led coalition denies the claims.
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The Afghan government?s announcement, which was made on Sunday, ordered Special Forces from the United States ? but not necessarily other countries ? to immediately cease operations in Wardak Province and to entirely?leave the area within two weeks.
In a press conference following the release of the statement, Aimal Faizi, the spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, suggested that Afghan nationals working with US Special Forces were thought to have committed the violent acts against civilians, not necessarily American soldiers themselves. But the order for US Special Forces to withdraw from Wardak remains intact.
Given Wardak?s proximity to Kabul, the prospect of an American departure from the province has raised concern about how security might be affected in the capital city. Just hours before the Afghan government?s announcement Sunday, Afghan security forces shot dead a suicide bomber who was targeting an intelligence agency office located in Kabul?s diplomatic quarter. Coordinated suicide bombs in two other eastern cities killed three and injured seven within hours of the foiled Kabul attack.
?This decision will have a huge impact on the security situation in Kabul,? says Waliullah Rahmani, a security analyst with the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies. ?Wardak is one of the most volatile provinces. It is a center for the insurgency, which is mainly focused on Kabul.... I don't know why the Afghan president has come to reach such a risky decision.?
The Afghan government cited two examples of alleged abuses by US Special Forces, including one in which nine people ?were disappeared? and another in which a student was taken from his home and found dead two days later, his throat slit. Such episodes have generated ?resentment and hatred? among the people living in Wardak Province, a government statement said.
Coalition disputes claims
The US-led coalition says that such claims are unfounded.
?We looked into the allegations and found no supporting evidence for them,? Brig. Gen. G?nter Katz, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), told a press conference in Kabul on Monday morning.
?Afghan officials and ISAF officials are planning talks to discuss the allegations of wrongdoing that were announced yesterday,? he added. ?ISAF takes all allegations of misconduct seriously.??
Wardak Province is a mountainous region whose eastern border lies just 25 miles to the west of Kabul. The province has been the scene of a number of insurgent attacks since the Taliban gained control of Wardak?s remote Tangi Valley nearly two years ago.
The Taliban shot down a US military helicopter in Wardak in August 2011, killing 38 US and Afghan soldiers. An American woman and her Canadian husband disappeared from the region in October of last year; they haven?t been heard from since.?
Whether or not US Special Forces leave Wardak within two weeks, they will almost certainly be out of the province by the end of 2014, in accordance with international plans to withdraw foreign troops and allow Afghan forces to take control of the country?s security.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Brigadier General Katz stressed that those plans are still moving ahead.
?The [Afghan National Security Forces] are doing very well in pressuring the insurgency,? Katz said. ?The transition process is very well on track and the Afghans are fighting well.?
To the people of Wardak, the transition may not come soon enough.
?The US Special Forces have made things more dangerous here,? Saeed Hashem, a pharmacist, said by phone from Wardak, adding that many people in the region are afraid to leave their houses for fear of potential attacks. ?The Afghan forces should take over control,? he said. ?When that happens, we will be able to defeat the Taliban and the other enemy groups, and Wardak will be safe.?
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Daytona's preliminary TV rating up from last year
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? With Danica Patrick starting from the pole, the Daytona 500's preliminary television ratings were much higher than last year's.
Sunday afternoon's race earned a 10.0 overnight rating and 22 share on Fox, the network said Monday. That's up 30 percent from 2012, when rain pushed the event to a Monday night. It was the highest overnight rating since 2006.
Jimmie Johnson won the race while Patrick was eighth, the best finish by a woman at the Daytona 500.
The race had plenty of buildup: Patrick making history as the first woman to start a Sprint Cup race from the pole, the revamped cars, no more tandem drafting, and a frightening crash the day before in the second-tier Nationwide Series.
"I noticed something last night coming out of the track for dinner, just seemed to be a different vibe inside the infield," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished second Sunday. "People seemed more excited about what was getting ready to happen. Even today, there seemed to be a whole lot more people here. Seemed to be a lot more excitement about the race.
"That really was the biggest motivator for me. I think we're headed in the right direction. ... For some reason, it just felt like we're on the right track as a sport. That's got me really excited."
Ratings represent the percentage of all homes with televisions tuned to a program. Shares represent the percentage of all homes with TVs in use at the time. Overnight ratings measure the country's largest markets.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/daytonas-preliminary-tv-rating-last-143930307--spt.html
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90% Lore
All Critics (61) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (55) | Rotten (6)
We know where this is going pretty early on, but that doesn't prevent "Lore" from being riveting stuff, start to finish.
This striking, slow-building drama ... uses fractured, impressionistic imagery as a mirror of moral dislocation as the children make their way through an unfamiliar landscape.
It's a remarkable accomplishment.
Saskia Rosendahl is a highly expressive actress within the limited confines of her character, and the film is studded with memorable scenes.
"Lore" is the sort of movie you'd already expect to rip your heart out, but that doesn't diminish the tragedy when it does arrive.
If "Lore" is an upsetting and uncomfortable film set in a morally bleak landscape, it also offers a guardedly optimistic vision of the possibility of human change.
It isn't exactly a profound film, but Saskia Rosendahl's performance has considerable depth, and she interacts admirably with her siblings.
An unusual, constantly surprising post-WWII odyssey, this film may feel a bit thin and episodic, but it tells an evocative story with darkly moving emotion.
Shortland does an impressive job of evoking the rotten heart of a country turning in on itself.
The film is ultimately about a spectacular fall from innocence that feels both highly personal and universal.
As with all the best fairytales, there is a blackness and brutality at its centre.
Not even safety and sanctuary quite wipe clean the trauma slate. New autocracies lie in wait, ready to replace the old.
Shortland and her ferocious lead actress, Saskia Rosendahl, burrow so deeply into the thoughts of the stubborn, infuriating protagonist that you leave the movie unable to stop wondering what the rest of her life will be like.
A tough yet rewarding viewing experience!
Certainly sounds good on paper, but a little shallow and overstated in reality.
While prone to arty lingering, thus wasting time that would have been more wisely spent plugging gaps in the narrative, Shortland slathers the story in enough mud and horror to make it a compellingly visceral experience.
A provocative and emotionally complex drama with a terrific central performance from newcomer Saskia Rosendahl.
It's a close, intimate film - sometimes so close you can feel the breath of its characters in your face.
Shortland creates a palpable sense of atmosphere, and coupled with fluid camerawork and a verdant forest backdrop, Lore looks and feels a world apart from other World War II-set dramas.
This oblique and understated tale of lost innocence conveys both an individual's experiences and a powerful sense of a ruined nation.
Shortland's measured pacing and hypnotic visuals make this a mesmerising journey through a defeated landscape.
The result is a stimulating portrayal of an under-examined aspect of Nazism's terrible legacy.
Enough cannot be said about its leading lady, a truly captivating actress at a very young age who should be an international star.
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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lore/
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South Korea's new president demands North drop nuclear ambitions
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's new president Park Geun-hye urged North Korea on Monday to abandon its nuclear ambitions, and to stop wasting its scarce resources on arms development, less than two weeks after the country carried out its third nuclear test.
Park, 61, the daughter of South Korea's former military ruler Park Chung-hee, is the first female president of prosperous South Korea and one of her campaign promises was to engage with the North if it halted its nuclear weapons plans.
"I urge North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions without delay and embark on the path to peace and shared development," Park said after being inaugurated on Monday.
North Korea is ruled by Kim Jong-un, the third of his line to hold power in Pyongyang and the grandson of a man who tried to assassinate Park's father.
Park's father seized power in a 1961 coup and ruled for 18 years until he was gunned down by his security chief in 1979. He helped transform South Korea from a poverty-stricken country where income was just $100 a year into what is now Asia's fourth largest economy and an industrial powerhouse whose cars, telephones and ships are sold worldwide.
Park also urged South Koreans to recreate the drive of a country that was once dubbed "the Miracle on the Han River", as she prepared to return the presidential mansion 33 years after her father's assassination.
In December's presidential poll, one of the most hotly contested elections for years, Park won about 52 percent of the vote, compared with 48 percent for her liberal opponent.
Park served as First Lady to her father Park Chung-hee after her mother was gunned down by a North Korean-backed assassin in 1974. She has been a top legislator since 1998 and has been dubbed "The Queen of Elections" for her ability to score victories for her conservative party.
Park has promised "economic democracy" and to increase "national happiness" in a country where income differentials between the poorest and the richest have soared in recent years.
(Additional reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by David Chance and Michael Perry)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-koreas-president-demands-north-drop-nuclear-ambitions-021646206.html
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Microsoft Hit by Hackers
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Sunday, February 24, 2013
Lawyer: Pistorius' brother facing homicide charge
Stephane De Sakutin / AFP - Getty Images
Carl Pistorius, who is facing culpable homicide charge in a 2010 road death, and sister Aimee Pistorius attend the appearance of their brother South African Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius on Tuesday.
By The Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG -The family lawyer of Oscar Pistorius says the brother of the Olympic paraplegic athlete is facing culpable homicide charge in a 2010 road death.
Laywer Kenny Oldwage would not confirm details of the case Carl Pistorius is facing, but Sunday's development is compounding the problems for the family after Oscar was charged with premeditated murder in the Feb. 14 shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Local media reported that Carl Pistorius was allegedly involved in a crash with a woman motorcyclist and that he was to face trial last Thursday, as his brother Oscar was facing a bail hearing.?
Oscar Pistorius was released on bail Friday and his brother Carl was seen driving into the affluent villa of their uncle Arnold early Sunday, where Oscar is staying while on bail.?
Related:
Slain model's father: Pistorius will 'suffer' if he's lying about her death
Video:?Steenkamp?s dad may someday forgive Pistorius
'Nobody saw it coming,' Reeva Steenkamp's uncle says
?
? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Strasburg gives up early HR, Mets beat Nats 5-3
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) ? Stephen Strasburg had a rocky return to the mound in his first outing since the Washington Nationals shut him down last September to protect his arm.
Strasburg gave up a single and a full-count homer to the first two batters he faced Saturday, and the New York Mets beat Washington 5-3 in a spring training opener.
Kirk Nieuwenhuis led off the Mets' first inning with a single and Ruben Tejada followed with a two-run shot that the wind carried over the left-center fence.
"It was a little bit of a debacle the first inning, but that's just what happens for me every spring training," Strasburg said. "It's just going to take a little while for me to get a little comfortable, a better rhythm out there. I was just glad I was able to get back feeling right in the second inning."
The right-hander rebounded with a 1-2-3 second inning. He was pitching in a game for the first time since Sept. 7 when the NL East champions shut him down for the season, rather than push his innings total.
Mets newcomer Shaun Marcum gave up four hits and three runs in two innings. Top prospect Zack Wheeler pitched two shutout innings.
Strasburg also gave up a two-out double to Marlon Byrd in the first but ended a 29-pitch inning by striking out Lucas Duda.
Strasburg allowed three hits in two innings. He struck out two, walked none and threw 24 of 42 pitches for strikes.
"I threw a couple good breaking balls in the second inning, and my fastball command got better and the sinker seemed to be working well," Strasburg said. "It was a good first outing."
Strasburg also gave up a home run in his 2012 spring training debut, to Chris Snyder, his batterymate Saturday.
"He settled down a little the second inning, dropped his pitches in, was effective and we'll go from there," Snyder said. "He's got good stuff. It's hard. The two-seamer has good stuff to it, and the curveball and changeup are both putaway pitches."
The Mets are similarly excited about Wheeler, who was impressive in relief of Marcum.
After Marcum gave up a two-run homer to Snyder in the second, Wheeler allowed just one hit and one walk while throwing 19 of 30 pitches for strikes.
"He's got a great arm," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "I was impressed with his breaking ball. I'm sure he was a little geeked up going out there. The second inning he pounded the strike zone. That was great to see."
Wheeler had to work himself out of an early jam, though. After walking his first batter, he threw a wild pitch to Bryce Harper but got him on a groundout and then struck out the next two batters to strand a runner on third.
"It wasn't really nerves. I just was a little pumped up getting out there," said Wheeler, expected to begin the season at Triple-A Las Vegas. "After the first couple batters, I think everything went well. I was getting underneath my slider a little bit. It was backing up, but I still got some swings and misses from it."
NOTES: With the score tied at 3, Collin Cowgill hit an RBI double in the sixth inning to drive in the go-ahead run for the Mets. Bobby Parnell closed the game with a shutout inning. ... Mets reliever Pedro Feliciano has been diagnosed with a small hole in the exterior of his heart, but upon returning to camp Saturday morning, he said it is not life-threatening. The left-hander underwent an MRI in New York, where he was sent after an irregular heartbeat was discovered in his pre-camp physical. Feliciano will wear a heart monitor for a few days and has not been cleared to pitch. ... Nationals pitcher Christian Garcia received a second opinion on his strained forearm, but the diagnosis remained the same. Manager Davey Johnson said he still doesn't believe the injury is severe.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/strasburg-gives-early-hr-mets-beat-nats-5-204929122--mlb.html
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Saturday, February 23, 2013
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Kanye West & Kim Kardashian Expecting A Baby Girl!
Kanye West & Kim Kardashian Expecting A Baby Girl!
Kanye West & Kim Kardashian Expecting A Baby Girl! Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News
Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/02/kanye-west-kim-kardashian-expecting-a-baby-girl/
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Video: Currencies in Focus
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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50902777/
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#GoneClio: Berger Legal LLC | Official Clio Blog
February 21st, 2013 by Gwynne Monahan
When asked how using Clio and ?the cloud? has changed the way he practices law, Berger emphasized the ability for ?his whole firm to work remotely, either from home or an office space of their choosing. Doing so allows his firm to keep overhead low, and charge lower rates for client services. He also said he ?used to have to wait until two weeks after each month closed to see how the firm was doing. Now I can find out how the firm is doing, by a particular client or matter, now instead of later. And I can also see what people are working on now instead of later.?
For any lawyer, tracking time is still the standard method for billing. And for Berger Legal, ?Clio is easier and neater than using a spreadsheet. It?s really great and a big win for billing since it cut down my office manager?s time spent on records.? Berger also said that his office manager can now ?focus on other tasks, which changes her role considerably and is a huge help to the firm.?
Before implementing Clio, spreadsheets were how the firm tracked and recorded time. As Berger explained it, ?each person recorded their time in Excel, and sent the spreadsheet to the office manager/billing coordinator. She did her magic to put the entry into QuickBooks.? Straightforward process for a one or two person firm, perhaps, ?but as the firm grew it became unmanageable. We needed remote, online access, in order to minimize all of the time spent populating bills with time records.?
Berger Law needed a scalable, cloud-based practice management platform. Being able to have his firm work remotely, simplify and streamline billing and time records and still keep overhead low are necessary to his firm?s success. To some, investing in a practice management platform might seem counterintuitive as it, too, is an expense. When asked about this, Berger said that ??if you?re trying to avoid expenses Clio makes the cut. It?s an expense worth incurring. Another way to think of it is that we don?t pay rent.?
And Berger had one final word on billing: ?The presentation of the bills in Clio is very nice, and though we?ve always been accurate in our bills and timely, we?re now a little more accurate and timely.?
Read more?#GoneClio interviews?to see how other lawyers have realized the benefits of cloud-based practice management. Interested in being interviewed??Let us know!
For the full interview, click
INTERVIEW?
How big is your firm?
15 attorneys now, and it?s a virtual platform so most of the attorneys work from home and a few work from their own offices.
What did you use before Clio?
Before Clio each person recorded in Excel, sent the spreadsheet to the office manager/billing coordinator who did her magic to put the entry into QuickBooks. When the firm was smaller, just two or three people, it was manageable but as the firm grew it became unmanageable. We needed remote access, online, in order to minimize all of the time spent populating bills with time records.
Our attorneys don?t all work full time, some work part time, so she wasn?t collecting a dozen full time schedules, but it nonetheless got to the tipping point.
What made you decide on Clio? Did you try out any other solutions?
Clio was recommend by someone I trust who ?was speaking at a conference on technology. I really hadn?t heard of Clio, then he mentioned it, and I took a look at it and thought it was really fantastic. He?s really involved in the space so his recommendation was meaningful.?
At various times I looked at other options, but they didn?t seem to be very user friendly.
What problems did Clio help your firm solve?
I used to have to wait until two weeks after each month closed to see how the firm was doing. Now I can find out how the firm is doing, by a particular client or matter and I can also see what people are working on now instead of later.
What did you find to be Clio?s most valuable feature?
Time entry is very easy. Clio is easier and neater than using spreadsheet. It?s really great and a big win for billing since it cut down my office manager?s time spent on records, which frees her up to do other things for the firm. She can focus on other tasks, which changes her role considerably and is a huge help to the firm.
What benefits have you realized from Clio that you didn?t anticipate?
Clio is what I expected. And it has plenty of bells and whistles.
Have Clio & ?the Cloud? changed the way you practice law? If so, how?
When I started, it was just the idea of working from home that I liked, and saving on overhead so I could charge lower rates. The firm grew, I hired people but it never made sense to rent office space and incur expenses. I wanted to maintain the same idea of working from home for myself and enable my colleagues to work either from home or in office space of their choice closer to home. As long as the clients are happy, it doesn?t matter where our lawyers work. Clio lets us work from different locations, which keeps overhead low which in turn keeps rates low.
How did you find the process of getting up and running with Clio?
Very simple. I did a trial and basically was up and running. I got some help from the videos, then did a walk through and a call or two with Clio and my firm. It was all pretty basic and from the point of view of an attorney. So it was pretty simple and at this point it?s very self-sustaining.
How has Clio improved your firm and the service you offer your clients?
The client still receives bills from me, though maybe a couple days earlier than before. The presentation of the bills in Clio is very nice.
Have you had any experiences with Clio?s support team?
Everyone is very helpful, and they know the product.
Would you recommend Clio to your colleagues?
Of course. That?s why I offered to do the interview.
Mac or PC?
Mostly PC. I think there are one or two people who use Macs. Either way, we haven?t had any issues.
Read more?#GoneClio interviews?to see how other lawyers have realized the benefits of cloud-based practice management. Interested in being interviewed??Let us know!
Source: http://www.goclio.com/blog/2013/02/goneclio-berger-legal-llc/
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