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Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Linux On The Microsoft Surface Won't Be Easy
If you were hoping you would be able to run your favorite Linux distribution on Microsoft's new Surface Tablet, it doesn't look like it will be an easy task to accomplish.
After going through the state of Linux distributions handling SecureBoot, UEFI-guru Matthew Garrett confirmed via his blog that Linux on the Microsoft Surface is likely a lemon.
The challenge with loading Linux (or any non-Microsoft operating system) on the new ARM-based tablet is that while it implements UEFI SecureBoot, it doesn't have the "Microsoft Windows UEFI Driver Publisher" key. This is the key used to sign Windows drivers and other non-Microsoft software (e.g. the signed Linux UEFI boot-loaders). Microsoft meanwhile has its own private key and this is the only UEFI SecureBoot key present on the Surface. Without the Surface having the "Microsoft Windows UEFI Driver Publisher" standard key, it's simply not a matter of having OS boot-loader be signed already to have support for this tablet. Microsoft only wants its OS on their tablet.
The Microsoft Surface tablet is based upon NVIDIA's Tegra 3 (T30) SoC with quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 1.3GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, storage capacities of 32GB or 64GB, and runs the Windows RT operating system. Being based upon the common NVIDIA Tegra 3 SoC, the hardware itself isn't too attractive or unique. You can already find plenty of other Tegra 3 tablets on the market capable of running Android/Linux like the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Google Nexus 7, Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11, and NVIDIA's Cardhu reference tablet.
As Matthew mentions in his post, loading Linux or any other operating system to this first-generation ARM-based Microsoft Surface tablet would likely involve finding a vulnerability within the device's firmware in order to execute arbitrary code.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Phoronix/~3/lD20QHL8It0/vr.php
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Saturday, December 29, 2012
csr-reporting: In Good Spirit: Smarter Reporting at Diageo
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?Recently, I took?opportunity to chat with Carolyn Panzer, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility for Diageo plc. Carolyn?is responsible developing and overseeing the strategy for community investment, external reporting, and alcohol in society - including, responsible drinking initiatives, responsible marketing and innovation, and alcohol policy. Carolyn is also the Chairperson of the Distilled Spirits Council's Code Review Board and has nearly 30 years of experience in the beverage alcohol industry, working across industry sectors in both the US and UK. Carolyn will be talking about: "Participating in indices and rankings - how does this contribute to reporting best practice?" at the February conference.
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"The reporting process helps me enormously. It makes us think about our data more and understand our impacts. Smarter Reporting for me is embedding the reporting process in the business - making everybody accountable. Actually, our people really appreciate hearing our story and participating."
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"For me, one of the most challenging things about my role is that Diageo is a big company and keeping on top of everything that is going on in the business, keeping up-to-date and having the headspace to keep on track is a major exercise in time-management. This can occasionally make me feel vulnerable, I feel I should know everything about everything, but obviously that's not possible. My secret for keeping on top is to rely on others to know the detail. Not only does this help me, it empowers the organization to own sustainability. I don't make it easy for the business. I help them take accountability and own their role in advancing our sustainability and responsible drinking programs. This is now paying huge dividends."
Diageo is the world's leading premium drinks business with beverage alcohol brands across spirits, beer and wine including Johnnie Walker ?and Bushmills whiskies, Smirnoff? Vodka,?Baileys, Captain Morgan, Guinness and more. Headquartered in the UK, Diageo trades in 180 countries and employs around 24,000 people with net sales of almost GBP10 billion. Diageo manufactures and supplies its brands its brands in?43 distilleries, 16 breweries, 13 wineries, 19 packaging and blending operations, 9 warehouses and 8 other sites.
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"This year's report has a lot more?engagement - we pushed people to align more closely?with?GRI indicators. We also we did better on the materiality piece. We conducted a market pilot study and now we plan to take that forward and expand it. Also, we tried to use more everyday language and less "corporate-speak", and, in the presentation of the report, we?tried to make it layered. We recognize that not one size fits all and that different stakeholders look for different things, so we opted for a?five-minute-read approach. You can?you go in and read different sections at a general level or dig deeper for more detail."?The Diageo report this year demonstrated good performance achievements against a range of key metrics against several multi-year quantitative targets within the context of a well-laid out strategy. For example, water efficiency improved by 7.2% in 2012, on track to meet a 30% objective by 2015 against a 2007 baseline. Average packaging weight has reduced by 1.6%, on track to meet a 10% target over the same period, bringing the cumulative total to 4.8% reduction. Lost-time accident frequency rate reduced by 43% in 2012,?overachieving a 40% target for 2010-2012?by 17%, showing?good progress in embedding a safe working culture.? However, by far the most material?issue for Diageo relates to the role of alcohol in society and Diageo's responsibilities to address alcohol misuse. Diageo's report states: "In all [stakeholder] workshops, addressing alcohol abuse and promoting responsible drinking was consistently the most important issue for stakeholders as well to us as a company."
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I asked Carolyn Panzer about how Diageo assesses the impact of its multiple activities in this area:"Alcohol problems are not new and there have been many initiatives to address these. You can count thousands of initiatives by the alcohol industry, but the real question is what is effective? Where do you focus your resources to achieve the biggest impact? We want to tackle the issue of problem drinkers. Raising taxes on alcohol, for example, is not necessarily effective for problem users as there will always be a way around this."
In the area of problem drinking, Carolyn continues: "There are some things that we know work. First, screening and brief intervention demonstrates proven efficacy with problem drinkers. Screening individuals through a set of ten questions and engaging them in a conversation about risks helps people reduce problem drinking. We have provided grants to support this kind of activity. Second, high visibility enforcement of the law on drink-driving is effective. Not every country, for example, has a maximum drink-driving limit. We work to support introduction of legislation in this area in countries where this is not present. However, even where there is a legal limit, highly visible enforcement is key. For example, in Mexico City, we ran a campaign in partnership with the local law enforcement authorities, in which we contributed 50,000 breathalyzer kits. Drink-driving reduced by 30%. There is an important continuum that you need to follow to?achieve change. We need to ensure the right regulations? as well as build general awareness. In the U.S., we spend 20% of our broadcasting spending on responsible drinking messages. We always try to work in partnership with other organizations and groups to ensure we have the best understanding of the issues and the best expertise on board to move forward."
Finally, all Diageo employees have a role to play in advancing responsible drinking behavior. Carolyn says: "We are always trying to connect our people with our CSR story, and we ensure they are involved and informed of our initiatives in this area. For example, over the Holiday Season, we campaign our employees with the need for extra vigilance and their role as responsible drinking ambassadors."
As?it is still the Holiday Season, this is great advice for all the CSR Reporting Blog Readers. I am not much of a drinker myself, actually. Personally, I am more concerned with ice-cream rather than alcohol. If ever there are laws which limit ice-cream consumption prior to driving, I may have a bit of a problem.
Happy New Year, everyone!
Looking forward to seeing you at the Smarter Sustainability Reporting Conference in February 2013. Don't forget to drop me a line for your registration discount code!
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elaine cohen, CSR consultant, winning (CRRA'12) Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices? Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen ? on Twitter or via my business website www.b-yond.biz ?(Beyond Business Ltd, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm)
Source: http://csr-reporting.blogspot.com/2012/12/in-good-spirit-smarter-reporting-at.html
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Friday, December 28, 2012
Quests?
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The custom-built "roleplay" system was designed and implemented by Eric Martindale as of July 2009. All attempts to replicate or otherwise emulate this system and its method of organizing roleplay are strictly prohibited without his express written and contractual permission; violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/9N4UJEjZnKk/viewtopic.php
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
Should You Go To Grad School?
Please don't waste your life this way Photograph by Otmar Winterleitner/iStockPhoto.
Apparently, people have been talking. Recently I received an email from an editor at Bookforum who was asking a number of writers to contribute essays to a book to be called Should I Go to Grad School? for an institution called the Platform for Pedagogy.
She told me, somewhat mysteriously, slightly ominously: ?Several people have mentioned that you have strong feelings on the subject.?
Hm. It?s true, I had recently spoken to a grad school class on Shakespeare at NYU (led by my colleague, the gifted poet and memoirist Meghan O?Rourke) about my book The Shakespeare Wars.?And if all grad school teachers of literature were like her, I would have no problem with the institution.
But I must admit I expressed some very ?strong feelings? in that class. Specifically about the controversy stirred up by some academics who have arrogated to themselves spurious authority to discard parts of Hamlet. I had indeed emphatically warned the impressively bright students in the seminar against the kind of grad school-nurtured exegesis of Shakespeare most egregiously represented by James Shapiro in the section of his book, 1599, wherein he purports to read Shakespeare?s mind and discover that Shakespeare would have wanted to cut, trash, delete, and disappear Hamlet?s final soliloquy; one of the high points of the play and of Shakespeare?s entire oeuvre.
It?s true that the fourth act soliloquy (?How all occasions do inform against me/ And spur my dull revenge ...?), which is present in the so-called ?Good Quarto? of Hamlet, the one published during Shakespeare?s lifetime, was omitted from the posthumously published Folio edition. But there is no evidence that this was Shakespeare?s preference and not that of, for instance, a theater manager who wanted to speed up the action of one of the Bard?s longest plays, which in fact revolves around extended delay.
As I suggest in my book, the mind-reading case Shapiro makes for the excision is no small matter. It?s emblematic of a whole academic mindset, of the sort of tin-eared arrogance that would consign to the dustbin?on no good authority 35 eloquently tormented lines of self-reflection by one of the greatest characters in world literature?a character defined by his penchant for introspection and self-reflection?on the basis of a half-baked theory. In this case, the theory that Shakespeare decided he wanted to revise Hamlet to make Hamlet more of an action hero! Like Schwarzenegger in True Lies! Or maybe a Bruce Willis vehicle: Die Hard With a Vengeance: The Elsinore Conundrum.
In this analysis Hamlet?s last soliloquy slows down the action, makes Hamlet too ?dark and existential,? as Shapiro disparagingly notes. Wouldn?t want that! That Shapiro?s theory has been taken seriously by academics is not merely an intellectual scandal but makes it the perfect metaphor for the way most graduate study of literature in America diminishes it?and has become?something to be avoided like the plague. I?ve tangled with Shapiro before and I will never cease condemning his grad school-bred disembowelment of Hamlet ?til the day I die and hopefully, like Hamlet?s father?s ghost, return to haunt those who advance this meretricious attempt to pour poison into the ears of grad students, to besmirch one of the high points of English literature.
Yes, I guess I do have strong feelings.
But, I told the Should I Go to Grad School? editor, I couldn?t speak about graduate school education in general for two reasons. First, it seems intuitively true that for subjects such as history, philosophy,?the hard sciences, and even some of the softer ones, it would be hard for me to make a case against graduate study.
But grad school for literature, I can't advocate. I escaped Yale before it became the center of the frenzied fad for French literary theorists, as a result of which students read more about arcane metaphysics of language, semiotics and the like than the actual literature itself. But, even though many of the most sophisticated contemporary intellectuals who once bought into this sophistry (such as Terry Eagleton) have abandoned it, the tenured relics who imposed this intellectual regime are still there, still espousing their view that literature itself is only to be understood through their diminishing deconstructing lens. I can testify to it, having sat through enough seminars at the Shakespeare Association of America conferences to last a life time. Please don't waste your life this way.
Second, she had said she was asking two kinds of writers: those who had, and those who had not gone through graduate school. I fell into neither category: I had only spent a year at Yale?s graduate school (in English literature), and then fled the institutional comforts it offered for an unknown future.
All the better, she said. I?d looked at life from both sides now.
And so return with me to the moment I made the choice about whether to stay in graduate school; the moment when two roads stretched before me. I don?t suggest anyone take the path I did?I don?t want to ruin any lives?but maybe it will help some see if it?s the road for them.
It was the spring of 1969, around midnight at a lovely house on a comely cove a few miles up the coast from New Haven, a place I shared with a couple of Yale friends. I was sitting at the kitchen table. I had been up late paging anxiously through the classified ads of the Village Voice (long before they became a porn emporium), looking for a traveling salesman job, not finding one, and wondering if I should accept what seemed to be my fate and continue on in graduate school.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=5bd9eaffa709f6dd2efb44d17a19ac67
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Rihanna Donates $1.75 Million In Memory Of Grandmother
'Diamonds' singer donates large sum to the radiotherapy department of a Barbados hospital.
By Brendan Dempsey
Rihanna
Photo: NBC
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1699421/rihanna-donates-to-hospital-in-memory-grandmother.jhtml
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Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Self Improvement Techniques: A Guide To A Better Life - Health Care
Most people wish they had a slightly different life. For some, the shows itself in their personal life whereas with others, they prefer to concentrate on improving their professional careers. Anyone intrigued by the idea of self improvement will find the insights of this article quite useful.
Come up with a little pep talk for yourself. Write a list of each of your good points and attributes on an index card. Take it with you everywhere you go, and go over each quality when you feel the need. Another great idea is to recite the list while filming yourself, so that you can view the footage regularly. Is there a benefit?
Speaking to a therapist or religious official can really help you out. Not only have they been trained to deal in personal growth, their experience in these issues is what makes them a good choice to speak with. They?ll eagerly listen, analyze what?s going on and help you find enlightenment. Talking these issues through with someone who is a professional will help you be healthier and happier in the long term.
Understand that there is a divide between where you are and where you wish to go. This is the best way to be able to set a course of direction to get there. If you do not know this, you are not ready to begin personal development.
Read literature that is focused on self improvement. A good book can provide you with the information that you need to get started on your journey toward a new you. Pick out a book that has gotten good reviews because there are some books about self improvement that are not written very well.
When trying to achieve personal development, failures can dampen and hurt an individual?s ego and self esteem. Approach your failures as opportunities to learn. Failure helps you figure out what you are good at and what needs improvement. When you look at it that way, failure should inspire pride in your ability to discover a new piece in your puzzle.
To keep from saying something you may regret later, count from one to ten before speaking. This gives you time to get your emotions under control. Take a cleansing breath and focus on something positive. Picture yourself remaining calm and saying only what you will not regret.
If you hope to advance your state of knowledge regarding self improvement, it can help to show a little humility. As you acknowledge that you are small and insignificant in this universe, the more that you realize your lack of knowledge. Once you absorb this fact, you will have a desire for further knowledge and understanding.
Make the important aspects of your life the focus of how you live. You will have much more inner peace if you just choose to focus on things that matter to you.
For many, there is a vague feeling of discontentment and an urge to facilitate change, but they lack the knowledge needed to begin. While a great result is only going to be achieved by you putting in the effort, here are some handy hints to get you on the road to success. Stay motivated by keeping these tips in mind at all times.
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The Note's Must-Reads for Tuesday December 25, 2012
The Note's Must-Reads are a round-up of today's political headlines and stories from ABC News and the top U.S. newspapers. Posted Monday through Friday right here at www.abcnews.com
Compiled by ABC News' Carrie Halperin and Jordan Mazza
CONGRESS
The Hill's Kyle Balluck: " Ben Affleck will not run for Senate" Actor-director Ben Affleck will not run for the Senate in Massachusetts, he announced late Monday. "I love Massachusetts and our political process, but I am not running for office," Affleck wrote on his Facebook page. LINK
The Los Angeles Times' Alana Semuels: " Newark Mayor Cory Booker aims for higher office" The crowd in the Upper West Side bookstore practically cooed when the mayor of Newark, looking like the college football tight end he once was, strode into a book signing and gave the audience a bashful smile. Cory Booker, here because he wrote the forward to a book about homelessness, spent the next half-hour talking about his father's roots in poverty and the kindness of humankind, throwing in references to friends such as entertainer Tyler Perry and author Alice Walker, and, presumably because this is New York, using some Yiddish. LINK
GUN CONTROL
ABC News' George Stephanopoulos: "Asa Hutchinson: Gun Control Not Part of 'Ultimate Solution' to Gun Violence" Asa Hutchinson - the former congressman who will lead the effort by the NRA to place armed security guards in schools across the country following the Newtown, Conn. shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead - told me this morning on "This Week" that gun control efforts would not be part of the "ultimate solution" to gun violence. LINK
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
The Washington Times' Dave Boyer: " Court filings surge in FOIA cases during Obama years" A study has found that more federal court complaints were filed during the first term of the Obama administration to force the government to abide by the Freedom of Information Act than were filed against the administration of President George W. Bush in his second term. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University said the FOIA filings in the last two years of Mr. Bush's second term and the last two years of Mr. Obama's first term showed a jump of 28 percent - from 562 to 720. LINK
FISCAL CLIFF
The Wall Street Journal's Staff: " Cliff Negotiations Take Holiday Break" Congressional leaders and the White House are taking a holiday break in negotiations over how to avoid year-end spending cuts and tax increases, and may not take up the issue in earnest again until just before New Year's Eve. LINK
The Washington Post's Lisa Rein: "Federal workers feel unease over potential layoffs, furloughs unleashed by 'fiscal cliff'" Federal employees have been skeptical for months that the biggest cuts to government spending in history could really happen. But with the "fiscal cliff" a week away, workers are now growing increasingly alarmed that their jobs and their missions could be on the line. LINK
GOP
Politico's Kevin Robillard: "Republicans Fearful of 2013? Nearly three-quarters of Republicans are fearful about their own lives in 2013 - a huge jump of over 50 percent since 2006, according to a poll released Monday. LINK
DEBT
The New York Times' Annie Lowrey: "A Campaign on U.S. Debt Gains Steam" Maya MacGuineas has been ringing alarms about the nation's growing debt for 15 years, imagining a day when a president and a Congress might finally work together to curb deficit spending. After watching President Obama and Speaker John A. Boehner once again come close to agreeing on a plan, only to see a deal slip away, she is troubled but undeterred. LINK
ABC NEWS VIDEOS
"Sen. Michael Crapo Arrested for DUI" LINK
BOOKMARKS The Note: LINK The Must-Reads Online: LINK Top Line Webcast (12noon EST M-F): LINK ABC News Politics: LINK The Political Punch (Jake Tapper): LINK George's Bottom Line (George Stephanopoulos): LINK Follow ABC News on Twitter: LINK ABC News Mobile: LINK ABC News app on your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad: LINK
Also ReadSource: http://news.yahoo.com/notes-must-reads-tuesday-december-25-2012-082701977--abc-news-politics.html
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Saturday, December 22, 2012
Egypt's charter headed for approval, but troubles loom
The close of Saturday's voting makes it likely that the Islamist-back new constitution will be approved.
Egyptian poll workers empty a ballot box as counting takes place in the second round of voting on Egypt's controversial charter.
Nasser Nasser/AP
EnlargeEgypt's Islamist-backed constitution headed toward likely approval in a final round of voting on Saturday, but the deep divisions it has opened up threaten to fuel continued turmoil.
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Passage is a victory for Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, but a costly one. The bruising battle over the past month stripped away hope that the long-awaited constitution would bring a national consensus on the path Egypt will take after shedding its autocratic ruler Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago.
Instead, Morsi disillusioned many non-Islamists who had once backed him and has become more reliant on his core support in the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists. Hard-liners in his camp are determined to implement provisions for stricter rule by Islamic law in the charter, which is likely to futher fuel divisions.
His liberal and secular opposition, in turn, faces the task of trying to organize the significant portion of the population angered by what they see as attempts by Morsi and the Brotherhood to gain a lock on political power. The main opposition group, the National Salvation Front, said it would now start rallying for elections for the next lawmaking, lower house of parliament, expected early next year.
"We feel more empowered because of the referendum. We proved that at least we are half of society (that) doesn't approve of all this. We will build on it," the Front's spokesman, Khaled Daoud, said. Still, he said, there was "no appetite" at the moment for further street protests.
Saturday's voting in 17 of Egypt's 27 provinces was the second and final round of the referendum. Though the constitution is widely expected to pass, the key questions will be over turnout and the margin of victory. Preliminary results from the first round a week ago showed only 32 percent turnout and a relatively low edge of 56 percent for the "yes" vote. Preliminary results from the second round are expected to emerge by early Sunday.
The new constitution would come into effect once official results are announced, expected in several days.
In a sign of disarray in Morsi's administration, his vice president and ? possibly ? the central bank governor resigned during Saturday's voting. Vice President Mahmoud Mekki's resignation had been expected since his post is eliminated under the new constitution. But its hasty submission even before the charter has been sealed and his own resignation statement suggested it was linked to Morsi's policies.
"I have realized a while ago that the nature of politics don't suit my professional background as a judge," his resignation letter, read on state TV, said. Mekki said he had first submitted his resignation last month but events forced him to stay on.
The status of Central Bank Governor Farouq el-Oqdah was murkier. State TV first reported his resignation, then soon after reported the Cabinet denied he has stepped down in a possible sing of confusion. El-Oqdah, in his post since 2003, has reportedly been seeking to step down but in recent weeks the administration was trying to convince him to stay on. The government is eager to show some stability in the economy as the Egyptian pound has been sliding and a much-needed $4.8 billion loan from the IMF has been postponed.
Over the past month, seven of Morsi's 17 top advisers and the one Christian among his top four aides resigned. Like Mekki, they said they had never been consulted in advance on any of the president's moves, including his Nov. 22 decrees, since rescinded, that granted himself near absolute powers.
Those decrees sparked large street protests by hundreds of thousands around the country, bringing counter-rallies by Islamists. The turmoil was further fueled with a Constituent Assembly almost entirely made up of Islamists finalized the constitution draft in the dead of night amid a boycott by liberals and Christians. Rallies turned violent. Brotherhood offices were attacked, and Islamists attacked an opposition sit-in outside the presidential palace in Cairo leading to clashes that left 10 dead.
The turmoil opened up a vein of bitterness that the polarizing constitution will do little to close. Morsi opponents accused him of seeking to create a new Mubarak-style autocracy. The Brotherhood accused his rivals of being former Mubarak officials trying to topple an elected president and return to power. Islamists branded opponents "infidels" and vowed they will never accept anything but "God's law" in Egypt.
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HP EliteBook Folio 9470 review: a business Ultrabook turns out to ...
It's sort of wild to think that at this time last year we had only reviewed a handful of Ultrabooks. So few, in fact, that we could count them on one hand: Acer, ASUS, Lenovo and Toshiba. HP made five, with the Folio 13, an ultraportable that was aimed at the business market, but that ended up being our top all-around pick thanks to its stellar battery life, comfortable keyboard and wide port selection. Since then, of course, HP's gone a little overboard with the ultraportables, with glass ones, metal ones, expensive ones, budget ones. Ultrabooks that aren't actually Ultrabooks! It's a vast, sometimes confusing selection.
Now, though, almost a year after we reviewed the Folio 13, HP is back where it started with another business offering. The EliteBook Folio ($1,049 and up) has a 14-inch screen this time, and is the first Ultrabook in HP's high-end EliteBook line, typically aimed at corporations and other businesses with IT departments. We know, we know: "pre-boot authentication" aren't exactly the sexiest words in the English language, and indeed, we usually just review laptops aimed at consumers. The thing is, though, the EliteBook Folio isn't your typical corporate box: with a magnesium frame and soft-touch finish, it's attractive enough that it could pass for your personal laptop. So does it perform well enough to use as a work-play machine? Read on to find out.
HP EliteBook Folio 9470 review
Look and feel
If you look closely enough, you can tell this is a business machine -- that tracking stick, for one, is sort of a dead giveaway. Even so, it's more stylish than we would have expected a corporate system to be. Whereas HP's previous EliteBooks were clad in serious-looking brushed metal, the Folio has a more playful feel, with a soft-touch finish coating both the lid and bottom side. And though the keyboard deck is still made of brushed aluminum, the effect is much more subtle this time out. All told, it feels a little less buttoned-up than other business notebooks, a little more consumer-friendly. At the same time (and this should go without saying) it's still conservative enough that you can safely whip it out during your next business meeting. Then again, unless you own a gaming rig with a fire-breathing dragon spray-painted on it, any laptop would be appropriate, no?
If you look closely enough, you can tell this is a business machine -- that tracking stick, for one, is sort of a dead giveaway.
The fact that this meets Intel's Ultrabook specifications should tell you this is a fairly thin, lightweight machine. Still, at 3.6 pounds it's quite a bit heavier than the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which tips in at three pounds, flat. It's also thicker, at 0.74 inch, but that makes sense: it has an Ethernet jack and the Carbon doesn't. That said, it's still easy to carry around, especially if you're used to schlepping something in the five-pound range.
Continuing our tour, other ports include three USB 3.0 connections, a VGA socket, a DisplayPort, a headphone jack, Kensington lock slot, an SD slot and a SmartCard reader. The only compromise here seems to be the lack of an HDMI port, though perhaps that's of less importance to business users than VGA output or a DisplayPort. Returning to the keyboard deck, there's a fingerprint reader tucked on the right side of the palm rest; above the keys is the power button, along with dedicated buttons for muting the sound and turning off WiFi. That power button, by the way, is very narrow, and slightly recessed, which makes it tricky to press with the pad of your finger; you might need to dig a nail in there, which is unfortunate considering how often you'll be turning on the machine.
Over on the left side you'll find a slim, little vent, which pushes out cool-to-warm air, depending on how much you're taxing the PC. Thanks to HP's built-in CoolSense technology you should be able to work comfortably with the laptop in your lap, though the fans can get a little noisy at times. Not as loud as some other Ultrabooks we've tested recently, but you might notice a gentle whirring coming from the side of the machine, even if you're just browsing in IE 10.
Under the hood, you've got TPM, which should make IT managers happy, along with a hard drive accelerometer to help protect the disk in the event of a drop. Lots of business-friendly features on the software side, too, but we'll get to those in due time.
Keyboard and trackpad
Somehow, it seems like there's less of an excuse for a bad keyboard on a machine meant for business users -- really, there's no excuse for anything that makes it harder to get work done. Fortunately, the Folio delivers with a cushy keyboard -- cushier than you'd expect, perhaps, given that this is such a thin machine. While lots of other Ultrabooks make do with flat, lifeless keys, the Folio offers a surprising amount of travel, so that you can type at a fast clip and not have to worry about whether your various key presses are registering.
The buttons are well-spaced, too, and yet HP apparently didn't have to shrink any of the major keys, like Enter or Backspace. The main compromise seems to be around the arrow keys: while the left and right ones get plenty of space, the up and down ones are tiny and stacked right on top of each other, making it all too easy to hit the wrong one. That won't be a problem for some people, but if, like us, you have a tendency to highlight text using the keyboard, you'll need to watch where your finger lands. As you'd expect on a premium system, the Folio is also backlit, which you can turn on and off using the F11 key.
Happily, the trackpad is about as good as the keyboard -- something we wish we could say about every laptop we tested. As it happens, it's a touchpad with good old-fashioned left and right buttons, as opposed to one of those new-fangled ones where the whole surface is one giant, clickable button. Somehow, this doesn't strike us as a coincidence: traditional touch buttons seem to have gone out of style but when we do see them, they almost always seem to work perfectly. Or at least, much more smoothly than clickpads, which have the nasty habit of mistaking left clicks for right ones. Here, the surface feels smooth and glassy, and responds well to various multi-touch gestures, not to mention single-finger navigation. The buttons are easy to press too.
In case that touchpad isn't doing anything for you, though, there's also a pointing stick wedged between the G and H keys, complete with two secondary touch buttons sitting just below the space bar. Compared to the version on new ThinkPad machines, this one is taller and slightly flimsier (then again, Lenovo sets the bar pretty high). Still, the scooped-out shape and bumpy texture make it highly unlikely your finger's going to slip off. Also, the tracking feels precise, which is obviously a plus.
Display and sound
The Folio has a bright, matte display, which should please lots of business users, though it also serves as a reminder that a matte finish doesn't necessarily equate to good viewing angles. If you've got the notebook in your lap and dip the screen forward, you'll immediately notice some washout. Still, watching from the side is a little easier, and if that doesn't come in handy when you're at home, watching movies in your free time, it may at least make presentations a bit easier.
Aside from the viewing angles, the biggest drawback here might be the screen resolution. We'll admit that 1,366 x 768 will be good enough for many consumers, especially if the price is low enough. But in this case, we're talking about an expensive machine, and these aren't mainstream consumers, but rather, the sorts of power users who really would've preferred 1,600 x 900, if not 1080p.
As you'd expect, audio isn't this business machine's forte. The sound is tinny, as is the case on lots of laptops, but we also noticed the sound never gets very loud, even with the volume pushed all the way up.
Performance and battery life
| PCMark7 | 3DMark06 | 3DMark11 | ATTO (top disk speeds) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP EliteBook Folio 9470 (1.8GHz Core i5-3427U, Intel HD 4000) | 4,762 | N/A | E1016 / P611 | 553 MB/s (reads); 519 MB/s (writes) |
| Toshiba Satellite U925t (1.7GHz Core i5-3317U, Intel HD 4000) | 4,381 | 4,210 | E989 / P563 | 521 MB/s (reads); 265 MB/s (writes) |
| Acer Iconia W700 (1.7GHz Core i5-3317U, Intel HD 4000) | 4,580 | 3,548 | E518 / P506 | 542 MB/s (reads); 524 MB/s (writes) |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Twist (1.7GHz Core i5-3317U, Intel HD 4000) | 3,113 | 4,066 | E1033 / P549 | 136 MB/s (reads); 130 MB/s (writes) |
| ASUS Zenbook Prime UX51Vz (2.1GHz Core i7-3612QM, NVIDIA GT650M graphics) | 4,877 | 14,267 | E3809 / P2395 / X750 | 908 MB/s (reads); 567 MB/s (writes) |
| Acer Aspire S7 (2.4GHz Core i7-3517U, Intel HD 4000) | 5,011 | 4,918 | E1035 / P620 / X208 | 934 MB/s (reads); 686 MB/s (writes) |
| Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 (1.7GHz Core i5-3317U, Intel HD 4000) | 4,422 | 4,415 | E917 / P572 | 278 MB/s (reads); 263 MB/s (writes) |
| Dell XPS 12 (1.7GHz Core i5-3317U, Intel HD 4000) | 4,673 | 4,520 | N/A | 516 MB/s (reads); 263 MB/s (writes) |
Our $1,349 configuration packs an Intel Core i5-3247U processor, 4GB of RAM and a 180GB SSD, also made by Intel. If raw numbers are any indication, it's just as fast as, if not faster than most Windows 8 systems we've tested. Its PCMark 7 score of 4,762 is slightly higher than what we've seen from other machines, while the solid-state drive is among the speediest (the Acer Aspire S7's RAID 0 setup notwithstanding). In particular, it notched peak read speeds of 553 MB/s and max writes of 519 MB/s, according to the benchmark ATTO. As it happens, we've seen a few other Windows 8 systems with similar read rates (the Dell XPS 12, Toshiba Satellite U925t and Acer Iconia W700, for example), but most can't compete when it comes to write performance.
Speaking in more practical terms, the machine starts up in 11 seconds, which is just slightly faster than what we've seen in similarly configured systems. (Note: we're talking 11 seconds versus about 12, so the difference is actually negligible in practice.) In general, too, the machine was able to keep up as we jumped from app to app, and was quick to launch new programs.
As for graphics performance, the Folio appears to be merely average: its scores fall right in line with other Ultrabooks using Intel's integrated HD 4000 graphics solution. Which is to say, you can get away playing an older, not-too-graphically-intense game so long as you refrain from maxing out the settings. Even then, you'll be lucky to hit 30 fps.
| Battery Life | |
|---|---|
| HP EliteBook 9470 | 6:14 |
| Samsung Series 9 (15-inch, 2012) | 7:29 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X230 | 7:19 |
| Acer Iconia W700 | 7:13 |
| Samsung Series 9 (13-inch, 2012) | 7:02 |
| MacBook Air (13-inch, 2012) | 6:34 (OS X) / 4:28 (Windows) |
| Dell XPS 14 | 6:18 |
| HP Folio 13 | 6:08 |
| HP Envy Sleekbook 6z | 5:51 |
| Sony VAIO T13 | 5:39 |
| Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 | 5:32 |
| Dell XPS 12 | 5:30 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 5:30 |
| ASUS Zenbook Prime UX51Vz | 5:15 |
| Toshiba Satellite U845W | 5:13 |
| Toshiba Satellite U845 | 5:12 |
| Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 | 5:11 |
| Toshiba Satellite U925t | 5:10 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon | 5:07 |
| Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook (14-inch, 2012) | 5:06 |
| Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M5 | 5:05 |
| Dell XPS 13 | 4:58 |
| Lenovo IdeaPad U310 | 4:57 |
| Sony VAIO Duo 11 | 4:47 |
| Acer Aspire S5 | 4:35 |
| ASUS Zenbook Prime UX21A | 4:19 |
| Acer Aspire S7 (13-inch) | 4:18 |
| Acer Aspire S3 | 4:11 |
| Vizio Thin + Light (14-inch) | 3:57 |
Now this is more like it. Just when we were starting to wonder if Windows 8 machines were all cursed with short battery life, we started testing a couple winners. First there was the Acer Iconia W700, a laptop / tablet hybrid that lasts seven-plus hours. Now we have the EliteBook Folio, which managed six hours and 18 minutes in our battery rundown test (video looping, WiFi on, brightness fixed at 65 percent). If you look at the table above, you'll see that's among the best showings we've seen from an Ivy Bridge Ultrabook of any size.
Granted, we fully expected the Folio would do better than a touchscreen machine, since touchscreens are known to take a terrible toll on battery life. Still, it fares considerably better than other non-touch Ultrabooks, including the ASUS Zenbook Prime UX51vz and the ThinkPad X1 Carbon.
Software and warranty
We mentioned earlier that much of what makes the Folio a business machine boils down to certain software features. Many of these are wrapped up in HP's ProtecTools suite, a collection of utilities that includes a password vault, facial recognition, pre-boot authentication and SpareKey, a protocol that helps you log into the computer even if you forget the password. In the case of facial recognition, it's actually a two-step process: once the PC registers your face, it then searches for your Bluetooth phone, which would have to already be paired.
You'll have choices of operating systems, too. In addition to choosing Windows 8, you can downgrade Windows 7 -- you know, in case your business isn't quite ready for Lives Tiles and the Charms Bar. If you decide to go that route, you can actually choose between Windows 7 Pro and Home Premium, with both 32- and 64-bit options on the Pro side. The Folio is also SUSE Linux-certified, if that's what you're used to.
In a perfect world, serious business machines would all come with zero crapware installed. As it is, though, you'll have to settle for "less crapware than on a consumer machine." Indeed, the load is fairly light here compared to a typical off-the-shelf PC, but there are still a few apps you might not have wanted. These include Evernote, CyberLink MediaSuite, CyberLink PhotoDirector, CyberLink PowerDVD, CyberLink PowerDirector and PDF Complete.
Like other business PCs, the Folio comes with three years of coverage, as opposed to one year for most consumer systems. That includes pick-up or carry-in service, along with toll-free, 24/7 phone support. Businesses can also arrange for on-site repairs, but that would mean upgrading the warranty, as this amenity isn't included in the standard plan.
Configuration options
HP sells a handful of pre-configured Folios on its site, ranging in price from $1,049 on up to $1,448. All but two of them have the Core i5 processor we mentioned; those that don't have a dual-core, 2GHz Core i7-3667U chip. Each configuration has 4GB of RAM, along with the same screen resolution and graphics. At the lower end, you'll get a 500GB 7,200RPM hard drive instead of that 180GB SSD. The $1,448 model -- the only model that's more expensive than the one we tested -- has all the same specs as our review unit, except it comes with a docking station.
The competition
It's possible you'll buy the Folio not because you need a business-grade system, per se, but because you just want a solid Ultrabook. If that's the case, you've got plenty of options, obviously, though we've so far struggled to find a standout; many have been marred by short battery life and quirky design choices.
It's possible you'll buy the Folio not because you need a business-grade system, but because you just want a solid Ultrabook.
Still, if you're willing to take a chance on a non-touch machine like the Folio, then we don't mind steering you toward one of our old favorites, the Samsung Series 9. Sammy's now selling it with Windows 8 pre-installed, so it's hardly out of date. At the time of our testing, we were impressed by pretty much everything: the lightweight, impossibly thin design, the fast performance, the bright 1,600 x 900 screen and the long battery life (granted, we tested it with Win 7). Our only caveat would be that it doesn't have a touchscreen for interacting with Windows 8 but again, if you're seriously considering the Folio that's probably not a dealbreaker anyway.
If you need the kinds of IT-friendly features offered on the Folio, though, something like the Series 9 probably isn't going to cut it. For those of you who won't consider anything other than a business machine, there's but a few options. We'd say the Folio's closest competitor might be none other than the $1,249 ThinkPad X1 Carbon (or the X1 Carbon Touch, if you do want a touchscreen after all). This, too, is a 14-inch business Ultrabook, with a 1,600 x 900 display, Ivy Bridge chipset and business features like TPM, BIOS encryption, a fingerprint reader and vPro processors for remote management. We're still waiting for a chance to test the touchscreen version, but we already know the X1 Carbon is one of the finer Ultrabooks we've tested, that high price and so-so battery life be damned.
While you're at it, you may as well consider the Dell XPS 13 ($1,000 and up) and XPS 14 ($1,100-plus), which are sold on both Dell's consumer and small business sites. Similar to the Folio and X1 Carbon, these offer business-oriented features like TPM, asset tagging, corporate images and custom BIOS. Particularly with the 14-inch model, we were impressed by the battery life and mighty graphics performance, though both offer a sophisticated design, comfortable keyboard and much-improved trackpad.
Wrap-up
The way we feel about the EliteBook Folio 9470 reminds us of how we felt about the HP Folio 13, which we reviewed nearly a year ago. Both are buttoned-up sorts of systems: serious-looking, and with enough security features to satisfy the IT guys. And yet, conservative as they seem, they ended up being among the best Ultrabooks in their day -- so good, in fact, that we'd recommend them even to regular consumers. Compared to other Ultrabooks on the market right now, the 9470 offers longer battery life, a wider port selection, a smoother trackpad, a more comfortable keyboard and slightly faster performance. It's pricier than similarly specced models but then again, it comes with a three-year warranty, which is nice to fall back on.
Still, it's not perfect: it's thicker and heavier than competing models, it has a lower-res display and there's no touchscreen for interacting with Windows 8 (if that's what you're into). Folks who want those things should check out Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch, though we can't promise the battery life will be as good, as we haven't had a chance to test it yet. That said, if you're fine with 1,366 x 768 and don't see much appeal in being able to touch the display, the EliteBook Folio is a solid performer.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/21/hp-elitebook-folio-9470-review/
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America's working poor falling through the gaps
10 hrs.
INDIANAPOLIS --? The U.S. federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars a year on aid to the poor. There isn't enough to go around for Shaun Case.
The 34-year-old Indiana native has learning disabilities and endured a childhood of abuse. Relatives say he was thrown through a plate-glass window by his grandmother when he was a teen, leaving him with a permanently numb left hand. Social workers consider him well enough to work, though, and he never qualified for disability benefits.
So, in the past decade Case has scraped by in temporary jobs, never making more than $10 an hour. Now, he's out of work again. He gets no unemployment benefits; he wasn't in his last gig long enough. He can't get Medicaid because he has no dependent children at home. Until October, his only help was $200 a month in food stamps. Because of a paperwork error, the government cut him off. With or without food stamps, he has to scrounge for cash, selling plasma at a blood center twice a week for $30 a pop.
"What's out there for people like me?" said Case. "There's nothing."
The reasons are complex, but it boils down to this: American society has decided that people like Shaun Case, the able-bodied poor, don't deserve much help. As a result, and despite record spending, a growing number are falling through the gaps in America's patchwork of welfare programs.
Case is one of 12.2 million adults of working age, with no children at home, who were living below the poverty level in 2011. That's up nearly double from two decades ago. And of those, 5.6 million received no assistance from any of the major five federal programs, a Reuters analysis of Current Population Survey data found. That's the highest number since 1992, the first year for which comparable records are available. Then, there were 4.3 million unaided poor adults.
Another 1.4 million able-bodied adults received only food stamps, up from 732,000 in 1992. That program keeps people from going hungry, but doesn't help pay for other necessities such as rent, heat or dental care.
The population of unassisted poor adults is growing at a time when the United States is grinding through a prolonged stretch of rising poverty and income inequality.
More poverty, more spending
The number of Americans below the federal poverty level -- $22,350 a year for a family of four?--?hit 48 million in 2011, 17 million more than in 1989. Indiana has seen the second-largest increase in poverty of any state in that time, according to a Reuters analysis of Census data. Sixteen percent of the Hoosier State was poor in 2011, up from 11 percent.
The prime reason for the latest surge in the number of poor people has been the weak economy, not a stingy government. Anti-poverty spending has actually increased overall.
Nationally, the federal government put a record $506 billion last year into its five major means-tested programs for low-income, able-bodied Americans. Outlays on these programs -- food stamps, Medicaid, cash welfare, housing assistance and tax credits -- were up more than triple since 1989, adjusted for inflation. The 50 states spend tens of billions more.
If it weren't for such assistance, the poverty rate would be much worse. Some economists say the rate is somewhat overstated, too, because it doesn't count non-cash aid such as food vouchers.
Today, the elderly, the disabled and the working poor get most means-tested assistance. Higher Medicaid spending -- driven by expanding rolls but also by soaring health?care costs?--?eats up a growing piece of the overall budget. Part of this shift toward the elderly and disabled is no doubt due to the aging baby boomer population.
Still, people who don't fall into favored categories are getting pinched, especially jobless adults such as Case.
Brandi Burnau faced a perverse welfare incentive as she weighed whether to raise her baby daughter in poverty or put her up for adoption. Jobless construction worker Jeremy Toler, befuddled by the system, passed up benefits his large family may be eligible for. Alexsandria Elliott, a former hotel housekeeper, fell so completely through the cracks that she was unable to get treatment for a debilitating dental disease.
Indiana's innovations
Their home state of Indiana has put in place some particularly stringent limits on poor individuals and families as part of a decades-long effort to revamp welfare.
In 1994, then-Governor Evan Bayh, a conservative Democrat, created work requirements for Hoosiers who received welfare benefits. And if a woman on welfare got pregnant, she'd receive no extra assistance for the newborn.
"The bottom line was trying to make someone self-sufficient," Bayh said in an interview. "We were trying to achieve two values -- one was the notion of community, and also responsibility."
Two years later, President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich replaced a federal cash program for poor families dating from the 1930s with a new program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, that required adult recipients to seek work. Clinton, a Democrat, called the overhaul "ending welfare as we know it."
Republican Mitch Daniels, Indiana's current governor, took it a step beyond. He outsourced management of the TANF system and the intake of Medicaid and food-stamp applicants to IBM. He set a strict lifetime limit of 24 months for cash welfare compared with a federal guideline of five years. Enforcement of work requirements was toughened. Recipients who fail to find work in six weeks must perform community service, such as street sweeping.
That provision was designed to shoo people off the rolls, said Mitch Roob, who implemented the changes as head of Indiana's social-services agency.
"It was so unpleasant," Roob said in an interview, "that people would think, ?I'm just going to get a job instead.'"
Daniels tightened in other areas, too. Parents now have to prove they are seeking child support before getting welfare. If the other parent fails to pay $2,000 in child support for more than three months, his or her drivers license is suspended.
Cash aid dries up
Since Indiana began revamping its system, the share of poor Indianans getting cash welfare has plummeted, even as the number of households in poverty grew by more than half.
In 1999, an average of 38,000 families per month received basic cash assistance from the TANF program, according to Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration. By 2011, just 22,400 did -- a 41 percent decrease. The average monthly amount each family gets also dropped, from $253 to $205.
Overall federal and state spending on TANF in Indiana has actually increased 10 percent since 1998, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But only a fraction now goes to cash assistance -- $72 million out of $292 million. That is down 50 percent from 1998. The rest goes toward intangible programs like job training or education about marriage and pregnancy-prevention.
It's a national trend: America has slashed the number of people on cash welfare by two-thirds since 1996, to 1.4 percent of the populace.
Housing aid also hasn't kept up with the growth in poverty. From 1999 to 2011, the number of Hoosier households in poverty grew by more than half. But in 2011, the number receiving either public housing or federal rent subsidies was just 5 percent higher than a decade earlier. Today, just 16 percent of poor households get federal housing help.
The number of American adults on the most expensive program for the poor, Medicaid, has tripled since 1990. The average amount spent per working-age adult has fallen 12 percent, even as medical costs have soared. States have a say over who is eligible. In Indiana, working parents have to earn less than 24 percent of the federal poverty level to qualify -- currently, no more than $5,532 a year for a family of four. That's the strictest level in the country, along with Alabama. Indiana is one of 41 states that don't cover childless adults.
Conflicted feelings
The food-stamp program also has expanded dramatically, both nationally and in Indiana. In 1999, only half of poor Indiana households got food stamps. By 2011, just under 90 percent of a much-bigger number of impoverished households were covered. Each on average received $300 a month, an amount unchanged since 1999 when adjusted for inflation.
Another growing program is the Earned Income Tax Credit, which increased nearly sixfold amid the welfare-to-work overhauls. But it's a payment that comes just once a year. And it's meant to top up the incomes of people with jobs, who make up to twice the poverty level. People without earned income don't qualify.
As lean as the times are, Americans are conflicted about expanding poverty assistance -- even poor Americans.
On a recent Thursday afternoon, Tanya Jones was among a hundred men, women and children waiting for free groceries at a cavernous former printing plant in Indianapolis that's now one of the largest food pantries in the Midwest. Asked what she would change about public assistance, she said the government should stop benefits from going to those who don't deserve them.
"You got all these people who can work, who won't," said Jones, a 28-year-old mother of two, whose $12.75-an-hour job as a caterer isn't enough to feed herself, her two children and her mother. "I feel the help should be there for the people who need it, not the people who don't want to work."
Poll findings
That ambivalence about helping the poor is widespread. A Reuters/Ipsos poll of Americans in October and November found that 52 percent of respondents said the government isn't doing enough to help the poor. Yet 40 percent said that most people who receive aid don't deserve it, a follow-up survey found.
Respondents overwhelmingly opposed aiding non-disabled adults. Sixty-six percent of respondents felt the elderly deserve cash assistance, and 40 percent said children do. Just 14 percent supported cash help for able-bodied poor adults without dependent kids. (Because these polls are collected online, accuracy is measured using a credibility interval. For these questions, the interval was 1 percent to 1.5 percent.)
Those values are reflected in poverty policy. In a 2011 paper, economists Yonatan Ben-Shalom, Robert Moffitt and John Karl Scholz found that families in which no one is continuously working and which have no elderly or disabled members are the "most underserved" by U.S. antipoverty programs of any group.
Their poverty rate, the authors calculated, was 67 percent after factoring in government aid. For the elderly, it was 9 percent.
That's because the elderly enjoy the two largest federal entitlement programs, Social Security pensions and Medicare health insurance. These are aimed at all seniors, not just poor ones. The two spent a combined $1.2 trillion last year - more than the entire federal budget aimed specifically at the poor.
'Sturdy beggars'
Suspicion of the able-bodied poor runs deep. Policy makers for centuries have gone through phases in which they view welfare through the concept of the "deserving and undeserving poor." Sheila Suess Kennedy, a professor of law and public policy at Indiana University, said the concept harkens back to 15th-century England, where statutes banned charity for people who appeared able to work. They were called "sturdy beggars."
The United States is in such a phase now. When President Lyndon Johnson launched the "War on Poverty" in 1964, the prevailing view was that the poor were victims of circumstances beyond their control. That changed in the 1980s and 1990s. Conservative critiques of the welfare state as a source of debilitating dependency, as well as widespread claims of fraud, eroded support for cash assistance and paved the way for the 1996 overhaul.
Some economists say the effort to incentivize worthiness has created an incoherent system of relief for the poor. Some households get the panoply of means-tested benefits - food stamps, Medicaid, TANF, housing subsidies and tax credits. Others get little or nothing.
"We have a kind of patchwork set of programs," said Robert Moffitt, professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, "where some families fall through the cracks, and some other families get more than maybe they would under a better-designed system."
Gov. Daniels agrees the system isn't working. He say it's "well-intentioned" - but has become convoluted with programs "stacked on top of each other for two generations now." Smarter spending, not more spending, is the answer. "The money it wastes is the second-biggest problem," he said in an interview. The first is "the undermining if not destruction of human dignity and the ethic of personal responsibility."
A difficult decision
Brandi Burnau, a round-faced 22-year-old with brown eyes, said she has been struggling on her own since she aged out of the foster-care system four years ago. Single and unemployed, Burnau recently had a baby daughter, Ava. Eight months ago she made a hard decision: She gave Ava up for adoption.
At the time, she was working in a warehouse outside Indianapolis stocking shelves, and she burst into tears every time she saw baby books. She left work early a couple of times, she said, and was let go. Having been on the job just three months, she was ineligible for unemployment benefits.
Burnau took to sleeping in her car, in homeless shelters and at the homes of strangers she met at the bus stop. Last month, Burnau was asleep in the car, which bore a sign that read "homeless and desperate." An older woman knocked on the window and gave her food, and invited Burnau to stay at her house for as long as she needs. "We now go to church together," she said. "She's helped me a lot."
But her future is uncertain, and Burnau is mystified by the incentives the welfare system presented her. A simple financial calculus, she said, would favor keeping Ava. She received $3,000 for living and medical expenses from the adoptive family during pregnancy, the cap under state law.
As a single parent, Burnau said, she could have soon received much more than that in additional welfare benefits: TANF cash aid for mothers, more money in food stamps, free Medicaid coverage and preferential treatment at homeless shelters. Today, she said, she gets $180 a month in food stamps, but no other government aid.
"When you're single, they don't care," she said. "If I had kept my baby, I would have benefited, but I didn't want to be selfish."
Navigating the system
Jeremy Toler, 36, is also puzzled by the welfare state, and he used to work for it.
After serving in the army reserves and graduating from Ball State University with an associate's degree, Toler got a state job processing claims in a child-care program for the poor. When the state automated the system, he and the rest of his office were laid off.
Toler then landed a series of construction jobs, working for the past three years at a local demolition and building company. After two marriages that ended in divorce, he now lives with his girlfriend and the five children they're raising -- four from their previous marriages, and one they had together.
In June, he moved to another construction firm, but unhappy there, Toler quit. That was a mistake. Under the federal unemployment insurance system, workers get benefits only if they are laid off, not if they quit. A few weeks later, his girlfriend lost her job.
Since June, Toler said recently, he has applied for dozens of positions without luck. The family lives in a trailer home and gets by on Medicaid, food stamps and donations from local food pantries. Like Case, he also sells plasma twice a week.
Toler has had trouble navigating the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. He believed he and his girlfriend each had to spend a total of 70 to 80 hours a week in resume workshops or actively looking for jobs. He also thought the state provided no childcare. After being told their family would receive $300 per month from TANF, he said, they decided it wasn't worth applying.
State officials said the program, in fact, provides childcare and requires a combined 55 hours a week for a couple. They said a family of seven -- like Toler's -- can receive up to $522 per month.
'A little help'
His troubles are mounting. This summer, Toler's truck was repossessed. He stopped paying the child support he owes an ex-wife on the child she is raising, and was briefly arrested in October and ordered to appear in court after she reported him. He has also stopped making payments on the $17,000 mortgage on his trailer home and his $1,900 in student loans.
"It seems like the harder you worked in life, the less help you get," Toler said.
Some fall completely through the gaps. Seven years ago, Alexsandria Elliott, now 37, said she developed hereditary periodontal disease. Last year, the infections grew so severe that a doctor told her she may die if she didn't have her remaining eight teeth pulled. The extractions would cost $2,300. First she had to find the money.
Elliott, who used to work as a low-wage hotel housekeeper, didn't have health insurance. She couldn't get on Medicaid, because working-age Indianans without dependent children aren't eligible. She didn't qualify for cash welfare benefits for the same reason -- her daughter was over 18.
In February, she had to borrow to have the dental surgery, leaving her with a debt to pay. When she gets a job, she hopes to raise the $800 she said she'll need to buy dentures. Elliott also isn't receiving food stamps.
"I tried the (university hospital), I tried the schools, I tried state assistance.... And nothing," said Elliott. "And I'm suffering to the degree I want to shoot my head right off my shoulders and can't take it anymore. Why can't I get a little help to pull a tooth?"
Tough start
Shaun Case's problems began long before his difficulties in getting help from the government.
Case, a short and mild man with a boyish face, favors baggy clothes. The son of a drug-addicted mother and alcoholic father, he -- and his three brothers -- spent much of childhood in foster care. Case's mother said she was abused by his father, and she fled when Shaun was a toddler. Shaun's father repeatedly beat him and his brothers, according to Case, his mother and a sibling. When Case was 14, his grandmother pushed him through a window. He nearly bled to death from the resulting gash in his wrist, relatives say.
"Two major arteries were cut," said Case, who also suffered nerve damage. "I have no feeling in my left hand."
Placed in foster care, Case underwent a psychiatric evaluation. He was found to have a learning disability but not bad enough to have him officially declared mentally disabled.
Case's father couldn't be reached for comment.
When he was a senior in high school, Case got his girlfriend pregnant and dropped out of school to try providing for her. She later miscarried but the two eventually married. The couple had two daughters together, but divorced.
His primary source of employment has been temp agencies. He has worked as a janitor, airport security guard, construction worker and in other low-paying roles. He has no substance-abuse problems and no scrapes with the law, relatives say.
But Case's meager skills and cognitive problems trap him. He has tried to get a high-school equivalency degree but struggles in the classroom. His temporary work assignments have all ended with companies choosing to not permanently hire him.
"It didn't work out," Case said, referring to a stint as a supermarket cashier. "I was either giving too much or too less change. The manager was like, ?Are you serious? What is going on here?'"
Emotional problems hinder him as well. "People will tell him he's retarded or stupid and it sets him off," Case's older brother Joe said in an interview.
Mired in poverty
Today, Case and his siblings remain mired in poverty. Joe makes $400 to $500 a month as a self-employed computer consultant, and Joe's wife makes $1,000 a month at a daycare center, with no health benefits. Raising five children together, Joe said, they usually receive Medicaid and $520 a month in food stamps.
As an able-bodied adult without dependent children, Shaun qualified for no help other than food stamps. He has repeatedly applied for disability but been turned down. He applied for free health?care at a local hospital but missed appointments and was rejected.
When Case falls ill, he goes to hospital emergency rooms. During his divorce, he experienced severe pain in his abdomen, he said. Emergency-room doctors found that he had untreated stomach ulcers.
Case said his biggest goal -- and challenge -- is finding steady, well-paid work.
"When I was 18, you could leave a job and find another one," Case said, tucking into an omelet at Burt's Peppy Grill, a diner in eastern Indianapolis. "Every year, it just gets worse."
A long journey
As in other parts of the country, the loss of high-paying manufacturing jobs in Indiana has eroded economic opportunities for people with few skills. Seven out of 10 jobs in Indiana now pay less than $45,000 a year, according to the Indiana Institute for Working Families, a think tank. That's just a few thousand dollars above the income the institute says a three-member Indianapolis family needs to be self-sufficient.
Case now lives on the living-room couches of Joe and a second brother, Tom.
In October, Case lost his food stamps after a paperwork glitch: The state sent him a letter requesting more documentation, which he said he never got. After he tried and failed to straighten things out, a notification arrived saying he'd been cut off. As of last week, he was still trying to land an appointment with a caseworker to restore his benefits.
Case said his dream is to be an art teacher, something his foster father said is impossible given Shaun's cognitive and emotional problems. Case said his second choice is to learn a skilled trade such as plumbing or carpentry.
"If you don't have a good education, you could end up on the street," said Case. "Five years from now, I don't know what I'm going to do."
If he finds work, Case will have trouble getting there. His driver's license has been suspended. With virtually no income, he fell behind on child-support payments, and so the state has frozen his license.
On a recent day, Case set out for the Indianapolis suburbs, where warehouses operated by Amazon and other companies were advertising jobs. He took two buses and then walked 3 miles, a journey of about two-and-a-half hours, to look for work. He had no luck.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/undeserving-poor-falling-through-cracks-indiana-1C7661423
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Newtown, Mayan doom rumors prompt school closings
Threats of school violence and Mayan apocalypse rumors result in dozens of Michigan schools closing early for the holidays. WDIV's Paula Tutman reports.
By Tracy Connor and Maureen Mullen, NBC News
More than 30 Michigan schools closed for the holidays two days early, in part because the Mayan calendar predicts the world will end on Friday, an official said.
Matt Wandrie, superintendent for Lapeer Community Schools, said doomsday "rumors" are running rampant in several districts, adding to fears raised by last week's school shooting in Newtown, Conn.
"Given the recent events in Connecticut, there have been numerous?rumors circulating in our district, and in neighboring districts, about?potential threats of violence against students," Wandrie wrote on his website.
"Additionally, rumors?connected to the Mayan calendar predicted end of the world on?Friday have also surfaced," he added.
He noted that Twitter was lighting up with posts with sentiments like:?"Friday would be a great day to go out w/ a bang."
The ancient predictions of apocalypse were a "secondary concern," with rumblings about violent threats against schoolchildren a bigger issue, he said.
CNBC:?In Mayan doomsday, marketers see $$$ opportunity
Wandrie said all rumors of threats had been "investigated and determined to be false" but were still a "serious distraction" for students heading into the holiday break, and parents were vowing to keep children home.
So officials from five districts in Lapeer County covering 33 schools decided to just scrap the last two days of classes, extracurricular activities and athletic events.
"Although we?in the county are reluctant to cancel school because the rumors are?unsubstantiated, we feel it is the most appropriate decision given?the gravity of recent events and our present circumstances," he wrote.
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Friday, December 21, 2012
How You Can Begin A Effective Online Small Business
You must make a decision as to how much you will charge for your merchandise. You have to figure in the cost of the product in order to know how much you will make from selling your product. A general rule of thumb is to double the price it costs to produce. This is the standard wholesale rate for most goods. To determine the retail price, you should figure: COST X 3.
What type of company do you uncover most eye-catching? Think of your talents, desires, interests and targets. For instance, you may mix your interests in music gear and carpentry into a speaker cabinet manufacturing business enterprise. What exactly is most important, is the fact that you definitely delight in what you do. The a lot more passion you really feel, the much more prosperous it is possible to turn into along with your entrepreneur ideas, for more incentives http://le-g.com/.
Write a business objective. It needs to be short and concise but should thoroughly describe what your business is going to do. Be sure to keep this idea in mind, especially when you talk to someone about your company. This will help you sound confident when you are talking about your company, and this confidence will be apparent to your customers.
Seek strength in numbers by joining an online forum comprised of members that are home business owners just like you. There are countless forums and websites dedicated to the owners of home businesses, and the information and support that can be gained there can be invaluable. You will find many sympathetic ears in these forums, and they are normally happy to provide you with their proven suggestions to help you with any issues.
If appropriate, one way to earn profits is through membership fees. Subscribers will provide a steady stream of income on a regular basis and it is not difficult to figure out a way to integrate this profit model into your website.
Start a daycare, open a local delivery service, offer landscaping help, or even create a new grocery buying/delivering business. Find a service that you can offer that makes other people's lives easier and is in demand.
You should be honest and realistic about your expectations with your online business. Is your product excellent, and will it continue to gather interest? Do you have good business ethics?
Always save receipts if you work for your business through home. When you own a business, everything that you use for business, including costs for vehicles, is tax deductible. File all your receipts. When tax time rolls around you can determine which are eligible. If you fail to save these items you might burden yourself with more tax than you need.
Treat your clients to meals and entertainment, and you may receive tax breaks. The expense of taking clients out for meals can be used as a tax deduction. It is crucial that you keep the receipts from these dinners for proof.
Keep all of the contracts you make with your clients together, so that they are easily accessible in case of a dispute. Keep your phone and internet contracts in the same location in case you need to argue with these companies over their service.
Banner pages can be a valuable tool for your business website. This will enable you to swap banner links with different webmasters that you know. This will make your website easier to find by customers because it will improve your ratings with search engines.
Find out what people are saying about your business, product, and website. Do some research to find out what others have to say. You can ask others, read reviews and look at customer feedback. This feedback, whether negative or positive, will give you priceless insight on moving your business to where you want it to be.
If you want to save money, your business expenditures must be documented. Included business expenses are things such as Internet service and car mileage related to your work. You can receive tax deductions for many of these expenses. Small things can add up, so make sure you ferret out all the deductions you can.
It's very easy to immerse yourself within work when you work from home. You need to have a designated area where you run your business and have an area in your house that is spent just for family and friends.
When you are working, make sure your friends and family know that they should not bother you. Politely inform uninvited or early guests that you must finish your work. If you have an unexpected visitor while you are working, ask them to sit in a different room and watch a little tv or read a magazine, while you finish up what you are doing.
If you can, try and increase your income by establishing membership fees. Your site could probably set up a membership subscription to increase your profits.
Define a specific spot in your home for use as a work space. Make sure that your work space has room to organize the supplies you need. You will become more focused by doing so. Organization is one of the most important aspects of a home business.
Only log into social media sites during the day to post messages and other content that promotes your business, and save the socializing for later. These sites can cause you to waste much of your day getting caught up in things that will not help your business. Socialize at a more appropriate time, like after work.
Very first you'll want to explore the kind of business which would appeal to you most. Assess your targets, interests, and capabilities. The most vital aspect is the fact that you will need to appreciate what you're performing day in and day out. Productive entrepreneurs are the ones who feel passionate concerning the small business they personal. An entrepreneur cannot feel passionate and driven to good results if they do not appreciate what they do!
As you can see, it will require a little bit of work and dedication to make the jump. If you can manage to pull through and stick to the plan, you will be able to accurately represent your dream in the company's image and create something that is long-lasting and profitable over the years
Source: http://subaru-forester-repair.10w40.com/questions/how-you-can-begin-a-effective-online
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