The Moment I Knew

At 5 a.m., I knew I wouldn't be going in to work that day. This was the first time I woke up still drunk from the night before. Usually my hands shook, but my mind remained clear. Now back on anti-depressants however, I spent my days and nights in a hazy stupor spotted with terrifying blackouts never before experienced in my drinking. Plopping in front of the TV and putting on a movie, I grabbed my jug of cheap vodka for company. When my mother stopped by my apartment and found me at ten in the morning babbling about how I might be schizophrenic when clearly I was just drunk, I knew I had reached my breaking point. The jig was up.

I was two years into a three-year Master's program. I smattered together a livable income with two low-wage jobs, and had been laid off twice since moving out of my parent's house at 23. During the times spent with only half an income, I racked up enough RFID tag debt to make interest payments suck up any money I could have saved, creating a cycle of fruitless frustration. After the last layoff, I spent four months underemployed until I settled for a job as a barista at half the wage I had previously earned. A month after accepting the job, I remember putting out the papers the day the stock market crashed and the world fell apart. Prospects of better work seemed hopeless. As the recession wore on, it became evident that the career for which I had been killing myself would all but disappear in the next few years, and my hopes of finding a job in my field shrunk to nil.

In the meantime, I started having a nightly drink to quell the anxiety. The nightly drink became two, then four. Once I started working the four AM shift at the coffee shop, my internal clock went haywire, my body no longer knowing an acceptable hour to start drinking. Why would it? I began my day at 3:30 a.m., rolled out of bed and powered through work on fumes and caffeine until 9:30. I would have a few hours off to nap or do homework until my next job started around one. Then, I would work some more until dashing off to my evening classes, getting home anywhere between 8 and 9 p.m., only to study or write papers until I fell asleep with books on my chest and my laptop on the floor by the bed.

After several months, I started my drinking before work, simply to stop the shaking. I didn't recognize this as a symptom of withdrawal, slating me into the category of alcoholic, because I still functioned at a remarkably high level. I continued to get all A's and show up to work and school without exception.

However, I was miserable beyond description. I didn't have insurance to go to the doctor or receive any psychiatric help, but I finally managed to scrape together enough for one doctor visit and a prescription for generic anti-depressants. Little did I know, this signified the beginning of the end. For those unfamiliar with anti-depressants, drinking alcohol while on them causes severe drug interaction. This did not stop me, and I soon discovered why the two don't mix.

When my roommate told me she was moving out, I knew I had to find another, and fast. I couldn't swing the rent alone because the amount exceeded my entire paycheck. The days zoomed by, the new roommate never materialized, and I was frantic. Another drink would ease my anxiety, but then I would black out, calling people and not remembering or calling in sick to work. Within a few weeks, I called myself defeated, asking my parents if I could move back in with them.

On that first morning of missing work, when someone saw me as the mess on the couch with my plastic gallon bottle of liquor, I couldn't hide my alcoholism anymore, even from the hardest person to convince: myself. Though I didn't understand what I needed to do next, I did know that I could not figure it out while keeping up the same mad pace. Quitting one of my jobs and taking a leave of absence from the other, I hoped that by eliminating some of the stress, I wouldn't need to drink as much.

It was too late for that, though. I had become a full-blown alcoholic without realizing it. I didn't know how to quit. Not long after moving back home, I poisoned myself, desperate for a drink and half-crazy.

After hospitalization and the darkest, loneliest night of my life, my parents asked me to leave. They told me I needed treatment, and that they would help me get it, but I couldn't stay with them. For the first time, I started to agree. Though the idea of dropping everything seemed insurmountable and irresponsible, I did it. I had to. I had nowhere to live, no way to support myself, and no way to stop drinking on my own. I quit my other job, took a sabbatical from school, and started the business of starting over.

After a rocky beginning with nights spent crashing at friends and my boyfriend's house, I landed in a nine-month long inpatient program. I went from a 150 miles an hour to zero. I had nothing but time: time to reflect, time to heal, time to learn my limitations and time to understand that imperfection is not a character flaw. Honestly, rehab was the best thing that could have happened to me. It was where I learned to be human, where I learned just how toxically stressful my life had become. I could have a fulfilling life without alcohol, and rehab taught me how to recognize overload warning signs.

When I exited the program three years ago, I eased back into life, trying to be kind to myself. Living off of other people's generosity until I could get full-time work was a blow to my pride, but I accepted it as graciously as I could until I found work. I went back to school and finished my final year and a thesis. I learned to put my health -- physical, mental and spiritual -- first.

Today, I don't try to tackle superhuman feats of endurance. I make time for exercise, for downtime, for activities with friends and family. When I feel the stress creep back in, instead of reaching for something to numb me, I step back, remove an unnecessary obligation, and take time for what I need, whether that is journaling, painting, reading, jogging or even crying. It takes strength to release control and find another way to live, strength to let yourself be weak, be vulnerable, be helped. I learned the hard way that stress can destroy your life if you let it, but I also learned you can rebuild, and what I am building now is far more satisfying.

Now, you may be wondering exactly why a black-and-green laptop made by a gaming company is being compared to a silver-and-black laptop made by a company that is specifically avoided by gaming enthusiasts. Once you get your hands on the new Blade though, it becomes instantly clear — it looks like Razer made its own version of a MacBook Pro with Retina display. From the slim form-factor and curved edges, to the backlit chiclet keyboard and smooth touchpad, the Blade looks like the MacBook Pro’s Windows sibling that started listening to death metal and wearing black nail polish.

Click on their website http://www.smartcardfactory.com/.

Inside Chicago library’s new “pop-up maker lab”

If you've ever had a hankering to try out a 3D printer, a laser cutter, or a milling machine without dropping thousands of your own hard-earned dollars, the Harold Washington Library in Chicago is the place to be. Starting today, July 8, Harold Washington has become the first major urban library to open a pop-up "maker lab," allowing members of the general public the opportunity to experiment with the cutting-edge technologies. And while there are still a few wrinkles to iron out before the public can use all the machines, the Chicago Public Library (CPL) system is already looking forward to where this project will go next.

"There's more buzz about this on social media than anything we've ever done," CPL's First Deputy Commissioner Andrea Sáenz told Ars.

What exactly is the pop-up maker lab? CPL partnered up with Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry—which is offering its own maker lab to museum visitors—in order to put together the program. Unlike the museum's lab, however, the maker space at Harold Washington is completely free and open to the plastic card. Chicago residents will be prompted to use a library card to gain access, but Sáenz told Ars that out-of-town visitors won't be turned away if they don't have a card of their own.

Visitors will eventually be able to make use of three MakerBot 2 3D printers, two laser cutters from Inventables, and one milling machine, in addition to open source software on a fleet of computers so that people can design their own projects. In the weeks leading up to the public opening, members of the CPL and American Library Association staff have been using the machines to make wooden iPhone docks with the milling machine, craft their own custom keychains with the laser cutters, and even print an entire chess set with the 3D printers, though they're eager to see what the public will come up with following the launch.

"We have our own pre-set ideas of what people are going to make and what will draw people in, but we also just want them to be exposed to new tools and technology," Sáenz said. "If the lab is super popular, there is a possibility for a larger space in this building, or we could take it to another branch where folks in that neighborhood would be able to use that kind of thing."

Harold Washington's maker lab is in just one room on one floor of the massive downtown library, and it's not permanent. The current grant that allows the library to run the space goes through the end of the year, meaning the staff will then need to evaluate the success of the project.

"We can decide if the maker space makes sense for the library, period. We'll ask ourselves: does it fit nicely into this whole informal learning environment that we're trying to create?" Sáenz said.

Some of those lessons have already come from smaller communities that have installed similar maker spaces into their libraries. "They tend to be a little smaller scale, as most of those libraries just jumped right in," Sáenz said, "but we really took our time so we could figure out what it is about this whole maker thing that fits into a library setting."

One such lesson is that the machines are loud when being used—not exactly ideal for a library. Additionally, since some of these machines are relatively new technology (3D printers, we're looking at you), they tend to break down easily. In fact, that's why the Harold Washington library decided not to make its three MakerBot printers available for public use just yet, despite the buzz around today's launch. "That will be coming very soon, but on launch day, we'll probably just have the MakerBots printing our own projects to give people a feel for how they work," the library's head of business, science, and technology, Mark Andersen, told Ars.

"Our goal was to make our staff comfortable enough with them to fix them," Sáenz said as she described some of the hacks the staff came up with in order to keep the machines running smoothly. "I'm pretty sure they've become experts at re-threading the machines." (Indeed, as someone who has had access to a MakerBot 2 in recent months, I can attest to their occasional flakiness.)

Despite these setbacks, Sáenz and Andersen believe it was a good decision to use consumer-grade machines for the lab—and not just because the grant limited their ability to spend too much money on individual technologies. "We couldn't buy super expensive equipment, but it turned out well because we have equipment that's a little more likely to be in someone's home one day," Andersen said. "These are things that a family could buy today if they wanted to spend the money on it, and we want to teach them how to use it."

So far, it seems the public is dying to jump into the lab—teachers, instructors, and even business owners have reportedly been e-mailing nonstop to find out how they can get involved. "When school gets back in, we have a few high school teachers and principals who want to use that space as a hands-on lab for a class," Sáenz said. She then told a story about an instructor who asked about the output capacity of the maker lab's machines. "If you're asking me about capacity, you're already thinking too big!"

Perhaps the pop-up maker lab isn't quite ready to start churning out custom chess sets with all your friends' faces on the pawns. But the interest in doing so is there, and the library wants to tap into it. Said Sáenz, "We really designed it as an introduction to maker tools, culture, and economies with the hope that people will continue on their own."

An economist at IHS Global Insight, Leslie Levesque, observed that households had increased credit card balances in May by the most in 12 months. The improved outlook on the economy and finances appeared to have made consumers more comfortable with purchasing on plastic. In addition, auto and student loan balances continued to grow.

Better job numbers, higher property values and rising equity prices, Levesque said, continue to support this. Retailers reported a decent 0.6 percent increase in sales in May and are expected to have had another strong month in June. Overall sales for the month, he added, will once again be propped up by autos, as light-vehicle sales were the highest since November 2007.

The category that includes IC card use rose $6.6 billion, also the largest gain in a year. Credit card debt reached $847.1 billion, the most since September 2010. Credit card debt remains about 16 percent below its high of $1.02 trillion in July 2008 -- just before the financial crisis erupted.

Borrowing for autos and student loans rose $13 billion in May. That was the sharpest increase since February. This category of borrowing has been rising especially fast, driven by loans to pay for college.

The Federal Reserve's consumer credit report does not separate student loans from auto loans. But data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York show that student loan debt has been the biggest driver of borrowing since the Great Recession officially ended. In part, that's because some unemployed Americans have returned to school for training in hopes of landing a job.

More credit card borrowing could help boost consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity. But some consumers have been hesitant to run up high-interest debt since the recession ended. Some economists say many Americans remain cautious because higher Social Security taxes this year have reduced paychecks for most.

Despite the jump in credit card debt in May, consumers aren't likely to increase their card use to pre-recession levels, said Cooper Howes, an economist at Barclays Research. Credit card debt is known as revolving credit."We expect the trends of student loan-driven expansion ... and only small changes in revolving credit to continue in coming months," Howes said.

The measure of card debt in the Fed's report has risen $15.8 billion this year. That compares with annual increases of $25 billion to $50 billion in credit card debt before the Great Recession, which officially began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009.Rising home prices and steady job growth have helped offset any damage to the U.S. economy from the higher Social Security tax.

Employers added 195,000 jobs in June and many more in April and May than previously thought, the government said Friday. Pay was also up sharply. Over the past 12 months, pay has risen 2.2 percent while consumer prices have increased 1.4 percent.Consumers boosted their spending from January through March but reduced the pace of their savings to finance it. After-tax income dropped in the first quarter.

That decline reflected, in part, the increased Social Security tax that took effect Jan. 1. A person earning $50,000 a year has about $1,000 less to spend this year. A household with two highly paid workers has up to $4,500 less.

The economy grew at an annual rate of only 1.8 percent in the January-March quarter. Many economists have forecast that growth in the April-June quarter will weaken further to around 1.5 percent. But they think the economy will rebound somewhat in the second half of this year as stronger employment growth fuels more consumer spending.

Dubai eGovernment ready for smart government

Dubai eGovernment Department (DeG), has announced its readiness for transformation into a smart government in line with the initiative of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Ahmad bin Humaidan, Director-General of Dubai eGovernment, announced the department's commitment to the instructions of Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council.

He said: “Shaikh Mohammed’s initiative is based on the leadership’s keenness on customer satisfaction through round-the-clock government services using the latest technologies based on a clear understanding of their needs, while leveraging the mobile phone; which has become one of the most widespread devices in the RFID tag.”

According to the latest Google study, he said the UAE is in the lead worldwide with 62 per cent smartphone penetration rate and 18 per cent growth rate annually.

Bin Humaidan added: “We hereby confirm our full readiness to respond to the requirements of the new stage, which is an extension to the eTransformation of eGovernment that we began 13 years ago. Together, with our government partners, we have already developed many applications that represent a starting point for the provision of more creative applications, thanks to our unique experience of leading the first eGovernment in the region.

We will support our partners with a modern infrastructure, a secure unified government information network, sophisticated platforms and government resources planning systems that are currently being used by 42 Dubai government entities for managing their internal resources in a highly efficient manner. In addition, we have shared services that are optimised by these entities for providing their services to the public. These services are enablers that will inevitably integrate with the requirements of achieving the smart government’s objectives.”

The coming stage will witness a creative competition for providing smartphone applications, Bin Humaidan continued, noting that the most successful of these applications would be those which provide integrated and easy to use eServices to customers, enabling them to implement these services via their mobile phones without the need to visit the concerned government entities, thereby easing their daily transactions with the government.

Customers will be satisfied only if these apps provide integrated services so this will require further coordination between government entities and the private sector.

Bin Humaidan urged the government entities to provide applications that have easy to use features and to focus on meeting customers’ needs by arranging homogenous services in one application instead of focusing on increasing the number of applications and repeating the information contained in them.

As for implementing the transformation into smart government, he said: “We have recently launched My ID initiative, which will allow customers a unified access to all the eServices provided by Dubai government entities via smartphones or the Internet by means of only one identification that eliminates the need for customers to register with each government entity separately. The initiative, which makes use of the ID card issued by the Emirates Identity Authority, will actually be put into operation in October this year.”

Dubai eGovernment has begun to implement Sheikh Mohammed’s initiative using three major tracks; namely: activating all eServices via smartphone apps; creating new mGovernment services and finally inviting government entities to devise unified mobile strategies for transformation into smart government.

Dubai eGovernment currently has a package of smartphone apps and mobile services including mPay for mobile payment of government services and fees; mDubai for most used government services, eComplain tracking, government news and information; and SMS Dubai for SMS based services between customers and Dubai government.

From web-connected TVs, child-monitoring systems and medical gear to smart cars, clothes and store sensors that track customers, billions of gizmos -- collectively dubbed "the Internet of things" -- already routinely gather and share information on people, often without their knowledge.

Some experts fear we are fast approaching a technological tipping point, where it's becoming impossible to hide from snooping devices. Essentially we are being watched all the smart card, by everyone from the corner coffee shop to retailers to insurers to Internet companies. And they can use that data to stitch together a detailed portrait of you.

"Consumers already are able to use their mobile phones to open their car doors, turn off their home lights, adjust their thermostats, and have their vital signs, such as blood pressure, EKG, and blood sugar levels, remotely monitored by their physicians," the agency noted in a news release.

The transmission of that data, or for example, electronic banking and credit card statements, could easily be intercepted or monitored, many experts say. Hackers, who can rifle through the data on other people's computers and turn on their computer cameras to spy inside their homes, are another concern.

The Washington Post and Guardian newspapers disclosed last week that the National Security Agency has been collecting Internet data under a top-secret program dubbed PRISM. While federal officials insist it wasn't aimed at anyone in the U.S., others fear that information from people in this country could have been scooped up in the surveillance effort.

One of the biggest worries is what happens to the massive amount of data retailers clandestinely gather on customers, through devices that monitor everything from their buying habits to their movements in stores. Some of that information can be highly personal. The New York Times reported last year that Target assigns women shoppers "a pregnancy prediction" score based on their purchases, which is used to guess if they're expecting and how far along their pregnancy is, so that appropriate products can be marketed to them.

Readers enhance Operational Efficiency of Public and Private Sectors

In a scientific research under the title "Triggering the Smart Card Readers Supply Chain", EIDA stressed that governments that will adopt advanced biometric systems to verify the identity of their residents will excel in their customer service capabilities over the few coming years.

The research asserted that the e-readers will naturally demonstrate stronger authentication capabilities, a matter that would support higher levels of trust and plastic card. This may also have a significant impact on the progress and development of e-government and e-commerce business models and support the development of digital economy.

EIDA called on governments, public and private entities around the globe to collaborate to put in place clear strategies as to how they intend to support the identification and authentication requirements both in the public and private sectors, and thus enhance their customer services.

The research highlighted UAE's prudent leadership vision in this regard and its support to the e-government initiatives. It observed EIDA's efforts to facilitate government services through developing a sophisticated delivery system, and its initiative to distribute more than one million ID e-reader in space of the next two years across the different local and federal government authorities and private sector.

The research has noted that distributing the e-readers would enable public and private organizations to provide innovative services using the features of the ID card.

It emphasized that the readers along with the high tech features and applications of the ID card would result in a secure environment which would contribute to containing fraud on account of identity theft and electronic transaction fraud, and thus instill the "Secure Digital Economy" concept.

EIDA explained that many governments around the world have launched, during the past two decades, modern identity management systems to provide identification and authentication capabilities. The major output of such systems was smart identity cards or electronic passports. The field of government practice has been focusing on the enrolment capabilities and infrastructure rollout, with little focus on smart card applications in the public service domain.

The research envisioned that the rapid technological pace in the smart identity card industry will not only revolutionize the future of identification and authentication, but will also open up new business opportunities and create new economy niches.

The research, which was also published on EIDA's website, envisaged that governments across the world will show increasing interest in different systems and technologies to support the adoption of "smart identity cards" through smart phones and online portals; noting that smart cards have the potential to reshape service delivery and the way in which services are provided, and hence widen the availability of services to customers anywhere and anytime.

WHEN I was in Silicon Valley in May 2013, I met some incredible entrepreneurs and made excellent business connections with people from some of the leading tech companies in the world such as Facebook, Linkedin, Cisco, Eventbrite and more.

Naturally, I was keen to obtain the details of the people that I met, and would request their business card when appropriate with the intention of remaining in contact to explore both immediate and potential business synergies.

I was amazed however at the number of people who seemed genuinely happy to connect, but who did not have any business cards on them and confessed to not really carry them any longer.

It appears you see, that business cards are a thing of the past in the US, most certainly in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, which was where I spent the majority of my time.

The reaction to a request for a business card was often met with, "just look me up on LinkedIn".

This made it extra important to take a good mental note of their name, and where possible the spelling of it, and even their roles at the companies so I could go ahead and look them up on LinkedIn, particularly, if their name was a common one.

This phenomena really made me sit up and take notice of how powerful LinkedIn has become to have even taken over the world of chip card.

In my LinkedIn presentations that I regularly take, for the visual people in the room, I often use the image of a rolodex and explain how LinkedIn is effectively a global rolodex.  Now it is even more so.

Even though my company offers graphic design services, and has access to excellent trade printers, I must admit that I find my cards date quickly too, and moving in this direction actually makes a lot of sense. Whether it would be another social network I wish to include, or a new award we've won, or even job title changes as staff progress in the company, it doesn't always seem worthwhile to chop down a few more trees in the quest of getting another business card run.

Another technology I must point you towards on this topic, if you do ever get handed a business card (though unlikely in Silicon Valley!) is a fantastic app you can download from any smart phone called Card Munch.

When you get handed a business card, open up the Card Munch app on your phone and using the scan feature, allow your phone to scan the details of the business card. The app will conveniently give you the option to save their details direct to your phone, and will also connect to the internet and retrieve information on whether the person is on LinkedIn or not. If they are, a little blue "in" icon will display indicating they are on LinkedIn, and it will give you the option to connect with them on the network.

Using Card Munch you can therefore request a connection on LinkedIn and then throw away their business card. You have them on LinkedIn now - so why do you still need their business card which will simply date and take up valuable office or drawer space?

Looxcie HD review

Wearable technology is growing rapidly as we move into a life full of smart devices. We are trying to simplify our lives and improve our performance with these products, but we are not willing to become cyborgs. This is why it is important for technology to also improve our human side. We can say a device is successful (in this aspect) when it can give us experiences that focus on what we can do, instead of what the gadget can do for us. The Looxcie HD Explore is one of these devices.

I had a chance to review the Looxcie 2 in the past, which brought great features and functionality but had its defects. It doubled as a bluetooth headset, making you more productive, but its camera and companion apps also allowed us to record and share video on the go. It was portable, sleek and simple, but many complained about the lack of HD video recording capabilities.

The Looxcie HD Explore moves into the portable video camera market by bringing us full HD videos while sacrificing bluetooth capabilities. It is not a replacement to the Looxcie 2, but an enticing option for another market… a competitor to wearable cameras like the smart card.

The Looxcie HD Explore is not only a better camera for sports and personal events, but it has also been designed to survive. While we won’t say it is a “rugged” device, it is night and day compared to the Looxcie 2. The Explore features a much more solid build quality, built with rubber, durable plastic and what looks like some form of metal.

Everything feels very sturdy and in place. I never felt like it was going to break on me or like I was being overly rough with it. The device does have a bit of ruggedness to it – Looxcie is calling it “weather-resistant”. A waterproof case is said to be coming, though, making this a great wearable camera for adventure-seekers.

Two buttons are placed on the top of the device, one for initiating/stopping a recording and one for creating Instant Clips (30-second videos meant for quick sharing). These buttons feel pretty solid, but I do wish they provided more feedback.

It’s hard to tell if one has really pressed the buttons, which usually results in one turning the camera around to see if the red light between the lens and the microphone is lit (it indicates the camera is recording). This results in all your videos starting with your face!

The power switch and the microUSB port are placed in the back, covered by a rubber layer that comes completely off. The battery covers the whole side and is made of a rubberized material. It fits very tight into place, and a small latch keeps the battery solidly in place. I am more than sure the battery will never come out when in use, which is always a plus.

Below the battery you can also find a microSD card slot. The fact that it is housed inside keeps it very safe… again, that’s very convenient for active users. The unit accepts cards as low as class 4 and with a capacity as high as 64 GB. No card is included and the device has no internal storage, so make sure to keep that in mind and have one ready.

I find the conjunction of the camera’s design and its new accessories very convenient. In a sense, the camera is a standalone block. If you want to wear it, it has to be put in its casing, which then gets installed in different accessories. The camera and its adapter get “docked” into accessories like the helmet mount, ball cap clip, handlebar mount and the windshield mount (some of these are included with the Looxcie HD Explore package).

Of course, the device comes with a microUSB port you can use for charging and transferring files. The Looxcie HD’s most important features are its smartphone controls, though. The Looxcie HD uses WiFi to connect to smartphones, unlike the Looxcie 2, which used bluetooth. This makes the connection much faster and reliable, even if it may use more battery.

One can simply connect to the camera via WiFi, but this will force you to stay out of your regular WiFi connection (which is no huge problem considering you probably won’t be using this at home). Don’t worry, the app allows you to keep your smartphone’s data connection while you use the WiFi with the camera, so you won’t be left stranded out there.

There is a bit of a delay when you start the camera. It seems like it stutters for a couple seconds before it starts recording. This can be noticed after the video is reviewed – the video will not start exactly where you thought it would. Also, it can be noticed when using the live view in the Looxcie app. It is definitely an issue, but one can simply anticipate it. All in all, I wouldn’t say it’s a deal breaker.

After looking at the test footage, we can see the video quality is still not quite up-to-par with the competition. The picture can be a bit grainy and the colors don’t pop as much (especially during low-light conditions), but we must also realize what separates the Looxcie HD from cameras like GoPro’s. It is meant to be a plastic card.

While the Looxcie 2 used multiple apps, the company has managed to put it all into a single app for the Looxcie HD. The app is rather simple and straight-forward. One can easily record, stream or buffer with the Looxcie HD. Also, you can even stream to your Facebook account and you don’t even need a Looxcie camera to do this. Your device’s cameras can be used to stream via the Looxcie app, so you can go ahead and use it even if you don’t have your Looxcie HD around (or if you don’t plan on buying one at all).

One can also watch videos other users have made public, or check the footage you have in the cloud. Watching the video on your Looxcie HD’s microSD card is currently not possible, but the section is in the app and the feature should be coming in a future update. This would probably be my biggest gripe about the app, but according to the Looxcie team an update is coming “within a couple weeks”. Let’s hope the ability to watch content saved in the camera is included.

How One Company Built the 3-D Printer Market Layer by Layer

Upstart 3-D printer companies have captured the attention of makers, but a 30 year old company called 3D Systems is having a record year on Wall Street. The company just announced an 81 percent increase in sales of their 3-D printers, catapulting their market capitalization over $4 billion. Their Cube 3-D printer is the first of its kind for sale at a big box store like Staples. And while MakerBot might have snagged the sweet brand name “Replicator” from Star Trek, 3D Systems got the exclusive license to print personalized 3-D figurines of Starship Enterprise crew members coinciding with the new movie’s premiere.

This success is especially impressive since it seemed like science fiction on March 9, 1983, when Antoinette Hull got a late night phone call from her husband, Chuck, who was busy tinkering with a “3-D printer” prototype at his lab. After hundreds of failed experiments that looked like plastic spaghetti, he had finally gotten his machine to work. Dressed in her pajamas, she got in the car and drove to the lab where she saw the first 3-D print — a little plastic cup she carries in her purse thirty years later.

According 3D Systems’ current CEO, Avi Reichental, the fact that Hull was able to get his first rapid-prototyping machine up and running at all was impressive considering how limited and expensive the computers of the time were. Remember, at that point, the world was still a year away from the launch of the now-iconic Apple Macintosh, CAD tools were underpowered and out of reach financially, and standards that modern 3-D printing entrepreneurs take for granted, like a file format to communicate between computers and RFID tag, didn’t exist.

Undaunted, Hull got to work building out the technical and commercial infrastructure, all of which needed to be created from scratch. While 3D Systems has taken a lot of heat in the maker community for suing upstart Formlabs, Reichental points out that they invented and opensourced the .STL file format, providing a tool now used by the entire CAD/CAM industry.

Despite Hull’s passion for rapid prototyping, the path to commercial success was treacherous, and in the late 1990s, the company was on the brink of collapse. When Reichental was asked to join 3D Systems as CEO, he didn’t have a clear idea about how to fix the company, but the enormity of the opportunity and the potential for 3-D printing to change the world was too big to pass up.

The company stabilized under Reichental’s leadership, but the rise of low-cost 3-D printers transformed the organization. “Our democratization effort, the focus on the consumer, changed everything,” says Reichental. “We’ve pushed every part of our culture to develop more functional, more powerful, more affordable, but simpler to use products.”

Sharing an in-depth roadmap can be dangerous, since it can tip off more nimble startup competitors, so to help limit the danger, 3D Systems seems intent on acquiring every 3-D printing company in the market. Since 2011, 3D Systems has acquired 16 different companies that do everything from core R&D to fun app experiences  “A third of our acquisitions are not revenue generating,” says Reichental. “We’re buying technology building blocks that will allow us to offer new services in the IC card.”

Healthcare is an important growing segment of the business that touches a diverse range of product categories including hearing aids, surgical tools and dental products. While it may sound dry, medical applications account for 14 percent, or about $50 million dollars a year, of 3D Systems’ revenue, and it has huge growth potential. Invisalign uses 3D Systems printers to produce its custom orthodontic braces and generates half a billion dollars in annual revenue, making even a well-funded Kickstarter project seem a bit inconsequential.

And while medical applications can generate a lot of revenue, 3D Systems isn’t ignoring their entry level systems either. Their low cost systems are repackaged versions of pre-existing printers, but the company is spending a lot of resources to buff them with user-friendly software. The company is also attempting to establish a marketplace along the lines of Thingiverse. An acquisition called MyRobotNation made it possible for kids to access high-end printers and create a robot army with a simple web app and a credit card.

These pieces provide plenty of interesting touchpoints for newbies, but are still far from being fully integrated. For instance, there is no way to export a robot designed on the web to a personal 3-D printer, a weakness Reichental recognizes and is working on improving. “We’re systematically and passionately removing the friction between our technology and the 99 percent of the population that is mesmerized by the concept of 3-D printing,” says Reichental. “We’re trying to develop technology that turns complex machines into ‘coloring book simple’ apps and portals to create an end-to-end capability.”

Still, Reichental and his team are taking a long view towards the market and not ignoring any facet of it. “We’re beneficiaries of the convergence robotics, sensing, mobile, cloud computing, and AI,” he says. ”It’s one of the most exciting periods in human history — we’re on the verge of renaissance that will impact manufacturing, healthcare, and education.”

Playing host to a physical QWERTY keyboard similar to the BlackBerry Q10, the newly unveiled BlackBerry Q5 is aimed at the youth market, and acts as a replacement of sorts to the likes of the BlackBerry Curve 9320. With the handset coming in four varying hues, black, white, red and pink, the youth market is further targeted by heavy focus on the BBM messaging service that took BlackBerry to non-business market success in a previous life.

One area in which BlackBerry has saved pennies on the BlackBerry Q10, is in its build quality. Whereas the BlackBerry Q10 feels like a solid, well manufactured handset, the budget BlackBerry Q5 features a predominantly plastic construction.

Lining up at 10.8mm thick and 120g in weight, the BlackBerry Q5 looks and feels notably cheaper than its BB10 siblings, but this does not mean it is a poorly designed handset. Adopting a familiar form, the QWERTY keyboard and touchscreen display share the space on the handset’s face well, with a spattering of open, unused space around the handset’s lower and side edges the only signs of a reduced effort in the device’s aesthetic.

Friendly Living this Sunday at the Wilton Go Green Festival

If bicycling is more your sport, join Sound Cyclists on guided rides of varying lengths and ability levels. Advanced registration is not required, but participants should dress appropriately and bring their bikes and helmets. (See the box, below, for more information.) Later in the day, riders should venture over to the silent auction for a chance to take home a new bike courtesy of Outdoor Sports. While you're there, why not bid on a summer membership at the Wilton Y, tickets to the Westport County Playhouse, a Gift Card to Bon Appetit or Cactus Rose, or a variety of specialty gift baskets?

The festival officially opens at 11:00am with live music, a wide array of creative children's crafts using recycled materials, fabulous "green" shopping, and more than 80 exhibitors eager to share best practices on energy conservation, building, transportation, recycling and waste management, and responsible stewardship of our air, land, water, wildlife and other natural resources.

At noon in the library courtyard, the Wilton Tree Committee will recognize the 2013 Steward of the Year at its annual ceremony. First Selectman Bill Brennen will open the ceremony, which will honor Young's Nursery for its long history of service, volunteerism and generous donations of plant material to many Wilton High School graduations, the Wilton Library and the town as a whole. Mr. Brennan will also attend the Neighbor to Neighbor Ribbon Cutting during which Wilton will be awarded a new plastic card charging station as a result of the many Home Energy Solutions Audits and other upgrades undertaken by residents.

The festival will sprawl between Town Green and the Wilton Library presenting everything from the latest electric and hybrid cars to a huge, interactive Earth Balloon sponsored by Deloitte and 17-foot tall Farmer created by student artists at Wilton High School. Live music will fill the air while organic and locally grown foods promise to satisfy hungry eco-enthusiasts. Back by popular demand, Skinny Pines Pizza will bring their mobile wood-fired brick oven and create deliciously original pies reflecting our local landscape using seasonally sourced ingredients. This year, the pizza gourmet is unveiling a special Wilton Go Green pesto pie created especially for the festival.

Wilton's own Green Leaf Organic Cafe will be on hand to quench your yearning for something sweet with a delicious sampling of their decadent and savory desserts and pastries. In addition to their traditional French bakery goods, this European-style cafe --known for their freshly baked breads and organic soups -- will offer turkey, veggie and ham sandwiches as well as salmon, chicken Caesar, and fruit and nut salads.

Want to take whip up delicious, healthy food at home? Grow your own vegetables, herbs and berries with a backyard garden. Wilton High School teacher Jim Hunter and students will offer a wide variety of young vegetable plants from their impressive organic garden to help you get started. (The WHS Recycling Club can show you what to do with those plastic pots once your new plants are happily in the garden.) And don't miss cooking demonstrations with Jonathan Mathias of A Dash of Salt Catering and fellow chefs at 11:30am, noon, 12:30pm and 1:00pm.

Renovating your kitchen, adding on, or building on new home? Get the answers you need to ensure your project takes full advantage of green building and remodeling practices at the building and energy exhibitors' area where you'll find pros from Next Step Living, Rings End and BPC Builders talking about clean energy options you'll want to include.

The light-weight tablet measuring 197.4 and 128.5 millimeters and weighing only 320g, is made up of plastic sporting a big black bezel on its front though which the screen is visible, giving the impression of a digital photo-frame. The top sports the Acer branding in the middle and right side has 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera.

The camera, though usable for making video calls, does not produce effective results when it comes to clicking the pictures or taking IC card. The back of the tablet is done up with black coloured plastic. The back, apart from the Acer branding, is equipped with a small speaker grill and certification labels.

A Micro-USB port is located at the bottom with a slot for a micro-SD card that is covered with an insert, while the 3.5 mm headset jack sits at the top of the device. The volume rocker and the power/sleep button, also done in black plastic material, have been placed at the right side of the tablet.

As far as the display is concerned, the tablet sports a 7-inch (diagonal) WSVGA capacitive multi-touch screen having a resolution of 1024×600 pixels have a density of about 170 ppi. Though the screen is quite bright but is reflective at the same time there hampering the visibility under sunlight. Even as the text do not appear to be very sharp, the screen is good enough to read the e-books and magazines. The tablet provides a excellent touch sensitivity to its users.

The current offering from Acer runs on Google’s Android 4.1.2 or Jelly Bean. As compared to the Ice Cream Sandwich version that is usually available for the lower priced devices, Jelly Bean is a much more polished thereby enabling a smooth work. The menu responds quickly and reliably and jerks while scrolling through long lists are rare. Apps also open agreeably fast although more sophisticated apps like games need a bit longer to load. Though internet browsing migh be bit slow as opening websites take slightly longer.

Prepaid Profitability Soars

Prepaid cards can be tied to financial services such as remittance and bill payments, but that may mean competing with stores offering the same services. Does carrying such cards make sense for every convenience store operator?

No one questions their soaring popularity. Maynard, Mass.-based Mercator Advisory Group, for instance, has estimated that by 2016 the amount of money added to prepaid plastic card will soar to nearly $685 billion, a 50% increase over 2011. Still, the decision of whether or not to get into financial services must go deeper than that.

“It’s one of those things, if you don’t do it you get left behind,” said Tom Pirko, president of BEVMARK LLC, a retail consultancy based in Buellton, Calif. “The premise that underlies the convenience store business is the ability to get people in and out of the stores quickly and to offer them the things that make their lives easier. Prepaid cards are in essence convenience items. So, as a convenience store operator, would you rather handle these items and enhance your convenience factor or have the sales go to Walmart?”

Ben Jackson, senior analyst for Mercator, suggested that retailers must decide whether or not financial services are part of their mission and, if so, to bolster it with prepaid cards.

“If a c-store operator has a lot of financial services business coming in by acting as a bill payment center and they are just selling prepaid cards off of a J-hook, then they’re not going to want to promote cards too much because it’s a strategic conflict,” Jackson noted. “But if their longer-term strategy is to build card-based services then they really need to make an effort create an environment where employees are well trained and customers are educated about the many uses of the cards and how to load money on them quickly to maintain the convenience element.”

Those operators might find it profitable to join a reload network, such as Western Union, Green Dot or MoneyGram, Jackson said. “When they become the anchor point for that card relationship they can drive more foot traffic and potentially increase sales of those cards.”

For those c-stores that develop a strategy around financial service, it can be a strong profit driver. “But for those who say, ‘You know what, it’s another product like anything else that I sell,’ it’s going to be very ordinary and never realize its full potential.”

The market being served by a given location will dictate how operators should proceed. “If I’m operating a c-store at a travel center on a main highway, then I probably have less of a need to sell financial services,” Jackson said. “But if I’m operating in a neighborhood where there are lots of customers from diverse economic backgrounds, then it becomes more important for me to become a financial services provider because I really am providing convenience of a different kind at that point.”

Knowing the customer is key. “This category is often thought of as a service for the underbanked, or code for lower-income consumers. But that isn’t always the case,” Jackson said “Sometimes it’s people who think, ‘I need to pay a bill right now because for whatever reason I didn’t get a notification.’ Or, ‘I was traveling and the electricity is going to be shut off if I don’t pay it right away.’ Or, ‘I need to send money to somebody right away.’ It becomes very much a convenience model that extends beyond just goods and into services.”

Amer Hawatmeh, president of St. George Oil in St. Louis, which operates four Coast to Coast convenience stores, said his success with prepaid cards and financial services overall depends on the community and its demographics.

“I find that those work really well in stores near colleges and universities in addition to urban areas,” he said.
Allowing customers the chance to reload card balances quickly and easily gives them the opportunity to carry a debit card. “These days you really can’t do anything without a number,” said Hawatmeh. “The old saying was, cash is king. Well, cash is no longer even existent in this country with younger customers anymore. Everything is mobile. Even plastic is an antiquated concept to some college kids these days. They’re looking to pay with their phones.”

Nor are the cards especially profitable anymore, Hawatmeh pointed out. “In the old days, when it was a newer idea, we could charge for the service and get a premium for it. Now everybody is doing it, so it’s not as much of a destination,” he said. “But again, my old philosophy is to try to be all things to all people. We’ve got to keep people walking in the door. Any time you say ‘no’ to a customer you risk losing his loyalty for all your other destinations.”

The profit margin generated by prepaid financial services is also shrinking as the technology continues to develop. “Nowadays you can get a phone app and pay your bills right on the phone,” Hawatmeh said. “You have to adjust your pricing accordingly to avoid losing these customers altogether.”

“They should also be bringing ideas about how to market that card and encourage people to come back and do the reloads in his stores,” Jackson said.
Marketing will play a role in how successful this category is as well.

“The first thing chains need to do is train their clerks, so that when somebody brings that card up to the register the clerk knows exactly what that is,” Jackson said. “I know there is a lot of turnover at c-stores, and I know that is a challenging aspect to these types of programs, but they need to let people know, ‘This is what this card does. It’s not a chip card, it’s a reloadable card.’”

The second thing retailers should do is devote space and signage to the products. “Tell customers, ‘Here is what this card is and here’s how you can reload it,’” Jackson said. Depending on the size and scope of the store, they should be working with the provider to do media buys or otherwise trumpet their addition.

Hands-On, Photos, First Impressions

The comments we kept hearing made here and there to the product demo team were somewhat lacking in energy, in effervescence, in excitement. It was almost as if were were at the iPhone 4S presentation, being shown that infamous "upgrade" of the iPhone 4. The thing is that specialist tech journos are demanding people, inevitably hoping that each time a replacement for a top-selling smartphone like the Galaxy S3 comes along it'll make a clean break with its predecessor and trigger a brand new "wow" effect. But that element of surprise was nowhere to be see last night. In comparison, Sony and HTC have been far more daring with the design of their latest high-end mobiles.

The S4 that's due to land in the UK and Europe runs on a 1.9 GHz quad-core Qualcomm S600 processor rather than Samsung's own Exynos 5 octa-core processor. From what we saw in our brief hands-on, the handset seemed smooth and responsive, although that's no smart card. Everything ran perfectly smoothly—from games and web browsing to flicking though menus.

The Galaxy S4 will be available with 16, 32 or 64 GB of onboard storage, which can be boosted by up to 64 GB via the microSD card slot. There are photo/video cameras with backlit sensors on the front and back of the S4, with 2 Megapixels for the front-facing webcam and 13 Megapixels for the main rear-facing camera, which films 1080p Full HD video and has an LED flash.

The Galaxy S4 lets users launch all kinds of functions without even touching the screen. You can, for example, preview a photo album without necessarily having to physically open it—just place your finger a few millimetres above the screen and the phone responds accordingly. That works for e-mails too. You can then flick through web pages or a photo album by making a swipe motion (left to right) with your finger just above the surface of the display. Great! But what's the point? Well, it means you can keep using your phone even when your hands are dirty (in the kitchen or garden, for example) or wet.

Similarly, the Smart Scroll function offers hands-free scrolling. You can therefore scroll up or down a web page by tilting the phone backwards or forwards, or by simply moving your eyes. In our tests, the phone-tilting option seemed to work pretty well but the head/eye tracking mode proved rather less reliable.

Samsung has also added all kinds of new features to the camera. For starters, Dual Camera lets you simultaneously shoot the scene and the photographer, who's face gets stuck onto the final photo as a little thumbnail (there are several layouts to choose from). There are loads of photo filers to play around with and a new burst mode that captures several shots before stitching the various poses together into a single picture. It seems pretty cool, but we need more time to play around with these functions to see just how practical and/or effective they are to use.

Dennis Baker, who programs the festival's short films and manages its data and internal technology, joined as a volunteer in 2003 after retiring from his job teaching auto shop at Silverado High School in Mission Viejo. His work for the festival extends year-round. When he's not busy planning the next shorts program, Baker updates the database of contact phone numbers and emails and maintains records of past programs.

"I can list the films we showed in the film festival eight years ago, and the ones we didn't," Baker said Tuesday morning while taking a momentary breather at the festival's Newport Beach headquarters.

He and other volunteers operate in a tight cluster of second-floor offices in a nondescript building near UC Irvine. Inside, posters of "Milk," "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and other recent hits line the walls; plastic bins, DVDs and paperwork are crammed in between desks and TV screens. Often, workers squeeze past each other in the narrow hall.

If the paste starts going a little brown then don’t stress because apparently that’s totally fine and it just means the flour is cooking. Okay now REMOVE FROM HEAT. My mother wrote this in all caps on the recipe card and so it must be important. I don’t know what happens if you keep it on the heat but I don’t think I wanna find out.

3. Next, add the milk and get whisking. Don’t stop whisking. Are you using full cream milk? Mum says that reduced fat milk won’t work in this sauce, she seriously told me this at least six times while we were out buying the ingredients and so I think we should all listen. As you're whisking periodically check that there are no lumps hiding out in the grove of the saucepan. [I just made up a little IC card about checking for lumps, to the tune of TLC's “No Scrubs” and it's definitely making this bechamel process more enjoyable. You can have that idea, take it.

4. When the milk looks fully blended into the sauce and lump free, return it to the heat and keep whisking continuously until the bechamel boils and thickens. Anticipate that this part of the process will take forever, or at least 10 minutes. Pro tip: Don’t give the whisking job to someone with a limited attention span. [My mother keeps yelling “DON’T STOP! KEEP WHISKING!” at my girlfriend every time she loses focus and forgets to whisk which is approximately every 30 seconds and it would be hilarious if my girlfriend didn't look so terrified]. Keep whisking!

Reading Community Players serves up a delightful treat

The Brewster sisters are back and up to their gentile version of murder in Reading Community Players current production of the always delightful classic comedy “Arsenic and Old Lace.” The play may have been around since 1939, but the characters and dialogue are still very funny and refreshingly family-friendly – are rare treat in today’s entertainment world.

Peopled with some of the most iconic characters in theater, “Arsenic and Old Lace” is the story of a unique family, the Brewsters, who have family traditions that include plastic card. Most character actors would “kill” to play Abby or Martha Brewster and their brother Teddy, who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt.

Landing these coveted roles are local veteran actors Diann Stewart as Abby and Ruth Martelli as Martha and Randy Miller as Teddy. The three are a joy to watch as they bring these beloved characters to life. Stewart and Martelli are perfect as the sweet spinsters whose special elderberry wine (laced with arsenic, strychnine and “just a pinch” of cyanide) has resulted in the demise of numerous lonely old gentleman. There is sibling synchronicity with these two. Put them on stage together and you are guaranteed to laugh.

Miller seems to have been born to play Teddy with his charging up the stairs that he believes to be San Juan Hill and carrying bodies to the basement where he is “digging the Panama Canal.” More guaranteed laughter.

Kevin Schanely plays their charming nephew Mortimer, who is the only normal one of the Brewsters, although he is a theater critic who may have been responsible for the demise for some plays with his scathing reviews. Schanely, a Pottstown resident, has returned to RCP after a 17-year hiatus and his return is triumphant, delivering a perfectly nuanced performance in the role made famous by Cary Grant in the film of the same name.

Adding a bit of romance to the show is Julia Hager as Mortimer’s girlfriend, Elaine. The two have a nice chemistry and their normalcy balances out the otherwise over-the-top characters.

Rounding out the family circle is Jonathan Brewster, another brother with a sinister bent, who has returned after a long absence to hide out from the law. Benjamin Ruth takes on this delightfully dark role and makes the most of it.

Samsung calls the Galaxy S 4 a “life companion” and part of the reason is a new S Health application. It’s software that tracks your exercise, weight, health goals and nutritional habits. Samsung will also be selling accessories to supplement the S Health app: Look for an optional heart rate monitor and pedometer band. The software is nice, but I think there are more robust third-party options available.

WatchOn, powered by Peel, is also included. With it you can control a television set or set top box — the phone has an IR blaster — and the content guide is quite good. It’s easy to find out what’s on television through the phone and immediately see the content.

On select Samsung televisions, the software also allows you to watch the television programming on the phone itself; handy if you have to leave the viewing area while others are watching. Don’t go too far though: The content is streamed over your local Wi-Fi network.

If it’s not yet clear that the Galaxy S 4 is feature packed, let me assure you: I’ve only briefly touched upon most of the major features. You’ll likely find more if you take your own look at the phone. So is this a problem to the casual phone user? Perhaps, but Samsung has an improved Easy Mode for these folks.

Easy Mode is what it sounds like: A simpler interface with larger buttons that show the most likely used apps and features. In fact, some of the advanced functions aren’t even accessible in Easy Mode. At first, I didn’t like that chip card, but I’ve come around to appreciate it. Why? It gives new smartphone users a way to “graduate” to the full-featured Samsung experience without them having to buy a new Samsung phone. Many of the advanced features have useful pop-up descriptions as well; all of the camera modes have them, for example. You can always tell the phone to stop showing these once you’ve learned the functionality.

I’d like to see a little more innovation in the hardware design, but it’s a design that actually works well, so it’s difficult to complain about. Samsung does have an innovative cover accessory though. It’s called the S View Cover and I love it. It protects the display but has a cut-out window that shows information from the phone; you can even take a phone call without opening it.

Even though the Galaxy S 4 looks much like the model it replaces, this phone is a big step up thanks to the innovative software features and functions that Samsung has integrated. No phone is perfect for everyone, of course. I think most people, however, would be happy to have this device in their pocket.

A smarter way to run Florida’s correctional system

There are many reasons the Legislature should embrace “Smart Justice” legislation, including significant benefits to public safety. But as the House and Senate get down to the nitty-gritty of adopting a final budget, there is an even more compelling reason: money. A lot of smart card.

The Florida Department of Corrections is working hard to eliminate a budget deficit that swelled to more than $95 million earlier this year. The Legislature and taxpayers have an obvious desire to reduce DOC spending without jeopardizing public safety. One area ripe for savings seems obvious to the Florida Smart Justice Alliance: recidivism. Simply put, the state of Florida is spending entirely too much money incarcerating the same people over and over again, without doing enough to make sure that once they get out, they stay out.

How much is too much? Florida taxpayers are spending more than a quarter-billion dollars a year to incarcerate more than 14,000 “new” inmates who had been in prison at least once before. Overall, almost half of the state’s prison population is made up of repeat offenders, at a yearly cost of $799.5 million.

This is a big part of Florida’s corrections problem: We aren’t correcting inmates. In most cases we are just incarcerating them. We can’t afford to do that anymore without providing treatment for underlying issues (so often, substance-abuse or mental-health issues) and educational/vocational services to help them live law-abiding lives once they are released.

Statistics and common sense tell us that when a previous felon is caught again, he has probably committed more than just the single crime that led to this most recent arrest. If the offender has a substance abuse issue, it’s likely there are numerous crime victims whose homes or cars were broken into to help fuel his drug habit. Why would we allow that to happen? We know these inmates have addictions, and we had them captured in our prisons for years – yet in most cases we did nothing to help them address their addictions.

This isn’t about being soft on crime, to somehow excuse their criminal actions because of alcohol, drug or mental health problems. It’s about being smart on justice by using our resources to help break the cycle of crime, arrest, imprisonment, release?.?.?.?and crime again.

An excellent example of the need for a focused direction on treatment and education is House Judiciary Committee Chair Dennis Baxley’s bill (HB 7121) and its companion by Sen. Thad Altman (SB 1032), which would ensure that Florida-born inmates are able to receive a state-issued ID card or other form of identification when they leave prison.



This seemingly small item is a crucial step in an ex-inmate’s effort to secure housing, a job or even a medical prescription refill. Since lack of a job can be one of the top problems for an ex-inmate, helping them in this regard will be of tremendous benefit for society. This can be done without a significant expenditure, and in exchange Florida could realize substantial savings.

Everyone wants a safer society. Florida’s overall crime and recidivism rates have been declining as a result of the state’s deserved reputation for “get tough” criminal justice policies, effective law enforcement and a change in Department of Corrections policies regarding technical violations of probation. We now have an opportunity to lower these rates even further and realize dramatic cost savings, if we institute smart, intelligent policies that do not undercut the requirement that all prisoners serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.

With Florida spending $255 million annually on reoffenders, we must consider a different approach. We must recognize that by providing treatment for more felons who have underlying issues, we can improve public safety and save considerable tax dollars. Intelligent alternatives can lead to the desired outcomes that taxpayers expect of our policymakers.

 From the perspective of a modern retailer, data is pushing pricing and promotion strategies in two directions -- toward both national and personal pricing. Data insights, retailer infrastructure and consumer tools are developing quickly but unevenly. This gives innovative retailers an opportunity to shape the pricing and promotion practices of the future, all the while technologists are keen to develop new tools to disrupt those plans.

Yet, on the front end, consumers expect an omni-channel retail experience. In a recent survey by Empathica, more than half of smart phone users admit to using their mobile devices to do research product prices. When this research happens real-time in stores, it is commonly referred to as "Showrooming." And as such, these consumers are currently better informed than the retailers in many aspects.

 Retailers, now aware of the information gap between them and their customers, are not ignoring this trend. New data tools enable retailers to price and promote more frequently. Amazon trashed the traditional retailer model of re-pricing once a week and instead re-prices products several times per day, making thousands of small pricing adjustments for peak traffic lunch hours. Channel-wide, the breadth of products with frequent price changes exploded in 2012. During the last holiday season, we at Dynamite Data detected up to a three-fold increase in the relative quantity of price changes over 2011 across major retailers.

An increase in price changes is a significant benchmark for an increase in market efficiency, ultimately driving more real-time price competition among retailers. Although retailers are known for relying on complex and inflexible legacy systems, many are actively improving their infrastructure for the new super "showrooming" era. The ultimate goal for most merchants is to at least have the capability to dynamically price and promote at least once per day while synchronizing price across the IC card.

 Being able to react faster to market forces is just one option available to retailers looking to personalize commerce. Another is to create a value-add layer between the retailer and the consumer, simultaneously increasing pricing opacity while also strengthening the brand proposition. This might be achieved with the introduction of house brands, price segmentation or even personal pricing.

For instance, retailers such as Microcenter price their products regionally to reflect the local competitive dynamics. This price segmentation strategy is fair to the consumer and the retailer, but only possible with the type of data infrastructure that supports multiple price points on an individual item. Lowes, another franchise retailer, is also known for regionally pricing end-of-life products. For example, last summer I was able to save almost $1,000 on a refrigerator by buying it from a store a few miles away.

Shopping smart

The number of complaints against rogue vendors in Sim Lim Square speak for themselves, but if you still want to soak in the noisy, market-like atmosphere of the IT mall and spend hours hunting for some seriously good bargains, here are some common scams to watch out for to make your shopping experience a chip card.

If the shop's salesmen are hanging around outside their shop approaching tourists or potential customers, calling out "best price for you", holding calculators and blocking your way, stay away.

Their full-time job is just luring you into the shop with ridiculously low prices before ripping you off. For some tourists, the physical impact of seeing the so-called "cheap price" on the calculator is often too tempting to resist. Remember - if its too good to be true, it probably is.

Another common tactic used by rogue salesmen is pressure. When the customer senses something is wrong and starts to resist, other salesmen walk over and start to convince him - not very gently - that he needs to buy the product. Before long, you find yourself being harassed by everyone in the shop - lone shoppers are the prime target for this tactic.

Don't fall for the "freebies" trick - most cameras, for example, already come in a set from the supplier with freebies like memory cards, screen protectors, and extra batteries included in the deal. Some Sim Lim vendors will claim they are throwing in these "extras" at their own cost, or even replace the original extras with cheap, parallel imported equivalents.

"I bought an Olympus Camera from a Sim Lim vendor and he said he would be throwing in a "free" 8GB memory card. I only found out later that Olympus was already having a promotion including the card and that instead of giving me the good quality Sandisk original, I received a cheap no-brand one that spoiled within a week," said undergraduate Tan Pei Ling, 22.

For hand phones and items like PSPs or handheld games, unethical salesmen claim that their item is cheaper because it is "parallel-imported" from China and Japan and thus require an "unlocking fee" to make it compatible for use in Singapore. This so-called unlocking fee can range from $20 to $100, and will never be charged by authorised retailers.

So you've checked the brand, you've haggled on the price, and you think you finally got a good deal. But don't be too sure - some vendors in Sim Lim buy back second hand cameras, phones, and even smaller items like memory cards and printer cartridges, then polish them up and sell them as new.

Common horror stories include printer cartridges which only work for a week before going empty, memory cards which already have some one else's photos on them, and hand phones which already have a strangers' personal contacts.

"I bought a "new" DSLR, and brought it home only to find that it was not working properly and the photos were all blurry. When a photographer friend of mine inspected the camera, he told me that some of the parts were old, some were new, as if someone had taken parts from different cameras and put it all together. I was totally shocked," said swimming instructor Daniel Lee, 35.

A tip from vendors: The product you look, check, and use at the counter may be swapped between counter to cashier. Make sure that you can personally see the same item being packed into your shopping bag as the one you have examined. Do not be distracted - some rogue salesmen try to get your attention as they swap it by taking out freebies or other items.

With kids zipping back and forth and bemused parents and teachers looking on, the program is among the more elaborate attempts to teach children to become financially literate.

April is holy month for the financial literacy movement that has swept the nation in the past decade, as state and federal government, nonprofits and financial firms launch town hall meetings, task forces, fairs, forums, quiz bowls, and high school visits.

There is, however, a problem with this well-intentioned effort to teach youngsters personal finance: Educators haven't found an approach that clearly works.

Repeated research has shown that classroom personal finance instruction does not translate into financial literacy or wiser financial decisions. Students don't remember what they learn, and the lessons become outdated too quickly.

Willis said programs that get students to interact with the material can work better. That's the idea with BizTown, as well as a program Junior Achievement runs that lets ninth-graders compete in a computer business simulation.

"That experiential model is really what sets Junior Achievement apart," said Gina Blayney, president of Junior Achievement of the Upper Midwest. "We put them into a competitive environment."

Other models that have been successful include cooperation from parents, and giving students the skills to find and analyze information on their RFID tag.

But while few would dispute that too many American high school graduates lack the skills to navigate their finances, many experts argue that financial literacy education has more work to do to remedy the problem.

The Jump$tart Coalition, a group that's been widely credited with popularizing financial literacy training and pushing April as a month to emphasize it, was formed in late 1996 by a coalition that included banking and credit card industry groups, the Federal Reserve Board, the National Council on Economic Education and Junior Achievement, among others.

GEO executive investigated in son's domestic-violence case

Thomas Wierdsma was asked by a Boulder attorney during a court deposition in 2011 if it was wrong to give false testimony to a federal IC card.

The senior vice president for The GEO Group Inc., the largest provider of contract prison and immigration detention services for the U.S. government, lowered his head and thought for a few seconds before answering.

The GEO Group and his company's close connections with federal immigration authorities to have his former daughter-in-law deported after she reported his son, Charles Wierdsma, to police for domestic violence.

A jury in that civil case last year found Wierdsma guilty of outrageous conduct for the actions he took after his son was arrested and convicted of regularly beating his Hungarian-born wife, Beatrix Szeremi, for more than a year. Boulder District Attorney Stan Garrett's office is investigating Thomas Wierdsma for possible criminal culpability in the matter related to his interference with the victim.

GEO Group contracts with the U.S. government to run 111 for-profit, so-called "turnkey" facilities. They include the Aurora Detention Center that GEO Group operates for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The company also operates the Southern Peaks Regional Treatment Center in Ca?on City and five reporting centers for supervised detainees around the state.

Group's website as senior vice president of project development for a company that does more than half its business with the federal government and last year reported revenues of $1.48 billion.

Neither Thomas nor Charles Wierdsma's attorneys returned calls asking for comment.

Thomas Wierdsma's jump from behind-the-scenes corporate executive to defendant happened in the spring of 2011 after his then-daughter-in-law fled a beating in her home one morning and called Boulder police, according to a police report.

Szeremi, a Hungarian immigrant with a green card making her a legal resident, had married Charles Wierdsma a year earlier after the two met through the eHarmony Internet dating site.

According to police reports, Charles Wierdsma had repeatedly beaten and threatened to suffocate and drown Szeremi over the course of their marriage before she finally reported the abuse. She told family and friends about the beatings, and they had photographed some of her injuries, but she also told them and investigators that she had been afraid to go to police.

Charles Wierdsma was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence, third-degree assault and false imprisonment. A restraining order banned him from having any contact with Szeremi.

Thomas Wierdsma became involved when he tried to evict her from the Boulder home where she and Charles Wierdsma had been living. The elder Wierdsma owned the home. He also pressured her in texts and phone calls to delete photos of her bruised face from her Facebook page, according to court documents.

After she refused, he sent her an e-mail complaining about that and stating: "I will be copying the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement with this and other information. As you know, I funded the legal work and processing fees for you to become a citizen but am now disappointed in your actions which now require legal proceedings."

A week later, the elder Wierdsma, from an Alaskan cruise ship, sent a letter to an attorney representing Szeremi. He wrote that he would be involving ICE, "with all relevant information, including her social media postings, legal actions required for her eviction and other information we possess regarding her application for citizenship."

In court-documented e-mail exchanges between Thomas and Charles Wierdsma during that time, the two discuss how deportation could be used to their advantage.

Charles Wierdsma wrote to his father that Szeremi's attorneys "have threats from our side to use the heavy hand of GEO to get Beatrix out of the country. This should be our bargaining chip going forward, not theirs."

Several weeks later, Thomas Wierdsma wrote: "Let's drop the immigration issue and particularly any involvement of Geo. If I elect to get in touch with immigration after she is evicted, that is my business and in no way related to what is currently going on."

After Thomas Wierdsma began his eviction proceedings against Szeremi, she filed a counterclaim alleging a laundry list of wrongs, including victim intimidation, abuse of process, outrageous conduct and civil conspiracy against Thomas Wierdsma, and assault, battery, false imprisonment, outrageous conduct and negligence against Charles Wierdsma.

That is when the details of the physical abuse as well as the abuse of power got a public airing, including a video of Thomas Wierdsma's threats and deposition admissions that Szeremi's attorney, John Pineau, posted on YouTube.

After a week-long trial, a jury in that civil case found that both Wierdsmas had exhibited outrageous behavior and awarded Szeremi $1.2 million. The judge later lowered the damages to $12,000, based on a state law that limits punitive damages.

Szeremi has appealed that ruling, a matter that is expected to take several more years to move through the court system.

Catherine Olguin of the Boulder District Attorney's Office said an investigator is working the case on the criminal end and that it would likely take several more months before a decision is made about criminal charges against Thomas Wierdsma. If he is charged, it could be tied to witness tampering, witness retaliation or witness intimidation.

NAB CEO Gordon Smith Addresses Smartphone Receivers

National Association of Broadcasters CEO Gordon Smith issued a deceptively simple challenge to his organization's members: Continue to innovate and find new ways to provide content to listeners on different platforms. Smith presented his annual State of the Industry address Monday morning at the 2013 NAB Show in Las Vegas.

Smith says he is optimistic about the future and broadcasters should be as well, because of how the industry has consistently been able to adapt to consumers' changing IC card. “The time has come for us to unite in our embrace of new technology, and to realize the consequences if we don't. Our future lies in innovating and spurring technology that will deliver our highly valued content to any platform for generations to come.”

Talking about radio specifically, Smith discussed the potential for including radio receivers in smartphones, “Future radios in smartphones will combine over-the-air and online content for a rich, ‘hybrid radio’ experience that provides interactive enhancements, along with potential new revenue opportunities.”

He is referring to the chip included in the majority of all smartphones sold in the United States that could function as an AM/FM receiver and would allow consumers to listen to over-the-air broadcasts without going through their cellular network like a stream does, “and that is great news for radio listeners.” While used widely in Europe, in most American phones the chips are not active.

The NAB along with broadcasters like Emmis Communications Chairman, President and CEO Jeff Smulyan, have been lobbying the wireless industry to activate the chips in the US and recently scored a big victory when Sprint agreed to turn on the chips in several of their handsets.

Smith also talked about how the changing nature of in-car entertainment systems, “I have no doubt we will we continue to retain our rightful place in the automobile, and that we'll be offering not just AM, not just FM, not just HD, but an interactive, hybrid experience that gives our listeners more options than ever before.”

 Ronaldo leads Europe's top-tier competition with nine goals in nine outings. And with Galatasaray needing to score early and often, the prolific Portugal forward will likely enjoy ample chances to add to his tally.

Ronaldo opened last week's first leg with a delicate chip shot, and he needed just 45 minutes on Saturday to net his 46th goal this season in all competitions and set up another in Madrid's 5-1 rout of Levante in the Spanish league.

The last time Madrid lost by three goals or more in the Champions League was in 2008-09 when it fell 4-0 at Liverpool. Barring a similar upset by the hosts, nine-time champion Madrid is on course to reach its 24th semifinal.

Madrid will be without midfielder Xabi Alonso and center back Sergio Ramos, who will be serving a one-match suspension for accumulation of yellow cards. Backup playmaker Kaka was left off the squad for health reasons.

Young France defender Raphael Varane will likely replace Ramos alongside Pepe, while Alonso's absence could be filled by Luka Modric.

Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has designated Diego Lopez as his starting goalkeeper, meaning Spain captain Iker Casillas will watch from the dugout for the second straight match since recovering from a broken hand.

"We have a good result, but the series is not over and we need to stay alert,'' Lopez said. "They are good on the counterattack and have players who like to go one-on-one in open spaces. I expect it will be a tough game because of the crowd.

"The key is keeping calm at the back, and then looking to score a goal that would practically seal our pass to the next round.''

Galatasaray is hoping UEFA will remove the yellow card given to striker Burak Yilmaz in the first leg that rules him out of Tuesday's game. Yilmaz, who leads his team with eight goals in the tournament, was booked for supposedly diving in the area, when televised replays show he was fouled by Ramos.

If Yilmaz is not cleared to play, the Turkish leaders' hopes will largely rest on former Mourinho charges Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder.

Coach Fatih Terim's attack-minded game plan backfired for Galatasaray in the first game, as Madrid's scoring trio of Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Gonzalo Higuain all took full advantage of its exposed defense.

Midfielder Felipe Melo gave Galatasaray a 10 percent chance of going through after its stinging defeat in the Spanish capital.

"Being three goals behind means we must go all out and that will mean leaving spaces in which they can play,'' Melo said. "Nothing is impossible in football, though. As long as there is a chance, I will always believe.

Back in 2011, Creative unveiled the Recon 3D series of soundcards based off their (at the time) new Sound Core 3D chipset, which were decent soundcards for gaming and general audio, but didn’t include any real audio processing hardware (DACs, ADCs, etc.) other than the Sound Core 3D chipset itself. While the Sound Core 3D chipset is definitely impressive especially with its audio processing ability and lower power consumption, the problem with this is that with proper headphones and speakers, the sound quality on the Recon 3D series soundcards couldn’t match older Sound Blaster X-Fi soundcards such as the Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium, X-Fi Titanium HD, and even the older Audigy 2 cards, which sported superior audio hardware when compared to the Recon 3D series. This unfortunately led many audio enthusiasts and audiophiles to dismiss the Recon 3D series, which allowed other vendors such as ASUS for example to capture a large portion of the dedicated soundcard market previously dominated by chip card.

Late last year, only a year after the introduction of the Recon 3D series of soundcards, Creative unveiled the new Sound Blaster Z series of soundcards. Unlike the Sound Blaster Recon 3D series of soundcards, the Sound Blaster Z series soundcards carried real audio hardware such as dedicated Op-Amps, ADCs, and DACs, which greatly improved sound quality in addition to the Sound Core 3D audio processing chip – something that that Sound Blaster Recon 3D failed to do.

Family thrills on Gold Coast

Not a minute of it. On an action-packed family holiday with my teenage son Blair, I was bounced down a hill in a water-filled plastic plastic card, screamed my lungs out on rides at the big theme parks and went face-to-face with a tiger and a baby crocodile.

The Gold Coast is renowned for its classic family attractions and we explored and enjoyed the rides of Dreamworld and WhiteWater World, but away from the theme parks, Blair and I found a heap of activity for families to dive into. On South Stradbroke Island, where the Tallship Island Adventures cruise travels to, we were whipped around on the water in an exciting jetboat ride. We patted the dolphins at Sea World, fed tigers and held a snake and a baby crocodile at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

Our adventure took us away from the developed areas. When we arrived at McLaren's Landing - 17km from the centre of Surfers - Bruce Nicholls, owner of the family-run business, had a delicious barbie on the go. Tourists can parasail, jetski, sand toboggan, ride a Segway and go on eco tours at Stradbroke.

"This form of nature-based tourism you can't guarantee, but it's a chance to see the natural environment," Bruce explained as we travelled in a 4WD down one of the island's three firetracks to Eastern Pacific Ocean beach.

 It looked magnificent in all its wild glory, the surf crashing on the windy beach, and Blair had a lot of fun sand-tobogganing down the dunes.

Bruce's family keeps the island in as natural a state as possible. There is no electricity, sewerage system or water - the island has generators and the water is purified. There are no predators to bother the monitor lizards and rare wallabies.

"It's a real Aussie bush experience," Bruce said as a wallaby with a little joey in her pouch approached us for a curious look.

Next up, we went zorbing. On the Gold Coast, they've taken to it with relish and call it Oz Ball - after the stoush over Phar Lap and pavlova, bouncing down hills in plastic balls could be grounds for the latest transtasman scrap.

"I wouldn't go in this one," said the assistant, who would later launch me from the top of the hill. "What? Why not?" I asked as I was diving through the hole in the middle and had belts being secured around my ankles, around my waist and over my shoulders. He assured me I'd be fine, but that I needed to be strapped in as this ride would go fast and I'd be going backwards, forwards, side to side.

His favourite was the hydro zorb - you are not strapped in and slosh around with water inside the ball - so I wondered why I was having to try the harness one. But I was told I would not be a true "zorbette"if I didn't brave the bumpy, twisty, dizzy ride that the harness zorb offered.

"Are you comfortable?" asked Peter Murray, owner of Cloud9 Seaplanes. I barely got the word "yes" out before the plane was on its side and we were looking at luxury homes near Surfers Paradise from an unusual angle. Then Peter, who flies many unsuspecting women to secluded islands where their boyfriends are waiting to provide a romantic dinner and pop the question, said he wanted to surprise a fella he knew who was driving a jetboat below us. If the driver gave us the finger, he said, he had done a good job. We dive-bombed the jetboat. I was too surprised to notice what the driver did, but enjoyed every moment of Peter's antics. The seaplane is a fun, fast way to travel and see scenery up close and from a different view.

The harness zorb is not for the faint-hearted, but all the family can enjoy the hydro zorb, which doesn't leave you feeling as dizzy. I was a bit apprehensive about swishing around inside the ball, along with 40 litres of water, as I rolled down the hill. The challenge was to stand up, start running as fast as I could when I was pushed off the platform and stay upright while the ball was speeding down the hill. Yeah, right. But it was fun. You can plan a party here and choose to replace the water in the zorb with champagne, chocolate syrup or bubble bath. One group filled the zorb with tomatoes, which provided a challenge for staff to clean up afterwards.

 "There is no way I'm doing that," declared my son Blair when I told him we were going to feed the tigers. We had just watched one of Tiger Island's magnificent young Sumatran tigers casually wrap his paws around a handler holding a milk carton for him to drink from. Blair calmed down a little when I said we wouldn't be roaming around the island enclosure - we would be feeding tigers from behind a wire fence, poking their meat through on the end of a pair of tongs. Still, it was scary when the handler had the tiger run at the fence and the photographer asked me to smile and look at him while the tiger was grabbing the piece of meat off my tongs. These beautiful animals are hypnotising and it's worth seeing them demonstrate their smart card.

I've always wanted to cuddle a dolphin so the chance to pat one at the Dolphin Discovery Presentation at Sea World seemed as close as I was likely to get. I'm sure these intelligent creatures, which learn to perform amazing tricks, wonder why they can't train us. But they humour us by striking a pose so we can get our souvenir shot. Bottlenose dolphins establish a pecking order like humans do - they maintain dominance by biting, chasing, jaw-clapping, and smacking their tails on the water. When they get aggressive they scratch one another with their teeth (I use my nails, but the principle is the same). They also show aggression by emitting bubble clouds from their blowholes, so stay clear of these when patting them. The trainer told us they enjoyed being stroked on their backs so I obliged. A dolphin's skin is amazing to touch - it's rubbery, but incredibly smooth.