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Couple seek $2m over banned cat

uebueb2 — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:29:12 +0200

A Gold Coast couple say they will seek up to $2 million compensation following the Federal Government's decision to ban savannah cats from the continent.Glenn and Karen Parker, of Benowa, planned to import 14 savannah cats this year and say they have written approval from the Federal Government and Australian Customs.Environment Minister Peter Garrett yesterday banned the breed from Australia, saying they posed an extreme risk to native animals and the environment.Savannah cats are a cross between a domestic cat and a serval, a medium-size wild cat from Africa. They can grow to more than double times the size of a domestic cat and weigh up to 12 kilograms.Mr Parker told the Gold Coast Bulletin the decision had ruined his business plans and would leave him out of pocket."We're basically pressing for full compensation," he said."We had full written approval from Canberra to import the savannahs. Now action is going to be taken against us when we have done everything right."Mr Parker said the decision may have exposed him to legal action from the American breeders of the animals, which were already in quarantine awaiting entry to Australia.

Rabid cat in Bethel Park

uebueb2 — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:28:36 +0200

The Allegheny County Health Department is urging anyone who may have come in contact with a long haired black stray cat with white chest marking, in the area of Gardenville Road in Bethel Park, between July 25 and Aug. 1, to call the Health Department at 412-687-ACHD. The cat tested positive for rabies after biting one person on Aug. 1, when it was captured, killed and submitted to the Health Department for testing. The person exposed to the stray cat is being treated with anti-rabies vaccine as a precaution and not expected to develop rabies.Other stray cats have been reported in the same vicinity. Anyone who sees these strays should avoid contact with them and call 911 or the local animal control service.

Ohio woman bills Michigan $16 for work z...

uebueb2 — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:28:16 +0200

PERRYSBURG, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio woman has sent Michigan transportation officials a bill for the $16 she says she wasted on gasoline sitting in construction zone traffic. Carol Greenberg complained there were no signs warning about the work on southbound Interstate 275 where it merges with I-75 near Newport, Michigan, about 27 miles north of Toledo.So, she said she got stuck idling for about 50 minutes on July 23 while trying to get home to the Toledo suburbs with her cat after a visit to a specialty veterinarian outside Detroit. She said her Maine coon cat, Sammy, didn't like the delay either and howled the entire time.In a response letter, the Michigan Department of Transportation says it's not able to reimburse drivers for time, wages, or gas lost in work zone back-ups.

Arctic Cat Inc (ACAT) holdings reduced b...

uebueb2 — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:27:43 +0200

LONG BEACH (Mffais.com) - Blackrock Investment Management Llc sold -70,396 (-98.18 %) of their shares in Arctic Cat Inc (ACAT), bringing their current holdings to 1,300 shares as shown by filings made public on 2008-08-04. The stock is currently owned by 132 funds/institutions with a total activity score of -0.25. With 30.35 % of owning funds reported recently buying shares, 21.42 % maintaining existing share level and 48.21 % selling shares. Full details for Arctic Cat Inc (ACAT) available.

Cat licensing considered

uebueb2 — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:27:21 +0200

WEST SPRINGFIELD - The City Council and Board of Health have taken up an issue that could make some cat lovers howl - licensing pet cats. The question arose from a discussion of a public health issue - feral cats. Health Director Jeanne M. Galloway, at a meeting Monday with the Board of Health and City Council, said there are at least seven colonies of feral cats in the city.

44-Pound Cat Finds New Home

uebueb2 — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:26:57 +0200

BLACKWOOD, N.J. (CBS) ― A hefty 44-pound cat found wandering southern New Jersey is said to be living large in a new home. A Garden State family reportedly adopted the 44-pound feline. The new owners were selected from more than 100 applications. Vince Damiani at the Camden County Animal Shelter said workers there had nearly 150 applications to consider before deciding on a family to adopt. Powder's previous owner had to give him up because she lost her home and could no longer take care of him.

GEICO CAT Teams On Standby for Tropical...

uebueb2 — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:26:30 +0200

HOUSTON, Aug 04, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- GEICO's Catastrophe Response Teams (CAT) are on standby, ready to assist if Tropical Storm Edouard touches down in the Texas area and vehicles are damaged. Gary Brown, GEICO's regional vice president for Texas, says that catastrophe information is available at www.geico.com with preparedness tips, links to other important hurricane information and weather sites, and immediate claims handling capabilities. GEICO urges policyholders to take all necessary steps to protect their families, their homes and their vehicles prior to the storm. All GEICO policyholders are urged to log on to www.geico.com or call 1-800-841-3000 as soon as any storm damage affects them and their claims will be processed immediately. GEICO will dispatch special claims teams to damaged areas, if necessary, to help get people back on the road. GEICO (Government Employees Insurance Company) is the third largest private passenger auto insurer in the United States, covering more than 8.5 million policyholders and insuring more than 14.4 million vehicles.

Storm Cat filly tops sale; Slow start ov...

uebueb2 — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:25:52 +0200

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.: A $1.5-million filly by Storm Cat purchased by Barry Irwin, president of Team Valor International, topped the first of two sessions Monday at the Fasig-Tipton sale of selected yearlings Monday night.The bay filly was one of only two yearlings to sell for more than $1 million during an opening session marked by little foreign participation.Breeder William S. Farish, former ambassador to England, made a final bid of $1.2 million for Pyramid Indy, a colt by A.P Indy.John Ferguson, who represents Darley Stable, one of the racing entities operated by the ruling family of Dubai, purchased three yearlings for a total of $2.1 million, the most expensive a $900,000 colt by Distorted Humor. Participation by Arab and European interests, however, was light.Sixty horses were sold for a total of $18.16 million, slightly less than the $19.86-million gross receipts from last year's first session. The average price of $302,667 was an increase of 16 percent year over year. Twenty-five yearlings, however, failed to reach their reserve prices, 29 percent of those cataloged compared to 22 percent in 2007.

iPhone Nano To Be Launched By Christmas?

uebueb2 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:43:46 +0200

iPhone As soon as you try the current iPhone keyboard for more than 10minutes and see it actually is REALLY good.

As a long-time Treo 600/650 user I was really sceptical about nothaving a proper keyboard, but the fact is that I (and everyone Iknow who has tried it for a while) got used to it surprisinglyquickly, 3 days at most I'd say, and now can type on it about asfast as I could my Treo. At first the predictive text (which I haveto say is better than most) helped, but now I simply don't makethat many mistakes.

Comments implying it's unusable without a physical keyboard justperpetuate the fallacy that there is no other alternative. There'sjust stubborn people, the same ones who last generation refused toadapt to touch-tone phones, broadband, automatic gearboxes, digitalsynths, electric shavers, you name it. Welcome to being a GrumpyOld Man

Teleport for IPhone

uebueb2 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:42:27 +0200

iPhone When launched, Teleport will scan your network and find anymachines on which you've enabled sharing--you can then select theproper machine, enter the password, and save that connection forfuture use. This is a big timesaver over Mocha VNC, which requiresyou to manually set up all servers.

Once connected to a machine, you'll find that Teleport can displayall of that machine's displays, and display them at their fullresolution. Mocha VNC is limited to one display at a maximumresolution of 1,680-by-1,200. You can rotate the screenhorizontally, and use the usual iPhone gestures to zoom in or outon the display. Beyond zooming, though, Teleport offers a fullsuite of gestures to do those things you'd do on a Mac or PC. Atwo-finger tap is a right-click; drag is a double-tap, followed bya drag motion; move scroll bars with two-finger vertical swipes;send the Left and Right Arrow keys with a two-fingered horizontalswipe.

Once you memorize these gestures, interacting with a machine onTeleport is much more intuitive than it is using Mocha. It's greatbeing able to easily scroll, drag, and right-click without relyingon on-screen keyboards or having to drag a scroll bar with yourfinger. Another Teleport feature is that it sends mouse events(clicks, drags, and so on) to the location of the always-visiblemouse pointer. Mocha, when in mouse mode, moves the mouse pointerto the spot you tapped.

This may seem like a minor difference, but it's actually a hugeadvantage for Teleport--because your finger's position isindependent of the pointer, you can see what would otherwise belocated under your finger when using Mocha. If your finger happensto be covering something you want to see, just pick it up and placeit somewhere else; the mouse pointer will stay right where it is.After spending some time with Teleport, using Mocha'sclick-and-set-position method really felt slow and clunky, and myfinger was seemingly always in the way of just what it was I wantedto see. (You can avoid this issue by toggling Mocha's screen/mousebutton, but I don't always remember to do that, and it's a bit of apain to switch every time you want to see something onscreen.)

The area above the keyboard shows your typing in real time, even ifyou're on a slow network connectionAnother innovation in Teleporthas to do with the keyboard. When you're typing in a remote programover a network connection, there's always going to be some lag, andthat makes accurate typing difficult. To help with that problem,Teleport echoes your typing locally, as seen in the image at right,in an area immediately above the keyboard. This makes it mucheasier to write accurately, even if the network connection is slow.

Vendor ships hardware-based iPhone 3G un...

uebueb2 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:41:33 +0200

iPhone While a software-based unlock (allowing use on unauthorizedcarriers) for the iPhone 3G has yet to materialize, one recognizedvendor says it plans to ship a hardware-based SIM unlock for the device on August 20th.

USB Fever, which offers a number of cases, cables and otheraccessories for various iPhone and iPod models, says it will ship aSIM unlock made of a very thin piece of FPC (0.10mm) with a mountedmicro-controller that fits between an an operators SIM card and thephone’s SIM socket.

A product description reads:“Because of it’s very thin and slim design it fits intoalmost all phone’s on the market and can also be easilyremoved again. It’s got Gold Immersion and makes perfectcontact with the card and the socket at all times. Cutting of yourOperator’s SIM card is required but kept to a minimum.

“This SIM unlock is a revolutionary do-it-yourself Plug &Play card for unlocking iPhone 3G without the risk of damaging theiPhone 3G or voiding it’s warranty. This SIM unlock isinserted into the iPhone 3G in parallel with your operator’sSIM card and enables you to use your card on phones locked toanother provider.”The SIM unlock will be priced at $35.

What would be the point of an iPhone Nan...

uebueb2 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:32:35 +0200

A weekend story in Britain's Daily Mail has resurrected rumors that Apple plans tointroduce a smaller and cheaper version of the iPhone -- perhapsfor this year's Christmas season.

Many observers think it's a given that Apple will introduce aniPhone Nano. The only question, according to such folks, is when they'll hit the market.

But I have a very different question: Why would anyone want asmaller iPhone?

The current model doesn't sell because it plays music in additionto making phone calls. Plenty of phones do that and do it well.

No, the iPhone sells because it provides a functional computer --with a workable Internet -- that fits in your hand.

Perhaps a smaller version could do much the same thing, but I don'tsee how. The screen on the current version is just large enough tofit a useful screen and a workable keyboard.

And you wouldn't even have to expand the phone an inch on bothdirections to accomplish that. Because the current screen doesn'tgo to the edges, I'd guess than an extra half inch in bothdirections would be enough.

Such an expansion would more than double the iPhone's usefulness --and leave it smaller than some existing smart phones.

VC Partner: IPhone Falls Short As a Busi...

uebueb2 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:14:48 +0200

iPhone Every multifunction device has an Achilles' Heel, and with theiPhone it's enterprise capabilities, says a wireless trends expert.

Maha Ibrahim, an investor and specialist in wireless trends atCanaan Partners venture capital, said Apple faces severalchallenges as it pushes iPhone 3G into the enterprise market. Shesaid that though the handset is a great device, the iPhone 3G'slack of a QWERTY keyboard and

meager battery life top its list of weaknesses when it comes to meeting the needs ofbusiness users.

"Apple is certainly trying ut I just don't think, given thelack of a QWERTY keyboard, that you're going to see the iPhonesupplant the BlackBerry in terms of usage in the enterprise,"Ibrahim said in a phone interview.

Research In Motion's BlackBerry, she explained, is primarilydesigned with e-mail in mind. By way of comparison, Apple's e-mailfunctions are not streamlined enough for the business user,requiring multiple actions to execute actions such as deletingmessages. And though the iPhone features a fancy web browser, iPodand so forth, those features aren't useful for business purposes,she added.

Phone reliability would also top the list of concerns for abusiness user -- and Ibrahim said AT&T isn't the ideal choice in that regard.

"Particularly in the bay area, that's been AT&T's cross tobear," she said. "It's cobbled together a network ofCellularOne, which is terrible, and a few others. It's not thegreatest coverage."

Ibrahim makes some fine points, which we'll delve into deeper thisweek when we speak to some enterprise and corporate users. Theimplementation of push e-mail in iPhone 2.0 is a welcome addition,as well as Exchange support, but as it stands, the popular handsetteeters heavily toward being an entertainment device rather thanthe enterprise handset it wishes it could be as well.

Besides -- if the iPhone were enough, why would people

Report: Apple increasing iPhone 3G produ...

uebueb2 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:54:07 +0200

iPhone Demand for Apple's iPhone 3G remains strong, which could be forcing Apple to ramp productionbeyond its original estimates.TechCrunch is reporting that Apple has asked Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai, to increase production of the iPhone3G to 800,000 units a week. That pace translates to about 40million units a year, far greater than what most analysts had beenexpecting the company to sell in the iPhone 3G era.

A short-term bump in production capacity may not imply that Foxconnwill keep up that pace; TechCrunch's report alludes to "someconcerns about quality control" on the part of either Apple orFoxconn related to the increase. After six weeks with no iPhonesales, there was clearly pent-up demand going into the July 11 launch of the iPhone 3G that may not be sustainable over the rest of the year withoutcausing problems.

But more countries are expected to join the official ranks ofiPhone users in the next several months, and the holiday shoppingseason is usually the catalyst for all sorts of gadgets. Aproduction increase could offset that demand while making it easierto get an iPhone 3G without waiting two weeks for an AT&Tdirect-fulfillment order or playing iPhone roulette at an Applestore.

Apple pulls posted pulled iPhone modem a...

uebueb2 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:49:12 +0200

iPhone When it exists, Netshare is a "tethering" application. Insituations where you can't get onto a wifi network you can create anetwork between your computer and your iPhone, then the computercan use the phone's data connection for Internet browsing. It's notexactly single click setup (numerous walk-throughs have beenpublished, the MacRumors one will give you an idea), but it's something that could come inhandy in circumstances where you don't have anything else.

There are other iPhone applications that do the same job asNetshare, but they require a jailbroken phone. Netshare's claim tofame is that it's the first 'official' (oh yes it is - we have theApple receipt) app that will work with a normal handset.

In the absence of official comment from the Cupertino Curia, thevarious setup and use speed bumps provide one possible explanationfor why the app appeared in the App Store, and why it might makefuture manifestations (Nullriver says it didn't violate anyagreements, and is hopeful it will return). The networks (let's notjust beat up AT&T) don't want great swarms of customers settingup their iPhones as wireless base stations and running theircomputers off them all the time, so they're agin anything thatcould be imagined to facilitate this.

But it's a stretch to imagine Netshare doing this - there's somehocus pocus to setup, in order to work it has to fight againstseveral aspects of the iPhone's design (the borked Bluetooth beingone of them), and hey - if you're in range of all you can eat wifi,what on earth are you doing using 3G instead? In most cases thewifi is going to be a lot faster.

So is this why it appears in the App Store? Only people who're OKabout hand-tooling their network settings are likely to use it, theconnection will time out or the battery will get sucked dry, andthis one app is not about to bring the networks to their knees.Maybe at least somebody at Apple thinks this, but every time theypost Netshare, the networks phone them up and shriek at them?