Amtrak to decide on resuming limited service

(AP) ? Amtrak says most train service in the Northeast remains suspended and a decision will be made later in the day on restoring limited service north and south of New York on Wednesday.

The railroad said in a statement that Amtrak crews are currently inspecting tunnels, tracks, equipment and stations in the Northeast to assess damage from Hurricane Sandy and are beginning to make repairs to sections of Amtrak-owned track. Amtrak said it is also working closely with other railroads on whose tracks Amtrak trains operate to determine when passenger train service can resume.

Most Amtrak service on the East Coast as far north as Boston and as far south as Raleigh, N.C. remains suspended and stations along those routes are closed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-10-30-Superstorm-Amtrak/id-06f6001e19734f24af47ce36e1fa3451

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Improving Productivity with GPS Fleet Tracking

GPS fleet trackingSmall manufacturers need to be productive and efficient all the time ? for both the sake of time and money. GPS fleet tracking technology is very valuable in this respect, and has a variety of features for manufacturing businesses to take advantage of, from communication to management. Consider how your small manufacturing business can also benefit from this software, utilizing seamless communication and better fleet management.

Businesses mainly choose to implement fleet tracking technology in order to improve their customer service experience. They also use it to reduce service response times, reduce operating costs, increase productivity, and extend the life of their commercial vehicles (Improving Productivity and Profitability through Service Fleet Management, Aberdeen Group, March 2008).

Seamless Communication

The value of communication ? between your fleet, your company, and the world at large ? cannot be overemphasized. GPS fleet tracking technology makes communication easy, effective, and safe.

  • In-software messaging with the GPS system helps you avoid cell phone use on the road. In addition to making your drivers safer, it keeps them on the right side of the law where cell phone use while driving is illegal.
  • Custom real-time routing makes it easier for your drivers to get from point A to point B. They can even include recommendations from co-workers on ways to navigate specific routes or areas.
  • Traffic reporting provides drivers with up-to-the-minute traffic conditions so that vehicles can be rerouted easily and effectively. This helps your fleet avoid congested motorways, spend less time in traffic, and save money both in time and gas.

In 2008, the Lansing Board of Water & Light, a publicly owned municipal utility in Lansing, MI, added GPS tracking to 113 of its service vehicles. They found a 12% improvement in effective scheduling and dispatching of work crews in the first year. The improvements in communication also saved each technician 10 minutes per day, saving the company $750,000 per year (Service Workforce and Fleet Management, Aberdeen Group, May 2009).

?When employees are able to facilitate their data out in the field, instead of having to come back to the office all the time, it really cuts down on the expense of managing that particular resource.? ? Bill Brown, Business Systems Analyst, Lansing BWL

Better Management

With the price of oil currently on the rise, finding ways to increase efficiency and save gas is of paramount importance to large and small fleets alike. The fleet management and tracking capabilities of GPS tracking technology helps your business stay ahead by recording and analyzing details quickly and efficiently. Better management of the fleet can result in saved time, saved fuel, and saved money.

  • The GPS software tracks your fleets driving history, recording the number of routes and time efficiency of your routes, drivers, and vehicles. Is it more efficient to take three right turns rather than wait for a left turn signal? GPS software can tell you that and much more.
  • Supervisors can use the software to manage their drivers more efficiently. According to Ford Motor Company, every hour that a vehicle is idling is equal to approximately 25 miles of driving. ?GPS tracking can show managers when the vehicle starts, when it?s in motion and when it?s sitting ? details that can help cut down on idling time and increase efficiency.
  • Automated time sheets reduce the change of errors and give drivers less paperwork to worry about.

American Signature, Inc, a furniture company in the eastern US, implemented GPS tracking for 50 of its 130 total stores in 2009. As a result of the improvements made to their delivery systems through fleet management software , the company has since seen a 15% reduction in miles traveled per store, a 20% reduction in overtime for the delivery teams, and an 11% increase in dollars of merchandise delivered per mile traveled (Aberdeen Group, 2009).

The use of fleet tracking systems in the US is expected to double in the next four years, from 13.3 million to 30.4 million in 2016 according to ABI Research. ?The commercial telematics market continues to enjoy good overall growth as smaller fleets and new non-trucking segments such as delivery, service and public and private transportation are being addressed by vendors offering more affordable solutions,? said Dominique Bonte, VP of Telematics and M2M at ABI.

As more options for fleet tracking emerge, the communication and management capabilities of GPS technology benefits manufacturing businesses both large and small. Businesses can use it to find the most direct driving routes, adapt to current traffic conditions on the fly, and streamline their procedures to be both timely and cost-effective.

Photo credit:?gaebler.com

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Funeral Notice In The Gas Station

by admin on October 29, 2012

This happened about 4 years ago when I was working at a small town convenience store/gas station. A regular customer (Scott) came in to buy diesel for his truck. I knew him a little because I went to school with his son so we had a pleasant conversation while his tank was being filled. There are several funeral homes in the neighboring town who sends funeral notices with information such as who died, their family, when the funeral was, etc. We had gotten several that day and I was talking with Scott while I put them up on the notice board when he all of a sudden became very quiet. He looked at the funeral notices for a moment, looking more upset by the second before saying, ?Oh, well I guess my mom died. My brother never told me.? He quickly paid for his diesel and drove away very upset. When I looked at the notice it said that his mom had died 3 days ago. Imagine finding out your mom died from a public funeral notice!?? 1026-12

Sad.? Very sad.

Source: http://www.etiquettehell.com/?p=3527

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In Vietnam, US relies on pirate site to network

(AP) ? It's a wildly popular website laden with unlicensed songs and Hollywood movies, a prime exhibit of the digital piracy that is strangling the music industry in Asia and eroding legitimate online sales around the world.

The free-to-download bonanza has pushed Vietnam's Zing.vn into the ranks of the globe's top 550 websites. But a few clicks inside the site reveal a surprising presence: the U.S. government, which maintains a bustling social media account there.

Washington is a vocal proponent of intellectual property rights in Vietnam as it is around the world, and a site like Zing would be shut down in the United States. But with space for public diplomacy limited in Communist Vietnam, the American embassy uses its "Zingme" account to reach out to young people in Vietnam as it seeks to build closer ties with its former enemy.

The embassy's presence shows just how mainstream pirate sites have become in Vietnam, where the government does nothing to stop them operating. But it also raises questions whether Washington is legitimizing a renowned pirate site that record labels, singers and industry groups say ignores requests that it take down infringing material.

Coca-Cola and Samsung pulled their advertising from the site earlier this month because of piracy concerns following questions by The Associated Press. The move challenged Zing's business model and was praised by recording industry groups. Samsung said last week it was also closing its Zingme account for the same reason.

The embassy said it recognizes the concerns for U.S. copyright interests posed by Zing but that it believes that contact with the website's users could reduce traffic or infringing activity on it. The mission sometimes uses its Zingme page to post about copyright infringement.

Its statement noted that the site had removed, at its request, the link to infringing material that appears on other Zingme pages as a matter of course. It also noted to its lack of options in a country where the Communist government controls the media, saying "there were few spaces for public discourse and intermittent access to Facebook", referring to a block the government sometimes puts on the American social networking site.

But not everyone thinks engaging with Zing is the right thing to do.

"Here we are as an American company trying to set things right with one of the biggest pirates in Vietnam but the U.S. embassy is essentially showing its support by being on its site," said Mimi Nguyen, an American who has been trying fruitlessly to get Zing to take down some 10,000 songs owned by her family's business for a year.

"It is really sad to find out the embassy is using their platform."

The Recording Industry Association of America, which praised the decision by Samsung and Coke to withdrawn from Zing and has labeled Zing a "notorious" pirate site, said it was neither endorsing nor criticizing the embassy's decision to maintain the site.

Neil Turkewitz, a senior vice president at the association, said he imagined the embassy had tried to balance the ability to target a tech-savvy demographic with anti-piracy messages against the appearance of a connection between it and the site.

"My guess is that it wasn't an easy decision," he said.

The recording industry around the world is struggling to make money from online distribution models, and illegal downloading remains rampant. Artists and producers in much of Asia are feeling the pinch especially hard because governments have failed to pass or enforce anti-piracy laws. Licensed CDs, films and downloads can cost the equivalent of a day's salary, making it even harder to wean people off pirated products.

In Vietnam, inaction by a government that sees no political upside in cracking down on what many see as a victimless crimes has pushed the industry to the point of collapse. Zing is seen as the No.1 enemy by those who speak out against its effective stranglehold over the country's music industry.

"Zing is destroying the industry and they know it," said record producer Quoc Trung, who is leading a campaign against online piracy. "We need people to pay for music, not just click on it. It is now or never."

Zing, which declined repeated requests for comment on this article and a previous one, has used free download to become the sixth-most visited site in Vietnam, and the second most popular Vietnamese music download site. Around 15 percent of its visitors are from overseas. It is not the only infringing website in Vietnam by far, but it is the most visited.

Sites that offer pirated content alongside other Internet services like Zing exist elsewhere around the world and are among the most reprehensible, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

"They want to appear as legitimate actors, and have functions unrelated to piracy, yet operate network services that include features that intentionally and effectively induce infringement," it said in a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative in August asking the government to use all the tools at its disposal to ensure Zing and others are not permitted to undermine legitimate online markets.

"These services deliberately gain market share by providing access to infringing materials, launching music services without any form of licensing, and have demonstrated continued resolve to engage in conduct based upon misappropriation."

Zingme closely resembles Facebook, which recently overtook the Vietnamese site in subscriber numbers, according to one research group. Facebook is sometimes blocked by the government because of fears it could be used to mobilize dissent against its one-party rule. Zingme is never blocked, and is more popular with younger, less educated Vietnamese. Companies and institutions often have accounts on both. The embassy has more than 18,000 friends on Zingme, compared to 12,000 on Facebook.

Many in the industry have no choice but to work with Zing even as it distributes their music and films for free. Not having your music on the site means getting an audience for live concerts, or attracting commercial sponsorship, is almost impossible, industry executives said. But a few are pushing back, among them established singer Le Quyen, who is suing Zing and eight other infringing websites.

"I'm sure that Zing is aware that what they do is wrong, but they are afraid that other singers will put pressure on them if I win the case," she said before one of her near-weekly concerts at a venue owned by her husband here. "That's why they keep avoiding my demands. Their tactic is to drag the case on until their opponent gets tired and gives up."

Some in the industry predict Zing and other websites will embrace a more legitimate model, rather like Baidu in neighboring China, which after years of complaints from international and local record labels about pirated content signed a licensing deal with its former critics last year. Major Western record labels eager to sell music in the 13th most populous country in the world have been in early talks with Zing and other sites, but there is no deal on the horizon.

For now, the sites are not taking down their unlicensed content because doing so would mean that users would flock to that of a rival, and new ones are cropping all the time. Those offering unlimited downloads of Hollywood movies for a monthly subscription as low as $2 are amassing large audiences, and could be looking to leveraging their popularity to become legitimate providers.

"In Vietnam, you build an audience first, and then you negotiate," said Phung Tien Cong, a manager at MVCorp, which is trying to establish a pay-for-song business in collaboration with Zing, other websites and license holders.

_______

Brummitt can be reached at https://twitter.com/cjbrummitt.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-10-29-Vietnam-US-Digital%20Piracy/id-7d42d85b59a24d4cb35737e2b852bba1

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Report: Pop star arrested in UK abuse case

British police arrested convicted sex offender and former pop star Gary Glitter on Sunday as part of an investigation into allegations of child sex abuse by the late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile, media said.

Glitter was released on bail some 10 hours later. But the arrest - the first to be reported in the case - widened a scandal that has already damaged the reputation of the publicly-funded BBC and the legacy of Savile, a former DJ who was one of the broadcaster's top show hosts and a prolific charity fundraiser.

The head of the BBC's governing body said on Sunday the broadcaster's reputation was on the line, and promised to get to the bottom of the scandal.

'A steep fall' for BBC as child sex abuse scandal rocks UK

A police statement said a man in his 60s had been picked up just after 7 am (0700 GMT) on suspicion of sexual offenses in the investigation termed "Savile and others." The statement did not name the man and a spokesman declined further comment.

The BBC and Sky News identified the man picked up from his London home as Glitter, a 68-year-old who was popular as a glam-rock singer in the 1970s.

Footage on both broadcasters showed Glitter, who was wearing a hat and sunglasses and was not handcuffed, leaving an apartment in central London and being driven away. Hours later, television showed investigators carrying large black bags as they left the house.

Glitter was held by police for about 10 hours. He was seen leaving a police station in central London and, minutes later, return to his apartment, where he dodged questions by scores of waiting reporters and cameramen.

Police later said the man was "bailed to return to the police station in mid-December 2012, pending further inquiries."

Jimmy Savile abuse scandal stuns Britain: a who's who primer

Glitter, born Paul Gadd, shot to fame in the early 1970s with the hit "Rock and Roll," trademark figure-hugging shiny silver all-in-one suits, platform shoes and large black hair.

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Glitter served two months was jail in Britain in 1999 for possession of child pornography. He then moved to Cambodia, but was deported in 2002 due to suspected sex offences.

In 2006, a Vietnamese court convicted him of committing obscene acts with two girls aged 10 and 11 and sentenced him to four years in jail. On his release he returned to Britain.

Allegations that Savile sexually abused young girls for decades first emerged in an expose on the British TV channel ITV. Since then, police say some 300 victims had come forward.

Victims' allegations broadcast by ITV include claims from one woman that she had seen Glitter having sex with an underage girl in Savile's BBC dressing room while Savile abused another girl. Glitter has denied the claim, according to the BBC.

With the scandal widening, public outrage has increased. A cottage in the Scottish Highlands that belonged to Savile was vandalized overnight, with abusive slogans painted on its walls, local police said.

Blind eye?
The scandal has raised troubling questions about the BBC's management and its past workplace culture. Revelations that an investigation by Newsnight, the BBC's flagship TV news show, was shelved last December led to claims bosses at the broadcaster knew about the allegations but kept quiet.

"Can it really be the case that no one knew what he was doing? Did some turn a blind eye to criminality?" asked Chris Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust which oversees the broadcaster, writing in the Mail on Sunday.

Video: Savile BBC scandal shocks UK (on this page)

The Sunday Times said the office of former BBC director Mark Thompson was alerted about the allegations twice, in May and September. Thompson is poised to take over as chief executive of the New York Times, and the Sunday Times quoted his spokesman as saying Thompson had not been told about the allegations on either occasion.

Thompson has told Reuters that he did not know about the nature of the investigation by the Newsnight program into Savile, and had no involvement in the decision to axe the report.

The BBC said on its website on Sunday that "Thompson has said the first time he had been made aware of claims that Savile had committed serious crimes and that some had taken place while the entertainer was working at the BBC was after he stepped down as director general."

The broadcaster has announced two investigations as a result of the scandal, and Patten promised full cooperation.

"The BBC's reputation is on the line," he wrote. "The BBC must tell the truth and face up to the truth about itself, however terrible."

When Savile died in October last year aged 84, his gold coffin went on public display and he was lauded as a "national treasure" who had raised millions of pounds for good causes.

A year later, police describe him as "undoubtedly" one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders, and the Vatican said a papal knighthood given to Savile decades ago for his charity work "should not have been bestowed".

Savile's family said it was in despair over the allegations and offered its "deepest sympathy" to abuse victims. It also said it had decided to remove the headstone on Savile's grave and destroy it to avoid it becoming a target for vandals.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling on Sunday rejected a call by the deputy leader of the opposition Labour party for an independent, over-arching inquiry, arguing that such a process risked taking much longer to get to the truth.

Grayling told the BBC that efforts should focus on finding anyone involved in abuse alongside Savile and bringing them to justice.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49585855/ns/world_news-europe/

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Giants beat Tigers 4-3 in 10 innings for sweep

DETROIT (AP) ? Finally pressed in the World Series, the San Francisco Giants finished off a most unexpected and stunning sweep.

Marco Scutaro delivered one more key hit this October, hitting a go-ahead single with two outs in the 10th inning that lifted the Giants over the Detroit Tigers 4-3 in Game 4 on Sunday night.

Nearly eliminated over and over earlier in the playoffs, the Giants sealed their second title in three seasons when Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera looked at strike three right down the middle for the final out.

On a night of biting cold, stiff breezes and some rain, the Giants combined the most important elements of championship baseball ? great pitching, timely hitting and sharp defense.

Series MVP Pablo Sandoval and the underdog Giants celebrated in the center of the diamond at Comerica Park after winning six elimination games this postseason.

"Tonight was a battle," said Giants star Buster Posey, who homered. "And I think tonight was a fitting way for us to end it because those guys played hard. They didn't stop, and it's an unbelievable feeling."

Cabrera delivered the first big hit for Detroit, interrupting San Francisco's run of dominant pitching with a two-run homer that blew over the right-field wall in the third.

Posey put the Giants ahead 3-2 with a two-run homer in the sixth and Delmon Young hit a tying home run in the bottom half.

It then became a matchup of bullpens, and the Giants prevailed.

Ryan Theriot led off the 10th with a single against Phil Coke, moved up on Brandon Crawford's sacrifice and scored on Scutaro's shallow single. Center fielder Austin Jackson made a throw home, to no avail.

Sergio Romo struck out the side in the bottom of the 10th for his third save of the Series.

The Giants finished the month with seven straight wins and their seventh Series championship. They handed the Tigers their seventh straight World Series loss dating to 2006.

"Obviously, there was no doubt about it. They swept us," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "So there was certainly no bad breaks, no fluke.

"Simple, they did better than we did."

An NL team won the title for the third straight season, a run that hadn't occurred in 30 years. Some find the streak surprising, considering the AL's recent dominance in interleague play. Yet as every fan knows, the club that pitches best in the postseason usually prevails.

Until the end, the Tigers thought one big hit could shift the momentum. It was an all-too-familiar October lament ? Texas felt the same way when the Giants throttled them in 2010, and Tigers knew the feeling when St. Louis wiped them out in 2006.

Howling winds made it feel much colder than the 44 degrees at gametime. Two wrappers blew across home plate after leadoff man Angel Pagan struck out, and fly balls played tricks in the breeze.

The Giants started with their pregame ritual. They clustered around Hunter Pence in the dugout, quickly turning into a bobbing, whooping, pulsing pack, showering themselves with sunflower seeds. A big league good-luck charm, Little League style.

And once again, San Francisco took an early lead. Pence hit a one-hop drive over the center-field fence for a double and Brandon Belt tripled on the next pitch for a 1-0 lead in the second.

The next inning, Cabrera gave the Tigers a reason to think this might be their night.

With two outs and a runner on first, Cabrera lofted an opposite-field fly to right ? off the bat, it looked like a routine out shy of the warning track. But with winds gusting over 25 mph, the ball kept carrying, Pence kept drifting toward the wall and the crowd kept getting louder.

Just like that, it was gone.

Cabrera's homer gave Detroit its first lead of the Series, ended its 20-inning scoreless streak and reaffirmed a pregame observation by Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline.

"The wind usually blows to right at this time of year," Kaline said.

In the fourth, Max Scherzer and catcher Gerald Laird teamed on a strike 'em out-throw 'em out double play. Scherzer yelled, first baseman Prince Fielder clenched his fist and the Tigers ran off the field on a chilly, windy, rainy evening. At last, it seemed, all the elements were in their favor.

Trailing for the first time since Game 4 of the NL championship series, Posey and the Giants put a dent in Detroit's optimism. Scutaro, the NLCS MVP, led off the sixth with a single and clapped all the way around the bases when Posey sent a shot that sailed just inside the left-field foul pole for a 3-2 lead.

Posey, the only Giants player on the field from the starting lineup in the Game 5 clincher in 2010, almost tripped nearing first base and he watched the ball and began his trot.

Detroit wasn't about to go quietly, however. Young, the ALCS MVP, made it 3-all with another opposite-field homer to right, this one a no-doubt drive.

Fielder finished 1 for 14 (.111) for the Series.

All 24 teams to take a 3-0 lead in the World Series have won it all. In fact, none of those matchups even reached a Game 6. This was the first sweep for an NL team since Cincinnati in 1990.

Working on nine days' rest and trying to extend the Tigers' season, Scherzer kept them close into the seventh. Often recognized for his eyes ? one is light blue, the other is brown ? he's also known as a solid postseason pitcher.

Ditto-plus for Matt Cain, who was working on a nearly perfect year.

The Giants' ace threw a perfect game in June, was the winning pitcher in the All-Star game in July, beat Cincinnati to clinch the division series and topped St. Louis in Game 7 of the NL championship series.

After they left, the relievers decided it.

Octavio Dotel shouted, "Yeah! Let's go!" toward his dugout after striking out Posey to end the eighth. In the bottom half, winning pitcher Jeremy Affeldt got around a leadoff walk when he struck out Cabrera, a flinching Fielder and Young.

Coke returned the favor in the top of the ninth, fanning the side. With Jose Valverde having lost his closer role during a shaky month, Coke stayed in for the 10th and faltered.

The Giants became the first champion that hit the fewest home runs in the majors since St. Louis in 1982. Sandoval's three drives in Game 1 started San Francisco's romp, and its dominant pitching took over from there.

The parade to a sweep masked the problems San Francisco overcame to get this far.

Closer Brian Wilson pitched only two innings before an elbow injury ended his year. All-Star game MVP Melky Cabrera was suspended 50 games for a positive testosterone test, and not welcomed back when the ban ended. Two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum struggled and wound up in the bullpen.

Swept in a three-game set at Arizona to start the season, the Giants were floundering under .500 in mid-May. They soon hit their stride and, boosted by trade deadline deals for Scutaro and Pence, passed the Dodgers in the NL West for good in late August and posted 98 wins.

Getting past Cincinnati and St. Louis in the playoffs presented challenges. Down 2-0 in the best-of-five division series, they rallied for three straight victories in Cincinnati. Trailing the defending champion Cardinals 3-1 in the NLCS, they again took three in a row to advance, clinching in a driving rainstorm.

Six elimination games, six wins. Facing the Tigers, San Francisco proved it could play with a lead, too.

The Giants became the first NL team since the Big Red Machine in the mid-1970s to win two titles in a three-year span. Shut out for 56 years ? Juan Marichal, Willie McCovey and Barry Bonds never won it all ? their self-described "misfits" captured that elusive crown in 2010.

While many of the pitchers have remained, the lineup has seen quite a turnover. Posey, the NL batting champion, was the only position player to start Sunday night who also started the Game 5 clincher in 2010 at Texas.

The Tigers' flop finished off a season in which Cabrera became baseball's first Triple Crown winner since 1967. Detroit overtook the White Sox in the final week to win the AL Central and wound up at 88-74, the AL's seventh-best record.

NOTES: Theriot and Laird had a nice reunion at the plate. They were St. Louis teammates last year when the Cardinals won the title. ... Laird started after Alex Avila was scratched. Avila's right arm was still sore after being hit by a foul tip in the opener. ... Ann Romney, wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, was at the game. ... Cabrera has reached base in all 24 of his postseason games with Detroit.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/giants-beat-tigers-4-3-10-innings-sweep-035450131--mlb.html

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Apartment vacancy rate hits 12-year low | Inside Real Estate News

The apartment vacancy rate in the Denver metro area fell to 4.3 percent in the third quarter, ?dropping to the lowest vacancy rate recorded in any quarter in a dozen years, according to a report released today by the Apartment Association of Metro Denver and the Colorado Division of Realty.

The last time the vacancy rate was lower was in the third quarter of 2000, when it stood at 3.7 percent. At that time, the average monthly rental rate was $722, or about $970 in inflation-adjusted dollars, which is not much higher than today?s average rental rate of $986.

The apartment vacancy rate was down from 2011?s third-quarter rate of 4.9 percent, and was also down from this year?s second quarter rate of 4.8 percent.

For the past 12 quarters, the vacancy rate has fallen when compared to the same quarter one year earlier. The last time the quarterly vacancy rate rose year over year was during the third quarter of 2009.

From the third quarter of 2011 to the same period of 2012, the vacancy rate dropped in Adams, Arapahoe, and Jefferson counties, and in the Boulder/Broomfield area. The vacancy rate rose in Douglas County and was flat in Denver County during the same period.

?Considering that we were already under five-percent vacancy, this additional drop is significant,? said Ron Throupe, professor of Real Estate at the Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management at the University of Denver, the report?s author. ?Rent growth hit an 11-year high during the second quarter, but there is still enough demand out there to keep filling up units.?

As vacancy rates moved down, the area?s average rent increased. During the third quarter of 2012, the average monthly rent of $986 ?in metro Denver is up ?5.2 percent, or $49, from last year?s third-quarter average rent of $936.

The average rent rose in all counties measured except Adams County, with the largest increases found in Arapahoe County in the Boulder/Broomfield area where the average rents grew year over year by 7.1 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively. The county areas with the highest average rents were Douglas County and the Boulder/Broomfield area where the average rents were $1,140 and $1,115, respectively. Adams County reported the lowest average rent at $893.

?The average rent has grown year over year in every quarter for the past two and a half years, and it has recently begun to accelerate,? said Ryan McMaken a spokesman for the Colorado Division of Housing. ?The rent growth we?re now seeing is starting to look like what we experienced in the days of the dot-com boom.?

This year?s third-quarter vacancy rates by county were:

  • Adams, 4.2 percent.
  • Arapahoe, 4.8 percent.
  • Boulder/Broomfield, 2.9 percent.
  • Denver, 4.3 percent.
  • Douglas, 4.1 percent.
  • Jefferson, 3.7 percent.

Average rents for all counties were:

  • Adams, $893.
  • Arapahoe, $956.
  • Boulder/Broomfield, $1115.
  • Denver, $1015.
  • Douglas, $1140
  • Jefferson, $949.

The Vacancy and Rent Surveys are a service provided by the Apartment Association of Metro Denver and the Colorado Department of Local Affairs? Division of Housing to renters and the multi-family housing industry on a quarterly basis. The Colorado Vacancy and Rent Survey reports averages and, as a result, there are often differences in rental and vacancy rates by size, location, age of building, and apartment type. The full report is available through the Apartment Association of Metro Denver? and limited information is available online at the Colorado Division of Housing.

Have a story idea or real estate tip? Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com. InsideRealEstateNews.com is sponsored by Universal Lending, Land Title Guarantee and 8z Real Estate. To read more articles by John Rebchook, subscribe to the Colorado Real Estate Journal.

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Source: http://insiderealestatenews.com/2012/10/apartment-vacancy-rate-hits-12-year-low/

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Profiles in Science Peter G. Neumann: Rethinking the Computer at 80

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Peter G. Neumann

MENLO PARK, Calif. ? Many people cite Albert Einstein?s aphorism ?Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.? Only a handful, however, have had the opportunity to discuss the concept with the physicist over breakfast.

One of those is Peter G. Neumann, now an 80-year-old computer scientist at SRI International, a pioneering engineering research laboratory here.

As an applied-mathematics student at Harvard, Dr. Neumann had a two-hour breakfast with Einstein on Nov. 8, 1952. What the young math student took away was a deeply held philosophy of design that has remained with him for six decades and has been his governing principle of computing and computer security.

For many of those years, Dr. Neumann (pronounced NOY-man) has remained a voice in the wilderness, tirelessly pointing out that the computer industry has a penchant for repeating the mistakes of the past. He has long been one of the nation?s leading specialists in computer security, and early on he predicted that the security flaws that have accompanied the pell-mell explosion of the computer and Internet industries would have disastrous consequences.

?His biggest contribution is to stress the ?systems? nature of the security and reliability problems,? said Steven M. Bellovin, chief technology officer of the Federal Trade Commission. ?That is, trouble occurs not because of one failure, but because of the way many different pieces interact.?

Dr. Bellovin said that it was Dr. Neumann who originally gave him the insight that ?complex systems break in complex ways? ? that the increasing complexity of modern hardware and software has made it virtually impossible to identify the flaws and vulnerabilities in computer systems and ensure that they are secure and trustworthy.

The consequence has come to pass in the form of an epidemic of computer malware and rising concerns about cyberwarfare as a threat to global security, voiced alarmingly this month by the defense secretary, Leon E. Panetta, who warned of a possible ?cyber-Pearl Harbor? attack on the United States.

It is remarkable, then, that years after most of his contemporaries have retired, Dr. Neumann is still at it and has seized the opportunity to start over and redesign computers and software from a ?clean slate.?

He is leading a team of researchers in an effort to completely rethink how to make computers and networks secure, in a five-year project financed by the Pentagon?s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, with Robert N. Watson, a computer security researcher at Cambridge University?s Computer Laboratory.

?I?ve been tilting at the same windmills for basically 40 years,? said Dr. Neumann recently during a lunchtime interview at a Chinese restaurant near his art-filled home in Palo Alto, Calif. ?And I get the impression that most of the folks who are responsible don?t want to hear about complexity. They are interested in quick and dirty solutions.?

An Early Voice for Security

Dr. Neumann, who left Bell Labs and moved to California as a single father with three young children in 1970, has occupied the same office at SRI for four decades. Until the building was recently modified to make it earthquake-resistant, the office had attained notoriety for the towering stacks of computer science literature that filled every cranny. Legend has it that colleagues who visited the office after the 1989 earthquake were stunned to discover that while other offices were in disarray from the 7.1-magnitude quake, nothing in Dr. Neumann?s office appeared to have been disturbed.

A trim and agile man, with piercing eyes and a salt-and-pepper beard, Dr. Neumann has practiced tai chi for decades. But his passion, besides computer security, is music. He plays a variety of instruments, including bassoon, French horn, trombone and piano, and is active in a variety of musical groups. At computer security conferences it has become a tradition for Dr. Neumann to lead his colleagues in song, playing tunes from Gilbert and Sullivan and Tom Lehrer.

Until recently, security was a backwater in the world of computing. Today it is a multibillion-dollar industry, though one of dubious competence, and safeguarding the nation?s computerized critical infrastructure has taken on added urgency. President Obama cited it in the third debate of the presidential campaign, focusing on foreign policy, as something ?we need to be thinking about? as part of the nation?s military strategy.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/science/rethinking-the-computer-at-80.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Hurricane Sandy: How Many Emergency Alerts Did You Get, From ...

Roberta J. Witty
Research VP
11 years at Gartner
33 years IT industry

Roberta Witty is a research VP in Gartner Research, where she is part of the Compliance, Risk and Leadership group. Her primary area of focus is business continuity management and disaster recovery. Ms. Witty is the role specialty lead for? Read Full Bio

Coverage Areas:

by Roberta J. Witty ?|? October 29, 2012 ?|? Submit a Comment

Starting Thursday October 25, 2012, I have received a number of emergency alerts from a variety of players ? in some cases more than one from some of the players:
1. My employer informing me that they are tracking the storm and of office closures on Monday;
2. ONE of my banks suspending overdraft fees and ATM fees for cash transactions;
3. My utility company promising to do their best to restore lost power;
4. My cable/Internet company promising to do their best to restore lost service;
5. My town informing me of the local expectations of and from the storm and to take precautionary measures;
6. the town where my Mother lives informing me what actions they were taking to prepare for the storm (these messages started on Thursday October 25, 2012 ? the earliest I received) and to take precautionary measures;
7. The town where Gartner?s headquarters is located informing me what actions they were taking to prepare for the storm and to take precautionary measures ;
8. The State of Connecticut informing me of the impending storm and to take precautionary measures;
9. NotifyNYC because I used to live there, I now live close enough to the city to still care, I have family there and also because monitor what?s going on there because of the financial services industry concentration;
10. NYC OEM ? ditto;
11. MEMA ? the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency ? I live between two major US cities ? NYC and Boston; and
12. I was also in Vermont over the weekend and due to an application I have on my smartphone, I received weather-related messages all along the I-91 corridor from mid-CT to lower VT.

Some of the alerts were more effective than others ? mainly for phone messages.

PLUS: The best phone messages were those that had a recording from someone from the player ? I recognized their voice, or at least their name.

PLUS: I really liked being able to confirm receipt of both email and SMS messages. This is REALLY important if you don?t want to continue repeatedly getting the same message because the sender has escalation procedures built into their procedures to continue contacting you until a confirmation is received from any endpoint.

MINUS: The worst phone messages were those were I wasn?t home to accept the call and the message told me to call ANOTHER number and enter a code to either acknowledge the message that was left, or to pick up the message.

MINUS: Test-to-speech wasn?t as good as it could be ? a few of those alerts converted ?CT? (Connecticut) to ?Court?. Not critical when you KNOW the context but when you don?t and if it was an instruction, you could cause a crisis just for the translation problem. Some of that problem can be attributed to the message payload: instead of using ?CT? it should have been spelled out ?CONNECTICUT? ? experience will correct those problems very quickly.

I know that I will continue to receive alerts for the next few days if not through the week. I will be blogging about them through this week.

What I want to know from you is your experience of the alerts you received: the good, the bad and the really ugly. For example, a colleague of mine lives in Zone A in Manhattan and the building management of the apartment in which they live sent out phone and email messages about mandatory evacuation ? the phone message came through 3 1/2 hours AFTER the deadline of the evacuation demand from NYC. See what I mean by the REALLY UGLY.

So ? start sending us your experiences! My colleagues and I will gather them and publish as a lessons learned note from Hurricane Sandy.

BE PREPARED AND BE SAFE!

Category: Advisory BCM Process Event Technology ? ? Tags:

Source: http://blogs.gartner.com/business-continuity/2012/10/29/hurricane-sandy-how-many-emergency-alerts-did-you-get-from-whom-and-how-effective-were-they/

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