Focus Groups: August 2010

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

increase credit score

According to new data released by comScore, Hulu reigns supreme in the kingdom of video advertising, with 783.3 million ads viewed in July. That’s more ads than Tremor Media and BrightRoll, the second and third biggest video ad networks, combined. In fact, four out of five videos shown on Hulu is an ad. That’s great for Hulu in terms of ad revenue, but if viewers are spending all this time being forces to watch ads, how much time are they able to spend watching actual content? And how long will viewers put up with this barrage of advertising?

All this advertising is nothing new for Hulu, but we weren’t really aware of Hulu’s power in the video advertising industry until recently, when comScore changed the way they measured online video metrics, separating ad views from actual content views. With this change, Hulu took a dive in content views, being knocked down from second place in May with just over 1.1 billion video views to tenth place last month with a mere 28.4 million video content views.

To Hulu’s credit, they generally show longer videos than YouTube and other sites, as they stream a lot of television series, and usually scatter several ads throughout each episode. However, this shouldn’t be taken as an excuse for why Hulu’s video views are made up of such a large percentage of ads. The company seems to be slowly upping their number of video ads from month to month. According to NewTeeVee, in June, video ads accounted for 81.63% of all ads shown. This number rose to 83.58% in July, meaning that Hulu is showing more ads per piece of content. This could be an attempt to raise the companies worth, as they recently announced their intent to go public, valued at as much as $2 billion.

Check out the stats from comScore’s July 2010 U.S. Online Video Rankings below to see how Hulu fared in the video content views department, as well as in video ads viewed. Do you watch online video content on Hulu? How do you feel about the volume of video ads on the site and have you noticed an increase?

Apple has reportedly hired near fields communications (NFC) expert, Benjamin Vigier, a move that could help turn future iPhones into mobile wallets by using short-range wireless signals. Some handset companies, such as Nokia, have recently invested in NFC for mobile handsets, but adoption is slow at best, even though mobile payment transactions are expected to reach $633 billion by 2014. Given the Cupertino company’s history in technology trend-setting, the hiring of Vigier positions Apple to become a change agent by integrating NFC features in mobile devices.

Consumers generally don’t want what they can’t understand, and if you polled people about NFC, most would likely confuse the technology with the NFL’s National Football Conference. The combination of Vigier’s hiring and Apple’s NFC patent library does make for a potent Joe Montana – Jerry Rice tandem that could score a touchdown for near field communications adoption. Vigier’s past includes the conception and implementation of PayPal Mobile, as well as the Starbucks’ mobile payment system, which uses barcodes on a smartphone to make purchases. Clearly, Vigier knows mobile payment platforms, and he’s also implemented an NFC Wallet app for a top U.S. bank. Combine his background with Apple, which is second to none when it comes to simplifying powerful technologies for consumers, and we may soon carry phones instead of wallets.

The new FaceTime feature on the iPhone 4 is an outstanding example of Apple’s ability to take an existing technology and make it easy for consumers to use, as if the function is magic. Prior to Apple’s debut of the video chat service this past June, several companies have offered both hardware and software for mobile video chat. I used Fring, for example, on a few Nokia handsets that offered front-facing cameras long before FaceTime was available, so Apple certainly didn’t “invent” mobile video chat. However, Apple has pushed the technology for video calls on phones to a large number of consumers in a short time: 1.7 million people gained video chat capability in the iPhone 4′s first three days of availability.

So while Apple didn’t invent video calling by any means, it doesn’t matter to the end user. Consumers see a fun, cool feature that’s easy to use, and that’s the power Apple wields as a change agent. By allowing Vigier to implement some or all of Apple’s NFC patents, Apple could be the company that enables millions of consumers to pay for goods by waving their mobile device near a payment terminal. However, Apple’s potential inclusion of NFC technology in mobile devices won’t guarantee widespread use, even if the company has the best shot to gain consumer acceptance where others have failed (GigaOM Pro, subscription required).

Currently, brick-and-mortar stores have little incentive to purchase compatible terminals that can accept NFC signals, since few phones support such wireless payment methods. In addition, there are still security ramifications to overcome, both real and perceived. Not even a “magical and revolutionary” NFC function from Apple will assuage all consumer fears of allowing their phones to take the place of wallets. Lost devices and concerns about would-be thieves wirelessly stealing credit card and other data from a handset are still big obstacles to overcome, but Apple is the best chance for mainstream use of near field communications.

Apple isn’t alone in attempting to increase mobile payment adoption, however. Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom, owner of T-Mobile USA, are reportedly working together on the Mercury project, one payment platform effort for U.S. smartphones. Mercury could put pressure on any Apple NFC efforts; what was, up to now, a slow uptake for NFC might soon be a race to set the standard. Why might Apple want to win such a race over the carriers? Apple could license related technologies, or take a piece of every purchase transaction in the form of fees, just as it does with the iTunes Store. Plus, an iPhone with NFC could turn the handset into a nearly indispensable device if Apple applies NFC to other markets. You just might use an NFC-enabled phone to unlock the door when you arrive home, turn on the lights when you enter a room or start your car in the future.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

tracking personal finances

canadian penis extender

I-O Data new external USB HDD will also let you backup your ...

To pursue its growth Akihabara News is seeking for several more editors via an intership program for 6 to 9 months. Please send us a mail @ jobs@akihabaranews.com. Message. We are moving away from Feedburner, please update your RSS ...

Business News You Need Today: Aug. 25, 2010 - DailyFinance

David Schepp has covered business news for more than a decade at news organizations such as Dow Jones, BBC News and Gannett. His beats have included technology, biotechnology, health care and workplace. He lives in New York's Hudson ...

Calculated Risk: More Negative News Flow Coming

We've definitely entered a period of downbeat economic news. Note: I still think the economy will avoid a technical double-dip recession, but the odds are uncomfortably high - and it will probably feel like a recession to millions of ...

Friday, August 6, 2010

how to budget personal finances

J.D.: Parents tend not to like parenting advice from parents either. You really can’t win. It’s a war zone re: parenting choices out there, and all that tells me is that overall families with kids are not feeling well-accommodated in the current economic structure.

Glad the family factor finally got mentioned though. Similarly our first cutting area would have to be kids’ extracurriculars, second would be quality of nutrition, third would be heat, then we’d sell the house or take on a tenant rather than lending our basement apartment to a friend.

Parenthood has three-quartered our income and nearly quadrupled our expenses. We didn’t have a car, for example, before the kids started begging for us to please get out of the city sometimes. And how do you say no to that if you can afford it? “No, kid. Go play in the parking lot. Trees aren’t all they’re chalked up to be.” Our only financial fat is kids’ activities. With two kids and no consumer debt, we have very little to cut re: grownup expenses. (Um, we get takeout once a week so I can stop cooking for a minute?)

Etc. etc..

That said I’m constantly looking for ways to bring a little in here and there while I’m mostly at home. This will get easier when they’re both in full day school. Day care + summer camps would cost more than my salary as an arts professional, so I opted to stay mainly at home for seven years. Opted being a strong word. It was a financial no-brainer, and I personally felt I had no choice. On the other hand other parents I know feel compelled to work full time because in their particular situation that makes the most sense. Truly every situation is different, and no doubt everyone is doing what they can to provide as much as they can for their kids.

Financial factors aside, some people freely admit to not being able to handle the stresses of at-home parenting. Self-knowledge is key to this gig. Better the kids are in daycare than cared for by a no doubt loving but resentful and unhappy parent. Loving the act of parenting and loving your children are two very different things.

Governor Schwarzenegger has once again furloughed workers, declaring California is in a fiscal emergency. Excuse me for asking but when has California ever not been in a state of fiscal emergency?

Bloomberg reports Schwarzenegger Orders Furloughs Amid California Budget Impasse

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered more than 150,000 state workers to take three days of mandatory unpaid time off to conserve cash.

The executive order, effective Aug. 1, stipulates that the furloughs will end when a budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 is enacted, the governor’s press secretary, Aaron McLear, said in an e-mail. It comes after government workers endured furloughs over almost 12 months that ended June 30.

California began its fiscal year without a spending plan after Schwarzenegger and Democrats remained deadlocked over how to fill a $19.1 billion deficit. Controller John Chiang has warned he may again need to issue IOUs to pay bills if the impasse continues into September.

“Every day of delay brings California closer to a fiscal meltdown,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement today. “Our cash situation leaves me no choice but to once again furlough state workers until the Legislature produces a budget I can sign.”

Fiscal Emergency California Style

The Business Spectator reports California state of fiscal emergency: Schwarzenegger

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency over the state's finances yesterday, raising pressure on lawmakers to negotiate a state budget that is more than a month overdue and will need to close a $US19 billion ($A21.3 billion) shortfall.

The deficit is 22 per cent of the $US85 billion general fund budget the governor signed last July for the fiscal year that ended in June, highlighting how the steep drop in California's revenue due to recession, the housing slump, financial market turmoil and high unemployment have slashed its all-important personal income tax collection.

In the declaration, Schwarzenegger ordered three days off without pay per month beginning in August for tens of thousands of state employees to preserve the state's cash to pay its debt, and for essential services.

California's budget is five weeks overdue, joining New York among big states with spending plans yet to be approved, and Schwarzenegger and top lawmakers are at an impasse over how to balance the state's books.

Analysts say it could be several more weeks before the Republican governor and leaders of the Democrat-led legislature reach an agreement, a delay that threatens to lower the state's already weak credit rating, now hovering just a few notches above "junk" status.

Schwarzenegger's new furlough order was instantly condemned by labor officials as a political ploy.

"To once again force state employees to take unpaid furloughs is just another punitive measure by Governor Schwarzenegger because he couldn't impose minimum wage," said Patty Velez, president of the California Association of Professional Scientists.

Political Ploy or Act of Sanity?

The unions accuse Schwarzenegger of playing politics. Here's the real story: He had 8 years to get rid of unions and failed to do so. He is not playing politics now, he played them before, being too spineless to take on the unions until recently.

Now he is a lame duck. Let's hope the next governor has more common sense. Don't count on it. After all we are talking about California where pandering to unions is the best way of getting elected.

By the way, can someone even tell me why California has an "Association of Professional Scientists"? Is there anything in California that is not unionized?

The solution is privatize everything, putting people like Patty Velez out on her ass where she has to do some real work instead of preying on taxpayers for more unjustified union benefits. The same applies to the prison guards and every other California union as well.

Common Sense in Fort Worth

Please consider Fort Worth council considers eliminating guaranteed pension for newer workers

City Council members are considering doing away with a guaranteed pension for newer employees as the council struggles to bring Fort Worth's spending in line with the drop in taxes.

No decisions have been made. And Assistant City Manager Karen Montgomery said the city would still have to deal with a big backlog in pension costs even if the council decides to cut benefits. But pensions have been a sacred cow among state and local governments, and few others have even discussed cutting them.

By law, the city can't change the benefits that it's already paying retirees or those that it has promised to employees who have worked long enough to be vested in the pension system. Also, police and firefighter pensions are guaranteed under labor contracts.

The city could be forced to pour tens of millions of dollars into the pension system over the next few years, and pension costs are a major contributor to Fort Worth's projected $73 million budget gap.

"This is the elephant in the room for not only this budget but all future budgets," Mayor Mike Moncrief said.

Montgomery suggested moving new employees and perhaps even unvested employees to a "defined contribution" plan. The specifics of the plan haven't been determined, but Montgomery suggested a range of options, including annuities or accounts similar to a private-sector 401(k).
That would be a game-changer for municipal employees, who often stay in their jobs because of the pension and other benefits.

"In our current pension, employees cannot outlive their benefit," Montgomery said. "In a defined contribution, that risk is on the employee to manage their money until they die."

Employees, including the police and firefighters associations, have argued to keep the pension system as it is. A committee made up mostly of employees recommended that the city contribute an additional 6 percent of payroll to the pension, which would fix the shortfall in a few years.

Finally!

At long last a major city in the US (Fort Worth has a population in excess of 600,000) is considering doing what desperately needs to be done: killing defined benefit pension plans for public workers.

Instead, the union suggests "an additional 6 percent of payroll to the pension, which would fix the shortfall in a few years". Where would that contribution come from? Taxpayers of course. Will it fix the system? No, it will not fix the shortfall because of insane pension plan assumptions.

The only solution is to kill these plans right here, right now. Unfortunately, such action will not fix the problem of unfunded plans for current vested employees, but it is a major step in preventing further buildup of a fiscally insane proposition.

If unions had any common sense they would embrace, not fight these decisions. The reason of course is the only other solution for cities would be to resolve these difficulties by declaring bankruptcy, putting accrued benefits at risk.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

penis extender

Etc. etc..

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered more than 150,000 state workers to take three days of mandatory unpaid time off to conserve cash.

The executive order, effective Aug. 1, stipulates that the furloughs will end when a budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 is enacted, the governor’s press secretary, Aaron McLear, said in an e-mail. It comes after government workers endured furloughs over almost 12 months that ended June 30.

California began its fiscal year without a spending plan after Schwarzenegger and Democrats remained deadlocked over how to fill a $19.1 billion deficit. Controller John Chiang has warned he may again need to issue IOUs to pay bills if the impasse continues into September.

“Every day of delay brings California closer to a fiscal meltdown,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement today. “Our cash situation leaves me no choice but to once again furlough state workers until the Legislature produces a budget I can sign.”

Fiscal Emergency California Style

The Business Spectator reports California state of fiscal emergency: Schwarzenegger

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency over the state's finances yesterday, raising pressure on lawmakers to negotiate a state budget that is more than a month overdue and will need to close a $US19 billion ($A21.3 billion) shortfall.

The deficit is 22 per cent of the $US85 billion general fund budget the governor signed last July for the fiscal year that ended in June, highlighting how the steep drop in California's revenue due to recession, the housing slump, financial market turmoil and high unemployment have slashed its all-important personal income tax collection.

In the declaration, Schwarzenegger ordered three days off without pay per month beginning in August for tens of thousands of state employees to preserve the state's cash to pay its debt, and for essential services.

California's budget is five weeks overdue, joining New York among big states with spending plans yet to be approved, and Schwarzenegger and top lawmakers are at an impasse over how to balance the state's books.

Analysts say it could be several more weeks before the Republican governor and leaders of the Democrat-led legislature reach an agreement, a delay that threatens to lower the state's already weak credit rating, now hovering just a few notches above "junk" status.

Schwarzenegger's new furlough order was instantly condemned by labor officials as a political ploy.

"To once again force state employees to take unpaid furloughs is just another punitive measure by Governor Schwarzenegger because he couldn't impose minimum wage," said Patty Velez, president of the California Association of Professional Scientists.

City Council members are considering doing away with a guaranteed pension for newer employees as the council struggles to bring Fort Worth's spending in line with the drop in taxes.

No decisions have been made. And Assistant City Manager Karen Montgomery said the city would still have to deal with a big backlog in pension costs even if the council decides to cut benefits. But pensions have been a sacred cow among state and local governments, and few others have even discussed cutting them.

By law, the city can't change the benefits that it's already paying retirees or those that it has promised to employees who have worked long enough to be vested in the pension system. Also, police and firefighter pensions are guaranteed under labor contracts.

The city could be forced to pour tens of millions of dollars into the pension system over the next few years, and pension costs are a major contributor to Fort Worth's projected $73 million budget gap.

"This is the elephant in the room for not only this budget but all future budgets," Mayor Mike Moncrief said.

Montgomery suggested moving new employees and perhaps even unvested employees to a "defined contribution" plan. The specifics of the plan haven't been determined, but Montgomery suggested a range of options, including annuities or accounts similar to a private-sector 401(k).
That would be a game-changer for municipal employees, who often stay in their jobs because of the pension and other benefits.

"In our current pension, employees cannot outlive their benefit," Montgomery said. "In a defined contribution, that risk is on the employee to manage their money until they die."

Employees, including the police and firefighters associations, have argued to keep the pension system as it is. A committee made up mostly of employees recommended that the city contribute an additional 6 percent of payroll to the pension, which would fix the shortfall in a few years.

online stock trading online stock trading how to lose weight fast

Spectroscopic science news

These are my links for July 30th from 18:21 to 18:27: Space balls redux - I've reported on this ...

Sonic Colours dated Wii News - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Wii news of Sonic Colours dated. ... Sonic Colours Hands On . Latest Videos. Sonic Colours full trailer Today 16:04. Sonic Colours on the run 15 June, 2010. Sonic Colours revealed 26 May, 2010. Latest News ...

Morning Vid: Colbert Says Fox News 'Can't Tell Black People Apart ...

Harsh words for the person who mistook Maxine Waters for Shirley Sherrod.

big white booty

Thursday, August 5, 2010

budgeting personal finances

In 2006, recent Harvard grad Alexa von Tobel was headed for a job at Morgan Stanley. But though she would soon be managing the bank’s investments, she realized she didn’t know the first thing about her own finances. Most financial guides seemed to be written for middle-aged readers with millions in assets, rather than recent college grads. "I was reading every book I could find, but none of them spoke to me," she says. So she came up with the idea for LearnVest, an online personal-finance resource for young women like her, and ended up writing an 80-page business plan.

After two years at Morgan Stanley, von Tobel entered Harvard Business School in 2008. But upon winning a business plan competition held by Astia, a non-profit that supports women entrepreneurs, she took a five-year leave of absence and invested $75,000 of her Wall Street earnings to start LearnVest in November. She quickly enlisted advisors, including Betsy Morgan, the former CEO of the Huffington Post, and Catherine Levene, the former COO of DailyCandy, to help develop the site’s content and technology. In January 2009, she secured $1.1 million in seed funding from executives at Goldman Sachs.

LearnVest’s site launched a year later and has since signed up more than 100,000 members. It offers online budgeting calculators, video chats with certified financial planners on the company’s staff, and free e-mail tutorials on topics such as opening an IRA. The company earns revenue from advertising and by referring its users to companies such as TD Ameritrade. In April, after just four weeks of fundraising, von Tobel closed a $4.5 million investment round led by Accel Partners, which has also invested in Facebook and Etsy. (Incidentally, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg lived in the same dorm as von Tobel at Harvard.)

Von Tobel likens LearnVest to an online version of The Suze Orman Show, but with the goal of reinforcing positive finance habits early on. “Suze Orman helps 45-year-old women get out of debt,” she says. “Why not reach 20-year-olds to keep them from getting into debt?”

Etc. etc..

penis extender

Focus Groups

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

increase credit score

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

tracking personal finances

I-O Data new external USB HDD will also let you backup your <b>...</b>

Business <b>News</b> You Need Today: Aug. 25, 2010 - DailyFinance

Calculated Risk: More Negative <b>News</b> Flow Coming

Friday, August 6, 2010

how to budget personal finances

Spectroscopic science <b>news</b>

Sonic Colours dated Wii <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Morning Vid: Colbert Says Fox <b>News</b> 'Can't Tell Black People Apart <b>...</b>

Thursday, August 5, 2010

budgeting personal finances

Followers

Blog Archive

About Me