Ladies and Gentlemen, if you’d be so very kind as to direct your attention this way while our lovely assistant straps herself into this sinister looking box, you’ll see we have nothing up either sleeve and perhaps you’d like to pick a card -- any card…? With Louis Leterrier’s magician heist movie “Now You See Me” opening in theaters this weekend, we’ve been thinking a bit about the long fascination that movies have had with magicians -- not Gandalfs or Harry Potters or Merlins, but the stage-bound theatrical type who are more showman than shaman. Since way, way back, when perhaps a proto-nickelodeon shared a stage with a strong man, a pair of Siamese twins and a conjurer, the two disciplines have had their ties -- both borne of a kind of lowest-common denominator desire for entertainment and escape. And while both have progressed to unimagined levels of sophistication since their humble beginnings, there’s still some level on which every movie is just a magic trick. The movies, after all, fool us every day into believing that 24 still photographs flashed up in quick succession constitute a moving image, and what is a master filmmaker if not someone who’s simply better at concealing the wires and levers that precariously suspend our disbelief?
Really though, it’s just fun to be fooled, and as many magician films deal in meta-commentary on the nature of filmmaking and deception, probably three times that number are just aiming to be a silly lark. Representing both camps, then, we’ve pulled from a top hat a string of ten knotted-together films featuring prestidigitators good and bad, mad and sane, in celebration of the art of misdirection, sleight of hand and illusion. Believe your eyes!
Widely regarded as “lesser Bergman,” “The Magician” may not contend in the weightiest way with the great Swede’s intellectual preoccupations, but it’s still a gloriously shot, enigmatic and enjoyable meditation on the nature of showmanship, and the science vs. supernatural debate. Starring Bergman regulars Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin and Bibi Andersson, the film’s tonal shifts from bawdy comedy to horror to talky think piece in which People stand for Ideas, would be more of an issue if it wasn’t all smoothed over by looking so crisply composed and amazing. As it is, the tale of a traveling magician and his troupe getting waylaid and investigated by police and medical authorities is light enough to be a pleasant watch that can be filed away again after, but has plenty of thought-provoking undercurrents if you care to tease them out.
Directed by Arthur Penn, yes, the Arthur Penn who directed “Bonnie & Clyde” (even the mighty fall at the end of their career), this satirical 1989 black comedy was a favorite of ours in our youth (or for a least the older Playlist members who saw it), but holy shit has it aged poorly and.... maybe was terrible to begin with? Starring magicians Penn & Teller (you might first remember them from the Run DMC video, “It’s Tricky”), the paper-thin premise begins with the two illusionists -- who are constantly playing elaborate, borderline brutal jokes on each other -- on national television and Penn declaring that he wishes someone would try and kill him. It’s part of a dumb gag where the always-silent, mime-like Teller slits his throat, but after the show is over and their pranks on each other begin to escalate into irresponsible territory, they soon discover that the public has taken their wish seriously and is actually trying to kill them.
But half the time, these would-be attacks are just pranks from one another so it’s difficult to tell what danger is a reality and what is a gag (cult favorite David Patrick Kelly plays a sociopath out to get them). Somewhat creepy and disturbing as the hi-jinks continue to worsen, the film ends in tragedy with the Bee Gees’ ascending “I Started A Joke” playing to thick and dripping irony (as if they heard the song and then built the whole premise around the movie). Painfully dated, with groan-worthy humor arriving at every moment, the movie is even worse in that while based on a buddy dynamic, Teller can’t speak, so the insufferably loud-mouthed and obnoxious Penn takes over most of the movie (and Teller is no Chaplin). If "Penn & Teller Get Killed" is still appreciated, it must be by die-hards only. Just remember if this does spur you to revisit the film (YouTube only, not available on DVD with good reason), you can’t ever get that tedious 89 minutes of your life back.
With Touchstone Pictures showing admirable restraint in not marketing this as Batman vs. Wolverine, this offering from Christopher Nolan is actually a perfect example of his oeuvre: popular films with a pensive streak running amidst all the action. “The Prestige” offered the director a break between “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight,” and it’s a smaller film in size and scale, but no less ambitious. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman star as Alfred Borden and Robert Angier, two dueling magicians in 19th century London whose rivalry extends beyond the stage to cause devastation in their personal lives. “The Prestige” is a complex, plot-and-character-driven film that improves upon the Christopher Priest novel it was based on, thanks to a strong adaptation from Nolan and his brother Jonathan, typically gorgeous cinematography from Wally Pfister and as a solid cast. As if the leads weren’t enough, Bale and Jackman are joined by Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Andy Serkis and – in a bit of genius casting as inventor Nikola Tesla – David Bowie. We also love the inclusion of real-life magician and actor Ricky Jay in the film’s early scenes. The psychological drama gets better with multiple viewings after its major illusions are revealed in the final act.
What's The Act? Borden and Angier one up each other throughout the film, but their signature acts are The Transported Man and The New Transported Man, respectively. We'll risk getting blacklisted by the Magician's Alliance – and *SPOILER* haters – to reveal how the two illusions work: Borden's Transported Man makes the magician appear to be going in one door and stepping out of another across the length of a stage, which is wow-inducing until you realize that it's Borden's twin walking out of the second door. The New Transported Man involves a Tesla-created contraption that actually does transport Angier – or a spontaneously created version of himself – across the theater. The original Angier drops below the stage to drown, while his newly-made counterpart takes a bow and basks in the applause.Read the full story at www.airdow.com!
2013年5月30日星期四
2013年5月28日星期二
Schulze hoping for Big Break
The 1996 Northern Lebanon graduate applied for and was awarded a spot on the Golf Channel's TV reality competition series "Big Break Mexico," which consists of six men and six women competing as three mixed-gender teams for a spot in a tournament on the PGA or LPGA Tour in Mexico in November. On the 11-episode weekly show that is aired Mondays at 9 p.m., the players earn points for their team by winning golf-based challenges, eventually eliminating players until there is just one person left standing.
Schulze, who now lives in Cockeysville, Md., where he was a PGA apprentice, applied monthly for over a year for a spot on the show, and he finally got the call to come to Florida at the end of October to meet with the show's producers.
"It was an idea I had," he said. "I couldn't let go of the idea. I knew I could at least get an interview."
Twice he received an offer to interview for the show. The first time, he was only given one day to travel to Arizona, and that didn't fit his schedule. The second time he was allowed a month to plan his trip to Florida.
"They wanted somebody who's a little flamboyant," said Schulze, who went on to play golf at Division I American University in D.C. for one year after high school before settling in at Millersville University where he is a member of the school's Hall of Fame.
Taping for the show in Riviera Maya, Mexico, was done from the end of January through the middle of Ventilation system. But what transpired in terms of the show during those two and a half weeks south of the border can not be revealed by Schulze.
On the first episode, each member of the team had to break a pane of glass from about 30 yards away that sat roughly six feet off the ground. The first person in the group to break the glass earned three points for their team, the second received two and the one who didn't got one.
After all four players tried at the shot, the team with the highest point total earned immunity for the rest of the day. The two remaining teams then competed in a separate competition called an advanced challenge - in episode 2 they played a game of blackjack on the course where the players had to hit their shots onto areas marked with playing card designations trying to earn as close to 21 without busting - in an effort to give their team half of a stroke.
Then in the third and final competition of the day, the same two teams again go head-to-head. In one episode, two members from each team played in an alternate-shot three-hole match, with the members being picked by the opposing team.
With one team having a half-stroke advantage going into the third event, the team with the lowest combined score of the alternate-shot competition avoids getting a strike for their team.
In the second show, Schulze's team won the immunity challenge in the morning and they were done for the day. It could make for a short day, but if you end up playing all day, it also means plenty of intense shot-making.
"There could be days where I only take one swing," Schulze said. "Even Lorena Ochoa (guest star of the show and LPGA star) said it's the most stressful thing she's ever done."
Schulze, who at age 34 is one of the older golfers on the show, has emerged as a bit of a character in the first three episodes. He is shown talking to himself during his shots, and when he makes a clutch putt, he'll pull out his "happy dance."
The players on the show have resumes similar to Schulze's. For instance, his teammates are Jay Woodson, who has been competing on mini-tours for the past nine years; Liebelei Lawrence, who is from Luxembourg and has competed on the Ladies European Tour in 2011 and 2012; and Taylor Collins, who is in her second season playing on the minor-league Symetra Tour.
Diane Abbott MP asked during a Commons speech last year about black and ethnic minority achievement: "Why do black children fail?" The answer, she said, "is partly to do with poverty in an absolute sense, although all the research shows … black children systematically do less well than children of other ethnicities. There is no question but that poverty is an issue. Nowadays there is also increasing peer-group pressure." Such peer pressure was a factor in this case. Earlier that day, the boy told me, he had two choices - go to boxing training or go on the rob with his friend as he had done before. He chose the latter.
Peer pressure isn't the whole story. Abbott spoke of black boys "who throughout their education have engaged only with women and have never seen a man as an educational role model. More male teachers are important." He told me he hadn't done well at school, couldn't concentrate – again hardly a surprise. Abbott said: "If we abandon a cross-section of the community in our inner cities, they have a way of bringing themselves back into the political narrative – a way that is not good for them or for society." That, maybe, is what happened one dismal evening on the Hornsey Road.
The victim liaison officer asked how I felt after the theft. Wary, I said, careful not to use my phone in a dodgy neighbourhood (such as, it turns out, the one in which I live). "You shouldn't have to think like that," said the boy, shaking his head. "You should feel OK using an expensive phone in the street." But thanks to him I'm not. It was about the only time during the interview where I got cross. I think he was disappointed that I wasn't more angry during our hour together. If so, good – I didn't want to give him the satisfaction.
Rather, I wanted to give him something worse, crueller even – pity. He suffered much more than me, I said repeatedly. I showed him my daughter's drawing as if to stress how loving and solid a family I have. A low blow. He told me about his family – how furious his mother had been, that his dad was so angry he wouldn't visit him in jail, how his nan was ashamed of him. He told his nephew that the thing he has around his leg is a hi-tech watch – just so he doesn't learn his uncle's a tagged criminal. I felt sorry for his mum, who couldn't come to the meeting, for his dad, who wouldn't, and – a little – for their son.
The order bans him from going inside the M25 for six months. It means he can't see his mother, unless accompanied by his case worker. He now lives with his dad in Kent.
At court, he readily accepted the terms of the order rather than go back to Feltham Young Offenders' Institution, where he'd already spent a month, to serve an 18-month sentence. In Feltham, he said, he was OK because he knew gang members who could protect him. But their protection was a double-edged sword – it meant he would still associate with people who might lure him back into committing crimes. The order, then, gives him a chance to remake his life in a way that jail may not have. He's away from gangs, away, perhaps, from greater risks of recidivism. He attends boxing training and in September goes to college to train as plumber or mechanic.
As the case worker drove him back to his dad's house to fulfil his curfew, I returned to the city from which he is banned, thinking about this boy, both victim and perpetrator of the crime. He said he would write to me and when he does, I hope he'll tell me he's doing something worthwhile with his life, because it doesn't do either of us any good for him to remain what he is to me now, an object of pity.
Schulze, who now lives in Cockeysville, Md., where he was a PGA apprentice, applied monthly for over a year for a spot on the show, and he finally got the call to come to Florida at the end of October to meet with the show's producers.
"It was an idea I had," he said. "I couldn't let go of the idea. I knew I could at least get an interview."
Twice he received an offer to interview for the show. The first time, he was only given one day to travel to Arizona, and that didn't fit his schedule. The second time he was allowed a month to plan his trip to Florida.
"They wanted somebody who's a little flamboyant," said Schulze, who went on to play golf at Division I American University in D.C. for one year after high school before settling in at Millersville University where he is a member of the school's Hall of Fame.
Taping for the show in Riviera Maya, Mexico, was done from the end of January through the middle of Ventilation system. But what transpired in terms of the show during those two and a half weeks south of the border can not be revealed by Schulze.
On the first episode, each member of the team had to break a pane of glass from about 30 yards away that sat roughly six feet off the ground. The first person in the group to break the glass earned three points for their team, the second received two and the one who didn't got one.
After all four players tried at the shot, the team with the highest point total earned immunity for the rest of the day. The two remaining teams then competed in a separate competition called an advanced challenge - in episode 2 they played a game of blackjack on the course where the players had to hit their shots onto areas marked with playing card designations trying to earn as close to 21 without busting - in an effort to give their team half of a stroke.
Then in the third and final competition of the day, the same two teams again go head-to-head. In one episode, two members from each team played in an alternate-shot three-hole match, with the members being picked by the opposing team.
With one team having a half-stroke advantage going into the third event, the team with the lowest combined score of the alternate-shot competition avoids getting a strike for their team.
In the second show, Schulze's team won the immunity challenge in the morning and they were done for the day. It could make for a short day, but if you end up playing all day, it also means plenty of intense shot-making.
"There could be days where I only take one swing," Schulze said. "Even Lorena Ochoa (guest star of the show and LPGA star) said it's the most stressful thing she's ever done."
Schulze, who at age 34 is one of the older golfers on the show, has emerged as a bit of a character in the first three episodes. He is shown talking to himself during his shots, and when he makes a clutch putt, he'll pull out his "happy dance."
The players on the show have resumes similar to Schulze's. For instance, his teammates are Jay Woodson, who has been competing on mini-tours for the past nine years; Liebelei Lawrence, who is from Luxembourg and has competed on the Ladies European Tour in 2011 and 2012; and Taylor Collins, who is in her second season playing on the minor-league Symetra Tour.
Diane Abbott MP asked during a Commons speech last year about black and ethnic minority achievement: "Why do black children fail?" The answer, she said, "is partly to do with poverty in an absolute sense, although all the research shows … black children systematically do less well than children of other ethnicities. There is no question but that poverty is an issue. Nowadays there is also increasing peer-group pressure." Such peer pressure was a factor in this case. Earlier that day, the boy told me, he had two choices - go to boxing training or go on the rob with his friend as he had done before. He chose the latter.
Peer pressure isn't the whole story. Abbott spoke of black boys "who throughout their education have engaged only with women and have never seen a man as an educational role model. More male teachers are important." He told me he hadn't done well at school, couldn't concentrate – again hardly a surprise. Abbott said: "If we abandon a cross-section of the community in our inner cities, they have a way of bringing themselves back into the political narrative – a way that is not good for them or for society." That, maybe, is what happened one dismal evening on the Hornsey Road.
The victim liaison officer asked how I felt after the theft. Wary, I said, careful not to use my phone in a dodgy neighbourhood (such as, it turns out, the one in which I live). "You shouldn't have to think like that," said the boy, shaking his head. "You should feel OK using an expensive phone in the street." But thanks to him I'm not. It was about the only time during the interview where I got cross. I think he was disappointed that I wasn't more angry during our hour together. If so, good – I didn't want to give him the satisfaction.
Rather, I wanted to give him something worse, crueller even – pity. He suffered much more than me, I said repeatedly. I showed him my daughter's drawing as if to stress how loving and solid a family I have. A low blow. He told me about his family – how furious his mother had been, that his dad was so angry he wouldn't visit him in jail, how his nan was ashamed of him. He told his nephew that the thing he has around his leg is a hi-tech watch – just so he doesn't learn his uncle's a tagged criminal. I felt sorry for his mum, who couldn't come to the meeting, for his dad, who wouldn't, and – a little – for their son.
The order bans him from going inside the M25 for six months. It means he can't see his mother, unless accompanied by his case worker. He now lives with his dad in Kent.
At court, he readily accepted the terms of the order rather than go back to Feltham Young Offenders' Institution, where he'd already spent a month, to serve an 18-month sentence. In Feltham, he said, he was OK because he knew gang members who could protect him. But their protection was a double-edged sword – it meant he would still associate with people who might lure him back into committing crimes. The order, then, gives him a chance to remake his life in a way that jail may not have. He's away from gangs, away, perhaps, from greater risks of recidivism. He attends boxing training and in September goes to college to train as plumber or mechanic.
As the case worker drove him back to his dad's house to fulfil his curfew, I returned to the city from which he is banned, thinking about this boy, both victim and perpetrator of the crime. He said he would write to me and when he does, I hope he'll tell me he's doing something worthwhile with his life, because it doesn't do either of us any good for him to remain what he is to me now, an object of pity.
From now, it's going to be speed
Many e-commerce websites in India are grappling with precisely this question two years after Flipkart offered that game-changing option to its buyers. Now, CoD is like a hygiene factor in the business. You either do it or you are not there at all.
Consider the stakes. Global e-commerce sales for 2013 are expected to rise 19.4 per cent over 2012 to $963 billion, according to eMarketer. Consumers will be purchasing everything from Rs 200 shampoo bottles to Rs 5,000 handbags - maybe even Rs 80 lakh homes - online. And the speed of ordering and delivery is what is going to move consumer decision. Yes, whether you can reach that shiny new package at the customer's doorstep within, say, 24 hours.
Amazon (Amazon Prime), eBay (eBay Now) and a few other retailers already offer same-day delivery for certain categories of products, and in some parts of the US. Google joined the gang earlier this year with its Google Shopping Express, which initially provided same-day delivery of food and grocery products bought online by consumers in San Francisco and suburbs located south of the city. Online reports suggest Google is already planning to expand into neighbourhoods it had left out in the first round. The company says the delivery service has been doing well enough and the kinks have been worked out for it to consider expanding "a little more". Besides local merchants, even big retailers such as Target and Walgreens are said to be enlisted in Google's delivery service.
Of course, for Google the imperative was quite different from the others. At the time of launch, it said, the delivery service is part of the internet search leader's effort to increase people's reliance on the internet, so it will have more opportunities to show online ads, which generate most of its revenue. But for the other retailers, the speed of delivery will likely be the make or break factor. Just look at the kind of things they are working on to show how serious they are. eBay Now has just introduced an iPhone app that allows for orders to be placed and delivered in an hour for a flat $5 fee. Of course, it is doing this on a small scale and working with a select set of suppliers. But it is obvious that from now, the differentiator may not necessarily be the product or the service on offer, or even the discount that you promise, but the speed at which you can execute that order.
I don't know if any of the Indian e-commerce companies are working on something like what an Amazon or an eBay is doing; most likely they are - they have shown remarkable agility in picking up signals from the Air purifier, identifying the open spaces and moving in quickly.
Take CoD. For e-commerce players like Flipkart, CoD was a leap of faith - literally as well as figuratively. India is primarily a cash-driven economy - plastic card penetration is extremely low in India (less than one per cent). So if these companies wanted to initiate customers to the convenience of e-buying, they had to do it. Most importantly, because customers wanted it. It really didn't matter if the customer is using CoD because he\she mistrusts e-commerce start-ups, or whether he\she mistrusts online transactions per se, or he\she just doesn't have the cards. The bottom line is there is customer behaviour that you can influence, and behaviour that you cannot. So as a business, e-commerce firms had to adapt to it sustainably, if only to help customers shop in the easiest possible fashion.
And then, every player in the business cottoned on to the idea. As a next step, many e-commerce companies began experimenting with a free return policy. Having a solid return policy inspires confidence in buyers and shows the e-commerce firm is committed to customer service. The thinking is that even if a customer is unhappy with the product you've sent him\her in that nicely-branded box, handling the return professionally will ensure his\her continued patronage.
While consumers are sure to love this development - the accent on speed - real threat, again, will be the corner store. See, it has done this all along - that is, reach all that you have ordered on the phone the same day itself and accepted the payment after delivery. In fact, one argument that you will hear during any argument on traditional versus internet commerce is that your friendly neighbourhood store will give you credit, that is, you can pay off at the end/beginning of the month; something you don't get when you buy online. Plus, this speed will come at a price - eBay's Now, for instance, attracts a $5 premium.
Consider the stakes. Global e-commerce sales for 2013 are expected to rise 19.4 per cent over 2012 to $963 billion, according to eMarketer. Consumers will be purchasing everything from Rs 200 shampoo bottles to Rs 5,000 handbags - maybe even Rs 80 lakh homes - online. And the speed of ordering and delivery is what is going to move consumer decision. Yes, whether you can reach that shiny new package at the customer's doorstep within, say, 24 hours.
Amazon (Amazon Prime), eBay (eBay Now) and a few other retailers already offer same-day delivery for certain categories of products, and in some parts of the US. Google joined the gang earlier this year with its Google Shopping Express, which initially provided same-day delivery of food and grocery products bought online by consumers in San Francisco and suburbs located south of the city. Online reports suggest Google is already planning to expand into neighbourhoods it had left out in the first round. The company says the delivery service has been doing well enough and the kinks have been worked out for it to consider expanding "a little more". Besides local merchants, even big retailers such as Target and Walgreens are said to be enlisted in Google's delivery service.
Of course, for Google the imperative was quite different from the others. At the time of launch, it said, the delivery service is part of the internet search leader's effort to increase people's reliance on the internet, so it will have more opportunities to show online ads, which generate most of its revenue. But for the other retailers, the speed of delivery will likely be the make or break factor. Just look at the kind of things they are working on to show how serious they are. eBay Now has just introduced an iPhone app that allows for orders to be placed and delivered in an hour for a flat $5 fee. Of course, it is doing this on a small scale and working with a select set of suppliers. But it is obvious that from now, the differentiator may not necessarily be the product or the service on offer, or even the discount that you promise, but the speed at which you can execute that order.
I don't know if any of the Indian e-commerce companies are working on something like what an Amazon or an eBay is doing; most likely they are - they have shown remarkable agility in picking up signals from the Air purifier, identifying the open spaces and moving in quickly.
Take CoD. For e-commerce players like Flipkart, CoD was a leap of faith - literally as well as figuratively. India is primarily a cash-driven economy - plastic card penetration is extremely low in India (less than one per cent). So if these companies wanted to initiate customers to the convenience of e-buying, they had to do it. Most importantly, because customers wanted it. It really didn't matter if the customer is using CoD because he\she mistrusts e-commerce start-ups, or whether he\she mistrusts online transactions per se, or he\she just doesn't have the cards. The bottom line is there is customer behaviour that you can influence, and behaviour that you cannot. So as a business, e-commerce firms had to adapt to it sustainably, if only to help customers shop in the easiest possible fashion.
And then, every player in the business cottoned on to the idea. As a next step, many e-commerce companies began experimenting with a free return policy. Having a solid return policy inspires confidence in buyers and shows the e-commerce firm is committed to customer service. The thinking is that even if a customer is unhappy with the product you've sent him\her in that nicely-branded box, handling the return professionally will ensure his\her continued patronage.
While consumers are sure to love this development - the accent on speed - real threat, again, will be the corner store. See, it has done this all along - that is, reach all that you have ordered on the phone the same day itself and accepted the payment after delivery. In fact, one argument that you will hear during any argument on traditional versus internet commerce is that your friendly neighbourhood store will give you credit, that is, you can pay off at the end/beginning of the month; something you don't get when you buy online. Plus, this speed will come at a price - eBay's Now, for instance, attracts a $5 premium.
2013年5月26日星期日
Man admits to using deceased's credit card
When police arrested Stephen Arsenault earlier this week, he admitted to using a credit/debit card that was in the name of a dead man.
Arsenault, 24, told police he recently found the card when his girlfriend was getting ready to move into a River Street apartment that last summer was the scene of a shootout that ended in the death of 19-year-old Billy Melchionda of Haverhill and 20-year-old Anddy Guzman of Lawrence.
Arsenault said that after finding Melchionda’s card in the apartment, he used it to buy $42 worth of gas for his girlfriend’s car and $50 worth of lottery scratch tickets at a local gas station/convenience store. Arsenault said he signed the name “WM” and scribbled on the store receipt. He told police he knew he was trying to sign Melchionda’s name to the receipt and knew that Melchionda was dead. He said he tried to use the card the next day to get gas but that it wouldn’t work. He told police he knew that he did wrong by using Melchionda’s bank card.
Arsenault was arraigned Thursday in Haverhill District Court on two counts of larceny under $250, receiving a stolen credit card, identity fraud and forgery of a document. He was also charged with possession of Class A heroin. Arsenault was ordered held on $10,000 cash bail and must appear in court June 23. Arsenault was previously charged on May 15 with 17 counts of oil painting reproduction by check and had been released on personal recognizance.
Melchionda and Guzman were shot to death the night of July 23 during a home invasion at Melchionda’s apartment at 629 River St.
Police said three masked men entered the apartment sometime between 10 and 10:30 p.m. Police reports showed the invaders’ motive was their belief illegal drugs and a large amount of cash were being kept in the home. Police said Guzman was one of the men who invaded the home and was accidentally shot during a violent struggle.
An Essex County Grand Jury eventually indicted three people on murder and other charges. Juan Carlos Sanchez, 20, of Lawrence and Joshua Cloutman, 20, and Angela Walsh, 21, both of 631 River St., were each indicted on two counts of murder, home invasion, armed robbery and armed burglary. Cloutman and Walsh, who police said lived in an upstairs apartment with their child and Cloutman’s mother, were charged with helping plan the home invasion in exchange for some of the marijuana the home invaders planned to steal from Melchionda’s apartment, police said.
In the days following the shootings, Melchionda’s mother, Jennifer Bodenraider and Billy’s father, William S. Melchionda reported to police that when they went to retrieve their son’s belongings from the apartment, most of their son’s valuables were missing. Bodenraider said many of those items were gifts from her and other family members, including a 42-inch plasma TV, a 50-inch LCD TV, an XBox 360 video game console and 60-70 XBox video games, a Movado wristwatch and gold Seiko diving wristwatch — gifts from her son’s grandfather; and two air conditioning units, a collection of baseball caps and a collection of baseball cards that his father gave him.
According to a police report, in the days following the shooting, the building’s landlord, Ronald Parolisi Jr., was questioned by investigators about the missing items. Parolisi said that after police turned the apartment over to him, he found a door had been kicked in so he secured it. He told police he hired his daughter and her boyfriend, Stephen Arsenault to remove blood from the apartment so that he could rent it out again, and that the apartment was left unsecured for a few days and that a window was left open, according to the police report.
Police said that on Monday (May 20 of this year) Melchionda’s mother came to the police station to say she’d been notified by Sovereign Bank that someone was using her son’s debit card. She told police the account was overdrawn and that her son, Billy Melchionda, had never activated the card when he received it. She said the card was in a wooden memory box inside his bedroom in his apartment, along with his social security card.
Police said Arsenault used the card twice on May 7 within a two-minute period at the Circle K Irving Gas Station in Haverhill. Police obtained store video surveillance showing Arsenault pulling into the station, putting gas into his girlfriend’s car and then entering the store to purchase scratch tickets, the police report said.
On Wednesday, Arsenault was the target of an arrest and search warrant. Police set up surveillance at his home, where they saw him drive off in a truck driven by a man who was subsequently identified as Christopher Doucette, 24, of 36 Keeley St.
Haverhill police with the assistance of state police stopped the vehicle for a stop sign violation. A search of Arsenault turned up several hypodermic needles, a shoelace and two plastic cups with lids. One cup contained a brown substance believed to be heroin while the other contained cotton balls saturated with what was believed to be heroin. He also had on him a single amphetamine pill.
Arsenault admitted to using Melchionda’s credit card, and told police it was in a bin in his bedroom, along with ammunition.
Police searched his bedroom and found 12 rounds of .40 caliber ammunition in a plastic bin, and found Melchionda’s debit card in another bin, the report said. Police also found bags of marijuana seeds in one of the bins.
Police searched Doucette and found a needle and a cup containing what appeared to be used heroin-saturated balls of cotton, along with two small bags of a brown substance believed to be heroin. Doucette was charged with possession of a Class A substance and a stop sign violation.
Arsenault told police he has drug problem that he’s been dealing with since February. He said he lives in his parent’s home along with his girlfriend and their child, the report said.
Police said that earlier this year, Arsenault opened an account at Haverhill Bank and subsequently wrote 13 checks to himself for $100 each, but the account had just 23 cents in it. Police said he also wrote his girlfriend two checks for $90 and two more for $100 from the same account, and those were cashed as well. After the bank notified police on March 1, investigators questioned Arsenault’s girlfriend, who said she did not know the checks were bad. Police said she reimbursed the bank $200 and promised to pay the balance of $177. Police questioned Arsenault, who said his friends all told him not to speak with police. Arsenault was arraigned May 15 on the larceny charges.
Arsenault, 24, told police he recently found the card when his girlfriend was getting ready to move into a River Street apartment that last summer was the scene of a shootout that ended in the death of 19-year-old Billy Melchionda of Haverhill and 20-year-old Anddy Guzman of Lawrence.
Arsenault said that after finding Melchionda’s card in the apartment, he used it to buy $42 worth of gas for his girlfriend’s car and $50 worth of lottery scratch tickets at a local gas station/convenience store. Arsenault said he signed the name “WM” and scribbled on the store receipt. He told police he knew he was trying to sign Melchionda’s name to the receipt and knew that Melchionda was dead. He said he tried to use the card the next day to get gas but that it wouldn’t work. He told police he knew that he did wrong by using Melchionda’s bank card.
Arsenault was arraigned Thursday in Haverhill District Court on two counts of larceny under $250, receiving a stolen credit card, identity fraud and forgery of a document. He was also charged with possession of Class A heroin. Arsenault was ordered held on $10,000 cash bail and must appear in court June 23. Arsenault was previously charged on May 15 with 17 counts of oil painting reproduction by check and had been released on personal recognizance.
Melchionda and Guzman were shot to death the night of July 23 during a home invasion at Melchionda’s apartment at 629 River St.
Police said three masked men entered the apartment sometime between 10 and 10:30 p.m. Police reports showed the invaders’ motive was their belief illegal drugs and a large amount of cash were being kept in the home. Police said Guzman was one of the men who invaded the home and was accidentally shot during a violent struggle.
An Essex County Grand Jury eventually indicted three people on murder and other charges. Juan Carlos Sanchez, 20, of Lawrence and Joshua Cloutman, 20, and Angela Walsh, 21, both of 631 River St., were each indicted on two counts of murder, home invasion, armed robbery and armed burglary. Cloutman and Walsh, who police said lived in an upstairs apartment with their child and Cloutman’s mother, were charged with helping plan the home invasion in exchange for some of the marijuana the home invaders planned to steal from Melchionda’s apartment, police said.
In the days following the shootings, Melchionda’s mother, Jennifer Bodenraider and Billy’s father, William S. Melchionda reported to police that when they went to retrieve their son’s belongings from the apartment, most of their son’s valuables were missing. Bodenraider said many of those items were gifts from her and other family members, including a 42-inch plasma TV, a 50-inch LCD TV, an XBox 360 video game console and 60-70 XBox video games, a Movado wristwatch and gold Seiko diving wristwatch — gifts from her son’s grandfather; and two air conditioning units, a collection of baseball caps and a collection of baseball cards that his father gave him.
According to a police report, in the days following the shooting, the building’s landlord, Ronald Parolisi Jr., was questioned by investigators about the missing items. Parolisi said that after police turned the apartment over to him, he found a door had been kicked in so he secured it. He told police he hired his daughter and her boyfriend, Stephen Arsenault to remove blood from the apartment so that he could rent it out again, and that the apartment was left unsecured for a few days and that a window was left open, according to the police report.
Police said that on Monday (May 20 of this year) Melchionda’s mother came to the police station to say she’d been notified by Sovereign Bank that someone was using her son’s debit card. She told police the account was overdrawn and that her son, Billy Melchionda, had never activated the card when he received it. She said the card was in a wooden memory box inside his bedroom in his apartment, along with his social security card.
Police said Arsenault used the card twice on May 7 within a two-minute period at the Circle K Irving Gas Station in Haverhill. Police obtained store video surveillance showing Arsenault pulling into the station, putting gas into his girlfriend’s car and then entering the store to purchase scratch tickets, the police report said.
On Wednesday, Arsenault was the target of an arrest and search warrant. Police set up surveillance at his home, where they saw him drive off in a truck driven by a man who was subsequently identified as Christopher Doucette, 24, of 36 Keeley St.
Haverhill police with the assistance of state police stopped the vehicle for a stop sign violation. A search of Arsenault turned up several hypodermic needles, a shoelace and two plastic cups with lids. One cup contained a brown substance believed to be heroin while the other contained cotton balls saturated with what was believed to be heroin. He also had on him a single amphetamine pill.
Arsenault admitted to using Melchionda’s credit card, and told police it was in a bin in his bedroom, along with ammunition.
Police searched his bedroom and found 12 rounds of .40 caliber ammunition in a plastic bin, and found Melchionda’s debit card in another bin, the report said. Police also found bags of marijuana seeds in one of the bins.
Police searched Doucette and found a needle and a cup containing what appeared to be used heroin-saturated balls of cotton, along with two small bags of a brown substance believed to be heroin. Doucette was charged with possession of a Class A substance and a stop sign violation.
Arsenault told police he has drug problem that he’s been dealing with since February. He said he lives in his parent’s home along with his girlfriend and their child, the report said.
Police said that earlier this year, Arsenault opened an account at Haverhill Bank and subsequently wrote 13 checks to himself for $100 each, but the account had just 23 cents in it. Police said he also wrote his girlfriend two checks for $90 and two more for $100 from the same account, and those were cashed as well. After the bank notified police on March 1, investigators questioned Arsenault’s girlfriend, who said she did not know the checks were bad. Police said she reimbursed the bank $200 and promised to pay the balance of $177. Police questioned Arsenault, who said his friends all told him not to speak with police. Arsenault was arraigned May 15 on the larceny charges.
2013年5月23日星期四
Troubled Visa Settlement Takes Another Hit As Retailers File Own Suit
A $7 billion antitrust settlement over credit-card processing fees that critics say would make things worse for retailers suffered another insult today as Target TGT +0.39%, Macy's M -0.04% and J.C. Penney filed their own lawsuit accusing Visa V -1.13% and Mastercard of generating monopoly profits at their expense.
Bloomberg reported the lawsuit was filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York. It comes two days after the National Retail Federation, the largest association of retailers, announced it will formally oppose the settlement before the May 28 deadline U.S. District Judge John Gleeson set for complaints. Wal-Mart, which led a landmark antitrust suit that generated a $3 billion settlement in 2004, also has objected.
The problem with this settlement is it is a classic case of what I call selling absolution. Class-action lawyers including Robbins Geller, Berger & Montague and Robins Kaplan filed the lawsuit in 2005 on behalf of 19 trade associations and smaller retail chains, accusing Visa and MasterCard MA -1.21% of using their 70% control of the credit-card market to charge excessive processing fees. As is typical with these firms, they worked out a settlement last July that would pay retailers $6 billion in cash and offer them $1.2 billion in reduced interchange fees for eight months after the deal is signed. The lawyers are seeking 11% of the total, or some $800 million in fees.
The objecting retailers say the settlement would actually make things worse. Buried in the settlement are releases in which every retailer that doesn’t opt out agrees never to sue the credit-card companies again with similar claims. The settlement doesn’t force Visa and Mastercard to change the policies that allow them to dictate interchange fees to retailers, however, which is what drives so many of them nuts.
Visa and Mastercard would drop their prohibition against retailers assessing a surcharge for credit-card purchases, but that is meaningless. Retailers can already discount for cash, and it would be a clueless consumer indeed who couldn’t see that a 5% discount for cash is the exact equivalent of a surcharge for using Air purifier.
Which points out the silliness of all of this litigation. Retailers complain that the credit card companies are picking their pockets to the tune of $40 billion a year and passionately, desperately want that money back. They also use clever terms like “swipe fee” to try and convince consumers that they are paying these fees every time they buy with plastic.
But retailers get a huge benefit from the ubiquitous credit-card network and the easy availability of credit that allows consumers to make impulse purchases they may or may not be able to afford. It is also naive to assume that retailers would be able to keep any reductions in interchange fees they may get out of this litigation. Retail is a fiercely competitive business and the savings would be passed through to consumers while the credit card companies cut back on perks like free airline miles.
Retailers were faced with a tough choice when their ostensible lawyers negotiated this deal. If they remained in the class, they’d agree to release Visa and Mastercard from any future litigation. If they opted out, they’d give up their share of the $7.25 billion.
It looks like a critical mass has decided to give up the $7 billion and try their luck on their own. The question is whether Judge Gleeson will pull the plug on what’s left of this settlement that rewards the lawyers who negotiated it so richly. Next Tuesday, we see how many more retailers decide to opt out.
The story that John Ryall offered about the $14,000 cash and eight credit cards in his hotel room, and the plastic bags filled with chemicals in his sports utility vehicle sounded hard to believe to police.
His grandma gave him the money to start a chemical research company, Ryall told Bensalem police earlier this month after they showed up at a Route 1 hotel room where he was staying with a woman whom police say had an outstanding arrest warrant.
The 2 kilograms of white powder and nearly 250 gel capsules in his SUV were used to make drugs to treat erectile dysfunction and an anti-estrogen pill, he allegedly told them. The credit and debit cards were given to him by friends, Ryall claimed.
Bensalem police say parts of Ryall's claims were true, but there is far more to the story.
Now, Ryall, 34, and Jennifer Claherty, 35, both from Palmyra, N.J., are facing charges of receiving stolen property and multiple counts of identity theft, conspiracy and access device crimes.
Police say their investigation began May 3 after a tip that Claherty could be found at the Route 1 motel. She had an active arrest warrant out of Scranton, where she was wanted on charges of receiving stolen property and conspiracy, according to online court records.
But as the investigation progressed, the story started disintegrating, police said. They added that the money was likely stolen from a man whom Ryall claimed was a former business partner. That man's name was on debit and credit cards in the motel room, police added.
Police said they also learned that Navratil was arrested April 30 for attempting to pass a fraudulent check for $6,600 from an account listed for a business owned by Ryall’s former partner. She also allegedly passed four other bad checks, totaling more than $31,000, through the same man's account at other banks.
The chemicals that police found in the SUV — Tamoxifen and Tadalafil — are used for treating breast cancer and erectile dysfunction, but both require a doctor’s prescription, and a license to distribute and manufacture, police said. Claherty and Ryall don’t have either, court papers show.
Bloomberg reported the lawsuit was filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York. It comes two days after the National Retail Federation, the largest association of retailers, announced it will formally oppose the settlement before the May 28 deadline U.S. District Judge John Gleeson set for complaints. Wal-Mart, which led a landmark antitrust suit that generated a $3 billion settlement in 2004, also has objected.
The problem with this settlement is it is a classic case of what I call selling absolution. Class-action lawyers including Robbins Geller, Berger & Montague and Robins Kaplan filed the lawsuit in 2005 on behalf of 19 trade associations and smaller retail chains, accusing Visa and MasterCard MA -1.21% of using their 70% control of the credit-card market to charge excessive processing fees. As is typical with these firms, they worked out a settlement last July that would pay retailers $6 billion in cash and offer them $1.2 billion in reduced interchange fees for eight months after the deal is signed. The lawyers are seeking 11% of the total, or some $800 million in fees.
The objecting retailers say the settlement would actually make things worse. Buried in the settlement are releases in which every retailer that doesn’t opt out agrees never to sue the credit-card companies again with similar claims. The settlement doesn’t force Visa and Mastercard to change the policies that allow them to dictate interchange fees to retailers, however, which is what drives so many of them nuts.
Visa and Mastercard would drop their prohibition against retailers assessing a surcharge for credit-card purchases, but that is meaningless. Retailers can already discount for cash, and it would be a clueless consumer indeed who couldn’t see that a 5% discount for cash is the exact equivalent of a surcharge for using Air purifier.
Which points out the silliness of all of this litigation. Retailers complain that the credit card companies are picking their pockets to the tune of $40 billion a year and passionately, desperately want that money back. They also use clever terms like “swipe fee” to try and convince consumers that they are paying these fees every time they buy with plastic.
But retailers get a huge benefit from the ubiquitous credit-card network and the easy availability of credit that allows consumers to make impulse purchases they may or may not be able to afford. It is also naive to assume that retailers would be able to keep any reductions in interchange fees they may get out of this litigation. Retail is a fiercely competitive business and the savings would be passed through to consumers while the credit card companies cut back on perks like free airline miles.
Retailers were faced with a tough choice when their ostensible lawyers negotiated this deal. If they remained in the class, they’d agree to release Visa and Mastercard from any future litigation. If they opted out, they’d give up their share of the $7.25 billion.
It looks like a critical mass has decided to give up the $7 billion and try their luck on their own. The question is whether Judge Gleeson will pull the plug on what’s left of this settlement that rewards the lawyers who negotiated it so richly. Next Tuesday, we see how many more retailers decide to opt out.
The story that John Ryall offered about the $14,000 cash and eight credit cards in his hotel room, and the plastic bags filled with chemicals in his sports utility vehicle sounded hard to believe to police.
His grandma gave him the money to start a chemical research company, Ryall told Bensalem police earlier this month after they showed up at a Route 1 hotel room where he was staying with a woman whom police say had an outstanding arrest warrant.
The 2 kilograms of white powder and nearly 250 gel capsules in his SUV were used to make drugs to treat erectile dysfunction and an anti-estrogen pill, he allegedly told them. The credit and debit cards were given to him by friends, Ryall claimed.
Bensalem police say parts of Ryall's claims were true, but there is far more to the story.
Now, Ryall, 34, and Jennifer Claherty, 35, both from Palmyra, N.J., are facing charges of receiving stolen property and multiple counts of identity theft, conspiracy and access device crimes.
Police say their investigation began May 3 after a tip that Claherty could be found at the Route 1 motel. She had an active arrest warrant out of Scranton, where she was wanted on charges of receiving stolen property and conspiracy, according to online court records.
But as the investigation progressed, the story started disintegrating, police said. They added that the money was likely stolen from a man whom Ryall claimed was a former business partner. That man's name was on debit and credit cards in the motel room, police added.
Police said they also learned that Navratil was arrested April 30 for attempting to pass a fraudulent check for $6,600 from an account listed for a business owned by Ryall’s former partner. She also allegedly passed four other bad checks, totaling more than $31,000, through the same man's account at other banks.
The chemicals that police found in the SUV — Tamoxifen and Tadalafil — are used for treating breast cancer and erectile dysfunction, but both require a doctor’s prescription, and a license to distribute and manufacture, police said. Claherty and Ryall don’t have either, court papers show.
2013年5月21日星期二
Building a Bicycle Barometer
In my day job in the United Kingdom’s Government Digital Service, I had got used to ambient information from screens that dot the office. These provide real-time updates about the progress of various projects. I wanted a bit of that for home—something I didn’t need to tap or click to check, something that was just there.
How I could achieve that came to me in April 2011 at a Rewired State “National Hack the Government Day” event, when I started playing with a Nanode microcontroller. The US $50 Nanode is an Arduino-like microcontroller designed by a group at the London Hackspace, with Internet connectivity built in. I’d had various Arduinos sitting about for a while, with the intention of learning how they work and building something network enabled. But this never quite happened: Getting an Arduino connected to the Internet requires a separate Ethernet “shield” component, which were hard to get hold of at the time. So a Nanode was just what I needed.
However, connecting the Nanode was still a little tricky. First I had to figure out some things at the local-area-network level, such as divining the hardware media access control (MAC) address used to identify the board on the physical Ethernet network. Learning how to read a value from a server on the Internet also took some time.
Coming from a Web programming background, I had difficulty getting my head around creating microcontroller code to handle connections and process the results, so I decided to keep the Nanode software fairly dumb. I programmed my Nanode to read just a single value from the Internet and move the barometer’s needle to a position based on that value. The hard work of determining that value would be done on a Web server, where I set up a Flask application on the Heroku cloud application platform. Flask is a lightweight framework for creating websites that use the Python language. It’s great for simple applications that don’t require a database. Heroku is a good fit for hosting Web applications made with Flask, and it’s free for low usage.
Next I had to decide what data to gather and how to boil it down to a single value. The U.K. government’s Met Office provides an API that gives 3-hour forecasts for 5000 locations across the United Kingdom, detailing 30 weather types (mist, drizzle, sleet, thunder, and so forth) along with the wind speed, temperature, and pollution level. For public transport information I used the Live Tube API from Transport for London, which tells you if a station is open (I wanted to know about Brixton station) and the status of each line (in my case, I was just interested in the Victoria line).
To turn the weather and transportation data sources into something meaningful, I started with the number 100, which means “You really should cycle!” The Python code deducts points for bad weather: 10 points off if it’s under 15 °C, 30 points off if it’s going to drizzle, 75 points if it’s going to thunder, and so on. Points get added if the Victoria line is not running in good service or if Brixton station is shut. Once all the additions and subtractions are done, my Flask application outputs a number between 0 and 100, which the Nanode reads as plain text.
Having lived with the Barometer for a few months, and with a little tweaking of the weightings, I’ve found it surprisingly accurate, although the weather’s been pretty bad, so it’s mostly been pointing at the Tube sign! There’s still room for improvement, though—I’d like to add information about daylight hours and maybe real-time pollution data.
The Barometer has also triggered ideas for future projects that take small chunks of information from the Web and display it on Ventilation system: I’ve just finished a whiteboard with six dials that uses a projector to display arbitrary values from a Google spreadsheet based on the dials’ settings. I’m also thinking about building something for my brother that tells him about conditions at his local golf course.
Moving from paper passports to plastic electronic IDs, will change the way people do business and communicate with the government, Nikiforov said. The chip inside the card will be capable of storing official information, like passport details and a digital signature, and additional data, such as travel documents or shopping coupons, as well as the cardholder's personal data, the minister said.
Regarding mobile number portability, or MNP, by which mobile subscribers can switch providers but keep their number, Nikiforov said, it needs to happen soon in order to bring more competition to the mobile communication market. Mobile companies will compete for each user's business to prevent their switching to other operators.
A law mandating MNP was signed by President Vladimir Putin in December last year, but faced opposition from mobile network operators, who blame high costs and incompatible infrastructure for the delays with its deployment.
Previously, Nikiforov said that mobile operators "may try not to be ready" for the planned introduction of the MNP on Dec 1. However, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said Tuesday that he expects it to happen on schedule. "I assume that everything can be done on time," Dvorkovich told reporters. "But if there is a delay, it won't be much, two to three months maximum."
National roaming is another problem that the Communications and Press Ministry is determined to solve, Nikiforov said. "It is some sort of a travel tax that you, business people, pay when you travel between regions in the same country, within the same economic space."
Recently appointed Russian Post CEO Dmitry Strashnov and Rostelecom chief executive Sergei Kalugin were also present at Tuesday's forum and answered questions regarding strategic development of the state-funded postal service and the long-distance communications provider. They answered questions from business people about delays with international parcel delivery and internet connectivity in remote areas.
How I could achieve that came to me in April 2011 at a Rewired State “National Hack the Government Day” event, when I started playing with a Nanode microcontroller. The US $50 Nanode is an Arduino-like microcontroller designed by a group at the London Hackspace, with Internet connectivity built in. I’d had various Arduinos sitting about for a while, with the intention of learning how they work and building something network enabled. But this never quite happened: Getting an Arduino connected to the Internet requires a separate Ethernet “shield” component, which were hard to get hold of at the time. So a Nanode was just what I needed.
However, connecting the Nanode was still a little tricky. First I had to figure out some things at the local-area-network level, such as divining the hardware media access control (MAC) address used to identify the board on the physical Ethernet network. Learning how to read a value from a server on the Internet also took some time.
Coming from a Web programming background, I had difficulty getting my head around creating microcontroller code to handle connections and process the results, so I decided to keep the Nanode software fairly dumb. I programmed my Nanode to read just a single value from the Internet and move the barometer’s needle to a position based on that value. The hard work of determining that value would be done on a Web server, where I set up a Flask application on the Heroku cloud application platform. Flask is a lightweight framework for creating websites that use the Python language. It’s great for simple applications that don’t require a database. Heroku is a good fit for hosting Web applications made with Flask, and it’s free for low usage.
Next I had to decide what data to gather and how to boil it down to a single value. The U.K. government’s Met Office provides an API that gives 3-hour forecasts for 5000 locations across the United Kingdom, detailing 30 weather types (mist, drizzle, sleet, thunder, and so forth) along with the wind speed, temperature, and pollution level. For public transport information I used the Live Tube API from Transport for London, which tells you if a station is open (I wanted to know about Brixton station) and the status of each line (in my case, I was just interested in the Victoria line).
To turn the weather and transportation data sources into something meaningful, I started with the number 100, which means “You really should cycle!” The Python code deducts points for bad weather: 10 points off if it’s under 15 °C, 30 points off if it’s going to drizzle, 75 points if it’s going to thunder, and so on. Points get added if the Victoria line is not running in good service or if Brixton station is shut. Once all the additions and subtractions are done, my Flask application outputs a number between 0 and 100, which the Nanode reads as plain text.
Having lived with the Barometer for a few months, and with a little tweaking of the weightings, I’ve found it surprisingly accurate, although the weather’s been pretty bad, so it’s mostly been pointing at the Tube sign! There’s still room for improvement, though—I’d like to add information about daylight hours and maybe real-time pollution data.
The Barometer has also triggered ideas for future projects that take small chunks of information from the Web and display it on Ventilation system: I’ve just finished a whiteboard with six dials that uses a projector to display arbitrary values from a Google spreadsheet based on the dials’ settings. I’m also thinking about building something for my brother that tells him about conditions at his local golf course.
Moving from paper passports to plastic electronic IDs, will change the way people do business and communicate with the government, Nikiforov said. The chip inside the card will be capable of storing official information, like passport details and a digital signature, and additional data, such as travel documents or shopping coupons, as well as the cardholder's personal data, the minister said.
Regarding mobile number portability, or MNP, by which mobile subscribers can switch providers but keep their number, Nikiforov said, it needs to happen soon in order to bring more competition to the mobile communication market. Mobile companies will compete for each user's business to prevent their switching to other operators.
A law mandating MNP was signed by President Vladimir Putin in December last year, but faced opposition from mobile network operators, who blame high costs and incompatible infrastructure for the delays with its deployment.
Previously, Nikiforov said that mobile operators "may try not to be ready" for the planned introduction of the MNP on Dec 1. However, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said Tuesday that he expects it to happen on schedule. "I assume that everything can be done on time," Dvorkovich told reporters. "But if there is a delay, it won't be much, two to three months maximum."
National roaming is another problem that the Communications and Press Ministry is determined to solve, Nikiforov said. "It is some sort of a travel tax that you, business people, pay when you travel between regions in the same country, within the same economic space."
Recently appointed Russian Post CEO Dmitry Strashnov and Rostelecom chief executive Sergei Kalugin were also present at Tuesday's forum and answered questions regarding strategic development of the state-funded postal service and the long-distance communications provider. They answered questions from business people about delays with international parcel delivery and internet connectivity in remote areas.
2013年5月20日星期一
The Clash of the Gaming Headsets
One of the most common headset related questions asked by many is: apart ftom the stereotype of being obnoxiously large and garish, what exactly separates a gaming headset from regular plain-vanilla headphones? While much of the stereotype is true, a good gaming headset offers a lot more than that. This includes a competent noise cancelling mic, comfort for long listening sessions and excellent soundstage as well as positional accuracy, among many specifics that make these headsets excel at gaming.
The mostly nocturnal gaming habits of gamers and the proliferation of LAN party culture has lead to an increasing number of gaming headset adopters. This trend is also reflected in the growing number of specialist gaming headset manufacturers and their ever increasing product range. To make your choice in this perplexing market a tab easier, we've conducted a comparison between five of the best gaming headsets available in the Air purifier today.
There are two schools of thought regarding the looks of a headset. Audiophiles tend to downplay the aspect by justifying that you can't see a headset, but only hear it, so the sound quality is what ultimately matters. On the other hand, scores of gamers who take their headsets out for LAN parties do care about how badass it makes them look. So, it's no wonder why the single most conspicuous element separating gaming headsets from regular ones is their aggressive styling.
Some would say that Cooler Master's CM Storm Sonuz bears rather unconventional looks. To be brutally honest, that's just a nice way of saying that the designers seem to have given it a thorough beating with the ugly stick. It's too grey and bulky, while the weird teardrop shape of the cups doesn't help its tendency to make you look like a massive douchebag. And then there is the other ugly duckling, the Sennheiser PC 350 SE. Going simply by its looks, one would assume the Sennheiser PC 350 SE to be priced around the Rs 5,000 mark. This is largely due to its chronically plasticky look and feel, especially for the price. The material employed isn't exactly cheap, but it sure as hell doesn't seem remotely as luxurious or high-quality as one would expect of a headset priced at Rs 19,990.
The ASUS ROG Vulcan Pro, however ,is the very epitome of the ideal headphone design. It strikes a great balance between style and aggression with its all-black finish and an ear cup fashioned out of shiny, blood-red plastic. Everything from the tasteful chrome accents, brushed metal design on the ear cup inserts and the acres of leatherette across the device is thoroughly pleasing to the eye. The Corsair Vengeance 1300's understated looks are neither particularly eye catching, nor are they offensive. If you're the kind who likes to keep a low profile, these headphones should suit you just right. A heavily cushioned grey headband is the only respite from the overbearing dominance of black matte plastic all across the headset. However, the overall chunky design and the blue accent on the ear cups give it a bit of character.
he Razer Blackshark's utilitarian military design gives it ruggedness as well as practicality. The old school aircraft-grade headset style gimbal mounts do their job well and allow the headset to conform to the face with ease. The cord length is a bit short even when you factor in the extension, but the overall quality makes up for it. The plastics used on the ear cups are top notch, whereas the tastefully stitched headband feels great as well. What impressed the most was the detachable mic with a great articulated arm that looks decidedly old-school.
The ASUS ROG Vulcan Pro features a sturdy construction replete with steel height adjustment bands that allow it to fit crowns of any size. The driver enclosures exhibit an impressive range of articulation, thereby allowing them to conform neatly to the contours of your head. This is achieved with a ball-and-socket construction that connects the headband to the ear cups. The materials employed are pretty good for the price, with high-quality plastics used all around. It features all the goodies a gamer can ask for with detachable mic and cables, a slick carrying case, as well as active noise cancellation to drown out the ambient noise at LAN parties. All this sturdiness achieved while being a collapsible design is quite impressive.
The Cooler Master Sonuz disappoints with its decidedly plasticky chassis and a build quality that reeks of excessive free play between components. Apart from this, the ear cups attached with ball-and-socket joints may not be elegant, but they get the job done. The steel headband also may not feel well put together, but it's functional. This headset is among the cheapest of the lot and that cheapness comes through in its build quality. The Corsair Vengeance 1300, however, is an exception to that rule. It features excellent material quality and design for what's essentially the lowest price. The headband is nice and thick with a generous amount of cushion. The material used on ear cups and the rest of the chassis is pretty good for its price as well. For that sort of money, you're getting a very well constructed headset bearing excellent circumaural ear cups and a well-designed mic.
It’s an experience I can’t recommend highly enough. The Oculus Rift is a gadget that could very well change the landscape of video games in the near future, bringing a viable virtual reality option to gamers for the first time ever. Hawken is, unsurprisingly, very well suited to the experience.
One thing not included in the demo I played was the final version of the Oculus screen. The resolution of the current build isn’t as high as the final build, and the Oculus team told me that this more than anything is crucial to the device’s success. Affordable, high-resolution screens are key to creating an immersive experience at a cost that consumers can afford.
In other words, one of the big reasons virtual reality is on the near horizon is the advent of mobile and tablet technology.
Without a manufacturing infrastructure in place that caters to the smaller screens, any company interested in producing a VR headset would have needed to start from scratch with the screens. Now that this infrastructure is already in place, it’s just a matter of the technology getting to the right point (and price-point) for the system to become a reality.
The mostly nocturnal gaming habits of gamers and the proliferation of LAN party culture has lead to an increasing number of gaming headset adopters. This trend is also reflected in the growing number of specialist gaming headset manufacturers and their ever increasing product range. To make your choice in this perplexing market a tab easier, we've conducted a comparison between five of the best gaming headsets available in the Air purifier today.
There are two schools of thought regarding the looks of a headset. Audiophiles tend to downplay the aspect by justifying that you can't see a headset, but only hear it, so the sound quality is what ultimately matters. On the other hand, scores of gamers who take their headsets out for LAN parties do care about how badass it makes them look. So, it's no wonder why the single most conspicuous element separating gaming headsets from regular ones is their aggressive styling.
Some would say that Cooler Master's CM Storm Sonuz bears rather unconventional looks. To be brutally honest, that's just a nice way of saying that the designers seem to have given it a thorough beating with the ugly stick. It's too grey and bulky, while the weird teardrop shape of the cups doesn't help its tendency to make you look like a massive douchebag. And then there is the other ugly duckling, the Sennheiser PC 350 SE. Going simply by its looks, one would assume the Sennheiser PC 350 SE to be priced around the Rs 5,000 mark. This is largely due to its chronically plasticky look and feel, especially for the price. The material employed isn't exactly cheap, but it sure as hell doesn't seem remotely as luxurious or high-quality as one would expect of a headset priced at Rs 19,990.
The ASUS ROG Vulcan Pro, however ,is the very epitome of the ideal headphone design. It strikes a great balance between style and aggression with its all-black finish and an ear cup fashioned out of shiny, blood-red plastic. Everything from the tasteful chrome accents, brushed metal design on the ear cup inserts and the acres of leatherette across the device is thoroughly pleasing to the eye. The Corsair Vengeance 1300's understated looks are neither particularly eye catching, nor are they offensive. If you're the kind who likes to keep a low profile, these headphones should suit you just right. A heavily cushioned grey headband is the only respite from the overbearing dominance of black matte plastic all across the headset. However, the overall chunky design and the blue accent on the ear cups give it a bit of character.
he Razer Blackshark's utilitarian military design gives it ruggedness as well as practicality. The old school aircraft-grade headset style gimbal mounts do their job well and allow the headset to conform to the face with ease. The cord length is a bit short even when you factor in the extension, but the overall quality makes up for it. The plastics used on the ear cups are top notch, whereas the tastefully stitched headband feels great as well. What impressed the most was the detachable mic with a great articulated arm that looks decidedly old-school.
The ASUS ROG Vulcan Pro features a sturdy construction replete with steel height adjustment bands that allow it to fit crowns of any size. The driver enclosures exhibit an impressive range of articulation, thereby allowing them to conform neatly to the contours of your head. This is achieved with a ball-and-socket construction that connects the headband to the ear cups. The materials employed are pretty good for the price, with high-quality plastics used all around. It features all the goodies a gamer can ask for with detachable mic and cables, a slick carrying case, as well as active noise cancellation to drown out the ambient noise at LAN parties. All this sturdiness achieved while being a collapsible design is quite impressive.
The Cooler Master Sonuz disappoints with its decidedly plasticky chassis and a build quality that reeks of excessive free play between components. Apart from this, the ear cups attached with ball-and-socket joints may not be elegant, but they get the job done. The steel headband also may not feel well put together, but it's functional. This headset is among the cheapest of the lot and that cheapness comes through in its build quality. The Corsair Vengeance 1300, however, is an exception to that rule. It features excellent material quality and design for what's essentially the lowest price. The headband is nice and thick with a generous amount of cushion. The material used on ear cups and the rest of the chassis is pretty good for its price as well. For that sort of money, you're getting a very well constructed headset bearing excellent circumaural ear cups and a well-designed mic.
It’s an experience I can’t recommend highly enough. The Oculus Rift is a gadget that could very well change the landscape of video games in the near future, bringing a viable virtual reality option to gamers for the first time ever. Hawken is, unsurprisingly, very well suited to the experience.
One thing not included in the demo I played was the final version of the Oculus screen. The resolution of the current build isn’t as high as the final build, and the Oculus team told me that this more than anything is crucial to the device’s success. Affordable, high-resolution screens are key to creating an immersive experience at a cost that consumers can afford.
In other words, one of the big reasons virtual reality is on the near horizon is the advent of mobile and tablet technology.
Without a manufacturing infrastructure in place that caters to the smaller screens, any company interested in producing a VR headset would have needed to start from scratch with the screens. Now that this infrastructure is already in place, it’s just a matter of the technology getting to the right point (and price-point) for the system to become a reality.
2013年5月19日星期日
Avoid the aftermath of a stealth attack
Are you a shopper by stealth? You go out shopping but then leave your shopping bags in the car until your partner goes out and then run your purchases inside and shove them into the back of your wardrobe so they won't be discovered. When your partner asks ''Is that new?'' you roll your eyes and tell them you've worn it before and you can't believe they didn't notice.
Now I don't want to get into the ethics of shopping by stealth, having done this myself on the odd occasion. Sometimes it's just easier. But what I do want to ask is whether you are really cheating yourself?
What do I mean by cheating yourself? Well it's one thing to hide things from your partner. I'm sure there are many things snuck inside by both sexes, be they tools, shoes, torches and toys that shouldn't always be explained. But it's another thing to hide things from yourself.
These are the purchases that when you do a wardrobe cull months or years later, they still have the labels left on them or they're still in the bag, hidden in the back of the wardrobe.
They're the purchases you made because you were bored or hormonal or drinking on a Friday night while surfing the net and the next day you knew it was a mistake. You might spend $50, $100 or $250 every other week but together it can add up to hundreds or thousands over a year. Which is a whole lot of money to spend on something you bought on a whim and will never use or Ventilation system.
Maybe start by recognising those times when you are likely to either overspend or buy things you really don't need. If you are window shopping during your lunch break, find something else to do instead. Pop on a pair of sneakers and go for a run, go to a gallery, or read a book. If window shopping is a social thing and you don't want to miss out, then leave your credit card behind so you're not tempted. Sounds simple but it's so effective.
If you love cruising online shopping sites then put your credit card in another room, don't save your details to favourite sites, or shut down the computer.
The credit card bill is a little different. Firstly you need to remove your head from the giant pile of cashmere you have dug it into (cashmere sounds much better than sand) and recognise what you are dealing with. So open all your credit card statements and face up to what you owe. With a bottle of wine if necessary. Once you know how much you owe then make a plan to pay off your debt.
This might mean cutting up cards (especially if you have multiple cards) or talking to your bank about refinancing to another lower rate card or loan. Ultimately you need to know what you have to work with and then make a plan for what you are going to do about it.
As for teams, three winners emerged from the post-frenzy shopping market -- Arizona, Chicago and Tennessee. Based on playing time from last year, I'd give the Cardinals the slight edge from the post-March 17 market. Among their signings, cornerback Antoine Cason played 976 snaps for the Chargers last year, Jasper Brinkley had 813 snaps at linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings, and Chilo Rachal had 643 snaps on the Bears' offensive line. The cost was a combined $5.7 million in contracts.
Bears general manager Phil Emery kept grabbing depth for his offensive line after being aggressive early and getting Jermon Bushrod and Martellus Bennett. Among the Bears' five post-March 17 signings were offensive linemen Matt Slauson and Eben Britton. Slauson started 16 games and had 786 snaps for the Jets in 2012. Britton had only 253 snaps last season, but he comes with 30 career starts. The cost was $1.53 million for both on one-year deals.
By being patient, the Titans picked up center Chris Spencer and defensive tackle Antonio Johnson, along with three other UFAs after March 17.
It's been pretty well proven that NFL championships can't be bought through free agency. Teams have tried and failed for decades. The key is being smart.
The Bucs were the free-agency winners in 2012, getting Vincent Jackson, Eric Wright and Carl Nicks, but they finished 7-9. How the Dolphins will do this season depends on the development of quarterback Ryan Tannehill. He should improve with Wallace, Gibson and Dustin Keller as added targets.
Overall, though, the Denver Broncos should be recognized for what they did both in the hot early market and late in the game. They ranked 12th in unrestricted spending, putting up $44.5 million on five players, but all five had at least 634 snaps last season and four had 799 or more.
Now I don't want to get into the ethics of shopping by stealth, having done this myself on the odd occasion. Sometimes it's just easier. But what I do want to ask is whether you are really cheating yourself?
What do I mean by cheating yourself? Well it's one thing to hide things from your partner. I'm sure there are many things snuck inside by both sexes, be they tools, shoes, torches and toys that shouldn't always be explained. But it's another thing to hide things from yourself.
These are the purchases that when you do a wardrobe cull months or years later, they still have the labels left on them or they're still in the bag, hidden in the back of the wardrobe.
They're the purchases you made because you were bored or hormonal or drinking on a Friday night while surfing the net and the next day you knew it was a mistake. You might spend $50, $100 or $250 every other week but together it can add up to hundreds or thousands over a year. Which is a whole lot of money to spend on something you bought on a whim and will never use or Ventilation system.
Maybe start by recognising those times when you are likely to either overspend or buy things you really don't need. If you are window shopping during your lunch break, find something else to do instead. Pop on a pair of sneakers and go for a run, go to a gallery, or read a book. If window shopping is a social thing and you don't want to miss out, then leave your credit card behind so you're not tempted. Sounds simple but it's so effective.
If you love cruising online shopping sites then put your credit card in another room, don't save your details to favourite sites, or shut down the computer.
The credit card bill is a little different. Firstly you need to remove your head from the giant pile of cashmere you have dug it into (cashmere sounds much better than sand) and recognise what you are dealing with. So open all your credit card statements and face up to what you owe. With a bottle of wine if necessary. Once you know how much you owe then make a plan to pay off your debt.
This might mean cutting up cards (especially if you have multiple cards) or talking to your bank about refinancing to another lower rate card or loan. Ultimately you need to know what you have to work with and then make a plan for what you are going to do about it.
As for teams, three winners emerged from the post-frenzy shopping market -- Arizona, Chicago and Tennessee. Based on playing time from last year, I'd give the Cardinals the slight edge from the post-March 17 market. Among their signings, cornerback Antoine Cason played 976 snaps for the Chargers last year, Jasper Brinkley had 813 snaps at linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings, and Chilo Rachal had 643 snaps on the Bears' offensive line. The cost was a combined $5.7 million in contracts.
Bears general manager Phil Emery kept grabbing depth for his offensive line after being aggressive early and getting Jermon Bushrod and Martellus Bennett. Among the Bears' five post-March 17 signings were offensive linemen Matt Slauson and Eben Britton. Slauson started 16 games and had 786 snaps for the Jets in 2012. Britton had only 253 snaps last season, but he comes with 30 career starts. The cost was $1.53 million for both on one-year deals.
By being patient, the Titans picked up center Chris Spencer and defensive tackle Antonio Johnson, along with three other UFAs after March 17.
It's been pretty well proven that NFL championships can't be bought through free agency. Teams have tried and failed for decades. The key is being smart.
The Bucs were the free-agency winners in 2012, getting Vincent Jackson, Eric Wright and Carl Nicks, but they finished 7-9. How the Dolphins will do this season depends on the development of quarterback Ryan Tannehill. He should improve with Wallace, Gibson and Dustin Keller as added targets.
Overall, though, the Denver Broncos should be recognized for what they did both in the hot early market and late in the game. They ranked 12th in unrestricted spending, putting up $44.5 million on five players, but all five had at least 634 snaps last season and four had 799 or more.
2013年5月16日星期四
Southeast thrives in OT at Northwest
In the first minute, Villa’s shot from the right side went directly into Southeast goalkeeper Abel Mendiola, and the Raiders’ defense cleared the deflection. That ended Northwest’s window to tie, though, because just a minute later Southeast’s set-play magic took all hope away from the home team.
After Rosillo was fouled in the corner, he crossed in on another free kick for the Raiders and set up Victor Garcia’s header. Deanda, who made three saves and often took charge on set plays in regulation, again couldn’t block it.
“It was more like holding on and surviving, but we got a break and they fouled our player,” Garcia said. “They did a quick play and I asked for it. I was at the right place.”
Southeast spent much of the night building its attack through the midfield, getting the ball to the side and either crossing or setting up a deep throw-in.
Northwest had the most offensive success with long balls over the defense to striker David Perez. Cielo Nunez’s pass to Perez in the fifth minute ended in an off-balance shot too high and wide. Bryan Villa’s pass to the same spot ended when Perez’s volley was off target.
“I couldn’t get a clean foot,” Perez said. “I tried at least getting a good chance, but it didn’t happen.”
In the 53rd minute, Giovanni Aguero laid off to Perez around 15 yards away but from a tough angle. Perez passed to Nunez, who couldn’t get a clear shot. It was the best of Northwest’s few chances. The Bruins finished with three shots on goal to the Raiders’ five.
For Northwest, this was the furthest the program has gone in the state tournament. Scoggins took over in 2007 and led the Bruins to their first tourney appearance. Last season, they earned their first tourney win and advanced to the quarterfinals before coming up short.
“To come this far and lose one before the championship, it sucks,” said Perez, a senior. “Why come this far if you won’t win it all?”
Southeast must face Dalton without midfielder and team captain Jorge Hurtado, who received a red card with two minutes remaining in overtime after shoving a Northwest player. The Catamounts, who are 21-0 and Class 4A’s top-ranked team, have beaten Kettenring’s squad three times this oil painting reproduction.
“We’ll have to play around that and persevere,” said Kettenring, who is in his first season as the Raiders coach after previously serving as an assistant for the boys and leading the Lady Raiders’ program.
The reworks inside the iPhone 5S guts, according to BGR News, were made to accommodate new handset components and features, chief of them is the sapphire-coated fingerprint sensor that serves two purposes - tougher mobile security and secured wireless payment processing via near-field communications (NFC).
Citing an unidentified source, BGR pointed to the following internal parts as the 'invisible' to the iPhone 5S: loud-speaker bracket, ear speaker bracket, vibrating motor assembly, Wi-Fi flex cable ribbon and SIM card tray.
While the leaks could not be independently verified, the iPhone parts shown were called 'plausible' by numerous blog reports, adding that the expected arrival of the revamped iOS 7, thereby spawning new features for the smartphone, indeed requires major adjustments inside.
This week, reports have suggested that Apple is ditching the physical Home button in favour a capacitive alternative. The switch was intended to provide more durability to iPhone 5S owners, made possible by the elimination of a moving part, which in turn greatly mitigates the wear-and-tear factor of the device.
At the same time, the new key will be coated with sapphire to make it scratch-resistant and beneath the same button, a fingerprint sensor chip will be embedded, which is designed to bolster the iPhone 5S' security features.
After Rosillo was fouled in the corner, he crossed in on another free kick for the Raiders and set up Victor Garcia’s header. Deanda, who made three saves and often took charge on set plays in regulation, again couldn’t block it.
“It was more like holding on and surviving, but we got a break and they fouled our player,” Garcia said. “They did a quick play and I asked for it. I was at the right place.”
Southeast spent much of the night building its attack through the midfield, getting the ball to the side and either crossing or setting up a deep throw-in.
Northwest had the most offensive success with long balls over the defense to striker David Perez. Cielo Nunez’s pass to Perez in the fifth minute ended in an off-balance shot too high and wide. Bryan Villa’s pass to the same spot ended when Perez’s volley was off target.
“I couldn’t get a clean foot,” Perez said. “I tried at least getting a good chance, but it didn’t happen.”
In the 53rd minute, Giovanni Aguero laid off to Perez around 15 yards away but from a tough angle. Perez passed to Nunez, who couldn’t get a clear shot. It was the best of Northwest’s few chances. The Bruins finished with three shots on goal to the Raiders’ five.
For Northwest, this was the furthest the program has gone in the state tournament. Scoggins took over in 2007 and led the Bruins to their first tourney appearance. Last season, they earned their first tourney win and advanced to the quarterfinals before coming up short.
“To come this far and lose one before the championship, it sucks,” said Perez, a senior. “Why come this far if you won’t win it all?”
Southeast must face Dalton without midfielder and team captain Jorge Hurtado, who received a red card with two minutes remaining in overtime after shoving a Northwest player. The Catamounts, who are 21-0 and Class 4A’s top-ranked team, have beaten Kettenring’s squad three times this oil painting reproduction.
“We’ll have to play around that and persevere,” said Kettenring, who is in his first season as the Raiders coach after previously serving as an assistant for the boys and leading the Lady Raiders’ program.
The reworks inside the iPhone 5S guts, according to BGR News, were made to accommodate new handset components and features, chief of them is the sapphire-coated fingerprint sensor that serves two purposes - tougher mobile security and secured wireless payment processing via near-field communications (NFC).
Citing an unidentified source, BGR pointed to the following internal parts as the 'invisible' to the iPhone 5S: loud-speaker bracket, ear speaker bracket, vibrating motor assembly, Wi-Fi flex cable ribbon and SIM card tray.
While the leaks could not be independently verified, the iPhone parts shown were called 'plausible' by numerous blog reports, adding that the expected arrival of the revamped iOS 7, thereby spawning new features for the smartphone, indeed requires major adjustments inside.
This week, reports have suggested that Apple is ditching the physical Home button in favour a capacitive alternative. The switch was intended to provide more durability to iPhone 5S owners, made possible by the elimination of a moving part, which in turn greatly mitigates the wear-and-tear factor of the device.
At the same time, the new key will be coated with sapphire to make it scratch-resistant and beneath the same button, a fingerprint sensor chip will be embedded, which is designed to bolster the iPhone 5S' security features.
2013年5月14日星期二
Otca’s Monkey Kit Lets You Hang Your iPad Wherever You Want
Want to hang your iPad from a tree limb? Too far out? How about on your microphone so you can see your play list, or on the tripod of your camera? Otca has created the Monkey Kit, a unique product that lets you safely hang your iPad anywhere you can wrap a heavy duty “tail” to hold it secure. Other uses include attaching it to exercise machines, putting it between cushions on a couch, securing it while working on your car, and using it as a desktop stand.
The kit consists of two parts. There is a Vacuum Dock and a Monkey Tail. The two pieces can be taken apart for storage or travel. The Vacuum Dock is 1.95-in (4.95 cm) at it’s widest point. the Monkey Tail is 36-in (91 cm) long and together the pieces weigh 1.49 pounds (676 grams). The outer surface of the Vacuum Dock is hard plastic, and there is a soft rubber dome cap included to protect the connectors when storing or traveling with the dock. The tail is wrapped in soft, grippy silicon. The Vacuum Dock is interchangeable with other products sold by the company.
I have only one negative thing to say about this product so let me get this out of the way first. The written instructions that accompany the package are awful. The print is very tiny because they have instructions in several languages on a small sheet and then complicate it further by having color combinations that look good, but are impossible to read. As an example, pale green type on light green background. Fortunately, they have excellent written and video instructions on their website for every aspect of working with the Air purifier.
To attach the kit to an iPad (or iPad mini) you place the Vacuum Dock against the back of the iPad, making sure there are no air pockets anywhere, and pump the air pump five or six times. There is no reason to hold down the Vacuum Dock like you would ordinarily have to do with other vacuum seal products. When the pump handle remains all the way in, the seal is set. The instructions note that in some cases, it is wise to check the pump handle periodically to assure the seal is still set satisfactorily, but I did not experience any problems with that.
One outstanding feature of this product is that it will work with some iPad covers. The cover must be completely smooth and nonporous and, at least from my testing, have no front cover as the front cover seems to unbalance the vacuum seal. I had two covers available to test this feature, both were smooth, but only the hard plastic one worked. However, that one worked great and it was very nice to be able to use the stand without undressing the iPad.
Using the Monkey Kit as a table top stand works well as long as you follow the directions. You have to create a half or three-quarter circle on the table surface and then make sure the iPad’s center of gravity is lined up with the stand base you have created. It is a very logical formula and after trying it a couple of times, it was easy. My son-in-law who has hands three times bigger than mine set it up with one try and loved it.
It costs about ￡800, and for that money you get a fairly standard-looking 15.6-inch laptop in the typical Acer style. This V3 series looks a bit like the Timeline models from a while back. You won't find any aluminium here, just plastic. The stand-out feature is the matte 15.6-inch Full HD IPS display. IPS screens tend to have much better viewing angles, brightness and colors than the more common TN screens.
The modest design betrays the powerful hardware inside, however. While the Intel Core i7-3630QM is the entry-level model in Intel's quad-core processor series, it's a lot faster than a dual-core processor. The Nvidia GeForce GT640M has 2 GB of video memory, and while it's not a GPU from Nvidia's GTX series, it does provide better performance than the integrated graphics. It's a chip from Nvidia's Kepler family which has 384 Cuda cores (624 MHz) and a memory bandwidth of 1.8 GHz. It's one of the few GT-class cards that's actually fast enough for playing games.
It's an impressive laptop in other areas as well. Both memory slots are filled with 4 GB DDR3 RAM modules, of the DDR3-1333 kind. Storage is provided by a 1 TB, 5400 rpm hard disk. There's also a Pioneer Blu-ray player that can also burn cds and dvds. A pretty deluxe configuration, in other words. The only thing you're missing is an SSD.
Adding an SSD yourself isn't that difficult. Acer put the replaceable components like the hard disk, WiFi module and RAM underneath a cover that's kept in place by two screws. You can't fit both a hard disk and an SSD, however, so you'll have to choose.
The kit consists of two parts. There is a Vacuum Dock and a Monkey Tail. The two pieces can be taken apart for storage or travel. The Vacuum Dock is 1.95-in (4.95 cm) at it’s widest point. the Monkey Tail is 36-in (91 cm) long and together the pieces weigh 1.49 pounds (676 grams). The outer surface of the Vacuum Dock is hard plastic, and there is a soft rubber dome cap included to protect the connectors when storing or traveling with the dock. The tail is wrapped in soft, grippy silicon. The Vacuum Dock is interchangeable with other products sold by the company.
I have only one negative thing to say about this product so let me get this out of the way first. The written instructions that accompany the package are awful. The print is very tiny because they have instructions in several languages on a small sheet and then complicate it further by having color combinations that look good, but are impossible to read. As an example, pale green type on light green background. Fortunately, they have excellent written and video instructions on their website for every aspect of working with the Air purifier.
To attach the kit to an iPad (or iPad mini) you place the Vacuum Dock against the back of the iPad, making sure there are no air pockets anywhere, and pump the air pump five or six times. There is no reason to hold down the Vacuum Dock like you would ordinarily have to do with other vacuum seal products. When the pump handle remains all the way in, the seal is set. The instructions note that in some cases, it is wise to check the pump handle periodically to assure the seal is still set satisfactorily, but I did not experience any problems with that.
One outstanding feature of this product is that it will work with some iPad covers. The cover must be completely smooth and nonporous and, at least from my testing, have no front cover as the front cover seems to unbalance the vacuum seal. I had two covers available to test this feature, both were smooth, but only the hard plastic one worked. However, that one worked great and it was very nice to be able to use the stand without undressing the iPad.
Using the Monkey Kit as a table top stand works well as long as you follow the directions. You have to create a half or three-quarter circle on the table surface and then make sure the iPad’s center of gravity is lined up with the stand base you have created. It is a very logical formula and after trying it a couple of times, it was easy. My son-in-law who has hands three times bigger than mine set it up with one try and loved it.
It costs about ￡800, and for that money you get a fairly standard-looking 15.6-inch laptop in the typical Acer style. This V3 series looks a bit like the Timeline models from a while back. You won't find any aluminium here, just plastic. The stand-out feature is the matte 15.6-inch Full HD IPS display. IPS screens tend to have much better viewing angles, brightness and colors than the more common TN screens.
The modest design betrays the powerful hardware inside, however. While the Intel Core i7-3630QM is the entry-level model in Intel's quad-core processor series, it's a lot faster than a dual-core processor. The Nvidia GeForce GT640M has 2 GB of video memory, and while it's not a GPU from Nvidia's GTX series, it does provide better performance than the integrated graphics. It's a chip from Nvidia's Kepler family which has 384 Cuda cores (624 MHz) and a memory bandwidth of 1.8 GHz. It's one of the few GT-class cards that's actually fast enough for playing games.
It's an impressive laptop in other areas as well. Both memory slots are filled with 4 GB DDR3 RAM modules, of the DDR3-1333 kind. Storage is provided by a 1 TB, 5400 rpm hard disk. There's also a Pioneer Blu-ray player that can also burn cds and dvds. A pretty deluxe configuration, in other words. The only thing you're missing is an SSD.
Adding an SSD yourself isn't that difficult. Acer put the replaceable components like the hard disk, WiFi module and RAM underneath a cover that's kept in place by two screws. You can't fit both a hard disk and an SSD, however, so you'll have to choose.
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