RecentFEEL is here!

hardly walk

2007-01-10T06:49:00.000-08:00

I can hardly walk to the bathroom to even step on the scale. My knee issue has worsened and I called in sick to work.
It was feeling a lot better yesterday at work; so much so that I decided to take a 2 block walk up the street to The Gap to see if I could find a cute top to wear to my FMIL's house. On my way back my knee started hurting again. Then I decided to do some last minute shopping last night after work and that's what did it. I was walking (limping) all over Sears and by the time I got home, my knee was throbbing.

I iced it and took Advil as soon as I got home, but neither seemed to help. It's not as bad when I'm just lying here; mostly it's when I try to walk on it that it hurts. I also tried using a heating pad and that didn't do much either. I decided I just need to keep off it, so here I am in bed with my laptop. I'll give my doctor a call when their office opens, but since there's no discoloration or visual swelling, she'll probably tell me to do what I'm already doing. I'll continue alternating ice and heat and Advil. I'll probably take a bath this morning to soak it. Mike's going to pick up an Ace bandage for me on the way home.

freak storm

2007-01-10T06:41:00.000-08:00

The natives on the island the cruiseship birthed at for repairs from a “freak” storm, were keen to play us at the English game. The poor sods didn’t know that most of our side were either ex-division footballers or keen-amateurs. The lads didn’t even mind that the priest was ref.

Not a good ref, ignoring fouls but our lads didn’t care one jot. He couldn’t hide his contempt when we won.

I had given up

2007-01-05T06:50:00.000-08:00

I had given up hope on getting the little folding treadmill that I wanted off of eBay, however, things worked out in the last few moments. Me and the seller were discussing a mutual withdrawl from the auction and refund of my money when I was able come up with the difference in the cost of shipping and handling between what I had already paid, and what FedEx charged for shipping to Alaska. So now my treadmill has been paid for and will hopefully be shipped out on Tuesday so it should arrive before next Friday. I can't wait to get it, and get it set up, to that I can start and routine of walking every day.

I am just bursting with joy

2006-12-19T06:44:00.000-08:00

I am just bursting with joy! Mike's mom told him yesterday that we didn't need to sleep over at her house Christmas Eve (as he's done for the past 15 years) and that maybe it was time for the little bird to fly the nest and start his own Christmas morning traditions with his new bride-to-be. YAAAAYYYY!!! I feel like this is a HUGE step in the right direction for us!

The previous plan was to spend an entire 30 hours straight with his family, sleeping over at his mom's house Christmas Eve and driving over to his dad's in the afternoon of Christmas Day. Now the plan is to arrive at Mike's mom's house this afternoon, exchange gifts with his Mom and Sister, leave Mike's mom's house tonight whenever we feel like it, sleep in our own bed, do our own gift exchange in the morning, and make it over to Mike's Dad's house in the afternoon for dinner! It will be so lovely to have a break between the two events, as well as to start our own traditions and start making our own memories as a soon-to-be married couple. :-)

I will have to take lots of pictures tomorrow when we unwrap gifts. Mike's mom makes her famous Dolly Parton Cinnamon Rolls every Christmas morning (aptly named for the large, rotund size of the rolls) and she's pre-made some for us to take home with us before we leave her house Xmas Eve. That's really sweet of her! And I hobbled into Trader Joe's last night and picked up 2 individual sized Broccoli & Cheese Quiches to have with the cinnamon rolls. Yum-wah! Over 400 calories each (yikes), but hell, I'll be good for the rest of the year.

My knee is feeling a little better. I was feeling the effects of cabin fever last night, as I hadn't left the house since Thursday evening, so the Trader Joe's trip was both refreshing and a little painful. I wrapped up my knee in an Ace bandage for stability, but I don't know if it really mattered. I was feeling ok for a while, but after the first 3 aisles I was starting to feel it. I came home and had to ice it again. It's like 2 steps forward, 1 step back, you know? I'm so punny. :-)

Right next to TJ's is a CB2 (Crate & Barrel's more youthful and hip store) and I saw these cute plates in my wedding color (Tiffany blue) so I bought 2 of the largest ones for using as serving platters. I am just obsessed with that color now that I know I'm using it in my wedding - everywhere I go I spot it and gravitate towards it, like a moth to a hot Tiffany blue flame! Yowza!

2006-12-08T06:27:00.000-08:00

A most excellent 60s-style educational video as political trope. Here the tripped-out, balloon-high cartoon nirvana melds well with far-flung but close-hitting ridicule of the pinstriped emperor.
Don't be fooled like I was till half through: this is topical, not a vintage conceit.

It's getting to be that time of year

2006-12-04T07:05:00.000-08:00

It's getting to be that time of year--you know, black friday, evening creeps up faster, stores desperately adding garlands with red bows above the thanksgiving display. And, yup, i'm starting to get a bit uppity about the things i receive without just deserve. Another way of thinking about this, and probably the more stylish way that a proper blog post, seo optimized, would have begun, is that this is a recommended reading list--- and some of it is even relevant to this blog! let's start there, then devolve.
World Changing: A User's Guide for the 21st Century.
A user's guide for the 21st century? Well, I plan to use that century, i better have this guide. and that's the best reason i can think of to beg loved ones for this book/recommend it. But I also have this additional reason, which follows.
This quote exemplifies one way in which political economics is emerging in the public mind. Local production is slowly taking hold (right beside the slow eating phenomenon that's sweeping the nation, but still). Take it or leave it, by your own system of logical justice--- but when you do, (hopefully) you'll take into consideration both the potential costs of production and transport, as well as a valuation of the convenience of access to foreign and out-of-season products. Maybe you'll also think of the human actors, the job created for those harvesting for foreign consumers willing to pay a higher price. Or, the local family farmers who can't compete with the allure of bananas in January at Safeway. That, kids, is political economics (so don't ask me again).

Oh yeah, here's that quote I've been referencing, from the new book by World Changing, called 'World Changing' (hmm):
In the middle of Denver, in the middle of December, you can walk into most any supermarket and buy a ripe mango. This has been true long enough that almost nobody stops to think of the remarkable distance that mango traveled or of the tree it fell from, which is probably enjoying a balmy tropical day on the other side of the planet. Proponents of eating local food balk at the ubiquitous midwinter mango. Why? Because they think about the baggage that mango flew in with.

How Pope Night Died and Was Reborn

2006-11-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

Pope Night was a—perhaps the—major holiday in colonial Boston, especially for working-class teenaged boys. After 1765 it became an occasion to protest Crown officials, thus squarely within the Revolutionary movement. But by the end of the 1770s it was gone. What happened to this elaborate celebration?

After all, New England anti-Catholicism deeply entrenched, especially after decades of fighting the French. Paranoid Whigs suggested that the French king was behind the whole political conflict (as did paranoid Loyalists). Colonial governments used the threat of a French attack to justify building up their militias. Whigs shared rumors that London was recruiting francophone soldiers in Canada to sweep down on New England. In the Suffolk County Resolves of September 1774, one grievance was how the Quebec Act guaranteed French Catholics the freedom of worship.

But that same year, with Boston's port shut and folks expecting war between the troops and the populace, town fathers leaned on the young men to forgo Pope Night. The times were too serious for such revelry. And then public attitudes and values started to change.

In November 1775, a New England army was preparing to invade Canada, expecting the francophone population would help them drive out the British authorities. Gen. George Washington issued these general orders:

As the Commander in Chief has been apprized of a design form'd for the observance of that ridiculous and childish custom of burning the Effigy of the pope—He cannot help expressing his surprise that there should be Officers and Soldiers in this army so void of common sense, as not to see the impropriety of such a step at this Juncture; at a Time when we are solliciting, and have really obtain'd, the friendship and alliance of the people of Canada, whom we ought to consider as Brethren embarked in the same Cause. The defence of the general Liberty of America: At such a juncture, and in such Circumstances, to be insulting their Religion, is so monstrous, as not to be suffered or excused; indeed instead of offering the most remote insult, it is our duty to address public thanks to these our Brethren, as to them we are so much indebted for every late happy Success over the common Enemy in Canada.
The holiday enjoyed a last gasp in 1776 and 1777, after the British military had sailed away. It might have been politically awkward to commemorate a British king's deliverance at the same time the town was reviling a British king and celebrating a republic. But in Boston the ideological fuel for Pope Night was anti-Catholicism anyway, and locals could still get into that.

Until the French fleet arrived. In 1778 Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane negotiated an alliance in Paris. Eventually the French king's money, weapons, fleet, and soldiers decided the war. (There were more French soldiers at Yorktown than American.) The ports of Portsmouth, Boston, and Newport were the main conduits for that aid.

With a little trepidation at first, New Englanders welcomed the same Frenchmen they had feared a few years earlier. Rich householders in Boston and Cambridge fêted French officers. In 1783, a priest established Boston's first Catholic parish in what had been the Huguenots' church at the corner of School Street and Cornhill (now Washington Street, where the godawful Irish Famine Memorial now stands). In that atmosphere, it became politically incorrect to revile the Catholic Church—at least as publicly and crudely as the Pope Night gangs had done.

But Pope Night wasn't entirely dead. One element of the celebration survived, and continues in altered form today. That element appears in many reminiscences of the holiday, but overshadowed by the giant effigies and rolling wagons and (in Boston) brawling gangs. A writer in the 9 Nov 1821 Boston Daily Advertiser recalled:
boys in petticoats...swarmed in the streets and ran from house to house with little Popes in their hands, on pieces of board and shingle, the heads of which were carved out of small potatoes.
Harrison Gray Otis told his granddaughter that "A few days before the anniversary [of 5 November], boys ran around to every front door in town ringing handbells and singing:

‘Don’t you hear my little bell
Go chink, chink, chink?
Please to give me a little money
To buy my Pope some drink.’”
This was the local equivalent of English children's "Penny for the guy?"

That part of Pope Night kept going: young boys dressing up and going door to door, asking for coins. So did bonfires; teens didn't need a papal effigy to have fun burning things. In the late 1800s, folklorists spotted children in old New Hampshire towns following these rituals on what they called "Pork Night," with no knowledge of the holiday's older name and roots. These traditions also shifted a few days on the American calendar—from the fifth of November to the last of October

GOOD GAME!!

2006-11-14T07:07:00.000-08:00

The boys played a relatively good game today, defeating their division rivals - the Redskins. It really was iffy going into the game today with how they’ve played their last 3 games. Guess that bye week did the trick! Of course their game playing wasn’t perfect and there were a couple of iffy calls in our favor, but I always have a hard time understanding why the commentators have a hard time giving the Birds their due.

There are some other good games happening around the league today, too. That Chargers/Bengals game looked to be crazy! The Chargers really pulled it out at the end though. And the Colts - barely edging out Buffalo to become the first team in NFL history to have back to back 9-0 starts. And how about them Jets beating the Patriots (hee hee!)? It was good to see the Packers win one. I’m excited to watch the Bears/Giants game tonight - that is going to be a great matchup.

Check Designs

2006-11-14T06:12:00.000-08:00

So you open up a new checking account or your checks are going to run out. It’s time to order some new checks and maybe make a change and get a new check design. I’ve never been a big fan of fancy check designs. The simpler the better I say. After all, checks are made to pay things, not so the banks can earn some more money by charging extra for these designs.

The only place where I’d see a check design as useful are company checks. There I think you’d want to place your logo on the check, it seems to give your company credibility. In a strange way, the people you do business with will be more likely to accept a check from you, since it’s a professional looking check with your letterhead on it.

Credit Score

2006-11-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

In an effort to get more credit and raise my credit score. I’ll be taking a very small step and begin to use my Capital One Visa credit card more often now. While the difference in my score may be minimal, it’s worth it, any amount is worth it. As time goes by, I’ll become more accustomed to using a credit card, that I’ll open up additional cards too - of course making sure I can make the payments on time.

You never want to live above your means, if you care about your credit score.

Another thing that can help your credit score is opening a new loan, then paying it off. This is one option I will most likely not do. First of all, I have no need to borrow money, second of all, even if the interest rate I borrow at can be very low - it’s not going to be as low as what I’d earn at a savings account. So there’s no profit to be made.

For now, it just looks like I’ll use my credit card more often now.

How to do link popularity???

2006-11-11T07:04:00.000-08:00

you want to increase your link popularity.??Well Just having a blog will increase your link popularity. I have helped several clients so far set up corporate blogs for their web sites. These sites generally start off by just selling a product. The owners of these sites usually have a passion behind the reason they are selling said products. So what a better way for them to express this passion than through a blog? They can talk about their expertise on the product and help sell their product more than just having that buy now button. There credibility is increased by actually expressing their passion and sharing in their expertise to the prospective buyer.

SO That's Where My Drugs Come From

2006-11-10T06:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, a company I had never heard of before recalled 11 million bottles of acetaminophen because it found pieces of metal the size of a couple grains of salt in the pills.

Nothing life threatening, mind you. But as with E. coli-tainted spinach, yesterday's recall taught me a lot about where many of the medicines and supplements I take come from.

The substance in this case is generic painkiller sold under store brands at more than a hundred retailers nationwide such as CVS, Safeway, and Wal-Mart.

The company that recalled the drug, Perrigo Co. of Allegan, Mich., makes just about every generic version of popular over-the-counter medicine and nutritional supplement you can think of: NyQuil, Sudafed, Claritin, Centrum vitamins, even Garlique.

In fact, according to Perrigo CEO Joe Papa, every man, woman and child in the U.S. takes an average of one Perrigo-made tablet every four days!

It's not hard to believe. While writing the story, I reached into my desk drawer and pulled out my stash of CVS extra-strength non-aspirin pain reliever. The bottle fell within the recalled expiration dates but it wasn't part of an implicated lot.

The funny thing is that nowhere on the bottle does it say who makes the pills, only who distributes them, so as consumers you have no way of knowing where the heck it actually comes from.

Then, there are the things drug makers do before they put them in the bottle.

Some of the lots involved in the recall are for pills sold as long as three years ago. So when did the company discover the problem? From what it said in its press release, the company told the FDA on Nov. 2. Perrigo noticed some tablet-making equipment was wearing out prematurely. Somehow, this led the company to run 70 million pills through a metal detector, of all things, which turned up the metal fragments.

Granted, you don't feel the same shock when you learn that one little-known company makes your headache medicine, decongestant and daily vitamin, as you do when you find out the chicken you had for lunch didn't come from some nice farm but an industrial feedlot operation where it didn't see the light of day and was pumped full of hormones.

But it did raise a similar issue, which is when you have centralized production combined with national distribution, a small problem can easily turn into a much larger-scale one.

It turns out that this was Perrigo's 11th recall for the year and its 23rd since 2001. A previous acetaminophen recall involved pills contaminated with bits of acrylic mirror.

How did that happen?

It falls to the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees drug-manufacturing operations, to find out.

The FDA seems to have been keeping an eye on Perrigo, inspecting them seven times over the past five years--that's more often than their usual frequency of about once every two years.

Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen says inspections don't mean much if FDA can't fine the companies when they find violations.

It isn't cheap for drug makers to do these recalls, which cost million of dollars. Not to mention the damage done to their reputations. In the case of Perrigo, though, the retailers keep lining up to buy the company's drugs, regardless of its recall record, and the company appears to be doing well financially, with annual sales topping $1 billion.

Marc Scheineson, a former FDA official and food and drug law expert, assures me that the prospect of getting sued by personal injury lawyers is incentive enough for drug makers to be conservative about recalling their products. But if that was truly enough, would Perrigo really have had so many recalls?

Do you think the FDA needs more teeth? Or is the fear of John Edwards enough to make sure companies do the right thing?

PS3!!! I really wanted one!!

2006-11-07T06:57:00.000-08:00

Demand outstripped supply at the store because Sony, which halved its 2006 shipments forecast to 2 million because of a shortage of parts, limited initial deliveries in Japan to 100,000. The company said last month it would cut the new machine's price to 49,980 yen ($425) from 59,800 yen after complaints from gamers. The Playstation 3 goes on sale in the U.S. on Nov. 17.

``When Sony announced the Playstation 3 I really wanted one, but thought I should wait because of the high price,'' Okawa said. ``When they cut the price, I decided to go ahead.'' The Tokyo resident told reporters he bought the console along with the ``Gundam'' game.

Yodobashi's Akihabara store had 1,980 consoles available, the most in Japan, according to store manager Shinichi Adachi.

``Even if we had 4,000 we'd still sell out today,'' Adachi said. ``I'd like to know when we'll get another delivery from Sony, but they're not saying.''

The Playstation 3 employs a new Cell processor 40 times faster than the chip in its predecessor. Sony is also betting game fans will prefer the PlayStation 3's souped-up graphics and more lifelike characters over a competing console from Japanese rival Nintendo Co.

Digital Home

Sony spent 200 billion yen ($1.7 billion) to develop the Cell processor with International Business Machines Corp. and Toshiba Corp. making it faster than rival chips thanks to nine processing cores that let it carry out more instructions simultaneously.

The Cell chip is part of Sony's strategy to beat Microsoft Corp. and Apple Computer Inc. in controlling the digital home, a future network in which appliances are connected to each other and to the Internet.

Nintendo's Wii console, which goes on sale in the U.S. on Nov. 19 and two weeks later in Japan, uses less-sophisticated graphics but woos game fans with an innovative wireless control system based on hand motions.

The PlayStation 3's ``graphics capability is probably two generations ahead of the other consoles,'' Hirokazu Hamamura, chief executive officer at researcher and publisher Enterbrain Inc. told reporters in September.

Battery Woes

Sony will need all the help it can get. The company is in the process of recovering from a 51.2 billion yen recall of 9.6 million laptop batteries on concern they catch fire. The cost contributed to Sony cutting its net income forecast for the year ending March 31 to 80 billion yen from 130 billion yen.

The games business generated 918 billion yen in sales in 2006, 12 percent of Sony's 7.48 trillion yen revenue. Sales at the games unit gained an average 31 percent in the past two years, the second fastest after financial services, which averaged 34 percent. By contrast, Sony's consumer electronics business shrank by an average 0.9 percent during the past two years.

At 49,980 yen the Playstation 3 is almost double the cost of its rivals. Microsoft sells a version of its Xbox 360 for 29,800 yen, while Nintendo will offer the Wii console for 25,000 yen.

Cupertino, California-based Apple plans to sell a $299 device called iTV in the first quarter of 2007 that lets viewers see movies on their TV sets by using a connection to a computer.

High Cost

``It could be expensive if you think this is just a games machine,'' said Yuuki Sakurai, who oversees investment planning at Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Tokyo.

Sony and Toshiba have talked about building televisions and home-networking boxes using the Cell to pump several video channels to different outlets in the home.

The Cell would be unable to compete on price with chips from STMicroelectronics NV or Zoran Corp. which can already handle the most processor-intensive video compression rates, said Paul O'Donovan, Gartner Inc.'s London-based analyst on emerging technologies and semiconductors.

``Home networking won't reach the mass market for another four to five years,'' O'Donovan said. ``These companies talk about products that will contain the Cell in the future but none of them will hit the mainstream anytime soon.''

Parts Shortage

The processor isn't the only hardware Sony gambled on with the PlayStation 3. A shortage of laser components for its Blu-ray DVD device, which offers at least five times the data storage capacity of earlier DVDs, caused the company to delay the PlayStation 3's debut in Europe until March.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft has sold more than 6 million Xbox 360s worldwide since introducing the console a year ago, helped by its Xbox Live online service. The company is targeting 10 million units this year.

Microsoft this week said users will be able to rent and own high-definition movies and television shows from CBS, MTV Networks and Warner Bros. on its Xbox Live service from Nov. 22.

Kyoto-based Nintendo will get exclusive games from Walt Disney Co. for its Wii console.

``Giving rivals a head start in an industry like this gives them an opportunity to come out with an even more competitive product,'' said Fukoku Mutual's Sakurai. ``Sony will make up the lost ground only if its rivals remain stationary, and that is wishful thinking.

PS3 launch imminent --But will anybody purchase one?

2006-11-05T06:54:00.000-08:00

Even though the Xbox 360 is coming up on its first birthday, the “Next-gen” race for gamers’ thumbs and wallets begins in earnest this week. Japanese enthusiasts may already be lining up outside stores to be the first to own a Playstation 3.

But, what will be the PS3 buyers’ motivation for adopting Sony’s offering straight away?

Sure the 30 odd release games are a satisfying mix of action, sport, racing and shooting. If you have a HD TV to fire up, they will look fantastic.

However, only marginally better than the slimily HD enabled Xbox 360. With a year of gaming behind it, boasts a wider selection choice for your gaming buck. Furthermore, if gaming is your thing, and game play is more important than graphical superiority, then maybe save your cash for a Wii – Hell, you will have more to spend on games anyway.

So that is the gamers out of the way. What about that cheap Blu-ray drive? A bargain at $830 here in Australia, compared to the dedicated players currently on the market. Will the early PS3 purchases be lured by that?

I will be surprised. In my opinion, this HD DVD versus Blu-ray war is not like the VHS versus Betamax one of the early eighties. Consumers are wary of these types of conflicts, and the more informed technophiles that are the target of Microsoft and Sony are going to go one of two ways during this period.

Either they will look for a manufacture to develop a player capable of both formats. Or bypass the technology completely and adopt a process of getting their HD another way. Most likely online downloads hard drives, in some form.

So where will that leave Sony and their new box? We will have to wait and see. Wait until developers get more of a handle on dealing with the complexities and power of the device, to produce compelling content.
Wait to see what happens to pricing of HD TV’s and dedicated optical players. In this country at least, wait for direction on broadband internet services.
And, not to mention, a wait until March for PS3 to arrive here, three months after release of the Nintendo Wii.

It is all in the hands of you, the buying public. You have some decision making to do in the next short period. Interesting times ahead for electronic gaming entertainment. Finally we can call Next-Gen, Current-Gen.

From coast to coast

2006-10-25T06:47:00.000-07:00

From coast to coast, developers are nixing or delaying condominium projects as home sales decelerate, construction costs soar and lenders start to balk at financing units that might not sell. What's making it worse is the glut of high-priced condos and too few people who can afford them.

"We've gone through the biggest real estate boom in the last eight or nine years and some of these projects haven't started yet. Do you think they're going to start building now?" said real estate executive Allan Domb, dubbed Philadelphia's "condo king."

In Las Vegas, projects nixed include high-profile developments such as Aqua Blue, a $600 million, 825-unit luxury condominium-hotel resort that counted Michael Jordan as an investor; the $3 billion, 4,400-unit Las Ramblas resort, backed by George Clooney; and Ivana Las Vegas, a $700 million, 945-unit tower named after Donald Trump's ex-wife.

Related Las Vegas, one of the two developers for Las Ramblas, had cited rising construction costs and slowing sales for the cancellation.

In South Florida, canceled condo developments include 1390 Brickell Bay and ICE in Miami, Fort Lauderdale's The Waves Las Olas, and Promenade in Palm Beach County. WCI Communities Inc., a luxury home builder based in Bonita Springs, Fla., said in June that new orders for its high-rise condominiums fell by 84 percent in the second quarter. The company will now go forward with only three to five condo projects in 2006, down from as many as 15 to 17, mostly in Florida.

With housing looking increasingly anemic, it's not surprising that developers are bailing out.

Domb said he's gotten about half a dozen phone calls over the past four weeks from developers asking if he would like to buy their properties.

In May, the volume of apartment-to-condo conversions plunged to $334 million from $1.65 billion a year ago, said Gleb Nechayev, senior economist at Torto Wheaton Research, a real estate research firm in Boston owned by CB Richard Ellis. The all-time high was $4 billion, hit last September.

Builder confidence, as measured by the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, fell in June to its lowest level since April 1995. Confidence took a hit due to rising mortgage rates, high home prices and investors and speculators fleeing the market.

The index surveyed builders of single-family homes, where the sales decline hasn't been as severe as for condos.

Jack McCabe, chief executive of McCabe Research and Consulting in Deerfield Beach, Fla., said desperate developers with finished condos are offering plenty of incentives in South Florida.

Freebies range from one year's free mortgage to the use of a yacht or upgraded kitchen packages. McCabe thinks some developers might even sell units at cost if condo sales continue to weaken.

McCabe considers the condo market, especially the luxury end, at risk of a crash. Over the next few years, he sees prices falling by double-digit percentages.

The luxury condo surplus is to blame. McCabe said about 25,000 condos are under construction in Miami-Dade County, with two-thirds costing $700,000 or higher; another 25,000 units have gotten building permits and 50,000 have been announced for future construction.

McCabe said the median household income in the county qualifies local buyers for a $225,000 home, so the luxury units are targeted mainly toward affluent, out-of-state buyers.

Meanwhile, speculators have driven up prices by flipping units, he said. But they're now leaving the market — driving down demand — and putting up for sale properties they own, adding to the glut.

Aside from Miami, he said areas at risk include Boston, San Diego, Las Vegas, Seattle, Chicago, Orlando, Fla., Washington, D.C., and Manhattan.

A big part of the problem is that many condo projects are priced high, in part because developers have to recoup the high prices they paid for land. But most buyers can't afford it.

"The sweet spot of the market is probably $250,000 to $700,000," Domb said. "That's what the majority of the population can afford. Many condos are priced higher. That's part of the problem."

Tell that to The Donald. Real estate mogul Donald Trump told The Associated Press he's going ahead with his 45-story waterfront luxury high rise called Trump Tower Philadelphia.

"It's doing fine," Trump said. "It's been intense. So many people want to move there."

He added interest has been high for the project, which he said doesn't surprise him because his name sells.

ensure the company has the flexibility to meet the challenges of intensifying competition

2006-10-20T06:45:00.000-07:00

The Dolan family, which controls Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC.N), on Monday said it offered to buy the remaining shares it does not already own in a deal that values the company at $7.9 billion, sending its shares up almost 12 percent.

Shareholders would receive $27 per share in cash, under the terms of the deal proposed in a Sunday letter to the board of directors, according to a statement issued by the family, which said it was not aiming to sell Cablevision.

The deal, which follows a thwarted effort by the Dolans to buy out the company last year, implies an enterprise value of $19.2 billion, which includes debt for Cablevision.

In the letter to the board the Dolans said they believed that going private would "ensure the company has the flexibility to meet the challenges of intensifying competition and the risk of new entrants in years to come."

Cable operators face increasing competition from telephone companies such as Verizon Communications (VZ.N) and AT&T Inc (T.N), which develop rival video services for consumers.

In 2005 the Dolans offered $33.50 per share in a deal that valued Cablevision's cable assets at $21 a share and proposed a $12.50 per share spin-off of the company's other assets such as the Madison Square Garden sports arena, a spokesman said.

The latest offer price represents a 17 percent premium to the average closing price over the past two weeks and is 14.9 percent higher than a 2005 proposal to go private when adjusted for a $10 dividend paid in April, according to the statement.

Cablevision shares rose 11.8 percent in early trade to $26.75 from their Friday close of $23.93 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The family said the latest offer, a simpler structure than the 2005 offer, took into account feedback it received from the special committee that reviewed the earlier proposal.

It said it anticipates that the board will form a special committee of directors to respond to this proposal and that it would not pursue the deal without special committee approval.

The Dolans said they expect the cable company's senior management team to stay in place with Charles Dolan as chairman and James Dolan as president and chief executive.

They said they expect to continue to run the business substantially in accordance with current practices and keep its employee base, "with changes as necessary to meet competitive challenges."

The family said it would finance the deal in part by investing all its shares in the company, which would have a value of about $1.7 billion based on the offer price.

The total funds needed for the deal are expected to be about $10.9 billion, including refinancing of existing credit facilities, according to the Dolan family, which said it received a commitment letter from Merrill Lynch & Co and Bear Stearns & Co. for debt financing necessary for the deal.

Merrill and Bear Stearns also acted as financial advisors to the Dolans. Law firms Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP were its legal advisors.

may be enough to discourage

2006-10-11T06:44:00.000-07:00

The market was awaiting a possible formal decision on Monday by OPEC states about its output policy. Over the weekend, reports quoted OPEC officials as saying the 11-member cartel would reduce its output by about 4 percent to stem a 24 percent decline in prices since mid-July.

Oil prices have been range-bound in the past week as traders weighed tough rhetoric from some OPEC members calling for output cuts against that of Saudi Arabia, a representative of whom has denied there was a deal to reduce production.

Still, recent posturing "may be enough to discourage aggressive near-term selling," noted Mike Fitzpatrick at Fimat USA.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose 64 cents to US$60.40 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract on Friday dropped 27 cents to settle at US$59.76 a barrel.

Heating oil futures gained 1.35 cents to US$1.7075 a gallon (3.8 liters) while gasoline prices added 1.03 cents to US$1.5145 a gallon. Natural gas futures rose 14.8 cents to US$6.575 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Reports have said a majority of OPEC states back a voluntary reduction, and the deal could be ratified as early as mid-December at a meeting in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. Some agencies reported the cartel would decide by Monday whether to cut its production.

The reports came about a week after OPEC members Nigeria and Venezuela voluntarily began reducing their oil production by a combined 170,000 barrels per day. Official figures released in August put total OPEC production at just under 30 million barrels a day.

Analysts said the longer-term view is that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would likely act before the end of the year to trim its output as global inventories rise and economic growth slows.

Meanwhile, the current rise in oil prices was not only because of concern about a possible decline in supply amid robust demand, but also a reflection of a strong global economy, analysts said.

"The market's been toying for a while with whether OPEC will or will not cut production," said Joseph Capurso, an analyst with Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. "But whether or not it happens, the world economy is strong, so that will put a floor under prices _ there isn't a concern that U.S. oil consumption is going to fall into a hole.

Final Vista candidate was releases

2006-10-08T06:43:00.000-07:00

MICROSOFT has released the final test version of its upcoming Windows operating system and said the launch for the highly-anticipated upgrade is running on schedule.

Incorporating feedback from earlier test releases, the world's largest software maker said it distributed Windows Vista Release Candidate 2, or RC2, for its testers to try.

"Microsoft expects the RC2 build to be the last interim release before the product is released to manufacturing," the company said.

Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund said Microsoft was likely to ship Vista on time and distribute RC2 this week or next week, indicating that the Windows upgrade would be available for business customers in November and retail PCs by late January.

Microsoft said it continued to target that schedule for Vista, but said the final delivery date will depend on the product's quality.

Windows Vista, already five years in the making, has been postponed by Microsoft several times and some industry analysts have speculated that the world's largest software maker will again be forced to push back its release dates.

Microsoft Windows sits on more than 90 percent of the world's personal computers and the Windows business accounts for about 30 percent of the company's $44 billion in revenue.

Vista spyware

2006-10-04T06:39:00.000-07:00

Posted by blogadmin in Business News Blogs

Mocrosoft's so-called Software Protection Program (SPP) has been presented to intending users as a fait accompli just a month ahead of Vista's scheduled release. It will mean that those who use Vista and other Microsoft products will have to put up with their systems constantly being checked online to make sure they're not using any products deemed to be pirated software.

I say deemed to be pirated software because as sure as night follows day there will be many cases in which the SPP will make mistakes and label legitimately acquired software as pirated.

In such cases, users will have to convince Microsoft that they bought their software legitimately and, if they don't succeed, they will have to hand over extra money or their system will be disabled.

In some cases, users who have activated a legitimate copy of Vista may need to do a number of reinstalls because they have suffered a hardware failure or their system isn't running well. Hopefully, Microsoft will be able to differentiate between that and users installing a single copy of Vista on multiple computers.

Perhaps we should be grateful to Microsoft for letting its intentions be known in advance of the Vista release. It gives us a chance to evaluate the alternatives.

Ford's bold move

2006-09-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

Ford's bold decision to name top Boeing executive Alan Mulally as its new chief executive officer may well end up being precisely the wrong move at the wrong time.

Mr. Mulally made his name at Boeing for his strong cost-saving and efficiency program. But he lacks what analysts say are crucial skills in marketing, product development and branding at a time when there's unprecedented competition and pressure, particularly from Japanese and Korean automotive brands.

"It's a very difficult thing for a guy who didn't come up in the auto industry to grasp it,'' Kelley Blue Book's Jack Nerad said yesterday, a day after outgoing Ford CEO Bill Ford Jr. announced the surprise change after the markets closed Tuesday. Ford shares rose 16 cents, or 1.9 percent, yesterday to close at $8.55.

"It's a totally different scale of operation'' in the automotive vs. the aviation industry, Mr. Nerad said. "Lead times are long in both the airplane and auto industries, but in aviation, you have only a few competitors. In the auto industry, you have 15 or so global companies competing and close to 45 brands in the market. It's tough to take all that in for somebody who hasn't made cars their career."

Other analysts, while agreeing that Ford's leadership -- more than General Motors and DaimlerChrysler -- badly needs better product development and marketing skills, cautioned against expecting Mr. Mulally to bring that to the table and to "fix" Ford's product mix. What really matters is whether he can find the people he needs to do those jobs, they said.

"Mulally's role is to get the management team in place so that Ford can get a really exciting product lineup and generate some much needed revenue," said Rebecca Lindland, associate director of the automotive group at Lexington, Mass.-based researcher Global Insight. "It's important that distinction be made. He's not that product marketing guy and he knows that."

The problem, some analysts say, is that they don't believe Mr. Mulally will be left alone to find those people or to make tough but necessary decisions. They think the Ford family will interfere too much and as a result, things at the company will remain much as they are now.

Even Bill Ford, who brought in his replacement, has criticized his company for being too conservative and for repressing creativity and bold moves. When naming Mr. Mulally his successor, he said, "We have a lot of car guys here already. What they need is permission to be bold."

Whatever he does, Mr. Mulally had better do it fast, said George Magliano, director of automotive industry research for Global Insight. "He has a very short time to show that he has a grasp for this and pick it up and improve on it."

Some analysts are troubled that Mr. Ford will still be heavily involved in running the company, thus reinforcing one of Ford's biggest problems. Mr. Ford, who will retain the title of chairman, already has said he wants a strong working relationship with Mr. Mulally. History has shown that he has made similar moves in the past, only to shed executives when they did not live up to his and the family's expectations.

Indeed, Mr. Ford took over the CEO position in the first place because of dissatisfaction with former CEO Jacques Nasser, whom he had tapped for the role in 1999, only to force him out two years later.

"It's great that Bill Ford has stepped aside, but it's terrible that Bill has not stepped aside," is how Mr. Morici, a professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, characterized the latest move atop Ford. "This tells us that Bill will still be there everyday.

"You remember the relationship [Bill Ford] had with Jacques,'' Mr. Morici said. "They drove [Mr. Nasser] crazy. He had to meet quarterly with the family. Are they really going to let [Mr. Mulally] manage the place? That's not at all clear to me that he will have a free hand."

Mr. Morici suggested that one reason Mr. Mulally was hired was that he made Bill Ford comfortable that he would not think much differently from him but would better execute the comeback plan already in place. "My feeling is that won't be enough,'' Mr. Morici said. "The kinds of things that Bill said Tuesday showed he is not anticipating radical changes in strategy -- and that's not encouraging.'"

In any case, "The family needs to step aside and they need to let the doctors do their job here. Bill Ford needs to get that message to them," Ms. Lindland said, adding: "There's a very good reason why surgeons never operate on their own family members. You're too close and you lose your objectivity."

Mr. Mulally made his name by slashing Boeing's work force as well as the amount of time it takes to manufacture a jet. He also earned plaudits for being a key architect of the resurgence of Boeing's commercial airplanes unit over the past couple of years, fueled by its highly successful 777.

But industry analysts and observers say he has the wrong skills for what really needs to happen at Ford: sell lots of cars and trucks. Ford, whose market share plummeted from 21.9 percent in October 2001 to 16.8 percent this year, has a "Way Forward" plan that would cut up to 30,000 jobs and close 14 plants by 2012. But saving money won't bring people into showrooms, analysts say, unless the savings are used to make better styled, better marketed and better branded cars and trucks.

Fortunately, Ford has the designers, marketers and others that can get the job done. It now has some of the best, most respected vehicle designers in the industry, analysts say. But because most have only been on board for a few years, and because auto design cycles take several years, their best efforts may not be on the market just yet.

Ford: I THINK IT'S A TOUGH SITUATION

2006-09-23T06:36:00.000-07:00

Alan Mulally has no experience building cars. He isn't well known in Detroit, having spent more than three decades in Seattle as an engineer and senior executive with Boeing. Up until yesterday, when he was named CEO of Ford Motor Co., replacing Bill Ford, he drove a Lexus-a plush ride, to be sure, but not a car you'd drive to Lions football games as a Motown exec. "That Lexus has been destroyed," Bill Ford joked in an interview with TIME. "We had it vaporized during yesterday's press conference." Mulally, for his part, acknowledges he's a newbie in town. "I asked Bill for his complete assurance that he'd stay as chairman," he told TIME. It's not every day, after all, that an outsider is recruited to run Ford-let alone a guy who used to build airplanes for a living.

But these are desperate times in Dearborn. Since 2001, Ford Motor has suffered more than $9 billion in losses from its North American auto operations. Companywide, Ford lost $254 million in the second quarter. Ford's market share in August, 16.8%, was the second lowest on record. Sales of pickup trucks and SUVs, Ford's only major profitable segments, have plummeted in the last year, hit by high gas prices and stiff competition from GM and Toyota. A 21% production cut is in store for the rest of the year. Any way you slice it, Ford is shrinking fast. And it may be years before the company consistently posts profits again.

Bill Ford, who ran the automaker for the last five years, certainly realized the gravity of the situation, which explains why he brought in Mulally. At Boeing, Mulally had a reputation as an ace engineer and turnaround guy. He helped develop hit models like the 777 jetliner, launched in the early '90s, and the 787 Dreamliner, expected in 2008. After plane orders plummeted following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Mulally stabilized the commercial aircraft division, which is now earning handsome profits. Nor has he shied from downsizing. Under his reign, Boeing's commercial division layed off 30,000 workers, shuttered factories and killed products that weren't pulling their financial weight, like the 100-seat 717 plane. Says Bill Ford, on his decision to recruit Mulally: "I wouldn't have made this move unless I found the right person...I felt our management team needed a leader who had earned his stripes in a very tough situation."

Not many chief executives would even hint that they aren't up to the job. But Bill Ford never appeared all that comfortable running his namesake company. An avowed environmentalist, he tried unsuccessfully to turn Ford into a green car leader and was forced to backtrack as the company's finances fizzled. In Detroit, the buzz is that he's too nice a guy-unwilling to impose draconian job cuts at the risk of angering the UAW. In an interview last winter with TIME, he acknowledged that he found the CEO's role confining at times. And it has been clear for some time that he wanted out. In a press conference a year ago, he obliquely acknowledged that he had held discussions about a possible job at Ford with two of the industry's premier executives: Carlos Ghosn of Renault-Nissan and Dieter Zetsche of DaimlerChrysler (Bill Ford says "the list was half that long."

The reality is that Wall Street had lost confidence in him. Ford's stock has rallied in recent weeks, rising more than 35% on speculation that Bill Ford might step aside and that his family, which controls 40% of the voting shares, may take the company private. Yet the stock, trading at around $8.50 a share, still indicates that Wall Street takes a dim view of Ford's prospects; the company's market capitalization is just $16 billion, well below the cash value of the firm. (Toyota's market cap, by contrast, is $174 billion.) Ford's debt was cut below investment grade by the major credit-ratings agencies last year. Some analysts say it's only a matter of time before the company goes hat in hand to Wall Street for "bridge financing" to survive the next few years.

Does all this rattle Mulally? "I think it's a tough situation," he says, adding that he thinks the company has a strong lineup of cars and trucks in the pipeline. But he also downplays any suggestions that he'll be Motown's Chainsaw Al-a guy who'll try and slash and burn his way into the black. "A momentum shift is how I'd characterize it," he says. Whether he'll shift Ford into a profitable gear remains to be seen.

My Credit Card Limit

2006-09-18T06:28:00.000-07:00

I guess you when you hardly use your credit card, it’s insane to think your credit card company will raise your credit limit. While I’m certainly not interested in spending enough money to get to my credit limit, it sure would be nice knowing I could spend a lot more on my credit card without having to worry about ever reaching the limit. Currently, my Capital One Visa credit card is at $7,500. Since I’ve been trying to get into the “plastic world” and use my card more often, I’m hoping to get it automatically raised to $10,000 by the end of the year.

I have no doubt I could get it raised if I called their customer service, but it’s not extremely important and I’d rather let it take on a natural course. You never really know when you might have an emergency though, so having a large credit limit can have it’s advantages, especially when you’re in the need for some extra cash and the loan process is taking too long. I guess in a worst case scenario, “Check Into Cash” would be another alternative. Who knows, maybe I’ll get to meet Gary Coleman.

PlayStation 3 will be delayed in Europe

2006-09-14T06:34:00.000-07:00

The release of Sony's PlayStation 3 will be delayed in Europe until March because of problems with producing a key component, the executive in charge of the project said Wednesday. The much-awaited update to the popular game console will go on sale in November in the United States and Japan as planned, but fewer units will be available for the launch dates.

The company is still sticking to its initial global target of shipping 6 million PlayStation 3 machines by March 2007.

The sales delay is caused by a problem in mass producing a key component in the Blu-ray disc laser part of the machine, the next-generation successor to Sony Corp.'s hit PlayStation 2, Sony Computer Entertainment Chief Ken Kutaragi told reporters.

"We decided to focus on the Japanese and U.S. markets," he said at the gaming unit's Tokyo headquarters. "I am so sorry not to be able to answer to all the expectations."

In the U.S., about 400,000 PlayStation 3 machines will be available when they go on sale Nov. 17. About 100,000 will be available on the Nov. 11 Japan launch date.

The production problem is causing about a one-month delay that will reduce the company's supply capacity by about a million machines from the original plan, he said.

"We've been working hard to try to tackle the problem, but we see the delay is inevitable," he said.

James Hong, Head of Equity Derivatives Trading at Dresdner Kleinwort in Tokyo, said the news may put another dent in Sony's stock. The company's U.S.-shares fell $1.03 or 2.4 percent to $42.84 on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday.

"This seems to be the continuation of a series of bad news. People were prepared to wait for the PS3, but delaying its European launch so they miss the Christmas season is just so not good," Hong said. "This is a crucial product given its Blu-ray features, and they need to get it out fast."

The setback is the latest to hit Sony, which is has been overhauling its electronics operations to catch up in key electronics products such as MP3 digital music players. Last month, its shares tumbled after Dell Inc. and Apple Computer Inc. issued huge recalls of defective laptop batteries made by one of Sony's subsidiaries, Sony Energy Devices Corp.

Kutaragi said other preparation work on the machine was going smoothly, including the "cell" next-generation computer chip. Mass production is set to start end of September, he said.

Although Sony had initially counted on shipping 4 million PlayStation 3 machines worldwide by the end of the year, that will likely fall to 2 million, he said.

The exact European sales date will be announced later, but it will likely be in the early part of March, he said.

Blu-ray disc is the next-generation video format for the latest DVD recorders and players, but also an essential part of the PlayStation 3.

TRY to raise my credit score

2006-09-11T06:32:00.000-07:00

In a continued effort to try to raise my credit score, I’ve switched a monthly automatic debit charge (cable bill) that used to be debited from my bank account to my credit card now. This’ll increase my monthly charges on my card even more. It’s still nowhere near the heights I want to be at, but it’s a start.

It was always a hassle to make sure that specific bank account had enough funds to pay the cable bill every month. Now with the credit card I’ve eliminated yet another hassle from my life and can increase my credit score all at the same time. And as I’m sure you’re aware, time is money.

All of these are just small steps I have been taking and will continue to take, to lead to a better, stable and a more secure financial future.

Cigarette smoking causes disease

2006-09-05T06:24:00.000-07:00

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler found that the government had proved its case that accused cigarette makers of a decades-long conspiracy to hide the dangers of smoking.

But Kessler said a previous ruling by an appeals court prevented her from slapping the companies with monetary penalties such as funding a large anti-smoking campaign, as the government had sought.

"Cigarette smoking causes disease, suffering, and death. Despite internal recognition of this fact, defendants have publicly denied, distorted, and minimized the hazards of smoking for decades," she said in the 1,653-page opinion.

She ordered the companies to make corrective statements about the health effects and addictiveness of smoking, and banned them from using terms describing cigarettes in ways that convey health claims.

Targeted in the 1999 lawsuit were Altria Group Inc. and its Philip Morris USA unit; Loews Corp.'s Lorillard Tobacco unit, which has a tracking stock, Carolina Group; Vector Group Ltd.'s Liggett Group; Reynolds American Inc.'s R.J. Reynolds Tobacco unit and British American Tobacco Plc unit British American Tobacco Investments Ltd.

Several tobacco stocks rose in extended trading after the ruling came out. "Although they lost, they won. It's a victory for the tobacco companies," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management.

The ruling was seen as the last major hurdle to be cleared before Altria decides when it will spin off its Kraft Foods Inc. business.

During an eight-month trial that ended in June 2005, the government called scientists, economists and tobacco industry whistle-blowers who described a decades-long campaign by tobacco companies to deny or obscure the hazards of smoking -- even as its ill effects became increasingly clear.

Tobacco companies offered testimony from their own scientists, economists and company executives. They denied any conspiracy to promote smoking and said the government had no grounds to pursue them after they drastically overhauled marketing practices as part of a 1998 states' settlement.

Kessler ordered each company to post on its Web site all documents it submitted to prosecutors in the case and transcripts of letters and depositions of former employees about the health impacts of cigarette smoking or research. The material must remain on their Web sites until 2016.

In February 2005, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit barred the government from seeking $280 billion in past industry profits, depriving the government of its biggest potential weapon in the case.

The appeals court said civil racketeering remedies must focus on the prevention of future misconduct, not punishment of past misdeeds.

Lawyers for the Justice Department eventually asked the judge to require tobacco companies to fund a 10-year, $14 billion anti-smoking program if the government prevails.

But tobacco company lawyers argued proposals such as requiring their clients to finance a stop-smoking program were still beyond the bounds of the appeals court ruling.

The advance>??

2006-08-25T06:21:00.000-07:00

In the week ending Aug. 12, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 312,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week''s revised figure of 322,000. The 4-week moving average was 311,250, an increase of 1,750 from the previous week''s revised average of 309,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.9 percent for the week ending Aug. 5, unchanged from the prior week''s unrevised rate of 1.9 percent.The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Aug. 5 was 2,507,000, an increase of 34,000 from the preceding week''s revised level of 2,473,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,469,250, an increase of 2,250 from the preceding week''s revised average of 2,467,000.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 255,031 in the week ending Aug. 12, a decrease of 20,347 from the previous week. There were 257,151 initial claims in the comparable week in 2005. The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.8 percent during the week ending Aug. 5, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,354,247, a decrease of 12,595 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 1.9 percent and the volume was 2,436,846.

Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending July 29.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,149 in the week ending Aug. 5, a decrease of 109 from the prior week. There were 2,250 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 199 from the preceding week.There were 15,295 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending July 29, an increase of 433 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 26,005, a decrease of 33 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending July 29 were in Puerto Rico (4.4 percent), Michigan (3.2), New Jersey (2.9), Pennsylvania (2.9), Alaska (2., Rhode Island (2.7), Connecticut (2.5), Arkansas (2.4), Massachusetts (2.4), Oregon (2.2), South Carolina (2.2), and Wisconsin (2.2).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Aug. 5 were in Puerto Rico (+4,556), Kentucky (+3,046), North Carolina (+2,053), Pennsylvania (+1,963), and Ohio (+1,720), while the largest decreases were in Missouri (-2,634), Virginia (-1,449), California (-1,042), Tennessee (-947), and Alabama (-765).

WOWHere it comes!!

2006-08-17T06:19:00.000-07:00

Countrywide, one of the largest lenders in the US with strong ties in California has lost 20% of its business and is laying off 500 people in California while San Diego County is being called the Enron of public finance, and the condo market there has imploded.

HP SHARE SOAR

2006-08-15T06:24:00.000-07:00

Hewlett-Packard Co.'s stock surged Thursday after the computer and printer maker reported a third-quarter profit that beat expectations, raised its fourth-quarter and full-year guidance and said its board had authorized a $6 billion share buyback.

HP shares rose $2.62, or almost 8 percent, to $37.05 in pre-market trading. If that price holds when the stock market opens, it would be above the stock's previous 52-week high of $36.23 on the New York Stock Exchange.

CEO Mark Hurd said an aggressive cost-cutting campaign would wind down in the current quarter, when several thousand employees would lose their jobs.

But Hurd, who oversaw the elimination of 1,900 jobs last quarter, said he would continue to reduce bureaucracy in the 67-year-old company. The low-key Midwesterner, who took over HP in March after the ouster of Carly Fiorina, said he spent much of the past year talking to employees and customers about how to make the 150,000-employee company more efficient.

"We're a very big company and still are - and that created a lot of complexity," Hurd said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press. "The feedback I got was that this is a company with great technology, great people and great services, but frankly it was hard to deal with - there was a lot of bureaucracy."

Hurd was bullish about HP's prospects after announcing fiscal third-quarter profit that easily beat Wall Street's expectations. The results were announced Wednesday after financial markets closed.

For the three months ended July 31, HP earned $1.38 billion, or 48 cents a share, compared with $73 million, or 3 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.

The year-ago numbers were dramatically lower because of a tax charge that resulted when the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company pulled $14.5 billion from foreign earnings and "repatriated," or reinvested, those profits in the United States.

Sales in the fiscal third quarter rose 5 percent to $21.89 billion from $20.76 billion last year. If not for currency fluctuations, sales would have increased 6 percent.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned $1.48 billion, or 52 cents per share, up nearly 40 percent from the same quarter last year.

On that basis, which does not comply with generally accepted accounting principles, HP beat Wall Street expectations by 5 cents per share. Analysts were expecting the company to earn $1.37 billion, or 47 cents a share, on sales of $21.8 billion, according to a Thomson Financial survey.

Analysts were impressed that HP managed to report relatively strong sales in each of the company's three divisions.

"It looked really good - it's nice to see this consistency from HP," said Martin Reynolds, vice president of research firm Gartner Inc.

He added that the only "dark spot" was the company's "enterprise storage and servers" category, which only inched up 3 percent to $4.1 billion.

HP competes fiercely against IBM Corp. for corporate clients that spend billions of dollars on giant computer servers and data storage.

"They're struggling against IBM's initiative," Reynolds said. "It's been that way for several quarters, and I'm a little disappointed they haven't addressed it yet. They need to be more focused."

Revenue from HP's printer division grew 5 percent to $6.2 billion. HP sales of laptops increased 14 percent, as the overall "personal systems" division sold $6.9 billion in desktops, laptops and other computers, 8 percent more than the same quarter last year.

Software sales were particularly strong, with 30 percent year-over-year growth. The company, which sold $318 million in software last quarter, will likely complete the acquisition of management software company Mercury Interactive Corp. in the current quarter.

Hurd vowed that the $4.5 billion acquisition - HP's biggest since the $19 billion purchase of Compaq Computer Corp. in 2002 - wouldn't be saddled with HP's legacy of superfluous bureaucracy.

"I don't think the Mercury Interactive acquisition will do anything to increase bureaucracy at HP," Hurd said. "We met the enemy and it was us. We need to go simplify."

For the fourth quarter, HP now expects to earn 57 cents to 59 cents per share, or 61 to 63 cents per share excluding items. For the full year, the company expects earnings in a range of $2.14 to $2.16 per share, or $2.31 to $2.33 per share excluding amoritization charges. Analysts, on average, were expecting 59 cents per share for the fourth quarter and $2.07 for the full year, according to Thomson. Those estimates typically exclude unusual items.

ABOUT Random Bank Fees

2006-08-10T06:16:00.000-07:00

I got a returned check a while ago, my bank charged me $6. I thought it was kind of steep. I have no experience with how much other banks charge though. One time I got an overdraft charge, a whopping $25 fee. Then I wanted to write a money order, there’s another $5 charge. With some accounts, if you don’t have enough money in there, bam another monthly service charge. I guess when they said free checking, they didn’t really mean free did they.

ABOUT Wire Transfer Fees

2006-08-03T06:14:00.000-07:00

I got to thinking of all of these bank fees that banks charge, and one of the steepest of them all is the wire transfer fee. That one can be avoided though. Google has a new service, GPay I believe it’s called. You can send money through that if I’m not mistaken. You can send money with PayPal as well. You could write an old fashioned check and just wait until it clears. If time is of the essence, a money order mailed overnight might even be cheaper than a wire transfer.

Debt Consolidation

2006-07-24T05:54:00.000-07:00

What Debt consolidation is? What programs to use? What are advantages and disadvantages of using them? What should I know about them? Read answers for all these questions.

Debt consolidation is the action of consolidation several loans into one low-interest loan.

Debt consolidation program is usually your new big loan for paying off others. Sometimes consolidation debt is just a new unsecured debt, but more often it is secured: debtor pledge his home as collateral in debt consolidation program. In that case lendors risk is reduced, so the interest rate is low.

The main advange of debt consolidation is that debtor need to make only one payment every month and this payment is usually lower than the sum of all monthly payments, he made before, because the term of the debt is increased. Another advantage is that people can try to avoid bankruptcy.

But debt consolidation programs can also hurt debtor if he can’t understand that he owe the money and he will need to pay it back. After debt consolidation debtor will get more free money, available credits will increase, but if he will use them, his situation will be really bad. He can lose hos home if it was pleded as collateral.

For more information you can ask your local banks and credit unions. There are many debt consolidation programs and it is not easy to choose the best.

Apple sell education computer for $1500

2006-07-17T06:08:00.000-07:00

Apple Computer Inc has said it will begin selling a version of its iMac personal computer for $US899 ($NZ1494) for the education market as it bolsters its business aimed at students and teachers.

The company, known for its popular iPod digital music and video player, said the new iMac will have a 17-inch liquid crystal display and will be powered by Intel Corp's latest-generation chip, known as the Core Duo.

The computer, available immediately to students and teachers, replaces Apple's eMac, which had a bulkier display using older technology. It comes with multimedia applications for creating websites with web logs and photos and has the latest Macintosh operating system.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has been offering discounts to students and teachers since the early 1980s as it competed with International Business Machines Corp, Dell Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co, among others, in the lucrative educational personal computer market.

Over 12 per cent of Apple's net sales in 2005 were to the US education market, including elementary and secondary schools, higher education and individuals buyers, the company said in its 2005 annual report.

Euro gains as ECB hints at Aug hike

2006-07-14T06:07:00.000-07:00

euro hit a fresh record high versus the yen and euro zone government bonds dipped on Thursday after the European Central Bank hinted it would pick up the pace of its monetary tightening campaign by hiking rates next month.

Wall Street opened marginally firmer, tracking gains in Europe as energy stocks rose after crude oil hit a record peak above $75 a barrel the previous session.

The ECB kept rates steady at 2.75 percent as widely expected but ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said "strong vigilance" was needed to keep inflation expectations in check.

In addition, Trichet said the central bank would hold a face-to-face policy meeting on August 3, abandoning its usual habit of deciding interest rates by teleconference at one summer meeting.

"It's a fairly clear signal they are going to raise rates in August, not just because of the comments about strong vigilance but because they are going to meet physically on Aug. 3," said Ian Gunner, an economist at Mellon Financial.

The euro rose broadly on expectations that its yield attraction will increase from higher rates, which had been expected by the market later in August.

Against the yen, the euro touched a fresh record high at 147.41 yen before giving up gains to trade down 0.2 percent at 146.87 yen.

Against the dollar, the euro rose as high as $1.2783, and traded 0.2 percent higher at $1.2751 at 1433 GMT.

The dollar was down 0.4 percent against the yen at 115.20 yen.

Oil Trades Near Record

2006-07-08T06:06:00.000-07:00

Crude reached a record intraday price of $75.40 a barrel yesterday after North Korea launched at least seven missiles. Iran's nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani postponed talks with the European Union until July 11, because of concern that he may be an assassination target. A U.S. government report due today is expected to show a decline in gasoline stocks.

``The instability in the Persian Gulf and North Korean situation have brought more geopolitical worries to the marketplace,'' said Naohiro Niimura, vice president of derivative products for Mizhuno Corporate Bank Ltd. in Tokyo. ``Strong oil product demand will pull up the oil price.''

Crude oil for August delivery was at $74.95 a barrel, down 33 cents, in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 11:03 a.m. Singapore time.

Yesterday, the contract rose $1.26, or 1.7 percent, to $75.19, the highest close for a contract closest to expiration since oil futures began trading on the exchange in 1983. Earlier, crude touched $75.40, the highest intraday price.

Brent crude oil for August settlement traded at $73.74 a barrel, down 16 cents, during after-hours trading on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

APPLE,cut-price,iMac personal computer

2006-07-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

APPLE will begin selling a cut-price version of its iMac personal computer for the education market as it bolsters its business aimed at students and teachers.

In its home US market, the unit will be priced at $US899, ($1212), while Apple has set a price of $1428.90 (with GST) in Australia.

The unit will be available only to buyers eligible for an education discount.
The company said the new iMac will have a 17-inch LCD and will be powered by Intel's latest-generation Core Duo chip.

The computer, available immediately to students and teachers, replaces Apple's eMac, which had a bulkier display using older technology. It comes with multimedia applications for creating websites with blogs and photos and has the latest Macintosh operating system.

App has been offering discounts to students and teachers since the early 1980s as it competed with IBM, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, among others, in the lucrative educational personal computer market.

Over 12 percent of Apple's net sales in 2005 were to the US education market, including primary and secondary schools, higher education and individuals buyers, the company said in its 2005 annual report.

Cash Deposit Boxes

2006-06-30T05:52:00.000-07:00

I’ve been looking for a good cash deposit box lately. I’ve gone to the usual stores like Staples, Office Depot, Office Max, etc, but I’m not seeing exactly what I’m looking for. They have these plastic looking things with more slots for change than for bills. I’ve also seen some heavy duty fire proof ones from Brinks Security.

It’s just that I’m not really looking for a cash register, I just want a box with some slots for bills, to facilitate keeping track of my savings. Of course something with a bit of security would be nice. Maybe something with a security code in it, something fireproof, something heavy, and small enough to fit in a wall or something.
Perhaps the problem is I’m not sure I myself know what I want. What I do know is that I’ll know it when I see it.

Buying Low, Selling High, It’s an Art Form sure!

2006-06-24T05:50:00.000-07:00

When I’m looking for some sort of electronic goodie, I want to get the best price for it. But I’m not just thinking about getting a good deal so I can save a few books. I always sell my “toys” when I don’t want them anymore. So I always try to buy low and sell high. I’ve done it so much that I’ve almost perfected the art.

Here’s an example of one of my most recent transactions. I purchased a digital video camera about a year ago. It’s a very nice camcorder, worked great. As time goes by, of course technologies improve, and now they have HD camcorders instead of using MiniDV tapes. Well I wanted to upgrade, so first I have to sell my old camcorder.

When I first bought it I remember it got it brand new from some store, got a mail-in rebate for it. The item wasn’t the latest greatest item. In fact it wasn’t even available at major stores like Circuit City or Sears. It wasn’t hte latest model but it was fairly new. Prices drop drastically on items when they’re no longer “new”. The big stores end up selling these items at a discounted price to smaller electronic shops, who then pass on the savings to consumers like me.

Now that I want to upgrade it’s time to sell it. A few of the things I’ve done is take very good care of the camera. It literally had no scratches on it, no wear and tear, so it can be considered as “like new” even though I’ve used it sparingly for a whole year. I also kept the original box, making sure not to tear any of the packaging. If I wasn’t going to use an accessory I made sure to leave it the original bag. For example this camcorder came with a remote control and a shoulder strap that I never used.

I logged into my ebay account and took literally 20+ pictures of the item in every possible angle and was very up front about the history of the item. People seemed to like the honesty of the auction and within 12 hours I already had a few questions about it and somebody used Buy It Now and nabbed it.

The way I see it, I only “rented” this camcorder, I bought it at a low price, sold it at a high price. So if I bought it at $400 and sold it for $350, I paid $50 for a whole years worth of a camcorder. That’s only about $1 a week, can’t beat that price.

savings gimmick

2006-06-21T05:55:00.000-07:00

Isn’t the $10 the best looking bill out there? It’s new, the new $10 bills have a reddish tint to them. They’re pretty rare too. I see 1s, 5s, 20s and 100s all the time. But the 10s and 50s are becoming a rarity. It’s common to pay with a $20 bill and if the change is $11+ you’ll get two 5’s and a 1, not a 10 and a 1.

For the last 2 years I’ve saved each and every 10 dollar bill I’ve had the luck of coming across. It started as an idea to save money. I’ll save my 10 dollar bills and spend everything else. Now it’s a hobby more than a savings gimmick.

U2 iPod

2006-06-19T05:48:00.000-07:00

Apple Computer on Tuesday upgraded its U2 Special Edition iPod music player, allowing fans an additonal 10 more gigabytes of space for a slightly lower price.

Introduced in October 2004, the original U2 iPod held 20GB, enough for about 5,000 songs, had a 12-hour battery life, and did not have video functionality. It was priced at 349 U.S. dollars.

The new 30GB U2 iPod is based on Apple's fifth-generation design. It comes with an all-black stainless-steel enclosure, a red click-wheel, and custom engraving of U2 band-member signatures. It holds up to 7,500 songs, 25,000 photos or up to 75 hours of video, has a 14-hour battery life, and will cost 329 dollars, Apple said.

U2 fans will also receive about 30 minutes of exclusive video from the iTunes Music Store through a coupon code that can be redeemed electronically.

Like other recent versions of iPods, the newest U2 Special Edition will sync computers to automatically download video, podcasts and photo content as well as digital music.

Web-based Office

2006-06-16T05:46:00.000-07:00

Google's test release Tuesday of an online spreadsheet application is the highest-profile challenge yet to Microsoft's dominant Office software franchise. But it's hardly the first.

While higher-profile Web players such as Yahoo, Ask.com and even Microsoft sit on the sidelines, a wave of mostly US West-Coast-based startup companies are feverishly putting out Webified counterparts to Microsoft Word, Excel and others.

For word processing, upstarts include AjaxWrite from Ajax13; gOffice from SilverOffice, Zoho Writer from AdventNet; iNetWord from iNetOffice; and Google's own offering, which arose from its acquisition of Writely in March.

For spreadsheets, Office alternatives include WikiCalc, created by spreadsheet pioneer and VisiCalc creator Dan Bricklin; EditGrid from a Hong Kong-based company Teams and Concepts; iRows from irows.com; AjaxXLS from Ajax13; and Dabble DB, from Smallthought Systems.

There are even online equivalents to PowerPoint, such as Thumbstacks.com, and an alternative to Microsoft's project management software: Project-On-Demand from Projity.

Not only are the applications mostly free, but they let users easily collaborate and edit documents simultaneously, a key feature that historically has eluded Microsoft.

For instance, Google Spreadsheets, can read and write files in Excel format and handle many basic calculations, though it can't understand advanced Excel commands such as macros. But the software can let up to 10 users simultaneously edit a spreadsheet, while chatting via an adjacent instant-messaging window.

That trumps the back-and-forth e-mail exchange of documents -- with changed areas highlighted in red -- that most Office users are forced to do today.

"I believe Web-based applications from a variety of providers, like Google's new Spreadsheets, will represent a significant challenge to Microsoft Office 2007," said Jeff Kaplan, an analyst at ThinkStrategies. "Rather than invest in a new software suite, many users may choose to take advantage of software-as-a-service alternatives."

Microsoft is making collaboration features a prominent part of its upcoming Office 2007, due out by year's end. Many of those features, however, will require companies to deploy and support additional back-end software, such as SharePoint 2007.

Microsoft has said it will make some collaboration features available via its Office Live, though it has stopped short of replicating any of the features in its Office software for fear of cannibalizing sales.

"I think they'll want to offer something to MSN and Office Live users, but they'll want to make sure they leverage their strengths -- and tie whatever they offer into their desktop products," said Melissa Webster, an analyst at IDC.

"Microsoft is not going to lose its Office software franchise anytime soon," said Dustin Rector, an analyst at Tier 1 Research. But "if Microsoft chooses to sit this one out, they will begin to lose out long-term."

Marc O'Brien, founder and president of Projity, said Microsoft already is losing ground. In the three months since his firm released its Project-On-Demand application, it has gained 100 user companies, a combination of paying and trial customers. "Today's project teams are much more likely to be geographically dispersed. That's a good thing for us," he said.

Project-On-Demand is part of Salesforce.com's AppExchange network; as a result, it is tightly integrated with Salesforce.com's CRM application and its hosted user data and is available to Salesforce.com's 450,000 users.

O'Brien said customers include smaller firms as well as some Fortune 500 companies. But Webster believes that early adopters will tend to be consumers and small companies.

Using Google for enterprise documents such as proposals, contracts and budgets "is a stretch -- at least in the next several years," said Webster, because Google hasn't created a software-as-a-service business yet, and therefore doesn't have any protections in place for enterprise data and doesn't have guarantees of service levels and the like.

Some startups, such as iNetOffice, are hoping to sell word processing applications to larger software-as-a-service vendors for bundling within their own applications, according to iNetOffice President Tom Snyder.

But with a market that analysts say is ripe for consolidation, most startups are taking the usual route of frantically building up their technology and wooing end users to make themselves attractive to potential buyers.

In addition to buying up companies, Webster believes larger Web players will also build connectors between search engines and Web applications for an enriched experience. "For example, I can see Google Spreadsheets being very useful in the context of a search like 'find me the best rates for my ZIP code and my loan amount for a 30-year fixed mortgage,' then being able to do some 'What ifs?' using a prepopulated spreadsheet.

Bernanke took office in February

2006-06-10T05:34:00.000-07:00

Bernanke took office in February promising to make central bank policy more transparent. Four months later, a number of economists and traders say the Fed chairman and other central bank officials have stumbled by making too many contradictory statements, muddying the outlook and spooking markets.

The complaints got louder Monday after Bernanke told a banking group inflation was at an "unwelcome" level, raising the specter of further Fed interest rate increases. That appeared counter to April congressional testimony in which Bernanke suggested the central bank could pause from its two-year campaign of interest rate increases, even if inflation was a risk.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly 200 points Monday and another 47 points Tuesday.

"Give us a break, please. Can we have just one week, or at least one day, without some Fed official obsessing publicly about containing inflation?" says Ed Yardeni, chief investment strategist at Oak Associates. "They are giving us more information than we need."

The issue goes beyond language, however. There are a number of reasons the Fed is taking flak as it tries to wind up a drive that has pushed short-term interest rates to 5% from a historic low of 1% in mid-2004:

• The economy is changing. Minutes of the March 27-28 meeting of the Fed's policymaking Open Market Committee show members believed the end of the tightening cycle was near, with some expressing concern the Fed could push rates too high. Bernanke's April testimony echoed those comments. The markets, however, interpreted Bernanke's "pause" statement as soft on inflation. Further, in recent weeks core inflation, which doesn't include food and energy, has been running above the Fed's 2% projection.

As the Fed responded to market concerns and altered conditions, its message necessarily changed.

"The end of tightening cycles are often controversial. We see more disagreement on the Fed committee about what the stopping point is; we see more skittishness in the markets," says Brian Sack of Macroeconomic Advisers, a former Fed economist. "This was a tricky time to have a transition to a new chair."

• There are disagreements on policy. While some analysts applaud Bernanke's emphasis on inflation, others say the central bank is not paying enough attention to economic cooling. They fear the Fed will push rates too high, choking growth. "The Fed is overly concerned with inflationary pressures and less concerned with the slowing of economic activity ... the consumer is getting whacked" by rising rates and energy prices, says David Lereah, National Association of Realtors' chief economist.

• There are too many voices. Bernanke doesn't yet have the same control that former chairman Alan Greenspan had over the Open Market Committee. Traders and economists are paying more attention to sometimes conflicting statements of Fed governors and regional bank presidents to try to figure out policy.

"They should really leave it to one spokesman, and that should be the Fed chairman," Yardeni says.

• Bernanke doesn't have Greenspan's inflation-fighting credentials and reputation.

"He needs to quickly realize that the markets around the world care very much about every word that comes out of his mouth," says Gary Kaltbaum, a money manager at Kaltbaum & Associates. "Potentially, it could be a longer-term positive that he is going to stand up to inflation if it is occurring ... (it's) better than doing nothing and letting things get out of hand.

Airport Operator and $19 Billion

2006-06-05T05:31:00.000-07:00

the operator of some of the world's busiest airports, said today that it had accepted a new takeover offer from the Spanish construction group Ferrovial, ending a nearly four-month fight to remain independent.

Grupo Ferrovial's latest bid values BAA at about £10.2 billion, or $19 billion. "The board believes that an offer at this level represents an attractive price," BAA said in a statement.

Ferrovial's move appeared to frustrate a possible 11th-hour rival bid from the investment bank Goldman Sachs. During negotiations with BAA on Monday night, Goldman said it had proposed a nonbinding cash offer that would value BAA at £10.3 billion.

BAA acquiesced to Ferrovial's advances late Monday after a consortium led by the Spanish group succeeded in acquiring around 14 percent of BAA's shares on the open market.

The Ferrovial bid valued BAA at 950.24 pence a share, compared with Goldman's proposed offer of 955.25 pence.

A BAA spokesman said the company, which operates Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports, had chosen the bid from Ferrovial over the one from Goldman because it offered the greatest certainty for shareholders in the near term.

"Under Ferrovial's offer, shareholders will get their money sooner," said Duncan Bonfield, a BAA spokesman. "Goldman's has made a proposal. But as long as it is just a proposal, then there are clear risks involved."

Ferrovial's bid, which includes a 15.25-pence-a-share dividend, has already received approval from European Union and British antitrust authorities. The offer from Goldman would likely need two to three months to complete due diligence procedures and secure regulatory approval, according to BAA.

BAA controls two-thirds of Britain's airports, and its dominant position has long been a source of concern for airlines, which complain that the company has the power to set arbitrarily high fees for landing rights and other airport services.

Last month, the British Office of Fair Trading said it was considering an investigation into whether the company has abused its market position to the detriment of consumers.

Robert Milton, chairman of the board of the International Air Transport Association, worried that airlines could be charged even more to use BAA's airports in the near term as the airport operator seeks to recoup its financing costs.

"It's hard to paint a happy picture at this time," Mr. Milton, who is also chief executive of Air Canada, said at an industry conference in Paris.

BAA's decision to accept Ferrovial's offer followed a series of overtures by the Spanish group that began in March, with a hostile takeover offer valued at 810 pence a share.

BAA's board swiftly rejected that approach, arguing that it significantly undervalued BAA's assets, which include airport stakes in Budapest and Naples, as well as restaurant and retail services concessions at several American airports, including Logan International in Boston. Ferrovial sweetened its bid to 900 pence last week, but BAA insisted that the company was worth at least 940 pence a share.

In a statement, Goldman Sachs urged BAA shareholders to take no action on Ferrovial's offer and said it would make a further announcement in the coming days. British market regulators have given the Goldman Sachs consortium until June 16 to make a firm offer for BAA, extending an earlier deadline by a week.

Mr. Bonfield, the BAA spokesman, said the company would not rule out negotiations with Goldman Sachs if it were to submit a formal bid. "We know our duty to shareholders," he said. "If there were an offer, then we definitely would have to look at it."

Ferrovial has until June 19 to revise its offer, while BAA shareholders have until June 26 to accept or reject the new Ferrovial bid.

BAA has said it plans to spend more than £9.5 billion over the next 10 years upgrading facilities at its three London airports. Major projects include a fifth terminal at Heathrow as well as modifications to runways and terminals to accommodate the new Airbus A380 "superjumbo" jet, which is scheduled to enter commercial service next year.

Given such large investments, combined with the added debt that BAA is expected to take on as a result of the Ferrovial deal, Standard & Poor's cut its credit ratings on the company to BBB+ from A and said it may cut them again.

BAA had £5.34 billion of debt on its books as of March 31, up from £3 billion at the end of 2005.

Power Working

2006-06-02T05:59:00.000-07:00

Today I may have very well coined a new phrase: “power-working”. I’m not sure if I’ve heard it somewhere else before. It’s sort of like power walking. Working, on steroids, per se. Here are the keys to power working.

Be motivated, have a dream or a goal in mind, whether short-term or long term.

Be extremely well rested and ready to put in a good 3-4 hours of non-stop work.

Sit comfortably in an air conditioned room, put some music on, limit your distractions.

Have a drink with you, preferrably something with sugar, like an Arizona Iced Tea, something that gives you energy.