In theaters August 3

secret service prostitution 4 20 george zimmerman sheree whitfield weather dallas st louis blues pat summitt

"I have [been nesting] in my mind, but I've been a little consumed with work. But the interesting thing I've noticed is my husband is nesting," the Wipeout host, 31, shares.

live with regis and kelly heavy d funeral christopher walken ok state ok state kurt budke regis philbin

Discussion on Business Continuity with Patrick Rivait, President, Rivait Business Solutions Inc.

?

This article?was prepared by Patrick Rivait and it is one of a series to be presented in this forum.?Patrick specializes in Business Continuity planning and I recommend any reader contact him directly for advice on this valuable service. Patrick can be reached at 519.984.6633

Business Continuity Planning versus Disaster Recovery: Are they the same?
Technology has become entrenched as a cornerstone in most companies? daily operation, regardless of their size or complexity.? Given the potential risks of operating disruption or data loss arising from IT service disruptions, Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) has become a critical function for IT departments or third party IT service providers.
A question that often is raised is ?The organization has invested a great deal of money in support of a DRP by acquiring backup hardware, off-site data co-location, or hosted solutions -- so are we covered??
While this is a broad question, the likelihood that even the best DRP will be sufficient in times of crisis is fairly small.? A bit of additional background may help shed more light.
By definition, Disaster Recovery (DR) is ?The technical aspect of business continuity.? The collection of resources and activities to re-establish information technology services (including components such as infrastructure, telecommunications, systems, applications and data) at an alternate site following a disruption of IT services.? Disaster recovery includes subsequent resumption and restoration of those operations at a more permanent site?

In contrast, Business Continuity (BC) is defined as ?A holistic management process that identifies potential impacts that threaten an organization and provides a framework for building resilience with the capability for an effective response that safeguards the interests of its key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value creating activities. The management of recovery or continuity in the event of a disaster. Also the management of the overall program through training, rehearsals, and reviews, to ensure the plan stays current and up to date.?
It becomes a bit clearer from these definitions that DRP is essentially a sub-set of the broader process of BCP.? The DR focus is solely on assets surrounding IT, whereas BC focuses on all the organization assets ? people, brand, buildings, processes, and data.

To help provide further clarification-- in the event off a fire at a workplace, having DR plans to recover information and business systems will be critical in ensuring issues such as safety of client and financial data, production information, orders, compliance for accounting audits and taxation, they do not cover key considerations such as:

???????? how employees and customers will safely be evacuated from the building;

???????? where the business will operate through the immediate response period to the crisis;

???????? who will be responsible for overseeing various sets of activities during, and immediately following the crisis; and what authority they might have during this response and recovery period;

???????? how the organization will communicate to suppliers, customers, employees (and potentially their families) and shareholders or funding sources;

???????? where the operation will relocate immediately after the crisis - ?during the recovery period.
Following a serious event, while it might be useful to access accounting data from a hosted service provider, if there are no contingency plans in place to facilitate the organization?s value-generating functions (such as ongoing production) in order to meet client demands, it is still highly likely that an organization will suffer significant losses to cash-flow and profitability, potentially lose employees through attrition or layoffs, and the customers may be forced to seek alternate providers for their goods and services.? While these issues may appear to be the indirect impact of the critical event (i.e. the building fire), they are actually the direct impact of a failure to have appropriate programs in place to ensure the long-term viability of the organization.
Generally, DRP?s are driven by the IT function within an organization, and hopefully consider the core IT requirements of the various stakeholders within the organization.? On the other hand, a robust BCP should be driven by a Steering Committee that represents all key stakeholders across the organization, and leverage the insights and experience of all key functions that support the organization.? This broader perspective helps ensure that the final plans will be more robust, and that the proposed solutions will be workable and practical in the event that they need to be actioned in the aftermath of a critical event.
In clarifying the difference between these types of plans, it is important to remember that both are critical for ensuring the long-term viability of an organization.? Both plans, when developed and produced in conjunction with one another, will help and organization mitigate both the risks and impacts of a potential crisis.? Both are valuable, and should be considered critical parts of an organization?s regular management process.

?

uconn ncaa march madness mario williams vcu jordan hill unlv sam young

Google finally launched its long-rumored Google Drive online storage service today. This was probably one of Google's worse-kept secrets, so the launch itself wasn't much of a surprise to anyone - least of all Dropbox, which - until today - was pretty much synonymous with online storage for documents. If nothing else, Google Drive is a full-frontal assault on Dropbox on virtually every level. Google is not just massively undercutting Dropbox's pricing scheme, but thanks to integrating Drive with Docs, it is also able to offer far more features. With this kind of competition, the future doesn't look good for Dropbox.

brian van gorder blazing saddles lsu alabama lsu game lsu game beezow doo doo zopittybop bop bop cordova

It is Tuesday and that means brand new episodes of Fashion Star and The Biggest Loser on NBC, woohoo! ?Just so you know what you have to look forward to this evening I have a couple of wonderful sneak peek videos for you to enjoy. A night full of fabulous and some not so fabulous clothes as well as some inspiring weight loss sounds like a pretty good way to spend a Tuesday night to me. I so love NBC Tuesday night it is seriously must see TV for me. All of that being said let me get this party started with not one but three video clips from the always entertaining Fashion Star. In the first clip the remaining designers are paired up with a mentor who will decide what they get to create. Sarah is plagued with doubts during this very important week 7, despite the fact that she is getting amazing support from her mentor Jessica Simpson. Finally and this one is a doozy, Ross decides he is not going to listen to John?s advice. If that wasn?t enough drama for you then check out this preview video of The Biggest Loser. The eliminated contestants are back [...]

steelers charles barkley beyonce troy polamalu james harrison james harrison falcons

You could say the market for USB audio interfaces is pretty saturated. Many of the most-popular models have been around for years, with fewer significant product introductions as of late. That makes it even more bold for Propellerhead?traditionally a software vendor?to step into the hardware ring. Fortunately, its new Balance interface ($449 direct) is worthy of the cause, as it looks like no other recording system out there. It turns out the Balance's execution stands up as well, although it's a bit pricey for what you get.

Design, Connections, and Front Panel
The chunky Balance measures 2.76 by 5.12 by 7.56 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.25 pounds. ?Its design is one of the Balance's best attributes, with its rubberized housing, cantered front panel, and extra-large, easy-to-read controls. The back panel contains two XLR microphone inputs, each with switchable 48-volt phantom power. You can also bypass those and use one of the three quarter-inch TRS input jacks corresponding to each channel, for Line 1, Line 2, Guitar, and a pad switch for taming hot signals. There are no stereo RCA or 3.5mm inputs or outputs; this is purely a professional-level interface.

For monitoring, a pair of quarter-inch output jacks let you hook up the Balance to an amplifier or a set of active studio monitor speakers. A quarter-inch headphone jack sits on the right side of the unit, right near the front?two headphone jacks would have been welcome at this price. And despite the Balance's good compliment of analog connectivity, there are no digital inputs, and no MIDI in or out, either.

The front panel is dominated by two massive volume knobs?one for the main outs, and one for the single headphone jack. Above that is a direct monitoring switch, which lets you monitor incoming recordings from a mic, guitar, or other instrument with zero latency. Two smaller knobs handle input levels for the left and right inputs; oddly, they click to specific settings, which shouldn't pose a problem in most cases, but doesn't afford as much granular control as I would have expected. There's also a clip safe light, and a useful, built-in meter and tuner button which pops up an appropriate window in Reason Essentials (more about that later). Two sets of three LEDs indicate signal, clipping status, recording status, and whether 48V phantom power is switched on. All controls and buttons engage and move with a precision feel.

Across the right side of the panel are two extra rows of four buttons, used to select the input mode for the jacks on the rear. This is strange, because typically you don't get this option, with all inputs being live as needed,?or software is used to make these adjustments. Propellerhead's design means you can hook up several pieces of gear to all of those rear-mounted inputs, such as two microphones, a guitar, a bass guitar, and a couple of synthesizers, and then switch between them using the front panel buttons. But even so, this is purely a two-channel recording interface, which is what makes it bizarre. There's no way to record signal from more than any two of those inputs simultaneously. This makes the Balance a rather expensive proposition, and puts it within just $150 of the incredible sounding (if Mac-only) two-channel Apogee Duet 2, as well as in the same ballpark as numerous interfaces that record four or even eight simultaneous channels?enough to record an entire band at once.

Reason Essentials Setup and Virtual Synths
With the Balance, Propellerhead bundles Reason Essentials, a cut-down version of the company's flagship Reason recording software that still provides most of the program's best features. The package works on either Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (including 64-bit mode in Vista and 7), as well as on any multi-core Mac running OS X 10.6.3 or later. For this review, I tested the Balance and Reason Essentials on a 2.93GHz quad-core Mac Pro with 6GB RAM and OS X 10.7 (Lion).

Installation is fairly simple. I inserted the DVD, dragged the Reason Essentials folder onto the Mac, and then plugged the interface into a free USB port. When I fired up the Reason icon, it turns out it wasn't done yet, as it popped up a warning about installing Ignition Key software. It then began copying sound banks over from the DVD. While the full version of Reason now employs a USB dongle, Reason Essentials uses the Balance as the dongle?disconnect the interface, and you can no longer use the software.

If you're willing to get a little creative, Reason Essentials includes enough power to handle many recording needs. It still gives you unlimited audio and instrument tracks, the new ReGroove mixer, and 1.45GB (rather than 2.5GB) of sound bank content. You get Propellerhead's venerable Subtractor synth and NN-XT sampler, but not the Malstrom, Neptune, or Thor synthesizers. On top of those, you still get a live sampling editor and ID-8 songwriter's toolbox, the Matrix pattern sequencer, the Combinator, the MClass mastering suite and master bus compressor, and a variety of basic effects boxes, including a reverb, Line 6-powered guitar and bass amps, a chorus and flanger, a digital delay, and the Scream 4 distortion box.

The new arrange window is a little tough to work with. It's not as flexible as a digital audio workstation like Pro Tools, because it's still designed like a vertically scrolling equipment rack. In today's world of widescreen desktop monitors with fewer vertical pixels, the UI looks oddly stretched out, with little room to see the virtual gear once the arrange and mixer windows are in place.

Testing, Sound Quality, and Conclusions
In a series of recording and playback tests, I had problems with the Balance. The headphone jack sounded full, warm, and loud, and recordings came through reasonably clean using a Rode NT-1A large condenser microphone, with the Balance's 48-volt phantom power engaged. Using the default settings, I experienced 8ms latency on the way in, and 6ms on the way out, which was fine for playing drum tracks live using an M-Audio Keystation 49e keyboard. I was also able to flip on a reverb and record vocals while hearing it; in doing so, I heard some minor comb filtering, but it was easily usable?and this was without direct monitoring, which you can always engage for zero latency monitoring.

The default sound banks are versatile across the board, with plenty of synth pads, leads, multitimbral workstation-like sounds, and even dozens of sampled reverbs. If you keep in mind that many of these sound modules date back to the first version of Reason from more than 10 years ago, it's still a good sound set, and more than you'd ever get with, say, a workstation keyboard synthesizer from Korg or Roland 10 years ago.

Propellerhead is targeting a niche customer with the Balance: One who wants ultra-clean sound quality, plenty of connections, and tight integration with Reason, but that also doesn't need to record, say, more than one musician simultaneously most of the time. If that's you, it's tough to go wrong with the Balance. But if you want an interface with a lower price and a smaller footprint, the M-Audio Fast Track ($149.99, 4 stars) will get you most of the way there for less than half the cost, although you're giving up all of the extra connectivity and separate main and headphone volume knobs. Otherwise, a number of interfaces with eight microphone inputs, such as the 16-channel/4-out Tascam US-1800 ($399.99), give you more flexible recording power for the same or less money than the Balance.

hypertrophic cardiomyopathy kaye stevens michael jordan engaged kid cudi notre dame football breedlove florida state football

Lawrence B. Stacy, Mobile, Alabama, a real estate investor, has agreed to plead guilty and to serve prison time for his role in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in southern Alabama.? To date, as a result of the ongoing investigation, three individuals and one company have pleaded guilty..

The charges were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama in Mobile, Alabama.

Stacy was charged with one count of bid rigging and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. According to the plea agreement, which is subject to court approval, Stacy has agreed to serve six months in prison. Additionally, Stacy has agreed to pay a $10,000 criminal fine and to cooperate with the department's ongoing investigation.

According to court documents, Stacy conspired with others not to bid against one another at public real estate foreclosure auctions in southern Alabama. After a designated bidder bought a property at the public auctions, which typically take place at the county courthouse, the conspirators would generally hold a secret, second auction, at which each participant would bid the amount above the public auction price he or she was willing to pay. The highest bidder at the secret, second auction won the property.

Stacy was also charged with conspiring to use the U.S. mail to carry out a scheme to acquire title to rigged foreclosure properties sold at public auctions at artificially suppressed prices, to make and receive payoffs to co-conspirators and to cause financial institutions, homeowners, and others with a legal interest in rigged foreclosure properties to receive less than the competitive price for the properties. Stacy participated in the bid rigging and mail fraud conspiracies from at least as early as May 2002 until at least January 2007.

Each violation of the Sherman Act carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for individuals. The maximum fine for a Sherman Act charge may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victim if either amount is greater than the statutory maximum fine. Each count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine in an amount equal to the greatest of $250,000, twice the gross gain the conspirators derived from the crime, or twice the gross loss caused to the victims of the crime by the conspirators.

The Department of Justice made the announcement.

The investigation into fraud and bid rigging at certain real estate foreclosure auctions in southern Alabama is being conducted by the Antitrust Division's Atlanta Field Office and the FBI's Mobile Office, with the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Alabama. Anyone with information concerning bid rigging or fraud related to public real estate foreclosure auctions should contact the Antitrust Division's Atlanta Field Office at 404-331-7100 or visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.htm.>

The charges are part of efforts underway by President Barack Obama's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency task force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch and, with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes. For more information on the task force, visit www.stopfraud.gov.

"The Antitrust Division will continue to pursue vigorously the perpetrators involved in these real estate foreclosure auction schemes," said Sharis A. Pozen, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. "Those who eliminate competition from the marketplace and prey on the misfortune of others will be held accountable for their actions."

FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Mobile FBI Office Lewis M. Chapman recognized the perseverance of agents and prosecutors in this complex investigation. Chapman stated, "This investigation sends the message that real estate fraud, including antitrust violations, will continue to be pursued in these tough economic times, no matter how intricate the scheme."

chrome for android hatchet leah messer freedom riders 9th circuit court of appeals gisele bundchen tom brady randy travis arrested

With a service as big as?YouTube ? with literally dozens of hours of new content popping up every minute ? it's easy to forget how it all began. Today marks the seventh birthday of YouTube's very first clip which, like much of the site's user-generated content, is a bit humorous but almost entirely pointless.

The 19-second video is entitled?Me at the zoo, and it features YouTube co-founder?Jawed Karim as he talks a bit about elephants and their?really long trunks. The short clip has tallied nearly 7.5 million views since it popped online in April of 2005, which is an impressive number but nowhere near some of the heavy viral hitters like?Evolution of Dance (194 million views) or?Charlie bit my finger (448 million views).

In the seven years since its launch, YouTube has seen some truly explosive growth. The site now enjoys over 800 million unique viewers per month, watching over four billion videos each day. 60 hours of video is uploaded to the?streaming portal every minute, which is the equivalent of roughly 11,368 copies of?Me at the zoo. That's a lot of elephants.

[via?Mashable]

This article originally appeared on Tecca

More from Tecca:

kourtney kardashian kourtney kardashian lipitor lipitor kourtney kardashian pregnant again kourtney kardashian pregnant again apple juice

Some good news for those of you interested in the HTC One V if also happen to be Canadian. Bell will have the device available as of May 3rd according to the information above and while pricing isn't shown here, it is expected to come in under $300 given the fact it is considered the entry level offering in the One series. If Bell isn't your preferred carrier, you can hold off and wait as TELUS will have the device eventually as well but as of now, there is no timeframe for their release. Need more info or are you on the fence and not sure what to expect? Check out full review of the HTC One V via the link below.

Read our full HTC One V Review

Source: MobileSyrup

lizzie borden iona taylor allderdice mixtape andrew bogut pi day monta ellis election results

In Raleigh, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences has been building its Nature Research Center, a brand new extension to the museum focusing not just on science but on how science is done. It?s all awesome, and it opens today, April 20. You could talk all day about it ? and, full disclosure, as a member of the board of the Friends of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, I seriously could.

But as a board member I?m still a science writer first, and so whatever?s going on INSIDE the museum, what?s charged me, especially in my role here as Plugged In?s unofficial ?unplugged? correspondent, is the outside. Most especially, the outside of the three-story globe that is the museum?s signature. Called the Daily Planet, it?s filled with interactive high-tech video and sound. But outside it?s a globe ? possibly the world?s largest truly representational globe, even though, pierced by a walkway and a building, part of the globe is missing.

As a science writer and producer, I?ve followed around Todd and Bill Ulrich of Worldfx Inc., the guys who have put the skin on the globe. They?ve been up and down on lifts, laying on their backs beneath the gigantic thing, and in general shaking a serious tail feather to make this enormously detailed satellite mosaic take shape on this enormous globe.

?

It?s been a treat to watch, and so I started documenting it. More than that, as people began passing by and noticing the continents taking shape, it became clear how, long before the museum opened, the Daily Planet, simply as a globe ? a gigantic scientific instrument ? was already teaching people science. I collected some video, some sound, some images, some context, and came up with this. A new globe ? a new world.

facebook ipo