If you want to be a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Access wizard, here's your chance. Webucator, which specializes in online business classes, is giving away 3 free Office training classes to one lucky person who comments on this post. If you want... Read more
Saturday, April 30, 2011
LKQ's CEO Discusses Q1 2011 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
LKQ (LKQX)
Q1 2011 Earnings Call
April 28, 2011 10:00 am ET
Executives
John Quinn - Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President
Joseph Boutross -
Robert Wagman - Co-Chief Executive Officer and President
Analysts
Scott Stember - Sidoti & Company, LLC
Craig Kennison - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated
John Lovallo - Bank of America-Merrill Lynch
Anthony Cristello - BB&T Capital Markets
Sam Darkatsh - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.
Nathan Brochmann - William Blair & Company L.L.C.
Scot Ciccarelli - RBC Capital Markets, LLC
Presentation
Operator
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to LKQ Corporation's First Quarter 2011 Earnings Conference Call. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. John Quinn, Executive Vice President and CFO.
John Quinn
Thank you, Christine. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. This morning, we released our first quarter 2011 financial results and provided
Complete Story »
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Weekend Favs April Twenty Three
Weekend Favs April Twenty Three
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
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Pulitzer Podcast: Bernstein & Eisinger on Wall Street, Magnetar, CDOs
ProPublica won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for its series, ?The Wall Street Money Machine.? Its lead reporters, Jake Bernstein and Jesse Eisinger, take a moment to explain the series, how it all started and their reaction after reeling in ProPublica?s second Pulitzer. Theirs was� the first Pultizer� awarded to a body of work [...]
How to Deliver an Experience
How to Deliver an Experience
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Giulianna Ramirez Ashley Greene April Scott Mia Kirshner Elisabeth Röhm
The Endgame Headwinds
The Endgame Headwinds By John Mauldin April 29, 2011 ~~~ The Endgame Headwinds If Something Can?t Happen? GDP = C + I + G + Net Exports Increasing Productivity Toronto, Cleveland, LA, Philadelphia, Boston, and Italy ~~~ I have written repeatedly about the Endgame in the weekly letter, as well as in a New York [...]
Monster Worldwide's CEO Discusses Q1 2011 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
Monster Worldwide (MWW)
Q1 2011 Earnings Call
April 28, 2011 5:00 pm ET
Executives
Sal Iannuzzi - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, President and Member of Special Litigation Committee Addressing Civil Litigation Matters
Lori Chaitman -
James Langrock - Chief Financial Officer, Chief Accounting Officer and Executive Vice President
Analysts
Douglas Arthur - Evercore Partners Inc.
Craig Huber -
John Blackledge - Cr�dit Suisse AG
Tobey Sommer - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.
Neil Doshi - ThinkEquity Partners
Mark Marcon - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated
John Janedis - UBS Investment Bank
Timothy McHugh - William Blair & Company L.L.C.
James Janesky - Avondale Partners, LLC
Glenn Greene - Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.
Presentation
Question-and-Answer Session
James Langrock
So with China, the growth, it was lightly below the regional average, around 20%. It was off of a difficult comp from Q1 of 2010. So it's obviously a very important market for
Complete Story »
Helmerich & Payne's CEO Discusses Q2 2011 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
Helmerich & Payne (HP)
Q2 2011 Earnings Call
April 28, 2011 11:00 am ET
Executives
Juan Tardio - Chief Financial Officer and Vice President
Hans Helmerich - Chief Executive Officer, President and Director
John Lindsay - Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President
Analysts
Scott Gruber - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., Inc.
Michael Mazar - BMO Capital Markets Canada
Arun Jayaram - Cr�dit Suisse AG
Waqar Syed - Macquarie Research
Tom Curran - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC
Unknown Analyst -
Robin Shoemaker - Citigroup Inc
Presentation
Operator
Good day, and welcome to the Helmerich & Payne, Inc. Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to the Vice President and CFO of Helmerich & Payne, Ms. Juan Pablo Tardio. Please go ahead.
Juan Tardio
Thank you, Mark, and welcome, everyone. With us
Complete Story »
Josie Maran Leighton Meester Dominique Swain Jamie Chung Alicia Witt
Equity Residential's CEO Discusses Q1 2011 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
Equity Residential (EQR)
Q1 2011 Earnings Call
April 28, 2011 11:00 am ET
Executives
David Santee - Executive Vice President of Operations
Mark Parrell - Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President
David Neithercut - Chief Executive Officer, President, Trustee, Member of Executive Committee and Member of Pricing Committee
Marty McKenna - Spokeman
Frederick Tuomi -
Analysts
Andy McCulloch - Green Street Advisors, Inc.
Jonathan Habermann - Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Swaroop Yalla
Omotayo Okusanya - Jefferies & Company, Inc.
Ralph Davies - JP Morgan Chase & Co
Alexander Goldfarb - UBS
Haendel St. Juste - Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc.
Nicholas Yulico - Macquarie Research
William Acheson - Merrill Lynch
Eric Wolfe
Ross Nussbaum - UBS Investment Bank
David Toti - FBR Capital Markets & Co.
Unknown Analyst -
David Harris - Gleacher & Company, Inc.
Presentation
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to
Complete Story »
Georgianna Robertson Reese Witherspoon Jordana Brewster Laetitia Casta Claudette Ortiz
Female Outperformers in the World of Hedge Funds
Hedge funds managed by women outperformed those managed by men over the past nine years. autostart video after the jump via Bloomberg (Hat tip kottke)
Friday, April 29, 2011
Austan Goolsbee Interview About U.S. Economy
Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, talks about today’s report showing the U.S. economy slowed more than forecast in the first quarter. Gross domestic product rose at a 1.8 percent annual rate from January through March after a 3.1 percent pace in the final three months of 2010, the Commerce [...]
Susie Castillo Fergie Ivanka Trump Blake Lively Christina Applegate
EUROPEAN FINANCIAL STABILITY AND INTEGRATION REPORT 2010
Here are the Dow Jones headlines: 15:52 29Apr11 DJN-DJ EU PAPER: LARGE PARTS OF BANK RESTRUCTURINGS YET TO COME 15:54 29Apr11 DJN-DJ EU: “DISTINCT VULNERABILITIES REMAIN” IN EU BANK SECTOR 15:55 29Apr11 DJN-DJ EU: ROLL-OVER RISK STILL PRESENT IN SOVEREIGN DEBT MARKETS 16:05 29Apr11 DJN-DJ EU: EXIT FROM GOVERNMENT BANK BAILOUTS MAY SPUR M&A WAVE [...]
Julianne Hough Paula Garcés Genelle Frenoy Shania Twain Gwen Stefani
Southwestern Energy's CEO Discusses Q1 2011 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
Southwestern Energy (SWN)
Q1 2011 Earnings Call
April 29, 2011 10:00 am ET
Executives
Steven Mueller - Chief Executive Officer, President and Director
Greg Kerley - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President and Director
Analysts
Brian Singer - Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Scott Hanold - RBC Capital Markets, LLC
Dan McSpirit - BMO Capital Markets U.S.
David Heikkinen - Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Securities, Inc.
Hsulin Peng - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated
Amir Arif - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.
Gil Yang - BofA Merrill Lynch
Scott Wilmoth - Simmons
Rehan Rashid - FBR Capital Markets & Co.
Michael McAllister - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc.
Nicholas Pope - Dahlman Rose & Company, LLC
Presentation
Operator
Greetings and welcome to the Southwestern Energy First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Steve Mueller, President and CEO. Thank you,
Complete Story »
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SatRad 2.0 Might Make or Break Sirius XM in 2011
Rocco Pendola submits:
Complete Story »
As Sirius XM Radio's (SIRI) much-anticipated earnings release draws near, investors will focus on several factors that color the satellite radio company's business, ranging from subscriber metrics to how it manages its balance sheet, particularly its debt load. While I consider these components of the report important, I think investors could do just fine looking past them, focusing instead on exactly what Sirius XM's SatRad 2.0 will bring to the table. For long-term investors, SatRad 2.0 developments will help inform the debate over how Sirius intends to evolve in a space with increasing and formidable competition.
On Thursday, Howard Stern announced to the world -- or at least his legion of satellite radio listeners -- that he would begin working three- to four-day work weeks. Typical and classic Stern: "I figured it was better if we showed up three days a week, sometimes four days a week or whatever, be
Complete Story »
Mila Kunis Samaire Armstrong Selita Ebanks Michael Michele Marisa Tomei
Let?s Stop Being So Rude
Let’s Stop Being So Rude
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Christina Milian Kelly Brook Robin Tunney Kate Groombridge Dania Ramirez
10 Richest Terrorists Ever
Terrorists often recruit followers and sell themselves to the media by portraying themselves as fighters for freedom who are defending the oppressed and battling against evil. This doesn't do much to justify the unjustifiable ? the killing of... Read more
Ana Hickmann Mischa Barton Jamie Lynn Sigler Stacy Keibler Rihanna
Deja Vu for Dismal Dollar
MarketPulse FX submits:
Complete Story »
By Dean Popplewell
Price action has been subdued in both Asia and Europe with the Royal wedding dominating market coverage, at least until US data releases. This morning, Euro-zone inflation rose to a 30-month high for April (2.8% vs. 2.7%), further strengthening the case for Trichet and Co. to tighten monetary policy, despite the peripheries tackling severe debt problems.
The US$ is weaker in the O/N trading session. Currently, it is lower against 15 of the 16 most actively traded currencies in a ?subdued? session.
The dollar did not need any more bad news, but it got it. Yesterday?s economic indicators point to dismal employment and slowing economic growth. GDP showed growth at only +1.8% in the first quarter, however, it?s backward looking data and right on market expectations. The weekly jobless claims (+429k) is more important and suggests further sluggishness in the jobs market.
Initial jobless claims increased by
Complete Story »
Rachel Perry Mary Elizabeth Winstead Piper Perabo Anna Kournikova Esther Cañadas
What?s Changed Since The Flash Crash
From Sal Arnuk, Co-authored with R.T. Leuchtkafer: THEM — Analysis — Whats Changed Since the Flash Crash — FINAL 04 25 11 (2)(function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();
Beyoncé Nelly Furtado Leeann Tweeden Bali Rodriguez Izabella Miko
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Blog Post: Mixing Office and Visio bits
I get asked this question quite often so I thought that I would post my view. There are various documents that discuss client requirements and version compatibility for various Office applications, including co-existence as referenced here?
1) System Requirements : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624351.aspx#section15
2) Coexistence: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2121447
There is a lot of information in both of these articles to digest so let me provide details for the scenarios that I get asked about:
Host Operating System is Windows 7 64-bit or 32-bit?
- Running Microsoft Office 2007 with Project 2010, Visio 2010, and Publisher 2010
This is a valid scenario and can be configured on a client machine. To setup this environment:
1. Install Office 2007 first as mentioned in the Coexistence article referenced above. Always install from oldest version to newest version.
2. Then install Project 2010, Visio 2010, and Publisher 2010.
Note: Office 2007 is 32bit only no matter what operating system you target so this will limit you to installing only the 32bit versions of Project 2010, Visio 2010, and Publisher 2010 on the same client. You cannot mix 32bit and 64bit Office applications on the same client.
- Running Microsoft Office 2010 with Project 2007, Visio 2007, and Publisher 2007
This is also a valid scenario. To setup this environment:
1. Install Project 2007, Visio 2007, and Publisher 2007 first, again installing the oldest versions first.
2. Then install Office 2010.
Note: The version 2007 products listed are 32bit only no matter what operating system you target so this will limit you to installing only the 32bit versions of Office 2010. You cannot mix 32bit and 64bit Office applications on the same client.
- Running Microsoft Office 2010 x64 with Project 2007 or Visio 2007 or Publisher 2007
This scenario is not valid as you cannot mix 32 bit Office applications ( the 2007 versions ) with 64bit Office 2010.
In order to run Visio, Project and Publisher on a 64bit Windows 7 client with 64bit Office 2010 installed you must install the 64bit 2010 versions of Visio, Project, and Publisher.
Note: while there are a few scenarios where the client might need to have the 64bit version of the Office 2010 clients installed I typically only install the 32bit versions of Office 2010, Visio 2010, Project 2010, and Published 2010 for greatest compatibility.
While you can configure these scenarios on a client machine, if Application Virtualization (App-V) is an option for you then I would suggest virtualizing the applications that do not match the version of the installed Office version. For example, if you have Windows 7 and Office 2010 and you wish to use Visio 2007, simply virtualize Visio 2007.
Cat Power January Jones Christina DaRe Malin Akerman Melissa Joan Hart
Let?s Stop Being So Rude
Let’s Stop Being So Rude
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Gretha Cavazzoni Marla Sokoloff Jennifer Love Hewitt Tina Fey Gina Philips
Yahoo Buys TV Programming Index IntoNow for About $17 Million, Plus Retention Packages
In a move to strengthen its television listings, Yahoo said it had acquired IntoNow, a TV indexing company. Terms were not disclosed, but sources said the price was about $15 million in cash and also close to $2 million in stock. In addition, there are retention elements, based on performance, that could add on $5 million more.
Eva Green Lauren Conrad Arielle Kebbel Jessica Paré Leelee Sobieski
Office Hours
Yesterday I did office hours for the second time. We started doing office hours in the fall of last year and try to do them once a quarter. Brad, Albert, Christina, and I all do them. Christina does office hours...
Kat Von D Ana Paula Lemes Vanessa Simmons Chyler Leigh Julie Berry
Small Business News: Small Biz Strategy
What’s your small business strategy…you’ve got one, right? It’s the difference between success and failure and should be one of the first decisions you make about your business. Creating a strategy encompasses how your business markets, delivers services, manages costs, uses tools and, in general, tells its story. If this sounds like a pretty big deal, it is! Check out the links below covering the many aspects of small business strategy. And then tell us…what’s your small business strategy?
Planning
Read More
From Small Business Trends
Small Business News: Small Biz Strategy
Anna Faris Lil Kim Kelly Ripa Yvonne Strzechowski Rhona Mitra
'New Depression' Not Over Yet
Howard Richman submits:
Complete Story »
According to preliminary estimates released this morning by the BEA, economic growth slowed dramatically from 3.1% during the fourth quarter 2010 to just 1.8% during the first quarter of 2011. The following table shows the contributors to aggregate demand for American products, and how they have been changing:
| Contributors to Real GDP Growth | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 2010-1 | 2010-2 | 2010-3 | 2010-4 | 2011-1 |
| Household Consumption | 1.31% | 1.53% | 1.66% | 2.78% | 1.90% |
| Business Fixed Investment | 0.41% | 2.19% | 0.19% | 0.86% | 0.09% |
| Government Consumption | -0.31% | 0.75% | 0.75% | -0.33% | -1.04% |
| Net Exports | -0.26% | -3.37% | -1.70% | 3.23% | -0.06% |
| Inventory Change | 2.48% | 0.75% | 1.59% | -3.17% | 0.83% |
| Total Change in Real GDP | 3.7% | 1.7% | 2.5% | 3.1% | 1.8% |
Government consumption is now a drag on aggregate demand, as state and local governments are being forced by their balanced budget requirements to tighten their belts. During the third quarter of 2010, governments added 0.75% to economic growth, but in the fourth quarter they subtracted
Complete Story »
Noureen DeWulf Nicollette Sheridan Amber Heard Veronica Kay Mýa
Weekend Favs April Twenty Three
Weekend Favs April Twenty Three
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
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Finding And Buying A Domain Name
I believe that a good domain name is an important success factor in building and launching consumer web services. It's not in my top ten but it could be. It's certainly something we think about a lot when making investments...
Brooke Burns Lena Headey Ali Larter Angelina Jolie Erica Leerhsen
Some Thoughts On The Music Business
Over the past week, I've had several conversations with friends in various parts of the music business and there are a number of recurring themes that I thought I'd blog about. This post is about the recorded music part of...
Tricia Vessey Aki Ross Ashley Tappin Carmen Electra Amanda Marcum
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Ric Elias: 3 Things I Learned While My Plane Crashed
Ric Elias had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York in January 2009. What went through his mind as the doomed plane went down? At TED, he tells his story publicly for the first time. About Ric Elias: Ric Elias is the CEO of Red [...]
Alessandra Ambrosio Amanda Detmer Emma Stone Raquel Alessi Marisa Coughlan
Sponsor A Golfer On The Pro Tour
Our best investments have emergent use cases that the founders never considered when they launched them. Kickstarter is showing that in spades right now. When Perry initially imagined Kickstarter almost ten years ago now as a way to raise money...
Ananda Lewis Kate Bosworth Tamala Jones Yamila Diaz Alicia Keys
Invesco's CEO Discusses Q1 2011 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
Invesco (IVZ)
Q1 2011 Earnings Call
April 27, 2011 9:00 am ET
Executives
Loren Starr - Chief Financial Officer and Senior Managing Director
Aaron Uhde - Director of Investor Relations and Assistant Treasurer
Martin Flanagan - Chief Executive Officer, President and Executive Director
Gregory Armour - Senior Managing Director and Head of Worldwide Institutional Business
Analysts
Michael Kim - Sandler O'Neill & Partners
William Katz - Citigroup Inc
Craig Siegenthaler - Cr�dit Suisse AG
J. Jeffrey Hopson - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.
Michael Kim - Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P.
Michael Carrier - Deutsche Bank AG
Kenneth Worthington - JP Morgan Chase & Co
Robert Lee - Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc.
Marc Irizarry - Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Jonathan Casteleyn - Susquehanna Financial Group, LLLP
Roger Freeman - Barclays Capital
Presentation
Aaron Uhde
This presentation and comments made in the associated conference call today may include forward-looking statements.
Complete Story »
Lokelani McMichael Freida Pinto Eva Longoria Susan Ward Emmy Rossum
Market Vectors Investment Grade Floating Rate ETF Debuts
Ron Rowland submits:
Complete Story »
A niche fixed-income market is opening wider with Tuesday?s listing of the Market Vectors Investment Grade Floating Rate ETF (FLTR). The product developers at Van Eck?s Market Vectors ETF shop have a keen sense of timing; obviously they think demand exists for something like FLTR. Now we will see if they have another hit on their hands.
The FLTR launch comes less than two months after that of the PowerShares Senior Loan Portfolio (BKLN) debut. Both specialize in ?floating rate? debt instruments. These are packaged bank loans with periodically resetting interest rates, usually tied to a benchmark like LIBOR. The reset feature means that floating-rate paper has very little exposure to the negative impact of rising interest rates. Returns are driven primarily by credit risk.
FLTR taps into the upper part of the floating-rate market by holding only debt rated at ?investment grade? or higher by one of the primary
Complete Story »
Eva Longoria Susan Ward Emmy Rossum Kim Yoon jin Melania Trump
Blog Post: Programmatically calling validation in a rehosted Workflow 4 designer
The workflow designer has a rich programming model that supports communication with the host. In order to programmatically call validation on a rehosted designer, use the following method:
designer.Context.Services.GetService<ValidationSErvice>().ValidateWorkflow();
To handle resulting validation errors, publish an implementation of IValidationErrorService, which will expose the set of errors through ValidationService.NavigateTo().
Mischa Barton Jamie Lynn Sigler Stacy Keibler Rihanna America Ferrera
The Word Bubble
In all the posts over the past year or so outlining my thoughts on the financing and valuation environment in the internet sector, I've avoided using the word Bubble. It is intentional. For me Bubble will always be inexorably linked...
Majandra Delfino Maria Bello Jennifer Gareis Ashlee Simpson Donna Feldman
Where Is The Facebook About Us Page
Where Is The Facebook About Us Page
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Hilarie Burton Kelly Carlson Sara Foster Natassia Malthe Victoria Silvstedt
Blog Post: May: Enterprise Search User Group - Underneath the Hood: Top 5 Customizations for FS4SP
The Enterprise Search user Group meets the second Wednesday of every month.
This coming month's meeting will be held May 11 at the Microsoft offices at 1290 Avenue of the Americas. Please join us for this month's session!
Speaker: Brent Groom is a Senior Consultant in the Business Productivity division of Microsoft’s Enterprise Search Practice. Brent started his career as a Software Engineer and has been a Services consultant of Enterprise Search Software solutions for the past ten years. Prior to working at Microsoft he worked at Corel, Fidelity Investments, Folio, NextPage and Fast Search and Transfer. Some of the Enterprise solutions Brent has participated in include: Eli Lilly(intranet), Dell(intranet), Best Buy(e commerce web site), Microsoft - Windows Marketplace(ecommerce web site), Microsoft – Bing financial search, InfoSpace (yellow page search).
Description: In this talk Brent Groom explains the most common areas of customizations when deploying FAST Search for SharePoint 2010. He also provides helpful pointers to reusable scripts that can reduce the effort when applying these customizations.
See you there!
Lisa Snowdon Mariah Carey Taylor Swift Milla Jovovich Maggie Grace
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Dollar Weaker Ahead of FOMC Statement
MarketPulse FX submits:
Complete Story »
by Scott Boyd
The dollar continued its week-long slide against the euro just one day before the next Federal Open Market Committee statement and investors are strongly of the belief that the FOMC will maintain the current low interest rate policy capping the Federal Funds rate at just 0.25 percent.
A low interest rate tends to devalue a currency; this is because lower interest rates mean weaker yields for investors. As a result, investors will sell lower-yielding currencies for currencies providing higher returns and this is exactly what has been happening with the dollar. Looking ahead, the dollar sell-off will likely increase as the interest rate gap between the U.S. and other countries continues to widen with rate increases in Australia, Canada, and most recently the Eurozone, taking the shine off the greenback.
Geithner Pledges Support for Strong Dollar
Regardless of the high probability that the
Complete Story »
Lacey Chabert Amber Brkich Gretha Cavazzoni Marla Sokoloff Jennifer Love Hewitt
An Android WiFi App I Need
I use wifi a lot on my android phone. I use it in my office, my home, my beach house, cafes I frequent, and offices of companies I frequent. I save the profiles for all of these locations and replace...
Marla Sokoloff Jennifer Love Hewitt Tina Fey Gina Philips Jamie Gunns
Margins (continued)
Last week in MBA Mondays we talked about margins, which I defined as: Margin is the amount of money you make on each incremental sale or unit of revenue before factoring in the "fixed costs" of your business. That led...
Soft Cell Beyoncé Nelly Furtado Leeann Tweeden Bali Rodriguez
10 Dramatic Protests for Labor Rights
2011 marked the first time in years that a labor dispute -- in this case, Wisconsin?s public employees being stripped of their bargaining rights -- captured national media attention. The dramatic progression of events, which are detailed... Read more
Tamala Jones Yamila Diaz Alicia Keys Tyra Banks Vanessa Hudgens
Weekend Favs April Sixteen
Weekend Favs April Sixteen
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Kate Bosworth Tamala Jones Yamila Diaz Alicia Keys Tyra Banks
Blog Post: Reporting Services 2008 R2 ? Performance improvements with CU7
The long waited Cumulative Update 7 for Reporting Services 2008 R2 is finally out. The product team has worked very hard to include some performance fixes related to the new inclusion of Ajax functionality in this version. Some of the fixes bellow: FIX: Performance decreases after you move a report that contains a large multi-select drop-down parameter list to SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services FIX: Performance decreases after you move a large report to SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services And more… I am really proud to recommend you to install it from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2507770 We recommend that you test hotfixes before you deploy them in a production environment…
Maria Esteban
Reporting Services Support Engineer
Nikki Cox Carla Gugino Ana Hickmann Mischa Barton Jamie Lynn Sigler
Blog Post: Slides and Resources from the Testing Session
Below you can find the links to the slide deck and some other resources based on the session I recently delivered on ?Improving Software Quality with Test Professional?. This session was largely focussed on the manual testing tools that can be used to improve your software.
The slide deck can be found here
Other resources (be sure to check some of the resources mentioned in a previous post)
- Test Professional Tour ? great place to get started. Links to videos and other resources
- MSDN Docs on Testing
- Testing Team Blog ? lots of good stuff here
- Info on Test Scribe
- Test Migrator Tool ? can be used to migrate tests from Excel to Test Pro
Ahmed Salijee
Rebecca Mader Eva Green Lauren Conrad Arielle Kebbel Jessica Paré
Mark Suster Interviews The Gotham Gal
joanne wilson, mark suster, the gotham gal
Mary Elizabeth Winstead Piper Perabo Anna Kournikova Esther Cañadas Kate Beckinsale
Monday, April 25, 2011
25 Most Trustworthy Brands
Image: Valerie Everett/Flickr What makes you trust someone? For one, they do what they say they're going to do. They help you out when you need it most. They don't do anything to make you distrust them, like charge you for borrowing their DVDs... Read more
Brittany Murphy Britney Spears Amanda Swisten Scarlett Chorvat Kim Smith
10 Things You Pay Much More For Now
It?s time to face some unfortunate facts: prices for many commodities and goods are going up. The tremulous recovery of the economy after the recession has been shaken in recent months due to shortages, political unrest, and natural... Read more
Sara Foster Natassia Malthe Victoria Silvstedt Hilary Swank Whitney Port
25 Ways to Run Your Business Like Warren Buffett
Image: Paul Sapiano/Flickr Berkshire Hathaway's annual "Woodstock of Capitalism," its shareholder meeting, happens on April 30 this year. Warren Buffett's baby is by far America's most beloved conglomerate. What's behind the fame? Buffett and... Read more
Magdalena Wróbel Connie Nielsen Melissa George Cameron Richardson Chandra West
Housing's Struggles Continue as Some Prices Roll Back to 1990s Levels
Dr. Duru submits:
Complete Story »
It seems the Federal Reserve may maintain some excuse to keep printing money. Hundreds of billions printed in the name of economic recovery and inflation can be seen almost everywhere except the housing market, one of two of the Fed?s main targets ? the other being employment. (See ?Inflation Watch? for running highlights of stories on rising prices and related news.)
While I have argued in the past that the housing market will not recover until 2013, bouncing along the bottom on the way there, I continue to be stunned by some of the dire statistics. The latest rounds of housing data have included some stark milestones.
In ?Atlanta?s median home price falls again? (April 20), the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported that Atlanta?s median home price slid to $100K, a drop of almost 15%. Incredibly, this plunge takes the Atlanta market to levels last seen one year after the 1996 summer
Complete Story »
Michelle Branch Melissa Howard Samantha Mumba Busy Philipps Thora Birch
Change in Distribution Policy Not a Concern for Blackstone
Mike Maher submits:
Complete Story »
After reading its earnings release, I noticed an interesting note out of The Blackstone Group (BX) concerning the distribution. For FY 2011, the firm plans on distributing
to its common unitholders substantially all of The Blackstone Group L.P.'s net after-tax share of annual Distributable Earnings less the amount of its realized investment gains.
This is a change from last year, when the firm did not make this deduction. The release says Blackstone sees potential to invest the money back into its business, and the amount will be deducted from the fourth quarter distribution. Blackstone's policy is to base the first three quarterly distributions on assumptions as to what the year's distributable earnings will be, and then distribute the remainder of the distributable earnings in the fourth quarter. Right now the company is paying $0.10 a share for the first three quarters, and a larger payment for the last quarter. For
Complete Story »
Amanda Marcum Leila Arcieri Kate Mara Izabella Scorupco Carla Campbell
Charting Yahoo's Q1 Search Stumble: The PDF of MicroHoo
Earlier today, Yahoo reported its first-quarter earnings, which showed revenue and earnings declines, which the Silicon Valley Internet portal said was due to its search and advertising partnership with Microsoft.
Here's more deets to peruse and numbers to crunch--in order to figure out whether to blame Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer or not.
Here's more deets to peruse and numbers to crunch--in order to figure out whether to blame Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer or not.
Cameron Diaz Sofía Vergara Nicole Richie Norah Jones Nicky Hilton
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Sonos' John MacFarlane Talks About New Android Music Controller Rolling Out Today and More!
Yesterday afternoon, BoomTown pumped Sonos CEO John MacFarlane full of fancy tea and queried him about today's rollout of its new Android controller for the innovative wireless music players.
As has been previously reported, Santa Barbara, Calif. consumer electronics company will finally be launching an app for the Google mobile operating system, as well as releasing some multitasking and AirPlay updates to boost its software for Apple's iPhone and iPad.
As has been previously reported, Santa Barbara, Calif. consumer electronics company will finally be launching an app for the Google mobile operating system, as well as releasing some multitasking and AirPlay updates to boost its software for Apple's iPhone and iPad.
Helping Women Entrepreneurs Get Angel Capital
The relative difficulty that women entrepreneurs have in finding financing for their businesses has long been a topic of concern. Now a new project is aiming to improve women?s access to capital by mentoring and training women to become angel investors and eventually fund other women?s companies.
Pipeline Fund, a social venture fund founded by Natalia Oberti Noguera that invests in women-led for-profit social ventures, recently launched its Pipeline Fund Fellowship, the New York Times reports. The PipelineRead More
From Small Business Trends
Helping Women Entrepreneurs Get Angel Capital
Give Yourself Permission to Suck
Give Yourself Permission to Suck
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5 Stocks Targeting High Value Business Models
Rougemont submits:
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As investors have watched the valuations of companies like Groupon, Facebook, and Open Table (OPEN) surge into the multi-billions. There has been more interest developing in other similar companies. Some investors believe other companies could benefit from the high levels of valuation due to their exposure to what might be similar business models. Take a look at these amazing valuations:
Groupon, which offers special deals online, is said to be considering an initial public offering that could value the company at around $25 billion. You can read more about that here. Facebook, the online social networking company, is said to be valued at about $80 billion, based on some recent transactions which you can read about here.
Open Table, the online restaurant reservations company, is already public and has a market capitalization of nearly $2.5 billion. With billions upon billions being thrown around by investors with these companies, it's easy
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Joss Stone Majandra Delfino Maria Bello Jennifer Gareis Ashlee Simpson
Pre-$200 Million Valuation: Flipboard's Mike McCue at SXSW (The Full Onstage Video)
In March, BoomTown travelled hipster-Texas-style for the South by Southwest festival in Austin to interview Flipboard's Mike McCue in an onstage interview there.
The well-funded Silicon Valley start-up makes an innovative and highly designed social media reading app for the Apple iPad and McCue talks about its next steps in this hour-long video.
The well-funded Silicon Valley start-up makes an innovative and highly designed social media reading app for the Apple iPad and McCue talks about its next steps in this hour-long video.
Blog Post: Repository pattern with LINQ to SharePoint DSL Extension (part 2)
In the first part of this tutorial, I explained the basics about the repository pattern implementation in the LINQ to SharePoint DSL Extension for Visual Studio 2010. In this previous post, I explained how to create a new Repository pattern thanks to a new Visual Studio item. This item uses an existing LINQ to SharePoint data model (l2sp file) to generate automatically a repository pattern implementation. The classes diagram is also available in this previous post.
In this second part, I will explain how to use the object model to call the repository layer in your code with a sample model.
This sample model (the l2sp file) provides the following SharePoint data model:
My data model is called "AdventureWorks" and I added a new "LINQ to SharePoint data model repository" in my Visual Studio project. All the following samples show how to use the generated repository for this model.
How to use the repositories factory
LINQ to SharePoint DSL Extension repository generator generates a factory object context. This factory is an object conception to manipulate operations on the LINQ data context without hard coded references to the concrete type.
The factory is obtained from a static method. You can call this method when you need to get a new factory instance.
For example:
using (IAdventureWorksFactory factory = AdventureWorksFactory.GetNewInstance(SPContext.Current.Web.Url))
{
//Get a category by id
Category category = factory.Categories.GetById(2);
category.Title = "Hello";
factory.SubmitChanges();
}
{
//Get a category by id
Category category = factory.Categories.GetById(2);
category.Title = "Hello";
factory.SubmitChanges();
}
The factory object provides all the properties and methods to manage the entities repositories. The definition of the factory is very similar to the LINQ to SharePoint DataContext class:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.linq.datacontext.aspx
With the repository implementation, you don’t have a hard coded reference to this data context. The factory object returned by the GetNewInstance method must simply implement the IDataContextFactory interface. With this pattern, you can change tomorrow the complete design of data access layer, by using other data access object implementations. This method is useful when you want to test your business layer with test units based on a non-SharePoint data context.
The factory instance provides the following things:
- Methods to manage the data context (similar as DataContext class), for example SubmitChanges, etc.
- Properties to get repository implementations. For each list in the schema, you have a property to get it. For example: ICategoriesRepository categories = factory.Categories; The list of repository implementations is similar to the property EntityList<Category> of the DataContext class.
The generated repository classes and interfaces contain:
- The All property to get the LINQ requestable IQueryable<Category> object
- The same methods of the EntityList class (like DeleteOnSubmit, etc.)
- A set of custom generated helpers methods to build LINQ queries on your entities (see more information about helpers in the “Use the helper methods” chapter.
Create, Delete and Update methods
When you’re using the repository pattern classes, the “create”, “delete” and “update” operations are similar as the direct LINQ to SharePoint methods.
Create method sample:
//Get the instance of the repository factory
using (IAdventureWorksFactory factory = AdventureWorksFactory.GetNewInstance(SPContext.Current.Web.Url))
{
//Get a category by id
Category category = new Category();
//or:
//Category category = factory.Categories.CreateNew();
category.Title = "New category";
factory.Categories.InsertOnSubmit(category);
factory.SubmitChanges();
}
using (IAdventureWorksFactory factory = AdventureWorksFactory.GetNewInstance(SPContext.Current.Web.Url))
{
//Get a category by id
Category category = new Category();
//or:
//Category category = factory.Categories.CreateNew();
category.Title = "New category";
factory.Categories.InsertOnSubmit(category);
factory.SubmitChanges();
}
Update method sample:
using (IAdventureWorksFactory factory = AdventureWorksFactory.GetNewInstance(SPContext.Current.Web.Url))
{
//Get a category by id
Category category = factory.Categories.GetById(2);
category.Title = "Updated category";
factory.SubmitChanges();
}
{
//Get a category by id
Category category = factory.Categories.GetById(2);
category.Title = "Updated category";
factory.SubmitChanges();
}
Delete method sample:
//Get the instance of the repository factory
using (IAdventureWorksFactory factory = AdventureWorksFactory.GetNewInstance(SPContext.Current.Web.Url))
{
//Get a category by id
Category category = factory.Categories.GetById(2);
factory.Categories.DeleteOnSubmit(category);
factory.SubmitChanges();
}
using (IAdventureWorksFactory factory = AdventureWorksFactory.GetNewInstance(SPContext.Current.Web.Url))
{
//Get a category by id
Category category = factory.Categories.GetById(2);
factory.Categories.DeleteOnSubmit(category);
factory.SubmitChanges();
}
Use the All property to build LINQ queries
When you’re using a repository object, this object is not directly request able. Bu each repository instance has an “All” property, that implements IQueryable<T>. For example, the ICategoryRepository object instance has a property All of type IQueryable<T>. You can build all the LINQ queries that you want thanks to this object. You can use all the Lambda expression that you want with this property.
For example:
using (IAdventureWorksFactory factory = AdventureWorksFactory.GetNewInstance(SPContext.Current.Web.Url))
{
//Get categories queryable object
IQueryable<Category> all = factory.Categories.All;
//LINQ query
IQueryable<Category> filteredCategories =
from t in all
where t.Version > 2
orderby t.Version
descending select t).Take(5);
//Browse results
foreach (Category category in filteredCategories)
{
Console.WriteLine(category.Title);
}
}
{
//Get categories queryable object
IQueryable<Category> all = factory.Categories.All;
//LINQ query
IQueryable<Category> filteredCategories =
from t in all
where t.Version > 2
orderby t.Version
descending select t).Take(5);
//Browse results
foreach (Category category in filteredCategories)
{
Console.WriteLine(category.Title);
}
}
Use the helper methods
The LINQ to SharePoint DSL Extension will generate a lot of pre-coded LINQ procedures to manage queries on entities. The principle of this code is to provide methods specialized for all the properties of your entities. These methods and prototypes are useful for the developers to quickly develop code without high skills with Lambda LINQ expressions.
For more information about these helpers methods, please read the first part of this tutorial.
Helpers method sample:
using (IAdventureWorksFactory factory = AdventureWorksFactory.GetNewInstance(SPContext.Current.Web.Url))
{
//First get all the models where the title contains the string "shoes"
IEnumerable<Model> models = factory.Models.GetWhereTitleContains("Shoes");
//Filter models where the version is greater than 10, ascending by version and limit to 100 elements
models = Factory.Models.GetWhereVersionIsGreaterThan(models, 10, true, 100);
// Databinds the results data in a data list ASP.Net web control
if (models == null || models.Count() == 0)
this.DataListProducts.Visible = false;
else
{
this.DataListProducts.DataSource = models;
this.DataListProducts.DataBind();
}
}
{
//First get all the models where the title contains the string "shoes"
IEnumerable<Model> models = factory.Models.GetWhereTitleContains("Shoes");
//Filter models where the version is greater than 10, ascending by version and limit to 100 elements
models = Factory.Models.GetWhereVersionIsGreaterThan(models, 10, true, 100);
// Databinds the results data in a data list ASP.Net web control
if (models == null || models.Count() == 0)
this.DataListProducts.Visible = false;
else
{
this.DataListProducts.DataSource = models;
this.DataListProducts.DataBind();
}
}
In this previous sample, you can notice than you can combine helper methods thanks to the prototypes with the first IQueryable<T> source argument.
To conclude, you can see that when you're using the repository layer code, your code looks like a direct LINQ to SharePoint call. But with this implementation, your code only uses only interfaces of the factory and the repositories, without hard coded references to the LINQ to SharePoint API. This feature is useful to a lot of things, like for example to implement a unit tests layer. More over, you can use all the generated helpers methods to make queries easily on your model.
In the next part of this tutorial, I will show you how to extend this repository layer and all the advanced settings about it.
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Why Premium Concerns for PSLV Are Overblown
Mike Scully submits:
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As of the close of markets on April 21, 2011 the premium on the closed end fund PSLV was at 22% of net asset value. Why on earth would anyone pay that kind of premium for a silver ETF when they could buy SLV at almost no premium or physical silver at a few percent over spot?
That question has been the topic of several articles on Seeking Alpha and other financial sites. Most of them slam the high premium and conclude that people who buy PSLV despite the steep premium, are either conspiracy theorists or fools looking for a bigger fool to sell to. One article recommended going long SLV while shorting PSLV to play a kind of premium arbitrage game. (I don?t know why you need arbitrage when you can just buy silver and watch it go up.)
In this post I won't get into the validity of
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