Wiped Out: Along With Jobs, Laid-Off Lose Photos, Emails

Michele Wallace had worked for Medialink Worldwide Inc. for 18 years when the New York video-distribution company laid her off last May. When the company's information-technology staff quickly shut down her computer and her BlackBerry, the senior vice president of client services lost family photos and every personal and business contact on her cellphone and computer.

"I couldn't even call my sister because I don't know her number off the top of my head," says Ms. Wallace, now a 47-year-old managing director at Mega Media Worldwide and living in Asbury Park, N.J. "I know you shouldn't even have that stuff on the computer," she says. But in the course of working 10- to 12-hour days for several years, "you don't pay as much attention as to how much is personal on your computer."

read the rest >http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124105119428271155.html

BYOB Joints in NYC

A Cafe & Wine Room – BYO w/ no corkage fee
Apiary — No corkage fee on Monday nights
Baoguette / Baoguette Cafe — BYO w/ no corkage fee
Beacon — No corkage fee on Sunday nights
Broadway East — No corkage fee on Sunday and Monday nights.
Cafe Himalaya (aka, Himalayan Cafe) – BYO w/ no corkage fee
A Casa Fox – BYO w/ no corkage fee (the fireplace is a plus)
Chow Bar — BYO w/ $10 corkage fee
Cipolla Rossa — BYO w/ no corkage fee
Cipriani Downtown — BYO w/ no corkage fee
Dylan Prime — Corkage fee has been waived through Memorial Day
El Parador — No corkage fee on Monday nights and 20% off any bottle on the list
Houston’s — BYO w/ no corkage fee at both locations
Island Burgers & Shakes — BYO w/ no corkage fee
Joe’s Shanghai — BYO w/ no corkage fee at both locations
Keste Pizza & Vino — BYO w/ no corkage fee (N.B., still BYO as of 4/27/09)
La Palapa West — BYO w/ $10 corkage fee
La Sirène Bistro : BYO w/ no corkage fee (cash only)
The Modern — No corkage fee on Sunday nights
The Orchard – No corkage on Sunday nights
Palacio Azteca — BYO w/ no corkage fee (thanks to our friend Andrea for telling us about this one on the UES)
Philip Marie — BYO w/ $7 corkage fee
San Marzano Pizzeria — BYO w/ no corkage fee
Tabla — BYO w/ no corkage fee on first 2 bottles, $25 each additional bottle
Tadka – BYO w/ no corkage fee
Tribeca Grill - No corkage fee on Monday nights
Union Square Cafe — Reduced corkage fee from $25 to $10
Via dei Mille — BYO w/ $10 corkage fee
Wo Hop — it’s BYO w/ no corkage at this Chinatown spot know for it’s late night/early morning dining
Yama – BYO w/ $10 corkage fee

AND HERE ARE THE USUAL SUSPECTS ON THE BYO SCENE:

Panna II Indian Restaurant (East Village)
Cube 63 (Lower East Side)
Tartine (West Village)
Peking Duck House (Chinatown)
Poke (Upper East Side)
Ivo & Lulu (Soho)
Gazala Place (Midtown West)
Sticky Rice (Lower East Side)
Bellini (Upper West Side)
Persimmon Kimchi House (East Village)
Sigiri Sri Lanka Restaurant (East Village)
Nook (Hell’s Kitchen)
Di Fara Pizza (Brooklyn)
Kuma Inn (Lower East Side) $5 — Click here for our dinner at Kuma Inn
Grand Sichuan (Various Locations) $5 but only if they don’t have your bottle on their list

Meals Worth a Flight (or a Cab Ride)

“THE shock of the familiar” is how I think of a visit to a once-favorite restaurant after an absence of 20 years, an experience that has shaped my travel plans ever since. The year was 1979, and I was in Paris after a three-week eating trip throughout France to report on the work of the then-young turks of la nouvelle cuisine: Bocuse, Guérard, Chapel, the Troisgros brothers, among others. Fully sated on innovation and culinary cleverness, I was starved for the traditional flavors that defined France to me, and so I decided to seek out the oldest chef in Paris.

That search lead me back to L’Ami Louis, and the 80-year-old Antoine Magnin, the reigning chef since the place opened in the mid-1920s (and hadn’t been painted since). Despite having loved it on my previous visits, I had not been back in years, mostly because I was too often curious about the new and the hot. Though always outrageously expensive, given its worn appearance and total lack of chichi, Louis’s place, as I came to think of it, made me feel as if I had just come home, an impression that gained strength as the food for four of us began to arrive: gigantic, sumptuous snails sizzling in giant shells under a haze of garlic; the housemade, cream-rich foie gras that released its seductively decadent flavor as we spread it on bread toasted over a wood fire; nut-brown roast Bresse chicken, pink gigot of lamb, and the exceptionally crunchy, roseate veal kidneys; potatoes roasted in duck fat and fresh morels adrift in heavy cream. Not a clever idea on the plate, just simple perfection of classics! There and then I resolved never to go to Paris without at least one visit to what remains, under Mr. Magnin’s worthy sucessors, my favorite restaurant in the world as I know it thus far.

read the rest > http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/travel/26personal.html?adxnnl=1&ref=dining&adxnnlx=1241010011-UEStOwkme56lhbiPsY55kQ

Facebook Backer Wishes Women Couldn't Vote

Peter Thiel, foremost among Silicon Valley's loopy libertarians and the first outside investor in Facebook, has written an essay declaring that the country went to hell as soon as women won the right to vote.

Thiel is the former CEO of PayPal who now runs the $2 billion hedge fund Clarium Capital and a venture-capital firm called the Founders Fund. His best-returning investment to date, though, has been Facebook. His $500,000 investment is now worth north of $100 million even by the most conservative valuations of the social network.

On the side, though, his pet passion is libertarianism and the fantasy that everything would be better in the world if government just quit nagging everybody. But, now he's given up hope on achieving his vision through political means because, as he writes in Cato Unbound, a website run by the Cato Institute, all those voting females have wrecked things

read here >http://gawker.com/5231390/facebook-backer-wishes-women-couldnt-vote
and here >http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/the-education-of-a-libertarian/

Golfers Test Limits of Good Sense in Golf Carts

The golf cart has always been treated like a plaything. Admit it, when you were 9 years old and your mom or dad asked you if you wanted to play golf, your first thought was, “I might get to drive the golf cart.”

They do look like fun. But it is amazing, and a little scary, all the crazy things people do with golf carts. The carts seem to bring out the devil in everyone — with some not-so-heavenly results. I’ve been tracking episodes and accidents involving golf carts for the past six months.

Why?

I don’t know, maybe because my father never let me drive his cart. But here are just a few of my findings:

read the rest here > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/sports/golf/27parmain.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency Over Swine Flu Outbreak

Federal officials declared a health emergency on Sunday, as they confirmed 20 cases of swine flu in five states, mobilized medicine stockpiles, and warned the public that the number and severity of incidences were likely to increase.

The officials urged calm, saying the declaration was largely meant to free up resources and precautionary in nature. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, appearing with other officials at a news conference at the White House on Sunday, compared it to the kind of alert that goes up before officials know how severe a gathering storm might become.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124074406381056693.html

Xerox Earnings Meet Revised Outlook

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 24, 2009
The Xerox Corporation met lowered expectations for first-quarter earnings Friday, but said slower spending on printing equipment and supplies continued to hurt sales, a trend the company projected to continue for at least the next few months.

The company earned $42 million, or 5 cents a share, in the quarter, topping Wall Street forecasts by a penny, according to Thomson Reuters.

That is in contrast to a loss of $244 million, or 27 cents a share, a year ago, when a litigation charge pushed the company to a loss.

Xerox said the global downturn kept information technology budgets tight and inventory among distributors thin. Revenue fell 18 percent, to $3.55 billion, from $4.34 billion. Analysts expected revenue of $3.54 billion, on average.

In a conference call with analysts, the chief executive, Anne M. Mulcahy, tamped down expectations for a quick recovery. “People are going to manage with less for some time to come,” she said. “We’re not counting on a return to the past in any way.”

Instead, Xerox has been cutting costs, looking to save $550 million in 2009 though layoffs announced last year and other expense cuts.

The company said in October it would cut 3,000 jobs and announced in March it was suspending its 401(k) matching plan in the United States, freezing salaries and trimming discretionary spending like travel and overtime.

Xerox also cut its debt load by $485 million in the latest quarter and planned to reduce overall debt by $1 billion this year.

The company said equipment sales fell 30 percent to $770 million. So-called postsale revenue, which includes the sale of ink and other supplies to companies that already own or lease Xerox machines, fell 14 percent, to $2.78 billion.

Shares of Xerox, which is based in Norwalk, Conn., rose 20 cents, to $5.94.

The Future of Housing: Think Small

A year ago, economists predicted 2008 would be a challenging year for the struggling real estate industry. The property market had just come off what seemed then like its worst year ever and signs of a recovery were faint. A year later, after watching property values plummet further, foreclosure rates soar higher, and home sales shrink lower, real estate professionals from Florida to California are now predicting far worse for an industry in ruins.

read the rest of the article here > http://www.portfolio.com/views/columns/dual-perspectives/2009/01/20/Think-Small

Microsoft Quarterly Revenue Falls for First Time in 23 Years

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — For the first time in Microsoft’s 23-year history as a public company, its sales dropped year-over-year.

Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, on Thursday reported net income of $3.0 billion, or 33 cents a share, for its third quarter, ended March 31 — a 32 percent drop in profits from the $4.4 billion, or 47 cents a share, reported in the same period last year.

The company’s revenue fell 6 percent to $13.7 billion from $14.5 billion. Microsoft said its earnings included 6 cents of charges related to layoffs and impairments to investments.

Read the rest here >http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/technology/companies/24microsoft.html?_r=1&ref=business

Happy Earth Day - XMPie solutions help printer treat every day like Earth Day

Great Ideas for customer talk track on Earth Day.

Digital Color Imaging (DCI) of Akron, Ohio has expanded its work as a communications services provider to include that of an environmental advocate. The company, which provides print and Web-based marketing communications, knows that its business can have an environmental impact not only on its own backyard, but the world at large, and has incorporated a wide variety of technologies, products and practices to ensure its clients’ communications are impactful, but its ecological footprint is not.

One way DCI has helped its clients go green is by leveraging XMPie software to create personalized, multi-channel communications spanning Web, e-mail and print. Since cutting out paper all together may not be an option for many organizations, the company advises its clients on how to incorporate highly-targeted online methods of communication, along with the strategic use of chemical-free, forest-friendly print. This personalized cross-media approach has proven beneficial to both Mother Nature and DCI’s clients’ bottom lines.

“We have started to see the cross-media light bulb go off with many of our clients,” said Dave Welner, president, DCI. “They are thrilled with the idea that we can help them take a greener approach to business, while increasing their campaign response rates and profit margins.”

In addition to using PersonalEffect for cross-media, DCI has also implemented XMPie’s uStore Web-to-print solution. By leveraging uStore, DCI has helped its customers eliminate unnecessary printing, while making their printed marketing materials even more targeted and relevant, in addition to far less wasteful.

Long-standing DCI client Norandex, a division of building material leader Saint-Gobain, has nearly 200 dealer locations across the country and is a firm believer in using local seminars to educate contractors on the proper installation of its products. Before uStore, DCI would print generic corporate shells for the seminar invitations. The shells would be shipped and stored for eventual laser printing with seminar-specific information and then mailed to each recipient. With uStore, DCI provides an online site for Norandex branch managers to upload customer mailing lists, customize seminar mailers, print exactly the amount needed and mail to recipients. This solution cut down on printing and reduced shipping and storage resources and expenses. The program has been a huge success, eliminating significant waste while increasing branch participation from 15 to 100 percent.

Morton’s the Steakhouse tried to charge $2.50 for ice cubes

This is the craziest thing I have ever heard of in the food biz! Next we will have to tip the cooks.

Read the rest of the story here > http://www.insatiable-critic.com/Article.aspx?ID=1033&keyword=Desperate%20Times%20at%20Morton's%20the%20Steakhouse

Companies not cutting green IT spending

Most businesses are keeping up efforts to improve the energy efficiency of their information technology, despite having less available capital due to the slowdown, a survey by research group Gartner Inc. shows.

Gartner asked 620 organisations worldwide, each with between 1,000 and 10,000 employees, whether they were having to cut back on measures to improve the energy efficiency of their IT systems.

For most businesses, particularly in Europe and the Asia Pacific region, the recession will not reduce the priority of so-called green IT projects, the survey results showed.

The IT sector is energy intensive and contributes 2 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, about the same amount as the aviation industry.

Outside western Europe, some enterprises assume becoming "greener" costs money and could therefore lower this goal in their list of priorities in tough times, Gartner said.

But businesses are increasingly implementing such measures, mainly due to the potential cost savings rather than their environmental benefits, the survey showed.

"They are low risk, cost saving, and with short-term returns so why wouldn't (firms) pursue them? It's not surprising green project priority has held up quite well in recession as it is about saving money," Simon Mingay, research vice president at Gartner, told Reuters.

Forty percent of U.S., 58 percent of European and 15 percent of Asia Pacific businesses, which currently do not have any IT energy efficiency projects, said they were very likely to launch them this year.

More than a third of survey respondents expected to spend more than 15 percent of their IT budgets on projects to improve energy efficiency.

But the survey also showed that organisations in the United States and Brazil were the most likely to cut back on such "green IT" projects in 2009. It did not give a reason for this.

IT was one of the sectors most likely to scale down energy efficiency measures, according to the survey's results.

Only 20 percent of the European IT firms surveyed have budgets dedicated to improving the efficiency of their technology.

"One possible explanation is that in Europe green IT is considered 'business as usual' by many and does not require any specific special treatment," Gartner said in a statement.
Gartner expects businesses to continue to spend money on making their computers and systems more energy efficient.

"Over the past couple of years we have seen significant growth in spending motivated by increased energy efficiency. I would say this area will continue to grow in the future, rather than remain static," Mingay said.

First Time to Napa Valley: Must Do Activities

Take a Winery TourTake a tour that covers the entire process of winemaking from the vineyard to the finished product. Here are two that are among the best winery tours in the Valley and better yet, they are both free. How can you beat that? You just need to call ahead to make an appointment.
Click the link to read the rest of the article

New Yorkers order food as if they are spoiled children - WSJ

I love this article. It describes why I love NYC, why I love the food business, and why I cannot wait to be in the game again.


Good Grub and the Spirit of Capitalism

I recently spent a week in New York City, during which I ate no bad meals. Nor did I dine at outrageous expense. My wife was with me, and we had no checks much above $100 for the two of us, and many several dollars beneath that. Even in the plushest of times, I consider all restaurant meals $250 and above immoral, and will agree to be taken to them only by people I actively dislike.

We had two meals -- a lunch and a dinner -- at our favorite Italian restaurant, Cellini, on East 54th Street, which has grown-up male waiters who aren't waiting for a call to audition for a play, and where even the water tastes good. I had lunch with an editor at Molyvos, a Greek restaurant on Seventh Avenue that was a substantial cut above the innumerable Greek restaurants in Chicago, where I live. I had an unforgettable hamburger -- and you would think it fairly easy to forget a hamburger -- at O'Neal's near Lincoln Center. A former student took my wife and me to a recently opened fantastic Belgian restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue. And one night, not very hungry, we stopped for soup at Europa, kitty-corner from Carnegie Hall. Here, too, simple bowls of soup were high quality. Everything, everywhere we went, tasted great.

Read the rest of the article hear > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124000923947030623.html

$80 Billion Exaggeration - WSJ

Last week, President Barack Obama convened a health-care summit in Washington to identify programs that would improve quality and restrain burgeoning costs. He stated that all his policies would be based on rigorous scientific evidence of benefit. The flagship proposal presented by the president at this gathering was the national adoption of electronic medical records -- a computer-based system that would contain every patient's clinical history, laboratory results, and treatments. This, he said, would save some $80 billion a year, safeguard against medical errors, reduce malpractice lawsuits, and greatly facilitate both preventive care and ongoing therapy of the chronically ill.

Following his announcement, we spoke with fellow physicians at the Harvard teaching hospitals, where electronic medical records have been in use for years. All of us were dumbfounded, wondering how such dramatic claims of cost-saving and quality improvement could be true.

Read the rest of the article here> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123681586452302125.html#

“AlphaGraphics to Print Newspapers Digitally”

Digital newspaper printing continues to make ground with a new partnership between Newsworld Corp. and AlphaGraphics to print copies of the U.K.’s Daily Mail and Mail On Sunday for the US market. From the press release:

David Renouf of Newsworld says: “On the back of our contract with Associated Newspapers and with the increasing levels of interest we continue to receive from publishers, we are delighted to be partnering with AlphaGraphics, a best-in-class organisation offering second- to-none levels of quality and service. Similarly, we have taken the necessary steps to invest in the appropriate technology to ensure the requirements of our existing and future clients can be met.”
David Kovacs of AlphaGraphics added: “Newsworld and AlphaGraphics could not be a better match for this partnership. We are both focused on leading the market by servicing client’s needs with technology and customer focused solutions. I am sure others will be watching with anticipation to see where we are able to take this venture. Marrying Newsworld’s vision and experience with our operational excellence was too good an opportunity to pass up.”

As Renouf noted in his comment, Newsworld signed a four-year contract earlier this year with Associated Newspapers Ltd. to print copies of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday in New York.

Digital Print: The Next Frontier for Newspapers?

There’s been a lot of discussion on The Digital Nirvana about the ways digital printing is currently being used for newspaper production, as well as some future applications. While there’s no doubt that the ways of which people consume news and information is changing, it’s also clear that some new business model concepts for newspapers are still utilizing print as a main distribution method. Two hybrid models that come to mind include the previously-mentioned Printcasting, as well as a start-up called The Printed Blog. Each relies on reader-generated content, news aggregation, localized/targeted advertising, and (of course) print.

InfoTrends recently conducted an extensive study to understand present and future digital print applications within the newspaper industry. The result of our research can be summed up in The Emerging Digital Printing Opportunity in Newspaper Publishing, which details:

- An overview of the newspaper industry
- Current newspaper production workflow
- The case for moving to digital newspaper production
- Existing and future applications of digital newspaper production
- Adoption challenges (hardware, software, and recycling considerations)
- Recommendations for greater digital print adoption with newspaper

As existing newspaper publishers think about new ways to bring back print advertising dollars, they need to look not only at online models, but also how they can differentiate their print offerings. Digital printing can be utilized not only as a means for short-run production, but also for personalized content and targeted advertising. One of the things that we found when talking with some newspaper publishers is that there’s a lack of awareness about the possibilities that digital printing can offer to newspaper production. Market education is key. Reports like this one, as well as digital printing hardware vendors providing clear proof-of-concept applications and case studies of digital newspaper production successes can give a glimpse to newspaper publishers about new opportunities they can take advantage of.

Feel the Sqeeze? United Airlines to charge extra if you don't fit

Starting today, United Airlines has a new policy. If you can't fit into a single seat, you need to buy another one or stay behind.

In order to fly for no extra charge, passengers now have to be able to sit in a single seat, buckle their seat belt (with an extender) and put the arm rests down. If you can't do this, you're going to need to buy another ticket — unless there is already a seat available with another open seat next to it.

Here's the official word from United:
For the comfort and well-being of all customers aboard United flights, we have aligned with other major airlines' seating policies relating to passengers who: are unable to fit into a single seat in the ticketed cabin;are unable to properly buckle the seatbelt using a single seatbelt extender; and/orare unable to put the seat's armrests down when seated.

Any customer ticketed on a United or United Express flight and meeting one or more of these criteria must either purchase a ticket for an additional seat, or purchase an upgrade to a cabin with seats that address the above-listed scenarios. The seat purchase or upgrade must be completed for each leg of the itinerary. If a customer meeting any of the above-listed criteria decides not to upgrade or purchase a ticket for an additional seat, he or she will not be permitted to board the flight.

This policy applies to tickets purchased on or after March 4, 2009, for travel on or after April 15, 2009.

Please understand that we care a great deal about all of our customers' well-being, and we have implemented this policy to help ensure that everyone's travel experiences with United are comfortable and pleasant.

Direct mail in transformation - from Winterberry Group

The demise of mass mailing has opened the door for new approaches leveraging data for better targeting and additional dimensions of personalization.


The Outlook for 2009

The continuing economic recession (and uncertainty over its direction) are heavily influencing the outlook for direct mail through the remainder of 2009:

While direct mail volumes traditionally bounce back after a period of economic stagnation, the magnitude and timing of the current recession are expected to affect the direct mail channel in a long-term, systemic way—effectively ending the prevalence of untargeted, highvolume
campaigns.

The accelerating shift from “mass” to “targeted” direct mail programs has been enabled by an increasingly powerful array of marketing automation technologies, many of which are making their way into the toolsets of marketers both large and small.

Independent the effects of the recession, rising postage rates, declining volumes, an increasingly complex array of postal regulations and other threats to delivery efficiency may compromise the viability of the Postal Service as the principal mail delivery channel.

Read the whole white paper here > http://www.winterberrygroup.com/

Is Google the Next AOL?

Is Google the Next AOL?
by Peter Osnos

Consumers rebel against arrogant monopolies, which is how AT&T, IBM, and America Online all got cut down to size. Google is acting in a disturbingly familiar manner.
In the mid-1990s, magazines began to arrive with a shiny disc attached (silver, then gold, and then finally platinum) offering hundreds of hours of access to America Online that converted as many 30 million people into subscribers paying hourly and later monthly fees for the features on offer. AOL, as it came to be known, was so formidable that in 2000 it effectively swallowed Time Warner, one of the most glittering enterprises in global media and entertainment. The combined companies had a stock value of about $225 billion. AOL was a “suite” or “walled community” with content, services (“You’ve Got Mail!”), and advertising. The bigger it got, the more customers and vendors began to complain about its business tactics. Customers that wanted to leave AOL found out that canceling the monthly fee was a headache. Would-be partners had to grovel for deals and were only accepted on onerous terms, they said. In only a few years, America Online had gone from welcoming to obnoxious.

Read the rest of Mr. Osnos article here > http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-14/hey-google-yoursquore-next/full/

The Perfect Burger, Greater Than Its Parts - NYT article

The Perfect Burger, Greater Than Its Parts
By OLIVER SCHWANER-ALBRIGHT
IN New York’s increasingly sophisticated hamburger scene, buns and condiments play their roles, but the meat is the star.
At least that’s been the case since the wholesaler Pat LaFrieda created Shake Shack’s custom blend of beef cuts. With that, a headliner was born. Now Mr. LaFrieda supplies chopped beef for some of the best burgers in the city, from the Spotted Pig to Five Napkin Burger. So when three places opened recently, they naturally turned to him.

Read the rest of the article here > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/dining/reviews/15unde.html?ref=dining

Wide format printer lauded in ‘2009 Top Products Poll’

The readers of Wide-Format Imaging magazine rated products that have been valuable assets to their business over the last year. For the second year in a row, the Xerox 6204 took first place in the “wide-format engineering printer” category in Wide Format Imaging’s 2009 Top Products Poll.
The editors of Wide-Format Imaging noted: “With the option to print wide-format documents typically [exceeding] 24 inches in width, commercial print shops, architectural and engineering companies all give [the Xerox 6024] kudos for the second year in a row.”

Duggal Visual Solutions - ON WITH THE WIND AT HISTORIC NEW BUILDING

This article does not give the real man behind this story of vision and triumph, of sticking to his believes and following through on his dream. Baldev Duggal of Duggal Visual Solutions is the man behind the first "green industrial facility" in the United States. This great achievement should be appluaded by all, but shows how the printing industry is leading the way in acheiveing great things using the latest GREEN technologies. Politicians may take the credit for this success, but Mr. Baldev Duggal deserves all the praise.

Read the article -> http://www.nypost.com/seven/04102009/news/regionalnews/on_with_the_wind_at_historic_new_buildin_163763.htm

Happy Easter!!!

May you have a wonderful Easter and let the kids enjoy their Easter egg hunt! And don't eat to much candy!!! :)

Peace.
Peter