“Special business court possible - Charleston Daily Mail” plus 4 more

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• Special business court possible - Charleston Daily Mail
• Herd picks green helmets - Charleston Daily Mail
• Jimena weakens after hitting Mexico - AZCentral.com
• Second Look: Samsung Q1UP Tablet PC for retro gaming - Ars Technica
• McKinsey: businesses reaping benefits from Web 2.0 - Ars Technica

Special business court possible - Charleston Daily Mail Posted: 03 Sep 2009 08:55 AM PDT WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS - State Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin and House Speaker Rick Thompson agree the creation of a special business court is an idea worth considering. The issue came up Wednesday when Tomblin and Thompson presented previews of the 2010 Legislative session. They spoke during the first day of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce's Business Summit at The Greenbrier Resort. During a question-and-answer session it was mentioned that the state Judicial Review Reform Commission, recently appointed by Gov. Joe Manchin, is examining the idea of creating a special business court. Tomblin and Thompson were asked for their views. Thompson said that soon after he became speaker in 2007, "I visited Delaware and talked to the people in Delaware about how come they have over half of the Fortune 500 companies incorporated there. They have Courts of Chancery - a separate court to handle business-to-business disputes. "I like the idea," Thompson said. "It's a court system designed with the expertise to handle those matters expeditiously. I sponsored a resolution to study the issue. I'm glad the governor included that in the commission (study). I think it's something West Virginia needs, that would make West Virginia more business friendly."  Tomblin said, "I think it's a good idea worth considering." He said Thompson had shared his ideas on the topic after going to Delaware. "It's the type of thing you pick up in traveling to conferences in other states, " Tomblin said. He recalled attending an out-of-state conference with former House Speaker Bob Kiss and returning with the idea of setting up a rainy day fund. That idea was implemented. The state now has a fund with a balance of more than $400 million. The rainy day fund also came up when an audience member pointed out that upcoming scheduled reductions in two state taxes - the corporate net income tax and the business franchise tax - are contingent upon the state's ability to maintain the rainy day fund. Tomblin and Thompson were asked if they believe the reductions may be postponed because the state will need to tap the fund. Tomblin said it is true the tax reductions would be delayed if revenues don't reach a certain level. He said he hopes that won't happen. Thompson said he believes some people have the impression the state may have to tap the fund soon. He said there's no immediate need. Thompson noted that Manchin recently said the state might have to tap it in 2012 or 2013 if the economy does not rebound. Both lawmakers pointed out that West Virginia is one of the few states that has a balanced budget and has not had to lay off or furlough employees. Also during the session, Tomblin and Thompson were asked what might be done to take care of the unfunded retiree benefits liabilities faced by many county boards of education. Tomblin said, "They probably could not bond or build another school building if all of the debt was put on the counties." He said the solution "may be some kind of split." For example, the state might assume responsibility for unfunded benefits in proportion to the percentage of retirees' salaries it had paid. Thompson said, "I think the counties are concerned that it will be on their financial statements so it will affect their bond ratings. I think something will be done about that." When asked about under-funded municipal pensions, Thompson and Tomlin said they will survey their fellow lawmakers to see if there's a consensus on how that issue can be resolved.  Thompson said, "I think we're closer today than we ever have been to a resolution of the problem. I don't think we're quite there yet." Tomblin said the unfunded liabilities in the Huntington and Charleston pension plans regularly make headlines, "but if you look at some of the smaller communities, that might surprise you, too. In some cases it's a huge actuarial obligation." About 500 business leaders from around the state are gathered at The Greenbrier for the summit, which continues through Friday. Contact writer George Hohmann at busin...@dailymail.com or 304-348-4836.   This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Herd picks green helmets - Charleston Daily Mail Posted: 03 Sep 2009 08:55 AM PDT HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- Marshall Coach Mark Snyder is putting his stamp on the football program. Contrary to published reports, the Thundering Herd will don green helmets this season for all games, home and away. "This is a new team, a new year, and we are putting the past in the past and looking forward," Snyder said Wednesday. The team practiced for the first time Wednesday in the green helmets, which did not yet have the trademark block M on the sides. Snyder said he and his equipment staff have stayed mum on the green helmets since last season. Not even the Herd players or assistant coaches knew of the impending change until Wednesday before practice. Snyder said there are no plans to bring back white helmets, which Marshall has worn every year since 1989 when they were silver. The last time the Herd wore green helmets for an entire season was 1985. "This is who we are now," he said. "The players enjoy it, the fans enjoy it. Almost every coach makes a change. This is mine." Marshall debuted the green helmets for last season's win over Houston and in the season-ending loss to Tulsa. Snyder also said the "Thunder Walk" will change this year, starting at Hodges Hall, winding through campus and past the new recreation center before arriving at 20th Street (Marshall Memorial Boulevard). Once the team gets to 20th Street, it will enter into the West Lot and enter the stadium like it has in the past. n n Marshall University Big Green and alumni groups received a bit of good news Wednesday when Director of Athletics Mike Hamrick announced they would have access to television broadcasts for games against Bowling Green and UTEP. Satellite coordinates will be made available to groups across the country, allowing more fans the opportunity to see the Sept. 19 home game against Bowling Green and the season finale at UTEP on Nov. 28. "Our alumni and our fan base across the country are very important to us and having these telecasts available for game-watching parties allows Herd fans outside of the area to see their school play. "These alumni and fans will help us define the future of Marshall Athletics," Hamrick said. "This will also allow for our highlights to be easily distributed to national and regional media outlets in real time." n n Marshall head basketball Coach Donnie Jones announced the Thundering Herd's 2009-10 men's basketball full schedule Wednesday. Marshall will play 31 regular season games and 17 home games, starting with the season opener against North Carolina A&T on Nov. 15. In Conference USA play, the Herd will play five league teams that reached the postseason a year ago: Memphis, UAB, Tulsa, UTEP and Houston. Among those, only Memphis reached the NCAA Tournament in 2008. The Tigers visit Huntington on Jan. 27. "I am excited to have the opportunity to compete in this year's C-USA schedule," Jones said in a press release. "I feel this year's conference schedule will be the most difficult from top to bottom since my arrival with lots of parity between all of the conference teams." Marshall will play home-and-home games against C-USA foes East Carolina, UCF, UAB, Tulane and Tulsa. The Herd will host Memphis, Southern Miss and UTEP, and travel to Rice, SMU and Houston for single games. It was previously announced Marshall would travel to North Carolina on Dec. 22 and face West Virginia on Jan. 20. The Herd will debut in an exhibition game on Nov. 10 against West Virginia Wesleyan. Contact sportswriter Chuck McGill at chuck.mcg...@dailymail.com or 304-348-1712. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Jimena weakens after hitting Mexico - AZCentral.com Posted: 03 Sep 2009 08:55 AM PDT LOS CABOS, Mexico - A once-dangerous and powerful Hurricane Jimena mellowed into a wet and windy tropical storm Thursday, bringing much needed rain to Mexico's drought-stricken Baja California peninsula. Forecasters still warned Thursday of flash floods and large waves, but even those were expected to gradually subside. Earlier this week, tourists evacuated and residents sought shelter as Jimena roared toward the multimillion-dollar resorts of Los Cabos as a Category 4 hurricane, with winds topping 150 mph (240 kph). But the beaches and condominiums where Hollywood stars vacation year-round were mostly spared, and the hurricane has since moved its way north ripping off some roofs and toppling power poles in smaller farm towns and fishing villages. Loreto, the nearest significant resort town to the area where Jimena made landfall, suffered some damage to homes and streets, as well as Ciudad Constitucion, an inland town. But a few days in, the benefits of this Pacific storm were starting to outweigh the damage. "Fortunately, this kind of weather phenomenon we're going through transports a lot of water," National Water Commissioner Jose Luis Luege Tamargo told the Cabo Mill radio station. "This rain undoubtedly will fill up the aquifers of the whole region." Jimena was not expected to provide any relief from fierce wildfires in Southern California, however, as it headed north back over the Pacific, said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), Jimena was centered about 45 miles (75 kms) northwest of Santa Rosalia, Mexico, and was moving northwest near 5 mph (7 kph). Also Thursday, a weakening, disorganized Tropical Storm Erika spun close to St. Kitts after brushing past Antigua and Guadeloupe, churning up rough surf and dumping some rain but leaving little noticeable damage. The Hurricane Center said the wobbling storm with sustained winds of roughly 40 mph (65 kph) should begin losing strength over the next two days. At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), Erika was centered about 100 miles (165 kms) southeast of St. Croix and about 200 miles (320 kms) southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The storm was traveling northwest at 8 mph (13 kph) and was forecast to approach the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico late Thursday. A tropical storm watch was issued for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and marinas and waterfront businesses were advised to pick up debris that high winds could turn into dangerous projectiles. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Second Look: Samsung Q1UP Tablet PC for retro gaming - Ars Technica Posted: 03 Sep 2009 08:48 AM PDT My recent look at using at Samsung tablet PC for retro gaming generated quite a bit of interest from gamers, and also some moaning over the high price of entry. Now that I've traveled for two weeks with it and have done some more gaming on it, I thought it appropriate to post a follow-up for those who are thinking of adding such a system to their holiday wish list. First, the good news: you don't actually need the $1,300.00 Q1 Ultra Premium edition, with a 1.33MHz CPU, 2GB RAM, Vista Business Edition to do Infinity Engine widescreen gaming. I down-clocked the CPU with Samsung's utility to 800MHz and suffered no loss of performance in gaming or overall system snappiness; I also downgraded my system to XP Tablet Edition (I described this in the original article). So you can pick up an XPTE Q1 with an 800MHz CPU for between $600 and $900 either new or refurbished and get the same gaming experience, but it has only 1GB of RAM. This is probably not a problem, but there are instructions online for upgrading the RAM if you decide you need to. Ultimately, what all of this means is that you can put together a perfectly adequate Q1 tablet system for retro RPG gaming for about half of what I shelled out for mine, especially if you're willing to get a refurb unit. This might bring the project within the grasp of some readers who were excited about the idea but turned off by the price. The bad news in this second look is that the battery life is about half what I implied in my original review. I didn't formally test the battery (I wrote the review the day after I had gotten everything set up and was able to play around with it to confirm that it worked as planned), but later formal testing indicates that I can play Planescape: Torment for 5 hours on a single charge (WiFi off, CPU throttled to 800MHz, LCD on two ticks of brightness). Five hours of retro RPG gaming is still pretty sweet, especially given that the spare battery is quite compact. I had no problems keeping myself entertained with the unit on a roughly 11-hour flight from Paris to San Francisco. On a non-gaming note, the Q1UP works extremely well as a mobile Skype device. It has two microphones on the bottom, the WiFi reception is very good, and everyone I've called on Skype has remarked on the clarity of the sound. While traveling in Europe, we used it like a WiFi Skype phone to do cheap international calling. On second thought, maybe mediocrity killed the MID/UMPC Overall, my travels with the Samsung Q1UP have slightly changed my assessment of what's wrong with the MID/UMPC form factor. Yes, it's still a drag to use a desktop OS on a small touchscreen, but the Q1UP's combination of notebook-caliber performance, long battery life, a bright 7" touchscreen, a PSP-style thumbstick that works quite well for mouse control, and generous accessories (two cameras, dual mics) go a long way toward making it a really useful entertainment and communications device for traveling with a family. In other words, all software usability issues aside, Atom-based MIDs just don't offer the right combination of screen size, battery life, performance, and functionality to be widely compelling. Fix that, and the MID form factor might just have a future, especially if Microsoft can get its act together and offer some sort of multitouch MID/UMPC edition of Windows 7 with a completely rethought, finger-friendly interface. I'm not holding my breath, though. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

McKinsey: businesses reaping benefits from Web 2.0 - Ars Technica Posted: 03 Sep 2009 08:48 AM PDT Whether you call it Web 2.0, social media, or a complete waste of time, businesses seem to like where it's all going. A new survey of nearly 1,700 businesses by McKinsey & Company finds that using Web 2.0 technologies can lead to increased communication and productivity, more successful marketing strategies, and—surprise—even better products. McKinsey has been studying the effects of Web 2.0 on the internal and external operations of businesses for three years. This past June, it asked executives to answer some "state of Web 2.0" questions about the overall effectiveness of harnessing social media. Sixty-nine percent of respondents reported measurable business benefits in the previously mentioned areas, as well as gaining better access to knowledge, lowering the cost of doing business, and producing higher revenues. "We found that successful companies not only tightly integrate Web 2.0 technologies with the work flows of their employees but also create a 'networked company,' linking themselves with customers and suppliers through the use of Web 2.0 tools." The more effort companies put into Web 2.0, the more they report getting out of it. Unsurprisingly, the most often-reported business benefits of Web 2.0 are a greater ability to share ideas, improved (and faster) access to knowledge experts, and reduced costs of communication, travel, and operations. Businesses also report a decreased time to market and improved employee satisfaction. The technologies fueling this social business prosperity are also quite popular with consumers: blogs, wikis, and podcasts. Video sharing also saw a spike in usage since last year's survey, and other emerging tools like rating and tagging content also received some credit. Respondents also thank social networks for helping to create better products by actively engaging customers and soliciting feedback during development. The rest of the report finds that most companies can gain some benefit from jumping into Web 2.0, though businesses with revenues exceeding $1 billion are more likely to report improvements versus smaller or consumer companies. The report notes that, while companies can benefit from both better internal networking and stronger ties with customers, it takes a little more effort than simply signing everyone up for the next business-centric Twitter knock-off. New tools need to be carefully selected to fit into an organization's workflow, and McKinsey found that traditional financial or performance incentives don't seem to work as motivation for continued use. Respondents report that the informal incentives of the Web 2.0 culture—ratings by peers, recognition or "likes" on meaningful contributions—combined with active use by company executives, have been the best way to ensure adoption by the workforce. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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