Tobias Levkovich

20 March, 2009

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PAUL KEDROSKY’S INFECTIOUS GREED

(NBER)

Echo-Boomers in the Stock Market

• Maxing Out: Stocks as Lotteries and the Cross-Section of Expected Returns (Source)

MAR 20, 2009 10:14A.M.

• Staying Late: Comparing Work Hours in Public and Nonprofit Sectors (SSRN)

New report out from Tobias Levkovich at Citi arguing that the “Net Generation” [ed., ugh] of Americans is entering its peak savings period over next 3-4 years. All else being equal, he argues, their savings are likely to exceed withdrawals from retiring baby boomers.

• Financial Advisors: A Case of Babysitters? (SSRN) • A Trans-Niagara Tale of Informed Traders (SSRN)

The trouble is, of course, all else isn’t equal, and boomers’ savings has been whacked in a major way. Meanwhile, Net Generation sorts have been scarred for life about capital markets.

• The effect of bonus payments on hedge fund manager behavior (CEPR) • Disclosure and Judgment: ‘We Have Met Madoff and He is Ours’ (SSRN)

Nevertheless, it is a demographic point worth considering.

• Percentage of Adults Aged >25 Years Who Reported Regular Leisure-Time Physical Activity, by Education Level (CDC)

PAUL KEDROSKY’S INFECTIOUS GREED

Symposium: Fallout from the Bailout MAR 20, 2009 09:56A.M. Any readers in and around the Dayton, Ohio, area might want to check this out tomorrow (Friday):

More here.

Upcoming Symposium: The Fallout from the Bailout, March 20 PAUL KEDROSKY’S INFECTIOUS GREED The 2008 government bailout was unprecedented. Legal and business professionals are now unraveling the causes and consequences to address how this massive policy change could affect their businesses. The University of Dayton School of Law is very pleased to host one of the first legal symposia on the economic crisis, The Fallout from the Bailout: The Impact of the 2008 Bailout on Lending Regulation, Securities Regulation and Business Ethics, on March 20.

Research Reading MAR 20, 2009 10:05A.M. Will try do this more regularly, but a quick roundup of some new research papers worth scanning: • Monitoring Daily Hedge Fund Performance When Only Monthly Data is Available (SSRN)

This symposium, sponsored by Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP Program in Law, Religion & Ethics and the University of Dayton School of Law Project for Law & Business Ethics, examines government bailouts of private

• Silent Runs in the Mutual Fund Industry (SSRN) • Debt Literacy, Financial Experiences, and Overindebtedness

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20 March, 2009

institutions with a focus on the financial sector. Our goal is to draw together academics, practitioners, and regulators to have a frank and full discussion about the legal implications and consequences of the government’s use of bailouts as a means to combat the current financial crisis.

report that their debt loads are excessive or that they are unable to judge their debt position. [Emphasis mine]

PAUL KEDROSKY’S INFECTIOUS GREED

Quiz Question: A Year of Precious Metals (and Oil)

Confirmed speakers include Harvey Pitt, former chair of the SEC; Steven Ramirez, Professor of Law and Director of the Business Law Center at Loyola University Chicago School of Law; Jon Hoak, Vice President, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer at Hewlett-Packard; and Peter J. Sherry, Jr., Corporate Secretary and Associate General Counsel at Ford Motor Company, and UDSL graduate.

MAR 20, 2009 09:44A.M. I didn’t realize that the one-year performance of all the following were still negative against the dollar. Today’s quiz question: Which of the Big Four — oil, gold, platinum and silver —will still be down against the dollar a year from now?

More here.

PAUL KEDROSKY’S INFECTIOUS GREED

Education, Debt Literacy and Indebtedness MAR 20, 2009 09:49A.M. Fascinating new paper out showing the painful relationship between educational attainment and avoidable debt fees & charges: Debt Literacy, Financial Experiences, and Overindebtedness Annamaria Lusardi, Peter Tufano NBER Working Paper No. 14808 Issued in March 2009 We analyze a national sample of Americans with respect to their debt literacy, financial experiences, and their judgments about the extent of their indebtedness. Debt literacy is measured by questions testing knowledge of fundamental concepts related to debt and by self-assessed financial knowledge. Financial experiences are the participants’ reported experiences with traditional borrowing, alternative borrowing, and investing activities. Overindebtedness is a self-reported measure. Overall, we find that debt literacy is low: only about one-third of the population seems to comprehend interest compounding or the workings of credit cards. Even after controlling for demographics, we find a strong relationship between debt literacy and both financial experiences and debt loads. Specifically, individuals with lower levels of debt literacy tend to transact in high-cost manners, incurring higher fees and using high-cost borrowing. In applying our results to credit cards, we estimate that as much as one-third of the charges and fees paid by less knowledgeable individuals can be attributed to ignorance. The less knowledgeable also

NU.NL - ALGEMEEN

Legervliegtuig stort neer in woonwijk Ecuador MAR 20, 2009 06:35A.M. QUITO - Een klein legervliegtuig is donderdagavond middenin een woonwijk neergestort in de Ecuadoraanse hoofdstad Quito. Zeker zes mensen zijn omgekomen, vijf inzittenden en een persoon op de grond. Dat zei de minister van Defensie Javier Ponce.

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20 March, 2009

ESPN.COM

Poll: Has your Xbox 360 been dealt the E74 error? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Griffin dominates as OU rolls past Morgan State

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MAR 20, 2009 06:32A.M. Visit ESPN.com for the complete story. NU.NL - ALGEMEEN

Grote brand in binnenstad Elburg

ENGADGET

Poll: Has your Xbox 360 been dealt the E74 error?

MAR 20, 2009 06:20A.M. ELBURG - In de binnenstad van het Gelderse Elburg woedt een grote brand. Drie panden aan de Jufferenstraat, waaronder een drogisterij en

MAR 20, 2009 06:31A.M.

een restaurant, staan in lichterlaaie.

NU.NL - ALGEMEEN

Conducteur Almere ziekenhuis ingeslagen MAR 20, 2009 06:17A.M. DRIEBERGEN - Een conducteur van de Nederlandse Spoorwegen is donderdagavond met ernstig letsel aan zijn gezicht in een ziekenhuis opgenomen. Move over RRoD, it looks like there’s a new Xbox 360 hardware failure in town. According to anecdotal data collected by Joystiq as well as Google Trends, there’s been a steady rise in reports and discussion of the E74 error since mid-October, with no apparent correlation between any specific model or year of purchase. From what we can tell, the E74 error is related to video problems caused by either a faulty AV connector or, more often, a loosened ANA / HANA scaling chip. Symptoms include visual glitches like random lines or snow and a single red light on the console in the lower right quadrant (see picture). The time frame for the rise in issues makes NXE and its November debut a suspect, but it’s worth noting that the uptick started just before that launch, so perhaps it has more to do with hiccups caused by spurred interest in turning on the console after a long period of dormancy. We’re curious to know how the issue has affected the Engadget readership. Has your Xbox 360 gotten the Red Arc of Death? Let us know in the poll below.

ESPN.COM

LeBron’s 7th triple-double leads Cavs to OT win MAR 20, 2009 06:01A.M. Visit ESPN.com for the complete story.

View Poll

Read - Joystiq Survey Read - Google Trends [Via Negative Gamer] Filed under: Gaming

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20 March, 2009

SLATE MAGAZINE

import

Republicans search for their own way to recoup the AIG bonuses.

• iPhone 3.0 beta firmware FAQ • Cisco acquiring Flip Video-maker Pure Digital for $590 million in stock

MAR 20, 2009 05:42A.M.

• Video: Terrafugia’s flying car lifts off

Congressional Republicans, like their Democratic colleagues, are livid, just livid, about the $165 million in bonuses handed out to AIG employees. They just aren’t sure what to do about it. [more ...]

ENGADGET

The Daily Roundup: here’s what you might’ve missed MAR 20, 2009 05:41A.M.

Apple adds HD video purchases to the iTunes Store Apple’s flood of announcements this month continues apace today with the addition of high-def movie purchases to the iTunes Store. Mobile OS shootout: iPhone OS 3.0 enters the fray

AT&T confirms contract-free $599 / $699 iPhone 3Gs for next week Just in time to nab your soon-to-be-jailbroken copy of iPhone OS 3.0, AT&T has now confirmed that commitment-free iPhones are going to happen — soon, in fact.

As soon as Apple rolled out its preview of iPhone OS 3.0, the comparisons to existing (and forthcoming) mobile OSs started flying. Microsoft releasing Internet Explorer 8 gold today, CIOs ecstatic

• Logitech Harmony Adapter for PlayStation 3 answers a million prayers • Panasonic aims to skip over low-pricing e-tailers, focus on “value adding” distributors • Nokia Intrigue filtering into Verizon stores, features weird ‘Habitat Mode’

Browsers have arguably become more important than the underlying OS in the modern, connected world. Bang & Olufsen’s 103-inch BeoVision 4-103 plasma is gorgeous, pricey Plasma’s dying, huh? Go and tell that to Bang & Olufsen Other news of

• Sony Ericsson confirms C905 coming to the US in second quarter The Daily Roundup: here’s what you might’ve missed originally appeared

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20 March, 2009

on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

ESPN.COM

Ovechkin nets 50th for third time as Caps cruise

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MAR 20, 2009 05:04A.M. ENGADGET

Visit ESPN.com for the complete story.

Ask Engadget: Best DVI KVM switch?

GIGAOM

MAR 20, 2009 05:06A.M.

As Clouds Reach the Enterprise, Opportunities Are Clear MAR 20, 2009 05:00A.M. It’s been about three years since Amazon made its risky bet on delivering computing and storage via the cloud. It started by offering commitmentfree, pay-as-you-go storage, enabling startups to start scaling their businesses without significant investment in capital equipment. It later added compute cycles to its services and today has a host of other offerings, including a content delivery network. Both the hype and perceived value around cloud computing has expanded since that first shot was fired, but enterprises remain cautious. What’s becoming clear is that the best way to get them to join the cloud revolution is to introduce private or internal clouds for corporate IT and then gradually merge or offload data from those private corporate clouds into public ones. In other words, for cloud vendors, the big opportunities in the cloud space are in helping enterprise customers deploy their own internal clouds (like Elastra or the larger vendors do), helping them manage multiple clouds, and figuring out how to transfer data between internal and external clouds.

Look out — it’s that time of the week again. What time, you ask? The time when brilliant readers like yourself get a moment to shine as their inquiries are posted up here at Engadget. Feel free to send yours in to ask at engadget dawt com, but first, have a glance at John’s dilemma below: “I’ve been searching for a good DVI KVM switch for a long time. Most of the ones I’ve read about are either too expensive or have gotten horrible reviews. I was hoping you guys could shed some light on what the best DVI KVM switch you’ve come across is. My only requirements are high resolution (1,680 x 1,050 or higher), USB for keyboard and mouse and (preferable, although not required) and dual monitor support.”

Earlier this week I moderated a panel at the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas, that included Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon’s Web Services. He said some of his enterprise clients are using the cloud for testing and developing software and some for highperformance computing, such as Eli Lilly. But many, he acknowledged, still need convincing.

We’d say the challenge is pretty clearly laid out. Now it’s on you to think up a good reply and comment below.

Yousef Khalidi, a distinguished engineer at Microsoft helping to build the software giant’s Azure cloud platform, had a cautious assessment of how enterprises are likely to view the cloud: He thinks corporate IT will want to keep its cloud under corporate control, and that as a result the creation of hybrid clouds — or “cloudbursting” — where certain jobs move from the internal servers to an external cloud, are going to be a preferred model.

Filed under: Ask Engadget, Peripherals Ask Engadget: Best DVI KVM switch? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Most of the large companies that have enterprise customers agree that while security and regulatory compliance issues can be dealt with, there are legal hurdles that require a company to know where their data is physically stored.

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20 March, 2009

“Solving security is a trust issue that can be surmounted, but the legal issues around location cannot be,” said Scott McClellan V-P and chief technologist of scalable computing at HP during an interview. “There are also items, such as corporate data for financial results during a quiet period, that aren’t going to leave the enterprise walls.”

ENGADGET

Portland customers to get bundled WiMAX courtesy of Comcast

Inside those walls HP and companies such as Elastra, Sun Microsystems and IBM are pitching highly virtualized and automated environments that mimic the agility of the public clouds. However, all of the people at enterprise-oriented companies I’ve spoken with believe that their customers should start turning over some computing tasks to external clouds, be they infrastructure providers like those offered by Amazon, Rackspace’s new CloudServers business, Sun’s planned cloud or platforms such as Microsoft’s Azure.

MAR 20, 2009 04:13A.M.

Many believe enterprise customers will source their computing to multiple clouds, both to avoid vendor lock-in and because some clouds will be optimized for certain types of computing tasks. That’s why tools to manage multiple clouds will be important. RightScale, Aptana, Sun and others are all trying to help manage multiple clouds. And once an enterprise sends out data to external clouds, they will need to find ways to manage, secure and actually deliver this data from inside the corporation to a cloud. Some providers, like Rackspace and Voxel, are banking on customers using their hosting and cloud products as a way to keep the data inside the same company (and maybe data center). Vogels says Amazon uses VPNs with enterprise clients, while startups such as Aspera are creating private highways to deliver data between clouds.

Portland, Oregon was the first place to get a taste of Clearwire’s own WiMAX service, so it’s not exactly all that surprising that it’s also going to be the first to get Comcast’s version of the very same high-speed wireless service. Of course, this being Comcast, you can also expect to see the WiMAX service offered in bundles with its TV, phone, and broadband services when it launches “midyear,” although there’s no indication of pricing just yet (Clearwire charges between $20 and $50 a month). As The Oregonian points out, this is also a pretty clear indication that Comcast will be following Clearwire’s lead as it expands into additional markets, and it’s apparently even pushing Clearwire to deploy its service as quickly as possible, with Comcast COO Stephen Burke saying, “we didn’t invest in Clearwire to make money on the stock. We invested in Clearwire to roll out a product that our customers want.”

So while enterprises reach for the clouds, they’ll keep some of their IT firmly on the ground. This gives plenty of a companies opportunities to deliver and manage the data as it goes from cloud to corporate data center. This article also appeared on BusinessWeek.com

[Via FierceBroadbandWireless, thanks Loren] Filed under: Wireless Portland customers to get bundled WiMAX courtesy of Comcast originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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20 March, 2009

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How many ways can Senate Republicans show breathtaking intellectual hypocrisy? MAR 20, 2009 04:05A.M. Let’s stipulate: You hate our nominees, and we hate yours. Our nominees are all godless baby killers and terrorist lovers. Yours are all God-crazed rights suppressors and misogynists. Fine. But isn’t it also the case that when you reverse, rewrite, or undermine every rule and standard you’ve ever laid out for measuring the fitness of a presidential nominee, you become ridiculous—period? [more ...] Er, something like that. Reportedly, Toshiba has conjured up some sort of newfangled technology that’s able to more accurately reproduce sound by using a noise canceling auxiliary speaker. Specifically, the tech utilizes “sound from an auxiliary speaker to eliminate noise generated from the main speaker,” and in case your wild guess wasn’t good enough, it relies on “opposite-phase sound waves generated from the auxiliary speaker attached to the main speaker” to make it all happen. We know, our head is spinning just as fast as yours here, and it’s all the more difficult to comprehend without an actual product to demonstrate. That said, Tosh is planning to conduct research and development in order to implement this into its own products, so hopefully we’ll be seeing something a touch more tangible real soon.

ESPN.COM

Michigan finishes off Clemson with zone defense MAR 20, 2009 03:22A.M. Visit ESPN.com for the complete story.

Filed under: Home Entertainment Toshiba’s auxiliary speaker cancels noise from main speaker originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

ENGADGET

Toshiba’s auxiliary speaker cancels noise from main speaker

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MAR 20, 2009 03:22A.M.

PAUL KEDROSKY’S INFECTIOUS GREED

World’s Best Airports MAR 20, 2009 03:19A.M. I know that calling any airport “best” is inherently somewhat selfrefuting, but I’ll persist. Anyone have airports that they’d substitute into the following list of the five best? 1. Hong Kong International Airport 2. Singapore Changi Airport 3. Seoul Incheon Airport

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20 March, 2009

4. Kuala Lumpur Int’l Airport

4,000,000 listens/downloads per month and close 1 million unique visitors to the site monthly.

5. Munich Airport Another similar site is TalkShoe, a web service that enables anyone to create, join, or listen to live discussions and podcasts, but TalkShoe’s interface is not nearly as comprehensi as BlogTalkRadio’s interface. Plus, BlogTalkRadio seems to have a more diverse set of content, both from consumers and brand partners.

I have been to 1,2, 4 and 5, and like ‘em all. The airport in KL, in particular, struck me as the least airport-like airport I have ever been in. Felt more like I was at a mall crossed with a resort.

TECHCRUNCH

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

BlogTalkRadio Now Playing In The Enterprise Space MAR 20, 2009 03:15A.M.

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Wall Street’s most storied firm is surviving on taxpayer dollars.

BlogTalkRadio, the site where anyone can set up a podcast or “radio talkshow” over the web using phone calls, is playing in the enterprise space. The site, which has over 1000 live broadcasts per day, has been launching content partnerships with major publishers and media organizations over the past few months. PBS, Women’s Day Magazine and others are using BlogTalkRadio’s tools to create podcasts and shows, as well as syndicate content across the web. For example, PBS’s Worldfocus TV newscast is syndicated on the BlogTalkRadio.

MAR 20, 2009 03:09A.M. While it was singed in the credit meltdown, Goldman Sachs, the alpha male of Wall Street, has emerged as a survivor. The cover of last week’s Barron’s heralded the resurrection of Goldman and Morgan Stanley—”the sole standouts,” as Andrew Bary called them. The company’s shares have rallied back above $100, and its market capitalization is nearly $47 billion. Goldman’s emergence from the wreckage could be seen as yet another glorious chapter for the firm. Charles Ellis, in his book about Goldman, The Partnership, lionized the firm as the only company “with such strengths that it operates with almost no external constraints in virtually any financial market it chooses, on the terms it chooses, on the scale it chooses, when it chooses, and with the partners it chooses.” For the paperback, Ellis might want to add the following proviso: so long as the government is willing to give it billions of dollars.

The site is also creating branded private networks for major corporations like Wal-Mart, Harper Collins, and Sun Microsystems where the companies can create, syndicate and publish their own shows and podcasts. Even the government is trying to take part in this social media movement; the Pentagon has a web radio show on BlogTalkRadio. And the site has been able to monetize the partnerships by charging companies licensing and sponsorship fees for the branded channels. The companies can put their own ads in their shows, which can include banner, pre-roll audio/video or host spoken ads. The companies are also charged a fee if that they want live events streamed to their BlogTalkRadio channel or any website. The radio platform is also rolling out a set of premium services for both consumers and businesses so that hosts can use the advanced switch board, and upload other nonBlogTalkRadio produced mp3’s.

[more ...]

We’ve written about BlogTalkRadio’s unique platform before. Its of no surprise that the enterprise space is seeing this site as a possible place to add viral content. The site simply allows individuals and companies to use a phone to conduct a live broadcast via the web. Participants dial a phone number, enter the broadcast and then the entire conversation is streamed on air live through the BlogTalkRadio Web site. The site also archives all radio shows as podcasts, so they can easily be uploaded to iTunes and then shared on other blogs, sites etc. BlogTalkRadio’s founder and CEO, Alan Levy, says the site’s shows get on average

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20 March, 2009

GIGAOM

GIGAOM

DPI Doesn’t Kill The Open Internet, Carriers Do

DPI Doesn’t Kill The Open Internet, Carriers Do

MAR 20, 2009 03:00A.M.

MAR 20, 2009 03:00A.M.

The Free Press issued a report today that blames deep packet inspection technology for “The End of the Internet,” arguing that Internet service providers’ use of equipment that can inspect individual packets of data should raise concerns for both users and lawmakers.

The Free Press issued a report today that blames deep packet inspection technology for “The End of the Internet,” arguing that Internet service providers’ use of equipment that can inspect individual packets of data should raise concerns for both users and lawmakers.

The report: “Deep Packet Inspection: The End of the Internet as We Know It?” highlights the use of DPI equipment by Comcast in throttling P2P traffic, in Cox’s traffic prioritization scheme, the role DPI played in NebuAd’s plans to monitor web surfing in order to deliver advertising, and the use of such equipment to introduce consumption-based broadband programs. It neglects to cover the use of DPI for Internet threat monitoring and other more beneficial uses of the technology.

The report: “Deep Packet Inspection: The End of the Internet as We Know It?” highlights the use of DPI equipment by Comcast in throttling P2P traffic, in Cox’s traffic prioritization scheme, the role DPI played in NebuAd’s plans to monitor web surfing in order to deliver advertising, and the use of such equipment to introduce consumption-based broadband programs. It neglects to cover the use of DPI for Internet threat monitoring and other more beneficial uses of the technology.

The central conclusion is one I would agree with, and have written about before:

The central conclusion is one I would agree with, and have written about before:

Network providers can and will use DPI technology to improve their profits at the expense of their customers. The technology permits network operators to reduce the amount they spend on network upgrades by allowing them to oversell their networks while simultaneously increasing the amount the average customer pays, through the creation of new revenue streams.

Network providers can and will use DPI technology to improve their profits at the expense of their customers. The technology permits network operators to reduce the amount they spend on network upgrades by allowing them to oversell their networks while simultaneously increasing the amount the average customer pays, through the creation of new revenue streams.

However, the report comes across as almost hysterical by blaming of the DPI technology rather than the carriers and how they are using it. Carriers are investing in their networks, although slowly, and are pricing new offerings with an eye toward increasing their margins. The real villian behind this creeping trend isn’t DPI. It’s a broadband policy that hasn’t encouraged competition — without which, a user that’s upset with a carrier trying to gouge them can’t easily switch to an equivalent provider.

However, the report comes across as almost hysterical by blaming of the DPI technology rather than the carriers and how they are using it. Carriers are investing in their networks, although slowly, and are pricing new offerings with an eye toward increasing their margins. The real villian behind this creeping trend isn’t DPI. It’s a broadband policy that hasn’t encouraged competition — without which, a user that’s upset with a carrier trying to gouge them can’t easily switch to an equivalent provider.

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20 March, 2009

SLATE MAGAZINE

to 3.28GHz) and a “robust” 4.1 speaker sound system. Of course, any machine will have a few quibbles, although in this case they seem to be relatively minor: no Blu-ray (though it’s supposed to become available at some point in the future) and a 2 megapixel webcam with “grainy” image quality (although “it’s more than adequate for Skyping and chatting”). But that ain’t all — hit the read link for all the lurid details, including the hair-raising results of the Company of Heroes DirectX 9 test (spoiler: the word “blistering” was used).

Cutting weapons programs doesn’t necessarily mean cutting jobs. MAR 20, 2009 02:59A.M. Word is that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates plans to slash or kill several big-ticket weapons programs when he rolls out the full details of the Pentagon budget next month. The contractors for some of the projects on the chopping block are fighting back pre-emptively with the most potent slogan in politics today: Jobs!

Filed under: Laptops

[more ...]

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ASUS W90 gaming laptop gets put through its paces, ‘raises the bar’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TECHCRUNCH

MySpace Launches In-Browser Photo Editing Tools

ENGADGET

ASUS W90 gaming laptop gets put through its paces, ‘raises the bar’

MAR 20, 2009 02:53A.M.

MAR 20, 2009 02:54A.M.

MySpace has integrated a new Flash-based suite of photo editing tools into its site, giving users the ability to crop, edit, and stylize their photos from directly within the browser. The tools are powered by Fotoflexer, a browser-based photo editing startup that also powers Photobucket’s image editing features (Photobucket and MySpace are owned by the same company, so this isn’t too surprising). To access the feature, select a photo in one of your MySpace photo albums and press the ‘Customize Photo’ button. The new tools allow users to edit their photos in a variety of ways, including options like red-eye removal, blemish removal, and cropping, as well as a number of image filters like ‘pop art’ and ‘neon colors’. Users can also drag and drop speech bubbles and virtual stickers to embellish their pictures - a feature that I’m sure MySpace users will love, given their propensity to customize their profiles (though I’m a bit worried they might take the photo customization too far). There’s nothing revolutionary here, but it’s fun and convenient. Suffice it to say that Computer Shopper was really really into that ASUS W90Vp-X1 gaming notebook that popped up on Newegg recently. This nearly 12 pound behemoth, the reviewer exclaims, not only sets “new 3D-graphics and productivity-speed records,” but its 18.4-inch (1,920 x 1,080) LCD is “gorgeous,” sporting “incredible color quality and wide viewing angles.” Also singled out for praise was the Turbo Gear app that lets you overclock the machine by as much as 17 percent (for speeds up

In contrast to MySpace’s tools, Facebook’s photo editing features are essentially nonexistent (you can rotate images, and that’s about it). I can understand why Facebook might not be keen on helping its users add silly thought bubbles or colorizing effects, but red-eye correction and cropping would certainly be welcome additions.

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20 March, 2009

Our own car guy, Matt Burns, will be driving from Dearborn, Michigan to San Francisco in a new Ford Fusion Hybrid, a Ford we can all truly be excited about. He’ll be running contests and reporting live from the road so if there’s anyplace you think he should visit, speak now or forever hold your peace. Matt’s trip was even written up in the local Flint news where he describes his job to incredulous reporters. To wit:

THE DAILY DISH | BY ANDREW SULLIVAN

Dissent Of The Day Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

MAR 20, 2009 02:32A.M. A reader writes: That survey of people who would opt out of Social Security, even if it meant losing their future benefit, was interesting because it also included results broken down by age. I can understand why people in their 30s would want to opt out of Social Security. I disagree with their reasoning, but I understand.

ESPN.COM

Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria to join Team USA

But the survey also found that 33% of adults over 60 would give up their benefit to be able to opt out now.

MAR 20, 2009 02:40A.M. To save 6.2% on their taxes for the next few years, they are willing to give up 10+ years of future benefits worth about $12,700 per year (average benefit is currently $1056/month).

Third baseman Evan Longoria will be joining Team USA, according to Tampa Bay Rays general manager Andrew Friedman.

I suppose some of them might be terminally ill, but for the vast majority, that is completely irrational. TECHCRUNCH

CrunchGear Travels CrossCountry

This survey suggests that 1/3 of our soon-to-retire population has questionable financial judgement. If that isn’t an argument FOR mandatory social security, I don’t know what is.

MAR 20, 2009 02:33A.M.

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20 March, 2009

ENGADGET

New SMM exploit targets Intel CPU caching vulnerability originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

New SMM exploit targets Intel CPU caching vulnerability

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MAR 20, 2009 02:16A.M.

THE DAILY DISH | BY ANDREW SULLIVAN

“Why The Letters W, T and F Were Invented” MAR 20, 2009 01:46A.M. A reader writes: I just read the actual AIG FP bonus contract, which was posted on the NY Times website. Two things jumped out at me. One is that it’s not a “bonus” contract at all. It’s an “Employee Retention Plan.” In other words, it’s not meant to be structured as a reward for performance. It’s more like just another part of the employee’s salary package. To me it’s a lot less upsetting if the payout is part of a standard pay/benefits package than if it was meant as an actual reward to reflect on the performance of the company. The other thing that strikes me as very strange, though, is the self-stated rationale of the Retention Plan. According to the recitals section, the contract exists, among other things: To recognize the uncertainty that the unrealized market valuation losses in AIG-FP’s super senior credit derivative and originally-rated AAA cash CDO portfolios have created for AIG-FP’s employees and consultants. This one delves pretty deep into head-scratching territory, but it looks like the folks at Invisible Things Lab have discovered an exploit that could open the door to some potentially serious attacks on certain Intel CPUs paired with some popular motherboards. Of course, the exploit that they’ve actually released is completely harmless, but it demonstrates that the CPU cache can be “poisoned” to let folks read and write into the otherwise protected SMRAM memory. As NetworkWorld notes, that could lead to some more nefarious folks developing a SMM rootkit, which would be all the more perilous considering that the user of the infected computer would have no way of detecting the attack. For its part, Intel is apparently well aware of the problem, and it has already fixed the vulnerability on some newer boards like the DQ45, but others still in widespread use (like the DQ35 pictured above) have seemingly been left hanging waiting for a fix of some sort.

I’m not an accountant or a lawyer, but the way I read that is that, as of the December 2007 effective date of the contract, AIG was already aware that their CDOs and market cap were diving or preparing to take a dive, and this was a way of offsetting those losses for the very employees responsible for those failures. I’ve been around the block a few times, and have participated in a fair few bonus and retention programs myself, but I’ve NEVER worked anywhere ballsy enough to say “Hey, you’re efforts are destroying this company, in fact we expect the company to go down in the next year or two, so here’s some money to ensure that you stick around for the fun.” I mean, this is why the letters W, T, and F were invented.

[Via Network World, thanks Andrew] Filed under: Desktops

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best suited to meet Cupertino’s demands. Seems like this week’s barrage of Apple news has gotten to people’s heads, honestly — keep a sharp eye!

ESPN.COM

Pondexter helps Washington spank Miss. State

[Thanks, everyone; image courtesy of Frunny]

MAR 20, 2009 01:41A.M.

Read - Report on Apple / LG OLED partnership Read - Articles from David Richards

Visit ESPN.com for the complete story.

Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops, Portable Audio, Portable Video

ENGADGET

Apple to partner with LG on OLED-equipped iPhone, netbook? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple to partner with LG on OLED-equipped iPhone, netbook?

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SLATE MAGAZINE

MAR 20, 2009 01:38A.M.

Obama scores a 35 on the Change-o-Meter. MAR 20, 2009 01:33A.M. Obama abandons a plan to make private insurers pay for veterans’ combat injuries. [more ...]

ESPN.COM

Boston Celtics’ Doc Rivers fined $25,000 for criticizing ref

A new rumor from SmartHouse is making the rounds today, with alleged sources claiming LG has partnered with Apple to make OLED displays for a new iPhone and iPod touch, a Taiwan-manufactured netbook that’s reportedly already in working prototype stage, and a device with a waferthin screen that would link wirelessly to a content-providing box similar to Apple TV. Sure, some of that makes sense, but let’s add a good bit of context here. This article in question was written by SmartHouse veteran David Richards, who in the past has brought us such winners as PlayStation 4 launching in 2008, a Xbox 360 equipped with HD DVD, and our favorite, Apple producing its own soap opera series exclusively for the iPod. We’re not saying the Apple-LG partnership is entirely out of the realm of possibility, but this guy doesn’t exactly have the best track record. Furthermore, this doesn’t jibe with two separate reports from Dow Jones Newswire and Commercial Times / DigiTimes that Quanta is providing the screens for an upcoming Apple netbook launching in Q3. Lastly, with today’s announcement that LG is licensing Kodak’s OLED technology for future devices, we get the feeling the company isn’t the

MAR 20, 2009 01:33A.M. Boston coach Doc Rivers has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for criticizing a referee earlier in the week.

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BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL NEWS - CNNMONEY.COM

gutter just beneath the tabletop.

McCaw bets on the news

In a move dear to my own heart, he not only banished the cords from the floor, but he also added some hidden LED ambient lighting to decrease eyestrain.

MAR 20, 2009 01:09A.M. If there’s one major obstacle to the success of news video online, it’s the lack of a central, organized place for viewing. A new company backed in part by wireless pioneer Craig McCaw hopes to change that.

LIFEHACKER

Workspace Spring Cleaning Roundup [Featured Workspace]

Megan clarified right off the bat in her letter that she didn’t have the typical office setup. She works in a lab and has not only the regular clutter of office paper work and Post-Its, but bottles of solution, beakers, and more scattered across her lab bench.

MAR 20, 2009 01:00A.M.

I put everything in its right place, organized my solutions based on usage, cleaned down the benchtop, and finally changed out the trash. At my desk, I turned the bottom drawer into a filing cabinet and sorted all the papers and notebooks into folders with labels, something I had been meaning to do for a long time. I organized the top drawer to be notepads, pens/highlighters and extra harddrives/usb sticks. I also threw away stuff I had been accumulating for no reason (such as many of the post-its on the bulletin board), and tied up the cables from my mouse and power cord to stop taking over my desk.

Earlier this week we enticed you to clean up your work space by offering a Fellowes paper shredder as a prize. We haven’t selected the winners yet, but we have rounded some great makeovers. The following examples have been culled from the big stack of entries we’ve received to highlight some of the great ways Lifehacker readers managed to tame clutter and get their workspaces back under control. All of the photographs are arranged with the before picture on the left and the after on the right.

The “accumulating for no reason” category is the bane of many a worker. How many times have you cleaned out your desk only to wonder just how many Post-It pads and high lighters one person could possibly need to horde?

We here at Lifehacker give extra credit to Max for jumping into spring cleaning feet first. A senior in high school with a penchant for spreading his work every which way, he decided it was time to radically trim back and consolidate his clutter:

Pieter, an Industrial Design student living in Belgium, decided to go not just for a spring clean but an office make over. In his words: My previous workspace desk didn’t really fit at this place. There was some space between the wall and desk where papers and pencils could fall through. I bought an IKEA Galant table top and cut of a corner in the right degrees I needed to fit between the two walls. The table top rests on some wood attached to the walls with 3 inch screws. Now I have a floating desk where all the cable clutter is gone in a

I spread all my school work across two big tables with a laptop and a desktop computer. However, after this spring cleaning, I have managed to fit it all on one neat desk. I hope I can keep it like this! I basically went through both rooms by section and eliminated everything that was no longer essential (which happened to include my desktop computer!)

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while listening to some fun music. Max cleaned up not one, but two rooms, jettisoning a ton of clutter in the process. For more pictures of his massive clean sweep you can check out his Flickr gallery.

Chris wasn’t content to just clean up his cubicle, he went Extreme Makeover on it and completely gutted it. Blessed with a flexible workplace and understanding management, he raided his local Jo Ann Fabrics craft store and Ikea for his makeover. He upholstered the walls with cool fabric, threw down some new flooring, and in the process transformed his distinctly-cube-farmy cubicle into an awesome open office. For a peek at another remodeled cube, check out the Noir Cubicle.

Although some of the entries we received involved brand new furniture, huge layout changes, and even a dash of paint here and there, Deen’s entry is a great example of how just beating back the clutter in your office and give it a new lease on life.

While we didn’t have space to feature all the great entries we received, we are extremely impressed with everyone who took the initiative to declutter and clean their workspace. Great work everyone! There will be a certain editor or four around the Lifehacker offices doing their own spring cleaning after seeing what a great job you’ve done.

My home office workspace has been a mess for a long time, making it impossible to find anything and also causing a lot of unnecessary stress. I do consulting work and programming and I knew a clean, tidy workspace would make my day so much better. The ultimate motivator came in the form of my decision to put my house on the market. The results don’t only make the house look so much presentable but also makes my work day so much more tolerable and the stress has been reduced to a minimum. Wanting to keep your office spic and span for potential buyers is a great motivation, but Deen found the bigger reward was a less stressful work day.

TECHCRUNCH

Yapta Now Tracks Price Drops For Hotels Too MAR 20, 2009 12:58A.M.

Serrano definitely gets our vote for the “Most Likely to Utter the Phrase ‘Where the hell are my keys?’” award. A busy guy managing over a million square feet of commercial property across the south west United States, he’s recently adopted the principles of David Allen’s Getting Things Done to help him keep his work flow under control. His after photo shows a few of the tools he’s adopted in his quest to get it all done, including vertical files to hold both his tickler folders and his active project files. Like Max, he was kind enough to throw his before and after pictures into a Flickr set.

Yapta.com, an online travel website that tracks airline ticket prices for travelers has added a hotel price tracking service that will help consumers monitor and compare pricing for 110,000 national and international hotels. Basically, Yapta lets consumers choose a hotel that best suits their travel needs and then sign up to be automatically alerted if and when the price drops for a particular stay. Yapta has included several useful features to help consumers track hotel prices. First, the site will collect the lowest published rate of a tracked

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hotel and will create a graph that visually demonstrates the price of the hotel over time. Users can also track multiple hotels at once and compare pricing. Alerts can be customized by drop in price or by the frequency of alerts received. And like many travel sites, users can search for hotels by filters, including star rating, price, and amenities.

ENGADGET

AT&T confirms contract-free $599 / $699 iPhone 3Gs for next week

Yapta previously focused only on airfare flight tracking, where you can track fares from most of the major domestic and international airlines. Similar to the hotel feature, Yapta allows users to select flights to track, and then be alerted when the price fluctuates. If the price declines after you purchase it, Yapta will help you get a refund or credit from airlines that have lowest guaranteed fare policies. (Read our original review here).

MAR 20, 2009 12:58A.M.

The key functionality for Yapta is the tracking feature-it’s definitely a useful and easy way to compare travel prices without the hassle of having to constantly monitor changes in hotel and flight prices. Microsoft’s Farecast forecasts flight and hotel prices and then evaluates if the given price is a deal based on past fare history, but the site doesn’t actually track flights and hotels for you. Originally a browser add-on, Yapta became a website last year and is steadily growing in popularity (the site now has 600,000 registered users compared to 350,000 users in June of 2008). This new feature should be appealing to anyone looking for a travel deal, which is basically the entire world right now.

Just in time to nab your soon-to-be-jailbroken copy of iPhone OS 3.0, AT&T has now confirmed that commitment-free iPhones are going to happen — soon, in fact. As of next Thursday, you’ll be able to waltz into the AT&T store of your choice and pick up an 8GB or 16GB unit for $599 and $699, respectively; that’s a little harder to swallow than the normal $199 / $299, granted, but in exchange, you’re free and clear without two years of your precious life sold off to a wireless carrier like it’s a cheap piece of meat. You’re worth more than that, you know?

·

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

AT&T confirms contract-free $599 / $699 iPhone 3Gs for next week originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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THE DAILY DISH | BY ANDREW SULLIVAN LIFEHACKER

Arnold Gushes Over Barack

Undo Send Gives You Five Seconds to Stop a Bum Email [Netiquette]

MAR 20, 2009 12:50A.M. “When have you ever seen a president be that out there?. I’ve never seen that. Usually people are so guarded. The aides are always so guarded. They’re so afraid that you will blow it or that you will make news that’s unintended and all those things... But I think he’s so smart. He’s so clear with his thinking and he’s so well informed and has been dealing with policy in all this and is also very philosophic it’s almost like. I think he’s just like – I think it’s beautiful,” - the Republican governor of California.

MAR 20, 2009 12:45A.M.

Ever hit send and realize immediately that you’d made a mistake? Wish you could unsend that email? With Gmail Labs‘ new Undo Send feature, you’ve got five seconds to reclaim that email and fix your mistake.

ENGADGET

Kindle 2 gets its first firmware update

As always, just head to the Gmail Labs settings page, enable the feature, and you’ve got an extra layer of protection from internet catastrophe.

MAR 20, 2009 12:46A.M. New in Labs: Undo Send [Official Gmail Blog]

TECHCRUNCH

Gmail Gets A Panic Button MAR 20, 2009 12:44A.M. Looks like Amazon’s widely rolling out the first Kindle 2 update — we’ve actually been getting sporadic tips about it for a couple days now, but our unit didn’t have an update option until today. Nothing huge to report here, but we’re guessing that 2.0.2 allows publishers to selectively disable text-to-speech, which isn’t exactly thrilling news. Anyone notice anything happy we should know about? Have you ever sent an email, and just as it was going on its merry way, you realize you misspelled something or you sent it to the wrong person. This happens to me a lot on Gmail because sending an email is not always instant. And you have more chances to experience email regret as you are waiting for one to send.

Filed under: Handhelds Kindle 2 gets its first firmware update originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Well, now you can take advantage of that delay to “undo” the message. (Not to be confused with Gmail Goggles, which is geared more at preventing drunken emails from ever being sent out in the first place).

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Just enable the feature in Gmail Labs in Settings (Scroll down, it is not at the top for some reason). It only works during that 5 second delay between the time you hit send and the time that Gmail actually sends the message.

news release today, the NMRC and Opinion Research claim asserted that 35 million Americans have already discontinued cell phone service in the last six months due to job loss, fear of job loss, the recession or other financial concerns. But that assertion was ridiculous on the face; I called them on it, and they’ve now issued a correction.

What I like about this option is that it turns a bug into a feature. Gmail is really too slow, but now you can occasionally use that to your advantage.

Read the rest of this post

BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL NEWS - CNNMONEY.COM

Spitzer speaks out on AIG MAR 20, 2009 12:21A.M. Outrage over bailed-out insurance giant American International Group’s million-dollar bonuses may grab headlines, but its payouts on complicated financial instruments deserve closer examination, ex-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer said Thursday. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TECHCRUNCH

Coming Soon To A Windows Live Profile Near You: Facebook Updates

ALL THINGS DIGITAL

MAR 20, 2009 12:19A.M.

Survey Finds Consumers Chop Cell Phone Use To Cut Costs [Voices] MAR 20, 2009 12:37A.M. Consumers have begun reducing their cell phone use to save money in the face of the sharp economic downturn, according to a new survey. Conducted by Opinion Research Corp. for the New Millennium Research Council, the survey of 2,005 Americans found that 39 percent of those with contract-based cell phones are likely to cut back their service to save money if the economy gets worse over the next six months. The study also found that 26 percent of those with contract-based phones would be more inclined today than six months ago to look at alternatives, including switching to a pre-paid plan. The survey found that 5 percent of American mobile phone users have considered cutting back on extra services like Web access, email and texting, while 15 percent have already cut back on such services in the last six months. Of those users who are using data services, 41 percent say they would be “somewhat” or “very” likely to cut back if the economy worsens.

Windows Live Profile, the service that essentially turns Windows Live into a non-isolated social network centered around your Windows Live ID, currently pulls in a good deal of updates from third-party services Flickr, Pandora, Twitter, Yelp, and a couple more. You can also insert any RSS feed into the streams, for instance the one for your own blog, and add it to the mix. In case you don’t remember, Windows Live Profiles was part of the big social roll-out Microsoft launched in December last year.

In perhaps their most startling finding, in the original version of their

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Microsoft refers to these streams as ‘Web Activities’ and displays update messages from contacts under the header “What’s new” on a variety of Live Services, like at the bottom of the new Windows Live Messenger interface for example, provided these users have given permission to share them either publicly or within their trusted network. I’m not 100% sure that includes the just released embedded Windows Live Messenger chat you can add to other websites, but I’m trying to figure that out.

SILICON ALLEY INSIDER

PS3 Grabs More Market Share, Still In Third Place MAR 20, 2009 12:12A.M. Sony’s hope that its highly-rated PS3-exclusive shooter game Killzone 2 would bring gamers to its console is working, sort of.

Notably missing from the list of supported third-party service providers, particularly considering its ongoing business relationship, is Facebook. Especially now that the company has been placing much more focus on real-time status updates - supposedly as a result of Twitter envy - it seems like it belongs right there in the list of Web Activities for Live Services. And in fact, such an integration had been announced earlier this year, at CES in January, where Microsoft and Facebook said they would be creating more ties between their respective user bases (which are both considerably large) “in the coming months”.

The NPD group released its US console numbers for February, and Sony — still in third place — is showing improvement. The PS3 console sold 276,000 to arch-rival Microsoft’s (MSFT) 391,000, 71% of the cheaper X360’s sales. That’s a bit better than January, when Sony only saw 65% as much action as Microsoft, or the all-important month of December, when the X360 outsold the PS3 2-to-1. Nintendo (NTDOY), of course, continues to dominate with its Wii, which saw sales of 753,000, and its Wii Fit, still the #1 selling game in the USA.

Now, if this tweet from Marketing Manager for Microsoft Advertising Southeast Asia Geert Desager speaks the truth, we can expect Facebook feed updates to be added to Windows Live Profile’s Web Activities feature as soon as in April, possibly at the upcoming Web 2.0 Expo event in San Francisco.

Join the conversation about this story » See Also: • Third Public Call By Electronic Arts For A PS3 Price Cut In A Week (ERTS, SNE) • Sony: The PS3 Will Always Have Blu-ray (SNE) • Activision CEO: $300 Game Consoles Still Too Expensive (ATVI)

April is only 2 weeks away, so if you were dying to get your Facebook status updates and photos shared to your contacts on Windows Live Messenger and Spaces automatically, you need to exercise only a little bit more patience.

ENGADGET

Elgato ships 1080p-friendly Turbo.264 HD video conversion dongle

(Note that the screenshot embedded at the top of the article depicts the Windows Live Messenger application on Facebook)

MAR 20, 2009 12:11A.M.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

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Join the conversation about this story »

THE DAILY DISH | BY ANDREW SULLIVAN

Without Irony MAR 20, 2009 12:05A.M. Andy McCarthy, torture enthusiast and defender of the near-dictatorial presidency, rediscovers the rule of law. Remember that brilliant Turbo.264 video conversion dongle that shipped like, two whole years ago? Yeah, it’s successor has just hit the streets, and it’s as ready as ever for 1080p content. The predictably titled Elgato Turbo.264 HD plugs directly into one’s Mac and converts files up to 1080p (from camcorders, digital cameras, etc.) into files that are perfectly formatted for iPods, PSPs or other media players. The bundled software also lets users preview and trim video clips before converting, and it saves folks the time and hassle of importing into iMovie, learning commands, rendering and exporting. Reportedly, a video that would take an hour to convert to an iPod-friendly file takes just 15 minutes with this here dongle, and if that’s worth $149.95 to you, you’re one click away from brightening your own day.

THE DAILY DISH | BY ANDREW SULLIVAN

Cool Ad Watch MAR 20, 2009 12:01A.M. The clay looks more fun than the Xbox: (hat tip: Smashing Magazine)

[Via Electricpig] Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Video Elgato ships 1080p-friendly Turbo.264 HD video conversion dongle originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

LIFEHACKER

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Remains of the Day: Chrome Experiments Blows Your Mind Edition [For What It’s Worth]

SILICON ALLEY INSIDER

MAR 20, 2009 12:00A.M.

TheStreet.com Trims 6% Of Staff

Jump on in for a look at Google geeking out on really cool JavaScript experiments.

MAR 20, 2009 12:10A.M.

• Chrome Experiments are here • Google goes nuts on awesome JavaScript experiments that work across browsers (though Google emphasizes that they probably work best in Chrome). [via Official Google Blog]

• TheStreet cuts 18 employees [Press Release] • How To: Fake the iPhone 3.0 OS On Your iPhone Today • If you’re willing to jailbreak, you can get most of iPhone 3.0’s coolest features right now. [Gizmodo]

• New York Times sends photo takedown notice to design blog [MediaMemo] • 94% of Facebook users don’t like new homepage [TechCrunch]

• StockVault Rounds Up Stock Photos • [via MakeUseOf]

• BlackBerry Niagara heading to Verizon in May [TheStreet]

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• MotorMouths Reviews Cars • Consumerist calls them the RottenTomatoes of car reviews. [via Consumerist]

before opponent Tommy Robredo retired injured, would walk the match against Ljubicic, who had taken part in a three-hour marathon against Igor Andreev the previous day.

• The cult of the to-do list • BBC News examines David Allen, GTD, and the cult of the to-do list. [BBC]

And things began well for the British number one, who went 2-0 up after having broken the Croat in the first game. Ljubicic broke back in the sixth when Murray played one of many poorly judged drop-shots into the net. But Murray broke the 30-year-old again in the 11th and held serve to take the first set 7-5. It was all mundane stuff in the second set until the ninth game when at deuce, Murray called a shot in and challenged the umpire who had called the shot out. The Hawk-Eye replay backed Murray to the anger of Ljubicic. The Croat went on lose his service game.

BBC SPORT | SPORT HOMEPAGE | WORLD EDITION

Murray reaches Indian Wells semis

“The reason I challenged was because he looked like he was going to hit it; then the call came, and he still hit the ball over,” Murray said.

MAR 19, 2009 11:47P.M.

“I thought maybe he thought it was going out. But I couldn’t see, because of the ATP sign at the side of the court.”

Andy Murray reached the last four at Indian Wells with a battling 7-5 7-6 (8-6) win over Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic.

However, the Croat settled himself and broke Murray’s serve in the next.

Neither player found their rhythm in the match, although the Briton began well when he broke in the first game.

But in the tie-break, the Scot came out on top with a Ljubicic unforced error from the baseline giving him the victory.

Ljubicic broke back in the sixth but stumbled on his serve in the 11th, with Murray going on to take the set.

Story from BBC SPORT: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport2/hi/tennis/7954125.stm

Both players broke each other’s service games in the second set, but when it came to the tie-break, Murray held his nerve to seal a tough win.

Published: 2009/03/19 22:47:59 GMT © BBC MMIX

Murray will now face either Roger Federer or Fernando Verdasco in the last four. “I thought I did well,” the 21-year-old said.

This issue contains posts from between Mar 19, 2009 06:22a.m. and Mar 20, 2009 02:26a.m.. To change your settings, visit http://www.tabbloid.com/28993.ba65d735

“At the end of each set, I started to make more returns. I served very well in the tie-break at the end. “I didn’t serve huge the whole time but didn’t give any opportunities away on the second serve. “I bounced back well each time I got broken, so I was happy with that.” The wind played a big part in both players’ performances and the crowd at Indian Wells were not treated to a hardcourt classic partly as a result of the conditions. It seemed that Murray, who only played 50 minutes of the last round

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