#WIRED: A Digital History of Ryerson University | Ryerson Archives ...

??Computing will most undoubtedly prove to be the most significant development to technology in the second half of the twentieth century. The extent to which Ryerson students graduate with a firm understanding of this new and exciting field, will greatly affect their ability to contribute to society.??

- L.B. Moore, Director of the Ryerson Computing Centre, 1973.

A classroom scene in the Secretarial Science program, 1962. (RG 95.1.1679.10)

Ryerson University began as a polytechnic institute devoted to the training of students in applied technology. This technical history has informed Ryerson?s identity and culture, playing a significant role in the way the University defines its relationship to the digital age. As we enter an era of ever changing technology and a digitally-connected society, a look back at the early days of computing at Ryerson highlights the development of a digital campus and its impact on the Ryerson way of life.

DAISY

Ryerson?s first computer centre with DAISY and connected terminals. (RG 63.72)

Always at the forefront of innovation, Ryerson?s early use of computing technology began in the 1960s when Ryerson was one of the first institutions to acquire a general purpose computer, an IBM Model 360-30, affectionately nicknamed ?DAISY? (Direct Access Information System).

?Daisy? Chooses Miss Ryerson ?68?. One of the many ?jobs? DAISY performed. (The Rambler, Summer 1968)

It?s difficult to imagine a world without smart phones or even personal computers, but the early days of computing at Ryerson involved the use of one centralized system that students would line up to use. Eventually this changed to include the addition of terminals throughout campus that would connect via Bell phone lines to the main computer. The main functions were academic and administration assistance, including student registration, payroll, scheduling, grades, library circulation, and the occasional selection of Miss Ryerson.

?DAISY LOVES ME? Button. Students had a hate/love relationship with the overworked computer. (RG 63.71)

DAISY was not without its quirks. Nearing the end of its?life-cycle the first model would confuse library punch cards and harass students with overdue notices on books that had been returned. In 1975 DAISY took the initiative of creating a brand new Journalism class consisting of three surprised students.

DAISY would be upgraded three times, 1967, 1969, and up to an IBM Model 360-65 in 1973, which contained 256 kilobytes of core memory and cost the annual amount of $404,000.

A woman in the computer centre ?batching? punch card instructions to DAISY. (RG 63.72)

The process of running a ?job? or task included manually typing programming instructions into a ?punch? card, feeding the card into the computer terminal, which would then process the program and data, and print out the results. This process was called ?batching?, and would continue until the 1980s, when the University realized the technology was quickly becoming obsolete. The ever-increasing rate of change and the resulting obsolete formats is a factor which would continue to define digital technology into the?twenty-first?century.

THE YRCC

Official Opening York-Ryerson Computing Centre Program (RG 281.23)

In 1974 the Joint York-Ryerson Computing Centre established the first cooperative computing centre in Canada with the objective of sharing expertise and reducing costs. This resulted in the end of DAISY, which was dismantled and returned to the American company from which it was leased. The first of its kind in Canada, the YRCC operated with the main computer at York and connected terminals at Ryerson.

A MODERN COMPUTER CENTRE

The official opening of the Ryerson Computer Centre with former Ryerson President Brian Segal, 1983. (RG 95.37.9)

In the late 70s, the demand for more computers and processing capabilities gave rise to student protests over the lack of computer resources. The computer centre was so overwhelmed that they implemented restrictions and quotas on accessing the computer mainframe. Each department would receive an allotment for its students to use throughout the semester; if a student ran out of credit, then they would have to petition for increased time. In 1979 the situation escalated to the point of violence, in which a student was stabbed in the arm with a pen when he attempted to use someone?s punch-card terminal.

The Beginner?s Guide to the Ryerson Mainframe, 1992.
(RG 63.74)

In 1983, IBM donated $3.7 million worth of computer hardware and software to Ryerson, at the time the largest single donation to the institute. The equipment, an IBM 3033 processor, 300 terminals, five personal computers and advanced software, created an on-line interactive system and established the Ryerson Computing Centre.

TECHNOLOGY IN THE LIBRARY

Bard vs. Byte (The Ryerson Rambler, Fall 1981)

Ryerson Library was an early adopter of computer technology on campus. The early days of libraries consisted of card catalogues and handwritten entries signing out books. In the second half of the 20^th century, this rapidly changed to an electronic format that would alter the way knowledge was organized and retrieved.

Library book lending insert. (RG 5.204)

For Ryerson Library the shift to digital began in 1968 when the library converted the author, title and catalogue data for all books to machine-readable form, implementing an electronic circulation control system to keep track of books. Students would no longer sign out books, but punch out computer cards.

Ryerson Library Circulation Book Card. (RG 5.204)

In 1978, Ryerson library became the first library in North America to operate its circulation system on-line using DOBIS/LIBIS, a computerized library system developed by IBM in Europe. DOBIS (Dortmund Bibliotek System) replaced the dated Mohawk punch-card circulation system.

The official opening of the Library?s online DOBIS/LIBIS system with former President Walter Pitman, 1978. (RG 5.74)

The circulation function involved the first-time use of barcode labels affixed to books and ID badges read by an IBM optical scanner. Throughout the 80s and 90s technological advancement in the library would continue, including the establishment of its first computer lab in 1982, as well as developments in subject indexing and electronic resources.

THE FUTURE

Crack the code is a scavenger hunt developed by Ryerson mobile in 2010. (DOC File)

In the last quarter century Ryerson University has paved the way for technology-driven learning. This can most clearly be seen with the new Student Learning Centre, which promises to provide an interactive environment employing the latest in digital technology. Projects such as the Digital Media Zone act as an incubator for Ryerson students to collaborate in the design and implementation of digital tools and apps. Accessible technology has placed students at the centre of e-learning, furthering the role students have in shaping their education and campus environment. These developments would not be possible without the small but significant steps taken in the 1960s towards a progressive, digital future.

An IBM 2260 terminal in the Ryerson Computer Centre, c. 1970.
(RG 63.72)

Bringing together diverse artifacts and historical materials from the Ryerson Archives, #WIRED is an exhibition that highlights pivotal moments in the digital evolution of Ryerson University. To learn more about the early history of computing at Ryerson and view the artifacts on display, please visit the Ryerson Archives during our office hours, Monday ? Friday, 9 -5pm.

Source: https://library.ryerson.ca/asc/2013/01/wired-a-digital-history-of-ryerson-university/

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David Cunningham (update) - Lines and Colors

Since I first wrote about painter David H. Cunningham back in 2007, his web presence has been expanded and improved, and his work has continued to evolve, particularly into a new series involving arrangements of stones.

My initial impression of his work, however, remains unchanged. Though you may look at reproductions of his paintings and think of them as illusionary realism to the point of being trompe l?oeil, I?ve never gotten the impression that he deliberately set out to paint with that intention.

Rather, the sharp realism feels like a natural outgrowth of intense faithful observation, an incisive investigation of the visual world.

Cunningham?s paintings of stones, in both complex and simple arrangements, become both intimate landscapes and marvels of irregular geometry.

In addition to presenting his work more effectively, Cunningham?s new website allows for a blog like series of short articles, in which he offers interviews with other artists, as well as his thoughts on various aspects of art and painting, including ?Why paint stones??.

You can also find blog-like entries, including sketches and works in progress, on Cunningham?s presence on Tumblr and backspaces.

Source: http://www.linesandcolors.com/2013/01/28/david-cunningham-update/

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16 sick in 5 states; linked to ground beef recall

NEW YORK (AP) ? Federal health officials say at least 16 people in five states have been sickened by salmonella food poisoning linked to ground beef.

No one has died, but half were hospitalized. Most of the illnesses have been in Michigan, but a few cases were scattered in Arizona, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Seven people ate a raw ground beef dish called kibbeh (kib-BEH') last month at a suburban Detroit restaurant that wasn't identified. Health officials say consumers should not eat uncooked meat.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the cases have been linked to last week's recall of more than 1,000 pounds of ground beef from two Michigan businesses, Troy-based Gab Halal Foods and Sterling Heights-based Jouni Meats.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-01-28-US-MED-Beef-Salmonella/id-bb196377ad13461fbed260a61a8a4ba3

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Conservative Angst

Freshman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), here during the Republican National Convention in August, attended this past weekend's National Review conference.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A well-stocked open bar cures all angst. The reception room at the National Review Institute?s post-election summit has four of ?em, loaded high with rum, whiskey, vodka, and triple sec, and O?Doul?s for those who want to fake it. When there?s an evening lull in the Omni Shoreham?s main ballroom, there?s a party waiting in the mini-ballroom across the beige hallway. Early on Friday evening hundreds of conservatives pack the room, stepping in and out of line depending on whether they?re thirsty or whether they?d rather talk to one of the available icons?Mark Steyn! Jonah Goldberg! Rich Lowry!

I get stuck between Steyn, a ring of his fans, and a bar, where I meet an Orlando dermatologist named Darrin. He?d volunteered for Mitt Romney?s campaign, ?making calls from my office? when he wasn?t working or raising his kids, and he wasn?t surprised when Romney lost, because he doesn?t put any graft past Barack Obama. ?I?m worried about a dictatorship,? he says?really, we have been talking for maybe three minutes before he lays this on me. ?I mean, it happened in history. History repeats. Why couldn?t it? How about all the Muslim Brotherhood czars? He?s got like eight different guys in the administration who are members of the Muslim Brotherhood.?

When I start to sound skeptical, Darrin pulls out his iPhone and forwards me an infographic. It?s titled ?Muslim Brotherhood Infiltrates Obama Administration,? and it shows six Muslims who work in the administration and ?enjoy strong influence.? Another way of putting it: Six mid- and low-level staffers in the administration have, in the past, appeared on panels staged by frightening-sounding organizations. But the evidence worries Darrin. ?If I have to go to a freakin? island to save my kids,? he says. ?I?ll do it. I?ll leave the country.?

Any hack can roll into a political conference, find the most outr? attendees, and pretend that the room was packed with nothing but. National Review is a standard target of this sort of journalism. At least three times, liberals have embedded on the magazine?s biennial post-election cruises, and come out with feature-length contributions to the Those Crazy Conservatives genre. In most respects, Darrin was like the other NRI summit ticket-holders I talked to?a middle-aged guy with a successful business, worried about his lost country, worry deepened by a steady diet of conservative media.

But toward the end of the conference on Sunday, I sit in on a panel titled ?What is a conservative foreign policy?? And in it, National Review?s Andrew McCarthy asks why Huma Abedin had been allowed, for so long, to work alongside Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, holding a security clearance.

?We have people throughout our government who have connections to the Muslim Brotherhood,? says McCarthy. ?Not, like, tenuous connections. Strong connections. We have a situation where, in our intelligence community, they have made a policy of purging information in the training materials of our law enforcement agents, our intelligence agents, and our military people, if the information casts Islam in a bad light?which, back in the 1990s, when I was a prosecutor, we used to call evidence.?

That gets applause, something that was scarce and hard-earned at the weekend conference. National Review has only held two other post-election summits?they save ?em for real debacles. In 1993, William F. Buckley gathered 1,000 conservatives in the nearby Mayflower Hotel, to vent and strategize about the threat of Bill Clinton. In 2007, after Democrats took back Congress, NRI met at the J.W. Marriott up the street to hear from potential 2008 saviors.

?Mark [Steyn] gave an incredible speech at that conference,? recalls Jonah Goldberg, joining Steyn onstage Saturday night for a ?Night Owl? banter session?cash bar this time. ?He closed his speech with one of the funniest lines that?s ever been said on the public stage. Ladies and gentlemen, the next president of the United States, Mitt Romney!?

Laughter and groans. Conservative donors and thinkers respect Mitt Romney more than they did the defeated George H.W. Bush or the ousted, forgotten Speaker Dennis Hastert. In 1993, then-NR editor in chief John O?Sullivan told conservatives that they were in the midpoint of the ?Bush-Clinton? era?that Bush had betrayed the Reagan revolution, and could not be considered part of it. In 2013, Romney is seen as a fundamentally decent man who simply did not know how to ?message? conservatives? beliefs or explain what Obama was doing wrong. ?He spoke conservatism,? says Charles Krauthammer in a Friday night Q&A, ?as a second language.? Speak it as a first language, and you can win.

Every elected Republican at the conference attempts to prove that. On Friday, NR?s Jay Nordlinger asks freshman Rep. Tom Cotton to swat away some of the liberals? myths. Why did Republicans lose Hispanics? ?We?re quasi-racist, or maybe racist without the quasi,? says Nordlinger. ?It?s supposed to be killing us.? Cotton doesn?t know how to fix it. ?I think Romney only got 27 percent [of Hispanic votes], but John McCain four years ago got 31 percent when he?d been the sponsor of an immigration bill,? he says. ?It?s presumptuous and condescending to think that Hispanics, as a class, are only focused on immigration.? Will conservatives have to accept the ?momentum? for gay marriage? ?It?s only this last year that people in any state have decided to accept gay marriage,? says Cotton. ?In California, four years ago, [they] voted for traditional marriage.?

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=2d9349c6f90a75e4df0e2506f7b44460

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Michael Bloomberg Makes Massive Donation To ... - Business Insider

AP

Michael Bloomberg just announced a massive gift on the order of $350 million to Johns Hopkins University, which is his alma-mater.

According to the press release, he has now given over $1 billion to the school, a first in history.

-----------------------------

MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG COMMITS $350 MILLION TO JOHNS HOPKINS

FOR TRANSFORMATIONAL ACADEMIC INITIATIVE

New York Mayor believed first to give lifetime $1 billion to one U.S. higher education institution

Philanthropist and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has committed $350 million to The Johns Hopkins University, anchoring a major initiative aimed at bringing significant innovation to U.S. higher education. The total commitment ? the largest ever to the university ? lifts Bloomberg?s lifetime giving to Johns Hopkins beyond $1 billion.

The majority of the new gift, $250 million out of $350 million, will be part of a larger effort to raise $1 billion to facilitate cross-disciplinary work across the university to galvanize people, resources, research and educational opportunities around a set of complex global challenges.? Initially, the funds will be used to support the appointment of faculty in the areas of water resource sustainability, individualized health care delivery, global health, the science of learning and urban revitalization. The remaining $100 million will be dedicated to need-based financial aid for undergraduate students, ensuring that the most talented and driven students are admitted to the university?s classrooms, regardless of economic circumstance. Over the next 10 years, 2,600 Bloomberg Scholarships will be awarded.

The transformational gift will enhance Johns Hopkins? flexible and multi-disciplinary approach to solving fundamental societal problems. It will bring together scientists and scholars from numerous disciplines -- ranging from politics and policy to healthcare delivery to basic curiosity-driven research -- to support more meaningful collaboration. The goal, simply put, is to make it as easy for faculty, staff and students to work across disciplines as within them.

?Michael Bloomberg is a visionary philanthropist, a force for social good on the order of Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Leland Stanford and our own founder, Johns Hopkins,? said Ronald J. Daniels, president of The Johns Hopkins University.

?This latest initiative allows us to greatly accelerate our investment in talented people and bring them together in a highly creative and dynamic atmosphere," Daniels said. ?It illustrates Mike's passion for fixing big problems quickly and efficiently. It will ensure not only that Johns

Hopkins helps to solve humanity?s problems, but also that it leads the world?s universities in showing how it should be done.?

?Johns Hopkins University has been an important part of my life since I first set foot on campus more than five decades ago,? Bloomberg said. ?Each dollar I have given has been well-spent improving the institution and, just as importantly, making its education available to students who might otherwise not be able to afford it. Giving is only meaningful if the money will make a difference in people?s lives, and I know of no other institution that can make a bigger difference in lives around the world through its groundbreaking research -- especially in the field of public health.?

This gift will endow 50 Bloomberg Distinguished Professors whose expertise crosses traditional academic disciplines; they will anchor collaborative, cross-disciplinary research. These distinguished faculty members -- each a forward-thinking leader with cross-cutting research interests -- will be recruited from around the world and will serve as human bridges among disciplines and schools spanning medicine and the humanities, public health and education, social science and engineering. The Bloomberg Distinguished Professors will carry their interdisciplinary and research-focused approach into their teaching, ensuring that the university?s students are equipped to graduate from their classrooms into the real world to solve real problems.

Johns Hopkins was America?s first research university, establishing a model emulated throughout the United States and around the world. It has also been home to groundbreaking examples of interdisciplinary partnerships in areas such as biomedical engineering, public health, space studies and international studies. Drawing on this legacy and through this latest gift from Bloomberg, Daniels said, Johns Hopkins seeks to reconceive the traditional model and make collaboration across disciplines the convention rather than the exception.

?When the Baltimore merchant Johns Hopkins left $7 million nearly 140 years ago to create our university and hospital,? Daniels said, ?it incited nothing less than a revolution in American higher education. It led to the modern research university and academic medical center, brand new institutions that recognized the power in combining knowledge creation with its teaching and its use for the good of humanity.

?Now, with Michael Bloomberg?s commitment to this transformational initiative as the centerpiece of our efforts, Johns Hopkins seeks again to redefine higher education in America. We want nothing less than to accelerate the pace of change in universities and academic medicine, to create the new model for institutions intended to make the world a better place.?

Bloomberg is believed to be the first person ever to reach the $1 billion level of giving to a single U.S. institution of higher education. With this new commitment, Bloomberg -- chairman of the university?s board of trustees from 1996 to 2002 and previously chair of the Johns Hopkins Initiative fundraising campaign -- has now given Johns Hopkins $1.118 billion in the 49 years since he graduated. His first Johns Hopkins gift was $5 in 1965, a year after he received his bachelor?s degree in engineering from the university. His support has benefitted students and faculty in every school of the university, patients at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and anyone whose life has been touched by Johns Hopkins.

Bloomberg made his first $1 million commitment to the university in 1984, 20 years after his graduation. That gift created a professorship in the humanities named in honor of his mother, Charlotte. He also honored his mother with a $120 million gift toward construction of the new Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children?s Center, a 12-story, 560,000-square-foot tower at The Johns Hopkins Hospital with 205 private rooms, a 45-bed neonatal intensive care unit, a 40-bed pediatric intensive care unit and 10 state-of-the-art surgical suites. It opened in 2012.

The mayor?s generosity has had an extraordinary impact on Johns Hopkins in every way -- in terms of facilities and infrastructure, research and academic achievement, student body quality and diversity.

Applications for undergraduate admissions at the university?s Homewood campus have more than doubled since 2001, and selectivity has increased from a 34 percent admittance rate to 18 percent. In the same period, the number of underrepresented minority members in the freshman class has increased from fewer than 7 percent to nearly 20 percent. The university?s Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Nursing are each top-ranked in the U.S. News & World Report ?best graduate schools? rankings and the School of Medicine is second. ?

As trustee and donor, Bloomberg has overseen, and in many cases funded, a quantum improvement in labs and classrooms, patient care facilities, arts and cultural centers, and campus amenities across Johns Hopkins campuses, insisting that each project emphasize the design of the environment, include public art and encourage collaboration among students and faculty.

?There is little doubt that the modern history of Johns Hopkins has been inextricably and profoundly linked to the remarkable vision and generosity of Mike Bloomberg. We are so much better for his faith and confidence? Daniels said.

Capital and Infrastructure

In all, the mayor has given $240 million toward capital and infrastructure projects, including the Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy in 1988, implementation of the Homewood campus master plan from 1998 through 2002, massive renovations and improvements at the Peabody Institute in 2000, and a complete gutting and interior rebuilding of the landmark Gilman Hall at Homewood from 2005 to 2007.

Financial Aid

In recent years, Bloomberg has funded 20 percent of all need-based financial aid grants for undergraduates in the university?s schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering. With the latest gift, his student aid gifts now total nearly $219 million, of which $164 million has been for undergraduates.

Bloomberg School of Public Health

An ardent believer in the power of public health discoveries and practice to impact the lives of millions around the globe, Bloomberg has directed $289 million to what since 2001 has been known as the Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has given $125 million since 2001 to establish and support the Malaria Research Institute within the Bloomberg School of Public Health. The multidisciplinary center seeks to eradicate that mosquito-borne disease, which in 2010 afflicted an estimated 216 million people and killed 655,000 worldwide. The institute conducts basic and applied research on mosquito biology, the malaria parasite, disease processes and potential vaccines.

?Bloomberg?s public health-related gifts have also supported research into gun violence prevention, tobacco use reduction, safe water, mental health, road safety and global health initiatives.

Research

The mayor?s support for other Johns Hopkins research has reached $336 million. That includes? $69 million since 2000 to establish and support the School of Medicine?s Institute for Cell Engineering, which focuses on the application of stem cells to improve human health.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-bloomberg-makes-massive-donation-to-johns-hopkins-2013-1

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NASA sun close-ups, 'never-before-seen'

Using a relatively small telescope, NASA scientists were able to capture images of an active region of the sun. Other telescopes focus on larger swaths of the sun, while this one zoomed in on 'real fine structure'.?

By Clara Moskowitz,?SPACE.com / January 23, 2013

The Hi-C instrument on the integration table at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Using this technology, scientists were able to capture previously unseen images.

NASA/MSFC

Enlarge

While many NASA space telescopes soar in orbit for years, the agency's diminutive Hi-C telescope?tasted space for just 300 seconds, but it was enough time to see through the sun's secretive atmosphere.

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Designed to observe the hottest part of the sun ? its corona ? the small High-Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) launched on a suborbital rocket that fell back to Earth without circling the planet even once. The experiment revealed never-before-seen "magnetic braids" of plasma roiling in the sun's outer layers, NASA announced today (Jan. 23)

"300 seconds of data may not seem like a lot to some, but it's actually a fair amount of data, in particular for an active region" of the sun, Jonathan Cirtain,?Hi-C mission?principal investigator at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said during a NASA press conference today.

The solar telescope snapped a total of 165 photos during its mission, which lasted 10 minutes from launch to its parachute landing.

Hi-C launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico?atop a sounding rocket in July 2012. The mission cost a total of $5 million ? a relative bargain for a NASA space mission, scientists said. The experiment was part of NASA's Sounding Rocket Program, which launches about 20 unmanned suborbital research projects every year. [NASA's Hi-C Photos: Best View Ever of Sun's Corona]

"This mission exemplifies the three pillars of the [sounding rocket] program: world-class science, a breakthrough technology demonstration, and the training of the next generation of space scientists," said Jeff Newmark, a Sounding Rocket Program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Hi-C?used a modified Cassegrain telescope with a 9.5-inch-diameter mirror to take close-up images of an active region on the sun, achieving a resolution equivalent to sighting a dime from 10 miles away.

While NASA already has telescopes in orbit constantly monitoring the whole?surface of the sun, such as the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the Hi-C mission allowed scientists to focus in on a smaller region than SDO is able to.

"SDO has a global view of the sun," Newmark said. "What this research does is act like a microscope and it zooms in on the real fine structure that's never been seen before."

The next step, the researchers said, is to design a follow-up instrument to take advantage of the new telescope technology tested out by Hi-C, to observe for a longer period of time on an orbital mission.

"Now we've proven it exists, so now we can go study it," said Karel Schrijver, a senior fellow at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif., where the instrument was built.?

Follow Clara Moskowitz on Twitter?@ClaraMoskowitz?or SPACE.com?@Spacedotcom. We're also on?Facebook?&?Google+.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/yB8rmxJw1rw/NASA-sun-close-ups-never-before-seen

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YouSendIt (for iPhone)

Who among us hasn't felt the sting that comes when an email fails to reach its intended recipient due to a mammoth file attachment? YouSendIt specializes in remedying that problem by allowing users to upload large files to its servers and then share the simple, lightweight generated link with others. The company's revamped iPhone and iPod touch app not only lets you email large files with no worries, but lets you digitally sign documents and store files in the cloud as well. If any of those features sound appealing, the free YouSendIt app is worth a download.

The Basics
You start by creating a free account from within the app or login with your credentials should already have an account. After doing so, you're taken to the YouSendIt home screen where four icons live: My Folders, Send, Sign, and Store.

Tapping Send lets you upload a file from your My Folders, Photo Library, or Camera folders to YouSendIt's servers and then key in an email address. I like that YouSendIt displays how much data has been transferred so that you have a sense of how long the entire process will take. Once the email lands in the recipient's mailbox, YouSendIt sends you a confirmation email stating that the message was delivered. Much better than a bounce-back notification, eh?

In my testing on a relatively clean iPhone 5?YouSendIt for iPhone crashed a few times. The good news is that when I relaunched the app, it picked up where I let off pre-crash.

E-Signatures
YouSendIt now lets you digitally sign documents?an incredibly useful feature if you've ever had to Hancock a digital document. Here's how it works: when you receive a document via email, tap and hold the attachment, select Open in YouSendIt, and choose a destination folder. Tapping "Quick Sign" opens a blank area where you can scribble in a signature, change the font, or enlarge the signature's size.

That said, it's difficult to key in a signature while holding an iPhone vertically, as the screen slides from right to left as you write. Turning the phone horizontally, however, makes the process much easier as it scrolls at the pace that you finger your signature. You can save your e-signature for use at a later time, which is very handy.

YouSendIt also acts as a file storage service. Bringing a finger to "Store" lets you save a file to your allotted YouSendIt storage space.

Pricing and File Management
How you use YouSendIt directly corresponds to your account type. Free account holders can store a maximum of 2GB of data, five e-signatures, and upload files up to 50MB in size. Pro accounts (starting at $9.99 per month) house 5GB of data, hold 10 e-signatures, and let you upload 2GB files at a time. Pro Plus accounts (starting at $14.99 per month) one-up Pro accounts by offering unlimited file storage and e-signatures. There's a plan for nearly every user scenario.

Swiping over a folder or file opens the Open In, Email Link, Copy Link, Rename, and Delete options. I like that a user has to swipe to reveal these options as it keeps the interface uncluttered. My Folders offers additional options when you tap the drop-down arrow: Store, "Add New Folders, Sort Files, and Organize. This option set proves essential to keeping my YouSendIt files and folders organized,

A Highly Useful App
YouSendIt is an app you should have on your iPhone or iPod touch if you frequently find yourself in situations where you need to email large files. The e-signature feature is welcome bonus feature that proves equally useful. The crashes were a bit irritating, but they didn't stop me from thoroughly enjoying the app. YouSendIt is a highly recommended convenience utility for the iPhone.

More iPhone Apps Reviews:
??? Vine (for iPhone)
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/LWPW_rUEA10/0,2817,2414714,00.asp

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Chicago gets 1st 1-inch snowfall, breaking record

CHICAGO (AP) ? Chicago didn't get much snow Friday, but it was record-breaking nonetheless.

The 1.1 inches that settled on Windy City streets and sidewalks marked the latest first seasonal snowfall of at least an inch in the Midwest metropolis since at least 1884, when records were first kept, National Weather Service forecaster Matt Friedlein said. The previous record was set on Jan. 17, 1899.

Friday also broke Chicago's longest streak of consecutive days without an inch of snow. The city went 335 days, or about 11 months, without at least an inch, Friedlein said.

For some people, Friday's snow was significant for another reason: They finally got to work.

"This is the first time we've had a blade down this year," said Clara Mark, a dispatcher at Chicago Snow Removal Services, which plows parking lots at condominium complexes, strip malls and factories.

"It's been rough," she said. "Last year was a bust, too. We only plowed three times."

But Mark said Friday's snowfall also was bittersweet for drivers "crying for work." Some clients don't want their parking lots plowed until there's two inches of snow.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-25-US-Chicago-Snow/id-b8fd354c7a024cc492846a7053e1e03a

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Monday at 2pm on PCN+: Worker's Compensation Insurance Rates ...

By admin on Jan 26, 2013 with Comments 0

Click on logo to view the program.

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PA House Labor and Industry committee informational meeting with the PA Compensation Rating Bureau to discuss the?latest rate filing for Worker?s Compensation insurance rates.

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Filed Under: Home Page ? PCN+

Tags: labor and industry committee ? pa compensation rating bureau ? pa house ? workers' compensation

Source: http://pcntv.com/blog/2013/01/26/monday-at-2pm-on-pcn-workers-compensation-insurance-rates-filing-meeting/

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Judge drops most charges against man in Zumba case (Providence Journal)

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Wile E. Coyote Teaches Math (And Despair) To Lucky Students In New Zealand

There's something about being upside down (from all of us in the Northern Hemisphere) that makes New Zealanders a little melancholy. At least that's my theory.

My evidence? Well, the other day, I was looking at a curriculum guide for math teachers ("maths" teachers, they would say) on the New Zealand Ministry of Education's site, where the text on top says, We want to equip "all New Zealanders with the knowledge, skills, and values to be successful citizens in the 21st century."

When you flip to the Maths page, here's what they think young citizens should know: Let's test, they say, the truth or falsity of Murphy's Law.

Not a cheery choice. You know Murphy's Law, right? It says, "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." The folks at the Ministry don't like snappy English, so they wrote it this way:

"In this unit, students will explore the commonly held believe (sic) that if anything bad can possibly happen it will and at the most inopportune time."

It's fun to read the list of supplies teachers should bring to the classroom, the step-by-step instructions, (you can do that here) but what I liked best were the examples, the case studies. They are so painfully specific.

The Ministry says it's teaching statistics, but really it's teaching the philosophy of Wile E. Coyote of the Road Runner cartoons. These lessons look like math, not so deep down they are an immersion into the World of Despair. The Ministry recommends five examples of Murphy's Law. I've translated from New Zealand English when necessary. These are exact quotations.

"The first lesson will investigate the example of Murphy's Law relating to keys. It goes like this (act it out as you are saying it): There you are carrying a heavy box of things to the door or to the car boot [trunk]. You put the box in one arm to hold it while you reach inside your pocket for the keys and, you guessed it, the keys are in the other pocket! So you shift the load onto the other arm to get the keys out or you become a contortionist by trying to get it with the opposite arm. So Murphy's Law for keys says that keys are always in the pocket that you can't reach."

Students are then asked to design experiments to test the probability that keys will consistently lodge in the wrong pocket.

Which assumes you are about to eat a piece of toast buttered on one side, when it slips from your grasp and then you learn ...

"The more expensive the carpet the greater the chance that the piece of toast that falls off your plate will land butter side down."

Drawing pins, (I looked this up) are New Zealand English for thumbtacks. These thumbtacks are always slippery, which is how you discover ...

"If a drawing pin drops on the floor the chance of it landing sharp end up increases as its distance to the nearest bare foot decreases."

Which describes an urgent situation where you need to use transparent tape, which they call "cellotape," to quickly repair something. As you grope for the tape with your fingers, you discover that ...

"The more of a rush you are in the harder it is to find the start of a roll of cellotape."

Which transcends national boundaries and says:

"Whatever queue [line] you join, no matter how short it looks, will always take the longest for you to get served."

That's how they teach probability and statistics in New Zealand. Imagine spending a week designing experiments about frustrating supermarket lines, ungraspable tape, foot seeking thumbtacks and carpet soiling toast. You wouldn't want to leave your bed. But somehow, the Education Minister thinks thinking darkly is good preparation for a successful life in the 21st century. Could the Minister possibly know something we don't?

Though maybe this isn't fair. If you looked at my homework assignments in sixth grade, they were all about getting on a train leaving St. Louis at 6 a.m. and heading for Kansas City at 60 miles an hour, while someone else in Chicago at 4 a.m. was also going to Kansas City, but at 75 miles an hour, and I was supposed to figure out who got to Kansas City first. Did knowing who arrives first in Kansas City better prepare me for success in the 20th century? You bet it did! Look at me! I've got my own blog! So we should respect curriculum developers. They can read the future. They know what's coming.

(All illustrations by Robert Krulwich/NPR)

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/01/23/170083243/wile-e-coyote-teaches-math-and-despair-to-lucky-students-in-new-zealand?ft=1&f=1007

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For Sandy's homeless, lives of anxiety in hotels (Providence Journal)

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Honeywell profit tops Wall Street view on margin boost

(Reuters) - Honeywell International Inc posted fourth-quarter earnings just above Wall Street estimates, reflecting the diversified U.S. manufacturer's campaign to boost profit margins in the face of sluggish sales growth.

The maker of cockpit electronics and systems to manage the climate and security of large buildings confirmed its 2013 profit forecast on Friday and said it expected earnings to rise 6 percent to 11 percent in the first quarter.

"It is just too early to tell what direction the economy is going," said Chief Executive Officer David Cote, who has been one of the loudest voices in corporate America calling on policy leaders in Washington to address the nation's rising debt load.

"Big democracies around the world are still in gridlock over debt, and the U.S. is kicking the debt can down the road and finding that kick doesn't quite go as far as it used to."

Honeywell said earnings came to $251 million, or 32 cents per share, in the fourth quarter. For the year-earlier period, the company booked a loss of $310 million, or 40 cents per share.

Factoring out accounting items related to the company's pension plan, the profit was $1.10 per share, topping the analysts' average forecast of $1.09, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Honeywell shares were up 0.5 percent at $68.57 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Overall profit margins rose to 15.6 percent of sales from 15.1 percent a year earlier as Cote has been pushing to boost productivity across the company's four divisions, including consolidating businesses into fewer locations.

Revenue rose 1 percent to $9.58 billion from $9.47 billion a year earlier.

The company's performance materials unit, whose products include chemicals and equipment used in oil and gas production, notched the strongest sales growth in the quarter, up 8 percent. At the transportation systems unit, which makes products that include automobile turbochargers, sales fell 11 percent, reflecting weak European demand.

The Morris Township, New Jersey-based company affirmed its 2013 profit forecast of $4.75 to $4.95 per share.

At Thursday's close, Honeywell shares had risen about 18.5 percent over the past year, outpacing the 13.6 percent rise of the broad Standard & Poor's 500 index <.spx>.

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/honeywell-profit-tops-wall-street-view-margin-boost-123336205--finance.html

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Mike Hill, Jennings Police Officer Of The Year, Makes Autistic Teen His Backup Deputy (PHOTOS)

One police officer has an autistic teen saying, "I've got your back."

The pair star in a viral Facebook post that has been shared more than 300,000 times since Monday. In the photo, Jennings Police Officer Mike Hill stands next to Blaize, whose mother, Angie Richard, wrote in the post:

Blaize is an 18-year-old old autistic child with mental disabilities. His dream when he turned 18 on July 28, 2012, was to become a police officer. The best I could do was get him the outfit and call JPD to surprise him.

So she called to ask about a special visit for Blaize, and right away, an officer showed up to their Louisiana home.

"They pulled it together real fast?Blaize was the happiest 18 year old I have ever seen!" Richard wrote on Facebook.

After that, Blaize visited the police headquarters with Hill, his new hero and one of the department?s most beloved cops. Afterwards, Richard wrote:

Blaize had his visit at the JPD and got a tour that put a smile on his face from ear to ear!! He received a certificate and a special JPD coin.

"Since that day, Mike Hill has come to our home on 3 different occasions just to visit his 'backup,'" Richard wrote.

During the latest visit, Hill brought a police calendar for Blaize that included photos of all the officers.

The Richards aren't the only ones taking notice, either. This month, Hill was named Officer of the Year.

"Making the neighborhood proud!" a commenter wrote.

Earlier on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/23/mike-hill-jennings-police_n_2535166.html

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North Carolina Must Stop Attacking Religious Freedom, LGBT Families in 2013

COMMENTARY | Last year, North Carolina conservatives scored a major symbolic victory in their war on the family and on religious freedom. Even though North Carolina pastors and ministers who believe in marriage equality were already prohibited from performing same-gender weddings, our state's Republican Party pushed an agenda that included amending the state constitution to twice ban certain kinds of families and the practice of certain religious beliefs.

Specifically, those they don't like.

Here in Cary's suburban sprawl, it was easy to miss the battle unless you looked at the yard signs. But families were being split up, domestic partnerships invalidated, and bullies given new license to yell about people their God hates. And next door in Raleigh, conservative activists celebrated the passing of the amendment by eating the wedding cake they'd denied others.

The "war on the family" is losing

By electing President Obama to a second term -- plus voting in favor of marriage equality in multiple referenda -- the rest of the country demonstrated not how "PC" it was, or how "popular" it wanted to be, but how much empathy it had for those who were hurting. Across the rest of the country estranged families were brought back together, new ones were allowed to form, and people embraced tearfully as love and acceptance changed their lives.

The social conservatives in North Carolina and other holdouts know they can't block out the rest of the world forever. Not with the way things are going. Not when the children they tossed out, the friends and relatives they shun, and the pastors they're warned not to listen to are going on with their own lives without them. And are starting to take exception to people cursing at them, laughing at them, or acting as though they had died, because of differences that matter as little to them as their hair color.

People are going to die in the meantime

Preachers are still riling people up against "queers and homosexuals," and they and transgender persons are still being murdered or killing themselves. Words and actions have consequences, and North Carolina voters decided last year which consequences they approve of.

But it's not too late for them to change that.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-carolina-must-stop-attacking-religious-freedom-lgbt-215200784.html

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Pentagon to remove ban on women in combat (Washington Post)

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PROMISES, PROMISES: Obama curbs ambition this time

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Despite a relentless workload ahead, President Barack Obama is lighter on his feet in one sense as he opens his second term. Gone are the hundreds of promises of the past. He's toting carry-ons instead of heavy cargo this time.

Obama's first presidential campaign and the years that followed were distinguished by an overflowing ambition, converted into a checklist of things he swore to do. The list was striking not only for its length but its breadth, ranging from tidbits in forgotten corners of public policy to grand ? even grandiose ? pronouncements worthy of Moses.

He made a sweeping vow to calm the rise of the seas. And a literally down-in-the-weeds pledge to aid the sage grouse and its grassy habitat.

Obama worked his way through that stockpile, breaking dozens of his promises along the way and keeping many more of them.

Thanks to the messy business of governing, the president's record on promises is not cut and dried. Some of his most notable flops, for example, contained seeds of future success.

Failing to achieve a promised first-term overhaul of immigration law, Obama took stopgap executive action to help as many as 1.7 million younger illegal immigrants stay in the country. Now, after an election marked by Hispanic clout, he finds the political landscape more amenable to trying again.

Climate change legislation was another prominent broken pledge, but he came at the issue piecemeal, imposing the first-ever regulations on heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming, setting tough controls on coal-fired power plants and greatly increasing fuel efficiency for cars and trucks.

Likewise, not all of his successes are all they were cracked up to be.

Yes, he achieved the transformational health care law, putting the U.S. on a path to universal coverage. But it remains in question whether costs will come under control as he said they would ? and as the name of the Affordable Care Act implies. Obama swore a typical family's premium would drop by up to $2,500 a year by the end of his first term, but they've continued to rise. That's a broken promise tucked inside a kept one.

Yes, Obama is extricating the U.S. from wars as he promised before and after he became president, but what instabilities does he leave behind? And how many troops? His vow that, in 2014, "our longest war will be over" is on track to be true in the main, yet thousands of troops might stay indefinitely in Afghanistan as a residual force once the bulk of the 66,000 now there are gone.

His promise to raise taxes on the rich finally came to be at the bitter end of the last Congress, during the debate to avoid going off the "fiscal cliff" of severe spending cuts and steep tax increases that would have started automatically absent an agreement. He also made good on his vow to hold rates steady for everyone else. (The fine print: Households making $250,000 to $400,000 are off the hook from the higher rates. Obama had said he'd tax them more, too.)

As for falling sensationally short, the bitterness in Congress on display in that debate, and so many others, was to be swept away as part of the change Obama promised to bring to Washington's ways and manners. Candidate Obama vowed to turn the page from "ugly partisanship," only to concede recently that such a transformation was beyond his reach because "you can't change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside."

If Obama can't be held responsible for cantankerous lawmakers, though, it's worth remembering that not all of the change he promised to bring to governance was centered on Congress. He also vowed to restrain the power of Washington's special interests by barring lobbyists from serving in his administration, only to backtrack by issuing waivers and other exceptions to those new rules. That was strictly an "inside" job.

On another key promise, deficits have shot up, not dropped by half as he pledged in his 2008 campaign and again as president when the recession was raging. That inherited recession, the halting recovery and his heavy spending to spur growth yielded four straight years of trillion-dollar deficits.

Ahead? A far leaner list, but still a tough one to achieve.

In the 2012 campaign, Obama counted "comprehensive immigration reform" as the first thing he would do this year after the fiscal-cliff deal. Dormant for years, gun control is back as an issue because of the deadly rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary, and took top priority outside fiscal matters. But a push on immigration is coming.

Among other promises from the campaign:

?Make higher education affordable for everyone. Obama said he'll ensure by the end of the decade that the U.S. has more people with college degrees than any other country, recruit 100,000 math and science teachers in 10 years, help 2 million workers attend community college and seek to restrain the growth in college tuition by half over 10 years.

?Put government on a path to cutting deficits by $4 trillion over 10 years. That's off to a rocky start. The fiscal-cliff deal represented a failure to settle on a plan to reduce the national debt, instead increasing both spending and taxes while putting off decisions on the big budget cuts that will be essential to bringing down trillion-dollar deficits.

?Cut imports of foreign oil by half by 2020. Once a pipe dream of a succession of presidents, a path toward energy self-sufficiency has become more conceivable thanks to a boom in domestic production.

?End subsidies to the oil industry. A failed promise from the first term, it's given low odds of succeeding this time.

?Prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Obama has left open the possibility of military action if that's what it takes to stop Iranian nuclear development. Meantime, he's imposed stiff economic penalties on Iran to persuade it to cease uranium enrichment activity, so far without apparent success.

?"Continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet ? because climate change is not a hoax." When Obama secured the primary victories needed for the 2008 Democratic nomination, he pledged that future generations would look back on that very night as "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." At the heart of that was a pledge for strong action on climate change in his first term.

But legislation to cap emissions failed, without Obama leading a charge to pass it, and he all but stopped talking about the issue afterward.

Still, his administration began treating carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the law and steered billions of dollars into cleaner energy. The initiative could be revived in his new term, as an "obligation to ourselves and to future generations," as he now puts it.

?Help factories double their exports, creating 1 million manufacturing jobs. It's a tall order because manufacturing jobs have been declining steadily for nearly two decades.

?Consolidate a "whole bunch" of federal agencies dealing with business issues into one new department led by a secretary of business.

Altogether, it's a more restrained to-do list than Obama produced for his first four years, when PolitiFact.com counted more than 500 Obama promises and found that 46 percent were kept, 23 percent broken and 25 percent ended in a compromise, with a smattering still in the works or stalled.

The sage grouse lucked out, gaining a Sage Grouse Initiative to give the species more grass cover for nesting. As promised.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-17-US-Obama-Promises/id-ac4be738e28946a990ebd537426f21c0

Monsters University

Duke Olympian divers Abby Johnson and Nick McCrory thrive in the college waters

Among the Duke swimmers and divers receiving roses Saturday on the athletic deck of Taishoff Aquatic Pavilion was Abby Johnston, the Duke diver who returned from the 2012 Olympic Games in London this summer with a silver medal around her neck. Duke lost to South Carolina in the dual meet, but the steamy Saturday also marked Senior Day for the Blue Devils. Johnston would have been a senior last year, but took off for training and returned with an Olympic silver medal in synchronized 3-meter...

Source: http://today.duke.edu/node/95964

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Kayak Adds Price Forecasting to Predict Price Drops and Increases

The travel booking site Kayak added price forecasting to its flight booking site today, which should help you decide when the best time to book a cheap flight is.

Kayak's already one of your favorite cheap travel booking sites, and the addition of price forecasting makes it more useful. The forecasting is based on Kayak's analysis of prices over the last year. When you're booking a flight, simply look to the left of your flight list, and click the "Price Trend" button. There you're given the fare trends for the dates you selected, a recommendation on whether you should buy now or not, as well as a list of when flights might be cheaper. The feature is live right now, so head over to Kayak to see how it works.

Kayak | via TechCrunch

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/jod1NLvQqC8/kayak-adds-price-forecasting-to-predict-price-drops-and-increases

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Venture Capital Action Plan: Harper announces plan to strengthen ...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper revealed Monday the outline of a plan for the $400-million his government earmarked in last year?s budget for the support of private sector investment in early-stage companies.

The exact structure of the Venture Capital Action Plan ? which will allocate three separate tranches of money to support new and existing private sector-led funds of funds and existing venture capital funds ? remained unclear.

Our government firmly believes strong action is required to bolster the available risk capital in Canada

Details such as which managers will be tapped to manage the investments, what conditions the funding comes with and an exact timeline for the deployment of the capital were scant, with more information said to be forthcoming.

The $400-million was first announced as part of the 2012 federal budget and a decision on how to spend the funds has been in the works since last June, when finance minister Jim Flaherty appointed private equity investor Sam Duboc to serve as a special advisor on consultations held across the country.

At a news conference in Montreal Monday, Mr. Harper said the government will allocate $250-million to support the creation of two new, private sector-led ?funds of funds,? which are portfolios of investments in several venture capital funds.

Both of these national funds of funds will be managed by a general partner with a ?substantial presence in Canada,? the government said in press materials Monday, adding that the funds of funds ?are expected to be finalized in the coming year.?

The federal government will also put up to $100-million to use in recapitalizing existing funds of funds led by the private sector and said it is looking for participation from provincial governments as well as private investors before it finalizes that funding.

Finally, the government plans to make a total investment of up to $50-million in three to five existing Canadian venture capital funds and expects to select those candidates ?in the coming months.? The government said the money would be deployed over the next seven to 10 years.

?Our government firmly believes strong action is required to bolster the available risk capital in Canada,? Mr. Harper said Monday. ?It is vital for Canada?s economic future and indeed for the long-term prosperity of all Canadians.?

In Ottawa, NDP finance critic Peggy Nash slammed the plan as woefully insufficient.

?The prime minister?s venture capital plan amounts to just peanuts and won?t get the job done,? Ms. Nash said. ?Canada?s venture capital market has been underperforming for over a decade and this funding will likely have little meaningful impact.?

With files from the Canadian Press

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2013/01/14/harper-announces-plan-to-strengthen-venture-capital-investment/

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