Hotel In Santa Clarita - iRobot To Unveil Virtual Business Partner

Source - http://bostonherald.com/
By - Marie Szaniszlo
Category - Hotel In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita
 

Hotel In Santa Clarita

The people who brought you the Roomba vacuum cleaner have teamed up with Cisco to develop an entirely different robot, one that may just help make the pesky business trip a thing of the past.
Bedford-based iRobot will unveil the Ava 500 video collaboration robot at the InfoComm conference in Orlando, Fla., this week, its first creation designed to work in the office.
“Our goal is to give executives a compelling alternative to going to meetings in person,” said CEO Colin Angle. “They’re not giving up the opportunity to sit down at a table, see people’s expressions or follow them out to the hallway to have follow-up conversations.”

Using an iPad, you tap on the Ava 500 app and select where you want to “go” — an office, a factory or any other facility equipped with the robot — and whom you want to see.
At that location, Ava — which stands about 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs about 100 pounds — maps its surroundings so that it can find its way around offices, manufacturing floors and laboratories without bumping into people or objects.
You can choose to let it go either in “private” mode, where the 21.5-inch Cisco HD screen on the robot’s “head” appears blank, or in “public” mode, where your face is displayed on the screen. If you choose the latter, you can see and be seen, and you can remotely stop to have an ad-hoc hallway conversation with a colleague along the way.
“The real value of the robot is that spontaneity,” said Angie Mistretta, director of telepresence solutions marketing at Cisco.
After your meeting, Ava allows you to “go” anywhere else in the building before it heads back to its docking station to recharge.
The robot’s mobility, security and the quality of its video all make it “radically” better than Skype, Angle said.
When it goes on the market early next year, Cisco expects the estimated, one-time cost will be under $70,000. But Angle said the robot also will be able to be leased for between $2,000 and $2,500 per month.
Although initially Ava is expected to be used for business, Mistretta said the robot also could be used in education, allowing students to ask questions of a professor individually after a lecture, and in manufacturing, allowing a company to bring in a remote expert to diagnose and fix a problem.
- See more at: http://bostonherald.com/business/technology/technology_news/2013/06/irobot_to_unveil_virtual_business_partner#sthash.a7zVCCcd.dpuf

The people who brought you the Roomba vacuum cleaner have teamed up with Cisco to develop an entirely different robot, one that may just help make the pesky business trip a thing of the past.
Bedford-based iRobot will unveil the Ava 500 video collaboration robot at the InfoComm conference in Orlando, Fla., this week, its first creation designed to work in the office.
“Our goal is to give executives a compelling alternative to going to meetings in person,” said CEO Colin Angle. “They’re not giving up the opportunity to sit down at a table, see people’s expressions or follow them out to the hallway to have follow-up conversations.”

Using an iPad, you tap on the Ava 500 app and select where you want to “go” — an office, a factory or any other facility equipped with the robot — and whom you want to see.
At that location, Ava — which stands about 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs about 100 pounds — maps its surroundings so that it can find its way around offices, manufacturing floors and laboratories without bumping into people or objects.
You can choose to let it go either in “private” mode, where the 21.5-inch Cisco HD screen on the robot’s “head” appears blank, or in “public” mode, where your face is displayed on the screen. If you choose the latter, you can see and be seen, and you can remotely stop to have an ad-hoc hallway conversation with a colleague along the way.
“The real value of the robot is that spontaneity,” said Angie Mistretta, director of telepresence solutions marketing at Cisco.
After your meeting, Ava allows you to “go” anywhere else in the building before it heads back to its docking station to recharge.
The robot’s mobility, security and the quality of its video all make it “radically” better than Skype, Angle said.
When it goes on the market early next year, Cisco expects the estimated, one-time cost will be under $70,000. But Angle said the robot also will be able to be leased for between $2,000 and $2,500 per month.
Although initially Ava is expected to be used for business, Mistretta said the robot also could be used in education, allowing students to ask questions of a professor individually after a lecture, and in manufacturing, allowing a company to bring in a remote expert to diagnose and fix a problem.
- See more at: http://bostonherald.com/business/technology/technology_news/2013/06/irobot_to_unveil_virtual_business_partner#sthash.a7zVCCcd.dpuf

The people who brought you the Roomba vacuum cleaner have teamed up with Cisco to develop an entirely different robot, one that may just help make the pesky business trip a thing of the past.

Bedford-based iRobot will unveil the Ava 500 video collaboration robot at the InfoComm conference in Orlando, Fla., this week, its first creation designed to work in the office.

“Our goal is to give executives a compelling alternative to going to meetings in person,” said CEO Colin Angle. “They’re not giving up the opportunity to sit down at a table, see people’s expressions or follow them out to the hallway to have follow-up conversations.”

Using an iPad, you tap on the Ava 500 app and select where you want to “go” — an office, a factory or any other facility equipped with the robot — and whom you want to see.

At that location, Ava — which stands about 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs about 100 pounds — maps its surroundings so that it can find its way around offices, manufacturing floors and laboratories without bumping into people or objects.

You can choose to let it go either in “private” mode, where the 21.5-inch Cisco HD screen on the robot’s “head” appears blank, or in “public” mode, where your face is displayed on the screen. If you choose the latter, you can see and be seen, and you can remotely stop to have an ad-hoc hallway conversation with a colleague along the way.

“The real value of the robot is that spontaneity,” said Angie Mistretta, director of telepresence solutions marketing at Cisco.

After your meeting, Ava allows you to “go” anywhere else in the building before it heads back to its docking station to recharge.

The robot’s mobility, security and the quality of its video all make it “radically” better than Skype, Angle said.

When it goes on the market early next year, Cisco expects the estimated, one-time cost will be under $70,000. But Angle said the robot also will be able to be leased for between $2,000 and $2,500 per month.

Although initially Ava is expected to be used for business, Mistretta said the robot also could be used in education, allowing students to ask questions of a professor individually after a lecture, and in manufacturing, allowing a company to bring in a remote expert to diagnose and fix a problem.

Family Hotels In Santa Clarita - Stocks Slide In Asia As Japan Holds Policy Steady

Source - http://www.businessweek.com/
By - Elaine Kurtenbach
Category - Family Hotels In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Family Hotels In Santa Clarita

Stock markets slid Tuesday in Asia, as Japan's central bank ended a policy meeting with no fresh stimulus or moves to curb bond market volatility.

Uncertainty also weighed on emerging markets in Asia, with mainland China's financial markets closed for a national holiday following the weekend release of discouraging data for the world's second largest economy.

Japan's Nikkei stock index fell 1.1 percent to 13,354.60 a day after soaring 4.9 percent following an upward revision of first quarter economic growth data.

A statement issued by the Bank of Japan at midday called for no major policy changes but reiterated its expectation for a moderate recovery in coming months, noting an improvement in exports and resilient demand in Japan.

However, the central bank offered no new monetary easing or measures to curb volatility in government bond prices that has alarmed some in recent weeks.

Regionally, an overnight decline on Wall Street weighed on sentiment, while investors in Hong Kong awaited the reopening of China's markets on Thursday, following the Dragon Boat festival.

"During the holiday, the data from China was not so good. It was below market expectations, so investors are waiting," said Linus Yip, a strategist at First Shanghai Securities.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 1.1 percent at 21,389.09, while Korea's KOSPI slipped 0.7 percent to 1,919.33. Shares were lower in Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore but rose in Australia.

A decision by the Standard & Poor's ratings agency to raise its outlook Monday for its credit rating on the U.S. government's long-term debt did little to boost spirits, as the Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.06 percent, or 9.53 points to 15,238.59. The broader S&P 500 index was down 0.03 percent at 1,642.81

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares edged down 0.2 percent to 6,400.45 while Germany's DAX rose 0.6 percent to 8.307.69. The CAC-40 in France fell 0.2 percent to 3,864.36.

Over recent weeks, investors have grown fearful that the Federal Reserve will reduce the amount of financial assets it buys in the markets — so-called tapering.

The prospect of unchanged Fed policy in the near-term, which became more likely last week following the release of strong job numbers, has weighed on the dollar. The euro rose to $1.3270 from $1.3261 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar fell to 98.18 yen from 98.70 yen.

Oil prices held steady, with the benchmark rate down 2 cents at $95.75 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 26 cents to close at $95.77 per barrel on the Nymex on Monday.

Six Flags Magic Mountain - NC State downs Rice in 17 innings

Source - http://msn.foxsports.com/
By - RALEIGH
Category - Six Flags Magic Mountain
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Six Flags Magic Mountain

Brett Williams doubled in Tarran Senay in the top of the 17th inning to help North Carolina State beat Rice 5-4 on Sunday in the longest super regional game in NCAA history.

 Senay drove in the run that tied it in the ninth inning and set the stage for N.C. State (49-14) to make its first College World Series appearance since 1968.

''It's been special these last two days,'' Senay said. ''It doesn't matter how we get the W, as long as we win. It's a great feeling, and we'll see how we do in Omaha.''

Rice (44-20) tied a season high with three home runs. Two were solo shots by Christian Stringer, who homered and hit a go-ahead double in Game 1 and has four of the Owls' six extra-base hits in the series. Before the super regional, Stringer had one home run in 62 games this season.

N.C. State starter Logan Jernigan held Rice to two hits over five innings, including Stringer's first home run, but just as in Game 1, the Wolfpack struggled to scratch out runs early.

Owls starter Jordan Stephens allowed one earned run in 6 1-3 innings, and N.C. State left 16 runners on base.

But in the ninth, Game 1 hero Jake Fincher drove in a pair of runs with a double into the right-field corner and scored on Senay's double to tie it at 4.

The Owls left the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth when No. 3 hitter Keenan Cook popped a bunt back to pitcher Grant Sasser to send the game to extra innings.

''The first baseman was almost on the grass,'' Rice coach Wayne Graham said. ''Any kind of bunt to the right side would have scored the run. It didn't exactly go in the right direction.''

After that, it was a duel between bullpens. The teams were a combined 0 for 22 at the plate following a 77-minute rain delay in the 12th until Rice's Leon Byrd singled in the 16th.

N.C. State's bullpen held Rice without a hit for 7 1-3 innings after the ninth, and Rice's John Simms gave up only one hit in 6 2-3 innings before the Wolfpack broke through in the 17th.

''The drama, you only enjoy that when you come out on top,'' Williams said.

Hampton Hotels Santa Clarita - Dollar Still In Firing Line Ahead Of U.S. Jobs Report

Source - http://www.reuters.com/
By - Sophie Knight and Ian Chua
Category - Hampton Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hampton Hotels Santa Clarita

After falling as much as 3 percent to a seven-week trough of 95.90 yen on Thursday, the greenback was trading at 96.65. That was 0.4 percent lower than late U.S. levels, with dealers citing selling from Japanese exporters on concerns that it could take time for the dollar to recoup its losses.

Traders said while there was no concrete trigger for the vicious selloff in the greenback overnight, the move has helped flush out some long USD positions ahead of the non-farm payrolls report due at 1230 GMT (8.30 a.m. EDT).

Just last month, investors had turned bullish on the dollar on the belief that upbeat data would prompt the U.S. Federal Reserve to roll back its $85 billion per month bond-buying program.

However, some traders have cut their dollar-longs after recent data raised concerns that Friday's jobs data will disappoint.

"It appears that markets are positioning for a weaker number," said Barclays Capital analysts.

Barclays Capital is, however, forecasting a 175,000 rise in employment, above the 170,000 expected by economists polled by Reuters.

"We think that an outturn close to our forecast could lead to broad USD strength, especially versus low-carry currencies."

The dollar index .DXY remained sluggish on Thursday, dropping 0.1 percent to 81.637 after slumping 1.3 percent to three-month lows on Thursday.

Against the euro, the greenback steadied after losing 1.2 percent on Thursday to a three-month low of $1.3306. It was last at $1.3251, little changed from late New York levels.

Market participants said the euro's move was more driven by the dollar's weakness against the yen than the European Central Bank (ECB)'s widely expected decision to leave its benchmark rate at a record low 0.5 percent.

Indeed, the resurgence of the yen left the euro down 0.5 percent at 127.76 yen, close to the five-week low of 127.53 it plumbed on Thursday.

The recent rise in the yen threatens to undermine the Bank of Japan's stimulus efforts, which have weakened the Japanese currency, helping exporters' overseas revenues up.

"Japanese exporters weren't selling forwards outright before because they expected too much; they wanted to see a higher (dollar) level above 100, like 105," said the director of a research firm who asked not to be identified.

"But the Ministry of Finance don't care about the level so much. They talked it up to 95 and then it got to 100, he said, adding the ministry would happy enough if the dollar remained above 90.

Japanese government officials said they were concerned about the sharpness of the yen's move but did not express any overt worries about the level of the currency.

"We are watching these moves, but this is not about intervention and I don't think we have to respond immediately," Finance Minister Taro Aso told a news conference.

The yen gained 1.7 percent against the Australian dollar to 91.40, after rising as high as 91.20, a level not seen since January 9.

The Aussie also resumed its recent slide after the U.S. dollar's broad weakness plucked it off a 20-month low of $0.9435 on Thursday. It lost 0.7 percent compared to late U.S. levels to $0.9500, within reach of its 2011 trough of $0.9388.

Hotels In Northern California - U.S. Is Secretly Collecting Records Of Verizon Calls

Source - http://www.nytimes.com/
By - CHARLIE SAVAGE and EDWARD WYATT
Category - Hotels In Northern California 
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotels In Northern California

The Obama administration is secretly carrying out a domestic surveillance program under which it is collecting business communications records involving Americans under a hotly debated section of the Patriot Act, according to a highly classified court order disclosed on Wednesday night.

 The order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in April, directs a Verizon Communications subsidiary, Verizon Business Network Services, to turn over “on an ongoing daily basis” to the National Security Agency all call logs “between the United States and abroad” or “wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.”

The order does not apply to the content of the communications.

Verizon Business Network Services is one of the nation’s largest telecommunications and Internet providers for corporations. It is not clear whether similar orders have gone to other parts of Verizon, like its residential or cellphone services, or to other telecommunications carriers. The order prohibits its recipient from discussing its existence, and representatives of both Verizon and AT&T declined to comment Wednesday evening.

The four-page order was disclosed Wednesday evening by the newspaper The Guardian. Obama administration officials at the F.B.I. and the White House also declined to comment on it Wednesday evening, but did not deny the report, and a person familiar with the order confirmed its authenticity. “We will respond as soon as we can,” said Marci Green Miller, a National Security Agency spokeswoman, in an e-mail.

The order was sought by the Federal Bureau of Investigation under a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law that regulates domestic surveillance for national security purposes, including “tangible things” like a business’s customer records. The provision was expanded by Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which Congress enacted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The order was marked “TOP SECRET//SI//NOFORN,” referring to communications-related intelligence information that may not be released to noncitizens. That would make it among the most closely held secrets in the federal government, and its disclosure comes amid a furor over the Obama administration’s aggressive tactics in its investigations of leaks.

The collection of call logs is set to expire in July unless the court extends it.

The collection of communications logs — or calling “metadata” — is believed to be a major component of the Bush administration’s program of surveillance that took place without court orders. The newly disclosed order raised the question of whether the government continued that type of information collection by bringing it under the Patriot Act.

The disclosure late Wednesday seemed likely to inspire further controversy over the scope of government surveillance. Kate Martin of the Center for National Security Studies, a civil liberties advocacy group, said that “absent some explanation I haven’t thought of, this looks like the largest assault on privacy since the N.S.A. wiretapped Americans in clear violation of the law” under the Bush administration. “On what possible basis has the government refused to tell us that it believes that the law authorizes this kind of request?” she said.

For several years, two Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Senator Mark Udall of Colorado, have been cryptically warning that the government was interpreting its surveillance powers under that section of the Patriot Act in a way that would be alarming to the public if it knew about it.

“We believe most Americans would be stunned to learn the details of how these secret court opinions have interpreted Section 215 of the Patriot Act,” they wrote last year in a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

They added: “As we see it, there is now a significant gap between what most Americans think the law allows and what the government secretly claims the law allows. This is a problem, because it is impossible to have an informed public debate about what the law should say when the public doesn’t know what its government thinks the law says.”

A spokesman for Senator Wyden did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment on the Verizon order.

The senators were angry because the Obama administration described Section 215 orders as being similar to a grand jury subpoena for obtaining business records, like a suspect’s hotel or credit card records, in the course of an ordinary criminal investigation. The senators said the secret interpretation of the law was nothing like that.

Section 215 of the Patriot Act made it easier to get an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to obtain business records so long as they were merely deemed “relevant” to a national-security investigation.

The Justice Department has denied being misleading about the Patriot Act. Department officials have acknowledged since 2009 that a secret, sensitive intelligence program is based on the law and have insisted that their statements about the matter have been accurate.

The New York Times filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in 2011 for a report describing the government’s interpretation of its surveillance powers under the Patriot Act. But the Obama administration withheld the report, and a judge dismissed the case.

Vacations In Santa Clarita - Samsung's Surprise Patent Win Could Block Apple iPhone 4 Sales In US

Source - http://www.guardian.co.uk/
By - Charles Arthur
Category - Vacations In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Vacations In Santa Clarita

Samsung has won a surprise victory in a patent battle with Apple that could see the iPhone 4 and 3G-capable iPad 2 banned from sale in the US.

The decision – over a patent deemed essential to conform with the 3G standards, which Samsung has pledged to license freely – will be appealed against by Apple, which said that it will have "no impact" on the availability of its products in the US.

The final judgment by the International Trade Commission, which only adjudicates on requests for import bans to the US, will intensify debate over the US patent system, which is seen as hobbling competition in some fields. It came just hours after Barack Obama pledged to shake up his country's patent litigation system, with reform of the ITC among its objectives.

The ITC decided that the provision of 3G mobile data links in the iPhone 4, released in 2010, and 3G-capable iPad 2, infringed US patent 7,706,348. It rejected Apple's contention that Samsung had failed to license the patent on "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory" (FRAND) terms, as is required for standards-essential patents (SEPs). The iPhone 5 and 4S, and iPads released in 2012, are unaffected by the decision.

Apple and Samsung have been fighting a war of attrition through the various patent courts in the US and around the world in which they have sought to ban and otherwise limit sales of each other's products in Europe, the US, Australia and Asia. The ITC decision is the most significant win for Samsung in the US after a series of losses and indeterminate rulings there.

The decision to allow Samsung's request for a ban is controversial, because the FTC in January demanded a consent order from Google in which it would pledge that its Motorola subsidiary would not seek sales bans against "willing licensees" of SEPs.

It will also focus attention on the ITC, which has been used by a number of companies including Apple, Samsung, HTC, Nokia and others to seek import bans over alleged patent infringement against rivals in the hugely valuable smartphone business. On Tuesday, Obama announced plans to overhaul many of the US's patent litigation systems, including "change the ITC standard for obtaining an injunction to better align it" with the tests applied in US federal courts. Those effectively preclude sales bans over SEPs on willing licensees.

In Europe, the antitrust arm of the European Commission has indicated it will take legal action, perhaps including fines, against Samsung for seeking sales bans over SEPs against Apple – the same scenario in which the ITC has backed Samsung. One of the ITC's commissioners dissented from Tuesday's ruling, citing "public interest grounds".

Normally, the owner of a patented technology can decide whether or not to license it, and what rate to charge for it. But with SEPs, the owner pledges to a standards body to offer it on FRAND terms to any licensee. The payment for such patents is usually small – perhaps amounting to a fraction of a penny per use – in return for widespread use. That allows other companies to build their products to an agreed standard. Systems such as the 3G and Wi-Fi wireless networking and the H.264 video encoding/decoding standards incorporate hundreds of patents, all of which are licensed under FRAND terms.

In its judgment, the ITC said that Samsung's FRAND declarations "do not preclude" a sales ban. However, that is at odds with the FTC and European Commission position over SEPs.

"We believe the ITC's final determination has confirmed Apple's history of free-riding on Samsung's technological innovations," Samsung said in a statement to the AllThingsD website. "Our decades of research and development in mobile technologies will continue, and we will continue to offer innovative products to consumers in the US."

Apple said it was "disappointed" with the decision and that it would appeal to a federal court. Its only other alternative to avoid the import ban would be to appeal directly to Obama.

"Samsung is using a strategy which has been rejected by courts and regulators around the world," an Apple spokesperson said in a statement to AllThingsD. "They've admitted that it's against the interests of consumers in Europe and elsewhere, yet here in the US Samsung continues to try to block the sale of Apple products by using patents they agreed to license to anyone for a reasonable fee."

Apple has been seeking a US sales ban without success on a number of Samsung smartphones and tablets after it won a jury verdict and $1.05bn in damages against the South Korean company in a Californian court in August 2012. That case revolved around patents which Apple has not made part of a standard, and which it said Samsung knowingly infringed. The jury rejected counterclaims by Samsung that Apple had infringed a number of SEPs.

Lucy Koh, the judge in the case, has so far declined to allow that ban, and has ordered a retrial affecting about $400m of the damages award.

Attractions In Santa Clarita - Scientists Solve 3.5 Billion-Year-Old Mystery Of Life And Its Link To Meteorites

Source - http://thespacereporter.com/
By - Press Release
Category - Attractions In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Attractions In Santa Clarita

It seems life may have received a boost from asteroids smashing into the surface of Earth early in its life.

According to a newly published report produced by researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) and the University of Washington, life-producing phosphorus may have landed on Earth 3.5 billion years ago, providing a boost to early life forms.

USF professor Matthew Pasek, who led the study, says the phosphorus, when released in water, may have over time incorporated themselves into prebiotic molecules. The phosphorus, which has been found in asteroids, was likely carried to Earth via comets and meteorites, which released the element when impacted Earth.

By focusing on the Hadean and Archean eons of early Earth, the scientists were able to discern that meteorites delivered phosphorus in minerals currently not seen on the surface of Earth. By examining Earth core samples from Zimbabwe, Australia, Wyoming, West Virginia, Florida the team was able to determine the origin of the minerals. According to researchers, the minerals likely corroded in water, releasing large amounts of phosphorus in a form only found during Earth’s early formation. The phosphite would have likely resulted in an adjusting of the chemistry of Earth’s early oceans, with its chemical signature later becoming trapped in marine carbonate where it was preserved.

“The importance of this finding is that it provides the missing ingredient in the origin-of-life recipe: a form of phosphorus that can be readily incorporated into essential biological molecules,” said Roger Buick, a co-author of the study.

There are few natural sources of phosphite that are Earth-based. Some of the examples include lightning strikes, geothermal fluids  and possibly microbial activity under extremely anaerobic condition. However, none of the Earth-based forms could have produced the quantities of phosphite needed to be dissolved in early Earth oceans that gave rise to life, according to researchers.

According to the report, the conditions that led to a boom of life on Earth no longer exist and the elements delivered by asteroids are few and far between. Previous research has already confirmed that before the emergence of DNA-RNA-protein life , the earliest forms  of life on Earth evolved by relying on RNA alone. While the evolution of early life is fairly well understood, it remained unclear how early RNA–based life forms synthesized environmental phosphorus, which in its current form is relatively insoluble and unreactive.

This is not the first study to propose how life may have evolve from elements delivered to Earth via asteroids and comets. A number of scientists have examined and noted the abundance of reactive phosphorus in the form of the mineral schreibersite, a iron–nickel phosphide.

The report is published in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.