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Tuesday, March 6, 2012
China boosts defense budget 11 percent after U.S. "pivot" (Reuters)
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Reuters - China will boost military spending by 11.2 percent this year, the government said on Sunday, unveiling Beijing's first defense budget since President Barack Obama launched a policy "pivot" to reinforce U.S. influence across the Asia-Pacific.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Feel cheated? Small claims court brings big wins
FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012 file photo, Heather Peters, who says her 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid never achieved the gas mileage Honda claimed in its advertising, pleads her case in Small Claims Court in Torrrance, Calif. A few recent cases demonstrate that consumers can, if they're motivated enough, win small-claims cases against big companies. These "David versus Goliath" battles were won against the likes of AT&T, Honda and others without lawyers. The plaintiffs paid minor filing fees, gathered their own research and presented arguments in quick hearings that resemble the average "Judge Judy" episode. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012 file photo, Heather Peters, who says her 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid never achieved the gas mileage Honda claimed in its advertising, pleads her case in Small Claims Court in Torrrance, Calif. A few recent cases demonstrate that consumers can, if they're motivated enough, win small-claims cases against big companies. These "David versus Goliath" battles were won against the likes of AT&T, Honda and others without lawyers. The plaintiffs paid minor filing fees, gathered their own research and presented arguments in quick hearings that resemble the average "Judge Judy" episode. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? If you feel cheated by a big company and complaining gets you nowhere, what can you do? A handful of recent cases suggest that consumers can, if they're motivated enough, win against big companies in small claims courts.
These "David versus Goliath" battles were won against the likes of AT&T, Honda and others, without resorting to lawyers. The plaintiffs paid minor filing fees, gathered their own research and presented arguments in quick hearings that resemble the average "Judge Judy" episode.
And now, thanks to the Internet, these victors are connecting with other consumers in hopes of helping them replicate their successes. If the practice catches on, it could amount to a big bucks difference in payouts by these giant corporations.
"It is a significant undertaking," says Heather Peters of Los Angeles, who sued Honda because her Civic Hybrid didn't meet its claims for gas mileage. She won $9,867 last month.
"But with the Internet, it's a whole different world," said Peters, a former lawyer who just reactivated her license. "It just takes one or two people like us who are the anal-retentive, compulsive people to do all the work, and are magnanimous enough to say: 'Here you are! Go get 'em. You do it, too!'"
Other success stories include Matt Spaccarelli of Simi Valley, Calif., and Henry Brown of New York, who both sued AT&T Inc.
Brown won $1,587.50 in October after suing the telecommunications giant for frequently dropping his wireless calls and charging him an early termination fee when he wanted to get out of his contract.
Spaccarelli was awarded $850 last week after successfully suing AT&T for slowing down the data service on his iPhone when he hit a limit for downloads, even though he had an "unlimited data" plan.
Peters and Spaccarelli have both put up websites that feature copies of the documents they used in court.
Peters says hundreds of people have expressed interest, and she knows of at least six consumers who have filed cases. Dozens of people have contacted Spaccarelli, and he recently filed suit on behalf of his brother, who has the same problem with his iPhone.
Their victories aren't necessarily final. Honda says it will appeal Peters' award, and AT&T is appealing Spaccarelli's. But the new hearings will basically be reruns of the first ones. They will feature similar and relatively informal rules. So there's no way the companies can use their resources to take a small claims case to a jury trial and force the consumer to rack up enormous legal fees.
The small claims process is by no means easy. For Brown and Spaccarelli, the hearings were harrowing. They felt intimidated by AT&T's representatives. AT&T's lawyer postponed Brown's hearing three times before agreeing to a hearing date, months after the suit was filed.
"He was just so vicious, and it actually scared me. I actually said to the judge, 'I don't feel safe sitting next to him. He's just on the full attack,'" Brown says. The judge was sympathetic but told Brown that lawyers don't have to act nice: "This isn't a tea party," he was told.
Peters started her case because she was dissatisfied with a class-action settlement in the works over the same issue ? the Honda Civic Hybrid's gas mileage. That settlement would give Civic owners $100 to $200 each, plus a rebate on a new Honda. Peters made out much better.
Should companies be scared of consumers heading to small claims courts? A quick calculation shows they should have cause for concern.
Honda's proposed class action settlement might cost the carmaker $40 million, if every one of the 200,000 Civic Hybrid owners claimed the maximum amount. But if all of the owners went to small claims court and fared as well as Peters, the company would be out nearly $2 billion.
"If corporations see a large number of people going to small claims, it might cut off their ability to have these relatively cheap dispositions of class actions," says Richard Cupp, a law professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.
But while corporations have been fighting class actions, they don't seem very concerned about self-help justice through small claims. Paying off a few brave souls who head to small claims or arbitration is, after all, cheaper than settling class action suits.
"How many people would really do this?" Spaccarelli asks. "I'm just kind of pig-headed."
Companies are actually encouraging consumers to take their gripes to small claims courts. A clause in AT&T's contract, for instance, forbids customers from pursuing a jury trial or a class action. It points them instead to small claims court or arbitration. AT&T scored a victory on behalf of many companies when the Supreme Court upheld the clause last year.
"We strongly believe that small claims and arbitrations are viable options for concerned customers," AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel says. "With over 100 million customers, we expect to receive complaints from time to time, and we know that, in a few of those cases, a small claims judge or an arbitrator might make a decision that we think is wrong. That's OK."
There is scant data on the number of small claims cases filed in the U.S. each year or on the number of cases that feature consumers suing big companies. A study by the National Center for State Courts, published in 1992, found 40 percent of cases in the 12 courts studied were consumer complaints. The same study found that 67 percent of individuals suing businesses or government agencies won their cases.
The Internet makes it easier for consumers to band together and take their cases to small claims court, but that doesn't apply to arbitration cases, because they usually require parties to keep the outcome confidential. If companies direct more cases to arbitration, sharing of tips and documents among consumer plaintiffs would be stifled.
Consumer advocates have been critical of arbitration for another reason: The arbiters are effectively paid by the companies who funnel claims there. Mandatory arbitration clauses by credit card companies have been hotly contested by regulators, consumer groups and in court.
The Davids who take down Goliaths in small claims courts say it isn't about the money but the justice ? the satisfaction of getting even.
"What was worth the time was sticking it to AT&T. That was the end-all," Brown says. "Especially when, at the end, the lawyer came up to me and said, 'Congratulations, you made a great case.' I looked at him in disgust and walked away."
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Which HDTV specs matter?
4 days
Shopping for a TV these days involves filtering a barrage of numbers: contrast ratios, refresh rates, viewing angles and more. Quite often, these numbers are meaningless or impossible to compare across brands, offering little value to the consumer. Other specs can be used to help find the right TV. This guide will help you spot the facts through the marketing gimmicks.
Contrast ratio: Meaningless
While contrast ratio itself (the difference between the brightest part of the image and darkest) is the most important aspect of the overall picture quality of a TV, the numbers supplied by manufacturers are completely useless. For one, there is no standard way to measure contrast ratio, so companies often just make up numbers to suit the marketing department?s purposes.
Worse still, you can?t judge contrast ratio in a store. The harsh lighting of most retailers masks true contrast ratio. So a cheap LCD in a store may seem better looking than the plasma right next to it, when, in fact, at home the opposite would be true.
Refresh Rate: Meaningful, but becoming meaningless
LCDs suffer from motion blur, which means that objects on-screen seem to blur when they?re in motion. This can be as obvious as a sportsball person blurring as he runs across the screen, or as subtle as a closeup of a face, blurring slightly as it moves around a little.
The most common way of minimizing motion blur is to increase the refresh rate. This means more images on screen per second than a ?regular? LCD. You?ll see these numbers in multiples of 60 (like 120 Hz, 240 Hz, and so on). With video-based content, like sports) these higher refresh rates do indeed decrease motion blur. The TV creates new frames to go in between the actual frames of video. With a 120 Hz TV, it creates a new frame for every original frame in the source. With a 240 Hz TV, it creates 3 new frames.
With film-based content (nearly all movies, most TV shows), however, increasing the frame rate causes a noticeable artifact, colloquially called the ?soap opera effect.? The smoothing of the motion caused by increasing the frame rate causes movies to have an ultra-smooth look that makes them look like soap operas. Many find this to be objectionable (myself included).
Where the term starts to become meaningless, is in the constant effort to ?one-up? the competition, companies are starting to market 480, 960, and even higher ?refresh rates.? These are always done by some clever math and a flashing backlight. In other words, the backlight of the LCD flashes at some rate, increasing the apparent refresh. Flash it twice with every frame of a 240 Hz TV, now it?s 480 Hz! Using this as the example, some companies call this 480 Hz, while others come up with some clever marketing name for it. Will your eye see any difference between 240 Hz and 480 ?Hz? using a flashing backlight? Probably not, though the latter will likely be somewhat dimmer.
Look for ?true? or ?real? 240 Hz models, if you?re interested. The other technologies are largely specs-manship.
For those who want to nitpick, when I say ?film-based? I mean 24 frames per second, which is a frame rate option on modern video cameras.
Plasmas, because of how they work, don?t suffer from motion blur and don?t need higher refresh rates.
Color anything: Meaningless
Pretty much any claim about color is meaningless. All current TV technologies are able to reproduce all the colors supplied on Blu-ray, DVD, and every cable channel. Any additional color is created by the TV is not accurate. You may prefer over-saturated colors, but we at HD Guru think a TV should accurately display what?s in the source, not create something on its own. To that end, TVs with adjustable color points or color settings are idea (most mid- and high-end models have this feature).
Viewing Angle: Meaningless
LCD companies like to claim their TVs are viewable at wide angles, with many claiming ?178-degree viewing? or similar. This is almost always nonsense. In most cases, yes, an image can be?seen?at these angles, but the contrast ratio and color accuracy is radically different than what you see straight on (also called ?on axis).
The fact of the matter is, only plasma TVs offer a wide viewing angle, with the same quality of image off axis. The next best is IPS-based LCDs, which offer similar viewing angles to plasma, but have historically had a penalty in contrast ratio and black level on axis compared to other LCD technologies.
If you have a large couch, or viewing positions (i.e. ?chairs?) that are at an angle to the TV, most LCDs aren?t for you.
TV depth: Meaningless (but read the fine print)
Many TVs are coming out that claim ?under 1-inch? of depth. This is sort of true. Part of the TV is likely less than one inch, but not all of it. Most ultra-thin TVs have a bulge at the bottom. In some extreme cases, the TV is so thin that important parts of the TV are in a separate box. This may or may not work for you, depending on how you want to install the TV.
Like anything, read the fine print of the TV?s specs.
Energy consumption: Meaningful
Last year we saw new?regulations go into effect?that requires TV manufacturers to measure and publish the energy consumption for their TVs. This is, without question, absolutely fantastic. Interestingly, the claimed energy consumption superiority of LED LCDs has been largely marketing hype. While it?s true that the average LED LCD is more efficient than a comparably sized plasma, it isn?t significant enough to offset LED?s higher price.
In other words, if you?re buying an LED to save money, it will take years to recoup the price premium you paid over buying a plasma. If, however, your goal is just to be as green as possible, then absolutely get an LED LCD. Just be sure turn down the backlight.
All CCFL LCDs contain mercury, making them a poor choice if green is your goal.
So what specs do matter?
Here?s the part that?s annoying. Many of the above specs (contrast ratio, black level, brightness, color accuracy, viewing angle)?would tell you almost everything you?d need to know about a television, if only companies reliably measured and reported them.?
It?s worth nothing that while you can't even find the actual specifications for THX Certified TVs,?they do have to meet minimum requirements for color and color temperature accuracy and other specifics.
If supplied, these numbers, plus some subjective factors like video processing performance, would make it easy to judge one TV from another. Too bad manufacturers will never publish specs like this. Why would they? It would be too easy to see which TV was ?best.? Fortunately, the better TV review websites (ahem, like HD Guru)?do?publish these numbers, when they can get their hands on them.
(And if that?s not gratuitous self-promotion, I don?t know what is. Speaking of which, have you?seen my book?)
You can catch up with Geoff Morrison on Twitter at?@TechWriterGeoff, or send questions and comments to HD Guru?here.
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Game Copy Wizard Review Scam | Boss Attack!
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* In GameCopyWizard ?? ?n front ?f ?t t? complete th? latest splinterproof b? implemented easily, ?? ??? eat ?n? ?f th??? games symmetrical crack CD ?r DVD.
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Inground Vs. Above Ground Swimming Pools- What's The Difference ...
?
Copyright ? 2012 savvycontent.com
Nowadays, there are a lot of types, designs, and styles of swimming pools that a person can choose from. These swimming pools range from plastic, Jacuzzi, inground, or above ground. The most common, probably, are the inground and the above ground swimming pools.
Swimming pools were said to have started in Ancient Pakistan. Back then, people called these pools baths. Those pools were covered with bricks and sealed with tar sealant, to avoid any leakage. The great bath, the first of the baths was twelve meters by seven meters in area. Swimming pools gained popularity when the Greeks and Romans used it for water sport training and recreation. Pools also doubled as fish ponds. When a Roman emperor suggested a heated swimming pool, more and more aristocrats wanted to build a heated swimming pool in their estate. It was not until the 19th century, when the British established various swimming clubs, that the swimming pool became largely popular among the masses. Since then, many have adapted swimming pools in their homes and villages.
There have always been talks about the difference between the inground and the above ground swimming pools. When a person is debating about what kind of pool he should install in his property, there are a lot of things he should consider.
First, the owner should think about the amount of space he has available for the pool. The inground pool takes more space than the above ground pool. While inground pools are permanent, once the owner gets tired of having an above ground swimming pool he can just uninstall it any time. Above ground pools are more cost-effective and budget friendly compared to the inground pool. Not only that, but some states also have laws and taxes regarding inground pools. Since the taxes are big, most families prefer the above ground pool because there are no necessary taxes that go with it.
The people who will use the pool and activities that will be done there are very important things to consider when a person is deciding the pool that he should install. Although the above ground pool is very convenient, they may not be good for swim training and other water sports. On the other hand, the inground pool need heaters because they can get cold at night, while the above ground pool does not need their water to be heated, and the need for a heater will depend on the location of the pool and how it is installed.
Learn more about above ground pools. Stop by www.poolsaboveground.com where you can find out all about automatic pool cleaners and what it can do for you.
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Sunday, March 4, 2012
Protesters become leaders in China village vote (AP)
[unable to retrieve full-text content]AP - Two protesters who led a rebellion against officials accused of stealing farmland were elected Saturday to run their fishing village in a much-watched election that reformers hope will promote democracy as a way to settle many of the myriad disputes besetting China.
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Obama calls student as contraception fight turns nasty (Reuters)
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Reuters - President Barack Obama called a law student on Friday to express his support after she was branded a "slut" by controversial right-wing talk-show host Rush Limbaugh for her outspoken support of Obama's new policy on contraception coverage.
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