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Thursday, May 3, 2012

Salesforce Acquires YC-Backed Collaborative Text Editor Stypi

It looks like the team from Y Combinator-backed Stypi is heading to Salesforce, according to this blog post. UPDATE: We've confirmed that Salesforce has acquired Stypi. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. As we reported last year, Stypi develops a lightweight, real-time collaborative text editor. It's similar in many ways to fellow YC alum Etherpad, which was acquired by Google. You can create documents in Stypi and edit it just as you would any other document, and you can invite new collaborators simply by sending them the URL.

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Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Lloyds Banking Group beats expectations in Q1

LONDON (AP) ? U.K high street lender Lloyds Banking Group on Tuesday reported a modest net profit of 2 million pounds ($3.2 million) in the first quarter when its performance beat market expectations.

The company, 40 percent owned by U.K. taxpayers, also recorded a pretax profit of 288 million pounds ($467 million) in the first quarter, which included a 375 million provision to compensate customers for missold insurance.

In the previous quarter, it made a 316 million pounds net profit and a loss of 3.5 billion pounds in the same period last year. Its 2 million pound net profit compares with a 2.4 billion pound net loss last year and a 37 million pound profit in the previous quarter.

Lloyds has taken a total provision of 3.575 billion pounds, by far the biggest of any British bank, to compensate customers who were sold payment protection insurance which they didn't need.

Total income net of insurance claims was down 6 percent to 4.49 billion pounds.

Lloyds shares were up 1.6 percent at 31.5 pence in early trading.

The U.K. government injected much needed capital into Lloyds at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. It is now looking to sell off its shares, but only when their price has reached a certain level.

"The likelihood of reaching the government's 70 pence-plus break-even point seems a long way off, even if Lloyds is making slow and steady progress, whilst the absence of a dividend is another drag on enticing potential buyers," said Richard Hunter, head of equities, Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers.

Total impairments improved from 2.6 billion pounds a year ago to 1.66 billion pounds. Within that total, the charge in the first quarter in the bank's wealth and international division was 705 million pounds compared to 1.5 billion pounds a year earlier, primarily because of lower charges in its Irish and Australasian businesses.

Nonetheless, with two-thirds of the Irish portfolio classed as impaired, the bank warned that "further vulnerability exists."

Customer deposits were up 6 percent year-on-year to 412 billion pounds. The core tier 1 capital ratio? a key gauge of underlying financial strength ? was up from 10 percent last year to 11 percent in the first quarter.

Lloyds is still seeking to clinch a deal to sell 632 branches to meet the European Commission's conditions for receiving state aid. While continuing to talk to the Co-operative Group, the bank's preferred bidder, Lloyds said last week it was open to other offers.

Associated Press

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Ice Cube Reveals New Album Title, Everything's Corrupt

Rapper-turned-actor also updates MTV News on his in-the-works FX series 'Eye for an Eye,' N.W.A biopic and fourth 'Friday' film.
By Tamara Palmer

Ice Cube
Photo: Kameron Zach/MTV News

As the clock struck midnight on April 29, ringing in the 20-year anniversary of the day three police officers were acquitted in the Rodney King trial and the start of the Los Angeles riots, Ice Cube was imploring a sold-out crowd at KDAY's Krush Groove concert at L.A.'s Gibson Amphitheatre to never forget what happened in 1992.

The upheaval fueled the direction of Ice Cube's The Predator later that year. The album remains his career bestseller, a home to express songs like "We Had to Tear This Mother----a Up" as well as a wry hit like "It Was a Good Day." Two decades on, he still believes in music as a vehicle for social change.

"People have music in their hearts," Cube told MTV News before stepping onstage. "Music ain't about the charts. It's about how you feel about a certain song. I know people who have music and music changed their life just by hearing a song. It could be an old song. It could be a song that people thought was thrown away and you can hear it and it can inspire you. So, I think music has always had the power to change, heal, bring understanding and bring people together."

After serving up his best-known 'hood and Hollywood anthems, Ice Cube brought his rapping sons OMG and Doughboy to offer a taste of a collaboration they'll bring on his next album.

"I think I'm gonna call it Everything's Corrupt," he revealed. "It's just really hardcore West Coast hip-hop — what I do. I don't think changing the formula is what should be done. I think it's all about do what you do best and give the people what they want."

Cube stays busy with his film and television pursuits and has talked about several ideas that are in development, including creating a dramatic television series for FX called "Eye for an Eye," in which he'll play an ambulance driver with a mission to avenge victims of violence.

"It's a great series as far as the idea, the concept," he said. "We're still trying to find that top-notch A-list writer who will want to be with us in the long haul, be with the project and ready to go. So, we want to find the best because we think the premise of the show is great.

"I play a guy who is an ambulance driver. He's basically not really qualified as a paramedic, more EMT kind of dude, and he's sick of seeing all these victims," he explained. "He wants to do something to give them some kind of revenge. So, it's an eye for an eye — whatever you do to your victim, same thing can happen to you."

Longtime collaborator F. Gary Gray has signed on to direct the planned biopic of N.W.A, which Ice Cube says is "full steam ahead."

"We're excited about him being part of the project, and the script is getting tighter and tighter, and once the script is tight as sweaty butt cheeks, we'll put it out, and we'll start working on it.

" 'Friday' is the same thing," he said of the anticipated fourth installment of his popular movie franchise. "I'm almost finished with the script, so as soon as we can finish the script, fast motion on it."

Which of Ice Cube's upcoming projects are you most looking forward to? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Related Artists

Ice Cube

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Secret Service closes ranks in sordid scandal

FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 24, 2011 file photo, Secret Service agents stand guard as President Barack Obama meets with the neighbors of homeowners Jose and Lissette Bonilla in Las Vegas. The Secret Service has been tarnished by a prostitution scandal that erupted April 13, 2012 in Colombia involving 12 Secret Service agents, officers and supervisors and 12 more enlisted military personnel ahead of President Barack Obama's visit there for the Summit of the Americas. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? After two weeks of disturbing revelations about a tawdry prostitution scandal, the Secret Service and its supporters are circling the wagons to restore the "secret" part of its mission.

Retired agents have been instructed to stop talking to reporters. Secret Service agents are dismantling Facebook accounts, hanging up on reporters and notifying headquarters ? even calling police ? when journalists knock on their doors at home for interviews about the investigation.

"What purpose do these revelations, true or exaggerated, serve? What ever happened to one's pride in being discreet and keeping a confidence?" asked the president of the Association of Former Agents of the U.S. Secret Service, Pete Cavicchia, in an email to members. Cavicchia, head of a New York-based security and investigations firm, praised retired agents who declined interviews, urged others to "exercise the proper caution" and added, "We as an organization and individually do not have to add to the damage and speculation at this time."

Cavicchia said Monday that the email speaks for itself.

The scandal and what it's revealed about the culture inside the Secret Service have been a shock to an agency that is famously discreet. More than a dozen Secret Service agents contacted by The Associated Press have abruptly hung up or declined to return multiple messages to discuss their agency and former coworkers. One reported it to headquarters when an AP reporter visited his home in the evening; some retired officials who were interviewed quickly notified headquarters about what questions reporters were asking.

A police officer came to the Annapolis, Md., home of Greg Stokes ? one of the employees who already has lost his job in the scandal ? and directed an AP reporter to leave his property. At the home in Virginia of another employee who also lost his job, David Chaney, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office parked a patrol car ? sometimes two of them. A deputy reprimanded reporters who came to the front door.

Chaney made his Facebook account inaccessible after he was identified as one of the officers involved, but not before reporters found it. Chaney joked on the account about his work with former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin while he was protecting her in 2008. The AP published a photograph it took of Chaney working in Palin's protective detail in October 2008 during a campaign rally in Carson, Calif.

A former agent, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to protect relationships with current agents, said senior officials have kept a tight rein on information about the continuing investigation about what happened in Colombia.

The silence shouldn't be surprising for an agency whose job involves keeping secrets, said Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, a former general counsel for the House Committee on Homeland Security who is now a partner with a Washington consulting firm. "It's a discreet organization. That's part of its mission," she said. "If you are dealing with the Secret Service or any type of intelligence agency you are going to see the same kind of response."

In Washington, where Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan has briefed members of Congress and President Barack Obama about the investigation, the Secret Service has issued only limited public statements since the April 12 incident, which implicated a dozen agents, officers and supervisors and 12 other U.S. military personnel in a night of heavy drinking in Cartagena, Colombia, before Obama's visit to the Summit of the Americas. Some were accused of bringing prostitutes back to their hotel rooms.

The Secret Service already has forced eight employees from their jobs and was seeking to revoke the security clearance of another employee, which would effectively force him to resign. Three others have been cleared of serious wrongdoing. The military was conducting its own, separate investigation but canceled the security clearances of all 12 enlisted personnel.

A spokesman for the Secret Service, Edwin Donovan, said he was not familiar with instructions to former agents not to agree to interviews with reporters. Donovan said longstanding rules prohibit current employees from speaking with reporters unless it's authorized by supervisors or the public affairs office in Washington.

Cavicchia said the April 16 email was nothing more than a reminder to let "cooler heads" prevail when thinking about discussing the agency's inner workings or discussing current or former "protectees."

More secrets won't remain that way for long. Congressional hearings are expected to start within weeks. This week, lawmakers are expecting answers to dozens of detailed questions they submitted about the scandal. Most important, according to the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., are assurances that the women in Colombia were not associated with narcotics or terror groups or a foreign government.

___

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Sarah Breitenbach in Annapolis, Md., contributed to this report.

Follow Alicia A. Caldwell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/acaldwellap

Associated Press

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UFO Spotted Near the Sun By NASA ... or Totally Not

An image from NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory has renewed fascination over UFOs after capturing what appears to be an image of something large and artificially constructed hovering close to our solar neighbor.

See below. The NASA video shows something that looks like a huge, sectioned object with some sort of lengthy attached mechanical arm near the sun:

UFO Sighting Near the Sun

As the NASA video spreads around the Internet, UFO believers are claiming the object is an alien spaceship. Of course, that's probably very unlikely.

Any spaceship getting that close to the sun, with temperatures nearing 10,000 degrees, would surely burn up right then and there ... or would it?

IF the aliens were equipped with a technology we don't have yet, and could withstand enormous heat, they could pull it off though. Think about it.

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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Dish Hopper whole-home DVR review

A new DVR with a never-before-seen feature doesn't come around every day, and if it's the sort of amenity that works in every room of the house, without compromise, then we just have to review it. What would make the list? Try the Dish Hopper whole-home DVR, which can record six shows at once. Of course, there are specs and marketing claims, and then there's real-world performance. Is this set-top box everything we could have dreamed of? There's only one way to find out: you'll have to meet us past the break and take a walk through our full review.

Gallery: Dish Hopper review