| Toy retailer entertains web upgrade
Independent toy retailer The Entertainer has completed a website refresh and contracted ecommerce specialist Escalate Retail to provide a software suite for the back-end. The implementation cost just over 400,000, including overall hosting, development and license costs, in the first year but since the system went live in October 2007, one of the retailer's sites, thetoyshop.com, has increased sales by 147 per cent, according to The Entertainer's online marketing and ecommerce manager Richard Bewley. silicon.com Retail & Leisure Get the latest retail and leisure news straight to your inbox. Sign up for the R&L newsletter today! The system replaces a bespoke implementation made before thetoyshop.com and The Entertainer's other brand Gadgetshop were acquired, which was deemed too inflexible to be able to cope with the peaks and troughs of traffic.
T-Mobile Testing Unlimited Home Phoning for $10
The Talk Forever Home Phone plan from T-Mobile lets regular home phones use the Internet in a test in Dallas and Seattle. At $10 a month, T-Mobile's Talk Forever plan challenges both traditional wired-service providers and VOIP service. While T-Mobile's Talk Forever plan appears similar to VOIP, it actually goes through a T-Mobile gateway. .
Online Petitions Trying to Save `FNL'
Another beloved TV show is close to the chopping block. And yet again, its loyal fans are attempting to stave off the execution. With the writers strike over, a number of shows are in limbo as network executives plot their new schedules. Most notably, the fate of "Friday Night Lights" hangs in the balance. The hourlong drama, based on the 1990 book by H.G. Bissinger, focuses on a high school football team in Dillon, Texas. It's a deftly written (and elegantly scored) series about a small town in which football is both a blessing and a curse. For its first season, the Writers Guild Awards nominated it for best drama series. A critic for The New York Times has gushed: "I love `Friday Night Lights.'" Some reports have suggested NBC wants to bring back "Friday Night Lights," which was in the midst of its second season when the strike halted production.
The Katrina of All Fences
Murkowski's loss, while rooted in local issues, might show something broader about voters as polls show high disapproval over how some incumbents handle issues like the Iraq war. [Emphasis on conceptual bungee cords added] Hanging on by both fingernails, but it's in! ... Thank God for professors of political science. ... [This seems like another one Taranto had days ago--ed Nope.] 5:57 P.M. link Friday, August 25, 2006 Headline of the Day: "Kazakh Elites Divided Over Borat." 11:13 P.M. .
Billable-hours choice eases rate pressure
It ended up paying a price in recruiting, Cosgrove said.
Before the most recent raise went into effect on Sept. 1, the firm polled associates and partners on some new approaches.
When it offered a choice of hours to third-years, the class of 2005, three of the nine associates chose to work 2,000 hours, Cosgrove said. Realistically, these lawyers likely will bill more than 2,100 hours, making the difference between the lower tier and higher tier significant, he added.
First-year associates still do not have a billable-hour requirement. Second-years are expected to bill at least 1,850 hours, which means about 37 hours a week, assuming a 50-week work year. To bill 37 hours a week, lawyers generally have to work about 47 to 50 hours.
BRIEFLY: James Henry, a former Cook County Circuit Court judge, joins Meckler Bulger & Tilson as "of counsel." Henry, 56, who retired from the bench in October, will focus on pretrial remedies such as mediation and arbitration.
PXP Announces Strong Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results Driven By ...
Investors wishing to participate in the conference call may dial 1-800-567-9836 or 1-973-935-8460. The replay will be available through Wednesday, March 12, 2008 and can be accessed by dialing 1-800-642-1687 or 1-706-645-9291. Conference call and replay ID: 32786010. A live webcast will be available in the Investor Information section of PXP's website, http://www.pxp.com/. PXP is an independent oil and gas company primarily engaged in the upstream activities of acquiring, developing, exploring and producing oil and gas in its core areas of operation: California, Rockies, Gulf Coast, Texas Panhandle, South Texas and the Permian Basin of the United States. PXP is headquartered in Houston, Texas. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains forward-looking information regarding PXP that is intended to be covered by the safe harbor "forward-looking statements" provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
The amazing, imploding ISP business
Andrew's Mailbag This week I described how amazingly vulnerable much of the British ISP business is. Vulnerable to botnets, hackers or fraudsters? No, nothing so exotic. A few people watching a bit of BBC on the streaming iPlayer may be enough to bring much of the business here to its knees. (I drew on a post on STL Partners Telco 2.0 blog, who used data published by Plus.net on the first month's iPlayer - do check them both out). Some of you might be experiencing a bit of deja vu, here. ISPs rang the alarm some time ago about the impact of iPlayer. We explored the costs of delivering high-definition video over the internet last year here. But this crisis is being precipitated by the low bandwidth, streaming version of iPlayer. Streamed TV over the internet costs your ISP a penny per viewer per minute.
New York In Autumn
But there's more to New York than just shopping to die for! During the festive season the whole city becomes a fairy tale of extravagant delights as the locals gear up for ‘The Holidays'. The lights are fantastic – literally entire tress are lit up in white lights – festive sculptures are dotted around the streets and the annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche at the Metropolitan Museum, one of the best museums in the world, is dusted off from 20 November–6 January 2008 and is truly unmissable!
Basically, it's a vivid 18th-century Neapolitan crèche scene — embellished with a profuse array of diminutive, lifelike attendant figures and silk-robed angels hovering above — that adorns the candlelit spruce. There's a lighting ceremony every Friday and Saturday at 7pm.
Rey: States that back roadless forests should pay for fire costs
Rey, the undersecretary for natural resources and the environment in charge of the U.S. Forest Service, said the Bush administration has encouraged states and local governments to offer input in the management of federal lands. But he told a Wildland Urban Interface conference that one of the unintended consequences is that state-imposed moratoriums on development in roadless areas boost the cost of fighting fires because of reduced access to housing subdivisions that sprout up on the edge of those forests. "In a number of cases, most recently in the state of California, the states have weighed in with a profound desire not to see any roadless area incurred as a broad matter of environmental priorities. And I frankly don't have any quarrel with that as a statement of environmental policy," Rey said.
Nation's Largest Solar PV System Takes Flight at Nellis Air Force Base
(CSRwire) LAS VEGAS, Dec. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today the U.S. Air Force celebrates the completion of North America's largest solar photovoltaic system at Nellis Air Force Base. A joint project of the U.S. Air Force, MMA Renewable Ventures, LLC, a subsidiary of Municipal Mortgage & Equity, LLC (NYSE: MMA), SunPower Corporation (Nasdaq: SPWR), and Nevada Power Company, the 14 megawatt Nellis solar energy system will generate more than 30 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of clean electricity annually and supply approximately 25 percent of the total power used at the base, where 12,000 people live and work. Combining technology and systems expertise from SunPower Corporation and financing by MMA Renewable Ventures with discounted purchase commitments by the U.S. Air Force, the innovative Nellis solar energy system demonstrates that the U.S.
Wexner snags acts on verge of greatness
Before she became an unlikely iPod spokeswoman, a little-known singer named Leslie Feist was on Chuck Helm's radar. The indie-folk songstress from Canada would make a perfect fit for the arty, in-the-know crowd that frequents the Wexner Center for the Arts, he thought. "I just kind of had a feeling she was breaking at that point," said Helm, director of performing arts at the center. Three months ago, he booked Feist for next Sunday as part of the "Next @ Wex" concert series -- which highlights up-and-coming musical acts. He turned out to be prophetic: Soon after, the Feist song 1234 appeared in an Apple commercial, and the singer performed on Saturday Night Live and catapulted into the musical mainstream. Thanks to mounting buzz for Feist (and the center's intensive marketing efforts in blog, print and TV media), the show is almost sold out.
POP QUIZ: Elaine Lamb
Each week The Advocate asks a different "quiz taker" for his or her current favorites in pop culture. QUIZ TAKER:Elaine Lamb, 60, registrar of voters, East Baton Rouge Parish. WHAT I’M LISTENING TO:1150-AM WJBO — "It’s talk radio. I like to listen to what’s going on for the day." WHAT I’M WATCHING:"Celebrity Apprentice" — "I’ve been watching that each week because I like to see who is going to be voted off. It’s interesting to see who can win each week and what all they go through." WHAT I’M READING:"In an Instant: A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing" by Lee and Bob Woodruff — "It speaks about how quick your life can change. Everything can be going well, then in one instant it can turn around." WHERE I’M SURFING (WEB SITE):eBay.com — "I like to kind of shop that.
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