Microsoft Wants Windows Phone To Succeed So Badly, It's Tapping Amazon Users (MSFT)


windows phone 7

Here's a surprise: Microsoft today released tools that lets Windows Phone 7 apps be built and hosted on Amazon's cloud.

Microsoft has its own cloud, Azure. Naturally, those making WP7 apps are encouraged to use Azure.

But ignoring Amazon also meant ignoring the gazillions of mobile phone apps for Android and the iPhone already hosted on there. It also meant ignoring the possibility that those apps could be rejiggered to work with WP7, too.

So Microsoft has released a beta version of a software development toolkit that makes it easy to build Windows Phone apps that connect to AWS.

In a blog post announcing the SDK, Jean Paoli, General Manager of Interoperability Strategy at Microsoft said, "It literally takes minutes to create a cloud-ready application in C# with this toolkit. We look forward to this toolkit eventually resulting in many more great apps in the rapidly growing Windows Phone marketplace.”

This is another indication that the culture of Microsoft is changing. Microsoft has for decades operated on a "built-here" mentality. As new technologies became popular, it built its own competors. It built its own browser, its own database, its own CRM tool suite, its own server virtualization engine, its own search engine. And then it declared war.

But the cloud is changing how people use software. And it's changing how Microsoft thinks, too.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/eKBgK3es7g4/microsoft-wants-windows-phone-to-succeed-so-badly-its-tapping-amazon-users-2012-2

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On Eve Of Super Bowl, The Feds Shutdown Illegal Streaming Sites, But Does It Matter?


Homeland Security

Federal agents have shut down numerous websites accused of illegally streaming live sporting events. This comes just days before the kickoff of Super Bowl 46, but early indications are that it won't make much of a difference.

In a press release from the Department of Homeland Security, "Operation Fake Sweep" seized over 300 websites, 16 of which are alleged to have broadcast live sporting events. One of those websites was FirstRowSports.net, also known as LiveFootballStream.net.

First Row Sports is a popular sports streaming site in this country that is often used by fans looking for soccer matches in other countries. It is also a popular destination for fans of NFL teams that are blacked out locally.

But while the Feds were able to seize a number of First Row Sports domains, others are still operational, such as FirstRowSports.bz. In other words, seizing domains is not going to stop illegal streaming. On the other hand, like the music industry learned, the leagues just need to make the games available at a reasonable price, and the fans will be happy to pay.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/Yd8Ue-JlBpk/super-bowl-feds-shutdown-illegal-streaming-sites-2012-2

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Copper Strength Sets Up Bullish Trades In Freeport McMoRan, Southern Copper

The selling that has caused Freeport McMoRan to finish lower for four out of the past five trading days has taken the stock to the edge of technically oversold territory. You would have to go back to the spring of 2011 to find the last time FCX was trading oversold above the 200-day average.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/02/03/copper-strength-sets-up-bullish-trades-in-freeport-mcmoran-southern-copper/

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The Danish National Pension Fund Had A Staggering 26% Return In 2011


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Few on The Street have likely heard of a Danish hedge fund called Allmän tilläggspension.

They may want to learn about it though, since its 2011 returns probably beat most of theirs.

ATP, as it is known, is actually the Danish national pension fund (officially "general supplementary pension").

But it basically operates like a hedge fund — a really successful one, at that.

Financial News' Mark Cobley reports that ATP faced an additional €16 billion in liabilities as a result of falling interest rates in Europe.

But thanks to some nifty investing, ATP managed to pull in €16.8 billion, a 26% return.

Because of the spiking liabilities, net return was €500 million.

Still, not too shabby. And more than enough to pay off Danish workers.

The fund, run by a man named Lars Rohde, has a hedge strategy that's a bit difficult to parse. According to aiCIO writer Liz Pfeuti, ATP is divided into five "buckets" that are invested according to a risk budget rather than targeting asset classes.

It's heavily diversified: Losses in equities were more than offset by gains in bonds, property and commodities.

But even Pfeuti admits she is "less than 100% sure" how Rohde's bucket strategy works.

Yet it does work — and has for awhile. Rohde took over the fund in 1998. Since 2005, Pfeuti writes, the fund's enjoyed above-4% returns every year but 2008.

And Rohde has no plans to deviate.

"We still think we are in for a rollercoaster ride in the markets, so we will be very cautious," he said.

h/t Pension Plus

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/srqsRwezF8c/danish-national-pension-fund-26-percent-return-2011-2012-2

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Quite a few buyers battling with credit card debt counseling

There’s no promise which the companies financial debt settlement enterprises have are valid. There also isn’t any promise that a creditor will acknowledge partial payment of a valid financial debt. The fact is that, any time you avoid building repayments on the credit card, late fees and fascination in most cases are added towards the [...]

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2012/02/02/quite-a-few-buyers-battling-with-credit-card-debt-counseling/

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Really?! Gingrich Communications Director Alters Callista Gingrich?s Wikipedia Page 23 Times


Newt Gingrich Arms Outstretched

Looks like Gingrich communications director Joe DeSantis has yet another fire to put out, though this one might be of his own creation.

BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski reported today that since 2008, DeSantis has edited Callista Gingrich’s Wikipedia page a total of 23 times, violating the site’s ban on conflicts of interest.

DeSantis’ alterations ranged from benign grammatical changes to erasing some controversial information about the former speaker’s wife.

For instance, DeSantis changed the page to omit mention of Callista being Gingrich’s third wife. So instead of, “Callista is the third wife of former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich," the post reads, "Callista is the wife of former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich."

Big difference.

wikipedia gingrich

DeSantis also added information on Callista’s various books and the fact that she was her high school’s valedictorian.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/yylBph40ycw/really-gingrich-communications-director-alters-callista-gingrichs-wikipedia-page-23-times-2012-2

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5 Questions to Ask in Your Search for a Dream Job


By Jon Acuff

Sometimes we think we need a massive eureka moment to come to grips with who we want to be and what we want to do. We wait for the lighting strike that will completely redefine our lives and give us clear direction.

But the truth is, the greatest impact tends to come from hinge moments.

A hinge moment occurs when you are planning to do something standard and normal, something you?ve done many times before, like turn a key in the ignition. And then seemingly out of nowhere, something, a small detail usually, hinges you in a different direction. A chance encounter at the grocery store, a stranger?s random comment, one line in an article you read pushes you to a place you were not expecting to go. One such occurrence comes to mind from my own life.

Mrs. Harris and My First Book

When people ask me when I knew I wanted to be a writer, this is the moment to which I most consistently point back. While living in Ipswich, Massachusetts, my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Harris, challenged me to write a book. I?m not sure why since the class was not writing books at the time. But regardless of the reason, she tasked me with writing a book and that?s exactly what I did. After school each afternoon, I wrote poetry on those brownish sheets of paper with the red and blue lines and mile-wide margins.

The poems weren?t great. I remember rhyming ?fall? and ?tall? an awful lot. We didn?t sell any copies. I didn?t walk away with a lightning-strike moment in those cold New England afternoons spent dulling my pencil. But it felt true. Even at that age, it felt like something I really liked doing and something I just assumed everyone else liked to do. (There?s a natural feeling to the things we?re called to that we often assume everyone else has.) Nothing dramatic happened with that book, except Mrs. Harris did a few things with it.

She laminated it. She bound it. She made me feel like I was a published author. That was monumental for me. She didn?t tell me I was an author. Those words never left her mouth. She didn?t write that on a note in the book. She simply put the book together and handed it to me.

Suddenly, I was an author. The lamination sealed it, literally and metaphorically. It meant the world to me and though I couldn?t tell you about anything I wrote for the next five years, that was a flare sent high up in the sky of my childhood. That was the very first hinge moment I can remember where I thought writing might be something I could do forever.

A Few Questions to Ask When Interviewing Hinge Moments

Looking back on it, the idea that a teacher would tell you she thought you were talented and actually use her free time to put together your first book is a stand-out moment. But not all hinges are that neon. Most of the time I think they?re a bit harder to recover. They?re buried sometimes and you have to unearth them. I think you can identify some of your hinge moments by knowing the right questions to ask.

1. What do I love enough to do for free?
That?s a cliché you sometimes hear in guidance counselors? offices in high school, but it?s no less true. What would you do even if no one paid you for it? I blogged for about two years and didn?t make a dime. I didn?t need to. I wasn?t writing for money. I was writing because I am a writer and that?s what writers do.

2. What do I do that causes time to feel different?
When you really get engaged in your something, space and time seem to shift a little. You?ll sit down to do a little writing before dinner and the next time you look up it?s ten and you never ate. Time shifts when you?re doing what you love. Has that ever happened, and if so, what were you doing?

3. What do I enjoy doing regardless of the opinions of other people?
Your dream can?t be powered by opinion or affirmation. It has to be bigger than the feedback of a peer or a coworker. What would you do even if no one ever told you they loved it?

4. If only your life changed, would that be enough?
If you killed yourself for years creating something and at the end of the experience, the only life that had changed was your own, would that be rewarding enough? If the experience was the lesson and the journey itself was the reward, would that be okay with you? Is there something that holds that sway for you?

5. Are there any patterns in the things you like doing?
If you?ve got a dream, chances are there?s not just one isolated hinge moment in your past. More than likely, you have a list of moments that are similar and related. What patterns can you see in the decisions you?ve made and the experiences you?ve loved?

Ask yourself those questions. Love yourself enough to actually write down your answers. And when you do, show them to someone you trust. Sometimes we?re so close to the painting we can?t tell what it is and we need someone else to point out the truth.

For more advice on the right way to pursue your dream job, read Jon's book, Quitter, or attend our special event in Nashville, the Quitter Conference.

Excerpted from Quitter by Jon Acuff. Copyright 2011 Lampo Licensing, LLC. Published by The Lampo Press. Used with permission.

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Source: http://www.daveramsey.com/article/5-questions-to-ask-in-your-search-for-a-dream-job/lifeandmoney_career

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