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I commend Ilana Freedman�s insightful article (�Empowering our community against terrorism,� Sept. 1).
Freedman points out how we can do our part in foiling unpredictable terror attacks targeting Jews and Americans. We need to live normal lives and not be deterred by terrorists. If we stay home in fear we hand the enemy a victory. As a counterterrorism expert, her timely advice indicates how we can take responsibility in making our communities safer and feel empowered.
Undoubtedly, the recent hate-filled attack in Seattle at the Jewish Federation building is a reminder that none of us is completely safe. Hopefully some good can from the horrific premeditated murder of Pamela Waechter and the wounding of five other women.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims. May the wounded continue to make a good recovery. Ms. Waechter was a good, kind and charitable person. She did not deserve to be gunned down. May her memory be a blessing to her family and the Seattle Jewish community for her distinguished service.
Josh Basson
The new Professional Directory to Jewish Washington is now accepting listings for your business. Visit www.professionalwashington.com today to get started!


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Transformers 3 Trailer: We Are Not Alone...
by Hilton Hater at .We are not alone, folks.
These were the words uttered way back in 1969, according to the first official trailer for Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon.
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Josh Duhamel, this third installment in this franchise won't hit theaters until July 1, 2011. But it's never too early to get excited for another round of Autobots/Decepticons action, is it? Do so now:
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I heart Transformers. In a big way. Even after they gave us a rushed piece of crap with Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen.
But I have to admit, this trailer SUCKS BALLS.
Bland, boring, and nothing new.
The Transformers are from a completely different solar system, and the best the struggling writer's of this franchise can do is put one on the moon? And then call it Dark Of The Moon?

subset: commoncrawl


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Today happens to be Humbug Day (the day you are supposed to be grumpy and mean, and get all of that out of your system before the actual Christmas holiday). It also happens to be the day when three Mountain West teams have bowl games. Here's a rundown of them so far.
New Mexico Bowl
Colorado State (the Rams) have been playing waaay above themselves, and are actually looking good against Washington State. With two minutes left in the game, they are down 45-37, and have a chance to positively respond to a possible turnover by the Cougs. They have been representing the MWC pretty well. Good for them.
Read More...


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The Dean's List |
Story Highlights
Mike Teel finally stopped hitting people and threw some touchdownsPenn State fans had too many Jell-O shots, riots ensuedOver-achievers Minnesota and Northwestern prepare to do battle |
Welcome to this week's Dean's List segment, where we'd have anxiety too if we were Isaiah Thomas. Sure, he ruined a great playing career with a terrible coaching career, but that's no excuse to overdose on sleeping pills and then pin the blame on his teenage daughter. Honor Roll It's been a tough season for Rutgers quarterback Mike Teel. The Scarlet Knights' offense could only muster 39 points in the team's first three Big East games this season and entering Saturday's contest against No. 17 Pittsburgh, Teel had thrown three touchdowns and seven interceptions. The senior quarterback was playing so poorly that his own fans booed him and he took a swing at his teammate. But one game can change a season. In Rutgers' stunning 54-34 victory over the Panthers on Saturday, Teel threw for a school-record six touchdowns, five of which came in the first half. Of course, the game was played in Pittsburgh, so Teel didn't have to hear the hometown boo-birds. It'll be interesting to see how the Piscataway crowd greets Teel when the Scarlet Knights take on Syracuse in their next game. Minnesota was pretty much a unanimous pick to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten this season. This is a program that won just one game last season and finished with the lowest-ranked defense in college football. But under second-year head coach Tim Brewster's guidance,the Golden Gophers have defied expectations. On Saturday, Minnesota beat Purdue 17-6, moving to7-1 on the season and jumping to No. 20 in the national rankings. Sophomore quarterback Adam Weber threw for 212 yards and rushed for 60, but the key to Minnesota's success was the suddenly-stingy defense, which knocked Purdue's starting quarterback Curtis Painter out of the game early and held the Boilermakers to 109 passing yards. The Golden Gophers' next big test comes next week against Northwestern, another team that's poo-pooing the tinsel of popular acclaim. Somebody upstairs is looking out for James Madison. The top-ranked team in Division I-AA won its second consecutive game in dramatic fashion. One week after beating Richmond on a 69-yard punt return with one second left in the game, the Dukes were losing to No. 7 Villanova by two with 4.3 seconds to go. JMU coach Mickey Matthews chose to throw for the end zone rather than attempt a 52-yard field goal in swirling winds. Quarterback Rodney Landers dropped back and lofted a Hail-Mary into the end zone with no time left in the game. Caught in the wind, the ball nipped a defender's fingers and bounced off a helmet before landing in wide receiver Bosco Williams' hands. With the miraculous catch, James Madison won the game 23-19, proving God is either a George Mason football fan or just likes purple. Here's an issue Jim Boeheim and the Syracuse men's basketball team don't have to deal with -- fetal gestation. For the second time in two years, the Syracuse women's basketball team has a pregnant member. Back-up point guard Cintia Johnson will forgo her senior season while awaiting her child's January birth. The five-foot-four hard-nosed defender started every game during the 2006-07 campaign, but was relegated to back-up duties last season when Tasha Harris took over the point. You might remember that back in April, 2007, former Syracuse forward Fantasia Goodwin gave birth to a baby girl after playing through her pregnancy. Johnson, on the other hand, has chosen to concentrate on her classes so she can graduate in December and "focus on family."
| More SI On Campus


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Can you survive and achieve, just being an expert with one coding language, as a super-user with one product or tool these days? I've been having many discussions recently about the required skill sets and tools that the digital analyst needs to be a success in 2012. It's been driven both by recruitment discussions but also by the challenges posed by clients. Challenges such as these:
Well, gone are the days when you could make yourself a success in digital analytics and try and answer some of the challenges above just with a single tool or source of data. To be successful you're going to need to be a ninja in a number of tools.
So how do you measure up? Why don't we play a bit of data bingo to see which of these analytics areas you can lay claim to be an expert, a dabbler, or blagger. I've laid some areas of analytics with examples of the different types of tools in each group. Give yourself one point for each of these types of tools that you are an expert user in. Not a super-user? You get nothing. Bonus point for being able to use multiple tools in the same space.
I could go on but I'm going to stop at these "conversion" tools. If you're an analyst in search, social, or ad serving, feel free to have a go at your own version.
So what was your score?
A score of one? I hope you either own the product you are a super-user in or at least you love it to death. The world still needs specialists of the highest order but you aren't going to be solving conversion problems, you're going to be solving implementation problems.
Got a score of two to five? Sounds like you've got a solid foundation but there are things to learn. Get on it!
Got a score of six to eight? You rock! You're well-equipped to use all of those skills to help optimize your website and drive ROI. Send me your CV.
Got a score of nine or more? Really? If you were telling the truth then start your own consultancy and I'll send you my CV. But more likely you can't count and shouldn't be working in the analytics industry.
But whatever your score, you should know by now that new channels and the tools to analyze them are appearing all the time in the digital space. If you love data then you're going to need to keep learning more tools so that you don't get left behind.
Bingo Cards image on home page via Shutterstock.
Meet Your Favorite ClickZ Contributors
Many of ClickZ's leading expert contributors will be at ClickZ Live, the new online and digital marketing event kicking off in New York (March 31-April 3). Hear from the likes of: Jeremy Hull, Lisa Raehsler, Andrew Goodman, Bryan Eisenberg, Mathew Sweezey, Aaron Kahlow, Stephanie Miller, Simms Jenkins, Jeanne S. Jennings, Dave Hendricks and more!
John D'Arcy is the Head of Numbers at Seren, a Foviance Group company. Seren is a U.K.-based consultancy that utilizes data analytics and user experience to help improve customer experience. John has helped clients measure and optimize their marketing communications for over 15 years across digital and traditional media. He's been able to utilize the modeling and statistical skills he learned in the offline world to bring a more rigorous approach to the digital analytics industry. John's team at Seren are certified professionals for a number of technologies including Google Analytics, Adobe-Omniture, and Webtrends.
March 18-19, 2014
Mar 31-Apr 3, 2014
May 14-16, 2014
May 27-29, 2014
August 5-7, 2014
March 19, 2014
1:00pm ET


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This latest release in the Redemption series reunites readers with the continuing saga of the Baxter family. Brooke Baxter has achieved everything this world has to offer--a prestigious career, a beautiful home, and two wonderful children. Her recent return to her faith is an encouragement to her family. But if she faces tremendous loss, can her fledgling faith and her rocky marriage survive? Type: Audio MP3 (Abridged) Category: Books > Fiction ISBN / UPC: 9781423303091/1423303091 Publish Date: 11/1/2006 Item No: 99758 Vendor: Brilliance Audio |
A portion of each purchase is donated | After you make a purchase, you'll be asked which of these three ministries we should direct our donation towards. Learn More >> |


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Read full entryLocalities documented in Tropicos sources
Polytrichum strictum Menzies ex Brid.:Greenland (North America)
Kazakhstan (Asia)
Russian Federation (Asia)
Canada (North America)
United States (North America)
Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.


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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
The last few times I played AV, the Horde steam rolled us. The difference? They actually played defense, mostly camping inside with Drek. It delays everyone trying to get to Drek and his WMs, and also gives ample time for the offense to punk Vann. Turtle matches also seem to favor the Horde.
So no, I don't buy the argument that "AV map favors the Alliance!" If only the Horde can put up some strategy on the defensive end, the victories even out in the end for both sides.


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Great thread. Let's see, I like to fish, so I'd probably be a fisherman.
A tamer. There's too few of them.
How come so many trainers in the original game had whips? Rockets, tamers, cooltrainers, etc?
I'd be a Cooltrainer, a Super Nerd or Blue Oak.
Pokemaniac I love the trenchcoats and the emo hair
One of the original Cooltrainers. They had whips!
A cool trainer or Gym leader definetly misty.
Lance, Dragon's were so awesome in gen 1.


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byMorengo, December 16, 2011
The extension works great. Easy to use and configure. And also it is absolutely free that makes this extension great) I used this extension for a portfolio site and I'm glad how it works. So my advice, try it and you will not regret. The only problem I found out is that it sometime displays the same person two times in Facebook like box...


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PJ Lifestyle
Civil War Photographs, Colorized
Via Business Insider, some Reddit "colorizers" are doing their thing to Civil War photos. The quality of the photography — and the colorization process — is amazing. Digital is easy, but nothing (yet) can reproduce the results of a big slab of film inside a big box camera.
As fine a job as the Redditers are doing, there's still something missing, because you know the color was added later. For the real deal, check out this collection of rare color photographs from the First World War.
Paint Those Blues Away
I never owned a Mac before seven or eight years ago, but every time I could get myself seated in front of one back in the '80s, the first thing I'd do is launch MacPaint. You drew things with a mouse, various brushes and tools, and a selection of fill patterns. That was it — but there had never been anything like before in simplicity and ease-of-use. Perhaps the most revolutionary thing is that the Mac's screen used square pixels, instead of the traditional oblongs of every other CRT screen. So when you drew a circle in MacPaint, your square-pixeled printer printed a circle. People using any other computer would print an oval.
There could be some serious load times if your artwork was any bigger than the workspace, because MacPaint and your creation all had to fit in the original Mac's 64k of working memory. So any scrolling was accompanied by some pretty lengthy read/writes to the 800k floppy drive.
This website's banner takes up more than 90k and renders just as quickly as your internet service can pipe it to you.
The point of all this is that MacPaint is back as CloudPaint, completely re-engineered in HTML5. It looks and feels just like the original — but I bet it's quite a bit bigger than 64k.
Give it a whirl.
(H/T, Gruber.)
Tom Clancy: RIP
Say what you will about Tom Clancy, but the man knew how to tell a story. Of his self-written novels — leaving aside the Clancy "branded" books and his current crop of co-authored works — there was only one real misfire. Reading 2002′s Red Rabbit, you might find yourself thinking, "I liked this better when it was called Day of the Jackal." Not bad for a former insurance salesman who had hoped to sell his first novel, The Hunt for Red October, to a few hundred Navy officers — until it got blurbed by President Reagan.
People talk about how Clancy made high-tech weaponry understandable to the layman, but that wasn't his ace — it was his ability to keep countless story threads going, all over the globe, without the reader ever getting lost or tangled up in them. Most people can't just drive to the corner store without swerving out of their lane a few times. And when Clancy dug deep, as he did with 1993′s Without Remorse, he could really affect you. He wrote that one after losing a childhood friend to cancer, and I think Clancy used that experience to show he could do more than simply quicken the reader's pulse.
Clancy quit writing for years after 2003′s mostly-OK-but-not-great The Teeth of the Tiger. I don't know if he stopped because his last two books hadn't been all that great, or — as I'm starting to suspect — for health reasons. He did come back three years ago, with a series of books co-written with different co-authors. Against All Enemies (with Peter Telep) remains the only Clancy book I couldn't get through — and quickly. There was just something missing from that one, but the others since 2010 have all read like "classic" Clancy of the '80s and '90s. Just a few days ago I pre-ordered Command Authority, due out in December. I suppose it will be his last.
Clancy was never afraid, in print or in person, to call out lefties. Appearing on Larry King to promote some novel or other, King asked one stupidly ignorant question after another, and an exasperated Clancy finally barked something like, "Read the damn book, Larry." I hope I've remembered the quote exactly. It was for sure my favorite moment of the old Larry King show.
Is it really possible that Larry King, who's looked like day-old scrambled eggs for thirty years, outlived Tom Clancy? Stranger things have happened, but this one I'm taking a little personally.
I'll Have What the Gentlemen on the Floor is Having
A new study from Iowa State and Cornell revealed that individuals who use a narrow glass and pour wine while keeping the glass on the table drank less, compared to those who used a wide glass and poured wine while holding the glass, Nature World News reported.
According to the researchers, it all has to do with the drinker's perceptions of quantity.
"People have trouble assessing volumes," said Laura Smarandescu, an assistant professor of marketing at Iowa State. "They tend to focus more on the vertical than the horizontal measures. That's why people tend to drink less when they drink from a narrow glass, because they think they're drinking more."
In reality then, the glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's simply time to refill your drink.
(The engineer will tell you the glass is exactly twice the size it needs to be, but who the hell do they think they're kidding?)
Cross-posted from Vodkapundit
Why This Avengers Fan Has No Interest in ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D
Loved The Avengers. Loved, loved, loved that movie. After one viewing it was added to our short & selective Go-To Movies playlist in Ye Olde iTunes Movie Library. The wife loves it, the kids love it, and I think the dog even loves it.
That's why I'm pretending the new Avengers spin-off TV show, Agents of SHIELD, doesn't even exist. The reason? They brought back Agent Phil Coulson. Don't get me wrong, he's a great character and Clark Gregg plays him with just the right mix of authority and humanity. But Coulson died for a reason in the movie. His death meant something. Only by a beloved character getting stabbed-through-the-chest dead was Nick Fury able to forge his dysfunctional group of feuding heroes into a team.
Take that away, and you take away what made The Avengers something more than just popcorn fare. Coulson's death didn't just galvanize the heroes; it galvanized the audience.
Yes, I know comic books bring back characters from the dead all the time. But you're talking about decades-old franchises in need of freshening up every now then. The Avengers is a movie that came out just last year — it still has that new franchise smell. It needs freshening up like I need water in my brandy glass at bedtime. What the hell good did that ever do anybody?
So it doesn't matter to me how compelling of a backstory Joss Whedon & Co. come up with to explain Coulson's return, or how much success I wish for Gregg. I'm not going to watch this show, period.
Bring Coulson back for the inevitable reboot, please. But he fell a hero, and that's how we should remember him.
Cross-posted from Vodkapundit
iOS 7: A Small Review and One Big Gripe
People hate iOS 7 so much, they've upgraded 200,000,000 devices to it since its release last Wednesday — double the upgrade pace iOS 6 enjoyed last year. I believe that makes it the most widely-used version of any mobile operating system.
Not bad for an OS that's only five days old.
OK, it's barking remarkable.
I'm pleased as punch with the performance improvements and enhancements over iOS 6. Nothing just appears; everything comes from or goes to some particular place as you touch or swipe the screen. That might seem a small thing, but it isn't. You always know exactly where you are, how you got there, and what will happen with your next gesture. (Want to have fun with Android owners? Ask them what the Back button does. Almost every answer will begin with, "Well…") In iOS 7 everything has a certain cause and a certain effect — everything is done with a purpose. The visual clues give your eyes memory, the way your fingers remember how to tie your shoes.
I was afraid my ancient iPad 3 would find its graphics co-processor — already running at Ludicrous Speed just to maintain the Retina Display — overwhelmed by all the new visual bells and whistles. But it still performs with all the speed and slickness you expect from an Apple mobile device. My son's iPad mini handles iOS 7 just as nicely. My iPhone 5S won't arrive until Thursday, but my two-year-old 4S feels faster, no joke.
The new Control Center (cribbed pretty shamelessly from Android, but turnabout and all that) is a great addition. I find it's a little too easy to activate it when swiping up to scroll through web pages, but there's a setting to disable it while you're in apps, or also from the lock screen. Turn it off in apps/leave it on in Lock, seems to be the best combo for both me and my wife.
Siri is smarter. Last week, I could not for the life of me get her to understand that I wanted her to play Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim's recording of "One Note Samba." "Siri, play 'One Note Samba'," I must have said a dozen times with perfect diction. Every time she'd reply, "I'm sorry, Stephen, but I can't find one note somber." And finally me shouting at my phone, "No! It's samBA, samBA, samBA!" like a demented dance instructor.
I tried it again in the truck this morning, and instead of getting Siri's error message, my reply was Frank singing, This is just a little samba, based upon a single note…. That'll put a bounce in your step on a Monday morning.
iOS 7 is also more security-minded. As you go through the quick initial setup scheme, it will default to having a four-digit passcode. If you choose to turn it off, the OS will ask you if you'd like it to stop using autofill for your browser logins. Smart.
If you thought the camera was fast before, now it's faster, and complete with HDR, Instagram-type filters, and other nifty new tricks. It's the best camera I've ever used that didn't say "Nikon" on it and pair with my shelf full of lenses. And remember, this is a two-year-old iPhone 4S we're talking about here. I got all this new speed and functionality from a simple OS upgrade. Can't wait to put the new 5S camera through its paces later this week.
Graphically, iOS 7 is hit or miss.
What I Re-Read on My Summer Vacation
Yesterday I wrote that it was impossible to pick a favorite Elmore Leonard novel. But when I went to pick up one to re-read last night, I reached for Pronto without even having to think about it. It's the first of Leonard's works to star Deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens, but it wasn't meant to be.
The first part of the book focuses an aging Miami bookmaker, Harry Arno, one of Leonard's most visceral characters. I hate to use the cliché "leaps off the page," except that he does. Harry is greedy and self-absorbed and a bit of a whiner but you just love this guy because he's so real. He might be old, but his girlfriend is a stacked ex-stripper named Joyce, and you can totally see them together.
Harry is in trouble with the Mob for skimming profits off the top of his bookie operation. So he sneaks off to Italy, which he loves because he fought there in World War II and because of a brief acquaintance with Ezra Pound in an Army stockade.
But the Mob isn't the only organization that wants Harry. The Justice Department wants him to testify against his old (and peeved) boss, Jimmy Cap. So Raylan is sent to bring Harry home before Cap can have him killed. And, oh yeah, Harry already got away from Raylan once — the only stain on Raylan's record as a deputy marshal.
Leonard poured his heart into bringing Harry to life. Here's a guy pushing 70 with about a million dollars of stolen Mob money in a Swiss account, dating a former stripper only half his age, and who once gave the slip to a cowboy marshal — and you believe every last bit of it. That's some amazing writing.
Problem is, Harry Arno loses control of his own story. Rather, Elmore Leonard lost control of his own novel.
Pacific Rim: High Concept, Big Fun
Short version: Best popcorn flick of the summer.
Longer version? OK, longer version.
Giant monsters (Kaiju) from another dimension are invading earth through a trans-dimensional rift at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. They come one at a time, months apart, giving mankind time to unite and figure out a way to fight the beasties. And of course you fight giant sea aliens by building giant, human-piloted battle robots (Jaegers). The neural connection between man and robot is too much for a single human brain to handle, so two pilots are connected together in a neural "drift" and act and fight as one. Think of them as a flesh-and-blood RAID 1 array, if you're geeky like that. The problem is, the alien attacks are growing more frequent and of course the aliens are also getting bigger and tougher. They even evolve weapons of their own, like acid spit and an EMP-type thing.
If you think giant monsters versus giant robots is just an excuse for city-busting battles… well, yeah. Of course. And if you think the neural "drift" is an excuse to heighten the human drama… well, yeah. Of course. Even better, the deeper connection between the characters, the better they connect in the "drift," and the better they fight.
I told you it was high concept.
Why Blu Ray Failed
I should very excited about this story, but I'm not. We'll get to the why not in just a moment:
In a bid to limit movie piracy in Asia, Disney and Sony have quietly begun testing a bold new on-demand service in South Korea which offers movies to rent while they are still playing in theaters. As noted by the Wall Street Journal, the two companies are the first US studios to provide consumers anywhere with the option to buy a ticket to see a movie or watch it in their own home using their cable, internet, or satellite-TV subscription. Django Unchained, Wreck-it Ralph, and Brave had all been made available as part of the trial.
These are 2012 movies here in the States, but I'm assuming based on the story they're in current release overseas.
But why make this a piracy-fighting move? Why not just …I dunno… give audiences what they want? Increasingly, that's to watch movies in the comfort of our own homes, with a picture quality better than many movie theaters of just ten or 15 years ago.
I'm still counting on Hollywood to screw this one up, however.
Do you know why Blu-Ray has failed to take the place of DVD in lining Hollywood's pockets? Because Blu-Ray sucks. The picture quality is outstanding. And the sound is an audiophile's dream. But the discs are so locked down that they're a total pain in the bottom to actually use. Loaded with FBI warnings we can't skip, menus that can take forever to load, and years-old previews you're forced to watch again and again. And — oh, yeah — most of the movies are crap.
So we rent from Red Box or stream from Netflix or download from iTunes. Or we just pirate the stuff.
Because as nice as it sounds to be able to stream a current summer blockbuster release like Melting Flying Zombies vs The Buxom Flamethrower Pirates, I'm pretty sure Hollywood would fill it up with all the same, lame stuff they cram onto shiny new Blu-Ray discs.
Apple's New Ad is a Minus
Consumers just aren't that into the whole "Designed by Apple in California" thing:
According to data from Ace Metrix, a consulting firm that analyzes the effectiveness of TV commercials through surveys, Apple's new ad scores just 489 points on its scoring system, far below previous Apple campaigns.
The industry average is 543 points, and other Apple commercials have received in excess of 700 points. So what's the problem with the new ads?
"Apple was never a company that bragged about itself," Edward Boches, a professor of advertising at Boston University, told Bloomberg. "In a manifesto ad, it's hard not to come across as self indulgent. And even though it suggests the wonderful things Apple products can do, the ad lacks joy."
Around the time Steve Jobs died, some smart Apple observer (I wish I could locate the link) came up with a way to try and determine if the company was losing its footing. His caution? If Apple started running ads about Apple. "We're Apple. We're awesome. We're Apple." Loser companies tell you how great they are. Winners show you the product.
When Jobs came back to Apple in 1996-97, he made it a 100% product-focused company. And that is what it's remained, even if increasingly the products are digital services rather than slick hardware. That focus has always been most visible in the company's advertising, which is the product, the whole product, and nothing but the product.
"This is the iWidget. This is how awesome it is. This is the iWidget."
Set it to a bouncy pop tune and you're done — deceptively simple, chillingly effective.
The product was always front and center, with little mention of the company at all other than the iconic logo. The furthest Apple got away from that was in its famous "Get a Mac" ads, in which the Macintosh (and also the PC) were played by likable actors. We never saw a Mac in action, but we still got the idea: Mac was cool, relaxed, easier to use.
That's still very product-centric.
Oh, and the ads were "Get a Mac," not "Get an Apple Mac." That's an important distinction to make here.
Now here we have Apple's "Blah blah blah we're a cool company ad," and all I can think is, No wonder consumers are rejecting it. Don't show us the cool company; show us the cool product. The product makes the company cool, not the other way around. Jobs once said that "marketing is about values," and from Apple's marketing we know that the company values making good product above anything else.
There was one important exception however.
Another Smart Move by Microsoft
Yes, that's two in two weeks. Here's the latest:
Microsoft Corp will offer its console and computer games for Apple Inc's iPhone and other smartphone platforms this fiscal year, through a tie-up with Japanese smartphone game maker Klab Inc, the Nikkei said on Monday.
Through a licensing deal, Klab will bring Microsoft's Xbox and Windows-based computer games to the iPhone and smartphones using Google Inc's Android operating system, according to the Nikkei.
As I've strangely felt the need to remind them over the last few months, Microsoft is a software company. And with iOS and Android there are hundreds of millions, maybe more than a billion, of software platforms bereft of Microsoft software. Which, for a software company, seems… odd.
I suppose the problem is, Microsoft came to dominance in the '90s as a platform company. But in mobile, they don't own any platforms. OK, technically with Windows Phone and Surface RT they own two mobile platforms — the problem is that consumers don't own them. They seemed to think they could buy their way into platform dominance in mobile, but a confused effort has prevented that from happening. Also, with Apple owning most of the profits and Android owning most of the low end, there just isn't much room for a Microsoft platform.
But selling software, starting with Age of Empires?
Microsoft is great at that, and they'll be a welcome new developer to both platforms.
POSSIBLY RELATED: Barnes & Noble is getting out of the business of making their own Nook tablets, as a way to stem their losses. I know very happy Nook owners, just not many Nook owners. They'll license the platform to third-party OEMs.
Bye-Bye, DOMA, Bye-Bye
Did anyone else notice that the Supreme Court just knocked down a goodly-sized portion of Bill Clinton's legal legacy?
The justices issued two 5-4 rulings in their final session of the term. One decision wiped away part of a federal anti-gay marriage law that has kept legally married same-sex couples from receiving tax, health and pension benefits.
The other was a technical legal ruling that said nothing at all about same-sex marriage, but left in place a trial court's declaration that California's Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. That outcome probably will allow state officials to order the resumption of same-sex weddings in the nation's most populous state in about a month.
The high court said nothing about the validity of gay marriage bans in California and roughly three dozen other states.
The only part I have any real trouble with is covered in that first graf — marriage shouldn't come with any tax, health, or government pension benefits. It simply isn't the government's business to lavish things on people for being married.
What's interesting is the non-ideological split of the 5-4 vote. There aren't many issues where the winning team consists of Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Antonin Scalia. It's disappointing (but not entirely surprising) not to see Clarence Thomas in there making it 6-3.
The best part is Roberts' ringing defense of federalism regarding California's Prop 8. He wrote, "We have no authority to decide this case on the merits, and neither did the 9th Circuit." Exactly right. Although I suspect Ginsburg and Kagan found themselves siding with Roberts out of a conviction favoring gay marriage, rather than a conviction that there are any real limits to what Washington may tell the states to do. It's a good guess that's one reason Roberts wrote the decision himself.
A SCOTUS win is a SCOTUS win, but a well-reasoned SCOTUS win is a thing of beauty and healthful to the Republic. But I'll give my Twitter self the last word on this one.
CORRECTION: I'll give the last word to the President instead.
image courtesy shutterstock / Syda Productions
James Gandolfini's Legacy
We had been told all our lives that we would not watch an ongoing series about such a man. A bruising, foul-mouthed giant with a dent in his forehead was the villain, not the protagonist. TV had always made compromises, always made sure that "flawed" heroes were ultimately redeemable and lovable.
Tony Soprano was not. And we loved him, often despite ourselves.
And his work on the show made possible Vic Mackey, Al Swearengen, Walter White, Don Draper and every complicated, riveting anti-hero (or worse) who followed him. "The Sopranos" was an enormous hit, and told the business that the old rules need no longer apply.
With one role he changed an industry for the better. That's a helluva thing.
(H/T, Gruber.)
Man of Steel: 'I'm As American As It Gets'
Short version? I really, really enjoyed the movie.
Not that Man of Steel isn't without its problems. The opening sequence on Krypton needed a much better storyteller than director Zack Snyder. There was almost no narrative, just a bunch of visually cool scenes adding adding up to… well, Krypton explodes, yo… but you won't find yourself caring very much.
The movie finds firmer footing on Earth, taking its own sweet time letting you really get to know the characters. The performances were all fine, especially Amy Adams as Lois Lane. She's no Margot Kidder — who could be? — but she brings smarts and tough and tenderness to the role. She's easily the best thing in the movie. Curiously, the chemistry between her and Superman/Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) was hit and miss. Sometimes the sparks flew, sometimes not. But in the end, I bought them and bought them together, so it all worked out. Cavill wasn't really allowed to shine until the last act, and his performance probably owed more to Smallville's Tom Welling than to Christopher Reeve, but that's OK, too. In the end, when Cavill is finally allowed to flash his impervious smile? He brought the full Chris Reeve-power wattage.
Also curious is the drab color scheme. Superman is a hero of primary colors, but his costume here is dark and drab. The first half of the movie is shot in winter or in the cloudy days of autumn, and even the summer scenes are reminiscent of those cloudless days when the sun bleaches everything to off-whites and muted pastels. That's a big change from the beloved Superman: The Movie, but I'm not sure it's a bad change. Just different, and at first slightly jarring.
Michael Shannon wasn't given a whole lot to do as General Zod, other than chew the scenery and kick some ass. His quieter scenes were menacing enough however to make up some of the difference. I preferred Terence Stamp in the role in the otherwise-inferior Superman II. That's a shame, because Shannon is capable of much more.
It was a Diamond-Crusted BlackBerry
Insurance fraud seems to be all the rage with the DNC:
The Democratic National Convention may be long over, but its organizers have not forgotten the almost half a million dollars worth of electronics they seem to have lost.
Organizers of the Charlotte, N.C., convention have filed a police report for lost and stolen electronics, some of which they appear to have valued at as much as 62 times the listed market prices.
A reportedly stolen 13-inch MacBook Pro laptop? $75,537. The price listed on the Apple website is $1,199. A lost iPhone? $30,503. A lost Blackberry? $54,250.
The party of Other People's Money has a cavalier attitude towards other people's money?
Dog bits man story here, folks.
The New Space Race: HULK SMASH!
Or something like that — from StrategyPage:
Chinese military journals are full of exhortations to "render the enemy deaf and blind" by attacking their space satellites. Yet there is little discussion about how China would do this. That is because China does not want the rest of the world to pay too much attention to Chinese work on jamming satellite signals, damaging satellites with lasers and generally leaving them intact but inoperable rather than destroying them.
China did conduct a very visible "KillSat" test in 2007 that blew one of their old weather satellites apart. This was not good for anyone with satellites in orbit because that particular test created over 3,000 large (very destructive) fragments in orbit. These fragments are under no one's control and will demolish any satellites they encounter. China has not repeated this test and now it is believed that the 2007 test was more of a deception than demonstration. China wants the world to ignore their more intense efforts to disable or isolate satellites in orbit rather than blowing them up.
Going for the eyes is one way to end a fight very, very quickly.
The question is this. On the home front, we'd likely lose TV, phone service, weather warnings,some internet, and general chaos, inconvenience, and some deaths. On the fighting front (should there actually be one), our military would lose tons of intel and much of the networking that it uses as a force multiplier.
Would that be enough to knock us out of the fight?
The Japanese thought so at Pearl Harbor, but I don't think we're the same people we were in 1941.
Google is Not Invincible
Over at FT, John Gapper is just being silly:
Who will stop Google?
My answer is: nobody, or not easily. Indeed, the best comparison for Google seems to me not Microsoft in the 1980s but General Electric in the late 19th century – the age of electrification. Like GE, Google is a multifaceted industrial enterprise riding a wave of technology with an uncanny ability not only to invent far-reaching products but also to produce them commercially.
Um… no.
Google still earns the vast bulk of its revenues by selling search-targeted ads. NTTAWWT, either — Google is the best at what it does.
But what are these other commercial products? Android? Google makes more money from searches on iOS than it does on Android. And after sinking $12 billion into Motorola trying to defend Android, it's probably a net money-loser.
So what about Moto, aren't they selling great Android phones for Google? Not really. Moto is an also-ran, and Samsung commands damn near every penny of profit in the market for Android-powered phones. Horace Dediu even did a study a while back that, thanks to Amazon and the weirdness of the cheap Chinese domestic market, Google's ownership of Android is only about 60% of sales.
Google's Nexus-branded tablets? Google won't reveal its sales figures, so who knows. But Google not revealing its sales figures is hardly an encouraging sign.
How Xbox One Could Be Xbox Won
Wired has an excellent writeup of the new Xbox One. It was just revealed to the public yesterday, but Peter Rubin got to spend some quality time with one over the last few weeks — the lucky bastard. It's an impressive piece of hardware, like any new console should be. But here's what I think makes it a winner:
When the 360 launched, smartphones hadn't yet trickled out of the corporate world; Netflix was strictly a DVD delivery service; the "cloud" was something that got in the way of a suntan. (Hell, in 2005, people suntanned.) And a big part of the 360's longevity was Microsoft's ability not only to develop games but also to forge partnerships that took advantage of these new staples of online life. So as those deals proliferated, so did the things the Xbox 360 could do. People played Halo 3 on their Xbox, but they also watched Netflix. They bought Kinect sensors for controller-free experiences, but they also burned through seasons of Deadwood on HBO Go and caught sports highlights on an ESPN app. But all of this new functionality was built on patches and firmware updates. The 360 simply wasn't constructed that way, so when the Xbox One was greenlit in the fall of 2011, "the decision wasn't, 'We need a gamebox,'" Whitten says. "It was, 'We need a living-room experience.'" Built that way from the ground up.
This is Microsoft playing at the absolute top of its game (no pun intended). They've leveraged everything they've learned about gaming, consoles, services, and streaming, and worked them together into a single system. To call the Xbox One a mere "console" is to undersell what it is and what it does. This is an entertainment system-in-a-box, all for a few hundred dollars.
How was Microsoft able to do this, when they've pretty much flubbed every single other consumer device they've tried to build in the last few years? How did the company that build the ill-fated Zune with its infamous "Squirt" feature manage to get something so spectacularly right?
More Bad News for Wii U Owners
I'm pretty sure they're already on the endangered species list, but this news won't help replenish their numbers:
After mentioning on Twitter that the newly announced Star Wars games from DICE and Visceral will be running on DICE's powerful Frostbite 3 engine, Andersson responded to a reader concern that this will mean the games will not be available for the Wii U.
"[Frostbite 3] has never been running on WiiU," Andersson tweeted. "We did some tests with not too promising results with [Frostbite 2] & chose not to go down that path."
This statement follows a Eurogamer interview from March's Game Developers Conference in which DICE's Patrick Bach admitted DICE "could probably make a Wii U game in theory" but said the company is not currently interested in devoting "development time" to the system. "To make the most out of the Wii U, that's a different game because of the different peripherals. We want to utilize all the power of each console… It's about 'where do you put your focus?' And the Wii U is not a part of our focus right now."
So it's not just a question of focus but a question of performance.
"Underpowered" was cute for the original Wii, which Nintendo was able to sell at a profit from the very first unit. But the company's ambitions were much bigger for the Wii U — which doesn't appear to be up to the task.
Michael Jackson and the Limits of Vanity
As an early teen in the early '80s, it was just about impossible not to like Michael Jackson's music. It was certainly impossible to avoid it. With Thriller, Jackson and producer Quincy Jones set out to make the ultimate crossover album — one that would gain black and white audiences in equal measure. And equal airplay, too, back when radio stations were even more racially targeted than they are today.
And boy, did they succeed.
But Michael Jackson the person? It was pretty obvious even then that he was one strange dude. What happened though is what happens to too many child performers: The weirdness went up and up, while the quality of the performances went down and down. By the time Dangerous came out in 1991, the magic was pretty much gone. It sold in the millions, yet nobody was buying it. And by that I mean, nobody was buying Jackson's pseudo tough/tender/ladies man act anymore. The weird was just too weird.
Then came the obligatory-yet-somehow-disappointing greatest hits collection, the horrifying-yet-believable stories about his sleepover parties with kids…
I shudder even to think about it. His last studio album, ironically named Invincible, came out after years of delays and way over budget — and to a tepid response.
It was around this time he was dangling babies off balconies and looking like a bad drag queen version of Elizabeth Taylor. Oh, and he'd somehow managed to go broke buying giraffes and rollercoasters and stuff. The music had hit bottom and the weird was at the top of the charts.
The amazingly talented and abused little boy who never had a childhood, never really had an adulthood, either. There's so much blame to go around, you barely know where to start.
Children's Book Review: 10 Steps to Freedom
Children's author — and, full disclosure, occasional VodkaPundit drinking buddy — Amelia Hamilton has just published her second book. I have my advance e-copy here, and I can't wait for the dead-tree version to arrive so I can read it with my younger son.
It's called 10 Steps to Freedom: A Growing Patriot's Guide to the American Revolution. The illustrations are by Anthony Resto, and perfect for the five-and-under set. In plain language, Amelia tells the story of the American Revolution in just ten steps. It's a great concept, nicely executed. And it's the kind of liberty-loving literature that used to be standard fare for children's books, but which now hardly exists.
So in came Amelia to fill in the gap, like she did with her first book, One Nation Under God: A Book for Little Patriots. She's promised an entire series of Little Patriots stories. This one she self-funded through Kickstarter like a real American entrepreneur (remember those?), so you know she really believes in what she's selling.
My favorite illustration comes on the third page. You can click on the thumbnail to embiggen it to full size, but look at that — a patriot brandishing a pistol in defense of his rights! In a children's book! Think of the children! Will no one think of the children?
Oh, relax — it's perfect.
The progressives will throw a monthlong hissy fit just because of Page Three. Imagine what they'd do if they found a copy freshly unwrapped at their child's birthday party. I'm not trying to start any family fights; I'm just sayin'.
But that'd be worth my $8.99 right there, folks.
There's One for You, Nineteen for Me
I don't play golf for the same reason I'll never try cocaine — I'm pretty sure I'd like it, and I don't need any more expensive hobbies. Now pro-golfer Phil Mickelson might be giving up the game because he doesn't want to pay any more expensive taxes. Or at least that's what I gleaned from his cryptic interview with Scott Michaux. Could the tax man really drive him permanently to the 19th hole?
Unlike Mickelson, I can't afford to go Galt. But my wife and I are taking home less and saving more, which sure makes it feel sometimes like we're living in cash-poor Galt's Gulch. We've discovered though that a nice safety cushion helps you sleep better at night than a new mattress does.
Is there anything you're giving up this year due to your smaller paycheck?


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Mti College of Business And Technology Area Apartments for Rent
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Fairfield, Illinois |
For population 25 years and over in Fairfield:
For population 15 years and over in Fairfield city:
33 residents are foreign born
Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with mortgages in 2011: $945 (1.4%) Nearest city with pop. 50,000+: Evansville, IN (52.4 miles , pop. 121,582). Nearest city with pop. 200,000+: St. Louis, MO (103.0 miles , pop. 348,189). Nearest city with pop. 1,000,000+: Chicago, IL (242.1 miles , pop. 2,896,016). Nearest cities: Jeffersonville, IL (2.2 miles ), Golden Gate, IL (3.0 miles) , Mill Shoals, IL (3.0 miles ), Sims, IL (3.0 miles ), Cisne, IL (3.2 miles ), Burnt Prairie, IL (3.3 miles) , Mount Erie, IL (3.4 miles) , Wayne City, IL (3.5 miles ). Single-family new house construction building permits:
Latitude: 38.38 N, Longitude: 88.37 W Daytime population change due to commuting: +1,743 (+32.2%) Area code: 618
City-data.com crime rate counts serious crimes more heavily. It adjusts for the number of visitors and daily workers commuting into cities. Crime rate in Fairfield detailed stats: murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts, arson Full-time law enforcement employees in 2011, including police officers: 16 (12 officers).
Fairfield, Illinois accommodation, waste management, arts - Economy and Business Data Unemployment in July 2013:
Unemployment by year (%) Historical population Historical housing units Population change in the 1990s: -149 (-2.7%).
Work and jobs in Fairfield: detailed stats about occupations, industries, unemployment, workers, commute |
Average climate in Fairfield, IllinoisBased on data reported by over 4,000 weather stations
Tornado activity:Fairfield-area historical tornado activity is slightly above Illinois state average. It is 136% greater than the overall U.S. average. On 6/2/1990, a category F4 (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) tornado 10.6 miles away from the Fairfield city center killed one person and injured 12 people and caused between $500,000 and $5,000,000 in damages. On 6/2/1990, a category F4 tornado 14.3 miles away from the city center injured 2 people and caused between $50,000 and $500,000 in damages. Earthquake activity:Fairfield-area historical earthquake activity is significantly above Illinois state average. It is 33% smaller than the overall U.S. average.On 4/18/2008 at 09:36:59, a magnitude 5.4 (5.1 MB, 4.8 MS, 5.4 MW, 5.2 MW, Depth: 8.9 mi, Class: Moderate, Intensity: VI - VII) earthquake occurred 26.5 miles away from the city center On 6/10/1987 at 23:48:54, a magnitude 5.1 (4.9 MB, 4.4 MS, 4.6 MS, 5.1 LG) earthquake occurred 40.1 miles away from Fairfield center On 6/18/2002 at 17:37:15, a magnitude 5.0 (4.3 MB, 4.6 MW, 5.0 LG, Depth: 3.1 mi) earthquake occurred 41.9 miles away from the city center On 4/18/2008 at 15:14:16, a magnitude 4.8 (4.5 MB, 4.8 MW, 4.6 MW, Depth: 6.2 mi, Class: Light, Intensity: IV - V) earthquake occurred 28.9 miles away from the city center On 4/3/1974 at 23:05:02, a magnitude 4.7 (4.5 MB, 4.7 LG) earthquake occurred 20.8 miles away from Fairfield center On 4/21/2008 at 05:38:29, a magnitude 4.0 (4.0 MB, 4.0 MW, Depth: 6.2 mi) earthquake occurred 29.4 miles away from the city center Magnitude types: regional Lg-wave magnitude (LG), body-wave magnitude (MB), surface-wave magnitude (MS), moment magnitude (MW) Natural disasters:The number of natural disasters in Wayne County (4) is a lot smaller than the US average (12).Major Disasters (Presidential) Declared: 3 Emergencies Declared: 1 Causes of natural disasters: Tornadoes: 3, Storms: 3, Floods: 2, Hurricane: 1 (Note: Some incidents may be assigned to more than one category). Birthplace of: William Borah - Politician, Harold A. Garman - Army Medal of Honor recipient. Hospital/medical center in Fairfield:Political contributions by individuals in Fairfield, IL Airports and heliports located in Fairfield:
See details about airports and heliports located in Fairfield, IL College/University in Fairfield:Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Fairfield:
Public high school in Fairfield:
Public elementary/middle schools in Fairfield:
(lower is better) Air Quality Index (AQI)
Drinking water stations with addresses in Fairfield and their reported violations in the past:FAIRFIELD (Address: 109 NE 2ND ST , Population served: 6661, Surface_water):Past monitoring violations: Drinking water stations with addresses in Fairfield that have no violations reported:
Percentage of residents living in poverty in 2011: 22.1% (22.4% for White Non-Hispanic residents, 7.9% for Black residents, 22.9% for Hispanic or Latino residents, 0.0% for American Indian residents, 16.0% for two or more races residents) Average household size:
Percentage of family households:
Percentage of households with unmarried partners:
Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households)
Detailed information about poverty and poor residents in Fairfield, IL People in group quarters in Fairfield in 2010:
People in group quarters in Fairfield in 2000:
Fairfield compared to Illinois state average:
Banks with branches in Fairfield (2011 data):
Fire-safe hotels and motels in Fairfield, Illinois:
Most commonly used house heating fuel:
1996 Presidential Elections Results 2000 Presidential Elections Results 2004 Presidential Elections Results 2008 Presidential Elections Results 2012 Presidential Elections Results Graphs represent county-level data. Detailed 2008 Election Results Religion statistics for Fairfield (based on Wayne County data)Percentage of population affiliated with a religious congregations: 59.04%
Adherents Breakdown of population affiliated with a religious congregations
Tables represent county-level data. Food Environment Statistics:Number of grocery stores: 3
Number of convenience stores (no gas): 1
Number of convenience stores (with gas): 9
Number of full-service restaurants: 13
Adult diabetes rate:
Adult obesity rate:
Low-income preschool obesity rate:
Fairfield government finances in 2002(per resident):
4.10% of this county's 2006 resident taxpayers lived in other counties in 2005 ($28,059 average adjusted gross income)
10 or fewer of this county's residents moved from foreign countries between 2005 and 2006. Top counties from which taxpayers relocated into this county between 2005 and 2006:
4.68% of this county's 2005 resident taxpayers moved to other counties in 2006 ($29,490 average adjusted gross income)
10 or fewer of this county's residents moved to foreign countries between 2005 and 2006. Top counties to which taxpayers relocated from this county between 2005 and 2006:
Strongest AM radio stations in Fairfield:
Strongest FM radio stations in Fairfield:
TV broadcast stations around Fairfield:
Fairfield, Illinois:
See more detailed statistics of Fairfield fatal car crashes and road traffic accidents for 1975 - 2011 here National Bridge Inventory (NBI) Statistics
Number of bridges: 8
Total length: 7 meters (23ft) Total average daily traffic: 14,834 Total average daily truck traffic: 825 Total future (year 2032) average daily traffic: 15,577
FCC Registered Cell Phone Towers: 1 (See the full list of FCC Registered Cell Phone Towers in Fairfield) FCC Registered Antenna Towers: 42 (See the full list of FCC Registered Antenna Towers) FCC Registered Private Land Mobile Towers: 19 (See the full list of FCC Registered Private Land Mobile Towers in Fairfield, IL) FCC Registered Microwave Towers: 9 (See the full list of FCC Registered Microwave Towers in this town) FCC Registered Maritime Coast & Aviation Ground Towers: 3 (See the full list of FCC Registered Maritime Coast & Aviation Ground Towers) FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses: 32 (See the full list of FCC Registered Amateur Radio Licenses in Fairfield) FAA Registered Aircraft Manufacturers and Dealers: 1 (See the full list of FAA Registered Manufacturers and Dealers in Fairfield) FAA Registered Aircraft: 11 (See the full list of FAA Registered Aircraft) 2006 National Fire Incident Reporting System Incidents:
Incident types - Fairfield See full 2006 National Fire Incident Reporting System statistics for Fairfield, IL
Fairfield on our top lists:
Total of 1 patent application in 2008-2014.
Back to Fairfield, IL housing info, Wayne County, Illinois, IL smaller cities, IL small cities, All Cities.


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happy bday!
He Are u able to make a new animation for me, i seem to be the only that kept the one you made from so long ago. Guilty gear is offically dead so i havent touched bridget in a long time. And rachel isnt bottom tier. If your willing too, it can be something very simple like 5cc against cs1 in white and pink, or 5b the pumpkin upward with wind in pink and white. If not i totally understand, but i thought i ask for another versus, changing it and i think its time for my avatar to represent rachel now for a bit.
since i heard the balance patch is coming out i figured i might as well main rachel again.
Aww...I actually cried at that part... Damn I miss that show now...
It's still Rachel with a bunch of others on the side. I can't make it to weekend tourneys for awhile so I'm not really practicing CS that much. When console comes out I'll probably start playing seriously again.
so is your main still rachel or have you switched since cs? my main and sub for ct are rachel and carl,since cs nerfed rachel horrifically ill main carl for the time being.
Kro I need halp getting better. I super trolled the only game I won :D.
Lets go to Mikes :D
What you up to?
Likewise. I wasn't able to go because it was full last week. Hopefully he'll let us in for this week.
Legit Member
New Blood
Team Beast
Ike Takanaka?


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Drive chart: Broncos 31, Patriots 34
Mozart's violin and viola star at Jordan Hall
The first mainstage concert of the Boston Early Music Festival was also the North American debut of Mozart's own violin and viola.
Story 1 of 20
ALBUM REVIEW: Various Artists, 'Bombay Disco: Disco Hits from Hindi Films, 1979-1985'
According to Boston's Brother Cleve, the kitsch and cocktail connoisseur who collected the music on this rapturously weird compilation, "Udi Baba" translates roughly as "to make someone fly." The song by that name, a preposterously catchy mashup of girlish chanting, early video-game sound effects, dubby horns and guitars, and a relentless four-on-the-floor accompanied a surreal 1982 Bollywood clip of a woman being shot from a golden gun. The phrase, Cleve writes in the album's liner notes, has an alternate meaning: "Oh my gosh!"
Story 2 of 20
Red Sox flex a little muscle with three homers vs. Rays
Three strong innings by Jon Lester and three long balls added up to a second straight victory for the Red Sox.
Story 3 of 20
Friend of Tsarnaev is confident in justice system, mother says
Azamat Tazhayakov is one of three friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev facing federal criminal charges.
Story 4 of 20
Shift in defense
The Ukraine crisis reveals the need to push ahead with military downsizing.
Story 5 of 20
Report portrays do-little Suffolk County register
Patricia Campatelli set a punitive tone, and often worked only 15 hours a week at her $122,500 a year job, a new report has found.
Story 6 of 20
Immune therapy lifts hopes in fight with cancer
An immune therapy approach that was on the fringes of cancer therapy is suddenly the hottest trend in cancer drug development.
Story 7 of 20
Boat dwellers ride out winter in Boston Harbor
A hardy band of outliers has been greeting the winter days from inside cozy rooms that bob gently with the current in the harbor.
Story 8 of 20
Teens' brains make them more vulnerable to suicide
Researchers are beginning to understand exactly why a teenager's brain is so tempestuous.
Story 9 of 20
Company aims to reinvent reading in mobile era
Spritz Technology, a Boston-area company, has created a radical new reading technology developed for this era of small screens.
Story 10 of 20
Changes sought in parole hearings for ex-juveniles
At issue is how to set up the hearings for a dozen Mass. inmates sentenced as juveniles to life sentences for first-degree murder.
Story 11 of 20
Rajon Rondo, Celtics handle the Pistons
Rondo tallied a season-high 18 assists with no turnovers in the Celtics' 118-111 win Sunday night.
Story 12 of 20
A school bus is not a billboard
When she waves goodbye to me in the morning, I prefer my daughter's head not be atop, say, an image of a Little Caesar's pizza.
Story 13 of 20
Technology gives certainty to seafood purchases
Seafood dealer Red's Best has developed software that ensures the catch is local, high-quality, and worth the extra price.
Story 14 of 20
Celtics won't hit bottom of the league
It's supposed to be Tankapalooza, but on nights like Sunday, it looks like the Celtics didn't get the memo.
Story 15 of 20
Jury awards $4.8m to family in death of patient
Jeffrey Kace's lethal heart ailment was misdiagnosed as a lung infection at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in 2006.
Story 16 of 20
Democrats aim to exploit GOP on immigration
Republicans in nine races are seen as vulnerable if the House does not pass an immigration bill before the November election.
Story 17 of 20
Seven nations join search for lost Malaysian plane
Authorities deflected troubling questions about two passengers who used passports listed in an international database as lost or stolen.
Story 18 of 20
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Buying or browsing? An exploration of shopping orientations and online purchase intention
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Title | Buying or browsing? An exploration of shopping orientations and online purchase intention |
Author | Brown, Mark; Pope, Nigel Kenneth; Voges, Kevin |
Editor | David Carson, Dr. Audrey Gilmore |
Year Published | 2003 |
Publisher | Emerald Group Publishing Limited |
Citation | European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 37(11/12), pp. 1666-1684 |
Peer Reviewed | Yes |
Published | Yes |
Publisher URI | http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0309-0566.htm |
Alternative URI | http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090560310495401 |
Publication Type | Journal Articles (Refereed Article) |
Please use this identifier to cite this record: http://hdl.handle.net/10072/6443
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Bruce Schneier | ||||||||||||
Schneier on SecurityA blog covering security and security technology. « U.S. Patent Office Spreads FUD About Music Downloads | Main | Citizen Counter-Terrorists » March 20, 2007 Volvo's "Heartbeat Sensor"Here's a great example of security theater: The Personal Car Communicator (PCC) is your car key's smart connection with your Volvo S80 applying the latest in two-way radio technology. When in range, you'll always know the status of your car. Locked or unlocked. Alarm activated or not. If the alarm has been activated, the heartbeat sensor will also tell you if there is someone inside the car. The PCC also includes keyless entry and keyless drive. I'll wager that it will sell, though, because it taps directly into people's fears. Does anyone know how it works? Sound? Something else? Posted on March 20, 2007 at 10:46 AM • 60 Comments To receive these entries once a month by e-mail, sign up for the Crypto-Gram Newsletter. CommentsKeith • March 20, 2007 11:22 AM It seemed to me this was a comical feature for a couple reasons. How good is the typical security on the Volvo that I have to worry someone might have broken in and hidden inside? More importantly, what good are the windows for if I cannot see through them? The feature likely adds costs to the car and I can imagine many other features I would rather have than a heartbeat sensor for the money. Autoworld reported that "The heartbeat sensor registers the vibration of a beating heart - both human and animal" and I would guess that partially answers your question. Rick Auricchio • March 20, 2007 11:31 AM Maybe they've perfected the old Star Trek device that amplifies heartbeats by 1 to the 4th power! Andre LePlume • March 20, 2007 11:47 AM Child gets heatstroke in locked Volvo. Software liability in action, Bruce! :^) David Moles • March 20, 2007 11:49 AM Yeah, but will it detected pulseless Archimedes-screw-based artificial hearts??? Stephan Samuel • March 20, 2007 11:54 AM I don't know anything about what Volvo did, but I do know two things: 1) my truck has a passenger-side airbag sensor that seems to be based on weight, and, 2) I have a heart rate monitor that requires a chest strap, moisture, a working battery and some fairly complicated technology to work. I doubt Volvo perfected something that their friends making heart rate monitors in Finland couldn't for the last 10 years. As for knowing if the car is locked, I know whether my car is locked or not because I lock it, or I don't. With Lojack recovery rates as high as they are, this system seems rather useless. Peter • March 20, 2007 11:55 AM Holy cow, that thing's expensive! Still, as I can tell you from many years of watching movies, this will pay off. As we all know, murderers _love_ to hide in the back seats of cars, and they are completely invisible there. Up to now, I've relied on poking a stick into the apparently empty air behind the driver's seat to make sure no one's there in the morning... I've been yearning for a high-tech solution to this problem. Now, if someone would just get working on a Godzilla detector, I could rest easy. Cassandra • March 20, 2007 12:18 PM @Stephan Samuel All you need is a sensitive accelerometer or two and some signal processing software. Already used by what was Customs & Excise and is now "Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs" at Dover to try and reduce the number of illegal immigrants coming into the UK. See here: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2001/sep/... and here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1552598.stm which are probably both extracted from the same press release. Hospitals used to use the same idea before cheap electronic methods came in - they would strap the patient to a suspended platform and mechanically amplify the movement of the platform to get a trace on a drum of paper. It's called a ballistocardiogram (BCG) rather than ECG (electrocardiogram) - see here: http://advan.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/27/... to see that I'm not having you on. Also, Google for ballistocardigraphic or ballistocardiogram. Cassandra Costas • March 20, 2007 12:29 PM I would guess that they are picking up electric signals similar to those used for ECG, this is the same principle used for heart beat monitoring in sports. It just needs a very sensitive "antenna". Come to think of it, though, being an engineer I always look for the simple solution. It is very simple and cheap to use infrared sensors inside the car, so there is absolutely no need to try and pick the signal from somebody's heart. Joseph • March 20, 2007 12:31 PM @Cassandra: That's fascinating about the Ballistocardiogram. I had never heard of that before. derf • March 20, 2007 12:43 PM How does this protect us from gargoyles, demons, zombies, vampires, skeletons, or other undead slasher personas hiding in the backseat? When will they release a "someone cut your brake line" sensor that warns you before you get on a steep hill? When will they release a "someone wired an explosive to the ignition" sensor or a "someone planted a remotely detonated explosive to the undercarriage" sensor that warns you in time to save you from the boom? The Boston police version would be a "blinking LED" sensor. We need MORE protection from Hollywood plots before we can consider ourselves safe. cmarnold • March 20, 2007 1:10 PM Aside from my feelings that there hasn't been a solid Volvo since the 740 I'm constantly amused by the "features" being added since Ford purchased Volvo cars. They recently introduced a Bluetooth hub for the XC90 (and probably the S80). I can just imagine the Volvo car lot where every car's Bluetooth master starts page scanning and running up and down the channel range. Given the range of the PPC, it wouldn't surprise me if it were ZigBee-based. What with all of the existing sensors in a vehicle (weight in seat, tension on safety belts, etc. all being used to control air bag deployment) it doesn't seem like it would be a difficult thing to implement. If the OnStar service can use its GPS to locate your stolen car or push instructions to unlock the doors, it probably wouldn't be long until it can actively monitor your car in other ways. Hmmm...it seems like the Volvo engineers simply extended the Volvo private MIB and added bi-directional wireless SNMP polling and traps. -CMA rapier57 • March 20, 2007 1:16 PM This technology is probably based on active RFID. Completely unsecure and hackable, almost trivial to copy and duplicate. More of the same is currently coming from your banks and in US and UK passports. meeters • March 20, 2007 1:19 PM What about dead people. Can it detect when the heart beat stops? I really want to know if there is a dead person in the back seat of my Volvo on a dark, rainy night. Or in my trunk, sometimes I don't open my trunk for weeks at a time. cmarnold • March 20, 2007 1:20 PM Security theater indeed. According to LoJack (quoting the US FBI), Volvo vehicles haven't made the top ten stolen vehicles in the US EVER! NATIONAL INSURANCE CRIME BUREAU STATISTICS: 1. 1991 Honda Accord (from http://www.lojack.com/why/... -CMA Mark in CA • March 20, 2007 1:22 PM I don't know about a heartbeat sensor, but around here most cars would benefit from a paying attention sensor. vwm • March 20, 2007 1:39 PM I do not get it: Is that sensor c) is quite stupid; paul • March 20, 2007 1:46 PM To me, this translates as "You won't have to walk down to your car to see if this is just one more &$@$ stupid false alarm waking up the rest of the neighborhood." Anonymous • March 20, 2007 1:53 PM If the sensor detects vibration, it's going to fail badly if it's parked in a parking lot, a parking garage, on the street, or anywhere except a quiet suburban garage. And probably not even in the garage (household vibrations transmitted through the garage floor). Even if it has an exceptionally good digital filter tuned for the bandwidth of heartbeats, it would have to detect a range of heartbeats that includes small animals, which have higher beat rates. This seems either bogus or a bad idea, no matter what technology it's using. The simple reason is that failures (false positive or false negative) are too costly. disgruntled ladye • March 20, 2007 2:01 PM I think I also read this being marketed to parents so they won't leave a baby in the car... Sad, but that sort of thing has happened too many times. This is just marketing to appeal to the demographic of people who want "Safe" cars. A look at any of Volvo's marketing campaigns in the U.S. shows how much they advertise to people who want something safe. Volvo cars still have at least some of that reputation. Joe Patterson • March 20, 2007 2:20 PM It would be just about as pointless, but I wonder if it would be more effective at saving lives in general if the same sensor were used to shut off the engine in the event that it failed to detect a heartbeat in the car? In other words, there is a very low number of people who get attacked by a hidden assailant in the car. There is a very low number of people who die while driving and plow into oncoming traffic. Which number is actually lower? On re-reading, I suspect that the purpose of this is to alert you if you inadvertently forget that your infant is in the back seat when you're going in to the office. That can be deadly, especially in very warm or cold climates, and is certainly a horrific experience for a parent. I know when I lived in FL, there were a few stories about that happening each summer. Given that scenario, it doesn't really seem that bad an idea... Dom De Vitto • March 20, 2007 2:57 PM Damn. I've only just installed a sensor to detect murderers with magneto-inductive artificial hearts, and would you know it, technology moves on, and now I need to upgrade to detect Archimedes-screw based artificial hearts too. Since the claw-hand from 'Live and Let Die' - it's been a continuous war of attrition against cybernetically enhanced murderers, and Ford has finally started cashing in. Bill P • March 20, 2007 3:12 PM Volvo is going to lose a lot of money because of this! Over a decade ago I saw a demo of this technology, it was being used in prisons to scan laundry trucks and the like to detect if someone had stowed away inside. It seemed to work very well. I would imagine that today it works even better. Stupid use for it though. MegaZone • March 20, 2007 3:48 PM Despite having TiVo, I've managed to see ads for this. They play out as you would expect. It is late at night. An attractive young woman walks, alone, across the top level of a deserted parking structure toward her Volvo. As she approaches, she looks at her key fob to see a slowly blinking light. She stops, looks up at the car with mild terror dawning on her face. She turns, and walking faster now, heads back the way she came. Saved from the unknown assailant hiding in her car. Thanks Volvo! Mark in CA • March 20, 2007 5:17 PM This is the Ford press release explaining the technology. And yes, it may detect the dead hooker in your trunk. Gopi • March 20, 2007 5:38 PM @MegaZone: That's great! I think a counter-commercial would be good. The same thing, except that when she looks at her key fob, everything's fine. She relaxes and lets down her guard. The axe murderer is, of course, hiding behind a concrete pillar instead. Lukas • March 20, 2007 6:21 PM "If the alarm has been activated, the heartbeat sensor will also tell you if there is someone inside the car." Why is this feature conditional on whether the alarm has been activated? If an intruder has gained entry to the vehicle despite an alarm either the alarm was never activated or the intruder managed to deactivate it. Sure, the intruder might reactivate the alarm, but not all intruders will do so and certainly not the intruders who know about this feature. I know it's kind of a moot point considering the actual value of the feature, but still... Mike • March 20, 2007 6:55 PM I've seen the ad for this feature, and it is sold as a way to detect attackers hidden in your car before you reach the car. Basically, the thesis is that you will not be able to escape from an assailant hiding in your car by the time you visually detect them. If it doesn't add much cost to the car, and seems like a good way to add visibility to the parts of a car you can't visually scan from a distance. Of course, it's important that it be difficult to disable or fool the detector. The remote should flash a warning if its signal is being jammed or the detector isn't working, for instance. Of course, this would require interaction with the user, since simply moving outside the range of the detector would cause this alert to be raised otherwise. I don't think pressing a "check occupancy" button at night is such a big deal for a little extra safety, though. Sean • March 21, 2007 2:00 AM Too many people are making dumb comments because this option is marketed via fearmongering. If you don't want it, don't buy it. But at least observe that it's an interesting piece of technology. Peter Amey • March 21, 2007 4:31 AM Not directly related but there was a similar bit of automotive comedy a few years back. A modern "key-less" car had the feature that as you walked away from it, with the electronic key replacement in your pocket, it locked all the doors for you. Skeptical owners, worried whether their car was really locked would go back to check, at which point the system would kindly unlock it for them as soon as they got close enough. Karsten W. Rohrbach • March 21, 2007 4:43 AM From the Ford press release: So "keyless entry" to the trunk is achieved by injecting some CO2 from a soda dispenser and knocking a few times on the lid? A'kos • March 21, 2007 9:15 AM Posted by: vwm at March 20, 2007 01:39 PM It's much easier done than you'd expect. J.D. Abolins • March 21, 2007 10:51 AM The Snopes.com urban legends site has an entry for the "intruder hiding in the backseat" stories at http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/backseat.asp The greater risks of carjackings entail intruders breaking in from the outside of the vehicle while the driver is present. (Hint: Don't concentrate upon possible heartbeats inside the vehicle as much as paying attention to what's and who's near the vehicle. Plain old situational awareness.) WLW • March 21, 2007 2:09 PM This whole concept reminds me of the car alarm systems that will signal the key fob when the alarm goes off--supposedly so you can go investigate. As one comedian put it, "Now I can get my ass kicked on top of having my car stolen." Fred • March 21, 2007 9:22 PM I am interested in this technology for an actual useful application. I work in the building technologies, measuring occupany for safety (building is on fire and there are three people on the 3rd floor) and for energy (there is no one in this office so turn off the lights and reduce the ventilation, or there are 5 people in this conference room so set the air flow rate to X). If anyone has solid data on this device, a spec sheet, or a manufacturer, please post it. Thanks, Fred P.S. The commercial was effective because I park on the street and actually for a second I did think about checking the backseat if someone was in there. I guess Volvo figures that playing off of peoples fears is a good idea as long as you sell a product, reminds me of our president... Wim L • March 22, 2007 12:32 PM Does it detect the hook hand on the door? Does it detect that the hitchhiker I just picked up is actually a ghost? Snark aside, this does seem like a vaguely useful thing to do with the existing sensor data. Adding a touch sensor and CO2 sensor in the trunk is pretty silly, though --- why not just install a crash-bar style handle there so that anyone inside can easily get out? Dror • March 30, 2007 11:10 AM People forgetting their baby in the car? Happened in an old episode of CSI... Joe • April 5, 2007 7:47 AM I still dont know that I agree with all these electronic features in todays modern cars, if for instance the window motor breaks your stuck trying to get a quarter into the toll basket, not to mention needing to take an equity line of credit to repair all these sensors. Gregg Leonard • May 10, 2007 6:57 PM This is indeed security theatre. I was not aware of an epidemic of crime stemming from someone hiding in your vehicle. The heartbeat sensor would certainly save a life under the right cicrumstances, but I believe the actual incidents that occur under those conditions to be very rare. An expensive device to protect from a statistically unsubstantiated risk. This is just a creature comfort for the paranoid. While the scenario might be rare in reality, women in particular still seem to concern themselves with all the ridiculous situations where they could become prey to an evildoer. It would be refreshing to see a realistic look at the threats that we really face on a daily basis. Dan Musher • May 22, 2007 5:53 PM Does anyone know what one is expected to pay for this most minor security 'convenience'? This4Now • September 8, 2007 8:56 AM You have missed the point for this device. Just today there was yet another careless mother who left her child in the backseat of the car. Windows up, 100 degree heat and the 8 hours later the child was dead. Had she had a device that could tell her somebody was in the car it would have saved her childs life. It is not a security feature, rather a safety feature for parents too careless to remember the kids are in the car.... Jennie • February 5, 2008 7:14 PM "You have missed the point for this device. Just today there was yet another careless mother who left her child in the backseat of the car. Windows up, 100 degree heat and the 8 hours later the child was dead. Had she had a device that could tell her somebody was in the car it would have saved her childs life." It's tragic when that happens, but really how many people, forgetting they have left a child stranded in the car, will remember to look at their key fob to see if they left someone in the car?? They already would have taken the kid with them if that were the case. How sad that for some people it would be easier to remember "look at key" than "take my precious child with me so they don't die" SaMmY • February 5, 2008 9:26 PM Soooo it can't detect the body parts in my dash??? Or better yet, If I rip out the victims heart, that means I'm good there too??? BodyBaggs • February 8, 2008 1:24 AM You People are all shot if you think the damn Key Fob picks up an actual heartbeat! It is called a "Heart beat" sensor because it will pick up any movement just like a car alarm/house alarm! Usually with "Life" & "movement" comes a "heart" and "beats" so to sum it up "heart" + "beat" + "sensor" = an option. An option is "take it or leave it" if you want it buy it if not dont!! Its not a Hospital on wheels!! BodyBaggs • February 8, 2008 1:30 AM I heard the Volvo X80 is coming with a Digital Xray machine as well as a surgery table, EKG machines, a few IV hanger hooks and last but not least there is a special Tow Package for a pull behind Catscan! norris • February 13, 2008 11:37 AM Talking about motion sensors, I had a Harley with STOCK pipes, quiet ones, and I went through the local hospital parking garage,and to my horror, every doctors Porche,Caddy,Volvo,Lexus,BMW,etc. all went off for 6 floors. What a trip. Imagine one with "Hell's Angel's" pipes. A.Mercer • February 15, 2008 9:50 AM The commercial for this show it to be something to warn you if someone is sitting in your car. The odds of that are infinitesimal. I am not even sure there are statistics that show how many people are attacked by people hiding in their cars. It is sure-fire urban legend fodder though. Also, this is worthless if you forget to check the monitor before you get in the car. I know that when I unlock my car using the remote it turns the interior lights on and I can just look in the windows to see the attacker waiting for me. If I am too lazy to do that then I am sure not going to check my remote sensor every time. Another point of worthlessness is how did the attacker get in the car in the first place? Smash the windows? Break a lock? Have a copy of the key? Also, if the attacker is in the car the attacker will have access to the fuse box. Can the sensor be turned off by taking out a certain fuse? Is there a way to interfere with the sensor? I will bet that if there is then it will not take long before you can just google "Volvo heartbeat sensor hack��? and get a few thousand sites detailing how to do it. One the person is in the car the sensor can be compromised. As for children left in cars, once again this will be pretty much worthless because people who leave their children in cars generally are in a hurry. They are not going to check that sensor. They are running to get to work or something. What would be a better idea for preventing this using a heart rate monitor is a very noisy alarm that will activate if it detects a heartbeat in the car and the temperature goes above a certain mark. Maybe even kick in the AC or roll the windows down or something to help reduce the temperature. You have to measure the heartbeat for a minute or so because you do not want it going off the second you climb into your car/oven after it has been sitting in the sun all afternoon. This would be good for children and pets in cars. This Volvo security feature is a ripoff. It is being sold to people by making those people believe that there is a need for it when there is none. This is basic sales and advertising but some things go too far. You know that there are salesmen out there who are going to push this sucker as much as they can especially if it has a high markup. I used to work at a car dealership in the make ready department and had to deal with salesmen all the time. They have a phrase for when they take in a sucker. It is called "knocking their head off��?. I am sure that lots of heads will roll in the show room because of this little waste of money. I am pretty sure that the salesmen will recognize that this feature is worthless but will bring them a profit. Anonymous • February 19, 2008 7:23 PM For those claiming the heartbeat sensor is for not fogetting your child in the car... 1.) You have to LOOK at your keyring to see the sensor and if you do that when leaving your car you can just as easily LOOK and see if your kid is still in the car...but if you are looking in the first place then you are THINKING about it and would remember your kid...and thus there would be no need for the sensor! 2.) If you look and see it upon returning to your car you would not really gain anything beacause by then the damage has been done to the child by then 3.) The Volvo commerical CLEARLY shows this is geared towards intruders in your car (woman comes to car at night, sees heartbeat sensor go off and walks away from her car) So stop all the nonsense about this being to save a child! STUPID • February 20, 2008 8:54 PM IF ANYONE CAN BYPASS SECURITY ON A 2008 VOLVO S80 THEY HAVE THE CAPABILITY TO LEAVE WITH YOUR CAR NOT WAIT INSIDE FOR YOU...FUCKING WORTHLESS FEATURE 4whatitsworth • February 20, 2008 9:47 PM The issue of breaking into a car without setting off the alarm is worth considering. I have had my Suburban broken into and have friends with Fords who have had essentially "undetected" breakins. This seems to be accomplished somehow by ramming a screw driver into the lock at the door handle. This leaves only a small indentation on the keyhole and apparently does not set off the alarm. Most of these thieves grab what they can see and don't want to camp out in your vehicle. However, it wouldn't be a stretch for a stalker or someone with a grudge to be camped out in your back seat. That being said, these are Chevys and Fords. I don't know if a Volvo lock can be broken in the same manner. As for the baby-in-the-car issue, the commercial gives no indication of whether this technology would work in such a case. I doubt Volvo would take the liability for a case in which it did not work. In my part of the world, this is, unfortunately, a common problem. However, it's usually not a problem in Volvo owners. It's usually a problem with daycare bus/van drivers who tend to work for businesses that serve lower income individuals and often have past histories of drug/alcohol abuse. The tragedy is the same no matter the income level, but the demographics just don't seem to be owners of new Volvos. duckie • February 22, 2008 3:26 PM they just adapted military technology for securing places like nuclear power plants etc for consumer use Toni • February 24, 2008 9:08 PM I initially thought this was an excellent idea when I saw the commercial. However, if it ONLY measures heartbeat from INSIDE the car then it does not do much good. It also brings up a great point to the fact that someone would actually have to break into your car for you to find out if they are in there AND this says that the alarm must be activated in order to measure the heartbeat inside the car. So if you activated the alarm, wouldnt the alarm go off when someone broke in? And if it didnt that poses an even greater question, Why do there alarms not go off if someone breaks in. That would worry me about buying this car if they had to put a heartbeat sensor inside the car just incase the alarm didnt work. Now if there was a heartbeat sensor that measured maybe 5 feet AROUND the vehicle, THEN I would be interested in spending the extra money for that on this car. But until then, this is a waste of money. Liudwih • February 25, 2008 5:51 AM It is my understanding that it senses heart beats both in and around the car. If the "around the vehicle" part is true I think it is great! I do worry walking to my car at night. A woman was just abducted raped and murdered at a local mall. The guy was hiding behind car. So again if it monitors around the vehical great. For just inside the vehicle that stinks. Chuck • May 16, 2008 9:32 PM Hay the FORD web site says you can set the system up to sound the alarm if there is a heart beat after beeing locked. Chuck • May 16, 2008 9:36 PM And a car jacker dosent have to be in the car just on the otherside, touching it even slitly. So no defeating the alarm, just crouched on the passangers side and waiting for the doors to unlock. Anonymous • January 23, 2009 3:21 PM yea, they should make a 2nd commercial... lady walks to her car, notices the light on key fob, letting her know someone is in the car..she walks back where she came from..and of course, the intruder's accomplice, another murderer, is waiting behind the bushes. great technology volvo! Subscribe to comments on this entry Leave a comment
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