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Center for Quality and Applied Statistics
Internal Auditing to ISO 9001:2008
"Great!" "Very practical and humorous!" "There were no parts of the program I did not feel were an asset to me." These are typical comments on this popular seminar that develops auditing skills necessary to maintain and improve an ISO 9000 quality system. Through formal presentations, workshops, case studies and open-forum discussions, the ISO 9000 standard and auditing skills are brought alive with humor. You will be instructed in the detailed requirements of the ISO 9000 standard and how to audit to the new process approach. You will learn how to plan and perform an audit as well as how to report findings and review corrective action. While ISO 9000 is used as a basis, these auditing skills are appropriate for any standard. 1.4 CEUs.
Topics include:
- Overview of the ISO 9001:2008
- Characteristics of a good auditor
- Auditing a process and systems approach
- Planning the audit and setting objectives
- Developing questions and checklists
- Reporting findings
- Verifying corrective action
Meet your instructors
John T. Burr is the lead trainer for the ISO 9000 seminars offered at CQAS. He is a CQAS faculty member and spent 24 years as an analytical chemist, quality consultant and director of quality audits for Eastman Kodak Company. He is an ASQ fellow, a Certified Quality Engineer, and also a Certified Quality Auditor.
Robert Berg worked as a chemist at Eastman Kodak Company for 30 years. During that time he provided chemical testing and technical support for toner, synthetic chemical and polymer manufacturing operations. He supervised several laboratories, in which he implemented and maintained ISO Guide 25 compliant quality systems. He has been involved in ISO/QS 9000 quality documentation and auditor training since 1998. He is currently a certified RABQSA Lead Auditor specializing in chemical manufacturing and engineering service companies.
Who should attend
Individuals who will be conducting internal audits or supplier audits based on any quality system standard.
6/4/2014 - 6/5/2014 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
10/8/2014 - 10/9/2014 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
$695. This cost includes continental breakfast and lunch for each day. (Add $50 for optional exam)
ISO Consulting and Workshops
CQAS has provided ISO consulting services to many small and midsized companies. If you are interested in gaining ISO Certification for your organization, please contact us for further information on our services. Our ISO consulting services can be delivered in a flexible way to allow you to utilize your internal resources for tasks you have capacity to do, thus saving money as you proceed to certification.
Greg Evershed
Director Bus. Dev.


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St. Ives
St. Ives, one of Cornwall's popular seaside towns, is an old fishing village. This beach town has its share of tacky surf shops. However, it also has a leading art community and an outpost of one of London's best museums, the Tate Gallery.
St. Ives, United Kingdom
St. Michael's Mount
The village of Penzance is home to the 12th-century castle of St. Michael's Mount. St. Michael is said to have appeared over the cliffs to fishermen around the year 495 to ward them off the rocks. Since then, it has been a place of pilgrimage.
Penzance, Cornwall TR18 2PJ, United Kingdom
The Eden Project
One of Cornwall's newest attractions, the gardens and biomes are home to plants and trees from all over the planet. The project shows man's relationship and dependence upon plants. Outside, the sculptures and interactive exhibits are equally cool.
Bodelva, St. Austell, Cornwall, PL24 2SG, United Kingdom
Camel Valley Vineyards
Thousands of vines grow on the sun-filled slopes of Camel Valley, halfway between the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel. Guided tours and tastings are all a part of a wine experience you just never thought you would have in England.
Nanstallon, Bodmin, Cornwall, PL30 5LG, United Kingdom
The Minack
This breathtaking outdoor theater has seats that seem to be carved from the cliff side. The stage is encircled by natural rock with a backdrop of the English Channel. Each season, international groups perform in more than 20 productions.
Porthcurno, Penzance, Cornwall, TR19 6JU, United Kingdom
The Atlantic Hotel
Located in Carbis Bay just outside St. Ives, the hotel is in a large, cosmopolitan home. Its restaurant, Waves, has an innovative menu, a welcome respite from pub food. The beach is a 15-minute walk away. To get a great room, reserve well in advance.
St. Ives Road, Carbis Bay, St. Ives, Cornwall, TR26 2SB, United Kingdom
Watergate Bay Hotel
In the north of Cornwall, the hotel's Extreme Academy is a notorious wind and surf playground for extreme-sports activity. Inside, the hotel serves cream tea, a twist on the traditional English high or afternoon tea with lots of cream and jams.
On the Beach, Watergate Bay, Cornwall, TR8 4AA, United Kingdom
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
- Overview
- Specs
- Reviews
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The Philosophy of 3 AM
The Collected Poems, 1956–1998
Zbigniew Herbert, who was born in 1924 in Lwów and died in Warsaw in 1998, was one of the great poets of our time. His compatriots Czeslaw Milosz and Wyslawa Szymborska, who were both awarded the Nobel Prize in recent years, may now be more famous, but he surely belongs in their company, as this book with its many truly extraordinary poems fully demonstrates. Herbert was the most original of the three and the funniest. Only a mixture of seriousness and comedy could do justice to his experience, which included wartime horrors, totalitarianism, and exile. Tragicomedy was his specialty. In Herbert's early poem "Five Men," the condemned, who are to be led before the firing squad at sunrise, spend their last hours among the living talking about dreams, automobile parts, a sea voyage, an adventure in a whorehouse, a fatal error in a poker game, and how vodka is best, since after wine you get a headache. Herbert wrote the kind of poems these five men would not have had trouble understanding on that final night.
The Collected Poems, 1956–1998 contains the nine collections of poetry that Herbert published in his lifetime, most of them put into English by Alissa Valles with the exception of seventy-nine poems translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Peter Dale Scott, which were first published as Selected Poems in the Penguin Modern European Poets series in 1968. This book introduced Herbert's poems to American readers. I'm willing to bet that no one who read them ever forgot them. Written during the bleak years of Stalinism in Poland and not published until later, they convey what it was like to have lived through some of the darkest years of European history, and yet they are not political poems in any conventional sense. They are too complex for any such reductive label. Here, for instance, is a poem Herbert wrote when he was fifteen about a couple making love as bombs fell on their heads:
The forests were on fire—
they however
wreathed their necks with their hands
like bouquets of roses
People ran to the shelters—
he said his wife had hair
in whose depths one could hide
Covered by one blanket
they whispered shameless words
the litany of those who love
When it got very bad
they leapt into each other's eyes
and shut them firmly
So firmly they did not feel the flames
when they came up to the eyelashes
To the end they were brave
To the end they were faithful
To the end they were similar
like two drops
stuck at the edge of a face
(translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Peter Dale Scott)
Herbert always said that he had no use for that "puffed-up monster with a murderous eye," the Hegelian spirit of history. "I wasted years learning history's simplistic workings/the monotonous procession and the unequal struggle/between the thugs at the head of addled crowds/and a handful of the righteous and reasonable," he wrote in a poem. He didn't arrive at that knowledge just by reading books. As a fifteen-year-old, Herbert witnessed his hometown occupied by the Soviet Union following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and some nineteen months later by the Nazis after the alliance collapsed and Hitler attacked Russia. Lwów, a bustling city with a mixed population of Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, and Jews, was changed within a few days into a concentration camp, Herbert remembered. One of his teachers was killed, he said, by "history's schoolyard bullies," while others were thrown in jail. Herbert joined the Polish resistance movement and continued his studies at an underground university. With mass slaughter, forced deportation, and widespread fear, he must have seen plenty.
In 1944, before the city was once again taken by the Soviets, Herbert's family escaped to Kraków. After the Red Army arrived, he attended lectures at the university and drawing classes at the Academy of Fine Arts while obtaining a degree in economics at the Trade Academy. As a former member of the anti-Communist Home Army, he was regarded as politically suspect. He kept a low profile, working at different jobs, as an editor of an economic journal, a bank clerk, a shop attendant, an accountant and timekeeper in a cooperative, a librarian, and eventually as an administrator in the Association of Polish Composers. One difficult year, he supplemented his income by selling his blood. Not until 1950 were his poems published in a magazine, and his first book, Chord of Light, did not come out until 1956, when he was already thirty-two years old. He later attributed his reluctance to fall on his knees before the mighty not to his bravery or strength of character, but to his sense of taste: an inability to bear the regime's execrable rhetoric, its torturer's dialectic and reasoning without grace. In other words, aesthetics saved his soul: beauty played a subversive role in his refusal to become one of the corrupted.
From the very beginning, Herbert's poems had one distinguishing quality. They dealt with complex experiences and ideas in the plainest language. Well aware that he was using an impure tool of expression, banalized and subject to abuse every day, he still strove to make words mean what they mean. For Herbert, a bird is a bird, slavery means slavery, a knife is a knife, death remains death. That makes him easier to translate, of course, than poets who are attracted to rich verbal texture and symbolism. Still, his idiomatic, unpunctuated free verse and his fondness for dramatic monologues as well as his frequent and subtle use of irony do present a challenge. Herbert has been lucky in his translators. Alissa Valles's renditions here, despite an occasional awkward phrase, inevitable in a book this big, are admirable.
The greatest surprise, perhaps, for any first-time reader of Herbert's poetry is his many poems on Greek and Roman antiquity. These are not the respectful versions of myths and historical figures one encounters in contemporary verse in which the poet questions neither the philosophical nor the ethical premises of the original, but are radical reevaluations from the point of view of someone who has experienced modern wars and revolutions. What Herbert does is introduce Achilles to Hitler. We read in one poem about Nike, goddess of victory, who hesitates and remains frozen on seeing a youth ride off to his death in a war chariot. In another, more terrifying poem, Herbert speculates about the ending of the story of Marsyas, the foolish satyr, who after finding a flute Athena tossed away teaches himself to play it and thoughtlessly challenges Apollo, the god of music, to a contest. He loses and the god exacts payment for his insolence by having him flayed alive and nailed to a tree:
The real duel of Apollo
with Marsyas
(absolute ear
versus immense range)
takes place in the evening
when as we already know
the judges
have awarded victory to the god
bound tight to a tree
meticulously stripped of his skin
before the howl reaches his tall ears
he reposes in the shadow of that howl
shaken by a shudder of disgust
Apollo is cleaning his instrument
only seemingly
is the voice of Marsyas
and composed of a single vowel
in reality
Marsyas relates
the inexhaustible wealth
of his body
bald mountains of liver
white ravines of aliment
rustling forests of lung
sweet hillocks of muscle
joints bile blood and shudders
the wintry wind of bone
over the salt of memory
shaken by a shudder of disgust
Apollo is cleaning his instrument
now to the chorus
is joined the backbone of Marsyas
in principle the same A
only deeper with the addition of rust
this is already beyond the endurance
of the god with nerves of artificial fibre
along a gravel path
hedged with box
the victor departs
whether out of Marsyas' howling
there will not some day arise
a new kind
of art—let us say—concrete
at his feet
falls a petrified nightingale
he looks back
and sees
that the hair of the tree to which Marsyas was fastened
is white
(translated by Milosz and Scott)
In Ovid's version, the action ends with the victory of the god, but Herbert is curious about what happens after, so he keeps him around long enough to hear, with a "shudder of disgust," what torturing a human sounds like. Apollo represents an aesthetic so pure that it has no place for sufferings of mere flesh and blood. As he hurries away, he wonders whether out of Marsyas' raw pain a new realistic art may arise some day. The tree and the nightingale show more compassion for the pain of the mutilated body than the god who is too busy congratulating himself on his idea. Perfection is inseparable from indifferent cruelty; that is how Stanislaw Baranczak reads this poem in A Fugitive from Utopia, his authoritative study of Herbert's poetry.1
One little prose poem in Collected Poems, 1956–1998 is called "Practical Recommendations in the Event of a Catastrophe." My father, who came from the same part of the world, used to ask me from time to time, "Where are we going to immigrate next?" He was a cheerful pessimist who never lost sight of the fact that our reprieve from history may be temporary. Neither did Herbert. Strategies for physical and spiritual survival were his constant worry. In a very funny and terrifying poem called "Attempt at the Dissolution of Mythology," the Greek gods end up by being exiles too. They gather and decide to disband their racket, join rational society, and somehow make do. Late in the evening, they take the road into town, with false documents in their pockets and a handful of copper coins. As they cross a bridge, Hermes jumps into the river. They see him drowning, but do not try to save him, debating instead whether this was a bad or a good omen.
This next poem is also about displaced persons. It describes the fate of hundreds of thousands of Russians who left their homes during the Revolution:
It was in the year twenty
or perhaps twenty-one
the Russian émigrés
came to us
tall blond people
with visionary eyes
and women like a dream
when they crossed the market-place
we used to say—migratory birds
they used to attend the
soirées of the gentry
everyone would whisper—look what pearls
but when the lights of the ball were extinguished
helpless people remained
the gray newspapers were continuously silent
only solitaire showed pity
the guitars beyond the windows would cease playing
and even dark eyes faded
in the evening a samovar with a whistle
would carry them back to their family railway-stations
after a couple of years
only three of them were spoken about
the one who went mad
the one who hanged himself
she to whom men used to come
the rest lived out of the way
slowly turning into dust
This parable is told by Nicholas
who understands historical necessities
in order to terrify me i.e. to convince me
Harvard University Press, 1987.↩
Harvard University Press, 1987.↩


text: AARP OVER 50 DRIVER EDUCATION: Registration begins August 13 for a class to take place Saturday, September 21 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Your check or money order payable to AARP is due at registration: $17 for members (put membership # on payment) or $19 for non-members. No cash. For Port Washington residents only.


text:
Simon Alexandre-Clément Denis
Flemish, 1786 - 1801
Oil on paper
13 5/16 x 15 1/4 in.
Dark, swirling clouds loom over a narrow strip of land, gently punctuated by far-off trees and a city skyline. The place is Rome. The weather: an impending rainstorm. The day: a late afternoon within the last decades of the 1700s. This painting is one in a series of cloud studies--in fact the 48th--that Simon Denis made to hone his observational and painting skills. Denis' confident paint handling and sensitive rendering of light capture the awe-inspiring power of nature. Using a warm palette, he juxtaposed light and dark tones to imply both the clouds' airy buoyancy and moisture-laden heaviness. Lively brushstrokes convey the constantly shifting forces of wind and light. This dramatic cloudscape predates by a century the Impressionists' celebration of outdoor landscape painting in which they recorded specific, yet fleeting, effects of weather and time and exhibited those results as finished paintings. But in Denis' time, oil sketching on paper while outdoors offered the artist an opportunity to test and sharpen his skills. Denis would have kept his cloud studies in the studio for future reference for his finished paintings.


text:
The last time inXile graced the world with a console roleplaying was with The Bard's Tale back in 2004. Since then, the studio has been quietly working away on a number of mobile games, so it's certainly interesting to see th...
|Jim Sterling
6:00 PM on 05.31.2011
Live show: Mash Tactics plays Hunted
Eek! That cat is in serious mode. Anyway, today on Mash Tactics we will be playing Hunted: The Demon's Forge. I first got my hands on this dark fantasy co-op game during PAX 2010. Jim Sterling and I share the fond memory of me completely failing as he carried the whole demo. At least that's the way I remember it. I honestly hope he has no recollection...
5:00 PM on 05.26.2011
Hunted: The Demon's Forge official launch trailer
Here's the launch trailer for Hunted: The Demon's Forge, which finally releases next week. I've had my eye on this game for quite some time, and I'm certainly hoping for good things. The trailer does a good job of maki...
3:00 PM on 05.20.2011
Hunted: The Demon's Forge video is about some sounds
Developer diaries really are arrogant. It's like nobody asked the developers to make a documentary, so the developers made it themselves. Nevertheless, I'm still looking forward to Hunted: The Demon's Forge, so I'll le...
1:40 PM on 05.12.2011
Hunted: The Demon's Forge goes to war with monsters
Bethesda has released a new trailer for Hunted: The Demon's Forge, titled "At War With Monsters." The footage features monsters and some war. That's good. Hype for this game has been rather low, but I'm very much into it and I'm looking forward to seeing if the final product turns out well. Guess we'll see!


text:
Executives today are caught in times of unprecedented organizational change and complexity. Whether their focus is on bottom-line results, cost reductions, globalization, IT or environmental issues, the pressures are immense. ProEd helps leaders and teams achieve clarity and implement change across 10 critical success dimensions.
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By connecting job skills and performance to personal goals and desires, ProEd program participants are more invested in the process, and more motivated to apply new skills. ProEd learning is active, not passive; accomplished through activity and participation using methods and tools which may be employed again and again on the job.
Below are just a handful of the hundreds of companies we've been proud to serve over the course of our 25+ years propelling achievement with performance:
The most powerful new approach to business development is now a comprehensive system of techniques and tools to get busy professionals quickly up-to-speed on how to boost business and power profits with persuasion. 7 Triggers courses build on the concepts explored in Russ Granger's critically-acclaimed book with a practical, powerful, step-by-step system for masterful business development.
Designed for anyone who wants to rapidly and dramatically improve their ability to persuade, negotiate, sell, and form durable, win-win agreements with others.
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The new generation of ProEd leadership is focused on digital channel learning and immersive user experience.
Get in touch and let's discuss your business!
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Posts Tagged: Jewelry
A Busy Week in the World of Design
As December hit, so have a multitude of events in the world of design. In catching up, let me share a quick peek at what's been on the agenda in New York City just this week so far. I finally had a chance to stop by Verdura's amazing 75th anniversary exhibit, The Power of Style.…
Posted in art, design, interior design, jewelry 3 Comments
Cartier in the 20th Century
Few names have been so inexorably linked with luxury and exceptional jewelry as the House of Cartier. And in a few weeks, the lucky residents of Denver will be able to see in person a large portion of its legacy when the show Cartier in the 20th Century opens on November 16th at the Denver Art Museum.…
Posted in art, books, design, jewelry 3 Comments
Lalique Fine Jewelry 2014
Long before René Lalique began to focus on his legendary crystal creations, he was a master of fine jewelry. Influenced by the majesty of nature in all its forms, he blended symbolism and naturalism into totally unique designs. Two years ago, Lalique reentered this realm, launching its first fine jewelry collection in over a century.…
Posted in fashion, jewelry 3 Comments
Verdura 75th Anniversary Collection
This fall, the launch of the Verdura 75th Anniversary Collection will celebrate three quarters of a century of the iconic jeweler's legendary style. Focussing on his early years, owners Ward and Nico Landrigan searched the archives for inspiration that would showcase Fulco di Verdura's unique and pioneering talents.…
Posted in fashion, jewelry 9 Comments
The Art of Vintage and Modern at Dragonette
What do resourceful designers do when they can't find what they want? Why they make it themselves of course. Befitting the emphasis on the unique and bespoke at Legends, that's exactly what Patrick Dragonette has done at his eponymous La Cienega showroom.…
Posted in art, fashion, furniture, interior design, jewelry, travel 6 Comments
Cartier at the Grand Palais Paris
There is a reason the exhibit of Cartier at the Grand Palais in Paris is subtitled "Style and History." While many today may think of the jewelry firm merely as a purveyor of red carpet adornments and the latest "tank," it is in fact a house of style, representing over a century and a half of artistic achievement.…
Posted in art, jewelry, travel 8 Comments
Prepping for Paris | Two Faves in the 6th
As I start to prepare for my trip to Paris next week, I rediscovered some summer photos of two shops in the stylish 6th arrondissement where I will be staying again, that I never had time to share. The first is Philippe Ferrandis.…
Posted in fashion, gifts, travel 9 Comments
JAR at the Met
Not only is the JAR exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum the first US retrospective of jewelry designer Joel A. Rosenthal's work, but the first at the museum devoted to any living jeweler, or in Rosenthal's case, artist, whose medium happens to be gems. …
Posted in art, fashion, JAR, jewelry 9 Comments
Interwoven Globe and JAR at the Met
As many of you head into the city for a holiday visit, I would encourage you to make a stop at the Metropolitan Museum to see two exceptional exhibits. Last month I was part of a small group of editors, writers and designers, assembled by Patrick Frey, to privately tour Interwoven Globe with curator Melinda Watt.…
Posted in art, art history, history, interior design, learning 5 Comments
Holiday Shop Picks | Verdura
It's always a good day when I have a reason to visit Verdura. In their elegant boutique overlooking Fifth Avenue and Central Park, I had a chance to take a gander at their Mid-Century Master vintage exhibition on view (and of course for sale) through December 27th.…
Posted in fashion, gifts, jewelry 2 Comments


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As the world mourned Jean Stapleton this week, I was reminded of the sadness I felt in the fall of 1980 when it was revealed on CBS's Archie Bunker's Place (the rechristened All in the Family) that Stapleton's Edith Bunker had died suddenly of a stroke. Stapleton's TV daughter Sally Struthers (Gloria) shares memories of her onscreen mom, who passed away May 31 at age 90 of undisclosed causes.
Question: When The West Wing closes down for good on May 14, Bartlet & Co. will leave and a new president will be sworn in. What a simply perfect way for a show to end — when it's supposed to! It's no secret that the series lost a lot of fans and critical appreciation after Aaron Sorkin left three years ago. So here's my question: Years from now, when you think back to The West Wing, how will you remember it? Will you remember a top-notch Emmy-winning drama that influenced the face of dramatic TV, or will you remember a disappointing show that went downhill and never recovered?
Answer: What an interesting legacy question to welcome me back from some time off (so much to catch up with). This got me thinking about other shows that went off the air long after they peaked, and I think it's fair to say that most of us will remember The West Wing kindly, without even putting an asterisk after it. The show's impact, and its overall quality up to the reelection season (after which the show
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Reviewed Individual Chicken Pot Pie with Puff Pastry
Jan 11, 2013 in Food Network Community Toolbox on FoodNetwork.com
"Alton Brown nailed it. The flavor was incredible, among the top chicken pot pies I've ever had and it came out of my kitchen. This recipe is a great example of why I almost always search for Alton's recipes for a dish before trying any other, it's just a classic. ""


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Bearcat CB Radio with 7 Color Display Backlighting
The Most Trusted Name in CB Radios. It's tough and powerful with a large easy-to-read display and exciting new features including 7 Color Backlighting, Noise Cancelling Mic, and Wireless Mic Compatibility.
Featured in Red Eye Radio Podcast. Click to Listen!
|Communicate with others while you're out on the road with the Uniden Bearcat 880 CB Radio. Powerful and sturdy, this radio offers advanced features and customizable settings for excellent sound. The backlit display with large type is easy to read, even in the dark. With this radio, you never have to miss another transmission, even when you are driving.
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Stay Safe and Informed with NOAA Weather AlertsThis Uniden CB radio comes with NOAA weather channel access, so you can stay on top of changing weather conditions and receive alerts about severe weather. The radio also comes with the public address feature. If you choose, the emergency channel can be automatically available.
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Forum Energy Technologies Announces $300 Million Offering Of Senior Unsecured Notes
Forum Energy Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: FET) (the "Company"), announced today that, subject to market and other conditions, it intends to offer $300 million aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured notes due 2021 to eligible purchasers in a private placement under Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") and to persons outside of the United States pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act.
The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to repay all amounts outstanding under the term loan portion of its credit facility and to reduce borrowings outstanding under the revolving portion of its credit facility.
The securities to be offered have not been registered under the Securities Act or any state securities laws; and unless so registered, the securities may not be offered or sold in the United States or to U.S. persons except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities, in any jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.
Forum Energy Technologies, Inc., headquartered in Houston, Texas, is a global provider of manufactured technologies and applied products to the energy industry.
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Go to Admin » Appearance » Widgets » and move Gabfire Widget: Social into that MastheadOverlay zone
By Sandy Artzberger
Special to The SUN
The Archuleta County Republican Women are honored to host the Southwest District III meeting Saturday, May 17, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at The Quality Resort.
The two speakers are very well known to Coloradans. Laura Carno gives a humorous talk that many may have seen on "Udall Lied.com," has started quite a political stir with her website.
The second speaker is Randy Corporon of "Wake Up with Randy," known conservative radio talk show host and attorney.
ACRW president Marilyn Harris, true to her personality, has included many fun things into the program for everyone. Cost is $35 before May 10, which includes lunch and a gift bag. Call 731-6336 for more information and to register.
Follow these topics: Clubs, Lifestyle


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The Jonas Brothers were on Larry King Live on Thursday, June 18, 2009.
Larry King began the conversation by discussing Nick Jonas' home schooling and moved onto The Jonas' private lives.
Larry asked Joe Jonas if his girlfriend was as famous as Nick's girlfriend, to which Joe responded by saying,
"No, I don't think anyone's as famous as Miley Cyrus."
That was definitely a big OOPS!! Nick looks a bit uncomfortable with the slip up but recovers quickly.
Kevin puts it all in perspective by saying,
"For us it is kind of odd to have people all around the world so concerned with a 16 year olds love life." He goes on to say, "It's kind of funny."
When you put it like that – it does seem a bit odd. What do you think??


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It's a common problem: you feel tired and sleepy throughout your working day, only to find that when your head hits the pillow… well, you just can't seem to switch off!
Suddenly, your mind springs to life, wondering what colour tie to wear at tomorrow's presentation, if you locked your door properly on your way out, or whether you should have strawberry or raspberry jam on your toast in the morning. Sound familiar?
We're told all the time that sleeping well is essential for your physical and emotional health. In fact, getting enough sleep is a necessity for a healthy life, so, surely there's a way of stopping those anxieties and helping you to feel so relaxed and carefree that you slowly drift off into a lovely, relaxing deep zzz…
Sleep well, feel well – our tips
Get comfortable
The importance of a comfortable bed is often underestimated. Relax in soothing, neutral soft furnishings, and sleep on a Hypnos mattress, known to be the most comfortable in the world.
Quiet surroundings are vital for a good night's sleep. Use earplugs, and banish any light buzzing noises that may stop you from nodding off. If you're away on business, take advantage of the 'Quiet Zones' at your hotel, shut yourself away and enjoy complete and utter peace.
Avoid stress
Try to be in a relaxed state of mind before going to bed. Avoid watching the news or anything that may cause you stress. Curl up with a good book – maybe use a reading pillow and settle into your favourite novel before slowly drifting off to sleep…
Forget your alarm clock
Be Lazy! If your schedule permits, set your alarm clock a little later than usual. This will help you to relax during the night and help you to ease into your day.
Enjoy a good breakfast (and if you can find someone else to bring it to you in bed, that's even better). That way, you'll be less likely to run out of energy during your working day.


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You must earn 10,000 points to post other members' whiteboard
Pahrump is getting close to the $1.99 club!!
If you need a distraction from getting very close to your 4M point mark, may I suggest the Super 7-Number Total Points poker game that I oversee. It's located at:http://www.denvergasprices.com/Forum_MSG.aspx?master=&category=1332&topic=594238&page_no=1&FAV=Y. If you like. Best of the season to you and yours. Regards.
Thanks bud, keep healthy.
Congratulations on having the dedication to post for 400 consecutive days! Hope that you have a very good week. Warren
Hi Chazzer. I hope you are having a good weekend, and staying cool!
TGIF!!!! Have a great day!!!... AL
Hi Buddy, I have just posted a new topic, Winner's Choice #2 with new rules. Please do drop in and let me know what you think. It is at: http://www.winnipeggasprices.com/Forum_MSG.aspx?master=&category=1332&topic=582207&page_no=1&FAV=Y Thank you Ed.
Have a good weekend.
A BIG CONGRATS on reaching the 3.75M milestone, sorry, no new car! Still truly magnificent! Keep leading the way for others to follow here in GasBuddyland! Others ahead and behind you have retired, so there is lots of room at the 4M milestone and you are getting closer, and it looks like the top GBs are going for that 5M milestone and beyond before they retire, and you know they have been here almost from the start 13 years ago! More than 90% of all the GBs that signed up over the past 13 years will never make it to 1M points, most GBs quit before they even get close, and there are less than 9,000 GBs out of more than 8 million GBs that have reached 1M points! Only 121 GBs have reached 4M! Keep going, don't stop now! It's nice seeing you come back each day as I track your progress to that 4M milestone! Thanks buddy for your 12+ years of dedication here on GasBuddy! Have a nice weekend! Ron
Washington and California are copying what Oregon is already doing.


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I finally had time to refresh my life by doing a HUGE room and closet purge. Since I started blogging almost a year and a half ago I started buying and hoarding more and more clothes. I started signing up for monthly subscriptions to receive beauty samples and was soon five subscriptions deep. Little by little my room became unbearable to live in because I wanted to keep everything but had room for nothing. Cleaning my room became a struggle. I would clean one spot only to create a bigger mess in another. I found new uses for old boxes to store miscellaneous items and hid them all under my bed. Eventually, I gave up all together and began just living within one little corner spot in my room. So after a four to five month time period...I finally dedicated a whole
day weekend to organizing my room.
This post will just be on my closet since I was most proud of it's overall revamping (posts on the rest of my room will come later). I'll share some of my tips and new discoveries and how I now find it easier to visualize all my clothes in one bathroom-stall-sized closet.
One of the first things I did was get rid of all my plastic hangers. I replaced them with these really thin, felt hangers. They really give you SO MUCH SPACE in your closet. I bought a pack of 18 from TJ Maxx just to start with and was amazed by how much more space I had in my closet. My closet isn't that big so just changing out the hangers gave me so much more room to hang up shirts I had forgotten about because they were stuffed away in my dresser. You can buy a big pack of hangers for really cheap at Costco too!
The next thing I did was getting rid of a shoe rack I had on the floor. I would end up kicking my shoes off into my closet and they began to pile up all over the bottom of my closet. I got this shelf from Target and installed it right inside my closet. I used to store my jeans and shorts in my dresser. Displaying them like this makes it so much easier for me to see all my options. I also didn't know what to do with all my maxi skirts so I bought these square cubby boxes from Target and threw my skirts in there for now.
Now for my favorite thing I did to my closet. Since I got rid of the shoe rack I had no place to store my shoes. I have a shoe holder on the back of my closet door but I definitely have more shoes than I do space. I went on Pinterest and saw that someone used tension rods (what you use to hang curtains) to create "shelves" for their shoes. I used the left side of my closet as my shoe wall. I measured the distance and for $6 each, I got four adjustable tension rods. (It's important to measure the distance of the wall you want to use because the rods come in different sizes). For hanging heels you need to make sure you stagger the rods so one is higher than the other. It allows the heel of the shoe to hang on the higher rod and the bottom of the shoe to rest on the lower rod. For my flat shoes I installed two rods at the same height and ta da!


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A regional nonprofit is looking to strengthen its presence in Cleveland to help teens make good choices.
On Point, a nonprofit based in Chattanooga that serves both Bradley and Hamilton counties, seeks to give students the tools they need to avoid risky behaviors and make good life choices.
"On Point was founded 22 years ago. We began working here in Hamilton County as a strategy to help youth avoid risky behavior," On Point President and Chief Executive Officer Lesley Scearce said.
A partnership was formed with New Hope Pregnancy Care Center to begin providing the program in the Bradley County and the Cleveland City Schools system.
"We spent about 15 years partnering together. We provided curriculum and training. They continued to grow their prevention program," Scearce said.
A cut in federal funding meant New Hope could no longer financially support the program.
When that happened three years ago, the On Point office took over the Bradley County program. The Bradley County coordinator is Todd Preston.
The organization provides two programs in Bradley County —"'Think On Point" and "Life On Point."
The organization's mission is "... to partner with schools and communities to cultivate the strengths in youth and guide them on their path to thrive."
To raise funds for the Cleveland program, On Point is holding a banquet at First Baptist Church of Cleveland on Sept. 23. None of the funds raised at the event will go to the Chattanooga program.
The event will feature stories of students who have benefited from the program.
Singer/songwriter and author Andrew Peterson will be the night's special guest.
"His song-writing really just mirrors our heart for kids," Scearce said
The theme for this year is "Sow Something Lasting." Individual tickets are available for $50. Tables are available for $400. A $50 discount is available for those who reserve a table before Aug. 29. Tickets can be purchased by contacting On Point at 423-899-9188 or www.LiveOnPoint.org
The organization's "Think On Point" is a one-week program taught in every middle and high school in the Bradley County and Cleveland City school systems.
Scearce said the budget just to run the Bradley County program is about $200,000 a year.
"Currently the majority of that is not being raised in the community of Cleveland. It is coming from grants we are writing," Scearce said.
Community financial support would allow the Cleveland program to be secure and positively expand.
This includes curriculum, paying On Point Bradley County staff, "Life On Point" college visits, food for the student meetings and volunteer training.
Scearce said the "Think On Point" program started as a teen pregnancy prevention program. Now, the program deals with the root causes of risky behavior such as drug abuse and being sexually active.
"We began to take a broader and a deeper approach to this," Scearce said.
The program gives students tools to "think critically about the choices they make," avoid risky behaviors and make good choices for their future. The program is offered as a part of the state-required wellness classes.
In the past year in Bradley County and Cleveland City schools, nearly 6,000 have completed the program
On Point's "Life On Point" program is offered at each of Bradley County's middle and high schools.
Scearce said the Cleveland schools are on a wait list pending the needed financial and community support. September's banquet will be one way to raise community awareness of the program and create local advocates for the program.
In addition to funding, principal support and a faculty sponsor have to be committed to the program before it can be implemented.
"'Life On Point' is a weekly leadership and life-skills training. We have the opportunity to meet with students who voluntarily join the program at their school, every week from sixth grade until they graduate from high school," Scearce said. "It's really small-group mentoring."
Since the program is being offered during the school day, usually as part of advisory or club time, On Point has aligned the curriculum with the state education standards.
Scearce said this is important because some schools give classroom time for the program. Scearce said she wants the program to support what students are already learning.
Students sign up for the program at the beginning of the school year; however, if interest exceeds the number, the facilitators can handle a selection process is chosen to make sure the students are committed to the program.
Scearce said this could include a written-essay process or talking with school administrators about which students would benefit most from the program.
"They are excited about having a safe place as a teenager to really to think about yourself and your future and have peers around you that are going to back it up," Scearce said.
Each group develops its own rules and contracts at the beginning of the semester.
The curriculum focuses on "... healthy choices, academic attachment, resisting peer pressure, positive social support and positive life vision."
Scearce said the curriculum is designed so the adult facilitating the group can choose to focus on the elements the students want to discuss or need the most.
"It may look different at Ocoee than it does at Lake Forest," Scearce said.
On Point facilitators run each of the sessions of both the "Think On Point" and "Life On Point" programs.


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Frank Ocean on Coming Out: A 'Boulder on My Chest' Has Been Lifted
Frank Ocean is speaking out for the first time since coming out. The Odd Future star explains why he decided to publicly address his sexuality.
Ocean penned a letter earlier this month in which he revealed that his first love was a man. "[It was] about my own sanity and my ability to feel like I'm living a life where … I'm happy when I wake up in the morning, and not with this freakin' boulder on my chest," he told the Guardian Guide for a story in Saturday's edition.
He made a conscious decision to go public with it right before his album was released. "I knew that I was writing in a way that people would ask questions," he said. "I knew that my star was rising, and I knew that if I waited I would always have somebody that I respected be able to encourage me to wait longer, to not say it till who knows when."
The 24-year old "Pyramids" singer, whose album channel ORANGE debuted at No. 2 in the U.S., longed for a role model of his own. "I wished at 13 there was somebody I looked up to who would have said something like that, who would have been transparent in that way," he said.
Although most of his peers have been supportive, Ocean is not worried about what may come from his revelation. "People are just afraid of things too much," he said. "Sure, evil exists, extremism exists. Somebody could commit a hate crime and hurt me. But they could do the same just because I'm black. They could do the same just because I'm American."Tweet
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Tracfone Debuts Holiday DealsDecember 18th, 2014 | Tracfone | No Comments
Tracfone has released their holiday deals a little bit late this year. While they don't have the most popular phones, if you're looking for a simple smartphone for a loved one or a good backup phone then Tracfone is a great place to start.
Here are their most notable holiday promotions:
New TracFones Rival Competitor ChoicesOctober 23rd, 2014 | Tracfone | No Comments
TracFone has launched two new Android phones this week that rival low-end smartphones from other MVNO companies like Boost and Virgin Mobile. It might not sound like much, but coming from a company whose phones are easily five to ten years behind everyone else, this is pretty big news.
Help Battle Breast Cancer with Pink TracFoneOctober 21st, 2014 | Tracfone | No Comments
October is breast cancer awareness month and in honor of the Susan G. Komen Foundation's search for a cure, TracFone has released a limited edition pink TracFone. The pink LG 306G will be available at select Dollar General stores across the country for around $50, and TracFone has promised to donate 10% of all October sales to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Alcatel Launches Exclusive PhonesOctober 1st, 2014 | Prepaid Phones, Straight Talk, Tracfone | No Comments
Alcatel Onetouch has announced the launch of three new smartphones which will be available exclusively through Tracfone and StraightTalk. The Alcatel Onetouch Pop Star LTE, Onetouch Pop Icon and the Onetouch Pop Mega LTE will be available sometime in the next couple of weeks.
AT&T MVNO Coverage Maps ComparedSeptember 17th, 2014 | Airvoice, AT&T, Consumer Cellular, Cricket, Jolt Mobile, MVNO, Net10, Red Pocket, Straight Talk, Telcel Usa, Tracfone | 4 Comments
Last week, I posted an article comparing all of the Verizon MVNO coverage maps. Several of them were a little surprising, so I thought that I would go through all of the other Tier 1 carriers and compare maps of their MVNOs to see how they stacked up. While most MVNOs share the prepaid network of their primary carrier, some of them skimp on coverage to cut costs, and very few of them offer roaming in areas with no Tier 1 carrier network coverage.
Today, we have a compilation of the AT&T MVNO maps. Most of them shared coverage with GoPhone, but did not offer roaming (represented by the lighter yellow areas). However, the maps were far more similar than the Verizon MVNO maps we saw last week.
So, without any more ado, here are the AT&T MVNO maps:
Earn Free Airtime With TracfoneSeptember 4th, 2014 | Tracfone | No Comments
While Tracfone's customer service is nothing to brag about, their discount membership program Trac'N'Save is definitely worth a look in you live in the city or love shopping. The program is free to Tracfone customers and only requires you to sign up with your account to start getting benefits, like free airtime.
Tracfone Changes Minute Transfer PoliciesSeptember 1st, 2014 | Prepaid Services, Tracfone | No Comments
I read today about a significant possible change to Tracfone's policy about transferring minutes and numbers between phones. After calling Tracfone, I'm still a little puzzled about whether or not this change is new, but as it is already in effect either way, I'll go ahead and tell you about it.
Prepaid Tracfone Coverage MapFebruary 27th, 2014 | Tracfone | No Comments
The TracFone coverage map is not easy to find, many visits to the official TracFone site revealed no navigation to a coverage map. TracFone has set the website user interface for sales of selected models in designated area codes. There are secondary sources for the coverage map information, and when one finally gets there, it is impressive http://www.TracFone.com/jsplib/verify_mapcov.jsp. For basic telephone service with a low-cost Motorola model phone, a coverage guesstimate from the color-coded map appears to be well above 95% of the area of the continental U.S.
TracFone adds more subscribers than Verizon in Q1April 22nd, 2013 | Tracfone | 1 Comment
TracFone has been growing solidly in the past few years, adding hundreds of thousands of subscribers every quarter. That might not sound impressive, but when compared to other MVNOs the numbers certainly stand out. Their latest subscriber additions are the most impressive to date: 839,000. That's 119,000 more than the nation's No. 1 carrier, Verizon, and a massive 127 percent increase over TracFone's own Q1 2012. In the last two quarters combined TracFone has added more than 1.5 million subscribers.
Samsung S275G coming to TracfoneFebruary 19th, 2013 | Tracfone | No Comments
Anyone get excited about flip phones any more? If so, it's your lucky day. Samsung recently gave us a glimpse of the S275G for Tracfone, which is yet another in its line of low-end feature phones. The skinny: 1.75-inch internal screen, 1-inch external screen, 1.3 megapixel camera with video, and that's about it. It can play music and video if you'd like, but there just isn't much memory to store those files. It might not seem like much, but this is the perfect fit for Tracfone. They're pushing their smartphone customers towards Straight Talk and even Net10, so they might as well continue pumping out low-end handsets for Tracfone. They fit the market that the Tracfone brand is targeting.
Via Phone Scoop.
Tracfone scores big with 753,000 new subscribers in Q4February 13th, 2013 | Tracfone | 2 Comments
Need a solid indicator that prepaid is starting to take a hold of the cellular market? Consider that a carrier that doesn't even own any cellular towers is the fifth largest carrier in the country — and it is closer to No. 4 than No. 4 is to No. 3. In the fourth quarter Tracfone added 753,000 subscribers, bringing its total to 22.4 million. That covers it us brands: Tracfone, Net10, and Straight Talk. The year 2013 was big for Tracfone in general, with a 13.3 percent increase in subscribers. Much of that goes to the Straight Talk brand, which has captured much of the mid-market with its smartphones paired with affordable monthly plans. People complain plenty about Tracfone customer service, across their brands, but it doesn't seem to be enough to keep people away.
Via FierceWireless.
Tracfone/Straight Talk/Net 10 removing AT&T offerings, including SIMJanuary 28th, 2013 | Tracfone | 4 Comments
A strange development is afoot in the wireless world. According to a report on PhoneNews.com, America Movil brands Tracfone, Straight Talk, and Net10 have removed references to AT&T in its bring-your-own-device SIM card program. A visit to these websites does reveal that Straight Talk is offering BOYD support for CDMA devices, unlocked GSM devices, and T-Mobile branded devices, but not AT&T. No one from Tracfone or America Movil has made a statement, leaving much mystery. After all, the two companies have had close relations lately.
Tracfone announces pair of Samsung feature phonesJune 11th, 2012 | Tracfone | 4 Comments
Today Tracfone announced a pair of basic Samsung phones for its lineup. Pictured above is the Samsung S425g, which appears to be from the Messenger line of phones. It features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and not much else. It does have some basic features, such as a media player (with 32GB microSD expansion capability) and a 2.0 megapixel camera with video. But it's really nothing special. The price should reflect that, though there is no word on pricing or release date yet.
Tracfone adds nearly half a million subscribers in Q4February 13th, 2012 | Tracfone | 5 Comments
A half a million subscribers might sound like a lot for an MVNO, but not for America Movil, parent company of Tracfone, Net10, and Straight Talk. They added 493,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2011, after adding 1.1 million subscribers in the same period in 2010. While the first and fourth quarters are typically better for wireless carriers than the second and third quarters, America Movil actually added more customers in Q3 2011, 515,000, than they did in Q4. Still, as a whole they did pretty well in 2011.
Tracfone getting Samsung SCH-R375January 19th, 2012 | Tracfone | 1 Comment
It might not be the fanciest looking phone, but the Samsung SCH-R375 is headed for Tracfone. Its biggest feature is a QWERTY keyboard. In most respects it's a low-end phone, featuring a 1.3 megapixel camera and little else. It's actually a great prepaid phone for texting. There is no word on pricing and release date, but we can assume it will be relatively soon and cheap.
Via Phone Scoop.
Tracfone might have to pay up for 911 feesSeptember 9th, 2011 | Tracfone | 3 Comments
Are you among the growing number of prepaid customers who is charged a 911 fee when buying a top-up card? More and more states are passing laws that attempt to levy on prepaid users the same 911 fees that postpaid users pay monthly. There are some obstacles, the biggest one being the inability to charge such a fee for online purchases. A recent ruling in Kentucky might change all that. U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn ruled that Tracfone owes the State of Kentucky $4.7 million in 911 fees dating from 2003. Tracfone asserts that it has not paid Kentucky said 911 fees, because they do not apply to prepaid users. This issue is certainly not closed, however. Expect Tracfone to take counter action shortly.
Via JC Online.
Tracfone strikes deal with VonageAugust 4th, 2011 | Tracfone | 4 Comments
If you're not familiar with Vonage, it's a service that provides unlimited local and long distance calling for a flat monthly rate. Think of it as the Cricket and MetroPCS of the landline world. Of course, people are dumping their landlines, so Vonage might need a little help from the cell phone industry. It appears they've found it from Tracfone parent America Movil. They inked a deal recently that will provide their customers with "unique offers" for Vonage's unlimited landline calling plans. By "unique offers" I presume that means substantial discounts. There's no word on when we will see these offers, but it shouldn't be too long.
Via FierceWireless.
Tracfone subscriber numbers slideJuly 29th, 2011 | Tracfone | 2 Comments
In the first quarter of 2010, America Movil, parent company of Tracfone, made a splash by adding 780,000 subscribers. That's a huge number for an MVNO, but they do have two other arms, Net10 and Straight Talk, to help bulk up the numbers. In the second quarter they didn't fare as well, adding just 236,000 subscribers, a number that didn't even match its second quarter 2010 results. Churn is up a bit, which helps explain the lower numbers. With political talk re-focused on the economy, we could perhaps see Tracfone pick up stronger numbers in the third, quarter, which is typically slow in the wireless world.
Via FierceWireless.
Look for the Samsung T528 on TracfoneJune 13th, 2011 | Tracfone | No Comments
Pictured above is the Samsung T528, which recently made a debut at Samsung.com. It's a touchscreen device that features a 3-inch screen and a 2-megapixel camera. While most new touchscreen devices we see feature the Android operating system, this one comes with Samsung's own TouchWiz 2.0, which, all considered, doesn't look too bad. There's no word on pricing or availability, though the website mentions that it will become available through Tracfone, but that could just as easily mean Straight Talk or Net10. It shouldn't be too long before we see this one on shelves.
Via Phone Scoop.
No network, postpaid offering for TracfoneMay 6th, 2011 | Tracfone | 1 Comment
It doesn't come as much of a surprise, but sometimes you just need to hear a "no." That's what Tracfone executives said when asked about the likelihood of a postpaid offering, and of it eventually acquiring its own spectrum. The company has been doing just fine the way it is, adding 780,000 subscribers in the first quarter among its three major brands: Tracfone, Net10, and Straight Talk.
Tracfone adds 780,000 subscribers in the first quarterMay 4th, 2011 | Tracfone | 4 Comments
Another first quarter report, another win for prepaid. Both Sprint and MetroPCS did well, and now it's Tracfone's turn. The carrier — including sister brands Net10 and Straight Talk — added 780,000 subscribers in the first quarter. That puts them slightly ahead of MetroPCS and slightly behind Sprint. It also puts them below their Q1 2010, when they added a million subscribers. Nevertheless, that's still a strong showing, especially amid increased competition.
Via FierceWireless.
Tracfone gains 1.1 million subscribers in Q4February 9th, 2011 | Tracfone | 22 Comments
It was a good quarter to be America Movil, the company that owns Tracfone, Net10, and Straight Talk. The company added 1.1 million subscribers in the fourth quarter, bringing it to 3.3 million for the year and 17.7 million overall. Even though it doesn't operate its own network, the company ranks as the No. 5 carrier in the country.
Get Tracfone support on FacebookDecember 13th, 2010 | Tracfone | 8 Comments
There is nothing fun about wireless customer service. I read through the user reviews on our featured prepaid providers every day, and I see many, many complaints about nearly every company. I'm not sure which receives the most complaints, but Tracfone is in the conversation. It appears that they're taking steps to remedy that. They recently announced Facebook support, similar to the type offered by Straight Talk. (They're owned by the same company.) Just head to the Tracfone Facebook page and click on the Support tab. There you can get FAQs and submit a support ticket. If it's anything like Straight Talk, it should provide a better experience than calling customer service.
Tracfone adds 745,000 subscribers in Q3October 29th, 2010 | Tracfone | 12 Comments
It's hard to imagine, but Tracfone is the nation's fifth largest mobile provider — and it doesn't even operate its own network. The company continued to grow in the third quarter, adding 745,000 subscribers to leave them with 16.7 million. These numbers include not just the branded Tracfone service, but also Net10 and Straight Talk.
SafeLink provides more minutes, new plans for low-income householdsAugust 17th, 2010 | Tracfone | 41 Comments
Not everyone can afford a cell phone, but cell phones have become a near essential part of our day to day lives. There was a study conducted in 2008 that showed the economic benefits of owning a cell phone, which can make all the difference for a low-income household. Programs like SafeLink work to provide low-income individuals and households with free cell phones and minutes so that they might take advantage and improve their situations. Previously this would provide them with a free phone and 80 minutes per month. Recently Tracfone, the company behind SafeLink, announced changes to its program in the Delaware area.
Straight Talk adds another GSM handset, LG 620GJuly 22nd, 2010 | Tracfone | 12 Comments
A few weeks ago we saw reports that Straight Talk, an MVNO of Verizon's CDMA network, was adding GSM services. This came as a subtle move, as the GSM-based handset, the Samsung T401G, was available only at Wal-Mart. It looks like another GSM handset has made its way to the world's largest retailer. They now have the LG 620G, a pretty basic slider that features a 1.3 megapixel camera, WAP browser, and media player. You can get it at walmart.com for $68.98.
Straight Talk adding GSM service?July 8th, 2010 | Tracfone | 23 Comments
One of Straight Talk's bragging points is that it operates on Verizon's CDMA network. Even though this does not include the roaming agreements that Verizon's postpaid customers enjoy, it is, with last year's absorption of the Alltel network, a very large primary network. The only problem is that some of the markets it doesn't hit are covered by GSM networks. According to evidence produced by Howard Forums user The Sweeper, it looks like Straight Talk could expand its offering to GSM services.
Straight Talk adds relic from the pastJune 22nd, 2010 | Tracfone | No Comments
It's hard to believe, but the Motorola RAZR is almost six years old. It was the hottest item on the market for the longest time, and then gained additional shelf life when many carriers included it for free with a two-year contract. Verizon actually came under a bit of fire for its version, since it locked out many features of the original RAZR. That Verizon version, the V3m, is available at Straight Talk, and they just announced a refurb version. To answer their headline question, "Dig the RAZR?" no, I don't. But it's better than a number of the other clamshells in ST's lineup, so maybe it's worth the $100 for All You Need or $115 for Unlimited. At that point, though, I'd just get the Samsung Recon.
You can get the RAZR at Straight Talk's website.
Straight Talk addresses network outageMay 6th, 2010 | Tracfone | 16 Comments
At the Straight Talk blog, the company addresses a recent service outage which has caused problems for many customers over the past few days. This has caused a surge in user reviews on our Straight Talk review page, most of which are pretty scathing. While we encourage everyone to share their honest feelings about a cell phone service, many of the comments were completely unnecessary. There is no need to attack someone else for their assessment of a service. In any case, full text of the letter, which really isn't much, after the jump.
Tracfone adds a million subscribersMay 3rd, 2010 | Tracfone | 9 Comments
We often hear about the number of wholesale customers added by big carriers like Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon, but we don't usually hear the numbers from the wholesalers themselves. They are mostly private companies that do not need to disclose their numbers publicly. One exception is Tracfone, subsidiary of public company America Movil. Its three American MVNOs — Tracfone, Net10, and Straight Talk — added a little over a million subscribers in the first quarter (via FierceWireless). That brings their American total to 15.5 million subscribers, making it the fifth most popular carrier in America.
Tracfone adds LG 420GApril 28th, 2010 | Tracfone | 157 Comments
Sticking with their cheap, simple handsets, Tracfone has added the LG 420G. It's a basic flip phone, featuring a small LCD internal display, external display, Bluetooth, and a VGA camera. Even still, at $20 this phone has value. You can check it out at Tracfone's website. Also, as The Sweeper at HoFo notes, Wal-Mart could certainly pick this one up, packaging it with a Double Minutes for Life card.
Wal-Mart to start promoting Straight TalkApril 16th, 2010 | Tracfone | 2 Comments
Since last fall Straight Talk has been available at Wal-Mart stores nationwide. The partnership makes perfect sense. I remember back in the early 2000s when Tracfone, which is owned by the same company as Straight Talk, was pumped up big time at Wal-Mart. There were phone displays and refill cards everywhere, from the electronics department to the front checkouts. While the two have partnered for a while, it appears that Wal-Mart will get serious about promotion. RCR Wireless reports that the retail conglomerate will run a TV spot featuring the Straight Talk brand. Putting Straight Talk next to Wal-Mart will only increase the awareness of the brand. It sounds like we could see another big influx of customers to the flat-rate, unlimited service.
Straight Talk adds multi-month plansApril 9th, 2010 | Tracfone | No Comments
Last year Straight Talk too the prepaid sector, and the wireless industry, by storm when they offered their unlimited talk, text, and data plan for $45 per month. It's a bit limited in what it can do data-wise, but unlimited talk and text is still a good value for $45, especially when it's running on the Verizon primary network. This week Straight Talk took things a step further, offering three, six, and one-year plans in addition to their monthly plans. These all include unlimited voice, messaging, mobile web, and 411, and they're still $45 per month. That's the only downside. With the auto refill option, you can just sign up for the regular plan and keep renewing. This most benefits those who pay with cash. Instead of paying $45 each month, subscribers can make one payment and forget about it. Of course, at that point they have your money, and there are no refunds, so I'm not sure I'd recommend doing this. Still, if you're happy with Straight Talk, you now at least have the option.
New phones headed to Tracfone, Net10March 1st, 2010 | Tracfone | 9 Comments
Some people have a knack for finding new goodies. Among them is HoFo user The_Sweeper. He always picks up things that I don't see from other people. Most recently it was the addition of four phones to Tracfone. How did he catch this while no one else did? Instead of finding them on the basic shopping page, he found them on the activation page. Clever. These models, two LG and two Samsung for Tracfone, plus a Samsung QWERTY for Net10, aren't quite available yet, and we don't know a whole ton about them. What we do know is that they're headed for these carriers, and the wait shouldn't be long.
Don't look for Tracfone to buy LeapFebruary 5th, 2010 | Tracfone | 1 Comment
It looks like Leap Wireless is ready to sell. How far talks get is anyone's guess, but all the talk this week centered on Leap seeking a buyer. While MetroPCS makes the most sense to most people, we've heard just about every cellular carrier other than Verizon connected to them. One carrier we haven't heard much from this time around, but which has been mentioned as a potential buyer in the past is America Movil, parent company of Tracfone. The company doesn't own any infrastructure in the U.S., though, so it would be quite a change in strategy to acquire some.
Tracfone adds 1.2 million subscribers in fourth quarterFebruary 3rd, 2010 | Tracfone | 1 Comment
Last week we got a glimpse of Straight Talk's fourth quarter success, as they reportedly added 450,000 subscribers. That represents about 38 percent of Tracfone's fourth quarter adds. According to Ken Parks of The Wall Street Journal, Tracfone added 1.2 million subscribers across all of its services. Seems like the troika, including Net10, is doing just fine.
Straight Talk posts a good fourth quarterJanuary 26th, 2010 | Tracfone | 5 Comments
Just a tidbit from Verizon's quarterly report. According to Reuters, Verizon "is seen adding as many as 450,000 new users to its network from an unlimited prepaid service on Tracfone." That means Straight Talk. While it's not quite at the level of prepaid adds from earlier in 2009, it's still probably the best quarter among them for the fourth. We'll see how Boost fares when Sprint reports. I suppose they could get up to a half million, but my guess right now is that Straight Talk finishes on top.
Will Tracfone get mobile advertising?December 1st, 2009 | Tracfone | 3 Comments
Mobile advertising and prepaid seem to go hand in hand. Many prepaid wireless users are younger, and advertising often targets youth demographics. They're also more receptive to advertising, and enjoy interacting on their phones. Prepaid carriers have given a valiant effort to this point, but without a sustaining success. Virgin Mobile had Sugar Mama for a while, but they discontinued it earlier this year. Since then there hasn't been a viable replacement. There's a chance, though, that Tracfone gives it a shot. The parent company, America Movil, is going to launch a mobile advertising platform, though it's unknown when they plan to deploy it.
The Noob guide to Tracfone/Net10/Straight TalkNovember 27th, 2009 | Tracfone | 13 Comments
The following is a guest post from Howard Forums user fonezfonz. I found this posted on HoFo, and thought it would be a great resource for Prepaid Reviews readers.
America Movil is a Latin America based multinational wireless conglomerate. They own and operate Tracfone Inc. which in turn runs and owns Tracfone itself, Net10, Straight Talk and Safelink. (All opinions expressed are solely that of the author).
Here are some tips for complete noobs to this world both general and specific.
Samsung R810 nearing a release on Straight Talk?November 16th, 2009 | Tracfone | 17 Comments
When Straight Talk debuted earlier this year, it was met with a warm reception. The pricing was right, and the company included enough services (including data and 411) to keep most users happy. In that initial marketing phase, there had been talk of the Samsung R810, but that faded a bit after a while. Now a Howard Forums user has noticed that R810 is spec sheet is on the Straight Talk website.
Net10 adds handset, Tracfone discounts oneNovember 4th, 2009 | Tracfone | 1 Comment
Earlier this year, Tracfone introduced its first Samsung handsets. Among them was the T301g, pictured to the left. The lightly featured phone originally went for $50, but it appears that Sears will discount it for Black Friday to $24.99, so half off. If you were thinking about this phone, or any Tracfone, it might be best to wait until the day after Thanksgiving.
Wal-Mart to sell Straight Talk, not that big a dealOctober 15th, 2009 | Tracfone | 17 Comments
Something strange was afoot. My RSS reader, filled to the brim with cell phone blogs and various keyword alerts, showed an inordinately high number of unread items. In a normal day I'll see about 60 unread items between when I empty my reader at 9 a.m. and when I check it again at 2. Yesterday that number was closer to 100. It turns out that there was some pretty big news in prepaid: Wal-Mart will begin distributing Straight Talk cell phone service. I'm not quite sure I understand the overhype, but it is news nonetheless.
Straight Talk expands unlimited plan to include dataOctober 13th, 2009 | Tracfone | 4 Comments
Straight Talk customers no longer have to worry about their data consumption. When the service launched earlier this year, it offered unlimited minutes, messages, and 411 calls, plus 30 MB of data for $45 per month. Starting now, they've lifted the limit on data, making everything in the plan unlimited. The data limit upgrade gives Straight Talk two competitive advantages against Page Plus, which offers similarly styled service plans. Straight Talk not only has the unlimited 411, but now unlimited data, while Page Plus limits data to 20MB for its unlimited plan, and does not have unlimited 411. The plan is available now on Straight Talk's website.
Tracfone suing another handset resellerSeptember 21st, 2009 | Tracfone | 1 Comment
Tracfone continues its string of lawsuits against handset resellers, naming Intel Wireless as a defendant in a recent case. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, consumers are allowed to unlock phones with the intent to connect them to another network. Tracfone seeks not these people, but instead companies which buy their handsets from big box retailers en masse, and then unlock them for use with other networks. Tracfone subsidizes those phones, and lose money with each sale. Because the phones are not activated on their network, they cannot recoup the subsidy with minutes. You can hear more about phone trafficking in our Prepaid Podcast interview with Tracfone attorney Jim Baldinger.
Is Straight Talk catching on?July 22nd, 2009 | Tracfone | 68 Comments
It seemed the industry was a bit scared when Straight Talk, the unlimited voice and text offering from Tracfone, debuted a few weeks ago. Shares of telecoms which offered similar unlimited plans temporarily plummeted, though they did recover. The fear is of a price war that might not happen. While the industry has shaken off the passing panic, Straight Talk still stands to do well. In fact, there are already positive reports coming out of at least one market.
New prepaid unlimited plans causing market volatilityJuly 8th, 2009 | Tracfone | 2 Comments
It appears that the new spat of prepaid unlimited plans, particularly that of Straight Talk, has caused a bit of a swirl in the markets this week. While stock prices of prepaid companies isn't typically our domain, this one has to do with service. Earlier in the week shareholders largely dumped shares of MetroPCS and Leap Wireless amid concerns over a pricing war, sparked by Straight Talk's cheaper unlimited plan. Of course, both Metro and Cricket offer $45 plans which are comparable to Straight Talk. So what gives? It appears the fears were just a bit overblown. It did lead, though, to a few frank comments about the prepaid industry.
Straight Talk adds $45 unlimited planJuly 5th, 2009 | Tracfone | 27 Comments
It appears Tracfone is serious about their new Straight Talk service. A few weeks ago we first heard of the service and its $30 plan, which provides 1,000 minutes and 1,000 text messages, plus unlimited 411 and 30 MB of data. They have a new promotion, and it's got the industry abuzz. For $45 per month, you can get unlimited minutes and text messages, plus 30 MB of data and unlimited 411 for $45. Like the 1,000 minute plan, the unlimited service option lasts 30 days. You can check out the offering at Straight Talk's website.
Update: Commenter Peter points out that the unlimited plan is on a six-month trial. Understandably, Verizon doesn't want Straight Talk stealing all its customers. So if Verizon doesn't see a mass exodus, and doesn't see a severe uptick in network traffic, we could see this stick around. For now, though, figure this has a six-month sunset clause.
Tracfone offers SafeLink in New HampshireJune 24th, 2009 | Tracfone | 7 Comments
Last week, Tracfone announced that the would cover an additional 101,000 households in New Hampshire. SafeLink provides a free cell phone and 80 minutes per month to low-income individuals. As we learned as part of a study last year, access to cellular phones can increase one's earning potential. However, SafeLink isn't completely welcome everywhere.
Tracfone introduces discount service provider Straight TalkJune 8th, 2009 | Tracfone | 199 Comments
It looks like Tracfone is up to a new project. They already have Net10, the provider which charges 10 cents per minute all day every day, no matter what. Now we learn, from USA Today, that they will begin a new service dubbed Straight Talk. This will act in the same capacity as Net10 — a subsidiary with a different plan scheme. While Tracfone users incrementally valued pay-as-you-go cards and Net10 has a one-rate scheme, Straight Talk uses a flat monthly rate for a bundle of services.
Tracfone offering double minutes discountMay 22nd, 2009 | Tracfone | 1 Comment
Memorial Day weekend is upon us, and what better way to celebrate than with a deal from Tracfone? They've discounted their Double Minutes for Life cards, so you can benefit on every card you purchase in the future…for the life of your phone. After the jump, we've got the details of the deal.


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15 Responses
So true… as someone (intrapreneur) who has been bootstrapping a new business inside a larger one, I have learned this lesson very quickly – it is much easier to capture the budgeted spend of the big end of town, vs those who need to be convinced that it is a good idea in the first place.
It is easy to differentiate yourself from a competitor, however it is a lot harder to differentiate yourself from "do nothing".
Hey Guru,
another great blog post from you. From my experience it all comes down to self confidence in your abilities surrounding your business. A lot of entrepreneurs starting out don't have much confidence and thus want to start out small secure the Nemos first. Then you have a few which have oodles of confidence and are able to get out there and chase the Moby Dicks of the corporate world.
So… what is your best tip about building confidence in yourself and your abilities as an entrepreneur to help secure the big fish?
There are plenty of big fish in most industries anyway.. Even if not, go back and keep knocking on their doors. The confidence gained from reeling in a big fish is so much greater than a small fish.
Nice post.
Ben (@tollady via twitter)
So true!!
Paul Woods (@paulwoods via twitter)
What a great thought!
@mdastudios (via twitter)
Very true starting small but looking for big clients is the way to go.
Very good post. Aiming high can give you a burst of motivation and energy. However, this approach is not applicable for every sector and situation. Start-ups, often characterized by short trading history, are very likely to face difficulties when competing with established businesses.
I reckon that the golden mean is to split your sales efforts into 'small fishes' and 'big fishes'. The balance between two would depend on factors like competition, economy, your current financial situation etc. and should be constantly reviewed. In that way you may not only secure constant development and improve cash flow but also find some 'big fish' customers. :)
Steve great write up!
This is 100% true! Small businesses are cash poor and they will suck you dry if you are in the services business. They always want more than what they pay for, and they don't think twice about walking out on a bill if money gets tight. Big business can benefit from the outside thought of small consultants, who bring the non-corporate approach to the table. It really becomes a win-win. Once you are in, if you do a good job, you will see other opportunities from within the company. Most importantly big business always pays.
Here is a video my old business partner sent me recalling some of our dealings with smaller customers:
It drives Steve's point home. If you have ever been in the situation, this video will keep you laughing to avoid crying.
This is so very true. We recently target "entry level" industry to boost some volume and give new staff something to get their feet wet with low-risk projects.
What we found is that the work, money, and effort that went in to finding many small clients was FAR higher than what we usually did for a large, or even multiple large clients.
It helped illustrate to us that while we will certainly serve these smaller clients who come to us with the same respect and attitude as a large client, we certainly will not continue to chase them.