Kentucky Derby
Kentucky Derby
| Grade 1 Race | ||
|---|---|---|
| Kentucky Derby | ||
 “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports” |
||
| Location | Churchill Downs Louisville, Kentucky, USA |
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| Inaugurated: | 1875 | |
| Race type | Thoroughbred | |
| Website: | 2007 Kentucky Derby | |
| Race information | ||
| Distance | 1¼ miles | |
| Track | Dirt, Left-handed | |
| Qualification | 3-year-old | |
| Weight | Colt/Gelding: 126 lbs (57.2 kg) Filly: 121 lbs. (54.9 kg) |
|
| Purse | US$2 million | |
| Bonuses: | US$ 200 | |
The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old thoroughbred horses, staged annually in Louisville, Kentucky, on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is over one and a quarter miles (2 km) at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds (57.2 kg) and fillies 121 pounds (54.9 kg).[1] The race is known in the United States as “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports” for its approximate duration, and is also called “The Run for the Roses” for the blanket of roses draped over the winner. It is the first leg of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing in the US and typically draws around 155,000 fans. It is the single oldest annually held sporting event in the entire South. Read more
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Liviu Librescu
Liviu Librescu
Liviu Librescu (August 18, 1930 – April 16, 2007; Hebrew: ליביו ליברסקו) was a Romanian born and educated Israeli-American scientist and academic whose major research fields were aeroelasticity and aerodynamics. His most recent position was Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech.[3] The 76-year-old Holocaust survivor was shot and killed in the Virginia Tech massacre while holding off the gunman at the entrance to his classroom so his students could escape through the windows.[4]
Read more
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Joost Invitations
If you need an invitation, post a new comment (not a reply) with your email. If you have a Joost invitation token, send it to that email and post a reply to that comment so none are wasted. If you get invited, do the right thing and invite others. Do it for karma and the warm fuzzy feeling inspired by the word: community.
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Joost raises $45 million in funding
Joost raises $45 million in funding
BRUCE MEYERSON
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Joost, an Internet-based TV service being launched by the creators of Skype and Kazaa, said Thursday it has raised $45 million from five investors including CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc. and an influential Hong Kong telecommunications executive.
Index Ventures, a European venture capital firm, and Sequoia Capital were the lead contributors to the investment. The fifth participant is Li Ka-shing, chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. and Cheung Kong Holdings, who invested in Joost through his charitable foundation, the Li Ka Shing Foundation.
Joost, which recently expanded a trial of its TV service to more users, transmits video with peer-to-peer technology, the signature approach that co-founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom used to launch the hugely popular Skype calling and Kazaa music-sharing services.
P2P relies on the shared computing power and bandwidth of its users to transmit data, rather than serving it all directly to each user from a central data center. With P2P, the more people using the system, the better quality the transmission will be, making quick adoption especially crucial to Joost.
Skype proved so successful that it was purchased by eBay Inc. for $2.6 billion, but Kazaa drew the legal ire of the music industry as users downloaded music without paying for it. A settlement last year will lead to a redesign of Kazaa, which is no longer owned by Friis and Zennstrom.
No copyright troubles are envisioned with Joost, which has gone the mainstream route by signing deals with major content providers, including its new investors. Viacom, for example, has agreed to let Joost show content from MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount and Comedy Central. Overall, Joost says it now has 150 channels of video.
Now that a sizable number of consumers have high-speed Internet access, online video viewing has taken off, as exemplified by the explosive popularity of YouTube, acquired by Google Inc. in November for $1.76 billion.
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Joost
(pronounced ‘juiced’) is a system for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web using peer-to-peer TV technology, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype and Kazaa).
Joost began development in 2006. Working under the code name “The Venice Project,” Zennström and Friis have assembled teams of some 150 software developers in about a half-dozen cities around the world, including New York, London, Leiden and Toulouse. Joost’s CTO is Dirk-Willem van Gulik.[1]
The teams are currently in negotiations with FOX networks. It has signed up with Warner Music, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Productions (Indianapolis 500, IndyCar Series) and production company Endemol for the beta.[2] In February 2007, Viacom entered into a deal with the company to distribute content from its media properties, including MTV Networks, BET and film studio Paramount Pictures.
Company representatives have gone on record as saying the name should be pronounced as “juiced”, unlike the Dutch first name Joost, which is pronounced ‘Yohst.’
Technology
P2PTV overlay network serving three video streams.
P2PTV overlay network serving three video streams.
The program is based on P2PTV technology and is expected to deliver (relaying) near-TV resolution images. It turns a PC into an instant on-demand TV without any need for additional set top box. News updates, discussion forums, show ratings, and multi-user chat sessions (often linked to the active stream/channel) are made possible through the use of semi-transparent widget overlays.
The current version of the software is based on XULRunner and the audio management re-uses the ZAP Media Kit. The peer to peer layer comes from the Joltid company, which also provided the peer to peer layer of Skype. The video playback utilizes the CoreCodec, CoreAVC H.264 video decoder.
[edit] Financing
[edit] Joost development
As co-owners of Skype, Friis and Zennström received part of a $2.6 billion cash payment when eBay acquired Skype in 2005, which easily covered the development and marketing cost of their Joost venture. Just a week after launching the service, the founders announces that they have raised additional $45 million. Sequoia Capital, which backed Yahoo, Google and YouTube; Index Ventures, an early investor in Skype; Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong tycoon; and CBS, the US media group, have all taken “small minority” stakes in the start-up. Viacom is also understood to be among the partners, although the nature of its backing has not been disclosed.
[edit] Content distribution
As opposed to streaming technology in which all clients get the feed from the server, P2P TV technology differs in the sense that the servers serve only a handful of clients; each of the clients in turn propagate the stream to more downstream clients and so on. This moves the distribution costs from the channel owner to the user.
The Joost service will be ad-supported, with advertising analogous to that shown on traditional TV, according to CEO Fredrik de Wahl.[4]
[edit] Availability
Currently, the software is in an open beta stage; an invite is required to become a user. However, a new stage of the beta was announced on May 1st, and all users were given unlimited invitations.[5] Linux is not yet supported.
[edit] Programming Content
Viacom Inc. and Joost entered into a content provider agreement for the Joost platform on February 20, 2007. Under the agreement divisions of Viacom (including MTV Networks, BET Networks and Paramount Pictures) will license their “television and theatrical programing” to Joost.[6] This came shortly after Viacom requested 100,000 potentially infringing videos to be removed from YouTube.com, which showed a preference by Viacom for the Joost platform over YouTube.[7]
Joost also currently has licensing agreements in place with Ministry of Sound TV, Warner Music, the production company Endemol[8], Diversion Media[9], CBS[10] and CenterStaging’s rehearsals.com[11]. On May 1, 2007, Joost signed a deal to distribute NHL content, including full game replays of the Stanley Cup Finals, and vintage games.[12]
[edit] Channels
The Joost applications includes three special channels What’s Popular, Search, and Joost Suggests which offers services, like searching the channel list or gathering statistics about channels, that can be used to find a channel that can be viewed. Apart from that, it also lists a number of channels serving various genres of content.[13]
[edit] History
[edit] Timeline
* 2006, October: The Venice Project announced.
* 2006, December: Invitation-only beta testing began.
* 2007, January 16: Officially announce real name, “Joost”[14]
* 2007, February 17: Macintosh beta testing began
* 2007, February 20: Viacom announces that it will be a “key partner” in television programming for Joost.
* 2007, March 7: CHUM Television announces its partnership with Joost to provide content, the majority of which to come from MuchMusic.
* 2007, April 5: Joost opens the newest beta version 0.9.1 to many new users, however bugs prevail and problems with playback now exist.
* 2007, April 10: Joost releases beta 0.9.2 to remove a hard-coded security certificate. Previous versions no longer run.
* 2007, April 24: Joost releases beta 0.9.4
* 2007, May 1: Joost releases beta 0.10.1 , granting existing beta users the ability to invite up to 999 peers to try Joost.
* 2007, May 9: Joost releases beta 0.10.2
[edit] See also
* Internet television
* Democracy Player
* TVUPlayer
* Babelgum
* Zattoo
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Amazon Kindle
Amazon Kindle is an ebook reader which uses an electronic paper display, reading Amazon’s proprietary Kindle format (AZW format), and connects by downloading content over Amazon Whispernet, which uses the Sprint EVDO network. The Kindle does not need access to a computer. Whispernet is accessible through Kindle free of charge. The day that the Kindle was released, the Kindle Store had over 88,000 digital titles available for download. The initial sale of the Kindle sold out in 5.5 hours.
Technical specifications
The Kindle features a 6″ diagonal, 4-level grayscale electrophoretic display (E Ink material) with a resolution of 600×800 pixels (167 ppi), although the largest graphic image that can be displayed without being resized is 450×550 pixels. It measures 5.3 inches × 7.5 inches × 0.7 inches (134.5 mm × 190 mm × 19 mm) and weighs 10.3 oz (295 g). The Kindle’s internal storage capacity is 256 MB, shipping with 180 MB free. A SD memory card expansion slot is present, officially supporting up to 4GB which implies support for SDHC. It has 64 MB of RAM. The battery lasts roughly two days with wireless on, and one week with wireless off. The battery charges in about two hours. A USB 2.0 port (mini-B connector) is available for connecting to a computer (where it acts as a USB flash drive). The Kindle features a headphone jack and one-year warranty. The device runs on a modified version of Linux based on the 2.6.10 kernel.
Content
The internal memory of the Amazon Kindle can hold approximately 200 non-illustrated titles. Users can download content from Amazon in the proprietary Kindle format (AZW), or load unprotected Mobipocket (PRC, MOBI) or plain text content. Amazon offers an email-based service that will convert HTML, DOC (Microsoft Word), JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP documents to AZW. It also supports audio in the form of MP3s and Audible 2, 3, and 4 audiobooks, which must be transferred to the Kindle over USB or on an SD card.
Users can download content through the Kindle Store. The Kindle Store is accessed through Whispernet, over Sprint’s EVDO network, which Amazon provides free of charge. New releases and New York Times bestsellers are offered for approximately $10. Classics like Bleak House sell for around $1.99, with free samples available of the first chapter of each book. Subscriptions to newspapers cost between $5.99 and $14.99 per month, magazines between $1.25 and $3.49 per month, and blogs for $0.99-$1.99 per month. Users can send documents to a conversion service which will send a Kindle-formatted file to the device directly for $0.10 or to a personal e-mail account for free. Users can transfer converted documents from a computer to the Kindle via a USB cable or an SD card for free. Access to Wikipedia is offered at no additional charge.
Digital Text Platform
Concurrently with the Kindle device, Amazon launched the Digital Text Platform, a system for authors to self-publish directly to the Kindle. Currently in open beta, the platform was promoted to established authors by e-mail. Authors can upload documents in several formats for delivery via Whispernet and charge between US$0.99 and $200 per download. The authors receive 35% of revenues based on their list price, regardless of discounts by Amazon.
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Northern Illinois Shooting
Five dead in Illinois university mass shooting
By Tom Leonard in New York
Last Updated: 2:38am GMT 15/02/2008
A gunman has opened fire in a packed university lecture hall in Illinois, shooting 18 people and killing four before turning his gun on himself.
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| Rescue workers carry a victim out of the university lecture hall where the gunman opened fire |
The attacker, described as a tall skinny white young man dressed entirely in black, walked out from behind a screen in a geology class around 3pm, said officials at Northern Illinois University.
The gunman, armed with a shotgun and two handguns, then opened fire before shooting himself on the stage.
Police officials said five people had died, including the gunman. Many victims were shot in the head at the university in DeKalb, 65 miles west of Chicago.
Witnesses said the gunman- said to be aged between 18 and 20 - kicked open a door near the stage in Cole Hall just 10 minutes before the end of the lecture and started shooting with the shotgun without saying a word.
Dispensing with the shotgun, the gunman - who was wearing a black ski cap and black trenchcoat - pulled out a pistol and walked down the aisles firing it into the crowd of terrified students.
Police Chief Donald Grady said the gunman was a student but not at the DeKalb campus.
Kevin McEnery, who was sitting in the fourth row of the lecture, estimated that he let off around 30 shots. He said: “He just kicked the door open and started shooting. I didn’t hear him say anything, just people shouting and screaming to get out.”
Some students dived for cover under their desks while others ran for the exits.
The campus was plunged into panic, as students poured out of the building, many trying to use their mobile phones and others simply praying.
All the injured were taken to the local Kishwaukee Community Hospital which said it had received 17 victims, of whom three or four had head wounds.
The university issued a statement on its website about an hour after the shooting saying that “the immediate danger has passed. The gunman is no longer a threat.”
George Gaynor, a fourth year geography student, who was in Cole Hall when the shooting happened, described the gunman as “a skinny white guy with a stocking cap on”.
He described the scene immediately following the incident as terrifying and chaotic. “Some girl got hit in the eye, a guy got hit in the leg,” he said.
Some witnesses said the gunman shot at random but Edward Robinson, another student, claimed he appeared to target students in one part of the lecture hall. “It was almost like he knew who he wanted to shoot. He knew who and where he wanted to be firing at,” he said.
All classes were cancelled on Thursday night and the 25,000-student campus was closed on Friday.
In April last year, 32 died after a mentally-disturbed and heavily armed student ran amok in the Virginia Tech campus. The incident prompted immediate changes in Virginia law that had allowed the gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, to buy handguns.
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Liz Claiborne, Designer of Women’s Clothes, Dies at 78
Liz Claiborne, the designer of indefatigable career clothes for professional women entering the workforce en masse beginning in the 1970s, died Tuesday in Manhattan. She was 78.
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