Hong Kong shares outlook - Higher on upbeat company earnings, Wall St
CNN Money - HONG KONG, Mar. 5, 2008 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) — Hong Kong shares may open higher Thursday as investors will take their cue from Wall Street’s moderate rise overnight and upbeat company earnings. ‘We should have a superior day this day

Hicks’ Sydney sojourn revealed
News.com.au - He noted that the South Australian Government had moved quickly to legislate against his son making money from selling his Well done to all! Justice has been served! Posted by: Peter of Five Dock 10:32am today

Smith Micro Software Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2007
MSN MoneyCentral - Smith Micro Software, Inc. SMSI , a leading developer and marketer of software solutions and services for the wireless market, today reported its 2007 fourth quarter and full year 2007 financial results. “I am pleased to announce our fiscal 2007

Magna Carta Returns to the National Archives
Washington Post - Ross Perot, to anyone with the money to pay its multimillion-dollar price tag. This day delighted archives officials marked its return and saluted Washington businessman David M.

Rugged, High-Integration, High-Reliability TFT-LCD Power Supplies
MSN MoneyCentral - Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), a world leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance analog semiconductors, today announced the release of the ISL78020 and ISL78022, two new Automotive Grade TFT-LCD DC/DC regulators with Integrated

MoneyGram Offers Services in 2,800 Advance America Locations
MSN MoneyCentral - MoneyGram International, Inc., announced today the completion of the rollout of three new services in over 2,800 Advance America locations across the United Says. The addition of MoneyGram’s money transfer, money order and ExpressPayment bill

Casella Waste Systems, Inc. Announces Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2008
MSN MoneyCentral - Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CWST), a regional solid waste, recycling, and resource management services company, this day reported financial results for the third quarter of its 2008 fiscal year and raised guidance on estimated earnings before

Harris Corporation Provides FY 2009 Initial Guidance of $4.00 to $4.10
MSN MoneyCentral - MELBOURNE, Fla., March 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Harris Corporation HRS , an international communications and information technology company, this day provided initial GAAP earnings guidance for fiscal year 2009, beginning June 28, 2008, of $4.00 to

Bookies go walkies as suspicious betting at Crufts forces William Hill
The Independent - The competition starts this day, but yesterday the bookmaker William Hill announced that it was closing the book on bets as to It’s essentially a seven-horse race with all the money going on one horse.

CompuCredit and eLoyalty Join Forces to Deploy “Desktop Analytics(TM
MSN MoneyCentral - CompuCredit Corporation (NASDAQ: CCRT) and eLoyalty (NASDAQ: ELOY) today announced that they’re partnering to deploy eLoyalty’s state-of-the-art analytics application within CompuCredit’s Customer Service division. The application, called Desktop

‘Partners’ reap bonus as strong John Lewis pushes the envelope
Daily Telegraph - After a record year in 2007, today’s figure is expected to be higher at 19pc or 20pc. You are here: Telegraph > Money > Business

Bush: Use ethanol to get off oil
CNN Money - feed://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_topstories.rss calls for refiners to replace 36 billion gallons of gasoline with ethanol by 2020, up from about 7 billion gallons today.

Rimage and DatCard Announce MammoSmart Donation Recipients
MSN MoneyCentral - Rimage RIMG and DatCard Systems today announced the recipients of its first MammoSmart Empowerment Award - Canal Radiology Associates in New York City and Vero Radiology Associates in Vero Beach, Florida. Both facilities will receive a free

JMI Telecom (JMIT) Signs Agreement With VoX Communications
MSN MoneyCentral - JMI Telecom Corp. (PINKSHEETS: JMIT), a next generation telecommunication products and services company, this day announced they’ve signed a wholesale agreement with VoX Communications Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Pervasip Corp. and a provider

Transgenomic Announces New Contracts for Phase II Trials With Two
MSN MoneyCentral - OMAHA, Neb., March 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Transgenomic, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: TBIO), a leading global genetic analysis company, this day announced that it has entered into agreements with two major Pharmaceutical companies for three Phase II

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Filed under: Social Software, web 2.0

Download Squad is hitting SXSW tomorrow, and we know some of you are going too. Before you head to Austin, though, you might want to check out the SXSW page at Fluther. Fluther is a live question and answer service, designed to draw on the collective knowledge of its users to help one another out, and they’ve launched a dedicated SXSW page.

There are a few good questions up so far, so give it a shot if you’re wondering anything about SXSW or what to do in Austin. In case you’re curious about what in the world a “fluther” is, the site explains that it’s a group of jellyfish that all communicate with one another. Hey, that’s one question answered already. While you’re waiting for someone to answer yours, keep watching Download Squad for more SXSW coverage!

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Filed under: Developer, Utilities, Web services, Open Source, Social Software, AOL

It’s hard to get by with just one chat client these days. Your contacts aren’t prone to be limited to a single service, like Google Speak, MSN Live or AIM, so a multi-chat client is a must. Now the multi-chat experience is about to get a lot superior for AIM’s 27.8 million users, with the launch of AOL’s Open AIM 2.0 initiative.

Open AIM will aid the developers of clients like Meebo and eBuddy by releasing documentation for OSCAR, the protocol that the official AIM client uses to connect to the service. Open source libraries are now granted to access the AIM network, and developers are free to create mobile or corporate versions of AIM to their heart’s content, and AIM will now all kinds of widgets and plugins.

What does this mean for users? For one, some of the compatibility issues with third-party clients might finally go away — file transfer is the one that’s always been a sore spot for us. AOL is promising access to AIM’s voice and video capabilities, too. Keep an eye out for updates to your favorite chat client, because the devs are likely working at full speed to add new features under Open AIM.

[Via TechCrunch]

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Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, World wide web, News, Productivity, Social Software, web 2.0

Officially it’s “five days of exciting panel content and breathtaking parties”, unofficially it’s the biggest event of the software geek calendar. SXSW Interactive starts Friday in Austin, Texas and we’ll be hitting the ground tomorrow like some sort of invading army.

We’ve already managed to book plenty of interviews with tech luminaries, and we’re sure to stumble across more. We’ll also be doing some live blogging, taking lots of photos and video, and posting to Twitter.

Keep checking Download Squad for all the SXSW happenings, or if you’re more of a river of news kind of person, we’ve got this SXSW 2008 RSS feed you can use to make sure you don’t miss a thing.

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Filed under: Design, Blogging, Social Software

Automattic, the company behind the WordPress blogging platform, is becoming known for buying up some of the most creative WordPress hacks out there. They’ve already snapped up the global avatar service, Gravatar, and added a handful of quality themes by Chris Pearson to their selection of default templates. Now Automattic is taking WordPress into the arena of social networking by hiring designer Andy Peatling and acquiring his BuddyPress plugins.

There’s a placeholder page at BuddyPress.com right now, with the Automattic logo and a simple description of what BuddyPress does: transforming “a vanilla installation of WordPress MU into a social network platform.” For an example of what that might look like, you can check out Peatling’s work on chickspeak.com, built on BuddyPress. If you’re a designer who likes the power and flexibility of WordPress, but you need to get outside the basic blog and put together a full-on social network, user profiles and all, this could be a great solution.

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Filed under: Borrowing, Debt

It’s been about a week or so since I’ve ranted about bailing out people who are behind on their mortgages. So it’s time for another one, don’t you think? Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman, has a brilliant idea for mortgage lenders: forgive part of people’s loans if they’re at risk of defaulting.

Did you just read what you think you did? Yes! Bernanke gave a speech mentioning “unnecessary foreclosures” and what banks should do to help the poor borrowers. I’ve never heard of an “unnecessary” foreclosure before. If you can’t pay for your house, you shouldn’t get to keep it, and a foreclosure is necessary.

But Bernanke is telling banks that they should just reduce principal on mortgages to give homeowners some equity and avoid foreclosure. So here we go again. Buy more home than you can afford. Make some late payments. And your reward will be that you don’t have to pay back all of your mortgage. Does that sound fair to you?

It doesn’t seem fair at all, but I want to sign up anyway. Do you think my mortgage company will believe me if I promise them that I’m going to default? Do you think they might reduce the amount that I owe them? It can’t hurt to try!

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Bookkeeping, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

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Filed under: Debt

Most credit cards with variable rates have their rates tied to the prime interest rate. That rate has been going down, but consumers are still seeing their credit card interest rates rising. How can that be?

For consumers with good credit, their credit card rates will usually fall as the prime interest rate falls. But those consumers whose credit is suffering won’t see the same benefit. Particularly if they are behind on their debts or doing other things that negatively impact their credit scores, they will likely see an increase in credit card rates.

So if you’ve got a credit score of 700 or above, anticipate to see your interest rates on your credit cards go down. If your score is lower or you’ve been experiencing debt troubles, watch your rates carefully. They’re apt to be on the rise, which could put you even deeper into trouble. You typically have the right to refuse the rate increase, but you’ll have to pay off the account and close it. Play the credit card game wisely.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Record-keeping, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

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Filed under: Borrowing, Debt

It’s been about a week or so since I’ve ranted about bailing out people who are behind on their mortgages. So it’s time for another one, don’t you think? Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman, has a brilliant idea for mortgage lenders: forgive part of people’s loans if they’re at risk of defaulting.

Did you just read what you think you did? Yes! Bernanke gave a speech mentioning “unnecessary foreclosures” and what banks should do to help the poor borrowers. I’ve never heard of an “unnecessary” foreclosure before. If you can’t pay for your house, you shouldn’t get to keep it, and a foreclosure is necessary.

But Bernanke is telling banks that they should just reduce principal on mortgages to give homeowners some equity and avoid foreclosure. So here we go again. Purchase more house than you can afford. Make some late payments. And your reward will be that you don’t have to pay back all of your mortgage. Does that sound fair to you?

It doesn’t seem fair at all, but I want to sign up anyway. Do you think my mortgage company will believe me if I promise them that I’m going to default? Do you think they might reduce the amount that I owe them? It can’t injured to try!

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Record-keeping, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

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Iran’s foreign minister wants a US president who can bring change
PR Inside - Iran is not concerned about «people or parties» in the U.S. presidential election, Manouchehr Mottaki said at a news conference in Geneva.

Euro Falls on Speculation Trichet to Signal Concern Over Gains
Bloomberg - March 5 (Bloomberg) — The euro fell against the dollar, retreating from a record high, on speculation European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will signal after a policy meeting tomorrow the region’s common currency is too strong

Croc Hunter’s Zoo ‘Owes £1.177m’
Sky.com - Debt recovery company Alyssa Treasury Services is suing Australia Zoo, now run by Irwin’s widow Terri, for money they state is owed to trustee partners, including a Singapore-based bank, over a complicated business loan. Court documents show the debt

HAVOC Announces Roll Out of Lubbock Renegades Energy Drink
Forbes - This news release contains certain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27a of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21e of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Palestinian Pres Abbas announces intention to resume speaks
MSN UK News - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday stated he would resume peace talks with Israel, backing off a threat to boycott negotiations until Israel reaches a truce with Hamas militants in Gaza. “The peace process is a strategic choice and we

China lowering medal expectations, counseling athletes as Olympic
Minneapolis Star Tribune - In one bright spot, Cui said authorities were cheered by news that NBA All Star center Yao Ming was expected to be fit to play for China despite suffering a season-ending foot injury.

Bristol-Myers CFO Bonfield leaving drug maker
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) said on Wednesday Chief Financial Officer Andrew Bonfield is leaving the drug maker to seek new career opportunities. Bonfield will be succeeded by Jean-Marc Huet

China insurer Ping An’s share issue OK’d
BusinessWeek - A state news bureau states a major Chinese insurer, Ping An Insurance Co., has won shareholder approval to raise billions of dollars to pay for new acquisitions. The vote Wednesday was overwhelmingly in favor of Ping An’s proposal to raise some 121

Palestinians Will Resume Peace Speaks
WTOP Radio - RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday he’ll resume peace speaks with Israel , backing off a threat to boycott negotiations until Israel reaches a truce with Hamas militants in Gaza . “The peace process is a

Hong Kong to consult public on amending obscenity ordinance
Xinhua News Bureau - HONG KONG, March 5 (Xinhua) — Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government plans to consult the public later this year on ways to amend the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance, HKSAR government Secretary for Commerce and

Tote to be sold on open market
Enfield and Haringey Independent - State-owned horseracing bookmaker the Tote is to be sold on the open market after the Government rejected a bid from a racing consortium. The bid team - which includes the Racehorse Owners Association, the Racehorse Association and Tote bosses - has

IBM unit gets regulatory OK for deal
MSN MoneyCentral - NEW YORK (AP) - International Business Machines Corp. said Wednesday a planned acquisition by one of its subsidiaries has been approved by European regulators. IBM subsidiary Watchtower AB, a Swedish company, will acquire all outstanding shares of

Television ratings - March 4
Guardian Unlimited - News at Ten: counted out by Channel 4’s Shameless. Photograph: ITV Like ITV’s share price, News at Ten fell to a new low last night, March 4, with just 1.7 million viewers tuning in. Despite being sandwiched between Champions League Live coverage of

News in Brief
Buenos Aires Herald - The head of the Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires bank (BAPRO), Guillermo Francos, yesterday met the head of the Inter-American Development Bank, Luis Alberto Moreno, to negotiate a loan that would be used to develop new investment projects

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Filed under: Borrowing, Debt, Home, Real Estate, Recession

I live in Nashville, Tenn., where the slowdown of the real estate market doesn’t feel as great as in other cities of comparable size. Sure, there are a few houses out there with ancient-looking FOR SALE signs in their front yards, but it’s not as if my Realtor friends are tightening their belts.

Then, while driving around town, I saw a billboard for something called loansforthewealthy.com. The first couple of times I ignored it, assuming it was a protest site where one could electronically sign a petition voting against one of President Bush’s proposed tax cuts. But today, the billboard sparked my curiosity. (I guess that’s what billboards are meant to do.)It turns out that loansforthewealthy.com is for people who are interested in investing a few million in residential real estate but, for whatever reason, just aren’t up to doing the research. Boasting a team of experts “with almost two years of research in the Nashville market,” loansforthewealthy.com is a luxury real estate matchmaker, bringing “a unique and firsthand perspective to the complex needs of the affluent.” Imagine. Two entire years!

The videos on the website feature a man and, presumably, his wife, heavily engaged in the kind of talk meant to impress people who don’t know what they’re talking about. “We are not a mortgage company,” says founder Shawn Blake. “We are not a real estate office. We’re a liaison group that has a pairing system based upon our clients’ economic and geographic and demographic fingerprints.” Hah?

So why would anyone with a few million lying around be interested in getting a mortgage? Why not just carry around a briefcase full of hundred-dollar bills for that next home buying spree? Well, the tax benefits, of course.

“There’s certainly a misnomer out there that the government, some time ago, took away the benefit of carrying a mortgage for the affluent,” he says. “That is very untrue. There’s a complete financial strategy out there that has 10 to 12 spokes on the wheel. We firmly believe that most people are probably only using one or two of those spokes.”

No idea what this means, either. I’m assuming that anyone with half a mil or up to invest in real estate at the moment probably (hopefully) has a better grasp of what such a deal entails and might bypass such business propositions as loansforthewealthy.com offer. But if not, then certainly it’s a match made in heaven, and proof that fools and their money are still soon to part.

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