Test post from MS Office 2007 beta3

Wow. Office 2007 seems to have an amazingly new look and feel. Cool.

Webbed

from the pages of the WashingtonPost;

The Company That Turns Your Page
By Leslie WalkerThursday, April 7, 2005; Page E01

I feel guilty not having my own Web site, as if any self-respecting journalist covering the Internet ought to be blogging her heart out and learning firsthand the latest trends in Internet publishing.
But blogging is a lot of work, and so is any kind of publishing on the Web, a bottomless pit if ever there was one. Once you start, you're never done.

So I was all ears last week when Justin Kitch stopped by my office to show off QuickSites, a Web publishing service his company launched on Monday. For $49 to $499, depending on how fancy your tastes are, you can buy a ready-made site pre-designed down to navigation menu buttons and logos related to your industry. After the one-time creation fee, a customer pays $25 a month to Kitch's company, Homestead Technologies Inc., to host a site on the Web.
Since only half the country's more than 20 million small businesses have Web sites, and many that do are unhappy with theirs, I figured there would be much interest in any service that truly provided a professional-looking Web presence for under $500. I decided to test QuickSites to see what small businesses face today when they try to go online.
A decade after the Web went commercial, the reality is that most small firms still can't figure out how to get a useful site without paying thousands of dollars to a designer or settling for a crude collection of static pages slapped together by a teenager or friend. Web publishing innovations in the past year have focused mostly on e-commerce stores and personal publishing, helping people create blogs, for example. That hardly helps if you're a dentist or engineer. And those who do manage to design custom sites using off-the-shelf software or online tools find it's still not easy getting their sites published or "hosted" on the Web.
"For many people, the most complicated part is figuring out where you are going to host your site and then getting your site up there to the Web," said Kitty O'Neil, a Web designer based outside San Francisco who has been selling her designs to Homestead. "You have to keep a Post-it note around to remember how to get into your [Web hosting] server. The nice thing about QuickSites' software is it does that high-tech stuff behind the scenes for you. You can go in and change your daily special without knowing anything."
So far, Homestead has hundreds of site designs and is recruiting designers to submit more, offering royalty fees of 10 to 25 percent each time someone buys one of their creations. Unlike prior click-and-publish services, QuickSites offers pre-built sites with up to 10 connected pages, rather than page templates people have to assemble on their own.
I tried out the service this week and got a clean, personalized test site up and running in about two hours at www.lesliewalker.homestead.com. The design I chose cost $250, a price common for non-e-commerce sites at QuickSites (www.homestead.com). Anyone can try the service for free for seven days.
You customize a site by clicking and typing on dummy text and images, then substituting your own words and pictures. Most of the canned text and images are tailored to specific businesses, such as real estate.
The "Rusty Thai" design, for example, offers five restaurant pages, including a menu with 30 common Thai dishes, along with ingredients and prices.
In my test, QuickSites grabbed several photos from my computer's hard drive and automatically resized them to replace images in the Spartan design I chose. Editing took place directly online, with changes showing up quickly on the live Web site. People familiar with Web-page editing can download and use a more advanced software program to tweak their layout offline, a tool I tested and found helpful to expand the navigation menu on my six-page site.
Kitch, Homestead's chief executive, said his seven-year-old company became profitable for the first time last year and has 60,000 paying customers for its existing publishing service. Soon, QuickSites will add other premium services, he said, including the ability to register visitors at a site and schedule appointments online.

I randomly contacted designers building for QuickSites and found a wide range of experience. California's Kitty McNeil, for instance, has a long résumé of full-time work at big technology companies. Ljubisa Cavic, 20, has done little professional design work, lives in the small city of Red Hill in Alberta, Canada, and said he is hoping to land a job with a design firm. Ted Hantak, co-owner of Roxana, Ill.-based Sitedesigns4u.com, has been putting together Web sites for clients for seven years.
Most saw the service as a boon for small businesses more than for designers, who typically charge $1,000 to $5,000 to custom-design sites.
"Trust me, it hurts our businesses," said Hantak, who called QuickSites a useful but limited tool for small firms. He and other designers said many pre-built sites don't get customized much, leaving customers with cookie-cutter displays.
I also contacted a dozen small and medium-size firms in the D.C. area that have Web sites and found most had paid a lot more to develop them than QuickSites charges. Moreover, several said site updates are costly.
Typical was Greenworks, a D.C. florist with four shops at hotels including the Willard and Mandarin Oriental. Greenworks paid a contractor $1,500 for its existing Web site six years ago. Recently, it contracted with a designer in Milan to develop a fancier site that will cost more than $4,000 when it goes live. "We need a Web site that reflects the creativity we display in our cutting-edge designs," said employee Peggy Stanley. Greenworks staffers, however, won't be able to make site changes, which will require going back to the contractor.
Calibre CPA Group, a D.C. accounting firm, also is grappling with the updating issue. Its elaborate Web site has 70 pages and was built by a staffer who spent two weeks developing it. Calibre initially sought a bid from an outside contractor, but the $20,000 price tag was more than Calibre wanted to pay.
"The biggest challenge with our site has been keeping it relevant, trying to keep fresh information on it," said marketing director Mark McClain. Making changes still requires effort by the in-house programmer, he added, so Calibre is exploring whether to hire a consultant to add an updating tool to its home page.
And that, to me, is the most valuable part of QuickSites, the way it lets you click to feed the Web beast yourself at no extra cost. Of course, figuring out what to feed the beast is another story, which is why I may give my test site the heave-ho next week.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32848-2005Apr6_2.html

how wierd a land on this weird universe...

ahh..
"what is this one tiny morsel of humus doing in this wierd country; surrounded by wierd earthlings who do wierd things just to redefine their wierdity(?) and strengthen their weird sense of weirdness?", I wonder weirdly.

blings

Stallman quotes GandhiJi
Steve quotes KrishnaJi
Did Smut Spammers Scam Google?
more: Ram SamudralaRMSAtanu DeyStewart BrandJimmy Wales

bLOGlinks

the art of assuring efficiency of action

What is Cybernetics....?

The comparative study of human and machine processes in order to understand their similarities and differences. The science overlaps the fields of neurophysiology, information theory, computing machinery, and automation. The term was coined by Norbert Wiener (1894-1964), one of the great mathematicians of the 20th century.

Wikiped info:
Cybernetics is a theory of the communication and control of regulatory feedback. The term cybernetics stems from the Greek Κυβερνήτης (meaning steersman, governor, pilot, or rudder). Cybernetics is the discipline that studies communication and control in living beings or machines.
A more philosophical definition, suggested in 1958 by Louis Couffignal, one of the pioneers of cybernetics in the 1930s, considers cybernetics as "the art of assuring efficiency of action" (see external links for reference).
Then there is second-order cybernetics.

History
The modern study of cybernetics began at the intersection of neurology, electronic network theory and logic modelling around the time of WWII. The name 'cybernetics' was coined by Norbert Wiener to denote the study of "teleological mechanisms" and was popularized through his book Cybernetics, or control and communication in the animal and machine, (1948)
The word cybernetics ('cybernétique') had also, unbeknownst to Wiener, been used in 1834 by the physicist André-Marie Ampère (1775-1836) to denote the sciences of government in his classification system of human knowledge. It was also used by Plato in The Republic to signify the governance of people. The word governor and govern is also derived from the same greek root.
The study of "teleological mechanisms" in machinery (i.e. machines with corrective feedback) dates back at least to the late 1700s when James Watt's steam engine was equipped with a governor. In 1868 James Clerk Maxwell published a theoretical article on governors. In 1938 the Romanian scientist Stefan Odobleja has published in Paris the book "Psychologie consonantiste" describing many cybernetic principles. In the 1940s the study and mathematical modelling of regulatory processes became a continuing research effort and two key articles were published in 1943. These papers were "Behavior, Purpose and Teleology" by Arturo Rosenblueth, Norbert Wiener, and Julian Bigelow; and another landmark paper "A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity" by Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts).
Cybernetics as a discipline was firmly established by Wiener, McCullough and others, such as William Ross Ashby and Grey Walter. Together with the US and UK, an important geographical locus of early cybernetics was France where Wiener's book was first published.
In the spring of 1947, Wiener was invited to a congress on harmonic analysis, held in Nancy, France and organized by the bourbakist mathematician, Szolem Mandelbrot (1899-1983), uncle of the world famous mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot.
During this stay in France, Wiener received the offer to write a manuscript on the unifying character of this part of applied mathematics, which is found in the study of Brownian motion and in telecommunication engineering. The following summer, back in the United States, Wiener decided to introduce the neologism cybernetics into his scientific theory.
Wiener popularized the social implications of cybernetics, drawing analogies between automatic systems such as a regulated steam engine and human institutions in his best-selling The Human Use of Human Beings : Cybernetics and Society (Houghton-Mifflin, 1950).
Cybernetics is somewhat erroneously associated in many people's minds with robotics, due to uses such as Douglas Adams' Sirius Cybernetics Corporation and the concept of a cyborg, a term first popularized by Clynes and Kline in 1960.

Scope
In scholarly terms, cybernetics is the study of systems and control in an abstracted sense — that is, it is not grounded in any one empirical field.
The emphasis is on the functional relations that hold between the different parts of a system, rather than the parts themselves. These relations include the transfer of information, and circular relations (feedback) that result in emergent phenomena such as self-organization, and autopoiesis. The main innovation brought about by cybernetics is an understanding of goal-directedness or purpose as resulting from a negative feedback loop which minimizes the deviation between the perceived situation and the desired situation (goal).
Ampère's earlier use of the term echoes in the development of second-order cybernetics, which includes observers as part of whatever system is being studied.

&Musings: a calm lengthy intent consideration

So, then comes the question:
Why is my blog named so?

tis a product of contemplation; a thought- “an elegant tapestry of quotations, musings, aphorisms, and biographical reflections dealing with comm. and control in machines &their masters !"//

!!!

Billionaires Battle for Business in Vegas

LAS VEGAS:On one corner of the Las Vegas Strip, Steve Wynn runs his signature $2.7 billion megaresort and busily plans another.

AP Photo: RETRANSMISSION; ADVANCE FOR JUNE 11-12; graphic shows map locating four casinos- Wynn Las Vegas, New...

Across the street, Sheldon Adelson is building the Palazzo hotel-casino next to his successful Venetian. Soon to be shimmering near both properties are Donald Trump's gold-glass hotel-condo towers, and Phil Ruffin has ambitious plans for the aging New Frontier casino.

Four billionaire-sized egos. A slew of big-budget projects. All within stone's throw of one another. Is this desert sandbox big enough to hold them? Can the tycoons coexist harmoniously as neighbors?

"It will make for interesting copy and interesting reality," said Jack Wishna, a local dealmaker who knows all four men and has a minority interest in Trump's Las Vegas development.

Once their projects are completed, the four will have invested some $10 billion in their slices of the Strip. In a city known for its commercial combat, posturing and bravado, the fight for tourist dollars could be epic judging by past battles.

To some extent, it has already begun. Three of the four are seasoned at slinging slights, something they do with the precision of a smart bomb. There's more than a little bad blood here and a willingness to spill it — at least with cutting words — not a good omen for neighborliness at the north end of Las Vegas Boulevard at Sands Avenue.

Wynn and Adelson dislike each other vehemently. Wynn can't get enough credit for reinventing the Strip with such megaresorts as The Mirage, Treasure Island and Bellagio.

Adelson can't take too many bows either, believing the business model he embraced with Las Vegas Sands Corp. — making money off rooms and conventions versus gambling — is the true innovation that transformed Las Vegas.

Their feud took a nasty, very public turn last year when the pair found themselves trading barbs — calling each other liars among other prickly insults — over the size of the Palazzo's parking lot, among other things.

"Strip thunders when casino titans lock horns," the Las Vegas Sun announced to its readers.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Wynn, who pocketed a tidy $500 million when he sold his Mirage Resorts Inc. to MGM Grand in 2000, declined to badmouth his rivals, saying he was interested in making profits, not headlines.

It's "irrelevant to the business model," Wynn said, referring to his wealthy competitors. "Personalities play no part at all."

The casino mogul concluded that his fellow billionaires will, in fact, help him if they build quality projects like Wynn Las Vegas, a bronze tribute to its rather bronze-looking owner, whose name is splashed on the casino's parapet, giant marquees, slot machines and even gift shop dishes.

"Las Vegas prospers because of development, not in spite of it. Competition creates more business. It causes hotels to make more money and not less," said Wynn, chairman and chief executive officer of Wynn Resorts.

When Trump married earlier this year, Wynn was at the wedding. When Wynn opened his newest gambling shrine in April, Trump attended the lavish festivities.

A few years ago, that would have been unimaginable as they brawled over their Atlantic City, N.J., casinos.

"It was almost like the rappers, the West Coast (vs.) East Coast," Wishna recalled.

Wishna says the two are friends now — detente has been reached. But in business, enemies are made and friendships lost every day. Money, power and pride have been known to trump everything — even kinship. Remember Michael Ovitz and Michael Eisner?

Wynn and Trump have enough in common to be friends. They share a flair for promoting their brand. Both are masters of exploiting their famous personas.

True to form, The Donald will plant his name atop the towers that are expected to cost about $1 billion and be among the tallest on the Las Vegas skyline. A message left for the real estate mogul/TV host was not returned.

"One of the things that people in the casino business have done is use their personalities," Hal Rothman, Las Vegas historian and author, said. "They're each making the argument that they are the most important. It says you believe that you've become the dominant brand. People don't build enormous casinos without egos to match them."

Such self-promotion brings a sneer from Adelson, who told Forbes magazine that "putting your heart into your hotel is more important than putting your name on it."

In a brief interview, Adelson declined to comment on Ruffin, whom he has never met, or Trump, a man he has bumped into once or twice.

As for Wynn, Adelson said he has a "superiority complex." On the Strip, operators have to compete with deeds and not words, he said.

The dynamic personalities involved in the developments surrounding his Palazzo should make for an "interesting corner," said Adelson.

The wild card in the fray is Ruffin, an unassuming Kansas native.

Ruffin has been quietly sitting back while watching his corner of Sin City soar in value, making him a billionaire. He partnered with Trump International Hotel and Tower to build the condo project at the back of his Strip property, but has so far opted to go it alone with the New Frontier.

Don't underestimate the Wichita businessman who made his fortune in real estate. He might not get the same publicity as his rivals but that doesn't mean he doesn't want to climb a few notches on the Forbes billionaires' list.

"Trump, he's getting even richer," Ruffin said. "I'm going to have to do something to catch up."

Ruffin is hoping to break ground on his new hotel-casino in early 2006, and thinks this adult playground is plenty big enough for the four business magnates.

"It's a very big pie and there's room for everyone," he said. "But you do have massive egos involved.

"You won't need a dictionary. We'll have all the answers."

___

On the Net:

Wynn Las Vegas: http://www.wynnlasvegas.com

Trump Organization: http://www.trump.com

6-Figure Salaries?

6-Figure Salaries? To Many Teachers, a Matter of Course
Published: June 5, 2005

THE hiring of a public school teacher in Scarsdale, one of the most sought-after districts in the nation, begins with a flood of applications and can take months.

Chris Maynard for The New York Times

"You can earn $100,000 and not afford to live here."
—SUSAN TAYLOR, Scarsdale teacher

Top-Dollar Teachers

Chris Maynard for The New York Times

"Our taxes are high, but our education is superior."
—ELLEN COHEN, Scarsdale parent

A careful screening of credentials winnows 80 or 90 applications to about 15, who then get probing telephone calls from the department chief. A half-dozen are invited for interviews. Two or three of those are asked to demonstrate their teaching prowess in the classroom before the lucky survivor is offered a job.

"This has to be someone who has an interest in the larger issues of teaching, with an inquisitive mind, a person of tolerance and openness," said Christopher Douglass, the English department chairman at Scarsdale High School, emphasizing that he "immediately discounts" any applicant who mentions an interest in a large salary.

But this noble sensibility ignores a crucial fact about the teaching profession in Westchester County: Teacher pay levels in Scarsdale, and several other districts in the county, are now high enough to constitute an entry ticket to upper-middle-class income and status. In Scarsdale, 166 teachers - nearly half - have base salaries exceeding $100,000; for more than a dozen, base pay tops $120,000.

A study of teacher salaries across New York State found that as administrators and affluent parents compete to give their children every possible advantage, thousands of teachers in the New York suburbs now make six-figure salaries - numbers strongly at variance with the popular stereotype of the poorly paid, altruistic mentor of the young.

The study indicates that only the most experienced teachers, with the most education, earn such salaries - which are the highest in the nation. But the money is arguably substantial enough to affect what it means to be a public school teacher. Consider this, for instance: A family whose parents both teach in Westchester schools can make enough to put it in the top 6 percent of earners in the county.

Teachers say the salaries are justified, even necessary, in a place where the cost of living is high. "You can earn $100,000 and not afford to live here," said Susan Taylor, a longtime Scarsdale teacher who heads the district's teacher training institute.

And in fact the rising salaries have not really made waves in Westchester, because in many communities they have arrived in tandem with rising property values - which softens the effect of school district budget increases.

The average home in Scarsdale, for instance, sold for $1.4 million in 2004, and the average income per pupil in the schools was more than $500,000 in 2002, five times that in the rest of the state.

"Our taxes are high, but our education is superior," said Ellen Cohen, 53, who has a daughter at Scarsdale High School. "It doesn't bother me that teachers do so well."

She is one of many Scarsdale homeowners who, like those in other affluent communities around New York, based their choice of suburb on the reputation of the schools. For these parents, the relationship between good schools and good neighborhoods is symbiotic.

"I would not have moved to Hartsdale or Eastchester, because of the reputation of the schools," Ms. Cohen said. "We live in Scarsdale for different reasons, but one of those is the education is excellent."

IN Westchester, the study found 1,074 teachers - 1 of every 9 - who made more than $100,000 in the 2003-04 school year, the most recent for which data are available. (That total excludes Yonkers, whose teachers have worked without a contract for the last two years. The state does not collect salary data in districts where salary issues remain unresolved.)

The number of six-figure base salaries tripled between 2001 and 2003; among those in that earning bracket are 223 elementary teachers, 39 kindergarten teachers and 61 physical education teachers. Base salaries do not include stipends for extra duties like coaching and directing plays, which can add thousands.

With combined step and cost-of-living increases, the median salary of a Westchester teacher who had 10 years' experience and a master's degree in 2001 had advanced 5 percent a year by 2003, a time when other salaries in the Northeast went up about 3 percent a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In May, Scarsdale's school budget passed without controversy, and by 73 percent, even more overwhelmingly than the year before. The school board president, Jeff Samuelson, believes there is a consensus in his community to attract and pay for the best teachers.

Chris Maynard for The New York Times

Scarsdale High School, where nearly half the teachers have base salaries exceeding $100,000.

Top-Dollar Teachers

"One group this year said, 'We understand we are the leader but we don't want to get too far out in front of No. 2,' " Mr. Samuelson said. Other than that, he said, "we don't hear that much about teacher salaries."

Similarly in White Plains, where a substantial commercial tax base keeps residential taxes low, a quarter of teachers (151) make more than $100,000, with little taxpayer complaint.

"Our teachers are our best asset," said Donna O. McLaughlin, the White Plains school board president. "I think it's very important that we pay them well. You need to be competitive."

She acknowledges that deep pockets help. "We are very fortunate," she said. "We have a lot of industry that helps pay the taxes, so the taxes in White Plains are nowhere near what they are in nearby areas."

Six-figure teachers are not unique to the New York suburbs. Connecticut and New Jersey reported a few dozen in 2003. In the Chicago suburbs, state records show that hundreds of teachers make six figures when all their extra stipends are figured in.

But they have not been universally adopted, by any means. The top base salary for New York City teachers is $81,232 (although some make six figures with stipends and overtime). In California, the highest teacher salary in 2003 was well under $100,000, according to state figures.

In the state, Scarsdale was among the first to have teachers reach six-figure salaries, starting in the late 1990's. "It's been a conscious strategy of this district over a lot of years to be among the leaders in salary," said Michael McGill, the superintendent.

The pay raises quickly appeared in other districts in Westchester and Long Island as administrators competed for talent. Now, 29 of the county's 41 districts have teachers making six figures.

Most are in their early 50's, and have advanced degrees and 25 years of experience. Contracts are structured to reward for longevity. Median salary for a teacher with one year of experience in Scarsdale was about $50,000 in 2003. Each year of experience brings a step up in salary, and extra hours in seminars at the teaching institute earn additional raises. The top salary in Scarsdale for a teacher who spends no more than 20 percent of his time as a department head or other administrator was $128,000 in 2003.

"The community wants stability and experience," said Ms. Taylor. "There's a lot invested in the retention of a good teacher."

THE less wealthy districts, meanwhile, struggle to compete in the expensive suburban market. In Mount Vernon, where the property values per student are one-fifth those of Scarsdale, no teacher had a base salary over $100,000 in 2003, although the top salary of a full-time teacher came close, at $96,000.

Mount Vernon - most of whose students are black - is not poor except by Westchester standards. Although its test scores rose dramatically this year, they are still far below Scarsdale's.

Brenda L. Smith, the superintendent, worries about being able to deliver a competitive education to students in a place where teacher costs are so high.

"We really have a need to be comparable to other districts in terms of the quality we get, but our district is lower in terms of resources," Ms. Smith said. "We compete on job satisfaction. People come to Mount Vernon to make a difference in the lives of children."

She added, "It's a compliment to our teachers, who are willing to work in Mount Vernon for less than they could make in neighboring towns."

John Larkin, a teacher at Mount Vernon High School with 32 years' experience and two master's degrees, also emphasized satisfactions other than financial. "This is not an easy job, it's an extraordinarily exhausting job," he said, as he watched his girls' softball team take batting practice. "But it offers you an opportunity to be creative, and how many jobs really do that? Working with young people can be quite challenging, but it can also be quite invigorating."

Mr. Larkin lives in Eastchester, between Mount Vernon and Scarsdale, and works as a coach and during summers, he said, because of "economic realities."

The day before a recent game against Scarsdale, his team had to practice without seven of its players, who were staying after school for academic work.

"Scarsdale is a challenge to us," he said. He was hopeful, even though his team had lost twice, 10-1. "They were not that overpowering. Our girls hit their pitcher pretty well."

Mount Vernon lost again, this time by 21-2.

SO far, there has been little evidence of a backlash against school costs in Westchester. Only six budgets were defeated last month.

But one of those was in Edgemont, a rich district next to Scarsdale. Salaries are high in Edgemont, and Jack Vaughan, 70, a lawyer and Edgemont homeowner who organized opposition to the budget this year, argued that salaries, among other costs, have become too high.

"I would say when you combine the salaries and the perks, that they are probably being overcompetitive," said Mr. Vaughan. "We're willing to pay for good teachers, but not unreasonably so."

But Mr. Douglass, the Scarsdale teacher, couldn't disagree more. While he may discount someone who mentions salary in the interview process, he believes it does attract the best people.

"I have to tell you," he said, "six figures is a pretty minimal amount for Scarsdale. These are people's children. Our culture values salaries and the salaries should be an important reward for all this hard work."

New York/Region Home

I, Me, My Teacher

article frm NYT,

Behind Every Grad...Published: June 10, 2005

excerpts:
We are heading into an age in which jobs are likely to be invented and made obsolete faster and faster. The chances of today's college kids working in the same jobs for the same companies for their whole careers are about zero. In such an age, the greatest survival skill you can have is the ability to learn how to learn. The best way to learn how to learn is to love to learn, and the best way to love to learn is to have great teachers who inspire.

And the best way to ensure that we have teachers who inspire their students is if we recognize and reward those who clearly have done so.

Williams College graduation day: "There are great teachers in our high school, outstanding teachers, and they don't get enough recognition. A lot of kids would not be in college without them."

--g//

Hi

Hello all.

This is my new blog.

http://gansvv.blogspot.com was my previous blog.

looking fwd 2 loads of fun//

--g//