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VOIP PC Phone 1

2007-10-04T19:21:00.001-07:00

VOIP PC Phone 1
Download Now (3.51MB)

1. Click here to download, install and launch the engine.
If you already have this engine installed, skip to the next step.
Engine for PC (12.31 MB)
Engine for Mac (10.84 MB)
2. Click here to download your new widget. (Save file to Desktop.)
Download Widget Now (164.0 KB)
Tested spyware free
3. Doubleclick on Bandwidth Meter file to launch widget.
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* License:Free
* Average User Rating:
(out of 1 votes) Rate it!
* Downloads: 10,094
* Requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server, You will need a Headset and Microphone.
* Limitations: No limitations
* Date Added:June 8, 2006

Publisher's description of VOIP PC Phone
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From SSuite Office Software:

Voip PC Phone does not rely on Third-Party Vendors or Special Internet Websites to make calls. All you need is a headset and microphone to make a call. Voip Phone works only on LAN and DSL connections. The minimum bandwidth required is 64Kbps (continuous). Before making a call, press the refresh button to make sure of your I.P. Address. When making a call over a DSL connection, connect first and then run the application to ensure a correct return I.P. Address.

On a LAN connection the I.P. Address is your network card address. On a DSL connection, the I.P. Address is the address your I.S.P. provides automatically when you connect. Please Note. - If you are behind a firewall, allow access on ports 8500 and 6767 - TCP/UDP to receive and transmit calls.

Express Talk 2.02

2007-10-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

Express Talk 2.02
Download Now (341.71K)

* License:Free
* Average User Rating:
(out of 5 votes) Rate it!
* Downloads: 34,692
* Requirements: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server
* Limitations: No limitations
* Date Added:February 12, 2007

Publisher's description of Express Talk

From NCH Software:

Express Talk is software that works like a telephone to let you make calls from your PC. With Express Talk you can call anyone on the Internet who has installed Express Talk (or any other SIP VoIP softphone). Calls are free. You can also call ordinary telephone numbers anywhere in the world if you sign up to a gateway service. It uses the SIP protocol and is compatible with most major VoIP SIP service providers.

Version 2.02 includes new features and an updated interface.

Registry

2007-10-04T19:15:00.000-07:00

Registry Mechanic 7.0 for Windows
[+] Click to Download
Registry Mechanic

"Powerful yet simple; customizable error checking; automatic registry backups"

- Editors' Choice, APC Magazine May 2005

Start Registry Scan Now!

Designed for Windows® 98, Me, 2000 and XP, with basic support for Windows® Vista™
Editor's Choice Registry Cleaner
Don't compromise your PC Registry with the second best!

* World's most popular registry cleaner with over 55 million downloads.
* Recommended by experts and editors around the world as the best registry cleaner.
* FREE customer support for all users.
* Cleans the registry, fixes PC errors and optimizes your PC for better performance.
* Easy to use. Designed for both expert and novice users.
* 100% Money Back Guarantee.

With Registry Mechanic you can safely clean, repair and optimize the Windows® registry with a few simple mouse clicks! Problems with the Windows® registry are a common cause of Windows® crashes, slow performance and error messages. By using a registry cleaner regularly and fixing registry errors your system should not only be more stable but it will also help improve your system performance without expensive hardware upgrades. Learn more about the importance of a clean registry with our registry insight.
Screenshot
[+] Click to Enlarge

Registry Mechanic uses a high-performance detection algorithm to quickly identify missing and invalid references in your Windows® registry. These problems can occur for many reasons including being left-behind after the un-installation or incorrect removal of software, by missing or corrupt hardware drivers, or orphaned startup programs.

With a few easy steps Registry Mechanic will scan your entire registry for any invalid entries and provides a list of the registry errors found, you can then choose to selectively clean each item or automatically repair them all. For your convenience and protection Registry Mechanic can also make a backup of any repairs made so that you can easily recover any changes if required.
Registry Mechanic Information
Current Version: 7.0.0.1010
File Size: 5,295 KB
Operating System: Designed for Windows® 98, Me, 2000 and XP, with basic support for Windows® Vista™
Release Date: September 12, 2007
Designed to: Clean and compact your registry to optimize your PC for better performance.
Trial Limitations: The trial is time unlimited and removes problems found in 5 sections of the registry only. A registered version is required to remove all detected problems.
Start Registry Scan Now!

Moving Company

2007-10-04T19:05:00.000-07:00

123 Movers brings you Moving Companies that understand your Relocation.
Receive Free Quotes & Find Great Moving Tips!

Looking for Moving Companies and getting free quotes has never been easier, although choosing the right Movers can be a difficult process. If you're going cross-country or just moving cross-town, the relocation process can be quite frustrating and stressful from start to finish. 123 Movers is here to help you make the decisions for the best possible move.

Finding the most appropriate and fully licensed moving companies can be a complicated procedure. It involves research, and time you just don't have right now. Face it; we all have busy lives, and spending hours gathering information on ten different moving companies can take weeks. In just a few clicks, 123 Movers will put you in contact with the Movers that know your area and have the expertise to complete your relocation on time and within your budget. The Moving Companies you’ll receive information from have been pre-screened for full compliance with State and Federal regulations and have the required insurance to perform your move.

If you need something other than a residential moving company, 123 Movers can help you there as well. We also provide information and quotes from Auto Transport Companies, Storage Facilities, International Moving Companies, Moving Supply Companies, Self-Moving Services, and Corporate Movers.

The goal of 123 Movers is to put you on the path toward an exceptional moving experience, even if you’ve already chosen a particular mover. Our extensive guides, tips, articles, tools, and calculators on relocation can give you the idea or bit of information that can help make your move that much smoother. Perhaps you need some help finding High Speed Internet Connections, Packing and Moving Tips, Home Improvement Companies, Mortgage Advice and more; no matter your moving needs, 123 Movers is here for you. To further service you, 123 Movers lets you review the Moving Company you used so others can judge the quality of each mover for themselves. Every function of 123 Movers is designed to help make your move as easy as possible.

Just complete our short no obligation form and receive moving quotes on many of the services and companies that can help make your move a pleasant experience. Good Luck!

thoroughbred horses

2007-10-04T19:03:00.001-07:00

The term Thoroughbred describes a breed of horse whose ancestry traces back to three foundation sires -- the Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Arabian and the Byerly Turk.

Named after their respective owners -- Thomas Darley, Lord Godolphin and Captain Robert Byerly -- these three stallions were brought to England from the Mediterranean Middle East around the turn of the 17th century and bred to the stronger, but less precocious, native horse.

The result was an animal which could carry weight with sustained speed over extended distances, qualities which brought a new dimension to the burgeoning, aristocratically-supported, sport of horse racing.

So began a selective breeding process which has been going on for more than 250 years, breeding the best stallions to the best mares, with the proof of superiority and excellence being established on the race track.

Key to this selective breeding process is the integrity of the breed's records.

In early days, Thoroughbred breeding records were sparse and frequently incomplete, it being the custom, among other things, not to name a horse until it had proved outstanding ability. It was left to James Weatherby, through his own research and by consolidation of a number of privately-kept pedigree records, to publish the first volume of the General Stud Book.

He did this in 1791, listing the pedigrees of 387 mares, each of which could be traced back to Eclipse, a direct descendent of the Darley Arabian; Matchem, a grandson of the Godolphin Arabian; and Herod, whose great-great grandsire was the Byerly Turk. The General Stud Book is still published in England by Weatherby and Sons, Secretaries to the English Jockey Club.

Several years later, as racing proliferated in the fast-expanding continent of North America, the need for a pedigree registry of American-bred Thoroughbreds, similar to the General Stud Book, became apparent. The first volume of The American Stud Book was published in 1873, by Col. Sanders D. Bruce, a Kentuckian who had spent almost a lifetime researching the pedigrees of American Thoroughbreds.

Bruce closely followed the pattern of the first General Stud Book, producing six volumes of the register until 1896, when the project was taken over by The Jockey Club.

Integrity of The American Stud Book is the foundation on which all Thoroughbred racing in North America depends.

Without assurance, beyond all reasonable doubt, of the identity of every Thoroughbred which competes, or which is bred with a view to continuing the breed, the sport of racing as it is known today, could not exist. Nor would there be any possibility of measuring results of the centuries-old quest to improve the Thoroughbred.

When The Jockey Club published its first volume of the Stud Book the foal crop was about 3,000. By 1986 it exceeded 51,000. The Jockey Club embraced new computer technology to meet the registration challenges posed by such large numbers. Today, The Jockey Club manages one of the most sophisticated computer operations in the country.

Its database holds the names of more than 1.8 million horses on a master pedigree file, names which trace back to the late 1800's.

The system also handles daily results of every Thoroughbred race in North America, as well as processing electronically-transmitted pedigree and racing data from England, Ireland, France and other leading Thoroughbred racing countries around the world.

Further giant strides in improvement of the integrity of the Stud Book came in 1977, when The Jockey Club, taking advantage of medical science advances, took the first steps of an extensive blood-typing program. Today every Thoroughbred foal registered in The American Stud Book, and its sire and dam, is blood-typed to insure parentage verification.

Guardianship of The American Stud Book is a responsibility of The Jockey Club, almost as old as the very tradition of racing in North America. But its implementation involves some of the most sophisticated developments of the modern technological era.

Although there are records of horse racing on Long Island as far back as 1665, the introduction of organized Thoroughbred racing to North America is traditionally credited to Governor Samuel Ogle of Maryland, through whose instigation racing "between pedigreed horses, in the English style" was first staged at Annapolis in 1745.

As the country developed so did Thoroughbred racing, spreading across the nation from coast to coast until today the volume of racing in America far outweighs that of any other country in the world. American bloodlines, too, have come to be respected in the four corners of the earth.

What began as a pastime and sporting amusement for the wealthy has now become a worldwide multi-million dollar industry whose economic impact is widely felt at regional and national levels. From license fees and direct taxes on pari-mutuel handle Thoroughbred racing generates nearly $500 million in government revenue each year.

But this is relatively minor in comparison to the overall urban and rural economic contribution made by the wide and varied infrastructure of the racing and breeding industry as a whole. A recent estimate, for example, put the industry's contribution to the economy of New York State alone at more than $1.8 billion each year.

Responding to the aberration of mid-1980's astronomic yearling prices which were fueled by European and Middle East racing interests, the annual North American Thoroughbred foal crop peaked at 51,293 in 1986. The decade was to show an overall production increase of 65% on the aggregate crops of the 1970's. But adjustments were inevitable and the foal crop has decreased each year since that high point, with The Jockey Club currently projecting a 1993 registered foal crop of approximately 36,700.

There are indications, however, that this necessary adjustment has more than served its purpose and that a rationalized and more stable breeding industry can once again look forward to controlled growth.

The average height of today's Thoroughbred is a little over 16 hands, as opposed to the 14-hand average height of the horses from which the breed originated.

But the key word is "average." Because, for every rule as to what the perfect Thoroughbred should look like, there is a champion whose performances disprove it.

The best guidelines for good conformation come from appreciation of what the body is required to do. Four slender legs must carry more than 1,000 pounds of body weight over extended distances, traveling at speeds of 35-40 miles per hour, yet still have the strength and suppleness to respond to changes of pace or direction as dictated by racing conditions.

But, although mechanical and engineering formulae can be used to measure the most desirable dimensions and angles of the body's components, there is no way to measure the most important qualities of Thoroughbred -- its courage, determination and will.

If there is one place where these attributes are reflected, it is the shape and carriage of the head and the look of the eye. The head should be correctly proportioned to the rest of the body, displaying a good flat forehead and wide-set intelligent eyes. Carried relatively low, the head should sit well on a neck which is somewhat longer and lighter than in other breeds.

The withers should be high and well-defined, leading to an evenly curved back. The shoulder should be deep, well-muscled and sloped along the same parallel as that on which the head is carried. From the point of the shoulder, the forearm should show adequate muscling which tapers towards a clean-looking knee which in turn tapers into the full width of the cannon. This in turn should be short and comparatively flat, with the tendons distinctly set out and clean.

The pastern should be neither too long nor too short and set at an angle a little less than 45 degrees to the vertical. When viewed from behind or in front, the legs should be straight and move smoothly in unison through one plane.

Power comes from the hindquarters and all-important is that the bone structure of the upper hind leg is such as to make room for long, strong muscling. These driving muscles act between the hip bone and the thigh bone which should be long and the angle it makes with the hip bone wide.

This powerful muscling of the hip and thigh should continue down through the gaskin. And, finally, the trailing edge of the hind cannon should follow a natural perpendicular line to the point of the buttock.

In 1970, master equine artist, Richard Stone Reeves, was commissioned by the Thoroughbred Record magazine to paint "The Perfect Horse." The resulting composite included the outstanding features of horses like Citation, Buckpasser, Vaguely Noble, Jay Trump and Tiepoletto.

"After more than 20 years of painting horses all over the world," wrote Reeves, "it took a lot of reflection to pick the best head and neck, the finest shoulder, etc., and, in the end, it all only amounts to one man's opinion."

Reeves' comment aptly describes the enigma of what the perfect Thoroughbred should look like. Because, in the final analysis, no dictatorial rule can ever define that arrogant yet beautiful coordination of power and fluid action which is a Thoroughbred in motion.

Arabian Horses for sale

2007-10-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

We want to give you the opportunity to sign up to receive our e-mail newsletters and join the over 41,000 people who are currently on our list. This is a great way to stay current on the happenings within the Arabian horse community.

We send out e-mails showcasing many interesting features including:

* New websites and recent updates to arabhorse.com
* News & show results in the industry
* Events & news at our client's farms
* Open houses, Events & sales at select farms and training stables
* Articles and select International event coverage

wooden rocking horses

2007-10-04T18:59:00.001-07:00

Atlanta artists, Melissa O'Shields and Laurence Bridges create beautiful three, four, and five-foot carousel horses out of seven pieces of solid mahogany, including a solid body. Their horses can be viewed as art sculptures, fine furniture, or elegant toys of heirloom quality.

Standing horses have three feet on the ground, but the jumpers are frozen mid leap and are supported by a brass carousel pole. The three-foot models, often mounted on rockers, are the most popular for children and small adults. The four-foot "Executive" rocking horse will hold a large adult.

Most designs are Melissa * Laurence originals, although some are taken from master carousel producers from the turn-of-the-century. These designs are produced in limited editions and every woodcarving is an original.

Melissa * Laurence Artisans won numerous awards in sculpture including "Best of Show". They have appeared in newspapers and television throughout the United States including HGTV, Atlanta's WSB TV People 2 People, and picked "Best Instant Heirloom Rocking Horse" by Atlanta Magazine in 2003. They were selected by the White House to carve a rocking horse ornament in 1996 for President and Mrs. Clinton's Blue Room Christmas tree. It remains in the permanent White House collection.

Melissa and Laurence are retired from the art show circuit but still design beautiful works of art. The last of their remaining woodcarvings can still be purchased on this website and cherished for a lifetime. More information about Melissa and Laurence will be coming up in their next newsletter.

"Your generous contribution to the White House holiday decorations brought the joy of the season to thousands of visitors at this veryspecial time of year." Hillary Rodham Clinton - White House

Melissa * Laurence Artisans hand creates the vintage, traditional rocking horse, full size carousel horse and wood carving sculptures out of solid mahogany, a nostalgic toy of heirloom quality that looks like an antique carousel horse.

Model Horses

2007-10-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the model horses website.

Modelhorses.com is the one-stop shopping site for horse lovers of all ages. Everyone who loves horses, from the most discerning collector to the youngest beginner, will find within this site an equine sculpture, model horse, craft item or plaything that will add to their enjoyment and appreciation of the horse. The distributors that comprise modelhorses.com take pride in the products they carry and bring to the web many years of retail and mail order experience plus a reputation in the hobby world for dependability, fast delivery, fair prices and friendly service.

The participating distributors also acknowledge the contributions made by the author Marguerite Henry who, through her children's books, brought many young people into the horse world and support the Misty of Chincoteague Foundation.

Horses

2007-10-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

From cave paintings it is believed that the equid from which modern horses are derived resemble the modern Przewalski Horse. The large strong heads and erect manes depicted in these paintings bear a striking resemblance to this modern breed.

The first domestication of the horses was probably in the steppes of central Asia between 3000 and 4000 B.C. These first animals were kept for meat and milk. As early man became more mobile undoubtedly horses began to be used as pack animals.

Oxen were being used in the Middle East at approximately 4000 B.C. for plowing. Progressively they were used on sleds, which were eventually mounted on rollers, with the final evolution of wheels. Early in the 3rd millennium B.C. there is archeological evidence that vehicles drawn by equid, generally onagers or ass hybrids, were being used in warfare. As horses from the north became more numerous the carts moved to the familiar two-wheeled chariot with spoked wheels. Due to his greater speed the horse rapidly replaced other equid as harness animals.

Refinance

2007-10-04T18:51:00.000-07:00

Refinancing is when you apply for a secured loan in order to pay off another different loan secured against the same assets, property etc. If this original loan had a fixed interest rate mortgage which has now declined considerably, then you would like to avail of a new loan at a more favorable interest rate.
Compare Refinance Rates

When is Refinancing an Option

Typically home refinancing is done when you have a mortgage on your home and apply for a second loan to pay off the first one. While taking the decision to go for the home refinancing option, it is important to first determine whether the amount you save on interests balances the amount of fees payable during refinancing.
Benefits of Home Refinancing

Imagine a scenario where you can have access to extra cash, while simultaneously lowering your monthly mortgage payment. This dream can become a reality through mortgage refinancing.

A house is the largest asset you may ever own. Likewise, your mortgage payment may be the largest expense you'll have in your monthly budget. Wouldn't it be great to use this asset to reduce your monthly payment and put extra cash in your pocket? When you refinance your mortgage, you can take advantage of the equity in your home and enable this to take place.
Lower Refinance Rate, Lower Payments

When you purchased your dream home, the financial environment dictated interest rates. While certain factors, like your credit rating and the amount of the down payment that you were able to afford, influenced your interest rate, the single most important factor was the prevailing rates at that moment. However, interest rates fluctuate. When the Federal Reserve enters a rate-cutting period, the prevailing rates may become significantly lower than when you originally purchased your home.

By refinancing your mortgage when interest rates are lower, you can exchange a higher interest rate for a lower one, which, in turn, will lower your monthly payment.
Shorten the Length of Your Mortgage when Refinancing

Another advantage of home refinancing is that you can shorten the term of your mortgage. Let's say, for example, that you originally had a 30-year mortgage and have been paying it for eight years. Thanks to mortgage refinancing, you can switch to a shorter term of either 10, 15 or 20 years. This can save you thousands of dollars of interest. Also, if the refinance rate is lower, but you maintain the same monthly payment, you will build up equity in your home more quickly, because more of your payment will be going towards principal.
Exchange an Adjustable Rate for a Fixed Refinance Rate

When interest rates are low, adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) are the housing market's darlings. However, as interest rates increase, that adjustable rate may not look as sweet. It's also possible that you opted for an ARM because your financial future was less secure, or you weren't sure how long you'd stay in your home. If, however, you've become financially stable and know that you'll be staying in your home for several years, it may be beneficial to swap that fluctuating adjustable rate for a fixed one. You'll have more security knowing that your monthly payment will remain steady, regardless of the current market environment.
Access to Extra Cash - Cash-out refinancing

One way to put more money in your pocket is to tap into the equity you've built in your home and do a "cash-out" refinancing. In this scenario, you can refinance for an amount higher than your current principal balance and take the extra funds as cash. This can provide money for remodeling your home, paying off high-interest rate bills, or sending your kids to college.
Bye, Bye PMI

If you were unable to make a down payment of 20 percent when you purchased your home, you may have been required to purchase Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). If your house has appreciated since then, and you've steadily paid down your mortgage, your equity may now be more than 20 percent. If you refinance, you will no longer need PMI.

In many ways, your house is like a cash cow. If you have discipline and knowledge of the benefits of refinancing, you can tap into its milk for years to come.

To find the best refinance loan offers complete our short form. You will find lenders and brokers that offer home refinance loans in California, Florida and all other states.

California Refinance

2007-10-04T18:50:00.001-07:00

California Refinance Loans- Rush to Refinance is Still Strong

Mortgage Refinancing Specialists- californiarefinanceloans.com provides home refinancing solutions to California homeowners.

California Refinance Loans, refinance loans, mortgage refinance

Homeowners move to refinance out of their Adjustable rate loans
before rates begin to climb

California refinance loans are still in high demand. While mortgage interest rates dipped well below the low levels from 1999 (the 30 year fixed mortgage rate (FMR) dropped to under 7%), interest rates are starting to climb upwards.

Some owners have been rushing to refinance while the rates are still low and before the rates get back to last year's highs A home refinance loan now may assist homeowners in lowering their current rate (and payments) as well as getting the cash out they need for debt consolidation, home improvements, or any other purpose. At California Refinance Loans we are able to assist homeowners with several types of credit needs including excellent credit, slow payment histories, bankruptcies, no income verification, and more!

Refinance Loans
A Refinance Loan is simply taking out a new mortgage loan. If you are considering a home loan refinance, the first steps are to determine your short and long term goals and then to evaluate the different types of home refinance loan programs available.

The primary reasons for considering a refinance are the following:

1- Lower current interest rate and create cash flow

2- Convert ARM to a permanent fixed interest rate

3- Convert fixed interest rate into a ARM

4- Turn equity into cash

5- Convert to a shorter term to pay off the loan more quickly

6- Eliminate Mortgage Insurance (MI)

No Equity Loans

No equity loans- also referred to as 125 second mortgage loans, are a way in which homeowners may borrow up to 125% of the current appraised value of their home. No Equity means that the homeowner can borrow money even if he/she has no equity established in the home. LoanBiz, Inc. offers a variety of no equity programs - some with little or no seasoning requirements. A no equity loan may allow homeowners to borrow money to make home improvements, consolidate debts, pay off bills, or even take a vacation! There are no requirements or restrictions on the money that is borrowed.

Home Equity Loans

If a borrower has established home equity, the loan is referred to as a second mortgage or home equity loan- up to 100% of the home value. Home owners wanting to utilize their home equity have the option of a second mortgage loan or a home equity line of credit (HELOC).

Second mortgage programs are available for both owner occupied properties and non owner occupied properties (investment properties or second homes). Contact one of our second mortgage specialists to determine the best home equity product for your situation.

Debt Consolidation

Debt Consolidation loans have been a means by which hundreds of thousands of homeowners have been able to use their home values to save money. By taking out a debt consolidation loan (2nd mortgage) a borrower is able to combine the balances of current bills and debts into one loan... and one payment. Lenders may offer borrowers with good to excellent credit the ability to borrow up to 125% of the value of their current property.

The money from a debt consolidation loan can be used for any purpose- and generally speaking, with a debt consolidation loan monthly payments are reduced and cash flow is increased. Further, since the interest paid on a debt consolidation loan is that of a home loan, the interest may be tax deductible.*

Cord Blood

2007-10-04T18:44:00.000-07:00

Why Bank Cord Blood?

Cord blood has already saved thousands of lives including the life of Keegan Doheney - watch his video now

Banking your baby's cord blood gives you the power to:

* Protect your family. Your baby's umbilical cord blood is rich in lifesaving stem cells that could protect your baby or other family members.

* Treat nearly 70 diseases, including leukemia, other cancers, and blood disorders.

* Benefit from emerging treatments. Doctors are developing stem cell treatments for heart disease, juvenile diabetes, brain injury, and more.

* Secure the best treatment option. Having access to your own family's cord blood has been shown to significantly improve outcomes compared to using cord blood from an unrelated donor.

* Take advantage of your one chance. Birth is the only opportunity to save your baby's cord blood. Otherwise, it is thrown away.

Asbestos Lawyer

2007-10-04T07:01:00.001-07:00

The asbestos dust deceit has taken the lives of thousands and threatens to take more.

Our lawyers continue fighting back...

For decades, workers were exposed to asbestos dust on a daily basis unaware of the lethal dangers. The daily toll from asbestos dust exposure is 30 deaths1 in the U.S. and this rate is expected to increase.

People dying from asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma, lung cancer or asbestosis are hardworking people like you who worked in industries such as automotive, construction and textiles.

These are people whose lives have been snatched away by asbestos dust, as they were unaware of its dangers.

These are people whose families have been robbed of financial security while companies that made, distributed and used asbestos, profited.

Who can fight for these people?

On behalf of those harmed by asbestos, lawyers of Weitz & Luxenberg have filed tens of thousands of cases to help provide financial security, access to medical care and dignity. The outcome?

In 2006, the firm secured a $25 million jury verdict in a trial against DaimlerChrysler AG for a New York City brake reliner who lost his right lung to mesothelioma. This is believed to be the highest verdict against Chrysler to date.

In 2002, we won a $53 million verdict for a brake mechanic suffering from mesothelioma.

In 1996, the firm won a $64.65 million award for four asbestos clients.

These are just some of the firm's many victories. Weitz & Luxenberg has recovered hundreds of millions more for its asbestos clients.

What if I don't see a multi-million dollar verdict?

Our firm has succeeded in securing millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements. Beyond those million-dollar awards, still tens of thousands of clients have been able to recover lesser sums but nonetheless money that helps pay for substantial portions of medical costs and other related expenses. We have even obtained financial awards from asbestos companies that were bankrupt.

Payday Loan

2007-10-04T06:58:00.000-07:00

Power Payday Loan gets you the funds you need ASAP. Why wait for your cash advance when you can get it overnight? Our paycheck advances are 100% safe, fast and completely online - so when you need to prevent bounced checks in your bank account, think of us for your fast cash needs.

It keeps getting better! We've made it incredibly easy to qualify for a payday advance by offering our industry-leading application process to you at no additional expense to you. There are no credit bureau reports, never an application fee, and of course, no credit checks. If you are at least 18 years of age, receive a regular source of income, and have direct deposit enabled on your bank account, you're practically approved - don't wait any longer apply for a short-term unsecured loan today!

What is a Payday Loan?

A payday loan is a temporary financial instrument that is secured against your future paycheck. Having grown in popularity since the early 1990s as a means to combat NSF fees and late payment penalties, many individuals prefer this financial tool to supplement a temporary loss of income or cover an unforeseen expense over other methods, such using high interest rate title loans or pawn shops.

Due to the fact that your paycheck acts as the collateral against the loan, you doesn't need to deal with the hassle of credit checks or bureau inquiries; due to our desire to keep you from getting into a debt-cycle, your APR or annual percentage rate will appear on your loan documentation. It is important to be aware of a loan's finance charges so you can avoid predatory lending situations only serve to increase debt.

Cash Advance

2007-10-04T06:56:00.000-07:00

Payday Loans by Personal Cash Advance
Short on cash? Caught between paychecks? We can help!
Personal Cash Advance is the fastest way to obtain secure, online cash advance and payday loans. Applying and qualifying for a payday loan is quick and easy, and in many cases there are no documents to fax. Once you're approved for the cash advance, we'll electronically deposit the payday loan amount directly into your checking or savings account. We offer flexible payment options and discrete service that gets you the cash you need right now. It's that easy, so why wait to get that cash advance?

Login Apply now for a payday loan from Personal Cash Advance!

A payday loan provides you with an unsecured, short-term cash advance until your payday. Customers choose payday advances to cover small, unexpected expenses while avoiding costly bounced-check fees and late payment penalties.

Home Equity Loans

2007-10-04T06:55:00.000-07:00

A home equity loan allows you as a homeowner to get a loan by using the equity in your home as collateral. The equity consists of whatever funds you have invested in your property in order to own it or improve it.
Compare Home Equity Rates

Compare rates from up to 4 lenders for home equity

Since it is a debt against your own property, which you are in actual possession of, a home equity loan is a secured debt. The property can be required to be sold if the creditor wants the money back that you have borrowed.
Home equity loan vs. Home equity line of credit

A home equity loan can be obtained in a lump sum or used as a revolving home equity line of credit.

A home equity loan can be either of the following:

* A fixed rate mortgage
* An adjustable rate mortgage

A homeowner who requires more money in large amounts usually applies for a home equity loan. Some expenses that make a home equity loan useful are:

* Debt consolidation
* Home repairs
* Medical bills
* College tuition for family members

Tax benefits of home equity loans

A home equity loan is also beneficial because the home equity loan rate charged is usually tax deductible, as the loan is used for its primary functions. You can use our home equity loan calculator to check what various home equity loan rates will mean for your monthly payments. Always compare offers from several lenders and brokers to obtain the lowest home equity rate possible.
More information on home equity loans and rates

If you would like more information on home equity loan rates, and how to find the best home equity loan, please fill out the form above! Home equity loan specialists will get in touch with you to consider your options and see how a home equity loan can help you make the most of what you have.

There are several choices available for homeowners to free up the equity they possess in their homes.

Content Management

2007-10-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

Content management, or CM, is a set of processes and technologies that support the evolutionary life cycle of digital information. This digital information is often referred to as content or, to be precise, digital content. Digital content may take the form of text, such as documents, multimedia files, such as audio or video files, or any other file type which follows a content lifecycle which requires management.

The process of content management

The digital content life cycle consists of 6 primary phases: create, update, publish, translate, archive and retire. For example, an instance of digital content is created by one or more authors. Over time that content may be edited. One or more individuals may provide some editorial oversight thereby approving the content for publication. Publishing may take many forms. Publishing may be the act of pushing content out to others, or simply granting digital access rights to certain content to a particular person or group of persons. Later that content may be superseded by another form of content and thus retired or removed from use.

Content management is an inherently collaborative process. It often consists of the following basic roles and responsibilities:

* Content author - responsible for creating and editing content.
* Editor - responsible for tuning the content message and the style of delivery, including translation and localization.
* Publisher - responsible for releasing the content for use.
* Administrator - responsible for managing access permissions to folders and files, usually accomplished by assigning access rights to user groups or roles. Admins may also assist and support users in various ways.
* Consumer, viewer or guest- the person who reads or otherwise takes in content after it is published or shared.

A critical aspect of content management is the ability to manage versions of content as it evolves (see also version control). Authors and editors often need to restore older versions of edited products due to a process failure or an undesirable series of edits.

Another equally important aspect of content management involves the creation, maintenance, and application of review standards. Each member of the content creation and review process has a unique role and set of responsibilities in the development and/or publication of the content. Each review team member requires clear and concise review standards which must be maintained on an ongoing basis to ensure the long-term consistency and health of the knowledge base.

A content management system is a set of automated processes that may support the following features:

* Import and creation of documents and multimedia material
* Identification of all key users and their roles
* The ability to assign roles and responsibilities to different instances of content categories or types.
* Definition of workflow tasks often coupled with messaging so that content managers are alerted to changes in content.
* The ability to track and manage multiple versions of a single instance of content.
* The ability to publish the content to a repository to support access to the content. Increasingly, the repository is an inherent part of the system, and incorporates enterprise search and retrieval.

Content management systems take the following forms:

* a web content management system is software for web site management - which is often what is implicitly meant by this term
* the work of a newspaper editorial staff organization
* a workflow for article publication
* a document management system
* a single source content management system - where content is stored in chunks within a relational database.

Online Degree

2007-10-04T06:48:00.000-07:00

Online Degree

The Internet evolution has drastically changed the education landscape. What was once considered “Distance Education” is now deemed “Online Education” where the method of teaching and learning has become virtual for students across the world.

Online Degrees are available from a wide variety of internet sources to include accredited Universities to fake Diploma Mills that churn out diplomas without any requirements other than payment.

Receiving an Online Degree provides numerous advantages to education seekers who are restricted by time, resources or transportation but can still advance their career through education.

Advancing Your Career Through Online Education

Online universities and colleges and campus Universities have begun to aggressively pursue students pursuing an education. It is important to take the time to identify which of these institutions are a good fit for you. Some factors to consider include cost, degrees provided, pass/fail requirements (ie, number of exams, theses required to get your degree), attendance, book purchases, and personal attention you may need in order to maximize your education experience. If you are simply “degree shopping” for the quickest and easiest way to get an online degree to put on your resume’, you will probably look for a school that has minimal attendance requirements and is cost effective. However, if learning a skill or trait is critical, then it’s important to look deeper in to the professors, books, itinerary and other online resources that will be available so that you can effectively advance your career after you receive your online diplomas. Regardless of which school you choose, be sure to select a school that is accredited to provide an online degree, such as University of Phoenix or Capella University, as any qualified employer will do research on your internet degree to determine if it’s worth the paper it’s written on.

After you conduct your research on the various online degree colleges and universities, and choose the website that is the best fit for you, prepare yourself to buckle down, read, study and write just as you would for any school. The qualifications to be accepted are generally not as stringent as a campus college such as Penn State University, or University of Florida, but the education is certainly valuable.

There is some debate, however, about how these degrees are viewed by employers. Certainly, having internet or online degrees is better than having no degree at all, but some employers may look down upon them or confuse them with the fake diploma mills that currently exist on the internet. Be prepared in an interview to discuss what you learned in your online education, the challenges you faced and the online coursework you completed that will make you more qualified for your new career.

Vault.com, a career information website, reports that “77 percent of hiring managers say that an online degree received through an established university such as Duke or Stanford is more acceptable than a degree earned through an Internet only university like Capella or Jones International." This is a reality in the online degree landscape, but with aggressive pursuit of the fake diploma industry, online educations will soon become widely accepted and seen as a great way to move you career forward.

Satellite Tv

2007-10-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

With Satellite TV Deals becoming more popular these days, there are more programming and equipment options than ever before. No matter what your television preferences, there is something on Satellite TV for everybody and the information you are looking for is here.

What Can You Find on This Site?
You can find everything you need to make an informed decision for your Satellite TV needs. We have tons of articles that cover every aspect of Satellite Service and Equipment. You can also find information on popular receiver options, like the DVR 625 from DISH Network or the DVR Plus from DIRECT TV. Being confused on what the latest Satellite TV Promotions are will become a thing of the past after visiting this site. We have added specific pages that will let you know what the promotions are and the best retailers to deal with.

If you have questions stop by our new Forum and ask, No Registration Required although we would love it if you did. After you have your Satellite TV Installed you can return and get downloadable owners manuals and checkout the tips section while your here. You will also find an Article Submission Page where you can Submit an Article, Story, News or a Review of your thoughts and experience with Satellite TV and it's Retailers.

Adwords

2007-10-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

AdWords is Google's flagship advertising product and main source of revenue. AdWords offers pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for both text and banner ads. The AdWords program includes local, national, and international distribution. Google's text advertisements are short, consisting of one title line and two content text lines. Image ads can be one of several different Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standard sizes.

Google's AdWords division is based in Mountain View, California.

Contents
* 1 Pay-Per-Click advertisements (PPC)
* 2 Site targeted advertisements
* 3 AdWords distribution
* 4 AdWords Account Management
* 5 Click-to-Call
* 6 History
* 7 Legal context
* 8 Technology
* 9 Criticism
* 10 See also
* 11 References
* 12 External links

Pay-Per-Click advertisements (PPC)

Advertisers specify the words that should trigger their ads and the maximum amount they are willing to pay per click. When a user searches Google's search engine on www.google.com, ads for relevant words are shown as "sponsored links" on the right side of the screen, and sometimes above the main search results.

The ordering of the paid listings depends on other advertisers' bids (pay for placement P4P) and the "quality score" of all ads shown for a given search. The quality score is calculated by historical click-through rates and the relevance of an advertiser's ad text, keyword, and landing page to the search, as determined by Google. The quality score is also used by Google to set the minimum bids for an advertiser's keywords.[1]

The auction mechanism that determines the order of the ads has been called a "generalized second price" auction. It is a variation of the Vickrey auction.

Site targeted advertisements

In 2003 Google introduced site-targeted advertising. Using the AdWords control panel, advertisers can enter keywords of interest, and Google offers to place ads on what they claim are relevant sites within their content network. Advertisers then bid on a cost per mille (CPM) basis for placement. Advertisers can also enter domains directly. Google will provide a list of related sites that you can select along with your entered site.

Site targeting campaigns are mainly designed for branding purposes, as the ROI will almost always be considerably lower than a traditional content-targeted campaign. Your ad will take up the entire ad block (as opposed to being 1 of 4 ads in a traditional AdSense ad unit), which will make it more prominent but cost quite a bit more.

The minimum CPM you can set on a Site-Targeted campaign is 25 cents.

AdWords distribution

All AdWords ads are eligible to be shown on www.google.com. Advertisers also have the option of enabling their ads to show on Google's partner networks. The "search network" includes AOL search, Ask.com, and Netscape. Like www.google.com, these search engines show AdWords ads in response to user searches.

The "content network" shows AdWords ads on sites that are not search engines. These content network sites are those that use AdSense, the other side of the Google advertising model. AdSense is used by publishers who wish to bring traffic to their websites. Click through rates on the content network are typically much lower than those on the search network and are therefore ignored when calculating an advertiser's quality score.

Google automatically determines the subject of pages and displays relevant ads based on the advertisers' keyword lists. AdSense publishers may select channels to help direct Google's ad placements on their pages, to better track performance of their ad units. There are many different types of ads you can run across Google's network, including text ads, image ads (banner ads), local business ads, mobile text ads, and in-page video ads.

Google AdWords' main competitors are Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.

AdWords Account Management

To help clients with the complexity of building and managing AdWords accounts search engine marketing agencies and consultants offer account management as a business service. This has allowed organizations that otherwise would not have the advertising skills to reach a global, online audience. Google has started the Google Advertising Professionals program to certify agencies and consultants who have met specific qualifications and passed an exam.[2]. Google also provides account management software, called AdWords Editor.

Click-to-Call

Google Click-to-Call is a service provided by Google which allows users to call advertisers from Google search results pages. Users enter their phone number, Google calls them back and connects to the advertiser. Calling charges are paid by Google.

History

The AdWords product was launched in 2000.[3] At first advertisers would pay a monthly amount, and Google would set up and manage their campaign. To accommodate small businesses and those who wanted to manage their own campaigns, Google soon introduced the AdWords self-service portal. As of 2005, Google provides a campaign management service called Jumpstart [4] to assist advertisers in setting up their campaigns.

In 2005, Google launched the Google Advertising Profesional (GAP) Program to certify individuals and companies who have completed AdWords training and passed an exam. Due to the complexity of AdWords and the amount of money at stake, some advertisers hire a consultant to manage their campaigns.

Legal context

AdWords has generated lawsuits in the area of trademark law and click fraud. In 2006, Google settled a click fraud lawsuit for US$90 million. [5]

Overture Services, Inc. sued Google for patent infringement in April 2002 in relation to the AdWords service. Following Yahoo!'s acquisition of Overture, the suit was settled in 2004 with Google agreeing to issue 2.7 million shares of common stock to Yahoo! in exchange for a perpetual license under the patent. [6]

Technology

The AdWords system was initially implemented on top of the MySQL database engine. After the system had been launched, management decided to use a commercial database (Oracle) instead. As is typical of applications simultaneously written and tuned for one database, and ported to another, the system became much slower, so eventually it was returned to MySQL. [7]

Criticism

Google has also come under fire for allowing AdWords advertisers to abuse trademarks. In 2004, Google started allowing advertisers to bid on any search terms, including the trademarks of their competitors.[8]

Donate A Car

2007-10-04T06:42:00.001-07:00

Donate a car to Habitat’s Cars for Homes™ vehicle donation program

Your car donation can help a family in your community build a house and the hope of a better life!

Car donations to Habitat’s Cars for Homes™ program help your local Habitat for Humanity affiliate build houses in partnership with families in need of decent, affordable shelter within your community.

It is quick and easy to donate a car, truck, boat, RV, motorcycle, construction equipment or other automobile, and your vehicle donation may be eligible for tax deduction purposes if you itemize. (Consult the IRS or your tax adviser for details.)

Note Buyers

2007-10-04T06:39:00.000-07:00

National Association of Note Buyers

Before you sell your note or mortgage, check that the buyer is a member of the National Association of Note Buyers.

Beware the late night TV scam artists. I'm sure you've seen the TV ads. Some smoothie selling note buying schemes and dreams and introducing a bunch of people who claim they're making $10,000 to $50,000 a deal in the note broker business.

Some of these note broker instructors are currently facing charges by the FTC.

The sad fact is that note brokering is just about the only part of the real estate business that is almost totally unregulated. So it's hardly surprising it attracts a few cowboys.

Do you want to do business with someone who is required to prove their competence, their experience and subscribe to a code of ethics?

Then first ask them if they are a member of this National Association.

Note brokers reading this. You know as well as we do that 90% of so-called note brokers are simply not competent or ethical. So stand out from the crowd and join the National Association of Note Brokers.

Entry to our association requires:
bullet Knowledge. Passing an exam of the applicant's knowledge of the note-buying process.
bullet Experience. We require all applicants to supply the names and phone numbers of clients from whom they have bought mortgages so we can verify how they were treated before we allow them to join.
bullet Ethics. Adherence to our strict code of ethical behavior.

Please report to us immediately any member you deal with that you feel did not treat you honestly and with respect.

Look for this logo on the website of any note broker/ note buyer you find on the Internet. National Note Buyers Association

If you click on the logo in a member's website, it will take you to their listing on this site so you can verify they are in good standing. If clicking on the logo does NOT take you to this site, they have stolen the logo and are NOT members. Please report any instance of this to legal@notebuyers.org.

Click here to learn how to join the NANB.

We also recommend note buyers and sellers visit Mortgage-Investments.com, which is an excellent reference and educational site, plus you can advertise your note or mortgage for sale there FREE.

Our Mission

To help the public deal with reputable, experienced, honest note buyers.

Please note: The National Association of Note Buyers and NANB name and logos are copyright to us. They may only be used by approved members in good standing. We prosecute aggressively any unauthorized company or individual who displays our name, logo or claims to be a member when they are not.

Vioxx attorney

2007-10-04T06:35:00.000-07:00

Vioxx Attorney

A Vioxx attorney offers clients expertise in the side effects of this common arthritis pain medication. Vioxx attorneys are familiar with the very specific regulations that govern medical products liability; a Vioxx attorney can usually provide more accurate information than a regular attorney.

The advantage to retaining a Vioxx attorney is that the victim will be represented by an attorney who understands their problems. Experienced Vioxx attorneys understand the long-term implications of the side-effects for plaintiffs and their families, which means Vioxx attorneys are prepared to fight to ensure that their clients receive full and proper compensation. Many Vioxx attorneys are able to obtain large settlements from defendant corporations without having to go to trial. Vioxx attorneys can also help victims and their families form reasonable expectations and make sound decisions.

A Vioxx attorney has experience representing victims of Vioxx side effects, such as cardiac arrest. An experienced Vioxx attorney fully understands the implications of this serious problem, and the liability of manufacturers. Consulting a Vioxx attorney early on can help victims receive appropriate medical treatment and legal representation. An experienced Vioxx attorney is likely available in your area, and can discuss the merits of your case at no charge.

For more information on Vioxx side effects and your legal rights, please contact us.

More Vioxx Resources

MedLine Plus Drug Information - Guide to prescription and over-the-counter medications provided by the United States Pharmacopeia.

Vioxx.com - Official Vioxx Roxecofib site from Merck.

Vioxx Drug Warnings - Vioxx side effects information including lawsuit information and vioxx warnings.

Burn CD VCD DVD

2007-10-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

Need to burn a CD or burn a DVD fast? Download and try "Burn My Files" free for 30 days. It is the one click CD and DVD burning software solution.
One Click CD and DVD Burning Software

Burn My Files integrates with Windows Explorer. Select your file or folder, right click, and burn a CD or burn DVD. It's that simple.

CD burning software and DVD burning software has never been made so easy. No more wasting time creating image files before your burn. Burn My Files writes directly to the CD or DVD.

Download the fully functional 30 day trial version now and take Burn My Files for a spin.

Many DVD burning and CD burning software programs are unnecessarily complicated. If you don’t know what a ISO image is, or if CD Mastering is not your idea of a good time, then you can leave your troubles behind with Burn My Files. With just one click you can have your file or your folder burnt to CD or DVD straight from Windows Explorer.

Burn My Files does not waste time or system resources writing temporary files to the computer hard drive before the CD burn or DVD burn takes place. It writes data directly to the CD or DVD giving you an error free burn in the fastest possible time. This is new CD burning technology that was developed for our range of data recovery products where writing to the hard drive is not an option.
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Don’t waste money buying expensive DVD burning or CD burning software. Give Burn My Files a try. Download this 30 day free CD burning software now. If you decide to purchase Burn My Files and for any reason are not happy with the software we provide a full 30 day money back guarantee.

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Proxy

2007-10-04T06:27:00.001-07:00

Proxy is the pragmatic Web surfer's guide to online privacy and anonymous web surfing. We give you the information and tools you need to be confident and in command of your Web surfing experience. Here you'll find information on the latest privacy issues facing Web consumers and links to relevant privacy technology. Proxy has the most comprehensive list of working proxies in the most convienient form.
Your right to anonymity
Amendments 9 and 10 of The United States Bill Of Rights protect the right to be free of unwarranted and unwanted government intrusion into one's personal and private affairs, papers, and possessions. Article 12 of The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."

Despite some charges to the contrary, anonymous Web surfing is not the sole province of criminals. Anonymity also serves whistle blowers, free speech advocates, and people just looking for personal privacy online. Privacy is not a crime and anonymity is not morally ambiguous or wrong, they are your right.
Technical challenges to online privacy
The Internet did not evolve with privacy in mind. In fact, the protocols that provide the fundamental underpinnings of the Internet are inherently non-anonymous. It's just a simple matter of computers needing to know each other's addresses in order to exchange data. For instance, our server has detected your Internet Protocol (IP) address as "203.162.3.145". Other characteristics that a server can detect about you are your referrer (the site from which you are linking), the user-agent (the program you are using to browse the Web), and your operating system.
What does your IP address reveal about you?
Your IP address reveals your point of entry to the Internet and can be used to trace your communications back to your ISP, your employer's network, your school, a public terminal. Though your IP address may not identify you personally, an IP is a unique identifier which represents your computer's digital ID while you are online.

It is possible to disguise your IP address on the Web by using an anonymous proxy server. A proxy acts as an intermediary, routing communications between your computer and the Internet. A proxy specializing in anonymous surfing, however, uses its own IP address in place of yours in every outgoing request.
Approaches to proxy
Proxies are commonly used for several reasons: security, load balancing, data caching in order to reduce bandwidth demands, and censorship or filtering. Filtering proxies insulate you from objectionable elements of Webpages such as cookies, ad banners, dynamic content like Javascript, Java Applets and ActiveX controls. Some anonymous proxies encrypt your Web communications, protecting you from routine monitoring or even dedicated surveillance. Be careful, though, not all proxies are anonymous! Here is an overview of the basic approaches to proxy:

* Web-based Proxies: Web-based Proxies are powered by server-side softwares such as CGIProxy, PHProxy, Poxy, and custom proxy scripts. These proxies work entirely through a Web browser. Usually all that is needed to hide your IP address and surf anonymously is to visit the service's homepage in a Web browser and enter a URL (website address) in the form provided. There is no requirement to download or install software or reconfigure your computer. To work, a CGI based proxy must manipulate the document you've requested and all its associated elements and objects. This can be tricky, and not all proxies are as efficient or effective as others. Some services are slow and may produce errors while rendering the many variations of Web page code. But they are popular, numerous, and easy to use. See this page for a complete list of Web proxies.

Proxy recommends: Proxify®.

* Open Proxies: So-called "open proxies" are HTTP or SOCKS type proxy servers that are accidently or maliciously left "open" and accessible on the Internet. HTTP or SOCKS type proxy servers require that you configure your browser's proxy settings in order to use them. These proxies have the advantage of being compatible with almost all webpages since they do not have to modify the requested page to keep you anonymous. However, there are several major disavantages to using open proxies. Many utilize computers that are compromised, operated by government agencies, or operated by malicious individuals. Often when an attacker obtains control of an end-user's computer they will install a proxy server so the machine can be exploited to launch further attacks on other machines. It is also commonplace for open proxies to be operated as "honey pots", where all actions are logged for forensic research. Open proxies are easy to abuse and there are many people using them to commit credit card fraud, pay-per-click fraud, attack or break into computers, and hundreds of other illegal activities. We strongly discourage the use of open proxies as they provide no privacy or security and using them can result in increased exposure and liability.

Proxy recommends: Socksify™ instead of any open proxy.

* Proxy networks: Various proxy networks (Freenet, I2P, JAP, and TOR) feature layered encryption (sometimes called "onion routing") and peer-to-peer networking to allow their users to communicate anonymously with each other. Rather than operate their own equipment, most rely on end-users to donate bandwidth and other resources to the network. They do not control the servers in their network and certainly a percentage of them are operated by malicious individuals for malicious reasons. Therefore any promises of privacy and security should be evaluated with this in mind. Also, these services have developed a reputation for being relatively slow.

* Proxy Software: Other subscription-based services offer client-side application software to automatically configure your browser's proxy settings. Do not be fooled by these services as most are merely open proxies dressed up with a fancy interface.

Structured settlement

2007-10-04T06:24:00.000-07:00

A structured settlement is a financial or insurance arrangement, including periodic payments, that a claimant accepts to resolve a personal injury tort claim or to compromise a statutory periodic payment obligation. Structured settlements were first utilized in Canada and the United States during the 1970s as an alternative to lump sum settlements. Structured settlements are now part of the statutory tort law of several common law countries including: Australia, Canada, England and the United States. Although some uniformity exists, each of these countries has its own definitions, rules and standards for structured settlement. Structured settlements may include income tax and spendthrift requirements as well as benefits. Structured settlement payments are sometimes called “periodic payments”. A structured settlement incorporated into a trial judgment is called a “periodic payment judgment”.

Contents

* 1 Structured Settlements in the United States
o 1.1 Definitions
o 1.2 Legal Structure
* 2 See also
* 3 External Sources

Structured Settlements in the United States

The United States has enacted structured settlement laws and regulations at both the federal and state levels. Federal structured settlement laws include sections of the Federal Internal Revenue Code. State structured settlement laws include structured settlement protection statutes and periodic payment of judgment statutes. Medicaid and Medicare laws and regulations impact structured settlements. To preserve a claimant’s Medicare and Medicaid benefits, structured settlement payments may be incorporated into “Medicare Set Aside Arrangements” the “Special Needs Trusts”.

Injury victims should know that structured settlements are endorsed by many of the nation's largest disability rights organizations, including the American Association of People with Disabilities [1] and the National Organization on Disability [2].

Definitions

The United States definition of “structured settlement” for Federal income taxation purposes, found in Internal Revenue Code Section 5891(c)(1), is an "arrangement" that meets the following requirements:

* A structured settlement must be established by:
o A suit or agreement for periodic payment of damages excludable from gross income under Internal Revenue Code Section 104(a)(2); or
o An agreement for the periodic payment of compensation under any workers’ compensation law excludable under Internal Revenue Code Section 104(a)(1); and
* The periodic payments must be of the character described in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of Internal Revenue Code Section 130(c)(2) and must be payable by a person who:
o Is a party to the suit or agreement or to a workers' compensation claim; or
o By a person who has assumed the liability for such periodic payments under a Qualified Assignment in accordance with Internal Revenue Code Section 130.

Legal Structure

The typical structured settlement arises and is structured as follows: An injured party (the claimant) settles a tort suit with the defendant (or its insurance carrier) pursuant to a settlement agreement that provides that, in exchange for the claimant's securing the dismissal of the lawsuit, the defendant (or, more commonly, its insurer) agrees to make a series of periodic payments over time. The insurer, a property/casualty insurance company, thus finds itself with a long-term payment obligation to the claimant. To fund this obligation, the property/casualty insurer generally takes one of two typical approaches: It either purchases an annuity from a life insurance company (an arrangement called a "buy and hold" case) or it assigns (or, more properly, delegates) its periodic payment obligation to a third party which in turn purchases an annuity (which arrangement is called an "assigned case").

In an unassigned case, the property/casualty insurer retains the periodic payment obligation and funds it by purchasing an annuity from a life insurance company, thereby offsetting its obligation with a matching asset. The payment stream purchased under the annuity matches exactly, in timing and amounts, the periodic payments agreed to in the settlement agreement. The property/casualty company owns the annuity and names the claimant as the payee under the annuity, thereby directing the annuity issuer to send payments directly to the claimant. If any of the periodic payments are life-contingent (i.e., the obligation to make a payment is contingent on someone continuing to be alive), then the claimant (or whoever is determined to be the measuring life) is named as the annuitant or measuring life under the annuity.

In an assigned case, the property/casualty company does not wish to retain the long-term periodic payment obligation on its books. Accordingly, the property/casualty insurer transfers the obligation, through a legal device called a qualified assignment, to a third party. The third party, called an assignment company, will require the property/casualty company to pay it an amount sufficient to enable it to buy an annuity that will fund its newly accepted periodic payment obligation. If the claimant consents to the transfer of the periodic payment obligation (either in the settlement agreement or, failing that, in a special form of qualified assignment known as a qualified assignment and release), the defendant and/or its property/casualty company has no further liability to make the periodic payments. This method of substituting the obliger is desirable for property/casualty companies that do not want to retain the periodic payment obligation on their books. Typically, an assignment company is an affiliate of the life insurance company from which the annuity is purchased.

An assignment is said to be "qualified" if it satisfies the criteria set forth in Internal Revenue Code Section 130 [3]. Qualification of the assignment is important to assignment companies because without it the amount they receive to induce them to accept periodic payment obligations would be considered income for federal income tax purposes. If an assignment qualifies under Section 130, however, the amount received is excluded from the income of the assignment company. This provision of the tax code was enacted to encourage assigned cases; without it, assignment companies would owe federal income taxes but would typically have no source from which to make the payments.

Hide IP

2007-10-04T06:22:00.000-07:00

Hide IP Platinum

Concerned about Internet privacy? Want to hide your IP address?

Hide IP Platinum is the software you are looking for! Keeping your privacy is simple and easy: the only thing you need to do is open Hide IP Platinum. Hide IP Platinum will find the proxy server available to you and set it as your proxy server automatically. There is nothing need you to concern. Hide IP Platinum have done everything for you!
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Protect you from any website that wants to monitor your reading interests and spy upon you through your unique IP address - your ID in the Internet

Avoid your personal information be used to send you spam and junk emails by many marketers and advertising agencies who having information about your interests and knowing your IP address as well as your email

Keeping your computer away from hacker attacks by hiding your IP address as well as information about your operation system

Ability to frequently change IP addresses increases privacy

Enable and disable Hide IP Platinum as your wish with a single click

Bypass the restrictions by some owners of Internet resources on users from certain countries or geographical regions

Post on bulletin boards without displaying your real IP address

Use with a web based mail service to send anonymous email

Great for monitoring your overseas search engine campaigns

Doesn't like oher services force you to pay a monthly fee for anonymous surfing. For a low one-time price, you can visit whatever web sites without anyone ever finding out

VoIP

2007-10-04T06:18:00.000-07:00

Voice over Internet Protocol, also called VoIP, IP Telephony, Internet telephony, Broadband telephony, Broadband Phone and Voice over Broadband is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP-based network.

Companies providing VoIP service are commonly referred to as providers, and protocols which are used to carry voice signals over the IP network are commonly referred to as Voice over IP or VoIP protocols. They may be viewed as commercial realizations of the experimental Network Voice Protocol (1973) invented for the ARPANET providers. Some cost savings are due to utilizing a single network to carry voice and data, especially where users have existing underutilized network capacity that can carry VoIP at no additional cost. VoIP to VoIP phone calls are sometimes free, while VoIP to public switched telephone networks, PSTN, may have a cost that's borne by the VoIP user.

Voice over IP protocols carry telephony signals as digital audio, typically reduced in data rate using speech data compression techniques, encapsulated in a data packet stream over IP.

There are two types of PSTN to VoIP services: Direct Inward Dialing (DID) and access numbers. DID will connect the caller directly to the VoIP user while access numbers require the caller to input the extension number of the VoIP user.

Contents
* 1 Functionality
* 2 Implementation
o 2.1 Reliability
o 2.2 Quality of Service
o 2.3 Difficulty with sending faxes
o 2.4 Emergency calls
o 2.5 Integration into global telephone number system
o 2.6 Single point of calling
o 2.7 Mobile phones & Hand held Devices
o 2.8 Security
o 2.9 Pre-Paid Phone Cards
o 2.10 Caller ID
o 2.11 VoIM
* 3 Adoption
o 3.1 Mass-market telephony
o 3.2 Corporate and telco use
o 3.3 Use in Amateur Radio
o 3.4 Click to call
* 4 Legal issues in different countries
o 4.1 IP telephony in Japan
+ 4.1.1 Telephone number for IP telephony in Japan
* 5 Technical details
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 External links

Functionality

VoIP can facilitate tasks that may be more difficult to achieve using traditional networks:

* Ability to transmit more than one telephone call down the same broadband-connected telephone line. This can make VoIP a simple way to add an extra telephone line to a home or office.
* Many VoIP packages include PSTN features that most telcos (telecommunication companies) normally charge extra for, or may be unavailable from your local telco,such as 3-way calling, call forwarding, automatic redial, and caller ID.
* VoIP can be secured with existing off-the-shelf protocols such as Secure Real-time Transport Protocol. Most of the difficulties of creating a secure phone over traditional phone lines, like digitizing and digital transmission are already in place with VoIP. It is only necessary to encrypt and authenticate the existing data stream.
* VoIP is location independent, only an internet connection is needed to get a connection to a VoIP provider; for instance call center agents using VoIP phones can work from anywhere with a sufficiently fast and stable Internet connection.
* VoIP phones can integrate with other services available over the Internet, including video conversation, message or data file exchange in parallel with the conversation, audio conferencing, managing address books and passing information about whether others (e.g. friends or colleagues) are available online to interested parties.

Implementation

Because UDP does not provide a mechanism to ensure that data packets are delivered in sequential order, or provide Quality of Service guarantees, VoIP implementations face problems dealing with latency and jitter. This is especially true when satellite circuits are involved, due to long round trip propagation delay (400 milliseconds to 600 milliseconds for geostationary satellite). The receiving node must restructure IP packets that may be out of order, delayed or missing, while ensuring that the audio stream maintains a proper time consistency. This functionality is usually accomplished by means of a jitter buffer.

Another challenge is routing VoIP traffic through firewalls and address translators. Private Session Border Controllers are used along with firewalls to enable VoIP calls to and from a protected enterprise network. Skype uses a proprietary protocol to route calls through other Skype peers on the network, allowing it to traverse symmetric NATs and firewalls. Other methods to traverse firewalls involve using protocols such as STUN or ICE.

VoIP challenges:

* Available bandwidth
* Delay/Network Latency
* Packet loss
* Jitter
* Echo
* Security
* Reliability
* Pulse dialing to DTMF translation

Many VoIP providers do not translate pulse dialing from older phones to DTMF. The VoIP user may use a VoIP Pulse to Tone Converter, if needed.[citation needed]

Fixed delays cannot be controlled but some delays can be minimized by marking voice packets as being delay-sensitive (see, for example, Diffserv).

The principal cause of packet loss is congestion, which can be controlled by congestion management and avoidance. Carrier VoIP networks avoid congestion by means of teletraffic engineering.

Variation in delay is called jitter. The effects of jitter can be mitigated by storing voice packets in a buffer (called a play-out buffer) upon arrival, before playing them out. This avoids a condition known as buffer underrun, in which the playout process runs out of voice data to play because the next voice packet has not yet arrived, but increases delay by the length of the buffer.

Common causes of echo include impedance mismatches in analog circuitry, and acoustic coupling of the transmit and receive signal at the receiving end.

Reliability

Conventional phones are connected directly to telephone company phone lines, which in the event of a power failure are kept functioning by back-up generators or batteries located at the telephone exchange. However, household VoIP hardware uses broadband modems and other equipment powered by household electricity, which may be subject to outages in the absence of a uninterruptible power supply or generator. Early adopters of VoIP may also be users of other phone equipment, such as PBX and cordless phone bases, that rely on power not provided by the telephone company. Even with local power still available, the broadband carrier itself may experience outages as well. While the PSTN has been matured over decades and is typically extremely reliable, most broadband networks are less than 10 years old, and even the best are still subject to intermittent outages. Furthermore, consumer network technologies such as cable and DSL often are not subject to the same restoration service levels as the PSTN or business technologies such as T-1 connection.

Quality of Service

Some broadband connections may have less than desirable quality. Where IP packets are lost or delayed at any point in the network between VoIP users, there will be a momentary drop-out of voice. This is more noticeable in highly congested networks and/or where there are long distances and/or interworking between end points. Technology has improved the reliability and voice quality over time and will continue to improve VoIP performance as time goes on.

It has been suggested to rely on the packetized nature of media in VOIP communications and transmit the stream of packets from the source phone to the destination phone simultaneously across different routes (multi-path routing). In such a way, the temporary failures have less impact on the communication quality. In capillary routing it has been suggested to use at the packet level Fountain codes or particularly raptor codes for transmitting extra redundant packets making the communication more reliable.

A number of protocols have been defined to support the reporting of QoS/QoE for VoIP calls. These include RTCP XR (RFC3611), SIP RTCP Summary Reports, H.460.9 Annex B (for H.323), H.248.30 and MGCP extensions. The RFC3611 VoIP Metrics block is generated by an IP phone or gateway during a live call and contains information on packet loss rate, packet discard rate (due to jitter), packet loss/discard burst metrics (burst length/density, gap length/density), network delay, end system delay, signal / noise / echo level, MOS scores and R factors and configuration information related to the jitter buffer.

RFC3611 VoIP metrics reports are exchanged between IP endpoints on an occasional basis during a call, and an end of call message sent via SIP RTCP Summary Report or one of the other signaling protocol extensions. RFC3611 VoIP metrics reports are intended to support real time feedback related to QoS problems, the exchange of information between the endpoints for improved call quality calculation and a variety of other applications.

Difficulty with sending faxes

The support of sending faxes over VoIP is still limited. The existing voice codecs are not designed for fax transmission. An effort is underway to remedy this by defining an alternate IP-based solution for delivering Fax-over-IP, namely the T.38 protocol. Another possible solution to overcome the drawback is to treat the fax system as a message switching system which does not need real time data transmission - such as sending a fax as an email attachment (see Fax) or remote printout (see Internet Printing Protocol). The end system can completely buffer the incoming fax data before displaying or printing the fax image.

Emergency calls

The nature of IP makes it difficult to locate network users geographically. Emergency calls, therefore, cannot easily be routed to a nearby call center, and are impossible on some VoIP systems. Sometimes, VoIP systems may route emergency calls to a non-emergency phone line at the intended department. In the US, at least one major police department has strongly objected to this practice as potentially endangering the public.

Moreover, in the event that the caller is unable to give an address, emergency services may be unable to locate them in any other way. Following the lead of mobile phone operators, several VoIP carriers are already implementing a technical work-around. [citation needed] For instance, one large VoIP carrier requires the registration of the physical address where the VoIP line will be used. When you dial the emergency number for your country, they will route it to the appropriate local system. They also maintain their own emergency call center that will take non-routable emergency calls (made, for example, from a software based service that is not tied to any particular physical location) and then will manually route your call once learning your physical location. [citation needed]

Integration into global telephone number system

While the traditional Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) and mobile phone networks share a common global standard (E.164) which allocates and identifies any specific telephone line, there is no widely adopted similar standard for VoIP networks. Some allocate an E.164 number which can be used for VoIP as well as incoming/external calls. However, there are often different, incompatible schemes when calling between VoIP providers which use provider specific short codes.

Single point of calling

With hardware VoIP solutions it is possible to connect the VoIP router into the existing central phone box in the house and have VoIP at every phone already connected. Software based VoIP services require the use of a computer, so they are limited to single point of calling, though telephone sets are now available, allowing them to be used without a PC. Some services provide the ability to connect WiFi SIP phones so that service can be extended throughout the premises, and off-site to any location with an open hotspot.However, note that many hotspots require browser-based authentication, which most SIP phones do not support.

Mobile phones & Hand held Devices

Telcos and consumers have invested billions of dollars in mobile phone equipment. In developed countries, mobile phones have achieved nearly complete market penetration, and many people are giving up landlines and using mobiles exclusively. Given this situation, it is not entirely clear whether there would be a significant higher demand for VoIP among consumers until either public or community wireless networks have similar geographical coverage to cellular networks (thereby enabling mobile VoIP phones, so called WiFi phones or VoWLAN) or VoIP is implemented over legacy 3G networks. However, "dual mode" telephone sets, which allow for the seamless handover between a cellular network and a WiFi network, are expected to help VoIP become more popular.

Phones like the NEC N900iL, and later the Nokia E60, E61 have been the first "dual mode" telephone sets capable of delivering mobile VoIP. With more and more mobile phones and hand held devices using VOIP, the nicknames of "MoIP" and MVoip (Mobile VoIP)have been attributed to these mobile applications.

Hand held Devices are another type of medium whereby you can use VoIP services. Since most of these devices are limited to using GSM/GPRS type of communication mediums, almost all of the hand held devices use WiFi of some sort.

Another addition to hand held devices are ruggedized bar code type devices that are used in warehouses and retail environments. These type of devices rely on "inside the 4 walls" type of VoIP services that do not connect to the outside world and are solely to be used from employee to employee communications.

Security

Many consumer VoIP solutions do not support encryption yet, although having a secure phone is much easier to implement with VoIP than traditional phone lines. As a result, it is relatively easy to eavesdrop on VoIP calls and even change their content. There are several open source solutions that facilitate sniffing of VoIP conversations. A modicum of security is afforded due to patented audio codecs that are not easily available for open source applications, however such security through obscurity has not proven effective in the long run in other fields. Some vendors also use compression to make eavesdropping more difficult. However, real security requires encryption and cryptographic authentication which are not widely available at a consumer level. The existing secure standard SRTP and the new ZRTP protocol is available on Analog Telephone Adapters(ATAs) as well as various softphones. It is possible to use IPsec to secure P2P VoIP by using opportunistic encryption. Skype does not use SRTP, but uses encryption which is transparent to the Skype provider.

The Voice VPN solution provides secure voice for enterprise VoIP networks by applying IPSec encryption to the digitized voice stream.

Pre-Paid Phone Cards

VoIP has become an important technology for phone services to travelers, migrant workers and expatriate, who either, due to not having a fixed or mobile phone or high overseas roaming charges, choose instead to use VoIP services to make their phone calls. Pre-paid phone cards can be used either from a normal phone or from Internet cafes that have phone services. Developing countries and areas with high tourist or immigrant communities generally have a higher uptake.

Caller ID

Caller ID support among VoIP providers varies, although the majority of VoIP providers now offer full Caller ID with name on outgoing calls. When calling a traditional PSTN number from some VoIP providers, Caller ID is not supported.

In a few cases, VoIP providers may allow a caller to spoof the Caller ID information, making it appear as though they are calling from a different number. Business grade VoIP equipment and software often makes it easy to modify caller ID information. Although this can provide many businesses great flexibility, it is also open to abuse.

VoIM

Voice over Instant Messenger(VoIM) is one kind of general VoIP that was based on an IM.

Adoption

Mass-market telephony

A major development starting in 2004 has been the introduction of mass-market VoIP services over broadband Internet access services, in which subscribers make and receive calls as they would over the PSTN. Full phone service VoIP phone companies provide inbound and outbound calling with Direct Inbound Dialing. Many offer unlimited calling to the U.S., and some to Canada or selected countries in Europe or Asia as well, for a flat monthly fee.

These services take a wide variety of forms which can be more or less similar to traditional POTS. At one extreme, an analog telephone adapter (ATA) may be connected to the broadband Internet connection and an existing telephone jack in order to provide service nearly indistinguishable from POTS on all the other jacks in the residence. This type of service, which is fixed to one location, is generally offered by broadband Internet providers such as cable companies and telephone companies as a cheaper flat-rate traditional phone service. Often the phrase "VoIP" is not used in selling these services, but instead the industry has marketed the phrases "Internet Phone", "Digital Phone" or "Softphone" which is aimed at typical phone users who are not necessarily tech-savvy. Typically, the provider touts the advantage of being able to keep one's existing phone number.

At the other extreme are services like Gizmo Project and Skype which rely on a software client on the computer in order to place a call over the network, where one user ID can be used on many different computers or in different locations on a laptop. In the middle lie services which also provide a telephone adapter for connecting to the broadband connection similar to the services offered by broadband providers (and in some cases also allow direct connections of SIP phones) but which are aimed at a more tech-savvy user and allow portability from location to location. One advantage of these two types of services is the ability to make and receive calls as one would at home, anywhere in the world, at no extra cost. No additional charges are incurred, as call diversion via the PSTN would, and the called party does not have to pay for the call. For example, if a subscriber with a home phone number in the U.S. or Canada calls someone else within his local calling area, it will be treated as a local call regardless of where that person is in the world. Often the user may elect to use someone else's area code as his own to minimize phone costs to a frequently called long-distance number.

For some users, the broadband phone complements, rather than replaces, a PSTN line, due to a number of inconveniences compared to traditional services. VoIP requires a broadband Internet connection and, if a telephone adapter is used, a power adapter is usually needed. In the case of a power failure, VoIP services will generally not function. Additionally, a call to the U.S. emergency services number 9-1-1 may not automatically be routed to the nearest local emergency dispatch center, and would be of no use for subscribers outside the U.S. This is potentially true for users who select a number with an area code outside their area. Some VoIP providers offer users the ability to register their address so that 9-1-1 services work as expected.

Another challenge for these services is the proper handling of outgoing calls from fax machines, TiVo/ReplayTV boxes, satellite television receivers, alarm systems, conventional modems or FAXmodems, and other similar devices that depend on access to a voice-grade telephone line for some or all of their functionality. At present, these types of calls sometimes go through without any problems, but in other cases they will not go through at all. And in some cases, this equipment can be made to work over a VoIP connection if the sending speed can be changed to a lower bits per second rate. If VoIP and cellular substitution becomes very popular, some ancillary equipment makers may be forced to redesign equipment, because it would no longer be possible to assume a conventional voice-grade telephone line would be available in almost all homes in North America and Western-Europe. The TestYourVoIP website offers a free service to test the quality of or diagnose an Internet connection by placing simulated VoIP calls from any Java-enabled Web browser, or from any phone or VoIP device capable of calling the PSTN network.

Corporate and telco use

Although few office environments and even fewer homes use a pure VoIP infrastructure, telecommunications providers routinely use IP telephony, often over a dedicated IP network, to connect switching stations, converting voice signals to IP packets and back. The result is a data-abstracted digital network which the provider can easily upgrade and use for multiple purposes.

Corporate customer telephone support often use IP telephony exclusively to take advantage of the data abstraction. The benefit of using this technology is the need for only one class of circuit connection and better bandwidth use. Companies can acquire their own gateways to eliminate third-party costs, which is worthwhile in some situations.

VoIP is widely employed by carriers, especially for international telephone calls. It is commonly used to route traffic starting and ending at conventional PSTN telephones.

Many telecommunications companies are looking at the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) which will merge Internet technologies with the mobile world, using a pure VoIP infrastructure. It will enable them to upgrade their existing systems while embracing Internet technologies such as the Web, email, instant messaging, presence, and video conferencing. It will also allow existing VoIP systems to interface with the conventional PSTN and mobile phones.

Electronic Numbering (ENUM) uses standard phone numbers (E.164), but allows connections entirely over the Internet. If the other party uses ENUM, the only expense is the Internet connection. Virtual PBX (or IP PBX) allow companies to control their internal phone network over an existing LAN and server without needing to wire a separate telephone network. Users within this environment can then use standard telephones coupled with an FXS, IP Phones connected to a data port or a Softphone on their PC. Internal VoIP phone networks allow outbound and inbound calling on standard PSTN lines through the use of FXO adapters.

Use in Amateur Radio

Sometimes called Radio Over Internet Protocol or RoIP, Amateur radio has adopted VoIP by linking repeaters and users with Echolink, IRLP, D-STAR, Dingotel and EQSO. Echolink and IRLP are programs/systems based upon the Speak Freely VoIP open source software. In fact, Echolink allows users to connect to repeaters via their computer (over the Internet) rather than by using a radio. By using VoIP Amateur Radio operators are able to create large repeater networks with repeaters all over the world where operators can access the system with actual ham radios.

Ham Radio operators using radios are able to tune to repeaters with VoIP capabilities and use DTMF signals to command the repeater to connect to various other repeaters, thus allowing them to talk to people all around the world, even with "line of sight" VHF radios.

Click to call

Main article: Click-to-call

Click-to-call is a service which lets users click a button and immediately speak with a customer service representative. The call can either be carried over VoIP, or the customer may request an immediate call back by entering their phone number. One significant benefit to click-to-call providers is that it allows companies to monitor when online visitors change from the website to a phone sales channel.

Legal issues in different countries

As the popularity of VoIP grows, and PSTN users switch to VoIP in increasing numbers, governments are becoming more interested in regulating VoIP in a manner similar to legacy PSTN services, especially with the encouragement of the state-mandated telephone monopolies/oligopolies in a given country, who see this as a way to stifle the new competition.

In the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission now requires all VoIP operators who do not support Enhanced 911 to attach a sticker warning that traditional 911 services aren't available. The FCC recently required VoIP operators to support CALEA wiretap functionality. The Telecommunications Act of 2005 proposes adding more traditional PSTN regulations, such as local number portability and universal service fees. Other future legal issues are likely to include laws against wiretapping and network neutrality.

Some Latin American and Caribbean countries, fearful for their state owned telephone services, have imposed restrictions on the use of VoIP, including in Panama where VoIP is taxed. In Ethiopia, where the government is monopolizing telecommunication service, it is a criminal offense to offer services using VoIP. The country has installed firewalls to prevent international calls being made using VoIP. These measures were taken after a popularity in VoIP reduced the income generated by the state owned telecommunication company.

In the European Union, the treatment of VoIP service providers is a decision for each Member State's national telecoms regulator, which must use competition law to define relevant national markets and then determine whether any service provider on those national markets has "significant market power" (and so should be subject to certain obligations). A general distinction is usually made between VoIP services that function over managed networks (via broadband connections) and VoIP services that function over unmanaged networks (essentially, the Internet).

VoIP services that function over managed networks are often considered to be a viable substitute for PSTN telephone services (despite the problems of power outages and lack of geographical information); as a result, major operators that provide these services (in practice, incumbent operators) may find themselves bound by obligations of price control or accounting separation.

VoIP services that function over unmanaged networks are often considered to be too poor in quality to be a viable substitute for PSTN services; as a result, they may be provided without any specific obligations, even if a service provider has "significant market power".

The relevant EU Directive is not clearly drafted concerning obligations which can exist independently of market power (e.g., the obligation to offer access to emergency calls), and it is impossible to say definitively whether VoIP service providers of either type are bound by them. A review of the EU Directive is under way and should be complete by 2007.

In India, it is legal to use VoIP, but it is illegal to have VoIP gateways inside India. This effectively means that people who have PCs can use them to make a VoIP call to any number, but if the remote side is a normal phone, the gateway that converts the VoIP call to a POTS call should not be inside India.

In the UAE, it is illegal to use any form of VoIP, to the extent that websites of Skype and Gizmo Project don't work.

In the Republic of Korea, only providers registered with the government are authorized to offer VoIP services. Unlike many VoIP providers, most of whom offer flat rates, Korean VoIP services are generally metered and charged at rates similar to terrestrial calling. Foreign VoIP providers such as Vonage encounter high barriers to government registration. This issue came to a head in 2006 when internet service providers providing personal internet services by contract to United States Forces Korea members residing on USFK bases threatened to block off access to VoIP services used by USFK members of as an economical way to keep in contact with their families in the United States, on the grounds that the service members' VoIP providers were not registered. A compromise was reached between USFK and Korean telecommunications officials in January 2007, wherein USFK service members arriving in Korea before June 1, 2007 and subscribing to the ISP services provided on base may continue to use their U.S.-based VoIP subscription, but later arrivals must use a Korean-based VoIP provider, which by contract will offer pricing similar to the flat rates offered by U.S. VoIP providers.

IP telephony in Japan

In Japan, IP telephony (IP電話, IP Denwa ?) is regarded as a service applied VoIP technology to whole or a part of the telephone line. As from 2003, IP telephony service assigned telephone numbers has been provided. There are not voice only services, but also videophone service. According to the Telecommunication Business Law, the service category for IP telephony also implies the service provided via Internet, which is not assigned any telephone number. IP telephony is basically regulated by Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), as a telecommunication service. The operators have to disclose necessary information on its quality, etc, prior to making contract with customers, and have obligation to respond to their complaints cordially.

Many Internet service providers (ISP) are providing IP telephony services. The provider, which provides IP telephony service, is so-called "ITSP (Internet Telephony Service Provider)". Recently, the competition among ITSPs has been activated, by option or set sales, connected with ADSL or FTTH services.

The tariff system normally applied for Japanese IP telephony tends to be described as below;

* The call between IP telephony subscribers, limited to the same group, is mostly free of charge.
* The call from IP telephony subscribers to fixed line or PHS is mostly fixed rate, uniformly, all over the country.

Between ITSP, the interconnection is mostly maintained at VoIP level.

* As for the IP telephony assigned normal telephone number (0AB-J), the condition for its interconnection is considered same as normal telephony.
* As for the IP telephony assigned specific telephone number (050), the condition for its interconnection tends to be described as below;
o Interconnection is sometimes charged. (Sometimes, it's free of charge.) In case of free of charge, mostly, the traffics are exchanged via P2P connection with the same VoIP standard. Otherwise, certain conversion is needed at the point of VoIP gateway, which needs running costs.

Telephone number for IP telephony in Japan

Since September 2002, the MIC has assigned IP telephony telephone numbers on the condition that the service falls into certain required categories of quality. Highly qualified IP telephony is assigned a telephone number. Normally the number starts with 050. But, when its quality is so high that customer almost could not tell the difference between it and a normal telephone and when the provider relates its number with a location and provides the connection with emergency call capabilities, the provider is allowed to assign a normal telephone number, which is a so-called "0AB-J" number.

Technical details

The two major competing standards for VoIP are the IETF standard SIP and the ITU standard H.323. Initially H.323 was the most popular protocol, though in the "local loop" it has since been surpassed by SIP. This was primarily due to the latter's better traversal of NAT and firewalls, although recent changes introduced for H.323 have removed this advantage.[citation needed]

However, in backbone voice networks where everything is under the control of the network operator or telco, H.323 is the protocol of choice. Many of the largest carriers use H.323 in their core backbones[citation needed], and the vast majority of callers have little or no idea that their POTS calls are being carried over VoIP.

Where VoIP travels through multiple providers' softswitches the concepts of Full Media Proxy and Signalling Proxy are important. In H.323, the data is made up of 3 streams of data: 1) H.225.0 Call Signaling; 2) H.245; 3) Media. So if you are in London, your provider is in Australia, and you wish to call America, then in full proxy mode all three streams will go half way around the world and the delay (up to 500-600 ms) and packet loss will be high. However in signaling proxy mode where only the signaling flows through the provider the delay will be reduced to a more user friendly 120-150 ms.

One of the key issues with all traditional VoIP protocols is the wasted bandwidth used for packet headers. Typically, to send a G.723.1 5.6 kbit/s compressed audio path requires 18 kbit/s of bandwidth based on standard sampling rates. The difference between the 5.6 kbit/s and 18 kbit/s is packet headers. There are a number of bandwidth optimization techniques used, such as silence suppression and header compression. This can typically save 35% on bandwidth usage.

VoIP trunking techniques such as TDMoIP can reduce bandwidth overhead even further by multiplexing multiple conversations that are heading to the same destination and wrapping them up inside the same packets. Because the packet header overhead is shared between many simultaneous streams, TDMoIP can offer near toll quality audio with a per-stream packet header overhead of only about 1 kbit/s.

Mesothelioma

2007-10-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that is almost always caused by previous exposure to asbestos. In this disease, malignant cells develop in the mesothelium, a protective lining that covers most of the body's internal organs. Its most common site is the pleura (outer lining of the lungs and chest cavity), but it may also occur in the peritoneum (the lining of the abdominal cavity) or the pericardium (a sac that surrounds the heart).

Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or have been exposed to asbestos dust and fibre in other ways, such as by washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos, or by home renovation using asbestos cement products. Unlike lung cancer, there is no association between mesothelioma and smoking. In an effort to raise awareness of this form of cancer, the Meso Foundation has declared September 26th National Meso Awareness Day.

Contents

* 1 Signs and symptoms
* 2 Diagnosis
* 3 Screening
* 4 Staging
* 5 Pathophysiology
* 6 Epidemiology
o 6.1 Incidence
o 6.2 Risk factors
o 6.3 Exposure
* 7 Treatment
o 7.1 Surgery
o 7.2 Radiation
o 7.3 Chemotherapy
o 7.4 Immunotherapy
o 7.5 Heated Intraoperative Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy
* 8 Prevention & Expectations
* 9 Notable people with mesothelioma
* 10 Legal issues
* 11 History
* 12 References
* 13 See also
* 14 External links
* 15 Sources

Signs and symptoms

Symptoms of mesothelioma may not appear until 20 to 50 years after exposure to asbestos. Shortness of breath, cough, and pain in the chest due to an accumulation of fluid in the pleural space are often symptoms of pleural mesothelioma.

Symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include weight loss and cachexia, abdominal swelling and pain due to ascites (a buildup of fluid in the abdominal cavity). Other symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma may include bowel obstruction, blood clotting abnormalities, anemia, and fever. If the cancer has spread beyond the mesothelium to other parts of the body, symptoms may include pain, trouble swallowing, or swelling of the neck or face.

These symptoms may be caused by mesothelioma or by other, less serious conditions.

Mesothelioma that affects the pleura can cause these signs and symptoms:

* chest wall pain
* pleural effusion, or fluid surrounding the lung
* shortness of breath
* fatigue or anemia
* wheezing, hoarseness, or cough
* blood in the sputum (fluid) coughed up

In severe cases, the person may have many tumor masses. The individual may develop a pneumothorax, or collapse of the lung. The disease may metastasize, or spread, to other parts of the body.

Tumors that affect the abdominal cavity often do not cause symptoms until they are at a late stage. Symptoms include:

* abdominal pain
* ascites, or an abnormal buildup of fluid in the abdomen
* a mass in the abdomen
* problems with bowel function
* weight loss

In severe cases of the disease, the following signs and symptoms may be present:

* blood clots in the veins, which may cause thrombophlebitis
* disseminated intravascular coagulation, a disorder causing severe bleeding in many body organs
* jaundice, or yellowing of the eyes and skin
* low blood sugar level
* pleural effusion
* pulmonary emboli, or blood clots in the arteries of the lungs
* severe ascites

A mesothelioma does not usually spread to the bone, brain, or adrenal glands. Pleural tumors are usually found only on one side of the lungs.

Diagnosis

Diagnosing mesothelioma is often difficult, because the symptoms are similar to those of a number of other conditions. Diagnosis begins with a review of the patient's medical history. A history of exposure to asbestos may increase clinical suspicion for mesothelioma. A physical examination is performed, followed by chest X-ray and often lung function tests. The X-ray may reveal pleural thickening commonly seen after asbestos exposure and increases suspicion of mesothelioma. A CT (or CAT) scan or an MRI is usually performed. If a large amount of fluid is present, abnormal cells may be detected by cytology if this fluid is aspirated with a syringe. For pleural fluid this is done by a pleural tap or chest drain, in ascites with an paracentesis or ascitic drain and in a pericardial effusion with pericardiocentesis. While absence of malignant cells on cytology does not completely exclude mesothelioma, it makes it much more unlikely, especially if an alternative diagnosis can be made (e.g. tuberculosis, heart failure).

If cytology is positive or a plaque is regarded as suspicious, a biopsy is needed to confirm a diagnosis of mesothelioma. A doctor removes a sample of tissue for examination under a microscope by a pathologist. A biopsy may be done in different ways, depending on where the abnormal area is located. If the cancer is in the chest, the doctor may perform a thoracoscopy. In this procedure, the doctor makes a small cut through the chest wall and puts a thin, lighted tube called a thoracoscope into the chest between two ribs. Thoracoscopy allows the doctor to look inside the chest and obtain tissue samples.

If the cancer is in the abdomen, the doctor may perform a laparoscopy. To obtain tissue for examination, the doctor makes a small opening in the abdomen and inserts a special instrument into the abdominal cavity. If these procedures do not yield enough tissue, more extensive diagnostic surgery may be necessary.
Typical immunohistochemistry results Positive Negative
EMA (epithelial membrane antigen) in a membranous distribution CEA (carcinoembryonic antigen)
WT1 (Wilms' tumour 1) B72.3
Calretinin MOC-3 1
Mesothelin-1 CD15
Cytokeratin 5/6 Ber-EP4
HBME-1 (human mesothelial cell 1) TTF-1 (thyroid transcription factor-1)

Screening

There is no universally agreed protocol for screening people who have been exposed to asbestos. However some research indicates that the serum osteopontin level might be useful in screening asbestos-exposed people for mesothelioma. The level of soluble mesothelin-related protein is elevated in the serum of about 75% of patients at diagnosis and it has been suggested that it may be useful for screening.

Staging

Mesothelioma is described as localized if the cancer is found only on the membrane surface where it originated. It is classified as advanced if it has spread beyond the original membrane surface to other parts of the body, such as the lymph nodes, lungs, chest wall, or abdominal organs.

Pathophysiology

The mesothelium consists of a single layer of flattened to cuboidal cells forming the epithelial lining of the serous cavities of the body including the peritoneal, pericardial and pleural cavities. Deposition of asbestos fibres in the parenchyma of the lung may result in the penetration of the visceral pleura from where the fibre can then be carried to the pleural surface, thus leading to the development of malignant mesothelial plaques. The processes leading to the development of peritoneal mesothelioma remain unresolved, although it has been proposed that asbestos fibres from the lung are transported to the abdomen and associated organs via the lymphatic system. Additionally, asbestos fibres may be deposited in the gut after ingestion of sputum contaminated with asbestos fibres.

Pleural contamination with asbestos or other mineral fibres has been shown to cause cancer. Long thin asbestos fibers (blue asbestos, amphibole fibers) are more potent carcinogens than "feathery fibers" (chrysotile or white asbestos fibers). However, there is now evidence that smaller particles may be more dangerous than the larger fibers. They remain suspended in the air where they can be inhaled, and may penetrate more easily and deeper into the lungs. "We probably will find out a lot more about the health aspects of asbestos from [the World Trade Center attack], unfortunately," said Dr. Alan Fein, chief of pulmonary and critical-care medicine at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. Dr. Fein has treated several patients for "World Trade Center syndrome" or respiratory ailments from brief exposures of only a day or two near the collapsed buildings.

Mesothelioma development in rats has been demonstrated following intra-pleural inoculation of phosphorylated chrysotile fibres. It has been suggested that in humans, transport of fibres to the pleura is critical to the pathogenesis of mesothelioma. This is supported by the observed recruitment of significant numbers of macrophages and other cells of the immune system to localised lesions of accumulated asbestos fibres in the pleural and peritoneal cavities of rats. These lesions continued to attract and accumulate macrophages as the disease progressed, and cellular changes within the lesion culminated in a morphologically malignant tumour.

Experimental evidence suggests that asbestos acts as a complete carcinogen with the development of mesothelioma occurring in sequential stages of initiation and promotion. The molecular mechanisms underlying the malignant transformation of normal mesothelial cells by asbestos fibres remain unclear despite the demonstration of its oncogenic capabilities. However, complete in vitro transformation of normal human mesothelial cells to malignant phenotype following exposure to asbestos fibres has not yet been achieved. In general, asbestos fibres are thought to act through direct physical interactions with the cells of the mesothelium in conjunction with indirect effects following interaction with inflammatory cells such as macrophages.

Analysis of the interactions between asbestos fibres and DNA has shown that phagocytosed fibres are able to make contact with chromosomes, often adhering to the chromatin fibres or becoming entangled within the chromosome. This contact between the asbestos fibre and the chromosomes or structural proteins of the spindle apparatus can induce complex abnormalities. The most common abnormality is monosomy of chromosome 22. Other frequent abnormalities include structural rearrangement of 1p, 3p, 9p and 6q chromosome arms.

Common gene abnormalities in mesothelioma cell lines include deletion of the tumor suppressor genes:

* Neurofibromatosis type 2 at 22q12
* P16INK4A
* P14ARF

Asbestos has also been shown to mediate the entry of foreign DNA into target cells. Incorporation of this foreign DNA may lead to mutations and oncogenesis by several possible mechanisms:

* Inactivation of tumor suppressor genes
* Activation of oncogenes
* Activation of proto-oncogenes due to incorporation of foreign DNA containing a promoter region
* Activation of DNA repair enzymes, which may be prone to error
* Activation of telomerase
* Prevention of apoptosis

Asbestos fibres have been shown to alter the function and secretory properties of macrophages, ultimately creating conditions which favour the development of mesothelioma. Following asbestos phagocytosis, macrophages generate increased amounts of hydroxyl radicals, which are normal by-products of cellular anaerobic metabolism. However, these free radicals are also known clastogenic and membrane-active agents thought to promote asbestos carcinogenicity. These oxidants can participate in the oncogenic process by directly and indirectly interacting with DNA, modifying membrane-associated cellular events, including oncogene activation and perturbation of cellular antioxidant defences.

Asbestos also may possess immunosuppressive properties. For example, chrysotile fibres have been shown to depress the in vitro proliferation of phytohemagglutinin-stimulated peripheral blood lymphocytes, suppress natural killer cell lysis and significantly reduce lymphokine-activated killer cell viability and recovery. Furthermore, genetic alterations in asbestos-activated macrophages may result in the release of potent mesothelial cell mitogens such as platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) which in turn, may induce the chronic stimulation and proliferation of mesothelial cells after injury by asbestos fibres.

Epidemiology

Incidence

Although reported incidence rates have increased in the past 20 years, mesothelioma is still a relatively rare cancer. The incidence is approximately one per 1,000,000. For comparison, populations with high levels of smoking can have a lung cancer incidence of over 1,000 per 1,000,000. Incidence of malignant mesothelioma currently ranges from about 7 to 40 per 1,000,000 in industrialized Western nations, depending on the amount of asbestos exposure of the populations during the past several decades. It has been estimated that incidence may have peaked at 15 per 1,000,000 in the United States in 2004. Incidence is expected to continue increasing in other parts of the world. Mesothelioma occurs more often in men than in women and risk increases with age, but this disease can appear in either men or women at any age. Approximately one fifth to one third of all mesotheliomas are peritoneal.

Between 1940 and 1979, approximately 27.5 million people were occupationally exposed to asbestos in the United States . Between 1973 and 1984, there has been a threefold increase in the diagnosis of pleural mesothelioma in Caucasian males. From 1980 to the late 1990s, the death rate from mesothelioma in the USA increased from 2,000 per year to 3,000, with men four times more likely to acquire it than women. These rates may not be accurate, since it is possible that many cases of mesothelioma are misdiagnosed as adenocarcinoma of the lung, which is difficult to differentiate from mesothelioma.

Risk factors

Working with asbestos is the major risk factor for mesothelioma. A history of asbestos exposure exists in almost all cases. However, mesothelioma has been reported in some individuals without any known exposure to asbestos. In rare cases, mesothelioma has also been associated with irradiation, intrapleural thorium dioxide (Thorotrast), and inhalation of other fibrous silicates, such as erionite.

Asbestos is the name of a group of minerals that occur naturally as masses of strong, flexible fibers that can be separated into thin threads and woven. Asbestos has been widely used in many industrial products, including cement, brake linings, roof shingles, flooring products, textiles, and insulation. If tiny asbestos particles float in the air, especially during the manufacturing process, they may be inhaled or swallowed, and can cause serious health problems. In addition to mesothelioma, exposure to asbestos increases the risk of lung cancer, asbestosis (a noncancerous, chronic lung ailment), and other cancers, such as those of the larynx and kidney.

The combination of smoking and asbestos exposure significantly increases a person's risk of developing cancer of the airways (lung cancer, bronchial carcinoma). The Kent brand of cigarettes used asbestos in its filters for the first few years of production in the 1950s and some cases of mesothelioma have resulted. Smoking modern cigarettes does not appear to increase the risk of mesothelioma.

Some studies suggest that simian virus 40 (SV40) may act as a cofactor in the development of mesothelioma.

Exposure

Asbestos was known in antiquity, but it wasn't mined and widely used commercially until the late 1800s. Its use greatly increased during World War II. Since the early 1940s, millions of American workers have been exposed to asbestos dust. Initially, the risks associated with asbestos exposure were not publicly known. However, an increased risk of developing mesothelioma was later found among shipyard workers, people who work in asbestos mines and mills, producers of asbestos products, workers in the heating and construction industries, and other tradespeople. Today, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets limits for acceptable levels of asbestos exposure in the workplace, and created guidelines for engineering controls and respirators, protective clothing, exposure monitoring, hygiene facilities and practices, warning signs, labeling, recordkeeping, and medical exams. By contrast, the British Government's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) states formally that any threshold for mesothelioma must be at a very low level and it is widely agreed that if any such threshold does exist at all, then it cannot currently be quantified. For practical purposes, therefore, HSE does not assume that any such threshold exists. People who work with asbestos wear personal protective equipment to lower their risk of exposure.

Occupational

Exposure to asbestos fibres has been recognised as an occupational health hazard since the early 1900s. Several epidemiological studies have associated exposure to asbestos with the development of lesions such as asbestos bodies in the sputum, pleural plaques, diffuse pleural thickening, asbestosis, carcinoma of the lung and larynx, gastrointestinal tumours, and diffuse mesothelioma of the pleura and peritoneum.

The documented presence of asbestos fibres in water supplies and food products has fostered concerns about the possible impact of long-term and, as yet, unknown exposure of the general population to these fibres. Although many authorities consider brief or transient exposure to asbestos fibres as inconsequential and an unlikely risk factor, some epidemiologists claim that there is no risk threshold. Cases of mesothelioma have been found in people whose only exposure was breathing the air through ventilation systems. Other cases had very minimal (3 months or less) direct exposure.

Commercial asbestos mining at Wittenoom, Western Australia, occurred between 1945 and 1966. A cohort study of miners employed at the mine reported that while no deaths occurred within the first 10 years after crocidolite exposure, 85 deaths attributable to mesothelioma had occurred by 1985. By 1994, 539 reported deaths due to mesothelioma had been reported in Western Australia.

Paraoccupational Secondary Exposure

Family members and others living with asbestos workers have an increased risk of developing mesothelioma, and possibly other asbestos related diseases. This risk may be the result of exposure to asbestos dust brought home on the clothing and hair of asbestos workers. To reduce the chance of exposing family members to asbestos fibres, asbestos workers are usually required to shower and change their clothing before leaving the workplace.

Asbestos in buildings

Many building materials used in both public and domestic premises prior to the banning of asbestos may contain asbestos. Those performing renovation works or diy activities may expose themselves to asbestos dust. In the UK use of Chrysotile asbestos was banned at the end of 1999. Brown and blue asbestos was banned in the UK around 1985. Buildings built or renovated prior to these dates may contain asbestos materials.

Environmental Exposure

Incidence of mesothelioma had been found to be higher in populations living near Naturally Occurring Asbestos (NOA).

Treatment

Treatment of MM using conventional therapies has not proved successful and patients have a median survival time of 6 - 12 months after presentation. The clinical behaviour of the malignancy is affected by several factors including the continuous mesothelial surface of the pleural cavity which favours local metastasis via exfoliated cells, invasion to underlying tissue and other organs within the pleural cavity, and the extremely long latency period between asbestos exposure and development of the disease.

Surgery

Surgery, either by itself or used in combination with pre- and post-operative adjuvant therapies has proved disappointing. A pleurectomy/decortication is the most common surgery, in which the lining of the chest is removed. Less common is an extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP), in which the lung, lining of the inside of the chest, the hemi-diaphragm and the pericardium are removed. It is not possible to remove the entire mesothelium without killing the patient.

Radiation
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Radiation Oncology/Lung/Mesothelioma

For patients with localized disease, and who can tolerate a radical surgery, radiation is often given post-operatively as a consolidative treatment. The entire hemi-thorax is treated with radiation therapy, often given simultaneously with chemotherapy. This approach of using surgery followed by radiation with chemotherapy has been pioneered by the thoracic oncology team at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston. Delivering radiation and chemotherapy after a radical surgery has led to extended life expectancy in selected patient populations with some patients surviving more than 5 years. As part of a curative approach to mesothelioma, radiotherapy is also commonly applied to the sites of chest drain insertion, in order to prevent growth of the tumor along the track in the chest wall.

Although mesothelioma is generally resistant to curative treatment with radiotherapy alone, palliative treatment regimens are sometimes used to relieve symptoms arising from tumor growth, such as obstruction of a major blood vessel. Radiation therapy when given alone with curative intent has never been shown to improve survival from mesothelioma. The necessary radiation dose to treat mesothelioma that has not been surgically removed would be very toxic.

Chemotherapy

In February 2004, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved pemetrexed (brand name Alimta) for treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma. Pemetrexed is given in combination with cisplatin. Folic acid is also used to reduce the side-effects of pemetrexed.

Immunotherapy

Treatment regimens involving immunotherapy have yielded variable results. For example, intrapleural inoculation of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) in an attempt to boost the immune response, was found to be of no benefit to the patient (while it may benefit patients with bladder cancer). Mesothelioma cells proved susceptible to in vitro lysis by LAK cells following activation by interleukin-2 (IL-2), but patients undergoing this particular therapy experienced major side effects. Indeed, this trial was suspended in view of the unacceptably high levels of IL-2 toxicity and the severity of side effects such as fever and cachexia. Nonetheless, other trials involving interferon alpha have proved more encouraging with 20% of patients experiencing a greater than 50% reduction in tumor mass combined with minimal side effects.

Heated Intraoperative Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy

A procedure known as heated intraoperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy was developed by Paul Sugarbaker at the Washington Cancer Institute. The surgeon removes as much of the tumor as possible followed by the direct administration of a chemotherapy agent, heated to between 40 and 48°C, in the abdomen. The fluid is perfused for 60 to 120 minutes and then drained.

This technique permits the administration of high concentrations of selected drugs into the abdominal and pelvic surfaces. Heating the chemotherapy treatment increases the penetration of the drugs into tissues. Also, heating itself damages the malignant cells more than the normal cells.

Prevention & Expectations

What can be done to prevent the disease? Since the 1970s, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have regulated the asbestos industry in the U.S. In the past, asbestos was used as a fire retardant and an insulator. Other products are now used in its place. The controversy involving exposure to different forms of asbestos continues.

There are two major types of asbestos: chrysotile and amphibole. It is thought that exposure to the amphibole form is more likely to cause mesothelioma. However, chrysotile has been used more frequently, hence many mesotheliomas are caused by chrysotile.

Removal is taking place in schools and other public buildings throughout the U.S. The hope is that these measures will greatly reduce the occurrence of this cancer.

What are the long-term effects of the disease? A mesothelioma is a highly aggressive tumor that is generally deadly. Current treatment of malignant mesothelioma is designed to make the person with cancer comfortable. Although long-term survival cannot usually be expected, the case of famed paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould is a noted exception.

What are the risks to others? Mesothelioma is not contagious and cannot be passed from one person to another. The exposure to the asbestos that caused the cancer occurred many years to several decades before the disease appeared. People who live with asbestos workers have a higher risk of getting this cancer.

What happens once treatment is over? Although mesothelioma is very unpleasant it's still important for person after treatment is over to keep up all follow-up appointments and that's vital because further testing is always needed to check whether cancer is coming back or to examine possible side effects that could be rather unpleasant and what's even worse permanent.

Notable people with mesothelioma

Mesothelioma, though rare, has had a number of notable patients. Australian anti-racism activist Bob Bellear died in 2005. British science fiction writer Michael G. Coney, responsible for nearly 100 works also died in 2005. American film and television actor Paul Gleason, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Principal Richard Vernon in the 1985 film The Breakfast Club, died in 2006. Mickie Most, an English record producer, died of mesothelioma in 2003. Paul Rudolph, an American architect known for his cubist building designs, died in 1997.

Steve McQueen was diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma on December 22, 1979. He was not offered surgery or chemotherapy because doctors felt the cancer was too advanced. McQueen sought alternative treatments from clinics in Mexico. He died of a heart attack on November 7, 1980, in Juárez, Mexico, following cancer surgery. He may have been exposed to asbestos while serving with the US Marines as a young adult—asbestos was then commonly used to insulate ships' piping—or because of its use as an insulating material in car racing suits. (It is also reported that he worked in a shipyard during World War II, where he might have been exposed to asbestos. [citation needed]

United States Congressman Bruce Vento died of mesothelioma in 2000. The Bruce Vento Hopebuilder is awarded yearly by his wife at the MARF symposium to persons or organizations who have done the most to support mesothelioma research and advocacy.

After a long period of untreated illness and pain, rock and roll musician and songwriter Warren Zevon was diagnosed with inoperable mesothelioma in the fall of 2002. Refusing treatments he believed might incapacitate him, Zevon focused his energies on recording his final album The Wind including the song Keep me in your heart which speaks of his failing breath. Zevon died at his home in Los Angeles, California, on September 7, 2003.

Although life expectancy with this disease is typically limited, there are notable survivors. In July 1982, Stephen Jay Gould was diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma. After his diagnosis, Gould wrote the "The Median Isn't the Message" for Discover magazine, in which he argued that statistics such as median survival are just useful abstractions, not destiny. Gould lived for another twenty years eventually succumbing to metastatic adenocarcinoma of the lung, not mesothelioma.

Author Paul Kraus was diagnosed with mesothelioma in June 1997 following an umbilical hernia operation. His prognosis was "a few months." He continues to survive using a variety of integrative and complimentary modalities and has written a book about his experience.

Legal issues

Main article: asbestos and the law

The first lawsuits against asbestos manufacturers were in 1929. Since then, many lawsuits have been filed against asbestos manufacturers and employers, for neglecting to implement safety measures after the links between asbestos, asbestosis, and mesothelioma became known (some reports seem to place this as early as 1898). The liability resulting from the sheer number of lawsuits and people affected has reached billions of dollars. The amounts and method of allocating compensation have been the source of many court cases, and government attempts at resolution of existing and future cases.

History

The first lawsuit against asbestos manufacturers was brought in 1929. The parties settled that lawsuit, and as part of the agreement, the attorneys agreed not to pursue further cases. It was not until 1960 that an article published by Wagner et al first officially established mesothelioma as a disease arising from exposure to crocidolite asbestos. The article referred to over 30 case studies of people who had suffered from mesothelioma in South Africa. Some exposures were transient and some were mine workers. In 1962 McNulty reported the first diagnosed case of malignant mesothelioma in an Australian asbestos worker. The worker had worked in the mill at the asbestos mine in Wittenoom from 1948 to 1950.

In the town of Wittenoom, asbestos-containing mine waste was used to cover schoolyards and playgrounds. In 1965 an article in the British Journal of Industrial Medicine established that people who lived in the neighbourhoods of asbestos factories and mines, but did not work in them, had contracted mesothelioma.

Despite proof that the dust associated with asbestos mining and milling causes asbestos related disease, mining began at Wittenoom in 1943 and continued until 1966. In 1974 the first public warnings of the dangers of blue asbestos were published in a cover story called "Is this Killer in Your Home?" in Australia's Bulletin magazine. In 1978 the Western Australian Government decided to phase out the town of Wittenoom, following the publication of a Health Dept. booklet, "The Health Hazard at Wittenoom", containing the results of air sampling and an appraisal of worldwide medical information.

By 1979 the first writs for negligence related to Wittenoom were issued against CSR and its subsidiary ABA, and the Asbestos Diseases Society was formed to represent the Wittenoom victims.

Shopping Cart Software

2007-10-04T06:09:00.002-07:00

Shopping cart software solution integrated into Dreamweaver - Frontpage - Golive - CSS ecommerce templates with ASP and PHP versions.

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Shopping cart software
Ecommerce Templates was set up with the aim of providing a powerful low cost ecommerce shopping cart software solution integrating into the main HTML editors; Dreamweaver, Frontpage and GoLive.
Basically we give you the design and shopping cart software and you are ready to populate your store through the online control panel.
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Stock Broker

2007-10-04T06:09:00.001-07:00

A stock broker is a qualified and regulated professional who buys and sells shares and other securities through market makers on behalf of investors.
Contents
* 1 Requirements
* 2 Services provided
* 3 History
* 4 Similar roles
* 5 Acting as a principal
* 6 Transactions by stock brokers in the US and UK
* 7 Brokerage terms
* 8 Famous stock brokers
* 9 See also

Requirements

In order to become a stockbroker, a person must pass the General Securities Representative Exam (also known as the "series 7 exam").

Services provided

A transaction on a stock exchange must be made between two members of the exchange — a typical person may not walk into the New York Stock Exchange (for example), and ask to trade stock. Such an exchange must be done through a broker.

There are three types of stockbroking service.

* Execution-only, which means that the broker will only carry out the client's instructions to buy or sell.
* Advisory dealing, where the broker advises the client on which shares to buy and sell, but leaves the final decision to the investor.
* Discretionary dealing, where the stockbroker ascertains the client's investment objectives and then makes all dealing decisions on the client's behalf.

In addition to actually trading stocks for their clients, stock brokers may also offer advice to their clients on which stocks, mutual funds, etc. to buy.

History

Philadelphia was the center of American finance during the first forty years of the new United States. In 1790, the country's first stock exchange was founded there and Chestnut Street was home to the nation's most powerful financial institutions. However, in the 1820s a shift to New York City began and for more than one hundred and fifty years Wall Street has been synonymous with the stock brokerage business. Historical top level brokers like Goldman Sachs and a number of firms rose to prominence over that time with the top-ranked brokerages in the early 1950s being:[citation needed]

1. Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.
2. E. F. Hutton & Co.
3. Bache & Co.
4. Paine Webber & Company
5. Francis I. DuPont & Co.
6. Dean Witter Co.
7. Goldman Sachs
8. Bear Stearns

Since the 1980s stockbroking firms have also been allowed to be market makers as long as the appropriate Chinese walls are put in place.

With the advent of automated stockbroking systems on the Internet the client often has no personal contact with his/her stockbroking firm. The stockbroker's system performs all the stockbroking functions: it obtains the best price from the market and executes and settles the trade.

Today, most of the once well-known corporate brand names including mid-sized firms such as Smith Barney have been swallowed up by global financial conglomerates. Only a few firms remain independent, such as Edward Jones Investments, Stifel Nicolaus, Oppenheimer & Co and Raymond James. Discount brokers (such as E-Trade, Scottrade, TD Ameritrade, and Charles Schwab) have taken a large share of the business by offering highly discounted commissions. Discount brokers may offer limited advisory services, but their primary focus tends to servicing self directed retail accounts.

Similar roles

Roles similar to that of a stock broker include investment advisor, and financial advisor. A stockbroker may or may not be also an investment advisor, and vice versa.

The Certified Financial Planner designation initially offered by the American College in Pennsylvania is considered by many to be the next educational step a stock broker can take in order to be considered a legitimate and ethical financial consultant.

Acting as a principal

Stockbrokers also sometimes or exclusively trade on their own behalf, as a principal, speculating that a share or other financial instrument will increase or decline in price. In such cases the term broker makes little sense and the individuals or firms trading in a principal capacity sometimes call themselves dealers, stock traders or simply traders.

Transactions by stock brokers in the US and UK

In the US: When acting as an agent, the stockbroker typically charges the client a flat fee and/or a percentage-based commission for undertaking the trade, and the price quoted the client must be the best price available in the market. When acting as a principal, the trade could be with another market participant or one of the stockbroker's clients. When trading in a principal capacity with a client, the broker informs the client and charges the client a markup or markdown from the prevailing market price.

In the UK: Stock brokers act the same in the UK as in the US, except that when trading in a principal capacity with a client, the broker is obliged to inform the client and no commission is charged.

Other jurisdictions are thought to have similar rules.

Brokerage terms

Front office: This is a description of the part of a brokerage firm that is "client facing". The sales staff, brokers and traders are part of the front office. Functions of the front office include acquisition and entry of orders, fulfillment of the orders, and all the regulatory reporting for the orders.

Back office: The back office is where the clearance processing of the trades is done. Transfer of securities and money and the tracking of "failure to deliver" is handled. Securities lending for a brokerage firm, wherein shares of a security that is being sold short are located to ensure they can be delivered, is usually included in the back office as well.

* Prime brokerage
* Retail broker
* Low cost broker

Famous stock brokers

* Larry "Buster" Crabbe - Actor and former Olympic swimmer, Crabbe became a stockbroker and businessman after a career in film.
* Brian Dennehy - An actor, Dennehy worked as a broker for a time at the same firm as Martha Stewart.
* Christopher Gardner - A man who averted homelessness and became a multi-millionaire, his struggle to attain his first job as a stock broker is the subject of the 2006 Will Smith film, The Pursuit of Happyness.
* Paul Gauguin - French Impressionist Painter of the late 19th Century initially worked as a young man as a broker in Paris.
* Edward Francis Hutton - Founder of the firm known for its slogan: "When E. F. Hutton talks, people listen." In the late '20s and early '30s, Hutton was married to cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post. Hutton's daughter with Post was actress Dina Merrill, the one-time wife of actor Cliff Robertson. Hutton's namesake firm imploded into bankruptcy in the 1970s.
* Michael Milken - The financier came to fame at Drexel Burnham Lambert in the 1980s.
* George Murphy - Silent film and early talkies star Murphy worked for a time as a Wall Street runner.
* William A. Paine - co-founder of Paine Webber.
* Hemish Shah - Late English poker player, who left stocks for poker, going on to win a World Series of Poker bracelet.
* Martha Stewart - After she gave up modeling in the late 60s, Stewart worked as a broker on Wall Street for 7-8 years before launching her lifestyle business.
* Nick Leeson - Rogue trader whose unchecked risk-taking caused the biggest financial scandal of the century.
* Jerry Doyle - Known to many as "Michael Garibaldi" on Babylon5 was a stock broker for 10 years.

Video Production

2007-10-04T06:06:00.000-07:00

Professional Video production, or videography, is the art and service of producing a finished video product to a customer's requirement and consumption.

The video production industry creates videos for a wide range of demands, from safety videos for use in corporate environments to medical training videos for use in teaching. An example of a more everyday application is the wedding video.

A video production company takes a brief, produces a script, liaises with the customer and puts a production team together. This often includes experts ranging from camera staff to make-up artists. The film is shot and initial footage is put on broadcast quality tapes, edited and presented to the customer in a draft — or "guide" — form. Sound tracks, visual effects etc. are added in and the final video is presented to the customer.

With the increasing use of video in a wide range of commercial and government functions, and the increased access modern customers have to viewing video on a range of new devices, video production is a fast growing industry.

WebSite Design

2007-10-04T06:04:00.000-07:00

Website Design : The graphic design and coding of web pages, full websites and interactive web applications.

What is included in custom "Website Development"?

Many clients have asked us how the process actually works and what happens throughout the website development. This document explains the process from start to finish and gives you an idea of what you could expect when working with us.

This is just a guideline, your development project may have needs that are not addressed here.

Finer Design is a unique design firm offering a variety of services from basic Website Design to complete e-commerce website development. We have created and launched hundreds of successful websites since our inception, for many different types of businesses. Our web designers have the creative talent to appeal to your sense of style, the training and knowledge of current web standards and practices, and the ability to turn your ideas into reality!

Web Design Portfolio

This web design portfolio is a small sampling of websites we have developed. While we have great appreciation for each and every one of our past clients, there’s just too many to fit into this space.

Our website design clients range from small start-up companies to large corporations and everything in between. With our combined experience in graphic design, website development and e-commerce stores, you can be confident that whatever your project demands, our web developers can deliver. Browse our portfolio and when you are convinced of our abilities, you may request your no cost, no obligation quote.

mapquest.com

2007-10-04T05:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome to MapQuest!
MapQuest has been helping people find places for over 30 years. Learn more about our corporation. Check out MapQuest in the media. Explore each of our business segments below: Internet, Wireless and Business Solutions.

INTERNET
The leading consumer website, MapQuest.com, helps people find places, get there, and find places nearby.
WIRELESS
MapQuest is also available over your cell phone through several new wireless subscription services.
BUSINESS SOLUTIONS
More than 1,400 global organizations have turned to MapQuest Business Solutions for software and platforms that location enable web and wireless applications.

Experian

2007-10-04T05:54:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Experian

Experian is a global information solutions company, dedicated to helping organisations and consumers make commercial and financial decisions with greater confidence and control. Our vision is for Experian's people, data and technology to become a necessary part of every major consumer economy around the world.

People Search

2007-10-04T05:52:00.001-07:00

People Search
Find people instantly with our people search engine. It's easy to find someone, just enter their name click search. You can also add city, state, age, or zip code. Or search by address or phone number.

Results include name, aliases, age, date of birth, address history, unlisted phone numbers, relatives, and more. This is not your basic white pages search, our database contains billions of public records online that go back over 20 years. Search for people free.

Honda

2007-10-04T05:44:00.000-07:00

Honda Motor Company, Limited (本田技研工業株式会社 Honda Giken Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha, Honda Technology Research Institute Company, Limited?) listen (help·info) (TYO: 7267, NYSE: HMC), or simply called Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, engine manufacturer and engineering corporation. The company is perhaps most notable for its automobiles and motorcycles, having passed Nissan to become the second largest seller of autos in Japan[2][3].[verification needed] Honda also produces a long list of other products: trucks, scooters, robots, jets and jet engines, ATV, water craft, electrical generators, marine engines, lawn and garden equipment, and aeronautical and other mobile technologies. Honda's line of luxury cars are branded Acura in North America and China. More recently they have ventured into the world of mountain bikes, producing the very first bike to use an internal gear changing system in the Honda RN-01 G-cross.

With more than 14 million internal combustion engines built each year, Honda is the largest engine-maker in the world. In 2004 , the company began to produce diesel motors, which were very quiet while not requiring particulate filters to pass pollution standards. It is arguable, however, that the foundation of Honda's success is the motorcycle division.

Honda is headquartered in Tokyo. Their shares trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, as well as exchanges in Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kyoto, Fukuoka, London, Paris and Switzerland. American Honda Motor Co. is based in Torrance, California. Honda Canada Inc. is headquartered in the Scarborough, Ontario district of Toronto, Ontario, and is building new corporate headquarters in Richmond Hill, Ontario, scheduled to relocate in 2008. Honda of Canada Manufacturing is based in Alliston, Ontario. Honda has also created many joint ventures around the world, such as Honda Siel Cars India Ltd , Hero Honda Motorcycles India Ltd, Dongfeng Honda Automobile Company in China and Honda Atlas Cars Pakistan.

Contents
* 1 Company history
* 2 Leadership
* 3 Racing history
o 3.1 Motorcycle
o 3.2 Automobile
* 4 Strategy and public image
* 5 Initiatives
* 6 Marketing
* 7 Facilities (partial list)
o 7.1 Japan
o 7.2 United States
o 7.3 Canada
o 7.4 Mexico
o 7.5 United Kingdom
o 7.6 Brazil
o 7.7 Colombia
o 7.8 Thailand
o 7.9 Turkey
o 7.10 Malaysia
o 7.11 Argentina
o 7.12 India
o 7.13 Vietnam
* 8 Robots
* 9 See also
* 10 Notes on sources
* 11 References
* 12 External links

Company history

Soichiro Honda was a mechanic who,after working at Art Shokai, developed his own design for piston rings in 1938 . He attempted to sell them to Toyota who did not reject his first design as believed.[citation needed] He constructed a new facility to supply Toyota, but soon after, during World War II, the Honda piston manufacturing facilities were almost completely destroyed.

Soichiro Honda created a new company with what he had left in the Japanese market that was decimated by World War II; his country was starved of money and fuel, but still in need of basic transportation. Honda, utilizing his manufacturing facilities, attached an engine to a bicycle which created a cheap and efficient transport. He gave his company the name Honda Giken Kōgyō Kabushiki Kaisha which translates to Honda Research Institute Company Ltd. Despite its grandiose name, the first facility bearing that name was a simple wooden shack where Mr. Honda and his associates would fit the engines to bicycles. The official Japanese name for Honda Motor Company Ltd. remains the same in honor of Soichiro Honda's efforts. On 24 September 1948 the Honda Motor Co. was officially founded in Japan.

Honda began to produce a range of scooters and motorcycles and Soichiro Honda quickly recovered from the losses incurred during the war. Honda's first motorcycle to be put on sale was the 1947 A-Type (one year before the company was officially founded). However, Honda's first full-fledged motorcycle on the market was the 1949 Dream D-Type. It was equipped with a 98cc engine producing around 3 horsepower. This was followed by a number of successful launches of highly popular scooters throughout the 1950s.
Honda Super Cub C50
Honda Super Cub C50

In 1958, the American Honda Company was founded and only one year later, Honda introduced its first model in the United States, the 1959 Honda C100 Super Cub. The Honda Cub holds the title of being the best-selling vehicle in history, with around 50 million units sold around the world.[4] By the 1970s, Honda was the largest producer of motorcycles in the world, a title it has never relinquished.

In the United States during the 1960s, large motorcycles had the image of being ridden by tough, hardened characters. It was an image fostered by owners of Harley Davidson motorcycles, but Honda countered this public perception with their successful "You meet the nicest people on a Honda" advertising program. Honda introduced their new SOHC inline 4-cylinder 750 in 1969 , which was immediately successful and established this configuration as one of the most popular for performance motorcycles, even to this day.

Honda began developing prototypes for road cars in the early 1960s, mostly intended for the Japanese market. The first production vehicle by Honda was the 1963 T360, a tiny pickup truck featuring 4 different body styles (including a traditional truck bed and a panel van) and a 360cc, 30hp engine. This was followed two months later by Honda's first production automobile, the S500. The S500 was a 2 door roadster featuring a 492cc engine capable of 44 hp with a high 9,500 RPM redline. It was fitted to a 4-speed transmission with the rear wheels being chain driven. Mr. Honda took his extensive knowledge of motorcycles and applied it to making his car, of which the chain drive and high redline are evidence.

At the time, nearly all of the Japanese automakers were associated with the former zaibatsu, or keiretsu--Japanese business conglomerates. These large companies had close ties with the government who urged them to absorb smaller carmakers into large brands that could be marketed internationally. Since the government had extensive control over the industry, it was unheard of for a small, independent company to mass produce vehicles, thus making Honda's success historical in the Japanese economy.

Though participating in international motorsport (see Racing), Honda was having difficulty selling its automobiles in the United States. Built for Japanese buyers, Honda's small cars had failed to gain the interest of American buyers. Honda's first automobile imported to the United States was the N600, sold in Hawaii in 1969. In 1970 , the car was imported to California and beyond, but its tiny 600 cc engine and minuscule dimensions made it very unpopular with the American public.
Honda Civic
Honda Civic

Honda finally established a foothold in the American market in 1972 with the introduction of the Civic—larger than their previous models, but still small compared to the typical American car—just as the 1973 energy crisis was impacting worldwide economies. New emissions laws in the US requiring American car makers to add expensive smog pumps and catalytic converters to engines increased car prices. However, Honda introduced an innovative variation on the stratified charge engine, the CVCC (Compound Vortex-Controlled Combustion) in the 1975 Civic, this allowed the Civic to meet emission standards without a smog pump or a catalytic converter. Due to its more complete combustion it also obtained the lowest fuel consumption rating of any vehicle available on the American market for four years during its production.[5] American companies were slow to begin producing small, fuel efficient cars, which gave the Honda Civic a chance to sell well, as well as prove Honda's reputation for reliability and further expand its customer loyalty.
Honda Accord
Honda Accord

In 1976 , the new, larger-than-the-Civic Accord was immediately popular because of its value, economy, and fun-to-drive nature. The Accord has since consistently been one of the best selling cars in the United States, and evolved into a large mid-size for the North American market with V6 and hybrid versions.

In 1982 , Honda was the first Japanese car manufacturer to build car plants in the US, starting with an Accord plant in Marysville, Ohio. They now have four plants located in Ohio: two in Marysville (the Marysville Auto Plant and the Marysville Motorcycle Plant), one in East Liberty, Ohio, and an engine plant in Anna, Ohio. They also have plants in Lincoln, Alabama (Honda Manufacturing of Alabama) and Timmonsville, South Carolina and have recently (2006) opened a new plant in Tallapoosa, Georgia. Honda also has an extensive aftermarket parts operation located in Marysville, Ohio, and a research and development facility in Raymond, Ohio. Honda's North American and U.S. headquarters are located in Torrance, California. Honda's Canadian and many US-market Civics have been manufactured in their plant in Alliston, Ontario since 1986 . On 27 June, 2006, Honda announced that another vehicle assembly facility will be opening in North America, this time in Greensburg, Indiana. Its completion is expected in 2008.

Honda was the first Japanese automaker to introduce a separate luxury line of vehicles. Created in 1986 and known as Acura, the line is made up of modified versions of Honda vehicles usually with more power and sportiness than their Honda counterparts. The very first model was the Acura Legend, with a 2.5 liter engine producing 151 horsepower. European luxury-car manufacturers initially scoffed at the thought of a luxury company from Japan, with criticism coming mostly from Mercedes-Benz.

1987 was an important year for new safety and technology at Honda. The 1987 Honda Prelude was the first passenger vehicle in the world equipped with four-wheel steering (4WS) technology. This also marked the year for the first Japanese car equipped with an SRS airbag, the Honda (Acura) Legend.

In 1989 Honda launched their VTEC variable valve timing system in its production car engines, which gave improved efficiency and performance across a broader range of engine speeds. One of the first of its kind in passenger vehicles, it worked on the premise of tuning one engine to operate at two different 'settings' depending on load. Normal driving would use a "shorter" camshaft lobe that resulted in more efficient operation. A more aggressive, longer duration, cam engages when engine RPM reaches a set point resulting in more power during hard acceleration.

In 1999 Honda began selling the Insight which is a small two-seat hybrid vehicle. Power is derived from a combination of a 1.0L 3-cylinder gasoline engine, and a large NiMH battery pack providing power-assist during acceleration. This computer-controlled combination provided acceptable performance with exceptionally low fuel consumption and emissions. Honda's hybrid power train in now an available option for the Civic and Accord.

For the 2007 model year, Honda plans to improve the safety of its vehicles by providing front-seat mounted side airbags, side-curtain airbags, and anti-lock brakes as standard equipment in all automobiles available in North America (except the Insight and S2000, which will not have side-curtain airbags). By 2008, Honda plans to have standard traction with vehicle stability control with rollover sensors in all light trucks, which include the CR-V, Odyssey, Pilot, and Acura MDX. Honda also plans to make its vehicles safer for pedestrians, with more safely-designed hoods, hinges, frame constructs, and breakaway wiper pivots.

Leadership

* 1948-1973 — Soichiro Honda
* 1973-1983 — Kiyoshi Kawashima
* 1983-1990 — Tadashi Kume
* 1990-1998 — Nobuhiko Kawamoto
* 1998-2004 — Hiroyuki Yoshino
* 2004-present — Takeo Fukui

Racing history

Motorcycle

Main article: Honda Racing Corporation

Honda Racing Corporation logo
Honda Racing Corporation logo

Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) was formed in 1954. The company combines participation in motorcycle races throughout the world with the development of high potential racing machines. Its racing activities are an important source for the creation of leading edge technologies used in the development of Honda motorcycles. HRC also contributes to the advancement of motorcycle sports through a range of activities that include sales of production racing motorcycles, support for satellite teams, and rider education programs.

Soichiro Honda, being a race driver himself, could not stay out of international motorsport. In 1959 , Honda entered five motorcycles into the Isle of Man TT race, at that time the most prestigious motorcycle race in the world. While always having powerful engines, it took until 1961 for Honda to tune their chassis well enough to allow Mike Hailwood to claim their first Grand Prix victories in the 125 and 250 cc classes. Hailwood would later pick up their first senior TT wins in 1966 and 1967. Honda's race bikes were known for their 'sleek & stylish design' and exotic engine configurations, such as the 5 cylinder, 22,000 rpm, 125 cc bike and their 6 cylinder 250 cc and 380 cc bikes.

1979 saw Honda return to Grand Prix motorcycle racing with their exotic, monocoque-framed, four-stroke NR500. The NR500 featured elongated cylinders each with 8 valves and with connecting rods in pairs, in an attempt to comply with the FIM rules which limited engines to four cylinders. Honda engineered the elongated cylinders in an effort to provide the valve area of an 8 cylinder engine, hoping their four-stroke bike would be able to compete against the now dominant two-stroke racers. Unfortunately, it seemed Honda tried to accomplish too much at one time and the experiment failed. For the 1982 season, Honda debuted their first two stroke race bike, the NS500 and in 1983, Honda won their first 500 cc Grand Prix World Championship with Freddie Spencer. Since then, Honda has become a dominant marque in motorcycle Grand Prix.

In motocross, Honda has claimed 24 motocross world championships.

Automobile

See also Honda F1

Honda re-entered Formula One in 2006 after buying the British American Racing team.
Honda re-entered Formula One in 2006 after buying the British American Racing team.

Honda entered Formula One as a constructor for the first time in the 1964 season at the German Grand Prix with Ronnie Bucknum at the wheel. 1965 saw the addition of Richie Ginther to the team, who scored Honda's first point at the Belgian Grand Prix, and Honda's first win at the Mexican Grand Prix. 1967 saw their next win at the Italian Grand Prix with John Surtees as their driver. In 1968, Jo Schlesser was killed in a Honda RA302 at the French Grand Prix. This racing tragedy, coupled with their commercial difficulties selling automobiles in the United States, prompted Honda to withdraw from all international motorsport that year.

After a learning year in 1965, Honda-powered Brabhams dominated the 1966 French Formula Two championship in the hands of Jack Brabham and Denny Hulme. As there was no European Championship that season, this was the top F2 championship that year. In the early 1980s Honda returned to F2, supplying engines to Ron Tauranac's Ralt team. Tauranac had designed the Brabham cars for their earlier involvement. They were again extremely successful. In a related exercise, John Judd's Engine Developments company produced a turbo 'Brabham-Honda' engine for use in CART racing. It won only one race, in 1988 for Bobby Rahal at Pocono.

Honda returned to Formula One in 1983, initially with another Formula Two partner, the Spirit team, before switching abruptly to Williams in 1984. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Honda powered cars won six consecutive Formula One Constructors Championships. WilliamsF1 won the crown in 1986 and 1987. Honda switched allegiance again in 1988. New partners Team McLaren won the title in 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991. Honda withdrew from Formula One at the end of 1992, although the related Mugen-Honda company maintained a presence up to the end of 1999, winning four races with Ligier and Jordan Grand Prix.

Honda debuted in the American CART series as a works supplier in 1994. The engines were far from competitive at first, but after development, the company powered six consecutive drivers championships. In 2003 , Honda transferred its effort to the rival Indy Racing League series. In 2004, Honda-powered cars overwhelmingly dominated IRL, winning 14 of 16 IRL events, including the Indianapolis 500, and claimed the IRL Manufacturers' Championship, Drivers' Championship and Rookie of the Year titles. In 2006, Honda became the sole engine supplier for the IRL, including the Indianapolis 500. In the 2006 Indianapolis 500, for the first time in Indianapolis 500 history, the race was run without a single engine problem [5].

During 1998, Honda considered returning to Formula One with their own team. The project was aborted after the death of its technical director, Harvey Postlethwaite. Honda instead came back as an official engine supplier to British American Racing (BAR) and Jordan Grand Prix. Honda bought a stake in the BAR team in 2004 before buying the team outright at the end of 2005, becoming a constructor for the first time since the 1960s. Honda won the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix with driver Jenson Button.

Strategy and public image
2006 Honda Accord
2006 Honda Accord

During the 1960s, when it was a small manufacturer, Honda broke out of the Japanese motorcycle market and began exporting to the US. Taking Honda’s story as an archetype of the smaller manufacturer entering a new market already occupied by highly dominant competitors, the story of their market entry, and their subsequent huge success in the US and around the world, has been the subject of some academic controversy. Competing explanations have been advanced to explain Honda’s strategy and the reasons for their success.

The first of these explanations was put forward when, in 1975, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was commissioned by the UK government to write a report explaining why and how the British motorcycle industry had been out-competed by its Japanese competitors. The report concluded that the Japanese firms, including Honda, had sought a very high scale of production (they had made a large number of motorbikes) in order to benefit from economies of scale and learning curve effects. It blamed the decline of the British motorcycle industry on the failure of British managers to invest enough in their businesses to profit from economies of scale and scope.
2004 Honda Super Cub
2004 Honda Super Cub

The second story is told in 1984 by Richard Pascale, who had interviewed the Honda executives responsible for the firm’s entry into the US market. As opposed to the tightly focused strategy of low cost and high scale that BCG accredited to Honda, Pascale found that their entry into the US market was a story of “miscalculation, serendipity, and organizational learning” – in other words, Honda’s success was due to the adaptability (and hard work) of its staff, rather than any long term strategy. For example, Honda’s initial plan on entering the US was to compete in large motorcycles, around 300cc. It was only when the team found that the scooters they were using to get themselves around their US base of San Francisco attracted positive interest from consumers that they came up with the idea of selling the Supercub.
Honda Outboard motor on a pontoon boat
Honda Outboard motor on a pontoon boat

The most recent school of thought on Honda’s strategy was put forward by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad in 1989 . Creating the concept of core competencies with Honda as an example, they argued that Honda’s success was due to its focus on leadership in the technology of internal combustion engines. For example, the high power-to-weight ratio engines Honda produced for its racing bikes provided technology and expertise which was transferable into mopeds.

Honda's entry into the US motorcycle market during the 1960s is used as a case study for teaching introductory strategy at business schools worldwide.

Its first entrance into the pickup segment, the lightduty Ridgeline, won Truck of the Year from Motor Trend magazine in 2006 (also in 2006, the redesigned Civic won Car of the Year from the magazine, giving Honda a rare double win of Motor Trend honors).

Initiatives

Although a relatively small manufacturer compared to the other Japanese automakers, Honda is the largest engine maker in the world. Honda has a number of firsts in many categories, including the first engine to meet the 1970 US Clean Air Act (1975 CVCC), the first luxury Japanese car (1987 Legend) and motorcycle (2006 Gold Wing bikes) equipped with an airbag, as well as the first mid-size pickup truck with independent rear suspension (2006 Ridgeline).

The 2006 Ridgeline was a reintroduction of the concept of a Uni-Body truck. Earlier examples of this concept are the Subaru Brat, Volkswagen Rabbit pick-up, and Dodge Rampage/Plymouth Scamp.

Honda has also pioneered new technology in its HA-420 HondaJet that allows new levels of reduced drag, increased aerodynamics and fuel efficiency thus reducing operating costs.

Honda's robot ASIMO (see below) as an R&D project brings together expertise to create a robot that walks, dances and navigates steps.

Marketing

Honda's official slogan is The Power of Dreams. Many of Honda's most remarkable advertising campaigns have been released for the UK market, and have not been broadcast in North America except on the internet.

In 2003, Honda released its Cog advertisement in the UK and on the Internet. To make the ad, the engineers at Honda constructed a Rube Goldberg Machine made entirely out of car parts from the Honda Accord. To the despair of the engineers at Honda, all the parts were taken from 2 of only 6 hand assembled pre-production models of the Accord. The ad depicted a single cog which sets off a chain of events that ends with the Honda Accord moving and Garrison Keillor speaking the tagline, "Isn't it nice when things just... work?" It took 606 takes to get it perfect.[citation needed]

In 2004, they produced the Hate Something advert, which is still shown on British television now, usually immediately followed by a shortened version of the 2005/2006 Impossible Dream advert.

In 2006, Honda released its Choir advertisement, for the UK and the internet. This featured a 60-person choir who sang the car noises as film of the Honda Civic are shown.

In December 2005, Honda released The Impossible Dream a 2 minute panoramic advertisement filmed in New Zealand, Japan and Argentina which illustrates the founder's dream to build performance vehicles. A man reaches for his racing helmet, leaves his trailer on a minibike riding succeeding vintage Honda vehicles while singing, on a motorcycle, then a car, then a powerboat, then goes over a waterfall only to reappear piloting a hot air balloon, with Garrison Keillor saying "I couldn't have put it better myself" as the song ends. The song is from the 1960s musical "Man Of La Mancha", sung by Andy Williams.

In Australia, Honda advertised heavily during most motor racing telecasts, and were the official sponsor of the 2006 FIA Formula 1 telecast on broadcaster channel "Ten". In fact, they were the only manufacturer involved in the 2006 Indy Racing League season. In a series of adverts promoting the history of Honda's racing heritage, Honda claimed they "built" cars that won 72 Formula 1 Grand Prix. Detractors scoffed and called it "false advertising", saying that nearly all those victories were claimed by Honda powered (engined) machines, with the cars themselves designed and built by Lotus F1, Williams F1 and McLaren F1 teams respectively. However, former and current staff of the McLaren F1 team have repeatedly proclaimed that Honda contributed more than just engines and provided various chassis, tooling and aerodynamic parts as well as funding. Ayrton Senna, arguably the greatest F1 driver of all time, repeatedly stated that Honda probably played the most significant role in his 3 World Championships. He had immense respect for founder, Soichiro Honda and had a good relationship with Nobuhiko Kawamoto, the chairman of Honda at that time. Senna once called Honda "the greatest company in the world".

For the last several years, during model close-out sales for the current year before the start of the new model year, Honda's advertising has featured an animated character known simply as Mr. Opportunity, voiced by Rob Paulsen. The casual looking man talks about various deals offered by Honda and ends with the phrase "I'm Mr. Opportunity, and I'm knockin'", followed by him then him 'knocking' on the television screen or 'thumping' the speaker at the end of radio ads. Also, commercials for Honda's international minivan, the Jazz, are parodies of well-known pop culture images such as Tetris and Thomas The Tank Engine.

As part of their marketing campaign, Honda is an official partner and sponsor of Major League Soccer.

In late 2006 Honda released an ad with ASIMO exploring a museum, looking at the exhibits with almost child-like wonderment (spreading out its arms in the aerospace exhibit, waving hello to an astronaut suit that resembles him, etc.), while Garrison Keillor ruminates on progress. It concludes with the tagline: "More forwards please".

The latest campaign for Honda, released May 2007, focuses on their strengths in racing and the use of the Red H badge - a symbol of what is termed as 'Hondamentalism'. The campaign highlights the lengths that Honda engineers go to in order to get the most out of an engine, whether it's for bikes, cars, powerboats - even lawnmowers. Honda released its Hondamentalism campaign. In the TV spot, Garrison Keillor says, "An engineer once said to build something great is like swimming in honey." while Honda engineers in white suits walk and run towards a great light, battling strong winds and flying debris, holding on to anything that will keep them from being blown away. Finally one of the engineers walks towards a red light, his hand outstretched. A web address is shown for the Hondamentalism website. The digital campaign aims to show how visitors to the site share many of the Hondamentalist characteristics.

Facilities (partial list)

Japan

* Suzuka, Mie — cars
* Hamamatsu, Shizuoka — motorcycles
* Sayama, Saitama — cars, light trucks
* Kikuchi, Kumamoto — motorcycles, ATVs
* Utsunomiya, Tochigi — vehicle R&D

United States

North American Facilities List and description

* Lincoln, Alabama — Odyssey, Pilot, V6 engines
* East Liberty, Ohio — Civic Sedan/Coupe/GX, Element, CR-V
* Marysville, Ohio — Accord Sedan/Coupe, Acura TL, Acura RDX, motorcycles (Gold Wing 1800, Valkyrie Rune, VTX 1300/1800, Shadow 1100), motorcycle engines
* Anna, Ohio — Engines
* Raymond, Ohio — Vehicle R&D
* Torrance, California — Vehicle R&D/design
* Swepsonville, North Carolina — General purpose engines, Walk-behind lawn mowers, Snow blower, String trimmers, Water pumps, nnd Tillers
* Greensburg, Indiana — Civic Sedan (Opening in Fall 2008)
* Timmonsville, South Carolina — ATV's & watercraft(Four Trax Recon, Four Trax Foreman, Four Trax Rancher, Four Trax Rincon, Four Trax Rubicon, Sportrax 400EX/250EX, AquaTrax F-12/12X)

Canada

* Alliston, Ontario -- HCM 1 - Civic (Including all Coupes and Civic Si's) and Acura CSX
HCM 2 - Civic Sedan, Ridgeline and Acura MDX

Mexico

* Guadalajara, Jalisco — Engines, CR-V SUV (50,000 units a year).

United Kingdom

* Swindon, England, UK - EP3 - Civic SI (USA), Civic SiR (Canada), Civic Type-R, Type-S and standard (Europe, South Africa and Australia) as well as the Honda C-RV for the same destinations.

Brazil

* Manaus, Amazonas — motorcycles
* Sumare, São Paulo — cars (Civic and Fit)

Colombia

* Cali, Valle del Cauca — motorcycles

Thailand

* Ayutthaya

Turkey

* Gebze

Malaysia

* Malacca — Constant Velocity Joints
* Penang Motorcycle under Boon Siew Honda

Argentina

* Zárate, Family Cars

India

* Gurgaon, Haryana — Motorcycles and scooters.
* Noida, Uttar Pradesh — Cars and SUVs

Vietnam

* Dong Anh, Hanoi — Cars and scooters
* Vinh Phuc — Cars and parts

Robots
ASIMO at Expo 2005 in Japan
ASIMO at Expo 2005 in Japan

ASIMO is the part of Honda's Research & Development robotics program. It is the eleventh in a line of successive builds starting in 1986 with Honda E0 moving through the ensuing Honda E series and the Honda P series. Weighing 54 kilograms and standing 130 centimeters tall, ASIMO resembles a small astronaut wearing a backpack, and can walk on two feet in a manner resembling human locomotion, at up to 6 km/h. It is the world's only humanoid robot able to ascend and descend stairs independently.[6] However, human motions such as climbing stairs are difficult to mimic with a machine, which ASIMO has demonstrated by taking two plunges off of a staircase.

AdSense

2007-10-04T05:36:00.000-07:00

AdSense is an ad serving program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image and, more recently, video advertisements on their sites. These ads are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-thousand-impressions basis. Google is also currently beta-testing a cost-per-action based service.

Contents
1 Overview
2 History
3 AdSense for feeds
4 AdSense for search
5 How AdSense works
6 Abuse
7 Criticism
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

Overview
Google utilizes its search technology to serve ads based on website content, the user's geographical location, and other factors. Those wanting to advertise with Google's targeted ad system may sign up through AdWords. AdSense has become a popular method of placing advertising on a website because the ads are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the ads is often relevant to the website.

Currently, the AdSense uses JavaScript code to incorporate the advertisements into a participating site. If it is included on a site which has not yet been crawled by the Mediabot, it will temporarily display advertisements for charitable causes known as public service announcements (PSAs). (The Mediabot is a separate crawler from the Googlebot that maintains Google's search index.)

Many sites use AdSense to monetize their content and some webmasters work hard to maximize their own AdSense income. They do this in three ways:

They use a wide range of traffic generating techniques including but not limited to online advertising.
They build valuable content on their sites which attracts AdSense ads which pay out the most when they get clicked.
They use copy on their websites that encourage clicks on ads. Note that Google prohibits people from using phrases like "Click on my AdSense ads" to increase click rates. Phrases accepted are "Sponsored Links" and "Advertisements".
The source of all AdSense income is the AdWords program which in turn has a complex pricing model based on a Vickrey second price auction, in that it commands an advertiser to submit a sealed bid (not observable by competitors). Additionally, for any given click received, advertisers only pay one bid increment above the second-highest bid.

History
The underlying technology behind AdSense was derived originally from WordNet and Simpli, a company started by the founder of Wordnet — George A. Miller — and a number of professors and graduate students from Brown University, including James A. Anderson, Jeff Stibel and Steve Reiss.[1] A variation of this technology utilizing Wordnet was developed by Oingo, a small search engine company based in Santa Monica founded in 1998.[2] Oingo focused on semantic searches rather than brute force string searches.[3] Oingo changed its name to Applied Semantics, which was then bought by Google for $102 million in April 2003, to replace a similar system being developed in house.

AdSense for feeds
In May 2005, Google unveiled AdSense for feeds, a version of AdSense that runs on RSS and Atom feeds that have more than 100 active subscribers. According to the Official Google Blog, "advertisers have their ads placed in the most appropriate feed articles; publishers are paid for their original content; readers see relevant advertising — and in the long run, more quality feeds to choose from".

AdSense for feeds works by inserting images into a feed. When the image is displayed by the reader/browser, Google writes the ad content into the image that it returns. The ad content is chosen based on the content of the feed surrounding the image. When the user clicks the image, he or she is redirected to the advertiser's site in the same way as regular AdSense ads.

AdSense for search
A companion to the regular AdSense program, AdSense for search lets website owners place Google search boxes on their pages. When a user searches the web or the site with the search box, Google shares any ad revenue it makes from those searches with the site owner. However, only if the ads on the page are clicked, the publisher is paid. Adsense does not pay publishers for mere searches.

As of September 2007, the HTML code for the AdSense search box does not validate as XHTML, and does not follow modern principles of website design:

non-standard closing tags such as and
the boolean (minimized) attribute checked rather than checked="checked"
presentational attributes other than id, class, or style, such as bgcolor and align
a table structure used for purely presentational (non-tabular) purposes
the font tag
The terms of the AdSense program forbid their affiliates from modifying the code, thus preventing these participants from having validated XHTML websites.

How AdSense works
Each time a visitor visits a page with an AdSense tag, a piece of JavaScript writes an iframe tag, whose "src" attribute includes the URL of the page.

For contextual advertisements, Google's servers use a cache of the page for the URL or the keywords in the URL itself to determine a set of high-value keywords. (Some of the details are described in the AdSense patent). If keywords have been cached already, ads are served for those keywords based on the AdWords bidding system.

For Site targeted ads, advertiser can choose the page or sites he wants to display ads on and pays on a CPM basis (cost per thousand impressions)

For referrals Google manage the subscriptions on a long term, to add money when the visitors either download the product of subscribe, that depend upon the sort of product.

For search, advertisements are added to the list of results and clicks on them make money.

To protect webmasters from bad use of their code, it is possible for them in the configuration panel to make a list of websites where advertisements are published. When other sites use their JavaScript code, clicks on ads are ignored.

Abuse
Some webmasters create sites tailored to lure searchers from Google and other engines onto their AdSense site to make money from clicks. These "zombie" sites often contain nothing but a large amount of interconnected, automated content (e.g.: A directory with content from the Open Directory Project, or scraper sites relying on RSS feeds for content). Possibly the most popular form of such "AdSense farms" are splogs ("spam blogs"), which are centered around known high-paying keywords. Many of these sites use content from other web sites, such as Wikipedia, to attract visitors. These and related approaches are considered to be search engine spam and can be reported to Google.

MFA (Made For Adsense) is a site or page with little or no content, but filled with advertisements so users have no choice but to click on ads. Such pages were tolerated in the past, but due to complaints Google now disables such accounts.

There have also been reports of Trojans engineered to produce fake Google ads that are formatted to look like legitimate ones. The Trojan Horse apparently downloads itself onto an unsuspecting computer through a web page and then replaces the original ads with its own set of malicious ads.

Criticism
Due to concerns about click fraud, Google AdSense has been criticized by some Search engine optimization firms as a large source of what Google calls "invalid clicks" in which one company clicks on a rival's search engine ads to drive up its costs.[6] Some publishers have been blocked by Google, complaining that little justification or transparency was provided. Webmasters who publish Adsense can receive a lifelong ban without justification. Google claims the revealing of any information may reveal the nature of their "proprietary" click fraud system, and thus Google will not "disclose any specific details".

To help prevent click fraud, publishers of AdWords can choose from a number of click tracking programs. These programs will display detailed information about the visitors who click on the AdSense advertisements. Publishers can use that data to determine if they've been a victim of click fraud or not. There are a number of commercial tracking scripts available for purchase.

The payment terms for webmasters have also been criticized. Google withholds payment until an account reaches US$100 , but many small content providers require a long time - years in many cases - to build up this much AdSense revenue. These pending payments are recorded on Google's balance sheet as "accrued revenue share". At the close of its 2006 fiscal year, the sum of all these small debts amounted to a little over US $370 million - cash that Google is able to invest but which effectively belongs to webmasters. However, Google will pay all earned revenue, even if smaller than 100 dollars, when the Adsense account is closed.

Google came recently under fire after the official Google AdSense Blog showcased the French video-site Imineo.com that clearly violates Google’s AdSense Program Policies by displaying AdSense near explicit adult content while other site owners were banned for showing adult content.

paypal

2007-10-04T05:29:00.001-07:00

PayPal is an e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. It serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as cheques and money orders. PayPal performs payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other corporate users, for which it charges a fee. On October 3, 2002, PayPal became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay. Its corporate headquarters are in San Jose, California, at eBay's North First Street satellite office campus. The company also has significant operations in Omaha, Nebraska; Dublin, Ireland; and Berlin, Germany.

* 1 History
o 1.1 Beginnings
o 1.2 Acquisition by eBay
* 2 Business today
* 3 Bank status
* 4 Safety and protection policies
* 5 Security Key
* 6 Money Market
* 7 Entrepreneurship by former employees
* 8 Criticism
o 8.1 Legal issues
* 9 References
* 10 See also
* 11 External links

PayPal is the result of a March 2000 merger between Confinity and X.com. Confinity was founded in December 1998 by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek, initially as a Palm Pilot payments and cryptography company.Both Confinity and X.com launched their websites in late 1999. X.com was founded by Elon Musk in March 1999, initially as an Internet financial services company. Both companies were located on University Avenue in Palo Alto. Confinity's website was initially focused on reconciling beamed payments from Palm Pilots with email payments as a feature and X.com's website initially included financial services with email payments as a feature.

At Confinity, many of the initial recruits were alumni of The Stanford Review, also founded by Peter Thiel, and most early engineers hailed from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, recruited by Max Levchin. On the X.com side, Elon Musk recruited a wide range of technical and business personnel, including many that were critical to the combined company's success, such as Amy Klement, Sal Giambanco, Roelof Botha, Sanjay Bhargava and Jeremy Stoppelman.

To block potentially fraudulent access by automated systems, PayPal devised a system (see CAPTCHA) of making the user enter numbers from a blurry picture, which they coined the Gausebeck-Levchin test. According to Eric M. Jackson, author of the book The PayPal Wars, PayPal invented this system now in common use; however, there is evidence AltaVista used a CAPTCHA as early as 1997, before PayPal existed.[citation needed] The neutrality of The PayPal Wars, which was self-published by Eric Jackson through his company World Ahead Publishing, funded in part by Peter Thiel, is disputed. eBay watched the rise in volume of online payments and realized its fit with online auctions. eBay purchased Billpoint in May 1999, prior to the existence of PayPal. eBay made Billpoint the official payment system of eBay, dubbing it "eBay Payments", but cut the functionality of Billpoint by narrowing it to only payments made for eBay auctions.

For this reason, PayPal was listed in several times as many auctions as Billpoint. In February of 2000, there were approximately an average of 200,000 daily auctions advertising the PayPal service while Billpoint (in beta) had only 4,000 auctions. By April of 2000 there were more than 1,000,000 auctions promoting the PayPal service. PayPal was able to turn the corner and become the first dot-com to IPO after the September 11 attacks.

Acquisition by eBay

In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay. PayPal had previously been the payment method of choice by more than fifty percent of eBay users, and the service competed with eBay’s subsidiary Billpoint. eBay has since phased out its Billpoint service in favor of retaining the PayPal brand. Most of PayPal’s major competitors have shut down or have been sold; Citibank’s c2it service closed in late 2003, and Yahoo!'s PayDirect service closed in late 2004. Western Union announced the December 2005 shut down of their BidPay service but subsequently sold it in 2006 to CyberSource Corporation. Some competitors which offer some of PayPal’s services, such as Wirecard, Moneybookers, 2Checkout, CCNow and Kagi, remain in business.

PayPal’s total payment volume, the total value of transactions in Q4 2006, was US$11 billion, up 36% year over year. The company continues to focus on international growth and growth of its Merchant Services division, providing online payments for retailers off eBay.

Business today

As of the end of Q4 2006, PayPal operates in 103 markets, and it manages over 133 million accounts. PayPal allows customers to send, receive, and hold funds in 17 currencies worldwide. These currencies are the U.S. dollar, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, Euro, Pound sterling, Japanese yen, Chinese renminbi, Czech Koruna, Danish krone, Hong Kong dollar, Hungarian forint, New Zealand dollar, Norwegian krone, Polish zloty, Singapore dollar, Swedish krona, and Swiss franc. PayPal operates locally in 13 countries.

Residents in 48 new markets can now use PayPal in their local markets to send money online. These new markets include Peru, Indonesia, the Philippines, Croatia, Fiji, Vietnam and Jordan. A complete list can be viewed at PayPal's website.

In China PayPal offers two kinds of accounts:

* PayPal.com accounts, for sending and receiving money to/from other PayPal.com accounts. All non-Chinese accounts are PayPal.com accounts, so these accounts may be used to send money internationally.
* PayPal.cn accounts, for sending and receiving money to and from other PayPal.cn accounts.

It is impossible to send money between PayPal.cn accounts and PayPal.com accounts, so PayPal.cn accounts are effectively unable to make international payments. For PayPal.cn, the only supported currency is the renminbi.

PayPal’s operation center is located near Omaha, Nebraska and PayPal’s international headquarters is located in Dublin, Ireland. The company also recently opened a technology center in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Bank status

In the United States, PayPal is licensed as a money transmitter on a state-by-state basis.[citation needed] Although PayPal is not a bank, the company is still subject to and adheres to many of the rules and regulations governing the financial industry including Regulation E consumer protections and the USA PATRIOT Act.[citation needed] However, on May 15, 2007, PayPal announced that it would move its European operations from the UK to Luxembourg, commencing July 2, 2007 as PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. & Cie, S.C.A.[citation needed] This would be as a Luxembourg entity regulated as a bank by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), the Luxembourg equivalent of the FSA.[citation needed] PayPal Luxembourg will then provide the PayPal service throughout the European Union (EU).

Safety and protection policies
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The PayPal Buyer Protection Policy claims that customers may file a buyer complaint within 45 days if they did not receive an item or if the item they purchased was significantly not as described. If the buyer used a credit card, they might get a refund via charge back from their credit card company.

PayPal protects sellers in a limited fashion via the Seller Protection Policy[4]. In general the Seller Protection Policy is intended to protect the seller from certain kinds of chargebacks or complaints if seller meets certain conditions including proof of delivery to the buyer. PayPal states the Seller Protection Policy is "designed to protect sellers against claims by buyers of unauthorized payments and against claims of non-receipt of any merchandise". Note that this contrasts with the consumer protection they claim to offer. This policy should be read carefully before assuming protection. In particular the Seller Protection Policy includes a list of "Exclusions" which itself includes "Intangible goods", "Claims for receipt of goods 'not as described'" and "Total reversals over the annual limit". There are also other restrictions in terms of the sale itself, the payment method and the destination country the item is shipped to (simply having a tracking mechanism is not sufficient to guarantee the Seller Protection Policy is in effect).

The company—by its own admission—uses automated systems to verify tracking numbers in some cases. If a seller has an item not received claim filed against them, they are required to enter a tracking number for the item. If they fail to enter a valid tracking number that shows a successful delivery, or even mistype the number by one digit, they may lose the claim automatically without a real person ever adjudicating the claim. In general, if a valid tracking number is entered which can be accessed online and shows a successful delivery, the seller will automatically win the claim.

The item significantly not as described claim is a more complicated matter. In this situation, the buyer has acknowledged the receipt of the item but has found the item to be "significantly not as described." The multi-level process provides an initial period of time for the seller and buyer to attempt to reach an agreement on their own. If the seller does not respond to the initial dispute from the buyer, or if the seller is unable to offer a settlement which is agreeable to the buyer, either the buyer or seller have the option of escalating the dispute to a claim. If seller does not wish to communicate with buyer, the seller also may choose to escalate a dispute to a claim. The escalation from dispute to claim is not automatic; if a dispute is not escalated it will be automatically closed after a certain period of time. By escalating the dispute to a claim, the party is asking a PayPal representative to review the claim and make a settlement decision. In most cases, if the seller has been found to have misrepresented the item in a significant way, the buyer will be required to return the item to the seller at buyer's expense — and provide a tracking number for the return shipment — in order to receive their full refund for the transaction (including original shipping and handling). This policy is criticized as being in favor of the fraudulent seller.

If the seller has not been found to have misrepresented the item in a significant way, then the buyer's claim will be denied and the buyer will have no further opportunity for claims of any type using PayPal's systems. The only recourse the buyer would possibly have at that point would be through their credit card company (if payment was made using a credit card) or by filing a claim against PayPal through the Better Business Bureau or another similar consumer protection organization.

Security Key

In early 2007, PayPal introduced an optional security key to its users. This adds an additional layer of protection when logging into a PayPal or eBay account. Once a user enters their login ID and password, they are prompted to press a button on the small security key, then enter the six-digit number to complete the login process. There is a one-time US$5 charge for this device, with no ongoing fees; however, business accounts get them free of charge.

Money Market

In 2000, PayPal began offering its customers the option of investing their funds in a Money Market account managed by Barclays plc. If a user activates it, the balance of their account begins earning monthly dividends. The rate fluctuates daily, but thus far has been around 5%, and this percentage is the same regardless of the account balance. Funds are not insured by the FDIC.

Entrepreneurship by former employees

A number of companies have been started and funded by former PayPal employees. This trend prompted The New York Times to publish a story entitled "It Pays to Have Pals in Silicon Valley" that analyzes the connections between several PayPal employees who went on to become influential.
* LinkedIn was founded by Reid Hoffman, a former VP at PayPal.
* Facebook received its first angel investment from Peter Thiel.
* Clarium Capital Management is a hedge fund run by Peter Thiel. Principal partners at Clarium include Ken Howery and Luke Nosek, both of whom were among the earliest employees at PayPal.
* Palantir Technologies was founded by Nathan Gettings, who developed PayPal's anti-fraud models. Palantir received funding from Peter Thiel.
* Slide was founded by Max Levchin, Jared Kopf, and former PayPal board member Scott Banister.
* Yelp was founded by Jeremy Stoppelmann, former VP of Engineering at PayPal, and Russ Simmons, one of the first employees at PayPal. Yelp is funded by Max Levchin.
* YouTube (now owned by Google) was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, all of whom were early employees at PayPal. YouTube is funded by Sequoia Capital. Roelof Botha, the former CFO of PayPal, is a partner of Sequoia Capital who sits on YouTube's board of directors.
* Room 9 Entertainment, which produced the movie Thank You for Smoking, was founded by David O. Sacks, who founded PayPal's Product Group and later served as Chief Operating Officer (COO).
* Geni.com was also founded by David Sacks.
* SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk, who founded X.com and served as the CEO following its merger with PayPal.
* Fraudwall Technologies is run by Ken Miller, who was VP of Risk Management at PayPal and the architect of PayPal's anti-fraud system.
* Tesla Motors' principal owner and Chairman of the Board is Elon Musk.

Criticism
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PayPal's customer service has been criticized for how they handle customer issues. For example, in September 2005, Something Awful's owner, Rich Kyanka, criticized how the customer service handled a frozen account (frozen due to the high rate at which donations were made) that was used on the Something Awful website to collect donations for Hurricane Katrina.
Legal issues

In March 2002, two PayPal account holders separately sued the company for alleged violations of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA) and California law. Most of the allegations concerned PayPal's dispute resolution procedures. The two lawsuits were merged into one class action lawsuit (In re PayPal litigation). An informal settlement was reached in November 2003, and a formal settlement was signed on June 11, 2004. The settlement requires that PayPal change its business practices (including changing its dispute resolution procedures to make them EFTA-compliant), as well as making a US$9.25 million payment to members of the class. PayPal denied any wrongdoing.

In August 2002, Craig Comb and others filed a class action against PayPal in Craig Comb, et al. v. PayPal, Inc.. They sued for alleged mishandling of customer accounts and customer services, with regards to PayPal's user agreement. Allegations included restricting deposited funds for up to 180 days until disputes are resolved, forcing customers to arbitrate their disputes under the American Arbitration Association's guidelines (a costly procedure), and requiring users to file claims individually, restricting class action suits. The court stated that "the User Agreement and arbitration clause are substantively unconscionable under California law" and ruled in favor of Comb.