Latest news about Luxury Homes
Local luxury home sales jumped in February (Indianapolis Business Journal)
Luxury home sales in central Indiana surged in February despite an overall decline in home sales, Re/Max of Indiana reported Monday morning.
15 Mar 2010, 9:40 am | click here to view more
Evers & Co. Real Estate Launches New Luxury Homes and Renovations Division To Assist Home Buyers In Realizing Grand ... (PRWeb via Yahoo! News)
Evers & Co. Real Estate, the largest lady-owned and-operated residential real estate firm in the Washington, D.C. area, announces the launch of its New Luxury Homes and Renovations Division to help guide families through the complex process of building or transforming a property into a residence of their dreams. Joining the firm to guide the new offering are real estate professionals Eric ...
15 Mar 2010, 2:01 am | click here to view more
Bargain hunters lap up luxury (The Courier Mail)
CASHED-UP bargain hunters are making their move, snapping up more than $13 million worth of luxury houses and townhouses in the Brisbane area.
14 Mar 2010, 9:00 am | click here to view more
Find The Perfect Vacation Hideaway In Miami Beach Luxury Homes (Turks.US)
If you're a frequent vacationer in sunny Miami Beach then you might want to consider getting a permanent vacation hideaway in the city than having to rent out a home every time you visit.
14 Mar 2010, 7:07 pm | click here to view more
Open Question: Hanging a 39" LCD with one stud? Can it be done?
I have researched a little and it sounds like best case scenario is to have two studs...I dont have that luxury. 4" Tapcons are out of the question. I am too far from the concrete. Is one stud in the middle of the tv good enough? Other options?
14 Mar 2010, 10:27 pm | click here to view more
Open Question: why is life so unfair?
My 25 year old niece who has never had a full time job, won't work. lives at home with her parents and gets up at 2pm everyday..has won £250 000! Ive worked full time as a nurse every my life as a single mum of 2 and can't even afford many luxuries because of my mortgage. It just makes me think how unfair life is :/
13 Mar 2010, 9:35 am | click here to view more
Open Question: Is Jasmine Villegas hair layered?
http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/9sUzjlsbAGz/American+Music+Awards+Luxury+Lounge+Day+1/P3HKrQW7lrk/Jasmine+Villegas
13 Mar 2010, 9:10 pm | click here to view more
Open Question: Help! What can I do about the atheists driving down the price of real estate in my neighborhood?
I possess a luxury apartment building in which I only rent to good Christian families. However, there have been more and more atheists moving into the community and the price of real estate has dropped dramatically recently. The problem is that these atheists make it well known that they are atheists, including protesting the use of religious decorations in public buildings for holidays like christmas and easter. What can be done about this?
13 Mar 2010, 8:58 pm | click here to view more
Open Question: How to find Prices of Items over Time?
Im doing an economics Project and i have to find the elasticity of Luxury items to show why they are luxury items. To do that i have to find the price of an item over certain periods of time. for example 1990, 1995, 2000, etc. But the problem is i dont know how i can find these prices i asked my professor and he suggested looking at associations...but that didnt really help. can someone help me?
13 Mar 2010, 7:33 pm | click here to view more
Banking on Grand Bahama Real Estate: Shoreline Bahamas Almost Sold Out: Eight Custom Homes Remain Available (PRWeb via Yahoo! News)
Grand Bahama Island’s Shoreline community is nearly complete, with only eight luxury homes ranging in price from $850,000 to $1.5 million still available. The master-planned, single-family home community has filled quickly, as despite the economy, U.S. and Canadian residents show interest in Bahamas real estate due to its warmer weather and tropical lifestyle.
13 Mar 2010, 7:00 am | click here to view more
Resolved Question: I keep seeing this health insurance ad so i did the quote thing, WHO the Heck cant afford 98 $ a month?
im chilly i got full VA and im young but that aside i could afford that easy , that's about how much i pay in cable and net a month so really are people that needy or do they refuse to drop some luxuries ? yes i was going to post a link but then the quote had my personal info on it its NC blue cross
13 Mar 2010, 6:58 pm | click here to view more
Open Question: Is restricted access to lifts into a building classed as disability discrimination?
Hi, if you are disabled and therefore require the use of lifts in order to gain access to the different levels of floors in a building, is it classed as discrimination if access to these lifts are heavily restricted due to the over use, incompetence, laziness of other people and time waiting for you to gain access to them? I suffer with cerebral palsy, and for a long time now I have been subjected to over using the stairs to my physical ability ( I shouldn't even use stairs!), the lifts are by far too busy with the use of hundreds of people, I can never receive clear access to them when needed, and even when clearly visible people ignore you and try to receive in the lifts themselves I am also left waiting in pain before every the able bodied persons are catered for, before me who needs the lift can use them. And at the same time nothing is being done in place to make it every the better, it is just a problem which just spans out and escalates. Is every this therefore classed as discrimination? And if so who is therefore liable/responsible for getting this put right. Also what is the differences with rights. in regards to a disabled person (who needs lifts) compared to what an able bodied person may who may call it their human rights in which to use the lifts. is it a human right to use lifts (when able bodied) or just a luxury. Thanks Sure if the lifts are even public those rights of a disabled person are somewhat more or increased. After every a able bodied walking person would be perfectly able to make it up say to the top of a 7 level building compared to that of someone limited to the use of a power or manual wheelchair. Wheels cannot go up stairs! And surely in the Disability Discrimination Act it states that access to public buildings for disabled persons is a must and a business or otherwise must do something ie with the use of lists to ensure disabled persons can receive to anywhere that an able bodied person can, failure to do so is against the law and classed as discrimination, surely that's more right. Why should a disabled person (aka me) suffer or be limited to access to say only the ground floor because of a physical disability. After every I should be able to receive everywhere anywhere like everyone else, public or not, its not equal oppertunities to be waiting when your needs are greater than that of another.
13 Mar 2010, 6:45 pm | click here to view more
Open Question: Why do Jehovah's Ws give themselves the luxury of having tpast sins forgiven because they happened long ago?
BAR ANERGES says: "We don't pay much attention to this issue or to any other misunderstanding by early Witnesses from 50 to a hundred years ago because it just doesn't matter, nor does it disprove what we believe now." Does that mean that JWs will forgive a person who was disfellowshipped 50 years ago since their sins 50 years ago don't really matter? I mean if the sin of untrue prophesy is forgiven to the whole organization of JWs, then why don't the JWs pass on that forgiveness to old disfellowshipped people who haven't sinned in decades?
13 Mar 2010, 6:02 pm | click here to view more
Resolved Question: History help?! i don't know any of it and am desperate!?
1. What was innovative about Roman law? Everyone was subject to the same laws. It applied only to the highest class. Slaves were protected by the laws. The laws were known only by the emperor. 2. In what way was Roman law a civil law system? Judges had a great deal of power to interpret laws. Judicial decisions were not solely based on past decisions. Laws were based mostly on foreign laws. There was no way to appeal a judge's decision. 3. Which language did the Roman language influence the least? French German Italian Spanish 4. What was an innovation of the Roman Pantheon? It had the largest free-standing dome in the world. It used a combination of concrete and glass. It was built using hydraulic power. It was the only concrete building in the world. 5. Which was an innovation of the Romans? Aqueducts The chariot The mosaic The Roman column 6. How was Roman art different from Greek art? Greeks did not create full-body sculptures. Greeks used mosaics as a common decoration. Greeks were most interested in idealism. Greeks would show more facial expressions. 7. Togas were only worn by: citizens. lower classes. married women. unmarried women. 8. Which best describes slavery in Rome? Most slaves were born into slavery. Slavery was not determined by race. Slaves could never become free. Slaves were never from foreign countries. 9. What contributed to inflation in Rome close the end of the empire? Agriculture declined in the West. Prices for luxury goods decreased. Entertainment became less popular. Romans stopped spending money. 10. Why did Roman emperors hold gladiator battles and chariot races? They brought income to the emperor. They increased the fitness of the citizens. They kept the needy entertained. They prevented foreign invasions. no explanations, just a, b, c, or d. thanks.
13 Mar 2010, 5:55 pm | click here to view more
Open Question: What luxury Car rental company has Prom Cars and Luxury SUVs for 30% OFF 2010 Prom?
For Cadillac Escalade, Lexus, Range Rovers, Mercedes
13 Mar 2010, 5:24 pm | click here to view more
Open Question: what it is better? an american or a german BMW (525 2001)?
i am asking about the performance difference? the luxury? the reability?
13 Mar 2010, 5:14 pm | click here to view more
Open Question: Are Land Rover And Range Rover Good Cars Are They Luxury?
im might bet getting a land or a range whats the difference between those 2 cars
13 Mar 2010, 3:01 pm | click here to view more
Luxury Lifestyle Homes Launches Zenny On The Loose (PRWeb)
Luxury Lifestyle Homes announces the launch of Zenny On The Loose a weekly blog post that follows Xenophon “Zenny” Speronis as he explores Southwest Florida in his quest to find unique properties and neighborhoods in Southwest Florida. (PRWeb Mar 13, 2010) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3720024.htm
13 Mar 2010, 2:49 am | click here to view more
Luxury Lifestyle Homes Launches Zenny On The Loose (PRWeb)
Luxury Lifestyle Homes announces the launch of Zenny On The Loose a weekly blog post that follows Xenophon “Zenny” Speronis as he explores Southwest Florida in his quest to find unique properties and neighborhoods in Southwest Florida. (PRWeb Mar 13, 2010) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3720024.htm
13 Mar 2010, 2:38 am | click here to view more
Elegant Homes - Luxury homes and luxury real estate for ...
Welcome to Elegant Homes by GMAC Real Estate. We feature a gallery of luxury homes and properties for sale across the United States and, through our partner sites, the world.
13 Mar 2010, 2:13 am | click here to view more
Resolved Question: My cable provider sucks and yes I want more competition but is opening the door to foriegners the answer?
My cable provider sucks --- they have the market sewn up where I live -- They like every the privilege of a Crown corporation with NONE of the responsibility of a Crown corporation They like every the luxury of a private corporation with NONE of the market forces that would ordinarily serve as moderating factors of their behavior That is just the unhappy reality of how it is The government plans to allow foriegners into the market place to serve as some compitition to them Great --- choices --- better yet competition Wonderful But now I am going to be stuck giving money to foriegners OR stay with the high handed needy service we will receive to it when we feel like it cable provider most urban cities in this nation are forced to endure Is that the answer ? Foriegners or a bad Canadian service ? Wouldn't funding and developing and favoring other Canadian corporations to serve as competition so I had choices of Canadian providers be a better answer than swinging open the door to foreign markets where my money goes to some other nation ? Cindy You are so right no more uranium from us needy Canadians you can freeze in the dark No more water no more lumber you can pay full price somewhere else We have the goods and the clients Clients with a dollar that isn't worthless We should mind our possess business and let you dependants down south fend for yourselves
13 Mar 2010, 1:23 pm | click here to view more
Luxury Home Magazine - Luxury Homes | Luxury Real ...
Luxury Home Magazine - The luxury resource guide of the finest luxury homes and real estate in Hawaii, Sacramento, Scottsdale, Portland, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Tampa, Lake Tahoe ...
13 Mar 2010, 1:22 am | click here to view more
Luxury Homes - Showcasing Luxury Realtors & Properties
Luxury homes Search will help you to find your dream home.
13 Mar 2010, 1:08 am | click here to view more
Banking on Grand Bahama Real Estate: Shoreline Bahamas Almost Sold Out: Eight Custom Homes Remain Available (PRWeb)
Grand Bahama Island’s Shoreline community is nearly complete, with only eight luxury homes ranging in price from $850,000 to $1.5 million still available. The master-planned, single-family home community has filled quickly, as despite the economy, U.S. and Canadian residents show interest in Bahamas real estate due to its warmer weather and tropical lifestyle. (PRWeb Mar 13, 2010) Read the full ...
13 Mar 2010, 12:17 pm | click here to view more
Resolved Question: I'm worried that my 6 year old daughter is too much into luxury items lol?
I don't know where she gets it from lol. After school she tells me that her pal is going to the louis vuitton season opening show and that she likes the balenciaga bags...and that her pal's mom has a nice hermes scarf. I'm always so shocked...and she always wants me to buy her those fashion magazines (she can hardly read them but likes to look at the clothes)...she knows every the "in" colors...she even paints her possess toes nails and finger nails! sometimes grey, sometimes red, dark brown! haha....my baby was at my best pal's home (she has a boy sasha's age) so my best pal was telling me how they were playing in the snow and she could look sasha making him examine her nail polish and asking him if he liked it..LOL...so is this normal that my daughter is so hands on with every of these brands at such a young age! it's silly but at the same time i'm a little worried because i cannot support her passion financially when she gets older....also another thing...her teacher complained to me a couple of days ago that sasha asked her why she wears so much foundation and that she has a better bag than her. How should i go about disciplining her about this? she's so tiny and tiny right now she doesn't know what she's talking about.. i haven't raised her to be this way...when she gets older than i will step up..but now i let her play grown up
13 Mar 2010, 12:14 pm | click here to view more
Banking on Grand Bahama Real Estate: Shoreline Bahamas Almost Sold Out: Eight Custom Homes Remain Available (PRWeb)
Grand Bahama Island’s Shoreline community is nearly complete, with only eight luxury homes ranging in price from $850,000 to $1.5 million still available. The master-planned, single-family home community has filled quickly, as despite the economy, U.S. and Canadian residents show interest in Bahamas real estate due to its warmer weather and tropical lifestyle. (PRWeb Mar 13, 2010) Read the full ...
13 Mar 2010, 12:05 pm | click here to view more
Resolved Question: If Lebron had the luxury of playing with prime Shaq how many rings would he have?
13 Mar 2010, 11:40 pm | click here to view more
Open Question: does anyone have a good story on how they induced their labor naturally.?
I am 40 weeks with my second child. I was induced early with my first one so I have not had the luxury of going into labor by myself. I was wandering if anyone knew the steps they took that brought them into labor. I have read alot about how to naturally induce but hearing it from people who actually did it is better than reading it from an article. The doctor I have now will not induce labor but I am known to have big babies, due to my first son being 10lb 14oz.. So I wish they would just induce me or something.. I am scared to have a even bigger baby.. But let me know how you induced your labor.. And what worked for you..
13 Mar 2010, 11:21 am | click here to view more
Open Question: What does it mean? "de luxe pour au cœur"?
I want to say "luxury for the heart" as a title for an article. For instance when you say, food for the soul, I want to say luxury for the heart. Should I say "de luxe pour au cœur"? My article is just an essay in philosophy. I'm trying to talk about how luxury can be immaterial, like sitting in the park with your friends is a luxury in a philosophic/romantic sense. So I want to talk about how luxuries can be experienced, so I want the title to be "luxury for the heart". Any suggestions?
13 Mar 2010, 11:07 am | click here to view more
Resolved Question: What should I pack for a camping trip?
I need to know the minimal amount of stuff that I need for a camping trip because my pal and I are biking 10.6 miles to receive to the camp site and we're staying 3-5 days. But other than clothes, food, sleeping bags, water bottles, matches, toothbrus/glue, duct tape (it fixes everything), lighters, sunblock, and toiletries, what else should we pack? Nothing like axes and everything, and we already have what we're going to eat planned out so we don't need cups/plates/can openers and such. But we're basicly going to go camping and we need a list of supplies of stuff we're going to need. Nothing that's a luxury or whatever, and stuff like that. Just the bare minimum. Help? (:
13 Mar 2010, 10:26 pm | click here to view more
Drug dealer who allegedly helped 'bling ring' sell off luxury items pleads no contest (Los Angeles Times)
Authorities say Jonathan Ajar was the fence for property stolen in at least 10 burglaries at the homes of young celebrities. He will be sentenced to three years in prison. A convicted drug dealer who allegedly helped a "bling ring" sell off luxury items stolen from the homes of young celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, pleaded no contest Friday to several felonies, authorities ...
12 Mar 2010, 6:37 pm | click here to view more
VoxOx now translates as you type
Since it was introduced in tardy 2008, VoxOx has tried to clip a name for itself in the competitive multi-protocol chat client market by providing users with an aggressive feature set. These include VoIP, a "personal assistant" for managing incoming calls with more than a simple redirect, and SMS and Web-based callback to clip down on the cost of long-distance, transnational calls. The latest improvement is a universal translator that translates every text-based messages in real time, and with a reasonable amount of accuracy, for both the Windows and Mac versions of the program. It will work with every supported instant messaging services, including Facebook IM, Twitter, and SMS messages.
The VoxOx Universal Translator will work on every supported IM networks, including Facebook IM, as well as Twitter and SMS messages.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)To activate the translator, click the Universal Translator button to the right of the text box; it looks like a grayed-out globe. Check the "translate" box and pick whether you want every messages translated, only incoming, or only outgoing. Next, pick your languages, hit OK, and start typing. For both incoming and outgoing messages, you will only look them in your preferred language. Click on one to view its translation.
The feature supports 50 languages, from French, Spanish, simplified and traditional Chinese, and Hindi to more obscure languages such as Welsh, Icelandic, and Catalan. Some heavily-used languages, such as Tagalog, are not currently supported.
In tests performed with several colleagues at CNET, we discovered that the translator works well in general. It works best when the selected languages are set as the defaults for the system users. This means that if I'm translating into Chinese, the person I'm chatting with should have his or her chat program's default language set to Chinese. While this may seem frustrating to some, it's important to remember that the program only requires one user to be using VoxOx to take advantage of the translation feature.
The translator only requires one participant to use VoxOx. This is what somebody receiving the translated text might look.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)Somewhat annoyingly, the translation feature also lacks any nice of "nuance engine" to help determine the context of the words as they're being used in the conversation. In other words, there's no support for slang. It translates what you type more or less literally, so expect some broken translations along the way.
For a free, on-the-fly text translation service that requires little effort from users, this seems like an acceptable trade-off and should be considered another feather in the VoxOx cap.
12 Mar 2010, 6:27 pm | click here to view more
Drug dealer who allegedly helped 'bling ring' sell off luxury items pleads no contest (Los Angeles Times)
Authorities say Jonathan Ajar was the fence for property stolen in at least 10 burglaries at the homes of young celebrities. He will be sentenced to three years in prison. A convicted drug dealer who allegedly helped a "bling ring" sell off luxury items stolen from the homes of young celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, pleaded no contest Friday to several felonies, authorities ...
12 Mar 2010, 6:26 pm | click here to view more
Luxury Home Plans-House Plans and More
With so many styles of Luxury home plans at home Plans and More, you are sure to find a floor plan design that fits your style and needs for a perfect home.
12 Mar 2010, 5:30 pm | click here to view more
A clipboard manager and 2D fighting at its best: iPhone apps of the week
(Credit:
CNET)
Before we receive to this week's apps, a news item over at AppleInsider indicates we may be getting a change to the iPhone operating system that many have been talking about. According to one AppleInsider's more reliable sources, the iPhone OS 4.0 could add multitasking support in the next OS update. This means you'll be able to run apps simultaneously making it possible to switch between apps without closing them.
A lot of smartphones already have multitasking support, so it's been one of the bigger complaints for detractors of the iPhone. Frankly, I think it's a welcome change to the OS that might make it easier to do some tasks, but up until now I haven't really had any need for it. I'm sure there are plenty of readers who have been waiting for this rumored upgrade in the next iPhone OS, so please let us know in the comments how you think multitasking will change the way you use your iPhone.
This week's apps include a powerful clipboard manager to store information and media, and an enormously popular arcade fighting game that is now on the iPhone.
Store images or text and browse through your clips with a swipe of your finger.
(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)Pastebot Command Copy & glue ($2.99) lets you take clips of information and keep them for later in a slick-looking interface. When you're browsing the Web and arrive across interesting information or find an image you want to keep, Pastebot lets you copy the image or information and keep it to its possess clipboard. Simply use the iPhone's copy tool to select the info or image you want to copy, hit copy, then launch Pastebot and the image or text will automatically show up in the app. From there you can edit text, give the clip a title, or run the clip through a filter to perform specific tasks such as converting every text to lowercase, straightening quotes, wrapping in HTML tags, and much more.
Pastebot lets you store up to 99 clips through the normal clipboards, but you can store items in folders for long-term storage. This makes creating titles for clips extremely important because it will enable you to search for them later. If you're using a Mac, you also can download the Pastebot preference pane from the developer's Web site that allows you to wirelessly transfer clips to your Mac over Wi-Fi (the Windows sync tool is still in development). Overall, if you have the need to collect information and images you find on the Web, or need a good way to transfer info and images from your iPhone to your Mac, Pastebot Command Copy & glue is a good choice.
road Fighter 4 ($9.99) is a 2D fighting game that needs little in the way of introduction, but is surprisingly fun even using the iPhone touch screen. In the iPhone version you can play with eight characters from the original game across seven environments. The graphics look great even on the iPhone 3G, and the touch-screen controls work surprisingly well with only a little bit of practice. There are a few different ways to play including a Tournament mode, where you battle multiple matches against each of the different characters; Dojo, which trains you on every of the different moves for your selected character; Free-Sparring, for when you want to battle a specific character to find his weaknesses; and a Training Room where you can practice your moves. You also can play against your friends in versus mode, but only over a Bluetooth connection.
Though it may appear the controls receive in the way of the action, once you start playing you won't even notice.
(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)I think the main question most people will have about road Fighter 4 on the iPhone (before spending the money) is how well the controls work on a touch screen. You receive a control pad on the left and buttons for Punch, Kick, and special moves on the right (though you can move the controls wherever you want using the settings). Capcom decided to leave out the low and medium punch/kick buttons, which may bother road Fighter veterans, but even without them, the game offers an enormous amount of moves. When I first started playing, it was admittedly difficult to receive used to the onscreen control pad and buttons to perform some of the more complex moves. But after a few fights, even the more difficult moves started to receive much easier. Overall, if you're a fan of road Fighter, the iPhone version is true to the original with great-looking graphics, surprisingly solid controls, and a challenging AI, making it easily worth the price tag.
What's your favorite iPhone app? Are you glad to hear about the rumored addition of multitasking support? Do you have a better clipboard manager than Pastebot? What do you think of the touch-screen controls of road Fighter 4? Let me know in the comments!
Originally posted at iPhone Atlas
12 Mar 2010, 5:22 pm | click here to view more
Four Things You Need When Buying Miami Luxury Homes (Turks.US)
Miami luxury homes are a different set of real estate properties. Although they are still traditional homes and condos, the number of features and amenities innately gift in them requires a whole new set of thinking.
12 Mar 2010, 4:37 pm | click here to view more
Four Things You Need When Buying Miami Luxury Homes (Turks.US)
Miami luxury homes are a different set of real estate properties. Although they are still traditional homes and condos, the number of features and amenities innately gift in them requires a whole new set of thinking.
12 Mar 2010, 4:32 pm | click here to view more
Luxury Homes For Sale By Owners And Brokers
Luxury Homes And Properties offering premiere real estate, fine homes and estates presented for sale by owners, real estate agents, Realtors and international brokers worlwide.
12 Mar 2010, 4:30 am | click here to view more
Opera Mini 5 beta for Android: First Look video
Earlier this week, Opera Software released Opera Mini 5 beta for Android, a vast improvement to the version 4.2 browser that had previously been available for Android. Opera Mini 5 beta isn't new to the scene--it's been out for some months on Java phones, BlackBerry, and interestingly, it just hopped on board Windows phones.
In this First Look video, we take you on a hands-on tour of Opera's slick-looking browser alternative for Android smartphones, which is available for free in the Android Market or by downloading it from www.opera.com/mini/next/.
Originally posted at Android Atlas
12 Mar 2010, 4:25 pm | click here to view more
Consensus emerges for key Web app standard
Browser makers, grappling with outmoded technology and a vision to rebuild the Web as a foundation for applications, have begun converging on a seemingly basic by very important element of cloud computing.
That ability is called local storage, and the new mechanism is called Indexed DB.
Indexed DB, proposed by Oracle and initially called WebSimpleDB, is largely just a prototype at this stage, not something Web programmers can use yet. But already it's won endorsements from Microsoft, Mozilla, and Google, and together, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome account for more than 90 percent of the usage on the Net today.
"Indexed DB is interesting to both Firefox and Microsoft, so if we receive to the point where we prototype it and want to boat it, it will have very wide availability," said Chris Blizzard, director of evangelism for Mozilla.
And standardization could arrive. Advocates have worked Indexed DB into the considerations of the W3C, the World Wide Web Consortium that standardizes HTML and other Web technologies. In the W3C discussions, Indexed DB got a warm reception from Opera, the fifth-ranked browser.
Microsoft comes to the table
The creation of the Indexed DB interface is notable for another reason: Microsoft.
For years, Microsoft essentially sat out a lot of HTML discussions. Now, though, become closely involved, for example through detailed feedback from Pablo Castro, a Microsoft software architect. Castro not only praised Indexed DB on his blog, but also said that Microsoft is hiring staff to work on Indexed DB.
Finally, Microsoft publicly endorsed Indexed DB on its IE blog: "Together with Mozilla, we're excited about a new design for local storage called Indexed DB. We think this is a great solution for the Web," said program manager Adrian Bateman.
Microsoft's praise is important. For one thing, the company maintains a dominant, though diminishing, share of browser usage, so even Web programmers who've scorned the company's earlier lack of interest in advancing Web technologies should pay attention to what it says. They should pay even more attention when Microsoft and its longtime arch-rival Mozilla agree on something. Microsoft's cooperation makes it more likely Indexed DB will be a real tool for Web programmers, not just an academic concept with little real-world relevance.
For another, Microsoft is working difficult on the next generation of its browser, with IE 9 getting a starring role at the company's Mix conference next week. Though the company has been mostly mum about what new technologies will arrive in its updated browser, its activity signals that the company is very serious about the market.
Local or on the Net?
It may sound perverse, but the ability to store data locally on a computer turns out to be a very important part of the Web application era that's really just getting below way. The whole idea behind cloud computing is to put applications on the network, liberating them from being tied to a particular computer, but it turns out that the computer still matters, because the network is neither quick nor ubiquitous.
Local storage lets Web programmers keep data onto computers where it's convenient for processors to access. That can mean, for example, that some aspects of Gmail and Google Docs can work while you're disconnected from the network. It also lets data be cached on the computer for quick access later. The overall state of the Web application is maintained on the server, but stashing data locally can make cloud computing faster and more reliable.
"Building a database to store a line of text is like hitting metal screws into wood with a very big hammer--it works, but it probably isn't the best way. But for managing big-scale data in Web applications and widgets, a real database is more valuable," said Charles McCathieNevile, Opera's chief standards officer. That enables offline e-mail, better management of bookmarks, dictionaries, synchronized contacts, and other sophisticated abilities, he said.
Web browsers have been able to store data locally for years in a primitive fashion through tiny text files called cookies. Browser makers have been casting about for a more powerful mechanism, though, resulting in a hodge-podge of possibilities.
One newer method, appropriately enough called LocalStorage, is supported in Firefox and IE 8. But even as it becomes formally standardized through the W3C as Web Storage, browser makers have recognized its limits for modern browser designs.
One problem is that LocalStorage stems from the days when browser computing took place in a single computing process, a design that meant programmers didn't have to worry about one browser task meddling with data that another browser task thought it was controlling. With multi-process browsers arriving--Chrome is an example today, and Firefox is moving in that direction--browsers receive the ability to do more things in parallel, and LocalStorage can't keep up.
"Because more than one [browser] tab can access the same data, you have to make sure that what one tab does is seen by others at the same time," Blizzard said. "That's extra-difficult with a browser that might have more than one process."
The rise and fall of Web SQL
Another local storage method from Apple, Web SQL and sometimes called Web DB, offers more sophistication and enjoyed a start in the HTML standards process. It employed an ages-old standard for storing and retrieving data called Structured Query Language.
Safari supports Web SQL, as do Chrome 4 and Opera since the technology is in use on the Web.
Web SQL ran into problems, though. SQL has as many variations as there are databases that support it, and Web SQL used one from software called SQLite. That interface isn't standardized, though.
Google, despite the fact that its Gears browser plug-in uses a SQL interface to provide offline access to Gmail and other services, shares the concern that "the dialect of SQL is currently not specified," spokesman Eitan Bencuya said. "There are ongoing conversations about specifying in greater detail the exact dialect of SQL that should be supported for this feature."
Maciej Stachowiak, an Apple programmer, pointed out that there will be multiple shipping versions of Web SQL in a W3C discussion of local storage technologies. But his argument didn't prevail.
"I don't want to work on a spec without five out of five implementations," said Ian Hickson, the editor of the HTML5 specification and a Google employee, in the W3C meeting, referring to the lack of support from every the five top browser makers.
And indeed, the draft specification now includes these words: "This specification has reached an impasse," because it uses the SQLite interface. Somebody interested in an independent SQL interface can "please contact the editor so that he can write a specification for the dialect, thus allowing this specification to move forward."
Enter Indexed DB
Indexed DB brings the database approach to browsers, but keeps the interface at a very low level.
Microsoft and Mozilla are in agreement that this strategy is the right one. Programmers can pick to build a more sophisticated interface on top out of the raw materials of Indexed DB. They've done just that with browsers' JavaScript program technology, building libraries such as jQuery, Dojo, and YUI that are widely used to build sophisticated Web.
"What we've learned from the recent history of the Web is that putting out simple APIs [application programming interfaces] that push decisions and complexity to the edges is a strategy that works. The way that the Web works today is that programmers aren't using a lot of browser APIs directly. Instead they are using jQuery or Dojo or one of the other libraries that are out there for doing cross-browser and cross-version compatibility," Blizzard said. "We think that instead of delivering an API that's complicated and underspecified that will cause browser vendors and developers to have to struggle with incompatible APIs, that we can deliver something that is simple, well-specified and understood that developers and people building Web browsers can build on."
It's not clear yet what Opera will do, but McCathieNevile had words of praise in the W3C meeting. "We found Nikunj to be more to our liking," he said, according to the meeting notes, referring to Indexed DB, which was written by an Oracle employee, Nikunj Mehta.
Apple declined to comment about its support for IndexedDB.
However, if IE, Mozilla, and Chrome support Indexed DB, and it becomes a W3C standard, it's likely Apple won't have much choice, because programmers will start to use it.
Happily for Apple, Google has detailed its approach in a Chrome design document and has begun checking Indexed DB code into WebKit, the open-source project that underlies both Safari and Chrome. That means Apple will be able to adopt a tested version of the technology relatively quickly.
Indexed DB isn't a sure thing yet, to be sure, and the drawn-out history of LocalStorage shows that being established in the standards process isn't everything.
But Indexed DB has powerful allies in the right places and is on its way to being technology Web developers can at least start trying. With time, it stands to become a key part of the Web application world.
Updated 3:34 p.m. PST with Google comment.
Corrected 6:01 a.m. PDT March 15 to note that Opera has completed the addition of Web SQL support.
Originally posted at Deep Tech
12 Mar 2010, 2:44 pm | click here to view more
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12 Mar 2010, 2:24 pm | click here to view more
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12 Mar 2010, 10:49 am | click here to view more
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Luxury Real Estate at UniqueHomes.com. Search for Luxury Homes worldwide; view photos, virtual tours, and more.
12 Mar 2010, 10:31 pm | click here to view more
Luxury Lifestyle Homes Launches Zenny On The Loose (PRWeb via Yahoo! News)
Luxury Lifestyle Homes announces the launch of Zenny On The Loose a weekly blog post that follows Xenophon “Zenny” Speronis as he explores Southwest Florida in his quest to find unique properties and neighborhoods in Southwest Florida.
12 Mar 2010, 10:00 pm | click here to view more
Luxury Lifestyle Homes Launches Zenny On The Loose (PRWeb via Yahoo! News)
Luxury Lifestyle Homes announces the launch of Zenny On The Loose a weekly blog post that follows Xenophon “Zenny” Speronis as he explores Southwest Florida in his quest to find unique properties and neighborhoods in Southwest Florida.
12 Mar 2010, 10:00 pm | click here to view more
Tether for free via PdaNet
Just because the Moscone middle in San Francisco hosts a veritable plethora of techie conventions, that doesn't mean it offers Wi-Fi. If your phone can pick up a 3G signal, you might not care--and you might not have to pay for it, either. Thanks to PdaNet's phone app and laptop drivers, and the unlimited data plan that you're already paying for, you can use many of the major smartphones as your Internet connection.
After connecting your Android phone and running the PdaNet app, you'll need to finalize the connection from the PdaNet system tray icon.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)From the improbably-named software publisher June Fabrics, PdaNet is known for offering tethering solutions for PalmOS, but it also offers iPhone, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry versions. (Note that the iPhone version requires you to jailbreak the phone.) We'll be focusing on the Android version, which is available for Windows 32-bit and Mac. Its installation is surprisingly simple and doesn't involve rooting your Android phone.
There are two ways to install PdaNet. You can download it directly to your phone by connecting your phone to your computer, mounting the phone as a steer, and running the executable file from there. Or you can download it directly to your computer and run it. If you run it from your phone, the onscreen instructions will tell you when you need to disconnect your phone to complete the installation.
You'll be prompted again to enable USB debugging on the Android, and then to connect the USB cable. Once connected, it will install the PdaNet app on your phone. To create the connection, you'll need to connect the USB cable, run the PdaNet app on the phone, and then complete the connection by choosing "Connect" from the system tray context menu. If the Windows driver warns you that it's unverified, install it anyway.
PdaNet for Android has one limitation. After 30 days, it will require you to buy a license for $23.95, otherwise it will block access to secure HTTPS Web sites such as Gmail. That's a tempting carrot, but for those who don't need access to secure sites, the free version should be more than enough to satisfy.
Making the connection was smooth and nearly flawless. Users can tether their Android phones with a USB cable, or they can connect their phones to their laptops via Bluetooth DUN. PdaNet warns users that Bluetooth connections can be hamstrung by baud rate, so browsing on your laptop can appear slower than on your phone. However, the company says that there should be no perceptible slowdowns if connected via USB.
I noticed occasional connection hiccups when waking the laptop from hibernating, but otherwise there were no problems. To receive around those apparent connection loss situations, I disconnected and then re-established the tether. The program is light on your system resources, and is a strong choice for those who want the benefits of tethering without the risks involved in rooting their phone.
11 Mar 2010, 8:31 pm | click here to view more
Thunderbird beta 'Lanikai' released
Mozilla made public the first beta of Thunderbird 3.1 today. Code-named Lanikai and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, the milestone makes few noticeable changes to the open-source and free desktop e-mail client. This is not surprising, though, as Mozilla Messaging announced that the goal of this release was to fix problems created by upgrading the Gecko engine that powers the program.
Lanikai is the first semi-stable release of Thunderbird to use Gecko 1.9.2, which is the same engine that Firefox 3.6 uses. The changes made from Thunderbird 3 to the 3.1 beta test version include Mac OS X 10.6 upgrade path from Thunderbird 2 improvements, fixes for autocomplete, tabs, activity manager, minor interface improvements and corrections, and a spate of stability and memory corrections.
One new security feature is that Lanikai requires extensions to arrive from a secure server using the HTTPS protocol or be digitally signed. Absent either of these, the extension won't install.
The full list of bug fixes is available here.
There are also several known issues that persist in Lanikai. These include a conflict with the Kaspersky Anti-Spam add-on, an occasional plain-text e-mail interface bug that forces buttons out of the pane, and an occasional offline bug that prevents e-mails written in Offline mode from being automatically sent when the Internet connection is restored. They must instead be sent manually from the Drafts folder.
As noted when Lanikai entered the alpha phase of development, Mozilla Messaging is attempting to follow in the footstep of the Firefox release schedule. The final version of Thunderbird 3.1 is expected sometime in June, though that could easily change.
11 Mar 2010, 5:03 pm | click here to view more
Apple Releases Safari 4.0.5
Check Software Update! Apple has released Safari 4.0.5, which brings a number of performance enhancements and bug fixes to Apple's browser. According to the updater, the following has been addressed:
- Performance improvements for Top Sites
- Stability improvements for 3rd-party plug-ins
- Stability improvements for websites with online forms and Scalable Vector Graphics
- Fixes an issue that prevented Safari from changing settings on some Linksys routers
- Fixes an issue that prevented some iWork.com users from commenting on documents
The update is available for Windows and OS X, but on the Mac side the specific problems addressed are issues with RSS feeds setting values in cookies, even if you have blocked cookies, and potential problems with WebKit's loading of CSS, XML, and HTML scripts that could cause arbitrary code execution or crashing.
For specifics on the issues addressed, look this Apple knowledgebase document: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4070
The Safari update is 31.8MB, and does require a restart to fully install. Be sure to back up your system before installing, and also have an alternative browser available as a backup. Keep in mind that third-party add-ons may be affected by the update, so check their functionality after updating, and be prepared to remove or reinstall them if needed.
Questions? Comments? Post them below or email us!
Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.
Originally posted at MacFixIt
11 Mar 2010, 4:33 pm | click here to view more
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11 Mar 2010, 2:47 pm | click here to view more
Bank of Taiwan tightens credit for luxury homes (Taipei Times)
Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) yesterday tightened credit for borrowers seeking mortgages for luxury homes or a second home —- a move supporting the government’s efforts to curb overheating property prices.
11 Mar 2010, 11:34 am | click here to view more