The Tour de France: The First Extreme Sports Event? | Oval Egg ...

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These days, with skateboarders and BMX bikers doing backflips and covering 50 foot gaps from giant ramps, it?s probably hard for youngsters to think of the Tour de France as a dangerous sport. However, in the golden tradition of the Tour de France, there have been three tragic deaths due to injuries sustained while racing. While it?s not very pleasant to talk about the tragedies that have occurred during the most prestigious cycling race in the world, it does highlight the dangers that cyclists face, the amount of skill that is required by the sport of cycling, and the importance of safety measures in the sport itself.

The first cyclist to die during the Tour de France didn?t actually perish as a result of the race itself. Instead, French rider Adolphe Heli?re drowned during a rest day. The site of the tragedy was the French Riviera, where Heli?re was resting and relaxing before heading back out on the course to finish the race.

It was 1935 before the sometimes treacherous, always challenging Tour de France saw the death of a rider during the actual event itself. In a tragic and terrible twist of events, Spanish cyclist Francisco Cepeda passed away after falling down a ravine in the Col du Galibier stage. His skull fractured, Cepeda sadly died three days after the fall.

We often think of performance enhancing drugs and other methods of cheating as a problem of modern sports exclusively, but the next death at the Tour de France was directly related to the issue, and it happened way back in 1967.

English cyclist Tom Simpson died of heart failure that was brought on by the combination of the conditions, the stress on his body from the demanding race, and his use of amphetamines. Simpson was the first English rider to ever wear the yellow jersey, and his determination showed through even on the day he passed away.

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Exhausted, dehydrated, and suffering from the heat and his amphetamine use, he fell against an embankment as he couldn?t go on during the climb of Mont Ventoux. Even though he was barely conscious, he insisted on being put back onto his bike, and he managed to ride on for several hundred meters before he feel unconscious. He passed away when he arrived at the hospital.

The only silver lining after Simpson?s tragic death was that it accelerated concern over substance abuse by riders. Eventually, more knowledge of nutrition, hydration techniques and the dangers of many substances helped to ensure that others would not suffer the same fate as Simpson.

The most recent death in the Tour de France is also perhaps the saddest. Fabio Casartelli of Italy, a former Olympic gold medalist, was descending a dangerous part of the Portet d?Aspet when he crashed, along with several other cyclists. Unfortunately for Casartelli, his injuries were much more severe than those of the other riders. Casartelli slid and hit his head on a concrete railing area and didn?t live long enough to reach the hospital. The next day, the entire group of Tour de France participants dedicated the stage to Casartelli, as Casartelli?s team was allowed to finish first and as a group, with the rest of the field finishing behind, riding slowly. A fund was also set up to help out Casartelli?s wife and infant son, and riders donated their day?s purses to the fund, with the Tour de France organizers matching the donation.

Like Simpson?s unfortunate death, Casartelli?s led to change within the Tour de France. Helmet rules were established and consistently made stricter, until recently where it has gotten to the point that riders must wear helmets at all times or be fined.

As you can see, cycling is not a sport for the faint of heart. Each year, heart stopping crashes occur at speeds of 40 or even 50 miles per hour. Even with helmets, it?s clear that cycling is a dangerous sport, especially in events like the Tour de France, where steep mountain climbs and descents demand tremendous skill and resilience from the athletes competing. Even if you?re not a cycling fan, you should definitely respect the great athletes of the sport, who bravely risk their well-being and ride with the determination and passion of champions.

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What designer could you be?

Graphic design is an area that is full of many different career paths. Thanks to the Internet, smartphones and portable computer technology, graphic design careers now reach far beyond the traditional realm of print. Yes, there is a never-ending list of job titles available but essentially there a few broad job categories that graphic designers can go into.

Publishing and entertainment:

Many?graphic design jobs come into the publishing and entertainment sphere. Of course, projects will vary greatly depending on which company you work for, but really sought after skills in these areas are: Flash animation skills and print expertise. Publishing includes a vast number of companies that produce both electronic and print versions of their material. So, graphic design jobs in this area would involve typesetting, layout, creating advertisements, as well as photo editing. In the entertainment sector companies mostly employ graphic designers for creating credit and title sequences as well as printed and electronic promotional materials.

Advertising

While this is the best opportunity to work with well-known brands, the work can be extremely demanding due to having to meet client?s expectations. The work can be fast-paced, exciting and diverse; but if you want a normal 9-5 role, this is not for you. Smaller agencies, however, often specialize in a few services. These include brand development or online marketing, and those that do offer full services, tend to have a smaller client base. Whatever the size of the agency, if you want your work to be seen, this is the area to go into.

Design agencies

Design agencies will more often than not specialize in graphic design and visual communication strategies. Size does vary from place to place but in general these are smaller agencies with fewer than 100 people. If you love packaging design, logos, and brochure design, then this is the place for you.

Corporate Marketing

Corporate Marketing has its? advantages and disadvantages. While you can get to know the needs of the client extremely well and only have to deal with one client at a time, the scope for variety is also minimized. Graphic designers at these companies will help produce brochures, training materials, and promotional campaigns.

Freelancer

The freedom to select projects, build a client base and have a flexible schedule is often what attracts many people to become a freelancer, but the reality can be very different. Being a freelance graphic designer may not be for everyone as there is no guaranteed monthly salary, longer work hours and projects that may not reach a very wide audience. Nevertheless, when starting out it may be best to freelance on the side whilst working for a full-time employer so that you can get a feel for the freelance way of working and bring some diversity and depth to your portfolio. You can also combine freelance work with a part-time role so that way you get the best of both worlds, until you built up the confidence and client base to go it alone.

Source: http://inspiredology.com/what-designer-could-you-be/

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Judge sets $1 million bond in US fetal abduction

MILWAUKEE (AP) ? A Milwaukee woman accused of abducting a pregnant mother and cutting a full-term fetus out of her womb, killing both of them, is being held on a $1 million bond.

Thirty-three-year-old Annette Morales-Rodriguez faces charges of first-degree homicide while armed and first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child while armed. Both offenses are punishable by mandatory life sentences.

The bond was set Monday during a brief appearance in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

According to a criminal complaint, Morales-Rodriguez's boyfriend wanted a son but she couldn't get pregnant. Authorities say she told him she was pregnant and panicked as the supposed due date approached. The complaint says on Thursday she offered a ride to 23-year-old Maritza Ramirez-Cruz, beat her with a baseball bat and cut the fetus out of her uterus.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-10-Mother%20and%20Fetus%20Killed/id-73e8f80ed30244b991f81925bb5c9ba3

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Syrian security forces fire on funeral, 2 killed

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, stands next to Syrian Defense Minister Gen. Dawoud Rajha, right, and Chief of Staff Gen. Fahed al-Jasem el-Freij, left, during a ceremony to mark the 38th anniversary of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war, in Damascus, Syria, on Thursday Oct. 6, 2011. Syrian troops stormed villages close to the border with Turkey on Thursday, hunting armed military defectors who fought back in clashes that left at least four soldiers and three others dead, activists said. (AP Photo/SANA) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, stands next to Syrian Defense Minister Gen. Dawoud Rajha, right, and Chief of Staff Gen. Fahed al-Jasem el-Freij, left, during a ceremony to mark the 38th anniversary of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war, in Damascus, Syria, on Thursday Oct. 6, 2011. Syrian troops stormed villages close to the border with Turkey on Thursday, hunting armed military defectors who fought back in clashes that left at least four soldiers and three others dead, activists said. (AP Photo/SANA) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Anti-Syrian regime protesters of Islamic group suppoters shout slogans and hold Arabic placards, the foreground one read:"We swear will not let you down," as they protest after the Friday prayer to show their support to the Syrian and Yemeni protesters who demonstrate against their regimes, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, on Friday Oct. 7, 2011. Syrian security forces opened fire at protesters in several parts of the country on Friday, killing at least three people and wounding scores as thousands marched in the streets calling for the downfall of President Bashar Assad's regime. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, receives a bouquet of flowers upon his arrival at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, during a ceremony to mark the 38th anniversary of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war, in Damascus, Syria, on Thursday Oct. 6, 2011. Syrian troops stormed villages close to the border with Turkey on Thursday, hunting armed military defectors who fought back in clashes that left at least four soldiers and three others dead, activists said. (AP Photo/SANA) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

In this image made from amateur video released by Ugarit News and accessed via The Associated Press Television News on Wednesday Oct. 5, 2011, shows smoke billowing from inside the town of Rastan Syria on Tuesday Sept. 27, 2011 allegedly caused by shelling from Syrian government tanks. (AP Photo/Ugarit News, via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL

In this image made from amateur video released by Ugarit News and accessed via The Associated Press Television News on Wednesday Oct. 5, 2011, shows a damaged building in Rastan Syria Friday Sept. 30, 2011, allegedly caused by government shelling. (AP Photo/Ugarit News, via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL

(AP) ? Security forces opened fire on tens of thousands of mourners who turned out Saturday for the funeral of a slain Kurdish opposition leader in northeastern Syria, killing at least two people, eyewitnesses said.

Activists said security forces also fired on a funeral procession in the Damascus suburb of Douma for three people who were killed a day earlier. Ten people were wounded, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The biggest crowds took to the streets of Qamishli, where people marched to mourn Mashaal Tammo, the prominent and charismatic Kurdish opposition figure who was gunned down Friday by masked gunmen. The slaying was the latest in a string of targeted killings in Syria as the country slides further into disorder, seven months into the uprising against President Bashar Assad.

"All of Qamishli is out today, the funeral is turning into a massive protest," Kurdish activist and lawyer Mustafa Osso told The Associated Press by telephone. The grieving cries of fellow mourners could be heard in the background.

The mourners swelling through Qamishli's streets called on Assad to step down, with chants of "Leave, Leave," while others demanded the "execution of the president." Osso said more than 50,000 people were in the procession.

Security forces opened fire on the crowd, killing two mourners and wounding several others, he said.

The Local Coordination Committees activist network also said at least one person was killed and others injured in the gunfire. The group said the city has been completely shut down after a general strike was declared to mourn Tammo.

It said security forces clashed with protesters trying to tear down a statue of Assad's late father, Hafez Assad, who ruled Syria with an authoritarian grip until his death in 2000.

Tammo, a 53-year-old former political prisoner and a spokesman for the Kurdish Future Party, was also a member of the executive committee of the newly formed Syrian National Council, a broad-based front bringing together opposition figures inside and outside the country in an attempt to unify the deeply fragmented dissident movement.

A vocal regime opponent, Tammo had been instrumental in organizing anti-government protests in Qamishli in recent months.

It was not clear who carried out the killing. Some in the opposition said the regime was responsible for his assassination. Osso said Tammo had no enemies and blamed security forces, but others noted there was a power struggle between him and rival Kurdish parties.

State-run news agency SANA reported his killing by "four masked gunmen in a black car," calling him a "national" opposition leader.

His death could spark violent protests in the Kurdish region at a time when Syria's security forces already have their hands full in trying to stamp out dissent across much of the rest of the country. Kurds ? the largest ethnic minority in Syria ? make up 15 percent of the country's 23 million people and have long complained of neglect and discrimination.

Assad granted citizenship in April to stateless Kurds in eastern Syria in an attempt to address some of the protesters' grievances.

The White House condemned Tammo's killing and said Assad must step down before he takes his country further "down this very dangerous path."

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Tammo was another victim of a "brutal regime of lawlessness."

"The opposition's determination won't be crushed by violence. And the international pressure won't diminish, but will increase further," he added.

Tammo's assassination was similar to other recent targeted killings in Syria by unknown gunmen, raising concerns the country might be sliding toward civil war. The most recent was the assassination of the son of Syria's top Sunni cleric, who died in a hail of bullets outside the university where he studied earlier this week.

Several academics and physicists have also been shot dead by gunmen in the past month, most of them in the country's restive central and northern regions.

___

Zeina Karam can be reached on http://twitter.com/zkaram

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-08-ML-Syria/id-a8fb98806f7744548e01f9218505586a

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Chile: Talks broken, police move in on students

Police uses a water canon against a demonstrator during a student demonstration in Santiago, Chile, Thursday Oct. 6, 2011. Chilean police severely cracked down Thursday on thousands of students who tried to gather in an unauthorized march for education reform hours after talks with the government broke down. Thursday's march was the 37th weekly protest against President Sebastian Pinera's government since high school and university students began rebelling against Chile's largely privatized education system in April, a movement that swelled as teachers, parents, union members and center-left politicians joined their ranks. (AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo)

Police uses a water canon against a demonstrator during a student demonstration in Santiago, Chile, Thursday Oct. 6, 2011. Chilean police severely cracked down Thursday on thousands of students who tried to gather in an unauthorized march for education reform hours after talks with the government broke down. Thursday's march was the 37th weekly protest against President Sebastian Pinera's government since high school and university students began rebelling against Chile's largely privatized education system in April, a movement that swelled as teachers, parents, union members and center-left politicians joined their ranks. (AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo)

A demonstrator sprays water at a baton wielding riot police officer during a demonstration in downtown Santiago, Chile, Thursday Oct. 6, 2011. Chilean police severely cracked down Thursday on thousands of students who tried to gather in an unauthorized march for education reform hours after talks with the government broke down. Thursday's march was the 37th weekly protest against President Sebastian Pinera's government since high school and university students began rebelling against Chile's largely privatized education system in April, a movement that swelled as teachers, parents, union members and center-left politicians joined their ranks. (AP Photo/Roberto Candia)

A demonstrator throws a stone at riot police during a demonstration in Santiago, Chile, Thursday Oct. 6, 2011. Chilean police severely cracked down Thursday on thousands of students who tried to gather in an unauthorized march for education reform hours after talks with the government broke down. Thursday's march was the 37th weekly protest against President Sebastian Pinera's government since high school and university students began rebelling against Chile's largely privatized education system in April, a movement that swelled as teachers, parents, union members and center-left politicians joined their ranks. (AP Photo/Roberto Candia)

Riot police detain a demonstrator in downtown Santiago, Chile, Thursday Oct. 6, 2011. Chilean police severely cracked down Thursday on thousands of students who tried to gather in an unauthorized march for education reform hours after talks with the government broke down. Thursday's march was the 37th weekly protest against President Sebastian Pinera's government since high school and university students began rebelling against Chile's largely privatized education system in April, a movement that swelled as teachers, parents, union members and center-left politicians joined their ranks. (AP Photo/Roberto Candia)

A demonstrator argues with riot police during student protest in Santiago, Chile, Thursday Oct. 6, 2011. Chilean police severely cracked down Thursday on thousands of students who tried to gather in an unauthorized march for education reform hours after talks with the government broke down. Thursday's march was the 37th weekly protest against President Sebastian Pinera's government since high school and university students began rebelling against Chile's largely privatized education system in April, a movement that swelled as teachers, parents, union members and center-left politicians joined their ranks. (AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo)

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) ? Chilean police used water cannons and tear gas to break up a student march for free public education on Thursday, hours after protesters' talks with the government collapsed.

A huge deployment of riot police surrounded students in the Plaza Italia, Santiago's traditional gathering place, where student leader Camila Vallejo tried to lead the march while holding a sign saying "United and Stronger," only to be pummeled by water cannons and forced to retreat by tear gas.

Protesters hurled rocks at police and set blockades ablaze in the streets as officers on horseback chased students onto nearby campuses. Vallejo said officers shot tear gas into their student government offices in "a direct attack against our organization."

Students occupied the Alameda, one of Santiago's main avenues, by dancing in large numbers, but were blasted with water from police. Small groups managed to elude officers and approach the presidential palace before being beaten back by police.

The regional governor, Cecilia Perez, said 132 people were arrested and 25 officers and five civilians were injured. At least a half-dozen journalists were arrested. She called this "lamentable" and said their arrests would be investigated.

Thursday's march was the 37th weekly protest since the movement against Chile's largely privatized education system in began in April, demanding more spending and higher taxes on the wealthy so that quality public education can be free for all.

With both sides accusing the other of intransigence, Chile's government has focused on criminalizing the protests, proposing tough new penalities including up to three years in prison for occupying schools and other public places.

Vallejo called the police crackdown unprecedented, even for a movement that for five months has seen initially peaceful mass marches dissolve into isolated but violent confrontations between hooded demonstrators and helmeted, baton-wielding police.

"We're sure that we represent the great majority of Chileans," Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter said Thursday as he defended the government plan to penalize the peaceful occupation of schools and other places, and enable police to demand images taken by photographers and camera crews without a judicial warrant.

Reporters Without Borders, among other journalism groups, condemned the proposal as an attack on freedom of expression.

Polls show 89 percent of Chileans support the students' call for reform, and only 22 percent support President Sebastian Pinera's performance. The president finally agreed to let the students sit down with his education minister, Felipe Bulnes, to discuss their core complaint: that private institutions benefit from public funding while public institutions are starved for resources.

But Pinera, who has said that "nothing in life is free," ceded no ground, and the talks quickly broke down Wednesday night.

Bulnes said the protesters' proposal was regressive and would mean "that the poor subsidize the education of the richest."

"Neither do we want the poorest to finance the richest, but that the richest finance the poor and middle class. How? Through tax reform," Vallejo countered.

The government has proposed increasing scholarships for the poorest Chileans, but Vallejo said that won't solve this as long as taxpayer money flows unequally to profit-making institutions.

Associated Press

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The Way To Define Marketing Tools ... - Internet And Business Online

??The way to Define Marketing Tools For Online stores

Everybody can name some of the extremely common marketing tools, but the way to define marketing tools for internet stores? It?s not particularly as simple as saying email, which seems to be most popular form of for spammers. Flyers, ads, and billboards are obviously definitions of offline marketing tools, but let?s review a few of their online equivalents.

Email is certainly a marketing tool that could be useful so long as you do not overdo it. Don?t spam any individual who hasn?t asked for information from a business, particularly with a mass mailer that goes out every week. What exactly is acceptable usually to generate a?mailing list that your customers can opt to join and have the option of leaving instantly.

Another perfectly acceptable solution to using email being a marketing tool is usually to put details about your business inside the signature area of each message. You wouldn?t have room to convey too much, so a lot of people simply list their company, their site, and sometimes the address or phone number. iIn this fashion|In this way, everyone you email gets a small reminder specific business in a very non-obtrusive way.

If you need to define marketing tools that reach above those whom you often email, you may imagine community forums. These online communities allow others to discuss various topics and exchange ideas without being online at the same time. Some of them have specific areas for posting about businesses, contests, and many more. Make sure to go through the board rules before you decide to post, though, or you might be banned for spamming.

Message boards are identical to community forums with the exception the fact that only individuals who visit your message are classified as the other people within the room. Message boards aren?t the best spot for their pitch to market your business on the internet since people are often discussing things that aren?t in the least associated with your site. You could spam in chat rooms, of course, but again, you?ll likely be banned or just ignored.

Spam, as you may obviously tell, will never be a great marketing tool, and it?s one important thing you ought to be very careful about. Everyone is at the lokout for and guard against spam, or unwanted messages, lately, and it?s extremely difficult to have unblocked managed to get onto someone?s spam filter list.

To avoid that from happening, understand that the meaning of an web marketing tool is not really a message that reaches as numerous people as frequently as possible. Never send unwanted email to someone, especially if you?re just sending them details about your small business. It really is acceptable request individual people if they?d want to be put into a mailing list if they purchase items or services from you though.

Regardless of which of these marketing tools you utilize, just make absolutely certain to always employ them responsibly. Remember how annoyed you are going to be if somebody else should constantly post about their online pharmacy on your own message board about dogs or in your painting chat room. Define marketing tools for online businesses as only those messages you need to have and you?ll do great.

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Source: http://internetandbusinessblog.com/internet-business-online/the-way-to-define-marketing-tools-for-online-stores/

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WD TV Live Media Streamer Skips Internal Storage For Spotify

wdlivetvWestern Digital is getting a lot of mileage out of their WD TV media players, and that trend continues today with the announcement of their new WD TV Live box. Unlike its big brother, the WD TV Live is strictly a streamer, but it has a reason to boast: it's the first WD product to ship with Spotify support The WD TV Live doesn't have any internal storage to speak of, but it does sport 2 USB ports for all of you who carry thumb drives full of illicit TV shows. Once it's set up on a wireless network or an ethernet connection, the WD TV Live can access media from computers on your home network, or from content partners like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Pandora.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/98mdxgGUQgA/

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WR Johnson out with hamstring injury

Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak, left, and trainers check on wide receiver Andre Johnson (80) after he was hurt in the second quarter against the Pittsburgh Steelers in an NFL football game Sunday, Oct. 2, 2011, in Houston. (AP Photo/Dave Einsel)

Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak, left, and trainers check on wide receiver Andre Johnson (80) after he was hurt in the second quarter against the Pittsburgh Steelers in an NFL football game Sunday, Oct. 2, 2011, in Houston. (AP Photo/Dave Einsel)

Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson (80) falls to his knees in the second quarter of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, Oct. 2, 2011, in Houston. (AP Photo/Dave Einsel)

Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson (80) is tripped up by Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor (24) in the second quarter of an NFL football game Sunday, Oct. 2, 2011, in Houston. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

(AP) ? Houston All-Pro receiver Andre Johnson will miss Sunday's game against Oakland and an unspecified amount of time after a minor procedure to repair a right hamstring injury.

Coach Gary Kubiak said the Texans would be "missing a heck of a player" against the Raiders, but would not put a timetable on Johnson's return after Tuesday's procedure.

"All the information we're getting moving forward is very positive," Kubiak said Wednesday. "We're not putting any timeline on anything right now. We just know everything went well. The doctor feels good about it, Andre feels good about it."

Johnson went down in the second quarter of Sunday's 17-10 win over Pittsburgh. He rejoined his team on the sideline in the fourth quarter, without crutches.

"We're going to miss him for a period of time," Kubiak said. "We're going to have to have some guys step up and play well."

The Texans (3-1) host Oakland (2-2) this weekend, playing with confidence and momentum, at least until now.

The 6-foot-3, 226-pound Johnson missed three games last year with a sprained right ankle, including a 31-24 win over the Raiders. The five-time Pro Bowl selection sat out seven games in 2007 with a left knee injury that required offseason surgery and the Texans went 2-5 without him.

Kubiak said he believes his team is better equipped to handle Johnson's injury this time. Jacoby Jones will move into Johnson's position, and Kevin Walter and free-agent pickup Bryant Johnson move up the depth chart.

The Texans can also turn to Arian Foster, the NFL's leading rusher last season. Foster took over the offense after Johnson was hurt on Sunday, carrying 30 times for 155 yards and the game-winning touchdown against the Steelers in the final quarter.

Johnson's absence should also create more opportunities for tight end Owen Daniels, who caught two passes in the fourth quarter against Pittsburgh, and fullback James Casey, who had five catches for 126 yards and a touchdown in a 40-33 loss to New Orleans the previous week.

"We're probably going to get played a little differently," Kubiak said. "When Andre's on your team, everybody tries to take him away. Like I said, we can't replace Andre. We've got to, as a group, try to replace all the production that he adds on the field. That means everybody's got to pick it up, and we'll have a chance to prove it."

Houston may also be without running backs Ben Tate (groin) and Derrick Ward (sprained right ankle) against the Raiders. Foster's backups. Tate and Ward both sat out practice on Wednesday, but Kubiak was hopeful that Tate would be ready to play on Sunday.

Associated Press

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How Steve Jobs reshaped the tech? | Advanced E-Commerce,E ...

Apple stunned the tech world in December 1996 when it acquired Jobs? NeXT Software, which had evolved out of NeXT Computer.

(Credit:
Michael Rondou/Newscom)

It?s difficult to overstate how dramatically Steve Jobs reshaped how we interact with computers. The irascible, brilliant impresario led a transition from minicomputers and IBM PCs squashed into beige metal boxes to the Macintosh, the
iPhone, and the concept that technology should be fun to use.

Thanks to more than a dozen books about the Apple co-founder, and movies like Pirates of Silicon Valley, much of Jobs? life has become well-known. He started Apple with legendary engineer Steve Wozniak, at a time when the personal computer industry barely existed, after dropping out of Reed College.

Jobs returned to Apple in 1996?CNET?s headline at the time quipped that Apple had ?acquired? Steve Jobs?and then went on to reshape the music industry and the mobile phone business. With the
iPad, Apple validated, or perhaps even created, the
tablet business. With Apple Inc., Jobs led the world?s most valuable company measured by market capitalization.

But what?s not as well-known is how Jobs? later successes arose from his previous failures.

In 1985, as the personal computer industry experienced a period of falling sales and complaints about Jobs? mercurial behavior were rising, the Apple board effectively fired Jobs. He would remain as chairman, but he was relieved of any operational duties as head of the Macintosh division.

?I had never been to Steve?s house in Woodside before,? wrote Andy Hertzfeld, a member of the Macintosh development team, describing a visit to Jobs? house two days after the board?s decision. ?It was a 14-bedroom, 17,250 square foot Spanish colonial style mansion built in 1926 that Steve had purchased around a year ago, in 1984?I tried to convince him that the change wasn?t necessarily so bad, and that I would be excited about returning to Apple to work with him on a small team again. But Steve was inconsolable, and more depressed than I had ever seen him before.?

At the age of 30, Jobs had already left an indelible mark on the personal computer industry. He had also accumulated a net worth of $100 million in Apple stock and had been featured on the cover of Time magazine. If not already a national icon, he was close to becoming one.

But, as Alan Deutschman recounts in his 2000 book ?The Second Coming of Steve Jobs,? Jobs was far from content. He talked with friends about focusing on cultivating his garden. He considered moving to the Soviet Union to promote computer usage. He toyed with the idea of running for the U.S. Senate. He talked with architect I.M. Pei about demolishing that aging Woodside mansion and building the perfect Silicon Valley home (in 2009, he finally secured permission from the town to do just that). He bicycled through Tuscany.

Most of all, it seemed, Jobs wanted to prove that his earlier successes?the Apple II, II+, IIe, IIc, soon the IIgs, and the Macintosh?were not accidents. He hoped to demonstrate that he could do it again.

That meant forming a new company, which Jobs named NeXT Computer. Instead of Apple?s humble beginnings in a Silicon Valley garage, NeXT was flush with cash, and Jobs paid a prestigious designer $100,000 to create a logo. Jobs sold $70 million of his Apple stock to fund the venture, which was originally intended to make computers designed specifically for colleges and universities. (Disclaimer: I worked for NeXT in its headquarters, and on the east coast, as a consultant and contractor from 1990 to 1991.)

Just as Jobs intended the Macintosh as a counterpoint to graceless, boxy PC clones, he wanted NeXT to represent a more advanced, more aesthetic, approach to computing. He took the early NeXT team to Pittsburgh to visit Carnegie Mellon University, which would later invest in the company, and organized a side trip to Frank Lloyd Wright?s iconic Fallingwater house in the Pennsylvania countryside. Jobs obsessed about, and patented, details including a tilting monitor stand, a rarity at the time. He obsessed over what shade of black the case should be painted. The motherboard, too, had to be visually appealing.

Even the NeXT factory in Fremont, across the San Francisco bay from Woodside and Cupertino, was intended to be a model of elegance and efficiency. Jobs regaled visitors with descriptions of how it employed then-novel just in time manufacturing techniques. It was designed to be near-fully automated, with NeXT machines being made by even larger machines.

The result, a one foot by one foot by one foot die-cast magnesium cube, was stunning. The NeXT cube was unlike any other computer to date: it was sleek and black, with a gorgeous user interface a decade ahead of its time. Instead of a thicket of cables, the cube relied on a single cord that connected the monitor with the CPU and carried connections for power, video, audio, microphone, keyboard, and mouse. The operating system was named NeXTstep, based on a variant of Berkeley Unix with low-level functions borrowed from Carnegie Mellon, and it had an object-oriented development environment that was the envy of the industry.

Unfortunately, the NeXT cube was also priced unlike any other personal computer to date: Jobs set the retail price at $9,995. That wasn?t unreasonable for a workstation, which DEC, HP, and Sun were selling at the time, but universities tended to be more interested in price and performance than aesthetics. NeXT was far too expensive to be a popular success, and even though the interface was speedy, adding a hard drive to supplement a pioneering 250MB reusable magneto-optical drive upped the price still more.

The cube was a flop. Businessland, a chain of computer stores, had hoped to sell up to 15,000 a year, but had sold only 360 by the end of 1989. The automated factory was nearly idle. And NeXT, still unprofitable, was burning through cash far too quickly. Jobs? other venture, Pixar, was struggling too.

In September 1989, Jobs tried again. He rented Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco for the launch of the NeXTstation, which was the pizza-box successor to the cube. It wasn?t as expandable (the cube had four slots, one of which was filled by the motherboard), or as elegant, but it was far cheaper to manufacture. Perhaps more importantly, the NeXTstation was available in color; the original cube was only available in two-bit greyscale. Jobs relented on another point and added a 3.5? floppy disc drive.

But prices remained anything but inexpensive. The NeXTstation started at $4,995 for a greyscale model. Sales picked up, but were a fraction of what Sun Microsystems, which made unattractive but highly functional boxes, could boast.

By 1991, as NeXT?s dismal sales became public, the once-iconic entrepreneur was savaged. A Forbes article reported: ?There are very few miracle workers in the business world, and it is now clear that Steve Jobs is not one of them?Now, three years after NeXT?s workstation debuted in a splashy press event, the 36-year-old Jobs is in serious trouble. NeXT has sold only 15,000 machines in its history, according to Vicki Brown, vice president at market researcher International Data Corp., little more than 10 percent of the volume Sun Microsystems does in a single year. A large but unknown fraction of NeXT?s sales have been at steep discounts to schools.?

The burn rates at NeXT and Pixar remained far too high. Without a dramatic change, Jobs risked insolvency. Meanwhile, his longtime rival, Bill Gates, was worth billions.

That dramatic change came in 1993, when NeXT decided it would cease making hardware. The sleek cube, which Tim Berners-Lee used to develop the World Wide Web and which gave birth to the first-person shooter Doom, would become a museum piece. NeXT continued to improve its pioneering software, but it was hardly a marketplace success.

By this point, Jobs had been virtually ignored by the media, until his other company, Pixar, released Toy Story. Pixar?s initial public offering in November 1995 made Jobs a billionaire overnight. (Jobs? biological sister, Mona Simpson, wrote a book around this time that was a thinly veiled profile of her sibling. Its opening line: ?He was a man too busy to flush toilets.?)

It was anything but obvious at the time, but that marked the beginning of the return of Steve Jobs and the start of greatest second act in American business. In December 1996, Apple announced it was buying NeXT, now called NeXT Software, for $400 million. Jobs would become an ?adviser,? reporting directly to Apple chairman and CEO Gilbert Amelio. By the following July, Amelio was out, and Jobs was, as CNET reported at the time, taking an ?expanded role as a key adviser to Apple?s board and executive management team.?

Beyond a leadership shakeup, Apple had another problem: Macintosh technology was no longer head-and-shoulders above Microsoft?s. Windows 95 was an undeniable success, adopting many of the Mac?s features, and it was followed by Windows 98. Plus, Windows PCs were being powered by the very capable Pentium chip; meanwhile, Apple suffered from too many product variations and competition from clone makers. Worse, it was losing money.

?What would I do? I?d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders,? Michael Dell told a crowd of several thousand IT executives in 1997.

Jobs soon curbed the practice of cloning and, within a year of his return, Apple introduced the landmark iMac. But it was NeXTstep that morphed into OS X and gave Apple a badly-needed technological boost by including features like true multitasking, a superior development environment, and an advanced interface resting on top of a stable version of Unix. OS X was finally introduced in 2001, followed by the iPod, retail stores, the iTunes Store, the iPhone, and the iPad.

The irony? An operating system that grew out of one man?s pursuit of perfection, and pique at being forced out of the company he founded, saved Apple from the fate predicted by Michael Dell. If history had unfolded a little differently, and Jobs had spent the late 1980s tending his garden or touring Europe, Apple might no longer exist, and the computer industry would be a far different place today.

Disclosure: The author worked for NeXT in its headquarters, and on the east coast, as a consultant and contractor from 1990 to 1991.

Source: http://www.cybersharq.com/how-steve-jobs-reshaped-the-tech.html

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