It's blue bonnet season in Texas. My secretary Debbie Bowling back at Trinity University and her husband Sam took this picture in the Hill Country. Meanwhile up here in the White Mountains of New Hampshire we're having another Nor-easter that's expected to drop over a foot of new snow in high winds today. I sent an email message to Al Gore requesting that he come up this way and find the switch that turns off the Winter of 2007. Otherwise there may be no Spring of 2007 up here.

Below is  . . . well I think you get the picture of our cottage in Springtime 2007!

Today's howling blizzard winds are shaking the walls of our cottage above pictured just before this storm. The tips of our fence posts were visible before this new blizzard (mixed with rain). The winds are even worse on the summit of Mount Washington (which I cannot see today through the snow):

Webcams
Summit Conditions – 5:00 AM, on April 16, 2007
Temp Wind Gust W. Chill

26.3°F

135° (SE), 107.6 mph

131.2 mph

0.3°F


Update at 5:00 a.m. on April 18
This edition of Tidbits was supposed to be released at 6:00 a.m. on April 16, but, before I could send the file to my Web server, 80+ mph winds toppled tens of thousands of trees in the White Mountains and knocked out our power and Internet connections for nearly two days. Winds on Mount Washington rose to over 150 mph. These roaring winds also took off half of the shingles on the northeast side of our relatively new roof. The falling snow at 5:00 a.m. on April 16 changed to horizontal rain that, among other things, ruined our dining room ceiling (again).  Sigh!

But all-in-all we're lucky. It would've been far worse without heat had the temperatures been below zero. There was never any threat of pipes freezing up. Erika and I stayed relatively cozy with the four iron propane stoves in our fireplaces. We have some trees down in our woods and the dining room ceiling "wall paper" and underlying plaster needs replacing. Our roofing company made temporary repairs to our roof. Others nearby were not so lucky. There will be much damage with flooding down in the lowlands.

Next week, after the horse is out of the barn, we're setting the wheels in motion to install a propane electricity generator that will kick in whenever the power goes out. Outages occur altogether too often up in these mountains, but usually (not like April 16-17) power is restored in less than six hours.  If any of you are interested in a generator, the cost we discovered is about $10,000 for what we want. There are, of course, both cheaper and more expensive alternatives.

We're used to howling winds. but for much of April 16 there was a roaring freight train of wind and rain. The rain quickly melted much of the snow, but where snow drifts were over four feet deep there are still gushy snow banks. I had to shovel yesterday to get into my barn.

What was really eerie was to look out into the pitch black and not see a single light anywhere. Clouds blocked our view of the night sky. Normally we can look down in any direction at the night's lights of several villages  There was not one visible light while our power grid was shut down. It was shut down so that chain saw crews could cut trees leaning on power lines.

And then the first thing we learned when our power was restored was about the senseless tragedy at Virginia Tech, a campus where I've been invited to speak several times over my career. This morning I learned that the daughter of a Virginia Tech accounting professor, Bryan Cloyd, was killed. She was a first-year student in a French class when she was shot.

This makes our storm ordeal seem entirely trivial.

Bob Jensen

 

Tidbits on April 16, 2007
Bob Jensen

For earlier editions of Tidbits go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm 

Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron" enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/.


Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations   

Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

For an elaboration on the reasons you should join a ListServ (usually for free) go to   
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm

Bob Jensen's Home Page is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/

Bob Jensen's blogs and various threads on many topics --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
       (Also scroll down to the table at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ )

Set up free conference calls at http://www.freeconference.com/  

Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

Vonnegut Videos --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9554280

What I Like About Texas (where I lived for 24 years) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGukLuXzH1E 

How to Tell When the Relationship is Over --- http://www.depict.org/content/films/2003/relationship_over_320.html

Video from J.H. Cohn in April 2007 --- FASB's Fair Value 'Option' --- http://accounting.smartpros.com/standard/smartsurvey/jhcohn.asp
For Bob Jensen's threads on Fair Value Accounting are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/theory01.htm#FairValue

Free music downloads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

Pianist Brings Power to Liszt Concerto --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9451775

Gaetano Donizetti's 'Anna Bolena' (opera) --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9485401

What I Like About Texas (where I lived for 24 years) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGukLuXzH1E 

Rickie Lee Jones' Divine Departure --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9435180

A Song of Faith, Devotion and Lung Power --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9431443

Delayed but Not Denied, a Lost Soul Classic --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9556942

Lily Allen in Concert with The Bird and The Bee --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9348709

A Rock Sleeper Makes Guitars the Star --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9527798

Google not only lets you search for movie information, it also is a great search engine for music. Google knows the names of tens of thousands of popular performers; all you have to do is enter the performer’s name in the search box, and Google returns specific information about that performer.
Informit.com --- http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=675528&seqNum=14&rl=1

Photographs and Art

Better, More Accurate Image Search
By modifying a common type of machine-learning technique, researchers have found a better way to identify pictures," by Kate Greene,  MIT's Technology Review, April 9, 2007 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18501/

Otherworldly Photos by Galileo, Voyager & Co. --- http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/arts/design/13beyo.html

Photographs of Missouri Skies --- http://www.missouriskies.org/

Photo.net (shared photographs) --- http://www.photo.net/
The photo.net Gallery lets you upload and exhibit your best work. Get critiques, comments, and ratings from other members of the community.

John-Paul Jeppersen Photography --- http://www.imagesofnight.com/

Martha Stewart's advice on home and decorating --- Click Here

DQ Books (I like the page turning technology of this site) --- http://www.dqbooks.com/

Running the Numbers An American Self-Portrait
This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics.
http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=?view=XXX_09NNN/
 

Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

National Poetry Month 2007 (poems chosen by the Academy of American Poets) ---
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9043294&ps=h1

Poetry Online (read and/or listen to the poems) --- http://www.wiredforbooks.org/poetry/

Authorama.com, featuring completely free books from a variety of different authors, collected here for you to read online or offline --- http://www.authorama.com/

Latest (out of many available):
Books from Google Books
Monkey Games
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
Humorous Masterpieces from American Literature
Essays by Alice Meynell
Le portrait de monsieur W.H.
Red Money
History of Holland
More Jataka Tales
The Light in the Clearing
Lewis Rand
The Wheel of Life

ShortStories --- http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/indexframe.html

Classics at the Online Literature Library --- http://www.literature.org/authors/

Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose Bierce --- Click Here

The Poison Belt by Arthur Conan Doyle --- Click Here

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe --- Click Here

A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman by Mary Shelley --- Click Here

Martha Stewart's advice on how to entertain --- Click Here

  • What you think is the summit is only a step up.
    Lucius Annaeus Seneca  (the son) --- Click Here

    The problem with former presidents is that knowing them keeps you from being awed by the presidency. When you haven't met them, you have a more austere and august sense of who they are, and what a president is. Candidates on the trail today would be better off keeping as their template for the office Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln -- the unattainable greats. It's no good to just be thinking, At least I'm better than Clinton, at least I'm better than Bush. Something to reach for even if you know it will exceed your grasp. But it's good to be reaching upward, not stooping. Peggy Noonan, "The Incredible Shrinking Candidates," The Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2007; Page P14 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117649375146969423.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep

    Perhaps I'm old and tired, but I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied.
    Douglas Adams --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams

    We believe only in what we see, so since the advent of television we believe in everything.
    Dieter Hildebrandt --- Click Here

    There are two explanations one can give for this state of affairs here. The first is due to the great English economist Maurice Dobb according to whom the theory of value was replaced in the United States by theory of price. May be, the consequence for us today is that we know the price of everything but perhaps the value of nothing. Economics divorced from politics and philosophy is vacuous. In accounting, we have inherited the vacuousness by ignoring those two enduring areas of inquiry.
    Professor Jagdish Gangolly, SUNY Albany

    The second is the comment that Joan Robinson made about American Keynsians: that their theories were so flimsy that they had to put math into them. In accounting academia, the shortest path to respectability seems to be to use math (and statistics), whether meaningful or not.
    Professor Jagdish Gangolly, SUNY Albany
    Bob Jensen's threads on the sad state of academic accounting research --- Click Here

    I hope the news is taping this, 'cause I'm gonna turn pigs (police) into bacon bits.
    Rodney Jean Jaques going by the name "Cal Akbar." illustrating typical lyrics that is typical of the lyrics deemed acceptable by MTV and radio stations.
    "Anti-'pig' lyrics burn firefighter ," by David Gambacorta and Christine Olley, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 14, 2007

    In what segment of American culture would one be most likely to encounter such stereotypes? We'd venture to say the answer is rap music, also known as hip hop. There's one rap band that actually calls itself Nappy Roots. And of course references to women as "hos" are commonplace in rap lyrics, such as this one by Christopher Bridges, who uses the stage name "Ludacris":
    James Taranto, "Imus and Obama's Daughters," The Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2007 --- Click Here

    Miracle Gro Plant Food is Full of piss and vinegar (just kidding — there's no vinegar).
    Wired Magazine, March 2007 --- http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/start.html?pg=5


    Question
    What makes some people who had no interest in schooling whatsoever desperate to earn a liberal arts college degree? This was one of the most tear-rendering and enlightening modules I ever watched on television.

    Answer
    Long-term incarceration! Long-term prisoners have the luxury of free time to study and boredoms that make in-depth learning, without distractions, a better choice in life. Professors from Bard College discovered that the courses they normally teach on campus had to be made more difficult for maximum-security prisoners behind prison walls, because these convicted murderers and rapists study longer hours and want to learn more desperately than on-campus students. One prisoner who was transferred from a hard-time maximum security prison to a low-security prison requests being sent back to the hard-time place so he can continue to take his Bard College courses.

    On April 15, 2007 this was one of the best CBS 60 Minutes modules ever. For a short time you can watch the video online (Click the "Watch Now" Tab at http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml  )
    Over the long haul you can purchase this video from CBS.

    MAXIMUM SECURITY EDUCATION – Bob Simon visits a prison where inmates serving long sentences have found a way to free their minds through college education provided by elite Bard College. Catherine Olian is the producer.

    I'm reminded of a mathematician, Egon Balas, at Carnegie-Mellon University who spent 10 years in solitary confinement as a political prisoner in Hungary. He was a PhD Economist before being incarcerated. With nothing whatsoever to read and no contact with the outside world, he stared at the walls and taught himself advanced mathematics. Among other things, after he was released and came to the U.S., he extended the Branch and Bound Algorithm for integer programming. Without incarceration he most likely would never have become a noted mathematician.

    Shaking Up the Telephone Companies
    Google's Free (from a telephone) Telephone Number Directory
    (not yet available in April 2007 but coming soon)

    "911 for 411:  Google's new free directory assistance is sure to be popular with consumers, but it means trouble on the line for the big phone companies," by Olga Kharif , Business Week, April 11, 2007 --- Click Here

    The days of paying north of a buck for directory assistance over the phone may be coming to an end—at least if Google and a gaggle of startups have anything to say about it. One little-known company has already grabbed 5% of the business by offering free service. Now, the Web search leader is going public with its own version that lets callers search for business listings from a land-line or mobile phone. Google (GOOG) will even connect the call and text the number to the user's cell phone—all for no charge.

    That's likely to be music to the ears of the millions of 411 users who, according to consultancy the Pierz Group, pay an average of $1.28 a pop for assistance over a regular phone and a whopping $1.57 for each such call via a cell phone.

    Market Share

    Google's service, still in testing mode, will probably cause static for the big phone companies that now dominate the $8 billion U.S. directory assistance industry, and add to the disruption it's already causing, along with Yahoo! (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT), elsewhere in the directory assistance business.

    Just last month, Microsoft acquired Tellme, which provides automated directory assistance services to telcos such as Cingular/AT&T (T) (see BusinessWeek.com, 3/15/07, "Microsoft's Expansive Plans for Tellme"). Tellme is testing a free 411 service of its own.

    In just a year and a half, Jingle Networks has used its free service to nab 5% of the directory assistance market. The company says it has forwarded more than 200 million calls, resulting in $400 million in savings for customers. Free 411 services from the likes of Google and other new entrants such as cable companies could garner 15% of the market in four to five years, says Daniel Phibbs, an analyst at the Pierz Group.

    Easy Add-ons

    Here's how free 411 works: By and large, the services are paid for by advertisers that insert a short marketing message at some stage of the call. "The advertiser community has really embraced this channel, because they reach consumers at the point of purchase," says Lyn Chitow Oaks, senior vice-president of marketing at Jingle. The company's advertisers include McDonald's (MCD), 1-800-FLOWERS (FLWS), and CBS (CBS).

    The company has yet to turn profitable—it expects to reach breakeven in 12 to 18 months—but Jingle has had no apparent trouble raising funds from investors like Goldman Sachs (GS) and Comcast Interactive Capital, an investing arm of Comcast (CMCSA), the largest U.S. cable provider.

    Directory assistance is just one of many ways search engines like Google can bring the Web to mobile phones. Once they've served up a number, why not also shoot over directions to the business? Tellme provides stock quotes and weather updates. Google and Microsoft could find any number of ways to generate ad revenue by reaching more of the roughly 235 million Americans with cell phones.

    Don't think Big Telecom hasn't noticed. In December, AT&T began testing free 411 calling in three markets: Bakersfield, Calif.; Oklahoma City; and Columbus, Ohio. "411 isn't going away, but big companies are certainly taking a very long look at this free business model," says Phibbs of the Pierz Group. Callers get their listings for free in exchange for listening to two 15-second ads, one at the beginning and one toward the end of each call. In the next several months, the company plans to expand the trial to other metropolitan areas, says AT&T spokesman Fletcher Cook. "There's been high interest in the markets we've trialed it in," he says.

    Free Jolt

    As disruptive as free 411 may be, its success isn't assured. First there's the matter of making money from it. "For the economics of free directory assistance to work, you have to control costs very well," says Laura Marino, director of product management at Tellme.

    Free directory assistance also can be glitchy. Most free 411 services, such as Google's, rely on voice-recognition software and don't use live operators; as a result, they fail to complete many calls, says Phibbs. Google's service hung up on a reporter requesting a number for a coffee shop in Portland.

    Ultimately, free 411 may expand the market. Today, fewer than 10% of Americans actually know how much they pay for 411 calls, according to the Pierz Group. Many free callers may have never even used directory assistance before, Phibbs adds. Free 411 could reenergize an industry where sales growth has been stunted by increased reliance on Internet-based directories. For consumers fed up with high phone bills, that's one very good call.

     
    Jensen Comment
    Google is not the first to offer free telephone (free phone number) directory service via a telephone.
    For example try the following that appeared in my October 21, 2005 edition of Tidbits ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/%7Erjensen/tidbits/2005/tidbits051021.htm

    1-800-Free411 (1-800-373-3411) Telephone Directory Assistance ---  http://www.free411.com/learnmore.html
    This is a free phone directory (if you're on a telephone), but I only recently got it to work..  Last weekend it just would not  work for me.  But by the middle of the day on October 17, a recorded female voice asked me to speak the city and state.  Then a live voice came on (faintly) and asked for the name of the party I wanted to phone.  The service found the correct number and dialed it automatically for me.  I didn't get any advertising this first time I tried it, but I suspect there is some sort of advertising since the site above solicits advertisers.

    Of course if you're on the Web, a better alternative is to probably use one of the many free phone number search services such as Switchboard --- http://www.switchboard.com/
    There are also various yellow page search services such as those listed at http://www.yahoo.com/

    But I don't know of any other "Ernestines" out there who will give you free phone numbers over the telephone other than
    1-800-Free411     (if you catch it when it is working).

    Google's Directory Services --- http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=675528&seqNum=11&rl=1

    • Contents Google Is a Calculator
    • Google Knows Mathematical Constants
    • Google Converts Units of Measure Google Is a Dictionary
    • Google Is a Glossary Google Lists All the Facts
    • Google Displays Weather Reports
    • Google Knows Current Airport Conditions
    • Google Tracks Flight Status Google Tracks Packages
    • Google Is a Giant Phone Directory
    • Google Knows Area Codes
    • Google Has Movie Information
    • Google Loves Music
    • Google Knows the Answer to the Ultimate Question

    Other related links:

     

    http://directory.google.com/Top/Reference/Directories/Address_and_Phone_Numbers/Toll_Free/
    ATT AnyWho Toll-Free - http://www.anywho.com/tf.html  
    Search for numbers by business name.
    Internet 800 Directory - http://www.inter800.com/  
    Toll free listings of businesses by company, number, location and product or service.
    Canada TollFree - http://www.canadatollfree.ca/Search/  
    Sympatico's online directory of toll free business phone numbers.
    National Internet Tollfree Directory - http://internettollfree.com/  
    Offers toll free telephone numbers for United States and Canadian businesses with web site links and email addresses. Search by name, key words or heading, or browse categories.
    Hard to Find 800 Numbers - http://www.hardtofind800numbers.com/
    Toll-free customer service phone numbers of online retailers, when available.

    Set up free conference calls at http://www.freeconference.com

    Bob Jensen's search helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm

    Google Links Summary --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#Google

    Google (Web Images, Video, News, Maps Desktop, and More) --- http://www.google.com/
    Google Advanced --- http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
    Google Advanced Scholar Search ---  http://scholar.google.com/advanced_scholar_search?hl=en&lr=
    Google Maps --- http://maps.google.com/
    Google Finance --- http://finance.google.com/finance

    Did you ever scroll down Google's Advanced Search Site?
    Go to http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en


    Google Book Search - Search the full text of books
    New! Google Code Search - Search public source code
    Google Scholar - Search scholarly papers
    Google News archive search - Search historical news

     

    Apple Macintosh - Search for all things Mac
    BSD Unix - Search web pages about the BSD operating system
    Linux - Search all penguin-friendly pages
    Microsoft - Search Microsoft-related pages

     

    U.S. Government - Search all U.S. federal, state and local government sites
    Universities - Search a specific school's website
     

    Question:
    What new search databases are available from Google?

    Did you ever notice the links below?  http://www.google.com/help/features.html#wp

    Google Web Search Features

    In addition to providing easy access to billions of web pages, Google has many special features to help you to find exactly what you're looking for. Click the title of a specific feature to learn more about it.

      • Book Search Use Google to search the full text of books.
      • Cached Links View a snapshot of each page as it looked when we indexed it.
      • Calculator Use Google to evaluate mathematical expressions.
      • Currency Conversion Easily perform any currency conversion.
      • Definitions Use Google to get glossary definitions gathered from various online sources.
      • File Types Search for non-HTML file formats including PDF documents and others.
      • Froogle To find a product for sale online, use Froogle - Google's product search service.
      • Groups See relevant postings from Google Groups in your regular web search results.
      • I'm Feeling Lucky Bypass our results and go to the first web page returned for your query.
      • Images See relevant images in your regular web search results.
      • Local Search Search for local businesses and services in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada.
      • Movies Use Google to find reviews and showtimes for movies playing near you.
      • Music Search Use Google to get quick access to a wide range of music information.
      • News Headlines Enhances your search results with the latest related news stories.
      • PhoneBook Look up U.S. street address and phone number information.
      • Q&A Use Google to get quick answers to straightforward questions.
      • Refine Your Search - New! Add instant info and topic-specific links to your search in order to focus and improve your results.
      • Results Prefetching Makes searching in Firefox faster.
      • Search By Number Use Google to access package tracking information, US patents, and a variety of online databases.
      • Similar Pages Display pages that are related to a particular result.
      • Site Search Restrict your search to a specific site.
      • Spell Checker Offers alternative spelling for queries.
      • Stock and Fund Quotes Use Google to get up-to-date stock and mutual fund quotes and information.
      • Street Maps Use Google to find U.S. street maps.
      • Travel Information Check the status of an airline flight in the U.S. or view airport delays and weather conditions.
      • Weather Check the current weather conditions and forecast for any location in the U.S.
      • Web Page Translation  Provides you access to web pages in other languages.
      • Who Links To You? Find pages that point to a specific URL.

    And more Google Links --- http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/

    Blog Search
    Find blogs on your favorite topics
    Book Search
    Search the full text of books
    Catalogs
    Search and browse mail-order catalogs
    Checkout
    Complete online purchases more quickly and securely
    Desktop
    Search and personalize your computer
    Directory
    Browse the web by topic
    Earth
    Explore the world from your PC
    Finance
    Business info, news, and interactive charts
    Froogle
    Shop for items to buy online and at local stores
    Images
    Search for images on the web
    Local
    Find local businesses and get directions
    Maps
    View maps and get directions
    News - now with archive searchNew!
    Search thousands of news stories
    NotebookNew!
    Clip and collect information as you surf the web
    Patent SearchNew!
    Search the full text of US Patents
    Scholar
    Search scholarly papers
    Specialized Searches
    Search within specific topics
    Toolbar
    Add a search box to your browser
    Video
    Search for videos on Google Video and YouTube
    Web Search
    Search over billions of web pages
    Web Search Features
    Find movies, music, stocks, books, and more

    Bob Jensen's search helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm

    How do scholars search the Web --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#Scholar

    Question: Where do your favorite research journals rank among scientific journals according to their eigenfactor scores?

    The answer is in Issues in Scholarly Communications from the University of Illinois
    See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#JournalRankings 
    This includes accounting, finance, and business academic research journals.
     

    Better, More Accurate Image Search
    By modifying a common type of machine-learning technique, researchers have found a better way to identify pictures," by Kate Greene,  MIT's Technology Review, April 9, 2007 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18501/

    Bob Jensen's image search helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm#GoogleDeskbar

    Investment Glossary

    April 16, 2007 message from FG Pietersz [graeme@investment-analysis.com]

  • I would like to make a suggestion for your tools page. I hope it is OK to email you with this.

  • I run a investment glossary website contains more detailed explanations as well as brief glossary type explanations. It is browseable alphabetically and by category, and well cross referenced. The extra level of detail should be particualrly helpful to students.

  • The site is already listed in a number of high quality collections of investment resources. These include Yahoo UK (within the investment and finance guides glossary category) and Professor Wachowicz's (at the University of Tennessee Knoxville) list of web sites for finance students.

  • The url is http://moneyterms.co.uk/  The site name is Money Terms.

  • Thanks for your time.

  • Regards,

  • Graeme Pietersz

    • April 18, 2007 reply by Bob Jensen

    I added the above glossary link to the following sites:

    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2007/tidbits070416.htm

    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbus.htm

    Bob Jensen

    Accountancy and the da Vinci Code

    April 12, 2007 message from Barry Rice [brice@LOYOLA.EDU] 

    From the April 11 Brisbane Times:

    Forgotten magic manual contains original da Vinci code
    AFTER lying almost untouched in the vaults of an Italian university for 500 years, a book on the magic arts written by Leonardo da Vinci's best friend and teacher has been translated into English for the first time.

    The world's oldest magic text, De viribus quantitatis (On the Powers of Numbers), was penned by Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan monk who shared lodgings with da Vinci.

    Continued at http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2007/04/10/1175971101054.html  .

    E. Barry Rice, MBA, CPA
    Director, Instructional Services
    Emeritus Accounting Professor
    Loyola College in Maryland
    BRice@Loyola.edu
    410-617-2478
    www.barryrice.com 

    Facebook me! http://www.facebook.com/p/Barry_Rice/20102311

    April 13, 2007 reply from Patricia Doherty [pdoherty@BU.EDU]

    This is fascinating!!! How incredible to find that Pacioli and DaVinci were best friends and roommates!.

    p Don't waste time learning the tricks of the trade. Instead, learn the trade.

    Patricia A. Doherty
    Department of Accounting
    Boston University School of Management
    595 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, MA 02215

    Bob Jensen's threads on the history of accountancy are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/theory01.htm#AccountingHistory

    Question
    Is the word "wiki" in the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary?

    "Keeping Up With the Web's New Lingo:  With words being created, put to use, and accepted in the blink of an eye, they're becoming a challenge to the reference world's gatekeepers,"  by Catherine Holahan, Business Week, April 12, 2007 ---
    http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070412_788838.htm?link_position=link1 

    The ease and speed with which people publish their lingo online has diminished the ability to judge a word's worth by its written frequency. Within a few short months, a new slang term may appear on thousands—if not millions—of Web pages and blogs, Pitoniak says. Even a misspelled word can return thousands of Web pages on a Google search. "You have to make careful judgments and make sure that the word sticks around," says Pitoniak. "You do degrade the quality of the dictionary when you include words just because they sound trendy."

    At the same time, Pitoniak and his colleagues must be wary of shunning accepted, commonly used terms. People turn to the dictionary for a host of tasks—from understanding the meaning of words they hear and read to settling Scrabble disputes. The book becomes dated if it lacks the ability to elucidate matters relevant to technophiles, even if they may seem arcane.

    Hence, the inclusion of "wiki" in the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. The word, which stems from the Hawaiian phrase meaning "quick," now refers to a set of tools that enables online collaboration among groups.

    Jensen Comment
    The easiest way to find definitions is to go to Google Define --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#define
    Simply go to Google at http://www.google.com/ or http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
    In the search box type define and insert the phrase you want defined in quotations.
    For example, suppose you want to define “Grid Computing”
    Simply type in define “Grid Computing” in the search box and hit the search button 
    Or type in define "wiki"
     

    Bob Jensen's Technology Glossary is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245gloss.htm

    Biotechs Try to Take Corn Out of Ethanol
    The ethanol craze is putting the squeeze on corn supplies and causing food prices to rise. Mexicans took to the streets last year to protest increased tortilla prices. The cost of chicken and beef in the United States ticked up because feed is more expensive.
    Paul Elias, PhysOrg, April 14, 2007 --- http://physorg.com/news95749527.html

    "Have China Scholars All Been Bought?" by Carsten A. Holz, Far Eastern Economic Review, April 2007 --- http://www.feer.com/articles1/2007/0704/free/p036.html

    IBM's New Website for Data Visualization --- http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/app
    IBM's site lets people collaborate to creatively visualize and discuss data on fast food, Jesus' apostles, greenhouse-gas trends, and more

    "Sharing Data Visualization," by Kate Greene, MIT's Technology Review, April 11, 2007 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18516/ 

    IBM is showing that there's more to the social Internet than just sharing pictures and video clips. The company has launched a new website, called Many Eyes, with the hope of adding a social aspect to data visualizations like maps, network diagrams, and scatter plots. The site's users already include Christian bloggers, nutritionists, and professors.

    Many Eyes teaches people how to build their own visualizations (a simple tutorial can be found here) so that they can dive into complex, multidimensional data. Since its launch in January, the site has amassed nearly 2,000 visualizations that illustrate, for example, the carbon emission of cars and the nutritional information of food on a McDonald's menu. For example, by illustrating numbers graphically, users see how Big Macs compare with double cheeseburgers in terms of calories, fat, and sodium--differences that might be harder to spot on a chart of numbers.

    Many Eyes was developed by Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Viegas, researchers at IBM's Visual Communication Lab, in Cambridge, MA. To be sure, Many Eyes is not the first, or even the most powerful, data-visualization tool available. Spotfire, for instance, is well-known software that businesses use to visualize and analyze trends. But what makes Many Eyes novel is that it's explicitly designed to be a social site for sharing visualizations and analysis; it's essentially the Flickr of data plots.

    While the field of data visualization in general isn't new, it has seen a sort of rebirth in the past few years thanks to the availability of software tools that explore data sets, as well as the ubiquity of data sets themselves, says Ben Shneiderman, a professor of computer science at the University of Maryland, in College Park. "It's one of those things that after 15 years, it's an overnight success." Recently, Shneiderman says, data visualizations have gone from static charts commonly used in PowerPoint presentations to dynamic displays of multidimensional data. "Suddenly," he says, "we've been given a new eye to see things that we've never seen before."

    The IBM software was built using standard software architectures, says Wattenberg; the visualizations are displayed using Java, and there are a few somewhat sophisticated algorithms that crunch numbers and produce the graph layouts. Ultimately, he says, he and Viegas wanted a simple, immersive experience. "The more that it becomes almost gamelike in its level of activity, the more fun it becomes."

    Within days of Many Eyes going live, the researchers saw a big spike in traffic from a user-generated visualization. A user named "crossway" had uploaded a data set of names from the New Testament and how often they occurred near one another in the text. The user chose to visualize the data using a network diagram; the result was essentially an illustration of the social network of Jesus and his apostles. Crossway posted the network diagram on his or her well-trafficked Christian blog, and soon awareness of the visualization moved from the Christian community into the technology community, thanks to an appearance on the popular blog BoingBoing.net.

    Bob Jensen's threads on multivariate data visualization are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/352wpvisual/000datavisualization.htm

    Question
    What's a craplet?     (See Walt Mossberg's advice on how to wipe them out.)

    Video: Walt tries to get rid of craplets

    Many people are furious about so-called craplets, the unwanted programs that come loaded on most new PCs. Until computer makers stop dumping these junk programs on us, here are some strategies for avoiding them.
    "Getting Junk Programs On Your New Computer," by Walter S. Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2007; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117633406738767006.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace 


  • Last week,     when I condemned the flood of crippled trial software, ads and offers that come loaded on new Windows Vista computers, readers reacted strongly. I received roughly 700 emails, all but a handful agreeing with me. The column was the most popular article that day on WSJ.com and was cited on numerous other Web sites.

    Clearly, many people are furious about these unwanted programs and icons, which are sometimes called craplets. Many would like to smite them without going through the laborious process of uninstalling them manually, one at a time. Some readers suggested strategies. The following are some options.

    One ray of hope is a free program called PC Decrapifier. It can be downloaded at pcdecrapifier.com. This software automates the process of uninstalling craplets. It was written originally to clean up Dell computers, but its author says it will work on other brands, too. Before PC Decrapifier runs, it allows you to remove from its proposed deletion list any programs it considers junk, but which you might prefer to retain.

    I haven't tested PC Decrapifier, but even assuming it works well there are a couple of downsides. First, it may not remove every craplet from every manufacturer. Also, unless you carefully tweak the deletions list, PC Decrapifier might remove some full working copies of preinstalled software that you want; it can't easily differentiate between trial and real versions of some commonly bundled programs.

    Another option is to order a PC without the craplets in the first place. Some high-end Dell gaming machines are sold this way. Dell says you can also opt out of some third-party software on other models. Certain business models from various makers can be purchased clean, as well. But even business machines sometimes come with unwanted trial software, like limited versions of accounting programs, and may not be configured for consumers.

    Dell, Sony and others say they are moving toward a new scenario in which all of this stuff will be easily refused on all models.

    An alternate strategy is to avoid brand-name Windows computers and buy a Vista PC from a local shop that will construct it to your specs and leave off all the craplets. The catch is that you may pay more, and you must be certain that the shop will be around and willing to provide support for the life of the machine.

    Some techies wrote me to say that the first thing they do with a new PC is to wipe out the hard disk and reinstall Windows so they start with a clean machine. But I can't recommend this for average users. For one thing, many new PCs no longer come with disks for reinstalling a full, clean version of Windows. Some have special sections of the hard disk from which you can perform a "recovery," but these recoveries may not be complete or may reload the craplets along with Windows. You could, of course, buy a fresh copy of Vista to reinstall, but that could cost hundreds of dollars.

    Also, wiping out and rebuilding an operating system can be tricky for nontechies. Dell told me, "It is not advisable for nontechie consumers to wipe the hard drive and reinstall. ... This is intended as an emergency backup or for the technically sophisticated." Sony and Gateway sent me similar warnings.

    Finally, an excellent way to avoid or minimize the craplet problem is to simply buy an Apple Macintosh computer. New Macs don't have any craplets displayed on their desktops. On a new Mac, no third-party software is automatically launched when you start the computer, and you don't need antivirus or antispyware programs because the Mac is essentially free from those menaces. So, even my year-old Mac laptop reboots roughly three times as fast as my three-week-old Sony.

    Apple does include a few third-party programs on Macs, including one that, oddly, is for drawing comic-strip effects on photos. But these are tucked away in the applications folder and most are full working versions, not trials or offers. The main exception is a trial version of Microsoft Office. With some Mac models, you get trials of two Apple programs, iWork and FileMaker Pro. But these trials can be deleted simply by dragging the icons to the trash can.

    Computer makers should stop dumping craplets on us. Until they do, you can find ways to avoid them.

    Email me at mossberg@wsj.com . See video versions

    Video: Walt tries to get rid of craplets

    • "Revising the Teaching of Writing," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, April 13, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/04/13/denver
     

  • At the University of Denver this year, a new writing program is trying a combination of approaches. Freshmen are taking a series of three courses in successive quarters — each with a distinct purpose. The first quarter courses are taught by faculty members in a range of disciplines, and the next two by a new cadre of lecturers hired this year.

    While not on the tenure track, the lecturers are far from the semester-to-semester model of employment used to staff many a writing course with adjuncts or graduate students. Their positions are full time, with benefits, and they are paid in the first quarter of the academic year to plan their courses, to work individually with students in the writing center, and to work as in-class consultants and one-on-one with professors on writing issues that come up in their courses.

    “This is a very unusual and interesting approach to bridging a gap that many people are trying to bridge between not treating writing as a discrete skill set, but as both a discipline in its own right and a gateway to other disciplines,” said Kent Williamson, executive secretary-treasurer of the Conference on College Composition and Communication and executive director of the National Council of Teachers of English.

    Williamson said he was particularly struck by the creation of a team of writing lecturers. “You just don’t see a lot of that kind of integration — the potential of having full-time writing instructors who are in a real conversation with one another and with the rest of the faculty.”

    The Denver writing program is the outgrowth of a $10 million grant in 2004 from the Marsico Foundation, which stipulated that the funds be used to improve undergraduate education. Faculty committees studied various possible uses for the money and the full faculty voted (79 percent in favor) to overhaul what had been a fairly traditional program in which freshmen took writing, but without a university-wide vision for what was supposed to be accomplished.

    “The campus wanted a permanent and dedicated teaching faculty in writing, rather than having a cadre of people who turn over continually and who are bifurcated as students and teachers,” said Douglas Hesse, who directs the new program and is a past president of the Council of Writing Program Administrators. In an era when many colleges seem to view new Ph.D.’s in English as cheap labor to fill sections, the Denver approach stands out for paying such people for quarters when they are teaching not a single class and for manageable workloads when they are teaching (three sections each quarter, with enrollment in each section not exceeding 15).

    The question Denver is posing to lecturers is not “how many sections can you handle?” but, in Hesse’s words, “how can they be a true resource for the university?”

    John Tiedmann, one of the new lecturers, said that in the fall he worked with a political science class on globalization. The themes of the course were so broad that students’ papers were “vague summaries of the world rather than real positions on anything,” and the professor was frustrated. Tiedmann met with the professor, reviewed students’ papers, led a workshop for students on writing about topics as potentially overwhelming as globalization, and followed up to track the results.

    The “typical attitude” at universities is for a professor to call a writing instructor “like a repairman,” who can somehow “fix” student writing, Tiedmann said. The Denver approach is more collaborative and substantive.

    Continued in article

    • "Facebook gets facelift, adds more social networking tools," MIT's Technology Review, April 11, 2007 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Wire/18522/

  • Facebook.com is getting a facelift designed to make the popular Web site's social networking features easier to find and use.

    The makeover being announced Wednesday represents Facebook's most extensive overhaul in 18 months, said Mark Zuckerberg, the site's 22-year-old founder.

    Besides adopting a new look, Facebook is introducing tools that will enable its users to learn more about their social networks and more easily conduct electronic conversations among multiple people simultaneously.

    The Palo Alto, California-based Web site is the second largest social networking site behind MySpace.com, which was sold to News Corp. in 2005 for $580 million.

    Facebook last year spurned a $1 billion (euro740 billion) takeover offer from Yahoo Inc. and could attract even more tantalizing bids if Zuckerberg realizes his goal of doubling the site's audience during the next six months. Facebook currently has about 19 million active users, a number that has been rising by an average of 3 percent each week.

    Despite Facebook's success, Zuckerberg said he and his team are constantly looking for ways to make it simpler to navigate around the site. ''There's always room for improvement,'' said Zuckerberg, who dropped out of Harvard University in 2004 to focus on building Facebook.

    Change has not always been welcomed by Facebook's users. Last September, Facebook had to fend off a user rebellion after introducing a feature that made it easier to track revisions made to the personal profiles set up on the Web site. Thousands of Facebook users protested, arguing the change represented an invasion of privacy.

    To minimize the chances of a backlash this time, Facebook tested its new look and features with more than 100,000 users.

    Originally a hangout catering exclusively to college students, Facebook has branched out to other segments of society. The site, owned by Palo Alto-based Facebook Inc., now has more than 47,000 networks bound together by common employers and other shared interests.

    Less than half of Facebook's users are currently in college, Zuckerberg said.

    • People Finder Site for the U.S. --- http://www.usa-people-search.com/

    April 9, 2007 message from Rebecca Murphy [rebecca@maxhostmedia.com]

    I'm interested in the possibility of placing a link on your site, specifically this page: http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob3.htm . The link would be for a website
    (     http://www.usa-people-search.com/ ) which helps people, including potential employers, do inexpensive and exhaustive background checks.

    I noticed that you already have a link to a person finding website, and I would hope that you would consider adding this link as an addendum.

    Please, if you have the chance, get back to me and let me know if this might be possible. I'd be happy to answer any questions or concerns, and would be happy to discuss anything I can do to help you come to a favorable decision.

    Thanks so much for your time, Rebecca Murphy

    Jensen Comment
    I added the above link to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#SpecializedSearchEngines

    From PhD Comics:  Helpers for Filling Out Teaching Evaluations --- http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=847

    Question
    What is the Semantic Web that is a "rising tide" in the world of business?

    The Semantic Web project of the W3C in which automated methods based on quality metadata are envisaged to replace much human searching of the web. Relies on ontologies, XML and RDF --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/XMLRDF.htm

    "Taming the World Wide Web:  A rising tide of companies are tapping Semantic Web technologies to unearth hard-to-find connections between disparate pieces of online data," by Rachael King, Business Week, April 9, 2007 --- http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070409_248062.htm

    When Eli Lilly scientists try to develop a new drug, they face a Herculean task. They must sift through vast quantities of information such as data from lab experiments, results from past clinical trials, and gene research, much of it stored in disparate, unconnected databases and software programs. Then they've got to find relationships among those pieces of data. The enormity of the challenge helps explain why it takes an average of 15 years and $1.2 billion to get a new drug to market.

    Eli Lilly (LLY) has vowed to bring down those costs. "We have set the goal of reducing our average cost of R&D per new drug by fully one-third, about $400 million, over the next five years," Lilly Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sidney Taurel told the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan last August.

    As part of its cost-cutting campaign, the drugmaker is experimenting with new technologies designed to make it easier for scientists to unearth and correlate scattered, unrelated morsels of online data. Outfitted with this set of tools, researchers can make smarter decisions earlier in the research phase—where scientists screen thousands of chemical compounds to see which ones best treat symptoms of a given disease. If all goes according to plan, the company will get new pharmaceuticals to patients sooner, and at less cost.

    Found in Space Those tools are the stuff of the Semantic Web, a method of tagging online information so it can be better understood in relation to other data—even if it's tucked away in some faraway corporate database or software program. Today's prominent search tools are adept at quickly identifying and serving up reams of online information, though not at showing how it all fits together. "When you get down to it, you have to know whatever keyword the person used, or you're never going to find it," says Dave McComb, president of consulting firm Semantic Arts.

    Researchers in a growing number of industries are sampling Semantic Web knowhow. Citigroup (C) is evaluating the tools to help traders, bankers, and analysts better mine the wealth of financial data available on the Web. Kodak (EK) is investigating whether the technologies can help consumers more easily sort digital photo collections. NASA is testing ways to correlate scientific data and maps so scientists can more efficiently carry out planetary exploration simulation activities.

    The Semantic Web is in many ways in its infancy, but its potential to transform how businesses and individuals correlate information is huge, analysts say. The market for the broader family of products and services that encompasses the Semantic Web could surge to more than $50 billion in 2010 from $2.2 billion in 2006, according to a 2006 report by Mills Davis at consulting firm Project10X.

    Data Worth a Thousand Pictures While other analysts say it will take longer for the market to reach $50 billion, most agree that the impact of the Semantic Web will be wide-ranging. The Project10X study found that semantic tools are being developed by more than 190 companies, including Adobe (ADBE), AT&T (T), Google (GOOG), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Oracle (ORCL), and Sony (SNE).

    Among the enthusiasts is Patrick Cosgrove, director of Kodak's Photographic Sciences & Technology Center, who is, not surprisingly, also a photo aficionado. He boasts more than 50,000 digital snapshots in his personal collection. Each year he creates a calendar for his family that requires him to wade through the year's photos, looking for the right image for each month. It's a laborious task, but he and his colleagues aim to make it easier.

    One project involves taking data captured when a digital photo is taken, such as date, time, and even GPS coordinates, and using it to help consumers find specific images—say a photo of mom at last year's Memorial Day picnic at the beach. Right now, much of that detail, such as GPS coordinates, is expressed as raw data. But Semantic Web technologies could help Kodak translate that information into something more useful, such as what specific GPS coordinates mean—whether it's Yellowstone National Park or Grandma's house up the street.

    Continued in article

    Also see:
    "Q&A with Tim Berners-Lee The inventor of the Web explains how the new Semantic Web could have profound effects on the growth of knowledge and innovation," Business Week, April 9, 2007 ---
    http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070409_961951.htm 

    "The Web's Father Expects a Grandchild:  Tim Berners-Lee is working on the "Semantic Web," with its richer information links that unlock the power of "unplanned reuse of data," Business Week, October 22, 2006 ---
    http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2004/nf20041022_6972_db083.htm

    Bob Jensen's threads on the Semantic Web are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/XMLRDF.htm

    Bob Jensen's technology glossary is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245gloss.htm

    State and local taxes will consume 11% of the nation's income in 2007.
    "State and Local Tax Burdens Hit 25-Year High," by Curtis S. Dubay, Tax Foundation Special Report No. 153, April 2007 ---      http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/sr153.pdf

    What states in the U.S. have the highest versus the lowest tax burdens?

    April 10, 2007 message from an accounting professor

    Prof Jensen
    I'm putting together a fact box for the income tax deadline; and was wondering how many taxpayers, on average, fail to file tax returns on time.? And are four out of the five states with the heaviest tax burdens still Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts? Other lesser known factoids about income taxes that readers might find interesting would be appreciated.
    Thank You

    April 11, 2007 reply from Bob Jensen

    Hi XXXXX,

    I really don’t know how many late filers there are or the trends in late filings and extension filings. The IRS has a ton of statistics at http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/article/0,,id=96629,00.html
    The word search box is also excellent at the IRS site.

    You really can’t analyze states without factoring in property taxes and all other state taxes. When I moved to New Hampshire, the tax burden was a factor in my decision. I also considered moving to the coast of Maine, but Maine has the highest tax burden in the nation.

    You can find the following module at http://www.trinity.edu/%7Erjensen/tidbits/2005/tidbits050622.htm

    Tax-friendly versus Tax-unfriendly states in 2005 --- http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/08/real_estate/tax_friendly/index.htm

    Top honors go to the tax-friendly states of Alaska, New Hampshire and Delaware.

    Most unfriendly? Maine, New York, D.C.

    Every year, the Tax Foundation measures the total tax bill for each state, creating a list of the most – and least – tax-friendly states in the country.

    See the full list here. And see more state rankings based on income tax, sales tax, property tax and tax breaks for retirees.

    In creating its rankings, the Tax Foundation measures as a percentage of per capita income what residents pay in income, property, sales and other personal taxes levied at the state and local levels. It also factors in the portion of business taxes passed along to state residents through higher prices, lower wages or lower profits.

    The Tax Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit policy research group that advocates, among other things, tax simplification.

    In particular note the state rankings at http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/taxesbystate2005/index.html

    Bob Jensen

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117651636969369930.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks

    2007 Update:  Vermont Overtakes Maine
    "Democrats and the AMT," The Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2007; Page A8 --- Click Here
    (Both the CNN Money and the WSJ used the Tax Foundation databases.)

     

    Martha Stewart Spent a Whole Lot of Her Billion Dollars Upgrading Her Websites

    "Martha Stewart aims to be online leader in everything lifestyle," MIT's Technology Review, April 11, 2007 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Wire/18518/

    Domesticity diva Martha Stewart aims to parlay her authoritative voice on everything about lifestyle to the millions of women who surf the Internet with the relaunch of her namesake Web site.

    Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. -- which scaled back its Web operation as a catalog/e-commerce business in 2005 -- is set to officially relaunch marthastewart.com Tuesday as an information portal.

    The overhauled site, quietly unveiled late last month, features more than 700 videos, including daily episodes of Stewart's TV shows and how-to clips, provides a community where users can chat about such ideas as the latest recipe for chocolate cake, and features a retooled search engine that allows users to browse either by interest such as the latest scrapbooking techniques or by media property from magazines to TV shows. It also allows users to search across 700 other Web sites to get the best resources.

    This fall, Martha Stewart Living will be expanding its community sites and personalization features, which will enable users to save, share, review and collect content from the site as well as interact with each other through interest groups dedicated to specific passions like knitting.

    ''Martha Stewart is the most trusted lifestyle authority,'' Susan Lyne, Martha Stewart Living president and CEO, said in a statement. ''We have a big leg up on other sites because our content libraries are so deep and our creative teams so prolific -- we're a constantly renewed resource for consumers.''

    Martha Stewart Living has enjoyed a rebound over the past year and a