News and Information Blog 11 2008

Yahoo's the BOSS of Vertical Lens Technology

Today, Yahoo has announced a new Yahoo Search BOSS capability called vertical lens technology, which enables partners (often with no search expertise) to create a comprehensive vertical search engine that compliments their core user experience.

For example, TechCrunch has launched a technology-flavored search engine as Yahoo cites as its first example. This search engine allows TechCrunch users to search for technology-focused articles and company info across TechCrunch's network as well as the web, a Yahoo representative tells WebProNews.
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Medicaid waiver may fall short

The buzzword is “choice.” Rather than force elderly and disabled Rhode Islanders to go into nursing homes – because it is the only option for which it is easy for them to get Medicaid coverage – they should be given a chance to enroll in adult day services, or get a visiting nurse at home.

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Scandal Puts A Hurtin' On Baidu

You may have heard that China's number one search engine Baidu has been the subject of some scandalous accusations lately. As a result, stock has plummeted, and so have advertising revenues for the company.

A Little Background
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U.K. takes a majority stake in RBS

EDINBURGH – The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (LSE, NYSE: RBS), the parent of Providence-based Citizens Financial Group Inc., today announced that the British government will take a majority stake in RBS after the bank’s attempt to raise capital by issuing new shares failed to attract sufficient public interest. “We regret that existing shareholders didn’t take up their preemptive rights,” said CEO Stephen Hester.

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How to Grey Out the Screen

This tutorial will show you how to "gray" out the screen and create a "modal" environment. A "gray-out" is useful for creating a DHTML dialog box, or showing off a picture or video. While it's active, most of the interactive elements on the page are inactive.

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Flat Lines Seen for eCommerce Holiday Spend

Research firm comScore weighs in on what's weighing down the holiday spending.

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ProvEquity’s BCE purchase in danger

MONTREAL – Shares in Canadian telephone giant BCE Inc. (NYSE: BCE) plunged on news that the company’s sale to Providence Equity Partners Inc., Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Madison Dearborn Partners LLC might collapse.

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Cyber Monday Tips from the Google AdWords Crew

And Cyber Monday edges closer still. We're at about five days now. Of course, we've still got Black Friday to deal with and last year shoppers spent around $531 Million online just on that day. Follow Amazon's example and get ready for that.
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Meet the Finalists: Excellence in Technology Awards

Cast your ballot for the best that technology has to offer small businesses. The contenders fall into 20 categories and include more than 90 hardware and software products and services. The finalists are set. You decide the winners.

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Promotions Galore Expected on Cyber Monday

Kick-off to online holiday shopping shaping up to be a bargain hunter's dream, study finds.

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LinkedIn Invades France

Okay that may have been a bit over dramatic, what I meant is that LinkedIn is now accessible en Français. Oo-La-La. A few of the LinkedIn employees put together the following video to welcome the new French site users.read more

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Raytheon awarded OSHA safety ‘star’

PORTSMOUTH – The Raytheon Co.’s Seapower Capability Center was honored as a “star” yesterday, by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for its outstanding record as a participant in OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program.

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A Modular Toolbox

Creating and maintaining an effective JavaScript toolbox can greatly reduce development time. This script will show you how to include specific snippet modules on individual pages. Comments and a tutorial are included.

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IAB: Online Ad Spending Leveling Off

After several years of stout growth, Web advertising is beginning to feel a hit from the economic meltdown.

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ZT Systems: The K Car of PCs

Never heard of the ZT Reliant? Buying a PC from this established yet relatively unknown manufacturer may make a lot of sense for small businesses running Windows XP systems.

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Existing home sales, prices fall in October

WASHINGTON – Existing home sales fell last month nationwide and in the Northeast but remained above their lows earlier this year, according to the National Association of Realtors. Prices fell sharply compared with a year ago, dragged down by foreclosure and distress sales. But “where prices have plunged, the buyers are coming back,” said NAR’s Lawrence Yun.

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eHarmony Settles Lawsuit, Starts Gay Site

eHarmony is releasing a new same-sex matching service starting by the end of March. This service is the product of legal problems the company has been dealing with out of New Jersey and California. A gay man in Jersey sued the company for not catering to same-sex relationships as a violation of his rights in the state of New Jersey, and earlier in the year, a gay woman from San Francisco filed a suit against the company for being denied access to eHarmony's service because of her sexuality.read more

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Copy and Paste JavaScript with an Ajax Engine

It's not necessary to understand the characteristics of Ajax in order to use it. This article provides copy and paste JavaScript with an Ajax engine. No modifications are necessary.

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New Paid Links Service Sparks More Debate

Quite a storm of debate has erupted over a new service called InLinks - essentially a paid text link service that allegedly makes it hard for Google (and other search engines) to detect them. And mouths of Internet marketers begin to salivate.
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Share iTunes Music and More on Your Network

With iTunes, you can take your music with you, even if your iPod is elsewhere. All it takes is a network and the right software.

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Cheap lobster not grabbing retailers

November’s by-the-pound lobster prices are the lowest in at least 20 years in the Ocean State and are causing a slowdown throughout the region for lobstermen and lobster-based economies, but the bottomed-out pricing likely will leave seafood retailers unscathed.

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Review: Lenovo ThinkPad SL300

If the price tag on the iconic ThinkPad notebook makes you think twice, you'll love the small-biz focused SL series. These models have the attributes of a ThinkPad, without the high price.

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YouTube in HD - What A Concept

I have not seen any official announcements yet, but YouTube looks to be venturing into High-Definition territory, a place where its competitors are already residing. Meghan Keane at Wired writes:
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U.S. outlook dims in October, Leading Index shows

NEW YORK – Leading indicators for the U.S. economy fell sharply last month, in its fourth decline of the past six months, The Conference Board said today in a report that included downward revisions for both September and August. A separate report today from the U.S. Department of Labor, at left, showed that job losses (a major contributor to the Leading Index’s decline) continued to accelerate last week.

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How to Setup a VPN in Windows Vista: The Host

In the first of a two-part series, network guru Ron Pacchiano guides you through setting up the host PC for a Virtual Private Network in Windows Vista.

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Google Wants Your Questions for D.C. Meeting

Google is hosting a three-part series of town hall meetings at the company's Washington D.C. office, starting with one about economic growth and the technology infrastructure needed to "foster innovation." The meeting is aimed at helping set the technology policy agenda for the incoming Congress and Administration. Google says:
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Consumer Price Index falls record 1%

WASHINGTON – Consumer prices nationwide last month took their sharpest dive since record-keeping began in 1947, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

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Review: PC Fixer 2.6

PC Fixer is a free (but ad-supported) utility that goes spelunking in the Registry to find and fix PC problems.

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Simple Thumbnail Solution

Use this script to browse through a series of images. The thumbnail images are displayed, and a larger copy of the selected image is displayed to the right. The selected thumbnail is also highlighted.

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What Google’s Matt Cutts Sees In 2009

WebProNew's Mike McDonald caught up with Matt Cutts of Google at the Hofbrau House in Las Vegas during PubCon to get his views on a number of topics.When asked about ranking being dead Cutts said that it's not as important as it used to be and that there are other factors to consider than just ranking.On Google's Universal Search Cutts said that in 2009 it will continue to expand and people will have to go beyond basic SEO. As an example Cutts cited Google's Image and Book Search. read more

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R.I. rises again in ‘new economy’ index

WASHINGTON and PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island moved up to 11th place, from 15th last year, for its focus on creating and keeping high-wage jobs, in the 2008 State New Economy Index released today by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF).

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Full Datafeed for MajorVault.com on Shareasale and AvantLink

MajorVault.com is pleased to say a full-datafeed is now available in both Networks, ShareASale and and AvantLink. For those of you who appreciate the ease of using PopShops features, we'll soon be available over there too. In case you missed last weeks announcement, MajorVault is one of the most exciting fine jewelry and diamond merchants around. With 8% commissions on Jewelry, ALL loose diamonds and engagement rings. In addition, we offer incredible consumer offers, such as real Diamond Stud earrings and Freshwater Pearl Bracelet, free with EVERY single purchase. Plus regular coupons on jewelry AND loose diamonds. +Also, don't miss our Major Vault Second and Third Sale bonus at ABW -

# 50 Bonuses on offer. Get a $10 on the second sale and a $15 bonus on your third sale
# Starts November 1 ends Dec 31st. Click Here to view more details. - ShareaSale Program Details Page
- AvantLink Program Details Page Contact

Affiliate Partner Manager : Patrick Goodfellow
Email: patrick@MajorVault.com
MSN: goodfellowpat@hotmail.com

DOMAssistant

A small library for use with the Document Object Model (DOM). The idea is that everything starts with the element(s) in question, selected through ID or CSS selectors, and then perform various methods on it, such as adding or removing classes, events etc. Includes complete documentation.

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Techology for Tough Times

Can spending money on technology help your small business survive the economic crunch? Let the debate begin.

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SEO About to Get Turned On Its Ear?

At PubCon, Bruce Clay, Inc. President Bruce Clay presented at a session entitled "Top-Shelf Organic SEO" in which he discussed the approaching future of SEO as search engines evolve into more modern ranking methods. Bruce was good enough to take the time to speak with our own Michael McDonald in a one-on-one interview, which can be viewed in the video below.read more

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N.E. biotech alliance gathers for 1st time

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Biotechnology industry trade groups, companies, academic institutions and other organizations from across the region banded together today to establish the New England Biotech Association. “New England is a global leader in biotechnology, and we need to stay in that leadership role,” said NEBA Chair Paula C. Newton, who also heads the New Hampshire Bio/Medical Council.

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New Affiliate Research

NETexponent, a performance marketing agency, recently launched a research division and it is giving away its first affiliate research study for free for 30 days. Called Affiliate Benchmarks, the study can be downloaded at AffiliateBenchmarks.com.

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Do You Have a Problem with Live Blogging?

Barry Schwartz posted something of a rant at Search Engine Roundtable after an unnamed blogger attacked the site's live blogging coverage of PubCon:
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PubCon: Making Social Media Campaigns Effective

If you've decided to conduct a social media campaign (or are already in the middle of one), congratulations - you're more or less on the cutting edge. It's important not to either fall off or get sliced, though, and some tips to that end arrived from PubCon.
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Review: Lexmark X6650 Wireless 4-in-1 Printer

Lexmark's latest low-priced entry is a $130 inkjet all-in-one with a few handy extras and some of the most sophisticated utility software we've seen in this class. But does its print quality and speed fare nearly as well?

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Animated Hovering Windows Using JavaScript

You've probably seen many Web sites with windows that seem to appear out of nowhere on the screen. This tutorial will explain how to use that technique to accomplish your own effects.

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The winding path of entrepreneurship

Kelly Klein has a client. Sonya Bradford catered her first party as Green Gal Caterers. And Gerri Feldman keeps getting orders for the yoga shirts she designs.
Much has happened since we first met these three women. (The second installment in an occasional series on the issues and challenges that confront enrollees in the 13-week Center for Women & Enterprise Power Up! course.)

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Microsoft Rolls Out New Small Business Server Options

The company says it designed Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008 to help SMBs with limited IT resources to save time and money.

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Net Neutrality A Likely Reality In 2009

Once the election smoke has cleared, Congress appears poised to pass Network Neutrality legislation. With promises from the Obama campaign about upholding neutrality principles, any remaining FCC opposition will be left standing out on a weak limb.
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Jewelry maker FAF buys Catherine Stein of N.Y.

SMITHFIELD and MANHATTAN – Fashion Accessories First Inc. (FAF), a supplier of costume jewelry and accessories to retailers worldwide, today announced it has acquired Catherine Stein Design of New York, a designer and marketer of costume and semi-precious jewelry. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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Picture This: Video for Gmail

Google adds both video and voice features to its Gmail service.

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Obtrusive JavaScript Checker

This tool traverses all elements in a Web page. When it finds an HTML element with inline events, it highlights them with a red border. Available as a Firefox extension or Greasemonkey script.

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YouTube Offering Sponsored Videos

YouTube's at it again. Monetization that is. They're now offering Sponsored videos.read more

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Care N.E. picks Tufts over Blue Cross

PROVIDENCE – Amid a contract dispute that threatens to push Care New England out of the Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island provider network on Jan. 1, the local health system has chosen to end its relationship with Blue Cross as its workers’ health insurer, also effective Jan. 1. “We appreciate the trust that Care New England has placed in our organization to provide outstanding coverage to its employees,” said Tufts President and CEO James Roosevelt Jr.

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Performance Marketing Bright Spot in Gloomy Economy

The media business is interesting and complicated because you often straddle two worlds – the business of publishing and the space your publication covers. While I’m sad that times are tough in the media space (you can’t go a day without talk of declining ad revenues for traditional media outlets), online marketing seems nearly unaffected by the economic downturn.

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New Report Documents Insanely Long Tail Of Search

When something seemingly insignificant is able to control a more powerful entity, talk of the tail wagging the dog occasionally comes into play. But according to a new report from Hitwise, the long tail of search is capable of something more akin to launching the dog into orbit.read more

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Gary Vee vs. Howard Stern

Gary Vaynerchuk, a.k.a the wine guy, has done a superb job of leveraging social media – his vlog, his WineLibrary.TV show, Twitter, Facebook, etc. He’ll be the keynote at Affiliate Summit West 08 in Las Vegas in January. There’s no doubt that we can all learn a lot about social media from Gary.

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Linden Place receives record $1M gift

BRISTOL – Linden Place Museum has received a $1 million bequest from the estate of longtime supporter Arthur Shepherd of Bristol to help preserve the mansion and its programs. “Through Mr. Shepherd’s foresight and generosity, this American treasure will be preserved for future generations and will be forever accessible to the public,” the nonprofit said

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Analysts See Cold Holiday Season for e-Commerce

With prices on the rise and confidence down, online retailers face a harsh economic climate as they head into the all-important holiday season.

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Microsoft Access: Customize Forms and Reports

Our Microsoft application guru Helen Bradley explains how to make Access database forms and reports more functional and attractive.

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jQuery Feed Menus

This script will allow your users to subscribe to all of your feeds in one location. Use it to list your RSS feeds for your blog, your main site, Twitter feed, and others. No need for multiple feed links. Easy to implement.

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Google Answers Some Tricky Questions

Recently, during a live chat Q&A, Googlers Matt Cutts and Maile Ohye, among others, faced the burning questions of webmasters around the world. Together, they put to rest some fears and myths, and confirmed some speculations.
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BofA Neighborhood Excellence winners

PROVIDENCE – Two local nonprofits, five community leaders and five high school students are being honored by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation with the state’s second annual Neighborhood Excellence Initiative awards. “The Neighborhood Excellence Initiative underscores our belief that investing in leadership is a sound practice,” said William F. Hatfield, left, BofA’s Rhode Island market president.

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Simplicity and Search Quality Go Hand in Hand

Google respects simplicity. That's clear based on the design of their home page (assuming you don't use iGoogle). It's changed very little since the beginning. It's simple, clean, and familiar. A field study from Google into the search habits of users has made it even more clear that simplicity reigns supreme when it comes to search.
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Matt Cutts Likes To Play With Spammers

Well now that the Yahoo deal fell through, some are looking for their own opportunities to team up with Google. One such person is a guy named Rob.

Matt Cutts shared a humorous experience on his blog about a guy who wants to "purchase advertising space". Matt shares the initial email:

Dear Webmaster,
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Ad Testing Tips From Yahoo
Google's not the only one passing out some tips to get businesses ready for the holidays. Communications Manager Kastle Waserman discussed ad testing with Yahoo Sponsored Search on the Yahoo Search Marketing Blog today. Waserman specifically talked about A/B Testing and using your Yahoo account to measure results.
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Verify/Notify for Duplicate Fields
When requesting certain information, such as an e-mail address or a password, it's usually best to have the user enter the information twice in order to verify that a typing error did not occur. This script will do just that, and will provide a message for your user that it has been done.

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Branding of Iway a potential draw
In creating a tourist destination out of a construction project or an architectural gem, arguably one of the most important factors in drawing travelers is that they know and recognize the project – in short, that it’s unique.

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7 Lessons on Holiday Social Media Marketing
It appears that YouTube has been very busy.read more

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R.I. looks to ease lending crunch
PROVIDENCE – The Carcieri administration and state economic development officials met with top executives from many of the state’s banks and credit unions to start developing a state-assisted plan to ease the credit crunch for local businesses. “What we’re looking at that we could do fairly quickly … is what role the state could play in working with some of the banks as a way to help some of the small business,” Gov. Donald L. Carcieri told reporters after his economic forum at the R.I. Convention Center.

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Insert Form Fields On Demand
This script will provide additional fields in a form, as needed, on demand. Any number of fields can be added. Easy to customize and implement.

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Google Docs Petition Calls for White House Garden
Have you ever been involved with a petition using Google Docs? If so Google wants to know about it. Right now, they're highlighting one in particular that is calling for the next President (which we now know will be Barack Obama) to plant an organic farm on the grounds of the White House.

The petition comes from Daniel Bowman Simon and Casey Gustowarow who ride around the country in a double-decker bus made out of two school buses that have been fused together. On top of the bus is a garden.
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Chilly Economy Saps AOL's Ad Revenue
Online unit struggling with softening advertising market, and looks to lure the kind of lucre Google and Yahoo are seeing.

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U.S. home-loan applications fall 20.3%
WASHINGTON – The number of home-loan applications filed nationwide fell sharply in the week ended Oct. 31 as buyers confronted higher interest rates for fixed-rates loans, according to the latest figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

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How Many Sites Are On the Internet?
If there is any accuracy to data released by Netcraft, then the Internet has about 182,226,259 sites. That's 948,000 more than a month ago.

Netcraft looks at the number of sites hosted on the different top servers. The following graph represents market share for top servers across all domains from August 1995 to October 2008:
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Elance Equals Easy Outsourcing for Small Business
Think matchmaking for business. Elance connects freelance professionals with the companies that need them.

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7 R.I. employers win Sloan flex award
PROVIDENCE – The multi-agency When Work Works project has honored seven Rhode Island employers with its 2008 Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility.

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Get out and Vote
I’m not going to go into a political tirade about the candidates or state and local measures that I feel very passionate about, I’m just going to state the obvious - today is a truly historic day in America, so get out and vote!!!
If you’re in the affiliate space and wondering which candidate might help your business, read Scott Jangro’s great blog entry on the topic.

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Diamond Jewelry, Engagement Rings and Loose Diamonds on Shareasale.
AMWSO.COM launches MajorVault.com - an established professional Brick & Mortar Jewelry retail chain directly in the heart of the NY diamond district. With over 60 years experience, MajorVault has developed a huge customer base and recently decided to take their famous brand onto the web. MajorVault manufactures all of their Conflict-Free Jewelry themselves which is why prices on their site are significantly lower than other Fine Jewelry retailers. On top of that margins are kept razor thin so that they can offer customers not only a superior product but one that is incredibly priced. For example, take a look at this 1/4 carat diamond engagement ring for just $199, or compare any of their loose diamonds using their 'Build Your Own Ring' tool. The MajorVault affiliate program is one of the most exciting offered by any fine jewelry and diamond merchant. Our commission is set to compete, and in most cases beats our competitors, with 8% offered on Jewelry and ALL loose diamonds and engagement rings - we believe this is one of the highest in the industry. In addition to ongoing seasonal and holiday promotions, we offer very special consumer offers... such as real Diamond Stud earrings and Freshwater Pearl Bracelet, free with EVERY single purchase. Program Features - Highest Commission Pay-outs in our Niche: 8% on all diamond jewelry & loose diamonds
- 45 Return Days!
- Networks: ShareASale and On AvantLink
- Coupon Codes: High Value Coupons, Bi-monthly deals & Exclusive deals available
- Free DataFeed for all affiliates
- Dedicated Management from Award winning AMWSO.com
- Free Diamond Stud Earrings & Freshwater pear Bracelet for every customer
- Huge Product list of Loose Diamonds, Fine Jewelry, Engagement & Wedding Rings and every-day jewelry at low prices.
- Exclusive prices on products you won't find anywhere else.

+Check our fantastic Bonus at ABW - Major Vault Second and Third Sale bonus

# 50 Bonuses on offer. Get a $10 on the second sale and a $15 bonus on your third sale
# Starts November 1 ends Dec 31st. Click Here to view more details. - ShareaSale Program Details Page
- AvantLink Program Details Page Contact

Affiliate Partner Manager : Patrick Goodfellow

Email: patrick@MajorVault.com

MSN: goodfellowpat@hotmail.com

Online Ad Sales Growth May Slip Further
J.P. Morgan analyst cuts online ad forecast as spending freezes in late third-quarter downturn.

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Review: Xerox Phaser 3300MFP Laser MFP
This all-in-one laser printer from Xerox is a quick, monochrome workhorse suited for small-to-mid-sized companies with moderately demanding print needs.

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Totally Own CSS with JavaScript
The last great frontier for a JavaScript programmer is usually the direct manipulation of a stylesheet. While incredibly powerful tools, the documentation is sparse and the browsers rife with incompatibilities. This tutorial examines three functions which will make working with stylesheets very trivial. There is also a short tutorial and reference for those who want to go beyond the basic tools.

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YouTube Translation Should Help Globalize Videos
A few months back, YouTube started including captions and subtitles on videos, and now to compliment this feature, they have added a translation feature, built on Google Translate.

To utilize this feature when you are watching a video:

1. Mouse-over the arrow button in the bottom right-hand corner of the video.

2. Turn Captions on by clicking on the "CC" button that appears.

3. Once the captions are on, mouse over the small arrow next to th4e "CC" button, and you will bring up a menu.read more

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Supreme Court hearing tribal-land case
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court today is hearing arguments in a closely-watched dispute over land purchased by the Narragansett Indian Tribe in 1991.

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Sprint Restores Peering to Cogent
At 4:00 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, October 30th Sprint (A Tier 1 Internet backbone provider) severed their peering connections with fellow Tier 1 Internet backbone provider Cogent Communications. This depeering was due to a contract dispute that Cogent claimed was already in litigation. Webpronews broke this story within hours of the depeering.read more

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Shop owners using special events to lure customers
It was past the usual closing time at Butterfield, a high-end furniture store in downtown Providence, but people were flocking in anyway.

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TinyMCE
A platform independent Web-based WYSIWYG editor. Convert textarea fields or other HTML elements to editor instances. Very easy to integrate into other content management systems.

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Google Upgrades Apps APIs
Yesterday Google guaranteed 99.9% reliability for Google Apps like Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites, and Google Talk. This stemmed from a similar guarantee the company made for Gmail.
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R.I. gets $1.29M for weatherization aid
WASHINGTON – An energy-efficiency program aimed at helping lower-income Rhode Islanders save on their heating bills will receive “an immediate infusion of $1.29 million,” U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse said today.

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