This isn’t a new field for Clearwire, which has sold wholesale WiMAX access to the cable providers that funded it and to retailers such as Best Buy, but as it moves to LTE and closes down retail locations this wholesale strategy is becoming more clear. And it’s also setting Clearwire up as an odd operator out in the industry as many other cellular companies try to sell services as opposed to pure capacity. However, in Clearwire CTO John Saw’s view “LTE is all about capacity.”

Building the LTE wholesale network.

During the call to discuss the transition to LTE, Clearwire emphasized that it would employ a version of LTE known as LTE-Advanced. This refers to releases 10 and 11 of the LTE technology, but Release 10 was just frozen in March and the gear isn’t out yet for it. What Clearwire hopes to deploy if it gets 0 million or so from investors, is LTE Release version 8, and will be upgradable to later releases that are actually LTE-Advanced. The key elements for Clearwire, and the reason it’s using the LTE-Advanced lingo is because it’s using some features built into the version of the standard that are associated with LTE-Advanced. Plus, since LTE-Advanced was the “real 4G” according to the ITU, I’m sure there will be some marketing spin on this later.

Saw says that Clearwire plans to take advantage of features that allow an operator to group different spectrum bands together to create a virtual pipe as well as features known as MIMO that allow multiple antennas on the device and base stations to boost upload speeds. Those two things are the most important reasons Clearwire has switched to LTE.

For the deeply nerdy, it’s using TDD-LTE (GigaOM Pro sub req’d), a different variation from Verizon and AT&T, which are deploying FDD-LTE. The difference is that Verizon and AT&T must deploy their spectrum in equal clumps going upstream and downstream, but Clearwire (and anyone using TDD-LTE) can allocate their spectrum unevenly, with a greater proportion going to downstream and less for upstream use.

Upgrading the existing infrastructure will be easier in cities where Clearwire has recently deployed WiMAX said Saw: “Adding LTE to those markets is as simple as plugging in another line card on the cell site.” In some areas Clearwire may have to install new radios and in general it will upgrade the core network and backhaul networks, all for that estimated 0 million mentioned.

What happens to WiMAX?

But amid the Clearwire move to LTE, what happens to the existing WiMAX network? Saw says it will remain intact. The company will use 20 MHz of spectrum for LTE and reserve 10 MHz for WiMAx and operate both networks side-by-side. In most cases the equipment is designed to do just that.

It all depends on devices.

By managing multiple networks, even if it can reuse some of the same equipment, Clearwire avoids the challenge of clearing spectrum and getting people to transition to new devices. But devices will still be a key element in Clearwire’s success with LTE. Because it plans to offer wholesale access, Clearwire will have to rely on device makers to put radios into their products that are TDD-LTE compliant and that work in the 2.3 to 2.7 GHz spectrum band that Clearwire is using. Wireless radios, with their associated IP aren’t cheap, so the key is getting them both inexpensive, but also small enough and power efficient enough that a tablet using Clearwire’s LTE won’t cost a lot more and will still have decent battery life.

Clearwire has teamed up with China Mobile and Vodafone to promote a world band in its spectrum for TDD-LTE as part of the Global TD-LTE Initiative. Saw claims that the members of the GTI represent hundreds of millions of potential subscribers and members are deploying networks this year. He didn’t provide details but said Qualcomm, Broadcom and others are planning chips for the band. When I asked if the chips were sample and if we could expect a 12-18 month time frame before such devices hit the market, he said pre-commercial devices are already available. That’s not a clear answer so figuring out when devices that could use the network will arrive is still an open question. Qualcomm recently made its own spectrum play in India in the 2.3 GHz band suggesting it does have plans to support it with radios.

Clearwire’s gamble may all depend on cheap chips

Clearing up Clearwire’s business model.

With its plans to deploy LTE only in areas with high demand, Saw explains that Clearwire’s business model will be built around providing capacity offload. This is something other carriers are doing with Wi-Fi today, but having a more mobile option clearly has benefits in areas where one can’t find a hot spot. By offering LTE it would compete against the planned wholesale LTE network from LightSquared, which wants to use a mix of satellite and terrestrial capacity from Sprint to offer service.

Clearwire is up against LightSquared’s planned satellite network.

Saw bristled when compared with LightSquared pointing out that the company is not only in a fight with the GPS industry over interference, but it also doesn’t have a network. “It’s hard to speculate about LightSquared. It has zero spectrum and no network, and even if they, by some miracle, get their lower 10 MHz approved, that’s a very thin network compared to having 160 MHz in the top 100 markets,” Saw said.

And once again we’re back to capacity, which is what Clearwire has to hope matters. Even with its WiMAX network, Clearwire was hitting the capacity angle hard, because it had those vast spectrum reserves. And while technologists will argue about the poorer spectrum propogation characteristics of the 2.3 and 2.7 bands (they don’t go through buildings easily), that’s the cards Clearwire was dealt (or bought, cheap at auction actually). So the question for Clearwire investors and partners becomes whether or not Clearwire can build out an LTE network designed to offer mobile broadband in areas where carriers and other providers need service and whether that business is big enough to support the costs of building and running such a network.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• For Operators Who Bet on WiMAX, There’s an LTE Plan B
• 4G: State of the Union
• In Q4, Data Was Mobile’s Hot Spot

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How about the supplier floorpan support fee? That is a ridiculous thing to charge too. This is different with used cars. That is what they have to pay to their lenders for all the stocks of autos that they keep. Usually, they pay roughly $100 per month in interest for every vehicle on the lot. They want you to pay it for them. The thing is, the vehicle factory generally assists dealers with it. But they’ll just go around and collect it all over again from you as well. Is not that convenient? If the vehicle has been sitting there on their lot for a few months, they’ll have been paid that amount three times from the vehicle manufacturing facility. But they still would like you to pay for it. It is a total insult to your intellect, and you want zero part of it.

How about the supplier prep charge? That is the fee that the supplier collects from you to ready the vehicle for sale – they take the plastic off of the seats, do any surface cleaning which needs to be done, put on one coat of wax on and inspect the fluids. This is from time to time the case for used cars, as well. The used cars situation varies from dealership to dealership. For this, they would like you to pay five hundred dollars. What can it take them, an hour to finish the task? How could they in good conscience charge five hundred dollars an hour for such a job?

Another weird fee they love collecting from you is the Drive Off Deposit. That is just a totally made up fee that the brand-new vehicle supplier collects from you to attempt to balance out the rebate that they may have given you. It is just stealing, plain and simple, and you do not want them to do that to you.

And ultimately, the Factory Holdback is something you want to watch out for. The factory holds back 2% or 3% of the price of a vehicle from the supplier until they actually sell it. Once the vehicle is sold, they’ll give supplier the their money back. What sellers do is, they attempt to double charge it – once from the vehicle company, and once from you. If you spy this on your invoice, ask to have it removed or threaten to walk out. It is well worth the hassle to show some backbone.

When AOL bought The Huffington Post for 5 million, some saw it as a validation of the Web 2.0 model of new media: aggregation, curation and providing a platform for bloggers, many of whom donated their services in return for the attention of readers. Others, however, seem to feel that founder Arianna Huffington owes those unpaid writers something for her success, and now one blogger has put that idea to the test with a class-action lawsuit that claims The Huffington Post is guilty of “unjust enrichment” for profiting from the labor of others. Web 2.0 has grown up, it seems, and decided to call in the lawyers.

The blogger behind the lawsuit, Jonathan Tasini, is no stranger to this kind of legal battle. He was also involved in a landmark suit against the New York Times a decade ago, in which a group of freelance writers argued publishers were using their work illegally by distributing it online and through various electronic services. The argument in that case was that writers had been paid freelance rates, but they had only given up their rights for print publication, not electronic publication. The case was settled for million in 2001.

Tasini also happens to be a union leader, and he is dragging out every piece of classic union lingo he can muster in defence of his class-action claim (which is embedded below). “In my view, the Huffington Post’s bloggers have essentially been turned into modern-day slaves on Arianna Huffington’s plantation,” he told Forbes magazine. Tasini vowed to picket the founder’s home and make her life “a living hell,” and said that “anybody blogging for the Huffington Post now is a scab” and a “strike breaker.”

Tasini — who wrote sporadically for Huffington Post for the past several years, knowing he wouldn’t be compensated — isn’t the only one to pull out the strike talk. The Newspaper Guild endorsed the idea of a strike against the site shortly after it was acquired by AOL, saying “working for free does not benefit workers and undermines quality journalism,” and that writers were being asked to “honor this electronic picket line.”

Tasini admits that his lawsuit isn’t about The Huffington Post breaching any contract with writers, since the freelance writers and bloggers who worked for the site didn’t have a contract, and most apparently understood they would never be compensated other than in pageviews. But he argues the huge sums that the company made by selling itself to AOL justify paying writers something anyway — as much as 0 million. In effect, he and others are saying The Huffington Post may not have a legal duty to pay them, but there is some kind of moral obligation to do so.

This argument has come up in virtually every case where a “Web 2.0″ company has been acquired for large sums of money. YouTube was criticized by some for not paying those who created and uploaded videos after it was bought by Google for .6 billion in 2006, and Flickr was also the subject of similar criticism from some users after Yahoo bought it for million in 2005. The only reason sites such as Wikipedia aren’t hit with similar criticisms, apparently, is that they don’t actually make any money and therefore they can’t pay anyone anything.

Is there any real merit to Tasini’s claim? Not really, as Jack Shafer at Slate and others have pointed out. The reality is that many people donate their services on the web and they are compensated in all kinds of non-monetary ways. But in every case, they do so knowing there will be no direct compensation from the site they are using.

Tasini made the same deal when he agreed to write for The Huffington Post. Why did he do so? He hasn’t said, but presumably for the same reason others did — in order to gain visibility, and because writing for the site was easier or more productive than writing posts for his own blog (where he tries to defend his claim).

Did Arianna Huffington build hundreds of millions of dollars in value in part based on the work of others? Yes, and those freelancers and bloggers volunteered to do this. Not only that, but Huffington has been actively pushing AOL to hire more professional journalists and use freelancers less since she took over as the head of AOL’s content operations, something Tasini and the various writers’ unions should theoretically support, since it means full-time jobs and benefits. She said recently she plans to hire as many as 800 journalists to man the local bureaus AOL has been opening as part of its Patch.com hyper-local media operation.

Those are far larger numbers of writers and journalists than any other traditional or new media outlet has been hiring lately. In other words, Huffington may be the best friend that online writers have right now, whether they like it or not.

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user Klobetime

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The voice over web protocol (VOIP) phone system is a great mannequin of how advances in a single field of expertise usually go hand in hand with development in other areas. VOIP is an advancement made potential by computer know-how that has instantly affected telephone techniques, as well. While any such phone system could seem overseas to many customers, most people are aware of some kind of VOIP provider, even when they don’t know it. Lingo, SunRocket, and Vonage are three providers of VOIP services which might be comparatively well-known amongst many consumers.

The distinction between a VOIP phone system and a regular phone system might be complicated for many people. Conventional phone calls work by sending “analog audio indicators” by way of fiber optics that is supplied by a traditional telephone company. The fiber optics is basically a fancy description of phone traces, whereas the “analog audio alerts” becomes the voices which might be exchanged throughout a conversation. This is how a traditional phone name works, whether it is over a land primarily based line, or a mobile phone.

The way in which that VOIP works is that as an alternative of utilizing a system of “analog audio signals” to transmit voices, the VOIP system makes use of a technique that causes it to change knowledge packets to completely different channels, relying on which one is the most open on the time. So not like an everyday telephone system that has to have a dedicated channel to make or obtain calls, a VOIP system can make use of any channel that happens to be open on the time the decision is made. For a lot of people, in addition to many businesses, a VOIP system is cheaper because the tactic of creating calls doesn’t require cost for set lines or an expensive per minute long distance rate.

VOIP saves the most cash for individuals who are likely to make lots of long distance calls. The rationale for this is that long distance calls with an everyday phone plan have a per minute cost, while that isn’t true with VOIP phones.

This could make such a phone system valuable not just for a household, but also for increasingly more businesses who are switching over to this technique not only as a result of it saves cash, however for many types of telephone calls the VOIP system is more efficient.

The principle concern many people have when contemplating switching to a VOIP telephone system is that most people think of VOIP as solely computer to computer. That is one kind of VOIP cellphone system, however it’s not the one one!

There are telephones which might be principally unusual telephones, they simply hook up with a pc that’s on as a substitute of getting plugged into a wall. There are additionally “Wi-Fi” telephones, which work like cellular telephones but use Internet and wi-fi hot spots instead of mobile phone towers to attach calls.

VOIP phone system expertise shouldn’t be perfect by any means, however it is extremely effective and like all technologies, because it becomes more and more in style with each houses and businesses the options and repair will continue to enhance as the brand new improved phone system replaces the old.

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Everyone knows that ink cartridges are going to be expensive, so whatever brand of printer is purchased; expect to pay quite a bit of cash whenever the cartridges need to be replaced. That shouldn’t discourage anyone from buying a particular printer, since ink prices aren’t terribly competitive.

As far as printer lingo and jargon goes on the specifications sheet, the number after duty cycle is pretty meaningless. It doesn’t take into account how printers are normally used and really only exists for a few quality-control groups. Still, you should know how your potential printer is going to perform. So, estimate how much printing you’re going to do in an average month and compare that to the “recommended monthly volume” figure, or its equivalent.

In this case, the printer can be expected to print between 250 and 1000 pages per month, as per HP’s recommended monthly page volume. This reflects use in keeping with the intentions of the design and the warrantee.

According to HP’s product specs, the cp1515n printer can produce up to 12 black and white pages per minute and up to 8 color pages per minute. The cp1515n’s input tray holds up to a hundred and fifty sheets of paper, while its output try handles around 125 sheets. Compare this to your expected printing volume. This should be fine for normal household or home office use.

Since ink cartridges were mentioned before, it’s always a good idea to know how frequently they’re going to need to be replaced. A printer cartridge that has to be replaced frequently is probably not the best fit for a situation that requires a lot of pages printed everyday. The CP1515n laser toners can print about 750 pages of color and 750 pages of black and white over the lifetime of an ink cartridge.

As for image quality, the newer HP models, like the HP Color LaserJet cp1515n printer, use a technology called HP ColorSphere that has significantly improved the text and color of the materials it produces. A number of users cite a noticeable difference in the quality of the printings from previous models that they’ve owned.

The software that comes bundled with the HP Color LaserJet cp1515n printer gives a pretty good idea of what the printer is capable of, so it’s at least worth an initial install. It probably won’t see continued use, as very little bundled printer software does, but the HP Marketing Resources package can help with some sophisticated advertising materials. You will also need some CP1515n replacement toners. If you purchase your HP toner cartridges online, you may be able to save money on your toner.

1. Single Table Poker Tournaments (STT’s) are a quicker game than Multi Table Tournaments (MTT’s) and you want to give yourself enough chips to bet properly during the middle stages.

2. You should reduce your starting hand requirements slightly from late position in case of no raises: in no limit poker the expected value of say, a small pocket pair, can be very high.

3. Hands that you can play (in case of no raises and lots of limpers in the pot) in late position include two suited face cards, and suited aces down to an eight. In this phase you are looking for a nuts or near nuts hand (nut flush, full house or straight) that you can afford to slow play and make a huge gain for a small initial stake.

4. Bluffing in the early stages of a STT is pretty useless, because blinds aren’t worth it, and if there are multiple callers, one of them will pay to see you.

5. Post flop you should be mega-tight and never jeopardize either your chips or your table image chasing the river|One big difference between a STT and an MTT is where one player amasses a huge chip lead in the early stages. In an MTT, you hate having them on your table. They steal the pots while people on other tables are playing hands. But in a STT a clear chip leader can be a positive factor. The bluffers are in big trouble, because whatever they throw in, big stack can afford to call. It is possible to play nice and tight and still keep up.

Summary
Play tight, do not bluff and remember your position at all times. Let the fish die off, without losing too many chips, but look for simple opportunities to gain. Create the impression you are a rock and you’ll do great over the long term. If you’re new to it all practice on the free poker sites first before moving up in line with your growing confidence and bankroll.

Lingo, the maker of talking and multi-lanaguage translators, have debuted more then 15 different translators at CES. The units announced ranging from models with six languages, all the way to 52 languages — prices range from $19.95 to $299.

Lingo has versions of it’s translator for students well, the WorldMate 6 goes for $19.95, and includes 30,000 words, and 720 phrases in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch. It also has one touch language icons featuring the country flags, which allow users to switch easily between languages.

WorldMate 6 also offers a QWERTY style keyboard, which also displays local time, the date, a currency converter, a calculator and Learn & Save.

There are multiple versions that you can find on Lingo’s site.

Hopefully this guide will help you learn some of the more modern terms, and also some of the more complex ones used when playing poker.

We all know some of the terms like , flop, turn , river, check, raise and so forth but there are even some terms for those that are foreign to some players. Such as…

4th street – aka the turn

5th street – the river

But that is not the limit of the terms you can keep in mind while you’re contemplating your next moves. Keep these in mind when you are watching the bets come around to you.

Plays tight – generally means that a player does not play lots of hands

Plays loose – the opposite to playing tight, and the player tends to play lots of hands

Plays “ATC”- this means that the player will play anything he has, (any two cards).

On tilt- means that a player is being erratic with their bets usually from losing a tough hand earlier.

Above details the pre flop terms, so lets look at board activity terms.

Over pair – A pair in your hand that beats what is on the board.

Top pair – means that you have paired the highest card on the board with one in your hand. Next down is middle pair and bottom pair respectively.

If you manage to survive the flop but have 4th and 5th St. left to endure. Then you have three more terms to keep in mind as you go.

Outs – number of possible cards that can give you the win on a hand.

Drawing dead- Term meaning that you there is no possible way to win the hand. Some players if they are drawing dead may bluff or go on tilt at the last second to try and steal the pot.

Having the “nuts”- Having the nuts means you have the best possible hand available from the cards on the board and in your hand.

Some good tips when playing

Poker and playing free poker is all about betting, checking and raising, but even the three basic options can be pretty interesting.

Even terms like check and raise can lead to some pretty interesting scenarios and put players in a frenzy.

One example is to check-raise. That term means to check when the bet comes to you but then raise if a bet comes up. This tactic can hide the strength of your hand and can lure a player into losing a lot chips if he is not careful on how he plays it.

Value bet – Is a bet that is not a large bet but is considered small enough to call. Some players may call a value bet in hopes of gauging a player’s game play or to see their hand.

Semi-bluff bet – Is similar to a bluff bet but is enough of a bet to make a player think very carefully about what their next move is.

[b]Pot odds -[b] This term I would say is the most useful term to keep in mind. Pot odds is the ratio of your chips in the pot versus the whole pot. For example if you have $1500 in a $6000 pot your pot odds would be 4:1. Keep this in mind if you are in a tight hand and not sure if you should risk more or not.

Pot committed – Term meaning that a player has a majority of their chips in the pot. This is a very useful term as it can decide to back off on a hand or force them all in if you have the nuts.

Whether you are playing free poker games or pay poker, if you hear any of these terms in your game, then hopefully they will give you an edge to know what is happening and you can use this to your advantage to win more chips.

Hole cards – the two cards the dealer gives you.
Community cards – these are the cards dealt face up on the board in three different times.
Pre-flop – this is the betting done before the flop.
The flop – this is referring to the first three community cards dealt up.
The turn – this refers to the fourth community card dealt up.
The river – this refers to the final (fifth) community card dealt face up.
The button – this refers to the player with the dealer button in front of them.
The small blind – this refers to the person to the left of the button.
The big blind – this refers to the person two seats to the left of the button.

Hand definitions
Big Slick – this refers to ace-king suited (some people believe any ace king is big slick).
A set – this refers to three of a kind with a pocket pair and one on the board.
Trips – this refers to three of a kind with two on the board (community cards) and one in your hand.
Quads – this refers to four of a kind.
Wheel – this refers to a 5 high straight (A-2-3-4-5).
Broadway – this refers to an ace high straight (ten, jack, queen, and king, ace.).
Flush – this refers to five cards of the same suit.
Straight flush – if you are lucky enough to have 5 cards of the same suit.
Royal flush – this refers to the ten, jack, queen, king, ace of the same suit.
Snowmen – Pocket eights can also be called snowmen.
Donk/Donkey – this is sometimes used for a player that plays a weaker hand and wins. (Not really suitable in general).

So next time your on the poker free tables, impress your opponents with the proper lingo.

Matter management software is one of the most frequently known and used software systems for in-house legal departments. This legal tool can automate everything and increase accountability while reducing costs, streamlining case handling, imposing workflow and traceable document-handling, collaborating with business units, partnering with outside counsel and ensuring compliance. Matter management software systems serve a variety of functions for the corporate counsel of today, including conflict and ethics control, correct matter opening, day by day matter work, business intelligence, and selling. Being able to instantly track folk, sorts of legal work, industries of the matters or clients, witnesses, judges, courts, opposing counsel, issues, documents, budgets and invoices makes each legal matter much more controllable.

Yes, everyone knows there are some diehards who just want to continue to travel the old ‘status quo’ ways with matter management, leaving it all to hard copy paper, pen, pencil and inter-office memo boxes. These people believe that since they have been doing things a certain way ( the old fashioned way ) for such a long time, what could presumably be the point in learning an entire new process? Everyone knows someone that decisively believes you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

But what about all the loss of info, time wasted and money that goes with this old way of doing things. Of course, these same people follow in kind with billing (never e billing) and likewise with suits hold. Unfortunately, we reside in afast world, and matter management software with e billing and litigation hold features will not only save some time and money but will also streamline communication and enhance info capacities, so making your office a well-oiled machine to handle whatever needs could arise.

E billing is an automatic system that is used to organize and manage all the info with your accounting system. E billing submits invoices to clients and makes it less complicated for them to make a payment. It also unifies the processing system and keeps complete records for all expenses that are billed.

If that’s not enough, suits hold software completely minimizes the mistakes and time that are inherent with natural human error. Fantastic litigation hold software will create simpler communication, provide info management, improve the verifying of information and expand transparency. The software will also permit approved staff to recognize relevant subject matter, sequester it and circulate it if required, all the while providing immediate responses to litigation proof requests. Litigation hold software is final element of the desperately required technology backbone software that’s urgent for any successful legal department.