Another bit of closure for Digg as the company continues to look for a buyer of its technology and its site: its engineering team is joining SocialCode, the social media advertising and analytics subsidiary of the Washington Post Company.

We first wrote about the engineers getting hired by WaPo on Monday, when rumors began to swirl that the newspaper group had bought Digg. Now the news has been made official with a post on Digg’s blog by CEO Matt Williams.

The Washington Post notes that in all, 15 engineers are joining the team. Among them, Alan Lippman, Digg’s VP of advertising products, becomes the chief scientist at SocialCode. Software developer Will Larson will become director of engineering.

SocialCode, which launched in January 2011, has offices in San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC, and Digg’s engineers will “augment” that team, which Williams says “shares our same values & culture.”

“At Digg, we have been studying social media since its inception. From Digg Social Reader to Digg Ads, we established a new paradigm for content and advertising on the web. Joining SocialCode felt like a natural next step,” Williams writes.

Products that the new team will likely work on include Trove, SocialCode’s social news platform, which powers Washington Post’s own Social Reader and Personal Post. The addition of new talent may also see SocialCode extending its reach in developing products for third parties beyond the Washington Post’s walls, although this isn’t made clear in the blog post.

(Update: A WaPo spokesperson says that SocialCode engineers will only be working on SocialCode itself — it’s a social advertising agency that works across social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, not the Washington Post itself. Trove, Social Reader and Personal Post are products of WaPo Labs, another subsidiary of the Washington Post Company.)

The Digg technical staff will be integrated with and augment SocialCode’s existing engineering team with development offices in San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C.

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Source: It’s Official: 15 Digg Engineers Are Joining Washington Post’s SocialCode

Looks like the rumored HTC Droid Incredible 4G is getting more tangible every day. Reportedly, a detailed product page for the fabled device appeared on Verizon’s DroidDoes Web site and was then cruelly yanked away.

Android enthusiast blog Android Central noticed the gaffe by Big Red, and plenty of sites followed suit, posting images of the device along with the phone’s key specs. In a nutshell, if this latest leak is legit then the hot handset will boast a 1.2GH dual-core processor, 4-inch qHD Super LCD screen, Android 4.0 ICS, and HTC Sense 4.

Likely the best update, though, is the Incredible 4G’s LTE connection, which its predecessor, the HTC Droid Incredible 2, noticeably lacked. The leaked price of $299 seems very steep to me and frankly the HTC One S (T-Mobile) with its all-metal chassis and AMOLED screen looks like a better buy at $199.

In any case, the first Droid Incredible broke ground by squeezing swift Android performance into a very compact package that sported a wildly ridged back battery plate. Let’s hope this possible new Incredible lives up to its potential.

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Source: Mythical HTC Droid Incredible 4G appears, disappears

>(PRWEB) April 18, 2012 Hong Kong Houseware Fair introduces a new zone this year. Globally, we witness a trend for buyers to place order more frequently with smaller quantity. This shift of buying pattern and the growing number of e-retailers make it a challenge for buyers to locate different-from-the-secrecy.hktdc.com/” title=”Home Product Suppliers and Manufacturers” onclick=”linkClick(this.href)”>home product suppliers and manufacturers who sell small orders. The newly-launched “Small Order Zone” aims to facilitate small order trading and open up new business opportunities for buyers and sellers alike. Apart from the new zone, Hong Kong Houseware Fair comprises a number of specialised product zones to categorise home product suppliers and home product manufacturers in groups and make sourcing at ease. The fair’s highlight, “Hall of Elegance” in Hall IE, attracts many brands and creative designs, including green & associate, Mastrad, Talk and Umbra. The popular “Green Living zone” also expanded to accommodate more green and recycled home products to cater to the growing demand of eco-friendly products. Chinese mainland is a market of potential with booming domestic market and strong economic growth. Taking advantage of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA), ASEAN home product suppliers and manufacturers enjoy a privilege to do business with Chinese mainland because of diminished bilateral tariff. Making the third appearance this year, the popular “ASEAN Select”, featuring traditional and crafted items from ASEAN nations, is an ideal platform for ASEAN companies to explore business with mainland buyers. Returning for the fourth time, “Wo

Center for Community Solutions Honors Sexual Assault Awareness Month with Full Roster of Special Events and Community Awareness Programs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GS_googleAddAdSenseService(”ca-pub-83492339″+”76388614″); GS_googleEnableAllServices(); GA_googleAddSlot(”ca-pub-8349233976388614″, “NewsArticles_ATF_Center_250×250″); GA_googleAddSlot(”ca-pub-8349233976388614″, “NewsArticles_BTF_Footer_728×90″); GA_googleFetchAds(); GA_googleAddAdSensePageAttr(”google_color_bg”,”ffffff”); GA_googleAddAdSensePageAttr(”google_color_border”,”ffffff”); GA_googleAddAdSensePageAttr(”google_color_link”,”2050d0″); GA_googleAddAdSensePageAttr(”google_alternate_ad_url”,”http://www.prlog.org/jsinc/noidx/ads.html”); GA_googleAddAdSenseSlotAttr(”NewsArticles_ATF_Center_250×250″,”google_ad_type”,”text”); GA_googleAddAdSenseSlotAttr(”NewsArticles_ATF_Center_250×250″, “google_ad_channel”, “1297855608+0633753409+7072525493+4645088998+0362719149+6863560615″);GA_googleFillSlot(”NewsArticles_ATF_Center_250×250″);PRLog (Press Release) – Apr 10, 2012 – What:   April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Center for Community Solutions, along with various community partners, has a full schedule of activities and events scheduled to increase awareness about the many prevention and intervention services that are available throughout the county.   Take Back the Night, also known as “Reclaim the Night,” is an internationally-held march and rally intended as a protest and direct action against rape and other forms of violence against women. These Take Back the Night events, and related events including “These Hands Don’t Hurt” and the “Avellaka Walk,” will be held locally:•   Tuesday, April 10, 10am-3pm, “These Hands Don’t Hurt,” San Diego State University •   Tuesday, April 10, 4:00-8:00pm San Diego State University•   Thursday, April 19, Evening TBA, University of San Diego •   Thursday, April 19, 4:30-7:30pm, California State University, San Marcos•   Tuesday, April 24,  8am-12pm, “Avellaka Walk” at Rincon Reservation  •   Thursday, April 26, 6:30-10:30pm, University of California, San Diego Noteworthy facts:•   1 out of every 6 American women and 1 in 33 American men will be the victim of an attempted or completed rape in his or her lifetime.•   Girls ages 16-19 are four times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.•   It is much more likely to be sexually assaulted by someone known than a stranger. Approximately two-thirds of rapes were committed by someone known to the victim.# # #Founded in 1969, Center for Community Solutions, assists tens of thousands of women, men and children affected by sexual assault, domestic violence and elder abuse each year. CCS operates the only Rape Crisis Center in the City of San Diego along with a 24-hour bilingual crisis helpline as well as hospital and court accompaniment services for rape survivors. CCS provides two 24-hour emergency shelter and transitional housing programs for victims of domestic violence and their children. Center for Community Solutions operates from three locations; a Coastal office in Pacific Beach, an East County office in El Cajon, and a North County office in Escondido….

Source: Center for Community Solutions Honors Sexual Assault Awareness Month with Special Events

>West Chester, PA (PRWEB) April 10, 2012 Westtown School, a pre-K -12 college prep school in West Chester, PA, will show the 2010 film “Race to Nowhere” at 7pm on April 13 in the Barton-Test Theater on the Westtown campus. The screening is free and open to the public. A panel discussion is scheduled after the film, featuring experts in the areas of education, mental health and college admission, along with parents and Westtown students. Presenting heartbreaking stories of young people across the country who have been pushed to the brink, educators who are burned out and worried that students aren’t developing the skills they need, and parents who are trying to do what’s best for their kids, “Race to Nowhere” points to the silent epidemic in our schools: cheating has become commonplace; students have become disengaged; stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant; and young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired. Westtown educators share these concerns. Founded by Quakers in 1799, the school’s philosophy of education already incorporates many of the changes called for in the film. Upper School Principal Eric Mayer explains. “At the heart of the film is the issue of balance, which is something Westtown’s program actively addresses through required athletics, dedicated time for reflection and worship and a host of activities intended to balance the rigor of academic classes.” Westtown has long been a leader in prioritizing students’ mental and physical health, one of the goals of “Race to Nowhere,” supporting children’s well-being by such things as rethinking assessment to include more authentic measures of learning than tests and exams alone, and purposefully teaching resilience by making sure young people experience small, manageable failures in the presence of caring adults. The College Counseling Program presents the college admission process as a journey of discovery rather than a race for acceptance at a few prestigious institutions. And most important, Westtown empowers students to take charge of – and joy in – their own learning. Other goals of “Race to Nowhere,” which was created by Vicki Abeles, a parent who was moved to action after a series of wake-up calls in her own family and community, are raising awareness about sources of stress for young people, fostering dialogue about them, and galvanizing grassroots support for redefining success and achievement. Westtown is a charter member of the Independent Curriculum Group, independent and public schools across the country that put students at the center of the education process by emphasizing teacher-generated curriculum for advanced courses rather than teaching to AP curricula. Westtown also opposes the emphasis on school “ratings” by the media – and their unspoken messages to young people about what’s important in education. Westtown looks forward to opening the dialogue with its own parent body and members of the wider West Chester community about change in education on behalf of all students. Unlike earlier showings of “Race to Nowhere” in the area, there will be no entry fee at the Westtown screening. Moderators for the discussion following the film will be Westtown’s Associate Head of School Susan Temple and Upper School Principal Eric Mayer. Panelists include Westtown Middle School Principal Nancy van Arkel, Consulting Psychologist Dr. Maria Alonso, Director of College Counseling Susan Tree, Director of Learning and Teaching Dr. Margaret Haviland, Haverford College Director of Admission Jess Lord (Westtown ’90), parent and Widener professor Sydney Howe-Barksdale, and Westtown seniors and Student Body Presidents Daquan Daly and Maggie Munts. …

Source: Westtown School to Show “Race to Nowhere” April 13

“I am thrilled to be part of another release of an even more spectacular messaging system. I am especially excited to roll out the new feature of Dynamic Call Detection, which can intelligently adapt to a voicemail or a live person after the message has already started being delivered. This is some seriously cutting-edge technology,” said Christine Tosi, President of Inphonite, LLC. “Additionally, adding features like easy to use wizards, interactive text messaging, voice response, custom reports and a portal make this product even more robust. Finally, we still offer the Desktop, Server and Enterprise on-premise editions that those in the medical industry have grown to appreciate, as well as an easier to use SaaS Model. The return on investment proves InphoniteVoice 2012 to be cost effective with varied features and pricing levels for small, medium-sized, and even multi-site enterprises.”

InphoniteVoice 2012 – New Feature Highlights

Improved User Interface with Message Designer Tools, Rules Wizard, and new Dashboard Interactive Text Messaging Speech Recognition – enables voice responses instead of pressing numbers Lab Results Patient Portal – allows patients to securely and privately view lab/test results or other private messages 26 Text-to-Speech languages Custom Report Designer Enhanced Dynamic Answering Machine Detection – An Industry First! Holiday Exception Handling

About the InphoniteVoice PlatformInphoniteVoice is a powerful messaging platform that can be utilized for appointment reminders, emergency notifications, click-to-call, patient lab results, and more. It can integrate with virtually any database to automate custom messages, sending them via phone, text, email, and Twitter.  InphoniteVoice also supports inbound messaging where people can securely retrieve private messages at their convenience by calling and logging in with an ID and PIN.  InphoniteVoice offers custom, detailed reporting capability of patient calls, responses, and attempts. The Administrator Client application enables the complete configuration and operation of the program from a local desktop PC or remote connection.

About Inphonite, LLC Inphonite, LLC develops and markets professional, automated phone messaging systems and interactive computer telephony products that improve the profitability and productivity of a wide range of organizations. Inphonite, LLC has over twenty years of experience in PC-based telephone communication solutions, and seamless integration to more than 400 software systems.  Sending millions of messages for businesses around the world per day, Inphonite is the solution provider of choice for healthcare organizations, businesses, educational institutions, and government agencies.

For more information on Inphonite, LLC, and its products, visit the company Web site: www.inphonite.com or call: (800) 350-7693 (U.S. & Canada) and (520) 797-1844 outside of the U.S., or email to: info@inphonite.com.

Inphonite and InphoniteVoice are trademarks of Inphonite, LLC. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Inphonite, LLC

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Source: Inphonite Announces InphoniteVoice 2012 Release Date

How much would you pay for a server that hosted some of your most cherished gaming experiences?

The ultimate wall art for the geek cave.

A game like World of Warcraft requires several thousand servers to operate the hundreds of online realms within its ecosystem. Earlier this year, Blizzard Entertainment auctioned off several of those server blades “used during World of Warcraft’s early days.”

A Reddit post brought up the subject again recently, and contains a few pictures of a server blade used for the European server Sunstrider from February 27, 2005 to August 24, 2010. There’s little doubt that countless gamers spent thousands, if not millions, of hours playing during that time frame. A special clear enclosure reveals the innards of the server, which contains 6 gigabytes of RAM (DDR-400MHz). It did not come with the original hard drives.

A server to some, but to others, a sentiment.

There is also a plaque on the top left, full of reprinted developer signatures and a special inscription: “Blizzard Entertainment has carefully preserved and archived our retired server blades, releasing only a limited number for a noble cause. To us, this server blade is more than just hardware: within the circuits and hard drive, a world of magic, adventure, and friendship thrived. From fishing in quiet lakes to defeating Arthas in Icecrown Citadel, this blade was home to thousands of immersive experiences across the world of Azeroth and beyond. We thank you for the safekeeping of this important part of history.”

The server sold at auction for $280. As for me, after spending the equivalent of months playing World of Warcraft (T6 Shadow Priest), I’m not so sure I could spend any more money (or time) on the game.

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Source: Meet a retired World of Warcraft server

> SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Technology stocks held on to modest gains on Thursday, even as shares of Amazon.com retreated after Goldman Sachs warned of potentially weaker-than-expected fourth quarter sales.

Amazon  shares slipped a fraction to close at $173.86 after Goldman Sachs analyst Heather Bellini said in a Wednesday note that data from comScore suggest the company’s sales grew by 38% from the year-earlier period, below the current consensus of 40%.

“While the comScore numbers are just one data point which does not capture international sales or break out individual companies’ sales, taken alone they seem to suggest the potential for downside risk to consensus forecasts,” Bellini wrote.

The note appeared to offset Amazon’s own announcement that 2011 turned out to be a strong year for its Kindle family of products.

“Throughout December, customers purchased well over 1 million Kindle devices a week,” the company said in a release.

However, Baird analyst Colin Sebastian said in a note that “unlike prior year releases, Amazon did not provide peak day order and unit sales for the 2011 holiday period.”

“Previously, Amazon consistently reported strong growth in these metrics,” Sebastian added, although he also noted that “the bulk of e-commerce holiday spending data was positive, and we continue to believe there is some upside potential from our fourth quarter revenue estimate of $17.5 billion.”

Shares of eBay Inc.  also fell 0.2% to close at $30.36, while Google Inc.  edged up 0.4% to close at $642.40.

Yahoo Inc.  also saw its shares trade up 2.2% to close at $16.13, apparently on media reports that Alibaba has hired the prominent Washington DC lobbying firm Duberstein Group as it explores a possible bid for the beleaguered Internet firm.

Overall, the tech sector managed to stay in positive territory as the Nasdaq Composite Index  gained 0.9% to close at 2,614. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index  was up 1.1%, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index  gained 0.9%.

Major tech issues were broadly higher, including Intel Corp.  , Hewlett-Packard  , IBM Corp.  Microsoft Corp  and Dell Inc.  

Tech Stocks: Amazon slips, but techs cling to gains

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Source: Three Hot New E-book Releases Top Book Critics Are Raving About By Peter Thomas Senese Now Available On Amazon Kindle, B&N’s Nook, and Apple’s i-Pad

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Source: “The Leave No Girl Behind Movement” Launches Website To Empower Young Girls About Choices