Smart ID plan for Suvarnabhumi

Thai citizens represent no more than 5% of all international travellers passing through the airport. They would still need passports once they left the country and critics will say it could cause confusion. Some travellers may assume they will not need a passport at all.

The proposal is on the luggage tag, but far from finalised. The airport has installed automatic passport checkpoints for Thai citizens, a system that is now working efficiently. There was a long learning curve and a reluctance to use the unmanned gates, but the immigration bureau hired personnel to assist passengers.

The TrustPoint 3-factor biometric reader is a flexible solution, offering a variety of security options including biometric, PIN and optional PKI challenge-response authentication for increasing or decreasing the assurance level of site security, depending on the user’s requirements. It is the only solution of its kind that is Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) compatible, using a design that is made to authenticate Personal Identity Verification (PIV) credentials and mitigate electronic cloning.

“The coupling of AccessNsite with the innovative technology behind Bridgepoint’s TrustPoint 3-factor biometric reader will provide a high assurance, biometrically authenticated security system,” said Rick Foster, director of marketing and sales for Quintron’s Security Systems Division.

AccessNsite is a Java-based application that is built on a modular, object-oriented design, providing unlimited system scalability, flexibility and reliability. The software supports real-time credential evaluation at initial enrollment and full-time authentication via TrustPoint 3-factor biometric readers and compatible control panels that are installed at one location or many sites worldwide. This leverages Quintron’s enroll local-access global advanced data sharing capabilities between globally distributed systems and sites.

According to Tom Corder, president and CEO of Bridgepoint Systems, the collaboration with Quintron will facilitate efficient enrollment by taking advantage of AccessNsite’s open architecture to offer an intuitive, user-friendly application. “In designing our product with the latest PKI standards in mind,” said Corder, “we created an authentication mechanism that is not only impenetrable, but easy to administer and manage. We are pleased to unveil this latest innovation in smart card reader technology, offering the highest level of security and access control.”

Foster also pointed out that “the 3-factor Bridgepoint reader makes it possible for security personnel across town, across the country or across the globe to deny access -- one badge, one face, one fingerprint at a time.” By coupling the AccessNsite system with Bridgepoint’s cryptographic PKI challenge-response technology, he added, the TrustPoint 3-factor biometric reader offers efficient data entry as well as image and signature capture from any location in real-time.

When a user enters his or her PIN, the solution performs a “one-to-one” match between the biometric template stored on a PIV credential and the “live-scan” of a user’s finger. When the sensor is ready for a scan, it lights up with a bright red glow and the LCD display then guides the user through the authentication process. The reader can also be configured to work automatically or manually with the PKI challenge-response in the ON or OFF mode. This feature allows the customer to use the reader with PACS in security levels I and II, and later implement higher security including levels III and IV.

Bridgepoint, a pioneer in the physical access field, was the first U.S. company to develop smart card readers for use by the Department of Defense in a physical access system. It was also the first to integrate the Department of Defense’s CAC with biometrics in a real world deployment and the first to install an interoperable personal identification reader in a government, multi-tenant facility. Some of the nation’s largest government contractors and systems integrators use the company’s technology.

I think it’s getting there. I would not say it’s ready yet. And that’s really for two reasons: Atlanta and the South in general is a particularly car-centric culture. Now, one of the interesting things about bike sharing is that it’s been proven in other places that just putting the program out there is an effective tool of education and cultural change. If you sort of throw it at people, they’ll say, “Oh, there are just bicycles everywhere, I have to respect them as a driver.”

The bigger issue is making sure the proper infrastructure is there, and there is some work to be done, but there’s also been a lot of positive development. Josh Mello over at the City of Atlanta has been awesome since he joined that organization. The city just approved $2.5 million for bike infrastructure funding, new lanes. The BeltLine is a custom keychain. So it’s happening.

I’ll be the first to tell you there are pros and cons to each solution, and what we’re doing is not perfect yet. It was a little surprising to see the focus on convenience. I think some of that came from the fact that they looked at smart-bike systems almost a year before the final results came out, and the technology was at a much earlier stage.

[With ViaCycle] you can still put a kiosk in high-traffic areas. We’ve gone out and designed that. At the risk of oversimplifying, it’s basically an iPad on a stand with a credit card reader. You can put it anywhere, that way if you have a station Downtown or in a place with a lot of tourists, they have access to all that same functionality.

But I agree with you. Mobile is where the world is going, and while the need for a physical presence in advertising is still very strong, there’s no reason you need things controlled by heavy, standalone, stationary equipment.

Absolutely. When we started the project I’d say half the people we talked to would shake their head at us and go, “Bike sharing, what’s that?” Now almost three years later, people know what it is and they know the value it can have, and for us it would mean so much. We want to make Alanta a better place. It’s what gave us our start, and it would be really awesome to see that come full circle in moving toward a more connected city.

Something that’s been really interesting to watch has been the rise of collaborative consumption startups. Broadly you can apply that label to Airbnb (a website for travelers seeking non-hotel accommodations), which is probably the largest and best known. Companies like Uber doing shared ride services. The founders are based out of Atlanta of a California company called InstantCab doing the same thing—sort of disrupting the taxi industry. There’s a company called Scoot doing electric scooter sharing.

Live Local Live Small

The Marketplace Fairness Act cleared a major hurdle last week when it passed the Senate 69-27. Introduced by Senator Mike Enzi, in NC both of our senators, Richard Burr and Kay Hagen, voted in favor of the iPhone headset. I don’t know which I was more surprised by: the measure passing the Senate or that both senators approved a bill that would positively impact their constituency, thereby demonstrating bi-partisan support for a measure that the White House is behind.

The Marketplace Fairness Act is the latest attempt to get online retailers to pay sales tax. The discussion has been around since 1992—at that time the Internet was just staring to come into common use. Of course, it was not the widespread and successful seat of commerce that it is today. An attempt to pass a similar bill was made in 2011.

It may come as a surprise to many consumers to discover they actually are responsible to pay the sales tax on purchases they make over the Internet or from mail-order companies, that is if the company doesn’t collect and remit it themselves.

Who actually does that? There must be someone out there, because there are people who make voluntary contributions to pay down the national debt! But let us agree that the voluntary sales tax payers are few and far between.

The sales-tax argument has been framed as targeting online retailers and causing havoc in the commerce system. Honestly, that is misleading. What it’s really about is the long-term defunding of local and state infrastructure. Forty-five states currently have sales tax; however, Delaware, New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana and Alaska do not.

In North Carolina those monies are remitted to the area they are collected: county, city, and part is retained by the state. This is why our library and other county agencies were lobbying so hard a few years ago for the quarter of a cent sales-tax increase. Yet ,the librarians’ and public school teachers’ love of Amazon continues to baffle me. With their jobs dependent upon local tax dollars, it’s perplexing to see them show love for a company that actively attempts to undermine the very thing necessary to pay them. OK, it’s beyond confusing.

It’s also another blind spot for the middle-class about the realities of poverty. Online shopping is an exclusive experience. In order to partake in this opportunity to avoid sales tax, one must have a credit or debit card of some sort. They also must have access to the Internet. It would probably shock many members of the middle-class to know how difficult both can be to attain. For a brief insight into the marketing demographics of the lower-income strata of America, I recommend spending an afternoon watching non-cable, non-satellite broadcast television. The commercials shock. The sheer number aimed at pre-loaded plastic payment methods that can be charged at corner-type stores is surprising. It also an interesting indication of what the struggles to get a credit card can look like to many people.

Opponents of the measure claim it would be prohibitive to collect and remit sales tax to the various states, each acquiring a different amount. The measure is not aimed at small eBay sellers that operate out of their rec rooms. Companies and sellers not making $1 million dollars a year in out-of-state online sales are exempt from the legislation. There are already large online retailers collecting and remitting sales tax; Target comes to custom keychain.

This legislation actually offers a business opportunity to market this software to the newly compliant companies. In addition the bill calls for states to make free software available to companies in order to comply with the proposed sales-tax provisions.

There is a fascinating project (OK, fascinating to geeky people like me), called the Streamlined Sales Tax Project. It was put together by the National Governors Association. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance reported in January that D.C. and 44 states had signed on to the project, including North Carolina. We do currently have a rubric that requires online retailers with a physical presence in North Carolina to collect sales tax.

Supporters of the measure claim it would be a big step toward a level playing field for brick-and-mortar retailers, which are at a disadvantage because they collect sales tax; therefore, consumers already pay more money up front. This seems strange to me since shipping is usually more than the sales tax. Going beyond a level playing field, what it would do is make business.

According to the complaint filed on Tuesday, Kira Trevino complained about her marriage to friends and family in the weeks prior to her death and explained that she was contemplating divorce. In fact, on Jan. 31, she, her husband and the roommate, who occupied the basement of the home, gave notice that they intended to move by April 1.

Investigators say Kira Trevino was looking at an apartment for herself, was staying with friends houses and did not include her husband in social and family events. Her friends told police she was trying to get away from her husband, but said Jeffery Trevino "didn't get it" and kept trying to find ways to stay together.

Jeffery Trevino met his wife at the Mall of America on Thursday Feb. 21 after she got off work, and the two had dinner and went bowling at the mall. Surveillance video shows the two left the mall together, with Jeffery Trevino wearing an Arkansas Razorbacks sweatshirt. That was the last time Kira Trevino was seen alive.

Friends of Jeffery Trevino told investigators he often complained about his relationship with his wife and had no plans to move aver April 1 because he hoped the two would reconcile; however, one friend told investigators Jeffery Trevino grew increasingly suspicious and began checking up on her before she was killed, describing him as stressed and consumed with what she was doing.

That friend told police Jeffery Trevino would drive by the gym his wife used to see if her car was there and poured over Kira Trevino's credit card statements. In doing so, he learned she had gone to a bar instead of where she told her husband she would be, according to the friend.

According to police, Jeffery Trevino said his wife left the morning of Feb. 22 between 8:30 and 9 a.m. to go to the gym in New Brighton, go tanning in Roseville and make a deposit at the bank before interviewing potential employees at work. When asked where he was during that time, Jeffery Trevino explained he was home all day until he left to pick up his daughter in the afternoon.

The amended charges also show that Jeffery Trevino called his wife's mother, Marcie Steger, on the same day, beginning the conversation by asking her, "Are you sitting down?"

Steger also called police, and uniformed officers who responded to her call arrived at the home while police investigators were there speaking with Jeffery Trevino. Those officers observed he was upset more police had arrived.

As officers were leaving, Trevino asked what he was supposed to do with his wife's belongings. Investigators found the question odd since Kira Trevino had been missing just over 48 hours and the couple was not expected to vacate until April 1. Prosecutors believe the question suggests Jeffery Trevino did not expect his wife to return.

Gift ideas for Mother's Day

Come spring, shoppers often ask, "What gift should I get Mom for Mother's Day?" How do people transform the sentiments they have for their mother into gifts that represent love and devotion? Buying a Mother's Day gift is no easy task, especially for those who wait until the last minute to do their shopping.

Beginning early can ease the pressure of Mother's Day shopping. Research gift options at least a month prior so that you can read reviews on luggage tag and services to guarantee quality. You also want to make sure the gift will arrive on time if you will be ordering your gift online. Here are other ways to shop in a smart manner.

Do some sleuthing. Play detective and take inventory of what Mom likes to do the most. If you ask your mother what she wants, she will likely brush off the question and tell you nothing. It is up to you to do the investigative work. Pay attention to conversations and see if there is anything she mentions wanting to try or something around the house that may need updating. Practical gifts are less likely to end up unopened in the basement or attic.

Check expiration dates. Gift certificates and cards for particular stores or services are popular come Mother's Day. But it is essential to check expiration dates on the certificates or find gifts, as there is a good chance Mom will put off pampering herself and you would not want the gift to expire before she has a chance to use it. In compliance with the law, chain restaurant gift cards don't expire for at least five years from purchase. Those might be your safest bet.

Verify a business. Although Mom may love a cute boutique that just opened, verify the business before buying a gift card from it. An unpredictable economy has made it even harder for new businesses to succeed, and you don't Mom to be stuck with a worthless gift card should the new business not thrive. If she really likes a particular new business, take her on a shopping spree at the store instead.

Skip the chocolate overload. Flowers and chocolates are traditional Mother's Day gifts. However, calorie-conscious women may not want to be faced with the temptation of a warehouse-sized box of chocolate treats. If Mom truly loves chocolate, treat her to a gourmet piece or two, but don't make that your main gift.

Avoid "final sale" items. It can be tempting to peruse the deep-discount rack at Mom's favorite store when retailers cut prices on items in anticipation of a new season. However, these sales may come with restrictions on returns or exchanges. Unless you know Mom will like what you pick out, avoid the "final sale" racks in favor of items that can be returned or exchanged.

Ask for a price match. In an effort to keep a loyal customer base, many stores will price match against competitors' ads. Therefore, if you feel more comfortable at a certain store, print out the advertised price and bring it to your favorite store. There's a good chance they will give you the item for the same price. This works particularly well for tech gifts that typically go on sale in the days leading up to a holiday or special event.

Joseph Park was the last gasp for the TNA locker room. After the Aces & Eights chased James Storm and the Bad Influence pair of Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian from the ring - where they had again failed to sway AJ Styles to their side - Park tried to make a stand against the club and ended up being stretchered out for his valor.

Bully Ray made it clear that he still wanted to talk to Hulk Hogan. The Immortal one looked concerned about a face-to-face, but an offered bargain from Matt Morgan and the pleading of his daughter Brooke weren't enough to sway him.

In the Knockouts division, champion Velvet Sky retained her title in a match against Mickie James, but may have injured her knee in the process. Newcomer Taryn Terrell continued to rise up the rankings with a victory over former champ Tara.

Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez were able to successfully defend their tag team championship due to Daniels and Kazarian's second failed intervention of the evening. A pitch to Bobby Roode to reunite Fourtune went unanswered but overheard by Roode's Dirty Heels partner Austin Aries, and an attempt to assist the It Factor in the Heels match to unseat the Tex-Mexicans backfired.

Finally, Hogan's solo stand against Bully Ray looked to be his last one. He was able to fight off the TNA champ, but the champion's brothers outnumbered him. The lights went out and came back, the familiar calling card of The Icon, Sting. There were tense moments between the two legends. They cleared the ring of Aces & Eights, but left no clue if their alliance was to be an ongoing concern or a one-shot deal.

 Take it from a Western PA native, everybody loves a hometown boy, but we're talking about an Olympic freakin' hero. The Indiana crowd will roar when Kurt's music hits, and holding him off until the second show was one of the few smart decisions TNA made last week. The Pittsburgher will keep the crowd amped up into the later hours of the taping. And while it's probably not something that his doctors approve of, he's still good for an above average match every time he goes out there. He may keeps working with the inexperienced members of the heel faction, but I'm kind of hoping for Anderson. The two have great custom keychain, and the asshole seems re-charged since getting his kutte.

Chris Sabin. I've never been a huge fan of the guy without his Motor City Machine Guns partner, but it's pretty damn impressive that he's back. The X-Division has been coasting on the triple threat gimmick without any real stories behind the matches. It'll be nice to see the fresh match-ups that the returning Sabin makes possible, and a good old-fashioned "I'm coming for my belt" story between he and Kenny King would seem refreshing amidst all the alliances and factions surrounding the other two men's title scenes.

IFFCO Chowk stalking victim empowered by new Anti

Though it led to a jurisdiction argument between the Gurgaon and Delhi Police, hers is one of the first cases to be registered under the new law, for which she's glad.

Four men following a group of girls and passing lewd comments in the vein of 'isko leke chalte hain' is a regular occurrence in a iPhone headset life in this part of the country, and one that may have prompted just a gentle slap on the wrist from the authorities (if the authorities chose to take any action at all, that is) in the pre-anti-stalking law days. The brand new section in the Indian Penal Code - section 354D - finally accounts for stalking women as a real crime that could land a person in jail for three years. Meena (name changed), who was recently harassed by a group of men on the Metro when she and her friends were returning home from Gurgaon, where they work as dancers in a theatre company, filed a complaint under this section. Calling the law 'empowering' but its execution still shabby, Meena describes the whole ordeal that began at the IFFCO Chowk Metro station at 9.30pm, from where they boarded the Metro going towards Central Secretariat.

On Friday, we decided to stay a little longer and rehearse for our performance. We didn't inform our office that we were staying till late. If we would have, we could have got an office cab that would've dropped us safely back home, but since we had a male friend for company, we decided to take the Metro. After reaching the Metro station at 9.30pm, a group of guys inside the station started passing comments like 'Arre, yeh sahi hai, isko leke chalte hain'. We didn't react. But near the X-ray machine, when my friend was putting her bag inside the machine, one of the guys tried to talk to her.

Her bag had a badge which said 'Lose weight now. Ask me how' and that guy started asking her for tips to lose weight. She just asked him to mind his own business. Angry, he crossed the Metro gates and along with his friends, started waiting for us, all this while I was at the counter, getting my smart card recharged. Sensing some trouble, I informed a CISF personnel at the station and he came with us to talk to the guys.

The CISF cop came with us and asked the men what the issue was. They replied that 'these girls are exaggerating things'. However, the CISF officer didn't listen to them and threatened to take them to the police station. One of the guys, who was supposedly elder to the others, apologized and took them away, saying that they are going to board the Metro. To be on the safe side, the CISF officer asked us to wait and take the next Metro.

After we boarded the Metro, sensing that they weren't around, we relaxed a little. But we were surprised when we saw them coming towards us. We were in the compartment next to the ladies' coach and those guys came and sat in weird positions in front of us. At that point of time, the compartment was almost empty. Again, they started saying things like 'Abhi dikhayenge power' and this really irked me. The guy who had apologized at the station was staring at me from top to bottom. He had a cut on one of his cheeks and his eyes were red, and he looked completely drunk. It was then that we decided to call a CISF helpline number, 011-22185555 (my friend has emergency numbers saved on her phone). We told the helpline about everything and the CISF officer came looking for us at the Arjangarh station. As soon as he asked the guys what was wrong, they started fighting and a huge crowd gathered. Those guys questioned us 'Why are you not in the ladies compartment?' and I told them 'We can't take our male friend to the ladies compartment and hence we were travelling in the general compartment'. It was then that we were taken to the Metro control room.

There was a lot of fighting happening and one of the Metro employees asked us to dial 100 and I did. The PCR van came and took our names, our permanent addresses, and other details. After a while, they told us that they couldn't do anything as this case should be reported to the local police (the police station that covers the Arjangarh area). After they left, the local police was called and they again repeated the entire process of taking down all the details. Thereafter, a fight ensued between the Metro employees and the local police over the question of 'Whose jurisdiction was this?' The local police asked them to call the Gurgaon police because this incident had happened at the IFFCO Chowk Metro station in Gurgaon. I scolded the cops, saying, 'It was because of this fight over jurisdiction that the December 16 rape victim couldn't get help on time' and it's only then that they agreed to do something against the four guys (we didn't complain about the fifth person in the group because he didn't do anything).

While all this was happening between 10.30 and 11pm, I called up my boss and informed her about the situation. She then told her husband about it, who called up senior IPS officers. While the police was talking to us, we could see them getting calls from their seniors. Finally, the guys were held and we were told that they would be taken to the police station.

DataWind, the company behind the $40 tablet, this week finished shipping 100,000 devices to the Indian Institute of Technology. It’s been quite a journey. But DataWind’s founders are already working on the next iteration, called Aakash 3, and it has one significant upgrade: a place to stick a SIM card, so it can connect to cellular networks.

DataWind’s pitch for the new Aakash 3 goes like this: “An internal cellular modem at no additional cost, which allows the device to be used both as a mobile smart phone and also for ubiquitous internet connectivity with a basic SIM, will help herald India’s internet ear cap.”

That may well be true. Access and price are two of the main factors driving the growth of mobile broadband. Cheap devices and data plans are increasingly the only way to gain market share in India—and, indeed, in much of the world. A recent report about the use of Opera Mini, a web browser for mobile phones, found that 9 of the top 10 handsets using the software, mostly from Samsung, cost less than 10,000 rupees ($185). That’s still a high upper limit, but domestic firms such as Micromax and Karbonn dominate the sub-$100 market and are rapidly gaining overall market share.

Better, But Not Best

Since it arrived last year, the Galaxy S III has been the world's best-selling smartphone that wasn't born in Cupertino. An impressive feat, but one that—along with Samsung's Megatron-sized hype-machine—has made for sky-high expectations for the sequel.

Our first impressions of the S4 left us a little cold, but we've now spent a full week getting to know it better. It's definitely one of the best phones you can buy. It's just shame it couldn't stay out of USB flash drives wholesale own way.

Samsung's next great hope of a superphone. It's got a 5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED screen, a superfast quad-core 1.9GHz Snapdragon 600 processor, 2GB RAM, LTE, NFC, and a 13MP camera. It also has a beefy 2600mAh battery, and an IR blaster for controlling your home entertainment system. It comes running Android 4.2.2 with Samsung's heavy TouchWiz skin on top of it. It should be available on every major U.S. wireless carrier in the next few weeks.

If you're familiar with the Galaxy S III, the S4 will look strikingly familiar. It retains the same rounded-rectangle look, with metal edges and a slippery, finger-print-trapping plastic back that looks like it belongs on a far more downmarket phone. It's at least functional, though; the back is removable, so you can swap out the battery or expand your storage capabilities with a micro SD card. A lot of people prefer that added utility over the more solid-feeling, and more beautiful unibody design of, say, the HTC One.

One place Samsung does manage to score design points is growing the screen from 4.8 inches on the Galaxy S III to a full 5.0 inches on the S4, while still making the phone thinner, narrower, and easier to grip. The side bezels are shrunk down to nearly nothing, and the screen takes up almost the entire front of the device. Speaking of the screen, it is easily the nicest Samsung has ever made. The colors (especially blues and greens) really pop, and the 441 pixels per inch ensure that text is super-clear. It's also bright enough to be clearly readable on a bright, sunny day, and the Super AMOLED screen makes the blacks like staring into the abyss.

While Nexus phones are moving away from physical buttons for navigation, Samsung has opted to include three of them here. The S4 has capacitive buttons for Menu and Back, and a physical, clickable button for Home. It's wasted space. But worse, the capacitive buttons don't light up until you actually touch them, so if you forget which side is Menu and which is Back you might end up closing out of something unintentionally. Annoying!

As we noted in our original hands-on, the S4 comes packed full of "features." There's Air View, which allows you to hover your finger over the screen to see some information without actually clicking. There's Air Gestures, which allows you to wave your hand over the phone to change between tabs or photos. There's Smart Scroll, with which you tilt your device to scroll, instead of using your finger. There's Smart Pause, which will pause a video when you look away from the screen. And there's Group Play, which lets you play a handful of selected video games with friends on the same Wi-Fi network, or use several S4 phones as Sonos-like speakers.

The most important thing you need to know about these features is that you will never use any of them. Ever. Never ever. The end.

Why not? Oh, lots of reasons. Air View only works with Samsung's customized apps—not Gmail, not Chrome—and even then it doesn't work very well. Air Gestures are less accurate and less convenient than just touching the screen. Smart Scroll is totally unreliable, and Smart Pause is totally useless. The only, only justification for any of these features is that you can wave your hand over the phone to answer a call while driving, or, again, maybe if you're addicted to buffalo wings and have an aversion to moist towelettes.

The good news is that you can turn off and/or totally ignore most of these extraneous "features," and when you do, there's a very good phone underneath. It's generally very fast, and HD games like Temple Run: Oz, Inertia HD, and Naught all ran smoothly. The pre-installed sliding keyboard is better than most manufacturer keyboards (looking at you, HTC), with plenty of space between keys and a dedicated number row, but auto-correct has a lot of issues, and we still prefer the keyboard on stock Jelly Bean or SwiftKey 4. The unit we tested was on T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42 network (no T-Mobile LTE in NYC, yet, though this phone will work with it when it rolls out); data speeds were good, and it connected reliably.

There will be a cadre of S4 accessories available (TV adapters and such) at some point, but the only one available at launch is the S View Flip Cover. It's a good-looking cover that adds almost no thickness to your phone by completely replacing the back. The phone can sense when the cover is closed, and it will only light up one little (plastic) window on the front, which should save you a little battery power (when an AMOLED pixel is black it doesn't use any power). You can swipe to accept or dismiss calls even when the cover is closed.

Battery performance on the S4 is among the best we've seen from smartphones this year, though it's still not anywhere near as everlasting as the RAZR MAXX HD. It's important to note, though, that our testing took place on T-Mobile's HSPA+ network, and not the more power-hungry LTE of Verizon and AT&T. With that advantage, it slightly edged out the HTC One by an hour or so on average (which itself does pretty iPhone headset).

The S4 did, though, make it to the end of the night without additional charging fairly often, thanks to both the larger battery (2600mAh vs. 2300mAh on the One) and the more economical AMOLED screen, though the processor's higher clock speed taxed it somewhat.

Speaking of which: that screen really is leaps and bounds better than the one on last year's S III. It's very sharp, pretty, and easy to read. The camera app is laid out very nicely, and the included OCR (optical character recognition) software, which can translate written words on the fly, are both examples of app actually done right. Overall, the S4 is definitely a sizable upgrade over the S III. But it's still got its issues.

The Forgotten Genius of Moms Mabley

When people are asked to list the legends of comedy, the same names tend to come up: Bob Hope, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Redd Foxx, Bill Cosby, and so on. Every so often a female comic gets mentioned—Lucille Ball, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller. One person who doesn’t get talked about nearly enough by comedy lovers and contemporary comedians alike is Moms Mabley. In her directorial debut, I Got Somethin’ to Tell You, part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, Whoopi Goldberg tries to correct this, profiling the beloved comedienne who made a name for herself in an old house dress, floppy hat, and iPhone headset.

First, a short primer on Moms. Born Loretta Mary Aiken, she was a pioneer in her field—a black woman who pushed the boundaries of taste, politics, and race as far back as the 1920s, while performing on the Chitlin’ Circuit. Very little is known about Moms Mabley’s life off the stage—even her birth year is disputed—but it’s widely known that she was a lesbian who also went by the name “Mister Moms.” (In the film, a holiday card is shown with an image of Moms dressed in men’s attire.) She earned respect from her (mostly male) peers and from audiences with her ribald humor about her (apparently fictional) love for younger men, her admittedly frumpy appearance, and smart—but somehow never bitter—takes on racism. Her career extended well into the ’70s, leaving behind a legacy of over 20 albums, and memorable appearances on many of the popular variety and talk shows of the day, including Ed Sullivan and The Smothers Brothers.

Yet since her death, Moms—a woman who, at the peak of her national fame, performed at the White House—has been all but forgotten. At a talkback following a screening of I Got Somethin’ to Tell You, Goldberg expressed her initial disbelief at learning that for decades Moms was the only woman doing what Diller, Rivers, and others would become famous for years later. “How come I didn’t know this?” she wondered at the time, adding last night, “Why is there no Moms Mabley Award for comedy?”

It’s a good question, especially considering all of the comedians, male and female, Moms influenced. (The likely and perhaps unsurprising answer is that comedy is still largely dominated and curated by men and by a very small group of women, most of whom are white.) Kathy Griffin, whom Goldberg interviewed, talks about watching Moms perform on The Ed Sullivan Show when she was a kid, and how her costume reminded her of her own mother. Eddie Murphy notes that the Grandma character in The Nutty Professor (played by Murphy himself) is a direct tribute to Moms. Arsenio Hall recalls sneaking a listen to the comedienne’s risqué albums during his childhood when his parents weren’t home.

Goldberg herself has a very personal connection to Moms: Early on in her career, Goldberg portrayed the comedienne in a one-woman show. Part of the reason she admires the legend, Goldberg explained last night, was because Moms wasn’t afraid to look or talk in a way that women weren’t normally expected to. “It took a long time for people to get used to the way I look,” Goldberg said of her own persona. “But now, lots of people look like me.”

Before seeing this film, I had heard of Moms, but had never actually heard Moms—and there is plenty to be heard in I Got Somethin’ to Tell You. Because there isn’t much to say about her personal life, the film focuses on her material, showcasing footage and fun cartoons for routines that Goldberg could only find the audio of. The material speaks for itself: Moms’ sense of humor and perspective feels as fresh and funny as it must have then. (The audience I saw the film with laughed heartily throughout.) HBO has acquired the documentary, and it will air on the network later this year.

Towards the end of the discussion, Goldberg said she hopes her next project will be a 10-part documentary chronicling black entertainment from the mid-1800s to the present. I Got Somethin’ to Tell You is just the “tip of the iceberg,” she said. It’s an ambitious project, to be sure, but if she’s able to pull it off, she’ll be doing a great service for the history and memory of black contributions to American culture, so many of which have been lost or forgotten.

The PDS-ST420-VP is easily small and light enough to fit in a laptop bag or briefcase, at 1.6 by 10.6 by 2.6 inches (HWD) and just over 1 pound 1 ounce complete with batteries. As is typical for the breed, there's almost nothing to set up. Just insert the four supplied AA batteries and plug in a microSD or microSDHC card. Note that VuPoint Solutions doesn't include a memory card, however, so if you don't have extras around, be sure to order one with the scanner. The microSD card slot supports cards with up to 32GB memory.

You don't have to install the software, but you can if you want to. VuPoint Solutions supplies three programs and a fully automated installation routine that will let you install any or all of them.

The choices are Abbyy FineReader 9.0 Sprint for optical character recognition (OCR), as the only applications program, plus an Evernote connector for sharing files on Evernote, and a Direct Scan utility. The utility lets you scan documents directly to computer files over a USB connection as an alternative to saving them to a memory card and then copying them to your computer later. In my tests, it worked as promised, with no difference in speed compared with scanning to a memory card.

Scanning with the PDS-ST420-VP is also easy, and typical for the category. Straightforward commands on the scanner's front-panel menus let you choose between color and black and white modes; JPG or image PDF format; and 300 pixels per inch (ppi), which is the scanner's optical resolution according to VuPoint Solutions, and 600 or 900 ppi interpolated resolution.

The default when you turn the scanner on is color, JPG, and 300 ppi. To scan, you turn the power on, make any changes you want in the settings, and insert a page into the scanner's front slot. Wait a second or two, and the scanner will sense the page, grab it, and ear cap.

Timing for manual-feed scanners isn't very meaningful, since you can spend more time manually feeding the pages than waiting for the actual scan. But it's worth noting that the PDS-ST420-VP is relatively fast. Using color mode and JPG format, I timed it at 8 to 10 seconds for the actual scan of a document page, with the same speed regardless of resolution.

Hope delivers

Si had always had high hopes for the success of his family farm in Pennsylvania. Si was a hard worker, but hard times seemed to always weigh more on the balance scale than work. Farming in the Keystone State was certainly a challenging and difficult task. The growing season is only about three months long, a little less time than the Pirates take to meander through the baseball season.

Pennsylvania farmers mostly grew mushrooms. It was the state’s number one cash crop, and Pennsylvanians produce more than any other state — an annual yield of about 443 million pounds. Si dabbled in mushrooms, but also worked barley, winter wheat and potatoes. The effects of the economy during World War II were taking its toll on the family farm. Si was barely keeping his head above water, and the tide was rising with each year. His hopes — and his love for his wife — kept his spirits going and his work ethic fueled.

Effie Musser had strong hopes for Si as well. She hated to see her husband struggle so. Effie stirred the hope deep within her that afternoon in the kitchen as she continued a family tradition. Her mother had taught her to take the farm’s leftover potatoes and turn them into deep-fried fun for the children. Effie finished sprinkling seasoning on the chips and thought that perhaps she could bag some and sell them for extra cash at the nearby farmer’s market.

“Nearby” was Lancaster and the “farmer’s market” was not a small card table on the side of the road. Central Market in Penn Square in heart of Lancaster is the nation’s oldest, continuously operated farmer’s market. Founded in 1889, the market became known for its unique Amish goods. Effie’s chips were a hit and she sold out every time she delivered the bags to the ear cap.

An entrepreneur in Baltimore loved them so much he contracted Effie to deliver the chips in bulk to him. He repacked the chips into his branded tin can and renamed them Charles’ Chips after Charles Street in downtown Baltimore. While the potato chip business thrived, his other ventures did not. Owing Effie a great deal of money, he sold the brand to her to avoid bankruptcy.

By 194, production had grown from the kitchen in Effie’s home to a large warehouse in Lancaster. Si was only growing potatoes and had to hire workers to handle the farm as he assisted Effie in marketing and sales. Effie was producing private label chips for Fritos and A&P Groceries while developing the concept of the home delivery of the chips. Warehouses and truck delivery units were set up in several states. Effie’s hopes were fulfilled beyond her wildest imagination.

To a 10-year-old boy on the west side of Indianapolis in the mid-60s, every other Thursday brought bright rays of hope and a big can of barbeque potato chips to the door. During the summer, baseball games and bicycle rides had to be over by two o’clock in time to greet the delivery truck that looked just like the can of chips. During the school year, there was the assurance of hope that the large can of chips would be on the counter when the 30-minute bus ride was over.

Hope fuels our lives - whether to keep us going at work when things get difficult, to be the glue to hold the marriage together, or for a small boy longing for his favorite snack. Hope buoys our spirits to dream dreams and chase them, to envision greater things than are currently available, and to find meaning and purpose for life. Hope becomes the anchor when we hear bad news from the doctor, when we are shaken by a terrorist’s bombs, or when we stare death in the face.

here’s nothing quite like the excitement of Cowboys Week in Philadelphia. These two teams have a history of bad blood, and the Eagles will get their first crack at their rivals in Week 7 when those Cowboys come to town.

It’s been an unusual offseason in Dallas. The cash-strapped Cowboys were forced to cut several of their players to create cap space, but did find the funds to extend quarterback Tony Romo, who has thrown nine touchdowns and three interceptions against the Eagles over the past three years.

With new defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin in tow, the Cowboys will be switching from a 3-4 defense to a Tampa-2 look. It’s a matchup head coach Chip Kelly knows well – Kiffin spent the last three seasons as the defensive coordinator at USC, and in those three years, Kelly’s Oregon squads averaged an eye-popping 601 yards of total offense against Kiffin’s defenses. Last season, Oregon’s high-powered offense put up 62 points and 730 yards of total offense.

Last season’s meeting in Philadelphia is perhaps best remembered as the game in which quarterback Nick Foles saw his first NFL action. Foles threw his first touchdown in that game, a 44-yard strike to Jeremy Maclin in the end zone. Unfortunately, the Eagles weren’t able to come away with a win in that game, but the team knows just how important it is to shut the Cowboys down when they visit Lincoln Financial Field. Look for the home team to come out with energy against their hated division rival.

The Eagles-Cowboys rivalry might be among the most glamorous in the NFC East, but when the Eagles and Giants meet, the only certainty is a gritty, hard-fought game. Over the past several years, the Eagles and Giants have met late in the season in games that often mean the difference between winning the division and staying home in January.

But in an unusual twist, these teams will wrap up their season series in Week 8 in Philadelphia. This Week 8 contest will be the second consecutive division game for the Eagles, who will have welcomed in the Cowboys the previous USB flash drives wholesale.

Both teams know each other extremely well, and that familiarity factor will be kicked up another notch this season. The Giants signed defensive tackles Mike Patterson and Cullen Jenkins, both of whom spent time with the Eagles, in the offseason. However, the Eagles signed former Giants’ first-rounder Kenny Phillips, who will battle for a starting safety job this summer.

Though the Giants failed to make the playoffs last season, they were by no means a team to cast aside. Quarterback Eli Manning and company posted 26.8 points per game, which ranked sixth in the NFL last season. And for the first time since 2008, Manning failed to throw for 4,000 yards in a season, but still tossed a respectable 26 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.