Brits spent over £32 billion abroad in 2010. Two thirds of this was spent in credit and debt card purchases whilst away, while another £7.2 billion was withdrawn from overseas cash machines states the Office of Fair Trading. Based on a couple of percentage fees this means that travel money providers, UK banks and Building societies made an estimated £1.1 billion, much of which was probably taken in charges that wasn’t obviously clear to the customer and of fees added to transactions and withdrawals. The consumer group Which then did some research for itself. Their team headed to Calais in December 2011 to put the seven biggest banks and building societies (Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Santander, Natwest, HSBC, N&P and Halifax) in the UK to the test. In t
Brits charged too much for holiday transactions
Patriot-Act free Cloud Computing Data Center opening in Canada: illusion or opportunity?
American data in the Cloud is under threat from ACTA (responsible for SOPA &PIPA) and the Patriot Act. While for example, in a small firms’ data storage could be $90,000 plus technician’s salary (total $190,000+), BizCloud found a Tier 3 Cloud Storage at Granite Networks in Ottawa, Canada, with an team of world class technicians with over a decade of experience each could be $300 a month (total $3,200) that will be open for business possibly as early as the end of this month! However, the Patriot Act is one of the main barriers to the spread Cloud Computing, as it provides the US government with ability to search and share confidential information without a court order or the owner even being informed that their information is being shared. Theref
Yahoo sues Facebook over Patent Infringement
Yahoo sued Facebook on Monday over 10 patents relating to advertising on the web, according to a Reuters report.
In the lawsuit, Yahoo says Facebook was “one of the worst performing sites for advertising” before adapting Yahoo’s ideas.The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, says that the “patents-in-suit are a reflection of Yahoo’s research and development achievements.” Yahoo was an innovator in methods of advertising, privacy controls, and social networking, according to the law suit document.
Yahoo claims that in terms of social networking “Yahoo!
Overcoming the investment challenges created by bear markets
Diversification is an important tool in lowering the volatility of an investors portfolio, but achieving this becomes more difficult in a bear market where the pessimism of market participants motivates them to sell off various assets, pushing them down at the same time.
The depreciation experienced across many asset classes during the most recent recession exemplifies how investments can follow each other during a down market. As the market crash was system-wide, participants responded by pushing the value of various assets to lower values.
Finance experts have repeatedly touted the strategy of portfolio diversification, which involves holding assets that follow each other in value as little as possible. Read more…
State Fair operator to liquidate
The future of the State Fair of Virginia is uncertain. The fairs nonprofit operator, Richmond-based SFVA Inc., today announced plans to liquidate its assets after failing to reach an agreement with creditors.
As a result, SFVA will not produce the State Fair, Strawberry Hill Races and Meadow Highland Games Celtic Festival. The fate of those events may be determined in bankruptcy proceedings.
SFVA had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection from creditors in December after it was unable to restructure about $85 million in debt incurred in developing Meadow Event Park in Caroline County as a new fairgrounds.
The fairs former home in Henrico County was bought by Richmond International Raceway in 1999. The first fair at Meadow Event Park was held in 2009.
The State Fair began in the 1850s in what is now Monroe Park in Richmond.
SFVA was unable to meet debt payments after the value of its $42 million investment fell to less than $20 million during the financial crisis of 2008-09.
Case shows how a business responds to data breach impacts litigation
The Oregon Supreme Court last week affirmed the dismissal of a class action lawsuit against Providence Health & Services-Oregon arising out of the theft of patient data on backup media that were stolen from an employee’s car in late 2005.
The case underscores the importance of taking prompt and effective action to protect patients after a data breach. The Supreme Court noted approvingly the substantial—and costly—steps Providence took to protect its patients in the wake of the theft.
Background
The ruling ends a six-year-old legal battle that followed the theft of electronic media containing information on about 365,000 patients of Providence Home Health Services in Oregon. The thief broke into a car of a Providence employee on New Year’s Eve 2005, and stole a laptop bag with computer disks and tapes inside. Informa