PFT: Ravens' Lewis fined for hit on Ward

Baltimore Ravens v Pittsburgh SteelersGetty Images

On Sunday night, Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis applied a clear helmet-to-helmet hit to Steelers receiver Hines Ward after Ward caught a pass.? Lewis wasn?t penalized for a blow that caused Ward to leave the game with what the team eventually (and perhaps reluctantly) called ?concussion-like symptoms.?

Lewis is now suffering from a case of fine-like symptoms.

Aaron Wilson of the Carroll County Times reports that Lewis has been notified by the league office that he?s been fined for the illegal hit on a defenseless receiver.

?Yeah, I heard from the league and like I said they fined me whatever they was going to fine me,? Lewis said.? ?The thing is you definitely respect them trying to protect player safety.? At the same time, it won?t change not one way I play this week no matter what the fine is.? You can?t stop playing defense the way defense has always been created to play.? When the receiver has the ball, your job is to disengage him from the ball.? You never want to hurt nobody.? I?ve been in this business too long.? I just think once you start getting into these fines I don?t know how they come up with the numbers most of the time.?

Lewis didn?t disclose the amount.? (And no one apparently has had the nerve to ask him.)

The bigger problem is that the officials, who are told to err on the side of protecting players, failed to penalize Lewis.? The best way to avoid such outcomes would be to make these calls immediately reviewable by the replay officials, without the time-wasting, dog-and-pony exercise of the referee walking over to the sidelines, putting on a headset, talking to the replay official, climbing under the hood of the mobile ballot box, pondering the replay angles, removing the headset, walking out onto the field, and providing an explanation that often is way too wordy, especially when Ed Hochuli is working the game.

It?s a helmet-to-helmet hit, or it isn?t.? The replay official should have the power to throw the flag from the replay booth.

I don?t mean that literally.? Then again, it could be fun to watch the yellow flag sail down from the second deck.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/09/ray-lewis-fined-for-hit-on-hines-ward/related/

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Code wizardry turns MythTV into Windows legend

There are plenty of myths that surround MythTV: it's for hardcore enthusiasts only, you need a dedicated Linux box and that it's totally incompatible with Redmond's offerings. Whilst Microsoft HTPC users could previously access recordings, they didn't get the live TV, commercial skipping and DVR powers that the software is famous for. That's all changing, thanks to a group of developers who have ported the native front end to Windows. You can either grab a pre-compiled binary of the project, or for those who wish to do it themselves, follow our source link to find all the details.

Code wizardry turns MythTV into Windows legend originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Nov 2011 11:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Boxing great Joe Frazier dies after cancer fight (AP)

PHILADELPHIA ? Joe Frazier had to throw his greatest punch to knock down "The Greatest."

A vicious left hook from Frazier put Muhammad Ali on the canvas in the 15th round in March 1971 when he became the first man to beat him in the Fight of the Century at Madison Square Garden.

"That was the greatest thing that ever happened in my life," Frazier said.

It was his biggest night, one that would never come again.

The relentless, undersized heavyweight ruled the division as champion, then spent a lifetime trying to fight his way out of Ali's shadow.

Frazier, who died Monday night after a brief battle with liver cancer at the age of 67, will forever be associated with Ali. No one in boxing would ever dream of anointing Ali as The Greatest unless he, too, was linked to Smokin' Joe.

"I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration," Ali said in a statement. "My sympathy goes out to his family and loved ones."

They fought three times, twice in the heart of New York City and once in the morning in a steamy arena in the Thrilla in Manila in the Philippines. They went 41 rounds together. Neither gave an inch and both gave it their all.

In their last fight in Manila in 1975, they traded punches with a fervor that seemed unimaginable among heavyweights. Frazier gave almost as good as he got for 14 rounds, then had to be held back by trainer Eddie Futch as he tried to go out for the final round, unable to see.

"Closest thing to dying that I know of," Ali said afterward.

Ali was as merciless with Frazier out of the ring as he was inside it. He called him a gorilla, and mocked him as an Uncle Tom. But he respected him as a fighter, especially after Frazier won a decision to defend his heavyweight title against the then-unbeaten Ali in a fight that was so big Frank Sinatra was shooting pictures at ringside and both fighters earned an astonishing $2.5 million.

The night at the Garden 40 years ago remained fresh in Frazier's mind as he talked about his life, career and relationship with Ali a few months before he died.

"I can't go nowhere where it's not mentioned," he told The Associated Press.

Bob Arum, who once promoted Ali, said he was saddened by Frazier's passing.

"He was such an inspirational guy. A decent guy. A man of his word," Arum said. "I'm torn up by Joe dying at this relatively young age. I can't say enough about Joe."

Frazier's death was announced in a statement by his family, who asked to be able to grieve privately and said they would announce "our father's homecoming celebration" as soon as possible.

Manny Pacquiao learned of it shortly after he arrived in Las Vegas for his fight Saturday night with Juan Manuel Marquez. Like Frazier in his prime, Pacquiao has a powerful left hook that he has used in his remarkable run to stardom.

"Boxing lost a great champion, and the sport lost a great ambassador," Pacquiao said.

Don King, who promoted the Thrilla in Manila, was described by a spokesman as too upset to talk about Frazier's death.

Though slowed in his later years and his speech slurred by the toll of punches taken in the ring, Frazier was still active on the autograph circuit in the months before he died. In September he went to Las Vegas, where he signed autographs in the lobby of the MGM Grand shortly before Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s fight against Victor Ortiz.

An old friend, Gene Kilroy, visited with him and watched Frazier work the crowd.

"He was so nice to everybody," Kilroy said. "He would say to each of them, `Joe Frazier, sharp as a razor, what's your name?'"

Frazier was small for a heavyweight, weighing just 205 pounds when he won the title by stopping Jimmy Ellis in the fifth round of their 1970 fight at Madison Square Garden. But he fought every minute of every round going forward behind a vicious left hook, and there were few fighters who could withstand his constant pressure.

His reign as heavyweight champion lasted only four fights ? including the win over Ali ? before he ran into an even more fearsome slugger than himself. George Foreman responded to Frazier's constant attack by dropping him three times in the first round and three more in the second before their 1973 fight in Jamaica was waved to a close and the world had a new heavyweight champion.

Two fights later, he met Ali in a rematch of their first fight, only this time the outcome was different. Ali won a 12-round decision, and later that year stopped George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire.

There had to be a third fight, though, and what a fight it was. With Ali's heavyweight title at stake, the two met in Manila in a fight that will long be seared in boxing history.

Frazier went after Ali round after round, landing his left hook with regularity as he made Ali backpedal around the ring. But Ali responded with left jabs and right hands that found their mark again and again. Even the intense heat inside the arena couldn't stop the two as they fought every minute of every round with neither willing to concede the other one second of the round.

"They told me Joe Frazier was through," Ali told Frazier at one point during the fight.

"They lied," Frazier said, before hitting Ali with a left hook.

Finally, though, Frazier simply couldn't see and Futch would not let him go out for the 15th round. Ali won the fight while on his stool, exhausted and contemplating himself whether to go on.

"It was unworldly what we had just seen," Arum said. "Two men fighting one of the great wars of all time. It's something I will never forget for all the years I have left."

It was one of the greatest fights ever, but it took a toll. Frazier would fight only two more times, getting knocked out in a rematch with Foreman eight months later before coming back in 1981 for an ill advised fight with Jumbo Cummings.

"They should have both retired after the Manila fight," former AP boxing writer Ed Schuyler Jr. said. "They left every bit of talent they had in the ring that day."

Born in Beaufort, S.C., on Jan 12, 1944, Frazier took up boxing early after watching weekly fights on the black and white television on his family's small farm. He was a top amateur for several years, and became the only American fighter to win a gold medal in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo despite fighting in the final bout with an injured left thumb.

"Joe Frazier should be remembered as one of the greatest fighters of all time and a real man," Arum told the AP in a telephone interview Monday night. "He's a guy that stood up for himself. He didn't compromise and always gave 100 percent in the ring. There was never a fight in the ring where Joe didn't give 100 percent."

After turning pro in 1965, Frazier quickly became known for his punching power, stopping his first 11 opponents. Within three years he was fighting world-class opposition and, in 1970, beat Ellis to win the heavyweight title that he would hold for more than two years.

A woman who answered Ellis' phone in Kentucky said the former champion suffers from Alzheimer's Disease, but she wanted to pass along the family's condolences.

In Philadelphia, a fellow Philadelphia fighter, longtime middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins, said Frazier was so big in the city that he should have his own statue, like the fictional Rocky character.

"I saw him at one of my car washes a few weeks ago. He was in a car, just hollering at us, 'They're trying to get me!' That was his hi," Hopkins said. "I'm glad I got to see him in the last couple of months. At the end of the day, I respect the man. I believe at the end of his life, he was fighting to get that respect."

He was a fixture in Philadelphia where he trained fighters in a gym he owned and made a cameo in "Rocky."

It was his fights with Ali that would define Frazier. Though Ali was gracious in defeat in the first fight, he was as vicious with his words as he was with his punches in promoting all three fights ? and he never missed a chance to get a jab in at Frazier.

Frazier, who in his later years would have financial trouble and end up running a gym in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia, took the jabs personally. He felt Ali made fun of him by calling him names and said things that were not true just to get under his skin. Those feelings were only magnified as Ali went from being an icon in the ring to one of the most beloved people in the world.

After a trembling Ali lit the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta, Frazier was asked by a reporter what he thought about it.

"They should have thrown him in," Frazier responded.

He mellowed, though, in recent years, preferring to remember the good from his fights with Ali rather than the bad. Just before the 40th anniversary of his win over Ali earlier this year ? a day Frazier celebrated with parties in New York ? he said he no longer felt any bitterness toward Ali, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and is mostly mute.

"I forgive him," Frazier. "He's in a bad way."

___

Dahlberg reported from Las Vegas.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111108/ap_on_sp_bo_ne/box_obit_frazier

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Adobe to cut 750 jobs, trims 4Q profit outlook (AP)

SAN JOSE, Calif. ? Software maker Adobe Systems Inc. said Tuesday that it is laying off 750 workers, or 7 percent of its workforce, as it moves to focus on products that help people create digital content and then market it on multiple devices and platforms.

The company also slashed its earnings guidance for the quarter through Dec. 2 to account for a restructuring charge it expects to book in the quarter of $73 million to $78 million, mainly for severance payments.

Adobe now expects net income of 30 cents to 38 cents per share in the three months to Dec. 2. Earlier, it had forecast earnings of 41 cents to 50 cents per share.

Its adjusted earnings forecast remained 57 cents to 64 cents, in line with the average forecast of analysts polled by FactSet for adjusted earnings of 60 cents per share.

It left its quarterly revenue guidance unchanged at $1.075 billion to $1.125 billion. Analysts are expecting $1.09 billion.

Adobe said it hopes to attract customers to a new subscription offering while cutting back on investment in some enterprise-solution product lines.

The changes will cut 4 to 5 percentage points off of expected revenue for fiscal 2012, it said. Revenue growth for fiscal 2012 is now seen rising 4 percent to 6 percent from fiscal 2011. Analysts had been looking for about 9 percent revenue growth.

The company, which is based in San Jose, said it would explain its plans further in a meeting with analysts in New York on Wednesday.

Its shares fell $2.71, or 8.9 percent, to $27.71 in after-hours trading following its announcement. They closed up 50 cents, or 1.7 percent, at $30.42 in the regular session.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111108/ap_on_hi_te/us_adobe_job_cuts

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Barnes & Noble launches new Nook tablet (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Barnes & Noble Inc introduced its first ever tablet to compete with Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc for holiday sales.

Barnes & Noble will charge $249 for the Nook tablet, which is expected to hit the shelves late next week. That compares to the $199 price tag on Amazon's new Kindle Fire, which ships Nov 15.

The Nook tablet has a 7-inch screen, comes with 16 gigabytes of storage, weighs less than one pound, offers nine hours of video viewing and is tightly integrated with Netflix Inc video libraries, Barnes & Noble Chief Executive William Lynch said on Monday.

Lynch also said that the 8 gigabytes of storage offered by Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet was "deficient."

Barnes & Noble has faced years of shrinking book sales, so it has invested tens of millions of dollars to develop the Nook to reinvent itself as readers move to digital formats. It claims to now have about a quarter of the digital books market.

The company's shares were down 7 cents at $11.54 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Additional reporting by Alistair Barr in San Francisco; Editing by Derek Caney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111107/wr_nm/us_barnesandnoble

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HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket go on sale, lead AT&T's march on LTE

You didn't expect Ma Bell to open its first LTE markets without tossing in a few 4G friendly toys, did you? Of course not, we told you as much last week -- but today things get official: The Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket and HTC Vivid (formerly known as the Holiday) are ready to take Ma Bell's new LTE nodes for a spin. Not much has changed since the last time we saw these phones -- the Skyrocket still knocks the Galaxy S II's screen size and processor speed up a notch (a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus Display and 1.5GHz CPU, for those of you keeping track), and the Vivid still has a 4.5-inch qHD display, 1080p HD video recording via an 8MP rear camera and a 1.2GHz CPU. What's new? AT&T is currently selling both handsets with an online discount, offering the Galaxy S II Skyrocket for $150 with a two-year commitment, and the Vivid for a paltry $99. If you're lucky enough to live in one of AT&T's emerging LTE markets, skip on over to the outfit's webstore and have a look.

[Thanks, Reggie]

HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket go on sale, lead AT&T's march on LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Nov 2011 18:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/06/htc-vivid-and-samsung-galaxy-s-ii-skyrocket-go-on-sale-lead-atand/

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Sprint may use debt to fund Clearwire (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N) plans to offer debt in a private transaction and could use the proceeds to fund Clearwire Corp (CLWR.O).

Sprint, whose credit rating was downgraded on Friday, also said it could use the proceeds to pay back existing debt or fund its network upgrade.

But that didn't stop Clearwire shares from rising as much as 28 percent, because Sprint had previously refused to discuss whether it would help Clearwire's current efforts to raise almost $1 billion in financing.

"It provides a glimmer of hope. The fact they put it in there means that its under consideration despite Sprint's posturing at its analyst day," said Mizuho analyst Michael Nelson.

Sprint executives triggered a 32 percent drop in Clearwire's shares on October 7 when they told an investor conference Sprint would stop selling phones using Clearwire's current service at the end of 2012. They had also suggested that a Clearwire bankruptcy could be "constructive."

The company had since said it was trying to negotiate an extension of its agreement with Clearwire but left lingering fears among investors.

Even after Friday's move, Clearwire's low share price indicated investor concern that it could still end up filing for bankruptcy, Mizuho's Nelson said. Standard & Poor's CCC+ rating of Clearwire also indicates a bankruptcy risk.

A Clearwire spokesman said that the company's focus is on increasing revenue and its customer base. He declined to comment further.

The company said earlier this week that it has enough money to fund its operations for the next 12 months.

The rating agency downgraded Sprint one notch to a B+ rating from a BB- rating on Friday but removed it from a "Creditwatch Negative" meaning that it is no longer under review for another downgrade.

Ratings downgrades tend to increase the cost of raising capital through debt markets.

Sprint did not say how much cash it was aiming to raise in the offer announced on Friday. It had said on October 26 that it could need to raise up to $7 billion in financing over the next few years as it looks to upgrade its network and pay for the high cost of its agreement with Apple Inc (AAPL.O) to sell iPhone.

Clearwire, which is majority owned by Sprint, is seeking up to $300 million to fund operations and about $600 million for a network upgrade that it urgently needs to help it compete with rivals and win wholesale customers other than Sprint.

It said earlier this week that the companies were in talks but that they had "gaps" due to differing strategic goals.

Sprint said it plans to offer notes due 2021 and 2018 and that the 2018 notes would be guaranteed by its wholly-owned subsidiaries that guarantee its existing credit agreements.

Sprint is Clearwire's biggest customer. By midday, Clearwire shares had lost some of their momentum but were still up 19 cents, or 11 percent, at $1.94 after touching $2.25 earlier in the Nasdaq session. Sprint shares were up 7 cents or 2.5 percent at $2.88 on New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Derek Caney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111104/tc_nm/us_sprint_clearwire

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In UK, Guy Fawkes remembered with protests (AP)

LONDON ? "Remember, remember, the fifth of November." The 400-year-old story of Guy Fawkes and other plotters' failure to blow up London's Parliament is traditionally marked in Britain with this schoolchildren's rhyme, bonfires and mulled wine at fun fairs.

But this year Guy Fawkes Day is taking on a distinctly political flavor, as protesters inspired by the folk hero marched on Parliament ? though with entirely different motivations than the 17th-century activist.

Fawkes is a household historical name in Britain for plotting with 12 other conspirators to blow up Parliament with explosives, assassinate King James I and install a Catholic monarch in the botched "Gunpowder Plot" of 1605.

The conspiracy fell apart when authorities found out about it and caught Fawkes guarding barrels of gunpowder in the cellar of Parliament. Fawkes was tried as a traitor, and the king's narrow escape has been celebrated every year on Nov. 5, with fireworks and the burning of effigies known as "guys" across the country.

Although not widely known outside Britain, the folk hero's story has recently been seized upon as a potent symbol against state power with the rise of two modern anti-government movements.

Stylized Guy Fawkes plastic masks ? with a clownish, sinister mustachioed smile and features loosely based on drawings of Fawke ? have been worn by hundreds of protesters from the anti-capitalist Occupy Wall Street movement from New York to London. And before that, members of the international rogue collective of "hackivists" known as Anonymous had worn the now instantly recognizable masks during protests against the Church of Scientology.

The design of the masks came from the comic book and movie "V for Vendetta," which features a violent, anarchist antihero who fashions himself a modern day Guy Fawkes and rebels against a fictional fascist government.

On Saturday, a group including many who wore the same masks tried to march into London's Parliament Square, but it was blocked by a heavy police presence. Many of the activists were the same people behind the Occupy London movement, which has set up camp outside the iconic St. Paul's Cathedral for weeks to protest social inequality and the excesses of the banking industry.

Meanwhile Anonymous, which has made a name for itself by launching cyber attacks on government and large corporate websites, also seized on Guy Fawkes Day by backing an online campaign urging people to collectively withdraw their money from large banks Saturday in a bid to show their anger against the banking sector. Activists have dubbed Saturday "Bank Transfer Day" and "Operation Cashback."

In Britain, the nursery rhyme "Remember, remember, the fifth of November/ Gunpowder, treason and plot" is familiar to most as a warning that treason would never be forgiven.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111105/ap_on_hi_te/eu_britain_guy_fawkes_day

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