İzmir loses EXPO 2015 hosting contest against Milano

After long toil and endeavor to promote itself to host the world's premieré business event EXPO 2015, İzmir failed to convince the majority of the members of the Bureau of International Exhibitions (BIE) yesterday and lost it to Milano with 21 votes of difference.
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The BIE convened in Paris yesterday to make its final decision on which city is to host the fair. The Milano team won 86 of the votes whereas only 65 BIE delegates stamped in favor of the İzmir's hosting.
An early wave of joy had hit the İzmirian population waiting the decision in excitement in one of the biggest squares of the city as a rumor had spread in the ears that İzmir won the poll. Everyone was up cheering the victory but this feast of joy lived only a few minutes as another news informed the official decision had not been disclosed yet. The people returned to silent suspense and after ten minutes, they went in sadness to learn that Milano was the winner indeed.
Many Turkish politicians, journalists and businessmen had been in the French capital since Saturday in an effort to give the Turkish city a leading edge among delegates coming from 142 countries. Minister of State Mehmet Aydın, Minister of Defense Vecdi Gönül and main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal went to Paris on Saturday, while a large group of journalists flew there on Sunday. Turkey's President Abdullah Gül and Foreign Minister Ali Babacan arrived in Paris on Monday.
The BIE first heard the Milan delegation's case in favor of their city and then the Turkish delegation presented its case for İzmir. After the two cities have been introduced, members began the voting.
Turkey spent $15 million in promoting İzmir for the EXPO fair and invested $50 million in lobbying underdeveloped nations in Africa as well as America. It also sent seven-member delegations to 58 countries as part of its promotional activities. The Italians were also active in trying to persuade the BIE delegates over the last six months, but the budget they had allocated was a little less than that of the Turkish side. Both cities attracted members of the BIE from around the world with cultural and artistic events and visited these delegates in their own countries.
Turkey joined the BIE in 2004 and was elected to the board of directors within one year. İzmir's proposed theme for EXPO 2015 was "New Routes to a Better World / Health for All," while Milan's theme was "Feeding the Planet / Energy for Life."
More than 40 countries had officially announced they would support İzmir. Milan having already hosted the fair once and the financial troubles of its national airline, Alitalia, were seen as disadvantageous for the city. But these expectations were proven wrong, as they emerged victorious.
Bringing together an enormously wide range of products from many different countries is not the goal of EXPO fairs. Their goal is to have countries exchange their cultural, historical and national riches and values.
İzmir is among the 150 world cities with a population of over 3 million and is now looking for another opportunity to take advantage of the experience it has gained in the efforts to win the EXPO 2015 bid, İzmir Governor Mustafa Cahit Kıraç said.

YouTube Offers Free Web Hosting?

March 19, 2008 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – YouTube has launched an API that allows website owners to broadcast video content free of charge, through their own sites – a move essentially putting the company in the free hosting bracket.

Although YouTube provides its traditional video delivery service, players will be “branded”, and through the use of skins, appear proprietary. According to the Google website, YouTube’s API enables users to “upload new videos, edit video metadata such as comments and favorites and modify user settings”. In addition, the client application “can request a list of videos that match specific search criteria, get access to the most popular YouTube videos or retrieve and maintain YouTube user information such as playlists, subscriptions or contacts”.

The introduction of the API shifts YouTube’s identity of video delivery provider to include video publishing solution provider and will no doubt have an impact on a number of companies involved in providing video delivery on a cost basis. The API will be a particular threat to Yahoo! who recently purchased video platform provider Maven Networks.

YouTube Offers Free Web Hosting?

March 19, 2008 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – YouTube has launched an API that allows website owners to broadcast video content free of charge, through their own sites – a move essentially putting the company in the free hosting bracket.

Although YouTube provides its traditional video delivery service, players will be “branded”, and through the use of skins, appear proprietary. According to the Google website, YouTube’s API enables users to “upload new videos, edit video metadata such as comments and favorites and modify user settings”. In addition, the client application “can request a list of videos that match specific search criteria, get access to the most popular YouTube videos or retrieve and maintain YouTube user information such as playlists, subscriptions or contacts”.

The introduction of the API shifts YouTube’s identity of video delivery provider to include video publishing solution provider and will no doubt have an impact on a number of companies involved in providing video delivery on a cost basis. The API will be a particular threat to Yahoo! who recently purchased video platform provider Maven Networks.

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Web hosting provider & domain registrar VEXXHOST introduces a new virtual private server (VPS) offer

By Alice Young | March 30, 2008

Leading web hosting & domain name provider, VEXXHOST, unveiled today their new pricing scheme for their virtual private servers. The new pricing method allows clients who pay annually to get a 20% discount off the monthly price. As an introductory offer for the new VPS pricing, VEXXHOST also has a 25% discount on all virtual private server plans which adds up to savings up to 45%. The new pricing scheme is suitable for any budget ranging from small personal virtual private servers or high-end production virtual private servers. The discounted prices for the three virtual private servers are $14.95, $22.95 and $29.95 per month for the Value, Deluxe & Premium VPS respectively. The new plans come with dedicated disk space ranging from 10GB to 30GB and data transfer ranging from 300 to 1000GB per month. All these low-priced offers come with a 30 day money-back guarantee for customer satisfaction insurance.

VEXXHOST web hosting virtual private servers are using the industry leading virtualization method Xen which is outside the league of any other virtualization method as it uses hardware and not software virtualization unlike others. Another advantage of Xen-powered virtual private servers is that the dedicated RAM, space & processing power is real and with Xen, it is impossible to oversell the resources of the main virtual private server node. VEXXHOST‘s virtual private server platform is one of the most redundant that is current available in the market as data is stored on RAID-10 disk arrays for redundancy and performance. All of their servers come with dual power-supplies, in case of a failure, the server heals it automatically and the other power supply is started with no downtime. The processing powers available on the VPS nodes are powered by high-end latest Intel Xeon’s.

Local comic is planet's 'best joke-teller'

Web awards Chris Cashman

By ATHIMA CHANSANCHAI
P-I REPORTER

Have you heard this one?

Two men are at the beach. One has, like, 25 women swarming around him. The other friend gets jealous and leans in and says, "Hey man, what gives? What's your secret, you know, with the ladies?"

His friend leans in and says, "The secret is ... "

We can't give you the punch line because, a) it may not make the family-friendly cut, and b) it won't have the same effect as when it's properly told, and c) we won't deprive you of Chris Cashman's spot-on impersonation of Christopher Walken telling this joke.

By going to comicwonder.com and searching under "Captainhilariousness" you can find this and seven other jokes, including the "Puzzled Sister" bit Cashman told to clinch his win as the first-ever Comic Wonder of the Year, aka "the best joke-teller on the planet!"

OK, maybe that's stretching it a bit.

"Comic Wonder is in its infancy, so being Comic Wonder of the Year 10 years from now would be more of an honor," said Cashman, 30, the four-time Emmy-award winning son of local TV and radio personality Pat Cashman (of "Almost Live!" fame). "But I liked it as a new site because it brought back the art of joke telling. We all get these e-mails and it's easy reading a joke to misinterpret it."

The title, which came with $2,500 and a T-shirt, hasn't gone to his head. Cashman is the first to admit he's a corny guy who loves doing random impersonations. Comic Wonder gave him an excuse to flex some fun.

Cashman competed against 400 people before being named one of five finalists judged for the best performance, not so much the best joke. The more character voices, sound effects and acting in the joke, the more judges weighed in its favor.

Other factors included how well the joke was received by the other 1,200 users on the site in terms of number of plays, how many fans it has, how many times it's e-mailed, comments made about it, etc.

The site's co-founder, Jeff Fitzsimmons (whose wife, Kelly, is co-founder), said the site has had 50,000 unique visitors per month from 72 countries since it launched in November.

Fitzsimmons lived in Seattle for about 11 years, working in the local film industry before moving to Milwaukee to be with his then-girlfriend, now wife.

One of the judges, Comic Wonder's "Head of Humor," is a funny man recognizable to "Animal House" and "Seinfeld" fans: Mark Metcalf, who played Niedermeyer and The Maestro, respectively, in the film and the TV show. He also has performed at the Rep with Christopher Walken in "Hamlet" (and has the scars to prove it).

Comic Wonder, Metcalf said, "harks back to really great joke-tellers and radio. You rely totally on voice and timing. It becomes a particular art form."

Cashman definitely left a good impression on Metcalf, who said, "I think he'd be a lot of fun to have a beer with."

Fitzsimmons added, "A joke typically has a surprise ending, but Chris takes it and turns it into something that's able to surprise you because he's a good storyteller."

Cashman adds sound effects to enhance the telling of some jokes, creating, as he calls it, "the theater of the mind."

On his Comic Wonder bio, Cashman explained the inspiration for his jokes.

"After nearly 30 years studying with comic minds in Tibet, I have returned to this country to bestow my material upon your ears. My jokes come from nearly 2,000 years of funny monks. Some come from Googling 'funny jokes.' "

He's serious about Googling for jokes. He admitted he's not the kind of guy who has jokes at the ready. But he is glad he was able to use a joke he'd been told by his father, one he called "Amazing Recovery."

Cashman became a ham to follow in his father's footsteps, making fake commercials in home videos when he was only 9 years old.

The Washington State University graduate was able to do his own version of "Almost Live!" -- called "Night Time" -- while he was in Pullman.

After working at KSTW/11 for four years and receiving four regional Emmys for "Best Talent" (an all-around title for hosting and moderating shows such as "Cashman's Buzz" and "Movies on the Run," and doing UPN junkets for films like "War of the Worlds"), he was part of a downsizing that decimated the station when it lost network affiliation. Now the father of an 8-month- old daughter, his "studio/office" is his downstairs coat closet -- after he took the door off.

He freelances: producing webisodes for Microsoft, emceeing events, producing radio commercials and making videos.

Whenever he can, he works with his father. The two can be heard locally on Taco Time ads and will collaborate on the regional Emmys in June.

"I love TV broadcasting. I grew up watching my dad. I was fascinated by it," Cashman said. Back then, he said, "TV personalities were allowed to be cornballs. It's so rare now."

But he said being the son of such a well-known local ham is "a double-edged sword."

"As fantastic as it is to say, 'That's my dad,' " Cashman said, "people assume my success or how I get jobs is because I'm his son. The only way to combat that is to try to prove otherwise."

IT'S A JOKE

# You think you can tell a joke? Try doing your own version of Chris Cashman's winning joke, "Puzzled Sister."

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The other day I stopped by for my weekly visit with my, well, not-so-bright sister, God love her. We get together every week, you see, and watch one of our favorite movies. Only this time, she had another idea.

SISTER: "Oh my gosh, this is gonna be so much fun. We're gonna mix it up a little bit. I got us, like this totally awesome jigsaw puzzle. It's gonna be, like, rad, but it's super confusing. I can't even like get it started."

CASHMAN: "OK, well, uh, what's it supposed to be when we're done? What does it have a picture of on the box?"

SISTER: "Um, let's see here. It's a tiger, I think. Let me find the box. Here it is."

CASHMAN: "Ohhhh-kkayyy. Uh, look, we're not gonna be able to make this puzzle look anything like the box."

SISTER: "Oh, my gosh! Don't underestimate me! I'm, like, really good at jigsaw puzzles."

CASHMAN: "No, no, no, it's not that. Let's just relax, watch one of our favorite movies and just kick back tonight, OK? And later on I can help you put all of these corn flakes back in the box.

P-I reporter Athima Chansanchai can be reached at 206-448-8041 or athimachansanchai@seattlepi.com.

Web Hosting Provider TRK Hosting Offers Dedicated Server Specials

December 25, 2007 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Web hosting provider TRK Hosting (http://trkhosting.com) is offering a promotion on dedicated servers, the company announced recently. The company is offering fully managed Pentium 4 - 2.4 GHz dedicated servers at discount prices.

Although offered at substantial discounts, TRK Hosting’s server options provide a range of benefits including 512 MB RAM, an 80 GB hard disk, 750 GB of bandwidth, an installed and configured Firewall, and WHM/Cpanel control panel options. The configuration is designed to deliver performance across multiple tasks such as image processing, video content creation, games and multimedia. According to the company, servers are being offered on a “first come first serve” basis and will be available “while supplies last”.

TRK Hosting operates of San Antonio, Texas, USA. The company offers a range of shared hosting packages, dedicated server options, domain name registration, and web design and reseller options.

Future Hosting Becomes SWsoft Partner

Hofstra hosting presidential debate next fall

BY REID J. EPSTEIN |reid.epstein@newsday.com

November 20, 2007

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Hofstra University will host the final 2008 presidential debate next October, perhaps lending a home-state platform to one or both of the major-party candidates.

The debate, announced yesterday and scheduled for Oct. 15, is slated to focus on the candidates' foreign policy positions, according to the Commission on Presidential Debates, the nonpartisan organization that sponsors and produces the general election debates.

Hofstra President Stuart Rabinowitz called the attention the school will receive from the debate "priceless." More than 51 million people watched the final debate in 2004 between President George W. Bush and Democratic Sen. John Kerry.

"I don't think you can put a dollar figure on it," he said.

Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi said the choice illustrated the growing importance of the suburban vote.

"We're one of the nation's first suburbs and suburbs are becoming a more important part of the nation's politics," Suozzi said.

Along with focusing attention on Hofstra and Long Island, the debate could mark a homecoming for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) or former New York City GOP Mayor Rudy Giuliani, or both - provided they survive the presidential primaries and become their parties' nominees.

A third-party candidate would need to have a 15 percent support level in national polls at the time of the debate to be included, according to the commission's rules.

A total of 16 sites, most of them colleges or college affiliates, bid to host the debates in 2008, said the commission. While the commission gave no reason for its choices, and officials there did not return calls yesterday, Rabinowitz credited widespread support from the political and business communities on Long Island and New York State.

Rabinowitz said the university has lined up private donors to cover the estimated $2.35 million cost for the debate. He declined to name the donors yesterday.

"Hofstra was the perfect choice," Schumer said, "with the enthusiastic support of the campus and the entire region there is no question Hofstra has the will and the resources to host an historic event on LI."

The debate will take place at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex, which seats up to 5,046 people. Rabinowitz said the commission will determine the debate's logistics. The university may not know the number of tickets it has available until the day of the debate, Rabinowitz said.

"Whatever tickets the university has, all or virtually all will go to students," he said.

The other presidential debates are set for Sept. 26 in Oxford, Miss., and Oct. 7, in Nashville, Tenn. The sole vice presidential debate is scheduled for Oct. 2 in St. Louis.

Nassau Police Lt. Kevin Smith said it is too early to estimate how much of the debate's security will fall to county police. The Secret Service will delegate some responsibilities, such as transportation, to Nassau Police at some point in the future, Smith said.

THE 2008 DEBATES

FORMAT Each debate will begin at 9 p.m. and run 90 minutes. A single moderator will question the candidates, who will sit together at a table except for the Nashville debate, which will be "town-hall" style.