Orbis - The Next Play Station

There have been plenty of leaks, whispers and rumors about the next Xbox for a few months now, but there hasn't been a lot of talk about Sony's plans for the next generation.

Kotaku, though, claims to have uncovered some inside information about the system that, on the surface, makes it sound like the next generation console race is going to be a tight one -- and begin next year.

Citing a single anonymous source, Kotaku says it believes the code name for the next PlayStation is "Orbis." And while the next console from Sony is widely expected to be called PlayStation 4 when it hits shelves, the site infers that Orbis might be the system's final name.

Whatever it's called, Kotaku says we can expect to see it released in the holiday period of 2013 -- the same timeframe most expect the next Xbox to arrive. If so, that would eliminate the one year head start Microsoft enjoyed with the Xbox 360, a year that gave it a lead over Sony that thus far has proven insurmountable.

[Related: New Sony CEO to keep charge of troubled TV operations]

Much like the rumored next Xbox system (codenamed Durango), the new Sony system will lock games to a PSN account, which could impact the used game market.

"If you then decide to trade that disc in, the pre-owned customer picking it up will be limited in what they can do," the site said. "While our sources were unclear on how exactly the pre-owned customer side of things would work, it's believed used games will be limited to a trial mode or some other form of content restriction, with consumers having to pay a fee to unlock/register the full game."

If true, that's likely to upset a notable segment of the gaming population, not to mention have a serious impact on retailers like GameStop who make a tidy profit on the used game market. And Sony could ruffle even more feathers if the system ditches backward compatibility with the PlayStation 3, as Kotaku says it will.

In terms of hard specs, Kotaku says the system will use either AMD's x64 CPU or perhaps AMD's Southern Islands GPU, the company's high-end chip. Graphics-wise, Orbis is said to be capable of resolutions up to 4096x2160, commonly called '4K' in TV manufacturer parlance (and one of the technological boosts shown off at this year's CES). It's also said to be able to play 3D games in full 1080p, a leap over the PS3's max 3D resolution of 720.

It's critical to note that these are unconfirmed reports based on a single source, so it's wise to be skeptical. Developers Yahoo! Games has spoken with are unable to confirm anything in Kotaku's report, and note they haven't been contacted yet by Sony to discuss the new system (though they say they have spoken with Microsoft).

Don't expect Sony to officially start talking about the PS4 or Orbis anytime soon, either. In January Sony's Kaz Hirai stated clearly that the company would not announce any new home systems at E3.

Salman Khan, Jackie Chan and Kamal Hasan Coming together?

Jackie Chan, Salman Khan and Kamal Hasan

If this comes through, it will probably be one of the biggest casting coup of this millennium! Kollywood is buzzing with the news that producer Aascar Ravichandran is planning to cast Kamal Haasan, Salman Khan and Jackie Chan in 'Armour of God' sequel.

In an interview with the Deccan Chronicle Ravi confirmed the news saying, “I have been discussing it with Jackie Chan for the last few years. The script has a global theme with an Indian connection. Yes, talks are on with Salman Khan. Read more on Salman Khan Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/BeingSalmanKhan

A report in The Daily Bhaskar says "it should be put to light that when action heavyweight Jackie Chan was shooting in India in 2004 for his movie ‘The Myth’, he had expressed a desire to star in a Bollywood film. And speculations have been rife since then. But now, it seems that the myth might just take form with such reports coming in. "

If it happens this will be definitely a turning point in the history of Indian cinema. Reportedly the film will be made in Hindi, Tamil and English with a whopping budget of Rs. 400 crores.

Things that can Damage your Carrier

1. "Can you write that down for me?" When you're talking about the details of a project, writing notes to consult later is great. But you need to take them yourself, not ask your boss to do it for you.

2. "I just booked plane tickets for next month." Never book time off without clearing it with your boss. There might be a major project due that week, or she might have approved others to have that time off and therefore need you around. Check with her first before you do anything irreversible.

3. "My bad." There's nothing more frustrating than an employee who has made a mistake and doesn't seem to think it's a big deal. When you make a mistake, take responsibility for it, figure out how you're going to fix it, and make it clear that you understand its seriousness. Responses like "my bad" sound cavalier and signal that you don't take work seriously. Don't use it for anything other than the most minor mistake (like spilling something in the kitchen, which you then promptly clean up).

4. "I can't work with Joe." Refusing to work with a colleague is an unusually extreme statement and may mark you as difficult. Instead, try something like, "I find it hard to work well with Joe because of X and Y. Do you have any advice on how I can make it go more smoothly?"

5. "I don't know what you'd do without me." No one is irreplaceable, even the head of your company. Statements like this mark you as a prima donna who feels entitled to special treatment ... and will make a lot of managers want to show you that you're wrong.

6. "Do this, or I quit." Whether you're asking for a raise or requesting a day off, don't threaten to quit if you don't get your way. If you don't get what you want, you can always think it over and decide to quit, but if you use it as a threat in the negotiation itself, you'll lose your manager's respect and poison the relationship.

7. "I have another offer. Can you match it?" Using another job offer as a bargaining chip to get your current employer to pay you more money may be tempting, but it often ends badly. First, you may be told to take the other offer, even if you don't really want it--and then you'll have to follow through. Second, even if your employer does match the offer, they'll now assume you're looking to leave, and you may be on the top of the lay-off list if the company needs to make cutbacks. If you want a raise, negotiate it on your own merits.

8. "What's the big deal?" Statements like this are dismissive and disrespectful. If your manager is concerned about something, you need to be concerned about it too. If you genuinely don't understand what the big deal is, say something like, "I want to understand where you're coming from so we're on the same page. Can you help me understand how you're seeing this?"

9. "I can't do X because I need to do Y." Don't say that you can't do something your manager is asking of you. Instead, if there's a conflict with another project, explain the conflict and ask your manager which is more important.

10."That's not my job." Protesting that something isn't in your job description is a good way to lose the support of your boss. Job descriptions aren't comprehensive, and most people end up doing work that doesn't fall squarely within that job description. (That's what "and other duties as assigned" means.) You want to make yourself more valuable to your employer, not less.

Alison Green writes the popular Ask a Manager blog, where she dispenses advice on career, job search, and management issues. She's also the author of Managing to Change the World: The Nonprofit Leader's Guide to Getting Results and former chief of staff of a successful nonprofit organization, where she oversaw day-to-day staff management, hiring, firing, and employee development.

6 Reasons Why You Should Never Retire

Threats to retirement security are everywhere. The list is topped by the recession-fueled impact on retirement confidence: People haven't set aside nearly enough money to fund their retirements. Next on the list is the regular drumbeat from critics that the Social Security system is running out of money and won't be able to honor its current promises to people nearing retirement. Perhaps the third stake in the heart of retirement is that people are living longer and longer, raising legitimate fears they will outlive their money.

All well and good, perhaps. But these concerns have obscured the compelling arguments against ever retiring, except for physical reasons. The short list of reasons never to retire include:

1. There is no physical reason to retire.

2. Continued work can support healthy aging, including better physical and mental health.

3. Well-being and happiness are boosted when people are engaged in challenging and meaningful activities. Work is a major place to find such activities in our society.

[Related: The New Retirement Resorts]

4. Older people have rich experience and mentoring skills to help enrich the workplace experiences of younger colleagues.

5. Declining numbers of younger workers, courtesy of lower fertility rates, will raise the need to retain older employees in the workforce.

6. We need and like the money, and shorter retirements sharply cut the risk we will outlive our assets.

There are physically demanding jobs that wear people out by the time they hit their 60s. Other people have suffered disabling injuries and diseases, some related to work, and simply cannot hold demanding jobs any longer. We have safety nets for these folks, although they should be stronger, especially as support rises for raising the official retirement age to 68 or even 70.

For the rest of us, retirement is, quite frankly, often a default choice that we've been brainwashed into accepting. Saying that it's time to retire becomes less and less relevant with each passing year. Not only are we living longer, but the quality of our lives in older age can also improve. Physically taxing jobs are disappearing. Knowledge jobs can be done quite well by older people.

Continuing to work keeps people engaged and requires learning new skills. While the perfect antidote to the hazards of aging has not yet been identified, performing meaningful work is certainly a major part of the answer. For people who have "retired" in a technical sense, there has been a boom in encore careers and other volunteer experiences. Many of these people are working as hard and effectively as they ever have, and reaping big health and wellness benefits (although clearly not earning commensurately large paychecks).

The recession and painfully slow jobs recovery that has followed have occasioned some sniping at older workers. It is time for them to move on, we're told, and to open up slots for deserving younger job candidates. Similar "job stealing" charges have been levied at illegal immigrants. This is an understandable but short-sighted reaction. Labor shortages will be making headlines in a few years, and we'll need workers of all ages and origins.

[Related: Foods That Fight Aging]

The financial argument for staying at work has, of course, been front and center in the past few years. But labor-force participation rates for older people have been rising for 20 years, and financial motivations were important even before the recession. Beyond the money, there have been other benefits as well.

Older employees are ceasing to be oddities in the workplace. Recognition and sensitivity to multigenerational workforces have been growing. Older workers thus are more likely to be accepted by younger colleagues and managers.

Successful people have seldom selected retirement when they turn 65. Warren Buffett may be the poster child for lifetime employment, but he is hardly unique. Changing the "65 and out" mindset is helped by greater social acceptance of an extended working role for older people. This transition becomes even more powerful when the older person not only accepts a different future but embraces it.

Breaking News - Indian call centers stealing / Selling Brits' personal data

Indian call centers are reportedly selling confidential personal data, including credit card details and medical records of more than 500,000 Britons.

News daily The Daily Mail reported that data was being sold by "corrupt Indian call center workers" to criminals and marketing firms. It cited an undercover investigation by The Sunday Times--where two Indians, claiming to be IT workers, had met undercover reporters and "boasted" having 45 different sets of personal information.

The data had included names, addresses, phone numbers of credit card holders, start and expiry dates and the three-digit security and verification codes.

The information--most of them from customers of major financial companies such as HSBC and NatWest--are a resource for criminals, enabling fraudsters to steal money from bank accounts within minutes.

Other information that had been hawked by the workers included sensitive data on mortgages, loans, insurance and phone contracts and Sky Television subscriptions. The report noted that the data would enable direct marketing companies to target customers more effectively.

One of the Indians, Naresh Singh, reportedly met the undercover reporters in a hotel room in Gurgaon, near Delhi. He was allegedly carrying a laptop full of stolen data.

"These are the ones that have been sold to somebody already. This is Barclays, this is Halifax, this is Lloyds TSB. We've been dealing so long we can tell the bank by just the card number," Singh reportedly said, adding that most of the data was less than 72 hours old.

Call centers are a US$5 billion industry in India, employing 330,000 people, the report said.

Last month, U.S. federal officers had also accused Indian call centers of being involved in cheating millions of dollars out of Americans. Callers had reportedly used personal data on their victims obtained from payday loan websites.

Advance Magic Tricks , Magic Tricks Exposed! Mind Blowing

"Some Amazing Facts About Learning Magic
...And why you shouldn't even think about learning magic until you read every
word of this letter!"

1. Magic is easy to learn and doesn't take years of practice to master. (It's true, but professional magicians don't want you to know this!)

2. The best magic secrets are closely guarded by the professionals, so they can look better than you when they perform. (Until now that is! :-)

3. You can start learning magic at any age young or old.

From: Simon Crack
Time: 7:57 AM - Thursday, March 15, 2012 UK.
Subject: Magic Tricks Exposed

Dear Friend,

If you can spare a couple of hours of your time, I'll show you how to quickly and easily amaze even the most skeptical person with some truly stunning professional magic tricks exposed. ...even if you've never done a single magic trick in your entire life.

Because that's how long my top secret 50+ page eBook is likely to take you to read. And when you do, you'll be BLOWN AWAY with how easy it is to learn stunning, professional magic tricks exposed.

Here's just some of what you'll discover...

Levitation techniques that magicians like David Blaine and Criss Angel use everyday to stun their audiences.

Gruesome effects where it "seems like" you saw into your neck with a piece of thread. Another trick sees you push a pen right through your forearm! Disgusting, disturbing but safe and fun!

Perform David Blaine's signature effect and take an empty, crushed soda can and restore it to pristine condition.

Take a coin and literally push it inside a sealed bottle. An absolute classic of magic not to be missed.

8 Worst ways to make extra money

There are two ways to get ahead financially: Spend less and make more. Unfortunately, you can't give yourself an instant raise. But that doesn't mean you can't turn a quick buck if you want or need to.

1. Sell your body. For science, that is. You can sell whole blood or plasma. According to American Red Cross standards, you have to weigh at least 110 pounds, be 18 or older, and be in good health. Plasma can be sold monthly, and it takes about an hour and 15 minutes. Whole blood can be sold only every two months, but it takes just 10 minutes, on average. Check with your local hospital or clinic to see if it pays for donations. Each visit can be worth up to $35.

2. Do clinical trials. Provided you qualify, participating in tests of new medicines and procedures can earn you up to a couple thousand dollars. Two sources for finding clinical trials are the National Institutes of Health database and the Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation, which can also help you over the phone.
   

3. Show talent. Fiverr.com helps you make money from your ability to do anything from retouching photos to singing. You can net $4 (the site takes a $1 cut) for a wide variety of small tasks. And if you don't have a special skill, try being clever or weird. Recently on the Fiverr front page, someone was offering to do voiceovers in a Power Ranger costume and another was offering to write messages on her lips. While lots of this stuff is silly, this site can theoretically be used as an entree for those with serious ambitions to showcase more traditional work.

4. Sell used goods. If you have stuff you don't use -- and who doesn't? -- there are plenty of places to sell it, from Craigslist to eBay to Amazon. And if you don't want to wait on a buyer, you can trade in used electronics, books, movies and games at Amazon for credit. We have a few more ideas in "5 best websites for turning junk into cash." While this idea isn't particularly weird, if you need money, it's a good place to start.
   

5. Sell crafts. Better than selling used is selling new -- especially if you have something unique to offer. Websites like Etsy.com can help you launch a side business selling your own crafts, from jewelry to painting to custom purses and clothing. Promoting your crafts on a social network like Pinterest can help drum up business.

6. Work online. One of our most-asked questions: Is there legitimate work from home? Technically, yes. In fact, you're reading some right now: Every Money Talks News staffer works from home. But finding a legitimate work-at-home job isn't easy, and there are a lot of scams. Still, you can use the Internet to make extra cash. You can provide product research on sites like SurveySavvy.com for anywhere from $1 to $15 per survey, or perform quick menial tasks like tagging images for a few cents each on Mechanical Turk. You can also use the Internet to find offline jobs in your area (like bartending or short-term work as a personal assistant) at Zaarly, where some gigs are worth $100 or more.

7. Find missing money. "Finding unclaimed cash" explains how to check with government agencies for cash you didn't know you had, like tax refunds, retirement accounts from old employers, abandoned paychecks, and unclaimed life insurance proceeds.

8. Try apps. As smartphones become more popular, some startup businesses are based entirely on apps that get you to use them in certain ways while you're out and about. In "5 smartphone apps that can earn you money," we covered apps that can make you $5 to $10 for something as simple as snapping quick photos to prove a store has a certain product in stock. There are even apps that reward you for trying and reviewing other apps.