Strategies: At Dell, a Gamble on a Legacy

IN 1984 — the year Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook creator, was born — Michael S. Dell started a tech company in his dorm room, dropped out of college and changed the world. By making personal computers that were powerful, reliable and inexpensive, and by selling directly to buyers who customized their PC features, Mr. Dell revolutionized his industry. “The original PC industry was long...

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In Nigeria, Polio Vaccine Workers Are Killed by Gunmen

At least nine polio immunization workers were shot to death in northern Nigeria on Friday by gunmen who attacked two clinics, officials said. The killings, with eerie echoes of attacks that killed nine female polio workers in Pakistan in December, represented another serious setback for the global effort to eradicate polio. Most of the victims were women and were shot in the back of...

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John E. Karlin, 1918-2013: John E. Karlin, Who Led the Way to All-Digit Dialing, Dies at 94

Courtesy of Alcatel-Lucent USAJohn E. Karlin, a researcher at Bell Labs, studied ways to make the telephone easier to use. A generation ago, when the poetry of PEnnsylvania and BUtterfield was about to give way to telephone numbers in unpoetic strings, a critical question arose: Would people be able to remember all seven digits long enough to dial them? And when, not long afterward, the dial...

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Russian Protest Leader Put Under House Arrest

MOSCOW — A Moscow district court ordered Sergei Udaltsov, a prominent opposition leader, to be placed under house arrest on Saturday, in one of the most assertive legal measures to date against a leader of the anti-Kremlin protests that began more than a year ago. Mr. Udaltsov, the leader of the radical socialist Left Front movement, faces a charge of conspiracy to incite mass disorder, under...

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Bits Blog: Google Changes Its Ad Program to Try to Solve the Mobile Ad Riddle

Google has a mobile problem, and it is trying to fix it.Searches on desktop computers, Google’s most lucrative way to sell ads, are slowing. Searches on mobile devices are increasing, but mobile ads cost less.The result has been that an important business metric for Google — the amount that advertisers pay each time someone clicks on an ad — has declined for five quarters in a row.This week, Google...

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Well: One Dish, One Hour

Fast-food from a restaurant is not as fast as you think. There is drive time to and from the restaurant, waiting time to pay and collect your food, and then it still takes a few minutes to sort through it and set it on the table at home. (Assuming you don’t just eat it in the car.) But if you are willing to invest a few more minutes of time for a more healthful option, you can still make a homemade...

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Well: One Dish, One Hour

Fast-food from a restaurant is not as fast as you think. There is drive time to and from the restaurant, waiting time to pay and collect your food, and then it still takes a few minutes to sort through it and set it on the table at home. (Assuming you don’t just eat it in the car.) But if you are willing to invest a few more minutes of time for a more healthful option, you can still make a homemade...

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DealBook: Einhorn Sues Apple Over Plan to Discard Preferred Stock

9:02 p.m. | Updated Wall Street has had a long romance with Apple. Now one of the company’s best-known investors is saying: I love you, but you need to change.The surprising declaration by the billionaire hedge fund manager David Einhorn adds to the growing dissatisfaction with Apple and its once soaring stock.On Thursday, Mr. Einhorn urged his fellow shareholders to block a plan by Apple to scrap...

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China Denies Directing Radar at Japanese Military

HONG KONG — China on Friday denied Japanese accusations that its ships directed a radar capable of aiding weapon strikes at a Japanese naval vessel and helicopter near disputed islands recently, then lobbed its own accusation: that Japan was trying to fan tensions. The latest exchange underscored the depth of a festering discord between the two countries, and trading partners, over the territorial...

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Fed Official Sees Tension in Some Credit Markets

WASHINGTON – Some credit markets are showing signs of overheating as investors take larger risks in response to the persistence of low interest rates, a senior Federal Reserve official said Thursday. Kevin Lamarque/ReutersJeremy Stein, a Federal Reserve governor, said some credit markets were showing signs of overheating. The official, Fed Governor Jeremy...

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Well: Expressing the Inexpressible

When Kyle Potvin learned she had breast cancer at the age of 41, she tracked the details of her illness and treatment in a journal. But when it came to grappling with issues of mortality, fear and hope, she found that her best outlet was poetry.How I feared chemo, afraidIt would change me.It did.Something dissolved inside me.Tears began a slow drip;I cried at the news storyOf a lost boy found in the...

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Gadgetwise Blog: This Robot Does Do Windows

The robots at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show fell largely into two categories: floor cleaners and toys. But there was an exception.That was a robot taken cleaning to new heights – literally. It is the Winbot 7 Series from Ecovacs, and this robot does do windows.The Winbot works much like any of the floor cleaning robots, only it works on vertical surfaces. Stick it outside on your window glass...

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The Lede: Egyptian Prime Minister Criticized for Soliloquy on 'Ignorant' Mothers

Video of remarks by Egypt’s prime minister, Hisham Qandil, who blamed infant illness on “ignorant” rural mothers who fail to clean their breasts before nursing.Last Updated, Thursday, 1:21 p.m. With angry protesters challenging the Egyptian government’s grip on strategic cities of the Suez Canal, the army chief warning of the potential “collapse of the state,” violent sexual assault plaguing demonstrations...

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Tool Kit: Protecting Your Privacy on the New Facebook

Facebook is a personal vault that can contain photos of your firstborn, plans to bring down your government and, occasionally, a record of your indiscretions. It can be scoured by police officers, partners and would-be employers. It can be mined by marketers to show tailored advertisements. And now, with Facebook’s newfangled search tool, it can allow strangers, along with “friends”...

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The New Old Age Blog: For Women, Reduced Access to Long-Term Care Insurance

“This was a very, very good business for a short time, with people buying long-term care insurance like it was candy in a candy store,’’ said Michael Perry, a vice president at the Opus Advisory Group, a strategic financial planning firm in Purchase, N.Y.No more. Mr. Perry has sold only one long-term care policy in the last six months and is “backing off from marketing’’ them as he watches this corner...

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Gadgetwise Blog: Your Lost Bags Sent a Text, Come Get Them

While services for tracking luggage with RFID tags, bar codes or GPS have been around for a while, a company called Trakdot is taking a slightly different approach. It is putting a radio transceiver on your bags that tells you where your luggage is when it isn’t where it should be.It costs less than GPS trackers and the company says it is more secure than the RFID tags and bar codes.The Trakdot doesn’t...

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Clashes Erupt in Damascus, Shattering Lull, as Prospects for Talks Dim

Goran Tomasevic/ReutersA building in the Damascus suburb of Zamalka was hit by a mortar shell fired by the Syrian Army on Wednesday. BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian insurgents attacked military checkpoints and other targets in parts of central Damascus on Wednesday, antigovernment activist groups reported. The fighting shattered a lull there as prospects for any talks between the antagonists appeared to...

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DealBook: Case Details Internal Tension at S.&P. Amid Subprime Problems

The subprime loans packaged up as complex securities for Standard & Poor’s to rate were already failing at such a fast clip in the fall of 2006 that some analysts at the firm thought they must be seeing typographical errors.At the time, the nation’s biggest rating agency was making record profits, attaching sterling ratings to mortgage-related securities that were increasingly going bad. Inside...

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Personal Health: Effective Addiction Treatment

Countless people addicted to drugs, alcohol or both have managed to get clean and stay clean with the help of organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous or the thousands of residential and outpatient clinics devoted to treating addiction.But if you have failed one or more times to achieve lasting sobriety after rehab, perhaps after spending tens of thousands of dollars, you’re not alone. And chances...

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