Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal to win Sony Open in Miami

Novak Djokovic took his winning run against world number one Rafael Nadal to three matches with a superb victory in the Sony Open final.
The Serb, 26, won 6-3 6-3 to claim his fourth Miami title, moving him ahead of Pete Sampras and two behind Andre Agassi in the event's all-time list.
Djokovic, the world number two, broke serve once in the first set and twice in the second as he dominated Nadal.
The pair now hold all nine elite Masters 1000 titles between them.
Nadal, 27, will hope to regain the initiative as the tour heads to Europe for the clay-court season, with Djokovic having won back-to-back hard-court Masters titles in Indian Wells and Miami.
Djokovic might have been without head coach Boris Becker, who is recovering from hip surgery, but he could not have played much better as the world's top two players met for a record 40th time on Sunday.

- BBC.co.uk

Nikki Reed and Paul McDonald Split After Two Years of Marriage

It's over for Nikki Reed and Paul McDonald.

The Twilight star and the American Idol musician are separating after two years of marriage, E! News can confirm.

"After much consideration, Nikki Reed and Paul McDonald are ending their marriage. They have been living separately for the past six months due to work obligations," the actress' rep said in a statement.

"They will continue to share their love of music, and are still working on their debut album, I'm Not Falling, releasing in 2014. They remain best friends and look forward to their continued journey together."

Reed and McDonald first met at the Red Riding Hood premiere in March 2011 and shortly afterwards, confirmed they were indeed dating. After a whirlwind romance, the couple tied the knot in front of close family and friends during a private ceremony in Malibu in October 2011.


The 25-year-old opened up to E! News last January about her marriage and revealed that compromise is key.

"Last year Paul was on tour and I went to 30 shows, and yeah, it was a big deal, and this year I'm doing all this promo and he flies with me," Reed said.

She added that embracing time on their own is also important in their relationship.

"Independence is also really important in our relationship. [Paul] goes off and does his music and stuff like all day every day. We don't just hang out together; he separates and goes to the music studio and he works and then I work too."

Headline, April01, 2014

"' ^THE ^FUTURE-EC​ONOMICS^ OF 

COMPUTER PROGRAMMIN​G !? "'

"'Are you a geek?"'  Philip Petersen  -the 32-year-old Dane smiles and then gestures to the:

Rows of hunched figures behind him, peering in to their computer screens,  their fingers all  a-whir.

"Everywhere I've ever worked,"  says Petersen, "I've been a geek. But these guys are super-geeks. For us computer types, being called a geek is a badge of honour. And here, I don't make the grade."

[In 2007],  Petersen is standing in the trendy Convent Garden offices of a company called Joost.  Just as  YouTube  burst into our lives some years ago, so Joost  -pronounced   "juiced"  -was considered and positioned to become the next big Internet buzz?!

"What we've developed," says Petersen,  "is fully encrypted, IP-based, P2PTV delivery system." He takes a deep breath and spells it out in plain-speak:

Basically, he explains, Joost turns your PC into  broadcast-quality, on demand TV. It combines sharp, full-screen images, full length programmes and easy channel-flipping with the interactivity of the web.

The software is free and works on any decent computer with a broadband link. The programmes are free, too, as the whole shebang is funded by adverts.

"We've worked hard on the technology," says Petersen, Joost's  -then Head of the content development. Certainly, the pictures on a huge-flat screen computer in front of me looks like TV. And when you switch channels, the image-change is instant.

This  "signal"  quality is the work of those  Joost geeks.

Almost all  online video is downloaded or  streamed from a central bank of servers. That means the more popular a programme is, the slower it is to access   -as countless others are doing the same thing.

The  "breakthrough"  is  that Joost uses  P2P  peer-to-peer technology.

Everything you see on your screen is made up of chunks of  data initially stored on other users. Incredibly, the software draws fragments of programme you want from lots of different sources, then assembles them as you watch.

So that means that once  Joost  has sent a programme out,  the more popular it becomes, the easier it is to access it as it's sitting on more machines.

The fact is that  P2P  technology isn't strictly new. Joost's founders  -Scandinavian whizz kids  Niklas Zennstrom and Janis Fris  -have used it before:

Most famously when they launched  Skype  in  2003 .

Revolutionary in its own right,  Skype  harnessed  P2P  to enable cheap, International Phone calls over the net.

Joost is the  TV version of Skype, allowing  the same cost-effective, high-quality content distribution, but with pictures as well as sound.

In other words,  software that uses the spare capacity of other people's computers to beam  TV  around the world,  practically for free,  while charging advertisers an arm and a leg.

Potentially its a money making machine.

Joost  -used to  boast  around  200 channels   -having signed deals with big production houses such as Time Warner, Endemol and Viacom:

Including Paramount and MTV. The content was to vary from the familiar : CBS, National Geographic,  to the esoteric  PokerHeaven  and (Ahem) Sports illustrated SwimSuit On Demand).

For the advertisers,  Joost  tracks what we watch, then uses that to decide which adverts  we see.

By targeting ads in this way, and you can't spool through them, Petersen and friends hope to make serious money even with the relatively low-ad-count. The current ratio {2007},  he says, is three to five minutes per hour(less than commercial TV).

And the progamme-makers negotiate with  Joost  for a share of that advertising revenue. Joost is betting its full-screen images and  P2P  driven delivery speed will ensure its system form the basis of global internet TV?

As I say goodbye to Petersen, it strikes me this bunch of awkward-looking geeks could revolutionise TV. The company knew and thinks that, however snazzy the technology:

Viewers will only watch on-demand  TV  if there's something decent to watch. Joost's list of signed-up content providers was impressive. And given that programmes cost almost nothing to  "publish" and airtime is effectively infinite:

This software could provide a haven for highbrow, independent, rich programming too. And then these days, high-fibre documentaries struggle to get on conventional TV. If such programmes can find an audience on Joost, they are more likely to be made.

So  Joost  may be good news for audience, independent TV producers and mainstream programme makers who can a grab a slice of the action.

For now, we still spend a lot more of our  "media time:  watching TV than we do on the net. But is that about to change?!

And when and if it does  -these damn geeks shall inherit the earth. For sure!

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the World. See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

"' Your New Online Honour "'

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless