| News in brief
Legoland in Carlsbad, Calif., won for best children's park, while Kings Island, in Kings Mills, Ohio, won in the category of amusement park with the best kids' area.
The award for best marine life park went to SeaWorld in Orlando, while the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in California won best seaside park.
HAWAII SUPERFERRY COULD DISAPPEAR: The Hawaii Superferry, which voluntarily shut down operations Aug. 28 in the face of demonstrations shortly after launching its service, needs to be able to operate while an environmental review is made or it will go out of business, say its owners.
Judges on Maui and Kauai are holding hearings to determine if the ship should be allowed to sail while the eight-month study is in progress.
TELL THE WORLD YOUR TRAVELS: One good way to tell strangers in cyberspace who you are is by letting them know where you're from, where you've been, and where you'd like to go.
Isiah says quitting not an option
He has been the Knicks' president for four years, and Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan also made him the coach after firing Larry Brown in June 2006. Thomas said he hasn't considered talking with Dolan about whether it would be best for the Knicks if he wears just one hat. ''I've never given it that thought,'' he said. ''I only think about how to fix it, how to make it right. That's all my time and energy is focused on. Until I do that, I'll be here trying to make it right.'' The New York Post, citing an unidentified source, reported Saturday that Thomas told a friend he was considering stepping away from coaching to concentrate on his front-office duties. ''That was a flat-out lie,'' he said. ''I would never, ever, ever quit.
MRU Holdings, Inc. Receives Additional Working Capital
NEW YORK, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MRU Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: UNCL) , a specialty finance company that provides federal and private student loans through its consumer brand MyRichUncle(TM) and through private label partners, today announced that it had secured additional working capital from an institutional investor against its residual interest from its recent $200 million securitization. The Company issued a note of $11.2 million pledged against the book value of its residual interest from the Company's MRU Student Loan Trust 2007-A. As a result of this transaction, the Company has over $20 million in cash and equivalents. "This is a significant milestone for MRU as we have been able to create a financing structure for our residual interest at a time when credit markets continue to be difficult," said Vishal Garg, Co-Founder and CFO.
VMware Upgrades ESX Hypervisor, Management Tools
VMware will upgrade its ESX Server hypervisor and its Virtual Infrastructure 3 management software before the end of the year, extending its popular VMotion tool's migration capability to storage as well as physical servers. VMotion as it exists today is part of Virtual Infrastructure 3. It is capable of moving a running virtual machine from one physical server to another without disrupting end users. It's a leading feature of Virtual Infrastructure 3. The capability is a boon to the operations staff, since a physical server can be taken down for maintenance whenever managers decide it is appropriate rather than when end users are absent. Now VMware is extending a similar capability to storage, where a virtual machine's underlying disk array may be shifted as well. The capability would allow old disks to be unplugged and new ones plugged in "and the end user knows nothing about it," said Bogomil Balkansky, senior director of product marketing in an interview.
Zustek Names DiGuido as CEO, Plans Digital Marketing Expansion
The former CEO of Epsilon's e-mail division has finally landed at a new firm, almost exactly a year after he was ushered from his post with the database marketing giant under curious circumstances. Al DiGuido will be chief executive at Zustek, a 110-employee e-mail marketing outfit with operations in California and India. The firm was recently acquired by private equity firm Investcorp Technology Partners, which intends to buy up digital marketing companies of various stripes with the goal of assembling a full-service interactive offering. DiGuido, who writes a column for ClickZ, said Zustek's services will eventually include SEO, SEM, site development, media planning and buying, creative, analytics services and CRM. As those capabilities are layered on through merger activity, he added, the acquired companies will be assimilated under the Zustek brand.
Iowans: Not So Foolish!
But some readers may have a better answer. (Send them to Mickey underscore Kaus at msn dot com.) P.S.: Dellinger's response to point (1): Sure, I agree that at the outer margin (McCain 45, Dem 30, Republican 25) the House might crumble to popular McCain fever. But it would be tough to pull off such a landslide. One point for your argument -- Those numbers are percentages of electoral votes. If McCain actually got that percentage of popular votes--beating one major party candidate by 15% and the other by 20% (or anywhere close to that margin) he would very likely win an electoral vote landslide and avoid the House. Still, that is very, very tough. Much tougher than (merely) finishing first in the popular and electoral votes. Doesn't mean he won't try! 5:39 P.M.
ReachForce lands $5M to expand development, sales
Austin-based ReachForce Inc. secured a $5 million Series B funding round to continue software development and hire sales and marketing staff. Greenhill SAVP led the round, which included existing investor G51 Capital Management LLC of Austin. Greenhill SAVP is part of investment bank Greenhill & Co. Inc. (NYSE: GHL) in New York. ReachForce has received a total $9.3 million in funding. Steve Brotman, managing director of Greenhill SAVP, will join the ReachForce board of directors. "ReachForce is fundamentally changing the way B2B marketers do business," Brotman says. ReachForce allows sales teams to target potential customers through Web-based software. Salespeople can define their targets by industry, company size and department.
Nexage powers DivX mobile video
Advertisers have had their first look at new TV ratings that track how many people stay tuned to commercials. Commercial ratings i.e. how many actually watched the commercial rather than the programme it was in - also include viewers with digital video recorders who watch ads up to three days after the initial airing. Although some ad execs were concerned about a significant drop-off between the two sets of ratings, the first batch of figures released revealed no big surprises. Commercial ratings across the five major US networks came in only slightly below live programme ratings, down 1 per cent on average among people ages 12 to 34 and among adults ages 18 to 49.
The biggest drop was among adults 50 and older, where commercial ratings were 5 per cent lower.
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