Interesting Posts

Home smart home: this entrepreneur wants to make your new home the ultimate gadget

2005-10-11T06:43:00.001-07:00

THE SECURITY, lighting and temperature control systems he sells may be futuristic, but Craig Curran, 42, counts on a down-to-earth argument to win converts for his "low voltage" wiring and installation company: Once drywall is up in a house, it's much, much harder to retrofit without making a mess.

A typical contract for his company, Smart Systems Technologies, can run $15,000 to $20,000 for an entertainment setup or a home surveillance system that lets you peek at your front stoop through an image displayed on your TV screen. But again appealing to practicality, Curran's sales team makes it easier for buyers to justify the price tag by working with home builders in Irvine, California, to wrap the cost of Smart Systems' services into the mortgage for a new home.

Projecting $23.5 million in 2005 sales, Smart Systems has expanded to fast-growing Phoenix and is eyeing burgeoning cities in Florida, Georgia and Texas. However, you won't find the company in markets where new-home construction schedules are subject to the whims of winter weather. Says Curran, "We need to be full-speed 12 months a year."

Guilt-free luxury: get big performance with a small price tag

2005-10-11T06:43:00.000-07:00

WANT THE look and feel of a Bentley without the high price tag? Three large, five-seater sedans that convey a sense of stateliness for less than $25,000 are the Ford Five Hundred; the Chrysler 300; and the brand-new Dodge Charger, resurrected after an almost three-decade absence. Perfect company cars, all three sedans are not only affordable--they're also roomy, contemporary and performance-oriented.

Ford's new flagship, the Five Hundred, comes in three versions: SE, SEL and Limited. All versions include a rear, split-folding bench seat that's slightly elevated for a "stadium" view of the road. Living up to its massive interior, the trunk offers more than 21 cubic feet of space, among the roomiest of any sedan, and the wheels are 17 inches. Features include chrome trim, power-folding mirrors, keyless entry, power windows and locks, ABS, and tilt wheel. The engine is a V-6. You choose between front-wheel drive and a CVT transmission with all-wheel drive from Ford's Volvo subsidiary. The Five Hundred starts at $22,840.

Not exactly a Rolls Royce but just as impressive, the Chrysler 300 is the company's 2006 vision of "the great American car." Starting at $23,525, it's a head-turner with bold styling, a dramatic front grille, high sills and a classic roofline. The 300 has all-wheel drive courtesy of its partner, Mercedes-Benz, or rear-wheel drive. The engine is a V-6; the 300C has a HEMI V-8 that turns off four cylinders when you don't need all eight. Trunk size totals 15.6 cubic feet.

Vegas, baby! Don't gamble with your Vegas plans—we've got the trip tips you need

2005-10-11T06:41:00.000-07:00

LAS VEGAS is no longer about busloads of retirees playing the nickel slots. Last year, Sin City hosted more than 20,000 meetings, welcoming nearly 6 million business travelers. From a city that changes more in a month than most cities change in a year, here's a quick heads up:

* THE SPLASHIEST HOTEL newcomer on the Strip is the Wynn Las Vegas, which opened in spring. The almost $3 billion, 2,700-room resort has raised the bar on the luxury end of the market. Standard rooms start at about $200 to $450 per night; suites fetch up to $900 per night. But while the big glam resorts get all the press, most visitors bed down for an average of just $90 per night, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

* IF YOU'RE HEADED TO A CONVENTION, consider the brand-new Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center. Fall rates start at about $195. If you're willing to sleep off the Strip, many name-brand hotels and motels have outposts on the outskirts of the action, with nightly rates well under $100. Also, with more than 23,000 hotel rooms becoming available in the next five years, you can generally count on last-minute deals during slower, hot summer months or for midweek stays.

* LAS VEGAS IS MUCH BIGGER than it looks, which means walking distances can be longer than expected. Luckily, you can cool your heels on its new monorail, which connects many larger resorts on the Strip with the city's new convention center for a $3 fare. Unfortunately, the monorail doesn't make the airport run; cab fares from the airport to hotels cost $10 to $20, and there's an airport shuttle to the Strip or downtown for less than $10.

S.E. Asian bourses launch stock index of region's top 40 companies

2005-10-11T06:40:00.000-07:00

Five Southeast Asian stock exchanges jointly launched a tradable benchmark stock index of the region's top 40 companies on Wednesday to woo foreign portfolio investors.

Finance ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in London for an investors' seminar, launched the FTSE/ASEAN 40 Index comprising 40 stocks listed on the bourses of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, according to a joint statement issued by the five exchanges.

The ministers had agreed earlier this year to link up ASEAN stock markets by 2010.

Malaysia has the largest number of companies, 14, on the index, but in terms of market capitalization, Singapore companies have the biggest weighting at 49 percent.

The real time tradable index was launched in partnership with London-based FTSE Group. Its weighting is based market capitalization, using the U.S. dollar as the currency base. There are plans for private institutions to create tradable funds based on it and these could become available as soon as early next year.

The ASEAN stock exchanges are publicizing the index, quoted at 5,250.98, on their websites.

Comptroller contingency training—staying ready to finance the fight

2005-10-11T06:39:00.000-07:00

Early in FY04, I attended the AMC Comptroller's conference and came away with a clear message. Senior FM leadership wanted increased emphasis on contingency training for our deployable FM personnel and it is up to FM Squadron Commanders to make it happen. I can clearly recall sitting there looking around the room at my fellow squadron CCs and thinking the same thoughts that I am sure were running through their heads. "Oh great! How am I supposed to do this? My plate is just too full with the pressures of implementing new systems like Defense Travel System and Wide Area Work Flow in full swing forcing me to overcome resistance to changing procedures that my customers are comfortable with. I was also trying to prepare my wing to execute a budget that appeared to be drastically short of mission requirements. Furthermore, getting my undermanned and extremely young enlisted force up to speed on day-to-day proficiency requirements supporting continuous AEF rotations, while still maintaining everyday customer service requirements for a large AMC base with a tremendous ongoing mobility mission.... There just are not enough hours in the day! Besides, it would take an extremely supportive Wing/CC to allow me to shut down routine comptroller operations and train when his troops are rotating in and out on a daily basis to all points of the globe, and when troops and their families need immediate home station finance support."

Well needless to say, after the emotionalism wore off I took a hard look at this requirement and it really did make a lot of sense. For example, how often have FMers really missed out on good mobility training during wing exercises because our actions were "simulated complete?" Of course, I knew contingency training was critical not only to McChord's mission, but also important to our expeditionary Air Force and the DoD overall. My frustration was not with the requirement, but with how to make it happen. So, I put away my crying towel, assembled my key staff, and we developed the following CONOPS for our new Comptroller Contingency/ Deployment Training Program. Hopefully you will find it useful.

US to sell off federally backed airline loans

2005-10-11T06:27:00.000-07:00

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

The US Treasury Department has said that the federally backed loans for US Airways and America West Airlines are to be sold.

The US government reportedly wants to reduce its financial exposure to commercial airlines by selling the USD1bn loans. As a part if the process, officials said, the Air Transportation Stabilisation Board is working with a financial adviser on the matter. According to Reuters, the aim is to re-market the loan guarantees to private investors.

The larger of the two guarantees is that to US Airways, estimated at USD700m. America West's guarantee is an estimated USD300m. Both were renegotiated after the two carriers announced their merger in May this year and they currently have separate repayment schedules.

((Comments on this story may be sent to aii.feedback@m2.com))

Story of Bernard F. Shields: the first professor of accountancy in the UK

2005-10-11T06:25:00.000-07:00

Abstract

It is commonly believed that the first (full-time) professors of accounting/accountancy in the British Isles were William Baxter at the London School of Economics and Donald Cousins at the University of Birmingham, both of whom were appointed in 1947. However, this paper argues that the distinction of being the first professor of accounting/accountancy belongs to Bernard (Barney) Francis Shields. He was appointed as Professor of Commerce and Accountancy in 1914 at University College, Galway, when Ireland was politically part of the United Kingdom. This paper details the life of the late Professor Bernard Shields.

Keywords: Biography; Bernard F. Shields; accounting history; Ireland.

Introduction

According to Carnegie and Napier (2000)' the literature on accounting history includes contributions that detail the identification of the "first ledger", the "first accountant", the "first accounting textbook" in different countries, and these contributions are an important element in chronicling the diffusion of accounting. In Ireland, a number of relatively recent accounting history studies have tried to cover this dimension of "the first". O'Regan and Murphy (1999) provide an analysis of the first signatories to the Irish Institute's charter in 1888; Clarke (1996a,b) details the content of the first accounting publication to be produced in Ireland, while Craig, O' hO'garthaigh and O' hO'garthaigh (2004) portray the involvement of four Irishmen in the commercial affairs of New South Wales around the turn of the nineteenth century. One aspect that has been neglected in Ireland is that of early teachers and professors of accounting/accountancy. Certainly, this aspect of accounting history has been investigated in Australia (Carnegie & Williams, 2001), England (Craner & Jones, 1995), Scotland (Lee, 1983, and Walker, 1994) and the USA (Zeff, 2000). This overlooked area in Irish accounting history is surprising, given the fact that the first full-time Chair in a UK University with "accounting" or "accountancy" in its title was filled by an Irishman in an Irish university. This distinction, first reported to the academic world at large by Zeff (1997), belongs to Bernard (Barney) F. Shields, who was appointed as Professor of Commerce and Accountancy at University College, Gal way in 1914 at a time when Ireland was part of the United Kingdom. Previously, it was commonly believed that the earliest full-time professors of accounting/accountancy in the United Kingdom were William Baxter at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Donald Cousins at the University of Birmingham, both of whom were appointed in 1947 (Craner & Jones, 1995). The objective of this paper is to highlight the career of Professor Bernard Shields. The first part of this paper briefly discusses the Dublin Commission which led to the creation of the National University of Ireland in 1908. A section on Professor Shields follows.

The Dublin Commission

The Irish Universities Act 1908 established two new universities - Queen's University in Belfast and the National University of Ireland. The National University of Ireland would comprise a newly formed University College, Dublin (formerly Catholic University) together with the Queen's Colleges at Cork and Galway. University College, Dublin would enrol its first students in 1909 (McCartney, 1999). The University of Dublin (or Trinity College as it is also known) was not affected by this legislation.

The most immediate of all influences shaping the new University Colleges was a statutory body of ten persons, known as the Dublin Commission. This body was exclusively charged with the duty of framing statutes for the administration of the university and of its three constituent colleges at Dublin, Cork and Galway, and it alone made all appointments - professorial and administrative - in all institutions. As part of their work the Dublin Commissioners invited representations from interested persons and also visited Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds to "study the provision made in the Universities in those cities for Technological and Commercial Education" (Dublin Commission, 1909, p.3). Charles Oldham, who subsequently became the first Dean of the Faculty of Commerce at University College, Dublin (UCD) argued in favour of a separate commerce degree but he did not support the creation of a separate Chair in accountancy as he considered that "there is nothing of a university nature about accountancy work" (Dublin Commission, 1909, p.69). His advice against the creation of a Chair of Accountancy facilitated the financial viability of the hopelessly under-funded University College, Dublin and the then incoming President of UCD suggested to the Commissioners that the Chairs in Accountancy and Banking and Finance be postponed (Dublin Commission, 1909). However, Faculties of Commerce were established at both University College, Cork and University College, Dublin since the Commissioners were convinced of the utility of these commercial courses of study. However, the lack of funds, together with the existing availability of the teaching of "commercial" subjects in other institutions were important factors in not providing for a Professorship in Accounting/Accountancy in these two universities.

The situation in University College, Galway was different in that the initial Statutes did not provide for a Faculty of Commerce (Dublin Commission, 1911). This omission was attributable to the severe financial situation in which the new university found itself and the desire to maintain its medical school, which had educated a "large number of students for the Army Medical Department" (Minutes of Conference, 1909, p.95). The proposed omission of a Faculty of Commerce for University College, Galway was not mentioned by their delegation. The Commissioners believed that the Statutes for Galway were unsatisfactory, especially in relation to staff salaries, and noted: "To establish in the poorest part of Ireland, a College so under funded and with its professors so underpaid, appears to be so wholly opposed to the principles upon which educational efficiency should rest" (Dublin Commission, 1911, p.7). It will be detailed in a later section how a Chair in Commerce and Accountancy was eventually created in University College Galway in 1914. It was the first Chair in the UK to have "accountancy'V'accounting" in its title and was filled with the appointment of Professor Bernard F. Shields.

Professor Bernard F. Shields

The early years

Bernard Francis Shields was born on 2 April 1884, son of William Shields and Rose Ellen Drake of 112 Upper Dorset Street, Dublin, Ireland. Bernard Shields' birth was reported to the world at large in the (Dublin) Freeman's Journal (dated 4 April 1884) as follows:

Shields - April 2, 1884, at 8, Old Kilmainham the wife of WJ. Shields of a son.

William Shields was a North of Ireland businessman, who was a partner in the firm of O'Loughlin, Shields and Boland of Dorset Street, and his profession was that of a Master Printer. Thorn's Directory locates the firm at 111/112 Upper Dorset St., and describes them as "lithographic and letterpress printers, account book and paper bag manufacturers, paper and twine merchants" (1902, p.1416). Some time around 1905, William Shields retired from the business.

The early part of Professor Shields' education was spent at O'Connell School in North Richmond Street in Dublin, run by the Irish Christian Brothers. Their records indicate that he was a Junior Grade Exhibitioner in 1899, where he obtained Honours in Latin, English, French, commercial French, arithmetic, bookkeeping, Euclid, algebra and shorthand, and passed in commercial English (Intermediate Examinations, 1899). This result confirms the suggestions that he did not study Irish, which was not compulsory at that time, so he learned shorthand during Celtic/Irish class and this study was to be of benefit to him as a commercial teacher in later life (Farragher, notes undated). Also beneficial in later life would be his knowledge of French and commercial French. The Junior Grade Exhibition was valued at ?20 a year each, tenable for three years. Presumably, this prize was used to fund his subsequent study at Blackrock College in South County Dublin where he studied for middle and senior grades as a boarding pupil.

Profits In A Nutshell

2005-10-11T06:19:00.000-07:00

Cooperative efforts are helping growers crack the organic almond market.

VETERAN almond grower Dan Walker didn't seek out a fortune teller when he debated switching to an organic orchard. He said the decision to go organic was easy to make.

Walker may have made the switch because it made dollar sense, but he said he soon learned there was an even greater return. "At first, it was economics, but as time went by, I noticed more organic farming benefits," Walker says, "such as improvement in the ecosystem and that the organic almonds have a much more aromatic and richer flavor."

Many other almond farmers have joined Walker in making the switch to organic crops. According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the state's 2141 acres of organic almonds in 1998 grew to 3597 acres by 2003 - a 68.1% hike. "It's a niche market that continues to grow and expand, especially as more natural tools and materials such as insecticides and fungicides become available," Walker says.

Fellow organic grower Tom Nakashima says that, at this time, typical yields from organic almond orchards are slightly lower than conventional orchards. "It depends on the age and condition of the orchard," Nakashima says. "But I would say roughly with organic, yields are between 1000 and 1800 pounds per acre. With conventional, yields are about between 1200 and 2500 pounds per acre."
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A Cooperative Effort

Walker and Nakashima are members of Turlock, CA-based Big Tree Organic Farms, the second largest supplier of organic almonds in the U.S. Made up mostly of small family-run farms, Big Tree Organic Farms owns and operates its own processing facility for packing, storing, and shipping organic almonds. According to general manager Wendy Larson, the co-op allows its growers to take control of their marketing and work together with other growers. Each grower's almond harvest is tested and graded to exact standards. Detailed records are maintained and audits are conducted. The processing plant is registered by the State of California as an organic producer and is certified organic to USDA and the International Federation of Organic Ag Movements standards.

One practice Nakashima follows is parallel farming. He grows and harvests both conventional and organic almonds. He has 61 acres in conventional almonds and an organic orchard that is 80 acres and growing. Parallel farming allows Nakashima to continue to harvest and earn income from his remaining conventional orchard while newly planted organic trees grow to crop bearing age. "Everything I'm planting now, I'm planting organic," Nakashima says. "As my conventional orchards get old, I plan to replace them with organic ones."

For more information, contact Big Tree Organic Farms at 209-669-3678, or go to www.bigtreeorganic.com.

Smart money: where to spend your marketing dollars when a product isn't selling

2005-10-11T06:17:00.000-07:00

QUESTION: We have a few under-performing products and some that are breaking sales records. Should our marketing efforts focus on selling more of the underperformers or driving more sales to the top products?

ANSWER: I'd focus on the top product line and do some market research on why the under-performing products aren't doing as well. In addition to finding out why customers aren't responding to the under-performing products, try asking them what they like about the top products.

Also remember that some products have shorter life cycles than others. For that reason, it's always good to have new products in the development stage. Your under-performing products maybe nearing the end of their life cycles, in which case, you may want to consider rejuvenating them by adding new features and finding new uses for them. A great resource on product life cycles can be found online at www.quickmba.com/ marketing/product/lifecycle.

It might be wise to use some of the resources from the high-sales product line to create new products that could potentially have a similar payoff. That way, you won't run the risk of overselling your top performers by investing in more marketing when you haven't prepared for the road ahead.

NANCY MICHAELS is president of ImpressionImpact.com, a marketing consulting company. Reach her at nmichaels@impressionimpact.com

Dr. Jennifer Ellis: cardiothoracic surgeon

2005-10-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

Dr. Jennifer Ellis is one of only five African-American female cardiothoracic surgeons in the United States and the 100th woman to pass the exam required to become a certified thoracic surgeon. She is an attending physician at George Washington University Hospital Center, one of the top cardiac hospitals in the nation, and at the Washington Regional Cardiac Surgery Group, both in Washington, D.C. Her surgical expertise ranges from minimally invasive and alternative approaches to valve repair and replacement to adult and pediatric cardiac surgery and therapies. She is also one of a few American heart surgeons to use both Eastern and Western healing practices. She is a Certified Healing Touch Practitioner. Before assuming her current positions, she served as an attending physician with the Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery Associates at Washington Hospital Center. Dr. Ellis began her career at Scripps Clinic at Green Hospital in La Jolla, Calif. She is a member of several boards and organizations, including the American Medical Association, the National Medical Association, and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. She received a medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Yale University. She lives in Washington.

Katrina: disaster notes

2005-10-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

For a peculiar but worthwhile journalistic, well-referenced book on history and politics of disasters, see Ecology of Fear by Mike Davis, 1998. This book excels in outlining the racial, class, and other politics behind recent U.S. disasters and response--which is seldom covered honestly in U.S. mainstream news. Note: Part of the book discusses fictional portrayals of Los Angeles disasters.

On race, this writer remembers a controversy from the 1960s, when a major relief organization gave new clothing to whites and used clothing to blacks; when challenged, it said its mission was to restore people to their previous standard of living before the disaster. It did change its policy.

Today, despite talk about wanting people back, it is likely that the New Orleans poor will be dispersed or moved somewhere else, and the city will be reconstituted without them--which could quickly change one of the poorest major U.S. cities to statistically one of the richest, mainly by death and transportation. All cities want rich people and high prices, and New Orleans has the geographic importance to get them.

The central issue, for the nation and the world, is what is the future of more and more poor and middle-class people in a high-tech global economy that needs fewer and fewer workers, or can more profitably outsource their work to India or China. (While many rich people are equally unneeded by the economy, they are OK for now since they can buy what they require.)
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Re-thinking is needed on designing social systems that work in disasters--for both government programs and everyday actions of citizens. For example, recently I talked with an employee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who said the EPA had teams ready to go to help clean up environmental problems after Katrina, but they never got the official phone call, so they were still sitting idle. Maybe agencies should plan differently--to use overall coordination if it is available, but otherwise take initiative and use their best judgment in following a plan (it should be the same plan everyone else has--not like what happened after Katrina, where some agencies' plans had never been seen by other agencies)--instead of doing nothing except waiting for a call that will not come.

Now we are hearing of people getting no food or other aid as the money in their pockets runs out, while officials prevent them from returning to their homes in New Orleans to get assets and papers there. What should people do outside the disaster area--find ways to send food or money to people they know, expect to be asked, or not wait to be asked? Work through church groups--if they can connect with their members when everyone in a congregation has been evacuated, sometimes a thousand miles or more away, often without knowing where they were going until they were on the plane? Organize politically to make sure that people can get emergency help even if they were not evacuated by a government bus or plane, and therefore may not have papers proving that they are evacuees, but have only the money and supplies they carried with them for what they expected to be at most a few days'? Time will tell how much the new "evacuee status" will help.

We don't know what to suggest, except that people across the country need to ask such questions and make plans for now and for the future. Government should provide coordination in disaster, with a plan that could work and resources as needed. But there must be backup arrangements for doing the best one can when government fails to do its job. Individuals have been extraordinarily generous in this disaster, with Americans giving more to hurricane relief so far than after the tsunami and the September 11, 2001 attacks put together. The issue is how good will can be most effective.

Fundraising: arithmetic can help with perspective. For example, local television recently covered the success of a group that raised $1,000 for hurricane relief through a raffle--a commendable contribution. Also at that time, Congress appropriated over $50 billion for hurricane relief and rebuilding. A little arithmetic shows that the U.S. would have to conduct a million similar raffles this week, another million next week, and million more new raffles every single week for just under a year, to match the Congressional appropriation--suggesting that many fundraising events, while perhaps good at involving people, are not efficient at producing real results toward their official goal. (The historically very generous contributions to the Red Cross and other charitable organizations for Katrina add up to more than $500 million so far, equivalent to over 500,000 similar raffles, but only a little more than 1% of this single Congressional appropriation for Katrina expenses--or equal to the money cost of about half a week's war in Iraq.)

On the opposite extreme from that raffle, occasionally small groups of highly committed people make important changes that can affect the flow of billions of dollars or otherwise have major impact--while involving only a handful of people, with little opportunity for others to join. If a way could be found to involve many people in projects that efficiently use their energy to achieve worthwhile goals, imagine what could be done toward more sensible public priorities, greater prosperity for everyone, and a more livable world.

Misleading "official" statistics: Early news reports after Katrina hit said that two people had died, giving an entirely false impression of the scale of the disaster. People expect early figures to be low, but not by a thousand times. This writer was fooled into thinking that the disaster was less severe than it was, and probably many others were fooled as well. Later, "official" death tolls in the low hundreds were widely reported in a kind of parallel reality, when it was clear that many more had died.

The widespread repetition of worse-than-useless official figures--just because they are safe for reporters to quote, even when obviously wrong--created a false national first impression of what had happened, and may have contributed to federal officials' difficulty in understanding the seriousness of the disaster, in the crucial early hours and days. This critical error may have stemmed from the simple fact that for a death to be recorded as official, various paperwork and other processes must be done. Official death statistics can take months or years to work their way through the system in normal conditions: here the process may have been speeded, but not all rescue workers will have filed their reports during a chaotic emergency. And with whole neighborhoods still under water, especially the poorest areas where many people had no means to evacuate, more bodies will surely be found.

For future disasters, this statistics problem might be eased if media organizations, foundations, financial corporations, interested individuals and/or others would create instant-response teams of experts, whose job would be to produce immediate estimates and statements as events occurred-based on all available information from all sources, and on historical experience. These would include indications of uncertainty--and include minority reports if necessary. The incentive for accuracy would be the experts' reputations, since it would soon be clear to everyone how well they had done. Their time-stamped statements could be widely quoted and reported, in addition to or instead of official figures that clearly had no relationship to reality--providing a far more accurate basis for public first impression, political will, and response. When major disasters were not happening, teams could be improving their methods, or practicing on less important events.

Road Runner

2005-10-10T06:11:00.000-07:00

When everything else works, even middle-of-the-road price satisfaction (for middle-of-the-road pricing) won't deter our readers from giving a service thumbs-up. Road Runner, which excels in every other field, has moved up from an A- last year to a solid A, despite a distinct lack of extras and add-ons.

The service offers only five e-mail addresses, with 5MB per box (the least here) and just 5MB to 10MB of server storage space for a personal Web page, and it lacks pop-up–blocking and parental-control software. Yet good speed, reliability, and service seem to be more than adequate compensation for the shortfalls.

Testing the Road Runner cable service in Tampa, via cable provider Bright House Networks, we experienced quick download speeds and friendly customer support. But the service came with little in the way of networking software, and we were forced to jump through a few hoops before getting it up and running. Based on our readers' more enthusiastic scores for Road Runner, we think our confusing and frustrating installation experience may have been atypical.

When we ordered the service, Bright House sent a technician to do basic installation. He plugged our new modem into a power outlet, split and connected our television cable, and quickly tested the line. We were given the choice of setting up our PC for Internet access on our own, using Bright House's do-it-yourself installation kit, or calling a second, more experienced technician to set it up for us. We opted for the kit, but once the technician departed, we realized he hadn't left it for us.

We drove to a Bright House office to pick up the two-CD kit, but we still couldn't complete the installation. The technician had failed to make sure the modem was activated and forgotten to leave our predefined user name and password. We contacted tech support both by phone and by Web; although the reps were polite and ultimately helpful, they weren't always quick. Once we finally got online, our download speeds were excellent, ranging from 1,859 to 1,972 Kbps.

Software measures profit and performance in real-time

2005-10-07T07:14:00.000-07:00

PlantTriage enables users to develop real-time profit and performance measures from process plant operating data. Integrated Equation Builder makes calculations based on data acquired from anywhere in enterprise. Drawing from library of math functions, calculations range from simplistic to involved, and results are made available by built-in OPC server for archiving or analysis. Assessments can be used to automatically trigger work orders.

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ExperTune's new addition to PlantTriage allows users to develop real-time profit and performance measures from process plant operating data. The new Equation Builder makes calculations on real-time data to generate profit measures from plant data in real time.

The new PlantTriage Equation Builder reads plant data from anywhere in your enterprise via OPC. Your own profit measures such as energy usage and plant throughput are then calculated from the plant data. The calculations can be simple or extremely involved and use a library of math functions. The calculation results are made available by a builtin OPC server for archiving or further analysis, including PlantTriage assessments.

"Energy usage can be continually assessed within PlantTriage," stated John Gerry, CEO and Founder, ExperTune. He continued, "Equation Builder combined with PlantTriage diagnoses poorly performing batch processes."

For example, it is possible to determine energy usage by combining temperature and flow mathematically in Equation Builder. The process engineer can continually assess Energy usage within PlantTriage so that any unusual disturbances are flagged by email.

Another example is asset management. All PlantTriage performance assessments are available via an OPC server. These assessments can be fed into Equation Builder and combined with other plant parameters to automatically trigger work orders when the plant is performing poorly.

About ExperTune:

For 19 years, ExperTune has created award winning optimization software that runs in thousands of plants worldwide. ExperTune's full suite of optimization tools is designed to increase the efficiency of processes. One of ExperTune's products is PlantTriage which is an automatic diagnostic system for the entire plant, ensuring optimal operation. The company's analysis tools include simulation, modeling, robustness, linearization, valve wear analysis, pH linearizer, time series analysis, multivariable, statistical, frequency response, and PID tuning tools. ExperTune is a member of the OPC Foundation.

ExperTune Inc.

Lake Country Research Center

Hartland, WI 53029-8305

Voice: (262) 369-7711

Change of space: with a little help from the experts, this business owner stepped up to the challenge of overhauling his company's shoddy office-space

2005-10-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

It's 9:30 a.m., and you need another cup of coffee. On your way to the break room, you stumble over computer cables and weave around employees who are conversing in the hallways. Fifteen minutes have passed by the time you get back to your office. By midafternoon, you have a headache and one heck of a backache. For most of us, it's all in a day's work.

When it comes down to it, the modern office setup is a pain. Today's office environments aren't keeping up with the nature of work today, where employees go from working solo to working on collaborative projects. "The idea that we can define one space for an individual that will accommodate all those different types of work is somewhat flawed," says John Michael, president and COO of Ivan Allen Workspace LLC, an Atlanta furniture and design firm that works with Companies large and small. "We need a range of settings for people."

In a 2001 study, the American Society of Interior Designers found that 57 percent of the 382 office employees it surveyed were dissatisfied with the layout of their offices, saying it negatively impacts communication, access, comfort and efficiency. The layout of an office should aid employees instead of hindering them, says Rita Carson Guest, founder of Atlanta-based interior design firm Carson Guest Inc.: "People spend so much time at work, you want to make them as comfortable as possible."

SEEING THE LIGHT

Mark Metz is co-founder and CEO of Optimus Solutions LLC, a 6-year-old technology solutions provider in Norcross, Georgia, with nearly zoo employees. The company has grown to occupy two buildings totaling 27,000 square feet. Now for the twist: The two buildings are located a quarter-mile apart in a suburban Atlanta office park. The five minute walk between buildings has become a drag on productivity. "Our current space is not laid out well for our business," says Metz, 41. "It's certainly not easy to knock on somebody's office or step into their cubicle." Other aspects of the company's current office setup bug him, too. There isn't enough natural light. The guest reception area isn't very welcoming. Managers' offices are too far away from employees, tucked away against the wall.

Recently, Metz decided to sink $x million into a three-month project that will bring all the company's employees together under the same roof in a nearby 40,000 square-foot building. The goal is to have a space where employees are more happy and productive, Metz says.

The new building will have wraparound windows so every employee gets natural light and a beautiful view of the woods outside. And instead of traditional fluorescent ceiling fixtures, employees will find ambient lighting, where light is bounced up against the ceiling and back down around the workstation, reducing glare and reflections on computer screens and making it easier to work longer without eyestrain and headaches. With ambient lighting, "you never see directly into any light source. They're all being bounced to you," says Frank Farrington, principal of the Atlanta-based Farrington Design Group, which was brought in as part of Optimus Solution's design-build team. "It's soft and comfortable."

Managers' offices will be in the middle of the office, surrounded by employee workstations. Everyone will be just feet away from each other--an important design element to Metz. "Our company is very much a teamwork type of environment where salespeople, consultants and technical people need to work together to handle a customer's problem," he says. "We want to help facilitate that. Having a face-to-face conversation is much more valuable."

New workstations will be installed to increase teamwork and communication. Smaller, efficient workstations and ergonomic chairs provided by Ivan Allen Workspace will create more efficient use of space and storage. Cubicle walls in the new office will be reduced to a maximum height of 54 inches, tall enough to offer a bit of privacy and cut down on peripheral distractions, but short enough that workers don't feel isolated. Lowering the cubicle height will also improve air circulation. Cubicles will be arranged in "neighborhoods" of six workstations. Says Farrington, "The goal is that they'll be operating much more efficiently."

MAKING AN IMPRESSION

Metz wants a design that's more open, flexible and user-friendly. Small lounges where employees can stop for a chat will run the course of the building. Understated tones--creams, taupes, light greens and golds--will provide a calming backdrop. "We'll allow the [employees] to provide the color and the action in the space," Farrington says. Other innovative elements include carpet laid in small squares, so torn or stained pieces can be replaced easily, and wireless networking that will cut the number of cables running along the floor.

Metz is excited about the plan for a bigger reception area With plasma-TV displays and miniworkstations so visitors can work while they wait. Conference rooms will be located near the reception area for vendor and client meetings. Having the conference rooms near the reception area means visitors won't have to walk through the middle of the office, disturbing busy employees. "We'd like to have an area that customers and vendors are more impressed with because the office looks better," Metz says. "And it's more efficient."

In the end, Metz hopes the new space will lead to better communication and teamwork, and provide a boost to recruiting and retention. "I think it's going to be great," he says. "It's going to foster more teamwork. Our employees are going to be happier, because it's going to be an area where they can get their job done [more easily]."

RELATED ARTICLE: Update: looking good!

Optimus Solutions LLC, an IT solutions provider in Norcross, Georgia, moved into its new digs at the end of January. "We're very happy with the outcome," says CEO Mark Metz. "We feel we accomplished our goals with the redesign."

His favorite elements are the open floor plan and the ambient lighting. "There's not a cubicle in the building where you can't stand up and see a panoramic view through the windows," he says. "And all the [ambient] lighting will be easier on the eyes." The final design also allows the office to be reconfigured for everything from training to additional cubicles or whatever else the company has in mind. "This adds tons of flexibility for us," Metz says. "There's room to grow."

But trading spaces didn't happen without a few headaches. Metz learned that having too many minds involved in the decision-making process was a quick ticket to a quagmire. Optimus eventually designated the company's IT director to be the point person for the project, and things finally got moving. "Put one person in charge," Metz advises.

Another temptation for entrepreneurs is to create their own version of Trump Tower. Aim for functionality over flair so you get efficiency out of the space for years to come, says Metz, who bought used $200 desks that he found at a corporate liquidation sale for his company's managers, including himself. "[Some desks] still had tags on them. They hadn't been used," he says. "I got them for a fraction of the cost."

It's still too early to measure the impact on productivity, but the vibe around the office is, well, optimal. "Everyone has been thrilled. Morale is way up," Metz says. "Hopefully, [employees] win be happier and mote productive."--C.P.

SERVER THEM RIGHT

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR TECHNOLOGY CAN'T KEEP UP WITH THE REST OF YOUR COMPANY? TREAT IT TO SOME NEW SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE, OF COURSE.

Like many growing businesses, The Innis Company (www.inniscompany.com), a career transition and management company in Dallas, doesn't have an on-site IT person. And its technology is acting up like a 2-year-old.

CEO and founder Karyl Innis decided to do something about it. If some of The Innis Company's technology woes sound all too familiar to you, it's probably because these problems are common for entrepreneurs everywhere. Before turning to our tech experts for answers, here's some background information about The Innis Company: The firm was founded in 1994 and has since expanded to include several lines of businesses and offices in Dallas, Houston and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Sixteen fulltime employees and about 30 workstation computers fill out the lineup.

Besides the employees, The Innis Company's career transition clients have access to some of the business's computers. "Our business has gotten more complex," explains Innis. "That's what my problem is. All of a sudden the technology ends up looking like a patchwork quilt, and I don't want to have an on-site tech person."

Refinancing fumbles: as more homeowners take advantage of low interest rates, overworked banks and mortgage brokers are making errors

2005-09-22T06:27:00.000-07:00

Never mind baseball--with interest rates at near-record lows, refinancing has become the national pastime. In 2002, roughly $2.24 trillion worth of home mortgages were financed, and nearly 60 percent of those mortgages were refinancings, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. Homeowners are so giddy about the savings they anticipate from a lower interest rate that some forget to check over the final paperwork, possibly missing out on potential savings if an error has been made in determining final costs.

And mistakes do happen. So many people in the past couple of years have applied for either a home loan or a refinancing, that lenders have barely been able to keep pace with the demand.

"It's completely overwhelming all aspects of the closing process," says Jonathan Levy, vice president of Professionals Title & Escrow Company in Rockville, Maryland. A 1996 study of 2,031 banks by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. found that three-fourths of the banks surveyed had violated some aspect of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, which requires lenders to fully disclose their fees. And that study was done before the current tidal wave of applications hit.

It's gotten so hectic that Levy knows a woman, one example among many, who was recently told by her lender that it would take 90 days for her to close on a refinancing of her mortgage, rather than the typical 30 days in less chaotic times.

Continue article

To help deal with the workload, mortgage banking and brokerage companies added 44,000 jobs in the first nine months of 2002 alone. But many of these new hires are either inexperienced or are temporary employees with no banking background. Errors are bound to occur; promises are apt to be forgotten. Don't expect banks to catch these glitches. But you can. Here's how.

RESEARCH YOUR CREDIT Errors on your credit report can affect the interest rate you receive. Each of the major credit bureaus can provide you with your own report for a fee, or Web services such as www.freecreditreport.com will let you order a free report as part of a trial membership to their credit monitoring service. Check the report carefully. If you spot an error, you'll need to contact the major credit bureaus to correct it (Web sites that give you access to your report can also guide you through this process). At the same time, you'll have to let your lender know about the error, avoiding the chance it might affect the rate you've been quoted.

CHECK YOUR APR. The annual percentage rate (APR) is what you will pay on your loan every year once certain fees are factored in. Always check it to see if it is significantly higher than the good-faith estimate you should have received when you agreed to the loan. Be prepared to ask for an explanation of any change.

QUESTION FEES. Scan your paperwork for any charges listed as "underwriting," "document preparation," or "administrative fees." Mortgage experts say such charges are often negotiable because their main purpose is to help lenders cover their costs on the loan. "If you ask enough questions, you may be able to find which fees can be used as bargaining chips," says Holden Lewis, financial reporter and spokesman for Bankrate.com, a Web site devoted to helping consumers make informed financial decisions. At the same time, realize that many fees, such as those for obtaining your credit report and a home appraisal, are a reasonable cost of doing business.

KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR ESCROW PAYMENT. Escrow is money your bank holds to pay for a year's worth of taxes and other fees (such as insurance). Make sure you know when your property taxes are due so that the lender doesn't collect too much or not enough money from you to cover tax payments, Levy advises. Some lenders don't require an escrow. That means you're responsible for having the money ready when taxes are due, but you can collect any interest if the money is kept in a savings account. If you have self-discipline, it's worth considering.

USE YOUR GRACE PERIOD. Whenever the topic of mortgage math errors come up, consumer advocates have always recommended comparing your good-faith estimate of closing costs with the actual one that showed up in your HUD-l, an accounting of your final closing costs. That document, by law, is supposed to be delivered to you 24 hours before closing.

"The problem is, lenders are so deluged with applications, they are quite literally giving us loan documents the day of closing," Levy says. That's not enough time to study the costs. But don't fret. After signing the papers, by law you have three business days in which you may cancel the deal. So if the numbers don't match and you feel you've been rushed into a financial arrangement other than what was promised, you can always walk away.

MORTGAGE MODIFIERS

If the lender who provided money for the initial purchase of your home still holds the mortgage, ask if the company will modify rather than refinance your loan, suggests Holden Lewis, a financial expert with Bankrate.com. If you can negotiate a modification rather than a refinancing, you'll save money because you won't be creating a new loan with all the fees that accompany it. By modifying the existing loan, the lender gives you a reduced interest rate, same as if you were refinancing. But the time to pay off remains the same as what you had with the original loan. So if you bought your home three years ago with a 30-year fixed mortgage, you'll still have 27 more years of payments. With a refinancing, the pay-off time rolls back to 30 years again.

If your original lender still holds the mortgage on your home but has a policy against loan modifications, ask about a streamlined refinance loan that may eliminate the appraisal, or ask for a break on some of the fees. Lenders may be amenable to this because they have done business with you before, and don't want to lose you to a competitor.

Shopping for a mortgage

2005-09-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

You'll probably spend weeks or even months selecting the home of your dreams. Choosing a lender to finance it will take less time but should be handled just as carefully. There is a difference between mortgage brokers and lending institutions, explains Stacey D. Stewart, president and CEO of the Fannie Mae Foundation. "A broker acts as a bridge between the consumer and a mortgage lender and may offer products for a variety of lenders. A mortgage lender is a financial institution that provides credit directly to the consumer." A broker often charges an up-front fee for services. So if you use one, ask about the fee structure.

If you're buying a home or refinancing, keep these tips in mind as you shop for a mortgage lender:

* Learn about the various types of mortgages available--such as 30-year or 15-year fixed rate, adjustable rate mortgage (ARM), balloon--so that as you discuss options, you'll be more likely to accept the best deal.

* Get interest-rate quotes from at least three lending institutions or brokers before settling on one. Get referrals from your realtor, friends and family members who have recently purchased homes, or check the Yellow Pages, newspapers or Internet search engines.

* Request an itemization of closing costs from each lender before submitting an application. Inquire about charges on one lender's list that are not on others; this may prevent undisclosed fees from surprising you at settlement.

* Select a lender who is willing to answer your questions and help you navigate the mortgage terrain. Expect the officer to ask questions. Your replies can give her important cues about the best mortgage program to suggest.

* Protect yourself from predatory lending practices, which include steering customers toward higher interest rates, assessing unnecessary fees or adding points without reducing the interest rate. If you suspect you're a target, Stewart suggests asking an official at a nonprofit housing agency or legal-aid organization to review the proposed offer free of charge and advise you if it's sound.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma: the puzzling role of gene-environment interaction

2005-09-22T06:16:00.000-07:00

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a relatively uncommon and yet incurable tumor that is aggressive and highly lethal. After the occurrence of mesothelioma was first reported in 1960 in workers exposed to blue asbestos crocidolite, a huge, number of experimental and epidemiologic studies has proved causality between asbestos mineral fibers and mesothelioma, whereas relatively few efforts have been made to understand the mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of and the susceptibility to this tumor. Yet, in the last 2 decades geographic clusters of mesothelioma have been reported in populations with nonprofessional environmental exposure to asbestos, and other mineral fibers including zeolite and fluoro-edenite, a new amphibole end-member, which is chemically different from known asbestos types.

According to current knowledge, mesothelioma derives from multipotent mesothelial stem cells, which differentiate into malignant epithelial or mesenchymal elements. However, the mechanisms determining this differentiation as well as the local invasiveness of mesothelioma, despite extensive investigation, still remain poorly understood. Mesotheliomas with a predominantly epithelial growth pattern have a better prognosis than the sarcomatoid mesothelioma and the mixed or biphasic types, consisting of both epithelial and sarcomatous foci. Thus, the phenotype appears to be highly important for the biological behavior of the tumor, but little is known about the mechanisms and genetic determinants of different phenotypes. The mesothelioma occurs in selected individuals among population groups with known exposure to asbestos, either in the workplace or in the Community. Interestingly, the evidence of a background incidence of this tumor, along with the description of familial clustering, suggest that the occurrence of asbestos-induced mesothelioma in some individuals, but not in others, may not be a matter of chance and points to the existence of genetic predisposition. Furthermore, although malignant mesothelioma has received much attention, benign pleural diseases, including pleural plaques, pleural effusion, diffuse pleural thickening, and rounded atelectasis, induced by asbestos and nonasbestos fibers, are also common in clinical practice and often produce difficulties in the differential diagnosis. Hence, an understanding of the genetic profiling of malignant mesothelioma and other asbestos-induced pleural diseases is of pivotal importance and can be viewed from the perspective of how normal mesothelial cells respond to injury, how they transform into malignant cells, and how they proliferate so aggressively.

In this issue of CHEST (see page 1843), Hoang and coworkers explore the expression of matriptase, at trypsin-like protease, in freshly dissected human malignant mesothelioma and cultured mesothelioma cell lines, and find a mean 826-fold overexpression of this enzyme in mesothelioma epithelial cells. Matriptase messenger RNA, which has been detected in tissues rich in epithelial cells, and cancerous breast, ovarian, and colon tissues, but not in cancers of a mesenchymal origin, has been characterized as an extracellular matrix-degrading protease system that may function as an epithelial membrane activator for other proteases and latent growth factors involved in cancer cell growth, invasion, and metastasis. In addition, the article by Hoang and associates describes the up-regulation of insulin-like growth factor (IGF) exon I. According to previous studies, IGF-I acts as an autocrine growth factor stimulus in normal mesothelial and mesothelioma cells, and the production of IGF-I is not only implicated in regulating the carcinogenic process and the growth rate of simian virus 40-induced mesotheliomas, but can also be targeted for carcino-genesis inhibition. Yet IGF-I has been shown to be able to induce the differentiation of mesothelioma cells toward a fibroblast-like morphology. Interestingly, Hoang and coworkers also found an underexpression of IGF binding protein 5, a family of transmembrane ligands whose controversial functional role may be cell type-specific; they speculated that the underexpression of IGF binding protein 5 could act as an inhibitor of IGF-I expression, thus contributing to uncontrolled cell proliferation via an IGF-mediated autocrine growth loop. Taken together, these results represent an interesting advance in that they could explain why mesothelioma is a predominantly local or regional disease, although it grows aggressively, and rapidly invades the pleural spaces and surrounding organs. Yet these results implicate multiple cell-signaling cascades in the process of mesothelial cell proliferation and suggest that a focus on blocking common downstream events or points of convergence of these pathways might be important for the treatment of mesothelioma. A central question remains, however, whether matriptase up-regulation and other gene expression identified in mesothelioma play only direct causative role in mesothelial cell transformation.

Recently, microarray technology has been successfully applied in a number of studies to identify specific gene expression changes in mesothelioma compared with normal mesothelial cells. These studies have identified the expression of a variety of genes that could explain many of the biological characteristics exhibited by mesotheliomas.

Abnormal karyotypes are common in mesothelioma cell lines, and abnormalities in chromosome 6 have been frequently described. The present evidence suggests that chromosome arm 6q harbors at least three tumor suppressor genes involved in the pathogenesis of mesothelioma. (20) By doing simple segregation analysis of the occurrence of mesothelioma among nuclear families (parents and children) in Cappadocia, Turkey, an autosomal-dominant pattern of inheritance was postulated. More recently, by using gene expression-profiling data that had been previously collected from 17 mesothelioma patients with different overall survival times, Gordon and colleagues have been able to define two outcome-related groups of patients and to evaluate an expression ratio-based outcome predictor model. This approach could allow the preoperative identification of" patients with widely divergent prognoses and could enhance the allocation of therapeutic resources.

Although experimental and circumstantial evidence clearly indicate that a number of genes may influence the malignant transformation of human mesothelial cells and the biological behavior of mesothelioma, we know relatively little about the way genes expressed by mesothelioma cells interact with each other or how this interaction is influenced by environmental risk factors. Similarly to other complex disorders, malignant pleural mesothelioma does not follow a clear Mendelian mode of inheritance, and it is likely to involve several low-penetrance genes, each with only' weak-to-moderate effects. Thus, identification of these genes has proven difficult so far. Two main approaches to identify, disease genes in complex disorders are the positional candidate and the functional candidate gene approach. The first approach is based on the choice of candidate genes according to their chromosomal position, whereas the other approach is to choose candidates based on a gene's function mad how that gene might fit into disease pathophysiology. Both of these approaches have limitations, but, most often, investigators rely on the retrospective case-control study design, which appears to be powerful enough to study the relationship between genetic susceptibility and environmental risk factors, to determine whether a candidate gene is associated with a disease.

How much life insurance do you need?

2005-09-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

Few ministers are independently wealthy. But ministers who have dependents still need life insurance. The difficult question is how much?

Before the Internet, consumers had to rely on agents to determine insurance needs and quote prices from several companies - and then had to pay hefty commissions of 50% to 140% of the first year's policy premium.

Now consumers can buy insurance commission-free by phone or even online. But those who have special considerations, such as chronic health problems or complex financial needs, are still better off using an agent.

How much is enough? It can take several hours to gather the financial information needed for these calculations. Calculate insurance needs for each spouse - assuming loss of each spouse's income and benefits/services to the household.

* Add up present and future debts and expenses, such as mortgages, car payments, and costs of children's college tuitions and weddings up to retirement. Don't forget less obvious costs such as possible future loss of income.

* Sum up invested assets - savings, including 403(b)s, other investments, and future social security.

* Subtract assets from long- and shortterm debts to arrive at how much insurance you will need. Plug the required figures into one of the online calculators at www.insweb.com or www.insurance.com to determine how much insurance you should buy.

The medical exam. Once you've chosen a policy, the insurer will require a 10to 30-minute physical exam and typically reply to you in four to six weeks.

If you're in good health, you will probably pay the same premium rate you had been quoted online or by an agent. If you have had certain diseases or chronic conditions - such as cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, history of heart attacks or severe depression - ask an agent to help you find an insurance that is willing to accept you.

Types of insurance

* Term insurance is structured to provide up to 20 years of coverage for financial needs that will end at a foreseeable point, such as mortgage payments and childrens' future college tuition costs. The typical minister needs between $100,000 and $1 million of term insurance.

* Permanent insurance. These policies last at least 20 years and insure longterm needs - future estate taxes, costs of caring for a disabled child, etc. There are three main types of permanent insurance:

* Whole life. You pay a fixed, lifelong premium. Money placed in the side fund pays a fixed dividend.

* Universal life. The most popular form of permanent insurance, it offers high flexibility with moderate risk. Side finds are invested in long-term bonds. If interest rates remain stable or rise, the bond returns can off-set the policy cost, making it less expensive than whole life. If rates drop significandy, the premium will rise.

* Variable universal life. This type of policy has the highest risk and the greatest possible gain. Its side fund is invested in mutual fund-like accounts offered by the insurer, so the premium is flexible. It will fall if the funds do well - and rise if they don't. Investors need to choose and monitor their own funds. Unlike most variable annuities, variable life insurance has a death benefit that exceeds its cash value.

Important features

Guaranteed renewability. Offered with all term and permanent policies, this feature allows for renewals at a guaranteed premium without a physical exam.

Convertibility. This is the option to convert a term policy to a permanent life policy up to a specified age without another medical exam. This is important to have in case you become ill later on.

* Waiver of premium. This feature is available with term and permanent life insurance. The fee for this option can be substantial. But it lets you keep your life insurance without paying a premium if you became disabled. Insurance Option. An insurance option lets you increase your coverage at a guaranteed premium without a medical exam.

* No-load insurance. Buyers incur no surrender charges if they cash out of this type of policy within the first few years. Buyers of fully loaded products pay high surrender charges if they cash out during the first 15 to 20 years. (The phrase no-load insurance applies to permanent insurance. Term insurance has no cash value and thus no surrender charges.)

SHREWD INSURANCE SHOPPING

* Great-West Life. 800-435-4000, www.schwab.com.

* John Hancock Life. 888-742-622, www.johnhancock.com.

* Paragon Life. 800-685-0124, www.paragonlife.com.

* Zurich Kemper Life. 800-983-3279, www.zurichdirect.com.

www.reliaquote.com and wwwinsure.com provide free price quotes on insurance from hundreds of companies, including low-loan insurance products, which cost 10% to 25% less than agent-sold policies.

Tax Benefits from LIFE INSURANCE

Life insurance confers several major tax benefits:

* Tax-deferred investment accumulation. Permanent life policies (whole life, universal life, variable life) include an investment account - the policy's cash value. Investment income isn't taxed inside these policies.

* Tax-free withdrawals and loans. Again, this benefit applies to permanent life insurance. However, modified endowment contracts (policies bought with a single premium or a few premiums) don't qualify

* Income-tax-free death benefit. Term as well as permanent life insurance usually qualifies for this break.

Home-equity loan vs. line of credit

2005-09-19T06:49:00.000-07:00

Often there is confusion about the (differences between a home-equity loan and line of credit. Payment on both instruments qualify for the housing allowance exclusion only if the proceeds are used for housing expenses, e.g., room addition, new roof, etc.

A home-equity loan is actually a second mortgage. Like a first mortgage, it is for a fixed sum, loaned for a fixed period of time. It has a higher rate of interest than a line of credit, but because rates are usually fixed, you know exactly what your monthly payments will be for the life of your loan. This is to your advantage, especially if you lock in a low rate.

A home-equity line of credit is like a credit card. You get preapproval for a certain dollar limit for a certain number of years. You can then tap into your line of credit when you need cash. Most lines of credit have variable interest rates, so your monthly payments will vary.

Banks limit how much they will lend you, often 75% of the value of the house minus the balance due on the existing mortgage. Your other debts, income, and credit history also play a role.

For calculators to help you determine which type of loan is better - as well as how much interest you'll pay - visit www.interest.com.