Claudia Schiffer has converted a helicopter hangar into a closet.

The supermodel, 38, is keen to hold onto all the designer clobber that’s made her famous.

She was inspired to create the enormous wardrobe when her husband Matthew Vaughn asked her to have a clear-out at their Suffolk mansion.

‘I’ve kept all my clothes. I have a hangar that is normally made for helicopters and I’ve got all my clothes in there,’ Claudia tells Vogue magazine.

‘The heli-hangar was Matthew’s idea. I have so many closets of Chanel in there, it’s like a Chanel boutique.’

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The U.S. military in the past would give a soldier an electronic handheld device, made at great expense specially for the battlefield, with the latest software. But translation is only one of many software applications soldiers now need. The future of "networked warfare" requires each soldier to be linked electronically to other troops as well as to weapons systems and intelligence sources. Making sense of the reams of data from satellites, drones and ground sensors cries out for a handheld device that is both versatile and easy to use. With their intuitive interfaces, Apple devices—the iPod Touch and, to a lesser extent, the iPhone—are becoming the handhelds of choice.

Using a commercial product for such a crucial military role is a break from the past. Compared with devices built to military specifications, iPods are cheap. Apple, after all, has already done the research and manufacturing without taxpayer money. The iPod Touch retails for under $230, whereas a device made specifically for the military can cost far more. (The iPhone offers more functionality than the iPod Touch, but at $600 or $700 each, is much more expensive.) Typically sheathed in protective casing, iPods have proved rugged enough for military life. And according to an Army official in Baghdad, the devices have yet to be successfully hacked. (The Pentagon won’t say how many Apple devices are deployed, and Apple Computer declined to be interviewed for this article.)

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New research suggests that if consumers want to avoid making impulse purchases, they should refrain from handling goods while shopping, because merely touching an object increases feelings of ownership.

The research, published this week in the Journal of Consumer Research, also found that touching an object, if the experience is pleasant or even neutral, increases how much money consumers would be willing to pay.

Joann Peck, an assistant marketing professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, said in an interview that the research has implications for consumers, retailers and advertisers.

"Be very careful when you are shopping: if you don’t want to buy, don’t touch," she said.

"Touch increases your feelings of ownership and it also increases the amount you are willing to pay. I would caution people not to touch when shopping."

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Just stumbled on this nice minimalist flash drive from Lacie, that looks pretty much like a real key!

Are there any other smaller, simpler usb keychains out there that you recommend?

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Last month, 25-year-old Heather Storey was driving to work through Surrey, British Columbia, as she did most days, with her laptop computer perched on the backseat of her car. When her car was suddenly hit by a towtruck, that innocent laptop turned to a deadly projectile.

Yesterday morning, according to the CBC News, Sergeant Roger Morrow of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told the press, "’What we believe happened [was] that she was struck in the back of her head and neck with this laptop computer. She simply didn’t have it secured within the confines of her car, and ultimately it has been the instrument of her death.’"

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Canadians are ditching their landline phones at a rate that will escalate over the next few years, according to a Toronto-based market research company.

A report released Monday by the Convergence Consulting Group, which specializes in cable and internet companies, suggests that domestic wireless subscribers will abandon their landline telephone subscriptions at a rate of nine per cent each year in 2010 and 2011.

That compares with a line-loss rate of seven per cent last year, and predictions of a 7.5 per cent rate this year.

The report also says that 45 per cent of subscribers who cancel residential phone subscriptions with telecom companies in 2011 will do so because they’re using wireless phones instead. That’s up from a current rate of 20 per cent, it said.

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Dealers in refurbished computer and networking gear are seeing business increase as solution providers and end users go bargain hunting for "slightly used" and "new to you" equipment.

Albert Einstein once said, “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.”

In the middle of this difficult economy, the opportunities are less apparent for some solution providers. Others, however, see an opportunity in a dearth of new IT equipment purchase by corporations downsizing, closing offices and merging with other companies.

Solution providers who specialize in refurbished equipment are seeing signs of real growth in 2009, thanks to an abundance of nearly new IT equipment entering the product stream coupled with slashed IT budgets.

Source

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Office workers are like electricity: When they want to get something done, they follow the path of least resistance.

Which is why, say researchers at MIT, the Post-it note continues to flourish on every surface of the contemporary office, despite all those expensive computers ready and willing to help.

David Karger helps lead a group at MIT exploring the way people work with computers. A recent paper from his team chronicled the attraction of "information scraps" like Post-Its, which, says Karger, are actually near-perfect data base tools. They’re accessible and easy to use, and they take advantage of the brain’s facility to remember an object’s location in the three-dimensional world.

Source

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According to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, the number of reported laptop thefts increased almost 48 per cent over the last two years, from 73,700 to almost 109,000. The number of reported phone robberies jumped 33 per cent over the same period, from 60,100 to nearly 80,300. In the past three years, theft of Apple iPods and other digital music players surged 91 per cent from 8,900 to more than 17,000. The data include all reported incidents from pick-pocketing to commercial heists.

It’s so bad that a 2007 study showed iPod robberies bumped up overall crime rates in some major U.S. cities. According to a study by policy group the Urban Institute, felonies increased 18.3 per cent in New York subways in 2005 — but minus iPod thefts, the amount of subway crime would have actually decreased by 3 per cent for the year. The same study said that stolen iPods accounted for 4 per cent of all robberies in Washington, D.C., in 2007.

Source

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Credit card companies are in a precarious position in 2009 as some consumers start to batten down the hatches and reduce their spending, while other face potential bankruptcy.

That could mean some noticeable changes with Visa, MasterCard and American Express, from higher interest rates to a more aggressive chase against unpaid debts.

"There’s definitely going to be more tightening," said Michael Kon, an analyst at Morningstar in Chicago who has been watching the industry respond to a widening set of troubles south of the border.

He said mounting job losses and an increasingly dismal U.S. economy have left U.S. banks wary about handing out credit readily to consumers.

Source

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