Come join us as we celebrate 14 years of business and loyal customer service!

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Love, Peace and Soul

SANCTUARY
1400 S Michigan Ave, Chicago

The desire of the Timeout brand is to inspire our clientele to live a lifestyle that exceeds the boundaries that others have erected around them and dare to walk their own path and create their own. At Timeout, the life and style of our clients is our paramount concern. Our mission is not only to groom our clients’ bodies, but also enrich their spirits and elevate their minds. Timeout At Shannon’s is the grooming lounge where an innovative lifestyle can be both experienced and acquired.

Post your comments and share your stories of what Don Cornelius and “Soul Train” meant to you.

CLUE 1:
“Went to Short Dog’s house/they was watching ‘Yo! MTV Raps’.”

“Yo! MTV Raps” first aired: August 6, 1988

CLUE 2:
Ice Cubes single “Today Was A Good Day” released on: February 23, 1993

CLUE 3:
“The Lakers beat the Super Sonics”

Dates between “Yo! MTV Raps” air date AUGUST 6, 1988 and the release of the single FEBRUARY 23, 1993 where the Lakers beat the Super Sonics:

Nov 11 1988 114-103
Nov 30 1988 110-106
Apr 4 1989 115-97
Apr 23 1989 121-117
Jan 17 1990 100-90
Feb 28 1990 112-107
Mar 25 1990 116-94
Apr 17 1990 102-101
Jan 18 1991 105-96
Mar 24 1991 113-96
Apr 21 1991 103-100
Jan 20 1992 116-110

CLUE 4:
Dates of those Laker wins over SuperSonics where it was a clear day with no smog:

Nov 30 1988
Apr 4 1989
Jan 18 1991
Jan 20 1992

CLUE 5:
“I got a beep from Kim, and she can f*** all night.”

Beepers weren’t adopted by mobile phone companies until the 1990s. Dates left where mobile beepers were availible to public:

Jan 18 1991
Jan 20 1992

CLUE 6:
Ice Cube starred in the film Boyz In The Hood that released late Summer of 1991, but was being filmed mid-late 1990 early 1991 and Ice Cube was busy on set filming the movie Jan 18 1991 too busy to be lounging around the streets with no plans.

The ONLY day where:
“Yo! MTV Raps” was on air
It was a clear and smogless day
Beepers were commercially sold
Lakers beat the SuperSonics
and Ice Cube had no events to attend was…

JANUARY 20 1992
National Good Day Day

Courtesy, Donovan Strain

Although Apple’s popular iPad tablet has been able to replace laptops for many tasks, it isn’t a big hit with folks who’d like to use it to create or edit long Microsoft Office documents.

While Microsoft has released a number of apps for the iPad, it hasn’t yet released an iPad version of Office. There are a number of valuable apps that can create or edit Office documents, such as Quickoffice Pro, Documents To Go and the iPad version of Apple’s own iWork suite. But their fidelity with Office documents created on a Windows PC or a Mac isn’t perfect.

This week, OnLive Inc., in Palo Alto, Calif., is releasing an app that brings the full, genuine Windows versions of the key Office productivity apps—Word, Excel and PowerPoint—to the iPad. And it’s free. These are the real programs. They look and work just like they do on a real Windows PC. They let you create or edit genuine Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations.

I’ve been testing a pre-release version of this new app, called OnLive Desktop, which the company says will be available in the next few days in Apple’s app store. More information is at desktop.onlive.com.

My verdict is that it works, but with some caveats, limitations and rough edges. Some of these downsides are inherent in the product, while others have to do with the mismatch between the iPad’s touch interface and the fact that Office for Windows was primarily designed for a physical keyboard and mouse.

Creating or editing long documents on a tablet with a virtual on-screen keyboard is a chore, no matter what Office-type app you choose. So, although it isn’t a requirement, I strongly recommend that users of OnLive Desktop employ one of the many add-on wireless keyboards for the iPad.

OnLive Desktop is a cloud-based app. That means it doesn’t actually install Office on your iPad. It acts as a gateway to a remote server where Windows 7, and the three Office apps, are actually running. You create an account, sign in, and Windows pops up on your iPad, with icons allowing you to launch Word, Excel or PowerPoint. (There are also a few other, minor Windows programs included, like Notepad, Calculator and Paint.)

In my tests, the Office apps launched and worked smoothly and quickly, without any noticeable lag, despite the fact that they were operating remotely. Although this worked better for me on my fast home Internet connection, it also worked pretty well on a much slower hotel connection.

Like Office itself, the documents you create or modify don’t live on the iPad. Instead, they go to a cloud-based repository, a sort of virtual hard disk. When you sign into OnLive Desktop, you see your documents in the standard Windows documents folder, which is actually on the remote server. The company says that this document storage won’t be available until a few days after the app becomes available.

To get files into and out of OnLive Desktop, you log in to a Web site on your PC or Mac, where you see all the documents you’ve saved to your cloud repository. You can use this Web site to upload and download files to your OnLive Desktop account. Any changes made will be automatically synced, the company says, though I wasn’t able to test that capability in my pre-release version.

Because it’s a cloud-based service, OnLive Desktop won’t work offline, such as in planes without Wi-Fi. And it can be finicky about network speeds. It requires a wireless network with at least 1 megabit per second of download speed, and works best with at least 1.5 to 2.0 megabits. Many hotels have trouble delivering those speeds, and, in my tests, the app refused to start in a hotel twice, claiming insufficient network speed when the hotel Wi-Fi was overloaded.

The free version of the app has some other limitations. You get just 2 gigabytes of file storage, there’s no Web browser or email program like Outlook included, and you can’t install additional software. If many users are trying to log onto the OnLive Desktop servers at once, you may have to wait your turn to use Office.

In the coming weeks, the company plans to launch a Pro version, which will cost $10 a month. It will offer 50 GB of cloud document storage, “priority” access to the servers, a Web browser, and the ability to install some added programs. It will also allow you to collaborate on documents with other users, or even to chat with, and present material to, groups of other OnLive Desktop users.

The company also plans to offer OnLive Desktop on Android tablets, PCs and Macs, and iPhones.

In my tests, I was able to create documents on an iPad in each of the three cloud-based Office programs. I was able to download them to a computer, and alter them on both the iPad and computer. I was also able to upload files from the computer for use in OnLive Desktop.

OnLive Desktop can’t use the iPad’s built-in virtual keyboard, but it can use the virtual keyboard built into Windows 7 and Windows’ limited touch features and handwriting recognition. As noted above, I recommend using a wireless physical keyboard. But even these aren’t a perfect solution, because the ones that work with the iPad can’t send common Windows keyboard commands to OnLive Desktop, so you wind up moving between the keyboard and the touch screen, which can be frustrating. And you can’t use a mouse.

Another drawback is that OnLive Desktop is entirely isolated from the rest of the iPad. Unlike Office-compatible apps that install directly on the tablet, this cloud-based service can’t, for instance, be used to open Office documents you receive via email on the iPad. And, at least at first, the only way you can get files into and out of OnLive Desktop is through its Web-accessible cloud-storage service. The free version has no email capability, and the app doesn’t support common file-transfer services like Dropbox or SugarSync. The company says it hopes to add those.

OnLive Desktop competes not only with the iPad’s Office clones, but with iPad apps that let you remotely access and control your own PCs and Macs, and thus use Office and other computer software on those.

But, in my tests, I have found those tricky to use. They require you to leave your computers running and either install special software or learn to use certain settings.

Overall, I found OnLive Desktop to be a notable technical achievement, but it has so many caveats that it’s best for folks who absolutely, positively need to use the full, genuine versions of the three big Office productivity programs on their iPads. For everyone else, the locally installed Office clones are probably good enough, and simpler to use.

By Walt Mosberg, All Things D

It’s one thing to look back and identify the greatest day of your life, and it’s entirely another to know you’re living it.

Because I forgot how to speak, Tosha Weaver answered my question about the TDK cassette marked “Prince – The Black Album” that she handed me. “It’s the real thing, straight from the mix console.”

The next two hours before I could go home couldn’t pass fast enough. I drove as fast and legally as possible and went straight upstairs. I plugged in my best headphones and spent the next 44 minutes and 38 seconds indulging in urban myth. My first listen toThe Black Album was like admission to a secret society. How many people on earth had also heard this music? According to the Rolling Stone article I read a year prior, maybe a hundred copies survived the recall ordered by Prince himself.

I made two copies on TDK SA-90 tapes: one for Darren and the other to play until the tape wore out. I put my original in a drawer. When I saw him the next day at school, I handed Darren his copy. He read my handwriting on the label in controlled disbelief, “Dude, what is this?”

I was beaming. “Wait until you hear it; it’s straight from the mix console.” I didn’t know what that meant, but it sounded cool when Tosha said it.

Darren’s voice raised an octave, “This is real? How did you get it?”

“I just found out I work with Miko Weaver’s sister. She gave it to me yesterday. That’s your copy.”

His mouth fell open a little, “You work with who, nigga?”

I could only shake my head, “Dude, I had no idea ’til the other day. And look, she said we could walk into the aftershow with her. We’d just have to get tickets.”

That was much easier said than done. While a walk-in solved the problem of us being 17 trying to enter an over-21 concert, we still had to buy tickets. And money wasn’t one of our two hurdles.

First on the list was needing to produce ID at the ticket counter that showed I was four years older than 17, and that would be after I had a close enough spot in line to even buy a ticket. Enter Problem 2: Prince fans are rabid, but Bay Area Prince fans? We’ll camp out, flood phone lines, fan out in teams to camp out at multiple spots, whatever it takes.

Then, after you roll all of that together, we were trying for an aftershow in the early days when Prince just started doing them. This was very new in 1988.

Four hours and two skipped classes later, we had our plan: we would give a copy of the album to someone already in line in exchange for them to buy our tickets. Since there was a four ticket limit, we stood a good chance of finding someone buying only one or two tickets for themselves. We didn’t have much time to pull it off, as tickets went onsale the next day at noon. I saw a potential problem, “We have to already be in line.”

“Why is that?” Darren asked.

“You figure it’s gonna sell out in minutes. People will be posted up outside a bazillion record stores, and you can forget Ticketmaster downtown; it’ll be a zoo there. We need to be in line close enough to the front to make sure we can cut a deal.”

Darren caught on, “Maybe trade our spot with someone in the back as a Plan B.” He thought for a moment, “Here you go: post up overnight in a low traffic area. Not even in Oakland. I know a Rainbow Records in Alameda that has a Ticketmaster outlet. Can you sleep out? I can’t.”

I shook my head, “No way my mom will let me.”

“Let me work on it.”

Later that evening, Darren calls me. He’s on his way to pick up another friend, Simeon, and drop him at the fairly-remote record store with a lawn chair and a blanket. We have our overnighter. His price? A copy of The Black Album.

One hour later Darren calls back: Simeon’s first in line with no one else in sight.

Click here to view the embedded video.

President Obama gave an excellent speech December 6 in Kansas about inequality in America.

“This is the defining issue of our time.”  He said. “This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and for all those who are fighting to get into the middle class. Because what’s at stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home, secure their retirement.”

He’s right. The spread between rich and poor has gotten wider over the decades. And the opportunities for the 99% have become harder to realize.

The President’s speech got me thinking. My kids are no smarter than similar kids their age from the inner city. My kids have it much easier than their counterparts from West Philadelphia. The world is not fair to those kids mainly because they had the misfortune of being born two miles away into a more difficult part of the world and with a skin color that makes realizing the opportunities that the President spoke about that much harder. This is a fact. In 2011.

Gene Marks

I am not a poor black kid. I am a middle aged white guy who comes from a middle class white background. So life was easier for me. But that doesn’t mean that the prospects are impossible for those kids from the inner city. It doesn’t mean that there are no opportunities for them. Or that the 1% control the world and the rest of us have to fight over the scraps left behind. I don’t believe that. I believe that everyone in this country has a chance to succeed. Still. In 2011. Even a poor black kid in West Philadelphia.

It takes brains. It takes hard work. It takes a little luck. And a little help from others. It takes the ability and the know-how to use the resources that are available. Like technology. As a person who sells and has worked with technology all my life I also know this.

If I was a poor black kid I would first and most importantly work to make sure I got the best grades possible. I would make it my #1 priority to be able to read sufficiently. I wouldn’t care if I was a student at the worst public middle school in the worst inner city. Even the worst have their best. And the very best students, even at the worst schools, have more opportunities. Getting good grades is the key to having more options. With good grades you can choose different, better paths. If you do poorly in school, particularly in a lousy school, you’re severely limiting the limited opportunities you have.

And I would use the technology available to me as a student. I know a few school teachers and they tell me that many inner city parents usually have or can afford cheap computers and internet service nowadays. That because (and sadly) it’s oftentimes a necessary thing to keep their kids safe at home then on the streets. And libraries and schools have computers available too. Computers can be purchased cheaply at outlets like TigerDirect and Dell’s Outlet.  Professional organizations like accountants and architects often offer used computers from their members, sometimes at no cost at all.

If I was a poor black kid I’d use the free technology available to help me study. I’d become expert at Google Scholar. I’d visit study sites like SparkNotes andCliffsNotes to help me understand books. I’d watch relevant teachings onAcademic Earth, TED and the Khan Academy. (I say relevant because some of these lectures may not be related to my work or too advanced for my age. But there are plenty of videos on these sites that are suitable to my studies and would help me stand out.) I would also, when possible, get my books for free at Project Gutenberg and learn how to do research at the CIA World Factbookand Wikipedia to help me with my studies.

I would use homework tools like Backpack, and Diigo to help me store and share my work with other classmates. I would use Skype to study with other students who also want to do well in my school. I would take advantage of study websites like Evernote, Study Rails, Flashcard Machine, Quizlet, and free online calculators.

Is this easy? No it’s not. It’s hard. It takes a special kind of kid to succeed. And to succeed even with these tools is much harder for a black kid from West Philadelphia than a white kid from the suburbs. But it’s not impossible. The tools are there. The technology is there. And the opportunities there.

In Philadelphia, there are nationally recognized magnet schools like Central, Girls High and Masterman.  These schools are free.  But they are hard to get in to.  You need good grades and good test scores.  And there are also other good magnet and charter schools in the city.  You also need good grades to get into those.  In a school system that is so broken these are bright spots.  Getting into one of these schools opens up a world of opportunities.  More than 90% of the kids that go to Central go on to college.  I would use the internet to research each one of these schools so I could find out how I could be admitted.  I would find out the names of the admissions people and go to meet with them. If I was a poor black kid I would make it my goal to get into one of these schools.

Or even a private school.  Most private schools I know are filled to the brim with the 1%.  That’s because these schools are exclusive and expensive, costing anywhere between $20 and $50k per year. But there’s a secret about them.  Most have scholarship programs.  Most have boards of trustees that want to give opportunities to kids that can’t afford the tuition. Many would provide funding for not only tuition but also for transportation or even boarding. Trust me, they want to show diversity. They want to show smiling, smart kids of many different colors and races on their fundraising brochures. If I was a poor black kid I’d be using technology to research these schools on the internet, too, and making them know that I exist and that I get good grades and want to go to their school.

And once admitted to one of these schools the first person I’d introduce myself to would be the school’s guidance counselor.  This is the person who will one day help me go to a college.  This is the person who knows everything there is to know about financial aid, grants, minority programs and the like.  This is the person who may also know of job programs and co-op learning opportunities that I could participate in.   This is the person who could help me get summer employment at a law firm or a business owned by the 1% where I could meet people and show off my stuff.

If I was a poor black kid I would get technical.  I would learn software.  I would learn how to write code.  I would seek out courses in my high school that teaches these skills or figure out where to learn more online.  I would study on my own.  I would make sure my writing and communication skills stay polished.

Because a poor black kid who gets good grades, has a part time job and becomes proficient with a technical skill will go to college.  There is financial aid available.  There are programs available.  And no matter what he or she majors in that person will have opportunities.  They will find jobs in a country of business owners like me who are starved for smart, skilled people. They will succeed.

President Obama was right in his speech last week.  The division between rich and poor is a national problem.  But the biggest challenge we face isn’t inequality.   It’s ignorance.  So many kids from West Philadelphia don’t even know these opportunities exist for them.  Many come from single-parent families whose mom or dad (or in many cases their grand mom) is working two jobs to survive and are just (understandably) too plain tired to do anything else in the few short hours they’re home.  Many have teachers who are overburdened and too stressed to find the time to help every kid that needs it.  Many of these kids don’t have the brains to figure this out themselves – like my kids.  Except that my kids are just lucky enough to have parents and a well-funded school system around to push them in the right direction.

Technology can help these kids.  But only if the kids want to be helped.  Yes, there is much inequality.  But the opportunity is still there in this country for those that are smart enough to go for it.

Gene Marks, Forbes Contributor

So did we learn anything from the NBA lockout?

We learned that the winter will not be so nuclear. We learned that the NBA needs to contract rather than add teams. We learned that “B-list” issues were really “A-list” concerns. We learned that Derrick Rose and Blake Griffin will never see LeBron James and Amare Stoudemire money.

We learned that the “I Love This Game” creed the League has held sacred and marketed to us as a true representation of its brand is hollow. On both sides. Meaning that although players were justified in standing firm on their beliefs and the owners were just as justified in wanting to make changes to a system that was no longer favorable or profitable for many of them, “the game” itself was the furthest thing from their minds every time they sat down in front of each other to negotiate.

It wasn’t that neither side cared about the game, but both acted as if the game was at the bottom of their priority lists.

We learned things we didn’t want to learn. The lockout reinforced how much more the “B” in NBA stands for business instead of basketball. It proved that “C.R.E.A.M.” by the Wu-Tang Clan should be played at every game prior to the national anthem. We learned that, as Larry Coon so eloquently put it, the pending deal is “a deal neither side is happy with, but one that both sides can live with.”

We learned how Bryant Gumbel really feels. We learned that no one fears David Stern anymore and his legacy as the “greatest commissioner of all sports” will be marked with an asterisk. We learned that — despite what has been and will continually be said following the agreement being signed — decertification is more than just a negotiating tool and owners do react when threatened by it (twice in one year; read: NFL).

We learned that players don’t all get along, don’t all see eye-to-eye and don’t share the same views and values when it comes to their profession. As collective as they are, they are separate. We learned that they may not necessarily be smarter than players of generations before them, but that there exists a wherewithal to challenge authority and use their power as leverage in a way that is for the most part nonexistent in professional sports.

We learned that Christmas Day is the most important day to the NBA next to the opening day of the Finals.

We learned that this will probably be Billy Hunter’s last CBA as union president; that this wasn’t as much about Big Market vs. Small Market as originally suggested; that it really wasn’t just or all about the BRI; that the ownersreally can’t protect themselves from themselves and will never admit it; that a CBA is only as good as the economic climate in which it exists.

So yes, we all learned a few things.

Was it worth it, though? Was the almost five months of watching billionaires fight millionaires over how a multibillion dollar pie is to be split in ways that are in the best interest of self as opposed to what is in the best interest of the game worth going through?

There’s a simple answer: For the owners, “Yes.” For the players, “Yes.”

For the rest of us who were caught in the middle and became the lockout’s collateral damage, “Hell to the No.”

Thank God it’ll be another six to 10 years before we have to go through it again.

Scoop Jackson is a columnist for ESPN.com