Gift ideas for the techie on your list

The holidays are coming fast, and if you’re like me, you’ve probably gotten very little of your gift shopping done.

Here are suggestions for a variety of gifts for the techie and the not-so-techie people on your list.

Some of these items can be found in stores and some are only available online, but you should be able to order them in time for Christmas or Hanukkah.

IOMEGA EZ MEDIA & BACKUP CENTER

What is it? A hard drive that lives on your home network so you can share files, store all your photos and music and back up your home computers. Works on Macintosh, Windows and Linux computers.

The EZ Media & Backup Center is available in 1-, 2- and 3-terabyte capacities. It is simple to set up. It lives next to your home router and plugs into the network via Ethernet.

Major features include a built-in iTunes server so your music is available to all connected computers, Time Machine support for easy Macintosh backups and Iomega’s Personal Cloud to access your data from any Internet connection.

It can also stream your video files to your TV if you’ve got a compatible streaming box or an Internet-connected TV.

Software for backing up Windows PCs is also included.

Who’s it for? Any family that wants central storage for their digital lives. This is a great home for your digital photo, music or video library.

What does it cost? One terabyte for $169.99, two terabytes for $209.99, three terabytes for $279.99.

Where can you get it? Online at www.iomega.com, Amazon, Best Buy, Apple store, Fry’s.

NETATMO URBAN WEATHER STATION

What is it? A wireless indoor/outdoor weather station that displays through an application on your Apple or Android mobile device.

There are two parts, one that lives in your house and one you place outside.

The indoor component plugs into the wall and monitors the temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, carbon dioxide level and even the sound level in decibels.

The outdoor module is battery-powered and measures temperature and humidity.

Once you connect the Netatmo to your home Wi-Fi network, you can download the free app and see your weather stats from anywhere.

Setup was easy enough, and you can set the app to notify you when carbon dioxide rises to levels that you should be warned about — which is great.

Who’s it for? Weather geeks and people who like to know what the temperature is without having to fire up a browser.

What does it cost? $179

Where can you get it? www.netatmo.com

3M LED ADVANCED LIGHT

What is it? 3M’s first foray into the home light bulb market is with the LED Advanced Light, which uses light-emitting diodes (LED) to produce 800 lumens (the light of a 60-watt bulb).

The Advanced Light has a life span of 25 years and costs just $1.63 per year if it’s turned on for three hours per day.

The bulb lights instantly and is dimmable.

It’s a little intimidating to start buying light bulbs that might outlive me, but my wallet approves.

Who’s it for? Anyone who wants to save money or wants a bulb that might not have to be changed until 2035.

What does it cost? $25

Where can you get it? Select Wal-Mart stores. For more information, go to www.3mlighting.com/LED.

STEM IZON 2.0 WI-FI VIDEO MONITOR

What is it? A small, wireless video camera that you can monitor remotely with an iOS device.

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Defense in Rilya Wilson trial asks for mistrial based on prosecutor’s standing with Florida Bar

The defense for Geralyn Graham, the foster mother accused of murdering 4-year-old Rilya Wilson a decade ago, asked for a mistrial Tuesday morning after a Miami Herald reader found that one of the prosecutors was not technically a member of the Florida Bar.

The trial is proceeding as usual, and Judge Marisa Tinkler-Mendez will rule on the mistrial by the end of the day.

Assistant state attorney Joshua Weintraub completed more than the required 30 hours of continuing education in August but failed to enter the correct course number, and the credits were not recognized by the Florida bar. A reader identified as “Bambie” commented on The Miami Herald article about the opening day of the trial, saying that according to the Florida Bar registry, Weintraub was not eligible to practice law. The reader’s concern was that “it would be a travesty for this case to proceed to verdict only to learn that the Assistant State Attorney had no authority to prosecute the case.”

Defense attorney Michael Matters asked for a mistrial based on Weintraub’s “individual participation in depositions of critical witnesses” and his presentation of himself as an assistant to state attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle.

“Whether he’s suspended for small or humongous violation, it’s still a suspension,” Matters said. “It’s absolutely inappropriate, unethical and wrong. There is no justification for someone practicing law without a license.”

Neither Weintraub nor the other two prosecutors on the case — one of whom is his mother — addressed the continuing education oversight. Don Horn, one of the chief assistants to the state attorney, said Weintraub was pulled from the trial Monday afternoon and temporarily suspended until his continuing education course credits could be straightened out. As of Tuesday morning, on the second day of the trial, Weintraub was reinstated and resumed his seat at the prosecutor’s table.

The trial resumed with Willie Harris, supervisor for the Department of Children and Families taking the stand. He was questioned on his decision to remove then 3-year-old Rilya Wilson from the home of her first foster mom, Pamela Kendrick, and place her in the care of Geralyn Graham, who is now standing trial for her murder.

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Freeloaders Trailer Debut

The boys from Super Troopers, Beerfest and Club Dread are back with Freeloaders, and ETonline has the exclusive first look at the trailer!

In addition to Broken Lizard (a comedy troupe comprised of Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Erik Stolhanske and Paul Soter), Freeloaders stars Olivia Munn, Nat Faxon, Jane Seymour, Dave Foley and Natalie Morales!

The hilarious new comedy revolves around a group of slackers who live for free in a rock star's mansion. But when the musician decides to sell his pad, their sweet lives are threatened and they're forced to dissuade every potential buyer through a series of increasingly extreme stunts.

Freeloaders hits VOD on December 11 and opens in theaters, January 2013.

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Record Powerball jackpot boosted to $500M

EPA

DES MOINES, Iowa — Get your ticket!

The record Powerball jackpot is now even bigger.

Powerball officials say they've boosted the jackpot for Wednesday's drawing to $500 million from the previously posted $425 million. Huge ticket sales nationally are pushing the payout higher.

A single winner choosing the cash payout will take home $327 million before taxes.

Record jackpots encourage players who usually sit on the sidelines to play and group purchases from work pools increase.

The jackpot is the largest ever for the Powerball game and the second largest lottery jackpot of all time, eclipsed only by the $656 million Mega Millions record set in March.

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Case-Shiller: Miami, U.S. home prices up again

The good news keeps coming for housing.

Miami area home prices rose 7.4 percent in September from a year earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.

Home prices in Miami inched up 0.1 percent in September from August, the report, issued by S&P Dow Jones Indices, said. Seasonally adjusted, Miami posted a 0.3 percent gain in home prices in September from August.

Miami, which was among the hardest hit areas in the nation in the housing downturn, has shown price increases for 11 consecutive months, while nationally prices have been on a six-month streak of increases.

The national index showed a 3.6 percent gain in home prices for the third quarter compared with a year earlier.

Seventeen of 20 Metropolitan Statistical Areas, or MSAs, and both the 10-city composite and 20-city composite issued by S&P/Case-Shiller showed higher prices.

The report said Phoenix continues to be the top performer, with a 20.4 percent annual increase in home prices. Atlanta broke a 26-month streak of annual price declines, posting a 0.1 percent annual increase in home prices September, according to the Case-Shiller data.

Case-Shiller indexes are designed to show the price change of typical single-family homes in an area and nationally. Each index tracks matched price pairs for thousands of homes.

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Lawyers offer opening statements in Rilya Wilson murder case

A Miami woman “snuffed the life” out of foster child Rilya Wilson, then concocted a web of lies to cover up the murder, a prosecutor told jurors Monday.

The caretaker, Geralyn Graham, hated Rilya so much that she kept the girl restrained with “flex cuffs” and in a dog cage, prosecutor Joshua Weintraub told jurors during his opening statement.

“She thought, after eight months, that the child had demons and was evil,” Weintraub told jurors. “She referred to her as “it” because she didn’t want to wear an angel outfit at Halloween. She wanted to wear a Cleopatra mask.”

Monday marked the muchn-anticipated first day of trial for Graham, 66, who is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated child abuse.

Rilya’s disappearance — her body has never been found — sparked massive upheaval and reform at the Department of Children & Families in 2002, leading to a series of unbridled public hearings, a scathing report, legislative changes and a Miami visit by then-Gov. Jeb Bush.

Rilya was born to a crack-addicted mother, and by 2000, was living with Graham and her domestic partner, Pamela Graham, under DCF supervision.

The agency did not realize the girl had disappeared until April 2002, more than one year after she was last seen. The reason: Her case worker, whose job was to check on the girl regularly, had not bothered to do so — and instead falsified numerous reports.

According to prosecutors, Graham forced her lover, Pamela, to lie about Rilya’s whereabouts. Graham told investigators that a DCF employee whisked Rilya away for mental health treatment.

And Graham later admitted to jailhouse inmate that she smothered the child with a pillow case. The inmate, Robin Lunceford, came forward because she was outraged about the death of an “innocent child,” Weintraub said.

But without Rilya’s body, prosecutors can’t even prove the girl is dead, defense attorney Scott Sakin told jurors. “She could be at the Dadeland Mall shopping ... or in school in the Bahamas,” Sakin said.

Sakin shifted the blamed to the state’s child welfare agency, saying “Rilya was abandoned by DCF shortly after she was born” and heaped scorn on Lunceford, who had her life prison sentence busted down to 10 years.

“She’s a professional snitch. She’s a rat,” Sakin said.

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Joe Manganiello on 'How I Met Your Mother'

Now enjoying the skyrocketing success of True Blood and his recent film Magic Mike, Joe Manganiello now revisits the recurring role on How I Met Your Mother that enabled him to achieve that success.

"It's awesome," Manganiello told ET's special correspondent Melissa Peterman of returning to the show. "I missed everybody. You see everybody out and about over the years...but it was just really fun to get back in. It really feels like--other than the beard and long hair--like I never left."

VIDEO: Sneak Peek: Joe Manganiello Returns to 'HIMYM'

Manganiello ("Brad") originally appeared on the show as a fellow lawyer friend to Jason Segel's character, "Marshall," in Season 2. The now blooming star's character is now at odds with his former best friend over a court case in Season 8, and he attempts to use his good looks to sway the female jury.

"[Marshall's] got to dig deep...He's got to fight hard," he said of Marshall's response to Brad's tactics. "He uses some really unorthodox tactics to battle Brad as well and it just escalates."

Manganiello's character not only gives his old buddy Marshall a hard time in the upcoming episode but also inadvertently riles Neil Patrick Harris' character, "Barney," by challenging his dominance in attracting women.

VIDEO: Joe Manganiello Spills 'True Blood' Secrets

"It's competitive," Harris said of the altered dynamic on set with Manganiello present. "I'll tell you what, [there's] a lot of swooning [in] his direction....Everyone [gasps] every time he walks by."

Barney isn't the only one who is affected by Brad's swooning ways, as Alyson Hannigan's character, "Lilly," Marshall's wife, is also persuaded by his good looks and seductive tactics, to the extent that she turns against her husband.

"I was rooting for my husband until the pen incident," Hannigan said of her character's courtroom experience with Brad, "and he drops his pen and bends over, and now I'm easily swayed."

VIDEO: Wedding Jitters on 'How I Met Your Mother'

Check out Manganiello on How I Met Your Mother tonight (Nov. 26) at 8 p.m. on CBS.

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R Train service between Manhattan and Brooklyn could return in a week or two

The R train - which has been operating severely curtailed service since Sandy - could begin running between Manhattan and Brooklyn in a week or two, officials said.

"Obviously we're trying to get it back sooner rather than later," said Thomas Prendergast, president of New York City Transit.

Its especially important to connect the the two boroughs because the nearby 4/5 trains are becoming overcrowded due to the outages, he said.

"The 4 and 5 are getting hammered," he said.

The J/Z train service to Fulton St and Broad should also be restored in that time frame, he said.

However it will be "months" before the 1 train South Ferry stop is brought back, he said. That station was completely flooded in the storm and lost a lot of equipment to salt water damage.

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Shifting tides of Panama real estate echo Miami trends

PANAMA CITY, Panama — As a real estate agent shows off a model apartment — white leather sectional, stainless steel appliances, open concept, ocean views — in the 59-story Yacht Club Tower, and touts its fitness center and pool deck designed to mimic a ship floating on the sea, he makes a telling statement:

“We tried to emulate the Miami style in this building.”

Approaching this Central American capital from the air, the first thing a traveler notices is a skyline on steroids — gleaming towers jutting skyward like so many pickets on a fence. There’s even a Trump high-rise here — the sail-shaped 72-story Trump Ocean Club International Hotel & Tower. And it’s not uncommon for those active in Miami real estate and development circles to try their luck in Panama or move back and forth between the markets.

Although Miami is nearly 1,200 miles from Panama City, the real estate markets of the two cities share certain similarities. Both went through booms and overbuilding and then had way too many empty condominiums. Wealthy Latin American buyers were a salvation in both cities when traditional segments of the market fell off.

“Now that things are starting to pick up in the States, they are picking up here too. Now that there’s not as much economic uncertainty in the United States, people feel more confident about Panama too,’’ said Morris Hafeitz, general manger of Emporium Developers. He used to work in Miami as a project manager for Odebrecht, the Brazilian conglomerate.

Now Hafeitz is trying to sell Allure at the Park, a 50-story building Emporium developed in Panama City’s Bella Vista neighborhood. The building is chock full of amenities — gym, teenage game room, adult lounge, toddler playroom, pool, squash court and even miniature golf on the roof — but one of its main selling points is that it overlooks a park and two low-rise historic buildings. “In the heart of the city without the hassles of the city,’’ said Hafeitz.

During the boom, many buildings in central Panama City went up practically on top of each other. “In the beginning of the boom there were no regulations on density,’’ said Mauricio Saba, a project manager at Zoom Development in Panama City and another Miami real estate alum. “I have a friend who said he could watch his neighbor’s TV from his balcony.’’

Margarita Sanclemente, a Miami real estate broker with offices in Panama City and New York, has seen it all — the boom, the irrational building and the slowdown — and has stuck with the Panamanian market.

She first ventured into Panama in 2005. The Panamanian real estate market, which had been sluggish for more than a decade, was undergoing a rebirth and Americans, lured by low prices and the low cost of living, were snapping up properties.

The sweet spot was the 1,000 to 1,500-square-foot apartment, sans maid’s quarters, which appealed to retirees from Canada and the United States, she said.

That was back when Americans still believed you couldn’t go wrong with real estate. “Some of the buyers didn’t even see the units. We sold them by phone,’’ Sanclemente said. Condo prices at new buildings such as Destiny averaged $98 to $120 per square foot. She herself bought a 1,000 square foot, one bedroom condo for $123,000 back in 2005.

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South Florida responders returning home from Sandy recovery work

A group of South Florida medical responders are returning home Sunday and Monday after spending two weeks assisting with Hurricane Sandy recovery in New York.

The team of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, paramedics and mental health experts are expected to arrive at local airports.

While in New York, the medical responders staffed a field hospital in Long Beach providing first aid, triage and medical care.

The team is part of the National Disaster Medical System, a federal network that provides assistance in case of a natural disasters or other catastrophes, where area medical facilities are stretched to their limits.

The team that assisted in Sandy recovery is comprised of medical professionals from Broward and Palm Beach counties.

They represent personnel from Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue, Coral Springs Fire Rescue, Pembroke Pines Fire Rescue, Hallandale Beach Fire Rescue, Davie Fire Rescue, Boca Raton Fire Rescue and Palm Beach County fire rescue departments.

The medical personnel on the team are from Broward Health, Memorial Healthcare System, Boca Raton Regional Medical Center, West Boca Medical Center and Palms West Hospital.

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