U.S. runs record number of gun background checks

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Number of the day

1.25 million

That's how many monthly background checks were conducted on U.S. firearms buyers on average during the 12-month period that ended in March - a record level. The data, compiled by the FBI, paint a rosy picture for the weapons industry because more people are shopping for guns, but it may not be good news for the broader economy. When Americans purchase more firearms, it doesn't bode as well for economic growth, according to Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at BNY ConvergEx Group, a technology firm that serves the financial-services industry.

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MBA BY THE BAY: See how an MBA could change your life with SFGATE's interactive directory of Bay Area programs.

"It's difficult to make 3-D images a key feature, because 3-D televisions haven't obtained wide acceptance yet."

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, on how 3-D won't be a selling point for the next version of the Wii video game console. Nintendo faces mounting competition from Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 and needs the next Wii to rekindle the success of its top-selling console introduced in 2006. Nintendo's portable 3DS model, capable of beaming images in three dimensions, has fallen short of sales targets since its debut in February.

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The mechanics of cloud computing will be the focus of the OpenStack Conference and Design Summit in Santa Clara this week. The OpenStack project is an attempt to create open standards for clouds, making it easier to deliver software, services and computing power over the Internet. The initiative is seen as an alternative to Amazon's EC2 system, which relies on more proprietary technology. Amazon's service suffered an outage last week, disabling the websites of customers across the country.