Welcome to TiddlyWiki created by Jeremy Ruston, Copyright © 2007 UnaMesa Association
HONG KONG - Intel and Taiwan’s Asustek are bringing out a rock bottom $199 laptop to conquer the PC world’s next frontier: the next billion customers in the emerging markets.
By Shu-Ching Jean Chen, 06.07.07, 12:38 AM ET
http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/07/intel-asustek-laptop-markets-equity-cx_jc_0606markets3.html?
The move into the ultra-cheap commercial laptop market, announced in Taipei earlier this week at the Computex show, will put the duo in competition with MIT scientist Nicholas Negroponte’s nonprofit One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative, which is developing a $180 laptop for the developing world that it hopes to lower to a price of $100 if it can produce them in large numbers.
Shares in Asustek, the world’s largest motherboard maker and the largest PC brand in Taiwan, soared 5.6% on the news Wednesday, closing up 4.60 New Taiwan dollars (14 cents) at NT$86.60 ($2.6).
[img[The Asus Eee PC701|blog/eee2224s.jpg]]
Investors were also encouraged by the confirmation by Chairman Jonney Shih that Asustek would move by year end to separate its brand name and contract manufacturing businesses, which have created conflicts of interest between the company and its brand-name clients and long suppressed its share price. A solution would be to spin off the contract-manufacturing unit in an initial public offering in Hong Kong.
Dubbed the Eee PC, the Intel-Asustek laptop will resemble OLPC’s low-cost XO model in price and size, with a tiny 7-inch screen. The three Es stand for “Easy to Learn, Easy to Work and Easy to Play.”
Asustek said the Eee would be marketed under the Asustek brand name, and would come to market in late summer with a conservative sales target of moving 200,000 units in 2007. XO is also produced by a Taiwanese computer vendor, Quanta, the world’s largest laptop PC maker, founded by Barry Lam.
While both the Eee and the XO are aimed primarily at the education market, it’s far from child’s play. Intel (nasdaq: INTC) was stung by OLPC’s decision to power its XO with computer chips from competitor Advanced Micro Devices (nyse: AMD).
Anticipating competition from Intel, OLPC recently decided to launch its low-cost laptops in the U.S. to ramp up production volume, which it hopes will allow it to lower prices in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to children badly in need of access to computers.
OLPC is betting that Intel will keep the Eee out of the U.S. market to avoid cannibalizing sales of its higher-priced brand-name customers, such as Dell (nasdaq: DELL) or HP.
[Updated Aug. 23] -- Analysis -- According to DesktopLinux.com's just completed survey, the number of Desktop Linux users has more than doubled in the past year, and Ubuntu remains their Linux distribution of choice.
Since DesktopLinux.com's recently completed survey is a self-selected group, we can't claim scientific proof that the number of desktop Linux users has more than doubled in the past year. Still, this year's survey produced 38,500 votes versus 14,535 votes over the same number of days in a similar survey one year ago.
Part of the increase undoubtedly was because this year's survey received front page coverage on both Digg and the German news site, Heise Online. That said, we've also seen an increased interest in Desktop Linux, based on our own website statistics. We've seen significant increases during the last year both in terms of unique visitors and site page hits.
You don't need to believe our numbers or surveys, though. Dell and Lenovo didn't invest in pre-loading Linux desktops to win points with the cool Linux kids. Both companies did it because they want to make money with the Linux desktop. Dell, in fact, has expanded its Ubuntu Linux offerings both in the U.S. with its 1420 laptop line, in Europe, and in the Chinese office desktop market. Today, Linux desktops are a business, not just a hobby.
So, what are desktop Linux users of 2007 using?
Desktop distributions
The leading Linux distribution is the Ubuntu family -- 30 percent of our survey respondents are using Ubuntu or one of its sister distributions: Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Edubuntu. While there are other distributions that owe a great deal to Ubuntu -- Linspire, Freespire, MEPIS, Linux Mint, and Pioneer all come quickly to mind -- we decided not to count them for Ubuntu this year, since some, like Freespire, have just made the switch, while others, such as MEPIS, are switching back to Debian, and Pioneer is going in its own direction.
Next in popularity, after the ever-popular Ubuntu family, comes the SUSE Linux family with 21 percent. In our survey, we found mostly openSUSE users (19.7 percent) with a scattering of SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) users (1.3 percent). This isn't too surprising, since our preliminary analysis of our survey data showed that the majority of our respondents were individual rather than corporate users.
It's also noteworthy that the SUSE Linuxes have taken a major step forward. In 2006's survey, the SUSE family came in a distant second place with only 13 percent of the user base. In terms of year-over-year growth, openSUSE and SLED were the real winners, in fact, with a jump of 8 percentage points. The Ubuntu family, by comparison, built on its lead by only 1.2 percent.
In third place this year we have "other Debian," which includes Debian and all of its relatives besides Ubuntu: Debian, Freespire, Linspire, Linux Mint, MEPIS, and Xandros. While this group, at 14.2 percent, may have dropped behind SUSE this year, if you add in Ubuntu -- the most popular Debian-based distribution of them all -- Debian once again dominates the desktop Linux landscape, accounting for near half -- 44.6 percent -- of this year's distribution votes.
The Red Hat/Fedora family -- which this year includes CentOS -- came in at the fourth spot with 9 percent. This represents a small loss from last year when Fedora had 7 percent, while Red Hat added in a mere 2.2 percent, for a total, including smaller Red Hat/Fedora-based distributions of less than 10 percent.
Finally, in our "top five," we have Gentoo, which also declined -- from 9.6 percent to 7 percent. After that we come to a group of smaller, independent distributions. Of these also-ran distributions Mandriva showed the best.
Perhaps the most surprising result of our survey was that PCLinuxOS showed so poorly. On DistroWatch, PCLinuxOS has been at the top of the site's page hit ranking for the last 30 days. Frankly, we're not sure why this popular, easy-to-use community distribution didn't do better. The site supporting it had recently had problems, but that problem's long been history. Perhaps, it's simply that unlike the other popular community distributions -- Ubuntu, openSUSE, and Fedora -- PCLinuxOS doesn't have corporate backing. Canonical, Novell, and Red Hat all provide support and hardware partnerships for their community distributions that PCLinuxOS can't match.
Desktop environments
The desktop environment results held little in the way of surprises. GNOME, in large part because it's Ubuntu's default desktop, came in first with 45 percent of the users. KDE took second place with 35 percent. Interestingly, this is the first time in DesktopLinux.com's surveys that GNOME has out-polled KDE. Signs of a looming upset in standings were apparent last year, when KDE scored 38 percent and GNOME was right behind it at 35 percent.
The only "shocker" this year was that Xfce took third with a substantial 8 percent of the vote. In fact, 20 percent of our survey's respondents indicated that they use desktop environments other than the big two. Given this, and the loss of KDE's desktop dominance, it strikes us that there's still a chance for some other Linux desktop environment to make a go of it.
The 2009 Nonprofit Software Development Summit will be the third annual convening of people and organizations developing software tools, web applications and other technology to support social justice causes.
Bringing together a diverse range of users, developers, technologists, managers, eRiders, integrators and other practitioners who self-identify under the umbrella of “developing nonprofit software”, the 2009 ~DevSummit will provide an opportunity both to gather as a community and to take stock of the field, while building connections and capacity.
Dates: 18 November, 2009 - 20 November, 2009
Location: Oakland, California
Goals of the Dev Summit
The Dev Summit will have as its primary goals the following:
*To convene and strengthen connections between the networks of stakeholders in the nonprofit software ecosystem, providing a fun and creative environment for celebrating successes and leadership in the field.
*To share skills and knowledge in a highly collaborative, peer-to-peer fashion.
*To map and discuss what is available and what is missing across the nonprofit software landscape in specific software “verticals”, and to posit solutions for addressing the gaps.
*To offer a point of entry for software developers interested in offering their skills to nonprofit sector.
The event will target a range of audiences, including users who know what they still need developed, developers writing code to support nonprofit needs, integrators deploying tools for nonprofit and social justice organizations, and individuals who just care about seeing better technology developed to address the broad range of issues we face as a global community.
Feel free to join the Event Mailing List to participate in discussions about this and the next Summit!
Send any outstanding questions or comments you have to info@aspirationtech.org.
[[Register Now!|http://www.aspirationtech.org/events/devsummit09]]
Center of the International Cooperation for Computerization (CICC) has held the Asia OSS Symposium eight times together with local Counterparts during March 2003 and February 2007, in order to exchange information and experience of each economy and to discuss the way of mutual collaboration in Asian region.
From this time, we renewed AOSS event with renaming 'Asia OSS Conference and Showcase' and expanded the event with two tracks, one is for Government/Education sector, and another is for Business sector. Concretely, in order for the government sector participants to understand the best practices to promote OSS in their economies, OSS implementation case study into e-government will be introduced.
Also in order for private sector participants to give some hint for OSS business, Case Study of System Integration in which OSS and commercial software utilized will be introduced. Moreover, Sponsorship as well as Exhibition booth will be prepared especially for business sector. In this regards, we would like you to participate this Asia OSS Conference & Showcase actively, mainly from government and private sector from Asian region.
For more details please click: http://www.aoss2007.org/
The popularity of Open Source Software (OSS) has grown at an astonishing rate such that government, business sector, academy, R&D related organizations, and community groups have been expecting its policy to promote the use of open source software. The major advantage of open source software includes operation/development cost reduction, computer security raise, and, ultimately, competitiveness gain in software business and industry.
However, in those economies which are slow in their economic development, the main focus concerns distribution of low-cost, rather than the most powerful PCs. Open source software can contribute greatly to this issues.
http://www.asia-oss.org/
Asia OSS Conference & Showcase (the 9th) will be held on November 5th-9th, 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Venue : Bangkok, Thailand
CodeFest and Essential course: Thailand Science Park Main Conference
Asia OSS Conference & Showcase : Sofitel Centara Grand Bangkok Hotel
(Formerly Sofitel Central Plaza Hotel)
Dates: November 5th-9th, 2007
- November 5th (Mon) - 6th (Tue) : CodeFest /Essential Course (Mainly for Local)
- November 7th (Wed) - 8th (Thu) :Asia OSS Conference & Showcase (Main Event)
- November 9th (Fri) : OSS Center Meeting (Closed)
Another issue involves the growing gap in the information society or the problem of digital divide, due to enormously varied degrees of technological advances, government policy, and knowledge and understanding of open source software among the participating economies. This leads to the need for Asian economies to cooperate in order to bridge the growing gap. This also involves promoting open source software.
At the same time, whereas various kinds of organizations and communities conduct development and promotion activities under different circumstances/levels in order for information sharing, regional and international cooperative network including organizations and communities, have not been fully connected to share their knowledge and experience.
Co-Hosts:
Open Source Software Network (OSSN), Thailand
Center of the International Cooperation for Computerization (CICC)
National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) - organized
by National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC)
Supporters:
Ministry of Science and Technology, Thailand
Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Thailand
Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA), Thailand
Asia Source II is a “summer-camp style” gathering of information and communications technology professional that pools around 100 “geek” and “users” from Egypt to the Philippines and from Mongolia to East Timor. Advocating the use of Free/Libre Open Source Software (F/LOSS) is the main agenda of this source camp.
Credit: Ardita
Despite a number of representatives from Middle East (Egypt, Iran) and the southern and northern parts of Asia (Pakistan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Mongolia), the majority of “Asia Source II” participants came from the South East Asian countries. A bus load of people came from Philippines and Indonesia (the latter being the host country), a handful of Vietnamese and Cambodians, one person from Laos, not to mention a few from Thailand and Malaysia.
[img[Snacks sneak|blog/image046s.jpg]]
The Malaysians are somehow amazed at variety of snacks being offered during coffee breaks, while the Filipinos tend to be careful about spicy food as their diet is mostly less spicy. On the contrary, the Indians thought that the Indonesian menu is less spicy than their’s back home. The Cambodians were kinda stumped at the amount of oil in the Indonesian food that was served pretty much every day (we got some European and Chinese menu, although “beef piccata” and “rice” don’t really seem to mix).
Most of the people seemed to be happy when bread appeared on the dining table recently. Well, beef burger at 08:00 AM in the morning might be a challenge to some people, but after a week of rice, that was a happy change for most people.
I’d say the biggest buzz of all in this so-called “source camp” is the “salad bowl style” meet-up and one-on-one conversations with people of different nationalities and cultures. The picture of “one dollar a day” (in US Dollar) life comes alive when you hang out with the Cambodians. Talking to the Filipinos makes you feel the power of the people. The hunger for technology strikes when you talk to the Egyptians and the Bangladeshis.
[img[Many Mouths at Source Camp|blog/image016s.jpg]]
//I’d say hats off for the volunteers. They are students from vocational high school in tourism who are doing internship at big events like this. They worked damn hard, yet they are the ones with biggest smiles and hearts.//
This cultural mosaic is woven beautifully when you translate “open source” into diverse characters and languages of Asia. Have you ever realized that Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia have different characters, not to mention Mongolia and Iran? Read more »
http://bricolage.blogspot.com/2007/01/asia-source-ii-taste-of-asia.html
In "A Year Without 'Made in China,'" ... Sara Bongiorni discovers during a year of boycotting anything made in China ... how she and her family found that such formerly simple acts as finding new shoes, buying a birthday toy and fixing a drawer became ordeals without the Asian giant.
Bongiorni takes pains to say she does not have a protectionist agenda and, despite the occasional worry about the loss of U.S. jobs to overseas factories, she has nothing against China. Her goal was simply to make Americans aware of how deeply tied they are to the international trading system.
"I wanted our story to be a friendly, nonjudgmental look at the ways ordinary people are connected to the global economy," she said in an interview before the book appears in July.
http://www.trueblueliberal.com/2007/07/19/my-year-without-made-in-china/
One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy
All about China s relentless path to world manufacturing dominance as told through the frustrations of one American family In December 2005, author and journalist Sara Bongiorni wrote a short, humorous article chronicling how Chinese manufacturing had reached into every facet of her family s daily life. This obscure article soon became a global phenomenon.
It was reprinted from Canada to Dubai, with Bongiorni interviewed on CBS, NPR, Radio China, and other international outlets. Obviously the topic had struck a chord one that seized consumers attention across every cultural and economic border. A Year Without Made in China is the thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining account of the difficulties one American family faces when they attempt to live an entire year without Chinese-produced goods.
It does a remarkable job of taking a decidedly big-picture issue China s fast-changing status in the global economy and communicating its impact on the daily life of the average consumer. Drawing on her years as an award-winning journalist, Sara Bongiorni fills the book with fascinating stories and anecdotes, such as Wal-Mart s stubborn reluctance to admit just how much they rely on Chinese produced goods to stock their shelves.
Hard-hitting and humorous, A Year Without Made in China promises to generate plenty of buzz . Sara Bongiorni (Baton Rouge, LA) is an experienced journalist who has worked at daily newspapers and regional business publications in California and Louisiana for the past decade. She has won local, state, and national awards for her articles, including a 2002 Best in Businessaward from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers for a series on the impact of out-migration on the Louisiana economy.
Bongiorni graduated from the University of California, San Diego, and holds a master s degree in journalism from the University of Indiana at Bloomington.
[[Wikipedia.com|http://wikipedia.com]] went live on Jan. 15, 2001, and the new model quickly eclipsed its older sibling. By the end of the first year, Wikipedia contained more than 20,000 articles in 18 languages. Since then, the site has grown rapidly, swelling to 250,000 articles by 2004 and a million by 2006.
[[A brief history of Wikipedia|http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1917002,00.html?xid=rss-business]]
By Dan Fletcher Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009
Even in its earliest days, Wikipedia had to reckon with a slew of problems. Among them were vandalism and the lack of a fixed formula for determining what should and shouldn't be included in an encyclopedia unconstrained by physical limitations.
The emerging community included a volunteer army of editors, who helped to keep the content aligned with Wikipedia's rules, the first version of which Sanger created in 2002. As the project grew, vandalization and dilution of the encyclopedia's content became more difficult to address. The site's software keeps a log of every modification to every page, and this tracking system has been used to bust some high-profile offenders. In May, Wikipedia banned IP addresses owned by the Church of Scientology on the grounds that Scientologists were making edits that didn't suggest a "neutral point of view" — the encyclopedia's golden rule.
But since its inception, the biggest issue dogging Wikipedia has been concerns about its accuracy. Sanger himself left Wikipedia in 2002 over questions about the legitimacy of the project's entries; he later established a competing encyclopedia, Citizendium, with more rigorous contribution criteria. While a 2005 study by Nature found that Wikipedia's science entries came close to matching the Encyclopaedia Britannica's in terms of accuracy — with 2.92 mistakes per article for Britannica and 3.86 for Wikipedia — no one argues that Wikipedia's content is flawless. Critics say the writing is clunky or prone to bias and that the authors focus on pet projects. Indeed, the site's list of Star Wars creatures totals more than 15,000 words, while the entire entry on World War II has just 10,000.
A few practical examples here demonstrates of what we can do on using older equipments including softwares to serve our everyday's needs.
[[OLPC|$199 Laptop Is No Child's Play]], [[Asus EEE PC|Asus finally launch the EEE PC]], or [[Intel Classmate PC|Intel Classmate PC in comparison]] are using the 900MHz class processor. However they cost more than a recycled and still usable Pentium III - 900MHz class processor notebook. Will you still use an old Pentium III notebook which has enough capacity to explore and connect to the web?
An old computer of Pentium I-233 series or even a 486 can still serve as a fax receiving machine using an 14.4kbps modem and Winfax. Fax or facsimile is using the 9600bps standard for sending and receiving so a 14400bps speed is more than sufficient. Winfax and other fax software are still available freely from the web. //Well perhaps in developed countries, older computers are still avail.//
On the contrary you still need additional scanner for scanning the images in sending the fax. You can print only whenever necessary to reduce paper cost. Paper usage is one of the most damaging to our forest. A typical daily paper usage will burn a bunch of trees.
Do you know how to download your emails effectively?
I have used for a long time Midpoint software from Midcore to pop about eight email accounts from one time internet connection. It will truly save up your internet cost if you receive hundreds of emails daily. Midcore Inc has now ceased, how will it be the right to use now?
There are many of the free type email applications to enable popping multiple email accounts (the so called ''N''etwork ''A''ddress ''T''ranslation programs) but not many people can sort it out for a better usage of downloading your emails. It means there are many to dig available software, learn and use it effectively.
What about using wifi equipments?
An older wifi equipment of 802.11b is still usable to connect even though there is a newer 802.11g standard avail. You can still connect using an 802.11b wifi client in an 802.11g environment and it will adjust to allowable transfer speed. //It will go through office walls when set on a lower speed.//
Even using your left hand for clicking and dragging the mouse is called effective for a right-handed person -:) Can you learn it?
To repeat, [[adopt easily to adapt ICT facilities|Using easily to adapt ICT facilities]].
Happy Pi Day, everyone! I'm going to be eating some pie with my friends Sunday to commemorate the day. But Pi Day wasn't always so well-recognized.
From [[CNN's SciTech blog|http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/12/geek-out-my-life-with-pi/]] posted by: Elizabeth Landau
When I was 13, I thought I was different because several of my hobbies involved the number pi. For me, the ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle held many exciting possibilities. Since no one had proven that the digits were random, yet there were infinitely many of them, I saw this as an amazing opportunity for creative expression, and perhaps some code-cracking too.
For instance, you can put pi to music: using a piano, make middle C=1, D=2, E=3, and so on, you have a song representing pi. At the first instance of "0" the melody breaks down a bit (I wasn’t quite sure what to do with the “0” anyway), but I think there's a natural musical ending ("53421") - ending back on middle C - with the number 1 at digit 95.
I also did a lot of pi-related creative writing back in my teenage years, including this song [[American Pi.|http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/13/pi-day-and-american-pi/]] Here’s a poetry technique you can try too: the number of letters in each word correspond to a digit, so a “pi poem” begins with a three-letter word, a one-letter word, a four-letter word, and so on. Here’s an example I wrote, representing (3.1415926535897932384626433832795).
Why, π? Stop, π! Weird anomalies do behave badly!
You, madly conjured, imperfect, strange, numerical,
Why do you maintain this facade?
In finite time you are barbaric.
You do wonders, mesmerize minds!
It was also fun to memorize digits from the poster in my math classroom. When that poster ran out around digit 50, I turned to books. To remember the digits of pi, I primarily relied on a rhythm in my head that grouped 2, 3, or 4 digits together at a time. To me it was three point one four one five nine two six and so on, although more ambitious pi memorizers may use other methods.
Today, it appears that pi become much more mainstream than when I first fell in love with it. Now, there are hundreds of pi-related Web resources, not to mention a great deal of enthusiasm on YouTube – you’ll find pi recitations far longer more than my personal record of 178, and pi songs that are more ambitious than my own.
It’s on "The Simpsons," in the movies, and a lot of other places you’d least expect. There’s even a Kate Bush song involving the digits of pi. Judging by how many pi-related t-shirts there are, I’d say it’s become a status symbol in this whole "geek is chic" movement.
Apparently it’s not so weird to like pi anymore. In fact, pi has actually brought me closer to other people. One of my good friends, also a pi fan, learned of my existence in 2002 when I published an opinion piece about pi in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
A college classmate spent the morning of March 14, 2005, memorizing more than 200 digits so that he could beat me at Princeton’s annual math department Pi Day celebration (he took first place, I took second, we're still friends).
In recent years I’ve worn a pi-related outfit at Dragon Con, which is a great //ice-breaker// among thousands of self-proclaimed geeks.
The recent collapse of US subprime mortgage loans has created financial crisis around the globe affecting other continents of Australia and Europe. More and more financial institutions were forced to close down and therefore laying off workers.
However this recent turmoils has been predicted and indicated of its happening in the following article below. It 's like a //deja vu//, we ought the learn something from the past.
[[Five Reasons to Sell, Sell, Sell|http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20070720/bs_bw/jul2007pi20070719957191;_ylt=Ap22mJgN8rdQZo5puhFzPZ.1v0gC]]
By Ben Steverman Fri Jul 20, 8:08 AM ET
U.S. stocks are at record levels. Earnings season is under way, with many expecting a modest rise in corporate profits. Unemployment is very low. So far problems with housing haven't infected the rest of the economy, which seems poised to bounce back from slow growth in the first quarter.
So what is there to worry about? Plenty. No matter how wonderful things look, the good times won't last forever. Even as most market observers remain bullish, we asked them what could derail this bull market. Stocks could keep setting records for months or even years, but it pays for investors to know what dangers are lurking out there. This Five for the Money lists the five biggest threats to the stock market rally.
1. Earnings
Will any stocks and sectors step up to the plate to push the market even higher? Investors are closely watching corporate earnings for clues.
Earnings season began this month and so far it's not clear whether corporate profits will keep pace with expectations. Expect a lot of volatility in the market as big players surprise investors with good or bad news. David Scott, chief investment officer of the Chase Large Cap Growth Fund, expects less support for the rally from financial and health-care stocks. So he's watching tech stocks closely. "They're a large enough part of the market that they can provide solid leadership," Scott says. ''Disappointments from big tech firms'' or key players in other sectors could scare the bulls in a big way.
2. Consumer spending
Consumers drive the U.S. economy, and so far they've held up well despite housing problems and high gas prices. Perhaps that's because unemployment is low - at 4.5% in June.
What are the risks for consumer spending? Charles Dumas of Lombard Street Research believes the U.S. economy is growing much more slowly than many on Wall Street think. One reason is weakening consumer spending. "Gas prices are really knocking the stuffing out of people's buying power," he says.
Some think Americans, who save very little and borrow a lot, are about to be hit by the realization that they need to cut up the credit cards. "We've been ''addicted to spending and borrowing'', and we need to stop that," says Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital.
Watch closely for data later this summer on the back-to-school season, which is an important time for retailers. "If this back-to-school season is bad, it could really highlight some weakness in the consumer," says Neil Cataldi of Susquehanna Financial Group. High energy prices might also catch up to consumers later this year, if heating costs rise as the weather turns colder.
3. Inflation
"Inflation is still a concern out there," says Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at Standard & Poor's. Several factors could push inflation higher, including rapid global growth, the tightness in the job market, or higher commodity prices. For example, S&P forecasts oil, now about $75 per barrel, could be headed ''above $80.''
Why are rising prices such a big deal? "The Fed has said, 'We will stop at nothing to defeat inflation,'" says Richard Sparks of Schaeffer's Investment Research. The faster prices rise, the more likely that Federal Reserve policymakers could decide to hike interest rates later this year. That would cool off the economy. The biggest worry is that the ''Fed is forced to raise rates'' while the economy is still growing only slowly, forcing the economy into a recession.
4. ''Subprime and housing''
O.K., here's the really scary one. Many on Wall Street believe the problem with subprime mortgages is limited and under control. They may be right, but it's impossible for anyone to predict how many debtors will ultimately default on their obligations. Many home buyers used creative financing to buy expensive houses in the years of booming home prices. "It's a tough one to get a handle on because we're not really sure what's truly at risk," Scott says. "It could spring on us suddenly."
What other forms of risky credit threaten debt markets beyond subprime?
Bill Larkin, portfolio manager of fixed income at Cabot Money Management, believes he's already seeing signs that ''subprime worries are spreading'', rocking other areas of the credit market. He sees a "flight to quality," with many bond investors fleeing not just subprime but anything with a hint of risk.
If the trend accelerates, it becomes even tougher for home buyers to get mortgages, pushing home prices lower. It also becomes more expensive for companies and hedge funds to borrow. That could cut off the flow of money into stock buybacks, mergers, and acquisitions, especially the private equity buyouts that have fueled the bull market. "Just like raising rates, this acts as an economic brake," Larkin says.
"People are starting to get nervous," Larkin adds, but it takes a while for these trends to show up. "It doesn't just -- boom -- happen." Are there lots of other forms of bad debt out there? Are lenders -- as Larkin jokes, "using their garage door as collateral?" No one knows. "That's where the risk is," he says. "There's not a lot of transparency here."
Pimco bond guru Bill Gross has warned investors not to think subprime is only a problem for a few hedge funds or investment banks. The problem ''affects millions of home buyers'' who financed their houses with cheap money but are now seeing mortgage payments rise along with defaults. Gross wrote in his July investment outlook, "This problem -- aided and abetted by Wall Street -- ultimately resides in America's heartland, with millions and millions of overpriced homes and asset-backed collateral with a different address -- Main Street."
5. Shiny happy investors
As markets rise, the bulls' success may be their biggest weakness. Too much optimism can derail a rally as quickly as too much gloom and doom.
It's a cliche on Wall Street that markets like to climb a "wall of worry." The more doubts about a rally, the more headwinds it faces on the way up, the more likely a bull market has a firm foundation. "We like to see some pessimism in the market," Schaeffer's Sparks says. ''Concerns about interest rates, terrorism, gas prices, or inflation?'' "Those are the bricks in the wall of worry."
Despite the index's record-breaking pace recently, experts like Sparks still see signs of skepticism. To gauge this, investors can look at the amount of short-selling -- trades betting stock prices will fall -- or ratios between puts and calls.
Sparks also keeps an eye on the media, including articles like this. Be on the lookout for articles proclaiming "happy days are here again," Sparks says. If the media is sounding too positive about stocks, it may be a sign that retail investors are jumping into the market. And if the average investor is buying gain, you can bet the "smart money" is selling, and stock prices are near peak levels.
This is a film about Greek family in Istanbul around the 1960. The family was deported back to Athen because of the ~Greece-Turkey relation at that time. So this was about cooking the meal with ingredients rooted back to the Turks.
The difference was in the cooking, there will be a secret ingredient or spice to be put in the meal. The added spice was recognized but kept secret while in cooking. This is the way that the cook want to tell something with this secret ingredient.
One thing that I learned that you can make a meat ball soup and what will be the secret ingredient? It is cinnamon, do you think it is OK? It just smells good and tastes right also. Why don't you try your self at home and tell me your secret ingredients or spices.
However the movie made by a Greek director (2004) was not too good, it's kind of boring. Following were review by Margaret Pomeranz.
http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s1204057.htm
'A Touch of Spice' was a labour of love for Greek filmmaker Tassos Boulmetis because much of the film is a reflection of his own life.
His alter ego in the film is Fanis Iakovidis played by George Corraface. He’s a professor of astronomy at a Greek University, but an incident provokes memories of growing up in Constantinople with his grandfather who had a spice shop. There is more to each spice than you would think.
Fanis is a young Greek boy growing up in Istanbul, whose grandfather, a culinary philosopher and mentor, teaches him that both food and life require a little salt to give them flavour. When Fanis and his family are deported from Turkey because they are Greek citizens his grandfather and his young friend Saime are left behind.
In Greece he and his family are seen as foreigners, not Greek at all so Fanis turns to the preparation of food to connect him with the people he loved in his youth and he’s drawn to family members who are sympathetic.
This well-intentioned film is rather turgid unfortunately. It has little sense of dramatic rhythm and every little incident is given a significance that seems disproportionate. No wonder so many of the characters look soulful throughout.
It tries to capture that sense of displacement that director Boulmetis obviously felt, he himself was born in Constantinople but moved to Greece at a young age. Perhaps the material was too close to him because it certainly needed a more rigorous, less weighted approach.
The nominations for the prize will be collected until the end of March 2007
The APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize recognises initiatives that are making it easy for people to start using free and open source software (FOSS). The prize will be awarded to a person or group doing extraordinary work to make FOSS accessible to ordinary computer users.
The APC FOSS Prize has been established to honor Chris Nicol, a long time FOSS advocate and activist who for many years worked with APC.
We are looking for initiatives that:
* improve the accessibility to, knowledge of and/or usability of FOSS
* are user-oriented
* are documented so that others can learn from and replicate the model
* have demonstrable impact and have increased the number of people using FOSS on a day-to-day basis
THE PRIZE IS OPEN TO: Any person or group anywhere in the world who supports or promotes user-oriented free and open source software. The application form must be completed in either English or Spanish however there are no language restrictions regarding the language of the project. Small-scale activities are encouraged to apply.
THE PRIZE: US$ 4,000.00 may be shared by up to two initiatives at the jury's discretion.
DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS: March 30, 2007
More about the APC Chris Nicol FOSS prize:
http://www.apc.org
http://www.apc.org/english/chrisnicol
http://www.apc.org/espanol/chrisnicol or write to fossprize@apc.org
The Association for Progressive Communications is an international network of civil society organisations dedicated to empowering and supporting groups and individuals through the strategic use of information and communication technologies, especially internet-technologies.
The 10th Asia Pacific Next Generation (APNG) Camp is planned to be held on 11 - 15 August 2008 at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand. Very first camp was held in Bangkok in year 2002 and even since its inception, we had successfully organized nine camps in the past whereas the recent one was the 9th organized in Xi’an, China in conjunction with 24th APAN Meeting. Celebrating the 10th APNG Camp is an important milestone in APNG history and achievements.
http://www.apng.org/10thfellowship.htm
The APNG Camp is:
*Where future Internet leaders in the AP Region meet together.
*Where AP Seniors and the Next Generation learn and work together.
*Where AP perspective of the Internet is shared and discussed.
Keeping the fact in our mind that the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow, APNG and its camp activities are not only empowering the Next Generation who has the power of developmental assets and an innovative and fresh point of view on Internet Technology but also bonding and strengthening relationship among senior leaders and the youth to share and discuss over perspectives of today’s Internet in Asia Pacific.
The APNG Camp Committee now cordially invites qualified applicants to apply for fellowship funding to participate in 10th APNG Camp in Thailand.
Who can participate?
The APNG Camp Fellowship Program targets personnel from developing countries who are actively involved in Internet development, in any of the following roles:
*Young network architects/developers/engineers.
*Young decision makers in government, educational, non-government, commercial, non-profit sectors related to Internet development.
*Young on-line activists in (and not limited to) social science, business, environment, gender equivalence, entertainment, etc.
Fellowship for International Applicants
Fellowship package will cover camp registration fees, local accommodation and local transportations and (full/part of) the roundtrip cheapest economy airfare. Lunch, Refreshments and Dinner will be provided during camp period.
Fellowship for Local Applicants
This is a special fellowship package to encourage participation from Thai youth who are interested/involved in Internet Technology Development. Local fellowship package will cover registration fees, local accommodation (fellows from outside greater Bangkok area only) and local transportation (train-fare/bus-fare). Lunch, Refreshments and Dinner will be provided during camp period.
The final grant size is determined according to final costs and available funding, of which successful applicants will be duly informed.
Eligibility:
The fellowship recipients will be selected based on:
- Residency in a developing country
- Full-time student of a university or college (public or private), or
- Employed by Internet-related company and in the age less than 35 years old
- Willingness to return to APNG Camp as a presenter or trainer in future
- Willingness to work with APNG Working Groups
- Willingness and capability to present your country's culture/heritage/traditions/costume
- Presentation materials and a 2-page paper submitted for APNG Camp “Call for Presentation”. The presentations/papers are expected to align with one of the following working groups (WG): *Internet Technologies WG
*Internet Culture & Blog WG
*Internet History Museum WG
*Live-E & DUMBO WG
*Natural Disaster Recovery Management and e- Health
Please refer CFP page for further details on working groups.
Applicants from any part of the world will be considered, however it is expected that the majority of fellows selected will be from Asia-Pacific region.
Applications will first be reviewed by APNG Camp Committee and APNG Fellowship Selection Committee will then select those who meet the above-mentioned selection criteria in their final decision. The 10th APNG Camp Fellowship Selection Committee is led by Mr. Tommy Matsumoto and constituted by APNG Steering Committee and APNG Camp Committee.
Schedule:
The following deadlines will apply to the APNG 10th Camp Fellowship Program:
Public Announcement: 2 January 2008
Applications Deadline: 29 March 2008
Selection Announcement: 15 April 2008
To apply, please submit your Application with full details to the APNG Camp Committee, by email to camp-fp@apng.org. Along with the application for fellowship, the applicant must also submit a 2-page paper as well as accompanying presentation material for speech opportunity in the APNG Camp. Refer to 'Call for Presentation' for details.
Any inquiries about the Fellowship, please contact apng-sec@apng.org .
The APNG camp was first held in Bangkok in year 2002 and even since its inception, we had successfully organized ten camps in the past whereas the recent one was the 12th Camp organized in Hiroshima, Japan in 2010. We are hoping to celebrate another important milestone in [[APNG|http://www.apngcamp.asia]] history and achievements with 13th APNG Camp in Hong Kong, China next year.
Keeping the fact in our mind that the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow, APNG and its camp activities are not only empowering the Next Generation who has the power of developmental assets and an innovative and fresh point of view on Internet Technology but also bonding and strengthening relationship among senior leaders and the youth to share and discuss over perspectives of today's Internet in Asia Pacific.
The APNG Camp is:
*Where future Internet leaders in the AP Region meet together.
*Where AP Seniors and the Next Generation learn and work together.
*Where AP perspective of the Internet is shared and discussed.
The APNG Camp Committee now invites qualified applicants to apply for fellowship funding to participate in the 13th APNG Camp in Hong Kong, SAR.
Who can participate?
The APNG Camp Fellowship Program targets personnel from developing countries who are actively involved in Internet development, in any of the following roles:
*Young network architects/developers/engineers.
*Young decision makers in government, educational, non-government, commercial, non-profit sectors related to Internet development.
*Young on-line activists in (and not limited to) social science, business, environment, gender equivalence, entertainment, etc.
The fellowship recipients will be selected based on:
*Residency in a developing country
*Full-time student of a university or college (public or private), or
*Employed by Internet-related company and in the age less than 35 years old
*Willingness to return to APNG Camp as a presenter or trainer in future
*Willingness and capability to present your country's culture/heritage/traditions/costume
*Presentation materials and a 2-page paper submitted for [[APNG Camp|APNG 13th Call for Participation]].
The 13th APNG Camp will continue the tradition of promoting collaboration among multiple areas. We encourage submissions of high quality papers and presentations on all topics in the general areas of ICT. Topics of interest in the four tracks include:
1. e-Culture and Green ICT
One of the greatest threats to our society and the Next Generation is the global warming. It is estimated that the ~CO2 emissions of the ICT industry alone exceeds the carbon output of the entire aviation industry. The ICT industry and research community has a collective responsibility to address this problem.
With a firm belief that Asia Pacific Next Generation will stand up to be the leaders in reducing Global Warming effect, protecting the world's nature and climate to create a more sustainable development for our people with a sustainable environment, Internet Culture Working Group (WG) introduces a new focus for discussion at the APNG 13th Camp: Green ICT, and thus, changing our WG name to e-Culture and Green ICT to emphasize the importance of being environmentally responsible to ~AP-ICT users and developers.
At the APNG 13th Camp, e-Culture and Green ICT Working Group would like to invite candidates who are interested in presenting their professional or academic research experiences (case studies/research papers) on the development of ICT and its implications in the Asia and Pacific to attempt to bring together a complete spectrum of social issues encountered regionally. The focus areas for the e-Culture & Green ICT WG include (but are not limited to):
*Green ~ICTs: - The Environmental Impacts of ~ICTs, - ~ICTs' Smart applications to tackle Climate Change, - Clean ICT Innovations for
*Green Future: Country - Specific case studies
*e-Culture: The topics from the previous APNG Camp's will be further discussed but theirs centre of attention will be How ICT and its applications have improved and developed human life.
*e-Services
*e-Learning and e-News (online newspapers, online TV broadcasting etc.)
*e-Health
*e-Banking and e-Business
*e-Agriculture
*Digital Governance (e-Governance, e-Democracy)
*e-Contents (Local Content, language accessibility on Internet)
*e-Entertainment (Online Games, online Karaoke, Online photo studios etc.)
*e-Society ( Facebook, Blogs, Twitter etc.)
*~ICTs for Marginalized People
*Digital Divide- Gender, Ethnic and ICT Issues
*ICT for Disabilities
*Internet Accessibility
2. Internet Technology
The 13th APNG Camp for Internet Technology Working Group seeks papers describing significant research contributions in the field of Internet Technology as awhole. We invite submissions on Next Generation of Internet Technology, Internet Humanity, Security and Privacy and Next Generation of Green Technology. We would like to invite research papers that encompass conceptual analysis, design implementation and performance evaluation. The interest areas are as below (but not limited to):
*IPV6 Issues and its application
*Internet and Application Security
*Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems
*Authentication and Access Control for Data Protection
*Issues of Internet Security- Broadband access technologies
*Case Studies on Data Management, Monitoring and Analysis
*Challenges of Content Authoring
*Data Exchange issues and Supply Chain
*Data Grids- Data and Information Quality Management
*Digital Libraries- Data Models for Production Systems and Services
*Defense Systems- Distributed Information Systems
*Government, and Corporate Internet Security Policy
*Information visualization
*Intelligent Multimedia Service and Data management
*~IPSec Quality of Services
*Knowledge Management
*Mobile, Ad Hoc and Sensor Network Security
*Mobile Data Management
*Natural Language Processing
*Internet Technologies Regulation, Self-Regulation, and Co-Regulation
*Semantic Web and Ontology
*Trust, Privacy, and Data Security
*Web Metrics and its Applications
*Web Mining including Web Intelligence and Web 3.0
*Web Services
*Wireless Transactions
*Green Internet Technologies
3. Ubiquitous Networking
Ubiquitous Networking WG calls for papers that provide technical discussions and field experiences related to ubiquitous networking. The topic includesthe following but not limited to:
*Sensors and the Internet
*Sensor applications
*Facility networks
*Satellite communication
*Ad hoc networks
*Delay or disruption tolerant networks
*Opportunistic networks
*Overlay networks
*Wireless networks
*WiFi application
*Wireless network security
*Wireless energy
*Wireless and linux embedded devices
*Wimax- Operational experiences on sensors
*Operational experiences on wireless networking
4. Disaster Management and e-Health
Asia and the pacific region is routinely exposed to almost every type of hazards, mainly natural. There should be a considerable scope for reducing hazards and improving disaster management in the region. In this work group we are mainly focusing how we can improve the Disaster Management and e-Health in the region as the joint effort. Following topics were discussed in earlier camps and would like to continue further discussions on those topics.
*Bring an awareness of the need for DM and available standards, technologies to the participants.
*Brain storm on types of disasters, categorize them and how would IT requirement differ.
*Promote DM solutions in respective countries of the participants.
*Form a group skilled in DM solutions who can volunteer to deploy and train in the event of a disaster.
*Identify other project areas that could collaborate with DM. E.g. The live-e project
*Efficient Disaster response system design proposal
*Applicability of sensor network under disaster scenario.
*Disaster preparedness and pre-disaster situation monitoring.
*eHealth for Disaster Situation Management
*eHealth Systems and Security
*eHealth Management
*eHealth Records and Software
*eHealth Projects and Ideas
*Disaster Management Projects and Ideas
We are kindly requesting submissions on above topics. However we may consider any relevant presentations on relevant projects and research.
Please send your application to ensure that it is with the Camp Secretariat before the [[deadline|APNG 13th Fellowship & Schedule]]. An acknowledgment letter shall be sent to you after you send your application to [[APNG Secretariat|mailto:sec@apngcamp.asia]]
Applicants from any part of the world will be considered, however it is expected that the majority of fellows selected will be from ~Asia-Pacific region.
The presentations/papers are expected to align with one of the following topics:
*e-Culture and Green ICT
*Internet Technology
*Ubiquitous Networking
*Disaster Managementand e- Health
Fellowship for International Applicants will cover:
*camp registration fees
*local accommodation
*local transportations
*round trip cheapest economy airfare (Full/Partial)
*meals: Lunch, Refreshments and Dinner will be provided during camp period
The final grant size is determined according to final costs and available funding, of which successful applicants will be duly informed.
If you meet the criteria for fellowship mentioned above and you are interested in joining the future AP Leaders, we encourage you to apply tothe 13th APNG Camp. Please prepare the following documents and submit them to us within the applications deadline mentioned.
*Fellowship application form
*A two page paper
*Presentation file (please aim 15-20 minutes presentation time including question and answer)
All applications will be reviewed by the APNG Fellowship Selection Committee and only those applications will be evaluated who meet the above-mentioned selection criteria and submitted to the camp secretariat within the defined timelines. The final decision of selecting any applicant is with Camp Chair/Executive Committee.
Dates to Remember
The following deadlines will apply to the APNG 13th Camp Fellowship Program:
*Public Announcement: 25 September 2010
*Fellowship Applications Deadline: ''30 November 2010''
*Selection Announcement: 10 December 2010
To get good chances for fellowship you are required to complete the form in all respects.
The 13th Asia Pacific Next Generation (APNG) Camp will be held on 21-25 February 2011 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Wanchai North, Hong Kong. The 13th Camp will be held in conjunction with [[APRICOT-APAN 2011|http://apan.net/meetings/HongKong2011/31st_APAN_Call_for_Papers.php]], the first ever joint event of APRICOT and APAN making it the biggest internet conference in Asia Pacific.
<<tabs APNG
Basic "First tab" [[APNG 13th Basic Info]]
Call "Second tab" [[APNG 13th Call for Participation]]
Schedule "Third tab" [[APNG 13th Fellowship & Schedule]]
>>
It was the second anniversary of [[Asia Source II]] which happened last January 22-30, 2007 in Sukabumi, Indonesia.
[img[Asia Source II in Lembang near Bandung|blog/image120s.jpg]]
//I had a chance of meeting people from all over the world during the said event. This makes me feel as part of the world citizen.//
It is nice to notice that we still have contact through emails in the mailing list. I took this opportunity to update their most recent [[blog links|Some blog rolls]] here.
Actually I love to visit any of the blog while browsing since I know them in person :)
See ya.
I attended [[ASEAN OSS workshop|Workshop on Open Source Software in Indonesia]] held in Jakarta for two days with only 19 participants on the occasion of launching OSS from the government of Indonesia. The theme is "Strengthening Cooperation on Open Source Software among the ASEAN Countries".
[img[ASEAN OSS|blog/OSS_ristek.jpg]]
The links are http://www.ristek.go.id/index.php?mod=News&conf=v&id=2298 and
http://www.igos.web.id/
Further repository can be found here at http://www.igos-nusantara.or.id
The Linux OS called IGOS is derived from Fedora core 7 (now 8). Several questions were posed like localization, putting on a flash disk, etc.
I met few participants from overseas countries which are,
Reasmey Keo (CIStrain) and Volak Sao, both from Cambodia
Khamthaen and Khamla Phouminh, both from Laos
Mie Mie Thet Thwin, a software engineering professor from Myanmar
Tran Cong Yen - Deputy Director ICT ministry, Vietnam
and many from the Indonesia participants, and facilitators.
Should any of you need their respective contact emails, just drop me an email.
MySQL AB develops and supports a family of high-performance, affordable database products. The company's flagship offering is 'MySQL Enterprise', a comprehensive set of production-tested software, proactive monitoring tools, and premium support services.
[[MySQL|http://www.mysql.com/news-and-events/press-release/release_2008_03.html]] is the world's most popular open source database software. Many of the world's largest and fastest-growing organizations use MySQL to save time and money powering their high-volume Web sites, business-critical systems and packaged software -- including industry leaders such as Yahoo!, Alcatel-Lucent, Google, Nokia, YouTube and Booking.com. With headquarters in the United States and Sweden -- and operations around the world -- MySQL AB supports both open source values and corporate customers' needs.
MySQL's open source database is the "M" in LAMP - the software platform comprised of Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP/Perl often viewed as the foundation of the Internet. Sun is committed to enhancing and optimizing the LAMP stack on GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows along with OpenSolaris and MAC OS X. The database from MySQL, OpenSolaris and GlassFish, together with Sun's Java platform and NetBeans communities, will create a powerful Web application platform across a wide range of customers shifting their applications to the Web.
More than 100 million copies of MySQL's high-performance open source database software have been downloaded and distributed and an additional 50,000 copies are downloaded daily. This broad penetration coupled with MySQL's strength in Web 2.0, Software as a Service (SaaS), enterprise, telecom and the OEM embedded market make it an important fit for Sun. With MySQL, Sun will have the ability to deepen its existing customer relationships and create new opportunities with companies seeking the flexibility and ease-of-use of open source systems.
MySQL's open source database is widely deployed across all major operating systems, hardware vendors, geographies, industries and application types. The complementary product line-ups will extend MySQL's database reach and are expected to bring new markets for Sun's systems, virtualization, middleware and storage platforms.
Do you know where your coffee comes from?
* You need approximately 2,000 berries to make one pound of coffee.
* The average cup of coffee contains more than 1,000 different chemical components, none of which is tasted in isolation but only as part of the overall flavor.
* The world's costliest coffee, at more than $130 for 500 grams, is called Kopi Luwak. It is in the droppings of a type of marsupial that eats only the very best coffee beans. Plantation workers track them and scoop their precious poop.
* Carbonated water, with nothing else in it, can dissolve limestone, talc and many other low-Moh's hardness minerals. Carbonated water is the main ingredient in soda pop.
* Pepsi originally contained pepsin, thus the name.
* ~Coca-Cola contains neither coca nor cola.
* ~Coca-Cola was originally green.
* The ~Coca-Cola company is the biggest consumer of sugar in the world.
* Chocolate manufacturers currently use 40 percent of the world's almonds and 20 percent of the world's peanuts.
* Reindeer milk has more fat than cow milk.
* The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
More info see [[coffee wikia|http://coffee.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page]].
From [[Latreia|mailto:latreia@justice.com]]
Manila, 3 February 2007
Vista, Microsoft's newest operating system, could trigger a deluge of E-waste in developing countries, Greenpeace warned today. The group argues that with Vista, more companies and individuals may feel the need to replace their existing computers sooner as these become incompatible with the new operating system.
The result: massive volumes of computer scrap in dirty recycling yards and dumpsites in the Philippines, Thailand, and in other Asian countries where most of the world's E-waste dumps are located.
"With Vista, Microsoft could effectively hasten the obsolescence of half the world's PCs, especially in the absence of fully-functioning global take back systems for PCs," said Greenpeace Southeast Asia Toxics Campaigner Beau Baconguis. "Companies will feel the need to upgrade more computers sooner and when they do, the world is unfortunately not prepared for the massive E-waste the upgrades will generate."
"As it is, the current environmental policies of computer companies are not enough to provide an effective solution to the growing mountains of toxic electronic waste from computer components. Microsoft should have factored in these consequences and should have laid out mitigating measures to minimize the problem of obsolescence, before they started introducing new innovations. Innovation should not translate to more pollution," she added.
A study conducted by SoftChoice Corporation stated that 50% of the current breed of personal computers are "below Windows Vista's basic system requirements" while 94% are not equipped to run on Windows Vista Premium edition.
The ability of PCs to be easily upgraded is also important if the massive volumes of E-waste is to be prevented. Greenpeace has been engaging manufacturers of PCs and mobile phones to phase out toxic substances in their products and institute take-back mechanisms for the same products at the end of their useful lives. The demand comes with a challenge to PC manufacturers to design their products so that these may be easily upgraded, disassembled, and recycled properly.
"We maintain that the useful lives of existing electronic and computer equipment should be prolonged as much as possible. In the end, this is about social responsibility. The idea that software innovation would result in more mountains of computer scrap ending up in the dumps of Asia and Africa, contaminating the environment, and affecting the health of communities, is both offensive and intolerable," said Baconguis.
Greenpeace is an independent, campaigning organization which uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environment problems, and to force the solutions which are essential to a green and peaceful future.
Three major themes are are E-Infrastructure, E-Management, and E-Advocacy, which modules ranging from 'knowledge management and team collaboration using web tools' to 'how to setup and run a community radio'.
Every materials are designed on open and peer-to-peer principles, towards the use of free and open source softwares, as well as open-standard tools, for sustainability and efficiency.
Workshop modules are grouped in three tracks:
*e-Infrastructure: Informatics infrastructure for social development. Including mesh network, wifi, community telephony, mobile power generator. Ground the working environment.
*e-Management: Information management and online collaboration. Run the unit smoothly. Information literacy. Doing research online. Information policy. Security and privacy.
*e-Advocacy: Online advocacy and social media strategies. Information activism. Communicate the message and turn information into actions.
Every workshop modules will be based on open source, open participation, and peer-to-peer principles.
Suggestions on modules and workshop structure are very welcome. Please write to arthit (at) gmail.com.
Singapore Airlines took delivery of its first Airbus A380 megaplane on Oct. 15, and the world's largest passenger jet enters service on Oct. 25 with a round-trip Singapore-to-Sydney flight. Most seats were sold at auction on eBay (EBAY), with proceeds going to charity. Regularly scheduled service between Singapore and Sydney will begin on Oct. 28.
[img[Airbus 380|blog/A380s.jpg]]
Airbus 380 finally delivered to Singapore Airlines
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/10/1015_singaporeA380/index_01.htm
//I would say that with about 500 passengers of 800 max on board the Airbus 380 means a whole 'kampong' will fly. Read more here//
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/oct2007/gb20071015_622639.htm
Nearly two years behind schedule, the A380 finally will enter commercial service this month, flying between Singapore and Sydney. But its interior design was kept top secret until Oct. 15, when Singapore Airlines threw open the doors for visitors after formally taking delivery of the plane from Airbus in Toulouse, France.
Other, subtler differences could make flying on the A380 more pleasant than on older planes, though. The A380's engines are noticeably quieter. The cabin pressure will be higher, the air less dry, and the cabin lighting will automatically brighten and dim to mimic changing light outdoors—all of which should make travel less fatiguing. Boeing is promising similar interior improvements on its [[787 Dreamliner|http://www.freightdawg.com/2007/10/dreamliner-dela.html ]] so it is being delayed.
//I'm hoping that the Airbus 380 could be environmental friendly.//
Aloe vera as it is commonly known, is a succulent plant with amazing healing properties. In botanical Latin aloe vera is known as Aloe barbadensis. Aloe being the genus and barbadensis being the species. Aloe barbadensis is named after the place where the plant was first documented, Barbados.
Many people use prepared aloe vera juice in their companion’s diet (and for themselves too), but why use prepared aloe juice over homemade?
To begin with, there are a few advantages of using an aloe juice over the use of an actual aloe plant. The biggest reason is that once an aloe plant is opened and the gel exposed to oxygen, rapid oxidation begins. Within hours the gel goes rancid (even if refrigerated).
Aloe juice needs to be stabilized with preservatives. One of the preservatives used is vitamin C (citric acid). In many cases potassium sorbate is also used and so is benzoic acid (otherwise know as sodium benzoate).
However, it is important to note that benzoic acid is a known toxin to cats and should be avoided. So buy an aloe juice or gel without this ingredient.
Obviously another benefit of using a prepared aloe juice is we don’t have to do any work. Furthermore, if you have ever used an aloe leaf on your skin, you’ve probably noticed that your skin is sticky after applying the leaf. This is because the juice or the medicinal properties were not able to break free of the fibers of the plant, thus keeping the medicinal properties on the skin’s surface.
To separate fibers from the juice, high heat is needed for a few seconds. This does kill some of the natural enzymes in the juice; nonetheless, most of the enzymes remain, but more importantly the body can now use the medicinal properties quite easily both internally and externally.
A simple way to determine the quality of an aloe vera juice is to take a few drops and put it on the back of your hand. If you notice that within minutes it is completely absorbed and the area is now soft and smooth with no residue, then that means the quality is good and the aloe will be more likely absorbed by the body both internally and/or externally. The faster the absorption by your hand, the higher the grade.
When buying aloe juice, remember to avoid cold processed aloe juice and aloe juice preserved with benzoic acid (sodium benzoate).
But what exactly does aloe do for the body and why should it be used?
Well, as most people are aware, the processing of food removes many vital parts of the food and the delicate enzymes which are so important to good health are destroyed.
Enzymes essentially help the body break down the food and help with the chemical processes of food in the body’s system. An enzyme starved diet can be a chief cause of poor health and premature aging.
Cells and tissues require constant nourishment and aloe vera juice aids by assisting in the assimilation of foods, vitamins, and nutrients, thus giving you more health for your money.
Aloe vera juice is naturally rich in:
*Vitamin C which helps maintain tone of blood vessels and promotes good circulation.
*Vitamin C is essential to the health of the adrenal gland which supports our body in times of stress
*Amino acids which are chains of atoms constructing protein in our body.
*Enzymes which are the life-principle in every live, organic atom and molecule of natural raw food and in constitution of any living animal. Enzymes rejuvenate aged tissues and promote healthy skin.
*Germanium which is a mineral whose function is controversial; however, some health authorities claim therapeutic benefits for: immunodeficiency, pain, cardiac disorders, circulatory disturbances and eye problems.
Aloe vera juice is one of the finest body cleansers and brings most gratifying results. It cleans the morbid matter from the stomach, liver, kidneys, spleen, bladder, and it’s the finest colon cleanser known. In turn, this process purifies the blood.
It is healing and soothing in the relief of indigestion, stomach distress and ulcers. Others claim relief from arthritis, bladder and kidney infections; leg cramps, constipation, hemorrhoids, insomnia, and for vaginitis, it is an excellent vaginal douche.
An excellent internal tonic for energy and well being, you’ll find it convenient and beneficial to use aloe juice in your companion’s daily diet.
Aloe juice will add greatly to the strength of the food fed, digestive tract, skin, and overall good health and happiness of your companion. Aloe juice is a basic supplement that should always be used.
http://www.pet-grub.com/animaltales/aloe.pets
The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), ~InWEnt Capacity Building International, Germany, is organizing the [[1st Interdisciplinary Alumni Conference in Southeast Asia "Regional Integration in Southeast Asia: Leadership Challenges and Network Building"|http://gc21.inwent.org/alumni-hanoi]].
Dates: 30th of June to 2nd of July 2010
Venue: Melia Hano Hotel, Hanoi, Vietnam
Registration deadline: 1st of May 2010
In the Southeast Asian region the challenge is to provide leadership in managing regional interdependence and its impact and in overcoming some inherent contradictions between being competitive and being part of a community. For an ASEAN community to evolve leadership is needed in state sector, private sector and civil society: More people-to-people interactions through common projects, networks, virtual networks, commerce and others to make the single countries, this region and their international cooperation more stable and prosperous.
The conference hosts representatives from governments, international organisations, ~NGOs businesses and business-driven organisations and academia. Among them, the largest group will be the ~InWEnt Alumni from South East Asia - ranging from high ranking executives to talented young professionals.
The overall audience should not exceed a maximum of 200 participants in order to allow for high levels of interaction. Invited participants of the conference are welcome to discuss and disseminate innovative approaches on how to enhance regional integration to respond to global challenges. By offering an interdisciplinary dialogue forum dealing with the challenges and opportunities arising, the conference will showcase the good practices and past achievements.
With the rich experience of our Alumni we hope to spot new ways for Southeast Asia to indicate possible elements for a more successful development of a worldwide globalization process of a world economy.
At the conference, various working groups are organized by the InWEnt divisions, to discuss sub-topics of the overall conference theme. At a net-working session all participants are invited to meet and interact with each other in view of enlarging the partnership network. The conference will be held in English.
//My comment, he is an excellent guitarist with clarity in every tunes because of his formal training. The play is too perfect but lack of emotion, suitable for teaching. You can download the midis and MP3s music and played on your own, and study the chords as well. //
He started to learn classical guitar seriously at age 12 under guitar instructors from Yayasan Musik Indonesia (under Yamaha Music Foundation license) and passed grade 3 (the highest grade) certificate in Yamaha Classical Guitar Examination. He also plays non-classical music and arranged popular songs for classical guitar.
http://www.geocities.com/jubing/index2.html
My name is [[Jubing Kristianto|http://www.geocities.com/jubing/about.html]] (b. 1966), he said in his blog. My formal education is not related with guitar. I was graduated from Faculty of Social & Political Sciences, Universitas Indonesia, majoring on Criminology. In 1990 I was working as reporter, editor, and managing editor at NOVA, a weekly tabloid for women in Indonesia.
From July 2003 I've resigned from my job as journalist to become a guitar player and guitar teacher. Some of the pieces I've arranged had helped me won the Yamaha Indonesia Guitar Festival in free section or non-classical section (1987, 1992, 1994, and 1995).
During the last five months, if we saw these words it might have meant the death of our pets, food borne illness or perhaps poisoning. [My favorite editorial cartoon on this subject showed two people holding the same product. One was saying “A great dessert topping!” The other saying “Cleans even the toughest stains”].
POSTED: Thursday, August 02, 2007
FROM BLOG: Scientific Blogging - 25 of the world's top scientists write on the latest developments in space, medicine, biology,earth science, physics and neuroscience.
The following blog post is from an independent writer and is not connected with Reuters News. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by Reuters.com.
http://www.reuters.com/article/blogBurst/topNews?type=topNews&w1=B7ovpm21IaDoL40ZFnNfGe&w2=B9KobpniDQffCOR77fHrDXw&src=blogBurst_topNews&bbPostId=Cz5Ev0JdU2gZtB5hCCYBscaP5BAQLiJDNErV8CzBiGGgwGVF40&bbParentWidgetId=B7qp5dlHYnIr2YRoUoOjnxK
Fifteen years ago, when Americans went shopping and came across the phrase “Made in China” it usually was on small, inexpensive trinkets, toys and souvenirs. Ten years ago we started to see these words on apparel. Five years ago we started to see these words seemingly everywhere.
The Chinese government of course has taken this issue very seriously as the avalanche of billions of dollars of exports is being put at risk. Doing what they have historically done, they executed the former government official who had been the head of the State Food and Drug Administration for taking bribes and looking the other way on issues of safety and product production.
In the last week they have also closed down the companies that have shipped poisonous products overseas. We certainly need to hold the Chinese accountable for any and all defective and life threatening products that make it to the U.S. The historical levels of government oversight in the production of goods, be it labor conditions or product quality is much lower in China, and many other developing countries for that matter, than in the U.S.
The larger context through which this issue must be viewed is that China is going through a process that has never occurred with any country in history, at least with any major international power. China is going from being a basically agricultural society to becoming both an industrial and information powerhouse. The agricultural age started 10,000 years ago. The industrial age started 300 years ago and the information started 30 years ago. China is collapsing a 300 year long cultural transition into 25 years. In 1975, China was an insular, agrarian society with a third world economy.
Now they are one of the most economically dominant countries in the world. They are dealing with issues and new situations in years that most other countries took decades to pass through. No wonder there is horrendous pollution and environmental degradation, slave labor, unhealthy products and an extreme difference between abject poverty and incredible wealth. It is going to take some years to bring a level of stability and government oversight to this exploding economy.
While doing research for a recent speech I was looking at the historical trends of trademarks and patents. I discovered a treasure trove of interesting numbers, which I will most likely comment on in future columns. However, three things jumped out at me regarding China.
First, in 1975 they were not even on the radar in terms of the number of patents issued within the country. In 2000 they issued some 13,000 but in 2005 they issued more that 53,000 [by comparison the U.S. numbers were 157,000 and 144,000]. This now puts them in fourth place after the U.S., Japan and South Korea, and moving up fast.
Second, in terms of trademarks, which are more related to business creation than intellectual property creation, the numbers are nothing less than amazing. In 1975, China was not even on the list of the top countries. By 2000 they were the number one country with 151,000 and in 2005 the number of trademarks had jumped to 260,000. By comparison the numbers for the U.S. were 109,000 and 132,000, in both cases second place.
Third, after the U.S., China is now the second largest country in the world in term of manufacturing. In 1975 they were fifth in the world. An interesting historical footnote that completely surprised me is that in 1750, and again in 1800, China was the number one manufacturing country in the world. In both cases India/Pakistan was second. Since this was before the industrial age took root, these numbers largely reflect agricultural production and trade.
In 1850 China was tied with the United Kingdom for first place. Of course, from 1900 through 2006, the U.S. is far and away number one, with a 45% share of all global manufacturing in 1950 and 29% in 2006. Predictions are that in 2015, China will surpass the U.S. when both countries will each have about 20% of the global manufacturing output. What was old is soon to be new.
It occurred to me that there is another way to compare the U.S. and China. In the U.S., it was basically the time from the Civil War to WW1 that the country fully moved from being an agricultural country to an industrial one. [After all it was the industrial North that defeated the agricultural South in the Civil War].
That was a span of 50 years. During that time all the oversight and legislation regarding production began to be put in place, thanks in large part to the muckrakers and their campaigns. China is going through this same process in less than 20 years. This means that the governmental oversight of this exploding production engine of a country is going to constantly have to struggle to keep up.
Yes, China is going to be one of the most dominant economic powers in the decades ahead. We all know that. It is how they manage this historically unparalleled speed and magnitude of growth that will determine if “Made in China” becomes a respected and valued brand.
"In an ironic twist, I now see Good to Great not as a sequel to Built to Last, but more of a prequel. Good to Great is about how to turn a good organization into one that produces sustained great results. Built to Last is about how you take a company with great results and turn it into an enduring great company of iconic stature." Jim Collins
By Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras
http://www.harpercollins.com/author/authorExtra.aspx?authorID=20247&isbn13=9780060516406&displayType=readingGuide
An Introduction
What distinguishes a successful company from the kind of company whose very name becomes a cultural icon, whose place is fixed in the public consciousness? An innovative and inspiring study of the culture and longevity of some of America's most successful organizations, Built to Last is a blueprint for building organizations that will endure long into the twenty-first century.
In Built to Last, James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras identify the unique characteristics of visionary companies and show how any business can cultivate them. From Merck to Philip Morris, from General Electric to Nordstrom, from Ford to Sony, visionary companies display an amazing resilience and an unshakable commitment to their core ideology that allows them to surpass even their more temporarily successful competitors and achieve a lasting place in the cultural landscape.
By examining the founding and history of these companies, the ways in which they have handled both adversity and success, and their continued commitment to their corporate identity, Collins and Porras reveal the unique characteristics of these visionary companies and show what actions other companies may take to achieve the same level of long-lasting performance.
Questions for Discussion of Built to Last
*Why do you think the authors chose to use the term "visionary" to describe the companies profiled in the book rather than "successful" or "great"?
*The authors state that "as extraordinary as they are, the visionary companies do not have perfect, unblemished records" and then cite specific examples: Walt Disney faced a serious cash flow crisis in 1939 which forced it to go public. Boeing had serious difficulties in the mid-1930s, the late 1940s, and again in the 1970s when it laid off over sixty thousand employees. What allowed these two and the other visionary companies to bounce back from severe adversity?
*Myth number one debunked in the book is that "it takes a great idea to start a great company." Do you agree that this is a myth? Cite some examples of visionary companies that did not start with a great idea. Discuss the other myths that the authors "shatter."
*The authors quote Bill Hewlett of Hewlett-Packard as saying, "When I talk to business schools occasionally, the professor of management is devastated when I say that we didn't have any plans when we started-we were just opportunistic. We did anything that would bring in a nickel." Why do you think this is a disconcerting notion to many people, in this particular case to management professors? What is that they want to hear?
*Which of the visionary companies do you think is the most successful, and why? How do its business practices differ from its "comparison" company?
*The authors believe their findings "will apply more in the twenty-first century than in the twentieth. In particular, the essential ideas to come from our work…will continue to be key concepts long into the future." Do you agree that their findings will endure well into the future? Are any of the "visionary" companies, in your opinion, not as successful today as they were when the authors first wrote about them in 1995?
Questions for Discussion about both Built to Last and Good to Great
*The catalyst for Good to Great came about in part because a McKinsey partner remarked to Jim Collins that the companies written about in Built to Last "were, for the most part, always great. They never had to turn themselves from good companies into great companies… But what about the vast majority of companies that wake up and part way through life and realize that they're good, but not great?" What do you think of this statement? What is there to be learned from each of the books?
*Jim Collins said that [[Good to Great|http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780066620992/Good_to_Great/index.aspx ]] is a prequel to Built to Last. Do you see it this way? Do the two books work in tandem with one another?
*In Good to Great, Wells Fargo is profiled as one of the "good-to-great" companies. In Built to Last, Wells Fargo is not one of the visionary companies but rather the comparison for visionary company American Express. Discuss the implications of this.
*Collins states, "We believe that almost any organization can substantially improve its stature and performance, perhaps even become great, if it conscientiously applies the framework of ideas we've uncovered." Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not? In what instances do you think the concepts set forth in Good to Great and Built to Last would work best? In what instance do you think they would not be successful? Do you think the theories laid out in each of the books can be applied to any industry?
*Which of the company success stories did you find the most surprising, and why?
I was again sponsored by [[InWEnt|http://www.inwent.org]] to attend a source camp in the Philippines. This time I had to be there before the actual camp had started. I had to leave my work and forgot everything else behind.
This [[Asia Source 3|http://www.asiasource3.net]] was my second source camp in three years, the first was [[Asia Source II]]. I was not only participating but also facilitating in one of the tracks.
Despite the rough moment when I arrived at [[Manila airport|http://www.moveandstay.com/manila/guide_introduction.asp]], I was able to endure a very long ten days of camp life. This was really a contained camp without being able to go out, no visitation, no medical help, less internet, less signal. It was good for people looking for seclusion and think this is the only place that they ever need. The ambience was so good in [[Silang|http://maps.google.com/maps?q=silang+cavite+map&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&split=0&gl=ph&ei=MhSnSuzcOJqe6gOGjrCgBg&ll=14.219792,121.010284&spn=0.342787,0.617294&z=11&iwloc=A]] that I was cured in two days after my arrival. The site in [[IIRR|http://www.iirr.org/index.php/aboutus/yencenter]] was larger than Asia Source II in [[Yawitra|Yawitra resort ]] but I am quickly accustomed to big places.
<html><a href="http://www.asiasource3.net/">
<img src="blog/facilitators.jpg" width="400"
alt="Among the facilitors in Asia Source 3">
</a></html>
The actual camp life existed for six days with approximately 150 participants from 17 different countries. During that time we gathered all for free and open source software knowledge share-about.
Since I have been in both Asia Source camps, I can feel the difference between the two. This time we communicate via facebook which was not in Asia Source II. I met new facilitators with a few from Asia Source I (Bangalore). Many guest participants were encountered too like people from [[Kyrgystan|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrgyzstan]] and from the [[German alumni club|http://www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/apd-english-version.html]]. I felt this camp was rushed to accomodate all the participants but eventually all went well. The morning and afternoon sessions were scheduled in time although the evening programs were not properly scheduled in the [[agenda|http://www.iosnasean.net/as3/]].
There was no music to indicate time of gathering in the main hall which was provided during Asia Source II, I missed that.
It seemed that the food was rationed although everyone was well fed. I spotted this already in the first day of camp. The food was too much in meat with less vegetables (only two dishes in [>img[A modest lunch|blog/dish.jpg]]the menu) and people were going into the vegetarian table to get additional and for a balance of healthy food. This was not happening in my former source camps that I have attended. The caterer should learn of something about food combining, serving lots of people will not be that easy. The coffee was no good, I did //lost// my usual taste of Java coffee in the morning:(
This was an important meetup to explore the world of FOSS in the form of source camp and promote it as well. I also think that the organiser had been working just too hard to make this event went off succesfully. Kudos to them! Am feeling part of them.
[[Asia Source 3 Call for Participation]]
The eight Asia Open Source Software Symposium or AOSSS was a two days event held in Denpasar, Indonesia in February 2007 for development of OSS whether it's free or not. The event was attended by practitioners from Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and ASEAN member countries.
http://www.asia-oss.org/
The popularity of Open Source Software (OSS) has grown at an astonishing rate such that government, business sector, academy, R&D related organizations, and community groups have been expecting its policy to promote the use of open source software. The major advantage of open source software includes operation/development cost reduction, computer security raise, and, ultimately, competitiveness gain in software business and industry. However, in those economies which are slow in their economic development, the main focus concerns distribution of low-cost, rather than the most powerful PCs. open source software can contribute greatly to this issues.
Another issues involves the growing gap in the information society or the problem of digital divide, due to enormously varied degrees of technological advances, Government policy, and knowledge and understanding of open source software among the participating economies. This leads to the need for Asian economies to cooperate in order to bridge the growing gap. This also involves promoting open source software.
At the same time, whereas various kinds of organizations and communities conduct development and promotion activities under different circumstances/levels in order for information sharing, regional and international cooperative network including organizations and communities, have not been fully connected to share their knowledge and experience.
In the tradition of [[source camps|http://www.tacticaltech.org/node/476]], Asia Source 3 will bring in participants from various subregions of the Asian continent, who share common goals of pursuing the Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) advocacy and its promotion and use among non-profit organizations, small-to-medium enterprises and youth networks.
If you are a F/OSS advocate, an enthusiast or end-user, a developer or even a newbie who strongly believes in building capacities and empowering humanity with the use of Free/Open Source Software, we look forward to welcome you to Asia Source 3 event to connect, cooperate, and collaborate – the F/OSS way.
The third event of the Asia source camp series, two of which have been held so far – in Bangalore, India in 2005 [>img[Silang, Cavite |blog/silang.jpg][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silang,_Cavite]]and [[Sukabumi, Indonesia in 2007|Asia Source II]] – the 6-day learn-and-share event will be held from 7 to 12 November 2009 at the lush greens and quiet cool environs of the Yen Center – home to the Headquarters and Regional Center for Asia of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) – located in Silang, a landlocked municipality south of Metro Manila, within the historic [[Province of Cavite|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavite]], the Philippines.
Asia Source 3 offers applicants to choose one among four (4) F/~OSS-themed track sessions:
ONE: Managing Your Information
TWO: Migrating to F/OSS
THREE: Broadcasting Your Information
FOUR: Joining the F/OSS Community / Using F/OSS Tools
[[Call for participation|http://www.iosn.net/asean-3/final_call_asiasource3]]
If you would like to participate, you will need to attend the entire event, which means arriving in Manila on or before the 6th and leaving on or after the 13th of November 2009.
To be eligible to attend, you will need to send a completed [[application form|http://www.iosn.net/asean-3/as3_application_form_v7/view]] by the 21st of September 2009 by noon GMT.
Applications from women and those within and working with the youth sector are highly encouraged.
[[ASIA SOURCE 3|http://www.iosn.net/asean-3/asia-source-3-is-coming]] brought to you by The International Open Source Network (IOSN) ASEAN+3 with support from ~InWEnt Capacity Building International, Germany, ASEAN Foundation, and Open Society Institute Information Program and co-organized by Tactical Technology Collective and Aspiration.
In January 2007, an event called Asia Source II has taken place in Sukabumi in western Java with over than 130 participants from 27 countries.
Asia Source II was a nine days camp style event to promote the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) instead of using proprietary software. This event was organised by UNDP APDIP via [[IOSN|http://wiki.asiasource2.iosn.net]], [[InWEnt|http://www.it-inwent.org/itfoss/content/e133/e500/e708/index_eng.html]], [[Tactical Technologies|http://www.tacticaltech.org/asiasource2]], [[Aspiration|http://www.aspirationtech.org/events/AsiaSourceII]], ICT watch and many others. I have the honour of participating in this event.
The goal of the source camp is to motivate and facilitate the adoption of Open Source Software as tools, and also as a mind-set and attitude that promotes the use of open source software for communities to minimize the digital divide.
[[Asia Source II|http://asiasource2.iosn.net]] is a community building event in the spirit of free and open source software. Asia Source II seeks to build the skills and networks of those in the region who are working within NGO and SME sector, and be aware of FOSS.
[img[Grouping togetherness|blog/image493s.jpg]]
It is obvious that free software licenses can minimize cost and the manufacturer can profit by maintaining or supporting the applications on subscriber basis.
To be free is not new to get lots of clients, I remember when Netscape and Hotmail had launched their applications for free and they have gained eversince. Imagine when they got millions of users, and some ten percent of them are subcribed for a few bucks per month. Getting clients is not easy than to go free in the first place.
The Google is another story, they have gained from ads because they've got already a lot of users.
[[Reminiscences in Retrospective from Asia Source II part 1]]
[[Reminiscences in Retrospective from Asia Source II part 2]]
[[Comments for track 2 sessions]]
[[Asia Source II does not end in Sukabumi]]
[[Track 4 Participants with animal names]]
[[Asiasource2, six months after ]]
Event info: http://www.tacticaltech.org/asiasource/
Wiki: http://wiki.asiasource.tacticaltech.org/
Asia Source 2 group on [[Facebook|http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7992631404]] and [[Linkedin|http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1039217]]
[[Asia Source II on Wikipedia|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia_Source_II]]
By [[Jamil Ahmed|mailto:itsjamil@gmail.com]] - Bangladesh
After 9 days of magic and community interaction, the Asia Source II camp has come to an end at Sukabumi, Indonesia. We made our last goodbyes at the airport and started going back home, most of us pretty sad because the camp made us all realize that we are pretty much brothers and sisters in the same continent.
[img[Track 3 members|blog/image297s.jpg]]
I've been to a lot of camps and conferences before, but Asia Source II is different. We had very meager facilities, the Internet access was flaky, power interruptions, the list goes on. Our favorite peeves were the availability of hot water and western toilets. But for some reason, the camp's aim of providing FOSS technology to NGOs and SMEs in the region was overshadowed when the participants themselves grouped together and face the challenges back home knowing that they can always rely on the advice of their Asian brothers and sisters from the camp. In the end, language and culture wasn't a barrier anymore. We all live in one place with similar issues and problems that we can fix if we do it together as one family.
[img[Track 1 members|blog/image00001s.jpg]]
The biggest fun of being in the source camp is meeting all these amazing people involved in FOSS one way or another, regardless of skill level. We all came together to Yawitra Asri to learn from each other and have fun as well.
We may have said our goodbyes at the airport, with the fact that some of us may not see each other physically for quite a long time or perhaps not at all. But I've always remembered a teaching by the Dalai Lama that there are billions of stars in the universe and yet their light travels billions of miles away so that we can see it from the Earth. We are just thousands of miles apart, so our light can easily shine on each other if we do it so.
Thanks for the memories. Asia Source II didn't end in Sukabumi. Our jouney has just begun.
Credit: Jamil (Bangladesh)
Indonesian Information Technology and Communications Director General Cahyana Ahmadijaya said the important thing in switching to OSS are efforts to change illegal software users into legal ones.
[[Asia Pulse Pte Ltd. 02/14/07 7:40 AM PT|http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/55751.html]]
"With a development in OSS, people can choose between expensive and free proprietary software, both of which are legal. So, the important thing is that OSS would be a smart choice," he said.
Asian countries have started switching from proprietary software such as Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) to open source software, it was reported Tuesday at the eight annual [[Asia Open Source Software Symposium]] (AOSSS) in Denpasar, Indonesia.
Experts and information technology practitioners from Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and ASEAN member countries are attending the conference.
Japan Leading the Way
Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's Information Service Industry director Katsuhiko Kaji said Japan has long been using open source software (OSS), but its government officially declared the development of OSS in March last year. Japan has already taken a 20 percent advantage of OSS, he said.
It was reported that Cambodia, China, India, Pakistan, South Korea and Taiwan have already switched to OSS.
Cambodian Human Resources Development Deputy Secretary General and Information Technology and Communications Development Body's Free Open Source Software (FOSS) Division Chief Noy Shoung said his country has already switched to open source beginning this year and will fully use the OSS in 2008.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Information Technology and Communications Director General Cahyana Ahmadijaya said the important thing in switching to OSS are efforts to change illegal software users into legal ones.
"With a development in OSS, people can choose between expensive and free proprietary software, both of which are legal. So, the important thing is that OSS would be a smart choice," he said.
Capable Replacement
Indonesian Research and Technology Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman, who was a keynote speaker at the symposium, said the government has already developed several OSS applications like IGOS Nusantara 2006, which is capable of replacing MS Windows, and Open Office, which can replace MS Office.
OSS, he said, is not only a product that can replace expensive software but also something that enabled people to innovate open codes for other applications like Linux, Apache and MySQL.
The two-day symposium, themed the Utilization of OSS to Close Digital Gap and Economic Impact, is aimed at developing the initiative of OSS products in Asian states.
The first symposium was held in Thailand in March 2003, the second in Singapore in November 2003, the third in Vietnam in March 2004, the fourth in Taiwan in September 2004, the fifth in China in March 2005, the sixth in Sri Lanka in September 2005 and the seventh in Malaysia in March 2006.
I found this book while flipping in a book store and read a glimpse of the book. I didn't bought the book for US$ 18 because it was the first edition. The author has come out with the second edition.
This book is about "The Dark Side of Business in Asia" as of 1998. It thus skips lightly over conditions in Hong Kong and Singapore - which are excellent - and dwells only occasionally on conditions in Malaysia - which are fairly good by Asian standards.
http://www.futurecasts.com/Book_review_9.htm
It does not relate any of the "success" stories of Western business in Asia. Of course, it might just be a little bit difficult to get most of the parties to candidly relate all the factors on which such success was built.
Instead, it is crony capitalism and mercantilist policies that [[Michael Backman|http://www.business-in-asia.com/books/mbackman.html ]] dwells on - in Thailand, Indonesia, and Korea - where such policies have caused devastating problems - and in China and Japan - where similar problems in these vast economic systems threaten to grow to devastating proportions. Problems with the commercial environment in the Philippines are also covered, and particular problems in some of the other Asian nations are touched upon.
The book sets forth the staggering and pervasive levels of corruption and influence peddling that comprise the heart and sole of "Asian values." It also includes accounts of efforts by Asian business interests to influence Western politicians and expand their corrupt practices into Western commerce. Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party - being the party in power at the time - was a primary target. Hundreds of thousands of dollars funneled into Clinton and Democratic coffers by Asian businessmen with extensive ties to Communist China coincided with an evolving Clinton Administration China policy that was far more friendly and accommodating at its end than at its beginning. Backman, however, properly offers no opinion as to whether this policy change was in fact in the best interest of the United States or whether it was in any way influenced by those substantial donations.
The limits of Asian Crisis reform efforts - the lack of enforcement of those reforms that were enacted - and the continuation of the corrupt and incestuous business practices of the past - as of the middle of 1998 - are also set forth.
The book emphasizes the complications and limitations of the family owned enterprise and conglomerate enterprise system that is the dominant form of business in much of Asia. Anyone contemplating an investment in - or a business relationship with - the typical Asian company must examine not just the company itself, but the family behind the company, and the many affiliates.
About the author
Michael Backman is an internationally renowned writer, columnist and speaker. He specialises in writing and speaking about Asia: its economies, politics, business groups and business practices. He has a well-earned reputation for thorough, independent and highly-detailed analysis. He divides his time between writing, speaking engagements and occasional consulting. He has lived in London, Paris, Jakarta, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra.
http://www.michaelbackman.com/about_Michael_Backman.html
Backman is also the co-author of Big in Asia, and author of The Asian Insider and Inside Knowledge, all published by Palgrave-Macmillan, an imprint of Macmillan.
The second 'Asiasource' Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS) camp was held from 21st to 30th of January, 2007 in Sukabumi, West Java, Indonesia. Waag fellow Patrice Riemens took part as F/~OSSopher and in-charge of the 'bazaar', annex (Turkish) tea-house and 'slackers salon'. His report:
Asiasource2, for short, was the fifth large 'sourcecamp' and event since the summer of 2003. Previous sourcecamps were held in Croatia, Namibia, Bangalore (S.India), and Uganda. Smaller gatherings took also place in Tadjikistan and Morocco. Sourcecamps are broadly regional in character, and attract a wide array of participants from various countries and with very diverse backgrounds.
A sourcecamp is week-9 days long, very intensive ('24/7') training and knowledge-sharing get-together for a 80/100-some (mostly) ~ICT-people working with/for 'civil society organisations' (aka 'NGOs') in the Global South and Transition Countries. The goal of sourcecamps is to motivate and facilitate the adoption by these organisations of F/OSS - as tool, but also as a mind-set and attitude.
Collaboration and sharing of skills ranks very high on the agenda of sourecamps, both at the event itself, and afterwards. Hence, top down, hierarchical models of teaching are shunned in favor of active participation in formal and informal working groups.
[img[A ghastly participant|blog/image007s.jpg]]
In the mornings, parallel issue 'tracks' - typically including 'migration' (from proprietary software to F/OSS) and 'localisation' (making F/OSS available in local languages, sometimes fine-tuning it to local cultural habits), plus some other core issues (eg. content management systems, audio/video streaming, ~WiFi, etc.) - are treated in a more formal manner.
Afternoons, after a confy lunch and rest, are devoted to more informal - and numerous - 'skill share' sessions, where a variety of subjects - not necessarily technical - are discussed, mostly submitted and introduced by the participants themselves. And the 'facilitators' who are more or less formally in charge of the 'track' sessions become participants and learners again. Evenings are devoted to socialising, cultural performance, and ... partying. This is a young crowd after all!
[img[There is none like free lunch in Asiasource2|blog/image079s.jpg]]
Which is reflected in the format and daily routine of sourcecamps, which some might say is a cross between an active holidays village and a boot camp of sorts. The formula, with wake-up serenade, 'morning circle', communal meals (and Qs ;-), outings, and a lot of group activities generally, may not immediately appeal to all, but is intended - and succeeds - to forge a strong bond between the participants, lasting way beyond the event itself.
One can say that every sourcecamp creates its own larger community, besides many new circles of friends.
[img[Skill share|blog/image070s.jpg]]
In that Asiasource2 was not different from the previous sourcecamps, even though it was the first one not directly organised by the [[Tactical Technology Collective|http://www.tacticaltech.org/ ]] - 'TacTech' for short, - which introduced and fine-tuned the concept since 'SummerSource' on Vis Island (Croatia) in 2003 till 'Africasource2' on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda, in january 2006. In true Open Knowledge fashion, TacTech does not claim 'intellectual property' on the format, but has set up a 'replication' apparatus and manual instead. Asiasource2 was the first test and succeeded brillantly, albeit with the support and presence of quite a few TacTech members and 'veterans' from previous source events - like me.
As 'F/OSSopher', my role at sourcecamps is to expound, well, the 'philosophy' behind Free and Open Source Software, especially since F/OSS has evolved into a full-fledged ('new') social movement, reaching much beyond the realm of technology applications alone. But doing this is something of an uphill task, since most nerds, given a choice, rather prefer to get their hands on a nifty piece of software than discuss elusive and contentious socio-political issues with some old blatterer ;-)
Nonetheless, together with Jaggadeesh from the Bangalore Alternative Law Forum, we succesfully participated in a serie of 'speedgeeking' sessions (5 minutes to make your point to 12 succesive groups of 7-8 people) which left us exhausted but happy. Apart from that I was glad to relax in the 'bazaar' (a row of canopied mini-pavilllions), serving Turkish Tea to various participants and co-facilitators, according to the hallowed 'Sl@ckers S@lon' formula...
[img[Yawitra Asri|blog/image001a.jpg]]
Relating all what happened at Asiasource2 would be an endless and potentially tedious exercise, but one can gather a lot of its atmosphere by viewing the event's site and its blog (see URL below). Suffice to enthuse about the wonderful venue [[Yawitra Asri|Yawitra resort ]], see pics) and surroundings, the spectacular excursions (to a vulcano, followed, for the more 'chresmatically' inclined, by a visit of a large so-called factory outlet in Bandung), and of course, the wonderful social atmosphere, enhanced and enabled by a classroom of volunteers from a hospitality college (courtesy of the local organiser who knew them well) for whom we functionned as training material - much to our delight and confort. (And yes, 'ArtDino! - one of my pet dinosaurs - even found the love of his life in their midst, and decided to stay behind in Jakarta!)
[img[Mist at the volcano|blog/image0114s.jpg]]
Six weeks after Asiasource2, the event's mailing list is full of life witnessing to what may be the most tangible and beneficial outcome of sourcecamps: the creation of a strong, regional but trans-border community of sociable techies, ready, willing and able to provide self-manageable and affordable (generallly free) ITC advice and services to civil society organisations who can put them to great use.
Courtesy of [[Patrice Riemens|mailto:patrice@xs4all.nl]] based on his email.
Asthma is an antique Greek statement meaning 'out of breath or short drawn breath'. It is an allergic situation resulting from the reaction of the body to one or additional allergens, and is the most upsetting of respiratory diseases. An asthma patient gets recurrent attacks of breathlessness, in between which he may even be totally normal.
http://www.squidoo.com/allergyasthmafood
Asthma is constant disease that affects the airways or the tubes that brings air in and out of the lungs. Asthmatics have inflamed airways or the inside walls of the airways are swollen with too much mucus creation making breathing hard. Signs include wheezing, chest pains, obscurity breathing and coughing. Asthma is a very uncomfortable and life-threatening disease if not treated properly.
Asthma attacks differs from person to person, but stern asthma attack is life threatening. The airways may shut due to too much swelling and mucus production; in this case your body vital organs will not receive sufficient oxygen and this may cause death. You have to know how to treat your asthma before it could get severe.
Patients suffering from asthma emerge to be gasping for breath. Really, they have more difficulty in inhalation out than breathing in, and this is caused by spasms or unexpected involuntary muscular contractions of the minor air passages in the lungs.
Asthma Causes
Allergic reaction caused by weather situations A range of factors causes asthma. It may be due to an sensitivity caused by weather conditions, food, drugs, perfumes, and other irritants. Allergies to dust are the most ordinary.
After you have determined the dietary issues that cause asthma, you'll need to modify your diet to avoid the foods that trigger wheezing and focus more on foods that can minimize asthma symptoms.
Some people report that eating very hot or very cold foods will trigger their asthma. Sometimes eating too much can trigger asthmatic symptoms. Finally, there are those who have attacks of asthma that are brought on by eating food preservatives like sulfites that you'll find in processed meats like bologna and other foods. If you find that these things trigger asthma, you can avoid them as well.
As it appears that dietary changes and changes in food can minimize asthma symptoms, it may be a good idea to consider using the above advice. You should do so, however, at the advice of your doctor or your child's doctor. It's vital that your doctor know about both medication changes and changes in your diet. This will help your physician be better able to manage your asthma treatment.
Asthma Triggers
Understand how to avoid asthma triggers and get rid of Asthma once and for all. Avoid all dairy products, wheat, egg, chocolate, fish, alcohol (wine and lager in particular because of additives) vinegar, caffeine (tea, coffee, colas, chocolate), refined sugar, artificial sweeteners, salt and anything containing chemical additives - MSG, sulfur dioxide, sodium benzoate, sodium sulfite, tartrazine, etc. Pale colored dried fruit is preserved in sulfur to keep its color.
Sulfating agents are commonly used in beer and to keep greens fresh in salad bars. Sulfur dioxide is found in most wines but, generally speaking, there is less of it in bottled wine than in boxed wine. Drugs or medication (remove only with medical supervision), onion, garlic, kale, cabbage, radish, watercress. Aspirin can precipitate an asthma attack.
Sodium sulfite as found on red meat (to keep it fresh looking), light colored dried fruit, dressings, beer and wine, often causes asthma. Sodium benzoate is a preservative found in margarine, sauces, cool drinks and some dried fruits. This particular preservative causes respiratory problems such as asthma and bronchitis.
Dust mite droppings in the air after vacuuming, which can take hours to settle. The Baxi Clean Air System claims to starve dust mites by reducing air humidity.
Constipation. Pressure from the tummy area affects breathing. That, together with the effect of toxic build-up in the colon, demands action. Poor digestion is common with asthma. Eat little and often so that the digestive tract does not get clogged up. Nuts can have an inflating effect on the system of an asthmatic.
Tartrazine (a food colorant banned in some countries) is openly accused of creating allergic reactions including asthma, migraine headaches, skin rashes and hyperactivity in children.
Chlorine is said to contribute to asthma attacks. Since all our drinking water has been chlorinated you may wish to use a water purifier. There are some excellent ones on the market. Personally, I am happy with the Brita jug which is relatively inexpensive with a proven record. There are more costly purifiers that screw on to your tap and, if asthma is in your family, that may be your better choice. Pet fur, feathers, cigarette smoke, household chemicals, fumes, etc., are best avoided.
I recently came across an excellent book called Cure You Asthma In Just One Week written by Karon Beattie - it's well worth reading. Take a look...
http://www.BeWellAgain.com
That's all this time on how to avoid asthma triggers.
Megan Richards is the online Wellness Editor for publisher Clyde Coast Direct Ltd. She enjoys reading and publishing topics almost exclusively with a leaning towards 'natural.'
Disclaimer: http://www.BeWellAgain.com is for people who are interested in taking responsibility for their own health. However, information in this article is provided only for educational or informational purposes and is not meant to substitute the advice of your own medical professional. You should not use the information contained herein for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing any medication. If you have or suspect you have a medical problem, promptly contact your health care provider.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Megan_Richards
When a person has asthma, their symptoms can range from just being slightly annoying to dangerous to one's life. The plain truth is that many more adults and children receive the diagnosis of asthma each and every year. Asthma has become the most often diagnosed lung disorder in the United States.
Fortunately, researchers are paying more and more attention to the types of foods that can slow the progression and minimize asthma symptoms. Research scientists have turned to the fact that certain foods in the diet play a role in the treatment of and prevention of asthma and its symptoms. More studies are in the works that look at the interplay between diet and the symptoms of asthma.
Asthma and Whole Wheat
It appears that whole wheat such as found in whole wheat bread reduces wheezing and other asthma symptoms. In addition, eating these products, as long as they contain whole wheat, can be preventative against asthma in kids. They also looked at the consumption of fresh fruits, fresh vegetables and fruit juice and found that these foods, too, reduce the symptoms of asthma.
In spite of these hopeful research studies, researchers are still uncertain as to why asthma is caused in the first place. Several research studies indicate that certain food allergies may trigger asthma attacks in children and adults. For those asthma attacks triggered by food, parents and patients must determine which foods are causing the problem so as to minimize the symptoms of asthma.
http://www.home-remedies-for-you.com/remedy/Asthma.html
Food That Help Reduce Asthma Allergies
1. Asthma treatment via Honey
Honey is one of the most common home cures for asthma. It is supposed that if a jug of honey is held beneath the nose of an asthma patient and he inhales the air that comes into contact by means of it, he starts breathing easier and deeper.
2. Asthma treatment with Figs
Amongst fruits, figs have proved very precious in asthma. They provide comfort to the patient by draining off the phlegm. Three or four dry figs must be cleaned thoroughly with warm water and soaked during the night.
3. Asthma treatment with Lemon
Lemon is one more fruit found useful in the treatment of asthma. The juice of one lemon, diluted in a glass of water and taken with meals, will bring good quality results
4. Asthma treatment via Indian Gooseberry
Indian gooseberry has also proved precious in asthma. Five grams of gooseberry mixed with one tablespoon of honey forms an useful medicinal tonic for the treatment of this ailment. It must be taken every morning
5. Asthma treatment by means of Bitter Gourd Roots
The roots of the bitter gourd plant have been used in folk medicine for asthma since earliest times. A teaspoon of the root paste, mixed with an identical amount of honey or juice of the tulsi leaves, given once every night for a month, acts as an exceptional medicine for this disease.
6. Asthma treatment via Drumstick Leaves
A soup prepared from drumstick leaves, and taken once daily, has been found useful in the treatment of asthma. Adding a handful of leaves to 180ml of water and boiling it for five minutes prepare this soup. After being allowed to cool, a little salt, pepper, and lime juice might be added to this soup.
7. Asthma treatment with Ginger
A teaspoon of fresh ginger juice, mixed with a cup of fenugreek decoction and honey to taste, acts as a brilliant expectorant in cases of asthma. The decoction of fenugreek can be made by addition of one tablespoon of fenugreek seeds in a cupful of water. This remedy must be taken once in the morning and once in the evening.
8. Asthma treatment via Garlic
Garlic is an additional effective home remedy for asthma. Ten garlic cloves, boiled in 30 ml of milk, create an excellent medicine for the early stages of asthma. This mixture must he taken once each day by the patient. Steaming ginger tea with two minced garlic cloves in it, can also help to keep the trouble under control, and must be taken in the morning and evening.
9. Asthma treatment via Bishop's Weed
The herb bishop's weed has been found precious in asthma. Half a teaspoon of bishop's weed must be mixed in a glass of buttermilk and taken two times each day. It is an effective medicine for relieving difficult expectoration caused by dried-up phlegm. A hot poultice of the seeds must be used for dry fomentation to the chest two times daily. The. patient can also breathe in steam twice a day from boiling water mixed with ajwain. It will widen the bronchial passages.
10. Asthma treatment with Safflower
Safflower seeds are helpful in the treatment of bronchial asthma. Half a teaspoon of powder of the dry seeds, mixed with a tablespoon of honey, can be taken one or two times a day in treating this disease. This acts as an expectorant and decreases the spasms by liquefying the tenacious sputum. An infusion of five grams of flowers mixed with one tablespoon of honey, taken once every day, is also helpful in this disease.
For more information on home remedies for asthma, cure for asthma visit http://www.himalayahomeremedies.com - HERBAL HOME REMEDIES and Natural Treatments
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Rodrick
Six Ways To Relieve Asthma
Many people who suffer from asthma have a difficult time finding anything that cures or even helps their asthma. For many of these people, one or more than one of the many known asthma home remedies below would help.
Hot Black Coffee
Drinking hot black coffee actually solves two problems at the same time. The caffeine in the coffee helps open-up the airways in your lungs. This makes it easier for the air to pass in and out.
Then the heat of the coffee helps break-up the mucus in your lungs. Often the lungs form plugs that stop the flow of air. So when the heat of the coffee breaks up this mucus then it helps breathing and stops an asthma attack.
Steamy Bathroom
A steamy bathroom is one of the remedies that work for many types of coughs as well. When an asthma attack begins you should go into the bathroom and turn the shower on as hot as it will go. Then stay in the bathroom with the door closed while the steam rises from the shower and fills the entire bathroom. Breathing in the steam from the shower will help alleviate the asthma attack.
Sometimes it works even better if you close the shower curtain to help keep the steam in a more contained area. Then stick your head inside the shower (be careful not to get burned!) and breathe in the steamy air.
A Few Other Asthma Home Remedies
Here are a few other remedies that involve drinking or taking in different concoctions.
The first concoction is one teaspoon of honey with a half teaspoon of cinnamon powder. Mix these two ingredients together and then consume.
The second remedy is for people who are still in the early stages of developing asthma. Every night you should boil about ten cloves of garlic in half a cup of milk and then drink it just before bedtime.
Another possible remedy to be taken at night is to take a glass of very hot water and add a teaspoon of honey to it. Drink it slowly just before going to bed.
Finally, soak one teaspoon of Fenugreek seeds in a cup of water for about eight hours (overnight works great). Then strain the water and add one teaspoon of ginger juice and one teaspoon of honey to the water. Drink this in the morning and at night every single day.
The Benefits of These Remedies
If you are suffering from asthma, you want to try to treat your condition yourself as much as possible. Trying different strategies and methods is the best way you can find your own cure and relief from asthma.
Discover the asthma remedies that many asthma sufferers including Olympic athletes have used to cure their asthma and now live a fulfilling life at http://www.AsthmaCureGuide.com These little secrets compiled by Jonathan Hatton have helped hundreds of people to take full control of their asthma naturally without taking expansive drugs or medications. For more information, visit Asthma Cure Guide today.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_Hatton
With much hype and fanfare the new [[Asus EEE PC|http://sg.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=8680]] was launched in Taiwan last October 16th, 2007. The Eee PC’s response comes from great user expectation of the simple and portable device. It is focused on providing users with the most comprehensive Internet applications based on three Es: Easy to learn, work, play; Excellent Internet experience and Excellent on-the-Go.
Compact and highly portable at 7” and only 0.92kg in weight – providing an Internet experience with two modes of intuitive graphic user interface design to accommodate both experienced and inexperienced PC users.
Specifications
The Eee PC 701 comes with over 40 built-in applications to offer a dynamic computing experience to learn, work and play! There are four models avail for the 7" type dubbed as EEE PC 2G, 4G, 8G which are the solid state disk (SSD) storage capacities. The EEE PC models differ in memory which are 256MB DDR2 for 2G, 512MB DDR2 for 4G, and 1GB DDR2 for 8G. And different usage of battery, 4400 mAh-2.8hrs for the 2G and 4G surf, 5200 mAh-3.5hrs for the 4G and the 8G. All models avail with camera, built-in stereo speakers, microphone, 802.11g wifi, ethernet LAN.
Main operating system is Linux but Asus plan is to make it compatible with the Windows XP by end of this year. The Eee PC comes with a powerful selection of software to maximize personal productivity. The Dictionary is an especially handy reference while reading electronic books downloaded from the Internet; the Open Office suite of software enables the user to open, edit and create documents, presentations, spreadsheets and databases that are compatible with Microsoft Office.
http://eeepc.asus.com/en/news101712007.htm
Competition
The Asus EEE PC will directly compete the [[OLPC XO|OLPC at last started to produce]] which so far has been delayed until November 2007. And having the right timing and less time necessary to design and produce makes this product is well marketable in consideration with price and performance. Although it is targeted to the general audience with different models, I think the 4G model is best suited with 512MB DDR2, 4G SSD and 3.5 hours of battery time.
I don't know much about the mobile communication but Asus tells that it will directly compete with PDAs or other mobile mode.
Lot of comments are in unofficial user blog at http://www.eeeuser.com/ about the launch in other countries than Taiwan, about the BIOS and many others. I wonder if anyone read this post knows anything about availability of the Asus EEE PC in their locales.
Asus claims that the Eee PC boots in under 15 seconds. The device will be shipped with a heavily customized Xandros Linux distribution that uses a tab-based interface instead of a conventional desktop environment. Software bundled with the system includes OpenOffice.org, Firefox, and Skype.
By Ryan Paul | Published: September 06, 2007 - 01:02AM CT
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070906-asus-sets-ambitious-goals-for-eee-laptop.html
Asus is preparing to launch its new Linux-based Eee PC laptop later this month and plans to release another new model in April 2008. The Eee PC, which has a 7" display and a 900MHz Celeron M processor, is designed for budget-minded mobile consumers. The second-generation Eee PC will use Intel's Merom processor and offer longer battery life.
According to DigiTimes, Asus wants to become one of the top five laptop producers within the next three years. The company currently plans to ship over 200,000 Eee PCs by the end of the year and expects to sell between three and five million by 2009.
The Eee PC is included in Intel's "world ahead" initiative, and the chipmaker worked closely with Asus during the design phase of the product. Eee PC pricing is competitive with other budget mobile computers designed for the education market, including the OLPC Project's XO laptop, and Intel's Classmate PC. Eee PC models are expected to sell for between $199 and $349.
Although Asus will not be shipping Windows XP with the Eee PC, the company claims that Microsoft's operating system has been tested extensively with the device.
Although the Eee PC has a lot to like, the exact specifications and launch price aren't known yet. There are rumors that the final model will not include the 0.3MP video camera currently listed in the specifications and that the price of the low-end model has crept up from $199 to $249. We'll know for sure when it officially launches.
The strong support for Linux could make the Eee PC a compelling choice for some open-source software enthusiasts, and the low price makes it a strong contender in the education market. At $199, the Eee PC could compete directly with the OLPC in certain regions.
After the Live Earth concerts, hundreds of thousands of people are signing the Avaaz climate pledge, a commitment to 7 simple steps we can all take to help end the climate crisis - a growing global movement to save ourselves and our planet.
Please sign it at this link, then ask seven friends to add their names as well:
[[THE PLEDGE:|http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_climate_movement/tf.php]]
1. To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;
2. To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by
reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become "carbon neutral;"
3. To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new
generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to
safely trap and store the CO2;
4. To work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of
transportation;
5. To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal;
6. To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests; and,
7. To buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a
sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the 21st century.
if (window.location.protocol!="file:") showBackstage=false;
I was in [[Bangkok|http://www.bangkok-city.com/]], Thailand on my side trip to Saigon which turned out to be a meetup with my former colleagues from [[Asia Source 3|Another source camp in the Philippines]]. We were at the same camp back in last November 2009, exactly a year back then.
<html><a href="http://www.artsofthekingdom.com"><img src="blog/chitralada.jpg" width="400"
alt="The Chitralada Palace">
</a></html>
It’s my first visit to Bangkok and haven’t got in mind about how big the city is or how far should I go to find places. Arriving late in the evening, I was taking the new [[airport rail link|http://www.bangkokairporttrain.com/]] that will carry people from [[Suvarnnabhumi airport|http://www.bangkokairportonline.com/]] to the city on the easy way. I stopped at the Huamark station and to my surprise, my friends were there to meet me. What a way to greet a friend:)
They took me to dinner in a [[fancy restaurant|http://www.Yodrestaurant.com]] and brought me to some [[hotel|http://www.chaleena.com]] just for an overnight stay since I will be leaving the next day.
The next day, I had a chance to visit the [[Chitralada palace|http://www.artsofthekingdom.com]], a throne hall which is now used to exhibit King Rama V art collections; great arts made by artists that shows their skills to produce artistic ornaments such as golden throne, model ships crafted in gold, howdah used to carry king on the back of the elephant at war, wooden palanquin throne crafted and embellished with diamonds, and royal banquet table set decorated with handicrafts like golden peacocks, golden fish etc.
Also in special section of the Chitralada palace, there are rooms for displaying embroidery works, a yearly contented display of the winners supported by the foundation of her majesty queen Sirikit.
I really appreciate this kind of friendship that shows a lot of kindness from [[Thailand|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand]] and Thai people. A meaningful visit when there are friends around.
I was then rushed back to the airport by a good chauffeur (again a courtesy of my friends' office) as it was about time for my next flight. I was a little worried as it was really a long way to go to the airport from [[Dusit Zoo|http://www.bangkoksite.com/Places%20to%20See/DusitZoo.htm]] where we had lunch for [[Isan food|http://food.blueable.com/travel-leisure/north-east-food-isan-food/]].
No problem with checking in, however it took about thirty minutes to queue at immigration pass. I was rushing again after security pass to reach the gate D8 that left me only minutes before boarding. This time I was bound to [[Saigon|Miss Saigon, miss the foods too]].
At the end of the workshop, the participants will form into groups and be assigned to develop demo projects to exercise their skills gained from the workshop in the form of [[BarCamp|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp]].
All the projects will be presented to the public on the last day at the [[BarCamp Mekong|http://mekongict.org/barcamp-mekong/]], June 12 (Saturday) in Chiang Mai city which is open to interested persons. About 10-20 projects from Mekong ICT Camp participants and additional topics from general public will be presented.
It is expected that this public presentation will gain the general public’s reflections and opinions, which will be useful to further project development. Moreover, the presenters will have a chance to practice their skills in public communication, expand their networks to include non-participants, and put across their ideas and learn from each other in such an open environment as the ~BarCamp event.
Every ~BarCamp participants are encouraged to presents their topics of interest and share ideas and comments with other barcampers.
The Mekong ICT Camp and the ~BarCamp Mekong will be undertaken simultaneously, but in a co-event manner, whereby their schedules are successive and venues are adjacent.
Some more than 600 people will be meeting at Paññasastra University of Cambodia (PUC) for [[BarCamp Phnom Penh ‘09|http://barcampphnompenh.org/]].
Venue: Paññasastra University of Cambodia (PUC)
Map: http://barcampphnompenh.org/venue/
Date & Time: 3-4 October 2009 — 7:30AM – 5:00PM
Email: info@barcampphnompenh.org
Web: http://barcampphnompenh.org/
The two-day event, from 3-4 October 2009, will be only about learning, sharing and networking. It’s simply an exhibition of Cambodia’s technocrats; of course, there are no gadgets, computer laptops or smart phones to be on sale. There is only one thing: the participants themselves will have a chance to show off their initiative, progressing projects, and give presentation on topics matter to them for others to absorb.
Last year's success inspired this small, growing technology community in Cambodia to discuss openly issues important to them. ~BarCamp Phnom Penh has now become an annual technology conference in this nation's largest capital city, inviting some participants from across the country and the region, many are tech enthusiasts from Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore.
[[BarCamp|http://www.barcamp.org]], an innovative “impromptu” gathering that began in 2005 in Palo Alto, California, helps “open source” enthusiasts share information about technology in an informal setting. The idea quickly spread from California to the rest of the world, arriving in Bangkok in 2007 and now in Phnom Penh.
[[BarCamp Phnom Penh 2009 news update]]
More than 800 tech-inclined people gathered at the second annual [[BarCamp Phnom Penh 2009|http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/10/07/cambodia-barcamp-phnom-penh-2009/]] on October 3-4, 2009 at Paññasastra University of Cambodia.
by Tharum Bun
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 @ 00:24 UTC
In a blog post on ~CNNGo, technologist and traveler Preetam Rai, who visited this year's participatory workshop-event, wrote about Cambodian women in technology that:
It should be said that women are very prominent at Cambodian Barcamp events, and seeing such large numbers of women at tech meetings still surprises their male attendees. But the women aren't just showing up — they're running the show.
How [[BarCamp Phnom Penh ‘09|BarCamp Phnom Penh 2009]] is run, organized and contributed is uniquely interesting. It does introduce Cambodians a new way, if not a breakthrough, in which learning, collaboration, sharing and networking can take place here in Cambodia.
A prolific Vietnamese blogger, Nguyen Anh Hung, who participated Cambodia's ~BarCamp last year, is traveling to the Cambodian capital with more of his fellow friends for this ~BarCamp Phnom Penh ‘09.
“It’s here again. We (the folks in Ho Chi Minh City) will be flocking to the capital of beautiful Cambodia once again to attend the largest technology unconference in the country to date. Last year it was a greatly successful event attended by some 300 people from around South East Asia.”
Not only this annual event plays a role to foster open communication in Cambodian society, but it helps build a strong foundation for Cambodia's future in the area of Information and Communication Technologies.
Going to conferences is about getting inspired. It’s about getting some new ideas swirl around in your head. During that event, we will see skilled speakers with a lot of experiences and confidence on stage giving a talk on a topic that they really want to share, wrote Samnang Chhun, a Phnom Penh-based Software Developer.
Like many other developing countries, debate on free/open source software as an alternative to propriety software will not end any time soon. Despite the two-day conference offered mixed results to every participant, online discussion has not finished yet.
[[BarCamp Phnom Penh|http://barcampphnompenh.org/about/]] is a two-day event and aimed to computer enthusiasts, internet users, technologists, entrepreneurs, digital journalists, web developers and netizens to share and learn all things technology in a very open and democratic environment.
Venue: University of Puthisastra (UP)
55, St.180, Sangkat Boeung Raing, Khan Daun Penh, Phnom Penh
Date & Time: 25-26 September 2010 – 8:30AM – 5:30PM
How to become a participant at ~BarCamp Phnom Penh 2010:
* Pre-register on our [[official website|http://barcampphnompenh.org/]]: On the site, you’ll find a link (Register now). Please add your name, topics you’d like to learn/present and any organization you represent on the form, to give coordinators an idea as to how many people are coming.
*Showing up at the announced starting time will be fine. Show up late, you’ll miss some social activity and your T-shirt, among other things/stuff.
*Bringing a laptop is not always necessary – It’s great for showing off that program you mentioned in your session. At the University of Puthisastra (UP), wireless Internet connection is provided and plenty of downtime to browse around and look into everything you’ve learned.
*When you arrive, go to the registration desk, where you can claim your name-tag and a nice T-shirt. We start by gathering together in the large conference hall. There, the Master of Ceremony will walk you through the entire event.
*After this, people who intend to lead a session will add their session info to an empty schedule grid (may be moved around early on). If you see a session you’re interested in, go for it.
*After a couple of sessions, you will have a significant amount of downtime for lunch. Feel free to wander around and socialize while or after you eat. More announcements will be made, and any newly proposed sessions will be announced.
*Once the sessions are finished, please stick around to clean up. It’s generally as simple as throwing trash away and taking down signs, but all the help is appreciated.
*Be ready/willing to participate – come with an idea for a presentation session. You don’t have to be an expert at your topic; as long as it’s not too specific, there will probably be someone else present who can help you out.
*You can also contribute to the conversation during a session. This is a great way to participate, since it spreads knowledge from everyone, instead of just the presenter/speaker.
[[BarCamp Phnom Penh 2009]]
Wireless services in airports, cafés, and hotels are often not encrypted. So user beware of Public Wi-Fi: Be Very Paranoid.
by Stephen H. Wildstrom
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_12/b4076000604104.htm?link_position=link1
If you are visiting an insecure site, and that includes such popular mail services as Hotmail, Gmail (GOOG), and Yahoo! (YHOO), an eavesdropper will have no trouble reading your messages. If the login page isn't secured—again, look for https or the gold bar—your password will also be there for the taking. So don't send or even read messages unless you are prepared to share them with the world, and don't use a password for a Web mail account that you also use for online banking or anything else where privacy matters.
The risks come in a few different flavors. While browsing for an available Wi-Fi connection, you may stumble on a hostile network set up specifically to attack unprotected computers. If, alternatively, you are the operator of an open private network, your system can be attacked by hackers—although AirTight's research didn't look at that.
The wireless service offered in airports, coffee shops, hotels, and other hotspots is almost always unencrypted. That means anyone else on the network who is equipped with readily available software can read your transmissions with little effort. And when there is protection, it's likely to be a form of encryption called Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) that's easily broken.
A survey of 14 airports in the U.S. and three in Asia by AirTight Networks, a company that sells gear to make wireless connections more secure, found that 57% of the networks were wide open. These included both networks for public and private systems used for airport functions such as baggage handling and ticketing. An additional 28% of the networks were protected by WEP, while only 15% used a stronger form of security, called Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA).
Preventive Steps for Greater Security
Obviously, companies running open or poorly secured networks should fix them for their own good. This goes for your home as well: You should use WPA, and if you have an old wireless router that doesn't support it, you should strongly consider an upgrade. But even when you are away from home and looking for a public wireless connection, there are some simple steps that will make you safer.
First, make sure your employer provides its business travelers with virtual private network (VPN) connections. At this point, all companies should require workers to use VPN whenever they hook up remotely to corporate systems or use company computers on public networks. A VPN provides end-to-end encryption of all traffic; anyone who intercepts data will see nothing more useful than the network address of the VPN gateway. If you don't have a VPN option, you'll have to seek out secure Web sites—locations that encrypt all traffic.
You can tell a secure site by an address that begins "https:". If you use the Firefox browser, a secure connection will turn the address bar gold. You can generally use these sites with confidence even on an open network.
Rogue Networks
You may be tempted to save the $10 or so that an airport or hotel charges for Wi-Fi by using an open connection in your list of available networks. Don't. If the network is legitimate, connecting without permission may be regarded as theft of service. Much worse is the risk that you will connect to a rogue network that will try to steal your data and infect your computer. To save a few bucks, it's just not worth it.
Be especially leery of "ad hoc" or "peer to peer" networks, which are indicated in the Windows network list by a tiny icon representing connected computers. These are highly likely to be rogue or infected systems that will damage your system without ever actually connecting you to the Internet. Nearly every time I scan for networks, I see one called "Free Public Wi-Fi." It sounds tempting but dont even consider it—this is almost certain to be either useless or evil.
Public wireless networks are immensely useful, and I'm not trying to scare you away from them. But the dangers are real, and simply understanding them will go a long way toward keeping you safe.
Wildstrom is Technology & You columnist for BusinessWeek. You can contact him at techandyou@businessweek.com .
Okay, I'm tired of beating around the bush. I'm a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I'm articulate and classy.
I'm not from New York. I'm looking to get married to a guy who makes at least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don't think I'm overreaching at all.
Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives? Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around 200-250. But that's where I seem to hit a roadblock. 250,000 won't get me to central park west. I know a woman in my yoga class who was married to an investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she's not as pretty as I am, nor is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I get to her level?
Please hold your insults - I'm putting myself out there in an honest way. Most beautiful women are superficial; at least I'm being up front about it. I wouldn't be searching for these kind of guys if I wasn't able to match them - in looks, culture, sophistication, and keeping a nice home and hearth.
PostingID: 432279810
THE ANSWER By a JP Morgan Investment Banker
Dear Pers-431649184:
I read your posting with great interest and have thought meaningfully about your dilemma. I offer the following analysis of your predicament. Firstly, I'm not wasting your time, I qualify as a guy who fits your bill; that is I make more than $500K per year. That said here's how I see it.
Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple a crappy business deal. Here's why. Cutting through all the B.S., what you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I bring my money. Fine, simple. But here's the rub, your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity. in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won't be getting any more beautiful!
So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset. Not only are you a depreciating asset, your depreciation accelerates! Let me explain, you're 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!
So in Wall Street terms, we would call you a trading position, not a buy and hold hence the rub marriage. It doesn't make good business sense to "buy you" (which is what you're asking) so I'd rather lease. In case you think I'm being cruel, I would say the following. If my money were to go away, so would you, so when your beauty fades I need an out. It's as simple as that. So a deal that makes sense is dating, not marriage.
Separately, I was taught early in my career about efficient markets. So, I wonder why a girl as "articulate, classy and spectacularly beautiful" as you has been unable to find your sugar daddy. I find it hard to believe that if you are as gorgeous as you say you are that the $500K hasn't found you, if not only for a tryout.
By the way, you could always find a way to make your own money and then we wouldn't need to have this difficult conversation.
With all that said, I must say you're going about it the right way.
Classic "pump and dump."
I hope this is helpful, and if you want to enter into some sort of lease, let me know.
- the item appeared on Craiglist
The Wall Street Journal last week say something that's really scary: "In Beijing, investors talk of a one-way bet on the market until at least next year's Olympics."
China Bets on Olympic Stock Market Sprint
By Jim Jubak
MSN Money Markets Editor
5/30/2007 10:46 AM EDT
http://www.thestreet.com/_tscrss/newsanalysis/investing/10359428_2.html
In other words, even though the Shanghai stock market is up 52% this year, was up 130% in 2006 and is up 305% since this rally began back in June 2005, and even though everyone knows this speculative bubble isn't sustainable, it's smart to keep pouring money into Chinese stocks -- no matter their price -- because the government won't intervene and risk crashing the market until after the showcase Beijing Olympics are over.
So invest as much as you can in anything you can until Aug. 24, 2008, the day the Beijing games come to an end. Then run -- don't walk -- in an orderly fashion to the exit.
Yeah, like that will work.
Beware of Stampedes
The possibility of a stampede for the exits on the Shanghai exchange starting a wave of fear that spreads around the globe scares me. And the very real possibility that the Beijing government will make a mistake and crash the Chinese stock market scares me.
Any explanation starts with China's massive 40% savings rate. There simply aren't very many places where the average Chinese citizen can put that money.
Real estate has been a popular choice recently, but the government has cracked down on speculators in that sector. Most Chinese can't invest abroad. And banks don't pay much in interest.
The Chinese government recently raised the interest rate that a bank can pay on a one-year deposit to 3.06%, a jump of 0.27 percentage points from the prior rate. Inflation in China is running at about 3%, officially. And since bank interest is taxable, the return on a one-year bank deposit is actually negative.
Everybody's Doing It
There are now 100 million brokerage accounts in China. Sixteen million of those were opened in just the first four months of 2007.
Trading volumes have soared. In April, trading volume on the Shanghai exchange was twice as high as in January 2007, and in the first four months of this year, volume has been seven times higher than volume in the first four months of 2006. On May 16, trading volume in Shanghai exceeded the trading volume on all other Asian markets -- including Tokyo -- combined. There are no signs the Chinese stock market is slowing down.
What seemed astonishing when brokerage companies in China opened 300,000 accounts in a day seemed old hat when a few days later brokerages reported opening 550,000 accounts in a day. The press in China is full of stories of average citizens who have doubled their money. The Chongqing Morning Post recently featured a 60-year-old cleaning woman who had doubled her 20,000 yuan (or about $2,800) nest egg in two months. "At a time like this," the paper quoted her as saying, "who can lose money?"
The central government in Beijing isn't happy about this. Officials have tried talking the market down, without success. Central bank governor Zhou Xiaochu was quoted expressing "concern" in the People's Daily, and no one blinked. Interest rate increases haven't slowed the river of cash flooding into stocks. Leaks that say the government is studying raising the tax on capital gains haven't worked either.
In a surprising move, the Chinese government announced May 30 that it would raise taxes on stock trades, but many believe the change will have limited impact.
The stock market boom has made many Chinese investors richer, and that has led to a surge in buying: In effect, the recent acceleration of the Chinese economy to a better-than-11% growth rate has been fueled by the stock bubble. Taking away this stimulus will slow economic growth, though no one knows by how much.
The bigger danger, though, is the amount of debt racked up by individuals, companies and even government agencies in their frenzy to get a piece of the Shanghai action. It's hard to get any real figures on the use of debt to buy stocks, but what we do know is worrying.
Common are anecdotes like that of Xiao Feng, reported in the Nanjing newspapers, who borrowed against his three apartments and two cars to buy stocks. In Shenzhen, newspaper editor Qi Xiaotong put her family home up for collateral for a loan of 1.3 million yuan (about $175,000) that she then used to buy stocks. "I don't think there is any risk at all, because I have already doubled my money," she told The Guardian.
In mid-May, the Shanghai Municipal Housing Maintenance Funds Management agency, which cleans drains and repairs elevators in city apartment buildings, was revealed to have put about $103 million into the Shanghai stock market -- in spite of a ban on such investments. Estimates put the total stock market investment by army and police units, local governments and state-owned companies at $125 billion.
Party Leery of Ending Party
The government could bring the Shanghai market to its knees by raising interest rates on bank accounts -- thus diminishing that cash flow -- and increasing capital gains taxes at any time of its choosing. So why hasn't the government moved to snuff out at least some of this speculation?
Because moving in anything other than baby steps could unleash a storm of social unrest in China. The kind of wealth created by the stock market boom is pretty much all that legitimizes Communist Party rule these days. The social contract in China now runs along these lines: Give us rising incomes, more things like those people have in the developed economies and a reasonable degree of stability, and we'll let you run the country. If the Communist Party can't deliver its part of the bargain, however, no one knows how much force it would have to apply to ensure its continued hold on power.
The cynics trading on the reluctance of the Beijing government to rock the boat before the Olympics in August 2008 are absolutely correct. The games are a huge prestige event for China's rulers, and they very much want to avoid anything that might increase the odds of embarrassing demonstrations in front of an international television audience numbering in the billions.
But after that? All bets are off. I'd expect to see further increases in interest rates and further loosening of limits on overseas investment by Chinese citizens. The model is the [[Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualified_Domestic_Institutional_Investor]] plan launched in Hong Kong last June. It hasn't been very popular, because the returns from investing in China have so far outstripped returns from overseas markets that most Chinese investors don't see the point.
At best, the effect of all of this will be a gradual slowing of the gains on the Shanghai exchange early in 2008 as investors move to the sidelines in an orderly fashion in anticipation of the post-Olympics changes. At worst, we'll see a mad rush for an exit at a completely unpredictable point in time ahead of the games as some rumor panics investors into selling all at once. Remember, Chinese investors expect Beijing to act. They're already trying to time their exit.
A 1987-style crash in the Shanghai stock market would be a disaster for individual Chinese investors. Some would see their entire stock market wealth disappear overnight. Some would see their entire stock wealth and their homes vanish in a single rush. The Chinese economy would be knocked for a loop.
The Chinese government has the financial reserves to restore confidence in the stock market and the economy in quick order, just as the U.S. Federal Reserve did after the October 1987 crash in the U.S. I'd expect economic growth in China to rebound relatively quickly. Still, I worry that such an event would produce a surge in social unrest as the losers in the crash demand redress. The level of domestic protest -- and the amount of routine violence employed to quash it -- has been steadily on the rise in China in the past few years.
The World Won't End
And the effect on other markets? Limited, I think, after an initial empathetic panic. Because China's financial markets remain relatively closed to most foreign investors, only a relatively few big overseas financial institutions would take much of a hit.
If the Chinese government indeed doesn't act until September 2008, the bubble will be even more overinflated when it does. If the crash doesn't come until late in 2008, that's another 15 months for U.S. financial institutions to deepen their involvement in the Chinese financial markets.
In short, I don't believe a Shanghai stock-market crash, as bad as it would be, is the kind of end-of-the-financial-world-as-we-know-it event that the doomsayers are calling for.
But I'm sure keeping my eye on China and its bubble.
Let's start with a bit of generic advice: Be careful about what you hear at free workshops. Are they all suspect? Of course not. You may pick up some great motivation, business tips, or life lessons.
By Karen E. Klein Tue Aug 21, 8:08 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20070821/bs_bw/aug2007sb20070820962786;_ylt=Al3iog5VXeW3s3Kd.blcalwE1vAI
"I attended a free workshop sponsored by a company that teaches people how to open real estate investment companies. They're asking for $7,500 in exchange for mentoring me in this business. I checked with the real estate commission and they were unfamiliar with the company, but the Better Business Bureau listed no complaints against them. Is this a legitimate business opportunity? " - T.G.M., Warminster, Pa.
Unfortunately, however, the free workshop - often held at a large hotel near an airport - is the venue of choice for far too many hucksters, scam artists, and fraudulent individuals who target would-be entrepreneurs with dreams in their hearts and a bit of cash in their bank accounts.
Think about it: The workshop leader has gone to considerable expense to book space, prepare materials, provide refreshments, and market the event. Why? Out of the goodness of his heart? Possibly, but not very likely. More often, the seminar is a way for the leader to ensure a captive audience will listen to a hard-charging, high-pressure sales pitch for an "exciting business opportunity." Typically, the message is enticing but gives away no details: For that, you must purchase the expensive DVD set, book series, or consulting services that you don't really need or could get cheaper elsewhere.
Randall Hoth, president and chief executive officer of the Wisconsin Better Business Bureau, has often seen people persuaded to make unwise decisions after attending seminars that overpromise and underdeliver. "It is the BBB's experience that many consumers feel that the income potential described in these free seminars is often overstated," he says.
Get It in Writing
Do some independent research about real estate investment, and consider the timing. With the real estate market in serious upheaval at the moment, many seasoned professionals are hunkering down and hoping to ride out the storm. This may not be a good time for a novice to jump into the market! There are many good books and Web sites devoted to real estate and investment, so get lots of different opinions. After you learn more, if you're still interested in being mentored by the company that put on the seminar, go back and ask to have validated any income promises that were made to you. If the company told you that its previous clients are making a certain amount annually, get at least a dozen names and numbers and talk to them about their experiences and whether they think the mentoring they received was worth the money.
"Do not succumb to any high-pressure sales tactics, especially to give your credit-card number," Hoth says. "A reputable company would allow you to think it over before asking you to spend such a large amount of money." Also, he says, ask for a contract in advance and take it home for review by yourself and your attorney. "The contract should describe in detail what is meant by mentoring and also include information about refund or cancellation policies," Hoth notes.
You were right to check with the [[Better Business Bureau|http://www.bbb.org ]], for any past experience on the company, he says. But if there is no information available on a company through the BBB, you should keep checking other regulatory agencies until you can verify that the company is in good standing in some community, somewhere. For more information about avoiding scams, and practical business tips, check the BBB Web site.
BEIJING (Reuters) - Bloggers were up in arms on Wednesday over China's decision at the Olympic opening ceremony to have a pretty little girl lip-synching for the real singer who had crooked teeth.
By Paul Majendie
Wed Aug 13, 9:50 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080813/wr_nm/olympics_ceremony_criticism_dc_1
Many said they felt cheated because one of the most touching moments of the critically acclaimed ceremony was not the real deal. "Frankly, I think that's disgusting. Honestly, they're seven and nine years old! So young!" one New York teenage girl wrote angrily in her blog.
Nine-year-old Lin Miaoke was praised for her cute performance but organizers admitted on Wednesday that she was a photogenic stand-in for the real singer, Yang Peiyi, who was rejected because of her appearance. "I find it sad that they ruined an otherwise pretty awesome ceremony with those fakes," another blog argued.
"So forget Beijing 2008. Best opening ceremony so far is still SYDNEY 2000! They didn't see it necessary to use computer generated images to impress the world."
"Apparently, the little girl whose voice was used, Yang Peiyi, wasn't cute enough. It was deemed bad for China's image to show a little girl with crooked teeth," one complained. According to Chinese news [[reports|http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7556058.stm]], Yang said she did not regret the decision, saying she was satisfied to have had her voice featured in the opening ceremony.
Bloggers accepted that practice but one commented "Something about passing over a child for crooked teeth just seems, well, wrong." They accused the Chinese authorities of being control freaks.
"China wants the Olympics as a stage to present a picture-perfect image to the outside world and perfection was clearly the goal for the dazzling opening ceremonies," one wrote.
Accusations of hypocrisy were also leveled at Beijing. "Eager to put on a perfect Olympics, Beijing has swept its streets of fake designer handbags, pirated DVDs and phony corporate logos. That dedication to authenticity apparently does not extend to Olympics ceremonies," said another blogger.
But the organizers were unrepentant. Beijing Games spokesman Wang Wei said: "The song was pre-recorded ... The artistic directors just picked the best voice and the best performer."
Brooks only spends two hours at most each day on [[MidtownLunch.com|http://www.midtownlunch.com]]. But the blog affects his life in other ways.
Casual Blogging Not Just Lunch Money Now
By Candice Choi, Associated Press Writer Tuesday December 25, 1:17 pm ET
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071225/business_of_life.html?.v=1
Little technical skill is needed to publish a well-read blog, meaning just about anyone with something worthwhile to say can find an audience, said Kim Malone Scott, director of online sales and operations for Google's [[AdSense|http://www.google.com/adsense]]. That's attracted greater readership and advertising dollars, she said.
Brooks pocketed $1,000 this month blogging about the cheap lunches he discovers around midtown Manhattan ($10 or less, preferably greasy, and if he's lucky, served from a truck).
That doesn't mean bloggers are suddenly flush with money. For every blogger earning a decent side income like Brooks, countless others will never earn a cent. But with the right mix of compelling content and exposure, a blog can draw a dedicated following, making advertising a low-hanging fruit.
"This is really a continuation of how the Web in general has enabled smaller businesses and individuals to compete if not at a level playing field, at least a more equitable level," said David Hallerman, a senior analyst with the research group eMarketer.
Google's AdSense is an automated program that places targeted advertising on sites big and small. Other programs such as PayPerPost are just as user friendly; bloggers sign up and advertisers cherry pick where they want to place ads based on categories and the number of impressions a site captures.
Following were books recently read or printed from the web. Most of my books were in english, I am trying to provide reviews and links for these books. This is not a solicitation for buying any of these books.
[[Who Owns the Moon? ]]
[[Understanding Fibonacci Numbers]]
[[An essay on Built to Last]]
[[Jim Collins on Way from good to great Company]]
[[The three musketeers]]
[[Asian Eclipse book review]]
[[A Year Without "Made in China"]]
[[Philip Kotler's influence in Asia]]
[[Just Say No to Microsoft]]
[[Who moved my cheese]]
[[The Software Conspiracy]]
[[Linux for Windows Administrators]]
[[Understanding Stocks]]
[[How would you move mount Fuji?]]
[[One Up on Wall Street]]
Being wealthy is the top answer when we ask people about their future life goals. Many people believe that money isn't everything, but it sure does make life easier.
By Johnny Djohari - financial services practitioner
Jakarta Post Supplement - August 07, 2006
The problem is, however, that become a wealthy person is not always easy. But the good news is, as many experts often say, being wealthy is not a mystery. It can be planned and created. It's all about personal creativity.
Most people define wealthy people as those who have a lot of money. These opinions are imprecise. Truly wealthy people are wealthy in all areas of life. They do not attempt to gain wealth by only obtaining a lot of money. This includes having excellent relationships, a career or a venture that you love, and knowing how to manage your finances or being financially literate.
The basic concept
There are many different reasons why people fail miserably when it comes to creating wealth. According to some personal finance experts, there are basic steps that you can follow to start on the road to wealth. First, you need to develop and maintain the right mind set about life. This includes always thinking positively about life and especially about the obtainment of success. You need to think positive thoughts every time that are geared toward success and not failure.
Second, you need to plan for your future. Spend the time to write down your goals and the activities necessary to achieve your goals. Then act on your planning. Third, you must develop excellent money habits. This means that you pay yourself first, and you learn to control your spending. If you want to retire comfortably then you need to develop excellent money habits that you follow every day.
Finally, you need to communicate with others. Let people know about your goals in life. Communicating with your spouse about your finances and personal life goals are very important. This will lead to a sense of collaboration by all people involved in your life. This will also keep your life goals alive in your heart and mind. By consistently following the four principles above you can start down the road to creating a truly wealthy lifestyle.
We all want to attain wealth. And we can all attain wealth. But not all of us will. Because it requires that you think outside the box. It needs creativity in money management. It requires that you treat your money differently than the way people typically do. How do people typically treat money? They spend the entirety of their paycheck on nothing that will make them more money. In order to get more money, they have to wait on the next paycheck. It's a never-ending cycle.
After comprehending the four basic concepts of wealth building above, another important thing is that we have to have wealth knowledge. That is how wealth is created, how wealth is accumulated, how wealth is protected and how wealth is distributed. It then takes us to developing good habits in building personal wealth. Wealth is the experience of having significantly more assets than liabilities. And the formula for building wealth is to build more assets than liabilities. Developing good habits and wealth knowledge is the key to successful personal wealth building.
I used to stroll down the streets in Singapore when common dish served for around S$ 2.5-3.0 compared to the same meal sold in Indonesia.
Burgernomics is the term devised by [[The Economist|http://www.economist.com/markets/Bigmac/]] to describe difference prices of Big Mac across several regions compared to the exchange rates of respective countries. For example how much is the price of Big Mac is the US compared to the same in Mexico?
Well, assume the price of a Big Mac in the U.S. is $3, and the price of a Big Mac in Mexico is 60 pesos. So using the currency conversion of the Big Mac price in US, then the price of Big Mac should be pesos 45 instead of selling of pesos 60 each in Mexico. And we say that the peso is overvalued against the US dollar by 33% (or the dollar is undervalued against the peso by 25%).
Here comes the term [[Purchasing power parity|http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/ppp.asp]] (PPP) that states, the price of one good in a country is equal to its price in another country, after adjusting for the exchange rate between the two countries. Comparing actual exchange rates with ~PPPs indicates whether a currency is under- or overvalued.
This relationship often does not hold in reality because of several confounding factors. However, over a period of years, when prices are adjusted for inflation, relative PPP has been seen to hold for some currencies.
For instance, the [[Big Mac index|http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/apr/burgernomics/]] (2002) shows that an Argentine Big Mac costs a mere 78 cents, compared to a Swiss Big Mac at $3.81. Comparing these price differences with exchange rates, The burgernomics derives that Argentina's struggling peso is the world's most undervalued currency, while the Swiss franc ranks as the most overvalued.
[[In Asia|http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14036918&mode=comment&intent=readBottom]], a Big Mac costs 12.5 yuan in China, which is $1.83 at today’s exchange rate, around half its price in America. Other Asian currencies, such as the Malaysian ringgit and Thai baht, look similarly undervalued. Businesses based in continental Europe have most to be cheesed off about. The Swiss franc remains one of the world’s dearest currencies. The euro is almost 30% overvalued on the burger gauge. Denmark and Sweden look even less competitive.
Care is needed when drawing quick conclusions from fast-food prices. The cost of a burger depends heavily on local inputs, such as rent and wages, which are not easily arbitraged across borders and tend to be lower in poorer countries. So PPP gauges are better guides to misalignments between countries with similar incomes.
The Economist seeks to make exchange-rate theory more //digestible// by maintaining what it calls the Big Mac Index. That index uses the price of a Big Mac hamburger, a fast-food staple available in about 120 countries, to measure and compare purchasing power around the globe.
Editor Woodall acknowledges that Big Mac index is vulnerable to criticism from traditional economists for ignoring price distortions caused by variables such as taxes, profit margins or the cost of non-tradable goods and services. Noting that in Argentina, the price of a hamburger can be affected by low wages and a plentiful supply of beef.
"The Big Mac index is actually a good predictor over time," she says, "If more investors believed in our index, they'd be a lot richer today."
//Would you compare the same price of durian in Malaysian ringgit or in Thailand Baht?//
Further reference,
http://www.stanford.edu/class/msande247s/bigmac.html
http://www.oanda.com/products/bigmac/bigmac.shtml
Google stock closes at $707 amid growing enthusiasm about the company's foray into new markets. Google Inc.'s stock price barreled through $700 for the first time Wednesday Oct 31st, propelled by a belief that the Internet search leader will become even more profitable as it plants its products and services in new markets.
The Mountain View-based company's shares gained $12.23 to finish at a new peak of $707. It took less than a month for the stock to leap from $600 to $700, building upon a fervor that has lifted Google's market value by 34 percent since mid-September.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/01/technology/google_stock.ap/index.htm?
During that 6-1/2 week stretch, Google has created an additional $55 billion in shareholder wealth. That dwarfs the total $42 billion market value of another Internet icon, Yahoo Inc. which had a 4-year head start on Google.
Through the first 10 months of this year, Google's stock has risen by 54 percent from 2006's closing price of $460.48. The Standard & Poor's 500 index, which includes Google, has gained 9 percent during the same period.
The latest surge came after Google confirmed plans to become a bigger player in the Internet's social networking scene, which could morph into an advertising hotbed. Investors also seem enthused about reports that the company is about to unveil a long-rumored operating system designed for mobile phones so it can make more money by distributing ads to people on the go.
The recent rally has made Google Silicon Valley's most valuable publicly held company, supplanting Internet networking supplier Cisco Systems Inc. With a market value of nearly $220 billion, Google also is now worth more a long list of more-established businesses, including Warren Buffett's holding company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. whose steadfast refusal to split its stock during the past four decades has left its Class A shares at $132,500.
The philosophy has generated impressive returns so far. A $10,000 investment in Google's stock at its August 2004 initial public offering price of $85 would now be worth about $83,000.
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who regard Buffett as an inspiration, have resisted requests to split their company's stock so more people could afford to buy a few shares. Their theory: a high stock price tends to attract more patient and knowledgeable investors who pay closer attention to a company's long-term strategy than its ability to hit short-term earnings targets.
Brin and Page, both 34, have been the biggest winners by far, with estimated fortunes exceeding $20 billion apiece. At least two other Google executives, Chairman Eric Schmidt and sales chief Omid Kordestani, are billionaires while hundreds of other employees have become millionaires because of their stock holdings in the 9-year-old company.
Wall Street is betting Google is still in its financial infancy, even though it's already on track for a profit of about $5 billion this year on more than $15 billion in revenue. Analysts are now trying to figure out just high Google's stock might rise in 2008. The average 12-month price target for the shares had stood at $739.23 among analysts polled by Thomson Financial, but that figure seems likely to rise in the next few days. Dinosaur Securities analyst David Garrity on Wednesday issued a bullish report predicting Google's stock will climb to $985 during the next year.
Google has made virtually all of its money so far by displaying text-based advertising links alongside search results and other Web content that includes topics related to the commercial message. During the past year, Google has introduced new online advertising channels featuring video, graphics and other more compelling features while also extending its marketing machine into television, radio and print.
Now, Google appears intent on shaking up the telecommunications industry by introducing inexpensive cell phones that will make it easier for people to use Google's search engine, maps, e-mail and other applications even when they don't have access to a personal computer. If it pans out, the new Google phone presumably will give the company a chance to sell more mobile advertising and further boost its profits.
Google's relentless expansion beyond its core search engine underscores management's determination to reshape the business landscape, according to author Stephen Arnold, who has just released a 266-page study analyzing the company's patents and what they may portend for the future.
"I use the term 'Googzilla' to describe the current incarnation of Google," Arnold said. "This idea is that Googzilla is big, powerful, and indifferent to the insects and ants crushed by its massive paws."
[[Comments on Google share at $700]]
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In the month of December, we are bringing out a special issue to coincide with our 2nd i4d film festival being held at the GK3 event at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The theme will focus on "New Media for Development" .
For those who are unfamiliar with the magazine, it started as a bimonthly and became a monthly print magazine from January 2004. We have brought out thematic issues at http://www.i4donline.net/archive/archive.htm of the magazine focusing on Microfinance, Education, Health, Poverty, Gender, FOSS, e-Culture, e-Governance etc. SDC, UNDP India, HIVOS and UNESCO are some of the key partners in this initiative.
We are calling for articles which look at key issues such as community media, use of new media in development, web2.0 technologies in development, participatory culture etc.
Please restrict the articles to 1500-2000 words. Attach a passport size photograph of the author. Also send relevant images along with the articles in jpeg or tiff format in 300dpi or mail them to our postal address at CSDMS, G4, Sector 39, NOIDA, UP, INDIA.
New Media for Development Deadline - 15th October 2007
Email all articles to Sulakshana Bhattacharya at sulakshana@csdms. in
Virak Hor from Cambodia will be organizing a "Cambodian Bloggers Summit" at the end of August 30-31 2007 in Phnom Penh as new media and technology discussion forum for more than 100 bloggers, students, journalists and NGOs, as expected.
<html><a href="http://cloggersummit.wikispaces.com/">
<img src="http://cloggersummit.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/blogger_summit.gif" alt="blogger_summit.gif" /></a></html>
http://cloggersummit.wikispaces.com/
Background
Cloggers Team, is a group of young Cambodian bloggers who inspired by technologies in their everyday life. They have been working together on voluntary basis to conduct 14 workshops call “Personal Information Technology Workshop” at 14 different universities in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap with total amount of participant more than 1700 students.
Each workshop has been conducted voluntary by the Cambodia Blogger Team aimed to share experiences between bloggers and participants (students), and make use of the technologies available over the Internet for their study, work and even their every life.
Especially, the workshop have also included an introduction to the new personal publishing platform – Blog or Web log, which has become a very popular and important tool on the Internet for individual sharing information.
The event
Build upon the success of the 14 Workshops, the Cloggers Team is organizing a summit called "Cambodian Blogger Summit (aka Cloggers Summit)" on this coming 30-31 August 2007, to bring together students that has been well adopting lessons from the workshop, professional Bloggers, writers, NGO workers, media, and tech gurus from within and outside Cambodia to be together to share and learn more from each others on various topics regarding to the Internet and new technologies including Open Source Softwares and Web2.0 that would make their study, work, digital life more easier.
And to celebrate the software freedom day, we finally agreed to add FOSS to the event and consider it as one of the event we could have for the SFD. We expect to have a great support on FOSS, since we so far have prepared only stuffs related to new media and communication technologies, esp more advance topics regarding to personal publishing – blogging. Please help us to add FOSS to our event.
http://cambodiabloggingsummit.wikispaces.com/
Every day en route to Surabaya's Chaos Central I'm accosted by a weird collection of highway hustlers ambushing motorists at traffic lights.
Can newspapers survive cathode rays and the net?
Features - August 20, 2006 by Duncan Graham
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20060820.@02
Included in the lineup of windscreen dusters, furry toy sellers (and sellers of furry toys), bare-breasted beggars suckling gooey infants and ghouls in ape masks (just the thing for the office boss) are paperboys. Some go to extremes in a bid to flog the news. During the World Cup a few painted their torsos in what seemed to be an attempt to replicate national flags.
Even veteran drivers in the East Java capital, hardened to bizarre sights at intersections, were moved to double-check their door locks. But apart from shock and awe these garish gents sweating rainbows didn't seem to be scoring any extra sales.
No wonder. Who wants to read results when we've heard them already on the radio and seen the action on breakfast TV? No need to stay up all night -- highlights were replayed while the coffee was brewing and the rice steaming. Moving pictures beat static photos almost every time.
This is the challenge facing papers around the world: How can we compete against the instant news reports of the 21st century electronic media? Who didn't know Nadine wasn't Miss Universe long before dawn?
Despite on-screen layouts and high-speed presses, papers still have to be distributed using wheels and wings. The result seems foregone: TV and Internet 1, Newspapers 0. Yet any newspaper obituary is likely to be like the first reports of Mark Twain's passing - greatly exaggerated.
The long predicted birth of the paper-free office is still in gestation. Many believe it has yet to be conceived. We're still culturally wedded to A4 and don't trust the screen sirens.
On a flat sheet of paper it's real. On a flat screen it's not. Computers crash. Power failures send data into some gigabyte graveyard. Viruses duplicate and devour. If the Dead Sea scrolls had been stored on a hard drive there'd be one less world religion.
Newspapers feel comfortable and useful. Try lining the kitty-litter tray or wrapping the rubbish with a CD. For an outsider, seeking to make sense of the Indonesian newspaper industry is like trying to understand the Javanese: Difficult beyond reason.
When Soeharto controlled the media there were less than 300 licensed newspapers and magazines. When liberated by his successors the number jumped to more than 2,000. It has now slumped to around 830.
Yet investors still lust to be tycoons of type. Clearly many will go belly-up, so the motive must be ego enhancement. Who doesn't want a name card with the title Publisher?
There are even rumors of a rival to this publication. This assumes someone either has pockets deeper than a Lapindo bore or has detected a reserve of credible companies desperate to advertise but who haven't found anyone wanting to take their money.
When I started journalism in Australia, afternoon papers were an essential take-home commodity. Now almost all have gone, alleged victims of TV. Like exotic creatures they still exist in isolated pockets in Indonesia, but looking at the arid contents and an environment clear-felled of ads they'll soon be extinct.
Elsewhere newspaper circulations are audited. Seldom here, so any figure on copies sold has to be treated with much skepticism. Although seeing someone actually buy a paper is a rare event in Surabaya the custom of pinning pages of a daily on a wall on Jl. Basuki Rachmat draws serious crowds.
So maybe it's not true that Indonesians are indifferent readers - they're just not prepared to pay Rp 3,000 (33 US cents) for stale news when that money will buy a bowl of fresh meatballs. Publishers serious about helping raise education levels and expand knowledge should consider giving away their papers. Most profit comes from selling space. Retailing costs make margins minuscule.
In Perth, Western Australia, local newspapers have become phenomenally successful by distributing copies free. The journalism is credible and pages are thick with ads. If tried in Surabaya we'd all be winding down the car windows and getting a copy. The paperboys could retain their shirts and dignity. Literacy might flourish -- and more forests would fall to feed the pulp mills.
Indonesia is a vast country with many islands and population of about 224 millions people with diverse ethnicities along the country.
In major and minor cities of Indonesia there are 56kbps analog modems from wired telephone lines. The least is using dial-up connection from main telecom operator covering tens of millions existing wired telephone lines.
Indonesia has also wireless access in main islands and major cities. Wireless operators have grown very fast in our countries. Those are indeed cellular operators that provide also internet access. There are as much as 120 millions cellular subscribes in our country.
There are also other type of connections like ADSL, and GPRS, 3G, HSDPA from cellular companies, also still dial-up access from telco (wired and wireless). There must also be some dedicated lines like VSAT avail in Indonesia. We have at least seven telecom operators in Indonesia: Telkom, Indosat, Exelcom, Hutchison, Maxis, Bakrie Telecom and Mobile-8 are the main brands.
[img[Competing cellular operators|blog/cell_11942.jpg]]
For prices of internet access, the situation in Indonesia is most likely the same as is in Cambodia. Internet access prices range from 20 to 400 US$ monthly for personal usage or corporate offices, the latter is for internet cafés with up to 30 PCs. Offices usually get their own dedicated lines.
Personal usage can be as high as 20 US$, however we still have lack of supports and downtimes that tends to corrupt the services, it means actually we pay more than we ought to get. I was just being offered 280 US$ for 384/64kBPS down- and up- ADSL link per month and another 90 US$ for installation cost.
On the user side, mostly believe that internet cost in Indonesia is higher in comparison with own incomes or if to compare to other countries that could provide a 24hours internet access such as ADSL for as low as 20 US$ monthly.
On the business side, a lot of wifi connection is nowadays being offered free, especially in hotels, malls and cafés. So wifi companies can not offer for much to personal or private users and offices as they have to compete with major telecom operators. I would presume they would cease anyway because they have to depreciate their investments too quick, of higher operating cost and due to the higher cost of bandwidth. //I just have to figure out how bandwidth could be the culprit of high internet cost in Indonesia.//
In April 2008, the ministry of communication and information issued a new regulation to lower the interconnection tariff between those telecom operators and therefore will result in a lower charge for the end-users. In anticipation of this regulation, telecom operators have begun aggressive marketing in order to compete to each other by lowering tariff as much as 40% in gradual steps.
My opinion, the regulation was issued to create a base of lowest possible tariff or the so-called the rock bottom price that operators can still survive. This regulation will push telecom operators to lower tariff for internet access as the result of lower communication tariff. //My hope, lowering tariff does not mean to lower their services.//
Bill Gates, the world's richest man met Warren Buffet for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with him, so he had scheduled his meeting only for half hour. But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.
On June 26, 2006, U.S. investor Warren Buffett announced he would start giving his Berkshire Hathaway fortune to philanthropic causes. The links below provide more information about his pledge and the hope and resources it will bring for improving the lives of people around the world.
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/nr/AnnualReports/annualreport06/AR2006WBintro.html
Either in response to that call or through his own initiative, Microsoft's Bill Gates established the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 1999 with an initial endowment of $16 billion. It represents a significant up-scaling of the William Gates Foundation established in 1994 with an endowment of only $94 million. In 2005, the endowment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was valued at $29.2 billion.
From 1995 to 2005, it cumulatively provided grants focusing on global health, including research into HiV/AIDS vaccine, valued at $10.2 billion. Bill Gates has announced that he has been phasing out from his responsibilities at Microsoft so that by 2008 he would be devoting full time attention to his foundation. Indeed, the richest person on earth is transitioning from the biggest earner to a full time spender.
[[History but history that counts]]
Chien Tan Overseas Youth Activity Center is a comprehensive convention center in a large and quiet landscape garden by Keelung River and Chien Tan Peak in a scenic and busy area of central north Taipei. There are three connected buildings: a 10-story residential building facing the large lawn with views of Keelung River and Chien Tan Peak, an education center by Chien Tan Pond, and a convention building in between housing the Grand Hall.
CTOYAC is ~400 meters (~5 minutes of walking) from the Jiantan subway/metro station. It is also easily reached from Sun Yat-sen Freeway, which leads straightly to Taipei CKS International Airport in Taoyuan, Taiwan.
The renowned Shilin Market, where numerous delicious Taiwanese food is prepared in the traditional way, is right outside of the Jiantan metro station. The Grand Hotel, built in a Chinese palace style on Chien Tan Peak and a major landmark of Taipei, faces CTOYAC from the other side of the avenue. Radio Taiwan International, American Club in China, and Martyr's Shrine are also in close vicinity to CTOYAC.
It is true the current policy-speak focuses on the approaches in cutting carbon emissions (known as mitigation) and in adjusting to the unavoidable impacts of climate change (known as adaptation).
[[Climate engineering: Cheap solutions not necessarily the best|http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/01/climate-engineering-cheap-solutions-not-necessarily-best.html]]
Fika Fawzia , Jakarta | Thu, 10/01/2009 11:31 AM | Opinion
However, reintroduced lately is another option, climate engineering or geo-engineering, which means "deliberately manipulating physical, chemical, or biological aspects of the Earth's system" as explained by the American Meteorological Society.
In other words, climate engineering means humans will try to tweak the Earth's reflectivity (known as the albedo) by reflecting the Earth's heat from the sun back into space.
If we manage to increase the Earth's albedo, it offers the most promising method of rapidly cooling the planet. However, climate engineering is not without flaws.
There are risks associated with climate engineering. According to the New Scientist, if we try stratospheric aerosol insertion, which is essentially launching material like sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere to reflect the sun's rays, there is a risk of ozone depletion.
If we try to command "cloud ships", which spray seawater mist into the air to thicken the earth's clouds, there are only patchy chances of success, and both cloud ships and aerosol insertion will not prevent ocean acidification, which is caused by the rising concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
For an archipelagic country like Indonesia, whose people depend on coral reefs and the marine ecosystem and food web for their livelihood, ocean acidification would be a catastrophe.
This brings us to the next argument: Climate engineering might distract the public and policy makers from the carbon emission reduction goal.
It was true the effects of sulfur dioxide from the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 led to a decrease in global temperatures by about 0.5 degrees C until 1993, but it was only temporary (USGS, 2005).
Altering the earth's albedo would also cause negative effects, such an increasing the risk of major droughts in some regions, and have a major impact on agriculture and the supply of fresh water, due to its effects on atmospheric circulation, rainfall, and other aspects of the hydrologic cycle.
Therefore, conventional approaches of climate change adaptation and mitigation should continue, especially efforts to balance the trade-off between the need for development and minimizing the impacts of climate change.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), for example, is in the process of formulating a regional multi-sectoral strategy on climate change adaptation and mitigation with food security.
Southeast Asia contributes 12 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions, 75 percent of which originates from the land use and forestry sector (FAO, 2005). Agriculture and forestry in the ASEAN region, therefore, offer options to link both adaptation and mitigation measures.
If a country decides to pursue unilateral acts of climate engineering, which triggers drought somewhere else, it could create international conflicts.
If we are seriously considering the climate engineering option, we would indeed need an international regulation governing mankind's quest to manipulate the Earth's system.
It is not that we should abandon the climate engineering option right away, but it is to examine it further and provide better research on what would be the benefits and consequences of climate engineering, and to elaborate on what would be its boundaries since no international norms and rules govern it as yet.
The writer is the REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) program officer for the ~ASEAN-German Regional Forest Program. The views expressed here are her own.
You my have heard of Grid Computing, but have you heard of Cloud Computing? Unless you have been too busy tracking the ups and downs of your stock prices, you must have read about it.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/11/17/cloud-computing-next-wave-application-use.html
Grid Computing is certainly different from [[Cloud Computing|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Computing]]. Like the utility grid that brings electricity to our houses, the computers in a Grid make contributions to a joint computing effort by providing their unused computing resources, especially when they are idle. The result is an aggregate of computing power that can be used to work on extremely complex mathematical computations, for example.
The term Cloud Computing is derived from the way people usually depict the Internet in a diagram: The cloud picture is used to hide the complexity of the Internet. We generally have no control over how the cloud operates, much like we have no control over the clouds that hang over Jakarta.
Cloud Computing signifies the next step in how we use applications. In the early days, all the software resided on our individual PCs. It might have been stored on a floppy diskette, a hard disk, or a CD-ROM.
The next wave was the client-server configuration. While some of the software still resided on client computers, the rest was stored on a server somewhere in a Local Area Network (LAN) that was installed in our companies.
Then we had the Software as a Service (SaaS) model of computing. This was made possible by the huge improvements in network infrastructure -- especially the Internet -- and the security of connection.
In the SaaS model, software is accessed only when needed. So, unlike the old model that required us to pay for a piece of software, whether we used it or not, we just had to pay for the software usage (like taking a taxi; you only pay based on how many miles the cab takes you). Because no or very little upfront investment is needed, the cost savings the SaaS model offered was very attractive to small- and medium-sized businesses.
Later on, we began to use resources that existed somewhere on the Internet. For example, files in our hard disks could be backed up to a place on the Web. So, we were then able to upload all our work onto the Internet and when traveling overseas, for example, we could access it via a different computer. In next to no time, other applications have emerged.
Today, the buzzword is Cloud Computing. International Data Corporation (IDC) defines it as "an emerging IT development, deployment, and delivery model, enabling real-time delivery of products, services, and solutions over the Internet".
IDC believes that Cloud Computing is gaining momentum. According to their press release dated Oct. 20, 2008; "in the next five years, *we expect* spending on IT cloud services to grow almost threefold, reaching US$42 billion by 2012."
Does Cloud Computing need a special operating system? Clearly, Microsoft thinks so. At the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference late last month, chief software architect Ray Ozzie unveiled Windows Azure, an extension of the Windows Vista and Windows Mobile for the Cloud.
Does this mean that Redmond is aiming to dominate Cloud Computing like it does with our desktops and notebook PCs? Most likely. However, other big players such as IBM, Amazon and Google are also competing for a space in the cloud.
At any rate, Cloud Computing is the next tier of computing where new opportunities present themselves. Everything is still a bit fuzzy, and the borders between Cloud Computing and SaaS are bound to remain blurry. However, an interesting aspect is the legal framework for offering services, products and solutions from the Cloud.
Perhaps this is another example of how slow-changing regulatory framework proves to be an obstacle as the industry moves to the next wave. -- Zatni Arbi
[[Cloud computing is a marketing trap]]
[[Cloud computing|Cloud Computing, the next wave in application use]] – where IT power is delivered over the internet as you need it, rather than drawn from a desktop computer – has gained currency in recent years. Large internet and technology companies including Google, Microsoft and Amazon are pushing forward their plans to deliver information and software over the net.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/29/cloud.computing.richard.stallman
But Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and creator of the computer operating system GNU, said that cloud computing was simply a trap aimed at forcing more people to buy into locked, proprietary systems that would cost them more and more over time.
"The concept of using web-based programs like Google's Gmail is worse than stupidity, it's a marketing hype campaign," he told The Guardian.
The 55-year-old New Yorker said that computer users should be keen to keep their information in their own hands, rather than hand it over to a third party.
"One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control," he said. "It's just as bad as using a proprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary program or somebody else's web server, you're defenceless. You're putty in the hands of whoever developed that software."
Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, said "the interesting thing about cloud computing is that we've redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do."
"The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women's fashion. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It's complete gibberish. It's insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?"
The growing number of people storing information on internet-accessible servers rather than on their own machines, has become a core part of the rise of Web 2.0 applications. Millions of people now upload personal data such as emails, photographs and, increasingly, their work, to sites owned by companies such as Google.
Computer manufacturer Dell recently even tried to trademark the term "cloud computing", although its application was refused.
But there has been growing concern that mainstream adoption of cloud computing could present a mixture of privacy and ownership issues, with users potentially being locked out of their own files.
//Open source software should be well documented in the first place. I found really well documented OSS and value the software based on whether it is well documented or not.//
[[Open source coexisting with proprietary software|http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/specialreports/open-source/0,3800018440,62050910,00.htm]]
By Victoria Ho, ZDNet Asia
Thursday, February 12, 2009 04:19 PM
Daniel Ng, Red Hat's director of marketing, Asia-Pacific and Japan, said: //Companies can be 100 percent open source.// Ng cited JP Morgan Chase as an example of a company that has embraced open source technology-the financial services firm opened its internally-developed messaging technology to the open source community.
"Gain more by letting go so the community as a whole can benefit as the program will further evolve into a much better program than it was before," Ng said, referring to developers sharing code with the open source community.
Another benefit is cost savings, said Ng. Moving an enterprise's infrastructure to open source will reap savings of three to four times more than only moving the OS from Unix to the Linux platform, he said.
But Ridhi Sawhney, market analyst, ~Asia-Pacific software research, IDC ~Asia-Pacific, sees value in both types of software licenses. He said, "Proprietary software products are much better documented than open source because of the volunteer nature of open source software development", while the open source community imparts benefits to open source software (OSS) such as lower total cost of ownership and that bugs are discovered and patched in a shorter time, it is the "volunteer" nature of the community which also lends weakness to OSS.
"Open source lacks reliable source of assistance when problems are encountered in an open source product. Proprietary software products are also much better documented than open source because of the volunteer nature of open source software development," said Sawhney.
Compatibility with existing proprietary infrastructure may also pose a barrier for enterprises. Sawhney said: "Some proprietary software is not compatible with open source. The competitiveness of OSS depends on its compatibility with existing proprietary solutions-a crucial strength or weakness."
But Martin Schneider, director of product marketing for SugarCRM does not see compatibility as a technology issue. "The only issues that can arise from hybrid environments [of proprietary and open source software] concerns license compatibility. After all, code is code regardless of it being open source or not.
"IT managers need to know what projects and products they have in place, and insure they are interoperable from a license perspective."
Schneider said the [[General Public License version 3|http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62018520,00.htm]] is helping to address non-interoperability barriers that come about from multiple licenses being written for one product, known as license proliferation.
Regardless of licensing, companies should focus on ensuring standards exist, said Grant Smith, business unit lead for open platform solutions, Novell ~Asia-Pacific.This allows enterprises to switch between proprietary and OSS, depending on which product is more mature at a given time of deployment.
He said IT managers should ask questions such as: "Will it plug into the relevant directory services? Will it authenticate? Will the management console manage various flavors of software? Can data be transmitted across the relevant protocols? Do industry standard connectors and collectors exist? Is the vendor willing to put development effort into integrating with competing and complementing product lines?"
"For ~CIOs, cost [of a deployment] is a one-time value. But risk mitigation and reduction of complexity will effect the entire project cycle, and ~CIOs are all very sensitive to these areas," he said.
I'd like to comment about our track sessions that we have had on [[AS2]] camp, I'm putting here for reporting before it is too late and forgotten.
//Track2 is about "Alternative hardware and access".//
Track sessions run from 9.30 until 13.00 which is about three hours and a half with coffee break in between. My comment (from my own experience in training), it is best to divide each session into theory and practical parts. So it will be like this,
09.30 Opening intro or review previous day (15 minutes)
09.45 Theory part (90 minutes)
11.15 Coffee break (15 minutes)
11.30 Practical part (90 minutes)
13.00 End - lunch time
Opening intro is for the first day only describing the agenda for seven-or-eight days to go (without the outing day). Reviewing previous day learning is helpful to recover yesterday's memories and starts a new intro for today's session.
First part of the session should be devoted only for theory. It should be noted that the participants came from different background. It is best to put them in class to get them engaged with the same knowledge (at this phase, do not ask for personal introduction since they need to get acquainted for some time, please do this in the second part of the session whenever necessary).
[img[Track 2 members|blog/outing1.jpg]]
I also notice they have pre-requisite in linux or FOSS. I don't know if this is a requirement for participants to know this beforehand. A bit intro on GNU/Linux and differences on linux distros are best if explained as reminders. I have used Mandrake (now Mandriva) in my office, not Fedora/Red Hat or Ubuntu. And how many distro CDs are required or avail for distribution.
When we have finished the theory part then we can go for practical or hands-on part after the break. Learning theory is like reading a book but not alone.
In the practical part, we can put them in sub-groups on case studies about the theory part just learned, also to allow them to present in front of the class. There will be 90 minutes, so we can have five-to-six cases of 15 minutes each.
It is good to have each participant got the chance to do presentation of what they know or have learned from their own experience and for testing before going for the so-called afternoon sessions. Is this the camp really wanted?
The practical part is also for hands-on or outdoor training such as mounting antenna, gps measuring, but only when they have finished the theory part; not the whole session for practice. The question, will 90 minutes be enough for this part? Well we can do it in the after lunch, the labs is open anyway when time is not enough.
Most participants are not workers, some are decision makers. More information on 'how to' theory is better than to have practical hands on. I don't need to climb a tower even I use to climb up to the roof, or soldering, or crimping, or making an FM transmitter which take time (I remember that I built an AM radio using vacuum tube back in my early days, for days).
[img[On soldering|blog/image004s.jpg]]
Showing the tools is OK but I don't think that we spent our precious time on soldering or crimping. Best to show how-to make a UTP connection, cable coloring, tips-tricks, or making the POE. For my opinion, the FM transmitter should be taken off the list and the radio theory can go with the wireless. In practice it is strongly suggested that we will do it by the book and not by guessing or just plug and pray, so theory matters.
Questionnaire for specific track should be prepared in advance and given at the end (on the last day), giving them sometime to fill-in, I assume putting this on the white board and action plans.
I come to the last part. From the beginning, we need to have some goals from this track sessions which is to put something on CD. So there will be daily assignments such as wiki, blogging, reporting and at the end-of-day for each session to discuss what will be the products on CD (as companion supporting resource). Some materials on track 2 CD were not mentioned in the class.
I hope this is good for improving the track sessions for replication in the future.
It's true about taking the whole kampung on the flight:)
One of the concerns about flights becoming a mode of transportation that's getting affordable means that more and more fuel is being burnt for our travel. A whole debate is ongoing with the manufacturers and the governments about what can be done to reduce the adverse impact of the burning of fuel by planes. I guess we'll just take the ferry across Malaysia-Indonesia to visit each other:)
Gayathry, Malaysia
//I only concern about environmental effects because more fuel will be burnt. However as a modern aircraft it should be designed with better fuel consumption than its predecessor (how could it be). For example a later car models are more ecological. We have to ground the old ones. (My other solution is to plant more trees when it is possible to support the flights of Airbuses).
I admire it because it is the biggest airborne carrier ever built by human. I don't know if the Zeppelin has bigger capacity or the Boeing 787 Dreamliner will be.//
AB380 would be much more fuel & environmentally efficient if used to full capacity (ca. 800 pax), but airlines have chosen to use the extra payload for extra confort, esp in the 'premium' classes. Zeppelin had a much lower payload - but then its footprint was even smaller. Attempts to revive this mode of transport have failed up to now - and not for want of trying.
Dreamliner is smaller than AB380 - it's one of its selling point.
Patrice Riemens - NL
The in-flight entertainment system of the A380 for Singapore Airlines runs Linux on every seat,
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/082207-worldbeat-singapore-airlines-puts-a.html?netht=082207dailynews2
Quite a few airlines adopt Linux-based solutions for the in-flight entertainment system of their planes.
Simos - Greece
Lets put it into even more logical terms for the illogical people who dont know how to count. Google will only make about 4.5 billion this year in profits.
If I wanted to buy google, I would have to pay now about 220 BILLION. So if I borrow 220 Billion, even with all the wonderful profits that I could make, I would never be able to pay the interest off that 220 billion. I would go bankrupt. You know that any company that could never afford to buy itself and even make the interest payments off all the money it makes is way overpriced.
But who cares about math and logic. If Google is rational at $700 a share, then its no more irrational to have it at $5000 a share. Hell why not put it to $100000 a share. America is doomed because we have a bunch of morons that simply don’t know how to count.
I challenge anyone based on math alone to justify google above $350 a share. Analysts and investers lie but math does not lie. Numbers tell the truth. The only reason this stock is this high is people are just riding the gravy train as it goes up. Not that the company is really worth 220 billion.
Posted By russ lehi utah : October 31, 2007 9:50 pm
[[Is Google cheap at $600 per share? ]]
Intel has a Classmate PC portal. The Classmate is part of Intel's [[World Ahead Program|http://www.intel.com/intel/worldahead/index.htm]]. This says the Classmate can run either Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Office or Mandriva Discovery 2007 (Linux) and OpenOffice, so I'd assume the cheapest systems have Mandriva.
This isn't a Microsoft project, but the Classmate was sourcing its Microsoft software cheaply under the Microsoft Partners in Learning Program for Governments. I wouldn't have thought [[Asus's commercial notebooks|http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2007/06/05/intel_classmate_becomes_199_asus_eee_subnotebook_pc.html]] qualified, and this could bump up the price of the Windows option.
This seems much better than the XO: a REAL computer which can run Windows and complete Linux distros (the OLPC uses the Linux kernel, but can't run a distro like Ubuntu or Mepis), while not passing as a charitable effort (which the OLPC isn't, as paying for those near-useless "laptops" would further indebt the third world) Sounds good. I'd buy one.
I live in a country that participates in the OLPC project. And I think the government should spend that money on paying teachers and improving healthcare, not flashy toys which can't run a real operating system, be it Linux (I love Ubuntu and use it exclusively) or Windows (which I understand many people need). We shouldn't spend millions of dollars in products that will be obsolete in a couple years (or less... I can buy desktop computers with better specs than the OLPC on ebay for less money)
[[I wouldn't say that this will be obsolete|http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2006/10/01/intel_classmate_pc_a_mobile_for_the_third_world.html]] in just a few years. I bought a Sony C1VE in March (made 2001) for wirelss web browsing, email & movies, which it's perfect for. It's never going to play the latest 3D games (or anything older than Duke Nukem 3D, to be honest).
WiMax based telecommunications systems are installed in many countries around the globe including many so-called 3rd world countries. Wimax technology could cover many sparsly populated areas of the US except it is resisted by the companies that have substantial investments in hard wire systems. Comment by c300man - August 16, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Malaysia’s Airzed Networks has been running a WiMAX (802.16 - 2-11GHz) Broadband Service in the Kuala Lumpur (Klang Valley) area since July 2005.
The 1Mbps service plan for business users was being advertised at an introductory offer of RM468 (US$134) a month bundled with 6 free 1-Year Wi-Fi accounts (on Airzed’s network). Coming soon are SOHO and Home plans at US$82 and US$53 respectively per month. Airzed is embarking on a nation-wide expansion of the WiMAX broadband service. Comment by Hormuz - August 16, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Regardless of the entrenched positions of the big players, the fact remains that the future is wireless, and there is mounting pressure(from consumers) to be able to have more “software” options on their mobile devices. The footprint being put together is going to be very valuable in the long term. It’s just a question of time before there is enough critical mass. Comment by dan514 - August 16, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Wi-Max could be the first of many steps to allow subscribers to fully ‘exploit’ the opportunities within the ‘Internet’. Providing people high-speed access to the Internet basically wherever they want, could encourage innovations that are either: unknown of now; or, held back by the lackluster speeds currently available. One advantage that Wi-Max brings is the ability to connect multiple low-bandwidth devices at the same time (by sharing the relatively huge bandwidth pipe of Wi-Max), thereby opening up a large, unsatisfied market - provided of course, that Sprint Nextel is savvy enough to be able to offer a attractive, variable rate pricing plan. Comment by Mark P - August 16, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Sprint WiMAX is partnering with Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, Intel and others to create an Ecosystem that will allow device makers (laptops, phones, gameboys, etc to imbed a chip that will provide access to the internet at broadband speeds (10 Mbps), much faster than any 3G network on the market. It will allow mobile access, unlike some of the fixed wireless access mentioned in previous posts. I will also allow chips to be imbedded into autos, portable electronics, appliances, equipment, or anything that could require connectivity. Comment by PJD2006 - August 16, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Sprint will be offering the 2-3Mb speed WIMAX with its EVDO Rev A system providing the best coverage and highest speeds rolled into one product. Their version of WIMAX is not for fixed installations, it is mobile like its EVDO offering. The high speeds of its WIMAX offering will be a direct competitive threat against the telco’s DSL and cableco’s high speed internet offerings. This is a good bet on Sprint’s part. Also, the only one they have. Comment by Mike C - August 16, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Mobile WiMax based on 802.16E, a new technology standard, will support new wireless broadband services. The first commercial network in the world is in Panama. It has the potential to deliver DSL/cable modem-like service in a manner similar to voice over cellular networks. The potential for innovative new services over these networks is profound. Clearwire and Sprint are the only US Carriers to announce nationwide WiMax deployments, but there are regional deployments underway in the Southwest by Pegasus and the northeast by Horizon. International deployments are outpacing the US, just as in conventional broadband. FCC policy in the upcoming auctions needs to foster some much needed competition in this area! Comment by Bob S - August 16, 2007 at 5:30 pm
While pursuing Wi-Max might be a good idea for the future, the issues facing Sprint are their management deficiencies and irreconcilible mistakes associated with the Nextel merger. They need to resolve their fundamental operational issues first, then bet the farm on WiMax. Hemoraging (sp) subscribers for the past several quarters, due to network issues and poor customer service indicates systemic issues, that would probably deter subscribers from taking a chance on this new service. They need to close the credibility gap. Comment by Liberal Submariner - August 16, 2007 at 2:31 pm
//I see that [[Linus posted at least two different issues|Linus says about why Linux "against" Microsoft?]], the Linux thing vs FSF and the [[Obama|http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/060628-call_to_renewal_1/]] issue. I also see that people don't always agree with RMS' free software movement thus followed by Linus himself by using the GNU license. A love hate relationship?//
RAV TUX said...
I agree with you 100% Linus about GPLv3. Recently the developers at cafelinux.org choose the X11 License (AKA as the MIT license) for OzOS (A Xubuntu derivative using the enlightenment 17 DE). The direction of GPL is going astray in a way that may not benefit the whole of the GNU/Linux, Open Source world.
The Modified BSD License is by far the best which essential duplicates the X11 License. As a GNU/Linux, Open Source developers I prefer (as well as our General Counsel) the X11 License.
Paul said...
I'm with you on Obama. When I hear him speak I hear a good hearted man, who core principle is to do what he sees as best for the people. People won't agree with him all the time, but that's ok. A President led by good intentions, and good judgment is a vast improvement over the status quo.
Then again, I'm European, so I'm obviously a liberal ;-)
On the GPLv3, I understand where you're coming from. Stallman does tend to be a fundamentalist, and take a no compromise line. That said, GPLv3 is two things.
1) It's a reaction to people abusing the GPLv2, following the letter, rather than the spirit of the document. Without v3 there was no license for people who wanted to stop these abuses on their code.
and so....
2) It's a better description of what the spirit of the document was initially. I'm personally not sure why people are against the GPLv3, but support the v2. It's goal is the same thing. If you chose v2 and your ideals haven't changed (you still want people to gain from your code, but for it never to be proprietary) then why do you disagree with v3. The loopholes that allowed people to go against the spirit of your choice have been made tighter. Isn't that a good thing?
There seems to have been a bit of a backlash again the GPL in favour of licenses such as BSD, and the v3 got caught up in it.
The important thing to remember though is that it's still a choice, and I never begrudge anybodies choice of license for THEIR code.
Felipe said...
Torvalds was 15 when Richard Stallman started the GNU project, GNU GPL, GNU Manifesto, and other free software. The Linux "operating system" is composed largely of GNU software. Without it, the operating system you know and love today wouldn't be the same. Thanks to Richard Stallman, "linux operating system" is free (as in speech).
cantormath said...
Drawing a connection from GPLv3 advocates and religious extremists is not entirely fair. Yes, some people treat the issues like religious doctrine, however, switching from GPLv2 to GPLv3 is also important for "nonreligious" reasons. The importance is in preserving the users' freedoms more thoroughly. GPLv3 fills the loop holes that companies, like TiVo, have found in GPLv2 that take advantage of users.
GPLv3 aside, it is not enough to license your software "Open Source". One really needs to have the intention of preserving the users rights in mind when labeling ones source code open.
Many projects, like Zimbra, are "pretend" open source projects with the illusion that they develop their product with the users interest in mind. Beware of the Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Editions (EE). Projects using such a model, IMO, are not "open source" purely for the reason that the CE is being used as a trial edition while the EE is the only version with full functionality.
IMO, these are just some of the reasons why Linux should move to GPLv3 as soon as legally possible.
Please take no offense to my opinion.
nocturn said...
I have to disagree with you on the GPLv3 and RMS.
The GPLv3 is not against something particular, but rather a way of protecting Free Software. The GPLv2 did essentially the same, but the landscape changed since it was created.
RMS may be a black-and-white type of person, but he has a clear view on things like the 'intellectual property' hype that is used against Free Software.
These quite clear arguments justify the GPLv3 to me.
What I do not really understand is why you are so much against it when you clearly liked the protection the GPLv2 brought your kernel.
Maybe a Torvalds - RMS debate would be nice :-)
Supplement - August 03, 2006
In the last decade, advancements in technology have given a whole new dimension to the world of "business communication". E-mail culture, for example, has enabled us to communicate faster, with greater ease, and almost instantly!
To be effective as managers, we cannot avoid this phenomenon; instead we must embrace it and use it to our advantage. However, before composing an e-mail, we must first ensure that it is the most effective communication channel for the current situation.
Here are few points to consider.
Do my recipients prefer e-mail?
The first step is to identify your recipients' preferences -- whether they like to receive their messages in person or read about it in their e-mail. We often come across people who prefer to communicate via telephone or fax, as they hardly check their e-mails. On the other hand, there are those who find e-mail more convenient.
Is it more cost-effective?
In most instances, it is more cost-effective to send someone an e-mail rather than a letter via post (also called snail mail in today's era). This is especially true if you have to send the message to someone sitting in a different country or time zone.
Do I need an answer immediately?
Sometimes we have an urgent query and we need an immediate answer. This may call for us to consider other options as people may not always be at their desks to reply to e-mails. A more practical and effective channel here would be to telephone them and get an answer.
Does the message need to be confidential?
As a manager, there are times we may want to communicate something confidential to our colleagues or clients. We may think that sending an e-mail is safe, but we do not know who else actually has access to his/her mailbox. For example, many high-level executives get their secretaries to screen their e-mails before they actually read them.
Which recipients do I need to reach?
Are you meant to inform just one person to join you in a meeting, or is it your duty to invite suggestions from everyone on the payroll for the coming company trip? For instances where the same message needs to go out to many people, it is less time-consuming to just send out an e-mail rather than send memos or telephone everyone.
Is my message detailed and important?
Sending messages which are long and contain information like numerical data, etc., may require you to send it through e-mail. In addition, you are also able to send file attachments, which recipients can view, edit and e-mail back to you. This saves you both a lot of time, and any distortion that may occur in the communication process.
After considering these points carefully, we may find that e-mailing is not necessarily the best option, and we must use our judgment to decide on the most effective communication channel. In the next few weeks, we will discuss how to compose clear and effective e-mails, and also the basics of Netiquette.
Gulshan Harjani Chief Communication Consultant Success Workz Indonesia gulshan@successworkz.com
[[Tactical Tech|htttp://www.tacticaltech.org]] wants to support advocates to make use of our Mobiles in-a-box, Message in-a-box and Security in-a-box toolkits. If you have any idea on using these toolkits then you would be interested in this competition.
Five winners of this competition will be provided with a [[Flip camera|http://www.theflip.com/products_flip_ultra.shtml]] or any alternative media gadget or human resource - up to the value of 150 Euros!
To enter this competition, you only need to submit a short application that explains your idea for using one or more of Tactical Tech's toolkits and for documenting this use.
Your Tactical Tech toolkit documentation may include:
*A photo essay showing how you used one of Tactical Tech's toolkits;
*A blog entry;
*A 'how-to' video;
*A two-minute mini video documentary; or
*A data visualization, animation, cartoon or drawing.
This documentation might be recorded as an event is unfolding - or afterwards, as a reflection on what happened.
What we hope is that this CREATIVE documentation will tell your advocacy story and illustrate how our toolkits can be used to benefit marginalised communities. You may wish to document your use of one toolkit or more than one; create one piece of content or several. You can create this content in any language you like, but non-English content should be translated.
What we need from you.
1. A short (up to two-page) proposal explaining how you will use the toolkit, what you will document, the format you will use, and the date you will deliver your documentation to us. You should also briefly list any relevant past experience you have.
2. A description of what you would need from us to help you use one of our toolkits or to document your use of it (for example, a still camera, a mobile phone, flip camera, drawing tablet, one day with a writer, designer, artist etc - any resource/s up to the value of 150 euro).
Please provide an online link to this resource where available or a breakdown of costs such as daily rate.
3. A contact name, phone number and address.
4. This proposal must be submitted by 28th May 4pm GMT and your content must be created and delivered to us by September 31st.
Decisions will be made 3rd April and all applicants will be notified of the results by April 5th.
To submit proposals or questions contact: Tanya Notley and [[Marek Tuszynski|mailto:competition@tacticaltech.org]]
Today, the connection systems used for broadband connections are cables and DSL. Indeed, these two media are highly popular among users and users continue to increase in number. This is understandable as today's lifestyle demands easy, unlimited and speedy access to information. The coverage area continues to expand with the construction of the most sophisticated infrastructure possible.
Iwan Suci Jatmiko , Contributor, Jakarta | Mon, 06/30/2008 10:50 AM | Supplement
http://www.thejakartapost.com/node/173461
In addition, there is also Internet access for personal subscribers, which is generally based on dial-up technology, i.e. using an ordinary telephone connection. The weakness of the dial-up system is that its speed is slow during downloading and uploading data of a large capacity. Cost calculation is also time-based. That's why the dial-up system is very expensive for certain usage as the larger the data dispatched or downloaded, the longer the process will take. As a result, the cost will swell.
There is also the Asymetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) system, which is a modem technology working at frequencies between 34 kHz and 1104 kHz. In comparison, the conventional modem uses a frequency of 4 kHz. The superiority of ADSL is that it allows high-speed Internet access and voice or fax usage simultaneously through one telephone line using an ADSL modem and a splitter to separate the telephone line and the modem channel.
Besides the dial-up and ADSL system, today wireless broadband is increasingly used for Internet connection. Generally, this technology is known as Fixed Wireless Broadband or sometimes as Wireless ADSL because the speed of its access is almost the same as that of ADSL technology. However, the speed is sometimes affected by the weather. A user wishing to subscribe to wireless broadband must be located within range of the transmitter. Meanwhile, many operators are offering wireless broadband services to mobile people.
People have enthusiastically turned to wireless broadband. The number of its users has jumped and a lot of wireless broadband operators have sprung up. Usually, in terms of technology, the operators use a transmitter that requires a Line of Sight to the closest transmitter. On the side of users, they need only a microwave antenna to be connected via the Wireless Modem Router and the computer.
There are two kinds of this wireless broadband technology. First, the Dedicated system that uses frequencies between 3.3 GHz and 5.8 GHZ. The frequencies are controlled by the government. As such, the operators have to pay the government to make use of these frequencies. Like a toll road, connection on the frequencies is better as fewer people use them. Second, the Shared system, which uses a frequency of 2.4 GHz, which is free of charge and can be used by anybody. However, the weakness is that the bandwidth capacity will be divided. This means that the quality of the connection will depend on the number of users in a given area.
The need for mobile data communication services has increased sharply. This is a business potential to tap. As a result, wireless broadband operators now have new competitors: cellular operators. Although the character of the target market is relatively different, cellular operators engaged in wireless broadband services are quite aggressive in tapping their market.
Telkomsel, for example, has set a target of its Internet broadband subscribers through the Telkomsel Flash services at 140,000 active users. PT IM2 does not want to lag behind and expects that the number of its subscribers will increase almost tenfold in 2008. In late 2007, IM2 signed up 25,000 subscribers and expects to increase this number to 200,000 this year.
Meanwhile, another operator, Excelcomindo (XL), introduced its wireless broadband services a year ago. It was introduced last year at the same time as the launch of the 3G Ready service. Meanwhile, PT Bakrie Telecom Tbk, the owner of Esia products, has Wimode, which can serve as a modem and data storage while at the same time phone calls can be made.
The wireless broadband services offered by the operators, including cellular operators, are predicted to boost the number of Internet users in Indonesia. While in 2006 the number of Internet users in Indonesia stood at only 14.5 million people, in late 2007 this number jumped to 20 million. Meanwhile, the number of cellular subscribers in 2010 is predicted to reach 120 million numbers while the number of Internet users is expected to reach 58.7 million.
The operators push their mobile wireless business with two offers. First, they offer subscribers Internet direct access through a mobile phone.
Second, by providing services for subscribers to access the Internet through their laptop or desktop computer (PC). Usually, operators offer a bundling package in the form of a USB modem in which there is a slot for the cellular card (SIM card).
[[Cellular and internet access in Indonesia]]
I enjoyed your article on the $100 laptop, " The Soul of a New Laptop" (May 7), and I heard quite a bit about this project during my time at MIT.
http://members.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0604/028.html
However, a critical question must be asked (and re-asked): What else could be done with this money to help the world's poor?
At the end of your article Walter Bender states that he expects 500 million of these laptops to be produced in the next five years. If they meet their $100 production target, this equates to $50 billion. This amount of money is not enough to solve all of the world's problems, but it is an enormous sum, larger than the current endowment of the Gates Foundation. We must ask how much good could be done if this money were dedicated to food, medicine, more cost-effective forms of education or establishing small businesses and other economic development. This is one reason why Bill Gates himself has been less than supportive of the $100 laptop (it's not just because the laptop uses Linux).
Shandon Hart
Maplewood, Minn.
After few months of delay, Creative Commons has finally released the Version 3.0 licenses. The key differences from Version 2.5 are:
* Generic and the US licenses are now separated
* International harmonisation of moral rights and collecting society
* No more endorsement language
* BY-SA compatibility structure is included
* Clarifications negotiated with Debian and MIT
Congrats to everyone at Creative Commons who made this possible,
especially project coordinator Mia Garlick (sad that she's leaving CC
and joining Google). Details of the changes are described at
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Version_3.
And yeah, don't forget to Digg the news: http://ox.ca/3h0
- Russell
The 'non trivial differences' between 'Free' and 'Open
Source':
The Free and Open Source Software movements are parallel movements with a complex relationship and history outside the scope of this essay. When discussing software, licenses, and development communities, the terms are usually synonymous.
When discussing the motivation, philosophy, and politics behind the the production of this software, the terms vary wildly. As to the nature of the distinction, an inadequate but useful distinction can be drawn: Free Software is a social movement; Open Source is a development methodology. For the sake of this paper I err on the side of overusing Free Software but in many cases, especially when discussing inspiration by Free Software, the Free/Open Source split is hardly clean.
[[Patrice Riemens|mailto:patrice@xs4all.nl]]
Towards a Standard of Freedom: [[Creative Commons|http://creativecommons.org/]] and the Free Software Movement
Author: [[Benjamin Mako Hill|mailto:mako@atdot.cc]]
http://mako.cc/writing/toward_a_standard_of_freedom.html
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/sa/1.0/
See more [[Creative Commons License 3.0|Creative Commons Version 3.0]]
Advance Notice for another opportunity for FOSS-oriented companies in Vietnam: Cross the FOSS-Bridge between Vietnam and Europe!
Do you want to team up with a European FOSS-company for joint business?
Are you interested in European expertise in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)?
Do you want to develop joint software projects based on FOSS?
Then you could also be interested in the initiative FOSS bridge "EU-Vietnam" which will soon launch a call for Vietnamese companies who are interested in teaming up with European FOSS-companies for joint software projects.
The EU (Asia Invest Program) and BMZ (German Federal Ministry for economic Cooperation and Development) funded project FOSS bridge "EU-Vietnam" - Joint Business through Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is counting on your contribution to achieve its main goal:
Strengthening Southeast Asian software industries and boosting cooperation with Europe through innovative collaboration on free and open source software (FOSS) business development. The initiative is implemented by InWEnt of Germany (Capacity Building International), INRIA (Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique) of France and IOIT (Institute of Information Technology) of Vietnam.
If you are interested in a twinning or other components of FOSS Bridge, please send an e-mail to: contact@foss-bridge.org. We will get back to you with more information. Also, an application form will be online soon at http://www.foss-bridge.org.
[[How much freedom do you need?]]
[[Moving on to TiddlySpace]]
π (pi), the ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle, has captivated imaginations for thousands of years -- perhaps even since the first person tried to draw a perfect circle on the ground or wondered how to construct something round like a wheel. Approximately 3.14, the number has its own holiday on March 14 -- 3-14, get it?
For Marc Umile, it's "3.14159265358979...", he'll mentally rattle off digits of π to pass the time. Holding 10th place in the world for π memorization - he typed out 15,314 digits from memory in 2007 - Umile meditates through one of the most beloved and mysterious numbers in all of mathematics. Memorizing pi for him seemed like a good test of memory, and he found that putting the digits in a definite rhythm, which repeated exactly every 1,000 digits, helped him remember them. The record for memorization was 67,890 digits by Chao Lu in 2005.
Still, for this π Day he's thinking about testing himself to type out [[1,000 digits|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSGK8IEXvXU]] or more.
"I think it's very fun. It's good to be an inspiration to people who would like to broaden their minds and climb the Mount Everest of their minds," he said.
"There are many things that could not be built without implementing the constant π," Umile said. "The great engineering marvels like the arch or suspension bridges we cross over, the tunnels spanning within mountains or even under the water that we drive through. ... Without it, everything would be incomplete or in danger of collapse."
Designing any structure with cylindrical components involves pi, as the formula for area is pi multiplied by the square of the radius. Let's say you wanted to know if a column or cable, both of which have circular cross-sections, is strong enough to withstand a particular force. You would calculate the stress -- force divided by area -- to see if the particular object would work in the construction. You can increase the area if the stress is too great.
Wednesday March 7, 9:18 AM
BOSTON (Reuters) - Dell Inc. is considering offering the Linux operating system as an alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows on its personal computers, a Dell spokesman said on Tuesday. The PC maker said it received more than 100,000 customer requests for Linux in a "suggestion box" posted on Dell's Web site less than three weeks ago.
"We are listening to what customers are saying about Linux and taking it into consideration," said Dell spokesman David Lord. "We are going forward. Let's say, 'Certainly stay tuned."'
Linux is an open-source operating system that is generally available for free and can be used to run most computers, including Dell's PCs. Dell does not break out how much it charges for Windows when it calculates the cost of a computer system, but a basic upgrade version of the software generally retails for $99.
The only operating system that Dell currently offers on its PCs is Windows, with one exception, Lord said. It sells high-end Linux desktops designed specifically for use in oil and gas exploration, he said.
Making Linux available on other Dell PCs has been the top request since the Web site was launched on February 16, according to data posted on the site, as of Tuesday evening. The second most popular request was that Dell offer another popular free software title, OpenOffice, which competes with Microsoft Office programs including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Have you ever been in meetings where lots of questions are asked but nothing is achieved? Or meetings where lots of people throw around lots of ideas with no follow-up action? Or situations where a detailed plan is worked out only to realize that you were working on the wrong problem or idea? Or a situation where people actively jump into action on the first idea?
Features - August 13, 2006 by Kayee Man/Dewi Susanti, Contributors, Jakarta
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20060813.G09
To effectively and creatively solve problems, people need to find out exactly what the problem is, generate ideas to solve the problem, develop an action plan that works and finally, implement the plan. But often, some of the steps are not taken, resulting in the creation of the aforementioned situations in the work context.
Much as we would like to see all these steps taken by a single individual, the truth of the matter is that not all of us like doing all the steps of clarifying the problem, generating ideas, developing solutions and implementing a plan.
A while back, we assessed people's preferences in the process of creative problem solving (FourSightT; www.FourSightOnline.com). As it turns out, even we (Kayee and Dewi) are very different in our working preferences.
Not too long ago, we started to collaborate on a writing project. Kayee (who has a preference to clarify, generate ideas and implement) had a big picture of what we needed to do (clarify) and many ideas here and there (idea generation), and immediately started typing away (implementation), and presented her output to Dewi the next day.
Dewi, being a solution developer, told Kayee that we really needed a plan, so we'll know how our writing project will develop over time. She couldn't start working on the project without a detailed plan. While Dewi nodded away when Kayee tried to convince her to go with the flow, the moment she stopped talking (thinking Dewi was convinced), Dewi turned to her computer and started creating a matrix of ideas, how they can be structured and hoping to see our much needed plan emerge.
You're probably wondering what happened to us -- both working on the same thing, going off in different directions. Well, for many people, the partnership may have been on the brink of collapse. For us, our understanding of each other's working preferences allowed this to happen without much mishap.
Kayee was aware that she was jumping the gun. Dewi's plan would bring her back to earth like a child tugging at a runaway balloon. Dewi, knowing Kayee's impatience to start, knew not to keep her at the planning stage too long and convincingly gave her the impression that "things were moving" while subtly leading her through the planning process.
You see, we understand each other's working style. The assessment we took helped us to gain this understanding and have a common language to talk to each other about how to work together or give space to accommodate each other's working preferences. In this case, a little understanding paved the way.
So Kayee has a strong preference to clarify the problem, generate ideas and implement. Dewi, as it appears, is a solution developer. Now be mindful that preference is not the same as saying that a person will be good at what they prefer to do, nor does it mean that a person does not have the ability to do what they don't prefer to do. Preference -- that is all it is -- is what people like to work on. Also note that Dewi's and Kayee's preferences combined to equal the four stages in the creative problem solving process! To put it bluntly, if we work together, we can be sure that no stages are skipped in the process!
Some people may have a preference for in-depth understanding of a problem (clarifiers), some may prefer to think up new ideas (idea creators), some may prefer to work out an action plan in detail (solution developers) and some may prefer to put ideas into action (implementers). People may have preferences in only one or a combination of any of the four stages of the creative process.
The idea for Tetra Pakr, the ubiquitous carton used for packaging liquids, was conceived by Erik Wallenberg; but it was his partner at work, Ruben Rausing, who invented the process to form and fill the cartons. While it is not clear whether this delineation of tasks was due to a process preference or possession of skills and knowledge, what this example illustrates is that a great idea needs a workable solution that gets implemented to bring the idea to fruition.
IDEO Product Development has a very strong team of product designers. Apple mouse, PalmPDA and Polaroid's I-Zone instant camera are just a few products to highlight the strength of the team. The team is not short on identifying challenges to work on and finding ideas to solve their product design challenges. However, without people skilled in marketing to develop solutions or plans to bring their products to the market and to market and sell the products, the creative problem solving process would be incomplete. IDEO recognized their lack of marketing expertise and began to hire people with marketing and consulting backgrounds to fill the gaps in the process (Sutton, 2002).
In their book titled Breakthrough, Stefik & Stefik (2004) included excerpts of an interview with Dave Robson, a member of the team that created Smalltalk (an influential object-oriented programming system developed at Palo Alto Research Center), who described the collaboration of two other members of the Smalltalk team: Alan Kay and Dan Ingalls.
Alan Kay was described as a great visionary. He had many ideas on how Smalltalk should work. Dan Ingalls was described as an implementer. He shared practical issues that he encountered that in turn guided Kay's thoughts in realizing his visions. In Robson's words, "Alan's main products were ideas ..." and "Dan ... has designed and implemented a whole variety of elegant and efficient systems". Robson concluded: "I think that both of them were necessary to create the first generation of Smalltalk. Without Alan, Dan wouldn't have seen that possibility. And without Dan, Alan would not have made it actually run" (Stefik & Stefik, 2004: 172).
What do we have here? We have Alan Kay the clarifier and ideator and Dan Ingalls the solution developer and implementer. Both were necessary to see a possibility and to work through the process to realize the possibility.
When Thomas Edison was asked why he had a team of assistants, he replied: "If I could solve all the problems myself, I would." As is the case in most work situations, we can't solve big problems or challenges on our own.
Knowing your working preferences is a good starting point to see where you can make the most valuable contributions in a team. Knowing your colleagues' working preferences will enable you to appreciate the value your team members bring to the table - even if it brings along frustration to you because you enjoy being in that part of the creative problem solving process. Each part of the creative problem solving process is valuable to the outcome of the process, so be sure that your team includes clarifiers, ideators, solution developers and implementers.
If you are facing a challenge on your own, knowing your own preferences will help you navigate the creative problem solving process. We tend to skip the stages of the process that we don't enjoy -- be aware of the stages that you are skipping and bear with staying at that stage just long enough for you to effectively and creatively problem solve.
"Self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement" (Baltasar Graci n). How well do you know your own creative problem solving process preferences?
Kayee is a graduate student in creative studies at SUNY Buffalo and Dewi is a UC Berkeley alumnus. They can be reached at ideabox@art-explore.com.
The Centre for Internet and Society in collaboration with the Frontier Foundation is holding a three day Digital Natives workshop in Taipei from 15 to 17 August, 2010.
The three day workshop will serve as an ideal platform for the young users of technology to share their knowledge and experience of the digital and Internet world and help them learn from each other’s individual experiences.
[[An Open Call for Participation|http://www.cis-india.org/research/dn/open-call]]
The Centre for Internet and Society (Bangalore, India) in collaboration with the Frontier Foundation (Taipei, Taiwan) are calling out to young technology users to share stories about how they have tried to change things around them with the use of digital and Internet technologies. Conversely, if you feel that the presence of these technologies has significantly changed you in some way, we want to hear about that too!
These can be stories where you have made a significant impact by initiating campaigns or movements for a particular cause, stories where you have used technologies to cope with problems in your personal and social life through your online persona in the virtual World Wide Web or stories where a small blog you started, or a facebook group you created, or a plurk network that you started, or a discussion group that you participated in, led to a change that has a story to tell.
The three day workshop will select 20 participants from all around Asia and in the Middle East to come and share these stories, to interact with facilitators and scholars who have worked in different countries and areas, and to form a network of collaboration and support.
There will be a platform for your stories where they can be heard in your own voice, in your own style and in your own formats. Participants can fill in an application form (as given below) and forward it to digitalnatives@cis-india.org by 15th July 2010. Expenses relevant to the project will be granted to the selected participants.
Stephen Manes 03.12.07
Windows Vista: more than five years in the making, more than 50 million lines of code. The result? A vista slightly more inspiring than the one over the town dump. The new slogan is: "The 'Wow' Starts Now," and Microsoft touts new features, many filched shamelessly from Apple's Macintosh. But as with every previous version, there's no wow here, not even in ironic quotes. Vista is at best mildly annoying and at worst makes you want to rush to Redmond, Washington and rip somebody's liver out.
Vista is a fading theme park with a few new rides, lots of patched-up old ones and bored kids in desperate need of adult supervision running things. If I can find plenty of problems in a matter of hours, why can't Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people )? Most likely answer: It did -and it doesn't care.
Example: If malware somehow gets into your machine, Windows Firewall will not stop it from making outbound Internet connections to do its evil deeds. If you turn off that firewall in favor of a better one, the Windows Firewall control panel will admonish: "Your computer is not protected; turn on Windows Firewall." But the Windows Security Center will correctly tell you that a firewall is on and that you shouldn't run two at a time. Call it convistancy.
Gaffes like this make you wonder if security really is improved as much as Microsoft claims. You'll still have to add your own antivirus software, a new Vista-ready version at that. And Vista's irritating and repeated warnings about possible security breaches don't always mean what they say and are usually irrelevant. You'll take them as seriously as the boy who cried wolf, making them useless as defensive tools.
As usual, things Microsoft was touting last time have mysteriously gone away in favor of putative new wonders. Windows XP's heralded "task-based interface" often let you perform actions by picking them from a list. Now many of those actions have disappeared-except where they haven't.
Likewise, Control Panel options have been totally rejiggered yet again for no apparent reason. You can still use the Classic panel view that's been available since time immemorial, but several items have been confusingly renamed out of sheer perversity.
The new desktop search features are a mess, thanks in part to inscrutable indexing defaults and options. A "quick search" panel at the bottom of the Start menu lets you find results, whether in a file's name or its contents. But on one machine-oddly, the fastest I tested-it was far, far slower than using Start's regular search option. Though that option finds folders like Accessories, quick search doesn't always. And if you click away to do something else while you wait for answers, Vista abandons the "quick search" and makes you start over.
Windows Mail is a mild reworking of Outlook Express whose big new feature is a spam filter that in my tests flagged nonspam as spam and vice versa an unacceptable 10% of the time. The bare-bones word processor WordPad used to be able to open Microsoft Word files. No more. What possible rationale could there be for "fixing" that, except to force users to shell out for the real thing?
Potentially exciting improvements keep coming up short. The speech recognition system's clever design lets you control the computer via voice and dictate into programs like Word. It did pretty well at understanding me even when I used a less than optimal built-in microphone instead of a headset. But my enthusiasm turned to dust when the software for correcting inevitable mistakes locked up repeatedly-even when it understood what I was saying.
Many touted improvements, like the Web browser and media player, have been available for XP for months. One minor winner is Vista-only: file lists that update their contents automatically. You no longer have to hit View and Refresh to see files added since you last opened the list window. Macs, of course, have done this for years.
The new Mac-like ability to show thumbnails of documents and running programs is cute, but it doesn't always work-typical of a level of fit and finish that would be unacceptable from a cut-rate tailor. Only in Windowsland will you find howlers like a Safely Remove Hardware button for memory card readers that happen to be hardwired into your computer.
Still with us: program crashes, followed by the machine's refusal to shut down until you lean on the power button awhile. Thereafter you may be subjected to ugly white-on-black text from CHKDSK, a DOS-era program that issues baffling new reports like "44 reparse records processed."
Should you upgrade your current machine? Are you nuts? Upgrading is almost always a royal pain. Many older boxes are too wimpy for Vista, and a "Vista-ready" unit Microsoft upgraded for me could see my wireless network but not connect to it. The diagnostics helpfully reported "Wireless association failed due to an unknown reason" and suggested I consult my "network administrator"-me. Yet I've connected dozens of things to that network, including other Vista machines, a PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's own Xbox 360.
My recommendation: Don't even consider updating an old machine to Vista, period. And unless you absolutely must, don't buy a new one with Vista until the inevitable Service Pack 1 (a.k.a. Festival o' Fixes) arrives to combat horrors as yet unknown.
I suggested to one Windows product manager that if the company were truly serious about security, Vista might offer a simple way to delete files securely and eliminate all traces of identity and passwords so you could safely pass the machine on or sell it years from now. His reply: "Does any other operating system do that?" That tells you all you need to know about Microsoft. The real slogan: "No innovation here."
As Bill Gates winds down his roles at Microsoft, Windows Vista may be the chief software architect's swan song. It's a shame his legacy is something so utterly unimaginative, internally discordant and woefully out of tune.
Stephen Manes (smanes@forbes.com) is cohost of PC World's Digital Duo, which appears weekly on public television. Visit his home page at www.forbes.com/manes.
http://members.forbes.com/global/2007/0312/038.html
Articles quoted in this blog are part of <my> learning process. Companies under study such as Intel, Google, OLPC, Microsoft, Asus, might have their own respective brands and not in anyway promoted in this blog.
Articles quoted in this blog are part of <my> learning process. Companies under study such as Intel, Google, OLPC, Microsoft, Asus, might have their own respective brands and not in anyway promoted in this blog. However there is no guarantee of recommendation from various sources quoted in this blog.
Countries under study are China, India, Brazil and most of Asean countries.
There was an asking about certification from [[Asia Source II]] participant when we have finished our days. I said, you can just show your group photo and some news that ~AS2 is really happening, well a bit cumbersome:)
''Do we really need that?''
I remembered many trainings were made to produce certification, etc such as Cisco training, MS training, Novell training, and diplomas from certain degrees that you have acquired from universities. This certification was given on a completion of test or a period that you have endured. It will bring happiness too when you received those certification. A milestone in your lifetime.
Those certification will not prove at all that it will guarantee an employment when you ask for one. Well at least the employer will notice that you have undergone some sort of trainings but the employer will need only basic achievement and some skills because you will be on further training to cope with the company culture (that means how they behave or think), and further training that is needed only by the company.
Sometime the training is locked-up within the company that you can't find it in other place. Different company will have different kind of training. The employer will look if you are capable to go on further training on company behalf.
So make sure that you need only certain basic training for certification because the most important is to understand the knowledge. Learn more but not necessarily to pursue the certification. Some knowledge especially IT will advance faster than you can learn or become obsolescence in time if you learned the wrong way..
//Maybe this comment reflect some of my time; graduated from the university some thirty years ago when there was no PC to touch, we did programming FORTRAN at that time using -do you know what- punched cards. For a small iteration routine.
But I have learned more, and know internet or else. So I didn't use the diploma that was given long time ago for studying current usable knowledge. ''How can people certify each other?''//
That would be another story.
> The FOSK Certification will be a single low stakes entry level exam to test the FOSS knowledge and competency level of technical and non technical staff who are responsible for the day to day computer needs of Not for Profit organizations. This professional may work as a technical person, a circuit rider, account management or technical sales, executive positions or any other role that is responsible for recommending and/or choosing FOSS solutions for an organization.
>
> https://group.lpi.org/publicwiki/bin/view/Examdev/FOSK
The Dow's 7% decline on Monday Sept 29, 2008 was the worst single-day percentage drop since Sept. 17, 2001 - the first trading day after the September 11 attacks. The S&P and Nasdaq both lost around 9%, the biggest single-day percentage drop since the October 1987 crash.
[img[DJ slumps from highest 14,000|blog/dji_1year.jpg]]
The day's loss knocked out roughly $1.2 trillion in market value, according to a drop in the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000, the broadest measure of the stock market. It was the first time markets have ever lost more than $1 trillion in a day.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/30/markets/markets_newyork/index.htm
Stocks plunged Monday after the House of Representatives shot down the proposed $700 billion bank rescue plan, surprising investors who had thought that a bipartisan compromise on the deal had been reached over the weekend.
The plan involves the Treasury Department buying up bad mortgage bets from banks, enabling them to start lending to each other again and ultimately defrosting the credit markets. Lawmakers had fought to modify the plan with more taxpayer protections.
However, taxpayers were not entirely swayed, and voter complaints about the plan ahead of the election contributed to a majority in the House voting against the proposal.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and other officials conceived the plan in the wake of a series of bank failures and mergers amid the housing market collapse and subsequent credit market freeze up. Frozen credit markets mean banks cling to cash, making it difficult for businesses and individuals to get needed loans.
Stocks were down Monday ahead of the vote on bets that either the plan wouldn't get Congressional approval, or even if it did, that it wouldn't be enough to relieve credit markets. On Tuesday, President Bush urged lawmakers to take action on the bill when they return to Washington on Wednesday.
"While the plan is far from perfect, it would have established a floor, given the markets confidence and helped to unclog the credit markets," Lancz said.
He said that the longer it takes for a plan to be enacted, the worse the impact it has on both the domestic and global economies. But markets gained back roughly $600 billion Tuesday, according to Dow Wilshire estimates.
September easily earned its reputation as the worst month on Wall Street, according to Stock Trader's Almanac.
The Financial Times has reported that the EU is going to drastically reduce or even eliminate Microsoft's proposed royalties on interoperability information required to be released by the EU's antitrust ruling issued three years ago.
Posted by samzenpus on Thursday April 05, @01:36AM
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/05/0249223&from=rss
According to a confidential EU document, "Microsoft will be forced to hand over to rivals what the group claims is sensitive and valuable technical information about its Windows operating system for next to no compensation...".
Even Neil Barrett, the expert picked by both Microsoft and the EU to oversee Microsoft's compliance with the 2004 ruling, says a zero percent royalty would be 'better.
It is too hard for the average user to use Free and Open Source Software.
Monday, January 22nd, 2007 by [[c5|mailto:cheekay@apcwomen.org]]
//Is it really?//
Earlier today, during one of the first sessions of Asia Source 2, the statement was presented during the Spectogram (an activity where participants are asked to position themselves along a spectrum of 100% agree and 100% disagree; a great way to get participants revved up for sessions, by the way). The statement almost completely polarised the crowd.
I stuck with the gung-ho crowd that went with 100% NO that FOSS was hard to use for the average user. My two cents on it was about perception and availability of FOSS, that most people think that using FOSS is hard because all they’re exposed to are the proprietary software that comes bundled with their machines. People think Internet Explorer is easy to use because they have yet to discover the beauty that is Firefox or Flock. Those FOSS browsers are not only easy to use, they actually work so much better than IE.
One of the participants said it best (I think his name was Samer and I know for sure he’s from Egypt), to paraphrase:
//Let’s be realistic about the tools that average users need: productivity tools, a browser, an email client. The FOSS alternatives to these types of tools are no harder to use than the proprietary ones.//
One of the participants [[Samer Azmy|samer.azmy@gmail.com]] from Egypt said it best, to paraphrase:
//Let’s be realistic about the tools that average users need: productivity tools, a browser, an email client. The FOSS alternatives to these types of tools are no harder to use than the proprietary ones.//
More Employers Study Applicants' Personalities to Avoid Workers Who Can't Get Along With Others. A resume and a brief job interview can't answer the question that matters most to a new hire's co-workers: Is this person an absolute pain?
Monday November 5, 3:33 pm ET
By Ellen Simon, AP Business Writer
Despite a labor shortage in many sectors, some employers are pickier than ever about whom they hire. Businesses in fields where jobs are highly coveted -- or just sound like fun -- are stepping up efforts to weed out people who might have the right credentials but the wrong personality.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071105/hiring_for_congeniality.html?.v=3
Call it the "plays well with others" factor.
Job candidates at investment banks have long endured dozens of interviews designed, in part, to see if new hires will get along with everyone they'll work with. Whole Foods Market Inc. holds group interviews, in which people who will work under a manager are part of the team that grills candidates and collectively picks hires.
Now other companies are setting up higher hurdles.
"In this bloggable, cell phone camera world, your brand on the inside is going to be your brand on the outside. If you have a bunch of jerks, your brand is going to be a jerk," said Tim Sanders, former leadership coach at Yahoo Inc. and author of "The Likeability Factor."
With the national unemployment rate low, at 4.7 percent, and the Baby Boom generation heading into retirement, employers from Microsoft Corp. to rural hospitals are worrying about finding enough workers. But companies like Rackspace Managed Hosting are bucking that trend, working hard to find reasons to turn people away.
Rackspace CEO Lanham Napier said, "We'd rather miss a good one than hire a bad one."
The 1,900-person company is divided into 18- to 20-person teams. One team is so close, the whole group shows up to help when one member moves house, Napier said. Job interviews at the San Antonio-based company last all day, as interviewers try to rub away fake pleasantness.
"They're here for nine or ten hours," Napier said. "We're very cordial about it. We're not aggressive, but we haven't met a human being yet who has the stamina to BS us all day."
There's a possible downside, however. In a Harvard Business Review article titled "Fool vs. Jerk: Whom Would You Hire?" Tiziana Casciaro of Harvard and Miguel Sousa Lobo of Duke University point out that people generally like people who are similar to them, so hiring for congeniality can limit diversity of opinions. One venture capitalist told the authors that a capable manager he worked with built a team that "had a great time going out for a beer, but the quality of their work was seriously compromised."
That's not the worry at Lindblad Expeditions, a 500-employee adventure cruise company. Kris Thompson, vice president of human resources at Lindblad, said, "You can teach people any technical skill, but you can't teach them how to be a kindhearted, generous-minded person with an open spirit."
In the mating dance of job interviews, employers traditionally put their best feet forward, too, trumpeting their wonderful benefits packages while leaving out the bit about working late, eating cold pizza. Not Lindblad. It sends job applicants a DVD showing not one, but two shots of a crew member cleaning toilets. A dishwasher talks about washing 5,000 dishes in one day. "Be prepared to work your butt off," another says.
"It's meant to scare you off," company founder Sven Lindblad said.
It does. After watching the DVD and hearing an unvarnished description of life onboard a Lindblad ship, the majority of applicants drop out, Thompson said.
New hires "undergo a drug test, a physical exam, they have to pack up their life, we buy them a plane ticket and outfit them with hundreds of dollars in uniforms," Thompson said. "If they get on board and say, 'This is not what I expected,' then shame on us."
She asks applicants to tell her about a job that wasn't what they expected and how they dealt with it. One of the best answers came from Kendra Nelsen, who said that while she was working construction, her male co-workers would help themselves to her tools. Her solution: She painted all her tools hot pink. Nelsen, who started as a deck hand, went on to earn a U.S. Coast Guard license and was just named assistant expedition leader in Antarctica.
At KaBoom, a nonprofit that builds playgrounds, the board was hammering co-founder and CEO Darell Hammond four years ago over the organization's high employee turnover.
"I rationalized that they were on the road too much, when in reality, it was the wrong fit in the wrong role," he said.
He started thinking about who left and why, then focused on the characteristics of workers who stayed. The list of traits: Can do, will do, team fit, damn quick and damn smart. His team kept a closer eye on job applicants in the reception area, which is set up as a playground, to see how they acted around playground equipment.
"If you're early, you may have to sit on a swing or the bottom of a slide," Hammond said. People who stand with a tight grip on their briefcases instead of sitting on the playground equipment aren't asked back.
KaBoom sends prospective project managers to one of its four-day playground building trips, with the actual build on the last day involving 200 to 300 volunteers, many of whom have questions for KaBoom staff.
"If they're not easily approached, or they're easily stressed -- this is the way we find out and they find out if it's not going to work," he said.
Hammond wouldn't say what percentage of applicants drop out, but he did say project managers' tenure has increased since they started sending them on the trips four years ago, from one year's tenure to between two-and-a-half and three years.
"We got more passionate people who stayed longer," Hammond said. "What was going to be expected of them when they came on board wasn't a stab in the dark."
Hammond said he isn't afraid of scaring people off, since the best candidates "are constantly looking at themselves to excel, not just cross the finish line, but blow through the finish line."
When all 90 of the people on his staff meet that criteria, he said, "It's incredible. If you have 89 who do and one who doesn't -- it's painful."
Those as intrigued as we were with Asus' newly-announced Eee PC 701 ultralight will likely want to take the short hop over to Engadget Chinese, which has managed to gets its hands on the device and dig up a few more details on it.
Posted Jun 6th 2007 3:59PM by Donald Melanson
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/06/engadget-chinese-gets-its-hands-on-asus-eee-pc-701/
Perhaps most interestingly, Asus' product manger told them that while Windows XP has been successfully tested with the device, the final product will likely come with only Linux pre-installed, with XP driver support thrown in for good measure.
What's more, Asus also said that the mini-laptop could eventually pack as much as 32GB of SSD storage, and even hinted at the possibility of either an optional built-in 3G module or a separate dongle. Asus also reiterated that seemingly too good to be true $200 starting price, adding that a version for "English speaking countries" could be available "as early as August this year."
Marek @ Jun 6th 2007 4:32PM
This is my new favorite piece of technology so far this year. I'll be
getting one, if not two - but would really like to see 3G or something
similar integrated. Obviously, for $200-300 I can't complain, but if it
had 3G I wouldn't even need apps on the disk - I could just use online
applications like Google docs, etc. This thing is amazing, and looks to
be well under way for a timely release.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/06/06/Asustek-$199-Eee-PC_1.html
Also with a fantastic price..200$!!
The best thing I like is the build-in 3G and SSD!
There's no way that my parent is going to break this one.
Susan Gunelius (MarketingBlurb.com) @ Jun 6th 2007 9:46PM
The market potential for a low cost laptop is huge. There are so many
market segments that could be interested in this product. I'm excited to
see the $189 laptop launch. Even if it only offers minimal functionality
like Internet access and email, I think the marketing opportunity is
wide open. I talk about this more at www.MarketingBlurb.com:
http://www.marketingblurb.com/2007/06/is_a_189_laptop_on_the_way.html
The best entrepreneur blogs – and often the most successful ones — do more than just promote the entrepreneurs or their projects. Star power can draw attention, but it won’t sustain it if the blog doesn’t ''give.''
Give is a broad term. You can give tangible tools and information to help build a business. Or a motivational story that inspires someone to try an idea. You can give a laugh. You can give food for thought. You can give debate. You can give of yourself, and if you’re interesting enough, people will come back for more. Below, some examples of entrepreneurs who do this:
http://blogs.wsj.com/independentstreet/2008/06/13/15-entrepreneur-blogs-worth-reading/
Posted by Wendy Bounds
''Dominate a Niche''
Tom Szaky writes The [[Eco-Capitalist|http://blog.inc.com/the-eco-capitalist/index.html]], a blog about driving profits by being environmentally and socially responsible. Mr. Szaky is chief executive officer of [[Terracycle|http://www.terracycle.net/]], a company that finds creative ways to reuse waste in products like plant food, cleaners and tote bags. Recent posts include: “Will Your Customers Pay to Go Green?”
Ecommerce blog [[Get Elastic|http://www.getelastic.com/]] is another example. The blog shares general strategies for selling on the Internet. Recent posts include: “9 Privacy Policy Usability Tips,” “Cart Abandonment,” and “Dads and Grads: Missed Merchandising Opportunities.”
''Motivate/Inspire/Teach''
Two well-known bloggers in this category are Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki. Mr. Godin was founder of Yoyodyne, an interactive direct-marketing company, which Yahoo Inc. acquired in late 1998. He is an author, blogger and public speaker, and his [[marketing blog|http://sethgodin.typepad.com/]] often inspires by giving broader direction in business and life. (Recent posts talk about serial numbers and financial advice for grads.)
Mr. Kawasaki is a managing director of [[Garage Technology Ventures|http://www.garage.com/]], an early-stage venture-capital firm. He’s an author and public speaker and [[his blog|http://blog.guykawasaki.com/]], How to Change the World, also includes a link to a job board, which is a motivator. Like Godin, he often provides usable lists to readers. One example: “The Top Ten Stupid Ways to Hinder Market Adoption.”
Kevin Kelly’s [[Lifestream|http://kk.org/kk/]] is in this vein. Mr. Kelly, who helped launch Wired magazine in 1993, recently posted about the “Power of Failure” and how to Bribe Your New Employees to Quit. (The ones that aren’t committed.) Malcolm [[Gladwell|http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/]], author of the Tipping Point, is another such go-to blogger for entrepreneurs.
''Offer Tools''
Most entrepreneur blogs do some of this, though several specialize in it. [[WorkHappy.net|http://workhappy.net/]] by Carson McComas writes about “killer resources for entrepreneurs,” often calling out new online tools. Anita Campbell pens [[Smallbiztrends.com|http://smallbiztrends.com/]] with tips and strategies on issues such as business plans, picking domain names and going mobile. So does John Jantsch’s [[Duct Tape Marketing|http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/]] and Drew McLellan’s [[Drew’s Marketing Minute|http://drewsmarketingminute.com/]].
''Entertain and Promote''
The best route to self-promotion is through entertainment. Holly Dunlap fuels marketing of her fashion company with a juicy, photo-laden [[online diary|http://www.hollywould.com/shop/cart.php?main&page=diary]] chronicling her dinners, parties and, sometimes, hangovers. Justine Ezarik, a graphic/Web designer and video editor, began transmitting her life via Internet video last year and has transformed that success into multiple avenues, including her blog, [[tastyblogsnack|http://tastyblogsnack.com/]], where she dissects technology and entertains us.
''If You’re Interested in My Company…''
…maybe you’re interested in me – or more about my company.” These blogs feed loyal customers’ desire to connect with a brand. The founders of [[Honest Tea|http://honesttea.com/]], Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff keep such a blog. [[Craig Newmark|http://www.cnewmark.com/]] of [[craigslist|http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites.html]] blogs regularly on anything he finds of interest (finches, politics and “Sex and The City”).
One of the most successful examples is billionaire entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban, owner of the [[Dallas Mavericks|http://www.nba.com/mavericks/]]. His [[Blog Maverick|http://www.blogmaverick.com/]] waxes on everything from cutting-edge technology to the NFL and salary caps and gets tremendous response from readers.
A warning: Readers have typically already bought your product, so don’t just flog it; give them something new to enjoy.
This list is just a start. We want to know what entrepreneur bloggers you think are doing a great job in a particular arena. What else should people be reading—and why?
UNESCO is launching a [[free practical guide|http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=27768&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html]] to computer recycling for entrepreneurs and project sponsors, on the occasion of a conference on Digital Solidarity being held in Lyon (France).
According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the Gartner consultancy, there will be almost 4 billion mobile telephones in use by the end of this year, while the number of personal computers has already passed the billion mark.
The good news behind these figures is that the digital divide is shrinking - 58% of computers are in developed countries but, this share is expected to drop to 30% by 2014 when the total number of personal computers should reach two billion.
But there is another side to the coin: this year, almost 180 million computers have been replaced by new machines, and an estimated 35 million computers dumped, despite the toxic substances they contain.
[[Entrepreneur's Guide to Computer Recycling|http://www.ticethic.com/guide]]
Authors: Benoit VARIN and ~Pierre-Etienne ROINAT
The purpose of this guidebook is to help develop the skills required to handle the growing flux of waste generated by the new and used computer markets for the benefit of the environment and public health. Problems generated by this computer waste are affecting the world in general and developing countries in particular. It represents the negative side of the reduction in the digital divide in a world where one billion ~PCs were expected to be in use this year and one billion mobile phones were expected to be sold.
It also aims to support the emergence of new business opportunities. It should prove useful for ~NGOs and local development stakeholders in fostering small and micro entrepreneurships.
The guidebook is available free of charge online. In addition, its open license will allow interested parties to create versions adapted to local condition and particular contexts.
By Jocelyn Gecker, Associated Press Writer Sat Feb 10, 4:57 PM ET.
BANGKOK, Thailand - It was an evening of utter decadence — a 10-course gourmet dinner concocted by world-renowned chefs at $25,000 a head. Many of those who attended Saturday night's culinary extravaganza in Bangkok hailed it as the meal of a lifetime. But it's no easy task to eat plate after plate of Beluga caviar, Perigord truffles, Kobe beef, Brittany lobster — each paired with a rare and robust vintage wine.
"It's really amazing," said one diner, Sophiane Foster, a wealthy Cambodian who lives in Malaysia, as she eyed the dinner's eighth course — a "pigeon en croute with cepes mushrooms." "But I can't finish it. Your senses can only appreciate so much."
High-rolling food lovers flew in from the United States, Europe, the Middle East and other parts of Asia for the 40-seat dinner organized by the Lebua luxury hotel in Bangkok, grandly titled "Epicurean Masters of the World." Cooked by six three-star Michelin chefs — four from France and one each from Germany and Italy — the menu featured complicated creations like "tartar of Kobe beef with Imperial Beluga caviar and Belon oysters" and "mousseline of 'pattes rouges' crayfish with morel mushroom infusion."
Among the talented chefs, some said they found it challenging to give diners their money's worth.Antoine Westermann of Le Buerhiesel, a top-class restaurant in Strasbourg, France, said he shaved 3 1/2 ounces of Perigord truffles — worth about $350 — onto each plate of his "coquille Saint-Jacques and truffles."
"For $25,000, what do you expect?" he said.
As guests entered the dinner, held at the hotel's rooftop restaurant on the 65th floor overlooking Bangkok, attendants bowed and scattered rose petals at their feet. Men wore tuxedos and women were dripping in diamonds. The guests included Fortune 500 executives, a casino owner from Macau and a Taiwanese hotel owner, said Deepak
Ohri, Lebua's managing director. He declined to reveal their identities.
"It's surreal. The whole thing is surreal," said Alain Soliveres, the celebrated chef of the Taillevent restaurant in Paris.Soliveres prepared two of his signature dishes, including the first course: a "creme brulee of foie gras" that was washed down with a 1990 Cristal champagne — a bubbly that sells for more than $500 a bottle, but still stood out as one of the cheapest wines on the menu.
"To have brought together all of these three-star Michelin chefs, and to serve these wines for so many people is just an incredible feat," Soliveres said.
Chefs submitted their grocery lists to organizers beforehand and the ingredients were flown in fresh: black truffles, foie gras, oysters and live Brittany lobsters from France; caviar from Switzerland; white truffles from Italy.
Diners also sipped their way through legendary vintage wines, like a 1985 Romanee Conti, a 1959 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, a 1967 Chateau d'Yquem and a 1961 Chateau Palmer. The latter is considered "one of the greatest single wines of the 20th century," said Alun Griffiths of Berry Bros. & Rudd, the British wine merchants that procured and shipped about six bottles of each wine for the dinner.
The wine alone cost more than $200,000, Griffiths said. "Just to have one of these would be a great treat. To have 10 of them in one evening is the sort of thing that people would kill for." Wine lovers regularly organize exorbitantly expensive tastings in New York, London and Tokyo, but such events are not as common in Thailand, where it would take the average schoolteacher five years to earn $25,000.
On the street, where much of Bangkok's best food is served, the dinner generated talk of over-the-top excess.
"That is a waste of money," said Rungrat Ketpinyo, 44, who sells Phad Thai noodles for 75 cents a plate from a street cart outside the hotel. "I don't care how luxurious this meal is. It's ridiculous."
Organizers say the event was designed to promote Thai tourism and that most of the profits will go to two charities — Medecins Sans Frontieres and the Chaipattana Foundation, a rural development program set up by the king of Thailand. The guest list included 15 paying customers and 25 invited guests.
Organizers scrambled to fill the seats at the last minute after 10 Japanese invitees canceled their reservation, citing safety concerns after the New Year's Eve bombings in Bangkok that killed three people. Some chefs confessed they were astonished by the $25,000 price tag.
"It's crazy," Westermann said. "After this, nothing can shock me." But Marc Meneau, the chef of L'Esperance restaurant in Vezelay, France, called it a "culinary work of art."
"It's no more shocking than buying a painting that costs $2 million," he said.
Qualcomm donated Eudora to the open-source community, which means that anybody is free to download and use it without paying for the product. Developers can also access the code, change it and share those changes.
By Jim Finkle
Fri Sep 7, 1:50 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070907/wr_nm/eudora_reborn_dc_1;_ylt=AqrOiPTg7B1t8arqAZpOxSME1vAI
BOSTON (Reuters) - Eudora, a pioneering e-mail program named after author Eudora Welty, is rising from a technical grave as an open source program after owner Qualcomm Inc quit selling the product in May.
Eudora routinely got strong reviews from computer magazines and had a loyal user base, but commercially it was overshadowed by software that Microsoft Corp included with new personal computers, International Business Machine's Lotus software and Web e-mail programs.
On August 31 the Mozilla Foundation started distributing a test open-source version of Eudora, which was developed in the late 1980s as one of the first e-mail programs by a student at the University of Illinois. Qualcomm acquired the software and hired its creator, Steve Dorner. At one point it was used by tens of millions of people.
Eudora is not yet promoting the product on its home page as it does its other titles including its popular Mozilla browser - a rival to Microsoft's Internet Explorer - and Thunderbird, another e-mail program. The new version of Eudora is being developed under the code name Penelope and is available on the Web at http://wiki.mozilla.org/Penelope.
Mozilla has said it plans to develop both Eudora and Thunderbird.
How do you multiply 850 times 77.1
In Excel 2007, the result is 100,000
http://www.appscout.com/2007/09/excel_cant_multiply.php
Specifically, Excel 2007 gives the wrong answer when multiplying many pairs of numbers whose product should be 65,535. Microsoft is now aware of the problem, and had this to say about it:
"Microsoft recently learned of the flaw in Microsoft Office Excel 2007 that affects some calculations where the product should equal 65,535. We are currently in the process of developing and testing a fix for the flaw. Microsoft places a high priority on quickly responding to customer feedback and we are committed to finding ways to provide a better software experience. "
Is this true?
I wonder, how can this bug just surfaced. Isn't there any beta tester who can verify this before it come out? In company view I should fire the programmer(s) or the team who are responsible for the mess.
If this is for true then the company (ie Microsoft) should withdraw the Excel 2007 from the market and I could also see the MS stock share is falling!
There is no better explanation from MSDN blog either,
http://blogs.msdn.com/excel
I'm still studying the issue, from the following blog the author try to explain that the bug is only a display problem and it is minor. And Excel 2007 will calculate internally for the true result. That means if we do other calculation from the wrong display, then the end result would be correct.
If this is the issue then what you get is not always what you see. You should calculate by heart if Excel 2007 come out with a 100,000 numeric display.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/09/26b.html
It would be better if we do not upgrade or use anything that we could not trust. Older software is still usable and mature.
Sometime I wonder how much does it cost to live in a new city or place that I have visited. Here's a [[2009 Mercer survey|http://www.mercer.com/costofliving]] that compare different cost of living in cities around the world, I quoted only a few of them.
New York is used as the base city for the index and scores 100 points, all cities are compared against New York and currency movements are measured against the US dollar.
According to [[the table|http://www.citymayors.com/economics/richest_cities.html]] , Kuala Lumpur (62), Manila (71), New Delhi (70) and Mumbai (73) propped up as cities with the lowest prices. Jakarta ranks 72 in the list. It means that Kuala Lumpur is costlier than Jakarta.
<html><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_cities_for_expatriate_employees#Economist_Intelligence_Unit_surveys">
<img src="blog/city006.jpg" width="400"
alt="Scene of a city">
</a></html>
That survey, which also studied items such as food, housing, transport and entertainment costs, suggested that Singapore had not become more expensive; instead, other cities had become cheaper places to live in.
Tokyo was the fifth most expensive city while Singapore was 24th - up from the 32nd spot in 2006, the last time [[UBS conducted a similar study|http://www.ubs.com/1/e/investors/releases.html?newsId=170250]].
"Employees in Tokyo earn the highest wages in Asia, making almost double the amount their counterparts earn here. While workers in Manila, Jakarta and Mumbai earn the lowest wages. But at the other end of the spectrum, workers in Mumbai need to work 20 nine-hour days - roughly the equivalent of one month's salary - to purchase an iPod nano."
"However, Asia remains home to some of the world's priciest cities and nowhere is the spread between most expensive and cheapest more pronounced", said UBS.
To make the study more relevant, the bank compared the prices of specific and highly uniform products that are available everywhere and calculated how long an employee would have to work to be able to afford them in each city.
"It found that on a global average, employees have to work 37 minutes to earn enough to buy a ~McDonald's [[Big Mac|Burgernomics]], 22 minutes for a kg of rice and 25 minutes for a kg of bread."
The statistic may tell you [[some lies|http://www.wendymcelroy.com/reason/stats.html]]. In most Asian cities, we do not eat ~McD as common meal, that makes the survey irrelevant enough when applied to Asian countries. People in KL don't complaint of meal prices. But in Jakarta, a common meal in a resto can serve up to US$4.00 which is uncomparable to US$160.00 of monthly waged salary for Indonesian. That makes the city of Jakarta expensive enough to live in.
An ordinary meal in Singapore (3m) costs around US$2.30 which is almost the same as in other Asian cities like in [[Manila|Another source camp in the Philippines]] (12m), Kuala Lumpur (1.5m), [[Bangkok|Bangkok side trip]] (5.6m), or in [[Surabaya]] (3.1m). Numbers in parentheses are approx populations.
In Singapore, which list as 40 in the ranks, an MRT ride from Changi airport to town proper costs a mere US$1.00 but in Jakarta it will cost you around US$25.00 to get you in the city. Transportation is easier in Singapore than other cities, therefore you can save a lot for in-city travelling. While in some cases, transportation can be a huge part in your budget.
[[EngageMedia|http://engagemedia.org]] has just released of a new report into Free and Open Source Software video codecs. It is a review of available tools for the creation, playback and embedding of online video using FOSS codecs, and a look at the most pressing areas for development to enhance their adoption by social change video projects on the web.
FOSS Codecs for Online Video: Usability, Uptake and Development
A review of available tools for the creation, playback and embedding of online video using Free and Open Source Software video codecs and a look at the most pressing areas for development to enhance their adoption by social change video projects on the web.
http://tinyurl.com/yofb2g
A version in PDF is also available for reading offline here:
http://engagemedia.org/Members/anna/FOSS_Codecs_For_Online_Video_1_2.pdf
Summary of Recommendations
For those of you who wish to skip to the good part, there is a Summary of Recommendations with links to further information and alternatives within the report.
http://tinyurl.com/3cw5c5
Feedback and Input
There is a page on the wiki here for your input:
http://wiki.transmission.cc/index.php/FOSS_Codecs_For_Online_Video:_Input
Distribution
Please forward this report to any individuals/groups who might be interested in order to continue to promote the use and further development of FOSS video codecs and associated software. The report is released under the GNU FDL.
Funding is available in support of FOSS developers and practitioners in Asia-Pacific, to be able to attend international FOSS developer conferences to increase developer participation and knowledge sharing.
Applications close September 17th
http://www.iosn.net/exchange-grants/osi
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) awareness and usage in developing countries in Asia-Pacific is increasing and in several countries backed by government policy. There is however a lack of FOSS developers and participation in the development of FOSS projects. While the Internet provides a mechanism for the real time collaboration and sharing of ideas, it does not completely replace the need for face to face exchanges and hands on collaboration.
Attendance and participation by Asia-Pacific FOSS developers at FOSS conferences, would help increase participation and knowledge sharing. Participants can also provide valuable input on local requirements and be more involved in the direction of these projects. The objective of these grants is to provide funding for FOSS developers in the Asia-Pacific region to be able to attend international FOSS developer conferences to increase developer participation and knowledge sharing.
Eligibility
The travel grants are open to applicants from the Asia-Pacific region and for the benefit of FOSS projects for FOSS events from 24th September to 30th November 2007.
Support and Funding
IOSN will provide successful participant a grant of up to USD2,000 to cover daily expenses for up to 5 days and travel costs. Additional funds may be given if sufficient justification is accepted by review panel.
Deliverables
Successful applicants are then required to submit a travel report in the form of a case study based on a template provided by IOSN. They are also expected to blog their daily experiences.
Support and Sponsors
These grants are made available due to the support of THE OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE.
For more information please contact khairil@apdip.net
InWEnt-IOSN Training of Trainers on Free/Open Source Software-based Geographic Information Systems with Sahana Component (code: TOT FOSS-GIS Sahana Indonesia)
The State Ministry for Research and Technology (RISTEK), Republic of Indonesia
Venue: BPPT Building II, 3rd Floor
Jl. M.H. Thamrin No. 8
Jakarta 10340, Indonesia
24-28 March 2008
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION:
"Do you want to be a FOSS-GIS trainer?"
"Do you want to make business with services for FOSS-GIS applications?"
The International Open Source Network (IOSN) ASEAN+3 and InWEnt Capacity Building International, Germany in collaboration with The State Ministry for Research and Technology (RISTEK), Republic of Indonesia are inviting both government and non-government organizations (NGOs), IT small-to-medium enterprises/businesses (SMEs/SMBs), developers, experts, trainers and users of Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) disaster management information systems to a Training of Trainers (ToT) for FOSS Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with Sahana to be held at the PDII-LIPI in Jakarta, Indonesia from March 24 to 28, 2008.
This activity is in response to the great demand and interest for a follow-up training as a result of the successful conduct of an earlier ToT on FOSS GIS for Disaster Management held last October 2007 in PDII-LIPI in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Additional information to this previous event can be found at:
http://www.ristek.go.id/index.php?mod=News&conf=v&id=2268
http://tinyurl.com/3d65xx
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/ToT_FOSSGIS07_training_materials_in_Bahasa
http://wiki.osgeo.org/ToT_FOSSGIS_07
For this present activity, the Sahana FOSS Disaster Management Information System will be included as a training component. It is a web-based collaboration tool that addresses the common coordination problems during a disaster from finding missing people, managing aid, managing volunteers, tracking camps effectively between government groups, the civil society (NGOs) and the victims themselves. More on Sahana at http://sahana.lk/
The training aims to increase the number of potential developers, experts, trainers and users of FOSS disaster management information systems, so they can be quickly deployed in times of disaster and are able to offer more efficient and effective services (physical or virtual) to the affected communities. Of equal importance is the focus on enlarging the base of local small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in the field of IT, who shall be empowered to offer related FOSS-services to users of FOSS disaster management information systems.
The FOSS GIS ToT will focus on:
* Main concepts of GIS; install, configure and use FOSS GIS applications; apply FOSS GIS tools for practical purposes (disasters, resource management, data visualization, etc).
*Introduction to Sahana, a FOSS Disaster Management Information System; explore its features and applicability to disaster management as a stable and mature FOSS GIS application, particularly to Indonesian situations.
*Knowing about business possibilities with FOSS-GIS services.
*Develop a corps of trainers in Indonesia able to train others how to use FOSS GIS tools and applications.
HOW TO APPLY:
Before you proceed to apply, please refer to the detailed Participation Criteria, background and additional information along with downloadable application forms (odt and pdf formats), at the IOSN site at http://www.iosn.net/Members/fsarmiento3/tot-fossgis-sahana-indonesia
Interested individuals are invited to apply for participation by sending your responses below to: asean3[AT]iosn[DOT]net
''Application deadline: 03 March 2008''
FUNDING AND IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS
State Ministry of Research and Technology (RISTEK), Government of Indonesia
http://www.ristek.go.id/
InWent Capacity Building International, Germany
http://www.inwent.org/
http://www.it-foss.org
International Open Source Network (IOSN)
http://www.iosn.net/
FOSS Nepal Community is organizing "FOSS Essential Training 2007" in Kathmandu, Nepal on March 17th and 18th. Details on this training can be vied on http://www.fossnepal.org/?q=node/86
Over 27 IT professionals and students from different organizations and universities gathered at Yala Maya Kendra, Lalitpur, Nepal for a two-day Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) training called "FOSS Essentials Training 2007" on March 17-18, 2007. It was the first Free/Open Source Software training of its kind in Nepal. The key objective was to create an awareness about FOSS among general computer users, promote the use of FOSS and to build a network of FOSS practitioners and trainers in Nepal.
FOSS Essentials Training 2007 was jointly organized by FOSS Nepal Community and the Center for International Cooperation for Computerization (CICC), Singapore. The event was supported by National Information Technology Center (NITC, Nepal), and Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP, Nepal).
A broad range of topics were covered in the 2-day training including hands-on experience with installing GNU/Linux, Basic System Administration, Migration to FOSS, Localization, Collaboration in FOSS, PHP and MySQL Basics, Content Management Systems (CMS), Wiki, Blog, etc. There were resource persons from CICC-Singapore(www.cicc.org.sg), FOSS Nepal Community (www.fossnepal.org) and Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (www.mpp.org.np).
For more information, visit
http://wiki.fossnepal.org/index.php?title=FOSS_Essentials_Training_2007
For the open content of the training, visit
http://www.sixyadaan.org/index.php?title=FOSS_ESSENTIAL_TRAINING_2007
Contact Subir Pradhanang <subirbp@gmail.com>, Ekta Silwal <ektasilwal@gmail.com> for further information.
[[FOSS.my 2008]]
[[IOSN-InWEnt Training of Trainers on the FOSS Toolkit for SMEs]]
[[VMware Virtualization Forum 2008 ]]
[[Open Source for Health Conference]]
[[Philippine Open Source Summit]]
[[Tiddlywiki meet up in San Fransisco]]
[[Workshop on Open Source and Open Content]]
[[Video Advocacy Workshop]]
[[Wikimania 2008: Call for Participation]]
[[Transmission Asia-Pacific - Call for Applications]]
[[APNG - ICT vision from, by and for Next Generation]]
[[IEEE Indonesia ComSoc: CFP- WOCN2008]]
[[FOSS bases Geographic Information Systems with Sahana Component (TOT)]]
[[Mekong ICT camp]]
Over 130 IT professionals of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from more than 27 countries had gathered at Sukabumi, Indonesia for a nine-day Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) training camp called [[Asia Source II]]. The key objective was to promote the use of FOSS for social and economic development and to build a network of FOSS practitioners and trainers with Asia.
[img[Happy fellow participants|blog/image066s.jpg]]
Asia Source II was jointly organized by UNDP's International Open Source Network (UNDP-IOSN) through its ASEAN+3 Centre of Excellence, InWEnt - Capacity Building International (Germany), Tactical Technology Collective (Netherlands), Aspiration (USA), and ICTWatch (Indonesia). The event was supported by The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Hivos and UNDP's Asia-Pacific Development Programme (UNDP-APDIP).
InWEnt Capacity Building of Germany sees networking as one of the main outcomes of Asia Source II. The newly constituted FOSS network service to key groups such as SMEs and NGOs in the region. One concrete example is a software resource toolkit for SMEs which was kick started at Asia Souce II. According to InWEnt, such capacity building provides large scale opportunities for networked local industries in Asia based on affordable localized solutions and support services. Such economic and social development is one of the main goals of InWEnt IT@FOSS programme[www.it-foss.org].
The Indonesian Minister for Research and Technology, Mr.Kusmayanto Kadiman visited the camp for the inaugural session and the closing ceremony. He reminded the participants of the social and economic benefits and impacts of FOSS to the NGO and SME sectors and introduced the participants to “Indonesia, Go Open Source” (IGOS), an initiative of the Indonesian government which promotes the adoption of FOSS.
During the press conference at Sheraton Hotel Jakarta, Bona Simanjuntak, senior researcher of ICTWatch of Indonesia pointed out that Asia Source II is a most timely opportunity for the Indonesia FOSS community to showcase their achievements to the global community.
Idaman Andarmosoko, one of the facilitators, says the choice or venture into Free and Open software for developing countries is basically a strategic choice, as it enables a repositioning on the industrial relations in the software sector. Fran Boon from Oxfam UK emphasized that access to ICTs can be made cheaper by using cheap & simple solutions, such as community radio, wireless networks using hand-built antennas & using old low-powered PCs as thin clients.
Allen Gunn of the USA based NGO Aspiration says ”FOSS is both a democratizing and empowering technology, giving practitioners control of their technological destiny while creating publishing, infrastructure and revenue opportunites that would likely be unaffordable with proprietary software”.
The main focus at Asia Source II is open publishing and broadcasting, alternative hardware and access, system migration and information management. There will also be special technical sessions on localisation, cryptography, mobile phone and VOIP and non-technical session on FOSS for women, effective communication, campaigning and advocacy strategies, disaster management, FOSS business models, etc.
Facilitators and participants at Asia Source II included Onno Purbo, IT specialist from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). Farzaneh Sarafraz from Iran who developed Sharif Linux with support for Persian Language. Ravindra De Silva from the Lanka Software Foundation who worked on the Sahana Disaster Managment System. Natasha Primo from Women's Net from South Africa who has helped many African organisations shift from proprietary software to FOSS. Sayamindu Dasgupta from Free Software Foundation, India and Jamil Ahmed from Bangladesh Linux User Group who have jointly contributed to the development of Ankur, a Bengali language distribution of Linux. There are also participants from the National ICT Development Authority of Cambodia, the Philippine Linux User Group, Free Software Foundation of Pakistan, TXTPower from the Philippines and the Ministry of Law and Human Rights in Indonesia and many other organizations.
Asia Source II is a follow up event to Asia Source I which was held on January 2005 in Bangalore, India and was build on the model of Source Events developed by Tactical Technology Collective — more information: http://replication.tacticaltech.org
http://www.cio.in/news/viewArticle/ARTICLEID=2793
[[FOSS.IN|http://FOSS.IN/2007 ]] is India's largest and probably best known Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) conferences, and is now spoken about as one of the the four primary, grassroot-level FOSS conferences in the world, the other three being being linux.conf.au, OLS and linuxconf.eu.
The conference sees thousands of participants coming together from across India and from many parts of the world, to listen to talks on cutting edge FOSS technologies, given by leading FOSS developers and contributors from across the world. They also participate in discussions, BoFs, workshops and just a lot of honest-to-goodness fun, meeting people, exchanging ideas, hatching plans for world domination.
FOSS.IN differs from other conferences by being completely developer and contributor focused. There are no "preaching to the choir" evangelism talks, no bandwidth-robbing introductory talks, no boring "I could have read this on the web" talks - this conference is hard-core developer/contributor oriented.
FOSS.IN will help professional and student developers, who have development experience but no prior FOSS experience, to become successful FOSS contributors, by exposing them to the minds of some of the most brilliant developers in the world. They will learn about cutting edge technologies that come out of the FOSS community to literally change the world, and they will learn what it is like to work in a team of geographically dispersed people.
And existing FOSS developers and contributors will get together and fine-tune ideas and projects, learn new and interesting ways to change the world they live in, and help new developers to come up to speed.
The newly introduced Project Days give you a chance to get involved with eight of the most talked about FOSS projects on the planet, and will learn to contribute to them.
At FOSS.IN, you are not artificially kept at the fringe by unreal, self-serving commercial interests - you are mainstream. This is one of the most anticipated technical events every year, and there is a good reason for this.
So how do you participate?
If you are a FOSS developer/contributor, you should submit proposals for sessions for the Project Days and/or the Main conference. But you better hurry up - the last date for submission is October 8th, 2007.
If you are not (yet) a FOSS developer/contributor and want to learn how to be one, you attend the event as a delegate - i.e. part of of the audience of thousands of people who are there to learn, interact and have fun.
If you are an organization that would like to see India producing more and more FOSS contributors, whose razor sharp skills will also show up in their work in your organization, then you should consider sponsoring the event. While many of the sponsor slots are already filled, there is room for a few more.
And finally, if you are a member of the FOSS community, and want to be at one of the most happening (technically and socially) FOSS events in the world, then make sure you have your calendar marked for December 4th through 8th, 2007.
The venue will be (for the most part) the National Science Symposium Centre (NSSC) of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
http://foss.in/2007/info/Home
Here are the selected Project Days sessions, in alphabetical order:
* Debian/Ubuntu
* Fedora
* Gnome
* IndLinux
* KDE
* Mozilla
* OpenOffice.org
* OpenSolaris
These eight Project Days sessions will be part of the CfP that will be published next, and people will be able to submit talk proposals for each of them (and the Main conference, of course).
FOSS.IN/2009 will be held on December 1-5, 2009 (Tuesday through Saturday) at Bangalore’s largest and most modern conference venue – the NIMHANS Convention Centre.
Just as always, FOSS.IN is a contributor event, focusing on development efforts in FOSS from India.But this year, we are taking even further, by expanding the event to encompass not just the concept of Free and Open Source Software, but the very mindset that drives it – the hacker mindset.
[[FOSS.IN/2009’s Call for Participation|http://foss.in/news/fossincfp-2009.html]]
This is a Call for Participation inviting proposals for FOSS talks, FOSS ~WorkOuts, Workshops, ~BoFs, Projects of the Day and Tech Talks at FOSS.IN/2009.
Important Dates
16-Oct-2009 | Call for Participation and start of submissions
26-Oct-2009 | End of submissions proposals
31-Oct-2009 | List of accepted submissions published
15-Nov-2009 | Due date for final slides & talk materials
01-Dec-2009 | Conference begins
The[[ registration|http://foss.in/register/speaker-registration-2009]] for talks, workouts, workshops, ~BoFs and tech-talks is open now. If you have questions, hop onto the mailing list, or use the contact system.
The Event Format
Because of the huge amount of space and the facilities at the NIMHANS Convention Centre, we are able to flex our intellectual muscles more than ever, and are able to expand on the concepts introduced last year.
This means that unlike last year, FOSS.IN Workouts will run for the duration of the event, not just for a few hours. So projects can ask for (and will be allotted) areas where teams can hunker down for upto 5 days, and work on their projects. We will provide network and electricity and tables, you bring your notebooks, special equipment, enthusiasm and talent. All we ask is that you work on FOSS projects, and keep us informed about progress every evening.
As usual, talks will be focused on FOSS projects and contribution to them, but we won’t turn down te occasional high quality talk by an exceptional presenter, even if it isn’t quite about FOSS or contribution (but is at least related to it). For example, a talk about hacker spirit and mentality, given by someone known for her knowledge of the subject and ability to present, would certainly be accepted.
We will, however, draw a line at advocacy, political or introductory talks. As usual, we do not want to compete with other events that happen roound the year, that handle such subjects.
This year, we have much more room for the sponsor expo and FOSS expo, and FOSS projects will be able to exhibit their work to visitors and interact with them. There will be lots of space for discussions, socialising, project meetings, brainstorms and much more.
But most of all, we expect to see people building on the foundation stones we laid last year, to make FOSS.IN the biggest and most productive FOSS conference in the world. Our mottos //Technology for a Free World// and //Talk is Cheap, Show me the Code// are very much the core focus of the event – let’s show the world what India, and the FOSS community, is capable of delivering.
[[FOSS.my 2008|http://foss.my/]] is Malaysia’s premier Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) event. Whilst this is our first go at it, we aim for this to be an annual event bringing together professionals and enthusiasts from Malaysia, Singapore, Asia and the rest of the world for a two day grassroots driven FOSS conference.
Date: Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th November 2008,
Venue: Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (TPM Campus) will be host to FOSS.my 2008!
FOSS.my is different from other events in that we focus only on FOSS and that this conference is purely non-commercial. There will be no marketing/sales talks by vendors (we are very strict on this!) so all that is presented is FOSS goodness! Instead, vendors will be encouraged to speak on the FOSS technical aspects of their projects/tools. This approach works better as it benefits all through knowledge sharing within the community.
Do explore http://foss.my/ to find out more about the event, and how you can participate as a speaker, delegate, volunteer, exhibitor or sponsor!
http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=31768802826
Open Source Geospatial Foundation is pleased to announce the Call for Abstract for the FOSS4G (Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial) 2010 conference, being held
September 6-9, in beautiful Barcelona, Spain.
Held annually, [[FOSS4G|http://2010.foss4g.org]] is the premier conference for the open source geospatial community, providing a full-immersion experience in established and leading edge geospatial technologies for developers, users, and people new to open source geospatial.
FOSS4G 2010 presentations are 25 minute talks, with 5 minute question and answer sessions at the end. Presentations cover the use or development of open source geospatial software. Anyone can can submit a presentation proposal and take part in the conference as a presenter.
Read full information at: http://www.osgeo.org/foss4g/2010/call_for_abstracts
While the 2009 event was a kind of ignition for the community, this years event will focus more on longterm goals to bring in more people into projects and to cooperate or involve expert users to teach students about free software.
Besides Debian people there will be developers of Mozilla and Fedora. Dave Crossland will come from the UK to talk about OpenFonts.
Some local designers already developed fonts and they
are really curious to learn how to commit them to free software
projects.
Felix Schupp will talk about BlackRay - The Open Source Data Engine and Michael Christen will introduce his p2p search engine.
Surely we will also have talks and workshops of locals like Lilly
Nguyen from Hanoi presenting the OLPC project in the north.
[[FOSSASIA|http://fossasia.org]] is one of the top Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) events for developers, enterprises, governments and general users held annually in Vietnam. The event brings together FOSS projects from Asia and around the world.
<html><a href="http://fossasia.org">
<img src="blog/Viet3.jpg" width="400"
alt="Speakers and participants of FOSSAsia">
</a></html>
This FOSSASIA 2010 was held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on November 12 – 14, 2010 with the focus: Lightweight Computing and Women in IT.
FOSSASIA is organized by the Asian Free Software and Open Source IT community under the roof of the non-profit FOSSASIA event organization and in cooperation with the Ho Chi Minh City Government, Quang Trung Software Park and MBM International.
<<tabs FOSSASIA
What "First tab" [[What to learn in FOSSAsia]]
Speakers "Second tab" [[FOSSASIA Speakers]]
Call "Third tab" [[FOSSASIA in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam]]
Update "Fourth tab" [[FOSSAsia Update]]
>>
[[FOSSASIA|http://fossasia.org]] is an exciting event gathering many contributors from the free and open source communities and enterprises. FOSSASIA offers sessions for newbie users, advanced business users, enthusiastic promoters, beginning coders or anyone interested in cutting-edge Open Source technologies.
[[Call of participation|http://fossasia.org/speaker-registration/]]
The main topics of FOSSASIA 2010 are Lightweight Computing and Women in IT. We are also looking for contributions to the ~OpenOffice Asia Summit and the Debian ~Mini-Debconf.
*Lightweight solutions (mobile, desktop, web, server, hardware)
*Fostering the Asian community and Women in IT
*~OpenOffice Summit Asia
*Debian ~Mini-Debconf Asia
1) Talks / Presentations
The sessions at the FOSSASIA will be scheduled a) for 30 minutes and b) for one hour blocks of time. Expect approximately 20 minutes for a half an hour block and about 45 minutes for a talk with the final 15 minutes used for questions and group discussion. The session could be a technical talk, panel discussion, or BOF.
2) Lightning Talks
The lightning talks at the FOSSASIA are short presentations. Each lightning talk is only 5 minutes long with no time for Q&A. Proposals for lightning talks will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis, limited by available space.
3) Hands on labs/Workshops
At FOSSASIA summit 2010, we will have a special area for workshops.
4) Exhibition area for your project/community
Exhibitions including booths, posters and stands of community projects are welcome. Spaces are free of charge.
The event went well with many developers sharing their open source projects. Among them were people representing debian, fedora, mozilla, openfonts, database, seach engine, etc.
<html><a href="http://fossasia.org/"><img src="blog/saigon5.jpg" width="380"
alt="Workshop at FOSSAsia">
</a></html>
It was a great chance to show Tiddlywiki at this [[event|http://fossasia.org/speakers/handoko-suwono]] in Vietnam. At least three fellow speakers that I've accounted for - have used Tiddlywiki already.
I was given a chance to present a talk and a subsequent workshop the next day to go in details. More than 20 people gathered at the workshop. My [[tutorial|http://www.datacom.co.id/tiddly_tutor.html]] itself is self explanatory so there was not much to tell except showcasing of what a Tiddlywiki can do.
I think [[Tiddlywiki|http://www.tiddlywiki.com]] should always be part of an open source event, and not always about other big wikis like Mediawiki or else.
The event was a bit unsorted like I needed to do some kind of self-marketing to attract people during the days so they're willing to attend. More on this is put in a Vietnamese blog [[here|http://nguyentieuhau.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/cam-nhan-ve-fossasia-2010/]].
Therefore Tiddlywiki is known in Vietnam:)
I didn't know facebook some two years ago. Now it is going to offer its shares in the stock exchange. In layman term, it means that facebook now has [[some value|http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a8WKOckNML3k]] that the owner may offer to sell portion of previously a no value company with users paying nothing.
"A [[Facebook IPO|http://www.facebook-ipo.com/]] may attract the same level of attention as Google Inc.’s share sale in 2004. Google sold 19.6 million shares for $1.67 billion in August 2004, giving the company a market value of $23 billion."
The more and more users will only create facebook more power and the richer it will be, not by gaining income from users but from people who want to invest by buying shares from the stock exchange. In this case, the New York stock exchange.
"[[Facebook|http://www.cio-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=70302]], which has more than 300 million users, has raised more than $600 million from investors since it was founded more than five years ago. Its most recent infusion came this spring from Russian Internet investor Digital Sky Technologies, which invested $200 million in exchange for a 2 percent stake in the company, valuing Facebook at $10 billion. "
In short, actually we //the facebook users// are working for the company or its owner by getting more friends acquainted and accounted as new recruited facebook users.
The same goes with [[google wave|What is Google wave?]], the more users it has, the more powerful it will be and we are part of the growing unpaid workers that will certainly make google richer.
Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network is the Computer" -- Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.
*Founded 1982 by Andreas von Bechtolsheim, Vinod Khosla, Bill Joy and Scott McNealy
*34.200 employees worldwide, 13.9 billion dollars (9.4 billion euros) in revenues FY 2007, market cap (total value of all Sun shares) about the same as yearly revenues
*Grew astronomically with the Web, suffered from the Web bubble, now profitable over the last four quarters
*Lead by Scott McNealy until 2006, now by Jonathan Schwartz (a prolific blogger)
*The world’s biggest contributor to Open Source: Open Office, Java (now under GPL), GlassFish, NetBeans — and soon MySQL
*Environmentally friendly; large numbers of distributed employees working at least partially from home
*Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, just south of Cupertino (MySQL’s North American headquarters)
*Counts some of the worlds most brilliant innovators amongst its current and past employees
Posted on April 4th, 2007 by John Pospisil
A recent Harris Poll has found that while most online computers users are aware of Microsoft’s Windows Vista, few are intending to switch over to the new operating system anytime soon.
http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2007/04/04/
The Harris Poll of 2223 US online adults in early March found that 87% were aware of Vista. Unfortunately for Microsoft, only 12% of Vista-aware respondents were intending to upgrade to Vista in the next 12 months.
The poll revealed that 39% of those intending to move over to Vista planned to upgrade their existing computer so it would meet Vista requirements, 35% planned to buy a new computer with Vista preinstalled, 17% planned to purchase a new “Vista-ready” computer, and 8% said that they would install Vista on their existing computer without any upgrade.
A similar Harris Poll in December 2006, just one month before Vista’s consumer launch, found that 47% of those online were aware of Vista, and that 20% intended to upgrade in the coming year. It seems that while Microsoft’s “Wow Starts Now” marketing campaign has boosted awareness of Vista, it hasn’t substantially increased the total number of people planning to upgrade.
The survey does indicate, however, that the release of the new operating system has affected the timing of the purchase of a new computer for 40% of the respondents who were aware of Vista: one in five said they had delayed the purchase of a new computer, and one in five said they would bring forward the purchase of a new computer.
According to Milton Ellis, Vice President of Harris Interactive’s Technology Group, said Microsoft has some way to go to convert the awareness of Vista into sales.
“In order to generate that ‘WOW’ factor, Microsoft will have to put forth a value proposition that will move the majority to the upgrade category in the years ahead. Vista promised better performance, reliability, security, and a revolutionary user interface - but it appears consumers looking to upgrade are not ready to buy into the promise whereas new computer buyers will want the latest and greatest,” said Ellis.
“Microsoft has faced this challenge before with operating system upgrades. Consumers tend to wait until a few service packs have been released to fix real or perceived problems. No doubt, Microsoft understands these issues and will proceed accordingly.”
Questions arose when some people are not willing to use facebook because of some fears, uncertainty and doubt on using it.
My question is then, how can you reconnect to your friends when they are (in facebook) but you are not?
Here I put several conditions on my part if you want to use facebook as your means of communicating with your friends.
*For me, friends are connected in FB only when the profiles are known. But in the mailing lists, we seldom see profiles from emails especially through the larger lists that contains thousands of members.
*I am using FB as a big organizer or your friends directory so you won't need to remember or enter their data one by one, instead they are making their own updates when they change their emails, data, or even their names.
*Status updates in FB are faster than replying an email. You can even see the 'emotion' of your friends through the updates though you won't need to update yourself. Email is more than serious to deal with.
*If you don't want your data getting around circulated in the web, then you do not need to put more data other than name and email.
*It is actually a closed network than the list when you communicate only to your 'approved' friends.
Recently [[facebook|http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy]] has tried to revise their privacy options for information shared in which your data are going to be distributed. Those options are (1) friends only in your network, (2) friends of friends, or (3) make it totally public.
Nobody asked you to be in facebook in the first place. You can either stay or leave it. On what instances do you still need your facebook for while you are keeping it?
If you prefer to stay, here is a lifehacker's [[Guide to Managing Your Facebook Privacy| http://lifehacker.com/5813990/the-always-up+to+date-guide-to-managing-your-facebook-privacy ]] where you can actually put more privacy setting and from following allfacebook has more [[tips|http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-privacy-2009-02]].
Leonardo Fibonacci was a mathematician who was born in Italy around the year 1170. It is believed that Mr. Fibonacci discovered the relationship of what are now referred to as Fibonacci numbers while studying the Great Pyramid of Gizeh in Egypt.
Fibonacci numbers are a sequence of numbers in which each successive number is the sum of the two previous numbers:
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, etc.
These numbers possess an intriguing number of interrelationships, such as the fact that any given number is approximately 1.618 times the preceding number and any given number is approximately 0.618 times the following number. The booklet [[Understanding Fibonacci Numbers|Understanding Fibonacci Numbers]] by Edward Dobson contains a good discussion of these interrelationships.
Interpretation
There are four popular Fibonacci studies: arcs, fans, retracements, and time zones. The interpretation of these studies involves anticipating changes in trends as prices near the lines created by the Fibonacci studies.
Arcs
Fibonacci Arcs are displayed by first drawing a trendline between two extreme points, for example, a trough and opposing peak. Three arcs are then drawn, centered on the second extreme point, so they intersect the trendline at the Fibonacci levels of 38.2%, 50.0%, and 61.8%.
//Do you know that hips and busts measurements in fashion design or figurine statues in musea is fibonacci number of closely 1.618? So Fibonacci has defined a beautiful bust by its number as percepted by human.//
Interesting discussion about the [[Firefox 3 download day|http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/?p=downloadday]]. In Indonesia, it is well informed and I believe some can download it with the luxurious bandwidth they have, mostly from government offices.
On other parts, they will wait for the CD to come out. Usually avail in most magazines with ~CDs in the next edition. Because of the bandwidth limitation and don't have the luxury, 17-20MB is big enough to download for most of us, in terms of time and cost of internet connection.
I refrained myself of downloading any new version of coming out software until it has tested and again well tested. This new thing is only for the experts or those who need the new features of the new version had to offer.
I don't want it to make unbelievable things happen to developed software. I have used ~FF2 for more than a year and use it for editing and saving my wikiblog. There are reports that ~FF3 still have bugs when running tiddlywiki.
The Associated Press, New York | Wed, 06/18/2008 9:32 PM |
The new version of the Firefox Web browser became available as a free download Tuesday (Wednesday Jakarta time). The release was delayed as visitors checking for the update overloaded Firefox's Web servers.
The site was slow or unreachable for about two hours starting about 12:45 p.m. EDT (16:45 GMT), 15 minutes before the scheduled release time, according to ~AlertSite, an Internet performance monitoring company. Performance improved later in the day.
Firefox supporters organized launch parties around the world as they tried to set a [[world record|http://www.spreadfirefox.com/worldrecord]] for most software downloads in a 24-hour period. The category is new, and Guinness World Records must certify it, a process that could take a week or longer.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/06/18/firefox-3-web-browser-now-out-free-download.html
The first ever Open Source Camp in Bangladesh will be held at SUST, Sylhet on 23-24th March 2007. CSE Soceity and SUST OSN are jointly organizing the event. Ankur and BdOSN will provide the support.
Mr Jamil Ahmed of Ankur will direct the camp. Students from SUST will be the main participants. However, students from other university like BRAC University will also attend the camp.
The 2 Day long camp will focus the capacity building of the students towards Open Source Software and Open Content Development. The camp will cover the hands on experience with GNU Linux, Open Office, Mozilla, LAMP/WAMP as well as Wikipedia.
http://www.iosn.net/Members/munirhasan/OS%20Camp
Contact Jamil Ahmed <itsjamil@gmail.com> for more information.
Food supplements are eating up household money through useless health cravings, often aided by doctors' prescriptions. The DSHEA caters to businesses rather than to human health.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/09/30/food-supplements-can-rob-our-wallets-and-make-us-even-sicker.html
Iwan Darmansjah , Jakarta | Tue, 09/30/2008 10:18 AM | Opinion
A 50-year-old male patient with a body weight of 91 kg consulted me one morning with a long-standing cough which I diagnosed as bronchitis. It had been preceded by a short period by a flu, which is known as a viral infection, but all the symptoms had disappeared except the hacking, phlegm-producing cough.
Bronchitis is an irritating disease that may last for weeks or months, often hard to cure, even much more difficult than the more serious pneumonia (infection of the lung tissue). While community-acquired pneumonia is easily cured by antibiotics, bronchitis is difficult to manage and reacts best with rest and anti-asthma drugs because antibiotics don't work. This patient, however, was given -- by his doctor -- one course of unneeded antibiotics and seven food supplements, costing him Rp 1.4 million.
The free trading of these dietary supplements was initially triggered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Dietary Supplement, Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994. This law makes it easy to market dietary supplements because no data on safety and efficacy are needed. This means that no basic studies or clinical trials are required.
Many medical practitioners are also unaware that supplements are not drugs and are devoid of any evidence of clinical trials that prove efficacy -- and safety. Many supplements have adverse reactions, and combined with polypharmacy (using more drugs than is really needed) are causing interactions between molecules in the body, causing unknown and problematic body reactions -- not to be excluded -- this includes cancers. The rage of antioxidant consumption, for instance, has been said to be a trigger of cancer.
Antioxidants are good for preserving food, especially cake, but there is no positive proof (evidence) that it preserves human health needs, notably when overused. An array of different brands and shapes of bottles filled with oxygenated water is also beginning to replace the wine list in European restaurants and hotels.
Imagine that, perhaps now, at least 20 to 30 percent of the world is using or trading supplements, further stimulated by multi-level marketing, a business that is nonfunctional and contributes nothing of lasting economic value.
It is created by today's style of business -- short-term gains by such events such as holiday sales and discounted prices for things we really don't need or use. We may, perhaps, have the largest number of malls (relatively speaking) in greater Jakarta, but yet the city is still building more.
Economically the entire nation may suffer from a backlash of real growth, and may therefore lack innovation to make a positive change. Malls are also providing the place to spend that kind of money; they even have become the playgrounds of children and adults, causing transmission of airborne diseases.
As the name suggests, DSHEA stipulates that the Act includes education of the public. This would fall on the shoulders of the U.S. FDA, and indeed a large budget accompanies this activity. Informative leaflets are to be inserted in each packet and the internet and other media contributes ample warnings and caveats on supplements.
In developing countries, however, no impartial information is provided by governments, while deceptive advertisements in all media forms are widespread. While some supplements are producing beneficial results in selected users, very often devious marketing tactics are attracting sick people who then do not use the available efficacious drugs, overthrowing entire therapeutic systems.
The serious question to be asked is whether this phenomenon, together with all the other unethical marketing scams in the world, may lead to an aftermath following the global housing and credit crunch that may be greater than anything imagined, affecting the 6 billion have-nots on our planet.
The writer is a Clinical Pharmacologist.
It's got the same climate as Earth, plus water and gravity. A newly discovered planet is the most stunning evidence that life - just like us - might be out there.
[[Last updated at 13:24pm on 25th April 2007|http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/technology/sciencetechnology.html?in_page_id=1965]]
Above a calm, dark ocean, a huge, bloated red sun rises in the sky - a full ten times the size of our Sun as seen from Earth. Small waves lap at a sandy shore and on the beach, something stirs...
This is the scene - or may be the scene - on what is possibly the most extraordinary world to have been discovered by astronomers: the first truly Earth-like planet to have been found outside our Solar System. The discovery was announced today by a team of European astronomers, using a telescope in La Silla in the Chilean Andes. If forced bookies to slash odds on the existence of alien beings.
The Earth-like planet that could be covered in oceans and may support life is 20.5 light years away, and has the right temperature to allow liquid water on its surface. This remarkable discovery appears to confirm the suspicions of most astronomers that the universe is swarming with Earth-like worlds.
We don't yet know much about this planet, but scientists believe that it may be the best candidate so far for supporting extraterrestrial life. The new planet, which orbits a small, red star called Gliese 581, is about one-and-a-half times the diameter of the Earth.
[img[New planet|blog/planet3s.jpg]]
It probably has a substantial atmosphere and may be covered with large amounts of water - necessary for life to evolve - and, most importantly, temperatures are very similar to those on our world.
It is the first exoplanet (a planet orbiting a star other than our own Sun) that is anything like our Earth. Of the 220 or so exoplanets found to date, most have either been too big, made of gas rather than solid material, far too hot, or far too cold for life to survive.
"On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X," says Xavier Delfosse, one of the scientists who discovered the planet.
"Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life."
Gliese 581 is among the closest stars to us, just 20.5 light years away (about 120 trillion miles) in the constellation Libra. It is so dim it can be seen only with a good telescope. Because all planets are relatively so small and the light they give off so faint compared to their sun, finding exoplanets is extremely difficult unless they are huge. Those that have so far been detected have mostly been massive, Jupiter-like balls of gas that almost certainly cannot be home to life.
This new planet - known for the time being as Gliese 581c - is a midget in comparison, being about 12,000 miles across (Earth is a little under 8,000 pole-to-pole). It has a mass five times that of Earth, probably made of the same sort of rock as makes up our world and with enough gravity to hold a substantial atmosphere.
Astrobiologists - scientists who study the possibility of alien life - refer to a climate known as the Goldilocks Zone, where it is not so cold that water freezes and not so hot that it boils, but where it can lie on the planet's surface as a liquid.
In our solar system, only one planet - Earth -lies in the Goldilocks Zone. Venus is far too hot and Mars is just too cold. This new planet lies bang in the middle of the zone, with average surface temperatures estimated to be between zero and 40c (32-102f). Lakes, rivers and even oceans are possible. It is not clear what this planet is made of. If it is rock, like the Earth, then its surface may be land, or a combination of land and ocean.
Another possibility is that Gliese 581c was formed mostly from ice far from the star (ice is a very common substance in the Universe), and moved to the close orbit it inhabits today. In which case its entire surface will have melted to form a giant, planet-wide ocean with no land, save perhaps a few rocky islands or icebergs. The surface gravity is probably around twice that of the Earth and the atmosphere could be similar to ours.
Although the new planet is in itself very Earth-like, its solar system is about as alien as could be imagined. The star at the centre - Gliese 581 - is small and dim, only about a third the size of our Sun and about 50 times cooler. The two other planets are huge, Neptune-sized worlds called Gliese 581b and d (there is no "a", to avoid confusion with the star itself).
The Earth-like planet orbits its sun at a distance of only six million miles or so (our Sun is 93 million miles away), travelling so fast that its "year" only lasts 13 of our days. The parent star would dominate the view from the surface - a huge red ball of fire that must be a spectacular sight.
It is difficult to speculate what - if any - life there is on the planet. If there is life there it would have to cope with the higher gravity and solar radiation from its sun. Just because Gliese 581c is habitable does not mean that it is inhabited, but we do know its sun is an ancient star - in fact, it is one of the oldest stars in the galaxy, and extremely stable. If there is life, it has had many billions of years to evolve.
This makes this planet a prime target in the search for life. According to Seth Shostak, of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute in California, the Gliese system is now a prime target for a radio search. 'We had actually looked at this system before but only for a few minutes. We heard nothing, but now we must look again.'
By 2020 at least one space telescope should be in orbit, with the capability of detecting signs of life on planets orbiting nearby stars. If oxygen or methane (tell-tale biological gases) are found in Gliese 581c's atmosphere, this would be good circumstantial evidence for life.
[[There are billions of like-earth planets in the universe]]
As Seth Shostak says: "We've never found one close to being like the Earth until now. We are finding that Earth is not such an unusual puppy in the litter of planets."
But are these alien Earths home to life? No one knows. We don't understand how life began on our world, let alone how it could arise anywhere else. There may be an awful lot of bugs and bacteria out there, and only a few worlds with what we would recognise as plants and animals. Or, of course, there may be nothing.
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute uses radio telescopes to try to pick up messages sent by alien civilisations. Interestingly, Gliese 581c is so close to the Earth that if its putative inhabitants only had our level of technology, they could - just about - pick up some of our radio signals, such as the most powerful military transmitters. Quite what would happen if we for our part did receive a signal is unclear.
"There is a protocol, buried away in the United Nations," says Dr Shostak. "The President would be told first, after the signal was confirmed by other observatories. But we couldn't keep such a discovery secret."
It may be some time before we detect any such signals, but it is just possible that today we are closer than ever to finding life in the stars. William Hill said it had shortened the odds on proving the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence from 1,000-1 to 100-1.
Spokesman Graham Sharpe said: "We would face a possible eight-figure payout if it were to be confirmed that intelligent life of extra-terrestrial origin exists. We felt we had to react to the news that an earth-like planet which could support intelligent life had been discovered - after all, we don't know for sure that intelligent extraterrestrial life has not already been discovered."
The new planet, so far unnamed, is 20.5 light years away and orbits a red dwarf star called Gliese 581.
For the technologically challenged, buying a simple PC can be a daunting task. There are so many models and outlets to choose from.
Features - August 14, 2006 by Arnawa Widagda, Contributor, Jakarta
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20060814.Q03
Manufacturers are not making it any easier either. Most of the time, brochures are filled more with marketing hype and technical buzz words and not enough substantial facts. Often, less tech-savvy buyers will look to a tech-geek friend or product reviews to help them make their choice.
The first thing you should do before buying a PC is to find at least three reasons for wanting it. Usually, these reasons fall into work, play and enjoying multimedia entertainment -- mostly movies and music. List your reasons and set a priority for each one.
The second step is to look at the hardware requirements of the software you will be using. It is important to note that you should at least plan to buy a PC that meets the recommended requirements. Meeting the recommended requirements means you will have the most optimal experience with the software on your PC.
The third step is to look at how you will be using the PC. If you like to multitask, no doubt you will probably be running multiple applications at one time, ie. using a word processor and spreadsheet together, quite probably periodically switching to check e-mails and browse the Internet.
Most people also like to play music when they are working and do not forget firewall and anti-virus software to protect your PC. However, if you mainly use your PC as a multimedia PC with no Internet connection, you will only use one application -- the media player -- and you don't need firewall and anti-virus protection running all the time.
For a multitasking PC, memory is an all important factor. Each application you are running will use a little bit of memory, so it is wise to go higher than the recommended requirements. For most office use, 512 MB is recommended while for more demanding applications and environment, ie. with anti-virus downloads and firewall in the background, 1 GB memory is a must. 2 GB is recommended if you like to switch between a multitasking desktop and demanding games, but 4 GB is overkill.
The second factor that may help some of your multitasking woes is the use of dual-core processors. With a dual-core processor, the operating system will spread the workload between the two cores so that technically you can have two applications running full speed at the same time.
However, do not expect a two-fold increase in performance because with a single application, only the first core gets used. Even if you are switching between applications, the second core is rarely used -- you have to run something quite demanding in the background to get any real benefit from the second core.
There are some applications that can distribute their workload across two or more processors, but most of these applications are used by professionals, ie. content creation with video/audio editing and post production, image/photo editing and software 3D rendering.
If you work with these applications, dual-core processors may offer a substantial boost in performance. New, demanding PC games can also make use of dual-core processors more efficiently than older ones.
Right now, the fastest dual-core processors are Intel's Core 2 Duo processors, followed closely by AMD's Athlon 64 X2 processors. However, Core 2 Duo systems is still quite expensive and not always available, so if you cannot wait, the more affordable Athlon 64 X2 processors like the AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ or 4200+ is a good buy. For notebooks, Intel's Core Duo processors are better than AMD's Turion, offering slightly faster performance and longer battery life.
Naturally, if you're only using your PC for watching movies and listening to music, a less expensive single-core processor like Intel's Core Solo or AMD Sempron with 512 MB of memory is more than enough. It should be fast enough for simple office applications and Internet use though with anti-virus and firewall protection running in the background it may seem a little slow sometimes.
Traditionally, even the menial integrated graphics cards or the so called "on-board graphics" is enough for desktop and multimedia use. The only reason to get a faster, more powerful graphics cards is if you want to play new demanding 3D games.
The last step is doing research and setting a budget. Find out which vendor offers the most support -- which is very important for notebooks -- and which has better longevity or can be easily upgraded for desktops.
If the product you want goes over your budget, ask about the options or the differentiating factor between products. For example, having a flat panel LCD for a desktop PC sure is nice, but you may still get by with a flat screen CRT and save some money.
Some additional things you might want to consider, particularly with a notebook, is build, design, comfort and ergonomics. A better design with tougher materials like magnesium or titanium alloy is more durable to misuse and abuse, though it might be slightly heavier.
Richard Stallman once wrote that the point about free software is it is "free as in freedom, not free as in beer", meaning that people should be at liberty to do as they pleased with software, rather than subscribe to its restrictive licences. As the recession takes hold, the stress may be on the second half of his now-famous aphorism. To the millions downloading free software in a recession, the point is that it is free – as in free beer.
Since Stallman first made his rallying cry as the founder of the free software movement in the 1980s, the way that software has been developed and distributed has been transformed. There cannot be a corner of the industrialised world that doesn't rely on some form of free software. But free software, and the open source movement it inspired, has so far affected mostly the back-end world of servers and databases, or taken over from software, like the web browser, that was already available at zero cost.
<<tabs free
open "First tab" [[Open source apps are no small free beer]]
office "Second tab" [[The Open Office Politics]]
free "Third tab" [[Without Free Software, Open Source Would Lose its Meaning]]
>>
Supplement from Jakarta Post - July 29, 2006
E. Effendi/Contributor
empy_effendi@freshmindsgroup.com
OK, here's the situation. You're handling five serious problems with your team and you have no idea how to solve them. Your team keeps debating solutions but somehow the problems seem to get more complicated after each discussion. Your boss suddenly adds to the pressure by moving the deadline forward and on top of that, he adds two more problems for your team to solve. What do you do?
If you are an inexperienced manager, you might panic and consequently wet your pants. But if you've been in that position for years, you'll probably do the most logical thing, which is to quit and look for another job.
No, just kidding. An experienced manager would not quit. He would gather his team to solve this problem right away, just like you can, except that he has more knowledge, skill, more advisors and a bigger budget. Isn't management fun?
If you face a big problem, you have to first gather your team and discuss the problem in a structured way. You need to invite them to attend a meeting and explain how important it is to solve the problem and how this problem bothers your organization so that they are willing to attend. Also explain that there will be free donuts.
Once you are in the meeting, you need to decide what the problem really is. Craft a problem statement and write it on a flipchart. It's an important tool to keep the discussion from straying and making you wonder whether the coffee served contains alcohol.
Please note a problem statement should not contain any suggested solutions or causes. Therefore "to increase teamwork with a limited budget" is a far better problem statement than, "to increase teamwork by reducing members' BO and bathing more".
After you decide on the problem statement, you need to analyze the problem and find the main cause. This is where you reach the fun part where your team members, in the spirit of cooperation and workmanship, blame each other and spit at each other.
Therefore, you need to manage this process wisely, otherwise your team members will point fingers at each other, resulting in unhealthy conflict. Fortunately, there are several methods available to facilitate the process. The simplest way is the why-why method, in which you continuously ask the question "why" to the problem until you reach the main causes of the problem. It is a very popular method to find a root cause because it whittles the problem down to the source. Besides, the constant questioning will drive your team members mad.
Another popular method is the fishbone diagram, developed by Kaoru Ishikawa from the University of Tokyo. In this method, you need to first draw a fishbone figure to draft the problem, such as this:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
After you draw the chart, your team members will have a new perspective, which is how bad your drawing skill is. However, this diagram will really help you in understanding the problem. What you do is write the main problem in the head part of the diagram. Then you write the symptoms or the sub problems in each box on the bone, and write the causes of the problem in each bone, as below.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
That way, the fishbone diagram is proven to be a tool that can show the relationship between each symptom and their causes in order to decide which problem/cause you should tackle first, so that you can focus on it ... and then get stuck.
It is because you keep staring at the problem and do nothing. It is now time to do something and find the solutions, which is the next phase of the process.
We will discuss several methods of finding a solution next session, in which we will again have a group meeting and fight with each other brutally. But, hey, there are always donuts.
Recently the [[Norwegian has declared war on using IE6.|http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/02/norwegian-websi.html]]
"Several large websites in Norway have launched an advocacy campaign urging Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 users to upgrade their outdated web browsers."
//The funny thing is that IE6 has been upgraded to IE7 and now IE8 is launched. Even Microsoft is joining the campaign.//
Even Microsoft is supporting the campaign. Norwegian news site Teknisk Ukeblad reports Thursday that Microsoft Norway's Alveberg Isabella says, "We of course hope that our users follow us on [upgrading] to Internet Explorer 7."
//~IE6 is an old browser of 2001 that people still make use of it. But there are more options from available nowaday browsers.//
Dozens of other sites, including the influential tech news website Digi.no, have joined the campaign, but have widened the playing field by suggesting either upgrading to ~IE7 or switching to an alternative like Firefox, Safari or, of course, Norway's own Opera browser.
[[Microsoft's Internet Explorer dominates the market|http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090317/wr_nm/us_google_chrome_1]], with a 67.4 percent market share in February, while the Mozilla foundation's Firefox browser had a roughly 22 percent share. Apple's Safari browser had an 8 percent share.
Last month, Google officially joined the European Union's antitrust case against Microsoft, describing the browser market as "largely uncompetitive." The EU has charged Microsoft with abusing its dominant market position by bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser with its Windows personal computer operating system.
Sites in Sweden, Indonesia and Australia have joined in. Norwegian blogger Peter Haza is cataloging the participants, and an international wiki called "~IE6 - DO NOT WANT" has been set up to track the spreading browsercide. There's a Facebook group, too.
The next [[Ubuntu 10.04|https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LucidLynx]] will be supplied without GIMP and is replaced by ~F-Spot which is a simpler module for image editing. The reason is to spare more space on live CD for other useful resources.
http://techie-buzz.com/ubuntu/gimp-removed-from-ubuntu-10-04-lucid-lynx.html
GIMP is an image editing tool and has been part of Ubuntu CD for a really long time. Although, this decision was taken to reduce the size of the Ubuntu live CD, it may have many other side advantages and logical explanations.
*GIMP is a high end application for the more professional users.
*The GIMP User Interface has many options, settings and editing capabilities. GIMP has never had a interface as "good" as Photoshop.
The developers at the Ubuntu Development Summit has decided to [[remove GIMP|https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RemoveGimp]] from the next Ubuntu release onwards.
However GIMP will still be installable via Synaptic package manager or from Ubuntu Software Center.
GIMP is actually a powerful open source product on image manipulation. This strategy will leave Ubuntu to sell on its own, ending the long lasting relation with GIMP. Neither one of them [[commented|http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/lists/gimp-developer/2009-November/023779.html]] wrongly,
This has happened before when Pidgin was replaced by Empathy which is a bigger product that users may found it heavy. Later on, Ubuntu could also remove Open Office which is also taking space and leave it on demand via apt-get.
Goodbye Karmic Koala and welcome Lucid Lynx.
The second GNOME.Asia Summit will be held in [[Ho-Chi-Minh City|http://gnome.asia/en/location/]], Vietnam, from 20-22 November, 2009. The GNOME.Asia Summit is an exciting event gathering many contributors from the free and open source desktop communities, bringing together the Asian community, and providing a forum for planning future development and growth.
The theme of the summit is 'Get Freedom with GNOME' which refers to the primary goals of the [[GNOME.Asia Summit|http://gnome.asia/en/]]: spreading the knowledge of GNOME and free/open source software across Asia; and building a vibrant, thriving community around it. Our target audiences include GNOME users, developers, contributors, students, and clients in Asia.
Topic areas of interest include, but are not limited to:
* GNOME 3.0
* Localization & Internationalization
* Mobile platforms and thin clients with Maemo and LXDE
* GNOME and free and Open Source Communities
* GNOME library and application development
* Desktop deployments
* School software
The event will feature keynotes, sessions, lightning talks, exhibitions, and a hands-on lab. We are asking for submissions for three types of proposals:
1) Sessions
2) Lightning talks
3) Exhibition, hands-on lab
The sessions at the GNOME.Asia Summit will be scheduled for one hour blocks of time. You should expect approximately 45 minutes of lecture with the final 15 minutes used for questions and group discussion. Please take into consideration any time you will need for preparation. The session could be a technical talk, panel discussion, or BOF.
The lightning talks at the GNOME.Asia Summit are short presentations. Each lightning talk is only 5 minutes long with no time for Q&A. Please take into consideration any time you will need for preparation, such as projector setup. Proposals for lightning talks will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis, limited by available space.
At the GNOME.Asia summit 2009, we will have a special area for exhibition and hands-on Lab. Exhibitions including booths, posters and stands, and hands-on Lab are welcome.
To be considered for inclusion as a participant at the GNOME.Asia Summit 2009, please send an email to committee@gnome.asia with a short abstract about your proposal. The submitted abstract should indicate the type of your proposal. Include your name, biographical information, a photo suitable for the web, a title, and a description of your presentation (under 400 words). The reviewing team will evaluate the entries based on the submitted abstracts and available time in the schedule.
The deadline for submissions is November 6, 2009. Successful candidates will be selected and notified by the organizing committee by November 9, 2009. Once your abstract is selected you will need to create an account on the GNOME.Asia Summit website where you will need to update your topic information, along with providing some biographical information.
All interested contributors are highly encouraged to send in their proposals. Please help us to spread the invitation to other potential participants. Even you do not plan to be a speaker, please consider joining us. This is going to be a great event!
[[GNOME_Asia_Call_for_Participation_and_Speakers.pdf|http://gnome.asia/static/media/GNOME_Asia_Call_for_Participation_and_Speakers.pdf]]
GNOME.Asia Summit is an annual conference for GNOME users and developers in Asia. The event focuses primarily on the GNOME desktop and other devices that use GNOME, and also covers ~GNOME-based applications and GNOME development platform tools.
It brings together the GNOME community in Asia to provide a forum for users, developers, foundation leaders, governments and businesses to discuss both the present technologies and future developments.
GNOME.Asia Summit has been held in Beijing, China in 2008 and ~Ho-Chi-Minh City, Vietnam in 2009. The summit has been recognized as one of the top three FLOSS conferences in China in 2008 by the Chinese government and the biggest FLOSS conference in Vietnam in 2009 by the Vietnamese government.
For this third edition of the [[GNOME.Asia Summit|http://2010.gnome.asia/]] we're delighted to partner with the organizers of COSCUP (Conference for Open Source Coders, Users and Promoters), the largest free & open source software (FLOSS) conference in Taiwan. The event will be held on August 14th and 15th at the International Conference Hall, Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica in Taipei (Taiwan).
For this third edition of the GNOME.Asia Summit we're delighted to partner with the organizers of COSCUP (Conference for Open Source Coders, Users and Promoters), the largest free & open source software (FLOSS) conference in Taiwan. The event will be held on ''August 14th and 15th'' at the International Conference Hall, Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica in Taipei (Taiwan).
With a tagline of “Open Web and Mobile Technologies” , it emphasizes the exciting development in these two areas as well as the GNOME desktop environment, and leverages the world-leading hardware industry in Taiwan. We are expecting a minimum of 700 participants composed mainly of an Asian and Taiwanese FLOSS technology focused audience as well as international experts. Right now the joint conference of COSCUP / GNOME.Asia 2010 is calling for papers, if you are interested to join us, please feel free to browse the "register" page and participate the event!
Microsoft promises cheap student software as charity set to ship five million Linux-based laptops to developing world.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article1676934.ece
In July the non-profit One Laptop Per Child will begin shipping 5 million laptops, priced at $100 each. Designed for developing countries, the machine – dubbed XO – can be recharged by hand. Crucially, for Microsoft, they run on the rival Linux operating system.
Microsoft has stressed that its efforts in this area are not philanthropic, but motivated by commercial reasons.
The $3 software bundle, which will be released in the second half of this year, will include the Windows XP Starter Edition operating system and Microsoft Office Home, a package that includes applications such as Word.
A Microsoft spokesman said the scheme was designed to “help close the digital divide” and “bring social and economic opportunity to the estimated 5 billion people who are not yet realising the benefits of technology.” It will also seed a working knowledge of Microsoft software systems, which account for as much as 90 per cent of the market, in a new generation.
The developing world is seen as key for technology groups faced with saturated Western markets. Mobile phone companies, for instance, are tailoring basic, rugged handsets with long battery life, designed to be shared among communities in Africa.
Koichiro Matsuura, the director general of Unesco, said he welcomed partnerships with private groups to counter a “drastic shortage of trained teachers, which constitutes one of the major obstacles in achieving education for all".
Analysts regard cooperation between the public and private sector as key to rolling out technology in the developing world.
Roger Kay, principal analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates, said: "Strategies with the greatest potential will involve collaboration among many players, including governments, NGOs, commercial carriers, financing entities, local providers, services organisations, and hardware and software vendors.”
CK Prahalad, a professor at the University of Michigan's Stephen M. Ross School of Business, said: "Computers and connectivity are still too expensive for private ownership by the poor, and applications as well as information resources that are appropriate to this group have been slow to emerge, in part because the poor themselves have not been involved in creating them."
IDG News Service 4/19/07
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/070419gatestech/
Steven Schwankert, IDG News Service, Beijing Bureau
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates launched an initiative in Beijing Thursday aimed at bridging the digital divide between technologically advanced and developing countries.
The initiative, an expansion of Microsoft's "Unlimited Potential" strategy, involves offering governments a US$3 software package called the Student Innovation Suite. It includes Windows XP Starter Edition, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Microsoft Math 3.0, Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office, and Windows Live Mail desktop.
The suite will be available by the end of this year to qualifying governments that are working to supply PCs to students to promote technology skills. In 2008, Microsoft will extend its availability to all countries with economies defined as low- or middle-income by the The World Bank.
"In each country it is tailored to the interests of the government and citizens, but it's about innovation, it's about integration, and it's about creating jobs in those regions," Gates said, speaking at the conclusion of the two-day Microsoft Government Leaders Forum Asia in Beijing.
Gates emphasized the role of technology in education, and said the software would be a first step towards offering children in the developing world greater access to computing. He referred to "my favorite Windows product, the Windows tablet," and said that tablet PCs could eventually replace paper in schools.
"Over time, students won't need to have textbooks. The cost of [the tablet] will be less than buying textbooks, and yet the experience of using it is dramatically superior than what you would have had with a paper-based experience," Gates said.
While Gates has always been a proponent of using technology to solve social, economic and health problems worldwide, this latest move is not purely altruistic, one industry analyst said.
"You'll find that Microsoft would be fairly open if pushed that they don't go into a market for philanthropic reasons," said Clive Longbottom, founder and analyst of Quocirca, a technology research firm in London.
Microsoft has to find more creative ways to distribute its software in emerging markets, where open-source software and Linux have a foothold, he said. Partnering with local governments and global organizations to reach students and developers is a good way to do that, he said.
Microsoft's Windows-based approached differs from other developing-world computing initiatives such as the One Laptop Per Child Project (OLPC), which makes use of an open-source Linux operating system, combined with an Advanced Micro Devices Inc. microprocessor, and powered by a hand crank. OLPC has targeted a price for its laptop at $100 per unit by 2008, although Libya, Nigeria, Egypt, Rwanda, and Ethiopia ordered units priced at $150 earlier this year.
Libya has committed to providing 1.2 million laptops within a year, and Rwanda will offer 2 million laptops to schoolchildren within five years, according to the OLPC. The OLPC effort has been led by Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab.
Technology's role in improving education is already established, according to Gates. He referred to a distance-learning experiment where the results of a class that experienced live instruction was compared to a remote education class. The latter received the lecture on DVD, and stopped the presentation every 15 minutes. The remote group could stop and discuss things wherever they wanted. Because it was start and stop, that was the group that did the best."
Microsoft and others needed to begin reaching out to the developing world through existing, lower-cost technologies such as cell phones and television to provide basic computing and educational opportunities, according to Gates.
(Elizabeth Montalbano in New York contributed to this report.)
Steven Schwankert is Asia desk editor for the IDG News Service.
Toen wij repatrieerden uit de gordel van smaragd
Dat Nederland zo koud was hadden wij toch nooit gedacht
Maar 't ergste was 't eten.
Nog erger dan op reis
Aardapp'len, vlees en groenten en suiker op de rijst
Geef mij maar nasi goreng met een gebakken ei
Wat sambal en wat kroepoek en een goed glas bier erbij
Geef mij maar nasi goreng met een gebakken ei
Wat sambal en wat kroepoek en een goed glas bier erbij
Geen lontong, sate babi, en niets smaakt hier pedis
Geen trassi, sroendeng, bandeng en geen tahoe petis
Kwee lapis, onde-onde, geen ketella of ba-pao
Geen ketan, geen goela-djawa, daarom ja, ik zeg nou
Ik ben nou wel gewend, ja aan die boerenkool met worst
Aan hutspot, pake klapperstuk, aan mellek voor de dorst
Aan stamppot met andijwie, aan spruitjes, erwtensoep
Maar 't lekkerst toch is rijst, ja en daarom steeds ik roep
http://lagujadul.multiply.com
Lyric http://lirama.net/artist/3010
<html><a type="application/rss+xml" href="blog.xml">RSS feed for this page</a></html>
In 2004, Google announced that it had entered into agreements with several libraries to digitize books, including books protected by U.S. copyright law, in those libraries’ collections.
Several authors and publishers brought this lawsuit against Google, claiming that its digitization without permission infringed their copyrights. In response to the authors’ and publishers’ claims of copyright infringement, Google argued that its digitization of the books and display of snippets, or a few lines, of the books is permitted under the U.S. copyright law’s doctrine of "fair use."
Instead of resolving the legal dispute over whether Google’s digitization and display of the books is permissible under U.S. law as a "fair use," the parties negotiated a settlement.
[[This following settlement involves the Google Library Project.|http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/r/view_settlement_agreement]]
This is the settlement administration [[website|http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/]] for the Google Book Search Copyright Class Action Settlement. The purpose of this website is to inform you of a proposed Settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by authors and publishers, claiming that Google has violated their copyrights and those of other Rightsholders of Books and Inserts, by scanning their Books, creating an electronic database and displaying short excerpts without the permission of the copyright holders.
Google denies the claims. The lawsuit is entitled The Authors Guild, Inc., et al. v. Google Inc., Case No. 05 CV 8136 (S.D.N.Y.) The Court has preliminarily approved the Settlement.
For further information, please review the [[Notice|http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/notice.html]].
Claim your Books and Inserts: You can do this at any time, but in order to be eligible for Cash Payments for Books, you must complete your Claim Form on or before January 5, 2010. Opt out of the Settlement must be submitted online or postmarked on or before ''May 5, 2009''.
File an objection or notice of intent to appear at the Fairness Hearing: Must be postmarked on or before May 5, 2009.
Google Inc. co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page each took home their customary $1 annual salary again in 2007, while a steep decline in the company's stock price chopped more than $8.5 billion from each of their massive holdings of Google shares, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.
March 25, 2008: 8:47 PM EDT
http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/25/technology/google_compensation.ap/index.htm?
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) --
Brin, 34, the company's president of technology, and Page, 35, president of products, took the hits to their multibillion-dollar fortunes as shares of the Internet search leader plunged over the past five months on disappointing fourth-quarter earnings and fears the company can't sustain its torrid growth.
CEO Eric Schmidt also received his customary $1 salary in 2007, the Mountain View-based company said in its proxy statement filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Schmidt also received $480,561 in 2007, including $478,662 in expenses incurred by Google mostly for Schmidt's personal security. His total compensation was down 14% from 2006, when his personal security costs were higher.
Schmidt's stockpile of 9.5 million shares of Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) stock - down from the 10.7 million shares he owned at the same time last year - has also taken a hit because of the stock price drop. The stock horde is now worth about $4.3 billion, about $3 billion less than at the stock's peak of $747.24 in November.
As of Feb. 15, according to Tuesday's regulatory filing, Brin owned 28.6 million shares of Google, while Page owned 29.1 million, about as much as they held last year. Their stock is "Class B" common stock, which in Google's case means they carry greater voting power than ordinary shares.
At the stock's November peak, Brin and Page each held more than $21 billion worth. Now that the stock is trading below $500 - it lost $9.78, or 2%, to close at $450.78 on Tuesday - Brin and Page each now hold around $13 billion worth. Each founder received a bonus of $1,723, for a total of $1,724. Brin got the same amount last year. Page's figure was higher in 2006 because Google paid $37,000 in personal travel expenses for him.
[[Don't Be Fooled by $1 Salaries|http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070609/1_salary_ceos.html]]. $1-a-year salary can still lead to millions of dollars in compensation for CEOs.
Saturday June 9, 2:25 pm ET By Ellen Simon, AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- A handful of CEOs in the AP executive pay list take home a salary of $1 a year or less. But all of them manage to make millions anyway, illustrating the point that if you're running the show, your salary doesn't mean much.
"Salary has become such a minuscule component of CEO compensation that it is now largely irrelevant," said J. Richard Finlay, founder of the Centre for Corporate & Public Governance.
Of the 386 Standard & Poor's 500 CEOs whose companies reported under the Securities and Exchange Commission's expanded disclosure requirements this year, salary accounted for only 9.5 percent of total pay. For the 11 CEOs in the group who earned more than $30 million, salary was just 2.7 percent of total pay.
In the group, the CEOs with the smallest salaries were:
''Terry Considine'', chairman, president and CEO of Apartment Investment & Management. He reported a salary of zero, although footnotes in the company's proxy statement show that he received stock options valued at $600,000 as his base salary. Considine's total pay, as calculated by the AP, was $4.8 million in 2006.
''Richard D. Fairbank'', president and CEO of Capital One Financial Corp., also had zero salary, as well as no bonus. But he was awarded $18 million worth of stock options.
Since 1997, Fairbank has been paid almost entirely in stock and options, which are pegged to Capital One's long-term performance. The company's proxy said the board's compensation committee believes this is "the mechanism that most aligns the CEO's financial rewards to the value he delivers to stockholders."
Fairbank has 5.9 million unexercised options, as well as unearned shares and options that have not vested that the company values at $27.3 million.
''James Rogers'', president and CEO of Duke Energy Corp., received no salary in 2006. But like Fairbank, he receives most of his compensation in stock and options. His total pay for 2006 was $27.5 million.
''Eric Schmidt'', CEO of Google Inc., took home exactly $1 in salary. And his overall compensation totaled $557,466, a fraction of the $71.7 million granted last year to competitor Yahoo Inc. CEO Terry Semel, the No. 1 executive on the AP pay list.
Almost all of Schmidt's package covered the cost of $532,755 for personal security. Schmidt, along with Google's founders, ''Larry Page'' and ''Sergey Brin'', has refused to take anything more than a token paycheck for the past three years to promote an egalitarian spirit at the company. But all three own handsome stock stakes in the company. Schmidt, 52, owns 10.7 million shares currently worth $5.5 billion.
Another $1-a-year CEO is Apple's ''Steve Jobs'', who's been treading water at that level for the last three years. But Jobs, 52, also owns more than 5.4 million Apple shares that are now worth more than $660 million.
Google shares had fallen today March 7, 2008 at Wall Street taking the hardest fall since Oct 31, 2007 when it reached $700. Today it is traded at $432 per share, a 3.35% decrease in one day.
[img[Google six months|blog/google.jpg]]
//My worry with Google’s price is not that its too high, but that its too soon. The company can’t grow 50% a year forever. At some point, growth rates must slow down. When that happens the stock will experience a protracted decline or at least remain neutral. For my money, I’d rather invest in something cheaper.// Posted By Frank, Minneapolis, MN : October 31, 2007 12:50 pm
October 31, 2007
Google tops $700
http://mediabiz.blogs.cnnmoney.cnn.com/2007/10/31/google-tops-700/
Shares of Google (GOOG) broke through the $700 level for the first time Wednesday morning, only two and a half weeks after the stock first surpassed $600. Google’s stock opened at $700.83 and briefly dipped below $700 before going on to close at a new all-time high of $707.
Google’s stock has been on a phenomenal tear this year, surging more than 50 percent. I took a look Tuesday at why Google’s stock was poised to top $700 so soon and why investors should probably get used to the world’s top Internet search firm passing other psychologically important barriers on a somewhat regular basis.
As long as Google continues to extend its lead in search over Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT), it seems likely that Google’s stock will keep climbing higher and higher.
In fact, William Morrison, an analyst with ThinkEquity Partners, raised his price target on Google to $800 last week, citing Google’s dominance in search as well as its forays into newer businesses such as online video advertising, mobile advertising and traditional media. Google is partnering with companies such as radio station owner Clear Channel and satellite TV operator EchoStar (DISH) on extending its automated ad buying system to radio and television.
Sure, Google may be lagging in the hot area of social networking, having lost out to Microsoft in the battle for an investment in Facebook. But Fortune’s Josh Quittner reports that Google has some interesting social networking plans of its own.
What’s more, Google is said to be in talks with several wireless carriers about a long-awaited mobile phone, dubbed by many in Silicon Valley as the Gphone. This could potentially put Google into competition with Apple (AAPL) and its iPhone.
Yes, some might find it fitting that Google’s stock topped $700 on Halloween. Bears certainly make the argument that Google is a scary stock that has benefited more from hype and momentum trading. But Google’s stock, as I noted yesterday, isn’t nearly as frightening as some other dot-com stocks.
Shares trade at a cheaper price-to-earnings ratio than Yahoo and are also less expensive than Amazon.com (AMZN) and Chinese search leader Baidu (BIDU) based on 2008 earnings estimates. So don’t be fooled….shares of Google, even at $700, are probably more of a treat than a trick.
Only six apps are available to customers who are testing Wave. One, from Ribbit, lets users place Web calls to other users and create multi-user Web conference calls. It can also automatically transcribe voice into text. Ultimately it could sell for $2.95 to $19.95, depending on the features, says Ribbit CEO Ted Griggs.
"Our hopes are pretty high," he says. "If Google Wave becomes a tool for collaboration, then being early to the game has a lot of value." In August, Ribbit and its owner, BT Group (BT), hired Kevin Marks, who led some of Google's developer efforts, to be its vice-president of Web services.
Done right, Google Wave has the potential to grab traffic and user time away from Facebook; AOL's AIM; e-mail services from Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!; and even Skype and Cisco System's ~WebEx. An add-on from startup 6rounds turns Wave collaboration into a video conference, similar to Skype's. Users can communicate via Web video while editing documents or playing games on Wave. The company hopes to make money by selling virtual goods through its free app.
Another developer, ~LabPixies, could help Wave compete with online-gaming portals. Its free sudoku puzzle game allows for real-time competitive play. The company makes money through contextual ads, into which Google could potentially share. Google could also insert its ads into other free apps.
Marketing agencies, meanwhile, are already starting to look at how they could use Wave to grow their client companies' brands by sponsoring applications or allowing fans to share photos and chat. Just as brands are now paying attention to Facebook, Wave "is something everyone's got on their radar," says Dan Shust, director of emerging media at agency Resource Interactive, which works with such companies as Victoria's Secret, ~Hewlett-Packard, and Procter & Gamble. "The same thing might come true for Google Wave."
A chief goal for Wave and its apps is to drive use of search, which can be done directly from the Wave service, and to boost sales of Google Apps, the suite of productivity tools that competes with Microsoft Office.
In a nod to social-networking site Facebook, there are already a host of applications for Wave, including Sudoku and Chess.
Google has big plans for Google Wave, its new online communication service—and they won't all come from Google.
The Web search giant is hoping that software developers far and wide will create tools that work in conjunction with Wave, making an already multifaceted service even more useful.
Google is even likely to let programmers sell their applications through an online bazaar akin to Apple's App Store, the online marketplace for games and other applications designed for the iPhone.
"We'll almost certainly build a store," Lars Rasmussen, the Google software engineering manager who directs the 60-person team in Sydney, Australia, that created Wave, told ~BusinessWeek.com. "So many developers have asked us to build a marketplace—and we might do a revenue-sharing arrangement."
But while the Apple App Store sells software only for Apple gadgets, Google's Wave store would be likely to sell apps that work on all kinds of devices, from laptops to Web-enabled ~TVs to smartphones. Any device with a modern browser should be able to use Google Wave and download related add-ons. The Web search giant is considering selling its own applications through the Wave app store as well, Rasmussen says.
The market opportunity for such wide-ranging applications could be large if Google Wave succeeds in replacing existing modes of communication in the same way e-mail has supplanted letters. "It'll probably transform IM and e-mail systems," says Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. "Lots of imaginative developers will build a whole host of new applications. This is disruptive." Brian Pokorny, a venture capitalist at Angel, says real-time communication "is a multibillion-dollar opportunity in the next two to five years." The VC firm is considering investing in developers who are creating add-ons for Wave.
Since May, when Wave was introduced, developers have created hundreds of add-ons for the service, Rasmussen says. A handful, including some from software vendors SAP (SAP) and salesforce.com (CRM), have been tested but are not yet available to customers.
Chrome is not just a browser, Google has come out with its own version of operating system. This Google Chrome OS is a milestone after myriad of Linux distros available so far. However Linux distros account for only 0.64% of [[OS market share|http://www.statowl.com/operating_system_market_share.php]] while Windows gains 90.49% despite all the hard effort from the open source community.
I think Google is just right to unveil the new Chrome OS as they have already supporting applications like the chrome browser and gmail aside from the famous search engine and google maps or Youtube.
The [[Google Chrome OS|So what is Chrome OS?]] will compete head on with Microsoft Windows 7 and also to Mac OS (Google executives even have share in Apple Inc).
It is also available for free as an open source project which will
give a boost in the OS market share. I hope this will not be an exclusivity to use Linux based OS if you want to spread open source.
More info
http://chrome.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-chrome-os-faq.html
//I don't know the detail if it is derived from Linux kernel or running [[on top of Linux|The new Google OS is open source and free to use]] in a new windowing system. Tell me if you have any first experience with this new OS.//
Sometime when we touch computer, we feel shock from the devices. It means that some electricity is leaking and if you can feel it then it must be more than 60 volts already so your human body can response to it. This leakage is dangerous to parts of computers such as memory, USB devices or others. This leakage comes from [[improper grounding]].
One way to overcome the problem is by making small ground facility to lessen damage caused by leakage electricity. What we do is to attach one end cable to the chassis of the computer, screw it and nail the other end of the cable to the wall which should be deep enough so the leak can go through the cable into the ground. This will cover the problem.
//What good news are referred to?
Will it save the environment, our money, our energy ... I wonder.
Is this the world that we live in? (from Queen)//
[[How a green office will contribute to environment ]]
[[Portable Applications at works]]
[[Ways to Save on Gas for Your Life and Business ]]
[[Lights out across Asia]]
[[Airbus 380 to carry 500 passengers]]
[[Humans and the environment ]]
[[Palm oil is the most popular vegetable oil]]
[[Virtual keyboard and Carbon calculator]]
[[Can we compete against paperless newspapers?]]
[[OSS runs better in Windows environment]]
[[Intel, Google headline effort to cut computer energy use]]
[[$199 Laptop Is No Child's Play]]
[[Found 20 light years away: the New Earth]]
[[Why Google spent $3.1 billion on DoubleClick]]
[[Gates launches developing world tech initiative]]
[[Dell may offer Linux as alternative to Windows]]
[[Linux, open source greener than Windows]]
[[Asian Countries Making the Switch to Open Source]]
[[FOSS recommended for use in developing countries]]
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/3/693/356
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1133344040
By Brian Caulfield 05.17.07, 6:00 PM ET
Burlingame, Calif. - Intel's new Core chips are a hit for the company-and a
radical change.
http://www.forbes.com/2007/05/17/perlmutter-intel-core-tech-cx_bc_0517perlmutter.html
While earlier chip designs prized speed, while hogging power and generating way too much heat, the new chips are built around cool-running "cores" that can be paired up to get more done. Introduced last summer, they have already helped turn Intel's fortunes around.
The man behind the new generation of chips could be just as important to Intel's (nasdaq: INTC) future. David "Dadi" Perlmutter, the 53-year-old Israeli engineer who ran the Core team, is now in charge of the sprawling microprocessor giant's product development decisions-that is, figuring out which chips will one day replace the Core.
Picking correctly will help Intel keep its grip on the chip business. And it may help put Perlmutter in charge of the company. An internal shake-up last July made Perlmutter one of two executives described as being "peer plus one" with broad responsibilities under Chief Executive Paul Otellini, and an obvious candidate to become the boss at some point down the road.
If he does, he may end up running the company with a different style than his predecessors. A relentless arguer, Perlmutter has long questioned the Intel orthodoxy that speed is the best benchmark for measuring a chip's value.
This has worked out well for his employer. Four years ago Intel's speedy Pentium processors were running out of gas. Intel couldn't push their design much further without sucking up too much power and generating too much heat. Computers and laptops seemed to be getting hot enough to double as hibachis-and Intel's business was getting cooked by rival Advanced Micro Devices (nyse: AMD). Intel's Israeli team-led by Perlmutter-offered a way out. “You want to have alternative when the king is dying,” Perlmutter says.
The solution? Slap down multiple cool-running cores on a single slice of silicon. The cores could work together to accomplish more than any hot-running, single-core Pentium could do alone. The design for those cores would be based on Perlmutter's power-sipping, cool-running Pentium M notebook processor-which had put Intel in control of the fast-growing market for laptop processors after its introduction in 2003
Now the Core processors, coupled with Intel's manufacturing might, have created a decisive advantage for Intel. During the first quarter of 2007, Intel's share of the market rose to 80.2% from 75.7%, according to market tracker iSuppli. During the same period, rival AMD stumbled and lost $611 million.
The success is a triumph for Intel's Israeli team, where Perlmutter got his start at Intel in 1980 out of Technion--Israel's answer to MIT. By the late 1990s, he had overseen the development of his share of high-profile products, including Intel's Pentium Pro, Pentium II and Pentium MMX processors.
Perlmutter's parents fled Germany for Palestine in the 1930s, and his colleagues say the engineer is a typical driven and intense "yake"-Hebrew slang for an Israeli of German extraction. When he hits the gym, “he is not there to take an exercise,” says one longtime colleague. “He is there to kill the equipment.”
He brings that intensity to the verbal rough-housing that Intel's engineers have always loved. "Dadi has a sentence he loves saying: I don't mean to argue,' but then the argument starts," says longtime colleague Alex Peleg. And in Intel's Israel design center, the arguments can be heated enough to alarm visitors. "The first time they see this, they might say 'Wow these guys are fighting, these guys hate one another,' where it's actually completely the opposite," Peleg says.
And with Perlmutter, an argument is inescapable. If an engineer says he'll deliver a product in September, Perlmutter may tell him "that's too late, it's impossible," says Shmuel "Mooly" Eden, general manager of Intel's mobile platforms group. If the engineer changes the answer to July, Perlmutter will restart the debate from the opposite angle, demanding to know "how the hell are you going to do it in July?".
"No one wants to debate the big boss," Perlmutter says of the tactic. "Show me what you are going to do … or else I don't believe you, I think you are just sick and tired of my nagging."
The nagging goes both ways, however, with colleagues describing Perlmutter's management style as "democratic chaos." Perlmutter encourages engineers to question everything before managers ultimately make a decision. And if it's clear he's screwed up, Peleg says Perlmutter will take the blame.
Colleagues say Perlmutter took some of the blame for the failure of Timna, a low-cost chip that Intel officially canceled in 2000. The chip relied on a form of memory that would have made putting the processor in a computer too expensive to compete on price with older Pentiums. "People say you know he's not just throwing the blame on us, this guy can take some of the faults on himself," Perlmutter says.
Perlmutter is demure about his ambitions, saying he doesn't look forward more than two or three years. "At some point if a CEO-ship should be in front of me and it's going to be a challenge, maybe I'll take it," he says. "I have my own challenge now that I am very happy with."
It's pretty well known by now that the Internet, for all its world-flattening glory, is a destroyer of businesses without parallel. How many companies roared along for decades, minting money, only to see the Internet eat their business plans?
[[Bill Gates: PC Genius, Internet Fool|http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1818989,00.html?]]
We live in a media age and the media industry is Exhibit A in the murder trial. Newspapers, magazines, music, television, movies — all of the traditional models are dead or dying as bloodied moguls everywhere scramble to survive. But the Net has brutalized old-line business across most industries — retail, telecom, financial services — and the technology industry itself, is, ironically, no exception.
Few companies not born on the Web have figured out how to thrive there. (Apple, with its post-PC iPhone, could be the shining exception.) As Gates turns his attention full time to philanthropy, I wonder what will be left of the great company he founded, Microsoft, by the time Gates picks up a Nobel Prize for Peace. Clearly, a business with $26 billion in cash reserves isn't exactly at death's door. And Microsoft continues to be enormously profitable, thanks to its operating system monopoly. Thanks, that is, to Gates's genius.
But big, complicated operating systems such as Microsoft's latest, Vista, aren't necessary in the Web Age, where applications are delivered for free and on demand — often without users' even being aware of it. The Net is where the money is, and it's the one place that Gates — like so many others — hasn't left his mark.
He saw the Internet missile coming, of course. But by the time he sounded the alarm, it may have been too late. Read his famous [[Internet Tidal Wave|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Tidal_Wave_memo]] memo, sent to the troops May 26, 1995, over a year after the browser company known as Netscape launched.
Gates was always more accustomed to being a disruptor than being disrupted. At the age of 25, he licensed a primitive operating system, PC-DOS, to IBM for $80,000 rather than sell it outright, a move that's usually ranked as one of the Greatest Business Moves of All Time. Gates figured that many PC makers would copy IBM's open architecture, and make their own PCs; they'd need to license an operating system, too. PC-DOS soon became MS-DOS, an operating system for all IBM clones, and Microsoft was on its way to becoming the one thing that billions of PCs around the world would have in common.
From 1980 until 1994, when Mosaic/Netscape emerged, Gates played a scratch game, parlaying his little "Micro- Soft" company into an empire that defined the PC Era. By opening up Windows to third-party developers, he created a platform that made many developers rich, and built out an ecosystem that put a desktop in almost every home.
But there is no greater blinder than success, even for a visionary like Bill Gates. By the time he realized the tech world was quickly shifting from PCs to the network that connected them, his moves were limited. A fiercely competitive man, he reached for the obvious lever, and attempted to tie the late-starter Internet Explorer browser to the monopoly he created, the Windows operating system. The move was mercilessly effective and beat back rival [[Netscape|http://browser.netscape.com]], which immediately saw its commanding share of the browser market disappear.
It was also illegal. With Netscape crying foul, the Feds successfully pressed an antitrust suit against Microsoft. The PR damage — Gates acting insolent on the witness stand, showing a convenient lack of memory about key business decisions — turned out to be short-lived and is all but forgotten as Gates remakes himself as a philanthropist. But the court's decree forced the great general to march cautiously into the future. He may have won the Battle of the Browser, but he would start to see major casualties in the Internet War.
Gates built or bought all manner of things to conquer the Net, but few managed to be anything more than also-rans in the innovation game. In 1995, he launched a gated online service, MSN; a Web-based email client, Hotmail was purchased in 1997; a search engine, MSN Search, launched in 1998 using a third-party product as its core; a chat client, Messenger, was released in 1999; and last year it bought an online advertising platform, aQuantive and became a significant, though minority investor, in social network Facebook.
While Microsoft is exponentially larger than Google — number 44 on the Fortune 500 list versus Google at 150 — Google's Web business (advertising mostly) is growing so fast, it's poised to rival Redmond's operating system revenues by 2010. And that's the problem. As more and more of what Windows does moves up into the cloud — into Google's always-on, give-'em-whatever-they-want-for-free servers — what becomes of the company that Gates built?
The smartest move Gates could make right now is to get out of the way. There are many smart and talented people inside Microsoft who know what to do. That will probably work. And if not? Maybe we'll see Gates return, a Nobel in his pocket, ready to wrestle with the Web once again.
Join us at the Lien Centre as we explore how open technologies and collaboration are changing the face of not-for-profit engagement and citizen activism for the better.
The idea is to discuss how values from the worlds of open source and open content are spreading and influencing areas like education, architecture, politics, philanthropy and other fields.
This event is part of the [[“Open Everything”|http://openeverything.net/]] series of conversations happening worldwide. Conversations have taken place in Toronto , Cape Town and Cortes Island. We invite you to be part of the fourth installment right here in Singapore.
<imap://mark%2Esurman@imap.runbox.com:993/fetch%3EUID%3E/INBOX%3E28504?part=1.3&filename=MarkSurman.jpg>
Leading the discussion is [[Mark Surman|http://commonspace.typepad.com/about.html]], Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow in South Africa . A community technology activist for almost 20 years, Mark is currently inventing new ways to apply open source thinking to social innovation.
Open Everything is a tasty cocktail of an event: inspirational talks (about 5 in one hour), unconferency conversations and refreshments all mixed up together.
Date: 15 September 2008, Monday
Time: 2:30pm - 7:00pm
Venue:
Reading Room, Level 5, Li Ka Shing Library
Singapore Management University
70 Stamford Road, Singapore 178901
Presenters
Mark Surman(Shuttleworth Foundation)
Joeri Gianotten (Ammado)
Lee Poh Wah (Lien Foundation)
Ivan Chew (Gahmen Bloggers)
Gary Kwong (Mozilla open source community)
Giorgios Cheliotis (Creative Commons)
Richard Fuchs (IDRC)
To Join
Leave your name, contact details and the areas you would like to see being discussed at [[http://www.lcsi.smu.edu.sg/prog_reg.asp|http://www.lcsi.smu.edu.sg/prog_reg.asp]]
Visit our wiki http://openeverything.wik.is/Singapore to keep up to date with event developments. If you are working on something 'open' that you would like to share with us, drop us a note!
Programme Flow
*Open Everything Keynote, Mark Surman, Shuttleworth Foundation
*Open sessions organized by participants
*Under the Hood: E-ALF -> */Creating Low Cost, Nimble and Open Learning Opportunities in a Global Organization/* - Richard Fuchs, IDRC. Interview by Willie Cheng, Lien Centre
*Closing reflections 'Mapping Open' by Mark Surman
Speedgeeks / Lightning Talks
*Ammado, a platform provided to create an online community in support of social causes (Joeri Gianotten)
*Lien Foundation on its version of philanthropy (Lee Poh Wah)
*Gahmen Bloggers, civil servants apply their passion for social media into a more personable and better public service for citizens (Ivan Chew)
*Mozilla open source community (Gary Kwong)
*Open Content- Creative Commons (Anil Samtani/GiorgiosCheliotis)
This conversation is for individuals who wish to:
*Explore areas where they think the philosophy and model of ‘open' can help in their social cause-related work
*Gain insights from practitioners who have thrived on this idea of "open"
*Be engaged in inter-disciplinary conversation (because great things happen at the intersection!)
To see what has happened in other Open Everything conversations, log on
to http://openeverything.wik.is/
Feel free to contact us at the Lien Centre for further enquiries at
liencentre@smu.edu.sg <mailto:liencentre@smu.edu.sg>or 68280823.
About Social Conversations@Library
Social Conversations@Library provides a platform for thought leaders and
practitioners in the social space to share their work and to engage in a
conversation with the community on ideas and innovations to enable
positive social change in Singapore and beyond.
For a copy of the SMU map, see below.
http://www.smu.edu.sg/campus/map/
Feel free to contact us at the Lien Centre for further enquiries at
liencentre@smu.edu.sg or 68280823.
Q&A with Henri Richard, Advanced Micro Devices' chief sales and marketing
officer.
http://www.forbes.com/2007/05/17/amd-richard-intel-tech-cz_ec_0517amd.html
Richard: We decided to go out with a strategic direction that was different from Intel's. Before 2002, Advanced Micro Devices had partial success in the consumer market. We understood that the way to greatness was not to ape Intel but to differentiate our solution. If it weren't for AMD, everyone would be speaking "Itanium." Customers need to trust you. I'd like to put a lot of credit to the new AMD management team for demonstrating that. Customers want to know: Are you real? Are you going to support me? Will you deliver on the promise?
I tell my kids, "My job is to sell freedom." I don't sell products. Our chips are fully compatible with Intel's and vice versa. Sometimes we're faster, sometimes they're faster. But essentially the market aspires to have choice. The last thing you want is for every PC or TV to be the same.
*What's different about your approach from Intel's?
When I meet with customers in the cellphone or TV business, they present their vision of where they want to take their product, and they tell me what they want the components to be, what they should do and how much they should cost. Then they say, "Can you do it for me?" In the PC space, Intel tells the customer, here's the roadmap. This is the way it's going to be. Since when does every customer in the world decide that every other year is the right schedule to upgrade their chip? They talk about being customer-centric, but it's not in their DNA. They've been brought up to rule the world.
Intel looks at everyone as an extension of their business. We look at ourselves as an extension of our customers' business. It's not just about the products or the technology. It's the fact that we're fundamentally changing the business model.
*Do we really need "ultramobile" PCs?
I don't know if it's a fat cellphone or a thin notebook. But there's clearly a missing link in mobile devices. If you have a fat cellphone, you're compromising on computing power and on visual quality. If you have a notebook, you've got computing power but you're trading excellent autonomy and connectivity. At the convergence of these devices, something will emerge: where the screen is good enough, the keyboard is good enough and the connectivity is good enough so that you don't need a Ph.D. to make everything work. That's the device we would all love to have. Then we wouldn't need to carry around two or three devices.
Will it come? Absolutely. Why is it so difficult? There are technology challenges, engineering compromises. And you have a clash of industries: The PC guys are always trying to get in a PC-centric view of the world, but they don't always have the greatest consumer insights. PCs are still way too frustrating and too prone to bugs and errors. If my refrigerator was like my PC, I'd have to wait 60 seconds to get a beer.
*AMD has had an awful quarter. How do customers know you'll be viable?
I can't deny the recent quarter was a negative. But there are two ways to look at business: performance and health. There's what you see in the earnings. But what is the AMD customer saying to us? What's the end user demand? We had a series of challenges because we grew so fast in 2006. It put us in a position to disappoint some customers.
Although I can't look at Q1 with anything but disgust, this has never been anything other than a marathon. I look at Q1 like an anomaly and am confident that customers, users and employees' motivation and determination is intact.
*You have already teamed up with IBM on research. You've suggested that you might give up manufacturing, too. Is this is a viable strategy?
Increasingly it's going to be a world of partnering, because there are more good ideas in several brains than in just one. And the costs barriers to entry are getting enormous. As the PC industry matures, it's not as homogeneous as it used to be. There's a need for "good enough" devices, where the focus is on keeping costs low. At the other end of the spectrum, there will be this incredible need for performance.
The race in chip design needs to change from "I'm doing it because I can" to "I'm doing it because it's meaningful to the end user." If there's one thing I can be proud of, AMD has helped Intel improve its game. If it hadn't been for AMD, Intel's way of addressing the market would have remained static. I give them a lot of credit for looking at the competition and forcing themselves to change.
Google's quest for the perfect links
http://blog.ted.com/2007/06/googles_quest_f_1.php
TED partner Google has allowed for the first time a journalist (Saul Hansell from the NYT) to spend a day with engineer Amit Shingal and his "search-quality team" - the people responsible for the very secret mathematical formulas that decide which web pages best answer each user's query.
It's a delicate act, a mix of science and artistry: half a dozen major or minor changes are introduced in Google's search engine every week, and each change can affect the ranking of many sites - although most are barely noticed by the average user. Hansell's story is a rare glimpse behind the world's largest search engine, which indexes billions of webpages in over a hundred languages and handles hundreds of millions of queries a day. It's a long article (3200 words) but since "it's becoming impossible not to visit with Google daily", as Swiss technophilosopher René Berger once said, it's worth knowing a thing of two about the way your host runs his house. Excerpts:
Google's servers basically make a copy of the entire Web, page by page, every few days, storing it in their huge data centers:
//As Google compiles its index, it calculates a number it calls PageRank for each page it finds. [ BG: the picture at right shows the original PageRank algorithm, from a powerpoint presentation Larry Page gave at Stanford in 1998] This was the key invention of Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. PageRank tallies how many times other sites link to a given page. Sites that are more popular, especially with sites that have high PageRanks themselves, are considered likely to be of higher quality.//
Mr. Singhal has developed a far more elaborate system for ranking pages, which involves more than 200 types of information, or what Google calls “signals.” PageRank is but one signal. Some signals are on Web pages — like words, links, images and so on. Some are drawn from the history of how pages have changed over time. Some signals are data patterns uncovered in the trillions of searches that Google has handled over the years. (...)
Once Google corrals its myriad signals, it feeds them into formulas it calls classifiers that try to infer useful information about the type of search, in order to send the user to the most helpful pages. Classifiers can tell, for example, whether someone is searching for a product to buy, or for information about a place, a company or a person. Google recently developed a new classifier to identify names of people who aren’t famous. Another identifies brand names.
These signals and classifiers calculate several key measures of a page’s relevance, including one it calls “topicality” — a measure of how the topic of a page relates to the broad category of the user’s query. (...) Google combines all these measures into a final relevancy score. The sites with the 10 highest scores win the coveted spots on the first search page, unless a final check shows that there is not enough “diversity” in the results. (...) If this wasn’t excruciating enough, Google’s engineers must compensate for users who are not only fickle, but are also vague about what they want; often, they type in ambiguous phrases or misspelled words.
And they must of course also keep out the millions of fake webpage created by hucksters who try to hijack searches to lure users to their porn or scam pages. Hansell's article also details the constant debate inside Google (and other search companies) about "freshness": is it better to provide new information or to display pages that have stood the test of time and are more likely to be of higher quality? Until recently, Google had preferred the latter.
But last year, when the company introduced its new stock quotation service, a search for “Google Finance” couldn’t find it, and that pointed to a broader problem that was solved by developing a new mathematical model that tries to determine when users want new information and when they don't.
The solution revolves around determining whether a topic is “hot.” If news sites or blog posts are actively writing about a topic, the model figures that it is one for which users are more likely to want current information. The model also examines Google’s own stream of billions of search queries, which Mr. Singhal believes is an even better monitor of global enthusiasm about a particular subject. As an example, he points out what happens when cities suffer power failures. “When there is a blackout in New York, the first articles appear in 15 minutes; we get queries in two seconds,” he says.
Think you will love this story,
http://www.jansch.nl/2008/02/02/microsoft-and-sun-the-real-story/
So one day, Scott McNealy, founder and chairman of Sun, read in his
morning newspaper how the use of Java was rapidly diminishing, courtesy
of something called 'The LAMP Stack'. Furiously, he called his
accountant.
Scott: "I knew this Java thing was a bad idea in the first place! I see
only one solution. We need to buy this Lamp!"
Accountant: "Euh, LAMP is not a company. It's an acronym. It's Linux ,
Apache, MySQL and PHP"
Scott: "Then buy me Linux!"
Accountant: "But we still have this Solaris thing.."
Scott: "Then buy me Apache!"
Accountant: "That's a foundation. Nothing to buy there."
Scott: "Then buy me MySQL!"
Accountant: "We don't do databases."
Scott: "It's a database?"
Accountant: "What rock have you been living under?"
Scott: "Sweet. I can own the Lamp AND piss off Oracle at the same time!"
(waves fake plastic magic wand) "Make it so!"
And so it happened.
[[Sun Microsystems Acquired MySQL]]
A green office is a practical and simple Environmental Management System (EMS) that has been specially developed for offices to support managers in promoting a more environmentally friendly office lifestyle.
[[How to create a green office|http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/09/06/how-create-a-green-office.html]]
Nirwono Joga, Contributor Jakarta Post | Sun, 09/06/2009 12:34 PM
The green office program, which has been developed by various organizations, educates and inspires employees in applying more environment friendly habits that will ultimately lower the company's overall costs.
The green office program aims at reducing the use of natural resources, promoting environmental conservation by raising employee awareness and promoting approaches to mitigate climate change through saving energy and the use of alternative energy sources.
The green office program can be implemented through the following: a regular EMS audit, regular evaluation visits (minimum once a year), teaching employees eco-efficient methods, organizing regular green office seminars and workshops, an eco-tips Email mailing list to be sent to employees, go net (extranet service), providing sufficient
information and tools for green office coordinators both for head office and branch offices, and becoming a role model for other nearby offices.
The software and hardware for the green office program, which is different for each office, comprises a climate calculator web tool for annual reports (that calculates CO2 emissions of heat, electricity, fuel, paper consumption, waste), an EMS evaluation check list, web questionnaires, a benchmarking questionnaire for environmental managers and an eco-habit gauge for employees.
The green office indicators are based on the office's annual consumption of the following (at least three indicators): total consumption of electricity (kWh), paper for printing (kg) and trash (kg).
To create an EMS and eco-efficient policy it is necessary to apply and coordinate the EMS, purchase environmentally friendly products, create an internal and external awareness of the green office program as well as train employees to motivate them to make the green office program a success.
So what can we do to participate in the green office program?
Efficient use of water. Don't let the water gush out of the taps, use just the amount of water needed when washing your hands or washing dishes, opt for a dual flush system for the toilet, use a water tap with a censor, always finish the water that you drink and make absorption wells. Use electricity efficiently by choosing energy saving products, switching off the lights in the morning or in the afternoon or when they are not required, switching off computers and so forth when they are not being used.
Windows that face each other will help the free circulation of air and make the atmosphere fresh. Use alternative energy, such as solar energy, wind or biogas. Use materials such as paper efficiently as well as opt for environmentally friendly products when making purchases. Reduce trash and introduce the 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle) program.
The green office program is part of the company's responsibility toward conservation of the environment, which has been economically proven to be profitable (a healthy environment means a healthy economy) and to create a comfortable and healthy work place.
The image of a green office can also be turned into a positive selling point for the company's marketing efforts. So, are you interested in creating a green office of your own?
The writer is a specialist in architectural issues.
When it comes to the corporate vibe, ~VMware is the anti-Google. There are no heated toilet seats at ~VMware, no Pajama Days. ~VMware's employees are more likely to be married with children. ~VMware does serve a free lunch - once a week. The day is a perfectly adequate salad bar set up on card tables.
Just as engineers at Google famously present project proposals to co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Greene presides over hours-long product-review sessions for significant initiatives. Unlike the Google guys, she doesn't don a lab coat. Quips Karthik Rau, a senior marketing executive: "We're not into costumes at ~VMware."
What's more, Greene warmed to the task of running a large organization. She never much cared for sales and finance. But she is hyperattentive to ~VMware's partners and she has unlimited time for the engineers, a group she is known to coddle.
She is running a respected business that she helped to create - and she has more than enough cash to buy just about any boat she wants. "If I had $10 billion," she concludes, "I couldn't buy my way into this job."
What about competition?
Virtualization software is designed to make a physical server act like multiple logical servers, improving server utilization by allowing IT managers to efficiently combine numerous computing resources on a single server. Besides VMware and Virtual Iron, other vendors include XenSource, and SWsoft.
~VMware's two biggest threats are common in the software industry: commoditization and Microsoft. Competitors who have caught on to ~VMware's allure are offering stripped-down virtualization software for free or next to nothing. ~VMware is aware of the trend, but not afraid of it. Eighty percent of ~VMware's revenues, Greene says, come from advanced features that the competition can't match. Microsoft is another story. It plans to incorporate virtualization - at no extra charge, natch - into its latest software for servers, due out next year.
Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 operating system, coming in February, will include virtualization capabilities. Microsoft's vast Windows customer base gives it a clear advantage, said David Marshall, editor of a virtualization news blog, ~VMblog.com, and marketing director of InovaWave, whose software complements all types of virtualization software.
"All people should be allowed to express themselves freely and openly online, without fear of being disconnected." This quote was repeatedly mentioned on the response of the new [[Cybercrime Prevention Act|http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/04/world/asia/philippines-cyber-law-protest/index.html]] in the Philippines that would limit people expression on the net punishable by law.
It was a [[resolution|http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/07/un-declares-internet-freedom-a-basic-human-right.html]] signed by the United Nations' Human Rights council last February 2012 after social media has sparked the Arab spring and toppled the Tunisian president Ben Ali in 2011.
How much freedom do you need?
There is a review by David Poque in Lawrence Lessig's book //Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace//, that differs between the net world and the less connected.
“Unlike actual law, Internet software has no capacity to punish. It doesn’t affect people who aren’t online (and only a tiny minority of the world population is). And if you don’t like the Internet’s system, you can always flip off the modem.”
His review suggested when the life in cyberspace got bad, we could always simply flip a switch and turn the modem off, unplug the computer, and any troubles that exist in that space wouldn’t “affect” us anymore. In fact, there are more people less connected than people who are connected in world population. It might in 1999.
Do you recall the same argument when passive smokers are affected by active ones?
Lessig furtherly defines how much it is related to copyrights in his new book [[Free Culture|http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2750/free-culture]], 2004.
Free Culture is about the troubles the Internet causes after the modem is turned off or affect “people who aren’t online.” There is no switch that will insulate us from the net. He mentioned about how to define basic intellectual property rights with regard to free expression on the net.
"The right to free speech is the right to express one's thoughts without censorship by the government. Copyright does not prohibit anyone from creating their own original novels, songs or artworks. Importantly, copyright does not stop people from thinking, talking or writing about copyrighted works."
This is much clearly stated again in this article, [[Copyright doesn't limit online speech|http://www.statesman.com/news/news/opinion/copyright-doesnt-limit-online-speech/nSLRG/]] by Adam Mossoff, for his speech at the University of Texas forum Free Speech and Intellectual Property in September 2012.
"One common claim is that copyright is not the same as a property right in a house. Copyright secures property rights in words and other intellectual or cultural expression, and unlike land, words are the stuff of thought and speech."
How far will it go?
//Note: [[Lawrence Lessig|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig]] is a law scholar who dwells about software patents which he views as a rising threat to both free/open source software and innovation. He is the founder of [[Creative Commons|http://creativecommons.org/]] in 2001.// You can get a free copy of his book //Free Culture// from [[here|http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2750/free-culture]].
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Dengue fever is common in Indonesia and causes many deaths. Below is further information on how to cope with this dengue fever. The writer is an expert in tropical infectious diseases and worked formerly with the U.S. Navy as a microbiologist. He is now a section editor for the American Journal of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene. He can be reached at jkb@vhasia.com.sg
Features - August 30, 2006 by J. Kevin Baird, Ph.D., Contributor, Jakarta
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20060830.T01
You have heard about dengue fever (bleeding fever) or "break bone" fever. You probably know people who have had it. You know it is in Jakarta and it is a little dangerous. But you may do not know what you can do about it.
You may think your lurah (community chief) is doing something about it, as are the people who manage the property where you work. Or maybe the Ministry of Health is doing something -- or perhaps not. The fact is, protecting yourself and your family from dengue is squarely in your hands.
Dengue fever is a relatively new disease, appearing initially in the 1950s in Southeast Asia and causing just a few thousand cases in that decade. The infection has since spread to most tropical and subtropical areas.
During the 1990s there were nearly 200,000 cases in all of Southeast Asia. In just the first half of this decade, there have been over 300,000 cases in Indonesia alone. The dengue problem grows steadily worse. There is no drug that prevents or cures infection. There is no vaccine. If you get dengue fever, you ride it out.
Last year in Indonesia there were about 80,000 reported cases, and nearly 1,100 deaths caused by dengue. Most experts consider the disease underreported by a factor of two or three -- one reported case for two or three actual cases.
Most people infected by dengue experience mild-to-severe discomfort, typically a headache (especially behind the eyes), malaise and maybe a rash. But about 1 to 2 percent develop a more severe form of the disease called Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF).
The case fatality rate for DHF ranges from 1 percent to 40 percent, depending on promptness and quality of supportive clinical care. People with dengue fever need medical attention and, managed properly, it greatly diminishes risk of a bad outcome.
Dengue is a fact of life in Jakarta, with thousands of cases and dozens of deaths each year, and most cases occur during the rainy season. Why that happens is the key to what you can do about it. Dengue is transmitted by a mosquito that is abundant in Jakarta, Aedes aegypti (and a sister species, Aedes albopictus), the Asian Tiger mosquito.
It loves the rainy season. Reducing your exposure to this mosquito is the key to diminishing your risk of acquiring dengue fever. The Asian Tiger bites during the day. The mosquitoes we all see in our homes at night are probably not the Asian Tiger. You are more likely to see the Asian Tiger in your backyard or schoolyard in the middle of the day, but it also goes indoors if it can.
This mosquito is most abundant where it finds suitable breeding sites, and these definitely become more abundant with rain. These mosquitoes love to lay eggs in little containers that capture even just a few drops of rainwater each day. The breeding site can be discarded cans, tires, flowerpots, or even an unnoticed dam in your drain spouts.
Maybe a leaky faucet or air conditioner condensate at the side of the house provides just what the mom mosquito is looking for. It is these breeding sites that are the bull's-eye of reducing the risk of dengue fever.
Attacking breeding sites is hard work. Constant vigilance is needed even after making a sweep of your premises -- each new rainfall potentially creates breeding sites not seen before.
When you see insecticide fumigation going on, this represents a sure sign of failure to effectively control breeding sites. Fumigation effectively knocks down the adult mosquitoes that happen to be present when it occurs, but many resting mosquitoes survive and can safely take to the air just a few minutes afterward.
What's worse, the many thousands of larvae in breeding sites (soon to become flying adults) escape this band-aid approach at control and take to the air within a few days. Fumigation also kills bees, dragonflies, and other beneficial insects.
Don't reproach the government too hard on this effort. They simply cannot take responsibility for breeding sites in your home, school or work site. This would take armies of invasive officers that simply do not exist.
Apart from surveillance, insecticide fumigation is largely all they can do. The real work is in our hands as stewards of the properties we occupy. Know where Aedes mosquitoes breed and attack these nurseries.
OK, your neighbors are not doing their part. So, why bother? After all, the mosquitoes that infect people have clearly come from someone else's yard. Wrong on two counts: 1) Outsiders are routinely on our own properties, and 2) Aedes mosquitoes can be born with dengue virus inherited from their mothers. That's right -- a mosquito hatched in your yard and never going anywhere else can transmit dengue fever.
A package of tools is available for managing the risk of dengue fever. These tools constitute a solid program of biodiligence against the mosquito vector of this disease: * After surveying your property and ridding it of unnecessary pools you will be left with necessary pools like fishponds, bird baths, waterfalls, etc. Put guppies and minnows in these pools. They eat mosquito larvae.
Larger fish do not pay much attention to mosquito larvae, and they may eat your guppies and minnows instead. Keep algae and dead leaves off the surface of the water -- this provides larvae effective cover from feeding fish. * There are also biological control tools available to professionals. These are bacteria or fungi that infect and kill mosquito larvae and are harmless to people, fish and most other aquatic animals and plants. Chemical treatments are also available. * Great advances have been made in the technology of mechanically attracting and destroying mosquitoes. Forget the bug zappers and sound-emitting repellants -- these are not effective. The best technology uses ultraviolet light, heat, carbon dioxide and other proven chemical attractants (like octanol or mosquito sex pheromones) combined with air flow (a fan) to ensure capture.
The best of these machines tend to be hard to find in Indonesia (almost all are manufactured in the U.S.), expensive (about US$500) and require daily maintenance, but they really work in reducing mosquito numbers.
* If at all possible, seal your house against mosquito entry, especially during the rainy season, by running air conditioners and keeping doors and windows closed. If this does not work, insectide-impregnated mesh is available to cover the attic space over your ceiling (where many mosquitoes can gain entry). Blowers over frequently opened exterior doors create a wind curtain that keeps mosquitoes out (costing about $1000). Insecticide-treated paints may also be considered in some cases.
* Mosquito nets, typically draped over beds are great protection against night-biting mosquitoes like the ones that carry malaria. Unfortunately, our day-biting dengue mosquitoes could care less about your bed. That being said, if you have an infant in a crib or a toddler in a playpen, mosquito netting over those things during the day provides excellent protection.
* The final tool of biodiligence is personal protection. Wearing a DEET-based repellant every day is not such an appealing prospect, and I do not recommend it. More importantly, DEET is known to be toxic to small children and should not be used on them.
But if you use DEET on yourself or older children, a formulation between 30 percent and 40 percent works best. The lower concentrations do not work as well, and the higher concentrations do not work any better.
The skin lotion brand Skin-so-Soft (Avon Inc.), which contains no known insect repellants, is by reputation an effective device against mosquitoes, especially for babies and small kids. I found that it worked great on my own kids, and at least one study demonstrated good activity. Clothing frustrates biting mosquitoes. The more skin you cover, the less likely you are to be bitten.
Dengue is a serious disease that infects thousands and kills dozens of people every year in Jakarta. In the absence of a drug that cures infection, or a vaccine that prevents it, managing your risk of dengue involves a program of biodiligence against the Asian Tiger mosquito.
A sound program will deliver other benefits as well, including diminished risk of other mosquito-borne diseases that occur (much less frequently than dengue), like Japanese encephalitis, and of course the sheer pleasure of not being riddled with itchy mosquito bites.
A book about different techniques of interviewing job seekers and how to recruit best people with points to ponder. Tell stories about how Microsoft got their employees hired and somewhat psychological. People are hired based on how well they answer questions given by the recruiters. I don't think this book was written by Microsoft to give examples. This book is 288 pages thick by William Poundstone, 2003. Originally published by Little, Brown and Company, visit http://www.twbookmark.com
Subtitle: Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle -- How the World's Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers
Why are beer cans tapered on the ends? How many piano tuners are there in the world? Why does a mirror reverse right and left instead of up and down?
For years, Microsoft and other high-tech companies have been posing riddles and logic puzzles like these in their notoriously grueling job interviews. Now "puzzle interviews" have become a hot new trend in hiring. From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, employers are using tough and tricky questions to gauge job candidates' intelligence, imagination, and problem-solving ability-qualities needed to survive in today's hypercompetitive global marketplace.
For the first time, William Poundstone reveals the toughest questions used at Microsoft and other Fortune 500 companies—and supplies the answers. He traces the rise and controversial fall of employer-mandated IQ tests, the peculiar obsessions of Bill Gates (who plays jigsaw puzzles as a competitive sport), the sadistic mind games of Wall Street (which reportedly led one job seeker to smash a forty-third-story window), and the bizarre excesses of today's hiring managers (who may start off your interview with a box of Legos or a game of virtual Russian roulette).
//Poundstone talked to various people who have been involved in Microsoft hiring, including those who were interviewed, and those who gave interviews (full disclosure: I worked at Microsoft for ten years and was one of the people he talked to). He includes a lengthy list of questions, and most interestingly for many people, he also includes answers. //
http://books.slashdot.org/books/03/04/22/224224.shtml?tid=109&tid=127&tid=98
In the book, Poundstone traces the origins of this type of question, providing some fascinating information on the history of intelligence testing. He then chronicles how a certain type of puzzle interview caught on in the high-tech industry. Microsoft was not the first company to ask such questions, but it certainly popularized it.
Poundstone explains that responding to a problem you can't solve could be thought of as the fundamental problem in Artificial Intelligence (AI), and then continues, "The problems used in AI research have often been puzzles or games. These are simpler and more clearly defined than the complex problems of the real world. They too involve the elements of logic, insight, and intuition that pertain to real problems. Many of the people at Microsoft follow AI work closely, of course, and this may help to explain what must strike some readers as peculiar -their supreme confidence that silly little puzzles have a bearing on the real world."
It could be -or maybe Microsoft employees assume that since they were hired that way, it's a great way to hire (and complaints from those who were not hired are just sour grapes). Most developers I knew thought of AI as a pretty academic discipline, and were more concerned with putting a dialog box up at the right location on the screen than trying to pass the Turing Test.
Nevertheless, as companies seek to emulate Microsoft, the questions have caught on elsewhere. And as Poundstone put it, such questions have now "metastasized" to other industries, such as finance.
This makes the effectiveness of these questions an important issue. Poundstone first presents evidence that "Where do you see yourself in five years" and "What are you most proud of" are fairly pointless questions. In one experiment he describes, two trained interviewers conducted interviews with a group of volunteers. Their evaluations were compared to those of another group who saw a fifteen second video of the interview: the candidate entering the room, shaking hands, and sitting down.
The opinions correlated strongly; in other words, when you are sitting in an interview telling the interviewer what you do on your day off and what the last book you read was, the interviewer has already made up his or her mind, based on who knows what subjective criteria. As Poundstone laments, "This would be funny if it weren't tragic."
Puzzle interviews could hardly be worse than that, but it turns out the evidence that they are better is doubtful. Poundstone shows how intelligence tests are on very dubious scientific standing, and points out that Microsoft's interviews are a form of IQ test, even though Microsoft does not admit that publicly. In his 1972 book of puzzles Games for the Superintelligent, Mensa member James Fixx wrote, "If you don't particularly enjoy the kinds of puzzles and problems we're talking about here, that fact alone says nothing about your intelligence in general". Yet virtually every Microsoft employee accepts the "obvious" rationale, that only people who do well in logic puzzles will do well at Microsoft.
There is another important point about puzzle-based interviews: although you would think that they were naturally more objective than traditional interviews-more black or white, right or wrong, and therefore less subject to interpretation by the interviewer-in fact, interviewers' evaluation of answers can be extremely subjective. Once you have formed your impression of a candidate from the enter/handshake/sit-down routine at the start of the interview, it is easy to rationalize a candidate's performance in an interview, either positively or negatively. They needed a bunch of hints to get the answer? Sure, but they were just small hints and it's a tough problem. They got the correct answer right away? No fair, they must have seen it before.
Given the ease with which the answers to logic puzzles can be spun, it is highly probable that Microsoft interviewers are also making fifteen-second judgements of candidates, without even realizing it.
Three years ago Malcolm Gladwell wrote a New Yorker article about job interviews called The New-Boy Network. Gladwell quotes much of the same research as Poundstone, and relates the story of Nolan Myers, a Harvard senior who is being recruited by Tellme and Microsoft. He has done a one-hour interview with Hadi Partovi of Tellme, and spoken to Gladwell, the author, in a coffee shop for about ninety minutes. His initial interaction with Microsoft was much briefer: he asked Steve Ballmer a question during an on-campus event, which led to an exchange of emails.
As Gladwell writes, "What convinced Ballmer he wanted Myers? A glimpse! He caught a little slice of Nolan Myers in action and-just like that-the C.E.O. of a four-hundred-billion-dollar company was calling a college senior in his dorm room. Ballmer somehow knew he liked Myers, the same way Hadi Partovi knew, and the same way I knew after our little chat at Au Bon Pain." So Steve Ballmer, who obviously does not feel that he is choosing people based on traditional interviewing techniques, and in fact was one of the originators of the "Microsoft questions," is more prone to making fifteen-second judgements than he would probably admit.
The flaw, if any, may simply be in ascribing too much value to the puzzles themselves. The actual questions may be secondary: the company might do as well asking geek-centric trivia questions, like "What was the name of Lord Byron's niece?" That does not mean Microsoft is hiring the same people that an investment bank is going to hire. The cues they look for may be different: instead of a firm handshake and the right tie, they may be looking for intelligent eyes and fast speech, or whatever non-verbal cues ubergeeks throw off.
A Microsoft interview candidate will typically talk to four or five employees, and in general must get a "hire" recommendation from all of them. Even if the employees are actually basing their recommendations not on puzzle-solving ability but on a subconscious evaluation, it is unlikely that all of them will be subconsciously using the same criteria. Emitting the proper signals to satisfy four different Microsoft employees may be as good a judge of a candidate as any, and Microsoft may be good at interviewing simply because it tends to hire people that are similar in some unknown way to the current group of employees. If another company adopts puzzle interviews, they may discover that they are not hiring the smartest people, just the people most like themselves.
In the end, the best thing that can be said about puzzle interviews is that as a screening technique, they are no worse than traditional interviews. And there are some side effects: some candidates may be more prone to accept a job with Microsoft because of the interview style, and imparted wisdom about the technique may function as a useful pre-screening of prospective applicants.
And of course, employees may get a kick out of showing a candidate how smart they are, although this can have a downside: How Would You Move Mount Fuji? has several examples of interviewers who seemed more concerned with proving their intelligence than in gauging that of the candidate. One former Microsoftie admits they asked candidates a question they did not know the answer to, just to see what they would do.
Two chapters of the book, entitled "Embracing Cluelessness" and "How to Outsmart the Puzzle Interview," attempt to help interview candidates who are confronted with such puzzle questions. The official advice is scarce: Microsoft's Interview Tips page advises candidates "Be prepared to think," which isn't much help, since presumably nobody is advising the opposite. Some of the recruiters who go to college campuses have their own little tips; for example, one recruiter named Colleen offers a quote from Yoda: "Do or do not, there is no try." Other recruiter tips include "Stay awake" and "Always leave room for dessert." Luckily, Poundstone gives advice that is a bit more concrete than that.
Microsoft puzzles can be divided into two types: those where the methodology is more important than the answer, and those where only the answer matters. The "methodology" puzzles break into two classes, "design" puzzles //"How would you design a particular product or service?"// and "estimation" puzzles //"How much of a certain object occupies a certain space?"-for example, "How much does the ice in a hockey rink weigh?"//
Design questions exist because at Microsoft, responsibility for product development is split between two groups, the developers and the program managers. Developers write code: program managers design the user interface, trying to balance the needs of users with the technical constraints from developers. As Poundstone points out, while estimation questions and general logic puzzles are universal, the design questions are reserved for program managers.
The reason is that program management does not require the specific skills of development. Designing software is something any reasonably intelligent person can attempt, so the design questions are aimed at finding people who are really good at design. In fact one program manager I worked with told me that the best way to distinguish a potential program manager from a potential developer was to ask them to design a house: a developer would jump right in, while a program manager would step back and ask questions about the constraints on the house.
//Developers, meanwhile, are usually asked to write code on the whiteboard, an experience that program management candidates are spared. Books exist that discuss coding problems in more detail, such as Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job by John Mongan and Noah Suojanen, which covers many standard programming questions and even includes answers to a few of the logic puzzles that Poundstone addresses. //
Poundstone does include some of these design questions and provides sample answers. But the "answer" to these questions is really the process involved: ask questions, state assumptions, propose design. That's all you need to know about them. If you are wondering why Microsoft did not use this logical procedure when confronted with the question "Design a response to the open source movement," but instead seems to have spouted off the first five things that popped into its collective head-that's just more proof that performance in interviews is not necessarily a great indicator of future job performance.
Another recruiter, Stacey, gives the following interview tip: "The best interview tips I can give you are to relax and think for yourself. For a Microsoft interview, be prepared to answer both technical and problem solving questions. Ask clarifying questions and remember to think out loud. We are more interested in the way your are thinking through a problem then we are in your final answer!"
That approach works for the "methodology" questions: design and estimation. What about the other kinds-the more traditional brainteasers? For those questions, forget your methodology. What Microsoft interviewers want is the right answer.
James Fixx, writing three years before Microsoft was founded, offers some advice that may hearten potential Microsoft recruits: "One way to improve one's ability to use one's mind is simply to see how very bright people use theirs." With that in mind, we can follow along with Poundstone as he explains the solutions to the puzzles that the very bright people at Microsoft ask during interviews. He certainly delivers the goods: 100 pages of answers. Unfortunately, it's not clear whether seeing those answers help you tune up your brain to answer problems that do not appear in the book.
In his book, Fixx spends some time trying to explain what, as he so delicately puts it, "the superintelligent do that's different from what ordinary people do." For example, trying to describe how a superintelligent person figures out the next letter in the sequence "O T T F F S S", he advises people to think hard: "Persistence alone will now bring its reward, and eventually a thought occurs to him." Talking about how to arrange four pennies so there are two straight lines with three pennies in each line, he writes "The true puzzler...gropes for some loophole, and, with luck, quickly finds it in the third dimension."
Further hints abound: "The intelligent person tries... not to impose unnecessary restrictions on his mind. The bright person has succeeded because he does not assume the problem cannot be solved simply because it cannot be solved in one way or even two ways he has tried." This advice sounds great in theory, but how do you apply it in practice? How do you make your mind think that way? As Poundstone quotes Louis Armstrong, "Man, if you have to ask 'What is it?' you ain't never goin' to know."
Poundstone recognizes that the flashes of insight that Fixx describes, and that Microsoft interviewers expect, are more of a hit-or-miss thing than the inevitable result of hard thinking by an intelligent person: "What is particularly troubling is how little 'logic' seems to be involved in some phases of problem solving. Difficult problems are often solved via a sudden, intuitive insight. One moment you're stuck; the next moment this insight has popped into your head, though not by any step-by-step logic that can be recounted."
During interview training I participated in when I worked there, Microsoft would emphasize four attributes that it was looking for when hiring: intelligence, hard work, ability to get things done, and vision. Intelligence was always #1, yet despite this, Poundstone says that the official Microsoft people he talked to would shy away from the word "intelligence", preferring to use terms like "bandwidth" and "inventiveness". Indeed Microsoft's Interview Tips web page says "We look for original, creative thinkers, and our interview process is designed to find those people." No mention of the word intelligence or any notion that interviews are some sort of intelligence test.
In fact, although I think that most Microsoft people would consider the puzzle tests to be mainly a test of intelligence, they may do better at testing some of the other desired attributes. Psychologist and personnel researcher Harry Hepner once said, "Creative thinkers make many false starts, and continually waver between unmanageable fantasies and systematic attack."
Poundstone explains that you have to figure out when your fantasies have become too unmanageable: "To deal effectively with puzzles (and with the bigger problems for which they may be a model), you must operate on two or more levels simultaneously. One thread of consciousness tackles the problem while another, higher-level thread monitors the progress. You need to keep asking yourself 'Is this approach working? How much time have I spent on this approach, and how likely is it to produce an answer soon? Is there something else I should be trying?'"
This is great advice, not just for a puzzle, but for a job, and life in general. So watching someone think through a puzzle might be a great way to see how they would tackle a tough problem at work-the "hard work" and "get things done" abilities that Microsoft is also looking for. As James Fixx writes in the sequel More Games for the Superintelligent, "While the less intelligent person, unsure of ever being able to solve a problem at all, is easily discouraged, the intelligent person is fairly sure of succeeding and therefore presses on, discouragements be damned."
Unfortunately, the typical Microsoft interviewer is not looking at the approach to puzzle questions as a test of perseverence. Someone who tries five different attempts might demonstrate more resourcefulness than someone who just "gets it"-but they would get turned down. Interviewers who ask puzzle questions are probing the "intelligence" category, and they want the right answer.
The last chapter of the book is titled "How Innovative Companies Ought to Interview" and deals with a soon-to-be-problem: How will the industry be affected by the publication of this book? Will interviews still work if everyone knows the secrets?
Knowledge of Microsoft-style questions is already out there on the Internet. Since the candidates who participate in the interviews do not sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, they are free to tell others the questions they were asked, and from these reports databases of questions have been built up. Poundstone includes the URLs of several sites, including Kiran Bondalapati's "Interview Question Bank", Michael Pryor's "Techinterview", Chris Sells' "Interviewing at Microsoft", and William Wu's "Riddles". These sites generally don't include answers, but certainly knowing the types of questions to expect can be an advantage.
//Microsoft employees are aware of such sites. Once, when I sent email describing the questions I had asked a Microsoft candidate, I got a nasty reply from someone else at the company: Didn't I know that the question I had asked was posted on a website of known Microsoft interview questions?//
On the other hand, with no official internal Microsoft list of questions, some employees are undoubtedly using these sites to come up with material. Even within Microsoft there is debate about which questions are reasonable. In an unscientific survey I took of former Microsoft program managers, opinion was divided on the validity of some of the questions. A question described by one person as a good test of a candidate's ability was dismissed by another as foolish.
Poundstone does point out that some questions are silly and should not be asked ("Define the color green"), but he gives serious answers to others which I don't think are worthwhile either, including "If you could remove any of the fifty U.S. states, which would it be?" and "How do they make M&Ms?"
Furthermore, I would argue that if an entire class of questions can be "tainted" by How Would You Move Mount Fuji?, they don't deserve to be asked in the first place. Estimation questions might be invalidated by the revelation that the way to solve them was to multiply together a bunch of wild guesses.
The strategy of using a design question to to differentiate program management candidates from developer candidates might also go the way of the dodo. Is that necessarily a bad thing?
by ergo98 (9391) <dennis.forbes@gmail.com>
http://www.yafla.com/dforbes/ | Last Journal: Tuesday September 27, @10:43AM)
I wouldn't call it a "moronic question" whatsoever: Certainly no worse than pulling a "brainteaser for dummies" out of the net archives, which is what the majority of "clever" Microsoft-like questions are. It's like being the Jeopardy host and smirking in self-satisfaction because you know all the answers... because you have them in front of you.
Questions like "What is your greatest weakness" can show a tremendous amount about the applicant, and is more of a discussion starter than a literal questions. As far as how the applicant answers, I can see definite downsides to "I'm a perfectionist" (meaning: I never finish projects because I'm always working on "just one last issue") or "I work too hard" (meaning: I'm a martyr and will likely have a serious case of burn-out several months down the road, not to mention upsetting the work apple-cart).
Any question at an interview, asked and interpreted by someone with intelligence, is a powerful question. Do you eat lunch? What are your career goals? What is an optimal work day? All of these questions can give great insight into the honesty and character of the interviewee.
Personally I think the "Microsoft questions" are grossly overstated, and asking brainteasers most certainly didn't make Microsoft the success that it is (especially true to those that believe that Microsoft is more of a marketing success than a technical success. Personally I believe that they're a great technical success as well, but just pointing out the paradox).
The environment is the air, water and land in or on which people, animals and plants live. These elements are vital to human life, yet we abuse them so much that we are endangering our world.
Supplement - September 02, 2006
* Acid rain originates with emissions from coal-fired generators, iron and steel mills, pulp and paper mills, and from motor vehicle exhaust. The released sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are converted to sulphuric and nitric acids in the atmosphere. These acids return to earth through wet sulphate or nitrate deposition
* There is so much moisture in the air that if it were all to condense and fall, there would be up to an additional seven centimeters of water added to the Earth's surface.
* The air is so polluted in Cubato, Brazil, that no birds or insects remain, most trees are blackened stumps, and its mayor reportedly refuses to live there.
* One hundred and twenty-five hectares of trees are used to make the newsprint for the average Sunday edition of the New York Times. Nearly 63,000 trees grow on 125 hectares.
* The average computer chip plant produces 15 million liters of wastewater and thousands of liters of corrosive hazardous materials a day, such as hydrochloric and sulfuric acid.
* Use of less fertilizer at precisely the right times can cut costs by up to 17 percent for farmers in developing countries and reduce damage to the environment.
* Tires burning at landfills generate huge amounts of noxious air pollution.
* Shaving with a hand razor at a sink uses more energy because of the water power, the water pump, etc. than shaving with an electric razor.
* Every 24 hours a leaking water faucet with an opening the size of a pin will waste 646 liters.
* It takes one 15- to 20-year-old tree to produce 700 paper grocery bags.
* It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs.
* Americans spend US$10 million each day on potato chips.
* More money is spent worldwide on Chicago Bulls merchandise than the entire economy of New Zealand.
- compiled from various sources
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." (George Bernard Shaw).
We all know about the five senses: taste, smell, sight, touch and sound, and most of us were born with these senses. Some are said to have the sixth sense: intuition, and sometimes it is interpreted as the awareness for other-worldly creatures. Kayee has a friend who adds a seventh sense to the list: humor.
Features - September 10, 2006
Only fools work, seriously!
by Kayee Man & Dewi Susanti, Contributors, Jakarta
While it is tempting to discuss the sixth sense, unfortunately we can't seem to associate ourselves with such fame... yet. Instead, we will attempt to have some fun while exploring the sense of humor.
So, why all of a sudden an interest in humor, you may wonder. Believe it or not (not in Ripley's sense but in the everyday sense), humor and creativity are related. According to Torrance, a professor at the Educational Psychology Department at University of Georgia and generally known as the father of creative thinking, both creativity and humor revolve around unusual combinations, an element of surprise, conceptual and perceptual incongruities (Torrance, 1999).
Think about it: good jokes require a great deal of wit. In the examples above, the answers take us by surprise because we find them unusual, absurd, un-thought of, and therefore funny. The answers make unlikely interpretations of the questions (joke 3), make connections with what we are familiar with -- but at the same time turn it into an unfamiliar setting (jokes 1 and 4), and make uncommon combinations (jokes 2 and 5).
And yes, creative thinking is about making unusual combinations, looking at things differently, and thinking of and seeing things that don't normally fit or belong together. This is why many experts on creative thinking actually prescribe humor (playfulness, spontaneity) as one of the necessary ingredients to being creative.
Ekvall, Professor Emeritus of Industrial and Organizational Psychology at University of Lund, Sweden, conducted research in major corporations to find out what differentiates companies that produce more innovative products to those that are less innovative. Among other things, Ekvall's research showed that organizations that had a playful and humorous environment were more likely to have creative behavior exhibited by employees.
Time magazine reported Google to be the biggest media company in the world, in market-cap terms. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google were described as "playful" (they used to take part in the regular roller-hockey games in the Google parking lot). The Time article featured a photograph of Brin and Page playing with Lego pieces during the interview.
Not only are the founders of Google playful people, Googleplex, as the headquarters of Google is known, is also described as "quirky." Toys for employees and their children, individualized road signs inside the building, electronic scooters to get from one place to another, a sand-volleyball court, a ball pit with brightly colored plastic balls and a London style telephone booth (minus the telephone) were just some of the examples cited that contribute to Googleplex's quirkiness (Time magazine, Feb. 20, 2006).
Amidst all this playfulness, however, much serious work gets done. Brin and Page were reported to be "tough sells" when it comes to approving projects and keeping their engineers on their toes with their project proposals.
So we don't need to be serious all the time to be productive. Dr. Firestien, associate professor of International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College, concludes that "There is a positive link between humor, productivity and creativity". People with a sense of humor are less rigid, less tense, less stressed and therefore able to get more work done. Humor is also found to alleviate boredom (very useful when one needs to get through those unavoidable mundane tasks).
And here is a bonus for having a sense of humor: research shows that group leaders who are able to laugh at themselves are perceived to be more effective at relieving tension, better at encouraging member participation and more willing to share opinions. Humor has a positive influence on effective communication in groups.
Our experience in facilitating problem solving groups and training substantiates what research and the creativity literature are telling us about having a sense of humor. We have never failed to have a smiling participant and a more relaxed atmosphere once we pose to participants the problem of how they can stop us from talking. A more relaxed atmosphere enables participants to focus on learning and generating ideas rather than being in the defensive mode.
So now the big question...if we don't have one already, how do we go about acquiring a sense of humor? Moody -- and the name is not a joke! -- describes a person with a good sense of humor as one who sees himself and others in a detached way, thus being able to laugh at himself and things that don't quite go right and remain positive at the same time (in Torrance, 1978: p.223).
So, first, you have to be willing. Having read this far into this article, we would assume that you are interested in acquiring a sense of humor, or at least to explore the idea of acquiring a sense of humor. As we believe, once you are aware and willing, you are half way to positive change.
So, here's our recipe for a sense of humor. What you can do on your own: Set a quota for a laugh a day (our motto: a laugh a day keeps the doctor away). Read humor or joke books (keep some in the office). Meditate to relax. Put a funny mirror in your bathroom or on your desk. Imagine. Take deep breaths. Think of happy thoughts. Exchange your brain for a day. Use laughing gas (joke!).
*What you can do with your coworkers: Ask yourselves silly questions (e.g. how to stuff an elephant into my boss' mouth). Throw a party. Pop balloons (exercise sends oxygen to the brain and has an invigorating effect). Meet our boss, Elli. Treat your employees or employers like they're your precious kids. Dance at work.
*What you can do whether you are alone or with a group of people you know or even do not know (we suggest you try various situations and don't forget to let us know the result!): Pretend you're the guest star. Start playing. Exercise your mouth muscles. Watch comedies. Smile for no reason. Tickle yourself (it doesn't work, so get someone else to tickle you). Talk to, play with, or pretend to be children, animals, or plants. Or, just laugh when others are laughing (even if you don't know what they're laughing about).
We love to play and laugh. If none of the above work for you, come and join us. We get lots of work done too.
Kayee is a graduate student in Creative Studies at SUNY Buffalo and Dewi is a UC Berkeley alumnus. They can both be reached at ideabox@art-explore.com.
Ragtime is a very old music prior 1900 and played until 1930. But it still be played nowadays by groups of ragtime music lovers. Ragtime music has aged more than a [[hundred years|http://music.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/9905_ragtime/index.shtml]] today.
Originally played with piano and recorded using the so-called piano scroll at that time. These scrolls were archived and played again using Steinway piano, and converted to midi or ~MP3 files.
In 1973 film director George Roy Hill overheard the record when his teenage son was playing in his room. Hill decided to use the music in his movie, [[the Sting|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sting]], starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford, telling a story about con men making bet at racing horses in 1930. Ragtime music was played throughout the film and I enjoyed it very much. The film itself has become a classic and the ragtime CD is available off the shelf.
The music was originally played by [[Scott Joplin|Ragtime music, the Scott Joplin story]] that make him the king of rag. The music is always [[joyful|http://www.datacom.co.id/Ragtime-for-Bedtime.mid]] as the blacks always do in good or bad times (remember the mourning band played in New Orleans). Ragtime are mostly played with piano although it played also by [[different musical|http://www.datacom.co.id/mplfsong.mid]] instruments like the violin, oboe, and some peculiar instrument like [[bells|http://www.datacom.co.id/Slvrbell.mid]]. Some lyrics were found but I seldom heard ragtime music sung by people.
The ragtime music was usually played in silent movies like the three stooges or Charlie Chaplin's for illustration and in comical cartoon movies. It also sounds like music in a carousel or merry-go-round when you are having a good time in the night bazaar with kids. It can be [[mellow|http://www.datacom.co.id/Pictface.mid]] also and played in waltz or [[tango|http://www.datacom.co.id/solace1.mid]].
I think that is why I was always hooked. I played again and again, and downloaded a lot midi files from the web and got variations of the originally played ragtime music. I listen ragtime music when I was sick or nearly recovering from my illness. You may believe it or not, the ragtime music is quite relieving.
Samples of ragtime music:
[[Augustan|http://www.datacom.co.id/augustan.mid]]
[[Ash of Africa|http://www.datacom.co.id/ashafrca.mid]]
[[Breeze from Alabama|http://www.datacom.co.id/Breezala.mid]]
[[Heliothrope Bouquet|http://www.datacom.co.id/Bouquet.mid]]
[[Mapple leaf rag|http://www.datacom.co.id/Maple-Leaf-Rag.mid]]
[[The easy winners|http://www.datacom.co.id/the-easy-winners.mid]]
[[The entertainer|http://www.datacom.co.id/The-Entertainer.mid]]
The 5th IEEE and IFIP International Conference on Wireless and optical Communication Networks(WOCN2008) will be held in Surabaya, Indonesia. The conference will be supported by the IEEE ComSoc Indonesia Chapter.
CALL FOR PAPERS
[[WOCN 2008|http://www.wocn2008.org/]] in Surabaya Indonesia, NOW accepting papers submission The 5th IEEE and IFIP International Conference on Wireless and Optical Communications Networks - The Next Generation Internet Accepted papers will be included in IEEE Xplore.
Date: May 5, 6 and 7, 2008
Venue: Hyatt Regency, Surabaya
Important dates:
Paper Submissions Deadline: January 31, 2008
Notification of Acceptance: February 29, 2008
Camera Ready Version Due: March 15, 2008
Paper submission link: http://papers.mssis.com:8888/
Revised versions of selected papers will be published in international peer reviewed journal that will be announced.
Elsevier publishing house will be receiving all the title of the accepted papers from IEEE WOCN2008 conference for inclusion in its databases, including Engineering Index (EI) and EI Compendex.
Accepted papers also include: IEEE Catalog Number: CFP08604-CDR,
ISBN: 978-1-4244-1980-7 and Library of Congress: 2007943044 Numbers.
Previous WOCN conferences were held at:
WOCN2007 Singapore
WOCN2006 Bangalore India
WOCN2005 Dubai UAE
WOCN2004 Muscat Oman
WOCN2009 possible location could be held in Moscow Russia or Cairo Egypt, if you would like and interested to participate, contribute and have any suggestions please contact: Guy.omidyar@IEEE.org
INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS
Contributions are invited on all topics concerning Mobile, wireless and optical communications networks and components and related areas. We are soliciting original papers describing the state-of-the-art research and development in the areas of ''Wireless and Optical Communications and Networks'', including but are not limited to the following topics:
1. Management
*Resource and Information Management
*Pricing and Billing Issues
2. Architecture
*Convergence of Fixed and Mobile
*Hybrid Communications System
3. Devices
*Low-Power End-Devices and Wireless Communications
4. Security
*Security in Mobile and Wireless Networks
5. QoS
*Adaptive Quality of Service Provisioning
*End-to-end Quality of Service
6. Mobility Support
*Handoff Algorithms
*IP and Mobility
*Mobility and Connection Management in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks
*Policy-based Mobility Management
7. Applications
*Personal Communications
*Location and Context Management
*Smart Media
*Mobile Code
*Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks Applications
8. Access
*Wireless IP
*Wireless Multimedia Services
*Wireless Local Loop (WLL)
*Multiple Access Technology
*Broadband Wireless Access
9. Networking
*Wireless Personal Area Networks
* Wireless Local Area Networks
*Mobility and Nomadic Computing
*Analysis and Simulation of Mobile Network Protocols
*Home Networking
*Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Networks and the Internet
*Mobile Ad-Hoc Networking Routing
*Satellite Networks
10. INTERNET
*Access and broadband technologies
*Agent technologies, Distributed games
*Hypertext and hypermedia
*Multimedia on the Web
*Audio/video/voice coding for Internet service
*Internet security, Multicast
*Virtual private networks
*Web navigation strategies, Quality of service
*Scalability aspects, Traffic characterization
11. Information and Communications
*IP telephony and IP V6
*Satellite communications systems for mobile planet
*Security and privacy, network security and mobile payment
*Multimedia applications, QOS and traffic management
*Sensor Mesh and Ad Hoc Networks
*WLAN, mobile WIMAX, 3G and 4G systems
*Multiple antenna Systems- MIMO and Beam forming and OFDM
*Performance Analysis of Wireless Networks
*Ultra-wideband (UWB) communications Systems and RFID
*Modeling and analysis and performance evaluation of networks
*Control theory and practical implementation of communications networks
*Design of algorithms and decision making of large distributed communications networks
*Power line communications applications and development
*State of the art and practice of M- and E-commerce and Web-based information systems
*Emerging research topics and the future of M-and E-Commerce Technology
*Peer-to-Peer systems,
*Grids and large-scale distributed systems
*Applications of wearable systems in consumers, industrial, medical, educational, military environment. Use of wearable computers as components to support collaborative works
*Cognitive Radio Networks
*Smart cards and security in the networks
*M- and E- commerce and mobile payment
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
General Chairs:
Professor Guy Omidyar, Omidyar Institute, USA
Conference Vice Chairs:
Assistant Professor Muhammad Ary Murti, IEEE ComSoc Indonesia Chapter
Arief Hamdani Gunawan, IEEE Indonesia Section
Professor Daehyoung Hong, IEEE ComSoc Asian Pacific and
Sogang University, Seoul, Korea
Technical Program Co-Chairs:
Assistant Professor Muhammad Ary Murti, STTTelkoms, Indonesia
Associate Professor Vincent Guyot, ESIEA/LIP6, France
Professor Alok Kumar Das, Jadavpur University
Assistant Professor Valencia M. Joyner, Tufts University, USA
Professor Asoke Talukder, IIIT, Bangalore, India
Associate Professor Ping Shum, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore
Assistant Professor Daniel Siahaan, ITS, Surabaya Indonesia
Panel Chair
Dipnarayan Guha, NTU, Singapore
Tutorials and Publication Chair
Prof Guy Omidyar guy.omidyar@IEEE.org
Do you want to know practical FOSS applications for SMEs?
Do you want to become a trainer for FOSS applications for SMEs?
http://www.iosn.net/asean-3/call_for_applications/call-for-institutional-participation-iosn-inwent-training-of-trainers-on-the-foss-toolkit-for-smes
At the [[Asia Source II]] camp in Sukabumi, Indonesia (January 2007), a CD called SME-in-a-Box (draft) was distributed by IOSN. The concept was similar to one already developed by Tactical Tech but directed towards the small-to-medium enterprises. After Sukabumi, IOSN proceeded to formalize the SME-in-a-Box. Due to space limitations, the list of applications on the liveCD was prescribed and users could not easily modify the content with other FOSS business applications.
With input from these activities, IOSN and InWEnt engaged domain experts to facilitate the evolution of the SME-in-a-Box into a [[liveCD|http://sme-in-a-box.org/SME-in-a-Box/DemoLiveCD]] that will allow SMEs to choose their applications and use that for their specific business needs. This liveCD will be called the FOSS Toolkit for SMEs.
This call is for organizations/institutions who share IOSN-InWEnt's mission of promoting FOSS among SMEs. Each organization will nominate a representative to the Training of Trainers (ToT) and will commit to their re-entry plan which details how they will share their newly acquired knowledge with SMEs and their communities. A total of twenty organization's representatives from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam will be accepted into the ToT.
At the end of the TOT, the successful participants will have the knowledge and skills to train others on the FOSS Toolkit for SMEs.
[img[Semi group photo of ToT participants|blog/dsc04499s.jpg]]
Training of Trainers for the FOSS Toolkit for SME in Manila, the Philippines from November 4 to 7, 2008.
INSTITUTIONAL APPROACH
For this Training of Trainers, the call for participation will be sent to institutions with a requirement to clearly signify their commitment to designate their representative/participant to train SMEs, other staff members and communities upon their return within three months (re-entry plan). This institutional approach assures that there is an echo seminar that is offered to local staff members / communities and the knowledge gained is shared to others.
During the selection process, a high score will be given to institutions which will be able to embed a training course on the FOSS Toolkit into their regular plantilla of activities and services offered. These will be expected from the re-entry plan they will be submitting as a requirement for application.
Though applications of institutions and associations will be prioritized, individual FOSS trainers and experts are also eligible to apply.
RE-ENTRY PLAN
The programme provides monitoring after the ToT (through their institution) for a sustainable implementation of follow-up activities. The monitoring will be done through a special website to be created for that purpose.
Indonesia is a country at the South eastern part of Asia and belong to one of the ASEAN countries.
[[Indonesia|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia]] makes up of thousand islands located between south east Asia and the continent Australia. It is a tropical country which has the same six months of north sun and six months of south sun as the sun traveled along the equator. (Every year the sun will cross the equator at the 23rd of March - from south to north and at the 21st of September - from north to south.)
<html><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia">
<img src="Indonesia-map.jpg" width="553"
alt="Map of Indonesia" />
</a></html>
Indonesia is one of the most populated country in the Asia Pacific region.
Indonesia is a vast country with many islands. The main islands are Java, Sumatera, Borneo, Celebes, Moluccan islands and West Papua. Bali is one of the islands in the eastern part of Indonesia.
It has diverse ethnicities along the country. Sometime we didn’t even look the same within the country. So much difference although we live in the same country.
The Indonesian archipelago is "very vulnerable" to the impact of potential climate change fueled by global warming, Sir Nicholas Stern, head of the U.K. Government Economic Service, warned Friday 23 March 2007.
JAKARTA (Dow Jones) -- The Indonesian archipelago is "very vulnerable" to the impact of potential climate change fueled by global warming, Sir Nicholas Stern, head of the U.K. Government Economic Service, warned Friday.
The potential increase in both sea levels and severity of storms linked to global warming pose a serious threat to island states, including Indonesia, Stern told a World Bank press briefing at which he presented the conclusions of his eponymous report about the economic implications of climate change.
"Indonesia with 17,000 islands is very vulnerable," he said.
Stern said the massive flooding, which crippled Jakarta in early February, was a foretaste of the problems the city will have to grapple with in the face of rising sea levels driven by climate change.
The report issued in October by the U.K. Treasury called for a globally coordinated fight to curb growth in emissions from energy consumption thought to spur climate change. The report prescribed efforts to combat climate change as a strategy to boost world economic growth and warned that failure to respond to global warming could spell a global economic and environmental disaster.
Indonesia has much to lose from the impact of climate change, a World Bank-funded briefing paper issued at the press conference indicated. The paper warned of serious environmental, economic and social disruption if Indonesia is hit by rising temperatures, more intense rainfall and rising sea levels linked to global warming.
"Climate change will alter precipitation, evaporation, run-off water and soil moisture; hence will have effects on agriculture and thus food security," the paper said.
Indonesia's Minister of the Environment Rachmat Witoelar told the press briefing that the Indonesian government is seriously taking the conclusions and recommendations of the Stern report. The need to prepare for and mitigate global warming "has surfaced to the top of conversations of ministers," Witoelar said.
Info-Activism is an approach to advocacy that recognises the artful use of information and communications as a primary tactic in successful campaigns.
The Info-Activism Camp is organised by [[Tactical Tech|http://www.tacticaltech.org]] and will be held in India, from ''February 19 to 25'', offers rights advocates the chance to make a greater impact in their work.
*Are you interested in using mobile phones to reach out to your community but don't know how?
*Do you produce reports full of crucial data but feel like the right people aren't reading them?
*Do you know that using the internet and mobile phones for your advocacy work can create security vulnerabilities but don't know how to protect yourself against them?
*Do you want to learn how to use digital advocacy to create change?
If your answer is yes, then read on....and be a participant at our [[Info-Activism Camp|http://www.informationactivism.org/]]!
The camp provides a space for intensive learning and doing, a structured 'skill-share' environment for experienced advocates that will give them the confidence and know-how to leverage the limited resources they have to create greater impact. During the week, participants will learn how to creatively integrate new technologies in to their advocacy and create long lasting connections with other advocates and tech-activists.
The camp will give rights advocates the practical skills, tools and techniques to use technology to:
*Gather and analyse information and facilitate evidence-based campaigning
*Create and disseminate targeted, accessible and engaging information for advocacy efforts that have impact on targets and mobilise support
*Increase participation from affected communities
*Enable cooperation and coordination with allies
*Minimise security and privacy vulnerabilities
The seven-day camp, organised by Tactical Technology Collective helps advocates to make the best use of information, communication and digital technologies to achieve their objectives. The first-ever international camp on info activism will feature 120 participants, picked through a competitive selection process, and who will not only learn but also share skills and techniques to aid in the process of advocacy.
Workshops, group discussions, interactive sessions and live demos, which to a large extent will evolve from participants' proposals, are all part of the one-week programme. Info-Activism is a compelling approach to launch campaigns and bring issues to light. The camp presents a great opportunity for rights advocates to enhance their skills. If you want to learn more about the camp, please go to http://www.informationactivism.org
The working language of the camp will be English. If you want to learn more about the camp, read more about our work at http://www.tacticaltech.org or write to infoactivism@tacticaltech.org
Spring is on its way.
I was looking for ways to install Mac OS on generic Intel ~PCs and found more than a few links. They find the bottlenecks and it will end the closed 'proprietary' Apple system. I hope it is a [[greener way|Green computing]] to save your resources.
The bottlenecks are described in,
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/08/26/efix_os_x_on_generic_pc/
"The key to making a generic Intel Mac that can handle updates lies in the fact that the 'uniqueness' of Apple hardware is really dependent only on the mechanism the Mac substitutes for the venerable BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), the firmware interface between the operating system and the hardware. The Bios replacement Apple uses is in fact an open standard, EFI (Extended Firmware Interface), introduced a decade ago by Intel as part of its attempt to get its Itanium chip off the ground."
The other way round is to install via [[virtualization|http://www.taranfx.com/how-to-install-mac-os-x-snow-leopard-on-pc-dual-boot]].
And the site also offers installing Mac OS from a USB flash.
I believe these sources are valid and workable.
Next thing to find out is what kind of hardware is applicable to run the Mac OS?
My option is only to find solution on how to run mac apps on Intel based computers someday when it's needed. A run on local stores, I found that N450 is more than available on netbooks with 10" from so many different brands. A complete comparating sheet on Atom processors is avail [[here|http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection.aspx?familyID=29035]].
Is the N450 Atom processor a good candidate? Or a new [[I3 core Intel processor|http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=46473]] will do?
See that the N270 and N280 differs in embedded and loose chip. Most of the Atom processors mentioned have the [[Virtualization technology]] from Intel.
And for the [[I3 core|http://www.intel.com/cd/products/services/emea/eng/processors/corei3/overview/436847.htm]] has the option of using the ~DDR3 RAM avail in some notebooks in the market.
I found a few brands that sells mounted computers using the [[230 and the 330]] (not embedded) dual core atom processors. I think these are the most affordable Nettops to run Mac OS.
Have a nice warmer day:)
While the One Laptop Per Child XO, expected to start coming off of production lines in large numbers in November 2007, is perhaps the best-known laptop aimed at people in developing communities.
Intel has already shipped thousands of its Classmate PC systems to test markets, including Mexico and Brazil. With a 7-inch display and solid-state hard drive, the Classmate shares many physical traits with the $399 Linux-based Asus Eee PC (a product that's actually available to consumers), but the Classmate is clearly designed to withstand greater wear and tear, with a thick ruggedized plastic shell.
Reviewed by: Dan Ackerman on 11/1/07
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/intel-classmate-pc/4505-3121_7-32727076.html?tag=bubbl_1
The Classmate starts at $225, and for around $350, you can get one set up with preloaded with Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003-both software packages specially configured to fit onto the tiny 2GB flash hard drive (larger versions may be available in the future). Using 900MHz Intel Celeron M CPU, it was surprising to see Windows XP run so smoothly on a system with only 256MB of RAM. Surfing the Web was a breeze, but opening multiple Web pages and office documents at the same time finally slowed the system down a bit.
While the Classmate isn't currently available to individual consumers, the technologies reflected here will likely filter down to consumer systems, leading to cheaper, smaller laptops for everyone, although likely not directly from Intel, which wants to stay out of the system-selling business.
The Classmate PC looks more like a toy than a laptop computer, with a thick, plastic chassis with rounded corners that's clearly designed to keep important parts far from the outer edges of the machine. The keyboard is water-resistant, and the entire body felt solid and unyielding. Even the back of the lid, which is covered with a thin, flimsy piece of plastic on many laptops, felt rugged. The system has a removable snap-on cover, made of thick leather, which doubles as a handle. Our cover was a pinkish orange, but we've seen them in blue and white as well.
We found its diminutive keyboard to be similar to the one on the Asus Eee, with the letter keys slightly narrower but deeper. Typing will be more comfortable for little hands than those of a grown adult. The round touch pad is unusual but easy to use-at least until we realized you couldn't use the edge as a scroll zone.
Besides versions of Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003, specially tweaked to fit on the small hard drive with at least a little room left over for user files (about 500MB, in our case), the system includes custom software designed for classroom use. The Classmate PCs come with the client software, while a teacher with a full-featured laptop runs the host software.
From the host laptop, the teacher can monitor the students' work, send text messages directly to the Classmate PCs, transfer work on one student's screen to all the other systems on the local network, or even remotely "silence" the Classmates, turning off their screens. While the e-Learning software is interesting, we especially liked that the Classmate can provide kids with the chance to get accustomed to the actual Microsoft software they're likely to encounter later in life.
The 7-inch display, again like the Asus Eee, has a resolution of 800x480-which means there's not a lot of screen real estate to spare. Text and icons were readable, but at 800 pixels wide, many Web pages are too wide for the screen and require horizontal scrolling. The thick bezel makes the screen look even smaller, but we understand the need to build in a protective buffer for the display.
Unlike the Eee, there's no Webcam or speakers next to the display (small, tinny speakers sit right above the keyboard).
Ports and connections are spare on the Classmate. You get two USB ports, an Ethernet jack, headphone and mic jacks, and that's about it. On a low-cost specialized system like this, we don't mind not having FireWire or even a VGA output. At first we thought the Classmate lacked an SD card slot (as found on the Asus Eee) to augment the meager built-in flash hard drive, but there actually is one on the back panel, hidden behind the leather cover.
While most of the standard benchmark tests we use wouldn't run on the Classmate, thanks to its 2GB hard drive, we did manage to run our iTunes encoding test.
We were able to use the system for about 3 hours while running a light mix of tasks-Web browsing, working on a Word document, and playing MP3 files-which was in line with Intel's battery life claims. That sounds fine for a portable laptop, especially an inexpensive one like this, but we wonder if that's long enough for the schoolchildren who are the Classmate's intended audience, and who may not always have easy access to electricity.
[[Comments on Intel Classmate PC]]
June 28, 2007, 9:23AM EST
Is getting computers to poor kids charity—or big business?
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jun2007/gb20070628_140912.htm?
by Bruce Einhorn
Middle school #156 in Malinalco, an hour and a half drive from Mexico City, is so strapped for cash that it can't even keep the lavatories stocked with toilet paper. Nearly half of the school's 211 students live below the poverty line. But on this June morning, 30 eighth graders are hunched over their desks, tapping on the keyboards of pint-size laptops donated by Intel Corp. (INTC) Chemistry teacher Martina Rosas is giving the students a crash course on Web searching. "The kids participate more in class and are much more interested in reading and investigating online," says Rosas, who herself recently completed 60 hours of computer training.
Intel wants to bridge the Digital Divide and pioneer a whole new market by filling classrooms in poor countries around the world with low-cost PCs. Priced at about $320 each, the new Classmate laptops on the desks in Malinalco are still too expensive for governments in most developing countries to purchase. Even so, they have allowed the chipmaker to steal a march on Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nicholas Negroponte, whose foundation, One Laptop per Child (OLPC), is on a mission to build easy-to-use, energy-efficient computers that will eventually sell for $100 or less. While Negroponte's OLPC is still trying to work out all the kinks in its XO laptop, now projected to cost $175, thousands of Intel Classmate machines have been rolling off the production line since March at a Chinese factory owned by Taiwanese manufacturer Elitegroup Computer Systems Co. (ECS). Intel already has trials under way in more than 10 countries, with 25 planned by yearend.
The contest between Intel and OLPC has been an odd one, not least because the two sides are so unevenly matched. In one corner stands one of the world's most powerful tech giants, and in the other, a tiny philanthropy that has drummed up modest backing from the likes of Google, eBay, News Corp., and Advanced Micro Devices. (AMC) Negroponte has repeatedly criticized Intel for what he considers its hardball tactics. And yet the rivals may be ready to bury the hatchet: BusinessWeek has learned that Intel and OLPC executives are in talks regarding how they can work together.
It's unclear what the cooperation might involve. It's also not certain the two programs—either individually or in some kind of joint venture—will improve education or succeed in spreading useful technology through the developing world. But the race already has shed important light on how Intel plans to grapple with sluggish growth in the global PC market. The company's swift response to Negroponte also reveals how nimbly Intel can maneuver when necessary.
Under CEO Paul S. Otellini, Intel has been going through a painful transition. Its microprocessors still dominate the PC landscape, but the world of cell phones and other mobile gadgets is expanding much faster. Such products consume more chips than PCs do, perform many of the same functions, and are more popular throughout much of the world.
`NEXT BILLION'
A marginal player in cellular markets, Intel must find a way to sell to the "next billion," industry lingo for consumers in the developing world who don't yet have easy access to the Internet. The education market—and products such as the Classmate—presents a major opportunity, says Martin Gilliland, Asia-Pacific research director for Gartner Inc. (IT), because even if Intel's margins on such devices are razor-thin, volumes could soar into the hundreds of millions. Intel could expand the PC user base "not by fractions, but by high double-digit percentages," Gilliland says.
The first big challenge for Intel is bringing down the Classmate's costs. Unlike Negroponte's XO device, whose specially designed user interface aimed at first-time computer users is a deliberate break from the world of Intel chips and Microsoft software, Intel's machines are largely stripped-down versions of today's "Wintel" PCs.
Intel's formidable clout with Asian parts suppliers lets it buy key components practically at cost, allowing it to shoot for a sub-$300 price tag. "We have chosen to ride on the existing technology curve and drive down the cost that way," says Michael T. Zhang, Intel's general manager working on the project in Shanghai.
So far, the approach seems to be working. Intel was able to move the Classmate PC from the drawing boards into production in less than 18 months. In early June, the company announced that it had enlisted Taiwan's Asustek Computer Inc. to make another laptop based on the Classmate design, but priced even lower, at $200. "This is what we do for a living," says L. Wilton Agatstein, the Intel vice-president in charge of the Classmate initiative. Perhaps more important, the project has forced Intel to expand its frame of reference beyond hardware. In Mexico and elsewhere, Intel bundles its Classmates with education software and teacher-training support. "That's something Intel needs to be credited for," says Gartner's Gilliland. "They have stretched beyond their normal area of interest without treading on anyone's toes."
Negroponte has said that he has no intention of ceding Mexico and other struggling nations to Intel. He has met with Mexican President Felipe Calderón and has sought out Mexico's richest man, telecom billionaire Carlos Slim, who says he's interested in helping OLPC. But there is one obvious obstacle: Negroponte still has no commercial laptops to put into the kids' hands, whereas Intel has signed up with a local distributor and launched two trials for the Classmate, in Guadalajara and Malinalco. The company plans to have ECS, its Taiwanese partner, produce over 1 million Classmates by the end of the year.
In the past, Negroponte has accused Intel of trying to crush his nonprofit, in part because OLPC buys its most important chips from Intel rival AMD. He also has complained that Intel is using its laptop program to pump up demand for its microprocessors in developing countries. "They look at it as a market," he says. "But primary education in the developing world is not a market, it's a human right. And I don't think Intel is in the human-rights business."
Collaboration, clearly, would erase some of the ill will. And a framework for this already exists. In earlier interviews, Intel's Agatstein has said he gets along well with Negroponte and that the two talk regularly. Agatstein has praised the way Negroponte works with Linux software developers to come up with applications for his laptop. "We have learned from Nicholas," he says. In a best-case scenario, a collaboration between Intel and Negroponte would greatly improve access to advanced technology in countries around the world.
But not everyone agrees laptops are the best way to go. "The phone itself is going to be the low-cost computer," argues Irwin Jacobs, chairman of Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM), the San Diego designer of chips for handsets.
OBSOLESCENCE
For a California company called NComputing Inc., the solution to the world's Digital Divide lies in "collective computing." NComputing CEO Stephen A. Dukker boasts that, for as little as $11 per user, schools or governments can deploy a network of "thin clients"—desktop machines that have no central processing units but are connected to a server, solving the problem of servicing laptops when they break down. "You require a complete, well-thought-out ecosystem to avoid winding up with stacks of these machines with broken screens, just collecting dust," Dukker says.
Still others argue that attention to computers distracts from bigger problems, such as poor school infrastructure, student nutrition, and chronic teacher shortages. "Would one computer per child help? If there's a lot of guidance and a lot of good content, yes," says Barbara Mair, a former president of Compaq's Mexico subsidiary and consultant to the government on technology adoption who runs management consulting firm Medida y Compás. "Do I see that as feasible in Mexico in the short term? No."
Intel is pushing ahead despite the naysayers. And it's adjusting the Classmate to serve a new target: kids in the U.S. The company recently launched trials in Sacramento and Portland, Ore., and next year it may unveil a souped-up version of the Classmate with more storage and faster processing speed for children in the developed world.
With Geri Smith in Malinalco, Mexico, and Cliff Edwards in San Mateo, Calif.
Elizabeth Corcoran 06.04.07
Intel's boss was raised on the inside. Now he must turn it inside out.
http://members.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0604/092.html
Intel Corp. was mired in misery early last year. After two decades dominating the microchip market- one of the fastest-moving and most unforgiving businesses in the world-Intel (nasdaq: INTC) seemed lethargic, lagging and stumble-prone. Big layoffs were imminent. Its stock price, having reached $75 in the fall of 2000, had stalled in the $20 range. Net income topped $10 billion in 2000 but had fallen to only half that in the years since. Worse, Intel was getting bested, badly, by a pesky producer one-sixth its size.
After years as an also-ran Advanced Micro Devices (nyse: AMD) in 2003 had upstaged Intel's muscle-bound chips, namely Itanium and Pentium 4, Intel's centerpiece. Big customers-IBM, Hewlett-Packard (nyse: HPQ) and, eventually, Dell (nasdaq: DELL)-began turning to AMD. In 2005 Intel lost 2.6 points of market share, far more than it had expected.
Moreover, forays for new growth were fizzling: A big move into new chips for cell phones flopped; a plan to create a business running server farms for corporate clients faded; a billion-dollar gamble on Itanium, a new-generation chip for big servers, failed to pay off. The efforts had been plotted by Craig Barrett, the materials-science engineer who in 1998 succeeded Andrew S. Grove, the salty leader who had helped start the company. Barrett was helped by a successor of his own: Paul S. Otellini, an Intel lifer who in mid-2005 became the first non-Ph.D. to run Intel.
Unaccustomed to losing, Intel's ranks pelted their new chief with bitter e-mails: Intel had lost it; management was incompetent. Some likened Intel to a lumbering Detroit carmaker. Today Otellini, 56, is reluctant to talk about the backlash, though his chagrin is apparent. His de facto number two, Sean Maloney, is more blunt: "It was a swift kick in the gut. We were angry and disappointed in ourselves." He adds: "We just had a visceral emotion: We're gonna fix it."
That frustration pushed Otellini to wage the most sweeping overhaul at Intel in 20 years. Gone are plans for diversifying away from Intel's chips. Gone is 10% of its workforce. Otellini also bailed Intel out of cell phones, selling off the XScale mobile-chip line. In a first for the company, he has put one chip factory-so far-up for sale. And Otellini is reorienting Intel's focus to look beyond its slow-growth mainstay, processor chips for desktops, to what he hopes will be the Next Wave.
This is a world of lightweight notebook PCs and a gaggle of ultramobile machines smaller than a laptop but bigger than a BlackBerry. "The PC market has been very good to us. It's near 300 million units [a year]. It's going to grow to 500 million units," he says. "But how do we sell a billion of something? Can we create a multihundred-million-unit market, per year, in handhelds?"
Intel already had in place a growth engine that could fuel its comeback: Centrino, simpler, faster and cheaper than the Pentium 4. The design began with Intel engineers in Haifa, Israel, far from Silicon Valley. Centrino would power notebook computers-but the "core" processor at Centrino's heart would become the inspiration for all of Intel and lead to a starkly different design than the Pentium, which had reigned since 1993.
In Silicon Valley Intel engineers thrived on using every available transistor to get more speed and power from a chip. The adverse side effect: lots of waste heat. The 178 million transistors in Intel's top Pentium 4 give off enough heat to fry an egg.
In the new-gadget era envisioned by Otellini the chips must be the antithesis of a hefty Pentium-sleeker, simpler, far cheaper and, above all, cooler. Lash a couple of processor cores together and bundle in specialized parts for, say, wireless linkups or video graphics, and this system can power everything from a palmtop to a server. Intel says a new family of cores, aimed at mobile devices, will be ready next year.
"How do we fit inside of something that sells for $100 and make some money?" Otellini says. "Costs become essential. Architecture becomes essential. Integration becomes essential. And the culture of the company has to wrap itself around that." This threatens "the ego of the Intel engineering community," says Maloney, executive vice president. "Their whole notion of self-worth was based around bigger and faster. That aspiration needed to change to cooler, sleeker, smaller. That's a big deal."
Thus Intel has abandoned what may be the most prodigious platform-the cell phone, with 1 billion units sold last year, four times the number of PCs-in favor of a new gadget that barely exists. Succeeding requires Intel to do two things it never has done particularly well: make chips at the lowest cost possible and let customers' demands shape development.
The Intel of old held 85% of the PC microprocessor market and routinely dictated upgrades and designs with little input from the clientele. AMD Chief Hector Ruiz tacitly goads Intel for this: "We did something that, unfortunately, is all too rare in the semiconductor industry-we went out and talked with [customers] about what [they] needed," he said in an industry speech in October 2006.
The new Intel must undergo a personality transplant. The Intel that Andy Grove built had enshrined sharp confrontation as constructive engagement, in the imperious and emphatic style of its chairman, for whom decisions were crisp, choices were binary and markets were won or lost.
Otellini, who scoffs privately at the "cult" that can surround a company's founders, can deliberate something to death. He deploys a reserved manner and prefers persuasion over fiats, consensus over combat. Frustration or embarrassment shows in a red flush to his face. His equanimity is a mixed blessing. It can be seen as indecisiveness.
He was born and bred in San Francisco, and during his college years he spent a summer working with his father, a butcher, in a slaughterhouse. ("I think he did that on purpose, because he didn't want me to ever think of that as a career," Otellini has said.) He attended the University of San Francisco, and in 1974 he landed his M.B.A. at the University of California, Berkeley, joining Intel as an analyst. He hasn't missed an Intel paycheck since. He rose in marketing and management-"I'm a product guy"-and spent a year in 1990 as an aide to Grove.
Barrett succeeded Grove in 1998 and began looking beyond microprocessors, a business he derided as a "creosote bush." (In the desert a creosote bush poisons the ground around it to ward off other vegetation.) He had Intel spend $10 billion buying communications and networking firms, even as it invested hundreds of millions more in the Itanium chip project with HP.
By 2002 the dot-com crash and the collapse of telecom had devastated Intel's profits and chilled Barrett's plans. Intel's move into chips for mobile phones had become a quagmire. Although the company had grabbed a promising chip line in a legal settlement with the old Digital Equipment in 1998 and renamed it XScale, the chip wasn't enough. Unlike the PC world, software for such chips was patchy. Even making the chips proved more costly than expected as Intel had to rejigger manufacturing processes.
"In hindsight, phones-even the smart phones we targeted-was not an area in which we had 20 or 30 years of expertise," says Otellini, who became president in early 2002. "It didn't play to any of our strengths. We didn't have the software or the architecture." Nor did Intel have many customers. Research In Motion (nasdaq: RIMM) put XScale into its BlackBerry, but cell phone makers were leery of Intel's reputation in PCs for reaping most of the profits and leaving boxmakers with less. "There were entrenched players, many of whom had seen the PC movie," Otellini says.
Meanwhile Intel was getting into trouble in microprocessors. The Itanium, in gestation since 1994 and a few years behind schedule, faltered when customers balked at the hassle and the cost of rewriting old Intel-based software for the new chip. Worse, the Pentium 4 was a hothead and a power guzzler, at a time when corporate customers eyed even electricity bills in a bid to reduce their tech spending.
AMD, Intel's plucky rival, was poised to benefit. Its engineers had been working on a homegrown chip that rivaled Intel's high-end Itanium for power but easily ran existing software. And it was cool-generating less heat than Intel's big chips. AMD debuted its Opteron for high-end servers in April 2003 and rocked Intel's world. The competition would knock the average selling price for high-end chips from more than $600 apiece in 2003 to half of that today, says IDC analyst Shane Rau.
Intel, meanwhile, had glitches. It canceled one new version of Pentium 4, ran a year late on another, delayed several other products and ran short of chips because of bad forecasting. Only the transition of the chief executive job from Barrett to Otellini, in May 2005, went smoothly. Intel stock rose 8% in calendar 2005; AMD's rose 43%.
Then Intel stumbled in a spectacular way: It missed sales forecasts on Wall Street two quarters in a row, through the first quarter of 2006. And Intel was bloated. In 2000 it had 86,000 people producing $34 billion of revenue; by 2006 it had added 17,000, though the top line had grown only 5%.
Otellini spent much of last year handling the fallout-disillusioned employees, the board demanding to know why Intel had slipped so badly, a huge round of layoffs. Yet Intel already had a key element in place for a dramatic comeback-the processor core inside Centrino.
In 2000 Otellini, then head of Intel's microprocessor business, had realized slim notebooks would need a cooler, less power-hungry processor than the Pentium 4. So he set engineers in Israel to the task. They approached it in a non-Intel way, sacrificing some raw power to get a chip that ran cooler. The idea was scorned inside Intel. "The company had been so successful in the 1990s it was hard to talk about doing things differently," says David Perlmutter, who led the project. "It was easier to be remote and question the basic religion of the company."
In 2002 their work was all but finished, when Otellini had an epiphany: Notebooks and laptops had to be able to connect wirelessly to the Internet. So Otellini decreed that the new chip should wait until the engineers could fuse their core to a homegrown Wi-Fi component. "Making that decision was tumultuous inside of Intel, to say the least," he says. "It was a cultural issue. We're a microprocessor company." The Intel faithful disliked delaying a new chip to wait for adjunct technology. One computer maker jeered at the project, calling it "Latrino."
Intel rolled out its Wi-Fi-ready Centrino in March 2003. Six months later the new chip was a much-needed hit. Intel's Perlmutter was convinced he could see the next horizon. "The first Centrino wasn't bad," he says. "But could we evolve the architecture to be better than the Pentium 4?"
It could. A Centrino-like core was anointed as Intel's flagship for notebook and desktop PCs. In October 2004 Otellini canceled future Pentium 4 efforts. He signed on for a big test of whether Intel's engineers could shed their dictatorial ways to work closely with a most demanding customer: Steve Jobs of Apple (nasdaq: AAPL).
That way of thinking that led his Israeli engineering team to chuck the idea-sacred at Intel-that progress meant building ever faster processors. “Moore’s Law is a simple description of an economic and technological pace," Perlmutter says, referring to the famous dictum laid down by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors that can be crammed onto a chip will double every two years. "What you do with all those transistors is up to you.”
That insight is what led to the success of first the Pentium M, and more recently Intel's so-called Core architecture. Next, Perlmutter hopes to take that idea and run with it, taking all the extra transistors Moore's law will give Intel over the next few years and weaving them into ever larger numbers of cores. Last September, Intel’s researchers showed off an 80-core processor.
The idea scales down as well as up. As Intel’s researchers cram larger numbers of cores together to build more powerful chips, each core must suck up less power. Those cores can then be deployed four at a time in powerful servers. They can be doubled up in laptops. Or a single core can power a tiny, handheld device. Intel is betting Silverthorne, slated for next year, will help create a new class of lightweight devices that can perform as well as a desktop machine using significantly less power.
If it works, some hint Perlmutter could one day run Intel. Intel has a long history of placing engineers in its top job, and current boss Otellini is the only chief executive in Intel's history without a technical degree. And now both Perlmutter and Sean Maloney, who had jointly run Intel's mobility group and now runs sales and marketing, have sweeping responsibilities across Intel's business units under Otellini.
As Intel joins the OLPC board, it will open opportunity to replace AMD and thus drawing a new circuitry than the originally designed XO mainboard. Processors from Intel dominate the global market in desktop computers that run Microsoft's Windows operating system. More to read,
http://news.com.com/OLPC+and+Intel+bury+the+hatchet--for+the+children/2100-1005_3-6196629.html
and competition against Asus EEE PC and Intel's own Classmate,
http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/intel/negroponte_100_laptop_asus.html
If I could be a seer, then Microsoft is next to enter the OLPC project, as invited since it will broaden the XO market, and 'not' treated as a competitor. Time is running out too since the XO is about to produce in September 2007.
This recent 2nd generation [[Classmate PC|Intel will sell newer Classmate PC this year]] is with 9" screen and said to support Linux, well the ingredient inside can always adopt. The PC is not for kids only, parents will be happy to get the first touch :)
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080402/20080402006315.html?
The second-generation classmate PCs are built on Intel® Celeron® M processor with 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and mesh network capabilities. The top range of these netbooks includes a 9-inch LCD screen, 6-cell battery life, 512 MB memory, a 30 GB HDD (hard disk drive) storage and an integrated webcam.
An Intel powered classmate PC supports Microsoft1 Windows XP and variants of the Linux operating environment. When pre-installed with the education software stack, these netbooks are ideal for classroom-learning environment. Software and content will be available in more than eight languages.
More than 80 software and hardware vendors, content providers, educational services providers and local OEMs have been working with Intel to develop a complete infrastructure that supports the Intel-powered classmate PC. They were present at today’s announcement in Shanghai.
Chien also said future Intel-powered classmate PCs will be built with the Intel® Atom™ processor. It is an energy-efficient, low-cost computer chip designed to provide wireless capability to small mobile computing devices such as netbooks.
The Intel designed computer offers different choices to manufacturers so each can tailor laptop models for a variety of education needs. The new classmate PC blueprint is the latest innovation and educational tool for parents and teachers to use technology, computers and Internet access to better educate students around the world.
“Only 5 percent of the world’s children today have access to a PC or to the Internet,” Chien said. “Education is one of the best examples of how technology improves our lives. We have seen how technology helps teachers create fun learning experiences more efficiently. We have also been touched by children’s excitement when they are inspired by technology. The Intel-powered classmate PC is one of the ways we support the IT industry in spreading the benefits of technology in education for children around the world.”
The updated child-sized computer will continue to be deployed as part of the Intel World Ahead Program, a global initiative aimed at spreading digital accessibility and educational opportunities.
Intel Corp. unveiled new features for its line of low-cost laptops for schools Wednesday, adding bigger screens and more data storage capacity as the chip maker ratchets up its rivalry with the One Laptop per Child organization, which sells a competing machine.
Tue, 04/08/2008 6:39 PM | Sci-Tech
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/07/31/portugal-sell-500000-intel039s-classmate-pcs.html
Intel's new Classmate PCs - slated to go on sale in April for between $300 and $500 - reflect the company's growing efforts to sell computers equipped with its own chips to schools in developing countries, a battleground for technology companies because of the millions of people there just coming online. But the target market has expanded to include kids in the U.S. as potential users of cheaper, stripped-down machines.
Classmate PCs also are part of Intel's push to generate interest in a new class of mobile devices the company is calling "netbooks," which are smaller and have fewer functions than standard laptops but also use far less power and are easier to carry around.
Other tweaks to the Classmate that Intel announced Wednesday from its developer forum in Shanghai include the availability of both 7-inch (18 centimeters) and 9-inch (23 centimeters) screens, a 30 gigabyte hard disk drive and an integrated Web camera.
At the developer forum, Intel executives also rolled out five new processors under the "Atom" brand name. The chips are designed for pocket-size Internet devices. The chips come in speeds up to 1.86 gigahertz while using less than 3 watts of power. Intel said its Classmate PCs will eventually use Atom processors.
Classmates are based on Intel's design and include its processors, but they are built by other manufacturers and sold under a variety of brand names. The first generation went on sale in March 2007 with the 7-inch (18-centimeter) screen and fewer functions. Intel said it has sold "tens of thousands" of the machines but declined to provide more specific data.
Intel and OLPC have feuded furiously over their competing products. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based nonprofit OLPC says it has sold hundreds of thousands of its $188 machines.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinoff's low-cost XO laptop includes a microprocessor from Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the world's No. 2 microprocessor maker behind Intel. A short-lived truce between Intel and OLPC ended earlier this year when Intel suddenly pulled out from OLPC's board of directors.
Intel claimed it couldn't continue cooperating with OLPC when founder Nicholas Negroponte demanded Intel stop selling Classmates overseas. Negroponte said the dispute stemmed from Intel sales reps disparaging OLPC products while pushing Intel's own machines.
Both OLPC and Intel are vying to equip underprivileged children with aggressively priced laptops, but there are some key differences both in terms of their approaches and the hardware itself.
By Joanna Stern 04/24/2007
http://laptopmag.com/features/Intel-vs-OLPC-Battle-of-Good-Wills.htm
For Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, deciding what computer to give his country's youth requires more than a trip to the nearest CompUSA. He's deciding between two models of specially designed, affordable laptops, one manufactured by Intel and the other by the OLPC (One Laptop per Child) Association. Each has been designed specifically to help educate underprivileged children in developing nations. The president's isn't a bad predicament to be in; either laptop will help his country's children. But how does he decide?
Although Intel and OLPC advocate the same goal-one laptop in the hand of every child-their approaches are as different as their hardware designs and pricing. OLPC, a nonprofit agency, emphasizes the individual child and teaching children to use technology in innovative ways. Intel's Classmate PC is designed for students in a classroom environment and is being pitched as a "learning-assistant."
OLPC's founder and chairman, Nicholas Negroponte, explains how the OLPC project centers on the child's experience and personal development beyond the classroom. Incorporating open-source technology and wiki-type functionality, its XO laptop was built with more than just curriculum in mind. "We want the kids to modify and build software and learn from that. Think of our whole effort as akin to Wikipedia in nature. We will implement Wiki-textbooks,"
Negroponte explained in his exclusive interview with LAPTOP. Although the XO will be in classrooms, the idea is that it will also be a personal computing device that will allow children to learn just by interacting with the technology in all parts of their lives.
Willy Agatstein, Intel's vice president and general manager of the Emerging Markets Platform Group, told us that the Classmate is "designed to solve a particular problem. And that problem is the state of education in the developing world." Focusing on the student, Intel's computer will be optimized for the classroom. "Our real goal was to develop a whole platform that could help individual students around the world and could reinforce the teacher/student, the student/student relationship, and if appropriate, really help the student/parent relationship," Agatstein said.
These different approaches have resulted in dissimilar devices. The Classmate PC has a powerful processor, support for unmodified Windows and Linux software, and costs about $250, although Intel expects the price to drop about $50 by the end of the year. OLPC's XO laptop offers a new Linux-based software platform called Sugar, as well as special features like a built-in video camera, high-resolution dual-mode screen, longer battery life, and innovative charging options for about $175. OLPC aims for this model, with these components, to be priced at $100 within three years. (Check out the side-by-side chart comparing these two laptops).
Knowing the computers would be compared, the companies have adopted rather harsh attitudes toward one other. Hinting at a frustration with Intel's decision to create the Classmate to compete with the Laptop XO, Negroponte commented in his interview with LAPTOP that OLPC "do[es] not compete with them, but they believe they compete with us." A letter Negroponte drafted to Intel in March 2007 but never sent reveals that OLPC approached Intel, when the XO laptop was in its initial stages of development, with the idea of partnership. The letter claims that Intel declined and two years later unveiled its Classmate prototype.
When asked about the Intel/OLPC relationship, Agatstein commented, "Everyone has their own remembrances of history. I think one of the primary things here is that you have two different visions and passionate sets of people. Both are working on reaching a common goal in different ways."
Last month the Intel-powered Classmate PC started volume shipment to emerging markets, while the OLPC machine remains in testing mode in countries including Chile, Brazil, and Nigeria. Both OLPC and Intel have released images and information about their respective tests in Nigeria.
These images are almost identical except that, in some, children hold blue laptops-Intel's machine-while others hold OLPC's green one. The villages testing the laptops aren't far from each other and are both close to Abuja, Nigeria's capital. Children who may have never had contact with their peers in the neighboring villages now can connect to the Internet and find a friend-a friend who might just be using another type of affordable and educational laptop.
The market of sub-notebooks is so fierce when they produce new gadgets in near time but still pricey as compared to others. Don't you think it is too much to put anything on a small gadget? People always love small gadgets like HP 100LX as it was.
The following is recent note from Intel for typical sub notebook design as memories now are getting cheaper. A 4GB USB flashdisk is now sold in Indonesia for under 18 US$.
From the article below, the 100,000 can be taken as benchmark for number of units sold. It will upgrade to a newer model when this number is reached. Compare it to Asus EEE PC or OLPC. Enjoy.
Intel cheap laptops expanding to US, Europe
Wednesday March 19, 8:13 pm ET
By Jim Finkle and Duncan Martell
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080319/intel_laptops.html?.v=7
PC makers in the United States and in Europe will sell a yet-to-be-unveiled, second-generation version of the Intel-designed Classmate PC for $250 to $350, said Lila Ibrahim, general manager of Intel's emerging market platform's group, in an interview with Reuters.
The second- and third-generation models of the Classmate PC design give manufacturers flexibility to build a range of laptops with different memory configurations, screen sizes and peripheral devices including cameras, Ibrahim said.
"This is a very big deal," said Laura Didio, an analyst with Yankee Group who follows the personal computer industry.
While the machines are intended for children, analysts said the launch will add momentum to the low-cost computing movement -- and will likely mean this year's bargain-basement laptops will have more power than in previous years.
The chipmaker has conducted pilot tests of the Classmate PC at schools in Texas, Oregon and California, along with some schools in Australia, said Intel spokeswoman Agnes Kwan.
Intel said manufacturers in India, Mexico and Indonesia already have begun selling Classmate PC laptops on the retail market. To date, Intel has sold fewer than 100,000 of the Classmate PCs, but plans to ramp up production in 2008.
Intel declined to identify the PC makers or discuss the features of the second-generation machine, which has not yet been released in developing markets, at the request of the companies. It has already begun work on a third model, the Classmate 3, said Ibrahim.
Inventor Mary Lou Jepsen, a scientist who developed the XO Laptop, resigned from the One Laptop Per Child Foundation at the end of last year and started her own company Pixel Qi with the goal of building a $75 laptop by 2010.
Heavyweight technology firms and computer manufacturers - including Intel
Corp., Google Inc., Dell Computer Inc., Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp. and Yahoo
- have launched an effort to reduce energy use by computers and high-tech
equipment.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/070612/1475931.html?.v=1
The aim, the companies announced, is to reduce energy use and consequently cut into emissions the companies and environmentalists link to global warming. The program is called the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. The corporate effort aims to reduce energy costs by $5.5 billion annually and by 54 billion tons annually.
Other members of the group include environmental groups, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the University of Michigan, China's Lenovo Group, Starbucks Corp. and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Intel and Google have significant operations in the Phoenix area.
The effort comes as former Vice President Al Gore and environmental advocates argue that climate change and global warming have dire, potential impacts. A number of other big corporations and universities also have launched or are starting climate change programs aimed reducing or offsetting their emissions and pollutants.
Published June 12, 2007 by The Business Journal
Monday July 16, 8:07 am ET
By Brian Bergstein, AP Technology Writer
Intel to Join Board and Make Peace With `$100 Laptop' Project
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070716/hundred_dollar_laptop_intel.html?.v=2
BOSTON (AP) -- As Nicholas Negroponte stormed the developing world trying to drum up buyers for the innovative $175 computers designed by his One Laptop Per Child education nonprofit, he encountered a persistent obstacle: competition from Intel Corp.
Intel's chairman, Craig Barrett, had derided Negroponte's machines as mere gadgets. And Intel was signing up international governments for its own little "Classmate" PCs, which follow more conventional computing designs than One Laptop Per Child's radically rethought "XO" computers.
Negroponte was suspicious of Intel's motives, since the XO runs on processors from Intel's fiercest rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Negroponte said Intel had hurt his mission and "should be ashamed of itself."
[img[Intel loves OLPC|blog/intel_hearts_olpc.jpg]]
http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/13/intel-and-olpc-join-hands-in-collaborative-harmony/
But in recent weeks, Negroponte and Intel CEO Paul Otellini began peace talks, culminating in a face-to-face meeting Thursday at Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif. And on Friday, the two sides said they had joined forces: Intel will join One Laptop Per Child's board and contribute money and technical expertise to the project.
Intel will continue to sell the Classmate, which has fallen in price from about $400 to the low $200s, attracting buyers in Pakistan, Brazil, Mexico and Nigeria, according to spokeswoman Agnes Kwan. And One Laptop Per Child still hopes its machines reach schools in several countries this fall.
But now, Intel and One Laptop Per Child might seek ways to package their computers together. For example, Intel's Classmate, which has to be plugged in, might be an option for governments to deploy in urban schools, while the XO laptops, which use very little power and can be mechanically recharged by hand, could go into rural districts.
"There are an awful lot of educational scenarios between K and 12," said William Swope, Intel's director of corporate affairs. "We don't think all those are going to be served by any one form factor, by any one technology, by any one product."
Walter Bender, who oversees software and content for One Laptop Per Child, said his Massachusetts Institute of Technology spin-off would benefit from the addition of Intel's technical expertise. One Laptop Per Child expects to be constantly trying to perfect the XO machines -- and get their cost closer to the originally stated goal of $100.
''"It's a big problem, more than 15 people at OLPC can do all by themselves," Bender said. "Getting more talent lined up to help us is only a plus." ''
At least the initial wave of XO computers will still use processors from Advanced Micro Devices. AMD has been a major partner in One Laptop Per Child, along with such other big names as Google Inc., News Corp. and Red Hat Inc. But without a doubt, Intel would love to oust AMD as the processor supplier. After all, that is Intel's core business - not selling little computers.
"We're going to go compete for the XO business, because we think we build first-class silicon," Swope said.
AMD's liaison to the One Laptop project, Rebecca Gonzales, said she welcomed Intel's involvement. "As a partner with OLPC, we support them in their mission, and if Nicholas believes that this is part of the mission and this is what is going to be best for OLPC, we will go along with them," she said.
Several countries have expressed interest in the $175 laptop, but One Laptop Per Child's leaders have backed away from predicting which governments will be first to officially sign contracts to buy the machines. The project needs orders for 3 million laptops before its low-cost supply chain kicks into action.
"We're definitely going to be doing stuff in South America, Africa and Asia right from the very beginning," Bender said Friday.
One possible selling point for the Classmate, at least for some buyers, is that it can run a version of Microsoft Corp.'s familiar Windows software in addition to the open-source Linux system. Instead, XOs use a homegrown, open-source setup that avoids windows, folders and other familiar formats in favor of a new approach designed to be intuitive to children.
Microsoft has been working to get Windows to run on XOs. But it still doesn't appear that will be ready soon, according to Will Poole, who heads Microsoft's emerging-markets group. The main reason is that it is hard to tweak Windows so it can interact with the nonstandard things that make XOs innovative, including their display and power-saving technologies.
OLPC: http://www.laptop.org
Classmate: http://www.intel.com/intel/worldahead/classmatepc
Internet access in Egypt and Pakistan was brought down after a ship's anchor broke a cable just off the coast of Alexandria.
Jonathan Richards
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3291606.ece
Internet companies in the Middle East were still trying to restore connections for their customers today after an undersea cable the width of a human finger was severed, bringing down networks in the region.
Two of the most important cables carrying internet traffic from Europe to South Asia were cut by a ship's anchor off the coast of Alexandria on Wednesday, disrupting internet traffic and phone services in Egypt, Kuwait and as far away as Pakistan.
It is understood that the first two cables were broken after a severe weather warning in the Mediterranean Sea forced weather officials in Egypt to tell ships in the vicinity of Alexandria to drop their anchors. Two of the 40 ships that were nearby are thought to have unwittingly dropped their anchors directly on top of the cables, which are buried only 50cm beneath the surface and can easily be snagged.
Paolo Rosa, a spokesman for the International Telecommunications Union, said that submarine cables were prone to being affected by earthquakes, fishing equiment, and anchors, but that in areas of high risk, particularly near coastlines, they often split in two so that traffic could be re-routed in the event of damage.
The cables, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build, were made of fibre-optic material, and would have been " just a bit bigger than the width of a finger," he said.
http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-31722520080202?sp=true
India's booming outsourcing industry, which provides a range of back-office services, like insurance claims processing and customer support to overseas clients over the Internet, played down Wednesday's disruption, saying they had used back-up plans.
FLAG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of India's number two mobile operator Reliance Communications, said on its Web site on Friday its FALCON cable had been reported cut at 0559 GMT, 56 kms (35 miles) from Dubai, between the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
The Internet Service Providers' Association of India said cable repair ships had already been sent to fix the breaches off northern Egypt, which are in segments of two intercontinental cables known as SEA-ME-WE-4 and FLAG Europe-Asia.
FLAG's rival, Indian Internet service provider Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL), said the majority of its Internet services to the Middle East and North Africa had been restored within 24 hours, as had services to India.
One of the biggest disruptions of modern telecoms systems was in December 2006, when a magnitude 7.1 earthquake broke nine submarine cables between Taiwan and the Philippines, cutting connections between southeast Asia and the rest of the world.
A deep-sea earthquake in the Luzon Strait, off the coast of Taiwan, wreaked havoc with internet connections in China for weeks, and triggered disruptions as far away as the United States.
Internet links were thrown out in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines, disrupting the activities of banks, airlines and all kinds of email users. Traffic was rerouted through other cables, but it took 49 days to restore full capacity.
Internetworking Indonesia is a semi-annual journal devoted to the timely study of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Internet development in Indonesia. The journal seeks high-quality manuscripts on the challenges and opportunities presented by information technology and the Internet in Indonesia.
http://www.InternetworkingIndonesia.org
Deadline for submissions: 30 October 2008
Notification of acceptance: 30 December 2008
Author Final Revision (CRC): 30 January 2009
FOCUS & SCOPE
Internetworking Indonesia aims to become the foremost publication for practitioners, teachers, researchers and policy makers to share their knowledge and experience in the design, development, implementation, and the management of ICT and the Internet in Indonesia.
TOPICS
Internetworking Indonesia welcomes and strongly encourages submissions based on interdisciplinary approaches focusing on ICT & Internet development and its related aspects in the Indonesian context. These include (but not limited to) information technology, communications technology, computer sciences, electrical engineering, and the broader social studies regarding ICT and Internet development in Indonesia.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
*Information technology and information systems
*Communications technology
*Software and hardware engineering
*Applications and services
*Broadband and telecommunications technologies
*Mobile and wireless networks
*Internet infrastructure systems, protocols and technologies
*Technical challenges and developments of computer networks in Indonesia
*Internet Infrastructure development in Indonesia
*Multimedia and content development
*Education and distant learning
*Communications policy development and regulatory issues in the Indonesian context
*E-Government in Indonesia
*Internet governance in Indonesia
*Open source software development and deployment
*Social and economic impact of ICT and Internet technologies to the Indonesian society.
*Social networks, Peer-to-Peer computing and blogging
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Internetworking Indonesia accepts a variety of manuscripts in both English and Bahasa Indonesia. Please review the descriptions below and identify the submission type best suited to your intended submission:
*Research Paper: Research papers are theoretically driven, focusing on an area listed in the Topics.
*Technical paper: Technical papers present advances and research results in a given area study.
* Policy Viewpoint: Policy Viewpoints explore competing perspectives in the Indonesian policy debate that are informed by academic research.
*Teaching Innovation: Teaching Innovation papers explore creative uses of information technology tools and the Internet to improve learning and education in Indonesia.
* Book Reviews: A review of a book, or other book-length document, such as a government report or foundation report. (3 pages max.)
SUBMISSION LANGUAGE
Manuscripts in English and Bahasa Indonesia are accepted.
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
Manuscripts should be submitted according to the IEEE Guide for authors, and will be refereed in the standard way. Manuscript pages should not exceed 7 pages of the IEEE 2-column format, preferably submitted electronically in a MS-Word file format.
All manuscripts should be submitted electronically. Please download from this link,
http://internetworkingindonesia.org/internetworking-indonesia-journal-cfp.pdf
Manuscripts submitted to Internetworking Indonesia must not have been previously published or committed to another publisher under a copyright transfer agreement, and must not be under consideration by another journal.
Authors of accepted papers are responsible for the Camera Ready Copy (CRC) in the IEEE 2-column format (MS-Word file). Authors are advised that no revisions of the manuscript can be made after acceptance by the Editor for publication. The benefits of this procedure are many, with speed and accuracy being the most obvious.
We look forward to working with your electronic submission which will allow us to serve you more efficiently.
CO-EDITORS
Thomas Hardjono, PhD (Wave Systems, USA)
Budi Rahardjo, PhD (ITB, Indonesia)
Kuncoro Wastuwibowo, MSc (PT. Telkom Indonesia)
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Mark Baugher, MA (Cisco Systems, USA)
Lakshminath Dondeti, PhD (Qualcomm, USA)
Prof. Merlyna Lim, PhD (Arizona State University, USA)
Prof. Bambang Parmanto, PhD (University of Pittsburgh, USA)
Prof. Wishnu Prasetya, PhD (Utrecht University, The Netherlands)
Prof. Jennifer Seberry, PhD (University of Wollongong, Australia)
Prof. Willy Susilo, PhD (University of Wollongong, Australia)
OPEN ACCESS PUBLICATION POLICY
The Internetworking Indonesia journal provides open access to all of its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. This is the philosophy of the Open Journal Systems (see the Public Knowledge Project at pkp.sfu.ca). The journal will be published electronically and there are no subscription fees. Such access is associated with increased readership and increased citation of an author's work.
The chinese believes today marks the beginning of the year of the rat. The rat is one of the twelve animals in the [[chinese horoscope|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_horoscope]] devised by Buddha 2559 years ago. There will be a twelve years cycle before we enter another year of the rat. The chinese also believes in prophecies following each year of the animal. Below is few of those prophecies.
[img[Gong Xi Fat Choy|blog/cny 2559s.jpg]]
The year of the rat, dangers lurks ahead
31/01/2008 by Vasu Menon
Fengshui expert, Master Ong Thiam Peng of I-Ching Geomancy Centre, warns that investors should exercise caution in the Year of the Rat as the controlling hexagram in the I-Ching indicates inherent dangers lurking ahead.
He said that the hexagram, called “anticipation”, in the I-Ching – China’s ancient book of wisdom, the embodiment of Taoist philosophy – shows the image of “thunder above the ground,” which implies that investors are likely to be shocked intermittently by market moving events during the Year of the Rat, and they have to brace themselves for significant volatility.
Given the uncertainties looming in the horizon, Master Ong suggested that investors stay in areas they know best and avoid treading into new and unfamiliar terrain.
//The chinese also believes in five elements that controls the universe. Those elements are fire, earth, metal, water, wood. And each element is twelve years, so there will be sixty years to complete the cycle of the elements before we can enter another cycle of the elements. The year of the rat starts the twelve year of earth element. How prophecies will tell you, the following predictions will do.//
Fire Industry: Average
Properties of fire: warm and gives off heat.
Fire industries are those related to electrical products, stock markets, restuarants, lightings shops, fast food chains, bakery shops, accounting firms.
Earth Industry: Good
Properties of earth: hard and stillness.
Earth Industries are those related to properties, human resource, pet shops, chemicals, cosmetics, renovations, developers, agriculture, insurance, construction, cosmetic surgery etc.
Metal Industry: Average
Properties of metal: hard and piercing.
Metal Industries are those related to banking, machineries and equiptments, law, fortune telling, gold jewellery, robotics, steel.
Water Industry: Good
Properties of water: Wavy.
Water Industries are those that deal with internet (dotcoms), consultancy, shipping, transportation, logistics, distribution, tourism, lottery, cold beverages, hotels, shipbuilding, information technology, broadcasting, airlines, oil, marine products, money lending, telecommunications, animation, advertising.
Wood Industry: Excellent
Properties of wood: hard and grows upwards.
Wood Industries are those related to Government, printing, seminars/events, universities, schools, textile firms, paper, timber and pulp, furniture, fashion, politics, education, hair salons, photography.
I am afraid these type of traditional predictions can be very ambiguous. What do gold mining company stocks fall under? Metal or earth? There is also no coverage of the modern things like IT, power generation, etc.
I take it for fun reading pleasure, and consider them as noise because I don't make or loose based on these predictions.
Source: www.fundsupermart.com
On Friday Oct 5, shares of Google (nasdaq: GOOG ) climbed 2.6%, or $15.02, to close at $594.05. While Google's meteoric rise seems almost too good to be true, many of Wall Street's analysts say the Internet giant is still a good buy.
http://www.forbes.com/2007/10/05/google-yahoo-closer-markets-equity-cx_er_ml_1005markets35.html?
Google is the undisputed leader in the Internet search game. It's closest rival, Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO ) has seen its progress hampered by management shuffles, including the recent departure of Chief Executive Officer Terry Semel, and snafus related to the launch of its new ad-serving system, Panama.
Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay said that a piece-by-piece analysis implies Yahoo's various businesses are worth almost $39 per share total -- much higher than the $25 price target he currently holds for the company.
Meanwhile, Google hasn't missed a beat, the company has continued to expand its online empire with new acquisitions, such as video-sharing site YouTube and the upcoming takeover of DoubleClick.
According to Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck, Google has the legs to surge past the $600 mark. Peck said a boom in advertising dollars and the recent addition of YouTube, will propel Google in 2008. "Google's efforts in online video, radio and print, have added a layer of value that is absent from its competitor's portfolio of offerings and which has the potential to yield significant financial rewards," Peck said in a research note, according to the Associated Press.
He raised his price target to $700, from $625, and called the Mountain View, Calif.-based company, "one of the best operating companies within our coverage universe." While Peck's praises may seem excessive, he's far from alone.
In a similar move, Nollenberger analyst Todd Greenwald reiterated a "buy" rating and raised his price target to $650 from $575. According to Greenwald's checks, Google enjoyed a strong third quarter that was led by gains in Europe.
While Greenwald is very positive on Google's third quarter, he says the stock's value lies in its growth prospects. "Still a lot of dry powder at Google's disposal," he said. "Beyond the near-term, there remains a wealth of untapped opportunity for Google, in both the mobile advertising arena, as well as display advertising (assuming the DoubleClick acquisition goes through – we believe it will). Not to mention the paid search market, where Google remains dominant, continues to take market share on a monthly basis, and sees improvements in monetization."
[[Jim Collins|http://www.jimcollins.com/]] is the author of the best-selling management books [[Built to Last|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Built_to_Last:_Successful_Habits_of_Visionary_Companies]] and Good to Great. Collins provided the following questions and answers to The Jakarta Post contributor Gaby Motuloh.
Supplement - November 01, 2006
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20061101.Q01
Question: Where should leaders begin if they want to build a great company?
Answer: The first most important decisions are people decisions. The corporate leaders we studied who ignited transitions from good to great practiced the discipline of "First Who": first get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people into the right seats and then figure out where to drive the bus.
How did the leaders you studied "get the right people on the bus"?
They adopted the approach: "Let's take the time to make rigorous A+ selections right up front. If we get it right, we'll do everything we can to try to keep them on board for a long time. If we make a mistake, then we'll confront that fact, so that we can get on with our work and they can get on with their lives." Early assessment mechanisms turn out to be as important as hiring mechanisms. There is no perfect interviewing technique, no ideal hiring method; even the best executives make hiring mistakes. You can only know for certain about a person by working with that person
What would you see as the most common mistake that impeded progress toward greatness?
Looking for the dramatic big decision that will catapult a company to greatness in one fell swoop; greatness just doesn't happen that way. When you study the long course of great companies, looking at their development over years, we see that no decision -- no matter how big -- accounts for more than a small fraction of the company's total momentum. Greatness gets built by a series of good decisions, executed supremely well, added one upon another, over a long period of time -- what we came to call "the flywheel effect." In the long arc of a great company, no single decision makes for even 10 percent of the ultimate greatness of the institution.
You've said that the best leaders you studied led with questions more than with answers; can you explain?
Leading from good to great does not mean coming up with the answers and then motivating everyone to follow your messianic vision. It means having the humility to grasp the fact that you do not yet understand enough to have the answers and then to ask the questions that will lead to the best possible insights. The good-to-great companies in our research had a penchant for intense dialog. Phrases like "loud debate," "heated discussions," and "healthy conflict" peppered the articles and interview transcripts. They didn't use discussion as a sham process to let people "have their say" so that they could "buy in" to a predetermined decision. The process was more like a heated scientific debate, with people engaged in a search for the best answers.
You talk about the hedgehog concept as the turning point from good to great-can a company have a hedgehog concept that does not involve becoming big?
The essence of a hedgehog concept is to attain piercing clarity about how to produce the best long-term results, and then to exercise the relentless discipline to say "No, thank you" to opportunities that fail the hedgehog test. When we examined the hedgehog concepts of the good-to-great companies, we found they reflected deep understanding of three intersecting circles: 1) what you are deeply passionate about, 2) what you can be the best in the world at, and 3) what best drives your economic engine. The key for any business that wants to compete is to think hard about the answer to these three questions within a local community. Great does not equal big and big does not equal great -- you can have a highly localized hedgehog and be very successful.
How do great companies deal with the need for change?
Any great social enterprise -- whether it be a great company, a great university, a great religious institution, or a great nation -- exemplifies a duality of continuity and change. On the one hand, it is guided by a set of core values and fundamental purpose that change little over time, while on the other hand, it stimulates progress-change, improvement, innovation, renewal -- in all that is not part of the core guiding philosophy. In a great company, core values remain fixed while operating practices, cultural norms, strategies, tactics, processes, structures, and methods continually change in response to changing realities.
What ideas from your research have been most helpful to you as an individual?
I've been particularly influenced by the "First Who" principle. I used to believe that the critical questions in life were about "what" -- what decisions to make, what goals to pursue, what answers to give, what mountains to climb. I've come to see that the most important decisions are not about what, but about who. The primary question is not what mountains to climb, but who should be your climbing partner. If you want to have a great life, the most important question is not what you spend your time doing, but who you spend your time with. First who, then what -- life is people.
What ideas from your research have most appealed to other people at a personal level?
Two ideas: People have found very helpful the idea of a personal hedgehog concept: what you are passionate about, what you are genetically encoded for, what you can make a living at. If you find the intersection of these three circles, you have a personal hedgehog for life. Second is the idea of the Stockdale Paradox for dealing with difficult times: you must retain absolute unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end and at the same time confront the most brutal facts of your current reality. Many people have told me that the Stockdale Paradox helped them through difficult times.
What are the most important lessons you've learned from your passion for rock climbing that have influenced your way of thinking about building great companies?
I've learned so much from rock climbing. I've learned the importance of picking the right partner. I've learned the importance of assessing risk. I've learned the importance of always learning, always being a beginner. But perhaps the most important lesson for business is to not confuse luck with competence. I had a professor in graduate school named Robert Burgelman who pounded into me the idea that the single most dangerous perspective in business and life is not outright failure, but to be successful without being absolutely clear about why you were successful in the first place. Success, he pointed out, clouds judgment.
Apple Inc has launched recently two products which are the iPad and the iPhone 4. iPad has sold more than 2 million units in the first two months after its launch and iPhone 4 has just been announced on June 7, 2010 during a [[world-wide developers conference|http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703303904575292703491815956.html#]].
The ~MacBook Air has been around for a couple of years but we haven’t seen a significant upgrade. Several blogs speculated that Apple could announce of such an update soon. Others questioned whether there is still a place for the ~MacBook Air.
Given the apparent success of the iPad and leaving its huge priced Macbook air behind, Jobs says, “The PC is brilliant…and we like to talk about the post-PC era, but it’s uncomfortable. The transformation of PC to new form factors like the tablet is going to make some people uneasy because the PC has taken us a long ways.”
Having told in [[D8 conference|http://d8.allthingsd.com/20100601/steve-jobs-session/?]] on June 2, 2010, Jobs told that he had invented first the iPad but he saw more in iPhone, so he launched the iPhone three years ago. The iPad was left and duplicated by many other brands as slate, tablet or just another pad.
“I’ll tell you a secret. It began with the tablet. I had this idea about having a glass display, a multitouch display you could type on with your fingers. I asked our people about it. And I gave it to one of our really brilliant UI guys. He got [rubber band] scrolling working and some other things, and I thought, ‘my God, we can build a phone with this!’ So we put the tablet aside, and we went to work on the iPhone.” In this way Apple is going more into the mobile business.
Today, the iPhone has sold 50 million units worldwide.
Somehow Apple was also in the music business. In December 2009, Apple bought an online-music company Lala, which let users pay for access to songs that could be streamed but not downloaded. At the end of May, Apple shut down the site. In this way, Apple expelled a probable competition for its iTunes that would work online allowing users to access their music through any Internet-enabled device.
Jobs also avoids Adobe's Flash that he would incorporate the new standard of html5 exclusively avail in Safari browser. This is by anyway a speculation that he foresees [[html5|New Design Tools, HTML5 and CSS3]] is a better tool with embedded video commands which make web applications easier to tailor.
"We have to pick the things that are going to be the right horse to ride forward. Flash has had it’s day…but html5 is starting emerge. The video looks better and it works better and you don’t need a plug-in to run it." In this way, he sees that an open standard like html5 is good for business.
Apple has a history of doing that, noting that Apple was the first company to dump the floppy and adopt USB.
I can think of that Jobs is merely committing to his iPhone products and the iPad was just a diversion to proof that Apple has still a lead in the new gadget products although iPad was not good enough that it is only compatible with other Apple standards, with no camera, and [[no direct connection|http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/06/09/one-solution-for-china%E2%80%99s-early-ipad-adopters/?]] to the net. This time the iPhone 4 has wifi, crisp display as usual, built-in antenna casing, two cameras, including a front-facing one that allows video chats.
"The best ideas have to win, no matter who has them." Jobs said.
More to read,
[[What Apple Didn’t Mention at the iPhone Launch|http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/06/07/what-apple-didnt-mention-at-the-iphone-launch%C2%A0/?]]
[[As strong rivals emerge, do you really need a new iPhone?|http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/06/04/iphone.competition/index.html?]]
This review was written by Jem Matzan, Jan 03, 2006 at 06:29 PM about a book authored by Tony Bove, Paperback, 264 pages with summary: How to ditch Microsoft and why it's not as hard as you think. I haven't read this book.
http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/content/view/214/
I've never met anyone who genuinely liked Microsoft as a company, or felt that Windows was the best operating system on the market. I'm sure that such people exist somewhere, but for the most part, PC users seem more like they are stuck using Windows and MS Office and other Microsoft software programs. They feel like they have no choice.
The explosive growth of desktop GNU/Linux software distributions and affordable GNU/Linux-based desktop computers has begun to change all that. And of course, for as long as there have been personal computers, there has been Apple. On the surface, Tony Bove's Just Say No to Microsoft seems to be a book that both points out Microsoft's problems and downsides, and suggests viable alternatives. Unfortunately it's poorly researched and appears to spread at least as much misinformation as it tries to debunk.
Writing analysis
The general trend of Just Say No to Microsoft is to bash Microsoft and all of its software products, and push competing Apple products. Much of the claims made by Bove are not cited, so readers can't really tell whether he's offering his opinions or repeating facts. Much of the Microsoft history he relates would be better served with some sources listed.
There are several factual errors in this book, and many things that the author has misinterpreted or misunderstood. The first and most egregious is the author's amateurish lack of understanding of the terms "open source" and "free software," which is strange considering both the Open Source Initiative and the Free Software Foundation offer very clear, detailed, quotable, and easy to find definitions of these terms.
In the book, the author claims that open source software is given away for free and maintained by volunteers, both of which are untrue as statements of fact. Two of the largest open source programs in the world -- the Linux kernel and the OpenOffice.org suite -- are maintained at the top by professional, full-time programmers who are paid to work on them. The largest open source software vendors -- Red Hat and Sun Microsystems -- profitably charge for open source and open source-based software.
This basic misrepresentation of free software and the GNU/Linux operating system ruins the author's credibility throughout the rest of the book. How can readers trust Tony Bove to recommend alternative solutions when he has such an elementary misunderstanding of what can reasonably be said to be the top Microsoft Windows and Office replacements?
[img[No Windows ad|blog/No_Windows.gif]]
All of the non-Windows example screen shots are clearly taken on a Macintosh computer, and the author consistently pushes Apple systems as the primary alternative to Microsoft Windows-based computers, leaving GNU/Linux as an afterthought despite the fact that it works on the same hardware that Windows does. He says at one point that "Only the brave might try Linux on the desktop," without providing clear reasons as to why a user must be brave; he then goes on to say that Apple computers are easier to use, again without providing any evidence. The only screen shots of GNU/Linux that readers see are of ancient versions of the GNOME and KDE desktop environments with blocky and unattractive themes -- almost as if to show that the only attractive desktop environment in the author's world is OS X.
The book also misrepresents KDE by getting its acronym wrong. Microsoft-bashing aside, I'd say that Just Say No to Microsoft is less of a book about Microsoft alternatives and more of a volunteer advertisement for buying Apple computers. There's nothing wrong with that if it is the stated purpose of the book, but Just Say No to Microsoft claims to present alternatives to Windows and Office, and it doesn't objectively do that. Instead it offers opinion interspersed with occasional cited fact, misrepresentation of GNU/Linux, and information that is just plain incorrect. Where were Tony Bove's editors?
Putting the book to the test
The gist of Just Say No to Microsoft is to switch to Apple, or if you are "brave," to switch to GNU/Linux; and to switch from MS Office to OpenOffice.org or AbiWord. There are other books by No Starch Press and competing publishers that better accomplish the task of helping readers migrate data and program settings from Windows to either GNU/Linux or OS X. Just Say No to Microsoft is light on migration details and heavy on anti-Microsoft fervor. That Microsoft has done unethical things is provable and undeniable, but the book makes many allegations that aren't backed up by verifiable facts. Someday I hope to see a good biography on Microsoft, but Just Say No to Microsoft isn't it.
I re-wrote this without permission from Linux Journal [[Let KDE Konquer your Windows desktop|http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/10639]]. This is actually a project on how to install KDE desktop to Windows. The [[KDE|http://www.kde.org/]] itself is a native desktop for most Linux distros. But it is now available to install and //replace// the current default Windows desktop.
I know it is //not// a good choice to run KDE for Windows but this is how to bridge Linux based applications to current Windows users. By installing the KDE desktop on Windows machine, you will get a chance to run usually free software applications not currently available under Windows OS.
It is not a problem for some of the best-known open source software applications, such as Firefox, Thunderbird, ~OpenOffice, GIMP or Pidgin as those are avail to run under Windows various operating system.
Background
Some popular Linux applications, such as those from the KDE desktop software project, cross-platform support have recently become a possibility. KDE relies on the Qt toolkit from Nokia, which has long been available under the GPL for operating systems such as Linux that use the X Window System. But only until the release of a GPL Qt4 for Windows, KDE developers started work on porting the libraries and applications to Windows, and the KDE on Windows Project was born. The project tracks the main KDE releases on Linux and normally has Windows versions of the applications available shortly after.
How it works
Some of the KDE applications are easily to install from a single executable file. The KDE's Konqueror Web browser, although a fine application, is available as alternative to native internet explorer.
It is easy to try out KDE applications on Windows. Simply go to the project [[Web site|http://windows.kde.org]], download and run the installer. You'll be presented with a few choices to make, such as a simple “End User” mode with a flat list of applications or the “Package Manager” mode that is categorized like many of the Linux package managers.
You are given the option of whether to install packages made with the Microsoft compiler or those made with a free software alternative—as many users are likely neither to care about nor understand this option, it may have been better to hide it in an advanced tab.
The installation process works well and is straightforward for anyone who has used a package manager on Linux. Although the installation process is different from that of most Windows applications, the installer is sufficiently well designed that it should not cause problems for most Windows users. The recent and continuing work to split up applications so that users can install exactly what they want also lowers the barriers to trying out KDE applications in Windows.
System Settings also allows you to choose a selection of themes for your KDE applications, including some that tie in well with the Classic and Luna themes in Windows XP. At present, KDE 4 doesn't include special themes for Windows Vista or Windows 7.
Some applications
*digiKam, the photo management application
*~KOffice2 seemed to run quite well on Windows
*Dolphin, the file manager is an attractive and easy-to-use replacement for Explorer
*~KMail, part of the KDE Kontact Personal Information Management suite
*Okular is a lightweight but well featured alternative to Adobe Reader
The potential for some other applications to become popular are Kopete for internet messenger and the proprietary Trillian messenger for multiprotocol messaging clients.
Marble is almost in a class of its own—the nearest competitor perhaps being Google Earth. Kontact, the Personal Information Management suite, also has potential as a compelling cross-platform alternative to existing solutions. Mozilla Thunderbird is a clear competitor, but it lacks comprehensive calendar functionality.
The future of KDE project
The KDE on Windows Project still is quite young, and there are plenty of rough edges in many of the applications and some notable gaps in the application line-up. Some of the applications have great potential to fill gaps in the Windows application world, particularly as free software alternatives to proprietary applications. As the project Web site freely admits, many of the applications may not yet be ready for day-to-day use, but they are well worth checking out and will only get better.
The spread of KDE applications to Windows also has had benefits for the wider KDE Project. Getting exposure to users on Windows also gives the potential to attract users to trying KDE 4 on Linux and should make the transition for such users easier if they already know some of the applications.
Privacy is an important issue these days, especially on the Internet. Filters for phishing, spyware and junk E-mail now come as standard features on browsers and E-mail clients. Still, if you're not careful, you might just become a victim of identity theft. Fortunately there are some precautions you can take to avoid being a victim.
Features - June 12, 2006 by Arnawa Widagda, Contributor, Jakarta
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20060612.Q02
First of all, don't give your E-mail address and other important personal information freely, online or offline. You'd be amazed how many people don't follow this simple advice. They plaster their personal information on homepages, blogs, and E-mails.
Several months ago, CNet published an article on how easy it is to find personal information about anyone on the Internet, just by searching their name and some keywords on Google.
Sometimes you have to share your E-mail address and personal info -- for example, to subscribe to a website or mailing list. In this case, you should check the privacy policy of the website or mailing list you're subscribing to.
Read it carefully, make a copy and print it if you have to. Pay special attention to the part concerning your personal information and E-mail address. If they don't have a clear-cut policy on this matter, don't register. If you're comfortable with their policy, go ahead and register.
Since most websites get revenue from advertising, they may send you promotional E-mails from their advertisers in the form of newsletters or bulletins, or share your information with third party advertisers.
If you don't want to receive newsletters from them or from third party advertisers, state so or choose so in the appropriate place on the registration form.
To minimize spam, you may want to use a secondary E-mail address as a "buffer". So, instead of sharing your primary E-mail address, you share this secondary address. You can use various E-mail services for this purpose, preferably those with spam filtering and forwarding services.
Then set up your secondary E-mail account to forward the "clean" E-mails to your primary E-mail address. If that's not enough, you may want to use a filter in your E-mail client. This filter is not a blacklist, but a whitelist.
A whitelist is the opposite of a blacklist. It means only e-mails from the people on the list will be allowed through.
Second, once a month, do a keyword search on Google or other search engines for your name or E-mail address. While you may not be sharing personal information about yourself, other people might. Some institutions publish their staff's personal info on their website, for example.
If the company or institution you work for does this, ask them to take your personal information offline. After all, you didn't give them permission to do that.
In addition to E-mails, most of us who are active on the Internet use Instant Messaging. If you use ICQ, you're probably aware that most users supply lots of personal information to the ICQ database, which can be accessed through the ICQ Whitepages.
Change your contact details or change your privacy options so only your contacts can view your personal information.
Coincidentally, if you're using Yahoo! Messenger, your Yahoo! Messenger nickname is also your e-mail address with Yahoo! Mail. So, anyone who sees your nickname somewhere on the Internet will most likely be able to guess your Yahoo! E-mail address.
Thankfully, Yahoo! Mail's E-mail filter is very smart at catching spam. To defend against Instant Messaging spam, you can change your privacy options to show you as invisible to everyone except your friends.
The Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have served as one of China's important economic engines for more than two decades.
Opinion and Editorial - August 11, 2006 by Yuliana Bahar, Quangzhou, China
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20060811.E03
Recently, businesspeople in India called upon their government to "carbon copy" China's SEZs, and currently Indonesia also is preparing Batam, Bintan and Karimun islands as SEZs. There are five areas designated as China's SEZs. They are Shenzhen, Shantou, Zhuhai, Hainan and Xiamen, and all of them are located on the Southern coast of China.
From the beginning, China's SEZs have been specifically designed to attract foreign capital, technology and management skills, especially from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao and overseas Chinese compatriots. Their objectives are to boost foreign trade, enhance the capacity of human resources and create massive job opportunities, increase the competitiveness of China's products in the international market and develop China's new modern industrial community, which later on can be used as a model for application in the rest of China.
More than 25 years after the SEZs' establishment, they are now facing some challenges arising from developments inside and outside China. Should our government adopt the concept of China's SEZs? There are some lessons to learn from China's success story and the challenges of the SEZs' implementation.
First, location matters. It was not without any thought that Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, Xiamen and Hainan were selected to be China's SEZs. Before their designation as SEZs, those areas were backward small villages with a lack of basic infrastructure and industrial resources and lower populations compared to other developed areas in North China. However, those areas have the geographical advantages of location and open access to one of the busiest international trade sea lanes.
Shenzhen is on China's border with Hong Kong, then already the region's logistics, financial, trade and service center. Zhuhai shares a land border with Macao whose economic capacity, though not as huge as Hong Kong's, was higher than the Mainland's. Shantou and Xiamen are adjacent to Taiwan, one of China's largest trading partners and investors. Equally important is that China's five SEZs have a direct sea route to international trade lanes through the South China Sea.
Second, foreign investment-led trade is the pillar. China's SEZs have been purposely set up to support the growth of its foreign trade through the use of foreign capital. Therefore, China's SEZs have been designed to develop not only the industrial sectors that are export-oriented, but are also able to optimize the use of foreign capital, management, advance technology and equipment.
However, the expanded foreign trade and the inflow of foreign investment have become factors that may hamper the sustainability of economic growth in China's SEZs. Foreign trade and investment have become the dominant contributors to the economic growth, leaving behind disproportionate equilibrium among the pillars of growth.
Third, the government's unwavering commitment and consistent policies are the key. The Chinese government has succeeded in maintaining a conducive investment climate and foreign trade- and environment-friendly policies.
When the Tiananmen Square protests took place and the conservatives tried to hinder the economic reform already taking place in China's SEZs, Deng Xiaoping made his famous "Southern Inspection Trip" just to reiterate the Chinese central government's solid commitment to the SEZs. A trip which then produced more market-friendly policies and incentives for foreign investors in the SEZs.
Nevertheless, the still dominant role of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the industrial sector and foreign trade and the SOEs' lukewarm response to reform have made it difficult for the establishment of the effective political and institutional infrastructure needed to support a market economy.
Fourth, reliable market research is imperative. Prior to the establishment of SEZs, and then during their establishment, the Chinese government has been continuously conducting and improving market analysis to determine which industrial sectors will be most competitive in the international market.
The major industrial sectors in China's SEZs are concentrated mainly in high-tech industries and particularly in the electronics, automotive and biotech manufacturers and the development of their research and development (R&D) facilities. The output of these sectors are among the leading commodities in international trade.
Fifth, a comparative advantage is quite important. China's SEZs are special areas that have been exempt from national rulings on economic activities, especially when it comes to foreign investment and trade. This exemption has helped to significantly reduce operational and production costs.
Nonetheless, the comparative advantage offered by the SEZs seems to be less appealing than it was in the first few years of the SEZs' operations due to the improving living standards (higher living costs) in the SEZs, China's accession to the World Trade Organization and Beijing's current policy to focus more on developing the less-developed provinces in West China.
The improving living standards in the SEZs have resulted in stronger demand for higher wages, while low wages have been the key factor of the low-cost production in the SEZs. Then, in joining the WTO, China must now comply with the organization's basic principles of free flow of goods, capital, people and services.
Hence, national treatment shall apply equally to all areas within China's territory. Furthermore, more and more favorable policies and incentives, previously privileges given to the SEZs, have been applied in the backward western regions to attract foreign capital.
Last but not least is the optimization of the overseas Chinese compatriots' capital and networking. China has used cultural affiliations to serve its interests in attracting investment, not only from Chinese people living overseas in rich neighboring areas such as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, but also from those in Southeast Asia.
All the five locations for the SEZs are in the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, both have been origins for the Chinese nationals who now live in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. This strategy of cultural affiliation proved to be handsomely rewarded as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao have been the major source of investment and trade partners for the SEZs for more than two decades.
The writer is vice consult at Indonesia's Consulate General in Guangzhou, China. This is a personal opinion. She can be reached at youlianhua@hotmail.com.
Wall Street will take a moment to recall how the Dow plunged nearly 23 percent on "Black Monday" 20 years ago. Wall Street will face on Friday the 20th anniversary of the 1987 stock market crash.
By Robert J. Samuelson, Newsweek Oct. 15, 2007 issue
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21162343/site/newsweek/page/0/
The stock-market crash of 1987 was horrifying even to Americans who weren't shareholders. On Oct. 19, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 508 points, which was 22.6 percent and nearly twice the largest one-day decline during the 1929 crash. A comparable free fall today would be almost 3,200 points. Twenty years later, the crash of 1987 has changed the way we think. It's stripped us of the illusion that financial panics are a thing of the past: they remain a clear and present danger for the economy.
Let's be clear. A financial panic is not just a big price decline. Since World War II, there have been plenty of those. From early 1973 to late 1974, the stock market dropped roughly 50 percent (almost identical to the fall from early 2000 to late 2002). Nor is a panic simply the "popping" of a "bubble," though it might start that way. In a panic, fear takes control. Herd behavior swiftly triumphs. There's a stampede. People want cash—"liquidity," in finance lingo.
Americans thought they had immunized themselves against financial hysteria. Bank runs—depositors wanting their money—were the major form of panic, and Congress had dealt with them. In 1913, it created the Federal Reserve to lend to solvent banks. When that didn't prevent bank runs in the 1930s, Congress added deposit insurance so that a run on one bank would not cause a chain reaction. As for the stock market, the Securities and Exchange Commission, created in 1934, policed for the financial fraud that had often triggered panics. Finally, full-time portfolio managers for "institutional investors" (pensions, mutual funds, insurance companies) and investment houses dominated markets. Better informed, these professionals seemed less susceptible to herd behavior.
On Oct. 19, these comforting beliefs vaporized. General Electric fell from 50 to 41, Procter & Gamble from 84 to 61, IBM from 134 to 103 (all prices rounded to the nearest point). To be sure, stocks had seemed overvalued. Since recent lows in mid-1982, they had roughly tripled. The market's price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) was 22, up from 13 four years earlier. //The P/E is an indicator of stock value. If a company has earnings—profits—of $1 per share and a stock price of $15, its P/E is 15.// Although stocks might go lower, few investors expected a collapse.
What's fascinating is that "20 years later, we don't know much more about the causes of the crash than we did when it happened," writes Matthew Rees in The American magazine. In his recent memoir, former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan takes a similar view. Still, as Rees's retrospective makes clear, three lessons stand out.
First, financial markets change constantly, and, because what's unfamiliar is risky, they create new opportunities for miscalculation and mayhem. The unpleasant surprise in 1987 involved futures markets. Futures contracts (in effect, bets on some future price) on the Standard & Poor's index of 500 stocks were fairly new. As stock prices dropped, some investors sold S&P futures contracts—and their declines drove stock prices down more. The two fed on each other.
Second, financial markets depend on computerized systems to provide prices and complete trades, and their breakdown can compound turmoil. Without accurate prices, many investors freeze or panic. In October 1987, the New York Stock Exchange's order system was overwhelmed. Delays often exceeded an hour.
Third, professional money managers fall prey to greed, fear and crowd behavior as much as amateurs. The SEC's post-crash study found that two thirds of trading came from institutional investors and investment houses.
The crash of 1987 did have a happy ending. Early on Oct. 20, the Fed issued a one-sentence statement reaffirming its "readiness to serve as a source of liquidity to support the economic and financial system."
Translation: it eased credit. Gerald Corrigan, head of the New York Fed, privately urged banks to maintain loans to brokers and securities dealers; that helped avert a fire sale of securities supported by credit. Around noon, many big companies —General Motors, Ford, Citicorp— announced buybacks of their stocks. That propped up prices. The panic subsided; the market stabilized. On Oct. 20, the Dow rose 102 points.
Since the 1987 crash, there's been a steady stream of financial upsets—the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis; the failure of the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management in 1998; the popping of the stock bubble in 2000, and now the "subprime" mortgage debacle. None has turned into a full-fledged panic, and it's tempting to conclude that we've learned how to manage these problems.
Perhaps. But this may be wishful thinking. Global markets are more complex than ever. Financial innovations (again: "subprime" mortgages) constantly surprise, unpleasantly. Dependence on technology has deepened. Herd behavior endures. The real legacy of 1987 is: expect the unexpected.
A woman employee at Googleplex said in recent [[Oprah Winfrey|http://oprah.com ]] show, "it's better to work here than doing nothing". Google has accommodated all employees with playground and free meals in its headquarter called the [[Googleplex|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googleplex ]].
It wasn't hard for Google's founders to break the rules of a traditional company - they had never worked full time at one. Stacy Sullivan, Google's first human resources executive, recalls that the founders came to her on her second day on the job, in late 1999, and suggested that the company convert a conference room into a childcare center. Google employees had a sum total of two children at the time. Though Sullivan eventually convinced them that, because of zoning issues, the conference room was not a proper child-care facility, "they looked at me and said, 'Why not?' "
http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/culture.html
Though growing rapidly, Google still maintains a small company feel. At the Googleplex headquarters almost everyone eats in the Google café (known as "Charlie's Place"), sitting at whatever table has an opening and enjoying conversations with Googlers from all different departments. Topics range from the trivial to the technical, and whether the discussion is about computer games or encryption or ad serving software, it's not surprising to hear someone say, "That's a product I helped develop before I came to Google."
[[Google Is No. 1: Search and Enjoy|http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/05/magazines/fortune/Search_and_enjoy.fortune/index.htm?]]
Of course, when it comes to America's new Best Company to Work For, the food is, well, just the appetizer. At Google you can do your laundry; drop off your dry cleaning; get an oil change, then have your car washed; work out in the gym; attend subsidized exercise classes; get a massage; study Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, and French; and ask a personal concierge to arrange dinner reservations.
Care to refer a friend to work at Google? Google would like that too, and it'll give you a $2,000 reward. Just have a new baby? Congratulations! Your employer will reimburse you for up to $500 in takeout food to ease your first four weeks at home. Looking to make new friends? Attend a weekly TGIF party, where there's usually a band playing. Five on site doctors are available to give you a checkup, free of charge.
Many Silicon Valley companies provide shuttle-bus transportation from area train stations. Google operates free, 'Wi-Fi-enabled coaches' from five Bay Area locations. Lactation rooms are common in corporate America; Google provides breast pumps so that nursing moms don't have to haul the equipment to work. Work is such a cozy place that it's sometimes difficult for Google employees to leave the office, which is precisely how the company justifies the expenses, none of which it breaks out of its administrative costs.
Even people who don't work here like to loiter: The company has become a stop on the world lecture circuit, attracting the likes of Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. "You've got to ask yourself why these people are coming here," says 24-year-old engineer Neha Narula. "I think they come here to be energized by the people at Google."
The people at Google, it should be stated, almost universally see themselves as the most interesting people on the planet. Googlers tend to be happy-go-lucky on the outside, but Type A at their core. Ask one what he or she is doing, and it's never "selling ads" or "writing code." No, they're on a quest "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." That's from the actual mission statement, by the way, which employees can and do cite with cloying frequency.
The perks of being a Googler
It's easy for Google's people to be energized, though, when their company is so stinking rich that it continues to ooze cash even while lavishing benefits on its staff. Just eight years out of the garage, Google will surpass $10 billion in sales for 2006. Its operating margins are a stunning 35%, and it ended the third quarter with $10.4 billion in cash.
All of which raises the question: Is Google's culture the cause of its success or merely a result?
Yet it reminds me of the first two sentences of the now famous founders' letter Page and Brin distributed to prospective Google shareholders before the company's 2004 IPO: "Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one." Mission accomplished.
In its earliest days Google was more or less a postdoctoral extension of the Stanford computer science department, from which Page, Brin, and a goodly number of their pals sprang. To this day, they jam employees into shared offices and cubicles and would do so even if Google had more space - because Page, a student of "office flow," likes the idea of recreating that university environment in which he and Brin wrote the first Google search engine.
The two hired a chef early on because it beat heating up ramen noodles.
As a seven-year veteran of the company, engineer Jen Fitzpatrick has developed a more sophisticated palate, preferring the raw bar at the Basque-themed Café Pintxo, a tapas joint in building 47. Her mother is thrilled she's eating well at work: "She came in for lunch once and thanked the chef," says Fitzpatrick. Joshua Bloch, an expert on the Java software language, swears by the roast quail at haute eatery Café Seven, professing it to be the best meal on campus. "It's uniformly excellent," he raves.
I found that to be a gross distortion of the facts. The roasted black bass with parsley pesto and bread crumbs had a delicate flavor, superior mouth feel, and a light yet satisfying finish that seemed to me unmatched among the 11 free gourmet cafeterias Google runs at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters.
Even the vast buffet that is the tech company's campus, however, cannot obscure the obstacles the company is facing. Says co-founder Sergey Brin: "I mean, the cafés have always been pretty healthy, but the snacks are not, and the efforts to fix that have been remarkably challenging." Though company lore has it that Brin and co-founder Larry Page believe no worker should be more than 150 feet from a food source, clearly not all food is equal. "A lot of people like their M&Ms. But the easy access is actually what's bad for them," he says.
Art Levinson, for his part, sees a parallel to Genentech that goes far beyond any perks. "What draws people to both companies is the environment, one where they have an ability to pursue things largely on their own terms," he says. Of course, there is one more reason Levinson is a Google acolyte: "Here I am, a guy who can afford a good meal, and every time I go to a Google board meeting, I don't leave until ten o'clock at night because I get a free dinner there."
At Google it really does always come back to the food.
- From various sources.
The environmental group WWF has urged governments, businesses and households to turn back to candle power for at least 60 minutes Saturday starting at 8 p.m. wherever they were.
[img[Chicago|blog/chicago.jpg]]
Cities go dark to mark Earth Hour
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/29/lights.out.ap/index.html?
The campaign began last year in Australia and traveled this year from the South Pacific to Europe in cadence with the setting of the sun. From Rome's Colosseum to the Sydney Opera House to the Sears Tower's famous antennas in Chicago, floodlit icons of civilization have gone dark for Earth Hour, a worldwide campaign to highlight the waste of electricity and the threat of climate change.
"What's amazing is that it's transcending political boundaries and happening in places like China, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea," said Andy Ridley, executive director of Earth Hour. "It really seems to have resonated with anybody and everybody."
[[Earth Hour|www.earthhour.org]] officials hoped 100 million people would turn off their nonessential lights and electronic goods for the hour. Electricity plants produce greenhouse gases that fuel climate change. Organizers see the event as a way to encourage the world to conserve energy.
Lights also went out at the famed Wat Arun Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Thailand; shopping and cultural centers in Manila, Philippines; several castles in Sweden and Denmark; the parliament building in Budapest, Hungary; a string of landmarks in Warsaw, Poland; and both London City Hall and Canterbury Cathedral in England.
Internet search engine Google lent its support to Earth Hour by blackening its normally white home page and challenging visitors: "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn."
Twenty-three major cities worldwide, along with 300 smaller cities, took part in Earth Hour, a campaign by environmental group WWF to highlight the need to conserve energy and fight global warming.
[img[Sidney harbour went to sleep, before and after|blog/cities.jpg]]
The number of participants was not immediately available, but organizers were hoping to beat last year's debut, when 2.2 million people and more than 2,000 businesses shut off lights and appliances, resulting in a 10.2 percent reduction in carbon emissions during that hour.
WWF Thailand said the lights out campaign in Bangkok saved 73.34 megawatts of electricity, which would have produced 45.8 tons of carbon dioxide.
In Manila, the grounds of the seaside Cultural Center of the Philippines went dark after four city mayors ceremonially switched off the lights. Shopping malls turned off street lamps around the metropolis.
There are issues that [[Linus Torvalds|http://www.linux.org/info/linus.html]] didn't get along with Richard Stallman (RMS), the creator of [[Free Software Foundation|http:www.fsf.org]]. And Linus would likely follows the GPLv2 instead of GPLv3.
Recently he or //someone// wrote on his blog at http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/2008/11/black-and-white.html
>I love seeing people who are really passionate about what they do, and many people have something they really care about. It's just that when that becomes something exclusionary, it often gets ugly. It's not passion for something, it becomes passion against something else.
>
>This is, just to take an example, one of the reasons I try to avoid talking much about Microsoft - I'm very passionate about Linux (obviously), but quite frankly, I really find the whole notion of Linux as being "against Microsoft" to be silly and wrong-headed. Yeah, I might make an occasional tongue-in-cheek joke or two, but does anybody really seriously think that you can put 17+ years of your life and make good decisions based on hate and fear?
>
>That was also why I didn't (and don't) like GPLv3 - I think many of the changes weren't due to being "pro free software", but more a mindless reaction against things like TiVO, and the whole black-and-white, "good vs evil" mindset."
>
[[Comment on why should Linux follows GPLv3?]]
I was incredibly disappointed to see that Microsoft was included as a sponsor of Linux Asia 2007. This completely shortsighted move on the part of the organizers made participating or sponsoring the event even less meaningful.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
http://osindia.blogspot.com/2007/02/linux-asia-2007-and-microsoft.html
Our feedback to the organizers has been that audience generation has not been up to expectations. My blunt feedback to the organizers was that when the platform is called Linux Asia, they should not have invited Microsoft. If it was IT Asia or some such title, inviting Microsoft would have been OK, but to invite a company that has done so much to damage the open source revolution was a sell-out.
//The agenda was quite stale. For example, there was no presence from Kerala, which has done so much in the area of Free and Open Source Software or around the issue of software patents that has come up specially after the Microsoft Novell deal.//
In future, I would rather support community events like FOSS.in. (Venkates H. Hariharan)
[[More comments|Microsoft seems to have hijacked Linux Asia]]
Friday I was one of the presenters at the Linux Asia 2007 Open XML workshop. This event took place at Delhi's India Habitat Centre, and it gave me a chance to hear some new perspectives on Open XML and file formats in general. We had about 30 attendees, including students and teachers, government elites and tech-sector people, and -- of course -- Linux developers.
by [[Doug Mahugh|http://blogs.msdn.com/dmahugh/archive/2007/02/03/linux-asia-open-xml-workshop.aspx]]
Published 03 February 07 09:14 PM
Mr. M. Moni, the head of India's e-Government Standards Committee, kicked off the event by saying "it is both strange and welcome to have Microsoft here today." He then discussed the Indian government's commitment to open standards, stressing the importance of open dialog between government and industry, and spoke of the huge investment in existing documents in both the public and private sectors.
Next up was my good friend Vijay Kapur, Microsoft's National Technology Officer for India. Vijay provided some background on standards in general, including an overview of the ISO Fast-Track process. He also covered the "XML-ization" of the Office file formats over the last 10 years, and touched on the goals and benefits of document format standards.
During my presentation, I took the attendees through the details of Open XML architecture, starting with the basics of the Open Packaging Convention and demonstrating how to create a simple Hello-World document using nothing but Notepad and WinZip. I also showed off some of the creative work ISVs have done with the Open XML file formats, and covered some of the specific design decisions that went into Open XML, especially in the areas of compatibility, interoperability, and performance.
We had a special treat, for us as well as the attendees, when two college students demonstrated Open XML applications they have created. In both cases, they had built their applications by referring to the samples on OpenXmlDeveloper.org, with no help from Microsoft or anyone else. In fact, I had just met Akshaya Sharma the day before, and I met Dipanker Sarkar minutes before we started.
Akshaya's application is written in C#, but he didn't bother to use Microsoft's System.IO.Packaging API and instead used a third-party ZIP library to edit a SpreadsheetML document. He demonstrated how his application allows the user to select an existing spreadsheet, make changes to the data in a grid control (including adding rows if desired), then write the result back out to a new file.
Dipanker's application is written in C++ on the Linux platform. It presents the user with a form to fill in a few fields, then creates a WordprocessingML document (as a DOCX file) from the entered information. For his presentation, Dipanker created a DOCX file and put it on a thumb drive, which I then inserted into my Vista laptop and opened the document in Word 2007.
At the end of the 2.5-hour workshop, we had an interesting discussion of issues and options in implementing Open XML and converting existing documents into the Open XML format. I was impressed at the level of technical knowledge exhibited by some of the attendees, especially those in governmental IT positions. It's clear that India's top technology officials are interested in the low-level details, which was great to see.
After the workshop, we went out to the exhibition area and looked around a bit. At the Microsoft booth I met several interesting people, including Niyam Bhushan, a consulting editor for BenefIT Magazine. He has a long and active history in India's open-source community, and is a very creative guy. (For example, he designed the Free Software Foundation India logo and he's the founder of CreativeDot.org.) Niyam took the time to introduce me to others at the conference and made me feel very welcome. He said it was a shame that the OpenDocument Format and Office Open XML workshops took place on different days, and suggested that in the future it would be great if we could have a panel discussion of document formats that includes experts in both formats. Great idea, Niyam, set it up!
All in all, my first Linux conference was an enjoyable and interesting event. Thanks to everyone involved.
Free and/or Open Source Software (FOSS) offers many opportunities for human development from many perspectives - political, economic, and even social. But the lack of local capacity to implement FOSS solutions is the greatest barrier to FOSS adoption and its increased use by the general public.
It was recommended at the 2004 Free and Open Source Software Asia-Pacific Consultation (FOSSAP) in Kuala Lumpur that the UNDP-International Open Source Network or IOSN assist in conducting training/capacity building projects in FOSS.
by Myk Gumapos — last modified 2007-09-07 08:16 AM
August 28 - September 20, 2007 (application and selection process)
October 1-31, 2007 (e-learning component)
November 5-10, 2007 (face-to-face component)
For participants from: Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam
Background
IOSN has conducted Linux Training of Trainers (LTOTs) in four (4) countries in 2006 (Vietnam, Fiji, Thailand, Philippines). These LTOTs prepared the participants to take the LPI Level 1 certification examinations. With more than a hundred participants, the TOT has produced a number of LPI Level 1 certified participants, and some have subsequently shown exceptional ability to train within their own communities as well. Subsequent more refined TOTs were organised by IOSN ASEAN+3 in Bangkok, Manila, and again in Hanoi with technical and financial support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada and InWEnt Capacity Building International, Germany.
This action proposes an advanced training program for LPI Level 1 certified trainers and prepares them for the LPI Level 2 certification exam. The action is targeted towards successful trainers from Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, which will be enabled to obtain further certification in Linux systems administration and to develop material that prepares other LPI-level 1 certified persons to take LPI-level 2 exams.
The Linux Professionals Institute (LPI) community certification program is a non-distribution specific program that certifies the competency level of Linux practitioners. It has three levels. With lessons learned from all of the past LTOT sessions where participants were prepared for the level 1 LPI community certification, there is now a need and strong interest to enhance the trainers pool by upgrading them to LPI level 2 certification.
Objectives
* A corps of Linux experts is prepared for the LPI Level 2 exam by a one month's e-learning course as well as by a one week's training course
* Training material for LPI Level 2, which can be used by others online, is developed by the participants, guided by an LPIC-2 training expert.
* The Participants are able to develop a strategy for implementing advanced Linux training programs that prepare other Linux systems administrators for the LPI Level 2 exams.
Methodology: Blended learning
Past LTOT (for LPI Level 1 certification) showed that a certain level of experience with Linux resulted in successful certification. In addition, these participants with experience were able to fill in the collective gaps by sharing their knowledge with one another.
Therefore, a participatory, peer-oriented learning process will be employed where LPI level 1 certified participants (assumed to have extended knowledge in Linux administration) will be involved in the development of LPI 2 e-learning materials. In effect, the training will be a virtual writeshop where experts are brought together and are encouraged to assist each other by allowing the collective effort fill in the individual knowledge gaps.
The LPI level 2 certification candidates, with the assistance of an LPI 2 certified preceptor, will collaboratively build their knowledge base of complex Linux system administration problems and of various approaches to the solutions. Their output will comprise the content of this new e-learning material (wiki/learning management system). The process itself will be documented as an innovative method of learning for FOSS experts. Since the participants will be observing the process themselves, they can replicate the same learning methodology back in their communities.
Application criteria
Participants who will attend are to be determined on the following criteria:
* Must be LPI Level 1 certified
* Must have some experience administering a Linux PC
* Good command of English, including technical terms used in ICT
* Come from Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines or Vietnam
* Positioned in their organisations to facilitate the adoption of FOSS based applications
* Should have training experience and the ability to train others after the course
* IOSN-InWEnt may bear the costs of the daily allowance and travel costs of selected non-local participants, if they are not able to pay the expenses
* The training can absorb a maximum of 20 participants per training session to ensure the quality of the course delivery to trainees
* Training material shall be adopted from existing material that was used in previous training sessions
Nominated participants should also comprise a mix of private sector, public sector, and civil society. They have to present their LPI ID as proof of their level 1 certification.
They will be required to show evidence that after their level 1 certification that they have trained others on FOSS/Linux or have assisted in the preparation of others for LPI level 2 (websites, pictures, testimonies, course evaluation, references from trainees, etc).
Organisations shall be encouraged to nominate and give preference (where appropriate) to female participants.
Training design and materials
The training design will be participatory and the materials will come from the participants themselves. The LPI Level 2 instructor and the e-learning experts will agree on a generic structure for the content prior to the event but will allow the participants to modify as they see fit.
A pre-face-to-face wiki and mailing list will be created for this purpose.
As the participants are already LPI 1 certified, they would have the means to install, configure, and maintain this wiki amongst themselves in a server provided by IOSN.
How to apply?
Interested individuals are invited to apply for participation by sending your responses below to: asean3[AT]iosn[DOT]net .
Application deadline: September 1, 2007
http://www.iosn.net/asean-3/countries/philippines/events/inwent-iosn-linux-training-of-trainers-for-linux-professionals-insitute-lpi-level-2-manila-philippines-code-ph-ltot-level2
IOSN ASEAN+3 in cooperation with InWEnt Capacity Building International,
Germany and NetNam Corporation in Vietnam will open the 10-day (30 July
to 10 August 2007) Linux Training of Trainers-1 (LTOT-1) in preparation for
the LPI 101 and 102 certification exams, which will be given on 11th August.
[img[Myra in Hanoi, Vietnam|blog/Myra_hanoi.jpg]]
http://www.flickr.com/photos/majill/1099123965/in/set-72157601272717479/
A 2-day FOSS Business Models Forum (30 to 31 July 2007) has also been held with Vietnam companies and businesses participating.
A major barrier against adoption and deployment of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in developing of countries in the Asia Pacific is the lack of human resources with FOSS skills. This programme aims to address the problem by training trainers in countries, so that these trainers in turn will be able to train other trainers and therefore commence self-sustaining development of FOSS human resources.
This course prepares participants for [[Linux Professionals Institute|http://www.lpi.org]] or LPI certification as well as to become Linux trainers in their own right. After the training, the trainers will sit for examination to be certified as LPIC Level 1 Linux professionals.
The low cost LPI certification exam on the 11th August is open to all.
Why training on business models?
Countries that want to adopt FOSS need to build capacity for ICT and FOSS by developing and increasing the pool of human resource skilled in FOSS application and development. Countries face several barriers that must be addressed simultaneously. These barriers include lack of local trainers and developers, high costs of training and certification, and lack of awareness in industry of the benefits of FOSS, FOSS trained human resource, as well as viable FOSS business models.
Yet, as observed from IOSN's previous engagements, awareness and capacity development cannot be endpoints in and of themselves. A nurturing ICT ecosystem must exist wherein suppliers and end users of FOSS products and services are able to understand each other's roles and support each other's needs.
Therefore, in addition, a 2-day parallel seminar on Introduction to FOSS Business Models will be conducted. The training is part of the [[it@foss initiative|http://www.it-foss.org]].
The Hanoi twin-event will be held at the Institute of Information Technology. Our congratulations to NetNam Vu The Binh's leadership and motivation that this activity has finally come to Vietnam.
http://www.thoibaoviet.com
http://www.inwent.org
http://www.it-foss.org
http://www.iosn.net
by Mark Minasi http://www.minasi.com, John Wiley & Sons; 1st edition (November 26, 2002) "Linux for Windows NT/2000 Administrators, the secret decoder ring"
There was a time when people asked, “Windows or Linux?” Now it’s a question of how to make the most of both. Linux for Windows Administrators is an essential resource for anyone working in the real world of enterprise computing. Inside, renowned Windows expert Mark Minasi and Linux guru Dan York give you practical, in-depth Linux instruction that dovetails perfectly with what you already know about Windows. It’s the best way for you to give your organization the best of both worlds. Coverage includes:
* Understanding Linux's strengths and weaknesses
* Understanding Linux's differences from, and similarities to, Windows
* Installing and configuring Linux
* Administering Linux from the command line
* Setting up Linux on minimal hardware -even a Pentium 100
* Understanding how open source works
* Using Samba to make a Linux box emulate an NT/2000 file server
* Using NIS and NFS to create the Linux equivalent of an NT/2000 domain
* Using Winbind to make Linux recognize Windows user accounts
* Tapping the speed and reliability of sendmail
* Configuring Linux GUIs: X Window, window managers, and desktop environments
* Modifying and recompiling the Linux kernel
Comments:
'Good, Not Great', November 28, 2003
William Hefner (EUREKA, CA USA)
Most people reviewing this book either love it or hate it. I won't go to quite that extreme, but I do have to say that the book missed the mark in a number of areas.
While it is most certainly a matter of editorial discretion, the author seems to have a habit of giving some subjects hardly any mention at all, while providing us with pages of agonizing details on other subjects that most readers will simply want to skip over.
Probably the biggest lost opportunity in this book is the author's one sentence devoted to Webmin, which is unquestionably the single most useful tool for Windows admins transitioning over to Linux. There are entire books devoted to Webmin that will have most Windows admins running a Linux server in no time, and without having to learn any of the exhaustive command line skills that the author recommends.
For those who DO want to learn Linux from the inside out, there is an amazing lack of depth when it comes to basic command line skills. This book would have been immeasurably more useful if it devoted a chapter (or appendix) to explaining some of the more useful commands. I learned more about grep than I ever wanted to know, but there are dozens of just as useful commands that the author never touched upon. So, if you want to learn the most basic command line skills, you are going to need to buy another book.
As some of the other reviewers mentioned, the author comes off as being a bit snobbish when it comes to Linux; quick to complain, slow to compliment. I would rather have had the author use the space reserved for complaints and grumblings with some useful information. It does get a bit old after awhile.
That being said, the author does do a good job of keeping your attention and moves from chapter to chapter in a very logical manner. Unlike many Linux books, the chapters in this book do not seem thrown together at random. It's a book that you will most likely want to read from cover to cover, instead of just using as a reference.
Despite the author's occasional whining, I really enjoyed the book's flow and progression through various topics. The book must have been very up-to-date at the time, but is starting to show its age. The author bases all of his experience with RedHat, who is now dropping out of the "consumer" market, and only offering a very expensive server version now. Thus, RedHat is not the Linux distribution that most of you will want to start off with.
All in all, the book was well worth reading, despite its age and shortcomings. This would be a good first book for you to read if you are a Windows admin trying to learn Linux, but you will definitely need other books on the subject before even considering deploying a Linux server on your network.
'Skip first three or four chapters', August 23, 2003
Skip the first three chapters, 37 pages, you'll miss nothing except some bad info about Windows 2000.
If you can use Partition Magic to prepare your disk for installation and the nic was identified during setup, skip Chapter 4 and start at page 101. If you can make up your own mind on where to use Linux or NT (the author didn't understand 2000 Dir. Svcs. yet so he only compared Linux to NT), skip Chapter 10 and stop at page 471.
That leaves 370 pages of Linux info. provided by the co-authors. Browsing through these chapters, X seems to be an important feature. That matches with my limited understanding.
Lots of important topics are mentioned but none covered very deeply. The comparisons with Windows technology weren't that important or were just uninformed (DNS comparisons ignored services) and most features, RPM for instance, don't benefit from a Windows perspective. Too bad they wasted 200 pages on fluff. That's why it gets a three.
Don't pay retail for this book, it is already dated material and should be heavily discounted. As an MCSE Network Admin on NT & 2000, I saw 2000 and Server 2003 leave NT in the dust along with Linux. Directory Services and group policies are vital to distribution and central management. Linux has only SNMP so far. Soon Linux will be ready for [self-installing on] client desktops which may be it's future. Directory-based services and integrated business software (Exchange, CRM) will run on proprietary server OS's from IBM, Windows, and maybe Oracle OS in the future. Clients will stream XML of secure managed code from these servers and back via open protocols. JIT compilers and local code libraries will assemble client executables that use remote web services and data. Admins: read about web services and Mono on Linux.
'Good introductions for a Windows Admin', June 22, 2003
I know most of the people reviewing this book gave it glowing reviews but I just wasn't won over by it. I had high hopes as I am quite familiar with Minasi's writings and I've been curious about Linux for some time now. So I was hoping this book would really help me launch my Linux understanding.
The book does some things really well. For instance, Minasi repeatedly draws parallels between the Windows and Linux world to help the reader understand the Linux concepts. This is often effective.
My biggest gripe is I think the book is overly biased. I found that throughout the book Minasi was moaning about how hard it was to perform certain functions or how arcane the Linux lingo was. After a while, it just got tiring. I didn?t buy the book for his opinion on whether the OS was good or not; I simply wanted to learn about Linux from a perspective that was intuitive to me.
I give him credit for trying. It's probably the best book on the market for a Windows Admin who doesn't have any Linux experience. But the best on the market does not necessarily make for a good book.
Ultimately I felt like Minasi was trying to say, "Linux is a novelty. If you have the time, check it out; but it's really not worth your time." This got annoying after a while. I'm looking for another book now.
//So somewhere around March-91, I had a 386 system running Minix-386, and I was able to install awb's gcc-1.37.1 port. After that, I was able to port bash to the resulting mess, and things looked a bit better. I also spent my time generally fooling around (porting gcc-1.40 and various other programs), and kept on learning about the 386 while doing so (writing small boot-disks that would set up a protected mode environment and print out various inane messages).//
[[Happy Birthday, Linus|http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/happy-birthday-linus]]
In that interview, Linus modestly described the genesis of Linux thus:
//"Linux" didn't really exist until about August-91 - before that what I had was essentially just a very basic protected mode system that had evolved from a glorified "Hello world" program into a even more glorified terminal emulator. Linux stopped for quite a while at the terminal emulator stage: I played around with Minix, and used my protected mode program to read news from the univerity machine. No down/upload, but it did a fair vt100 emulation, and did it by using two tasks which communicated from keybodard->modem and modem->screen.
By mid-summer -91, "Linux" was able to read the disk (joyful moment), and eventually had a small and stupid disk driver and a simple buffer cache. So I started out trying to make a filesystem, and used the Minix fs for simple practical reasons: that way I already had a file layout I could test things on. After some more programming (talk about glossing things over), I had a very simple UNIX that had some of the basic functionalities of the real thing: I could run small test-programs under it.
By that time I looked around for some standards texts - I decided early on that I didn't want to write the user-level programs, and that in order to easily port things I'd either have to make the new system compatible with Minix (ugghh) or follow some other kind of standard. What I wanted was a POSIX guide, not so much to be 100% posix, but in order not to do anything really stupid I'd regret later.
My quest for the posix standards failed, as the posix standard committee sells the standard to feed itself as I found out, but I did get a good pointer to the (then very alpha and unsupported) GNU libc.a, which had an early manual accompanying it. The manual was of some help, but the biggest help was actually the contact to the person who pointed it out to me: arl@sauna.hut.fi. He was/is the organizer of the pub/OS subdirectory at nic.funet.fi, and was interested in giving Linux a home at nic.
Back then, I was only idly thinking about making my system available (and I had no real time-table), but arl happily created a pub/OS/Linux subdirectory at nic, and thus also gave the system it's name. I wasn't really ready for a release yet, so the directory contained just a README for about a month ("this directory is for the freely distributable Minix clone" or something like that). Arl probably thought the project wouldn't come to anything.//
By Jack Loftus, News Writer
08 Mar 2007 | SearchOpenSource.com
A new report from the U.K. Office of Government Commerce about Open Source Software Trials in Government, has found that servers running Linux could combat the rising problem of e-waste because they last up to twice as long as machines running Windows.
E-waste is any refuse created by discarded electronic devices and components as well as substances involved in their manufacture or use. According to estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), more than four million tons of e-waste hit landfills each year in the U.S. alone.
The report arrived as many IT managers are contemplating a future upgrade to Windows Vista. For many, this upgrade will mean new hardware in addition to the cost of new software. The mass dumping of existing hardware that's sure to follow has many in the environmental lobby -- organizations like Greenpeace for example -- up in arms.
In February, Greenpeace Southeast Asia toxics campaigner Beau Baconguis said in a statement that "with Vista, Microsoft could effectively hasten the obsolescence of half the world's PCs. The idea that software innovation would result in more mountains of computer scrap ending up in the dumps of Asia and Africa, contaminating the environment, and affecting the health of communities, is both offensive and intolerable."
But the British report touches upon a simple fix that could also fix the environment: Use open source.
"One of the benefits frequently put forward for the use of open source software is the level of resources needed to support it. This means that for equivalent open source and Microsoft Windows systems, the open source will require less memory and a slower processor speed for the same functionality," the report said.
Industry observers quote a typical hardware refresh period for Microsoft Windows systems as three to four years; the U.K. government report cites a major unnamed U.K. manufacturing organization that quotes its hardware refresh period for Linux systems as six to eight years.
For many countries, however -- save the U.S. -- the U.K. report could be preaching to the choir. Many countries have already begun Linux migrations in earnest over the past six months. In February, at the Asia Open Source Software Symposium in Denpasar, Indonesia, it was announced that the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Information Service Industry had quietly been a long time user of open source. The governments of Cambodia, China, India, Pakistan, South Korea and Taiwan also announced a switch. The Cuban government, too, made news when it declared it was ending its use of Windows in lieu of an open source deployment.
But progress on e-waste in the U.S. has been decidedly slower than in the rest of the world. A U.S. congressional caucus, called the E-Waste Working Group met twice in October 2006 to determine if e-waste could be solved by national legislation, which server vendors supported over state regulations. No formal legislation has yet been drafted, however.
Armed with the new information found in the U.K. report, Mark Ontkush, a blogger at environmentally friendly tech blog EcoGeek, said a widespread switch to Linux could prevent millions of tons of waste from going into landfills.
"Every computer not needed would prevent the use of 240 kilograms of fossil fuels," he said. "Spread that out over the 17.5 million computers that wouldn't be going obsolete every year, and Linux could deliver the world a much more sustainable future."
Don't forget to check us out at the Enterprise Linux Log, our new blog.
http://enterpriselinuxlog.blogs.techtarget.com/
Following were list of FOSS happenings in 2007.
[[Review-a-Blog contest in Mindanao]]
[[FOSS.IN/2007 ]]
[[Open Translation Tools 2007]]
[[OS Summit Asia 2007]]
[[Workshop on Open Source Software in Indonesia]]
[[Call for Papers - i4d Magazine December Issue]]
[[9th Asia Open Source Software Conference and Showcase]]
[[Linux Training of Trainers for Linux Professionals Insitute (LPI) Level 2]]
[[Wikimania 2007 in Taiwan, ROC]]
[[Cambodian Bloggers Summit]]
[[Thailand Open Source Software Festival]]
[[Linux Training of Trainers-1 for Vietnamese]]
[[eINDIA 2007]]
[[Registrations open for Software Freedom Day 2007]]
[[Web Video Delivery Workshop]]
[[New Media Workshop]]
[[Sahana in the Philippine]]
[[Moving the FOSS Agenda for Health]]
[[e-CASE 2007 in HongKong]]
[[World Press Freedom Day]]
[[APC FOSS Prize 2007]]
[[Nexus 2007 - Agenda for Open Source]]
[[First ever Open Source Camp in Bangladesh]]
[[FOSS essential training in Nepal]]
Mostly visited links for the month were put here for further reference.
[[Visited links, July 2007]]
[[Visited links, June 2007]]
[[Visited links, May 2007]]
[[Visited links, April 2007]]
[[Visited links, March 2007]]
[[Visited links, February 2007]]
From a text in Joomla!
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet."
//What is Lorem ipsum?//
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
//Where does it come from?//
Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..", comes from a line in section 1.10.32.
The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 translation by H. Rackham.
//Why do we use it?//
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).
http://www.lipsum.com/
A total lunar eclipse was happening on August 28, 2007 at GMT 10.00 which lasted for another 90 minutes from start to end.
A total eclipse means that the moon will enter 'under' the shades of the earth and happened in the evening of most Asian times. At 17.00 for Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and at 18.00 for Vietnam and the Philippines. The moon turned from yellow to reddish as when you blush! And when the eclipse was over, the moon is back in its glorious bright yellow again.
I suppose this was a rare event that we can watch it in the evening when the sun set in the west and the moon rises in the east. The eclipse happened during the full moon period. And perhaps we could also watch another happening during this phase, such as people get lunatic, werewolf howlings or storming get ceased :).
For more information, see also
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/070824_ns_eclipse.html
<quote>
Tuesday morning, Aug. 28 brings us the second total lunar eclipse of
2007. Those living in the Western Hemisphere and eastern Asia will
be able to partake in at least some of this sky show.
The very best viewing region for viewing this eclipse will fall across
the Pacific Rim, including the West Coast of the United States and
Canada, as well as Alaska, Hawaii, New Zealand and eastern Australia.
All these places will be able to see the complete eclipse from start
to finish.
Europeans will miss out on the entire show, as the Moon will be below
the horizon during their mid and late morning hours.
</quote>
Dining on fresh wasabi and low-fructose soda at Google headquarters. Actually, my raid on local riches was a strike at the guts of Mountain View's biggest, richest target, Google Inc. I ate lunch at the Googleplex and didn't pay. Don't worry, I did not compromise the Journal's ethical standards, which prohibit accepting meals and other things of value from sources. Nobody else paid, either.
Googling Lunch
By Raymond Sokolov on December 1, 2007
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119646190600409908.html?
At the Plex's 17 food venues (three more will open next year), there's no bill, no cash registers and no guilt. This is one place where there really is a free and healthy lunch -- and a free dinner or breakfast or a snack at any time of day or night for notoriously workaholic Googlers and any guests they invite. My official press contact, Jennifer Johnson, said that many employees eat three meals a day under the roofs provided for them by Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
Food is only one of many services available. Others include free dry cleaning, free birthday massages and special parking spots for expectant moms. I didn't know enough to bring along my creased suits or a pregnant friend so I wouldn't have to search for a space in the crowded lot at 1500 Plymouth St. I was there for a lunch date with John Dickman, Global Food Service Manager, and Ms. Johnson, a Harvard-trained East Asian area specialist with Fulbright-funded study in China behind her.
They took me to Pure Ingredient Cafe, which, in the words of the Google Cafe Map, is "a journey towards pure, clean, additive and chemical free food and beverage." Like the other cafes I visited, Pure Ingredient was a smallish cafeteria open to any Googler who felt like stopping in for a bite. It was the day before Thanksgiving, the trays sparkled in the bright colors of the Google logo and a line of hungry cyberproles formed just after noon.
In the kitchen, executive chef Scott Giambastiani had turned out nine juicy 25-pound turkeys in an hour and a half inside seriously efficient gas convection ovens, brand-named Rational (wouldn't you know). The turkey was just as tasty as the bird we ate on Thanksgiving at downtown San Francisco's ambitious One Market. Mr. Giambastiani could have been a contender in the big time of Northern California's restaurant "free world."
He came to Google via peppy Viognier in nearby San Mateo, a renowned Cal-French restaurant launched by San Francisco star Gary Danko. Now, instead of a prize-winning wine list, Mr. Giambastiani bottles his own low-fructose agave-syrup-based sodas and housemade tabasco-style hot sauce with its own wiseacre label ("No humans were abused in the testing of this product").
Grabbing a Byte: Lunch at Charlie's
Pizzas and pretty much everything else on offer at P.I. are also produced the day they're served. At the salad section, line cooks toss individual salads for staffers, and around the corner a sushi station creates fresh items a la minute. And the wasabi is as fresh as it gets. No reconstituted green paste for Google gourmets. At P.I., lunchers grate whole roots with authentic Japanese sharkskin graters.
The kitchen is deliberately small so that it can produce only modest quantities and leaves little waste. What is left over gets reused in new dishes for dinner. Old cooking oil is handed off to a biodiesel manufacturer and some of the new fuel makes its way back to Google.
Frankly, I had to suppress a cynical shudder at all this goody-goody, Slow-Foodie, Wholier-Than-Thou menu ideology. Then I tasted the low-fructose cola. It wasn't Coke, but something in that ballpark, maybe even better. The pie was fine. The housemade dried pineapple slices had the al dente chewiness and bright flavor that only a fresh product flaunting the date, hour and minute of its creation on the package could attain.
"Get real, Dude," I told myself, falling into Geekspeak. "This is a company cafeteria. What would you rather have? Frozen fish fingers with a shelf life of eternity?" The soups and pies are way tastier than you'd get at a chain, and no vegan enforcer is making anyone drink the icky green wheat-grass potion.
At the other cafes we were able to visit, a similar spirit of nutritional athleticism prevailed but each venue had its own spin to offer on food in a new age. Charlie's started out as the brainchild of Charlie Ayers, private chef to the Grateful Dead and then to Google's first 40 employees. Mr. Ayers left Google in 2005 to preach the green-food gospel, but at the Googleplex, Charlie's survives as a crowded cosmopolitan center of world cuisine.
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2007 03:51:13 AM]
NEW DELHI: If you can’t beat them why not join them. This could well be Microsoft’s new mantra. For the first time ever Redmond Giant Microsoft will be rubbing shoulders with its arch rival, the Penguin (Linux mascot) at [[Linux Asia 2007]]. For quite some time Microsoft has been concerned about the growing open source movement, the increasing appeal and adoption of Linux in enterprise servers and by governments. Participation in the Linux party, starting on Wednesday in the national capital, attests to the fact that Microsoft is worried about competition from the open source community.
In the last several years Microsoft has been facing the heat from its smaller rivals. Many like Google are seen as thought leaders of the internet era, and not Microsoft, one of the world's largest commercial software vendor. Participating in Linux Asia is seen by experts as Microsoft's bid to ensure that it is not isolated in some of the fastest growing markets for software in the world.
When asked about its participation in Linux Asia Microsoft said that the company will try to educate clients and communicate about its new stance towards open source. Radhesh Balakrishnan, director, platform strategy, Microsoft told ET, ``open source software is turning commercial and commercial software is becoming more open to open source. We believe that interoperability between the two is the way to the future. People have created a myth in the minds of clients that the world can work only either on open source or on commercial software. Rather than being carried over by rhetoric, clients should rather look at lowering TCO (Total Cost Of Ownership). According to a Frost & Sullivan study, Windows offers 15.9% lower TCO than Linux on server side."
Microsoft Windows market share is going on a roller coaster ride thanks to Linux. According to IDC Windows accounted for 68.1%, 65.3%, 69.5% and 68.2% of the total x86 servers shipped in India in Q3 2005, Q4 2005, Q1 2006 and Q2 2006, respectively.
Open source supporters have long accused Microsoft of security flaws but Microsoft counters that. "Microsoft also has a record of patching up vulnerabilities in one-third of the time compared to Linux. You need to pay to get security updates in Linux whereas in Windows its free," Mr Balakrishnan said.
Adds Sandeep Menon, Forum for Open Source Initiative in India (FOSII) and director of Linux business for Novell West Asia: "Microsoft's decision to participate in the Linux Asia 2007 for the first time shows maturity on its part. It indicates that the industry cannot operate without open source and has become its integral part."
Nevertheless, Microsoft did face apprehensions from the Linux Asia organisers on expressing intent to participate. "They inquired about our intent behind the interest to participate. We told them we wanted to bridge the two worlds and educate clients," Mr Menon said. When contacted by ET, Linux vendor Red Hat, refused to comment.
However, the industry believes that today Microsoft, which has faced anti-trust cases in Europe and elsewhere, is more inclined towards `dispelling some myths around open source’. Baba Sam, marketing director, Sun Microsystems India said: "Earlier the acceptance was in pockets but now the industry is whole heartedly embracing open source. From educational and R&D institutes, to courts and government departments, ODF (Open Development Format) is being adopted everywhere."
Microsoft’s new found love for Linux actually began late last year back when it agreed to provide support to Novell’s Suse Linux operating system ostensibly to improve interoperability between Windows and SUSE Enterprise Linux Server.
"Philosophically we believe that you ought to have and economic incentive system to develop a sound business. The software industry would not have existed in its present form, if there were no economic incentives. Most companies deal in proprietary products but nobody speaks about it," Microsoft’s Balakrishnan said.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/MS_to_debut_at_Linux_Asia_2007/articleshow/1541733.cms
[[Linux Asia 2007 and Microsoft]]
SEATTLE, May 29 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) said on Friday it would not limit the number of applications available at one time on the Starter edition of its upcoming Windows 7 operating system, reversing its earlier strategy of limiting its capabilities and urging users to upgrade.
[[Microsoft reverses Windows 7 Starter limit|http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINN2942186520090529?rpc=44]]
Fri May 29, 2009 7:16pm EDT
The move is a significant climbdown for Microsoft as it looks to keep a hold on the fast-growing market for small, cheap personal computers -- known as netbooks -- which are the principal market for the most basic version of Microsoft's new operating system, expected to roll out later this year.
"We believe these changes will make Windows 7 Starter an even more attractive option for customers who want a small notebook PC for very basic tasks, like browsing the web, checking email and personal productivity," a Microsoft executive wrote in of the company's public blogs.
Microsoft acknowledged its plan to limit Starter's capabilities and then try to sell users upgrades, had not been well received by potential customers and partners, which are generally looking to increase the powers of netbooks rather than impose limitations.
Netbooks, or notebook ~PCs, have taken the computing world by storm in the last year or so, offering stripped-down functions on a small screen for only a few hundred dollars. Young users in particular have embraced them as an easy and cheap way to surf the Internet and send e-mails while on the move or at a cafe.
Microsoft noted that the Starter edition will still be inferior to its other, more expensive versions, designed for use on full ~PCs.
Windows 7 Starter will not allow use of more than one monitor, support Windows Media Center for watching recorded TV, or contain a number of other features. But Microsoft pointed out that its more advanced Windows 7 versions will also work on netbooks. (Reporting by Bill Rigby, editing by Matthew Lewis and Andre Grenon)
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[[Welcome|Welcome to my blog]]
[[Asia Source II]]
[[Green computing]]
[[Some comments]]
[[Some quotes]]
[[Some blog rolls]]
[[Some FOSS events]]
[[Some culinary]]
[[Some musical links]]
[[Original stories]]
[[Book reviews]]
[[Guestbook|http://www.anvilbook.com/guestbook.php?handoko]]
[[Comments|How to add comments]]
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[>img[blog/rss.gif][blog.xml]] rss feed
By Danny Sullivan, Editor-In-Chief
April 2, 2003
[[RSS]] is a method of distributing links to content in your web site that you'd like others to use. In other words, it's a mechanism to "syndicate" your content.
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2175271
Making an RSS file is easy for many. If you understand HTML, you'll probably understand enough to do a cut-and-paste from someone else's RSS file to make your own file. Don't know HTML? Start a blog, because several blogging tools automatically generates RSS files.
As for those non-technical people using WYSIWYG page building tools or personal home page building systems, have faith. Even you can build an RSS file from scratch, as long as you dispense with some of the extra features you probably don't need.
To enter your item into the RSS file, you'll need three bits of information:
Title
Description
Link
The title and description of your item need not match exactly the HTML title tag of the web page that the item refers to, nor the meta description tag, assuming you use these (don't know what they are? See my How To Use HTML Tags article). You can write any title and description that you think will describe the page. However, using your page's title and meta description tag certainly makes it easy to copy and paste to build your RSS feed.
For your title, you need to start it with the <title> tag, then follow this with the text of the title, then end with the </title> tag.
For your description, you do the same, starting out with the opening <description> tag, then following with the actual description, then "closing" with the </description> tag.
Next, we add the link information, beginning with <link>, following with the actual hyperlink, then closing with </link>.
Now there's one more thing we need to do. We actually have to define all this information as forming a particular "item," which we do using a special item tag.
<item>
<title>Syndication via RSS</title>
<description>Syndication of web content via RSS is unlikely to make you rich. However, it can be an easy way to draw attention to your material, bringing you some traffic and perhaps a little net fame, depending on how good your information is. </description>
<link>http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html</link>
</item>
There's a bit more to do to finish our RSS file. First, what if we have other items we want to syndicate? Then we simply add more item elements, just as we did above. You can have up to 15 items. New items tend to be inserted at the top, with old items removed from the bottom, to make room for new stuff.
So far, everything we've done is compatible with UserLand's popular RSS 0.91 version. However, it also matches UserLand's latest RSS 2.0 version, as well, so we'll define the file as meeting that specification. This will allow us to add other neat features in the future, if we want.
Finally, after the RSS tag, we need to add an opening "channel" tag. That gives us this at the top of the file:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
At the bottom of the file, after all the items we want to syndicate, we have to insert a closing channel and RSS tag, in that order. Those look like this:
</channel>
</rss>
To make my own decision for Search Engine Watch, I decided to imitate what I saw out at UserLand, which promotes the RSS 2.0 standard that we used. UserLand's example feeds all ended .xml, so let's do the same. As for the first part, that really can be whatever you like. For our example, let's say we just call it feed.xml.
Now that our file is saved, we can place it anywhere we want on our web server. Let's say we put it in the root or home directory. Then the address to our RSS file would be:
http://yourdomain.com/feed.xml
Now our RSS file is done, but did we do it right? To find out, we need to validate it. Use the aptly named Feed Validator http://feedvalidator.org/ service. Simply enter the address to your RSS file, and you'll be told if everything is OK -- or if there's something wrong you need to fix.
The service will also generate a JavaScript code that you can post on your site. Anyone copying the JavaScript can automatically have your feed syndicated into their pages -- pretty neat!
You can link to your feed with an ordinary HTML link. However, many sites use a small orange XML icon to link to the feed. I've also seen some sites use blue RSS icon. I could find no standard about using these. So, to be safe, I did all three with Search Engine Watch. Look on the home page, and you'll see how it's done (and help yourself to the icons, if you need them).
Finally, it's good to "ping" one of the major services that track when web logs and RSS content changes. By doing this, you ensure that other sites that monitor these know to check back at your site for more content.
Features taken from The Jakarta Post - July 30, 2006
Global Studies is a high school level course geared towards 10th graders, or 15-16 year olds. This class helps students to engage with a rapidly changing interconnected world.
The course introduces students to basic terms and concepts from several social studies disciplines, particularly economics, geography, and history, supported by specific case studies drawn from different areas of the world.
The Taking Action Project encourages students to become responsible global citizens. All students in this course are required to design and implement an action plan to raise awareness of a specific global issue, such as deforestation, poverty, disaster relief, etc., and to do something physically to make a difference.
Unlike Indonesians who strike on streets against fuel hike, some were sealing their mouths on hunger strike - a foolish hundreds of years ago practice, Malaysians use internet and blog to counter the government measure.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080607/wr_nm/malaysia_fuel_internet_dc_2
By Sanjeev Miglani
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysians have turned to the Internet to vent their anger at one of the biggest hikes in fuel prices, and some are using it to rally support against the measure in a country with tight restrictions on street protests.
"We used to think you were nice. Now you are just nasty, plain nasty," read a post from someone calling himself a "hungry Malaysian" on http://rockybru.blogspot.com, arguing there was going to be less food on the table for millions of poor people.
The government raised petrol prices this week by 41 percent and diesel by 63 percent, in line with a global surge in oil prices. It said the measure would save 13.7 billion ringgit ($4.23 billion) as part of a broad overhaul of its energy system.
But Malaysians are questioning why they have to face a steep rise in prices when the country, Asia's largest net oil exporter, earns 250 million ringgit ($76.76 million) a year in revenue for every $1 rise in crude prices.
Unlike in neighboring Indonesia, India and countries in Europe where there have been mass protests, attempts to organize mass demonstrations have met with limited success in Malaysia.
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Despite efforts to calculate π by everyone from Archimedes to Sir Isaac Newton to present-day mathematicians with supercomputers, there is still no formula that would allow you to figure out, in base 10, any digit of π without having to calculate everything that came before it. In other words, if you wanted to know the 24,000th digit, there's no way of figuring that out without putting down all 23,999 numbers before it. Such calculations can be done in binary, but it's not so interesting to know whether it's just a 0 or a 1.
Mathematicians know that π is irrational -- it cannot be represented as one number divided by another -- and transcendental, meaning it is not algebraic. That means, theoretically, that its digits will continue on indefinitely without ending in repetition -- in other words, the digits won't suddenly continue infinitely as 5s after 3 trillion digits (π's digits were calculated out to a record 2.7 trillion places in December by French computer scientist Fabrice Bellard).
That also means, mathematicians theorize, that any string of numbers you can imagine is somewhere in π -- for instance, look for your birthday. Coincidentally, "360," the number of degrees in a circle, occurs at digits 358 to 360.
On the other hand, the true "randomness" of π's digits has never been proven, which is frustrating, said David Bailey, a technologist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who is still working on this question.
"For all we know, just out beyond where we calculated, there are no more 5s," he said.
The question of whether there's a pattern in π's apparent chaos has enormous implications as biologists look for meaning in the map of the human genome, Peter Borwein says.
"If you have a subtle pattern, how do you know it's there in a mess of numbers?" said Borwein, professor at Simon Fraser University.
Having achieved recognition for the formula, Borwein says he's "a little embarrassed to be the π guy." After all, he's done a lot of non-π-related research. Still, he's also gearing up for his school's π Day celebration, which will feature π-digit cookies, pie and a lecture about the number.
It happened during one of the [[Asia Source II]] sessions. Well it was not my guitar anyway. I got it from Gunner, the camp leader, just minutes before the morning circle started. He asked that the reporting session of tracks should be musical. I knew by then that I can play the guitar.
[img[Latreia helped me with the microphone|blog/image606s.jpg]]
I haven't practised for sometime, I have to figure out what song(s) to be played which have to be cheerful, short and international. My fingers went sore and soft due to the cold weather in Sukabumi.
So there were two songs, one song for intro and one more song to end the track reporting. After that, I don't even remember what songs I have played. I've tried several tunes but still can't recall the [[first song|http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/blowing.htm]] that I've played. Is there anyone who can remember that first song?
The second song was [[Poor people of Paris|http://www.guitar-music-tabs.com/chet-atkins-tabs/the-poor-people-of-paris_tab788.html]], a French song popularized by Chet Atkins.
This was one of exhilarating moment in my life, I never perform in front of such a bigger audience. I use to play it for myself.
[[Mekong ICT Camp|http://mekongict.org]] is a regional week-long workshop for skill building and experience sharing in ICT and new media for independent media, community health practitioners, and civil society organizations.
The workshop focuses on the emerging needs in Mekong sub-region (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam), with global facilitators sharing their knowledge and insights.
Mekong ICT Camp 2010 is to be held in June 7-11 (Monday-Friday) at SCB Training Center, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The camp is organized by Thai Fund Foundation and Opendream, in collaborations with partners.
Detailed information on Mekong ICT Camp 2010 can be downloaded [[here|http://mekongict.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/mekongict-info-20100222.pdf]].
<<tabs MekongICTcamp
Agenda "First tab" [[Agenda for Mekong ICT camp 2010]]
Participating "Second tab" [[Participating in Mekong ICT camp 2010]]
Barcamp "Third tab" [[BarCamp Mekong: A Co-Event]]>>
The Capacity Development of ICT for Media and Non-profit Organization practitioners in the Mekong Sub-Region!
http://www.mekongict4d.org
February 25th -29th, 2008
Thammasart University Learning resort, Pattaya, Chonburi province, Thailand
The Thai Fund Foundation(TFF), Southeast Asian for e-Media [[SEACeM|http://www.seacem.com ]], Friedrich Naumann Stiftung [[FNS|http://www.fnst-freiheit.org ]], TRN Institute and some other alliances, are pleased to inform you about the upcoming sub-regional ICT camp: the Capacity Development of ICT for Media and NGO practitioners in the Mekong sub-region to be held on February 25th - 29th , 2008 at Thammasart Learning resort, Pattaya, Chonburi province, Thailand.
The focus of the ICT camp will be on four main topics: 1) information management, 2) E-advocacy, 3) computer network for social development 4) promotion of the use of open source software and also a widespread of ICT network in the Mekong Sub-region as well.
The event will last five days, emphasizing on providing a process where through participation, technical experts, local media and NGO workers can exchange their experiences so that mutual understanding and cooperation will be materialized and result in an effective use of the ICT. In this ICT camp, not only provide you working on technological process, but also having a touch of human network are included.
In this occasion, we are cordially opening to representing media and NGO workers in Mekong sub-region countries i.e. Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Vietnam and Thailand to apply for attending this ICT camp. Development work and gender balance must be also taken into account. Please see: http://www.ict.or.th/mekong-ict-camp for more details.
The deadline for sending the completed application is 14th February, 2008.
If you need additional information, please feel free to contact:
Mr.Klaikong Vaidhyakarn, Mekong ICT Camp coordinator
[[Thai Fund Foundation|www.thaingo.org ]]
2044/23 New Petchaburi Road, Bangkapi,
Huaykwang, Bangkok 10320 Thailand.
Mobile. (66) 81310-4807
Tel. (66) 2314-4112-3#508, (66) 2318-3959
Fax. (66) 2718-1850, (66) 2314-4112-3#506
E-mail. mekongict4d@ict.or.th
website. http://www.tff.or.th, http://www.ict.or.th
Look forward to welcoming you to the Mekong ICT camp.
On Thursday June 14, 7:21 pm ET Larry Dignan (ZDNet) submits: Microsoft inked its third Linux interoperability deal as the third version of General Public License nears the finish line. Will Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) fall in line soon?
http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/070614/38396_id.html?.v=1
Microsoft Wednesday announced an interoperability deal with Linspire and the pact reads roughly like the one it has with Xandros. As we all know Microsoft is tied up with Novell (NasdaqGS: NOVL) in a pact that has been advantageous to both companies.
In fact, Microsoft’s Novell deal (not to mention GPLv3) is spurring many of these deals. Windows and Linux will play nice in the enterprise and open source providers are wary of being locked out as Novell and Red Hat run off with the market.
Under its Microsoft pact, Linspire will be involved with document sharing formats. Linspire will also license technology to make its digital media and instant messaging apps compatible with Microsoft’s. Linspire also makes Live Search its default search engine.
And the big deal for Linspire is patent protection. In a statement Microsoft said: "Through the agreement, Microsoft and Linspire have developed a framework to provide patent covenants for Linspire customers. The patent covenants provide customers with confidence that the Linspire technologies they use come with rights to relevant Microsoft patents."
Now there are two ways to read these Microsoft-Linux pacts. Duncan Riley at TechCrunch writes that Microsoft is creating an anybody-but-Red-Hat club to outflank the Linux bellwether.
If that’s Microsoft’s strategy against Red Hat it doesn’t seem to be working. The consensus seems to be that Microsoft isn’t denting Red Hat at all by inking pacts with lesser Linux providers. In a research note dated June 7, Jeffries analyst Katherine Egbert reports that Red Hat likely landed JP Morgan in the May quarter. Meanwhile, Novell customer wins at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Home Depot (NYSE: HD - News) and Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) were largely because Red Hat held the line on pricing, says Egbert.
An alternate theory - and one detailed in Egbert’s note - is that Red Hat could do a deal with Microsoft. Egbert writes:
Several industry sources have indicated that Red Hat has opened talks with Microsoft re: patents. These talks are especially relevant in light of the recent, final release of GPLv3, which extends any two-party patent protection to all users of v3 licensed software (there is a grandfather clause that excludes the Novell-Microsoft agreement). Microsoft recently signed patent cross-license agreements with OSS provider Zimbra and with LG Electronics. While there has been only minor progress to date with Red Hat, we find the talks encouraging.
A Red Hat pact would be quite a coup for Microsoft and in theory could shelve future interoperability concerns for customers looking to mix and match Linux and Windows. The one major hang-up in talks will be virtualization technology. Don’t hold your breath for a Microsoft-Red Hat partnership, but if it’s going to happen it’ll happen real soon.
One of the most ambitious aspects of the "$100 laptop" project for schoolchildren in developing countries is the machines' open-source software platform, designed to be intuitive for kids.
By BRIAN BERGSTEIN 05.04.07, 3:38 PM ET
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/05/04/ap3688196.html
That's why many people were taken aback last week when the founder of the nonprofit laptop project, Nicholas Negroponte, announced that buyers of the machine will be able to add Windows, the ultimate in proprietary software.
However, Microsoft Corp. (nasdaq: MSFT) says it's uncertain whether it can fit Windows on the laptops. Will Poole, who heads Microsoft's emerging-markets group, says the limited storage space (recently upped to 1 gigabyte of flash memory) and other original elements on the One Laptop Per Child program's "XO" computer aren't welcoming for Windows.
"I don't know how to get the thing to run on less than 2 gigs," he said. Plus, at least 10 custom drivers - which tell an operating system how to interact with hardware - need to be designed, Poole said.
Why does this matter? Because One Laptop Per Child is still negotiating with several governments to finalize orders for at least 3 million of the machines, the level at which the project's mass-distribution plans kick in. And with the computers' price now up to $175 ($100 is the long-term goal), some officials might want Windows as a potential backup if the machines' alternative interface doesn't capture children's fancy as envisioned.
"We have had requests from government officials who are looking at that device, to ask us if it can run Windows," Poole said.
Negroponte seemed to deliver a definitive yes to that question: "We will run Windows," he said last week. Asked for elaboration, a spokesman for Negroponte wrote in an e-mail: "He was stating a fact - not a hope or a desire." But Poole said the answer should have been maybe: "I cannot make any promises," he said. "There's work still to be done. People should not bank on having Windows."
For his part, Negroponte wasn't touting Windows itself as much as user choice. He stressed the educational theories behind his project's original interface, which is open-source so as to let children tinker with it. He also said government ministers had not really been asking him about Windows on the machines, citing Egpyt as a rare exception. But he acknowledged that the potential to run Windows could reduce the risk for some buyers.
"He's playing to some purchasing minister somewhere," said Wayan Vota, who directs the Geekcorps international tech-development organization and follows the laptop project closely at his OLPCNews blog. Vota added that he hopes no XO buyers switch to Windows, because he believes Microsoft's software would be unable to utilize many of XO's innovations, including its radical power-saving capabilities and wireless networking functions.
Complicating the mix is an emerging little computer for the developing world from Intel Corp. (nasdaq: INTC) - the Classmate PC, which can run Windows or Linux. Intel expects its price to fall below $250 by the middle of the year and just signed a deal to sell 700,000 Classmates in Pakistan - one of the countries that One Laptop Per Child hopes to reach.
Meanwhile, Microsoft recently announced a $3 Windows "starter edition" package for international governments that subsidize student computers.
After Negroponte's comments last week, representatives from his group objected to The Associated Press' description that the nonprofit was "working with" Microsoft so Windows could run on the computers. Spokesmen for the project insisted that Microsoft was acting on its own accord, and that Microsoft got "beta" versions of the XO computers just like a lot of other companies have.
"OLPC has no working relationship with Microsoft nor does Microsoft get any special treatment," said a statement from One Laptop's president for software and development, Walter Bender. "They are just another software company interested in the project. OLPC is aware that Microsoft wants to create a Windows platform for the laptop, but OLPC is not involved in that project in any way."
Certainly, Negroponte's and Poole's differing reports about Windows on XO indicate the camps are not exactly on the same page. But it's unclear whether they are as distant as the public-relations statement would hold. Negroponte told a Linux convention in April 2006 that he had been discussing with Microsoft how Windows could run on the computers - which is why he was displeased when Bill Gates pooh-poohed the laptop effort.
More recently, Negroponte has been quoted as saying the laptops got an SD port - where Secure Digital cards can be inserted, expanding the memory available - so Windows could work. (Bender contradicted that, saying the SD port was added to provide extra space for photos taken with the computer's camera.)
"It is true that we have been working together," Microsoft's Poole said. "We have been having active, high-level conversations going on two years now."
It is not illegal for a corporation to be a monopoly in the United States. Reference the Sherman Antitrust act for details. Besides, Microsoft is not a monopoly. When it comes to office products, there is a handful to choose from including Open Office, which is free. The same goes for operating systems.
Microsoft, by setting a standard for documents, much less operating systems, allowed industry to flourish. This resulted in technology that worked together across companies. The other benefit is standards resulted in lower prices for personal computers, allowing many households in the US to have their machine.
The government going after successful companies, for being successful, will only harm the consumer. This will result in higher prices, less compatibility, and lower satisfaction. People who believe in free market principles may want to reference Milton Friedman’s thoughts on the subject. Comment by EM - September 4, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Anyone who thinks antitrust legislation is a good thing has been seriously duped. It’s nothing more than incompetency seeking legislative guarantee to profit from incompetence. Comment by Sammi - September 4, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Microsoft Corp. is scheduled to stop selling its Windows XP operating system to retailers and major computer makers on June 30, despite protests from a slice of PC users who don't want to be forced into using XP's successor, Vista.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080629/microsoft_xp.html?.v=5
Once computers loaded with XP have been cleared from the inventory of PC makers such as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., consumers who can't live without the old operating system on their new machine will have to buy Vista Ultimate or Vista Business and then legally ''[[downgrade|http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/04/25/how-to-keep-running-windows-xp/?mod=WSJBlog]]'' to XP.
A group of vocal computer users who rallied around a "Save XP" petition posted on the industry news site InfoWorld had been clamoring for Microsoft to keep selling XP until its next operating system, Windows 7, is available. The software maker has said it expects to release Windows 7 sometime in 2009.
Last week, Microsoft said it would provide full technical support for six-year-old Windows XP through 2009, and limited support through 2014. A version of XP will also remain available for ultra-low-cost PCs such as the Asus Eee PC.
Microsoft is focused on helping customers and partners succeed in a heterogeneous technology world. This starts with participating and contributing to a broad range of choices for developing and deploying software, including open source approaches and applications.
From thousands of lines of code and scripts on MSDN and TechNet, to open source applications like IronPython, ASP.NET AJAX, SharePoint Learning Kit, and WiX on CodePlex and SourceForge, Microsoft is continually growing the number of products released with open source access.
http://www.microsoft.com/opensource/default.mspx
By embracing diverse application development approaches and partner business models, Microsoft participates in a world of choice in which individuals and organizations can pursue their goals based on what uniquely inspires them, including open source. Read more...
http://www.microsoft.com/opensource/faq.mspx
Further comment from by Glyn Moody on Mon, 2007-08-06 05:53.
Why Microsoft Is Going Open Source
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000260
Now, as the opening statement on the Open Source page states, the official line is that there are “a broad range of choices for developing and deploying software, including open source approaches and applications”. This obviously allows Microsoft itself to adopt open source methodologies without appearing hypocritical and ridiculous.
But I think there is another aspect to Microsoft's latest moves that is more worrying. The clue is to be found in the company's submission of its licences to the OSI for approval. Again, this might seem a tremendous victory for the free software world, since it sees Microsoft apparently bending its knee before an open source institution. But its action needs to be seen in the wider context of a new-found enthusiasm for open standards.
It looks increasingly likely that Microsoft's OOXML file format will become an ISO standard alongside the OpenDocument Format. As others are tracking in detail, the way in which this is happening is unsatisfactory, to say the least. The end-result will be two directly competing standards in the area of office file formats.
This in itself is unhelpful, since the whole idea of standardisation is have one standard, not lots of them. But it's worse than that. Microsoft's OOXML is nominally open, as standards should be, but in practice its 6000+ pages of documentation mean that nobody except Microsoft will be implementing this standard, which is largely a re-definition of a closed standard as open, without any change of substance.
This, I think, goes to the heart of Microsoft's open source strategy. As well as adopting those aspects of an alternative development model that it finds useful, Microsoft is aiming to blunt the undeniable power of openness by hollowing it out. If OOXML is an open standard, and some of its own software licences become OSI-approved, Microsoft will be able to claim that it, too, is an open standard, open source company.
For many busy managers, subject to all kinds of demands – including increasing pressure to “go open source” - the difference between Microsoft's open source and real open source won't matter, in the same way that the difference between Microsoft's open file formats and those of the OpenDocument Format won't really matter. In terms of keeping people happy, what matters for many is the label – the appearance of going open – and Microsoft's moves aim to provide just that.
In many ways this new approach is exactly the reverse of that espoused in the famous first Halloween Document. There, the idea was to “de-commoditise” open protocols by adding proprietary elements. Today, the technique is to pseudo-commoditise proprietary standards by getting them defined as open.
Despite this essentially hostile intent, I believe (and have done for a while) that the power of open source will eventually win out over all of Microsoft's remaining fears and concerns, and that the company will embrace real open source fully for all of its products (at least where it is able to do so for legal reasons). It's just a question of time.
Microsoft Corp. said it will cut 5,000 jobs in the next 18 months after posting a profit drop of more than 11 percent.
"The software giant (MSFT) said the economy and technology spending has slowed beyond expectation, the company expects to save about $1.5 billion from the job cuts. It also said it will make other cuts, including trimming base salaries."
//This [[story of laying off|http://memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2009/01/19/daily23.html?ana=yfcpc]] is not only affecting Microsoft but also other IT industry such as Yahoo and Intel as they have their fourth quarterly reports came out. Laying off is swift in the western companies such as in the US and they even foreclose their businesses although bails are being offered.
Even [[Google share has slumped from about US$ 707|Bursting Google]] in November 2007 to US$ 324 nowadays. More than half in a year.
The fear is that [[most companies outsource IT works|http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20090224/bs_bw/feb2009tc20090223946195]], it means from outside US such as from Asia. //
In fiscal year 2007, six of the top 10 visa recipients were based in India; two others among the top 10, Cognizant Technology Solutions and UST Global, are headquartered in the U.S. but have most of their operations in India.
The H-1B visa program, which started in 1990, was set up to allow U.S. companies to import the best and brightest in technology, engineering, and other fields when such workers are in short supply domestically. Critics say the program is displacing Americans by bringing in workers from overseas who are paid less.
//I know that south Asia are best for outsource people. So laying off will come to this outsource people before the US companies cut their own staffs. //
[img[It's the year of the bull|blog/Cow_2.jpg]]
I hope there will be a bullish year nevertheless.
//I believe US companies have suffered and need to change their lifestyle and produce less consuming energy. This means too they will give less to donate because of decapitated earnings.
I think we have to stand to our owns and depend less from US companies, at least for another year or until the world is flat again (citing Thomas L Friedman).//
Washington DC (ANTARA News) - A number of US informatic technology companies such as IBM, Microsoft and Oracle have criticized Indonesia`s open source application policy. The protest was delivered directly to visiting Indonesian Research and Technology Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman here on Friday (07/16/06).
Under its open source application policy, Indonesia uses sytems without licenses formed by the user country itself and for its own interest. Microsoft considered that Indonesia has discredited the license product protected by property rights such as what was produced by Microsoft. Microsoft said that Indonesian government`s support to the open source application could threat market of informatic technology (IT) software produced by some US IT giant companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle.
Meanwhile, Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman said that the Indonesian Government actually support both of them, license application and open source application. He explained that the Indonesian Government gave choices to people to use license application or open sources.
"The important thing is people use the legal application," he said.
According to him, the using of legal application was so important as it gave a big chance for Indonesia to be excluded from "priority watch list", namely a list of countries who have been categorized as property rights pirates. At the moment Indonesia is one country of the top rank at the priority watch list.
Some high education institutions choosing the open source application, among others are the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) as well as other institutions. They chose it as the price is much cheaper than license application as well as it is legal category.
http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2006/7/16/ibm-microsoft-protest-indonesias-open-source-policy/
Top Microsoft lawyer alleges in a magazine interview that the Linux kernel and [[OpenOffice.org|http://OpenOffice.org]] violate hundreds of the company's patents.
By Ina Fried and Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, [[CNET News.com|http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-5827844.html]]
Last modified: May 13, 2007, 8:30 PM PDT
In an interview with Fortune, Microsoft top lawyer Brad Smith alleges that the Linux kernel violates 42 Microsoft patents, while its user interface and other design elements infringe on a further 65. OpenOffice.org is accused of infringing 45, along with 83 more in other free and open-source programs, according to Fortune.
It is not entirely clear how Microsoft might proceed in enforcing these patents, but the company has been encouraging large tech companies that depend on Linux to ink patent deals, starting with its controversial pact with Novell last November. Microsoft has also cited Linux protection playing a role in recent patent swap deals with Samsung and Fuji Xerox. Microsoft has also had discussions but not reached a deal with Red Hat, as noted in the Fortune article.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is also quoted in the article as saying Microsoft's open-source competitors need to "play by the same rules as the rest of the business."
"What's fair is fair," Ballmer told Fortune. "We live in a world where we honor, and support the honoring of, intellectual property."
The story notes that some big tech proponents of open source have been stockpiling intellectual property as part of the Open Invention Network, set up in 2005 by folks like Sony, Red Hat, IBM, NEC and Philips. The article surmises that if Microsoft were to go after open source, these companies' combined know-how might give it some patent weapons to go after Windows. A Microsoft representative did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Given how deeply entrenched open-source software has become in the computing industry, taking direct legal action against the open-source realm would be a complicated, hackle-raising undertaking for Microsoft. Customers use open-source software widely, and many major computing companies-IBM, Dell, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola and Oracle, for example-support Linux work directly.
It's not the first time that open-source patent concerns have arisen. A 2004 study by a Open Source Risk Management, a company selling insurance against risks of using open-source software, concluded that Linux could violate at least 283 patents, 27 of them Microsoft patents.
Patents and the open-source movement get along awkwardly at best. Patent law gives proprietary, exclusive rights to patent holders, but open-source programming is built on the idea of free sharing. Newer open-source licenses sometimes address the issue by requiring contributors to open-source projects to grant users and developers of the software a perpetual, royalty-free license to any patents that relate to the contribution.
Different companies have dealt in different ways with the open-source patent conundrum. For example, HP has taken a pro-patent stance, while IBM, Nokia, Sun and others have granted some rights to use some of their patents in open-source software.
The Open Invention Network remains a relatively young effort, but it has attracted participation this year from proprietary software giant Oracle and from Linux support seller Canonical. A company may license the network's patents for free as long as they promise not to assert any patent claims against those involved in the "Linux environment."
The Free Software Foundation is working on a new draft of the General Public License, one element of which will ban partnerships such as the one struck by Novell and Microsoft.
[[Microsoft takes on the free world]]
Was the general feel amongst the attendees at Linux Asia held last January 2007 in New Delhi, India; MS however, just wanted to say "let us walk hand-in-hand". Aparna Lal
Thursday, February 01, 2007
NEW DELHI: A bright sunny afternoon and plush green lawns of capital city's Habitat Center were a perfect setting for a gathering of open source enthusiasts to network and share notes about the conference and inputs given by speakers at [[Linux Asia 2007|http://www.iosn.net/regional/linux-asia-2007/]].
One could however sense slight disappointment amongst the participants. While some thought that speakers spoke more on general stuff and less about open source, few others thought that there was a cut down on sessions as compared to previous years. However, the general feel at the conference was that the event was completely hijacked by Microsoft.
Was it because MS was one of the main sponsors for the event? Why did MS' presence put attendees in an uncomfortable zone? MS has recently shown signals of patching up with the open source community; is this a part of MS' strategy to get friendly with the community? Or was it there to tap the community before they start swearing by open source? Or convey the message 'let's walk hand-in-hand'? We caught with Radhesh Balakrishnan, Director Platform Strategy, MS India to get MS' perspective.
"We are here to talk to customers who are thinking about interoperability and bridge the two worlds. We are strong believers of interoperability and have given proof of that in many of our products, for example Windows Server 2003 has a Unix sub system. We want our customers to leave this debate behind, and move on, making use of both the technologies. We would want our customers to make rational decisions on total cost of ownership (TCO)," informed Radhesh.
//As far as making the source code available, we at MS strongly feel that there is a need to protect intellectual property (IP) as it is the economic incentive to create better solutions. However, we do not refute the other school of thought, which is why we have created platforms like Codeplex. Microsoft is a part of all standard bodies, and we actively participate in creating open standards for our customers.//
In his reply to the general thought at the conference - MS was there to woo developers before they get hooked on to open source, Radhesh replied, "We are not devils; we are here to help customers to help them achieve interoperability at all levels. We just want to convey that interoperability could have been the focus, should have been the focus and let's do it now. We are here to address concerns of open source developers. We want to develop to make life of developers easy such that they can create richer applications."
Is the open source community listening? We would love to hear back from you on this. Do leave us a feedback or mail me at aparnal@cybermedia.co.in with your thoughts.
[[Linux Asia Open XML Workshop]]
//Are we going to enter a new software battle or war against Microsoft in this world of peace?//
Recent article in Fortune magazine describes in length about this:
Microsoft claims that free software like Linux, which runs a big chunk of corporate America, violates 235 of its patents. It wants royalties from distributors and users. Users like you, maybe. Fortune's Roger Parloff reports.
Excerpts:
So if Microsoft ever sued Linux distributor Red Hat for patent infringement, for instance, OIN might sue Microsoft in retaliation, trying to enjoin distribution of Windows. It's a cold war, and what keeps the peace is the threat of mutually assured destruction: patent Armageddon - an unending series of suits and countersuits that would hobble the industry and its customers.
"It's a tinderbox," Moglen says. "As the commercial confrontation between [free software] and software-that's-a-product becomes more fierce, patent law's going to be the terrain on which a big piece of the war's going to be fought. Waterloo is here somewhere."
[[Read more ...|http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/index.htm]]
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) rejected Microsoft’s attempt to have the data format it uses for its Office software recognized as a global standard. But that doesn’t mean companies will look for an alternative to Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Microsoft’s productivity software is a de facto standard for businesses, which is much more important than any formal recognition.
September 4, 2007, 6:58 pm Posted by Ben Worthen
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2007/09/04/microsofts-more-important-standard/?
Microsoft submitted its document format, called Open Office XML for ISO approval because a growing number of government and other public institutions are starting to require documents in formats that people using different technology sometime in the future are guaranteed to be able to access. Microsoft’s technology is proprietary, meaning that only Microsoft has the source code that shows how its software works. Microsoft says that it is willing to license Open Office XML for free to anyone who wants to build software that accesses data stored in the documents, the AP reports.
The ISO has a standard for pretty much everything, and information-technology departments like to adopt these standards because it helps show the rest of the company that whatever it is they’re doing is best-in-class. For example, Christopher Paidhrin, the security compliance officer at Southwest Washington Medical Center, recently told this Blog that his organization is adopting an ISO standard for delivering IT services.
But in this case, companies will most certainly stay with Microsoft even if it fails to win ISO approval. (Microsoft won 53% of votes, but needed 66% for ISO approval, the AP reports. It’s allowed to try again, however.) Most businesses use Microsoft Office, and quite frankly, there are probably workers who wouldn’t know what to do with a document that wasn’t created with Microsoft’s format. IT departments adopt ISO standards to preempt questions that the rest of the business may have about the service it’s delivering. There won’t be any such questions about sticking with Office.
PS: ISO is the “International Organization for Standardization” not the “International Standards Organization” as the author wrote. Comment by Steve - September 5, 2007 at 12:50 am
Most consumers aren't nearly as comfortable with mobile Web surfing as they are with trolling the Web on PCs. Entering URLs can be difficult on many cellphones, and there's a limited amount of content that is well-formatted for a small screen.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117572664647360217.html?
New Kits Give Firms A Cellular Presence; Boon for Concertgoers?
By Amol Sharma at amol.sharma@wsj.com
Johannes Tromp says the Web site for his South Carolina bed-and-breakfast generates good business. But last fall, he found a way to reach even more potential customers: He made a version of the site for cellphones.
Mr. Tromp signed up for a mobile Web address with the newly available suffix "dot-mobi" and used a self-starter kit from a company called Roundpoint Ltd. to build http://www.kilburnie.mobi, the mobile site for his Inn at Craig Farm. He says he's gotten a surprisingly good response, with 30 to 40 new calls per month from interested travelers who heard of his inn by accessing the cellphone site.
"For people to find me, I have to make myself available any way I can," says Mr. Tromp, a Dutch native who was general manager of the Windows on the World restaurant in the World Trade Center before moving south for a career in hospitality.
As technology allows consumers to access the Internet with their cellphones, many big companies have launched mobile versions of their Web sites, including big media brands like MTV and ESPN and news sites like USA Today and The Weather Channel. But such projects can be costly and complex and until recently have been out of reach of small businesses.
Inn at Craig Farm's phone site
Now new low-cost tools and services are making it easier to jump onto the mobile Web. Internet registrars such as GoDaddy.com Inc. and Network Solutions, who have helped millions of small businesses set up traditional dot-com sites, are now also beginning to roll out all-inclusive packages that help companies register and build mobile Web sites. And mobile-content specialists like the United Kingdom's Bango Ltd. have their own mobile kits that help companies get a basic Web presence on cellphones.
The wireless Internet is just beginning to take shape. Most consumers aren't nearly as comfortable with mobile Web surfing as they are with trolling the Web on PCs. Entering URLs can be difficult on many cellphones, and there's a limited amount of content that is well-formatted for a small screen. Cellphone networks are getting faster but still lag behind landlines significantly in broadband speeds.
Nearly three out of four U.S. consumers today have devices with Web access, according to a recent survey by the Online Publishers Association. Even if consumers don't seek out the mobile Web page of a flower shop or pharmacy, they might come across it using new cellphone search services that let users look up local businesses quickly.
Many small companies are planning to build mobile Web sites. Thousands are using dot-mobi domain names, which are administered by mTLD Ltd., whose backers include cellphone companies such as Nokia Corp. and Vodafone Group PLC as well as Internet service providers like those of Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The company, which gets a cut of registration fees, hopes that dot-mobi will become the de facto domain for mobile sites, much like dot-com is for the regular Internet.
Dublin-based mTLD says a separate mobile-specific domain is the only way to assure users that the site they will visit will be designed appropriately for a phone, with minimal graphics and verbiage and a format fit for a tiny screen. It has issued guidelines on how to develop appropriate mobile sites, and plans to charge content developers $250 to $300 to certify that they can build sites within dot-mobi standards.
Skeptics say a lot of companies are probably registering dot-mobi addresses just as a defensive measure - to prevent other start-ups from registering the same name and diluting their brands and trademarks. The company estimates that more than 17% of the 475,000 dot-mobi domains it has registered since it launched last summer are in use with live content.
Dot-mobi isn't the only alternative. Sites that end in dot-com or dot-net can also be designed so they show mobile-specific content when consumers access them through a mobile device. In fact, that is how most major media brands and other companies have built cellphone sites to date.
One way to promote a musician
Internet registrars, who have made a living on small businesses and already offer a variety of tools to help them build basic Web sites, are taking advantage of the new opportunity in mobile.
For example, Harry Boadwee used [[GoDaddy|http://godaddy.com/ ]] to set up http://www.travelosa.mobi, a mobile Web site that provides information for travelers such as flight cancellations, weather and car-rental information. Registering the domain for a year cost him $12 . GoDaddy also provided Mr. Boadwee with site-development tools offered through a partnership with mTLD. Mr. Boadwee developed the site himself using those tools.
Network Solutions, which hosts the Web sites of 3.5 million small businesses, plans to begin selling dot-mobi addresses soon, along with a suite of tools with templates to build simple mobile Web sites. The company already has a tool that lets businesses automatically convert their existing Web sites into mobile versions - stripping out unneeded verbiage and graphics - but company executives say they encourage companies to build a mobile site from scratch.
In March, Bango rolled out Bango2Go, which offers small businesses hosting and mobile Web development as well as software that lets companies track who is visiting their site and bill customers for purchases. Bango's introductory package is $1,000, plus ongoing maintenance fees that will usually be a few hundred dollars. For bigger companies who want a more elaborate site with more content, the Bango fee is about $5,000.
Bango has already helped huge brands like News Corp. and World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. build their mobile Web portals, but its new product is aimed at smaller players such as Basin Street Records, a small independent music label in New Orleans.
The label's founder, Mark Samuels, is using Bango and Web-site designer Fli Digital Inc. of Hauppauge, N.Y., to develop cellphone Web sites for the nine artists he works with, beginning with jazz trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, whose new mobile Web page is ruffins.wap.com. Mr. Samuels says mobile sites will give concertgoers the ability to download ringtones or album art or even sign up for newsletters. All a fan needs is access to the mobile Web.
[[Ho Chi Minh city|http://www.travellerspoint.com/guide/Ho_Chi_Minh_City/]] or Saigon was really a place to explore the Vietnamese heritage when I was there in November 2010. I have friends from Vietnam already since, but hardly we could meet each other. It was a great chance for me to be in Vietnam since I've longed to.
There was no hassle when I arrived in the evening at [[Tan Son Nhat airport|http://www.hochiminhcityairport.com/]]. No need to fill in an immigration card to enter Vietnam. The airport is not far from the city center. You can take a taxi for 80,000-120,000 VND to reach your destination. Choose wisely which taxi that you will take. Other means of transportation is using the bus #152 that goes to a terminal at the city market place called Ben Thanh in District 1. Probably the cheapest mode of transportation from airport to city center, especially on a clear day.
In Vietnam, traffic is on the right side of the roads while in my country is on the left. I have to be more careful when crossing since I am used to drive on the left side. Motor cycles dominate the roads but they seldom bump into each other; although they were criss-crossing but still give ways for the others to pass. I don't recall any traffic jam when I was there.
On language barrier; I have no difficulties in speaking english as most people understand or at least they try to. The guardian in my hotel was not speaking english very well, however she would ask someone else to help translate should there be any enquiry on my part. They are eager to understand and serve their guests well. No forcing to speak in their language.
At the university where I’ve been visiting, I met lot of students, mostly girls who speak english very well. Although it’s not their native tongue, they do speak in pure english accent, not that kind of accent that we heard from Singapore people or Hong Kong. I am still amazed of this ability even-though some of them are students of english speaking universities. Well, english is not my mother tongue either.
On food, there are specialty of Vietnamese dishes available only in Saigon. Most of them are well tasted to my likings.
Saigon is home of sandwich called [[banh mi|http://battleofthebanhmi.com/]]. Banh mi consists of baguette bread filled with slices of meat, sometime egg, tofu mix, vegetables and sauce. Baguette is French style bread, smaller but sweeter to adapt the taste of locals.
During my days in Saigon, one US dollar is exchangeable to 20,000 dong more or less. Therefore a banh mi that cost 15,000 dong is about 0,75 US dollar.
The next in the menu is rice noodle called [[pho|http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/vietnamese-beef-pho/Detail.aspx]], a regular meal in Vietnam. Always cooked in delicious meat broth, pho is widely avail throughout Vietnam, not only in Saigon. Always served with fresh leaves like basil, cilantro, mint and lot of bean sprouts.
Another noodle style is the one from central Vietnam called the [[Bun Bo Hue|http://www.phamfatale.com/id_1461/title_Bun-Bo-Hue-Recipe-Hue-Style-Vietnamese-Beef-Noodle-Soup/]], a specialty that was once prepared for the emperors. Next visit to this country, I will need to try this kind of noodle version.
Another dish that I have encountered is the broken rice style called [[Com tam|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C6%A1m_t%E1%BA%A5m]]. A mix up of cooked rice combined with slices of meat and others. Again this is a specialty from Saigon where rice is abundant.
<html><a href="http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/Vietnam/Thanh_Pho_Ho_Chi_Minh/Ho_Chi_Minh_City-1470720/Things_To_Do-Ho_Chi_Minh_City-Post_Office-BR-1.html"><img src="blog/Post_Office.jpg" width="400"
alt="The central post office">
</a></html>
Saigon is a touristic city. Places of interest are all over the city like the Notre dame cathedral church, adjacent to the famous central post office, war remnants museum, city hall, temples, Ben Thanh market and the river side. There are several churches in Saigon, something derived from the French colonial past.
I stayed in district 1 where there are lot of small hotels (hostels) at budget range or even smaller backpackers hotels that you may find in the alleys of Pham Ngu Lao wards.
I didn't see any beggar around. People seem to work on something like services or selling some kind of goods or street foods.
Saigon is also a good start to visit the surrounding area in South Vietnam by boat through the Mekong river to towns like Ben Tre, My Tho, Can Tho, or as far as to Chao Doc near the Cambodian border. Indeed you can go to Phnom Penh in Cambodia by boat from Saigon; staying overnight in Can Tho or Chao Doc before crossing the border and take a bus or fast boat to Phnom Penh. They do organize such tours. Ask for their brochures at first when you arrive in Saigon so you can have a very good plan on your journey.
[[Tactical Tech|http://www.tacticaltech.org]] is an international NGO helping rights advocates use information, communications and digital technologies to maximise the impact of their advocacy work. We provide advocates with guides, tools, training and consultancy to help them develop the skills and tactics they need to increase the impact of their campaigning.
*Message in-a-box: [[Tools and Tactics for Communicating your Cause|http://messageinabox.tacticaltech.org/]] is a set of strategic guides to using communications tools for social change, together with a suite of open source tools to get you making your own media. The toolkit is designed for small and medium-sized NGOs, advocates, and citizen journalists to help them create and distribute content for their advocacy efforts while exploring the constantly evolving world of campaigning and communications.To order copies, please write to miab@tacticaltech.org
*Mobiles in-a-box: [[Tools and Tactics for Mobile Advocacy|http://mobiles.tacticaltech.org/]] is a collection of tools, tactics, how-to guides and case studies designed to inspire advocacy organisations and present possibilities for the use of mobile telephony in their work. From choosing an audience, to privacy and security issues and also countering technological challenges, Mobiles in-a-box provides effective solutions to enable you to get started with using mobiles in your advocacy efforts. To order copies, please write to mobiles@tacticaltech.org
*[[Maps for Advocacy|http://www.tacticaltech.org/mapsforadvocacy]] is an introduction to geographical mapping techniques and shows advocates how best to utilise mapping techniques in their campaigns. The booklet introduces rights advocates to mapping tools and also lists inspiring examples where maps have been effective in creating an impact. If you would like to order a booklet or send us your comments and thoughts, please write to mapping@tacticaltech.org
[[Info-Activism Camp]]
~VMware's success is all the more unusual because until recently it was a subsidiary of EMC (Charts, Fortune 500), an old-school Massachusetts storage-computer maker.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/10/15/100536853/
Because ~VMware's technology was so good, though, the company quickly won over the skeptics. Twice ~VMware prepared to go public and didn't. In 2001 it was undone by a weak market, and in 2003 it took itself out of the action by accepting an unexpected cash offer of $625 million from EMC.
CEO Joe Tucci had heard about ~VMware from one of his own software developers. EMC was buying up software companies at the time; he decided ~VMware would fit in nicely. In a matter of weeks the deal was done. The acquisition will go down in industry history as one of the savviest ever.
Greene and Tucci quickly crafted rules of engagement that keep the companies separate. Most important, they agreed to prohibit EMC's aggressive salesforce from selling ~VMware, which would have given EMC a weapon against its competition but hurt ~VMware.
The companies integrated next to nothing. Not their databases, not their compensation plans, not their hiring practices. "They wanted to draft off our campus relations because hot computer science people wanted to talk to ~VMware and not EMC," says Betsy Sutter, ~VMware's head of human resources for seven years and one of the few ~VMware executives in frequent contact with the higher-ups at EMC.
- Excerpted from several sources.
"~TiddlySpace is set for providing a place where people to host their works online for free. A number of users have found this service usable with the use of tiddlers as the data model for simple and innovative web apps. In the second year of introduction, ~TiddlySpace service has matured from a technical standpoint and believed to be effective and pleasant to use."
Although at first it was dedicated to ~TiddlyWiki users, ~TiddlySpace is designed to be accessible to people who may not have seen ~TiddlyWiki before. While ~TiddlyWiki is an offline tool for documenting or more likely journalizing your works in the forms of tiddlers. ~TiddlySpace will make a collaboration service in the advantage of putting it online and thus cloud sharing the documents. Using ~TiddlySpace, we can establish easy communication and publishing in one service. ~TiddlySpace is available for free and an open source project.
When you need to move your documents up in the cloud, [[TiddlySpace|http://tiddlyspace.com]] is another application that is useful for storing and sharing it online. ~TiddlySpace will use the same wiki-like feature to link pieces of informations.
You may find the cloud version of this blog at http://astroiseur.tiddlyspace.com
The International Open Source Network (IOSN) and InWEnt Capacity Building International- Germany, are inviting developers in the health sector to participate in a conference-workshop on FOSS health application development.
Setting the Framework for Interoperability
[In conjunction with the OPEN SOURCE HEALTH CARE ALLIANCE (OSHCA) CONFERENCE 2007]
Venue: Federal Hotel, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Date: May 8-11, 2007
Who Should Attend:
Developers (FOSS or non-FOSS) willing to enhance their skills in FOSS health applications and implementation of interoperability.
Conference-Workshop Overview:
The event is organized and managed by the Open Source Health Care Alliance (OSHCA). IOSN and the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through InWEnt Germany are sponsoring the conference-workshop.
This four-day conference-workshop will consist of an intensive training in Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) applications in healthcare, its updates and the use of FOSS technologies. It is aimed particularly at participants from developing countries of the Asia-Pacific region ( Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam). The target audience, in addition to the FOSS in Healthcare Community, will include interested persons from Ministries ofHealth and Private Health Care Facilities from this region.
The conference-workshop agenda will also include presentations and discussions on a variety of issues focusing on interoperability and data exchange. Major concerns are affordability and developing human capacity. The promotion, adoption and the use of FOSS applications will be discussed. Conference-workshop participants will be invited to participate in future collaborative projects to be jointly organized by IOSN and OSHCA.
Conference-workshop Objectives:
1. Share and review current FOSS applications and technologies in healthcare
2. Conceptualize and define role of OSCHA in managing collaborative FOSS services
3. Explore the role of open standards in facilitating interoperable health information communication and determine standards to be used in future projects
4. Promoting open source for health care applications, particularly to IT and healthcare communities in Asia-Pacific region
5. Promoting the advantages of using FOSS applications to managers of healthcare facilities in public and private sectors in the Asia-Pacific region
6. Train new developers from Asia on FOSS concepts and health data interoperability
7. Creation of collaborative projects for the creation of FOSS for health applications among participants
The conference-workshop will be held concurrently with the IOSN-sponsored Open Source Health Care Alliance conference where a global network of FOSS developers in health will be in attendance. Intensification of the regional collaboration will allow new FOSS developers to attend the conference and interact with this global network of experts. Public-private partnerships can be encouraged through the interaction of ASEAN SMEs/FOSS and European SME/FOSS health developers in attendance.
The conference will delve on the application of FOSS for health while the training conference-workshop is intended for participants who would like to learn more about health application development, and how to comply with international standards for health information interoperability.
Application:
Interested developers are invited to apply for participation by sending the attached application form to: asean3@iosn.net .
Application deadline is April 10, 2007 .
Participants are selected according to the following criteria:
- Work experience in a health environment for at least two years
- Experience administering a Linux PC
- Good command of English, including technical terms used in ICT
- Residency in one of the target countries [Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam]
- Ability to facilitate the adoption of FOSS based health applications in their organizations
Open Source Health Care Alliance (OSHCA)
OSHCA is a non-profit organisation that provides the collaborative platform and forum to promote and facilitate Free/Open Source Software in Health Care. OSHCA's membership comprises a community of people, civil societies and professional bodies in health care and informatics industries that promotes the Free/Open Source Software Concepts in Health Care. OSHCA helps policy makers, commercial enterprises, and users take advantage of the benefits of Free/Open Source Software. URL: http://oshca.org/
//I know Murphy's law for a long time, about thirty years ago, when a poster hanged in my manager's room at that time. It says "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong".//
It means not to trust anything on engineered matter. A machine can blown off sooner or later, no matter how perfect it was built.
No matter how jokes it was, Murphy's law makes a good example to always taking care of anything you do.
History of Murphy's law come from this source,
http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-true.html
It was named after Capt. Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on Air Force Project MX981 (1948) designed to see how much sudden deceleration a person can stand in a crash.
One day, after finding that a transducer was wired wrong, he cursed the technician responsible and said, "If there is any way to do it wrong, he'll find it." The contractor's project manager kept a list of "laws" and added this one, which he called Murphy's Law.
Actually, what he did was take an old law that had been around for years in a more basic form and give it a name.
Shortly afterwards, the Air Force doctor (Dr. John Paul Stapp) who rode a sled on the deceleration track to a stop, pulling 40 Gs, gave a press conference. He said that their good safety record on the project was due to a firm belief in Murphy's Law and in the necessity to try and circumvent it. Aerospace manufacturers picked it up and used it widely in their ads during the next few months, and soon it was being quoted in many news and magazine articles. Murphy's Law was born.
Some jokes around Murphy's as it is to blame the Irish. Murphy is an Irish name and the Irish have been the butt of jokes from Brits for a long time. Brits seem to think that what Murphy's Law refers for things going wrong because they are careless or stupid, at least according to British mythology on the Irish.
There seems a lot about Murphy's derivation that can be found [[here|http://www.murphys-laws.com/]] and also from [[Wikipedia|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_law]] of course.
Murphy's Law is also presented as a life philosophy embodying defensive design, many simply see it as a way of saying in the approach of anything whatsoever that could have a possible flaw, then it is always within good measure to make the necessary precautions to make sure that those flaws can not happen.
Many see it as the initial meaning behind what Murphy was saying, a simple philosophy of defensive design that has been highly misinterpreted. However, this is left open to controversy.
//Another Murphy's quote that I know is "when something is silent for a long time then you must be curious of what went wrong".//
More story about Murphy's law is here,
[[Murphy's Law entry in the Jargon File|http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/M/Murphys-Law.html]]
Lately in Indonesia, there were lots of [[seminars|Beware of 'Free' Workshops ]] or advertisements for getting rich schemes that will offer you on how to get rich as quick as possible. The higher you invest, the higher you will get.
My question is what is 'rich' anyway?
Traditionally, people wants to get [[rich|Building Personal Wealth (Part I) ]] because they are in need of something, further education, buying a house, something to spend, getting married, family to support or just getting richer. In this way, they have been told to work, open businesses or working as employees.
But as time passes, nobody knows what will happen next.
When in crisis, unemployments rose and people try to open their own businesses desperately. I saw many small and big eating places, cafés or restaurants just opened in my locale. They try to open new businesses, but statistically shows that most of new ventures will fail or vanish sooner than expected. A very few businesses will last until sometime.
People who has some saving from former business will try to get money from the getting rich schemes which is offered in todays newspapers in Indonesia or from the internet. I don't know what it is in other countries.
After doing business, some people managed to succeed and have something to save, build own companies, have several houses, factories or just stores to keep.
Some people by tradition will work until the age of sixty or seventy and keep on working until the end. They just couldn't stop working even though there is no necessity for working anymore. They already have house(s), grown-up children, even factories or stores to keep.
My question is then, how will you get enough?
Somehow you will never get enough. Traditionally again you will be always told to work, if you do not then you will not earn. Your family or close relatives will always ask or force you to work. Religions told some of us that we, human being, have been condemned to work all of our lifetime if we want to have a living, meaning something to eat.
My friend ask me, what do you do for a living?
I can say that I don't want to work all my life. You need to stop on something or after something. There must be some limits, or you will never be enough. Meaning that you will always be poor.
Is it true that we need to work for a living?
Beggars work for a living, somehow they can earn more than salaried people by begging around. Are beggars rich or poor enough? One of the [[richest man|Warren Buffet about the stock market]] on earth takes his wealth by investing in company shares but live modestly. Some people can live up happily with what they have owned already.
It is good to get the utmost out of your life, but live up the fullest since life is limited. You will grow old someday. There is more in life than being rich.
//To be continued.//
When HTML is the standard language used to build Web pages, it isn't going anywhere. But some new technologies -such as ~HTML5 and ~CSS3- are already changing how you interact with Web sites. Here's what these technologies are, what they can do, and why you should care.
[[Geek 101: HTML5, CSS3, and You|http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20100507/tc_pcworld/geek101html5css3andyou]]
~HTML5 and ~CSS3 make Web apps for more attractive sites. ~HTML5 has newly added features which make Web application building much easier and easily more tailored. More color and gradient support, shadowing, rounded corners (instead of forcing Web designers to use images to mimic rounded corners), and offline storage. These all make for a more pleasant looking Web page, and something closer to what the creator originally had in mind.
Google announced in December to begin utilizing ~HTML5 in its Web apps, instead of its own Google Gears framework.
//This blog entry is put here for documentation purposes.//
<<tabs html5
Basics "First tab" [[The Basics]]
Next "Second tab" [[What's Next]]
Compatibility "Third tab" [[The State of HTML5 Compatibility]]
Webapps "Fourth tab" [[Web Apps Take the Next Step]]
>>
.
April 24, 2007 — Astronomers have found the first Earth-sized world circling its mother star at a distance suitable for life. It also has good prospects for liquid surface water — believed to be a key ingredient for life.
Irene Klotz, Discovery News
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/04/24/earthlikeplanet_spa.html?
"This planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extra-terrestrial life," said Xavier Delfosse, with Grenoble University in France. It will be years before more sensitive instruments are developed to glean additional clues about whether life exists on the planet.
"It is not possible with current telescopes and instruments yet," Xavier Bonfils, an astronomer with the Lisbonne Observatory in Portugal, wrote in an e-mail to Discovery News. "But in the next decade, we may have the tools to answer this question."
The planet, which is about 50 percent larger than Earth, circles a star in the constellation Libra known as Gliese 581, about 20.5 light-years away. Light travels in a vacuum at about 187,000 miles per second.
Astronomers previously have found a Neptune-sized world circling Gliese 581, as well as strong evidence for a third planet about eight times the mass of Earth.
The new planet, which is the smallest planet beyond our solar system found to date, circles its star 14 times closer than Earth orbits the sun. But because Gliese 581 is smaller and colder than our sun, the system's so-called habitability zone, where liquid water and thus life is possible, is closer to the mother star than in our solar system.
Date: 11-15 June 2007
Venue: Shah's Village Hotel, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
Organised by: Southeast Asian Center for e-Media (http://www.seacem.com/)
''Application deadline is 25th May 2007.''
What is new media?
"New media" is fast becoming a buzz phrase. New media usually refers to a group of relatively recent mass media based on new information technology. The definition is broad, but generally it refers to the use of the Internet and World Wide Web, video games and interactive media, CD-ROM and other forms of multimedia to deliver messages and information. But what does it really means to you, and more importantly, your organisation?
In this workshop, participants will take a closer look at their own organisations, to evaluate weakness and strength, and to learn from case studies and also from each other to improve their communication and outreach strategies.
Who should attend?
Directors, managers and decision makers of civil society groups and independent media organisations, who are involved in planning and shaping the direction of respective organisations, are encouraged to apply.
What will you learn?
You will learn to plan and prepare your organisation for New Media implementations in a broad sense. What do you need and who with what skill sets do you need will be the key focus here.
Application
Applicant shall provide the following information:
1. Full name according to passport
2. Gender
3. Passport number
4. Name of organisation
5. Position in organisation
6. Contact information e.g. address, tel, fax, email and web site.
7. A brief paragraph stating the reason for application.
Please send your application to Ms Calvina <calvina@seacem.com>
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD_1sdNEwfg
http://copythissite.com
http://charlestan.blogspot.com
http://eric.ed.gov
http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7700/1.html
http://www.access-space.org
http://cambodiajobs.blogspot.com/2010/03/mtcp-international-training.html
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/seminars-and-journalism-fellowships/leadership-development/changing-faces-womens-leadership-program/
http://www.zeitgeist.com/2010/02/24/from-the-childishly-silly-canards-dept-open-source-piracy/
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/fundamental-analysis/PPP-big-mac.asp
http://www.citymayors.com/economics/usb-ipod-index.html
http://www.aseanfoundation.org/index.php
http://www.mrdashboard.com/Product_Life_Cycle.html
http://lifehacker.com/5340435/the-definitive-guide-to-finding-free-wi%20fi?skyline=true&s=x
http://www.economist.com/
http://www.tacticaltech.org/jobs
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6149
http://windows7sins.org/
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090424/go-test-drive-windows-7-rc-today/
http://linuxbasics4u.blogspot.com/
http://stalinux.com/
http://enigmail.mozdev.org
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://linux-blog.org/a-new-user-guide-to-linux-communities/
http://ubuntuclips.org/
http://www.yodigo.tv/
http://klikit.pbworks.com/Remastersys+FAQ
http://windowslive.com
http://gigle.ws/linux%20command%20line%20and%20shell%20scripting%20bible.796222.html
http://www.supergamer.org
http://freshmeat.net/projects/zybacafe/
http://michaeldizon.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/primer-on-free-and-open-source-software-foss/
http://jx.com.kh
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/penaOS-50224.shtml
http://pena-os.blogspot.com/
http://wiki.jswindle.com/index.php/Microsoft_Access
http://blog.shankarganesh.com/2007/09/18/ubuntu-themes-for-windows-xp/
http://opensource.sys-con.com/
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://linux-blog.org/a-new-user-guide-to-linux-communities/
http://ubuntuclips.org/
http://planet.ubuntu.com/
http://www.yodigo.tv/
http://gigle.ws/linux%20command%20line%20and%20shell%20scripting%20bible.796222.html
http://cybera.sourceforge.net
http://www.supergamer.org
http://freshmeat.net/projects/zybacafe/
http://jx.com.kh
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/penaOS-50224.shtml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us_NDetqRJI
http://pena-os.blogspot.com/
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49407
http://wiki.jswindle.com/index.php/Microsoft_Access
http://blog.shankarganesh.com/2007/09/18/ubuntu-themes-for-windows-xp/
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://web.creaworld.org/home.asp
http://netnam.vn/foss-bridge/uploads/Main/TrainingMaterial.iso
http://www.foss-bridge.org/trainingmaterial.html
http://en.flossmanuals.net/gnulinux
http://en.flossmanuals.net/
http://www.linuxcommand.org
http://en.opensuse.org/Installation/11.1_DVD_Install
http://osdir.com/ml/php.drupal.user/2003-10/pptU5iVdwIA9U.ppt
http://staff.washington.edu/rells/accessibleweb/accessible_drupal.ppt
http://www.flickr.com/photos/upd/sets/72157622704319417/
http://s735.photobucket.com/albums/ww352/olmightysmiter/AS3/
http://fpe.net.in/node/9
http://www.gnucash.org/
http://www.fpe.net.in/sites/fpe.net.in/files/pic2.JPG
http://www.fpe.net.in/sites/fpe.net.in/files/pic3.JPG
http://www.bitnami.org
http://www.fpe.net.in/sites/fpe.net.in/files/pic2.JPG
http://blog.thesilentnumber.me/2009/09/top-things-to-do-after-installing.html
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
http://orgs.man.ac.uk/documentation/grub/grub_3.html
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://www.cis-india.org
http://www.isiswomen.org
http://www.rm2media.net
http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/seoguide.htm
http://www.iief.or.id/ifp.php?id_section=3&
http://www.api-fellowships.org/body/api_fellowships.php
http://worldebookfair.org/
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/
http://www.computerworld.com/s/whitepapers/1
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10286732-56.html?tag=rtcol;inTheNewsNow
http://www.statowl.com/operating_system_market_share.php
http://www.disabled-world.com/health/influenza/swine-flu/cases-statistics.php
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD_1sdNEwfg
http://www.zoneminder.com/
http://copythissite.com
http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html
http://jrgalia.com
http://cellphoneclick.blogspot.com
http://lifehacker.com/5227896/five-best-malware-removal-tools
http://www.onlinebackupdeals.com/dropbox/
http://www.htmlexe.com/
http://www.finsvc.duke.edu/gap/forms.php
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10
http://moodle.tiddlyspot.com/
http://www.moneyexchange.net/library/money-exchange-the-history-of-the-euro
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://eric.ed.gov
http://www.focus.com/fyi/information-technology/open-source-open-world/
http://www.trixbox.org
http://liberationwarmuseum.org
http://telecentre-in-a-box.org
http://cybera.sourceforge.net/site/co/home_en.html
http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=358
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_gets_faster_debuts_homegrown_php_compiler.php
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/update_facebook_rewrites_php_runtime_with_project.php
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Multichannel_Recording
http://www.zoneminder.com/
http://e164.org
http://www.aspcmms.com/
http://www.google.com/chrome?platform=linux
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://ftacademy.org/courses/programme
http://www.access-space.org
http://cambodiajobs.blogspot.com/2010/03/mtcp-international-training.html
http://cambodiajobs.blogspot.com/
http://www.c-nes.org/ships/96.html
http://www.projectpier.org/about
http://giewiki.appspot.com/
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/date/2010/04
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/JavaScript
http://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp
http://javascript.crockford.com/javascript.html
http://yuiblog.com/crockford/
http://jsfiddle.net/
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://www.informationactivism.org
http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/10/whitehouse-switch-drupal-opensource.html
http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/japan-linux-symposium
http://browser.netscape.com/releases
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/09/12/singapore-new-rule-for-cigarettes/
http://www.hojohnlee.com/weblog/archives/2005/11/13/camping-out-at-singapore-changi-airport/
http://www.etour-singapore.com/
http://www.oanda.com/convert/fxdaily
http://www.gcos.info/special-programs/workshops.html
http://www.2020flossroadmap.org/non-menu-pages/2020-floss-roadmap-2009-version-press-release/
http://www.inwent.org/presse/pressemitteilungen/160261/index.php.en
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://blog.nestlepoell.net/2009/09/29/cambodian-government-warns-people-on-typhoon-ketsana/
http://fosstoolkit.iosnasean.net/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials
http://www.jetstar.com/
http://asiatravel.com/
http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/events/9th-annual-conf/Papers/Proceedings/Proceedings%20Full.pdf
http://barcampphnompenh.org/about/
http://zerodollarlaptop.org/wiki/doku.php/zdlt/manifesto
http://sahana.kahelos.org
http://www.ict-innovation.fossfa.net/og/co-editors
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://www.masenomissions.org/
http://www.xcentric-systems.com/maseno
http://www.prestomypc.com
http://www.puppylinux.org/downloads/official-releases/latest-production-release
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
http://www.virtualbox.org/
http://www.qemu.org/
http://fosstoolkit.iosnasean.net/pup_save-xampp171.7z
http://peazip.sourceforge.net/
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
http://softwarefreedomday.org/StartGuide
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/microsoft.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution
http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/SFDSurabaya
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6149
http://www.universetoday.com/2008/04/10/why-pluto-is-no-longer-a-planet/
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape
http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=4491
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/
http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2009-04/sunflash.20090420.1.xml
http://knowfuture.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/pirate-bay-defendants-convicted/
http://jaromil.dyne.org/journal/piracy_privacy.html
http://www.monochrom.at/fullboycott
http://isoc.ph/portal/2009/04/isoc-philippines-statement-on-pirate-bay-and-potel/
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://onlineadvocacy.tacticaltech.org
http://www.ubuntupocketguide.com/legal.html
http://www.satc.pk
http://sahana2009.foss.lk/barcamp.html
http://sahana2009.foss.lk/cfp.html
http://sahana2009.foss.lk/
http://panacea.iosnasean.net
http://www.abas.de/en/
Following were mostly to visit new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/bandwidth-monitoring-tools-for-linux.html
http://ntop.org.
http://www.cacti.net/
http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/12/8-ways-to-start-conversation-social.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists
http://antonbar.blogspot.com/2008/05/benefits-of-open-source-for-commercial.html
http://www.openbravo.com/product/pos/
http://mangoteam.iosnasean.net/
http://translate.google.com
http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/
http://www.opensource.org/licenses
http://tic.zenerves.net/full_library.html
http://gimp.org/tutorials/Basic_Batch/
http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0811/msg00094.html
http://lab.softwarestudies.com/2008/11/softbook.html
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/tech/2009/01/822425/
http://blog.iwayvietnam.com/tuanta/2009/01/01/enterprise-linux-2008-the-year-in-review/
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://www.isif.asia
http://softwarefreedomday.org/teams
http://natbat.net/2009/Mar/10/practical-maintainable-css/
http://www.vincos.it/world-map-of-social-networks/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromImgFiles
http://www.windows7.cc/
http://panall.crowdvine.com/
https://apps.cisco.com/gdrp/coiga/showsurvey.do
http://www.api-fellowships.org/
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://www.ubuntupocketguide.com/faq.html
http://www.oshca.org/healthdir/fosshealthapps
http://www.compiere.com/company/index.php
http://adempiere.red1.org/
Posterita
http://www.tuxradar.com/linuxstarterpack
http://www.freeknowledge.com
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/
http://www.linux.hkpc.org/jumpstart/
http://fosstoolkit.iosnasean.net/
http://www.openbravo.com/product/pos/
http://www.anshealth.com/solutions.htm
Following were recommended new links for the current month. I put the links below for reference in the future.
http://events.ccc.de/congress/2007/Fahrplan/events/2311.en.html
http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/lecture/lec34601/001.htm
http://www.ict-innovation.fossfa.net/
http://mako.cc/writing/toward_a_standard_of_freedom.html
http://softwarefreedomday.org/StartGuide
http://events.ccc.de/congress/2007/Fahrplan/events/2311.en.html
http://creativecommons.org/weblog
Nexus 2007 is an interactive conference where we will be discussing fundamental changes that are happening in business and technology, and how YOU can take the lead in them! These changes includes Web 2.0, citizen journalism, mobile web explosion, open source communities, and globalization.
This event is taking place on March 24, 2007. It boasts an impressive panel including Google and Microsoft.
http://www.nexus2007.com/nexus/detailedagenda.php#opensource
Innovation Unlimited
Open source was seen as a domain purely for 'geeks' who wanted to be part to a meaningful cause or just a cool project. These days, the implications of open souce has stretched far beyond the geek domain. Many of today's most excting companies leverage on the open source community in very innovative ways. Properly targeted, open source platforms like Firefox and MySQL can achieve ubiquity faster than any previous business model. Innovation experts and business leaders from all fields now look at the open source community for case studies and understanding of how pure innovation can happen in ad hoc communities.
//Nathan Torkington, O'Reilly Radar
Nat hails from the company which brought us the very term Web 2.0! He is a pioneer of one the most successful open source projects - Perl. Few folks are as plugged in as he is to the Web 2.0 and open source community. We look forward to Nat sharing with us the latest updates and war stories on these fronts! //
HELSINKI/LONDON (Reuters) - Nokia hopes giving away the Symbian technology used in its high-end mobile phones will encourage Internet developers to build innovative applications on the platform, helping it win back market share.
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20081022/wr_nm/us_nokia_symbian_3
A freely available Symbian operating system to be controlled by an independent foundation would reinvigorate the platform because developers of new Internet applications in areas such as social networking and navigation will be more likely to use it as a platform, Nokia said on Wednesday.
"I strongly believe an open ecosystem wins over an ecosystem run by a captain, or I should say a dictatorship," Nokia's Executive Vice President for Devices Kai Oistamo told a conference of Symbian partners and developers in London.
"Collaboration is the key. Creating a bigger pie together creates a bigger share for all of us."
Making the platform freely available to developers was the objective when Nokia, the world's number one mobile phone maker, agreed in June to buy out its partners in Symbian for $410 million, he said.
Lee Williams, head of the S60 organization at Nokia's devices business, was nominated to be executive director of the not-for-profit Symbian Foundation on Wednesday. Since June, 52 companies have said they plan to join the not-for-profit foundation, including all major mobile phone makers, giving it an edge over Google's Android, which has 34 members, in the battle for the mobile phone software market.
Symbian said sweeping away licensing fees would cost it royalties which totaled $300 million last year.
"We want developers from all domains to come and play," Symbian Ltd Chief Executive Nigel Clifford said in a keynote speech on Tuesday. "Up to now developers have been a little bit put off by licensing."
Nokia expects to release the first unified Symbian Foundation software next year and introduce a completely new platform by June 2010.
(Editing by Paul Hoskins, Paul Bolding)
If you archive benefits information online, or if you attach large files (booklets, manuals, etc.) to emails sent to employees, you're probably familiar with "portable document files" (~PDFs).
[[Adobe|http://www.adobe.com]] Acrobat Reader is the most common free program that allows you to view ~PDFs, and the software is often pre-installed on computers.
Still, some confusion pervades the PDF world, so here's basic information and reasons why you can benefit from using ~PDFs:
*The PDF is a "read only" file format—it can be opened, but not altered. This makes it suitable for many situations where document authenticity is important.
*Some ~PDFs are interactive forms, so the reader can complete information, save the file and return it to the sender.
*~PDFs print better than Web pages.
*~PDFs can be made small, making them usable in low bandwidth environments.
*~PDFs can have hypertext links, meaning they can link to other resources on the Internet.
*~PDFs can bundle fonts when they're saved, making them useful for storing and delivering digital photos and illustrations.
*~PDFs can be encrypted so that a password is needed to view or edit the contents, if security of the document matters.
*~PDFs can be indexed (read and catalogued) by major search engines, which can help your company's search engine rankings.
Quoted from elsewhere
Transfer of OEM Licenses
The end user license agreement (EULA) is granted to the end user by the System Builder and relates to the license on the PC with which it was originally distributed. Because the System Builder is required to support the license on that original PC, a System Builder can not support a license that has been moved from a PC they manufactured to one that they did not. This is one of the key reasons why an OEM System Builder license can¢t be transferred. To put it simply, OEM software is tied to the original computer system on which it was installed.
However, Microsoft DO ALLOW the transfer of the entire PC to another end user along with the software license rights. When transferring the PC to the new end user the original software media, manuals (if applicable) and Certificate of Authenticity (COA) MUST BE INCLUDED. It is also advisable to include the original purchase invoice or receipt. The original end user cannot keep any copies of the software.
http://www.thebarn.co.uk/oem/
The problem is simple: OEM software almost always includes licensing language along these lines: "For distribution with a new personal computer only. THIS SOFTWARE MAY NOT BE SOLD INDEPENDENTLY."
http://ask-leo.com/whats_oem_software_is_it_safe_to_buy.html
The One Laptop Per Child project expects that its "Give One, Get One" promotion will result in a pool of thousands of donated laptops that will stimulate demand in countries hesitant to join the program. It will be offered for only two weeks in November.
September 24 2007: 4:21 AM EDT
http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/24/technology/hundred_dollar_laptop.ap/index.htm?
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) The project that hopes to supply developing-world schoolchildren with $188 laptops will sell the rugged little computers to U.S. residents and Canadians for $400 each, with the profit going toward a machine for a poor country.
Originally conceived as the "$100 laptop," the funky green-and-white low-power "XO" computers now cost $188. The laptops' manufacturer, Quanta Computer Inc., is beginning mass production next month, but with far fewer than the 3 million orders One Laptop Per Child director Nicholas Negroponte had said he was waiting for.
By opening sales to people in the U.S. and Canada at http://www.xogiving.com, "Give One, Get One" will delight computing aficionados, because the XO is unlike any other laptop.
It has a homegrown user interface designed for children, boasts built-in wireless networking, uses very little power and can be recharged by hand with a pulley or a crank. Its display has separate indoor and outdoor settings so it can be read in full sunlight, something even expensive laptops lack.
The catch is that "Give One, Get One" will run only from Nov. 12 to Nov. 26. Negroponte said the limited availability is partly necessary so the nonprofit doesn't run afoul of tax laws, but mainly designed to create scarcity-induced excitement.
Thailand, Uruguay, Nigeria, Brazil, Libya and Rwanda are among the countries that could be in the first wave of laptop customers, though specifics have not been announced now.
In September 2005, he was saying that 5 million to 15 million machines might be in production in 2006, with perhaps 100 million out by now. In April 2006 he foresaw 5 million to 10 million XOs dotting the landscape in 2007.
Now 250,000 to 300,000 are due to be made by the end of this year. Negroponte expects that to ramp up to 1 million a month next year, though he still lacks signed orders for that many.
--
Well at last, the story is yours. --
Tommy (not his real name) laughed when asked about the performance of the planned US$100 laptop known as Children's Machine that was announced in early 2005 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, by the chairman of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Nicholas Negroponte.
$100 laptop program revisited
Supplement - July 26, 2007 by Rudijanto, Contributor, Jakarta
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20070726.R10
Without a hard disk and equipped with a tiny display screen, such a laptop would not be able to meet the requirements of today's professionals, but such a laptop may be sufficient to provide school children with digital experience.
Powered by a CPU using 433 MHz AMD Geode LX-700, the $100 laptop, also known as the XO-1, appears antiquated. However, the 256 MiB of Dual (DDR266) 133 MHz DRAM as written in the March 2007 hardware specifications makes the laptop fast enough for child users.
The use of IEEE 802.11 to form the wireless mesh network enables the laptop to gain Internet access although the data rate across this network would not be high. However, the data rate should be sufficient for asynchronous network applications such as e-mail.
To ensure that the cost of operating the laptop remains low, all of the software will be free and open sourced using, among other things, a pared-down version of Fedora Core Linux as the operating system, a simple custom Web browser based on the Gecko engine used by Mozilla Firefox, a word processor based on AbiWord, e-mail through the Web-based Gmail service and online chat and VoIP programs.
If the laptop project runs as scheduled, children in developing countries will be the first beneficiaries. Under the OLPC program, governments of developing countries will pay and/or subsidize the price of the laptops for children. Through this program, the digital divide between those in the developing world and those in advanced countries is expected to gradually disappear.
But perhaps all this sounds ''too be good to be true''. As of March this year, the price of the XO-1 had already increased to US$175 and Negroponte revealed that the project was at a critical stage.
The reason is that there has been no certainty regarding which country will pay cash for the laptops. In addition, for mass production and distribution, total orders for the XO-1 need to be three million units. However, Negroponte expects that the laptop will be mass produced in October 2007.
However, it is not clear yet where orders for three million units will come from. From the countries initially mentioned as buyers of the laptop - Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand and Cambodia. Thailand has withdrawn from the project now that there has been a military takeover there.
India has rejected Negroponte's offer on the OLPC program. Indian Ministry of Human Resources Development even plans to make laptops for as low as $10 for schoolchildren. A final year engineering student of Vellore Institute of Technology and a researcher from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, have come to an estimated production cost of US$47 per laptop.
Some critics have said that the poor children in the jungles of Africa and forested areas of Vietnam and Cambodia need electricity and basic school infrastructure more than they need laptops. In addition to its rising price, governments in the developing countries cannot help but calculate the maintenance costs of laptops provided to their schoolchildren.
There has been recent call of using Windows in OLPC and it will be called as Windows XO. And it is developed after [[Sugar|http://www.laptop.org/en/jobs.shtml#User%20Interface%20Developer%20for%20Sugar]].
Richard Stallman of [[FSF|http://www.fsf.org/about]] is not so happy with this. I can see that Nicholas Negroponte is a bit suppresed because the OLPC idea has been stolen away thus giving a chance for other manufacturers to go on their own. The idea was a cheaper laptop for kids. Well the FOSS idea is immediately free to copy.
All that I can think why Negroponte has chosen Windows is a marketing effort to make the OLPC avail to a more broader market, by riding on the market of Windows. And so fort will save the fate of OLPC.
I quoted a few comments to cover both side.
Windows XO: A Child-Centric Operating Platform for Learning, Expression and Exploration
http://www.olpcnews.com/software/operating_system/windows_xo_child_centric_development.html
Better yet, OLPC is re-aligning its developers to be as child-centric as the name suggests. Windows XO will be developed using an innovative One Child Per Programmer (OCPP) process - each developer will be paired with a child from the developing world.
These children will lead the software development process, from use case to bug fix, and in high-profile Activities, approve every line of Python code.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was quoted as saying:
"I applaud OLPC's change in strategy. We've been practicing child driven development at Microsoft for years, as evidenced by Steve Ballmer's temper tantrums, and expect Windows XO to be as reliable as our own operating systems"
Can we rescue OLPC from Windows?
Submitted by johns. on 2008-04-29 04:33 PM. RMS
by Richard Stallman
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/can-we-rescue-olpc-from-windows/blogentry_view
Since the OLPC was first announced we have envisioned it as a way to lead millions of children around the world to a life in which they do computing in freedom. The project announced its intention to give children a path to learn about computers by allowing them to study and tinker with the software. It may yet do that, but there is a danger that it will not. If most of the XOs that are actually used run Windows, the overall effect will be the opposite.
Proprietary software keeps users divided and helpless. Its functioning is secret, so it is incompatible with the spirit of learning. Teaching children to use a proprietary (non-free) system such as Windows does not make the world a better place, because it puts them under the power of the system's developer -- perhaps permanently. You might as well introduce the children to an addictive drug. If the XO turns out to be a platform for spreading the use of proprietary software, its overall effect on the world will be negative.
It is also superfluous. The OLPC has already inspired other cheap computers; if the goal is only to make cheap computers available, the OLPC project has succeeded whether or not more XOs are built. So why build more XOs? Delivering freedom would be a good reason.
The project's decision is not final; the free software community must do everything possible to convince OLPC to continue being (aside from one firmware package) a force for freedom.
Part of what we can do is offer to help with the project's own free software. OLPC hoped for contribution from the community to its interface, Sugar, but this has not happened much. Partly that's because OLPC has not structured its development so as to reach out to the community for help -- which means, when viewed in constructive terms, that OLPC can obtain more contribution by starting to do this.
Sugar is free software, and contributing to it is a good thing to do. But don't forget the goal: helpful contributions are those that make Sugar better on free operating systems. Porting to Windows is permitted by the license, but it isn't a good thing to do.
I know that Negroponte is well networked but I would say that his OLPC project for having a notebook built under US$100 is a complete failure. It took more than time necessary just to build a Pentium III equivalent with 128MB RAM etc and there are more that 1400 in the OLPC wiki that would really create another havoc and tower of babel.
It is too easy to build a PC with such a lower specification and added wifi features. There is nothing new in the world of the OLPC specification. There is no need to ask or build a network instead of distributing or to do the action that was going to be the first objective.
There is no miracle and time lapse. It is best to recycle reusable PCs and get them to the poor or needy. In Indonesia, a Pentium III ~PCs are available for under US$100 complete with monitors. The ~PCs came imported as e-waste but recyclable and usable in our country. Especially usable when running FOSS.
The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) and the Eclipse Foundation invite
submissions to OS Summit Asia 2007, to be held Nov 26 - 30 at the
Cyberport, Hong Kong.
A ground breaking event, OS Summit Asia is the first joint conference between the Apache and Eclipse Foundations and the first such event in Hong Kong and greater China. OS Summit features a wide range of activities designed to promote the exchange of ideas amongst foundation members, innovators, developers, vendors, and users interested in the future of Open Source technology.
Details on submitting papers can be found at http://www.ossummit.com/cfp.html
Microsoft Windows is wildly popular for running open source applications. Whether its the Firefox Web browser or the latest open source server application, chances are there's a very popular version for Windows.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/71145-microsoft-s-savvy-open-source-move?
> And Microsoft wants to keep it that way. In fact, a small but strategic Silicon Valley company is helping Microsoft to certify open source applications for Windows Server 2008.
>
> It’s a super-smart move by Microsoft, since the software giant needs Windows Server to continue to compete effectively against Linux servers. That’s certainly the case with Windows Server 2008, where Microsoft hopes Windows replaces Linux in the LAMP stack.
>
> Despite growing Linux deployments, Windows Server remains quite popular for running open source applications. [[SugarCRM|http://www.mspmentor.net/2008/02/11/sugarcrm-doubling-revenues-through-software-as-a-service/]], the fast-growing open source application provider, is quick to note that many of its business developments occur on Windows Server. And Microsoft itself has sponsored SugarCRM’s conferences, in order to stay in front of open source crowds.
>
> But Microsoft isn’t stopping there. The company is working with SpikeSource to ensure open source applications work with Windows Server 2008. [[SpikeSource|http://spikesource.com/msftsolutions.html]] has so far certified five PHP applications for Microsoft’s new server operating system. SpikeSource makes sure open source applications work together -- as advertised.
>
> SpikeSource also has a relationship with Intel (INTC), according to the chip giant’s corporate blog, and Intel apparently is pumping $10 million fresh dollars into SpikeSource.
>
I agree with your article. As a big open source lover, I use Windows XP as my main OS. For some reason, I just can't get into any of the many different Linux distros on a UI level. Microsoft and Windows, despite all of their faults, excel at the UI.
However, I love OSS apps and for the most part, they work great on Windows. I think that most OSS apps should have a Windows installer for this very reason, because a lot of people use it as their OS and they will not achieve the same penetration if they don't. One of my clients announced recently that they had released a Windows installer, and downloads really spiked on SourceForge.
It was pretty cool to see happen in real time. And in regards to Microsoft working more with OSS, I think that's a no-brainer and they would be foolish not to. I think they're doing that, as this announcement and last week's on their working with SourceSense on Apache POI show. They're slowly beginning to open up, but I'd like to see them open up even more. Imagine the possibilities. [[James Gerber|http://www.prompt-communications.com/prompt-blogs]]
Is there any reason why there are not enough female FOSS developers because women are simply not genetically predisposed to the hard sciences?
//So efforts to increase the number of female FOSS developers should be about convincing women and girls on just how important and beneficial it is for them to get into FOSS. Because trust me, if a woman is sold on the idea that something / anything is absolutely beneficial to her (and what’s important to her), she’ll open her own doors to get to that thing. //
cheekay cinco <cheekay@apcwomen.org> on AS2 blog.
Using Windows is no crime at all (recent computers and notebooks are supplied with operating system ONLY). The point is how you could use FOSS in a Windows environment. Using FOSS is not always Linux, it stands for Free and Open Source Software which can work under any platform. So you can always choose FOSS applications to work in your Windows environment.
FOSS applications has a range of products that will run under the WIndows XP to be specific. The most common example is the firefox browser from Mozilla, and many others which are not made by Microsoft but are made by the [[open source community|http://www.opensource.org/]]. Other FOSS include Open Office that replicate and compatible with documents (well mostly) produced by Microsoft office.
[[The OpenEducationDisc|http://www.theopendisc.com/]]
Established in 2007, the OpenDisc project provides a collection of high quality Open Source Software for Windows on a disc, and is updated at regular intervals throughout the year.
There are tens of thousands of OSS programs available for free download, making it difficult to separate the quality and truly useful offerings from those in need of further development. The landscape is made even more complicated by the availability of a vast number of Shareware and Freeware programs that you can also download freely from the net. These, however are not Open Source, because the author does not share the human readable source code for others to examine and build upon.
The [[OpenEducationDisc|http://www.theopendisc.com/education]] is a modification of the OpenDisc format by Teachers and Computer Specialists with a passion for education. The purpose of it is to provide students with the software that they need to complete school work at home. Most students don't have jobs and it is unfair to ask for them or a parent/guardian to buy expensive software to get the best out of their education. Hence everything is free and we encourage you to make copies of this CD and lend it to you friends.
[[Using FOSS under Windows]]
//This is a discusion about using the [[thin-client|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_client]] technology and choosing the right server type.//
From time to time when you are using Microsoft OS from old windows system to the more recent one like Vista and 7, the trend is that you will always keep on upgrading your hardware like processors, motherboards and memories to make it workable with the new system.
Running a vista will need more hardware than running XP. This will keep their business as you will need to pay more for the new hardware to keep up with the latest Microsoft product.
I don't know if you are consumptive to new thing but some institutions may have invested in lesser hardware already like the old Pentium series or lesser for their labs. For some reason they may not have fund enough to upgrade and forcefully use the old hardware type.
In the past year I see that many companies are more in the service process than in the buying or acquiring new hardware. This has affected the hardware company to foreclose their factory because of the lower consumption.
[[Intel factory in Cavite closed by second half of 2009|http://thepinoy.net/?p=2771]]
You are luckily enough to provide a new server which I found of a very high specification and may not be the necessary type of processor for a server. I doubt it that a quad core is a server type processor or client processor since you may opt for a xeon processor. There is a link that may help explain it,
[[Intel's Consumer Strategy Raises More than a Few Questions?|http://seekingalpha.com/article/176463-intel-s-consumer-strategy-raises-more-than-a-few-questions?]]
Perhaps Linux is a good alternative OS for servers that hopefully can still use the lesser hardware type. Many proprietary applications can still run on Linux platform. On the clients side we will still need a Windows XP for OS only. I have no experience if a thin client can call applications in the server smoothly.
A difficult book, if not very, to read by Peter Lynch about investing in the stock market. Lynch is exceptional fund manager that gain multifolds from the stock exchange. In this book, Lynch tells about how to shop for stocks and gain from growing business at a bargain. Well at least //these// are my words. Lynch offers easy ways for determining company's potential, fast growers and other types of companies. I have only the condensed or digest form which is 160 pages from Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Review By Nick Kapur September 6, 2006
http://www.fool.com/investing/small-cap/2006/09/06/foolish-book-review-quotone-up-on-wall-streetquot.aspx
As a rookie investor, I've had the following conversation with myself: "I want to put some money into the market, but where should I start?" With stocks, funds, options, bonds, and all sorts of other alternatives abounding, the view from the top of the investing mountain can be quite intimidating. If you ask Peter Lynch, the solution is quite simple. He'd recommend that you just jump in.
In his book, One Up on Wall Street, the philosophy is slightly more complex than that, but not much. Lynch believes that with a little research and steady discipline, a regular guy like me can sprint right past so-called investment gurus.
Don't listen to the hype
Lynch explains his investing style in an extended analogy to a cocktail party and the chatter that inevitably turns to the next hot stock. Depending on how the market is doing and a few other factors, the guest with the stock tip will either be the life of the party or the guy who gets pushed to the back near the vegetable platter. Either way, he says, most people take an irrational approach to investing.
People become interested when a given stock becomes the new, hot thing or is a player in the "now" industry. If companies like Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG) or RF Micro Devices (Nasdaq: RFMD) sound familiar, then pay attention. Like lemmings, people naturally get caught up in the crowd and lose sight of what's really important. Lynch stresses the basics.
If you find a company that's the new hot thing and, without bias, you can say that its numbers still look impressive, then go ahead and invest. You might still catch an impressive return on that investment, popularity aside.
But Lynch seemingly isn't concerned with the companies that people are talking about near the punch bowl, or with the tip he got about that new, amazing company that will change life as we know it on planet Earth. The best companies are most often right in front of your face. They're the ones you encounter on a daily basis and that you can easily understand.
Lynch loved eating tacos and other treats from fast-food mover Taco Bell, so he invested in Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM). Like many Americans, he was startled by the excessive amount of refuse produced by the average consumer, so he bought Waste Management (NYSE: WMI). Invest in what you know. With a little bit of fundamental research, the rest will take care of itself.
People don't care about garbage collection
We tend to disregard the everyday regulars as potential investments, because no one really wants to talk about them. They're not sexy, they're not hot, and they surely won't make you the center of attention in conversation. But boredom and disinterest are two critical elements in finding the next 10-, 30-, and 50-baggers - Lynch coined the term, after all.
Some of Lynch's favorite (and most profitable) investments have come in the form of generally disagreeable industries, such as funeral home services and trash removal.
These aren't the companies that people secretly tell their best friend about when they owe them a favor (even though they probably should). In many cases, they're solidly run, with strong market share, great numbers, and little competition. Furthermore, few people pay them any attention until they've become the behemoths in their respective industries. And that's why anybody can get in on them.
Here are 13 questions that a "Lynchian" investor will ask about a company:
1. Does it sound dull or, even better, ridiculous?
2. Does it do something dull?
3. Does it do something disagreeable?
4. Is it a spinoff?
5. Is it disregarded and not owned by institutions/not followed by analysts?
6. Do rumors abound involving toxic waste and/or Mafia ownership?
7. Is there something depressing about it?
8. Is it a no-growth industry?
9. Has it got a niche?
10. Do people have to keep buying it?
11. Is it a user (not producer) of technology?
12. Are insiders buying it?
13. Is the company buying back shares?
If you answered yes to these questions, you might have found the next undervalued, underappreciated pick of the decade. While it may not be the be-all and end-all to investing, it may get you thinking about the right types of companies.
This one's a keeper
One Up on Wall Street was written in 1989, so don't expect to find any great stock tips from the investment master himself in there. The former Fidelity fund manager does, however, provide the reader with an investment approach that can last a lifetime.
His thesis is simple, logical, and easily replicated. Even if you don't agree with his philosophy, you should be able to draw some simple, yet important lessons from his advice on buying stocks. If you're an advanced investor savvy to the thrills and spills of the market, I still recommend this Foolish favorite. It might categorically change your investment strategy.
Open Administration for Schools 2.50, an open source, web based, school administration package is available from:
http://richtech.ca/openadmin/
This version has many new updates, features, etc. outlined below:
1) Single Site SSL - OA will now run on the Apache SSL server to give encrypted communication between web browser and server. As a result, it has been updated to run as a single site per school (since SSL precludes the use of easy virtual sites).
Andy Figueroa, besides figuring out how to do it, and testing the results, has also written the docs for a clean debian/ubuntu server install for this.
2) Fee System - improvements to make this system more useful. It's still a baby in developmental terms. It has a new outstanding fees report with family totals; an additional receipts field to simplify transaction structures and rewritten payments and invoice scripting.
3) Transcript system - a new transcript system that can generate multiple page per student transcripts (with identical cool looks as previously).
4) Report Card system - a new rewritten report card script that has even more configuration options and now has a GPA setting. The code has been rewritten to make it more flexible (and configurable).
5) Rewritten student enrollment scripting to allow better looking editing and to support the 18 additional student fields. It also has a new 'Clone' function to clone other family members to speed up student enrollment.
6) Rewritten pdf generation reports to support alternate language characters (normally Spanish or French) in generated pdf's. This makes use of the input encoding module of LaTeX.
7) Pop up calendar for date entry on Attendance and Main pages (from the dynarch.com folks) (and scripts updated to support this)
8) A new Custom Staff Report (analogous to the custom classlist report).
9) Beginning support for alternate paper sizes rather than just letter paper (ie. A4) as used by schools outside of North America. It is an additional configuration option in master configuration file (defaultpapersize).
10) New single field reset system (called 'bulk updates' on the Start/End of Year page) to reset a single field in all student records, etc. This replaced the large number of separate scripts.
11) And other fixes and improvements to improve the code and better support languages other than english.
Les Richardson <les@celery.richtech.ca>
Open Admin for Schools
There is an interesting article in [[Forbes|http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/04/open-source-entrepreneur-technology-enterprise-tech_0206_mitra.html?partner=technology_newsletter]] written by Sramana Mitra, saying that "Sizable companies have been built from commercializing open-source software". Read more to find out,
Everything around us is choking up: Credit, equity investments, mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings. The slowdown is strangling innovation, and it is suffocating entrepreneurship.
But some entrepreneurs have found ways to build their companies on a shoestring using open source software, and they have figured out how to make money off something generally considered free.
Take Brian Behlendorf, an open source pioneer who recounts those early days. "The term 'free software' made it sound like an anti-capitalist movement, yet the reality is we were hardcore capitalists," he says. "We liked a lot of the attributes of that type of software and felt a rebranding effort was needed. That is when the term 'open source' was coined."
And it was Behlendorf's capitalistic instincts that led him to later found Brisbane, Calif.-based CollabNet, which makes collaboration software that allows engineering teams spread across different geographies to work together. CollabNet's software was built from a free open-source application called Subversion, which was used as a Trojan horse to get into accounts.
Another entrepreneur, John Roberts, armed with a blind faith in the open-source movement, founded the now famous SugarCRM. Roberts had dyslexia as a child, making his later journey all the more inspiring. Roberts, formerly in product management at E.piphany, recounted how he founded Cupertino, Calif.-based SugarCRM.
"Around the same time MySQL started getting some traction, I convinced two strong engineers at E.piphany to join me," Roberts says. "We all resigned together and started SugarCRM on April 10, 2004, without any angel or VC money. It was the three of us, each in his own house with headphones on, writing and designing code and posting it up on SourceForge.net. We did that for three months."
On another continent, Australian entrepreneur Rod Johnson took his expertise in enterprise Java and wrote a book while caring for his sick mother. "With that book, I published 30,000 lines of code illustrating the concepts in the book," Johnson says. "A lot of people were interested in the code, and I was approached to open-source it, which I did."
Those lines of code became the framework for Johnson's company, SpringSource. So how many people use the software? "Our best estimate is that two-thirds of enterprise Java users are utilizing SpringSource. I would say that the user population is around 1 million," he says.
And how does SpringSource make money? "Monetization was originally around consulting and training," Johnson says. "We still have a fairly large training business. The primary monetization model is around software. We have a number of software add-ons which improve the ownership experience of SpringSource. You can get 24-7 support via a subscription, which is important in large organizations."
What I like about all these entrepreneurs: They were able to use their own coding skills and the low-cost open-source development and distribution model to build up traction early on to solve a specific problem. Uttering the terms "open source" and "making money" in the same breath may seem like an oxymoron, but these entrepreneurs have managed to merge the two.
If you are an engineer pondering your career path, you can certainly look at commercial open source as a great model to innovate on a shoestring and jump-start your entrepreneurial career while the world scrambles to recover from the economic crisis.
After all, instead of wasting six to nine months looking for a job, wouldn't you rather spend that time working to take your destiny into your own hands?
Many unemployed Americans simply will not sit around and wait for new jobs. Instead they will follow our commander-in-chief's call for action and create new opportunities for themselves.
The bolder and more creative ones will start their own businesses. They will do this by being nimble and by taking advantage of evolving tools such as social media to identify new opportunities and partners. Welcome to the era of the "open-source entrepreneur" and the "open-source economy," where free agents will group together in varying ways to tackle new opportunities and become change agents.
This new type of entrepreneur comes during an unprecedented time for our nation, when a massive creative destruction produced by the crisis is redefining how businesses operate. This reorganization of business, while accelerated by the economic crisis, had been happening for a while as businesses have searched for ways to do things better, faster, and cheaper.
[[From Outsourcing to Resourcing|http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20090331/bs_bw/mar2009db20090330797548]]
This quest created the outsourcing phenomenon of the 1980s and '90s that continues today, ushering in a new phase of our economy that is more focused on the creation of ideas and differentiated services. It is the alignment of this new creative economy's search for the most revolutionary ideas and business' need to keep costs down that is driving us to this more nimble and collaborative way of working that makes open-source entrepreneurship so viable.
If necessity is indeed the mother of invention, then the massive layoffs we've been seeing could, indirectly, help bring a more innovative and resourceful way of working that grants our labor market greater flexibility and dynamism. Forward-thinking entrepreneurs have already started this process through communities like LinkedIn and Plaxo where they are already creating new business opportunities. But the impetus and possibilities for collaboration and exchange are much greater now, given the national need to kick-start the economy.
IOSN-InWEnt-USM Call for Institutional Participation: International Conference on Open Source Software for Health (INCOSSH2008) Penang, Malaysia November 23 to 25, 2008
Conference URL: http://bpio.amdi.usm.edu.my/incossh2008
DEADLINE OF APPLICATION: 10 OCTOBER 2008, 1800H (GMT+8)
TARGET AUDIENCE: managers and implementers of health information systems, developers, programmers of health applications
APPLICATION FORM: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pVJdhWBPoeQTF7W3Ug2whXA&hl=en
IMPORTANT DATES
September 15 - October 10 (application period)
October 10-15 (evaluation period)
October 15 (selection and notification of qualified applicants)
October 16 - November 20 (pre-conference discussions and networking)
November 22 (arrival of participants)
November 23 - 25 (conference proper)
November 25 (departure of participants)
Applications are open for institutional participants from CAMBODIA, INDONESIA, PHILIPPINES and VIETNAM.
IMPORTANT:
Everyone is requested to carefully read and understand the criteria, objectives and conditions prior to submission of their applications for evaluation and consideration.
This conference brings together developers and end users of health information systems and allows them to interact closely and exchange their experiences with free and/or open source software, open standards, and open content. The official conference site is here.
In 2007, IOSN together with Open Source Health Care Alliance, co-sponsored OSHCA's Annual Convention in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. With InWEnt's assistance, twenty developers from ASEAN attended the conference on the first three days and an intensive training session on the last day. One of the output from this event was the networking of technical and health domain experts which allowed for cross-pollination and interaction. Several FOSS health care projects presented their applications in this conference and a potential collaboration on the development of an open source electronic health record (FreeFeathers EHR Extension) available at http://www.freefeathers.org was started.
Coming from this conference, a logical next step is to show demonstration of how these software actually work and get domain experts from the health sector to comment on how these fit or not fit their current situation. The idea is to let the end users discuss their concerns and requested features with the actual developers. This interaction has numerous benefits, to wit:
*For the developer: an understanding of what features are important to end users and what major components are still lacking from their application
*For the health workers: an understanding of the benefits of free and/of open source method of application development and the importance of connecting closely with the original developers whether or not their services will be employed
*For the e-health expert: insights on how to best implement health information systems cost-effectively using FOSS
Various open source electronic health records abound on the Internet already with some of them emanating from ASEAN and EU. This conference aims to dissect the opportunities and obstacles to deployment of FOSS health applications in the workplace.
INSTITUTIONAL APPROACH
For this Regional Conference, the call for participation will be sent to institutions with a requirement to clearly signify their commitment to designate their representative/participant to train other staff members/communities upon their return within three months (re-entry plan). This institutional approach assures that there is an echo seminar that is offered to local staff members/communities and the knowledge gained is shared to others.
During the selection process, a high score will be given to institutions which will be able to embed a training course on FOSS for health into their regular plantilla of activities and services offered. These will be expected from the re-entry plan they will be submitting as a requirement for application.
Though applications of institutions will be prioritized, individual FOSS trainers and experts are also eligible to apply.
RE-ENTRY PLAN
The programme provides monitoring after the conference (through their institution) for a sustainable implementation of follow-up activities. The monitoring will be done through a special website to be created for that purpose.
APPLICATION CRITERIA
IOSN-InWEnt can sponsor 20 participants from as many institutions from the four aforementioned countries. Nominated participants should also comprise a mix of private sector, public sector, and civil society.
Applying institutions are invited to designate one representative/trainer. The Institution is also ask to clearly signify their commitment to designate their representative/participant to train other staff members/communities (of FOSS for Health -- materials will be disseminated in the conference) upon their return within three months. Organizations are ENCOURAGED to nominate and give preference (where appropriate) to FEMALE participants.
''To apply please go to,''
http://www.iosn.net/asean-3/call_for_applications/reg_conf_opensource_health
COSTS
Accepted participants are expected to shoulder the subsidized conference fee of USD 100 (full price USD250). Other subsidies may be granted after appropriate documentation is submitted.
Aspiration is delighted to announce our first-ever “Open Translation Tools Convergence”. This 3-day event will bring together two passionate communities: those creating open source software tools to support translating open content, and those with a need for better tools to support translation of the open content they create.
Call for Projects and Participants!
The event will take place in Zagreb, Croatia, from 29 November to 1 December 2007
Full details are at http://www.aspirationtech.org/events/opentranslation
We invite you to answer the call for projects and participants now!
The event is being convened to:
- Document the open source translation tool landscape - What’s out there? And what should we create to fill the gaps?
- Inventory “open content translation use cases” - What translation support is needed?
- Strengthen the network around open source translation tools for open content, with a particular focus on delivering value to nonprofit and non-governmental organizations (NPOs and NGOs).
The agenda will be collaboratively developed by participants in the time leading up to and during the gathering. Also see additional event background. Visit the event wiki for the latest details and to add your input! And please join the discussion on the event mailing list.
Overall, we will follow a user-driven approach to map tools to use cases, assessing what is supported by currently available open source software tools and services, and identifying the most pressing needs. Primary focus will be placed on supporting and enabling distributed human translation of content, but the role of machine translation will also be considered. “Open content” will encompass a range of resource types, from books to manuals to documents to blog posts to multimedia.
At this point we are reaching out to all interested parties and contacting the networks and communities of practice that touch on these fields of practice. Our hope is to identify a passionate group of 30-40 participants for the event.
Interested parties are encouraged to tell us about your projects and translation needs. Answer the call for projects and participants now!
For more information, email opentranslation@aspirationtech.org or call +1.415.839.6456.
Aspiration is delighted to announce Open Translation Tools 2009 (OTT09), to be held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, from 22-24 June, 2009.
The event will be followed by an Open Translation “Book Sprint” which will produce a first-of-its-kind volume on tools and best practices in the field of Open Translation. Both events are being co-organized in partnership with FLOSSManuals.net, and generously supported by the Open Society Institute.
Agenda partners for the event include Creative Commons, Global Voices Online, Translate.org.za, WorldWide Lexicon, Meedan, and DotSUB.
The agenda goals of the 2009 event will be several:
*Addressing the Translation Challenges Faced by the Open Education, Open Content, and human rights blogging communities, and mapping requirements to available open solutions.
*Building on the vision and exploring new use cases for the Global Voices Lingua Translation Exchange
*Documenting the state of the art in distributed human translation, and discussing how to further tap the tremendous translation potential of the net
*Making tools talk better: realizing a standards-driven approach to open translation
*Exploring and sketching out Open Translation API Designs, building on existing work and models
*Documenting workflow requirements for missing open translation tools
*Match-making between open source tools and open content projects
*Mapping of available tools to open translation use cases
Call for Participants:
The event is convened with two primary audiences in mind:
*Those content creators in the fields of open education, open knowledge, and human rights blogging who have specific open content translation needs and can help to define "use cases" for open content translation tool developers to address.
*Those developing open source software tools that support human translation of documents and other text content.
At this point we are inviting interested projects and individuals to register for consideration as participants; we have a limited amount of participant spaces available for the event. We will confirm event participants by 25 May, 2009, and earlier when travel planning needs dictate.
There is no registration fee for the event, but we request that those able to pay to contribute on a sliding scale between 75 and 200 Euro to offset travel and organizing costs and enable more participants to attend.
We also have a limited number of scholarships available for travel and participation.
We welcome inquiries from all interested parties, and will strive to create the most diverse and passionate group of participants possible.
Full information about the event is available http://aspirationtech.org/events/opentranslation/2009.
For questions or any additional information, please contact us by [[email|mailto:opentranslation@aspirationtech.org]] or phone at +1.415.839.6456.
Thanks for your interest!
As the recession bites, users are eschewing expensive proprietary software for increasingly sophisticated alternatives at zero cost.
Sean Dodson
[[The Guardian - Thursday 12 March 2009|http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/12/open-source-apps]]
What remains largely untouched is the paid-for applications we run on our computers – the operating systems and desktop applications licensed from software giants such as Microsoft, Adobe and Apple. But with money becoming increasingly scarce, and the free alternatives growing in sophistication, free is finally threatening to go mainstream.
One of the criticisms of free alternatives is they lack sophistication. But for Ford & Warren, a large legal practice in Leeds, the software is more than capable of producing complex documents for its 200 employees. "What you don't want to do when you are cutting cost is to cut quality," explains Keith Hearn, the firm's managing partner.
Sharing the download
And free alternatives continue to improve. Gimp, for example, has for years been dogged by criticism that it was unworkable. But volunteer developers have worked to overcome its limitations. "There are problems with open source just as there are with proprietary projects," says Michael J Hammel, an author of several Gimp textbooks. "But with open source there is more transparency and a chance to fix those problems. It's a matter of when the world will realise that sharing ideas instead of selling them is a better long-term solution."
~OpenOffice is essentially owned by Sun Microsystems but, like Gimp, it is built by an army of volunteers and so makes no profit. Even so, a project as enlightened as ~OpenOffice is not open enough for some. Michael Meeks, an engineer at Novell, is one of the architects of Go-oo. He sees the increasing mass adoption of free applications as creating a crossroads. "The traditional model of software development is falling apart at the seams. We see the long timelines and bad project management endemic of propriety software being frequently disastrous. The open source development model has a huge number of attractions, particularly getting code out early. People will switch increasingly to that model."
How many people will take advantage of that model could all depend on how tightly the recession takes hold.
The advent of air transportation and information technology have ushered in the era of the shrinking world. Distances are constantly being bridged and communities interconnected.
Opinion and Editorial - January 26, 2007
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20070126.E01
"Interactivity", "virtual reality" and "realtime" are among the buzzwords that are changing our daily lives. Inevitably, these rapid shifts have created technology giants, which some observers see as part of the new "evil empire".
For some, what was envisaged as a global village has now become a Microsoft hegemony. It is a theme popular in science fiction films where the romantic idealism of free information is part of a rebellion against the monopolists of information technology.
IT giants will grow, and be feted by dot.com investors, but there will inevitably be a backlash. Amid the preponderance of propriety software companies like Microsoft, people have sought alternatives.
Free and open-source software has grown in popularity. Once the exclusive realm of computer nerds, it has begun infiltrating the consciousness of even the computer layman. The trend has been perpetuated by psychological and cost issues such as antimonopoly sentiment, and notions of transparency and efficiency.
Unlike proprietary software developers, who do not disclose the source codes of their products, open-source software allows the downloading and use of software for free. Everyone is welcome to help develop the software further. Open source is a blessing for small enterprises, especially in Asia, who need but cannot afford extensive investment in IT.
The State Ministry for Research and Technology should be applauded for its support of open-source development. It recently launched the Indonesia Goes Open-Source Nusantara 2006 package, which provides desktop software based on Linux Fedora Core 5 and with the ability to operate applications such as Open Office for text documents, Firefox for Internet browsing, Thunderbird for email and Gaim for chatting.
The ministry's website also lists a range of open-source software material, domestic and foreign, from which material can be downloaded for free.
Furthermore, the use of open-source software cuts down on piracy, which is as prevalent in this country as the use of computers. Unfortunately, the debate between the use of open-source and propriety software at state institutions has soured and clouded the larger issue of software development.
What should have been a healthy argument over the merits and potential development of information technology in this country has been clouded by accusations of kickbacks and inefficiencies.
The debate flared following the announcement in November that the Communications and Information Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding with Microsoft Indonesia to supply 35,496 licenses for the Microsoft Windows operating system and 177,480 licenses for the Microsoft Office productivity suite to government institutions. The agreement, estimated to be worth Rp 377 billion (US$41.9 million), provides long-term guarantees for the new software investment, ensuring free upgrades for up to three years.
Critics have fired several salvos at the decision with some alleging impropriety in the deal. Microsoft Indonesia has addressed the criticism, saying the deal was inked against the backdrop of the government's efforts to reduce software piracy. Allegations of collusion aside, the advocates of open-source software and proprietary Microsoft software both have merits.
It is not a question of who's better or what is best. The government should continue supporting the development of free software for students, businesses and individuals who cannot necessarily afford to pay for software licenses.
Without such alternatives, the penetration of IT in this country could fall even further behind neighbors such as Singapore and Malaysia. However, one should not dismiss the value of using propriety software. This software is expensive not simply because it is part of a monopoly, but also because of the investment needed to develop it for the market.
While some computer experts would argue differently, there remain unresolved issues should major institutions, such as governments, employ open software on a wide scale. Issues involving compatibility are among them.
One should also not forget that not everyone is so computer savvy that they can easily switch from one type of word processing program to another. It may sound simple enough when the end-user is a computer science faculty, but not so when we are talking about a bureaucracy involving hundreds of thousands of civil servants who may not even have a computer at home.
*These are all aspects where propriety software has a definite edge over its open-source competitor.
*There is, however, no reason why open-source and propriety software cannot coexist.
*If there is competition, market forces (the end-user) should be the defining element.
*Politics and personal interest have no place in the realm of computer coding.
It is said grapefruit scent makes middle age women appear six years younger to men (but it does not work the other way round).
* Americans on the average eat 7.3 hectares of pizza every day.
* Born in 1718, British politician John Montagu, the fourth earl of Sandwich, is credited with naming the sandwich. He developed a habit of eating beef between slices of toast so he could continue to play cards uninterrupted.
* Henry VIII was once served a loin of beef while visiting the house of a noble. He was so impressed with the beef that he asked for a sword and knighted it. Ever since, that particular cut of beef has been known as sirloin ("Sir Loin").
* At McDonald's in New Zealand, they serve apricot pies instead of cherry ones.
* Only 30 percent of the famous Maryland blue crabs are actually from Maryland.
* Other than fruit, honey is the only natural food that is made without destroying any kind of life. Even milk involves the death of grass, which a cow has to eat to produce milk.
* When potatoes first appeared in Europe in the 17th century, it was thought that they were disgusting, and they were blamed for starting outbreaks of leprosy and syphilis. As late as 1720 in America, eating potatoes was believed to shorten a person's life.
* Turnips turn green when sunburned.
* The water pressure inside every onion cell would be sufficient to explode a steam engine.
* An ear of corn averages 800 kernels in 16 rows.
* Grapes explode when heated in the microwave.
* There is more sugar in one kilo of lemons than in one kilo of strawberries.
* Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.
* Cranberry Jello is the only jello flavor that comes from real fruit, not artificial flavoring.
* Cleopatra used pomegranate seeds for lipstick.
* Sugar was first added to chewing gum in 1869 by a dentist.
* M&M's were developed so that soldiers could eat candy without getting their fingers sticky.
* Victorian ladies tried to enlarge their breasts by bathing in strawberries.
* At one time, nutmeg was such a desired spice that a sack of nutmeg seeds could be sold for enough money to secure one's financial independence for life.
* The FDA allows an average of 30 or more insect fragments and one or more rodent hairs per 100 grams of peanut butter.
* In ancient China, people committed suicide by eating a pound of salt.
More [[About coffee and other beverages]]
-- compiled from various sources
Following were original stories or articles I wrote of particular interests and from my point of view.
[[Miss Saigon, miss the foods too]]
[[Bangkok side trip]]
[[Rain and water, hate it or keep it]]
[[GIMP will not be supplied on Ubuntu Lucid Lynx]]
[[Facebook paves its way to IPO]]
[[On buying new thing called hardware]]
[[Another source camp in the Philippines]]
[[Google's new Chrome operating system]]
[[Training for Trainers in Manila]]
[[Firefox 3 download in Indonesia]]
[[I was hooked to ragtime]]
[[Wikimania 2008 update]]
[[Cellular and internet access in Indonesia]]
[[The three musketeers]]
[[Do we really need FOSS certification?]]
[[OLPC, too good to be true]]
[[On Using FOSS under Windows]]
[[Using easily to adapt ICT facilities]]
[[Comments for track 2 sessions]]
[[Gounding electricity]]
Environmental campaigns in the West linking palm oil production to orang utan extinction, peat fires and displacement of indigenous communities have resulted in consumer boycotts of supermarket chains and demand for sustainable palm oil. There is also concern that the biofuel rush could come at the expense of food production, given that palm oil is the world's most important edible oil.
An article from The Star.
Oil palm companies are subjecting themselves to scrutiny to meet consumer demand for eco-friendly palm oil. Palm oil is heading for certification - the first tangible sign of a commitment towards sustainable production of the versatile yet controversial commodity.
The first certificate is expected to be issued by the first quarter of 2008, after the call for environmentally and socially responsible production of the crop came 5 years ago. Buyers are waiting anxiously for the certification as they have promised to supply certified palm oil to their clients - oil refiners, food manufacturers, consumer goods producers, retailers and even biofuel plant operators - who in turn have set deadlines to phase out the use of palm oil from uncertified sources.
The march towards biodiesel production using palm oil has also met with warnings that the so-called green fuel could be a net emitter of greenhouse gases and accelerate, instead of stalling, climate change.
At the recently-concluded fifth meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in Kuala Lumpur, the verification and implementation mechanisms of the certification system were presented to some 500 participants from 30 countries representing major players in the palm oil supply chain, from growers to retailers, banks, investors, and pressure groups from environmental and developmental organisations.
The certification process will authenticate growers' claims that their products are derived from plantations that follow the Principle and Criteria (P&C) set by the initiative. It will also enable manufacturers to assure consumers of product "traceability" through eco-labelling.
Palm oil is the most popular vegetable oil in the world commodity market, with 37 million tonnes produced last year. With its membership accounting for almost 40% of palm oil production and utilisation in the world, RSPO is regarded as an influential force for sustainable palm oil.
But several issues remain unresolved after 5 years of deliberations. Expansion of oil palm estates on fragile ecosystems and displacement of indigenous communities are 2 contentious issues that divide supporters and critics of RSPO.
Indonesia overtook Malaysia as the largest oil palm producing country with an output of 16 million tonnes last year. The area of land under oil palm plantation in Indonesia tripled between 1995 and 2005. Close to 6 million ha of plantation has been developed and millions more are planned.
A report by the Indonesian Forest Ministry and European Union states that to meet the rising world demand for palm oil from 20 million tonnes to 40 million tonnes by 2020, some 300,000ha of new estates will be needed each year. It added that inevitably, most new estates would come up in wetlands, as the more desirable dry lands are already occupied.
Such expansion plans are largely driven by the demand for biofuel in rich nations. In early 2007, the European Union endorsed a minimum target for biofuel to constitute 10% of its transport fuels by 2020.
Greenpeace has called for a moratorium on deforestation of peat swamp forests for oil palm expansion. Its political advisor for energy Wolfgang Richert says just like the campaign on soybean in the Amazon which got three major traders agreeing to stop expansion in the Brazilian rainforest, Greenpeace will continue to pressure RSPO members to commit on this important move.
"It's crucial for RSPO to get rid of partial certification. Otherwise, it'll just be another green-washing exercise, undermining its credibility."
Richert also notes that Principle 7, which forbids new planting on primary forests or areas of High Conservation Value from 200, is weak.
"You can argue that most Indonesian forests are not primary forests anymore. So, RSPO will actually (end up) certifying palm oil produced from deforestation of secondary forests. RSPO members should commit to develop on the millions of hectares of abandoned, degraded land instead," he says.
Friends of the Earth (FOE) highlights that as RSPO only gives sustainability certifications for each plantation, other plantations in a company could remain unsustainable.
"Inevitably, palm oil companies will use a sustainability certification to green-wash, even though it will by no means guarantee that the company is guilt-free of environmental and social violations. The RSPO must refuse to certify palm oil coming from any company still involved in destructive palm oil production," said Paul de Clerck, FOE corporate campaigns co-ordinator.
FOE Europe chapter is campaigning against the EU biofuel policy, cautioning that the demand for palm oil will drive conversion of forests to plantations on a scale far beyond what the RSPO could guarantee is sustainable. It has called for a moratorium on European financial subsidies and targets that encourage the development and production of large-scale biofuels.
About 60 persons, from independent media, community health practitioners, and civil society organizations in the Mekong sub-region countries (Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam) will be selected from applicants, taking into account their diverse type of development work and the balanced number of women and men.
The participants should have worked or involved in the field of media or technology. The technological skills of the participants will re-contribute to the design of curriculums. As English will be used in this workshop, all participants must be able to communicate in English.
Application Process
*The application forms will be distributed to networks of advisory committee organizations, group mail, websites, and online communities.
*Applicants are required to write their application letters, giving details about their personal data, work experiences and reasons why they want to attend the workshop, particularly those well-versed with ICT skills and intend to use their capacity to support other participants.
*The selection will be based on the applicants’ experiences in using diverse technologies; capacity to give support to groups, solve problems, and exchange knowledge with others upon returning to their own countries; and interest in alternative technologies. These determining factors together with the combination of expertise, interest, diversity of participating countries, and number of participating women and men will be weighed in a balanced manner.
*The selection of participants will be carried out in two parts: those invited and granted with travel expenses and registration fees and those invited but are asked to pay for their own travel expenses and registration fees.
*Cooperation will also be requested from funding agencies to give support to certain occupation networks or any particular countries. A list of those in need of special support will be made while women applicants must be supported in appropriate proportion.
*All the application forms will be submitted to the selection panel to examine their required qualifications. There will be two rounds of selection: first for those with outstanding eligibility, and second for those to be on a waiting list in case the person(s) chosen in the first round cannot make it, or additional funding can be provided to support more participants.
Download application form at http://mekongict.org/apply/ and apply latest ''April 10, 2010''
Inquiry about applications should be directed to aimenginfo (at) gmail (dot) com or Neriga Yakaew <neriga (at) tff.or.th>
Philip Kotler - one of the world's foremost marketing authorities - is famous for his books. Among his titles are a number of books related to Asia, and from these books it is possible to outline his three levels of influence in Asia.
The Jakarta Post - August 07, 2006
By Iwan Setiawan, Jakarta
Level 1 involves Kotler encouraging Asian marketers to contribute their knowledge to the world of marketing. There are many Asian marketers who have served as co-authors on some of Kotler's books: Hermawan Kartajaya of Indonesia, Ned Roberto of the Philippines, and Somkid Jatusripitak and Suvit Maesincee of Thailand.
Level 2 involves Kotler driving marketing practices in Asia. His authoritative textbooks have been translated into Asian versions with the assistance of such Asian marketers as Swee-Hoon Ang, Siew-Meng Leong and Chin-Tiong Tan of Singapore.
Level 3 involves Kotler's influence in determining how Asia should be marketed through books such as Marketing Asian Places and Repositioning Asia.
One of his most influential books, Repositioning Asia, published in 2000, applies the principles of marketing to reposition Asia from bubble to sustainable economy after the 1997-1998 crisis. It was written by Kotler and Hermawan Kartajaya, the co-founders of the Philip Kotler Center for ASEAN Marketing.
The influence of Kotler in the book can be summarized into the five "truths" of repositioning Asia. First, the book offered a blueprint for Asia 2000 and beyond. In the book, Kotler-Kartajaya proposed a new strategic architecture, which would position Asia as "the world's largest emerging sustainable economy". Evidently, this positioning hypothesis proved to be right. Today, Asia is truly the world's largest emerging sustainable economy, especially with the rise of China and India.
Second, Kotler-Kartajaya also revealed the myth and the reality of Malaysia's controversial capital control policy. Many analysts believed that the capital controls would hurt Malaysia's economy, although then prime minister Mahathir believed capital controls would save Malaysia from the severe social and financial upheavals its neighbors were experiencing.
To Kotler-Kartajaya, the debate was just a myth. The reality was far deeper than that. Capital controls were less of a financial strategy to save Malaysia's economy than they were a political ploy to preserve it. Real recovery -- which would safeguard the economy from similar future shocks -- would require the fundamental remaking of Malaysia's corporate and financial sectors.
This proved true, especially in the case of Proton. According to Malaysia Today, Proton long enjoyed government protection in the form of high tariffs on imported cars. But as tariffs were phased out under a regional free trade pact, its market share dwindled to around 30 percent in 2005 from 57 percent in 1993. The one thing that Proton needed at the end of the day was foreign technology. The message is clear for Proton: it needs a foreign alliance to survive.
Third, Kotler-Kartajaya predicted that the Asian crisis was transforming Asia from the "flying geese" structure into a regionalized structure. Before the crisis, the Asian economy was best described as a flying geese formation. Flying in a "V" formation, the geese highlighted the differences between the economic levels of the various Asian countries.
This imagined geese formation was headed by Japan, with the rest of the countries following. Countries toward the front tended to transfer "older" industries to countries at the back. This process is continuous because of the changes in comparative superiority.
Japan's failure to position itself as a "group leader" after the regional economic crisis gave other Asian nations the opportunity to formulate a regional model without having to rely on the vision and guidance of others. Kotler-Kartajaya predicted that the shape of the geopolitical landscape in Asia would mainly be influenced by the squadrons (SAARC, Greater China, Korea, Japan and ASEAN) of the former flying geese, who would increasingly drive regional integration. As a result, they predicted that the East Asia of the future would develop as one of the world's most influential regions. Their hypothesis proved to be right.
Fourth, Kotler-Kartajaya proposed that Asian companies reposition themselves by aligning their competitiveness and financial soundness. Using market competitiveness and financial soundness as variables, Asian companies can fall into a bubble or become sustainable entities. The term bubble reflects the state of companies that show high growth rates but are not substantiated by sound investments, good governance and strong economic fundamentals.
Kotler-Kartajaya argued that Asian bubble companies needed to start making some kind of shift either in competitiveness or financial soundness in order to survive. Their proposed approach proved to be the right move for Asian companies.
One of the companies that adopted the principle was Samsung. South Korea's Samsung Electronics is an example of a bubble company that is focusing on improving its financial soundness first, prior to improving its competitiveness. As an initial step to restructure its business, Samsung conducted cost-cutting efforts.
CEO Yun Jong Yong acknowledged that "restructuring is only the first step, since cost reductions will no longer produce big profits". Thus, while the cost-cutting efforts continue, he is strengthening the company's competitiveness by focusing on innovation and improving its research and development.
Fifth, Kotler-Kartajaya proposed that multinational companies in Asia reposition themselves by empowering their Asian regional headquarters to coordinate regional strategy. Most of the MNCs in Asia before the crisis used a top-down approach from the global head office. The strategy, tactics and values of the companies were directed from the global office. The local office only served as the operator and the regional office as supervisor.
Kotler-Kartajaya proposed that MNCs in Asia maintain consistent value globally and at the same time coordinate strategy at the regional level and customize tactics locally. With more and more power given to many regional offices, their hypothesis proved to be right.
Yamaha Motor, for example, is using this approach to market its motorcycles. For every regional target market, Yamaha is equipped with one unique respective strategy. In ASEAN, growth is used as the foundation of a strategy. It is because ASEAN still has a large unexploited growth potential.
In the U.S. as well as in Europe, profitability is used as the foundation of a strategy since growth for both markets is very small. Despite the differences in strategy for these three markets, Yamaha Motor brand is sustained equally at a global level while customizing its tactic locally.
The five "truths" are just a glimpse at the influence of Kotler in Asia. He has increased the popularity of marketing in Asia through seminars and consulting projects, and with his endless dedication for marketing knowledge discovery.
The writer is a research analyst.
The ASEAN+3 node of the [[International Open Source Network|http://www.iosn.net]] invites you to the Philippine Open Source Summit to be held on 23-24 June 2008 in Cebu City, Philippines with the theme, "Understanding the Business Value of Open Source."
[img[Philippine OSS summit|blog/OSS_Ph.jpg][http://www.oss.ph]]
We welcome you to visit the official summit website at http://www.oss.ph for more information.
Open Source systems and software, for instance, are increasingly sharing the spotlight -- if not slowly grabbing center stage - with traditional solutions in the global marketplace. Admittedly, however, the true business value of Open Source is often obscured by the hype coming from both proponents and non-advocates alike. There is therefore a need for more concise and clearer information to firmly evaluate both the opportunities and the threats that Open Source affords the users and thereby optimize its potential advantages.
At this two-day international summit, industry analysts, luminaries and client practitioners will focus on the challenges that the Open Source model introduces into modern mainstream ICT corporations and business enterprises so as to effectively manage Open Source as an integral element in any long-term ICT strategy.
Summit Venue and Inclusive Dates
The Philippine Open Source Summit 2008 will be held on the 23-24 of June 2008 at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) in the City of Mandaue.
Summit Learning Objectives
Among many other concerns, through both the plenary and breakout sessions, the participants will find answers to the following vital questions:
* How can mainstream organizations best manage the selection, adoption, and management of Open Source software within their ICT strategies?
* How can Open Source software be integrated into existing ICT strategies for maximum return on investment?
* What are the business factors that are driving Open Source adoption across many markets and industries?
* What inhibitors exist to potentially limit the value of Open Source in conventional ICT strategies? How can IT organizations navigate around these challenges?
* What are the key selection criteria in evaluating Open Source software projects and vendors to maximize ROI and minimize risk? What markets will be most heavily impacted by Open Source software and when?
* How will Open Source software change the way commercial software vendors develop and support products in the future?
* Which Open Source products have the most significant impact today across markets and what trends can we expect within the next several years?
Target Participants
* Top Executives - CEOs, COOs, CIOs, CFOs of ICT companies involved with Open Source decisions from all industries;
* IT leaders and stakeholders from Government, Industry, Academe, and NGOs
* Senior Executives - VPs, Marketing Directors, Customer Service Managers, R&D Heads, Product Sales Directors and Managers, HR Directors of ICT corporations;
* Heads of applications and software infrastructure, integration and development managers, software project managers, technical architects, web technologists, application developers, database and data managers;
* Trainers, instructors and IT practitioners; systems integrators and resellers; and team leaders of ICT and IT-Enabled services firms; and,
* Independent software vendors and IT consultants
Registration details at http://www.oss.ph/registration.php
We look forward to see you all in the summit.
MABUHAY (Long live) from the Philippines!
This is an interesting behaviour of people (slightly edited) which incur the philosophy of supply and demand in relation with the Stock Market. From unknown source.
http://zoomtosumit.blogspot.com/2007/08/philosophy-of-stock-market.html
Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared who announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each. The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys in the forest, went out and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10 each. As supply started to diminish and villagers started to stop their efforts, he announced that now he would buy them at $15 each. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.
Soon, the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate was increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so scarce that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it.
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $45 each. However,
since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of the man.
In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers, "Look at all the monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $30 each and when my boss comes back, you can sell them to him for $45 each."
''The villagers queued up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys.''
After that, neither the assistant nor the businessman could be found anywhere but the monkeys were everywhere!
In a move that's already generating controversy and will force textbooks to be rewritten, Pluto was dubbed a dwarf planet. But it's no longer part of an exclusive club, since there are more than 40 of these dwarfs, including the large asteroid Ceres and 2003 ~UB313, nicknamed Xena—a distant object slightly larger than Pluto discovered by Brown last year.
[[Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule|http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060824-pluto-planet.html]]
Mason Inman for National Geographic News
August 24, 2006 (Updated 3:30 p.m. ET)
A clear majority of researchers had voted for the new definition at a meeting of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Prague, in the Czech Republic. The IAU decides the official names of all celestial bodies. The tough decision comes after a multiyear search for a scientific definition of the word [[planet|What is a planet anyway?]]. The term never had an official meaning before.
According to the new definition, a full-fledged planet is an object that orbits the sun and is large enough to have become round due to the force of its own gravity. In addition, a planet has to dominate the neighborhood around its orbit.
Therefore, instead of being a planet, Pluto is a dwarf planet. Dwarf planets orbit the Sun, are nearly round, have NOT cleared its orbital neighborhood, and does not orbit any other body (not a satellite).
Pluto has been demoted because it does not dominate its neighborhood. Charon, its large "moon," is only about half the size of Pluto, while all the true planets are far larger than their moons. In addition, bodies that dominate their neighborhoods, "sweep up" asteroids, comets, and other debris, clearing a path along their orbits. By contrast, Pluto's orbit is somewhat untidy.
[[An international astronomy meeting|http://blogs.usatoday.com/sciencefair/2009/08/pluto-still-not-a-planet-after-astronomy-meeting.html]] in Rio de Janeiro stated that Pluto is still not a planet. The closing ceremonies of the 2009 International Astronomical Union (IAU) concluded with nary a peep about the planetary brouhaha that saw walk-outs and table-banging three years ago at the venerable astronomer's assembly, in Prague.
"None of that stuff at all came up," said IAU spokesman Lars Lindberg Christensen, "I believe people still disagree, but the focus was really on science at the meeting."
Indeed, the IAU meeting ended with a resolution to develop more astronomical resources for poorer nations, instead of a fight over Pluto. But the battle isn't likely over. "I expect people will still argue, and that's probably a good thing for science," Lindberg says.
A portable app is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any Windows computer. When your USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod or other portable device is plugged in, you have access to your software and personal data just as you would on your own PC. And when you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind.
[[PortableApps.com|http://portableapps.com/]] announce the 1.1 release of the PortableApps.com Platform and the PortableApps.com Suite, making it easier than ever to carry your favorite software with you.
http://portableapps.com/news/2008-05-22_-_platform_and_suite_1.1
Now you can take your digital life with you on your USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive, memory card or other portable device. Browse the web, check your email, chat online, listen to music, keep your passwords secure, work on documents, check your datebook and even play a few games... all on the go. And, as always, it's all open source and completely free.
All versions of the PortableApps.com Suite include the integrated PortableApps.com Menu and the PortableApps.com Backup utility along with a set of custom icons, an autoplay configuration, folders and a quick start shortcut. In addition, the packages include:
*Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition (web browser)
*Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition (email)
*Mozilla Sunbird, Portable Edition (calendar/tasks)
*ClamWin Portable (antivirus)
*Pidgin Portable (instant messaging)
*Sumatra PDF Portable (PDF reader
*KeePass Password Safe Portable (passwords)
*Sudoku Portable (game)
*Mines-Perfect Portable (game)
*CoolPlayer+ Portable (audio player)
*OpenOffice.org Portable* (office suite)
Note: The Light Suite includes AbiWord Portable (word processor) instead of OpenOffice.org Portable.
As with all releases, upgrades are a snap. Just download the Platform or Suite Edition of your choice and install it right to the same location as your existing installation. All your data and settings will be kept and your portable apps and Menu will be upgraded for you. PortableApps.com's in-place upgrades make it easy. New In PortableApps.com Platform 1.1 are,
//Multilingual// - The PortableApps.com Menu is now localized into 33 languages so whether you speak English, Russian, Japanese or Romanian, you can see the Menu in your own language. Just click Options - Language and select the language of your choice.
//Wallpaper Swapper// - The wallpaper swapper is built right into the platform so there's no need to add an extra app. Just place a file called portableapps_wallpaper.bmp in your Documents\Pictures on your drive and the platform will swap it for the Windows background of the machine your on and swap it back when you're done.
//Movable// - Now you can drag the menu to any area of the screen you'd like. It'll remember where it was when you use it again, even when you move to another PC with a different screen resolution.
//120dpi Support// - The menu now scales as do all menu components for higher resolution displays making it much easier to read.
//Tray Right Click// - There is now a right-click in the tray so you can have quick access to your directories or to close the platform.
//Personal Picture// - Now you can personalize the menu with your own personal picture in the upper right corner. Any 48x48 bitmap or JPG will work. Just click it to set it.
//Eject Button// - The eject button closes the menu and launches the Windows safe eject dialog making it easier to safely eject your device.
//Improved Installer// - The Suite and Platform are available within a full PortableApps.com Installer making installations and upgrades a snap.
//Other Features and Bug Fixes// - There are dozens of other bug fixes and features added including: global hot key (WINDOWS+P), Page Up / Page Down to scroll, uninstallers filtered, the ability to rename the drive just by clicking its name in the menu, advanced options in the INI and more!
First time installers can [[download|http://portableapps.com/download]] their choice of the PortableApps.com Platform weighing in at only 1MB, the full PortableApps.com Suite at 113MB or the PortableApps.com Suite Light Edition at 35MB. Just run the installer and choose your drive. When done, the Platform will start automatically.
First we need to define voluntourism. People like to travel around the world to do volunteering service in exchange they would engage with some new civilisation around the globe. These are the words of [[Nora Dunn|http://www.theprofessionalhobo.com/]] at her [[site|http://www.vagabondish.com/voluntourism-volunteer-tourism-in-depth/]].
''Voluntourism: Hip or Hype?''
Posted by Nora Dunn on November 4, 2008
When I embarked on my own personal journey to become a Professional Hobo and travel the world, one of my mandates was to volunteer for worthy causes wherever I went. But the more I researched volunteer service organizations and tour companies, the more I found myself sliding down the rabbit hole of a newly coined form of tourism in and of itself: voluntourism.
Although my spell checker still doesn’t recognize it, “voluntourism” is indeed a legitimate term and vehicle for those who wish to volunteer for a worthy cause whilst on vacation. It sounds wonderful in concept, but as with so many things that become popularized and “touristy”, it now has a more gritty edge, some negative cultural and personal side-effects, and there are people who now can’t even say the word without lots of lip curling and eye rolling.
With some research, due diligence, and attention to a community’s actual needs, you can put your humanitarian efforts to many good uses around the world. Let’s help give “voluntourism” a good definition in the next dictionary.
''Practical Voluntourism Tips''
To Build or to Teach?
This question can otherwise be phrased as to accomplish or to engage. In choosing your volunteer project, do you want to build the school, or teach people in the community new skills?
Stay Close to Home
Try a voluntourism trip close to home! When you go away to an exotic place to volunteer, much of your time is spent on the project at hand with only a small portion of your time dedicated to seeing the sights. How will you feel if you visit Peru or Bolivia and don’t see one ancient ruin or other icon of their culture or history?
Search for a Good Itinerary Mix
If vacation time comes at a premium for you, you’ll want to get the most out of it. Digging trenches for your entire time off may not be exactly what you had in mind. Look for organizations that achieve the perfect balance between volunteering, seeing the sights, and providing personal downtime.
''Questions to Ask''
In making their attack on unreputable volunteer groups, Voluntary Service Overseas issued a checklist of questions you should ask before signing up with a voluntourism group:
1. Will you be given a defined role and purpose?
2. Can you meet face to face with your provider and get detailed information about the volunteer placement?
3. How much will it cost and what does this pay for?
4. How will you be supported with training and personal development before, during and after your placement?
5. How do volunteers work in partnership with the local community and is there a long-term benefit to the community?
6. Does the organization you are going with have offices overseas that partner with local people?
7. Does the organization guarantee health, safety and and security assistance?
8. Does the organization have a commitment to diversity amongst its volunteers?
9. How does the organization encourage long-term awareness of real development issues?
10. How will your work be monitored and evaluated so that others can build on what you have done?
I've tried to address the problem many of us face in this fast-moving world: Grabbing the bits of information that zip past us so we can retrieve and read them later.
By [[Jeremy Wagstaff|http://jeremywagstaff.com]] | Mon, 06/30/2008 10:50 AM | Sci-Tech
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/06/30/putting-those-systems-place.html
The problem is we tend to come across different kinds of information at different times. It might be a web link we want to revisit later, or a New York Times piece we want to read the next time we're stuck on a bus or in a traffic jam. However, there is no one tool that allows us to access all of these at any time we like.
So let's try breaking down what we're trying to do first. If I'm browsing, or reading my e-mail, I find there are certain things I might want to do:
1: Grab a link to a web-page so that I can find it again when I need it.
2: Share a web-page with others.
3: Grab a snippet from a web-page or email so I can find it again.
4: Grab an article or a whole web page so I can read it later.
5: Note down an idea when I'm browsing or reading online.
There are probably more, but let's assume that's it for the moment.
Grabbing a link should be pretty easy: Bookmark it. But in reality you quickly run out of bookmark space, and you're not sure where to put them so you can find them again. That's why I would recommend a service called deli.cio.us, which lets you not only store bookmarks conveniently -- even on a different computer -- but also label them.
In fact, deli.cio.us is also good for sharing links with other people -- so long as they're also users of the (free) service. Most people let others see their collection of links, and, indeed, it's a great way of finding out what is interesting. (You can see my links at http://del.icio.us/jwagstaff).
The service becomes most powerful when you add something called an extension to your Firefox browser (I'm assuming by now you've all installed Firefox; with the latest version, 3, now officially launched, you've no excuse). The Firefox extension -- really just a bit of code that shows up as buttons on your browser -- makes it much easier to add links to your collection and look up old links you've bookmarked.
That's the links bit sorted out. For grabbing a snippet so you can read it again, there are several options. My favorite is this: another Firefox extension, this time called Scrapbook (is.gd/D6U). Scrapbook stores snippets of text, or whole pages, so you can access them later -- whether you're online or off.
When it comes to reading stuff later, I often find that "later" means one of two things. Either, one, I'm on a plane with no Internet connection, or, two, I'm sitting on a bus stuck in traffic, or waiting for a meeting to start, my drinking buddy Bob to turn up, the wife to finish trying on every item in the shop, including those the assistants are wearing -- and I don't have anything on me except my phone.
In both cases a tool called [[LaterLoop|www.laterloop.com]] will come in handy. Before getting on the plane, I'll synchronize my saved web pages so they are all on my laptop -- meaning I don't need an Internet connection to view them. And if I'm in Selfridges, rather than messing about trying to play Snake, I will fire up LaterLoop on my cell phone to read items I've saved from my browser -- either with LaterLoop's bookmarking tool, or else with Scrapbook.
That's the article grabbing sorted out. As for noting down an idea, that's something I'm still working on. There are lots of post-it note tools out there, including one built in to Google Desktop, but I'm not always very happy with these. The notes tend to get lost, and, of course, don't work well when I want to refer back to my idea away from the computer.
I've played around with a few options but have not yet pinned down one that works no matter where I am. In a perfect world I'd like one that also allows me to dictate notes to myself rather than write them down. There are some services, like jott, PhoneTag and SpinVox that do this, but they're not available in Asia yet.
For now, the best idea is to email the thoughts to yourself -- multimedia messaging lets you do this relatively painlessly, especially if you set up your email address so it's at the top of your cell phone contact list -- and it's easy enough to add a keyword in the subject line that separates your thoughts from all your other emails.
But I'm sure there's a better way. Any thoughts?
Jeremy Wagstaff writes for The Wall Street Journal Asia and BBC World Service. His guide to technology, "Loose Wire", is available in book shops or on www.amazon.com. He can be found online or can be contacted at jeremy@loose-wire.com.
I happened to meet a Debian developer, and got the message that Ubuntu was developed out of Debian. It's a derivative then. Debian is one of the oldest Linux distro that support F/LOSS for Free/Libre Open Source Software at large and designed for long-term sustainable custom operating system.
Ubuntu was then made out as a fork to its generic Debian distro and developed by Canonical to reach the end consumers.
This [[Jonas Smedegaard|http://wiki.jones.dk/DebianAsia2011]] was on tour from Vietnam, India, Indonesia, KL, London and back to Denmark, his origin. He is promoting the [[Debian pure blends|http://wiki.debian.org/DebianPureBlends]], a sub-project of Debian to improve its use for custom needs, without "branching off" and creating a derived distribution.
One of his saying, [["Ubuntu is Debian's child who has left to gain its venture"|http://www.linuxcandy.com/2011/11/ubuntu-is-debians-child-who-has-left.html]], I think he has made the local Linux communities in Indonesia, ie Blankon (a //locally// made Ubuntu derivative) users, to believe and convert back to Debian as the original distro.
My question is then, //Ubuntu is a [[commercial|https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarkShuttleworth]] product, are we supporting (and help promoting) the wrong distro thus far?//
Google, Microsoft, and eBay are looking for engineers who can think on their feet. Here's hot they find them. Following were questions often asked by interviewers of great companies. If you want to know the answer, just follow the link or you can find the answer in the book, [[How would you move mount Fuji?]].
Try these brainteasers first.
You have five pirates, ranked from 5 to 1 in descending order. The top pirate has the right to propose how 100 gold coins should be divided among them. But the others get to vote on his plan, and if fewer than half agree with him, he gets killed. How should he allocate the gold in order to maximize his share but live to enjoy it? (Hint: One pirate ends up with 98 percent of the gold.)
But no company has taken brainteaser recruiting quite as far as Google, which famously reeled in engineers three years ago by posting complex math problems on a billboard along Highway 101 in Silicon Valley. Passing motorists were invited to submit their solutions to an undisclosed website. (The site's URL was hidden in the answer.)
If you got to the site, you were asked a second, more difficult question. If you answered that one correctly, you were invited to submit your resume. Once you got to the Googleplex for an interview, a favorite question was this: You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?
It's not just employees who have to adjust to the new screening processes. Employers are also prepping for interviews in ways they never did before. When LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman was searching for a new CEO earlier this year, he took an unusual approach to checking references. Having set his sights on a particular candidate, he used the LinkedIn network to find what he calls "off-balance references": 23 former associates who were not preapproved by the candidate. Some were friends of friends - two degrees removed, in LinkedIn parlance. Some had no idea who Hoffman was or why he was calling.
Some more questions:
How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?
You're shrunk and trapped in a blender that will turn on in 60 seconds. What do you do?
How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?
How much does a 747 weigh?
http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/29/technology/brain_teasers.biz2/index.htm?
The following are quizes for using alternative hardware options:
[img[Alternative hardware choices|blog/lab.jpg]]
Do you know how to connect two computers using crossed UTP cable and enable them to share files and access?
Do you still remember on how to connect several computers using RG58 coaxial cable and create networking with a 10Mbps transfer speed?
[[A few practical examples]]
An old 2006 article in The Jakarta Post have left me wondering the above point. For those non Australians out there the above saying relates to the signal given to a lifesaver when in trouble in the treacherous Australian surf. //L'histoire se-repete.//
David O'Brien, Jakarta
The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 07/03/2006 4:36 PM | Opinion
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2006/07/03/ri-capital-markets-waving-or-drowning.html
For one who does not know, it may just appear to be someone waving. In terms of financing, Indonesian capital needs to support sustainable growth. The market needs to operate to most efficiently channel funds from savers to value adding investments. Are advances being made to save the economy in this way or are those in charge just waving?
The business section of the Post of Tuesday June 10 led with the story of the latest attempt to keep the national airlines Garuda and Merpati afloat. State Minister for State Enterprises Sugiharto has come up with a third proposal to save the airlines. It was reported that his previous plans were met indifferently by the Vice President and bureaucrats at the Ministry of State Enterprises.
This third proposal is unlikely to see much more success given Vice President Jusuf Kalla's view that the airlines be sold to investors to reduce the drain on state funds. The proposal involves development of a fund which is seeded by the proceeds from securitization of minority interests held by the state in private sector and state firms.
Securitisation is a form of finance where a pool of assets with strong sustainable cash flows are pooled in a special purpose vehicle and on sold to new investors that are better suited to the risk profile than the original owner. It is common place with mortgages and lending for cars and motor cycles. Such loans are secured by assets and much safer than corporate or credit card lending.
This is high finance and I must have missed something. The concept of securitizing minority interests does not seem to make sense. The cash flows associated with a minority holding is the dividend stream. As a minority, the holder of the shares has no influence over the level of dividends the company may declare.
I would have thought any such stream of cash flows that are largely unpredictable would be difficult to securitise. At best they would be heavily discounted to allow for this uncertainty.
In countries with a strong rule of law and regulatory regime, income streams from monopoly utilities are also often securitized to fund network expansion. This brings me to a second story on the same page of that day's Post. This involves the need of PLN to secure $7.7 billion for network expansion.
To date the story of PLN has been focused upon the need for generation. Without expansion of the network these investments cannot reach the load centers that need the power. It could result in a scenario such as the present one. Generation was built in East Java but cannot be delivered to West Java due to the construction of a new transmission line being delayed by nearly a decade.
A restructured transparent PLN would have its Java, Madura and Bali transmission company as a separate entity with its own balance sheet. It currently does exist but merely as a quasi autonomous business unit. This entity could have its rates set by an independent regulator rather than less transparent internal transfer pricing.
Investors in the capital market that need such predictable cash flows in their portfolios would be very attracted to such an offering. It particularly matches the long term income stream needs of pension funds. As transmission networks require less foreign capital than generation it would also match the rupiah holdings of the local funds.
Innovation is in evidence such as the proposed development of the rolling fund for land acquisition being developed by the Ministry of Public Works and Ministry of Finance. This is reflective of the state shouldering risks that are hampering private investment.
This risk sharing does need to be appropriate though. The Post of June 23 reported that the Ministry of Finance has given in principle agreement for the provision of a blanket loan for the monorail project in Jakarta. The Ministry of Finance developed a new risk management unit to assess the ability to apply guarantees to specific key projects.
This project has been bedeviled by this issue since its initial tender. The Malaysian company which won the tender could not secure finance in absence of a guarantee and thus defaulted on their commitment. It was a similar case with the new Singaporean majority owner that has since exited. It now seems the Indonesian consortium is to be granted such a guarantee.
The concept behind private sector involvement is that the private sector carries risk in relation to its investment. In formulating bids, all tenderers would have been given a schedule of tariffs. They would undertake their own demographic profile to determine passenger numbers over the life of the project and make a bid based on that assessment in conjunction with the capital cost.
If the government is merely providing a guarantee as to the tariff level proposed being met I believe that is a valid guarantee. However if they are now protecting investors from their estimates of passenger volume the developers seem to be carrying no risk at all.
It seems that at the macro level the ministries are moving in the right direction. The new incumbents post last years cabinet reshuffle are well respected by markets. The markets remain confused as to the confused signals from associated ministries such as State Enterprises and the lack of clarity in implementing the big picture coming from the top.
Evidence is required of a stable legal environment with a level playing field to allay investors fears. I was speaking to a manager from a major multi national a week ago. He made the point that he competes for internal capital and has to justify his Indonesian investment and earn rates commensurate with China, Vietnam and India. In the current environment this remains difficult and thus investment is hampered.
The writer is a Technical Advisor at CSA Strategic Advisory which assists businesses address change by originating strategy and successfully executing. He may be contacted at dobrien@csadvisory.com.
The history of ragtime mirrored in the life and progress of [[Scott Joplin|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Joplin]]. This is not merely because Joplin was one of the great ragtime composers. The King of Ragtime experienced many of the elements whose confluence developed into those Euphonic Sounds which were the musical delight of America and even Europe at the turn of the century.
[[The birth of ragtime|http://www.wnur.org/jazz/styles/ragtime/ragtime-story.html]] is commonly set by the date of the first published rag. In 1895, Ben Harney published his ragtime song You've Been a Good Old Wagon in Louisville. This was the man who, a year later, brought ragtime to popularity in New York City. The first instrumental ragtime was William Krell's Mississippi Rag in January, 1897. It was not until the end of 1897, however, that Negro instrumental ragtime made its way to the publishers' presses with Tom Turpin's Harlem Rag. Having already published marches and waltzes, Scott Joplin finally published [[Original Rags|http://www.datacom.co.id/original.mid]] in 1899.
Like any musical style, ragtime had its roots in many predecessors. But even after ragtime developed into a recognizable style, publishers shyed away from the syncopated rhythms, afraid that sales would follow the Italian for syncopation, alla zoppa (limping), rather than the English colloquial //driving notes//. Eventually, syncopated notes drove sales for ragtime music so furiously that publishers labelled even unsyncopated music with the name to spur sales.
The musical roots of ragtime are tied to plantation life. One popular form of entertainment was the Cakewalk. Couples in fancy dress would promenade, and the best walkers would //take the cake//. The cakewalk eventually made its way to vaudeville, even to Europe.
Rhythms which were part of a musical heritage brought from Africa were incorporated into cakewalks, 'coon songs, and the music of //jig bands// which eventually developed into ragtime. The music, vitalized by the opposing rhythms common to African dance, was vibrant, enthusiastic, often extemporaneous.
Raised in a musical family, Joplin was familiar with this [>img[Scott Joplin|blog/ScottJoplin.jpg][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Joplin]]musical heritage. Giles Joplin played the violin and his wife, Florence Givens Joplin, sang and played banjo. Scott Joplin had three brothers and two sisters. Monroe was the eldest Joplin boy. Scott's younger brothers Will and Robert were singers; Will also played guitar and violin, and Robert composed popular songs. Myrtle and Ossie, Scott's sisters, were also undoubtedly involved with music. Scott himself began with the family guitar and also learned cornet. But his musical talent blossomed on a neighbor's piano, convincing his father to purchase an old piano. Giles wanted his son to learn a trade, but Scott's practiced talent was sufficient to keep him employed most of his life.
At eleven years young, Scott Joplin so impressed a local German piano teacher that he gave the young boy free lessons including elements of music theory. Joplin repaid this kindness by keeping in touch with him, sending money when his old teacher fell into poverty. Thus Joplin encountered the great European and American classics, from Johann Sebastian Bach to Louis Moreau Gottschalk. This marked another avenue for the entry of African elements into ragtime, as Gottschalk had incorporated African, Caribbean, and Creole rhythms and melodies into many of his works. Joplin was also exposed to opera, a bug which infected him more later in life as he strove to produce ragtime operas.
After the death of his mother in 1882, young Scott struck out on his own to make his fortune shaping America's music.
Recent torrential rains have caused real damage in Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia. In Vietnam, it flooded the [[central Vietnam|http://www.ibtimes.com%2Farticles%2F69553%2F20101007%2Findonesian-flood-devastation-vietnam-floods.htm&h=1fa37]] that claimed lot of lives and damages after days of rains. In Indonesia, people and building at a place called [[Wasior| http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/10/11/death-toll-wasior039s-flooding-climbs-145.html]], West Papua was swept away. More than a hundred lives has been reported dead or missing.
The recent one was happening in Cambodia where a thousand people were moved and people in [[Phnom Penh|http://www.voanews.com/khmer-english/news/Residents-Claim-Flooding-From-Developers-Lake-Fill-104782009.html]] were soaked in 30cm deep of water and dirt because of storm and heavy rains.
In [[Indonesia]], I can see that this year, only this year, that we have rains in every months throughout the year. That’s unlikely to be the usual tropical climate pattern, which is wet from November until April and drought from May until October. Dry season means there is no rain at all. But we have rains almost daily or at least every weeks occurring only this year, not previously happened.
Is this a climate change or just the sea warms up giving more evaporation, bringing more clouds and giving rains to the lands?
Water is so precious that some people are living in very poor desert parts of the world where rain is scarcely pour. People need water to live, the plants need water to grow. Forget the animals sadly, they can't preserve water as human do. Rain should be taken as a gift of heaven.
Singapore, a modern city, has no water resource. It imports water from adjacent countries. However they manage to keep preserve water. Clean water are avail to drink from taps. Wastewater are well treated so that it is reusable.
How we can treat the water ourselves?
When we have rains, appreciate it by putting them in reservoir, a bucket is a reservoir too. [[One way|http://www.emagazine.com/view/?5345]] of another is to store the water from the rain to tanks. We can use it to water the plants during drought or no day rain. We won’t need to use taps to water the plants. Rain water is free.
Something else that is probably less important, that you regularly need to wash your clothes every two or three days or just weekly. The rain water is usually clear and more than enough to launder your clothes. This means that you don’t need to pay for the water except for the soap or detergent that you use it as cleaning agent.
Some people I heard, do preserve water so much by using after bath water to other thing like watering the plants than ends up in the sewage.
Other usage of rain water is to use as cooling agent for a building. I think that will need more technical explanation on how it can be done.
Hate it or keep it, water is life!
//This is a blog entry for [[Blog action day|http://blogactionday.change.org]]//
Tropical rainforests are being devastated at an ever-increasing rate as human societies have expanded and technology has advanced, yet many of us are oblivious that we depend on them for our existence and the basic functioning of the global ecosystem on Earth.
Features taken from The Jakarta post - July 30, 2006
By Gladys Tanniel, JIS/Grade 10
Despite being one of the oldest ecosystems on Earth, tropical rainforests are being devastated at a staggering rate. The continual ignorance of its loss in quantity and quality is therefore a serious global issue.
Deforestation has occurred globally on a large-scale basis for many centuries and spawned further erratic critical issues ever since, such as the emergence of global warming, alterations in global weather and patterns, and the loss of biodiversity, valuable medicinal and indigenous peoples.
The disappearance of indigenous groups are often ignored and regarded as a trivial factor when rainforests are destroyed. In fact, it further threatens the survival of the rainforests, as it denotes the loss of accumulated valuable and intimate knowledge of the rainforest ecosystem.
Rainforests resemble a system in which everything depends on one another for a variety of reasons. When a fraction ceases to exist, others would be affected in a chain-reaction fashion. The key stimulant to the destruction of rainforests worldwide are individual needs, which emerge due to the influence of economic, political, cultural, and environmental factor.
Poverty in non-industrialized nations of the tropics is the fundamental issue that intensifies the pressure to the uprooting of more rainforest for short-term economic benefits. It acts as a force that drives billions of less fortunate people to depend solely on rainforests for their survival.
Woods from the rainforests are used as fuel for cooking and heating while the remaining bare land become sites for settlements and to raise crops, which enable these inhabitants to support themselves and other family members.
The abundance of rainforest areas in tropical countries is the primary target for logging companies to seek timber for various commercial purposes, such as in building construction. Timber exports have become a major source of income for numerous developing nations in the tropics and consequently, have often been used as an effective way to repay any foreign debts.
When driven by forces beyond their control, such as the need to obtain political and economic stability, governments are often required to take immediate actions. Developing countries with high annual population growth are compelled to clear huge expanses of its rainforest to create new settlements.
Stopping deforestation worldwide has become an international movement, stimulating numerous conservation activities and efforts, partly due to the intensifying awareness of the decisive role that rainforests play in preserving the health and stability of Earth's environment.
Ecotourism, one of the most common programs aimed at tackling deforestation, is rapidly becoming an excellent approach for developing countries to earn foreign revenue while preserving their rainforests, as it promotes tours and accommodations that respect nature and the environment.
Cultivators can also apply sustainable agriculture and harvesting of forest products in their farming schemes, offering economic survival and tangible benefits for those who live in and around the rainforests.
Meanwhile, indigenous peoples, such as those inhabiting in the tropical rainforests of Indonesia, possess knowledge of various effective agricultural techniques that which could be integrated into farming projects to enhance the productivity of degraded forest lands and promote the sustainable use of forest resources.
Jakarta is a city situated in a tropical country that once possessed a large expanse of rainforests. Indonesia has always been prominent for its severe environmental issues, and yet much has not been done to address its implications.
As an urbanized city, Jakarta has recently implemented a range of building projects; in particular, shopping malls. It is a city where trees could be logged illegally without attracting any notice from the government. This has further depleted the amount of green areas and trees in the city area, but this fact appears to have been unperceived among passersby.
Everyone is capable of making a significant change to prevent further drastic decline to the planet's remaining rainforests. One could utilize wood-efficient building techniques when constructing houses and avoid buying furniture built out of old growth wood products. Instead, consumers can purchase furniture constructed out of reclaimed or recycled lumber, composite lumber and independently certified wood -- that is, wood that has been harvested in a sustainable manner.
Other alternatives involve purchasing those paper products with the highest percentage of recycled content; post-consumer recycled content is the best. Reducing one's beef consumption, particularly at fast food restaurants, will decrease demand for this meat, and limits the pressure to clear more forest for cattle grazing in return.
Rainforests, an irreplaceable ecosystem and a critical source of survival for all living creatures on Earth, is worth saving. In my opinion, the rainforest is a critical element in our global ecosystem, as it provides us with various necessities that we depend on and merely take for granted.
Although we are on the verge of losing it, there are unlimited solutions out there that basically need to be discovered and put into action. Success could be achieved through taking deliberate and sensible steps which benefits both the human society and the rainforests.
Conservation programs that don't recognize solving the economic crises of countries rich in rainforest cover and improving the quality of life of the impoverished people such as peasant farmers and landless rural people would have a faint chance of success in the future.
Even simple measures such as education and communication could enhance the success rate of conservation projects. We must take precaution and be responsible of events occurring around our environment; it would affect us in one way or the other as we are simply a part which makes up the whole puzzle. Even the slightest effort could generate a difference in ways unimaginable.
Restoration of what has been lost requires time management and the collaboration of various groups and individuals who are willing to provide full contribution in order to make a successful approach towards what needs to be solved.
An interview with [[Fran Boon|mailto:fboon@Oxfam.org.uk]] by [[Fouad Riaz Bajwa|mailto:fouadbajwa@gmail.com]]
On alternative ways to promote FOSS by Donor agencies and International NGOs Fran believes that, “From an observation point of view, a major percentage of such organizations still and will have little FOSS focus or implementations since they are receiving huge software donations by Proprietary Software giants like Microsoft and Cisco. Why? Companies like these have a strong focus on developing and sustaining markets in the developing-world countries and they will mostly tend to maintain their interest by donating their software products so that they can continuously be used to hook on people to their products even in countries where the cost of licensing has always been more than their incomes.”
Still, Fran is optimistic:
//If one uses FOSS in a corporate or business environment, they first save costs and that cost can be directed towards scaling up an IT project, tailoring solutions according to local needs and strengthening other areas that may otherwise be deprived due to budgetary constraints. For example, such savings can strengthen Human Resource and increase the potential scope of Trainings. //
http://www.blog.foss-at-work.net/2007/01/27/fran-boon-interview/
Following are links that mention my blog at their websites. I put here for reciprocating. Thank you.
Personal blogs
[[Marie Grace Gaffud-Antonio|http://gaffud.com/ ]]
[[Samer Azmy|http://geek2live.blogspot.com/ ]]
[[Carmela Bona|http://itsmeela.wordpress.com/ ]]
[[Francisco E. Sarmiento III|http://fossyfrancis.blogspot.com ]]
Ad links
[[Virtual office representation|http://www.datacom.co.id/profile/office.htm ]]
[[Theatons Toys|http://www.nd-la-salette.com]]
//I receive many request asking for reciprocating links on their websites and theirs on my blog. Some were accepted, some were not.//
Welcome to the planning and preparation for Software Freedom Day 2007.
We have more resources, documentation and goodies for you, and we look
forward to sharing the biggest and best SFD ever with you all!
== Registration ==
You'll need to register before the schwag deadline (31 July) to receive shirts, balloons and stickers to help your event look spectacular. Teams that register after the schwag deadline will still be included as official events, but will not receive any goodies.
Each team (registered before the schwag deadline) will receive two SFD2007 shirts for free. We will have extra shirts for sale soon, however if your team has special needs or is in a developing nation, please send us a special extra tshirts request to info [at] sf-day.org and we will consider more shirts for your team on a case by case basis. There are limited numbers of shirts, balloons and stickers, and we will try to make sure teams are as well equipped as possible.
Teams can find information from the Start Guide including artwork, marketing information, generic press releases, tips and tricks for running an event and much more - http://softwarefreedomday.org/StartGuide
Many thanks to Robert Schumann who tirelessy worked on the registration page!
== Website ==
Firstly, please note that in order to keep the website sane, we have migrated all 2006 team pages to an archive page. You are completely welcome to copy and paste from your archived pages to a new page, but you'll need to create a new team page prior to your team registration.
We've got a new look and feel. Many thanks to Phil Harper who created the look and feel and Judy Wilson who updated loads of information.
== Team Communications ==
We are currently not running a forum, and encourage you all to post to the sfd-discuss mailing list for questions, ideas, team announcements and more. Join the sfd-discuss mailing list at http://mail.sf-day.org/lists/listinfo/sfd-discuss. All team leaders that register will be automatically added to the sfd-announce mailing list if they are not already on it. If enough people request the forum functionality back again we may enable it.
Ensure your SFD team page is up to date so that people can find and attend your event. If you choose to have a SFD team page separate from the SFD website, please ensure you link to it so everyone can find events through the SFD website.
Make sure you link any press coverage of your event and press releases to http://softwarefreedomday.org/press.
== Competition ==
We will certainly be running a competition again this year, however will be announcing the competition within the month. Please check out last years competition for some ideas as this years competition will be very similar.
http://softwarefreedomday.org/competition.
== Questions? ==
Please post questions to the sfd-discuss mailing list so all teams can learn from and support each other. For specific or private enquiries, please email info [at] sf-day [dot] org.
//Fuad Bajwa was a participant and reporting live from the scene, here are a series of reminescences that he had.//
Chapter-1 of Short Stories by [[Fouad Riaz Bajwa|mailto:fouadbajwa@gmail.com]] - Pakistan
[img[Gunner's wakeup call|blog/image00009s.jpg]]
Loving every moment of what life has to offer!
Hmmm, I think I just heard someone singing, plucking the strings of a guitar, "oh Gunner's morning wakeup call, so kind of him", recalling as I wake up from a deep slumber and try to reconcile, "Where am I"? Its one of those mornings where I find myself falling asleep the night earlier fully dressed in regular clothes instead of changing into my pajamas. Then, I look around to find my roommates Dr. Patrice and Simos half awake and half asleep due to my rumblings on the plastic wrapped mattress on the floor.
Yikes and echoes in the Morning
Ah, its time for my morning yell as I enter the lavatory and get ready to pour a cup of amazingly icy yet bearable cold spring water collected in the deep tub in the floor. "Yikes", is not the only word from me but I can also hear the same echoing from the other neighboring lavatories..., "I suppose that was Jamil, Oni or Ravindra", I say to myself while smiling despite I am ready to take on the next cold cup, "aieee"! I would hear the same in a few minutes when Simos would make his attempt to bathe but Patrice should easily accommodate the cold water because he usually takes a morning dip in the Swimming Pool full of cold spring water.
Breakfast and that Cool Song
It's off to breakfast after getting dressed, I am in Safari Shorts even though the weather may change this afternoon and it usually rains everyday, "Oh, what the heck" as I head out towards the restaurant. I always enjoyed those Fish Crackers and Eggs in the morning, a full Protein diet even though I missed the weights in the gym every morning back home before breakfast. It was still great having a mix of Indonesian, South East Asian and Western food items on the menu, but the Fish Crackers, was awesomely something else. Its time to grab a cup of Coffee and a quick smoke but suddenly the song "All Night Long" goes off all over the camp summoning us to the morning circle in the Main Hall.
[img[Fouad and Joyce impersonating Simos and Natasha|blog/image0192s.jpg]]
Morning Circles and the Tribal Dances
After 130 people gather and sit down in a huge circle in the Main Hall, Gunner asks the question of the day leading to interesting sounds and comments. Then it’s the announcements and Report-Backs that comprise of Tribal Dances and Cult Presentations, these names being awarded by the participants themselves that enjoy every moment of the Track Report-Backs. Track-1 is theatrically amazing again, Track-2 is a bit sober today, Track-3 is on its usual comedian act, Track-4 is flashing their newly created wireless connectivity equipment and Track-5, ah, where is this Track?
Track-5
The Open Gossip and Infotainment Track also named Track-5 is only around in the evenings on and after dinner full of stories and experiences accompanied with a tint of light dancing of course. From the entertaining Bazaar Huts full of gossipers to the shadows lurking around the camp in the dark, gossip makes it ways only making the nights even more fun for the participants so tired but still energetically live after the Morning and Afternoon sessions. There is so much happening and it feels to enjoyably stay this way forever but we are all aware, reality awaits us in the shadows after 30th January with the mood stocks mixed in the highs and lows of our real lives.
-End of Chapter 1-
Well, I had this good, very normal and wise friend named B.N. Jagadeesh, a lawyer by profession, and he really was normal during breakfast but when I entered the Main Hall that day, I saw Jagadeesh with a turban, white sun glasses, a big traditional shawl around his waist and possibly a Bed Sheet from one of the camp villas worn around his back like a cape, and now, he was the Super FOSS Tantri!
Chapter-2 of Short Stories by [[Fouad Riaz Bajwa|mailto:fouadbajwa@gmail.com]] - Pakistan
[img[Jagadeesh as FOSS tantri|blog/image0044s.jpg]]
It’s a bird, no it’s a plane, no,... it’s the Super FOSS Tantri!
What is a FOSS Tantri? The FOSS what?
Trust me, if I would have known, I would have written about him a very long time ago. I only came to know about such one FOSS Tantri during a Report Back by Track-3 in the Morning Circle. How? The true culprits of such an innovation if sought out would always turn out to be anyone ranging from Jerome, Myra or Jagadeesh himself and sometimes all together in their Report Back comedic episodes with the Track-3 members. I actually saw Jerome smiling mischievously at his creation once; we now possibly know who thought of the Tantri in the first place!
Amazing Sounds from Morning Circles - Oh Yeah!
I feel like ooh, aah, ouch, yabba dabba doo! Oh, those sounds could be anything, from a yelp to a screech and also the digital drum beat from inside of me, what are these, well they are the amazing sounds from a "Morning Circle" at AS2. Gunner knows the trick of both virtual and physical engagement breaking the sleepiness in the air early in the morning with mystical acts of amusement encouraging everyone to participate with complete willingness!
[img[Track reporting in one morning circle|blog/AS2-day9-11_045s.jpg]]
The most interesting part of today's morning circle and possibly everyday is that everyone participates including all the 130 participants, organizers, Balthas, Gunner and Sunil so the temptation to be there for that particular moment is always a priority for everyone. Yeeeehaa!
Tracks 1-2-3-4, c'mon, move to your tents!
It would have sounded like a military installation to the common outside man but for us, the geeks of the fascinating world of ICTs and FOSS, we knew it meant the summon leading us towards potential learning, sharing and experiencing FOSS in profound ways we were earlier not accustomed to or had possibly been neglecting due its obviousness. Indeed, opportunity lies in the obvious.
[img[Session in military tent|blog/image037s.jpg]]
It was a whole new methodology, "Hmm, that is interesting...", were my thoughts as participants shared their case studies and, "Hey, what the...oh", when Dirk and Natasha would take us through the Case Studies and group exercises. "Only if I would have learnt this process earlier, I would have performed my work back home in a totally different fashion", I would narrate to myself quietly in my mind without letting fellow participants become aware of what thoughts engulfed my existence although they might have been thinking the same.
[img[Raining in Yawitra|blog/dsc00312s.jpg]]
Rain, Rain, Go Away and Come Back another Day....
That really should have been the mantra but wasn't as it was too hot during Morning Sessions and we had to think of an alternative shelter in order to complete our Track proceedings. The prayer or mantra would likely become Sun, Sun, Go Away, and Come Back after the Tracks are complete for the Day!
They say there may be possible delays but there is never a shortage from the Great Lord, very true as rain starts to pour and the evenings are cool, sometimes we need jackets to keep ourselves warm but dance would follow on beats of traditional live Indonesian music and all jackets would be forgotten amidst the sweat and perspiration from all the action. That’s lot of laundry and laundry bills for many everyday following the dance action from earlier nights!
[img[Laundry desk|blog/laundry1.jpg]]
Track-5
The Open Gossip and Infotainment Track is once again in full swing at the Bazaar and gave us oldies the opportunity to experience traditional massage topped with menthol oil accompanied by the sounds from the bones, Yolynne and Myra were sharing something from their side of the world with the participants in the Filipino Cultural Hut. I can still feel the cool feeling on my skin resulting from the massage oil as well as lightness in my head as all stress made its way out of my body through clicks and clacking sounds coming from my stressed out bones. Male Camp Crush Muno from Mongolia really got some interesting attention and appreciation by the participants, wouldn't we all know why, gosh, some guys just tend to have it all!
On the other hand in another hut, Cigarette Razlas, Tobacco and traditional Indonesian Cloves were ready for manufacturing local Cigarettes shared by Yohannes Baptista with all the participants, for both smokers and non-smokers alike. Gayatri Buragohain and Ekta Silwal were already there making their attempts to put together the anticipated Cigarettes in the right manner but would eventually end up with humongous and hideous formations that no where looked anything like a usual Cigarette, oh well, back to the drawing board for Track-3!
-End of Chapter 2-
I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy of Sara Bongiorni's [[A Year Without "Made in China"]], though I have been anxious to write something about the book since it was released in June.
By Li Xing
E-mail: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 07/19/2007 Updated: 2007-07-19 07:12
http://chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2007-07/19/content_5439142.htm
The book's title initially made me a little wary of the author's intentions. But I also knew I shouldn't make hasty judgments without reading it first. Her commentaries, which are now readily available on the Internet, show that she is as objective as she can be.
"There's no way you can live anywhere near a normal life without buying things from China," Bongiorni keeps saying. However, she only scratches the surface, looking at the "Made in China" labels from an American family's perspective.
As a Chinese, I've also experienced changes in my attitude toward the "Made in China" label. About 25 years ago, "Made in China" excited me and my pals, when we were still the first batch of Chinese mainland journalism students studying in the US.
Later, when I traveled overseas, I tried to avoid things that were "Made in China" when I shopped for gifts. There was no sense in me going all the way across the oceans or the Eurasian continent just to bring back keepsakes that I might spot at home.
However, this became so troublesome that I gave up looking a few years ago. In fact, we are crystal clear in our understanding that "Made in China" means only Chinese hard labor.
"The patent, the designs, the business people are all from overseas," one netizen writes when commenting on an article about Bongiorni's book. Except for the Chinese workers who made and attached "Made in China" labels to the products (for which they were paid pitifully little), very few Chinese actually see these products in China, other netizens pointed out.
What Chinese manufacturers and consumers should work on and advocate are truly Chinese brands and truly quality products patented, designed and created by Chinese.
Simon Anholt of the United Kingdom, compiles a national brands index to evaluate "the power and appeal of a nation's brand image" and shows "how the people around the world see the character of that brand". According to this year's first quarter Anholt Nation Brands Index, China was in the top 10 "Brand Finance League Table", but its brand rating was minus BBB, against the US's AA, and Japan's and Germany's A-plus ratings.
Amidst the increasing international scrutiny of "Made in China" products, the government as well as individual manufacturers and consumers should really take pains to reexamine the fallout associated with "Made in China". We should clean our houses and establish and enforce strict regulations that are up to international standards.
If we continue to cling to the rhetoric of "discrimination" and "prejudice", "Made in China" will never be measured on par with "Made in Germany" or "Made in Japan" in the hearts of international consumers.
It is now a cliche to say that all nations are closely interconnected in the era of globalization. One Chinese media commentator has pointed out that Chinese families may run into the same trouble that Bongiorni experienced if they tried living for a year without things with American brand.
I wouldn't try because I do not want to return to using a pen and paper to write my column, nor do I want to stop my daily chats with my sister in New York or my friends in London. And every now and then I still have to order pizza from Pizza Hut just to change things up at dinner time.
DigitalFilipino.com and [[MindanaoBloggers.com|http://mindanaobloggers.com/directory ]] present the first Review-a-Blog contest ever! This unique competition focuses on the true nature of blogging: that is, serious and meaningful content development. Anybody in the world may join this competition, but the spotlight is on the blogs of Mindanao, Philippines.
The whole idea is for a participant to select a blog from our directory and write a holistic and honest review of that blog. The three best reviews will win cash and other prizes!
http://www.mindanaobloggers.com/events/review-a-blog
This competition runs from 1 August to 14 December 2007. Entries coming in after 11:59PM of 14 December 2007 will no longer be included in the contest. The decisions and pronouncements of the judges and competition organizers made on the day that results are announced will be final.
The criteria for judging will involve creativity, thoroughness and good writing. Grammar, spelling and punctuation will also be contributing factors, but what the judges will be looking for in winning entries are an excellent blogging voice and an engaging style of writing.
The Mechanics:
*In this competition, the participating blogger writes a review of any blog that is found in the Directory (except in the Mindanao Lovers category any category), and posts the review to his or her own blog.
*Anyone in the world may join this review-writing contest. Bloggers whose blogs belong to the Directory may also participate, but are discouraged from reviewing their own blogs.
*Bloggers are encouraged to be diplomatic in their assessments, feedback, etc. (i.e., no unnecessary or excessive criticism nor praise).
*Each blogger may have up to 5 unique entries (i.e., reviews of 5 different blogs), which they may post to one or as many blogs that they own. However, a blogger may win only once in this competition. In the event that a blogger is judged to win more than once, he/she will be awarded the higher prize.
*Entries must be 300 to 400 words long and must be completely original. Only English, Tagalog and Cebuano may be used for the reviews.
You might want to take a look at this post for an idea of how to review a blog.
http://mindanaobloggers.com/2007/07/10/the-mindanao-blog/
To be considered an entry, a review must be posted to the reviewer’s own blog; and, it must contain the organizers’ and sponsors’ text links (item #11 below). The reviewer must also clearly state the name of the blog which he/she is reviewing, and provide a hyperlink to the base URL of that blog.
We often read stories from overseas about how the internet is helping like minded people congregate, share stories and forge connections.
[[Vishnu K. Mahmud|http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/03/23/rise-indonesian-digerati.html]]
Contributor, Jakarta Post | Mon, 03/23/2009 1:24 PM | Sci-Tech
Be it online dating, flash mobs or digital conferences, the world wide web has made it so easy to send an email, post a blog or chat online with friends, acquaintances and complete strangers. And now a new class of Indonesian digerati are emerging.
Wikipedia defines the term digerati as the elite of the computer industry and online communities. These are the people who embrace the latest technologies both online and off in an effort to improve their lives.
Some may call them geeks or nerds, but their influence can't be ignored. More likely than not they are the ones people go to for information about the latest mobile phones, laptop computers, online services, IT trends and other tech related question.
And they are banding together. Take [[FreSh!|http://www.freshyourmind.com]] as an example. "Freedom of Sharing" is a discussion group that meets up once a month to share knowledge, network and just hang out. Originating online, this group is a rag tag crew of creative professionals, software developers, writers, business people and students who share a common passion: sharing their uncommon knowledge with others.
~FreSh! now has a [[Facebook page|http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=33721913697]] that gives details of its gatherings. Previous topics have included freelancing, mobile creativity, techproneurship and journalism.
Pecha Kucha is another emerging digerati group. Anyone can present anything they want to talk about, as long as they use the Pecha Kucha format: speak for a maximum of 6 minutes and 40 seconds, using up to 20 slides, which they can show for no more than 20 seconds each. This networking event seeks to gather creative minds from a variety of fields and give them a forum to share their experiences.
The first gathering, on March 10, saw architects showcasing their projects aimed at saving Indonesian home design, photographers displaying their amazing nature photos, a designer talking about Bandung's Helarfest and a developer building a sustainable eco village on Pulau Macan.
Although fast-paced, the variety of topics enriches the audience by knowledge beyond their regular professional and social circles. At 6:40 minutes, Pecha Kucha challenges speakers to deliver quick yet insightful presentations towards changing the world.
Jakarta is the latest city to follow this global phenomenon that was first begun by architects in Tokyo. Now, PK nights are held all around the world, from Auckland to Tasmania (the long way around). You can find Pecha Kucha Jakarta's page on [[Facebook|http://www.facebook.com/group.php?sid=69f1be69f81b5bfc90678327d97efab4&gid=51408249919&ref=search]].
Another global social networking event to recently land in Indonesia is [[Mobile Monday|http://www.id-mobilemonday.com]], one of the world's fastest growing network forums for mobile industry professionals. With over 70 chapters in 35 countries, more than 200,000 members worldwide participate in the monthly gatherings (usually held on Mondays) to find out what their industry peers are up.
As Indonesia is the ideal country for wireless infrastructure (with thousands of islands it's cheaper than laying cable everywhere), mobile networks have a promising future. Mobile Monday is the ideal place to share ideas, practices and trends from global markets.
So what does this new generation of digerati mean for Indonesia? It means somewhere among this group is the country's own Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, Richard Branson or Kevin Rose.
And already many companies are engaging these communities to share their latest news, obtain valuable feedback and get the word out. Companies such as Ericsson Networks, Nokia, Opera, Yahoo! and others are participating in these forums to get a chance to talk with some of Indonesia's best and brightest.
One of the most anticipated upcoming events is the March 28 Indonesian Facebook Developer Garage, co-hosted by FreSh!, which targets programmers, designers, marketers and others to help engage Indonesians via the Facebook platform. Why Facebook? There are currently 831,000 Indonesians on Facebook; and its growing. 2008 alone saw a 645% jump, outpacing our Southeast Asian counterparts.
And with the boom of smart phones that allow you to access the internet, the Indonesian digerati is only going to get bigger, more organized and competitive with the rest of the world. Want to join?
When it comes to running Windows applications on Linux, nearly half of our survey's respondents -- 39 percent -- say they simply don't bother.
Of those that do, many turn to Wine (Wine Is Not an Emulator ), which runs the Windows API (application program interface) on top of Linux. More than 44 percent use Wine for their Windows applications needs.
I suspect that many [[Wine|WINE: The Open Source Way to Run Windows Applications]] users actually use Wine with the help of programs that makes deploying Windows applications on Linux easier. However, of the two most important of these programs, Cedega, which specializes in running Windows games on Linux, and CrossOver, which focuses on Windows business and productivity applications, only 6 percent of our survey respondents said they used Cedega, while even less, 5 percent, said they used CrossOver.
What they did use, however, was [[VMware|What is VMware?]] , the well-known proprietary virtualization program, which was selected by 27 percent of all users. In third place was something of a shocker: VirtualBox, with 8 percent. Why a shocker? Well, here at DesktopLinux.com, we like to think we've at least heard of all the popular Linux virtualization programs -- Xen, KVM, etc. -- but we've never heard of this one. Needless to say, we're going to be taking a closer look at VirtualBox soon.
Based on our survey results, we think that everyone should be taking a closer look at desktop Linux. What we see here is a quickly maturing line of desktops that are capable of replacing Windows desktops for both home and business uses.
The Linux desktop is gaining quickly in popularity, and it's not because of technology-happy fans. It's gaining users because it's an inexpensive, secure, and efficient alternative to today's mainstream desktop operating systems. After all, 38,000 plus users and two major PC companies can't be wrong.
For the full results of our survey, see the raw data on the DesktopLinux.com survey site.
http://www.desktoplinux.com/cgi-bin/survey/survey.cgi?view=archive&id=0813200712407
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Think about what you'd like to see on social websites that isn't already there. Maybe it's a trip report tracker for your company, a new game for when you have a little "down time", or a way to create collaborative art. Use your imagination!
Interested developers should register for the competition and submit their OpenSocial applications.
Contest Begins on November 15, 2008. Entries are limited to three per person. All entries must be received by ''January 10, 2008''. Entries can be submitted [[here|http://code.google.com/events/apacdevfest/contest/submit.html]].
Each entry will be judged by a panel of experts who are employees of Exo Platform, Friendster, Globant, Google Inc, and hi5. Entries will be evaluated on:
Creativity and user appeal
Internationalization (Message Bundles)
Use of other Google APIs
Cross-platform operability
Use of App Engine for storing user data and hosting files
Contest is open to residents of Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Five (5) winners will be selected from each country. All five winners will receive an Apple iPod touch. In addition, One top winner will be selected from each country and will receive a Nintendo Wii.
More info here http://code.google.com/events/apacdevfest/contest/
I would suggest that planting of trees can be started anytime. Small and big trees or any plants will do in recognition of global warming these days. The plants will absorbs the CO2 during the day, and provide better environment for you.
Basically the more wealth of a country will be remarked by more factories, and more automobiles that creates more CO2 and deplete the ozon layer and thus global warming.
Hope this will sync with the SFD2007 starting now. Plants were almost free to get. Plants in pottery will do when you live in high raised buildings, just don't forget to water them.
//Francisco Sarmiento III wrote: It would be great if the "orphan" countries sign up for teams for SFD2007 and undertake projects.
Ideas to organize SFD events are in// http://www.softwarefreedomday.org
//Perhaps, like releasing balloons, planting a "FOSS" tree, go on synchronized teleconference for a specified length of time, or anything that would serve as a lasting single pulse of "FOSSiness" that everybody can remember. Of course, we go after impact and media-worthiness. And it should be really be synchronized (forgive me for repetition). And after this single in-sync activity, we proceed with the rest of our SFD2007 activites for the day.//
[[Sahana Disaster Management System|http://www.sahana.lk]] is a FOSS application that help disaster centers to manage their resources such as volunteers, logistics, supplies and many other things. Sahana is important to make all the resources distributed in the right way and efficient.
Sahana is a web based collaboration tool that addresses the common coordination problems during a disaster from finding missing people, managing aid, managing volunteers, tracking camps effectively between Government groups, the civil society (NGOs) and the victims themselves.
Bluepoint Foundation, in cooperation with the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), will be holding the Philippine Sahana Initiative (PSI) on April 24, 2007 at the Discovery Suites in Ortigas. Ravindra De Silva and Mifan Carem, the originators of Sahana will be coming over to Manila for the event organized by Marie Grace Gaffud-Antonio of Bluepoint with details at http://bluepoint.com.ph/
Sahana received its biggest award so far, the Free Software Foundation's award for Social Benefit an initiative for FOSS developer. Four members of the Sahana team attended the awards ceremony at the annual FSF meeting, held at MIT in USA last March 2007, where they received the award from the founder of the FSF, Richard Stallman. The award, which is only one of two awards given by the FSF each year, was inspired by Sahana a year ago. The recipient of last year's award was Wikipedia, and Sahana follows in its footsteps this year.
See more details at http://www.fsf.org/social-benefit-award-2006
Google is financing a constellation of 16 satellites to bring high-speed low-cost Internet connectivity to emerging nations located near the equator.
Announced Tuesday, O3b Networks said the satellites are planned to orbit near the equator to deliver Internet connectivity to emerging markets in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. The service is planned for activation by the end of 2010.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/data/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210600659
By W. David Gardner, September 9, 2008 06:46 PM
More Services InsightsWhite PapersIntegrating SaaS Applications Payments Issues Facing Small to Mid-sized Financial Institutions The endeavor is the brainchild of entrepreneur Greg Wyler, who realized the need -- and the difficulty -- of getting high-speed Web access to emerging nations while he helped to establish early 3G and fiber-to-the-home networks in Africa.
"Only when emerging markets achieve affordable and ubiquitous access to the rest of the world will we observe locally generated content, widespread e-learning, telemedicine and (much) more," said Wyler in a statement. "O3b Network will bring multi-gigabit Internet speeds directly to emerging markets, whether landlocked in Africa or isolated by water in the Pacific Islands."
O3b -- abbreviation for "the other 3 billion" -- is headquartered in Jersey, Channel Islands, with a subsidiary for technical development located in Englewood, Colorado.
Initial satellite development is being provided by French defense company Thales SA. The O3b business plan calls for regional ISPs and telecommunications providers to utilize the satellites for high-speed internet access in their respective regions. The company said the system's more than 2,000 transponder equivalents will be able to deliver Internet backhaul at speeds of 10 Gbps. The system has been configured so additional satellites can be added as needed.
"O3b Networks' model empowers local entrepreneurs and companies to deliver Internet and mobile services to those in currently underserved or remote locations at speeds necessary to power rich web-based applications," said Larry Alder, Google's Alternative Access Team product manager, in a statement.
Liberty Global, which offers telecommunications and Web services in more than 15 countries, will contribute technical services to the project through its Colorado facilities
In addition to Google, O3b is initially being financed by Liberty Global and HSBC Holdings. Investment banking firm Allen & Company is also helping to finance the project, although at a lower level than the three chief financing entities.
//There was once about LEO (low earth orbital) satellite. I found few links on this matter,//
http://www.linktionary.com/l/leo.html
http://www.thetravelinsider.info/phones/aboutsatellitephoneservice.htm
http://www.globalcomsatphone.com/globalcom/leo_geo.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_constellation
Out of the box, TiddlyWiki doesn't have a ServerSide back end. In many applications that's a great strength because it means that you can work with TiddlyWiki without having to be connected to the Internet or, because it's SelfContained, installing any software.
In other applications, a ServerSide can be very useful, particularly if you want to edit a TiddlyWiki while it's online, or you need lots of people to be able to edit a TiddlyWiki at the same time. The development Community has come up with several ServerSide implementations that are suitable for a range of applications.
an experimental blog for recording daily happenings, ICT news and other related issues.
http://www.datacom.co.id/blog.html
After a week of bowls of lettuce leaves, cucumbers, tomatoes and thinly sliced zucchini and honey-sweetened agar-agar, I lost a rather satisfying number of kilograms and was able again to say yes to an invitation for a fabulous high tea of Indonesian multiregional jajanan and luscious cheese cakes at a friend's house.
Features - September 10, 2006 Suryatini N. Ganie, Contributor, Jakarta
Returning from a visit to various members of my extended family, I stepped on the bathroom scale. The result was so disastrous that I decided to change to a diet of low-carbohydrate, high-fiber foods, having to forget about the yummy steamed glutinous rice rolls oddly called semar mendem, or drunken joker, with a filling of spiced minced meat and a wrapping of thin savory omelets, and the serabi, round and small, sweet and fluffy pancakes with a sauce of thick pandanus-flavored coconut milk, usually served for breakfast at my cousin's home in Central Java.
Jajanan, or snacks, are common in Indonesia and there exist hundreds of regional sweets, as well as savory temptations made from local products such as rice flour, glutinous rice flour, cassava, sweet potatoes and taro. Mixing the flours is also common and margarine and oil seem to be the chosen fatty agents.
Jakarta, though a growing metropolitan city, still has its traditional jajanan served at special events or sold daily at traditional markets and supermarkets. One of the most interesting things about jajanan Jakarta, or called jajanan Betawi by some older people, is that they are still made by the younger generations and recipes are handed down from mother to daughter.
The most popular of these jajanan include kue pancong, made from rice flour, kue pukis, a rather soft, thick pancake made in special forms, and for breakfast ketan urap, or steamed glutinous rice with a topping of grated green coconut, popular in Jakarta's suburbs.
In South Kalimantan, people sell pais waluh, a melt-in-the mouth steamed delicacy made from pumpkin and rice flour resulting in a soft pudding-like texture. Pais waluh is only one of the jajanan sold at the pasar kaget in Banjarmasin, which is a market formed by vendors during the fasting month of Ramadhan, mostly selling food for the breaking of the fast. South Kalimantan's bingka kentang is also one of the most popular snacks. Have a taste should you happen to be there.
Coconut is used for lots of jajanan the Manadonese are famous for their snacks. Their klappertaart, soft and sweet and rich with tender green coconut flesh slices, is a midmorning snack or dessert, and though it has a Dutch name this is truly Manado in its delicious taste. After all, with abundant coconut trees the Manadonese are famous for their creativity in using the nuts for their daily fare.
While the Manadonese prefer the coconut palm and its nuts, the people in Lampung depend on their excellent rice crops be it normal white rice in many varieties or glutinous rice. Lampung's beras ketan hitam,or black glutinous rice, for example, is one of the main ingredients for their bubur ketan hitam, black glutinous rice porridge with thick sweet coconut milk over the steaming porridge, or babai maring, steamed softly over medium heat.
For those interested in fusion snacks go to Riau and have risoles sagu. The one-time French delicacy brought here by the Dutch has an Malay and East Indonesian wrapping made from sago flour. Eaten with one of their fiery sambals, you will feel as brave as a pirate crossing the wild waters of the surrounding archipelago! Not enough? Then go more eastward, to Timor. Have karamel kulit jeruk. Portuguese of birth, it became Timorese. Ate logo (see you soon) and watch your weight!
Google has announced their very own Linux based operating system, but is anyone surprised? What will it mean for other Linux distributions who are vying for a piece of the pie?
According to the announcement it is a lightweight, Linux-based operating system designed for netbooks and “full-size desktop systems”. We know that it will be based upon the Chrome browser and come with a new, unique interface. “Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web,” they write.
[[Will Linux Shine as Google Chrome OS?|http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7425/1.html]]
Christopher Smart
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
Is anyone really that surprised? It was bound to happen, sooner or later. It’s simply a natural progression in the company’s direction. What does this move mean for the market as we know it, though? Or more importantly, how will it affect free software and the adoption of commercial Linux distributions such as Ubuntu?
There has been much speculation about what it will mean long term, with many welcoming the new challenger and others seeing it as a threat. Seriously though, there’s enough market there for everyone and the more that is taken away from Microsoft, the better. Linux only has a tiny, tiny fraction of the market for desktop computing today and there’s plenty to go around. Chrome OS will fill a certain market niche, hopefully it will be able to make a reasonably sized dent. If Google could capture a hefty slice, what a game changer that would be!
Still, many in the IT industry are complaining that Google’s new operating system will simply “fragment the Linux desktop further”. The very use of the word “fragment” makes it all sound so negative, but is it really? People keep saying that and yet Linux continues to become more and more popular. Did Linux really need Ubuntu when Canonical could have just improved Debian?
Choice is good. Yes, Chrome OS might further fragment “Linux” but probably not in the way most people assume. Think of Chrome OS as an appliance. It’s not going to be your every day running operating system where you sit down and do some video editing, for example. It’s a special, customized operating system specifically designed to live on the net and run everything Google. Sure, it might move over to the desktop at some point but for now at least, it’s focus is on lightweight machines and on-line applications. At least that’s what Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is hoping, who appears un-phased by Google’s plans. Then again, you’d expect that.
So while it might “steal” some market share from Linux, it’s mostly going to take it from Microsoft. Commercially, Ubuntu on the desktop has so far been less than a stellar success. Dell has been selling Ubuntu systems for a few years now, but it hasn’t had the huge uptake that many in the free software world were anticipating. Also, most vendors who were originally shipping Linux on their netbooks have now switched primarily to Windows. With Microsoft having dodged a bullet with Vista and Windows 7 on the horizon, the more Linux options that exist for vendors the better.
Might this slow down Ubuntu’s bid for world domination? Possibly. It might negatively impact the adoption of many other commercial Linux distributions too, but so what? Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, is out to make money from their operating system. So is Google, just in a different way. That’s the way of the market place and if they can’t compete then that’s just too bad. Plus it’s not all doom and gloom. Many people won’t want to run Google.
If there’s one thing that the multitude of Linux distributions shows, it’s that not everyone wants the same thing. Not everyone wants Windows. Not everyone wants an Android phone and not everyone will want Chrome OS. Some will (for some reason) stick with Windows, others will branch out and take on another Linux offering. This is certainly a turning point in computing history, one that shouldn’t be underrated.
So actually, the release of Chrome OS might indeed help Ubuntu, by showing the world that there are other options. Of course, it will be down to Canonical to take advantage of that fact and capitalise on it, but the opportunity exists. Perhaps people might even start to look at what’s running Google OS, Linux, and try out another mainstream distribution on their own machine. If there is going to be change, people first need to hear about it or else nothing happens.
Google, unlike Ubuntu, is a household name. It has the brand, it has the reputation, it has the cash and it has the motivation to release a super competitive operating system for any market. Google could in fact, be the very vehicle needed to explode open source onto the scene for every day users. If they can, then everyone in the Linux world benefits.
And that’s the main point, which everyone seems to ignore. Google using Linux is a good thing. Everyone in the Linux community will benefit because Google will finally be distributing a kernel which, for any improvements they make, they will have to release the code for everyone else too. It’s at a time like this you are thankful Linux uses the GPL and not a BSD license!
Some Linux supporters have outright rejected Google’s project saying it’s not needed because “we’ve got Ubuntu.” Seriously, Ubuntu is far too fragmented itself. They have their hands in far too many pots and have yet to make a dent on the market. The Netbook Remix edition, while an interesting interface for netbooks, is still horribly clunky.
Related FOSS events that happened in 2009
[[2009 Nonprofit Software Development Summit]]
[[GNOME.Asia Summit 2009]]
[[FOSS.IN/2009: Call for Participation ]]
[[Asia Source 3 Call for Participation]]
[[BarCamp Phnom Penh 2009]]
[[Wikimania 2009 in Buenos Aires]]
[[Open Translation Tools 2009]]
[[SE Asia OpenSocial Application Contest]]
[[Info-Activism Camp]]
[[FOSS events 2008]]
Allen Gunn: http://socialsourcecommons.org/
Abilio B. Caldas: http://abcaldas-timor.blogs.friendster.com/
Ardita Caesari: http://bricolage.blogspot.com
Carmela Bona: http://itsmeela.wordpress.com/
Cheekay Cinko: http://c5.livejournal.com/
David Tremblay: http://blog.ngowiki.net
Diane Jayne G.: http://godiane.net
Diki Andreas: http://chickenstrip.wordpress.com
Dina Mehta: http://www.dinamehta.com/
Dirk Slater: http://www.fabrider.net/
Elanto Wijoyono: http://elantowow.wordpress.com/
Fouad Riaz Bajwa: http://www.askbajwa.com
Francisco E. Sarmiento: http://fossyfrancis.blogspot.com
Gayatri Buragohain: http://techyfeminist.blogspot.com/
Handoko Suwono: http://www.datacom.co.id/blog.html
Idaman A.: http://idaman.multiply.com/
Jerome Gotango: http://loktarogar.blogspot.com
Kemas Antonius: http://www.kyantonius.com/
Klaikong Vaidhyakarn: http://klaikong.spaces.live.com/
Kong Sidaroth: http://daroth.wordpress.com/
Marek Tuszynski's Wiki at http://replication.tacticaltech.org/
Marie Grace: http://gaffud.com/
Mifan Careem: http://techmania.wordpress.com
Moses: http://mokalovesoulmate.wordpress.com/
Myra Jill Saisson: http://majill.vox.com
Piseth Kheng: http://piseth.blogsome.com
Samer Azmy: http://geek2live.blogspot.com/
Sayamindu Dasgupta: http://sayamindu.randomink.org/ramblings/
Simos Xenitellis: http://simos.info/blog/
Taibah Istiqamah http://agafya.blogspot.com
Thipphavanh Thammachith: http://www.thipphavanh.blogspot.com/
Truong Anh Tuan: http://blog.iwayvietnam.com/tuanta/
Virak Hor: http://khmerak.com
Y.B. Agusnugroho: http://tabrak.blogspot.com
Yolynne Medina: http://yolynne.wordpress.com
The following links were comments echoed from Asia Source II event in Sukabumi, Indonesia and more about FOSS.
[img[It's hot in the tent on sunny days|blog/image028s.jpg]]
[[OSS runs better in Windows environment]]
[[Do we really need FOSS certification?]]
[[“Do no evil” says Google]]
[[Rethinking the "Made in China" label]]
[[Intel loves OLPC, AMD got jealous]]
[[SFD2007 and planting of trees]]
[[Engadget Chinese gets its hands on Asus' Eee PC 701]]
[[Costly Computing for OLPC]]
[[OLPC, too good to be true]]
[[Gates counters rival with $3 software]]
[[EU Rejects Microsoft Royalty Proposal]]
[[Comments for track 2 sessions]]
[[Understanding Neo-Connectivity & Neo-Communities]]
[[Ease of Use, Seriously?]]
[[Reach out with FOSS]]
[[On Gender issue]]
[[Origin of foods and other food realties]]
[[The herbal wonders]]
[[About coffee and other beverages]]
[[Moon Cake Festival in Xiamen|The Mid-Autumn Festival]]
[[Uses of turmeric as food ingredient]]
[[Food That Help Reduce Asthma Allergies|Asthma cures, remedies]]
[[Lunch at the Google]]
[[A touch of spice]]
[[Epicureans fly to Bangkok for $25K meal]]
[[A Taste of Asia]]
[img[No more nasi goreng!|blog/image020s.jpg]]
<html><a href="http://www.kunstderfuge.com/">Kunst der Fuge</a>: classical music in thousands of <a href="http://www.kunstderfuge.com/midi.htm">MIDI</a> files.</html> http://www.mfiles.co.uk/midi-files.htm
[[I was hooked to ragtime]]
[[An Indonesian Guitarist blog with chords]]
[[Ragtime music, the Scott Joplin story]]
[[Geef Mij Maar Nasi Goreng]]
[[Me and my guitar]]
I am putting also here interesting excerpts with regard to OSS.
[img[Wandee and her bodyguards|blog/image082s.jpg]]
[[Will the real Microsoft please stand up? ]]
[[History but history that counts]]
[[Microsoft says open source violates 235 patents]]
[[How Sun acquired MySQL, the true story]]
[[Few people intend to upgrade to Vista]]
[[Indonesia "Very Vulnerable" To Global Warming]]
[[Dim Vista]]
[[Open source, closed mind]]
[[After Vista, a deluge of E-waste to developing countries]]
[[Microsoft protest Indonesia's open source policy]]
[[MS to debut at Linux Asia 2007]]
Popular open-source software development site SourceForge.net hosted the equivalent of the open-source Oscars on Thursday evening, billing the event as a big party, not a painfully long and formal awards ceremony. SourceForge.net community members select their favorite open-source projects; 7-Zip wins top award.
China Martens, IDG News Service - Friday, July 27, 2007 8:00 AM PDT
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135154/article.html
Popular open-source software development site SourceForge.net hosted the equivalent of the open-source Oscars on Thursday evening, billing the event as a big party, not a painfully long and formal awards ceremony.
File archiver 7-Zip won the top award as all-over best project and also picked up the prize for best technical design. The Firebird relational database was another double winner, being voted both best project for the enterprise and the project providing the best user support.
It was the second time SourceForge.net has asked its community to vote for their favorite open-source projects after debuting its Community Choice Awards last year.
The awards are one way SourceForge.net has discovered to highlight strong and popular performers among the more than 150,000 open-source projects the site hosts, according to Ross Turk, SourceForge.net's community manager. "Last year, there was a really good response," he said. "I think people really value being a winner." SourceForge.net has around 1.6 million registered users, around 80 percent of whom are based outside of the U.S.
The community first nominated 10 finalists for each of the 11 awards and then voted for the winner in each category.
One surprise for the organizers was eMule, a peer-to-peer file sharing client, winning as best new project, since the project was first published on SourceForge.net in 2002. Because of that, Turk said, they decided to have two winners of the best new project award, also recognizing runner-up Launchy, an application launcher for Windows and a more recent project on SourceForge.net.
The plan for the three-hour party in a hotel in Portland, Oregon, celebrating the awards was to run it as a lively event with food and drink and small five-minute video presentations about the winners occurring throughout the evening, Turk said. There was also a raffle for an Apple iPhone, along with the t-shirt Turk received when waiting in line to buy one of the coveted mobile devices when they first went on sale at the end of last month. SourceForge.net was hoping that between 300 and 500 people would attend the party.
Each winning project also received a Thingamagoop from Bleep Labs. The devices that look like rather demented robots are analog type synthesizers, which can be controlled in a variety of ways to emit different and often high-pitched tones.
When he initially came across one, Turk saw it as a must-have, but now that he's familiar with the device, his pet name for the Thingamagoop has become the Annoyatron. Each device is handmade and the winners received Thingamagoops in SourceForge.net's signature colors of orange and gray. "They really fit the awards," Turk said. "They're kind of techie and kitschy."
The other SourceForge.net 2007 Community Choice Award winners were:
Audacity as best project for multimedia
Azureus as most collaborative project
phpBB as best project for communications
phpMyAdmin as best tool or utility for system administrators;
ScummVM as best project for gamers;
TortoiseSVN for best tool or utility for developers.
http://sourceforge.net/community/index.php/landing-pages/cca07/
The Market Analysis System (MAS) is an open-source software application that provides tools for analysis of financial markets using technical analysis.
MAS provides facilities for stock charting and futures charting, including price, volume, and a wide range of technical analysis indicators. MAS also allows automated processing of market data — applying technical analysis indicators with user-selected criteria to market data to automatically generate trading signals — and can be used as the main component of a sophisticated trading system.
Some of the features of MAS are:
* Includes basic technical analysis indicators, such as Simple Moving Average, Exponential Moving Average, Stochastic, MACD, RSI, On Balance Volume, and Momentum.
* Includes more advanced indicators, such as Standard Deviation, Slope of EMA of Volume, Slope of MACD Signal Line, Bollinger Bands, and Parabolic SAR.
* User can create new technical analysis indicators, including complex indicators based on existing indicators.
* User can configure criteria for automated trading-signal generation.
* Creation of weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly data from daily data.
* Handles intraday data.
* Handles stock and futures data.
* Accepts input data from files, from a database, or from the web. (Includes a configuration for obtaining end-of-day data from yahoo.com.)
* Can be configured and run as a server that provides services for several clients at a time running on remote machines.
The current version of MAS runs on Intel machines, on both the Linux and Windows operating systems. Additionally, it has been ported to Sparc/Solaris, though it has not yet been officially released for that platform. MAS is free software (freeware).
http://eiffel-mas.sourceforge.net/
Full moons are said to be behind many strange things, but here's one you didn't know about: At full moon, our favorite satellite is whipped by Earth's magnetotail, causing lunar dust storms and discharges of static electricity.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080418-strange-moon.html
The effect on the moon was first noticed in 1968, when NASA's Surveyor 7 lander photographed a strange glow on the horizon after dark. Nobody knew what it was. Now scientists think it was sunlight scattered by electrically charged moon dust floating just above the surface. That fits with data from NASA's Lunar Prospector, which orbited the moon in 1998-99. During some crossings of the magnetotail, the spacecraft recorded big changes in the lunar night-side voltage.
How it works
Our entire planet is enveloped in a bubble of magnetism generated by the rotating core. The solar wind, a stream of charged particles, pushes the bubble away from the sun and creates a long tail of magnetized material downstream.
"Earth's magnetotail extends well beyond the orbit of the moon and, once a month [at full moon] the moon orbits through it," said Tim Stubbs, a University of Maryland scientist working at the Goddard Space Flight Center. "This can have consequences ranging from lunar 'dust storms' to electrostatic discharges."
At full moon, the moon passes through a huge "plasma sheet" — hot charged particles trapped in the tail. The lightest and most mobile of these particles, electrons, pepper the moon's surface and give the moon a negative charge, the researchers explained.
On the moon's dayside this effect is counteracted somewhat by sunlight: Photons knock electrons back off the surface, lessening the negative charge. But on the night side, electrons accumulate and the charge can climb to thousands of volts.
The Surveyor 7 images suggest fine dust particles, all charged up, float above the lunar surface. On the night side, this dust might be intense enough to clog machinery and scratch an astronaut's faceplate. The extreme differences in charge might cause dust to fly from the negative night side to the less-negative day side, becoming strongest along the regions where the sun is rising or setting.
Wild place
NASA has long been concerned about these electrical charges and moon dust and the overall impacts on astronauts, habitats and machinery. In fact the agency is drawing up plans to probe the secrets of moon dust. Astronauts walking on the charged terrain might get electrified like sock from a hot dryer. "Touching another astronaut, a doorknob, a piece of sensitive electronics — any of these simple actions could produce an unwelcome zap."
"Proper grounding is strongly recommended," Stubbs advised.
The plasma sheet is in a constant state of motion, flapping up and down all the time," said Jasper Halekas of the University of California, Berkeley. "So as the moon orbits through the magnetotail, the plasma sheet can sweep across it over and over again. Depending on how dynamic things are, we can encounter the plasma sheet many times during a single pass through the magnetotail with encounters lasting anywhere from minutes to hours or even days."
This makes for a very dramatic environment.
"The moon can be just sitting there in a quiet region of the magnetotail and then suddenly all this hot plasma goes sweeping by, causing the night side potential to spike to a kilovolt," Halekas said. "Then it drops back again just as quickly."
Anyone on the moon would want to know more about how all this works. And it'd be significantly worse during a solar storm.
"That is a very dynamic time for the plasma sheet and we need to study what happens then," he says.
[[Gallery: Lunar Images|http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/igviewer.php?imgid=1687&gid=140&index=0]]
[[Full Moon Fever: News, Images and Lore|http://www.space.com/fullmoonfever/]]
[[Does the Full Moon Make People Crazy? |http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/igviewer.php?imgid=1687&gid=140&index=0]]
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SANTA CLARA, CA January 16, 2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MySQL AB, an open source icon and developer of one of the world's fastest growing open source databases for approximately $1 billion in total consideration.
The acquisition accelerates Sun's position in enterprise IT to now include the $15 billion database market. Today's announcement reaffirms Sun's position as the leading provider of platforms for the Web economy and its role as the largest commercial open source contributor.
http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2008-01/sunflash.20080116.1.xml
With millions of global deployments including Facebook, Google, Nokia, Baidu and China Mobile, MySQL will bring synergies to Sun that will change the landscape of the software industry by driving new adoption of MySQL's open source database in more traditional applications and enterprises. The integration with Sun will greatly extend the commercial appeal of MySQL's offerings and improve its value proposition with the addition of Sun's global services organization. MySQL will also gain new distribution through Sun's channels including its OEM relationships with Intel, IBM and Dell.
"Today's acquisition reaffirms Sun's position at the center of the global Web economy. Supporting our overall growth plan, acquiring MySQL amplifies our investments in the technologies demanded by those driving extreme growth and efficiency, from Internet media titans to the world's largest traditional enterprises," said Jonathan Schwartz, CEO and president, Sun Microsystems. "MySQL's employees and culture, along with its near ubiquity across the Web, make it an ideal fit with Sun's open approach to network innovation. And most importantly, this announcement boosts our investments into the communities at the heart of innovation on the Internet and of enterprises that rely on technology as a competitive weapon."
"The combination of MySQL and Sun represents an enormous opportunity for users and organizations of all sizes seeking innovation, growth and choice," said Marten Mickos, CEO, MySQL. "Sun's culture and business model complements MySQL's own by sharing the same ideals that we have had since our foundation -- software freedom, online innovation and community and partner participation. We are tremendously excited to work with Sun and the millions of members of the MySQL open source ecosystem to continue to deliver the best database for powering the modern Web economy."
Following completion of the proposed transaction, MySQL will be integrated into Sun's Software, Sales and Service organizations and the company's CEO, Marten Mickos, will be joining Sun's senior executive leadership team. In the interim, a joint team with representatives from both companies will develop integration plans that build upon the technical, product and cultural synergies and the best business and product development practices of both companies. MySQL is headquartered in Cupertino, CA and Uppsala, Sweden and has 400 employees in 25 countries.
As part of the transaction, Sun will pay approximately $800 million in cash in exchange for all MySQL stock and assume approximately $200 million in options. The transaction is expected to close in late Q3 or early Q4 of Sun's fiscal 2008. Completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions. The deal is expected to be accretive to FY10 operating income on a GAAP basis.
Sun Snaps Up Database Firm from Oracle
Andy Greenberg 01.16.08, 2:20 PM ET
http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/2008/01/16/sun-mysql-linux-tech-enter-cx_ag_0116sun.html.
The purchase of MySQL, which has built one of the best brand names among privately held open source companies, is yet more evidence of how tough it is for open source companies to go to the public markets. Red Hat, which has a market capitalization of about $3.7 billion, remains the primary example of a publicly traded open source company: Last year, it bought open source middleware provider, JBoss, for $350 million. Novell snapped up SUSE Linux in 2004 for $210 million.
On Sun's part, the acquisition gives the server and software company a database offering that is capable of storing and manipulating the information used by its software tools, a role it has largely handed to Oracle. That means Sun is attempting to tap into some of the revenue that it formerly directed to Oracle, and may strain the company's relationship with its former partner.
For Oracle, the deal shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Sun first hinted at the possibility of entering the database market in 2005 when co-founder Scott McNealy cryptically showed analysts a list of database players including the words "SunDB." Since then, Sun has made minor investments in another open-source solution, PostgreSQL, hiring developers to work on that non-commercial database product and offering its own support to users.
Surabaya has always been known as a trading city. Indian, Chinese and Arab merchants brought their goods to the city by the Kalimas River. Then some of these traders decided to form their own communities and settled in areas close to the river. They lived in harmony with the indigenous residents and many married locals. This acculturation led to the establishment of the Arabic settlement area in Ampel and in Pecinan (Chinatown).
[img[Arabic in Ampel|blog/Surabaya039s.jpg]]
Today, Surabaya has developed into an industrial and trading hub. In 2003, the city's average economic growth was 4.8 percent, and this year that figure is expected to rise to 5.5 percent. Projected figures for 2005, 2006 and 2007 are 6.5 percent, 7.6 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively.
The period between 2003 and 2004 were witness to the bright prospects for trading in the city, with shopping centers and retail shops mushrooming. Some of the new shopping centers are Maspion Square, Pakuwon Trade Center, Supermal Pakuwon Indah, Sungkono Trade Center, Darmo Trade Center (DTC) and Carrrefour Hypermarket in Golden City. Some of the older shopping centers include Tunjungan Plaza, Jembatan Merah Plaza and Surabaya Plaza.
[img[China town|blog/Surabaya019s.jpg]]
New office buildings were also put up in 2003 and 2004, such as Graha Wonokoyo and Menara Standard Chartered. Older office compounds include Plaza Bumi Mandiri, Plaza BRI and Wisma Dharmala Surabaya.
A property consultant Edy Suwanto said the large number of malls and shopping centers in Surabaya indicated that the prospects for the property business in Surabaya were bright.
"Highway facilities and the construction of the Suramadu (bridge connecting Surabaya and Madura) greatly support the retail business in Surabaya," he said.
In his opinion, the presence of a large number of shopping centers also indicates the stronger purchasing power of the community. Eighty percent of the some 1,000 units in the six-floor DTC, which occupies 45,000 square meters of land and will be opened for operation on Oct. 31, 2004, have been sold. Each unit costs between Rp 80 million and Rp 900 million.
"This shows that the market for trade centers is still bright in Surabaya. Please note that the buyers have come from as far away as Ujung Pandang and places in Kalimantan," he said.
Unfortunately, the intensified construction of shopping centers and industrial buildings has led to the demolition of many cultural sites and increased pollution in the city.
[img[Old Surabaya, Tunjungan street during war time 1940s|blog/Surabaya048s.jpg]]
In 1998, the number of motorized vehicles in the city stood at 923,633 and in 2000/2001 that figure was down to 909,131. However, in 2002/2003, the figure rose by some 50 percent from the previous year. This increase in the number of motorized vehicles has led to an imbalance between the condition of the roads and the number of vehicles on these roads.
Data compiled by the Surabaya traffic and highway service shows that every day 11,370 motorized vehicles pass along Jl. A. Yani, the city's main street. This means about 3,000 motorized vehicles each hour or 50 every minute pass along the street. However, the street was designed to accommodate no more than 10,164 motorized vehicles a day. Similarly, Jl. Wonokromo, which also can accommodate 10,164 motorized vehicles a day, sees 11,126 motorized vehicles pass along it every day.
As a result, pollution has become a major problem for Surabaya. A report on the results of air pollution measurements in the city found that the city's air can be considered good only for 27 to 51 days of the year. This means that most of the time (83 percent of the year), Surabaya residents breathe polluted air. Most (some 70 percent) of this pollution comes from motorized vehicles. Only 30 percent of the pollution is attributed to industrial and household activities.
Despite the pollution, Surabaya residents believe the city is a good place to live, earn a living and invest. A survey of consumer expectations conducted by Bank Indonesia backs up this statement.
[img[Old Surabaya, Central District|blog/Surabaya065s.jpg]]
Between March 2003 and March 2004, the consumer confidence index was at 91 points, the consumer expectations index stood at 95 points and the economic condition index had passed 87 points. (Indra Harsaputra - Jakarta Post)
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) blog is
http:/blog.ted.com and
http://www.ted.com
where you can find new ideas and creativism, about open source learning and what comes next in tech.
Indonesia's mobile telephony industry, with 11operators, is one of the most vibrant in the region. The large potential market, the third largest in Asia, has attracted five foreign mobile operators, which have brought in much-needed capital and expertise.
[[Transforming RI's telecom tower industry|http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/09/15/transforming-ri039s-telecom-tower-industry.html]]
Kelvin Goh
Singapore | Tue, 09/15/2009 12:11 PM | Opinion
Indonesia's mobile industry is also fairly unique compared with its immediate neighbors on two counts. It has a large number of code divisions multiple access (CDMA) operators as well as limited mobility telcos. The limited mobility operators have carved out a strong niche, with about a 13 percent subscriber market share, alongside predominantly GSM-based mobile operators. Seven out of the twelve operators employ the CDMA platform, commanding almost 16 percent of the subscriber market.
Only India is similar to Indonesia, in that it has limited mobility and CDMA-based cellcos competing with GSM operators. The other similarity is the vastness of both countries and the challenging economics to reach out to every consumer.
Indonesia's mobile subscriber growth is the highest in the region, with unique user penetration doubling over the last two years to 38 percent. Three of its largest operators now boast population coverage of over 90 percent, while the smaller GSM operators combined cover an estimated 70 percent.
More importantly, their participation has contributed to healthy competition, and helped drive industry revenue per minute down by 85 percent over the last two years. Lower rates, coupled with cheaper handsets, mean that more Indonesians can afford mobile telephony.
A more recent trend has been the adoption of an asset-light strategy by mobile operators, by selling off their towers, focusing on acquiring customers, and operating and marketing a mobile business.
There are numerous independent tower operators in Indonesia, operating as few as tens of towers to a few thousands. A tower-leasing industry is quickly emerging, but more needs to be done.
While regulations encourage foreign investments in Indonesian mobile operators, it is more difficult for foreigners to participate in tower companies. Only 100 percent locally-owned companies can own and manage towers. But companies publicly listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange are considered locally owned.
However, companies typically need a track record to list. In contrast, India's liberal stance on the ownership of tower companies has attracted numerous foreign investors, who have pumped in US$2.7billion into six tower companies to date.
Demand for towers and tower space in Indonesia is set to boom.
*Firstly, network capacity needs to be upgraded to meet rising traffic volumes, which are surging on the back of rapid subscriber growth and increasing voice usage. Assuming subscribers double and usage per subscriber increase a further 50 percent over the next five years, industry traffic should triple over this period. The higher capacity needed would require more towers.
*Secondly, wireless broadband in the form of HSDPA and the soon-to-be launched WiMAX will further fuel the demand for tower space. And lastly, telco networks need to be expanded to blanket this vast archipelago and towers play a crucial role. Currently, only one telco covers more than 95 percent of the population, and two with more than 90 percent.
All this raises the question of whether domestic players and capital have the ability to meet industry requirements.
The government needs to reconsider its ruling on foreign participation in tower companies. Tower infrastructure is the one of the most capital-intensive parts of a telecom business, comprising about 10-15 percent of a telco's investment. More importantly, foreign participation in the tower industry could bring in much-needed capital and expertise to enhance the telecom industry in Indonesia.
Foreign capital will further help tower operators and telcos expand their networks to the outer islands of Indonesia. Greater competition among tower companies will lead to lower rental rates, and help reduce the operating costs of telcos, making it feasible for them to expand to less densely populated parts of the country.
The writer is CIMB securities regional telecommunication analyst.
The 7th Thailand Open Source Software Festival (TOSSFEST) on 02 to 03
August at the Bangkok Convention Center where an estimated 3,000 delegates
have registered so far. The event is organized by the National Electronics and
Computer Technology Center (NECTEC).
Visit http://www.ossfestival.in.th and
http://www.ossfestival.in.th/content/view/14/24/lang,en/
[[APNG Camp|http://www.apng.org/]] is the camp for future internet leaders in the Asia Pacific Region. The 12th Asia Pacific Next Generation (APNG) Camp is planned to be held on 12 – 15 July, 2010 at Righa Royal Hotel, Hiroshima, Japan.
Camp Theme: Collaborative Internet Innovation for Asia Pacific
We are pleased to announce the Call for Paper and Fellowship for the 12th APNG Camp. Each applicant is required to submit:
*Application Form (download [[here|http://www.box.net/shared/8hxvo8e4dx]])
*Two Page Paper along with the presentation material, in the working group that you are interested in. (download [[here|http://www.apng.org/11thcamp/Proceeding_Template.doc]])
For more details, please see the attached Call for Paper/Fellowship [[document|http://www.box.net/shared/k0qgqb1vk4]] or refer to http://www.apngcamp.asia for latest updates
Updates:
[[12th APNG call|http://apngcamp.e-side.co.jp/files/12thapngcfp.pdf]]
[[Fellowship application form|http://apngcamp.e-side.co.jp/files/12thfellowship_form.xls]]
[[Paper submission template|http://apngcamp.e-side.co.jp/files/paper_template.doc]]
Important Dates:
Public Announcement: 15 January 2010
Fellowship Applications Deadline: 15 March 2010
Selection Announcement: 30 April 2010 (extended)
For more information please contact at: sec@apngcamp.asia
Fast developing South East Asian nations such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and even the beleaguered Thailand have been catching the attention of investors lately. Lion Capital shares their view on the developments in the region.
Author : Stephanie Thng
http://www.fundsupermart.com/main/research/viewHTML.tpl?articleNo=2206
The South East Asian (SEA) region, comprising of 10 nations and a combined population of 567.39 million (source: ASEAN, as at 12 April 2007), represents a vast market of burgeoning opportunities, for businesses and investors alike. Although the economic disparity between the countries of SEA will not be bridged anytime soon, the heads of state of the ASEAN are keen to achieve the goal of an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015, to promote greater economic integration within the region, ‘to achieve the broader goal of the region becoming a single integrated seamless market, and serve as an international production base’. Such a political and economic move would have been dismissed as ambitious rhetoric during the 1990s, but as we move forward in the aftermath of a new millennium, a single economic bloc, much like the European Union, may become a reality in the future.
South East Asia has come a long way since the ‘dark days’ of the Asian Financial Crisis during 1997 to 1998, and the region is now re-establishing itself as an attractive destination for investors. According to ASEAN statistics, total foreign direct investments (FDI) net inflow surged to US$38.1 billion in 2005, from US$25.7billion in 2004 (figures as of 29 December 2006). Of course, economic disparity persists in the region with the perennial laggards – think Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar – and the rapidly developing nations of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and even Philippines, forming different ‘economic cliques’ within the region. Of greater interest to investors in recent times has been the latter clique of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. In an e-mail interview with Kam Yoke Meng, Deputy Head of Asian Equities (ex-Japan), Lion Capital Management Ltd, we look ahead on the economic prospects of these nations in the SEA region.
Malaysia Rises From The Shadows
Year-to-date, the twin ASEAN engines of Malaysia and Singapore have been the top performing markets in the SEA region, returning 21.5% and 15.6% respectively (in local currency terms, as at 18 May 2007). Much of the spotlight has been placed on Malaysia, which was the top performing market among the SEA countries. There has been a series of positive developments in Malaysia, as the Malaysian government has sought to boost the competitiveness of the nation in the region.
“The Malaysian market has performed well on the back of GLC (Government-linked companies) reforms, M&A (mergers & acquisitions) news flow momentum, anticipated increase in public spending (9 th Malaysia Plan) and the liberalization of investments in the Iskandar Development Region (IDR), and real estate. Ahead of the general election slated to be held in the first quarter of 2008, we expect more aggressive pump priming,” comments Kam.
For the IDR, a host of incentives to attract investments into the region will be given to approved companies within six sectors – creative industries, educational services, financial advisory and consulting, healthcare, logistics and tourism-related services. Malaysia is setting its sights on the 47 billion ringgit (US$13 billion) IDR to jumpstart the economic development of the South Johor region, and is even keen to persuade Singapore to invest in a multi-billion dollar industrial park within the premises of the IDR, which will be almost three times the size of Singapore, when construction ends.
The further liberalization of Malaysia’s foreign exchange administration policies has been another source of positivism for foreign investors. “These (foreign exchange administration) policies will give the private sector more flexibility in managing foreign exchange transactions, and is likely to result in further appreciation of the ringgit,” notes Kam.
Indonesia Becomes More Investor-Friendly
In Indonesia, the government reportedly expects the economy to expand more than 6% this year, on expectations of increased investment levels within the country, as various reforms such as the new Investment Law, seek to boost the credentials of the Indonesian economy to foreign investors.
Kam is of the view that Indonesia’s growth momentum will be led by a new investment cycle, owing to renewed FDIs and public spending. “With dire need for improved public infrastructure supported by a stronger fiscal position, public investment should replace consumption as the engine of growth in coming years,” observes Kam.
The Indonesian government enacted the new Investment Law on 29 March this year, with the aim of increasing Indonesia’s appeal to foreign investors. “The government has an ambitious plan to stimulate investment, with laws planned to encourage foreign investment, cut taxes and liberalise the labour market,” says Kam. He further observed that among other things, the new law guarantees equal treatment of domestic and foreign investors, bars the government from nationalizing foreign companies, and guarantees foreigners the right to repatriate capital. Adding on to the good news, Kam said that a Tax Law, which will see corporate tax in Indonesia cut from the current level of 30% to 25% over the next 5 years, could be enacted later this year, while the nation’s privatization program may be restarted again.
When quizzed on what were the sub-sectors within the Indonesian economy that investors should pay close attention to, Kam noted that the resource and infrastructure-related sectors such as mining, energy, heavy equipment and cement production, should benefit from increased investment spending. Notwithstanding the positive news emanating from the Indonesian market, some risks do remain. “The unwinding of the yen carry trade could lead to an outflow of foreign funds, causing the Indonesian Rupiah and the domestic stock market to weaken substantially. The continuing power struggle between the major political parties, SBY and Golkar party, could also cause uncertainty in sentiment, and bring about delays in policy implementation,” cautions Kam.
Structural Macro Improvements In The Philippines
In the Philippines, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo unveiled ambitious plans in February this year to spend close to S$20.8 billion on infrastructure developments over the next 4 years, in a bid to increase economic growth to as much as 9% annually by 2010. Although this may be seen by some as a case of ambitious rhetoric by the Philippine President, on the back of the recent strength in financial markets, and record low interest rates, it is too early to draw a conclusion on this. “It is too early to tell if the ambitious target over the next 4 years could be met. However, we are quite positive on the trend of infrastructure spending, owing to neglects in the past few years, strong fiscal balance, and a stable political environment,” comments Kam.
When asked about the key growth drivers in the Philippine economy moving forward, Kam said the market should continue to be supported by structural macro improvements, which along with continued robust levels of foreign workers’ remittances, declining interest rates and CPI (Core Price Inflation) figures, should underpin economic growth in the Philippines. “Our preferred sectors include telecom, banking, property and the mining sectors. Improving cash flows, low capital expenditure requirements and higher dividend payouts make the telecom sector look attractive, while higher appetite for property and increasing use of mortgages will create a virtuous cycle in loans growth,” elaborates Kam.
Can Thailand Regain Its Footing?
In Thailand, foreign investors have been spooked by the string of policy flip-flops by the interim government that took over the reins of power, in the aftermath of the military-inspired political coup in September last year. The abrupt resignation of Finance Minister Pridiyathorn in February this year did little to calm the frayed nerves of nervous foreign investors, but there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel, with the appointment of Chalongphob, a former World Bank economist and ex-Central banker, as the new Thai Finance Minister. In a recent interview with Reuters, Chalongphob did not state when Thailand would lift the widely-criticised capital control measures, but he did promise that there would be no further policy shocks for foreign investors. Taking a cautious view of the issue, Kam noted that despite the fact on paper, Chalongphob’s policy stance was mainly pro-business, and that he supports greater liberalization of foreign investment in Thailand, it is too premature to assess if he has the flexibility to implement policies within a challenging political environment.
However, Thailand’s economy is not all doom and gloom. A silver lining can still be found in the economy – “Stable oil prices, easing inflation, further interest rate cuts, potential lifting of capital controls, progress on the drafting of the new constitution, and the general election which may potentially be held in the 4 th quarter of this year, may result in a recovery of consumer and business confidence in Thailand,” explains Kam.
Despite the political uncertainty shrouding Thailand, the Thai bourse, as represented by the SET Index, has had a decent run-up lately. Year-to-date, the SET has risen by as much as 10.8%, to 727.81 (in local currency terms, as at 18 May 2007).
Asian Financial Crisis Unlikely To Be Repeated
The SEA economies of Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand have come a long way since the tumultuous days of the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s. Reiterating this view, Kam opined that the economic backdrop for the Asian Financial Crisis back in 1997 is very different from today’s economic conditions in Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines. “All these countries today are facing upward pressures in their currencies due to strong macro fundamentals,” he added.
Casting an eye on the prospects for the South East Asian region, Kam noted that with the exception of Thailand, economic fundamentals within ASEAN currently appears to the strongest in many years, as the fiscal position of ASEAN governments improve, and a wave of upcoming elections may lead to the occurrence of a new investment cycle within these economies. He added that domestic demand will be a key driver for the region as it is starting to see renewed FDIs and accelerated spending in public infrastructure. “The reflation theme in the region is playing out nicely as we have witnessed rising property prices across the region. This is likely to create a ‘feel-good effect’, and is positive for consumption spending (across the region),” concludes Kam.
In the early days of the Internet, your tools for building a Web site were HTML and little else. But trying to design a site with nothing more than HTML can be tedious and limiting. This is where CSS comes in.
Cascading Style Sheets, also known as CSS, are files that tell the Web browser how to display an HTML page. Basically, the HTML page serves as the skeleton-the basic framework of a Web page-while the CSS document specifies how the specific elements of a page should look. CSS lets you control the fonts, font colors, background styles, and so forth, of an HTML page.
CSS makes it easier to design and build a Web site. Before CSS, you had to use HTML to specify how all individual headers and components of a page looked and acted. While there were ways around this, HTML was often misused and the web developer would have to go in and individually change every page element on every page. CSS made it drastically less complex and less time consuming to change the styles on a Web page; you could make the change to one document and apply the change across your entire site.
The extraordinary rise of Google Inc. from a 'confidential' search site in the late nineties, the heyday of Altavista, to its present preeminent status on the internet, has attracted a lot of attention.
The admirers see Google as the incarnation of things to come, not only in information retrieval & management, and not even on the Internet only, but in the economy and society as a whole.
The nay-sayers variously view Google as a flattening behemoth of digital information, or as a cultural war machine, bent on the Americanisation of the planet, and generally as a mendacious commercial monopoly pretending to 'do no evil' while hypocritically promoting open source, access, and life in general.
Outside this discussion stand an ever growing mass of millions of users who ask no questions, profess neither admiration or hatred (and if so, rather the former), but are happy to use the search engine and the many other services provided by Google.
That they hereby gladly if unwittingly contribute to reinforcing the assets of Google, in the words of Yann Moulier Boutang, "the only company in the world that is able to make 14 million people work for it at any given moment, for free", is one of the many starkly undiscussed aspects of this Internet giant's operative mode.
'The Dark Face of Google' is the title of the book written two years ago by the Italian Ippolita Collective, which Patrice Riemens is currently translating. Ippolita's brief is neither eulogizing nor demonising Google, but to understand it, especially in its less advertised aspects.
Their aim is to educate Google's users, not to wean them away from it, and to politicise the discussion about search, digital services, and the management of information and knowledge in general. [[Patrice Riemens will discuss|http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=58872587262&ref=nf]] a few points in this context.
*The ways in which Google determines, undermines, or enforces existingpower and knowledge structures
*The Google Books Project and how it reinforces IPR tyranny
*Google's local policies and how they affect fundamental civil liberties
This talk, like Ippolita's book, is intended as a general, informed introduction to an issue that has been insufficiently discussed, due to media hype, and the apparent innocuousness of a readily available, extremely fast and effective, free, Internet service.
Speaker
Patrice Riemens is a geographer by education and a private intellectual (and sometimes internet activist) by choice. He works with De Waag Center for Old and New Media, an institute housed in an old castle in Amsterdam, on the cutting edge of technology, culture, education and industry.
He is a promoter of Open Knowledge and Free Software, and has been involved as a "FLOSSopher" (a 'philosopher' of the Free/Libre and Open Source Software movements) at the Asia Source and Africa Source camps, held in 2005 and 2006 to promote FLOSS among non-governmental organisations. He is a member of the staff of Multitudes, a French philosophical, political and artistic monthly journal founded in 2000 by ~Yann ~Moulier-Boutang.
More People Ditch Bulky PCs
As Notebooks Add Power;
Battery Life Is a Weak Spot
By CHRISTOPHER LAWTON
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117987955659611510.html
Until now, conventional wisdom has held that a desktop personal computer is essential at home for heavy-duty tasks such as editing video. But with a slew of more powerful notebook computers hitting the market, consumers could ditch their desktop and make a laptop their primary home computer.
PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co., Sony Corp. and Acer Inc. this month unveiled laptops that rival desktops at performing multimedia tasks. Many of these notebook computers use a line of Intel Corp. chips -- called Centrino Duo -- that offer greater processing power and faster wireless networking. The souped-up laptops don't come cheap, however, with many new models selling for $2,000 and up.
After becoming interested in editing digital video, Billy Nicol, a youth justice adviser in Aberdeen, Scotland, decided to discard his desktop and buy a more powerful notebook. So in January, Mr. Nicol, 47 years old, bought a 17-inch-screen H-P notebook with a faster processor, more memory, a bigger hard drive and Microsoft Corp.'s new Vista operating system. He has since used the notebook to create a DVD of his mother's 70th birthday to send around to family and friends. "Now laptops are much more powerful, much easier to manage and you can take them with you if you want," says Mr. Nicol, who paid about $2,562 for the notebook computer.
Many of the new notebooks are known as "desktop replacements," a category of laptops that has emerged in the past two years. Unlike typical laptops, with screen sizes of around 15 inches that work well for browsing the Internet, storing photos and checking email, "desktop replacements" usually have screens of 17 inches or larger and can be used for more demanding tasks like editing and playing high-definition film and video. Their larger size gives computer makers more room to build unique designs, add elaborate sound equipment and include remote controls.
Sony, for one, launched a notebook computer called FZ that lets users play high-definition movies on a 15.4-inch screen and burn them to a disc. H-P's 20.1-inch-screen laptop, available in late July, has a TV tuner that allows users to watch high-definition broadcast TV. And Acer introduced the Aspire 9300, a 17-inch-screen notebook with a built-in Webcam.
Kiatchai Borribanbunpotkat took the plunge and jettisoned his desktop PC in favor of a notebook. The 37-year-old project engineer made the transition after he had difficulty upgrading his desktop PC with new "dual core" chips, which can speed up some computing jobs and more efficiently handle multiple chores at the same time. So he bought a laptop from Dell Inc. instead.
"I don't think I sacrifice performance because it's a laptop," says Mr. Borribanbunpotkat, who is based in Waterloo, Ontario. Since he bought the laptop this month, he has used it to surf the Web, watch DVDs and edit family movies. "You can do almost everything with laptops right now," he adds.
Overall, notebooks are projected to make up 51% of all PCs shipped world-wide by 2011, up from 37% last year, as the market share of desktop unit sales declines accordingly, says research firm IDC. At the same time, "desktop replacement" notebooks are expected to increase their share of the world-wide laptop market to 10.3% in 2011, up from 6.6% in 2006. "Performance has dramatically increased, allowing the notebook market to close that gap with the desktop market," says Richard Shim, an analyst with IDC.
But consumers thinking of dumping their desktop for a laptop have to factor in several considerations. While the average selling price of notebooks is dropping to levels below $1,000, desktop PCs remain cheaper. The average selling price of a notebook in the first three months of this year was $852 vs. $590 for a desktop, according to research firm Current Analysis West, a unit of NPD Group Inc. Higher-end notebooks typically sell for much higher prices. H-P's HDX notebook will retail for nearly $3,000, while Sony's FZ notebooks will cost $2,000.
Still, consumers can find some deals for larger, more powerful notebooks. Acer's Aspire notebook goes for just $899. Toshiba Corp. offers a 17-inch-screen notebook with the latest wireless technology that starts at $999. These notebooks aren't high-def enabled, however.
PC vendors note that for consumers who want the maximum amount of performance and power, a desktop is still the way to go. So PC buyers looking to use their computer for high-end designing -- meaning the stuff of architects and engineers -- should stick with desktops. And if consumers are planning to do a lot of high-def video editing, they may want to opt for one of the more powerful desktop replacement notebooks, rather than a run-of-the-mill laptop.
Another disadvantage of the larger notebooks is battery life, says Samir Bhavnani, an analyst with Current Analysis West. Editing video or watching high-def movies on the go can quickly zap a notebook's battery power. Industry executives recommend keeping the notebook plugged into an outlet.
What's more, many new notebooks are cumbersome because of their jumbo screens. To deal with the issue, H-P's new 20-inch HDX notebook comes with a dual hinge on the back of the screen that allows users to pull the screen closer to where it would be on a 17-inch-screen notebook. Sony says it made its FZ notebook's screen only 15.4 inches in order to attract more mainstream users.
The [[Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Baldrige_National_Quality_Award]] is given by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology. It was established by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Improvement Act of 1987 - Public Law 100-107 and named for [[Malcolm Baldrige|http://www.quality.nist.gov/Biography.htm]], who served as United States Secretary of Commerce during the Reagan administration from 1981 until his 1987.
The original stated purposes of the award were to:
*promote quality awareness
*recognize quality achievements of the US companies
*publicize successful quality strategies
The criteria are designed to help organizations use an aligned approach to organizational performance management that results in:
*Delivery of ever-improving value to customers, contributing to market success
*Improvement in overall organizational effectiveness and capabilities
*Organizational and personal learning
The seven categories of the criteria are:
(1) Leadership
(2) Strategic Planning
(3) Customer & Market Focus
(4) Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge Management
(5) Workforce Focus
(6) Process Management
(7) Results
Baldrige's award-winning managerial excellence contributed to long-term improvement in economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in government. Within the US Commerce Department, Baldrige reduced the budget by more than 30% and administrative personnel by 25%. The program recognizes quality service in the business, health care, education, and nonprofit sectors.
Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, usually in September in Gregorian calendar.
The moon looks extremely round, big and bright on the 15th day of each lunar month. People selected the September 15 to celebrate because it is a season when crops and fruits are all ripe and weather pleasant. On the Mid-Autumn Festival, all family members or friends meet outside, putting food on tables and looking up at the sky while talking about life. How splendid a moment it is!
The festival has a long history. In ancient China, emperors followed the rite of offering sacrifices to the sun in spring and to the moon in autumn. Historical books of the Zhou Dynasty had had the word "Mid-Autumn". Later aristocrats and literary figures helped expand the ceremony to common people. They enjoyed the full, bright moon on that day, worshipped it and expressed their thoughts and feelings under it. By the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the Mid-Autumn Festival had been fixed, which became even grander in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). In the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, it grew to be a major festival of China.
People in different places follow various customs, but all show their love and longing for a better life. Today people will enjoy the full moon and eat moon cakes on that day.
[img[Moon Cake Festival in Xiamen|blog/mooncakes.jpg]]
http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/what_msg.php?titleid=500
In Xiamen, Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated by every local household. Like Spring Festival, this is the day for family reunion for Xiamenese families. Bobin or dice throwing games will be played passionately during the festival in Xiamen and Minnan area. As from this year, Mid-Autumn Festival has been declared a national public holiday.
Most major hotels, restaurants and businesses in Xiamen celebrate the festival with their guests. Scrumptious set menus for the festival are available in most of these restaurants and hotels.Businesses send moon cakes to their regular clients as gifts.
They also compete to make the best moon cakes. Taste, texture and type of stuffings are the main criteria they use to make the best moon cakes. Sofitel Plaza Xiamen has already been selling its moon cakes since last month. . .
Inspired by the rich local culture and history, Sheraton Xiamen Hotel has too prepared a selection of moon cakes, including Gulangyu Reminiscence Collection, Xiamen Recollection and Treasure of Amoi.
Available in boxes of 3 to 8 pieces and priced from RMB108 to RMB228. The Moon Cake display and sales counter is open in the Hotel’s Lobby from end of July to September.
Think of any paid-for application and there is now a serious free or open source alternative, each growing in sophistication and putting pressure on the "proprietary" market leader.
Everything from office software (~OpenOffice), image processing (Gimp), vector graphics (Inkscape), audio recording (Audacity) to email clients (Thunderbird) – the list goes on. Although none of these applications is yet a market leader, free software has already had one effect on paid-for applications. "The overall price of software has been downwards for several years," explains Bianca Granetto, a software analyst for Gartner.
"You have got free options, or nearly-free options, such as Google's web-based applications, severely disrupting the market. If you are a big CIO spending millions on email and office software, you are starting to question whether that's reasonable. Open source has long been an open question, but the economic recession is making it a viable alternative."
Take ~OpenOffice, the leading alternative to a paid-for "proprietary" software application. As the downturn started, its download figures began to rocket. According to Oregon State University, since it launched its third version in mid-October, ~OpenOffice has been downloaded more than 42m times. That's roughly four times (3.75) every second. Or, put another way, that's 13,500 times every hour, 324,000 every day, that someone, somewhere in the world has chosen to download software for free, rather than pay for a software application that costs.
"We chose it because of cost," confesses Chris Waite, the IT director of Travel Republic, a large online travel agent based in Kingston upon Thames. Listed as the fastest-growing private company in 2007, the company installed ~OpenOffice through necessity. It now runs it on all 120 desktops.
"The cost of the Microsoft Office suite is prohibitive, so we chose ~OpenOffice and it does everything we need," he says. "It's saved us about £18,000. I just wish we'd deployed more open source software from the outset." Doubtless many others companies will be making similar calculations.
In November, the US analyst [[Clickstream reported|http://bit.ly/open2]] that 5% of internet users used ~OpenOffice in the last six months. By comparison, 51% used Microsoft Office, suggesting that Microsoft had 10 times as many users as ~OpenOffice. But this also suggests that Microsoft's dominance could be declining, as three years ago it enjoyed 95% of the market. Now that share could be down to 90%. Microsoft acknowledges it has been forced to make "lots of fantastic offers available" to preserve its position, but insists its Office business remains "incredibly healthy".
Nicholas ~McGrath, director of platform strategy at Microsoft UK, admits that open source software "continues to challenge Microsoft to ensure that they are listening to customers, providing products that are easy-to-use and have great support behind them … if we don't continue to innovate then we are going to be challenged".
Where Microsoft is increasingly challenged is in the public sector. From Birmingham to Brussels, local and regional governments are switching to ~OpenOffice in a bid to confront the hegemony of Microsoft. "The idea of using open source software not originated by an American multinational corporation seems to go down particularly well in the French public service," says John ~McCreesh, marketing project lead of [[OpenOffice.org|http://www.openoffice.org]]. This paper is a recent convert to ~OpenOffice, but the biggest commercial adopter is ~Peugeot-Citroen, which has installed the application on as many as 20,000 workstations.
Even PC World, one of the biggest resellers of Microsoft Office, recently deployed ~OpenOffice at its tills. Where ~OpenOffice is surprisingly weak is where you may expect it to be strongest. Although the Indian government has distributed 7m ~CDs of the software, ~OpenOffice remains weak in the developing world. "In those economies piracy is so rife we've made little impact," admits John ~McCreesh. "One is free as in //free//, the other is free as in //illegal//."
The latest version of ~OpenOffice, when added to previous versions and other variants such as Novell's Go-oo, takes the estimated user base of the software to something approaching 150 million worldwide. Microsoft Office has at least 10 times as many. But many companies are considering the open option when it's time to upgrade.
"It's interesting that Microsoft are slipping the release date of their next version of Office," he says. "They're not stupid. They know that as soon as people are faced with upgrade costs they'll start looking at the competition."
We all know the principle of compound interest, i.e. when interest that you earn begins to earn interest as well. In investment, the returns that you earn on your investments can also be put to work to earn more returns. This is called the power of compounding.
From “Put Your Money To Work” book by Lilian Ng.
With the power of compounding, your money can really grow very fast and you can double your money at a faster rate. You do not need to be a mathematics wizard to understand the power of compounding.
One of the ways to illustrate the power of compounding is something developed by mathematicians called "The Rule of 72".
Here is how the rule works:
Divide 72 by the rate of return of any investment and the answer you get is the approximate number of years it takes for that investment to DOUBLE in value.
72 divided by Rate of Return = No. of years to DOUBLE money
An investor who leaves his money in a safe and secure savings account that earns 2 per cent per annum interest must wait 36 years for his money to double in value.
Someone who puts his money into stocks and shares that pay an average return of 6 per cent per annum will be able to double his money in 12 years. In 36 years, he would have doubled his money three times.
Savings Account @ 2% takes 36 yrs
Fixed Deposits @3% takes 24 yrs
Investment Product @ 6% takes 12 yrs
Investment Product @ 9% takes 8 yrs
Investment Product @ 12% takes 6 yrs
Is this Sun Wu Kong's 72 multi-stance change? In the book "Secrets of Millionaire Investors" by Adam Khoo and Conrad Alvin Lim, the authors mentioned that the "Rule of 72" came from Albert Einstein. I believe that Einstein's math has nothing to do with the power of computing.
Entrepreneurs are eager to use the rapidly emerging social networks and blogging tools to get closer to their customers, but first they need to develop a business strategy, according to members of a high-profile panel in a recent discussion at the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Northwest.
By David E. Gumpert on Mon Aug 27, 8:08 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20070827/bs_bw/aug2007sb20070824845430;_ylt=Ao1T7vET0.69vlXS.YrxVmgE1vAI
''Three Keys to Successfully Exploiting Web 2.0''
Panelists included representatives of Technorati, Facebook, and Wetpaint, who offered the following suggestions for best using Web 2.0 techniques:
*Define the business goals your business can achieve by creating a community. One panelist described how Victoria's Secret created a Facebook community around "Pink," a line of sweat suits, before the line was even launched. The company successfully used "a two-way dialogue" to build up advance sales for the new product.
*Don't automatically give up on old marketing techniques in favor of Web 2.0. One panelist asked the audience how many have bought products based on TV advertising vs. Web advertising, and the TV side won out by a large margin. "People are sometimes too willing to abandon" tried-and-true marketing tools, noted a panelist.
*Go beyond starting a conversation with customers. While getting people talking is a good start, "You have to listen to people when they come" to a blog, noted a panelist. Because people tend to trust their own personal social networks more than any particular company, entrepreneurs must demonstrate their organizations are worthy of trust by applying feedback to their offerings.
''Opinions Divided on Linkedin for Entreprenuers''
The networking site gets mixed reviews in a discussion on the Harvard Startups listserv.
One entrepreneur reports he is down on [[LinkedIn|http://www.linkedin.com/ ]] because "it depends on all its members responding to messages when one member wants to contact another beyond their immediate network. In every case where I tried to contact someone two networks away, I found the gatekeepers asleep, so my messages were never passed along."
Another says he finds it to be very static. The network's in place, but I'm not doing anything with it, partly because I'm not sure how to use it well. I like having other people I respect in mine in the hopes that they will 'meet' each other, but that doesn't seem to be happening either.
Others say they've had the opposite experience. "As your network grows, the number of gatekeepers available to a given contact grows as well. Perhaps I have just been lucky, but the ones I asked to pass on a referral have been prompt and helpful." The head of a startup says he uses LinkedIn almost daily. Anything from finding valuable information about a prospect to finding the next employee, finding contacts in a particular industry, geography, and much more.
''Must Social-Entrepreneurship Ventures Be Nonprofit?''
Not necessarily, argue two Spanish researchers in a paper published in the Journal of World Business. Analysis of three success stories, a bank in Bangladesh, a hospital in India, and an educational organization in Egypt, "reveals a common feature: All three creatively combine resources to address a social problem and thereby alter existing social structures," write Johanna Mair and Ignasi Marti of IESE Business School at the University of Navarra.
The Bangladesh and Egyptian organizations "fit perfectly with a for-profit scheme," they maintain. "In sum, whether social entrepreneurs choose a nonprofit or a for-profit vehicle often depends on the particular business model and the specific social needs addressed."
''More Early-Stage Businesses Leverage Emerging Economies''
Consulting firm MasterPlans.com saw the percentage of inquiries for global businesses increase to 22% of the total, from 5% in the year-earlier period, according to the firm's chief executive officer, Bryan Howe. Examples include not just outsourcing computer programming to India and targeting suppliers in Mexico, but developing condominiums in Montenegro for wealthy Russians and selling agricultural technology to Tanzania, he says (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/27/07, "Special Report: Going Global").
“Why the Sunflower”, was a question that Mifan has heard many times. Specifically, why did and why does [[Sahana|http://www.sahana.lk/ ]] use the Sunflower as the official mascot: well, it can’t really be a mascot, but its not a logo either, as yet.
Brain dump by mifan carem on November 16th 2007
[img[The Sunflower|blog/helianthus.jpg]]
http://talksahana.com/
We had around 80 developers working on a mashup of Sahana, the time had come to name the software, which was appropriately and beautifully named Sahana, meaning Relief in Sinhala, a language of Sri Lanka.
The next task was of course to come up with some sort of an image depicting Sahana, to be used in the web banner of the application software: I can remember the first banner having 2 images: A white dove and a Sunflower. Later version saw the disappearence of the White Dove, and the Sunflower took over from there in all its majesty and grandeur.
Surprisingly, the Sunflower is more than appropriate to symbolize Sahana. As [[Dr Francisco Sarmiento|http://fossyfrancis.blogspot.com/2007/03/circles-of-sahana.html]] mentioned in the Sahana lists, “The sunflower is a symbol of hope, while the flower itself personifies the sun as a life-giving celestial entity”. It also symbolizes power, warmth and nourishment, particularly features attributed to the Sun: and rightly so. The word sunflower comes from the Greek ‘Helianthus’ : ‘Helios’ meaning ‘sun’ and ‘anthos’ meaning flower.
Legend tells that the Greek sun-god Helios was drowned by his uncles, the Titans, and then raised to the sky, where he became the sun. He was beloved by a mortal named Clytie, who died of her love for him. Clytie was “rooted” in her grief, and thus followed Helios’ daily journey through the sky. But, in yet another legend, it is said that Clytie, who fell in love with the God of the Sun Apollo, was a water-nymph. She was so much in love that she would sit on the ground and stare up at the sun all day long: but, Apollo never noticed her.
The other Gods took pity on her and turned her into a sunflower: her legs became the sunflower’s stem, whilst her face became the flower, her golden hair the petals. Even in the form of a sunflower Clytie continues to watch her love and that is why the sunflower’s face turns to follow the path of the sun.
The sunflower’s turning as it follows the sun symbolizes deep loyalty and constancy. It is said that if a girl puts three sunflower seeds down her back, she will marry the first boy she meets.
[img[The Sunflower|blog/helianthus_folie.jpg]]
http://www.calfloranursery.com/images/pics/g_h/helianthus_angustifolius.jpg
The Chinese hold the sunflower as a symbol of longevity. Incan priestesses wore large sunflower disks made of gold on their garments. In the Andes mountains, images of sunflowers were hammered into gold and placed in temples.
Sunflower seeds were a sacred food to the Plains Indians in the prairie regions of North America. They placed bowls filled with sunflower seeds on the graves of their dead to nourish them on the long journey to the Happy Hunting Grounds.
And of course, the sunflower contains spirals, where the number of left spirals and the number of right spirals are successive [[Fibonacci Numbers]]!
An old book of 2000 by Mike Minasi, now available for free download at http://www.softwareconspiracy.com/
Who among us hasn't been the victim of defective software? You type a report in your word processor, compose a bit of e-mail, or try to buy something over the Web in your favorite Web browser, and all of a sudden something goes wrong.
The program stops responding, or just disappears from the screen altogether, or maybe the whole system ignores your keystrokes and mouse clicks, forcing you to shut down the whole computer. Whatever caused it, the result is the same – you lost your ideas, your time, and squandered some creativity, perhaps never to get it back again.
The conspiracy isn’t evil, it’s just single-minded: profit is the sole goal, quality (or anything else) is irrelevant. The side effects, however, are not irrelevant. Software defects have killed millions of staff hours. They’ve killed some great writing, some great figuring, some great ideas. People killed 65 million hours in 1996 waiting on hold when calling software firms for assistance. A lost e-mail message could kill a deal. There’s even evidence that it could kill the current economic boom.
//I see word processors, e-mail packages, spreadsheets, and Web browser software shipped by large, well-established software companies while those pieces of software are still riddled with defects. Products that literally cannot be made to work reliably. Software entrepreneurs making millions of dollars in profits but claiming that they don’t have the time and money to include quality in their design specifications. An industry where 15 percent of the software firms don’t even test their software before selling it to you. //
Chapter 1 is a short overview of the rest of the book, the "executive summary" for those who don’t have the time to absorb the whole book all at once. Chapter 2 looks at bugs in detail, asking why software has defects and what the common defects are, and provides some sensible advice on how to cope with common bugs in the software you use. Chapter 3 explodes the myth that software firms want you to believe-the myth that "it’s impossible to write software without bugs."
Chapter 4 takes you into the world of software and the law, an area that’s become frightening recently with some proposed changes to U.S. laws-changes that would forever establish that it’s perfectly okay for software firms to sell you completely useless software and leave you no recourse whatsoever. Worse yet, those same software firms can show up at your door unannounced with a federal marshal and close down your business while ransacking your computers looking for software you didn’t pay for. Chapter 5 explains that bad software could have very large effects not just on each of us individually, but on the country as a whole. America essentially owns the software market, but if we’re not careful, we’ll lose it as we’ve lost so many others to our competitors across the seas.
And Chapter 6 offers very specific, simple, step-by-step things you can do to help solve the problem of buggy software-everyday things anyone can do. Finally, Chapter 7 puts the rest of the book in perspective by offering a view of the possible futures-both good and bad-that could arrive if something does or doesn’t happen to change the quality of commercial software.
Can a network build a potentially huge new product?
Essay by Jonathan Fahey 05.07.07
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0507/100.html
Nicholas Negroponte knew he would need a lot of help. when the former director of the MIT media lab announced in 2005 the idea of making $100 laptops for millions of children in the poorest nations, his support group consisted of a couple of professors in cardigans. The project was ambitious: This machine was not a knockoff of a Dell (nasdaq: DELL - news - people) or an Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people) but a complete rethink, from the motherboard to the escape key.
His solution was to open every aspect of the product's development and design to gearheads around the world who wanted to pitch in. Negroponte eventually negotiated formal agreements with designers and suppliers. But at the start he envisioned a wiki undertaking and set up a sprawling Web site (wiki.laptop.org) with dozens of pages dedicated to the laptop's every detail-its goals and technical specs, downloads of the latest software and problems with the latest prototypes. Wild ideas, practical applications, skin-peeling criticism-it's all part of the process. A loosely connected alliance of staffers, suppliers and volunteers work out the kinks. "There would be no way to launch and ramp in any way other than open and viral," Negroponte says in an e-mail exchange from Taiwan, where he is dealing with manufacturing. "A command-and-control model, the way one runs an army, is not well suited for new ideas."
Negroponte is bound to get much of the credit or blame for the success or failure of this laptop. But, with 1,423 people registered on the wiki, there's really no single author. The $100 laptop, called XO, is the result of broad collaboration, sometimes forced, sometimes serendipitous. The same could be said for many familiar designs, products and processes commonly attributed to a single brilliant mind. The design of an automobile assembly line came from a Henry Ford associate who had visited a Chicago slaughterhouse (and might have been influenced by an assembly line created by Ransom E. Olds a few years earlier). The iconic Jaguar E-Type of 1963 (one of which now sits in the Museum of Modern Art in New York) was largely the result of a designer who applied mathematics he'd learned while creating aerodynamic World War II fighter planes, which themselves came from many different sources.
Design often comes about through a network of ideas-some borrowed, some stolen-that cross-pollinate. That's more easily discerned in, say, medieval cathedrals than in art deco architecture like the Chrysler Building. It took 500 years to cobble together St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, beginning in 1063. Traders and crusaders going East and West brought columns, friezes, statues and mosaics from far-flung places that were incorporated into the church.
Now, let's compress the cathedral-building to a year or two. XO had difficult requirements: It had to sip power, be readable in bright sunlight, be extremely tough and sport a much more powerful antenna in order to pick up and emit signals in isolated areas. In addition, the laptop had to be adapted to one of eight languages and four alphabets. Its overall appearance had to be striking enough that kids would want one. And it had to be cheap.
One laptop maker refused early on to get involved because, it claimed, success would require "ten or twenty" miracles, according to Mary Lou Jepsen, a former Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) executive now serving as the project's chief technical officer. But the miraculous has mostly occurred-thanks to contributions from Hawaii and Haifa, China, California and Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Taiwan-even from Nepal. "It's breaking all the rules of designing something," says Jepsen. "And it's working better and faster than anything I've ever worked on."
Negroponte's nonprofit group, One Laptop Per Child, has raised $31 million from donors such as Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ), News Corp. (nyse: NWS - news - people ), Red Hat (nyse: RHT - news - people ), Nortel and AMD. The XO is being built by Quanta, the giant Taiwanese laptopmaker, with AMD and Marvell chips and Red Hat-Linux-based open-source-software. The supplier companies plan to make a small profit on the machines. One Laptop will scrounge for grants and other funding to help foreign governments buy and distribute the machines to children. Thousands of late-stage prototypes have been built in preparation for full production starting late this summer. Nine countries have signed on to deliver several million computers.
Many technical challenges have been addressed through unlikely collaboration. Example: access to the Internet in nations without much dial-up or DSL or cable or Wi-Fi. One of the hardware designers, lamenting that the antennas of traditional laptops were buried in the display screen, asked if he could liberate them to increase range. But industrial designers worried that external antennas would be too fragile. At about the same time, Quanta suggested a locking mechanism for the laptop that designers thought was not child-friendly or durable enough.
After several iterations, the antennas now stick up like rabbit ears, but they also serve as latches to hold the laptop closed. And they fold down to cover the USB ports and microphone jacks, acting as dust covers. As of the last test, the antennas could survive a 5-foot drop, open. Best, they pick up signals from a half-mile away and then act as routers to bounce signals along, even when the computer is off. The idea is that a single connection in a school could reach an entire community by bouncing from one laptop to the next.
Early in the project the laptop included a hand-crank generator to power the battery. But designers soon found that the size, weight, cost and torque needed to power the machine would be too great. Now the battery is easily removable and can be charged in all sorts of ways, like clipping it into a charger powered by a car battery or solar panel. A Bay Area firm called Potenco came up with a handheld accessory that charges the battery with a pull cord like the one that starts a lawn mower.
The screen was a problem because a typical one costs $120 and uses lots of power. So Jepsen changed the pixel layout, eliminated some costly color filters and changed the electronics so the display could be read even if the computer processor were dormant. Also, she designed the display so that it could be seen in black-and-white or color. It uses one-seventh the power of a traditional screen and costs only $40.
Smaller parts of the computer have come from all over-from so many sources Jepsen & Co. doesn't bother keeping track of who provided what. An engineer in Chile wrote a piece of code that governs a keyboard light. A group in Argentina came up with the calculator application. The user interface is being designed in Milan. Key parts of the operating system are being developed in Brazil. Negroponte says an unknown wiki contributor suggested that the caps lock key be eliminated to save space. And so it was.
Of course, not everyone who pitches in is helpful. To create a custom wireless system, the group had to agree to use proprietary, non-open-source software. That displeased a few, but very vocal, folks in the open-source community. They felt so betrayed by the decision, says Walter Bender, a One Laptop founder, that they vilified the entire project and convinced other software designers not to collaborate with it. But it's been nothing like the horrendous process of designing the structure now being called the Freedom Tower, the edifice that will stand on the site of New York City's former World Trade Center. Tortured by demands from developers, police departments, governments and survivors, the building scarcely resembles the original design by Daniel Libeskind. The curre