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Want to get a head start on your holiday shopping before the Black Friday madness officially begins on Friday? Despite the fact the annual shopping holiday is still a few days away, many major retailers are already offering a number of early Black Friday sales, making the days leading up to the shopping event an ideal time to avoid the rush.
While it’s possible prices will dip even lower once the big day arrives, the discounts we’re currently seeing are nothing to scoff at. Target, Best Buy, and Walmart are offering some seriously steep discounts on a number of popular tech and gadgets, ranging from Apple devices to TVs, tablets, smart displays, and more.
To make your life a little easier, we’ve curated a list of some of the best deals available so far. These are the cream of the crop, but they’re far from being the only discounts available. For even more deals, be sure to also check out our retailer-specific Black Friday roundups for Best Buy, Target, and Walmart, which we’ll continue to update throughout the month alongside this post and the rest of our Black Friday content.
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The Nintendo Wii U's TVii service has marked Dec. 20 as its North American launch date, offering access to Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video and Netflix, as well as Comcast and other cable and satellite providers.
While the Wii U sends live TV or video on demand to a TV screen, viewers can use the Wii U's GamePad as a second screen, posting to Facebook, Twitter, and the Wii U's own social network called the MiiVerse, or finding factoids, cast lists and reviews for whatever it is they're currently watching.
Integrated Netflix and TiVo support are expected to follow in early 2013.
The second screen functionality has also cropped up on Microsoft's Xbox 360 in the form of SmartGlass, which allows tablets and smartphones to connect and display complimentary information relating to games that are being played, music listened to, or films and TV being watched.
Both Microsoft and Sony PlayStation have been steadily augmented their current consoles with online media enhancements.
TVii represents Nintendo's take on things, and fits in with prevailing trends -- Forrester Research's latest State of Consumers and Technology paper concluded that younger generations are increasingly likely to connect their TV to the internet, with video game consoles the most popular conduit.
TVii was rolled out in Japan on December 8; the service is expected to arrived in some European regions in 2013.

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Even though the quota for Barents Sea Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) has been reduced for the second year running and the haddock quota has been kept at the same level as 2014, there will be no shortage of whitefish in the European market this year.
The joint Norwegian-Russian Fisheries Commission set the Barents Sea cod quota for 2015 at 894,000 metric tons, in accordance with advice given by the International Council for Exploration of the Seas (ICES). This total allowable catch (TAC) is down 10% from 993,000 metric tons last year and the record one million metric tons in 2013.
Norway is Europe’s main supplier from the northeast Arctic cod stock and currently exports 99% of its fresh cod and 47% of its frozen cod to the EU. The Scandinavian country’s share of the current Barents Sea TAC is 401,240 metric tons, down from 443,735 metric tons last year. Around 75% of its cod is traditionally landed by 1 May.
Europe will also continue to be well supplied by Icelandic cod this year. For the quota year 2014/2015, Iceland set a cod TAC according to the country’s new harvest-control rule (HCR) of 218,000 metric tons. This represents a slight increase on its 215,000 metric ton TAC for the quota year 2013/2014. Icelandic fishing authorities expect catches will remain at this level for the next few years.
Pittman Seafoods sources both single- and double-frozen Atlantic cod from Iceland, Norway and Russia and offers fish that has been certified according the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) sustainable fisheries standard as well as un-certified products.
SMALLER HADDOCK QUOTAS
Meanwhile, the Norwegian-Russian Fisheries Commission set the 2015 Barents Sea haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) TAC at 178,500 metric tons for the second consecutive year. While this is 10% greater than ICES’ recommendation, it is still 21,500 metric tons lower than in 2013 and a massive 139,500 metric tons less than in 2012.
Iceland’s haddock TAC for the quota year 2014/2015 was set at 30,400 metric tons, which continues the recent course of declining supply. Iceland’s haddock TAC for the quota year 2013/2014 was 38,000 metric tons, down from 44,000 metric tons and 46,000 metric tons in the previous two quota years.
Authorities expect Iceland’s haddock TAC to decrease further in the next few years.
REDUCED GLOBAL SUPPLY
From a global perspective, the total supply of Atlantic cod will fall from 1,334,000 metric tons last year to 1,233,000 metric tons in 2015, according to panel estimates from the 23rd Annual Groundfish Forum. At the same time, the haddock supply will slip to 278,000 metric tons from 286,000 metric tons last year.
However, another species that continues to fast gain popularity in the European market is Alaska pollock (Theragra chalcogramma). The Alaska pollock fishery is in a very healthy state, which is expected to result in a global catch in excess of 3.3 billion metric tons in 2015.
Most of Pittman’s pollock is caught in the northeast and northwest Pacific.
Overall, the wild-caught whitefish harvest is expected to reach 7,078 million metric tons in 2015, down slightly from 2014’s estimated catch figure of 7,092 million metric tons.


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After the COVID-19 pandemic that in March led to the swift shutdown of life as we knew it, school systems were left trying to educate students from kindergarten through college via virtual classrooms. But after months of early re-openings, soft re-openings, non-openings and, more recently, re-closures, parents, teachers and students are caught in the confusion of what to expect and how to plan for Back-to-School (BTS). Of course, the apparel industry is caught in the middle of this, too. But they should keep in mind that most parents are adopting a “hope for the best, plan for the worst” attitude, and intend to put comfort above trendy this season.
The BTS season is the second-biggest spending event of the year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF), just behind holiday. Last year, the NRF expected consumers to spend an average of $240 per K-12 child on clothing and accessories. That was an increase from $203 in 2018. However, with fewer families surveyed saying they have children in grades K-12, the NRF expected BTS and Back-to-College spending to total $80.7 billion, down from $82.8 billion in 2018, despite the increase in per-household spending.
The majority of back-to-school apparel shoppers want natural fibers like cotton for their kids. In fact, 78 percent say they prefer their child/children to be dressed in clothing made from cotton because it is comfortable (78 percent), soft (69 percent), feels good (67 percent), is durable (62 percent), breathable (59 percent), and easy to clean (50 percent), according to the 2020 Cotton Incorporated Lifestyle Monitor™ Survey. Additionally, parents planning to purchase BTS clothes for their kids say they are most influenced by quality (44 percent), durability (39 percent), and trendiness (29 percent) of clothing.
Already this year, spending on apparel and accessories has decreased tremendously due to the coronavirus. In April, clothing spending was down -79 percent. In May, it decreased -63 percent from the year before. More recently, The NPD Group reported that by the end of June, total retail purchasing traffic (number of online and in-store transactions) hit the pre-crisis baseline for the second week in a row.
“Retailers will need to find creative ways to make it not only comfortable, but also exciting to shop again,” said The NPD Group’s Marshal Cohen, chief industry advisor, retail. “A different kind of digital dialog that goes beyond traditional descriptions, addressing the touch, feel, and quality of a product, can be a powerful tool in making up for some of what is lost in the virtual shopping environment.”
Half of all consumers (50 percent) say they have a need to do Back-to-School shopping, according to the Monitor™ survey. Of those, 87 percent plan to buy supplies, followed by clothes (85 percent), shoes (78 percent), fashion accessories (35 percent), electronics (25 percent), and sporting equipment (15 percent).
On average, Monitor™ respondents need to buy BTS apparel for two children. As for what they want their kids to wear? Shoppers plan to buy, on average, 8 shirts (down from 11 in 2019), 6 undergarments (down from 10), 7 pairs of socks (down from 9), 4 pairs of pants (a decrease from 6 in 2019), 4 pairs of jeans (down from 5), and 3 activewear items (down from 5 in 2019).
Additionally, more than half of all shoppers say they prefer their children’s T-shirts (69 percent), sweatshirts (67 percent), skirts (59 percent), school uniforms (59 percent), and casual clothing (56 percent) be made of cotton rather than manmade fibers like polyester or rayon.
Unfortunately, there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding if, when or even how students will return to school. Some colleges, like Seton Hall University, have said classes will resume with a mix of virtual and in-person classes. Other schools, like Yale, are opening campus without sophomores in fall, and without freshman in the spring. As for K-12, every state, and every district for that matter, may be coming up with different attendance plans.
Merkle’s Michelle Braun, senior strategy manager for the data-driven performance marketing agency, says clothes and accessories represented most of the BTS spend in 2019. But this year, with more students or districts employing remote learning, she says there might be an uptick in electronic purchases. On the other hand, Braun says some parents may spend more on BTS apparel since they didn’t have a need to purchase spring clothes.
Nearly 2 in 5 (39 percent) of shoppers say they plan to shop differently for BTS clothes depending on whether their kids go back to school in-person versus virtually or online, according to the Monitor™ research. Among those who plan to buy differently depending on how attendance works out, 37 percent say they will purchase more clothes made for comfort. That’s followed by purchasing more loungewear (22 percent), less dresswear (17 percent), and more activewear (17 percent).
Braun also says retailers should be ready for a significant increase in online shopping.
“Last year, shoppers expected to spend 56 percent of Back-to-School budgets in-store,” she states. “This year, while many retail stores are starting to reopen, or have announced plans to re-open, traffic has been significantly down. While a complete elimination of in-store shopping is unlikely, we anticipate a continued increase in online shopping this year.”
Nearly a third of consumers (30 percent) say they are shopping online more now than before the start of the pandemic, according to the Monitor™ research. Those aged 35 and under (35 percent) are significantly more likely than their older counterparts (27 percent) to say they’ve increased their online shopping. In a reflection of concerns about COVID-19, far less BTS apparel shoppers plan to buy more than half of their items in-store (58 percent, down significantly from 71 percent last year) and 42 percent (up significantly from 29 percent last year) plan to buy items online.
Across general merchandise, only about 4 percent of customers currently fully shop online, said The NPD Group’s Leen Nsouli, industry analyst, in a recent webinar. “Most customers remain an omnichannel shopper, but online conversion is expected to accelerate in the coming months as the Back-to-School season kicks into gear.
“Across general merchandise industries, on a 12-month annual basis, Amazon continues to capture a higher share of retail dollars as consumers convert sales online,” Nsouli said. Amazon’s growth was compared to Walmart, Target, Costco, Best Buy, and Kohl’s. “However, [according to] data that we’ve been releasing more recently due to the crisis, you’ll see the growth rates online for some of these other retailers are actually doing very well and they’re catching up. So this is something that we’ll also be monitoring through the Back-to-School season and watching who is gaining share as online continues to accelerate. “
Almost 3 in 5 Back-to-School apparel shoppers (58 percent) plan to buy clothes at mass merchants, according to Monitor™ research. That’s followed by chain stores (48 percent), off-pricers (41 percent), specialty stores (39 percent, down significantly from 48 percent in 2019), and online-only merchants (36 percent).
Normally, a lot of BTS purchasing would take place on Amazon Prime Day, which since its launch in 2015, has been held in July. This year, delivery delays and inventory issues brought on by the coronavirus saw Prime Day re-scheduled first for September then delayed again until, possibly, early October. But recent surges in COVID-19 cases could postpone the date again.
The surges have forced businesses and beaches to close at the height of summer, and called autumn’s school plans into question. If parents can’t work because their children’s schools are closed, that could affect their paycheck — perhaps for a second time.
Already, nearly a third of consumers (32 percent) say COVID-19 has had a dramatic (10 percent) or big (22 percent) impact on their personal finances, according to Monitor™ research. Nearly two-thirds of consumers (64 percent) say the pandemic has had a small (39 percent) or no (25 percent) impact on their personal finances.
Merkle’s Braun says 2020 will be the year for contingency planning.
“With supply chains disrupted, retailers need to be agile,” she says. “Sales and promotions will not be business as usual and any experiential plans around this season may need to be adjusted. Suppliers may not be able to keep up with demand, thus creating a need for retailers to shop around…. The pandemic and consumer response is fluid, and will continue to evolve.”


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China's industrial quality watchdog Friday ordered the recall of more than 47,000 Chevrolet cars due to a faulty brake fluid reservoir.
The recall concerns Chevrolet Aveo sedans made this year, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a notice on its website.
The agency said the alarm system built into the brake fluid reservoir may fail to give the driver a timely warning that fluid levels are low.
General Motors (IW 500/5) said it saw record sales in China in April, despite a broader slowdown in the world's biggest car market.
GM sold 227,217 vehicles in April, up 11.7% from the same month last year, it said in a statement. GM also registered a sales record for the month of March.
For the first four months of the year, GM's China sales rose 9.4% year-on-year to 972,369 units.
China is the world's largest auto market after overtaking the United States in 2009.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012


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Myth #3: The Net Is Too Filled With Hackers To Control
It was a classic act of hubris. The Secure Digital Music Initiative, a consortium of nearly 200 technology firms and record labels, thought the software it had developed to block illegal copying of music was so good that last September it issued an “open letter to the digital community” daring hackers to try their best to break it. The result was a fiasco. Within three weeks, at least four teams broke the code, and hacks were soon distributed widely across the Internet. In the folklore of the Net, the initiative’s challenge became one more example of a general truth: any method of controlling digital information will fail, because someone will always find a way around it-and spread the hack around the Internet.
“There are no technical fixes,” says Bruce Schneier, cofounder of Counterpane Internet Security. “People have tried to lock up digital information for as long as computer networks have existed, and they have never succeeded. Sooner or later, somebody has always figured out how to pick the locks.”
But software is not the only means of controlling digital information: it’s also possible to build such controls into hardware itself, and there are technical means available today to make hardware controls so difficult to crack that it will not be practical to even try. “I can write a program that lets you break the copy protection on a music file,” says Dan Farmer, an independent computer security consultant in San Francisco. “But I can’t write a program that solders new connections onto a chip for you.”
In other words, those who claim that the Net cannot be controlled because the world’s hackers will inevitably break any protection scheme are not taking into account that the Internet runs on hardware-and that this hardware is, in large part, the product of marketing decisions, not technological givens. Take, for example, Content Protection for Recordable Media, a proposal issued late last year by IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Matsushita Electric (see “The End of Free Music?” TR April 2001). The four companies developed a way to extend an identification system already used in DVDs and DVD players to memory chips, portable storage devices and, conceivably, computer hard drives. Under this identification scheme, people who downloaded music, videos, or other copyrighted material would be able to play it only on devices with the proper identification codes.
In addition to restricting unauthorized copies, it was widely reported that the technology also had the potential to interfere with other, less controversial practices, such as backing up files from one hard drive onto another. In part because of controversy surrounding the technology, the companies withdrew the plan from consideration as an industrywide standard in February. But the point is clear: the technology has been tabled because its promoters believed it wasn’t profitable, not because it would not work. This and other hardware schemes have the potential to radically limit what people can do with networking technology.
Some hardware protection methods already exist. Stephen King released his e-book Riding the Bullet in March 2000, in what were effectively two different versions: a file that could be read only on specialized electronic devices-electronic books-and a file that could be read on computer monitors. Even though the text was available for free at Amazon.com, some people went to the trouble of breaking the encryption on the computer file anyway; distributed from Switzerland, it was available on the Internet within three days. But the electronic-book version was never cracked, because e-books, unlike computers, cannot do two things at once. “On a computer, you can always run one program to circumvent another,” says Martin Eberhard, former head of NuvoMedia, the developer of the Rocket eBook. “If a book is on a computer screen, it exists in video memory somewhere, and someone will always be able to figure out how to get at it.”
Eberhard’s e-books, by contrast, were deliberately designed to make multitasking impossible. True, future e-books could, like computers, perform two tasks simultaneously, but publishers could refuse to license electronic books to their manufacturers, in much the same way that film studios refuse to allow their content to be used on DVD machines that don’t follow certain rules. And even computers themselves, in Eberhard’s view, could be “rearchitected,” with added hardware that performs specific, controlling tasks. “If people have to rip up their motherboards to send around free music,” he says, “there will be a lot less free music on the Net.It would be an ugly solution, but it would work.”
Of course, consumers will avoid products that are inconvenient. A leading example is digital audio tape recorders, which by law are burdened with so many copy protection features that consumers generally have rejected them. But to assume that companies involved with digital media cannot come up with an acceptable and effective means of control is to commit, in reverse, the same act of hubris that the Secure Music Digital Initiative did, when it assumed that clever people couldn’t break its software. And if the hardware industry resists making copy-protected devices, says Justin Hughes, an Internet-law specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles, an appeal to Congress may be “just a matter of time.” If the Internet proves difficult to control, he says, “you will see legislation mandating that hardware adhere to certain standard rules, just like we insist that cars have certain antipollution methods.”
“To say that a particular technology guarantees a kind of anarchic utopia is just technological determinism,” he says. “This argument should be ignored, because the real question is not whether the Net will be tamed, but why and how we tame it.”
We are in the beginning stages of the transfer of most of society’s functions-working, socializing, shopping, acting politically-from what Internet denizens jokingly call “meatspace” into the virtual domain. In the real world, these functions are wrapped in a thicket of regulations and cultural norms that are, for the most part, accepted. Some free-speech absolutists dislike libel laws, but it is generally believed that the chilling effect on discourse they exert is balanced by their ability to punish gratuitous false attacks on private individuals. Regulations on the Net need not be any more obnoxious. “If the whole neighborhood’s online, it’s okay to have a cop on the beat,” says Schneier.
The risk, of course, is overreaching-of using law and technology to make the Internet a locus of near absolute control, rather than near absolute freedom. Paradoxically, the myth of unfettered online liberty may help bring this undesirable prospect closer to reality. “Governments are going to set down rules,” says Hughes, “and if you spend all your time fighting the existence of rules you won’t have much chance to make sure the rules are good ones.”
In other words, hackers may be their own worst enemies. By claiming that the Net is inherently uncontrollable, they are absenting themselves from the inevitable process of creating the system that will control it. Having given up any attempt to set the rules, they are unavoidably allowing the rules to be set for them, largely by business. Corporations are by no means intrinsically malign, but it is folly to think that their interests will always dovetail with those of the public. The best way to counterbalance Big Money’s inevitable, even understandable, efforts to shape the Net into an environment of its liking is through the untidy, squabbling process of democratic governance-the exact process rejected by those who place their faith in the endless ability of anonymous hackers to circumvent any controls. An important step toward creating the kind of online future we want is to abandon the persistent myth that information wants to be free.


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hi INDiA Copyright 2022
New Delhi, December 3
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called on the burgeoning fintech sector to ensure that they retain the trust reposed by people in taking to digital payments in a large manner.
“Achieving this huge scale means that people from all walks of life have shown immense trust by accepting digital payments and technologies. Trust is a responsibility that you have, and you need to ensure that the interests of the people are secured,” he said while inaugurating the InFinity Forum organised by the International Financial Services Centres Authority and Bloomberg. — TNS


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WhatsApp is a top FREE messaging app for Android,iPhone and other smartphones. WhatsApp told that the market right now comprises of 99% Android, iOS and Windows Phone 8 and above devices. They also said that the decision was “not an easy one to make” and that the market has evolved. WhatsApp revealed that they will be withdrawing support for BlackBerry devices (BB10 included),While other mobile os platforms will suffer, there is some respite for BB10 users as their devices are capable of running Android apps within the OS. They will, of course, lose out on Hub integration, but if they really want WhatsApp, that might be the only way.
The WhatsApp messaging app has evolved since its inception as it now offers voice calls, and video calls are reportedly being added too. Whatsapp will still be available on Blackberry’s Android device Priv and the upcoming android device as well.
These mobile devices have been an important part of our part, they don’t give the kind of few extra useful features we need to expand our app’s features in the future.”, say WhatsApp. Finally, they add that, “This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp. If you use one of these affected mobile devices, we recommend upgrading to a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone before the end of 2016 to continue using WhatsApp.”
The company said this is a “tough decision” but the “right one” in order to give people better ways to keep in touch. In February 2014, WhatsApp was acquired by social networking giant Facebook, its biggest buyout till date, for a whopping USD 19 billion.
Just in the same week when WhatsApp celebrated its seventh anniversary with its one billion active users, the Facebook-owned company came with news that may upset numerous same users.
The WhatsApp behind the hugely popular messaging app cites a “greater emphasis on security” for the scrapping, which comes in the week of the WhatsApp’s seventh birthday.The report comes in as the social messaging giant posted about it officially in a blog post. Whatsapp is one of the most used social messaging application and off.


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Mobile v. Desktop on Engagement
Attention and engagement with news websites is highest with mobile apps, according to a new study by Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on media, politics and public policy. That could be a canary in a coal mine, a data point to marshal your resources around. Add that global tablet sales have surpassed computer sales while fewer people are paying for broadband subscriptions and shifting to wireless.
Still – we all need context, not just a trend.


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"CONNECTED CARS" content on TweakTown - Page 1
We found 16 items for the tag: CONNECTED CARS
Hackers show vehicle infotainment systems are vulnerable to attack
Automakers need to be careful in regards to infotainment, as security issues are discovered.
Lawmakers want automakers to answer questions about connected security
US lawmakers appreciate connected vehicle technology, but have questions regarding security, safety.
Buying a new car? Enjoy Apple CarPlay or Google Android Auto
New car owners can expect Google Android Auto or Apple CarPlay in their vehicles.
Data traffic issues possible with rising number of connected cars
There is growing concern that connected cars could cause mayhem.
AT&T working on providing exclusive content for connected cars
AT&T wants to create a stranglehold on connected cars by releasing exclusive content.
Volvo looks forward to public feedback after Drive Me launch in 2017
Volvo's Drive Me could hit public roads in 2017, and the automaker is rightfully excited.
Drivers concerned about connected vehicle safety behind the wheel
Automakers are packing even more features into vehicles, including connected technology, and that has some drivers worried about safety.
Report finds automakers failing to secure connected cars
Automakers aren't doing a strong enough job to secure connected cars, as more of them hit the road.
Verizon unveils its Verizon Vehicle, connecting older cars
Verizon introduces its telematics service, Verizon Vehicle, available to almost 9,000 car models.
Broadcom spills the beans on automotive Near Field Communication chip
Broadcom strengthens connected vehicle portfolio, announces automotive Near Field Communication chip.
Google wants to take its Android platform into connected cars in 2015
Google hopes to see its Android platform begin taking over connected cars in 2015, as auto buyers look for enhanced connectivity.
Automakers stepping up efforts to keep cybercriminals away
As newer cars increase the amount of connected technology they use, there is a greater effort to try to keep cybercriminals away.
Group wants to help automakers keep connected vehicles safer
"I am the Calvary" wants to work with automakers to keep connected vehicles safe and secure from attack.
Security specialists developing protection for connected vehicles
Hackers hope to show off an affordable technology to help keep vehicles on the road better defended from cyberattacks.
Apple announces CarPlay, 18 car companies committed to use this iOS
Apple wishes to take a bite of connected cars via major car manufacturers and its iOS 7 iphone devices.
Volvo bringing car owners into connected world, via Wi-Fi hotspot
Volvo wants car owners to be able to use mobile Wi-Fi to stay updated with radio, traffic, news, and other connected features.


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The Smoking Gun is still going strong, making a living on publishing celebrity mugshots and a lot of other things. Mark Glaser over at MediaShift have a great interview with William Bastone, founder of The Smoking Gun, and he’s got a lot of things to say about online publishing.
There are a lot of people commenting on stuff and riffing on things and blogging, but actually reporters breaking stories on the Net — there are a lot fewer than I would expect…Even though we’re no longer running the site out of my living room and sold it, we’re still a three-person outfit. We’re the smallest division within the Time Warner monstrosity. We’re still three guys in a room who generate every story we do…We still maintain a shadow of our indie cred.
An interesting read for sure, so check it out this weekend.
Thord Daniel Hedengren is a designer, writer, and blogger, and also the former editor of The Blog Herald. He used to be a hotshot in the gaming industry in Sweden, but sold everything and went International. Most recently he wrote a book called Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog, and does loads of kickass design.


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GIGABYTE has recently launched a new variant of the mid-range RTX 3060 GPU, known as the AORUS GeForce RTX 3060 ELITE. One of the key highlights of the GPU is that it has got the Resizable BAR support that NVIDIA announced for the RTX 3060 and the rest of the RTX 30-series GPUs.
Based on PCIe Gen 4, the new GPU has wider compatibility of Resizable BAR with more components or boards. So the list includes Z490, H470 and B460 chipset motherboards, including the new & upcoming Intel 11th Gen motherboards.
Whereas, also there’s support for AMD motherboards, including both 400- and 500-series motherboards. Obviously, the AORUS GeForce RTX 3060 ELITE will be compatible with Ryzen 3000 and 5000 series processors to enable this feature a get better performance at no extra cost.
The GPU has unique threefold-blade fans, and the middle fan can spin in reverse to manage the airflow. It features 3584 CUDA cores and is overclocked to 1,867 MHz, whereas the reference card is 1,777 MHz. It comes with 360 GB/s bandwidth and 192 bit memory bus.
As of now there’s no information on the pricing and availability of the GPU.


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Who is looking for a new job? Nine ways Aussies plan to tackle financial stress in 2023
Aussies have entered 2023 with financial stress and uncertainty. Paying off a home has become more costly with the RBA raising interest rates nine times since May 2022 bringing the cash rate to 3.35% from 0.10%.
And the central bank hasn’t ruled out more interest rate hikes to tackle inflation which hit a 32-year high of 7.8% over the year to December 2022, seriously impacting household budgets.
Money Transfer Comparison founder Alon Rajic said households and small businesses will make tougher decisions in 2023 to cope with the new financial and economic environment.
Here are Rajic’s nine steps he forecasts Aussie households and small businesses will take to counter financial stress in 2023.
He said the start of 2022 saw the highest annual job mobility rate in the last decade, with more than 1 million Aussies changing employment and 2.1 million either choosing to leave or losing their jobs.
The 3.1% rise in annual wage growth in Australia was outpaced by the increase in inflation by late 2022.
“It should come as no surprise that more than 12% of Australians are opting for jobs that allow more flexible work arrangements or a higher pay,” Rajic said.
He expects this figure to grow in the next 12 months as Aussies take steps to address financial stress.
Rajic said cryptocurrency crashes, share-market volatility, declining property prices, rising interest rates and high inflation have disrupted traditional ideas of safe-haven investments.
He said in this year of uncertainty, more people will increase their savings – and will look for safe, high-return methods to help them.
Research shows 47% of Aussies believe high-interest savings accounts and superannuation will be the best places to put their money and get a return on investment in the coming year.
These two options outranked investment property, shares and crypto.
Just 7% of survey respondents would put their money into precious metals, 18% into investment property, 11% into shares and 3% into cryptocurrency.
Even before the RBA began raising rates, banks were increasing fixed rate loans in anticipation. As a result, Rajic said loan rates are now sitting 4-5% higher than the RBA cash rate.
“More rate rises this year is likely to drive Aussies to seek out smaller non-bank fintech services that offer better deals, including lower exchange rates and fees, than traditional banks,” he said.
With interest rates set to rise again during the first quarter of the year Rajic said roughly 2 million Australians are intending to refinance their current mortgage.
“More homeowners will look for a better deal on their mortgages, as two-thirds of mortgagees will come off fixed rate loans by the end of the year and feel the full impact of the last few months of rate increases,” he said.
“Home owners who refinance will not only seek a better interest rate, they are likely to develop a loan repayment strategy with more flexible and multiple fixed rate and variable loans to reduce their interest further and shorten their loan terms.”
After Covid-19 delayed travel plans Money Transfer Comparison research has shown many Aussies are still willing to put money aside for travel no matter the direction the Australian dollar will go.
If the Australian dollar dips, two-thirds (62%) of Aussies would still travel overseas, two-thirds (63%) would still purchase products overseas, almost three-quarters (71%) would not avoid investing overseas, while 79% would not avoid gifting or donating money overseas.
More Aussies will look to peer-to-peer services to generate a second and passive income stream by making valued and rarely-used assets available on rental platforms.
For instance, Swimply, dubbed the Airbnb for backyard pools, allows Aussies to rent their pool by the hour.
Similar services have also been created for parking and storage spaces, motor vehicles and various kinds of chattel such as tools and machinery.
Many small businesses have also been hit hard by inflated costs including supplier goods, wages and petrol.
In fact, 72% of small businesses – who already survived through tough economic periods during the pandemic – have admitted they have been hit by rising expenses.
A report on the top inflated expenses that businesses are challenged with found nearly one-third (31%) are having difficulty paying suppliers and petrol, and 26% are struggling to pay wages.
As a result, many businesses are likely to take out business loans to weather a tough year ahead.
As the risk of recession and higher interest rates climbs, new research reveals that business directors could borrow from their businesses or personal finances to survive, despite the potential risks to their financial security.
In a potentially tough financial period, more than half (56%) of Aussie SME owners either have, or would, borrow funds from their businesses to solve personal financial issues, while 3 in 4 (72%) would support their businesses using their personal savings or assets.
Rajic said borrowers will often take out a new personal loan to indemnify their existing debts, resulting in a single loan, and set of repayments, over a set period.
“By refinancing existing debts into a single loan, borrowers are afforded greater control over their finances,” he said.
Rajic said debt consolidation simplifies the repayment process and is the most popular reason for taking out a personal loan in Australia.
“Amid rising interest rates, borrowers should compare the interest rate for the personal loan against your existing ones to ensure that refinancing will be worth your while,” he said.


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Dr. Chao and Angela Chao are featured in a new book about shipping pioneers – Lori Ann LaRocco’s newest book, Dynasties of the Sea: The Untold Stories of the Postwar Shipping Pioneers. The book hit the shelves last month. Among the leaders of the maritime industry is the story of father-daughter team, Dr. James S.C. Chao and his daughter Angela Chao of Foremost Group.
This is a book for all audiences, not just those interested in the maritime industry. The pages are filled with in-depth and inspiring personal stories of 15 men and women who invested their lives to build a credible international shipping industry.
LaRocco’s book should certainly develop a deep appreciation for the contributions made by these maritime pioneers. Furthermore, it should serve as an inspiration to all entrepreneurs. As she says, “…Even in some of the world’s darkest moments, these leaders had the courage to start companies.”
Dynasties of the Sea reveals the vast network of contributions made by Foremost Group and others, to empowering an economic revival that has touched the lives of billions around the world.


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Retailers of electrical items open to trade from 18th May.
Our office remains fully operational…
ALL ERP FREE Recycling Collection Events postponed until further notice
Batteries for Barretstown aims to educate Ireland on the importance of battery…
A special Christmas message
Morton Stadium’s annual fun run is now open for entry!
Children’s book author, Benji Bennett reads Christmas story of hope
ERP Sustainable Environment Award 2019 – Winners Announced
Castletroy College took home the Battery Champion & Educational Awareness Awards!
Recycle your batteries this Halloween and support Batteries for Barretstown!
Estonian startup Gelatex Technologies wins at Green Alley 2019 with its gelatine-based…
Read our latest white paper …
Santa has a Christmas recycling message for you all! Watch our Merry…
Clonliffe Harriers` annual ‘ERP Christmas Cracker 5k’ is now open for entry…
The webinar will explain producer responsibility regulations for e-commerce companies in China
ERP Sustainable Environment Award 2018 – Winners Announced
Celebrating 10-year anniversary of the EU Batteries Directive in Ireland
The webinar will address key questions on this important issue
ERP to participate in this prestigious annual event
Landbell Group’s latest newsletter is out
ERP collects and treats 3 million tonnes of e-waste
ERP’s review includes status of transposition in each Member State
The Pakman Awards 2017


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Hackers are addicted to thefts of money from the owners of Android smartphones: with the II quarter of 2015 till I quarter of 2016, inclusive, the amount of plunders reached 348,6 million rubles – is 471% more than in the same period of the previous year, the report says Group-IB company for high-tech crime (computer crimes investigation). Such theft specializiruetsya 11 criminal groups, which on average manage about 350 thefts per day. Each of them brings about 4000 rubles, according to Group-IB.
malware Infection become noticeable, and the theft avtomatiziruete, says Group-IB. Other causes increased damage – the popularity of Internet banking on Android smartphones and low cost of development of viruses under this operating system, explains the Deputy head of the laboratory of computer forensics company Sergey Nikitin.
Cybercriminals it is easy to see how much money the owner of the smartphone: they can query the Bank card balance and the status of the mobile account, says Nikitin. Then the hacker has current credit card number and transfers the available funds. According to Nikitin, the user has no clue about the balance, because the virus knows how to hide sms. And the attacker with the compromised device can gain access to accounts on social networks and address books, which facilitates the search for new victims, according to Deputy Director of Positive Technologies Alexey Kachalin.
Russia consistently leads in the number of mobile devices, Bank attacked by viruses agrees anti-virus expert “Kaspersky Lab” Victor Chebyshev.
Similar virus and theft for Apple iOS, Group-IB discovered. The reason is not so much in the greater vulnerability of Android, but in its popularity – Nikitina, devices running Android account for over 80% of the market. But also the theft provokes carelessness of the users, the expert continues: in all cases, they allowed the smartphone to install software from unverified sources. Apple iOS this possibility simply deprived, says Nikitin. In the AppStore (Apple app store) was also infected program, objected to the Chebyshev. In 2015, the hacked free developer kit AppleXcode, which was subsequently used to create WeChat messenger, it gives an example.
to protect yourself from hackers, users of Android devices need to use the latest version of the operating system; all versions of Android below 4.4 can be considered unsafe, says Nikitin. In addition, you cannot install apps from unverified sources, he warns.


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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Aircraft cabin products maker B/E Aerospace Inc. beav said it swung to a fourth-quarter profit of $62.1 million, or 96 cents a share, benefiting from a $52 million tax benefit. Excluding the tax benefit and one-item items, it would've earned $11.9 million, or 18 cents a share, while sales rose 18% to $223 million. Looking ahead, 2006 earnings should be $1.12 a share on a 20% rise in revenue to about $1 billion. 2007 revenue should grow by at least 10% and operating earnings should rise around 35%.
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Super Mario 3D All-Stars is getting inverted controls after all, Nintendo of America said. A new, free patch launching on November 16 will implement inverted camera controls for all three games and inverted FLUDD controls for Super Mario Sunshine.
The inverted control scheme will work for third-person and first-person modes, with options of “normal” and “inverted” for the horizontal and vertical cameras separately.
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) October 27, 2020
Inverted controls were high on many people’s wishlists when Mario 3D All-Stars first launched on September 18, not least because the original releases of each game had inverted controls.
Super Mario 3D All-Stars is available on Nintendo Switch until March 31, 2020. If you’re still on the fence about it, check out why we said even the old-fashioned designs “don’t diminish their original magic.”


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When mechanics gives life to design and an outstanding product is developed and exported worldwide. In Milan on last 4th April, 2017 the first date of “ii Fuorisalone di Alfatherm” was held. Alfatherm is the world leading Italian company for the thermoplastics rigid, semi-rigid and laminated films processing.
Rodolfo Comerio srl, the historical supplier of the calendering lines used by Alfatherm to manufacture its superior products, did not miss this important event.
It is indeed thanks to the constant and excellent synergy between the two companies that both could reach very high quality and production levels: Rodolfo Comerio concerning the production of calendering lines, laminating and embossing lines of thermoplastics for coating and ennobling furniture and LVT floorings; Alfatherm concerning the production of thermoplastics films, now mainly focused on interior design and street furniture.
Alfatherm by pushing its innovation became one of the most relevant companies in the industry of surfaces decoration; a landmark for the main furniture panel manufacturers thanks to its hyper matte surfaces with a very high resistance to scraps and spots with an exclusive embossing in register allowing to produce decorative surfaces which can be hardly told from wood.
In its production plants, Alfatherm owns and uses as many as 11 calendering lines branded Rodolfo Comerio; the two Italian companies, settled in Varese area, have always been collaborating successfully for the development and production of evermore innovative products.
This year “Fuorisalone” has been the occasion for Alfatherm to introduce its brand-new materials produced thanks to Rodolfo Comerio’s lines, among these products the “Totem” project i.e. an information point able to enhance the street furniture of the new Milano DC (Milan Cadorna District) designed by Architect Fabrizio Bianchetti and made with the new Alfatherm AECORE laminates, manufactured by means of the calendering, laminating and embossing in register (EIR) lines by Rodolfo Comerio.
Rodolfo Comerio, established in 1878, for 140 years has been recognized as the leading company in this industry, thanks to a long history of successes and evolution.
This mechanical company in the recent years has begun its expansion starting from its staff, who has been increased of 30%, and its partners, by retaining several local artisan businesses. Actually,
office refurbishment works are being carried out, the company aiming to have high-technological and functional spaces to welcome at the very best its customers and suppliers as well as to ensure the comfort of its staff.
Very soon, even the construction works of a new building next to the existing one shall begin, thus allowing the current production to double.
In this important event of “Alfatherm’s Fuorisalone” Rodolfo Comerio was represented by CEO Mr Carlo Comerio and Sales and Marketing Manager Mr Nicola Fedele, who were welcomed by Alfatherm CEO Mr Marino Uberti and Technical Manager Mr Giuseppe Cerizza.
Rodolfo Comerio CEO Mr Carlo Comerio appreciated Alfatherm products stating that: “the discussions with Alfatherm experts during the years are always stimulating and inspiring for the development of our lines”.
He is glad to contribute with its machineries to the processing of such a high-quality and prestigious product manufactured by Alfatherm.


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Projections by Bloomberg, OPEC, and Exxon show wildly different figures for how much sales of electric vehicles will rise in the future. Bloomberg sees around 548 million electric cars driving around the world in 2040, while Exxon, maybe not surprisingly, is at the other end of the scale with a projection around 162 million in 2040.
What is certain, however, is the growing interest in greener solutions and increased societal demands on companies – particularly in the transport industry – to do something about their environmental footprint. And with billions of dollars invested in electric research and development by the automotive industry, the question isn’t ‘if’ battery electric vehicles will begin dominating the streets – but ‘when.’
That being said, the market is still immature, with car manufacturers, governments and consumers still trying to work out how electrification fits their agenda. Here are just a few of the uncertainties.
1: BATTERY STRATEGY
Car manufacturers are still figuring out their strategy around batteries. Will they build or buy? How will they build their supply chains around batteries? And what are they going to do with the batteries once they reach end-of-life and need recycling?
For a car manufacturer to become a battery-producer would consume large amounts of capital that can be applied to RD in other areas of technical innovation such as autonomous and mobility. The investment would also pose a risk due to the market still being so immature. The risk extends to the availability and price of the, in many cases, hazardous and rare earth elements needed to build the batteries. From a supply chain standpoint, shipping, storing and moving batteries are processes that manufacturers are not doing today on a large scale and would have to be developed.
Tesla has taken the risk and is currently building its second giga factory to produce the batteries they need. Like Henry Ford, who owned all the links in the supply chain right down to the lumber yards supplying the wood for steering wheels, Tesla is very much vertically integrated, building their own batteries and manufacturing most of the components that are in their vehicles, rather than sourcing them from sub-contractors.
Another battery challenge is what to do with them when they are no longer usable. The batteries in battery-powered electric vehicles can’t simply be thrown onto a landfill – they need an end-of-life plan. This plan is still nascent with many of the traditional manufacturers due to the relatively small percentage of the market.
2: GOVERNMENT POLICIES
What can make or break the development of the battery electric vehicle market is how governments choose to regulate it.
The optimistic projections for the market are reliant upon governments deciding to incentivise buying battery electric vehicles instead of traditional vehicles. Tax incentives that make it realistic for the average consumer to buy an electric car are essential for the market to see the critical mass that leads to maturity. We have seen sales skyrocket when new tax incentives for battery electric vehicles have been implemented, and conversely, we have seen sales drop dramatically when incentives have been taken away.
Infrastructure will be another important driver for consumers’ willingness to invest their money in battery electric. Today, if you are going to drive a couple of hundred kilometres in a battery electric vehicle you will need to plan ahead in order not to run out of power along the way. Even in developed infrastructures, battery charging stations are fairly few and far between. That makes it a hassle for consumers – and a purchase demotivator. If governments decide to invest in better infrastructure for battery charging, it could tip the scale in terms of making consumers switch.
3: COMPETING TECHNOLOGIES
What if another technology emerges that make battery-powered electric vehicles old news?
One example of such technology is the breakthrough in hydro-electric vehicles. Hydrogen is a fuel that you have in a tank, and that you fill up like you fill up the tank in an internal combustion engine car today. That means existing infrastructure of gas stations could be repurposed for hydrogen cars. Even the time it takes to fill a hydrogen car and a traditional car are similar, so it would be an easy switch for consumers. The problem with hydrogen, still, is that converting water into hydrogen is a very expensive process. In addition, hydrogen is hazardous, and would people be OK with essentially driving a hydrogen bomb?
Autonomous vehicles are attracting huge investments, research, and attention today, and it is safe to assume that they will be here within the next five to ten years in some way. Among the biggest challenges are the moral decisions that are essentially coded into the vehicles. The code needs to determine what decision the car will make when the choice is continuing forward and hitting a pedestrian or swerving into a bus to the right. How do we prevent bias in the decision-making of the car? But there is no question that when the majority of cars on the streets are electric and communicating with each other without human interference, traffic will be a lot safer.
A plus for battery electric vehicles is that they go hand in hand with the development of autonomous vehicles. The architecture of electric vehicles will be a lot easier to retrofit into autonomous vehicles compared to retrofitting traditional cars. But just how this future is powered up, is yet to be seen.
Insight provided by Greg Slawson - VP Global Vertical Lead, Automotive, DSV Panalpina in DSV Forward Logistics 2019 report.


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The 13th annual WardsAuto e-Dealer 100 indicates dealers are active participants in the growing digital marketplace where they engage customers, manage reputations and move the metal.
This year’s list, the industry’s first, shows Internet-driven sales of 148,657 new vehicles and 107,241 used for a total of 255,898in 2012. While that is a fraction of the 14.4 million U.S. light-vehicle sales last year, it’s a big increase from a total of 81,705 reported Internet-related vehicle sales in 2002, the second year of the WardsAuto e-Dealer 100.
For the ranking, an Internet-assisted sale is defined as one that stems from an online lead or handled by a dedicated Internet staff.
In reality, the vast majority of consumers use the Internet throughout their car shopping before they visit a dealership. Even at the dealership, some people use their mobile devices to comparison shop and such.
“Most dealers that have been in business for the last five or 10 years have really seen a significant shift in the way their consumers approach the car-buying process,” says Alec Gutierrez, senior market analyst at Kelley Blue Book in Irvine, CA.
“Pandora’s Box was opened long ago, and we’re just going to continue down that path until the transaction is going to become more centered online,” he says. “It’s not going away, especially since the millenials will become more predominant in terms of their share of the auto-buying public.”
“The market has changed in terms of how people consume media,” says Nicole Gignac, national sales director at L2T Media in Chicago. “Twenty-six percent of an average adult’s (age 18-49) time is spent with the Internet. However, the Internet only received about 16% of the average franchise dealer’s ad spend in 2012.”
Gignac says 80% of car buyers begin their search online and now visit an average of only 1.5 dealerships in the process, compared with 4.5 showrooms in past years. “The consumer is finding out everything they need to know about the vehicle online before they even go into a dealership,” she says.
Third-party sources such as KBB.com, Cars.com, Edmunds.com and AutoTrader.com let customers shop products, features and price, long before they set foot in a showroom. Consumers are using their social networks to inform their decisions. They don’t necessarily have to rely on the integrity and trustworthiness of a business.
Individual dealership websites have become much more interactive than in the early days, when they were little more than static digital sales brochures.
“The consideration process begins online and it’s enabled by people using their social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to help make better, faster and more satisfying decisions,” says Bill Parkes, executive vice president and chief digital officer at NFusion, a digital-centric marketing agency in Austin, TX.
“They look to their friends and peers to decide what to buy and from whom,” he says of online car shoppers. “If you can create a very positive experience for your customers, they can be advocates on your behalf.”
For Fitzgerald Auto Malls, which operates 17 franchises in Florida, Maryland and Pennsylvania, it’s all about being ISO 9001 certified. That is a measurable standard of excellence usually applicable in the auto industry to auto makers and suppliers. But Fitzgerald Auto Malls founder Jack Fitzgerald decided to seek the certification for his business group.
“It has allowed us to develop processes and a process-based management,” says Bill McClure, Fitzgerald’s director-digital sales and marketing. “It’s about continual improvement and being flexible and meeting the needs of the customer. For us, it’s a total customer focus.”
Fitzgerald operations appear four times on the WardsAuto e-Dealer 100, at No.8, No.25, No.30, No.43 and No.98.
Fitzgerald’s process directs every Internet lead to the store’s Internet distribution department in Gaithersburg, MD. Five full-time employees use tools developed by the company’s in-house information technology staff to forward the queries to a manager at the appropriate store, who then hands the leads off to product specialists.
“If a lead was assigned to our Chrysler-Jeep store in Clearwater, FL, and after 15 minutes it hasn’t been (acknowledged), a red flag comes up and we immediately call the manager and say you have to get on this ASAP,” McClure says. “If a customer walks in the front door, you wouldn’t ignore him. Guess what? The front door today is digital.”
He spends 40% of the Fitzgerald advertising budget on digital tools, including manufacturer websites and third-party lead generators. He says the Internet regularly generates 50% to 80% of new opportunities, but he keeps his financials close to the vest.
“Our cost per sale is part of our secret sauce,” McClure says. “Because we are ISO-certified and a posted-price dealer, we have to be lean and very efficient. If the average dealer is spending $400 per unit to advertise and market their inventory, I can guarantee that we are much less.”
Fitzgerald’s social media strategy relies heavily on Facebook. “We offer customers the opportunity to ‘like’ us on our Facebook page, and we tell them this is how you can communicate with us (with compliments or complaints),” McClure says.
Fitzgerald has 1,400 Facebook fans, but when they are “tagged” in photos – with their permission – their reach extends to 250,000 people. “There’s not a week that goes by that I don’t get an email from a sales manager who says a customer was referred by their friend who is our Facebook fan,” McClure says.
Planet Honda in Union, NJ, is No.15 on the WardsAuto e-Dealer 100 with 3,496 new and used units (out of 6,390 total dealership vehicle sales) and more than $6.5 million in gross sales attributable to the Internet.
“We made a very large investment in the last year in pay-per-click and display advertising,” says Bill Feinstein, Planet Honda’s president and dealer manager. “About 45%, or over $1 million, of our annual ad budget is Internet-based. I expect that number will go to 60% to 65% over the next 12 months.”
His store was one of the first local companies to advertise on Pandora Internet radio. “When they came to us it was an entirely new proposition; no one had done it before,” Feinstein says. “But we looked at their listenership and realized for us to get the same reach in terrestrial radio, we would have to buy the top three stations in New York at five or six times the cost.”
The bulk of Planet Honda’s leads are generated through its own website, search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising on Google, Bing and Yahoo. The dealership benchmarks Internet cost-per-sale at under $300 per unit, with a “comfort zone” closer to $250.
“We work closely with our third-party vendors to make sure they stay within those ranges,” Feinstein says. “If they don’t deliver quality leads or closing percentages, then we have pretty interesting conversations with them.”
It’s not enough just to look at cost per sale, he says. When evaluating a third-party lead, he examines cost per lead and especially, net gross profit per sale.
“When I take out the fee, what’s left over for me?” Feinstein says. “You could spend only $200 per car with a lead provider, and that seems like a pretty good deal. But if your average gross profit on the vendor is $300, that’s not a particularly profitable arrangement.”
Feinstein tracks average gross profit per vendor as well, because all vendors are not created equal. Also affecting gross profits are vendors’ “rules of engagement” that include how many dealers are in the program, how close the retailers are to each other and how many leads are sent out to dealers.
“We’re very open with our vendors in terms of the numbers they need to hit to remain our partner,” Feinstein says.
While third-party vendors represent the heavy artillery that can deliver new sales leads, social-media sites like Twitter can help dealers engage with customers and manage their reputation. The Pew Research Center reported last year that 15% of online adults use Twitter to communicate.
“Every day I search Twitter to see what people are saying about Planet Honda,” Feinstein says. “Recently someone tweeted something that they were upset about, and it turns out that they had a right to be upset.”
A salesperson had failed to deliver on a promise, but within an hour Feinstein identified the customer to make things right. “An hour and twenty minutes later, the customer is tweeting how happy they are,” he says. “To me, that’s the level of dedication that you need to have if you want to be successful. It’s real-time marketing.”
A key element of Feinstein’s strategy is constant learning. “If you’re not reading, you’re not leading,” he says. “I read business books and magazines every week to see what’s working or not working for other people.”
By keeping up with the latest news and trends, a dealer could learn, for example, that if his website runs on Flash technology it may not display on iPhones and iPads.
The Al Serra Auto Plaza in Grand Blanc, MI, spends about $40,000 a month on Web advertising, which translates to 35% of its total advertising budget.
“We spend money on search-engine marketing with the endorsed programs for the manufacturers’ sites because we get some participation from them,” says Serra Internet manager Jeff Jones.
“We don’t spend as much as other dealers might because we choose to put more money into our 16 manufacturer and dealership websites,” he says. “These do a good job of helping us dominate the page and stay in the top scroll.”
Serra, which ranks No.84 on this year’s WardsAuto e-Dealer 100, began with a 10-person dedicated Internet sales team. Today, 50 salespeople handle every type of lead. New hires at Serra must be tech-savvy and not afraid to get out of the office.
“The best people are the ones that are able to be walking from one building to the next, looking at their smartphone and reaching out to a customer,” Jones says. “These guys have become very mobile. They have to be able to go out on the lot, take a picture of a car, send it to the customer, text them. The Internet department isn’t about sitting at your desk anymore.”
Jones uses Facebook and Twitter and Wordpress blogs to publicize everything from availability of the Jeep Wrangler “Oscar Mike” Freedom Edition to Serra’s sponsorship of the YMCA of Greater Flint’s annual 5K Santa Run.
He sees buzz-building potential in the use of YouTube to follow Serra’s A-Team around the region helping customers and non-customers alike understand complicated vehicle features.
JM Lexus in Margate, FL, near Ft. Lauderdale, bills itself as the world’s largest Lexus dealer and is No.23 on this year’s list. JM sold 4,714 new cars in 2012 with 1,683, or 35.7%, attributable to the Internet. More than 46% of the store’s 2,328 pre-owned sales came from Internet leads.
Internet Director Robert Glasser diversifies his ad spend among re-marketing tools, banner ads on third-party dealer ratings and automotive marketplace websites.
“I like ads that target competing brands,” Glasser says. “On Cars.com, if someone is searching for a Mercedes and they are in our area, they’re going to see a JM Lexus banner.”
While digital return on investment is hard to nail down, Glasser says he knows he is getting the desired result when a click-through ends up on the JM Lexus website.
“It’s way different than happening to turn to your dealership’s page in a newspaper,” he says. “The publications would like to count that as eyeballs seeing your ad, but in reality there’s no evidence that there was any interest.
“This is opposed to a call-to-action where somebody actually clicked through and we can be comfortable that we’re getting some result for our money.”
Glasser says JM Lexus’s Internet presence attracts prospects from out of the state and, sometimes, the country.
“We sold an SUV to a customer in Kazakhstan,” he recalls. “He was a shepherd on the side of a hill on his laptop. He typed in the word Lexus, and the next thing you know he’s looking at one of our pre-owned vehicles. Three days later, the funds are wired into our account. Two days after that, the freight forwarder is here to pick up the car.”
While the Internet is a proven sales tool, many dealers need to persuade employees to break their old habits, say Internet experts.
“Our sales managers were traditional, looking out on the lot for the next ‘up,’” says Fitzgerald’s McClure. “Their thinking was, ‘Run out on the lot and get a hold of that customer. I don’t want him waiting any longer. We can get to those Internet leads (later).’
“We convinced leadership to let us train a few sales associates who wanted to (work with Internet leads),” he says. “Within a year, those people became the highest-performing and highest-paid sales associates. Guess what happened? Everybody wanted a piece of the pie!”
At Serra, “we had a lot of salespeople that didn’t want to raise their hand to be a part of (Internet sales) because they thought it was too much work chasing unresponsive leads and customers that want information but never come in,” Jones says. “Our challenge is to make sure that everybody in the dealership recognizes these leads as good customers.”
Internet marketing and sales are hard for many dealers because the thinking involved is different from the past,” NFusion’s Parkes says. “But the genie is out of the bottle, and he’s not going back in.”


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With the temperature rising, Uber is helping by lowering prices in Toronto, Ontario, Canada by 10%. There is no Uber promo code to activate this offer. Both current Uber riders and new customers will receive this discount.
For more information about discounted rates, read the Uber Canada promotional blog here.
Sign up here for a new Uber Canada account and receive a free $20 ride.


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Apple leaves sour taste as product showcase underwhelms customers
#AppleEvent had been trending on Twitter in anticipation of the big reveal, and continues to trend for all the wrong reasons.
“We’ve had a lot of important product announcements in this room-” not today though, Tim. #AppleEvent— Joseph Hudson-Small (@joehudsonsmall) March 21, 2016
Shares in Apple turned negative during the hour-long event, as the newer, smaller gadgets failed to impress customers.
The company introduced a new version of its smallest iPhone ‒ the iPhone SE ‒ described as “the most powerful 4 inches ever,” complete with an A9 chip and graphics processor equal to the larger iPhone 6S. Prices for the iPhone SE will begin at $399 for the 16GB model.
Typically, some penis-related jokes followed before criticism set in.
Apple - “4 inches is totally acceptable.”— Jonathan Morrison (@tldtoday) March 21, 2016
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
iPhone SE: Never have so many people been so excited about 4 inches.— Kelkulus (@kelkulus) March 21, 2016
Summary of #AppleEvent: Smaller version of thing that was a bigger version of a smaller thing.— Kent German (@KentGerman) March 21, 2016
I don't get the iPhone SE, why would you want a smaller screen & a more chunky phone after having the 6s?— Lauren Haly (@laurenhaly) March 21, 2016
Staying with the trend of diminishing the size of existing products, Apple also announced a smaller iPad Pro model, with a 9.7-inch display, retailing from $599 for the 32GB version.
That 1 hour presentation could've been a 5 min email 😒 #AppleEvent— Creative Rants (@Creative_Rants) March 21, 2016
On the upside, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced some of the prices would shrink as well: the Apple Watch will now start at $299, rather than $349.
The company also showed off its new recycling robot, called Liam, that claims to be able to take apart one iPhone 6 every 11 seconds to recover aluminum, copper, tin, tungsten, cobalt, gold and silver parts.
Meet Liam, Apple's recycling robot pic.twitter.com/W2ypRFZygn— Owen Williams ⚡ (@ow) March 21, 2016
Cook kicked off the event by addressing the company’s current legal battle with the FBI over a court order requiring them to help unlock the phone of a terrorist responsible for the San Bernardino massacre last December. Both sides are set to argue their case in a federal court in Riverside, California on Tuesday.
“We did not expect to be in this position, at odds with our own government, but we believe strongly we have a responsibility to help you protect your data and your privacy,” Cook said. “We will not shrink from this responsibility.”


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It’s clear that the main attractions for Redwood Shores, Calif.–based Oracle Corp. in its proposed US $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems are Sun’s software assets—Java and the Solaris operating system. But a bit of hardware might turn out to be a hidden gem in the deal. Some industry insiders say that the database giant has an opportunity to get ahead of competitors by pioneering the technology behind Sun’s Rock CPU, which is scheduled for release later this year.
Rock will boast 16 processor cores—more than any other server CPU on the market—and, even more important, it will also be the first chip to offer a performance-enhancing feature called transactional memory. Transactional memory, or TM, allows programs simultaneously running multiple threads (short strings of instructions) the ability to read from and write to memory registers more easily and without accidentally overwriting the data that other threads require.
For a company like Oracle seeking to boost its database software’s performance—and with the number of cores per CPU and therefore the number of simultaneously executing threads expected to grow—the importance of TM should not be overlooked, says J. Bruce Daley, founder of the software testing company Test Common, in Denver, Colo.
”The advantage of a technology like Rock is that it gives Oracle the ability to optimize its database software—at the level of machine code,” says Daley, who has been predicting Oracle’s takeover of Sun, based in Santa Clara, Calif., since 2006.
Programs written for a single processor core had the luxury of performing each instruction serially, he says, individual step by individual step. So, to take a simplistic example, if two bank customers simultaneously withdrew $100 and $200 from the same account, a serial bank-account database program would still have to process the transactions one at a time, logging a $300 total withdrawal from the account.
But a (badly done) ”parallel-threaded” program might record the proceedings as follows: Processor core A begins by reading the account balance in the register. While it’s busy subtracting $100 from that value, processor core B reads the register, subtracts $200, and writes the result back to the register. Processor A finishes its subtraction and writes its total to the same spot in the register, overwriting B’s answer as if the $200 withdrawal had never happened.
Of course, real-world database programs running on multicore chips are more sophisticated than that. One standard solution to the overwrite problem, in fact, is to lock down a section of memory to all other threads when one thread is already working on it. But such lockdowns can quickly become both complex for the programmer and a performance bottleneck for the database. ”Locking is a conservative strategy” that wastes a lot of time and processor cycles on conflicts that rarely happen, says Doug Lea, professor of computer science at the State University of New York at Oswego, who has examined Rock’s version of transactional memory.
TM balances the two extremes, allowing the programmer to give the computer high-level instructions such as ”Don’t split up simultaneous transactions on a single bank account” as opposed to low-level code involving, say, locking and unlocking individual memory registers containing bank balances or transaction amounts.
Software simulations of Rock have shown that its TM can speed up some parts of a database, such as its accessing hash tables, by up to a factor of 20 over a comparable chip without transactional memory.
”Sun’s ahead, for now,” Lea says. He notes, however, that chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices is hot on Sun’s heels, having recently released specs for a TM instruction set for any future AMD chips with TM. ”There are plenty of people with a vision that every [processor] will look like this,” Lea says.
Cory Isaacson, CEO of the high-performance database technology company CodeFutures Corp., in Louisville, Colo., says it’s practically a guarantee that hardware TM will be faster than software TM. And, Isaacson adds, TM could be a key to enabling all types of programs—not just databases—to use the increasing number of processor cores efficiently.
This could put Rock—and its new owner—in a good position, says Isaacson. ”With multicore processors, you need multithreaded code,” he says. ”This is a big problem for every chip manufacturer. If they don’t solve this problem, then the adoption of multicore processors slows down.”
As a tool for programmers, TM makes a real difference, according to John Veizades, chief technology officer of the database company GroovyChannel, in San Francisco, whose company had developed its own software-based TM and then abandoned it in favor of more traditional parallel code, which he says was more efficient.
”There’s a learning curve that a developer has to get through to write proper parallel code. One promising tool for helping a developer write parallel code is transactional memory,” he says.
Sun and Oracle declined to comment for this story.


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Pokemon GO's beta test will end next week, fueling increased speculation that the game is almost ready for launch. Niantic Labs, the developers behind Pokemon GO, told beta testers in the United States and Japan that the beta will end on June 30th, indicating to many fans that the game is almost complete. Niantic also announced the five most caught Pokemon during the beta test were Rattata, Pidgey, Gastly, Abra and Meowth.
Niantic launched the beta tests in April and May, giving a select number of fans their first chance to try the highly anticipated "augmented reality" app. In Pokemon GO, players will be able to use their smart phones to catch and battle Pokemon in the real world. Players will need to travel throughout their towns to catch Pokemon and train them at local gyms, which are tied to various landmarks throughout the city. Although there are several key differences between Pokemon GO and one of the original Pokemon games, the new app represents a bold new direction for the Pokemon franchise.
Last week at E3, Nintendo announced the Pokemon Go Plus, a companion device for Pokemon GO, would be available for purchase in late July. By announcing Pokemon Go Plus, Nintendo hinted that Pokemon Go would also be available sometime in July.
Pokemon GO will be a free to play app available on iOS and Android devices.0comments


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These days it seems the news is full of stories about autonomous driving.
The other day I came across the video below. It shows what can happen when an unprepared person is placed behind the wheel of a self-driving car. In this case, the car was a Tesla in autopilot mode and the driver was the owner’s mother.
The video highlights what can happen when standard expectations confront new modes of behaviour associated with technological innovation. In this case the disjuncture is hugely discomforting for the lady sitting in a Tesla Model S.
But Tesla is not alone in developing self-driving cars.
The most well-known, of course, is Google’s Self-Driving Car Project.
As well, Audi, BMW & Baidu, Daimler, Ford, GM, Honda, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Renault, and Toyota all have programs or plans to release autonomous-driving cars.
However it’s not just car makers that are in on the act. Even a two-minute internet search will reveal a range of non-traditional companies wanting to disrupt the existing model of driving including:
- Apple’s EV car project, Titan, which has now been reported as self-driving
- Lyft (the 2nd largest ride-sharing business in the US) which recently accepted a SD$500M investment from GM to collaborate on creating a network of autonomous vehicles accessible on-demand through the Lyft app ; and
- last year, Uber announced its own autonomous vehicle development program.
The potential impact of these developments is profound.
The car industry is about to be transformed
For a start, there’s the likely direct impact on the car industry…
A report last year by Boston Consulting Group predicted that self-driving cars may account for a quarter of global car sales by 2035.
And just three months ago McKinsey&Company came to even more transformative conclusions forecasting that, under certain conditions, nearly 100% of cars sold in 2035 will be what it terms ‘Conditionally autonomous’ (ie autonomous except that the driver may take occasional control).
Source: McKinsey&Company Disruptive trends that will transform the auto industry
But it was an analyst’s report last year by Barclay’s Bank Research titled ‘Disruptive Mobility’ that highlighted the consequential impact of these trends. The report predicted a large uptake in self-driving cars (similar to that of BCG and McKinsey) but then went on to identify the effect of this change.
By 2040, it forecast:
- vehicle ownership could decline by 50%
- car sales could decline by 40%
- the cost of transport could decline by between 50%-80%
- there will be fewer vehicles on the road producing less pollution
What? Vehicle ownership down by 50%? Car sales down by 40%? How could this happen? Wouldn’t we all just be riding around in cars of our own, freaking out like Bill’s mom in the video?
A new driving model: car-as-a-service (CaaS)
While the big driver behind autonomous driving initiatives is the potential safety benefit (eg Volvo’s ‘Intellisafe’ program ), the more far-reaching potential impact of driverless cars is that it points to the creation of a new driving model: driving-as-a-service , or more commonly, car-as-a-service (CaaS).
The Barclay’s report identifies the impact of this and predicts the emergence of four vehicle types, of which the last three are different versions of CaaS.
Source: Barclays Bank Barclays Research Insights on Disruptive Mobility
This points to a potential massive change in how we use vehicles. Instead of a large number of independent cars occupying garages, driveways and roads, each owned and operated by individuals, fewer cars will be operated and shared by groups of people.
I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit this but upon my eldest daughter turning 18, our family recently expanded from a two-car family to a three-car family. Why do we need three cars? At the moment, it’s all about convenience. I’m going here; my wife is going there; our daughter needs to be elsewhere; and that’s before we even consider the impact of the other kids and weekend sport… But a self-driving Family Autonomous Vehicle (FAV) would allow us to share a vehicle: once it was used by one family member it could be sent off to be used by another, and another, and another.
However, the extension of this model to wider groups of people is where the real potential lies for transport efficiency and convenience:
- Shared Autonomous Vehicles (SAVs) would operate like a taxi or UberX or a chauffeur service, but without the driver;
- and Pooled Shared Autonomous Vehicles (PSAVs) take the concept to the point of impacting on traditional models of public transport. At the cost of sharing a ride with others, the user could utilise a PSAV in much the same way as a bus – except that the vehicle would pick you up at your door and drop you at your destination, rather than a bus stop.
It’s not hard to see why Uber and Lyft are fascinated with the prospect of self-driving cars. Their business model has been built on disrupting existing industry practice and removing the involvement of taxi company dispatchers. Instead, users are put in direct contact with the providers of transport services via an app.
The advent of self-driving cars has the potential to remove not just the dispatcher from the scene but also the driver, further driving down costs.
As Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said two years ago:
“The reason Uber could be expensive is because you’re not just paying for the car — you’re paying for the other dude in the car. When there’s no other dude in the car, the cost of taking an Uber anywhere becomes cheaper than owning a vehicle. So the magic there is, you basically bring the cost below the cost of ownership for everybody, and then car ownership goes away.”
Already we are seeing a reduction in the number of young people getting a drivers licence . The advent of CaaS points to a future, potentially within our lifetimes, where it may no longer be important for individuals to know how to drive at all.
CaaS – its impact on car manufacturers and the world economy
The potential impact of these changes on car makers and the wider economy is daunting.
A shift to CaaS will massively disrupt existing businesses involved with every aspect of transportation, especially if SAVs and PSAVs become the common/dominant mode of vehicle access. This is because under these models, vehicle ownership, operation, fuelling and maintenance will all be aggregated and centralised.
Areas of the industry potentially open to disruption include:
- car manufacturers (obviously – a 40% reduction in sales will transform the industry)
- dealerships (it’s possible to imagine these reducing substantially in number if not disappearing)
- garages and car repair providers (if a large portion of vehicles are SAVs and PSAVs then the need for a distributed network of autonomous vehicle servicing facilities diminishes substantially as SAVs and PSAVs will be centrally maintained)
- petrol/gas distribution networks (for the same reason as garages – and even more so given the associated likely shift to electric vehicles). In fact this change is likely to directly impact every downstream element of the oil industry
The direct impact on auto manufacturers would be enormous. They would need to downsize dramatically. The Barclays report’s author, Brian Johnson has written:
“GM and Ford would need to reduce North American production by up to 68 percent and 58 percent, respectively.”
To put this in context, were GM and Ford to reduce their production by the extent envisaged by Johnson, the ensuing downturn in North American auto sales would roughly equate to the impact of the GFC.
It’s hard to imagine from our current perspective, but the advent of self-driving cars and CaaS could thus potentially lead a massive downturn in worldwide auto manufacturing, employment, investment and overall economic output.
Of course, the extent to which this occurs will be determined by the speed of the transformation to CaaS and also the extent to which negative economic impact is offset by investment, growth and employment in areas supported by the new technology.
CaaS – its direct impact on banking
Credit exposure and risk management
For banks the potential impact is challenging, not just because of the potential scope of the transformation, but also because of the anticipated timing. No-one is clear on when these pressures will start to have a significant impact, although the advent of Uber, etc and the impact this is having on the taxi industry is a portent of things to come.
In the medium term, banks must obviously consider the impact that these changes will have on the viability of their exposure to a range of business categories associated with cars and transport:
- car manufacturers and secondary suppliers
- vehicle dealerships
- car parts manufacturers and retailers
- garages/car repair facilities
- petrol/gas stations
- driving schools
- tow truck operators and smash repairs
Offsetting this, of course, will be the opportunity for investments in new businesses associated with emerging technology and businesses that leverage new driving models.
Change/loss of business lines
A more fundamental issue though, is the potential downturn in business associated with car/auto loans that can be anticipated from CaaS.
If CaaS becomes common, then it is likely that vehicle ownership and operation will be managed through centralised arrangements. Uber already leases cars to UberX drivers.
It’s therefore not hard to imagine a scenario in which:
- Pooled SAVs are owned/managed through centralised platform providers (perhaps like Uber); and
- SAVs are leased by groups of individuals from similar providers, with management and servicing handled as part of the package
In this scenario, fleet financing will be handled handled centrally, not through car loans to individuals.
Even the family-focused version of CaaS (FAVs) envisaged by the Barclays report, is not immune from this trend. FAVs are just a ‘more tightly’ utlised version of SAVs (and even these are potentially usable within a wider framework).
Brett King has written of a scenario in which a FAV:
- is booked by various family members at different times throughout the day;
- completes its morning runs and then is free until the afternoon;
- so during the middle of the day, recharges itself at a nearby charging station;
- then makes itself available through, say, Uber as ‘an available self-driving vehicle’ and completes a few trips; and
- finally presents itself for its first afternoon pick-up of a family member.
FAV’s thus, too, lend themselves to aggregated financing and management arrangements.
The potential impact of these changes on financing organisations heavily dependent on current models of independent car finance is obvious.
CaaS – its indirect impact on banking
More broadly, though, I think the potential advent of CaaS points to the well-recognised broader trend that is impacting just as much on banks and banking as cars and driving: the development of platform-based digital and ‘as-a-service’ solutions.
Digital disruption is extending to every industry vertical and the same approach is evident in each case:
- the dematerialisation/digitalisation of previously material products/services (think: digital images; videos; music; etc)
- the demonetisation of previously profitable businesses/industries (think: record stores v iTunes; book stores v Amazon; newspapers v digital media; etc)
- the democratisation of business models by linking networks of suppliers and consumers together via platforms (think: Kickstarter; Freelancer; Airbnb; Uber; etc)
Within banking these same pressures exist, leading to the emergence of new business models built on:
- digital product/service delivery
- rapid innovation through techniques like Lean UX and agile
- customer-centric business models and organisational structures
- integration of different service suppliers into the value chain
- scale delivery through Platform-as-a-Service/Software-as-a-Service strategies
- integration of P2P/social practices into banking delivery
The lessons for banks in the potential disruption brought about by self-driving cars?
- We are all in this together: every industry is being transformed by digital disruption
- New entrants can take the place of established industry participants in a surprisingly short time
- The big impact on banking is likely to be the advent of new financial services paradigms (blockchain?) that fundamentally transform the basis of the industry, as does CaaS
- The consequential negative impact of change can potentially be serious
A final thought
Last year, Elon Musk was widely quoted when he envisaged a future in which owning a car would be like owning a horse.
“[In 15 to 20 years] any cars that are being made that don’t have full autonomy will have negative value. It will be like owning a horse. You will only be owning it for sentimental reasons.”
All of this points to one potential positive impact which I’ve failed to mention so far. Just as I don’t have to (thankfully) give my kids riding lessons, perhaps it’s possible to imagine a future not too far away, in which dads will not have to teach their kids the time-honoured practices of giving way, hill starts, defensive driving and reverse parking.
(With apologies to Monty Python)


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The skyline of Lower Manhattan in New York is seen behind the shipping docks in Newark, New Jersey, December 27, 2012. REUTERS/Gary Hershorn
Mediator says deal reached to avert port strike for now
Posted : Friday, 28 December 2012 12:11PM
(Reuters) - A union representing dockworkers on the U.S. East Coast has reached a labor agreement with shippers that will avert a strike that threatened to wreak havoc on the U.S. economy.
The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), which represents 14,500 workers at 15 container ports in the eastern United States, and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) of shippers, terminal operators and port authorities, have agreed to extend their current contract by 30 days to finalize details, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service said on Friday.
(Reporting By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp


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Only a week ago, last Friday, technology Internet giant Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) gained $66.9 billion in one day - a record for Wall Street. After the company reported a sharp rise in earnings and sales that shattered Wall Street’s expectations, the stock rose 16.3%. According to FactSet, this increase raised Google’s market capitalization to $478 billion.
Acquisitions Paying Off
One of the key reason as to why Google jumped so much is the surprising performance of its 2006 acquisition: YouTube. According to a recent report, Google claimed that the popular video-sharing platform reaches more 18 to 49 year-olds in America than any U.S. cable network. Their recent efforts to reach customers by marketing products via online videos are paying off, too. In the second quarter, Google's ad revenue rose by an impressive 11 percent, to $16.02 billion.
Even More Room for Growth
According to J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM), Bernstein Research, Nomura Research, Jefferies and Evercore (NYSE: EVR), Google shares can still reach higher levels. After Friday's rally, they all raised their 12-month targets to $800. In other words, analysts are confident that the multinational technology company will go above the half-trillion-dollar mark to $547 billion, making it only the second company (along with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)) to be valued above half-trillion dollars. However, Google is still trading at a valuation distant from that of Apple's; Apple is currently valued at a whopping $740 billion.
This surge alone caused the Nasdaq composite index to rise to a record intraday high. Shares are currently priced at $663.02, and many factors are pointing to that number increasing even more.


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The deficit fell by $1.75 billion to about $6.5 billion during the July-December period
Bangladesh’s trade deficit narrowed about 21.4 per cent year-on-year to $6.5 billion in the first six months of the fiscal year thanks to the falling trend of import and export owing to the ongoing pandemic.
The deficit fell by $1.75 billion to about $6.5 billion during the July-December period, according to data from the Bangladesh Bank (BB).
“This indicates that the economic activities did not return to normal,” said Zahid Hussain, a former lead economist of the World Bank’s Dhaka office.
The falling trend of trade deficit has both negative and positive aspects.
The trade deficit narrowed due to the negative import growth, which indicates stagnated economic activities and weak domestic demand, he said.
Import growth dropped 6.8 per cent from a year earlier to $25.2 billion during the period.
Investment-related imports like capital machinery and industrial raw materials have dropped significantly owing to the pandemic, Hussain said.
“Import of intermediate goods has also dropped.”
The country’s export earnings also dropped 0.4 per cent to about $18.8 billion in the first six months of the fiscal year.
Of them, garment exports dropped about 3 per cent to $15.5 billion, according to data from the BB.
“There will not be any sustainable economic recovery from the economic slowdown for the next six months,” he added.
The country's current account balance posted a surplus of $4.3 billion in the first six months of the fiscal year owing to the sharp decline in the trade gap.
The surplus in the current account will fall when the country’s economic activities pick up, said Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh.
The record foreign exchange reserve is also a reflection of the lower trade deficit and surplus in the current account.
The country's foreign exchange reserves on December 15 crossed the $42 billion-mark for the first time amid the pandemic.
Even though some may interpret the shrinking of the trade deficit as a good indication, a deeper analysis of the country’s import-dependent nature would reveal that it was not sending out a satisfactory message to the economy at all, said AB Mirza Azizul Islam, a former caretaker government adviser.
The negative trend of import growth, especially capital machinery and industrial raw material, indicates that the entrepreneurs and industries did not go for business expansion and fresh investment, he added.
The country’s net foreign direct investments dropped about 22 per cent during the period.
The BB data also showed that the country attained $455 million in net foreign direct investment in the first six months of fiscal 2020-21 against $583 million a year earlier.


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VICTORIA — BC’s NDP government is set to announce a series of new government mandates that will be imposed on British Columbians in the coming years.
First up is a new law requiring new car buyers to buy electric vehicles when buying a new car, by the year 2040. Critics claim the chosen deadline year is roughly ten to fifteen years after almost all vehicles will be electric anyway.
Several NDP-affiliated academics secretly consulted by Newsquips suggested, off the record, that brilliant innovation among car manufacturers after decades of research and billions in investments in electric technology made entirely on their own volition to beat the competition and for profits, have made it possible for governments to force people to do what’s happening already. “The trick is to for them to virtue-signal and look like super-cool progressive soothsayers and smartypants who started the idea, when in fact they’re dumb-ass suckypants, so it’s a beauty of a scam!” according to one academic named Wilma D. Milquetoast-Chow who wished to remain anonymous to protect her reputation as “a good party member.”
One 12-year-old graduate of a local elementary school told Newsquips, after asking his mom if it was OK, that as his quick review of information showed him, consumer trends in demand for electric cars has been ramping up for two decades or more purely because as free people acting entirely on their own, consumers have decided to take advantage of capitalism’s many benefits, such as electric cars. A kid named LaQuanza agreed, saying “they’re awesome and plus like socialist, like my teacher Ms. Guanguan said.”
When asked about what some described as seemingly irrelevant and utterly useless policies, the premier, John Horgan, told Newsquips, “We have to use the power of the benevolent government to impose things upon the citizens that are happening in our society in order to remind people that the power of the government is strong as foretellers of the future and brilliant central planners and we are there for the union worker and working people and working families who are in unions. Plus then we can say we made ’em do it, or invented them ‘n stuff or what not.”
“Also, I am a feminist and so diversity vis-a-vis social justice through for the climate change,” he added, seemingly flummoxed and possibly suffering a malady.
Also announced today, a new law that formally mandates the right of citizens to sign up for what the premier, using his fingers to produce air-quotes, called “social media” accounts, “such as the Facebooks soft and Twittergram.”
“It’s high time we democratize the new technologies such that our citizens can enjoy exchanging cat photos in an equitable manner, or fashion, by this government,” the premier told Newsquips. A new crown corporation is said to be in the works, issuing free cats to those who are low income and want one.
He added that “since Cuba’s Al Gore invented the internet, governments have invented lots of excellent social networking tools like the Googles.” The premier then added after consulting his Blackberry and flashing a devil horns hand gesture, “It’s lit and off the heasy.” Asked for clarification, Horgan briskly walked away while referring to his Blackberry.
Horgan is said to be in discussion with political colleagues suggesting more Starbucks outlets be built and a universal Starbucks For Free single-payer policy paid for by “the rich.”