text:
Technological sovereignty in the focus of MARINET’s analytical review
On the eve of the next MARINET meeting, the MARINET Industry Association prepared an analytical review of the MARINET markets in 2022.
The review notes that the trends in the development of the world markets of the maritime industry are characterized by increased uncertainty and inconsistency. The revival of maritime transport, which was outlined by the beginning of 2022, slowed down again due to new risks and unfavorable macroeconomic conditions. The industry continues to be affected by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, including ongoing coronavirus restrictions in China.
At the same time, it is the COVID-19 pandemic and macroeconomic volatility that have become drivers for the introduction of new digital technologies and services.
The influence of the green agenda and decarbonization policies continues to grow, moving, for example, energy-efficient ship technologies from desirable, subject to economic feasibility, to politically mandatory.
For the first time, the report focuses on domestic Russian factors. The impact of sanctions against the Russian economy and the withdrawal of a significant number of foreign companies from the Russian market are creating a new landscape for the high-tech marine business. The adaptation of MARINET companies to these conditions should include a set of measures that are called by the authors of the review as ensuring technological sovereignty.
An analytical review of 2022 on MARINET markets is available in the section for registered users.


text:
Rockley Photonics has started sending out its innovative new Bioptx Biosensing Band health tracking wearable – which uses multiband light extending into the infrared to penetrate deeper into the skin – to test customers for testing.
Rockley Photonics CEO and chairman Dr Andrew Rickman says told us in an interview last year that a ‘wearable lab’ on your wrist would be coming in 2023, and it looks like the company has achieved that aim.
The Bioptx Biosensing Band represents a new class of wearable infrared spectroscopic biosensing device. Rockley claims it is, “the first integrated wearable device to combine Rockley’s proprietary infrared (IR) laser sensing technology, visible photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensors, and software-configurable proprietary algorithms, enabling the ability to detect and measure multiple biomarkers.”
Or more simply, Rockley reckons this improves on the way light emitted by the device is projected and sensed by your body over smartwatches, which generally use use broad spectrum LEDs that fail to measure certain characteristics patrticularly well. The Bioptx Bands uses narrow, multiband LEDs and spectrophotometer sensors to measure under the skin where current watches cannot. In other words, it projects light deeper under your skin to monitor your health even more accurately and extensively.
All of which means that Bioptx Biosensing Band can do things other health tracker can’t. For example, it utilizes a new way to measure your temperature continuously, based on the way water in your tissue absorbs light.
The Bioptx Biosensing Band weighs 1.76oz (50g), and its dimensions are 1.79in x 1.63in x 0.59in (45mm x 41mm x 15mm). It can run up to three days before recharging.
Biomarkers it measures include hydration, temperature, heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, and blood oxygen saturation. These categories can be expanded through software updates from Bluetooth-connected smartphones.
Rockley Photonics CEO and chairman Dr Andrew Rickman says: “As we have recently demonstrated with our non-invasive glucose sensing and cuffless blood pressure studies, laser-based biosensors will continue to expand and enhance our understanding of human health.”
Rockley is focused on the development of a range of photonic integrated circuits, sensors, and full-stack solutions.
- Running watch vs fitness tracker: which wearable do you want?
All the latest inspiration, tips and guides to help you plan your next Advnture!

domain: news


text:
A J-pop band appears to hack into iPhones in a new vertically shot music video
Move over OK Go, a spunky Japanese girl group has officially made the coolest music video of the moment.
For its new single “Run and Run,” J-pop girl band Lyrical School produced a mesmerizing video, produced in a vertical format, to make it appear as though they’ve hacked into your iPhone. (And, yes, the video is iPhone-specific. Sorry, Android users.)
In the three-minute video, uploaded to Vimeo on April 6, the six of them take over the viewer’s phone and go on a whirlwind social media tour, making good use of Vine, Twitter, FaceTime and the phone’s camera.
Here’s the video, but the effect is best if you watch it on your iPhone, as intended.
The plot may be lost on non-Japanese speakers, but the effect translates nicely. The video even includes push notifications from (between?) band members, giving the viewer a little second-hand dopamine rush.
It’s Lyrical Run’s first music video and it’s already making an impression. The video is trending on Twitter in Japan ahead of its April 27th release and racked up 50,000 views within the first day of its release. It now has more than 1 million views.
More in Media
Adalytics Research asks, ‘Are YouTube advertisers inadvertently harvesting data from millions of children?’
Publishers’ Q2 earnings reveal digital advertising is still in a tight spot, but digital subscriptions are picking up steam.
Experts reflect how the failures of social media and online advertising can help the industry improve the next era of innovation.
Ad position: web_bfu


text:
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the doors of the Smiths Falls Community Hospital Auxiliary Gift Shop have been shuttered since March 11. But thanks to a generous offer from the Settlers Ridge Centre, the shop will be back in business just in time to serve Christmas shoppers.
Auxiliary President Jackie Staples recently met with Chris Saumure, president of the Saumure Group which has owned and operated the mall since 2017. Saumure offered to donate space at the mall for the gift shop to relocate.
“We’re so fortunate to have someone like the Saumures that are helping us out,” said Staples, who manages the gift shop and has been auxiliary president for the past 12 years.
“This is a really good cause that’s near and dear to the Saumure Group,” said Emily Smith, who looks after leasing arrangements for the company. “It seemed like a good fit.”
The gift shop reopens Friday, Nov. 20 in a location next to the Rotary Hall at Settlers Ridge Centre, and will operate from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday each week. How soon the shop can move back to the hospital will depend on the course of the pandemic.
“With Christmas coming we’re wanting to get some funds to give back to the hospital,” said Staples. Two years ago the auxiliary donated $35,000 to the Smiths Falls Site of the Perth & Smiths Falls District Hospital from gift shop sales and some regular fundraising events, including an auction, bazaar and golf tournament. The gift shop is run entirely by volunteer labour.
The auxiliary also provides every baby born at the hospital with a baby quilt and a crib sheet. The quilts are purchased from a quilting group called Heart to Heart Quilts of Lanark County. So far in 2020, 210 quilts have been provided to the hospital.
In its new location the shop will be offering a variety of items including Christmas decorations, purses, clothing for children and adults, baby gifts, decorative plates, and jewellery.
On Nov. 20 and 21 the shop will mark its reopening with a special “Scratch and Save Sale.” Customers can buy scratch tickets to win a chance to save between 10 to 50 per cent on various items. The gift shop will be observing Covid-19 protocols, with masks required.
Staples expressed her gratitude for the support of the auxiliary’s volunteers, the hospital staff, and Chris Saumure.


text:
ALMEC SPA at WETEX 2020
The first digital edition of WETEX was held from 26th to 28th October, the world exhibition of technological innovation and energy sustainability organized since 1999 by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority.
This edition, the fourteenth in which Italian companies take part, saw a considerable increase in Italian participants, which went from 22 to 31.
The data is representative of the Italian trend; despite the particular situation due to the pandemic, the national and international market has not experienced any drops, but rather, is increasingly focusing on sustainability and technological innovation carried out by Italian companies.
ALMEC S.p.A. also participated in the exhibition with its virtual pavilion, bringing its products and innovations.
Dogliani, 24th October 2020


text:
This article is more than 1 year old
Cloud-happy Oracle dodges rumors it is axing its traditional hardware ... as sales of traditional hardware fall
Meanwhile, co-CEO Safra Catz joins Team Trump
Oracle is once more waving around its cloud revenue figures in response to another quarter of falling hardware sales.
This ongoing drop in traditional hardware revenue comes as Oracle tries to shake off rumors that it will be winding down its on-premises system divisions from January.
Speculation is rife on anonymous internet boards, and it's been suggested by some of our industry contacts, that Oracle may lay off as many as half of its 4,000 or so people working on server and networking hardware, that the Sparc division is not long for this world, and that Solaris 12 will be canceled and the operating system put into maintenance mode.
Oracle has said none of the rumors are true. The database giant announced its latest quarterly financial figures on Thursday, and made no mention of any major cuts. Somewhat cryptically, though, in a conference call with analysts shortly after, co-CEO Safra Catz said:
"We are proactively evaluating our expense infrastructure needed to support the on-premises hardware business in light of on-premises hardware revenue declines."
The traditional hardware wing soaks up hundreds of millions of dollars of R&D and yet continues to shrink, fueling gossip that Oracle is ready to pull the plug.
Meanwhile, Oracle is axing 71 employees at its site in Austin, Texas, who were working on Project RAPID. It is feared Oracle will continue this approach, laying off teams in dribs and drabs starting from next year, to keep the changes under the radar. Again, the California giant denies there will be a significant reduction in workforce.
Over to the quarterly numbers. For the fiscal 2017 second quarter [PDF] that ended November 30, the enterprise computing behemoth logged:
- Revenues of $9.03bn, virtually flat on last year's $8.99bn total.
- Net income of $2.03bn, down 8 per cent from last year. Operating income (before interest and taxes) was up 3 per cent.
- Earnings per share (non-GAAP) of $0.61 topped analyst estimates of $0.60.
- Cloud revenues of $1.1bn were up 61 per cent on the year-ago quarter.
- On-premises software revenues of $6.1bn were down 4 per cent
- Hardware revenues were $1.01bn, down 10 per cent, while hardware products revenue of $497m was down 13 per cent on the year ago quarter.
Not surprisingly, Oracle executives chose to focus on the soaring returns from the cloud business, rather than the dropping on-premise software and hardware businesses.
"For four consecutive quarters our Cloud SaaS & PaaS revenue growth rate has increased," said Catz, who earlier in the day was named as a member of president-elect Donald Trump's transition team of advisors (she will keep her job at Oracle for the time being).
"As we get bigger in the cloud, we grow faster in the cloud."
The growing cloud revenues will be needed to offset hardware revenues that continue to drop. Oracle executives blamed the 13 per cent drop in hardware revenues largely on the falling revenues in servers as well as costs related to its Micros Systems acquisition.
Meanwhile, in after-hours trading, Oracle stock was down 2.35 per cent, at $39.89 per share. ®
Have you got any more information on changes looming at Oracle? Message us securely and anonymously using Ricochet and our address: ricochet:m3bnxucau5ishl2h


text:
Reading time ( words)
CyberOptics Corporation will exhibit in Stand 1F32 at NEPCON China, scheduled to take place April 24-26, 2018 at the Shanghai World EXPO Exhibition & Convention Center. Company representatives will demonstrate the new high-speed SQ3000 3D CMM, an extension of the MRS-enabled SQ3000 platform deemed best-in-class, along with the new MRS-enabled SE3000 SPI system.
The new SQ3000 3D CMM (Coordinate Measurement) system, powered by Multi-Reflection Suppression (MRS) technology utilizes CyberCMM, a new comprehensive software suite for coordinate measurement. In a lab or production environment, the MRS-enabled SQ3000 CMM system is extremely fast and highly accurate, with repeatable and reproducible measurements for metrology applications in manufacturing of a wide variety of products such as PCBs, semiconductors and consumer electronics.
CyberCMM, an extensive suite of CMM tools, provides 100 percent metrology-grade measurement on all critical points much faster than a traditional CMM – seconds, not hours – including coplanarity, distance, height and datum X, Y, to name a few. A fast and easy setup can be performed as compared to a slow, engineering resource-intensive setup that typically requires multiple adjustments with traditional CMMs.
The new SE3000 SPI system is the very first SPI system to incorporate the industry-leading MRS sensor technology with a finer resolution for the best accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility – even on the smallest paste deposits. Combined with the award-winning, easy-to-use software, solder paste inspection has reached a new level of precision for the most stringent requirements.
CyberOptics Corporation is a leading global developer and manufacturer of high precision sensing technology solutions. CyberOptics sensors are being used in general purpose metrology and 3D scanning, surface mount technology (SMT) and semiconductor markets to significantly improve yields and productivity. By leveraging its leading edge technologies, the company has strategically established itself as a global leader in high precision 3D sensors, allowing CyberOptics to further increase its penetration of its key vertical markets. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, CyberOptics conducts worldwide operations through its facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. For more information, click here.


text:
The President will be known as the tariff President because he seemingly loves to impose tariffs on everyone and anything being imported into the US. Interesting in years gone past, tariffs were used to stimulate production inside the country, so far the main impact of increasing tariffs is higher prices which have been passed along to consumers. At some point, tariffs will affect the profitability of American companies who do the importing.
In an article by Stephen Nellis and Sonam Rai of Reuters who talked to analysts about the President imposition of 10% tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports. One has to remember companies similar to Apple were importing 98% of the product to the US – the design and what the Apple products do are done in the US, the manufacturing is done in China and Taiwan. For Apple if the President expands the recent tariff increase, it will affect them directly.
The latest tariffs tend to affect cloud computing – companies such as Amazon who cloud business is doing very well including having multiple US departments and agencies using the services. The companies involved woth cloud computing issued a warning the proposed duties will impede the development and adoption of cloud based services and infrastructure.
Linking to dividend paying stocks, the President for reasons unclear to most is playing with the supply system which was built for to benefit US companies and people wonder why? If employment costs are about a $1 or less than $5 an hour in outside country, for the employer to bring jobs back to America, tariffs have to be greater than 10% or even 25%. Seemingly all the President is doing is the opposite of Wal-Mart – raising prices everyday. Similar to many large companies, the consultants and lobbyists rush in to say tariffs might be important to the country, but for our company we need an exception and many exceptions have been asked for and given by the Commerce department. Sometimes the headlines are not exactly what is happening.
There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.


text:
Shares of Express Inc. rose more than 20 percent in the aftermath of Sycamore Partners’ disclosure Thursday that it had acquired a 9.9 percent stake in the retailer and is interested in buying the company outright.
The stock was up 21.4 percent to $16.45 as trading ended for the week, the greatest advance by far of any of the U.S.-based fashion, retail and beauty stocks monitored by WWD.
The S&P 500 Retailing Industry Group, however, closed out the week with its fifth consecutive decline, pulling back 0.2 percent to 875.21, 2.3 percent below its closing mark last Friday and off 6.9 percent for the year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 advanced 0.3 percent each, to 16,775.74 and 1,936.16, respectively. Their declines for the week — 0.9 and 0.7 percent — were the sharpest in two months. Still, the Dow is up 1.2 percent for the year and the S&P is ahead 4.8 percent.
Sycamore’s play for Express allowed most teen and youth retailers to register gains for the day and helped those with gains in the WWD sample outnumber those with declines by about a two-to-one margin.
Shares of Aéropostale Inc, were up 2.4 percent to $3.42 while American Eagle Outfitters Inc. moved ahead 2.3 percent to $11.31 and Abercrombie & Fitch Co. advanced 1.6 percent to $41.71.
Outside the teen sphere, Lands’ End Inc. shares continued the upward movement which accompanied the firm’s strong report on first-quarter earnings Thursday, closing at $30.50, ahead 5.9 percent.
Lululemon Athletica Inc., shares of which declined 15.9 percent Thursday following lower first-quarter profits and reduced second-quarter guidance, made back some ground and gained 1 percent to $37.61.
Among those in decline, Inter Parfums Inc. was off 1.5 percent to $27.75 and Destination XL Group Inc. fell the same percentage to $5.08.
Europe’s major indices were largely down at the end of the week’s trading.
The FTSE 100 in London led the decliners, down 1 percent to 6,777.85, followed by the DAX in Frankfurt, which fell 0.3 percent to 9,912.87, while the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.2 percent to 4,543.28. The FTSE MIB in Milan edged up 0.01 percent to 22,165.97.
All four indices were down for the week — ranging from London’s 1.2 percent dip to Milan’s 0.6 percent contraction. For the year, all have advanced, led by Milan’s 16.9 percent improvement and Paris’s 5.8 percent rise.
Fashion, luxury and retail stocks put on a mostly lackluster performance, registering some significant declines. Bank of England governor Mark Carney’s speech at London’s Mansion House Thursday led to investor caution when he suggested a rise in interest rates “could happen sooner than markets currently expect.” The U.K. Web site This is Money suggested investors were concerned a rise in interest rates could lead the pound higher, creating difficulties for U.K. retailers that operate outside the country.
Among those that fell the most were Asos, down 5.8 percent to 28.99 pounds; French Connection, which lost 4.6 percent to 67 pence; Ted Baker, which fell 2.8 percent to 18.70 pounds, and Next, down 2.7 percent to 62.50 pounds.
The few stocks in the fashion sector that rose included Gemfields, up 1 percent to 51 pence; Prada, up 0.3 percent to 54.65 Hong Kong dollars, and Unilever, which rose 0.3 percent to 32.26 euros.
The pound traded for $1.68 against the U.S. dollar, while the euro changed hands for $1.35 and the Hong Kong dollar for 13 cents.


text:
News: Reads from WWW
Sunday, 5 Jan 2014
After telling us which OLED TVs it's bringing to CES this week, LG has now told us the LCD TVs we can expect to see. Expectedly, these too are massive UHDTVs that come in both flat and curved form factors.
Polaroid will be showcasing its 50-inch 4K TV at CES 2014. The most attractive aspect of this TV is its US$1,000 price tag.
We know that big and long and curved UHDTVs will be making a splash at this year's CES. But that doesn't mean OLED TVs will be taking a back seat. LG for one will again be bringing its 77-inch curved OLED UHDTV to the trade show.
Friday, 3 Jan 2014
Samsung's Head of Design Team for IT & Mobile Communications division, Dong-hoon Chang reportedly told Korean news site inews24 that the Galaxy S5 will be unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona.
Thursday, 2 Jan 2014
An alleged photo of the AMD A10-7850 ‘Kaveri’ APU has been leaked by the Japanese website Hermitage Akihabara. Besides its picture, the site also published the screenshots of the CPU-Z and GPU-Z utilities, revealing more technical specifications of the soon-to-be-launched chip.
Google will be removing Bump -- an app that shares data between devices by bumping them together -- from the Apple App Store and the Google Play store by the end of January. Bump Technologies, the company that made Bump, was acquired by Google in September 2013.
Korean publication ETNews reports that Samsung will be launching a new smartphone with a metallic build alongside the Galaxy S5.
Looking for the biggest UHDTV money can buy? Samsung's 110-inch S9 UHDTV has just gone on sale in select markets. The company will also be unveiling its newest smart TV remote control at CES 2014.
Tuesday, 31 Dec 2013
Nokia has won a lawsuit against HTC that will effectively ban the sale of all Android-based HTC smartphones in Germany due to an alleged patent infringement concerning peer-to-peer sharing over Bluetooth and NFC.
Google and Audi are reportedly working together on an Android-based infotainment system for cars. The companies are likely to announce their plans at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, United States next week. This is according to sources who spoke with the Wall Journal.


text:
After 20 years at the heart of the web, Yahoo is all but done, with a sale expected soon and talent fleeing as fast as it can. CEO Marissa Mayer's plan to turn things around involve buying 50 startups. What happened to them?
17. October 2013: Bread
The advertising/link shortening company shut down its services in November 2013, and according to a statement by Yahoo at the time, six of its team members joined the company’s ad tech team.
18. December 2013: Ptch
The DreamWorks Animation mobile video startup shut down in January 2014. Business Insider reported that Ptch was supposed to merge with Qwiki, another Yahoo purchase, but those talks fell apart, and Mayer bought them separately. Early employees who had equity reportedly didn’t get much in the deal, either.
19. December 2013: EvntLive
The online concert streaming company shut down and said it would be joining Yahoo’s video team. But based on their LinkedIn profiles, it appears that none of the company’s co-founders actually went to work for Yahoo.
Has anyone considered the possibility that at Yahoo's heart is an evil, ancient, sentient sword? Which Mayer must use to to kill other companies and consume their souls in order to survive? Just saying, it's a thing.
Documents on an unprotected, network-connected drive owned by an employee of Nokia shed light on the inner workings of Russia’s networked surveillance system known as SORM (Russian: COPM).
Thomas Piketty, the French economist behind 2014's game-changing Capital in the 21st Century, has a new book, Capital and Ideology (out in France now, coming in English in 2020), which uses the same long-run economic series that Capital 21C benefited from to understand the relationship between wealth and ideology. Central to Piketty's thesis: that it's […]
The real estate bubble is in trouble: London's luxury housing market has been in freefall for years, and New York's retail vacancy has been soaring, even as global super-luxe housing is also tanking.
Life isn’t getting any less hectic, and pressure cookers are a quick, healthy solution for a growing number of kitchens. But if you thought your Instant Pot was versatile, there’s a major upgrade on the market: The Yedi 9-in-1 Total Package Instant Programmable Pressure Cooker. If you’ve somehow never used a pressure cooker before, try […]
When it comes to data analytics or deep learning, there’s one language behind the apps and algorithms that power the biggest companies of today: Python. The best part about this tool is that as versatile as it is, it’s actually fairly easy to learn. But mastery? For that, you need more than just a beginners’ […]
Your smartphone’s GPS is a modern necessity for some trips, but how do you use it safely? It’s been a problem ever since phones went mobile. A certain phone mount even shelled out the money for a commercial during the Big Game, so clearly there’s a market for the solution. Turns out there are a […]


text:
Navico, Amicogen aim to start work at delayed collagen, gelatin plant in August
An Giang, Vietnam-based pangasius firm Nam Viet Joint Stock Company, – or Navico – and its South Korean partner Amicogen hope to start work at their delayed collagen and gelatin factory in August.
Construction on the facility, which is slated to produce collagen and gelatin from pangasius skin, has been delayed from a planned groundbreaking date of August 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, Amicogen sent experts to Vietnam to work with Navico to finalize the plant's design. The factory will cost nearly USD 4 million (EUR 3.4 million), and will be built on an area of 9,600 square meters in Can Tho City in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, according to Navico. The pangasius skin for the factory will be supplied by Navico processing plants which have a combined capacity of 450 metric tons (MT) of material pangasius per day.
Pangasius skin is priced at USD 0.50 (EUR 0.40) per kilogram. But a kilogram of collagen produced from pangasius skin can be sold at between USD 25.00 and USD 40.00 (EUR 21.00 and EUR 33.60) per kilogram, according to Navico.
Amicogen and Navico created a formal 50-50 joint venture to implement the project last year. Once complete, the plant will produce 800 MT per year of collagen and gelatin products. That total can be doubled to 1,600 MT per year, depending on market demand, Navico said.
Currently, Vinh Hoan, Vietnam's leading producer and exporter of pangasius, is the only producer of collagen from pangasius skin in the country.
Navico has recently undertaken plans to diversify its business operations to include fertilizer and rooftop solar production, a move that has been accelerated by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it said. The company suffered in 2020 as its sales plunged 23.2 percent year-over-year, dropping to VND 3.44 trillion (USD 148.6 million, EUR 124.5 million), with its net profit dropping 71.3 percent to VND 202 billion (USD 8.7 million, EUR 7.3 million).
Photo courtesy of Navico


text:
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has found in favour of the Health Lottery over a complaint about one of the company’s recent television advertisements.
The ad under dispute centres on a man who discovers a £1 coin in his armchair. The man enters a grocery store and buys a Health Lottery ticket, while a voice over points out that while £1 ‘won’t buy you much these days’ there are more chances to win on the Health Lottery. The ad continues to show the man dreaming about what he could buy if he won the lottery.
One complaint challenged the ad on social responsibility grounds, saying that it was implying that money was better spent on a lottery ticket than on essential food items.
In response to the complaint, the Health Lottery said that they ad was designed to highlight how an individual might want to spend an unexpected windfall, and that the references a loaf of bread and to milk were aiming to illustrate the low coast of a Health Lottery ticket. The company also denied that there was any implication that people should opt for lottery gambling over buying food.
In its ruling, the ASA agreed with the Health Lottery, emphasising that the individual had found the £1 coin and was not using money from his household budget. It also agreed with the Health Lottery that the household food items in the ad were there to emphasise the cost of the ticket. In conclusion, the ASA found that the ad was not irresponsible and was not in breach of advertising rules.
Image sourced from Shutterstock.


text:
The states with the highest average combined sales tax rates are:
1. Tennessee, 9.44 percent
2. Arizona, 9.16 percent
3. Louisiana, 8.87 percent
4. Washington, 8.86 percent
5. Oklahoma, 8.67 percent
Source: Tax Foundation
The sales tax is perhaps the easiest and most transparent of taxes to understand: people can reach into their pocket and see the rate printed on a receipt.
But different local sales tax rates collected in 37 states can still be confusing with different charges on retail sales even within the same county.
"These (local) rates can be substantial, so a state with a moderate statewide sales tax rate could actually have a very high combined state-local rate compared to other states," Scott Drenkard of the Washington D.C.-based Tax Foundation said in a report released Monday.


text:
Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, said the bank’s new cryptocurrency, JPM Coin, could one day be used by consumers, according to CNBC.
“JPMorgan Coin could be internal, could be commercial, it could one day be consumer,” Dimon said during a question-and-answer session at the bank’s annual investor day.
The bank became the first to create its own cryptocurrency earlier this month. It was designed to settle transactions with clients of its wholesale payments operation, mainly for international and securities transactions related to blockchain.
The bank’s website says it does not have any plans to give individuals access to the coin. Currently, the digital token is being tested inside the bank with corporate clients, unlike bitcoin, which is open source and can be accessed by anyone.
“JPM Coin is currently a prototype that will be tested with a small number of JPMorgan’s institutional clients, with plans to expand the pilot program later this year,” the bank’s website says. “JPM Coin is currently designed for business-to-business money movement flows, and because we are still in a testing phase, we don’t have plans to make this available to individuals at this stage. That said, the cost savings and efficiency benefits would extend to the end customers of our institutional clients.”
Dimon called bitcoin a “fraud” during the apex of the crypto boom. The bank said it supported crypto as long as it was properly regulated.
“We have always believed in the potential of blockchain technology, and we are supportive of cryptocurrencies as long as they are properly controlled and regulated,” the bank said. “As a globally regulated bank, we believe we have a unique opportunity to develop the capability in a responsible way with the oversight of our regulators. Ultimately, we believe that JPM Coin can yield significant benefits for blockchain applications by reducing clients’ counterparty and settlement risk, decreasing capital requirements and enabling instant value transfer.”


text:
Grant Vollmer, is quoted saying, “Balls of Steel’s primary focus is to support testicular cancer. With our Brand “Balls of Steel” becoming globally recognizable we are excited to open our Balls of Steel Open Wholesale Program...
Newport Beach, CA (PRWEB) April 26, 2013
OriginalBOS celebrated its two year anniversary on April 14th, 2013. The company’s flagship product Balls of Steel, the whiskey drink cooler with a cause, is also being celebrated. Balls of Steel was engineered and launched by Grant Vollmer and Matt Geddie and the product which began making headlines in early 2012 is also up for its one year anniversary. In celebration of their anniversary and the outstanding market success of the company's flagship product Balls of Steel, OriginalBOS is proud to announce the release and launch of the Balls of Steel Open Wholesale Program.
The Balls of Steel open wholesale program is a unique opportunity for retailers as this is the first time OriginalBOS has allowed Balls of Steel Whiskey Drink Coolers to be sold by retailers outside of its current sale channel(s). Retailers and Buyers can now discuss the opportunity to sell Balls of Steel wholesale by applying at: http://www.originalbos.com/pages/balls-of-steel-wholesale
Matt Geddie, the Chief Operations Officer (COO) at OriginalBOS was quoted saying, “After two years of establishing a strong brand, we are ready to roll out Balls of Steel to new retailers and enter markets.” The companies Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Grant Vollmer, backed the claim by releasing a statement where he is quoted saying, “Balls of Steel’s primary focus is to support testicular cancer. With our Brand “Balls of Steel” becoming globally recognizable we are excited to open our Balls of Steel Open Wholesale Program and increase our efforts of doing good in the world.”
Balls of Steel Open Wholesale Program allows retailers the opportunity to sell consumers “The hottest gift of 2013” (Claim awarded by The Entrepreneur Association). The Balls of Steel Open Wholesale Program is just in time for upcoming summer & holiday months when perfectly chilled beverages are in short supply and consumer demand for the ultimate whiskey drinking experience has never been greater.
The Balls of Steel Open Wholesale Program is the next step in the OriginalBOS goal of funding a cure and raising awareness for testicular cancer. The new Balls of Steel open wholesale program will reach new customers and retail chains while adding members to a fast-growing OriginalBOS community of survivors and supporters. This quickly growing community will continue its support of cancer sufferers and their family and continuing providing hope to thousands of people around the world.
For additional information about The Balls of Steel Open Wholesale Program and its application location go to: http://www.originalbos.com/pages/balls-of-steel-wholesale. OriginalBOS is ensuring the internal wholesale team contacts applicants promptly.
OriginalBOS and Balls of Steel updates can be found on Facebook and Twitter. For further information about Balls of Steel and the Balls of Steel wholesale program, contact support(at)originalBOS(dot)com.


text:
Chicken and ground beef are often staples at the dinner table, but they're also the meat products most likely to make consumers sick, according to a new report.
The report, from the advocacy organization Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), ranks meat products based on their likelihood of causing severe illness.
At the top of the list was chicken. Between 1998 and 2010, chicken products, including roasted, grilled and ground chicken, were definitively linked to 452 outbreaks of foodborne illness and 6,896 cases of illness in the United States, the report says. (An outbreak was defined as two or more illnesses linked to a common food source.)
Ground beef came in second: The product was linked to 336 outbreaks and 3,801 cases of illness over the same time period.
The report identified other high-risk products, including were turkey and steak, which were responsible for 130 and 82 outbreaks, respectively. Deli meats, pork and roast beef were considered medium-risk products (linked to about 60 to 130 outbreaks) while ham, sausage and chicken nuggets were low-risk (linked to 34 to 57 outbreaks), the report said.
Sarah Klein, CSPI senior food safety attorney, urged Americans to "practice defensive eating" by assuming all meats are hazardous, and taking extra caution in handling, preparing and serving meats.
The report is based on information from 1,714 outbreaks involving 33,372 illnesses in the United States. Each meat product was given a score based on the number of illnesses it caused and the likelihood that people who fell ill from eating the product were hospitalized.
However, the findings are limited because the vast majority of people who fall ill from eating contaminated meat products do not visit the doctor, and their cases are not investigated by public health authorities, said Caroline Smith DeWaal, the food safety director at CSPI.
The bacteria Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 were responsible for about a third of illnesses, the report said. These pathogens most often contaminate meat products during slaughter or meat processing, the report says. The bacteria Clostridium perfringens, which can grow on food that sits out for too long and can cause illness if leftovers are not properly cooked, was responsible for another third of illnesses.
Some experts were critical of the report. Douglas Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University, called the rankings a "gimmick" that distracts people from the big picture that all foods come with risks.
"To my mind, all food is risky and should be treated with care," Powell said. It's important, he said, "to treat all foods, not just meat, but produce — everything — as a potential sources of dangerous microorganisms."
Over the last decade, the biggest source of foodborne illness has been produce, which consumers often eat raw, he added.
Consumers should use a thermometer to tell when their food has reached the proper internal temperature, Powell said. They should thoroughly wash all produce and discard vegetable peels.
Other food safety tips include avoiding cross-contamination in the kitchen: Don't use the same cutting board for raw meat and uncooked foods, Klein said. Pork should be cooked to 145 degrees Fahrenheit, beef to 160 and poultry to 165, Klein said.
The CSPI is looking to the food industry to reduce contamination of their products with bacteria such as Salmonella (primarily a concern with poultry) and E. coli O157:H7 (primarily a concern with ground beef). The organization also agrees with a USDA proposal to label mechanically tenderized steak. These steaks have been punctured with needles or blades that push pathogens into the interior of the product. Steaks that have been treated this way should not be served rare, but consumers have no way of knowing this, Powell said.
A report released last week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that overall, cases of foodborne illness have decreased in the last decade. However, the percentage of people sickened by the foodborne bacteria Campylobacter was 14 percent higher in 2012 than it was between 2006 and 2008, the report said.
Pass it on: Consumers should take care in handing and preparing all foods to avoid foodborne illness.
This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on MyHealthNewsDaily.
Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now
Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.
Rachael is a Live Science contributor, and was a former channel editor and senior writer for Live Science between 2010 and 2022. She has a master's degree in journalism from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. She also holds a B.S. in molecular biology and an M.S. in biology from the University of California, San Diego. Her work has appeared in Scienceline, The Washington Post and Scientific American.


text:
San Diego to Ban Wal-Mart Supercenters
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The City Council here voted late Tuesday to ban certain giant retail stores, dealing a blow to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s potential to expand in the nation's eighth-largest city.
The measure, approved on a 5-3 vote, prohibits stores of more than 90,000 square feet that use 10 percent of space to sell groceries and other merchandise that is not subject to sales tax. It takes aim at Wal-Mart Supercenter stores, which average 185,000 square feet and sell groceries.
Mayor Jerry Sanders will veto the ban if the Council reaffirms it on a second vote, which will likely happen in January, said mayoral spokesman Fred Sainz. The Council can override his veto with five votes.
"What the Council did tonight was social engineering, not good public policy," Sainz said.
Supporters of the ban argued that Wal-Mart puts smaller competitors out of business, pays workers poorly, and contributes to traffic congestion and pollution. Opponents said the mega-retailer provides jobs and low prices and that a ban would limit consumer choice.
This is wonderful, I wish the Florcence city council woud think along these lines.


text:
DigiTimes heard from Taiwanese optical disc drive (ODD) makers that their sales are sliding as fewer notebooks now come with an ODD. On one hand laptop makers ditch the optical drive to be able to create more compact laptops, and on the other hand laptop makers sacrifice the ODD to compensate for the extra $50-60 for a touchscreen on Windows 8 laptops.
The site heard that at present roughly 60 percent of laptops still have an ODD, but the number is expected to shrink even further in the coming months.
The sources pointed that the vendors' pursuit of thin and light industrial designs has reduced notebook ODD adoption rates from 70% originally to only 60% and Windows 8's appearance is expected to accelerate the decline.
Consumers in the US and Europe used to be the major groups favoring notebooks with built-in ODDs, but the trend has changed, the sources noted.
However, notebooks, especially those with 15-inch displays and above, selling to emerging markets, mostly still have an ODD, allowing ODD makers to continue to make a living in the harsh environment.


text:
The WAIT for Grand Theft Auto 6 is long, but fans should fasten their seat belts for the 2024 release.
Take Two may have hinted at the GTA 6 release date when discussing its acquisition of social and mobile game developer Zynga.
Executives from GTA developer parent company Rockstar say they expect to see a 14% annual growth rate between now and 2024 (via 2024). Axios).
“Only a handful of titles can … give management the confidence to issue such a powerful guideline,” said an analyst from Jefferies in New York.
“We believe there is at least one set of Rockstar IPs that will be released by FY24.”
This speculation is supported by analyst Doug Creutz from Cowen.
In terms of numbers, that percentage translates to $9BN in “game-related transactions”.
Creutz said this shows “the possibility of a GTA 6 launch in FY24”.
It is worth mentioning that fiscal year 24 runs from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024.
Though that still opens a window for 2023 GTA 6 release date, rumors we’ve heard so far suggest it’s gun jump.
Popular Twitter leaker Tom Henderson has previously said that the GTA 6 launch date 2022/2023 is “a bit early”.
He said that 2024/2025 is more likely – information already support by industry veteran Jason Schreier.
Popular release windows for games tend to be around the holiday period or early in the year, before the financial year ends.
So if we get the 2023 release, it will be later this year.
- Read the latest stories for PS5
- Stay up to date with all Xbox news
- Read the latest game news
All the latest gaming tips and tricks
Looking for tips and tricks on your favorite console and games? We have you covered…
Your PS5 has a HIDDEN web browser – here’s how to find it.
I spent $2.4 million on a digital parcel of land in Decentraland and now its worth five times – read more.
Land for sale The Sandbox Mega City: How to buy land in metaverse.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Science & Technology team? Email us at email@example.com
https://www.thesun.ie/tech/8199365/gta-6-release-date-could-be-2024/ GTA 6 2024 release date was accidentally introduced by Rockstar’s parent company


text:
In celebration of National Coffee Day on Friday, Sept. 29, Wawa plans on offering its customers free any sized coffee all day.
Throughout the day, all 760+ of its locations in Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are expected to give away a combined total of nearly 2 million free cups of coffee.
All day long, customers are allowed to come in multiple times, and get any of Wawa’s eight varieties of coffee, any size, absolutely free.
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
“At Wawa we are always looking to connect with our customers in a meaningful way, so we are thrilled to be a part of National Coffee Day by offering customers our most beloved beverage for free, all day long, at all of our locations,” Wawa’s Chief Fresh Food & Beverage Officer, Mike Sherlock said.
Since 2000 Wawa has served more than 1 billion cups of coffee, and within the brewed coffee market, the company is ranked number 1 in Philadelphia, and number 6 in market share nationally.


text:
Drizzt here. Well it looks like consumers in US are in a really defensive mode. I think its bad for the economy but for an individual shopping like this is what is really the right way and its a by product of this very depress economic situation.
Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) — Mariel DeBernard was ready to be wowed by the post-Christmas sales when she turned up at the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City mall in Arlington, Virginia. It wasnt to be.
Normally Id be loaded down with things, but there just arent that many deals, particularly for clothing, DeBernard, a 40-year-old homemaker, said yesterday. For most things, the prices arent that different than before Christmas.
Retailers, which started offering discounts of 50 percent or more weeks ago, had been counting on post-Christmas sales to help rescue what will probably be the worst holiday season in four decades. Thats not going to happen, said Burt Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, a retail-industry consulting firm in New York.
This week isnt going to do it, Flickinger said in a Bloomberg Television interview. Consumers are more cash- and credit-constrained than ever before. After a 25-year spending tsunami, theyve shifted from spending to savings.
Customer traffic at malls run by Taubman Centers Inc. was light early yesterday and picked up in the afternoon, said spokeswoman Karen Mac Donald. Taubman owns or manages 24 shopping centers in 11 states.
Advertising post-Christmas sales before the holiday, as retailers did this year, really smacks a little bit of desperation, said Patricia Edwards, a retail analyst and the founder of Seattle-based Storehouse Partners LLC.
Retailers count on the holiday season for as much as 35 percent of annual sales. Theyre now scrambling for business as consumers retrench to cope with shrinking home and stock values, tightening credit and the highest unemployment rate in 15 years.
Discounts of 70 percent off or more by Macys Inc., AnnTaylor Stores Inc. and other retailers failed to prevent a spending drop of as much as 4 percent during the last two months of 2008, according to data from SpendingPulse, owned by MasterCard Advisors. Including fuel, sales tumbled as much as 8 percent.
Thats the steepest drop since it started tracking the data in 2002, said Michael McNamara, MasterCard Advisors vice president of research and analysis. He estimates sales, excluding autos and gasoline, fell 2 percent to 4 percent from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24.
That projection follows forecasts of falling sales from industry trade groups. Sales at stores open at least a year may drop as much as 2 percent in November and December, the International Council of Shopping Centers said Dec. 23. That would be the steepest decline since at least 1969.
Too Much Inventory
It is the worst kind of picture, Michael Niemira, chief economist for New York-based ICSC, said in a Bloomberg TV interview.
Retailers still have too much inventory, said Edwards.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which said yesterday it would start selling Apple Inc.s iPhone on Dec. 28, is one of the countrys few retailers still boosting sales. The discounter is one of two companies on the 30-member Dow Jones Industrial Average with shares gaining this year.
Meg McGuire, a county health inspector in Eden, North Carolina, spent a third of the $1,200 she and her husband had budgeted for the holiday on bicycles, toys and other discounted items at Wal-Mart on Black Friday, as the day after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday in November is known.
The couple decided to not buy each other Christmas gifts for the first time in their 11 years of marriage.
A lot of people are concerned about their jobs, said McGuire, 30.
More than a dozen retailers, including electronics chain Circuit City Stores Inc., have sought bankruptcy protection this year as the credit squeeze and the U.S. recession drained sales. The holiday results indicate possible consolidation and further bankruptcy filings, said Gilbert Harrison, chief executive officer of retail advisory firm Financo Inc.
Its been difficult, much more difficult than anyone expected, Harrison said in a Bloomberg Television interview from West Palm Beach, Florida.
- How to Select a Smartphone with A Decently Long Battery Life (That is not an Apple or Samsung Flagship Phone). - February 28, 2024
- 99% of CPF Members Attain Less Than 4 Times Their CPF BRS When They Turn 55. How True is This? - February 25, 2024
- New 6-Month Singapore T-Bill Yield in End-February 2024 to be Lower at 3.55% (for the Singaporean Savers) - February 22, 2024


text:
The Midwest was the only region to see a drop in existing-home sales in January, according to the National Association of Realtors. Everywhere else saw growth.
“Much of the country saw robust sales activity last month as strong hiring and improved consumer confidence at the end of last year appear to have sparked considerable interest in buying a home,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. “Market challenges remain, but the housing market is off to a prosperous start as homebuyers staved off inventory levels that are far from adequate and deteriorating affordability conditions.”
Across the Midwest region, sales dropped 1.5 percent from the same time last year. The West and Northeast regions both saw increases over 5 percent, and in the South, sales jumped 3.6 percent. Nationwide, sales hit a 10-year high in January after increasing 3.3 percent.
The news wasn’t universally negative for the Midwest, however, as median price still rose 6.5 percent year over year to $174,000. It’s a sign of a forthcoming demand surge, according to Yun – one that’s already being seen nationwide, where average days on market fell from 64 days in Jan 2015 to 50 days in Jan. 2016.
Yun said: “Competition is likely to heat up even more heading into the spring for house hunters looking for homes in the lower- and mid-market price range.”


text:
more recommended stories
Governor Mauricio Vila Dosal recognizes two outstanding Yucatecan nurses
Mérida, Yucatán, September 26, 2020.- The.
Trump’s border wall funds challenged in court… again
Democrat lawmakers may once again challenge.
Mexico is sending 100 firefighters to Central California to help fight the SQF Complex Fires
FRESNO, California — Mexico has sent.
Mexico Wants to Pay US Water Debt, Stay Out of US Election
Mexico’s president is calling on angry.
Influencers visit the “Land of Mayab” to promote the destination on social networks
Through their social networks, young people.
Walmart opens distribution center in Yucatan
Walmart de México y Centroamérica announced.
Thieves steal business jet in Mexico, crash in Guatemala
Authorities say thieves stole a business.
Mexico is open and available for American travelers
Americans willing to travel abroad have.
Tulum’s hotel occupancy on the rise
Hotel occupancy in Tulum, Quintana Roo,.
UNAM will provide low income students with tablets
The National Autonomous University of Mexico.


text:
$70,000 fine for fake yoghurt
Chain made product appear healthier than it was.
A frozen yoghurt chain and its parent company have been fined $70,000 for selling fake yoghurt and misleading consumers about its health benefits.
Judge David Sharp said he would have fined Yoghurt Story, which had 22 stores across the country, and Frozen Yoghurt $270,000. However, because both companies are in liquidation, the fine was reduced to $35,000 each.
The charges were brought by the Commerce Commission under the Fair Trading Act. They came after an investigation found the product could not be defined as yoghurt, which has to have at least a million colony-forming units of bacteria per gram.
Yoghurt Story also made misleading claims on its website, including that the product "increases your immune system" and lowers the risk of heart disease and diabetes.
Judge Sharp said the companies attempted to take advantage of consumer demand for healthier products.
“The defendants’ conduct was a cynical attempt to take advantage of consumers’ desire to make healthier food choices. The defendants themselves considered the product to be more akin to an ice cream product, yet they decided to call their stores ‘Yoghurt Story’ because it was more attractive to consumers than calling it Ice Cream Story,” he said.
Ten Yoghurt Story stores are still operating.


text:
A new Intel chart has been leaked by OBR which details Intel's upcoming Sandy Bridge-E Processors. According to the chart Intel would be releasing its Sandy Bridge-E Platform in Early Q4 2011 with the launch of 4 New Enthusiast CPU's.
The X79 (LGA2011 socket) Compatible chips would include Core i7 3960X, Core i7 3930K, Core i7 3830, Core i7 3820 which we already detailed earlier with full specs and clocks details here. The best part is that the latest chart has also revealed the Flagship offering of Sandy Bridge-E Platform, Core i7 3980X Extreme Edition CPU featuring stock clock of 3.4-3.5Ghz with Turbo upto 4Ghz-4.1Ghz. The chip is another Hexa Core model with 12 threads and will launch in late Q4 2011.
You might wanna check on other Sandy Bridge-E News below:


text:
America's Taco Shop, the enormously popular taqueria, has expanded to a sixth location, including two stores in Scottsdale. The most recent one is now open downtown, in a former house that previously was an art studio at First Avenue and Goldwater Boulevard.
The first store debuted on Seventh Street south of Thomas Road in Phoenix in 2008. The growth has been so rapid that America’s Taco Shop owners America Corrales-Bortin and Terry Bortin have turned their venture into a subsidiary of Kahala, one of the fastest-growing franchising companies in the world with a portfolio of 15 quick-service restaurant brands.
A native of Culiacán, in the Sinaloa region of Mexico, Corrales-Bortin emphasizes traditional recipes of her heritage, focusing on specialty dishes like pastor, the succulent pork that is spit-roasted on an authentic Mexican vertical rotisserie.
The eatery’s slogan promises that this is “the home of the greatest carne asada in the Valley.” Customers are greeted with the thwack of a cleaver hitting a butcher block, as staffers chop steak for tacos, burritos, quesadillas, tortas and a creation called a Vampiro. That’s a grilled corn tortilla heaped with carne asada or pastor and topped in melted Monterey Jack cheese, guacamole, sweet caramelized onions and crisp shredded lettuce.
Details: America's Taco Shop, 7001 E. First Ave., Scottsdale. 480-278-7070, americastacoshop.com.


text:
New BMW Debut Coming this Fall
Competition BMW is very excited to announce that BMW has confirmed that a debut of the 2 series 4-door Gran Coupe will be released this coming fall at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The BMW 2 Series is currently offered as a coupe, convertible, and an M2 competition coupe. Automobile Mag stated that they can’t tell much from the photos they released, but it looks like it sports a different set of taillights than those on the current 2 Series coupe and convertible. A small spoiler is fitted to the trunk lid. Engine options haven’t been confirmed, but expect the U.S. model to use a 2.0-liter turbo-four as standard equipment.
Click here to learn more about this exciting news!


text:
The Black Student Union is expecting Sykes Student Union to be the place everyone interested in fashion and fun to be on Wednesday, April 21.The coordinaters for the annual Fashion Show have incorporated a clothing drive. For the past several weeks BSU members have been collecting clothing to donate to the Salvation Army. “As one of our community service projects [we] decided that having a show about clothing could also [be] a means of help to [the] less fortunate,” said BSU member and assistant-coordinater Lauren Carter.
The year’s theme, entitled “Express Youself,” is set to exhibit six of the hottest designers and one established boutique from Philadelphia and the surrounding areas. WCU students have auditioned to participate as models in this event.
Coordinater Rasheeda Purdie said, “With weeks of preparation and hard work we are expecting this to be great event, and also we are glad that we were able to help out those less fortunate than others.


text:
Modern Warfare 2 is the new iteration of the legendary Call of Duty franchise, and with the game soaring in beta, there's plently of weapons for players to use.
However, with a bunch of new changes for players sink their teeth into, there's been one notable change that no one is happy about.
Here's why players are so angry with the new MW2 UI.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Players Angry Over New UI
During the Modern Warfare 2 beta, players quickly noticed how cluttered the new in-game menus were for the game, and it's been a wide spread issue that a ton of players are feeling.
A lot of comparisons have been made to the menus of Netflix or Hulu, and it's easy to see why, as the new UI/UX Director at Infinity Ward who was working on MW2 was previously the UI Director at Hulu.
Yes, the UI/UX Director at Infinity Ward previously worked as a UI Director at Hulu.— Ralph (@RalphsValve) September 27, 2022
On release, you won’t see much of, if at all, a difference to the UI given their plans for other shared experiences post-launch.
The #MW2 BETA wasn’t a draft, it’s final.
This isn't setting well with fans, who have been taking to social media to express their concerns over the complicated UI.
One Twitter user 8BitClosedFist noted that "Modern warfare 2 got the worst UI I've ever seen in a game."
Futhermore, PartiallyRoyal stated "whoever designed the UI for Modern Warfare 2 needs to be fired immediately." While this is quite harsh, we can imagine with the sheer amount of complaits Infinity Ward have been getting regarding the UI, they'll look to change this very soon!


text:
April 29, 2016
/ by Cision Media Research
Pop, formerly TV Guide Network, has promoted Nicole Sabatini and Hillary Povar to executive vice president of marketing and vice president of communications, respectively. In her new role, Sabatini oversees all brand and marketing strategies. She was previously a senior vice president of marketing at Pop since 2013, and held a similar position at the Style Network since 2011. Povar most recently served as a PR director at Pop and was previously a communications manager at TLC.
Get the latest updates on PR, communications and marketing best practices.
Keep up with everything Cision. Check here for the most current product news.
Thought leadership and communications strategy for the C-suite written by the C-suite.
A blog for and about the media featuring trends, tips, tools, media moves and more.
1-877-297-8912from 8 AM - 5 PM CT


text:
Pantone Trend Shade Pattern Reviews
February 28, 2024
As personalisation emerges as the number one development in 2018, manufacturers will worth knowledge even more to tailor recommendations, have interaction influencers and customised experiences. It is in line with the current preference for workwear-inspired items and can carry you thru the colder months in model. Due to the array of covetable leather-based items already on supply, getting a jumpstart on the pattern couldn’t be simpler. A serious vogue house is utilizing blockchain to ensure genuine goods while giving rise to the notion of Net three.0” manufacturers.
Every season the team at the Pantone Colour Institute creates the Pantone Trend Shade Pattern Report; a coloration overview highlighting the top colours style designers exhibiting at NY Fashion Week will probably be featuring in their collections for the upcoming season.
Every season the group on the Pantone Coloration Institute creates the Pantone Style Coloration Development Report; a shade overview highlighting the highest colors style designers exhibiting at New York Vogue Week can be that includes of their collections for the upcoming season.
As an example, an vital part of style is style journalism Editorial critique, pointers, and commentary might be discovered on tv and in magazines, newspapers, trend web sites, social networks, and style blogs Lately, vogue running a blog and YouTube movies have change into a serious outlet for spreading traits and vogue ideas, creating a web-based tradition of sharing one’s type on a website or Instagram account.
Having worked in editorial, e-commerce, vogue photography, and trend styling for years, Xina Giatas predicts that one of many largest tendencies of the next decade will probably be embracing boldness and breaking conventions with regards to model. Vogue industry makes use of ads to attract shoppers and promote its merchandise to generate gross sales.


text:
Multiple automotive and tech news sites have reported that Local Motors (LM), the manufacturer of the Olli 3D printed shuttle, has ceased operations. The main source of information comes from LinkedIn posts from former employees. The news comes after the vehicle firm made numerous pivots over the past decade, finally landing on autonomous shuttles made with 3D printing.
Prior to embracing additive manufacturing (AM), the company began with an interesting concept: crowd sourced vehicle designs. Once you purchased one, you were actually able to go to the LM site in Arizona and build it yourself with the LM team. Crowdsourcing then led to 3D printing, as the company sourced ideas for what would become its first 3D printed car.
With Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Cincinnati Incorporated, LM participated in the development of a large-scale polymer 3D printer called the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) system. The BAAM is able to deposit carbon fiber reinforced plastic at amazing rates within a massive envelope, a concept that spurred other machine manufacturers like Thermwood and Ingersoll to create their own versions of the technology.
It also led to the creation of the Strati, a car with a chassis that was entirely 3D printed. Though it could only move at the speed of a golf cart, it generated enough hype that LM decided to pursue “the first road-ready, 3D printed car”. Another crowdsourced design, the resulting LM3D never actually did become road ready, despite LM providing a sticker price of $53,000 and accepting pre-orders.
Meanwhile, LM had pivoted from the Rally Fighter to 3D printed cars to crowdsourced projects for corporations via a social media platform called Launch Forth. Using the same model that had created its previous vehicles, LM partnered with firms like HP and the U.S. Marine Corps to ask the public for input on Martian habitats and all-terrain vehicles. It was with the launch of this program that it became apparent that LM was searching for the proper business model and hoping that corporate sponsors might help keep the company going.
This project faded away, too, much like the Rally Fighter and the LM3D. When asked what happened to the LM3D product line, former LM CEO Jay Rogers explained that he had reconsidered his vision for mobility around the world. It wasn’t personal vehicles, but smart, connected, and electric public transit. To take part in this emerging trend, LM shifted entirely to an autonomous shuttle called Olli. Uniquely, 80 percent of Olli’s body was 3D printed using BAAM machines. Rogers told me at the time:
“We launched a challenge to design a highway-capable vehicle that Local Motors then created a proof of concept of and debuted at the SEMA show in 2015. Our R&D team is continuing the materials testing and validation through 3D printing, now on the world’s largest composite 3D printer, located in our Knoxville microfactory. The highway car is not a current product offering, but that’s not to say it won’t be in the future! We are currently focused on Olli, our low-speed, self-driving, EV shuttle, as we see an immediate and future need for alleviating congestion and pollution, while providing a more accessible, sustainable transportation solution for all.”
Given the ingenuity of each product developed by LM, one wouldn’t be faulted for believing in each pivot. The vision was there, as was the technology, to an extent. However, even as it focused on Olli alone, there were issues. For one, the much-touted IBM Watson platform that initially powered the shuttle’s artificial intelligence (AI) was replaced in 2019 with AI from another provider.
More importantly, as a Toronto test program for the vehicle began at the end of 2021, Olli crashed into a tree, critically injuring its human attendant. According to The Drive, the closure of the business was not related to the crash, though the trial run was paused due to the accident and COVID-19 health guidance. With Olli moving at such slow speeds, one would think that LM had found a sweet spot for autonomy, but the world may just not be quite ready for transport that drives on its own.
Autonomous bus has crashed into a tree in Whitby!
— Brian Connolly (@bconnolly00) December 17, 2021
From the potential dangers of autonomous vehicles to a shaky business model, it seems that Local Motors couldn’t exactly find its footing during an economically unstable period of time. That doesn’t mean that it won’t re-open operations or that its former CEO, who moved to an advisory role last year, won’t re-emerge with a unique, new business idea. After all, Divergent’s Kevin Czinger was unable to launch an electric vehicle company his first go-around and is now on the verge of announcing a new partnership related to 3D printed cars.
Subscribe to Our Email Newsletter
Stay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and receive information and offers from third party vendors.
You May Also Like
3D Printing Webinar and Event Roundup: November 26, 2023
Things are getting busy again in terms of 3D printing webinars and events! This week is the RSNA annual meeting, the World Manufacturing Forum, and more. HP is holding an...
World’s Largest 3D Printed Boat Unveiled by Al Seer Marine
When astonishing case studies emerge in the additive manufacturing (AM) sector, it’s become a habit of mine to approach them with caution. After all, there are so many dubious stories...
3D Printing News Briefs, October 21, 2023: 3D Printed Molds, Bridges, & More
We’ll kick things off in 3D Printing News Briefs with business, and then move on to critical spare parts for the battleground, an analysis of 3D printed vs. wood molds,...
Intuitive Machines Debuts $40M Hub for Lunar Ambitions and 3D Printing Tech
Best known for its pioneering work in lunar exploration and its development of the Nova-C lunar lander, Intuitive Machines (Nasdaq: LUNR) has marked yet another significant milestone. The leading space...
Upload your 3D Models and get them printed quickly and efficiently.


text:
CNBC profiled Axon Enterprise (one of my favourite stocks) in a piece titled “Taser-maker Axon is looking a lot more like Apple, Amazon, and so is the future of law enforcement”. The company recently hired Jeff Kunins from Amazon to oversee their product and software development roadmap.
Nintendo shares hit a 19-month high as the Switch became available for sale in China for the first time.
Do blockbuster movies or blockbuster games take more people to develop? Game publisher Casino Kings counted the credits of thousands of video game and movie titles to see how they compare.
Louis Vuitton launched a League of Legends apparel line which includes a $5,650 leather biker jacket and a $2,420 hoodie, which is a bit of a step-up from the $10 in-game character skins they launched back in October.
? Virtual and Augmented Reality
NFL team The Baltimore Ravens debuted a mixed-reality raven which was viewable by viewers at home and people watching the screens within the stadium. It was very reminiscent of the dragon at the 2017 League of Legends World Championship.
WSJ explores digital teleportation (also known as live delivery), which is the term for combining virtual reality, drones, and fast wireless networks so that you can experience far-off locations (through a drone) in real-time.
? Chips and Computing
We’ve discussed RISC-V architecture gaining traction several times before (Innovation Wrap #9, Innovation Wrap #11). Now Samsung have disclosed they’ll use RISC-V architecture in several modules in next year’s 5G smartphones, such as the 5G front-end RF modules and the AI image sensors. Previously these modules would be based on Arm’s architecture.
TSMC is on track to start 5nm commercial production in the 2nd half of 2020, and is expected to start 3nm volume production in 2022, according to JK Wang, the company’s senior vice president for fab operations.
ASML presented a slide with Intel’s planned 10-year roadmap at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM). Intel expects to return to its 2-year cadence of process node improvements, with 5nm in 2023 (expected to be equivalent to TSMC’s 3nm) and 1.4nm in 2029.
? Blockchain and Crypto
China may be just about to launch its digital currency in two cities, Shenzhen and Suzhou. The digital currency electronic payment (DCEP) is meant to be a direct replacement for physical cash. It’s been estimated that mobile payments already made up more than 80% of all payments in China in 2018, up from less than 20% in 2013.
? Robotics and Drones
PrecisionHawk, a drones-as-a-service company, has raised $32 million in a Series E round, bringing their total funding to date to $136 million. The company provides remote sensing and data processing services in the agriculture, construction, mining, and energy industries.
Turkey decided that having drones with machine guns was a good idea.
A drone with a machine gun attached can hit targets with high precision, according to its makers. Turkey is set to become the first country to have the drone, when it gets a delivery this month.
The 25-kilogram drone has eight rotating blades to get it in the air. Its machine gun carries 200 rounds of ammunition and can fire single shots or 15-round bursts.
Russia’s Military of Defense is expected to start testing swarms of ground robots in the first half of 2020. Testing will centre on swarms of the Marker unmanned ground vehicle, which was originally unveiled in February.
? Augmented Humans
The US military is planning ahead about cyborg supersoldiers. A report titled “Cyborg Soldiers 2050: Human / Machine Fusion and the Implications for the Future of the DOD” includes four case studies for how soldiers could enhanced by machines in the future. The case studies looked at cybernetically enhanced eyes, optogenetic musculoskeletal control systems, auditory enhancements, and a direct interface between the human brain and machines. Poor public perception was highlighted as a barrier to mass adoption of cybernetics.
“Across popular social and open-source media, literature, and film, the use of machines to enhance the physical condition of the human species has received a distorted and dystopian narrative in the name of entertainment,” the study said. “Defense leadership should understand that negative public and social perceptions will need to be overcome, if these technologies are to be fielded.”
In Japan, some older people have started using exoskeletons to help them keep working as they age. An exoskeleton suit made by Daigo Orihara (pictured below) is worn like a backpack, weighs less than 4 kilograms, and makes it easier to lift and carry heavy objects.
The City of New Orleans declared a state of emergency and shut down its computers after they detected ransomware in their systems. No requests for a ransom were made.
A hacker breached a Ring home security camera which is fairly unnerving from a privacy perspective, though the problem wasn’t with the device itself but rather lax password management, likely due to using insecure passwords across multiple sites.
In a bid to improve password security, Chrome will start automatically scanning your passwords against data breaches.
⚡ Other Snippets
Facebook unveiled the Deepfake Detection Challenge (DFDC) at NeurIPS 2019. It’s a competition set up by Facebook, AWS, Microsoft, and the Partnership on AI’s Media Integrity Steering Committee to identify videos with fake facial or voice manipulations from a dataset of 100,000 videos. The entry deadline is March 3, 2020, submissions close on March 31, 2020, and the competition has a prize pool of US$1 million (with US$500,000 to first place).
After SpaceX launched its first set of Starlink satellites in May, people noticed they were quite bright. Now the company is trying to make the satellites dimmer by testing an experimental coating that aims to make them less reflective and invisible to the naked eye.
China became the biggest producer of high-quality research in chemistry for the first time, unseating the United States, according to Nature Index.
Researchers in South Korea have created prototype solar cells that are as transparent as tinted glass by etching tiny holes in the material. Transparent solar cells could be used to replace windows in office blocks that have limited roof space for traditional solar.
Veritasium has put out a 21 minute video on how to slow and possibly reverse aging. The video is built around an interview with David Sinclair, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School (see Innovation Wrap #11), so while it’s not particularly new, it’s still a fascinating topic.


text:
iProspect makes search audits accessible for SMBs
Those insights can help perform campaign ROI.
“iProspect is constantly looking for ways to solve the business challenges of our clientsthrough new and inventive digital performance strategies and tools,” said Jeremy Hull, associate director of paid search, iProspect. “With our new audit service, small businesses can now receive the same analysis and insights that we provide to our portfolio of clients, which include some of the world’s largest and most prestigious brands.”
In the online space smaller businesses have a unique ability to not appear small – and to out-perform even large, international brands. With the right analytics search campaigns can be tweaked for better performance. The iProspect tools begin by analyzing Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter performance. From there recommendations are made to improve performance, giving brands a competitive edge.
Here’s how search is breaking down: comScore reports just over 17 billion explicit core searches were performed in April 2012, 66% of those through Google and 15% through Microsoft. Nearly 70% of searches through Google’s engine included organic search results. Overall search queries dropped about 7% for the month.
Meanwhile Experian Hitwise reports Google holds a 66% visit share (week ending May 19) while Microsoft’s Bing held a 10.23% visit share and Yahoo search held a 10% visit share. As for what people were shopping for (week ending May 26), online brands hit the top of the list. Queries for Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo and Craigslist topped the list of most-searched terms on the Google engine.


text:
Nintendo Switch had a stellar first year, and three major game releases were the biggest drivers of that success. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild helped Switch to a strong debut, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (despite being an enhanced port) had a phenomenal launch a month later, and Super Mario Odyssey was a massive seller during the holiday 2017 season.
A year later, these three games are still selling well, helping Switch achieve yet another sales record. Speaking with IGN, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime revealed that all three titles are owned by over 50% of Switch players in the United States. It’s common to see high attach rates for hit games on a brand new console, but typically that percentage drops over time.
“Those three games continue to attach to hardware at better than 50 percent. Just think about that. For everyone who owns a system, more than one out of every two have bought Zelda, more than one out of every two have bought Kart, more than one out of every two have bought Odyssey. That’s never happened in U.S. video game history.”
— Reggie Fils-Aime
Those three mega-hits have each sold over 10 million copies just on Switch, and two of them have also sold millions more copies on Wii U. A 50% attach rate is nearly impossible to maintain for a console’s entire life cycle, but all three titles are “evergreens” that continue to sell well as new customers join the Switch family.


text:
|By Marketwired .||
|November 16, 2012 09:45 AM EST||
WOLFSBURG, GERMANY -- (Marketwire) -- 11/16/12 -- The Volkswagen Group
- 10.2 percent increase to 7.50 million vehicles* in January to October period
- 14.6 percent rise in month of October to 788,700 vehicles*
- Group Board Member for Sales Christian Klingler: "Volkswagen Group developed very well in October. Market uncertainty continues, particularly in Western Europe."
The Volkswagen Group achieved a 10.2 percent increase in worldwide deliveries from January to October 2012, handing over 7.50 (January-October 2011: 6.80)* million vehicles to customers and thus delivering well over seven million units for the first time in this period. The Group recorded a 14.6 percent rise for the month of October, delivering 788,700 (October 2011: 688,000)* units. "The Volkswagen Group developed very well in October. We again put in a strong performance in North America, China and also Russia. However, market uncertainty continues, particularly in Western Europe," Group Board Member for Sales Christian Klingler said in Wolfsburg on Friday.
Deliveries on the American continent continued to develop well with the number of vehicles handed over in the North America region from January to October growing 25.4 percent to 681,200 (543,000) units, of which 481,100 (360,400; +33.5 percent) were delivered in the United States. The Volkswagen Group handed over 842,200 (777,200; +8.4 percent) vehicles in South America during the same period, of which 644,000 (586,900; +9.7 percent) were delivered to Brazilian customers.
The Group also recorded very satisfactory figures in the Asia-Pacific region, where 2.56 (2.15; +19.0 percent) million vehicles were delivered to customers in the period to October, of which 2.26 (1.89; +19.6 percent) million units were delivered in China, the region's largest single market. In India, deliveries grew 3.6 percent to 94,900 (91,700) vehicles.
Group brands delivered 3.10 (3.07; +0.9 percent) million vehicles on the overall European market from January to October. As a result of the continued difficult market situation, Europe's largest automaker handed over 1.57 (1.67; -5.8 percent) million vehicles to customers in Western Europe (excluding Germany). In the home market of Germany, the company grew deliveries to 994,500 (960,800; +3.5 percent). The Volkswagen Group continued to achieve growth in Central and Eastern Europe, where 534,600 (441,500; +21.1 percent) vehicles were handed over to customers, of which 262,200 (178,700; +46.7 percent) were delivered in Russia, the region's largest single market.
Outline of developments at Group brands
The Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand delivered 4.72 (4.24; +11.2 percent) million vehicles to customers worldwide in the period to October. The brand developed particularly well in the Central and Eastern Europe region, where 223,100 (173,100; +28.9 percent) units were delivered. Volkswagen Passenger Cars handed over 508,500 (404,900; +25.6 percent) vehicles to customers in the North America region, while the figure was 1.89 (1.61; +17.4 percent) million for the Asia-Pacific region.
Audi delivered 1.22 (1.08; +12.9 percent) million vehicles worldwide from January to October. The premium brand from Ingolstadt again performed well in North America, where customers took possession of 136,600 (116,100; +17.6 percent) new vehicles. In the Asia-Pacific region, Audi delivered 393,500 (305,100) vehicles during the same period, an increase of 29.0 percent.
The sports car manufacturer Porsche, which became a Volkswagen Group brand on August 1, 2012, delivered a total of 34,500 vehicles from August to October. Demand for models built by the Stuttgart-based carmaker was particularly strong in the Asia-Pacific region, where 10,200 units were handed over, and in the North America region, where deliveries also ran at 10,000.
The KODA brand delivered a total of 795,100 (741,800; +7.2 percent) vehicles from January to October. The Czech automaker performed particularly well in Central and Eastern Europe, where 214,900 (188,000; +14.3 percent) units were handed over, and in the Asia-Pacific region, where 240,900 (218,600; +10.2 percent) vehicles were delivered.
SEAT delivered 265,200 (294,000; -9.8 percent) vehicles worldwide in the period to October, mainly as a result of the difficult market situation in Western Europe. The Spanish brand did, however, grow deliveries in Germany to 51,200 (44,900, +13.8 percent) units, in the UK, where 33,700 (31,100; +8.4 percent) vehicles were handed over to customers, and in Mexico, where 17,000 (14,200; +20.0 percent) vehicles were delivered.
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles grew deliveries 5.0 percent to 455,400 (433,700) units in the ten-month period. 103,600 (100,600; +3.0 percent) vehicles were handed over to customers in the home market of Germany. Deliveries to the rest of Europe also developed well. As a result, vehicle deliveries on the overall European market rose to 271,900 (263,500; +3.2 percent) units.
*) including deliveries by the Porsche brand from August 1, 2012; excluding MAN and Scania
In the enterprise today, connected IoT devices are everywhere – both inside and outside corporate environments. The need to identify, manage, control and secure a quickly growing web of connections and outside devices is making the already challenging task of security even more important, and onerous. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Rich Boyer, CISO and Chief Architect for Security at NTT i3, will discuss new ways of thinking and the approaches needed to address the emerging challenges of securit...
Feb. 19, 2017 09:45 AM EST Reads: 1,132
TechTarget storage websites are the best online information resource for news, tips and expert advice for the storage, backup and disaster recovery markets. By creating abundant, high-quality editorial content across more than 140 highly targeted technology-specific websites, TechTarget attracts and nurtures communities of technology buyers researching their companies' information technology needs. By understanding these buyers' content consumption behaviors, TechTarget creates the purchase inte...
Feb. 19, 2017 09:45 AM EST Reads: 720
"We host and fully manage cloud data services, whether we store, the data, move the data, or run analytics on the data," stated Kamal Shannak, Senior Development Manager, Cloud Data Services, IBM, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 18th Cloud Expo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Feb. 19, 2017 09:15 AM EST Reads: 5,022
As cloud adoption continues to transform business, today's global enterprises are challenged with managing a growing amount of information living outside of the data center. The rapid adoption of IoT and increasingly mobile workforce are exacerbating the problem. Ensuring secure data sharing and efficient backup poses capacity and bandwidth considerations as well as policy and regulatory compliance issues.
Feb. 19, 2017 09:15 AM EST Reads: 1,552
Many private cloud projects were built to deliver self-service access to development and test resources. While those clouds delivered faster access to resources, they lacked visibility, control and security needed for production deployments. In their session at 18th Cloud Expo, Steve Anderson, Product Manager at BMC Software, and Rick Lefort, Principal Technical Marketing Consultant at BMC Software, discussed how a cloud designed for production operations not only helps accelerate developer inno...
Feb. 19, 2017 09:15 AM EST Reads: 1,483
Almost two-thirds of companies either have or soon will have IoT as the backbone of their business. Though, IoT is far more complex than most firms expected with a majority of IoT projects having failed. How can you not get trapped in the pitfalls? In his session at @ThingsExpo, Tony Shan, Chief IoTologist at Wipro, will introduce a holistic method of IoTification, which is the process of IoTifying the existing technology portfolios and business models to adopt and leverage IoT. He will delve in...
Feb. 19, 2017 09:15 AM EST Reads: 1,006
SYS-CON Events announced today that Conference Guru has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 6–8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. A valuable conference experience generates new contacts, sales leads, potential strategic partners and potential investors; helps gather competitive intelligence and even provides inspiration for new products and services. Conference Guru works with conference organizers to pass great dea...
Feb. 19, 2017 07:45 AM EST Reads: 1,669
SYS-CON Events announced today that LeaseWeb USA, a cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider, will exhibit at the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. LeaseWeb is one of the world's largest hosting brands. The company helps customers define, develop and deploy IT infrastructure tailored to their exact business needs, by combining various kinds cloud solutions.
Feb. 19, 2017 07:30 AM EST Reads: 1,394
"When you think about the data center today, there's constant evolution, The evolution of the data center and the needs of the consumer of technology change, and they change constantly," stated Matt Kalmenson, VP of Sales, Service and Cloud Providers at Veeam Software, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 18th Cloud Expo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Feb. 19, 2017 06:45 AM EST Reads: 5,353
Data is the fuel that drives the machine learning algorithmic engines and ultimately provides the business value. In his session at Cloud Expo, Ed Featherston, a director and senior enterprise architect at Collaborative Consulting, discussed the key considerations around quality, volume, timeliness, and pedigree that must be dealt with in order to properly fuel that engine.
Feb. 19, 2017 05:45 AM EST Reads: 4,719
Zerto exhibited at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which took place at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, in June 2016. Zerto is committed to keeping enterprise and cloud IT running 24/7 by providing innovative, simple, reliable and scalable business continuity software solutions. Through the Zerto Cloud Continuity Platform™, organizations can seamlessly move and protect virtualized workloads between public, private and hybrid clouds. The company’s flagship product, Zerto Virtual...
Feb. 19, 2017 05:45 AM EST Reads: 806
WebRTC defines no default signaling protocol, causing fragmentation between WebRTC silos. SIP and XMPP provide possibilities, but come with considerable complexity and are not designed for use in a web environment. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Matthew Hodgson, technical co-founder of the Matrix.org, discussed how Matrix is a new non-profit Open Source Project that defines both a new HTTP-based standard for VoIP & IM signaling and provides reference implementations.
Feb. 19, 2017 05:00 AM EST Reads: 4,662
The Internet of Things is clearly many things: data collection and analytics, wearables, Smart Grids and Smart Cities, the Industrial Internet, and more. Cool platforms like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Intel's Galileo and Edison, and a diverse world of sensors are making the IoT a great toy box for developers in all these areas. In this Power Panel at @ThingsExpo, moderated by Conference Chair Roger Strukhoff, panelists discussed what things are the most important, which will have the most profound e...
Feb. 19, 2017 04:00 AM EST Reads: 10,970
We all know that data growth is exploding and storage budgets are shrinking. Instead of showing you charts on about how much data there is, in his General Session at 17th Cloud Expo, Scott Cleland, Senior Director of Product Marketing at HGST, showed how to capture all of your data in one place. After you have your data under control, you can then analyze it in one place, saving time and resources.
Feb. 19, 2017 03:00 AM EST Reads: 3,815
Cognitive Computing is becoming the foundation for a new generation of solutions that have the potential to transform business. Unlike traditional approaches to building solutions, a cognitive computing approach allows the data to help determine the way applications are designed. This contrasts with conventional software development that begins with defining logic based on the current way a business operates. In her session at 18th Cloud Expo, Judith S. Hurwitz, President and CEO of Hurwitz & ...
Feb. 19, 2017 03:00 AM EST Reads: 1,533


text:
Antwerp World Diamond Centre unveiled boots covered in diamonds, worth $3,1 million and thus beated some previous leaders in this field such as $420,000 Kathryn Wilson’s Diamond Shoes and $150,000, Eternal Diamond Stiletto. This pair of diamond boots are world’s most expensive and according to many also the ugliest in the world, beating famous UGGs. The paisley-patterned black leather ankle boots are decked out in 4,783 grams of gold and some 39,083 natural fancy colored champagne, gray, and pink diamonds totaling 1,550 carats.
It took some 30,000 hours to designing the boots and selecting and setting the diamonds, which came from Antwerp-based companies Diarough/UNI-Design and A.F. Vandevorst. It’s cross-shape logo on the boots is made from extremely rare reddish-pink diamonds.
These unique and extraordinary boots were showcased at the Business of Design Week in Hong Kong this week, to over 400 VIPs, including Queen Mathilde of Belgium and Kris Peeters, minister-president of the government of Flanders.


text:
In the past few weeks, Instagram has been announcing a bunch of new features for its users. Today, they’ve unveiled yet another tool on Instagram Stories to provide Instagrammers an even more interactive experience. The emoji slider is a variation of the polling sticker for Stories that uses a sliding scale featuring an animated emoji.
The previously announced speed boost of Lightroom Classic is here. Today, Adobe has released the latest update of Lightroom Classic, version 7.2. It mainly focuses on performance, but also makes it easier to organize your files. The latest update makes Lightroom Classic faster, which was one of the main concerns of its users. However, it seems not everyone will experience the speed boost, at least not yet. It all depends on your computer’s hardware.
Not long ago, Adobe issued a sneak peek video of their new, curvy Pen Tool. Starting from today, the latest Photoshop CC update will have the new Curvature Pen Tool included. This should make the selections easier than ever before, and I guess it also makes it easier for beginners to use the tool. Along with the Curvature Pen Tool, Adobe has introduced some other improvements, too. So, let’s take a deeper look.
Today, Adobe quietly launched an update to its Photoshop Mix and Fix iOS apps. Along with the updates come a collection of new features and tools to help streamline mobile photography workflows.
Today, Adobe announced the release of its latest update for Lightroom CC and Adobe Camera Raw.
Most of the changes to the programs are behind the scenes via bug fixes that have been needing to be addressed, but alongside the bug fixes come a few updated UI elements as well as support for a heaping list of cameras and lenses.
Last week, Adobe accidentally leaked the details for its upcoming 2.0 update for Android. Now, it’s officially out and ready to be downloaded by Android users across the globe.
Inside the new update a plethora of new features, tools and visual adjustments to help improve the capture, edits and sharing of photos while on the go.
It might not be Adobe’s most widely used program for photo management, but Adobe Bridge plays a vital role in many photographers’ workflow, mine included.
Today, Adobe has unveiled version 6.2 of Adobe Bridge CC, a substantial update that brings a plethora of new features to the table.
Regardless of your thoughts on Lomography and their analogue antics, it’s hard to deny their ongoing success with bringing long-lost lenses back from the grave. Today, they continue that trend by officially announcing their latest ‘Art’ lens, a 50mm f/1.5 lens called the Jupiter 3+ Art.


text:
Growing up, my parents always told me, ” You can tell a lot about a man by the way he dresses.” For that reason, I always try to keep an eye out for the different draft day suits worn by athletes about to be welcomed into the world of professional sports. With the first round of the NFL Draft taking place last night, here’s a breakdown of the fashion statements made by the Class of 2013’s elite:
1. Chiefs – Eric Fisher, B-
Nothing overly flashy or bold from the top pick this year, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Overall, Fisher’s ensemble worked fairly well.


text:
NEW RESOURCES UCLA: Former mayor and UCLA alumnus Tom Bradley focus of new online archive. “The UCLA Film &Television Archive has created a digital portal showcasing local news footage of former Los […]
News and resources covering social media, search engines, databases, archives, and other such online information collections. Since 1998.
NEW RESOURCES The Verge: Check out this incredible archive of Apple’s promotional photos and ads. “Graphic designer and marketer Sam Henri Gold has assembled an incredible archive of Apple’s promotional materials that […]
Hong Kong Fish, Google Custom Search, Amazon Alexa, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 15, 2019
NEW RESOURCES The Standard: 22 new species on Hong Kong reefs . “A local marine conservation group discovered at least 22 species of fish that are new to Hong Kong and launched […]
NEW RESOURCES National Archives: NARA Digitizes More than 500 Volumes of U.S. Navy Muster Rolls. “The National Archives partnered with the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO), […]
Hazel Beamer Cutler, Snapchat, Trinidad and Tobago Archives, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 14, 2019
NEW RESOURCES Digital Library of Georgia: Thomasville History Center’s Cutler Collection now freely available online. “The digitized items from this collection consist primarily of diaries, letters, and family papers dating from 1800-1980 […]