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- H1Z1: King of the Kill gets new Ignition competitive mode
- Wargame: Red Dragon – The Netherlands now available on Steam
- Dambusters releases statement regarding Homefront: The Revolution
- See the new regions in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine
- Fallout 4 – Far Harbor now available for console, PC
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Developer- and Publisher-specific Articles: Law Enforcer Pack
Square Enix has announced that United Front Games plans on releasing a series of add-on packs over the next six months for their open-world action title Sleeping Dogs. The first five drops, detailed below, are scheduled to launch over the next three months. The first set will add new missions, new outfits, new cars, and new weapons. And to top it off, the Monkey King Pack will have Wei adopt the form of Sun Wukong.


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Amazon will be hiring in Erie for its new facility.
According to the Facebook post from the City of Erie, the company will begin hiring starting the week of June 6th.
Anyone that is interested in a position is asked to text “Erie now” to 77088 to sign up for alerts.
As of now, the only position posted was for the position of assistant manager of delivery operations.
Amazon announced plans back in January to open a distribution center in the 2400 block of West 23rd Street, formerly known as the Ansco building.
The launch date is set for July 14th.
To learn more about the position available, check out the posting on Amazon.com.

domain: news


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Post offices ready for Sunday rate hike
A visit to a local post office in the next day or so might mean a line that's a little longer than usual, thanks to Sunday's rate hike.
The price of a first-class stamp will increase from 37 to 39 cents, the postcard rate will rise a penny to 24 cents, priority mail from $3.85 to $4.05 for as much as a pound and express mail from $13.65 to $14.40 for as much as half a pound.
Life at the Rodd Street post office has been a little crazy recently, at a time when it's usually slow because the holiday rush is finished, said Robin Gars, customer service supervisor. People are calling with questions or stopping by for stamps. The post office will add staff Saturday because it's likely to get busy, she said.
The post office has plenty of 2-cent stamps for regular letters and 1-cent stamps for postcards at both post offices for those who need to use up their stamps after the rates go up, she said. The new 39-cent stamps are available in books, sheets and rolls.
Stamps can't be returned to the post office, she pointed out.
People who want to buy stamps by mail may receive them by filling out the correct form, and carriers in rural areas are equipped to sell stamps to customers, she said.
Uncle Sam will allow a little grace during the transition, said Mike Szatkowski, manager of business mail entry and based in Grand Rapids. If Saturday collection at a drop box is 5 p.m. and a person drops off an envelope at 6, the person may use the 37-cent stamp because it was dropped off before midnight Sunday. But once the transition is over, those "postage due" notices will start showing up, and they'll go to the recipient of the letter, not the sender, he said.


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Online food ordering and delivery platform Foodpanda India today said it is planning to hire 60,000 delivery riders in the next two months to ensure seamless delivery experience. Also Read - Ola Mission Electric 2022 event highlights in pics: Here’s all that was announced
The company is also aiming to increase its order volume substantially by creating a seamless food ordering experience and supporting it with robust delivery logistics, Foodpanda said in a statement. Also Read - Ola’s electric car could arrive on August 15, hints CEO Bhavish Aggarwal
Commenting on the plans, Foodpanda CEO Pranay Jivrajka said, “We understand that there is a constant need to scale up logistics to meet the growing needs of the business and to address that, we will be hiring 60,000 riders in a short span of two months.” The company also aims to establish strategic and long-term relationships with partner restaurants and constantly add more restaurants to the platform, it added. Also Read - Uber-Zomato deal: Cab aggregator likely to sell stake in Zomato for Rs 2,938 crore
“We are going to actively leverage Ola’s technology and logistical prowess to ensure that we deliver a seamless and delightful food experience to millions of customers,” Jivrajka said.
The company has also launched The Crave Party collection on its platform for users across its top priority markets, Foodpanda said.
This is published unedited from the PTI feed.


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Don’t worry, procrastinators: You’ll be able to make the iPhone 5s a last-minute holiday gift. MacRumors notes that shipping times for the iPhone 5s have fallen to just 1 to 3 days, which means that you’ll be able to slip it under your Christmas tree as long as you order it on December 22nd. The improved shipping times come amid reports that Apple has shut down some of its iPhone 5c production and has shifted it over to iPhone 5s production in response to higher-than-expected demand. But while supplies of Apple’s flagship smartphone seem to have caught up with demand, you still shouldn’t expect to see the Retina iPad mini in stock until after the holiday season as Apple is still apparently having trouble producing enough of them.
This article was originally published on BGR.com


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Over the weekend David Cameron revealed he plans to write a book in a designer garden shed, or 'shepherd's hut' that has been installed at his family home.
Cameron, who resigned last year, said his children already have plans for the hut, which start at £14,500 but can cost as much as £25,000: "My children want to use it as a Wendy house.
"I want to use it as a book-writing room and my son also wants it as an alternative bedroom. So, quite a lot of competition."
Luxury sheds and huts are becoming increasingly popular among the middle class so we've rounded up 10 of the best to provide you with some inspiration for your own garden.


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The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents service providers and gear vendors, said that the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme will boost local manufacturing, exports and also create employment opportunities.
“India is already the second largest telecom market globally and this will go a long way in making the country a global hub for telecom innovation,” said SP Kochhar, director general, COAI.
Finnish gear maker Nokia through its India handle said the guidelines were an encouraging initiative by the government towards making India a global manufacturing hub. “Nokia is committed to this vision with our Chennai factory that manufactures telecom equipment from 2G to 5G-making for India and the world.”
The Telecom Equipment Manufacturers’ Association (TEMA) which represents domestic telecom companies lauded the separate financial outlay of Rs 1000 crore earmarked for MSMEs.
“TEMA is particularly happy that threshold limits for investment has been made quite reasonable at Rs 10 crores for MSME and Rs 100 crores for non MSMEs. DoT is complemented on a very out of box initiative to reserve three applicants in each category only for domestic companies,” said NK Goyal, chairman, TEMA.
Sunil Vachani, executive chairman, Dixon Technologies said, "We have formulated a plan to invest in manufacturing consumer premise equipment, switches and routers. Dixon has also announced a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises to manufacture telecom gear in India."
“With the already reduced income-tax rate for domestic manufacturing companies, the announcement of the PLI scheme will make India a lot more manufacturing friendly destination,” said Ritesh Kumar, Partner, IndusLaw.
Kunal Chaudhary, Partner, EY India said, "With a qualification criterion of global manufacturing turnover of INR 250 crores and INR 10,000 crores for Domestic and Global Companies respectively, 15% weightage to R&D expense and incentive to be given only to a maximum of 10 non MSME companies, it would be interesting to see how the industry works to meet these criteria."
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- Apple: Need Solid Reason to Take Down Betting Apps
Apple has told Indian officials that it needs a "concrete reason or a legal requirement" to fully comply with the Centre’s directive to take down betting apps from its App Store, according to people directly aware of the matter.Political Stability Helping Drive Investments to India
Chip Bergh, the global chief executive of denim maker Levi Strauss & Co., said political stability has helped Indians stay optimistic about the future, driving consumer demand as well as investment by multinationals.FAME Electric 2-wheeler Beneficiary Tally Slashed
Nearly every second electric two-wheeler sold under the Centre’s ambitious ₹10,000-crore electric vehicle promotion scheme was based on false localisation claims, an investigation has found, said people with knowledge of the matter. This has prompted the government to slash its official sales tally, they said.
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(Pocket-lint) - Samsung Display is reportedly working with Google to supply its ultra-thin glass (UTG) and flexible OLED panel for a forthcoming foldable Pixel phone.
It is said that the parts will enter production in October 2021, and be supplied to Google fully constructed for a possible phone launch by the end of the year.
Alongside the radically redesigned Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, Google is said to be working on its own foldable smartphone. There are relatively few details on the device as yet, but TheElec reports that Samsung Display will supply 7.6-inch screens using OLED and the company's proprietary UTG technology as part of the manufacturing process.
This adds weight to previous news from Korea that also claimed Samsung's display arm is working with the US firm.
Neither report comes as a surprise. Not only does Samsung Display work with many other manufacturers, the two companies are partnered on the new Wear OS project.
UTG bendable displays are stronger and have a better feel in comparison with the plastic layer used on previous foldable devices. Google clearly fancies a bit of that action.


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CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Better performance in the U.S. and Canada, , along with cost cuts and a one-time gain pushed Pepsi Bottling Group's second-quarter profit higher, the company said Wednesday.
Before the start of trading, Pepsi Bottling
Revenue came in at $3.27 billion, down from $3.52 billion, in the face of currency headwinds and softer volume.
The average estimate of analysts polled by FactSet Research had been for the company to earn 73 cents a share on revenue of $3.46 billion.
Worldwide case volume was down 4% on the quarter with the U.S. and Canada off 1% and European volume declining 15%. In Mexico, volume was down 7%. Net revenue per case fell 3%..
Looking ahead, the company said it expects earnings for the year to be at the high end of a range of $2.30 to $2.40, including a 13-cent-a-share hit from currency translation. The current Wall Street estimate is for the company to earn $2.36 a share.
Along with cost cuts, Pepsi Bottling is "benefiting from improved carbonated soft drink trends in the U.S., as well as encouraging developments in the commodity and foreign currency markets," said Eric Foss, chief executive, in the earnings report. "All of this has driven our performance above expectations for two consecutive quarters despite the challenging macroeconomic environment."
Last month, the company tacked on a nickel a share to its estimate for the quarter, raising it to a range of 70 cents to 74 cents, citing better carbonated-soft-drink performance in the U.S., decreased volatility in foreign currencies, and commodity price deflation, along with cost cuts.
Also in the quarter, Pepsi Bottling's board of directors rejected a proposal from PepsiCo
Shares of Pepsi Bottling closed down about 1% at $33.65 Tuesday.


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Samsung mass produces industry's first 3D NAND flash chips
The 3D flash technology lays a foundation for next generation 1Tbit chips
Computerworld - Samsung Electronics Monday said it is now mass producing chips that stack layers of data-storing silicon like a microscopic skyscraper, creating what will undeniably be the NAND flash technology for the immediate future.
The move lets Samsung boast an industry first, three-dimensional (3D) Vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory that breaks through current 2D or planar NAND scaling limits.
Once used to create embedded memory and solid-state drives, Samsung's V-NAND will boast capacities ranging from 128GB to 1TB, "depending on customer demand."
"In the future, they could go considerably higher than that," said Steve Weinger, director of NAND Marketing for Samsung Semiconductor.
The 3D NAND will provides two to 10 times higher reliability and twice the write performance, according to Samsung.
The most-dense process for creating cells to store data on current planar NAND is between 10 nanometer (nm) to 19nm in size. To give some idea of how small that is, a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter -- a human hair is 3,000 times thicker than NAND flash made with 25nm process technology. There are 25 million nanometers in an inch.
Samsung's 3D NAND technology achieves gains in in both area ratio and performance, the company said. The new 3D V-NAND will be used for a wide range of consumer electronics and enterprise applications, including embedded NAND storage and solid-state drives (SSDs).
Samsung's new V-NAND offers a 128-bit density in a single chip, the same as that now produced by planar NAND technology companies such as Intel and Micron. Many chips are put together to create 128GB to 1TB cards that are embedded in mobile devices or used in SSDs.
Samsung's V-NAND, however, uses cell structure based on 3D Charge Trap Flash (CTF) technology and vertical interconnect process technology to link the 3D cell array. By applying the latter technologies, Samsung's 3D V-NAND can provide over twice the scaling of 20nm-class planar NAND flash.
One of the most important technological achievements of the new Samsung V-NAND announcement is that the proprietary vertical interconnect process technology can stack as many as 24 cell layers vertically, using special etching technology that connects the layers electronically by punching holes from the highest layer to the bottom.
While stacking layers of NAND may produce an image of thicker chips in users' minds, Samsung said the increase "is negligible compared to the most up-to-date planar NAND flash memory chip" -- less than a few microns in terms of height increase.
"The vertical layers in V-NAND cells are measured in nanometers and so stacking them would not make much difference on a micrometer scale," a Samsung spokesman wrote in an email response to Computerworld.
It's not yet known what the limits will be for stacking cell layers in 3D NAND memory, analysts said.
"Right now it's 24. The next generation, it may be 32. Then that'll increase," said Gregory Wong, founder and principal analyst at research firm Forward Insights. "The real estate stays the same, but you can keep adding levels. And, by adding levels, you can reduce the cost per bit because there are more memory cells, but the real estate to store them does not increase."
With the new vertical structure, Samsung can enable higher density NAND flash memory products by increasing the 3D cell layers without having to continue planar scaling, which has become incredibly difficult to achieve. As the process becomes smaller and smaller in planar NAND flash technology, electrons more and more often leak through thinner cell walls creating data errors, requiring ever increasingly sophisticated error correction code.
But 3D NAND also has its limits, and it's expected to reach those by the end of this decade, according to Wong.
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Posted: Wednesday, August 6th 2014 at 9:46am
Clarkesville police issue scam alert
By Rob Moore Editor
CLARKESVILLE - Telephone scams are a persistent problem across the region, and recently some Clarkesville businesses have been affected by them.
Capt. Danny Clouatre, assistant police chief for Clarkesville, discussed the problem.
"We have reports that merchants, and possibly citizens as well, are being called by individuals pretending to be representatives of Georgia Power or some other service provider stating there is a past-due balance on the account," Clouatre said. "The scammer then demands payment or threatens service termination/disconnection."
Usually the scammer demands that the person get a GreenDot card, MoneyPak or other prepaid credit card.
One Clarkesville business fell victim to the scam.
The would-be scammer told the business operator the account was three months behind on its bill, for a total of $1,798. The caller demanded a $498 minimum payment, stipulating that it be in the form of a MoneyPak card in minimum amounts of $200, Clouatre said.
"The owners were in a position to where they were not 100 percent sure it had been paid," Clouatre said.
After thinking about the call, the businessperson called Clarkesville police.
"They weren't out any money, but they did fall for the scam," Clouatre said.
Clouatre reminds people to beware callers demanding money by telephone, as most utilities do not do phone collections.
"If you didn't initiate the call, don't provide personal or credit information over the phone," Clouatre said.
A second scam involved callers pretending to be selling advertisements and demanding payment.
"These scammers have been persistent, making several calls to businesses until payment is made," Clouatre said.
The callers have continued to call after being told not to call back.
"That's just a variation of the same scam, trying to get the GreenDot or MoneyPak cards," he said.
Clarkesville police encourage people to beware of unsolicited phone calls telling them to pay money for anything they didn't order, including paying a small amount to collect a larger amount of money.
Clarkesville residents or merchants who have been contacted by scammers can call (706) 754-5390.
© Copyright 2015 AccessNorthGa.com
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.


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Today we have some interesting news to share about Suda51’s No More Heroes series, of which the third installment is set to launch on Nintendo Switch.
The Digital Game Rating Committee of Taiwan appears to have posted a new listing for the original No More Heroes on Nintendo Switch. The first game in the now cult classic series originally launched on the Wii in 2007, with enhanced ports launching on PS3 and Xbox360 in 2010.
In an interview a few years back No More Heroes series director Goichi “Suda 51” Suda mentioned they were in talks with Marvelous entertainment about making the previous entries in the series available on Switch. If this listing is accurate, it seems they were finally successful in convincing Marvelous to go ahead with port.
Of course,this does not 100% confirm that the game will be heading to Switch – as publishers and developers can change their minds from time to time. Regardless, we’ll be sure to keep an eye out for more updates as they come.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.


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Honda has announced that the 10th generation of its Accord sedan will make its debut for 2018 and will be fully revealed later this fall. That timing shouldn’t come as much of a surprise (the car has been on a lockstep five-year product cadence), but two decisions break with recent tradition: First, the V-6 is being booted from the lineup in favor of a new turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four. Second, the new Accord sedan will offer more ways to get a six-speed manual gearbox, making it available with either nonhybrid engine—not just with the base engine as in today’s model.
There’s other big news under the hood: Every Accord but the hybrid will use a turbocharged four-cylinder. The new base engine is a turbo 1.5-liter four that’s essentially the same engine used in the current Civic and CR-V. Those who don’t choose the manual will get a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT), while the automatic option for the 2.0-liter turbo models is Honda’s own 10-speed automatic—a version of the transmission in the new 2018 Odyssey, although using different gearing and distinct torque-converter calibration.
Honda hasn’t yet released specs for the new 2.0-liter turbo. Chief engineer Junji Yamano confirmed that it uses the same block as the 2.0-liter in the Civic Type R, but said much else about the engine is different—including the turbocharger hardware and its ability to run on regular gas.
Honda said that the engine’s optimum combination of power and fuel efficiency was achieved through “a comprehensive focus on engine cooling.” That includes sodium-filled exhaust valves and a two-piece water jacket that almost completely surrounds the exhaust manifold, which itself is integrated with the cylinder head. Honda also has cut the weight of reciprocating parts and said that, among vehicles in its class using regular gasoline, the Accord has the best weight-to-torque ratio.
Hoping You Won’t Miss the V-6
A brief drive consisting of a couple of high-speed laps around the banked oval at Honda’s Tochigi proving ground in Japan demonstrated that the new 2.0-liter/10-speed combination won’t leave us missing the V-6 in high-speed passing maneuvers or flat-out acceleration. Yamano expects that performance numbers will be about the same as those for the outgoing V-6, but mashing the accelerator to the floor is a different experience. The engine doesn’t rip off the line with the same scramble, snarl, and surplus of torque as the V-6; instead, a very low first gear helps quickly get to this engine’s torque plateau (at around 2500 rpm), and then the transmission clicks deftly through the gears.
Honda describes the way it wants the engine and transmission to behave together as “continuous and strong,” with a linearity at part throttle, and the new 10-speed supports that, aiming to provide satisfying acceleration at relatively low revs. The gearbox is Honda’s own transmission, configured around four planetary gearsets and claimed to offer a 20 percent improvement in transmissible torque and a 10 percent weight reduction overall versus the six-speed it replaces. The upper couple of gears are very tall. During our drive, the transmission didn’t choose to use them much in the car’s Normal mode and not at all in Sport mode.
The 2.0T models will trim “a significant amount” of weight versus the current Accord V-6—on the order of a couple hundred pounds, Honda said, although that’s including other weight savings in the new model.
Other Accord Details Remain Veiled
Honda stressed that what we drove was an engineering prototype. While its steering, suspension, braking, trim, and other details weren’t ready to be evaluated, its engine and transmission were close to their production form for the U.S. market.
The automaker notes that both engines are produced at the company’s Anna, Ohio, plant, while the CVT is made at Russells Point, Ohio, and the new 10-speed in Tallapoosa, Georgia. The 2018 Accord will be assembled in Marysville, Ohio.
Driving enthusiasts, including all of us here at C/D, can cheer the availability of a manual. But we’re more conflicted about the retiring of the V-6, an engine that we’ve said positively shames the turbo 2.0-liter four in the Mercedes-Benz E-class—a much more expensive car.
- Why Toyota Didn’t Add a Turbo Four and Still Offers a V-6 in the 2018 Camry
- Honda Introduces New Family of Turbocharged, Direct-Injected Engines
- Honda Accord: Reviews, Photos, News
The turbo strategy might not have been one that Honda was eager to take on, but it’s noteworthy when a company that has staked its reputation on engines decides to go that route. And based on this first, early sample, it should serve them well.


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Auto Expo 2020: Suzuki Burgman Street and MotoGP Gixxer 250 concept colour models showcased
Suzuki Motorcycles showcased the BSVI variants of the Burgman Street and Gixxer series at the Auto Expo. The BSVI Burgman Street now comes with a fuel injection system and is BSVI compliant. In addition, new colour concept models of Suzuki Gixxer 250 and Burgman Street were showcased at the Suzuki Pavilion at the Auto Expo this year to reinforce Suzuki's racing DNA. Suzuki Motorcycles also showcased 23 products including the Gixxer Cup bikes.
Devashish Handa, Vice President, Suzuki Motorcycle India said, "The year has been special for Suzuki Motorcycle India as we entered the quarter-litre segment with our marquee brand Suzuki Gixxer followed by launch of the all-new Access 125 BSVI compliant. Auto Expo 2020 has provided us the perfect platform to display all our upcoming BSVI product fleet further solidifying our position in the two-wheeler market."
Also Read OVERDRIVE's extensive coverage from Suzuki Motorcycle's press conference by clicking on the link below:
Starts Rs 77,900
Starts Rs 1,11,871
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- Yamaha MT 15 V2.0 updated with BS6 2 norms details leaked
- Hero Xoom launched in India, prices start from Rs 68,599


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NieR Replicant" will be released on April 22, 2021, 11 years after "NieR Replicant / Gestalt" was released on PS3 and Xbox 360. Replicant ver. 1.22474487139... "
After the announcement in March 2020, there was no new information for a while, and finally at the Tokyo Game Show 2020 Online in September 2020, during the "NieRTGS2020 special program with so-so new information", there was game footage, release date, and a limited quantity product "NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... White Snow Edition" was announced.
Now that the release date has been set, I thought that new information would be announced as needed, but there have been no news for a while.
After a long wait for new information, the latest video was released at "The Game Awards 2020" on December 11, 2020 (Japan time) !
The latest trailer focuses on combat.
The video released this time is " NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... /NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... /NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... : TGA Trailer ".
The video is only one minute long, but it focuses on the slippery battle scenes.
The video also shows the iconic NieR bullets coming at you.
This video was taken from the PC version of the build, and the gameplay portion is expected to be 60 FPS.
Personally, I'd love to play it on my PS5...I wonder if I'll get it before April...
The latest video makes me want to play it as soon as possible, but the release date is April 22, 2021, so it's still quite a while away, so I'll have to be patient for a while! Let's wait for more news!


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ZTE Grand X Max 2 Android smartphone. Announced May. Features 6.0″ IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, Dual 13 MP + 2 MP camera, Wi-Fi, GPS.
Cricket has announced that it is now carrying the ZTE Grand X Max 2, a phone with a display running Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
The Grand X Max 2 is ZTE's latest budget phone but is this Cricket Wireless handset one that you should consider buying? Here's our full.


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This September, the most important authorized medical cannabis crop in Southeast Asia was planted at Thailand’s Maejo College, in its medical-grade greenhouse. The crop is made up of 12,000 cannabis sprouts, which might be cultivated and to changed into cannabis oil.
The Bangkok Put up experiences the crop is the first-ever finished to industrial scale within the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations. In idea, the crop will be capable of produce a million bottles of cannabis oil, containing 5 milliliters of cannabis oil every by subsequent February. That oil might be produced from 2.four tons of dry marijuana flowers grown in about 32,722 sq. toes of area.
Traditionally, Thailand has had a thriving underground cannabis scene, however the authorities closely criminalized the plant as one among America’s allies within the Struggle on Medication. Nonetheless, in December 2018, Thailand’s conservative authorities jumped on board the rising worldwide cannabis motion and legalized
This August, the Thai authorities unveiled its first cannabis laboratory in Rangsit College, the place professors are have launched a “ganja research” program. The college was initially reliant on cannabis that police seized from the underground market, however grows just like the one simply planted at Maejo College will change that dynamic.
The precise planting of the primary sprouts at Maejo was fairly the affair, that includes Deputy Prime Minister and Public Well being Minister Anutin Charnvirakul getting dust underneath his nails to kick off the crop.
Whereas the crop is at an industrial scale, Charnvirakul mentioned it was a primary step in opening up the medical cannabis cultivation course of to entities that aren’t licensed by the federal government.
“These are historic first steps on the trail in direction of permitting folks to develop six cannabis timber of their houses,” Charnvirakul instructed the group. “The college might be a middle the place unusual folks can discover ways to plant and develop good high quality cannabis. Hashish just isn’t a difficulty of politics, it’s a product that may profit folks’s well being. Within the close to future, households will be capable of plant it of their again gardens like another herb.”
The college’s director of Maejo Pure Farming Analysis and Improvement Centre, Arnat Tancho, may even personally lead the develop because the mission supervisor. He believes the power’s pedigree will permit his staff to supply a medical-grade product fully organically. This implies no fertilizers or feeding applications loaded with issues like heavy metals, or worse!
In keeping with Tancho, even the pressure being planted makes the mission particular. The pressure known as Issara 01, and it was developed from a ramification of home genetics. Tancho mentioned one of many causes they went with a pressure from rural Northern Thailand for his or her develop was to encourage folks concerning the high quality and prospects of home genetics.
Tancho mentioned the pressure might be a one-to-one CBD to THC ratio. He says that’s what the medical market calls for in the meanwhile. He additionally says the crop may transfer to a full outside setting within the not-too-distant future if a “plantation license” is permitted. He thinks plantation-style grows of native genetics to every area may find yourself popping up throughout Thailand.
With the emphasis of this mission being the primary of many, it will appear the broader inhabitants of Thailand will quickly have their alternative to develop six crops at dwelling.
They may even have the alternative to promote the ultimate product from their yard gardens to the federal government. Every plant may very well be price for two,225 Thai Baht, equal to $73.21 USD, so that they have an opportunity at incomes as much as $439.26. The common family revenue in Thailand is simply $3,322.81 USD, in line with CEIC Information, so this can be a fairly good measurement chunk of change for folks if this system ever will get going.
TELL US, have you ever ever smoked cannabis genetics from Thailand?


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Citiline Resortline Properties plans to build a shopping center near the intersection of Seigle Avenue and East 10th Street.
The one-acre site would become home to a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood center, according to a rezoning petition filed with the city. The building would potentially include a retailer with one drive-through lane.
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An Oct. 20 public hearing is scheduled.
For more details on this developing story, see the Observer's Neighbors of The City section Sunday or www.charlotteobserver.com/city.


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One of the senior experts of Standard Chartered Bank has predicted a 70% fall in the price of Bitcoin in 2023. He expects gold to perform well at the same time as the price of Bitcoin falls.
To Report CNBC Eric Robertsen, director of research at Standard Chartered, one of the UK’s largest banks, recently discussed some possible scenarios for Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market in a note titled “Financial Market Surprises in 2023”. They can surprise market participants.
He said that there is a possibility that the price of Bitcoin will reach $5,000 next year with a 70% fall from the current levels.
Robertson wrote in this note:
[در سال ۲۰۲۳] More companies in the field of digital currencies will face a lack of liquidity, and as a result of their bankruptcy, investors’ confidence in digital assets will also decrease.
Bitcoin has lost more than 60% of its value since the beginning of 2022. This dramatic price drop was affected by the destruction of some projects and large companies active in the digital currency industry, the latest of which is the bankruptcy of the centralized exchange “FTX”, and its consequences continue to affect the market.
The decrease in the price of Bitcoin this year coincided with the increase in the price of gold in the world markets. Robertson has also predicted that the price of gold will reach $2,250 per ounce in 2023 with a 30% growth, and at the same time, due to the deepening fall of digital currencies, more companies in this field will face financial crises and their investors will lose their assets. to harvest
In addition to the expert of Standard Chartered Bank, Mark Mobius, the founder of Mobius Capital and a veteran financial market investor, has predicted that the price of Bitcoin will fall to $10,000 in 2023. Of course, there are still optimists like Tim Draper who expect Bitcoin to trade at $250,000 next year.


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For Brisbane Importers who require a day-definite or consistent transit time we suggest using the fast direct loops from Shanghai / Xiamen / Ningbo / Shenzhen / Guangzhou ( JKN/CNJ ) Avoid using vessels via Sydney and Melbourne in the short term, announced One Global Logistics.
Global Trade Updates
Subscribe to the ECA’s free newsletter and keep informed of new business tools, courses, events, as well as trade policy news.
The NSW Government with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) invite you to participate in a webinar briefing on market updates and business
and investment opportunities in Malaysia on Wednesday, 23 September 2020 from 4.00pm to 5.00pm (AEST).
Advanced manufacturing growth centre (AMGC) has released a latest research: Ten Ways to Succeed in Australian Manufacturing. This report arrives at a critical juncture in the current economic climate.
The Government is backing Australian businesses to grow their exports and create jobs through reforms to the Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) scheme, after an independent review of financial assistance for small and medium enterprise exporters.
This information session will provide details about the Digital Tech export programs to the UK and/or USA so you can prepare an application. Hear more about opportunities for growing your technology business in the United Kingdom and/or the United States of America.
Construction of the Port Botany rail line duplication between Mascot and Botany in New South Wales is a step closer, with the design and construct tender package released by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack.
The Department of Agriculture has (13 August 2020) issued a notice that it is planning urgent action on Khapra Beetle infestations. Importers of plant
products, freight forwarders, customs brokers and high-volume specialist operators will be affected.
Motherhood is the reason Anamika Sengupta created Almitra Tattva, a company utilising sustainable hand woven fabrics sourced from regions of India to create quality baby wearing products, gaining an international following for her designs and values.
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its business in order to fit into "a new normal" in providing business couching services.
The Government of Western Australia has endorsed a plan to build a new 4.5 million TEU capacity container port at Kwinana. The new port will be at the
Kwinana Industrial Area, about 20 km south of the existing port at Fremantle, near to the Kwinana Bulk Terminal and the Aloca jetty.
Article 6 in our series of Incoterms® 2020 – In each article we will identify the responsibilities of the seller and buyer in the transaction at different
points in the shipping journey.
DFAT have launched a public consultation process on possible reforms to Australia’s regulatory framework for the protection of geographical indications (GIs). Australia is currently negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU). Consistent with its approach toward other FTA partners, the EU has identified the protection of GIs as one of its key goals.
The Australian Commonwealth Constitution (the Commonwealth) has an interesting history including its development through a series of Constitutional Conventions between the representative of state governments and other interested parties.
The NSW Government invites all interested business to attend the introductory section on how to grow cleantech business in India. The webinar will be held on Thursday, 10 September, 3pm-4pm EAST and it will provide details about the Going Global-Pathway to India export assistance program targeted at NSW cleantech businesses.
As the voice for Australian exporters, the Export Council of Australia calls on the Australian Government to take immediate action to develop and implement a comprehensive and practical trade-led economic recovery package. We recognise the challenges and constraints faced by the Government but, now more than ever, they need to lead here and internationally.
On 8 August 2020, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) marked its 53rd anniversary. Looking back on half a century of development, ASEAN
has made a tremendous journey since its inception in 1967. The remarkable achievements ASEAN has made, far exceed what the founding fathers of ASEAN
We advised in our last Global Trade Updates newsletter ( GTU) news of the upcoming ban on the import all solid waste into China effective 1 January 2021.
We highlight below an article from Shipping Australia that provides further updates on this topic.
China will ban the import of all solid waste from 2021 for environmental reasons, but ferrous scrap will not be affected by the move. Import restrictions imposed since July 2019 have significantly slowed the inflow of ferrous scrap into China.
In August the ECA presented a submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) regarding certain aspects of the treaty-making process in Australia.
Article 5 in our series of Incoterms® 2020 – In each article we will identify the responsibilities of the seller in the transaction at different points
in the shipping journey. Our fourth Incoterms® Rule is FAS – Free alongside ship (Named Place).
China has launched an anti-dumping investigation into imported bottled wines from Australia, the country’s Ministry of Commerce announced on Tuesday (18th Aug).
The WA Government announced last week it will invest more than $40 million to grow WA’s food industries, develop the aquaculture industry, and support the expansion of premium food and beverage manufacturing.
Australia Awards Women Trading Globally participant continues commitment to sustainability and fair trade principles
In 2016, Taslima Miji of Bangladesh founded Leatherina, a company that adheres to principles of social inclusion, fair trade, ethical business and reducing environmental harm in its production of leather bags and other small leather goods, combining jute and fabric to make the products environmentally friendly.
PUMP is a haircare company with over 40 Australian made, plant and botanical based, organic hair care products. The products have been sold to customers in over 100 countries around the world and are stocked in over 200 salons.
You have a trade mark, but what if it’s being challenged?
This free webinar will explain trade mark oppositions and hearings and provide you with the tools you will need if your trade mark is being opposed.
Australia's peak export body says government air freight subsidies will need to be extended to ensure local agricultural products can get to overseas buyers, with an existing $350 million support package set to dry up at the end of the year.


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Lenovo admitted to pre-loading the Superfish ad-ware on some consumer PCs, and unhappy customers are now dragging the company to court on the matter.
A proposed class-action suit was filed late last week against Lenovo and Superfish, which charges both companies with “fraudulent” business practices and of making Lenovo PCs vulnerable to malware and malicious attacks by pre-loading the adware.
Plaintiff Jessica Bennett said her laptop was damaged as a result of Superfish, which was called “spyware” in court documents. She also accused Lenovo and Superfish of invading her privacy and making money by studying her Internet browsing habits.
The lawsuit was filed after Lenovo admitted to pre-loading Superfish on some consumer PCs. The laptops affected by Superfish include non-ThinkPad models such as G Series, U Series, Y Series, Z Series, S Series, Flex, Miix, Yoga and E Series.
Lenovo has since issued fixes to remove Superfish applications and certificates from PCs. Microsoft’s Windows Defender and McAfee’s security applications also remove Superfish since Friday.
Lenovo earlier admitted it “messed up” by preloading Superfish on computers. The software plugs product recommendations into search results but can hijack connections and open major security holes, thus leaving computers vulnerable to malicious attacks.
Superfish also used memory resources and took up Internet bandwidth, according to the court document.
Since mid-2014, the following laptop models may be affected:
- G Series: G410, G510, G710, G40-70, G50-70, G40-30, G50-30, G40-45, G50-45
- U Series: U330P, U430P, U330Touch, U430Touch, U530Touch
- Y Series: Y430P, Y40-70, Y50-70
- Z Series: Z40-75, Z50-75, Z40-70, Z50-70
- S Series: S310, S410, S40-70, S415, S415Touch, S20-30, S20-30Touch
- Flex Series: Flex2 14D, Flex2 15D, Flex2 14, Flex2 15, Flex2 14(BTM), Flex2 15(BTM), Flex 10
- MIIX Series: MIIX2-8, MIIX2-10, MIIX2-11
- YOGA Series: YOGA2Pro-13, YOGA2-13, YOGA2-11BTM, YOGA2-11HSW
- E Series: E10-30
Lenovo Business Models (Lenovo Thinkpad) are not affected. It is always better to buy business class notebook than the normal consumer class notebook.
How to remove Lenovo Superfish ?
Lenovo joined hands with Microsoft and McAfee and created a custom uninstall tool to clean your computer of the Superfish malware program and its CA certificates, and in a responsible transparent move, also posted the source code and license of the removal tool for scrutiny.
The company has released an “automated tool”, which the PC maker says will “ensure complete removal of Superfish and Certificates for all major browsers.”


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Hamedan Province (استان همدان) covers an area of 19,546 km² and lies in an elevated…
Garmin-Asus, the co-branding alliance between Garmin and ASUSTeK, has confirmed that its Smartphone nüvifone G60 (Linux operating system) will go on sale in Taiwan on July 27, and in Singapore and Malaysia by the end of August. Also in August, the Garmin-Asus nüvifone M20 (Windows mobile) will go on sale in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.
These news confirm an earlier report from GPS Business News in an interview with Hektor Tung, regional director at ASUS for the handheld business in the South East Asia region.
Europe and US
According to Garmin-ASUS, “The nüvifone G60 is on schedule for delivery in Europe and in the United States in the second half of 2009, and additional details about pricing, availability and carriers will be announced in the coming months.” However, the word “on schedule” is probably a bit out of purpose here for a phone that Garmin has delayed for over 12 months. What was looking like a high profile phone when announced in January 2008 is now playing catch up with Android devices and the iconical iPhone which version 3.0 of its operating system is now opened to turn-by-turn navigation.
The M20 is said to touch the European shores at the same time while its availability in the United States is unconfirmed at this stage.


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CrossTower, a US-based cryptocurrency exchange, launched an official branch in India on Monday amid regulatory tussles concerning the industry. According to Reuters, CrossTower already hired 35 people for the office and plans to expand it further to 100 for the upcoming six months.
“India will play a pivotal role, and we plan to use the country as a hub to expand into other geographies,” Kapil Rathi, CrossTower’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, told Reuters in an interview. Additionally, he stated that the firm aims to strengthen its market share by bolstering technological resources to meet the high demand of the Indian crypto market.
In fact, figures from Chainalysis suggest that the virtual currency market in the country has skyrocketed from $923 million in April 2020 to $6.6 billion in May 2021, as India keeps being ranked in 11th place in terms of cryptocurrency adoption globally. “We believe we’re taking a calculated risk,” Rathi commented about how risky it is to open a crypto exchange branch in a country with unsolved issues surrounding regulatory affairs towards the cryptocurrency industry.
The Rising Star of the DeFi Project, GIBXSwap, Passes CertiK Security AuditGo to article >>
Crypto Regulatory Turmoil
The Indian government was scheduled to present a bill in March before the parliament definitely ban cryptocurrencies, making trading and holding cryptocurrencies an illegal activity in the country. However, it was not on the discussion table, and the uncertainty remains alive, although the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) sought to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in December. Though, there are no major updates on the subject as of press time.
Early this year, as Finance Magnates reported, the crypto exchange announced that the company crossed $150 million in trading volumes during February, which is its highest level on record. The trading volumes have grown significantly since October 2020. In addition, CrossTower introduced a new Bitcoin Fund in February that offers accredited investors exposure to Bitcoin through standard privately placed security.


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Los Angeles based Demand Media has acquired social media platform creator Pluck Inc, the companies announced today.
Dave Panos, founder and CEO of Pluck, seemed excited about the acquisition. "I think we really found a great partner. It's a great outcome for everyone here, and our customers seem to be pretty excited about it as well. So it's a good story all the way around," Panos said. "This is what you work for. You work your butt off for 4-5
years for a fun day like today."
Pluck, based in Austin, Texas, begin in 2003 as an RSS plugin for the web browser, but evolved to become a social media platform with the ability to host news stories, blogs, videos, and comments. Clients include many large press outfits like Conde Nast, The Washington Post, and Gannett/USA Today. (Disclosure: Wired.com is owned by Conde Nast.)
Demand Media was founded in May, 2006, by Richard Rosenblatt, former CEO of Intermix, the company which incubated social network MySpace. Rosenblatt orchestrated the sale of MySpace to Fox Interactive Media, a division of News Corp.
Pluck has raised $17 million since its launch in 2003. Austin Ventures and Mayfield Fund participated in a $10 million Series A while news outfit Reuters invested $7 million in Pluck's product in October of 2006.
The purchase price was not disclosed, but reports suggest that the deal was worth $50-75 million.


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Apple is investigating reports of poor battery life problems from iPhone 3GS users after they upgraded to the 3.1 OS. The iPhone 3.1 software update delivered many new features, but some users also report that the phone's battery life is severely and...
The iPhone hacking faithful can now unlock and jailbreak their original iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPod Touch 1G devices with the much-awaited PwnageTool 3.1. Unfortunately, the hacking tool does not yet support the iPhone 3GS or the new iPod Touch, but ...
Just weeks after signing a deal to sell iPhones in China, China Unicom moved to secure its relationship with Telefónica by agreeing to invest in the Spanish company and expand several existing arrangements.
GPS manufacturer Navigon has used social-networking site Facebook to announce it will launch a dedicated iPhone car cradle.
Apple iPhone 3G and 3GS owners should expect a software update on Sept. 25, AT&T revealed today, and while the new software will let U.S. customers send MMS text messages, it won't switch on tethering, the company confirmed Thursday.
Apple has emerged from winding negotiations with an iPhone deal in China, but the handset will still face government pitfalls and look-alike competitors in the country.
Apple says it's not to blame for a series of exploding iPods and iPhones, according to a report published on Friday. The company has been under fire, so to speak, for devices overheating and shattering across Europe and the U.K.
Despite a few iPhone lemons in the market, including a couple of iPhones and an iPod Touch that reportedly exploded in Europe, the vast majority of iPhone 3GS owners love their new phones. According to a survey by RBC/IQ ChangeWave, 99 percent of 200...
Apple is investigating reports that some of its popular iPhones may have malfunctioned following a query from a European Commission directorate that oversees consumer safety issues.
We still don't know exactly when the TomTom for iPhone GPS application will be available. But, we may know how much it will cost: a UK online electronics store has apparently leaked the price of the upcoming app via a pre-order listing.
Today's hot Apple rumor suggests an iPhone 3GS 8GB may be on the way. The Boy Genius Report has screen grabs that purportedly show one or more documents from Canadian wireless provider Rogers. In what appears to be an internal memo, Rogers says it's ...
Navigon has released the full Australian version of its MobileNavigator app for the iPhone, providing full turn-by-turn GPS navigation.
AT&T used Twitter last Friday evening to announce that a refurbished iPhone 3G -- specifically, the black 8GB model -- can now be picked up for just $US49, while supplies last. That's half the price of an unopened 8GB model. A refurbished 16GB iPhone...
O2 has restored internet connections and MMS services for the "vast majority" of its mobile phone customers, including Apple iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS users.
Global recession? Not for Apple, whose Wall St. financials are blissfully unaware of Main St. reality. Apple's sadness? They can't keep up with demand.
Microsoft L5V-00027 Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard Desktop
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I’d happily recommend this touchscreen laptop and Windows 10 as a great way to get serious work done at a desk or on the road.
Ultimately, I think the Windows 10 environment is excellent for me as it caters for so many different uses. The inclusion of the Xbox app is also great for when you need some downtime too!
For me, the Xbox Play Anywhere is a great new feature as it allows you to play your current Xbox games with higher resolutions and better graphics without forking out extra cash for another copy. Although available titles are still scarce, but I’m sure it will grow in time.
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For work use, Microsoft Word and Excel programs pre-installed on the device are adequate for preparing short documents.
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Widow who wanted her dead husband's Apple ID so she could play games on their iPad is refused and told to get a COURT order instead
- Peggy Bush, 72, from Canada, tried to play a card game on her tablet but it asked for her and her husband's Apple ID
- She realized the only person who knew it was her late husband - who died in August from lung cancer
- The couple's daughter Donna contacted Apple who refused to help
- Donna said: 'We've been able to transfer the title of the house, we've been able to transfer the car, all these things, just using a notarized death certificate and the will'
- Eventually Apple agreed to help Mrs Bush after a TV show got involved
A Canadian widow who wanted to use her dead husband's Apple account to play games on her iPad was told by Apple they would not give her the password unless she obtained a court order.
When a card game application on Peggy Bush's iPad stopped working, she tried logging into the Apple account that she and her late husband, David, used. But only David, who passed away last August from lung cancer, knew the password.
'I just had the iPad. I didn't realize he had a specific password I should have known about… It was too confusing to me... It just never crossed my mind,' Bush, 72, told the Canadian investigative program Go Public.
Denied: Peggy Bush was not allowed to access her husband's Apple iPad after he died and has had to go to court to get his passwords
When a card game application on Peggy Bush's iPad stopped working, she tried logging into the Apple account that she and her late husband, David, used. But only David, who passed away last August from lung cancer, knew the password
Games: Peggy wants to use the iPad for fun but Apple is denying her the opportunity
Bush's daughter Donna said she called Apple to ask for help to retrieve the password.
She said she was told that unless the family wanted to start a new Apple ID account and re-purchase everything they'd paid for, they would need a court order to find out the password.
'I said that was ridiculous, because we've been able to transfer the title of the house, we've been able to transfer the car, all these things, just using a notarized death certificate and the will,' Donna Bush said.
'I thought it was ridiculous. I could get the pensions, I could get benefits, I could get all kinds of things from the federal government and the other government. But from Apple, I couldn't even get a silly password. It's nonsense,' said Peggy Bush.
Go Public reported that after the show's producers reached out to Apple, the tech company apologized to the Bush family and agreed to help them retrieve the password without a court order.
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Microsoft earlier this week released a public community technology preview of Windows Thin PC, a smaller-footprint, locked down version of Windows 7 that organisations can use to repurpose their existing PCs as thin clients.
In the Windows Thin PC CTP, Microsoft has added support for RemoteFX, a set of desktop virtualisation features that allow video and other rich content to be delivered to desktop, laptop and thin-client devices, Karri Alexion-Tiernan, director of product management for Microsoft Desktop Virtualisation, said in a Monday blog post.
The CTP also allows customers to use System Centre Configuration Manager to deploy and manage Windows Thin PC images, and it includes a write filter that blocks user and application writes to disk as an endpoint security measure, Alexion-Tiernan said.
PCs running Windows Thin PC won't require Microsoft's Virtual Desktop Access license (VDA), which allows customers to virtualise home PC and kiosks that aren't covered by SA for an annual fee of $US100 per device, Gavriella Schuster, general manager for Windows product management, said in a blog post last month.
Although the Windows Thin PC CTP is open to all customers, only those with Software Assurance subscriptions will be able to use it once it’s a finished product. Software Assurance is a volume licensing program that lets customer upgrade to new software that's released during the term of their contract with Microsoft, and to spread payments over a three-year period.
Virtualisation tools are included in Microsoft's Desktop Optimisation Pack (MDOP), but partners have previously said they believe Software Assurance is an impediment to Microsoft's virtualisation momentum.
However, partners say Microsoft has made moves to address virtualisation licensing policies that have caused angst in the past. Last July, Microsoft made virtual desktop access rights part of Software Assurance and stopped requiring Windows Client Software Assurance customers to buy a separate license to access Windows in a VDI environment.
Previously, Microsoft required SA customers to pay an additional $US23 per device annually for Windows Virtual Enterprise Centralised Desktop (VECD), a device-based subscription license that was required for customers that run Windows desktops virtually from a data centre.


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Holy Mackerel! Fish could come back to Fisherman's Wharf
A San Francisco-based fisherman’s cooperative that has been fighting for better wages and more sustainable fishing practices is now gunning for a retail shop to sell fresh, off-the-boat fish in the heart of Fisherman’s Wharf.
It has a space, a plan and some support — now it just needs the funding.
“There’s a huge amount of fish that moves over the docks in San Francisco, but no one sees it,” said crab fisherman Larry Collins, president of the San Francisco Community Fishing Association, a group that was formed three years ago to put more money into the pockets of Bay Area-based fishermen and support independent operators at the dock. “This would bring the fish back to Fisherman’s Wharf.”
Collins started the SFCFA after a shocking trip to New Zealand revealed that all the large commercial fisheries had put the small family-owned boats out of businesses. “I saw a similar thing happening here and got scared that we were going to be managed out of business,” he said.
As a result, SFCFA was born to create a stronger voice at the buyer’s table for its now 18-member group of small crab and salmon boat fishermen, who for years were scraping by selling to commodity fish buyers.
Within the past couple of years, SFCFA has doubled revenue sharing with the fishermen in its group and moved tens of thousands of pounds of salmon and other catch onto the market at a “more fair price” by using its collective bargaining voice to match dock prices, or the price paid per pound, to its previously disenfranchised small fishermen.
“By buying and selling our own fish, we can own the fish a little further up the distribution chain and return a higher value to the producers,” Collins said.
Renée Frojo covers hospitality, restaurants, retail and nonprofits for the San Francisco Business Times.
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online security - News, Features, and Slideshows
There are more than a few critics of cloud computing, even at PCWorld; I'm probably one of them. But I've been turning over in my mind different perspectives on the cloud. I've tried to set aside the views of the IT executive, who seems to dominate the debate.
Yet another survey is indicating that security is a big issue for those intending to take up cloud computing.
One can only hope that security software provider Trend Micro saw a nice sales boost after the proclamation of its chairman earlier this week that Android phones are more vulnerable to hacking than iPhones are. If it didn't, those blatantly self-serving statements were made for nothing.
It's not an exaggeration to say that the recent Wikileaks scandal has shaken the Internet to its core. Regardless of where you stand on the debate, various services have simply refused to handle Wikileaks' business -- everything from domain-name providers to payment services -- and this has led to many questioning how robust the Internet actually is.
Perhaps you've heard that the Apple Mac OS X operating system is simply more secure by design and not prone to the security flaws and vulnerabilities that plague the dominant Microsoft Windows operating system? Well, don't believe the hype. Apple unleashed an update for Mac OS X this week which fixes a massive 134 vulnerabilities.
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BRITISH expatriates living here in Spain are apparently less concerned about their financial situation during this global financial crisis than their fellow Britons living in neighbouring Portugal and the United States.
According to the latest NatWest International Personal Banking Quality of Life Report undertaken in conjunction with think tank, Centre for Future Studies, which surveyed British expatriates across the world, more than eight in ten (87%) British expatriates believe they are better prepared to weather the storm abroad.
The study focused on how British expatriates are faring abroad in the current global economic climate, looking specifically at:
1. The global financial crisis
2. Their perceived reduction in quality of life
3. Declining property prices
4. Declining value of savings
5. Declining value of their pension funds
6. Likelihood of unemployment
7. Future prospects in the country in which they are living.
The report reveals that, despite most countries experiencing the knock on negative effects of the current crisis, British expatriates feel better off than if they were back in the UK, and believe they made the right decision to leave the UK behind.
It would appear that the economic pressures are easier to manage in an environment where the quality of life is deemed high and the work-life balance more enjoyable.
Consequently, the study revealed that whilst the level of concern about the world economic climate among expatriates in all countries is high, with 68% admitting that at the very least they are nervous, they are not concerned that economic circumstances may force them to return to the UK.
CLASH OF FINDINGS
Nearly three quarters (74%) said they were not concerned at all by this factor, although that does seem to clash with the current situation here in the Balearics and across Spain where we are seeing a growing number of British expatriates deciding to cut their losses and move back to the United Kingdom and many more are determinedly struggling to continue living their dream in the sun and defy the credit crunch.
Expatriates in France, for example, have also reacted in a similar fashion.
The study did however discover that a large number of British expatriates have not been left totally unaffected by the current global economic crisis.
Over three quarters (78%) stated that the current situation in the country they are living has affected their overall quality of life to some extent.
There are also concerns over the rising cost of food and every day goods as well as the declining rate of savings which is likely to be impacted by the currency exchange rate decline for those expatriates who are paid in Sterling and, in particular, living in a euro zone country.
More than nine in ten (96%) said they were concerned about the value of their savings reducing, whilst 87% stated they were concerned about the value of everyday goods increasing, and 86% are concerned about the cost of food going up.
However, British expatriates were less concerned about the possibility of job losses, with just 14% concerned that this could be a real possibility - but that is probably because many expatriates are retired.
Overall, according to the report, 64% of British expatriates claim they feel comfortable about their current financial position, with the same number stating that they are happy to be living abroad despite the current economic conditions.


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China (2015 - 2025) & U.S.A. - Trade Relationship
As the Chinese middle class continues its rapid expansion over the next decade (the number of Chinese middle-class consumers will exceed the entire population of the United States by 2026), US companies face significant opportunities...
...to tap into a new and lucrative customer base that can further boost employment and economic growth. Economic data show that nations trading closely with China outperform nations with less integrated trade ties, and we expect this trend to continue.
China has become the third-largest purchaser of US-made products and services, spending USD 165 billion in 2015 alone. In just 10 years, that figure is expected to increase to USD 370 billion. By 2030 this figure will reach USD 525 billion, or 10 percent of total US exports, reflecting the enormous size of China's market and the faster pace in the projected growth in its cohort of middle class consumers.
Chinese firms are beginning to invest in the United States. China invested USD 14.8 billion in the United States in 2015, up from USD 277 million in 2000. Based on data from BEA, more than 38,000 people are employed at US affiliates of Chinese firms. Taking into account how these affiliates interact with the rest of the US economy through the supply chain, one may estimate that this Chinese investment in the United States supports a total of 104,000 jobs and USD 10.8 billion in GDP.
The growing Chinese middle class
...represents a substantial opportunity for US businesses - by 2025, 160 million consumers in China will have incomes greater than USD 35,000, up from 40 million today!
As the size and purchasing power of the Chinese middle class grows, these consumers will demand more of the services and higher-end products that American companies export. AGAIN(!): While some 40 million Chinese households now boast annual income in excess of USD 35,000, that population is projected to rise four-fold, to 160 million, by 2025.
As China's middle class expands, demand for American-made goods and services is expected to rise as well. Ford and General Motors have already established major footprints in China, now the world's largest automobile market. In the first half of 2016, GM sold 1.8 million vehicles in China - 400,000 more than it sold in the United States.


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Google is said to be close to buying Digg. The Google empire has been acquiring complementary pieces at a rapid rate. Besides Digg, Google announced Knol a Wikipedia type entry and Lively a Second Life competitor. Add those to the partnership with Yahoo on search.
MySpace will begin selling music and concert tickets from its site. MySpace had already become a large music sharing network and this is a natural extension for the social network site. Amazon will handle the fulfillment for the new service.
Facebook will take advantage of its connection to Microsoft by incorporating Live Search on its network. This development has ramifications for your SEO efforts. You may not want to ignore MSN anymore as Facebook continues to grow in important demographics.
Speaking of SEO, Adobe announced that Flash and rich media applications will now be indexed by Google and others. There is a flurry of questions as to the ramifications. No one is sure what weight will be given and techniques for SEO within Flash have yet to evolve. One thing seems to be agreed upon, if you gained an advantage in rank because of a competitor’s flash rich site - that may be coming to an end.
A recent study by Borrell Associates, a Williamsburg, Va.-based market research firm, uncovered three major trends:
- Spending on online display ads (web page banners, pop-ups, etc.) have been flat the past two years and are expected to top out at $12.6 billion in 2008, then decline more than 50 percent by 2012.
- Paid search advertising will peak at $16.9 billion by 2009 and start declining.
- Online promotions generated about $8 billion in 2007. This category will nearly triple by 2013 to $22.8 billion, exceeding all other online advertising categories, including paid search, banners, email and online audio/video advertising.
Join the discussion by submitting your topics or comments to the AMA Pittsburgh blog.


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Seven years ago, Kevin Antoon, Jamie Lee, and Jared Welch opened a little 1,700-square-foot brewery called Southern Grist in East Nashville with just forty-nine seats. Brewing off of four gas burners and spaghetti pots, the trio pumped out off-kilter sours, unfiltered IPAs (yes, we mean hazies), and eventually pastry stouts.
When the brewery first opened in 2016, the beer landscape in Nashville looked very different. Old-guard breweries like Yazoo and Blackstone offered classics like pale ales, porters, and even amber. But the beers Southern Grist started bringing to the bar, well, they’d never been seen before.
Clearly, because when Southern Grist Co-Founder Kevin Antoon recounts serving the brewery’s first hazy IPA, he says half the folks sent the beers back, indicating something was wrong with the beer.
“People thought we were crazy,” he laughs, remembering that the brewery also opened with a fruited sour. “They were like, you guys really think people are going to drink a red beer in Nashville.”
Turns out they did.
Now that fruited sour and hazy IPA are the two beers Southern Grist became known for.
Well, actually, way more than just those two beers at this point.
Over the past seven years, Southern Grist Co-Founder and Head Brewer Jared Welch has made a whopping 1,067 different beers.
And innovation has always been the key.
A part of what is now considered the second wave of beer in Nashville, Southern Grist made its mark by sticking to its guns, brewing whatever the f**k it wanted.
Southern Grist Threw All the Rules Out the Window
People quickly got on board with Southern Grist’s punch-you-in-the-mouth, rage-against-the-machine approach.
The trio planned to measure success the first year by whether they sold 1,000 beers a month (so 12,000 yearly, for all you nerds out there) because that meant they could keep the lights on.
Perhaps ironically, a light bulb went off in his head when, as Antoon says, “We sold 1,000 beers the first Saturday we were open.”
Antoon laughs as he remembers thinking, “Can I quit my job now!?”
That first year, Southern Grist sold 125,000 beers!
All the rules the brewery set down for themselves in year one eventually went out the door.
“I’m super freaking proud of what we’ve done over the last seven years,” says Antoon. “I realized that most of our change was getting out of our own way. When we opened, we said we’d never do a flagship. We have three flagships now. We won’t do lagers. We have a whole lager program now. We’ll never distribute. We’re in twenty-one states. So we ripped up our business plan, and now it’s all about … adaptation.”
Every step of the way, Southern Grist threw out the playbook.
125,000 Beers and One Year Later, Southern Grist Opened Nations Taproom
In what we’ve come to understand as true Southern Grist form, the brewery quickly exceeded expectations after that first year.
Welch said he wanted Southern Grist to have a real brewhouse in year five. By year two, the brewery opened its 9,000-square-foot Nations taproom in West Nashville.
And last year, Southern Grist relocated its East Nashville taproom to a space twice the size of its original Porter Road building.
Located in an old auto shop, the new location proved to be too good of an opportunity for Antoon to pass up.
By happenstance, Antoon met the owner of their current building in a parking lot. “He said I got a building for you. … 754 Douglas,” says Antoon. “I drove by it right from the parking lot, and it was a cinder block building with two sh***y garage doors. … And I remember standing there going, man, I’m going to show this to my co-founders, and they’re going to laugh, but I think we can knock this one out of the park.”
Antoon put in an offer the next day.
Southern Grist took that empty shell (an old auto shop, Antoon thinks) and turned it into a beautiful, gleaming new taproom with plenty of room to brew.
“We loved that old location … but we grew up, and we couldn’t be in a closet brewing anymore,” says Antoon, admitting scaling up initially scared him.
“We were making some of the best beer in the state, and I didn’t want to f**k with that,” he says. “But Jared is a freaking genius; he didn’t skip a beat. Every beer tasted the same from system to system. We didn’t throw anything away. His first test batch was one of our best beers.”
Southern Grist Made 1,000+ Beers in 7 Years
Beer made Southern Grist different.
In a sea of old-school pales, brown ales, amber ales, stouts, and porters, Southern Grist made crazy fruited sours, adjunct pastry stouts, and IPAs with haze.
“I remember we were the first ones to make a hazy IPA in Nashville,” says Antoon, admitting he even asked if the beer should look like that. “Half the beers were sent back because they were like, hey, something’s wrong with my beer. No, it’s supposed to be hazy.”
And when the brewery opened with a fruited sour? Antoon says, “People thought we were crazy,” and that no one would ever drink a red beer.
But the three co-founders intentionally baked ingenuity into the brewery’s DNA.
Southern Grist’s Director of Marketing, Jessica Gonzalez, who worked at Funky Buddha before joining the brewery as a taproom lead and working her way up, calls it good ol’ fashion Southern hospitality.
“We have this dedication to quality, not skimping out because it’s a cheaper option, but just making sure that the product, when it comes to beer, when it comes to food, is all really good quality, creativity, and always pushing the envelope on what people think you can do with beer,” she says.
Antoon has another name for it: relentless innovation.
“We can’t shut it off,” he says. “But to make over 1,000 beers in seven years … is just crazy. … There’s a lot of thought put into it.”
For instance, Welch says he’s most proud of a beer we made in collaboration with a local sake brewery called Proper Sake. A hybrid lager-sake beer, Kongou (the canned version) and Kumori (the bottled version) included koji, a culture used in sake-making, and yeast from a local lab called Bootleg Biology.
“We created a hybridized blend of our two strains and pitched it into the beer,” says Welch.
Southern Grist canned this version, then took a small portion of it and blended some of it with lees from Proper Sake’s actual sake production into the brite tank, bottling it for an even more unique experience.
“Having those two beers next to each other was phenomenal,” says Welch. “It was one of the most fun projects I’ve done … and anybody who is around or knows of Southern Grist and the beers we were producing … still talks about it.”
Welch says people continually ask him if he will ever make those beers again. “My response is no because I just don’t have faith that I can replicate it because it was so perfect,” he says.
More recently, Welch says he’s super proud of the brewery’s expanding lager program.
Starting with its first large-scale lager Southern Crisp, Southern Grist launched its lager program to coincide with the brewery’s fourth anniversary in early 2020.
Now considered a flagship, Southern Crisp is an American-style pilsner but with New Zealand hops. “We’re always looking for cool ingredients—heirloom-style malt varieties, new hop products—to have fun with our lager program the way we have fun with all our other beers,” says Welch. “We hit the ground running and have been improving and putting out some real quality lagers.”
Such as Transcontinental Crisp (all lagers in their program come with the name “Crisp” in the title), an unfiltered pilsner-style lager with Canada Malting EuroPils Malt and hopped with Michigan-grown Zuper Saazer.
We named this beer one of our “Top 11 Beers We Drank in May” for its light touch of toasted character that drank easily with a pleasant floral finish.
And you’ll find that same approach to innovation in the food.
Southern Grist Also Said They’d Never Open a Restaurant
“We said we’d never own a restaurant, and now we own a restaurant,” says Antoon, who found a fantastic chef who makes some of the best food in the city to open the brewery’s food concept, Lauter.
Executive Chef Andrew Coins and Chef de Cuisine Kenji Nakagawa craft beer-drinking food, some with a Japanese twist, a nod to Nakagawa’s background. All paired to go with Southern Grist’s beers. For instance, Coins and Nakagawa barrel-age pecans for a salad (yes, a salad) in one of the brewery’s stouts and braise chicken with Southern Crisp lager.
You’ll also find bao buns and fried chicken that’s not Nashville hot chicken but a version marinated in koji.
“We have born-and-raised Nashville folks come in asking, ‘What’s a bao?’” says Antoon. “We’re just like, try it, put it in your mouth. So we’re converting [people] just like we did with craft beer.”
Opening up a food concept has allowed Southern Grist to diversify its consumer base.
“It gave us the opportunity to expand our reach a little bit,” says Gonzalez. “We were able to reach out to different clientele. People who had never heard of us before came in for this food, which allowed us to have a seat for everybody at the table.”
Because it has been loyal fans that have helped Southern Grist grow over the last seven years.
Loyal Fans of Grist Membership Club
This past January, Southern Grist started its bottle society, Loyal Fans of Grist (LFG), for the first time.
“When I started here, we had people wrapped around the building standing in line for bottles,” says Gonzalez, who has taken the reins on running the brewery’s membership club. “Everyone wished we had a club so they could guarantee to get a bottle; we heard this for years and years.”
With plenty of exciting barrel-aged beers on the horizon, Gonzalez says now seemed the perfect time to “thank everybody that’s been with us through all of the years.”
Five months in, the club has received great feedback. In addition to receiving six 500ml bottles never before released to the public, members also get dibs on future bottle releases (such as Batch One Theory) and access to exclusive events and parties.
“People are saying this is the best bottle club they’ve ever joined,” says Antoon.
LFG may be the cherry on top of the ever-growing frosted raspberry marshmallow sundae at Southern Grist.
No Longer the New Kids on the Block, Now the Cool Ones
Trendsetters, revolutionaries, boundary breakers—however you want to describe Southern Grist, Antoon never thought it would be as the “cool kids.”
He remembers going to J. Wakefield with Lee and Welch about six months after they first opened. “This group walks by us, and it was Other Half and Evil Twin,” says Antoon. “I was like, one day, we’re going to have a beer with the guys from Other Half.”
Fast forward seven years, Other Half’s General Manager Geriz Ramirez called up Antoon to ask if he could stay at his house. “We went from, ‘one day we’ll have a beer with them,’ to now we’re hosting them for dinner,” laughs Antoon. “Last night, when Geriz left, he got super emotional, saying we’ve come so far in seven years. That was really cool.”
Now the cool kids on the block, Southern Grist only have plans to continue to grow.
Although just pipedreams now, Antoon says Southern Grist would love to open up a destination brewer a la Jester King or Blackberry Farms.
He also threw out Chattanooga as an up-and-coming town that would be great for another Southern Grist taproom.
And outside of beer, explorations into bourbon blending are at the forefront of all three co-founders’ minds.
Regardless of where Southern Grist goes from here, ingenuity will continue to drive them forward—zagging where everyone else zigs has always been in Southern Grist’s bones.
When you’re looking for a true taste of Nashville from the last seven years and for the next probably seventy years to come, there is no better brewery than Southern Grist.
All we can say is here’s to 1,000+ more beers you can look forward to drinking in the future.


text: There are more than a few economists these days who claim that if it walks like a recession, talks like a recession, and looks like a recession, it must be a recession. In particular they point to the 6.2% annual rate of decline in industrial production over the last two quarters, fully consistent with the 7.0% decline during the two quarters of the 1990-91 recession. They also emphasize the unprecedented drop in the Nasdaq index and the decline in corporate profits, which is likely to be the largest percentage drop in the entire post-World War II period. I don't see it that way, mainly because of the unusually mild 0.6% rise in the unemployment rate and the continued growth of consumer spending in the 3.5% range. Also, if a recession consists of two consecutive quarters of declining real GDP, the current situation is not even close. The first-quarter growth rate was 1.2%, and real GDP rose an estimated 1.8% in the second quarter. Even so, that doesn't make the declines in production, profits, and stock prices disappear with a mere wave of the hand. Some new theory must be cobbled together to explain how those measures of economic activity could be hit so hard at the same time that other aggregate measures have hardly changed at all. Economists used to think they knew what caused recessions. The inflation rate rose for a variety of reasons, including acceleration in wage gains and declining productivity, so eventually the Fed tightened. Consumer spending declined, as did new orders for capital spending. Layoffs soon started, causing consumers to cut back even more because they were worried about the increased likelihood of becoming unemployed in the near future. That led to even more layoffs. When businesses realized their inventory stocks were too high, production declined. The economy rapidly spiraled downward, but as soon as the monetary authorities realized the recession was under way, policy was eased. Six months later the economy started to recover again. Most of those elements have been missing over the last year. For openers, inflation did not rise. While the Fed missed the boat by not easing until early this year, bond yields and mortgage rates started to decline last July. Consumer spending continues to rise at a 3% to 4% annual rate. While some layoffs have occurred, unemployment has risen at less than one-third of its usual rate in downturns. Hence two of the principal linkages in the downward spiral, massive layoffs and substantial cutbacks in consumer spending, simply did not occur this time. That dichotomy centers on the difference between a downturn that occurs primarily in manufacturing and one that occurs primarily in services. In the old days, consumers cut back their spending on motor vehicles, household appliances, clothing, etc. When that happened, production facilities were shut down and employees were laid off. More recently, though, the fulcrum has shifted to the point where most discretionary purchases are in services: restaurant meals, vacations, entertainment, travel, and so forth. There have indeed been some substantial cutbacks in those areas, yet there has been virtually no negative employment effect. What happens when a fading rock star fails to sell out the auditorium? Employment is not cut; the show still needs just as many ticket-takers, ushers, security personnel, travel coordinators, and so on. Airlines fly with more empty seats, but employment is not cut back. Waiters have fewer customers to serve, and some are sent home early, but employment does not actually fall. Profits get clobbered but the growth in wages stays just about the same. That is precisely what has happened in the current slowdown; during the first half of the year, wages and salaries reportedly rose at a 6% annual rate even though employment hardly increased at all. As a result, there simply is no secondary round of layoffs, and the recession mechanism is short-circuited. Thus, in spite of the claim by a few economists that the U.S. already is in a recession, I think second-half growth will be far stronger than in the first half. Monetary ease and the tax rebate will have the same effect as in the past, which means the growth rate will soar to at least 4% in the second half of this year, followed by a 5% or better gain next year. Michael K. Evans is chief economist for American Economics Group, Washington, and president of the Evans Group, an economics consulting firm in Boca Raton, Florida.


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Major manufacturers and distributors in the electronics industry are well prepared to meet the requirements of the European Union’s RoHS and WEEE directives. But many of the small- to medium-size component suppliers are falling short in getting up to compliance. “Across the board large companies are more prepared than small companies. The large companies are prepared, so they don’t have to act immediately,” says Eric Karofsky, senior analyst at AMR Research. “The large companies always understand risk better. They have better planning capabilities and more capacity to spend time assessing risk.”
He notes that large companies view regulations as risk factors and they have a institutional capacity to assess risk and plan mitigation strategies well in advance of regulation deadlines. Not so with small companies. “Companies like Motorola and HP are well under way in understanding what is necessary to comply,” says Karofsky. “Most of the small- to medium-size businesses are behind the times.”
The large companies, however, depend on components from small- and medium-size suppliers. So the major companies have started to lean hard on their suppliers to get up to compliance. “Initially, the small- to medium-size businesses hampered the large companies’ ability to comply, but the large companies have the power,” says Karofsky. “A small component supplier may not be able to supply the component materials information. That provides a momentary exposure problem for the large manufacturer, but long term, the small component supplier will need to get up to speed or lose market share.”
Karofsky views RoHS compliance as a major competitive factor among small- to medium-size component producers. Not only must they produce lead-free versions of their components, they also have to manage the material content records to back up their claims of compliance. Those companies that can manage the transition best will gain marketshare over those suppliers that fall down on compliance and materials declaration. “If small companies continue to be a problem, the large companies will penalize them. If the supply base is compliant, that sets a baseline for enforcing compliance,” says Karofsky. “Eventually, competition will rule and the small supplier will get up to compliance to get more business. That’s already starting to happen.”
Lithium-ion battery prices will drop rapidly over the next 10 years, setting the stage for plug-in vehicles to reach 5%-10% of total automotive sales by the mid- to late-2020s, according to a new study.
Two researchers from Cornell University have won a $100,000 grant from NASA to continue work to develop an energy-harvesting robotic eel the space agency aims to use to explore oceans on one of the moons of Jupiter.
Is the factory smarter than it used to be? From recent buzzwords, you’d think we’ve entered a new dimension in industrial plants, where robots run all physical functions wirelessly and humans do little more than program ever more capable robotics. Some of that is actually true, but it’s been true for a while.
A recent Design News-exclusive study proves that engineering professionals are at the very forefront of this push into the future and making direct financial, performance, and value impact on their organizations by being personally involved or final decision-makers on automation solution and component choices.
Focus on Fundamentals consists of 45-minute on-line classes that cover a host of technologies. You learn without leaving the comfort of your desk. All classes are taught by subject-matter experts and all are archived. So if you can't attend live, attend at your convenience.


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Google may have scored a fab partnership with Diane von Furstenberg, but that doesn’t mean they won’t face competition from other tech companies
It looks like the product will have an earpiece microphone, audio and video recording mechanisms, and a light-pump VOD display.
Even though we can tell the device is basically Glass for those who are team #notgoogle, the company was able to file the patent sans risk of lawsuit by strategically avoiding the term “wearable” and calling it an “electronic device and sound capturing method,” TechCrunch reported.
So look out, Glassholes. It seems like Lenovo is looking to bring another computer to your face.
We wonder if Ashton will be lending his creative expertise to this project, too.


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Sim Seats, a builder of custom driving simulators designed primarily for driver training, has been purchasing Velocity Micro PCs since 2013 for its turnkey packages. These custom-tailored systems come in different levels to balance budget and match the caliber of equipment that each Sim Seats package offers. “Entry level single screen packages don't require the power output of large triple screen high refresh rate systems,” said Zach McAfee, Sim Seats Managing Director.
With drivers of all skill levels from Amateur to Pro counting on their Sim Seats rig for the most accurate track times and realistic practice sessions possible, a fast PC is a critical factor to their success. “A strong PC is a must from both performance and reliability perspective,” added McAfee.
But finding a PC supplier that could fulfill that expectation for reliability wasn’t easy for Sim Seats initially. “When we first started offering turn key packages, we purchased from a big online PC builder. It was a nightmare. Literally 50% of the first 10 PCs we purchased had issues,” said McAfee. “We've shipped many systems over the years and one thing we don't have to worry about [with Velocity Micro] is whether or not the PC is going to work. Lack of bloatware, excellent reliability and durability, and technical support are all huge pluses when working with VM. All of these result in better customer satisfaction for Sim Seats,” said McAfee.
When prompted for his favorite reason for buying from Velocity Micro for so long, he was quick to answer. “Over box store PCs one of the biggest reasons is lack of bloatware,” he said. “You get a clean system with no garbage apps to worry about or navigate. The performance is clear.”