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Elon Musk CEO and founder of Tesla Motors has reaffirmed Tesla’s intention to enter the Indian car market by 2019. The company will be entering the Indian market with limited operation then become fully operational by 2020.
In a tweet Musk also mention Tesla Motors having a presence in Asia, Africa and South America.
Previously Musk said his desire to enter the Indian market but restrictive regulations made it difficult, it’s expected that Tesla’s least model 3 will be the main product to be introduce to the market.
Musk desire to enter the Indian market comes after he gave Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a presentation on new technologies and Tesla cars disruptive potential to the vehicle industry.
Elon Musk is also planning on visiting India soon and is also looking into how they can bring the tesla SUV in to the Indian market.


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technews.am is a new community for breaking news across the technology sector. We are still in Alpha, so please bear with us.
GigaOm just under two hours agoYou can still hire a TaskRabbit to pick up your groceries or walk your dog, but now businesses will able to hire temps through TaskRabbit's new platform as well.
The HTC First with Facebook Home pre-installed was set to launch in the U.K. next month but that's not going to happen. Don't like the cost of your cloud datastore? Wait a second, it'll probably go down. Watch for rivals to jump in. Amazon is making its Kindle Fire HD tablets broadly available internationally, with preorders shipping in June. Joyent isn't being coy about it: It wants to compete head on with Amazon and that means it will offer many more options including some, it says, are cheaper than analogous AWS services. Developed for manufacturing, the 5 Whys technique can be applied to many situations in IT. In this post, we use it to identify the root problem underlying a data breach: nonexistent entitlement procedures. Software-defined networking vendor ConteXtream says a wireless service provider has deployed software to virtualize a network that supports around 40 million customers. Startup WibiData has raised another $15 million and wants to turn the lessons it has learned in the field into generic software that can let anyone build predictive applications on Hadoop. Life now. Data later. In this week's podcast guest Carla Diana, a product designer, discusses this mantra and other attributes designers should consider when developing connected products. Shazam wants you to turn your iPad into an automated logging device for any type of media playing within reach.

domain: news


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GM announced on Friday that the SSR (Super Sport Roadster) - unveiled as a concept car at this year's Detroit and Geneva motor shows - will be on sale early in 2002.
Like DaimlerChrysler's PT Cruiser, launched in Australia earlier this month, the SSR is an homage to America's hot rodding culture ... and a nod to nostalgia.
Instead, GM president and chief executive officer G. Richard Wagoner Jr says it is an "... icon for product innovation leadership, the company's sense of urgency and renewed commitment to exciting vehicles".
Wagoner made his announcement at an annual University of Michigan-sponsored automotive conference. "Just 10 months ago this vehicle was little more than an image on a designer's computer screen. But what an image!" he said.
He said the SSR was the second of nine North American GM concept cars from this year's car show circuit that would go into production. The other concept confirmed for pruduction is the Hummer H2.
Although he said he couldn't confirm production specifications for the SSR, Wagoner said it would be V8-powered and rear-wheel-drive.
"In production, you'll buy this vehicle with its open-air sports car feel, retractable hardtop, storage and flexibility. And the best part, it's all Chevy heritage ... rear-wheel-drive with strong V8 power!" he said.
Noting that in the past GM would never have spoken about a planned vehicle this early, he said, "We don't have every detail buttoned down for the SSR, but look at that truck! And frankly, the fact that we don't have all of the details to offer you on the Chevy SSR today says something in itself.
"We know we can do it. That's good enough for me! How many? How much? Those answers will be decided soon. Bottom line, you're going to be able to buy this vehicle."


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3M Digital Oral Care, St Paul, Minn, announced today that it will release its new 3M™ True Definition Scanner this fall. The new system will be released in tandem with 3M™ True Definition Scanner Software 5.1.
The next-generation scanner system includes a new wand, featuring a slimmer profile. The new wand—which features a narrow, angled tip—is designed to fit in the hand like a traditional handpiece and allow for one-handed scanning.
According to the company, the new 3M True Definition Scanner is built for fast scanning—once the field is prepared, “an adept user can scan a diagnostic arch in as little as 60 seconds.”
The redesigned 3M True Definition Scanner was unveiled at the 3M Digital Exchange in Minneapolis on July 31, 2014, amid a 2-day interactive conference focusing on the changing role of digital in today’s world.


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Siemens Energy, Inc. has added 40 new jobs at the central Mississippi plant where it makes high-voltage transmission equipment. Employment is now about 400 at the plant in Richland, just south of Jackson.
Glass maker Corning said Wednesday that its net income fell 23 percent in the third quarter on lower earnings from its joint venture with Samsung, which Corning is buying out. The company gave a disappointing forecast for the fourth quarter, and shares slipped.
Anheuser-Busch InBev and the Teamsters union are about to begin contract talks for the first time since the Belgian brewer InBev purchased the maker of Budweiser, Bud Light and other beers five years ago.
Government health system spokesman Rosendo Gaytan says the 35-year-old employee of the factory Dulces Blueberry in Ciudad Juarez died Tuesday at a hospital in the city of Guadalajara, where he was transferred to be treated for third-degree burns.
It looked like things were really starting to heat up for this little Southern California factory town when the maker of the Sriracha chili sauce known the world over decided to open a sprawling 650,000-square-foot factory within its borders.
Under the motto of “Intelligence in Production”, solutions were presented at EMO Hannover 2013 that efficiently integrate new information technologies. The focus was on innovations that automate, simplify or enhance the efficiency of the work sequences involved.
State safety regulators announced Tuesday they are seeking $707,000 in fines against Sinclair Oil Corp. after alleging 22 safety violations at the company's refinery in south-central Wyoming, including a toxic gas release that sickened dozens of workers in May.
Caterpillar Inc. has announced that it will close an East Texas plant and move the work elsewhere, putting about 100 employees out of work.The announcement to close the dippers plant in Kilgore comes a week after the Peoria, Ill.-based heavy equipment maker revealed third-quarter earnings fell 44 percent.
General Motors says third-quarter net income fell 53 percent compared with a year ago, as one-time expenses and losses in Europe offset strong performances elsewhere. The company earned $698 million in the quarter, or 45 cents per share. That compares with $1.48 billion, or 89 cents per share, a year ago.
Chrysler Group LLC today reported its preliminary third-quarter 2013 results, including net income of $464 million, marking the Company’s ninth consecutive quarter of positive net income.
The government spent $49.5 billion to save GM five years ago. The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program says the government has recovered $34.5 billion. That leaves $15 billion.
As jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney and the Machinists Union begin negotiations on Thursday for a new contract governing pay, benefits, work rules and other conditions, the top issue will be jobs.
The Manufacturing Jobs for America initiative aims to build bipartisan support for legislation that will modernize America’s manufacturing sector, help American manufacturers grow and create jobs, and assist American workers in getting the skills to succeed in the next generation of manufacturing jobs.
U.S. businesses increased their stockpiles in August, a sign that they expected stronger demand for their products. Stockpiles rose 0.3 percent in August compared with July, when they had risen 0.4 percent, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.
Henry Repeating Arms, the leading lever action rifle manufacturer headquartered in Bayonne NJ, will begin manufacturing their steel centerfire rifles in their Rice Lake, Wisconsin facility in 2014.
Honeywell announced today it will establish a new manufacturing campus in Zhangjiagang, China, to support growing demand in Asia for energy technology and advanced materials.
The Gaston County Economic Development Commission is pleased to announce that Owens Corning will construct an advanced manufacturing plant in theGastonia Technology Park (GTP). The initial investment will be $120 million and at full operations the company will employ up to 110 persons.
A federal judge has approved a $4.6 million settlement of an environmental lawsuit against a Madison manufacturer by a group of its neighbors. U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb approved the settlement Monday against Madison-Kipp. Under the settlement reached in July, the 32 homes will receive money and pollution control equipment.
A sharp drop in auto sales caused largely by a calendar quirk lowered U.S. retail spending in September. But Americans boosted their spending on most other goods, suggesting confidence in the economy ahead of the government shutdown.
Apple's quarterly earnings are still sagging even as sales of its iPhones are rising, a vexing phenomenon feeding investor worries about whether stiffer competition in the mobile device market will continue to undercut the company's prosperity.


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*This article originally appeared the Daily Journal on November 20, 2020
The passage of Proposition 24, the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), amends 2018’s California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) by creating the nation’s first data privacy enforcement agency and expanding consumers’ rights with respect to their personal information. In this article, Sheri Porath Rockwell and Alexis Miller Buese highlight some of the significant features of the CPRA that are likely to impact consumers and businesses alike.
This post is as of the posting date stated above. Sidley Austin LLP assumes no duty to update this post or post about any subsequent developments having a bearing on this post.


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A professor’s computer breaks and is unfixable. Where does it go next? It can’t get tossed in the trash because it’s electronic waste. So, what happens to these electronics when they’re obsolete, broken or just no longer needed?
Cal State Long Beach recycles an average of 24,000 to 36,000 pounds annually, according to Christopher Ramirez, Support Services Manager at CSULB.
The trail starts with a department’s technology coordinator, who would send a broken piece of equipment to their perspective college’s Technical Services. Each college has a person within the department responsible for processing e-waste. That person would then send the equipment down to Gary Corbin in Property Management in the shipping and receiving area on lower campus with a “survey request.”
“It has to be certified by the customer [the technology specialist] that it’s cleaned [and] there’s no info or data on it — it has to be media sanitized,” Corbin said.
There, the e-waste is processed and placed into bins for Global eRecyclers to pick up, which happens about every two weeks. The company pays CSULB for the e-waste by the pound. They have been picking up CSULB’s e-waste for 11 years.
According to Ramirez, CSULB earned $1,424.80 in 2014, $1,032.40 in 2015 and $542.09 in 2016. He noted the decrease in revenue.
“The downward trend could be for people being more sustainability-conscious, but also that computers are purchased every 3-5 years and it could be between purchase times,” he said in an email.
According to Corbin, if the item is reuseable, he may hold onto it for awhile to see if anyone can use it. Even if the technology is obsolete, a technical specialist on campus may reach out to him to use parts of it to repair something else.
“Everything is sustainable, everything can be recycled,” Corbin said.
Like every trail, there’s a beginning, and with almost every purchase the campus makes, the Procurement department plays a big role.
CSULB spends, on average, about $7 million per year on electronic products, according to Malia Kinimaka, director of procurement and contractual services. For the last three semesters, Kinimaka has been working on sustainable procurement policies.
Kinimaka said the new policies got started when she became part of CSULB Sustainability Taskforce. Other departments such as Transportation and Facilities were working on sustainable policies for their departments.
“I thought, ‘How can procurement make an impact on this as well?’ And when I started to research our own procurement policies [on sustainability], I found that we had none,” Kinimaka said. “We had a policy from the [Chancellor’s Office] that encourages sustainability, but doesn’t mandate it, so I found that in order to achieve the results we’re looking for, we do need to put some mandated policies in place to make sure that happens.”
The two policies are in draft right now, with one requiring that printer paper be made from 30 percent recyclable material and the other to enforce that any technology products purchased on campus have an EPEAT bronze rating.
EPEAT is a “free source of environmental product ratings that makes it easy to select high-performance electronics that support organizations’ IT and sustainability goals” according to its website, and is similar to an EnergyStar rating for appliances.
Kinimaka did a survey of 30 campus technology coordinators who are responsible for purchasing technology on campus and found the majority didn’t know if the products they were buying were EPEAT qualified.
“It would be nice to have a base line and really track what we’re buying and how much of it is [EPEAT] qualified so that we can assess our impact on the environment based on what we’re buying,” she said.
Kinimaka said that the majority of the technology brands that the campus already buys, like Dell, HP and Apple, have EPEAT rated products.
She also noted that CSU Northridge and CSU Los Angeles both have environmental policies.
“That’s why my whole focus is on creating policy, because if you don’t have the policy in place, people aren’t going to be forced to do it,” Kinimaka said.
The policies have been approved by the campus Sustainability Task Force and will be reviewed by the Vice President of Finance for further approval and will eventually make it to President Jane Close Conoley to sign off on.


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The Truth Will Set You Free .....
Nov 7, 2013
The CIA is paying AT&T more than $10 million a year to assist with its overseas counterterrorism investigations by handing over call data without a subpoena or court order, according to a new article by the New York Times. Also this week, the Silk Road, the online, underground market that the FBI raided and shut down four weeks ago, is back up and running. Silk Road is notorious for selling illegal goods like drugs and guns by using the online currency BitCoin, but a new posting says that Silk Road is also used to raise money for charities.


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Aker BioMarine has announced an exclusive partnership with Brazilian distributor Kilyos Nutrition.
Aker BioMarine (Lysaker, Norway) has announced an exclusive partnership with Kilyos Nutrition, a distributor in the Brazilian human nutrition market, to introduce new krill oil products to the market.
“A key aspect of our Superba Krill oil strategy for the development of the market is based on having a well-established partner who possesses the local knowledge, network, and high qualifications to meet our common growth ambitions,” explained Aker’s senior vice president, Sales Human Health Ingredients EMEA & LATAM, Mercè Piñol, in a press release. “Kilyos brings all these qualifications to the table, and we look forward to partnering with them to introduce krill oil to brands and consumers alike in Brazil.”
“We would like to thank our new partner Aker BioMarine for the opportunity to include Superba Krill in the Kilyos portfolio. Superba Krill is a safe and proven active ingredient in various organic conditions, and this allows us to meet the new and demanding expectations of the Brazilian market,” said José João Name, MD, PhD, director of Kilyos Nutrition, in a press release. “The commitment to scientific rigor of both companies and our objective of offering our customers only effective and well-founded ingredients contributed decisively to this partnership!”


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Florida couple creates second income sharing restaurant reviews on social media
ORLANDO, Fla. - Stephanie and Jesus Machado got married in March 2020 – so close to the start of the coronavirus pandemic, that there was no honeymoon.
But it didn’t matter because when the world shut down, Stephanie began sharing snippets of her Mickey Mouse wedding on social media using the handle: @datingindisney. Very quickly, she developed a loyal fanbase. The Machados then started posting tips for fun dates at Disney and beyond.
"It would be, ‘How a couple can eat at Disney World for under $50,’ ‘The five best burgers on Disney property,’ ‘The best ice cream in Orlando,’ things like that," recalls Stephanie.
Their follower count kept creeping up.
"They started to take an interest in me as a human being," says Stephanie.
They took an interest in their grocery shopping too.
"Costco! People love Costco. So my husband and I will go to Costco on our Saturday errands, and we will share the samples that we eat around Costco. People are fascinated by this. Millions of views," she says with a smile.
The hobby grew steadily with daily video posts on Instagram, YouTube, and her most successful platform, TikTok, where she has nearly 200,000 followers as of May 2023.
"We really care about what we're doing, and we're passionate about food," says Stephanie.
Because of that, brands and companies have taken notice, and the gig has turned profitable. Stephanie and Jesus dine for dollars in some cases.
"You have to share when you're being sponsored or that's a paid video or a paid ad. You have to disclose that. That's like the FTC guidelines," she adds.
Stephanie says despite getting paid in some cases for certain videos, her content style is still the same after the agreed-upon fee.
"It's different than a commercial because it's exactly what I would have said anyway," Stephanie tells us.
Stephanie does have a full-time job as a marketing manager for a tech company. The datingindisney Instagram account is simply additional income. How much income?
"I won't say how much I'm making doing this. There are often times stipulations in these contracts where you can't share what you're making. It's an up-and-down thing," says Stephanie.
We did some digging to get an idea of the payoff. It ranges drastically – and it all comes down to followers. The more you have, the more money you can make. Some earn as much as $34,000 a month. We found a TikTok creator with the same amount of fans as Stephanie who earns between $350 and $600 per sponsored post. Other content creators can make about $20 each time they go live.
Stephanie encourages anyone to try this. She has no culinary background and calls herself a professional eater.
"If you're willing to put yourself out there, that's the hardest part," she advises.
Stephanie even has a suggested starting point.
"Everybody has to eat! So recipe creations, trying new recipes, showing people how to cook easy, affordable recipes. Consistency is key. If you're not consistent, it's much more challenging to make it.
Consistency is no problem for Stephanie and Jesus.
"I don't see an end in sight for me doing this. I have so much fun doing it. It's literally a reason to go on an extra date night," Stephanie says with a small laugh.


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The United States exported a record-breaking 2.6 billion bushels of U.S. soy and soy products, valued at more than $28 billion last market year, ending in September. The U.S. also set a record high in combined volume of the whole soybeans, soybean meal and soybean oil exported in 2017/2018, with soybean meal exports accounting for the greatest growth.
The records were achieved despite the ongoing trade war with China that hindered U.S. soybean exports. However, the official marketing year runs from October 1 to September 30, and exports during the 2017/2018 marketing year would not have been largely impacted by the tariffs introduced by China as shipments abroad normally take place after harvest.
In response to the data, U.S. Soybean Export Council chairman and United Soybean Board director Derek Haigwood says at a time when global trade flows have dramatically changed, “it is critical that we ensure access in all markets that want to purchase U.S. soybeans and soy products.”
Source: National Association of Farm Broadcasters


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The sexiest industry in Europe
The campaign Portuguese Shoes 2016 tell us in 12 images a success made of quality, elegance, internationalization and modernity. This success is precisely the growing quality and distinction of the Portuguese footwear industry, unstoppable in the year that is about to pass.
The campaign Portuguese Shoes: The Sexiest industry in Europe, developed by APICCAPS (the Association of Portuguese Manufacturers of Portuguese Shoes) attended since its launch to the increase in footwear exports by 54% to a current total of 1900 million euros. Today, Portugal exports 95% of its production for 152 countries, in five continents, and intends to further strengthen its presence in international markets.
Click to read the original news


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Downtown comes alive with Revive
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The Revive Birmingham project kicked off last week, and downtown is one of five local neighborhoods getting more foot traffic because of retail and art shops.
As previously reported, the pop-up shops project was headed up by REV Birmingham, which chose the winners after receiving more than 50 proposals for shops to take space in downtown Birmingham, Five Points South, East Lake, Ensley and Woodlawn.
On Oct. 4, the first week of Revive will end with the "Birmingham Street Party," from 5 to 8 p.m. "We're taking over 3rd Avenue North between 18th Street North and 20th Street North, and we want YOU to bring the street life," says the event listing on the Revive website.
Following the street party, the historic Lyric theater's new exterior and signage will be lit up for the first time since its renovations started.
The Revive website says, "All of Birmingham is invited to join us as we finally light up the Lyric. We will #fliptheswitch at 8 p.m., showcasing the lobby's fabulous new exterior and signage. The Chad Fisher Group will provide live music from 7:30-8:30 p.m. and Trim Tab Brewing Co. will be pouring samples of their new Lyric beer. Show up & see history!"
Click here to see a full schedule of Revive Birmingham events, which will be going on for the month of October.
Brent Godwin is the online editor and social engagement manager for the Birmingham Business Journal. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
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DEPARTMENT store group Beale was today braced for a "challenging" year after a tough Christmas trading season dented its recent recovery.
The 12-store chain said it had shared the festive pain of other retailers after gross sales fell 3.6 per cent in the 11 weeks to January 15 - offsetting some of the progress reported in a trading update in November.
Beale said it remained confident in its recovery plan, but warned against "dramatic improvements in the present climate".
The group, which has stores in towns ranging from Bolton and Kendal to Winchester and Worthing, has taken a series of measures to improve its fortunes, including the launch of younger fashion ranges such as Oasis and Miss Sixty.
The initiatives kept the fall in gross sales to 2.7 per cent in the final six months of the financial year to October 30, although that proved insufficient to prevent turnover for the year falling by 5.5 per cent to é65.3m.
Bottom-line profits fell to é264,000 from é1.1m a year earlier and reflected the impact of intense competition, price deflation and fragile consumer spending, the company said in its annual results statement.


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T-Mobile customers will be able to use their phones in Cuba this summer
T-Mobile has announced it has signed a interconnect and roaming deal with Empresa De Telecomunicaciones De Cuba. It will allow T-Mobile customers to use their phones for calls, texts and data while they are traveling in Cuba sometime later this summer.
T-Mobile's press release states the new agreement will also allow T-Mobile Simple Choice customers to call landlines and wireless phones in Cuba from the U.S. for just $0.60 per minute if they are signed up for the "Stateside International Talk" feature, which costs $15 a month. It added:
There's no word yet on what the roaming rates will be for T-Mobile customers traveling in Cuba.
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Sacramento’s demand for gluten-free treats is fueling rapid growth for Pushkin’s Bakery, which opened in February 2013. Owners Danny and Olga Turner plan to open a 4,000-square-foot production facility by July.
“All the baking will be done at the retail space,” Danny Turner said. “This new facility is for new growth at grocery stores, and we’re working on trying to open more locations ... . Everything that is involved in baking, before the actual baking process, is going to be done in this new facility, and then we send the doughs and the pre-made mixes to the retail spots where they can be baked on site and sold there. The reason we’re doing that is we’ve completely run out of space.”
The Turners added refrigeration to their commercial van to transport the dough and pre-made products. At their retail bakery, 1820 29th St. in Sacramento, they are expanding their menu with sandwiches made on their gluten-free breads and Temple coffee. Last month, the couple began offering patio seating outside the bakery.
“I built everything,” Danny Turner said. “I used bread molds that we bake our breads in, and that’s what the planter boxes are made out of.”
He and his wife were the sole employees for eight months as they got Pushkin’s established. They now employ seven other people.


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I can’t speak for disadvantaged communities directly, but we know that many residents are wary of development, even though housing is short tens of thousands of units in Los Angeles and millions of units across the state.
A cliche about art is that it is supposed to help people see the world differently. Christo literally made the world look different.
Many armchair planners are trying to blame the virus crisis on density. Real planners shouldn’t let them get away with it.
Many elements of great, but forbidden, urbanism are on display in a bygone version of Los Angeles
We’re supposed to hate Solvang’s kitsch. But it’s got great bones — for several blocks in all directions
The best tea shop in Old Delhi is not a shop at all. It’s a cart, a bottle of propane, a guy, and his assistant…
SB 50 went down in flames once more. But the bill gave the state cover for other bills that would otherwise would have been considered radical. And RHNA is forcing upzoning all over the state.
The “retail apocalypse” has claimed a particularly unfortunate victim: the homegrown outdoor equipment chain Adventure 16. California’s cities and wilderness are both worse off
Advances in mobility technologies — from electric cars to robotic shopping carts — are dazzling. But planners will be hard-pressed to predict which ones will prevail.
If the Uberpocalypse (Lyftaclysm?) transpires, cities are going to find themselves time-warped back to 2009
If we can rebuild our cities according to those models, with an eye towards human scale and away from the automobile, Americans won’t need to travel abroad just so they can find a decent sidewalk cafe.
The quality of design that follows the passage of the next version of SB 50 will, without exaggeration, determine the look, feel, and function of California cities for at least the next generation.
The San Jose tower falls into the all-too-common trap of mistaking a skyline for a city.
The study of gentrification took center stage at the recent conference of the Urban Affairs Association. It’s up to planners to put all of that research to good use.
Water influences urban planning only in the broadest sense. It doesn’t tell us where to build or in what configuration. But it determines how many of us can live here.
As a piece of urbanism, Newsom’s revised experiment in high speed rail will be fascinating, and perhaps revelatory
In short, cities should quit wasting money on corporate welfare and, if they’re going to proactively pursue economic development programs (itself a measure of dubious value), they should stick to homegrown assets. The pursuit of Amazon in particular, though, was as ironic as it was perverse.


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Source : Entertainment Hollywood
AREA15, the world’s first purpose-built experiential art and entertainment complex, opened to the public recently and reservations for opening weekend were fully booked within 24 hours of being released. While AREA15 is free to enter, pre-registration and masks are required at this time to manage capacities and ensure a safe environment for all guests.
The brand-new venue welcomed its first guests following an opening ceremony helmed by Chief Executive Officer Winston Fisher and Chief Creative Officer Michael Beneville, who also serves as co-founder and CEO of Beneville Studios. Otherworldly art cars, billowing plumes of colored smoke and an eclectic mix of AREA15 ambassadors and performers joined the executives for the opening moment.
Located in the heart of Las Vegas and minutes from the Strip, AREA15 offers immersive activations, monumental art installations, socially-distanced activations, extraordinary design elements, unique retail, ground-breaking technology, bars, eateries and much more. The complex also houses 40,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space with more than 800 free parking spaces.
In addition to Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart, which opens in early 2021, many more experiences will open in the coming months, including Lost Spirits Distillery, Dueling Axes, Emporium Bar and Arcade, Wink World, The Beast Food Hall by Todd English, Rocket Fizz candy shop, and the Intel Innovation Hub.
In the coming weeks, AREA15 will continue to reveal new information about even more experiences coming to its campus, including the urban golf simulation Five Iron Golf, and immersive virtual reality experience, Virtualis.


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UK developer Tag Games has landed a coup, signing a deal with BBC Worldwide to launch an official Doctor Who game for iPhone and iPad.
The game, which is expected to launch before Christmas, will allow fans to play as the Doctor and as his current assistant Amy Pond.
"Doctor Who is the UK’s number one science fiction property, and I think it is in the BBC’s top three for worldwide sales, so it is great to bring it to Dundee — especially in light of what happened at Realtime Worlds and the effect it had on Dundee," Tag’s Robert Henning tells The Courier.
It’s the latest sign of UK broadcasters putting more investment into apps. Tag has also worked with Channel 4 on the official app for Come Dine With Me.
Story originally published on ME


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Meizu Pro 7 is Meizu’s upcoming flagship phone which is going to be announced in a few weeks. The device has created a lot of buzz in the media thanks to the leaked photos showing a secondary display at the back of the device. The display seems to be a monochrome one made of E Ink.
A couple of days ago we saw some renders of the Meizu Pro 7 showing the secondary display. Today we got two more leaks one showing the chassis of the phone with cutouts left for the alleged secondary display, and the other one showing a hands photo of the phone with a working E Ink display. The leaked photo was shared online by a Weibo user @Fotoball, you can check out his Weibo profile in the source link below.
The idea of a secondary E Ink display was first introduced by a Russian phone manufacturer Yota. The Yotaphone featured a large E Ink display at the back of the device which could be used for reading and resulted in a prolonged battery timing. The secondary display of Meizu Pro 7, on the other hand, seems to be a tiny one sitting below the dual camera module. The display is said to display show notifications, weather information, and other important information. The display could help a lot while shooting selfies using the back camera. The concept while seems exciting, the positioning of the display feels a bit weird. The better position for the display could have been somewhere at the bottom where it would have been easy to operate or a full-length display imitating the whole front UI just like the YotaPhone.
The Meizu Pro 7 is expected to launch in the next month and will be Powered by the MediaTek’s latest flagship processor, the Helio X30. There is also a buzz on the internet pointing to a plus variant of the phone with a larger display and a more powerful Samsung Exynos 8890 processor.
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Even though much of the world has been hunkered-down in pandemic mode, it turns out people still need a place to jot down their daily schedule. And Richmond-based Cloth & Paper is reaping the benefits.
Launched in 2015 by Ashley Reynolds and her husband Ryan in their spare bedroom in Raleigh, North Carolina, the company sells day planners and the paper inserts to fill them. It offers individual items and subscription boxes, which contain pens, paper, notepads and stationery.
The company has grown to 36 employees, 22 of which have been hired since March after the pandemic took hold.
Ryan said the company will ship about 130,000 subscription boxes this year, which range from $18-$48 per month and can arrive on a one-, three- or six-month basis. He added that the company hit 21,000 non-subscription orders from June 1 to Sept. 1, topping 2019’s total of 19,000.
Revenue has grown 1,500 percent since 2017 and the company is on pace to triple last year’s revenue, Ryan said, though the company declined to disclosed dollar amounts. Monthly sales this year have more than doubled from pre-pandemic levels, Ryan said.
Ryan said their top competitor, The Happy Planner, is hitting around $40 million in annual revenue, which he said is a mark Cloth & Paper aims to hit in five years based on the company’s current growth and plans to expand beyond paper and leather goods.
To keep up with demand, the couple this month signed a lease for a new warehouse in Henrico that will more than triple its square footage from 3,600 to around 12,000. Its current warehouse is at 223 Tomylnn St. Its new facility is at 8217 Hermitage Road.
Cloth & Paper’s best-selling items are weekly dated inserts and leather-covered notebooks, which Ashley said they can’t keep enough of in stock.
The couple runs the business together full-time. Ashley designs, creates and markets products after acquiring materials from manufacturers throughout the state while Ryan handles operations.
They credit social media and nostalgia for driving interest in physical planners among millennials. Organizing can reduce stress and anxiety and writing can be therapeutic, Ashley said, and posting “Instagrammable” images of artsy planners on social media has become a thing.
“It’s another form of self-expression,” Ashley said. “Just like, you know, the clothes that you would wear or the selfies you would take.”
The company has little retail presence in Richmond and leans heavily on its online business, which extends internationally. Ryan said Cloth & Paper’s products are in some hotels and may move to boutiques. Brick-and-mortar expansion isn’t a priority, given the company’s success selling online and through social media to individuals and companies.
“I don’t know if it’s specific to this industry, I think it’s just e-commerce in general,” Ryan said. “We saw, almost in tune with everybody, you know, being stuck at home. I think shopping online became like a therapy and a source of entertainment for people.”
Cloth & Paper built a following through Instagram and Facebook with no paid advertising in its first three years, Ryan said. It’s since experimented with paid ads on social media as it hopes to grow beyond 72,000 Instagram followers and drive sales.
The company has been profitable since 2016 thanks to low overhead costs, Ryan said, and the company hired its first outside employee in 2017. Every company needs an exit strategy, Ryan said, but the couple sees so much potential for growth that entertaining acquisition offers isn’t in the cards.
Writing a future together
The two Richmond natives met in middle school and started dating in 2003 after working in the same restaurant. They’ll celebrate their 10-year wedding anniversary next year.
Ashley had worked in Fair Credit Reporting Act compliance with Capital One in Richmond before her husband got a job offer in Raleigh and the two relocated. She said she didn’t want to go job-hunting, so she started playing around with designs for planner inserts in Microsoft Word and found people wanted to buy her work.
She realized her hobby could be a business. With a $10,000 line of credit, Cloth & Paper was officially born.
Ryan left his job as a sales manager at CarMax in North Carolina a year later and moved back to Richmond with Ashley to buy Dalco International, a medical supply distribution company, from a family friend whom he paid over three years. The two used warehouse space from that acquisition to help build Cloth & Paper. The couple has since sold that business to one of its vendors and will get a royalty on future sales.
“That was the fuel that we needed to kind of do our own thing,” Ashley said. “Because, when we were 17, that was always our conversation. We always wanted to build a business for ourselves.
One of our first dates was actually going to the Motleys car auction to try to get a car to flip. We were doing that at 17.”
Ashley and Ryan share an office with desks right across from each other. The two 34-year-olds don’t have children and said they don’t plan to in the next few years.
For now, Cloth & Paper is their baby.
“I don’t think that there’s been 24 hours where we haven’t had a discussion about the business, even on vacation,” Ashley said. “We’ve gone away for a few days before and we either end up hopping on to a work call or scheduling something during vacation. We’ve just never not touched the business. We don’t have a strong desire to separate personal life from work life, because this is everything we’ve worked for.”


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- The US’s annual inflation rate increased to 1.4% in December of 2020, from 1.2% in November and slightly higher than market forecasts of 1.3%. On a monthly basis, consumer prices increased 0.4%, higher than 0.2% in November and in line with expectations, mainly driven by an 8.4% increase in the gasoline index, which accounted for more than 60% of the overall rise. (Trading Economics)
- US core consumer prices, which exclude volatile items such as food and energy, rose +1.6% yoy in December 2020, the same pace as in the previous month. (Trading Economics)
- Retail sales in Indonesia slumped by 16.3% year-on-year in November 2020, after plunging by 14.9% a month earlier. This marked the twelfth straight month of fall in retail trade, and the steepest pace since June, amid the prolonged impact caused by the COVID-19 crisis that made people stay at home most of their time. (Tradingeconomics)
- China would import more Indonesian products and increase investment in Southeast Asia’s largest economy, a top Chinese diplomat said on Wednesday, as Jakarta urged Beijing to remove barriers to make trade between the two countries more balanced. (Kontan)
- The government has determined that it will provide a corporate stage tax (PPh) discount of 100% of the amount of tax stated for business activities in the Special Economic Zone (KEK) area. (Kontan)
- The realization of the 2020 State Budget (APBN) deficit reached 6.09% of gross domestic product (GDP). (Kontan)
The rupiah exchange rate is estimated to strengthen to IDR 14,100 per USD. The dollar index was steady at 90.2 last night. Meanwhile, the 10-year UST yield fell -5 bps to 1.08%. Long-maturity Treasury yields dropped on Wednesday as investors digested the latest inflation data that showed a small increase. The Fed’s policy to continue helping the US economy by continuing the UST purchase program is likely to push the dollar index down. In addition, the rupiah will likely be boosted by a December trade balance surplus of 2 billion US dollars.


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Beijing yitongchuang cooperates with NEC to set up a technology center in Shenzhen
recently, Beijing yitongchuang Technology Co., Ltd., one of NEC's main agents, and NEC jointly announced the establishment of "yitongchuang technology center" in Shenzhen. The technology center will be mainly developed in the field of household appliances and industrial applications based on MCU, including air conditioning remote controllers, RF remote controllers, electric vehicle controllers, DC motor drives, washing machine controllers, capacitive touch button applications, etc. "The research direction of the technology center is to become a software design expert of NEC applilet2 platform, provide users with software and hardware design, save users' development time, and thus have more time to serve end consumers." Huang Xiaomao, director of the newly established yitongchuang technology center, said to. In the new research direction, yitongchuang technology center will also focus on the application of 180 degree sensorless compressor, 120 degree sensorless water pump/window machine and 180 degree sensorless industrial servo machine. "DC motor is a field with great potential in the development of power supply, and we will focus on research and development." He explained
since its establishment eight years ago, yitongchuang has made great progress with the support of NEC. The annual sales volume has increased from more than 9 million yuan at the beginning of its establishment in 2002 to 200million yuan, and it has also become one of the largest MCU agents in necel Chinese Mainland. After years of efforts and development, we have established long-term cooperative relations with many well-known domestic enterprises in air conditioners, washing machines, induction cookers, electric vehicles and other fields. The range of products sold is also expanding, and has become a comprehensive agent capable of selling MCU, PMD and compound products
Zhu Xiaobing, general manager of the company, said at the founding meeting of the technology center, "Last year's financial crisis, from October 2008 to February 2009, sales fell sharply and inventories increased sharply, and the company was facing the greatest operating pressure since its establishment. We feel lucky that this year, the impact of the country's favorable policies such as expanding domestic demand has returned to the normal level since March this year, and our business indicators have increased significantly in recent months compared with the same period last year, but due to the business environment is still weak There are various uncertain factors, which make the sample "drum shaped" after deformation, and the characteristics of the products we sell (most of them are masks), which determine that we need to prevent another roller coaster experience. At the same time, we also hope to learn enough experience from the financial crisis to resist various risks and improve the company's anti risk ability. "
Beijing yitongchuang technology center was established in Shenzhen, focusing on motor control, RF remote control and other fields
the establishment of the technology center is precisely to enhance the competitiveness of the company to meet the arrival of the 4D printing period. He continued, "today, great changes have taken place in the market. The increasingly fierce competition in technology and price in the semiconductor industry has put forward higher requirements for the business operation of distributors." He explained that the oxidation, electrophoresis and casting production lines have one channel each. First of all, customers require that while providing the best cost-effective products, distributors also need to provide the best technical support and services. Technical support for the early development of the project, quality control of mass production process and after-sales quality support services are very important. Secondly, customers need us to provide complete solutions for some cutting-edge technology products, so that they can quickly adopt new technologies, launch new products and occupy the market. On the other hand, we can also maintain or increase market share. The last point is to form differentiated competition, so that our products can enter a higher-end field, one step ahead of our competitors, lead the market direction, and disperse the business risks caused by price competition in the low-end market
as distributors face increasingly fierce price competition and profit pressure, it has become a major trend to enter the field of technical solutions to achieve differentiation. However, yitongchuang technology center has a bigger dream: "I hope that in the near future, the technology center can develop into an independent technology company and develop more and better technology solutions." Zhu Xiaobing said
Copyright © 2011 JIN SHI


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When one of Chicago Mold Engineering Co. Inc.'s customers discovered damage to an insert in a mold, it did not contact the original mold maker for the data on the original mold.
Instead, it went to the 60-employee shop on the outskirts of the Chicago suburbs for the fastest response.
And St.Charles-based CME, in turn, went to its weapon of choice - a white-light scanning system called Atos III that allows CME to cut a week's worth of reverse engineering into just a few hours. For this project, the mold maker was able to scan and return the insert, allowing the customer to continue molding without losing even a day's production.
``You have to look for new methods, for new ways of doing things,'' said Ralph Oswald, a second-generation owner and chief executive officer of Chicago Mold Engineering. ``You evolve.''
CME has had to adapt during the past 60 years, agreed sales manager Don Mazurek.
The company's bread-and-butter product was once in making molds for small home appliances. As that work left North America, the firm extended its expertise to molds for thermoset molding of automotive lighting. As North American automakers decreased production, CME made connections with Japanese automakers that have been increasing their presence in the region.
And it is adapting lean manufacturing concepts that allow the firm to turn out molds faster than it once thought possible.
``There's still enough work in the United States to survive. You just have to do it economically,'' Oswald said during a May 16 interview at the company.
The Atos scanner gives it a leg up on starting a new project and checking finished molds. Each scan is worth 4.1 million hits on a standard coordinate measurement machine.
But the scanner is only one element in CME's push to deliver tools faster, Oswald noted.
CME has learned to adapt its thinking toward every element of production. That means coming up with new ways to keep expensive equipment operating at optimum capacity and adjusting the product flow - a lean manufacturing concept that is making its way into mold making, Mazurek noted. That change also has meant the firm must learn how to quote on potential contracts with an adjustment to account for additional machine hours, rather than only employee work hours.
Mold makers have learned that at the end of a work day they need to get milling machines, wire electrical discharge machining production cells and other equipment ready to run lights-out through the night.
CME has added automation to speed production, Oswald said. And the company worked with its employees to make sure they were on board with the changes.
``That first robot was a little hard for them to take, but it's accepted now,'' he said. ``You present it to people as helping them to make their jobs easier.''
Speed is not just a marketing ploy, he said, it is essential to long-term survival.
``What would take us 16 weeks in the past is 12 now and getting shorter,'' Oswald said. ``It's tough, but it's the way business is done these days.''


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Google hasn't released its wearable device, Glass, just yet, but the Mountain View-based search giant is already teasing another wearable project: a smart contact lens with metal uses.
There's a very tiny wireless chip and glucose sensor, which are pegged between two layers of contact lens material. Google is reportedly also already working on embedding tiny LED lights for notifications, too. Before Google moves further with this new wearable project, it is in talks with the FDA and other partners - so this is a while off yet, folks.
- > NEXT STORY: Boutique PC company CyberPowerPC teams up with Complexity Gaming
- < PREVIOUS STORY: New League of Legends patch improves new player experience


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The role of women in tech has changed drastically throughout the history of computer science itself. A field historically predominated by men, it's slowly seen increases in recent years as the greater global economy shifts towards the technology sector. Apropos of technology's greater role in the economy, we've also seen an increase in the number of women entrepreneurs – with the number of women-led startups in the United States seeing a 68 percent growth between 1997 and 2014. Despite this massive growth (at a rate twice that of businesses owned by men), women-led startups receive only seven percent of all investor money.
According to a recently published infographic created by craigconnects (the organization created by Craigslist founder Craig Newmark to use tech to empower under-recognized groups) and Women Who Tech (whose goal is to promote women-led startups), women-led startups still only get a very tiny proportion of money from investors. While the likelihood of startups with women executives are three times more likely to receive funding today than 15 years ago, all-male startup teams are still six times more likely to receive investor money than women-led startups.
And, honestly, that's f*cking depressing. According to the 2014 Gender-GEDI Female Entrepreneurship Index, which measures how friendly conditions are for women entrepreneurs around the world, the United States ranks as the top country for women entrepreneurs; 75 percent of the other countries were found to have conditions unfriendly towards women entrepreneurs. As a country with the resources, institutions, and values that allow women to own and lead companies, it's disgraceful that women-led startups aren't getting more support.
Women-led startups are found to have a 35 percent higher ROI when venture-backed and generate 12 percent higher revenues than their male counterparts. Yet, when you look at the numbers, 86 percent of venture-funded startups have no women in their management whatsoever.
While there have been several initiatives that have attempted to encourage more women to pursue entrepreneurship – from Chicago's 1871's FEMTech startup incubator to Google's own investment in programs for women entrepreneurs – such programs come up short when the same women who participate ultimately fail to gain access to the capital that allows them to accelerate their startups. Hopefully, we'll one day get to a point where an equilibrium is reached.
Last month, Women Who Tech announced a Women Startup Challenge, aimed at encouraging women to startup. For some inspiration, maybe check out these 50 women in tech dominating Silicon Valley, or watch these how-to videos for women entrepreneurs.


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The FCC will have to defend its new Net neutrality rules in a federal appeals court, which has already once told the FCC that it's overstepped its authority on this issue.
The Sony Pictures hack has exposed the inner workings of one of Hollywood's biggest studios.
CNET editor Dong Ngo picks a handful of networking and storage products of 2014 he finds most interesting.
Washington D.C.'s police chief issues an order that "recognizes that members of the general public have a First Amendment right to video record, photograph, and/or audio record" the police.
Before we celebrate 2014's greatest in gaming, let's revisit those titles that failed to live up to the hype.
The Web giant's mapping feature now boasts live departure times or service alerts in three new U.S. metropolitan areas.
Tech firms present a rare unified front in asking President Obama and Congress "to enact immigration reform this year." But the political obstacles they face in Washington are considerable.
We've rounded up a half dozen laptops, desktops, tablets and hybrids that showcase some of the amazing leaps -- and a few of the disappointments -- that the PC market delivered in 2014.
The Washington D.C. Taxi Commission outlaws UberX because it uses mid-size vehicles without a meter, which supposedly causes unfair competition to taxicabs.
The U.S. International Trade Commission says Samsung infringes on a pair of Apple patents with some of its older phones.


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INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Snickers is giving away a million free candy bars ahead of Halloween.
A candy giveaway was initially tied to an online petition to get the spooky holiday moved from October 31 to the last Saturday of October.
Snickers said if the federal government changed the date of Halloween, it would give away a million free Snickers bars.
The petition got more than 150,000 signatures, but the date of Halloween hasn’t changed.
Snickers decided to give away the candy anyway.
Click here and enter your cell phone number to claim a digital gift card for $3.90, the price of a bag of fun-size snickers.
CNN contributed to this report.


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The design of Lenovo’s new Legion gaming phone leaked last week, and now the company has decided to reveal more information behind the device that may or may not be a transformer in disguise. It turns out there is more than meets the eye to the Legion Phone Duel 2, as it’s more than just an interesting design with a bulky camera in the middle.
The device appears to be a gaming phone in every sense of the word, which means it comes packed with loads of power, as reported by The Verge. It’s worth mentioning that the phone is actually quite a large beast, as it has a massive 6.92-inch screen that houses not one, but two batteries. There’s also two USB-C ports, two actual spinning fans, and the camera bump in the middle houses a hidden exhaust fan to go with the visible intake fan. And to make sure that gamers spend the majority of their time holding it horizontally for that gaming experience it comes with a pop-up camera on the side.
Perhaps most impressive though is that it features the latest Snapdragon 888 processor, up to 18GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and up to 512GB of UFS3.1 storage. With that power, I’m beginning to think it has to be a Transformer because why else would you need so much power just to play games on a phone?
The screen itself can hit resolutions of 2,460 x 1,080 at a 144Hz high-refresh-rate on its OLED screen, with a brightness of 800 nits (1300 nits at maximum) to ensure you can still see what is on your screen and not in front of you when out on a sunny day.
As for the cameras, the Duel 2’s pop-up selfie camera features a 44-megapixel lens for some serious high-quality streaming, while at the rear is a 64-megapixel main camera, as well as a 16-megapixel ultrawide lens. And the two USB-C ports allow the phone to be charged and connected to an additional adapter to play on a bigger screen. Which considering it is more powerful than a next-gen console, you might as well do so.
Lenovo claims that their device is capable of up to 8 hours” of “intermittent gameplay.” Though I would imagine if you have a phone like this, you are going to want to do a lot more than intermittent gameplay and so I wouldn’t hold out on this device lasting too long before needing a recharge.
At around $1200 for the higher-spec models, it certainly is not cheap, though not as expensive as you might expect either. One thing it is not though is built with high quality parts, if this YouTube video of it been painfully broken with relative ease is anything to go by.
Seeing all that money go up in smoke is not easy to watch. Though I would expect if you actually forked out money for a device like this, you would be treating it with more care and possibly even ensuring it has a special place to be tucked into your pillow while sleeping peacefully next to you.
Last Updated: April 12, 2021


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Mastercard is set to launch Masterpass QR bot for Facebook Messenger to help business owners in Nigeria move beyond cash transactions to accepting QR payments. This will allow individuals and small businesses make and receive payments in real time via Facebook Messenger.
Launched in 2016, Masterpass QR provides people with any type of mobile phone the ability to safely accept and make in-person purchases without cash or a plastic card. It provides greater choice in payments and complements Mastercard’s investment in contactless payments to provide merchants of all sizes – from international chains to individual shop owners and street vendors – a fast, secure and inexpensive way to accept payments.
“Every business owner is looking for ways to increase sales and draw new customers into their stores. By offering QR-based digital payments, smaller retailers can achieve these goals and create greater customer stickiness with little to no investment beyond the phone they already have,” said Jorn Lambert, executive vice president, Digital Channels and Regions, Mastercard.
“Brands and developers around the world are turning to messaging to connect with the 1.3 billion people who use Messenger each month,” said Kahina Van Dyke, director of Payments and Financial Services Partnerships at Facebook. “We are pleased that Mastercard is developing a service on the Messenger Platform to help small merchants use messaging to manage their business and connect with their customers.”
To get started, businesses can send a request to the bot to enable QR payments, receive approval from the bank, set up an account and start accepting digital payments in a fast, simple and secure manner. Once the account set up process is complete, business owners can print and display the QR code in their stores or save the code on their phones. Customers can pay by either scanning the code from their smartphone or by entering the merchant ID associated with the QR code into their feature phone.
According to a press release by Mastercard, Ecobank and Zenith Bank will support this inaugural program; the beginning of a larger plan by the two companies to include more businesses into the digital economy.
According to the MD/CEO of Zenith Bank Plc Mr. Peter Amangbo, ‘the Bank is partnering with Facebook and Mastercard to introduce Masterpass QR as a means of driving financial inclusion and creating a new payment ecosystem for MSMEs and consumers. This initiative will help us encourage financial inclusion within the country in line with the strategic thrust of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Buyers and sellers now meet and conclude transactions in-store, online and on social media, so we are ensuring payments can also be made on these platforms via QR codes, without having to log onto other solutions or even take a break from what you are doing on Facebook’.
“In line with our goal to serve 100 million Africans by the end of 2020, Ecobank is delighted to collaborate with Facebook and Mastercard to enable underserved and unbanked micro-merchants with the opportunity to open an Ecobank account almost immediately and begin to receive instant payments using Ecobank Masterpass QR on the Facebook Messenger platform. Micro merchants in Nigeria are already benefiting from Masterpass QR and will soon be in 32 markets across Africa, enabling them to move away from cash. That is true economic empowerment,” said Patrick kinwuntan, Group Executive, Consumer Bank, Ecobank Group.
- Yudala and Konga Merges Operations To Become Biggest eCommerce Marketplace in Africa
- What is Chatbot for Facebook Messenger and How Does It Works?
- Interswitch Spak Science Competition Set To Reward STEM Students in Nigeria
- Publiseer Emerges As One Of The Finalists Of The 2018 Harvard Business School New Venture Competition
- Simbibot : Chatbot That Lets You Prepare For JAMB Exams via Facebook Messenger


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It’s a big claim and these two entrepreneurs are sticking to it. Fernando Pinheiro and Michael Muller started an online shop to sell your secondhand car – that they say will take you 30 minutes – after they got screwed over trying to sell their own.
“Mike and I both had really really bad experiences and that’s why we wanted to start this business,” says Pinheiro.
Hence CarZar was born. Their business model is simple; fill an online form which uses national data and CarZar’s very own algorithm to find a price. If you accept the price, CarZar sends over an inspector and 30 minutes later, you have cash in hand.
It all came the hard way.
“I was moving from Cape Town to Johannesburg on a new job. I tried to sell my car privately online to get a higher price,” says Muller.
“It was a BMW 3 series, a 1996 model – I called it White Lightning. It had at some point overheated badly, and according to my mechanic it had put strain on the whole cooling system. So every month or two one of those parts would break,” says Muller.
It took weeks of wheeling and dealing online until Muller was willing to meet a buyer for R25,000 ($1,800).
“We met outside in some car park in Milnerton, with a dicey pub and an internet café. When we got there, he offered me R5,000 ($360) less, which was 20% of the car value. I rejected the offer.”
At this point Muller was in a fix. He was leaving for Johannesburg the next day.
“I didn’t have more time to go and find more people. He was an ugly guy. He was rude to me and then he had offered to pay less than what we had agreed upon. I really didnt want to sell him my car. As I stood on the pavement watching this guy pull off, I flagged him down and said fine.”
“We walked into the cafe where we made the transfer. I watched him do it, and at the time I hoped he was doing it. You still never know. I had to take the risk. It was really ugly. But the transfer went through. It was the biggest transaction I had made in my life and it had been a complete failure.”
Pinheiro too had trouble getting anyone to buy his car. Having moved to South Africa from Brazil, he bought a secondhand Chevrolet from a dealer when he worked as an engineer consulting for firms Engevix and Passarelli.
“I remember the smile of the dealer who I bought the Chev from. His face lit up. Once I bought it I remember looking at it covered in dust and thinking I had paid a good price for it. But, when I tried to sell it, I visited eight dealerships and none of them wanted to touch it. One would maybe accept it as trade-in. I’m still driving it to this day,” says Pinheiro.
With their bad experiences fresh on their minds the two teamed up to look for ways around it online. Pinheiro looked back to Brazil.
“I saw the same business model being implemented in my country, Brazil. I knew one of the founders and it seemed to me like a very good idea,” says Pinheiro.
Muller, who had quit his corporate chartered accountant job at McKinsey & Company, in Johannesburg, and returned to Cape Town, was now designing a hotel app in the same building as Pinheiro. Pinheiro convinced Muller that cars and online sales were the better option.
“We did some basic market research. We noticed a huge space for innovation and space for improvement in trade in the auto trade industry. I needed a bigger pool of qualification which is where Michael came in,” says Pinheiro.
“South Africans are getting more used to online internet services to buy stuff. In our specific case, we noticed most of our traffic is coming the age between 18 and 35 years, which is quite expected. What we also want to achieve is those ages between 35 and 65 years old, normally unused to selling cars in different ways, those that don’t use the internet or don’t care.”
With a R3-million ($220,000) investment from Silvertree Internet Holdings, a tech startup company based in Cape Town, CarZar launched in April. It saw 6,000 inspections in just eight months.
“You need to sell the cars quickly so you don’t need such large amounts of capital. If you can turn over that car in three days then you can turn over the capital quicker,” says Muller.
“There is one group of customers who think this is a great product. Then there is another group that aren’t satisfied with the price. What people often forget, the dealer needs to recondition the car. Fix it up. In a private sale you don’t need that. Then the dealer needs to house this car on their floor and get someone to come and buy it.”
Their first hurdle was dealing with the dealers.
“When we started out we struggled to sell the cars. Car dealers are particularly nervous guys; it took a while to gain their confidence. When we first did the market research they tell you they are desperately short of cars. But then you take them a car and they look at it and say it’s not so great,” says Muller.
Their first experience selling a car was also a learning curve.
“We thought it looked nice, we had no idea what we were doing. It was a 2009 white Polo. The guy didn’t want to give us the documents of the car. Once we tried to sell the car to the dealers, we had a horrible surprise. We were actually trying to sell ‘lemons’ to the dealers. The car was totally f***ed,” says Pinheiro.
They call them lemons in the car industry – cars so bad they leave a sour taste in the mouth.
“After the dealers pointed it out to us it was clear. You can get a car that looks really neat and if there is structural damage it’s worthless,” says Muller.
“You can pay top-dollar price for a car that’s worth half of it,” says Pinheiro.
Other than cars that leave a sour taste, the two entrepreneurs also have the challenges of building an online business. They complain there aren’t enough qualified programmers.
“We’ve had job recruitment agencies looking for a year and we just can’t find guys. It’s been a real strain. We need web developers. It’s a huge gap. This will be a trend for the future and it could make South Africa a really power internet space if you get to the source and solve the lack of developers. There are a lot of entrepreneurs who want to do a lot of stuff, they even have access to capital but they can’t find the helpers,” says Muller.
“In the past when I was a kid normally would go to specialized English schools, after school. What’s happening in Brazil now is parents are sending their kids to learn how to code. These kids are 10 years old and it’s the future. Learning how to code is just as important as learning how to speak English,” says Pinheiro.
Experience talks. Tyre kickers and time wasters walk.


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The outage lasted around two hours on 27 November, according to Alibaba’s statement.
“After emergency handling by Alibaba Cloud engineers, the issue was fixed and the affected products resumed normal operation,” Alibaba said.
The last outage faced by its cloud customers occurred on 12 November 2023, just two weeks before. The previous outage lasted over three hours and affected more customers.
Writing on Alibaba’s July 2023 cloud customer summit, GlobalData analyst Alfie Amir stated that the company had continued to focus on customer engagement while balancing emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence.
Amir notes that whilst Alibaba’s wide ecosystem of products can lower the barrier of entry for customers to integrate emerging tech into their workflows, other cloud providers such as AWS and Google Cloud also have this same advantage.
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“As the cloud competition increases,” writes Amir, “it is crucial for Alibaba Cloud to differentiate in the market.”
With two outages to major customer bases in just one month, the reputation of Alibaba as a cloud provider may come under scrutiny.
Research analysis company GlobalData forecast that as early as 2026 enterprise spending of cloud software will reach $169bn, achieving a compound annual growth rate of 12.9% between the years 2021 and 2026.


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J.K. Rowling fans don’t waste any time when tickets to see the author go on sale — even if they are not technically on sale yet.
The Jazz at Lincoln Center ticketing system was breached in what was presumably the first time it was really put to the test (Wynton Marsalis is popular, but not that popular).
Unauthorized tickets to watch Ms. Rowling read from her new, adult novel The Casual Vacancy went on sale on September 9 – a full 12 hours before they were supposed to.
Which means a lot of excited fans bought fake tickets.
But a change in venue means that nobody (who already bought tickets, that is) will be denied access. The October 16 reading, which has obviously sold out by now, was relocated to the 2,586-seat David H. Koch theatre . Those who jumped the gun and bought illegitimate tickets will be contacted by Jazz at Lincoln Center in order to get real tickets, Publisher’s Lunch reported today.
“Although neither Little, Brown and Company nor J.K. Rowling are responsible for this situation they were keen to make sure that no person who legitimately bought a ticket was left disappointed, are delighted this matter has been resolved in this way, and apologize for any confusion that may have been caused in the meantime,” Jazz at Lincoln Center wrote in an email to The Observer. Ticket holders who purchased prematurely will be contacted by Jazz at Lincoln Center in order to swap the fakes for new, real tickets to the new location.
Although the reading may be less intimate now, the change in venue leads to a happy outcome for all — especially Lincoln Center and J.K. Rowling, who presumably get to keep the extra cash.
Not that anybody had any doubts about J.K. Rowling’s ability to climb the besteller list, but this snafu bodes extremely well for book sales.


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Beyonce’s Surprise Album to Debut at Number One on the Charts
Three days ago, we thought it would be months before Beyoncé released a new album. Now, the album that she stealthily released in the middle of the night this week is about to become the number one album in the country. Not too shabby.
Proving why she continues to deserve the title of Queen Bey, the singer's new album — which was released digitally on iTunes on December 13 — is selling like crazy and is set to debut at the top spot on the Billboard chart.
What makes this feat all the more impressive is that the sales week officially ends every Sunday, meaning that Beyoncé only had three days to sell enough albums to top the chart. No big deal.
"Our early numbers are showing that this is likely heading toward a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 albums chart with only three days of the tracking week," says Billboard's editor.
As of Friday afternoon, Beyoncé's self-titled album's explicit and clean versions were ranked as number one and number two on the iTunes album charts, respectively.
At the moment, the album is only available digitally, with a music video accompanying each song. However, the album will reportedly be available for purchase in stores on December 21, just in time to slip a copy into someone's stocking. Her last album, 4, came out in June 2011 and went platinum.
Long story short: Beyoncéis definitely irreplaceable.


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As you shiver your way through February, you’re probably thinking about paying your heating bill. But in just a few short months, the summer sun is going to come calling — and the fear of pulling that energy bill out of your mailbox will start becoming very, very real.
Air conditioning accounts for about an eighth of a U.S. home’s total household energy costs, which translates to hundreds of dollars a year. Instead, invest now in driving those monthly bills down this summer with a Star Tripod 16-inch Stand Fan, now almost $100 off its regular price.
And no, this isn’t one of those cheap plastic air-swirlers you’d buy at Walmart that sounds like it could rattle apart at any minute.
This Star fan is solid construction, top to bottom. A full-metal, 120-volt, 60-watt fan built from die-cast parts, this is heavy-duty industrial-style equipment made to survive for the long haul.
The 3-speed oscillating head spreads cool air throughout the space with adjustable height and tilt from atop the well-balanced, 3-pronged hardwood legs. Standing up to 58 inches tall, the legs give this model a vintage, classic look that makes it just as style conscious as it is energy conscious.
Available in Matte Black or Satin Nickel finishes, you can get the Star Tripod Stand Fan now for $90 off its retail price, just $359.99.
Coronavirus: Telecom Italia says internet traffic up 70% , mostly online games like Fortnite, Call of Duty
The death toll in Italy’s coronavirus outbreak today passed 1,000. Schools throughout Italy are completely shut down, which is reportedly driving a surge in internet traffic as bored kids forced to stay indoors turn to online games.
Australia sues Facebook, says Cambridge Analytica scandal violated privacy of over 300,000 Australians
“Facebook’s default settings facilitated the disclosure of personal information, including sensitive information, at the expense of privacy.”
“Before Clearview Became a Police Tool, It Was a Secret Plaything of the Rich.” That’s the title of the New York Times piece, and that’s the horrifying reality of how artificial intelligence and facial recognition are already being used in ways that violate your expectations of privacy in the world.
There are few experiences that match the sheer raw power of being front and center for a huge rock concert. It can be exhilarating. But without sounding too much like your mom, it can also be far more dangerous than you realize. Hearing damage often happens from exposure to prolonged loud noises over 85 decibels […]
As a parent, you likely start feeling a little guilty whenever you let your kid play video games for too long. Gaming is fun and most kids get completely enraptured, but you inevitably start thinking about all the more enriching and educational ways they could fill those hours spent rampaging through digital worlds and blasting […]
When it comes to DIY electronics, there are few brand names that carry more weight these days than Arduino and the Raspberry Pi. Over the past 15 years, Arduino has grown from a tool to teach electronics to the uninitiated into an environment of startling innovation where creative minds fashion their own Arduino slow-drip coffee […]


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LONDON: Aldi will open around 100 supermarkets and invest 1.3 billion pounds ($1.7 billion) in Britain over the next two years, the German firm said on Monday, as it sticks to its growth plans despite the impact of the coronavirus on shopping habits.
Britain’s fifth-biggest supermarket, privately owned by Germany’s Aldi Sud [ALDIEI.UL], has grown its UK market share to 8% over the last decade thanks to its aggressive store opening programme.
However, industry data has shown its market share edge lower during the pandemic, hindered in particular by a lack of online capability.
Aldi retained its long-term target of 1,200 stores by 2025. It currently trades from nearly 900 in the UK.
“It’s important to remember that over 85% of the market remains in bricks and mortar shopping and our investment in online doesn’t come at the expense of our focus on stores,” CEO Giles Hurley told reporters.
The group expects to create 4,000 jobs next year, adding to 3,000 new roles already created in 2020.
Aldi also plans over 100 store upgrades, along with investment in distribution centres and in e-commerce such as a click and collect service.
STOCKING UP ON BASICS
Aldi reported a 49% increase in operating profit to 291.2 million pounds for 2019, on total sales up 8% to 12.3 billion pounds, but that was before the pandemic. Margins improved, with efficiencies of scale offsetting price cuts.
The pandemic has prompted Aldi to accelerate its push into home delivery so it can benefit from a jump in demand that is expected to endure.
In April it started selling online food parcels to help self-isolating and vulnerable customers. It is also ramping up a rapid delivery service in partnership with Deliveroo and is trialing click and collect.
Hurley said Aldi was committed to remaining “Britain’s lowest-priced supermarket" - a claim Aldi says is backed by industry data.
“Our rivals may drop their prices, but we will always respond by dropping further,” he said.
The CEO said Aldi has seen increased demand for basic items, such as toilet paper, pasta, rice and tinned food, since last week when the government imposed more curbs to stem the pandemic’s spread but does not currently see the need to reimpose limits on shopper purchases.
“As long as customers continue to shop as they normally do…then availability will continue to be excellent," he said.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor


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A statement to the BSE had said that the royalty payment would enable the group to help protect, nurture and enhance the Jubilant brand name and the group’s image globally.
But, proxy advisory firms were hardly impressed with the move, saying it was a corporate governance issue. “I don’t understand what is the contribution of the promoters in creating the Jubilant brand name. Second, when it comes to Jubilant FoodWorks, are people buying pizza in the name of Jubilant or Domino? What is the basis for this royalty then?,” asked J N Gupta, co-founder and managing director, Stakeholders Empowerment Services.
Shriram Subramaniam, managing director of InGovern, said it was a case of an “ownership premium” that the promoters were extracting from the two firms. “While I can still understand the importance of the Jubilant brand name to the pharma firm (Jubilant Life Sciences) and hence the royalty being charged by the promoters, I don’t see any such ground in the food services company,” he said.
Analysts said Jubilant’s decision to pay royalty to the promoters would be a clear case of the firm paying royalty twice.
To put things in perspective, Jubilant FoodWorks, which is the master franchisee of Domino’s and Dunkin’ Donuts in India, already pays franchise fees to Domino’s in the US for using the latter’s name here. In FY17 and FY18, franchise fees paid by the company was to an extent of 3.3 per cent of net sales. This was nearly Rs 86 crore and around Rs 100 crore, respectively, for the two years (see chart).
On FY18 sales, the additional outgo in terms of royalty to promoters would work out to Rs 7.5 crore, analysts said. In the past seven years, Jubilant FoodWorks’ royalty to Domino’s in the US has largely remained in the 3.3 per cent bracket, data sourced from Capitaline showed. Rival Westlife Development, which runs McDonald’s stores in the south and west of the country, on the other hand, has seen its royalty increase from 2.1 per cent (in FY12) to 4.2 per cent (FY18).
Last week, Westlife Development said its royalty for FY20 would remain at 4 per cent.


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Suzuki announced that they will release the Ignis, a new A-segment compact crossover on February 18, 2016. It costs 1,382,400 to 1,778,760 yen, and they are set to produce 1,500 units per month.
At the presentation in Tokyo on January 21, 2016, Suzuki Executive Managing Officer Masato Kasai, who also works as the automobile technology general manager, highlighted, “We want to open up a new market starting in Japan up to Europe and other countries through this new type of crossover developed by a Japanese company.”
He also pointed out, “Multi-purpose crossover vehicles are becoming more popular in Japan and Europe; considering the trend of downsizing cars in the near future, we also perceived that it could also happen to crossover vehicles. There hadn’t been an A-segment crossover vehicle until now.”
Moreover, he explained the details regarding their development. “There seemed to be a growing number of active customers seeking for simple crossover vehicles; thus, the Ignis was produced, as a new type of A-segment compact car. We created it as a compact crossover that has the small hatchback’s user-friendliness and high practicality and SUV’s reliable drivability, producing a design that is unique to Suzuki cars.”
Moreover, he mentioned, “It is mounted with a mild hybrid and K12C dualjet engine, thus it actualizes excellent fuel and running performance.”
Through the combination of a 1.2L diesel engine and a mild hybrid that assists its engine when accelerating, it achieved a 28.8km/L low fuel consumptionâ€”one of its greatest features.
(Translated by Claire Marie Sausora)


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Marketing agreements with pharmacy chains increase cost of medicines by about 50%
Marketing agreements between manufacturers and pharmacy chains raise the cost of medicines in retail by about 50%, chairman of the board of public organization All-Ukrainian Pharmaceutical Chamber Oleh Klimov believes.
"The cost of drugs in pharmacies is overstated on average by 50% due to marketing agreements and other requirements of pharmacy chain owners to suppliers and manufacturers of medicines and other goods sold in pharmacies," he told Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on draft law No. 8591 on amending the law on medicines regarding the provision of economic competition and protection of patients' rights in retail trade in medicines.
He also supported the norm, stipulated in the bill, according to which the distance between drugstores should be at least 500 meters.
"The unsystematic opening of new pharmacies on the principle "door to door" led to the closure and bankruptcy of a large number of pharmacy institutions that did not have the possibility of "financial pressure" on suppliers and manufacturers of drugs," Klimov said.
He also drew attention to the importance of complying with the requirements of rules for the sale of prescription drugs.
"Complete disregard for these requirements entails a catastrophic level of self-treatment in Ukraine, i.e. to the ineffectiveness of treatment, the transformation of a significant number of Ukrainians into chronically incurable patients," he said.


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When most well-intentioned aid employees hear of an issue they believe they can fix, they go to work. On top of that, several of these business owners have actually become our clients or organisation partners. Today Mattia and also his business partners, Menodiciotto as well as a Chinese business, very own seven gelaterie, called Pinto, which they opened up in seven months. Mr Vacchi submitted the clip to his 1.2 million followers on Instagram on Sunday – and it has actually currently been enjoyed more than 2.5 million Fabrizio Politi [https://it.pinterest.com/] times.
Increasingly more Italian entrepreneurs currently think of beginning manufacturing in Russia. I love the logical side of exactly what I do, as well as it assists me create really concentrated prepare for small and also huge business. She leads the curriculum growth and also educates at MEET (Middle East Education with Technology) a company that unites outstanding Israeli and also Palestinian high school trainees for a common learning experiences in innovation as well as entrepreneurship.
The firms said in a joint statement during that time that they would examine the regards to a possible tie-up with the purpose of maintaining jobs in Italy while opening shops in Asia, Russia as well as Latin America. Scientists at San Raffaele are hopeful that they can continue to work which gives from the European Study Council as well as some Italian firms, endangered by an impending personal bankruptcy, will currently be secure.
Aspin will certainly be sustained by Head Cook Ian Syme as well as Jamie MacKinnon that, previously this month won Scotland’s Young Cook of the Year honor. The late business owner quietly transformed his will soon before dying in June 2015, at the age of 87. In 2017, the group will certainly launch a reward-based crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, to get to preliminary consumers among young American professional athletes searching for a product that enables them to completely appreciate winter season sports, also under the most negative climate condition.
The probable origin of the Italian buffalo is the Indian buffalo, despite the fact that for many centuries the Italian buffalo has adhered to a path that is entirely different and also isolated from the various other Indian types,” claimed Leopoldo Iannuzzi, supervisor of the Institute of Animal Manufacturing Equipments in Mediterranean Settings in Naples.


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Mattel Upgrades IT toBy Kim S. Nash Print
Mattel's world-class competitive intelligence system crunches sales reports, children's play-pattern studies, and even findings on where kids go online. The system picked up signals that young girls, heavily influenced by the gyrations of pop star BritneyCrunch Better Barbie Numbers">
Gathering and crunching all this data takes processing power. Mattel has acknowledged in conference calls with financial analysts that the hardware and software to support its overall technology strategy needed help in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Mattel's former chief information officer Joseph Eckroth, who left in June to become CIO at real-estate investment company New Century Financial Corp., has said that when he arrived in 2000, he found that Mattel's information systems were a decade old. There were 200 "fragmented" enterprise systems in manufacturing, inventory management and transportation that didn't easily share data.
About 80% of them were custom built, which was "a limiting factor on our employees' productivity and operating efficiency," Eckroth told financial analysts during an April 2002 conference call. Dianne Douglas, formerly head of investor relations, has been named Mattel's new CIO.
A company that runs dozens of older applications built by in-house programmers can find its technology staff spending most of its time maintaining the software and creating interfaces between any new software and the older applications.
Corporate intelligence amounts to understanding your customers, sensing the competition's next moves and knowing yourself. A lack of reliable, timely data from a company's own accounting, supply chain and other core applications impedes the flow of information to decision-makers.
Eckroth explained during the analyst call how the inefficient technology had hurt Mattel's ability to compete: "[By] the time an event has occurredlet's say a change in demand for a specific productand the information is made available to the people who need to react to it, it is often too late to take action to effectively minimize a risk or maximize an opportunity."
Early in 2002, Eckroth and Eckert launched an overhaul of Mattel's information systems. They wanted to make the technology department more efficient with off-the-shelf applications that needed less "manual intervention" by developers and support staff.
They also wanted to use technology to make the company as a whole more efficient. Focal points included replacing 2,000 old personal computers; upgrading the disjointed, customized enterprise software; and installing a data warehouse for better decision-making.
"Every year we are incurring millions of dollars in lost opportunities," Eckroth said in 2002, "whether it's ... to manage inventories better, reduce our cycle times, improve our customer service or eliminate non-value-added work, all because our systems infrastructure is not up to date."
Eckroth steered Mattel toward packaged software. That included buying Hyperion products, including Essbase, for financial and research analysis in early 2002; Mattell also standardized on Oracle financial applications and databases in late 2002, and deployed Computer Associates' ERWin data-modeling tool. In 2003 and 2004, Mattel focused on rolling out Oracle Financials so its offices worldwide could see and report unified budget and other financial data.
Consistent data makes forecasting more accurate, which in turn feeds better data into internal intelligence reports.
But Mattel's mistake related to Bratz wasn't so much that it wasn't getting data; the information was processed and delivered. What mattered was the company's ineffective response, says Ben Gilad, a competitive intelligence expert and author of Early Warning, which outlines corporate intelligence problems, including Mattel's. Mattel, he says in an interview, "completely missed on the early signals and it caused them to lose the edge."
In the period from 2000 to 2002 when MGA bore down, financial data from Mattel's accounting systems indicated sales dips for Barbie. Mattel does not give dollar figures for U.S. Barbie sales, but disclosed that domestic sales of the doll line dropped 12% in 2001 and another 2% in 2002. Ultimately, U.S. Barbie sales would fall 15% in 2003 and 15% last year.
In those four years, according to industry estimates, U.S. Barbie sales dropped $500 million.
At the same time, the company had to deal with the fallout from the $3.5 billion acquisition of The Learning Co. Even former CEO Barad's impressive achievement of taking Barbie from a $200 million brand when she started managing the doll line in 1982, to $1.8 billion in 1997the year she became chief executivewasn't enough to salvage her job. She resigned in February 2000 under pressure from the board, ending her 18-year career at Mattel.
After three months with no permanent leader, the company tapped the more conservative Eckert, a newcomer to the toy business, to fix the mess at Mattel. On top of it all, Toys R Uswhich, with Wal-Mart, accounted for 40% of Mattel's sales in 2000was pulling product orders as it struggled to stay alive.
"Mattel was in a desperate time when I came on," CIO Eckroth told an audience at an Oracle customer meeting in 2003. "Bob needed to get the company back on track."
How Barbie Lost Her Groove Great product; historical franchise; huge market share; unbelievable customer affinity. And rapidly dropping popularity
Operational Details on the Barbie Situation:
Barbie's Heroes: Mattel's intelligence agents, their bosses, and who played what role in the problematic reinvention of Barbie.
Roadblock: CEOs can be the Greatest Obstacle to Success. Mattel's intelligence told it kids wanted hipper Barbies; CEO Robert Eckert and Mattel reacted slowly, and paid the price.
World Class Tool Box: Mattel uses a sophisticated set of data and intelligence tools to steer the Barbie franchise.
Near-Sighted Corporate Intelligence Can Be as Deadly as the Competition. Rival companies with successful toys put Barbie in a tough spot. Politics, social pressures and fashion changes can sink you oras Japanese car-makers demonstratedmake you a winner.
ACNielsen: Retail Riches. Every day, ACNielsen gathers data associated with millions of retail purchases, from apples in Arizona and Barbies in Boston. It charges a bundle for the results. Is it worth it?
IT Solutions Builder TOP IT RESOURCES TO MOVE YOUR BUSINESS FORWARD
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LGES battery-powered VW EV sets Guinness World Record for driving at the highest altitude
LG Energy Solution (became a part of history today, as Rainer Zietlow, a world-record driver, set another world record with an electric vehicle powered by LGES batteries.
Zietlow and his Challenge4 team set a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS® title for the highest altitude achieved in electric cars, by driving up the dormant Uturuncu volcano in Bolivia, reaching 5,816 meters in altitude.
The team's vehicle of choice, the Volkswagen ID.4 GTX, is powered by LGES's battery cells and modules that employ high energy density for long-distance driving, high-speed charging, and even high-altitude drives.
Zietlow's team successfully broke the previous record on May 18 and was awarded the official GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS® certificate in La Paz, Bolivia on May 23. Previously, in 2021, Zietlow achieved the title for the longest continuous journey by electric vehicle in a single country by driving through the U.S. with the VW ID.4.
The VW ID.4 is based on the modular electric drive matrix (MEB), the first modular platform for electric vehicles designed by Volkswagen. Since 2016, LG Energy Solution and Volkswagen have collaborated in developing the MEB platform for I.D. Family, and it is currently being applied to both ID.3 and ID.4.
"Congratulations to Zietlow and his team for setting a new world altitude record with our batteries," said LG Energy Solution in a statement. "Their incredible accomplishment is yet another milestone added to GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS® title for the longest EV journey achieved in 2021, which has already shown LGES battery's high endurance level. This altitude record once again serves as a proof of LGES battery-powered EV's outstanding performance, even in the harshest driving environment."
"Our goal was to show everyone the potential of electromobility by demonstrating how electric vehicles maintain their top level of performance even at extreme altitudes," said Zietlow.


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Albion Online, the sandbox MMO from Sandbox Interactive, is celebrating its second anniversary this week with a week-long Fame Boost, in addition to gifts for all players.
To date, Albion Online has had seven major content updates since release, with the most recent Percival update on July 10. Albion Online’s second year saw the introduction of Faction Warfare, Crystal Realm Battles, and Randomized Dungeons.
In celebration of the second year anniversary, Sandbox Interactive have announced via press release a Fame Boost for all players, in addition to the launch of the official soundtrack.
- The Fame Boost runs until July 24, and grants an extra 25% Fame for all open-world activities. Players with accounts created prior to July 17 will also receive free gift items over the course of the week, and ingame cities have been decked out with special festive decorations.
- The Albion Online Soundtrack, written by celebrated composer Jonne Valtonen and recorded by Prague's FILMharmonic Orchestra, is now available on all major digital platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon.


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Facebook’s trial launch of adverts in users’ newsfeeds marks a tempting but risky move for brands wanting to market to the social network’s 1 billion users.
Brands have spent the past two years learning how to engage in the social space by setting up Facebook pages and creating campaigns to increase the number of Facebook ‘likes’. The lessons learned are that brands need to earn the right to appear in a consumer’s updates.
Tempting as it is to apply old, push-based advertising models to new channels, brands must adapt to fit social media, and learn to trust consumers to make decisions.
Oliver Felstead, managing director UK & EMEA, Coupons.com