Card fraud is now big business. The victim may be in New Zealand; an offender may well be in Russia, Germany or Taiwan."Cash, they told us, was old hat. Paper money was an anachronism from another era, an idea whose time had passed.
New Zealand led the world in electronic banking: From 1979, banks began equipping us all with small, robust pieces of plastic that we believed would allow us to travel lighter, purchase whatever we wanted from afar, and laugh in the faces of thieves.
It is hard to know the full extent of credit card fraud, because the banks are loath to disclose numbers lest it undermine public confidence in their security processes. The number of convictions has diminished over the past few years, but experts say that is simply because the fraudsters are getting smarter at covering their tracks, and are sometimes further removed from their crime. The victim may be in New Zealand; an offender may well be in Russia, Germany or Taiwan.
Despite the ongoing problems with credit and debit card fraud, New Zealand banks and retailers have actually taken a step or two backwards in card security.
We reveal today (p12-13) that banks including New Zealand's biggest, ANZ, are still mailing or couriering out pre-activated credit cards - an irresistible temptation to light-fingered mailbox surfers. This is despite an assurance from ANZ, after a spate of mailbox thefts five years ago, that it would stop sending out pre-activated smart card.
The bank indicated at the time that it was a toss-up between customer convenience ("avoiding the need to visit a branch to activate the card") and security. Customer research, ANZ said, had shown customers wanted the security - so why the subsequent u-turn?
ANZ won't say: "Our security team has asked that we not discuss our activation processes and we have to respect that," a spokesman said yesterday. "The person who committed this fraud is the bad guy. We're all victims here."
Adding to the trouble, banks and retailers have worked together to allow shoppers to make small card purchases without the "inconvenience" of having to enter their PIN or scrawl a signature. If, for instance, you buy a meal from one of the McDonald's restaurants, all you have to do is swipe your card and pick up your tray of burgers and fries. No PIN, no signature, no hassle - and no safeguards.
When signatures are required, anecdotal evidence suggests retail assistants and supermarket checkout operators take only the most cursory glance at the authorised signature on the back of the card, to check that the shopper is indeed the cardholder. It's almost seen as rude to check the signature, as if it might call the integrity of the customer into question.
The primary responsibility, though, must still fall on individuals to protect themselves from being ripped off. Obviously, keep your card safe; keep your PIN safe; take care using Eftpos terminals and ATMs; and take special care to make online purchases only through trusted secure payment providers.
The first thing any person should notice is the price point – the HP Slate 7 sells for $169, which might make it a winner in itself to people who are looking for a relatively cheap tablet, although a $30 difference isn’t a whole lot when it comes to pricing when compared to the Nexus 7 which starts at $199. Also, in regards to a lower price point you have to expect compromises when it comes to features in the device. I will say overall the tablet has some impressive features that the Nexus 7 doesn’t, but these features might not necessarily be appealing to everybody, especially considering the specs are probably the biggest compromise of them all.
Both the Slate 7 and the Nexus 7 are pretty self-explanatory regarding the size of the device – they're 7-inch tablets. The Slate 7 has a resolution of 1024 x 600, which is lower than the Nexus 7’s 1280 x 800. In layman's terms, the Nexus 7 is considered an HD device while the Slate 7 is not, which is something many people might take into consideration.
The next thing we’ll look at is the material the housing is made out of on both devices. The overall housing design of the Slate 7 could be appealing to those who are more interested in a device made of material other than plastic, seeing as HP decided to go with metal siding and matte back as oppose to the Nexus 7’s plastic and texturized housing. However, despite the material difference in the Slate 7 and the Nexus 7 there isn’t a whole lot of difference in weight.
Aside from the matte finish on the back of the Slate 7, you’ll also notice two more differences between it and the Nexus 7: First, it features a rear-facing camera - something that not all tablets take advantage of. The rear-facing camera on the Slate 7 is a 3-megapixel shooter. While it’s not quite up to par with tablets like the Apple iPad Mini or the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, which both feature 5-megapixel shooters, it’s still nothing to sneeze at considering the Nexus 7 doesn’t feature a rear-facing camera at all. The second thing you will notice is that it has the Beats Audio logo on the bottom, which seemed to be something primarily seen in HTC devices up until now.
When it comes to memory the Slate 7 only comes in an 8 GB variant, but fortunately HP has also supplied the tablet with an external SD card slot that can hold up to 32 GB of expandable memory. This is another bonus that the Slate 7 has over the Nexus 7 (considering the 32GB Nexus 7 costs $299) but still may not be enough to make up for what all the Nexus 7 entails for just $30 more.
2013年4月27日星期六
2013年4月26日星期五
Mystery Looms Large at the Draft, and So Do the Top Few Picks
The red carpet was stretched out on the sidewalk, and the fleet of S.U.V.’s unloaded one large person after another for the N.F.L.’s predraft show Thursday. The hostess tried her best to knife through the tension. Who designed your suit? How fast are you?
What this draft lacked in star power, it more than made up for in uncertainty. The 2013 draft class was picked apart for months as one of the least impressive in years. That was largely because no quarterbacks were considered franchise cornerstones, and indeed none were picked until Buffalo took E. J. Manuel at No. 16.
Even the first pick was cloaked in mystery. As it turned out, the Kansas City Chiefs selected offensive tackle Eric Fisher from Central Michigan, who 24 hours before had seemed likely to be the second tackle chosen. Luke Joeckel of Texas A&M had been the presumed first pick for the last three weeks.
Manuel was the only quarterback taken in the first round, the fewest to go in a first round since Michael Vick was the lone quarterback selected in the first round in 2001.
Maybe 2001 will provide a good omen for this class, including West Virginia’s Geno Smith, who was believed to be the top-rated quarterback but was not picked in the first round. He was left to solemnly fiddle with his phone in the green room. In 2001, Drew Brees was taken with the first pick in the second round.
Also not taken Thursday was Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o, whose poor performance in the Bowl Championship Series title game may have hurt his stock more than his involvement in a hoax centered around a fake girlfriend.
The suspense at this year’s draft played out on the players’ faces. The players were anonymous by top pick standards, but their faces all looked familiar in one way: they were constricted as the ambiguity of the last few months stretched to the final moments before their names were called.
Perhaps the most honest assessment of what it felt like to be on the inside of one of the most lightly regarded but wildly unpredictable draft classes came from safety Kenny Vaccaro of Texas, who eventually went No. 15 to the Saints. “So nervous,” he said as he walked in the IC card.
The only people who should not have been nervous were offensive linemen. It was considered a strong group, and for the first time in N.F.L. history, two offensive tackles went with the first two picks of the draft. Three went in the top four picks for the first time since 1968.
The Jacksonville Jaguars, picking second, took Joeckel, who will protect the blindside of who knows who. It was indicative of the lack of excitement about this quarterback class that the Jaguars, a rebuilding team with the mediocre Blaine Gabbert as the incumbent, did not deem one worthy of their highest pick.
Because few teams were locked into their picks, trades were expected, and they began almost immediately. The Oakland Raiders, who badly need more picks, traded out of the third overall spot, with the Miami Dolphins moving into it to select defensive end Dion Jordan of Oregon.
Another factor that made the first round hard to forecast was the abundance of teams with new coaches or general managers. Philadelphia’s Chip Kelly was considered the biggest wild card of that group, because of how important his ultra high-speed offense is to the Eagles. But Kelly went the conventional route with the fourth pick, taking Lane Johnson, another offensive tackle, who can provide desperately needed protection for Michael Vick.
With the fifth pick, the Lions took the raw pass rusher Ezekiel Ansah of Brigham Young, who was born and raised in Ghana and began playing football just three years ago. Next, the Cleveland Browns took another rusher, defensive end/outside linebacker Barkevious Mingo.
After the Arizona Cardinals took another offensive lineman, guard Jonathan Cooper, the Buffalo Bills traded their pick to the St. Louis Rams, who wanted to move ahead of the Jets to select receiver Tavon Austin of West Virginia. Austin is only 5 feet 8 inches, but he is blindingly fast, can also return kicks and should help the Rams more than make up for the free agency loss of Danny Amendola.
The Jets, so desperate for so much help, took the oft-operated-on cornerback Dee Milliner of Alabama, who has the unfortunate task of immediately trying to replace Darrelle Revis, the All-Pro who was traded last Sunday to Tampa Bay. The selection of Milliner could not be considered a surprise — he was the best cornerback in the draft — but in taking him the Jets again ignored their offense, the root of most of their struggles.
Milliner began the start of a roll by the Alabama Crimson Tide, who then sent guard Chance Warmack to Tennessee and offensive tackle D.J. Fluker to San Diego. That made it 6 offensive linemen in the first 11 picks — but no quarterbacks.
After the Oakland Raiders took cornerback D. J. Hayden — who nearly died on the practice field last year before he was rushed into emergency surgery to repair a tear of a vein — the Jets were up again.
Jets fans are a notoriously emotive bunch at the draft, often vocally expressing their dismay. They applauded the Milliner pick, but when Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the Jets took defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson with the 13th overall pick, the crowd groaned and then began to boo.
As much as the pick might have disappointed their fans, it kept up a theme: Richardson was one of 12 offensive or defensive linemen taken in the first 20 picks, which also included Justin Pugh, an offensive lineman who can play multiple positions and was taken by the Giants.
What this draft lacked in star power, it more than made up for in uncertainty. The 2013 draft class was picked apart for months as one of the least impressive in years. That was largely because no quarterbacks were considered franchise cornerstones, and indeed none were picked until Buffalo took E. J. Manuel at No. 16.
Even the first pick was cloaked in mystery. As it turned out, the Kansas City Chiefs selected offensive tackle Eric Fisher from Central Michigan, who 24 hours before had seemed likely to be the second tackle chosen. Luke Joeckel of Texas A&M had been the presumed first pick for the last three weeks.
Manuel was the only quarterback taken in the first round, the fewest to go in a first round since Michael Vick was the lone quarterback selected in the first round in 2001.
Maybe 2001 will provide a good omen for this class, including West Virginia’s Geno Smith, who was believed to be the top-rated quarterback but was not picked in the first round. He was left to solemnly fiddle with his phone in the green room. In 2001, Drew Brees was taken with the first pick in the second round.
Also not taken Thursday was Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o, whose poor performance in the Bowl Championship Series title game may have hurt his stock more than his involvement in a hoax centered around a fake girlfriend.
The suspense at this year’s draft played out on the players’ faces. The players were anonymous by top pick standards, but their faces all looked familiar in one way: they were constricted as the ambiguity of the last few months stretched to the final moments before their names were called.
Perhaps the most honest assessment of what it felt like to be on the inside of one of the most lightly regarded but wildly unpredictable draft classes came from safety Kenny Vaccaro of Texas, who eventually went No. 15 to the Saints. “So nervous,” he said as he walked in the IC card.
The only people who should not have been nervous were offensive linemen. It was considered a strong group, and for the first time in N.F.L. history, two offensive tackles went with the first two picks of the draft. Three went in the top four picks for the first time since 1968.
The Jacksonville Jaguars, picking second, took Joeckel, who will protect the blindside of who knows who. It was indicative of the lack of excitement about this quarterback class that the Jaguars, a rebuilding team with the mediocre Blaine Gabbert as the incumbent, did not deem one worthy of their highest pick.
Because few teams were locked into their picks, trades were expected, and they began almost immediately. The Oakland Raiders, who badly need more picks, traded out of the third overall spot, with the Miami Dolphins moving into it to select defensive end Dion Jordan of Oregon.
Another factor that made the first round hard to forecast was the abundance of teams with new coaches or general managers. Philadelphia’s Chip Kelly was considered the biggest wild card of that group, because of how important his ultra high-speed offense is to the Eagles. But Kelly went the conventional route with the fourth pick, taking Lane Johnson, another offensive tackle, who can provide desperately needed protection for Michael Vick.
With the fifth pick, the Lions took the raw pass rusher Ezekiel Ansah of Brigham Young, who was born and raised in Ghana and began playing football just three years ago. Next, the Cleveland Browns took another rusher, defensive end/outside linebacker Barkevious Mingo.
After the Arizona Cardinals took another offensive lineman, guard Jonathan Cooper, the Buffalo Bills traded their pick to the St. Louis Rams, who wanted to move ahead of the Jets to select receiver Tavon Austin of West Virginia. Austin is only 5 feet 8 inches, but he is blindingly fast, can also return kicks and should help the Rams more than make up for the free agency loss of Danny Amendola.
The Jets, so desperate for so much help, took the oft-operated-on cornerback Dee Milliner of Alabama, who has the unfortunate task of immediately trying to replace Darrelle Revis, the All-Pro who was traded last Sunday to Tampa Bay. The selection of Milliner could not be considered a surprise — he was the best cornerback in the draft — but in taking him the Jets again ignored their offense, the root of most of their struggles.
Milliner began the start of a roll by the Alabama Crimson Tide, who then sent guard Chance Warmack to Tennessee and offensive tackle D.J. Fluker to San Diego. That made it 6 offensive linemen in the first 11 picks — but no quarterbacks.
After the Oakland Raiders took cornerback D. J. Hayden — who nearly died on the practice field last year before he was rushed into emergency surgery to repair a tear of a vein — the Jets were up again.
Jets fans are a notoriously emotive bunch at the draft, often vocally expressing their dismay. They applauded the Milliner pick, but when Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the Jets took defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson with the 13th overall pick, the crowd groaned and then began to boo.
As much as the pick might have disappointed their fans, it kept up a theme: Richardson was one of 12 offensive or defensive linemen taken in the first 20 picks, which also included Justin Pugh, an offensive lineman who can play multiple positions and was taken by the Giants.
2013年4月25日星期四
NXP progresses with eKTP project
NXP has announced that it is near completion of its part of the 172m pieces supplied into Indonesia’s eKTP project. Launched in 2011, the eKTP project is one of the largest national eID deployments across the globe. The eKTP cards for 172 million citizens are part of a nationwide, multi-application, complete eID-system that comprises data capturing solutions, servers, data storage, biometric matching and smart cards, plus various infrastructure and networking solutions.
NXP says: “Combining the strong drive of the local companies with the technical expertise of principal suppliers such as NXP, the local production companies in the State Printing Company Consortium (PNRI) were able to swiftly ramp-up the smart card production and personalisation of the eKTP cards and achieve near completion within just 18 months. In addition, the technology efforts brought into the project by international market leaders such as NXP have resulted in strong growth within the local Indonesian smart card and biometrics industry. As such, the eKTP project has also proven to be a valuable investment of governmental funds into the local economy.”
The eKTP project will enable the Indonesian political system to strengthen democracy across the country by de-duplicating the various existing population databases, resulting in a more thorough census and identification of all Indonesian citizens. Once complete, the eKTP system can be the basis for many citizen-government services, proving a citizen’s identity beyond any IC card. It can then be used to open bank accounts, obtain government documents such as birth certificates, register ownership of vehicles or property and many similar transactions. In addition, the multi-application capability of NXP’s chip technology enables the eKTP smart cards to support a large number of voting applications which reduce the possibility of fraud during elections. This will assist in the government’s aim of building stronger citizen trust in the country’s democracy. Fully compliant with the structure of ICAO LDS-9303, the eKTP smart card can also be used as an international travel document, should Indonesia reach agreements on this with neighbouring countries.
“The Indonesian eKTP project is a very good example of how local and global partners can quickly scale up operations and effectively deploy large volumes of smart card credentials over a short period of time. With the help and support of a carefully selected consortium of industry experts, the PNRI is still on track to hit its ambitious mid-year 2013 completion target,” says Phil Sealy, industry analyst, ABI Research. “Using a pure contactless IC, the government had multi-application functionality at the forefront of its strategy. Moving forward, ABI Research expects to see the Indonesian government further extend and enhance its citizen outreach with eGovernment services building upon its success to date.”
“Indonesia’s eKTP project not only confirms our capabilities as a world-class manufacturer of security microcontrollers, able to deliver high quality devices in high volume, but also consolidates our position as a resourceful trusted partner with a global presence, able and willing to support large-scale projects from early stage through to completion,” says Ulrich Huewels, VP and general manager, business line secure card solutions at NXP Semiconductors. “eID roll-outs of this nature have the potential to really change society by providing citizens with convenient and secure access to public services – there is no better illustration of this than the eVoting capability that the Indonesian eKTP smartcards will enable.”
Politicians, lobbyists, and tourists alike can ride bicycles along a specially marked lane between the White House and the U.S. Capitol, part of the 115 miles of bicycle lanes and paths that now crisscross Washington, DC. In Copenhagen, commuters can ride to work following a “green wave” of signal lights timed for bikers. Residents in China’s “happiest city,” Hangzhou, can move easily from public transit onto physically separated bike tracks that have been carved out of the vast majority of roadways. And on any given Sunday in Mexico City, some 15,000 cyclists join together on a circuit of major thoroughfares closed to motorized traffic. What is even more exciting is that in each of these locations, people can jump right into cycling without even owning a bicycle. Welcome to the era of the Bike Share.
Cyclists have long entreated drivers to “share the road.” Now what is being shared is not only the road but the bicycle itself. Forward-thinking cities are turning back to the humble bicycle as a way to enhance mobility, alleviate automotive congestion, reduce air pollution, boost health, support local businesses, and attract more young people. Bike-sharing systems—-distributed networks of public bicycles used for short trips—-that integrate into robust transit networks are being embraced by a growing number of people in the urbanizing world who are starting to view car ownership as more of a hassle than a rite of passage.
Today more than 500 cities in 49 countries host advanced bike-sharing programs, with a combined fleet of over 500,000 bicycles. Urban transport advisor Peter Midgley notes that “bike sharing has experienced the fastest growth of any mode of transport in the history of the planet.” It certainly has come a long way since 1965, when 50 bicycles were painted white and scattered around Amsterdam for anyone to pick up and use free of charge. Unfortunately, many of those bikes quickly disappeared or were damaged. In the 1990s, several Danish cities began more formal systems, with designated racks and coin deposits to check out bicycles. Copenhagen’s famed Bycyklen (“City Bike”) program, which has been an inspiration to many cities, finally closed at the end of 2012 after operating for 17 years with more than 1,000 bicycles. It is set to be replaced by a modern system in 2013, which could help Copenhagen meet its goal of increasing the share of commuting trips on bike from an already impressive 36 percent to 50 percent.
Modern bike-sharing systems have greatly reduced the theft and vandalism that hindered earlier programs by using easily identified specialty bicycles with unique parts that would have little value to a thief, by monitoring the cycles’ locations with radio frequency or GPS, and by requiring credit card payment or smart-card-based membership in order to check out bikes. In most systems, after paying a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual membership fee, riders can pick up a bicycle locked to a well-marked bike rack or electronic docking station for a short ride (typically an hour or less) at no additional cost and return it to any station within the system. Riding longer than the program’s specified amount of time generally incurs additional fees to maximize the number of bikes available.
Although the Netherlands and Denmark had far more pervasive cycling cultures, it was France that ushered the world into the third generation of bike sharing in 1998, when advertising company Clear Channel began the world’s first public computerized program with 200 bikes in the city of Rennes. The country moved into the big leagues in 2005 when Lyon, France’s third largest city, opened its Vélo’v program with 1,500 bikes at some 100 automated self-service docking stations. Its success—-an apparent 44 percent increase in bicycle ridership in the first year—-paved the way for large-scale bike sharing’s early shining star: the Vélib’ in Paris.
NXP says: “Combining the strong drive of the local companies with the technical expertise of principal suppliers such as NXP, the local production companies in the State Printing Company Consortium (PNRI) were able to swiftly ramp-up the smart card production and personalisation of the eKTP cards and achieve near completion within just 18 months. In addition, the technology efforts brought into the project by international market leaders such as NXP have resulted in strong growth within the local Indonesian smart card and biometrics industry. As such, the eKTP project has also proven to be a valuable investment of governmental funds into the local economy.”
The eKTP project will enable the Indonesian political system to strengthen democracy across the country by de-duplicating the various existing population databases, resulting in a more thorough census and identification of all Indonesian citizens. Once complete, the eKTP system can be the basis for many citizen-government services, proving a citizen’s identity beyond any IC card. It can then be used to open bank accounts, obtain government documents such as birth certificates, register ownership of vehicles or property and many similar transactions. In addition, the multi-application capability of NXP’s chip technology enables the eKTP smart cards to support a large number of voting applications which reduce the possibility of fraud during elections. This will assist in the government’s aim of building stronger citizen trust in the country’s democracy. Fully compliant with the structure of ICAO LDS-9303, the eKTP smart card can also be used as an international travel document, should Indonesia reach agreements on this with neighbouring countries.
“The Indonesian eKTP project is a very good example of how local and global partners can quickly scale up operations and effectively deploy large volumes of smart card credentials over a short period of time. With the help and support of a carefully selected consortium of industry experts, the PNRI is still on track to hit its ambitious mid-year 2013 completion target,” says Phil Sealy, industry analyst, ABI Research. “Using a pure contactless IC, the government had multi-application functionality at the forefront of its strategy. Moving forward, ABI Research expects to see the Indonesian government further extend and enhance its citizen outreach with eGovernment services building upon its success to date.”
“Indonesia’s eKTP project not only confirms our capabilities as a world-class manufacturer of security microcontrollers, able to deliver high quality devices in high volume, but also consolidates our position as a resourceful trusted partner with a global presence, able and willing to support large-scale projects from early stage through to completion,” says Ulrich Huewels, VP and general manager, business line secure card solutions at NXP Semiconductors. “eID roll-outs of this nature have the potential to really change society by providing citizens with convenient and secure access to public services – there is no better illustration of this than the eVoting capability that the Indonesian eKTP smartcards will enable.”
Politicians, lobbyists, and tourists alike can ride bicycles along a specially marked lane between the White House and the U.S. Capitol, part of the 115 miles of bicycle lanes and paths that now crisscross Washington, DC. In Copenhagen, commuters can ride to work following a “green wave” of signal lights timed for bikers. Residents in China’s “happiest city,” Hangzhou, can move easily from public transit onto physically separated bike tracks that have been carved out of the vast majority of roadways. And on any given Sunday in Mexico City, some 15,000 cyclists join together on a circuit of major thoroughfares closed to motorized traffic. What is even more exciting is that in each of these locations, people can jump right into cycling without even owning a bicycle. Welcome to the era of the Bike Share.
Cyclists have long entreated drivers to “share the road.” Now what is being shared is not only the road but the bicycle itself. Forward-thinking cities are turning back to the humble bicycle as a way to enhance mobility, alleviate automotive congestion, reduce air pollution, boost health, support local businesses, and attract more young people. Bike-sharing systems—-distributed networks of public bicycles used for short trips—-that integrate into robust transit networks are being embraced by a growing number of people in the urbanizing world who are starting to view car ownership as more of a hassle than a rite of passage.
Today more than 500 cities in 49 countries host advanced bike-sharing programs, with a combined fleet of over 500,000 bicycles. Urban transport advisor Peter Midgley notes that “bike sharing has experienced the fastest growth of any mode of transport in the history of the planet.” It certainly has come a long way since 1965, when 50 bicycles were painted white and scattered around Amsterdam for anyone to pick up and use free of charge. Unfortunately, many of those bikes quickly disappeared or were damaged. In the 1990s, several Danish cities began more formal systems, with designated racks and coin deposits to check out bicycles. Copenhagen’s famed Bycyklen (“City Bike”) program, which has been an inspiration to many cities, finally closed at the end of 2012 after operating for 17 years with more than 1,000 bicycles. It is set to be replaced by a modern system in 2013, which could help Copenhagen meet its goal of increasing the share of commuting trips on bike from an already impressive 36 percent to 50 percent.
Modern bike-sharing systems have greatly reduced the theft and vandalism that hindered earlier programs by using easily identified specialty bicycles with unique parts that would have little value to a thief, by monitoring the cycles’ locations with radio frequency or GPS, and by requiring credit card payment or smart-card-based membership in order to check out bikes. In most systems, after paying a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual membership fee, riders can pick up a bicycle locked to a well-marked bike rack or electronic docking station for a short ride (typically an hour or less) at no additional cost and return it to any station within the system. Riding longer than the program’s specified amount of time generally incurs additional fees to maximize the number of bikes available.
Although the Netherlands and Denmark had far more pervasive cycling cultures, it was France that ushered the world into the third generation of bike sharing in 1998, when advertising company Clear Channel began the world’s first public computerized program with 200 bikes in the city of Rennes. The country moved into the big leagues in 2005 when Lyon, France’s third largest city, opened its Vélo’v program with 1,500 bikes at some 100 automated self-service docking stations. Its success—-an apparent 44 percent increase in bicycle ridership in the first year—-paved the way for large-scale bike sharing’s early shining star: the Vélib’ in Paris.
2013年4月23日星期二
Metro fare signs confuse the riders who need help most
Most people riding Metro use SmarTrip, and that's great. But the ones that are more likely to need extra help with a fare table are the infrequent customers that use a paper farecard.
It makes no sense to list SmarTrip prices on the fare table and then ask people to add $1. Riders shouldn't need to do math to figure out how much to put on their farecards. We want to make purchasing a farecard as easy as possible, while not necessarily offering them the best deal possible.
The simplest solution would be to list the paper farecard prices on the tables, and then have notes that SmarTrip riders get a discount. Even if these riders don't notice, they'll just end up with extra money on their cards, which they can use later.
An even better approach would be to eliminate the $1 surcharge, and instead always charge peak fares for people using paper farecards. The fare machines would simply list the peak fare for each destination, with a note that SmarTrip customers get discounts during off-peak, discounted transfers to and from trips on buses, protected fare balances (with registration) and a guarantee that they won't be trapped in the system if their balance goes too low.
All paper farecard customers would have to do is look up their destination, and make sure their farecard had the corresponding amount. No math, no timetables, no figuring out whether it's currently peak or off-peak.
WMATA spokesperson Dan Stessel said the agency is aware of the confusion and complaints about these signs, and is "considering" making changes to the posted fare tables and signs.
As with many previous innovations, Apple wasn't the first to market. There were many digital music players before the iPod, tablet PCs have been around decades before the iPad was launched, and other companies produced smart phones before Apple launched the iPhone. What Apple seems to be getting right is the timing (the point in time when certain innovations are ready to take off) and the marketing power to create a real buzz and demand for the next must-have gadget. I feel that it will be the same with the iWatch.
There is a real buzz around wearable intelligent devices in the tech world because they generate so much new data that can be analysed. Devices like Nike's Fuelband and the Fitbrit Ultra are already available and provide users with fantastic insights, data and analysis. But my prediction is that Apple will get the lion's share of a potentially massive market. And I don't think the iWatch (or whatever Apple will call it) is far away from being launched, especially as Samsung and Sony have already announced they are working on a smart watch. Pebble is another smart watch that is already available and offers compatibility with iPhone and Android - you can customise the watch with apps to control your music, go running or cycling, measure your golfing performance, and you get alerts for incoming calls or emails.
The reason I believe the iWatch (or the smart watch idea in general) will change the world of big data analytics is because it will allow all of us to collect and analyse data on both a personal and global level. Take health as an example. These intelligent wrist watches will permit monitoring of an individual's heart rate, calorie intake, activity levels, quality of sleep and more. Now imagine collecting that data on a much bigger scale. Potentially, governments, medical agencies, etc. will be able to use such collective data to gain a better insight into a nation's physical output, eating habits, risk indicators, and worrying trends. The buzz word surrounding this type of data analysis is 'big data' and I predict that it will have a huge impact in the business world. A recent global survey by The Advanced Performance Institute found that seven percent of companies have already started to use this type of mass analysis or 'big data'.
Now, as a second wave of the internet age -- underpinned by mobile internet and the hunger for ubiquitous, high-capacity networks -- slowly sweeps the globe with promises to boost productivity and create new growth sectors, Dr Bradlow has warned Australia is at risk of missing out if it underinvests in broadband infrastructure or fails to start thinking today about how to make use of the blossoming world of connected devices.
"We will become a marginalised, agrarian economy that has some mining, nice beaches and agriculture. But that's not the same as being a developed, hi-tech digital economy," he said.
The second coming of the internet age has been spurred by the confluence of ubiquitous internet access, the explosive adoption of mobility and smartphones, and the nascent growth of machine-to-machine (M2M). It's this third area, also known as "the internet of things", that Dr Bradlow believes has the potential to drive productivity improvements and vastly improve business efficiency and spawn growth sectors in coming decades.
"It's combinations of technology that really create change and the combination that fascinates me at the moment is sensor technology," Dr Bradlow said. "It's the ability to put a sensor in just about anything and have that sensor communicate to a wide area network, often via your mobile phone."
Such is the growth of M2M that the world's leading internet equipment-maker, Cisco, has forecast that Australia will have 142 million connected devices by 2016, about six for every Australian.
Dr Bradlow warns that, to tap into the potential that these smart things can yield, Australia must start planning now. He points to the example of busy urban centres where councils and infrastructure planners are building roads to lessen traffic congestion in overpopulated cities.
Instead of building more "dumb" infrastructure today, Dr Bradlow said, councils should look to implement technological solutions that made use of internet-connected devices that could talk to each other and analyse traffic flows to ease congestion points.
It makes no sense to list SmarTrip prices on the fare table and then ask people to add $1. Riders shouldn't need to do math to figure out how much to put on their farecards. We want to make purchasing a farecard as easy as possible, while not necessarily offering them the best deal possible.
The simplest solution would be to list the paper farecard prices on the tables, and then have notes that SmarTrip riders get a discount. Even if these riders don't notice, they'll just end up with extra money on their cards, which they can use later.
An even better approach would be to eliminate the $1 surcharge, and instead always charge peak fares for people using paper farecards. The fare machines would simply list the peak fare for each destination, with a note that SmarTrip customers get discounts during off-peak, discounted transfers to and from trips on buses, protected fare balances (with registration) and a guarantee that they won't be trapped in the system if their balance goes too low.
All paper farecard customers would have to do is look up their destination, and make sure their farecard had the corresponding amount. No math, no timetables, no figuring out whether it's currently peak or off-peak.
WMATA spokesperson Dan Stessel said the agency is aware of the confusion and complaints about these signs, and is "considering" making changes to the posted fare tables and signs.
As with many previous innovations, Apple wasn't the first to market. There were many digital music players before the iPod, tablet PCs have been around decades before the iPad was launched, and other companies produced smart phones before Apple launched the iPhone. What Apple seems to be getting right is the timing (the point in time when certain innovations are ready to take off) and the marketing power to create a real buzz and demand for the next must-have gadget. I feel that it will be the same with the iWatch.
There is a real buzz around wearable intelligent devices in the tech world because they generate so much new data that can be analysed. Devices like Nike's Fuelband and the Fitbrit Ultra are already available and provide users with fantastic insights, data and analysis. But my prediction is that Apple will get the lion's share of a potentially massive market. And I don't think the iWatch (or whatever Apple will call it) is far away from being launched, especially as Samsung and Sony have already announced they are working on a smart watch. Pebble is another smart watch that is already available and offers compatibility with iPhone and Android - you can customise the watch with apps to control your music, go running or cycling, measure your golfing performance, and you get alerts for incoming calls or emails.
The reason I believe the iWatch (or the smart watch idea in general) will change the world of big data analytics is because it will allow all of us to collect and analyse data on both a personal and global level. Take health as an example. These intelligent wrist watches will permit monitoring of an individual's heart rate, calorie intake, activity levels, quality of sleep and more. Now imagine collecting that data on a much bigger scale. Potentially, governments, medical agencies, etc. will be able to use such collective data to gain a better insight into a nation's physical output, eating habits, risk indicators, and worrying trends. The buzz word surrounding this type of data analysis is 'big data' and I predict that it will have a huge impact in the business world. A recent global survey by The Advanced Performance Institute found that seven percent of companies have already started to use this type of mass analysis or 'big data'.
Now, as a second wave of the internet age -- underpinned by mobile internet and the hunger for ubiquitous, high-capacity networks -- slowly sweeps the globe with promises to boost productivity and create new growth sectors, Dr Bradlow has warned Australia is at risk of missing out if it underinvests in broadband infrastructure or fails to start thinking today about how to make use of the blossoming world of connected devices.
"We will become a marginalised, agrarian economy that has some mining, nice beaches and agriculture. But that's not the same as being a developed, hi-tech digital economy," he said.
The second coming of the internet age has been spurred by the confluence of ubiquitous internet access, the explosive adoption of mobility and smartphones, and the nascent growth of machine-to-machine (M2M). It's this third area, also known as "the internet of things", that Dr Bradlow believes has the potential to drive productivity improvements and vastly improve business efficiency and spawn growth sectors in coming decades.
"It's combinations of technology that really create change and the combination that fascinates me at the moment is sensor technology," Dr Bradlow said. "It's the ability to put a sensor in just about anything and have that sensor communicate to a wide area network, often via your mobile phone."
Such is the growth of M2M that the world's leading internet equipment-maker, Cisco, has forecast that Australia will have 142 million connected devices by 2016, about six for every Australian.
Dr Bradlow warns that, to tap into the potential that these smart things can yield, Australia must start planning now. He points to the example of busy urban centres where councils and infrastructure planners are building roads to lessen traffic congestion in overpopulated cities.
Instead of building more "dumb" infrastructure today, Dr Bradlow said, councils should look to implement technological solutions that made use of internet-connected devices that could talk to each other and analyse traffic flows to ease congestion points.
2013年4月17日星期三
Community Middle SRO requested
Board member Ron Adcock made the motion during Tuesday's meeting. Chad Graham amended the motion to clarify that the request is for SRO coverage whenever the Sheriff's Department ends its extended school coverage. Off-duty deputies are filling in as acting SROs at schools that do not have trained SROs.
Adcock said the Community Middle-Elementary School campus is the only campus in the outlying areas of the county that does not have a trained SRO. Community is about 12 miles from the sheriff's department, and he worries about response time in the event of an incident. He discussed the possibility of the board taking other steps to add security features at schools in Shelbyville.
Derick Ledford with Systems Integration presented his company's security offer. The firm already works with the school system's security cameras. Ledford discussed options that focused on securing doors to the school buildings and providing wireless panic buttons that select school staff would carry.
Ledford identified doors at each school campus that would be used primarily for students, faculty, public or food service; other doors would be blocked from outside access and would only be available as emergency exits.
He provided a breakdown of what it would cost to secure the doors by each category: secure entry systems for public building entrances would cost $42,100; faculty door control would cost more than $46,700; student door control would cost more than $66,600; and cafeteria control would cost $35,660. Computer control software would cost over $12,000.
Staff would gain entry through their doors by using a Smart Card with a computer chip that logs every time he or she goes through a secured door, Ledford said. Office staff would admit visitors through a security camera at the designated public entrance. The system is flexible and could be adapted to each building's access needs, he said.
The wireless panic buttons can be programmed to either alert an SRO on the campus, the Sheriff's Department or anyone else, Ledford said. The buttons could also be given to students with health problems and act as a medical alert. Once activated, the devices allow authorities to monitor the person's movements on a computer-generated map of the school.
Dawson exploded for 50 points and scored the go-ahead basket in overtime to lead the Bolts to a nerve-wracking 118-116 win against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters Wednesday, the final day of the elimination round of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Dawson also had 14 rebounds and five steals.
The win, Meralco’s seventh in 14 outings, propelled the Bolts to take the sixth spot in the standings, setting the stage for a best-of-three quarterfinals match against the San Mig Coffee Mixers (8-6), the third seed, starting on Friday.
The Bolts and the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings actually finished the elimination round with an identical 7-7 card but the Bolts took the higher seeding due to their higher quotient. As a result, the seventh-seeded Kings now face the second-seeded E-Painters (9-5) in their own quarterfinals match, with Rain or Shine needing just a win to advance to the semis.
It was actually a no-bearing match for the E-Painters as they were assured of the No. 2 seeding, and the twice-to-beat advantage that goes with it, regardless of the outcome. Yet the E-Painters played their guts out, determined to end the elimination round with a morale-boosting win.
Meanwhile, the Kings will be coming into their quarterfinals match with the E-Painters Saturday with a stronger roster. Just before the deadline for any trade Wednesday, Ginebra completed a trade with Barako Bull, getting high-scoring point guard Josh Urbiztondo in exchange for Keith Jensen and a 2015 second pick.
In the nightcap of the Wednesday double-header, the Petron Blaze Boosters defeated the Talk N Text Tropang Texters, 87-76, in a no-bearing game since both teams had already been assured of their spots in the playoffs prior to the game.
The Boosters thus finished the elimination round with an 8-6 card, the same card held by San Mig Coffee. However, the Boosters claimed the No. 3 seed in the playoffs having won over the Mixers in their only meeting this conference.
Mashery employees received an internal email on Wednesday telling them they'd been acquired, according to Read Write Web. Intel and Mashery execs subsequently confirmed to The Register that the acquisition is going ahead and is expected to within this quarter.
"The plan is that Mashery will be a key tech element of [Intel's] overall service strategy, and Mashery employees are critical to that," Mashery marketing veep Julie Gibbs said.
Mashery makes tools for managing APIs. Companies can use its tech for API key management for partners, publishing interactive API docs, and running support forums. Functionally, its technology is equivalent to that pioneered by venture-backed startup Mulesoft.
"This acquisition is the next step in building an integrated Intel suite of services (cloud services, digital store fronts, location services, network services and security)," an Intel spokeswoman told The Register. "Mashery brings technology and expertise in the management and exposure of enterprise APIs. Mashery's expertise in key verticals will enable Intel to further provide user experiences enhanced by service capabilities."
Intel used Mashery's tech for its Intel Expressway API Manager, which was announced in November. The manager paired Mashery's API management portal with Intel's security/service gateway to give enterprises what Intel termed a API management system "for enterprises looking to maximise security, performance, and developer adoption". Other Mashery customers include CBS Interactive, Argos, Best Buy, Channel 4, Comcast, and Coca Cola.
Adcock said the Community Middle-Elementary School campus is the only campus in the outlying areas of the county that does not have a trained SRO. Community is about 12 miles from the sheriff's department, and he worries about response time in the event of an incident. He discussed the possibility of the board taking other steps to add security features at schools in Shelbyville.
Derick Ledford with Systems Integration presented his company's security offer. The firm already works with the school system's security cameras. Ledford discussed options that focused on securing doors to the school buildings and providing wireless panic buttons that select school staff would carry.
Ledford identified doors at each school campus that would be used primarily for students, faculty, public or food service; other doors would be blocked from outside access and would only be available as emergency exits.
He provided a breakdown of what it would cost to secure the doors by each category: secure entry systems for public building entrances would cost $42,100; faculty door control would cost more than $46,700; student door control would cost more than $66,600; and cafeteria control would cost $35,660. Computer control software would cost over $12,000.
Staff would gain entry through their doors by using a Smart Card with a computer chip that logs every time he or she goes through a secured door, Ledford said. Office staff would admit visitors through a security camera at the designated public entrance. The system is flexible and could be adapted to each building's access needs, he said.
The wireless panic buttons can be programmed to either alert an SRO on the campus, the Sheriff's Department or anyone else, Ledford said. The buttons could also be given to students with health problems and act as a medical alert. Once activated, the devices allow authorities to monitor the person's movements on a computer-generated map of the school.
Dawson exploded for 50 points and scored the go-ahead basket in overtime to lead the Bolts to a nerve-wracking 118-116 win against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters Wednesday, the final day of the elimination round of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Dawson also had 14 rebounds and five steals.
The win, Meralco’s seventh in 14 outings, propelled the Bolts to take the sixth spot in the standings, setting the stage for a best-of-three quarterfinals match against the San Mig Coffee Mixers (8-6), the third seed, starting on Friday.
The Bolts and the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings actually finished the elimination round with an identical 7-7 card but the Bolts took the higher seeding due to their higher quotient. As a result, the seventh-seeded Kings now face the second-seeded E-Painters (9-5) in their own quarterfinals match, with Rain or Shine needing just a win to advance to the semis.
It was actually a no-bearing match for the E-Painters as they were assured of the No. 2 seeding, and the twice-to-beat advantage that goes with it, regardless of the outcome. Yet the E-Painters played their guts out, determined to end the elimination round with a morale-boosting win.
Meanwhile, the Kings will be coming into their quarterfinals match with the E-Painters Saturday with a stronger roster. Just before the deadline for any trade Wednesday, Ginebra completed a trade with Barako Bull, getting high-scoring point guard Josh Urbiztondo in exchange for Keith Jensen and a 2015 second pick.
In the nightcap of the Wednesday double-header, the Petron Blaze Boosters defeated the Talk N Text Tropang Texters, 87-76, in a no-bearing game since both teams had already been assured of their spots in the playoffs prior to the game.
The Boosters thus finished the elimination round with an 8-6 card, the same card held by San Mig Coffee. However, the Boosters claimed the No. 3 seed in the playoffs having won over the Mixers in their only meeting this conference.
Mashery employees received an internal email on Wednesday telling them they'd been acquired, according to Read Write Web. Intel and Mashery execs subsequently confirmed to The Register that the acquisition is going ahead and is expected to within this quarter.
"The plan is that Mashery will be a key tech element of [Intel's] overall service strategy, and Mashery employees are critical to that," Mashery marketing veep Julie Gibbs said.
Mashery makes tools for managing APIs. Companies can use its tech for API key management for partners, publishing interactive API docs, and running support forums. Functionally, its technology is equivalent to that pioneered by venture-backed startup Mulesoft.
"This acquisition is the next step in building an integrated Intel suite of services (cloud services, digital store fronts, location services, network services and security)," an Intel spokeswoman told The Register. "Mashery brings technology and expertise in the management and exposure of enterprise APIs. Mashery's expertise in key verticals will enable Intel to further provide user experiences enhanced by service capabilities."
Intel used Mashery's tech for its Intel Expressway API Manager, which was announced in November. The manager paired Mashery's API management portal with Intel's security/service gateway to give enterprises what Intel termed a API management system "for enterprises looking to maximise security, performance, and developer adoption". Other Mashery customers include CBS Interactive, Argos, Best Buy, Channel 4, Comcast, and Coca Cola.
2013年4月16日星期二
Why Is It So Hard To Buy A Decent Dash Cam?
There are no dominant brands, no products made by established companies, no agressive ad campaigns for Dash Cams. There's just many, many, anonymous cameras. We're going to try and help you out, as much as we can. This week we're going to put out three reviews for what seem to be popular dash cams, representing the low, middle, and higher ends of the market, but first we're going to look at the problem facing anyone who wants to buy one.
The Craziest Russian Dash Cam Videos Of 2012
With the massive proliferation of cheap GoPros and other cameras, it seems like every second of… Read…
Dash cams certainly exist in the US, but they're not nearly as popular as they are in, say, Russia, which seems to use them as part of a national program to provide the internet with quality, insane video content. Everyone seems to have one in Russia, but I don't know a single person that keeps a dash cam running in their car.
I suspect part of the reason for this is that the process of selecting and buying a dash cam remains somewhat cryptic. That's because we normally buy things based heavily on the brand. Brands tend to have very established associations and qualities, for better or worse, and these factor into our decisions. This goes for cars, televisions, anti-fungal creams, computers, ball gags, everything. Those factors are not always rational, but they do color our decisions to a large degree.
It is surprising that, at least in the US, no established company has thrown their hat in the dash cam ring, since it's the one place where people are not relying on their phones to take photos or video. You inherently want to just keep a dash cam in your car, so you'd think camera companies like Nikon or Canon or Sony would have some relatively cheap product to fit this niche, but so far the market is mostly flooded with no-name products of wildly varying quality.
So, buying a dash cam removes that very large criteria of brand from the equation. There's respected, well-known companies that almost make a dash cam, like GoPro, but not quite. Which brings up a valid point: what makes a dash cam?
Essentially, a dash cam is like a security camera — you're not really supposed to have to think about it until something happens that you're happy you've recorded. An accident, a disguised test mule passing by, a naked man screaming and urinating while holding onto a Dodge Nitro hood, the usual. At that point, you can stop your dash cam, upload the footage, and present evidence in court or become a YouTube sensation or whatever.
Most dash cams currently available meet these basic criteria, more or less. The most critical one is the cyclic recording option, because that's the one thing that really differentiates dash cams from other cameras, and what makes it hardest to just repurpose an old digital camera to the job.
Cyclic recording simply means that as the camera fills the storage medium (usually a CF card) with video, it automatically starts re-recording over the old data. You don't really care about all the boring driving video anyway, but this also means after you record an event you're interested in keeping, you need to stop the camera and transfer the data. If you're an obsessive who demands a full record of every mile driven, you can usually shut this feature off and buy memory cards in bulk.
What we've done this week is researched the general dash cam market, then jumped in to buy some online, just like most of us will buy them. We bought three, covering the high, middle, and low ends of the spectrum, and tested each of them. Later this week we'll have reviews of all three, and give our pick for the best buy. There's so many out there that we may have missed one you think is terrific, so that's where Kinja and your comments come in. Same goes for one you wouldn't give to Hitler's dog's intestinal worm's deadbeat brother-in-law.
It's especially tricky buying dash cams online, because without consistent brand and model names, it's hard to know exactly what your getting. And there's no guarantee the picture is accurate, as well. Just look at these screengrabs - the left one is from Google shopping, and the right is a picture of the low-end, $10 dash cam I got from Amazon. It's the same camera, but with $100 price difference. Is it actually the same camera? Who knows? That's the problem.
I don't think a pair of motorcyclists is some sort of Jungian archetype associated with moving cameras, I think at some level these two devices share some BIOS or code, possibly an entire chipset. So why is one over twice the price of the other? And why are these two seemingly different companies sharing these fundamental components and software? Are there any real differences in these camera models?
The truth is, I'm not really sure. From what I can tell from my research, there must be a few huge factories in China cranking out a few models of dash cam, and they get re packaged and renamed and resold all over the world, with quality and features becoming sort of a crapshoot. The same plastic casing seems to be used for cameras all over the spectrum, so even trying to buy one that looks like one you know to be good isn't reliable.
The Craziest Russian Dash Cam Videos Of 2012
With the massive proliferation of cheap GoPros and other cameras, it seems like every second of… Read…
Dash cams certainly exist in the US, but they're not nearly as popular as they are in, say, Russia, which seems to use them as part of a national program to provide the internet with quality, insane video content. Everyone seems to have one in Russia, but I don't know a single person that keeps a dash cam running in their car.
I suspect part of the reason for this is that the process of selecting and buying a dash cam remains somewhat cryptic. That's because we normally buy things based heavily on the brand. Brands tend to have very established associations and qualities, for better or worse, and these factor into our decisions. This goes for cars, televisions, anti-fungal creams, computers, ball gags, everything. Those factors are not always rational, but they do color our decisions to a large degree.
It is surprising that, at least in the US, no established company has thrown their hat in the dash cam ring, since it's the one place where people are not relying on their phones to take photos or video. You inherently want to just keep a dash cam in your car, so you'd think camera companies like Nikon or Canon or Sony would have some relatively cheap product to fit this niche, but so far the market is mostly flooded with no-name products of wildly varying quality.
So, buying a dash cam removes that very large criteria of brand from the equation. There's respected, well-known companies that almost make a dash cam, like GoPro, but not quite. Which brings up a valid point: what makes a dash cam?
Essentially, a dash cam is like a security camera — you're not really supposed to have to think about it until something happens that you're happy you've recorded. An accident, a disguised test mule passing by, a naked man screaming and urinating while holding onto a Dodge Nitro hood, the usual. At that point, you can stop your dash cam, upload the footage, and present evidence in court or become a YouTube sensation or whatever.
Most dash cams currently available meet these basic criteria, more or less. The most critical one is the cyclic recording option, because that's the one thing that really differentiates dash cams from other cameras, and what makes it hardest to just repurpose an old digital camera to the job.
Cyclic recording simply means that as the camera fills the storage medium (usually a CF card) with video, it automatically starts re-recording over the old data. You don't really care about all the boring driving video anyway, but this also means after you record an event you're interested in keeping, you need to stop the camera and transfer the data. If you're an obsessive who demands a full record of every mile driven, you can usually shut this feature off and buy memory cards in bulk.
What we've done this week is researched the general dash cam market, then jumped in to buy some online, just like most of us will buy them. We bought three, covering the high, middle, and low ends of the spectrum, and tested each of them. Later this week we'll have reviews of all three, and give our pick for the best buy. There's so many out there that we may have missed one you think is terrific, so that's where Kinja and your comments come in. Same goes for one you wouldn't give to Hitler's dog's intestinal worm's deadbeat brother-in-law.
It's especially tricky buying dash cams online, because without consistent brand and model names, it's hard to know exactly what your getting. And there's no guarantee the picture is accurate, as well. Just look at these screengrabs - the left one is from Google shopping, and the right is a picture of the low-end, $10 dash cam I got from Amazon. It's the same camera, but with $100 price difference. Is it actually the same camera? Who knows? That's the problem.
I don't think a pair of motorcyclists is some sort of Jungian archetype associated with moving cameras, I think at some level these two devices share some BIOS or code, possibly an entire chipset. So why is one over twice the price of the other? And why are these two seemingly different companies sharing these fundamental components and software? Are there any real differences in these camera models?
The truth is, I'm not really sure. From what I can tell from my research, there must be a few huge factories in China cranking out a few models of dash cam, and they get re packaged and renamed and resold all over the world, with quality and features becoming sort of a crapshoot. The same plastic casing seems to be used for cameras all over the spectrum, so even trying to buy one that looks like one you know to be good isn't reliable.
2013年4月11日星期四
Paying with your smart phone
An increasing number of apps are offering different ways to pay. They're called digital wallets. Consumer Reports Money Adviser took a look at several to see if you really can leave your wallet at home.
Maryssa Menkin pays for some services using Square Wallet's free application. The digital wallet app links to her chip card, which she finds very convenient.
"I hate carrying a lot of things and, you know, I find that I do always have my phone on me. So it's just very simple," said Menkin.
Starbucks is one of the hundreds of thousands of businesses nationwide that have signed up for Square Wallet.
Square is compatible with a number of iPhone and Android models, and Consumer Reports Money Adviser says it's pretty easy to use. But other digital wallets are not as widely accessible.
"For instance, Google Wallet and Isis aren't available on iPhones and only work with some service providers. They also require a wireless technology that only some stores can use," said Amanda Walker, Consumer Reports.
Some digital wallet apps will only link with a few credit cards. So you may need to link to a prepaid card, which can incur additional fees.
That may also mean you don't have the best protections if you lose your phone or someone breaks into your account.
"Prepaid cards, whether in your hand or on your phone, have no guaranteed protections against unauthorized transactions, so you could lose whatever balance is on the card," said Walker.
Still, if, like Menkin, you like leaving your bulky wallet at home, Consumer Reports says use an app like Square that links to a credit card for the best consumer protections.
The one month mark is Saturday for the year-long initiative that the library does hope to extend should enough funds be raised, and nearly 30,000 people have taken them up on their offer so far.
“As of this morning, we’ve had over 19,000 people renew their library cards and we’ve given out almost 9,000 new cards,” Vicky Varga, associate manager, Circulation and Interlibrary Loans Services, said Thursday. “So this equates to about three times… what we would have seen previous to the free cards.”
Along with signing people up for free cards at branches, there were three pop-up membership drives on March 13 – something that will continue into the fall.
Library staff will be at the Mom, Pop & Tots Fair this weekend, Southgate Mall April 20 and Commerce Place April 30. In May, people will be able to sign up for cards at Century Park and Clareview LRT stations, as well as the Telus building, Bell Tower, Kingsway Mall, City Market Downtown and even the Edmonton International Airport.
By standardizing smart pump settings and better managing alerts, pharmacists at the Cleveland Clinic Health System were able to improve the large-volume pump system that goes across all 10 of its hospitals and its 19 family health and ambulatory surgery centers, according to Silvana Balliu, PharmD, RPh, a smart pump pharmacist at the health system.
Noting that alert alarm management is a key factor in reducing health technology hazards, Dr. Balliu described how Cleveland Clinic pharmacists focused on “decreasing the number of alerts received, to make them clinically significant to our caregivers.”
After reviewing continuous quality improvement (CQI) alarm report data and documenting the number of alerts received, a team at Cleveland Clinic tailored the audio alarm settings for alerts based on care areas and practice settings. The analysis revealed that many alerts received during infusion programming of pressors were caused by caregivers, who, when titrating doses downward ended up administering dosages lower than the lowest soft limits required by the smart pump’s settings. The health system significantly decreased alerts in this area by removing alerts for the lowest soft limits settings.
To reduce the risk for infusion pump programming errors related to high-risk medications, Dr. Balliu said they programmed high-risk medications in the pump to be given as primary, not secondary, infusions. Also, they prohibited secondary medications from being programmed with high-risk medications.
Cleveland Clinic also standardized settings between the smart pump and the electronic medical record (EMR) to provide clinicians with consistent information regarding dosage, duration and concentration, Dr. Balliu noted.
For heparin infusions, the CQI analysis revealed that some alarm alerts were caused by caregivers attempting to enter the volume per hour versus the dosage. The team eliminated this practice by implementing the lowest hard dosage limit for heparin.
Pharmacy works closely with nursing and anesthesia representatives during implementation and maintenance to “provide education and to make the library files transparent to them,” Dr. Balliu added. By making these types of improvements to the smart pumps, the number of alarm alerts decreased 50% from the fourth quarter of 2010 to the fourth quarter of 2011 (figure). Today, Dr. Balliu added, Cleveland Clinic is working toward its goal of having a library compliance rate of 98%.
Maryssa Menkin pays for some services using Square Wallet's free application. The digital wallet app links to her chip card, which she finds very convenient.
"I hate carrying a lot of things and, you know, I find that I do always have my phone on me. So it's just very simple," said Menkin.
Starbucks is one of the hundreds of thousands of businesses nationwide that have signed up for Square Wallet.
Square is compatible with a number of iPhone and Android models, and Consumer Reports Money Adviser says it's pretty easy to use. But other digital wallets are not as widely accessible.
"For instance, Google Wallet and Isis aren't available on iPhones and only work with some service providers. They also require a wireless technology that only some stores can use," said Amanda Walker, Consumer Reports.
Some digital wallet apps will only link with a few credit cards. So you may need to link to a prepaid card, which can incur additional fees.
That may also mean you don't have the best protections if you lose your phone or someone breaks into your account.
"Prepaid cards, whether in your hand or on your phone, have no guaranteed protections against unauthorized transactions, so you could lose whatever balance is on the card," said Walker.
Still, if, like Menkin, you like leaving your bulky wallet at home, Consumer Reports says use an app like Square that links to a credit card for the best consumer protections.
The one month mark is Saturday for the year-long initiative that the library does hope to extend should enough funds be raised, and nearly 30,000 people have taken them up on their offer so far.
“As of this morning, we’ve had over 19,000 people renew their library cards and we’ve given out almost 9,000 new cards,” Vicky Varga, associate manager, Circulation and Interlibrary Loans Services, said Thursday. “So this equates to about three times… what we would have seen previous to the free cards.”
Along with signing people up for free cards at branches, there were three pop-up membership drives on March 13 – something that will continue into the fall.
Library staff will be at the Mom, Pop & Tots Fair this weekend, Southgate Mall April 20 and Commerce Place April 30. In May, people will be able to sign up for cards at Century Park and Clareview LRT stations, as well as the Telus building, Bell Tower, Kingsway Mall, City Market Downtown and even the Edmonton International Airport.
By standardizing smart pump settings and better managing alerts, pharmacists at the Cleveland Clinic Health System were able to improve the large-volume pump system that goes across all 10 of its hospitals and its 19 family health and ambulatory surgery centers, according to Silvana Balliu, PharmD, RPh, a smart pump pharmacist at the health system.
Noting that alert alarm management is a key factor in reducing health technology hazards, Dr. Balliu described how Cleveland Clinic pharmacists focused on “decreasing the number of alerts received, to make them clinically significant to our caregivers.”
After reviewing continuous quality improvement (CQI) alarm report data and documenting the number of alerts received, a team at Cleveland Clinic tailored the audio alarm settings for alerts based on care areas and practice settings. The analysis revealed that many alerts received during infusion programming of pressors were caused by caregivers, who, when titrating doses downward ended up administering dosages lower than the lowest soft limits required by the smart pump’s settings. The health system significantly decreased alerts in this area by removing alerts for the lowest soft limits settings.
To reduce the risk for infusion pump programming errors related to high-risk medications, Dr. Balliu said they programmed high-risk medications in the pump to be given as primary, not secondary, infusions. Also, they prohibited secondary medications from being programmed with high-risk medications.
Cleveland Clinic also standardized settings between the smart pump and the electronic medical record (EMR) to provide clinicians with consistent information regarding dosage, duration and concentration, Dr. Balliu noted.
For heparin infusions, the CQI analysis revealed that some alarm alerts were caused by caregivers attempting to enter the volume per hour versus the dosage. The team eliminated this practice by implementing the lowest hard dosage limit for heparin.
Pharmacy works closely with nursing and anesthesia representatives during implementation and maintenance to “provide education and to make the library files transparent to them,” Dr. Balliu added. By making these types of improvements to the smart pumps, the number of alarm alerts decreased 50% from the fourth quarter of 2010 to the fourth quarter of 2011 (figure). Today, Dr. Balliu added, Cleveland Clinic is working toward its goal of having a library compliance rate of 98%.
2013年4月10日星期三
Why I hated Margaret Thatcher
Every week there seemed to be an IRA terrorist attack or a transportation disaster - a devastating fire in a train station, the sinking of a pleasure boat in the Thames. Whatever the cause, as soon as the surviving victims were bandaged up and rendered presentable, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would show up at the hospital for a photo op. This filled Brits like me with a combination of rage and terror. Thus the Thatchcard: "In the event of an accident, the holder of this card wishes it to be known that he/she does not wish to be visited by Mrs. Thatcher in any circumstances whatsoever."
I know how churlish that may sound now. I carried around a ridiculous piece of plastic announcing that if one of the leaders of the free world took the time to visit my sickbed, I wished her turned away. In my defense, in that era Britain was suffused with such intense Thatcher-hatred that the enmity Obama truthers express for the president seems like a love affair by comparison.
I'd spent my elementary school years yelling "Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher," because I was one of the kids deprived when, as education secretary, she abolished free school milk.
Until that policy went into effect, I'd spent every morning complaining bitterly about having to drink those odd little bottles of curdling room-temperature milk - at least that's how it was served in my school - but that didn't stop me from protesting the reform.
And from the time I was in high school until I left Britain not long after I graduated from university, a sure-fire way - usually the only way - to perk up a protest was to start the chant to which Britons of a certain age have a Pavlovian response: "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie!, Out, out, out!"
Check out Elvis Costello's performance of "Tramp the Dirt Down," a song in which he tells Thatcher: "I'd like to live/ Long enough to savor/ That when they finally put you in the ground/ I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down."
Why was Thatcher such a hated figure? Yes, it was about her policies - privatization, the selling off of public housing, her wars against Argentina in the Falklands and against the miners and the working class in Britain - but there was something else at work. On some level she was hated because she was a woman.
Between men who hated themselves for responding to Thatcher's stern, dominatrix-like scolding (watch "You turn if you want to; the lady's not for turning" and tell me you don't get chills) and women who wondered why our breakthrough female politician had to be a woman like her (though we surely knew that only an Iron Lady could have smashed the mold of British politics), the fact that Thatcher was female complicated things. Even her name was a hostage to ideology: Those on the left always used a condescending diminutive - Maggie Thatcher - while her devotees on the right used the honorific Mrs. Thatcher.
But in the typical British way, I have always believed that it was her slippery position in Britain's rigid class system that ramped up the levels of loathing. She grew up the daughter of a Midlands grocer in what the Guardian's Michael White called "the respectable working class."
Although she famously learned to speak in a posh accent as she climbed the political ladder, she grew up in a house without an indoor bathroom. Although throwing in her lot with the Conservative Party made her a traitor to her own class, the Tories apparently celebrated their colleague's upward mobility - they did, after all, make her their leader, even if she was never quite "one of them."
The Xperia ZL's plastic body might come off as a downgrade from the prettier Xperia Z, but the latter isn't available in Canada, so that makes the ZL the best Sony smartphone available. The 5-inch 1080p HD display is vibrant and crisp with a pixel density of 441, one of the best in the business. It's one flaw is that it loses its lustre when you start tilting the screen any which way.
That is a microcosm of the device, in many respects. It offers something that looks nice or works well, but loses points on the follow through. The screen's glass looks elegant, but is a real magnet for fingerprints and blemishes. There's a 2-megapixel front-facing camera capable of taking pretty good photos and video, but its odd placement at the bottom makes it easy to cover it accidentally. It's great that you can throw in a microSD card to expand on the 16GB of internal storage, but the flap to access the slot in the back feels very cheap.
But it's not all doom and gloom. Android 4.1.2 runs fluidly on the ZL, and Sony smartly refrained from cluttering up the home screens with stuff you don't need. Another smart move was making it possible to use small apps within other apps. Open any app, tap the multitasking button and they pop up at the bottom — a calculator, voice recorder, timer and notepad. Tap the + icon and you can download more from the Google Play store. A useful feature that actually saves time.
And then there's saving battery life. Sony has included something called "Stamina Mode" into the ZL, which is found under Power Management in the Settings. It disables mobile data when the screen is off, but you can exempt specific apps, like email, for example. Low Battery Mode kicks in at 30 percent charge left and turns off almost all settings to keep you going longer. It even tells you how much time is left.
There is an IR blaster on the phone that you can use to control your TV or almost anything else with an IR receiver. That even includes gas fireplaces that turn on or off with a remote, since the blaster can learn to control devices that aren't listed in the app.
John Connolly Memorial Park, located on Centennial Boulevard, has a playground, walking track, cricket pitch and a dog park; Elliot Drive Playground, located on Elliot Drive, is a playground meant for children ages 2 to 5 and has a picnic table for a quick snack; Giangiulio Sports Complex, located on Victor Boulevard, has a baseball field, a turf football field and a playground; John Hale Memorial Park, located on West End Avenue, has a swing set, picnic tables, grills and pavilions; Kirkwood Sports Complex located on Laurel Oak Road, has a playground for children ages 2 to 10, picnic tables, a walking path, a bocce ball court and basketball and tennis courts; Lake Villa Playground, located on Cornell Drive, has a playground for children ages 2 to 5, a swing set and tennis and basketball courts; Lions Lake Complex, located at 101 Dutchtown Road, has a playground for children ages 2 to 10, batting cages, a lake, softball fields and picnic tables; Maiaroto Sports Complex, located on Echelon Road, has soccer fields, basketball and tennis courts; Rabinowitz Sports Complex, located on Kresson Road, has baseball fields, a swing set, batting cages and picnic tables; Round Hill Road Playground, located on Round Hill Road, has a playground for children ages 2 to 10, a baseball field and tennis courts; Sandpiper Drive Playground, located at Sandpiper Drive and Willowbrook Way, has a playground for children ages 2 to 12, swings and picnic tables; and Sheppard Road Basketball Courts, located on Sheppard Road off of Centennial Boulevard, has one full court and two half courts.
I know how churlish that may sound now. I carried around a ridiculous piece of plastic announcing that if one of the leaders of the free world took the time to visit my sickbed, I wished her turned away. In my defense, in that era Britain was suffused with such intense Thatcher-hatred that the enmity Obama truthers express for the president seems like a love affair by comparison.
I'd spent my elementary school years yelling "Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher," because I was one of the kids deprived when, as education secretary, she abolished free school milk.
Until that policy went into effect, I'd spent every morning complaining bitterly about having to drink those odd little bottles of curdling room-temperature milk - at least that's how it was served in my school - but that didn't stop me from protesting the reform.
And from the time I was in high school until I left Britain not long after I graduated from university, a sure-fire way - usually the only way - to perk up a protest was to start the chant to which Britons of a certain age have a Pavlovian response: "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie!, Out, out, out!"
Check out Elvis Costello's performance of "Tramp the Dirt Down," a song in which he tells Thatcher: "I'd like to live/ Long enough to savor/ That when they finally put you in the ground/ I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down."
Why was Thatcher such a hated figure? Yes, it was about her policies - privatization, the selling off of public housing, her wars against Argentina in the Falklands and against the miners and the working class in Britain - but there was something else at work. On some level she was hated because she was a woman.
Between men who hated themselves for responding to Thatcher's stern, dominatrix-like scolding (watch "You turn if you want to; the lady's not for turning" and tell me you don't get chills) and women who wondered why our breakthrough female politician had to be a woman like her (though we surely knew that only an Iron Lady could have smashed the mold of British politics), the fact that Thatcher was female complicated things. Even her name was a hostage to ideology: Those on the left always used a condescending diminutive - Maggie Thatcher - while her devotees on the right used the honorific Mrs. Thatcher.
But in the typical British way, I have always believed that it was her slippery position in Britain's rigid class system that ramped up the levels of loathing. She grew up the daughter of a Midlands grocer in what the Guardian's Michael White called "the respectable working class."
Although she famously learned to speak in a posh accent as she climbed the political ladder, she grew up in a house without an indoor bathroom. Although throwing in her lot with the Conservative Party made her a traitor to her own class, the Tories apparently celebrated their colleague's upward mobility - they did, after all, make her their leader, even if she was never quite "one of them."
The Xperia ZL's plastic body might come off as a downgrade from the prettier Xperia Z, but the latter isn't available in Canada, so that makes the ZL the best Sony smartphone available. The 5-inch 1080p HD display is vibrant and crisp with a pixel density of 441, one of the best in the business. It's one flaw is that it loses its lustre when you start tilting the screen any which way.
That is a microcosm of the device, in many respects. It offers something that looks nice or works well, but loses points on the follow through. The screen's glass looks elegant, but is a real magnet for fingerprints and blemishes. There's a 2-megapixel front-facing camera capable of taking pretty good photos and video, but its odd placement at the bottom makes it easy to cover it accidentally. It's great that you can throw in a microSD card to expand on the 16GB of internal storage, but the flap to access the slot in the back feels very cheap.
But it's not all doom and gloom. Android 4.1.2 runs fluidly on the ZL, and Sony smartly refrained from cluttering up the home screens with stuff you don't need. Another smart move was making it possible to use small apps within other apps. Open any app, tap the multitasking button and they pop up at the bottom — a calculator, voice recorder, timer and notepad. Tap the + icon and you can download more from the Google Play store. A useful feature that actually saves time.
And then there's saving battery life. Sony has included something called "Stamina Mode" into the ZL, which is found under Power Management in the Settings. It disables mobile data when the screen is off, but you can exempt specific apps, like email, for example. Low Battery Mode kicks in at 30 percent charge left and turns off almost all settings to keep you going longer. It even tells you how much time is left.
There is an IR blaster on the phone that you can use to control your TV or almost anything else with an IR receiver. That even includes gas fireplaces that turn on or off with a remote, since the blaster can learn to control devices that aren't listed in the app.
John Connolly Memorial Park, located on Centennial Boulevard, has a playground, walking track, cricket pitch and a dog park; Elliot Drive Playground, located on Elliot Drive, is a playground meant for children ages 2 to 5 and has a picnic table for a quick snack; Giangiulio Sports Complex, located on Victor Boulevard, has a baseball field, a turf football field and a playground; John Hale Memorial Park, located on West End Avenue, has a swing set, picnic tables, grills and pavilions; Kirkwood Sports Complex located on Laurel Oak Road, has a playground for children ages 2 to 10, picnic tables, a walking path, a bocce ball court and basketball and tennis courts; Lake Villa Playground, located on Cornell Drive, has a playground for children ages 2 to 5, a swing set and tennis and basketball courts; Lions Lake Complex, located at 101 Dutchtown Road, has a playground for children ages 2 to 10, batting cages, a lake, softball fields and picnic tables; Maiaroto Sports Complex, located on Echelon Road, has soccer fields, basketball and tennis courts; Rabinowitz Sports Complex, located on Kresson Road, has baseball fields, a swing set, batting cages and picnic tables; Round Hill Road Playground, located on Round Hill Road, has a playground for children ages 2 to 10, a baseball field and tennis courts; Sandpiper Drive Playground, located at Sandpiper Drive and Willowbrook Way, has a playground for children ages 2 to 12, swings and picnic tables; and Sheppard Road Basketball Courts, located on Sheppard Road off of Centennial Boulevard, has one full court and two half courts.
2013年4月7日星期日
Moffitt ovarian cancer research aids international effort
Ovarian cancer has long been called the "silent killer," its symptoms going unnoticed until the disease is so advanced it is all but untreatable.
Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have helped identify four DNA hotspots associated with higher risk of chip card the fifth-deadliest cancer among women. Two large studies compared the genetic material of more than 18,000 women who had ovarian cancer with that of 26,000 healthy women.
Mutations in the so-called BRCA genes were identified years ago as a high genetic risk factor for breast and ovarian cancers. By zeroing in on new regions of the genome, the Moffitt studies indicate there are other genes or other mechanisms that might contribute to ovarian cancer, said Tom Sellers, Moffitt director and a senior author on the two new studies.
While the findings are not yet ready for clinical use, they are another step toward creating a genetic test to identify women with higher-than-average risk for ovarian cancer.
"It's very early in the game still, but I think it's inevitable" that such a test will be developed, Sellers said.
What if women knew from genetic testing they stood a strong chance of developing ovarian cancer? Sellers said they could not only make sure their doctors monitor them for the earliest signs of disease, they also could take steps to help prevent it.
"Ovarian cancer is one of the malignancies for which we can greatly lower risk," he said.
Using oral contraception reduces ovarian cancer risk, for instance, Sellers said. Women in the highest-risk categories may also consider having their fallopian tubes tied or even their ovaries removed before disease begins, he said.
The Moffitt studies are part of a massive international investigation into the genetic basis of hormone-related cancers, including those of the ovaries, breast and prostate. That project, known as the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study, nearly doubled the number of genetic signposts known to be linked with these cancers.
The project resulted in a coordinated series of 13 publications in scientific journals late last month. Most of the research was financed by the European Union, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and Cancer Research U.K.
Moffitt joined that work due to Seller's ongoing affiliation with the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium.
Each year, about 20,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with ovarian cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The five-year survival rate is over 90 percent if the disease is caught in the early stages, according to the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. But due to ovarian cancer's vague symptoms and the lack of early detection tests, less than 20 percent of all cases are found at this early stage.
Knowing one's genetic history doesn't necessarily make medical decisions easy. Consider women who test positive for changes in the BRCA gene mutations. They face any number of difficult choices — from intensive monitoring to preventive mastectomies or removal of healthy ovaries. Not even doctors agree on the best approach.
But one breast cancer study that was part of the international project suggests researchers may one day be better able to better guide women with the BRCA mutation by separating those at the highest cancer risk (more than 80 percent) from those with lower risks.
Prepare ahead of time. If certifications, licenses, and diplomas, need to be gathered or copied, this is a great time to do the footwork. Many times a resume never gets updated because the candidate cannot find the time to gather needed documentation.
A candidate needs to realistically identify what they want to accomplish in their professional career. If the list of goals is longer than one, the goals should be prioritized. Job goals could be a new job, a new career, a promotion within the same organization, etc. Establishing what one is after helps make the rest of the decisions easier.
Action plan. After establishing and prioritizing career goals, this would be a list of the required steps to take in order to get underway. The list needs to be written, and each step should have a realistic timeline. Putting a date on the day an updated resume will be done gives more teeth to the task.
Brush up on job skills. Even if a candidate is good at what they do, they can take the time to become better at it. If a perspective employer sees that the candidate has the latest training and expertise, their resume looks all that much better. Options include brushing up on skills from a local community college or an online learning center.
Interviewing. A candidate needs to arrive ten minutes early for an interview, and be dressed for success. One tip is to drive to the interview location the day before so there is no chance of getting lost.
Follow-up. Following-up on an interview or a sent resume is critical in a job search. Hiring managers see hundreds of resumes when they advertise for a job. Keeping in touch, whether it's through a phone call, email, or a card, keeps a name and face in front of the hiring manager.
Stay on top. Reading the latest business journals and industry news will keep a candidate informed of what is going on in their respective field. When an interview comes up, a hiring manager will keep candidates in mind who know the latest news and findings in that particular field.
Tenacity. It is very easy to get discouraged when looking for a new job. It doesn't take long for doubt to creep into the mind of the most qualified candidates. But anyone who has been through the job wringer will share their story, and the word tenacity will come up. It's never easy to achieve lofty goals.
Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have helped identify four DNA hotspots associated with higher risk of chip card the fifth-deadliest cancer among women. Two large studies compared the genetic material of more than 18,000 women who had ovarian cancer with that of 26,000 healthy women.
Mutations in the so-called BRCA genes were identified years ago as a high genetic risk factor for breast and ovarian cancers. By zeroing in on new regions of the genome, the Moffitt studies indicate there are other genes or other mechanisms that might contribute to ovarian cancer, said Tom Sellers, Moffitt director and a senior author on the two new studies.
While the findings are not yet ready for clinical use, they are another step toward creating a genetic test to identify women with higher-than-average risk for ovarian cancer.
"It's very early in the game still, but I think it's inevitable" that such a test will be developed, Sellers said.
What if women knew from genetic testing they stood a strong chance of developing ovarian cancer? Sellers said they could not only make sure their doctors monitor them for the earliest signs of disease, they also could take steps to help prevent it.
"Ovarian cancer is one of the malignancies for which we can greatly lower risk," he said.
Using oral contraception reduces ovarian cancer risk, for instance, Sellers said. Women in the highest-risk categories may also consider having their fallopian tubes tied or even their ovaries removed before disease begins, he said.
The Moffitt studies are part of a massive international investigation into the genetic basis of hormone-related cancers, including those of the ovaries, breast and prostate. That project, known as the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study, nearly doubled the number of genetic signposts known to be linked with these cancers.
The project resulted in a coordinated series of 13 publications in scientific journals late last month. Most of the research was financed by the European Union, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and Cancer Research U.K.
Moffitt joined that work due to Seller's ongoing affiliation with the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium.
Each year, about 20,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with ovarian cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The five-year survival rate is over 90 percent if the disease is caught in the early stages, according to the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. But due to ovarian cancer's vague symptoms and the lack of early detection tests, less than 20 percent of all cases are found at this early stage.
Knowing one's genetic history doesn't necessarily make medical decisions easy. Consider women who test positive for changes in the BRCA gene mutations. They face any number of difficult choices — from intensive monitoring to preventive mastectomies or removal of healthy ovaries. Not even doctors agree on the best approach.
But one breast cancer study that was part of the international project suggests researchers may one day be better able to better guide women with the BRCA mutation by separating those at the highest cancer risk (more than 80 percent) from those with lower risks.
Prepare ahead of time. If certifications, licenses, and diplomas, need to be gathered or copied, this is a great time to do the footwork. Many times a resume never gets updated because the candidate cannot find the time to gather needed documentation.
A candidate needs to realistically identify what they want to accomplish in their professional career. If the list of goals is longer than one, the goals should be prioritized. Job goals could be a new job, a new career, a promotion within the same organization, etc. Establishing what one is after helps make the rest of the decisions easier.
Action plan. After establishing and prioritizing career goals, this would be a list of the required steps to take in order to get underway. The list needs to be written, and each step should have a realistic timeline. Putting a date on the day an updated resume will be done gives more teeth to the task.
Brush up on job skills. Even if a candidate is good at what they do, they can take the time to become better at it. If a perspective employer sees that the candidate has the latest training and expertise, their resume looks all that much better. Options include brushing up on skills from a local community college or an online learning center.
Interviewing. A candidate needs to arrive ten minutes early for an interview, and be dressed for success. One tip is to drive to the interview location the day before so there is no chance of getting lost.
Follow-up. Following-up on an interview or a sent resume is critical in a job search. Hiring managers see hundreds of resumes when they advertise for a job. Keeping in touch, whether it's through a phone call, email, or a card, keeps a name and face in front of the hiring manager.
Stay on top. Reading the latest business journals and industry news will keep a candidate informed of what is going on in their respective field. When an interview comes up, a hiring manager will keep candidates in mind who know the latest news and findings in that particular field.
Tenacity. It is very easy to get discouraged when looking for a new job. It doesn't take long for doubt to creep into the mind of the most qualified candidates. But anyone who has been through the job wringer will share their story, and the word tenacity will come up. It's never easy to achieve lofty goals.
2013年4月1日星期一
Nokia CEO Avoids the Inquiry on the Upcoming Lumia
In Finland, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop recently made a controversial appearance on MTV3's "Hjalliksen kanssa." Host Hjallis Harkimo inquired about the Nokia Lumia 928 smart phone but the CEO avoided answering the question and even tossed the host's Apple iPhone on the smart card.
The TV show host showed the Nokia CEO his Apple iPhone but claimed that he would like to get his hands on a Nokia smart phone. "Oh, how embarrassing! I can take care of that for you right here," Elop stated as he took the iPhone and threw it. "There you go, it's gone," Elop added.
Hjallis Harkimo further prodded the Nokia CEO about the Nokia Lumia 928. "I want to have a Nokia phone because I believe in you and I believe in Nokia. But I want to have that Lumia 928. So when do I get it?" Harkimo asked.
Though Stephen Elop remain tight-lipped on that matter, the Nokia CEO assured Harkimo that he will replace the tossed iPhone with a Nokia Lumia smart phone. Elop insisted that he will not discuss the Nokia Lumia 928 but would generally talk about the future plans of Nokia.
Numerous reports surrounding the Nokia Lumia 928 indicate the upcoming smart phone could be Nokia's latest smart phone that will battle with rivals such as Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One. Nokia Lumia 928 reportedly has a 4.5-inch OLED screen display, a great processor, a microSD card slot for expanded internal storage capacity and remarkable camera features.
The all-aluminum Lumia 928 body is reportedly 10.2mm thin with a somewhat curved spine design making it lighter compared to the Nokia Lumia 920. Nokia Lumia 920 has undergone the United States Federal Communications Commission's test and the smart phone is predicted to arrive this April 2013 in Verizon for the equivalent LTE bands 4 and 13 that matches the carrier's network.
You don’t see bumper stickers touting “My child is a D+ student.” That’s because it’s not something to boast about, and neither is the D+ rating that our nation’s infrastructure earned in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure.
The ASCE’s report presents a sobering assessment of our nation’s current infrastructure and transportation conditions and needs across 16 sectors, including our nation’s roads, bridges, ports and electrical grid. If your child comes home with this report card, then you know it is time for a parent–teacher conference on what actions are needed to turn things around.
The same can be said for our neglected roads and bridges, our inadequate ports, our strained electrical grid and our outdated aviation system.
A well-functioning infrastructure is fundamental to our competitiveness and economic survival. Families depend on the electrical grid to turn on the lights in their homes. To thrive, communities count on safe drinking water and sound wastewater systems. Manufacturers and businesses rely on safe and reliable roads to transport goods to domestic and international markets.
However, it is easy to miss the larger economic role infrastructure plays in our lives. In addition to having a direct effect on long-term economic growth, infrastructure increases gross domestic product, employment, household income and exports.
This D+ rating serves as a much-needed wake-up call to prioritize investment in our infrastructure. Not only will investment in our infrastructure bolster U.S. global competitiveness and help lower the cost of manufacturing in the United States, but it will provide businesses efficient means to deliver goods here and overseas. This investment will attract businesses to our country, create jobs and increase federal revenue.
Without it, our country will face deteriorating conditions across multiple sectors and miss the opportunity to begin modernizing infrastructure systems critical to manufacturing in the United States. Our global competitors are already undertaking vast infrastructure projects; falling behind them is not an option, but it is becoming a reality.
Infrastructure in the United States was ranked first place in 2005 by the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Report, but by 2012, the nation had fallen to 14th in the world.
Unfortunately, a cohesive vision to direct strategic investment to our infrastructure has been nonexistent in Washington for too long. By restoring fiscal order and making infrastructure investment a critical legislative priority, we can lay the foundation for sustained economic growth that will shore up confidence in our economy and put Americans back to work.
The promising news from the ASCE report is that when smart, strategic investments are made by both the public and private chip card, we see real improvements in our infrastructure that boosts our competitiveness.
For example, in 2009, Pennsylvania split a $95 million investment with a major company to create an intermodal rail and truck facility. The return on this investment has been the creation of more than 10,000 new jobs from businesses that located distribution centers near this transportation hub. Pennsylvania ended that year 2 points lower than the national unemployment average and the lowest among the industrial states in great part because of its policy in making significant investments in its infrastructure.
The TV show host showed the Nokia CEO his Apple iPhone but claimed that he would like to get his hands on a Nokia smart phone. "Oh, how embarrassing! I can take care of that for you right here," Elop stated as he took the iPhone and threw it. "There you go, it's gone," Elop added.
Hjallis Harkimo further prodded the Nokia CEO about the Nokia Lumia 928. "I want to have a Nokia phone because I believe in you and I believe in Nokia. But I want to have that Lumia 928. So when do I get it?" Harkimo asked.
Though Stephen Elop remain tight-lipped on that matter, the Nokia CEO assured Harkimo that he will replace the tossed iPhone with a Nokia Lumia smart phone. Elop insisted that he will not discuss the Nokia Lumia 928 but would generally talk about the future plans of Nokia.
Numerous reports surrounding the Nokia Lumia 928 indicate the upcoming smart phone could be Nokia's latest smart phone that will battle with rivals such as Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One. Nokia Lumia 928 reportedly has a 4.5-inch OLED screen display, a great processor, a microSD card slot for expanded internal storage capacity and remarkable camera features.
The all-aluminum Lumia 928 body is reportedly 10.2mm thin with a somewhat curved spine design making it lighter compared to the Nokia Lumia 920. Nokia Lumia 920 has undergone the United States Federal Communications Commission's test and the smart phone is predicted to arrive this April 2013 in Verizon for the equivalent LTE bands 4 and 13 that matches the carrier's network.
You don’t see bumper stickers touting “My child is a D+ student.” That’s because it’s not something to boast about, and neither is the D+ rating that our nation’s infrastructure earned in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure.
The ASCE’s report presents a sobering assessment of our nation’s current infrastructure and transportation conditions and needs across 16 sectors, including our nation’s roads, bridges, ports and electrical grid. If your child comes home with this report card, then you know it is time for a parent–teacher conference on what actions are needed to turn things around.
The same can be said for our neglected roads and bridges, our inadequate ports, our strained electrical grid and our outdated aviation system.
A well-functioning infrastructure is fundamental to our competitiveness and economic survival. Families depend on the electrical grid to turn on the lights in their homes. To thrive, communities count on safe drinking water and sound wastewater systems. Manufacturers and businesses rely on safe and reliable roads to transport goods to domestic and international markets.
However, it is easy to miss the larger economic role infrastructure plays in our lives. In addition to having a direct effect on long-term economic growth, infrastructure increases gross domestic product, employment, household income and exports.
This D+ rating serves as a much-needed wake-up call to prioritize investment in our infrastructure. Not only will investment in our infrastructure bolster U.S. global competitiveness and help lower the cost of manufacturing in the United States, but it will provide businesses efficient means to deliver goods here and overseas. This investment will attract businesses to our country, create jobs and increase federal revenue.
Without it, our country will face deteriorating conditions across multiple sectors and miss the opportunity to begin modernizing infrastructure systems critical to manufacturing in the United States. Our global competitors are already undertaking vast infrastructure projects; falling behind them is not an option, but it is becoming a reality.
Infrastructure in the United States was ranked first place in 2005 by the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Report, but by 2012, the nation had fallen to 14th in the world.
Unfortunately, a cohesive vision to direct strategic investment to our infrastructure has been nonexistent in Washington for too long. By restoring fiscal order and making infrastructure investment a critical legislative priority, we can lay the foundation for sustained economic growth that will shore up confidence in our economy and put Americans back to work.
The promising news from the ASCE report is that when smart, strategic investments are made by both the public and private chip card, we see real improvements in our infrastructure that boosts our competitiveness.
For example, in 2009, Pennsylvania split a $95 million investment with a major company to create an intermodal rail and truck facility. The return on this investment has been the creation of more than 10,000 new jobs from businesses that located distribution centers near this transportation hub. Pennsylvania ended that year 2 points lower than the national unemployment average and the lowest among the industrial states in great part because of its policy in making significant investments in its infrastructure.
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