http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/18/business/la-fiw-0718-reading-20100718
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More than 550 years after Johannes Gutenberg printed 180 copies of the Bible on paper and vellum, new technologies as revolutionary as the printing press are changing the concept of a book and what it means to be literate.
Sound, animation and the ability to connect to the Internet have created the notion of a living book that can establish an entirely new kind of relationship with readers.
As electronic reading devices evolve and proliferate, books are increasingly able to talk to readers, quiz them on their grasp of the material, play videos to illustrate a point or connect them with a community of fellow readers.
The same technology allows readers to reach out to authors, provide instant reaction and even become creative collaborators, influencing plot developments and the writer's use of dramatic devices.
Digital tools are also making it possible for independent authors to publish and promote their books, causing an outpouring of written work on every topic imaginable.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/18/business/la-fiw-0718-reading-20100718/2
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Vook (the name is a mash-up of "video" and "book") has published more than two dozen titles.後接
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/18/business/la-fiw-0718-reading-20100718/3
In addition to displaying pages from a book, digital e-readers can read them aloud, opening up a literary trove for the blind and the visually impaired who have long had only a thin selection of audio and Braille books to choose from. Devices made by Amazon.com Inc. and Intel Corp. are able to convert text into speech.
"You now have the ability to make a book talk," said George Kerscher, head of the Digital Accessible Information System Consortium in Zurich, Switzerland. Kerscher, who studied computer science at the University of Montana and is blind, has spent two decades lobbying publishers to make books more accessible to visually impaired readers.
2011年1月2日 星期日
2011 1.01
http://rismedia.com/2009-07-07/when-the-goin-gets-tough-find-some-calm-get-organized/
X…..
……**…..When the to-do list gets long, take a breather, get focused and use some organizational tools to get things under control.
Start by calming down and easing the adrenaline rush. Try whatever works for you – a quiet timeout, a walk or lunch with a friend. The time away from work will be more than made up for by the focus you gain.
Once you’ve settled down, pay attention to the state of mind that you’d like to create. Rather than harried, calm. Rather than frantic, serene. You get the idea. Do some quiet breathing and anchor the positive emotion so you’ll be able to recover it when things feel out of control. Link the feeling with a visual image of a place you love to go.
Bringing that image to mind will help you relax later.
Think about the big picture. The type of role that you’re in may not fit as well as something that is more structured and less volatile, so think about whether the current path is working for you.
Focus on the work that’s facing you. When details are escaping you, it helps a lot to do an inventory. Start project by project, using sticky notes, to-do lists or even making stacks of project documents. Then put all of them on a calendar with milestones and deadlines to plan your time. ……**…..
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X…..
Observe your progress as you go, checking in with yourself regularly – as often as a couple of times a day at first. Notice whether you’re staying on task, whether items are slipping, and especially how you’re feeling. If you see patterns, such as spinning your wheels instead of taking action, procrastinating or letting distractions get in your way, examine and address the root causes.
You don’t have to do it all on your own. Get help from people around you to reinforce positive habits and remind you when you’re slipping. Seek out resources for organization and time management tips, and learn from others’ experiences.
Getting control of what you do (your tasks) and how you do it (your focus) will help you keep on top of your work.
X…..
……**…..When the to-do list gets long, take a breather, get focused and use some organizational tools to get things under control.
Start by calming down and easing the adrenaline rush. Try whatever works for you – a quiet timeout, a walk or lunch with a friend. The time away from work will be more than made up for by the focus you gain.
Once you’ve settled down, pay attention to the state of mind that you’d like to create. Rather than harried, calm. Rather than frantic, serene. You get the idea. Do some quiet breathing and anchor the positive emotion so you’ll be able to recover it when things feel out of control. Link the feeling with a visual image of a place you love to go.
Bringing that image to mind will help you relax later.
Think about the big picture. The type of role that you’re in may not fit as well as something that is more structured and less volatile, so think about whether the current path is working for you.
Focus on the work that’s facing you. When details are escaping you, it helps a lot to do an inventory. Start project by project, using sticky notes, to-do lists or even making stacks of project documents. Then put all of them on a calendar with milestones and deadlines to plan your time. ……**…..
X…..
X…..
Observe your progress as you go, checking in with yourself regularly – as often as a couple of times a day at first. Notice whether you’re staying on task, whether items are slipping, and especially how you’re feeling. If you see patterns, such as spinning your wheels instead of taking action, procrastinating or letting distractions get in your way, examine and address the root causes.
You don’t have to do it all on your own. Get help from people around you to reinforce positive habits and remind you when you’re slipping. Seek out resources for organization and time management tips, and learn from others’ experiences.
Getting control of what you do (your tasks) and how you do it (your focus) will help you keep on top of your work.
2010年12月27日 星期一
12.30-12.31
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2010-02-08-creditcards08_CV_N.htm
Emily Maddox, 24, of Knoxville, Tenn., is the kind of customer credit card companies covet. She has a good job as an Internet marketing coordinator, and she lives within her means. But she's never had a credit card, and she has no plans to apply for one.
Credit cards, she says, "make me really nervous, and I've never felt comfortable having one."
In a country where the average consumer owns five credit cards, Maddox may seem somewhat quaint, like an Amish farmer who drives a horse-drawn buggy. But proponents of a no-credit-card lifestyle say there's nothing old-fashioned about their choices. And they're convinced that their numbers will grow as consumers become increasingly disenchanted with credit card industry practices.
Louis Rosas-Guyon, 37, a business technology consultant in Miami, says his life has become less stressful since he stopped using credit cards 10 years ago. "My life has gotten substantially easier because I've offloaded 10 to 12 different credit cards that I no longer have to make a payment on."
A decade ago, consumers who didn't want to use credit cards had two choices: carry a lot of cash or write checks and hold up the supermarket line. Today, debit cards blend the discipline of cash with the convenience of plastic and are accepted by most merchants that accept credit cards. In recent years, their popularity has soared.
"There's quietly been a debit card revolution," says best-selling personal finance author Dave Ramsey, who urges fans of his radio and Fox Business TV show to cut up their credit cards. Now that debit cards are broadly accepted, he says, using a credit card "with all its fees and interest rates and traps with customer service is really stupid."
12.31
Tim McFarlin, a consumer bankruptcy attorney in Irvine, Calif., 34, stopped using credit cards eight years ago because he thought the industry's business practices were unfair to consumers. "Any time there's even a hint of a financial issue in the consumer's life, the credit card company will raise the interest rate to the high 20s, or 30%," he says. "They'll do anything they can to make life as difficult as possible."
Some consumer experts say consumers who have sworn off credit cards are misguided. Among the reasons:
If fraudulent charges show up on a credit card bill, the card holder can simply refuse to pay them. Federal law limits credit card holders' liability to $50 of fraudulent charges, and most card issuers have zero-liability policies for victims of identity theft.
Federal laws also limit liability for debit card theft, but resolving the problem is more complicated. Money used with a stolen debit card is immediately drawn from the holder's account, which means the consumer must fight to get the funds reimbursed. In the meantime, outstanding checks could bounce.
It's also more difficult to dispute a defective purchase that has been paid with a debit card. Credit card holders can refuse to pay for the item; debit card holders have to battle for a refund.
"We still live in a credit-dominated society, and even if a person chooses to live on a cash basis, most of us are going to need credit when it comes time to buy a house or a car," says Gail Cunningham, spokeswoman for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. "This means having a thick credit file and a high credit score, which can only be accomplished by having some degree of credit and treating it responsibly."
Emily Maddox, 24, of Knoxville, Tenn., is the kind of customer credit card companies covet. She has a good job as an Internet marketing coordinator, and she lives within her means. But she's never had a credit card, and she has no plans to apply for one.
Credit cards, she says, "make me really nervous, and I've never felt comfortable having one."
In a country where the average consumer owns five credit cards, Maddox may seem somewhat quaint, like an Amish farmer who drives a horse-drawn buggy. But proponents of a no-credit-card lifestyle say there's nothing old-fashioned about their choices. And they're convinced that their numbers will grow as consumers become increasingly disenchanted with credit card industry practices.
Louis Rosas-Guyon, 37, a business technology consultant in Miami, says his life has become less stressful since he stopped using credit cards 10 years ago. "My life has gotten substantially easier because I've offloaded 10 to 12 different credit cards that I no longer have to make a payment on."
A decade ago, consumers who didn't want to use credit cards had two choices: carry a lot of cash or write checks and hold up the supermarket line. Today, debit cards blend the discipline of cash with the convenience of plastic and are accepted by most merchants that accept credit cards. In recent years, their popularity has soared.
"There's quietly been a debit card revolution," says best-selling personal finance author Dave Ramsey, who urges fans of his radio and Fox Business TV show to cut up their credit cards. Now that debit cards are broadly accepted, he says, using a credit card "with all its fees and interest rates and traps with customer service is really stupid."
12.31
Tim McFarlin, a consumer bankruptcy attorney in Irvine, Calif., 34, stopped using credit cards eight years ago because he thought the industry's business practices were unfair to consumers. "Any time there's even a hint of a financial issue in the consumer's life, the credit card company will raise the interest rate to the high 20s, or 30%," he says. "They'll do anything they can to make life as difficult as possible."
Some consumer experts say consumers who have sworn off credit cards are misguided. Among the reasons:
If fraudulent charges show up on a credit card bill, the card holder can simply refuse to pay them. Federal law limits credit card holders' liability to $50 of fraudulent charges, and most card issuers have zero-liability policies for victims of identity theft.
Federal laws also limit liability for debit card theft, but resolving the problem is more complicated. Money used with a stolen debit card is immediately drawn from the holder's account, which means the consumer must fight to get the funds reimbursed. In the meantime, outstanding checks could bounce.
It's also more difficult to dispute a defective purchase that has been paid with a debit card. Credit card holders can refuse to pay for the item; debit card holders have to battle for a refund.
"We still live in a credit-dominated society, and even if a person chooses to live on a cash basis, most of us are going to need credit when it comes time to buy a house or a car," says Gail Cunningham, spokeswoman for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. "This means having a thick credit file and a high credit score, which can only be accomplished by having some degree of credit and treating it responsibly."
12.27 -12.29
http://www.africaresource.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=506:tracing-human-diversity-through-the-ages&catid=117:science&Itemid=361
12.27
A coalition of Stanford scientists has released the most detailed road map yet of human diversity, offering insight into the emergence and restless migration of the world's populations...
A group of Russian people called the Yakuts, native to the cold, dry tundra of Siberia, share genetic similarities with people indigenous to South and Central America - such as the Mayans, the Pima and even the Surui of the Brazilian jungles. This supports theories about human migration from Siberia across the Bering Strait to the Americas
12.28
Chinese fall into northern and southern groups. People who live along the northern border near Mongolia are genetically distinct from the Han Chinese of the southern part of the nation
...
In the future, they hope to have access to samples from even more populations, adding to the map.
12.29 (Silk Road mummies provide clues to history)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2010-03-18-silkroadmummies18_ST_N.htm
The mummies from western China's arid Tarim Basin are so well-preserved that the viewer can see their intricate clothing and eyelashes, and also that they are distinctly non-Asian in appearance.
One mummy, affectionately dubbed the "Beauty of Xiaohe" by archaeologists, is so lifelike that she looks as if she's taking a nap. She has fair skin, round eyes, and a felt hat resembling an alpine head covering with a long feather stuck in the top
The mummies' Caucasian appearance suggests that Bronze Age nomads speaking Indo-European languages from perhaps Russia and Ukraine brought culture, physical features and genes to parts of western China and may have also been the first to domesticate the horse, says Spencer Wells, who has studied the Tarim mummies and is director of the National Geographic Society's The Genographic Project.
"I was shocked when I saw them. I thought, 'My goodness, they look like Europeans,' " says Victor Mair, a Chinese language and literature professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has studied the mummies since 1993 and is a co-author of The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples From the West.
Some artifacts found with the mummies, including bronze and sheep bones, hint that Europeans brought technologies such as metallurgy and some domesticated animals to China, which may explain the European appearance of the mummies and suggest that trade between Europe and Asia existed nearly 4,000 years ago, Mair says.
Although the artifacts imply that trade between Europe and Asia existed during the Bronze Age, the Silk Road, a trade route between different parts of Asia, Europe and Africa, did not formally develop until about 138 B.C., during the Han Dynasty.
Western archaeologists have only discovered these mummies relatively recently. It's a very exciting thing."
12.27
A coalition of Stanford scientists has released the most detailed road map yet of human diversity, offering insight into the emergence and restless migration of the world's populations...
A group of Russian people called the Yakuts, native to the cold, dry tundra of Siberia, share genetic similarities with people indigenous to South and Central America - such as the Mayans, the Pima and even the Surui of the Brazilian jungles. This supports theories about human migration from Siberia across the Bering Strait to the Americas
12.28
Chinese fall into northern and southern groups. People who live along the northern border near Mongolia are genetically distinct from the Han Chinese of the southern part of the nation
...
In the future, they hope to have access to samples from even more populations, adding to the map.
12.29 (Silk Road mummies provide clues to history)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2010-03-18-silkroadmummies18_ST_N.htm
The mummies from western China's arid Tarim Basin are so well-preserved that the viewer can see their intricate clothing and eyelashes, and also that they are distinctly non-Asian in appearance.
One mummy, affectionately dubbed the "Beauty of Xiaohe" by archaeologists, is so lifelike that she looks as if she's taking a nap. She has fair skin, round eyes, and a felt hat resembling an alpine head covering with a long feather stuck in the top
The mummies' Caucasian appearance suggests that Bronze Age nomads speaking Indo-European languages from perhaps Russia and Ukraine brought culture, physical features and genes to parts of western China and may have also been the first to domesticate the horse, says Spencer Wells, who has studied the Tarim mummies and is director of the National Geographic Society's The Genographic Project.
"I was shocked when I saw them. I thought, 'My goodness, they look like Europeans,' " says Victor Mair, a Chinese language and literature professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has studied the mummies since 1993 and is a co-author of The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples From the West.
Some artifacts found with the mummies, including bronze and sheep bones, hint that Europeans brought technologies such as metallurgy and some domesticated animals to China, which may explain the European appearance of the mummies and suggest that trade between Europe and Asia existed nearly 4,000 years ago, Mair says.
Although the artifacts imply that trade between Europe and Asia existed during the Bronze Age, the Silk Road, a trade route between different parts of Asia, Europe and Africa, did not formally develop until about 138 B.C., during the Han Dynasty.
Western archaeologists have only discovered these mummies relatively recently. It's a very exciting thing."
12.23-12.25 Christmas
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20081224/1agoodholiday24_cv.art.htm
In his classic short story, The Gift of the Magi, O. Henry tells of an impoverished young husband and wife who each sacrifice something precious to buy the other the perfect Christmas gift.
...
(X)
Only one in five say they expect it to be less happy. "We're a glass-half-full people," says Kathy Moakler of the National Military Family Association, which helps servicemembers and their relatives.
That optimism begets generosity. "We spend what we can spend, and it hasn't been a hardship in our house," says Suzanne Lemmons, a secretary at M&S Turquoise in St. George, Utah, who donated gifts for children of low-income families at the Paiute tribe's Christmas party.
"As long as we're helping others, we haven't wanted for anything."
Who are the magi?
They're the ones who've tried to make this blue Christmas bright, not in hopes of receiving, but through plans to give ?sometimes to their closest loved ones, sometimes to strangers, sometimes anonymously.
12.24
The magi are the ones who, foten because of their own trials, approach Christmas most thankfully and throughtfullly
Some magi give sacrificially.
Ray and Aileen Copeland, a recently retired couple from Naperville, Ill., say they donated the money for each others' gifts to a food pantry.
"It's nothing extraordinary," he insists. "We're fortunate we could spare it."
Some give empathetically.
Edwin Messikomer of Chadds Ford, Pa., a retired naval officer, says a Christmas memory led him to volunteer to stuff shoe boxes with goodies for international merchant seafarers at the Seamen's Center at the Port of Wilmington, Del.
"I spent one Christmas at sea," Messikomer says. "I know little things mean a lot."
Some give on orders.
Tom Bosch, a hotel manager in Sioux Falls, S.D., says an idea came to him in a dream: Open the place to homeless families on Christmas Eve. So this year the Holiday Inn City Centre will give 200 rooms and a free breakfast to the needy.
Bosch says his Christian faith compels such generosity: "If we can make their Christmas brighter and more cheery, well, that's what it's all about."
In December 1941, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt went to the South Lawn of the White House to light the national Christmas tree. He brought a special guest: Winston Churchill.
"Here, amidst all the tumult, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home, and in each generous heart," the British prime minister told the crowd. What we have, he said, is "happiness in a world of storm."
12.25
But those who study the history of the holiday are struck by its durability.
Through war and peace, feast and famine, "people have kept doing what they were doing at Christmas," says Karal Ann Marling, a University of Minnesota art historian who wrote Merry Christmas! Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday.
"In hard times, people try harder," she says. "Nothing has really put a dent in Christmas."
Not the Great Depression nor World War II, when some Americans gave necessities ?razor blades, tires, cigarettes ?as gifts.
Not the Civil War, during which Christmas traditions ?the tree, the stockings, the visit from Santa ?spread nationally. "The idea was to keep the home fires burning," Marling says.
"Christmas has survived all sorts of things," says University of Massachusetts historian Stephen Nissenbaum, author of The Battle for Christmas. "People reinvent it all the time."
In The Gift of the Magi, Della secretly sells her long, beautiful brown hair to buy a platinum chain for Jim's prized gold watch. He, meanwhile, has secretly sold the watch to buy combs ?"tortoise shell, with jeweled rims" ?for Della's hair.
When they discover their folly, they see in their mutual sacrifice a love that both epitomizes and transcends Christmas.
This season finds many couples in the same spot as the pair created by O. Henry (William Sydney Porter, 1862-1910). They include Brandon and Morgan Faulkner of Indianapolis; Tony Glasier and Kathryn Logan Glasier of Visalia, Calif.; and Kate and Tim Frye of Chandler, Ariz.
The couples have suffered economic setbacks. They have agreed to spend little or nothing on each other for Christmas. And they have schemed, individually and secretly, to break that vow.
The fruits of such plotting cannot be revealed until Dec. 25. But the impulse to give a little more ?maybe too much ?is more traditional than mistletoe.
As Della tells Jim in Magi, "I couldn't have lived through Christmas without getting you a present."
Sometimes, keeping Christmas in hard times means having the wisdom to change it.
In his classic short story, The Gift of the Magi, O. Henry tells of an impoverished young husband and wife who each sacrifice something precious to buy the other the perfect Christmas gift.
...
(X)
Only one in five say they expect it to be less happy. "We're a glass-half-full people," says Kathy Moakler of the National Military Family Association, which helps servicemembers and their relatives.
That optimism begets generosity. "We spend what we can spend, and it hasn't been a hardship in our house," says Suzanne Lemmons, a secretary at M&S Turquoise in St. George, Utah, who donated gifts for children of low-income families at the Paiute tribe's Christmas party.
"As long as we're helping others, we haven't wanted for anything."
Who are the magi?
They're the ones who've tried to make this blue Christmas bright, not in hopes of receiving, but through plans to give ?sometimes to their closest loved ones, sometimes to strangers, sometimes anonymously.
12.24
The magi are the ones who, foten because of their own trials, approach Christmas most thankfully and throughtfullly
Some magi give sacrificially.
Ray and Aileen Copeland, a recently retired couple from Naperville, Ill., say they donated the money for each others' gifts to a food pantry.
"It's nothing extraordinary," he insists. "We're fortunate we could spare it."
Some give empathetically.
Edwin Messikomer of Chadds Ford, Pa., a retired naval officer, says a Christmas memory led him to volunteer to stuff shoe boxes with goodies for international merchant seafarers at the Seamen's Center at the Port of Wilmington, Del.
"I spent one Christmas at sea," Messikomer says. "I know little things mean a lot."
Some give on orders.
Tom Bosch, a hotel manager in Sioux Falls, S.D., says an idea came to him in a dream: Open the place to homeless families on Christmas Eve. So this year the Holiday Inn City Centre will give 200 rooms and a free breakfast to the needy.
Bosch says his Christian faith compels such generosity: "If we can make their Christmas brighter and more cheery, well, that's what it's all about."
In December 1941, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt went to the South Lawn of the White House to light the national Christmas tree. He brought a special guest: Winston Churchill.
"Here, amidst all the tumult, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home, and in each generous heart," the British prime minister told the crowd. What we have, he said, is "happiness in a world of storm."
12.25
But those who study the history of the holiday are struck by its durability.
Through war and peace, feast and famine, "people have kept doing what they were doing at Christmas," says Karal Ann Marling, a University of Minnesota art historian who wrote Merry Christmas! Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday.
"In hard times, people try harder," she says. "Nothing has really put a dent in Christmas."
Not the Great Depression nor World War II, when some Americans gave necessities ?razor blades, tires, cigarettes ?as gifts.
Not the Civil War, during which Christmas traditions ?the tree, the stockings, the visit from Santa ?spread nationally. "The idea was to keep the home fires burning," Marling says.
"Christmas has survived all sorts of things," says University of Massachusetts historian Stephen Nissenbaum, author of The Battle for Christmas. "People reinvent it all the time."
In The Gift of the Magi, Della secretly sells her long, beautiful brown hair to buy a platinum chain for Jim's prized gold watch. He, meanwhile, has secretly sold the watch to buy combs ?"tortoise shell, with jeweled rims" ?for Della's hair.
When they discover their folly, they see in their mutual sacrifice a love that both epitomizes and transcends Christmas.
This season finds many couples in the same spot as the pair created by O. Henry (William Sydney Porter, 1862-1910). They include Brandon and Morgan Faulkner of Indianapolis; Tony Glasier and Kathryn Logan Glasier of Visalia, Calif.; and Kate and Tim Frye of Chandler, Ariz.
The couples have suffered economic setbacks. They have agreed to spend little or nothing on each other for Christmas. And they have schemed, individually and secretly, to break that vow.
The fruits of such plotting cannot be revealed until Dec. 25. But the impulse to give a little more ?maybe too much ?is more traditional than mistletoe.
As Della tells Jim in Magi, "I couldn't have lived through Christmas without getting you a present."
Sometimes, keeping Christmas in hard times means having the wisdom to change it.
12.20-12.22
12.20
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/22/business/la-fi-facebook-20100722
Facebook Inc. on Wednesday issued its own eye-popping status update: The world's most popular social networking site had surpassed 500 million users.
And now, the Internet phenomenon that has transformed how the world communicates is eyeing another distinction — connecting one out of every seven human beings on the planet.
Six years after getting its start in a Harvard dorm room, Facebook said it was aiming to have 1 billion members, matching the reach of Internet search giant Google Inc.
If it can keep up its current breakneck pace, a feat that would defy predictions from analysts, Facebook could reach that goal by next year.
"We all love to dream big around here," said Randi Zuckerberg, the sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg who handles marketing. "We are going to take a day or so to celebrate 500 million users before we start thinking about going beyond that."
The site's runaway growth is nearly without precedent. Last summer, Facebook had 250 million users. It has amassed 100 million new members since February alone. Now if Facebook were a country, it would be the world's third largest.
All of which has lent credibility to Mark Zuckerberg's confident assertion that his company could almost "guarantee" growing to 1 billion active users despite a recent spate of privacy concerns and increasing competition from Google and others. Facebook defines active users as people who have logged onto the site within the last 30 days.
Two years ago, Facebook was available only in English, making overseas expansion more of a challenge except in English-speaking countries such as Britain and Australia.
Under Javier Olivan, who joined Facebook as head of international growth three years ago when the site had 30 million users, Facebook has encouraged its users to translate the site into more than 70 languages. Now Facebook is pulling even or overtaking social networking services in country after country, gaining traction in Europe, Latin America and beyond. Some 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States.
12.21
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-09-23/news/0909230201_1_social-networking-motoblur-home-computer
The outlook for the wireless industry is getting cloudier.
...
"When you have a laptop or a netbook, those are true computers and have great processing power and data storage," said Mark Beccue, a senior analyst at ABI Research. "But anything from a smart phone down does not. Mobile cloud computing says: 'What if you can enable these devices to access applications and data in the cloud?'
最後接
Analysts say faster networks will dovetail with proliferation of smarter devices. "This is going to be much more accesuble to a lot of us on affordable phones,; Beccue said.
12.22
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/23/business/la-fi-ct-digital-comics-20100723
Technology, which has already upended the music, television and movie businesses, is now gripping the comic book world. ...
Enthusiasts dismiss such fears as nonsense. Digital distribution is not only bringing a desperately needed infusion of young comic readers but also giving birth to a renaissance of innovation in a medium that some say badly needs updating
Motion comics account for only a fraction of the digital comic market and are expensive to produce. Though early versions have been given a thumbs-down by many critics, growth of the motion comics sector is continuing to grow.
Jim Lee, co-publisher of DC Comics and a well-regarded artist and writer, says the move to digital is altering the creative process.
As readers become more familiar with reading digital comics, it will affect the way we think about producing the comics," Lee said. "We start to think about constructing our pages differently. Some publishers have asked artists to create layouts specifically for the iPad, for instance. We also think about the length of our stories because people with smart phones have shorter bits of time to consume media.... I see a lot of experimentation with the art form."
"Every time we undergo a change in technology, people say we're losing something," said Joe Quesada, Marvel's editor in chief. "I see it as gaining something.... Comic creators will learn how to tell their stories in new ways."
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/22/business/la-fi-facebook-20100722
Facebook Inc. on Wednesday issued its own eye-popping status update: The world's most popular social networking site had surpassed 500 million users.
And now, the Internet phenomenon that has transformed how the world communicates is eyeing another distinction — connecting one out of every seven human beings on the planet.
Six years after getting its start in a Harvard dorm room, Facebook said it was aiming to have 1 billion members, matching the reach of Internet search giant Google Inc.
If it can keep up its current breakneck pace, a feat that would defy predictions from analysts, Facebook could reach that goal by next year.
"We all love to dream big around here," said Randi Zuckerberg, the sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg who handles marketing. "We are going to take a day or so to celebrate 500 million users before we start thinking about going beyond that."
The site's runaway growth is nearly without precedent. Last summer, Facebook had 250 million users. It has amassed 100 million new members since February alone. Now if Facebook were a country, it would be the world's third largest.
All of which has lent credibility to Mark Zuckerberg's confident assertion that his company could almost "guarantee" growing to 1 billion active users despite a recent spate of privacy concerns and increasing competition from Google and others. Facebook defines active users as people who have logged onto the site within the last 30 days.
Two years ago, Facebook was available only in English, making overseas expansion more of a challenge except in English-speaking countries such as Britain and Australia.
Under Javier Olivan, who joined Facebook as head of international growth three years ago when the site had 30 million users, Facebook has encouraged its users to translate the site into more than 70 languages. Now Facebook is pulling even or overtaking social networking services in country after country, gaining traction in Europe, Latin America and beyond. Some 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States.
12.21
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-09-23/news/0909230201_1_social-networking-motoblur-home-computer
The outlook for the wireless industry is getting cloudier.
...
"When you have a laptop or a netbook, those are true computers and have great processing power and data storage," said Mark Beccue, a senior analyst at ABI Research. "But anything from a smart phone down does not. Mobile cloud computing says: 'What if you can enable these devices to access applications and data in the cloud?'
最後接
Analysts say faster networks will dovetail with proliferation of smarter devices. "This is going to be much more accesuble to a lot of us on affordable phones,; Beccue said.
12.22
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/23/business/la-fi-ct-digital-comics-20100723
Technology, which has already upended the music, television and movie businesses, is now gripping the comic book world. ...
Enthusiasts dismiss such fears as nonsense. Digital distribution is not only bringing a desperately needed infusion of young comic readers but also giving birth to a renaissance of innovation in a medium that some say badly needs updating
Motion comics account for only a fraction of the digital comic market and are expensive to produce. Though early versions have been given a thumbs-down by many critics, growth of the motion comics sector is continuing to grow.
Jim Lee, co-publisher of DC Comics and a well-regarded artist and writer, says the move to digital is altering the creative process.
As readers become more familiar with reading digital comics, it will affect the way we think about producing the comics," Lee said. "We start to think about constructing our pages differently. Some publishers have asked artists to create layouts specifically for the iPad, for instance. We also think about the length of our stories because people with smart phones have shorter bits of time to consume media.... I see a lot of experimentation with the art form."
"Every time we undergo a change in technology, people say we're losing something," said Joe Quesada, Marvel's editor in chief. "I see it as gaining something.... Comic creators will learn how to tell their stories in new ways."
12.17-12.18
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/07/25/1581501/mystery-of-familys-art-unraveled.html
A cache of art stolen at the end of World War II is finally back ...
(X)
"It was kind of a family secret," says McFadden, 45, a legal assistant. "We weren't supposed to talk about it."
...
(X)
And after they died, the artwork went to McFadden's sister in West Windsor, N.J., who kept them in her basement. In November, when the sister was moving, the paintings came to McFadden.
(X)
She didn't know whether they were important. A family friend, Barry Pedersen, and his partner in their Mooresville architectural millwork company, Gary Dunne, both of Davidson, offered to help find out.
....
On March 22, 1945, U.S. troops occupied Pirmasens and on Sept. 19 the museum announced that "about 50 paintings which had been stored in the air-raid shelter at Husterhoh School during the war have been lost during the arrival of the American troops."
12.18
For 60 years, the paintings were missing. Then on Oct. 25, 2005, an auction company in Pennsylvania advertised three of them.
...
They were told by the woman who was trying to sell them that they were given to her by Gursky's wife, Florence, years ago. That case is still under investigation, the U.S. Attorney's office says.
On McFadden's behalf, Dunne sent an e-mail to Pirmasens' mayor, Bernard Matheis, a few days before Christmas asking whether the city would like the paintings back. At a ceremony at the Goethe-Institut in Manhattan with federal authorities and German Consul General Horst Freitag, the paintings were formally returned.
"It is thanks to your integrity, foresight, your firm belief in justice and your joint effort with ICE that these paintings could be traced and now returned," Freitag told McFadden.
As the Nazis moved across Europe in World War II, they systematically looted an estimated 20 percent of the continent's artwork. German dictator Adolf Hitler chose the best for himself and other high-ranking officials amassed collections as well - Hermann Göring took 594 pieces for himself in Paris alone.
But art thefts by U.S. servicemen were all but unknown. Charles Mo, director of fine arts for the Mint Museum, says he's never heard of a single case, while the plunder of the Nazis was well documented.
Experts estimate the recovered Buerkel paintings are worth $50,000 each. Others in the cache are valued at $4,000 to $10,000.
McFadden says she never had any interest in making money off the works.
"They didn't belong to me and were of sentimental value to someone else. I wouldn't want anyone else to take my stuff."
A cache of art stolen at the end of World War II is finally back ...
(X)
"It was kind of a family secret," says McFadden, 45, a legal assistant. "We weren't supposed to talk about it."
...
(X)
And after they died, the artwork went to McFadden's sister in West Windsor, N.J., who kept them in her basement. In November, when the sister was moving, the paintings came to McFadden.
(X)
She didn't know whether they were important. A family friend, Barry Pedersen, and his partner in their Mooresville architectural millwork company, Gary Dunne, both of Davidson, offered to help find out.
....
On March 22, 1945, U.S. troops occupied Pirmasens and on Sept. 19 the museum announced that "about 50 paintings which had been stored in the air-raid shelter at Husterhoh School during the war have been lost during the arrival of the American troops."
12.18
For 60 years, the paintings were missing. Then on Oct. 25, 2005, an auction company in Pennsylvania advertised three of them.
...
They were told by the woman who was trying to sell them that they were given to her by Gursky's wife, Florence, years ago. That case is still under investigation, the U.S. Attorney's office says.
On McFadden's behalf, Dunne sent an e-mail to Pirmasens' mayor, Bernard Matheis, a few days before Christmas asking whether the city would like the paintings back. At a ceremony at the Goethe-Institut in Manhattan with federal authorities and German Consul General Horst Freitag, the paintings were formally returned.
"It is thanks to your integrity, foresight, your firm belief in justice and your joint effort with ICE that these paintings could be traced and now returned," Freitag told McFadden.
As the Nazis moved across Europe in World War II, they systematically looted an estimated 20 percent of the continent's artwork. German dictator Adolf Hitler chose the best for himself and other high-ranking officials amassed collections as well - Hermann Göring took 594 pieces for himself in Paris alone.
But art thefts by U.S. servicemen were all but unknown. Charles Mo, director of fine arts for the Mint Museum, says he's never heard of a single case, while the plunder of the Nazis was well documented.
Experts estimate the recovered Buerkel paintings are worth $50,000 each. Others in the cache are valued at $4,000 to $10,000.
McFadden says she never had any interest in making money off the works.
"They didn't belong to me and were of sentimental value to someone else. I wouldn't want anyone else to take my stuff."
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