Job fields are growing up for class of 2012

Now Job fields are growing up.
Jobs are looking up for the class of 2012!!

Employers surveyed by the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE) say they plan to hire 9.5 percent more graduates from the class of 2012 than they did from the class of 2011.

Salary offers for recent college grads also continue to inch higher. Students landing jobs from this year's class will be paid more, on average, than the class of 2010. The NACE Fall 2011 Salary Survey shows that this year's class of graduates will make, on average, about 6 percent more than last year's graduates, from just over $48,000 to just over $51,000.

Students earning engineering degrees have seen some of the highest salary offers. As a group, the average salary offered to engineering majors rose 2.8 percent from last year's average, to $60,291. The average salary offered to petroleum engineering graduates grew 7.1 percent to $82,740, making it the highest-paid major, according to the report.

If you're still in college & looking to get a leg up on the competition, another NACE survey reveals that paid interns had the most success attracting job offers in 2011. "Class of 2011 graduates who took part in a paid internship were more likely to get a job offer, have a job in hand by the time they graduated, & receive a higher starting salary offer than their peers who undertook an unpaid internship or no internship at all," according to a NACE press release. More than 61 percent of students who took part in paid internships in the for-profit sector received a job offer.

Many of the openings for the class of 2012 are for "replacement hires," new employees brought in to fill the roles of existing employees who are leaving. In the report, employers expressed the greatest interest in graduates who majored in business, engineering, & tech-related subjects.

Two companies with extensive hiring plans, mostly based on new hires & not on attrition, are accounting firm Ernst & Young & Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Ernst & Young began a hiring campaign in July, in which it plans to hire 9,000 students from throughout the Americas. Some 5,200 of those hires will come from U.S. campuses. The company plans to hire for a mix of full-time positions (3,000 graduates) & interns (2,200) in the United States alone. This year marks a the first that Ernst & Young's campus hiring level has reached its per-recession highs. "There are a wide range of opportunities that are available," says Dan Black, director of campus recruiting for the Americas at Ernst & Young. He says the company is actively recruiting at about 200 college campuses throughout the Americas.

Car rental company Enterprise is also back to hiring levels in line with it is per-recession efforts. Marie Artim, Enterprise's senior vice president of talent acquisition, says the company plans to hire about 8,500 college graduates for its management training program for the fiscal year starting in August 2011. Artim says Enterprise generally promotes from within the company, & that many company executives, including herself, started in the management training program. [That is really the one way into the company is through our management training program,] Artim says. From there, it is our pipeline to our management path & our future leadership.

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Posted in: Business,Hottest,Internet,Job,Online Job,Web

How to buy a car online [ The Money-saving ways to buy a car online ]

Working with an auto dealer's Internet department could shave $1,000 off your purchase price.

Despite all the benefits of online dating services, couples meet in person before heading down the aisle. But surveys show that growing numbers of car buyers are taking the online-only approach, avoiding the hard sell in the showroom & even skipping the test drive altogether.

There’s no question an Internet search allows the car shopper to cast a bigger net, improving the odds of landing a great deal they might not get if they’re limited to what’s at the dealership. & if you save hundreds of dollars or more, it may be worth going 100 miles to pick up your new baby.

But most buyers will be wise to take a hybrid approach, visiting a dealership or two in addition to scouring the Web. If you haven’t shopped for a car in a few years, it may be news to you that some dealerships now have an “Internet department” to help buyers find vehicles that aren’t on the lot, often at substantial savings.

An online search can certainly help you find a good used car as well as a new one, but there are just too many potential problems with older cars to risk buying sight unseen. In fact, unless there’s a terrific warranty, you should really have your own mechanic check the vehicle before signing any sales contracts. A new car is a safer bet for Internet shopping because today’s warranties cover so much & last so long.

Still, it can be pretty risky to buy a car without having driven the same year, make & model with similar options. Reviews are helpful, but it’s not likely the reviewer was exactly your height & weight, shared your concern over blind spots or the feel of the arm rest. You really have to get in the driver’s seat to know if a vehicle feels right, & it’s a good idea to have the family ride too.

The chief benefit of Internet shopping is price comparison. Start by checking your preferred model at sites such as Yahoo! Autos, & look for the typical price over dealer’s invoice. Then use their services, or the manufacturer’s own website to find vehicles within a specified distance of your home.

The test drive can obviously be done at the local dealership, but in fairness, the dealer who provides a test drive should be given a chance to match or beat any deal you find online. Going in with printouts of the cheapest deals will boost your negotiating clout & help you avoid the hard sell, though you may be pressed to accept a car on the lot that’s not exactly what you want. It will help if you’re not in a desperate hurry.

Also, as mentioned above, ask a person at the dealership for its Internet department, typically one or more sales people assigned to get a hold of vehicles that aren’t already on the lot. A dealer’s Internet department could provide an identical vehicle for $1,000 less than the same dealer’s traditional sales people.

Experts say sticking with the same Internet salesperson for the test drive & all paperwork can streamline the process & eliminate additional pressure for financing & unwanted options.

Before signing a contract, though, ask about all fees on top of the sales price, registration & tax. Don’t get stung by an unexpected “documentation fee,” for example. Some dealers charge hundreds of dollars just for filling out paperwork.

If you haven’t seen the car you are agreeing to buy, be sure to find out how many miles are on it, as some “new” cars have hundreds of miles that should reduce the price paid.

Also, be sure to ask if you will be charged for any aftermarket add-ons such as mud flaps, tinted windows or a paint-protection package. Sometimes, dealers neglect to mention these until the last minute.

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Posted in: Business,Car,Entertainment,Free Download,Internet Business

George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Judy Garland, & Babe Ruth bunked in these homes now for sale

President Teddy Roosevelt




Location: [The Primrose] 9 Westmoreland Dr., Shelter Island, N.Y.
Price: $3,500,000

Vice President Roosevelt & President McKinley were guests in 1898.
Shelter Island is located on the east end of Long Island & is only accessible by ferry. As one of three original homes on Westmoreland Farm, the Primrose recalls the days when Vice President Roosevelt & President McKinley were guests in 1898. The pair had been visiting American troops stationed at Montauk, L.I., during the Spanish-American War when they stopped at Shelter Island & Westmoreland Farm. However, while rumors that the Primrose was built for McKinley have been debunked, he did stay at another house on Westmoreland Farm before his assassination.

Judy Garland



Location: 222 W. Main St., Georgetown, MA
Price: $515,000

Judy Garland slept here, & received private medical care.

Judy Garland’s road to stardom was sadly marked with a stay at this Georgetown home, which was formerly owned by a doctor from nearby Baldpate hospital. He was one of many doctors who treated the tragic star, who battled depression & addiction. The 1900s, 2,287-square-foot home has original hardwood floors & custom built-ins & features 5 bedrooms & 1.5 baths.

Al Capone


Location: 9065 Van Emmon Rd., Yorkville, IL
Price: $239,900

Was this Chicago mobster Al Capone's gin mill?

Located about an hour west of Chicago, on the Fox River in Yorkville, IL, this cabin was reportedly one of the mobster’s gin mills during the Prohibition. Or, so the listing says.

The first floor is built log cabin style & the second story was added later. The home looks like a perfect place to kayak, canoe, fish, set up an easel & imagine Capone’s meanderings about the property.

Babe Ruth


Location: 24 Ocean St., Marshfield, MA
Price: $859,000

The Babe rented a room at this beachside home.

The Great Bambino is another historic figure whose far-flung sleeping quarters make a splash — especially since Babe Ruth liked his seaside getaways. This premier Brant Rock waterfront home in Marshfield with stunning views of the Atlantic has a rich history. “Edgecliff’ was built for the president of Dole Pineapple Co, & in later years, Babe Ruth vacationed here, said listing agent Alice Bowker of Coldwell Banker.

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Posted in: Actors,Babe Ruth bunked,BizNews,Business,Entertainment,George Washington,Judy Garland,Sale

Get your own free virtual mobile phone number to receive & send sms.

Do you want a free virtual phone number from where you can send free sms & even receive sms? Mostly this feature is needed for business purpose but we might also need virtual phone number to receive & send sms in some personal matter also. Below is given how you can get free virtual mobile number from where you can send sms & even can receive sms.

There is a company named “LLEIDANETWORKS SERVEIS TELEMATICS” from Spain, From this website you can get a free virtual phone number of Spain in the format +3497******* from which you can send free sms & can even receive sms on-line. Even if we need credit (Account balance) to send sms & we need to buy credit they give 3 credits for free to new users & sending each sms takes an average of 0.30 credits from your account (but may vary according to the country you send sms to) so each account you sign up with will give you about 10 free sms to send. & you can receive unlimited sms for free. You can also forward the sms you receive in your virtual phone number to your actual number but for doing so you will be charged a credit equal to the credit charged to send sms to your real number. Also they provide you a free online phone book in your account for storing your contacts safely & send sms to those numbers faster.

So to get this service you need to click on “Free Account” At the side bar. You then will see a form, just fill out this form with correct details & click send. After you click send within 2-5 minutes you will receive an email on the email address you provided to them.
Within the email will be your username & password to access your account & a virtual phone number for you where your friends can sms to you & you can check those sms from your account.

After you receive your username, password & virtual phone number you can login to your account by two ways one by websms by going to another by downloading a software to your computer & logging in from there VirtualHandset.exe

Your account will be active for 6 months even if you don’t use your account to buy credits & just use it to receive & send sms. & if you want to buy credits to send more sms from your virtual number you can just login to websms link given above & click on “Recharge”, you will be able to buy credits using your credit cards which will cost you from 0.09 to 0.1202 euro dollars which depends on the volume of credits you buy.

Or if you don’t want to invest money then you can just sign up again with another email address & receive 3 free credits & a new virtual mobile number.


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Posted in: Business,Entertainment,Free Download,Latest Technolgoy,Web

AtomicRarPasswordRecovery_120

AtomicRarPasswordRecovery_120

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Posted in: Business,Computer,Download,Software,Web

To add phishing safety net, Facebook works with Websense

Users will see this notice if they are about to visit a potentially harmful website, giving them the option to go back to the previous page.

Facebook have stepped up their battle against phishing & malware scammers by partnering with security firm Websense.

As of next week, users will be warned if they are about to be taken to a malicious website.

The social network has suffered to date as many of its 700 million users unwittingly click on dangerous links supposedly posted by their friends.

Such attacks usually trick users into sharing passwords or data.

Facebook already tells users if they are about to visit an external site, but the current set up makes no distinction between friendly & dangerous sites.

The new technology will present a warning screen whenever it suspects a page poses a threat to the users, giving details of the risk.

From here, users are encouraged to return to the previous page.

If they wish, users can continue to the intended page, albeit very much at their own risk.
'Profitable target'

Both Facebook & Websense will hope the extra measures will be enough to deter potential scammers from focusing their efforts on the network.

Scams regularly catch out hundreds of thousands of users at a time.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

As more of these 'friend in the middle' attacks happen, you start to trust your friends less.”

Spencer Parker Websense

"There's over 700 million users on Facebook," Websense's Spencer Parker told the BBC.


"As a piece of real estate, it's extremely profitable to be targeted by malware writers."


The protection will be powered by Websense's "Threatseeker Cloud", a system which stores a database of known malicious URLs.


The system can also detect unknown dangerous URLs by assessing threats in real-time.


This means harmful URLs can be blocked even before they are known to the company - cutting off a key tactic used by phishers in which constantly changing URLs fool database-driven protection.


In addition, the system will "follow" links made using popular URL shorteners - such as bit.ly & ow.ly - to verify their safety.

Due to the nature of how we interact with our friends, Mr Parker says phishing attacks on Facebook are much harder to prevent than other commonly used techniques.

"One of the things with Facebook, of course, is that you have that element of trust in a social network. If one of your friends posts something, you automatically trust it more than if it just received as a spam email.

"As more of these 'friend in the middle' attacks happen, you start to trust your friends less."

Read more »

Posted in: Business,Computer,Facebook,Google,Internet,Internet Business,Latest Technolgoy,Market,Microsoft,Online Job,Web,Windows 8

To add phishing safety net, Facebook works with Websense

Users will see this notice if they are about to visit a potentially harmful website, giving them the option to go back to the previous page.

Facebook have stepped up their battle against phishing & malware scammers by partnering with security firm Websense.

As of next week, users will be warned if they are about to be taken to a malicious website.

The social network has suffered to date as many of its 700 million users unwittingly click on dangerous links supposedly posted by their friends.

Such attacks usually trick users into sharing passwords or data.

Facebook already tells users if they are about to visit an external site, but the current set up makes no distinction between friendly & dangerous sites.

The new technology will present a warning screen whenever it suspects a page poses a threat to the users, giving details of the risk.

From here, users are encouraged to return to the previous page.

If they wish, users can continue to the intended page, albeit very much at their own risk.
'Profitable target'

Both Facebook & Websense will hope the extra measures will be enough to deter potential scammers from focusing their efforts on the network.

Scams regularly catch out hundreds of thousands of users at a time.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

As more of these 'friend in the middle' attacks happen, you start to trust your friends less.”

Spencer Parker Websense

"There's over 700 million users on Facebook," Websense's Spencer Parker told the BBC.


"As a piece of real estate, it's extremely profitable to be targeted by malware writers."


The protection will be powered by Websense's "Threatseeker Cloud", a system which stores a database of known malicious URLs.


The system can also detect unknown dangerous URLs by assessing threats in real-time.


This means harmful URLs can be blocked even before they are known to the company - cutting off a key tactic used by phishers in which constantly changing URLs fool database-driven protection.


In addition, the system will "follow" links made using popular URL shorteners - such as bit.ly & ow.ly - to verify their safety.

Due to the nature of how we interact with our friends, Mr Parker says phishing attacks on Facebook are much harder to prevent than other commonly used techniques.

"One of the things with Facebook, of course, is that you have that element of trust in a social network. If one of your friends posts something, you automatically trust it more than if it just received as a spam email.

"As more of these 'friend in the middle' attacks happen, you start to trust your friends less."

Read more »

Posted in: Business,Computer,Facebook,Google,Internet,Internet Business,Latest Technolgoy,Market,Microsoft,Online Job,Web,Windows 8

Swimming in Data

Dropped into an aquarium, this USB-powered sensor will detect temperature & pH & ammonia levels. It comes with PC software that can predict if the water quality is likely to become a problem & send alerts to a smart-phone app.
Product: Seneye

Cost: $96 to $162
Availability: Fall 2011
Source: www.seneye.com
Company: Seneye

Read more »

Posted in: Business,Computer,Entertainment,Hottest,Internet,Internet Business,Latest Technolgoy,Web,Windows 8

Swimming in Data

Dropped into an aquarium, this USB-powered sensor will detect temperature & pH & ammonia levels. It comes with PC software that can predict if the water quality is likely to become a problem & send alerts to a smart-phone app.
Product: Seneye

Cost: $96 to $162
Availability: Fall 2011
Source: www.seneye.com
Company: Seneye

Read more »

Posted in: Business,Computer,Entertainment,Hottest,Internet,Internet Business,Latest Technolgoy,Web,Windows 8

Camera Ready

This wearable camera can record events continuously for up to 10 hours. If something interesting happens, pressing a button sends the last 30 seconds of video to Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube via the user’s smart phone.

Read more »

Posted in: Business,Entertainment,Hottest,Internet,Internet Business,Latest Technolgoy,Web,Windows 8

Camera Ready

This wearable camera can record events continuously for up to 10 hours. If something interesting happens, pressing a button sends the last 30 seconds of video to Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube via the user’s smart phone.

Read more »

Posted in: Business,Entertainment,Hottest,Internet,Internet Business,Latest Technolgoy,Web,Windows 8

Google Invites Everyone to Be Friends on Its Social Network

Anyone can now sign up for Google Plus, which has new features including mobile video "hangouts."

After 12 weeks of socializing in select circles, Google has announced that anyone can sign up for its fledgling social network, Google Plus.

The wider adoption of the service now that it's widely available will be crucial to the success of Google Plus, & to Google's ability to compete with Facebook as a force in social networking & in selling more targeted ads. Google's social network was launched in June to positive reviews & considerable interest, but activity has slowed in recent weeks.

Unique features, especially the ability to target updates to different social "circles," were well received by the first rush of users. However, many of them appear to have stopped using the service, perhaps because so few of their friends also had access. Anyone can now sign up for a Google Plus account at this page.

Negative media coverage followed the recent drop in activity, but Bradley Horowitz, product manager for Google Plus, told Technology Review that the behavior was expected.

"There has been a class of user that has seen [that] the product is not ready for them, & we expected that," Horowitz says. "The idea of the field trial was to get a critical mass of usage so that we could measure & instrument the system to understand what worked & what was broken, & we got sufficient traffic to do that."

Horowitz says Google put little effort into driving interest during the field trial, doing little more than posting updates on the company blog. That policy doesn't appear to have changed yet, but in the future the company could use its search, e-mail, or other services to promote the adoption of Google Plus.

Several new features were added to Google Plus today. One expands the "hangouts" group-video feature to smart phones & also allows users to make their hangout chats public—something expected to be popular with celebrities or businesses using Google Plus.

Google has also added a version of its search engine to its social network. The classic search box now appears at the top of every Google Plus page, giving users a way to search through updates & links that users share within their own network, as well as everything shared publicly by all users.

For example, Horowitz, explains, "When you type 'kite surfing' into Google Plus, you will see a live stream of content not only from people you know & care about but also experts in the field."

Search—and the underlying technology that ranks information from friends & other sources—is a particularly significant new feature, according to Horowitz. "This moves the center of gravity of the project," he says. "Instead of relying on your social network to deliver you content, this allows an interest graph to emerge."

Google plans to release more enhancements & features to Google Plus in the weeks & months ahead. "There's a lot more to come," Horowitz says.

Read more »

Posted in: Business,Entertainment,Hot Hits,Hottest,Internet,Internet Business,Latest Technolgoy,Market,Web,Windows 8

Google Invites Everyone to Be Friends on Its Social Network

Anyone can now sign up for Google Plus, which has new features including mobile video "hangouts."

After 12 weeks of socializing in select circles, Google has announced that anyone can sign up for its fledgling social network, Google Plus.

The wider adoption of the service now that it's widely available will be crucial to the success of Google Plus, & to Google's ability to compete with Facebook as a force in social networking & in selling more targeted ads. Google's social network was launched in June to positive reviews & considerable interest, but activity has slowed in recent weeks.

Unique features, especially the ability to target updates to different social "circles," were well received by the first rush of users. However, many of them appear to have stopped using the service, perhaps because so few of their friends also had access. Anyone can now sign up for a Google Plus account at this page.

Negative media coverage followed the recent drop in activity, but Bradley Horowitz, product manager for Google Plus, told Technology Review that the behavior was expected.

"There has been a class of user that has seen [that] the product is not ready for them, & we expected that," Horowitz says. "The idea of the field trial was to get a critical mass of usage so that we could measure & instrument the system to understand what worked & what was broken, & we got sufficient traffic to do that."

Horowitz says Google put little effort into driving interest during the field trial, doing little more than posting updates on the company blog. That policy doesn't appear to have changed yet, but in the future the company could use its search, e-mail, or other services to promote the adoption of Google Plus.

Several new features were added to Google Plus today. One expands the "hangouts" group-video feature to smart phones & also allows users to make their hangout chats public—something expected to be popular with celebrities or businesses using Google Plus.

Google has also added a version of its search engine to its social network. The classic search box now appears at the top of every Google Plus page, giving users a way to search through updates & links that users share within their own network, as well as everything shared publicly by all users.

For example, Horowitz, explains, "When you type 'kite surfing' into Google Plus, you will see a live stream of content not only from people you know & care about but also experts in the field."

Search—and the underlying technology that ranks information from friends & other sources—is a particularly significant new feature, according to Horowitz. "This moves the center of gravity of the project," he says. "Instead of relying on your social network to deliver you content, this allows an interest graph to emerge."

Google plans to release more enhancements & features to Google Plus in the weeks & months ahead. "There's a lot more to come," Horowitz says.

Read more »

Posted in: Business,Entertainment,Hot Hits,Hottest,Internet,Internet Business,Latest Technolgoy,Market,Web,Windows 8

Netflix to Split DVD & Streaming Businesses

The company is betting heavily on the growth of online video delivery.
Netflix will spin off its foundational DVD-by-mail service, the company announced this morning, ceding its iconic red envelopes to a new site that will go by the name of Qwikster. Netflix says it intends to focus on the increasingly popular streaming-video model. Customers, already upset by an earlier decision to split DVD & streaming services & change the rates, are bemoaning this further split, which will increase costs & hassle for those who want the same service as before. All the same, the change could lead to some concrete technological improvements.

Netflix forever changed the movie rental market in 1999, when it began offering subscribers DVDs by mail for set rates. The company's wide selection & distribution technology laid waste to competitors that operated physical retail stores. In 2007, Netflix scored another coup with the launch of "Watch Instantly," a feature that allows customers to stream certain movies on demand over the Internet. In the years since, the service has grown in scope & popularity, owing in part to integration with televisions & game consoles.

But despite these successes, the company is still running scared. In an e-mail sent to customers early this morning, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wrote, "Most companies that are great at something—like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores—do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us)." So Netflix has decided to take drastic action in the name of technological progress, moving the foundation of its business to a different brand name.

"Over time, we realized DVD & streaming were becoming more & more different & that we could do a better job for both services if we separated them," Hastings said in a video about the split posted to YouTube. In a related blog post, he added, "We feel we need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology & the market evolve, without having to maintain compatibility with our DVD-by-mail service."

Experts see strong technical justification for the move. "I really believe [DVD & streaming] are different businesses," says Jay Cofield, an associate professor in the mass communication department at the University of Montevallo, in Alabama, who has studied streaming video. The DVD, he says, is a proven technology that is most appealing when delivered with special features & beautiful physical packaging. But streaming is a work in progress, & Cofield believes improvements are likely to come in forms that are incompatible with DVDs.

For example, Cofield believes Netflix could potentially implement powerful social features. Some companies that stream live events already allow viewers to chat while watching. Cofield suggests that Netflix could move toward streaming events such as moderated chats with actors & directors. "If Netflix added this as a pay-per-view feature, or went ad-supported, I would imagine that for certain movies, you could announce a showing starting at [a certain time], with tweet-like commentary by the director or whoever," Cofield says. "Aspiring filmmakers would love it. & I reckon that Hollywood would lose track of the cash generated if the Twilight stars did something like this when the movie hit Netflix."

Cofield adds that the importance of mobile devices can't be overstated. Though it's not clear whether people would watch feature-length films on small screens, he believes Netflix may want to focus on mobile support for streaming shorter content such as television shows.

Besides adding new features, Netflix may also have to solve some existing technical problems. "As people pay more money for premium content, consumers will expect more quality," says Hui Zhang, cofounder & chief scientist of Conviva, a company that optimizes & personalizes live video streams. Today's consumers are accustomed to smooth delivery of HD television content through cable networks, & Zhang says it's difficult to provide the same level of service over the Internet. Though customers may forgive occasional hiccups, the coming increase in Netflix's prices may make them less forgiving. Netflix & other streaming-video companies will have to deal with growing loads on the network & unpredictable network conditions, he says, adding, "Online video will be a very software-intensive business."

Though consumers might well enjoy such improvements to streaming service, today they are criticizing Netflix for breaking something that was working well. In the online comments on Hastings's post, customers complain particularly about being forced to maintain accounts on two different sites & about having to pay attention to how they want to watch a movie rather than simply deciding which movie they want to watch.

Read more »

Posted in: Business,Home business,Hot Hits,Internet,Internet Business,Microsoft,Web

Netflix to Split DVD & Streaming Businesses

The company is betting heavily on the growth of online video delivery.
Netflix will spin off its foundational DVD-by-mail service, the company announced this morning, ceding its iconic red envelopes to a new site that will go by the name of Qwikster. Netflix says it intends to focus on the increasingly popular streaming-video model. Customers, already upset by an earlier decision to split DVD & streaming services & change the rates, are bemoaning this further split, which will increase costs & hassle for those who want the same service as before. All the same, the change could lead to some concrete technological improvements.

Netflix forever changed the movie rental market in 1999, when it began offering subscribers DVDs by mail for set rates. The company's wide selection & distribution technology laid waste to competitors that operated physical retail stores. In 2007, Netflix scored another coup with the launch of "Watch Instantly," a feature that allows customers to stream certain movies on demand over the Internet. In the years since, the service has grown in scope & popularity, owing in part to integration with televisions & game consoles.

But despite these successes, the company is still running scared. In an e-mail sent to customers early this morning, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wrote, "Most companies that are great at something—like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores—do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us)." So Netflix has decided to take drastic action in the name of technological progress, moving the foundation of its business to a different brand name.

"Over time, we realized DVD & streaming were becoming more & more different & that we could do a better job for both services if we separated them," Hastings said in a video about the split posted to YouTube. In a related blog post, he added, "We feel we need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology & the market evolve, without having to maintain compatibility with our DVD-by-mail service."

Experts see strong technical justification for the move. "I really believe [DVD & streaming] are different businesses," says Jay Cofield, an associate professor in the mass communication department at the University of Montevallo, in Alabama, who has studied streaming video. The DVD, he says, is a proven technology that is most appealing when delivered with special features & beautiful physical packaging. But streaming is a work in progress, & Cofield believes improvements are likely to come in forms that are incompatible with DVDs.

For example, Cofield believes Netflix could potentially implement powerful social features. Some companies that stream live events already allow viewers to chat while watching. Cofield suggests that Netflix could move toward streaming events such as moderated chats with actors & directors. "If Netflix added this as a pay-per-view feature, or went ad-supported, I would imagine that for certain movies, you could announce a showing starting at [a certain time], with tweet-like commentary by the director or whoever," Cofield says. "Aspiring filmmakers would love it. & I reckon that Hollywood would lose track of the cash generated if the Twilight stars did something like this when the movie hit Netflix."

Cofield adds that the importance of mobile devices can't be overstated. Though it's not clear whether people would watch feature-length films on small screens, he believes Netflix may want to focus on mobile support for streaming shorter content such as television shows.

Besides adding new features, Netflix may also have to solve some existing technical problems. "As people pay more money for premium content, consumers will expect more quality," says Hui Zhang, cofounder & chief scientist of Conviva, a company that optimizes & personalizes live video streams. Today's consumers are accustomed to smooth delivery of HD television content through cable networks, & Zhang says it's difficult to provide the same level of service over the Internet. Though customers may forgive occasional hiccups, the coming increase in Netflix's prices may make them less forgiving. Netflix & other streaming-video companies will have to deal with growing loads on the network & unpredictable network conditions, he says, adding, "Online video will be a very software-intensive business."

Though consumers might well enjoy such improvements to streaming service, today they are criticizing Netflix for breaking something that was working well. In the online comments on Hastings's post, customers complain particularly about being forced to maintain accounts on two different sites & about having to pay attention to how they want to watch a movie rather than simply deciding which movie they want to watch.

Read more »

Posted in: Business,Home business,Hot Hits,Internet,Internet Business,Microsoft,Web

Carmakers Unveil New Types of Hybrids

Lean machine: The Jaguar XF will use a flywheel hybrid system. Alternative approaches replace the battery with compressed air or a flywheel.


Hybrid cars normally combine conventional engines with battery-powered electric motors. But many carmakers are developing alternative types of hybrids—some of which were on display this month at the Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany.

Hybrid systems recover kinetic energy—from the engine or from the vehicle itself—and use it to boost the efficiency of the engine. A typical hybrid car does this by charging up a battery.

Scuderi, based in West Springfield, Massachusetts, has altered the way the internal combustion engine operates to convert kinetic energy into the potential energy of high-pressure air. It splits the four parts of the internal combustion cycle across two cylinders synchronized on the same crankshaft. One cylinder handles the air intake & compression part of the cycle, pumping compressed air via a crossover passage into the second cylinder. The crossover contains the fuel-injection system, & combustion & exhaust are handled in the second cylinder.

When the vehicle does not need power—when traveling downhill, braking, or decelerating—the second cylinder is disabled & the first cylinder's air is diverted into a high-pressure air-storage tank. This air can be used to help run the engine, boosting its efficiency.

Recently, Scuderi has combined this system with a "Miller-cycle" turbocharger, which picks up energy off the exhaust & uses it to compress air into the intake cylinder. This allows the compression side to be shrunk down & reduces the amount of work done through the crankshaft. "The engine is producing much higher output at higher efficiency, we're producing less emissions, & our torque level is very high," said Scuderi group president Sal Scuderi at the Frankfurt show. "Our gasoline engine will rival the torque of any diesel engine on the market, but it does that while maintaining low pressure inside the cylinders, which reduces wear & tear."

Scuderi has now released results of a computer simulation of its engine against a European economy-class engine of comparable power. The air hybrid achieved a fuel economy figure of 65 miles per gallon, compared with 52 miles per gallon for the conventional engine. It also emitted 85 grams per kilometer of carbon dioxide, compared with 104 grams per kilometer for the conventional engine.

Across the Atlantic, a team that formerly worked for the Renault Formula 1 team has adapted its motorsport-developed flywheel system for use with conventional vehicles. The team has formed a company, Flybrid Systems, to commercialize the technology, & has teamed up with Jaguar Land Rover to trial the Flybrid technology that was originally developed as the kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) used in Formula 1 racing to provide a boost during racing. But while most KERS systems work by using a flywheel to charge an onboard battery or supercapacitor, Flybrid uses a gearbox system to transfer kinetic energy directly to & from the wheels.

Flybrid cars transfer energy via either a continuously variable transmission or a less complex three-gear system, which allows 15 different gear ratios on a standard five-gear model. "There are always efficiency losses when you convert energy," explains Flybrid's technical director, Doug Cross. "This system eliminates those losses, making it far more efficient."

The flywheel weighs five kilograms & is made from carbon fiber wrapped around a steel core. Because it is so light, it has to spin fast—at 60,000 rpm—which means that its rim is traveling at supersonic speeds. As a result, it has to operate in a vacuum, & Flybrid has developed special seals so that the wheel can be fully enclosed inside a safety container in case of a crash. At top speed, the flywheel can store 540 kilojoules of energy, which is sufficient to accelerate an average-sized automobile from a standing start to 48 kilometers per hour.

"One way you can use this technology is to boost the car during a cruise," Cross said. "We have a system installed on a Jaguar saloon, & that has shown that during a cruise, you can actually switch the engine off for 65 percent of the journey. With a V6 diesel engine, it cuts fuel use by 26 percent, but gives you the power of a V8 petrol engine."

Read more »

Posted in: Business,Car,Entertainment,Hottest,Latest Technolgoy,Market

Carmakers Unveil New Types of Hybrids

Lean machine: The Jaguar XF will use a flywheel hybrid system. Alternative approaches replace the battery with compressed air or a flywheel.


Hybrid cars normally combine conventional engines with battery-powered electric motors. But many carmakers are developing alternative types of hybrids—some of which were on display this month at the Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany.

Hybrid systems recover kinetic energy—from the engine or from the vehicle itself—and use it to boost the efficiency of the engine. A typical hybrid car does this by charging up a battery.

Scuderi, based in West Springfield, Massachusetts, has altered the way the internal combustion engine operates to convert kinetic energy into the potential energy of high-pressure air. It splits the four parts of the internal combustion cycle across two cylinders synchronized on the same crankshaft. One cylinder handles the air intake & compression part of the cycle, pumping compressed air via a crossover passage into the second cylinder. The crossover contains the fuel-injection system, & combustion & exhaust are handled in the second cylinder.

When the vehicle does not need power—when traveling downhill, braking, or decelerating—the second cylinder is disabled & the first cylinder's air is diverted into a high-pressure air-storage tank. This air can be used to help run the engine, boosting its efficiency.

Recently, Scuderi has combined this system with a "Miller-cycle" turbocharger, which picks up energy off the exhaust & uses it to compress air into the intake cylinder. This allows the compression side to be shrunk down & reduces the amount of work done through the crankshaft. "The engine is producing much higher output at higher efficiency, we're producing less emissions, & our torque level is very high," said Scuderi group president Sal Scuderi at the Frankfurt show. "Our gasoline engine will rival the torque of any diesel engine on the market, but it does that while maintaining low pressure inside the cylinders, which reduces wear & tear."

Scuderi has now released results of a computer simulation of its engine against a European economy-class engine of comparable power. The air hybrid achieved a fuel economy figure of 65 miles per gallon, compared with 52 miles per gallon for the conventional engine. It also emitted 85 grams per kilometer of carbon dioxide, compared with 104 grams per kilometer for the conventional engine.

Across the Atlantic, a team that formerly worked for the Renault Formula 1 team has adapted its motorsport-developed flywheel system for use with conventional vehicles. The team has formed a company, Flybrid Systems, to commercialize the technology, & has teamed up with Jaguar Land Rover to trial the Flybrid technology that was originally developed as the kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) used in Formula 1 racing to provide a boost during racing. But while most KERS systems work by using a flywheel to charge an onboard battery or supercapacitor, Flybrid uses a gearbox system to transfer kinetic energy directly to & from the wheels.

Flybrid cars transfer energy via either a continuously variable transmission or a less complex three-gear system, which allows 15 different gear ratios on a standard five-gear model. "There are always efficiency losses when you convert energy," explains Flybrid's technical director, Doug Cross. "This system eliminates those losses, making it far more efficient."

The flywheel weighs five kilograms & is made from carbon fiber wrapped around a steel core. Because it is so light, it has to spin fast—at 60,000 rpm—which means that its rim is traveling at supersonic speeds. As a result, it has to operate in a vacuum, & Flybrid has developed special seals so that the wheel can be fully enclosed inside a safety container in case of a crash. At top speed, the flywheel can store 540 kilojoules of energy, which is sufficient to accelerate an average-sized automobile from a standing start to 48 kilometers per hour.

"One way you can use this technology is to boost the car during a cruise," Cross said. "We have a system installed on a Jaguar saloon, & that has shown that during a cruise, you can actually switch the engine off for 65 percent of the journey. With a V6 diesel engine, it cuts fuel use by 26 percent, but gives you the power of a V8 petrol engine."

Read more »

Posted in: Business,Car,Entertainment,Hottest,Latest Technolgoy,Market

GPS Data on Beijing Cabs Reveals the Cause of Traffic Jams

[ Communications ]

The data could lead to novel urban planning solutions that would work in sprawling cities everywhere.

Traffic tracking: To understand the causes of Beijing’s traffic problems, researchers divided the city into regions, shown above, & analyzed the ways that taxis travel between them.
Microsoft Research Asia.

Beijing is a city famous for traffic jams. In 2006, rush hour reportedly lasted 11 hours a day, & the city has been called a "virtual car park" during daylight hours. As in most major cities, urban planners have been trying for years to relieve the pressure by adding new roads or public transit lines, or providing better enforcement for traffic laws.

Now a group working at Microsoft Research Asia has shown that tracking the location of taxicabs could be a better way to identify the underlying problems with a city's transportation network, helping officials determine how to best ease congestion.

The researchers used GPS data from more than 33,000 Beijing taxicabs. That data was collected in 2009 & 2010. The researchers were not just looking for bottlenecks—trouble spots that regular commuters may know only too well. "[Congested] road segments are only the appearance—they're not the problem," says Yu Zheng, who led the research. "We try to identify the true source of the problem in our work."

The researchers presented their work last week at the 13th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, which took place in Beijing.

To get at underlying causes of traffic problems, the researchers needed to get information about the trips people are taking—where journeys start, finish, & how a commuter travels in between. The researchers divided Beijing into regions & analyzed the taxi data to find places where two regions weren't properly connected.

Even if a taxi never encounters a slowdown, clues from the trip can indicate an underlying problem with urban planning. For example, the taxi driver might take a circuitous route from point A to point B, instead of a direct one. The added distance could indicate that the driver knows about a problem with what appears to be the fastest route.

The researchers' algorithms indicate when the network of roads & subway lines between two regions cannot support the number of people traveling between those regions. By pointing out underlying problems, the system shows urban planners where to focus their attention, Zheng says.

In some cases, Zheng says, the busy regions aren't really the ones that are flawed. For example, it may be that people from region 1 are going through region 2 on their way to region 3, in which case it may be better to connect region 1 & 3 directly, rather than trying to widen highways in region 2.

The researchers evaluated their system by examining how their calculations changed as Beijing's transportation network evolved during the two-year period they monitored. They found that when city planners added new connections between regions that algorithms had identified as flawed, conditions did indeed improve. Where flaws were identified but not fixed, traffic conditions did not improve.

Zheng says the system could easily be adapted for any city that has a large number of taxicabs—many of which struggle with traffic in their own right. Beijing ranks fourth in the world for number of cabs. The top 10 includes Mexico City, Bangkok, Tokyo, New York, Buenos Aires, & Moscow. Zheng says that, with enough data, his techniques would work as well there as they do for Beijing.

"I think this is an interesting direction, though I wonder to what extent the real problem in urban planning is not having the resources—money—to do anything about it," says Sam Madden, an associate professor at the MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory who studies wireless sensor networks, including GPS units.

Madden adds that the huge quantity of data the researchers amassed—enough to analyze every road in a city—makes the work impressive. Even a few years ago, he says, it would have been a challenge to get so much information about road conditions. For his own research, Madden put GPS sensors on taxis to gather data, but cost & difficulty limited him to tagging tens of taxis, not thousands.

Read more »

Posted in: Business,Entertainment,Internet Business,Latest Technolgoy,Market,Microsoft

GPS Data on Beijing Cabs Reveals the Cause of Traffic Jams

[ Communications ]

The data could lead to novel urban planning solutions that would work in sprawling cities everywhere.

Traffic tracking: To understand the causes of Beijing’s traffic problems, researchers divided the city into regions, shown above, & analyzed the ways that taxis travel between them.
Microsoft Research Asia.

Beijing is a city famous for traffic jams. In 2006, rush hour reportedly lasted 11 hours a day, & the city has been called a "virtual car park" during daylight hours. As in most major cities, urban planners have been trying for years to relieve the pressure by adding new roads or public transit lines, or providing better enforcement for traffic laws.

Now a group working at Microsoft Research Asia has shown that tracking the location of taxicabs could be a better way to identify the underlying problems with a city's transportation network, helping officials determine how to best ease congestion.

The researchers used GPS data from more than 33,000 Beijing taxicabs. That data was collected in 2009 & 2010. The researchers were not just looking for bottlenecks—trouble spots that regular commuters may know only too well. "[Congested] road segments are only the appearance—they're not the problem," says Yu Zheng, who led the research. "We try to identify the true source of the problem in our work."

The researchers presented their work last week at the 13th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, which took place in Beijing.

To get at underlying causes of traffic problems, the researchers needed to get information about the trips people are taking—where journeys start, finish, & how a commuter travels in between. The researchers divided Beijing into regions & analyzed the taxi data to find places where two regions weren't properly connected.

Even if a taxi never encounters a slowdown, clues from the trip can indicate an underlying problem with urban planning. For example, the taxi driver might take a circuitous route from point A to point B, instead of a direct one. The added distance could indicate that the driver knows about a problem with what appears to be the fastest route.

The researchers' algorithms indicate when the network of roads & subway lines between two regions cannot support the number of people traveling between those regions. By pointing out underlying problems, the system shows urban planners where to focus their attention, Zheng says.

In some cases, Zheng says, the busy regions aren't really the ones that are flawed. For example, it may be that people from region 1 are going through region 2 on their way to region 3, in which case it may be better to connect region 1 & 3 directly, rather than trying to widen highways in region 2.

The researchers evaluated their system by examining how their calculations changed as Beijing's transportation network evolved during the two-year period they monitored. They found that when city planners added new connections between regions that algorithms had identified as flawed, conditions did indeed improve. Where flaws were identified but not fixed, traffic conditions did not improve.

Zheng says the system could easily be adapted for any city that has a large number of taxicabs—many of which struggle with traffic in their own right. Beijing ranks fourth in the world for number of cabs. The top 10 includes Mexico City, Bangkok, Tokyo, New York, Buenos Aires, & Moscow. Zheng says that, with enough data, his techniques would work as well there as they do for Beijing.

"I think this is an interesting direction, though I wonder to what extent the real problem in urban planning is not having the resources—money—to do anything about it," says Sam Madden, an associate professor at the MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory who studies wireless sensor networks, including GPS units.

Madden adds that the huge quantity of data the researchers amassed—enough to analyze every road in a city—makes the work impressive. Even a few years ago, he says, it would have been a challenge to get so much information about road conditions. For his own research, Madden put GPS sensors on taxis to gather data, but cost & difficulty limited him to tagging tens of taxis, not thousands.

Read more »

Posted in: Business,Entertainment,Internet Business,Latest Technolgoy,Market,Microsoft

Before you even set up your Google Adwords PPC account, here's what you must do.

Don't pay to bring them to your site if it isn't ready:
Why do real estate professionals decide to do PPC, Pay Per Click marketing? Also called SEM, Search Engine Marketing, this is paying for clicks to your site, primarily through the major player, Google Adwords.

Obviously, they believe that paying to get a visitor interested in "theirtown real estate" gives them a chance to convert them to a customer & a commission at some point. The problem is that most sites are far from ready to convert the visitor, so they shouldn't be wasting their money in paying to get them to come to a dysfunctional site.
Have relevant information valuable to the visitor:
This is NOT "I am the greatest!" statements. This is NOT "I'm a top producer" page. The visitor doesn't care. They don't care about you, they care about their needs & the information search that brought them to your PPC ad & site.

They primarily want to search for listings, so an IDX search page is critical. They also want to find information about "yourtown real estate," so you need all types of articles & information that explains your market & keeps the visitor current on trends & statistics. If you don't have stuff like this, don't waste your money on PPC.
Create landing pages for ads - not your home page:
When you create a PPC ad, something I'll show you later in this series of articles, you are luring the prospect to click on your ad & come to your site. These ads should each have a unique & specific purpose, & the visitor that clicks should find exactly what they expect when they arrive at your site.

When you run a Google Adwords ad headlined with "Search Yourtown Listings," & you take them on the click to your home page, you'll be wasting your money more than half the time. They aren't going to click again to find the IDX search. Whether a search or other information, the "landing" page is critical.
Have lead capture strategies in place:
Once you've paid for that click & the visitor is at your site, you still have a major task-capturing their contact information. Capture is a poor word choice, as you want them to willingly give it to you, as well as permission to continue to stay in touch via email.

Whether you use special reports, statistical reports, white papers, or some other value-add material they must request, you must have various offerings that they will be willing to give up their contact information to receive. While they may be happy with the information on the landing page, they will leave & forget you if you don't follow up.
Execute well-planned follow-up lead nurturing:
If you've done everything right to this point, you have converted a "suspect" who came to your site on a PPC search to a "prospect" who gave you their name & email address in exchange for a report or other offering. Now comes the more extended task; staying top-of-mind with the prospect until they're ready for a more personal contact or to buy & sell real estate.

This is done with drip email campaigns that send the prospect pre-scheduled emails in a series. They can't be a sales pitch, instead providing more valuable information about your real estate market.
You don't have to be the highest bidder:
A very big mistaken impression about Google Adwords is that your position in the paid ads is solely dependent on how much you're willing to pay, or bid, for a click. While this is the main criteria, Google rewards score points to your ad based on multiple factors.

The relevance of your landing page, your ad's CTR, Click-Through-Ratio, & other factors enter into this score. As your ad campaign begins to attract clicks, Google will use this score in positioning your ad. You can be in a higher position than a competitor's ad but be paying less. I know because my clicks cost me a lot less than my competitors.
PPC, Pay-Per-Click Marketing for Real Estate Works - If You Do It Right:
When you read about real estate professionals who say they had no luck with PPC & wasted a lot of money, many times it's simply because they did it horribly wrong.

They didn't properly set up their ads, create good ad headlines & text.
The visitor isn't taken to a relevant landing page, or all are taken to the home page.
Visitors don't find the information they wanted on the landing page.
There are no lead capture systems in place to get their contact information.
Follow-up is poor, & the customer forgets about them.

Just avoiding these mistakes will give you a head start to success. Good content & following up regularly without the "hard sell" will do the rest.

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Posted in: Business,Home business,Internet Business,Market,Online Job