Author: Serkadis

During his opening monologue, Conan O’Brien poked fun at the late night lineup shift shaking up NBC.

NBC announced this weekend that it is ditching Jay Leno’s primetime program, paving the way to tentatively push it back to 11:35, moving Conan O’Brien’s show to midnight. Conan has yet to sign on to NBC’s decision and is reportedly being wooed by the FOX network. The comedian joked Monday that he had plently of career “options.”

Among the choices:

-Star in a Lifetime Original Movie about a woman trapped in an abusive relationship with her network.

-Move to FOX and follow their hit “24” with a new show called “24:05.”

Conan did have one jab at Leno, saying, he could “Convince NBC to let me keep this time slot if I can gain 10 pounds of chin…..”

Llamativo cuando menos el sistema patentado por Google para insertar publicidad en servicios de mapas, en particular en Google Street View: detección automática de las vallas publicitarias y sustitución de su contenido dentro de su servicio por anuncios actualizados. Como indican en R/W, esto abre un escenario que parece perfectamente razonable: eres el dueño de un teatro o cine y quieres que en Street View se vean las obras que ofreces actualmente, pero también otro un poco más polémico si se abre la posibilidad a que sea tu competencia la que puje por el espacio virtual que simula tu valla publicitaria.

De momento la patente no es más que eso, una patente. Los debates sobre si Google Street View puede modificar la realidad que representa por motivos comerciales y sí están dispuestos a enfadar a todos los que comercializan y gestionan este tipo de anuncios en el mundo real llegarán más adelante. Sólo un último apunte, hace más de tres años Microsoft ya planteaba un mecanismo similar aunque con carteles que flotaban sobre edificios.

I would like to start by wishing everybody a happy and peaceful New Year.

Last year, the Care and Support Green Paper, the Big Care Debate consultation and the Government’s plan for free personal care put care and support at the top of the public and political agenda.

But this is only a starting point on the long road towards creating a National Care Service for all adults in England that is fair, easy to understand and makes it easier to access services.

There are still many challenges ahead as we work to create a National Care Service that guarantees that everyone will get at least some of their care paid for by the State.

We also want to guarantee consistent assessment – so you get a fair package wherever you live, whatever you need. And we want to guarantee high quality, personalised care packages built around each person’s particular needs.

An element of the National Care Service is about prevention, about building a system that’s geared to help people stay independent and stay in their own home for as long as possible.
To achieve this, public services and councils need to continue their excellent recent work, such as the ongoing studies on the effectiveness of telehealth and telecare, and of re-ablement.

They must push forward with programmes such as Joint Improvement Partnerships, Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnerships, and the Partnerships for Older People Projects, continuing to transform the workforce and build services that genuinely fit around people’s individual needs is imperative.

It means breaking down the walls between social services, housing and health departments so that people get a more complete package of support.

It means getting into the habit of stepping in early so that people are helped long before their condition deteriorates.

And it means being more innovative in the way we deliver care services. It means finding the tipping point where the traditional models of care give way to much more enlightened and diverse options, based around people having real choice and control through personal budgets.

That’s the vision, the challenges we face arise from how we make it a reality.

– Of how do we pay for all this in a fair, sustainable way?
– How do we deliver on these promises in a consistent way?
– How do we use the full range of resources at our disposal?
– How do we draw together statutory provision, with third sector and independent involvement in the best way?
– And how do we also nurture the absolutely fundamental role that friends and family play in supporting older people?

The care and support White Paper, due for publication this year, will spell out our answers to these questions – in response to last year’s Big Care Debate consultation.

2009 was a big year for the care and support sector, and it is up to us to make sure that all of the good work comes to fruition in 2010.

The 2010 Detroit Auto Show has just kicked off and Ford’s plans for the 2011 Focus have been made official. While others might care more about the 155bhp or new six-speed dual-clutch transmission, we’re best pleased by the inclusion of the MyFord touch control system. This setup was designed to drag the car dash into the modern touchscreen era, and our comprehensive hands-on revealed it to be a most impressive bit of tech. Two displays flank the analog speed gauge, but the pièce de résistance is an 8-inch, 800 x 480 optional screen landing in the center of the dash. Endued with a web browser, it’ll connect via 3G or 4G modems and concurrently act as a WiFi hotspot. Add in a bunch of forthcoming apps and compatibility with any Bluetooth device, and you’ve got a tech lover’s dream system. The next generation Focus should enter production near the end of 2010, giving us a full year to write a “vroom, vroom” app for our smartphones.

MyFord Touch coming to 2011 Ford Focus originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Games are getting faster and faster and that means that you need to mouse a lot faster to. And that is why the Handstand Zero Mouse pad comes in handy.

This mouse pad has two sides one for better accuracy and one for more speed. This is the mousepad a gamer need and you optical or laser mouse will love it.

Check out the cool Handstands Zero Gamers Mat and gain the speed that you need.

Brad Parrott will be the new crew chief for the No. 27 Ford Fusion driven by Greg Biffle in the 2010 Nationwide Series.This will be the second time Parrott and Biffle will be working together, after in 2004 they’ve managed to score five wins, two poles and 21 top-10 finishes in 34 races.

"He and I had a great relationship in 2004 and translated that into success on the track," Parrott said about his future driver. "We won races, captured poles and were in the mix fo… (read more)

Rieder Windows from Zillertal in Tyrol, Austria, has to live up to its promise of being “state of the art”. KBA-Metronic’s alphaJET E inkjet printer is used for individually marking the window profiles.

Founded in 1945 as a joinery and carpentry firm, Rieder KG is now an innovative full service provider to the construction and timber industry with around 400 employees. The company, a renowned supplier, has consolidated its position as the number one in Tyrol and is known far beyond the national borders.

A unique project number is assigned as early as the quotation costing stage, and remains firmly linked to the project through every processing step. Once the quote turns into an order, all the necessary components are summarised, decentralised, in a bill of materials in an ERP system, and then transmitted to the manufacturing plant – together with the project number and any information relevant to the order.

The print head of the alphaJET E inkjet printer is mounted to the delivery conveyor of the CNC machine. At this point, the raw wooden profiles are marked directly with the project number and other production and product data. The network-ready alphaJET E from KBA-Metronic, the German coding and marking specialist. , facilitates communication with the CNC processing machine’s software via an RS 232 interface. From this interface, the printer receives the information needed for the clear marking and labelling of the elements in plain text. Once the unfinished window profile has passed the product sensor, the alphaJET E printer prints up to 4 lines with a 24-dot matrix, in the finest print quality – even at high speed.

By using the unique project number throughout the entire production control system, the clarity of the marking on the profiles is imperative, in spite of the fact that solvent-based varnishes and sealings are used. Conventional ink tends to blur or to fade when it comes into contact with solvents. Yet with well over 50 different inks to chose from, KBA-Metronic’s specialists were quickly able to identify the ideal one: on wood, the Freon-based ink chosen has the special property that it lets the (already excellent) print image appear in even better contrast following the various surface treatments. The durability of the marking permits traceability, even years later, and it simplifies any necessary processing.

In pharmaceutical industry, analytical innovations are just as important as the development of new products. Just consider the crucial roles played by chromatographic (e.g. HPLC, FPLC), spectroscopic (e.g. MR, MS) and thermodynamic methods. Throughout the history of drug discovery, two analytical methodologies have been classics: thermal/calorimetric analysis, and X-ray diffraction. Already a century ago they have led to the discovery of a new class of materials, the liquid crystals. X-ray diffraction has always been indispensible in finding the structure of any new compound discovered, and DSC has become daily routine.
With the age of nanomaterials, structural and thermal analytics are faced with new challenges: it is not just the molecular structure that determines product quality, but their nanostructure: this determines important properties such as compactability, stability, bioavailability ect. Therefore, the normal techniques, e.g. of X-ray powder diffraction are no longer sufficient and have to be supplemented by a technique that has long been known, but largely ignored: X-ray small-angle scattering (SAXS), which allows the precise analysis of nanosize and shape. With the advent of high-brilliance micro-X-ray sources, this has recently also found broader use in ‘normal’ research laboratories, not just on large synchrotrons. Moreover, the combination of this structure analytical technique with micro-calorimetry in one instrument has become feasible. The documentation of nanostructural and thermal properties of complex formulations, e.g. different amorphous states is becoming broadly accessible. This will certainly have enormous impact not just in discovery and development, but also on the creation of new IP and product value.

With only 5 stages to go in Rally Dakar, the battle for the 2010 overall win promises to be more exciting than ever. After Stephane Peterhansel’s 3rd win in the event this year, Qatari driver Nasser al Attiyah stroke back with a 3rd win of his own at the end of Stage 9, crossing the finish line one second short of 6 minutes to main rival in the overall classification & teammate Carlos Sainz.

Yesterday’s stage from Copiapo to La Serena was all Volkswagen’s, as the German manufactur… (read more)

Last Friday, the location-based service Foursquare announced that it was opening their service to be used anywhere in the world. The following day, they saw the biggest day in terms of usage ever, apparently.

This past Saturday, Foursquare was averaging more than a check-in a second, according to this tweet from the official account. Some quick math tells me that this means they must have seen over 86,000 check-ins in that 24 hour span. While Foursquare hasn’t publicly stated how many users they have, our best guess is that the number is something around 200,000 (with many following Scoble) and growing fast.

And while that would make Foursquare much smaller than Twitter (which, in turn, is much smaller than Facebook), it makes the check-in numbers even more impressive. That data would seem to indicate that a good number of Foursquare users are actively using it. This lack of use is something that has always been a big criticism of Twitter, for example.

The latest version of Foursquare’s iPhone app, version 1.5, went live in the App Store today. It features some location enhancements, as well as a refreshed UI. Check out the free app here.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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If you’ve looked at buying a television the past several years, chances are you’re well aware of the terms: Plasma, DLP, LCD, and more recently, OLED. Well, there’s a new acronym in town: LPD.

Developed by the Silicon Valley-based Prysm, LPD is being formally unveiled today as the latest type of screen technology. LPD stands for Laser Phosphor Display, which likely means nothing to you, but the company is promising that it’s a tech that will allow them to create massive, crisp digital displays that consume some 75% less power than the other display technologies. The company claims these displays are also much cheaper to build, and will last longer.

So can they deliver on such promises? It will likely be a while before we as consumers can see, because at first, Prysm is targeting commercial vendors with the tech. They hope that arenas/stadiums, concerts, and big department stores will take advantage of their displays initially. But after that, assuming all goes well, this tech would ideally be available to consumers looking for large screens that consume little power. And following the hoopla of Avatar and some of the tech at CES, these screens are 3D compatible, we’re told.

Of course, the key to that is also pricing, but again, they’re still a ways away from figuring that out for consumers. In fact, all they’ll say on their site is vaguely worded statements such as, “Finally, LPD technology breaks free of the performance limitations of conventional displays by offering high resolution, superb image quality, high brightness and the widest viewing angle at the lowest cost of ownership while consuming the least resources.” That sounds like the best of all worlds. But seeing is believing, and we haven’t seen yet.

Prysm is a company that has actually been flying under the radar for about four years now in Silicon Valley. The privately held company has over 100 employees.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

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GM’s attitude is somewhat uncanny in the Saab saga, especially if we’re taking into account the fact that the US-based manufacturer received several bids for the Swedish unit. At the 2010 North American International Auto Show, GM Chairman Ed Whitacre said the process continues and, although he has received several offers for Saab, none of them can be considered financially viable.

"We’re closing down Saab," he said at the show according to Reuters. "We’re winding i… (read more)

The new-born Chrysler brand Ram will make use of BorgWarner’s Torque-On-Demand and Part-Time transfer cases for its future all four-wheel drive Ram trucks, including the 1500 and 2500/3500 pickups. BorgWarner will also supply Ram with Electric shift Part-Time transfer cases for the aforementioned trucks.

"We are seeing rising interest among OEMs for our active, on-demand systems in the full-sized pickup segment," John Sanderson, president, BorgWarner Drivetrain Systems s… (read more)

Article Tags: Headline Story, Via Email, William Gray, William Kininmonth

This report was sent to me by a colleague. It appears too good not to pass along. Bill Gray

The Arctic ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consul Ifft, at Bergen, Norway. Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers, he declared, all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone. Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met with as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes. Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm. Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared. Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts, which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.

I’m sorry, I neglected to mention that this report was from November 2, 1922 as reported by the AP and published in The Washington Post.

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If you’re an old-school gamer, the Sega Genesis (known as Sega Mega Drive outside North America) sure does have a special place in your heart. And if your current job requires you to give away business cards from time to time, this new business card holder that’s shaped like Sega’s legendary 16-bit console might be the right thing for you.

In case you want to go even more retro, there’s also a Space Invaders business card case in red and another one in black now.

Both the Genesis and the Space Invaders cases are made of aluminum. They’ll go on sale in Japan in March, but import/export specialist Geek Stuff 4 U lets people living outside Japan pre-order the cases already (price: $24.30 each).

Alternatively, you can still go for the Nintendo Famicom-shaped or the Pac Man business card holder that Banpresto, the maker of all these cases, introduced last year. Geek Stuff 4 U is still selling those, too.

Via Akihabara News

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Firefox owes its success to a solid list of features and its overall quality, but it also owes a lot to the Mozilla community and people all over the world who got behind the project and promoted it to their friends and families and everywhere else they could. This community spirit is alive today, five years after Firefox landed, and Mo… (read more)

Chrysler and Fiat have used the flesh of the 500 model to showcase electric technology bones, by revealing the Fiat 500 BEV at Detroit.

The electric concept car uses Chrysler’s modular electric technology, developed over the last three years, but no further technical details have been released about the vehicle.

However, it has been declared that the 500 BEV is just a concept car and there are no plans to make it available for the public. Apparently, it was only cre… (read more)

One of the attendees of the Electric Avenue at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, the largely (yet unknown) manufacturer Green Vehicles, is displaying their Triac pure electric vehicle and announced the start of production for the three-wheeler.

The Triac will help reduce the number of polluting vehicles on the road while giving drivers the real pleasure of experiencing well-applied technology at an affordable price, Mike Ryan, Green Vehicles’ presiden… (read more)

Business advisory firm Navigant Consulting has acquired  Summit Blue Consulting, a Boulder, Colo.-based renewable energy consultancy for an undisclosed amount. Summit  Blue Consulting’s 70 employees have all joined Navigant’s 250-strong energy practice.

As part of the acquisition Summit Blue Consulting will shed its name to operate under the Navigant Consulting brand.

Summit Blue Consulting, launched 10 years ago, tracks and evaluates the investments in energy efficiencies of power utilities. Currently, Summit Blue  is working with PECO, the Philadelphia power utility, which has committed to spend $300 million on energy efficiency over the next four years.

The Obama administration’s stimulus program has allocated some $2.7 billion to fund the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program. David Kleinschmidt, a managing director with Navigant Consulting’s energy practice in Boston, tells us that the acquisition is not solely motivated by these government monies. “This is a long-term investment,” he explains.