Mereja

Author: Serkadis

  • DITEC opens the doors to travellers in the magnificent work by Calatrava

    In the recently inaugurated Liege TGV Railway Station in Belgium, designed by Santiago Calatrava

    The opening ceremony for the Liege TGV railway station was held just a week ago; this magnificent new structure will be at the service of the estimated 30,000 daily passengers travelling on the TGV trains to France, to Germany and to other cities in Belgium.

    In this highly prestigious situation, the DITEC group has also made its own fundamental contribution through its Belgian branch.
    It so happens that DITEC is the name behind the automatic doors of the three external entrances and two internal entrances located in the new des Guillemins station.
    And the “numbers” here are also right up at the top. The door wings are made entirely from glass without aluminium profile sections, they have a 3-metre transit opening and VALOR automations to operate 1.5-metre wide wings weighing a substantial 105 kg.

    This new product reference of the DITEC group is further proof of the fame of an international brand specialising in automatic entrances, fame that extends not only to the quality and reliability of its products but also to the technical expertise of the companies in the Ditec Expert circuit, present in Europe with more than 500 professionals, selected by the parent company both for their capacity to customise the contracts allocated to them and for that extra inventiveness that “makes the difference” in unusual situations like this.

    Some of the other impressive works recently completed by internationally renowned architects with the contribution of DITEC to automation also include the new Hall designed by Jean Nouvel at the Genoa Exhibition Centre, which every year hosts the famous Boat Show.

  • Flexible Programmable Turntable RTSeries

    Minimize floor space and have 100% flexibility by utilizing our powerful compact RT Series Turntables on your next program.

    -Zero Backlash due to cam follower barrel cam design
    -Extremely high load capacity
    -Hardened heat treated cams
    -100% Programmable
    -Extremely high efficiency – 50% less power requirements than most competitors units
    – Ready to accept most servo motor brands
    – Can be connected directly to robot control systems
    – Low maintenance

  • AC Micro Drives with Built-in Safe Torque Off

    With sensor-less vector control functionality and built-in safety inputs, Omron’s 3G3MX2 is ideal for constant torque conveyor and mixing applications and variable torque fans and pumps. A wide range of industrial communication options are supported, enabling 3G3MX2 to seamlessly exchange data via Modbus, DeviceNet, Profibus, EtherCAT, and Mechatrolink-II. The 3G3MX2 is a drive and position controller in one, making it ideal for modular machines where moderate positional accuracy is required.

    The 3G3MX2 provides smooth control down to zero speed, plus precise operation for fast cyclic operations and torque control capability in open loop. The 3G3MX2 also delivers comprehensive functionality for machine control such as positioning, speed synchronization and logic programming. The auto-tuning capability sets the AC drive for smooth and safe operations just by entering the power rating of the motor, making commissioning trouble-free. The 3G3MX2 delivers 200% starting torque near stand-still (0.5 Hz) and can operate in torque control in open loop mode, providing a cost effective alternative to closed loop AC vector drives.

    The 3G3MX2 drives easily integrates into new and existing safety systems. Safety circuits embedded in the drives provide “safe torque off” operator protection conforming to ISO 13849-1, Cat 3. This removes power from the motor allowing it to coast to a stop while the drive itself is still powered up. The 3G3MX has two safety inputs and an External Device Monitoring (EDM) output.

    Built-in PLC functionality provides local control to handle simple positioning tasks without the need for an external controller. Via an intuitive flow chart programming tool, it is possible to create programs with up to 1000 lines of code and with 5 tasks running in parallel. Up to 8 positions, plus home, can be selected by the user, and the AC drive can be switched between speed and position mode. Speed synchronization is established using standard parameter settings and no additional programming. The drive will act as a speed follower to an external pulse generator/encoder signal up to 32 kHz.

    CX-Drive application tool in CX-One software suite or the front-mounted keypad may be used to configure the 3G3MX2 drive. CX-One provides a uniform environment to program PLCs, develop HMI graphics, configure networks, and setup motion and process controllers from a single software package.

  • Meech proves a sparkling success with Viracon

    The manufacturing process involves extreme shifts in temperature that create a high static charge, causing airborne debris to be attracted to the glass surface. Once the glass has been contaminated by these fine particles, the application of laminate layers and other substrates between sheets can prove difficult and the clarity of the glass can potentially be compromised. The situation is exacerbated by the plastic or rubber rollers on which the conveyor belts run.

    Viracon has supplied glass for some of the most impressive and famous buildings worldwide, including the worlds tallest building, the Taipei 101 Tower and the brand new Chicago Trump Tower. With high profile installations such as these, the company is naturally committed to delivering a product of the highest quality and aesthetic appeal.

    Lee Quick, process engineer at Viracon, comments, “Our aim in installing static elimination equipment was twofold; firstly it was important to decrease the levels of waste created due to static attraction in the laminate layer and secondly, Viracon wanted to ensure the safety of employees by eliminating the risk of large static shocks.” Static levels in glass often exceed 125KV. This can result in painful and potentially dangerous discharges.

    In the search for a reliable and cost-effective method for maintaining premium quality, Viracon was impressed by Meech’s status as industry experts and, having purchased Meech Air Technology equipment previously, knew that the company had a comprehensive understanding of its application requirements. “After extensive research we found that Meech was able to supply the hand held static meters needed to accurately measure static electricity readings of up to 200KV, a common level in glass production,” says Lee Quick. “We were very impressed by the company’s consultative approach. Not only did the Meech team demonstrate extensive knowledge of static elimination in all areas, but they made the working relationship comfortable and …..

  • Web Cleaning Systems – Rent to Buy

    a) Compile accurate ‘application specific’ payback analysis for investment justification

    b) Keep projects moving

    c) Evaluate a brand new web cleaning system in terms of performance and functionality

    If you find yourself saying:

    My budgets have been slashed?

    My projects have been put ‘on hold’?

    How do I prove the benefits and potential payback of equipment before securing capex?

    Then “Rent-To-Buy” is the answer.

    How does the scheme work?……..Meech will manufacture a web cleaning system to fit your process requirements and all you need to do is commit to rent the system for a 3 month evaluation. At the end of the rental period, you can return the system to Meech, extend the rental by a further 3 months, or purchase the system outright and receive 50% of your initial rental back.

    For more information call our International Product Manager, Adam Battrick, now on +44 (0) 1993 706700.

  • NETZSCH Process and Plant Engineering Services complete latest plant!

    One of the largest grinding and dispersion projects of its type, in the ASEAN region, in 2009, has been completed by the NETZSCH Process and Plant Engineering department.

    Working with NETZSCH Asia Pacific (NAP) and local companies providing electrical and mechanical engineering services, NETZSCH supplied the key mixing and grinding equipment and project managed the “turn key plant” in conjunction with the client.

    The production facility is set up to serve the local region and beyond, with technical expertise and after sales service being provided by NETZSCH Asia Pacific.
    NAP are based in Singapore with satellite offices in Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.

  • Tracks of My Tears: Reconstructing Digital Music

    Q&A with: Anita Elberse
    Published: November 30, 2009
    Author: Sean Silverthorne

    At the dawn of the digital music era, record labels went along with a pricing scheme devised by Apple that they are still paying for today. The idea to “unbundle” albums into separate tracks sold for 99 cents each suddenly allowed consumers to bypass higher profit-margin albums.

    Sure, you could still purchase an entire album. But consumers found more value in cherry-picking favorite tunes for much less money. Fans of Strawberry Alarm Clock, for instance, could buy the 1960s hit Incense and Peppermint while easily avoiding ghastly tracks such as Sit With the Guru and Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow.

    So despite selling record numbers of individual songs on online services such as Apple’s iTunes, the labels are in an era of declining revenues and consolidation. What happens next?

    Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse, who does much of her business research on the entertainment industry, looked at the clash between bundles and digital distribution, and the effect on media and entertainment firms. We asked Elberse about her recent working paper, “Bye Bye Bundles: The Unbundling of Music in Digital Channels.”

    Sean Silverthorne: First, what gave you the idea for this study? How did you do the research?

    Anita Elberse: As with most of my research, the idea emerged after a conversation with an executive in the media and entertainment industry. Many products in those sectors are sold in a bundled form, so bundling strategies have always been a key topic for media and entertainment firms. But I learned that the rise of digital channels is introducing new questions. Executives are wondering whether and how to bundle products offered online, or even whether to sell their products via those channels at all if online retailers impose certain bundling policies.

    I thought the music industry would be an ideal research setting because it is a sector strongly associated with bundled products—music was traditionally sold mostly in the form of albums—and because it is among the sectors most strongly affected by digital technology. So I reached out to Nielsen SoundScan, the company that tracks recorded-music sales in North America, to obtain data for a random sample of over 200 artists for the period January 2005 to April 2007. I analyzed those data using an econometric model that relates the growth in online music buying to the revenues per bundle.

    Q: Could we have real-world definitions of what you mean by bundle, pure bundle, mixed bundle, and unbundling?

    A: Sure. A “bundle” is any set of products sold together. Think of songs on a music album, television episodes on a DVD, or chapters of a book. “Pure” and “mixed” refer to the condition under which those products are sold. Under a pure-bundling strategy, a firm sells only the bundle, while under a mixed-bundling strategy, a firm sells both the bundle and (all) the products separately. “Unbundling” refers to products that were previously sold as pure bundles being sold as separate items.

    Take rock band U2’s latest album, No Line on the Horizon, one of this year’s top-selling albums. People can buy the full album with its 11 songs as a bundle, but they can also download one or more songs separately through online services like Apple’s iTunes. Before the emergence of the online channels, it was not economically feasible to sell all the songs on an album separately—just imagine labels having to print and distribute CDs with numerous subsets of the songs on the album—but when the process is fully digital the costs of reproducing music are much lower. The Internet makes mixed bundling feasible.

    Q: You note that while demand for individual songs on services such as iTunes is growing, record label revenue is shrinking. What’s happening here?

    A: The core idea is pretty simple. My research shows that when consumers start buying music online, they switch from buying full albums to cherry-picking their favorite songs on those albums. On average, each album no longer bought is “traded in” for one, perhaps two, individual songs. And because song prices are relatively low—labels typically have to sell 8 to 10 digital songs to generate the same kind of revenues as they do with one digital album—this causes a sharp reduction in revenues over time. In fact, I estimate that, over the course of the study period, a drop of around one-third of the total weekly sales across the album and its associated songs is directly attributable to people switching to buy music online.

    And it might be helpful to point out that my model controls for any trends in illegal downloading, and for other possible changes in marketing strategies (such as, say, the labels placing more emphasis on less popular music genres over time), that could also put a downward pressure on music revenues. This makes the estimated drop in revenues all the more dramatic.

    Q: Are these forces affecting every artist and album equally?

    A: No, that is an important point. There can be sharp differences. My study was primarily aimed at uncovering what factors may affect the magnitude of the impact. For instance, I expected my results to show that albums with a larger number of songs would be more insulated from the drop in revenues—I figured that if all songs are priced equally, those albums are a particularly “good deal” for consumers. But that is not what I found: The number of songs on an album does not really matter.

    Instead, the findings suggest that music buyers evaluate bundles in other ways. Consumers respond more favorably to a bundle if its items are more consistent in their appeal. That is, bundles that are highly uneven in how popularity is distributed across individual components see an even greater decrease in revenues over time. Perhaps this sounds intuitive, but it doesn’t necessarily correspond with the popular belief that one or two popular songs can “make” an album. My findings suggest that as music consumption moves online, labels are less and less likely to get away with selling a bundle based on the strength of one or two components if the other items are far less appealing. The sharper the differences in appeal, the more consumers will know exactly where “to draw the line” in deciding which subset of items to buy, and thus forgo buying the album.

    My study also highlights the ongoing role of brands: I find that a strong artist reputation helps to curb the negative impact of unbundling. Consumers are more likely to buy full albums from established bands like U2 with a strong track record of success.

    Q: So what should record labels do to fix things?

    A: The labels could simply refuse to offer their goods in an unbundled form online by avoiding retailers like iTunes that, with few exceptions, require that songs be made available separately. The band AC/DC has followed that strategy for years, and some insiders attribute its high album sales to that choice. However, it is difficult to see how this strategy would affect less-established artists, and I think the long-run effects are difficult to predict.

    A better approach might be to continue to push for higher prices online and generally more flexibility in setting prices. The key for labels is to capture a high-enough markup on individual songs to make up for any lost revenues on albums. Another strategy worth considering is to sequentially release albums and songs so as to stimulate more loyal and eager consumers to buy the full bundle. Offering extras to consumers buying the full bundle may help, too.

    More broadly, I think labels should rethink the essence of a bundle. An album with around 12 songs may be a fine format for some artists, but why would it necessarily fit the majority of musicians? Digital channels give labels great flexibility to try alternative formats. My results show that giving preference to quality over quantity and designing smaller, more consistent bundles may be beneficial.

    In general terms, the same probably applies to other industries where digital channels could lead to an unbundling of products, such as book or newspaper publishing and television production. It should be about providing real value to consumers, not about tricking them into buying something they do not want.

    Q: Apple appears to be making some changes in the iTunes store that could help labels. First, it has introduced three-tiered pricing, which allows higher prices for popular songs. Second, the iTunes LP format allows music companies to sell albums with bonus material such as photos. And the new Michael Jackson album will be available only in bundled format. Signs of things to come?

    A: I think so, yes. The labels waited a relatively long time for more room to price songs as they see fit on iTunes, and they certainly have embraced the ability to price songs higher than $0.99. In a typical week, the lion’s share of the iTunes Top 100 songs are priced at $1.29. The 30 percent higher price does not seem to prevent those songs from becoming popular among consumers.

    And the Michael Jackson pricing strategy is another example of labels trying to protect themselves from the losses associated with unbundling, and rethinking what a bundle is. I think we will see a lot of experiments with different formats.

    Q: Earlier this decade, Apple persuaded many record companies to agree to a pricing model ($0.99 per tune) that held for years. In retrospect, do you think the music companies missed the boat to rethink their digital music business at the very start? Are there lessons here for other industries faced with the same threat or opportunity?

    A: I understand the reasoning, but I find that hard to say, even with the benefit of hindsight. Song prices certainly seem low, especially when compared with album prices. But we should not forget that labels were battling the threat of piracy, and before Apple came along it wasn’t at all certain whether this new form of selling music online was going to take off. Had Apple opted for significantly higher prices for songs, more people might have stuck with or turned to pirated products. There is something to be said for letting people experience the advantages of a new channel for buying music first and then, when they have come to appreciate the value those channels offer, gradually raising prices to bring them more in line with the value created.

    But I do feel the labels did themselves a disservice by granting a player like Apple such power in the channel. Apple now accounts for over 90 percent of music sold digitally, and the company isn’t even primarily in the business of selling music—it mostly seeks to maximize sales of hardware like iPods and iPhones. I think that having such a player dictate pricing strategies is an undesirable situation for the record labels.

    In fact, this may be the most important lesson for other content producers. They should consider which intermediaries they let into the channel and under which terms, or better yet, aim to be that intermediary themselves so as to maintain control over pricing and other marketing strategies. Initiatives like the Web video aggregation service Hulu, a joint venture between three television broadcasters, perhaps signal that other industries have learned from the music industry.

    Q: What are you working on now?

    A: I am working on a number of research projects that look at the impact of digital technology on strategic marketing, including a project on the pricing of digital songs, a study on the reach and effectiveness of online video advertisements for video games and movies, and a project on how online retailers of entertainment goods can best manage their “long-tail” assortments. I also just completed a case study on Hulu and its role in the television industry.

    I’ve always been intrigued by the media and entertainment industry, but with the advances in digital technology it is turning out to be a particularly fruitful area for research!

    About the author

    Sean Silverthorne is editor-in-chief of HBS Working Knowledge.

  • UK Pub Owner Fined Due To Unauthorized Downloads On Free Pub WiFi?

    A bunch of folks have sent in the story of a nameless pub owner in the UK who has supposedly been fined £8,000 in a lawsuit brought by a copyright holder over unauthorized downloads that were done over free WiFi that the pub offered. Of course, there is a lot of missing information here, so I’m not quite sure how much to believe of this story without further evidence. The name of the pub is not given. The information was provided by a WiFi hotspot provider, The Cloud, which claims that the specific pub owner has not given permission to publicize the case. Yet, if it was a lawsuit, you would think that there would be some court records detailing this. It appears that the laws regarding safe harbors for copyright infringement are not nearly as clear as they are in the US. Under the DMCA it seems that any hotspot owner would have safe harbor protections against such a lawsuit, and it seems odd that a court would fine the pub owner when it was clearly a user of the access point that did the file sharing.

    Permalink | Comments | Email This Story





  • Production Nissan Qazana will bring new era of design, love it or hate it reaction

    Filed under: ,

    2012 Nissan Qazana – Click above for high-res image gallery

    By this point in the year it’s not as easy to find worthy entries for Understatement of the Year – there is just so much competition – but a comment made about the Nissan Qazana certainly qualifies: a Nissan insider told UK-based Autocar that the gelatinous crossover “will split opinion.”

    And not only will you get your chance to buy one in 2012, statements by Nissan indicate that you’ll have your chance to buy other cars that also look like it. Nissan’s customer research appears to have also given the company every reason for believing “it will be a success,” and that this will give the brand “a more attractive and emotional appeal in the future.”

    Nissan hasn’t said what Qazana design features might be seen on other cars, and we don’t know if we’re ready to even think about that possibility. Europeans have three years to get ready for it, and we in the States have that time to prepare for an Altima that looks like Admiral Ackbar.

    Gallery: Geneva 2009: Nissan Qazana

    Photos copyright (C)2009 Chris Paukert / Weblogs, Inc.
    [Source: Autocar]

    Production Nissan Qazana will bring new era of design, love it or hate it reaction originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

  • Increase your Alexa Rank

    Increase your Alexa Rank
    First of all, let’s see what this Alexa Rank is, and why it may be of importance to you.
    Alexa is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, and delivers information on traffic levels for websites. Alexa gathers this information through its toolbar, which can be downloaded and installed from alexa.com.

    logo button1 Increase your Alexa Rank

    Alexa may not be as well known as Google’s PageRank, but still has quite some influence. Alexa Rank is very much used amongst webmasters, to value a website. This means that if you are ever thinking of selling your website, or offering advertisement space on it, the Alexa Rank of your website will come into play, and will even be a main factor to decide the prices.
    How is Alexa Rank defined?
    Let’s see what Alexa itself has to say about that:
    “The traffic rank is based on three months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of Alexa Toolbar users and is a combined measure of page views and users (reach). As a first step, Alexa computes the reach and number of page views for all sites on the Web on a daily basis.
    The main Alexa traffic rank is based on the geometric mean of these two quantities averaged over time (so that the rank of a site reflects both the number of users who visit that site as well as the number of pages on the site viewed by those users)”
    What is the problem with Alexa?
    Alexa needs the visitors to have the toolbar installed, or else it doesn’t see the visit to the website. Since the only people concerned about the Alexa Rank are webmasters (for the value for ads and reselling), the majority of people who have this toolbar installed are webmasters. So, to be correct, the Alexa Rank shows you how popular your website is, amongst webmasters mostly. However, since these are the ones you need when you want to sell ads, or sell your website, that is a good thing.
    How do you increase your Alexa Rank?
    Above all, it is the same as with any other rank, it is a numbers game. If your audience grows, so will your Alexa Rank, simply because of the overall growth. A larger audience is created by creating and keep creating high quality content, and getting a large number of incoming links (for which the great content works wonders too…).
    However, there are a few things you can do to increase your Alexa Rank.
    1. Install the Alexa Toolbar yourself in your Firefox or Internet Explorer browser (unfortunately there is no toolbar available for Safari, Opera or Chrome. Then set your website as your homepage. Everytime you open your browser, the Alexa toolbar will count this as being one visitor. While your at it, encourage others to install the Alexa Toolbar. Tell your mom and sister that you need to install a security update for their browser, install the toolbar, and set your own site as their homepage (something you should do anyway ;-) ).
    2. Put the Alexa rank widget up on your website. It shows your Alexa Rank to your visitors, and it will receive quite some clicks (depending on your traffic of course, again, it is a numbers game). It is said (but not proven) that these clicks count as visitors, even if the visitor doesn’t have the Alexa Toolbar installed.
    3. Write a blogpost or article about Alexa. Loads and loads of webmasters want to increase their Alexa rank. They are looking for articles such as this one. If your article is written well (which I hope in this case), it will attract many webmasters. With the toolbar installed. Your rank will peak!
    4. Generally write webmaster-related content, and create a webmasters-tool or most-valued-webmasters-links page.  If you write content or have specific pages that attract webmasters,… Well, remember the previous tip!
    5. Be active on webmaster and seo forums and blogs, and show your URL there. Be it in your profile, your sig, or by providing usefull answers and  referring to articles you wrote about the topic. Again, many webmasters, many Alexa toolbars, increased ranking.
    6. Get discovered by the Asian websurfers. Apparently, Asian webusers are very fond of the Alexa toolbar. Getting into that market will increase your Alexa Rank. You can get started there by adding your url to some asian directories, participating in Asian forums or social media, or get to know someone Asian who can spread your url.
    7. Get your pages Dugg or StumbledUpon. If your content is of high linkworthy quality, chances are high that you will get Dugg or StumbledUpon. This will massively increase your traffic, and thus (the numbers game again), your Alexa rank. If you keep this up (keep on writing high quality content), your overall rankings and incoming links will boost through the roof!
    Do you have other ways of increasing the Alexa rank, then don’t be afraid to share them in the comments below. And to the ones who are reading this article, and don’t have the Alexa Toolbar installed yet: go to Alexa.com, install the toolbar, and head back over here!!!! ;-)

    First of all, let’s see what this Alexa Rank is, and why it may be of importance to you.

    Alexa is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, and delivers information on traffic levels for websites. Alexa gathers this information through its toolbar, which can be downloaded and installed from alexa.com.

    Alexa may not be as well known as Google’s PageRank, but still has quite some influence. Alexa Rank is very much used amongst webmasters, to value a website. This means that if you are ever thinking of selling your website, or offering advertisement space on it, the Alexa Rank of your website will come into play, and will even be a main factor to decide the prices.

    How is Alexa Rank defined?

    Let’s see what Alexa itself has to say about that:

    “The traffic rank is based on three months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of Alexa Toolbar users and is a combined measure of page views and users (reach). As a first step, Alexa computes the reach and number of page views for all sites on the Web on a daily basis.

    The main Alexa traffic rank is based on the geometric mean of these two quantities averaged over time (so that the rank of a site reflects both the number of users who visit that site as well as the number of pages on the site viewed by those users)”

    What is the problem with Alexa?

    Alexa needs the visitors to have the toolbar installed, or else it doesn’t see the visit to the website. Since the only people concerned about the Alexa Rank are webmasters (for the value for ads and reselling), the majority of people who have this toolbar installed are webmasters. So, to be correct, the Alexa Rank shows you how popular your website is, amongst webmasters mostly. However, since these are the ones you need when you want to sell ads, or sell your website, that is a good thing.

    How do you increase your Alexa Rank?

    Above all, it is the same as with any other rank, it is a numbers game. If your audience grows, so will your Alexa Rank, simply because of the overall growth. A larger audience is created by creating and keep creating high quality content, and getting a large number of incoming links (for which the great content works wonders too…).

    However, there are a few things you can do to increase your Alexa Rank.

    1. Install the Alexa Toolbar yourself in your Firefox or Internet Explorer browser (unfortunately there is no toolbar available for Safari, Opera or Chrome. Then set your website as your homepage. Everytime you open your browser, the Alexa toolbar will count this as being one visitor. While your at it, encourage others to install the Alexa Toolbar. Tell your mom and sister that you need to install a security update for their browser, install the toolbar, and set your own site as their homepage (something you should do anyway ;-) ).

    2. Put the Alexa rank widget up on your website. It shows your Alexa Rank to your visitors, and it will receive quite some clicks (depending on your traffic of course, again, it is a numbers game). It is said (but not proven) that these clicks count as visitors, even if the visitor doesn’t have the Alexa Toolbar installed.

    3. Write a blogpost or article about Alexa. Loads and loads of webmasters want to increase their Alexa rank. They are looking for articles such as this one. If your article is written well (which I hope in this case), it will attract many webmasters. With the toolbar installed. Your rank will peak!

    4. Generally write webmaster-related content, and create a webmasters-tool or most-valued-webmasters-links page.  If you write content or have specific pages that attract webmasters,… Well, remember the previous tip!

    5. Be active on webmaster and seo forums and blogs, and show your URL there. Be it in your profile, your sig, or by providing usefull answers and  referring to articles you wrote about the topic. Again, many webmasters, many Alexa toolbars, increased ranking.

    6. Get discovered by the Asian websurfers. Apparently, Asian webusers are very fond of the Alexa toolbar. Getting into that market will increase your Alexa Rank. You can get started there by adding your url to some asian directories, participating in Asian forums or social media, or get to know someone Asian who can spread your url.

    7. Get your pages Dugg or StumbledUpon. If your content is of high linkworthy quality, chances are high that you will get Dugg or StumbledUpon. This will massively increase your traffic, and thus (the numbers game again), your Alexa rank. If you keep this up (keep on writing high quality content), your overall rankings and incoming links will boost through the roof!

    Do you have other ways of increasing the Alexa rank, then don’t be afraid to share them in the comments below. And to the ones who are reading this article, and don’t have the Alexa Toolbar installed yet: go to Alexa.com, install the toolbar, and head back over here!!!! ;-)

    Related posts:

    1. Rankings Rankings are a very important thing to webmasters who want…
    2. Important facts about keywords Important facts about keywords Keywords and phrases form a good…
    3. What’s this PageRank (PR) all about? PageRank is one of many methods that Google uses to…


  • Morgan Stanley: First Comes The Banking Crisis, Then Comes The Sovereign Debt Crisis

    What happens after governments go trillions into debt to rescue their banking systems? The governments themselves collapse. It’s what Niall Ferguson has been warning about. It’s the lesson that Roubini sees in Dubai.

    And now Morgan Stanley, in a new report about the upcoming slog, reminds us of some history.

    crisis government banking

    Join the conversation about this story »

    See Also:

  • Editorial: The Competitive World that Awaits Us, Daily Herald

    You don’t need to be an economist or sociologist to understand that the world, and our piece of it, has changed. The evidence is all around us.

    We have gone from an old economy built around manufacturing to a new one built around technology, from an old economy where advanced skills were not essential ingredients of the good life to a new one where millions could be left behind and left out.

    Our world, and our piece of it, has changed. In fact, it is changing at such a rapid pace that it is difficult to keep up with it all. Any of us trying to master the functions on a phone or the buttons on a television remote control understand the challenge.

    And that change is going to continue. In fact, the unsettling pace will only accelerate.

    We heard one report the other day that new technology is replacing old technology so fast that by the time a baccalaureate student completes four years of college, half of what he or she learned will be outdated.

    Imagine that. Think about the implications.

    Is it any wonder that the world, and our piece of it, is on edge?

    It is easy to be intimidated by that change. It is tempting to throw up your hands and give up.

    One man who doesn’t is Kenneth L. Ender, the new president of Harper College in Palatine. Spend an hour, as we did recently, listening to Ender talk about the challenge of this blistering change and you’ll come away impressed by the magnitude of the challenge but also inspired that solutions are possible if we roll up our sleeves.

    Harper College plays an important role in this as a prominent educational institution in the suburbs. But as the catalyst that he hopes to be, Ender understands in a refreshing way that Harper does not play the only role. The community college cannot do it alone.

    “The college,” he says, “has to be a partner.”

    Earlier this month, the college began planting the seeds of community collaboration. It held a series of discussions on preparing the global work force and building a partnership for student success.

    In doing so, Ender reached out to educational institutions and community leaders from around the suburbs. Clearly, Ender understands that to meet the challenges of the 21st century, collaboration is needed between K-12 schools, community colleges, four-year institutions, adult education programs and work force systems.

    Ender’s aim is daunting yet simple: Build community through student success.

    Count us in.

  • Wife of Failed Afghan Candidate Proud of Her Role (Harper Student Profile), Chicago Tribune

    By Mary Jekielek Insprucker, Special to the Tribune

    When Nooria Bibi’s husband decided to run for president of their native Afghanistan, she didn’t hesitate to leave their home in Hoffman Estates and campaign for him, despite the threats of violence.

    Mutasim Billah Mazhabi finished far behind Hamid Karzai, the winner in the disputed August election, but Bibi has no regrets. She says she is proud that she had a chance to speak up for women’s rights in a country where she said it’s unusual for a woman to say anything in public.

    “Every day, the women die a bit when their children have no clothes and no food, and they have to live with the corrupt government,” said Bibi. “It is they who have to encourage young men” not to commit suicide.

    Bibi, 37, is a now a student at Harper College, where she is studying international politics. Her husband, she said, lives part time in Afghanistan, where he oversees the family car dealership and rugmaking business.

    The couple met in Afghanistan and lived in Pakistan before moving to the United States about a decade ago with their five children.

    Helay Salehzai, 40, of Westmont, said she volunteered with Bibi and her husband at a health clinic they helped establish in Pakistan for Afghan refugees

    “She knew the people’s pain and sacrificed what she had for them,” Salehzai said. “Those she helped, as done in our culture, raised and cupped their hands in prayer for her.”

    Eric Bohman, the English-as-second-language coordinator at Harper, invited Bibi to speak on campus at a recent event that focused on international education.

    “Her story was topical and she had strong convictions on what her family was doing to help her country,” he said. Those who attended “wanted to learn more about women’s issues in the Middle East and the complexities of [political] campaigns in Afghanistan.”

    Bohman said he watched an online clip of one of the rallies Bibi spoke at during her husband’s campaign. He said he was impressed with her message to the women in the audience, assuring them that they had a voice in the election.

    “If change is to come, it will come from someone like Nooria and her husband, because they are genuine in their beliefs in what will make Afghanistan better,” he said.

  • 86-Year-Old Has No Plans to Graduate Soon, FOX Chicago

  • How Warren Buffett Really Makes His Investment Decisions

     

    Alice Schroeder, former Wall Street analyst and author, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life (5 min.):

    • How does Warren Buffett really make his investment decisions?  Is it as stupidly simple as it seems in his annual letters?
    • Answer: Of course not.
    • Buffett has a very efficient screening process and 50 years of experience
    • What do the other 11 people at Berkshire Hathaway do?
    • Why no MBA students are working for Warren Buffett for free
    • Read excerpts of The Snowball here >

    Produced By: Kamelia Angelova & William Wei

    More Alice Schroeder:
    – Warren Buffett’s Secrets To Success
     – The Truth About Warren Buffett: He’s “Almost Like A Kid”

    More Video: TBI Calendar Click HERE >


    Join the conversation about this story »

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  • 297 Facebook Pages Have More than 1 Million Fans

    Things are moving fast online and having an online presence doesn’t just mean building a website like in the olden days and calling it quits. Not so long ago, MySpace was a must for any artist trying to ‘connect’ with his/her fans. Now though, Facebook is where it’s at and having a Facebook Page isn’t ‘looking ahead,’ it’s already a must. But just having a Facebook Page doesn’t guarantee that people will actually visit it and a new, rather thorough, study from social media consultancy firm Sysomos has found that most pages aren’t that popular with a full 77 percent of them having less than 1,000 fans.

    The researchers looked at about 600,000 Facebook Pages to see how popular they were with the users. They only counted the number of fans, pretty much the only accurate stat available to third-parties. Their findings show that a big number of pages are little more than place holders with less than 10 fans, 5 percent of them or 30,000 pages. Of course the vast majority of pages are a bit more popular, but the number drops off very quickly. 65 percent of pages have more than 100 fans while only 23 percent (123,000 fan pages) have more than 1,000 fans.

    After this, the numbers really start to dwindle and only 4 percent (24,000) of the pages analyzed have more than 10,000 fans. Moving on, only 0.76 percent of Fa… (read more)

  • REPORT: Fitch Ratings says U.S. auto industry headed for airline-style cyclical bankruptcies

    Filed under: , ,

    Remember this past spring and summer’s super speedy General Motors and Chrysler bankruptcies? If the billions in government loans and White House strong-arming is starting to slip into the recesses of your memory, your mind will likely be refreshed sometime in the future, at least according to Fitch Ratings. Fitch says that high fixed costs, perpetual over capacity and weak sales will lead to more bankruptcies that will mirror the misery of the airline industry.

    Fitch gives plenty of reasons that the auto industry is far from out of the woods, chief among them is the continuation of weak sales. The ratings agency predicts 2010 car sales will rise by 7.8% to 11.1 million units, an improvement that is still far shy of the industry’s peak sales of 17 million units. Another chief concern is GM and Chrysler’s inability to access the credit markets for the foreseeable future. Credit markets are tight enough already, and Fitch doesn’t see any bank lining up to loan money to any company fresh out of bankruptcy and still in restructuring mode. And if suppliers don’t become more healthy or if gas prices spike again, Fitch sees the potential for more stress and ultimately more bankruptcies. And the Detroit 3 still have to contend with a high dollar union workforce and retiree obligations. Of the Detroit automakers, Fitch unsurprisingly sees the most stability at Ford. The Blue Oval still has access to bank loans and Fitch feels it has the strongest product lineup as well.

    While we certainly agree that the auto industry is anything but out of the woods, we’re also a bit skeptical of Fitch Ratings’ foggy crystal ball. After all, Fitch didn’t foresee much of the banking collapse that brought this country to its largest recession in decades until the collapse was painfully obvious, giving AA ratings to banks like Lehman Bros. only one year before that financial institution’s dive into Chapter 11 protection.

    [Source: Reuters | Photo by David Goldman/Getty]

    REPORT: Fitch Ratings says U.S. auto industry headed for airline-style cyclical bankruptcies originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • GoGo Monster by Taiyo Matsumoto, translated by Camellia Nieh

    Yuki Tachibana (whose first name means ’snow,’ and last name means ’standing flower’) is not your average first-grader. He draws strange pictures on his desk that unnerve his other classmates. He can see things no one else can. He talks to the invisible Super Star, and all the others who have claimed the the school’s fourth floor, an area forbidden to the students. And his best– and only – visible friend is the elderly widower, Ganz (whose name happens to mean ‘all’ in German), who tends the school grounds, bringing the surrounding plots to gorgeous fruition. How fitting that Yuki is most at home amidst all of Ganz’s special blooms.

    That spring of the new school year, transfer students arrive from a nearby school that’s been closed, including Makoto Suzuki, who is assigned to the desk next to Yuki. Little by little – through the book’s four chapters, named for the four seasons of the year – Yuki offers glimpses into his mysterious world to his new friend (makoto in Japanese means ‘truth, sincerity, devotion’), a much needed companion during a time when Yuki’s ‘other world’ begins to collide more frequently with his real world … and he is caught in the nebulous in-between.

    Matsumoto, creator of both manga and film, TEKKON KINKREET, offers another modern fable of two boys and their less-than-real lives. Matsumoto offers disjointed reminders – the tiny room that holds the elderly Ganz’s whole life, the school that does not have enough students to fill its empty floors as Japan’s population decreases, the miscommunication between teachers and students, the ever-missing parents, and so on – of today’s disconnected contemporary world filled with inexplicable events, in which children are often left to create their own reality … or escape the one they are not able to face.

    Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult

    Published: 2009 (United States)
    GOGO MONSTER 1 © Taiyo Matsumoto
    Original Japanese edition published by Shogakukan Inc.

  • Black Friday Was A Huge Hit Because Americans Are Broke

    It looks as if cash-strapped consumers rushed for bargains like never before, but spent less (because they likely feel less wealthy these days). A National Retail Federation (NRF) survey reported that shoppers’ average spending fell 8%

    NRF: In order to nab the best holiday items, more shoppers headed out for bargains while it was still dark outside. According to the survey, nearly one-third of shoppers (31.2%) were at the stores by 5 a.m., compared with 23.3 percent who were at stores by that time last year.

    nrf

    “During a more robust economy, people may be inclined to hit the “snooze” button on Black Friday, but high unemployment and a focus on price caused shoppers to visit stores early in anticipation of the best deals,” said Phil Rist, Executive Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, BIGresearch.

    Still, we continue to recommend the ultimate Christmas bargain shopping — after Christmas. It all goes massively on sale every year like clock work. Just shift your family tradition by a week and arbitrage the Christmas traditionalists.

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  • LG Monaco becomes LG IQ becomes LG eXpo, coming to AT&T on December 7th

    5195_8bcce23ebe669f4fe88534804c94cba6 It seems the LG Monaco is going to be the handset with many names.  The smartphone will be called the LG IQ on the Telus network, but the Snapdragon powered QWERTY slider will be coming to AT&T very soon under the guise of the LG eXpo, with pico-projector in situ for all your dubious presentation needs.

    According to Phonescoop the pico-projector uses Texas Instrument’s DLP technology, and is of course removable. It also comes equipped with a fingerprint reader for extra corporate security.

    This smartphone, despite its specs, seems not to be evoking much excitement in the Windows Mobile community, but I believe for the business user this may still be the device to chose ahead of the HTC HD2, simply due to the presence of the hardware keyboard.

    Do our readers agree or disagree?  Let us know in the comments.

    Read more at PhoneScoop here.

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