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Category: News

  • Toshiba Launches 64GB Flash Drive, Possibly Bound for an iPhone Near You

    If you have a 64GB iPod touch and you read this headline, you might be thinking, “What gives? Isn’t this already a no-brainer?” but the fact is, before Toshiba announced its 64GB drive today, there was no way to cram that much storage into the iPhone in its existing configuration. The 64GB touch features two 32GB modules, whereas the iPhone can only support one, since it needs all the extra space for its various wireless radios.

    The new chip is a single-package solution, comprised of 16 32Gbit (4GB) chips combined on a 32nm platform. In case anyone out there needs help with the math, this announcement also paves the way for a 128GB iPod touch, which would finally bring it almost up to par with its aging disc-based predecessor, the iPod classic.

    Toshiba doesn’t mention Apple by name in its product announcement regarding the new high-capacity flash modules, but it does mention that they are “designed for application in a wide range of digital consumer products, including smartphones, mobile phones, netbooks and digital video cameras.” It seems Apple would make for a great higher profile customer to use the new tech in its products in those categories.

    It’s not completely beyond the realm of possibility to imagine Toshiba’s new storage modules making their way into Apple’s much talked-about tablet device, either. If indeed we will see the tablet in 2010, many now expect it to arrive either in Spring or sometime during the second quarter of 2010, which does fit with the proposed production roll-out of the 64GB flash device. Samples of the new module are shipping now, with mass production expected to begin in Q1 2010.

    If Apple’s device is keeping a slim profile, as recent potentially leaked video seems to suggest, and if it owes more to its iPod and iPhone brethren than to the Mac line, it stands to reason that Apple would opt for this kind of storage option over a more traditional HDD or SSD. If the device is indeed the multimedia wunderkind many blogs and analysts are predicting it will be, I’d probably pay extra for additional storage configuration options that would allow me to bump up the storage capacity to 128GB, too, which would be an easy option to include using the new modules.

    While it was inevitable that 64GB flash modules would come to pass, it’s nice to have confirmation that they’ve in fact arrived, and well in time for the launch of the next iPhone revision this upcoming Spring. Tablet or not, Apple’s smartphone at least is poised to outpace the competition in terms of onboard storage by an even greater margin than it currently enjoys.

  • Google's Data Management and Visualization Tool Fusion Tables Gets an API

    Google is enhancing its recently introduced Fusion Tables data management tool, which is labeled as a Labs project, with the release of a dedicated API. The API will enable users with dynamic data sets to update them without having to log into the Fusion Tables site or having to manually add the new data. This way the various visualizations and tables the users have created will always have the latest data available.

    “In Fusion Tables, you can share all or part of a table with other people… By merging your data with other people’s shared tables, you can see the whole picture in one place, discuss the data in embedded comments, and mark up the data with your collaborators,” Anno Langen, Jayant Madhavan and Rebecca Shapley from the Google Fusion Tables Team wrote.

    “With the new Fusion Tables API, you can update and query your dataset in Fusion Tables programmatically, without ever logging in to the Fusion Tables website. The API means you can import data from whatever data source you may have, whether a text file or a full-powered data base,” they added.

    Google launched Fusion Tables as a cloud-based tool for visualizing, merging and collaborating on data regardless of its origins. It originally enabled users to upload tabular data sets o… (read more)

  • The Nexus One: A Non-Story

    Over the weekend the rumors of a Google Phone were confirmed in the guise of the whimsically named Nexus One. It’s an unbranded HTC-made carrier-unlocked handset running Android 2.0, and it looks lovely. And already articles have popped-up examining its various (rumored) features and, naturally, pondering when we can buy one for ourselves.

    Why is the first thought we have when we see a new mobile phone whether we should consider switching?

    Admit it — when you look at a friend’s mobile phone you automatically run through a series of questions in the back of your mind. My standard set include “Does it look good?” and “Does it have a nice UI?” (Of course, certain conditions, if met, automatically remove the phone from consideration; such as “Oh, it’s a clamshell…” and “What are those hard nobbly plasticky things? Keys, you say?”)

    We do the same with desktop computers. In an airport lounge or coffee shop I feel a certain sort of infallible pride when cracking open my MacBook. After all, everyone knows those are great machines, right? Yet I still look at the other machines around me and run through my mental checklist. It’s crazy how insecure I am, how much I need to be sure my laptop doesn’t suck.

    Operating Systems, too, get the same appraisal. We can’t help it. Every new release of Mac OS X gets compared with the latest version of Windows. There’s every good reason to do this if you regularly use both platforms. If you only Tweet, update Facebook or watch hilarious kittens on YouTube, what does it matter that the paltform you don’t own and don’t need just got an upgrade?

    Of course, Geeks will always do this comparison of technologies — it’s in our DNA, we can’t help ourselves. But there’s a problem; our technophilic tendencies leak over into the world of the Normals.

    Is Y the New X?

    We use our iPhones and Kindles to scan the tech press and follow geek–lists on Twitter, while Normals, on the other hand, read dead-tree newspapers and don’t know what Twitter is. But look at the so-called “Technology” columns in those newspapers (you know, where sidebars helpfully explain the meaning of words like “touchscreen” and “3G”) and you’ll notice that they’re forever comparing gadgets, computers, OS’s and websites. Trust me, no daily newspaper “technology” columnist genuinely believes their readers care about the differences between Twitter and BrightKite. Less so the differences between Snow Leopard and Windows 7. Strangely, that doesn’t stop them writing about it.

    They’re just reading select blogs in the tech community and writing their own carbon copy equivalents of what they find there. It’s to be expected, for here in Geektown technology comparions are part of the landscape. But we are taking it too far. Particularly in asking that assinine question, “Is Y the new X?”

    The Nexus One is generating a lot of (quite unnecessary) buzz and if you haven’t already stumbled upon the YX question, you very soon will — “Is the Nexus the real iPhone killer?”

    I say it’s nonsense. In time we’ll see detailed teardowns of the Nexus, and while geeks will compare its screen and processor to other handsets, mainstream media hacks will salivate over the possibility that here, finally, at last! we have a phone to beat the iPhone. It’s a silly pursuit.

    The Nexus One. A handsome phone, but not an iPhone Killer. (Image by Engadget)

    It took almost three years, but manufacturers are fast catching-up to the iPhone. Bewildering, however, the press coverage of smartphones — driven to hysteria in 2007 with the launch of the iPhone — is almost entirely focused on finding an iPhone killer. It’s the same false-dichotomy we would ridicule if, say, Nissan’s next family five-door were hailed as “the Ford killer.” Ridiculous, right? After all, they’re both essentially just cars. Strip away the optional GPS and gravity-defying cup-holders and they both have the same basic innards. This is true of the latest smartphones. They’re basically the same. True, smartphones used to be terrible, but that’s only because manufacturers were committed to cheap and easy business models and customers didn’t know they could demand something better. Apple decided to do something about that. It was a one-time shift in the mobile industry that will not happen again. The only phone that’s going to replace the iPhone is — predictably enough — the next iPhone. I can’t believe intelligent, insightful journalists and editors keep missing that point.

    For every smartphone owner on the planet I’d wager there are a dozen more people with a dumb “feature” phone. Those people will never go out of their way to buy smartphones, but as the latest technology becomes cheaper, smaller and easier to manufacture, it will find its way into all handsets. One day, all phones will be smart. And most people will get there never caring which handset came first, was better than some other handset, or was considered a “killer.”

    It doesn’t matter if it’s Mac vs. Windows, Bing vs. Google or iPhone vs. Android. Breathless reports along the lines of “X is here, and Y should be worried…” are almost always just white noise.

    The Nexus One is a non-story. I wonder how long it will take everyone else to realize that.

  • After Dropping, Credit Card Charge-Offs Are Back On The Rise

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    After some signs that consumers were starting to catch up on their credit card bills, charge-offs are back on the rise!

    Reuters: Capital One Financial Corp and Discover Financial Services reported that credit-card charge-offs rose in November — a sign that consumers remain under stress.

    In a regulatory filing on Tuesday, Capital One said the annualized net charge-off rate — debts the company believes it will never collect — for U.S. credit cards rose to 9.60 percent in November from 9.04 percent in October.

    In another regulatory filing, Discover said its charge-off rate rose to 8.98 percent from 8.54 percent after two months of declines.

    JPMorgan’s charge-offs are up as well.

    Join the conversation about this story »

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  • Ignorant Americans Cutting Back On Spending More Than Investing

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    After suffering $12 trillion in losses to their investment portfolio over the past two years, you might think that Americans would be hesitant to keep pouring money into the markets.

    Couple that with the fact that many Americans completely missed the stunning rally of 2009 and the signs that we might be headed for massive inflation that could wipe out many investment gains. This should be a recipe for Americans spending their dollars instead of risking them to inflation or further declines in buying power.

    But that’s not what’s happening at all. A survey from IBM last month found that a larger percentage Americans are surprisingly cutting back on spending than on investing in their portfolios. The poll found that 27% of investors are contributing less, while 35% plan to spend less on holiday gifts and travel. Fourteen percent plan to increase investing, and 8% plan to spend more on holiday shopping.

    “The consumer buying behavior has fundamentally changed,” IBM research Suzanne Duncan said, according to a Dow Jones report. “They have become longer-term in orientation, both with how they view retailers and their financial providers.”

    What’s behind this enthusiasm for investing? Much of it may just be ignorance. The survey found that investors don’t know much about basic finance despite increased attention to financial news. Only half of those polled knew that Ben Bernanke is the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

    These findings are in keeping with long standing research showing that investors are ignorant to a startling degree. They mirror the broader findings that researchers have uncovered about widespread public ignorance. Although some solipsistic media types will likely say that journalists are to blame for not educating the public, the truth is probably that many people are simply ineducable.  What’s more, they overestimate the own knowledge, which means they aren’t rationally ignorant. They are ignorant of their ignorance. It’s ignorance all the way down.

    Instead of knowledge about finance, investors and consumers use a far more personal set of heuristics to make decisions. Investors don’t know or care much about the financial stability of their brokers or the performance of their investments. They make decisions on the relationship they have with a firm and their broker

    Similarly, consumers make purchase decisions based on relationships with retailers rather than a deep knowledge about products.

    This will no doubt frustrate those who are enthusiastic about investor education or consumer advocacy. But reality often frustrates plans to improve people.

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  • KILL RATS WITHOUT POISON (Dec, 1936)

    KILL RATS WITHOUT POISON

    This proven exterminator won’t kill Livestock, Pets or Poultry—Gets Rats Every Time. K-R-O is made from Red Squill, a raticide recommended by U.S. Dept. Agr. (Bul. 1533). Ready-Mixed, 35c and $1.00; Powder, 75c. All Druggists. Results or Your Money Back. K-R-O Company, Springfield, O.

    K-R-O KILLS RATS ONLY

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  • Daimler Starts Production on 200 Mercedes B-Class F-Cell Vehicles

    Daimler B-Class F-CellIn August 2009 I had talked about how Daimler had stated that they would be starting serial production of their Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-Cell hydrogen fuel cell vehicles this year. Now, promises of building fuel cell cars have been a dime a dozen over the years but Daimler has made good on its promise by starting production on the first 200 FCVs on December 14, 2009.

    The Mercedes B-Class F-Cell will be the first fuel cell vehicle to go into serial production. Sure, General Motors is in the process of building 200 FCV test cars for their Project Driveway program. And, sure again, Honda is in the process of building 200 Clarity vehicles for lease at $600 per month for 3 years with an uncertain future after that.

    But, Daimler has decided to go full steam ahead with their hydrogen car, beating the 2015 timeframe that many other automakers have given for the serial production of their FCVs. In September 2009, I had talked about how Daimler and seven other large companies had signed on to the H2 Mobility Plan for Germany in erecting hydrogen fueling stations for the upcoming cars that will be rolling out.

    The Mercedes B-Class F-Cells will likely be rolling out in Germany first, with a few going to California as well, which already has some semblance of a Hydrogen Highway fueling system in place. The Daimler B-Class F-Cell uses a next generation fuel cell, a 10,000 psi compressed hydrogen tank and has a range of around 250 miles.

    There has been no word yet on the price of the Daimler FCV when it rolls off the production line in 2010. If Daimler wants the B-Class F-Cell to be a success, which they surely do, they will need to make it affordable and serviceable locally.

  • Stakeholder News: 07-13 Dec

    Pre-Budget Report
    The Disability Alliance launched their ‘Tackling Disability Poverty’ manifesto to coincide with the Pre-Budget Report. (09 Dec)

    In their response to the Pre-Budget Report, Mencap have expressed disappointment with the lack of long-term funding to support people with learning disabilities. (09 Dec)

    Age Concern and Help the Aged have responded to the Pre-Budget Report, calling for protection of care services as a necessity. (10 Dec)

    Crossroads and The Princess Royal Trust for Carers have criticised the lack of an additional Christmas payment for carers in the Pre-Budget Report. (10 Dec)

    The English Community Care Association has stated that the Pre-Budget Report fails on the criteria of outcomes and value for money. (10 Dec)

    Care
    Carers UK has welcomed the Department of Work and Pensions’ plan to support carers in paid work. (07 Dec)

    Counsel and Care have announced that their annual conference in January 2010 will focus on how high-quality and personalised care can be delivered most effectively. (09 Dec)

    Carers UK have called for clarification from the Government, with the Second Reading of the Personal Care at Home Bill, over how it will work and how it will help carers. (11 Dec)

    General
    Alzheimer’s Society has responded to research into developing a drug that could protect against the disease, calling for greater funding for dementia research. (11 Dec)

  • Windows Mobile installed base in US grew 5% in 8 months, is 600% more than Android’s

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    Comscore has released some numbers for the US smartphone market that makes for some interesting reading. The numbers, which reflect devices owned by users rather than market share, shows that Windows Mobile still has a pretty significant installed base of around 7 million smartphones in US, only moderately less than the 9 million iPhones in the US and that Apple only overtook Windows Mobile in the last 2 months, after the introduction of the iPhone 3GS and the cheaper iPhone 3G.

    This is of course not reflected in the attitude of the blogosphere, who has relegated the OS to irrelevance ages ago.

    Another indicated that mindshare seems to have little to do with market share is that Android installed base is only around 1 million, with Windows Mobile installed base 7 times larger. Even Symbian has a larger share in US than Android, and unexpectedly between July and October 2009 grew its installed base by 24%, compared to only 14% for Android. 

    Also not reflected by the blogosphere is that the real king of the US smartphone world is RIM’s Blackberry, with 41% of the installed base, and more that 50% growth over the last 8 months.  This indicated clearly that there are more than one route to market success, and ones that do not just rely on iTunes integration and 100 000 apps.

    The Windows Mobile installed base itself saw 5% growth over the 8 months.  Obviously this is much less that the 42% the market itself grew, it is still highly significant that the current generation of devices in the US, such as the Touch Pro 2 continue to win converts.

    Spare a thought for Palm, who’s webOS sales and installed base were not large enough to break out.

    See the raw data here.

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  • Mercedes-Benz SLS goes from zero to gold in seconds for Dubai show

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    2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG “desert gold” edition – Click above for high-res image gallery

    Over the past several years, we’ve seen no end of photos of high-end cars with bright chrome and gold finishes coming out of the Middle East and Russia. Until now, none of those have come that way from an automaker’s paint shop. However, you just knew that couldn’t last, and alas, Mercedes-Benz has created a special version of its new SLS AMG supercar for the 2009 Dubai Motor Show.

    Fortunately, Mercedes has decided to forgo the shiny route and applied a matte gold finish dubbed “AMG Desert Gold” to the gull-winged SLS. The badging and trim bits like the three-pointed star also go from the usual chrome or silver to a deep back look, as do the wheels. The overall appearance is actually quite much easier on the eyes than the mirror-finished gold appliques we are used to seeing. At this point the show car is a one-off, but Mercedes has said that if there is enough interest (read enough checks with sufficient zeros) the desert gold paint will be offered through the AMG PERFORMANCE STUDIO program.

    Joining the gold SLS on the Dubai stand is a special 30th anniversary “Edition 79” G55 AMG KOMPRESSOR SUV. This one gets a matte grey finish that is normally only offered on the SLS. The Edition 79 comes with a 507-hp supercharged V8 under the hood for quick blasts across the sand. In proper high-end limited edition fashion, only 79 examples of this old school Benz will be built with all of them headed to the mid-East.

    Gallery: Gold Mercedes-Benz SLS for Dubai Motor Show

    [Source: Mercedes-Benz]

    Continue reading Mercedes-Benz SLS goes from zero to gold in seconds for Dubai show

    Mercedes-Benz SLS goes from zero to gold in seconds for Dubai show originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Exciting News..

    Exenatide Once Weekly Provided Superior Glucose Control Compared to BYETTA(R) in DURATION-5 Study

    SAN DIEGO, INDIANAPOLIS, and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMLN), Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) and Alkermes, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALKS) today announced positive results from a head-to-head study comparing exenatide once weekly, an investigational diabetes therapy, to BYETTA® (exenatide) injection taken twice daily, in patients with type 2 diabetes.

    After 24 weeks of treatment, patients taking exenatide once weekly experienced a statistically superior reduction in A1C, a measure of average blood sugar over three months, of 1.6 percentage points from baseline, compared to a reduction of 0.9 percentage points for BYETTA. Patients treated with exenatide once weekly achieved a mean A1C of 7.1 percent compared with a mean A1C of 7.7 percent in those treated with BYETTA. Both treatment groups achieved statistically significant weight loss by the end of the study, with an average loss of 5.1 pounds for patients taking exenatide once weekly and 3.0 pounds for patients taking BYETTA.

    These findings are consistent with the results of other studies of exenatide once weekly and BYETTA. The companies conducted DURATION-5 to support regulatory submissions outside of the U.S. and provide additional controlled clinical data on the commercially manufactured product. DURATION is a series of clinical trials designed to test the superiority of exenatide once weekly as compared to currently available type 2 diabetes medications.

    "The DURATION-5 data reinforce the efficacy of BYETTA and potential of exenatide once weekly in improving blood glucose control as measured by A1C, and build upon other successful DURATION trials," said Orville G. Kolterman, M.D., senior vice president of research and development, Amylin Pharmaceuticals. "More importantly, these results continue to suggest that if approved, exenatide once weekly could play an important role in advancing the treatment of type 2 diabetes by providing patients the opportunity for improved A1C control and weight loss with just one dose per week."

    Approximately 80 percent of patients completed the study. Consistent with previous DURATION trials, the most frequently reported adverse event in both groups was nausea, reported less frequently by exenatide once weekly users (14 percent) than by BYETTA users (35 percent). There were no major hypoglycemic events. Cases of minor hypoglycemia in both groups were limited to patients using background sulfonylurea therapy.

    The 24-week, open-label superiority study included approximately 250 participants with type 2 diabetes who were not achieving adequate glucose control using background therapies that included diet and exercise, metformin, sulfonylurea, thiazolidinediones or a combination of the agents. Patients were randomized to receive either exenatide once weekly or BYETTA. Patients in the exenatide once weekly treatment arm received 2 milligrams once a week, while patients in the BYETTA arm received 5 micrograms twice a day for the first four weeks and 10 micrograms twice a day for the remaining 20 weeks. The primary endpoint was reduction in A1C; secondary endpoints included change in body weight and fasting plasma glucose, safety and tolerability.

    Amylin, Lilly and Alkermes submitted a new drug application (NDA) for exenatide once weekly to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2009; the NDA was accepted for review in July 2009. Lilly will be responsible for marketing exenatide once weekly outside the U.S. and expects to submit a marketing application to the European Medicines Agency by the end of the second quarter in 2010.

  • Obat Setengah Resep

    Resep. Sumber gambar: getty images Pernahkah kita mendengar seseorang membeli obat di Apotik sebanyak setengah dari jumlah yang tertera dalam resep dokter ? Ungkapan “nebus obat separo” atau “nebus obat setengah”, boleh jadi mengandung dua pengertian. Pertama, mungkin pasien beranggapan obat yang diberikan oleh dokter terlalu banyak. Kedua, mungkin harga obat dalam resep terlalu mahal. Atau tidak cukup uang untuk membeli semua obat yang tertulis dalam resep saat ambil obat di apotik. Menurut pengakuan pasien, alasan terbanyak adalah faktor kedua, yakni: obat mahal banget.

    Lantas, bagaimana reaksi dokter ketika mengetahui pasiennya hanya “nebus obat setengah” dari yang diresepkan ketika si pasien berobat lagi ?

    Beragam ! Ada dokter yang mengganti resep dengan obat merk lain atau dengan obat generik tanpa mengorbankan fungsi dan kualitas obat. Ada yang berujar bahwa sebenarnya harga obat tidak semahal perkiraannya. Ada yang berusaha mencari tahu ke apotik. Ada pula yang bereaksi tidak menyenangkan sembari berkata: “ harga obat memang mahal, mau sembuh apa tidak ?” 

    SALAH SIAPA ?

    Menanggapi fenomena “nebus obat setengah resep” tidak cukup dengan menyalahkan pasien dan dokter secara sepihak. Di luar itu masih ada pihak lain terkait pelayanan medis, yakni apotik dan produsen obat. Dengan kata lain, fenomena “nebus obat setengah resep” yang disebabkan mahalnya harga obat, merupakan lingkaran nan kompleks. Pada artikel ini, kita akan sedikit menguak dari sisi si empunya kompetensi penulis resep, yaitu dokter.

    OBAT IRASIONAL DAN MAIN MATA

    Mengacu pada pedoman Badan Kesehatan Dunia (WHO) pada 1987, pemakaian obat yang rasional adalah yang memenuhi kriteria sebagai berikut:

    1. Digunakan sesuai dengan indikasi penyakit
    2. Tersedia setiap saat dengan harga yang terjangkau masyarakat luas
    3. Diberikan dengan dosis yang tepat
    4. Diberikan dalam interval waktu yang tepat
    5. Lama pemberiannya tepat
    6. Obat yang diberikan harus efektif, aman, dan mutunya terjamin.

    Faktanya, masih banyak pemberian obat irasional, terutama terkait “indikasi”. Sudah menjadi rahasia umum bahwa sebagian dokter memberikan obat kepada pasien tidak melulu berdasarkan “indikasi penyakit”, tapi terselip “indikasi lain”. Apa saja “indikasi lain” di balik indikasi penyakit ? Bentuk dan nilai nominalnya beragam, diantaranya:  bonus, kredit nota (CN), kontrak peresepan, uang transport, persentase resep, dan masih banyak lagi istilah yang digunakan sebagai bentuk main mata antara produsen obat dan dokter.

    Pelbagai bentuk  “kerja sama” antara dokter dan produsen obat, semuanya dibebankan kepada pasien. Ujung-ujungnya bisa ditebak, yakni harga obat makin melambung. Belum lagi adanya kecenderungan dokter meresepkan obat mahal, dan bahkan ada yang terang-terangan mengarahkan pasien untuk membeli obat di apotik tertentu.

    Beberapa teman sejawat bertutur: “ gimana mas, kita gak minta tapi dikasih, masa mau ditolak ”. Yaaaaa, tolak aja. Apa sulitnya bilang tidak. Toh uang begituan gak bakalan bikin kaya. Malah membuat dokter berada pada posisi bak hamba sahaya yang dikendalikan pihak lain.

    dr. Djoko Santoso, SpPD K-GH PhD dalam artikelnya yang dimuat di beberapa koran, berjudul Terjerat Pemakaian Obat Irasional, menyebutkan bahwa harga obat di Indonesia tergolong paling mahal di kawasan Asia Pasifik. Pada paragraf kedua, beliau menuliskan:

    Hasil penelitian Health Action International (HAI) Penang pada 1995 terhadap 22 jenis obat yang paling banyak digunakan di 29 negara Asia Pasifik membuktikan bahwa harga obat di negeri kita tercinta ini memang yang termahal di kawasan ASEAN. Pemicunya, pemakaian obat di Indonesia tergolong tidak rasional.

    UPAYA JALAN KELUAR

    Banyak artikel telah ditulis para ahli guna mereduksi mahalnya harga obat di Indonesia. Undang-undang dan peraturanpun telah dibuat untuk mengendalikan harga obat agar terjangkau tanpa mengurangi kualitasnya. Apa daya, tanpa langkah nyata yang sungguh-sungguh dan berkesinambungan, segala upaya menurunkan harga obat hanyalah angan-angan belaka.

    Bagi kita para dokter, upaya ikut membantu mengendalikan harga obat dapat dilakukan dengan mudah, yakni dengan memberikan obat rasional dan yang tak kalah penting adalah tidak menerima pemberian dari pihak manapun yang berpotensi melambungkan harga obat.

    Semoga bermanfaat.

    :: :: :: posting menggunakan WLW :: :: ::

    Tag Technorati: {grup-tag},,,,

    Posted in Artikel, Health, Informasi, Kedokteran, Kesehatan, Opini, Renungan Tagged: Apotik, Dokter, Obat, Resep

  • 12 Huge Takeover Deals That Will Happen In 2010

    Washington Post CEO Katherine Weymouth

    24/7 Wall Street places its bets on 12 2010 mega-deals.

    “There are no transactions on this list that do not make immediate strategic sense. Some of the companies are weak enough so that a buyout will be necessary for them to remain viable businesses. Each deal was rated on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the transactions most likely to close and 1 representing the least likely…”

    See the deals >

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  • Apple Approves Video Recording App for iPhone 2G and 3G

    If you’ve been reconsidering your position as a jailbreaker thanks to recent security threats or Apple’s strong disapproval, there’s now one more reason to consider going legit. Apple just approved a new app that allows iPhones other than the 3GS to record video. That’s right, both your iPhone 3G and even the older 2G model can now shoot video, without jailbreak.

    The app will cost you 99 cents, which is kind of aggravating, since this is basically a straightforward admission on Apple’s part that the only limitation heretofore that had prevented the older devices from shooting video was a software limitation, which it could’ve easily resolved itself. iVideoCamera (iTunes link), the app in question, is a third-party program, but at least Apple didn’t kill it from the start, I suppose, and it is still cheaper than upgrading to a 3GS.

    iVideoCamera is far from perfect, though, and it has other limitations which are much more noteworthy than its cost. Video can only be shot at a maximum rate of around three frames per second, for instance, which is 10 times less than the 3GS’ 30-frames-per-second capability. As you might imagine, video quality is not the best.

    Add to that the fact that the resolution of recordings likewise suffers compared with that of video recorded natively on the 3GS. Resolution is 160×213, paltry compared with the 640×480 SD-quality video shot by the 3GS. Also, you can only shoot clips up to a maximum of one minute in length. Thankfully, Laan Labs, the developer of iVideoCamera, is more than upfront about the limitations of its software, so this is definitely a case where the onus falls on the buyer.

    Nor is it all bad news. iVideoCamera has some solid strengths, too, like the ability to share video to multiple sources quickly and easily. Like with the iPhone 3GS, 3G and 2G users who are shooting with iVideoCamera can export their recordings to YouTube, and in fact get more sharing options, including Facebook and Vimeo posting. Twitter integration is said to be coming soon. Future updates are also said to be bringing frame rate and resolution quality improvements.

    Even if this particular app isn’t outstanding right now, this approval sets a terrific precedent for App Store policy. If iVideoCamera is allowed access, then in theory there’s nothing stopping Cycorder from coming in from the cold, so to speak, and being offered through legit channels. Cycorder is capable of a maximum of 15 frames per second, and records at a resolution of 384×288, so iPhone 2G and 3G owners might not have to wait long before a decently able video app makes its way into their upgrade-reluctant hands.

  • Sprouted Spaghetti Squash: Is It OK To Eat?

    2009_12_15-sprouts.jpgWe got quite a surprise when we split open this spaghetti squash – inside were sprouted seeds! Has this ever happened to you? Did you eat it?

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  • So who flew to Copenhagen this week?

    I have a fond little memory from one of the early multi-candidate debates in the last US election campaign. It was on prime-time TV: there were still about a dozen or so candidates in the running, including Obama and Hillary Clinton, each was standing behind a podium, and as the topic of climate change came up they were asked en masse: “So, who didn’t fly here today in a private plane, raise your hand?” The delegates all sheepishly kept their hands down but one – I forget which – raised his. “I came in yesterday,” he explained. (laughter)

    So to the Copenhagen climate change summit, and all the luminaries and dignitaries and celebrities landing at København airport, many of them in private jets.

    copenhagen summit So who flew to Copenhagen this week?

    http://www.cph.dk/CPH/DK/MAIN

    This tells us something about the future, and what it says is: ‘needs must.’ What are they going to do, row a boat to Copenhagen? Scale that up and you have the real, actual future. People will fly. In fact the entire new global middle class of billions will fly. And they will heat their homes. And they will eat meat, and so on. And any even remotely democratic system that tries to take away this will be out on its ear.

    But we will of course move to cleaner, renewable, sustainable systems. How fast this happens depends essentially on money, which in turn depends on political will, which in turn depends on public concern. Money is required to fund new energy technology research, and — the core issue of Copenhagen this week — it is needed to buy off industrializing countries.

    There’s no doubt that climate change (manmade or not) is real, and a real danger. But when scientists and academics are worried about it that means little in terms of changes to human practices. When the public gets concerned — as they now are — we get the possibility of fundamental change. This is true of the future generally, not just climate and the environment.

    Between the public sentiment and the money lies political will. Essentially the political will of post-industrial economies on the one side, who find it politically easy, relatively, to pay the price of emissions constraints vs. that of developing economies which will be choked economically and therefore politically by those constraints.

    Inequality

    Correlating degrees warming with ecological and therefore social upheaval is important. But to think that is what the argument is about is to miss the point. The point is global inequality and its future, and how developing economies are not going to allow emissions constraints to further entrench it.

    The future goes always to the most powerful side. That’s what power is for: determining the future. The sides are both strong in this dispute, so this battle will not be won or lost in Copenhagen this week. We are still in its early stages. The effects of climate change are incremental (unlike, say, nuclear holocaust) meaning there is plenty of room for postponement even if the planet can’t and won’t ultimately take it. And those who would occupy the moral high ground have burned public and private jet fuel to be there to do it, and will no doubt indulge in a bit of Smørrebrød and Frikadeller too. Needs must.

    So expect the political clock to remain stuck as it has been for a while now, at ‘5 minutes to midnight,’ while the issue smolders slowly without definitive resolution — until technology advances get human energy, finally, off fossil fuels and the problem works its way out of environmental and human systems.

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  • Last-Minute Gift Idea: Customized Wine BottlesReady Made

    2009_12_15-winebottle.jpgWe’ve given you many ideas for homemade holiday gifts that will help you spread cheer without spending a ton. But this one doesn’t even involve cooking (you know, if you’re short on money and time). Buy an inexpensive bottle of wine, remove the label, and stencil it.

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  • The Christmas Retail Rally Could Be Toast

    Shown below is a retail proxy, the Retail HLDRs Exchange Traded Fund (RTH). It's outperformed the S&P500 on a three month basis. Yet Best Buy's (BBY) warning today, that revenue will be driven by lower-ticket items in the fourth quarter, could mean that the pre-Christmas retail rally shown below is toast.

    Note how Best Buy dropped a nasty 7% on just these decent earnings. A lot of holiday cheer is already priced-in.

    bby

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  • How the Juvenile Justice System Failed Me and How to Fix It

    I was 5’6” tall and only 125 pounds.  This is what I tell people when they ask what was it like being in prison at 16.  Even before I pled guilty there was no real consideration given to my size, my immaturity or the prospects for my survival as I was placed in jail cells and blocks with adults. I hadn’t won a fight in years and couldn’t imagine be locked inside a cell with men as violent as reports about prisons in Virginia said.  The court process was concerned with whether I was guilty or innocent; my family was lost, trying to figure out how I’d gotten myself in handcuffs.

    An eight-year sentence left with me time to piece together what led me to pick up a gun and carjack a man, searching for the answers I couldn’t give the judge and dealing with what it means to live in a place that is governed by violence.  More than that, however, I spent time believing that I could get an education to craft my life into something more than a series of jail cells.  Often, years passed and I found myself in prisons so far away from my family that I couldn’t get a visit.  Phone calls were so expensive that I only heard the voices of guards, other prisoners and the sounds that came into my head as I read books and letters.  I thought my release would be a way to end the nightmare of living with a mistake, but I was wrong.

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  • More Bulk Store Buying: Costco and Volvo team up to sell cars

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    2010 Volvo XC60 – Click above for high-res image gallery

    It’s the holiday season and that means shopping and deal-finding is at a premium. A trip to warehouse stores Costco or Sam’s Club will likely net you some tidy deals on anything from eggs and Hot Pockets to a Jacuzzi or even a casket. Even carmakers are getting in on the dealmaking, as a recent promotion with Mitsubishi and Sam’s can attest. Not to be outdone, Costco is also getting in on the act.

    The warehouse store and Sweden’s Volvo are collaborating on a promotion for the XC60, XC70 and XC90 that includes discounts and a $500 Costco card which comes six-to-eight weeks after purchase. Customers who purchase an XC60 from Costco also get Volvo employee pricing. Buyers of the XC70 and XC90 will receive an additional $500 off. The deals being offered through Costco are in addition to any dealer incentive programs that are currently available.

    We find it rather amusing that the promotion is only for Volvo crossovers – and yet it makes complete sense at the same time. Shopping at Costco practically necessitates driving a large vehicle while a quick glance at any warehouse store parking lot reveals a sea of trucks, SUVs and minivans. At least Volvo appears to be properly targeting Costco’s customer base.

    Gallery: Review: 2009 Volvo XC60

    Photos by Chris Paukert / Copyright (C)2009 Weblogs, Inc.
    [Source: Costco]

    More Bulk Store Buying: Costco and Volvo team up to sell cars originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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