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Ο διαγωνισμός λήγει στις 31/10/2008.

What a way to start the Volvo Ocean Race!

We ripped out of Alicante at 25-28 knots of boat speed, sailed for 12 fast and furious hours … and then parked the boat.

A massive hole swallowed us and digested us for evening supper. In the course of 30 minutes the speed wind dropped from 25 knots to under 5.

It felt like we smashed into a brink wall …we simply stopped. We changed sails, gybed, changed sails again yet we were at the mercy of the wind. We simply had to wait, painfully, for the wind to return.

We were going absolutely nowhere. We are now sailing along nicely with our Code 0 upwind sail. It feels great to be sailing at over 10 knots again.

We've lost a handful of miles overnight to the boats that escaped the light wind first, which is frustrating ... but its a long leg, and there is plenty of time to make up ground.

Our boat is performing fantastically well and our entire crew tips our hats to our shore crew that did a miraculous job getting the boat ready for Leg 1.

Sent 13:06:00 GMT

source : www.volvooceanrace.org

Today we had an excellent first session on mobile media with a great presentation by Jerry Rocha, the Sr Director of Mobile Research at Nielsen Mobile (formerly Telephia). Jerry presented some great information on patterns, trends, usage stats on mobile media and mobile apps. Here are some highlights from the session :

Among major apps on the mobile data gravy train are SMS, mobile apps and mobile internet. We have to see which one comes out ahead in terms of user adoption but all are growing with heady growth rates compared to where they were before (of course we are only talking US market in this entire discussion, I know mobile data in Europe and Asia is a totally different ballgame and growth pattern).

Number Crunching :

If we include all mobile data, it is growing at rate of 28%. In Europe, SMS was big but with falling rates of SMS, carriers are pushing MMS which commands higher revenues. There were 260 million mobile customers in USA at end of Q2, 2008. Of which 56 million were downloading mobile apps. 15 million customers have seem video on mobile - small percent of mobile population but growing. Of the 260 million mobile customers in USA, 102 million have access to the mobile internet. 77% of mobile subscribers can get SMS today. Mobile internet is now a 1.2 billion dollar industry. 43 million customers in USA use mobile internet regularly now.

Trends :

Nielsen Mobile has access to 80,000 customers bills for market survey and this is the primary source of market research for Nielsen Mobile.

Among data apps, audio is a big killer app. Games was popular but there is decline in mobile gaming. Many fringe mobile gaming firms are going out of business with big ones like Glu Mobile and Electronic Arts taking majority of market share in mobile gaming. Ringtones are powerful but see slower traction now.

Mobile apps have see a huge uptick this year - one reason is the iPhone and the awareness it created about mobile apps in general.

From a strategy perspective, media firms like CNN, ESPN and others have pushed mobile media in spite of lack of enough support from carriers. Media firms are pushing off-deck content.

Mobile Internet :

Mobile portals are most heavily visited area. Email is second most popular with 27.4 million users (Nielsen is not including POP3 email accounts). Among sites visited most, the order is : Yahoo (22.3 million users), Google (18.9 million), MSN (14.4 million), AOL (12.6 million), Weather Channel, CNN, FOX, Apple, Turner in that order.

iPhone has been a game changing device for mobile internet with each firm now forced to follow a three pronged internet strategy : Regular website, Mobile website and iPhone-optimized website. Many firms have device detection and render appropriate website based on source of access.

Mobile Apps :

These have seen a giant increase since Q1 of this year. Most popular apps are related to LBS (Location-Based Services) - an area for which we in CellStrat have written extensively and have a nice white paper on our company website (www.cellstrat.com). Top 10 mobile apps are (in declining order of popularity) :- Verizon Navigator,  Sprint Navigator, AT&T Navigator, Wireless Synch Email, TeleNav GPS Navigator, Sprint Family Locator, MySpace Mobile, Mobile Email, MapQuest Mobile and XM Radio Mobile.

Lot of firms like Nokia are buying up firms which have LBS offerings or technology.

Some of the big publishers of mobile apps are : TeleNav Mobile, Networks in Motion, Intellisync, WaveMarket, MySpace Mobile, AutoDesk etc.

It seems Location tracking is an app whic commands $5 per month revenue relatively easily. Same cannot be said for some of the other mobile apps though.

The top mobile app areas in order of popularity are (most popular first) :- LBS (69% of mobile apps are related to this), PIM Tools, Weather, Music, Maps or Directions etc.

iPhone :

This has shaken the mobile world as we report countless times now. Apple iPhone now as 1% of USA market share and 3.7% of AT&T mobile phones are iPhones. By Q3, Apple had sold 10 million iPhones worldwide easily hitting its goal of 10 million iPhones in first year.

iPhone AppStore is a breakthrough concept and has opened up the mobile application ecosystem to developers like never before. In the 4 months since its launch, iPhone AppStore has seen 100 million downloads of mobile apps, total number of mobile apps on iPhone available now exceeds 3000 apps.

iPhone dominates every category of mobile web usage.

Some cool iPhone killers like BlackBerry Bold, Storm and Google G1 are out or coming out soon and we will have to see how well they do against iPhone. One reason for huge app success on iPhone is its excellent developer support and ecosystem eg the iTunes store. Nokia scores well too on this front with its Symbian platform.

iPhone users skew towards male with 67% iPhone users being males and 33% females although in overall mobile world, 52% of mobile customers are females.

Mobile Advertising :

This one pays for it all.

Interestingly Atlanta is No 3 in mobile video usage (interesting..never thought Atlanta was that big on mobile web adoption). Among mobile email, gmail and yahoo email dominate.

Nielsen has tools to scrap 300 websites every 15 minutes and categorizes them for ad purposes. It turns out Eletronic Arts and Dunkin Donuts are bigger advertisers in mobile internet. On ESPN Mobile, Electronic Arts is the biggest advertiser.

I don't mind doing the subtraction with the displayed temperatures, but constantly typing in "sensors" in terminal got me a bit annoyed. So I installed Conky, a fancy configurable monitoring program that sits on your desktop and displays system information. However, even though Conky was easy to install and configure to display what I needed, making it work properly in the XFCE4, Compiz and Avant Window Navigator scenario turned out to be very difficult.

When I looked for solutions I found many, but none of them worked with my setup. The problem was that with any 'default' .conkyrc from the Conky website, Conky would dissapear when I opened any window and minimized it. I tried some own_window variables but there was always a new problem when the old one was fixed. Finally I though I had found a working config, but no, Conky would flash from beneath windows every now and then, making, for example, Firefox browsing very irritating. Finally I figured out the culprit, it was own_window_type. The workaround was to completely forget own_window_type and only use and arsenal of own_window_hints. Here's what worked for me and I have a feeling that it could work for others having the same problem:

double_buffer yes
own_window yes
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,sticky,below,skip_taskbar,skip_pager

See there's no own_window_type. Amazing when all the possible solutions that I ran into had something to do with own_window_type, e.g. own_window_type desktop or own_window_type override. Now Conky works fine and I can move to calibrating the sensors output. Please comment if this helped, or if you need help :D

After a few months of re-engineering, the new-for-2008 (or MY09) model now boasts an impressive 14mpg city / 20mpg hwy - that's class leading numbers right there - with the Luxury SUV segment including vehicles such as the Cadillac Escalade, Lexus LX570 and Nissan QX56. "Ford was able to increase fuel economy by almost 15% on the big SUV by implementing some of the same engineering tricks employed on the 2009 F-150, which itself gets up to 15/21 in SFE trim. Changes were made to the idle speed and the transmission, as well as some fancy software engineering that regulates gas consumption by using aggressive deceleration fuel shut-off."

As an added gift for new Navigator buyers, Ford / Lincoln has added some extra standard goodies. These goodies include; a power lift gate, heated and cooled front seats, PowerFold third-row seats, capless fuel filler, Rear View Camera, flexi-fuel capable V8 engine, SYNC and the stunning 14-speaker THX II-Certified audio system. The MY09 model also includes Ford's new and improved navigation system that includes their new "Travel Link" system. Although Ford hasn't released anything along these lines to be applied to the MY09 Expedition, expect them to be standard by the years out.

Official Press Releases:

NAVIGATOR DELIVERS CLASS-LEADING FUEL ECONOMY

DEARBORN, Mich., Sept. 24, 2008 – The 2009 Lincoln Navigator offers more than impressive levels of luxury and functionality – it also boasts a significant improvement in fuel economy that puts it ahead of the other full-size luxury sport utility vehicles in the segment.

The Navigator, thanks to a combination of architectural changes and systems engineering enhancements, has increased its fuel efficiency to an EPA-estimated 14 mpg city and 20 mpg highway on 4X2 models.

Combined with overall setup changes that offer lower idling speeds and transmission enhancements, the additional fuel economy makes the Navigator an even more appealing choice in the full-size luxury-utility segment.

"You'll notice the difference," said John Rich, powertrain integration and program manager for Ford Trucks. "We've improved the attributes and performance significantly."

The Navigator is powered by a 5.4 liter, three-valve Triton V-8, mated to a six-speed automatic transmission, which generates 300 horsepower and 365 foot-pounds of torque. A wide-ratio, six-speed transmission has smaller steps between gears than a typical four-speed automatic, offering improved shift quality and faster acceleration.

Unique software has been engineered to regulate gas consumption by using aggressive deceleration fuel shut-off delivering considerable fuel savings with no extra effort from the driver. This complex fuel strategy is being added to many Ford products to help improve fuel economy across the board – including the new 2009 Ford F-150, which offers unsurpassed fuel economy and capability in the light duty truck segment.

"Deceleration is when you take your foot off the accelerator and you're coasting and the system very aggressively shuts fuel off," says Rich. "It sounds simple, but it's not at all simple. To make this work, we had to carefully manage the complex and constantly changing air-fuel mixture caused by aggressively shutting off fuel flow."

"It's so sophisticated, it's imperceptible to the customer," Rich added. "There's no bump, no hesitation. The catalyst systems come back to life without taking an emissions hit."

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

New for 2009
For 2009, Lincoln continues to simplify the packaging of Navigator and Navigator L, making standard many previously-optional features.

Standard items now include: Power lift gate; heated and cooled front seats; heated second-row seats; PowerFold™ third-row seats; front park assist sensors; EasyFuel™ capless fuel filler; rain-sensing wipers; perimeter anti-theft alarm; integrated four-button key fob; Rear View Camera; flexible fuel-capable V-8 engine; Lincoln SYNC™ and a 14-speaker THX® II-Certified audio system with SIRIUS® Satellite Radio.

The standard Rear View Camera System in the rear lift gate handle activates when the vehicle is shifted into reverse, giving the driver a clear view behind the vehicle or for ease of hooking up trailers. The video image is displayed in the self-dimming rearview mirror on the standard Navigator or through the instrument panel next generation navigation system on the Elite package.

The new next generation navigation system is available for the first time ever with SIRIUS Travel Link™, which gives drivers and passengers access to up-to-the-minute information and entertainment through the vehicle's navigation system. Working through the standard feature SIRIUS satellite radio network, Travel Link offers uninterrupted, coast-to-coast coverage of real-time traffic data; weather reports (current and five day forecasts with storm information and even ski resort conditions); fuel options sorted by price or distance from more than 120,000 gas stations; major league pro and college sports as well as movie listings from more than 4,500 theaters. A six-month introductory subscription to SIRIUS is included at no cost.

The Monochrome Limited Edition Package for 2009 features unique badging, along with body-color exterior accents including lower grille, lower bodyside cladding, and power folding heated memory mirrors with puddle lamps. This package is offered in four monochromatic exterior treatments: White Platinum Tri-coat, Black Clearcoat, Vapor Silver Clearcoat Metallic and Stone Green Clearcoat Metallic. Inside, the package includes unique black carpet and floor mats, Ebony wood trim, and unique Stone or Camel seats with black leather inserts and black piping. A stitched Lincoln logo is also placed on each headrest.

The Elite Package includes the moonroof; next generation navigation system; power running boards; rear seat entertainment system and the Rear View Camera display in the navigation system.

Three new exterior colors are available for 2009: Monterey Grey Clearcoat Metallic; Sangria Clearcoat Metallic and White Platinum Tri-Coat.

Source: Autoblog

Serenic Software is the developer of a suite of enterprise software solutions for not-for-profit organizations. Serenic software solutions are built on the Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Navision) software platform. In addition, Serenic is the exclusive developer of the human resources and payroll products for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Parente Technology is a certified Serenic partner providing Serenic software implementation and support services.

Serenic's major integrated solutions include Navigator (financial management), DonorVision (fundraising & development), AwardVision (grant management), and CommunityCare (human services financial management).

If you are interested in Serenic Software, come back often to see additional posts, comments, and replies in the Serenic Software categories.

Taxi drivers 'have brain sat-nav'

The knowledge: London cabbies are famous for knowing their way around

Scientists have uncovered evidence for an inbuilt "sat-nav" system in the brains of London taxi drivers.

They used magnetic scanners to explore the brain activity of taxi drivers as they navigated their way through a virtual simulation of London's streets.

Different brain regions were activated as they considered route options, spotted familiar landmarks or thought about their customers.

The research was presented at this week's BA Science Festival.

Earlier studies had shown that taxi drivers have a larger hippocampus - a region of the brain that plays an important role in navigation.

Their brains even "grow on the job" as they build up detailed information needed to find their way around London's labyrinth of streets - information famously referred to as "The Knowledge".

"We were keen to go beyond brain structure - and see what activity is going on inside the brains of taxi drivers while they are doing their job," said Dr Hugo Spiers from University College London.

The scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to obtain "minute by minute" brain images from 20 taxi drivers as they delivered customers to destinations on "virtual jobs".

The scientists adapted the Playstation2 game "Getaway" to bring the streets of London into the scanner.

After the scan - and without prior warning - the drivers watched a replay of their performance and reported what they had been thinking at each stage.

"We tried to peel out the common thoughts that taxi drivers tend to have as they drive through the city, and then tie them down to a particular time and place," said Dr Spiers.

The series of scans revealed a complex choreography of brain activity as the taxi drivers responded to different scenarios.

The hippocampus was only active when the taxi drivers initially planned their route, or if they had to completely change their destination during the course of the journey.

The scientists saw activity in a different brain region when the drivers came across an unexpected situation - for example, a blocked-off junction.

Another part of the brain helped taxi drivers to track how close they were to the endpoint of their journey; like a metal detector, its activity increased when they were closer to their goal.

Changes also occurred in brain regions that are important in social behaviour.

Taxi driving is not just about navigation: "Drivers do obsess occasionally about what their customers are thinking," said Dr Spiers.

Animals use a number of different mechanisms to navigate - the Sun's polarized light rays, the Earth's magnetic fields and the position of the stars.

This research provides new information about the specific roles of areas within the brains of expert human navigators.

Perbezaan ketara antara kedua-duanya ialah 6110 Navigator merupakan sebuah komputer multimedia kecil yang mempunyai CPU (processor), RAM, ROM dan beroperasi pada Operating System yang tersendiri iaitu Symbian versi 9.2 pada 'user-interface' platform S60 manakala 6500 merupakan 'feature-phone' yang dikuasakan dengan platform Series 40 yang tertutup milik Nokia.

Maka dengan itu 6110 boleh menjalankan operasi 'multitasking', dipasangkan perisian luar, games, menyokong perisian JAVA, boleh di'format', mampu menjadi modem, berinteraksi terus dengan komputer dan lain-lain keistimewaan berbanding 6500 yang hanya mampu menyokong perisian JAVA sahaja.

Melihat kepada keadaan ini, sudah tentu pengguna IT dan pakar komputer memilih Nokia 6110 Navigator sebagai telefon utama mereka. Selain itu mereka juga akan berasa selesa kerana telefon ini mampu membaca dokumen pejabat seperti doc, xls, ppt, pdf, zip dan rar malahan email pun boleh terus di'setting' pada telefon tersebut.

Seorang pengguna telefon yang cuma perlukan kemudahan asas seperti sms, mms, jam loceng, kamera, mendengar lagu dan menonton video 3gp sahaja adalah digalakkan untuk menggunakan Nokia 6500 Slide tadi. Selain menjimatkan poket anda, anda juga tidak perlu bimbang tentang masalah virus dan gangguan sistem telefon.

Tetapi, jangan pula jadi seperti seorang kawan saya ini kerana semalam hampir 2 jam dia berdebat tentang telefon 6500nya dengan saya hanya kerana saya menyatakan yang permainan 'Creatures Of The Deep' tidak dapat dipasang kerana ia adalah dalam format symbian.

"Kenapa tak boleh sedangkan ia sama-sama buatan Nokia? Macam tu jugak dengan 'Fs-Caller', 'Azan' dan 'Fe-Explorer' semua kau cakap tak boleh masuk!"

"Adli cubalah ko install dulu, jangan ko terus cakap tak boleh. Aku bukan takder duit, aku boleh bayar apa! Macam tu jugak pasal wifi ni. Benda ni software jer, macam laptop jugak, boleh masukkan software bluetooth"

Jadi macamana saya perlu terangkan lagi? Akhirnya dia mengalah juga bila kawan saya, Mr 'Fay' Lim datang secara kebetulan dengan Nokia 6210 Navigator yang baru meminta saya 'upgrade' dan menghulurkan Rm100 kepada saya.

Kata Mr. Fay, "Itu telefon memang tak best punya. Lagi dia pun takder system maa. Bagus lu trade-in angkat Nokia N78 baru boleh lu kasi masuk semua software. Kalau tak cukup minggu-minggu pun lu boleh jumpa Adli kasi duit sama dia suruh dia install"

Ya, sesungguhnya saya rasa lega atas penjelasan Mr Fay dan berjaya buat kawan saya tadi cool-down. Symbian masih lagi baru dan atas sebab itu ramai yang masih keliru.

Klik di bawah ini untuk mendapatkan penjelasan yang lebih terperinci:

• http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/Series_40_vs_S60.php
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_Series_40

Cara mengunduhnya juga mudah:

1. masuk ke situs emoze
2. pilih merk & tipe hape
3. klik 'Get emoze now'
4. masukkan informasi negara, nomor hape & kode sekuriti yang ada
5. klik 'Submit'
6. kemudian pilih apakah mau download via PC atau via hape
7. install di hape

Kesan pertamanya:  instalasinya lumayan mudah, setting email account juga tidak sulit -namun sayangnya versi yang free hanya memiliki beberapa opsi untuk setting email account, terutama Gmail & Yahoo mail.

Karena aku pengguna Gmail, aku masukkan username & password untuk mencobanya.
Settingnya hanya itu.  Dan setelah menunggu sekian detik: VOILA...!!  Emailku di Gmail bisa muncul.
Kemudian aku coba untuk mengirim email dari Opera Portable-ku ke alamat email di gmail, dan email tersebut muncul di Emoze hanya beberapa saat setelah email tersebut diterima oleh Gmail.

Memang fasilitas yang tidak bisa ditolak begitu saja:  push email gratis...!

I understand why Mozilla and Microsoft make big stinks saying their not impressed. However, we must look back to when navigator was king, they weren't impressed with IE probably. IE wasn't impressed with Firefox and now its the supposed "king" of the browsers. There mere fact that people are so quick to bash a less than 24 hour old product is just amazing. Not to mention that this product is considered a BETA product is even better. The browser will get better. It's pretty much open to all developers to create their own widgets and share it to the world.

It will be big, just like Google does everything they do big. I however am quite excited about the new advancements, that could potentially be created because someone is willing to try and open new doors.

Just give Chrome more time to shine than 24 hours. All things great did not instantly happen, they were created and crafted time and time again until perfection.

>>>http://www.squidoo.com/discount_gps

The availability and accuracy of the Global Positioning System (GPS) offers increased efficiencies and safety for vehicles using highways, streets, and mass transit systems. Many of the problems associated with the routing and dispatch of commercial vehicles is significantly reduced or eliminated with the help of GPS. This is also true for the management of mass transit systems, road maintenance crews, and emergency vehicles,

GPS enables automatic vehicle location and in-vehicle navigation systems that are widely used throughout the world today. By combining GPS position technology with systems that can display geographic information or with systems that can automatically transmit data to display screens or computers, a new dimension in surface transportation is realized.

A geographic information system (GIS) stores, analyzes, and displays geographically referenced information provided in large part by GPS. Today GIS is used to monitor vehicle location, making possible effective strategies that can keep transit vehicles on schedule and inform passengers of precise arrival times. Mass transit systems use this capability to track rail, bus, and other services to improve on-time performance.

Many new capabilities are made possible with the help of GPS. Instant car pools are feasible since people desiring a ride can be instantly matched with a vehicle in a nearby area.

Using GPS technology to help track and forecast the movement of freight has made a logistical revolution, including an application known as time-definite delivery. In time-definite delivery, trucking companies use GPS for tracking to guarantee delivery and pickup at the time promised, whether over short distances or across time zones. When an order comes in, a dispatcher punches a computer function, and a list of trucks appears on the screen, displaying a full array of detailed information on the status of each of them. If a truck is running late or strays off route, an alert is sent to the dispatcher.

>>>http://www.squidoo.com/discount_gps

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a U.S. space-based radionavigation system that provides reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services to civilian users on a continuous worldwide basis -- freely available to all. For anyone with a GPS receiver, the system will provide location and time. GPS provides accurate location and time information for an unlimited number of people in all weather, day and night, anywhere in the world.

The GPS is made up of three parts: satellites orbiting the Earth; control and monitoring stations on Earth; and the GPS receivers owned by users. GPS satellites broadcast signals from space that are picked up and identified by GPS receivers. Each GPS receiver then provides three-dimensional location (latitude, longitude, and altitude) plus the time.

Individuals may purchase GPS handsets that are readily available through commercial retailers. Equipped with these GPS receivers, users can accurately locate where they are and easily navigate to where they want to go, whether walking, driving, flying, or boating. GPS has become a mainstay of transportation systems worldwide, providing navigation for aviation, ground, and maritime operations. Disaster relief and emergency services depend upon GPS for location and timing capabilities in their life-saving missions. Everyday activities such as banking, mobile phone operations, and even the control of power grids, are facilitated by the accurate timing provided by GPS. Farmers, surveyors, geologists and countless others perform their work more efficiently, safely, economically, and accurately using the free and open GPS signals.

>>>http://www.squidoo.com/discount_gps

>>>http://www.squidoo.com/discount_gps

In the meantime, Google has announced new browser named 'Google Chrome'. Public trial of this browser will start shortly but it would be launched for MS Windows operating system first.

Google has mentioned that this browser will be boon for video-rich applications like "www.utube.com" (Web application for video sharing, owned by Google) rather than conventional browser capability on text and graphics.

Google will be working on Chrome versions for Macintosh OS and Linux. It has to be noted that Microsoft launched version 8 of Internet explorer last month. Mozilla also launched version 3 of Firefox couple of months back.

As per the Google's website, Chrome organizes information into tabbed pages. Web programs can be launched in their own dedicated windows. It also offers a variety of features to make the browser more stable and secure. It also includes a new engine for loading interactive JavaScript code, "dubbed V8", which is designed to run the next generation of not-yet-invented Web applications. Google Chrome promises to load pages faster and more securely.

Internet explorer (IE) is being shipped as default browser with Windows OS. Windows OS is preferred operating system for most of the domestic users as well as corporate users. Microsoft IE is known for it's war with Netscape Navigator. Netscape was the first popular browser in Internet history but became history now. Lets see which browser will go in to the history. We want return of the Jedi for this cyber space war.

Microsoft has come up with IE 8 (beta available for public download). A normal reaction would be... Big deal, who cares about a browser from Microsoft, Firefox just set a record of maximum software downloads, it's hands down the best browser and Microsoft sucks.

Back in '97

Well, it is a big deal because I see history repeating itself. Back in 1997, Netscape was the leading browser and IE 3 had performed abysmally.  Marc Anderseen, Netscape’s co-founder said

The browser, could “reduce Windows to a set of poorly debugged device drivers.”

Microsoft saw a potential threat and in 4.0 release created the best browser of the time. According to BroadbandInfo

The main reason that Internet Explorer was able to beat Netscape Navigator was because it had, quite simply, built a better browser.

The user experience on IE 4 was so good that you saw "Best viewed in Internet Explorer" splashed across pages all over the world wide web.

Present day

Fast forward to present day and the browser threat is alive and kicking, more importantly Marc Anderseen's words seem to be coming to fruition, with Web 2.0 and cloud computing, browser is on it's way to becoming "the universal client". Firefox share in the browser market is 19% and growing, and Google's looming on the horizon.

Back in 2001, Microsoft was resting on its laurels and launched IE 6, it was a disaster and caused the Exodus to Firefox. IE 7 was a catch up effort and IE 8 is Microsoft's answer to Firefox. It intends to beat Firefox in performace, features and user experience. Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer group says

In things big and small, it is a better experience

My point of view on Microsoft

I've been watching Microsoft since the MS-DOS days and have seen it proclaimed dead many a time, and everytime it faced stiff competition I've seen Microsoft bounce back from the dead and steamroll it's way through the competition, obliterating anyone in its path, big or small, be it Netscape or Sun Microsystems by offering better products.

Unless Bill's departure has changed Microsoft's DNA, we're going to see history repeat itself one more time.

... bringt Merian nun abgespecktere Varianten für 600 und 400 Euro.

Die Frage, die ich mir stelle, ist die, ob Touristen wirklich bereit sind, nicht nur viel Geld auszugeben sondern dann noch mit einem weiteren Gerät im Urlaub herum zu laufen. Ich habe die Vorstellung vorm Auge, wie jemand um den Hals eine Kamera und ein Navigationsgerät hat, während er mit seinem Handy telefoniert.

[...]

Idealerweise hätte ich sogar gern die Reiseführer webbased. Bei den heutigen Roaminggebühren sicherlich etwas, das mich in das Armenhaus bringen würde. Aber letztendlich stelle ich mir einen digitalen Reiseführer so vor, dass ich in dem Moment, in dem ich vor einer Sehenswürdigkeit stehe, dazu Informationen abfragen kann. Und auch erst dann sollten mir Kosten entstehen, also Pay-per-Use. Bei digitalen Reiseführern erwarte ich, dass sie top-aktuell sind, ich sie nur bezahle, wenn ich sie auch nutze und nach der Reise nicht ungenutzt bei mir herumliegen habe.

Dem kann ich nur beipflichten! Zumal das Gerät, wie die meisten Navi-Geräte, nur Deutschland, Österreich und die Schweiz abdeckt. Für jede weitere Destination, z.B. eine Stadt oder Region, werden 30 EUR berechnet. Und wenn ich das auf den Seiten von Merian richtig verstanden habe, ist die Auswahl mit gerade mal 5 Reisezielen eher dürftig.

"Amsterdam is a small town compared to most other European capitals. It is really perfect for walking around. It is small, but big enough to get lost.

Even with a city map it can be hard to orientate to find your way around.

We have developed a simple solution for this problem.

Wouldn't it be great if these things didn't pretend they spoke anything but broken English?

Someone had already thought of this. Lo and behold, what for I found the perfect voice for my personal GPS device. For whenever I get to where I'm going, now I hear, in a thick, eurotrash accent:

Oh! Here we are, at destination. You drive like you are drinking fermented horse urine, very nice. High five.

Very nice, indeed. Next up: Stephen Hawking.

Postscript: Suddenly, I feel like a little piece of my soul died. It's almost as if I had wrote:

Gone are the days of stilted telemenu voices, friends. Let us put new use to and make much light of English learners and the disabled.

It's like I'm Jerry Lewis.

Maybe I'll go back to the default voice. It, at least, doesn't damage me morally.

Thought Satruday morning kak ila ada untuk temankan aku ke SJMC... hmm she told me that she needs to attend a wedding in Gombak.. :( akhirnya aku sorang pegi ke SJMC for my physiotherapy 2nd session. Tak lah aku pi awal2 sangat pun, about 10am aku reached SJMC.. hmm lepas habis session.. hmm kepala aku dah plan nak ke Subang parade.. i drove to Subang Parade, park dekat parking lotnya, and i walked in. I hv hush puppies voucher rm50. Hmm memang dah lama aku teringin kasut kat Nine West tuh.. cantik giler aku tengok masa aku pi The garden.. Tapi tinggi giler.(Musim aku pakai kasukt2 tinggi nih dah berlalu) So demi menjaga my back bone for another 50 years.. (haha if only aku boleh hidup sepanjang itu).. aku memilih kasut yang tak berapa bertumit pun.. just about an inch and half aje. kalau flat sangat pun not good for my posture. Hehehe.. Aku masuk pharmacy, i bought brand's prune juice, my Simple eyes cream, Anlene concentrated for 5 boxes and entah apa benda mengarut lagi aku beli. Thought nak beli brand's Berry skali, tak dak plak kat pharmacy tuh.. Hmm nanti mata aku bleh la wink wink.. bersinar ala2 mutiara kat lautan.. muahahaahah..(tak hengat). Dari pharmacy aku jalan masuk ke Bodyshop, thought of buying my fav body butter product.. adik tuh pulak kata tak dak stock.. body scrub favorite either mango or papaya pun tak dak. Ee.. tak best. Aku keluar berjalan ke kedai MPH yang besar kat Subang Parade.. lama aku kat dalam.. tapi satu buku pun aku tak beli.. haha baca buku free, habis jugak laa aku baca. ahaks.. Magazine bulanan belum sampai.. hmm boring n tak best.

Sebelum balik, i enjoyed budak2 primary schools kat area subang and USJ nyanyi choir.. hmm nice and sweet sangat.. Haha teringat dulu masa sekolah nyanyi choir, nyanyi solo.. haha semua aku balun. Rasa dah penat berjalan dengan rasa sengal kat belakang aku drove balik rumah. After 5 minutes anak-anak buah aku pun sampai rumah dari rumah orang kahwin. Malas aku nak pi because ini sedara sebelah abang ipar aku. Akhirnya malas aku membawak ke hari ahad.. Ahad kawan sepejabat aku kahwin.. hmm my good friend. kawan seperjuangan pulak tuh.. dia kahwin pun aku tak pegi.. Sengal kan..? hmm badan pun rasa tak sedap, pinggang pun sengal, assignment pun kena buat.. so i need to set my priority here.. progress of report nak kena tunjuk esok.. hmm so i'm very sory inaz.. very very the sorry.

Monday was a new day for me.. aku rasa I have been rejuvenated and full of good mood to work.. (kadang-kadang aku lebih rasa selesa bekerja, datang and masuk office dari duduk rumah.. pegi bercuti tuh.. lain la kan) hari tuh doctor Anuar advised aku pi swimming.. aaa best nyer kalau dapat pi swimming kat laut biru and hijau.. hmm teringin nak pi pulau lagi.. (bila eee?)

I believe this line of miniatures used to be called Navigator - I don't know if Magister purchased the product line, or simply re-sell the product.  In any case - the Magister web site is still a work in progress.  In the two weeks since I order, prices and packaging methods have changed.  Even with the changes - the unit deal (24 figures) still seems the best way to buy in.

The Magister Arabs fit well with my existing Gripping Beast (cast by Old Glory 15).  Foot solders match well for height - eye ball to eye ball the figures are the same size.  The Magister minis are a bit bigger about the chest and perhaps a bit longer in the arm.  I'll have to mix a few into a unit, but I suspect the size differences will naturally blend as normal human variations.

Magister on the left.  Gripping Beast on the right.

The Syrian Heavy cavalry are a more mixed lot.  The riders are very upright (side effect of a one piece figure) and sit taller in the saddle than the crouching bowman.  Trying to get the riders to fit their mounts will take a bit of pliers work - the legs are either too narrow or too wide.

Magister horses are a bit thin, short in length but stand taller than the Gripping Beast horse.