Joke: COMPUTOR WIZARD

Abdul was having trouble with his computer. So Abdul called Jaffer,
 the 11 year old next door, whose bedroom looks like Mission Control
and asked him to come over. 

Jaffer clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem.

As he was walking away, I
Abdul called after him,
'So, what was wrong? 
He replied, 'It was an ID ten T error.'

Abdul didn't want to appear stupid,
but nonetheless inquired,
'An, ID ten T error? What's that?
In case I need to fix it again.'

Jaffer grinned....
'Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?'

'No,' Abdul replied.  
'Write it down,' said Jaffer,
'and I think you'll figure it out.'

So Abdul wrote down:

I D 1 0 T

 

LG, Samsung Benefit From Motorola’s Collapse in US

Models pose with LG Electronics' new handset, nicknamed enV2. Aimed at the U.S. market, it is the latest model that has a full QWERTY keypad. / Courtesy of LG Electronics

Korean mobile phone makers are trying to dominate the U.S. market as Motorola is beginning to lose its grip on the home turf.

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have increased their market shares in North America this year while Motorola, the local No. 1, reported increasing losses. Samsung and LG are the second and third largest phone sellers in the U.S. market, ahead of Nokia, the global leader.

Fancy and techy handsets are the driving forces of the two Korean firms. LG said Sunday that it has sold 2 million high-end phones that have full QWERTY keypads in the first three months of the year, out of 8.6 million in total sales.

The company hoped that a new product named enV2 (pronounced ``envy two'') will further boost the popularity of the full-keypad phones.

``We have closely analyzed the patterns of how North American consumers send and receive messages on the phone, and enV2 is designed for that purpose,'' Hwang Gyeong-ju, chief of LG's mobile business in North America, said in a release. ``There are explosive demands for QWERTY phones in the young generation, and we are committed to lead this sector.''

According to market research firm Strategic Analytics, Motorola had 34.6 percent of the North American market last year but it is expected to sell much less this year. Meanwhile, Samsung and LG are riding high on their stylish phones that often come with full-size keypad or touch-sensitive screens.

``The year of 2008 is shaping up to be the year of the Koreans. Improved handset portfolios enabled LG to grow at almost four times the annual industry average, while Samsung is growing over two times faster,'' a recent report by the research firm said.

The chance is big for Korean firms in North America because it is the only major region in the world where Nokia isn't No. 1. The Finnish giant boasts having 40 percent of the global market, but in the United States its market share has collapsed from 20 percent to 7 percent over the past two years, giving away more room for the Korean duo to thrive.

Not to waste the chance, LG is trying to jazz up its brand image by spending more money in promotion and advertisement. Most notably, the firm's U.S. subsidiary recently featured its mobile phones n the superhero movie ``Iron Man,'' by paying an undisclosed sponsorship fee. It even launched a promotional event that will award 20 ``Iron Man Phones,'' which resemble the costume color of the movie's main character. 

Article from: Korean Times 

 

Term of the Day: Gross Margin

Gross income divided by net sales, expressed as a percentage. Gross margins reveal how much a company earns taking into consideration the costs that it incurs for producing its products and/or services. In other words, gross margin is equal to gross income divided by net sales, and is expressed as a percentage. Gross margin is a good indication of how profitable a company is at the most fundamental level. Companies with higher gross margins will have more money left over to spend on other business operations, such as research and development or marketing. 

Pioneer confirm tie up with Panasonic

The electronics giant Pioneer has confirmed that it will be outsourcing its Plasma division to Panasonic.

Many of you will find it strange that with their 'Kuro' range of plasmas recognized as possibly the best performing flat panels money can buy, that Pioneer have made this decision.

The reality is that Pioneer are a niche plasma manufacturer and will not make any money on its Plasma business in 2008. It became inevitable that a radical solution such as a tie up with another manufacturer would materialize.

The good news for consumers is that Pioneer outsourcing their plasma manufacturing business to Panasonic could mean rebranded Pioneers at Panasonic prices.

Sony & Samsung to build new LCD plant

Sony and Samsung have announced that they are teaming up on a new eighth generation S-LCD  production plant that will open in 2009.

Following on from news that Panasonic and Pioneer are pooling their resources on plasma panels, two of the biggest names in consumer goods have announced their plans to ramp up production on LCD screens.

The production plant will not be the first of its kind, Sony and Samsung’s original 8^th gen plant is pumping out 50,000 panels a month, but this amount will be more than doubled once its brother starts up.

The global HD television market is a colossal and burgeoning business with plasma and LCD still competing for supremacy – although it is the latter that appears to be edging ahead.

 

What Makes Plants Grow

To understand why fertilizer works, we need to get some basic plant biology out of the way. Plants need large amounts of three nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. Combine those with water and sunlight and plants will grow.

In a natural ecosystem, nutrients are naturally cycled. Plants grow, using these substances, then they die. Microbes decompose them and new plants use the same nutrients to grow again. You know, the whole circle of life thing.

Agriculture gives us civilization exactly because it disrupts this balance. Humans use plants to mine nutrients out of the soil and then eat them. We can even measure the amount of nutrients that a crop can mine for us. For example, a hectare of maize in the US needs about 22 pounds of nitrogen per tonne of yield. We call this the plant's mineral uptake. Problem is, the corn on the cob you're eating is full of the nutrients that the next generation of plants would have used. We've taken nutrients out of the cycle, so we've got to replace them or the soil will be depleted.

That's the point of a fertilizer. Since the beginning of agriculture, people have tried to stuff as much nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium into the soil as they could. But nitrogen, above all, is, as a Cornell paper put it, "the essential element." While phosphorous is needed to make carbohydrates, nitrogen is a necessary component of proteins, which have long been known to be "the most important and most essential part of our food".

Manure has some nitrogen in it, which is why it was used on fields. Some plants -- legumes -- evolved the ability to support colonies of bacteria that pull nitrogen from the air and convert it from its inert N₂ (dinitrogen) form into ammonia (NH₃).That's why people have tended to rotate crops throughout time, trying to balance the differing nutrient needs of a system of plants.

But there were limits to the amount of nitrogen that could be obtained from natural processes for high-intensity agriculture. If your goal was to maximize yields, especially of protein, you needed a way to not only replace what you were taking out of it, but actually juice the topsoil with extra nitrogen. The question was: how do you take some of the abundant N₂ in th air and convert into a nitrogen compound that is easily used by plants?

 

Napping Habits Tied to Sleep Disorders

THURSDAY, May 1 (HealthDay News) -- Older adults with sleep problems, pain, diabetes and respiratory problems are more likely to take naps during the day, a U.S. study finds.

Researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., looked at 235 people, average age 80.1 years, who were monitored for an average of 6.8 nights. The team used wrist actigraphy to gather data on the participants' sleep patterns and circadian rhythms. The volunteers also kept sleep diaries.

The results showed that naps of at least five minutes were recorded in sleep diaries by 75.7 percent of the participants. Napping was most likely to occur in those with higher levels of nighttime sleep fragmentation, respiratory symptoms, diabetes and pain.

Self-reported diabetes was associated with a 43 percent longer nap duration, while self-reported pain was associated with a 27.5 percent shorter nap duration. Each hour of previous night's sleep time was associated with a 4.1 percent longer sleep time the next night (nap night), and each hour of napping (the next day) was associated with 10.2 percent less sleep on the night of the nap.

"Our study is important both clinically and for future research. It points out the need for health care providers to discuss nighttime sleep and daytime napping with older individuals," study author Suzanne E. Goldman said in a prepared statement.

The study "also points out the need to identify the causes of disturbed nighttime sleep in order to determine appropriate treatment. Our study suggests that older adults nap because of health problems and disrupted sleep at night. Thus the napping may reflect needed sleep," Goldman said.

The study was published in the May 1 issue of Sleep.

Lack of sleep can lead to a number of problems in older adults, including depressed mood, attention and memory problems, excessive daytime sleepiness, more nighttime falls, and increased use of sleep medications.

Research has also linked lack of sleep with increased risk of serious health problems such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

SOURCE: American Academy of Sleep Medicine, news release, May 1, 2008
Publish Date: May 01, 2008