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We are planning an international BPO cluster in Bhutan which will create innumerable opportunities to local people. Those who want to be part of it like investors, consultants, brokers and existing centers can write a mail to vr@atworldsolutions.com for more details.<o:p></o:p>
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Thanks<o:p></o:p>
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Adam<o:p></o:p>
Project consultant<o:p></o:p>
www.atworldsolutions.com<o:p></o:p>
Hi,<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
We are planning an international BPO cluster in Bhutan which will create innumerable opportunities to local people. Those who want to be part of it like investors, consultants, brokers and existing centers can write a mail to vr@atworldsolutions.com for more details.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Thanks<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Adam<o:p></o:p>
Project consultant<o:p></o:p>
www.atworldsolutions.com<o:p></o:p>
The developers behind the popular Burnout racing series, Criterion Games have unveiled their newest project, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit — a title that’s said to take the Need for Speed series “back to its roots,” intense cops vs. racer chases.
Inspired by the classic game with the same name, Hot Pursuit lets players “experience the thrill of the chase and the rush of the escape as they play through full careers as both a cop and a racer.”
“We are honored and excited by the opportunity to reinvent the franchise for today’s connected audience,” said creative director, Craig Sullivan. “Our goal has been to create cops vs. racers pursuits that are so fun, fast and exciting it really brings to life the adrenaline and intensity of the high speed cop pursuit experience with your friends.”
We don't think many would contest that, after the brilliant Need for Speed: Most Wanted, the classic racing series lost its way. Need for Speed: Carbon? Mediocre. ProStreet? A bad experiment. Undercover? Don't even ask. Sure, last year's Shift was actually a rather under-rated sim-style racer, but was it really Need for Speed? Not on your life. So, the news that the new Need for Speed is (a) under development from the Burnout team at Criterion and (b) going back to the series' roots is some of the best we've had from this year's E3.
You see, Criterion understands what makes the series tick: exotic cars and great police chases. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit will have plenty of both. Two full career modes will allow you to race either as an illegal racer or a cop, and in either you'll find some of the hottest vehicles ever made, many in police livery for the first time. We've already seen Lamborghinis and Bucattis, and we're assured that dream cars will not be short on supply.
Most importantly, Hot Pursuit is built from the ground up for online play. While you can make progress as a solo player, facing off against strong AI, the game is designed to work with an online system that Criterion calls "Autolog". This connects up to eight players for online match-ups, with four cops vs four racers, seven cops vs a single racer, and any combination in-between. Progress will be synced between online and offline profiles, and you'll be able to check against your friends' achievements, and challenge them to an epic chase.
In action, the game looks dazzling. The section being demoed here at E3 is a sprawling network of highways, tunnels and dirt-track shortcuts running through a highland area of pine woods. The scenery is gorgeous, but the cars are even more so: beautifully rendered, gorgeously lit supercars that buckle and shatter realistically when they collide. And collide they do, because the section we're playing is a one-on-one hot pursuit.
As you'd expect from the team behind Burnout, the action is ludicrously fast, with our cars weaving through the fairly sparse traffic, screaming around bends and making sudden handbrake turns to confuse your opponent. Even at this stage the handling is excellent: gritty enough to make the game feel a challenge, but not so sim-like that you can't pull off outrageous stunts. In short, the new Need for Speed looks and feels like a premium class contender.
The demo also gives us a chance to try out another of the game's features: a simple system of power-ups you earn through daredevil driving feats. Earn enough points and the cop can call in roadblocks, and while we didn't get the chance to put any of the racer's moves into action, we're told he'll get equivalent tools, like an option to disable the cop's tracking radar for a time.
Our First Impressions Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit looks fantastic and feels great to play, but what really makes you smile while you play is that it makes the series genuinely thrilling once again. Playing the demo both as cop and racer, one thing hit us: if it's this much fun with just two players, what on Earth will it be like with eight? We haven't really scratched the surface of the game, and what was shown was - apparently - an alpha build, but the fundamentals are in place for a great arcade racer, and a real return to form. The November release can't come soon enough.
Just as the past games, the speed was blisteringly fast and there wasn't a visual hiccup in sight. Aside from some great detail seen on the cars, you could also get a visual representation of how bad your car looks after hitting obstacles or trading paint with the opponent. As bad as the twisted metal of a car looks in real life, it has some beauty in the game. The sound also adheres to some of the series' ideals. Epic chase scores, piercing tire screeches, and loud engine hums blasted through the speakers to make the chase more exciting. Even though the title is months away from release, those who are looking for Criterion to pull out the technical stops won't be disappointed.
Overall, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is shaping up to be another memorable entry in the legendary series. The Autolog feature really feeds in to the whole mentality of trying to play just one more match in order to best your opponent. It also brings with it the sense that everything you do counts in the game world, making the return of car chases much more exciting for both sides. More information about the other on- and offline modes will be coming in hot as the November release date approaches.
Most of the startup learning curve is a learn-on-the-job endeavor. Nothing replaces the real experience of managing your own company; however there are some lessons that are worth learning ahead of time.
Smart entrepreneurs learn to pick out which teachings should be followed and which should be discarded.
This is my common response I send when friends ask for a book list. I actually think blogs are far more important because they're real-time and often include comments that can help the reader learn the subtleties and exceptions of an argument. As I've said before, instead of reading this blog, I highly recommend these:
But there's something nice about books. Books are consumed in a different setting. They linger on bookshelfs. They get highlighted and earmarked. If you're new to the startup world, I would recommend reading and re-reading the following 6 books. In fact, I would go farther and say that you should not start your company until you read through this list:
The 6 best startup books to read before starting your company
A lot of this book is understanding how to put luck on your side. I put this book as first though because it can help you understand if you want to be an founder or a manager. Founders are a special breed. Peabody claims it's the B- players that like to hack systems so that they get 80% of the result for 20% of the efforts. Managers are early employees, A+ players, that can take a founders vision and create something remarkable. It's helpful to understand which one you are. And it's helpful to know how luck and intelligence work together.
As he says: "I was smart enough to realize I was getting lucky"
If you've never built a product or if you're a non-technical MBA, start here. The purpose is to learn the basics of agile development early on.
The m.o. of 37 Signals is:
"We believe software is too complex. Too many features, too many buttons, too much to learn. Our products do less than the competition – intentionally. We build products that work smarter, feel better, allow you to do things your way, and are easier to use."
Guy will show you how to start the company and how to raise money. This is your replacement for whatever textbook you used in your entrepreneurship class. It's a nuts and bolts guide to what you do at each stage of start-up process. Kawasaki is great about helping you understand how investors will view you.
One great example, he directs you against putting a competitive profile slide in your pitching deck that shows your features vs. their features. He's seen this enough times to know it's a useless cliche: the entrepreneur always claims to have more features than the competition. His solution is to list out your unfair advantages and their unfair advantages in order to prove you have a reasonable perspective on your market. Good stuff.
From my vantage point, Steve Blank is this year's favourite author, blogger, professor, and speaker. I know that some venture capitalists give his book out to all newly-funded management teams.
Blank outlines a method called customer development. In his words:
"Your startup is an organization built to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Your job as a founder is to quickly validate whether the model is correct by seeing if customers behave as your model predicts. Most of the time the darn customers don’t behave as you predicted."
Rework is a collection of essays from their wonderful blog, Signals vs. Noise. Reading it as a whole is a nice way to learn about how to think of your startup as a business that needs to make money. These guys are pro-bootstrapping, pro-profits, and anti-venture investing. They're a nice counterpoint to much of the startup literature that focuses on how to raise money as the primary goal in the early part of a company.
This is a good last book for this list because it gives you insight into founder culture. One of the most interesting (and unexpected) aspects of being in Y Combinator is that we got to see so many other founders working on their startups. Entrepreneurship can be a lonely endeavor and it's nice to have some perspective on how other founders manage ups and downs while executing at very high levels. The early days of the startup are the most interesting and unlike anything that comes afterward.
In her words:
Quote:
"This is what productivity looks like. This is the Formula 1 racecar. It looks weird but it goes fast."
Those are my 6. Would love to hear in the comments what other books you recommend.
The global financial recession created a strong impact on every industry and was the same with solar energy industry too. The demand for solar energy dropped down by 17% in 2009. This is a harsh reality faced by the energy industry, as its getting slowly resurrected from recession. The global financial recession had created a decrease in the demand for energy, after a long time. This had put a temporary restraint on the growth of power industry, but the worldwide long term energy demands is increasing now, and is anticipated to become double by 2050. With the rise in concerns related to climatic change, the prospects of solar energy industry is much more than any other power industry.
Experts say that the recession was a blessing in one way or another, as it helped may companies to focus on long-term strategic plans to strengthen their solar energy products, and enter the energy market with more confidence than before. In the latest report published by Energy Information Administration (EIA) the improving US economy is focusing more on lucrative renewable energy resources to meet the day to day needs. This is a great boon for solar energy industry and other renewable energy resources.
On examining the information provided by Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) we can find that the U.S. trade association has almost 500 solar energy investment companies
In terms of the solar electric power installed, till fiscal 2008, Germany ranked first, with Spain, Japan and U.S following Germany. But in fiscal 2008, Spain outdid Germany in the number of new installations.
The number of solar PV installations around the world reached 5.95GW in 2008, showing a growth of 110%.
There are many environmental advantages of using solar energy. You can generate electricity from solar energy without any unwanted air or water emissions, noise or vibrations. This doesn’t create any impact on your habitat and doesn’t have any environment polluting waste products.
This energy resource doesn’t have any fuel risk, like fossil ad nuclear fuels. You don’t have to worry about the volatility of fuel prices or the risks of delivery. Although the amount of sunlight received and its timing can vary, you can have a properly designed and configured reliable system that can help in providing lasting and electric supply at a fixed price.
Unlike other energy resources solar power generating system can be conveniently placed at the customer’s site, as sunlight is an energy which is universally available. Thus solar power reduces the expense and energy loss associated with the transmission and distribution from large plants to end users. For people who seek environment friendly energy resource, solar energy is the most perfect choice, equally applicable for rural and urban resources.
Solar energy projects have many subsidy programs. Most of the governments support the solar energy projects with subsidy programs.
You can know more about the benefits of using solar energy, for power generation, from the websites and articles from leading energy research firms. Or you conduct a web search for the keyword ‘News On Renewable Energy’, for latest research journals and articles.
Apple today annoiunced FaceTime: iPhone 4 to iPhone 4, anywhere there’s WiFi, zero setup, front or rear camera, amazing video and audio quality. It’s based on a lot of standards, and we’re going to take it all the way… we’re going to make FaceTime an open industry standard.”
We call this FaceTime — video calling. It’s… it’s great. It’s iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 anywhere there is WiFi, and there is no setup required.
iPhone 4 – iPhone 4 video calling – Wifi only, no set up
That’s iPhone 4, and we think it’s the biggest leap we’ve taken since the original iPhone. I think you’ll agree there’s more to it than met the eye.”
At WWDC today Steve Jobs said "It’s not just a front-facing camera, it’s a front-facing camera and 18 months worth of work to create software you’ll never even notice when you want to make a video call"
This year WWDC sold out in 8 days. There were over 5,200 attendees from 57 countries.
Afterr dicussing the iPad and the way it has changed the way we “experience the web, email, photos, maps, video,”
Steve Jobs went on to tell the audience that over five million iPads have been sold to date, one every three seconds. The iPad is now in ten countries.
There are now 8.5k native iPad apps in the App Store… they’ve been downloaded 35 million times. That’s about 17 apps per iPad.
Steve talks more about the business case for iPad apps He showed off iPad app Elements and referred to an email stating that they “earned more on the sales of Elements for iPad the first day than on the past 5 years of Google ads on periodictable.com” he went on to say that “This is what we LOVE to hear from you guys.”
In terms of the iPad he said that “As you know, you can create highlights, you can also make notes. Now you can make notes. In addition, we’ve added a control to just tap and bookmark a page — under ToC you’ll see all the notes, highlights, and bookmarks.”
They also announced PDF support in iBooks After Big applause he described how you can now view PDFs. “We’ve put a little selector at the top — books and PDFs. You get a whole new bookshelf just for PDFs, they just look gorgeous.”
Running a small side business can provide a few more options: you don’t have to show up at a set time and you can use skills you already have. Not all will be perfect for everyone, of course, and I’m sure that you’ll have a few ideas of your own after reading this list. If you’d like to share any other business ideas, please add them in the comments.
Selling collectibles — From antique books to teddy bears, there are plenty of opportunities to buy and sell collectibles. It’s important to familiarize yourself with the collectible of your choice but if you choose something that you’ve been collecting for a while, you’ve got a head start.
Locating apartments — It can take time to sort through apartment listings, but you can make some money by finding the perfect apartment for a renter.
Baby proofing — New parents often prefer to bring in an expert to make sure their home is safe for a new baby.
Calligraphic writing — If you’ve got elegant handwriting, you can pick up gigs writing or addressing wedding invitations, holiday cards and more.
Selling coupons — Search on eBay for coupons right now and you’ll see thousands of listings for coupons. It’s just a matter of clipping and listing what you find in your Sunday newspaper.
Pet training — A surprising number of people don’t know where to start in training a pet. Even teaching Rover simple commands like ‘Sit’ and ‘Stay’ can bring in a few dollars.
Running errands — A wide variety of people want to outsource their errands, from those folks who aren’t able to leave their homes easily to those who have a busy schedule.
Researching family trees — Amateur genealogists often call in experts, especially to handle research that has to be done in person in a far off place. If you’re willing to go to a local church and copy a few records, you can handle many family tree research requests.
Supplying firewood — The prerequisite for selling firewood is having a source of wood; if you’ve got some land where you can cut down a few trees, you’ve got a head start.
Hauling — As more people trade in their SUVs for compact cars, hauling is becoming more important: people have to rent a truck or hire a hauler for even small loads.
Image consulting — Image consultants provide a wide variety of services, ranging from offering advice on appearance to teaching etiquette.
Menu planning — For many people, the trip up in eating home-cooked or healthy meals is knowing what to prepare. Meal planners set a schedule to solve certain dietary problems.
Microfarming — Cultivating food and flowers on small plots of land allows you to sell produce easily.
Offering notary public services — Notary publics can witness and authenticate documents: a service needed for all sorts of official documents.
Teaching music — If you’re skilled with a musical instrument, you can earn money by offering lessons.
Mystery shopping — Mystery shoppers check the conditions and service at a store and report back to the store’s higher-ups.
Offering research services — Just by reading up on a topic and compiling a report on it can earn you money.
Personal shopping — Personal shoppers typically select gifts, apparel and other products for clients, helping them save time.
Pet breeding — Purebred pets can be quite value, especially if you can verify their pedigree.
Removing snow — During the winter months, shoveling walks can still be a reliable way to earn money. You might be asked to take care of the driveway too.
Utility auditing — As people become environmentally-concious, they want to know just how efficient their homes are. With some simple testing, you can tell them.
Offering web hosting services — Providing server space can be lucrative, particularly if you can provide tech support to your clients.
Cutting lawns — An old standby, cutting lawns and other landscaping services can provide a second income in the summer.
Auctioning items on eBay — Want to get rid of all your old stuff? Stick it up on eBay and auction it off.
Babysitting — Child care of all kinds, from babysitting to nannying, can offer constant opportunities.
Freelance writing — If you’ve got the skills to write clearly, you can sell your pen for everything from blogs to advertising copy.
Selling blog and website themes — Do a little designing on the side? Customers that don’t want to pay full price for a website will often pay for a template or theme.
Offering computer help — Particularly with people new to computers, you can earn money by providing in-home computer help.
Designing websites — It may require a little skilled effort, but designing websites remains a reliable source of income.
Selling stock photography — For shutterbugs, an easy way to put a photography collection to work is to post it to a stock photography site.
Freelance designing — Check with local businesses: you can provide brochures, business cards and other design work and get paid a good fee.
Tutoring — Math and languages reamin the easiest subjects to find tutoring gigs for, but there is demand for other fields as well.
Housesitting / petsitting — Stopping in to check on a house or pet can earn you some money, and maybe even a place to stay.
Building niche websites — If you can put together a site on a very specific topic, you can put targeted ads on it and make money quickly.
Translating — The variety of translating work available is huge: written word, on the spot and more is easy to find even on a part-time basis.
Creating custom crafts — No matter what kind of crafts you make, there’s likely a market for it. Etsy remains one of the easiest places to sell crafts.
Setting up a wi-fi hotspot — With a little bit of equipment, you can set up a wi-fi hotspot and charge your neighbors for the access they’ve been ‘borrowing.’
Selling an e-book — You can write an e-book about almost anything and put it up for sale online.
Affiliate marketing — If you’re willing to market other companies’ products, you can earn a cut of the sales.
Renting out your spare room — From looking for a long-term roommate to listing your guest room on couch surfing sites, that spare room can make you money.
Offering handy man services — Handling small household tasks can provide you with plenty of work, although you’ll probably be expected to have your own tools.
Teaching an online class — Share your expertise through a website, an online seminar or variety of other methods.
Building furniture — For those with the skill to create handmade furniture, selling their creations is often just a matter of advertising.
Providing personal chef services — Personal chefs prepare meals ahead of time for customers, leaving their customers with a full freezer and no mess.
Event planning — From planning corporate events to bar mitzvahs, an event planning business can require plenty of work and offer plenty of pay.
Installing home safety products — Particularly as Baby Boomers age, people able to install handrails and other home safety products are in demand.
Altering / tailoring — If your sewing skills are up to par, altering garments is coming back as people try to stretch more wear out of their clothing.
Offering in-home beauty services — Hair cuts, makeup and other beauty services that can be performed at home have a growing demand.
Business coaching — Helping others to establish and develop their businesses can provide many opportunities to earn money.
Writing resumes — Writing resumes can provide a reliable income, especially if you can put a polish on a client’s credentials.
There are plenty of offers that claim to provide you with the opportunity to make thousands of dollars a week. Unfortunately, none of these businesses will provide that sort of income, but they aren’t scams either. They were chosen because they all require a minimum investment to get started — some require nothing more than a flyer advertising your business. Even better, if you do enjoy any of these businesses, there is a potential with most of them to continue to expand — perhaps even to the point of going full time.
This is Apple’s first electronic book store, and it allows users to download and buy books on the move. Deals have already been struck with publishers, including Penguin and HarperCollins. Once a user has bought a book, it appears on a virtual bookshelf, complete with cover art, and can then be read on the device in full colour. Users can even change the font of the books they are reading. It uses the open-source ePub format, which means books downloaded will be compatible with other devices.
iWork
Apple has developed a special iPad version of its iWork software suite, which makes it possible to create and view documents, spreadsheets and presentations on the device. That makes it a real rival to a laptop, because it can be plugged into a projector. The device can also view slides in PDF files via Adobe Acrobat.
Connectivity
The iPad has wireless internet as standard, but there’s also a 3G option – you would have to pay a mobile phone tariff, but the device would then always be connected to the internet.
Applications
The key selling point of the iPhone has become the vast library of applications that can be downloaded for it – from train information to video games. The iPad will take that model, play all the same apps, but also nurture a new market for a different kind of software, using its larger, multitouch interface.
Web, email and iTunes
Effortless use of the internet will be crucial to the success of this device. Apple’s aim is to make the web seem “more intimate”. With a touchscreen interface, email is easier than on the iPhone. And an iPod is built in: connect it to speakers via WiFi and this is a great device to use on the sofa.
Specifications
Estimated UK launch: June/July
Price: currently from $499
Memory: 16/32/64GB
Screen: 9.7i
Official Site: http://www.apple.com/ipad/ The high-resolution, 9.7 inch LED-backlit, IPS display on iPad is remarkably crisp and vivid. Which makes it perfect for web browsing, watching movies, or showing off photos. It’s also been designed to work in any orientation — portrait or landscape. And because it uses a display technology called IPS (in-plane switching), it has a wide, 178° viewing angle. So you can hold it almost any way you want, and still get a brilliant picture, with excellent color and contrast.
After years of rumors, speculation, and leaks, Apple today announced its long-await tablet, the iPad.
Chief executive Steve Jobs complemented the introduction of the new device with a new e-bookstore, called iBooks, together with partnerships with four major publishers, and showed off new versions of its iWork application and third-party applications.
Jobs kicked off the company's launch event in San Francisco on Wednesday by highlighting the history of the company's mobile products. "We're the largest mobile device company in the world," he told the audience, showcasing the iPhone and the company's line of MacBook products.
"There is room for something in the middle," he told the crowd. "If there's gonna be a third category, it has to be better at [Web browsing, e-mail, photos, video, music, games, and e-book reader]—otherwise it has no reason for being."
While netbooks have attempted to address the space, Jobs added, "netbooks aren't better than anything…They're just cheap laptops."
The key, he insisted is the tablet—a new device the company has christened the "iPad," one of several rumored names, including the "iSlate" and, simply, the "Apple Tablet." The iPad features a 9.7-inch, full capacitive multi-touch IPS display, weighs 1.5 pounds and measures 0.5 inches thick—"thinner and lighter than any netbook," according to Jobs.
Pricing for the iPad starts at $499 – far lower than the early $1,000 projections of many analysts. The 16-, 32-, and 64-GB devices run $499, $599, $699 – with an additional $130 for 3G capability. The device will begin shipping in March.
For the chipset, the company went in-house, designing a 1-GHz Apple A4, contrary to rumors that the device would be powered by an Intel or Samsung chip. The iPad comes in three capacities: 16-, 32, and 64GB. It features built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, an accelerometer, company, speaker, and microphone.
The iPad has a built-in iTunes store, for music playback. Itcan also do video, naturally, either via iTunes for movies and TV shows, or via third-party apps like YouTube and YouTube HD. The device syncs to Macs and PCs via USB, in much the same manner as the iPhone, so users can transfer content like movies and music from iTunes.
According to Jobs, the device gets 10 hours of battery life. "I can take a flight from San Francisco to Tokyo and watch video the whole time." It also features a month of standby time on a single charge, he said.
Apple is offering two 3G data plans for the device: $14.99 a month for 250-MB or $29.99 for unlimited data. "Data plans usually cost about $60 a month," Jobs told the crowd.
Contrary to early Verizon partnership rumors, the plan is available solely through AT&T. No contract is required. "International plans will be in place by June," Jobs added. Those uninterested in 3G data will be able to use the device with Wi-Fi, of course.
Jobs surrendered the stage to a number of content providers. First off, Mark Hickey from video game publisher Gameloft showcased a first person shooter for the device called Nova.
Travis Boatman from EA showcased a the upcoming title: "Need For Speed: Shift". "Building for the iPad is like holding an HD display up to your face," he told the crowd.
Martin Nisenholtz from The New York Times took the stage to show off "something special for the iPad." The paper's layout on the device mimics a standard newspaper. "We think we've captured the essence of reading the newspaper," he told the crowd. "A superior experience in a native application." The application also lets users play video, making newspaper reading a multi-media experience.
Developer Steve Sprang showcased an application called Brushes, which is already available as an iPhone app. In iPad form, the application takes advantage of the device's significantly increased real-estate, offering a deep artistic canvas experience. The app, according to Sprang, will be available when the iPad launches. Chad Evans from MLB.com also showcased a new app for the device featuring live video.
Jobs came back on stage to take a shot at Amazon's successful Kindle. "Amazon has done a great job of pioneering [e-readers]," Jobs told the crowd. "We're going to stand on their shoulders for this." The new e-book reader for the iPad is titled, fittingly enough, iBooks. Apple partnered with a slew of major publishers, including Penguin, Harper-Collings, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and the Hachette Book Group to provide content for the device's online book store called the iBookStore.
Unlike the Kindle, the iPad displays titles in full color. The screen's animation lets users flip quickly through the pages of the book. Users can even change the font of the books they're reading. The device utilizes the nearly universal ePub format for its titles.
For more business-minded users Apple has developed a special iPad version of iWork, making it possible to create and view spreadsheets on the device. The device can also view slides in Keynote and PDF files via Adobe Acrobat. iWork applications will run $9.99 a piece and will be compatible with Macs and projectors.
Apple is also offering a number of accessories for the device, including two docks. The first is a picture dock, which lets the device stand upright for video and image viewing. The other has a built-in keyboard, transforming the iPad into a more fully functioning netbook of sorts. Apple's case also lets the device stand upright.
Below will follow a tranbscript of iVirtua's traditional live coverage from our new subsidiary
Before you do this, you’ll have to first transfer the actual files to your new computer. You may choose to burn CDs, DVDs, or use a thumb drive; but using a FireWire cable is easiest for large libraries, unless you have a portable hard drive.
Video:
Export the source iTunes library as an XML file(File>Library>Export Library…). This will create a file thatholds information about the location, song filenames, and *song rating*!
Replace the file paths in your XML file with thepath that the songs from the source library will be in when you importthem. This path may point to your FireWire Drive, a DVD you haveburned, or a temporary folder on your hard drive that you have copiedyour music to. Just to be sure of the new path, copy one of the filesfrom this location to your library, export your destination library,and look at the file path to that song in the resulting XML file. Toactually replace the file paths, I did a Find/Change in TextWrangler but you can just use TextEdit (Edit>Find>Find…).
Set the preferences in iTunes in your source library to “Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library.” This is under “Advanced.”
Import your library (File>Library>Import Playlist…).
Delete redundant files. If you’re like me, youhave some duplicate songs in your multiple libraries. This is a tedioustask, but I plan to do it over time.
Of course, you can prevent all of this by being organized in thefirst place. I probably should have just had an iPod that I synchedwith my home computer and brought to work.
if you aren’t keen on messing with XML files – and play count isn’t important to you use this process, involving smart playlists, for retaining song ratings when you transfer your iTunes library.[\/LIST]iTunes does not transfer your “My Rating” field to a new computer.Yes it is in the XML, and you could probably edit this file, but Thefollowing is a non-technical process for transferring your music,playlists, and “My Rating” to a new computer that anyone can do in afew minutes. (this is windows, mac may be different). On the old computer: 1. Create 5 Smart Playlists for one for each of your star ratings (1-5 stars) 2. Create 5 (regular) Playlists for one for each of your star ratings (1-5 stars) 3. Go to each of the Smart Playlists and “Select All” (Ctrl+A) 4. Drag all songs from each of the Smart Playlists to their corresponding (regular) Playlist 5. Choose “Export Playlist” from the File menu. This will generate an XML file of all Playlists. On the new computer: 1. Move/load your music on the new computer 2. Import the XML file by selecting “Import” from the File menu 3. Select “Preferences” from the “Edit” menu 4. On the “Advanced” tab “Change” the “iTunes Music folder location” to the folder that contains the newly moved music files. 5. Make sure “Keep iTunes Music folder organized” is checked and select “OK” 6. From the Advanced menu select “Consolidate Library” and click “OK” to the dialog window. 7. You should now have your music without “My Rating” 8. Now go to each of the 5 (regular) Playlists and “Select All” (Ctrl+A) 9. Right mouse click, Select “My Rating” and choose the appropriate rating for the playlist 10. Once complete for each of your ratings you can delete the 5 (ratings) Playlists To remove the duplicate songs (on a Mac anyway), select your library andgoto View>Show Duplicates. It’s not perfect and only goes by title,but it makes removing them a bit easier. Also when you’re done you needto click “Show All” at the bottom, to see the rest of your files.
Here is a clever way to transfer while retaining playlists
I exported the entire iTunes library before the transfer. Then, toconstruct the new library, I imported all of the xml filescorresponding to each playlist first, then I imported the Library.xmlfile, to fill in the gaps. If a song is already in the new library, itdoes not create a duplicate. In this way, I believe I managed to moveevery file. Doing it the other way around (importing the entirelibrary, then the playlists) did not seem to work: if it was already inthe library, it did not get added to the playlist.
Transferring between macs? . make sure both versions are set as described above. 2. restart the old computer in Firewire mode. Copy the contents of the“iTunes Music” folder (all your music) to the corresponding folder inthe new computer and also copy the “iTunes Library” file that sits inthe “iTunes” folder, to the corresponding folder on the new computer. 3. launch iTunes on the new computer, it will update its libraryautomatically and all your music, metadata, playlists will show up. 4. done. Couple notes: * I would “deauthorize” your old iTunes before transferring the music,especially if you have purchased music in the iTunes Store. * I would rename any album name that has a “.” in it to get rid of thedot, as iTunes replaces the . by a “_” in its folder structure and thenew iTunes will think it has lost those songs that you will then haveto manually go and reassign one by one.
And finally.... Moving your iTunes music folder http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449?viewlocale=en_US
Orange has announced that it hascome to an arrangement with Apple to sell the iPhone in the UK, whereit will be the only network other than O2 to sell the iPhone 3G and 3GSin the UK. Orange announced the deal in a short statement, although details on pricing tariffs and availability are yet to be revealed.
"OrangeUK and Apple have reached an agreement to bring iPhone 3G and 3GS toOrange UK customers later this year. Orange globally now offers iPhonein 28 countries and territories," said the statement. "Orange,which has the largest 3G network covering more people in the UK thanany other operator, will sell iPhone in all Orange direct channelsincluding Orange shops, the Orange webshop and Orange telesaleschannels, as well as selected high street partners.
28th September 2009, 08.30am:Orange UK and Apple have reached an agreement to bring iPhone 3G and3GS to Orange UK customers later this year. Orange globally now offersiPhone in 28 countries and territories. Orange, which has the largest 3G network covering more people in theUK than any other operator, will sell iPhone in all Orange directchannels including Orange shops, the Orange webshop and Orangetelesales channels, as well as selected high street partners. Apre-registration site for customers to log their interest has alreadybeen launched at www.orange.co.uk/iPhone. More information on pricing, tariffs and availability dates will be released in due course.
O2 has responded to the news that Orange will be stocking the iPhone by confirming it will continue to stock the device. "We'reproud that we've been able to offer an exclusive iPhone deal to our 20million customers for the last two years. We always knew that iPhoneexclusivity was for a limited period of time, but our relationship withApple continues and will be an ongoing success," an O2 spokespersontold TechRadar. "We have over 1 million iPhone customers and they remain very important to us. "Weaim to offer our customers the best devices on the market, includingbecoming the home of Smartphones and we are really pleased to now addanother device in the Palm Pre. "We also offer award-winningcustomer service and benefits, which is why more people choose O2 thanany other network in the UK." Network blow O2 has recently been under fire for failures in its data provision,and this new announcement will be another blow to the network as it'sjoined by Orange in stocking both the iPhone 3G and the 3GS. Thespeculation regarding O2 losing exclusivity of its iPhone range hasbeen rife for months, although it was expected that only the iPhone 3Gwould be offered to other carriers, with O2 retaining its status as thesole stocker of the 3GS. O2 will still be the exclusive stockistof the new Palm Pre when it debuts in the UK next month, but given thisis over 10 months since the device was announced it's not going toattract interest in the same way the iPhone has over the years. We'restill awaiting news on whether Orange will drop the price of the iPhonecompared to O2, but we'll bring you news as and when we get it.
Orange recently revealed plans to merge its UK network with DeutscheTelekom's T-Mobile to create a business with 28.4 million customers. If given the go-ahead, it would be the UK's largest provider, overtaking Telefonica's O2, with about 37% of the mobile market. "Thatwould be good for Apple," said Mr McQueen. "Then, around three quartersof the UK market will then have access to the iPhone." O2 hasoffered the handset in the UK since its launch in 2007. In February, itsaid it had sold more than one million of the handsets. The launch of the latest iPhone 3GS in June significantly boosted sales, with many stores running out of stock. The phone has also allowed the firm to win subscribers from other networks, according to analysts. However,the rise of smartphones - which have the ability to surf the web andsend e-mail - has put a burden on the O2 network, according to MrMcQueen. "IPhone users to tend to use data quite extensively - perhaps more than anticipated," he said. "Orange has always a good data network and if the T-mobile deal goes through it would allow them to share the burden." O2 will continue to sell the handset in Britain, alongside iPhone rival the Palm Pre. The Palm phone, described by some as an "iPhone killer", will be available exclusively to O2 from 16 October. O2 said that it always knew that its exclusive deal was for "a limited period of time". Thenew agreement with Orange brings the UK into line with many othercountries around the world which have multiple operators that offer theiPhone. In countries where exclusive deals still persist, suchas the US, some customers choose to "unlock" their phones using thirdparty software so they work on an unlicensed network. However,Apple has warned that the practice can cause "irreparable" damage to ahandset and has engaged in a game of cat-and-mouse, releasing periodicsoftware updates which prevent unlocked phones from working correctly.
Yep! It really IS possible with only one line of BASH (Terminal) code using the new Twitter Streaming API. Using a series of chained commands, this Twitter Bot listens for occurrences of ‘one line’ in the Twittersphere and will follow that person.
Note: This is just to display how more easy and easy it is to write bots/agents. Yes, this code consists of multiple commands and is over 400 columns. No, I don’t believe in measuring any software in LOC.
EA's Need for Speed: Shift has gone straight to number one in the UK chart in its debut week. The game, developed by the newly formed London-based Slightly MadStudios, enjoyed high enough sales to knock last week's number one -Guitar Hero 5 - off the top position after just one week there.
Need for Speed: Shift is the 13th installment of the long-running racing video game franchise Need for Speed published by Electronic Arts. It was announced in January 2009 as part of a three-game announcement that includes Need for Speed: Nitro and Need for Speed: World Online.[3] Shift was developed by Slightly Mad Studios—who, under their former name Blimey! Games helped develop GT Legends and GTR 2 together with SimBin Studios—with help of Michael Mann (EP at EA Black Box) and Patrick Söderlund (senior VP of EA Games and head of DICE). In the new franchising model for the series adopted by EA, Shift takes its place focusing on simulation racing and realistic drifting rather than the arcade racing of previous titles in the series. It abandons the street racing formula of previous games and focuses on simulating the "true" driver experience.
Shift's sales were split fairly evenly between PlayStation 3 and Xbox360, with the former just pipping the Microsoft hardware with 52 percent of the sales. Xbox 360 took 44 per cent and PC and PSP theremaining five per cent. Colin McRae: Dirt 2, which made its debut last week at numbertwo, dropped to number three this week. Eidos' Batman: Arkham Asylumdropped one place this week to number four, and Wii Sports Resortgained one place to number five.
Launch Video
The only other new entry in this week's top ten, alongside Need for Speed, was Bethesda's WET, which entered at number six. Dropping three places to number seven was The Beatles: Rock Band, whileCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfare remained at number eight for a secondweek. Nintendo's Wii Fit fell four places to number nine and EA's TigerWoods PGA Tour 10 rounded off the top places at number ten, afterclimbing one position.
The full UK all-formats chart from Chart-Track for the week ending September 19 is as follows:
01 Need for Speed: Shift
02 Guitar Hero 5
03 Colin McRae: Dirt 2
04 Batman: Arkham Asylum
05 Wii Sports Resort
06 WET
07 The Beatles: Rock Band
08 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
09 Wii Fit
10 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
Shift has been met with generally favorable reviews, the Windows version gaining a metacritic score of 87.IGN awarded it 9/10 (outstanding) citing among other things an incredible driving experience and excellent sound effects, IGN also gave Need for Speed: Shift a editors choice award.[11]Official Xbox Magazine awarded Shift with 9/10 saying that it has an outstanding driver’s view; a deep, addictive career mode with lots of variety and options; sharp multiplayer racing counts toward single-player career. Official Xbox Magazine has also nominated Need for Speed: Shift for editors choice award.[12]Eurogamer gave it a 7/10, saying, "If the skittish handling and overbearing, messy advancement can be reined in, Need for Speed could have a future in its newly serious and somewhat crowded surroundings. But with the infinitely more comprehensive Forza Motorsport 3 and Gran Turismo 5 looming in the very near distance, it's hard to see the point in this second-stringer this time around, for console players at least. And given Need for Speed's recent, confused history, you shouldn't count on it wearing the same face next year."[13]
General Features
True Driver's Experience– A variety of visual cues delivers the true driver's experienceincluding a three-dimensional HUD that mimics driver head movement,inertia and G-forces. The depth of field also adjusts based on thespeed of the car; so when the car is travelling at high speeds theperspective will shift to the distance putting the car/cockpit out offocus.
Driver Profile – What kind of driver are you? Driver profiletracks the player's evolution as a race driver from event to event.This system is made up of a driver's personality on the track, theirsuccess rate and any profile points and badges accrued all of whichwork together to create a tailor-made career and gameplay experience.Driver profile is pervasive throughout all modes: career and online.
Dynamic Crash Effect - When the player hits a static objector opponent car, the player will feel like they are 'taking damage'. Acombination of visual and audio effects will leave the playerdisorientated and briefly disrupt the race.
Total Customization – Need for Speed SHIFT features acomprehensive customization option that lets the player tailor everyaspect of the cars performance and styling. Go under the hood toupgrade and tune your vehicle to increase its performance. The visualcustomization system allows players to personalize both the exteriorand trick out the interior to reflect their individual style andpreferences.
Photo Real Cars and Tracks – Nearly 70 licensed cars areavailable including the Pagani Zonda F, Audi RS4, and Porsche 911 GT3RSR. There is also over 15 real-world locations like Willow Springs andLaguna Seca as well as fictional circuits like downtown London andTokyo.
