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Sunday, November 30, 2014
Digital Scam Alert: The Browser Hijackers
There is some adware making the rounds that has shown on up some of the computers I am working on. I thought it was originally something that just showed on my Windows machines. This attack occurred after I checked out one the websites (a "Watering Hole" technique to deliver malware) that my kids were visiting to watch free videos. I explained to my children how this occurs primarily on Windows machines, but this has changed as I would discover later.
This particular adware is ingenious in many ways. It occurs when you are browsing on the internet, but instead of going to the page you typed into it will redirect to another web page that looks and feels like a Google search page at first glance, but it has ads scattered around the screen. The ads first appear legitimate as it showed some national advertisers to bring it creditability to the web surfer. They are also reports that these organizations have hacked into legitimate ad networks.
This was a nuisance and I had to clean out the computers with an anti- malware software. I also had to remove some extensions in my Chrome browser that the spyware installed. I didn't think about any of this again it until showed up on a Mac at one of the off-site offices I do some work at. This was on the Chrome browser and I immediately removed the browser from the machine. This is the first time I have seen malware like this on a Apple machine.
The software hijacks your browser settings and installs their own. In this snapshot a new search engine appears that appears like a legitimate one, but its not and serves ups ads for you to see from BetterMarkit. They try to trick you in buying security software.
According to the Cisco 2014 report on IT Security this type of activity is the second largest type of technique used by cybercriminals to make money on the internet after Trojan horses ( A Trojan horse is a hidden code that can take over specific functions of your computer). Mobile is the next wave of security threat and Android devices are being targeted first by the shadow economy. The use of the Chrome Browser on desktops is part of that arsenal as you can see from my personal experience
The report also states that SPAM threats are still strong and below is a list that Cisco has compiled on the various types of messages that the are used to trick readers. I bet you have all seen one of these arrive in your email inbox once or twice. Spam software tries their best to do this, but the problem is that legitimate messages also get flagged and lost in Spam boxes.
The best defence is just plain education so people can recognize the signs of a con job on the internet. One trick, I did notice was websites with unbelievable prices on products (Fall off the truck sale) is one way they use to steal your credit card number, they use the number later after you buy the product. So this Xmas season buy from retailers you trust and if it's an unbelievable deal, be wary. Happy Holidays.
Comment (1)
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
HP Elite Tablet and Laptop - Devices for the multi-screen workplace
The digital lifestyle is now upon us and there is no way to avoid anything that is not connected to the internet. Computers come in many colours, sizes and shapes just like the old fashion print pocket organizers that you can still buy at your local Staples store.
The latest generation of smartphones are getting bigger and can now be considered mini-computers or pocket computers. Just like the pocket organizers, you can get the next size up and get a tablet computer for watching video, reading and games or a laptop to do some emailing, writing or number crunching with. And lastly you can get a monster 70" TV computer for online video. Next on the list coming sooner than we think are wearable computers (too geek for me!) and connected cars to the mainstream.
This is the new norm and the numbers show it, Canada's digital literacy rates show that Canadians now enjoy a modern digital lifestyle through many devices. The Media Directors Council (2013-2014 report) reports that there are 5.9 million tablets and 20 million smartphones in Canada in 13.3 million HHs. This makes household penetration in Canada with tablets at 45% and smartphones at 150% and growing.
Maybe this is the reason that HP's tablet plans have changed since their ill fated launch of the HP TouchPad, their first tablet in 2011. HP still remains a tech titan and is ranked second in industry market share for global PC shipments according to IDC at 18.8% in the 3rd Quarter of 2014, Lenovo was 1st (20%), Dell 3rd (13.3%), Acer 4th (8.4%) and Apple in 5th (6.3%) out of total shipments of 78.5M worldwide (1.7% decline from Q3 2013).
IDC reported that global tablet shipments totalled 53.8M in Q3 (11.5% growth) with Apple 1st (22.8%), 2nd Samsung (18.3%), 3rd. ASUS (6.5%), 4th Lenovo (5.7%), 5th RCA (4.9%). Apple saw it market share shrink from 29.2% in 2013 and saw a 12.8% drop in sales. The numbers shows that in the PC corporate world Window's machines still dominate and are starting to climb up in the tablet sector,
HP Elite Tablet and Laptop
You don't see a lot of consumer advertising about HP products as they tend to concentrate in corporate markets for their servers, PCs, tablets and printers. HP did not disappoint when I reviewed their Elite tablet and laptop line for the business user. These are Windows 8 machines and they all came packed with features that you expect on any device on the market. The first thing I did was download Google Chrome that acts as my virtual desktop through my gmail account to set-up both devices. This virtual desktop includes my email, calendar, bookmarks and cloud storage and it installed fine and can work in desktop mode on both devices. My daily routine includes using my tablet for my daily news and video entertainment fix and the Elite tablet was a fast device with HD quality video and sound (with my headphones). I used it at the cottage, home and office and the wifi connection was reliable and fast and the screen worked fine in natural sunlight.
I prefer writing on a keyboard, sorry the touch screen keyboard just doesn't cut it for me, or the tablet accessories. The smaller screen size of a tablet at 10" makes it too small to work with so it is not practical as a everyday work device. I need at least a 13" screen and the Elite laptop I used was 14". It was nice to use both devices together when I was reading and typing at the same time as it made me more productive. I am a big fan of the two screen workstation and a tablet and laptop combo can still fit in my briefcase when I am on the go. Stacked together, both devices are 1 inch thick.
Rating 4.5 out of 5
HP also has a line of Android tablets available for sale starting at $215 for the 7" model under the Slate product line that is available at Staples and other stores. I fear that tablets in the future might suffer the "Novelty" effect, where the latest toy is discarded with the latest consumer mood swing and this will affect the replacement market. Plus, pocket computer (ie:smartphones) screen sizes are getting bigger and this will impact the adoption of the larger tablets. Since I got my 4" Nokia smartphone I found that I used the tablet less for reading the news.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
A Call for Freedom of Choice – An Open Letter to the CRTC
The CRTC will be making some decisions about the digital airwaves very soon about what they will do with online video broadcasting and cable tv pricing models. The current market structure is an industry cartel model where supply economics are used by corporations to corner the market to ensure high profits. This page out of the corporate playbook, is not good for consumers, just look at how this is done in oil and gas markets, diamonds and the 407 toll roads in Toronto.
I have empathy for the CRTC as an instrument of public policy to ensure Canadian content and consumer protection is caught in middle of these market forces. The latest noise from the CRTC hearings, is in my opinion a witch hunt to get Neflix out of the Canadian market based on the Canadian content rules for broadcasters. When the cartel says Canadian jobs are at risk, the CRTC should ask them how much of their staff has been out sourced in the call centre, IT and accounting departments.
But is Netflix a broadcaster or a digital video entertainment subscription service that has no advertising or programming schedule, just on demand video downloads. So if Netflix is banned in Canada what will happen? The cartel will launch their own service, just like they did when they banned TIVO, a TV recording hardware device that was popular in the USA, but was packaged as a hardware upgrade for cable subscribers in Canada.
Now what are the implications for publishers that produce video channels of their content online will they be included in this new definition of broadcaster. Will these publishers be banned too or better yet regulated? If you have a YouTube channel will that be included too? How about the CRTC try and ban Adult content digital channels instead, it will be a losing battle. Whatever happen to FREE TRADE, I guess this does not apply if the cartel's profits are threatened.
I was one of the early cable chord cutters and I now get 20+ stations through an antennae as I did not want to pay $100 a month for cable TV anymore. I got a customer friendly internet service from TekSavvy for $40/mo for 300 GB and then got Netflix for $10/mo. I use a free Chrome browser plug-in that hids my identity (Hola Unblocker) on the internet and now I can now stream the USA version to my computer TV plus other stations like CBS, ABC, Fox and Hulu. Who needs to watch conventional cable TV anymore, except for live sports programming. I would like to buy a subscription to a sports channel, but I have to buy stations that I do not want, so I do not buy it. So I hope you will allow me to buy such a subscription when you make your final decision.
I believe that the Newton Law of physics applies here as for every action there is a corresponding opposite action and in this case the choices in underground economy of the internet will flourish instead. If you ban Netflix, there is already a service that is for free called
Popcorn Time
an open source project that looks and feels like Netflix that people can go to based in Europe. If the CRTC believes in freedom as a core value you will not succumb to the lobby efforts of the cartel in Canada, who btw are all saying the same thing in a concerted effort to control markets. Be aware that when somebody tries to control the internet the open source software community will step in and help out with some new code to share to circumvent that.
Now, if the CRTC can look at the interesting pricing models for smartphones that are inflated in telco contracts, instead of being distracted with Netflix who provides great value to the 4 million+ Canadian households that use the service. I still can't figure out how you can get a Apple iTouch for $200 but an iPhone costs $650 and all you get extra is the phone, now if you can stop this practice I will be impressed. The internet is a place where freedom and democracy flourishes as consumers can vote with their wallet as the internet has no geographic boundaries that can be controlled.
Yours Sincerely,
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Tech Notes Part 2 : Ink and Beyond Conference Vendor Roundtable – State of the Newspaper Industry
Web publishing technologies have been very disruptive to newspaper business models by creating numerous challenges for the industry. It started with the drop in advertising revenue through free classified ad sites for jobs and products like
, Craig's List, EBay and Kijiji. Players in the news industry have seen a TV station become an online news publisher, newspapers providing online video like TV, magazine publishers now publishing daily with video and tech companies producing news sites.
This has created a hyper-competitive online media landscape during this digital transformation of the media industry. I predict that we will see consolidation in the industry as the market can only support so many players in the Canadian market, as digital adoption starts to level out. We are already seeing some of those signs now in the marketplace.
The demise of print that has been predicted has not unfolded. I guess tech gurus can be wrong too or make exaggerated predictions to get headlines as "News" as a medium is as strong as ever according to this Newspapers Canada 2014 report (below). It shows that 86% of Canadians read a newspaper in print or digital every week, which has stayed the same over the past two years. How news is consumed today through traditional media like TV, radio and print methods has changed. Today 30% read news digitally with 50% of digital consumption via a tablet or smartphone, that means 70% still prefer print.
According to
in their 2013 report cumulative weekly newspaper audience is growing slightly (5.4% overall growth since 2009) with print staying about the same (0.2% decline since 2009) with growth attributed to digital. Cross platform usage saw 76% of website readers also read a printed edition of a newspaper. NADBank predicts that tablets will be the preferred everyday digital device long-term.
In the same report from Newspapers Canada they look at ad effectiveness vs. other media to demonstrate that newspapers still work as part of the media plan. Historically, this is why newspaper advertising was so effective and it looks like it is still true today. The effectiveness of the internet versus other media suggest that digital has one of the lowest levels of engagement. The numbers suggest that digital perhaps is now losing its luster as it matures with consumers and perhaps their share of people's time has peaked.
What the newspaper industry has yet to determine is how to monetize digital eyeballs after giving it away for free for so long. The newspaper pay wall that has been used the past two years with a 10 article free sample is now the new norm for some newspapers. The ad marketplace for digital is a buyer's market with an oversupply scenario that generates low CPMs and ROI for publishers.
Newspapers Canada produces an annual conference INK+BEYOND that takes a look at issues and challenges facing newspapers, and showcases the latest innovations used by newspapers around the world. This event was in Charlottetown, PEI, on May 28-30 in 2014 and in 2015 it will be held in Toronto. I put together a roundtable of vendors that were pitching their wares at the event this year to share in a Part 2 of Tech Notes this summer. The vendors fall primarily in three general categories content creation, content production and ad sales support.
INK+BEYOND 2014 Vendor Roundtable
Affinity Express
Advertising and media solutions
As the SMB marketing supply chain company, Affinity Express is the leading white label creative and production partner for companies that serve the marketing and advertising needs of SMBs. Its services are offered to tens of millions of companies under the guise of some of the most well-known media, internet and retail brands.
Affinity offers SMBs custom print, digital marketing and advertising services—including print ads, logos, websites, video ads and more—without adding fixed costs. Grow your digital ad business, using Affinity to create and traffic the ads. Drive new profitable revenue and improve advertiser loyalty with Affinity Express.
Kelly Glass:
firstname.lastname@example.com, (847) 930-3205
BBM Analytics
Newspaper Ad Tracking Service
In the increasingly competitive newspaper landscape, get a better understanding of who is advertising and your share of voice. BBM Analytics' newspaper ad tracking services provides you with comprehensive and timely competitive intelligence at your fingertips. All advertising activity is tracked in daily newspapers in 7 key markets across Canada. The online database is easy to access and quickly identifies strategy, volume, messaging and placement of existing advertisers and more importantly who is not advertising. Contact us to find out how to use the service for new business development, smarter negotiations/selling or as value add for clients.
Michael Abraham
, firstname.lastname@example.com, 416 847 2054
Business Wire
Commercial news distribution
Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure. Investor relations, public relations, public policy and marketing professionals rely on Business Wire to accurately distribute market-moving news and multimedia, host online newsrooms and IR websites, build content marketing platforms, generate social engagements and provide audience analysis that improves interaction with specified target markets.
Founded in 1961, Business Wire is a trusted source for news organizations, journalists, investment professionals and regulatory authorities, delivering news directly into editorial systems and leading online news sources via its multi-patented simultaneous NX Network. Business Wire has 32 offices worldwide to securely meet the varying needs of communications professionals and news consumers.
Matthew Allinson
, firstname.lastname@example.com, (206) 405-4000
Fundata Canada
Canadian Investment Funds database
In all areas of our business, from raw financial data feeds to hosted web solutions, our goal is to develop strong, long term client relationships and to become a trusted business partner for our clients. Fundata offers a variety of products and services that solve problems in a number of industries and businesses. Whether custom or white labeled, Fundata's team of professionals can customized either solution to client specifications. The information we provide currently reaches over 80,000 financial advisors, millions of investors, and scores of institutions every day through our network of newspapers, web and corporate clients across North America.
Brooke Biscoe
, firstname.lastname@example.com, (416) 445-7445
Cloud-based publishing CMS for media companies
Libercus is an efficient, economical and comprehensive cloud-based news publishing CMS designed for today's digital and print media realties. Print, web, mobile, video, social media and e-Editions are published from one streamlined, modern platform. Journalists, editors, and production personnel work in Libercus. Libercus streamlines costs, uncertainty and vendor bloat impeding media companies in an era requiring innovation and speed.
Libercus is a single system, user interface and database. Browser-based and cloud-architected, Libercus is not a legacy CMS with multiple products, databases, and interfaces. It eliminates significant infrastructure and software expense. Content is delivered to multiple channels efficiently. Libercus delivers workflow flexibility and is cost effective in terms of total cost of ownership.
Steve Lett
, firstname.lastname@example.com, (847) 274-0490
Metro Creative Graphics, Inc.
Creative & Ad Development Solutions for Publishers
Metro Creative Graphics, Inc. helps today's media companies expand ad revenue by providing advertising, creative and editorial solutions for optimizing their print, online, mobile and social products. With an unparalleled dedication to providing the finest resources available for ready-to-use images, spec ads, sales ideas, stock-quality photos, logos/trademarks, auto manufacturer photos, marketing/sales materials, copyright-free editorial features, fully-templated print and online sections, and groundbreaking digital ad development tools -- including the new Metro interactive Ad Designer (MiAD) Mobile App for sales reps -- Metro services the creative and sales needs of today's media companies.
Jennifer Steiner
, email@example.com, (800) 223-1600
Myles Mellor Theme Crosswords
Crosswords and puzzles
Myles Mellor crosswords offers all types of crosswords, easy, medium, Sunday size and very large. You can also order sudokus, word searches, cryptograms, diagramless crosswords and anagrams (a form of jumble). Currently servicing over 90 community newspapers with syndicated content, Myles' service is personal and economical. The company also offers interactive crosswords, sudokus and word searches that can be solved online. Myles also writes theme crosswords for advertisers, a proven money-maker for newspapers using this service.
Myles Mellor
, firstname.lastname@example.com, (818) 890-8065
NEWSCYCLE Solutions
Content, advertising, circulation and audience engagement
NEWSCYCLE Solutions - which was formed by the combination of DTI, SAXOTECH, MediaSpan, and the Atex AdBase business - delivers the most complete range of software solutions for the global news media industry, including news content management, advertising, circulation, audience, and analytics. NEWSCYCLE Solutions is a trusted technology partner serving more than 750 media companies with 8,000 properties across more than 30 countries on 6 continents. The company is headquartered in Bloomington, MN and has U.S. offices in Florida, Michigan and Utah; with international offices in Canada, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Rob Dumas
, firstname.lastname@example.com, (734) 887-4400
Ad management & Digital Production Software
News-Net provides first-class software solutions, programming, integration and development to over 1,800 newspapers throughout North America. A trusted supplier to the publishing industry since its inception over 30 years ago, News-Net develops affordable cost-cutting and leading-edge technologies for Ad Management, CRM, Production Workflow, Pagination,Tearsheets and more. We offer complete services from consultation, installation, configuration, set-up & user training. News- Net has the right combination of professionals and expertise for delivering quality integrated solutions on time and in budget)
Khymn Glover
, email@example.com, (905) 844-0524
Newspaper Toolbox
Revenue-generating tools and ideas
With over 700 subscriber clients in Canada, the USA, New-Zealand and Australia, Newspaper Toolbox is the premier sales building tool available to the newspaper industry today. Created by a professional team with more than 25 years of experience in the media industry, Newspaper Toolbox offers a wealth of ready-to-sell share pages, an online sales calendar, ready-to-sell concepts, reader contest concepts, special section packages, an extensive editorial library, money making ideas and a whole lot more. In essence, it is the best idea generator for revenues in small and medium size newspaper markets. With a brand new website, extensive archives and the launch of new services such as EZ Contest and EZ Newzsite, Newspaper Toolbox is helping publishers follow the money trail.
Candide Grégoire
, email@example.com, (877) 444-4034
Publishing software and service solutions
Newzware Business System Software - The greatest performance value in the new media industry. Circulation, Display & Classified Advertising, Financial, Editorial and Ad Production tools are deployed separately or integrated as a complete publishing business environment. ICANON Services insure a legacy of performance with unequaled personal customer support. Stable ownership since 1990, innovative solutions that keep pace with technology demands and cost effective ownership including free license upgrades make Newzware the smartest decision you can make. Installation can be either premise based or hosted as a cloud resource in our secure datacenters. Your unique product deserves the flexibility of Newzware.
Gary Markle, firstname.lastname@example.com, (215) 822-5519
Digital distribution and publishing solutions
PressReader, a Vancouver-based company, is the global leader in multi-channel, cross-platform content distribution and monetisation, and the chosen partner of more than 4,000 publishers from over 100 countries.
PressReader connects local, national and international newspaper and magazine publishers with readers around the globe and across all platforms including web, iOS, Android, Android for Amazon, Windows 8 and BlackBerry 10. It offers the world's most engaging reading experience to millions of readers and can be found in thousands of libraries, hotels, airlines, corporate and government offices, and aboard cruise ships worldwide, providing publishers with new revenue opportunities and increased global circulation.
PressReader Technology, a fully customizable digital publishing solution, helps publishers of all sizes and media types digitise and monetise their content on all devices and platforms. This award-winning solution offers an enhanced digital edition experience with its intelligent multimedia features and functionality.
Nikolay Malyarov
, email@example.com, (604) 278-4604
Research and Analysis of Media
Media Research for Advertisers
In today's competitive marketplace, advertisers demand solutions that provide quick and accurate results regardless of media choice. Knowing what your customers think is exceptionally valuable. Our role at RAM is to help you understand how the market and your audience connects with your brand.
At RAM we provide unique and strategic solutions with relevant insights to help increase our clients' revenue, grow their audience and give them a clear understanding of the markets in which they operate, be it local, regional or national. Everybody Wins.
Ryan Busch
, firstname.lastname@example.com, (904) 206 2160
Monday, July 28, 2014
Tech Notes: Magnet 2014 Exhibitors Roundtable – Cut through the Jungle
Keeping up with technology changes and picking the winners and losers is no easy task. Twenty five years ago I created my first ad using digital illustration software and today you have movie animation software for the creative arts. I wanted to take this ad out of my portfolio to illustrate the ad's theme for Software City, that is still appropriate today - "Cut Through the Jungle". The names may have changed, but the jungle just got thicker. Does anybody remember Lotus 123 the leading spreadsheet software in 1990 or Ami Pro a word processing solution? It seems like a technology software brand can't last a generation in today's disposable technology market.
While we have been distracted about all the latest tech toys for the reader and all the digital delivery systems that are required. I thought it was time to look at what other technology tools that are available for publishers out there. I made the rounds with all the exhibitors of Magnet 2014 in June. Here is a roundtable of the vendors and their 100 word sales pitch for the people that did not make it to the conference this year.
After reviewing the list, each company has a unique product that I tried to describe in a few words, some overlap with each other in their approach. Before you make a decision just make sure you have measurable objectives before you embark on a technology solution to solve your business needs. Sometimes the old way is still more effective, like cold calling on the phone to personally talk with someone, but technology can help you do it better with more data at your fingertips in today's just-in-time information society to prepare for the cold call.
I am a firm believer in technology, but I feel that there are limits on how technology can impact your company's performance. For example, I believe technology cannot make a hockey player a better goal scorer that is a natural creative instinct. Through technology you can track the shooter's tendencies for defensive strategies so it can help. If you can increase team goals against performance by 2% it can be the difference in winning and losing in professional sports.
There is an argument (Limits To Growth, published in 1972) that there is a limit on how much you can grow no matter how much technology you have and you can witness what is called "Overshoot," where you have constant growth with finite resource depletion and it all crashes when the resources are depleted. The best example is the North Atlantic Cod fisheries collapse through over fishing and no sustainability strategy. Just like there are a limited number of advertisers, it its hard to grow on a straight line curve if the ad market (eco-system) is volatile or collapses for your market segment.
MagNet 2014 VENDOR ROUNDTABLE
Bard Business Solutions Inc.
- Magazine Manager
Magazine database solution
In dealing with today's markets, it is imperative that your company maintains accurate data on advertisers, rates, publications, contracts/insertion orders, production dockets, production scheduling, articles, subscribers and invoices. The power of this application is derived from the philosophy that you "enter data once and use it many times". The Magazine Manager is developed in FileMaker Pro and runs on both the Mac OS X 10.7 or higher and Windows 7, Windows 8 and iPad OS platforms for a multi-user environment.
: www.bardsolutions.com
J. Stephen Bard
, email@example.com, (416) 410-2273
- Publisher Elements
Magazine Automation Solution
"PublishersElements is specifically designed to help publishers increase their revenues through a set of flexible and integrated web modules including digital/print subscriptions fulfillment and circulation management as well as newsletters administration, e-commerce and multi-platform digital publishing (online, mobile, tablet). PublisherElements easily connects to existing websites and email marketing solutions, so it helps increase web presence in a cost-effective way. By gathering all customer information into a single database, PublisherElements allows publishers to achieve a 360° view of their customers and thus permit to deliver them the right content at the right time. With PublisherElements and Equisoft's publishing expertise, going digital has never been easier." Martin Boucher, Product Manager – PublisherElements
: www.publisherelements.com
Camile Diodati
, email@example.com, (514) 989-3141 x 104
: Digital Publishing Solution
GTxcel helps thousands of Fortune Companies & Publishers monetize, discover & engage with their digital content; Desktop Web, Tablet Web, Mobile Web & Apps. Typically we work with companies who are frustrated with readability across multiple devices; concerned about the expense of software solutions that take over 40 hours for each device type, screen size and orientation; anxious to get more scale out of their publications by publishing once and getting it everywhere; desktop web, tablet web, mobile web, apps and disappointed in decreasing ad revenues with replica editions and looking to maintain replica while generating new digital revenue stream.
Matt McGinty
, email@example.com, (508) 804-3041
Hallmark Data Systems
Reader Behaviour Optimization Software
Engaging, acquiring and connecting the right content, audience and advertiser is Hallmark's mission. It is Hallmark's industry-leading audience engagement platform; marketing database, digital marketing, fulfillment and more, in combination with industry expertise and rich heritage that sets us apart. With our modular, seamlessly integrated platform, your marketers are directly connected with your audience's behavior, your audience is connected to the content they crave and your advertisers are connected to their prospects. Find out why Hallmark's solutions are chosen by more media owners. Get started at halldata.com today!
: www.halldata.com
Joel Besner
, email@example.com, (323) 782-6959
: Ad sales management software
MagWizard automates the administrative tasks associated with print and digital advertising. The web-based software allows you to easily collect and organize ad insertion orders (I/Os), ad materials, and payments, eliminating the busywork your team hates and leaving them more time for sales. The thing that sets MagWizard apart from the other publishing software, is our focus on automation. While most software is designed to help you keep track of your daily tasks, Magwizard is designed to automate those tasks. The goal of MagWizard is not just help you track the ad sales process but to do the administrative tasks for you so that you can focus on more important things.
: www.magwizard.com
David Averbach
, firstname.lastname@example.com, (641) 209-3959
: Social Media Metrics Tracking solution
Partnering with companies of all sizes – from start-ups to Fortune 500 enterprises – Marketwired is an innovative communications company offering best-in-class global news distribution and reporting. Powered by social intelligence engine Sysomos, Marketwired products also provide state-of-the-art social media monitoring and analytics. This critical business intelligence delivers instant and unlimited access to all social media conversations, allowing brands to see what's happening, why it's happening, and who's driving the conversations. Serving more than 15,000 clients worldwide through 20 offices on four continents, we help our clients find better ways to create and distribute content, influence the people who matter most, and open up new opportunities. Follow us at @Marketwired
Tara Tomulka
, email@example.com, (416) 814.2535
: Ad Sales Data Mining solution
MediaRadar helps websites, magazines and newspapers dramatically improve ad sales and client management. The company provides detailed analysis on over 1.9 million brands, with advertising, editorial, and social media insights from more than 8,000 media properties. MediaRadar will give you a competitive advantage by placing the best prospects and most relevant pitching advice onto the desktop of every member of the sales team. "Raw" data is good; information you can use right now is better. MediaRadar makes it happen.
Paulette Moir
, email@example.com, (646) 439-4007
Mirabel Technologies
- Magazine Manager
: Ad Sales and Digital Production software
The Magazine Manager® is the only web-based software integrating your entire publishing workflow from: CRM, Ad/Order Entry, Production, and invoicing to Online Pagination and Digital &Tablet Edition creation. It's the industry's first and most mature web-based platform. Ideal for companies with multiple offices, offsite employees, and companies wanting to reduce their IT infrastructure costs. Used by over 10,000 magazines, newspapers, websites and events worldwide. For every fifteen licenses of The Magazine Manager®, you can expect to save an average of 43,000 CAD annually.
Watch our Video
Andy Balch
,VP Sales & Marketing
firstname.lastname@example.com, 1-(954) 519-2023
The LoweMartin Group
: Print Production Technologies
In keeping with its vision of helping customers improve the quality of their communications and reduce their overall cost of doing business, the Lowe-Martin Group has focused on introducing technology which makes the printer an extension of the magazine's production team. Advances in secure file transfer, online proofing and electronic scheduling reduce the lead time in production. Proforma pricing tools allow the magazine's publishers to calculate costs in real time as they decide on page counts, run lengths and stock selections. Real-time pricing also let the magazine's sales team calculate costs for advertisers without delay.
: www.lmgroup.com
Pamela Falkne
r, email@example.com, (613)741-0962 x3433
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Email Newsletters - The Yin of online marketing
This June 4, I was invited to speak at Magnet 2014 in Toronto by Mara Gulens and Daniella Girgenti from the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada) that put on on seminar on email newsletters before an audience of 80 people. I describe email newsletters as the Yin of the Yin-Yang relationship with the web site the Yang, as without each other there will not be any online success. I use this description as email newsletters are a "Push" strategy and the web site is the "PULL" strategy for online content. Two polar opposites of each other just like Yin and Yang in Chinese philosophy.
Why are email newsletters so important? Email newsletters are the number 1 driver of traffic to your web site (sometimes up to 80%). That's right it is not social media or SEO that drives the majority of traffic to your web site it is email newsletters. I have worked with magazine publishers in the launch of email newsletters, digital editions and web sites so I saw this first hand. The claims of social media and SEO are over hyped by some of the media out there trying to get noticed or companies making misleading advertising claims that should be banished.
On July 1, 2014 the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) in Canada goes in effect. After looking over the Act it is like closing the door after the horses have left the barn as I feel it will be ineffective with spammers and phishing threats (identity theft artists). It will cost companies money for compliance and this looks like a lawyer gravy train for the uninitiated. Just like security software the bandits will always be 2 steps ahead as they have no ethics or care about laws as they are criminals trying to steal from you. So you can lock the door, but they can still break in.
The best deterrent
is education ie: digital street smarts not digital book smarts.
This underground economy of spammers have been part of the internet fabric forever. My innocence and naivety of the internet was broken when I talked to a security software expert that says you can hire spammers to do a denial of service attack on your competitor's web site by them hijacking somebody's computer and using it as an email server and flooding the target web site with requests and thus crashing the site. This legislation is not going to be effective with this crowd as their servers are most likely in a jurisdiction outside of the reach Canadian lawmakers anyhow and they have been doing this since 2003 or before the
CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
in the United States was introduced.
Canadian publishers have already lead the way in honest and ethical behaviour for email newsletters since the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act was passed in the United States that required email newsletters be opt-in and have the ability to unsubscribe. And if you use a USA vendor for email services they have protocols to ensure spam laws compliance. For companies this is another matter as they most likely have a list that needs to cleaned up as it very unlikely that their list are opt-in, which explains the flood of emails I am receiving from companies the past two weeks that I have already sent to the junk folder and forgot about. The CASL is also forcing companies to have consent to install computer software on your computer like they do in Europe for cookies that track your online habits. This is a major victory for privacy advocates.
The seminar portion put on by Mara and Daniella talked about their journey in launching an email newsletter for their organization. They had to clean up their list first and have the people on the list opt-in . Once this was done they saw the open rates of the email newsletter increase. Here is there checklist that they shared with the audience on their learning.
The metrics for email newsletters are open and click through rates (CTR) in addition to list size and reach of the desired target market. Open rates depend on the quality of the list and good writing in the subject header. Open rates I have experienced range between 20-65% depending on the message and time of year. CTRs can range form a low of 0 up to 10%, depending on the message or offer. Open rates are underreported as through my experience technology does not always works as I have had responses from people , but in my report the email was not opened.
Email newsletters are an important part of the marketing mix for advertising as it provides the same quality audience as a magazine subscriber. The question publishers have to deal with is how many emails do they send out before they irritate their readers and they will unsubscribe. In my opinion anything more than once a week is disrespectful and it should have personal salutation to that person. No one like online stalkers that send you emails everyday. I believe we should go beyond the SPAM requirement and treat your reader with the utmost respect and transparency as it is just good business. The new spam laws will make email list rentals or sponsorships obsolete as I do not think people will ever opt-in for 3rd party emails and when the person signed up to receive the newsletter it is implied that it will be an editorial message not a sales pitch that will only have them unsubscribe from your list and that is bad for business.
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Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Digital Monetization- How are other traditional media companies doing it?
Sometimes it is good to get out of your sandbox for a change of scenery, so I thought I would take a look at how other traditional media are adapting to the new digital media landscape. Before we do that lets have a look at the media universe according to the 2013 Media Digest published by Marketing and the Canadian Media Directors Council (CMDC).
The media consumption habits of Canadians shows that traditional media still captures over 80% of a person's attention. The chart below also shows the share of advertising dollars vs media consumption share. Magazines are doing very well in this analysis as it shows magazines have less than 1% of media consumption share but have a 4.5% of ad dollars share with an industry index of 555.
This great infographic gives you a good birds eye view of what is happening in the Canadian media universe and the choices a media planner has at their disposal. You you can drill down to see more stats.
Canada's major media companies now offer a suite of solutions that may include TV, radio, web, newspaper, magazines and out of home. The chart below on cross media ownership in Canada from the 2013 Media digest outlines the relative offerings and competitive positioning.
One of the digital leaders in Canada is TSN, a tv station, and they were the keynote at the ClickZ digital marketing conference in Toronto on May 15. Mark Silver, the Head of Digital at TSN, talked about the changes TSN is undergoing in the bridging of TV to digital for their audience and advertisers by offering a multi-platform experience. He revealed that TSN will be growing from 2 channels to 5 and will be unveiling a new web site this fall, plus new apps.
Their planned digital offerings will include native apps such as TSN Go (a TV companion app for paid cable subscribers) plus free specialized content apps, TSN Hockey and TSN Golf. They currently have a free TSN mobile app available that gets high usage on smartphones. The TSN offerings also include Sports AM radio stations with local broadcast rights of NHL games. The appetite for sports content will be tested with Sportnet's bold moves that includes TV, radio, magazine and online as part of the brand's offerings and Rogers ownership of pro sports franchises as content.
Radio has not died but has maintained it position as the #2 most used medium and there has been some interesting usage habits. The #2 ranking is no surprise as smartphones are banned in cars and 51% of radio usage is in cars. Another fact 30% of radio usage is online. This trend is supported by the launch of Indie 88.1 a FM radio station in Toronto that was launched this past September 2013. In February 2014, it had 230,000 visitors per month with 50,000 listening to the station online for 1 hour a day 6 times a month and 11,000 daily. Typically, a 30 second radio spot will reach 10 - 20,000 people in the Toronto market through traditional methods. The station is actively selling display ads on their web site in addition to 30 seconds spots that reach both traditional and online audiences.
The media offerings from TV and radio stations, perhaps, spur or fine tune an idea to help give your media brand a competitive edge in today's hyper-cluttered media landscape. The question I ask? Do advertisers really care how the message is sent as long as the target market is delivered with enough frequency that will generate the expected marketing outcome. In some cases digital will not work in the car as media planner use radio or OOH to reach this audience.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
The COPAs - In Search of Digital Excellence
Today's media environment is a world with no borders. Traditional boundaries between mediums like print, TV and radio have become blurred in the digital universe. The best example is how media brands no longer exist in a single platform, like a TV station. Now they are offering website ads and a magazine (print and digital), or a radio station with both radio and internet listeners plus a website. We have companies launching their own media brand as part of their content marketing strategy. There is also a strong underground economy on the internet that causes publishers and advertisers a lot of pain.
This is an exciting time in the publishing world as the old school models are no longer valid. The mission of the COPAs is to foster digital publishing excellence in Canada and reflect what is happening in the marketplace. Great content cannot survive without great ads and corporate web sites that link to them.
Competition brings out the best in both people and companies. It shows you where your weaknesses are and inspires you to do better. The Call for Entries for the 2014 COPAs begins May 1.
Click here to see the 2014 rules
. To help inspire you, I have two comments from last year's judges below on how the industry can do better.
* * *
Charlene Rooke
Charlene is the group editor of the custom publishing team at the Globe and Mail. She has written about travel for various magazines and authored two books on the subject. She was a judge in the Best Online-Only Article or Series category in 2013.
"I enjoyed reading most of the entries in this category the same way I would enjoy reading a well-written, long-form magazine article. Yet I expect more from top-notch digital storytelling: I expect it to take advantage of the digital platform and how people consume digital content. I expect it to make the most of multimedia and programming capabilities. I expect it to be daring, in content and format, in ways that print publications would not. Most of the entrants, surprisingly, didn't realize the full potential of online content."
Jean Snow
Jean is based in Tokyo and is the executive director of the Pecha Kucha organization. He runs The Magazine, a website about magazine culture.
"More than any problem with the content itself, which I found to be generally strong throughout all the entries, the biggest problem with the current crop of blogs lies in the design and layouts. For the most part, we are dealing with a basic look that has barely progressed from the early days of Blogger. Although it's a tried and tested format, as readers who are now getting used to reading all manner of magazine content in digital form (especially on tablets), blogs on the web need to compete with that and web technologies these days can certainly enable more adventurous design layouts, as well as the inclusion of various media (slideshows, audio, video, etc.). The biggest offenders tend to be the websites of print magazines. For the most part, all of these sites follow the same basic structure, and they're all indistinguishable except for the top logo."
* * *
As we try to innovate, the latest buzzword is engagement. But what makes effective engagement for publishers and advertisers? Does it follow the traditional ladder of involvement (i.e. awareness – interest – desire – shop – buy – repeat customer)? I have seen publishers thinking that a Facebook 'like' is the path to success online, but where does it fit in the ladder of involvement. New metrics have been invented by technology companies that have minimal marketing value, like clicks, likes and shares, that at best contribute to awareness. The promise of shortening the customer sales cycle through technology may be an over-promise.
When I wear my media buyer's hat all I am looking for is to reach of my target audience in a trusted media brand, and cost efficiencies. I do not see how a Facebook like or share has any impact on a media plan. Clicks are good but not as important as a brand impression. The goal of any advertising program is top share of mind at time of purchase and sales are always the best metric at the end of the day.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Digital Monetization - RTB Technology creates an auction market for online ads
Here's the challenge: how do publishers monetize content in a market where there is a growing supply of ads and a changing model for how ads are delivered and sold? Typically, the selling of digital ads has followed a direct sales route to clients and ad agencies. Now, a distribution model that is common in the IT industry is emerging in the digital publishing world: channel marketing, where OEM manufacturers have resellers for their products in addition to their direct sales force. This strategy enables companies to reach new markets that their direct sales team doesn't talk to.
The first developments of this channel were the remnant ad networks. The most familiar are Google Ad Sense and Casale Media. Rates in these ad networks are $3-$5 CPM for impressions, where magazine publishers in the direct sale model like to sell at $20+ CPM. The pay-per-click model pays $1.50 click on average and you need to deliver 100,000 impressions to generate 100 clicks (0.1% CTR). The problems with this model are that resellers may cannibalize the direct sales; lower pricing that the publishers cannot control; and the need for economies of scale (i.e. millions of visitors and low ROI).
"Real-Time Bidding" technology is a new ad network that addresses some of the concerns stated above. It follows the principles of a commodity exchange market modeled after the financial sector. Publishers can list their ad inventory for sale in these ad exchanges with a minimum price. There are a number of exchanges that you can choose from and this inventory can then be purchased through a dealer network—software accesses these ad exchanges and bids on the inventory based on set target market criteria and budgets.
The marketing promise is that advertisers can target a user based on in-depth criteria and create a personalized message to optimize sales opportunities in an auction market for media purchases—all in real time.
Real Time Bidding Technology. (via
) Click to view large
The Real-Time Bidding model as explained on Wikipedia: "A typical transaction begins with a user visiting a mobile website. This triggers a bid request that can include various pieces of data such as the user's demographic information, browsing history, location, and the page being loaded. The request goes from the publisher to an ad exchange, which submits it and the accompanying data to multiple advertisers who automatically submit bids in real time to place their ads. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_bidding
"Advertisers bid on each ad impression as it is served. The impression goes to the highest bidder and their ad is served on the mobile page. This process is repeated for every ad slot on the mobile page. Real time bidding transactions typically happen within 100 milliseconds from a user visiting a website.
The bidding happens autonomously and advertisers set maximum bids and budgets for an advertising campaign. The criteria for bidding on particular types of consumers can be very complex, taking into account everything from very detailed behavioral profiles to conversion data."
The Ecosystem (via
Publishers will have to learn new tech terms, like demand-side platforms (the technology that helps the bidder connect to the ad exchanges) and supply-side platforms (which help publishers manage multiple ad networks and connect to the ad exchanges). Data intelligence, creative optimization and ad/brand security companies are part of this system according to the Business Intelligence infographic above. Trading desks, another part of the ecosystem, are being established at major ad agencies like Media Experts.
Media Experts has released "Programmatic Trading Q4 2013 year end review of the RTB market,"
a comprehensive report
that shows who the players are in these auction model markets. According to the report, Media Experts leverages over 400,000 websites spanning display, video, mobile and social inventory to generate $133 million in e-commerce sales for its clients in the RTB market.
A representative from SiteScout, one of the dealers (demand side) that provides the technology for these ad exchanges, says that publishers can see a range from $0.50 CPM to $40 CPM depending on the market niche delivered. Dealers take a 20% commission from the publisher, and publishers also pay the ad exchanges a listing fee.
The challenges facing this new ecosystem are: addressing the privacy issues the come up when tracking people's web surfing habits with spyware/cookies; and the task of weeding out websites that are contributing to click and impression fraud. I had Acuity Ads, another demand-side vendor, provide me with a list of sports websites that I could bid impressions on for a media buy. I picked out five websites and learned that two of them would never be on a media plan, but the other three would if they delivered my target market of M18+, living in Toronto.
Sample Websites
(LSU College Football)
(UK sports website)
(Sports video aggregator that does not load on my computer)
(Live video sports website, that only has a home page)
Sports Illustrated
As a media buyer, I would be concerned with where my ads show up, and with ads showing on sites that would not be brand safe, no matter what the cost. I have heard stories from another media buyer about how a site they never heard of had generated so many ad impressions and clickthroughs. One vendor at DX3, a digital trade show that was held in Toronto this March, says that click fraud may be as high as 40% of all clicks. It has been estimated that bots generate 50% of all web traffic, so buying respected media brands is still very important in online media planning.
Programmatic media buying is an application of big data based on a person's web surfing habits, and predicting when that person is at different stages of the buying cycle to determine what ad is delivered to them. This is like predicting when a person is buying a car, just shopping, or dreaming – a form of artificial intelligence. The jury is out on if there is a technology to deliver this with mathematical certainty, or if this just another geek pipe dream.
Comment (1)
Thursday, February 06, 2014
Acer C720 Chromebook Review - Life in the Cloud
What is cloud computing? It is a computer model where a person can access files remotely via the internet. These files can be software applications, videos, games, photos or documents. The 'cloud' is a metaphor for all the data stored somewhere on servers. These are called server farms, where you may have 10,000 servers providing the computing power, data centres that can be used for credit card processing, web hosting, and university research supercomputers.
A server farm - welcome to the cloud (image via acidcow.com)
Some of the established cloud software applications publishers might be familiar with are digital edition providers like GTxcel (formerly Texterity), MagazineCloner, Uberflip, Zinio, etc. Salesforce, a sales support and CRM application, was one of the first cloud software applications to become popular among the business community. All you need is a login ID and password and you are good to go to use it on any computer, tablet and smartphone.
Acer C720 Chromebook
The Google Chromebook, starting at $269, is an attempt to lower the cost of computers with cloud laptops. The laptops come with the Chrome web browser, Gmail, productivity software, online storage and the Android app store—all the tools you need for the digital world, through the internet via your web browser.
The Acer Chromebook
The laptop has enough power for everyday use and is powered by an Intel Celeron 1.4 GHz processor. Most laptops today come with more than 2.0 GHz, but since the Chromebook does not need to power as much software it can lose the extra processing power to keep costs down. It uses the Chrome OS, has 2 GB of RAM, a 32 GB hard drive, an 11.6" HD display and webcam. Connections include wireless, Bluetooth, ethernet, USB, HDMI and RGB. The battery has a five-hour life per charge.
My first impression was this was a major change from how I do things on a laptop. Usually all my files are on a hard drive and I can launch my software applications from there. Having to do that in the cloud made me uneasy. However, my uneasiness with the cloud dissipated as I got used to the Chromebook, and I now wonder if I can live without it. With the Google Drive app, Google's online storage feature, I was able to store and access my files from any computer without needing a USB stick. This feature saved me from buying a $200 network drive to connect all my computers for shared storage. I then installed the Google Drive app on all my computers. Even when I am offsite I can use any computer to access Google Drive via my Gmail account login.
Microsoft's latest pricing model for its Office 365 Home Premium software package at $99/yr. made me a proponent of using Google productivity applications. It just doesn't make any sense over the long term to pay $99 a year to use their software, or $249 per PC for the Office Home and Business 2013 package. The Google Chromebook for $269 comes with all the software I need to write, create spreadsheets and presentations, and is a wiser alternative.
Life in the cloud has its conveniences. But to be able to access your files requires an internet connection, so the Chromebook also has drawbacks as there are limited offline capabilities. However, internet access is getting ubiquitous and is available in a lot of public places including the local hockey rink, fast food restaurants, airports etc., so that issue is not that big perhaps.
My daughter, the resident teen geek in the house, actually prefers using a laptop over an iPad due to her dissatisfaction with touch keyboards and the lack of Flash to play games at her favourite games site. Watching video on a laptop was also easier than with a tablet, as you did not have to hold it. Watching Netflix, we found the sound a little underpowered, but once we connected our headphones the sound quality was superb.
The Google Chromebook is a successful first attempt to lower the cost of computing. The price point is well positioned to shake things up with units starting from $269, and it is available from Acer, Samsung, HP and Lenovo, established hardware brands. The Chromebook could be a tablet killer based on price and features alone, not to mention consumer dissatisfaction with touch typing. In comparison, you can get the recently released Dell 8" Windows tablet with no keyboard for $299, or you can get a Chromebook that includes a keyboard but no touchscreen.
Rating: 4 out of 5
In 2013, the Chromebook comprised 21% of all laptop sales in the USA
according to NPD
, up from nothing the year before, and the next generation of Chromebooks will get even better. Following the ebb and flow of technology is like following the fashion world. What is the latest tech look, and is it a trend or just a fad? Will that look come back? Perhaps in 2014, the laptop will be back in vogue with this new facelift from Google.
About Me
Martin Seto
Martin Seto is the principal of Reflex Media, a media consultancy practice offering media owners online publishing, ad sales and acquisition/selling brokerage services. His media services also include working with ad agencies as a media buyer/planner for tv, radio, print, outdoor and online. He has been in the advertising and media industry for 25+ years and he has been an instructor/speaker with Centennial College and at magazine conferences across Canada. He also moonlights as a pro goalie as a "rent a goalie" at mypuck.com.
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Banks Rock for Third Straight Session: Financial Winners
There has been quite a bit of coverage of Federal Reserve stimulus policy, which will ramp up again next week, in anticipation of the next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on Sept. 17-18, followed by the FOMC's policy statement. Many economists expect the central bank to make small reductions in its purchases of long-term mortgage-backed securities and U.S. Treasury bonds. These purchases have totaled $85 billion per month since last September, as the Fed has attempted to hold long-term rates down. The market in anticipation of a curtailment of bond purchases has sent the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds by 129 basis points since the end of April.
The yield on the 10-year bond rose sharply by 10 basis points on Thursday to 2.99% -- its highest level in more than two years.
But the Fed's main policy tool is the short-term federal funds rate, which has been kept in a range of zero to 0.25% since late 2008. The FOMC has said repeatedly said it will likely be appropriate to maintain its "extraordinarily accommodative" policy for short-term rates at least until the nation unemployment rate drops below 6.5%, making Friday's unemployment rate a critical number for investors.
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The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 8.9 percent in February, the third straight monthly decline and putting it below 9 percent for the first time since April 2009.
But even with that improvement, 13.7 million Americans remain unemployed, almost double pre-recession levels.
The BBC:
The US unemployment rate fell slightly to 8.9% in February, down from 9% the month before.
It is the third month in a row that the jobless rate has fallen, with February's figure marking a near two-year low.
Employers added 192,000 jobs last month, the US Labor Department said, above market expectations.
Paul O'Neill, former US Treasury Secretary, described the data as "very positive".
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WILLIAM SHERMAN came to Croydon from Barre, Mass., in 1797, and died Feb. 19, 1855, aged 79 years, leaving a large family. He is remembered as an upright farmer. Of him it, might be said, as of one of old: "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile."
Biographical Sketch of William Sherman
MLA Source Citation:Partridge, Dennis N. Croydon New Hampshire Genealogy. AccessGenealogy.com. Web. 26 December 2014. http://www.accessgenealogy.com/new-hampshire/biographical-sketch-of-william-sherman-2.htm - Last updated on Aug 26th, 2012
Categories: New Hampshire
Topics: Biography
Locations: Croydon New Hampshire, Sullivan County NH
Surnames: Sherman
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En route to the US where he was greeted on arrival by President George Bush, Pope Benedict said he was "deeply ashamed" of the clergy abuse scandal that has dogged the American Catholic Church emphasising that he would do everything in his power
School fights gun shop
Wollongong residents are fighting a planning proposal, already unanimously rejected by the city's now sacked council, to open a gun shop adjacent to Fairy Meadow's St John Vianney Catholic primary school. Now Wollongong's three administrators must
Opinion - Wider path possible with female bishop
Kay Goldsworthy will be consecrated a Bishop in St George's Anglican Cathedral, Perth next month. She will be the first woman to become a bishop in an Australian church. No-one who knows Kay Goldsworthy would question her spiritual, intellectual, pastoral
Featured Website - Godzdogz
Blog sites have become a striking feature on the internet and Catholic-oriented blogs are no exception. Godzdogz is a blog created by English Dominican students. The current homepage features an interesting perspective on the good and bad of the
As preparations are afoot for a groundbreaking meeting at the Vatican between Catholic and Muslim scholars, Encounter presents voices of experience in this most historically compelling dialogue. Those sharing their experiences are Chris McVey, an
Feature - A papal obsession with marriage
In less than three years of his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI has spoken publicly about marriage on 111 occasions. His pronouncements connect marriage to such overarching themes as human rights, world peace, and the conversation between faith and
Vietnamese authorities return shrine land
Days after clashes in Hanoi over the return of confiscated land which belonged to a Redemptorist seminary, the Vietnamese government has unexpectedly announced the return of land near Hue surrounding a pilgrimage site dedicated to Our Lady of La Vang.


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Neutrality.ca is a free public service web site provided by Michael Geist
Canadian Internet watchers may recall a controversy in late 2007 when Rogers began experimenting with adding its own content to webpages that its subscribers visit. The company used the technology to alert customers about their data usage. Google was one of the targets of the experiments and the company reacted angrily: We are concerned about these reports. As a general principle, we believe that maintaining the Internet as a neutral platform means that carriers shouldn't be able to interfere with Web content without users' permission. We are in the process of contacting the relevant parties to bring this to a quick resolution. According to one of my blog readers, the Rogers content substitution approach is back. The image below shows Rogers warning a customer about the expiry of some parental controls. The warning is included in a Flickr page. This approach again raises concerns about Rogers interfering with the delivery of content without permission of the end user. When combined with its ongoing policy of redirecting web pages that do not resolve to a company-sponsored paid search page, Rogers own content seems to show up unasked on a regular basis.
Join the Save Our Net Group on Facebook
Join the Canadians for Net Neutrality Group on Facebook
Neutrality.ca is an independent, non-partisan, non-commercial, free public service offered for research and private study purposes by Michael Geist.


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It had all the ingredients of a big winner. "Due Date" was widely known as Todd Phillips' R-rated follow-up to the massively successful R-rated "The Hangover," and he had that film's biggest breakout comedian Zach Galifianakis onboard, plus one of the world's biggest stars Robert Downey Jr. But perhaps seasonal timing is everything. "The Hangover" was a surprised hit in the early summer of 2009, and perhaps R-rated comedy that's occasionally nasty doesn't work quite as well in the fall. It's also possibly one of those instances when audiences actually listened to critics for once. "Due Date" was met with mixed reviews and currently holds a r...Read More »
It's hard for Pixar's competition to keep up, but if anyone has been able to give them a run for their money lately it's DreamWorks Animation. Earlier this year, the studio scored a critical and commercial hit with "How To Train Your Dragon," last year they had the hit "Monsters Vs. Aliens" and with...Read More »


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PCI/PCIe/cPCI/VME Digitizers
The Keysight Acqiris high-speed digitizers product line in PCI, PCI Express (PCIe), CompactPCI (cPCI), and VME form factors covers a wide range of specifications and capabilities:
- 100 MS/s to 8 GS/s on one or more channels
- Vertical resolution of 8, 10, 12 or 14 bits
- Bandwidths of up to 3 GHz
- Flexible acquisition memory
- Fast data throughput
- On-board real-time signal processing using FPGA
- From single to multi-channels solutions
- Include both analog-to-digital (ADC) and digital-to-analog converters (DAC) functionalities
Therefore, our products can be tuned to meet the highest measurement needs in commercial, industrial, physics, aerospace and defense applications.
Your application requirements are clear? Select which digitizer is right for you here: Select and compare Modules
Keysight Core technology
Keysight-proprietary technologies—and knowhow—are at the core. These unique elements include data-converter chipsets, analog front-end technology and digital data-handling devices. Together, these application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies, provide three key advantages:
- Give an easy access to low-power, high-fidelity data acquisition
- Ensure maximum data throughput to the host processor
- Reduce measurement time and cost
High-speed digitizers as OEM components
If you plan to design-in high speed data converters as OEM components into your own products, Keysight provides you the latest ADC technology and knowledge to support your project development. Typical OEM applications include medical imaging, non-destructive testing, data storage and semi-conductor testing, environmental monitoring and radar.
Multichannel systems
In laboratories around the world, Keysight cPCI instrumentation has become an integral part of advanced experimental systems, whether for system control or experiment observation.
cPCI digitizers and TDC's provide channel density that is designed for use in multichannel systems. By integrating multiple units into one desktop or rackmount chassis it is possible to create a complete data acquisition system with up to 80 synchronized digitizer acquisition channels or 240 TDC channels in one chassis. Typical multichannel system applications include for example plasma and nuclear physics.
Choose the right high-speed digitizer for your application: Discover our Data converter selection guide
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|A New Measurement of the Half-Life of the Superallowed -decay of 26mAl
This short article reprint was prepared by Rebecca Scott from the University of Melbourne. It discusses the use of Agilent Acqiris digitizers for digital signal processing in nuclear physics.
Article 2008-05-20
|Positron Emission Tomography Imaging Using Agilent Acqiris U1067A High-Speed PCI
Article 2008-05-15
|Broadband FFT Spectrometer for Radio and Millimeter Astronomy Article Reprint
The core architecture, tests in the lab and first results of a Fast Fourier Transform spectrometer are described in this document
Article 2008-04-02
|PC-Based Hard Disk Storage Testing Platform for Position Error Signal Generation
This paper describes a high-performance Servo control system for enhancement of spin stand Servo performance.
Article 2008-03-19
|Measurement of the Real Time Fill-Pattern at the Australian Synchrotron
This article describes the development, commissioning and operation of a Fill-Pattern Monitor (FPM) for the Australian Synchrotron that measures the real-time intensity distribution of the electron bunches in the storage ring.
Article 2008-03-05
|Airport ground radar System uses Agilent Acqiris PCI Digitizer cards Article
Technologies and Thomas Harmon, Raytheon Electronic Systems on airport ground radar systems.
Article 2008-02-08


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Furniture Manufacturer KI Invites America's Workforce To Take A Stand Against Sitting This Election.
Don't let sitting keep you down. Work up with KI: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccHtp7CHiD4.
To learn more about how you can take a stand for your health this election, visit www.ki.com or call one of our experts directly at 800.424.2432.
About KIKI manufactures innovative furniture and wall system solutions for education, healthcare, government and corporate markets. The employee-owned company is headquartered in Green Bay, Wis. and operates sales offices and manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe and Asia. KI tailors products and service solutions to the specific needs of each customer through its unique design and manufacturing philosophy. For more information, visit www.ki.com.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Aiden McGuire920-468-2395 email@example.com KI
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What does FPA mean in Accounting?
This page is about the meanings of the acronym/abbreviation/shorthand FPA in the Business field in general and in the Accounting terminology in particular.
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"FPA." Abbreviations.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2014. Web. 19 Dec. 2014. <http://www.abbreviations.com/term/301580>.
FPA also stands for:
- F*** the Poor Association
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Joe Moses - Like What (Freestyle)
Posted Dec 20, 2012 at 04:17 PM
Like What (Freestyle) Joe Moses
Editor Rating: HOTTTTT
User Rating:
Joey goes in over Problem's new Jaynari Produced single
Bump Like What (Freestyle), the latest cut from Joe Moses. It dropped on Thursday, December 20th, 2012. Joe Moses's horizons are broadening with each new release, and Like What (Freestyle) is no exception. It's a worthy addition to a catalogue that has seen much growth since Joe Moses stepped foot in the rap game. We're looking forward to hearing more.
Have you heard Joe Moses's Intro? If you dig this, visit Joe Moses's profile for the latest info, news, songs, and mixtapes. Check out Joe Moses's Twitter.
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Going to do some fall camping!
Find a Conversation
Going to do some fall camping!
|Mon, 09-27-2010 - 7:23pm
Weather is scheduled to be lovely all week and weekend...we are in the process of packing up our camper and going to a state park for a 5 or 6 days....It has been lovely....75 and sunny...suppose to vary from 63-80....should be a good time to be outside....Eager to see the changing colors!!


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China, the world's largest oilseed processor, may increase so-called crushing of soybeans by 5.9 percent in the year ending in September, Oil World said.
Processing may rise to 56.3 million metric tons from 53.15 million a year earlier, the Hamburg-based researcher said today in a report. China will account for about 25 percent of world soybean crushing in the current period, according to Oil World. Global processing may gain to 225.5 million tons from 221.5 million a year earlier, it said.
Chinese processing of 10 oilseeds may advance to 85.8 million tons in the current period, or 22 percent of the global total, from 81.4 million a year earlier, according to Oil World.
To contact the reporter on this story: Whitney McFerron in London at firstname.lastname@example.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at email@example.com.


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The Museum of Flight is an expansive facility filled with all things related to flight. From the first primitive glider designed by the Wright brothers to the stealthy... more »
If you are a baseball fan don't miss this tour. The tour will take you to places such as the visitor's locker room, presidential suite, press box, press conference room, dugout... more »
Any visit to Seattle that doesn't include even a short ferry trip is one that left out a real experience. Because of its geography, Seattle relies on the State ferry system to... more »
Cherry blossoms in the Arts and Sciences Quad next to Suzzallo Library are not to be missed. See them March 3-13 or so this year (2010, and normally, the second or third week of... more »
Alki Beach is located in a Seattle neighborhood called "West Seattle." Alki Beach offers an expansive view of the Elliott Bay. West toward the Olympic Mountains and east, back... more »
3 days in Seattle
Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo is a 92-acre oasis featuring more than 300 animal species. Noted for its cutting-edge exhibits, this top award-winning zoo is hailed as one of the world's finest.


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What does it matter? It was 50 years ago! What difference does it make now?
A lot of young people – who didn't live through the 60s, or even the 70s – actually have every right to ask those questions. And they deserve some real answers, too.
To put it bluntly, the assassination of President Kennedy makes all the difference in the world. That tragic day in our history was a determining factor in the type of world we have today.
The founders of this country had a vision of freedom and liberty that they tried to ensure for generations to come. They tried to design a democracy so full of checks and balances that it was bulletproof. So that no matter how many crooks managed to get themselves elected, the republic still prevailed.
There have even been a few brief shining moments when the real potential of that original vision took hold. One such moment was Franklin Roosevelt's presidency. A decimated work force that was shell-shocked from the Great Depression was struggling for its very survival. FDR came to the rescue with the New Deal, a program that redistributed wealth from Wall Street to workers who'd lost their jobs as a result of corporate greed and government corruption – does that sound like a problem you might be familiar with?
Another great moment was the presidency of John F Kennedy in the early 1960s. This time the world was reeling from the Cold War, and a military gone so mad with power and war-like policies (again, sound familiar?) created a very real threat of nuclear annihilation.
But JFK brought us away from the brink of death and destruction by standing up to the war mongers and allowing sanity to prevail. For a moment, we truly seemed to be moving away from the horrors of war and toward a new world where peace between all countries was possible. Then JFK was murdered, eliminated by the same madness he had been fighting against; and it was like the dream suddenly died. We were left with a horrible void and a profound sense of hopelessness. Grown men cried, and with good reason.
So I hope that young people can forgive me for still getting emotional about the JFK assassination 50 years later. We haven't even had full disclosure, let alone closure.


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The latest news in the Ruby and Rails communityGot some news to report? Send it in!
MacRuby 0.10 released, walking through gem creation, the launch of puzzlenode, easy tabular data with tabulatr, shelltoad, and more in this edition, with your Sherpa hosts Kim and Dave.
This episode is sponsored by New Relic. New Relic gives you performance monitoring, tracking, and reporting of your web applications.
This week we have Streem, Rails 4.2.rc3, Papercrop, and RubyMotion 3.0.
This week we have a jRuby security release, a new Command API for ROM, Traveling Ruby, early validations, easy rewrites with Ruby and Science!, and a Rails Camp not too far from Hobbiton.
RubyConf 2014 on Confreaks, browser geolocation with Spyme, referential integrity with foreign keys, forwarding messages with tell, and free SecCasts all in this episode of the Ruby5.
In this episode we yap about Rails 4.2 RC1, Opal, Deployment, Interpol, Sportdb, Service Objects, and Emails.


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In a further escalation of the solar trade war with China, the U.S. Department of Commerce has imposed yet another layer of tariffs on solar modules from China, and – for the first time – on imports from Taiwan. In a decision announced today, Commerce will immediately impose antidumping duties ranging from 26.33 to 58.87 percent for China and 27.59 to 44.18 percent for Taiwan. Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) was quick to condemn the decision.
You are here
SEIA is the solar energy industry's go-to source for the latest coverage on solar power, including U.S. and international policy, research and polls, business and financing trends, and more. Our staff strives to support the media covering solar energy issues and guide our members on effective media outreach with clear statements, background materials, news and multimedia resources.
SEIA is committed to informing policymakers, the media, and the American public about the benefits of solar energy for today's communities, our economy, and our country.
Learn more from our statements and industry news below.
华盛顿特区 —— 随着与中国太阳能贸易战的进一步升级,美国商务部于当地时间7月25日决定将对从中国进口的太阳能电池组件加收新的反倾销关税,并且第一次将关税范围扩大至台湾生产的电池片。商务部宣布将立即开始向中国和台湾的输美光伏产品征收反倾销税,额度分别为对中国大部分制造商征收26.33%至58.87%,向台湾制造商征收27.59%至44.18%的反倾销关税。美国太阳能行业协会总裁兼首席执行官罗纳•雷希对商务部的此次反倾销初裁决定表示强烈地谴责。
Solar Means Business 2014 Data Collection
Don't miss your chance to be included in the industry's premier report on solar installations at corporate warehouses, offices, and stores. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and The Climate Group are now collecting data for the third edition of the Solar Means Business report, which ranks the top corporate users of solar energy in the United States.
Solar Farms Taking Root in North Carolina
Helen Livingston's family has owned a 300-acre farm near Maxton for generations. Now 45 acres of the land is covered with more than 26,000 dark solar panels, making it part of a growing movement to harvest electricity from the sun.
Solar farms like Livingston's are cropping up all over North Carolina, shining rays of hope on economically depressed areas by bringing jobs, a constant stream of revenue and the potential to attract eco-friendly industry and economic investment.
Solar Leasing Grows in Delaware
Delaware residents are embracing a program that allows homeowners to lease solar panels without making large upfront investments in the technology, the company that offers the service is reporting.
SolarCity, which formally entered Delaware in February when it opened a warehouse in this state, recently has made a push on the East Coast to expand its business model of placing its solar panels on customers' homes, generating electricity that leads to lower customer utility bills.
Chip Bircher Joins Solar Heating and Cooling Alliance
WASHINGTON, DC – The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) today announced that Chip Bircher, longtime coordinator of the Department of Energy's Utility Solar Water Heating Initiative (USH2O), will be joining SEIA's Solar Heating and Cooling (SHC) Alliance.
SEIA Applauds FERC Small Generation Interconnection Rule
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Saying it will help to spur solar deployment nationwide, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) praised a new rule approved today by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that will expedite and reduce the cost of solar project interconnection, while maintaining the reliability and safety of the electric grid.
SEIA Applauds Decision to Abandon New Solar Fee in Georgia
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Carrie Cullen Hitt, senior vice president of state affairs at the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), released the following statement today after a proposed new fee on solar customers in Georgia was dropped:
SEIA Vows to Continue Efforts to Educate ACC About 'Value' of Solar
WASHINGTON, DC - Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), today released the following statement after the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) voted to impose new fees on solar customers statewide:
"While we applaud the ACC's decision to keep net energy metering in place – and appreciate the Commission's last-minute efforts to find a middle ground when it comes to new fees on solar customers – we are deeply troubled by today's precedent-setting action.
SEIA Applauds Introduction of American Renewable Energy and Efficiency Act
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Christopher Mansour, Vice President of Federal Affairs of the Solar Energy Industries Association, released the following statement today in support of new legislation by Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) that would require utilities to generate 25 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources by 2025:
Going Green in the Silver State
Nevada is being called a leader in renewable energy. And lawmakers say that's good for taxpayers.
Solar Power Captures Investors' Attention
Despite all the excitement surrounding solar energy over the last couple of decades, the technology has yet to go mainstream. However, that is slowly starting to change. Perhaps the biggest reason for the slow spread of solar energy has been the high cost associated with converting a household to take advantage of solar energy.
Taking the Spotlight: Solar Energy
Distributed generation in the form of wind, landfill gas, and cogeneration got a mention, but solar by far is attracting the most attention from cooperatives and legislators, a panel of experts told the co-op crowd. The panelists also informed co-ops that distributed generation is coming. They were told that it is best to get in front of it and that co-ops should develop their own DG projects.
Solar Energy Has Finally Arrived
Solar energy in 2013 removed its training wheels and started competing with traditional energy sources. In the fourth quarter alone, the average weighted price per watt of solar capacity installed dropped by 15%, averaging $2.59 compared to more than $6 in 2010.
Inside SolarCity: The Rise of a Hot Solar Panel Provider
CBS News
In 2013 there was a 47 percent jump in the number of home solar installations in the U.S., and by the end of the year more than 400,000 American homes had solar power. Don Dahler meets one man who uses imagination to help power the change.