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Friday, December 7, 2012
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Outsource Website Management and Save Money
December 6, 2012 ? Plano, TX ? Small businesses need to stay as competitive as possible with their larger counterparts. Outsourcing is a good way for this to be accomplished while saving the company money. Smaller businesses do not have the resources for employees as do the large, so saving funds is very important so they can stay in business, let alone competitive.
Outsourcing saves more than money ? it also saves time for the small business owner. Startup businesses will benefit most from outsourcing because they need less to accomplish the same end. There is no need for the small company to keep a staff for internet and web services when Click4Corp can be hired to do that job. This will save having to pay employee benefits and the need for coverage if that employee is out sick or needs to be terminated. The outsourced company is also already trained and has experience within a specific field. The small company is not required to do training or testing to be sure the experience is truly what they are looking for, it has been proven already with the client base the outsourced company carries.
Small business also benefits by outsourcing because it reduces risk. Risk of employee cultures clashing within the office itself and the risk assumed in this instance of using the internet for marketing and selling yourself and your product. The hired company assumes all risk and has the expertise and insurance if necessary to handle such risk. Outsourcing then also gives peace of mind and less stress for the business owner. Knowing that experts have been hired to handle parts of your business then gives more time available to concentrate on customer service and everyday office duties.
People management inside the office is improved because of outsourcing. Employees are able to concentrate on their job only and have no distractions from other employees not doing their job or bringing in outside distractions such as personal issues or family drama. With employees that are able to focus on individual tasks, the productivity and efficiency of the entire workforce is improved. Employee morale will improve with less stress and an efficient workplace, so it becomes a win-win situation if small business is able to outsource tasks that bring them larger risk or where they do not have internal expertise. Increased productivity, increased employee happiness, increased customer service, and decreased stress and risk levels will all lead to higher profits and more success in your chosen business. Outsourcing can be more beneficial than detrimental if done properly and kept in perspective.
About Click4Corp: Click4Corp has been in the Plano area for over 10 years. They offer new construction of web sites, will act a host, will redesign existing sites, optimize your website via SEO technology, upkeep your domain, build mobile sites for application utilization, and can custom build to your specifics. Special packages are available for distinct business needs, satisfaction is guaranteed 100 percent, updates are always done when needed at no additional cost, and no cost quotes are available for any services offered.
Contact ? www.click4corp.com
Facebook: Click4Corp
Twitter: @click4corp
469-441-4678 (host)
Source: http://www.briefingwire.com/pr/outsource-website-management-and-save-money
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A leap forward for red blood cell formation: Researchers have identified 75 genetic regions that influence red blood cell formation
ScienceDaily (Dec. 4, 2012) ? New research is revealing how red blood cells are made and how the body regulates the amount of haemoglobin that is packaged in red blood cells at any time. Genomic analysis techniques have doubled the number of genetic regions that are likely to be involved in red blood cell formation and subsequent study using fruit flies has given insights into what these regions do.
Haemoglobin is the protein which captures oxygen from the lungs for transport and delivery to tissues. It colours blood cells red and each day hundreds of millions of fresh red blood cells have to be formed by blood stem cells to replace the ones which come to the end of their life cycle. Anemia, one of the most common disorders for which people visit their surgery, ensues if the production of new red blood cells is insufficient or their lifespan is shortened. The new genetic information is laying the foundations for future studies into the roots of anemia by uncovering new biological pathways and mechanisms involved in controlling the size and number of red blood cells and the levels of haemoglobin.
The researchers used genome-wide association studies to identify genetic regions that appeared to influence the formation of red blood cells and their haemoglobin content.
"We studied the genetic influences behind six different physical parameters of red blood cells that reflect the volume and number of red blood cells and the levels of haemoglobin," says Dr John Chambers, lead author from Imperial College, London. "Our initial genetic association study looked into the genomes of 135,367 people and identified 75 genetic regions that directly influence these different traits of red blood cells. More than half -- 43 -- of these discoveries are new in people."
The team then closely examined using computational biology approaches the 75 genetic regions and the more than 3,000 genes responsible for protein production lie close to these regions. They prioritised 121 'candidate' genes or genes that are likely to regulate a trait in red blood cells from this list and investigated their function using information on model systems like from public databases as well as newly-generated data for fruit fly.
"Our work shows how model systems like fruit fly and mice can be used to provide insights into human genetics," says Professor Willem Ouwehand, lead author from the University of Cambridge and NHS Blood and Transplant. "We searched through a Mouse Genome database and found that 29 of our 121 candidate genes are linked to red blood cell formation in mice.
"These previous studies revealed that -- when the function of these genes was switched off- the mice frequently developed reduced numbers of red blood cells, and anemia. These observations made in mice make it highly likely that the remaining candidate genes, about which there is no knowledge yet, are also important regulators of red blood cell formation in people."
To investigate further, the team then reduced or 'silenced' the activity of the candidate genes in fruit flies. Although fruit flies do not have red blood cells, they share some of the gene functions leading to the formation of blood elements. These studies confirmed that sets of genes involved in controlling human red blood cell traits in people were also important for the formation of blood cells in fly.
"These results support the view that genetic association studies identify sets of genes that are conserved in evolution across a wide range of species," says Dr Nicole Soranzo, lead author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "This is exciting because it means that we can obtain extensive new insights into the genetics and biological pathway of human health by studying model organisms.
"Although the underlying mechanisms for the majority of genes we've identified still need to be elucidated, our research is opening many doors for future studies on the generation of red blood cells for clinical use in the laboratory and may also provide insights which may lead to improvements in the treatment of patients with inherited anaemias."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Pim van der Harst et al. Seventy-five genetic loci influencing the human red blood cell. Nature, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nature11677
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/iBJWWn5pNGs/121205132242.htm
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Celebrities turn to encryption to keep phones private
CELLPHONE hacking sparked the inquiry that led Lord Justice Leveson to conclude that the press "wreaked havoc in the lives of innocent people" in his long-awaited report to the British government last week. But those in the public eye aren't counting on heavier press regulation to stop future hackers. Instead, they are increasingly placing their bets on emerging smartphone technologies that foil eavesdroppers by encrypting voice and text data in real time.
One such technology hails from GSMK, based in Berlin, Germany. Its CryptoPhones are commercial smartphones that use military-grade encryption algorithms to ensure that calls, texts and voicemails - when passing between people with similar secure devices - are all but unhackable. These cost around ?2000 per handset. But now a rival has entered the fray with a much cheaper approach.
Silent Circle of Washington DC launched its real-time call encryption app Silent Phone for the iPhone in October, and next week it releases a version for Android. CEO Mike Janke, a former security expert with the US Navy Seals, claims demand for the service, which costs ?13 per month, has taken him by surprise: "A-list Hollywood celebrities, special forces operatives, diplomats from nine nations, and a clutch of Fortune 100 companies have signed up to use our service in our first 40 days," he says.
For firms worried that their industrial secrets could be stolen, securing transmissions by phone is paramount. To do this, GSMK - which has 10,000 smartphones in use - replaces Windows, Linux or Android operating systems with its own, more secure operating system. Both GSMK and Silent Circle use "end-to-end" encryption that takes place in the phone, so there's no hackable server that carries out the encryption. When a call is made, two code words appear on the phone's screen that both parties have to speak out loud. If they match, they know they are safe to proceed.
Both Silent Circle and GSMK doubly encrypt their messages using two encryption methods, including one called AES256, so even if one scheme is broken there's still the other to deal with. "It's a very paranoid design," says GSMK founder Bjoern Rupp.
But Janke concedes that, as Silent Phone is app-based, it is vulnerable to attack from other, malicious apps that could pilfer voice and text data before it is encrypted. While Silent Phone's securely received texts can self-delete a set time after they have been read, they can be saved as a phonecam's screenshot. GSMK's operating system prevents screenshot-taking by default, says Rupp.
It's not all about cash: both GSMK and Silent Circle donate phones to human rights groups that need to be able to make secure calls. It's all encouraging stuff, says Eric King of London pressure group Privacy International. But he adds that the onus should be on phone networks to do more to prevent interception. "Phone hacking would not have happened if networks had generated a random PIN for voicemail accounts in the same way a bank does."
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School of Communications defends film equipment | The Quinnipiac ...
Posted on Dec 05, 2012 by Katherine Rojas
Lights, camera, action
Administrators, faculty and students in the School of Communications offered their defense and reaction to a recent letter to the editor published anonymously in the Chronicle?s Nov. 14 issue.
The letter wrote about the recent guest speaker, Bobby Webster, an Academy Award-winning director of photography. The letter to the editor claimed that Webster, after looking at lighting kits, ?called the equipment ?shit,?? but the letter also claimed he said ?the lighting kits were good to learn on because students will then appreciate good lighting kits when [they] get to use them.?After the letter was published, Chair of Film, Video, and Interactive Media William O?Brien visited the FVI class ?Senior Colloquy,? reading the letter and a response by Webster. O?Brien also encouraged the anonymous student to meet with him to discuss the content of the letter.
The letter also caused a steer with the administrators of the School of Communications, such as Dean Lee Kamlet and Michael D.?Calia, director of the Ed McMahon Communications Center.
?My problem with the letter is that it reflects an attitude of at least one student, who wrote the letter, that if only they had some better piece of equipment that would make them better filmmakers,? Kamlet said. ?And any filmmaker will tell you that it?s not about the equipment, it?s about your ability to tell a story.?
Quinnipiac University?s filming equipment is provided by Lowel Lighting, which is used in professional digital video, digital photography and film based photographic production, according to the company?s website.
?Our lights, controls, mounts and kits are designed and built for rugged dependable use, ease of operation and portability,? the website says.
The equipment is regularly replaced and updated when necessary each year, according to Calia. The School of Communications spends tens of thousands of dollars on new equipment each year, Calia said.
?We provide equipment and accessories to help support the courses that are taught in the various majors here at the School of Communications,? Calia said. ?The units we offer [students] are quality professional units that are lightweight and flexible so that they can use it in a number of different situations.?
Students have complained in the past of the heavy and bulky lighting kits offered at Quinnipiac, according to Calia. After the students brought their complaints to Calia?s attention, the school responded by getting lighter ?go-kits.?
This past spring, Calia and other administrators met with Quinnipiac Film Society members and seniors to discuss any concerns with the equipment. The students were interested in using DSLR cameras. Next, the School of Communications bought 14 DSLR cameras this semester, according to Calia.
?We spend tens of thousands of dollars every year on new gear; we do buy new gear every year, always replacing, sometimes things go out of date or are worn out,? Calia said.
Quinnipiac Film Society members rely on and work with the School of Communications?s equipment. However, senior and Vice President of QFS Shane Collins bought his own equipment because of consistent problems working with the school?s kits.
?I have had issues with equipment before, and personally purchased my own equipment so that I don?t have to worry about the equipment room,? Collins said. ?There isn?t enough of the equipment that everyone wants, like micro dollies, and the DSLRs that we do have are seniors-only.?
Junior Lisa Copland is the director of promotions for QFS and an associate producer of ?The Morning After? talk show at Q30 television. Copland also works at the equipment checkout station in the Ed McMahon Communications Center.
?I don?t think the equipment needs to change,? Copland said. ?We have what we need for the projects we film. People don?t always realize what we have because they aren?t told about it, but we have videos of everything we have in the equipment room at the checkout counters.?
Other students also took notice to the new equipment.
?This semester the School of Communications actually added more cameras,? Copland said. ??They added T4i?s for seniors to use for [their] senior project only. They added GH2?s for junior level courses. Those are both DSLR cameras. The downfall is that there are only eight or nine of the senior ones and five for the juniors. It?s a step in the right direction.?
However, there is a lack of diversity in filming equipment and accessories, Collins said.
?The equipment that the [School of Communications] has is primarily centered on television and broadcast journalism production, not feature film or narratives,? Collins said. ?They are improving with the addition of DSLRs and Zoom H4n recorders, but aren?t there yet. I?d personally like to see professional-level feature cameras and lenses such as a RED, Sony CineAlta or ARRI Alexa.?
Senior FVI major Caitlin Riblett was in the classroom and overheard the comment by Webster. Riblett was working on a lighting exercise directed by Webster when she and other students heard him comment on the equipment.
?It wasn?t an announcement, he was setting up the equipment and he said it under his breath ?yeah, this is shit,?? Riblett said. ?It wasn?t meant to be heard, I don?t think he meant for it to be said as an official opinion.?
?I don?t think the professors heard,? Riblett said. ?I think he said it specifically when the professors wouldn?t hear, but the kids I was near kind of laughed and were kind of like ?I know, isn?t it???
O?Brien came into this Senior Colloquy class after the letter to the editor was published in order to discuss the issues, according to Riblett. He also invited the anonymous writer to speak with him and faculty to resolve any problems the student may have with the equipment.
?I think you?re going to find that the student isn?t going to come forward because we all knew that people were looking for the student, but having administrators say it?s immature to all of us in the class I don?t think the student will say ?that?s me,?? Riblett said.
Despite the letter, the School of Communications does not plan to make changes to its equipment.
?Having worked with the equipment myself, I know it?s first rate equipment,? Kamlet said. ?We don?t pretend that the equipment we offer to film students is comparable to what a professional on a movie set would use. A professional on a movie set would bring a lighting truck.?
Source: http://www.quchronicle.com/2012/12/school-of-communications-defends-film-equipment/
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Wednesday, December 5, 2012
The Meteoric Ascent of the Patent Troll and the Devastating Consequences for Innovation
Today it is perfectly legal for companies to buy and sell the rights to unlimited numbers of ideas, a company is not required to have any interest in making these ideas a reality. It is perfectly legal for companies to sit on patents and wait for others to create before either suing the creator or charging licensing fees.? The following pair of quotes is pulled directly from the promotional material on the website of just one prolific patent troll:
?$2 Billion+ cumulative licensing revenue?
?70,000 IP assets acquired and nearly 40,000 in active monetisation programmes?
In fact it is not just legal, patent trolling is an industry on a colossal scale. According to research recently published by Boston University School of Law, last year patent trolls won a cool $29 Billion. One of the most worrying findings of research in to patent trolls is that the mere threat of a suit is enough to put the frighteners on and make creators pay up:
?The average legal cost to defend a patent case is $420,000 for small and medium sized companies and $1.52 million for large companies. The average settlement costs are $1.33 million for small and medium companies and $7.27 million for large companies.?
It appears that a vast majority of the money acquired by ?non practicing entities? is creamed off, according to the research by the Boston researchers:
?no more than a quarter (of the direct spending by defendants ) could possibly represent a flow to fund innovative activity?
Despite this, the Boston University School of Law researchers demonstrate that money flowing in to the coffers of patent trolls is rising at a colossal rate. The following figures do not include indirect costs such as loss or delay of revenue or abandonment of new inventions:
Patent trolls however are by no means the only people in the bulk patent buying business; last August Google spent $12,500,000 on 17,000 patents. Perhaps most worrying of all is the catastrophic state of affairs with regard to the utterly overwhelming volume of software patents that continue to be filed year on year. According to a study published by Yale Law School last year:
?We?ll estimate the number of firms that create software at 600,000. The number of software patents issued, is around 40,000 in a typical year (and growing). That means that there are around 24 billion new patent-firm pairs each year that could produce accidental infringement. Even if a patent lawyer only needed to look at a patent for 10 minutes, on average, to determine whether any part of a particular firm?s software infringed it, it would require roughly 2 million patent attorneys, working full-time, to compare every firm?s products with every patent issued in a given year. At a rate of $100 per hour, that would cost $400 billion. For comparison, the software industry was valued at $225.5 billion in 2010.?
In essence, it would cost more money than the entire US software industry earns each year just for each software firm?s lawyers to skim read the 40,000 software patents published in the US each year. Obviously this is a ridiculous statement, there are only 40,000 registered patent attorneys in the US so this cannot happen, leaving the gate wide open to frivolous legal suits from competitors and patent trolls. In reality it seems, many patents don?t even get read. It?s almost as if we have taken our collective creativity and placed it in to a locked box where the main benefactors are lawyers and profiteers. In fact, there is no almost about it.
For further reading on the patent problem check out Wired Magazine?s excellent current series on patent issues and Village Voice?s excellent feature last week on ?the new cold war?. Also read at the Big Think about a recently uncovered rare and worrying case of patents encroaching into the realm of Psychology.
References:
Bessen, James E. and Meurer, Michael J., (2012) The Direct Costs from NPE Disputes. Boston Univ. School of Law, Law and Economics Research Paper No. 12-34. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2091210 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2091210
Mulligan, Christina and Lee, Timothy B., (2012) Scaling the Patent System. NYU Annual Survey of American Law, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2016968
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Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=206adf0d9c8f59548fd904c572a239e6
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Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Verizon features The Gadgeteer?s 15yrs of tech and is giving away a 4G LTE DROID DNA by HTC
The Verizon Wireless Midwest Area?blog wants to celebrate The Gadgeteer’s 15 years?covering?the tech industry and asked me to write up my top 15 moments in the last decade and a half.?So I put in my thinking cap (no, it doesn’t have a propeller on top) and came up with some of the products and services [...]
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