A Smart Choice

Owing a computer is no longer a luxury. With advent of newer advanced technologies, the computers prices have witnessed nose-dive in it. Similarly, gone are the days when these computers were voluminous in size. The modern trend is smaller the IC card!

Another development in this arena has been the ability to have a new computer by assembling computer parts of different branded companies. This is exactly the situation when the buy computer parts online option can come to your rescue. They have a spectacular collection of top notch branded parts. They offer great discounts on bulk orders. Because they sell original parts, they do not shy off from giving warranties on parts bough from them.

Organizations, offices and corporate entities use computers in large numbers. With passage of time, they do feel a need to upgrade or replace damaged computer parts. As buying a brand new computer is an expensive proposition, they choose to buy computer parts online. This way they are able to save a substantial amount of money without hampering their day-to-day official work.

While to buy computer parts online might sound very easy, that is not the case. For, you need to procure them from a well reputed store. Though these parts are available at your local store, the online stores are becoming popular for convenience and benefits it offers.

There is a certain kind of procedure you ought to follow while buying it from an online store. To start with, make a list of all items that your need to buy. If you are a first time buyer, you will probably require to buy processor, hard drive, RAM, power supply, motherboard, graphics card,  an optical drive such as DVD drive, to name a few.

Besides these, mouse, keyboard and monitor are must-have items to buy samsung monitors. Always ensure to buy top branded items and make sure it carries a warranty period. Likewise, if you are buying a Samsung monitor, prefer to buy it from a Samsung store or a store of good reputation.

Irrespective of what you choose to buy computer parts online, be absolutely clear about the purpose you intend to use it for. For instance, if you intend to use it for gaming purpose, buy a High quality graphics card and a high speed RAM. The next step involves visiting the store – online or local, so that you can find the computer part that you are looking forward to. It is advisable to go for a branded computer component manufacturer. Choose the one that meets your budget and other criteria. Buying it from an online store can be advantageous as you can reap benefits of free shipment.

 “The overall functional purpose and relevance of what we have come here to launch today, therefore, lie in the possibility of using the ‘Kaadi Igbeayo’ as the electronic vehicle to achieve the above stated policy goals. Our gathering today is to formally introduce a universally game-changing concept in the fields of democracy, governance and commitment to service.

“Together in the last four years plus, we have recorded quite a number of unprecedented achievements in the history of our great state, the federation, and even the world. Good governance has been found to be the precursor of happiness amongst people. As abstract and intangible as this concept of happiness may be, this administration is dedicated to the implementation of critical policies usually associated with the governments of the happiest people on earth; that is, the promotion of transparent elected democracy and the flourishing of generous welfare benefits-driven economy.”

“For the past four years, our administration has been practicing Welfare-based, Benefits-driven Governance which has ensured the prioritization of certain people oriented projects such as: the Mother & Child Hospitals; Abiye Maternal Care Centres; Mega-Primary Schools; over 650 purpose-specific and statewide community projects and countless such other efforts in road reconstruction, urban renewal and city beautification”.

My first up-close-and-personal experience with the justice system was the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial. I wasn't actually involved in the case, of course. I didn't sleep in O.J.'s guest house or know in advance that the glove wouldn't fit. But I watched enough of the trial on television to get a good sense of what the jury had to work with, and how the choices and foibles of Judge Lance Ito, prosecutor Marcia Clark, and defense attorney Johnnie Cochran et al. led to the former NFL star's ultimate acquittal.

The Simpson trial was in part a trashy soap opera. Yet by exposing so many North Americans to the warts-and-all realities of how a homicide case is decided, it was also an invaluable educational tool. The jury of Simpson's peers found him not guilty. Much of the trial's audience felt otherwise, and was spurred to contemplate what that disparity said about California criminal law (and its players) and about the respect O.J. should be afforded by society. Put it this way: no one resorted to vigilante justice at the end of the trial, but a lot of us vowed very firmly never to watch another chip card.

That case is relevant today because we're moving in a direction that will prevent us from reaping similar public benefits in the future. What television was in 1995, Twitter and Facebook are in 2013. That's where people go to get real-time information about breaking news and current events. But many courtrooms across the continent currently ban people from bringing smart phones into a trial or hearing, never mind allowing people to actually live-Tweet or blog the proceedings.

This is a real waste. As David Kravets wrote in a piece on Wired a couple years ago, the rationale behind these bans is twofold: part security (your smart phone may look like an innocent Angry Birds delivery device, but it could actually be a bomb), and part attempt to comply with existing U.S. laws that forbid the "broadcasting" of federal criminal judicial proceedings. That would be fair enough if there weren't so much to be gained from the increased scrutiny live-Tweeting and -blogging bring to the justice system when allowed.

Smart ID card to be main, permanent source of data

The Emirates Identity Authority and the Marriage Fund Institution signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to adopt the “Smart” ID card and activate it as a main and permanent source for the data of the beneficiaries from the services provided by the fund, in order to improve operations, facilitate procedures and develop customer chip card, by utilizing the data and information provided by the authority for personal identification and verification of the identities of individuals.

According to this MoU, both sides are committed to work on expertise and knowledge exchange through viewing the institutional experiences and supporting the creative and innovative skills through the institutional partnership between the tow.

The MoU is aimed at exchanging information and accurate statistical data that would help both sides to conduct researches and studies of mutual interest, as well as benefiting from the data of the fund’s customers, like the beneficiaries of the grants and the participants of the group weddings, and organizing seminars and lectures related to the national identity which falls in the area of family awareness and youth service.

The MoU also included the efficient participation in supporting and participating in the group weddings and seminars organized by the marriage fund for the authority, which is held on annual bases under the title “The Identity’s wedding”.

Signing the MOU between the two parties was out their keenness to support and reinforce standing strategic partnership relations between them in an efficient way, to contribute in fulfilling the needs of the UAE society, for the positive effects it has on the economic and social levels, and achieving the public internet.

Signing the MoU took place at the authority’s headquarter in Abu Dhabi, with the attendance of Dr. Eng. Ali Mohamed Al Khour, Director General of Emirates Identity authority, and H.E. Amer Abdul Jaleel Al Fahim, Board Member of the Marriage Fund institution.

The MoU stated that the authority will provide the technical support necessary to the integration with the fund’s infrastructure, and the technical applications necessary to read the data stored at the ID card, in addition to managing the unified ID for the purpose of customer identity verification, and providing the awareness to the UAE society with the importance of the secret number to achieve the fullest benefit possible from the ID card.

Dr. Eng. Ali Mohammed Al Khouri, Director General of Emirates Identity Authority, said that signing this MOU with the Marriage Fund institution comes under the ongoing keenness of the authority to contribute in an efficient and vital way in the march of growth and economic and social development witnessed by the country, as well as its relentless pursuit to providing an accurate and comprehensive population register with the highest levels of security, and supporting the UAE government in the strategic decision making and spreading the digital society culture.

Dr. Al Khouri noted that this MoU will contribute to supporting the services provided by the marriage fund to its customers, like the case of the others authorities and institutions that benefited from the integrated electronic system developed by the authority to manage the personal identity, in supporting the country’s quest to building a competitive economy through the federal electronic government plan 2012-2014, and establishing a society enjoying the best living standards.

From his side, Dr. Amer Abed Al Jaleel Al Fahim, Member of Board of Directors of the Marriage Fund institution, said that this agreement is considered an application and translation of the federal government principles in reinforcing the cooperation and coordination between the federal institutions and bodies, and the pursuit to the exchange of institutional knowledge, expertise and experiences in the area of excellence, and the exchange of opinion and consultation to support the efforts of development and upgrading adopted by both institutions.

Al Fahim stressed the keenness of the Marriage Fund institution to reinforce the cooperation with the Emirates Identity Authority in many fields, referring to the fact that the marriage fund has activated the use of the Id card and adopting it in the fund’s transactions as a main document in applying for the marriage grants and the family counseling services, as well as benefiting from the authority’s data base in supporting the work of the marriage and the targeted categories of the institutions, like the beneficiaries from the marriage grant and the participants in the group marriages, and obtaining credible statistics and conducting researches and surveys, and the possibility of the linkage between the two institutions, as H.E, valued the authority’s role in harnessing and providing all the available abilities at the registration centers for the service of the fund.

Al Fahim pointed out that signing the MoU comes under the Marriage Fund’s strategy aiming to reinforce the joint cooperation with the federal bodies, in addition to employee the expertise and unify the abilities in supporting special projects and developing them to contribute to the achievement of both sides’ mission and vision.

"Any online access leaves behind an electronic trail which can easily be followed to see what we've been up to," explains Dr Budi Arief, from the Centre for Cybercrime and Computer Security (CCCS) at Newcastle University.

"For most of us this is a useful record but for someone living in fear of abuse the very systems set up to help them can actually be used against them. "What our technology does is erase these electronic footprints, allowing people to seek help in safety without fear of reprisal."

Allowing people free access to online resources whilst hiding their activities from their abusers requires a number of complementary technologies that provide layers of IC card.

"Another important consideration in the case of domestic violence is that in many cases, victims do not know where to get help from," adds Mr Martin Emms, a PhD student at the School of Computing Science. As a solution, the Newcastle University team has developed single use URL codes that can be distributed to victims.

These codes – represented as QR codes – are embedded into innocent-looking postcards and flyers and take the user directly to a support site. As the name suggests, the link will only direct its user to a support site once; subsequent attempts to use it will be directed to a 'safe page' – an innocuous one such as BBC News or Google home page.

This will be used in combination with the cleaner app. Once accessed, the app selectively wipes clean the user's digital footprints, removing any trace of their search for support – including temporary internet files, browser history entries and cookies - while leaving other electronic trails intact.

Snack Food, Star Appeal

It’s good to be Gary Lineker, once Britain’s national football star and forever her beloved son. In the decades since leaving the pitch, Lineker has launched a media career—announcing matches for the BBC and voicing a cartoon character known as Underground Ernie—married a smart card, made a cameo in “Bend It Like Beckham,” attracted more than a million Twitter followers, and since 1995, served as the celebrity spokesman for Walkers potato crisps.

That Lineker is, according to everyone, an all-around nice guy, a player who never once drew a yellow card in his career, only adds to his irresistible charm.

Irresistible, indeed. According to researchers from the University of Liverpool, children who watched a Walkers commercial starring Lineker ate 40 percent more of the premium-brand potato chips than those who watched a non-Lineker food commercial. What’s more, children who, instead of being shown any food commercial, watched a clip of Lineker calling a football match ate just as many chips as their Walkers-ad-primed peers.

In other words, Lineker’s celebrity endorsement of Walkers crisps is so well established in the minds of pre-teens that simply seeing him onscreen, not as brand spokesman but as sports announcer, whets their appetite for the salty junk food.

The study, which appears in The Journal of Pediatrics, underscores the power of subliminal advertising and demonstrates just how plastic—and hence impressionable—the adolescent mind truly is.

The British researchers, led by Emma Boyland, showed 181 British children, aged 8 to 11, an episode of “The Simpsons,” interrupted by one of four ads: a Walkers spot, starring Lineker; a non-Walkers savory-food ad (Nobby’s Nuts); a clip of Lineker presenting soccer highlights on “Match of the Day”; or a control toy ad.

Afterward, the children were given bowls of both Walker’s and supermarket brand crisps, and told to eat as many as they liked, with unlimited refills.

Kids who were shown the Walkers ad ate 40 percent more name-brand chips than kids who saw the ad for Nobby’s Nuts, and 75 percent more than kids who saw the toy ad. The remarkable finding, however, was that kids who only watched Lineker talk soccer—no mention of food whatsoever—ate just as many chips as the direct-marketing group; indeed, they nearly won out as being the biggest gluttons. Lineker’s celebrity status is apparently so powerful—and so well-tied to the Walkers brand—that his endorsement sells chips even when he’s not trying to. Call it “advertising through osmosis.”

That celebrities acquire a kind of universal appeal is nothing new. As Eric Schlosser reported in “Fast Food Nation,” Ronald McDonald is the second-most-recognizable face in America, behind Santa Claus; 96 percent of kids know his name.

Still, it’s unnerving that children can be made brand loyalists—proto-consumers, really—from such a young age. If it’s so easy to get them to eat junk food, well, what else might ad execs teach them to swallow?

It's running Android 4.1 version of Jelly Bean rather than the very latest 4.2, but we're promised an upgrade soon. It looks different from other Jelly Bean handsets though, because this is the first we've seen of version 5 of HTC's justly lauded Sense interface. The UI is lush, and can be a bit processor-heavy, but the One can cope with it and then some. There's just one other home page on the HTC One out of the box, but you can add others as you need them (up to five) and fill them with a variety of shortcuts and widgets.

HTC has lost the Android multi-tasking button from the bottom of the screen. There's just home and back buttons, and for multi-tasking you'll need to press twice on the home button, or hold it down to bring up the intuitive Google Now search feature. You can also double press the HTC logo in the middle to bring up the shortcuts menu. All well and good, but not very intuitive -- there's a bit of a learning curve to get the hang of this phone.

HTC BlinkFeed offers a Flipboard-type service that pulls together your favourite media and social networking updates into a magazine-style interface, which displays in various sized tiles for you to scroll through. It's a fun way to keep up with what's happening, but the news feeds are limited -- you can only use the ones that HTC has approved -- and it doesn't really offer any improvements on Flipboard, which is available for free from Google Play. It's not bad, but weirdly, you've got no choice in the matter, since you can't take it off or replace it with something else.

There are lots of photo features to play with too, including smile capture, HDR, Sweep Panorama and something called Zoe Mode, which allows you to take a three-second video consisting of 20 frames -- you can then either save it as a video clip, or you can pick the best still shot. There's also a range of photo editing facilities and effects too.

The video camera can shoot in full 1080p HD resolution and unusually, the HDR effect is also available here, though the picture quality drops noticeably, making it seem like more of a gimmick.

The HTC One packs a lot of power, and it's good to see a sizeable battery on hand to help maintain the high performance for longer than a few blinks. Unfortunately, though it does well, the 2,300mAh power pack doesn't excel -- it should just about get you through a day's worth of heavy use, but not much more.

Broadpeak, AirTies tie in

Broadpeak, a provider of content delivery network (CDN) technologies and VoD servers for cable, IPTV, OTT, and hybrid TV operators worldwide, has announced a new collaboration with AirTies Wireless Networks, a supplier of wireless home networking and STB solutions.

Broadpeak’s award-winning nanoCDN technology has been pre-integrated on AirTies’ Air5650 wireless routers and Air4742 media streamers to improve live OTT video delivery. Utilising a combined Broadpeak and AirTies’ solution, cable and telecom operators can cost-effectively deliver live OTT content to millions of subscribers using only a few megabits per second on the operator’s network.

“We are excited to partner with AirTies on this very important initiative,” said Jacques Le Mancq, CEO and president of Broadpeak. “The recent explosion in OTT video consumption is significantly impacting the traditional video delivery landscape. As operators deliver a growing amount of OTT content to more and more devices with limited infrastructure resources, it becomes challenging to guarantee a high video quality, especially for live content. A unified Broadpeak nanoCDN and AirTies’ solution enables operators to extend CDN technology into the subscriber home, reducing their capital and operational expenses. Because AirTies’ media streamers can simultaneously connect to up to four home devices, operators can now deliver a superior OTT experience anywhere, on any device.”

Leveraging home networks, RFID tag dramatically lowers infrastructure investments for operators while allowing them to deliver high-quality video services more efficiently to end-users. nanoCDN improves the scalability of live OTT TV content by effectively managing video consumption peaks that are not supported by the network infrastructure.

AirTies’ Air4742 dual-band concurrent media streamer provides reliable, predictable bandwidth and unprecedented high-speed performance for real-time video distribution and data transmission to the home. Featuring four Wi-Fi antennas, the streamer can easily be connected to any device with an Ethernet port, such as connected TVs, STBs, smartphones, tablets, and game consoles, to stream high-quality SD and HD video simultaneously over a 5GHz connection. Utilizing the company’s Air5650 WAN VDSL router, service providers can offer sufficient bandwidth for Internet services.

“We’re thrilled to implement Broadpeak’s nanoCDN on our industry-leading media streamer and router solutions,” said Bulent Celebi, executive chairman and founder of AirTies Wireless Networks. “Together, Broadpeak and AirTies are making high-quality, live OTT content a reality for consumers on any device.”

Markey has long advocated for campaign finance reform. During a 1992 debate, the Boston Herald reported that Markey called for campaign spending caps, a ban on PAC donations and public financing of campaigns. In 1993, he voted for a bill that would have capped fundraising and spending for congressional candidates. He introduced a 1996 campaign spending reform bill that would have limited the amount of PAC contributions and large individual donations a congressional candidate could accept. Markey supported the House version of a bill that would become the McCain-Feingold Act, which increased campaign contribution limits but banned the use of “soft” money - money not subject to campaign finance laws - by political parties in federal elections, and eliminated the ability of corporations and unions to air “issue ads.”

Recently, Markey has supported passing a constitutional amendment overturning the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which allowed corporations to make unlimited political expenditures. He supported the DISCLOSE Act, which would require independent groups that spend in political campaigns to disclose their major donors.

However, Markey has a complex history relating to special interest money funding his own campaigns. In 1984, embarking on his first U.S. Senate campaign, for the seat vacated by Democrat Paul Tsongas, Markey decided he would no longer accept money from PACs. Though Markey, who has served in Congress since 1976, took PAC money during his prior U.S. House campaigns, the Boston Globe reported that Markey returned all PAC donations he received in 1984 and announced a new policy of refusing PAC money. He told the Globe he wanted to establish "PAC-free" campaigns in Massachusetts. Several other candidates in that race, which Markey dropped out of and which was won by Democrat John Kerry, also swore off PAC money.

Today, PACs continue to contribute to Markey. The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics reports that since 1989, Markey has raised $7.98 million from individuals and $2.77 million from PACs. In each election cycle since 2006, Markey has received at least 40 percent of his donations from PACs.

Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, said Markey’s shift reflects changing times in campaign finance. In the 1980s, PACs were vilified.” They were thought to having a corrupting influence on Congress and politics,” she said.

With the growth of political non-profits, “super PACs” and outside independent expenditure groups, PACs lost their stigma, and became more important. “In this world of increased independent expenditures, members of Congress are arguably more dependent on money from wherever they can get it,” Krumholz said. “For those members who are lucky enough to be attractive to PACs, it’s not surprising they might have a change of heart about their willingness to accept those funds.”

Dave Levinthal, senior politics reporter at the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity, said particularly after the Citizens United decision, campaigns are more expensive than ever and outside groups are taking a larger role. “Many candidates feel that as a practical matter they have to raise as much money as they possibly can,” Levinthal said. “There’s an extreme amount of pressure to get money wherever you can get it to fuel your campaigns…That’s even the case with some of the most vocal critics of money in politics or the Citizens United decision.”

Government needs to be smart not angry in diplomacy

India could still conduct a trial and convict the marines in absentia. They would then become fugitives from Indian justice. At the very least, a lookout notice by Interpol or a similar international policing organisation could be issued. This means that if they step out of Italy — they are marines, for god's sake — they run the risk of being arrested on foreign shores and deported to India. Instead, we will vent spleen by packing off the poor Italian ambassador and downgrading diplomatic ties. The marines will still stay in Italy.

In recent months, as the UPA government has floundered internally, many of our international partners have not hesitated to knock us around. The Maldivians are doing it to us in the Indian Ocean. The Chinese are cutting off the Brahmaputra. They are building Gwadar in Pakistan, Kyaukpyu in Myanmar, knocking in Maldives and Seychelles and, of course, Sri Lanka.



However, New Delhi is openly fuelling ethnic nationalism as a politically expedient tool, just because they believe it is a way of keeping the DMK in the UPA. It had disastrous consequences in 1984. Today, we seem to be forgetting that LTTE was the most dangerous terrorist group in the world, and that India played a silent, but significant, role in its ultimate demise.

According to recent studies, one-third of marketing executives surveyed have shifted half of their budgets from traditional to digital marketing in the past year, yet are still spending 20% of their budgets on tradeshows. This gives us many reasons to pause and think about several concerns surrounding these research outcomes.

Tradeshow marketing has always been a money pit for companies both large and small. For the most part, a surprisingly small number of exhibitors truly integrate this tactic into their overall marketing and communications strategies.

At every dental meeting we attend, we hear a good number of exhibitors grumbling about the poor results of their tradeshow participation. More often than not, they blame everyone but themselves.

Truth be told, these same exhibitors or their agencies have experienced less than stellar results because they've neglected the basics, the major one being an integrated exhibit marketing plan! (And by "marketing" we mean the discipline and not just simply a big idea or a cute promotion.)

With the shift of substantial marketing dollars to "more modern" tactics, i.e., digital outlets such as social media, we're concerned that exhibitors will run headlong into developing digital strategies to support tradeshow marketing efforts without paying attention to the basics. Because despite what some digital marketing wunderkinds say, the same proven principles of traditional marketing hold true for digital strategy and should be generously and vigorously applied.

Memphis isn’t doing anything out of the ordinary here. The pick-and-roll/pick-and-pop is the NBA’s go-to play, and lots of teams with two skilled big men run things so that one is going south while the other is going north. But the Clippers, more than maybe any team in the league, respond by having both bigs sprint away from the rim instead of sending the first line of help — the help defender rushing at the Gasol pick-and-pop jumper — from somewhere along the perimeter instead of from in the paint. Teams are starting to pick up on this.

Memphis also ran a lot of screen-the-screener action, in which Gasol would screen for Randolph in the paint (or vice versa) as Randolph ran up to set a high screen for Conley. It’s a simple thing, but Memphis clearly believed they could create a bit of confusion for the Clippers’ bigs that way.

The fourth quarter also showed the no-win situation Vinny Del Negro (and his hair) faces in picking between Lamar Odom and DeAndre Jordan to close games next to Griffin. Jordan can’t shoot free throws (neither can Odom), and while Odom is probably a more intuitive defender in space and carries the lingering perception of being a “shooter,” he has trouble against post behemoths like Randolph and Gasol. This is probably the biggest issue facing the Clippers.

And, yes, Gasol’s performance last night was basically basketball porn for me. He nailed jumpers, facilitated brilliantly from the elbow, had two dribble-drive baskets (including one facial on Odom), and was one step ahead of L.A.’s offense on the other side of the ball. Gasol somehow recorded five steals and was playing volleyball at one point, deflecting pass after pass. A brilliant player.


I chatted at length with Monty Williams after the Hornets’ practice in Brooklyn on Wednesday, mostly for a post that will likely come out next week. But Williams said a few interesting off-topic things that won’t make it into that post, and I wanted to share them here. I asked him if we’d see more of the Ryan Anderson-Anthony Davis big man combo, even though the Hornets have given up an unsightly 113.9 points per 100 possessions when those two share the floor — nearly five points worse than Charlotte's league-worst defensive efficiency mark.

Williams, a Spurs alum and a very smart coach, stopped me in part to protest the over-reliance on analytics: “Yeah, the numbers are bad, but I’m not a numbers guy. Honestly, these numbers have gotten a little out of hand for me. A lot of teams have good defensive numbers, but sometimes guys just miss, OK? Sometimes guys just miss shots. Or they make crazy shots. But that doesn’t mean it was a good shot, and it doesn’t mean it was bad defense. It’s like guys who get paid for numbers, but if you check their winning percentages, would you still pay that guy? I feel the same way about these numbers. Ryan and A.D. — their defensive prowess would look a lot better if we could stop the ball, and if there wasn’t so much penetration. That’s something we have to get better at — guarding the ball at our wing and guard spots.”

Legacy system refresh and mobility drive banks' transformational projects

The report, ASEAN Bankers' Study, noted that these technology themes, coupled with recovering IT spending budgets, are helping to drive enterprise-wide strategies for faster time-to-market deliveries and technology optimisation capabilities.

"The results reinforce the notion about the amount of growth and opportunities that we have in the region," said Peter Gill, vice president, Banking & Financial Markets, ASEAN, IBM.

CXOs, including CIOs, CTOs, CFOs, CROs and CMOs from some 20 financial institutions based across Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, responded to the study. Further information on the findings from the study will be published by end of April 2013.

Data from the report indicate that Big Data is moving away from being an IT initiative and to the business side of the banks. A few leading banks were observed appointing individuals or groups to understand and map Big Data initiatives internally. "The ones that are leading have a defined roadmap on where they would like to get to and the progress on getting there," said Gill.

“We liked him very much,” he said. “His style was a serious one, but at the same time very friendly and very smart.”

Philippe Bastien, who sells Catholic religious objects at a store called Liturgica on Innes Road — everything from books to Virgin Mary lawn ornaments — said people are already asking for pictures of the new Pope.

They are already in process and should be ready in a few weeks, he said, and he will sell a couple of hundred, plus thousands of smaller card-sized ones.

“A month or two down the road they’ll offer some laminated models, something that’s framed already, larger pictures,” he said. “Also any books he may have written, they’re going to redo them: book by Pope Francis.”

But what does the election of Pope Francis mean to the average Ottawa Catholic?

Catherine Clifford, a professor of theology at Ottawa’s Saint Paul University, said that while many Catholics in Ottawa are progressive in their thinking, their reaction to the conservative new Pope will be interesting — and more complicated than a straight liberal-conservative tension.

Gill observed that banks have been not only been delving into unstructured data sources like emails and call centre logs, but also third party platforms like Facebook and Linkedin. But the main challenge is to be able to make sense of all the information, he said. "How do you value the opinions of, for instance, a blog? How do you assess the accuracy and impact of the data obtained?" said Gill.

While no banks have emerged as clear leaders, organisations with well-articulated Big Data roadmaps will break away from the pack in the space of two to three years, said Gill.

Legacy system refreshes remain high on the CXOs' spending agenda. Almost all the interviewed banks indicated that they still have pockets of legacy systems within their infrastructure. These ageing cobbled-together platforms are found in branch and channel solutions, ATM, credit card and payment systems.

But besides updating the old, system refreshes initiatives are also driven by modern front-end processes. "As you add mobile platforms and apps, you need to have systems within the bank that can support them," said Gill.

Meanwhile, mobility is going to be the main theme for payment models this year, according to the report. Survey respondents have indicated that they will be focused on customers' mobile devices like smartphones and tablets as mediums for payments.

The IDC report observed that several banks have already introduced innovative projects based on mobility. One bank in Singapore has been utilising near field communications (NFC) smart posters that allow vouchers to be stored digitally on cards and SMS-based payment systems for bills. A Thailand-based bank has a program that allows anyone with a smart device to become a merchant for credit cards by using a dongle.


She said that while the new Pope may be a traditionalist in some ways, his simplicity of lifestyle and his social justice agenda will speak to many people in a city like Ottawa.

“I think everyone can identify with that and especially people on the left, if you want,” she said — although she added that Ottawa Catholics are a diverse group that’s not uniformly left-leaning.

There will still be issues, she said, like the ordination of women, that won’t be as high on the new Pope’s agenda as some might like.

Clifford said, however, that this is something North American Catholics will have to learn to deal with.

“It’s hard for us as North Americans or Westerners to see that the majority of Catholics don’t live here and they don’t live in Europe,” she said. “Sixty-six per cent live south of the equator. This is going to challenge our notions of the worldwide Catholic community, in a good way.”

TELUS selects Gemalto's SIM cards for NFC services

Universal Smart Cards (USC) has been chosen as one of only 13 British companies to attend a trade mission in Moscow, organised by the British Chamber of Commerce, later this month.

As the only Lancashire representative out of 90 applicants, business deve-lopment manager Paul May hopes he’ll be returning from Russia with a lot of love for the company’s prod- ucts and services.

They include a vast range of contact and contactless smart cards – all featuring a PVC microchip – card readers, card printers, fobs, wristbands and labels.

Dear Muy, Ignoring any payment of principal over the year, your annual interest expense on a $22,000 loan balance at 6.6% is $1,452. Unless you're making interest-only payments, your interest expense for the coming year should be even less than that because you're paying down principal over time.

Managing a collection of credit cards to reduce your interest expense has its own set of additional risks. You're not transferring credit card balances from another credit card, so you have to find a card that has a teaser rate on a cash advance. Multiple credit card applications over a short period of time will negatively impact your credit score, making it even harder to qualify for that great credit card offer. You also give up any of the loan payment options available with your student loans, including any tax deductibility of the interest payments.

I understand students and graduates complaining about the high interest rates associated with student loans. Comparing student loan rates to mortgage rates isn't a fair comparison, however, because a mortgage is secured by the house as collateral. You've borrowing money unsecured at a fixed 6.6%. That's not a bad deal. Bankrate's latest national average for a fixed-rate credit card is 13.02%. It's 15.15% for variable-rate credit cards. The cards are unsecured debt, too.

In an ideal world, you could use your emergency fund to pay down your student loan, and then replenish the fund over time and come out ahead. But to do that means you've lost the potential protection the fund offers.

The value of a tax deduction depends on your income level and marginal federal income tax bracket. Don't let taxes be the guiding force or the tail wagging the dog here. I'd argue that you should be making additional principal payments each month to chip away at the outstanding loan balance, and set a target date for paying off the debt. Do that, and I'll give you an A for the day!

The lineup for the festival, which takes place from Aug. 2 to 4 at Parc Jean-Drapeau, is a thoughtfully balanced blend of post-punk heritage acts, contemporary roots-rockers, psychedelic buzz bands, acclaimed hip hop artists and synth-pop groove merchants, among others.

New Order join the Cure as a sure draw for those who came of age in the 1980s, while the Lumineers will help the Mumford lads reintroduce acoustic instruments to a new generation in the noisy outdoor mix.

French alt-rockers Phoenix will be there, as will Kendrick Lamar, Vampire Weekend and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, the duo whose irresistible Thrift Shop might still be riding the Billboard charts by then.

The bill will also include Alt-J, Hot Chip, Tegan and Sara, Ellie Goulding, Beach House, Big Boi, Flogging Molly, Silversun Pickups, Azealia Banks, the Gaslight Anthem, Father John Misty, Jimmy Eat World, We Are Wolves, Diamond Rings, A Tribe Called Red and Wild Belle.

Even during the early years — a.k.a. the "good years," a.k.a. the "dangerous years" — some people thought it was lazy or hack. In the book on comedy writing And Here's the Kicker, SCTV alumnus Harold Ramis explained why he was happy to not work on SNL even though all his friends were: "The writing was a little weak and gratuitous in a lot of ways. I though the notion of just repeating scenes over and over, week after week, was not a good thing." However, as Buck Henry argued in the same book, "The repetition is funny in and of itself." And those who love this aspect of the show would argue that the very fact that these characters are met with exuberant applause is evidence of why it’s a good practice. Fans love the characters, and they love repeating the catchphrases on their own, so why wouldn't it be a delight to see those characters repeat the catchphrases?

Classic JT characters weren't the only ones reused last weekend. The last two live sketches of the night — "chip card" and "Mo?t & Chandon" — were not only redos, but they were also from the same episode from earlier in the season, Jamie Foxx's. "Maine Justice" lost a ton of juice in its second go-round, as the sketch became less about the concept (a surreal Maine courtroom where everything is inexplicably New Orleans–y) and more about the characters (namely Jason Sudeikis's Cajun judge, who himself strikes a resemblance to Sudiekis’s character from the "Potato Chip" sketch). Conversely, Vanessa Bayer and Cecily Strong's unfortunate porn stars grow more ridiculous and compelling as we learn more about their insane past. But will it get even better the fourth and fifth times and beyond?

But ultimately, none of the aesthetic comedy debate on this issue matters. Michaels has been hearing complaints about recurring characters for nearly 40 years and has shrugged it off because, as heretical as this might sound to its critics, it would be foolish to change. While the rest of network TV slides deeper into the abyss, SNL holds relatively strong. Unlike most shows in prime time, its audience this season, particularly among adults under 50, is the same or higher than it was two or three years ago. What's more, as NBC's fortunes have sunk, SNL now often boasts a bigger audience than many of the network’s comedies and dramas. TV executives flail (and usually fail) to find new ways to reinvent the sitcom, drama, or reality show; when a talk-show host retires, the network tries to find some fresh way to invigorate the host/desk format. But SNL has an automatic-refresh button: As beloved cast members leave to become big movie stars, new young faces come in with the promise of being the next generation’s big star. The very appeal of this show is that young people will get new faces to “own”: The unchanging institution of SNL is a machine with which we watch our new comedy heroes get built.

That's what Justin Timberlake's Five-Timers Club monologue was about: continuing to assert the show's place as an institution. So just as Tom Hanks belonged in the same all-time-great host conversation with Steve Martin, Justin Timberlake belongs in it with Tom Hanks. Michaels famously believed the show was special when he started it, and he continues to do so today. Saturday's episode reminded you that throughout the show's 38 seasons, through exceptional and less-than hosts, there's a legacy. And whether you like it or not, part of that legacy is recurring characters.

Bar code for local products in Tanzania

Dar es Salaam launches bar code for local products. Few weeks ago, the Premier, Mizengo Pinda launched a GSI (TZ) National Limited five years strategic plan 2013/2017 which aims, to a large extent, sensitizing the use of the country's barcode in products made in Tanzania. This development comes out after the country has been able to own her barcode, 620, from August 2011. Correspondent FERDINAND MOSES who attended the launch explains what took place on that day and also tries to tell us what the barcode is all about and its significance in economic development. Read on... HISTORY has it that in 1948 Bernard Silver, a graduate student at Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA overheard the president of the local food chain, Food Fair, asking one of the deans to research a system to automatically read product information during checkout. Silver told his friend Norman Joseph Woodland about the request and they started working on a variety of systems. Their first working system used ultraviolet ink, but the ink too easily faded and was fairly expensive. Convinced that the system was workable with further development, Woodland left Drexel, moved into his father's apartment in Florida and continued working on the system. His next inspiration came from Morse code and he formed his first barcode from sand on the beach. "I just extended the dots and dashes IC card and made narrow lines and wide lines out of them." To read them, he adapted technology from optical soundtracks in movies, using a 500-watt light bulb shining through the paper onto an RCA935 photomultiplier tube (from a movie projector) on the far side. He later decided that the system would work better if it were printed as a circle instead of a line, allowing it to be scanned in any direction. Experts say that barcodes help track items and also reduces instances of shoplifting involving price tag swapping. In addition, retail chain membership cards (issued mostly by grocery stores and specialty "big box" retail stores such as sporting equipment or office supply) use bar codes to uniquely identify consumers, allowing for customized marketing and greater understanding of individual consumer shopping patterns. They can also be used to keep track of objects and people; they are used to keep track of rental cars, airline luggage, registered mail, express mail and parcels. They say that Barcoded tickets allow the holder to enter sports arenas, cinemas, theatres, fairgrounds and transportation and are used to record the arrival and departure of vehicles from rental facilities. This can allow proprietors to identify duplicate or fraudulent tickets more easily. For a long time, Tanzania was using other country's barcodes and therefore losing the above said benefits to a large extent. So by having her own barcode now, it is obvious that not only that the country will benefit, but also the business community. It is this very reason that made the Prime Minister, Mizengo Pinda urging business community in Tanzania to use the country's barcode for their own benefit and the country's social economic benefits. For a long time, products made in Tanzania were using other countries' barcodes to suit international standards and penetrate foreign markets. "Since the country has entered in this system and have her own barcode, I urge members of the business community to start use it and be proud of it," he said during the meeting. Tanzania through GSI (TZ) National Limited started offering barcodes in August 2011 after successfully became a member of a Belgium based Global Standard One. He said using barcodes in the country's products will enable them penetrate in a wide range markets such as the East African Community (EAC), the Southern Africa Development Cooperation (SADC), African Growth and Opportunity Act-AGOA and the European Union. "This is one of the efforts of the fourth phase government to make sure that Tanzania products have required standards and also help improve small and medium enterprises welfare in the country," he said. He urged business people in the country who continue to use other countries' barcodes to stop doing that and use the one owned by Tanzania. He added that this is an opportune time for GSI (TZ) National Limited to use its five year strategic plan to lure more businesses into using the countries barcode and said the government will avail all necessary assistance needed. Tanzania is now a member of GS1, an internationally established organization responsible for the provision of bar codes, traceability services, e-commerce and other trade related issues in the world. So far, GS1 Tanzania has registered 370 companies in Tanzania and issued 6,000 barcodes to various products since it started operations in August, 2011. On her part, the Chairman of Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF), Ms Esther Mkwizu said Tanzania succeeded to establish GSI (TZ) National Limited and have her own barcode as a result of a close working relationship between the government and a private sector in Tanzania. "For this system to work better there is a need for the government to have a conducive policy that will facilitate more businesses in the country to register for barcodes," she said. She said that those who have already their barcodes should properly use them and be good ambassadors to others. The Vice-Chairman, GSI (TZ) National Ltd, Mr Yakub Hasham said by having her own barcode, Tanzania has made great strides that will help introduce the country's products inside and outside the country. The meeting was attended by government officials, Tanzania business community and other development stakeholders. We have reasons to commend all those who spearheaded the formation of GSI (TZ) National Limited especially TPSF on the private sector's side and the government. It should be noted that the formation of GS1 (TZ) National Limited, was supported by retailers, suppliers and manufacturers in Tanzania and their trade associations such as the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF), the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA), the Zanzibar Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture (ZCCIA). Others were the Confederation of Tanzania Industries (CTI), the Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA), the Tanzania Tea Association (TTA), the Agricultural Council of Tanzania (ACT), the Tanzania Women Chamber of Commerce from which some of their members formed the first Management Board to run the GS1 (TZ) National Limited.