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Friday, November 13, 2009
14K Gold Jewelry
Buying 14k gold jewelry can be fun as you give the gift of precious metals or give yourself a wonderful gift; a gift that lasts a lifetime! A high quality item is always a great gift to receive. Whether you choose 14k gold jewelry or 18k gold jewelry, you should know that purchasing any expensive item is making an investment in not only the person receiving the gift, (even a gift to yourself), but an investment in fine metals that will hold their value. Before making a costly purchase perhaps a little information on gold and what constitutes karats would be helpful in determining what karat content you would want to obtain.
Pure gold is soft, much too soft to substantially hold up to wear and tear or to hold a valuable and expensive stone in a setting. Because of the softness, it is usually mixed with other metals to form a substance that is more durable and hardy. This procedure is called alloying. To alloy is to mix metals together. When gold is alloyed with other materials or metals, the content in a particular object is then measured by karats. For example, 14k jewelry means that the gold content of the jewelry equals 14 parts to 10 parts of other materials. It is the same with 18k jewelry. A piece of jewelry certified as 18k, will have 18 parts gold to 6 parts of other metal contents. The standard karat content of most jewelry is 14k, 18k and 22k.
While alloying is done for durability, some fine jewelers alloy gold with other metals to reach a desired or specific color. Higher karat content items, such as a 18k jewelry will produce a more yellow color to the finish of the product. But, when a piece of gold is alloyed with nickel, silver, or platinum, the finish can be silver, or what is more commonly known as white gold. When a jeweler or designer wants to keep costs at a minimum, 14 carat is generally the least expensive cost. The lower the karat or pure gold content, the less expensive the product.
A piece of 14k gold jewelry or 18k gold jewelry should be clearly marked, letting the buyer know that they are buying a specific quality. The content should always be marked, along with another marking for a registered trademark and where the ring or necklace has been made. Marking a piece is not required by law, but is a courtesy marking, guaranteeing the buyer that they are buying specific content of metal. Always look for a 14k gold jewelry trademark or an 18k gold jewelry trademark when purchasing finer pieces, knowing that you are buying a item that is guaranteed to have substantial precious metal content.
There is also a process called gold plating. Plating is actually 10K gold that has been electroplated to another host metal. Plated jewelry can be beautiful, but durability is an issue, as the plating eventually wears off when the piece is worn considerably. There are jewelry pieces that are gold filled and overlaid as well. Any piece that has overlay or is filled should be marked with an abbreviated term to clarify the content of the item in question.
When buying jewelry, much of what is selected will be determined by personal preference. The higher the precious metal content, the more valuable the piece. A 22k or 24k gold ring will have a beautiful finish that has a unique yellow tone, and this piece will be worth quite a bit of money. But a ring with high karat content would need to be taken care of, and never worn for daily activities. Also, precious jewels mounted would be at risk. 18k gold jewelry and 14k gold jewelry are certainly the most popular choices because of these factors.
If you are in the market for a piece of jewelry, then speak with the jeweler about their recommendations for what you want the piece for. There are occasions when a 22k or 24k piece may be just what the buyer needs or wants. There is also more information on buying fine pieces online through the Internet, and interested parties can browse the information about metal content and its value online. Gold is a valuable and precious metal. God's Word, the Bible tells us that our faith is much more valuable than gold to God. "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:7)
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Sony's Ultra-Slim Laptop Surfaces in Berlin Ian Paul, PC World
Sony was showing off its latest lightweight, ultra-slim laptop earlier this week at the IFA consumer electronics trade show in
- Weight: 1.5 pounds
- Thickness: 0.5-inch
- Screen: 11.1-inch backlit LCD screen in either matte or glossy display
- Processor: Intel Atom (could change to CULV)
- Storage: 120 GB hard disk drive (HDD), according to Sony Insider
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Ports: 2 x USB; Ethernet; SD card reader; Memory Stick Duo slot; VGA output; headphone
- Body material: Carbon Fiber
- Operating System: likely Windows 7
- Cost: rumored to be under $2000, according to Slash Gear
- Availability: likely the week following the October 22 launch of Windows 7.
Since there's no official word about this laptop yet, the above specs should be treated as rumor until we have a finalized device from Sony. The look of the Vaio X is very nice, but Sony may end up delivering nothing more than an over-priced Atom-based laptop. Atom processors are typically found in low-powered netbooks, like Sony's Vaio W series, which sells in the $500 range. With Sony talking about a price tag under $2000 for the X series, this ultra-slim laptop may not come cheap.
A high price tag won't help against the competition either, since the X Series looks poised to compete against devices like the MacBook Air. Apple's ultra-slim laptop has two models that sell between $1500-1800; however, the Air sports a faster Intel Core 2 Duo processor as opposed to the X's current Atom CPU. If Sony really wants to compete against the Air it looks to me like they have two choices: price this device below $1000 or bump up the processor specs.
Take a look at this video from Netbook News to see the Sony Vaio X in action.
"Sony's Ultra-Slim Laptop Surfaces in Berlin
Looks pretty though. But who is going to pay $1500 for a netbook?
The only problem with CFRP is that it is much more expensive than aluminum.
hardness is the property of being rigid and resistant to pressure; not easily scratched
strength is power to resist force, or the power to resist strain or stress; durability.[/quote]
PS: VIA stands for "Very Innovative Architecture".
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
There could not have been a better opening of the Fall/Winter 2009 Lakme Fashion Week than the spectacular ''Barbie All Doll'd Up'' show that rocked the ramp.It was a perfect combination of style and glamour as 50 years of Barbie was celebrated along with Lakme Fashion Week, the pioneers of the fashion weeks in India having completed a decade.Dress the Barbie contest attracted 75 entries from top designers in the country from which the 20 short listed creations were showcased on the ramp at the dazzling show.It was the winning dress by Nishka Lulla that Bollywood's glamorous star Katrina Kaif modeled as the show stopper of the day. Katrina Kaif will be the Indian celebrity on whose likeness a Barbie doll will be created by Mattel Toys India Pvt. Ltd.
Katrina Kaif was born on July 16th 1984. She is one of eight siblings who are all girls. Her mother is of Caucasian-British decent and her father who is originally from Kashmir, India is now also a Britain Native.Katrina Kaif was raised mostly in Hawaii and started modeling at the age of 14 in a jewelry campaign, which turned into…Katrina Kaif was born on July 16th 1984. She is one of eight siblings who are all girls. Her mother is of Caucasian-British decent and her father who is originally from Kashmir, India is now also a Britain Native.Katrina Kaif was raised mostly in Hawaii and started modeling at the age of 14 in a jewelry campaign, which turned into a career and her spending most of her time in London modeling for various companies.She was discovered by film maker Kaizad Gustad while she was modeling and she landed a role in the Bollywood film ‘Boom’, getting her first big break in the film industry.After arriving in India she was flooded with modeling contracts due to her innocent looking face, hour glass figure and gorgeous look. The offers came from companies like LG, Cola, Favicol and Lakme which is the commercial that got her noticed. Most of her early work was with photographer Atul Kasbekar.She wasn’t affected by moving from country to country and stated that no matter where you are from the bottom line is that everyone wants to be loved respected and cared for.Unlike other fellow outsiders of India Katrina Kaif had no problems getting a visa to stay there. After public criticized by boyfriend Salman Khan, she is currently perfecting her Hindi and despite being linguistically challenged at first with the native tongue, she was still offered roles in Bollywood films. Katrina Kaif also takes dance lessons furthering her assimilation into the Bollywood culture.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
SIDEBAR: Inside the world's largest diamond-sorting facility
Gaborone - Before entering the world's largest diamond sorting facility in Gaborone, you have to check your chewing gum at the door - lest you be tempted to stud it with a stone. You may also be asked to turn out your pockets, show the soles of your shoes and empty out your pen to prove you aren't concealing a gem.
But routine searches are a thing of the past at the Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTCB), a joint venture between the government of Botswana, the world's largest diamond producer, and Debswana - itself a joint venture between the government and mining giant de Beers.
Instead of hands, there are 100 security cameras constantly scanning workers and visitors for sticky fingers.
And every gem - or nearly - is accounted for by weight. If the weight of the box of rocks a sorter returns at the end of his shift doesn't exactly match the box he or she was given at the start of the shift, the building is locked down and no-one allowed leave until the missing stone is found.
Don't even think about making a dash for it. The sorting area is separated from the exit by a bewildering array of centrally- controlled security doors, portals and turnstiles.
Not to mention the hawk-eyed security guards. At the end of a recent shift, the guard appointed to tail the German Press Agency
Welcome to Diamond Kitchen & Bath
Diamond Kitchen and Bath offers both in-home and showroom design services. We carry numerous cabinet lines to suit all of your needs. We offer a large selection and an incredible array of styles, from stock to full custom.We also provide full project management services in which we coordinate everything from concept to completion. We will provide all materials for the project, such as, cabinets, countertops and appliances. This allows for a smooth and organized experience.
We have been doing business in the Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey area since 1993. Comprised of highly skilled, experienced designers and home remodeling specialists, we are here to serve you. At Diamond Kitchen and Bath our customer is not only important, but the best resource for inspiration.Diamond Kitchen and Bath's showroom is unique and filled with samples for every taste imaginable. Our experienced design consultants will help you through the wide array of choices available and will give you professional advice on your project.All of our work is supervised by a project manager who remains in contact with the client at all times.
We have been doing business in the Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey area since 1993. Comprised of highly skilled, experienced designers and home remodeling specialists, we are here to serve you. At Diamond Kitchen and Bath our customer is not only important, but the best resource for inspiration.Diamond Kitchen and Bath's showroom is unique and filled with samples for every taste imaginable. Our experienced design consultants will help you through the wide array of choices available and will give you professional advice on your project.All of our work is supervised by a project manager who remains in contact with the client at all times.
A new Hollywood movie is raising tough questions about Africa's bloody diamond trade. Fortune's Vivienne Walt reports from the pits.
(Fortune Magazine) -- Sahr Amara is stooped low, knee-deep in a muddy river, in the fifth hour of his workday. As he has each day for the past week, the 18-year-old will earn a stipend of only 7 cents, enough to buy himself a bowl of porridge to see him through the day.
Yet he returns every morning to dig in the wilting heat on the edge of Koidu, a town in eastern Sierra Leone, hunting for the one thing he says could transform his life: a diamond. Since he is the oldest of six children - three others have died of diseases - much of his family's future rests on his prospects.
The prize: A seller displays two raw diamonds on the streets of Koidu in Sierra Leone.
The pits: Hundreds of miners search for diamonds at Congo Creek outside Koidu in eastern Sierra Leone, part of an army of one million Africans who earn pennies a day in the $60 billion industry.
The diamond dealer: Abdollai Koroma runs his trading business from a chair under a shade tree in a back alley of Koidu.
More video
CNN's Ali Velshi looks at the history of diamonds and it may have you thinking blood, not bling. (December 7)
Play video
"If I find a big diamond, I can afford to go to school, I can learn, and then I can help my family and even my village," he says. So far the plan has proved elusive; he has found no gems during his first week of work. "It's not easy," he says. "I think it depends on God."
Whether or not divine intervention leads Amara to a big find, his tale is anchored in a much more earthly economy: the $60-billion-a-year diamond industry, which has built its growth on dreams of love rather than of raw survival.
Koidu, whose diamonds have been mined since the 1930s, is thousands of miles away - and a galaxy removed - from the glittering displays in jewelry stores in New York, Tokyo and London. It is set in a country where the average man earns $220 a year and dies at 39. In the dwellings along Koidu's dirt tracks, residents eat dinner by candlelight not because it is romantic but because there is no electricity in town, just as there are no telephone lines and little indoor plumbing.
In short, it is hard to imagine a starker contrast between Amara's world and that of the people who might one day wear whatever diamond he finds, and they live in deep ignorance of each other. When asked what diamonds are used for, Amara draws a blank. "I only know they are valuable," he says.
Hollywood weighs in
But after 130 years of diamond mining in Africa, that ignorance is unraveling fast as the two worlds collide over the image of diamonds. The conflict, which has rocked the industry in recent years, may reach fever pitch this month with the release of the movie "Blood Diamond." Set in wartime Sierra Leone during the late 1990s, the film depicts a South African diamond smuggler, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, trying to recover a rare pink stone from a local fisherman whom rebels have forced to dig in the diamond pits.
The story line - a mixture of villainy and heroism - is classic Hollywood. But its roots are fact: In the 1990s rebels in Sierra Leone and Liberia financed their carnage from diamonds plucked out of the rivers and traded for arms. During a decade of war about 50,000 people were killed, and thousands had their hands hacked off by rebels.
Months before it opened, the movie had garnered media attention, aided by a marketing blitz by Warner Bros. (owned by Time Warner (Charts), parent of Fortune's publisher) and a $15 million counterattack by the World Diamond Council, an organization founded by more than 50 producers and dealers to end illegal diamond trading.
"We have been engaged in a massive educational campaign," says Eli Izakhoff, chairman and CEO of the council, which is heavily financed by De Beers, the company that sources about 40 percent of the world's diamonds, all of them from Africa. "This movie gives the industry a great story to tell." The council's message: More than 99 percent of diamonds are now from conflict-free sources, and millions of Africans have schooling and health care thanks to diamond revenues.
The movie is indeed a period piece: The civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia ended a few years ago. But the war over perceptions is just warming up. Many in the industry fear that as the end credits roll, moviegoers might glance down at their diamond rings and wonder under what circumstances the gems were dug. Unlike oil prospecting or coal mining - essentials for modern life - those questions could roil an industry whose lifeblood is ephemeral.
Controversy affects value
"Diamonds are essentially worth nothing," says Mordechai Rapaport, whose Rapaport Group price list is the industry standard. It's all about what they signify, he explains: In the case of a wedding ring, it's the guy, not the one-carat diamond. By that logic, he adds, "when a guy gives a woman a diamond and someone was killed for it, it is not worth anything."
Diamond producers and dealers did not need Hollywood to reach that conclusion. As war raged in the past decade, they realized that so-called blood diamonds carried a risk to their business that was far out of proportion to the tiny number of stones. Even during the bloodiest years no more than 15 percent of the world's diamonds were controlled by rebels in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The vast majority of diamonds, then and now, come from deep-level mines run by well-ordered international corporations, including Koidu Holdings, Sierra Leone's newest such operation, which opened in 2003 and exports $2.5 million in diamonds a month.
And although UN investigators recently found that rebels in the Ivory Coast had smuggled millions of dollars' worth of diamonds onto the world market through Ghana, blood diamonds account for only 0.2 percent of today's global supply.
But the industry's problem is far trickier than percentages. Consumers cannot be sure which diamonds are blood diamonds. And therein lies the potential for a boycott, especially since synthetic diamonds now look close to the real thing. "Diamonds are a luxury, so we depend completely on the consumer's faith," says Rory More O'Ferrall, director of external affairs for De Beers. "Anything that affects the integrity of that we need to address."
Tackling the problem took an unlikely alliance: Industry executives joined forces in 2003 with governments and the UN to end the trade of conflict diamonds. The resulting Kimberley Process Certification Scheme is a rare experiment by a major industry to monitor its own abuses. The 71 member countries agree to trade only among themselves. They inspect one another's facilities, then issue certificates declaring their diamonds conflict-free.
In theory, rigorous paperwork tries to trace all diamonds from mines to consumers. Transgressors are ousted: The Republic of Congo was banned in 2004, and Venezuela was threatened with suspension last month after reporting zero diamond exports for 2005.
But the system is hardly flawless, even in the U.S. In September the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that Customs and Treasury officials were only haphazardly enforcing the system, leaving companies to monitor themselves. Last year about 300,000 more carats were exported from than imported to the U.S. - which produces no commercial diamonds itself. Representatives from all 71 countries met last month in Botswana to try to tighten loopholes and squeeze out nonmembers. "There are fewer and fewer countries left that nonmembers can trade with," says Sue Saarnio, the U.S. State Department's representative to the November conference.
The underground diamond trade
A far grimmer assessment of the Kimberley Process can be found in the back alleys of Koidu. As the clammy heat eases off in the late afternoon, dozens of men converge on the neighborhood dubbed by the locals "Open Yei," Creole for "keep your eyes open," a reference to its thriving unlicensed diamond trading.
The action is the area's major entertainment, drawing a crowd of curious men and children. In a dirt clearing between the small wooden storefronts, Abdollai Koroma runs his business from a chair under a shade tree, clutching a yellow calculator and a jeweler's loupe in a weathered pouch. During just one hour eight men arrive with their wares wrapped in scraps of paper stuffed in their pockets. Koroma takes each stone and swirls it in his mouth before examining it briefly under the loupe. "This is 1.20 carats," he says after spitting out a glittering stone the size of a shirt button.
Koroma, who started trading diamonds at age 17, taps on his calculator, peels off a wad of banknotes, and makes his biggest purchase of the day: 200,000 leones, about $66. The previous day the neighborhood trade was equally brisk, as men gathered to sell diamonds to Komba Fillefaboa, a 47-year-old trader who began digging when he was 12. Fillefaboa says he buys dozens of stones on an average afternoon.
"We buy piece by piece and then gather them into a parcel to sell to dealers," he says. Once the parcel of diamonds is sold to a licensed dealer, illegally mined diamonds are easily mixed in.
Fillefaboa says he has no problem finding buyers, despite Sierra Leone's strict licensing laws, which ban illegal diamond dealing. Licenses are regarded as too costly and laws too cumbersome. "We are all illegal here," boasts the neighborhood's chief, Sahr Sam. "If the monitors come, we scatter."
Smuggling
In reality, government monitors rarely come to Open Yei. There are only 200 for the entire country, sharing ten motorcycles donated by the U.S. Agency for International Development. "At every level people say to us, 'If you harass us, we will just smuggle the diamonds,'" says Dan Joe Hadji, a senior monitoring officer in Koidu. "So we allow people to move around and hope and pray that they find religion" -by obeying the law.
Diamond producers and dealers frequently tout Sierra Leone as a Kimberley Process success story, since its official exports soared from near zero in 1999 to about $142 million last year, suggesting that smuggling has plummeted. Not necessarily so: The official statistics cannot be proved, says Jan Ketelaar, mine manager of Koidu Holdings and a former diamond advisor to Sierra Leone's President.
Worse, this year's exports are likely to drop about 10 percent, suggesting that bigger diamonds are being smuggled illegally, says a Western ambassador in Freetown who sits on a high-level diamond committee of diplomats and aid organizations but asked not to be identified. Director of Mines Alimany Wurie admits smuggling is widespread - perhaps as much as one-third of all Sierra Leone's diamonds.
Enforcement is nearly impossible. The frontier with Liberia, whose diamonds are banned from world trade, is just 30 miles from Koidu and riddled with old smuggling routes. Only three of the 36 border crossings into Guinea are guarded, says Hadji, and even those are left unmanned for a few days each month when border officials walk to town to collect their pay.
Yet the rampant smuggling, though illegal, does not kill. And with peace restored in West Africa, it is tempting to think of blood diamonds as little more than a dramatic movie plot. Those who have witnessed Africa's bloodletting up close say it's a mistake to relegate the issue to history, because history could repeat itself.
In any future conflict in the region, diamonds would be one of the surest ways with which to buy weapons. "Diamonds were very much the fuel for the war but not the root cause, and those root causes are still very much with us," says the Western ambassador. "Corruption, unemployment, poverty - I could well imagine another blood-diamond scenario here."
Fair trade
Faced with that stark possibility, diamond companies have begun trying to tackle the crippling poverty at the bottom of the industry, where, according to Global Witness, a British organization that has done extensive research on blood diamonds, about one million Africans earn pennies a day in the backbreaking and increasingly fruitless search for alluvial stones.
Flying low over Koidu in a twin-propeller plane shows how daunting that task is. Hundreds of men can be seen bent low in the rivers around Koidu. "They are working in absolutely horrific conditions in the hopes of striking it rich, but the majority never do," says Susie Sanders, a Global Witness researcher.
Little of the region's innate mineral wealth has filtered down to residents. "A billion dollars' worth of diamonds have come out of Sierra Leone in the last several years, and there is no electricity or water wells," says Rapaport, who toured the villages around Koidu last summer with his father, Martin, chairman of the Rapaport Group.
Shaken by the chasm between the diggers and the diamond buyers, the Rapaports are trying to start a Fair Trade association of producers along the lines of Starbucks (Charts), which buys coffee beans for a premium price from some growers, then sells them for more money to socially conscious coffee drinkers. Rapaport is predicting that the current controversy over diamonds will jolt consumers into asking retailers probing questions about the gems' origins.
If so, they are unlikely to find much information: Two years ago a survey of 40 major American retailers by Amnesty International and Global Witness found that almost none had policies in place against blood diamonds.
Rapaport believes consumers would happily pay a little extra to ensure they are buying African diamonds mined for decent wages under humane conditions. "Our idea," he says, "is that Tiffany (Charts) is going to wake up one morning and see that Cartier is selling fair-trade jewelry and say, 'Oh, my God, we need to do that.' They will change not from an ethical point of view but from greed."
In Koidu a U.S.-funded program trains diggers in how to grade and value the diamonds they find as a way of avoiding being fleeced by local traders. Last year De Beers and two activist organizations founded the Diamond Development Initiative, an international organization to train diggers in safety and economic issues, and ultimately to try to persuade many to grow crops instead. De Beers has begun a similar pilot training project in Tanzania, which it says it will replicate elsewhere in Africa if it is successful.
But for 18-year-old Sahr Amara all those projects seem abstract. His parents grow crops in a village about 20 miles from Koidu and cannot afford to buy his schoolbooks or pay his yearly tuition of 35,000 leones ($11.66). "I would like to find a diamond so I can go back to school," Amara says. "If I stay digging at this site for a long time and find nothing, maybe I will leave and try to find a job somewhere." That would leave Africa's 999,999 other diamond diggers still searching for a dream.
Yet he returns every morning to dig in the wilting heat on the edge of Koidu, a town in eastern Sierra Leone, hunting for the one thing he says could transform his life: a diamond. Since he is the oldest of six children - three others have died of diseases - much of his family's future rests on his prospects.
The prize: A seller displays two raw diamonds on the streets of Koidu in Sierra Leone.
The pits: Hundreds of miners search for diamonds at Congo Creek outside Koidu in eastern Sierra Leone, part of an army of one million Africans who earn pennies a day in the $60 billion industry.
The diamond dealer: Abdollai Koroma runs his trading business from a chair under a shade tree in a back alley of Koidu.
More video
CNN's Ali Velshi looks at the history of diamonds and it may have you thinking blood, not bling. (December 7)
Play video
"If I find a big diamond, I can afford to go to school, I can learn, and then I can help my family and even my village," he says. So far the plan has proved elusive; he has found no gems during his first week of work. "It's not easy," he says. "I think it depends on God."
Whether or not divine intervention leads Amara to a big find, his tale is anchored in a much more earthly economy: the $60-billion-a-year diamond industry, which has built its growth on dreams of love rather than of raw survival.
Koidu, whose diamonds have been mined since the 1930s, is thousands of miles away - and a galaxy removed - from the glittering displays in jewelry stores in New York, Tokyo and London. It is set in a country where the average man earns $220 a year and dies at 39. In the dwellings along Koidu's dirt tracks, residents eat dinner by candlelight not because it is romantic but because there is no electricity in town, just as there are no telephone lines and little indoor plumbing.
In short, it is hard to imagine a starker contrast between Amara's world and that of the people who might one day wear whatever diamond he finds, and they live in deep ignorance of each other. When asked what diamonds are used for, Amara draws a blank. "I only know they are valuable," he says.
Hollywood weighs in
But after 130 years of diamond mining in Africa, that ignorance is unraveling fast as the two worlds collide over the image of diamonds. The conflict, which has rocked the industry in recent years, may reach fever pitch this month with the release of the movie "Blood Diamond." Set in wartime Sierra Leone during the late 1990s, the film depicts a South African diamond smuggler, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, trying to recover a rare pink stone from a local fisherman whom rebels have forced to dig in the diamond pits.
The story line - a mixture of villainy and heroism - is classic Hollywood. But its roots are fact: In the 1990s rebels in Sierra Leone and Liberia financed their carnage from diamonds plucked out of the rivers and traded for arms. During a decade of war about 50,000 people were killed, and thousands had their hands hacked off by rebels.
Months before it opened, the movie had garnered media attention, aided by a marketing blitz by Warner Bros. (owned by Time Warner (Charts), parent of Fortune's publisher) and a $15 million counterattack by the World Diamond Council, an organization founded by more than 50 producers and dealers to end illegal diamond trading.
"We have been engaged in a massive educational campaign," says Eli Izakhoff, chairman and CEO of the council, which is heavily financed by De Beers, the company that sources about 40 percent of the world's diamonds, all of them from Africa. "This movie gives the industry a great story to tell." The council's message: More than 99 percent of diamonds are now from conflict-free sources, and millions of Africans have schooling and health care thanks to diamond revenues.
The movie is indeed a period piece: The civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia ended a few years ago. But the war over perceptions is just warming up. Many in the industry fear that as the end credits roll, moviegoers might glance down at their diamond rings and wonder under what circumstances the gems were dug. Unlike oil prospecting or coal mining - essentials for modern life - those questions could roil an industry whose lifeblood is ephemeral.
Controversy affects value
"Diamonds are essentially worth nothing," says Mordechai Rapaport, whose Rapaport Group price list is the industry standard. It's all about what they signify, he explains: In the case of a wedding ring, it's the guy, not the one-carat diamond. By that logic, he adds, "when a guy gives a woman a diamond and someone was killed for it, it is not worth anything."
Diamond producers and dealers did not need Hollywood to reach that conclusion. As war raged in the past decade, they realized that so-called blood diamonds carried a risk to their business that was far out of proportion to the tiny number of stones. Even during the bloodiest years no more than 15 percent of the world's diamonds were controlled by rebels in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The vast majority of diamonds, then and now, come from deep-level mines run by well-ordered international corporations, including Koidu Holdings, Sierra Leone's newest such operation, which opened in 2003 and exports $2.5 million in diamonds a month.
And although UN investigators recently found that rebels in the Ivory Coast had smuggled millions of dollars' worth of diamonds onto the world market through Ghana, blood diamonds account for only 0.2 percent of today's global supply.
But the industry's problem is far trickier than percentages. Consumers cannot be sure which diamonds are blood diamonds. And therein lies the potential for a boycott, especially since synthetic diamonds now look close to the real thing. "Diamonds are a luxury, so we depend completely on the consumer's faith," says Rory More O'Ferrall, director of external affairs for De Beers. "Anything that affects the integrity of that we need to address."
Tackling the problem took an unlikely alliance: Industry executives joined forces in 2003 with governments and the UN to end the trade of conflict diamonds. The resulting Kimberley Process Certification Scheme is a rare experiment by a major industry to monitor its own abuses. The 71 member countries agree to trade only among themselves. They inspect one another's facilities, then issue certificates declaring their diamonds conflict-free.
In theory, rigorous paperwork tries to trace all diamonds from mines to consumers. Transgressors are ousted: The Republic of Congo was banned in 2004, and Venezuela was threatened with suspension last month after reporting zero diamond exports for 2005.
But the system is hardly flawless, even in the U.S. In September the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that Customs and Treasury officials were only haphazardly enforcing the system, leaving companies to monitor themselves. Last year about 300,000 more carats were exported from than imported to the U.S. - which produces no commercial diamonds itself. Representatives from all 71 countries met last month in Botswana to try to tighten loopholes and squeeze out nonmembers. "There are fewer and fewer countries left that nonmembers can trade with," says Sue Saarnio, the U.S. State Department's representative to the November conference.
The underground diamond trade
A far grimmer assessment of the Kimberley Process can be found in the back alleys of Koidu. As the clammy heat eases off in the late afternoon, dozens of men converge on the neighborhood dubbed by the locals "Open Yei," Creole for "keep your eyes open," a reference to its thriving unlicensed diamond trading.
The action is the area's major entertainment, drawing a crowd of curious men and children. In a dirt clearing between the small wooden storefronts, Abdollai Koroma runs his business from a chair under a shade tree, clutching a yellow calculator and a jeweler's loupe in a weathered pouch. During just one hour eight men arrive with their wares wrapped in scraps of paper stuffed in their pockets. Koroma takes each stone and swirls it in his mouth before examining it briefly under the loupe. "This is 1.20 carats," he says after spitting out a glittering stone the size of a shirt button.
Koroma, who started trading diamonds at age 17, taps on his calculator, peels off a wad of banknotes, and makes his biggest purchase of the day: 200,000 leones, about $66. The previous day the neighborhood trade was equally brisk, as men gathered to sell diamonds to Komba Fillefaboa, a 47-year-old trader who began digging when he was 12. Fillefaboa says he buys dozens of stones on an average afternoon.
"We buy piece by piece and then gather them into a parcel to sell to dealers," he says. Once the parcel of diamonds is sold to a licensed dealer, illegally mined diamonds are easily mixed in.
Fillefaboa says he has no problem finding buyers, despite Sierra Leone's strict licensing laws, which ban illegal diamond dealing. Licenses are regarded as too costly and laws too cumbersome. "We are all illegal here," boasts the neighborhood's chief, Sahr Sam. "If the monitors come, we scatter."
Smuggling
In reality, government monitors rarely come to Open Yei. There are only 200 for the entire country, sharing ten motorcycles donated by the U.S. Agency for International Development. "At every level people say to us, 'If you harass us, we will just smuggle the diamonds,'" says Dan Joe Hadji, a senior monitoring officer in Koidu. "So we allow people to move around and hope and pray that they find religion" -by obeying the law.
Diamond producers and dealers frequently tout Sierra Leone as a Kimberley Process success story, since its official exports soared from near zero in 1999 to about $142 million last year, suggesting that smuggling has plummeted. Not necessarily so: The official statistics cannot be proved, says Jan Ketelaar, mine manager of Koidu Holdings and a former diamond advisor to Sierra Leone's President.
Worse, this year's exports are likely to drop about 10 percent, suggesting that bigger diamonds are being smuggled illegally, says a Western ambassador in Freetown who sits on a high-level diamond committee of diplomats and aid organizations but asked not to be identified. Director of Mines Alimany Wurie admits smuggling is widespread - perhaps as much as one-third of all Sierra Leone's diamonds.
Enforcement is nearly impossible. The frontier with Liberia, whose diamonds are banned from world trade, is just 30 miles from Koidu and riddled with old smuggling routes. Only three of the 36 border crossings into Guinea are guarded, says Hadji, and even those are left unmanned for a few days each month when border officials walk to town to collect their pay.
Yet the rampant smuggling, though illegal, does not kill. And with peace restored in West Africa, it is tempting to think of blood diamonds as little more than a dramatic movie plot. Those who have witnessed Africa's bloodletting up close say it's a mistake to relegate the issue to history, because history could repeat itself.
In any future conflict in the region, diamonds would be one of the surest ways with which to buy weapons. "Diamonds were very much the fuel for the war but not the root cause, and those root causes are still very much with us," says the Western ambassador. "Corruption, unemployment, poverty - I could well imagine another blood-diamond scenario here."
Fair trade
Faced with that stark possibility, diamond companies have begun trying to tackle the crippling poverty at the bottom of the industry, where, according to Global Witness, a British organization that has done extensive research on blood diamonds, about one million Africans earn pennies a day in the backbreaking and increasingly fruitless search for alluvial stones.
Flying low over Koidu in a twin-propeller plane shows how daunting that task is. Hundreds of men can be seen bent low in the rivers around Koidu. "They are working in absolutely horrific conditions in the hopes of striking it rich, but the majority never do," says Susie Sanders, a Global Witness researcher.
Little of the region's innate mineral wealth has filtered down to residents. "A billion dollars' worth of diamonds have come out of Sierra Leone in the last several years, and there is no electricity or water wells," says Rapaport, who toured the villages around Koidu last summer with his father, Martin, chairman of the Rapaport Group.
Shaken by the chasm between the diggers and the diamond buyers, the Rapaports are trying to start a Fair Trade association of producers along the lines of Starbucks (Charts), which buys coffee beans for a premium price from some growers, then sells them for more money to socially conscious coffee drinkers. Rapaport is predicting that the current controversy over diamonds will jolt consumers into asking retailers probing questions about the gems' origins.
If so, they are unlikely to find much information: Two years ago a survey of 40 major American retailers by Amnesty International and Global Witness found that almost none had policies in place against blood diamonds.
Rapaport believes consumers would happily pay a little extra to ensure they are buying African diamonds mined for decent wages under humane conditions. "Our idea," he says, "is that Tiffany (Charts) is going to wake up one morning and see that Cartier is selling fair-trade jewelry and say, 'Oh, my God, we need to do that.' They will change not from an ethical point of view but from greed."
In Koidu a U.S.-funded program trains diggers in how to grade and value the diamonds they find as a way of avoiding being fleeced by local traders. Last year De Beers and two activist organizations founded the Diamond Development Initiative, an international organization to train diggers in safety and economic issues, and ultimately to try to persuade many to grow crops instead. De Beers has begun a similar pilot training project in Tanzania, which it says it will replicate elsewhere in Africa if it is successful.
But for 18-year-old Sahr Amara all those projects seem abstract. His parents grow crops in a village about 20 miles from Koidu and cannot afford to buy his schoolbooks or pay his yearly tuition of 35,000 leones ($11.66). "I would like to find a diamond so I can go back to school," Amara says. "If I stay digging at this site for a long time and find nothing, maybe I will leave and try to find a job somewhere." That would leave Africa's 999,999 other diamond diggers still searching for a dream.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Japan love hotel business still hot despite slump
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan Leisure Hotels Ltd says its love hotels have maintained an occupancy rate of more than 250 percent despite the recession, though the financial crisis is slowing its expansion plans by making it harder to raise capital.
Guernsey-based Japan Leisure Hotels (JPLH) (JPLH.L) expects the recession to increase chances to buy more love hotels or boutique hotels from distressed sellers, said Steve Mansfield, chief executive of New Perspective, the company that manages assets held by JPLH.
Mansfield said that despite a fall in Japanese property prices that he estimated at about 40 percent from a year earlier, the company was facing difficulty drawing funds from investors amid the global financial crisis.
"Our strategies remain unchanged. We're seeking to be a consolidator in the Japanese leisure hotel market, but the facts are that we have to do that at a different speed than we had intended to do," Mansfield told Reuters in an interview.
JPLH, which is listed on the London stock exchange's AIM market for smaller companies, went public in January last year, raising about 23 million pounds ($32.63 million) through the listing, sharply below its aim to raise about 100 million pounds.
The subprime mortgage crisis has impacted its ability to raise capital, Mansfield said.
JPLH currently has 242 rooms in six hotels in Japan, all outside the Tokyo area.
It was originally planning to increase the number of hotel rooms to 1,200 by the end of 2009 and 3,000-3,500 rooms by 2012 if it had managed to raise 100 million pounds through the IPO,
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Glassman Glass Engraving Machine
GM-BKH-II is a CNC working station with high technology, which is very professional to do engraving on flat glass. It is able to transfer the CAD drawing directly, and create the optimized tool route automatically and process perfectly; Adopting international advanced numerical control system, Swiss NUM, achieves dynamic management of each axis and precise speed control. CNC engraving machine is a special machine for glass engraving, the spindle and the body of the machine are designed to fit the engraving function! According to the high frequency usage of C-axis, Glassman made the relative treatment on the structure and material. Glassman has solved the function on precise tool feeding! With interaction of the PC and System, the processed coner and lines are of high precision and beauty. Flexibility of the control system can fulfill the requirement of different products, the whole processing would finished automatically. Perfect combination of Numerical control and PC system, realized the automatic management of the factory. It is suitable to mass production.GM-BKH-II is very professional to process the decorative glass, furniture glass, artical glass etc.GM-BKH-II is an open top machine, which is very convenient to load and unload the glass. The bridge is jointing structure steel. X-axis is installed on the bridge. X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis are three linear axis which are driven by ball screw and slide way; C-axis is a rotating axis.Y and Y1 axis are synchronous axises, both are installed servo-motors, ball screw and slid way! Advantage of this structure: Structure is extremely rigid. With high accelerations, the maximum speed can reach 27m/min. Achieve the high processing speed and high quality. With low abrasion, the machine maintains high quality after using many years.Its working table is made of rust-proof metal, and the surface is covered with the imported rubber. Such special working table is designed by the experienced engineer, the shape of the working table would be fixed after long-time usage.As the main part of the machine, the electro-spindle of CNC Engraving Machine have the following specialty:The water line, air line and electricity line of the spindle motor are specially treated by Glassman experienced engineer. The reasonable layout made the spindle system used well. Max. constant torque output is 25nm, the output power is 3.8KW.The numerical Center integrates the professional numerical system and WINDOWS operation platform, and it made the human-computer interaction much easier.The main features of the system:- When the machine is working, the operator can edit program on the PC at the same time.- Simple and ease interface;- Equipped with CD-COM Drive and USB drive, the machine is able to store and transfer data conveniently.- Equipped with the keyboard and mouse.- PC is able to connect with Internet.- Connect MODERM to realize remote assistant.Glassman always pay attention to the software system. Software team is founded to concentrate to develop the human-computer interaction system.Super CAM drawing application software can run on WINDOWS XP and more updated operation platform. The software is easy to study and usage. The functions made it convenient to transmit the drawing and create the working program.Irregular shape can be made by CAD software, and it also can be transmitted by other drawings created by CAD system (such as DXF file of AUtoCAD).The electric system is installed according to CE standard, the power supply cabinet is separated with the machine. Connector of the electric parts are water-proof. The electric cabinet is fun cooling, servo motor is without carbon brush!Standard Voltage is 380V/50HZ, and it can be changed according to different requirement.
Friday, October 09, 2009
Article in Asia-Pacific II 2009
About author:
Tan Choon Seng is the Vice President for Applications and Software Sales for Avaya in Asia-Pacific. Prior to this, Mr Seng was the Regional Director for Avaya ASEAN where he was responsible for their Unified Communications and Contact Center applications sales. Mr Seng spent the last 20 years of his career in the IT and CRM/Call Center industry working with a broad spectrum of clients.
Article abstract:
Mobile corporate communications boost employee productivity outside the confines of the office. By connecting staff, customers and management, they help companies service their customers better. Corporate mobility solutions offer multi-modal access to the tools and applications businesses rely on to be productive - regardless of where their employees are located or what device they have at hand. Corporate mobility solutions include five essential components: calling and conferencing management; one-number accessibility; messaging management; contact and information management; and personal efficiency management.
Article:
In today’s economic climate, organisations are challenged to produce more with fewer resources. Productivity needs to be managed so customers receive a level and quality of service that not only meets, but exceeds expectations. Now, more than ever, it is crucial that not only field resources be productive and utilised at all times, but that customers have the ability to contact businesses when and how they want to. When putting in place technologies and policies to streamline processes and reduce costs, companies need to ensure they take the necessary steps to maintain the delicate balance between maximising efficiency and delivering top quality service.One possible solution to this challenge is mobility. Mobility solutions connect staff, customers and management in the most effective ways. Mobile technologies can also help businesses of all sizes realise competitive advantage by enabling employees to be productive outside the confines of the office, and increasing the efficiency of business communications, which in turn allows companies to deliver better levels of service to their customers. What is mobility?Mobility can mean different things to different people. For some, mobility is defined as phone or email access while on the road. For others, mobility is the breakdown of the physical constraints of the workplace so that business, in all its complexity, can happen anywhere, anytime. For the sake of this piece, I will focus on the application of mobility as an enhancer of business communications, whether in - or outside - the confines of the traditional office.The mobility challengeMobility can be defined as providing universal, multi-modal access to the tools and applications businesses rely on to be productive - regardless of where they are located or what device they have access to at the time. Enterprises today face the challenge of balancing efficient integration of office communications with a variety of devices without jeopardizing manageability, security, or control. Flexibility, speed and better customer contact translate into better service and more importantly better relationships with customers, a vital step in protecting the customer base. From a technical perspective, effective mobility is comprised of five essential building blocks: calling and conferencing management; one-number accessibility; messaging management; contact and information management and personal efficiency management. Each of these features delivers a critical benefit to the business and the customer. The first element - calling and conferencing management - is the ability to launch or initiate conferences from any phone in any location. Business today often requires a variety of participants calling from different locations, so having the ability to conduct conference calls from anywhere gives businesses the opportunity to close deals while in transit. In addition, effective conferencing can save money by replacing the need to travel. Calling and conference management is one layer, but having one-number accessibility is crucial. One-number accessibility allows the redirection of any incoming call to a mobile phone, laptop, or PDA, making it possible to reach on-the-move employees by using only their direct office number. By eliminating the need for multiple access numbers, communication is streamlined and time spent doing business rather than trying to locate someone. In fact, in the Asia Pacific Mobility and UC Survey 2008, conducted by IDC, the Asia Pacific managers considered being ‘always reachable’ as the most important benefit of mobile technologies. The great majority of respondents saw ‘always reachable’ as the most important benefit, while managers perceived satisfying customers as the most important benefit of mobile technologies in 2005. The survey also revealed that managers perceived mobile technologies as not just relevant for managers that deal with customers, but also for employees at large. They saw the value of being responsive towards both customers and co-workers.While accessibility is an important feature, effective management is the spark that really makes mobility useful. Management involves three components: messaging; content and information; and personal efficiency. In terms of accessibility, messaging management brings about universal access to any and all messages, so that voice, email or fax messages can be viewed from a PC, phone, or other wireless device and managed from any location. Message management provides a common platform, so information is quickly and efficiently delivered to its intended users, regardless of what form it is initially received in. Contact and information management also plays a key role by enabling users to connect to company directories and databases from any location, improving collaboration and problem solving in real-time, without the need to be in the office. Being easily reachable is useful, but enabling users to access entire corporate networks while on-the-go takes business productivity to another level. Finally, personal efficiency management plays a part by allowing users to manage appointments and tasks through rules-based controls that distinguish between urgent requests and routine interactions, thus maximising efficiency. This helps users make the most of their time by focusing on important activities first. In the same IDC survey in 2008, 81 per cent out of 626 respondents indicated ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ when asked if mobility improves productivity, compared to only 61 per cent in 2005. The biggest increase in positive attitude towards mobility as a means of improving productivity was registered in Hong Kong (80 per cent), Australia (80 per cent) and India (70 per cent).Management is an important component of making mobile working useful, so it is no surprise that customers who have deployed enterprise mobility cite this as the strongest benefit. Effective manageability ends the dependence on consumer-oriented wireless network features, so work can truly happen anywhere, anytime. In addition, it lets companies choose the path that is most appropriate for them to deploy enterprise mobility, minimizing technical disruption and preserving existing investments in wiring and phones. Facing the mobility challenge The many mobile technologies available today offer great value, but can fall short of expectations if not managed in a strategic manner. Enterprise-class mobility solutions need to be simple to use and administer, as well as have consistent user capabilities and experience across all modes of work and devices. In addition, devices must be integrated with other devices, networks and systems, as well as into enterprise processes and business operations. Business does not happen in isolation, so users must not only be accessible, but connected to each other as well. More importantly, solutions need to be consistently reliable - halfway attempts erode benefits and compromise the usefulness of mobility. Mobility is at its most effective if it is invisible and ease of management and holistic accessibility are the keys to making this happen. Mobility sets companies apart in the business world. Making staff truly mobile is an excellent way for an organisation to deliver efficient office communications by offering increased flexibility. Through the careful combination of accessibility and management features, mobility can break down walls and extend business into the world outside the traditional office.
Tan Choon Seng is the Vice President for Applications and Software Sales for Avaya in Asia-Pacific. Prior to this, Mr Seng was the Regional Director for Avaya ASEAN where he was responsible for their Unified Communications and Contact Center applications sales. Mr Seng spent the last 20 years of his career in the IT and CRM/Call Center industry working with a broad spectrum of clients.
Article abstract:
Mobile corporate communications boost employee productivity outside the confines of the office. By connecting staff, customers and management, they help companies service their customers better. Corporate mobility solutions offer multi-modal access to the tools and applications businesses rely on to be productive - regardless of where their employees are located or what device they have at hand. Corporate mobility solutions include five essential components: calling and conferencing management; one-number accessibility; messaging management; contact and information management; and personal efficiency management.
Article:
In today’s economic climate, organisations are challenged to produce more with fewer resources. Productivity needs to be managed so customers receive a level and quality of service that not only meets, but exceeds expectations. Now, more than ever, it is crucial that not only field resources be productive and utilised at all times, but that customers have the ability to contact businesses when and how they want to. When putting in place technologies and policies to streamline processes and reduce costs, companies need to ensure they take the necessary steps to maintain the delicate balance between maximising efficiency and delivering top quality service.One possible solution to this challenge is mobility. Mobility solutions connect staff, customers and management in the most effective ways. Mobile technologies can also help businesses of all sizes realise competitive advantage by enabling employees to be productive outside the confines of the office, and increasing the efficiency of business communications, which in turn allows companies to deliver better levels of service to their customers. What is mobility?Mobility can mean different things to different people. For some, mobility is defined as phone or email access while on the road. For others, mobility is the breakdown of the physical constraints of the workplace so that business, in all its complexity, can happen anywhere, anytime. For the sake of this piece, I will focus on the application of mobility as an enhancer of business communications, whether in - or outside - the confines of the traditional office.The mobility challengeMobility can be defined as providing universal, multi-modal access to the tools and applications businesses rely on to be productive - regardless of where they are located or what device they have access to at the time. Enterprises today face the challenge of balancing efficient integration of office communications with a variety of devices without jeopardizing manageability, security, or control. Flexibility, speed and better customer contact translate into better service and more importantly better relationships with customers, a vital step in protecting the customer base. From a technical perspective, effective mobility is comprised of five essential building blocks: calling and conferencing management; one-number accessibility; messaging management; contact and information management and personal efficiency management. Each of these features delivers a critical benefit to the business and the customer. The first element - calling and conferencing management - is the ability to launch or initiate conferences from any phone in any location. Business today often requires a variety of participants calling from different locations, so having the ability to conduct conference calls from anywhere gives businesses the opportunity to close deals while in transit. In addition, effective conferencing can save money by replacing the need to travel. Calling and conference management is one layer, but having one-number accessibility is crucial. One-number accessibility allows the redirection of any incoming call to a mobile phone, laptop, or PDA, making it possible to reach on-the-move employees by using only their direct office number. By eliminating the need for multiple access numbers, communication is streamlined and time spent doing business rather than trying to locate someone. In fact, in the Asia Pacific Mobility and UC Survey 2008, conducted by IDC, the Asia Pacific managers considered being ‘always reachable’ as the most important benefit of mobile technologies. The great majority of respondents saw ‘always reachable’ as the most important benefit, while managers perceived satisfying customers as the most important benefit of mobile technologies in 2005. The survey also revealed that managers perceived mobile technologies as not just relevant for managers that deal with customers, but also for employees at large. They saw the value of being responsive towards both customers and co-workers.While accessibility is an important feature, effective management is the spark that really makes mobility useful. Management involves three components: messaging; content and information; and personal efficiency. In terms of accessibility, messaging management brings about universal access to any and all messages, so that voice, email or fax messages can be viewed from a PC, phone, or other wireless device and managed from any location. Message management provides a common platform, so information is quickly and efficiently delivered to its intended users, regardless of what form it is initially received in. Contact and information management also plays a key role by enabling users to connect to company directories and databases from any location, improving collaboration and problem solving in real-time, without the need to be in the office. Being easily reachable is useful, but enabling users to access entire corporate networks while on-the-go takes business productivity to another level. Finally, personal efficiency management plays a part by allowing users to manage appointments and tasks through rules-based controls that distinguish between urgent requests and routine interactions, thus maximising efficiency. This helps users make the most of their time by focusing on important activities first. In the same IDC survey in 2008, 81 per cent out of 626 respondents indicated ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ when asked if mobility improves productivity, compared to only 61 per cent in 2005. The biggest increase in positive attitude towards mobility as a means of improving productivity was registered in Hong Kong (80 per cent), Australia (80 per cent) and India (70 per cent).Management is an important component of making mobile working useful, so it is no surprise that customers who have deployed enterprise mobility cite this as the strongest benefit. Effective manageability ends the dependence on consumer-oriented wireless network features, so work can truly happen anywhere, anytime. In addition, it lets companies choose the path that is most appropriate for them to deploy enterprise mobility, minimizing technical disruption and preserving existing investments in wiring and phones. Facing the mobility challenge The many mobile technologies available today offer great value, but can fall short of expectations if not managed in a strategic manner. Enterprise-class mobility solutions need to be simple to use and administer, as well as have consistent user capabilities and experience across all modes of work and devices. In addition, devices must be integrated with other devices, networks and systems, as well as into enterprise processes and business operations. Business does not happen in isolation, so users must not only be accessible, but connected to each other as well. More importantly, solutions need to be consistently reliable - halfway attempts erode benefits and compromise the usefulness of mobility. Mobility is at its most effective if it is invisible and ease of management and holistic accessibility are the keys to making this happen. Mobility sets companies apart in the business world. Making staff truly mobile is an excellent way for an organisation to deliver efficient office communications by offering increased flexibility. Through the careful combination of accessibility and management features, mobility can break down walls and extend business into the world outside the traditional office.
Vibrant Mobile Business Marketplace on Display at International CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2009®
At this year’s International CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2009 ® more than 15,000 exhibitors are discussing the future of mobile business – from wireless health and wellness applications, to smart transportation and energy, to mobile marketing and entertainment applications. Discussions on the show floor, in educational sessions and on the keynote stage focused on the power of mobile data and
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the effect of the mobile internet on business. The show runs through Friday, October 9 at the San Diego Convention Center.On the keynote stage this morning, Qualcomm Co-founder Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs and Chairman and CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs sat down with CTIA- The Wireless Association President and CEO Steve Largent to discuss past, present and future perspectives on the industry and what it will take to achieve wireless ubiquity. John Donovan, CTO at AT&T, discussed wireless broadband usage rates and the carrier’s continued efforts to meet increasing levels of demand.“Mobile data usage rates continue to rise at an amazing rate, and enterprise demand for applications that leverage mobile technology to make companies smarter, faster, and better is only growing,” said Robert Mesirow, CTIA vice president and show director. “At the same time, increasing use of mobile technology in a business context is translating into even more exciting new devices, applications and features for the consumer. This year’s show is all about mobile business and applications – and the ways we are interacting, living, and working.”This year’s show featured announcements from a variety of players in the mobile ecosystem. From new devices – like Samsung’s Android-powered smart phone, the Samsung Moment for Sprint, Kyocera’s Android offering and the FLO TV Personal Television – to a series of new mobile games offered to Verizon subscribers, the launch of the Shazam music recognition service for Windows Mobile phones and a GPS service launch from Virgin Mobile.Fund FestOn October 9, the keynote stage will feature CTIA Fund Fest. CTIA, in partnership with MobiTechFest, invited budding entrepreneurs and start-ups to submit executive summaries and investor pitches for innovative mobile products and services that spanned several entry categories. A review committee comprised of partners from top venture capitalist firms evaluated the applications and selected five finalists who will present their business plans on the keynote stage.Follow CTIA Show on Twitter ( twitter.com/CTIAShow : ), Facebook ( http://worldbusinesh.blogspot.com : ) and LinkedIn ( http://worldbusinesh.blogspot.com : )About International CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2009 ® International CTIA WIRELESS IT&E is CTIA’s fall show focused on mobile business. This event brings together a unique community of enterprise users, carriers, developers and manufacturers to generate dialogue, share ideas and debate the economics of wireless innovation. Visit http://worldbusinesh.blogspot.com : .CTIA-The Wireless Association ® is the international association for the wireless telecommunications industry, representing carriers, manufacturers and wireless Internet providers. CTIA is also recognized as the producer of two annual technology events.International CTIA WIRELESS 2010 takes place in Las Vegas, March 23-25; International CTIA WIRELESS IT&E 2010 takes place in San Francisco, October 6-8. For more association information, visit http://worldbusinesh.blogspot.com : . http://worldbusinesh.blogspot.com
Buy Auto Insurance: an expository background of Buy Auto Insurance Companies
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In truth car straight from businesses owned Socratic by minority communities, or drives minority-run fonk businesses sub-contract interlink by using Liberty-Mutual mattress primary vendors, all of xterra us succeed uote .The Liberty lee Mutual Vendor azusa Diversity Program encourages this tanner Automobiles Ins commitment with packagings 3 goals:• Single out competent leveatt minority-run business sleepy enterprises,• Give hawaiian opportunities to contend gates for the company Pythagoreans ’s corporate purchases operateauto ,• Facilitate the rouge growth and kissimmee expansion of alley minority run prayers enterprises Liberty-Mutual commercial lexington base envelop botkins broad array illinois27 of countries mclean , introducing different insurance amanda covers, from oakdale private motor pompadour car to satellite short online vehicle insure. 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