Con el tiempo o por el manejor de archivos, nuestra computadora va perdiendo poco a poco su eficiencia.

En mantenimiento puede que no sea de utilida, pero si lo recomiendo para saber el estado de nuestro disco duro.

India’s rapidly expanding telecommunication sector has been hit by a raging price war. India is the world’s second largest wireless communications market after China…. From VOA. Full story

This site may contain information about: china cities. For a different topic see watches. The blog is also related to: shanghai china.

Aquí les presentamos los boletines: “Viva Voz del Sector”, de los meses de agosto a noviembre.

¡saludos cordiales!

Dar clic para descargar:

BOLETIN-AGOSTO09

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BOLETINOCT-09

BOLETIN-NOVIEMBRE

Over the past two weeks five members of Radio Dialogue in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe have been interning at Bush Radio’s studios.

This training is a continuation Bush Radio and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung’s (FES) attempt to assist in the development of the community radio sector in Southern Africa.

Rosie Chauke and Thandazani Nkomo checking the local papers

The visit comes after we conducted station based training in Bulawayo. (see story here) The five interns have been placed in different departments in order to enhance the skills they already have.

Radio Dialogue is a community radio station which aims to give people of Bulawayo a voice. At the moment it does not have a broadcasting licence but has managed to engage the people of Bulawayo in its activities.

Bush Radio's Denisia Adams with Radio Dialogue's Munya Gova in studio

The radio station is in touch with the community through recorded broadcasts, road shows and focus group meetings which all aim to give people a platform to air their views on issues affecting them.

Rosie Chauke, a youth coordinator from Radio Dialogue says her duties include working on various projects. “We have activities such as debate camps, drama competitions, talk shows and public speaking competitions for those youth that are still at school,” said Chauke.

Sakhisizwe's Busisiwe Mtabane (front) with Sanele Njini from Bulawayo

Chauke, who was based in the Bush Radio Newsroom, says through this training she expecting to get a better feel for broadcasting.

“It has been my greatest wish to do this and now I have finally got a chance to do this and I’m so excited, though at first I had cold feet and was very nervous,” added Chauke.

She concluded that being in the newsroom is an experience, because at their station she only read the news, whereas at Bush Radio she got to do compiling and conduct interviews.

Emmanuel Nkomo from Radio Dialogue selecting music with the help of Victor J

Thandazani Nkomo who is also based in the Bush Radio Newsroom added; “It’s been a nice experience for me being at Bush Radio. We had an opportunity of going on air. It is a dream we hope to realise in Zimbabwe soon.”

Bush Radio will be conducting follow-up training again in Zimbabwe to see the progress of the interns and to see what they have implemented from their stay at our little station.

Emmanuel (centre) hosted a staff development session on drumming

*The Radio Dialogue interns can be heard on Bush Radio 89.5 FM or online between 09h00 – 16h00 and will conduct a special on-air programme on Friday the 27 November between 14h00 – 16h00.

NEW YORK ?The insurance industry was the second most fraud-prone industry sector behind communications according to a global economic crime survey released yesterday by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In a massive wide-ranging report based on information from 3,037 respondents, the consulting firm also found that companies in their efforts to head off crime have more than tripled their use of fraud risk management.

At a news conference reporting their findings, PwC executives said they were surprised to find that on a global basis fraud against companies had not increased for those in financially weakened condition. In the United States, however, companies with economic difficulties were found to be more subject to fraud.

Among more than 16 listed industry sectors, 46 percent of communications firms reported an impact from fraud followed by 45 percent of those in the insurance sector, 44 percent in financial services, 42 percent in hospitality and leisure and 38 percent in transportation and logistics.

The numbers represented a slight decrease for the insurance sector, which in 2007 was in first place with a 46 percent fraud level. Sixty-five percent of the fraud against insurers was reported to be perpetrated externally.

PwC?s report said the most heavily fraud-impacted industries were targeted because of their type of product or service. It said these same industries have more robust and proactive anti-fraud measures, so they both suffer and detect more fraud than other sectors.

Due to the nature of their business, ?insurance and financial services have reported consistently high levels of fraud over the last 10 years,? the report noted.

PwC?s 2009 survey also showed financial services as the sector with the largest increase in fraud with 56 percent of respondents reporting an increase in incidents in the past 12 months.

When firms in the survey listed their fraud detection methods, use of an internal audit remained in first place at 17 percent. Seeing a major increase into third place was fraud risk management, with 14 percent of firms listing that as a detection method, up from 4 percent in a 2007 survey.

Steven L. Skalak, PwC partner in forensic services, said more firms now have a fraud risk management group and he noted ?companies that look for fraud are more likely to find it.?

He added that more companies are adopting a risk assessment approach and there is a group in the financial arena that do it on a monthly basis. More businesses practicing risk assessment ?do it more frequently and they are doing it more wisely.?

Almost two-thirds of those firms that sustained economic crime in the last 12 months believed that the opportunities to commit fraud have increased with reduced resources deployed in internal controls, PwC reported.

Asked about the type of fraud they were experiencing, 67 percent of respondents mentioned asset misappropriation, such as inventory theft, 38 percent mentioned accounting fraud and 27 percent bribery and corruption.

Accounting fraud while less frequent is far more expensive to companies, said Mr. Skalak and Sandra Maria Parrado, a PwC director, said there is also the collateral damage from stockholder suits that can result.

Settlements of such actions amounted to $3.6 billion last year and 90 percent were related to accounting fraud, she said.

The PwC studies found that there has been an increasing number of cases being brought against companies for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act with bigger fines and individual prosecutions.

Bribing of foreign officials used to be a low level issue for companies, ?it?s now an issue at the board level,? said Manny Alas, PwC advisory partner.

John Donker, leader of PwC?s Asian Forensic Services, noted that respondents in the survey are often less than forthcoming and ?the numbers typically understate the problem? and for every crime that is uncovered ?there?s one that hasn?t been discovered.?

© Copyright 2009 National Underwriter Property & Casualty. A Summit Business Media publication. All Rights Reserved.

The Sky Isn’t Falling, But the Regulators are ComingConsumers Missing Out on Discounts

I came across a blog that was about a topic of endless controversy: American Health Care.  The long and short of it seems to be this:

1. Folks who want socialized health care want equal health care options for everyone (struggle for a Utopian society).
2. Folks who want privatized health care want the best health system possible for as many people as possible (short wait times, freedom to see whomever you want, etc).

To me, this boils down to the classic Churchill quote – “Show me a young Conservative and I’ll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I’ll show you someone with no brains.”  A Utopia (like perfection) is impossible.  People who want socialized medicine do have their heart in the right place but unfortunately their brains are not.

For me, the bottom line is this:  Only about 13% of Americans are without health care – TOPS.  Within that 13% there are people who CHOOSE not to have it, but could if they wanted to.  A friend of mine for example does not justify the $160 a month for health care, but does justify about that amount of money for their iPhone…

That means that 87% have health care.  Folks on the left think that socialized medicine is better because it will serve ‘everyone.’  They do however admit that it will be a step down from what the private sector is currently able to provide (wait times, treatments, types of medicine, etc).

In other words, the left is willing to (at least partially) destroy health care for 87% of Americans to attempt to get it for 13% of Americans – some of whom have decided not to have it in the first place (remember my old roommate).

Let’s cut it up a different way.  According to an article written by Steve Bierfeldt, after you subtract illegal aliens and people who could afford health care if they made responsible life choices, the amount of people who can’t get health care is down to 2.6%.  That means the left would want to destroy a health care system that works for 97.4% of legal Americans to try and help a 2.6% who don’t have it.

This argument boils down to responsibility.  It is irresponsible for a government to destry what works for the overwhelming majority of Americans.  The obvious answer is to find a way to help the 2.6%-13% of unisured citizens find private health care so that they can enjoy the benefits that 97.4%-87% who do have organized, working, and in fact luxurious health care.

The current proposals for reform are cloaked as big changes, but as it turns out, they are actually more of the same. They can be summed up in this way: turn more control over to the government and insurance companies while politicians and special interests jockey for credit and work behind the scenes to benefit — at the expense of individual Americans. – David McKalip, M.D.

In closing, let me put it like this.  Think of the Post Office… then FedEx Kinkos or UPS.  Now think of the DMV… then AAA.  Do you really want your health care run like the DMV or the Post office?  No thank you.

-First Response
(for more information, please read this: http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=33 and this: http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=45)

 While the effects of the recession are still in full force for the Ottawa IT market, some of Ottawa’s private sector companies are continuing to grow while others are still downsizing.  Ottawa’s unique blend of public and private sector IT business has helped mask the true effects that the recession has had on the city.  The large Government presence in Ottawa has continued to push forward with new IT projects but it has also begun to cut the budgets on some existing projects.  This has caused many IT consultants who were supporting projects to be back on the market looking for new contracts.

Labour market conditions in Ottawa have been fluctuating recently due to outside factors changing the shape of IT contracting and the vision of IT projects.  Many of our clients continue to push for contracting rate reductions as they look to get more production for less money these days.  The swine flu craze has caused the Government to throw more money at this issue which has forced them to create new projects and initiatives in the on-going effort to combat this issue.  We are continuing to experience growing pains with Government procurement methods as the push for full TBIPS compliance by all Government departments changes the landscape of procurement into the Government. 

Over the last few months we have seen increased levels of IT positions as Government employees returned from summer vacations and started getting their Q3/Q4 projects underway.  Over the last few weeks we have seen many departments looking to hire consultants prior to the Christmas break in an effort to staff their projects and hit the ground running as we enter 2010.

The Procom Ottawa office is really looking forward to sinking its teeth into the public sector once 2010 rolls around as many Government departs will look to spend their remaining budgets prior to their fiscal year end.  As we have seen many projects begin prior to the holidays we expect to see many supporting roles emerge following the holidays as our clients look for the go-to resources they are going to need to make these projects take flight.

Scriam intr-un articol recent ca atunci cand esti mic te bati cu cei mici, cand esti mare te bati cu cei mari. Dar indiferent de dimensiune vrei sa fii si mai mare. Astazi vorbim despre cei mari care sunt in top, aproape de neatins, care au o reputatie solida si piete de desfacere mature, adica venituri plafonate. Ce este de facut? Caci actionarii vor mai multi bani. Raspunsul este extindere. Iar variantele sunt doua: pe verticala sau pe orizontala.

In primul caz se cumpara ori furnizorul, ori distribuitorul. Asa incat banii care ar fi ramas partenerului din aval sau din amonte ca profit sa apara acum in conturile companiei care cumpara. Practic elimina un intermediar prin inghitirea lui.

In al doilea caz extinderea se face prin patrunderea in zone geografice noi sau in alte industrii, de regula complementare. Cruciala pentru succesul afacerii in noua zona sau industrie este reputatia firmei pentru ca odata ce cumparatorii au incredere in companie si produsele ei, dezvoltarea devine mai facila.

Un astfel de exemplu este Dell care tocmai a achizitionat Perot Systems, firma care in Romania este cunoscuta mai mult datorita car-kit-urilor sale. Perot este insa in multe tari un furnizor general acceptat in industria medicala si in zonele guvernamentale iar trecerea lui in portofoliul Dell da acestuia din urma o bula mare de oxigen in ceea ce priveste vanzarile catre sectorul public unde vanzarile de echipamente IT ale lui Dell sunt aproape blocate. La randul lor produsele Perot vor beneficia de reputatia Dell si probabil vor cunoaste o crestere a cotei de piata iar in final banii, profitul si market-share-ul raman la Dell.

AUSTRALIA’S listed property trusts are sitting on $17 billion worth of cash and undrawn facilities after the rash of capital raisings and assets sales over the last 18 months…. From The Australian. Full story

This site may contain information about: shopping locations. The blog is also related to: shopping web sites.

BUY JINDALSAW @ 820 AROUND TG 870

MORE CALLS WWW.ZERA.TK

Idea de Tolo y chivatazo de Ramonico

Casi a diario cogemos el coche y nos desplazamos por las carreteras y autovías que conforman una gran tela de araña viaria a nuestro alrededor. Sabemos que para ir de Tarragona a Barcelona cogemos la AP7, sabemos que podemos recorrer el Mediterraneo español por la N-340 y que podemos subir a Andorra a esquiar por la C-14. Pero una de las curiosidades que nunca me había preguntado es, ¿por qué se denominan así?

Buscando un poco en la nueva Larousse internetizada encuentro la nomenclatura en lo que se refiere a carreteras nacionales (o generales como dicen mis abuelos).

La regla por la que se rige es un poco antigua, viene del Plan Peña (cuarto Plan General de Carreteras) y data de 1939-1941. Se le dice plan Peña porque en aquél entonces era el ministro de turno.

La primera cifra es el sector entre carreteras nacionales radiales donde nacen. Tomando el sentido de las agujas del reloj la cifra nos  indica la carretera radial.

La segunda cifra nos dice la distancia (en km)  a la que se encuentra el origen de la carretera respecto Madrid, dividido por 100.

La tercera cifra nos indica el número de orden de la carretera, teniendo en cuenta que si es par es una nacional transversal (no tiene dirección hacia Madrid) y si es impar es una nacional radial (sí tiene dirección hacia Madrid).

A modo de ejemplo la N-340 que nace en Cádiz. Como nace entre la N-III y la N-IV, la primera cifra es un 3. Al estar entre 400 y 499 km de Madrid, la segunda cifra es un 4.  Y como es la primera carretera la tercera cifra es un 0, y par porque no tiene dirección hacia Madrid.

Para el caso de la red de carreteras autonómicas (red de primer nivel)éstas son competencia de las comunidades autónomas. El color que las identifica es el naranja o azul (si es autovía). Las letras que las identifican viene de la comunidad autónoma a la que pertenece, y los números pueden ser de 2 o 3 dígitos que identifican el orden que tiene la carretera respecto a la red principal.

La codificación de las carreteras provinciales (red de segundo nivel) es similar al de las autonómicas. La letra identifica a la provincia y los colores pueden ser o verde o marrón.

Para las carreteras locales (red de tercer nivel) el color que las identifica es el amarillo y la letra puede denotar la provincia o el pueblo a la que pertenece. La numeración es la misma que en el caso de las provinciales.

La codificación en Cataluña

En Cataluña se codificaban las carreteras según el Plan Peña. Este sistema de codificación estuvo activo hasta el 2001, fecha en la que se adoptó un nuevo sistema de numeración.

En él las letras de tipo de carretera eran: N para nacionales, la inicial de la provincia para las provinciales y C para las comarcales.

El primer dígito era para el sector. La N-II divide Cataluña en dos sectores.  El sector 1 sería entre la N-II y el norte y el sector 2 sería entre la N-II y la costa.

El segundo dígito era para la distancia con Madrid del origen de la carretera, según he explicado anteriormente (p.e.: 2, entre 100 y 200km)

Y el tercer dígito para la dirección de la carretera según su posición con Madrid: par si es periférica (no pasa por Madrid), impar si es radial (pasa por Madrid).

A modo de ejemplo la C-250: C por tratarse de una comarcal, 2 , va desde la N-II hasta la costa,  5 porque se encuentra entre 400 y 500 km de Madrid; y 0 porque es periférica a Madrid.

La nueva codificación es un sistema más sencillo basado en la geografía catalana y que pretende que sea un método de guía.  Usa la letra C de Cataluña para las carreteras que son competencia de la Generalitat, y 2 dígitos.

El primero clasifica las carreteras ségún cual sea su dirección dominante y su situación: 1 sur-norte, 2 oeste-este, 3 sureste-noreste (perpendicular a la costa), 4 sureste-noreste (paralelas a la costa).

El segundo nos dice el número de orden sobre el territorio. Se cuenta según el sentido de las direcciones establecidas dando la posibilidad de añadir nuevas carreteras.

A modo de ejemplo la C-14: C por tratarse de una comarcal, 1 porque va de sur a norte, 4 porque es la cuarta que va en esa dirección.

Fuente | Red de Carreteras de España

Consiste en identificar y analizar los rasgos más característicos del mismo. Para ello seguiremos varios pasos:

1. Para ello, en primer lugar, se debe determinar claramente a qué se va a dedicar la empresa. En la mayor parte de los casos, no bastará con clarificar y limitar la actividad concreta, sino que se tendrán que concretar los distintos escalones económicos en los que va a operar y, por tanto, a competir la empresa:

• sector económico,
• subsector,
• rama de actividad y
• actividad concreta.

Por ejemplo, si se quisiera abrir una carnicería se debe conocer que pertenece al sector comercial, al subsector de comercio minorista, a la rama de comercio minorista de productos perecederos y, por último, a la actividad de venta de productos cárnicos o carnicería.

2. El grado de complejidad de la empresa indicará en qué nivel o niveles de éstos se tendrá que centrar el análisis de mercado. Así, en actividades muy complejas, además del mercado de la actividad concreta, habrá que analizar la rama de actividad, el subsector de actividad e incluso el sector. Por ejemplo, si se quisiera fabricar botellas de cristal, el estudio del mercado no será solo de la actividad de fabricación y venta de botellas de cristal, sino que será necesario analizar el subsector de fabricación y venta de envases, dado que también competimos con los envases fabricados en otros materiales (cartón, plástico, etc.).

3. Igualmente, antes de pasar a analizar los rasgos del mercado, se debe fijar previamente el ámbito geográfico del análisis, es decir, no es lo mismo tomar como referencia para el análisis de un sector toda Europa o una comarca de Madrid; ésto dependerá de dónde queramos vender nuestros productos o servicios.

No obstante, aunque la empresa tenga un área de influencia localizada (Ej. un comercio textil situado en un municipio de menos de 50.000 habitantes) será necesario, además de estudiar con detalle el mercado local del negocio de que se trate, disponer de algún conocimiento del comportamiento de este tipo de empresas en el país o al menos en la Comunidad Autónoma.

Fuente: IMADE

Report says more than 60 percent of farm workers reported they were tortured and forced to leave farms that were their homes during Mugabe land-reform seizures since 2000… From VOA. Full story

This site may contain information about: farm. The blog is also related to: farm.

NEW YORK (AP) — A William Blair analyst lowered his rating on three higher-education providers, saying investors won’t likely see any big increases in their share prices.

In a note to investors Wednesday, analyst Brandon Dobell said ITT Educational Services’ tuition costs could “act as a lightning rod” for politicians or regulators, while limiting the school’s ability to raise tuition prices. Meanwhile, default rates on student loans are high and an internal financing program for students is weighing on free cash flow, he said.

Sector Snap: Banks rise after sector upgrade (AP)Stocks appear headed to sharply higher opening

The Labour Government set an impossible target to reduce child poverty and then it damaged the economy so badly by its excessive spending, enormous debt creation and crippling burden of bureaucracy on business that it made every one of us poorer than we should be.

David Cameron is quite right in saying that there needs to be smaller government and that individuals and voluntary organisations should be encouraged to take more responsibility improving their own life opportunities and assisting people close to them when they face difficult times. Our interfering state has made it increasingly difficult for people to help out with child care, volunteer in a youth group or do any kind of constructive community activity. The bureaucratic systems set up by local government and some of the huge charities have no ability to build genuine relationships with the people they are supposed to serve. Although usually well intentioned to begin with, they become self serving empires for their managers and the staff get reduced to box ticking target hunters rather than genuine carers.

The problem with the Tories is that they have not put forward any concrete proposals to show how they would cut the interfering state and we know that in government they will be hard to distinguish from the appalling Labour government they hope to replace.

The welfare dependency that has been built up over decades, including such deceptions as the incapacity system introduced by Thatcher to try to hide unemployment, cannot be wiped out overnight, but real progress must be made immediately.

Cameron says that people should not be worse off when they go off benefit into work. Of course not. He will not achieve that by fiddling with tax credits. The tax credit system is a costly, over complex, bureaucratic monster that needs to be scrapped. Incapacity benefit must be ended and the benefits for all people without work frozen at their current level.

As wages increase and benefits stay fixed the incentive to find work and not be penalised for taking it increases.

Estamos en una etapa de contínuo bombardeo de mensajes   publicitarios, la crisis ataca ferozmente y hay que agudizar el ingenio; por eso hoy queremos hablarles de TWITTER ; una original herramienta web que, en forma de microblog, nos permite compartir mediante mensajes de no más de 140 caracteres cualquier tipo de información con nuestra red de seguidores.

TWITTER puede funcionar de muy diversas formas, desde su propio sitio web, vía SMS, desde programas de mensajería instantánea o incluso desde cualquier aplicación como, por ejemplo, FACEBOOK; y puede considerarse como una red social ya que cualquier usuario puede publicar la información que desee.

Desde FELTEC SISTEMAS os aconsejamos que os pongáis a la labor, investigad en cuentas de su mismo sector o mercado y aprovechad las posibilidades que os da esta herramienta de gran alcance y viralidad, haciéndoos “followers” o seguidores de sus cuentas y lanzando micronoticias o “tweets” sobre su marca, servicios, productos…¡¡VERÁN COMO NO OS DEFRAUDA EL RESULTADO!!…

http://twitter.com/FELTEC

The Vancouver Foundation hosted 2 more community conversations for us while in BC. Thanks to Faye Wightman and Dan Morin for bringing people together and the warm welcome we and participants received.
 
Here we talked about the opportunity to reinvent ourselves and find better ways of demonstrating the impact of our work. There are increasing demands for accountability and currently we often lack the metrics to be able to show impact.

The discussion also included the need to consistently show the true costs of fundraising. This is part of the increasing demand for transparency and it also ties in with the issue of understating the costs required to run our organizations. The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle recently appeared in the Stanford Journal of Social Innovation, talks about this issue.

We also need to look at different approaches to governance – there are many small organizations which may not be able to meet the demands of accountability and transparency and find members to sit on Boards. The current CRA guidelines and nonprofit legislation have impeded our thinking about how to govern ourselves. We need to think outside the box as to how govern the work of the sector. 
 
We need to learn to speak with one voice on the cross cutting issues. This does not mean that the subsectors (i.e. sports, arts, environment, social service, international cooperation, etc.) will not have issues specific to them; but we are losing out not coming together on the bigger common issues.    
 
Let’s harness the competitive aspects of the sector to work on the bigger issues together.
  
~Brenda