A recent research survey of 13,000 gamers across North America and Europe posted by WorldsInMotion reports on an international poll from market research specialists TNS and Gamesindustry which gives use a glimpse into the world of a gamers favorite subject gaming, what genre’s they play, and how much time they spend on it. And it’s yours for only 4,950 Euro sounds like a bargain to me. For those of use who aren’t so well off  WorldsInMotion has given use a brief (but still full of good facts) synopsis                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ” This report contains comparative data om MMO players across six surveyed countries. It comprises approximately 60 pages and 70 graphs. The product also includes a full table set comparing MMO players in all six countries across all questions of the survey allowing unlimited cross-analysis and detail. “ Source: Gamesindustry
MMOs constitute 14 percent of all time spent playing video games in the U.S., according to the survey results. Console games, by comparison, claimed 34 percent of game playing time in the States. The average age of those players my surprise you, but there is a good reason for that. To read the full article go to  WorldsInMotion

Se gli 8.101 sindaci della Penisola vi sembran tanti, date un’occhiata al di là delle Alpi, ai cugini francesi: ci sono ben 36.000 sindaci eletti direttamente.
E come accade in Italia, a causa della cancellazione dell’ICI e dei vincoli alla spesa posti dal patto di stabilità anche ai Comuni virtuosi, anche i primi cittadini francesi sono in contrasto con il potere centrale perché il governo Sarkozy intende tagliare una fonte di gettito fiscale locale (la “taxe professionnelle”, qualcosa di simile all’Irap).
I primi cittadini francesi occupano un posto nell’immaginario politico dei loro connazionali analogo a quello dei sindaci italiani: sono la carica elettiva che gode della maggiore fiducia (72% contro il 30% riconosciuto ai parlamentari e il 15% ai membri del governo, secondo un sondaggio TNS).
E come accade spesso per i politici italiani cumulano più cariche, cosicché molti dei sindaci che si oppongono alla riforma, il governo se li ritrova anche in Parlamento (la leader socialista Martin Aubry non è parlamentare ma sindaco di Lille…).

PS: Il dato più importante dello studio citato di TNS è che il 70% dei rispondenti hanno incontrato “personalmente di persona” – come direbbe Pippo Civati parafrasando il camilleriano Catarella – il loro sindaco, confermando che questa carica incarna le istituzioni nella prossimità del qui e ora.

Un estudi fet per TNS a principis d’aquest any 2009 anomenat “Digital World, Digital Life“, va constatar que cada vegada dediquem més a Internet i ja ens hi passem fins a un 30% del nostre temps lliure (independentment del temps d’oci del que disposem, la proporció és sempre la mateixa). Però què hi fem exactament a la xarxa? Aquest temps que hi invertim, a quines activitats li restem? Ens dirigim cap a una societat virtual?

Segons el 45% de la població espanyola, Internet és una font d’informació; pel 43%, una eina de correu per a enviar i rebre missatges; pel 38%, quelcom imprescindible per a la seva feina o estudis, pel 10%, un canal compra-venda i, finalment, pel 30% un lloc d’esbarjo on divertir-se. Però, aquestes dades en quins serveis es concreten, què és el que més utilitzem actualment quan naveguem per Internet? La resposta és força previsible: els buscadors, els diaris digitals i els foros, però sempre per darrere de les xarxes socials. En una notícia publicada a  l’Interactive Advertising Bureau, es remarca la importància que aquestes han assolit en poc temps, especialment entre els joves. Avui en dia, sis de cada deu usuaris espanyols de xarxes socials ja s’hi connecten diàriament mentre que fins el 84% hi accedeixen, com a mínim, una vegada a la setmana.

Malgrat tot, i basant-me de nou en l’estudi de TNS, l’ús d’Internet no va en detriment de cap altra activitat. El motiu principal d’aquesta paradoxa no és, evidentment, que el temps es multipliqui, sinó que en fem un ús més eficient. La xarxa ens permet comprar, comparar, informar-nos, pagar o comunicar-nos invertint molt menys temps del que necessitaríem si haguéssim de fer qualsevol d’aquestes tasques en el món físic.

Per exemple, suposant que ens volguéssim comprar una bicicleta, hauríem d’anar a diferents botigues (que, en la majoria dels casos, no es troben porta per porta) per a mirar quin és el model que ens agrada o ens convé. Una vegada haguéssim recorregut totes les botigues de bicicletes de la nostra zona, hauríem de decidir a quina tornem per tal que la compra ens surti el més rentable possible (preu, serveis, tracte…). Finalment, un cop adquirida, encara ens quedaria el dubte de si la compra era encertada o no, doncs ens hauriem basat únicament en les opinions dels venedors per a prendre la decisió final. Per contra, si féssim la mateixa compra per internet, sense moure’ns de casa podríem: comprar models, preus, opinions de diferents experts i experiències d’usuaris i, a més, efectuar la compra.

Però, tota aquesta digitalització, ens està convertint en éssers menys sociables? La resposta que es desprèn de l’estudi “Digital world, digital life”és clara: NO! Internet és una forma de conèixer a gent que, de fet, enriqueix la nostra vida real. Les dades diuen que dos terços dels usuaris han fet servir la xarxa com a mecanisme per a conèixer gent que, posteriorment, han conegut en persona i més de la meitat han parlat amb algú per telèfon havent iniciat el contacte amb aquesta persona de forma virtual. Així doncs, les conclusions de TNS són que no estem convertint-nos en éssers aïllats, sinó que mantenim i, fins i tot, ampliem els nostres contactes ja que un 25% afirma que, gràcies a la xarxa, no només interactua més sovint amb els seus amics sinó que, fins i tot, fa nous amics més sovint.

Personalment, m’han sorprès força els resultats d’aquest estudi ja que, d’una banda, m’extranya que Internet no substitueixi (ni que sigui en un petit grau) a cap altra activitat i, de l’altra, que els contactes fets a través de la xarxa enriqueixin la nostra vida real. No ho sé…potser sí que sóc una mica escèptica, però conec ben pocs casos (per no dir que directament cap) de grans amistats que s’hagin forjat a través d’Internet.

Thursday brings another social ride and some grubbin’!  This week we will be heading out just right outside of downtown to Slider’s Burgers.  This little hole in the wall place (in a strip mall) is home of some pretty good burgers, sweet potato fries, and some milkshakes.  They even have some ostrich burgers (sorry Bird!) and bison burgers!  Since it is so close to Downtown, there will be a loop ride there, but it won’t be anything strenuous, difficult, or fast.  Bring your hungry stomachs and hang out with the SJFam! <3

Meet: 6:30pm @ SJSU Fountain
Depart: 7:00pm
W2B: Lights, Weather appropriate clothing, Tools, Tubes, Good attitudes
& riding etiquette, Smiles, and Happy faces

Route: 10.1 Mile Loop
SJSU Fountain > Down San Carlos > Hope over to Park Ave > Continue to SCU
L on Market > L on Monroe > L on Forest > R on Bascom > L on San Carlos
Pitstop: Slider’s Burgers!
Continue down San Carlos into DT > L on 3rd > R on Santa Clara
Finish: 4th St. Pizza.. $5 pitchers to cap off the night!

See your faces Thursday night!

ORA-12170: TNS:Connect timeout occurred.

Have you come across this error before while trying to connect to oracle? In my case it was Oracle 10g client.

A quick googling will reveal the following as first in the search results.

URL: www.dba-oracle.com/t_ora_12170_tns_connect_timeout.htm

And clicking on the above link, will take you to the page where the cause and the action to be taken as follows:

“Cause: The server shut down because connection establishment or communication with a client failed to complete within the allotted time interval. This may be a result of network or system delays; or this may indicate that a malicious client is trying to cause a Denial of Service attack on the server.

Action: If the error occurred because of a slow network or system, reconfigure one or all of the parameters SQLNET.INBOUND_CONNECT_TIMEOUT, SQLNET.SEND_TIMEOUT, SQLNET.RECV_TIMEOUT in sqlnet.ora to larger values. If a malicious client is suspected, use the address in sqlnet.log to identify the source and restrict access. Note that logged addresses may not be reliable as they can be forged (e.g. in TCP/IP).“

Voila! I got the solution and the problem is solved. Pretty handy isn’t it?

Actually it is not, the real reason could be something else and sometimes it can be as simple and so stupid as I faced the other day. In my case, none of the solutions mentioned above seemed to be working. As I dug little  bit more deeper into it, I figured out that the real cause of the problem was that the Oracle connection string configured in my web.config turned out to be having a wrong “DataSource” name. That is it all. I corrected the connection string to point to the right DataSource and from then on it was a smooth sailing.

But how did the connection string in my web.config turned out to be pointed to wrong DataSource? Well, it needs another blog post to explain. But at a higher level, the root cause was that  mybuild.properties  was set with wrong properties value using which the web.config files are auto-generated during the build & deployment process.

So anytime you come across this error, just do a “tnsping <DataSourceName>” and see if you are getting a reply and if it does, try checking you configuration or connection string properties before going to the above mentioned solution of fixing it through sqlnet.ora.

Honestly I couldn’t find this solution by googling. Hence I thought its worth writing a post about my finding so that someone else might find it useful.

On the other hand we will wait for our Oracle friends to give us back a proper error on a wrong DataSource name configuration.

Al compilar una forma el shell aparece en pantalla ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified, me pregunto a que se debe esto, pues bien se refresco la instancia, para solucionar esto hay revisar y modificar las siguientes variables en frmcmp_batch segun sea el caso. El shell se encuentra en $ORACLE_HOME/bin

variable a modificar: # FORMS_PATH=< your application directory 1>:
ejemplo: FORMS_PATH=$FORMS_PATH:$AU_TOP/resourse:$AU_TOP/forms/ESA:$AU_TOP/forms/US
export FORMS_PATH

variable a modificar : # TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin
ejemplo: TNS_ADMIN=/test01/inst/apps/TEST01_server05/ora/10.1.2/network/admin
export TNS_ADMIN

• Watercooler conversations undermine UK plc
• Crosswords and Sudoko waste UK businesses £2bn a year
  

These are just made-up headline, of course, but I expect if you commissioned a survey into the time individuals spend not working, but chatting with their mates, reading personal emails, etc, etc, you would soon come up with some tasty headlines to support your cause. Instead…

• Twitter ‘costs businesses £1.4bn’ (BBC)
• Twittering workers cost business £1.4bn (FT)
• Twitter ‘costs British economy £1.38bn’ (Telegraph)

These were a few of the headlines shouting at me from my RSS feed-reader on Monday, and I also noticed the content of the articles provided convenient ammunition for more than one sceptical member of the audience at the RIBA in London (post – I spoke to one man from a well-known multi-disciplinary design consultancy who plainly didn’t believe that social media should be available in the workplace).

The news stories are based on a survey by yet another IT services group, this time Morse (see their news release), who surveyed 1460 office workers, of whom over half (57%) said that they used social networking sites during the working day for personal use. On average those people were spending 40 minutes on these sites each week (tellingly, none of the reports broke this down to eight minutes a weekday). Some reports (eg: the FT) went so far as to suggest that this equated to  ‘just under a full working week being “wasted” each year’, and most quoted Morse consultant Philip Wicks’ emotive talk of a “productivity black hole”.

The desired reaction is plainly to get more organisations restricting Twitter and Facebook in the workplace (see my recent post Why social media bans won’t work about the Portsmouth City Council example, and ‘Over half of US workplaces block social networks’) – and thereby, of course, create more demand for IT services companies like Morse.

IT companies feeding on corporate paranoia

This is an argument recently put forward by Michael Neubarth in an article Social Media in the Workplace: Boon or Bane?, where he takes a detailed look at several such surveys. Neubarth points out that “research studies in general should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism“, quoting analyst David Linthicum who suggests vendors who pay for research generally expect such surveys to “come up with the findings they are looking for“.

To be fair, the Morse survey does make some good points. For example, it says organisations need to provide more specific guidelines and usage policies regarding Twitter (agreed); “social networking can be a cause for good when it is used professionally” (Telegraph); and some reports pick up on Morse’s detailed observations regarding URL shorteners as a potential security hole.

However, I wonder if Morse (or its survey company TNS) asked questions about how and when people accessed these social networks. If they are accessing Twitter or Facebook in their own time (during their shrinking lunchtimes – as eConsultancy points out – during tea-breaks or – ahem – comfort breaks, etc) and using their own mobile devices, then where’s the problem? And the quoted examples of incidents at Curry’s, PC World, etc, will not be prevented by workplace bans – disaffected workers will simply wait until they get home before abusing customers (and perhaps also their ‘Big Brother’ managers and their evil partners in the IT department).

What about the other time sinks?

Is such a controlling approach recommended for other office worker habits? The Daily Telegraph report quoted Wicks:

“It is the sort of thing people constantly use which means that its not quite the same as doing a crossword, where you spend half an hour on it and it is finished.”

Sorry, so spending 30 minutes on a crossword is OK but eight minutes on Twitter isn’t?! Where are the demands to manage those answering personal emails or taking personal calls during company time? What about chatting with colleagues by the water cooler or coffee machine, or popping out for a cigarette?

Accentuate the positives

Thankfully, some publication offered some alternative perspectives. For those who ‘chill out’ by a quick dip into social media: “allowing people a few minutes of relaxing downtime might actually enhance their overall productivity” said the Guardian’s Media Monkey, while recruitment firm Office Angels MD David Chubb told the Telegraph:

“As younger generations join the workplace, I believe UK businesses will, inevitably, have to embrace social networks, recognising the benefits of providing staff with well deserved downtime, but also their potential for business networking.”

This point was also made at the end of Jacqui Bowser’s article in Brand Republic: “The study did not take into account the positive effects of social networking use for UK businesses”, and by Charles Arthur in today’s Guardian.

On this point, for example, even in the deeply conservative world of commercial architecture, anyone who saw Su Butcher present at RIBAforum09 on Tuesday must have realised that social networking can deliver some powerful business benefits:

• identifying business opportunities, sales leads
• getting the latest industry news
• crowdsourcing ideas
• getting early warning of what people are saying about you, your company, your project
• opening new relationships with other industry professionals
• driving traffic to your website
• etc

(Suw Charman-Anderson made very similar points too). Meanwhile, have a look at Su’s presentation:

Finally, I am lucky in that I work as a freelance consultant and so have none of the constraints that come from working within a larger organisation with ‘issues’ about social media availability. Being small and agile could well be to my advantage. And former BBC executive Euan Semple agrees:

On a daily basis I am reminded just how constrained people still working in corporate environments are compared to what is possible, and indeed easy and cheap, for me as a freelancer. This is not only in terms of technology but also in terms of use of time and productivity.

It is madness that we burden the clever people in our organisations in these ways and the bigger the organisation the worse it gets!

A Name Too Far?

So firstly it has been a while since I last wrote; owing much to the fact that I now have a job - no matter that it is part-time/semi permanent for the moment.  As you may or may not know I have had the opportunity to work within a sports communication company supporting their Football League and Samsung accounts; certainly progress even if I have been placing articles on Footballing priests.  It has been a busy few weeks including a trip to the lovely black country.  So named due to the proximity and abundance of coal in the region.  Little history lesson for you there.

Continental Airlines Stadium, Pizza Hut Park, Staples Center…Maxi Tampon Stadium?  Of course that last one is merely an example from the 1998 movie Baseketball [a film ahead of it's time] but it made the anxious point of whether sport is selling itself out.   Firstly I will nail my colours to the mast and say I am a realist/expansionist when it comes to sport and the progression of sport.  I am ultimately happy for clubs and stadiums to be linked exonerably to corporations, whether they are local or global.  (For some reason it is perceived as more acceptable that a club is associated with a club which has some geographical bricks and mortar in the region; no matter how tenuous!)  As an example, Leicester and Newcastle have recently seen sponsorships with Alliance & Leicester and Northern Rock.  What baffles me is why fans should have any sort of affinity to a sponsor other than that they plough  money into their club.  As a Watford fan, now we are sponsored by Evolution HDTV does make me more loyal to this brand than ‘Unmarked Brand HDTV’ but the fact that they have a Watford office as their UK HQ does not make me more loyal to the brand.

So what has geography or location got to do with naming rights? Potentially not a lot.  Any as far as I am concerned – rightly so.  I use the example of the New York Mutuals – a New York-based Baseball club who existed in the late 19th Century comprised of employees from the Mutual Hook & Ladder Company.  This is also the case in UK football where historically, the first clubs were working clubs.  So…a mere 130 years ago, players played for teams named after a corporation. YES i appreciate they often were employed by the company, however, the uproar surrounding naming rights for clubs is completely out of context.

We have the almost ridiculous situation of TNS [The New Saints] garnering a new name for themselves having dropped their title sponsor Total Network Solutions.  Obviously they have retained the TNS acronym thanks to the ‘brand identity’ they perhaps naively created.  The New York/Salzburg Red Bulls as a caveat to that example seem to offer better models for naming rights and teams working in conjunction yet the widespread naming of teams/franchises are probably a little further off.  The progressive IPL has seen an expansion of the naming rights issue with The Royal Challengers from Bangalore so-named due to the Owner’s links to his ‘Royal Challenge’ liquor brand.

In England, we like to make things more grandiose than they perhaps are and hype our stature and tradition beyond what is necessary.  Therefore the sale of team-name rights is perhaps a while off.  Certainly there are more pressing money issues at the highest level in football.  Still though, it is not beyond thought that in this economic gloom [more 'gloomy' using the term than experiencing it], smaller football league clubs, county cricket associations and smaller sporting organisations will allow the sale of naming rights as they strive to eke every pound out of their value.  I don’t believe it is long before the likes of Halifax Town FC will become ‘The Halifax FC’ and Bradford City become Bradford & Bingley.

That is perhaps a tad radical and I appreciate that, but many fans of small clubs would prefer an existance for their clubs under a stupid name than no existance and having to support Arsenal, Liverpool or the like.  Who would have thought twenty years ago that a team named after an energy drink, a stadium named after a pharmaceutical company or an airline would be the norm?  Yet it is increasingly acceptable and will be accepted in the near future.

I will finish on the following from a sponsorship expert from North America.  “It will probably be more of a trickle than a flood. While sponsors are eager to step up, they understand the emotional attachment that fans have with the teams they love. There’s the potential for a strong negative backlash.”

Lavazza, Türkiye’deki iletişim çalışmaları için Taktik İletişim Danışmanlık ile anlaşmış.
Lavazza, Taktik İletişim Danışmanlık’tan kurumsal iletişim, medya iletişimi, kriz iletişimi ve etkinlik yönetimi alanlarında hizmet alacak.

Gaggenau, iletişim çalışmaları için Capitol Ogilvy PR ile anlaşmış.
Capitol Ogilvy Public Relations, güçlü müşteri portföyünü yeni bir marka ile daha da zenginleştirmiş. Ankastre mutfak ürünlerinde uzman marka Gaggenau, iletişim faaliyetlerini Capitol Ogilvy PR’ın desteğiyle yürütmeye başlamış.

Global Tanıtım Portföyüne iki yeni müşteri daha eklemiş.
1989 yılından bu yana halkla ilişkiler sektöründe faaliyet gösteren Global Tanıtım ve Halkla İlişkiler, portföyüne Gürallar Grubu’na bağlı Art-Craft ve Ali Bey Resorts’u eklemiş.

Işık Plastik ajansını seçmiş.
Plastik sanayinin üretim kalitesiyle ön plana çıkan markası Işık Plastik, kurumsal ve ürün iletişimini gerçekleştirmek amacıyla Dentsu Network üyesi Drive Communication ile çalışma kararı almış.

Armani’de Beckham devri bitmiş.
Armani ,David Beckham’ın yerine dünyanın en iyi futbolcusu seçilen Cristiano Ronaldo ile çalışacağını açıklamış.Bununla da kalmayıp Victoria Beckham’ın yerine de Megan Fox ile anlaşmış.

Televizyon ölçümünü artık AGB yapmayacakmış.
Televizyon İzleme Araştırma Komitesi 2011 yılı itibariyle TV İzleme Ölçümlerini TNS Piyasa Araştırma Şirketi ile sürdürme kararı almış.

Başak sigorta tarih olmuş.
Başak Sigorta’yı özelleştirmeden satın alan Fransız sigorta devi Groupama, Başak ismini kaldırdı. Şirket bundan sonra Groupama Sigorta olarak hizmet verecekmiş.

Hi!

AIESEC Tampere’s Sales team made it’s first visit today. Visit went well and atmospehere was very friendly. Also Global.me visited new school and it looks very promising. Good work AIESEC Tampere!

Yours,

Juhani Janhunen
Vice President
AIESEC Tampere

Who wants a new short?

You do!

Ok its just a short for now. I’m working on chapter 4 and 5 on tNS, but I’ve hit a bit of a block. I’m not sure where I want to take the story, so…yeah. It should be up in a few days.

Short after the bump.

Dusk fell over the city, the same way it did every night. The sun fell behind the great, towering skyscrapers, where countless businessmen were finishing their daily work before going home. The lights, powered by the hundreds of thousands of solar panels upon the skyscrapers, flickered on around the city, revealing houses, clean and dirty roads, illuminating the faces of pedestrians.

This was a great city, one of tremendous industry and activity. Fortunes were made and lost in an instant in this city, and made again with considerable ease. You simply had to know the right people, and you would never have to worry about going hungry. The great, sparkling towers were home to much opportunity to those who could afford it.

This was not a flawless, idyllic city though. While those of privilege lived with a fine view of the ocean to the left, and the great city to the right in their high rise apartments, all things must be built on top of something else. In this case, the old city was the base of the new city. When the great city was rebuilt, it simply built up from the old city. The base of the great towers strut out of old and ruined neighborhoods, often tagged by rival gangs. Great pillars of metal and plastic burst out of streets, supporting the immaculate homes above.

This harsh underworld was inhabited by those who could not, or would not, succeed in the Olympic lands above. Here life was a fight, a struggle for surviving each day. They were called Carps, the bottom feeders by the dwellers above, and were utterly ignored by them. The name was appropriate, as the trash of the great city dwellers fell below, to be picked and scavenged by the Carps.

There was no joy in this desolate land, scarred by destruction. There was simply no room for it, it was a weakness and to survive, one must abandon all weakness. Corpses were more common in the street than a live person, most likely left behind in a fierce fight for the scraps of a hot dog carelessly thrown away by a child above.

And yet, there was life here, and more importantly, there was humanity. There were no alliances here, such things came and went with the tide. There were a few small bands of people, and yet they were so uncommon they were almost not worth mentioning. If one were to survive here, you would learn to live alone – forever.

The dusk threw light upon what had once been a beautiful street, painting a scene no artist would ever paint. A single man walked this street, a fast and determined gait that contradicted the rough and wild silhouette of the man. A large coat covered his upper body while torn jeans adorned his legs. A messenger’s bag hung at his side, swinging when his young and strong arms occasionally bumped it.

His determined march would soon find him at a large pile of trash, dumped not 5 minutes before from the city above. He was not alone; others had noticed and were closing in, seeking dinner. Upon arriving, the determined man began picking his way through the mess, seeking the better morsels, all the while managing to retain an air of dignity, a talent unique to him.

His determined search would reward him quickly, an entire hamburger was found, still in its carton. No doubt abandoned by some spoiled member from above for having too many pickles, it would be a boon to him tonight. He reached for it, his mouth already watering at the thought of sleeping with a full stomach tonight.

He was not, however, fast enough. Another grabbed it, a shirtless and remarkably muscular man in his late 30’s. The determined man immediately turned to face the thief, angered and, strangely, mildly amused.

“Sir, I believe you have taken my garbage.” He said, with an unrecognizable European accent, “If you do not mind, I should quite like to have it back.”

“Fuck you, dipshit.” Was the muscular man’s response. “I got it first and there ain’t a goddamn shit you can do about it. Fuck off.”

The man continued to open the container, while the determined man watched him very carefully. The muscular man’s vulgar language was no surprise to him, but he had been quite hopeful for a more agreeable thief.

“Sir,” He said much more forcefully “That is mine. I saw it first, and were you not faster, I would have had it. Give it to me or I will take it from you.”

“Fuck you.” A predictable response. The muscular man took a large bite out of the hamburger, and the determined man moved swiftly.

“Sir, I did not want to do this.”

The muscular man didn’t have a chance to react. The determined man produced a handgun from the bag, and with remarkable accuracy, shot the muscular man twice. The determined man grabbed the hamburger from the deceased’s hand, and glancing at the other Carps as if he were passing them in a coffee shop, walked away, chewing on the hamburger.

There was no guilt in his heart. There was simply no room for it, not if he intended to survive. He returned to a large house a few hundred yards away and finished the hamburger on a burnt table in a matching room, washing it down with a swig from his flask.

Night was fast approaching, and he did not intend to be awake for it. Instead, he entered the houses master bedroom, locking the door behind him. The room, once elegant and full of beauty, was now dusty and dingy, the windows boarded and much of the precious items stolen or destroyed. The determined man placed his bag by the side of a bed, next to a pile of items of some sort of sentimental value to him.

He laid down on the bed, and staring at a cracked picture frame, he fell asleep as he did every night. His dreams were not occupied by the muscular man, nor were they haunted by the other humans he had killed. He had no guilt for their end, he had no choice at the time. His dreams were of a time when he did not have to kill to live, when his food was purchased at a store by his doting and caring parents. He dreamt of a time when this bed was off limits, before the Great Change. Before he became a Carp.

It was a night like any other night.

~

Small screens on shopping trolleys will exploit your psychological state at the supermarket, while collecting data about your shopping behaviour

~

New technology to be attached to supermarket trolleys will play on the human mind’s openness to suggestion when undertaking a low-involvement activity such as grocery shopping. And if marketers respond to new research published in the Journal of Consumer Behaviour, it won’t be long before small screen advertising is attached to your small shopping basket. But there is much more to this little activity than giving you helpful information about specials and offers.

TNS Research will use supermarkets as a concept testing ‘retail laboratory’, and will use the data from your shopping activities to evaluate advertising effectiveness. The Media Cart trolley will use path tracking technology and an interactive visual display to collect data on shopper behaviour, so that TNS are able to deliver research for manufacturers, retailers and advertisers/ marketers.

According to reports in a number of media outlets, one Canberra and one Sydney supermarket are about to trial new screen technology that will map your route through the supermarket, and suggest products for you to buy, as well as telling you of the specials and discounts in each aisle. By attaching a form of GPS technology to trolleys, the supermarket marketers will be able to exploit the low-involvement experience by creating a further stimuli in the shopping experience, and making it more likely that you will purchase the suggested items.

This technology has been trialed in the United States, and has been very successful in boosting sales in particular brands. Although these trolleys are being trialed, it is not clear whether they will be adopted in all supermarkets. Previous trolley technology has not been fully embraced, although other aspects of technology  in supermarkets, such as self-checkout seems to have now reached a significant level.

As I have written elsewhere, grocery shopping relies heavily on a range of psychological manipulations to move you toward purchasing particular brands. These include the use of colours such as red, end-cap displays, and prime shelf-positioning (through slotting fees paid for by the brands). The supermarket shopping experience from the consumer’s perspective is one that is based predominantly on habit and inertia, so supermarket marketers try to increase dissonance by inserting stimuli into the experience, which results in the consumer buying the suggested products and brands.

In effect, what happens when these stimuli do get our attention is that we give more weight to it in terms of cognitive effort, the brand becomes salient, and we are therefore more likely to choose that brand, if we consider all brands are relatively equal in that product category.

So a short ad, just before you reach that product, is likely to have an effect on your willingness to choose that brand. We may not be fully conscious of the stimuli, but our brain picks it up, and this reduces the barriers to us choosing that particular brand (amongst a range of other brands in the same product category). This is best described as a form of supraliminal priming – as opposed to subliminal – because we are partly conscious of the stimuli, but not conscious of its effect, which is that the stimuli is enough to evoke a behaviour. This form of priming is often used in supermarkets, and other retail outlets, through the use of announcements, or even point-of-purchase advertising.

If marketers have their way, it won’t be long before the screens are even attached to our little shopping baskets, as well. New research published in the Journal of Consumer Behaviour challenges the notion that major trips to the supermarket are the best opportunities to create unplanned purchases. Jens Nordfalt found that those little fill-in trips that we take during the week, are likely to result in many unplanned purchases. What Nordfalt found was that, on average, unplanned purchases will account for a greater share of the total bill for a fill-in trip, than for a major trip (which contradicts much of the established thinking around how we shop).

So, having a screen attached to your basket will allow marketers to tap into the fact this it is unlikely that you will have shopping list when you do the short trip. Previous research has found that we can only hold about seven items (plus or minus two) in our heads at a particular point in time, so having reminders flashing up on a screen while we are shopping means that we will be more likely to give weight to suggestions, and are likely to put it in our basket, and purchase it, if we are in a zoned-out state prior to receiving the stimuli.

Sources

Miller, GA. 1956. The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. The Psychological Review, 63, 81-97.

Nordfalt, J. 2009. Unplanned grocery purchases: the influence of the shopping trip type revisited. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 8, Jan-Feb, 1 – 13.

Music Videos Back Online on YouTube in the UK; video site reaches agreement with the PRS for Music rights collection society; premium videos to return in the next few days. (YouTube Biz Blog) Speaking of online music videos, Vevo is reportedly in talks with NBC and CBS to develop original programming for its forthcoming music video site. (Reuters)

NBCU CTO Leaves for Conviva; Darren Feher will be CEO of the online video distribution company, which has a multi-year agreement with NBCU. (paidContent)

RollingShutter Removes Video Wiggle; plug-in tool for After Effects straightens objects that get tilted because of the CMOS sensors. (The Foundry)

Livestation and Telestream Pick Wowza for Multiple Screen Streaming; the Wowza Media Server 2 streams live entertainment to devices like the iPhone. (emailed release)

NDS and TNS Team Up for Individual TV Tracking; the opt-in service is able to monitor viewing habits of individual users. (Multichannel News)

Cable Cos Cry Foul Over Franchise Fees; they are lobbying hard to get a law passed in California that would require satellite operators to pay up to provide service. (The LA Times)

La Polynésie française a, comme on le sait, un problème central : son niveau général des prix.

S’il y a des éléments objectifs pour l’expliquer très partiellement (éloignement, insularité, petite taille du marché…), il n’en demeure pas moins que le coût de la vie atteint ici est “anormal”, car, après tout, d’autres pays insulaires ayant les mêmes caractéristiques que la Polynésie ne se placent pas comme elle au “hit parade” de la cherté de la vie.

Faisons une comparaison internationale et utilisons, pour ce faire, “l’indice big mac”. Ce dernier est un produit uniforme vendu dans le monde entier et dont le prix est déterminé par une combinaison d’éléments formant un type de panier diversifié : produits locaux et importés, salaires, services externes, foncier…

Grâce à divers travaux de l’ISPF ou d’autres instituts de la statistique, nous pouvons même avoir une “photographie” sur plusieurs périodes. J’ai choisi deux périodes :

- A mi-2007 ( source : ISEE)

- En aout 2009 ( source ISPF : travaux des Etats Généraux)

L’anormalité de la situation, c’est que nous nous trouvons en tête du peloton mondial pour la cherté du big mac, avec des pays qui ont un PIB par habitant qui est du triple ou quadruple du PIB par habitant polynésien ( rappelons que nous avons un PIB par habitant inférieur à celui de la Nouvelle-Zélande).

Il est évident que ce niveau des prix ( je dis bien “niveau des prix” et non pas l’évolution de ces prix, mesurée par le taux d’inflation) “plombe” complètement notre développement, car il est source de “non compétitivité générale” de notre économie.

La belle affaire, me direz-vous, car j’enfonce une porte ouverte.

Le plus important est de répondre à cette question : comment sortir de ce cercle vicieux ? J’ai déjà proposé diverses solutions dans mes billets précédents.

Mais la vraie solution est d’enclencher avec l’accord de tous les partenaires sociaux une nouvelle dynamique économique et sociale d’ensemble car  cette situation mène à l’impasse.

Aussi, je propose le cercle vertueux suivant : que tous les monopoles ( OPT, EDT, producteur-distributeur de gaz, Tikiphone, Mana, TNS, Air Tahiti, Carrefour…), oligopoles ( compagnies pétrolières, compagnies maritimes internationales, compagnies aériennes, armateurs, acconiers, gros producteurs agricoles, mareyeurs, industries protégées, professions à numérus clausus ( pharmaciens, médecins, notaires, avocats, huissiers…) , cartels (commerces spécialisés …),  le gros commerce d’importation…. “rendent” du pouvoir d’achat aux polynésiens et aux touristes en abaissant leur taux de marge “plantureux”, voire excessifs. Ce gain de pouvoir d’achat, les consommateurs polynésiens et les touristes vont le “dépenser” dans d’autres activités qui composent notre système économique ( facteur de dynamisme et de création de nouvelles activités). Cette croissance de la consommation va enclencher un cycle de croissance globale dont vont bénéficier les monopoles et oligopoles dynamiques qui auront fait “l’effort initial”.

Exemple : Tikiphone l’a fait récemment, mais isolément. Il faut que ce mouvement soit simultané et collectif : c’est une condition nécessaire à l’enclenchement de ce cercle vertueux à l’échelle de la société.

Ce n’est qu’au prix de ce “sacrifice initial”, qui sera largement compensé par un “retour sur sacrifice” élevé pour tous nos gros acteurs économiques ( par la croissance induite qui produira des effets différés et positifs en leur faveur), que nous pouvons espérer démarrer une logique qui se rapprocherait de celle des îles Hawai, par exemple. La réaction de “fuite” devant la consommation des polynésiens et des touristes ( qui ne viennent pas ou qui sont “horrifiés” des prix lorsqu’ils arrivent ici) sera ainsi surmontée. Et on pourra enfin espérer une plus grande compétitivité structurelle de nos activités motrices ( tourisme, exportations de biens et de services…).

Grâce à ce “gain de pouvoir d’achat réel” ( sans hausse de salaires) , on stoppera aussi la surenchère suicidaire de la hausse continue du SMIG qui a gravement accéléré la perte de compétitivité de notre économie, la hausse des prix, l’éviction du marché du travail des entrants potentiels, notamment des jeunes non qualifiés, et qui a écrasé la hiérarchie des salaires ( facteur de découragement et de démotivation des salariés moyennement qualifiés). On ne répond pas à la question de la justice sociale par une hausse du SMIG : il y a d’autres mécanismes de redistribution pour celà ( CST, Impôt sur le revenu….).

En résumé, pour nous sortir de la sclérose et du marasme sur le court et le moyen terme, le gain de pouvoir d’achat des salariés doit s’effectuer exclusivement par la baisse des prix des biens et de services et la forte augmentation de notre productivité globale. Il n’y a pas d’autres options.

Ce “big bang”, cette dynamique initiale doit, bien sûr,  être piloté par le gouvernement dans le cadre d’un “nouveau pacte économique et social” qui créera une solidarité de fait de tous les partenaires sociaux sur un horizon de 3 à 5 ans. Cet “électrochoc” redonnera la confiance et permettra une sortie de notre crise structurelle par une compétitivité progressivement retrouvée.

Dans ce cercle vertueux : il n’y a pas de “gagnants” et de “perdants”. C’est la Polynésie qui gagne. Il s’agit là d’un enjeu sociétal fondamental pour l’avenir économique et social du Fenua.

TNS+frukost = kladdigt
Kanske kul att prova på en förfest??

Internetu pēdējā pusgada laikā lietojuši 50% Latvijas iedzīvotāju!

Mediju, tirgus un sociālo pētījumu aģentūra “TNS Latvia” ir apkopojusi interneta auditorijas pētījuma “Nacionālais Mediju Pētījums: Internets, Rudens 2007″ rezultātus.
2007. gada rudens interneta auditorijas pētījuma rezultāti liecina, ka 50% jeb ½ no Latvijas iedzīvotājiem 15 līdz 74 gadu vecumā pēdējo sešu mēnešu laikā ir lietojuši Internetu. Regulārāk – pēdējo 7 dienu laikā – Internetu ir izmantojuši 45% Latvijas iedzīvotāju šajā vecuma grupā.

TNS Latvia preses un interneta projektu vadītāja Elīna Krūze norāda, ka, analizējot Interneta patēriņu dažādās vecuma grupās, var secināt, ka visvairāk Interneta lietotāju skaits gada laikā ir pieaudzis 40 līdz 49 gadu vecu Latvijas iedzīvotāju vidū (+16 procentpunkti). Ja 2006. gada rudens periodā šajā vecuma grupā Internetu pēdējo sešu mēnešu laikā bija lietojuši 34% aptaujāto respondentu, tad 2007. gada rudenī tīmekļa patērētāju skaits šajā mērķa grupā jau sasniedza 50%. Jāatzīmē, ka Interneta patēriņš laukos un citās Latvijas pilsētās ir sācis izlīdzināties. Rudens 2007 dati liecina, ka ārpus Rīgas mītošo iedzīvotāju vidū, kā pilsētās, tā laukos, Interneta patērētāju īpatsvars ir sasniedzis 47%.

Interneta patēriņa izlīdzināšanos starp pilsētām un laukiem varētu būt ietekmējusi Interneta pieejamība mājās. 2007. gada rudens pētījuma rezultāti liecina, ka Latvijā kopumā Internets mājas ir pieejams 44% Latvijas iedzīvotāju, kas ir par 13 procentpunktiem vairāk kā 2006. gada rudens periodā. Interneta pieejamība mājās visstraujāk pēdējā gada laikā ir augusi tieši lauku iedzīvotāju vidū, kas salīdzinājumā ar 2006. gada rudens periodu ir palielinājusies gandrīz divas reizes. 2007. gada rudenī 1/3 jeb 32% lauku teritorijās dzīvojošie respondenti atzina, ka viņiem mājās ir interneta pieslēgums.

Kā liecina 2007. gada rudens pētījuma rezultāti, visbiežāk minētie Interneta izmantošanas mērķi aptaujāto respondentu vidū bija portālu apmeklēšana, e-pasta lietošana, informācijas meklēšana, kā arī preses izdevumu Interneta versiju caurlūkošana.

2007. gada rudens periodā, laika posmā no 6. augusta līdz 28. oktobrim, vismaz vienu no 72 pētījumā iekļautiem Latvijas Interneta resursiem pēdējās nedēļas laikā bija caurlūkojuši vidēji 43% aptaujāto respondentu.

2007. gada rudens perioda aptaujas rezultāti liecina, ka pēc nedēļas kopējas auditorijas 15 līdz 74 gadu vecu iedzīvotāju vidū TOP 10 pirmo vietu ieņem meklēšanas serveris Google – 34%. 2. vietā ir ierindojies portāls Inbox – 28%, bet 3. vietu ir ieņēmis portāls Delfi – 26%.

“Dream as if you will live forever, but live as if you will die today.” -James Dean

Good quote by the legendary James Dean! My dad has a painting of him with this quote written on it. Fantastic man, short life, but in his short life he did great things.

R.I.P. James Dean

February 8th, 1931 – September 30th, 1955

Toy Sailboat in the coffee shop! Go get it! NOW! Lol!

Date: Thursday 09th July 2009 7.00pm

The New Saints missed an ideal opportunity to make it to the next round of the Europa Cup for the first time in their history, in this game. They totally dominated their Icelandic counterparts from start to finish and the score should have been 9-2. Unfortunately for TNS the FRAM keeper was on supernatural form, pulling off a string of full stretch saves. Add to that some poor finishing and a good pinch of bad luck and TNS went out at the first stage for the eleventh time.

This wasn’t their usual Europe experience however, as this was the first time they were able to hold their home leg at their home ground. It was a special occasion accompanied by some souvenir badges and knitwear of which I just couldn’t resist. Yes, the Venue (or Park Hall as it’s more commonly called) had passed UEFA ground requirements so TNS did not have to borrow from Wrexham, Newtown or Cardiff.

Are you Celtic in disguise?

It was a shame but nonetheless a great effort by TNS. A very cagey away style from the Icelanders and lacking in spirit, but nonetheless a good tactical win, with the keeper, Hannes Haldorsson their star man with a 10/10 performance.

The FRAM team celebrate their victory

The Venue in pictures

Yay! I hated the new emotes, they were awful. Did you try using the twisted cat one, it looked like it was smiling! Now it is like Now that is what I be talking about! The new ones looked fake, the older ones rock the house! I’m glad WordPress (WP) brought the old emoticons back! Say hi to the new-old emotes that rock!

Color vite is here, which are you picking? I will probably stick with my regular black emo color. But I will wear the new color every now and then, one thing… it’s gonna be a trend for about a month to wear the new color, Just like the white puffle. Do you ever see a white puffle anymore? Anyways please vote for aqua!

Here is a cool color post by CP

By Billybob on July 24 2009 10:34