Take a walk

"Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much."
..................Ralph Waldo Emerson

You become what you think about all day long

"You become what you think about all day long."
........... Napoleon Hill

The best executive

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."
............Theodore Roosevelt

Irrational and excessive stock price fluctuations

"Most of the time common stocks are subject to irrational and excessive price fluctuations in both directions as the consequence of the ingrained tendency of most people to speculate or gamble... to give way to hope, fear and greed."
........... Benjamin Graham

He is happy whom .....

"He is happy whom circumstances suit his temper; but he Is more excellent who suits his temper to any circumstance."
............ David Hume

A penny saved is a penny earned

"A penny saved is a penny earned."
................. Benjamin Franklin

By accident or by hardwork

"I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work."
............. Thomas Edison

Ten Job Hunting Myths

... the perfect opportunity probably won't fall in your lap. Search smart by avoiding these common misconceptions.

Read the full article here.

Investing: Enthusiasm in Wall Street

"While enthusiasm may be necessary for great accomplishments elsewhere, in Wall Street it almost invariably leads to disaster."
.............. Benjamin Graham

Motorola, July launch mobile 'virtual mall'

Motorola and July Systems are launching a mobile storefront application that creates a "virtual mall" experience for users via their mobile phones. Motorola's GAMA Integrated Mobile Marketplace uses GUI-based tools for the operator, retailer, and content provider that include subscription services, rentals, pay-per-use, and try-before-you-buy services. The companies said the solution will support all mobile content types. Motorola's equity firm also led July System's $10 million third round of investing.

For more on Motorola's joint venture with July Systems:
- see this press release

Renewed interest in satellite communication

One thing that did work during Hurricane Katrina and its immediate aftermath were satellite phones. Now, satellite communication provider Inmarsat said it has filed a petition with the FCC asking for authorization to provide Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) by 2010. The service will use a spacecraft operating in the 2 GHz band. Globalstar and Iridium already provide satellite phone service in the US, but they do not have terrestrial repeaters so their service is expensive and the coverage limited to the outdoors.

Some history: The FCC reallocated part of the 2 GHz MSS spectrum (15+15 MHz) to terrestrial fixed and mobile services and retained the bands 2000-2020 MHz and 2180-2200 MHz for mobile satellite services. Four years ago the FCC authorized eight companies to use the 2 GHz band for MSS with the provision that certain satellite construction milestones be met. Six of these eight companies have since forfeited and gone out of business. Inmarsat has applied for the unused spectrum so it could meet increased demand for new multimedia and emerging broadband satellite services. Inmarsat is near completion of its $1.5 billion Inmarsat-4 satellite project, and the company is working on a next generation MSS system and multimedia services across a hybrid satellite-terrestrial architecture.

For more on Inmarsat and its plans:
- see Inmarsat's website
- read the company's FCC petition
For more on MSS:
- see details at this website

Study: Future economic impact of technology

A new study by the nonprofit research group RAND concludes that the high costs of breakthrough technologies like new cancer drugs, more efficient pacemakers and new treatments for Alzheimer's could end up putting serious pressure on Medicare and programs like it. Researchers examined the future cost of 10 new technologies and found that costs are likely to be extremely high. The team concluded, for example, that anti-angiogenesis drugs which fight cancer by intelligently attacking tumors could end up costing as much as $638,000 per patient life-year added. The real question, of course, may be what the price tag for an individual human life should be.

- read this story from the Boston Globe
- see this detailed abstract from RAND

Sun, Bango start mobile game delivery service

Mobile content solutions developer Bango and Sun Microsystems are teaming up to deliver Java-based mobile games and applications to mobile devices. The service will streamline the process of paying for and locating games and applications for the mobile phone. The service requires users register at java.com. After registering, a WAP Push message is sent to the user's mobile phone. The message opens automatically on their handset and connects the user to java.com. Users of the service can pay via credit card, Paypal or wireless bill. The venture will service subscribers of over 250 wireless carriers worldwide.

For more on Sun and Bango's new mobile content service:
- read this press release

SEC discerns fraud in wake of Katrina

One legacy of Katrina may be a spike in securities fraud. The Securities and Exchange Commission expects a variety of schemes to bubble forth soon, according to MarketWatch. People may be asked to invest in companies that say they have a new way to make bleach or a hurricane-proof construction process or something similar. Linda Thomsen, the director of the SEC's enforcement division, said in a recent speech that she has already seen signs that such fraud is in the offing.

> Here's the MarketWatch article.

Not to be unduly worried by unjustified market declines....

"The investor who permits himself to be stampeded or unduly worried by unjustified market declines in his holdings is perversely transforming his basic advantage into a basic disadvantage. That man would be better off if his stocks had no market quotation at all, for he would then be spared the mental anguish caused him by other persons' mistakes of judgment."
.................... Benjamin Graham

On-demand CRM market shares: Salesforce.com - 49.5%, RightNow - 13.5%

On-demand CRM market shares: Salesforce.com - 49.5%, RightNow - 13.5% by ZDNet's ZDNet Research -- The appeal for on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) applications was strong in 2004, says IDC, generating approximately $300 mln dollars in revenue. IDC delivers the first vendor ranking for on-demand CRM applications providers which reveals a high revenue concentration among few vendors: the top five vendors accounted for 81.6% of the total market. Salesforce.com holds the leading position with 49.5% market share followed by RightNow Technologies in second with a market share of 13.5%. Surprises in the leadership table include Siebel Systems who entered the on-demand CRM applications market in January 2004, but still managed to score a fifth place ranking.

Review investing losses with care

"While losses should never cause strong self-disgust or emotional upset, neither should they be passed over lightly. They should always be reviewed with care so that a lesson is learned from each of them. If the particular elements which caused a misjudgment on a common stock are thoroughly understood, it is unlikely that another poor purchase will be made through misjudging the same investment factors."
............. Philip Fisher

A genetic algorithm beats the FBI

A genetic algorithm beats the FBI by ZDNet's Roland Piquepaille -- Computer scientists from the University of Texas at Austin have used a genetic algorithm to develop a program which can better digitally improve images of fingerprints than the human-based FBI's fingerprint image compression program.

Check out the Article.

Mobile TV to be strong in Asia, U.S.

According to a new study from Screen Digest, Asia will dominate the global market for mobile digital television handsets within seven years, with 43 percent of the total market share. The U.S. and Europe will trail Asia with 32 percent and 25 percent of the market, respectively. The study claims that by 2012, 255 million MDTV handsets will have shipped worldwide. MDTV services are already available in South Korea and are under testing worldwide. Commercial MDTV services are expected to launch in North America and other Asian countries in 2006, with full commercial launches in Europe by 2007.

For more information about the Mobile TV trend:-
check out this article from Digital Media Asia

Headphones may increase hearing loss

New earphones for cell phones and MP3 players which fit snugly in the ear may be leading to serious hearing problems for Americans over the long term, according to researchers at Purdue University. That may be bad news for heavy cell phone users who rely on new head sets designed to keep their phones away from their heads. Robert Novack, head of audiology at the school, says he is seeing "older ears on younger bodies," a trend that began with the arrival of the Walkman two decades ago and has grown increasingly worse.
- see this story from the AP

Common Stock Price Fluctuations

"Most of the time common stocks are subject to irrational and excessive price fluctuations in both directions as the consequence of the ingrained tendency of most people to speculate or gamble... to give way to hope, fear and greed."
........... Benjamin Graham

Palm OS nearing final days?

Palm CFO Andrew Brown indicated his company will switch to a Windows OS for its Treo smart phone since, arguing that Windows is more likely to woo customers who have been reluctant to buy a Palm device. Insiders say the idea that a Palm device could be built around an OS other than Palm OS points to a shift in the market where anything is possible.

Following Access' acquisition of PalmSource last week, some analysts speculated that Access may push the software maker's Linux-based OS and leave the legacy Palm OS behind. Access and PalmSource have only confirmed continued support for existing deployments of Palm OS. Access said it will finish creating PalmSource's Linux-Palm OS hybrid but gave no time frame for its completion. Two years ago PalmSource was formed when the software and hardware divisions of Palm split into two separate companies.

For more on the future of Palm OS:-
read this article from ZDNet

Samsung's new chip doubles storage capacity

Samsung today unveiled a new NAND flash technology that combines 16 individual chips to produce a card with a total capacity of 32GB. This new technology has obvious implications for the next generation of high-end phones; a 32GB chip could store roughly 8,000 song files or hundreds of hours of video. Samsung expects to mass produce the chip in late 2006, but no OEM's have yet signed up yet.

To read more about Samsung's flash memory chip:-
read this story from IDG News

Character and tree

"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."
..............Abraham Lincoln

Katrina shows need for EMRs

Advocates of electronic medical records continued to point at the chaos in New Orleans as evidence of how important it is for hospitals to make the transition to digital records. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt told an audience in Washington, DC, that EMR technology would have avoided many of the problems now being experienced by the healthcare system on the Gulf Coast. "If there was ever a case for (electronic health records), this disaster underscores the need," Leavitt said.

- see this story from Government Health IT