Zmrss Reader » August 31, 2009

« Expand/Collapse

(8 unread)

August 31, 2009
22:18
茶几书架灯
» ‎ 疯狂的设计

茶几书架灯，Julian Appellius 设计：

类别：体验查看评论

19:28
Help for Snow Leopard Printing Woes
» ‎ BusinessWeek Online -- Tech Beat

By and large, Mac upgrades to Snow Leopard seem to be going pretty smoothly, but there are a lot of reports of problems with printers and scanners. This isn't entirely surprising; drivers, the software glue that connects hardware to the operating system, generally cause the most problems after any upgrade. And Snow Leopard's handling of printer drivers is significantly different from its predecessor's.

Both Apple and Hewlett-Packard have some help to offer. If you are having printer or scanner problems after a snow Leopard Upgrade, the first place to go is the printer and scanner compatibility page on the Apple Web site. Apple also has a page to help troubleshoot Snow Leopard printer issues.

If you have an HP printer or scanner and that doesn't solve your problem, more help is on the way, but you'll have to wait about a week. From 8 am to 5 pm on Sept. 9, HP technicians will provide real-time assistance for issues posted on HP's Mac Printing & Scanning Board. After the real-time help ends, HP promises that techs will continue to monitor the board and attempt to provide timely help in resolving problems.
18:25
Can Hulu’s High Prices Hold?
» ‎ BusinessWeek Online -- Tech Beat

This fall, new episodes of The Office, 30 Rock, and other hit shows will keep millions of online eyeballs glued to Hulu. But some advertisers are reluctant to pay the high rates the online video startup is charging to reach those audiences, and have started weighing their options elsewhere.

Currently, Hulu charges an average of $40 for every thousand views of an ad, according to Philippe Sloan, who buys ad space for clients of New York marketing agency Targetcast tcm. With ad space alongside videos on portal sites like MSN and Yahoo! running at about half that price, and cheaper options becoming available through YouTube and video ad networks, he says some clients are pulling ad dollars from Hulu and testing the effectiveness of other channels. “I think there’s going to be pressure on the site to bring their rates down,” Sloan says.

Hulu, a joint venture of TV networks Fox, NBC Universal, and – since May – ABC, no doubt gives advertisers plenty of bang for their buck. Its impressive library of TV shows and movies attracted over 457 million views in July, according to comScore, making it the fourth most-watched video site. (Google’s YouTube is No. 1, with nearly 9 billion views.) Those viewers spent an average of 6.1 minutes per video – by far the longest on the Web. “Hulu still has more attraction than most sites because of the nature of the content and because it has more long-form content,” says eMarketer’s David Hallerman.

For now, Hulu’s strategy of charging advertisers more and placing fewer ads in each show appears to be paying off: the company has managed to grow revenues each consecutive quarter so far this year, according to a source familiar with its financials. But will the model continue to work if advertisers have a broader range of less expensive choices? According to Sloan, the average cost-per-thousand-ad impressions has already fallen, from a high of close to $50. Hulu declined to comment on what it charges advertisers.
16:26
Clearing the Clouds from VMware's Road Map
» ‎ BusinessWeek Online -- Tech Beat

VMware eased into its annual conference in San Francisco on Aug. 31 with a few small announcements about cost savings and industry partnerships. The spotlight now turns to Chief Executive Paul Maritz, who will give a Sept. 1 keynote address and press conference that will be VMWorld’s center of attention.

Maritz, who took over as CEO a little more than a year ago, has a big job before him: To sell VMware’s story about what’s next on its product road map at a time when Microsoft is making inroads into the market for virtualization software. The task is especially important given some confusion about what products VMware has in the hopper

Companies use virtualization software to make their servers more efficient and save on hardware costs, and VMware has grown to $1.9 billion in annual sales by grabbing leadership in that market. Now, it’s fighting Microsoft and others to control other aspects of companies’ data center operations, including the tools they use to manage applications, servers, and other hardware.

Last fall, VMware was talking up what it described as future “virtual data center operating system" software to help companies manage servers, disk drives, networking devices, and applications. Now, it’s playing down that sales pitch.

The so-called ‘VDC-OS’ “was more of a concept than software,” chief operating officer Tod Nielsen said in a recent interview. The company was using the term to describe future capabilities of its flagship vSphere software, he says. Bogomil Balansky, VMware’s vice-president of product marketing, says “we’ve bandied around a lot of different terms for what to call this piece of software.” A better way to think about VMware’s roadmap is that future versions of vSphere will let companies schedule computing jobs on virtualized hardware, and will let software applications perform faster and more reliably, he adds.

Getting the branding right will be key as customers look for more help cutting IT costs during what’s still a tight environment for technology budgets. VMware, a hyper-growth story only a few years ago, is expanding more slowly than it was during companies’ pre-recession buying binge on virtualization software; sales were flat in the second quarter. “It’s hard to know what [percentage] this company will grow in recovery,” says Jeffries & Co. research analyst Katherine Egbert, who recently downgraded VMware’s stock to “underperform.”
7:25
Snow Leopard: Printer Compatibility Update
» ‎ BusinessWeek Online -- Tech Beat

Since the release of Snow Leopard on Friday, there have been lots of reports of printer incompatibilities, mostly involving Hewlett-Packard and Epson printers. Both companies have responded with fairly detailed compatibility information.

HP has published a compatibility list and instructions for getting supported printers and all-in-ones working under Snow Leopard. No word yet on when drivers for models not currently support might be available.

Epson has also put up a Web page where you can check the compatibility of specific printer and scanner models.
5:01
Calix Raises $100 Million in Funding
» ‎ BusinessWeek Online -- Tech Beat

Carl Russo, the legendary entrepreneur who sold a start-up to Cisco for $7 billion several years ago, can be proud of another milestone. On Aug. 31, Calix, a networking equipment company where Russo is CEO, announced it completed a $100 million round of funding lead by Foundation Capital. Russo tells BusinessWeek.com he poured in some of his own money as well.

What's the money for? It could be used for future acquisitions, to rev up production, and to enter new markets. "We thought we had an opportunity to accelerate our growth rate," Russo tells BusinessWeek.com. In 2008, privately-held Calix's sales of gear used in broadband networks rose 29%, to more than $250 million, according to the company. And while he wouldn't release this year's results, Russo says Calix has gained market share in 2009.

In the coming months, Calix hopes to benefit from Obama Administration's broadband stimulus initiative, a program designed to bring broadband into rural areas that Calix's carrier customers service. About 40% of U.S. rural service providers use Calix's equipment to deliver video and other broadband services to the home, according to the company.

The company may also consider growing its global presence beyond North and Latin America. "We have global aspirations," Russo says. Acquisitions may be in the works as well. So far, Calix has only acquired one company more than three years ago.

While it's been speculated that Calix may try to go public, that may not be in the cards for now. "It was never an issue raising funds [privately]," Russo says. "I am sure at some point in time [an Initial Public Offering] will occur."

Would Russo consider selling Calix? "We shouldn't build a business to be acquired, and we shouldn't build a business not to be acquired," Russo says. "If somebody starts writing us a check with a lot of zeros in it..."

4:16
Google 地图小工具：帮助客户找到您
» ‎ Google 黑板报 -- Google 中国的博客网志

转载自谷歌中文网站管理员博客

发表者: Julie Zhou, 产品营销经理, Google地图
原文: Google Maps gadget: Help customers find their way 发表于: 2009年7月7日星期二, 下午4:30

Google 地图开发了新的路线小工具，任何商户都可以利用它制作个性化的 Google 地图路线，帮助客户找到自己。有了路线小工具，您再也不必为提供或更新多套路线文字说明而烦恼。更何况客户通常都只是搜索如何从他们的所在地到达您的公司或经营地点。上周我就查了前往萨克拉曼多的一家酒店的路线，因为我在这家酒店预订了房间，希望在那里度过一个凉爽的周末。由于我之前从没去过那里，酒店网站上提供的路线又十分有限，所以我有些不知所措。我完全不知道自己应该向东西南北哪个方向行驶，也不知道主要的公路在哪里。当时我需要的是详细的路线，能够一步步帮助我从所在的位置出发前往该酒店，而且我可以轻松将路线打印出来，然后按路线行动。现在，Google 可以帮您轻松实现这一切！只需复制和粘贴一行代码，任何网站便可利用 Google 地图的路线功能，向用户提供自定义的“门到门”路线。
利用这款小工具，您可以在“前往此处：”字段中预先填入一个或多个地址。客户只需一次点击便可打印相应路线。对于不想驾车的客户，这款小工具还提供了步行和公交路线。
当用户输入一个不太确切的出发地址时，这款小工具提供了选项，用于指定更确切的地址。该地址随后将显示在“从此处出发:”字段中。
利用 Google 地图提供路线非常灵活：除了人们习惯使用的地址外，您还可以用其他方式为客户提供路线，比如邮政编码或者您所在位置的经纬度坐标等。目的地示例：
123 River St, Woods, MA
90210
北纬42.06782°, 西经71.756963° 您也可以为您的地址起一个别称，或者使用一个大家都理解的名称。要使用别称，只需将别称加上括号并放在地址之后：北纬42.06782°, 西经71.756963°（外婆家）

先来了解一下加州乐高乐园、美国名厨Emeril Lagasse 以及哈佛大学是如何使用这款小工具的。然后，您可以试着在这里创建自己的路线小工具。这款小工具提供 23 种语言版本，可供美国境外多个国家地区的用户使用。

0:00
embedding a variable in a string
» ‎ Ask Tom HOT ARTICLES

After running a proc I wrote I get this error: ORA-01756: quoted string not properly terminated I am writing SQL as a string so that I can embed variables into the the string, like: v_sql := 'insert into... select... etc'; I then execute thi...

← August 30 (2 items) September 1 (19 items) →

Zmrss Reader » August 31, 2009

Feeds

(8 unread)