IT Industry News

Text Messages more popular than Calls

James — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:48:56 +0000

Many big mobile providers have issued that text messaging has become more popular than making calls, this is no surprise to here as text messages tend to be cheaper and at times quicker than making a call.

Reports showed that a typical mobile subscriber sends or receives around 357 text messages per month, compared to placing or receiving 204 phone calls. Looking back over the past few years the number of calls remained relatively steady but the number of text messages is up 450% from just two years prior a huge increase showing text messages is taking over.

The biggest number of texts sent is from the ages of 13 -18 year old with reports showing the send and receive on average around 1,750 texts a month.

The reasons for this huge increase in texts is due to the ease it is in which to text this can now be done by sending SMS from PC, pay as you go mobile and also on contact phones. Although phone calls are just as easy to be made for many people it is trendier to send a text which can be straight to the point and sent from many places.

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Bulk CD Copying

James — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:27:27 +0000

CD Copying is a great way to back-up data or create mass-marketing material such as catalogues. Bulk CD copying is performed on industrial CD copying equipment. This may consist of a tower of CD recorders which receive data from a master-computer. Some CD copying equipment is loaded manually but newer machine have a robotic CD transfer arm which can add blank CDRs to the CD tray and remove the burned CDs, adding them to a stack. The automated process is much more reliable and ensures that large orders can be fulfilled on time.

Labelling of CDs has come a long way also. No longer are you left hunting around for a half-working permanent marker to write illegibly on the disc. Some CD burners will use a system known as LightScribe, which uses the the writing laser to burn your image design into the top-surface of the CD.

A quicker alternative is use a sticky paper label which is stuck on the CD. This has the advantage of being easy to print using conventional printing techniques, cheap and fast. For the highest-quality printing, full-colour CD labels can be silk screen printed on large orders but is expensive and best used on large batches of CDs or those that are required to last for more than seven years.

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Self-Organising DNA Helps Create More Closely Spaced Devices

James — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:59:23 +0000

Small pieces of DNA known as DNA Origami have been made to self-organise onto silicon forming the scaffolding for new electronic components. Current micro fabrication techniques can create surface features with a spacing of 45nm. Creating the transistors and electronic components closer together will ultimately lead to faster computers.

In this image, we see the DNA origami looking like the triangular shaped spaghetti hoops. The hope is that the DNA can be used to manipulate the tiny parts that will go into future devices such as carbon nanotubes. The DNA origami can be made to fill regularly spaced holes etched into the silicon carrying their cargo when they are added to liquid and this is made to contact the sillicon.

As microfibrication techniques move to a smaller scale the cost of fabrication becomes increasingly more expensive as features must be resolved using light of smaller wavelengths. The components features are made from the top down. This new technique has the scope to create parts and then introduce them to the substrate. A more bottom up approach if you will. This research and has a great deal of potential but to develop the process to a useful stage, where it might be used on a large scale may take more than ten years.

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Microsoft Banned from Selling Word

James — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:24:00 +0000

A court in Texas has banned the sale of Microsoft’s word processing software Word due to patent infringement by the Canadian company i4i. In addition to banning sale of the product, it has also been fined £175 million.

The patent infringement corncerns the use of XML files to store documents. XML is a mark-up language like HTML but one in which users can define their own tags to stand for parts of the document suhc as price or product. XML is used in Open Source word processing software such as Open Office.

The injunction prohibits microsoft from importing and selling any Word product into the United States which can open XML files, .docx or docm.

Microsoft have 60-days to comply with the ruling but issued a statement that it will be appealling the decision.

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CD Duplication

James — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:21:41 +0000

CD duplication can provide an inexpensive service for your business with a fast turn around. Typically upto 500 discs can be produced in a 24 hour turn around time and with duplication offering many benefits to the small business from creating backups of important data to producing large numbers of catalogues or product data for distribution to your potential customers.

How does it work? Much like your traditional CD burner that you have on your home computer or laptop except on a larger scale. Companies that offer this service have towers of CD burners allowing them to replicate a CD many times in a short time.

While a traditional CD burnner is great for producing a single disc, a CD replication company can offer the facility to have colored artwork printed on the top surface. Recently, developments in the MagicWrite disc allow the user to actually use the CD burner to create a printed image on the specially coated surface of the disc. However, while this is an improvement on simply writing on the top of the disc with a perminent pen, it is still not up to the impressive standard of surface printing that can be produced by commercial screen printing techniques.

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British Technology Love Affair

James — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:04:57 +0000

Britons love technology so much that they are willing to cut back on spending on holidays and eating out or at least this is the conclusion of an annual review by Ofcom. Spending on mobile phones, internet and TV is more important than everything except food according to the survey of some 862 people. When asked how they would be cutting back spending during the recession, 47% said eating out, 41% cutting back on DIY projects, 41% on holidays compared with 19% who said they would cut back on mobile phone spending, 16% tv subscriptions and 10% broadband services. The study also showed the increase in social networking use. It shows we really love our tech in the UK.

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Your own Satelite in Orbit for $8000

James — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:30:32 +0000

A company is offering personal satellites which will be sent into low Earth Orbit for the interestingly low price of $8000. (4,751 GBP) . The interorbital tube satellites will be sold in kit form and contain the parts for a satellite that can be picked up on HAM radio. The satellite kit contains:

Casing, endplates and Mounting hardward
A transceiver
A battery pack
Solar Cells
Power management control system (PMCS)
Microcomputer
Software
Antennas
Safety switches
complete instructions

Up to 32 satellites can be launched on a single rocket into a polar orbit. To prevent the build up of dangerous space junk, after a few months the satellites will fall back to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. As well as the equipment included there is also some space in left for your own experiments. A maximum mass of 0.200 kg is available. More information can be found at the company web-page.

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Chinese Furniture E Commerce Success

James — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:02:14 +0000

E Commerce systems are becoming one of the most important tools for business in China, predominantly in the export business. We all no that every year China will export Billions of Dollars of merchandise round the world. Now manufactures are turning to using E commerce systems to promote their product to more people that are generally at the end of the chain. It is being looked upon as a way of generating more sales. For example, if a shop in the UK sells Chinese Furniture then they have a couple of options on how to stock their shop. They can go and visit china and travel round finding contacts and visiting suppliers. Now with the implementation of B2B e commerce systems it now means that you can check out more potential suppliers before you make that trip, I don’t think E commerce could replace the human eye, having furniture imported will cost serious money and spending money without seeing the product with a human eye is risky indeed, however the new e commerce system will allow you to see the products from a far before you travel out their, they will give you prices and much more information. For the Importer this is priceless, it could save on wasted trips to China to find stock, it can open up competition between all the exporters. From an exporter point of view it opens up their customer base. I am personally suprised that this has not been done on a more large scale in the past as E commerce is nothing new, However a recent drop in exports in china would no doubt make a few people buck up their ideas and in the long run improve their business and how it is run with a view to expand in a time of downturn.

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Flame Proof Trophies

James — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:17:53 +0000

I thought i would make a break from direct IT industry news today and reflect on the amount of trophies are everywhere and a funny video which isnt in the slightest bit funny for the people involved but does point out why the UK has health and safety policy that would have benefit these people! At this time of year the football seasons draw to an end all around the world. Teams are celebrating and Trophies are won. Manchester United won in the UK, Barcelona won in Spain and in Europe And in South America a team called Corinthians won the leage. Nothing special i hear you say, Well no but the celebration was one to look out for. As the teams were handed their trophies the captain went to collect what looked like the worlds largest trophy! Innocently minding his own business the captain in a buoyant mood found a cherry picker (hydrolic rising platform). This was obviously all planned for his to use it so in he gets with some other very excited people, and as the platform rises up from the ground he raises the trophie, the crowds go wilde ticker tape gets fired from a cannon streaming over the players, then the fireworks go off and all is idyllic in the world of a champion. That is until the ticker tape gets caught round the trophy then the fireworks set the ticker tape on fire! Personally i couldn’t think of anything worse than being in a confided space raised in the air and being on fire! Take a look for yourself.

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Battery Suppliers

James — Wed, 20 May 2009 08:44:21 +0000

In today’s modern day technology everything runs from batteries, You rely on batteries to wake you up in the morning, you rely on them the start your car, you rely on batteries to to phone your boss to warn them you are going to be late, you might rely on a battery to operate the mouse you use at work or to make sure the keyword is still functioning, You may rely on a battery to power the laptop you are using when you go out for an important meeting. You will use your car battery to get back home. A battery chicken might provide the eggs for the omelet you are eating and when you relax in the evening it will be the power from a battery that will change the channel on the TV. If you have Children then you enter a whole different ball game. Radio control cars will eat batteries no end and only a few hours on a Nintendo Wii means a change of batteries, Maybe you have an Xbox which also drains batteries!

Were is all this going? im not really sure but it is making me wonder if opening a Battery shop is a good idea!! You can buy batteries from a lot of different places, but.. there isn’t a one stop high street shop for buying your batteries. If you look online there are some brilliant battery suppliers were you can buy wholesale batteries at good prices. You could realistically stock all sorts of batteries (apart from car batteries!!) and make money from it, The battery industry is so vast these days with mobile phones and wireless controllers for game systems the demand for a battery is higher now than it ever has been.

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