A good program launching application is something I’ll use constantly so having it available with a keystroke is critical. When I made the move to Mac, I immediately started looking for a good launcher, and eventually stumbled across Alfred, a free launcher that’s simple yet powerful.
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Consumer prices in Japan extended their decline for an 18th straight month.
The core consumer price index, which strips out volatile fresh food prices, fell 1 percent in August from a year earlier. That compares to a decline of 1.1 percent in July.
"You've seen deflation pressure easing slightly for the past 12 months," said Richard Jerram, chief economist at Macquarie Securities in Japan. "But it's still a big problem."
Analysts say the country may remain mired in deflation because of the strengthening yen. A stronger yen is making imports cheaper to buy, giving retailers an incentive to lower prices in order to attract more customers.
The yen's rise has also been weighing heavily on Japan’s big exporters and undermining the country's fragile recovery.
An earlier report showed exports have been slowing for six straight month, mainly because a stronger yen and weakening overseas demand.
Despite the uncertainty, the country's labor market has been showing signs of improvement.
The jobless rate slipped to 5.1 percent in August from a previous reading of 5.2 percent. The reading was inline with expectations.
Last week the government said it was planning to introduce a supplementary budget of about $55 billion to pay for a new stimulus plan.
Jerram described the measures as nothing more than smoke and mirrors and won't have the impact needed to stimulate domestic demand. Part of the problem, he says, is Japan’s reliance on exports to boost growth rather than dealing with its domestic troubles, which is what's needed to turn the economy around.
"The government is struggling for good ideas on how to stimulate growth," said Jerram.
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Audi launched their luxury hatchback model, A7 Sportback, in Paris. The model which comes with a sporty styling, LED lights and 18-inch alloys (19-inch and 20-inch are optional) gives an outstanding impression from outside.
The cabin is featured with a 6.5 inch MMI display, aluminum trim, and up to 1390 liters (49.1 cubic feet) of cargo capacity. Additional features and options include wood trim, GPS navigation system, four-zone climate control, and a heated steering wheel. A 1300watt Bang and Olufsen audio system can also be in the list of add on features.
The model comes in petrol and diesel variants and four V6 engines (two each for one variant) will be offered by the company. Petrol variants offer a 2.8 liter FSI with a power of 150kW (204hp / 201PS) and a supercharged 3.0 liter TFSI with a power output of 220kW (295hp / 299PS).
Customers can opt from two 3.0 liter diesel engines that vary in power. One will be having a power output of 150kW (204hp / 201PS) and the other will be coming with a power of 180kW (241hp / 245Ps) . The model has a base price of Euros 51650 and will be on sale later this autumn.
(Via Autoblog)
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The good news for Apple is that iPhone 4 antenna problem hasn’t damaged the iPhone brand with consumers, but the bad news is that consumers are nearly as satisfied with Android phones.
According to market research firm ChangeWave, the iPhone continues to lead the competition with the highest number of “very satisfied” consumers at 74 percent. A satisfaction level above 70 percent has been consistent with the iPhone brand from model to model, meaning the iPhone 4 antenna problem really was the “non-issue” that Steve Jobs originally described it as for most consumers.
As for the competition, Android continues to maintain high satisfaction, in the 60 percent range. Considering the diverse number of handsets, that’s quite impressive, especially when compared to other competitors. HP, RIM, and Microsoft appear perpetually unable to achieve high levels of satisfaction with consumers. It will be interesting to see if Windows Phone 7 can change that.
The information says likely not. Those considering buying a new smartphone within the next 90 days aren’t looking at Microsoft, which is expected to launch Windows Phone 7 devices next month. However, it’s important to note that ChangeWave survey respondents aren’t necessarily representative of a broad range of buyers. RIM sold a record 12.1 million BlackBerry OS phones last quarter, despite being considered by few in ChangeWave surveys.
Unfortunately, at least for Apple, the survey is indeed an accurate reflection of sales when it comes to Android. The number of consumers considering buying an Android phone has climbed from six percent a year ago to 37 percent now. Corresponding sales have borne out those considerations, with Android devices now outselling the iPhone, at least in the U.S. If Apple is to have any chance of competing with Android in market share, carrier exclusivity in the American market must end soon.
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Are you or someone you know a recent convert from PC to Mac? Has the single most difficult thing to deal with been breaking your old keyboard shortcut habits? This seems to be one of the hardest parts of switching from one platform to the other. Maybe understanding why the differences exist will help you be more patient when adjusting to them.
The disparity is a little deeper than a simple case of Apple and Microsoft just not being able to get along. It’s actually rooted in the core of Apple’s engineering principles of thinking things through and getting it right the first time. Apple started from a proven and well accepted principle, whereas Microsoft saw value in a ‘feature’, didn’t bother to understand it, and screwed it up. Human nature being what it is, since more people grew up PC than Mac, PC had it “right”, and Mac had it “wrong.”
Controlling Teletype MachinesThe use of control key sequences date back to teletype systems, where certain commands were mapped into the American Standard Code for Information Interchange
(ASCII) character set. Teletype systems basically replaced the telegraph and were used to send typed messages over long distances. The ASCII was created in part to standardize the communication protocols between teletype machines. These teletype systems would send commands to control non-printing functions like movement of the printing cartridge.
This is where the “control” key originally got its name, since it controlled the mechanics of the machine it was sending instructions to. By holding down the control key when striking another character on the keyboard, you actually applied a sort of offset to the ASCII code, sending a different signal and producing an effect not related to actual typing.
Communicating to Unix ComputersEnter the age of computers. Early computer input worked in a very similar way as two teletype systems communicating with one another. In fact, the protocol that Unix uses to map keyboards as devices comes from teletype. Modern day Macs running OS X are based on Unix, and therefore, still support this paradigm. The Terminal application found in Utilities could actually be considered a software version of an old teletype system, sending commands to the computer to be executed.
The exact same control sequences used in early Unix-based systems are still supported on modern Macs. The original Control+C keyboard sequence once used to stop teletype printing is being used today by the Terminal Application to instruct the computer to cancel or stop an operation. Apple has chosen to maintain the integrity of its systems by choosing not to change the way the control key works.
Open Apple on a Swedish CampgroundThe command key, on the other hand, is an Apple original. Given that Apple was into selling hardware, and not just licensing software, adding a key to the keyboard was just part of the engineering process when creating new products.
The existence of an additional command key on Apple hardware dates back to the original Apple IIe. The first Macintosh computers also had a need to create specialized command key sequences and kept the Apple key.
Mapping menu functions to keyboard shortcuts were emphasized in part because the graphical interface of the Macintosh could actually display complex images like the Apple Logo on screen.
Rather than devalue the brand image by littering the menu system with an orchard of Apple logos all over the place, the Apple Icon was replaced by a symbol used in Sweden to indicate an interesting feature at a campground. Thus the Command Key as we know it today was born.
Disk-Based, not Terminal-Based Operating SystemAt the same time, Microsoft was growing up from its roots on DOS. Microsoft was not in the business of manufacturing and selling hardware, and had to deal with what was readily available on the market. Since early PC keyboards were born from older terminal based computer keyboards, and those keyboards have origins rooted in teletype systems, there was an extra control key just waiting for a disk-based OS to abuse.
Almost every MS-DOS application had a different mapping of keyboard sequences for common functions like open, close, cut, copy and paste. And they all abused the control key. When Windows first came around, Microsoft also wanted to map the menu actions to keyboard shortcuts in exactly the same way that Apple did. Rather than add a new key as Apple did, the control key was adopted as Microsoft’s command key, and Windows strong-armed its software vendors to follow the new shortcut convention.
It wasn’t until Windows 95 that Microsoft decided that it really needed its own true command key, but by that time, it was too late, and users had already formed habits and burned their favorite shortcuts into their brains.
Now that you know why the two operating systems look at keyboards differently, how do you adjust smoothly? There are actually some great online resources from both Apple and Microsoft that map all of the keyboard shortcuts and even show some of the PC to Mac equivalents. It may take keeping a browser window open with these resources on hand for a while, but trust me, you’ll get there, and you’ll be glad you did.
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Muhammad Yunus is a man on a mission. He's been a banker, an economist, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. He developed microcredit and microfinance, giving loans to entrepreneurs who are just too poor to be considered for bank financing.
You may have heard about his Grameen Bank. Its founding was what helped him to jointly win the 2006 Nobel Prize.
His most recent book is about what he calls "social business." These are small-scale enterprises run not for profit, but to make an impact. They are different from charities, because they do make a profit; however, that is not their primary purpose. They are meant to be self-sustaining, tax paying, revenue generating enterprises that help fix a social problem.
While on his book tour, I had the chance to talk to him at length about the book, and the role of social business in the global economy.
He is passionate about young people. When he speaks to them at universities he says he finds passion that you can sense he equates with his own. "Young people are not graduating with their job offers in their hands any more. They want to make a difference and they see that making money is not what is important. They want to change the world."
Yunus is sharp as a tack, hopeful, and brimming with enthusiasm for his work. He bristles at any suggestion that social business is too small to make an impact, that it's anti-capitalist, or that it just can't work if owners can't be motivated to take profits from the business. He believes in changing minds.
An early venture in social business involved making fortified yogurt for areas in Bangladesh where most children are malnourished. This small program struggled to succeed in a country without refrigeration and infrastructure to distribute the yogurt. Women were hired to sell the tubs door-to-door, but cultural barriers got in the way. Wheat and milk prices shot up in the U.S., and that raised the price-point of the yogurt, hitting sales hard.
It took time, but the venture is now considered a small success, in a big way.
You can read more about this project and others in his book: "Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs."
And check out our interview. It will make your day.
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