Smart partners with Saudi bank

The mobile phone network unit of publicly listed telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has partnered with a Saudi Arabia-based bank to expand the latter’s electronic money transfer service. Smart Communications, Inc., in a statement, Monday said that its Smart Money platform would enable National Commercial Bank (NCB), the largest bank in the Middle East, to launch an international remittance service targeted at Filipino migrant workers. NCB’s Quick Pay Remittance Service would tap a market of around 1.2 million Filipinos in Saudi Arabia for the delivery of funds to Smart Money accounts in the Philippines by phone, internet, remittance centers, cash deposit machines, over-the-counter transactions and fund transfers via automated teller machines. Smart said the funds would be transferred at the speed and with the convenience of a text message and can be withdrawn nationwide from over 7,000 ATMs, 100 Smart Wireless Centers and thousands of third-party Smart Money partners. Smart President and Chief Executive Officer Napoleon L. Nazareno said the partnership would allow the local mobile phone service provider to tap an increased market for its Smart Money service. "The exclusive business partnership between Smart and NCB for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is very strategic as it boosts Smart’s efforts to offer mobile money transfer services in various regions of the world particularly in the Middle East where there are large numbers of Filipinos," Mr. Nazareno said. NCB was described as having total assets of $55.7 billion and paid-up capital of $4 billion. As of end-2007, about 300,000 of its 2,000,000 customers comprised Filipino payroll accounts. NCB Head of Remittance and Mobile Payments Omar M. Hashem, meanwhile, said the electronic money transfer service would be later expanded to other countries. "Initially, this will be available to Filipino migrant workers sending to Philippines, but will eventually be available to other nationalities sending money to their respective beneficiary-countries," he said. Mediaquest Holdings Inc., owned by the Beneficiary Trust Fund of PLDT, has a minority stake in BusinessWorld.

Japan experiments with robots as part of daily life

TOKYO - At a university lab in a Tokyo suburb, engineering students are wiring a rubbery robot face to simulate six basic expressions: anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise and disgust.Hooked up to a database of words clustered by association, the robot - dubbed Kansei, or ''sensibility'' - responds to the word ''war'' by quivering in what looks like disgust and fear. It hears ''love,'' and its pink lips smile.''To live among people, robots need to handle complex social tasks,'' said project leader Junichi Takeno of Meiji University. ''Robots will need to work with emotions, to understand and eventually feel them.While robots are a long way from matching human emotional complexity, the country is perhaps the closest to a future - once the stuff of science fiction - where humans and intelligent robots routinely live side by side and interact socially.Robots are already taken for granted in Japanese factories, so much so that they are sometimes welcomed on their first day at work with Shinto religious ceremonies. Robots make sushi. Robots plant rice and tend paddies.There are robots serving as receptionists, vacuuming office corridors, spoon-feeding the elderly. They serve tea, greet company guests and chatter away at public technology displays. Now startups are marching out robotic home helpers.They aren't all humanoid. The Paro is a furry robot seal fitted with sensors beneath its fur and whiskers, designed to comfort the lonely, opening and closing its eyes and moving its flippers.For Japan, the robotics revolution is an imperative. With more than a fifth of the population 65 or older, the country is banking on robots to replenish the work force and care for the elderly.In the past several years, the government has funded a plethora of robotics-related efforts, including some 4.6 billion yen ($42.7 million;€28.7 million) for the first phase of a humanoid robotics project, and 1.1 billion yen ($10.2 million;€6.8 million) a year between 2006 and 2010 to develop key robot technologies.The government estimates the industry could surge from about 558 billion yen ($5.2 billion;€3.5 billion) in 2006 to 3 trillion yen ($26 billion;€17.5 billion) in 2010 and nearly 7.5 trillion yen ($70 billion;€47 billion) by 2025.Besides financial and technological power, the robot wave is favored by the Japanese mind-set as well.Robots have long been portrayed as friendly helpers in Japanese popular culture, a far cry from the often rebellious and violent machines that often inhabit Western science fiction.This is, after all, the country that invented Tamagotchi, the hand-held mechanical pets that captivated the children of the world.Japanese are also more accepting of robots because the native Shinto religion often blurs boundaries between the animate and inanimate, experts say. To the Japanese psyche, the idea of a humanoid robot with feelings doesn't feel as creepy - or as threatening - as it might do in other cultures.Still, Japan faces a vast challenge in making the leap - commercially and culturally - from toys, gimmicks and the experimental robots churned out by labs like Takeno's to full-blown human replacements that ordinary people can afford and use safely.''People are still asking whether people really want robots running around their homes, and folding their clothes,'' said Damian Thong, senior technology analyst at Macquarie Bank in Tokyo.''But then again, Japan's the only country in the world where everyone has an electric toilet,'' he said. ''We could be looking at a robotics revolution.''That revolution has been going on quietly for some time.Japan is already an industrial robot powerhouse. Over 370,000 robots worked at factories across Japan in 2005, about 40 percent of the global total and 32 robots for every 1,000 Japanese manufacturing employees, according to a recent report by Macquarie, which had no numbers from subsequent years.And they won't be claiming overtime or drawing pensions when they're retired.''The cost of machinery is going down, while labor costs are rising,'' said Eimei Onaga, CEO of Innovation Matrix Inc., a company that distributes Japanese robotics technology in the US ''Soon, robots could even replace low-cost workers at small firms, greatly boosting productivity.''That's just what the Japanese government has been counting on. A 2007 national technology roadmap by the Trade Ministry calls for 1 million industrial robots to be installed throughout the country by 2025.A single robot can replace about 10 employees, the roadmap assumes - meaning Japan's future million-robot army of workers could take the place of 10 million humans. That's about 15 percent of the current work force.''Robots are the cornerstone of Japan's international competitiveness,'' Shunichi Uchiyama, the Trade Ministry's chief of manufacturing industry policy, said at a recent seminar. ''We expect robotics technology to enter even more sectors going forward.''Meanwhile, localities looking to boost regional industry clusters have seized on robotics technology as a way to spur advances in other fields.Robotic technology is used to build more complex cars, for instance, and surgical equipment.The logical next step is robots in everyday life.At a hospital in Aizu Wakamatsu, 300 kilometers (190 miles) north of Tokyo, a child-sized white and blue robot wheels across the floor, guiding patients to and from the outpatients' surgery area.The robot, made by startup Tmsk, sports perky catlike ears, recites simple greetings, and uses sensors to detect and warn people in the way. It helpfully prints out maps of the hospital, and even checks the state of patients' arteries.The Aizu Chuo Hospital spent about some 60 million yen ($557,000;€375,000) installing three of the robots in its waiting rooms to test patients' reactions. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, said spokesman Naoya Narita.''We feel this is a good division of labor. Robots won't ever become doctors, but they can be guides and receptionists,'' Narita said.Still, the wheeled machines hadn't won over all seniors crowding the hospital waiting room on a weekday morning.''It just told us to get out of the way!'' huffed wheelchair-bound Hiroshi Asami, 81. ''It's a robot. It's the one who should get out my way.''''I prefer dealing with real people,'' he said.Another roadblock is money.For all its research, Japan has yet to come up with a commercially successful consumer robot. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. failed to sell even one of its pricey toddler-sized Wakamaru robots, launched in 2003 as domestic helpers.Though initially popular, Sony Corp. pulled the plug on its robot dog, Aibo, in 2006, just seven years after its launch. With a price tag of a whopping 200,000 yen ($2,000;€1,350), Aibo never managed to break into the mass market.One of the only commercially successful consumer robots so far is made by an American company, iRobot Corp. The Roomba vacuum cleaner robot is self-propelled and can clean rooms without supervision.''We can pretty much make anything, but we have to ask, what are people actually going to buy?'' said iRobot CEO Helen Greiner. The company has sold 2.5 million Roombas - which retail for as little as US$120 (€81) - since the line was launched in 2002.Still, with the correct approach, robots could provide a wealth of consumer goods, Greiner stressed at a recent convention.Sure enough, Japanese makers are catching on, launching low-cost robots like Tomy's 31,290 yen ($280;€185) i-Sobot, a toy-like hobby robot that comes with 17 motors, can recognize spoken words and can be remote-controlled.Sony is also trying to learn from past mistakes, launching a much cheaper 40,000 yen ($350;€235) rolling speaker robot last year that built on its robotics technology.''What we need now isn't the ultimate humanoid robot,'' said Kyoji Takenaka, the head of the industry-wide Robot Business Promotion Council.''Engineers need to remember that the key to developing robots isn't in the lab, but in everyday life.''Still, some of the most eye-catching developments in robotics are coming out of Japan's labs.Researchers at Osaka University, for instance, are developing a robot to better understand child development.The ''Child-Robot with Biomimetic Body'' is designed to mimic the motions of a toddler. It responds to sounds, and sensors in its eyes can see and react to people. It wiggles, changes facial expressions, and makes gurgling sounds.The team leader, Minoru Asada, is working on artificial intelligence software that would allow the child to ''learn'' as it progresses.''Right now, it only goes, 'Ah, ah.' But as we develop its learning function, we hope it can start saying more complex sentences and moving on its own will,'' Asada said. ''Next-generation robots need to be able to learn and develop themselves.''For Hiroshi Ishiguro, also at Osaka University, the key is to make robots that look like human beings. His Geminoid robot looks uncannily like himself - down to the black, wiry hair and slight tan.''In the end, we don't want to interact with machines or computers. We want to interact with technology in a human way so it's natural and valid to try to make robots look like us,'' he said.''One day, they will live among us,'' Ishiguro said. ''Then you'd have to ask me: 'Are you human? Or a robot?'''

Japan looks to a robot future

TOKYO - At a university lab in a Tokyo suburb, engineering students are wiring a rubbery robot face to simulate six basic expressions: anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise and disgust.Hooked up to a database of words clustered by association, the robot — dubbed Kansei, or "sensibility" — responds to the word "war" by quivering in what looks like disgust and fear. It hears "love," and its pink lips smile."To live among people, robots need to handle complex social tasks," said project leader Junichi Takeno of Meiji University. "Robots will need to work with emotions, to understand and eventually feel them.While robots are a long way from matching human emotional complexity, the country is perhaps the closest to a future — once the stuff of science fiction — where humans and intelligent robots routinely live side by side and interact socially.Robots are already taken for granted in Japanese factories, so much so that they are sometimes welcomed on their first day at work with Shinto religious ceremonies. Robots make sushi. Robots plant rice and tend paddies.There are robots serving as receptionists, vacuuming office corridors, spoon-feeding the elderly. They serve tea, greet company guests and chatter away at public technology displays. Now startups are marching out robotic home helpers.They aren't all humanoid. The Paro is a furry robot seal fitted with sensors beneath its fur and whiskers, designed to comfort the lonely, opening and closing its eyes and moving its flippers.For Japan, the robotics revolution is an imperative. With more than a fifth of the population 65 or older, the country is banking on robots to replenish the work force and care for the elderly.In the past several years, the government has funded a plethora of robotics-related efforts, including some $42 million for the first phase of a humanoid robotics project, and $10 million a year between 2006 and 2010 to develop key robot technologies.The government estimates the industry could surge from about $5.2 billion in 2006 to $26 billion in 2010 and nearly $70 billion by 2025.Besides financial and technological power, the robot wave is favored by the Japanese mind-set as well.Robots have long been portrayed as friendly helpers in Japanese popular culture, a far cry from the often rebellious and violent machines that often inhabit Western science fiction.This is, after all, the country that invented Tamagotchi, the hand-held mechanical pets that captivated the children of the world.Japanese are also more accepting of robots because the native Shinto religion often blurs boundaries between the animate and inanimate, experts say. To the Japanese psyche, the idea of a humanoid robot with feelings doesn't feel as creepy — or as threatening — as it might do in other cultures.Still, Japan faces a vast challenge in making the leap — commercially and culturally — from toys, gimmicks and the experimental robots churned out by labs like Takeno's to full-blown human replacements that ordinary people can afford and use safely."People are still asking whether people really want robots running around their homes, and folding their clothes," said Damian Thong, senior technology analyst at Macquarie Bank in Tokyo."But then again, Japan's the only country in the world where everyone has an electric toilet," he said. "We could be looking at a robotics revolution."That revolution has been going on quietly for some time.Japan is already an industrial robot powerhouse. Over 370,000 robots worked at factories across Japan in 2005, about 40 percent of the global total and 32 robots for every 1,000 Japanese manufacturing employees, according to a recent report by Macquarie, which had no numbers from subsequent years.And they won't be claiming overtime or drawing pensions when they're retired."The cost of machinery is going down, while labor costs are rising," said Eimei Onaga, CEO of Innovation Matrix Inc., a company that distributes Japanese robotics technology in the U.S. "Soon, robots could even replace low-cost workers at small firms, greatly boosting productivity."That's just what the Japanese government has been counting on. A 2007 national technology roadmap by the Trade Ministry calls for 1 million industrial robots to be installed throughout the country by 2025.A single robot can replace about 10 employees, the roadmap assumes — meaning Japan's future million-robot army of workers could take the place of 10 million humans. That's about 15 percent of the current work force."Robots are the cornerstone of Japan's international competitiveness," Shunichi Uchiyama, the Trade Ministry's chief of manufacturing industry policy, said at a recent seminar. "We expect robotics technology to enter even more sectors going forward."Meanwhile, localities looking to boost regional industry clusters have seized on robotics technology as a way to spur advances in other fields.Robotic technology is used to build more complex cars, for instance, and surgical equipment.The logical next step is robots in everyday life.At a hospital in Aizu Wakamatsu, 190 miles north of Tokyo, a child-sized white and blue robot wheels across the floor, guiding patients to and from the outpatients' surgery area.The robot, made by startup Tmsk, sports perky catlike ears, recites simple greetings, and uses sensors to detect and warn people in the way. It helpfully prints out maps of the hospital, and even checks the state of patients' arteries.The Aizu Chuo Hospital spent about some $557,000 installing three of the robots in its waiting rooms to test patients' reactions. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, said spokesman Naoya Narita."We feel this is a good division of labor. Robots won't ever become doctors, but they can be guides and receptionists," Narita said.Still, the wheeled machines hadn't won over all seniors crowding the hospital waiting room on a weekday morning."It just told us to get out of the way!" huffed wheelchair-bound Hiroshi Asami, 81. "It's a robot. It's the one who should get out my way.""I prefer dealing with real people," he said.Another roadblock is money.For all its research, Japan has yet to come up with a commercially successful consumer robot. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. failed to sell even one of its pricey toddler-sized Wakamaru robots, launched in 2003 as domestic helpers.Though initially popular, Sony Corp. pulled the plug on its robot dog, Aibo, in 2006, just seven years after its launch. With a price tag of a whopping $2,000, Aibo never managed to break into the mass market.One of the only commercially successful consumer robots so far is made by an American company, iRobot Corp. The Roomba vacuum cleaner robot is self-propelled and can clean rooms without supervision."We can pretty much make anything, but we have to ask, what are people actually going to buy?" said iRobot CEO Helen Greiner. The company has sold 2.5 million Roombas — which retail for as little as $120 — since the line was launched in 2002.Still, with the correct approach, robots could provide a wealth of consumer goods, Greiner stressed at a recent convention.Sure enough, Japanese makers are catching on, launching low-cost robots like Tomy's $300 i-Sobot, a toy-like hobby robot that comes with 17 motors, can recognize spoken words and can be remote-controlled.Sony is also trying to learn from past mistakes, launching a much cheaper $350 rolling speaker robot last year that built on its robotics technology."What we need now isn't the ultimate humanoid robot," said Kyoji Takenaka, the head of the industry-wide Robot Business Promotion Council."Engineers need to remember that the key to developing robots isn't in the lab, but in everyday life."Still, some of the most eye-catching developments in robotics are coming out of Japan's labs.Researchers at Osaka University, for instance, are developing a robot to better understand child development.The "Child-Robot with Biomimetic Body" is designed to mimic the motions of a toddler. It responds to sounds, and sensors in its eyes can see and react to people. It wiggles, changes facial expressions, and makes gurgling sounds.The team leader, Minoru Asada, is working on artificial intelligence software that would allow the child to "learn" as it progresses."Right now, it only goes, 'Ah, ah.' But as we develop its learning function, we hope it can start saying more complex sentences and moving on its own will," Asada said. "Next-generation robots need to be able to learn and develop themselves."For Hiroshi Ishiguro, also at Osaka University, the key is to make robots that look like human beings. His Geminoid robot looks uncannily like himself — down to the black, wiry hair and slight tan."In the end, we don't want to interact with machines or computers. We want to interact with technology in a human way so it's natural and valid to try to make robots look like us," he said."One day, they will live among us," Ishiguro said. "Then you'd have to ask me: 'Are you human? Or a robot?'"

Microsoft releases new Web browser beta

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. gave early testers their first glimpse of its next-generation Web browser Wednesday, and said Internet Explorer 8 will adhere to the same standards as competitors' programs.Microsoft's browsers, including the current Internet Explorer 7, gained notoriety among Web developers for handling Web page code differently than Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox, Apple Inc.'s Safari, the now-defunct Netscape Navigator and others.For the most part, major non-Microsoft browsers and outside developers who built Web pages worked with agreed-upon technical standards, while Microsoft was accused of adding proprietary code to those standards. The result: Web pages that looked good in Internet Explorer but broke on other browsers, or vice versa.At a Web developer conference in Las Vegas Wednesday, Dean Hachamovitch, general manager for Microsoft's Internet Explorer division, made light of Microsoft's past spotty standards and pledged to do better.Hachamovitch said that in early Internet Explorer 7 days, his kids would hear about broken Web sites and ask, "Daddy, did you guys break the Web?""And most of the time I could honestly say, 'No.' But, you know, Web developers might answer that question a little bit differently," Hachamovitch said.He elicited a laugh, but developers have sometimes had to build Web sites from scratch a second time to devise a version that worked with Microsoft's browsers.Microsoft said the new version of the browser, when complete, will support industry-standard versions of the code that tells browsers what Web pages should look like, including CSS 2.1, by default."That's a big deal," said Chris Swenson, a software industry analyst for the NPD Group.While most Web surfers might not feel a huge impact, Swenson said it will bring "a sigh of relief" for developers, who will spend a lot less time tweaking Web pages to work with different browsers.However, both Swenson and Microsoft note that Web standards continue to evolve, and that definitive tests to determine compliance don't yet exist. Microsoft indicated Wednesday its intention to step up involvement with this process.Microsoft's decision might also help it fend off a new antitrust investigation in Europe.Regulators there are looking into whether the software maker held other browsers back by not following open Internet standards. The probe was launched after Norwegian browser developer Opera Software ASA filed a complaint in late 2007.Microsoft unveiled a few features in the new browser that may appeal more to average Web users. For example, right-clicking on a Web page will give people more "to-do" options than they'd see today. Users will be able to "Send to Facebook," "Map with Live Search" or "Define with Dictionary.com" with a quick click. -

Congress urged to create infotech department

Saying it needs to ensure competitiveness in offshoring and outsourcing, the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) has asked Congress to pass a bill creating a Department of ICT in 2008.The CICT also asked Congress to enact the Philippine Anti-Cybercrime bill.“I am committed to sustaining the growth and competitiveness of our offshoring and outsourcing industry. CICT is working closely with the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) and other industry associations, as well as ICT councils from the various regions and other stakeholders of the ICT industry in pursuing this objective," said CICT chairman and secretary Ray Anthony Roxas Chua III.Chua said the CICT has also created so far 11 regional ICT councils to improve the Philippines’ ranking as the fourth most favored destination for ICT services in the world.He noted President Arroyo created the CICT in February 2004 as a transitory measure, until a Department of ICT is created, “to address the urgent needs of the country’s fast-growing ICT industry."Business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, call centers, animation studios, software development and gaming businesses, medical and legal transcription outfits, knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) firms and most back office operations of multinational companies have found a gemstone in the Philippine Cyber Corridor, he said.Chua added the ICT industry hugely contributed to the growth of the Philippine economy. In 2005, ICT-related jobs totaled 163,000 and earned $2.1 billion for the country.Last year, the ICT industry generated a total of 244,000 jobs and raked in $3.6 billion in revenue. This year, the industry had aimed to employ 403,000 ICT skilled workers and earn $5.1 billion for the country.The private services growth picked up by 8.9 percent in 2007 from 7.7 percent in 2006. The highest contributor was the business services subsector which strengthened on the back of strong BPO growth which rose by 14.7 percent.Before the end of 2007, locators had planned to set up shop in places like Cabanatuan, Dagupan, Subic, Cavite and Tacloban, bringing the number of regions with locators to 30 or 35, Chua said.Chua also noted a new middle class emerging with a strong purchasing power funded by the ICT industry.

Video game looks into world of wolves

The new video game "WolfQuest" allows players to follow the call of the wild in the role of a wolf in Yellowstone National Park.Players learn quickly, with help from realistic graphics, that wolves do a lot of running — across plains, through forests and up and down steep slopes."You have to learn how to hunt, survive, defend your territory and ultimately find a mate and establish your own pack," said project director Grant Spickelmier, assistant education director at Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley.The first episode, "Amethyst Mountain," was officially released Dec. 20 as a free download at http://www.wolfquest.org. Spickelmier said the game had been downloaded 13,500 times by Wednesday.The Minnesota Zoo developed "WolfQuest" with Eduweb, an educational software developer in St. Paul, on a $508,253 National Science Foundation grant. Other partners include the National Zoo in Washington, the Phoenix Zoo, Yellowstone and the International Wolf Center in Ely.The game is aimed at ages 10 to 15 because kids that age have largely stopped going to zoos and are more interested in things like video games, Spickelmier said."We're hoping to capture some of those kids back with this game," he said, adding that the Minnesota Zoo also hopes to interest kids in wolf conservation and biology.Eleven-year-old Riley Breckheimer, of Apple Valley, tried out "WolfQuest" at its launch party at the zoo and declared it "pretty cool." He said he took down one snowshoe hare and got an elk about halfway down. The game also gave him new respect for wolves."They can run over miles and miles of area just to get to one elk to get something to eat," he said. "It's not like humans where humans have to go just a few blocks to the grocery store."It's not the first time a zoo has offered computer games. The San Diego Zoo, National and the New York Zoos and Aquarium have games for younger kids on their Web sites. Nor is it the first time a video game has simulated wolf life: the DOS game "Wolf" was released in 1994.But Steve Feldman, spokesman for the American Zoo Association, said "WolfQuest" takes things to a higher level."The level of realism, and also the goal, which is to effect real conservation behavior change, is what make this game unique," Feldman said.In the first episode, as a solitary wolf roaming Amethyst Mountain in Yellowstone, players chase down elk and hares, relying on their eyes and sense of smell. When the "scent vision" screen toggles on, the background goes black and white and scent trails light up. The screen also shows how old the trails are.To howl like a wolf, players just hit the "H" key, which in future episodes will help draw in their pack."WolfQuest" can be played alone or with up to five players online, where players also can connect and share tips. Additional episodes due in 2008 will explore other areas of Yellowstone and allow players to establish territory (yes, by lifting a leg) and defend their elk carcasses against hungry grizzly bears, raise pups and even kill sheep on nearby ranches.The game won praise from David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, a group that studies the impact of media on children's health and development and often makes news for its criticism of violent video games."It's got great educational value while at the same time it's engaging," Walsh said. "It's a good alternative to the shoot 'em up games that are so popular with that age group. ... I think this game has the potential to chart some new territory."

Foreign funding sought for information tech skills audit

The information and communications technology sector is looking into tapping official development assistance for a study the will determine the level of skills of the labor force in the city in relation to demand.Lizabel Holganza, information and communications technology chairman of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said there have been discussions on evaluating the current level of competence of this city’s labor force."We have been discussing the issue, but we have yet to take off. But there are some research agencies that have presented their capabilities [in undertaking the study]," Ms. Holganza said, adding that her group aims to tap international funds for the study.She said that, initially, the sector wanted that the study be conducted in phased in order to ensure that no issue is overlooked.Baseline informationWithout the baseline data on the skills of the labor force, it is hard for companies to evaluate whether the city and the surrounding areas can readily supply the labor requirements in case they decide to set up operations in the city.Last year, Teolulo Pasawa, head of the National Economic Research and Business Assistance Center, confirmed that two call center companies operating here have found it difficult to expand their operation because of lack of workers. One of the companies then was recruiting about 2,000 workers for its expansion, while the other wanted 500 workers more.Mr. Pasawa said one problem was not lack of workers, but the desire of many local workers to find work in Manila where salaries are higher than in Davao. Mr. Pasawa said call centers operating in the city could offer only as high as P11,000 a month, while Manila-based call centers would offer about 50% higher, with added perks.Why recruit here?"If only these call center will settle for ’comfortable rates,’ many of them [locals] will work here," Mr. Pasawa added.Local stakeholders have criticized Manila and Cebu-based companies for recruiting from the city instead of just expanding here. Andre Joseph Fournier, also an official of the local business chamber, said that companies must instead consider the city as their expansion areas instead of bringing to Manila their recruits because it would entail more expense and will not develop the city.But Mr. Pasawa said some companies told him that they would consider the city as good location only if they can save about 20% of their capital expenditures by doing so.InitiativesSchools, however, have slowly responded to the call of stakeholders to focus their curricula on the needs of local companies, Mr. Pasawa noted pointing out that some of these schools even signed agreements with local call centers so they could improve their English language proficiency.Mr. Pasawa added that the Commission on Higher Education has also forged an agreement with four universities in the city to become centers of development through their courses on information and communications technology, including business process outsourcing.

Sony tying up with Sharp to make LCD panels

TOKYO – Sony and Sharp are tying up in the flat-panel TV business, with Sony investing in a Sharp plant for making liquid crystal displays, both sides said in a statement.Sony Corp. had fallen behind in developing flat panel TVs, and does not make its own liquid crystal displays for its TVs. It has been buying LCD panels from a joint venture it has with Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea.With the latest partnership with Sharp, it can hope to ensure a stable panel supply for its TVs.Demand for slimmer and bigger TVs is growing around the world. Although the televisions use various panel technologies, LCD is the leading technology so far along with plasma display panels."Besides attractive products and a solid supply chain, ensuring a stable procurement of panels is critical," Sony President Ryoji Chubachi said at a joint news conference with Sharp President Mikio Katayama. "This is an important step in Sony's effort to become the world's No. 1 TV maker."Japan's business daily The Nikkei reported in its Tuesday editions that Sony plans to invest 100 billion yen ($926 million; €625 million) in a plant Sharp Corp. is building to make panels for flat TVs.The companies said the amount of investment was still undecided. They will set up a joint venture for producing the displays by April 2009, with Sharp taking a 66 percent stake and Sony 34 percent, they said.Sony's cash investment would be a plus for Sharp's 380 billion yen ($3.5 billion; €2.4 billion) new plant for making panels for larger 40-inch, 50-inch and 60-inch flat TVs.Construction began in December, and the plant is expected to be running by March 2010.Sony shares rose more than 1 percent Tuesday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Sharp ended unchanged.Analysts said the move was positive for both companies, as it would give Sony more of an option in buying panels for its TVs called Bravia, while Sharp can reduce the investment burden for panel production.Katayama acknowledged that Sharp and Sony will be competing intensely as TV makers, but he added they will also be able to cut costs and increase scale of production through the joint venture."This will strengthen the LCD business in Japan," he said. "We will do our utmost aiming to become the world's number one."Both Sharp and Samsung make flat TVs under their own brands, and Sony, Sharp and Samsung are competing for their piece of the global flat-TV pie.Some surveys have shown Sony momentarily leading in LCD TV sales, but Samsung is now believed to be No. 1.Osaka-based Sharp, which is struggling to gain overseas brand recognition, still trails Samsung and Sony. Sharp's Aquos brand of LCD TVs is extremely popular in Japan.Sony management failed to recognize how quickly slimmer TVs would take off, partly because of the huge success it had enjoyed in developing and selling high-quality old-style televisions.Its failure in flat TVs was a major reason for its faltering earnings several years ago. Sony has staged a comeback recently under the leadership of Howard Stringer, a Welsh-born American who became chief executive in 2005.In December, Toshiba Corp. said it will team up with Sharp to buy LCD panels for Toshiba flat-panel TVs.At that time, Toshiba said it will drop panel-making from its business, selling its stake in a joint venture panel maker, led by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products.Matsushita, the world's leading maker of plasma TVs, has been strengthening in-house production of panels, including LCD displays, counting on solid flat-panel TV sales in coming months. Matsushita is also supplying Japanese electronics maker Hitachi Ltd. with LCD panels.On Monday, Standard and Poor's Ratings Services raised its outlook on Sony to "stable" from "negative," citing improved profits at its core electronics unit and gradual recovery in its struggling PlayStation 3 video game operations.

Skype rolls out for Sony PlayStation Portable

TOKYO - Sony's handheld video game machine, the PlayStation Portable, will connect to Skype, the popular, free voice-over-Internet service, later this month in Japan after a two-month delay, the company said Tuesday.Skype has been available for the PSP in the US and Europe since January, allowing people to use the Net-linking portable game machine as a phone.But it wasn't available in Japan yet because the microphone Sony Computer Entertainment Japan had planned didn't meet specifications from Skype, a division of eBay Inc., a US online auction company.Special microphones for PSP's Skype feature will go on sale in Japan on March 19 at 2,500 yen ($24; €16) each and 4,000 yen ($39; €26) for two, and software will be upgraded a day earlier.Headsets already on sale in overseas are being used for Skype since January, according to the video game unit of the Japanese electronics and entertainment company.Skype says 276 million people have registered to use Skype around the world.Tokyo-based Sony Corp. has been looking to boost offerings beyond games for the PSP, which faces stiff competition from Japanese rival Nintendo Co.'s DS handheld video game machine.Sony recently raised its global sales forecast for the PSP for the fiscal year ending March 31, to 13 million machines from an earlier 10 million.Nintendo, based in Kyoto, Japan, is expecting to sell 29.5 million DS machines during the same period.Sony's PlayStation 3 home console is also struggling against the hit Nintendo Wii.But PlayStation 3 sales are expected to pick up since the victory of the Blu-ray disc format in next-generation video that came when Toshiba said it would stop making the competing HD DVD products. The PlayStation 3 also works as a Blu-ray player. - AP

Informative Modelling

Informative modelling is an interdisciplinary methodological approach linking information technologies with architectural analysis and modelling (at various scales, from architectural elements to buildings and structures). Informative modelling aims at improving the way information and evidences about how architectural objects evolved through time can be visually displayed.
Informative modelling applies to the study of historic architecture, where objects have most often been widely transformed, and consequently where what is known about objects remains partial. As a consequence, whereas in traditional architectural modelling a realistic representation of objects is considered as an end, in the informative modelling methodology the representation of architectural objects is used primarily as support for information search and visualisation, reasoning and cognition: it does not strive for realism.
Abstraction (the infovis legacy) and figuration (the architectural representation legacy) are integrated as alternative/mixable modes of representation, allowing partial knowledge to be communicated and important notions in historic sciences such as data uncertainty to be conveyed graphically.
Informative modelling puts the data about evolutions of architectural artefacts first, and provides rules for outputting 2D/3D graphics thought to become sustainable investigation and visualization tools (knowledge and discovery tools, as J.Bertin says it), striving for the readability of a dynamic geographical map. Examples of such rules are accessibility of the underlying documentary justification (archives, research material, etc.), information credibility assessment, visual underlining of lacking information, relation to an exogenous theoretical model of architectural elements, dynamic visualisation, research process progress assessment, etc.
Informative modelling has roots in architectural modelling, Category:3D imaging, Category:3D computer graphics, Georeference, database, scientific modelling, scientific visualization, knowledge visualization, Knowledge management, information retrieval, Information science, Computer graphics, Information graphics, and intersects methods and issues stemming from these disciplines.

Knowledge Management System

Knowledge Management System (KM System) refers to a (generally IT based) system for managing knowledge in organizations, supporting creation, capture, storage and dissemination of information. It can comprise a part (neither necessary or sufficient) of a Knowledge Management initiative.
The idea of a KM system is to enable employees to have ready access to the organization's based documented of facts, sources of information, and solutions. For example a typical claim justifying the creation of a KM system might run something like this: an engineer could know the metallurgical composition of an alloy that reduces sound in gear systems. Sharing this information organization wide can lead to more effective engine design and it could also lead to ideas for new or improved equipment.
A KM system could be any of the following:
Document based i.e. any technology that permits creation/management/sharing of formatted documents such as Lotus Notes, web, distributed databases etc.
Ontology/Taxonomy based: these are similar to document technologies in the sense that a system of terminologies (i.e. ontology) are used to summarize the document e.g. Author, Subj, Organization etc. as in DAML & other XML based ontologies
Based on AI technologies which use a customized representation scheme to represent the problem domain.
Provide network maps of the organisation showing the flow of communication between entities and individuals
Increasingly social computing tools are being deployed to provide a more organic approach to creation of a KM system.
KMS systems deal with information (although Knowledge Management as a discipline may extend beyond the information centric aspect of any system) so they are a class of information system and may build on, or utilize other information sources. Distinguishing features of a KMS can include:
Purpose: a KMS will have an explicit Knowledge Management objective of some type such as collaboration, sharing good practice or the like.
Context: One perspective on KMS would see knowledge is information that is meaningfully organized, accumulated and embedded in a context of creation and application.
Processes: KMS are developed to support and enhance knowledge-intensive processes, tasks or projects of e.g., creation, construction, identification, capturing, acquisition, selection, valuation, organization, linking, structuring, formalization, visualization, transfer, distribution, retention, maintenance, refinement, revision, evolution, accessing, retrieval and last but not least the application of knowledge, also called the knowledge life cycle.
Participants: Users can play the roles of active, involved participants in knowledge networks and communities fostered by KMS, although this is not necessarily the case. KMS designs are held to reflect that knowledge is developed collectively and that the “distribution” of knowledge leads to its continuous change, reconstruction and application in different contexts, by different participants with differing backgrounds and experiences.
Instruments: KMS support KM instruments, e.g., the capture, creation and sharing of the codifiable aspects of experience, the creation of corporate knowledge directories, taxonomies or ontologies, expertise locators, skill management systems, collaborative filtering and handling of interests used to connect people, the creation and fostering of communities or knowledge networks

Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions.
Computers take numerous physical forms. The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century (around 1940 - 1945), although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier. Early electronic computers were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers.Modern computers are based on comparatively tiny integrated circuits and are millions to billions of times more capable while occupying a fraction of the space. Today, simple computers may be made small enough to fit into a wristwatch and be powered from a watch battery. Personal computers in various forms are icons of the Information Age and are what most people think of as "a computer"; however, the most common form of computer in use today is the embedded computer. Embedded computers are small, simple devices that are used to control other devices — for example, they may be found in machines ranging from fighter aircraft to industrial robots, digital cameras, and children's toys.
The ability to store and execute lists of instructions called programs makes computers extremely versatile and distinguishes them from calculators. The Church–Turing thesis is a mathematical statement of this versatility: any computer with a certain minimum capability is, in principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other computer can perform. Therefore, computers with capability and complexity ranging from that of a personal digital assistant to a supercomputer are all able to perform the same computational tasks given enough time and storage capacity.

Management information system

Management information Systems (MIS), sometimes referred to as Information Management and Systems, is the discipline covering the application of people, technologies, and procedures — collectively called information systems — to solving business problems. Management Information Systems are distinct from regular information systems in that they are used to analyze other information systems applied in operational activities in the organization.Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the group of information management methods tied to the automation or support of human decision making, e.g. Decision Support Systems, Expert systems, and Executive information systems

Internet

The Internet, sometimes called the "Information Superhighway," is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked web pages and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW

The Technology and applied sciences Portal

A nuclear weapon is a tool employed to injure, defeat, or destroy an adversary. It derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions of fission or fusion. As a result, even a nuclear weapon with a small yield is significantly more powerful than the largest conventional explosives, and a single weapon is capable of destroying an entire city.
In the history of warfare, nuclear weapons have been used only twice, both during the closing days of World War II. The first event occurred on the morning of August 6, 1945, when the United States dropped a uranium gun-type device code-named "Little Boy" on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The second event occurred three days later when the United States dropped a plutonium implosion-type device code-named "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki. The use of these weapons, which resulted in the immediate deaths of around 100,000 to 200,000 people and even more over time, was and remains controversial.
Since the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, nuclear weapons have been detonated on over two thousand occasions for testing and demonstration purposes. The only countries known to have detonated such weapons are (chronologically) the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France, People's Republic of China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea.

Free software

Free software is software which can be run, studied, examined, modified, and redistributed by everyone who has a copy. This type of software, which was given its current name in 1983, has also come to be known as "open-source software", "software libre or libre software", "FOSS", and "FLOSS". The term "Free" refers to it being unfettered, rather than being free-of-charge. In this sense, it is user who is free.
The free software movement was launched in 1983 with the primary tactic to write free software replacements for the non-free software that society relied on. Examples of well-known free software packages include GNU, the Linux kernel, Mozilla Firefox, and OpenOffice.org, and oAmarok is a free software music player for Linux and other varieties of Unix. It makes use of core components from the K Desktop Environment, but is released independently of the central KDE release cycle.
Despite the fact that Amarok uses wolf-based artwork, and that the name "amarok" or "amaroq" literally refers to the Inuktitut word for "wolf", it was originally named after the album Amarok by Mike Oldfield. If you play the tune in this player, a window with information about the name will be shown. The 1.2 release originally had a wolf icon, but this was later withdrawn due to similarity with the logo of WaRP Graphics Inc. Amarok's wolf logo has now been modified sufficiently so as not to infringe on WaRP's trademarked logo, and reinstated.n network servers

Computer-aided design

CAD is used to design, develop and optimize products, which can be goods used by end consumers or intermediate goods used in other products. CAD is also extensively used in the design of tools and machinery used in the manufacture of components, and in the drafting and design of all types of buildings, from small residential types (houses) to the largest commercial and industrial structures (hospitals and factories).
CAD is mainly used for detailed engineering of 3D models and/or 2D drawings of physical components, but it is also used throughout the engineering process from conceptual design and layout of products, through strength and dynamic analysis of assemblies to definition of manufacturing methods of components.
CAD has become an especially important technology, within the scope of Computer Aided technologies, with benefits such as lower product development costs and a greatly shortened design cycle. CAD enables designers to lay out and develop work on screen, print it out and save it for future editing, saving time on their drawings.

What is Information Technology?

Information technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware." IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information.
Today, the term information technology has ballooned to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term is more recognizable than ever before. The information technology umbrella can be quite large, covering many fields. IT professionals perform a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as the management and administration of entire systems. When computer and communications technologies are combined, the result is information technology, or "infotech". Information Technology (IT) is a general term that describes any technology that helps to produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or disseminate information