iPod contributes 12-14% of total company revenues, a number industry experts believe will continue to increase. With this increase comes pressure on gross margins, as the blended iPod gross margin of 20% compares unfavorably with Apple’s corporate average of 27-28%. The iPod helped augment Apple’s growth by expanding its addressable market from the core computer market, which continues to grow, but at slower rates. To increase penetration of the rapidly growing MP3 player market, Apple launched the iPod Mini internationally in July 2004, and HP’s iPod launch is scheduled for later in summer. http://www.ipodreviewforum.com

Apple’s entry into the digital music player market (MP3 market) with its popular iPod expanded the company’s addressable market and signaled a turn in Apple’s strategy. The iPod is a cultural phenomenon that is capitalizing on the convergence of digital consumer electronics and the computer, and Apple’s position as an early mover enabled it to achieve the number-one position in the marketplace. iPod adoption continues to accelerate, with little indication of a slowdown. It took Apple approximately 18 months to sell its first million iPods, but its second million came in six months and its third million came in four. In fact, it appears that only its suppliers can slow it down, in particular the hard-drive vendors, which are having a difficult time meeting demand. Industry experts believe that iPod’s growth will remain strong in the foreseeable future and do not expect any significant customer fallout stemming from Apple’s inability to meet demand.

An analysis of the launch of the Sony Walkman in 1979 indicates the market opportunity for a revolutionary portable music player will remain strong for several years to come and Apple is expected to maintain a strong share for the next few years (unlike Sony’s experience with the Walkman).

While iPod and iTunes generate significant awareness of the Apple product, they have done little to grow Apple’s core Mac business. Experts attribute this mainly to Apple’s aboveaverage pricing, along with continued ignorance on the part of consumers regarding the compatibility of Windows and Mac. With regard to pricing, the average consumer desktop PC retails for $1,019, which is $280 below Apple’s low-end price point on Apple’s now, discontinued flat-panel iMac. Furthermore, the industry ASP is falling as most of the growth in the market is taking place in the sub-$1,000 market.

With regard to the compatibility of Windows and Mac OS X, even though Apple made a concerted effort to educate consumers about the ease with which these two products work together, it has fallen on deaf ears for the most part. Apple made some progress through its retail stores, where it estimates half of Mac purchases are from first-time buyers, but for Apple’s stock to work over the long term, the company needs to maintain share against Windows, at a minimum. Understandably, Apple wants to avoid selling PCs at a loss, but unfortunately the growth prospects for $1,000-plus PCs are limited. This presents a conundrum for Apple longer term, but for now it maintains its current strategy. Incidentally, Apple’s revenue share has held much better, and while this is not an often-discussed topic, revenue share is probably more important than unit share. http://www.ipodreviewforum.com

Thinking is not something that everyone can do well. Now, we are referring here to the thought process that goes along with solving problems. For many children, this is something they struggle with. Mom or Dad always takes care of the problems. If something isn’t right, just call mom or dad. Even on the television, that is full of real life and imaginary “problems” that need to be solved, there is no encouragement for children to come up with the solution. What happens then? They just sit and watch and let someone else handle the problem.

But, what happens when they are older or in a situation where they have to solve the problem at hand? Do they know how to analyze their thoughts, ideas, and to find the right solution? Many don’t. But, if you would like your child to be the one who does know how to flip the switch on and solve the problem, consider allowing them to sit in front of the computer as opposed to the television.

Okay, so too much time in front of the computer isn’t much better, but there are ways to you make what time you do allow them to sit at the computer to be good times. This is you simply need to maximize what they are doing. There are several good games out there that can be used to stimulate thinking in children. For many people, this is the perfect way to go to encourage children to learn how to solve problems without letting them in on it! Yes, because games are fun, the child will not fight you on playing them. Much unlike a lesson plan, this way seems to encourage children to come back to the game time and time again, therefore getting the experiences they need to learn a thing or two.

But, what are these games? What are the options that are out there for your child? There are many games, and although we will only talk about a few here, find ones that will work well with your child. What are his or her likes and dislikes? Sports? Television characters? Perhaps they enjoy space or under water adventures. Search out those games that will intrigue them as well as encourage them to think.

Some to consider include Big Thinkers Kindergarten and the series of Freddi Fish Adventures as well as many other games specifically for children. These are mainly for younger children, but you’ll find many more for older children as well. In fact, consider giving your older kids more puzzle related games to help them along this course as well.

When you give your child the gift of being a problem solver, they will work through the situations that happen to them, big and small, without fear of not knowing how to handle them. They will be more likely to do well in the real world then. What’s more is that you can feel good about all that time they spend in front of the tube (even though it’s the computer not the television!)

We are using a three-router network. R5 is running RIP, R1 is serving as a hub between R5 and R3 and is running RIP and OSPF, and R3 is running OSPF.

To begin this lab, we’ll add three loopbacks to R3 and advertise them to R1 via OSPF.

R3(config)#int loopback33

R3(config-if)#ip address 33.3.3.3 255.255.255.255

R3(config-if)#int loopback34

R3(config-if)#ip address 34.3.3.3 255.255.255.255

R3(config-if)#int loopback35

R3(config-if)#ip address 35.3.3.3 255.255.255.255

R3(config-if)#router ospf 1

R3(config-router)#network 33.3.3.3 0.0.0.0 area 1

R3(config-router)#network 34.3.3.3 0.0.0.0 area 1

R3(config-router)#network 35.3.3.3 0.0.0.0 area 1

R1 sees all three of these routes in its routing table.

R1#show ip route ospf

34.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O IA 34.3.3.3 [110/65] via 172.12.123.3, 00:00:55, Serial0

35.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O IA 35.3.3.3 [110/65] via 172.12.123.3, 00:00:45, Serial0

33.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O IA 33.3.3.3 [110/65] via 172.12.123.3, 00:00:55, Serial0

We’ll now redistribute these routes into RIP on R1. Remember the “subnets” option we talked about in the first part of this tutorial? There is no such option when redistributing OSPF routes into RIP, as IOS Help shows us.

R1(config)#router rip

R1(config-router)#redistribute ospf 1 ?

match Redistribution of OSPF routes

metric Metric for redistributed routes

route-map Route map reference

vrf VPN Routing/Forwarding Instance

R1(config-router)#redistribute ospf 1

The routes have been redistributed into RIP with the redistribute ospf 1 command. (The “1″ is the OSPF process number.) Let’s look at R5 and see the results.

R5#show ip route rip

R5#

The routes aren’t there, but we didn’t get a warning from the router that we needed to do anything else. What is the problem?

The problem is that RIP requires a seed metric to be specified when redistributing routes into that protocol. A seed metric is a “starter metric” that gives the RIP process a metric it can work with. The OSPF metric of cost is incomprehensible to RIP, since RIP’s sole metric is hop count. We’ve got to give RIP a metric it understands when redistributing routes into that protocol, so let’s go back to R1 and do so.

R1(config)#router rip

R1(config-router)#no redistribute ospf 1

R1(config-router)#redistribute ospf 1 metric 2

R5 now sees the routes. Note that the metric contained in the brackets is the seed metric.

R5#show ip route rip

34.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 34.3.3.3 [120/2] via 100.1.1.1, 00:00:24, Ethernet0

35.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 35.3.3.3 [120/2] via 100.1.1.1, 00:00:24, Ethernet0

33.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 33.3.3.3 [120/2] via 100.1.1.1, 00:00:24, Ethernet0

If you read the previous tutorial, you may have noticed that we did not specify a seed metric for OSPF. OSPF does not require a seed metric to be set during redistribution. You also noticed that the router did tell us that there might be a problem when we left the “subnets” option out of RIP>OSPF redistribution, but the router didn’t tell us anything about a seed metric when we performed OSPF>RIP redistribution. This is a detail you must know by heart in order to make your route redistribution successful!

Some phone card companies have a service charge for each call you make using the card. That means that you’ll lose several minutes each time you use the card – typically anywhere from four minutes to eight or even ten. If you have a phone card company touting their “three-cent a minute” rates, be sure of their service charges. If you’re also losing an additional ten minutes for every connection you make, the rates go up considerably.

One gimmick used by phone card companies is that they give you a price “per unit” instead of “per minute.” The significance is that there are different costs for different phone calls. You may pay only a penny or two per unit, but you may find that you’re being charged several units per minute. For example, if you pay two cents per unit and you’re phone call costs ten units per minute, you’re paying twenty cents a minute – significantly higher than the many reputable phone cards. Per unit cards may very well be a good deal, but find out how many units you can expect to pay for phone calls before you shell out the money for one of these cards.

Rechargeable phone cards are sometimes an excellent deal because the additional minutes you purchase are often cheaper than the original cost of the card. If you think about it, it’s fairly easy to see why. Instead of buying another pieces of plastic, you’re simply buying the service – less cost to the company.

Buying larger amounts is also typically a good way to get the best deal on a phone card. Companies typically offer a better price per minute if you purchase a card with two or more hours of calling time than for a card with only a half hour. Again, it’s a simple matter of marketing and you can see that the cost of producing the plastic card is a factor in that cost.

There’s no doubt that phone cards are a good way to stay in touch, especially in some situations. Taking time to choose a reliable company for your phone card purchase is an important step in being sure you make the best selection for your phone card company provider.

In basic terms, gloss is a facet of visual perception in various objects and surfaces. The interaction of light with the physical characteristics of a surface is what creates gloss. Materials that are smooth and shiny appear to be very glossy, while rough objects appear to have little to no gloss at all.

What a gloss meter does is measure the light that is reflected by a light source at a specific angle, called a specular reflection. In simple terms, you shine a specific amount of light onto a surface and measure the reflection that is being generated. Now, when measuring gloss, you can’t just shine any old light in any old way onto a surface. It is a very exact and specific science to properly measure gloss.

So, why would someone want to measure gloss with a gloss meter? Well, humans tend to gravitate and act more favorably towards glossy or shiny objects versus dull-looking items. So, it’s important that an object that is supposed to look glossy actually does look glossy. A gloss meter can measure and detect if there are any defects with a product or item.

Being able to create a consistent gloss factor is very important. If you are producing a large number of the same item, then you want to make sure that all those products meet certain standards, and that includes gloss. If one object is significantly glossier than another object, then there may be something wrong with the material or workmanship. A gloss meter, by measuring the specular reflection, can provide that information that otherwise the naked eye would miss.

There are many different types of gloss meters, and many different ways to measure gloss. The standard practices is that an object with a reading of about 85 is considered to be low gloss. Something with a reading of 60 is labelled as semi-gloss and 20 is considered to be high gloss.

Measuring gloss is a unique combination of angles, math, light, science and craftsmanship. If you are building a table, the rough finish will not be glossy. Therefore, you would have to polish or finish the table in order to get an acceptable gloss reading. Not enough gloss and the table will look to dull and rough, and if it’s too glossy, it may be unappealing. So, how can you tell when the table is just right in terms of gloss? With a gloss meter, of course!

Control exactly how long and at what time your kids can access the PC. Vista User Time Manager (http://www.vistafolder.com/) is not only easier than its competitors, but comes with several access schedules that were proven to work superbly under various circumstances. Each schedule controls the number of hours and minutes your kids can use the computer on a daily and weekly basis. Don’t want to push too much control on them? It’s easy to set Vista User Time Manager to shut down the computer when it’s time to turn the lights out.

Vista User Time Manager is not just easy to use, it’s also a powerful and highly customizable parental control tool. Besides the convenient pre-defined access schedules, Vista User Time Manager allows configuring just about any aspect of its behavior. Set your own schedules depending on certain days of the week, working days or weekends, set allowed time intervals and specify daily and combined time limits. Ever thought of limiting your kids to just 30 minutes of using your computer per day, weekdays only, from 4 to 6pm? That’s easy. Want to allow an extra couple of hours on a weekend before 9pm? That’s not difficult either. In addition, you can set an aggregate limit, allowing your kids, for example, to access the PC for no longer than 3 hours a week in total.

Vista User Time Manager can control not only when your kids can access the computer, but also what they can access. A flexible access control system extends Windows security features by allowing you to specify which files and folders that will not be accessible to the kids.

Sounds complicated? Well, there are several great schedules to start with! Not happy with any of them? Changing one to suit your needs and saving it as your own is a matter of a minute or two.

If you have many family members of different age groups, setting different access policies might be a requirement. Older kids will probably need more time and at different hours doing their homework than the younger ones. There is absolutely no need to create and maintain a separate schedule for each kid in the family! Vista User Time Manager makes it easy to group users to create group policies. When you change a schedule, the change will apply to all group members at once.

Controlling the time is great, but how does it look from the kids’ viewpoint? Vista User Time Manager does nothing disrupting. Just before the allowed time allotment is about to expire, Vista User Time Manager pops a gentle message informing the user and suggesting that they log off. Of course, you can set your own message and timeouts. If the child does not log off before the time expires, Vista User Time Manager performs the logoff automatically by closing applications and logging off the account. If that happens to be you who are working on the computer at that time, simply entering your master password will prevent the logoff.

Vista User Time Manager fully supports Windows XP and the newest Windows Vista.

Vista User Time Manager is an invaluable tool for anyone having kids and computers. Try your copy for free by downloading from: http://www.vistafolder.com/

To think that these engineering marvels work for reclaiming lands from bays, striking piles into the hard sea beds or drilling tunnels deep below the sea beds (Trans European Tunnel connecting England to France), is mind boggling. The list can go endless but for the scope of this article which is limited.

Equipments to Suit All Needs
Construction equipments may be classified as per needs and further by capacities.

1. Excavating and Earth moving: These gigantic machines are hydraulically operated to safeguard from shock failures. These are the first machines to be employed for preparing the construction sites. Land leveling by digging and cutting terrains are done by excavators of appropriate capacities which run into 1000s of HP. Basic earth movers include dozers, tippers and loaders.

2. Concrete processors: Batch or continuous concrete mixers are computer programmed for consistent precise mix. These are stationed permanently near the site or in the factory depending on convenience. Small batch mixers of less than one quintal capacities are portable. The concrete is transported from far off plants in transit mixers of minimum capacity 6 cubic meters by volume. Concrete is poured to the spot using concrete pumps.

3. Bar bending machines: Small high torque generating bar bending machines are handy in bending and forming construction steel bars. These are available in various specifications.

4. Rollers and compactors: Rollers are employed to compact the ground after dozers have leveled it. Some rollers are also equipped with vibrating compactors eliminating the need for separate compacting. For small areas like indoors vibrating plate compactors, which generate up to 1000kgf maybe used.

These are just about the equipments fundamentally required for construction of homes and offices.

Road Construction
For road construction, depending on whether the road is being asphalted or concretized, the equipments change. Asphalt mixers and asphalt pavers take-up the job of road laying to perfection.

Concrete road pavers, although work on similar principle, can’t finish the road-laying as concrete needs setting time. There is a need for faster laying technique. Road surface finishing is by a technique called VDF, which stands for vacuum dewatered flooring. Smoother finishes are given by power trowels and anti skid finishes by brooms, mechanized or manual.

You can increase business effectiveness by easily adding more motivation and challenge to your learning programs. With the advent of E-Learning, even Training Games are transforming. Indeed, because Computer Games and Arcades are commonplace, instructional games may be the perfect candidate for e-learning events.

Trainers understand the value of a good game for engaging participants in the learning process, whether as pre-course materials, self-teaching tools, or content reviews. Most games draw on traditional game-show styles such as Jeopardy, or popular boardgames, including Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly. The question-and-answer format of those games proves ideal for self-assessment and memory building. When played in groups, games promote teambuilding and team spirit. More importantly, games alleviate learners’ anxiety about being evaluated.

A sophisticated programmed E-Game usually includes the following features:

· Easy, intuitive authoring interfaces.
· An array of different game types.
· Detailed Help files, sample games, and demonstrations.
· Cross-platform playback using the Flash web player.
· No messy software downloads or installation requirements.
· Options to create games from your web browser.
· You can choose from several skins for your games, including a custom skin that allows you to modify the colors.
· Full customization for any of the game types.
· Your own online Arcade system that allows you to group your games into custom multi-player arcades and invite players to compete.

The average age of an E-Game Player is 29 years and ninety two percent of all games are purchased by adults over the age of 18. 39% E-Game players are women. Computer and video game software sales grew 8% in 2003 to $ 7 billion in the following years and are expected to hike more. However, when compared to the movie industry this segment is still a small player.

In fiscal 2004, ended June 30, E-Games’ sales rose 11% to $8 million, and profit increased 9%, to $1.7 million, from a year earlier. It did have a loss of $184,000 in its 2005 fiscal first quarter, after sales were hurt when Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reduced shelf space it allocates to low-price PC games, E-Games says.

Some very sought after E-Games are as follows:

1. AirXonix: This is a 3-dimensional remake of the Xonix game. In the Xonix game you have to control a device, which is moving over the playing field whilst several monster-balls are wandering inside. The objective is to isolate the balls away from as much spare playing field as possible.

2. Buzzing Cars: Buzzing Cars is a totally crazy racing game where you’ll not only need to be fast but also smart. You must carry out various missions such as drive robots around, chase flying saucers, electrocute aliens and of course race against the clock. You can buy seven different cars with various properties. In every crash, the cars begin to lose parts, until eventually after enough is lost they completely fall apart.

3. Cross & Word Games: A compilation of three simple puzzle games previously released by E-Games in their early RomTech days. Crossword Mania is a set of 110 crossword puzzles and Word Search Mania has 222 word searches. Both of these pencil and paper to keyboard and monitor translations also have basic design tools for constructing your own puzzles. Word Connect Special Edition is a one board demo of a Scrabble clone where players try to form interlocking words on a board with lettered tiles.

4. Mahjongg Master: Enjoy the classic Chinese game of strategy with this full-featured version! You’ll find 18 original tile sets — everything from classic MahJongg tiles to all new designs! You can also choose from among 70 beautiful backgrounds including scenics, animals, textures, and much more. Plus great music, too! MahJongg Master is one of E-Games best-selling titles. There are millions of players around the world.

5. Marble Blast: In this arcade action game from independent publisher Garage Games, players take the control of marbles. The objective of the game is to race the marble through the 72 levels each containing moving platforms, dangerous hazards, sparkling treasures and power up enhancements, and complete it in record time.

6. Miniverse Minigolf: Two 9 hole mini golf courses for 1-4 players. One course is set on “Earth” and features putting through locations such as a construction site, a war zone, and a casino. The other course is set in space and includes a variety of science fiction obstacles like tele-porters and laser shields. Players can choose to control their putter by pushing or pulling the mouse and can select one of several different colors for their golf ball.

7. Pinball: E-Games’ Pinball is a 3D pinball simulation with three tables. 3D acceleration is used for all sorts of realistic effects like table glass, light halos, shadows, reflections of the ball on the table, and more. Standard pinball game play applies; knock down targets to light up bonuses, which can be further increased by multipliers.

8. Word Search Mania: A computerized version of the standard pencil and paper word search. Word Search Mania is a collection of 222 assorted puzzles with a variety of strange topics in varying degrees of difficulty. It also contains a tool for building puzzles from your own lists of words.

In this free CCNP / BSCI tutorial series, we’ll take a look at three common errors in route redistribution configurations, and how to fix them. We’ll use three routers, R1, R3, and R5. R1 and R5 are in a RIPv2 domain and R1 and R3 are in an OSPF domain. R1 will be performing two-way route redistribution.

R5 is advertising its loopback, 5.5.5.5/24, into the RIPv2 domain. R1 sees this route in its RIP routing table:

R1#show ip route rip

5.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 5.5.5.0 [120/1] via 100.1.1.5, 00:00:01, Ethernet0

For R3 to see this route, route redistribution must be configured on R1. We’ll use the redistribute rip command to do so.

R1(config)#router ospf 1

R1(config-router)#redistribute rip

% Only classful networks will be redistributed

The router immediately gives us a message that “only classful networks will be redistributed”. What does this mean? Let’s go to R3 and see if that router is receiving this route.

R3#show ip route ospf

< no output >

When we get no result from a show command, that means there’s nothing to show. The only routes that will be successfully redistributed with the current configuration on R1 are classful networks, and 5.5.5.0/24 is a subnet.

To further illustrate the point, a classful network has been added to R5. This network is 16.0.0.0 /8, and is now being advertised by RIP. R1 sees this network as classful…

R1#show ip route rip

R 16.0.0.0/8 [120/1] via 100.1.1.5, 00:00:00, Ethernet0

5.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 5.5.5.0 [120/1] via 100.1.1.5, 00:00:00, Ethernet0

… and R3 is receiving the route through redistribution.

R3#show ip route ospf

O E2 16.0.0.0/8 [110/20] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:08, Serial0.31

To redistribute both classful and classless networks, the option “subnets” must be added to the redistribute command on R1.

R1(config)#router ospf 1

R1(config-router)#no redistribute rip

R1(config-router)#redistribute rip subnets

R3 will now see both the classful and classless networks being redistributed into OSPF. (100.1.1.0 is the network connecting R1 and R5.)

R3#show ip route ospf

O E2 16.0.0.0/8 [110/20] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:20, Serial0.31

100.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O E2 100.1.1.0 [110/20] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:20, Serial0.31

5.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O E2 5.5.5.0 [110/20] via 172.12.123.1, 00:00:20, Serial0.31

This is one of the most common errors made during route redistribution, but now you know what to look out for! In the next part of this free CCNP / BSCI tutorial, we’ll take a look at another such error.

Types of phone cards

There are several types of phone cards that are available in the market.

- Rechargeable phone cards – these provide excellent deals because the additional minutes you purchase are basically cheaper than the original cost of the card. You can refill the cards anytime by visiting the website of the phone company. You have to receive a PIN number that becomes the permanent number and every time you refill your card, your PIN number gets activated.

- Non-refillable online phone cards – this card does not allow you to make phone calls after the balance on this card becomes equal to zero. These have a validity period of 3 to 4 months.

- IDPhoneCard – this is a rechargeable prepaid international phone card that can be accessible from at least 50 countries all over the world. It has no maintenance charges, no expiry charges, no contracts or hidden charges, and no connection fees. They can be used from any phone lines like office phones, home phones, pay phones, hotel room phones and cell phones.

It is easy to understand the working of the phone cards. You simply have to pay for calling time in advance and reduce the prepaid balance as you continue to make the phone calls. To make a call you have to dial Toll Free Access Number or Local Access Number. After a voice delivers its welcoming speech, you have to enter the card’s PIN number and then dial the Destination number.

Advantages of using phone cards

For those who hang onto the use of phone cards, there are some real advantages.

Savings

The online, domestic and international rates are much more cheaper than the services provided by the phone companies. Not only do they help you to bring your phone expenses within budget but also offer calls that are cheaper than collect calls and operator assisted calls.

Mobility

Phone cards provide solutions to all type of people like travelers, truck drivers, students and international visitors. They can call anytime from their home, office, cell phones, pay phones and foreign countries.

Convenience

You can get a wide array of phone cards ranging from the lowest to the highest prices. The Internet helps you to get access to PIN number and Access number instantly at any place and at anytime. There are no hassles of phone bills and extra payments.