Upcoming WordCamps

There are six WordCamps coming up before the end of the year, and since I like to make sure people know about it when there’s a WordCamp near them, here’s the list, with some personal commentary thrown in. .

WordCamp is first up, on November 13. I’d planned on attending this one myself before they changed the date (it was originally scheduled for the 7th), but will sadly have to miss it as it conflicts with WordCamp NYC. If you, like me, can’t make it to Phoenix, be sure to check their web site for information on the live stream they’re planning to provide. If it’s anywhere near the quality of the stream from Portland or Seattle earlier this fall, it’ll be just like being there, but without a t-shirt to show for it (and theirs has stripes, so if you’re local, you should go!). My only consolation in missing this WordCamp is that I’ve seen about half of the speakers before. If you’re going, don’t miss the session by John Hawkins on \; it got me to write my first plugin in Portland! Matt‘ll be there, will you?

WordCamp Victoria is next, on November 14. This is another one I’d love to go to, but can’t because it’s at the same time as New York’s. I would especially have liked to go because it looks like the speakers are all local, and I haven’t seen any of them speak before. Occasionally WordCamps lose a little of the local feeling by focusing on visiting speakers, so it’s nice to see so many Vancouverites on the list. They’ll have a Blogger track and a Technical track running concurrently, so there should a little something for everyone. No word on a live stream, but hopefully they’ll be able to catch some of the presentations on video and post them toWordPress.tv after the event.

WordCamp Bangkok is scheduled for November 15. I have to admit that the first thing that catches my eye on their agenda is “WordPress Band.” I’ve known WordCamps to have people performing songs before, but a whole band? Might be a first. I hope they’ll post the video to WordPress.tv, too.

WordCamp New York City is the same weekend as the previous three, on November 14-15. In the interest of full disclosure, I need to tell you that I’m one of the organizers of WordCamp NYC, so my informative comment about it here may be a little biased. That said, we have over 50 confirmed speakers (both local and visiting), and 2 full days of contentin 8 — count ‘em, 8 — tracks. Newbies get a free year of hosting and walked through setting up a WordPress blog in workshop format, while the other tracks have specialized content for Bloggers, CMS Users, Beginning Developers, Advanced Developers, Academic Users, people interested in MU/BuddyPress, and the Open Source Community. Did I mention the theme and plugin context? Or the awesome shirts? How about the Genius Bar, or the Hacker Room? The additional Unconference sessions? If you’re anywhere near NYC that weekend (and with the Acela, that’s anywhere from Boston to D.C.), you should definitely come. I’ll be there, Matt’ll be there, lead developer Mark Jaquith will be there, lead developer of BuddyPress Andy Peatling will be there, and too many other WordPress luminaries and locals to mention. If we hit 800 registrations by November 12, I’m baking cookies for everyone.

WordCamp Peru will be on November 28 in Lima. I was checking out their topics list, and it looks like they’re planning to cover all the usual topics around blog administration, security, increasing traffic, and integration with social media sites. No speaker list yet, but if you’re in Peru, it looks like this will be a nice gathering of WordPress users, and they’re hoping to have around 100 people attend.

WordCamp Orlando is the last of the year, on December 5. They haven’t published a speaker list or schedule yet, but I know Matt will be there, Mark Jaquith will be there, and I will be there. I know some other awesome core contributors are planning to come, but I don’t want to jinx anything, so if you’re curious, come see for yourself. Plus, Florida in December!

Microsoft launches Windows 7 in India

Microsoft India has announced the availability of Windows 7 for its customers in India.

In line with the company’s commitment to releasing a new OS at periodic schedules, Windows 7 is designed to be more reliable and responsive, delivering a simplified PC experience for consumers. Announcing the Windows 7 launch, Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India reportedly said, "Proactive engagement and feedback thereof with partners and consumers was fundamental to the development of Windows 7. It has helped deliver what is the highest quality OS in the history of Windows. It enhances the user experience by its sheer simplicity and caters to their connected lives across work and play. We are delighted by the initial reviews from partners and the technology community. Over 90% of testers from around the world have rated it as "good" or "extremely good" and consider Windows 7 to be responsive, simple to use and stable." Over 600 new feature ideas for Windows 7 were tested through global quantitative research early in the engineering process, helping Microsoft determine the features that best address consumers' top needs. Further, Windows 7 saw the largest beta testing program in the history of the industry, with 8 million testers worldwide. With features such as Aero, Shake, Peek, Snap, Jump Lists and a redesigned Windows Taskbar, Windows 7 is designed to become the control center for all the media and make it easy to do more with photos, music, movies and videos. New features like HomeGroup, Play To, Windows Live Movie Maker and Remote Media Streaming in Windows 7 will help consumers discover easy and exciting new ways to have fun and get new things done with the PC. Windows 7 is available in six editions. The two primary editions are: Windows 7 Home Premium for home consumers and Windows 7 Professional for small and medium sized businesses. Also available in the line-up are Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic (in Emerging Markets only), Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate. The FPP pricing for Windows 7 has reduced in the range of 25-35 percent over Windows Vista, for most SKUs. Windows 7 is available at more than 45,000 retailers around the world and in India, all 16 OEMs will bring in more than 100 different Windows 7 PCs within 30 days from today. Globally, more than 17,000 software and hardware companies are building solutions on Windows 7 and over 50,000 developers are enrolled in the Windows Ecosystem Readiness Program. Together, these partners are developing hardware, software and services capable of reaching more than a billion PCs around the world.

Belkin Cushdesk comforts your laptop and your lap

We have already covered Belkin’s Series of Comfort Mice and I was able to check out another Belkin product that improves user comfort on their computers.
I suppose that the CushDesk doesn’t really need any explanation as to what it does, nor is it anything really advanced. However, it solves that universal problem of putting a laptop on your lap and beating that “hotseat effect”. It is the same effect that happens whenever you have a cat laying on your lap. At first, it is quite warm and comforting, but after a while, you just want to throw it off.
Compatible with PC and Mac laptops with a max screen size of 17 inches, the CushDesk is at a slight angle to be easy on the eyes and legs. It also has this tiny little fence so the laptop or netbook won’t just slide off. Yes, I should have done a better job describing that, but I can’t think of any better terms, honestly.
The CushDesk can store easily, and has some plush material to cushion the weight of the user’s computer on their legs.
The CushDesk can be purchased at major retail stores everywhere, and can also be purchased directly off the Belkin site itself for $29.99. It comes in two colors: pitch black/soft gray as well as espresso/fuchsia.

Giving sight by therapy with genes

By the time Corey Haas was 7, the retinal disease he was born with had already stolen much of his vision. “He always clung to me or my wife,”
said Corey’s father, Ethan Haas.

The boy relied on a cane and adults to guide him, and, unable to see blackboard writing, sat in back with a teacher’s aide, large-type computer screen and materials in Braille.

Legally blind, Corey was expected eventually to lose all sight. Then, 13 months ago, after his eighth birthday, he underwent an experimental gene therapy procedure, receiving an injection in his left eye.

His vision in that eye improved quickly. Now 9, Corey plays Little League baseball, drives go-carts, navigates wooded trails near his home in Hadley, N.Y., and reads the blackboard in class. “It’s gotten, like, really better,” he said.

Experts in vision problems say that while it is unclear how many visually impaired people gene therapy could help, they consider the research promising for some types of blinding diseases, and an achievement for gene therapy, which has had many setbacks.

The study, reported in the journal Lancet, involved five children and seven adults, from Belgium, Italy and the United states, with a type of Leber’s congenital amaurosis, rare but serious congenital retinal diseases.

The researchers injected into the eyes of the patients a virus with the normal version of the gene REP65 inserted into its genome. When the virus invaded the light-sensing cells in the eye and inserted its own DNA into the cells’ DNA, the crucial human gene was included.

STARTING OUT IN A SLOWDOWN

Afraid of starting a new venture in an economic slowdown? Don't be, say investors. War times, recession and economic slowdown give excellent opportunities to set up new businesses and gain competitive advantage.

Capital expenditure and wage costs cannot be any cheaper than in these times. From Hyatt and FedEx to GE and Hewlett-Packard to Indian firms like Mindtree and Wipro BPO all were born in a slowdown. To set up a new venture, a core marketing and operations talent is essential. Economic slowdown gives an excellent opportunity to attract such talent at low wage costs, and give them excellent equity rewards and challenging work in return.

Top talent is also liable to easily migrate if their growth is not taken care of (in terms of salary hikes or promotion), even though in a recession. Capital infrastructure businesses will also find the expenses cheaper than they would in boom times.

Any product follows the normal PLM (product life cycle management) graph. It follows five stages of development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Most ventures start with a loss and achieve break even after six months to an year. And the curve can be timed in such a way that the growth period starts with the period when stock markets start picking up pace.

The ideal maturity period should end with another phase of boom and beginning of a slowdown . Though no business can achieve accurate timing, entrepreneurs can time their product launches gauging the trend of the curve. Raman Roy, founder of three BPO ventures and CEO of Quattro BPO says: that there's is no good or bad time to start. "If you start selling bullock carts in this age, it won't work even in a boom times. Even we started Spectramind in post dot com bust, and we did very well. If the idea is good it will sell. It should satisfy the needs of a market."

Roy started Spectramind at the peak of the dot com bust in 2000, with funding from Chysalis Capital. In two years, the company ramped up to 9,000 employees. It was bought by Wipro for $175 million after which Roy founded Quattro BPO with his own capital.

ABOUT ORGANIZATION

Basic Definition
Basically, an organization is a group of people intentionally organized to accomplish an overall, common goal or set of goals. Business organizations can range in size from two people to tens of thousands.
There are several important aspects to consider about the goal of the business organization. These features are explicit (deliberate and recognized) or implicit (operating unrecognized, "behind the scenes"). Ideally, these features are carefully considered and established, usually during the strategic planning process. (Later, we'll consider dimensions and concepts that are common to organizations.)
Vision
Members of the organization often have some image in their minds about how the organization should be working, how it should appear when things are going well.
Mission
An organization operates according to an overall purpose, or mission.
Values
All organizations operate according to overall values, or priorities in the nature of how they carry out their activities. These values are the personality, or culture, of the organization.
Strategic Goals
Organizations members often work to achieve several overall accomplishments, or goals, as they work toward their mission.
Strategies
Organizations usually follow several overall general approaches to reach their goals.

Exercise makes cigarettes less tempting

Research from the University of Exeter shows that exercise can decrease the power of cigarettes and smoking-related images that grab the attention of smokers. The study involved moderately heavy smokers, who had abstained from cigarettes for 15 hours before the trial. "We know that smoking-related images can be powerful triggers for smokers who are abstaining," said Kate Janse Van Rensburg, doctoral student at the University of Exeter, who led the study. "While we are no longer faced with advertisements for cigarettes, smokers are still faced with seeing people smoking on television, in photographs or in person. We know that this makes it more difficult for them to quit," added Rensburg. "During two visits to our laboratory participants began by being shown smoking-related and neutral images, and then spent either 15 minutes sitting or exercising on a stationary bike at a moderate intensity. Afterwards, they were again shown the images," she said. While participants were shown the images, the research team used the latest technology to measure and record their precise eye movements. They were able to show not only the length of time people looked at such images but also how quickly pictures of cigarettes could grab their attention, compared with non-smoking matched images. The study showed an 11 percent difference between the time the participants spent looking at the smoking-related images after exercise, compared with the after sitting. Also, after exercise, participants took longer to look at smoking-related images. Exercise, therefore, appears to reduce the power of the smoking-related images to grab visual attention. Numerous studies have shown that a single session of light to moderate intensity exercise, for example five-15 minutes of brisk walking, can reduce cravings and responses to smoking cues, said an Exeter release.