All about weather

[App Store Release] Master Kick

Weather

Thin Air (Weather Warden, Book 6)

Animated time/temp RGB matrix display

Broadband makes tiny town an English-teaching hub

The Dell surprise: Higher earnings on lower revenue

MacNN: Taiwanese iPhone hints at carrier freedom

Taiwanese iPhone hints at carrier freedom

quot;Schematic: New Media Art From Canadaquot; at [ space ] London

Rhizome Inclusive: News, Blog, and reBlog

- 1 days and 5 hours ago

centerimg id="image1609" src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2101/canoe_detail.jpg" alt="canoe_detail.jpg" //center centeriImage: Peter Flemming, Canoe, 2008 /i/centerbr / centerimg id="image1612" src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2101/helplessrobotsmall.gif" alt="helplessrobotsmall.gif" //center centeriImage: Norman White, The Helpless Robot, 2008 (Photo by Michelle Kasprzak)/i/centerbr / centerimg id="image1613" src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2101/joemccaysmall.gif" alt="joemccaysmall.gif" //center centeriImage: Joe McKay, The Big Job, 2008 (Photo by Michelle Kasprzak)/i/centerbr / pBringing together five Canadian machine-makers, a href="http://schematic.blogsome.com/"Schematic: New Media Art From Canada/a is a group show currently on view at London's a href="http://www.spacestudios.org.uk/index.php"[ space ]/a gallery. Curator Michelle Kasprzak begins a href="http://schematic.blogsome.com/2008/11/12/critical-text-about-the-exhibition/"her essay accompanying the show/a with a description of Jacques de Vaucanson's a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digesting_Duck"duck./a Citing the appeal of this quirky and captivating invention within its time, she argues that machines today continue to instigate the same degree of fascination, a response to enduring questions of representation and behavior. The show also claims that the group of artists selected -- Peter Flemming, Germaine Koh, Joe Mckay, Nicholas Stedman, and Norman White -- draw on their particular experience as Canadians in their exploration of such themes as weather, the environment, and craftsmanship. I don't know if those topics are necessarily "Canadian", but I had to chuckle a little bit at the explicit play on the rugged frontiersmen stereotype. That aside, the most compelling strand in the show seems to be that of futility and failure. Three works -- Joe McKay's iThe Big Job/i, Peter Flemming's iCanoe/i, and Norman White's iThe Helpless Robot/i -- engage in actions that reflect the limitations of machines and often their inutility. iThe Big Job/i is a mechanical progress bar that moves in accordance to a loading webpage. Repeating infinitely as the page reloads over and over again, it serves as both documentation and a representation of frustration. Similarly, Peter Flemming's iCanoe/i paddles itself to nowhere, while iThe Helpless Robot/i relies entirely on the aide of visitors to move about the gallery, actions which are dictated by a synthesized voice. Rather than cater to the "gee whiz" quality of machines, these projects elicit another concurrent response, which is, of course, "goddammit". /p p class="more"a href="http://www.spacestudios.org.uk/All_Content_Items/Exhibitions/Current_Exhibition%3A_Schematic/"Link raquo;/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rhizome-fp/~4/460937427" height="1" width="1"/

Add a comment

whiz,fp,fascination,elicit,wikipedia

Majority of China earthquake victims still unidentified

Guardian Unlimited

- 1 days and 5 hours ago

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/95329?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Majority+of+China+earthquake+victims+still+unidentifiedch=World+newsc3=guardian.co.ukc4=China+earthquake+2008%2CChina+%28News%29%2CNatural+disasters+and+extreme+weather+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CCharitiesc6=Tania+Braniganc7=2008_11_21c8=1121958c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=China+earthquakec13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FChina+earthquake" width="1" height="1" //divpSix months after the a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/chinaearthquake"Sichuan earthquake/a, only around a quarter of the 70,000 victims have been identified, a Chinese official said today./ppThe details emerged as leaders of the south-western province warned that survivors faced a grim winter, with some living in tents with little insulation and struggling to find sufficient food and warm clothing. The 7.9-magnitude shock left almost 4 million people homeless./ppTemperatures can fall to well below freezing in the mountains and Wei Hong, the executive vice-governor of Sichuan, said experts predicted they would be up to one degree Celsius colder than usual this year./pp"Some senior citizens and children are in need of basic equipment to keep them warm," he said. "People in some quake-stricken areas even face the tough problem of provisions for this winter and the coming spring."/ppWei said that a staggering amount of work was still needed, and that the region would need 3 trillion yuan by 2010./ppBy the middle of this month, almost 200,000 homes had been rebuilt and 685,000 homes were under reconstruction. But another 1.94m households still needed to be rebuilt or repaired and sites were still being selected for 25 townships which needed to be relocated./ppAsked how many students had died in schools that collapsed in the quake, Wei said 19,065./ppHowever, Li Jiang, from the Sichuan provincial propaganda office, later said that figure referred to the total number of bodies identified, blaming mistranslation by an official interpreter./ppThe deaths of thousands of children in collapsed schools became a highly sensitive issue for the authorities after outrage spread through China about shoddy building standards. /ppReports have been banished from the media and parents who sought investigations or tried to sue local authorities have been harassed./ppSoldiers took photographs and hair and blood samples before burying victims in mass graves in the hope that DNA testing might identify bodies in the future. /ppBut given the devastation wrought by the earthquake, some bodies may never be recovered. In some cases, there may be few relatives left to identify victims./ppOn top of the 70,000 confirmed dead, 18,000 people are still listed as missing./pp"Most of our cadres and people have overcome the shadow of the earthquake," Wei said. "They are working hard to rebuild their homes and most have found balance in their lives."/ppAsked about the suicide of two officials in the quakezone in as many months, he said: "We recognise that the earthquake has still left some deeply damaged in their hearts. We are very sympathetic about the suicides, but the reason for the suicides is not just the trauma but other causes too."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/chinaearthquake"China earthquake/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/china"China/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/naturaldisasters"Natural disasters and extreme weather/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227280796907112115200444823"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227280796907112115200444823" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

Add a comment

survivors,investigations,photographs,margins,unidentified

Mercedes' Web-Connected myComand Takes on BMW iDrive [Cars]

Gizmodo

- 1 days and 6 hours ago

pobject width="494" height="400"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vQL0tqLCjcQhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vQL0tqLCjcQhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="494" height="400"/embed/objectMercedes-Benz new myCOMAND system has appeared at the a href="http://jalopnik.com/tag/la-auto-show/"Los Angeles Auto Show/a, taking on the a href="http://gizmodo.com/5070122/bmw-idrive-40-remixes-xbox-360-and-ipod-into-simpler-control-system"fourth-generation BMW iDrive/a. Whereas the latter has an Xbox 360 feeling, this one gets some clues from Apple's, specially Coverflow and the menu navigation, which reminds me of the first version of the Apple TV and Front Row. One big difference is that myCOMAND is connected to the web, grabbing information wirelessly and presenting it through their own on-screen apps. Looking at the high resolution screens and the feature list, it looks very good:/p pscript type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"galleryPost('mycomand', 3, '');/script/p p· Off-board navigation: The GPS is constantly updated, from the maps to the points of interests. It also has a satellite overview and the search language is open: you can write directions without having to follow a format. It looks like the are plugging into Google Maps for this one, although I'm not sure how well the writing will work using their navigation knob./p p· Trip assist: This part is quite nice, grabbing information pertaining your planned trip from different web sources and presenting it in a useful manner. You can, for example, see the weather forecast for the trip, as well as giving you the possibility to make hotel and restaurants reservations from the system itself./p p· World radio: Instead of using a normal radio, this one plugs into the web to access all the stations available. The menu gives the possibility to access radio via genre. More interesting is the idea of storing your music in a web server and accessing it through the system directly, without the need to connect an digital music player or storing things locally./p p· Internet telephony: It has support for voice over IP systems like Skype./p p· Web browser: They also include a web browser, in case you need to get more information than the one provided with the thin clients above./p p· YouTube: For huh... hmmm. iSome/i reason./p pThe navigation knob, which looks similar to the a href="http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/notag/powermate-5576.php"Powermate/a, is simpler than the iDrive 4.0. Our a href="http://jalopnik.com/tag/la-auto-show/"Jalopnik comrades/a will have to try it to see if their user interface approach is better or not. [a href="http://www.emercedesbenz.com/Nov08/19_001517_Mercedes_Benz_Debuts_myCOMAND_Internet_Based_Infotainment_System_At_Los_Angeles_Auto_Show.html"Mercedes Benz/a]/p br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=86e1f373f34c866416f246fd64fe5ff6p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=86e1f373f34c866416f246fd64fe5ff6p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=86e1f373f34c866416f246fd64fe5ff6" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=h7HDN7dU"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=nGkNAEin"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=73nHQO7j"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=73nHQO7j" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=TIXZOHyO"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=TIXZOHyO" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/2wCMaabbx0s" height="1" width="1"/

Add a comment

gizmodo,gps,music player,music,benz

BBC Must Drop $100 Million Local Video Plan; Would Hurt Commercial Rivals

paidContent.org

- 1 days and 8 hours ago

pThe BBC has been blocked from beginning a £68 million ($101 million), four-year program to add video bulletins to its 65 local UK websites - a proposal that had been vigorously contested by concerned commercial publishers. After a five-month inquiry, the BBC Trust regulator said on Friday the plan bwould hurt the nascent online video efforts of struggling local newspaper publishers/b, many of which were forced to answer falling profits and the classified ads downturn with layoffs this week. /p p The BBC wanted to add just three daily news, three sport and three weather videos to each of its region-specific sites, while the project would also have added UGC, mobile video and up to 10 live streams per year from local events. It would have cost £23 million ($34 million) per year between 2009/10 and 2013/14, or an average £350,000 ($520,000) per site, and planned to attract 11 percent of UK households. /p p But the proposal was met with fierce lobbying, most notably by the UK's largest newspaper group Trinity Mirror (a href="http://finance.paidcontent.org/paidcontent?Page=QUOTETicker=TNI" class="ticker" title="TNI"LSE: TNI/a) and the Newspaper Society industry umbrella, which argued against public funding for services they said they had already invested in. The BBC Trust agreed, saying the plan bwould have cost commercial media four percent of revenue/b and, more seriously, would haveimpacted their future ability to innovate online. Regardless of competition, the trust even said the proposal would not have built local audiences as the BBC claimed. The BBC said it will consider its options. a href="http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-coming-this-morning-verdict-on-68-million-bbc-local-video-plan/" title="Full story"Full story/a and a href="http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-bbc-local-industry-reacts-to-video-plans-rejection/" title="industry reaction"industry reaction/a on paidContent:UK... /p pstrongRelated/strong/p ul class="related" lia href="http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-coming-this-morning-verdict-on-68-million-bbc-local-video-plan/"BBC Trust Rejects £68 Million Online Local Video Proposal/a/li lia href="http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-bbc-local-industry-reacts-to-video-plans-rejection/"BBC Local Reax: BBC 'Will Consider Options', Some Breathe Sigh Of Relief/a/li /ul piCheck out the best business jobs in digital media. a href="http://jobs.paidcontent.org/"Go here/a for paidContent.org Job Board./i/p pa href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?a=aeHCdB"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?i=aeHCdB" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=ct6RN"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=ct6RN" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=xRrSN"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=xRrSN" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=5d2Kn"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=5d2Kn" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=K0h3N"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=K0h3N" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=QBmqN"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=QBmqN" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pcorg/~4/460674845" height="1" width="1"/

Add a comment

ugc,sports,innovate,rejection,mirrors

[App Store Release] Spanish Anywhere

[App Store Release] Ace's Hebrew Study Cards (Exambusters)

iPod touch Fans forum

- 1 days and 8 hours ago

Category: Education
Released: Nov 12, 2008
Price: $4.99

Description:
EXAMBUSTERS STUDY CARDS . . . A COURSE in an APP! Perfect for Travelers!! Over 1800 questions and answers written by certified teachers and professional translators with a focus on exam preparation. Highlights essential Hebrew words and phrases you need to know to test well. Both Hebrew characters and easy pronunciation are included. Prepare for quizzes, tests, and SAT II exams. Examine study cards one by one in sequence, and eliminate them from your stack once you've learned them. Translations include spelling in English and Hebrew characters. Topics: Alphabet, Numbers, Grammar, Verbs, Home, Outdoor, Lodging/Hotel, Government, School, Travel, Transportation, Money, Emergency, Health, Eating out, Relationships, Clothing, Animals, Weather, Sports, Shopping, Entertainment, Fundamental phrases, and much more. CUSTOMER PRAISE Really helped me prepare for my exams.----Kristian Paras, Senior, Bergenfield, N.J. Hi-thank goodness for your flash cards because I had forgotten a lot. Now that my mind has been refreshed, I can continue and I'm learning so much more. Thanks.----Sarah Thomas, Student, Seattle, WA Exambusters really helps students.----John Johnson, teacher, St.Paul, MN This is the best way to master a subject, and it really works! Thanks a lot for all of your help.----James Shaw, Navy, Sulphur Springs, Texas A real time saver, great for cramming.----Joe McCarthy, Senior, State College, PA These cards helped my daughter through a very demanding exam period. I will recommend them to my friends.----Lisa Yumibe, Indianapolis, Indiana Thank you for introducing us to your product. They are a winner.----Preston Young, President, Learning Dynamics Tutoring, Hackensack, N.J. These study cards are a perfect supplement to any textbook.----Barbara Silber, Science Department Chair, The Fieldston School, Riverdale, New York Exambusters really do the job!----Alex Tushinsky, Instructor, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey

Website: http://www.exambusters.com
Support Website: http://www.exambusters.com

Note: The description above is the official one supplied by the application developer and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of this site or its staff.

Get it on iTunes: Ace's Hebrew Study Cards (Exambusters)

Add a comment

chairs,sports,hebrew,quizzes,colleges

New Beta Version of m.yahoo.com in the Works - We’ve Got Screenshots

TechCrunch

- 1 days and 10 hours ago

Further proving that security through (very, very light) obscurity isn’t a good means of keeping things secret, a new beta version of Yahoo’s Mobile Front Page (generally known as just m.yahoo.com) has been found hiding just one character away from the beta announced to the public back in January.

Where as the public beta can be found at beta.m.yahoo.com, our tipster dug up the new version by instead navigating to beta2.m.yahoo.com. Unfortunately, it seems we weren’t supposed to see this just yet; within a half-hour of us reaching out to Yahoo! for comment, the page had become password protected - but not before we snagged a couple screenshots.

The screenshots you’ll see below are what you’d see on an iPhone - on most other handsets, the new beta will look more like the current standard mobile front page: white backgrounds, light image use, etc. The visual changes of the iPhone version from the first beta to beta 2 are somewhat minimal - at least, they’re much less extreme than the jump made between the current m.yahoo.com and the first beta. They’ve decreased the gloss on the gradients, but have rounded out the corners. They’ve also added in a spot for advertisements above the fold, which I don’t remember being there before.

More notable than visual tweaks, however, is the addition of Yahoo’s oneConnect and onePlace. oneConnect brings in the notifications and updates from your e-mail accounts (Gmail, Windows Live, Yahoo) and social networks (Facebook, Flickr, Myspace, Twitter, Dopplr, and a bunch of others), and allows you to update your status at all appropriate sites in one quick swoop. onePlace is a similar all-in-one concept but for general information, squeezing together news, weather, stocks, bookmarks, RSS feeds, and more.

Both oneConnect and onePlace were announced as downloadable applications in the first quarter of 2008, though it seems that an iPhone version of oneConnect is the only thing to have made it out thus far. This is the first time we’ve seen a browser based version of either.

Oh - and if you’re curious as to what Yahoo had to say on the matter after they locked it up tight: they’re “constantly working on innovations” but they have “nothing to announce anytime soon.”

(I’ve removed a bunch of the status updates from image 2 to keep it from making this page absurdly long. Click the image for the fullsize version.)

[Thanks Matt!]

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Add a comment

beta version,visuals,iphone,notables,yahoo

Today's Current WE-ther - Okinawa 2008 - 21 Nov

Cookstr.com - Recipes & More Recipes

KillerStartups.com - all

- 1 days and 14 hours ago

br /In their own wordsbr /br /“We've got an amazing collection of recipes from great chefs and cookbook authors. Find a recipe for a favorite dish, or discover something you've never made before. We're just getting started.” brbrbr /br /Why it might be a killerbr /br /Those on the lookout for a little culinary flavor will take a liking to this site.br /br /Some questionsbr /br /Can the user submit recipes to be included as part of the online database?br /br /What it doesbr /br /Isn’t cuisine your forte? You are obviously not alone, and there are many web-based resources that cater for individuals in your very same position. One which has premiered recently goes by the name of Cookstr, and it is building a fair collection of recipes that you can procure at no cost and put into good use right away. br brThese come from chefs and renowned cookbook authors, and a search engine will enable you to easily look them up. It is possible to search either by recipe or by chef, so if you have a personal favorite it will be easy to follow him and try out his latest culinary discoveries. Moreover, the existing database can be searched by ingredient. This way, you can focus your search and look up exotic recipes, or even recipes that don’t cost that much in order to weather the recession. br brLastly, a “Surprise Me” section is included if you are particularly low on inspiration and can’t think of any search query at all, or if you want to come across dishes you would bypass otherwise.br /br /Link: a href='http://www.cookstr.com'http://www.cookstr.com/abr /Our Review: a href='http://www.killerstartups.com/Search/cookstr-com-recipes-more-recipes'http://www.killerstartups.com/Search/cookstr-com-recipes-more-recipes/abr /br / nbsp;div class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?a=ZleMV7yw"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?a=HWGP4Q6g"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?a=YF0FjOJb"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?i=YF0FjOJb" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?a=mFvIAzpY"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?i=mFvIAzpY" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?a=CNpzPBk3"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?d=43" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?a=JfTztB21"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?i=JfTztB21" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/killerstartups/BkQV/~4/btO7a6tsoCo" height="1" width="1"/

Add a comment

getting started,collections,search engines,recession,lookout

VIDEO: Mercedes-Benz myCOMAND concept brings internet safely into cars

Autoblog

- 1 days and 19 hours ago

pFiled under: a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/tech/" rel="tag"Tech/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/videos/" rel="tag"Videos/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/mercedes-benz/" rel="tag"Mercedes-Benz/a/pembed width="428" height="352" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://videos.streetfire.net/vidiac.swf?video=19d64484-986d-46af-8e06-9b5a01148f6c"/embedbr /a href="http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Mercedes-Benz-myCOMAND_200714.htm?ref=2328ccdb-e8dd-42c5-9501-9a4101775fc2"Mercedes Benz myCOMAND interface/abr /br / German automakers have gotten plenty of flack for their less than intuitive Navigation/Infotainment systems, but Mercedes Benz is working hard to change that with its myCOMAND concept. The myCOMAND system uses high-speed wireless Internet with upload and download speeds of over 3MB to bring the connectivity of the web into any driver's hands. It's similar to interfaces from the competition in that it gives access to phone info, different types of digital media and the web. The difference comes from Mercedes' decision to go entirely Internet-based. Gone are hard drives, CD/DVD players and most computer hardware. Mercedes stuck with a thin-client and incredibly intuitive graphical user interface coupled with the ubiquitous Mercedes command controller to pull the strings. br / br / We got a chance to sit in a myCOMAND-equipped Mercedes at the a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/LA-Auto-Show/"LA Auto Show/a today and were up to speed within seconds. We were able to surf the net (Autoblog was one of the presets, nice), explore Google Maps, check the weather and look for the cheapest gas in the area with minimal effort. The myCOMAND system is a concept right now and Mercedes engineers feel the technology is still a few years from production. It does, however, show the potential of future Infotainment systems, and we like what we see. See how it works by watching our video demonstration of myCOMAND with Mercedes Infotainment and Telematics VP Johann Jungwirth above, and you can view high-res pics of the system from Mercedes in the gallery below. As always, a press release with all the official details is after the jump.br / br / div class="postgallery"pstrongGallery: a href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/mercedes-mycomand-system/"Mercedes myCOMAND system/a/strong/pa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/mercedes-mycomand-system/1175728/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/mycomand12mb_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/mercedes-mycomand-system/1175726/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/mycomand10mb_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/mercedes-mycomand-system/1175725/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/mycomand09mb_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/mercedes-mycomand-system/1175724/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/mycomand08mb_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/mercedes-mycomand-system/1175723/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/mycomand07mb_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //a/divpa href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/20/mercedes-benz-mycomand-concept-brings-internet-safely-into-cars/" rel="bookmark"Continue reading emVIDEO: Mercedes-Benz myCOMAND concept brings internet safely into cars/em/a/pp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/20/mercedes-benz-mycomand-concept-brings-internet-safely-into-cars/"VIDEO: Mercedes-Benz myCOMAND concept brings internet safely into cars/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.autoblog.com"Autoblog/a on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:40:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/20/mercedes-benz-mycomand-concept-brings-internet-safely-into-cars/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/1377569/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/20/mercedes-benz-mycomand-concept-brings-internet-safely-into-cars/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/NYCf37Wl4D1OiFpDNzGDoSPIm3s/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/NYCf37Wl4D1OiFpDNzGDoSPIm3s/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=e8WNiFv4"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=e8WNiFv4" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=JrLpyWXB"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=JrLpyWXB" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/autoblog/~4/fGdVP6n5ARQ" height="1" width="1"/

Add a comment

vp,demonstrations,email,download speeds,margins

From the Kremlin to Caracas, how oil collapse changes everything

Guardian Unlimited

- 1 days and 19 hours ago

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/85170?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+From+the+Kremlin+to+Caracas%2C+how+oil+collapse+changes+everythingch=Businessc3=The+Guardianc4=Oil+and+gas+companies+%28Business%29%2CGlobal+economy+%28Business%29%2CRussia+%28News%29%2CSaudi+Arabia+%28News%29%2CIran+%28News%29%2CBusiness%2CVenezuela+%28News%29%2CCredit+crunch+%28Business%29%2CEnergy+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironment%2CWorld+news%2CMiddle+East+%28News%29%2CSaudi+Arabia+%28Football+club%29c5=Football+World+Cup%2CCredit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CEnergy%2CEthical+Livingc6=Luke+Harding%2CIan+Black%2CRory+Carrollc7=2008_11_21c8=1121611c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Oil+and+gas+companiesc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FOil+and+gas+companies" width="1" height="1" //divh2Russia/h2pRussia is lurching towards a major economic crisis, experts predicted yesterday, following news that the price of oil had slumped to under $50 (pound;33.72) a barrel. The collapse was likely to have catastrophic consequences including a possible devaluation of the rouble and a severe drop in living standards next year, they said. /ppWith oil prices tumbling and his credibility at stake, Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, yesterday insisted that the economy was still robust. The country would survive the global financial turmoil - which he blamed on the US - he told delegates from his United Russia party./ppBut the Kremlin is aware that any loss of confidence in the Russian economy could lead to a loss of confidence in Putin and his ally Dmitry Medvedev, who took over from Putin as president in May. /ppPutin said his administration would do everything it could to prevent a recurrence of the last oil-related crash in 1998, which saw the savings of many ordinary Russians wiped out. But the plummeting oil price leaves him little room for manoeuvre. Experts suggest Russia's economy is facing profound difficulties, despite two huge stabilisation funds accumulated during the booming oil years. /ppThe fall in oil prices from $147 this July has blown a hole in the government's budget calculations. It is now facing a $150bn shortfall in its spending plans and will have to slash expenditure in 2009. Putin sought to assure hard-up Russians that their social benefits would not be affected. "We will do everything in our power ... so that the collapses of the past years should never be repeated," he said./ppThe oil slump, however, exacerbates Russia's already severe problems. Since May Russian markets have lost 70% of their value. Russia's central bank has spent $57.5bn trying to prop up the ailing currency. "If the trend continues, with the government supporting the rouble, oil prices falling and a slowing economy, we are going to have a major crisis," said Chris Weafer, of the Moscow brokerage Uralsib.br /strongLuke Harding in Moscow/strong/ph2Iran/h2pIran is the second largest Opec oil producer and already feeling the pain of declining prices more than any other in the Middle East. Its "rainy day" oil stabilisation fund, used to release profits when revenues decline, is reportedly badly depleted as a result of mismanagement by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government. The precise figure is a state secret, but a member of parliament revealed recently it was $7bn - just enough to cover one year of imported petrol./ppAhmadinejad has seen two central bank governors resign and faces daily criticism of his policies. A strike by the powerful "bazaari" class over a new VAT tax - which would have aggravated inflation already at nearly 30% - was seen as a warning. Iran is especially vulnerable because 80% of its revenue comes from oil. The IMF calculated recently that for Iran to balance its budget, the price of crude oil must not fall below $95 a barrel. With prices now below $50 the shortfall could be staggering./ppThe effect of declining oil prices will be felt both domestically and internationally. Ahmadinejad is expected to stand for a second presidential term next June but the lack of cash will restrict his plans to replace subsidies with direct cash payments - widely seen as a vote-buying tactic. US and UN sanctions imposed over the nuclear issue are already limiting Iran's ability to issue letters of credit and thus increasing its cost of trade./ppSaudi Arabia has been happy to use high Opec production levels and low prices to contain Tehran's plans for regional hegemony. US experts and lobbyists now talk openly of exploiting the drop in oil prices to make the sanctions more effective.br /strongIan Black, Middle East editor/strong/ph2Saudi Arabia/h2pSaudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producer and exporter, is expected to cut back on current spending and also adjust ambitious long-term development plans in the light of the slump in prices./ppBut cautious fiscal policies will place the kingdom in a relatively strong position, with the current budget based on a price of around $45-50 a barrel. Expansion next year will require around $55-62./ppThe worry must be that in a country with no elections, parliament, political parties or taxes, the combination of slowing development projects and a widening gap between the wealthy elite and ordinary people could be destabilising./ppPublicly, the message from the top has been that there is no need to panic, even as falling prices of crude oil and the global financial crisis were bec