Japanese "iphone" in a bar package

As we know the markets react to changes and they raise competition as well as innovation and new product development. KDDI from Japan proved that it does not need the iPhone since 2006, but rather preferred to dominate with a similar cool device that outbid Apple's. The revolution was there with the Sanyo Infobar 2 phone that is nothing but success. Includes design, technical features and entertainment, totally adjusted and leading the Japanese market.

More specifically, the device features a 2.6" LCD screen with 240 x 400 pixel resolution, 100M bytes of built-in storage, and a microSD slot memory cards. Also included is a 2-megapixel camera and a $172 price tag.

The Infobar 2 has an embedded Felica smart chip to enable live electronic payments, a feature used currently in Japan for small purchases, train tickets, etc. The phone beats iPhone hands down at 2.4Mbps via a CDMA2000-1X EV-DO network.

Users can also watch digital TV and download music from Japanese artists not found in iTunes collection directly to their handsets from the Lismo music store. Seems that Japan prefers the candy better following the Halloween spirit :)

-E

Professors are producing also online content!

Check out the snapshot (click on it), my students' online evaluation - have no time for rebuttal!

There is a whole debate and criticism between the Professors and the students online via the "Ratemyprofessor" Website - a well accepted tool/platform. Now there is an option of the professor - Professor's rebuttal- to fight the comments she/he receives. Usually the comments are funny or weird or even totally irrelevant to the professor's performance.

Check the following example, where the NYU professor is trying to defend herself and the comments she receives from her students. Check how she responds to the comment "I want to be her slave"

-E

USA, the inflation crossroad

The last days, I have started realizing more and more the inflation's rise. In the store I used to buy my morning muffin for $1.25, now it costs $1.50 and a sign in the back, stating that "Food inflation has forced us to raise the prices":). Wow, these guys have taken Economics 101. Then walking in the Mediterranean store, another inflationary problem due to the Euro exchange rates, the owner, upset and worried, told me that he changed the prices 4 times in a week, WOW! Is that a random effect? Certainly not, the US prices are pushed higher either from the dollar's value decline over Euro, almost 1.43, compared to the last year's 1.21. The Americans are paying this, but their salary is not increased 4 times per week.

How about China? Based on recent economic data, we are importing inflation from China. Based on NY Times, Chinese inflation in August was the highest monthly rate reported since December 1996. The spike in food prices, which were up 18.2 percent from August 2006, is especially worrisome because food costs particularly hurt China's poor majority. That causes lots of instability, no matter the 11.9% annual economic growth. The government has raised interest rates four times this year to try to restrain the boom and has imposed investment curbs on the auto, textile and other industries. But these measures are requiring longer than expected to take effect.

USA is in the middle, a crossroad, in the mercy of the Chinese inflation, with imports from China rising 16.7 percent, to $20.9 billion and presenting a trade surplus. Also in the mercy of the US/Euro fluctuations, a real headache for the trade dealers. We have also the housing market status that is creating a problematic and chaotic inflationary landscape.

But definitely, the Fed's role is to protect the public interest and also the consumer, but triggering the interest rates is not the solution or it is not enough. New international trade agreements should emerge and more economic consultation to China to resolve their economic chaos. EU is still looking to identify itself over the USA, but this needs to be done and ultimately increase the value of the dollar over Euro and bring it back to the reasonable 1.10 or so.

-E

"The Garden of Lost Vespers"

Tonight I went to the "Garden of Lost Vespers", a poetry event at Kouros Gallery, a very progressive place that made me discover life's different dimensions redefining things and myself and filling up with energy and fire for success. Full credit to Prof. Nicos Alexiou, my colleague at Queens College that in a few hours made me appreciate the role of the sociology and discover the thirst for his poetry. It was an awakening, an inspiration that have been looking for quite some time. Nicos is a guy that wants to change the world or at least contribute something towards that direction. His poems are in Greek and in English, just AMAZING. My favorite part among the so many is the "Dialectic of the Lines: "Within people, with the people, with you, lines are chiseled, that bewitch us, set us free, change us". All these poems were clinking as a new Marxist's theory to me.

All this impact of this fantastic poetry made me attempt to define the "fortune hunter", as I promised a couple of weeks ago, synthesizing Alexiou's words with my imagination: "A fortune hunter is self-exiled in the shining streets of silence and success. He is committed to his shadow, but he anchors nowhere, till he finds the silver key of the haunted gate that will set him free with a crown of glory."

-E

Not Amazon son of mine

The following story reminds me of the Genesis band and "you are not son of mine" hit song. As I was looking up for a Technology Management and Innovation book in Amazon, I crossed something really strange that I would like to share. The author's family in India has not heard from him for the last 9 years - the comment was in 2000. Hey, call your parents, you forgot for 9 years. The strange is that the family's neighbor volunteered and posted the comment. The author is in the UK, but think how insulting is the comment, bringing up someone's personal life to the readers. I would call it a very desperate action, but Amazon would never ever be the right place to post this sort of comments and should not even allow it. Where is the moderator?

Hopefully my family or my neighbors and friends will not start posting comments on my blog like "Son come back for Christmas, all we want for Christmas is you" and so on.. :)

-E