Print-on-Demand: the best bridge between new technologies and established markets
by Danny O. Snow
For centuries, publishers have wrestled with one simple but crucial question upon which their success often depends: How many copies should we print? On one hand, fundamental economics of printing encourage publishers to produce as many copies as possible to achieve better economies of scale and lower per-unit costs. Meanwhile, the cost of unsold copies can also erode profit margins
Print-on-demand (POD) increasingly offers today's publishers a good solution to this central dilemma. By allowing publishers to print exactly enough copies to meet market demands and no more, POD drastically reduces, or even eliminates, the effect of unsold copies. The benefits of eliminating waste and reducing financial risk/expense are enormous to the publisher. Of course, contemporary POD technologies can be limited and do not yet meet the needs of all publishers. But POD's limitations are diminishing every day, and the technology's economic benefits are so powerful that more publishers are finding ways to use it successfully.
The concept of on-demand delivery isn't new in industries outside publishing. Retailers of hard goods have relied on "just in time" (JIT) delivery for years. For example, a key factor in the success of retail giant WalMart was the linking of its in-store cash registers to a centralized inventory control system, allowing the retailer to replenish inventory in direct proportion to sales. However, retailers' JIT systems depend on having readily-available previously manufactured goods located in a central warehouse. POD takes the concept to the next level: The product is manufactured and shipped on demand, practically eliminating the need for inventory, warehousing expenses and many other costs associated with bringing books to market
Monday, November 1, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Library Technology
Library Technology, generally
The Accidental Systems Librarian - A book (and lots of links) by Rachel Singer Gordon, for those of us who fell into being systems librarians
Overcoming the Systems Librarian Impostor Syndrome - An article by Rachel Singer Gordon
Automated Library Systems: Tips and Hints - Planning ideas
Biblio Tech Review
D-Lib - "Innovation and research in digital libraries"
Integrated Library System Reports
LibLicense: Licensing Digital Information
Library Technology Guides - News, trends, directory of companies (Marshall Breeding, Vanderbilt U.)
Library Technology Now - Reviews and news
Meta LIS Vendor Web Site Listings - List of lists of vendor Web pages
Oss4Lib - Open Source Systems for Libraries
Top Tech Trends (LITA)
Transforming Traditional Libraries - A new peer-reviewed e-journal
Zen in the Art of Troubleshooting by Terry Ballard - A classic
Library Technology Blogs:
See also Library (and Librarian) Blogs.
Shifted Librarian - Blog on the theme of the shift from searching for information to having it come to you. (Jenny Levine)
ALA Techsource - Tech news, forecasts, projections (American Library Association)
ALA Techsource Blog - A collaborative blog written by some of the foremost thinkers in library tech
Blyberg.net - John Blyberg, who does a lot of innovative stuff at Ann Arbor District Library
Code4Lib: Code for Libraries - Includes a journal, conference, e-mail list, as well as a blog
Librarian in Black by Web manager Sarah Houghton-Jan
LITA Blog (Library and Information Technology Association)
Lorcan Dempsey's Weblog - From OCLC's chief strategist and a far-sighted thinker in the field
Tame the Web: Technology and Libraries - Michael Stephens' Blog
What I Learned Today - Web manager Nicole Engard writes about Web 2.0, programming, blogs, RSS, wikis
Usability Issues for Library Web Sites:
Library Terms That Users Understand by John Kupersmith, UC Berkeley
Web Usability Testing (University of Virginia Library)
See also Web Design / Information Architecture
Interesting Online Public Access Catalogs (OPACs):
The following are online library catalogs with especially interesting features. If you are looking for the catalog of a specific library, see library directories.
Belmont Abbey College Library's Scholastica catalog, which uses the Visual Net technology developed by Antarctica
North Carolina State University library catalog - Uses facets to help users refine their searches (More on this Endeca catalog)
McMaster University Library's catalog is another that uses Endeca
Penn Tags - The University of Pennsylvania Library has a system for users to tag items in the catalog or on the Web
Plymouth State University library catalog - Uses Scriblio, OPAC software with faceted searching and browsing, which in turn is based on WordPress blogging software. (Note: use the search box on the left. Do not click on "Search Library Catalog.")
Librarians and the Internet
Blogging Libraries Wiki - "Libraries doing good things with blogs" (blogwithoutalibrary.net)
The Cyberlibrarians' Rest Stop - "Web searching, sleuthing, sifting"
Digital Libraries - Roy Tennant's column in Library Journal
Google Librarian Central - Featuring the Google Librarian Newsletter which tells librarians how Google can help them (and vice versa)
Handheld Librarian - Blog on using handheld devices in libraries
Innovative Internet Applications in Libraries (Wilton Library)
Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web (Smithsonian)
Library Web Chic - Blog
Net-mom Jean Armour Polly coined the phrase Surfing the Internet in 1992, when she was a librarian at Liverpool (N.Y.) Public Library
The NYPL Style Guide has become a model for those who want to produce standards-compliant Web pages
Web4Lib
Web4Lib is a popular mailing list for librarians creating Web applications.
Web4Lib Home Page
Archive
Also available in blog format (With RSS feed naturally )
Library Web Manager's Reference Center - Useful links for Web4Lib readers
Related:
RSS4Lib - A blog about using RSS in libraries
Web Manager's Resource Center - Webliography by A. Paula Wilson
Why Librarians Should Rule the Net by Karen Coyle
Wireless Librarian - All about libraries using wireless technology
Writing for the Web: A Primer for Librarians (Eric H. Schnell, Ohio State University)
See also Open Archives/Digital Libraries
Evaluating Internet Sites:
Librarians have taken the lead in this area, just as we assist students and the public in the best use of printed and other resources.
Bibliography on Evaluating Web Information (Virginia Tech)
Evaluating Internet Information - Elizabeth E. Kirk, Johns Hopkins University
Evaluating the Quality of Information on the Internet - Recognizing technical trickery; avoiding fraud, fanaticism, and bad information (Genie Tyburski, The Virtual Chase)
Evaluating the Quality of World Wide Web Resources - What to look for (Moellering University, Valparaiso University)
How to Evaluate a Web Site - An annotated bibliography by LaJean Humphries (LLRX)
Internet Detective - "Sure, you use the Internet all the time, but you need to wise up to the web when you use it for your university or college work." (Intute)
Web Page Evaluation Checklist (UC Berkeley)
Cataloging the Internet:
Cataloging Internet Resources: A Manual and Practical Guide (OCLC)
See also Cataloging Electronic Resources
Digital Libraries: Cataloguing and Indexing of Electronic Resources (IFLA)
Journal of Internet Cataloging
Organizing the Web: Resources for Librarians (Internet Public Library)
See also:
Library-Style Web Guides, many of them compiled by librarians
Metadata Schemas
RSS, an emerging standard for reading and publishing news on the Web and an area where some librarians are out in front
Citing Electronic (and Non-Electronic) Resources
by Robert Teeter
The Accidental Systems Librarian - A book (and lots of links) by Rachel Singer Gordon, for those of us who fell into being systems librarians
Overcoming the Systems Librarian Impostor Syndrome - An article by Rachel Singer Gordon
Automated Library Systems: Tips and Hints - Planning ideas
Biblio Tech Review
D-Lib - "Innovation and research in digital libraries"
Integrated Library System Reports
LibLicense: Licensing Digital Information
Library Technology Guides - News, trends, directory of companies (Marshall Breeding, Vanderbilt U.)
Library Technology Now - Reviews and news
Meta LIS Vendor Web Site Listings - List of lists of vendor Web pages
Oss4Lib - Open Source Systems for Libraries
Top Tech Trends (LITA)
Transforming Traditional Libraries - A new peer-reviewed e-journal
Zen in the Art of Troubleshooting by Terry Ballard - A classic
Library Technology Blogs:
See also Library (and Librarian) Blogs.
Shifted Librarian - Blog on the theme of the shift from searching for information to having it come to you. (Jenny Levine)
ALA Techsource - Tech news, forecasts, projections (American Library Association)
ALA Techsource Blog - A collaborative blog written by some of the foremost thinkers in library tech
Blyberg.net - John Blyberg, who does a lot of innovative stuff at Ann Arbor District Library
Code4Lib: Code for Libraries - Includes a journal, conference, e-mail list, as well as a blog
Librarian in Black by Web manager Sarah Houghton-Jan
LITA Blog (Library and Information Technology Association)
Lorcan Dempsey's Weblog - From OCLC's chief strategist and a far-sighted thinker in the field
Tame the Web: Technology and Libraries - Michael Stephens' Blog
What I Learned Today - Web manager Nicole Engard writes about Web 2.0, programming, blogs, RSS, wikis
Usability Issues for Library Web Sites:
Library Terms That Users Understand by John Kupersmith, UC Berkeley
Web Usability Testing (University of Virginia Library)
See also Web Design / Information Architecture
Interesting Online Public Access Catalogs (OPACs):
The following are online library catalogs with especially interesting features. If you are looking for the catalog of a specific library, see library directories.
Belmont Abbey College Library's Scholastica catalog, which uses the Visual Net technology developed by Antarctica
North Carolina State University library catalog - Uses facets to help users refine their searches (More on this Endeca catalog)
McMaster University Library's catalog is another that uses Endeca
Penn Tags - The University of Pennsylvania Library has a system for users to tag items in the catalog or on the Web
Plymouth State University library catalog - Uses Scriblio, OPAC software with faceted searching and browsing, which in turn is based on WordPress blogging software. (Note: use the search box on the left. Do not click on "Search Library Catalog.")
Librarians and the Internet
Blogging Libraries Wiki - "Libraries doing good things with blogs" (blogwithoutalibrary.net)
The Cyberlibrarians' Rest Stop - "Web searching, sleuthing, sifting"
Digital Libraries - Roy Tennant's column in Library Journal
Google Librarian Central - Featuring the Google Librarian Newsletter which tells librarians how Google can help them (and vice versa)
Handheld Librarian - Blog on using handheld devices in libraries
Innovative Internet Applications in Libraries (Wilton Library)
Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web (Smithsonian)
Library Web Chic - Blog
Net-mom Jean Armour Polly coined the phrase Surfing the Internet in 1992, when she was a librarian at Liverpool (N.Y.) Public Library
The NYPL Style Guide has become a model for those who want to produce standards-compliant Web pages
Web4Lib
Web4Lib is a popular mailing list for librarians creating Web applications.
Web4Lib Home Page
Archive
Also available in blog format (With RSS feed naturally )
Library Web Manager's Reference Center - Useful links for Web4Lib readers
Related:
RSS4Lib - A blog about using RSS in libraries
Web Manager's Resource Center - Webliography by A. Paula Wilson
Why Librarians Should Rule the Net by Karen Coyle
Wireless Librarian - All about libraries using wireless technology
Writing for the Web: A Primer for Librarians (Eric H. Schnell, Ohio State University)
See also Open Archives/Digital Libraries
Evaluating Internet Sites:
Librarians have taken the lead in this area, just as we assist students and the public in the best use of printed and other resources.
Bibliography on Evaluating Web Information (Virginia Tech)
Evaluating Internet Information - Elizabeth E. Kirk, Johns Hopkins University
Evaluating the Quality of Information on the Internet - Recognizing technical trickery; avoiding fraud, fanaticism, and bad information (Genie Tyburski, The Virtual Chase)
Evaluating the Quality of World Wide Web Resources - What to look for (Moellering University, Valparaiso University)
How to Evaluate a Web Site - An annotated bibliography by LaJean Humphries (LLRX)
Internet Detective - "Sure, you use the Internet all the time, but you need to wise up to the web when you use it for your university or college work." (Intute)
Web Page Evaluation Checklist (UC Berkeley)
Cataloging the Internet:
Cataloging Internet Resources: A Manual and Practical Guide (OCLC)
See also Cataloging Electronic Resources
Digital Libraries: Cataloguing and Indexing of Electronic Resources (IFLA)
Journal of Internet Cataloging
Organizing the Web: Resources for Librarians (Internet Public Library)
See also:
Library-Style Web Guides, many of them compiled by librarians
Metadata Schemas
RSS, an emerging standard for reading and publishing news on the Web and an area where some librarians are out in front
Citing Electronic (and Non-Electronic) Resources
by Robert Teeter
Automation System Marketplace published by Library Journal
In a year when a difficult economy presented fewer opportunities for immediate gains, the major industry players have defined their business strategies with fundamentally different concepts of library automation. This is no longer an industry where companies compete on the basis of the best or the most features in similar products but one where companies distinguish themselves through products and services that define different futures for their library customers.New models of automation are beginning to take shape, challenging the traditional integrated library system (ILS) in an industry that has long favored incremental evolution. Some new products and projects remain poised to break free from traditional models, particularly discovery products that can deliver immediate improvement to library users.
Automation Companies
The following are the companies that offer library automation products that have a significant presence in the United States and Canada.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Make a ‘Digital will’ for your online properties.
Own a blog? If not, you must definitely be having a basic e-mail id? What about the online banking or credit card account? … Just imagine what happens to the secrecy of log-in and transaction passwords for all these digital assets after you?
Yes, you can now make a ‘Digital will’, like you may have done for the most of your properties, financial assets and other valuables; for all your digital assets such as email accounts, online banking accounts, credit/debit cards, online contacts, digital music or photo collection.
The domain names of your site or blog, and other IDs of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or Orkut also can be bequeathed by your willed nominee. You can also make a provision for your PayPal and other online shopping accounts.
According to a this report, a Delhi-based businessman recently approached a lawyer for a digital will to bequeath his email accounts and other digital secrets to his sons. The businessman has bequeathed various different digital accounts where one account has its entire artistic works while others have collection of his audio recordings and autobiography collections.
A digital will allows the successor of the maker of the will to access private mails and other digital archives with the necessary user names and passwords to be provided to the willed nominee after the death of the person.
Under a digital will, the usernames and the password of various digital accounts could be legally inherited by the beneficiary as per the will including the sensitive information related to the contents stored in the accounts, actively and passively managed by you until now.
In the current era where increasing number of transaction are being digitalized, this case of digital will has brought to light a new area of due-diligence which people need to carry out for the sensitive and important documents which may have been stored digitally.
Like other financial assets, even the digital assets need to be appropriately tied up in order to ensure willful inheritance of passwords of online accounts and sites, in the name of desirable nominees.
So when are you going for your “digital will” ?
by Viral Dholakia
Yes, you can now make a ‘Digital will’, like you may have done for the most of your properties, financial assets and other valuables; for all your digital assets such as email accounts, online banking accounts, credit/debit cards, online contacts, digital music or photo collection.
The domain names of your site or blog, and other IDs of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or Orkut also can be bequeathed by your willed nominee. You can also make a provision for your PayPal and other online shopping accounts.
According to a this report, a Delhi-based businessman recently approached a lawyer for a digital will to bequeath his email accounts and other digital secrets to his sons. The businessman has bequeathed various different digital accounts where one account has its entire artistic works while others have collection of his audio recordings and autobiography collections.
A digital will allows the successor of the maker of the will to access private mails and other digital archives with the necessary user names and passwords to be provided to the willed nominee after the death of the person.
Under a digital will, the usernames and the password of various digital accounts could be legally inherited by the beneficiary as per the will including the sensitive information related to the contents stored in the accounts, actively and passively managed by you until now.
In the current era where increasing number of transaction are being digitalized, this case of digital will has brought to light a new area of due-diligence which people need to carry out for the sensitive and important documents which may have been stored digitally.
Like other financial assets, even the digital assets need to be appropriately tied up in order to ensure willful inheritance of passwords of online accounts and sites, in the name of desirable nominees.
So when are you going for your “digital will” ?
by Viral Dholakia
New Internet Technology
For those who are excited about the prospect of mobile data and internet-based mobile networks, then IPv6 is something they should pay attention to. Future mobile networks are being designed around IP frameworks, by which we mean using Internet technology to run mobile services. We’re standing on the cusp of a huge update of one of the underlying technologies of the internet - from IPv4 to IPv6. To help understand what all this means, and the impact of IP on the future of mobile networks, GoMo News interviewed Mícheál Ó Foghlú, Executive Director of Research at the Telecommunications Software & Systems Group (TSSG), and Chair of the Irish IPv6 Task Force.
Before that, what’s difference between IPv4 and IPv6?
It’s a question of scale, really.
Any time you use the Internet, you’re accessing data through IPv4. We’re not going to get into the specifics of how it works here, but it’s at the core of the structure that allows data to be communicated across the Internet. Your computer has an IP address, and so does any other computer that you want it to communicate with. The big problem is that it was designed back in the 80’s. When IPv4 was released, there was no conception of what the Internet would one day look like. There are services today with vast numbers of users, that transmit colossal amounts of data (YouTube, Facebook… not even to mention pornography). IPv4 was never intended to handle that kind of service. It has been kept going by botch jobs and quick fixes as the demands put upon it have increased, but for many years now the demand for IPv4 to be improved has been growing. And the number of users has increased. And the number of IP addresses available is now scrolling towards zero with great swiftness. This problem was made even worse by the sudden proliferation of mobile devices in the last few years.
And IPv6 is what will come next. It’s the upgrade to IPv4. Its main feature will be to increase the number of possible IP addresses massively. It’s not new… not precisely. It was designed back in the 90s. It’s just that it has never been implemented - but current trends put “IPv4 exhaustion” at somewhere near the end of 2011. Time is very definitively running out, and IPv6 is generally acknowledged as being the only thing that will save the day (and even then it may be a bit late - see below!)
But I wanted to find out what effect, if any, IPv6 would have on the role of mobile devices on the internet. In the run up to the Irish IPv6 Task Force Summit, which will be fall on May 19th, GoMo News contacted the TSSG to find out more about this:
GoMo News: Firstly, what is the Irish IPv6 Task Force Summit, and what does the TSSG do there?
Mícheál Ó Foghlú: The Irish IPv6 Summit is the second in a series of events organised by the Irish IPv6 Task Force aimed at raising awareness of the impending IPv4 depletion, and of the need to deploy IPv6 as a solution to the problems that this raises. The TSSG chairs and co-founded the Irish IPv6 Task Force, with the support of HEAnet (Ireland’s national research network) and the Department of Communications.
GoMo: How has the sudden proliferation of mobile Internet devices and smartphones affected IPv4? Has it sped up the problems?
MoF: One of the many factors influencing IPv4 depletion has been the proliferation of Internet connected mobile phones. However, It is quite hard to say exactly how many addresses were consumed directly due to mobile phone usage. In fact the recent economic downturn has slowed the projected deadline for use of all IPv4 addresses (but only by a few months).
GoMo: If the issues with IPv4 aren’t tackled, what could the impact be on service providers - both in general, and for those who are primarily mobile based?
MoF: The main problem is for new service providers, at least initially. New end users can share addresses using NAT, but new service providers, especially of secure websites (including every eCommerce site) require new dedicated public addresses. So the most likely impact on service providers will be that there will be increased costs, as they will have to purchase IPv4 address space either sanctioned legally or via some unsanctioned black market - it is too early to say yet what these costs will actually be, other than to say it will be more than it currently costs to get an address.
GoMo: What kind of new or exciting possibilities could IPv6 open up for mobile Internet use?
MoF: If all Internet devices used public IPv6 it would open up a large potential for direct peer-to-peer communication between any end devices. V6 enables a much richer ecosystem for peer to peer services (P2P), by-passing many middle boxes, and potentially improving performance and reducing costs. So any user of a phone to offer a service to any other user, directly, with no intermediary.
GoMo: If your dreams were to come true, how would you like to see IPv6 being handled/rolled-out on a global scale?
MoF: Well, to be honest we’ve already missed the boat. There is no way we can deploy IPv6 fast enough to have a valid parallel network before IPv4 depletion kicks in. That means we are going to experience painful problems, with some service providers finding it impossible, difficult, or very expensive to deploy new services. I would be very happy indeed if the majority of websites and other IP-based services that I use every day ran in dual stack mode by the end of next year, just before the RIRs start to run out of addresses to allocate to end users, but I do not think is likely to happen. Instead I think the pain will bite before people actually migrate their systems.
What we think?
It’s the peer-to-peer potential of IPv6 that I find really exciting when it comes to mobile. That could potentially affect almost every part of the mobile industry. File transfers would become faster, mobile payments easier to process, and even communications would be improved. As the move towards “All IP” mobile networks increases, fast and direct P2P communications will tie in wonderfully with increasingly popular data-based mobile channels like VoIP and Instant Messaging
Before that, what’s difference between IPv4 and IPv6?
It’s a question of scale, really.
Any time you use the Internet, you’re accessing data through IPv4. We’re not going to get into the specifics of how it works here, but it’s at the core of the structure that allows data to be communicated across the Internet. Your computer has an IP address, and so does any other computer that you want it to communicate with. The big problem is that it was designed back in the 80’s. When IPv4 was released, there was no conception of what the Internet would one day look like. There are services today with vast numbers of users, that transmit colossal amounts of data (YouTube, Facebook… not even to mention pornography). IPv4 was never intended to handle that kind of service. It has been kept going by botch jobs and quick fixes as the demands put upon it have increased, but for many years now the demand for IPv4 to be improved has been growing. And the number of users has increased. And the number of IP addresses available is now scrolling towards zero with great swiftness. This problem was made even worse by the sudden proliferation of mobile devices in the last few years.
And IPv6 is what will come next. It’s the upgrade to IPv4. Its main feature will be to increase the number of possible IP addresses massively. It’s not new… not precisely. It was designed back in the 90s. It’s just that it has never been implemented - but current trends put “IPv4 exhaustion” at somewhere near the end of 2011. Time is very definitively running out, and IPv6 is generally acknowledged as being the only thing that will save the day (and even then it may be a bit late - see below!)
But I wanted to find out what effect, if any, IPv6 would have on the role of mobile devices on the internet. In the run up to the Irish IPv6 Task Force Summit, which will be fall on May 19th, GoMo News contacted the TSSG to find out more about this:
GoMo News: Firstly, what is the Irish IPv6 Task Force Summit, and what does the TSSG do there?
Mícheál Ó Foghlú: The Irish IPv6 Summit is the second in a series of events organised by the Irish IPv6 Task Force aimed at raising awareness of the impending IPv4 depletion, and of the need to deploy IPv6 as a solution to the problems that this raises. The TSSG chairs and co-founded the Irish IPv6 Task Force, with the support of HEAnet (Ireland’s national research network) and the Department of Communications.
GoMo: How has the sudden proliferation of mobile Internet devices and smartphones affected IPv4? Has it sped up the problems?
MoF: One of the many factors influencing IPv4 depletion has been the proliferation of Internet connected mobile phones. However, It is quite hard to say exactly how many addresses were consumed directly due to mobile phone usage. In fact the recent economic downturn has slowed the projected deadline for use of all IPv4 addresses (but only by a few months).
GoMo: If the issues with IPv4 aren’t tackled, what could the impact be on service providers - both in general, and for those who are primarily mobile based?
MoF: The main problem is for new service providers, at least initially. New end users can share addresses using NAT, but new service providers, especially of secure websites (including every eCommerce site) require new dedicated public addresses. So the most likely impact on service providers will be that there will be increased costs, as they will have to purchase IPv4 address space either sanctioned legally or via some unsanctioned black market - it is too early to say yet what these costs will actually be, other than to say it will be more than it currently costs to get an address.
GoMo: What kind of new or exciting possibilities could IPv6 open up for mobile Internet use?
MoF: If all Internet devices used public IPv6 it would open up a large potential for direct peer-to-peer communication between any end devices. V6 enables a much richer ecosystem for peer to peer services (P2P), by-passing many middle boxes, and potentially improving performance and reducing costs. So any user of a phone to offer a service to any other user, directly, with no intermediary.
GoMo: If your dreams were to come true, how would you like to see IPv6 being handled/rolled-out on a global scale?
MoF: Well, to be honest we’ve already missed the boat. There is no way we can deploy IPv6 fast enough to have a valid parallel network before IPv4 depletion kicks in. That means we are going to experience painful problems, with some service providers finding it impossible, difficult, or very expensive to deploy new services. I would be very happy indeed if the majority of websites and other IP-based services that I use every day ran in dual stack mode by the end of next year, just before the RIRs start to run out of addresses to allocate to end users, but I do not think is likely to happen. Instead I think the pain will bite before people actually migrate their systems.
What we think?
It’s the peer-to-peer potential of IPv6 that I find really exciting when it comes to mobile. That could potentially affect almost every part of the mobile industry. File transfers would become faster, mobile payments easier to process, and even communications would be improved. As the move towards “All IP” mobile networks increases, fast and direct P2P communications will tie in wonderfully with increasingly popular data-based mobile channels like VoIP and Instant Messaging
Sunday, April 4, 2010
From free books to e-books: how publishers are dealing with digital
The moment when Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, finally calls the general election is a long awaited one for many politicians, pundits and even some voters. However, one other person is eagerly awaiting that moment – Neil Boorman, the author of “It’s All Their Fault”.
As soon as the election is announced, Boorman, author of previous books including "Bonfire Of The Brands", will hit the publish button, and watch as his manifesto - which seeks to rid the Government of baby boomers - goes truly interactive, in a step just as bold for his publishers, HarperCollins, as it is for him.
Brent Hoberman searches for new dotcom darlingsThe 10,000 word book, which argues that Baby Boomers have ruined the world for their children, will then appear in full, free, on a dedicated website - http://itsalltheirfault.com/. There will be a downloadable, 1,000-word sample that people can share with friends, a print-on-demand physical book for £4.99 via retailers such as Waterstones or Amazon and an e-book edition for £3.99.
But the really exciting element of the project, part of HarperCollins’s ‘The Friday Project range’ (which sources the “brightest talent from the web and develops it into great books”) is that during the election a second version of the book will be assembled from the best comments by readers of Boorman’s website.
That edition will be published - in the same manner as the first - on the day the new PM is announced. Robin Harvie, editorial director at Harper Collins’ Friday Project, believes this increased level of interaction is the future of publishing.
“With devices like the iPad nearly at our shores and more routes for communication than ever before, I believe that especially in non-fiction, the distance between the author and reader should start to disappear. Authors will become more like curators and take influence from their readers’ suggestions during and after they have written their work.
“We hope that this book is the first stage of this journey and books move from being a passive media to a live product – capable of change through readers’ annotations.”
He looks forward to all e-books including hyperlinks, video, audio and games. “Once hyperlinks and video are all standard features – I envision a time when people will be able to buy an e-book and add their own hyperlinks and videos to their copy. It will be like the modern version of annotating your favourite book with pencil – only much, much better. Whether the rights of a book could then be altered enough to allow people to share these e-book annotations would be a far more complicated process.”
The iPad, released in the US today, has sparked hope in the publishing world that there could finally be a device which pushes e-readers into the mainstream.
Jeremy Ettinghausen, Penguin’s digital publisher, believes the iPad is the first screen he can imagine parents using to read to their children with or even let their children read from alone.
“People want to interact with all content now – books included. They want additional material and they want to be able to share material they like with friends. It’s our job as publishers to use the technology available and make this as easy and innovative as possible – while devising clever pricing models. We are committed to the being involved with the iPad UK launch and are working on un-traditional book apps for it which will stretch the meaning of the linear book.
“These types of treatments will not suit all books, but children’s literature is prime for this type of development as children now seem to learn how to swipe a touch-screen before reading.”
John Makinson, Penguin Books’ chief executive, believes that the future of publishing is all about touch screen interaction. He demonstrated some of the ways the iPad’s iBook functionality could create a different reading experience at a talk in the UK earlier this month.
He played a video (embedded above) showing children reading classics such as ‘Spot’ on the iPad and showed how the screen could be used to bring the characters to life and paint tools used to colour-in characters.
Ettinghausen emphasises the importance of collaborative projects – such as programmers, designers and authors working together to produce high spec books suitable for e-book readers.
“Four of Penguin’s authors also write video game plots,” he says. “There will more and more overlap – as people devise games as an add-on application, which can be downloaded in tandem with buying an e-book. As publishers we have to offer people the opportunity to create more than just linear texts. Some authors will jump at the chance to differentiate their product – others will run.”
One such author who has embraced the digital opportunities is Marcus du Sautoy, the renowned mathematician, who succeeded Richard Dawkins as professor for the understanding of science at Oxford University. Having published two ‘linear’ books, his forthcoming book -The Number Mysteries – which is edited by Harvie, contains puzzles and problems to solve.
According to Harvie: “There will be a gaming app developed out of the printed book, which will generate revenue by appealing to people who would never have bought the book. And because it is a tie-in game, which offers something that isn’t in the book, his readers will want it too.”
Du Sautoy is excited about his book becoming interactive. “The e-book will contain hyperlinks and videos. I am always looking to engage people and this book was ripe for this type of treatment – it was bursting to leave the constraints of the traditional book format. Whereas my other two books were better suited to the constraints of linear publishing. I think it really depends on the book as to how you can develop it digitally – which also takes into account your readers.
There is also a financial issue to consider. Sara Lloyd, the digital director of Pan Macmillan said: “The commercial issue is a major factor. We have to ensure that we can create add-ons without detracting from the value of the book and ensure we can generate alternative revenue streams from these new features.”
Buyers of e-books have typically been male and - Boorman will be disappointed to learn - baby boomers. However, Lloyd thinks Apple could change that. “We hope that new platforms like iBooks will bring new younger readers – especially students – who all seem to worship the Apple brand.”
While authors and publishers figure out new ways to promote and share the latest books it feels like there is still some way to go before e-books are the norm. However, Harvie doesn’t think this is the case: “I don’t think it will be too long before I see a prospective author submit a proposal that has a purely digital life. At the moment I am approaching authors with digital ideas, but the mindset is changing amongst authors, agents as well as publishers
As soon as the election is announced, Boorman, author of previous books including "Bonfire Of The Brands", will hit the publish button, and watch as his manifesto - which seeks to rid the Government of baby boomers - goes truly interactive, in a step just as bold for his publishers, HarperCollins, as it is for him.
Brent Hoberman searches for new dotcom darlingsThe 10,000 word book, which argues that Baby Boomers have ruined the world for their children, will then appear in full, free, on a dedicated website - http://itsalltheirfault.com/. There will be a downloadable, 1,000-word sample that people can share with friends, a print-on-demand physical book for £4.99 via retailers such as Waterstones or Amazon and an e-book edition for £3.99.
But the really exciting element of the project, part of HarperCollins’s ‘The Friday Project range’ (which sources the “brightest talent from the web and develops it into great books”) is that during the election a second version of the book will be assembled from the best comments by readers of Boorman’s website.
That edition will be published - in the same manner as the first - on the day the new PM is announced. Robin Harvie, editorial director at Harper Collins’ Friday Project, believes this increased level of interaction is the future of publishing.
“With devices like the iPad nearly at our shores and more routes for communication than ever before, I believe that especially in non-fiction, the distance between the author and reader should start to disappear. Authors will become more like curators and take influence from their readers’ suggestions during and after they have written their work.
“We hope that this book is the first stage of this journey and books move from being a passive media to a live product – capable of change through readers’ annotations.”
He looks forward to all e-books including hyperlinks, video, audio and games. “Once hyperlinks and video are all standard features – I envision a time when people will be able to buy an e-book and add their own hyperlinks and videos to their copy. It will be like the modern version of annotating your favourite book with pencil – only much, much better. Whether the rights of a book could then be altered enough to allow people to share these e-book annotations would be a far more complicated process.”
The iPad, released in the US today, has sparked hope in the publishing world that there could finally be a device which pushes e-readers into the mainstream.
Jeremy Ettinghausen, Penguin’s digital publisher, believes the iPad is the first screen he can imagine parents using to read to their children with or even let their children read from alone.
“People want to interact with all content now – books included. They want additional material and they want to be able to share material they like with friends. It’s our job as publishers to use the technology available and make this as easy and innovative as possible – while devising clever pricing models. We are committed to the being involved with the iPad UK launch and are working on un-traditional book apps for it which will stretch the meaning of the linear book.
“These types of treatments will not suit all books, but children’s literature is prime for this type of development as children now seem to learn how to swipe a touch-screen before reading.”
John Makinson, Penguin Books’ chief executive, believes that the future of publishing is all about touch screen interaction. He demonstrated some of the ways the iPad’s iBook functionality could create a different reading experience at a talk in the UK earlier this month.
He played a video (embedded above) showing children reading classics such as ‘Spot’ on the iPad and showed how the screen could be used to bring the characters to life and paint tools used to colour-in characters.
Ettinghausen emphasises the importance of collaborative projects – such as programmers, designers and authors working together to produce high spec books suitable for e-book readers.
“Four of Penguin’s authors also write video game plots,” he says. “There will more and more overlap – as people devise games as an add-on application, which can be downloaded in tandem with buying an e-book. As publishers we have to offer people the opportunity to create more than just linear texts. Some authors will jump at the chance to differentiate their product – others will run.”
One such author who has embraced the digital opportunities is Marcus du Sautoy, the renowned mathematician, who succeeded Richard Dawkins as professor for the understanding of science at Oxford University. Having published two ‘linear’ books, his forthcoming book -The Number Mysteries – which is edited by Harvie, contains puzzles and problems to solve.
According to Harvie: “There will be a gaming app developed out of the printed book, which will generate revenue by appealing to people who would never have bought the book. And because it is a tie-in game, which offers something that isn’t in the book, his readers will want it too.”
Du Sautoy is excited about his book becoming interactive. “The e-book will contain hyperlinks and videos. I am always looking to engage people and this book was ripe for this type of treatment – it was bursting to leave the constraints of the traditional book format. Whereas my other two books were better suited to the constraints of linear publishing. I think it really depends on the book as to how you can develop it digitally – which also takes into account your readers.
There is also a financial issue to consider. Sara Lloyd, the digital director of Pan Macmillan said: “The commercial issue is a major factor. We have to ensure that we can create add-ons without detracting from the value of the book and ensure we can generate alternative revenue streams from these new features.”
Buyers of e-books have typically been male and - Boorman will be disappointed to learn - baby boomers. However, Lloyd thinks Apple could change that. “We hope that new platforms like iBooks will bring new younger readers – especially students – who all seem to worship the Apple brand.”
While authors and publishers figure out new ways to promote and share the latest books it feels like there is still some way to go before e-books are the norm. However, Harvie doesn’t think this is the case: “I don’t think it will be too long before I see a prospective author submit a proposal that has a purely digital life. At the moment I am approaching authors with digital ideas, but the mindset is changing amongst authors, agents as well as publishers
The Indian government will soon unveil a policy that would make electronic products available for the differently abled.
It's hard to imagine living without cellphones, computers and electronic devices that we use in our day to day lives. However, as per a conservative estimate, there are more than 60 million disabled people in India who have very little or practically no access to these electronic devices.
e-reader technology will forever change how books are made, stored and lent
When the iPad hit stores, it joined the Kindle, Nooks and other technologies that will dramatically change how people read buy books.
Book industry experts say that e-reader technology will forever change how books are made, stored and lent.
The change is so profound that it could rival Gutenberg's invention of the printing press in the 1440s. The shift to viewing books on an e-reader could further erode market share of traditional book stores.
"I'm not sure if physical books will go away, but downloads will become the dominant form of distribution," said Sean Feeney, executive vice president at Bookmans, a Tucson-based string of used books, music and video stores.
The trend began long before the iPad. Amazon.com Inc., the world's largest retailer of digital and traditional books, sold more electronic books than paper ones last holiday season.
Analysts don't have a clear picture yet of what the new order will look like, but Amazon aims to have every book ever published, in any language, in print or out of print, available in less than 60 seconds to a Kindle user anywhere in the world.
The new era will bring out-of-print books back to life, making obscure titles, as well as current best-sellers, available on demand.
The pace of change, hastened by the iPad and numerous other devices, is likely to accelerate.
Not even counting the projected 2 million iPads to be bought this year, analysts estimate that 6 million electronic readers will be sold in 2010 and 19 million in 2013. In five years, more than 100 million could be in use, according to the Yankee Group, a Boston-based market-research firm.
As the e-readers multiply, they are likely to get cheaper, making them a must-have electronic device.
The shift is expected to have far-reaching effects, touching not only book shops and online stores but the entire publishing industry.
It likely will be an echo of the change brought about by iPod and MP3 players, which created the digital model for music sales that help spell the end for almost 1,000 traditional record stores and once-formidable chains such as Tower Records and Virgin Megastores.
Paper copies could become specialty book products similar to vinyl records and, increasingly, compact discs.
Reader impact
For students, change will mean carrying a lightweight Nook in your backpack instead of a half-dozen textbooks.
Instead of lugging a 2-pound copy of the "Inspector Morse Omnibus Volume One" on vacation, you could carry a sleek plastic tablet that would also hold Volume Two plus hundreds more of your favorite titles.
And if the person next to you on the plane recommends a "great read," you could buy it instantly at an e-book store and for less than you'd pay at a conventional bookstore.
An electronic version of Dan Brown's "Lost Symbols," which retails for $29.95 in hard cover, costs $9.60 at Amazon's e-book store.
New releases for Amazon's Kindle generally cost $9.99, while classics cost around $1.99.
Or you could download the book free from your local library, whether you're home or 1,000 miles away.
Carrie Wikle, the Phoenix Public Library's Internet Resources Librarian, said demand for downloadable books is extremely high and growing.
When readers check out a book, they obtain a temporary license to use the copyrighted material for the term of the loan. When the license expires, it is up to the user to delete the file. Emerging technology eventually will cause the file to vanish when the book is due.
The library now offers 53,000 of its 1.8 million titles in downloadable form and is adding more each month.
"It's a trend for the future," Wikle said.
A number of Web sites offer free downloads of many well-known books whose copyrights have expired. Gutenberg Project, Coolerbooks.com and other sites offer free downloads, including more than 1 million titles that have been scanned by Google.
Peer-to-peer file-sharing sites such as The Pirate Bay allow readers to share e-books the same way friends can share their digital music collections. Such sites already are facing legal challenges similar to those that plagued early music-sharing sites such as Napster.
Connor Hubach of Phoenix said his Kindle allows him to avoid the "awful selections" at airport bookstores.
"The Kindle has been a useful gadget," he said. "While it won't replace my library, it has made travel more manageable."
Technical shift
Digital books have been around for years. But initially they had to be read on a computer or laptop, devices with limited portability and offering a different experience than holding and reading a book.
But electronic readers, pioneered by Amazon's Kindle in 2007, are as portable as a book and offer a physical experience similar to traditional reading.
Since the Kindle, 36 electronic readers have appeared on the market, and more are coming. The Kindle, the top-selling e-reader, starts at $259. Others range from a Sony Pocket Reader with a 5-inch display for $200 to the Irex Digital Reader with a 10.2-inch screen for $859.
The Apple iPad, which has a 9.7-inch screen, starts at $499 and goes up to $829. As with the evolutionary transition from LPs to iTunes downloads, consumers will experience a learning curve and period of adjustment to books being hard and technical instead of soft and organic.
"I'm not into technical stuff," said Joan Heath, a Phoenix business woman who said she would rather read a book than watch television or a movie. "I like the ritual of holding a book and turning the pages."
With a Kindle, Heath would have to push a button to advance to the next page.
But she could read in the hotel Jacuzzi, without dripping water running all over pages.
Because of the cost and limited functionality, the devices now appeal primarily to avid readers. But the introduction of Apple's multifunctional iPad could create mass appeal. The iPad can be used for e mail, surfing the Web, gaming and watching videos, in addition to reading books, newspapers and magazines.
"Longer term, the iPad offers the potential to redefine the boundaries between print and video, turning formerly passive media into active ones," Craig Moffett, an analyst with Bernstein Research, wrote in a note to clients.
But there are drawbacks.
The devices are relatively expensive. The Yankee Group believes prices need to come down to below $150 to gain mass-market appeal.
Unlike traditional books, which are always on, electronic readers require a battery that can die just before Inspector Morse reveals the murderer.
And the systems are not compatible. Amazon's Kindle, for example, will accept downloads only from Amazon.com.
Petra Ooton of Phoenix likes holding and reading traditional books, but she said her arthritis is making it increasingly painful and difficult.
She looks on an electronic reader as a device that could help her keep reading, but she finds them too expensive.
"I would love to have one," she said.
Book industry experts say that e-reader technology will forever change how books are made, stored and lent.
The change is so profound that it could rival Gutenberg's invention of the printing press in the 1440s. The shift to viewing books on an e-reader could further erode market share of traditional book stores.
"I'm not sure if physical books will go away, but downloads will become the dominant form of distribution," said Sean Feeney, executive vice president at Bookmans, a Tucson-based string of used books, music and video stores.
The trend began long before the iPad. Amazon.com Inc., the world's largest retailer of digital and traditional books, sold more electronic books than paper ones last holiday season.
Analysts don't have a clear picture yet of what the new order will look like, but Amazon aims to have every book ever published, in any language, in print or out of print, available in less than 60 seconds to a Kindle user anywhere in the world.
The new era will bring out-of-print books back to life, making obscure titles, as well as current best-sellers, available on demand.
The pace of change, hastened by the iPad and numerous other devices, is likely to accelerate.
Not even counting the projected 2 million iPads to be bought this year, analysts estimate that 6 million electronic readers will be sold in 2010 and 19 million in 2013. In five years, more than 100 million could be in use, according to the Yankee Group, a Boston-based market-research firm.
As the e-readers multiply, they are likely to get cheaper, making them a must-have electronic device.
The shift is expected to have far-reaching effects, touching not only book shops and online stores but the entire publishing industry.
It likely will be an echo of the change brought about by iPod and MP3 players, which created the digital model for music sales that help spell the end for almost 1,000 traditional record stores and once-formidable chains such as Tower Records and Virgin Megastores.
Paper copies could become specialty book products similar to vinyl records and, increasingly, compact discs.
Reader impact
For students, change will mean carrying a lightweight Nook in your backpack instead of a half-dozen textbooks.
Instead of lugging a 2-pound copy of the "Inspector Morse Omnibus Volume One" on vacation, you could carry a sleek plastic tablet that would also hold Volume Two plus hundreds more of your favorite titles.
And if the person next to you on the plane recommends a "great read," you could buy it instantly at an e-book store and for less than you'd pay at a conventional bookstore.
An electronic version of Dan Brown's "Lost Symbols," which retails for $29.95 in hard cover, costs $9.60 at Amazon's e-book store.
New releases for Amazon's Kindle generally cost $9.99, while classics cost around $1.99.
Or you could download the book free from your local library, whether you're home or 1,000 miles away.
Carrie Wikle, the Phoenix Public Library's Internet Resources Librarian, said demand for downloadable books is extremely high and growing.
When readers check out a book, they obtain a temporary license to use the copyrighted material for the term of the loan. When the license expires, it is up to the user to delete the file. Emerging technology eventually will cause the file to vanish when the book is due.
The library now offers 53,000 of its 1.8 million titles in downloadable form and is adding more each month.
"It's a trend for the future," Wikle said.
A number of Web sites offer free downloads of many well-known books whose copyrights have expired. Gutenberg Project, Coolerbooks.com and other sites offer free downloads, including more than 1 million titles that have been scanned by Google.
Peer-to-peer file-sharing sites such as The Pirate Bay allow readers to share e-books the same way friends can share their digital music collections. Such sites already are facing legal challenges similar to those that plagued early music-sharing sites such as Napster.
Connor Hubach of Phoenix said his Kindle allows him to avoid the "awful selections" at airport bookstores.
"The Kindle has been a useful gadget," he said. "While it won't replace my library, it has made travel more manageable."
Technical shift
Digital books have been around for years. But initially they had to be read on a computer or laptop, devices with limited portability and offering a different experience than holding and reading a book.
But electronic readers, pioneered by Amazon's Kindle in 2007, are as portable as a book and offer a physical experience similar to traditional reading.
Since the Kindle, 36 electronic readers have appeared on the market, and more are coming. The Kindle, the top-selling e-reader, starts at $259. Others range from a Sony Pocket Reader with a 5-inch display for $200 to the Irex Digital Reader with a 10.2-inch screen for $859.
The Apple iPad, which has a 9.7-inch screen, starts at $499 and goes up to $829. As with the evolutionary transition from LPs to iTunes downloads, consumers will experience a learning curve and period of adjustment to books being hard and technical instead of soft and organic.
"I'm not into technical stuff," said Joan Heath, a Phoenix business woman who said she would rather read a book than watch television or a movie. "I like the ritual of holding a book and turning the pages."
With a Kindle, Heath would have to push a button to advance to the next page.
But she could read in the hotel Jacuzzi, without dripping water running all over pages.
Because of the cost and limited functionality, the devices now appeal primarily to avid readers. But the introduction of Apple's multifunctional iPad could create mass appeal. The iPad can be used for e mail, surfing the Web, gaming and watching videos, in addition to reading books, newspapers and magazines.
"Longer term, the iPad offers the potential to redefine the boundaries between print and video, turning formerly passive media into active ones," Craig Moffett, an analyst with Bernstein Research, wrote in a note to clients.
But there are drawbacks.
The devices are relatively expensive. The Yankee Group believes prices need to come down to below $150 to gain mass-market appeal.
Unlike traditional books, which are always on, electronic readers require a battery that can die just before Inspector Morse reveals the murderer.
And the systems are not compatible. Amazon's Kindle, for example, will accept downloads only from Amazon.com.
Petra Ooton of Phoenix likes holding and reading traditional books, but she said her arthritis is making it increasingly painful and difficult.
She looks on an electronic reader as a device that could help her keep reading, but she finds them too expensive.
"I would love to have one," she said.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Digitiliti touts groundbreaking new DigiLIBE as complete data management solution
Paul Minnesota-based Digitiliti Inc.,
has announced DigiLIBE, which it describes as a groundbreaking information management solution that solves fundamental problems associated with managing, controlling and quickly accessing unstructured data. DigiLIBE is a simple, integrated Virtual Corporate Library (VCL) system with policy-based applications to protect, control and secure data from its point of origin to final disposition.
The company has been in business since 2005, providing online data protection services. This is a completely new solution for them, and one which they hope will have a major impact on the data management market.
"This is a complete data management solution," said Ken Peters, Executive Vice President at Digitiliti. "We went back to the drawing board and architected this from the ground up, looking at the issue of how organizations all deal with unstructured data, and how we can best facilitate access to it."
The result, DigiLIBE, addresses information growth across all points of the organization including office files, email, images, primary, secondary, offsite, and active archives. As a single architecture comprised of three simple components -- information director, archive information store, and client agents -- DigiLIBE reduces the number of disparate IT products needed, and the complexity and costs involved with managing and supporting information growth.
"If we had used traditional architectures out there it would not have worked," Peters said. "File systems are too archaic. They are not geared for end user access of the data."
"When it comes to how data is stored, people tend to be stuck looking at the tree, and not the forest. If they've built all this infrastructure, are they going to go back to redevelop everything and reinvent it, or are they just going to try to find ways to make what they have more efficient. As a small company, we can reinvent the file."
By facilitating complete Meta Data capture and control at time of creation, and using global deduplication and data compression, DigiLIBE reduces storage volumes by as much as 75 percent. Content Indexing Files, emails and even attachments are indexed and made available at any time either through DigiLIBE's file explorer interface or custom information applications.
DigiLIBE's polices can be set to automatically trap key words in the contents of any file and email for compliance or customer satisfaction. Alerts are sent and links to the files and emails are presented in the Virtual File and Email Explorer. DigiLIBE also increases search productivity by as much as 50 percent and supercharges data mining from client to archive.
DigiLIBE offers full integration and syncing with active directory, LDAP or writing of custom policies for secure storage and access to files and emails Encryption Files are encrypted with 256K or 512K encryption schemes before and after transmission
DIGILIBE reduces storage costs and complexity while automatically protecting, moving and preserving critical data throughout its lifecycle, from cradle to grave. It also enables legal and compliance policies based on federal, state, and local guidelines, self-regulating organizations, international standards organizations, like SEC, SOX, BASEL-II, HIPAA, FDIC, and IRS
Peters said that DigiLIBE is complementary to the storage system themselves.
"It's complementary there, it doesn't take everything out. It rides on top of everything, on top of the architecture. Then they can repurpose drives for more important data. What it replaces is the add-ons like dedupe, encryption, and tape. We give people the ability not to buy a lot of extra solutions."
That makes things easy for their partners, who account for about 85 percent of Digitility's sales.
"They can go in and solve the customers' problems for them. They can present a message of a cost takeout proposition, or cost reduction, and also increase productivity."
Peters said a recently signed partner had a customer who had been recommended to buy a VTL system, and that now he can give the customer a solution for half the price that will manage the data from point of creation to the archives.
"VMware is doing well because they rethought their industry," Peters said. "People need to rethink file systems the same way. Even down to the hard drive, what a mess things are. People can't find their own files. Having to buy a lot of point solutions to deal with the issues doesn't solve the problem. It just proliferates it."
has announced DigiLIBE, which it describes as a groundbreaking information management solution that solves fundamental problems associated with managing, controlling and quickly accessing unstructured data. DigiLIBE is a simple, integrated Virtual Corporate Library (VCL) system with policy-based applications to protect, control and secure data from its point of origin to final disposition.
The company has been in business since 2005, providing online data protection services. This is a completely new solution for them, and one which they hope will have a major impact on the data management market.
"This is a complete data management solution," said Ken Peters, Executive Vice President at Digitiliti. "We went back to the drawing board and architected this from the ground up, looking at the issue of how organizations all deal with unstructured data, and how we can best facilitate access to it."
The result, DigiLIBE, addresses information growth across all points of the organization including office files, email, images, primary, secondary, offsite, and active archives. As a single architecture comprised of three simple components -- information director, archive information store, and client agents -- DigiLIBE reduces the number of disparate IT products needed, and the complexity and costs involved with managing and supporting information growth.
"If we had used traditional architectures out there it would not have worked," Peters said. "File systems are too archaic. They are not geared for end user access of the data."
"When it comes to how data is stored, people tend to be stuck looking at the tree, and not the forest. If they've built all this infrastructure, are they going to go back to redevelop everything and reinvent it, or are they just going to try to find ways to make what they have more efficient. As a small company, we can reinvent the file."
By facilitating complete Meta Data capture and control at time of creation, and using global deduplication and data compression, DigiLIBE reduces storage volumes by as much as 75 percent. Content Indexing Files, emails and even attachments are indexed and made available at any time either through DigiLIBE's file explorer interface or custom information applications.
DigiLIBE's polices can be set to automatically trap key words in the contents of any file and email for compliance or customer satisfaction. Alerts are sent and links to the files and emails are presented in the Virtual File and Email Explorer. DigiLIBE also increases search productivity by as much as 50 percent and supercharges data mining from client to archive.
DigiLIBE offers full integration and syncing with active directory, LDAP or writing of custom policies for secure storage and access to files and emails Encryption Files are encrypted with 256K or 512K encryption schemes before and after transmission
DIGILIBE reduces storage costs and complexity while automatically protecting, moving and preserving critical data throughout its lifecycle, from cradle to grave. It also enables legal and compliance policies based on federal, state, and local guidelines, self-regulating organizations, international standards organizations, like SEC, SOX, BASEL-II, HIPAA, FDIC, and IRS
Peters said that DigiLIBE is complementary to the storage system themselves.
"It's complementary there, it doesn't take everything out. It rides on top of everything, on top of the architecture. Then they can repurpose drives for more important data. What it replaces is the add-ons like dedupe, encryption, and tape. We give people the ability not to buy a lot of extra solutions."
That makes things easy for their partners, who account for about 85 percent of Digitility's sales.
"They can go in and solve the customers' problems for them. They can present a message of a cost takeout proposition, or cost reduction, and also increase productivity."
Peters said a recently signed partner had a customer who had been recommended to buy a VTL system, and that now he can give the customer a solution for half the price that will manage the data from point of creation to the archives.
"VMware is doing well because they rethought their industry," Peters said. "People need to rethink file systems the same way. Even down to the hard drive, what a mess things are. People can't find their own files. Having to buy a lot of point solutions to deal with the issues doesn't solve the problem. It just proliferates it."
Thin provisioning, deduplication and storage virtualization
Akhtar Pasha writes that the market will grow in single digits and that server virtualization will force businesses to redesign their backup strategies. Thin provisioning, deduplication, storage virtualization and tape libraries will gain traction and SANs will be built using SSDs
Indian enterprises moved to reclaim storage, redesign backup strategies and move data to tape libraries freeing up storage space rather than buying additional storage boxes in 2009. Surajit Sen, Director-Marketing & Alliances, NetApp, said, “Businesses were deleting data from their existing storage devices and moving it to cheaper media and, in this manner, adding capacity.”
The capacity increase of 40-60% was in sharp contrast to the falling revenues in the external controller based storage market that contracted 17% in CY 2009 to $235.9 million from $285 million in CY 2008 as per IDC’s preliminary data. The worst quarters were Q2 and Q3, which completely eroded growth. However, the storage industry’s inflection point was only in Q4 when it grew by 29% to $65.9 million as opposed to $50.8 million in Q3. IBM was the clear leader in external controller-based storage with a 31.5% market share followed by EMC with 22%.
Virtualization, deduplication and tape libraries carried the storage market
Customers were willing to do only incremental spending on storage. Therefore technologies such as storage virtualization, deduplication, thin provisioning and tape automation and tape libraries gained traction as businesses were looking at increasing the utilization of their networked storage assets. Sen added, “Their focus was on reevaluating their data storage strategy and increase storage utilization and therefore storage virtualization gained traction. We have sold our V-Series virtualization appliance that can virtualize storage by sitting in front of the storage subsystem to Apollo Hospitals, Aviva Life Insurance, TTSL and HSBC.”
Vivekanand Venugopal, Managing Director, Hitachi Data Systems India added that one group, especially banks and telcos, was focused upon reclaiming storage and therefore invested in technologies such as storage virtualization, dynamic provisioning of storage resources, thin provisioning and redesigning backup strategy. The second group was focused on accelerating time to market and faster response time to improve operational efficiencies. These customers build new data centers and storage was inevitable part of their IT infrastructure.
Manoj Chugh, President of EMC India & SAARC Region, and Director for Global Accounts for EMC APJ, said, “Though the revenue for external controller based storage did not grow in CY 2009, there was a 60% growth in data volumes. Unfortunately IT budgets didn’t grow at that pace leading to a challenge in information management. This forced customers to take a radical approach towards server virtualization as a natural corollary to reduce costs. Server virtualization has severely impacted backup and we saw quite a few customers reframing their strategies in this regard."
Lakshman Narayanaswamy, Co-founder and Vice President Products, Sanovi Technologies also saw customers reworking on backup and DR strategy to meet the new requirement of storage virtualization. Customers have reworked on their RTO and RPO and IOPS as applications running in virtual machines (VMs) have to map to storage for high availability and reliability.
Sandeep Lodha, Vice President-Sales & Marketing, Netweb Technologies, noted that there was pent up demand for unified storage in media houses and TV broadcasters. “We had a couple of engagements with new channels and TV broadcasters who are converting the data residing in tapes to disk. This was driven by two factors—one, to meet the regulatory compliance requirement where they are supposed to store 90 days of news videos that were broadcasted. Two, they are moving to unified storage from tapes because they want to report their stories first and for it they may need to link to a previous video.”
Another significant trend that was seen was the unprecedented demand for tape automation products and tape libraries that grew on its own without much effort from vendors. According to Harmeet S. Malhotra, Senior Manager-Storage Marketing Asia Pacific & Japan, Dell India, “While networked storage took a hit, we saw huge growth in tape automation and tape libraries without spending a penny on marketing. Businesses continued to add raw capacity to their network storage infrastructure that kept the traction going in the secondary storage market.”
Niraj Mandal, Regional Sales Manager-SAARC & Middle East Countries, Tandberg Data (Asia) Pte. Ltd., added, “Many large and mid-market customers were simply adding raw physical capacity to manage their data explosion by investing in tape libraries and autoloaders.” Tandberg Data won the industry’s biggest deployment of tape libraries (in a single order) from LIC (through a tender published in August 2009). It consisted of 114 tape libraries with two FC disks for the insurer’s primary center and another six tape libraries for its DR center. Insurance companies need to preserve and archive policy details and transaction data throughout the lifecycle of the policy holder typically spanning 25-35 years. Tape is the cheapest media for long term data retention and archival.
Another interesting trend in the secondary storage market was the increased number of AMC renewal cases for tape drives. Since investments dried up in storage and every project was questioned, the market saw customers wanting to extend the warranty (AMC renewal) of their tape drives and libraries. It meant that customers were buying more AMCs. Mandal added, “With no fresh investments in storage, we saw a huge number of cases where the customers asked us to extend the warranty of their existing tape drives and libraries rather than investing in new ones. This clearly signaled two things—that customers want to reuse storage and that every rupee set against fresh purchases was questioned.”
Going forward, things are not expected to change substantially in the storage landscape in 2010. Analysts and vendors agree that the external controller-based storage would see positive but single digit growth in 2010 as storage budgets are not likely to grow any time soon. The CIO’s task would be cut-out and KRA directly linked to how he can save money on IT spending.
Server virtualization will force businesses to redesign their backup strategies
 "To get the maximum out of tiered storage, dynamic provisioning software would be required to create data volumes for each type of LUN. This would drive high utilization of disks"- Vivekanand Venugopal Managing Director, Hitachi Data Systems |
 "FC drives are losing their relevance to SSDs and we see the latter playing a big role in building SANs in the future along with SAS and SATA drives"- Surajit Sen Director-Marketing & Alliances, NetApp |
 "Ultimately, most backup will use source-based intelligence like Avamar. Along with continuous data technologies, it could kill the concept of the backup window"- Manoj Chugh President of EMC India & SAARC Region, and Director for Global Accounts for EMC APJ |
Businesses are expected to take an aggressive stance on storage as a result of server virtualization projects. Pallab Talukdar, CEO, Fujitsu India Pvt. Ltd., said, “Thin provisioning, deduplication and tiered storage have become relevant as Indian companies shifted their focus to storage reclamation and on-demand storage. The savings in these technologies are measureable and will continue to gain traction in 2010.”
Virtual servers force users to address storage management and data-protection issues such as backup, remote replication, capacity planning, and information security in new ways. Of all the concerns about implementing virtual server environments, performance comes out on top, although, collectively, storage management issues are also of great concern. There are several factors that affect backup strategy and therefore the design and architecture of backup processes in the wake of server virtualization trends has to change.
Backup is disk IO and network intensive. You may need more network bandwidth than you currently have within your virtual environment. Not all storage devices support protocols for LUN backup and mirroring within the hardware. So you may need to spend more money to achieve this level of backup. Not everything can be backed up without first handling data integrity issues such as those required for databases. Businesses need to investigate how applications and storage would behave in a virtual environment. Off-site storage of backups may be required via tape or disk.
Consolidation (multiple OSs) across different storage platform, data deduplication, and thin provisioning are having a severe impact on business continuity and disaster recovery and there is considerable interest in continuous data protection (CDP). The challenge is to do all this with a single standard platform for all kinds of backup.
Additionally, some large businesses that have consolidated 10% of their servers (in 2009) and have seen the benefits, would like to ramp-up their server virtualization projects from 10% to 25-30%. Chugh said, “As enterprises move into virtualization, they will have to overhaul their data backup and DR strategies because these won't apply so well in the new virtualized world.” There are two major concerns why virtualization requires a new approach to data backup and disaster recovery. One is virtual sprawl, the unchecked proliferation of virtual machines (VM) and these complicate matters from the data perspective. Additionally, distributing applications across VMs or across VMs and physical servers puts further strain on the backup and recovery systems.
As businesses consolidate data from distributed physical servers to VMs, they have to use storage technologies that will reduce storage cost and the information management chaos. As a result of this, they would have to redesign their storage and backup strategies for all kinds of data and tiers of storage (SSD/FC, SATA, and SAS). Sandeep K. Dutta, Vice President-Storage, Systems & Technology Group, IBM India, said, “We had a couple of engagements with customers for our storage virtualization solution, the SAN Volume Controller (SVC), and for deduplication to reduce storage TCO. SVC is a virtualization engine that maps virtualized volumes and makes it visible to hosts and applications as physical volumes of storage devices. A large number of customers are reworking their backup strategies in the wake of server consolidation and virtualization.”
Improving disaster recovery is another driving force behind the combination of server virtualization and networked storage. A primary driving force behind remote replication in the context of server virtualization is the desire to reduce recovery time objective (RTO). Replicating virtual machine images for disaster recovery helps lower RTO. One of the advantages of server virtualization is that it enables users to replicate many servers to relatively inexpensive virtual machines rather than to physical servers, which significantly reduces the primary barrier to disaster recovery—high costs. In addition, disaster recovery with virtual machines can be less expensive than it would be with physical servers because the process can in many cases be managed by the virtualization software.
Deduplication diminishes the appeal of VTL
Virtual tape library (VTL) is a technology that has seen little success in India.
Firstly, VTL makes sense where you have hundreds of servers that need to be backed up with tons of data and hence in the event of failover, you would need faster retrieval of data such as in the banking and telecom verticals—clearly indicating that it would remain a niche technology for large enterprise customers only. Secondly, the cost of VTLs is prohibitive. Mandal explained, “VTL makes sense when you have hundreds of servers that needed to be backed up. Currently VTL vendors are charging license fees based on the number of servers that a customer wants to backup. This licensing policy has significantly increased the acquisition cost of VTLs. Additionally VTL as a technology has slowly lost its sheen because of deduplication.”
Dutta agreed, “VTL has lost its relevance after deduplication strongly made inroads along with virtualization. We had a sizable pipeline for VTL in 2009 but we did not find many takers for this technology.”
Deduplication everywhere
 "Thin provisioning, deduplication and tiered storage have become relevant as Indian companies shifted their focus to storage reclamation and on-demandstorage" - Pallab Talukdar CEO, Fujitsu India Private Ltd. |
 "Many large and mid-market customers were simply adding raw physical capacity to manage their data explosion by investing in tape libraries and autoloaders"- Niraj Mandal Regional Sales Manager-SAARC & Middle East Countries, Tandberg Data (Asia) Pte. Ltd. |
Deduplication which was hitherto applied at the time of backup onto secondary storage is now going to happen on networked storage starting with NAS appliances and then move on to block devices. Mandal said that customers were using deduplication at the destination (secondary storage) to reduce backup time but that the effort was slowly shifting to NAS, where customers now want to apply deduplication at the source rather than at the destination.
EMC bought Avamar for host-based deduplication. On the backup front, Chugh said that spreading data deduplication throughout the infrastructure and closer to the data source will become more important in 2010, along with continuous data protection. EMC will offer primary storage deduplication for file systems with the next upgrade of its Celerra NAS platform, due early this year. “Ultimately, most backup will use source-based intelligence like Avamar. Along with continuous data technologies, it could kill the concept of the backup window,” said Chugh. Deduplication with VTL will help companies do branch office consolidation to reduce the backup window.
Malhotra added that deduplication was a feature and not a solution. He believed that there was a market for appliance-based target deduplication as well as a migration to other types of deduplication. Dell has a deduplication strategy for the high-end market thanks to an alliance with Data Domain. For the mid-range, it counts on Symantec DD BE 2010 deduplication and for the low-end of the market its partner is CommVault, which has added block-level deduplication to its latest version of Simpana.
NetApp has 40,000 customers using deduplication on primary storage globally. In India, it has 300 customers using its deduplication technology on primary storage.
EMC sees deduplication in a different light and said that deduplication would become an integral feature of VTLs
So, we will see more vendors, especially NAS vendors rolling out primary deduplication on those devices first. Tandberg too has announced an Atom-powered NAS/iSCSI box that will have deduplication and encryption as a standard feature. There will be quite a few of these devices during the next six to 12 months. Probably within 12 to 18 months some block vendors will come up with primary deduplication as well.
According to Darshan Joshi, Vice President, Storage and Availability Management Group, Symantec, de-duplication will become widely deployed as a feature in 2010, rather than as a standalone technology. 70% of enterprises have still not deployed deduplication, but will do so going forward as the technology is built into tape libraries, NAS and, eventually, SAN.
SSDs in storage arrays
Solid state disks (SSDs) have started shipping in both servers and in storage arrays although the latter application seems more prevalent. They score on speed and offer long term cost savings on power and cooling.
Although the price per gigabyte for SSDs is prohibitive in comparison to hard disk drives (HDDs), there are certain cases in which SSDs do save money over their HDD counterparts. This is possible in applications that use large numbers of HDDs at a fraction of their capacity to increase the storage system's I/Os per second (IOPS) performance. Sen said, “FC drives are losing their relevance to SSDs and we see the latter playing a big role in building SANs in the future along with SAS and SATA drives.”
Dell has jumped on the SSD bandwagon with the PS6000S, a system with either 400 or 800 GB of capacity depending on the number of SSDs (8 or 16 of 50 GB each). The SSDs are made by Samsung. "While the rest of the market went for high performance and expensive SSDs, we are taking a less expensive approach with the Samsung SSDs, but are still offering a significant performance improvement compared to 15K hard drives. It gives our customers the benefits of solid state disk technology at a lower cost than what other systems are offering,” said Malhotra.
According to Chugh, the true benefit of tiered storage will come when data can be migrated automatically (based on the IO activity) from one disk (LUN) to another without disruption. The advent of new storage media (SSDs) and new automatic tiering methods such as Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) have started to make people think less about physical storage and more about virtual storage. He added that EMC had quite a few customers that had started using SSDs. “We have strong reasons to believe that it will soon become a mainstream technology because of its power savings, space and cooling advantages,” he commented.
According to Venugopal, SSDs in storage arrays alongside other disk technologies such as SATA and SAS was a trend setter for tiered storage. “To get the maximum out of tiered storage, dynamic provisioning software would be required to create data volumes for each type of LUN. This would drive high utilization of disks. For example, HDFC Bank is using our dynamic provisioning software,” he said.
Another interesting technology is used in IBM’s XIV. It offers block SAN like storage and uses SATA drives to deliver enterprise-class raw performance. The product is a cluster or grid of up to 15 storage and interface nodes linked by Ethernet and using 1 TB SATA drives. All of its capacity is virtualized into a single, mirrored pool of storage that delivers up to 79 TB of usable data capacity. Dutta said, “Data is striped across all the drives in an XIV frame and this leads to RAID rebuild times of 30 minutes or so after a drive failure. Even if a drive fails its contents are rebuilt automatically.” He asserted that incoming extra capacity for an XIV frame is plugged into the frame and the XIV software automatically discovers it and adds it to the pool of storage. It then balances the current data load across it.
Cloud storage would wait
Forrester globally released the findings of a survey where over 1,200 enterprise executives were interviewed and the data showed that barely 3% used the cloud for general storage purposes. That's not the worst of it—a good 43% said that they were disinterested in cloud storage, citing issues such as service level guarantees, security and reliability as the principal reasons for holding back. However, even if there is a silver lining for cloud providers here, it's that interest in the cloud as a backup platform is slightly higher, most likely reflecting that such an approach would still house critical data on local storage infrastructure, reserving the cloud for older data or for emergency use. Some say that while the survey may throw cold water on general-purpose storage plans of cloud providers such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft, they can take heart in the rising number of backup and archival solutions that are adding built-in cloud compatibility. We found exactly the same development here in India.
Malhotra said that he doubts that large enterprises would try cloud storage in 2010 and they would rather choose a wait and watch approach till it becomes necessary. We see this trend in two practical directions for deployment—cloud backups and for non-critical data.
Venugopal said, “We see quite a bit of cloud storage as SPs ramp up their operations. This would boost dynamic block, file and content management to be available as private clouds ready for consumption. Additionally, I feel that with the availability of bandwidth, SPs will create content repositories say for record management (for banks and insurance companies). Telcos would consider backups to the cloud for their captive customers. These are some examples of new business models that are evolving in cloud storage.”
There are some exciting cloud backup models that exist globally. One is where Fujitsu does cloud backup for SAP’s global operation.
Fundamentally, as far as the idea of taking non-mission critical data and putting it into a public cloud service goes, there's no doubt that companies would becomes more comfortable with time. However, we see this type of exercise confined to file and object data rather than block storage, which still makes up the bulk of storage business today. Ask any vendor what is their private cloud infrastructure for block-based data and they would have a tough time answering this question.
Renewed interest in tape automation
According to Talukdar there will be a renewed thrust on tape automation and tape libraries in 2010 as businesses, across verticals, start to deploy video surveillance. This would generate tons of data that needs to be backed up, achieved and vaulted and should be made available for review. Given the scenario where data volumes are growing at 40-60% annually and IT budgets are not increasing in 2010, the relevance of tape and tape libraries would grow manifold as businesses would continue to move their data-at-rest on to tapes to cut networked storage costs. Tapes are not only cheaper and greener, they help save money on power and cooling costs as well.
The industry has largely bid goodbye to DAT and DLT-based tapes and embraced LTO (LTO-3 and LTO-4) and LTO-5 is expected to debut in 2010. The reason is that DLT and DAT are proprietary technologies from Quantum and are not pursued by OEMs anymore be it IBM, HP, Dell or Tandberg. The cost of running DLT and cost of media is high when compared to LTO that offers high capacity at a cheaper price.
LTO-5 hikes the speed up to 180 Mbps and capacity to 1.6 TB in native form (uncompressed). The compression ratio in the LTO-5 tape format will be 2:1, which is the same as that of earlier versions. Compared to LTO-4, generation 5 doubles the capacity and boosts the speed by another 50% while maintaining backward compatibility with previous generations. For those that need the speed or performance, LTO-5 is a good option for early adopters.
Server virtualization has been—and will continue to be—a catalyst for new storage spending and increased adoption of networked storage. It will drive companies to invest in technologies that allow them to optimize their existing storage resources. Storage virtualization, thin provisioning and deduplication will be key technologies that will attract investments. The use of SSDs in storage arrays will start to take off while tape backup will continue to go strong.
akhtar.pasha@expressindia.com
Thursday, March 18, 2010
RF Digital Wireless Communication System
RF WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM:[REMO'S-600] MODEL
School
Language Lab./Institute
Lecture Room
Seminar Room
Outdoor Meeting/Game
REMO-500 Special Feature
DIgital system can provde excellent transmission and reception
Multi-Channel by UHF 700 MHZ frequency (16 channels extendable 32 chennels)
Very simple and slim design for portable use
Transmission distance is max. 100m
Simultaneously lecturer's voice and multi-media sound can be sent to headphone(earphone)
Simultaneously receiving and recording of lecturer's speaking (Use cable with jack)
One receiver has dual earphone jacks
No installation cost
One transmitter can deliver sound to several receiversREMO'S 500 Application
Public & Private School, Library, Multi-Media Classroom
Tour Guide, Factory Guide, Exhibition Guide, Translations for International Conference
Office Stenography, School Language Lab, Big size restaurant, Event at children school
Event at religious group, Health club and Hospital accommodation
PRODUCT DIMENSION/WT
TRS-600 : 60(W) X 90(L) X 20(H) mm/40g
RCV-600 : 175(W) X 68(L) X 235(H) mm/900g
PRODUCT APPLICATION
HIGH PERFORMANCE WIRELESS SPEAKER FOR School Room, Language Lab and Institute, Lecture Room.
Outdoor Meeting and Game
Department Store and Shop
Language Learning Classroom
PRODUCT FEATURES
This product has the high transmitting and receiving performance at any circumstances due to be adapted by Ultra Modern Digital System
The Lecturer and Teacher can move freely at any places due to be adapted by the high performance Wireless System.
The voices of Lecturer, Teacher and Travel Guider and the sounds(music, other contents) from other audio Equipments can transmit together from Transmitter to Receiver(Speaker).
It is very easy to control Voices and Sounds Volume together from the Mike and Speaker, therefore that can not affect any troubles for the classroom lessons.
You can install and remove the transmitter and speaker within only one minute.
You can enjoy clear sounds with 16 channels and FM 700MHz RF Mode.
You can move freely wearing the Transmitter with car phone and it's sounds and voices can travel within 50-100m distances through wall, ceiling and floors without noises.
The Lecturer (Speaker, Instructor) or Travel Guider can use his Mike and put the External Sound Plug into Input-Jack of the Transmitter, the Audience or Traveler(Tourist) can listen his voice and sounds from other Audio Equipments.
Any users such as the Lecturer, Travel Guider, Speaker and Teacher can choose the Pin-Mike or Hand-Mike, Ear-Mike, Headset according to the user's convenience.
This RF Wireless Communication System offers many applications of wireless System enjoying all kinds of Audio System, School Equipments and Supplies, Language Linguistic Learning Equipments, Travel/Tour Agency, Sightseeing Guide, Factory Visiting, Lecture Meeting, ETC.
PRODUCT STRUCTURE
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Frequency Range UHF : 740.000 MHz ~ 752.000 MHz
Frequency Stability : 5 PPM
TRS-600(TRANSMITTER)
Band width : UHF 12MHz Without Retuning(16CH.)
Squelch Sensitivity : -110dBm
HUM & Noise : 40dB
Audio Response(+-3dB) : 100Hz~10KHz
Audio Distortion : 3% at 1KHz
RF Output Power : 10mW
Modulation (Direct FM) : 80KHz
Spurious & Harmonics : 60dB
Primary Power : 3.2V - 4.5V DC
Output Impendence : 50ohms
Dimension : 60(W) x 90(L) x 20(H)mm / 40 g
RCV-600(Speaker)
Sensitivity(-20dB) : -170dBm
Band width : UHF 12MHz Without Retuning(16CH.)
Squelch Sensitivity : -110dBm
HUM & Noise : 45dB
Audio Response(+-3dB) : 150Hz~20KHz
Output Power(MAX) : 15Watt
Primary Power : 9V DC
Audio Distortion : Less Than 3% at 1KHz
Dimension : 175(W) x 68(L) x 235(H)mm / 900 g
Dry Battery for TRS-600 : AAAM size 6ea
DC Adaptor for RCV-600(Speaker) : DC 9V 500mA
School
Language Lab./Institute
Lecture Room
Seminar Room
Outdoor Meeting/Game
REMO-500 Special Feature
DIgital system can provde excellent transmission and reception
Multi-Channel by UHF 700 MHZ frequency (16 channels extendable 32 chennels)
Very simple and slim design for portable use
Transmission distance is max. 100m
Simultaneously lecturer's voice and multi-media sound can be sent to headphone(earphone)
Simultaneously receiving and recording of lecturer's speaking (Use cable with jack)
One receiver has dual earphone jacks
No installation cost
One transmitter can deliver sound to several receiversREMO'S 500 Application
Public & Private School, Library, Multi-Media Classroom
Tour Guide, Factory Guide, Exhibition Guide, Translations for International Conference
Office Stenography, School Language Lab, Big size restaurant, Event at children school
Event at religious group, Health club and Hospital accommodation
PRODUCT DIMENSION/WT
TRS-600 : 60(W) X 90(L) X 20(H) mm/40g
RCV-600 : 175(W) X 68(L) X 235(H) mm/900g
PRODUCT APPLICATION
HIGH PERFORMANCE WIRELESS SPEAKER FOR School Room, Language Lab and Institute, Lecture Room.
Outdoor Meeting and Game
Department Store and Shop
Language Learning Classroom
PRODUCT FEATURES
This product has the high transmitting and receiving performance at any circumstances due to be adapted by Ultra Modern Digital System
The Lecturer and Teacher can move freely at any places due to be adapted by the high performance Wireless System.
The voices of Lecturer, Teacher and Travel Guider and the sounds(music, other contents) from other audio Equipments can transmit together from Transmitter to Receiver(Speaker).
It is very easy to control Voices and Sounds Volume together from the Mike and Speaker, therefore that can not affect any troubles for the classroom lessons.
You can install and remove the transmitter and speaker within only one minute.
You can enjoy clear sounds with 16 channels and FM 700MHz RF Mode.
You can move freely wearing the Transmitter with car phone and it's sounds and voices can travel within 50-100m distances through wall, ceiling and floors without noises.
The Lecturer (Speaker, Instructor) or Travel Guider can use his Mike and put the External Sound Plug into Input-Jack of the Transmitter, the Audience or Traveler(Tourist) can listen his voice and sounds from other Audio Equipments.
Any users such as the Lecturer, Travel Guider, Speaker and Teacher can choose the Pin-Mike or Hand-Mike, Ear-Mike, Headset according to the user's convenience.
This RF Wireless Communication System offers many applications of wireless System enjoying all kinds of Audio System, School Equipments and Supplies, Language Linguistic Learning Equipments, Travel/Tour Agency, Sightseeing Guide, Factory Visiting, Lecture Meeting, ETC.
PRODUCT STRUCTURE
<>
Frequency Range UHF : 740.000 MHz ~ 752.000 MHz
Frequency Stability : 5 PPM
TRS-600(TRANSMITTER)
Band width : UHF 12MHz Without Retuning(16CH.)
Squelch Sensitivity : -110dBm
HUM & Noise : 40dB
Audio Response(+-3dB) : 100Hz~10KHz
Audio Distortion : 3% at 1KHz
RF Output Power : 10mW
Modulation (Direct FM) : 80KHz
Spurious & Harmonics : 60dB
Primary Power : 3.2V - 4.5V DC
Output Impendence : 50ohms
Dimension : 60(W) x 90(L) x 20(H)mm / 40 g
RCV-600(Speaker)
Sensitivity(-20dB) : -170dBm
Band width : UHF 12MHz Without Retuning(16CH.)
Squelch Sensitivity : -110dBm
HUM & Noise : 45dB
Audio Response(+-3dB) : 150Hz~20KHz
Output Power(MAX) : 15Watt
Primary Power : 9V DC
Audio Distortion : Less Than 3% at 1KHz
Dimension : 175(W) x 68(L) x 235(H)mm / 900 g
Dry Battery for TRS-600 : AAAM size 6ea
DC Adaptor for RCV-600(Speaker) : DC 9V 500mA
RFID Reader
SR-RH-01
SR-RH-01 series desktop readers are smart modules without touching， based on international standard agreement ISO14443A, ISO14443B and ISO15693， is equipped with high capability chip, processor, security and electric monitor. The reader can communicate with PC by means of interface. It is high capability, anti-jamming, small size and good quality, which brings more convenience.
Application:
Identification Access control, PC Access Customizing cards Payment Anti-fake
Library management
Specification
Model Number
SR-RH-01
SR-RH-01A
SR-RH-01B
Dimension
120x95x25mm
Standard
ISO14443A,
ISO15693
ISO 14443A
ISO 14443B
ISO 15693
Support
Mifare One S70Mifare One UltraLightMifare One S50Mifare ProAT88RF02066CL160S
SR176SRIX4K（TYPE-B）I-Code2TI RFid Tag-it HF-IEM4135EM4034 etc.
Frequency
13.56MHz
speed
106kbit/s
Baud Rate
9600-115200 bit/s
Power Supply
+5V DC
Consumed Current
< 80mA
Operating Distance
50--70mm
Interface
RS232;USB;TCP/IP
Status Indication
2pcs LED;1pcd buzzer
Service Temperature
-10℃ ~ +70℃
Store Temperature
-20℃ ~ +80℃
SR-RH-01 series desktop readers are smart modules without touching， based on international standard agreement ISO14443A, ISO14443B and ISO15693， is equipped with high capability chip, processor, security and electric monitor. The reader can communicate with PC by means of interface. It is high capability, anti-jamming, small size and good quality, which brings more convenience.
Application:
Identification Access control, PC Access Customizing cards Payment Anti-fake
Library management
Specification
Model Number
SR-RH-01
SR-RH-01A
SR-RH-01B
Dimension
120x95x25mm
Standard
ISO14443A,
ISO15693
ISO 14443A
ISO 14443B
ISO 15693
Support
Mifare One S70Mifare One UltraLightMifare One S50Mifare ProAT88RF02066CL160S
SR176SRIX4K（TYPE-B）I-Code2TI RFid Tag-it HF-IEM4135EM4034 etc.
Frequency
13.56MHz
speed
106kbit/s
Baud Rate
9600-115200 bit/s
Power Supply
+5V DC
Consumed Current
< 80mA
Operating Distance
50--70mm
Interface
RS232;USB;TCP/IP
Status Indication
2pcs LED;1pcd buzzer
Service Temperature
-10℃ ~ +70℃
Store Temperature
-20℃ ~ +80℃
Antistatic Steel Raised Access Floor
We are a leading manufacturer and exporter in China, dealing with Raised Flooring for 25 years, own good reputation for quality.
For the specification of the Raised Flooring, pls read follows:1. Structure: Four sides supporting structure with draw molded, spot welded, high quality armor plate filled with froth cement filling in the lumen, HPL melamine anti-static paster or PVC anti-static paster ticked on the surface, enchased conductive embedded and whole body galvanized. The raised pedestal can lock itself and be adjusted.2. Application:Computer roomsProgrammed control equipment roomsNetwork centersElectrical-controlled classrooms LibrariesElectronic reading roomPlaces that have requirements for dust-proof and Anti-static
For the specification of the Raised Flooring, pls read follows:1. Structure: Four sides supporting structure with draw molded, spot welded, high quality armor plate filled with froth cement filling in the lumen, HPL melamine anti-static paster or PVC anti-static paster ticked on the surface, enchased conductive embedded and whole body galvanized. The raised pedestal can lock itself and be adjusted.2. Application:Computer roomsProgrammed control equipment roomsNetwork centersElectrical-controlled classrooms LibrariesElectronic reading roomPlaces that have requirements for dust-proof and Anti-static
Light Duty Shelving
Light Duty Shelving can be used as logistics equipment in quay. It also can be served as storage equipment in library , school, etc. A wide rang of sizes and designs are available that will insure that proper shelving is specified.
Features:
1.The shelving framed by common angel iron with steel or wooden board, and adjustable layer height, pitch: 50mm
2.Assembled by connective or inserting method ,which is very convenient for installation and disassembly
3.Low cost with far-ranging use
Features:
1.The shelving framed by common angel iron with steel or wooden board, and adjustable layer height, pitch: 50mm
2.Assembled by connective or inserting method ,which is very convenient for installation and disassembly
3.Low cost with far-ranging use
Mobile Phone Signal Jammer
ES-4II Mobile Phone Signal Jammer
The product with patent number of 02247306.8 is researched and developed by the technicians of our company. Appearing with the disturbance of the mobile phones signal in public social places, it can effectively control the normal use of mobile phones and shielding microwave signal between transmitters and cell phones. Comparing with similar products, our product has the excellence of low price, more stable performance and broader shielding range. Using occasions include examination room, gas stations, churches, courts, libraries, classrooms, conference centers, theaters, hospitals and other places.
Function:
1. Restrict the mobile phone signal which effective diameter is 40m-100m when away from the transmitting station 200 meters or more.
2. Only shields mobile phone signals, no influence on other electronic or audio equipments. No harm to human bodies.
3. Easy to install.
4. Saves electric power.
Technical parameters:
1. Working frequencies: 860-885MHz, 930-960MHz, and 1.800-1.99GHz.
2. Working frequency bands: CDMA800, GSM900, DCS1800, and PCS1900.
3. Working temperature: -20°C - +55°C.
4. Working humidity: 30% - 95%.
5. Power adapter: input: AC 100 - 240V, output: DC 5V, 3A.
6. Dimensions: 210 (L) x 115 (W) x 47 (H)mm.7. Weight: 1.17kg
The product with patent number of 02247306.8 is researched and developed by the technicians of our company. Appearing with the disturbance of the mobile phones signal in public social places, it can effectively control the normal use of mobile phones and shielding microwave signal between transmitters and cell phones. Comparing with similar products, our product has the excellence of low price, more stable performance and broader shielding range. Using occasions include examination room, gas stations, churches, courts, libraries, classrooms, conference centers, theaters, hospitals and other places.
Function:
1. Restrict the mobile phone signal which effective diameter is 40m-100m when away from the transmitting station 200 meters or more.
2. Only shields mobile phone signals, no influence on other electronic or audio equipments. No harm to human bodies.
3. Easy to install.
4. Saves electric power.
Technical parameters:
1. Working frequencies: 860-885MHz, 930-960MHz, and 1.800-1.99GHz.
2. Working frequency bands: CDMA800, GSM900, DCS1800, and PCS1900.
3. Working temperature: -20°C - +55°C.
4. Working humidity: 30% - 95%.
5. Power adapter: input: AC 100 - 240V, output: DC 5V, 3A.
6. Dimensions: 210 (L) x 115 (W) x 47 (H)mm.7. Weight: 1.17kg
BSI Standards
BS ISO/IEC 11695-3:2008 BS ISO/IEC 11695-3:2008. Identification cards. Optical memory cards. Holographic recording method. Optical properties and characteristicsBS ISO/IEC 11695-2:2008 BS ISO/IEC 11695-2:2008. Identification cards. Optical memory cards. Holographic recording method. Dimensions and location of accessible optical areaBS ISO/IEC 11695-1:2008 BS ISO/IEC 11695-1:2008. Identification cards. Optical memory cards. Holographic recording method. Physical characteristics09/30175729 DC 09/30175729 DC. BS ISO 28560-3. Information and documentation. RFID in libraries. Part 3. Fixed length encoding09/30175726 DC 09/30175726 DC. BS ISO 28560-2. Information and documentation. RFID in libraries. Part 2. Encoding based on ISO/IEC 1596209/30175723 DC 09/30175723 DC. BS ISO 28560-1. Information and documentation. RFID in libraries. Part 1. General requirements and data elements
Pulse Bag dust Extractor
Pulse Bag dust Extractor SB pulse bag filter is applicable to the ash storage warehouse roof of a highly efficient purification equipment, in the analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of several products, based on the advanced cleaning technology with the gas processing capacity, purifying effect, simple structure, reliable, maintenance advantages of a small amount of . Yes specifically for the coal-fired power plant fly ash storage and metallurgy, cement and other materials for the powdery dust design. It is most suitable for the library roof dedusting equipment ideal.
The OES5 Scanner
The OES5 Scanner is specially designed to work with all OBD 2 compliant vehicles,includinng those equipped with the next generation protocol--Control Area Network(CAN).it is required by EPA that all 1996 and newer vehicles(cars and light trucks) sold in the United States must be OBD 2 compliant and includes all Domestic,Asia and European vehicles.
A small number of 1994 and 1995 model year gasoline vehicles are OBD complaint.To verify if a 1994 or 1995 vehicle is OBDII complaint,chck the Vehicle Emissions Control Information(VECI) Lable which is located under the hood or by the radiator of most vehicles.
If the vehicles is OBD 2 compliant,the label will designate"OBD2 Certified".Additionally,Government regulations mandate that all OBD2 compliant vehicles must have a "common"sixteen-pin Data Link Connector(DLC)
For your vehicle to be OBD2 compliant it must have a 16-pin DLC(Data Link Connector) under the dash and the Vehicle Emission Information Label must state the vehicle is OBD2 compliant.
It can do:
Reads&Clears trouble codes
Reads live PCM data stream
Displays 02 sensor test data
Detects OBD2 Freeze frame data
Supported standards:
SAE J2480-CAN-BUS
ISO 4230-4-KWP200
ISO 9141
ISO 9141-2
SAE J1850-VPW
SAE J1850-PWM
ISO 15765-4-CAN-BUS
Product Features:
Works with all 1996 and later OBD IIcompliant US, European and Asian vehicles.
Reads&clears generic OBD II trouble codes( including pending codes)
Reads&cLears selected GM/Ford/Chrysler/Toyota OBD II manufacture-specific codes
Tums off check engine light(MIL)
Views Freeze Frame Data
Displays Monitor and I/M readiness status(emissions)
Reads live 02 senor test data
Performs Modules Present Test
Retrieves Vehicle information (VIN,CIN and CVN)
Supports CAN( Controller Area Network) and all tother current OBD-IIProtocols.
Built-in OBD-II DTC lookup library
Large easy-to-read LCD sreen displays DTC definitions
Extremely easy to use and highly reliable
CONTENTS:
1*OES5 TOOL
1*OBD II Cable
1*User
A small number of 1994 and 1995 model year gasoline vehicles are OBD complaint.To verify if a 1994 or 1995 vehicle is OBDII complaint,chck the Vehicle Emissions Control Information(VECI) Lable which is located under the hood or by the radiator of most vehicles.
If the vehicles is OBD 2 compliant,the label will designate"OBD2 Certified".Additionally,Government regulations mandate that all OBD2 compliant vehicles must have a "common"sixteen-pin Data Link Connector(DLC)
For your vehicle to be OBD2 compliant it must have a 16-pin DLC(Data Link Connector) under the dash and the Vehicle Emission Information Label must state the vehicle is OBD2 compliant.
It can do:
Reads&Clears trouble codes
Reads live PCM data stream
Displays 02 sensor test data
Detects OBD2 Freeze frame data
Supported standards:
SAE J2480-CAN-BUS
ISO 4230-4-KWP200
ISO 9141
ISO 9141-2
SAE J1850-VPW
SAE J1850-PWM
ISO 15765-4-CAN-BUS
Product Features:
Works with all 1996 and later OBD IIcompliant US, European and Asian vehicles.
Reads&clears generic OBD II trouble codes( including pending codes)
Reads&cLears selected GM/Ford/Chrysler/Toyota OBD II manufacture-specific codes
Tums off check engine light(MIL)
Views Freeze Frame Data
Displays Monitor and I/M readiness status(emissions)
Reads live 02 senor test data
Performs Modules Present Test
Retrieves Vehicle information (VIN,CIN and CVN)
Supports CAN( Controller Area Network) and all tother current OBD-IIProtocols.
Built-in OBD-II DTC lookup library
Large easy-to-read LCD sreen displays DTC definitions
Extremely easy to use and highly reliable
CONTENTS:
1*OES5 TOOL
1*OBD II Cable
1*User
New E-Reader @$399
Spring Technology's dual-screen, Google Android-powered e-reader, the Alex, is currently offered for preorder online for $399. The company says the device will reach customers mid-April, roughly two weeks after Apple's much-hyped iPad tablet hits the market.
Spring Design, maker of the Google Android-powered dual display Alex e-Reader, due to ship two weeks after the Apple iPad tablet, announced the device is currently available online for preorder via the company’s Website for $399. The company said due to localization of international versions with partners, preorders placed on the Web in the United States would be shipped no later than mid-April. The Alex e-reader connects to Google's bookstore with more than one million titles, as well as other bookstores that support Adobe DRM. The Android-based device also supports eBooks in EPUB, PDF, HTML and TXT formats.
Resource Library:
Strategies for Building Business Satisfaction with Your IT Organization
Planning your IT needs for the future of PACS
Defining the Great Customer Experience
Measuring the Business Impact of Support
The device features a 6-inch monochrome e-ink display for reading alongside an iPhone-like touch screen for navigation and multimedia content. In addition to the standard-issue e-reader experience, the Alex will supposedly offer Internet browsing, WiFi connectivity, access to Android applications, audio and video playback, and image viewing. Users can move content from the color LCD screen to the EPD screen for easier reading and vice versa. The LCD screen complements the EPD text to support functions such as annotating and highlighting what they are reading, or linking to audio, video, and web links. Content can be viewed on both screens simultaneously with the Duet Navigator where the LCD screen is used to control the navigation of the EPD screen.
The Alex e-Reader weighs 11 ounces and measures 4.7-inches by 8.9-inches and less than a half inch deep. The company noted users may add their own content or download content to the microSD card offering expansion of user libraries up to 32GB. The Alex can also be updated over WiFi and USB 2.0 and comes with headphones, AC/USB power connector and a padded cover. The device also offers LinkNotes technology, which allows authors to insert hyperlinks in their books that show up on the EPD reading screen indicating that there is linked-in web-based content available. Users can click on hyperlinks in eBooks, corporate documents, or periodicals that lead to relevant Web-based information or to multimedia content stored on the Alex
"By combining a full multimedia browser with the efficiency and flexibility of an EPD screen supported by our open Android-based Alex e-Reader, we have truly placed a powerful tool in the hands of authors, publishers, professors and institutions to create interesting interactive e-Books" said Priscilla Lu, CEO of Spring Design. "Whether for entertainment, education or corporate communication, Alex offers the most dynamic and powerful multimedia e-Reader in the marketplace for creating new media text."
The Nook, an e-reader that Barnes & Noble announced in October 2009, also features a dual-screen configuration, with an e-ink display and a touchscreen. Spring Design announced on Nov. 2 that it would issue a lawsuit over the alleged similarities, followed by its filing an amended complaint on Nov. 11. However, the courts delivered a setback to Spring Design's hopes on Dec. 1, when the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California turned down the smaller company's request for an injunction to halt sales of the Nook.
Spring Design, maker of the Google Android-powered dual display Alex e-Reader, due to ship two weeks after the Apple iPad tablet, announced the device is currently available online for preorder via the company’s Website for $399. The company said due to localization of international versions with partners, preorders placed on the Web in the United States would be shipped no later than mid-April. The Alex e-reader connects to Google's bookstore with more than one million titles, as well as other bookstores that support Adobe DRM. The Android-based device also supports eBooks in EPUB, PDF, HTML and TXT formats.
Resource Library:
Strategies for Building Business Satisfaction with Your IT Organization
Planning your IT needs for the future of PACS
Defining the Great Customer Experience
Measuring the Business Impact of Support
The device features a 6-inch monochrome e-ink display for reading alongside an iPhone-like touch screen for navigation and multimedia content. In addition to the standard-issue e-reader experience, the Alex will supposedly offer Internet browsing, WiFi connectivity, access to Android applications, audio and video playback, and image viewing. Users can move content from the color LCD screen to the EPD screen for easier reading and vice versa. The LCD screen complements the EPD text to support functions such as annotating and highlighting what they are reading, or linking to audio, video, and web links. Content can be viewed on both screens simultaneously with the Duet Navigator where the LCD screen is used to control the navigation of the EPD screen.
The Alex e-Reader weighs 11 ounces and measures 4.7-inches by 8.9-inches and less than a half inch deep. The company noted users may add their own content or download content to the microSD card offering expansion of user libraries up to 32GB. The Alex can also be updated over WiFi and USB 2.0 and comes with headphones, AC/USB power connector and a padded cover. The device also offers LinkNotes technology, which allows authors to insert hyperlinks in their books that show up on the EPD reading screen indicating that there is linked-in web-based content available. Users can click on hyperlinks in eBooks, corporate documents, or periodicals that lead to relevant Web-based information or to multimedia content stored on the Alex
"By combining a full multimedia browser with the efficiency and flexibility of an EPD screen supported by our open Android-based Alex e-Reader, we have truly placed a powerful tool in the hands of authors, publishers, professors and institutions to create interesting interactive e-Books" said Priscilla Lu, CEO of Spring Design. "Whether for entertainment, education or corporate communication, Alex offers the most dynamic and powerful multimedia e-Reader in the marketplace for creating new media text."
The Nook, an e-reader that Barnes & Noble announced in October 2009, also features a dual-screen configuration, with an e-ink display and a touchscreen. Spring Design announced on Nov. 2 that it would issue a lawsuit over the alleged similarities, followed by its filing an amended complaint on Nov. 11. However, the courts delivered a setback to Spring Design's hopes on Dec. 1, when the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California turned down the smaller company's request for an injunction to halt sales of the Nook.
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