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Daimler
Chrysler and workers agree at cost cutting measures
Stuttgart: DaimlerChrysler and its employees have
arrived at an agreement over comprehensive labour cost-cutting
measures. A
spokesman for the IG Metall trade union said that a deal
had been reached over demands from Mercedes to save 500
million euros a year in personnel costs, mainly at its
less efficient Sindelfingen plant.
The
talks had triggered intense debate in Germany over the
high price of domestic labour, which has been forcing
companies to outsource their work to low-wage regions
in order to remain competitive. The
agreement marks the move towards longer work hours for
less pay in exchange for job security and heralds more
flexible labour conditions in Europe. The
company has said that its management board has offered
to accept lower pay too although it declined to give details.
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Crosby
and Nash: Candidates for joint Presidency of USA
San Francisco, USA: David Crosby and Graham Nash
have thrown their respective hats into the ring for the
Presidency of the United States, with their bid on the
Party Party ticket. What
distinguishes the Crosby/Nash candidacy is that theirs
is a campaign for a "Joint Presidency," where
the two will share responsibilities on an alternate day
basis. When asked who would be named their Vice President,
Graham Nash replied there was no need for one —"We'll
have two presidents, and between us we have vice covered."
Earlier this month Crosby and Nash were expected to announce
the release of their first album together as a duo in
almost three decades. Instead, the spotlight turned to
their run for Joint Presidency 2004.
Amongst
other items the Crosby and Nash campaign promises include
free money, and a night in the Lincoln Bedroom to anyone
who antes up $200,000. The renamed "Social Insecurity"
and "Medicareless" agencies will be overhauled,
and the candidates are researching fixing the electronic
voting machine situation. "Remember," they say,
"it's not the people who vote that change things,
it's the people that count the votes that change things."
Rock and Roll Hall of Famers David Crosby and Graham Nash
are a longtime team whose official collaboration began
with 1969's self-titled Crosby, Stills & Nash album
debut. Since that landmark work, they have continued to
record and tour in various configurations together-in
tandem, and with Crosby, Stills & Nash and Crosby,
Stills, Nash & Young in addition to their solo projects.
Currently, they're touring coast-to-coast with Crosby,
Stills & Nash and, on August 10, Sanctuary Records
will release their fourth studio album as a duo-and their
first-ever double album together — Crosby-Nash, recorded
in L.A. in early 2004. When asked how rock 'n' roll and
campaigning measured up against each other, Crosby commented,
"Well, 'I rock' is much better than Iraq."
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Pakistan
begins taking delivery of Bell helicopters
Fort Worth, USA: In a deal valued at over $230
million, Bell Helicopter, a Textron company, is delivering
26 Bell 412EP medium twin-engine helicopters and associated
equipment to Pakistan. Bell, which delivered 9 of the
aircraft to Pakistan last month, will deliver the rest
over the next ten months. The Bell 412EP has been a top
performer around the world in a wide variety of military
and civil missions. An excellent utility aircraft, the
Bell 412EP helicopters will be used primarily for personnel
transport, emergency medical service and disaster relief.
The Bell 412EP is in service with a number of nations
around the world. Bell Helicopter, a subsidiary of Textron
Inc., is a $1.6 billion, leading producer of commercial
and military helicopters, and the pioneer of the revolutionary
tiltrotor aircraft. Textron Inc. is a $10 billion multi-industry
company and is known around the world for its powerful
brands such as Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft, Kautex,
Lycoming, E-Z-GO and Greenlee, among others.
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Borland's
ALM solution for British Telecom
Scotts Valley, USA & London, UK: Borland Software
Corporation has announced that Borland's Application Lifecycle
Management (ALM) solution has been selected by the BT
Group to help reduce the time and investment required
to deliver its IT projects. BT's technology and IT operations
division, BT Exact, is leading the implementation of Borland's
solution across the Group. Borland's ALM solution will
underpin BT's Systems Engineering Programme (SEP) by providing
a single environment for managing software development.
The SEP was set up by BT Exact to develop a single design
and delivery methodology for all future IT projects across
BT Group. Currently, BT's internal and external software
architects, engineers, analysts and Systems Integrators
(SIs) use a range of tools to manage the different stages
of the development process.
Over the next 12 months, BT Exact will implement Borland's
ALM suite of products. Initially, it is deploying user
licenses encompassing Borland CaliberRM for project definition
and requirements management, Borland Together ControlCenter
for modeling and collaboration, Borland Star Team for
source control and change management, Borland Optimizeit
for performance tuning, Borland JBuilder for Java development,
Borland C++Builder for C++ development and Borland C#
Builder for .NET development.
While CaliberRM improves software quality and speeds time-to-market
by allowing teams to work dynamically on requirements,
the StarTeam promotes re-use and therefore helps reduce
the potential for duplication of effort. Together ControlCenter
is an agile modeling development platform, which uses
a standard Unified Modeling Language (UML). This will
enable all BT's designers to use a common notation when
building product models. This will not only reduce scope
for misinterpretation, but also allow for the reuse of
standard design components. Borland Software Corporation
is a world leader in platform independent software development
and deployment solutions that are designed to accelerate
the entire application development lifecycle.
BT Group plc is the listed holding company for an integrated
group of businesses providing voice and data services
in the UK and overseas. British Telecommunications plc,
a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc, is one of Europe's
leading providers of telecommunications services. Its
principal activities include local, national and international
telecommunications services, higher-value broadband and
internet products and services, and IT solutions. BT Exact
is an internationally renowned centre of excellence in
IT and networking technologies. It is also BT's technology
and research and development business.
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The
Qosmio: New benchmark for mobile
digital entertainment
Irvine, USA: Toshiba's Digital Products Division
(DPD) has announced the launch of the new Qosmio (pronounced
"koss-mee-oh") brand of AV notebook PCs. The
new Qosmio E15-AV101 notebook PC is a highly integrated,
mobile personal entertainment and computing device that
offers users a unique "four-in-one" experience
with TV, audio, DVD recorder and PC functionality. Available
from August 2004, the Qosmio is suited for the digital
den where the family gathers to enjoy movies, music or
computing and ideal for a bedroom, dorm room or RV where
space is limited. The "four-in-one" device can
replace the need for multiple consumer electronics devices
such as a TV, DVD player and stereo.
According to Toshiba the company has made great strides
in the digital convergence arena and is a recognized leader
in both mobile computers and consumer electronics. The
new Qosmio brand simply represents Toshiba's best-of-breed
and marriage of the two. Future Qosmio products will include
other features such as wide-screen displays up to 17-inches,
higher storage capabilities and additional consumer electronic
functionalities. Toshiba plans to add features that will
further extend product usability and flexibility and continue
the simplification of personal entertainment. The Qosmio
AV notebooks feature a built in TV tuner, DVR capabilities
and a high-quality QosmioEngine that enables increased
video and graphics performance. It also includes SRS WOW
& TruSurround XT technology and large harman/kardon
stereo speakers, so users can enjoy a more cinematic-quality
experience when listening to music or watching movies.
Coupled with a 15-inch diagonal enhanced TruBrite screen,
the Qosmio E15-AV101 delivers radiant images that are
brighter than standard LCD displays and offers an extended
viewable range to create an audio/video experience comparable
to stand-alone CE devices.
The E15-AV101 also includes the QosmioPlayer that allows
users to watch TV, DVDs or listen to CDs with a simple
touch of a button instead of having to boot up the Windows
operating system. With this feature, Qosmio owners can
use the remote control or quick access buttons to enjoy
their audio or video content within seconds — just
as if they were using a separate TV, stereo or DVD player.
With extensive video in/out connectivity options, Qosmio
users can access and share photo and video content quickly
and easily. Users can hook-up their favorite gaming console
or camcorder to the Qosmio for on-the-fly gaming or to
display home movies on the road, at home or on vacation.
The Qosmio AV notebooks also include a large hard drive
to provide users with enough room to copy, edit and save
video content, photos or music files without the worry
of running out of storage space. Also a powerful computing
tool, the Qosmio E15-AV101 features Intel Centrino mobile
technology, providing outstanding mobile performance and
built-in wireless connectivity. The Qosmio AV notebooks
feature Intel PRO/Wireless (802.11b/g) to make connecting
to the Internet at home or on the road at wireless hotspots
convenient. The unit is also Bluetooth enabled which means
it provides easy access to wireless accessories.
Product Specifications
Qosmio E15-AV101
Intel
Centrino mobile technology
- Intel
Pentium M Processor 735 (1.70GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 400MHz
FSB
- Intel
855PM System Chipset
- Intel
PRO/Wireless 2200BG LAN (802.11b/g)
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004
15-inch
diagonal XGA enhanced TruBrite Display (1024x768)
Integrated
TV Tuner
QosmioEngine
QosmioPlayer
Bluetooth
Enabled
80GB
Hard Disk Drive
512MB
RAM
DVD
SuperMulti Drive
NVIDIA®
GeForce FX Go5200 Graphics, 64MB
TV
out (S-Video and Component Y/Pb/Pr), TV in (S-Video
and Composite), Composite Monitor in and Antenna input
S/PDIF
Optical Audio Output with Dolby Digital
harmon/kardon
Stereo Speakers
SRS
WOW & TruSurround XT Technology
Bridge
Media Adapter (Secure Digital, Memory Stick, Memory
Stick Pro and XD)
i.Link
(IEEE 1394) Port
Four
USB 2.0 Ports
Integrated
V.92 Modem, 10/100 Ethernet
Pricing
$2,699
Some
of the above mentioned items would require additional
purchase of hardware and software to make the system fully
configured. The Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc.
(TAIS) is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba
America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation, which
is a world leader in high technology and integrated manufacturing
of electrical and electronic components, products and
systems. Toshiba has global sales of over $52 billion
and more than 300 subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide.
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