Showing posts with label 1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1. Show all posts
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Announcing Version 1 8 of the NET library for Google Data APIs
We just released version 1.8 of the .NET Library for Google Data APIs which adds brand new service classes and samples for the following three APIs:
In order to improve security and stability, SSL is now turned on by default for all APIs that support it and, since the previous major release (1.7.0.1), more than 30 issues have been Fixed.
For all details, please check the Release Notes:
Read more »
- Google Apps Audit API
- Google Content API for Shopping
- Google Calendar Resource API
In order to improve security and stability, SSL is now turned on by default for all APIs that support it and, since the previous major release (1.7.0.1), more than 30 issues have been Fixed.
For all details, please check the Release Notes:
http://google-gdata.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/clients/cs/RELEASE_NOTES.HTML
Want to weigh in on this topic? Discuss on Buzz
Friday, February 27, 2015
Part 1 Would Nemo Survive Using the Blue Ocean Strategy
"Blue Ocean Strategy is a bestseller across five continents. It has been published in over 40 languages and sold over 2 million copies (since 2005). " - Source BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY?
"Blue Ocean Strategy is a business strategy book first published in 2005 and written by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne of The Blue Ocean Strategy Institute at INSEAD, one of the top European business schools. The book illustrates the high growth and profits an organization can generate by creating new demand in an uncontested market space, or a "Blue Ocean", than by competing head-to-head with other suppliers for known customers in an existing industry." - Source
"Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than 100 years (1880 - 2000) and 30 industries, it provides us with a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and creating uncontested market space. " - Source
So, what is Blue Ocean Strategy exactly?
"It is the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low-cost to create new market space. Blue Ocean Strategy seeks to make the competition irrelevant by creating a leap in value for both the company and its buyers. Blue Ocean Strategy aligns the following three propositions:
Click here to read more and learn about BOS for free.
If the BOS theory still does not make sense, this should nail it:
...And what is the likelihood of that?
TWO PART SERIES
In this two part series I will explore Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS), and reflect back on a 2-day BOS workshop I attended a few weeks back (1st - 2nd December) at the UCSI Blue Ocean Strategy Regional Centre. In Part 1, I will zoom in on BOS as a theory and share some insights that might have been overlooked by the authors. In part 2, I will focus on Blue Ocean as a systematic approach to gain insight, innovate and create value, and explore some of the useful tools that we can use to visualize our own Blue Ocean, whatever that might be.
Having read the book twice (first time in 2007), read dozens of related articles, and participated in a 2-day BOS workshop, I believe I am entitled to share my honest opinions regarding this approach next. Though, I might be wrong!
RED OCEAN VS BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY
While I kind of like the Blue Ocean idea (Exotically relaxing and hypnotizing!) and most of the BOS visualization tools (explored in Part 2), I kind of find the Read Ocean and Blue Ocean Strategy mambo jumbo (graphic above) and several of the case studies used in the book both misleading and a whole lot of _____ (you guess?)!
The BOS theory has already been around for a few years, and it is NOT short of criticism either, so I am not going to go on a full-blown (reinventing the wheel) shark attack. However, being fair to BOS, it has also rebutted six misconceptions about BOS (PDF) reasonable convincingly.
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL"Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than 100 years (1880 - 2000) and 30 industries, it provides us with a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and creating uncontested market space. " - Source
So, what is Blue Ocean Strategy exactly?
"It is the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low-cost to create new market space. Blue Ocean Strategy seeks to make the competition irrelevant by creating a leap in value for both the company and its buyers. Blue Ocean Strategy aligns the following three propositions:
- Value proposition
The utility buyers receive from the product or service minus the price they pay for it. - Profit proposition
The price of the offering minus the cost of producing and distributing it. - People proposition
The readiness of employees to execute the new strategy with all of their energy, to the best of their abilities, and voluntarily.
Click here to read more and learn about BOS for free.
If the BOS theory still does not make sense, this should nail it:
"Go where profits and growth are – and where the competition isn’t."
- Kim & Mauborgne (PDF)
- Kim & Mauborgne (PDF)
...And what is the likelihood of that?
TWO PART SERIES
In this two part series I will explore Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS), and reflect back on a 2-day BOS workshop I attended a few weeks back (1st - 2nd December) at the UCSI Blue Ocean Strategy Regional Centre. In Part 1, I will zoom in on BOS as a theory and share some insights that might have been overlooked by the authors. In part 2, I will focus on Blue Ocean as a systematic approach to gain insight, innovate and create value, and explore some of the useful tools that we can use to visualize our own Blue Ocean, whatever that might be.
Having read the book twice (first time in 2007), read dozens of related articles, and participated in a 2-day BOS workshop, I believe I am entitled to share my honest opinions regarding this approach next. Though, I might be wrong!
RED OCEAN VS BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY
While I kind of like the Blue Ocean idea (Exotically relaxing and hypnotizing!) and most of the BOS visualization tools (explored in Part 2), I kind of find the Read Ocean and Blue Ocean Strategy mambo jumbo (graphic above) and several of the case studies used in the book both misleading and a whole lot of _____ (you guess?)!
The BOS theory has already been around for a few years, and it is NOT short of criticism either, so I am not going to go on a full-blown (reinventing the wheel) shark attack. However, being fair to BOS, it has also rebutted six misconceptions about BOS (PDF) reasonable convincingly.
"Dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." - SourceIf you read the Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) book, or listen to any consultant promoting BOS, they will for sure share with you the ultimate BOS example and pride Cirque du Soleil. No doubt the Cirque du Soleil (founder Guy Laliberté) is an inspiring, innovative and breathtaking story, but is it really a Blue Ocean?
First, Guy Laliberté never used BOS as a tool to innovate and create value. So, although it might be a Blue Ocean, it does not prove that the BOS as a theory is practical and implementable. Secondly, BOS like so many other theories often hijack success stories from a few angles (and hide others), and then absorb them into a portfolio of evidence of whatever they are trying to convince or sell.
Lets look a bit closer at the amazing Cirque du Soleil story, and explore whether it is really a Blue Ocean according to the Red Ocean vs Blue Ocean framework:
- Break the Value-cost Trade-off?
The authors would like you to believe that Cirque du Soleil grew out of the traditional circus act and then reinvented it by eliminating performing animals and star performers (cut cost), and shifted the buyer group from children (end-users of the traditional circus) to adults (purchasers of the traditional circus), drawing upon the distinctive strengths of other alternative industries, such as the theatre, Broadway shows and the opera, to offer a totally new set of utilities to more mature and higher spending customers (Source).
In reality, Guy Laliberté (folk musician, busker and fire breather) never really worked with performing animals or so called star performers, and we could actually argue instead that he reinvented street entertainment by transforming a group of street performers into a "proper circus" (learning the circus act from Guy Caron). He didnt pick up the idea of telling a story from the theatre, but from the Moscow Circus method. His vision was to create a circus with neither a ring nor animals. The rationale was that the lack of both of these things draws the audience more into the performance (Source).
Ironically, the book never mentions this, and the main reason is probably that these revelations would confuse their value-cost trade-off idea. Yes, Cirque du Soleil enhanced the show value and entertainment as they innovated over the years, but it also made the Cirque du Soleil much more costly than most other street entertainment shows (which are often free, but you are encouraged to donate/give a token of appreciation), and that had nearly catastrophic consequences during the first few years. Did you know that Guy Laliberté or his company went nearly bankrupt several times during the first few years, and if it was not for government grants, his never-say-die attitude, connections, and bit of fortune (luck!) this amazing story would have ended in disaster, and this again was never mentioned in the BOS book. The BOS book gives us an impression as if it was a smooth ride to heaven, and that the BOS was the secret to its success. What baloney! - Create Uncontested Market Space?
Seriously, what does this really mean? How do you create an uncontested market space for adult entertainment? Give us a break! Cirque du Soleil explored, innovated, and has developed (after several financial failures) over the years several amazing and unique shows that consists of a theatrical mix of circus arts and street entertainment. You could have 10 other groups use similar Blue Ocean Strategies and they would have failed, unless they had people like Guy Laliberté to make it happen.
The idea of creating an uncontested market space is an illusion, unless we simply define it as an uncontested market space, which is easy as the authors have provided no real measure (like so much else!) to prove this. That probably did not make much sense either, but then again the idea of creating an uncontested market space (perhaps on Mars!) in the 21st century, unless for an extremely short period, is highly unlikely. But, we should never stop dreaming. Anything is possible! - Make the Competition Irrelevant?
Very few companies and products throughout history have made competition irrelevant (e.g. Microsoft Office could be an example, but that cost millions, if not billions of dollars in research and development), and if they have made competition irrelevant, it has only been for short periods. But then again, can competition ever be irrelevant? Even the iPhone (Vs Blackberry Vs Android) has relevant competition, although it has been a tremendous success.
If there is no competition in sight, perhaps the market is not worth embracing anyway. In short, I would argue that there is no harm with contested competition. For example, the iPhone entered a read ocean competitive smart-phone market (which had bad products!), but through its exceptional user experience and iTunes Eco-system it has managed to capture a healthy market share. As for the Cirque du Soleil story, they are not the first acrobatic story show to pop-up. The Chinese dragon show has been around for centuries. Also, Cirque du Soleil will always have relevant competition from other amazing traveling shows and acts (and other forms of adult entertainment!), but as long as their shows are unique, attractive and entertaining, they will amplify their reputation and attract an increasing global demand. - Create and Capture New Demand?
Perhaps on Mars or Pluto (the Moon is more likely)! There is and has always been a demand for new forms of adult entertainment (or ways of being entertained), and Cirque du Soleil has been successful in capturing this universal demand with their amazing shows (not necessarily because of their strategy!). - Align the whole system of a firms activities in pursuit of differentiation and low cost?
Low cost for whom? The firm? The customer? Both? This idea has confused me until today. When I first read the book, I got the impression that Blue Ocean was about enhancing the customer value and at the same time lowering the product/service cost. But after attending the workshop, and scrutinizing some of the case studies, I get the impression that the lowering cost aspect, refers mostly to the firm, and not necessarily to the customer.
If we go back to the Cirque du Soleil case, we see a pursuit of differentiation and lower implementation cost if we compare to the traditional circus act. But, that is rather misleading, because we could have and perhaps should have compared it to street performances, which it really originated from. And if we did, it would be differentiation, but at a higher cost. Moreover, had Cirque du Soleil used performing animals and star performers, it would have certainly gone bankrupt, because it nearly went bankrupt without them several times. Though, kudos to Cirque du Soleil for hiring over the years many amazing street performers, and providing them a healthy and stable living income beyond what they would have probably got from performing on the streets.
WHAT IS YOUR POINT?
Having said all this, we could go BLUE arguing whether Cirque du Soleil is really a Blue Ocean or not. No point wasting any more time on this issue, though please challenge me on all accounts (can always update my post).
Having always been attracted to business improvement books, or books that explore creativity and business value innovations (attracted to the stories rather than the formulas!), I see a common trend and pattern in many of the books I have read, which is the manipulation of past and existing success stories to prove their ideas and frameworks for ultimate success. In other words, they will look through their narrow lenses and highlight what fits their theory, and then hide does aspects that do not fit.
The secret to sustained success lies in the marketing strategy (BOS misses this point)! No, it lies in strong ethical practices (BOS misses this point)! No, the secret to success is strategic execution (RIP)! No, it lies in the strategy itself. BOS claims based on its research that the strategic move, and not the company or the industry, is the right unit of analysis for explaining the creation of blue oceans and sustained high performance...bla, bla (p. 10). They are all right in their own lenses.
Though, I would argue that all of the above mentioned ideas, do not really highlight the real essence of companies that have had sustained success over time, which is exceptional leaders working with amazingly talented people. What would Apple today be without Steve Jobs, or Air Asia without Tony Fernandes?
Exceptional leaders have the ability to visualize (ideas), inspire, empower, and attract talented people to work for them, and as importantly they have the ability to continuously attract the world attention needed (or hire people that can!) to make it a sustained success. So, if you want a real strategy that really works, hire exceptional leaders and talented people with the right attitude (to your needs). Even if you dont have a great strategy, these people will most likely do a better job on strategy development than any consultant, or consultancy firm out there.
You are wrong! Maybe, I am!
PART 2?
Although, I find all the exotic buzz words (that can easily be manipulated) and the Red/Blue ocean framework from BOS a load of ____ (the real Blue Ocean!), they do have some interesting tools we can use to acquire useful insights and help us create value innovations. Your results using these tools might not turn out to be real Blue Oceans according to their immeasurable and exotic framework, but nevertheless the tools are worth a try.
So, what about the Nemo puzzle? That will be explored in part 2 (if I can cook up an answer!), and I will also reveal the ultimate secret to success, which is...
Part 2 - Simplify Blue Ocean & Make Consultants __________!
Part 3 - ZaidLearns Blue Ocean Strategy for 2011
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Java program to find sum of harmonic series 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 n
class Harmonic
{
public static void main(String...s)
{
int n,i;
float sum=0;
n=Integer.parseInt(s[0]);
for(i=1;i<=n;i++)
{
sum=sum+(float)1/i;
}
System.out.println("
Sum="+sum);
}
}
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
KARAOKE SOUND TOOLS 1 0 15 FULL VERSION WITH SERIAL KEY
Karaoke Sound Tools 1.0.15 allow you to:- Remove vocals from a song
- Change the key of a song to better suit your voice
- Change the tempo of a song to make it easier to sing
- Process MP3, WAV, BIN, and MP3G (MP3 and CDG) file formats
- Combine multiple songs to create a karaoke song medley
- Clip karaoke songs to remove dead air
Karaoke Sound Tools 2 is an easy-to-use vocal and voice remover, karaoke key and tempo changer for audio processing. It contains of three modules:
Process:
Vocal remover to remove vocal parts from CD recordings
- control the amount of bass and treble processing
- remove vocals from non-centered recordings using balance
- adjust karaoke voice removing level and output attenuation
- create multiplex tracks (with vocal in the left and instrumental part in the right channel)
Key changer to adjust a song to singer’s voice
- change the pitch in the -12 to +12 semitone (half-note steps) range
- after processing, music instruments have no chipmunk or time speed up or down, holding the tempo the same as if the original studio recorded in your key
- you can process karaoke songs with lyrics (BIN and MP3G)
Tempo changer to speed up or slow down a song
- change the tempo of a song from two times slower to twice as fast
- our tempo changer retains the original key of a song
- you can process karaoke songs with lyrics – they will be adjusted to stay in sync
Merge: Merge allows to combine several karaoke songs into one karaoke medley.
- combine any number of MP3+G, ZIP, or BIN files
- remove silence (dead air) between songs
Clip: Clip allows to remove starting and ending part of a CD+G song.
- process any number of MP3+G, ZIP, or BIN files at once
- remove silence (dead air) at the beginning or at the end of a song
- remove the beginning of a song and start at the exact moment (this can be used to remove logos or images from songs)
I hope you like it......!
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Techsmith Snagit v11 2 1 Build 72 fullversion with srial key
The Ultimate Screen Capture Tool! Using SnagIt, you can select and capture anything on your screen, then easily add text, arrows, or effects, and save the capture to a file or share it immediately by e-mail or IM. Capture and share an article, image, or Web page directly from your screen. Or, capture and share any part of any application that runs on your PC. Automatically save in one of 23 file formats, or send to the printer, to your e-mail, or to the clipboard. Use SnagIt’s built-in editors to modify, annotate, and enhance your images and the Catalog Browser to organize your files. Increase your productivity while quickly creating professional presentations and flawless documentation. With powerful new features that allow you to edit previously placed objects, capture embedded links and add interactivity to your captures, SnagIt 11 makes it easier than ever before to capture, edit, and share anything on your screen.Snagit gives you all the tools you need to create eye-catching images and videos for easy sharing. Customize Snagit to meet your specific needs or the needs of your entire organization.
Features of SnagIt:
With Snagit’s easy-to-use tools, you can quickly create images and videos to give feedback, solve a problem, or show off something cool. Snagit empowers you to communicate efficiently with visuals that give your ideas clarity and help you explain any subject.
• Capture Anything
» Your capture is just a click away - OneClick
Quickly capture what you need, when you need it. No matter what program or browser youre using, Snagit OneClick stays on top of your current window - always available when you need it. Get instant access to image and video capture tools, hotkeys, capture profiles, and the Snagit Editor. Always ready when you are, OneClick lets you instantly capture anything on your screen.
» Communicate clearer - Video Capture
Don’t confuse your audience by trying to explain a complex idea with only words. Show them with video! Easily create screen videos for demos or quick reviews, and share them with anyone, anywhere. Plus, Snagit now records system audio automatically, so you’ll be able to capture sound from your computer during a recording, like a YouTube video, without any extra effort.
» Customize Snagit installation and deployment - MSI, REG Settings, COM Server
IT and system administrators can customize and deploy Snagit to best fit their institutions needs by configuring the the MSI, REG settings, or even utilize a COM server. Change Snagits look and feel, include custom profiles, and determine some settings and behaviors.
» Quickly capture exactly what you want - All-in-One Capture & Time-Saving Profiles
Use All-in-One capture to snag anything, on the fly. Grab your entire desktop, a region, a window, or a scrolling window with a single hotkey or click. In addition to the basic capture profiles, use Snagit’s time-saving profiles to capture and share content in only one click.
• Enhance Your Images
» Easy Multi-tasking - Combine Images
Create custom graphics easily by taking multiple captures and putting them together.
» Highlight what’s important - Spotlight & Magnify
Draw attention to a specific part of your image. Just select the portion you want highlighted and Snagit will blur and darken everything else.
» Enhance with effects - Markup Tools
Easily add effects to your images. Draw attention with arrows, hide sensitive information with a blur, add a text callout or torn edge effect to your captures, and so much more.
• Work Efficiently
» Stop searching, and save time - Auto-Storing
All of your captures are automatically saved to your library, with the most recent captures viewable all the time. Quickly find past captures without spending time digging for them.
» Create error free callouts - Spell Check
Never misspell a word in your screenshot again. Snagit will tell you what you’ve spelled wrong and help you make callouts without any mistakes.
» Flag it for later - Tagging
Along with saving your capture, Snagit also stores information to help you find your captures again later. Search for your captures by date, website, or a flag that you assign.
• Save, Share, or Send
» Efficiently share your images and videos - New Outputs
Save, share, or send your image and video captures to anyone with a variety of outputs. Easily send your image captures to the usual lot, or now share to Facebook, Twitter, and Evernote too. When you’re done recording or capturing a screen video, you can choose to send your video to Camtasia Studio for editing or Screencast.com, YouTube, FTP, Facebook, or Twitter for easy sharing.
Changes in Snagit v11.2.1.72:
» Redesigned OneClick.
» Redesigned the Snagit Message Center.
» Added support for two-factor authentication in the YouTube output.
» Added additional Japanese file name components for automatic file naming.
» Re-added support for resizing multiple images through batch conversion.
» Improved the performance of scrolling captures in Microsoft Outlook emails.
» Fixed a bug where Snagit Editor would crash after uploading a video to YouTube.
» Fixed a bug where Snagit could not back up and restore a library larger than 4 GB.
» Fixed a crash bug caused by grouping and ungrouping several vector objects on the canvas.
Screen Shots:
I hope you like it......!
Terrain Correction of SAR Images Part 1
A characteristic of side-looking SAR image is the so-called foreshortening and layover, a reflected signal from a mountaintop reaches the sensor earlier or at the same time as the signal at the foot of the mountain. This results in the typical look of mountains that seem to have "fallen over" towards the sensor:
A problem in the current version: If you -- after having processed a particular scene -- choose a different scene under "1-Read" as input having differently named source bands, the source band list under "3-SAR Simulation" does not update -- you have to close the whole window and start all over -- part 2 and following describe how to process a large number of scenes.
The next postings will discuss how to run all this from command line and do batch processing.
Read more »
In the original image to the left, a pixel is basically displaced depending on its elevation above sea-level, so it is important to remove this layover as seen in the image above to the right. The freely available NEST SAR Toolbox is in many ways a great tool for satellite image processing and makes it very easy terrain-correct SAR images in a fully automatic process.
The algorithm takes the DEM and using orbit parameters of the satellite creates a simulated SAR image from this DEM. The simulated and the real SAR image, which will look very similiar, are coregistered. Through this simulation, the displacement for each location in the original landscape, the DEM, is known, so if the simulated SAR image is transformed back into the original DEM -- and the coregistered SAR image along with it -- the pixels of the SAR image will receive their real, geographical location. (Its actually quite easy in principle, but not sure this description is clear...)
Below is the original ESA SAR image as loaded into NEST displaying the typical layover:
Before the terrain correction, I apply the newest orbit file (Utilities>Apply Orbit), calibrate the values (SAR Tools>Radiometric Correction>Calibrate; but not in dB since the terrain correction needs linear values!) and the run a speckle filter, median 3x3 (SAR Tools>Speckle Filtering>Single Image)
Now to the actual terrain correction. Choose Geometry>Terrain Correction>SAR Simulation Terrain Correction. In the first tab 1-Read you choose the product to be corrected:
The second tab defines the output. Unfortunately the default output filename in this case is only "SarSimTC.dim", I follow the NEST naming convention where all methods applied are contained in the filename, such as "ORIGINALNAME_AppOrb_Calib_Spk_SarSimTC.dim" but this has to be typed manually:
In the "3-SAR simulation" tab, one can choose various DEM such as GETASSE and SRTM, but in my case I choose an "External DEM" and specify the file path. I set the "no data value" to 9999.0, otherwise all ocean surface will be NAN. There is something unusual in this tab -- if you do not highlight any of the source bands, the first one only will be processed, in this case "Amplitude_VV". If other bands also should be processed, both source bands (in this case Amplitude_VV and Amplitude_VH) must be highlighted by choosing and clicking them!
The "4-GCP Selection" tab I leave the given values:
Finally, the "5-SARSIM-Terrain-Correction" tab. For my purpose, I choose 20m resolution for the output image, the map projection of Svalbard/Spitsbergen WGS1984 / UTM 33N and prefer nearest neighbour interpolation:
Now I can choose "process" and this particular run takes 6.5 minutes on a Windows 7 64-bit computer for one source band. For two source bands it is much, much longer (80 minutes in this run!) and may not work if the computer has too little RAM, so the best and fast way is to process individual source bands separately. (The Range Doppler algorithm for removing layover which I will discuss in a later is faster but does not work for some scenes at high latitudes(?)).
I choose "Utilities>Dataset Conversion>Linear to dB" to get desibel values and get this final result. The data fits perfectly to cartographic shapefiles of the coastlines and to the other geolocations.
I choose "Utilities>Dataset Conversion>Linear to dB" to get desibel values and get this final result. The data fits perfectly to cartographic shapefiles of the coastlines and to the other geolocations.
compared again to the original SAR image the difference is easily visible!
A problem in the current version: If you -- after having processed a particular scene -- choose a different scene under "1-Read" as input having differently named source bands, the source band list under "3-SAR Simulation" does not update -- you have to close the whole window and start all over -- part 2 and following describe how to process a large number of scenes.
The next postings will discuss how to run all this from command line and do batch processing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)