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Kepler Architecture to Support 7-Billion Transistor Chip?
Kepler Architecture to Support 7-Billion Transistor Chip?
We just saw the Kepler GPU architecture revealed in the recent NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 graphics card launch that positioned it as the new flagship GPU. True enough, our findings also point to the new graphics card coming out tops in most scenarios with its clever GPU Boost algorithms in place to maximize the GPU's efficiency and utilization.
However, we weren't quite right when we thought the GPU Kepler architecture was fully revealed. Apart from the internet rumors of a more powerful NVIDIA GPU, here's something direct from a session synopsis of NVIDIA's upcoming Graphics Technology Conference 2012 in the USA:-
While NVIDIA's GPU managers tried their best to conceal and not comment of any future products, the internet was abuzz with speculations on the true heir of NVIDIA's Kepler architecture based line-up. These are the giveaway pointers we noted from our perspective:-
- GeForce GTX 680's GPU core code is GK104. The numerals normally indicate that the GPU is just a 'mid-range' contender
- GK110 / GK100 has long been the rumored flagship core code for the Kepler series
- 195W TDP of the GeForce GTX 680 is yet another telling sign even though it could match and surpass 250W TDP cards from AMD (Radeon HD 7970)
- Only 256-bit wide graphics memory interface - again a trait of mid-range GPUs (which luckily for the GTX 680 is somewhat sufficient)
- Spare space for extra graphics Molex power connector
Further to this, we've spoken to some of the industry folks and they too have indicated something more powerful underway. Now with the above screen shot direct from NVIDIA, it is certain that there's a more powerful Kepler GPU later this year. While NVIDIA's Graphics Technology Conference is a high-level conference session where scientists, professors, GPU and software engineers come together yearly to share their progress and ways to optimize processes for GPU compute and propel computing to the next level, the GPUs that would be featured are those of the Quadro and Tesla series. Does this also signal that the GK110 GPU is more suited for GPU compute rather than gaming?
With a GPU boasting 7 billion transistors on the current 28nm silicon fabrication process technology, you can guess that it's going to be a very expensive GPU with its massive die size and current yield rate. Since gaming needs are taken care by the GeForce GTX 680 fairly well, NVIDIA could focus on the more lucrative workstation/server market segment and offer the GK110 GPUs to contribute in more serious engineering and research tasks - until at least it becomes more cost effective for the consumer market.
So far estimates for the GK110 has been reported to have 6 billion transistors, up to 2500 CUDA cores, 512-bit memory interface and a TDP that can range between 250W and 300W. Given the renewed confirmation of the transistor count at 7 billion, these stats sound totally plausible. This however brings up an interesting question if the die shot of Kepler that has been shared to-date belongs to the the GK104 or the final GK110. Stay tuned as we find out more in the days ahead.
Source: NVIDIA


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Hey man, how's it going?
Hi rocknroll i need a seed to the albert hall complete sbd a friend with seed is a friend indeed thnx
You have the best picture of Hendrix all over the net!!!!
Hello rocknroll,
I have no idea what adding a friend on crosstown torrent's system means, but I accepted the invite. I am in no way an altrusit, have been called a misanthrope, am inclined to kill my ego whenever I recognize it, and am very much Nonhuman. Feel free to PM me whenever you wish, I often converse with two other CTT members: Thunderbaas and Herman Cherusken regarding all things philosophical. My website under construction is www.woodchuckpirate.com and am also developing a farm property with a goal of incorporating a music venue.
Should my writing reveal points of view unfamiliar and perhaps alien to yours I would refer to Ayn Rand's book "The Virtue Of Selfishness", Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth", and Derrick Jensen's "Endgame: The Problem Of Civilization" for introductory clarifications. Of course you may feel free to simply ask me "what the heck am I going on about?", or throw cheese at me. I quite like cheese.
Voodoo Child
Public Saxophone
CTT Founder/Administrator
Gonna leave this town, ye


text:
January 6, 2013 |
By Katrina Becker
Phoenix Theatre turns from Gershwin to Merrill for a world premiere musical.
Want to stay up to date on the latest happenings and trends in Downtown Phoenix? Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a weekly digest of the latest and greatest from Downtown Phoenix Journal!


text:
Monday, February 21, 2011
May I Ask.....
Posted by Doe Cheese at 10:14 AM 0 comments
Posted by Doe Cheese at 10:02 AM 0 comments
The Ultimate Road Warrior
This gorgeous Range is slated to debut at the Geneva 2011 Auto Show
and there will only be 500 produced.
This beauty includes hand stitched leather seats, a V-8 engine, and two Apple Ipads which can be displayed in the rear of the suv.
Posted by Doe Cheese at 9:30 AM 0 comments
Labels: cars
Can't Keep Up
Posted by Doe Cheese at 9:10 AM 0 comments
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Paul Bartell & Ashli Moore. American Scientist. Volume 101, Issue 1. Jan/Feb 2013.
Imagine yourself on board a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to New York City an eight-hour journey that begins at bedtime and ends at breakfast. Your plan to sleep during the flight is thwarted by sporadic turbulence and an uncomfortable seat. When you arrive at John F. Kennedy Airport, you feel dehydrated and grumpy, but you head straight to work for an important meeting. Fast food, caffeine and deadlines fuel your day's full schedule. That night, you order Chinese takeout and eat it mindlessly in front of your laptop. You want nothing more than a warm shower and a long rest. Unfortunately, it's time to head back to the airport for another red-eye flight.
Although such a schedule is far from ideal, it's manageable every once in a while. But imagine for a moment that this is your daily routine—working by day and flying by night, for weeks on end. Imagine also that there are no drinks or food on the plane. Oh, and you are powering the flight by riding a stationary bicycle.
Of course, this is absurd and impossible. Yet billions of birds perform an analogous routine twice a year as they migrate between summer breeding grounds and wintering grounds. Of the 700 or more bird species nesting in North America, more than 400 species migrate. Worldwide, migratory birds are declining faster than nonmigrants. Understanding the challenges that migratory species face is an important conservation issue.
Migration requires dramatic seasonal changes in behavior and physiology, and these changes must be timed appropriately for successful migration. In late summer after nestlings fledge, birds begin to molt, replacing their ratty old feathers with sleek new ones. They also begin to gorge themselves. The flurry of activity around this time of year reflects this frantic, singleminded pursuit of food. The birds' hyperphagia, or excessive eating, is accompanied by great changes in body weight and composition. The birds get very fat—and then they are gone, en route to their wintering grounds on a journey of several weeks. They spend the winter in warmer climates, where resources are sufficient for survival. In late winter, they grow new feathers again; afteward, there's another weeks-long period of hyperphagia. When the days get longer and the temperature is just right, they're off again, migrating to summer breeding grounds. Upon arrival, males establish territories. Pairs form. Nests are built. Soon, eggs are incubating, then hatching, and parents devote almost all of their energy to feeding chicks. If time permits, parents may mate again and have another clutch. Then, the cycle repeats.
Migration likely brings to mind the familiar sight of geese flying overhead in their iconic V formation, honking stridently as they fly toward their faraway goal. But the migration of many birds is a rarely observed phenomenon. Most passerine birds, a group that includes songbirds and groups taxonomically related to them, migrate at night. Nocturnal migration has fascinated scientists and bird enthusiasts for a long time. What are the advantages for birds that migrate at night? How do they do it? When do they sleep? The answers to these questions are as yet incomplete. And often answers only beget more questions. Nevertheless, technological advances have facilitated a recent surge in migration research. A recurring theme of this work is that biological clocks are intimately involved in controlling nocturnal migration.
How do we know birds migrate at night? For a long time, people have observed that flocks of birds change location between evening and the following morning. Since around 1880, ornithologists have used lunar observation—watching birds fly past the moon—to document nocturnal flights. A tally of nocturnal flight calls was published in 1899, although this technique did not flourish until the 1950s, when advances in sound recording made it more practical. During the early days of radar technology in the 1940s, "phantom signals" were discovered to be migrating birds. Radar has since become a widely used tool for monitoring bird migrations. Many of these classic methods are still used, with some modern improvements. For example, with the aid of special microphones and automated sound detection software, ornithologists recently reported in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology that pine siskins (Spinus pinus) undergo an irregular, nomadic type of nocturnal migration. Nocturnal migration may be more widespread than previously thought.
Nocturnal migratory activity is also studied in the laboratory. In captivity, night-migrating birds display stereotypic migratory behaviors during the night known as Zugunruhe, meaning "migratory restlessness." Birds exhibiting Zugunruhe flap their wings rapidly as if about to take off from the perch. The term was coined by German bird fanciers who caught and kept wild birds; they noticed that at night, during certain times of year, their birds' migratory proclivities resulted in damage to their feathers. This wing-whirring behavior can be clearly distinguished from captive birds' daytime behaviors, such as hopping or feeding. Zugunruhe occurs during the dark period only. Because Zugunruhe behavior is maintained in the laboratory, biologists have been able to study diverse subjects related to migration, including biological clocks, navigation, metabolism and sleep.
The Circadian Clock
Although nocturnal migration is common among passerine species, most of these birds are strictly diurnal during nonmigratory periods. As in all animals, an internal circadian clock synchronized to the daily light-dark cycle controls distinct behavioral patterns of activity and rest. This "clock" consists of a network of clock genes, which can be regulated by external stimuli, such as light. During migration, birds that are normally diurnal become active during both day and night. This change, which happens concurrently with the changing seasons, entails a major reorganization both of physiology and of behavior on a daily time scale. What happens to the circadian clock during nocturnal migration? Does the clock stop working? Does it alter signals sent to the body? Or do the brain and body react differently to clock signals during the migratory period?
The neurobiological details of nocturnal migratory behavior are not well understood, but research that one of us has done (Baiteli) with the late Eberhard Gwinner from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology demonstrates that the circadian clock controls Zugunruhe. When the light-dark cycle is replaced with constant dim light, effectively removing external time-of-day cues, a bird's activity continues to show a daily rhythm of approximately 24 hours, indicating that an endogenous timing mechanism (the circadian clock) coordinates the distribution of activity across the day. Under nonmigratory conditions there is a single bout of activity during that 24-hour cycle, whereas during migratory conditions there are two distinct bouts of activity. Both the daytime behaviors and nighttime Zugunruhe activities are controlled by the internal clock. However, as the bird prepares for migration, the activity rhythms lengthen to last 27 to 28 hours. In essence, these birds have a slower-running internal clock. In most animals, a longer "internal day" increases the circadian drive to stay awake and be active for longer periods of time.
The circadian clock controlling nocturnal migratory activity is distinct from the one that controls daytime activity, at least in those species tested. The temporal patterns of the two bouts of activity interact with each other in complex ways. Under specific low-intensity lighting schedules, the daily activity becomes synchronized to the light cycle but the Zugunruhe activity does not. The result is that the nocturnal bout is delayed each day, a few minutes at a time, until Zugunruhe coincides with the timing of the daytime bout. When this happens, Zugunruhe is suppressed. Over time, the Zugunruhe clock drifts into the night again, and its expression is reestablished. Although the study conditions are artificial, the results demonstrate that a separate circadian clock, interacting with other clocks in the body, controls the timing of Zugunruhe. Seasonal changes in how these clocks interact determine whether migratory activity is expressed.
Work done by Gwinner and Leonida Risani of the Università di Ferrara shows that during the migratory period, the amount of Zugunruhe activity depends on energy reserves and food availability, in addition to circadian and seasonal cues. This finding indicates that external stimuli influence clock-mediated behaviors. Migrants must occasionally rest and refuel for several days at stopover sites to maintain sufficient energy reserves to reach their destination. When lean birds encounter a food-rich stopover site, Zugunruhe is suppressed until birds recover their body weight. This ensures that the birds stay at the stopover site and take advantage of the resources there. In contrast, the intensity of Zugunruhe is not diminished in lean birds when food is unavailable at a stopover site, ensuring that the birds continue migrating until they reach more favorable refueling grounds.
Nocturnal migratory behavior is seasonal, occurring in the fall and again in the spring. Annual changes in day length provide a predictable, reliable, and highly accurate environmental cue for time of year. The changes in day length, or photoperiod, are more pronounced with increasing distance from the Equator. Accordingly, photoperiodic time measurement is common among a variety of temperatezone organisms encompassing plants, insects and vertebrates. In the spring, longer days prompt birds to change from wintering activities to premigratory molt, fattening and spring migration, as well as gonadal development for reproduction. The photoperiodic control of seasonal reproduction has been studied much more extensively than the control of migration, but some of the principles are the same. Photoperiodic time measurement is made possible by the circadian clock. Light signals must occur at a particular time relative to the animal's internal biological clock to stimulate seasonal migration and reproduction, so photoinduability is controlled by a circadian clock. In nature, only days of a certain length initiate photoperiodic responses such as migration or reproduction. In the laboratory, such responses can be induced when light shines on a bird at certain times of its internally mediated "night." In birds, photoreceptors located deep in the brain are involved in perceiving photoperiod length. Even blind birds are able to determine photoperiod length. Under long-day conditions, photoreceptors trigger a cascade of hormonal and physiological changes. The mechanisms initiating fall migration are less understood, although short days induce migratory behavior in the fall.
In addition to photoperiod cues, some birds use an internal calendar, or a circannual clock. When these birds are kept under constant day length, they spontaneously exhibit Zugunruhe twice per year. Work by Gwinner has shown that circannual rhythms can persist in captivity for up to 12 annual cycles, the maximum life span of passerines in captivity. Circannual rhythmicity is distinct from behaviors cued by day length because it does not require external stimuli such as light. However, photoperiod shapes the internal rhythm so that it accurately reflects the annual cycle. Species vary in the robustness of circannual rhythms and their relative importance for seasonal timing. Endogenous circannual timing is more important for birds that overwinter near the Equator, where day length cues to instigate spring migration are absent, and for trans-equatorial migrants, who experience an inversion in the direction of photoperiod changes. For example, birds crossing from the Northern Hemisphere into the Southern Hemisphere in the fall transition from perceiving shortening days to perceiving lengthening days. Several studies demonstrate that circannual rhythms of Zugunruhe are more robust and precise in equatorial and transequatorial migrants, such as willow warblers (Phylloscopus trochilus), than in species that migrate shorter distances, including many North American migrants. However, this is not always the case, suggesting that circannual rhythms in Zugunruhe are not the only factor determining migratory programs. In the wild, the expression of migratory behavior is the result of the convergence of multiple factors including the internal circannual rhythm, genetic variation in migratory tendency, social cues, body condition and environmental stimuli such as photoperiod, temperature and food availability.
Navigation and Orientation
Recently published research led by Heiko Schmaljohann at the Institute of Avian Research of Vogelwarte Helgoland showed that the northern wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe), a small nocturnal migrant, travels 9,300 miles from Alaska, across Siberia and central Asia, to wintering grounds in eastern Africa, a phenomenal distance fraught with challenges such as traversing the Arabian desert. How do the birds find their way? The recent development of lightweight geolocators has made tracking routes of small, migrating birds possible, revealing details such as course, distance, speed and number of rest stops. Geolocator technology is still very new, but migration scientists have already noted its enormous potential for studying navigation in migrating birds, including sensory mechanisms, spatiotemporal memory, evolutionary adaptation, learning and plasticity.
Before modern tracking devices, navigation and orientation were studied in the laboratory using enclosures known as Emlen funnels, named after the researchers who developed them in 1966. Birds were placed individually into funnel-shaped, paper enclosures. An ink pad formed the base of the enclosure, and a wire screen placed on top prevented escape. The pattern of footprints in the funnel indicated the direction of attempted flight. Experimental manipulation revealed stimuli used for orientation, for example, celestial projections onto the ceiling or magnetic fields. When birds express Zugunruhe in captivity, they orient themselves in a seasonally appropriate direction (for North American birds, south in autumn and north in spring). Emlen funnels are still used for studying the neurobiology of orientation and navigation, although recording techniques and data analyses have been modernized. Behavioral experiments using Emlen funnels show that birds in the Northern Hemisphere know to fly south during the fall and north during the spring based on perception of seasonal changes in photoperiod, with the aid of their internal clock. As it turns out, migratory birds use a combination of navigational tools, including a genetically hard-wired directional sense, a magnetic compass, celestial cues and, in nocturnal migrants, patterns of light polarization at sunset.
The role of a Orcadian clock in regulating navigation is controversial. One school of thought among biologists and physicists alike is that the magnetoreceptor birds use to navigate is cryptochrome, a circadian clock protein, and that this magnetic compass may be calibrated each sunset to help birds fly in the proper direction. Other researchers, using a clock-shifting or "jet lag" experimental paradigm, have failed to find a direct role of Orcadian clocks in migration. Additional experimentation directly testing the role of circadian clocks in navigation is warranted.
Why Fly by Night?
Why do so many species of diurnal birds migrate at night? Humans, another typically day-active species, take red-eye flights because they offer certain advantages. Red-eye tickets are cheaper, the crowds are smaller and the flight schedule allows the maximal amount of time spent at a destination. A recent study by Guy Beauchamp at University of Montreal compared diurnal and nocturnal migration in all North American bird species to identify factors associated with daily migration. The results suggest that daytime travel is beneficial for highly social species that travel in large flocks and rely on visual cues to stick together. Advantages proposed for nocturnal migration include predator avoidance, minimized thermal stress, reduced evaporative water loss and lower energetic costs due to decreased air turbulence. These benefits are thought to be proportionally greater in smaller birds, and indeed, most small avian species migrate at night. In addition, flying at night frees up daylight hours for foraging.
Energy, Metabolism, and Clocks
Migration is analogous to an extreme endurance sport, but even the most impressive human athletic endeavors pale in comparison to bird migration. The Badwater Ultramarathon, one of the most extreme endurance races, covering 135 miles from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney, is nominal in light of the migration of the bar-tailed godwit (Limosa iapportion), which makes a nonstop, eight-day journey of 6,800 miles. To be fair, more energy is expended moving a unit of mass by running than by flying the same distance. Nevertheless, birds are hardly loafing. Aerobically speaking, flight is high-intensity exercise requiring 70 to 90 percent of their maximal aerobic capacity. Unlike human endurance athletes, birds have no access to external sources of water, electrolytes or food during exercise. Humans need external fuel sources during long-term, high-intensity exercise because mammals preferentially burn carbohydrates to provide energy, and these reserves are rapidly used up. The body switches to a lipid fuel source after carbohydrate stores are depleted, but the fat-burning process is inefficient, limiting our ability to exercise continuously even if we have excess fat to burn. In contrast, migrating birds preferentially use fat for energy, and each bird bulks up before its long flight.
The accumulation and internal storage of fuel is necessary for longdistance avian migration. Songbirds double their body mass to prepare for migration, mostly due to increased subcutaneous fat stores. Premigratory fattening is controlled by a circannual timer in many species. Photoperiod and food availability also serve as cues to stimulate fattening. In some species, a change in metabolic efficiency prompts fat accumulation, even without increased food intake. For the most part, however, seasonal changes in appetite and satiety lead to increased food intake, accounting for a significant amount of the body mass in many species. The hypothalamic region of the brain controls appetite and satiety, and seasonal increases in neurotransmitters in the hypothalamus (for example, one called neuropeptide Y) are associated with seasonal hyperphagia in birds.
In mammals, a major signal for satiety, which basically indicates, "Stop eating, you're full," is a hormone called ieptin. This hormone may be involved in seasonal changes in eating, fat storage and lipid utilization in migratory birds. Strangely, the gene that encodes leptin is absent from the avian genome. However, research from Christopher Guglielmo at University of Western Ontario shows that birds are responsive to leptin: They possess a functional receptor for the hormone, and injecting leptin has dramatic effects on their metabolism. Do birds make use of a signal other than leptin that serves to indicate the levels of fat stores? The answer is probably yes. One candidate is adiponectin, another hormone that, like leptin, is produced by adipose cells that make up body fat. This hormone exerts effects on metabolic activity via two different adiponectin receptors. Adiponectin promotes glucose and fatty acid mobilization and metabolism, so levels of this molecule are usually higher in lean animals, like numerous other metabolic factors, adiponectin is rhythmically expressed in a Orcadian manner. Work from our laboratory shows that when whitethroated sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis) migrate, peak levels of adiponectin are shifted from daytime to nighttime. Furthermore, adiponectin receptors in the liver of migrating birds increase in abundance during the night. Changing the adiponectin rhythm, in combination with increased levels of the receptors, promotes energy utilization during the night when birds are flying.
The initiation and duration of the fattening period is correlated with migration distance: The longer the migratory route, the more fat birds amass. How are they even able to get off the ground? The gain in body mass is partially offset by a premigratory reduction in digestive organ sizes, and bulking up flight muscles helps power the extra load. Still, the body condition of a premigratory bird is in stark contrast to the human athlete preparing for extended physical activity, for whom excess weight is undesirable. The premigratory increase in body mass, body-fat percentage, and levels of glucose and lipids in blood plasma are hallmarks of human obesity and metabolic syndrome, the constellation of metabolic imbalances associated with increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. By human standards, premigratory birds are obese, diabetic and likely to drop dead of a heart attack at any moment. However, unlike mammals, birds are exceptionally good at burning fat for energy, and their bodies are extremely resistant to metabolic disorders.
Fat provides the greatest energy per unit mass, making it an ideal fuel for flying animals. But its insolubility makes transport from storage sites to working muscles difficult. Birds have a suite of adaptations in lipid mobilization and oxidation that allow them to utilize fat at roughly 10 times the capacity of mammals. During migration, these capabilities are further enhanced, allowing for a high degree of efficiency in fat utilization and storage. For example, several studies have shown that migrating birds have increased levels of lipid transport proteins, which move fat from subcutaneous stores to muscle. During premigratory fattening and during refueling at stopover sites, evidence suggests that birds select food sources with higher fat content, particularly unsaturated fats that are used more efficiently, as a form of "natural doping." Several research groups are currently investigating how general this behavior is among migratory birds, as well as the nuts and bolts of burning different types of fat during flight.
All long-distance migrants, whether flying by day or night, must cope with energetic demands. Diurnal birds that migrate nocturnally, however, must regulate these physiological changes in accordance with the reorganization of their circadian rhythms. A circadian clock in every animal controls food acquisition and energy utilization. These clocks are intertwined with metabolic pathways in a complex fashion at the cellular level. The molecular circadian clock is a negative feedback loop constructed of so-called clock genes and clock proteins, detailed in the sidebar on the opposite page.
The network of interactions between the molecular clock and metabolic hormones is extremely complex. The links between lipid metabolism and the molecular clock are the subject of intense research because of their implications for the causes of metabolic disorders in humans. Recent evidence also points to an important role of the liver clock in regulating metabolism during avian migration, which is not surprising, given that migratory birds without pathological effects remarkably resemble humans with metabolic disorders known to be associated with changes in the liver.
In a recent study by one of us (Bartell) on blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla) exhibiting Zugunruhe, the liver circadian clock fundamentally changes. In particular, timing of molecular clock components is altered, and the rhythms of many clock proteins fluctuate between higher maxima and lower minima. The circadian clock in the liver becomes stronger and more dominant as greater emphasis is placed on metabolism for flight as opposed to other behaviors or physiological processes. This study was conducted using birds that spontaneously exhibited Zugunruhe under constant day length, indicating that the changes in the liver clock are brought about by internal circannual cues. Because birds exhibiting migratory behavior do not eat at night, the changes in the liver clock and in liver metabolic pathway regulation are not due to differences in feeding time or to differences in the nutrient content of their food.
In migrating birds, feeding remains a daytime activity, but energy-requiring flight switches to nighttime. Very few studies consider such time-of-day effects, and instead focus on global changes in metabolism associated with migration. The study on blackcaps exhibiting Zugunruhe mentioned above suggests that during the day, the clock in the liver primes the bird's body for more efficient nocturnal flight by inducing increases in PPARy (see sidebar). Conversely, during the night, the liver clock ramps up the energy-burning process to power flight by inducing increases in PPARa. Thus, the birds' circadian and circannual clocks are integral components to their extreme migratory physiology and behavior, referred to as migratory syndrome.
These experiments underscore the complex relationship between the circadian clock, fat metabolism and migration. We don't yet fully understand this system or how it changes during migration. Clearly, an internal circannual clock controls seasonal changes in both fatty acid metabolism and the liver clock, and these changes are associated with migratory state. Further work is needed to unravel the causal relationships.
Sleep(lessness) and Mania
If birds are migrating during the night and foraging during the day, when do they sleep? If s unlikely that migrating birds get a normal amount of sleep, given the demands of long stretches of flying night after night. Migration is physically and cognitively demanding. Birds exert tremendous amounts of energy, navigating in the dark for thousands of miles, encountering new territories daily in which they must find food and avoid predators. Even if they managed to grab a catnap here and there, how do they function on such a sleep deficit? Our hypothetical businessman, churning out energy via stationary bike to power his red-eye flight before taxing his brain at work, would be severely cognitively handicapped after two days on this schedule. Humans lose one IQ point per hour of sleep deficit. But migratory birds, apparently, have developed a way to maximize performance while iriinimizing sleep.
How much, when and how they sleep remains unknown, but we are beginning to fill in knowledge gaps. Many birds can engage in unihemispheric sleep, where one half of the brain and body sleeps while the other half remains awake, so the animal can engage in at least some physical activity during sleep. Perhaps migrating birds employ this tactic on the wing; perhaps birds are able to find time to nap during the day; or perhaps migrating birds are unique among animals in their ability to go without sleep. There is clear evidence for the last in white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys). In a University of Wisconsin study measuring sleep in captive birds, migrating white-crowned sparrows spent 63 percent less time sleeping than their nonmigrating counterparts. Furthermore, the structure of sleep was altered in migrating birds, which entered the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep more quickly than nonmigrating birds. Reduced REM sleep latency has also been observed in sleepdeprived humans, although the implications for cognition and performance are unclear. The migrating birds in this study did not compensate for reduced nighttime sleep by increasing their sleep intensity, nor did they sleep during the day. Yet remarkably, their performance on a cognitive test that assessed learning ability did not decrease. Humans with a similar degree of sleep deprivation perform very poorly on similar tasks, and the same was true for sparrows in nonmigrating condition. When nonmigrating birds were prevented from sleeping, their performance declined as expected. Yet somehow the same birds, when migrating, are resistant to the effects of sleep restriction; indeed, both their cognitive function and physical performance are in top shape during the migratory period. How birds accomplish this feat remains a mystery, but when solved, efforts to improve cognitive function in people that are sleepdeprived as part of their profession, such as soldiers and pilots, could be refined.
In the study described above, the authors found no evidence of daytime sleep or of unihemispheric sleep in the migratory birds. However, daytime unihemispheric sleep and micronaps, short sleep episodes lasting around 12 seconds, were observed in migrating Swainson's thrushes (Catharus ustuiatus), according to studies by Verner Bingman's group at Bowling Green State University. Short, light bouts of sleep may allow birds some sleep recuperation without a significant loss of foraging time or risk for exposure to predators. Does this sleeping behavior occur in the wild? More work is needed to understand why species differ in sleep strategies during the migratory period.
Migrating birds seem to defy the "rules" of physiology. They become obese yet are elite endurance athletes; they hardly sleep, yet their brains and bodies are in top shape. Return to the image of taking the red-eye, night after night, running on next to no sleep and quick snacks. Now imagine that, instead of dreading this exhausting nightmare, you approach the task with unbounded energy. You feel no need for sleep. It's difficult to sit still. You don't need that triple latte; in fact you already feel as if you're running on 1,500 milligrams of caffeine, or something stronger. If your spouse insists that you stay home and get some sleep, rather than taking that red-eye flight, you find that you can't lie still in bed. You're up, pacing the room with an irresistible urge to go somewhere. Most people would find that such sensations stretched their circadian inclinations. It may be more than coincidence that these actions are also characteristic of mania in people.
The hallmarks of mania include hyperactivity, reduced sleep, changes in sleep architecture, increased metabolism, increased goal-oriented behavior and increased stress hormone levels. Mania in people often occurs on a seasonal basis. Because these hallmarks are also characteristic of avian nocturnal migration, birds may be a useful research model for the development and treatment of seasonally occurring mood disorders in humans, such as bipolar disorder.
The Next Leg
Migration, one of the most salient and captivating animal behaviors, continues to mystify us even as our knowledge of it grows. Migratory birds are giving us humans a run for our money. Superficially, their lives seem pretty attractive: They are immune to the maladaptive effects of body fat, they function well without sufficient sleep, they dwell in seasonally suitable locations. Although we still don't fully understand how birds accomplish these feats, the answers are likely far from simple. At least one unifying principle can gratify our curiosity: Biological clocks are involved in virtually all aspects of migratory physiology and behavior. Perhaps people could learn a lesson from birds, and, rather than resisting our natural daily and seasonal rhythms, march to the beat of our own biological clocks.


text: Writer Grant Morrison is betting the house on franchising The Dark Knight's deathless brand in his new comic book series, Batman, Inc. But is 21st-century capitalism ready for Earth's finest Zen billionaire? "Batman, Inc. is the idea that we can all be Batman, if we want to," the acclaimed Scotland-born comics writer told Wired.com by phone. "Batman travels the world recruiting new Bat-men and stamping them with his seal of approval." Given the superhero's straight-edge persona, indefatigable work ethic and bottomless billions, his new Bat-capitalists should be light-years away from the corporate egotists heavily stroked in films like Iron Man 2, whose Tony Stark is a self-obsessed screw-up compared to Bruce Wayne's solemn justice-seeker. See Also:For Trippier Comics Flicks, Hollywood Needs to Turn On to Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis But you get what you pay for, said Morrison, whose Batman, Inc. debuts Nov. 17. "It's a natural development, and just shows what we're into nowadays," he said. "Playboys who can do anything they want." Morrison's storied run on comics' timeless human superhero has dragged Batman through the apocalyptic depths of space and time. He killed and rebooted him in Batman R.I.P. and Final Crisis. In Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, he tasked the Dark Knight with Herculean challenges usually reserved for immortals like Superman. Along the way, Morrison has added to a stacked back catalog of stunning work, including Animal Man, Doom Patrol, The Invisibles, The Filth and Seaguy. The comics have made Morrison a hot commodity in Hollywood, with strange films like We3, Joe the Barbarian and Sinatoro in development, and other projects on the way: All-Star Superman, the first animated feature based on Morrison's brilliant comics, arrives next winter. Patrick Meaney's Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods, the first documentary to study the legendary storyteller, premiered at New York Comic-Con. Batman, Inc., inspired by the surreal cartoon Batman: The Brave and the Bold and the transformative videogame Batman: Arkham Asylum (which itself was partially inspired by Morrison's 1989 horror comic Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth), blazes equally compelling trails. Wired.com picks Morrison's boundary-busting brain on corporate personhood, superheroic psychology, social networking, cartoon hypocrisy and more in the Batman, Inc. gallery above. Grant Morrison photo courtesy Patrick MeaneyWired.com: Is there a connection between your series Batman, Inc. and the corporatism that's running a bit wild in the 21st century? Grant Morrison: Yeah, there's a little bit of that. I got the idea looking back through my Batman research, and suddenly there was the Batman symbol from Tim Burton's film. And I found it interesting because it was one of the biggest merchandising symbols in history, and it really sold that movie. But it also looked like a gaping mouth. [Laughs] It made the Batman symbol a giant, gobbling capitalist. So I wanted to take that branding and put it in the hands of Batman himself. Wired.com: What inspired this approach? Morrison: It's partially influenced by the 1970 Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr movie The Magic Christian, which is about a rich guy who sets up all these bizarre psychodramas to make a point and change the world. So I wanted to play with that concept: What would you do if you were a rich person and decided to do the right thing with your riches? I'm filtering that corporate approach through Batman to see what we get.Wired.com: Iron Man is popularly regarded as the first quintessentially capitalist superhero, and the egotistical film Iron Man 2 seems to be successfully backing up that claim. But Bruce Wayne was a billionaire capitalist decades before him. Morrison: The way I see it is that Batman is a lot more Protestant. He doesn't drink; he's a pretty straight-edge guy. Tony Stark is a real playboy, which makes him dangerous and easier to corrupt. Bruce Wayne is much more disciplined in his approach to the world. But there is a little Tony Stark in him, because everyone wants to be a billionaire.Wired.com: Does that cultural development concern you, where our superheroes are openly capitalist playboys who throw aside Batman's Protestant work ethic? Morrison: I think it's natural. Superheroes have always been about becoming whatever we've needed them to be at any given time. Lately, we've made them like Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's The Ultimates, weaponized supersoldiers working for the military-industrial complex, which then grew into Iron Man, who is a superhero celebrity, an everyone-is-a-star kind of thing. But give it another five years and it could be cosmic seekers again, because of the new drugs coming onto the market. Or it could be something else entirely. They'll take the form of whatever our dreams or ideals happen to be. Wired.com: Are you personally hungry for the cosmic seekers? Morrison: Oh yeah. And I'm interested in Bruce Wayne as the Zen billionaire in Batman, Inc.. He's a superb martial artist, a trained meditator who's very intelligent. So I think he will help provide us a new way out. Although he does have fun hanging out with women who wear fetish clothes, like Catwoman (above).Wired.com: It seems like the goal of franchising Batman as the Zen billionaire is to separate him from Bruce Wayne, so that he can be inhabited by anyone who consumes him across media. Morrison: Absolutely. You're onto something there. One of the things I wanted to do was capture the feeling of the Batman: Arkham Asylum game that came out in 2009. When I played that game, it was the first time in my life where I actually felt what it is like to be Batman. It was very involving. The way the game and Paul Dini's story was created, crafted and shot made you actually feel like Batman. Wired.com: Much more fun than watching George Clooney don the cowl. Morrison: People don't want to pay money to watch some guy pretending to be someone else when they could be doing it themselves. In games, anyone can be a superhero or a soldier, and the gaming experience doesn't follow strict narrative rules. You can do things on your own, and move in directions you choose. So I wanted to follow that concept: We are now the heroes, and we can look through their eyes.Wired.com: That cultural development has really blossomed. The humans want to be superheroes and the superheroes want to be human. Morrison: Yeah, it's kind of weird, like Michelangelo having God touch Adam's finger on the Sistine Chapel. Superheroes are trying to break the boundaries of the page and screen, while we're all trying to get inside. A whole thesis could be written on this: The collapse of fantasy and reality in the last decade. And I think this is part of it. Look at Facebook pages: Everyone is a hero or star in their own story, and the inevitable next step is to become superheroic. Wired.com: We can be heroes, like David Bowie promised. Morrison: Look at the technology we use. We're cyborgs. We're attached to our phones at ever-younger ages, while the phones have evolved forward. Most people don't even have short-term memories anymore. We're becoming machine people. I think superheroes are part of the vision of what we may become: Individuals with our own chest emblems. Something is going on there, a strange collapse. Like you said, more and more people want to become superheroes, even as comic-book writers and filmmakers have spent the last 10 years trying to make superheroes much more real, relatable and convincing.Wired.com: That can get complicated, once superheroes, or the individuals that want to be them, decide to become their own corporations. Corporate personhood has been consistently, and controversially, expanded to include traditionally human civil liberties, which is a weird evolution. Morrison: I suppose, because most corporations seem pretty demonic. Corporations as entities are strange things. Because no one person is really in charge, we've conjured some predatory, ravenous entities. But Batman, Inc. is an attempt to reimagine what a good corporation can be. It's not the first time this has happened in comics: Joe Casey tried to imagine the same thing with Wildcats. But this will be Bruce Wayne's attempt, and I think it's going to be quite progressive. Wired.com: I read that aside from Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman, Inc. was also influenced by Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which is delightfully subversive cartoon. Do you think toons like that get a bad rap? They're wrapped in kids' packaging, but function on multiple levels. Morrison: I agree. That has been one of my favorite Batman versions for years. I think it was great to step away from what Christopher Nolan was doing with The Dark Knight, and give Batman back to the realm of fantasy. Beyond that, I think there's some great psychedelic work in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. The dialog is good; the stories are really put together well. It's a great show that should be on at 9 .p.m. in the evening somewhere. I'd much rather watch Batman: The Brave and the Bold than Glee.Wired.com: Speaking of pushing the expectations envelope, do you think audiences are ready for superhero films that are more challenging? I think your apocalyptic series Final Crisis (pictured above) would make a great candidate. Morrison: Yeah, I think audiences are ready. Unfortunately, I don't think there's anyone in Hollywood who could drum up the $300 million it would take to make that one. But entertainment has changed, again. We've been concerned with realism for a while, but we're getting back into psychedelia and fantasy again. Look at James Cameron's Avatar or Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which are two of the most successful films of the last two years. Both happened to catch a wave that few were ready for. Wired.com: Why do you think we're ready now? Morrison: I think we want fantasy again. We want worlds we can get into. We want to be superheroes. I think the audience is ready for wilder stuff. But Hollywood is still mostly dealing in a conservative mind-set, so I can't imagine a Final Crisis film happening anytime within the next 100 years. Images courtesy DC ComicsSee Also:For Trippier Comics Flicks, Hollywood Needs to Turn On to Grant Morrison, Warren EllisReview: Talking With Gods Bows Down to Comics Immortal Grant MorrisonGrant Morrison Talks Brainy Comics, Sexy Apocalypse


text:
Horse-racing remains one of the great social events within the annual calendar, with mass appeal, it continues to attract new audiences and repeat attendees each year.
Indeed, race events throughout the country and within Europe attract quite a following and make a great day out for any group.
What our customers say about us
All in all, a wonderful company to work with.
I have worked with ICT for nearly 20 years, and in all the time I have worked with them, the staff have been excellent to work with. They are always approachable, and go out of their way to help. Jason Tapper, who now looks after our account is very helpful, he takes a lot of pressure of us, and is always pleasant.
A big thank you
We recently returned from 4 days away in Volendam, Holland, arranged by ICT Group Travel. We would like to say thank you for the professional job ICT did and a big thank you to Jason and Sharon for being a great help
Our customers have come back most impressed with their break.
For our 2018 Brochure we booked a Friday to Monday trip to the SS Rotterdam Floating Hotel including Harbour Cruise and entry to the Euromast. The hotel was fantastic with the authentic décor and cabin style rooms. The food was apparently wonderful. As a whole the weekend was very well organised with a nice relaxing feel to it that our customers enjoyed thoroughly. We are already looking at booking this trip again for 2019, thank you!
Bothwell Bridge is a charming Scottish village just south of Glasgow.
I recently accompanied a group to The Bothwell Bridge Hotel. Bothwell Bridge is a charming Scottish village just south of Glasgow. The hotel is situated on the main street with a large car park. The staff were extremely friendly and nothing was too much trouble. From reception, bar and restaurant staff, their service was highly attentive.
Bedrooms were very spacious and clean with nice en suite bathrooms. A very pleasant bar area leads into a large conservatory where breakfast and evening meal is served
The breakfast had plenty of choice and of a good quality. For evening meal, Our group were given a menu to choose from before the tour with 3 choices for each course. The group were all very happy with their meal. I would be happy to recommend this hotel to future clients


text:
Despite an unfavorable 3-0 result against Real Salt Lake Saturday evening, Quakes fans took solace in one of the most highly anticipated off-season changes to Buck Shaw Stadium: Beer in the stands.
The Quakes made several off-season signings and dropped ticket prices, but the most popular change from 2009 to 2010 could be beer in the stands. In prior seasons, fans had to drink in designated sections dubbed "penalty boxes" by one fan.
"Now that we can bring beer in the stands, all we need is a port-a-potty near our seats and we're set," one season ticket holder from San Francisco quipped while holding a Bud Light. "The selection is great. It's improved from last year."
Vendors were slinging suds at a record rate for the largest crowd, 10,589, in stadium history on Saturday. Some Quakes fans relaxed with freshly squeezed limes floating in frothy 24-ounce cups of Corona while others settled into their seats with a traditionally American brew, Bud or Bud Light.
The Quakes' diversified beer portfolio now includes: Bud Light, Budweiser, Corona (24oz and 12oz), Modelo Especial, Newcastle, Sierra Nevada, Fat Tire, Pyramid Haywire Hefeweizen, Lagunita IPA, Kona Longboard and Kona Fire Rock can all be found within Buck Shaw Stadium.
"I started out with the quantity, a Budweiser, five bucks for 16 ounces. Next up was a Fat Tire and then I found the Lagunitas - that's a winner right there," said Morey Roscrow of Milpitas with an IPA in hand.
Roscrow found the Lagunitas IPA to his liking, but was pleasantly surprised to discover a freshly constructed Sierra Nevada tent at the north end of Buck Shaw Stadium; Christopher Columbus couldn't have been as happy to land in the Americas.
If the added selection isn't enough to encourage a brew-tour around Buck Shaw, the price per cup is down as well.
Earthquakes Executive Vice President David Alioto has made it clear throughout the off-season that prices would be reduced from the box office to concessions in order to provide better value for fans attending matches in 2010.
"Our front office made a huge commitment to our fans during the off-season with policies that will put money back in their pockets," Alioto said. "We also believe that our beer selection is greatly improved with several imports now available. And, even better, fans can now enjoy their beer from the comfort of their seats."
Beer of Buck Shaw
Despite an unfavorable 3-0 result against Real Salt Lake Saturday evening, Quakes fans took solace in one of the most highly anticipated off-season changes to Buck Shaw Stadium: Beer in the stands.


text:
Caregivers of the elderly are often sandwiched with responsibility, caring for an aging relative while at the same time caring for their own children and their spouse. So it's no wonder they often forget to take care of themselves! A year can go by without a caregiver making it to a restaurant, a doctor or even a hairdresser for a much needed haircut. And to top it off, caregivers may rarely hear a "thank you" for all their hard work because seniors are often in emotional and physical pain and don't understand the sacrifice caregivers make to take care of them.
That's why Senior Helpers, one of the largest in-home care companies in the nation, is raising awareness about the importance of New Year's Resolutions for Caregivers – not only to benefit caregivers' mental and physical health, but to ultimately improve their care of the elderly.
"The New Year is a good time, psychologically, for caregivers to make resolutions to re-adjust how they feel about their caregiving responsibilities," says Peter Ross, co-founder of Senior Helpers, a national in-home care company with highly trained caregivers specializing in dementia and Alzheimer's care. "Often, caregivers get lost in the day-to-day duties of helping others and forget to take care of their own basic needs. That's why we encourage caregivers of the elderly to take care of themselves so they can ultimately provide better care.And at some point, caregivers may need to bring in outside help so they get a much needed break."
Senior Helpers' Top 10 Caregiving Resolutions:
1. Take "You" Time Every Day – make a commitment, every single day, to take 5, 10 or 15 minutes to do at least one thing you enjoy or need, such as meditating or listening to music.
2. Keep Preventive Care Appointments – It's important to make and not skip regular doctor appointments (and see the doctor if you're sick).You can't give good care if you're sick, plus you can pass on your illness.
3. Create a Family Support Group – Create a support group of loved ones who provide you with emotional and physical support. The bigger your community circle, the stronger you and your senior will become as a unit.
4. Make time to exercise - Studies show that exercise is a great way to relieve stress and to feel refreshed again!If you can't get motivated to exercise on your own, find an exercise buddy who can help you stick to your commitment of better health.
5. Get enough rest – Find ways to ensure that you get at least seven or eight hours of sleep.Your body and mind need adequate amount of time to rest each night so you can feel rejuvenated each morning for your caregiving responsibilities.
6. Be kind to yourself – It's okay to make mistakes. Learn to shake-off feelings of guilt or self-criticism that you aren't doing all you can to help your senior. It's important to remind yourself daily that you're doing the best you can.
7. Give thanks – When a friend or family member spends time with the elderly loved one you're caring for, send them a quick thank you note. It'll encourage them to help more in the year ahead.
8. Learn about local resources – Many caregivers don't take advantage of support available right in their own town.In difficult times, it's important to have resources you can reach out to immediately to help you cope.
9. Delegate – Write a list of activities that would help you the most throughout the New Year. Hand out your "Caregiver's Resolutions for Family and Friends" to anyone who can help make your life easier.
10. Think about what your senior would want for you – It's easy for caregivers to get lost in their daily responsibilities.Take each day to remember that the senior is also dealing with feelings of losing their independence, or dealing with an illness, etc…Remember who they really are inside and the good things your senior would want for you.
"At some point, caregivers may need to shed the guilt and realize they have to bring in outside help, especially with elderly loved ones with Alzheimer's or dementia," says Ross. "Our Senior Helpers caregivers are highly skilled with training through our program called Senior Gems.It's important to meet with one of these caregivers to learn how you can work together to make life more pleasant as the senior goes through each stage of the disease."
To learn more about how to care for your senior loved one with dementia or Alzheimer's through the Senior Gems program, please visit our website at www.seniorhelpers.com.
Fast Facts About Caregiving:
Caregivers say they do not go to the doctor because:
— 67% say they put their family's needs first
— 57% say they put the care recipient's needs over their own
— 51% say they do not have time to take care of themselves
— 49% say they are too tired to do so (National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC), 2004).
The majority of caregivers (83%) are family caregivers—unpaid persons such as family members, friends, and neighbors of all ages who are providing care for a relative (Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA), 2005).
35% of caregivers report difficulty finding time for themselves (NAC, 2004).
More than 34 million unpaid caregivers provide care to someone age 18 and older who is ill or has a disability (AARP, 2008).
Half (53%) of caregivers who said their health had gotten worse due to caregiving also said the decline in their health has affected their ability to provide care (NAC, 2006).
The vast majority (87%) of individuals with Alzheimer's disease are cared for at home by family members (Alzheimer's Association, 2009).
Senior Helpers connects professional caregivers with seniors who wish to live at home as opposed to a nursing or assisted living facility. The company has nearly 300 franchises in 40 states and one Canadian province. For more information, please visit: http://www.seniorhelpers.com/


text:
Garden Detective: June chores
June has always been my favorite month, at least partially for self-centered reasons. My birthday falls in June, and my name starts with J, so subconsciously I must be biased in favor of this month, which also is the setting for joyful occasions like summer vacation, graduations, weddings (including my own, 25 years ago) and, of course, the emergence of roses, peonies and strawberries.
June is also when weeds take off and insects begin to ravage vegetables, so there's plenty to be done between beach days. Here's a calendar of chores to help keep you on track.
1. Cut the top third off plants in the Aster family -- Chrysanthemum, Eupatorium and Heliopsis -- to increase flowering and improve form.
2. Monitor plant containers for water daily; their soil dries out more quickly than the garden's.
3.Snake soaker hoses through perennial and vegetable gardens. Roots will benefit from direct irrigation, plants will suffer less disease and you won't waste water.
4. Clean birdbaths at least once a week.
5. Standing water creates a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Don't let puddles collect in trash can lids, gutters, pot saucers, spare tires or on play sets.
6. Place paper cups with bottoms removed at soil level around stems of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants to prevent cutworm damage.
7. Remove wilted yellow leaves from bearded iris plants to help prevent iris borer infestations.
8. Plant dahlias and set 4-foot stakes an inch away from bud-bearing roots. Secure plants as they grow.
9. Fasten rambling and climbing roses to their supports as they grow.
10. Protect strawberries from ravenous birds (and squirrels) with netting or floating row covers.
11. Fight mildew on roses, phlox and other plants by spraying with a tablespoon each of baking soda and ultrafine horticultural oil diluted in a gallon of water.
12. Join the 2013 Tomato Challenge! Send an email about your tomato plants to firstname.lastname@example.com. Include your hometown and photo.
13. Plant short perennials under clematis to keep their roots shaded and cool.
14. Thin carrot seedlings now to an inch apart, and again when their leaves touch, to 3 inches apart, to allow space underground for growth.
15. Fun fact: Set your sundial at exactly noon today for accurate timekeeping all year long. (Just set the gnomon to face north; there will be no shadow.)
16. Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there! No mowing the lawn today, Garden Detective's orders.
17. Cut another third off Asteraceae plants (see June 1).
18. Fertilize houseplants at half strength with every other watering.
19. Continue watering newly planted sod and seed daily until fully established.
20. Harvest all but one of your cool-season lettuces before they bolt and turn bitter, then take seeds from the bolted one for planting next year: free lettuce!
21. It's the first day of summer! Fertilize spring-flowering bulbs and peonies after the flowers fade.
22. For a better harvest, pinch out suckers, small stems that grow in the crotch between the main branch and stems, on tomato plants.
23. Pinch back vining houseplants.
24. Deadhead annuals to ensure an abundance of recurring blooms.
25. Inspect trees and shrubs for scale. If chemical treatment is indicated, don't use hose-end sprayers; they don't dissolve, mix or apply evenly.
26. Keep an eye out for Japanese beetles. Pick them off in the morning or late evening, when they're at their slowest, and drop them in soapy water.
27. Harvest herbs in the morning, just after the dew has dried, for the best flavor.
28. When the first tomatoes set, apply a generous shower of fish emulsion to foliage to give plants a nutritional boost.
29. To increase fruit and flower production, fertilize vegetables and annuals with a low-nitrogen product.
30. Deadhead hybrid tea and grandiflora roses.


text:
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Joined: 30 Dec 2006
Posts: 2820
Location: South Australia :-(
Posted: Fri 14 Dec 2012, 22:19
Post subject:
vicmz wrote:
smokey01 wrote:
I didn't notice a 64 bit version.
Is one available?
Yes, there is. After registration I received an email message with my serial number and download links including 32bit and 64bit, .rpm and .deb packages.
Thanks I must have missed that.
Another download coming up.
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Joined: 09 May 2008
Posts: 908
Location: Moorooka, Queensland
Posted: Fri 14 Dec 2012, 23:01
Post subject:
After using a cutdown version of SoftMaker I found on the Puppy forums (Textmaker only - circa 2002?), I gradually migrated to 2008/2010 for Windows and since have gone the whole hog with SMO for Linux 64-bit on my desktop, with TaZoC's original LH64 version. Originally I installed via the DEB format option and was very happy to see Puppy downloading any necessary dependencies. Planmaker, Textmaker and Presentations found themselves in different places in the Puppy menu and I think I had to cobble some icons together to have it clearly accessible for newbie users (my wife and various colleagues shortfallen without their Win machines - found no problem with SMO for the first time, and in a Linux environment
) .
With subsequent upgrades with TaZoC's base, and updates on SMO2012Linux I opted for the tar.gz version and of course, haven't got the nous/time to repackage as a pet for my own use and thus include all menu entries and icons like a proper polished job. All loads very well from console with the commands "textmaker12", "planmaker12" and I've edited the "Open With" commands to have docx and xlsx open practically immediately with SoftMaker. Makes me smile every time I use it, thinking of those who consider the MS version as the bee's-knees... Operation speed is up on that of SMO2010 for Linux, I can confirm.
Full purchase gives the individual owner licence for the SMO on three machines (concurrently, I understand - take that, MS!). I've explored this option with also using the 32-deb version on my laptop, running Pemasu's Dpup Exprimo 5X15. No quibble there from SM license-wise, and I rather think that in the Dpup environment I get better performance overall with the 32-bit version than 64-bit on the laptop (tried it with LH64 on the same machine, and also with FatSlacko - more stable in Exprimo). With frugal Puppy installs, and SMO installation off-root/outside of pupsaves seems to work fine.
What I appreciate most about SoftMaker is the support/forums they have. I've made various comments there as a Puppy user (as "arobbo"), but in brief answer to Barry's recent query in this thread I can summarise:
1) difficulty in setting up in Puppy menu structure for listing/icon inclusion in wbar, lxpanel etc;
2) CUPS is now the default print manager (hooray!) however duplex printing seems to be cancelled out somewhere - others have noted this in other Linux flavours, in printers with automatic default as duplex, still prints resolutely as single page documents.
3) automatic GTK library access for dialog theme preferences in Puppy has eluded me - I get all options including "Linux (grey)", but not "Linux (System)",
4) No automated options for slimming down installation - extra language libraries have to be removed manually. This is a necessity for those installing in the pupsave, as the memory savings are considerable.
So if these issues can be averted for future SoftMaker FreeOffice users, so much the better - the follow-on effects will only improve the experience for those who choose to purchased product.
[EDIT: P.S. there are some CSV file formats that Planmaker makes a hash of, even when you try all the various column/type formats when opening. Gnumeric on the other hand opens the same csv files with no error]
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Last edited by Puppyt on Sat 15 Dec 2012, 03:22; edited 1 time in total
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Joined: 20 Jul 2010
Posts: 5834
Location: Republic of Novo Zelande
Posted: Fri 14 Dec 2012, 23:09
Post subject:
So far I have experienced two problems while using Freeoffice:
1) When my laptop battery shut off due to lack of charge I found that Freeoffice appeared not to have saved the text that I had last entered, even though I had clicked the Freeoffice "save" icon. (power went off probably five seconds after clicking save). This may be nothing to do with Freeoffice - possibly more to do with Puppy not having updated the HDD savefile yet? but I thought I'd mention it anyway. (or maybe Freeoffice decided to go back to its .bak copy of my document for safety? Not good behaviour if that is the case. Hopefully this is a puppy savefile issue.)
This has happened to me several times now on different puppies and in my opinion definitely seems to be a Textmaker2012 bug. The problem seems to occur when Textmaker decides that your actual file is bad, and that it needs to restore the file from it's own .bak version of the file. This seems to occur when Puppy encounters a disorderly shutdown (eg: laptop battery goes flat).
At the next boot Textmaker seems to decide that the real file must be bad EVEN THOUGH YOU HAD SUCCESSFULLY SAVED IT TO A SEPARATE DATA PARTITION PRIOR TO THE SYSTEM FAILURE!! At that next boot Textmaker goes ahead and AUTOMATICALLY changes the good file to match it's outdated .bak copy. It does not offer to let you compare the two files.
I recommend turning off the Textmaker backup facility if you experience this issue.
2) If I create an rtf document with Freeoffice it appears that Abiword cannot read it. The text background seems highlighted and makes the text invisible. Might be an Abiword issue rather than Freeoffice but not sure yet. See pic
Overall Freeoffice is looking good. It certainly gives me the ability to read docx and write .doc reliably, so at last I have good compatibility with the rest of the family.
abiword doesnt like freeoffice rtf.jpg
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Last edited by greengeek on Sun 03 Feb 2013, 14:26; edited 2 times in total
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Joined: 15 Jan 2012
Posts: 1268
Posted: Fri 14 Dec 2012, 23:25
Post subject:
I tried installing to USB drive (portable) as described in the official website. I couldn't boot to another Puppy yet but it should work on other Puppies just as on Wary (I'm using the .tgz package). Only thing is I have to look for the textmaker icon among all files in the freeoffice directory, the price to pay for portability. Also it seems a little bit slower from a flash drive.
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Joined: 20 Jul 2010
Posts: 5834
Location: Republic of Novo Zelande
Posted: Fri 14 Dec 2012, 23:36
Post subject:
vicmz wrote:
Only thing is I have to look for the textmaker icon among all files in the freeoffice directory,
On my HDD install, the icons are at /usr/share/freeoffice/icons.
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Joined: 09 May 2008
Posts: 908
Location: Moorooka, Queensland
Posted: Sat 15 Dec 2012, 00:13
Post subject:
greengeek, re your AbiWord/FreeOffice incompatibility, I found something similar in the past which was corrected by changing the selected font colour in AbiWord, to see what was written in TextMaker (usual doc format). Try that, see if it works for you?
[EDIT: or it might be that AbiWord is interpreting the background to be set as "black", rather than the usual page colour - so try changing text background. It's tedious, and what I found more irritating was that font type and size was not always retained between AbiWord and TextMaker. If I was able to ensure that the font libraries accessed by both applications were the same, perhaps there would be greater consistency]]
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Joined: 15 Jan 2012
Posts: 1268
Posted: Sat 15 Dec 2012, 00:40
Post subject:
greengeek wrote:
vicmz wrote:
Only thing is I have to look for the textmaker icon among all files in the freeoffice directory,
On my HDD install, the icons are at /usr/share/freeoffice/icons.
Sorry, I mean the launchers, the files that launch the programs
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Joined: 20 Jul 2010
Posts: 5834
Location: Republic of Novo Zelande
Posted: Sat 15 Dec 2012, 04:05
Post subject:
I just loaded Freeoffice into a live CD session of Puppy 412 Lite and Textmaker worked beautifully, even exporting as pdf. Didn't try Planmaker etc as I'm not likely to use that much.
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Joined: 01 Jan 2010
Posts: 862
Location: S.E Australia
Posted: Sat 15 Dec 2012, 05:02
Post subject:
If you intend to buy a commercial version, go for 2012, as I got the full 2010 version & like Puppyt found unpredictable file incompatibilities when trying to import. Fonts weren't great either. Libreoffice is just better.
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Official Crustacean
Joined: 04 May 2005
Posts: 15588
Location: Paradox Realm
Posted: Sat 15 Dec 2012, 07:46
Post subject:
I can rely on libreoffice being available for Puppy, so tend to use that. The WP in freeoffice is better than abiword. All the programs seem obvious, intuitive, streamlined - just like Puppy. I have no idea why Freeoffice is barely known. It is fairly priced, well written and deserves more recognition.
Puppy Raspup 8.2
Puppy Links Page
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Joined: 12 Jun 2012
Posts: 13
Posted: Sat 15 Dec 2012, 08:38
Post subject:
Having tried it for a few hours I am very impressed by its speed and comprehensive capability, their forum seems vibrant, and they offer a free font every month.
I am never going to use any office app to its full potential, only for average use, so others may find issues, but it does exactly what I want from an office app, and more.
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Joined: 02 Jul 2008
Posts: 768
Location: West Wales, Britain.
Posted: Sat 15 Dec 2012, 10:02
Post subject:
Terryphi wrote:
Does Planmaker open spreadsheets in the Libreoffice/OpenOffice format?
Features section on website makes no mention of this.
No, Planmaker does not open spreadsheets in LibreOffice/OpenOffice .ods format so thumbs down from me.
Classic Opera 12.16 browser SFS package
for Precise, Slacko, Racy, Wary, Lucid, etc available
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Joined: 11 Dec 2007
Posts: 1539
Location: Smithers, BC, Canada
Posted: Sat 15 Dec 2012, 13:28
Post subject:
Just for fun I took my portable FreeOffice and stripped it down to just US English.(No help files) Made a 20MB .tar.gz
Then I stripped out everything except TextMaker 9.3MB
Cheers, J
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Joined: 20 Jul 2010
Posts: 5834
Location: Republic of Novo Zelande
Posted: Sat 15 Dec 2012, 15:04
Post subject:
Puppyt wrote:
it might be that AbiWord is interpreting the background to be set as "black", rather than the usual page colour - so try changing text background.
Thanks puppyt. It seems that once I open the Textmaker .rtf document in Abiword I need to select all, then go to Format, Font, Highlight color,and tick "No highlight color" then I can see everything as normal. Maybe it is a compatibility error in understanding the "no highlight color" field, rather than a misunderstanding of which actual color has been selected. Not even sure if Freeoffice understands the "no highlight color" field - I will have to have a tinker.
ozsouth wrote:
Libreoffice is just better.
I feel that Libreoffice is really slow compared to S.O/Freeoffice (on my hardware anyway) and I've had a lot of incompatibility issues between Abiword and Libreoffice aswell, so I thought I'd give Freeoffice a real good thrash and see if it's worth sticking with.
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Joined: 09 May 2008
Posts: 279
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Posted: Sat 15 Dec 2012, 16:19
Post subject: PlanMaker vs Gnumeric
Wary5392 frugal
I have also installed freeoffice on Windows 7.
Both PlanMaker and TextMaker seem to work very well, and fast.
PlanMaker will NOT open ods or gnumeric files.
TextMaker will open odt files.
An address list saved in various formats:
Gnumeric (my preferred spreadsheet) - address.gnumeric - 32k
Saved in ods format from Gnumeric - address.ods - 80k
Saved in xls format from Gnumeric - address.xls - 288k
Open the address.xls in PlanMaker, then:
Saved in tmd format from PlanMaker - address.tmd - 365k
My preferred spreadsheet is Gnumeric:
+ also cross platform (installed on Wary and Win7)
+ regular expression search and replace
+ simple interface
+ smaller output files
+ speed, very fast
+ will convert to almost any file format
+ will open almost any file format
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Social media marketing has gone well beyond the hype stage and is now mainstream business practice. Still, questions remain: how do I use social media most effectively across the enterprise? Which social media monitoring tools should I use? What should I monitor for? How do I use my time and resources most effectively? What social media developments and trends should I be watching?
And of course, there's the ongoing social media ROI debate: how do I measure this? Can social media ROI really be measured? Influential voices like Olivier Blanchard and Jacquie McCarnan present formulas and methods for ROI calculation, while Steve Goldman contends that social media ROI can't be measured in isolation, and Jackie Cohen reports that more than a third of CMOs still have no idea whether or not social media marketing is producing any ROI.
What to do? Read on for answers to these questions and more from some of the best minds in social media in some of their best blog posts and articles of 2011 so far.
Social Media Strategy and Best Practices
9 Ways B2B Companies Can Use Location Based Services by Social Media B2B
The always-insightful Adam Holden-Bache contends that location-based services like Foursquare aren't just for consumer marketers, and supplies ideas on how B2B marketers can capitalize such as through partnerships with non-competitive local businesses, incentives and rewards, and in event marketing ("Are you seeing a lot of your contacts attending certain business events? Whether it's a local tweet-up or a major conference, this knowledge could be useful to help you plan what events you should sponsor or where you should set up your next booth").
Is Social Media Really Living Up to Expectations? by B2B Lead Roundtable Blog
Brian Carroll talks with MECLABS Director of Research Sergio Balegno about the disconnect between social media activity and results in the B2B environment, and concludes that "marketers are expecting way too much too soon." Social media adoption on both the buyer and vendor side is happening with incredible speed; the tools that we've developed to track other web marketing activities haven't kept pace. As social media monitoring and integration with CRM systems improves, marketers will have the metrics and analytical tools to more accurately assess the value of various social media efforts and continually improve them.
The B2B Social Media Landscape: a portrait by Beyond
John Bottom has crafted an amazing, creative, interactive B2B social media landscape image with links to a large group of key B2B bloggers like Mark Schaefer, Joe Pulizzi, Beth Harte and Tony Karrer.
The social media approach that nobody wants to hear by Hugo Guzman
Hugo Guzman explains the importance of listening and planning before jumping into social media (failures also noted previously here in the dirty dozen top 12 social media mistakes to avoid). He lists nine steps its imperative for companies to take in order to "build enough social karma (yes, I said karma) to facilitate things like guest posting opportunities, retweets, likes, etc."
19 Social Media Best Practices [VIDEO] by Social Media Explorer
Mark Smiciklas presents his "infographic inspired list of 19 social media best practices" in this entertaining and creative four-minute video.
30 Ways to Use Social Media for Business People by SEOptimise
Citing a recent study showing that "94% of businesses actually do not use social media even for the most obvious task it's good for: Getting feedback"–and another demonstrating that those businesses are less competitive–Tad Chef supplies a list of 30 ways businesses can use social media, among them to get feedback, get attention, debunk myths, forge relationships and build links.
5 ways to use social media to build a crowd for your event by Socialbrite
Tamara Mendelsohn of Eventbrite details five guiding principles for promoting events, including choose the right platform, publish your event to Facebook, and "define success metrics and don't underestimate the effort required."
Organizing Your Social Media Strategy by CompuKol Connection
Michael Cohn offers a helpful checklist for organizing social media efforts, from setting goals and listening to engaging your audience and selecting the right tools.
Influence in social media: how to find the top bloggers by blur Group
This post outlines three key measures of social media influence and three key tools to help identify the most influential bloggers in any specific topic niche.
The most underestimated social media asset by iMediaConnection
Noting that "the proper framework of enablement and empowerment can turn a company's workforce into the most effective means of advancing the goals of the business through social media," Lori Luechtefeld details IBM's experience with transforming its business be empowering employees to actively engage as part of the company's social media strategy.
It's Not Your CEO's Fault He's a Social Media Moron by Social Media Today
Gotta love this post for the title alone. Jacquie McCarnan contends that many CEOs struggle with social media because it doesn't fit old models for clear departmentalization and measurement.
Expand Your Social Media Mix: Twitter Alone is Not Enough by Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang
Deftly weaving in a dinner analogy to social media, Jeremiah Owyang compares Twitter to shish-kabob (bite-sized morsels of information) that are tasty but need to be supplemented by "steak"–infographics, Slideshare presentations, blog posts–and topped off with online video for dessert.
26 Ways to Use Social Media for Lead Generation by Social Media Examiner
Debbie Hemley compiles another brilliant A to Z post, this one focused on using social media for lead generation. Her list of tactics begins with Assets, Branding and Compelling messages and continues all the way through Word of mouth, eXcellence, adopting a Yes attitude, and demonstrating Zeal in your social media activities and relationship building.
Social Media Tools
10 Steps to Finding the Influencers in Your Market by Junta42
The brilliant Joe Pulizzi details 10 steps for finding and cultivating relationships with the key influencers in your market space. For each step, he identifies the overall strategy, useful tools, and helpful tips for execution.
9 Social Networks Your Business Should Be Using by Likeable Media
Beyond the obvious (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube), Cara Friedman makes the case for adding social networks like Flickr, Tumblr and Meetup to your social media marketing mix.
The Social Media Strategists Power Tools [Consumption] by NewCommBiz
Tac Anderson reviews seven of his favorite tools for saving time in social media consumption and management, among them TweetDeck, Twendz and Quora.
Social Media and Online Video
9 new rules for YouTube marketing by iMedia Connection
Greg Jarboe lists nine helpful rules for video marketing, such as "Rule 1: YouTube marketing is the new video marketing…YouTube gets more than 86 percent of visits to 77 video sites in this country." (Hulu, at #2, gets less than 4% of visits.) And "Rule 2: You can't make it on YouTube alone…even with close to 2.0 billion out of the nearly 5.2 billion viewing sessions in the U.S., only 38 percent of all viewing sessions occurred at YouTube.com…45.13 percent of viewers discovered videos by going to a video site (i.e., going to YouTube and running a search or clicking around the featured or related videos). But 44.24 percent of viewers discovered videos embedded on blogs or other websites."
Social media: Adding video to your digital marketing plan by SignOn San Diego
Erik Bratt expounds on the popularity of video marketing ("video capability was the fastest-growing website feature for small-business advertisers in 2009, with one in five hosting website video by the end of the year") and the different types of videos businesses can consider using, including screencasts, customer testimonials and video email.
7 Little Known Tricks That Will Get You More YouTube Views by SocialTimes
Megan O'Neill offers helpful tips for increasing exposure of your online videos, including using annotations across videos, creating playlists, and actively participating in the YouTube community.
Social Media Case Studies
The Fantabulous Lists of Social Media Case Studies by Social Media Today
Looking for examples of social media success to emulate? Giedrius Ivanauskas supplies 17 lists of social media case studies such as WOMMA's Case Study Library and 35+ Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action from Mashable.
B2B Social Media Example: GE MarkNet by Social Media B2B
Jeffrey L. Cohen describes how GE found success with a private social media community. In just one example of collaboration across divisions and geographic boundaries, the company saved $250,000.
Social Media Trends and Predictions
2011 Trends: Make Your Corporate Site A Social Media Hub by Business 2 Community
Sally Falkow predicts that social media integration with corporate websites will be a major trend in 2011 and shares Jeremiah Owyang's model for achieving that integration.
2011 Predictions: Top 12 Reasons Businesses Will Fail at Social Media by FruitZoom
Pam Moore outlines a dozen ways companies can fail at social media marketing, from not understanding the social media "ecosystem" for their industry or hiring the wrong consultant/agency for help to assuming social media will fix a broken business (it's won't–it will expose it) and having unrealistic expectations in general.
Social media: What lies ahead? by iMedia Connection
Shelly Palmer predicts that Facebook will face increased competition from better tools, that smart phones will continue to advance and account for a higher share of online traffic, and more in this 11-minute video.
Are These Social Media Trends of 2011 Part of Your Strategy? by Social Media Today
Marina Arnaout outlines five key trends for social media marketers to watch and utilize, including online video, mobile and location-based services.
It is the structure of social networks that shapes influence… and the structure is changing by Trends in the Living Networks
Ross Dawson delves into the concept of influence networks to explain why some tweets go viral and others don't, noting that this is a rapidly evolving area and that research shows "professional blogs are the most influential news media in sports and the second most influential media in politics and national news, while personal blogs are the most influential in entertainment and the second most influential in technology. In general the influence of blogs tends to decay more slowly than other media."
Social Media Policies and Regulation
10 Steps to Managing Employees on Social Media by Write Speak Sell
Noting that "Well-written (social media) policies prevent public relations disasters and potential legal liability. In addition, when done properly, they also create environments that foster productivity and loyalty among employees," Kyle-Beth Hilfer provides an outstanding 10-step list to use as a guide in writing a social media policy.
Social Media Policy Unites Social Media Initiatives by Social Media Today
Going down the same path as Who Should Write Your Social Media Policy?, Tim McCord emphasizes the need to create a team when crafting a social media policy and selecting monitoring tools.
NLRB Says Companies Can Not Discipline Workers For Posts in Social Media by iMedia Connection
In news that every company needs to hear thought most likely don't want to, Chris Boudreaux reports on a recent case wherein the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) determined that "companies can not discipline workers who post criticisms on social-networking sites." Chris concludes with: "This clarification by the NLRB is a big deal for a lot of companies in the United States." Indeed it is.
Social Media and SEO
Why social media optimization is the new SEO by iMedia Connection
Noting that many people now "receive the majority of their news on Twitter or via posts on Facebook and LinkedIn before resorting to a Google search on any given topic…How many times have you seen an article posted on Facebook or Twitter that has either made you click on it, or urged you to suddenly search about the topic? It's a fascinating process," Dennis Franczak explains why social media optimization (SMO) is now taking center stage in online marketing and how to go about it successfully.
The Social Media Marketer's SEO Checklist by SEOmoz
Jennifer Sable Lopez offers a nine-step checklist to making social media activities SEO-friendly, such as incorporating keyword research and making sure your content is easily sharable across the most popular social networks. She uses the word campaign unfortunately, but otherwise it's a helpful post.
Why Not Be The CMO Of Everyone? by MediaPost Search Insider
Writing that "every person in an enterprise is potentially an authentic, invested content producer, networker or influencer. Very often, employees in large enterprises are actively evangelizing their brands or products and no one in the home office even realizes it," Derek Gordon advises CMOs to solicit content from the broadest possible array of contributors within an organization in order to develop more valuable, search-optimized copy.
Social Media Monitoring
20 free, awesome social media monitoring tools by Socialbrite
J.D. Lasica reviews 20 free social media tools, categorized by function, including Wildfire, HootSuite, Plancast and Addict-o-matic.
Top 20 social media monitoring vendors for business by Socialmedia.biz
J.D. Lasica and Kim Bale review 20 powerful fee-based tools for professional social media monitoring, among them Radian6, Lithium, Alterian SM2 and Attentio. For guidance on how to evaluate these tools, check out 9 Criteria for Selecting a Social Media Monitoring Tool.
Top 10 analytics tools for social media by iMedia Connection
Adam Boyden details key features and capabilities of several fee-based and free (or low cost) social media monitoring tools including Sysomos, Beevolve and ReSearch.ly.
20 Free Social Media and Brand Monitoring Tools Worth Exploring by oneforty
Pam Sahota provides helpful mini-reviews of 20 free social media monitoring tools worth checking out, from Twilerts and Backtype through Proxlet (which, among other features, helpfully filters out those annoying Foursquare checkin tweets) and Trendrr.
Social Media Dashboards by CompuKol Connection
Rather than writing just another post about monitoring tools, Marco Giunta delves into which social media metrics are the most critical to track, and how to act on the results of this measurement.
Why You Aren't Getting What You Need Out Of Social Media Monitoring… Yet by SocialTimes
Neil Glassman raises a number of questions to help focus social media monitoring activities (e.g.,"Does your query language mesh with your consumers' language? Or is it industry language?") then makes three key recommendations to help organizations really get value out of social media monitoring.
Social Media Metrics and ROI
6 Critically Undervalued Social Media Success Metrics by Convince & Convert
Jay Baer details the half-dozen social media metrics and tools he views as the most meaningful yet undervalued, from the Klout scores of your Twitter followers (rather than just number of followers) to share of voice and inbound links.
Social media metrics: 5 things to learn in 2011 by Ragan.com
Wondering if "perhaps 2011 will be the year that social media measurement matures and comes of age," Don Bartholomew details five objectives including measurement, ROI and attribution.
Social Media Strategists Look Hard at ROI this Year by eMarketer
According to research from The Altimeter Group, "when it came to social media programs, 82% of respondents reported they would be investing in brand monitoring in 2011, while 77% cited staff budgets and 78% training budgets…Creating ROI measurements tops the list of internal social strategy objectives for 2011, with 48.3% of respondents highlighting that goal."
3 Ways social media market research can impact your business by ListenLogic
Noting that "Market research is now beginning to leverage social media in a revolutionary way that provides insights and impact across the organization," Chris Karnes explains how social media listening can be used to measure marketing campaign effectiveness, drive purchasing decisions and inspire product innovation.
6 Buckets of Social Media Measurement by Take a Peck
Jason Peck details six "buckets" of metrics companies should use to evaluate the success of various social media initiatives, including business metrics, awareness (e.g. website traffic, searches for brand terms) and engagement (Facebook likes, blog comments, retweets, etc.).
Social Media ROI for Idiots by Social Media Today
Hmm, not to sure about the title of this post, as idiots are unlikely to get social media ROI. Or even to get social media for that matter. But regardless, Jacquie McCarnan helpfully provides several different formulas for calculating social media ROI, based on different factors such as qualified leads, employee retention, and customer engagement.
Measuring the Stages of the Cyclic Social Media Marketing Funnel by SocialSteve's Blog
Contending that social media ROI can't be measured in isolation, Steve Goldner recommends instead measuring its contribution to the business through key performance indicators (KPIs) including awareness, consideration, loyalty and advocacy. His brilliant "Cyclic Social Media Marketing Funnel" graphic makes the post worth a look in itself.
Social Media ROI business measurement by Slideshare
Olivier Blanchard, a.k.a. the BrandBuilder, delivers a comprehensive process for measuring social media ROI in this cleverly illustrated but very long (133 slides) online presentation.
Social Media Research, Facts and Statistics
Companies using social media are making more money, says McKinsey by The Wall
Gordon MacMillan reports on research from McKinsey showing that "companies that are starting to do it (social media marketing) well are being rewarded for their efforts (e.g., with higher operating margins and market share). More than that, it says those that fail to implement social media could be making a 'critical mistake.'" He also shares four key steps McKinsey suggests executives should take to move their organizations forward.
85% of Inc 500 Say Social Media Will be "Very" or "Somewhat" Important to Their Marketing or Business Strategy by iMedia Connection
Chris Boudreaux cites a study concluding that nearly 9 in 10 large-company CEOs believe social media is important to their business strategies, and that "43% of CEOs say they will 'significantly change' their strategies in the next three years to respond to customers' increased use of social media and mobile devices."
STUDY: Return On Investment In Facebook Eludes CMOs by All Facebook
Jackie Cohen summarizes and comments on a recent Bazaarvoice / CMO Club showing that "Nine out of every ten Chief Marketing Officers participate in at least three forms of social media promotions, yet many don't know whether these efforts yield a return on investment…(while) 15.4 percent have a significant return on investment and 20.6 percent have an average return…34.9 percent said they don't know whether they have an ROI, and 8.6 percent have none."
How much does Social Media cost companies in 2011? by MackCollier.com
Mack Collier very helpfully provides social media consultants, and companies looking to hire them, with pricing benchmarks for common types of projects. For example, ghostwritten blog posts cost anywhere from $50 to $500 per post, with most providers charging $100-$250.