Science, Culture and Integral Yoga

It's called the Nano, for its high technology and small size. It's cute, compact, and contemporary. It's a complete four-door car with a 623-cc gas engine, gets 50 miles to the gallon, and seats up to five. It meets domestic emissions norms and will soon comply with European standards. It's 8% smaller in outer length than its closest rival, Suzuki's Maruti 800, but has 21% more volume inside. And at $2,500 before taxes (value-added taxes increase the price by about $300), it is the most inexpensive car in the world. Starting this fall, the Nano will roll off the assembly lines at a Tata Motors (TTM) plant in Singur, Bengal, and navigate India's potholed roads.

The Nano, also known as the People's Car, is Ratan Tata's dream come true, and is India's contribution to changing the global auto industry. "The car has put India on the global map," says Fionna Prims, head of business development for Segment Y, a Goa-based automotive consultant for emerging markets. "Tata has done in four years what the Japanese took 30 years to do. It will change the whole industry." Even rivals are gushing. "It's a red letter day for Indian industry, a day India should be proud of," says Venu Srinivasan, chairman of motorcycle maker TVS Motors. "Ratan Tata has the vision to create a new business model and all the naysayers are looking at it with concern. The Nano is a path breaker." ... more »

Leave Comment | Permanent Link

Wednesday, December 12

Google now using "behavioral targeting" for its ads placements

by ronjon on December 12, 2007 11:38AM (PST)

...Google, however, has been very reluctant to use all this data in its advertising business. One reason is that it has other information that solves its main problem: picking the right ads to show on each page. It uses what people are searching for on its search site and the content of other pages on which ads appear (including, of course, the content of messages displayed in Gmail).

But as Google gets bigger it is tiptoeing into using more data for targeting. It tries to determine the location of users in order to show ads of local businesses. It also gets some personal information about users from partner sites on which it displays ads — like MySpace — to help it choose ads.

And Google has now started dipping its little toe into the pool that Madison Avenue calls behavioral targeting. That approach is based on the idea that the best way to pick an ad to show you now is to look at your online activity from a few hours or days ago. The classic example is showing car dealer ads to someone who searched for minivans yesterday. ... more »

Leave Comment | Permanent Link

Wednesday, February 7

Apple CEO Steve Jobs Urges Music Industry to End Digital Copy Protection

by ronjon on February 7, 2007 02:09AM (PST)

In a letter posted on Apple's Web site Tuesday (dubbed ``Thoughts on Music''), Jobs joined the growing chorus of tech leaders and consumer advocates who have called on the major record labels to allow consumers to purchase music online in a format without copy protections.

``This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat,'' Jobs said.

Currently, the major labels require Apple's iTunes music store and its competitors to wrap their songs in software that's called digital rights management. DRM restricts what consumers can do with the songs, most notably how many copies they can make of them and where they can play them. So songs downloaded from iTunes can be played only on iPods, while songs downloaded from Microsoft's Zune Marketplace can only be used on Zunes. ... more »

Leave Comment | Permanent Link

Monday, October 30

WITTs, YOYOs, and Why Americans Don't Go Green (WorldChanging.com)

by ronjon on October 30, 2006 02:01PM (PST)

Imo, this is an important editorial, from WorldChanging.com.

The question of how to engage Americans on pressing environmental issues is a perennial one. Arguably, environmental activist groups haven't made much traction. After more than 35 years since the birth of the modern environmental movement, the major green nonprofits cumulatively engage only 3 million to 4 million Americans - the roughly 1% of Americans who appear on the groups' mailing lists. -- It's no wonder, then, that the environment ranks near the bottom of issues about which Americans are concerned. And it explains why environmentally proactive political candidates don't run on those issues - and why conservative politicians, as a rule, can run roughshod over the planet with impunity. ... more »

Leave Comment | Permanent Link

SCIY Index & Page Views

SCIY views > 2.32 million

Suggest articles for SCIY

* The SCIY Index *

View SCIY Slide Shows

The Pondicherry Mystic Poets

The Building of Auroville

The Burning Man Art Festival