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Amiga 1200

24. _JANUARY 2007, 18:34 klevze 1 Comments

A1200, was Commodore International's third-generation Amiga computer, aimed at the home market. It was released in October 1992, at a base price of L399 in the United Kingdom and $599 in the United States.

The future looked good for the Amiga 1200 platform, but due to poor financial management Commodore ran into cash flow problems and soon went bankrupt - this despite the fact that the Amiga 1200 and Amiga CD32 both were successful and profitable products. With Commodore’s demise, the Amiga 1200 almost disappeared off the market, but the system got a second chance with Escom's re-launch in 1995.

The new Escom A1200 was almost identical to the original model, the difference being updated firmware and a floppy disk drive from a different manufacturer. Re-launched at a price of one-hundred and fifty dollars above what it had been sold for two years prior (equal to the 1992 launch price) potential buyers found that the system provided little value and largely ignored the system.

Due to poor sales, and Escom's financial problems, the Amiga 1200 was taken off the market some time during 1996.

Popularity

Although a significant upgrade, the A1200 proved not to be as popular as the earlier Amiga 500. There were a number of reasons for this:

Although Commodore never released any official sales figures, it is estimated that Commodore shipped fewer than 1 million A1200s worldwide before going bankrupt in April 1994.

 Technical information

 Processor and RAM

The A1200 utilized a Motorola MC68EC020 CISC CPU (roughly four times faster than the 68000 processor in the Amiga 500). It is noteworthy that, like the 68000, the 68EC020 had a 24-Bit expansion bus; allowing for a theoretical maximum of 16 MB of memory.

It shipped with 2 MB of Chip RAM. Chip RAM could not be expanded beyond those 2 MB, but an additional 8 MB of Fast RAM could be added through use of the trapdoor expansion slot.

Later, various accelerators featuring 68020, 68030, 68040, 68060 and PowerPC processors were made available by third parties. Such accelerators did not only have faster CPUs but also more and faster memory (on the most expensive boards 256 MB on two 128 MB SIMMs), real time clocks, IDE and SCSI ports and other enhancements.

 Graphics and sound

The A1200 shipped with Commodore's third-generation chipset, the Advanced Graphics Architecture or AGA. As the name implies, the AGA chipset had superior graphical abilities in comparison with the earlier chipsets, but not much else.

The A1200 also offered improved audio abilities which allowed for higher sampling rates for sound playback.

 Peripherals and expansion

In addition to the ports common to all earlier Amiga models, the A1200 featured a memory/CPU slot, a PCMCIA slot and a feature unique to the A1200 – a clockport.

The clockport was a remnant of an abandoned design feature (real time clock and Chip RAM expansion) and was used for, among other things, audio cards.

If one was willing to forgo the A1200's form-fitting case, PCI and Zorro busses could also be added to the A1200, allowing graphics, sound and network cards to be added. Eyetech and Power Computing built and supplied many PC tower kits to 'tower up' the A1200 and in essence convert it to a 'big box' Amiga, even allowing for use of PC AT Keyboards.

One problematic factor for expanding the A1200 was the rather limited 23 watt power supply. Hard drives and even external floppies could stress the power supply too much. This was usually alleviated by 'towering up' the Amiga as it allowed for use of much more capable power supplies. The problem could also be mitigated by replacing the A1200's factory default power supply with the much more powerful A500 power supply.

 Software

The first incarnation of the A1200, by Commodore, was bundled with AmigaOS 3.0 that used Kickstart 3.0 (39.106), CrossDOS – allowing for reading & writing MS-DOS format disks - various utility programs including calculator and screenblanker, and limited-time offers of Deluxe Paint IV AGA (a 2D paint & animation program) and Final Copy (a full featured word processor).

The Amiga Technologies/Escom version shipped with AmigaOS 3.1 and Kickstart 3.1, and used to be bundled with various third-party programs such as Scala, Wordworth and so on.

  Summary

 

Content Management Software And SEO

24. _JANUARY 2007, 10:20 gregor 0 Comments

A lot has been said about Content Management Systems (CMS) in the past. Since search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimisation (SEO) are now such a growing part of the main marketing objectives for companies of all sizes, extra attention and c

The main reason for that is some of them were not designed with search engines in mind. They were designed for what they are supposed to do: to help manage the contents of certain documents! That said, how can a company that has made extensive use of such CMS software reasonably insure itself that their site will do well in the search engines?

Some well-designed CMS solutions that give good attention to search engines when they were designed could possibly contribute to SEO work by standardizing its presentation, labelling of content and to a certain degree, its structure which is crucial to most search engines when evaluating how a particular page or site section should rank in the engines.

If a CMS package was truly designed with search engines in mind, it could be helpful for updating and some maintenance chores of certain dynamic sites, but even with some of these features present, there could be certain areas where it can still negatively affect some of the best SEO strategies. Rank for $ales advises caution in using them in such instances. Some CMS software packages can cost a lot of money, so be careful when shopping around and don’t be afraid to ask pointed questions, especially as it pertains to search engine visibility.

Whatever CMS software package you are analyzing, make certain that none of them create their own title tags, which are almost always off-topic. A good example to this would be the steel products manufacturer that is trying to use a CMS program that writes title tags such as: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, etc. Such title tags are completely useless to search engines. In this particular example, if the CMS program is well-designed for the engines, it will let YOU write informative and useful title tags such as: steel staircases, steel shelves, steel accessories, etc.

This detail may seem like negligible to some people, but it is very significant information for the engines and will make a drastic improvement in the results. An additional benefit to such standard SEO techniques is it will make the maintenance of the site much easier and faster. One problem with some CMS vendors is they don’t realize all of this as being their concern. Some don’t identify it is as even being a problem.

It would be almost effortless for a CMS designer or vendor to make its product search-engine friendly, as all the technology and the proper resources are already there. Some of the actual problem stems from the fact that the real needs are not being communicated effectively by most of the end-users and customers of some of the CMS programs.

PPC and Paid for Search
Today, the PPC and paid for search industry is growing rapidly. It basically offers businesses and companies a results-driven, value-added complement to search engine marketing techniques. PPC (Pay-per-Click) services allow web sites to bid for keywords and key phrases to be posted as sponsored links next to results pages. Companies can also pay to have their sites included in search-engine catalogues. In using such a formula, web sites that are of the dynamic type don’t have to make too many modifications to its basic structure, and can still yield a significant ROI.

As stated previously, there could be some benefit and some advantages to using certain, selected CMS products. However, when it comes to today’s major search engines, make certain you choose a product that will be truly “search engine compliant”. Additionally, always remember that some of them might still pose some problems, as far as SEO is concerned.

In light of all this, it is clear that CMS vendors, search engines, web site owners and professional search engine optimization companies must work together to make the whole process as rewarding it can be and in the most diligent fashion.

Apple Reports First Quarter Results

17. _JANUARY 2007, 21:10 klevze 2 Comments

Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2007 first quarter ended December 30, 2006

Apple shipped 1,606,000 Macintosh® computers and 21,066,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 28 percent growth in Macs and 50 percent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter.

“We are incredibly pleased to report record quarterly revenue of over $7 billion and record earnings of $1 billion,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve just kicked off what is going to be a very strong new product year for Apple by launching Apple TV and the revolutionary iPhone.”

“We generated over $1.75 billion in cash during the quarter to end with $11.9 billion,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2007, we expect revenue of $4.8 to $4.9 billion and earnings per diluted share of $.54 to $.56.”

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q1 2007 financial results conference call utilizing QuickTime®, Apple’s standards-based technology for live and on-demand audio and video streaming. The live webcast will begin at 2:00 p.m. PST on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq107/ and will also be available for replay. The QuickTime player is available free for Macintosh and Windows users at www.apple.com/quicktime.

This press release contains forward-looking statements about the Company’s estimated revenue and earnings per share. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ. Risks and uncertainties include potential litigation and government enforcement actions that may result from the matters investigated by the special committee of the board of directors and the restatement of the Company’s consolidated financial statements; unfavorable results of legal proceedings; the effect of competitive and economic factors, and the Company’s reaction to those factors, on consumer and business buying decisions with respect to the Company’s products; war, terrorism, public health issues, and other circumstances that could disrupt supply, delivery, or demand of products; continued competitive pressures in the marketplace; the continued availability on acceptable terms of certain components and services essential to the Company’s business currently obtained by the Company from sole or limited sources; the ability of the Company to make timely delivery of new programs, products and successful technological innovations to the marketplace; the effect that product quality problems could have on the Company’s sales and operating profits; the inventory risk associated with the Company’s need to order or commit to order product components in advance of customer orders; the effect that the Company’s dependency on manufacturing and logistics services provided by third parties may have on the quality, quantity or cost of products manufactured or services rendered; the Company’s dependency on the performance of distributors and other resellers of the Company’s products; the Company’s reliance on the availability of third-party digital content; the potential impact of a finding that the Company has infringed on the intellectual property rights of others; and risks associated with the Company’s retail initiative, including significant investment cost, uncertain consumer acceptance and potential impact on existing reseller relationships. More information on potential factors that could affect the Company’s financial results is included from time to time in the Company’s public reports filed with the SEC, including the Company’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2006 and the Company’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 30, 2006 to be filed with the SEC. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective dates.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning desktop and notebook computers, OS X operating system, and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital music revolution with its iPod portable music players and iTunes online store.

iTunes Store Tops Two Billion Songs

15. _JANUARY 2007, 09:26 klevze 0 Comments

Apple announced that more than two billion songs, 50 million television episodes and over 1.3 million feature-length films have been purchased and downloaded from the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com), making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store.

 

“iTunes has crossed another major milestone by selling over two billion songs—with over a billion of them sold in the last year alone—making it by far the world’s most popular music store,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “And by selling 50 million TV shows and over 1.3 million movies to date, iTunes is already the largest online video store in the world as well.”

The iTunes Store now features the world’s largest catalog by far with over four million songs, 250 feature films, 350 television shows and over 100,000 podcasts. Beginning today, iTunes has added more than 100 movies from Paramount Pictures priced at just $9.99 including “School of Rock,” “The Italian Job,” “Mean Girls,” “Zoolander,” “Coach Carter,” “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life,” “Chinatown” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

The world’s most popular music jukebox, iTunes 7 delivers stunning features such as the new album and Cover Flow views of music, TV shows and movies, enabling users to quickly find titles in their library as well as casually browse through and re-discover titles they already own. Videos purchased from the iTunes Store are downloaded in near-DVD quality at a resolution of 640 by up to 480, depending on the content’s aspect ratio. And now with Apple TV, you can wirelessly play all your favorite iTunes content from your Mac® or PC, including movies, TV shows, music, photos and podcasts on your widescreen TV.

With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, seamless integration with iPod and groundbreaking personal use rights, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.

Jaguar

12. _JANUARY 2007, 20:15 klevze 0 Comments

Jaguar's new XKR Coupé is being revealed to a new audience at the Autosport International Show at the NEC, Birmingham, and in a new guise

Buckingham-based Apex Motorsport, under the direction of Richard Lloyd, has developed the stunning XKR model for use in the FIA GT3 European Championship. It is being revealed in the ‘flesh’ for the first time to the world’s motorsport media at what is recognised to be globally one of the biggest and most successful motorsport shows.



Lloyd and Apex have enjoyed huge racing success in the past, most recently with Bentley with whom they won the 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans. “It was obvious to us that the Jaguar name was missing from the list of GT3 contenders,” said Lloyd. “We believe the new XKR has great potential for success, and Team Manager Dave Ward and the guys have been working flat out since receiving our first car at the end of September. We’ve still got a mountain to climb with roll out and first test scheduled to take place within the next five weeks and, of course, the first race of the season at Silverstone in May. The first car is sold and we have received very positive interest for another two so we’re confident there will be plenty of Jaguars in the FIA paddock and in other emerging GT3 series around the world.”