Mega Opener!! Yet another German mechanical innovation!!

Stop the dolphin and whale killings in Taiji

The methods used to kill Dolphins in Japan are cruel.

Corralling the dolphins into bays, then making them suffer a long and painful death by spears, hooks, and drowning is an inhumane way of fishing. This action is disgraceful and has caused much disappointment in the international community.

We demand that Japan permanently and immediately renounce and stop this slaughter. We will work diligently to bring this issue to international light until you have ceased your reprehensible violence.

Watch this video to know about "how the dolphins are caught and handled"

http://www.glumbert.com/media/dolphin

Please sign this Petition to "Stop the dolphin and whale killings in Taiji"
http://www.petitiononline.com/golfinho/petition.html

Thanks!!

Apple wants a Black Friday in Germany too

Apple wants a Black Friday in Germany too

For those of you in the Germany who were hopping mad that the US and Canada got a super-special, one-day shopping event this last Friday after Thanksgiving, you guys will get something special from Apple too. Everyone else is... uh, SOL.

Apple is presenting a one-day shopping "event" in the Germany this coming Friday, December 1. Predictably, Apple is using the same red and white ad look for this event as they did for Black Friday in the US.

There's no word yet on what deals will be available, but I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that they will be similar to those offered in the US and Canada last week. For those Germany readers who don't live near an Apple Store, you'll be able to get those deals from the Apple Store online as well.

Format courtesy: arstechnica.com/

Steve Jobs discusses the MP3 player’s design

Other companies had already tried to make a hard disk drive music player. Why did Apple get it right?
We had the hardware expertise, the industrial design expertise and the software expertise, including iTunes. One of the biggest insights we have was that we decided not to try to manage your music library on the iPod, but to manage it in iTunes. Other companies tried to do everything on the device itself and made it so complicated that it was useless.

Some people say that iPod might lose its cache because it's too popular—how can it be cool when Dick Cheney and Queen Elizabeth have one?
That's like saying you don't want to kiss your lover's lips because everyone has lips. It doesn't make any sense. We don't strive to appear cool. We just try to make the best products we can. And if they are cool, well, that's great.

Read more....

Beware of Refurbished Macs

Today I have received my refurbished mac mini from Apple store. When I have started it, a program called Phoenix CE was running automatically and checking some hardware related stuff. I thought it'll end soon... I was waiting for 2 hours and the program doesn't seem to end in near future.... So, I have decided to Install the mac OS X newly.... disc-1 was smoothly running... at the end of disk-2, the installation stoped saying Finishing Installation- "Running iWeb application Installer script. I have tried to re-install it many times and every time it stops here. I then went to choose not to install iWeb, and it did the same problem only this time with Garrage Band.

I rang a Mac Help desk and they were useless and said they would send new installation discs which would take about a month.


ANY HELP IN THIS REGARD WOULD BE APPRECIATED!!! Thanks!!

So guys beware of buying refurb apple products. Sure, I have 1 year limited warrenty from them...but it kills lot of time and highly unreliable.

Another case reported here:
http://www.macfixitforums.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=tiger&Number=765325&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&fpart=1

Germany gains favour with Indian students

During 1990-1998, the number of Indian students in Germany ranged between 600 and 1,000. It reached 1,117 in 1999, further rising to 1,412 in 2000.

The number rose to 2,100 in 2001, galloping to 3,303 in 2002. In 2003, the number was 4,112, which increased to 4,249 in 2004 and it was recorded at 4,292 last year. "In engineering, students prefer new areas such as nano-technology, biotechnology etc," he said.

Airbus Desperate for Engineers

European airplane manufacturer Airbus has complained that production is too slow because the company can't find enough engineers. In a country with 4.5 million people unemployed, it was an astonishing statement: Airbus announced Tuesday that it can't find enough help for production in Hamburg.

The European aviation giant said it planned to hire 1,250 new employees this year but so far only filled 650 positions because it can't find enough engineers in Germany. And there are unemployed engineers in Germany.

"We are encountering shortages when it comes to engineers," Airbus Germany chief Gerhard Puttfarcken told Die Welt newspaper. "But we are surprised how little flexibility there is in Germany. Some people refuse to move from southern to northern Germany."

He added that the company hoped to hire from the Hamburg area but is now interviewing in England, Italy, Spain and Sweden to make up for Germany's engineer shortage.

Airbus officials say they need more staff to increase production from 30 planes a month in 2006 to 34 by 2008 because customers have complained about long waits for orders to be filled. "Customers tell us they don't see why you order a plane and have to wait several years for it," said Puttfarcken. "Because of our full order books, our lead times are too long." He added that the actual production of a plane took less than a year. The company's smaller planes, the A318, A319, A320, and A321, are built in Germany, while its larger ones are manufactured in France. And the majority of requests the company receives -- 900 out of 1,111 orders last year -- are for planes in this series.

Puttfarcken said that if Airbus doesn't increase its production abilities and shorten lead times by 40 percent, it will hurt the company's ability to compete. "We want to alter that or we will lose some of our market potential," he said. He added Airbus was also seeking suppliers outside Europe, particularly in China, Russia and India: "We're looking all over for partners to help us."