Google Nexus 6 release date, price and specs UK: Finally on sale but in limted supply

Everything you need to know about the new Nexus 6 made by Motorola with Android 5.0 Lollipop By Chris Martin | PC Advisor | 11 December 14 As expected, Google has announced the Nexus 6 smartphone with Android 5.0 Lollipop by way of a quick blog post rather than the big launch event but the device is having launch woes. It's finally on sale so here's all the Nexus 6 release date, price, pre-order and specs you need. Updated on 11/12/14. See also: Best smartphones 2014. Just a day before Apple announced new iPads, Google unveiled a range of new devices to go with Android 5.0 Lollipop including the Nexus 9 and Nexus Player. See also: Nexus 5 vs Nexus 6 comparison: why Google's latest smartphone isn't necessarily a natural upgrade. Google Nexus 6: Release date and price UK Update: Although Google initially announced that the Nexus 6 will be available to pre-order in the UK in November and go on sale the same month, this has simply not happened. The device is now on the Google Play store priced at £499 for 32 GB and £549 for 64 GB but the only model available (as of 11/12) is the 32 GB blue and it will leave the warhouse in 3-4 weeks! O2 has contacted us to announce the Nexus 6 is now available. Although O2 was the first to put the device on sale (4 December), launch woes continue elsewhere - see below. Read: Where to buy the Nexus 6 in the UK. We heard from various retailers that the phone would go on sale on 1 December but that day has arrived and thing appear to have only got worse. Big high street name Carphone Warehouse now has the 32 GB blue model and although it claims to have an exclusive on the white model, it is available for pre-order and expected on 29 December. Meanwhile, Clove has pre-sold all its stock which it is expecting on 22 December with a second batch set to arrive 'late December' and there is limited stock available to order now. Mobilefun says the nexus 6 is due in a whopping two months on the blue model and Expansys doesn't even state when it is expecting the device. Mobiles.co.uk also gave a release date of 1 December but currently expects delivery on 15 December. With Christmas fast approachingthe Nexus 6 launch situation isn't good and Google has been all too quiet on the subject. We've reached out for comment and will update you as soon as we can. Google Nexus 6 smartphone Android 5.0 Lollipop Google Nexus 6: Specs and features The Nexus 6 has been built by Motorola for Google and looks very similar to the Moto X. It has a 'contoured aluminium frame' which houses a 5.96in Quad HD screen (493ppi). Google's tag line for the phone is "more room to explore". Along with the Nexus 9, it is the launch product for a new version of Android which we now know is 5.0 Lollipop. This will also be available for the Nexus 7, Nexus 6 and Nexus 10 in the 'coming weeks'. Nexus 6 with Android 5.0 Lollipop Back to the Nexus 6 and it features a 13Mp rear facing camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS), front facing stereo speakers and the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor which is clocked at 2.7 GHz. It includes the Adreno 420 GPU. The Nexus 6 will come in 32- or 64 GB capacities but there's still no microSD card slot. Inside is a 3220mAh and Google touts over 24 hours of use. The firm also touts up to 6 hours of use from only 15 minutes of charging (if the battery is substantially depleted). • OS: Android 5.0 Lollipop • Display: 5.96in 1440 x 2560 display (493 ppi) • Battery: 3220 mAh • Camera: 13 Mp rear-facing with optical image stabilisation, 2 Mp rear-facing • Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 805, 32-bit Quad Core 2.7 GHz, Adreno 420 • Memory: 32/64GB See our original Nexus 6 rumour round-up on the next page After ‘Big Billion Day’ Fiasco, Flipkart Shies Away From GOSF-2014 Google’s Great Online Shopping Festival Google GOSF (Google Online Shopping Festival) kicks off today, Wednesday, Dec.10, 2014. Google GOSF (Google Online Shopping Festival) kicks off today, Wednesday, Dec.10, 2014. As Google’s 3rd Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) kicks off today, India’s major retialers including Flipkart, which has sold $100 million worth merchandise in Big Billion Sale recently is shying from the event, not merely because of its own technical glitch but also owing to the threat the Google mega-sale would pose in the future. But, more than 300 retailers have already queued up for merchandise from consumer durables to housing, besides brands in travel, fashion and accessories. But protesting the mega-sale, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), comprising medium and small retailers, has complained to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley fearing threat to their bricks and mortar model. Even the big retailers like Reliance Industries, ITC and Aditya Birla Group have already raised voice against the discounts being offered online. The recent example of selling President Pranab Mukherjee exclusively on Amazon has irked book stores to threaten to boycott the publisher. The experiment, started with Xiaomi is another challenge to Indian smartphone makers and not falling behind, Micromax is also planning to launch a new Canvas phone exclusively on Flipkart. However, with more than 400 brands on GOSF sale through the gosf.in website, with price comaprison websites on stand-by, while this time snapdeal.com, amazon.in, ebay.in, limeroad.com, shopclues.com and jabong.com are prominent on the sale front, though Flipkart is giving a cautious miss this time. Launched in 2012 by Google, the 2013 sales saw almost 200% rise in sales, claim 200 GOSF participants, with the peak time from 2 to 8 PM in India. This year, Google India has an ‘exclusive launch corner’, where its own products for the Indian buyers will be available including Nexus 6 and Chromecast. Another new section called the “Rs 299 Corner”, similar to the 100-YEN sales in Japan would feature this time to cater the price-sensitive Indian buyers. Snapdeal, ebay, Jabong, Firstcry, Fab Furnish, Lensekart and Yepme.com are among those offering the Rs 299 deals on wrist watches, electronics, clothes, linen and furnishing material. Even big time real estate companies including the Tata Housing is offering flats in cities of Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Ahmedabad, while car makers offering their brands today include Fiat, Mahindra, Renault, Chevrolet, Ford and Nissan. Job portals like Naukri, Shine and Monster are offering discounts and healthcare, travel and luxury premium products are not far behind from the show, including the insurance policy available on discount. Twitter is going gaga with its GOSF 2014 handle #72HoursOfCrazy, while most of the buyers have posted their grievances. It remains to be seen how far this year’s Google Great Sale will go. Related Google Online Shopping Festival 2014: Get Best Deals On Your Car Accessories at GOSF 2014 Sale Conceptualized in the lines of the US’s Cyber Monday, the GOSF, first initiated on 12 December 2012, is an initiative by Google India. Devised in collaboration with a number of Indian online shopping portals, the GOSF not only offer online shoppers some heavy discounts and deals on leading products, but also to promote their sales. As of Today, motor enthusiast can find some exception deal on car accessories, especially at the 299 Corner, where you can buy some essential accessories like Car Care Kit, 2x4 SMD/LED Lights, Tyre Pressure Gauge, Mobile charges and more, all for the rate of INR.299 only. Apart from these there are more in line, right from discounts up to INR 4000 to exclusive launches and offer. Moreover, the offers do not just end at accessories, even leading car brands have come up with some exciting deals and offers. With brands like Renault, Ford and Skoda offering quite some big discount and benefits, booking your car today might be a wise option. With online shopping sites offering you discount ranging right from 30% to 80% off, there couldn’t be a best time to add some cool Bling! Bling! to your sweet ride.

Google's expansion to cars and TVs will be powered by Android Studio apps

Android Studio's installation wizard highlights what Google's hope for the IDE is. Android Studio's installation wizard highlights what Google's hope for the IDE is. The usefulness of Android in your car, on your TV and smartwatch will be decided by app availability, and Google is hoping to make it easier to create them with its new development environment, Android Studio. Google has, with the introductions of Android Wear, TV and Auto, expanded its operating system to new product categories. All three pieces of software are for highly competitive areas where consumers have a lot of choice, and killer apps are needed to differentiate from the competition and convince people that they actually need a smartwatch or a TV with Android. Apps that work across all three platforms will be easier to build using Android Studio, the IDE (integrated development environment) that was finally introduced Monday. When developers install version 1.0 of the IntelliJ-based Java tool they are greeted with a panel showing a smartphone, tablet, smartwatch, car, TV and a pair of glasses, highlighting Google's hopes. "I think that tooling is really important in making it easy for us as developers to target these new form factors and platforms, and Android Studio helps a lot here," said Marius Mårnes Mathiesen, head of Android development at Norwegian consultant Shortcut, via email. Whether developers will actually target these product markets is a different story. More cars and TVs running Android are needed for those two to attract developers, according to Mathiesen. Android Wear makes more sense since there are a growing number products, even though many of them haven't been well received. Also, developers get some functionality free, because of the way the development environment works, Mathiesen said. When an Android smartphone or tablet and smartwatch are connected, the handhelds automatically share notifications with the wearable. Google is also hoping to convince developers to add wearable-specific functionality to the notifications. When developing this with Android Studio, developers can see how the notifications look on round smartwatches like the G Watch R from LG Electronics and Motorola's Moto 360 and square models, including Sony's Smartwatch 3. Opening the door for multiscreen apps isn't the only goal for Android Studio.. There are also useful features for developers that only develop apps for smartphones. The IDE takes advantage of the editing capabilities of IntelliJ, such as code completion and code analysis. The support for refactoring -- which is used to improve the design of existing code -- works amazingly well, according to Mathiesen. Other features include a memory monitor for improving performance and integration with Goggle's cloud services. The IDE can be downloaded from Google's developer website, and can run on Windows, Mac and Linux desktops. The launch is an important milestone, but is by no means the end of the road for Studio. It will continue to receive updates on four different release channels: Stable, Beta, Dev, and Canary. Canary builds are at the bleeding edge of development and the least mature, while the stable releases are fully tested, according to Google. The classification lets developers choose how quickly they want to add the latest features to their development environment, the company said. Google is working on a navigation editor that will be used to create and view the structure and layout of Android applications. The tool can be used by developers who want to rapidly prototype apps, and by designers who want to see their designs work on real devices without writing any code, according to Google. "It's in really early stages and not really usable for any real work, but it could be a really useful addition to the Android toolset," Mathiesen said. Now that Android Studio has hit 1.0, the Android tools team needs to start working on a decent emulator. The version Google now offers is embarrassing and has put a lot of people off from doing Android development, according to Mathiesen. "I realize this is a difficult problem to solve, but now that we have seen what [Google was] able to do with Android Studio, I expect this problem to be solved too," he said. Send news tips and comments to mikael_ricknas@idg.com Brand Post MFT to the rescue as staff put corporate data at risk More from Ipswitch Join the CIO newsletter! Error: Please check your email address. Tags mobile applicationsDevelopment toolsapplication developmentGooglesoftwaremobile

Technology struggles to beat thieves

This image courtesy of Omnicell shows a nurse accessing an automated medication dispensary using her fingerprint to gain access to the system. A touch screen shows the nurse the medications that have been ordered for each patient. The cabinet lights up to show where the medications are located in the cabinet, and the system keeps track of the inventory levels so they can be restocked before they run too low.(Photo: Omnicell) Narcotics are as old as the Sumerians who cultivated opium from poppies in 3400 BC, and so is the use of narcotics by healers. Today, nurses have the most contact with drugs in the health care workplace — and the most opportunities to steal them, an infraction the industry calls "diversion." "Nurses are the No. 1 care provider with regular access to controlled substances," said Kimberly New, a medication security consultant and executive board member of the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators. "We detect a lot more nurses than pharmacy staff diverting medications in inpatient settings." Storing, charting, counting and administering drugs are part of almost every nurse's duties. Patients need medication, and they need it often. Care you receive in a modern professional medical facility usually includes them. But even though the core duties of a nurse are similar from facility to facility, no two workplaces seem to handle drug tracking, reporting and security the same way. DIFFERENT SECURITY SYSTEMS If the nurse works somewhere other than a hospital, such as a long-term care facility, chances are the medications are stored in an old-style cabinet that uses metal keys, two of them, to unlock the doors. The cabinet usually is in a room that itself is locked, and has a locked refrigerator to hold perishable drugs. It's the easiest setup to game. and also the most time-consuming and mistake-prone, because of the way the medications are tracked. The nurse has to manually record a host of details each time a drug is removed from the cabinet — date, time, name of patient and much more. At the end of the shift, the incoming nurse hand-counts the narcotics in the presence of the outgoing nurse, who verifies the count, almost like when convenience store clerks change shifts and count register drawers. As Xerox is to copiers, so Pyxis is to medicine carts, another common way medications are dispensed. While Pyxis offers newer models with updates, their older carts — which many facilities still use — have drawers for each patient's medications and don't feature higher-end technology. With a manual entry each time a drug is dispensed and a manual count at the end of the nurse's shift, they are also easy to trick. AUTOMATION BRINGS POWER The state-of-the-art technology used by roughly 80 percent of acute-care hospitals involves an automated dispensing machine, similar to a vending machine, that requires a barcode or a username and password to gain access to the medication drawers. Hospitals can set up the system so nurses are able to access only the medication for their assigned patients. From a patient safety perspective, the real breakthrough comes with the software. In Fishersville, Augusta Health upgraded this year to an automated dispensing solution from Omnicell that creates a transaction record each time medication is dispensed. Originally developed to save hospitals time by eliminating hand counts, the electronic records have become a valuable security tool, allowing a nursing or pharmacy director to isolate suspicious dispensing patterns to a particular caregiver. "The technology allows us to run reports at the end of each shift to reconcile all the medications," Augusta Health spokeswoman Lisa Schwenk said. If there's a discrepancy, the software can analyze the transaction data and generate red flags — for example, a nurse with a high number of morphine transactions compared with others on the unit, signals possible theft or error. USING THE TOOLS New previously oversaw a diversion program at University of Tennessee Medical Center that used Pandora analytics software. At one of the hospitals where New worked, she saw one nurse climb to the top of the chart. "She was a new employee and had just been through orientation," New recalled. "She immediately started diverting Percocet by taking doses that were never documented." Using her analytic tools, New typically found nurses stealing medicine once or twice a month. "Diversion is universal, so if you don't catch it in a year, it's a reason to look at your process," she said. In addition to causing pain, worsening health and even death, drug "diversion" costs consumers money every time they're charged for medications they didn't receive. Hospitals can, if they choose, use their transaction reports to correct the patient's bill if diversion occurs. All the required data is already there — patient name, data, time, medication, dose — and can be exported to the billing department to reverse the charge. HIGHEST RISK DRUGS The Drug Enforcement Administration "schedules" drugs partly according to their potential for abuse and addiction. Most health care facilities take security measures for drugs in Schedules II through V. Schedule I drugs aren't used in a medical setting in Virginia. •Schedule I: Heroin, marijuana and other non-prescribed opiates •Schedule II: Prescription opiates and amphetamines such as morphine and fentanyl, as well as methadone, Ritalin, oxycodone and high doses of codeine •Schedule III: Steroids and barbiturates such as buprenorphine and paregoric tend to lead to psychological dependence when abused. Physical dependency is less intense. •Schedule IV: Some barbiturates and partial opioids are rated less potentially addicting than Schedule III drugs, including Xanax, Librium, and Valium and Ambien •Schedule V: The least risky substances such as certain cough suppressants that include opiates in low doses to treat common ailments Read or Share this story: http://www.newsleader.com/story/news/special-reports/2014/12/05/addicted-nurses-technology-struggles-beat-thieves/19907913/

2015 Technology Showcase at NAIAS Offers Street-Level View of the Future

DETROIT, Dec. 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovation will be front and center at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) when the inaugural NAIAS Technology Showcase looks at the integration of technology and the automotive industry during Press Preview and Industry Preview. The effort, which will take place Jan. 12-15, in Hall E at Cobo Center in Detroit, will focus on many of the flash-forward technologies that will impact connectivity, automation and efficiency in the next generations of vehicles. The 2015 Technology Showcase will offer companies from around the world a forum for exhibiting breakthrough technologies, providing product demonstrations, revealing fresh designs and participating in panel discussions. Scheduled activities include: Hyper-connected automotive technology that will explore autonomous vehicles, the Intelligent Transportation System and new heights of fuel efficiency Some of the companies on display include: Alpine Electronics, ASC, Covisint, Modern Car Safety Technologies, NextEnergy, Ricardo, Square One, Mojio, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and others A spotlight on Michigan-based companies that are leading the way in developing and producing advanced vehicle technologies with assistance from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation Opportunities for media and enthusiasts to meet leaders in manufacturing and technology along with futurist thinkers during panel discussions and seminars planned for Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015 Two key symposia already on the docket are: "Ignition," a joint NAIAS/Crain's Detroit Business event that will offer Detroit entrepreneurs a chance to present their technology ideas to a panel of judges before an audience of investors, financiers, attorneys and academics in the mode of television's reality show, "Shark-Tank" AutoBeat Group's "Meeting the Mobility Challenge," a free symposium about the challenges of making the connected car a reality In addition, attendees will be able to ride along in the world's first full-size, working 3-D-printed car. Called the Strati, the game-changing vehicle is the brainchild of Phoenix-based Local Motors, a technology company that designs, builds, and sells vehicles. Local Motors will premiere a mid-model refresh of the car after a live demonstration of the three-phased, micro-manufacturing process on the main show floor. Phase 1 includes 3D-printing the vehicle structure, which takes approximately 40 hours of continuous printing on a Big Area Additive Manufacturing machine. During Phase 2, the vehicle is milled. During Phase 3, the final phase of the process, the car is then rapidly assembled. Attendees will be able to ride in the made-from-scratch automobile on the Shell Innovation Track located in the Technology Showcase in Hall E starting on Monday, January 12, 2015. The Shell Innovation Track, sponsored by Shell Oil Company (shell.com), will be the launch pad for vehicle demonstrations, student competitions and other industry exhibits. Part of a global group of energy and petrochemical companies in more than 70 countries, Shell is a key player in the future of the auto industry. (Note: The track will test Tec Pro racing barriers that will be used when Shell returns to the Motor City in April to host the Shell Eco-marathon. This event on the streets of Detroit will challenge students to build cars that can reach 2,800 mpg.) Students from the University of Michigan, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Michigan State University, Lawrence Technological University, Wayne State University and the College for Creative Studies will participate in a variety of displays and demonstrations including solar technology, racing performance, fuel mileage efficiency and automotive design. Credentialed media will have access to both Press Preview and Industry Preview. Others will need to purchase tickets for Industry Preview. Tickets are $95 per day and are available online now at naias.com. About the North American International Auto Show Now in its 27th year as an international event, the NAIAS is among the most prestigious auto shows in the world, providing unparalleled access to the automotive products, people and ideas that matter most - up close and in one place. Administered by Executive Director Rod Alberts, the NAIAS is one of the largest media events in North America, and the only auto show in the United States to earn an annual distinguished sanction of the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles, the Paris-based alliance of automotive trade associations and manufacturers from around the world. Follow us for highlights and updates!Facebook: likeautoshow.com Twitter: @NAIASDetroit Hashtag: #NAIASSubscribe for the latest news on naias.com Press Preview - Mon-Tue, Jan. 12-13, 2015Industry Preview - Wed-Thu, Jan. 14-15, 2015Charity Preview - Fri, Jan. 16, 2015Public Show - Sat-Sun, Jan. 17-25, 2015 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090903/DE70318LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2015-technology-showcase-at-naias-offers-street-level-view-of-the-future-300005540.html SOURCE North American International Auto Show

On Smaller Farms, Including Organic Farms, Technology and Tradition Meet

Photo On the Farmhack.net website, enterprising farmers share tools and innovations. On the Farmhack.net website, enterprising farmers share tools and innovations.Credit I spent yesterday morning at a remarkable meeting of young farmers meshing tradition and technology to sustain healthy soils and produce bountiful crops in a changing economy and climate. They had gathered for a “pre conference” ahead of the seventh Young Farmers Conference hosted by the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in the lower Hudson Valley the rest of this week. A recurring theme was that the best way to sustain America’s smaller farms, both organic and conventional, is through an intensified focus on technology. You can follow the meeting over the next couple of days through the hashtag #YFC14. But I also recommend tracking #FarmHack. This is the Twitter tag for an idea-sharing network of farmer-tinkerers devising everything from a remotely-monitored compost thermometer to an electric-powered rolling platform that one lies on while weeding (organic farms, eschewing herbicides, need other methods). Farmhack is also a website through which farmers are sharing tools and methods with their peers — very much akin to Digital Green‘s use of YouTube in India to connect farmers. Both of these portals, along with the Stone Barns “Virtual Grange,” are not doing anything new. For centuries, farmers have shared ideas and lessons learned at the market or grange hall or seed store. These portals are simply greatly expanding the reach of such knowledge networks. The “knowosphere” has arrived on the farm. Given the aging of America’s farmers, it’s inspiring to see a new generation seeking ways to sustain productive landscapes. I was at the conference to run a panel on “no-till” strategies for limiting plowing and the resulting erosion, water problems and compaction of soils. This is an approach to agriculture that I first wrote about in 1983 in the context of an effective but dangerous herbicide, Paraquat. At the industrial scale, the simplest path to limiting plowing has long been to spray this or another non-persistent weed killer on a field and plant directly into the stubble. Our discussion centered on strategies focused on mechanical means of suppressing weeds or the use of secondary (or “cover”) crops. The panelists were Anu Rangarajan, the director of the new Hudson Valley Farm Hub in Kingston, N.Y., Dorn Cox, a New Hampshire farmer focused on sustaining farming through social and technological innovation, Timothy LaSalle, an expert in soil restoration and health. Rangarajan and Cox, both of whom work with both conventional and organic farmers, stressed that an engineering approach to solving challenges like weed control is increasingly important. Rangarajan mentioned new satellite-navigating robots, for example, that boost efficiency and cut soil loss by dispersing seed for a cover crop between rows of corn plants well before the corn is harvested. This is what one such device, made by Rowbot, looks like: Here’s more on robots down on the farm. But, again, such technology is mainly limited to big operations for now. She and Cox were echoed by Jack Algiere, who manages Stone Barns extensive farm operation. This Saturday, he’s hosting a technology and tools workshop for some of the farmer attendees. There’s plenty of technology being deployed on the country’s big heartland farms, as Quentin Hardy recently reported for The Times. But in a brief hallway chat Algiere told me there is a big gap that needs filling. There’s a substantial market for small-scale versions of sophisticated gear that is already made for industrial-scale farms, but few companies or entrepreneurs are focused there (which is one reason Farm Hack exists). Here’s more on the role of new technology in service of sustainable harvests, from a piece written recently for the Stone Barns website by Jane Black, a Brooklyn-based food writer: Americans love technology. And yet, when it comes to farming, we expect the new generation of farmers to go back in time, shunning the power of satellite GPS, Web-based apps, and robotics. On popular food news sites, there’s a lot more talk about tractor-free no-till farming than there is about how to harness big data to fight climate change or the enormous potential of anaerobic digestion. In the minds of many, technology is inextricably linked with industrial farming; they cannot imagine how it can be used for good. But for farmers–especially small farmers–technology is essential for environmental and financial sustainability. “We’re at the beginning of the greatest transformation of our food system since the Green Revolution: the information revolution,” says Danielle Gould, the founder of Food + Tech Connect, which helps food and agriculture startups create a better future for food. “There is a misconception that technology equals agribusiness. But technology also has the potential to level the playing field for small and mid-sized farms, by making it easier for them to manage operations, better utilize resources and sell their products.” There are some technologies specifically geared for small farmers. Most are Web-based: AgSquared, for example, helps vegetable farmers plan and keep track of plantings, harvests, and yields. Farmeron offers similar services for small livestock farms. What there isn’t is much high-tech equipment for small farms: No small, lightweight tractors or inexpensive cooling systems that could make small farms more competitive. Companies that make wheelchairs and fancy zero-turn lawn mowers have the capabilities, says Stone Barns Four-season Farm Director Jack Algiere. The problem is that small-scale agriculture just isn’t a big enough market for companies to bother with. The result is that farmers are forced to retrofit old lawnmowers and 1950s refrigerators to approximate what they need. Efforts to develop small-scale, affordable technology are growing. In partnership with design engineer Barry Griffin, Stone Barns has identified 34 appropriate-scale tools for small, sustainable farms. The first project is a small electric tractor—the TC-30—that will serve as the “motherboard” frame to which other tools can be attached. Up next: a solar-powered Horse Tractor and compressed-air grain harvester and processor. Farm Hack has a similar aim. Founded in 2010, the online and real-world community of farmers, designers, and engineers has worked to develop and build open-source tools that are affordable, adaptable, and easy to fix. Its successes include ideas as varied as a pedal-powered root washer and an electronic fence that can be controlled by text message. But there is still much work to be done. Small farmers need the attention of university researchers, who for half a century have worked all but exclusively to find ways for big farms to increase yields. Today, those researchers are looking at sustainability—it’s called “precision agriculture” in the trade–but their focus remains laser-focused on industrial farms. [Read the rest here.] In discussion this issue with Rangarajan, I couldn’t help bringing up the remarkable Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute engineering program not far from her Farm Hub operation. As I wrote in 2012, Rensselaer has extensive programs focused on aiding regional business with technological challenges. Imagine if student teams in the school’s Design, Innovation, and Society program spent some time with local farmers. I’m a matchmaker at heart and could see a fruitful exchange developing.

Percentile and Torstone partner to offer integrated risk, finance, back & middle office technology solutions

Percentile, providers of technology for risk management and regulatory compliance, and Torstone Technology, providers of securities and derivatives processing software to the global financial markets, today announced a partnership to offer seamless solutions across risk, middle & back office and accounting for financial institutions. The Partnership will see Percentile’s RiskMine platform integrate with Torstone’s Inferno system to reduce risks, improve efficiencies and enable seamless regulatory and management reporting. Percentile’s RiskMine platform delivers cross-asset, enterprise-grade technology focused on risk management for financial institutions. The modular platform is designed to aggregate firm-wide market and credit risk exposures across all business lines, offering automated market data cleaning, a wide-ranging and sophisticated scenario generation engine and distributed pricing architecture for internal and regulatory calculations. Torstone’s award-winning Inferno is a complete securities and derivatives post trade processing system; it integrates the middle & back office and accounting functions for multiple asset classes and business types into a single coherent system, to support operations, finance, middle office, treasury, risk and compliance. Its real-time, event-driven, service-orientated and scalable architecture helps firms to achieve very high rates of STP and react to new market changes in a timely manner. Brian Collings, Torstone Technology CEO said “We constantly hear of disjointed, manual processes in preparing key risk and capital requirements for senior management. This exciting partnership will improve control and reduce this complexity for our clients. In today’s highly regulated landscape there is immense pressure from regulators to ensure consistent risk and financial numbers. Having technology in place which ensures this, on an ongoing basis, will improve operating efficiency. Costs will be reduced as clients are able to combine regulatory and management reporting.” Anthony Pereira, Percentile’s founder and CEO, added: “We have a long history of working with the Torstone team and our technologies complement each other perfectly. Financial institutions have a history of fragmented post-trade activity working off badly integrated components. RiskMine’s integration with Inferno showcases the benefits of having Risk and Finance technology seamlessly working together.”

If You Are Looking Forward To Know More About The Significance of Book And Microfilm Scanners

Book and microfilms scanners belong to such an unfamiliar territory of machines that most of the people do not understand them properly. This is why; we at Ristech have taken it upon ourselves to get people familiar with this process. The whole thing may seem to be a bit too much at first or complete wastage of money, but that is not the case. In order to understand the concept properly, one needs to know about book scanners and microfilm scanners. These are basically machines which helps you to take care of and preserve various vulnerable documents. We at Ristech have been trying to make people come into terms with things as book scanning and microfilm scanning. We understand that, certain things are extremely important to you, but despite that, due to their vulnerable nature, it is not possible to preserve them easily. We bring particularly that opportunity to you. It is our duty to make sure that, all our clients are getting this opportunity without spending too much money and after having a long experience in this area, we are more than capable to provide these services. We are providing technological solutions to institutions like libraries and large offices from last 17 years to make life a tad bit easier for them. It may still sound a bit too much, but with a little more patience on your part, things can change for better. We in our website have made it quite clear that these things can be used for preserving documents, microfilms and such. All these things can have more emotional value sometimes and some other times we understand that they stand for your heritage a legacy. These are certain things which are quite important in anyone's life. As a result, we at Ristech have devised our book scanners and microfilm scanners to help people who are looking forward to preserve things which are so important. We are looking forward to work with you and providing with the chance that will allow you to achieve such things. It will be our pleasure at Ristech to help you anyway we can.