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Car insurance and winter driving | Auto Car Design

For example, did you prepare your vehicle for facing bad weather conditions? After all, it?s predictable there will be snow and ice in winter. So did you fit new tires so you would have the maximum possible traction in slippery conditions? Or did you remember to put chains in the trunk so that, when the snow gets deeper, you can still drive reasonably safely? We all know the risk of sliding or skidding out of control. Why then do we fail to take action to protect ourselves and other road users? There are probably several reasons, not the least of which are that this means spending money on buying the chains, some think it inconvenient to fit them, and you cannot drive fast when you have them fitted. The fact local governments may require chains to be fitted as a condition to using the roads in some areas is not considered a reason for action (curiously, there are no chain laws in Florida and Missouri ? strange oversight).

Then we come to all those routine maintenance tasks like adding antifreeze and retuning the engine so it?s more likely to start when the temperature drops. Did you fit new blades on the windshield to give you better visibility when there?s snow fall or a blizzard? And then we come to all the steps to protect you should your vehicle break down or be involved in an accident. Do you have an emergency bag packed with warm clothing and blankets should you need to keep warm while rescue comes? You did remember to charge your cell so you could call for help? If you are making a trip cross-country where signal strength may be low, did you tell people when you were expected so they could send out search and rescue teams?

All these things are basic common sense yet, when the first snows hit, we seem to have forgotten to prepare. If accidents are more likely because of this failure and it?s shown to be a regular failure, your car insurance rates will rise. If you have been making claims, the car insurance quotes coming in from other insurers will not be welcoming. No insurer wants to take on someone who fails to prepare in the face of obvious dangers. That?s why insurers in the states where the weather is worst offer discounts for drivers who go on defensive driving courses and learn how to drive more safely. Your choice!

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This entry was posted on May 30, 2012, 11:32 am and is filed under Auto Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Google's Steve Lee talks about the history and future of Project Glass

Details on Google's Project Glass haven't been the easiest thing to come by since the wearable computing effort was announced earlier this year, but Google execs have been getting a bit more talkative and eager to give demonstrations as of late. You can now add product lead Steve Lee to that list, who's given a fairly wide-ranging interview to Fast Company on the project's origins and its future. Not surprisingly, he confirmed that the early prototypes were a fair bit bulkier -- starting a laptop in a backpack -- and that even the current prototypes are still "very early," although they do handle more than just photos (he gives Maps as one example). Lee does see photo-taking as a "key aspect" to the device, though.

He also cast some doubt on initial reports that the devices would be available this year for between $250 and $600, saying that would be "pretty aggressive timing," but he also noted that he "wouldn't be on this project if it was like a five-year endeavor." As for the future, he says that contact lenses with the technology is a natural evolution but a definite "long-term thing," and that a nearer term goal is to "serve everyone and make this is a universal device," adding that they've "prototyped lots of different form factors to accommodate all those folks." All of that comes just from the first part of a two-part interview, though -- the rest is promised later this week.

Google's Steve Lee talks about the history and future of Project Glass originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 May 2012 16:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Inexpensive Artemide Lamps - Media Home Improvement

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My Wealth Builder: The Wealth Builder Carnival #78

Welcome to the seventy-eighth edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival. The purpose of this carnival is to collect articles from the blogosphere on building, preserving and keeping enough wealth for a comfortable retirement. For reference, I have tried to keep the carnival content tightly focused on wealth building and did not include submissions that were off topic. For reading convenience, the posts are listed with a brief summary or comment by the submitter and organized into seven categories: Earning, Insuring and Protecting, Investing, Living Frugally, Retiring, Saving and Taxes.? Blog Carnival is having technical issues again, which may have reduced the number of submissions for this week.

And now on to the Carnival:

Earning

Theresa Torres presents Summer Opportunities for Students posted at CreditDonkey.com Tips, saying, "The summer months presents many opportunities for students wanting to get ahead. Here are some ways they can take advantage of them."

Jon Rhodes presents Should I Submit To Directories? posted at Affiliate Help!, saying, "This articled discusses whether submitting your web site or blog to directories will help them earn more."

Kerin Gedge presents Kerinthian's: Pimp My Twenty Bucks - Part One posted at Kerinthian's, saying, "Here's a humoristic look at my approach to making some extra cash using online trading sites like eBay. Its part one in a series as I'll actually be trialling my method as?I go..."

Insuring and Protecting

Matt Black presents How to Save Up To $600 a Year on Auto Insurance posted at First Car Insurance Quotes, saying, "Owning a car is something that we often take for granted. The convenience of driving to and from work, collecting kids from school and a trip to the mall is a part of everyday life and we tend to forget about car insurance. That is until the time comes for it to be renewed."

Investing

Dr. Dean presents Are You An Investing Scaredy Cat? posted at Dr. Dean's TheMillionaireNurse.com Blog, saying, "Risks and rewards in investing...Do you understand them? What makes people sell when they should buy?"

Dividends4Life presents Pepsico, Inc. (PEP) Dividend Stock Analysis posted at Dividend Growth Stocks, saying, "PepsiCo, Inc. is a major international producer of branded beverage and snack food products. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary."

Living Frugally

Super Saver presents Math Challenged Marketers posted at My Wealth Builder, saying, "Surprise! Sometimes the price of the larger size is cheaper than the smaller size."

Taxes

John presents Are Austria & Luxembourg Hurting American Taxpayers? posted at Wallet Blog, saying, "As evidenced by the recession, personal finance and global finance have become increasingly inseparable. The policies of one country ultimately affect the economies of others, and therefore affect the personal finances of the individual citizens of those countries. So why would anyone approve of a policy that supports tax evasion, promotes criminal activity and adds to economic strain?"

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: the wealth builder carnival, blog carnival.??

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial, earning, insuring, investing, living, retiring, saving, tax, or wealth building advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright ? 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

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Sam Sommers: The Native American Mascot: Tribute or Stereotype?

In yet another chapter of a continuing debate, the State of Oregon announced last week that its public schools must discontinue the use of Native American nicknames and mascots. The Board of Education gave state schools until 2017 to stop using team names such as "Indians," "Chiefs," "Braves," and "Redskins." Other names such as "Warriors" will still be permitted, provided that no imagery is used referring to a particular tribe, custom, or individual.

Predictably, reaction to the order has been mixed.

Supporters of the ban assert that even if the schools that use them harbor no ill-intent, the images themselves are caricatures that perpetuate stereotypes. Opponents of the ban suggest that these names celebrate, rather than disparage Native American culture. And fans of the slippery slope argument would ask what, then, of the other sports nicknames that make reference to a particular group of people, whether in terms of region of origin (Vikings, Fighting Irish, Celtics), religion (Quakers, Saints), or occupation (Boilermakers, Engineers)?

For many people the debate comes down to one question: tribute or stereotype? And some would suggest that this is a question best posed to Native Americans directly, including the NCAA, which has previously ordered schools to change their nickname unless they can demonstrate approval from the local tribe in question.

But there's also another, arguably more compelling way to answer this question: look to the data. What, specifically, are the psychological implications of these nicknames and mascots?

A few years ago, researchers at Arizona, Stanford, and Michigan conducted a series of studies to find out. Their first experiment found evidence to support the idea that sports mascots can be a source of pride in Native American communities. In this study, high school students on an Indian reservation in Arizona who read a brief paragraph about the use of these mascots (accompanied by a photo of Chief Wahoo, the smiling logo of the Cleveland Indians) subsequently used more positive words when asked to write down their first thoughts that came to mind in describing Native Americans.

This finding indicates that mascot representations are not always regarded as negative -- and that surveys of members of Native American communities may very well indicate explicit support for the nicknames. But the question remains, what of the psychological effects of these mascots on Native American individuals? On this count, the data are not so kind to the pro-mascot case.

In follow-up studies, the same researchers again presented high school respondents with various passages and images related to Native Americans. After reading about mascots (and seeing Chief Wahoo), Native American respondents scored lower on an individual self-esteem questionnaire, as well as a measure of their sense of community worth (i.e., feelings of respect and a sense of value towards Native Americans). In fact, scores for self- and community-worth were even lower among students who had seen Chief Wahoo than they were among those who read about the common depiction of Native American communities as suffering from high rates of alcoholism, suicide, and teen pregnancy.

Perhaps most problematically, in a final study a variety of Native American mascots were shown to different groups of college student respondents. Afterward, students were asked to write about what their life would be like in one year. Those Native American students exposed to mascots were significantly less likely to use achievement-related language in anticipating their future than were students in a control condition. That is, having seen and read about mascots, Native Americans became less likely to make achievement-related predictions for themselves regarding good grades, graduating, finding a job, etc.

The data from these studies are consistent with the idea that these mascots are often viewed positively, even by members of Native American communities. At the same time, they are also consistent with the conclusion that there are negative psychological consequences to such mascots, even if those who experience these consequences can't or won't articulate them when asked.

(And, of course, there are yet other questions to be asked about the effects of such mascots. For example, to what extent do they attenuate versus exaggerate racial stereotypes held by White people? In a separate investigation published in 2011, a different set of researchers concluded that Native American mascots activated negative, but not positive, stereotypes among Whites.)

In the end, these data pose a problem for claims that these mascots are honorific and likely to enhance the self-esteem of Native Americans. Even when that is (or has recently become) the motivation behind a team name, such good intent is not sufficient to bring about good outcomes. As the authors of the paper described above explain, "American Indian mascots do not have negative consequences because their content or meaning is inherently negative. Rather... [the mascots] remind American Indians of the limited ways in which others see them."

Like this post? Then check out the website for Sam's new book, Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World, (now available!). You can also follow Sam on Facebook here and on Twitter here. Book trailer video below:

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Follow Sam Sommers on Twitter: www.twitter.com/samsommers

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New-paradigm globalisation and networked FDI: Evidence from Japan

International trade theory is going through another revolution ? the third in three decades. The first came in the 1980s ( ?new trade theory?) when Paul Krugman, Elhanan Helpman, Victor Norman, Tony Venables and Jim Brander opened the black box of the production possibility frontier. They allow for firms and increasing returns to scale; this massively extended the real-world relevance of trade theory.

The second revolution (?new new trade theory?) came when Marc Melitz (2003) opened the black box further by allowing for firm-level productivity differences. Antr?s (2003) contributed to this by opening up the black box of firm organisation. Again, these developments tremendously boosted the ability of theory to address important aspects of reality.
More recently, a new theoretical innovation (dare one call it new-trade cubed?) did it once again. The new perspective ? sometimes called new-paradigm globalisation ? opens up the black box of production function, allowing for potentially internationalised supply chains. While this perspective goes way back, a recent rash of theory and empirical work shows that this ?new-paradigm globalisation? has incredibly important implications for policy and empirics.¹

A few years ago, one of us argued that the big difference between old and new paradigm globalisation was the driving force (Baldwin 2006). Old-paradigm globalisation focuses on lower trade costs; the new paradigm focuses on coordination costs ? the information and communication technology (ICT) revolution in particular. Lower coordination costs made it feasible to geographically unbundle production stages and wage differences made it profitable. This ?second unbundling? transformed international commerce as the sorts of flows that used to be contained inside factories now became international. Many US-based scholars have focused on wage implications most notably Grossman and Rossi-Hansberg (2008). But the second unbundling ? variously known as offshoring, vertical specialisation, fragmentation, etc. ? has many other implications for empirical work and policy making.

In a recent paper, we turn the new-paradigm focus to FDI theory (Baldwin and Okubo 2012). Canonical thinking about FDI distinguishes two main types: horizontal and vertical (Markusen 1984 and Helpman 1984).

• Horizontal FDI in the former is said to be ?market seeking?;
• Vertical FDI is ?efficiency seeking?.

Empirical tests typically search for FDI motives by considering whether FDI activity is greatest between large nations (market seeking), or nations with big endowment and/or factor prices differences (efficiency seeking) (Carr et al. 2001, Blonigen et al. 2003). The two have been synthesised and enriched to include export platform FDI (Markusen and Venables 2000, Yeaple 2003, Ekholm et al. 2007). Grossman, Helpman and Szeidle (2006) generalise these results by allowing a richer range of multinational activities that can be called complex FDI.

Our paper contributes to this by using firm-level data on the sales and sourcing patterns of Japanese affiliates in all industries in all nations to suggests that very little FDI falls neatly into any of the standard bins, i.e. horizontal, vertical or export platform. We find that most affiliates are buying some, but not all, of their intermediates from abroad and selling some, but not all of their output abroad. We refer to this FDI as ?networked FDI? since the evidence is that these affiliates are operating as nodes in regional production networks. Moreover, we show that this aspect of the data became much stronger from 1996 to 2005.

We suggest that a very natural way to test FDI theories is to use the sales and sourcing patterns of affiliates. We also argue that the location and nature of FDI activity depends upon third-country effects of two types ? basically the international equivalent of backward and forward linkages. The first, forward linkages, suggests that FDI production is favoured by locations near many large markets ? perhaps measured by some sort of market potential index for the host nation (Baltagi et al. 2005). The second, backward linkages, suggest that FDI production is favoured by proximity to masses of similar activity in both the host nation and nearby nations. This might be measured by some sort of host-nation-specific price index for intermediates and they have not, to our knowledge, been explored empirically or theoretically.

Taken together, the two third-nation effects suggest that the location and nature of FDI activity is influenced by something that might be called ?regional comparative advantage?. For example, even if Cambodia and Uganda had identical national policies, endowments, and market size, Cambodia?s proximity to massive manufacturing activity creates backward and forward linkages that make FDI more attractive in Cambodia than in Uganda. The policy implications of these observations are clear. Policies that worked in East Asia must be rethought before applying them to very different regions such as Latin America, Central Asia, and Africa.

New-paradigm globalisation suggests that we view FDI as part of the second unbundling. This, in turn, suggests a perspective that focuses on each affiliate?s sales and sourcing pattern (Figure 1). The existing classifications are corner solutions: Pure horizontal FDI is the northeast corner; pure vertical FDI is the eastern border; pure export platform FDI is the southwest corner.

Figure 1. The sales-sourcing box diagram

Using an aggregated version of Japan?s firm-level data, we plot the Japanese affiliates in the sales-sourcing box diagram (sub-sector averages). We do this for 1996 (Figure 2) and 2005 (Figure 3). Plainly, three categories can?t cover the full range of reality.

Figure 2. Sales and sourcing by sector, 1996

As production unbundling advanced, the sales-sourcing pattern of Japanese FDI changes dramatically, as the comparison between 1996 and 2005 shows. Although the sector classifications changed between the two years, the broad picture is clear ? most sectors saw a decrease in the local sourcing of intermediates.

Figure 3. Sales and sourcing Japanese affiliates, all host nations, 2005

In particular, Figure 3 shows the emergence of what we called ?networked FDI? ? i.e. FDI where the affiliates import substantial shares of their intermediates and export substantial shares of their output. In this sense, trade and investment became far more entwined between 1996 and 2005. Figure 4 ? taken from the recent METI White Paper (2012) ? shows the evolution over time for three important sectors.

Figure 4. Evolution of sales and sourcing in Asian affiliates

Of course, this is a very rough classification and many nuances are hidden by this presentation, but it does serve to illustrate the point ? first made by Hanson et al. (2001) ? that the standard horizontal or vertical thinking is inadequate for understanding the behaviour of FDI.

In our paper, we find large regional variations among the three major host regions ? Asia, North America and the EU. The North American sales-sourcing patterns are strikingly different in terms of the dominance of local sales.

The dominance on the theory side of North-American inspired modelling and on the empirical side by US multinationals data has resulted in a belief that FDI is mostly motivated by ?horizontal? or market-seeking goals. Our research suggests that this is almost exactly wrong in the Japanese data.

Our divergent conclusions stem from two key differences. First, we note that the standard view is based on a rather indirect empirical strategy when it comes to testing FDI theories. Most papers seek to determine whether FDI activity (typically affiliate sales) are stimulated by market-seeking motives (horizontal) or efficiency-seeking motives (vertical), or a combination of the two (complex FDI) using macro data (GDP, endowments, etc) not micro data. We suggest that a very literal reading of the theory points to a very different empirical levers for distinguishing horizontal and vertical FDI, namely the sales and sourcing patterns of affiliates. We argue that affiliates? purchases of non-local intermediate goods (despite positive trade costs) indicates that it is cheaper to undertake some but not all production stages in the host nation. Likewise, exports back to the home country despite trade costs suggest that separating manufacturing stages lowers the cost of production. Likewise, the share of affiliate sales to the local market are perhaps the most natural indicator of horizontal FDI, with pure horizontal FDI requiring 100% local sales.

Using these levers, we find three key findings.

• FDI in almost all sectors and almost all nations involves some ?vertical-ness?, and some ?horizontal-ness?.
• In many nations and many sectors, the Japanese affiliates have sales and sourcing patterns that suggest that individual affiliates are part of a production network.

This ?networked FDI? may be a very interesting phenomenon to study from a theory, empirical and policy point of view since it suggests that ?regional comparative advantage? (basically third-nation effects on the supply and demand sides) may be an important consideration in crafting and evaluating national FDI policies.

• Our data systematically show affiliates in North American have quite different sales-sourcing patterns compared to those in Asia and Europe.

Specifically affiliates in North American have sales-sourcing patterns that are far more in line with horizontal FDI than those in Asia and Europe. This suggests that strong conclusions from US data may have to be tempered before they are applied to the rest of the world ? especially developing nations.

Antras, Pol (2003). "Firms, Contracts, and Trade Structure",?Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 118, No. 4, November 2003, pp. 1375-1418.

Baldwin, Richard & Robert-Nicoud, Fr?d?ric, 2010. "Trade-in-goods and trade-in-tasks: An Integrating Framework", CEPR Discussion Paper 7775.

Baldwin, Richard (2006). ?Globalisation: the great unbundling(s)?, in Globalisation challenges for Europe, Secretariat of the Economic Council, Finnish Prime Minister?s Office, Helsinki, 2006, pp 5-47.

Baltagi, Badi, Peter Egger, and Michael Pfaffermayr (2005). ?Estimating models of complex FDI: Are there third-country effects??, Center for Policy Research working paper 1525-3066, Syracuse University.

Carr, David L., James R. Markusen, and Keith E. Maskus (2001). ?Estimating the Knowledge-capital Model of the Multinational Enterprise?,?American Economic Review 91, pp 693?708.

Deardorff, Alan V. (1998a). ?Fragmentation in Simple Trade Models?, RSIE Discussion Paper 422, University of Michigan, January 8, 1998.

Deardorff, Alan V. (1998b). ?Fragmentation across cones?, RSIE Discussion Paper 427, Discussion Paper 427, August 7, 1998.

Dixit, Avinash and Gene M. Grossman, (1982), ?Trade and Protection with Multi-Stage Production?,?Review of Economic Studies, 49:4, 583-594.

Gene M. Grossman & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2008. "Trading Tasks: A Simple Theory of Offshoring",?American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1978-97, December.

Hanson, Gordon, Raymond Mataloni and Matthew Slaughter (2001). "Expansion Strategies of U.S. Multinational Firms," in Dani Rodrik and Susan Collins (eds.) Brookings Trade Forum 2001, Brookings Institution Press.

Grossman, Gene, Elhanan Helpman and Adam Szeidle (2006). ?Optimal Integration Strategies for the Multinational Firm?, Journal of International Economics 70: 216-238, 2006.?

Jones, Ronald W. and Henryk Kierzkowski (1990): ?The Role of Services in Production and International Trade: A Theoretical Framework?, in Ronald Jones and Anne Krueger, eds., The Political Economy of International Trade, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.

Markusen, J., Venables, A., 2000. "The theory of endowment, intra-industry and multinational trade",?Journal of International Economics 52, 209?234.

Melitz, M. J. (2003). ?The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity?,?Econometrica 71:1695-1725.

Venables, Anthony (1999). ?Fragmentation and multinational production?,?European Economic Review 43, 935-945.

Yeaple, S.R., 2003. "The complex integration strategies of multinationals and cross country dependencies in the structure of foreign direct investment",?Journal of International Economics 60 (2), 293?314.

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1Heckscher-Ohlin theory did incorporated trade in intermediate goods (Batra and Casas 1973, Woodland 1977, and Dixit and Grossman 1982), but the most commonly cited reference in the offshoring/fragmentation literature was, until recently, Jones and Kierzkowski (1990). Subsequent theory includes Deardorff (1989a, b), Venables (1999), Kohler (2004a), Markusen (2006), Grossman and Rossi-Hansberg (2006a,b) Rodr?guez-Clare (2007), and Antr?s et al. (2006). See Baldwin and Robert-Nicoud (2010) for an integration of the various contributions.

This article may be reproduced with appropriate attribution. See Copyright (below).

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Use Quality Qualys Security Products | Home Improvement ...

IT infrastructure of all companies forms an integral part of the day to day running of businesses. In this era of e-commerce only a strong IT infrastructure can guarantee success of an organization. Today most transactions are affected over the internet. Potential customers visit online sites and order for goods and services. They pay through credit cards and debit cards and need to divulge their sensitive information to the companies they are dealing with. It is the responsibility of the said company to ensure that their network is secure and that the sensitive information that is divulged to them by the customers is safe in their database. Qualys deals in network security products and you can obtain their on-demand security services to secure your organization?s network from being hacked.

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This entry was posted in Security and tagged Qualys, security. Bookmark the permalink.

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Business process outsourcing companies help organizations ...

Efficiently managed back office activities are crucial to any business. All types of organizations continue to realize the benefits of business process outsourcing services to manage their non-core tasks. Business process outsourcing companies help organizations improve back office efficiency by providing them with error-free, timely and cost-effective solutions for a whole range of activities ? from data entry to document conversion, forms processing, transcription and HR solutions.

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Document conversion: Also offered along with the entry of data, are services for converting documents into any required format. This would include conversion of HTML to PDF, any format to image, OCR, HTML to XML conversion, RTF to PDF conversion, XML to DBF conversion, XML to SGML conversion, XML to Word conversion, DBF to XLS conversion, and much more.

Document scanning: This is an important back office activity that helps an organization save space, safeguard their important documents and retrieve them easily. All documents are scanned using the latest techniques. Scanning also improves efficiency by allowing several persons to access the same document simultaneously.

In addition to this, BPO companies also offer specialized services for medical and legal clients. These include transcription, coding, and medical billing and Insurance collection.

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Outsourcing improves your efficiency by reducing overhead cost. You save on the infrastructure and technology that would be needed to perform all these tasks on your own. Moreover, you also save on hiring additional staff for your back office operations. In fact, your savings would be in the range of up to 30-40 percent.

All your work is completed with the utmost efficiency as the business process outsourcing company has a competent team on the task. This team can deliver error-free solutions in minimum turnaround time. The experts work with advanced technology ? so you get a effective solution. Even high volume jobs are handled with ease. More time to focus on your core tasks improves productivity, revenue and your bottom line.

While there is no doubt that business process outsourcing companies help organizations improve back office efficiency, it is important to choose the right service provider. Always do your research and find a BPO company that can understand your goals, work as an extension to your office to help you achieve them, and provide a competitively priced solution.
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iStock Tools / Apps: LiveStock - an iStock contributor app for your Android phone

Posted Thu Nov 20, 2008 8:48AM

Updated: 2012-05-08 new version (2.9.100) available via the Android Market

You can follow http://twitter.com/LiveStockIStock for LiveStock-related announcements.

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Are there any contributors out there with an Android-based phone?

I've written a little app which lets you keep watch on your account and notify you of sales. It also shows you assorted statistics, sales details, and lets you read your iStock sitemail. It's free.

Main Screen screenshot from version 2.8.10

Download Details View screenshot from version 2.8.10

Monthly Stats View screenshot from version 2.8.10

Yearly Stats View screenshot from version 2.8.10

Uploads Stats View screenshot from version 2.8.10

Sitemail View screenshot from version 2.6.16

It is available (for free!) from the Android Market. Just start the Market application on your phone and search for Livestock.
Or if you have a barcode scanner on your phone, just scan this:

The current version is 2.9.100 (as of 8th May 2012).

If you have an older phone running Android 1.5, 1.6 or 2.0 then look for LiveStock Classic in the Android Market.
The current version of LiveStockClassic is 2.7.40 (as of 16th April 2012).

Edited to refer to the latest version.

(Edited on 2012-05-08 08:29:36 by theasis)

Posted Sun Nov 23, 2008 3:41AM

Updated LiveStock to correctly track Dollar Bin sales.

Edited to remove obsolete (and misleading) information.

(Edited on 2009-05-29 02:02:15 by theasis)

Posted Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:41AM

Updated to give better information (size and royalty earned) for recent sales.

Because this involves scraping data from more webpages, the very first time you run the application it will spend quite a while in the "Talking to iStock: Gathering data..." phase.? How long depends on quite a few factors including, of course, how good a signal your phone has and whether it's connected by 2G, 3G or Wifi.? Best to set it running and go make yourself a sandwich and a cup of tea (or a pie and a pint if that's more your thing).? Subsequent refreshes will be much faster (unless you have hundreds of sales and don't refresh for days).

Edited to remove obsolete screenshot.

(Edited on 2009-05-29 02:01:17 by theasis)

Posted Fri Dec 19, 2008 4:29PM

i really thank you for writing this app, finally somthing for the G1, but anyway im visiting the page from my phone but cant find any application link!! is it deactivated, the page i see is exactly like the one on my PC no difference..

maybe im missing something..

Posted Sat Dec 20, 2008 5:10AM

Hi there
Posted By thesuperph:

i really thank you for writing this app, finally somthing for the G1, but anyway im visiting the page from my phone but cant find any application link!! is it deactivated, the page i see is exactly like the one on my PC no difference..

maybe im missing something..

That's odd. I just checked with my phone to make sure that it is still active and all looks fine. I took a look through the web logs and I don't see any Android browsers connecting for the last couple of days. My first thought was that you might be using one of the 3rd party browsers that are in beta-test, but I don't see any connections from them, either. Do you remember roughly what day and time you looked with your phone's browser (and what timezone you're in!) because I'd really like to get to the bottom of it if there's a problem on the server.
However, on a different note...now that I have an API key from istock, I'm completely rewriting the application. It might be worth holding off for a little while whilst I knock it into shape.

Thanks a lot for your interest,
Martin

Posted Sat Dec 20, 2008 3:06PM

well im checking now at this moment and only from my G1.. you can get the time from this post time..

still the same thing (i refreshed three times), also the browser that i use is the default built in one..

?

anyway i think the best thing o do is to wait for your newer one really thanx again for your effort

Posted Mon Dec 22, 2008 5:53AM

Thanks for trying again. My best guess is that there's a cache somewhere between your phone and the livestock webserver and it's feeding you old pages. My phone doesn't seem to give me a cached page, so I wonder if it's a difference between the USA and UK services, or if you're on some non-standard service.

When I have a stable version of the app I'll submit it to the Android Marketplace (it'll still be free) and any such problems should go away. Sorry that it's being a pain for you in the meantime

Posted Mon Dec 22, 2008 4:13PM

i have it now installed on my G1.. bugs are there but its cool to have something IS related on my mobile

ill be waiting for the final version, and thanks alot for your efforts..

Posted Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:28AM

Is this still in the works?? This would be especially useful now that the iStock page is slightly mangled in the Android browser (the main toolbar gets wrapped around under the search bar).

Posted Mon Feb 16, 2009 10:29AM

Development of LiveStock is on hold for the time being. I'm hoping to put some time aside in the next few weeks in order to knock it into a decent shape.

If I don't find time to do that, I'll put out the version that's currently on my phone. This doesn't do much more than let you know you've had a sale and what you've earned.

Sorry for the delay on this - real life sometimes gets in the way

Posted Tue Apr 7, 2009 11:49AM

Any update on this interesting project? Is real life still in the way?

Thanx for your effort.

?

Posted Thu Apr 9, 2009 4:12AM

Posted By Mac99:

Is real life still in the way? ;-)
?

Heh - actually, the reasons for delay have changed somewhat. The chap in the Glasgow store where I got my phone told me that I was one of the first people to get a G1 from them, and that I was definitely the first to bring one in for repair. I don't expect it back for at least another couple of weeks...hopefully I can then make some more progress.

Thanks for the patience!

Posted Wed Apr 15, 2009 5:29AM

A positive update, at last.
My G1 has been repaired and returned. I'm re-implementing LiveStock, building on what I learned about programming for the G1 first time around. I'm planning on releasing an alpha version of LiveStock2 in the next few days:
- the new version will be simpler than the old version to avoid using up the G1's resources so quickly - this should result in fewer bugs and better battery life;
- I'll be releasing through the Android Market rather than my own web pages - that means installing and upgrading between versions will be more straightforward. I understand that it takes a little while for an application to work its way through the Market after release, so I'll not announce its availability until it's actually visible.

Thanks for your patience!

Posted Fri Apr 17, 2009 10:02AM

I'm happy to announce that a new version of LiveStock is now available.
It is available (for free!) from the Android Market. You'll find it in the Market in Applications->Tools, or just search for "livestock".

The current version is 2.0.14 alpha (as of 17 April 2009); this is a complete rewrite of the previous version of the application. Although it is usable and, I think, useful, I'd like to stress that this should be considered alpha quality software.

I am aware of a few flaws. In particular, the first time you run it it can take a long time to pull some of your information from the istock servers. This pull really should happen in a background thread - because it doesn't, your phone may warn you that LiveStock is taking a long time to respond. If that happens, just touch the "Wait" button. This is the item highest on my priority list to fix.

The first time you run it, it will ask you to enter your istock login details. I strongly recommend that you touch the "Test" button before saving so that LiveStock can attempt a connection to the iStock servers to check you entered them correctly.

The main screen will display some current stats and your most recent downloads.

From the main screen, just touch the refresh button and it will pull your current details from istock.

This is still an early version and there are many things I want to improve and features I want to add. First on the list of things to fix is the horrible delay the first time you pull data from istock. The next most important feature is to make LiveStock run as a service so that it automatically pulls data from istock at regular intervals. Once that is done, it will be able to notify you as sales happen.

Of course, this isn't istock-supported software so please direct your complaints, plaudits, requests, rants, bug reports, etc to me either in this thread or via sitemail.

Enjoy.

Posted Fri Apr 17, 2009 2:15PM

Oh wow i just found it in the market browsing recent apps!
I have not read this thread before but i was looking for such an app.

It works really good THANK YOU!
You've made the G1 a much more interesting phone

Posted Mon Apr 20, 2009 5:13AM

I've just pushed a new version (2.0.15) to the Market. If you look for Livestock in the market and you already have 2.0.14 installed, you will be given the option to update.

The main change in 2.0.15 is that the disturbing silence (or even more disturbing Force Close/Wait dialog) when refreshing the list of recent downloads is now replaced by a progress indicator - no more wondering whether or not there's anything happening. A lesser, but related, change is that there is now a "Refresh recent DLs" option from the Menu button to force an update of the recent downloads list.

Please let me know if these changes don't seem to work for you, or if other issues appear.

The current plan is for the next release to run as a service and automatically inform you of sales - no more having to hit Refresh.

Posted Thu May 7, 2009 9:45AM

I'm pleased to announce that I've just pushed a new version (v2.1.0) of LiveStock to the Android Market. If you search for Livestock in the market on your Android phone you have the option to install or, if you have an earlier version installed already, to upgrade.

There are a number of changes in this release:
- the list of recent downloads does not update automatically. You can request an update simply with MENU->Refresh Recent DLs. This was made manual as updating the DL list involves a fair amount of network traffic which helps run down your phone's battery.
- you don't need to request that Livestock checks to see if you've had a sale. Instead it runs in the background and automatically checks for any changes to your balance. If your balance changes, you get a notification. (But see my note below!)
- a few minor cosmetic changes.
- quite a few small bugs have been squashed.

Automatic Checks
Every 20 minutes or so, LiveStock will check to see if your balance has changed. If it does change, LiveStock posts a notification.

If your phone is in sleep-mode (i.e. when the screen has blanked), LiveStock will not wake the phone to check the balance. Waking the phone seems to be relatively power-hungry and it runs the battery down far too quickly. I hope to improve this in future. However, if some other application wakes the phone then LiveStock will take the opportunity to do its checks.

I hope you like the changes. Please do let me know of any bugs or strange experiences, or feature requests you may have.

Edit: I should add, this has been tested on both the older version of Android (1.1) and the new "cupcake" release (1.5).

Enjoy!

(Edited on 2009-05-07 10:08:02 by theasis)

Posted Tue May 12, 2009 4:01AM

Hi,

Most of the time if i open your app it says "stats updated" and if i close it and then open it it will give the new stats. I have never seen a notification about automatic stats update after 20 minutes. It only gives this message if i have the app opened. Am i missing something?

I love this app! thanks for your hard work.

Michel

Posted Tue May 12, 2009 5:27AM

Hi Michel
Thanks for the feedback.
Posted By micheldenijs:

Most of the time if i open your app it says "stats updated" and if i close it and then open it it will give the new stats. I have never seen a notification about automatic stats update after 20 minutes. It only gives this message if i have the app opened. Am i missing something?

Hmmm...I've seen the same thing some days, but not always. In a future version I'll try triggering the notifications a different way and see if that helps.

If I can get to the bottom of it, I'll put out a new version in the next couple of days. If I can't find the problem immediately, it will probably be a couple of weeks before I put out a new version due to other commitments.

Many thanks for the report!

Posted Wed May 27, 2009 5:09AM

I've completely rewritten the automated checking and it now works in a way that I think you'll like. The checking also does less processing, which means less drain on the battery. Which means LiveStock can now check for and notify you of sales even when the phone is sleeping.

I'll delay releasing it until after Thursday night's downtime just in case there are any site changes that would affect LiveStock.

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