Posts Tagged ‘security’

Blowfish Audio

Blowfish Audio

Hootie and the blowfish - only wanna be with you

Sony Bmg

Sony Bmg

3 Tips For Your General Audience Site To Avoid Tripping The Coppa Trap

Copyright 2009 Chip Cooper If you think that the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) applies only to websites that target children under 13, you're uninformed. Sony found out the hard way, and as a result Sony has agreed to pay a $1 million fine in settlement of a case brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). You can avoid falling into this trap with your general audience site if you follow 3 simple tips. COPPA or COPA? In January, 2009, the US Supreme Court refused to hear the government's appeal of a July, 2008 ruling by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals that the Child Online Protection Act of 1998 (COPA) was unconstitutional. This refusal by the US Supreme Court means that COPA is now unconstitutional -- once and for all. COPA should not be confused with COPPA. COPA (now unconstitutional) imposed both civil and criminal penalties on commercial website operators that publish sexually explicit material without also using credit card authentication or other technological measures to verify viewer age and block access by minors. COPPA, on the other hand, prohibits the collection, use, or disclosure of personal information from children under 13 on the Internet through the use of unfair or deceptive practices. COPPA requires parental notification and consent prior to the collection of such information, and as you'll see below, COPPA applies not only to sites that target children, but also to general audience sites (the COPPA trap). COPPA is constitutional, and it's currently being aggressively enforced by the FTC. The Sony Case On December 11, 2008, the FTC announced its agreement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment in which Sony agreed to pay $1 million to settle the FTC's COPPA claims. Specifically, the FTC's charges were based partially on information collected by Sony regarding the date of birth provided by registrants to Sony's social networking sites. The key fact here is that Sony's sites are "general audience" sites -- that is, their sites are not "directed to children". Sites that are clearly directed to children fall easily within the regulation of COPPA. However, general audience sites also are regulated if they "knowingly collect personal information from children under 13", and that's where Sony fell short according to the FTC. Sony represents hundreds of musicians and entertainers, some of which are popular with children and teenagers. To promote these artists, Sony operates over 1000 related websites. Many of these sites provide social networking opportunities including functionality providing for personal fan pages, reviews of albums, uploading comments, posting comments, and private messaging. As part of the registration for many of Sony's sites, Sony required users to provide personal information, including their date of birth. Approximately 30,000 children under 13 provided their dates of birth which resulted in Sony having knowingly collected information from children under 13, without first getting parental consent. The FTC alleged additional COPPA violations including the failure to provide sufficient notice of what information was collected from children, how Sony used and disclosed this information, and the failure to provide parents with a reasonable means to review the information collected. 3 Tips To Avoid Tripping The COPPA Trap If you operate a general audience site, you're encouraged to act on the following tips to avoid an outcome similar to the Sony case: * review your registration pages to see if you have collected age-indicating personal information such as age, date of birth, or school grade -- if so, remove these fields from your registration process, and for the information already collected from children under 13, the best recommendation is to see an attorney for a possible remedy before it's too late; * review your site to see if there is any page (or pages) that may inadvertently be directed to children -- even if your site as a whole is not directed to children, if a single page is directed to children, you should modify it or comply with COPPA; and * if you want to age-screen registrants, you should use a methodology that is age-neutral -- that is, a methodology that does not encourage children to lie about their age (for example, don't stipulate that "you must be 13 or over to register"), and if you ask for a date of birth, collect only the month and year, not the day. Conclusion The lesson to be learned from the Sony case is that general audience sites are not immune from regulation by COPPA. If you operate a general audience site, follow the 3 tips, and if you have unresolved questions, see an attorney -- a COPPA violation is a serious matter.

Sonny BMG Rome 2008 Demo

Caroline Records

Caroline Records

Credit Score Basics

If you are an adult living in the United States, there is a 99.9% chance that you have a credit record.   Even if you have never taken out a loan, applied for a credit card or purchased a vehicle, you'll still have a record with at least some information about your financial activities.  Even something as routine as getting phone service turned on can leave a trace.

In today's society, one's credit record can have a profound effect on life.  Banks and other lenders view your credit record as an indication of your trustworthiness when it comes to finance.  A detailed formula is used to analyze your credit history and assign a number, called a credit score.  This is the number that lenders use to decide the interest rate and other terms they will offer you when you apply for a loan.  Even something as simple as getting cell phone service can be affected by your credit score.  For these reasons it's important to not only know what a credit score is but also to know what is considered a good credit score and how to get yours to that level.

Credit scores were first developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation of California (FICO) and credit scores are still often referred to as a FICO score.  FICO used several indicators of past financial performance to develop a system of rating a person's likeliness to comply with loan terms.  It soon became the gold standard of assessing one's credit worthiness.  All three of the major credit reporting bureaus use the FICO score today in their reports.

In its simplest form, credit worthiness is an assessment of one's ability to make payments on time.  Since a lender doesn't know a borrower personally, they need some assurance that they can trust the borrower to repay the loan according to the terms.  A person's track record over an extended period of time is the best indicator of such trust worthiness.  Lenders establish guidelines for borrowers with certain credit scores that they use to decide loan approval and conditions.  Therefore, a borrower must know what a lender considers a good credit score in order to make sure they get the best terms possible.

The lower one's credit score, the higher the interest they can expect to pay.  This is a form of insurance for lenders.  Since so many people with low credit scores default on loans, the lenders try to hedge their losses by charging more for risky borrowers.  Though this may seem unfair to charge the highest rates to those least able to afford them, from a business standpoint it makes perfect sense.  After all, people who have been financially responsible should not be penalized for those who have not.

Though it varies depending on the type of loan and the lender, a good credit score is generally considered anything over 600.  If you have a score above 700, you have excellent credit and should demand low interest rates.  If your score is below this, you can raise it by ensuring that all your bills are paid on time.  Make sure that any outstanding debts are current and be conservative in applying for new credit.  Keep balances on credit cards at a moderate level compared to your income.  If you do these things consistently, you'll soon have a score that will get you the best deals possible on loans.

The Misfits - "Hybrid Moments" - Plan 9/Caroline Records

Mri Red

Mri Red

What’s Your Return on Investment from Sensory Branding?

Advertising and marketing communities have clamored for our auditory attention on the radio; they have directed our visual attention to store shelves, billboards and television. In the United States, an average child is exposed to more than 30,000 television commercials a year; the average adult to approximately 86,500. In recent years, advertisers and marketing communities have used sensory branding to bombard our other senses of smell, taste and touch, luring us into trying over 1,000 new brands each year.

Researchers understand that the human brain rarely processes sensory input in isolation. Advertisers and marketers understand that consumers are most receptive to a product when that product appeals to and engages consumers’ multiple senses.

“We store our values, feelings and emotions in memory banks,” says Martin Lindstrom, author of Brand Sense: Build Powerful Brands through Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight, and Sound. “The human being has at least five tracks—image, sound, smell, taste and touch that contain more data than one can imagine because they have direct bearing on our emotions. They can fast forward or backtrack at will.”
Our senses help us understand the world around us. Our senses trigger memories and memories influence our emotions. Our sense of smell evokes the strongest of emotions and is the sense most closely linked to memory because it is hard wired to our brains. Seventy-five percent of our emotions are generated by what we smell. Emotions influence behavior – consumer behavior in the global marketplace.

Sensory branding includes the standardized ambience of what customers see (e.g., size, layout, color of lights, staff uniform), what customers hear (e.g., type of music or sound, volume), scents customers smell and where (e.g., in the air, on tissue paper, bags or receipts), what customers taste and what customers touch.

Sensory branding makes its impact each time customers engage with or react to a company’s product or service. By employing scent, sound and material textures in immersive customer experiences, marketers build strong connections with their customers and drive preference for their brands. Sensory branding drives customer satisfaction, but few organizations actually conduct market research or customer surveys to determine the extent of cause and effect.

What appeals to one customer may not appeal to another. An individual might react adversely to a scent by itself, but respond favorably to the same scent when it is used in combination with a particular sound, texture or taste. Customer surveys are adept at teasing out subtle nuances in perception and subsequent interpretation through consumer behavior. Which of the five senses were stimulated? Which messages resonated with customers? What were subsequent customer behaviors?

Customers at Celebration Health, Florida’s Hospitals’ healthcare facility, were cancelling MRI’s in record numbers, resulting in significant revenue loss. Employing strategies in sensory branding, Celebration Health renamed their MRI department ‘Seaside Imaging’, painted beach murals on the walls and added folding lounge chairs. They transformed the MRI machine into a sand castle. Scent Air provided Coconut Beach and Ocean scents. A 50% reduction in cancellations resulted.

Samsung, the consumer electronics giant, pumps a scent smelling like honeydew melon from the ceiling of its retail spaces prompting one visitor to observe, “I love the smell of technology. It smells stimulating.”

Kellogg’s spent years studying the relationship between crunchiness and taste, before patenting the crunch of their cereal. Consumers enjoy every “Snap, Crackle and Pop”, part of the Kellogg’s brand based on auditory stimuli, taste and texture.

“Far from being a practice limited to the few, today multi-sensory merchandising stimulation and sensory branding are separating best practice from good. It is a science. It can be unique to your stores. It can create sub-conscious and unconscious stimulation, suggestion and memory reinforcement and retrieval that are part of your brand DNA, and an important driver of productive outcomes for your business,” observes Peter James Ryan, chief executive navigator, Red Communication.

Some sensory branding campaigns have spinoff products or services. The Westin Hotel chain has a worldwide Sensory Welcome program. A customized soundtrack creates a relaxed mood in the hotels’ public spaces, blending with infused scent and interior design. The company’s White Tea fragrance became so popular it is now sold through the company’s in-room catalogue, its branded website, and in Nordstrom department stores.

The impact of marketing through sensory branding can be measured at every step of the customer relationship. Internally, employee surveys measure the level of employee engagement in the process of sensory branding initiatives. Which marketing managers and operational staff have authority to act on specific aspects of the sensory brand? What organizational structure best supports project teams? How are teams trained and motivated? What are the implications for organizational design – for the communication and coordination among operating groups and implementation teams?

Assessing customer satisfaction or employee satisfaction with various aspects of sensory branding helps inform existing and future business decisions. Have you identified the impact that sensory branding has on your return on investment?

Archipelago - MRI [Red Ninja @ Mag:Net BHS]

Kids Block

Kids Block

Kids Learning Toys - A way to teach

Children learn best while they are playing. Learning is the best aided with educational and learning toys. Most of the kids do not like to study. Therefore, the best option is to give them learning toys with which they can not only play but also learn from. A child can learn playfully to write letters, numeric and color the cartoons on the computer. By loading the fun game in the computer, the kids can also learn how to use the computer with keyboard and printer, which come, along with the play station.

Several learning toys and games teach kids how to use their brain for the constructive Work. like Lego treasure hunt, Shark hunt construction set, TajMahal, doll set, wooden chess, mind space, Phantom, paintballs, fire station, fighter plane model kit, cry how to do things and organize back, learning board, my tutor, logical balls and many more. If he is interested in pirate games, dinosaur activities, electronic playground or marble run construction, then it will inspire his creativity, thoughts and imagination. The power of magnet to attract and repel will not only amuse the kid but also endow him with a new light of knowledge.

This way they learn while they play. Toys with contrasting colors are fascinating to babies and stimulate their developing vision. Every new shape, color, texture, taste and sound is a learning experience for them. A puzzle box with different shapes develops the child’s learning ability and the ability to solve problems. Shape sorters teach them how to match similar items and the names of the shapes. Lego blocks provide an opportunity to learn more about colors and symmetry. Giving educational toys to the children will help them to develop a positive attitude toward learning. Toys also teach the child to socialize. For example, he can create a building through the set of building blocks. .

ctivities like this will teach the child to become a leader, a follower and a team player. Educational toys not only help the child to develop his abilities and skills but also teach the child to be responsible. Organizing his toys after playing with them is one of the best ways to teach a child to be responsible. In addition, educational learning toys teach your child simple but valuable things. It will also form part of his life and memory. So bring him something he can have fun with and learn. The best and safe learning and motivating toys discover and engage a child's senses, spark their imaginations and encourage them to interact with others.

New Kids on the Block 1989 Part 1