Please let me know your thoughts as to 3D vs 2D... Or are you still watching HD TV? If you are unsure of the difference please post that as well. Thanks in advance for your input. ...read more

World IPv6 Day is June 8, 2011... IP address are running out so it's time to upgrade.... What this means is companies will start to offer their content over the internet in a new version. We all currently run on v4, however as the internet grows space needs do as well. Companies participating in this test run are Facebook, Google, and Yahoo just to name a few. Think of it like making your computer Y2K compliant, except this is for the Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors and web companies.   If you'd like more information on IPv6 or how you can upgrade your network to accomidate IPv6 please give us a call or e-mail. To test your system please click the link provided. http://test-ipv6.com/ ...read more

  A leveled Fujitsuka, Japan. Source: Google, DigitalglobeIt's easy to get sucked into the CNN style coverage and think the sky is falling. Japan is a formidable economy with one of the word's most educated and highly trained populations. The Japanese treasury is holding foreign reserves of U.S. $1 trillion. Their own currency is the strongest in the world, their personal savings rate is among the world's highest, and their current account is in perennial surplus — the result of both the savings infrastructure and their balance of trade. This morning, the Central Bank of Japan injected the equivalent of $U.S. 180 billion into the banking system to aid liquidity, and there's plenty more where that came from. It will take more — much more — than this to knock Japan down. And even as the infrastructure crises are dealt with day-to-day in Japan, the formidable electronics, video, and CE industry will forge ahead. It's doing so, today. As bad as the headlines seem on any given day, recent research by the Inter American Development Bank shows only the biggest disasters — larger than this one — have a long term impact. (View the report at: Inter American Bank Report) The study showed that natural disasters do not have any significant long-term effect on subsequent economic growth of the studied country. According to the report, "The only two cases where we found that truly large natural disasters were followed by an important decline in GDP per capita were cases where the natural disaster was followed by radical political revolution, which severely affected the institutional organization of society." In that sense, there is more threat to the long-term stability of major industrial sectors from the current political instability in the Middle East than there is from the natural disaster-induced crises in Japan. In the short term, there will be disruptions to the Japanese supply chain for our industry. They won't be across the board. Because it depends on whether you're talking about the chip-level supply chain, or the finished product chain, or in between. Late Sunday, the Japanese government asked major companies to reduce electricity consumption. Some responded by temporarily closing factories. In an eerie sign of the extent of the precautions, almost all of the large-format digital signage, including the LED billboards in Japans major cities, was turned off. Perhaps not surprisingly, Japan's Internet infrastructure has held up remarkably well. According to the Internet performance monitoring company Renesys, Internet traffic to and from Japan dropped by about 25 gigabits per second in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, but returned to normal levels only a few hours later. Traffic at Japan's JPNAP Layer 2 Internet exchange service appears to have slowed by just 10 percent since Friday, according to Renesys. The electronics industry is based on semiconductors, of course, and Japan's chip factories are at the center of the worldwide industry.  Approximately 20 percent of all semiconductors and roughly 40 percent of all flash memory chips used in cell phones, smartphones, PC's, and tablets are made in Japan. As much as China, Indonesia, and other Asian countries have opened chip factories, Japan still reigns when it comes to the manufacturing of the more sophisticated chips, whether for iPhones or for DLP projectors. Putting a hundred million micro-mirrors on a chip the size of a postage stamp (as with Texas Instruments' DLP chips) is not something you can farm out anywhere. A look at dramexchange.com revealed yesterday that the price of NAND flash chips has risen sharply: 32Gbit devices were up 17.36 percent and 16Gb devices up 17 percent. Analysts have attributed much of this spike to a ‘brief interruption' that Toshiba said occurred in its NAND production complex at Yokkaichi, immediately following the earthquake (that is, by the way, about 600 miles away from the epicenter). Toshiba's NAND Flash memory chips are used in the iPhone, iPad and a string of other tablets. But yesterday, Toshiba — one of the largest Japanese exporter of computer chips — said that it would heed Tokyo Electric Power Company's call to cut electricity consumption in Japan by cutting back to only essential services. On Monday Toshiba closed all of its factories in areas with power outages, aside from its headquarters and critical business offices. But early today Toshiba's fabrication base for NAND flash memories, Yokkaichi Operations, was already back in operation, the company said. According to a variety of wire sources, NEC factories in both the Iwate and Fukushima prefectures have been closed because of electricity and water supply problems. Fujitsu announced on Monday that it shut down 10 plants. Hitachi has closed down six factories. Canon has closed eight factories, and Nikon has closed four facilities. Through its U.S. operation, Sharp issued a statement expressing "deepest sympathy to all the people affected by this earthquake. There are no extensive damages to our buildings or production facilities in Japan including our plant located in Yaita-city, Tochigi prefecture." Its LCD panel production facilities located in Sakai-city, Kameyama-city, Taki-cho and Tenri-city are operating normally. Panasonic told NewBay Media reporters at TWICE magazine that there were minor injuries to the employees in its AVC Networks Company Fukushima factory (manufacturing digital cameras); AVC Networks Company Sendai factory (manufacturing optical pickups); Panasonic Electric Works Koriyama factory (manufacturing electronic materials); and Sanyo Electric Gunma factory (manufacturing washer/dryers, etc.).  Panasonic said in a statement that fires or major damage to facilities have not been reported and that "we are suspending operations in the factory affected by the earthquake and continuing to evaluate further details of the damage." Panasonic announced on the 12th that the company has committed 300 million yen monetary contributions and in-kind donations of 10,000 units each of radios and flashlights and 500,000 dry batteries to aid victims and support the recovery of areas affected. Late Monday, Texas Instruments warned of lost revenue from two of its semiconductor plants in Japan. The Dallas-based chip maker, that will supply the dual-core processor for Research In Motion's new PlayBook Tablet, reported that damage from the quake as well as the subsequent Japanese government-led electricity rationing will prevent the restarting of the factories in the near term. Original article from Systems Contractor By David Keene-- http://www.systemscontractor.com/article/55526.aspx ...read more