Cut-rate coffee-machine capsules to make local debut

Ask Israeli coffee lovers what name comes to mind when they think of coffee machines that use pre-packaged capsules, and most will probably respond "Nespresso," the Nestle brand that dominates the market for capsule machines the way Apple dominates the tablet computer market.Israelis who wanted to buy more capsules have until now been left with little choice but to purchase those produced by Nestle specifically for the Nespresso machines. But the barely existent Israeli market for Nespresso-compatible capsules that are not actually made by Nestle is about to get a badly needed shot of caffeine, according to Israeli importer Yoav Ramot.Ramot is planning to launch a new brand of generic Nespresso-compatible capsules called Rialto in October.
"This is the first time that in this market in Israel, there is going to be a player who says 'I'm here and I'm not going anywhere,'" said Ramot, who is also the owner of Coffee Time, which imports coffee machines and related products. "Our goal is to snag 35 percent of the capsule market share held by Nespresso."Nestle Nespresso, a Switzerland-based autonomous business of the Nestle Group, currently controls roughly half of the Israeli coffee machine market, constituting about 100,000 households, and has an annual turnover of an estimated NIS 100 million.
The company sells an estimated 35 million coffee capsules a year in Israel, claiming the largest slice of the local capsule market, which runs to 85 million capsules a year, for a total annual turnover of NIS 170 million.Capsule sales are Nespresso's primary source of revenue, and are often sold at a low profit margin or even at a loss in a effort to win customers' loyalty to the brand-name capsules.The market is opening up because Nestle is under attack, with the billions of dollars Nespresso produces annually for the world's largest food company lying in the balance. The problem for Nestle is that some of its approximately 1,700 patents for coffee machines and capsules are expiring this year, particularly the capsule-related ones. Once the patents expire, the floor will be opened up to other companies seeking to sell generic capsules.
A ruling by a German court earlier this month struck Nestle another blow when it decided that customers have the right to use capsules from other companies with their Nespresso machines, since the buyer acquires the right to use the machine and the capsules are not the primary component of the patented invention.The coffee machine market is heating up in Israel, with a market penetration rate of 17 percent. Nespresso was the first to enter the field, and remains the largest company, far ahead of any competitors.In an effort to win over new customers, Ramot plans to sell his rival coffee capsules for 20 percent to 25 percent less than Nespresso's prices of NIS 20 to NIS 25 for a pack of 10, at least in the beginning.The capsules will come in four flavors and be manufactured in a plant in Kiryat Gat, which will begin operating in several weeks.

Hadoop on your PC: Cloudera's CDH4 virtual machine

Everyone's talking Big Data and Hadoop, but how can you start to learn the technology if you have to set up a whole cluster first? This isn't just about the servers, but also the Hadoop software itself, and various companion products like Hive and Pig.  If you're Windows person without Linux/Unix skills, this may be more daunting still.  But there is a solution.Cloudera, maker of perhaps the most widely-deployed Hadoop distribution, offers a a pre-built, training-appropriate, 1-node Hadoop cluster in virtual machine (VM) form, and it's free.  In this gallery, I'll show you the step-by-step of how to download, configure and use the VM, and how to get at the various Hadoop distro components within it.
To start, visit Cloudera's Web site to download the CDH4 (Cloudera Distribution including Apache Hadoop, version 4) VM, as shown here.  The VM image is available in VMWare, Virtual Box and KVM formats.  Our work here is done under VMWare.If you're using Windows Server Hyper-V, you can download the VMWare image and convert it to VHD format.Some scientists and philosophers have argued that machines lack awareness.Windows 7 Virtual PC won't work as it only supports 32-bit VMs and the CDH4 image is a 64-bit VM.In 2011, the bar was set high as the Oklahoma Sooners came in with the nation's top ranking. Fans expected the chase for eight to finally come to an end as Ryan Broyles and Travis Lewis were coming back for a senior season. With all the expectations that were placed upon the 2011 season, only a few have been removed heading into 2012. We are talking about Oklahoma, a fan base that has come to expect championships, no? Yet, there is one glaring difference. This is a season that is shaping up to be far removed from the fanfare as the Sooners have taken on a new sense of focus.
A new mindset was instilled with Landry Jones who still has many doubters heading into his senior season as a 4-year starter. With a spring that was filled with events that included planning a wedding, Jones still found time to work on a few issues. In March, Landry took possibly the only true week he would have off to spend time in Palo Alto on the Stanford campus with quarterback guru, George Whitfield. Jones showed that he has been committed to improving his game as well as staying focused.This mindset then flowed into senior cornerback, Demontre Hurst. Last season's secondary dubbed themselves "The Sharks" when instead, they should have been labeled "The Gharials," a ferocious looking reptile that is, for the most part, harmless unless you get a finger caught in its mouth. However, heading into 2012, Hurst has been toning it down while dismissing the "Shark" moniker as the leader of a revamped secondary. This will be a year of redemption for Hurst and the rest of the secondary as Aaron Colvin has made the move back to cornerback and Tony Jefferson to safety.

Some scientists and philosophers have argued that machines lack awareness

There's another aspect of the Turing test that's easy to overlook: it makes a virtue out of deception, forcing the machine to pretend to be something it's not. "This is a test of being a successful liar," says Hayes. "If you had something that really could pass Turing's imitation game, it would be a very successful human mimic.'"Of course, a computer's ability to act human is aided by the amount of information at its fingertips, and the rise of powerful Internet search engines and massive storage and retrieval capability is already paying off for AI. A good example is Siri, Apple's "intelligent personal assistant", which has become a big hit with iPhone users, chirping out birthday reminders, restaurant recommendations, and more. With the web at its disposal, Siri seemingly "knows" a great deal.
But is Siri merely simulating intelligence? Some scientists and philosophers have argued that machines lack awareness or consciousness, and that, as a result, their words are just empty chatter. Professor Roger Penrose of Oxford University has long argued that computers are missing something — he can't say precisely what — that is necessary for full-fledged consciousness and awareness, which in turn make intelligent conversation possible.What the Turing test measures, Penrose says, is the ability of a machine to dupe humans. "You make it look as though they understand something, when they really don't," he says. As a result the Turing test is only "a fairly rough test" of understanding and intelligence — though, he admits, "I don't know of a better one."
At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are those who feel that the difference between machines and humans is merely one of complexity. The staunchest defender of that view is probably the philosopher Daniel Dennett, of Tufts University in Massachusetts. Dennett rejects the idea that we have a mysterious "essence" endowed by our biological structure that underlies our cognitive abilities. "It's not impossible to have a conscious robot," he told me. "You're looking at one." What he means is that the human brain is the most complex known arrangement of matter in the universe.Perhaps, however, we're closer than we think to "true" AI. After the Wright Brothers's airplane lifted off in 1903, skeptics continued to debate whether we were "really" flying — an argument that simply faded away. It may be like that with AI. As Hayes argues, "You could argue we've already passed the Turing test". If someone from 1950 could talk to Siri, he says, they'd think they were talking to a human being. "There's no way they could imagine it was a machine — because no machine could do anything like that in 1950. So I think we've passed the Turing test, but we don't know it."

Lenses For Demanding Machine Vision Applications

 At the forthcoming VISION 2012 exhibition in Stuttgart (6-8th November 2012) - engineers from Resolve Optics Ltd. will be on-hand to discuss with machine vision camera suppliers and system integrators the opportunity, through a custom lens design, to benefit from the full performance of their camera or sensor system.Resolve Optics Ltd. has built a strong international reputation for designing and producing quantities of application optimised lenses for machine vision applications. While off-the-shelf lenses may be suitable for some applications - Resolve Optics Ltd. specialises in design and development of custom lenses and optical systems that meet the requirements of more demanding machine vision applications.
Drawing upon a highly experienced team of optical designers and engineers - Resolve Optics has been able to design and produce custom lenses optimized for large format sensors that offer greater resolution and large aperture lenses that make maximum use of available light. Resolve Optics has also worked with customers to produce specialist machine vision lenses that provide wide fields of view with little or no distortion, optical designs and coatings that are balanced to give best performance at a desired wavelength or waveband and compact lens designs where the target application is space limited.The World's Largest X-Ray Generator, the Z Machine, Inspires Art.Resolve Optics Ltd has considerable experience of developing fixed and zoom lenses for vision applications including parts recognition, precise component placement, automated alignment and placement and automated inspection of manufactured components.
In addition to the use of email and social media, TWIST also contracted with our website, the largest pro-vider of soccer software. There were also two flat-screen televisions that streamed updated scores and standings throughout the tournament."Gotsoccer.com is sort of like one-stop shopping for all your electronic needs," Rodriguez said. "We love it. It's huge in the soccer world. It gets the name of the tournament out there (on its Web site). I think it's going to guarantee us a baseline of at least 100 teams because of the wide-reaching audience it has. It's been a tremendous success."
M.C. Bradley, a TWIST committee member in charge of technology, said Best Buy provided the TVs."New technology definitely adds to the success of the tournament," she said. "It presents a modern feel. The Best Buy tent was very busy over the weekend. We were just saying, ‘Maybe we can get four TVs next year.' One guy suggested putting a camera on top of the goalpost and streaming games. I like that. I told him, ‘We'll talk in September.' Our goal is to keep making the tournament better."

General Assembly OKs casino bill

The Maryland General Assembly gave final approval to Gov. Martin O'Malley's gambling bill early Wednesday morning, agreeing to allow table games and a sixth casino in the state while also giving new tax breaks to casino owners.Passage came after the House of Delegates amended the legislation to allow veterans' halls in every county except Montgomery to have slots-like machines — a new element in the gambling debate that appeared to be aimed at winning enough votes to pass the governor's bill.After debating and dismissing dozens of other proposed amendments, the House approved the measure without a vote to spare, 71-58, and sent it to the Senate shortly before midnight. Senators accepted the House changes, passing the bill 32-14.O'Malley planned to sign the measure Wednedsay at 10 a.m. The legislation will go before voters for approval or defeat on the Nov. 6 ballot.
The bill allows the additional casino, to be located in Prince George's County, and table games such as blackjack at all six. It also would significantly reduce tax rates on slot machine profits for all the currently licensed casinos except Rocky Gap, where rates already are lower. The tax breaks are intended to compensate owners for the additional competition and for the cost of buying slot machines, now purchased by the state.Lawmakers learned Tuesday that legislative analysts have determined that bigger tax breaks adopted by the House mean the state would reap about 13 percent less revenue from the bill than under O'Malley's original plan.It would generate an additional $174 million a year in revenue for the state when fully implemented in 2017. Most of that money — $135 million — would come from the state giving up responsibility for buying slot machines. Just $39 million would come from taxes on table games and the new casino.
Casino owners would earn an estimated $525 million in additional revenue, though they would have new costs of buying the machines and staffing table games.Some in the House chamber objected to allowing gambling at veterans' halls, a proposal rejected just Monday by a House subcommittee."This is the kind of thing that will explode slot machine gambling in our state," said Del. Doyle L. Niemann, a Prince George's County Democrat.Some were upset by the vote trading. "I find it offensive that veterans would ever be used," House Republican Leader Anthony O'Donnell said on the House floor.But Del. Joseph J. "Sonny" Minnick, a Baltimore County Democrat, defended the amendment, saying he felt it was "our only shot of getting anything for veterans."The change would let veterans' organizations install up to five "pull tab" machines, similar to the terminals currently allowed at bingo halls in Anne Arundel and Calvert counties. About 150 groups would be eligible to have the machines, according to Del. Eric Luedtke, a Montgomery County Democrat. He said an organization could take in about $360,000 a year from the machines.

The World's Largest X-Ray Generator, the Z Machine, Inspires Art

 Used to study the physical properties of dense stars like white dwarfs, Sandia National Laboratory's Z Machine looks like something straight out of a sci-fi movie. The technology became the muse of an artist, Leah Flippen, when she took an astronomy class with Don Winget, a professor working with the machine. This short documentary by Daniel Oppenheimer and Alex Wang explores the intersection of art and science in Flippen's painting and Winget's research.For a few nanoseconds, the power and density of the current is so great — more than six times the total amount of energy released by all the power plants in the world — that it vaporizes the wires, generating a gas-like substance known as hydrogen plasma. It simultaneously produces a magnetic field powerful enough to cause the plasma to implode. For that brief nanomoment, as the magnetism "pinches" the plasma, generating a massive burst of X-radiation, Winget has a chunk of white dwarf star of his very own.
Microsoft's new blog post also repeated some facts about the upcoming Windows RT operating system that Microsoft previously divulged, but which are worth repeating.Is Cash America International's Cash Machine Shutting Down?Windows RT includes a "siginificant amount" of shared code with Windows 8, but is not identical to it. There is one Windows RT binary that supports Windows RT SoC platforms from NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments. Windows RT software will not be sold or distributed independent of a new Windows RT PC; it will be preloaded only.Windows RT machines will run Metro/modern/Windows 8 style apps only. The only Desktop/legacy/Win32 apps that will run on these kinds of systems are the four Office 2013 apps from Microsoft (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote), Internet Explorer 10, File Explorer and possibly some other Microsoft-developed Windows components.It just goes to show you that powerful music can be a universal language, no matter what message you take away from it or how much you agree or disagree with the verbal Molotov cocktails being thrown your way.
A spokesperson for Morello said the guitarist, also known by his folk-singing alter ego, the Nightwatchman, was not available for comment at press time. It didn't look like any of the band's members had reacted to the revelation (and subsequent viral explosion) about their rock brother from a different mother, either, but we suspect that silence won't last for long.

Is Cash America International's Cash Machine Shutting Down?

 Although business headlines still tout earnings numbers, many investors have moved past net earnings as a measure of a company's economic output. That's because earnings are very often less trustworthy than cash flow, since earnings are more open to manipulation based on dubious judgment calls.Earnings' unreliability is one of the reasons Foolish investors often flip straight past the income statement to check the cash flow statement. In general, by taking a close look at the cash moving in and out of the business, you can better understand whether the last batch of earnings brought money into the company, or merely disguised a cash gusher with a pretty headline.When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Cash America International, whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Over the past 12 months, Cash America International generated $421.7 million cash while it booked net income of $143.9 million. That means it turned 24.8% of its revenue into FCF. That sounds pretty impressive.Unfortunately, the cash flow statement isn't immune from nonsense, either. That's why it pays to take a close look at the components of cash flow from operations, to make sure that the cash flows are of high quality. What does that mean? To me, it means they need to be real and replicable in the upcoming quarters, rather than being offset by continual cash outflows that don't appear on the income statement (such as major capital expenditures).
For instance, cash flow based on cash net income and adjustments for non-cash income-statement expenses (like depreciation) is generally favorable. An increase in cash flow based on stiffing your suppliers (by increasing accounts payable for the short term) or shortchanging Uncle Sam on taxes will come back to bite investors later. The same goes for decreasing accounts receivable; this is good to see, but it's ordinary in recessionary times, and you can only increase collections so much. Finally, adding stock-based compensation expense back to cash flows is questionable when a company hands out a lot of equity to employees and uses cash in later periods to buy back those shares.So how does the cash flow at Cash America International look? Take a peek at the chart below, which flags questionable cash flow sources with a red bar.

Robotic Laser Machine performs 3D metal cutting

VOTAN BIM, features 5 kg laser cutting head, robot arm with optical fiber located solely in stationary shoulder, and completely integrated laser beam path. During cutting process, laser light is guided via mirrors; immobility of laser fiber preserves its condition, reducing maintenance and replacement costs.BIM and demonstrate its latest technology breakthrough in laser metal processing at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS 2012) in booth N-6569 from September 10 to 15 at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL."We are excited to introduce to the US market our robot-based 3D metal cutting laser machine, JENOPTIK-VOTAN BIM," says Christon Manzella, Vice President Business Development and Strategies at JENOPTIK Laser Technologies in the U.S. "Smartly engineered JENOPTIK-VOTAN BIM provides industrial manufacturers a highly flexible, fast processing and cost-effective laser machine solution that carries several advantages over standard laser machines."
JENOPTIK-VOTAN BIM's laser robot arm is unique in that the optical fiber is located only in the stationary robot shoulder and the laser beam path is totally integrated. During the cutting process the laser light is guided by means of mirrors. Due to the immobility of the laser fiber its condition is preserved, which eliminates any costly maintenance and replacement of the fiber. The slim and only five kilograms light laser cutting head also contributes to the accessibility into tight locations, high path accuracies and high speed 3D metal processing.Additionally, Jenoptik's laser arm's axis movements are 30 to 60 percent quicker than the norm and deliver a much shorter tact time compared to conventional metal processing laser robots.Machine chatter transforming mobile systems.In the field of 3D metal processing, Jenoptik delivers a technological competitive advantage for its customers and serves the automotive industry, white goods fabrication as well as reservoir construction.
The Lasers & Material Processing division has control of the entire value-added chain of laser material processing and it is one of the leading providers - from component through to complete system. In the area of laser, Jenoptik has specialized in high-quality semiconductor materials and reliable diode lasers as well as innovative solid-state lasers, for example disk and fiber lasers. In the area of high-power diode lasers Jenoptik is acknowledged worldwide as a leader in quality for high-power diode lasers. These laser sources are used, among other things, in the areas of laser material processing, medical technology and show & entertainment.

Florence and the Machine gives explosive performance at Fox Theatre

Florence Welch is not one for subtlety or small statements. The lead singer of Florence and the Machine has a voice like a bazooka, and her songs are crafted for maximum emotional bombast. It's a battlefield out there, and Welch is a warrior queen out for blood.At Florence and the Machine's concert at the Fox Theatre Tuesday, Welch and her seven-piece band were running at full speed, hammering home huge anthems of heartbreak and perseverance for the sold-out crowd. The 13-song, 90-minute show was beautifully, impeccably lit, and it had a simple elegance befitting the grandeur of the Fox Theatre.
It was the group's biggest Detroit concert to-date, and came on the touring cycle behind the group's sophomore album, 2011's "Ceremonials." Welch, in a white gown, was a confident, engaging band leader, and her voice was astounding -- as massive as it was clear. Welch was forced to cancel some concerts earlier in the month due to vocal issues, but she was in spectacular form Tuesday, belting out in a way that might have Adele shaking in her boots.But what separates Florence and the Machine from Adele are the songs, and the connection those songs make. Adele goes big, but it's in her smaller, more personal moments that she shines brightest, making the payoffs of those big moments even greater. With Florence it's all so towering that it becomes overbearing, and the songs begin blending together. But the band knew to quit while it was ahead, and 90 minutes proved to be right on the money. A full two hours would have been overkill.
Welch mentioned she visited Detroit's Heidelberg Project during the day Tuesday, and praised it for bringing "such beauty to places where people think it might not be." Florence and the Machine brought a beauty of their own to Detroit Tuesday, and those in attendance have the battle scars to prove it.Miller said she's pleased a technology is available now to, if needed, detect the harmful disease early.
"I'm happy that (cancer is) more likely to be caught," she said.Basham said women should get a baseline screening mammogram at 35-40 years old, and then an annual screening starting at age 40.With the new machine, she said mammograms should be easier and more accessible, which hopefully will lead to more women getting screened. In 2011 more than 5,200 mammograms were performed at United Regional.