Monday, March 30, 2015

0331 - Facebook: Street Enamored of Messenger, Parse, Oculus

http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2015/03/26/facebook-street-enamored-of-messenger-parse-oculus/

1. Enamor = to cause (someone) to be loved or admired — usually used in negative statements — usually + to
2. Parse =  to study (something) by looking at its parts closely : ANALYZE
3. Contemplate=  to think deeply or carefully about (something)
4. Gear = supplies, tools, or clothes needed for a special purpose
5. Reiterates = to repeat something you have already said in order to emphasize it
6. Morph = of an image on a screen : to gradually change into a different image
7. Hype = talk or writing that is intended to make people excited about or interested in something or someone
8. Rift = a situation in which two people, groups, etc., no longer have a friendly relationship
9. 9. Monetize = to convert (an asset) into cash, as by selling the asset or using it as security for a loan, to  convert into a source
10. Oculus = An oculus, plural oculi, from Latin oculus: eye, denotes a circular opening in the centre of a dome or in a wall.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

0330 - Silicon Valley firm wins bias case



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32094337


1.diversity = the quality of having many different forms
2.start - up = a new business
3.tenure = the right to use property
4.portray = to describe someone or something in a particular way
5.confrontational = challenging or opposing someone especially in an angry way
6. meritocracy = a group of people whose progress is based on ability and talent rather than a privelege or wealth

Friday, March 27, 2015

0327 - Seongnam to provide free public postnatal care service

http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/phone/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=175952


1. pledges = agreement or serious promise
2.postpartum = relating to or happening in the period of time folowing the birth of a child
3.hurdles = something that makes an achievement difficult
4.implement = to begin to do, to make active or effective
5.abolish = to officially end or stop

Thursday, March 26, 2015

0326 -Netmarble proves success outside Kakao Game platform

http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/phone/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=175747


Netmarble proves success outside Kakao Game Platform
1.shedding = getting rid of something, to lose naturally
2.perch = to sit on or be on something high or on something from which it is easy to fall
3.immerse = to make fully involved in some activity or interest


Wednesday, March 25, 2015

0325 - Why nine hours' sleep may be bad for you


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31928434



1. caveat = an explanation or warning that should be remembered when you are doing or thinking about something
2.epidemiology = the study of how disease spreads and can be controlled
3. IL6 = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interleukin_6
 

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

0324 -[Newsmaker] Lee Kuan Yew: Feared leader of Singapore

http://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20150323000767&ntn=0




[2015. 3. 24. 오전 8:49:17] Christine Salientes: 1. Imperial = of or relating to an empire or an emperor
2.bestride =  to sit or stand with one leg on either side of (something) :
3.invoke =  to make use of (a law, a right
4.deteriorate = to become worse as time passes
5.revere =to have great respect for (someone or something) : to show devotion and honor to (someone or something)
6.bequeathe =to give (ideas, knowledge, etc.) to (younger people) as part of their history
7.hector =to criticize or question (someone) in a threatening way
8.invincible =  impossible to defeat or overcome
[2015. 3. 24. 오전 8:57:23] Christine Salientes: 9.scathing = very harsh or severe


[2015. 3. 24. 오전 9:02:54] Christine Salientes: the time when the Roman Empire bestrode the world [=had great power over the world]
[2015. 3. 24. 오전 9:07:40] Christine Salientes: pneumonia = a serious disease that affects the lungs and makes it difficult to breathe
[2015. 3. 24. 오전 9:13:47] Christine Salientes: muster =  to work hard to find or get (courage, support)
[2015. 3. 24. 오전 9:18:27] Christine Salientes: hinterland = an area that is not close to any cities or towns : a remote region

Monday, March 16, 2015

0316 - CJ to shake up cinema industry with 4D tech

CJ 4D Plex CEO Choi Byung-hwan

CJ 4D Plex seeks partnership with China's Wanda Group

By Park Si-soo


Cinematic technology is evolving in a way that makes audiences feel like they are actually in a movie.

Three-dimensional films proved their marketability with sci-fi flick "Avatar," a box office hit in 2009. Filmmakers and distributors have since been pressed to develop another breakthrough to get viewers more immersed.

Some see wider screens as a next step, while others believe in high-powered sound systems.

CJ Group, a food and entertainment conglomerate here that owns the nation's biggest cinema chain, CGV, is betting on four-dimension (4D) technology. The state-of-the-art technology delivers a highly immersive experience, with motion chairs and multisensory environmental effects such as wind, bubbles, lightning, fog and rain, among others, finely tuned to the action on the screen.

CJ 4D Plex is the group's affiliate committed to developing 4D-related technology and equipment. It operates 140 screens, with about 20,000 seats designed for 4D movies in 30 countries, including China, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates.

The Seoul-based company is trying to expand in six "trend-setting" nations ― the U.S., the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China and Japan ― to make 4D mainstream. To that end, the firm is aggressive in seeking a strategic partnership with Wanda Group, China's biggest real estate developer and the world's biggest cinema chain operator. Wanda owns American movie theater chain AMC.

"I believe 4D will be the next big thing," Choi Byung-hwan, CEO of CJ 4D Plex, told The Korea Times at his office in Jongno, downtown Seoul. "It's hard to guarantee the best cinematic experience only with wide screen or a high-powered sound system. It's possible only when the two are combined, along with other supportive technologies such as motion chairs and special effects. So I would say 4D is the best solution without alternative, at least for now."

CJ 4D Plex is considered one of the leading companies in the segment.

"We have engaged in the (4D) business since 2009," Choi said. "During that time, we have experienced numerous trials and errors, which made it possible for us to build solid ground to sharpen competitiveness."

He said the company can control 1/1000th of a second of motion chair movement and has developed 13 environmental effects.

"Still, there is a long way to go," he said. "We are doing everything we can to advance 4D technologies. I don't rule out the possibility that we will take over companies with relevant technologies."

The company plans to open 120 4D screens this year. It aims to run more than 800 4D screens around the globe by 2017.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

0306-I Don’t Have a Job. I Have a Higher Calling.

Some employees balk as many firms—from motorcycles to accounting—step up talk about changing the world

ENLARGE
Travelzoo Inc. ’s 438 employees spend their days trying to find customers a good deal on flight and hotel packages. To hear managers describe their work in meetings, however, booking a customer on a cheap trip to the Caribbean can serve a higher purpose: helping someone get over the death of a loved one or meet a future spouse.
“If we all traveled, there would be significantly more peace on Earth,” Travelzoo Chief Executive Chris Loughlin said he has told employees.
Can a job just be a job? Not anymore.
Faced with a cadre of young workers who say they want to make a difference in addition to a paycheck, employers are trying to inject meaning into the daily grind, connecting profit-driven endeavors to grand consequences for mankind.
In part, professionals are demanding more meaning from their careers because work simply takes up more of life than before, thanks to longer hours, competitive pressures and technological tethers of the modern job. Meanwhile, traditional sources of meaning and purpose, such as religion, have receded in many corners of the country.
One KPMG employee said the contest reinforced the notion that he would have to leave the financial firm to really do good in the world.ENLARGE
One KPMG employee said the contest reinforced the notion that he would have to leave the financial firm to really do good in the world. PHOTO: KPMG
Companies have long cited lofty mission statements as proof they have concerns beyond the bottom line, and in the past decade tech firms like Google Inc. attracted some of the economy’s brightest workers by inviting recruits to come and change the world by writing lines of code or managing projects.
Now, nearly every product or service from motorcycles to Big Macs seems capable of transforming humanity, at least according to some corporations. The words “mission,” “higher purpose,” “change the world” or “changing the world” were mentioned on earnings calls, in investor meetings and industry conferences 3,243 times in 2014, up from 2,318 five years ago, according to a Factiva search.
Kohl’s Corp. executive said at an investor conference last year that if the retailer’s associates “can truly relate their work to some higher purpose,” they will sell more sweaters and handbags.
And at a Harley-Davidson Motor Co. investor event in 2013, the company’s marketing chief said “there is a higher purpose to the Harley-Davidson brand that is more than motorcycles.”
Meaning and purpose is a “fallow asset” that firms can tap to boost staff loyalty and engagement, said Bruce Pfau, who oversees consulting giant KPMG’s human-resources department in the U.S.
We can see ourselves as bricklayers or cathedral builders
—John Veihmeyer, KPMG global chairman
That firm is trying to imbue accounting with world-changing sweep, launching a campaign to boost employee retention and outside recruiting that highlights the broader purpose of number-crunching for major corporations.
The initiative kicked off with a video featuring company leaders that boasts of the firm’s hand in the election of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid in South Africa, the launch of NASA’s first space station and the release of Iranian hostages in 1981.
“We can see ourselves as bricklayers or cathedral builders,” said Global Chairman John Veihmeyer in the video. The company held a contest for U.S. employees to share stories and design digital posters touting the bigger impact of their jobs, and it netted 42,000 submissions.
In an interview, Mr. Veihmeyer said it can be tougher to convince an auditor of his or her higher purpose—“helping to sustain confidence in the capital markets”—compared with, say, the meaning a doctor feels when caring for patients.
Siobhan Kiernan, a KPMG manager, acknowledged that she’s not a brain surgeon or a scientist. But she is helping some of those people do their taxes.
“I can take the worry of doing their tax returns off their mind,” she said, explaining a poster she made for the contest that reads “I support advancements in medicine.”
Plenty of employees are fine with being a cog rather than a cathedral builder. About one-third of individuals feel their work is a calling, according to Amy Wrzesniewski, an associate professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management.
Those who can connect their work to a higher purpose—whether they are a janitor or a banker—tend to be more satisfied with their jobs, put in longer hours and rack up fewer absences, according to Ms. Wrzesniewski’s research.
But for the two-thirds who view their job as a paycheck or a necessary rung on the corporate ladder, campaigns around meaning can highlight the fact that those workers don’t derive deep meaning from work, Ms. Wrzesniewski said.
“It’s trying to put lipstick on the pig,” she added.
One KPMG tax employee based in Philadelphia, speaking anonymously to avoid offending his bosses, described the video as “over the top,” and said it got him thinking about the lack of meaning in his day job. The campaign and poster contest prompted questions like, “If I want to really make a change, why would I sit here?” he said, adding that it reinforced his hunch that he would have to leave the company to really do good in the world.
An October survey by the company found that employees whose managers talked about KPMG’s impact on society were 42.4% more likely to describe the firm as a great place to work. Of those with managers who talked up meaning, 68% indicated they rarely think about looking for a new job outside KPMG; that share fell to 38% for employees whose managers didn’t discuss meaning.
Juniper Networks Inc. has spent much of the past year cutting costs, laying off workers and fending off activist shareholders. Two days after announcing a fourth-quarter loss, managers at the technology company gathered hundreds of employees in a massive tent it calls the “aspiration dome.”
“Certainly, we build awesome routers and switches,” CEO Rami Rahim said at the Jan. 29 meeting, according to transcript excerpts provided by the company. “But what we are doing really is enabling researchers to find cures for deadly diseases. We are enabling scientists to bring clean tech energies that make this planet a better place. We are bringing education to Third World countries.”
The company has asked 500 of its most connected employees—workers identified by peers as being trusted helpers and confidantes—to meet with groups of 20 to 25 colleagues about the company’s mission. Afterward, the “connectors” share tidbits of the conversations on Juniper’s internal social network, said Chris Ernst, a company executive.
“When you have 9,000 people who are committed to something much bigger than themselves, they’re going to get through lots of ups and downs,” Mr. Ernst said.
A shared sense of purpose motivates and unites the employees scattered at Travelzoo’s offices around the world, according to Mr. Loughlin, who said its deals have brought joy to an ill customer and preserved hospitality industry jobs during the economic crash. Employees recently produced a video in which workers’ testimonials about being part of something greater than themselves are set over swells of electronic music.
Still, Mr. Loughlin said a top employee recently told him that she doesn’t come to work to have fun.
“For her, it’s a job,” he said. “Not everyone wants to change the world.”
Write to Rachel Feintzeig at rachel.feintzeig@wsj.com

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

0305-Line Expands Mobile Payment Service


Screenshot of Line’s payment system, called Line Pay.
 
Line
Line, which operates Japan’s most popular smartphone messaging app, is moving quickly to expand Line Pay, a mobile-payment system it launched in December.
The Japanese unit of Korean Internet giant Naver said Tuesday it has signed an agreement with CyberSource, a U.S.-based global e-commerce payment company owned by Visa, to work together as strategic partners.
Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Line said the alliance with CyberSource, whose payment management and security services are used by over 400,000 businesses worldwide, is aimed at accelerating Line Pay’s growth outside Japan, but declined to share details of their planned cooperation.
Line Pay’s success is far from guaranteed, especially outside Japan. Just about all of the major players in mobile technology and services, from Google and Apple to Samsung Electronics, are trying to gain control over payments.
While Apple has been promoting its Apple Pay, Samsung bought mobile-payments company LoopPay last month and just unveiled a smartphone payment system calledSamsung Pay this week. In China, the world’s largest smartphone market, local Internet giants Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings both run their own mobile payment systems, which are used by hundreds of millions of consumers for online shopping, taxi-hailing and various other purposes.
Line’s mobile messaging service has over 181 million active users globally, and is popular in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. Line Pay represents the next big challenge for the company. In January, Line also launched a taxi-hailing service in Japan called Line Taxi, which lets passengers pay for their rides using Line Pay.
Payments within Line’s messaging app, such as the purchases of stickers – emoticons featuring cartoon characters that people can send to one another – can be handled by Line Pay. But Line wants to expand Line Pay far beyond the messaging app.
Earlier this week, Line said several online-shopping sites in Japan, including a marketplace called Zozotown and music store HMV Online, will start accepting Line Pay.

0304-[Newsmaker] Samsung mobile chief returns with new Galaxy

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20150303001007