Thursday, April 30, 2009
Manny 'Pacman' Pacquiao Faces Ricky 'Hitman' Hatton
In two days, Manny 'Pacman' Pacquiao and Ricky 'The Hitman' Hatton will finally have their face-off at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, May 2 (Sunday, May 3 Philippine time).Dubbed as the "Battle of East and West" by TopRank and Golden Boy Promotions, others tagged it as the "War of the Worlds."It has long been touted that Hatton might put the black dot on Pacquiao's winning
GSK Offers 30-50% Price Reduction
Early last month, Glaxo-SmithKline (GSK) announced a price reduction on its most major brands. This is to expands Filipino access to its globally-trusted medicines. It has dropped the prices of most of its major medicines by 30 to 50 percent in a bid to make quality medicines affordable.This is the first time the company embarked in this wide-ranging reduction not only in the country, but in
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Live at the Fleur Cafe
The Monaco summit is over. For the finale, half a dozen teams competed in a 48-hour hackathon to show that a one-or-two person team can put together a social networking app in two days of coding using WRT. Beyond the gimmick there is a compelling story. As one speaker said, we shouldn't really be calling them widgets - these are not necessarily widgets at all, these are apps. It's a theme we'll be exploring and developing on Mobile Innovator. Meanwhile, there may never have been such hunger for your apps, or so many routes to market. Samsung has an offering there too, of course, with the Samsung Mobile App Store. But no more cafes. Back to the airport, back to my desk. -- Ben.
I go Green LED Lighting at Home!
I have been searching the whole Ap Liu Street, and shops nearby West Kowloon Centre, finally I found one shop "Cosmos Telecom" at G/F 169 Ap Liu Street. They have all kinds of LED that I am looking for, and they are not the same stuff as the street store and you may not find them tomorrow.
The Shop keeper, likely the shop owner, he told me they make their own LED light bulb using Luxeon, K2 LEDs!
Well, I said "show me!" He showed me reels of K2 LED, packs of Cree XRE, Packs of Seoul Opto LED. Seems that they are keen on the quality using the real good stuff!
I bought two K2 X3 3W LED bulbs, now I am testing at home. If that is OK , I may replace all in my house. Price is HKD136.00 each. They also have Philips MasterLed but it is not the same connector as we used to use in HK. So I had to give up!
This is the first step to LED illumination at home!
feverip
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Nothing rhymes with 'Office'
There are only two television shows I like enough - and know that I like enough - that I will go out of my way to watch them. For all I complained about Scrubs the other week, it's probably my favourite still-running show - and I'll talk more about it as the "will there be another season?" saga draws nearer to an end.But this post is about the other show I make sure to see every week, The Office. Three episodes to go in the season, and it's really bounced back from last year's mild disappointment (which I blame on the writers' strike). The now-resolved Michael Scott Paper Company subplot added a nice bit of deviation from the norm, which was exactly what the series needed. Bringing in Charles as essentially a straight man - a normal, real-world person who had to observe all the hijinks that take place in Scranton - didn't quite live up to its potential, but was still pretty good.
Now the gang's all back together - albeit with Pam in sales and a new, thus far dull receptionist - and things can go back to normal. There's still the matter of who will be brought in to fill the role Charles had (overseeing all the branches), and I'd really like to see them come up with a character who is competent at the job, gets along with Michael, and yet remains entertaining. We've had two sorts of crazy and one count of by-the-book, let's go with something more in line with what Scranton would want.
When I talk about TV shows or movies - Scrubs and Gander being the first two examples to come to mind - I seem to complain about relationships a lot. So let me make it perfectly clear that I *can* find a televised relationship I enjoy (or at least find realistic), and in fact The Office is pretty much full of them. While I doubt that any real-life person could be anything like Michael, were there one, their relationships would be equally bizarre and self-destructive. Angela's simultaneous relationships with Andy and Dwight at least managed to make me laugh (and if the same two guys are going to start pseudo-competing-while-pretending-they're-not-competing over the new receptionist, I think it'll make me laugh in an entirely different way), and Pam and Jim are cute and awesome and such.
(As an aside, the number of times I've seen an episode, then been talking in class or wherever to somebody who hasn't seen it yet [usually a girl, if that makes a difference], and the first thing they ask is "did Pam and Jim break up?" and make a face as if they wouldn't believe me if I said yes...yet they keep asking...seriously, if they do anything other than get married and live happily ever after, it's the end of the show.)
It's still not a perfect show, though. My one complaint would be that the producers are a little *too* aware of why people like The Office, and are overexposing that sort of thing. Two main elements:
1) The scene where the documentary crew is interviewing somebody, and an awkward pause ensues. Funny the first few times, predictable the last few years.
2) The scene where the entire gang is doing something random, fun, and decidedly not work-related. In the past season alone, we've had them throwing Cheetos into each others' mouths, debating the hotness of Halle Berry, and of course, planning and holding parties with various degrees of success. Yes, office life is sometimes actually fun, and those instances usually occur when the least amount of work is being done - but at times it feels like the producers are trying to make people go into work the next day and say "did you see The Office last night? Did you see where they talked about Halle Berry for half the episode? Wasn't that awesome?" Seinfeld worked as a show about nothing, I'm not so sure The Office does.
Still, minor gripes. Considering how well the show does some of the subtle things I like - keeping continuity straight (David Wallace assuming Jim was still the second-in-command), and being able to have recurring characters in believable roles chief among them - I can easily overlook any of the rest of that.
Three episodes to go!
--Ryan
After the flood
The sun came out. Most interesting for me - (1) runtimes, particularly WRT and Flash. These are not silver bullets, they are technology Swiss Army knives, mix and match cleverly and they will get you to market. I think everybody gets it. Of course, it's already fragmented. That lies ahead. (2) Well - runtimes. JS as the language of the imminent future, and not so distant past. JS is not to be confused with the garbage you find embedded in many a web page (3) The device is the killer app. I've believed that since my Psion days :-) Did I mention that the sun came out? -- Ben.
LED on shower head
The LED Shower Light is a brilliant idea. It installs to a standard shower pipe in mere minutes. When you turn the shower on, the water powers a turbine and the LED Shower Light…well, lights up! Blue let’s you know the water is chilly. When the water warms up to 89° F (32° C), the light changes to red. Now you can step in and not freeze your giblets off. And you don’t even need to turn on the light now, because your whole shower glows.
The LED shower light is available to buy online for $39.99 from Think Geek
Also available in the UK for £29.99 from Iwantoneofthose.com
LED Gadget
This is a best LED latest gadgets based on the latest technology and all future for this LED conceptual gadgets is more effective and representing best future just like best mega pixel light, sharp lighting etc. And the how various periods have you found manually walking downward dark.
Revenge & Betrayal - An X-Men Origins Wolverine Movie Review
The origin of the X-Men saga revolved around Wolverine's story, his supernatural healing powers, and how he acquired his adamantium claws. Hugh Jackman once again reprises the leading role of Wolverine, this time not yet as an X-Men, but as the independent mutant.X-Men Origins: Wolverine tried to stay true to the general tone of the X-Men comic books but made it as its own by injecting minor
Monday, April 27, 2009
Before the flood
I'm excited already:
>>A sold-out audience from nearly 40 countries has gathered in Monaco for the first-ever Nokia Developer Summit. The event includes keynote addresses by visionaries from Nokia, Symbian Foundation, MySpace, and IDC.
It's the Symbian aspect that brings Sammi here, but any gathering of mobile developers is an opportunity to meet and talk and introduce people to what we are up to.
The weather so far is a disaster (sorry - I'm English, I have to talk about the weather!). Coming in from the Italian side the rivers are overflowing, with landslips and flooding on the roads and water sluicing off the hills. Not good.
But while we wait for the fun to start, the other hot topic must be the interesting numbers on the A**** A** store phenomenon - see casualgaming.biz/news/28439/True-scale-of-iPhones-games-market-revealed-in-numbers, linked from the always excellent Guardian games blog. Casual games account for around half the downloads on the platform-we-shall-not-name.
The billion dollar question has to be, why no goldrush on S60? Developers, tell us your story!
And if you want to meet up, post comments to the blog.
-- Ben.
>>A sold-out audience from nearly 40 countries has gathered in Monaco for the first-ever Nokia Developer Summit. The event includes keynote addresses by visionaries from Nokia, Symbian Foundation, MySpace, and IDC.
It's the Symbian aspect that brings Sammi here, but any gathering of mobile developers is an opportunity to meet and talk and introduce people to what we are up to.
The weather so far is a disaster (sorry - I'm English, I have to talk about the weather!). Coming in from the Italian side the rivers are overflowing, with landslips and flooding on the roads and water sluicing off the hills. Not good.
But while we wait for the fun to start, the other hot topic must be the interesting numbers on the A**** A** store phenomenon - see casualgaming.biz/news/28439/True-scale-of-iPhones-games-market-revealed-in-numbers, linked from the always excellent Guardian games blog. Casual games account for around half the downloads on the platform-we-shall-not-name.
The billion dollar question has to be, why no goldrush on S60? Developers, tell us your story!
And if you want to meet up, post comments to the blog.
-- Ben.
The Second TV5 Live Shake Mo TV Mo Caravan!
TV5 invites everyone to shake with them in their Hot Summer Fiesta at the second TV5 Live Shake Mo TV Mo Caravan on May 1, 2009 (Friday) at SM Mall of Asia from 10am to 12mn.After the successful first caravan, this second installment would specifically be held at the Music Hall with TV5 celebrities. Jam at the same time with Moonstar 88 and Parokya ni Edgar at this year's hot summer gig! Have fun
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Pandemic
They say journalism is the one occupation where you need to be an expert in everything. One day, you could be covering a fire, the next an election, the next a cancer fundraiser.
I agree with this, but I would also suggest that a Laurier Brantford contemporary studies student comes in a close second. In three years of that program, I've already learned and written about topics as diverse as the French Revolution, Slumdog Millionaire, and pandemics.
Thanks to that last one, I've been following the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico with a little more knowledge than the average person. In reality, I probably still don't know that much. But since I think I do, here it is.
This is not a pandemic. A pandemic, by defintion, involves people being sick in pretty much every part of the world. The only way this would likely happen would be if the virus were to spread most of the way around the globe before anybody had any idea what was going on. This swine flu was brought to the world's attention when it was still in and around Mexico, giving scientists lots of time to fight it before pandemic set in.
Not that this stops the media. They like this sort of thing. Well, sometimes. They don't like earthquakes, because those are unpredictable - they can only cover the aftermath. But pandemics, hurricanes, meteors? All well-liked, because they can all be tracked in advance and covered from more or less the beginning. I think it's three nights straight now where CTV National News has interviewed an infectious disease specialist, and each time the first question has been "is this a pandemic?", followed by "could it become one?".
The answer, by now, can't be anything other than "only if there's an extraordinary amount of human failure". We know what the disease comes from, we know where it's centralized, we know what symptoms to look for, and the public is aware of it. Were this the real pandemic - which will come eventually, and we're nowhere close to prepared for - none of this would have happened until far too many people had died.
In conclusion, OPEN YOUR DAMN PORTS BACK UP MADAGASCAR.
--Ryan
I agree with this, but I would also suggest that a Laurier Brantford contemporary studies student comes in a close second. In three years of that program, I've already learned and written about topics as diverse as the French Revolution, Slumdog Millionaire, and pandemics.
Thanks to that last one, I've been following the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico with a little more knowledge than the average person. In reality, I probably still don't know that much. But since I think I do, here it is.
This is not a pandemic. A pandemic, by defintion, involves people being sick in pretty much every part of the world. The only way this would likely happen would be if the virus were to spread most of the way around the globe before anybody had any idea what was going on. This swine flu was brought to the world's attention when it was still in and around Mexico, giving scientists lots of time to fight it before pandemic set in.
Not that this stops the media. They like this sort of thing. Well, sometimes. They don't like earthquakes, because those are unpredictable - they can only cover the aftermath. But pandemics, hurricanes, meteors? All well-liked, because they can all be tracked in advance and covered from more or less the beginning. I think it's three nights straight now where CTV National News has interviewed an infectious disease specialist, and each time the first question has been "is this a pandemic?", followed by "could it become one?".
The answer, by now, can't be anything other than "only if there's an extraordinary amount of human failure". We know what the disease comes from, we know where it's centralized, we know what symptoms to look for, and the public is aware of it. Were this the real pandemic - which will come eventually, and we're nowhere close to prepared for - none of this would have happened until far too many people had died.
In conclusion, OPEN YOUR DAMN PORTS BACK UP MADAGASCAR.
--Ryan
LED Die bonding Manufacturing Process
There is continuous seeking for most suitable process with commercial balance of perfomance, cost and reliability for HBLED manufacturing. As from years expierence in this LED manufacturing environment and equipement development , we have a lot understanding that there is minimum 5 common practice for LED die bonding.
Die bonding Process for LED manufacturing
1. Silver Epoxy process
2. Direct Eutectic process
3. Flux Eutectic process
4. Flip Chip G2G process
5. Soft solder process
Silver Epoxy LED Die bonding
This is the most common process as I can see 95% of the World’s LED was made by this process. As for High power LED, most of the applications are epoxy with high silver content, but the silver conent can not go up to 70%, silver epoxy can be applied by either dispensing or stamping.
Hi Power LED can have certain period of life time without degrading on th epoxy or causing epoxy delimination. However, if the LED is running at high current the silver epoxy process may not be the best.
The concern with epoxy is reliability. We have not found epoxy material that does not crack under severe temperature cycle condition for more than 1,000 hours. Although in terms of thermal conductivity, it could be quite similar to Au/Sn solder. Some LED vendors do use epoxy for attaching LED substrate onto heat sink, but they will suffer as thermal performance may not be the best due to thermal conductivity is not the highest amongst all the processes. This process is simple, cheap and easy for manufacturing. The UPH is 10,000 - 18,000. An hour for certain package.
Direct Eutectic process
The main attractions of Au/Sn process are in its excellent performance in reliability and its high thermal conductivity. The drawback is of course the comparatively high cost. Applictaion such as LED based automotive forward lighting or high quality exteriro light fixtures. This LEDs consumption volume is still limited in the luxury automobile market segment, quality and performnace are everything. That is the main reason we the industry requires highest quality standard of performance reliability will use Au/Sn Direct Euetctic Process.
The bonding time is one of the bottle neck for machine UPH typical value is 3,000 to 5,000 depending on die size, void requirement, surface roughness and the thickness of the Gold Tin layer. On the other hand, the use of Forming gas will inevitably add on the cost.
Flux Eutectic process
The problem with flux eutectic Au Sn process is the possibility of contamination of the LED lens as flux evaporates gradually. There are so called "low-flux eutectic paste" in the market place claimed by various vendors. We are still having queries on such claim. This can have a simpler process than Eutectic process machine. UPH can be up to 18,000 as Epoxy process.
Flip Chip process
A gold bump has to be made on the substrates and special plated bump pad has to be made at LED side. Flip Chip machine requires high accurcay +/- 10 microns for alignment between the die and the substrates. Due to the process may requires pick and place the chip twice for ellimilate the pick up ejection error and or using down look camera then re-pick up agan by a bond arm. This two way pick ups will slow down the machine bonding cycle time and hence lower the UPH.
Typical UPH is around 3,000-6,000. So this is an expensive way for LED manufacturing.
Only less than handful of company using this process for LED manufacturing, Typical sucessful company is Lumileds.
Soft solder process
Traditional the soft solder can be used for high power device application. Why there is no one working on LED so far? This is my question today!
The main concern with soft solder is the placement accuracy. +/-100 um seems to be normal for such process. One of the European supplier claims that their soft solder process can achieve +/- 38um @3 Sigma. This is still not good enough for the LED lighting application. Silver is much more expensive than soft solder and there is not many people using this process. As there is Blue ray absorption by the soft solder. The grey solder will not be reflecting the LED light as good as silver, its luminous efficiency is lower than Silver Epoxy,
ASM is the leader in this Soft solder process and they have and process report showing they can well control the process and able to achieve a die placement accuracy of +/-25 microns.
Cost Comparison on Die Bonding process
1. Silver Epoxy process as 1
2. Direct Eutectic process 3
3. Flux Eutectic process 1.2
4. Flip Chip GGI process 4
5. Soft solder process 0.8
Apllication comparison
1. Silver Epoxy process 85%
2. Direct Eutectic process <1% 3. Flux Eutectic process 7% 4. Flip Chip G2G process 4% 5. Other process
feverip
Die bonding Process for LED manufacturing
1. Silver Epoxy process
2. Direct Eutectic process
3. Flux Eutectic process
4. Flip Chip G2G process
5. Soft solder process
Silver Epoxy LED Die bonding
This is the most common process as I can see 95% of the World’s LED was made by this process. As for High power LED, most of the applications are epoxy with high silver content, but the silver conent can not go up to 70%, silver epoxy can be applied by either dispensing or stamping.
Hi Power LED can have certain period of life time without degrading on th epoxy or causing epoxy delimination. However, if the LED is running at high current the silver epoxy process may not be the best.
The concern with epoxy is reliability. We have not found epoxy material that does not crack under severe temperature cycle condition for more than 1,000 hours. Although in terms of thermal conductivity, it could be quite similar to Au/Sn solder. Some LED vendors do use epoxy for attaching LED substrate onto heat sink, but they will suffer as thermal performance may not be the best due to thermal conductivity is not the highest amongst all the processes. This process is simple, cheap and easy for manufacturing. The UPH is 10,000 - 18,000. An hour for certain package.
Direct Eutectic process
The main attractions of Au/Sn process are in its excellent performance in reliability and its high thermal conductivity. The drawback is of course the comparatively high cost. Applictaion such as LED based automotive forward lighting or high quality exteriro light fixtures. This LEDs consumption volume is still limited in the luxury automobile market segment, quality and performnace are everything. That is the main reason we the industry requires highest quality standard of performance reliability will use Au/Sn Direct Euetctic Process.
The bonding time is one of the bottle neck for machine UPH typical value is 3,000 to 5,000 depending on die size, void requirement, surface roughness and the thickness of the Gold Tin layer. On the other hand, the use of Forming gas will inevitably add on the cost.
Flux Eutectic process
The problem with flux eutectic Au Sn process is the possibility of contamination of the LED lens as flux evaporates gradually. There are so called "low-flux eutectic paste" in the market place claimed by various vendors. We are still having queries on such claim. This can have a simpler process than Eutectic process machine. UPH can be up to 18,000 as Epoxy process.
Flip Chip process
A gold bump has to be made on the substrates and special plated bump pad has to be made at LED side. Flip Chip machine requires high accurcay +/- 10 microns for alignment between the die and the substrates. Due to the process may requires pick and place the chip twice for ellimilate the pick up ejection error and or using down look camera then re-pick up agan by a bond arm. This two way pick ups will slow down the machine bonding cycle time and hence lower the UPH.
Typical UPH is around 3,000-6,000. So this is an expensive way for LED manufacturing.
Only less than handful of company using this process for LED manufacturing, Typical sucessful company is Lumileds.
Soft solder process
Traditional the soft solder can be used for high power device application. Why there is no one working on LED so far? This is my question today!
The main concern with soft solder is the placement accuracy. +/-100 um seems to be normal for such process. One of the European supplier claims that their soft solder process can achieve +/- 38um @3 Sigma. This is still not good enough for the LED lighting application. Silver is much more expensive than soft solder and there is not many people using this process. As there is Blue ray absorption by the soft solder. The grey solder will not be reflecting the LED light as good as silver, its luminous efficiency is lower than Silver Epoxy,
ASM is the leader in this Soft solder process and they have and process report showing they can well control the process and able to achieve a die placement accuracy of +/-25 microns.
Cost Comparison on Die Bonding process
1. Silver Epoxy process as 1
2. Direct Eutectic process 3
3. Flux Eutectic process 1.2
4. Flip Chip GGI process 4
5. Soft solder process 0.8
Apllication comparison
1. Silver Epoxy process 85%
2. Direct Eutectic process <1% 3. Flux Eutectic process 7% 4. Flip Chip G2G process 4% 5. Other process
feverip
Top 3 LED Automotive LED Makers
Top 3 automotive LED makers have over 50% of market
Germany’s Osram Opto Semiconductors was the largest supplier of LEDs for automotive applications in 2007 (with about 23% market share), followed by the USA’s Philips Lumileds and Japan’s Nichia (each with about 16%), estimates a report ‘The Worldwide Market for LEDs in Automotive Applications’ by IMS Research.
Germany’s Osram Opto Semiconductors was the largest supplier of LEDs for automotive applications in 2007 (with about 23% market share), followed by the USA’s Philips Lumileds and Japan’s Nichia (each with about 16%), estimates a report ‘The Worldwide Market for LEDs in Automotive Applications’ by IMS Research.
But, despite this, Lumileds and Nichia do not compete with each other to a large extent. “Lumileds sell LEDs mainly for exterior applications while Nichia sell mainly for interior applications,” says analyst Jamie Fox. “There are also geographical differences in the supply chain.” For example, Nichia does not sell many LEDs for automotive applications in Europe, where Osram are strong (in both interior and exterior applications).”
Osram, Nichia and Lumileds pioneered LEDs for use in daytime running lights, and are now also pioneering LEDs for headlamps. This year the soon-to-be released Audi R8 will feature a full LED headlamp, supplied by German lighting manufacturer Automotive Lighting, with LEDs supplied by Osram and Lumileds. This will be the second vehicle to feature LEDs in the headlamp, after the Lexus LS600h, which used Koito headlamps with Nichia LEDs. In addition, in December General Motors announced that a special edition of its Cadillac Escalade Platinum will this year become the first production sports utility vehicle (SUV) with LED headlamps.
The experience of these companies in this sector, and the more challenging requirements for durability and brightness of LEDs (in some applications) in cars compared with mobile phones, MP3 players and TVs, make it difficult for other suppliers to mount a challenge, says IMS. While many other suppliers, such as Toshiba, Avago and Everlight, sell LEDs into this sector, they sell fewer.
However, in the next decade, as the battleground moves from interior and rear lighting applications to the front of the vehicle, this seems set to change. Lumileds, Osram and Nichia all provide LEDs of high brightness and quality that are well suited to forward lighting applications. With a potentially large market for LEDs in headlamps in the next decade, it will be interesting to see which of the big three, or even any of their other competitors, is able to win the biggest share of the market for headlamp applications in 2008 and 2009, says IMS.
The market research firm expects the total automotive LED market to double from $650m in 2006 to $1.3bn within 10 years.
PS
Lexus LS600ih LED head lamp (low beam)
Audi R8 Hi Low beam LED head lamps
What will be Retail Price of a LED light bulb in 2014?
The LED is one of the ten greatest inventions in 20 Century, since the Invention of blue LED by Shuji Nakamura of Nichia in 1987, there would have been a great expectation that there will be colour TV using LED, LED lighting to replace the incandescent light bulb, LED illumination, LED torch, Third Brake light, LED interior light for Automobile,, Flash LED of higher instant power, Black Light Unit for LDD TV and PC Monitor.
Not Until 1990 the RGB LED was made in mass production at a much reasonable price. Now, you can LED everywhere, and every home has at least 200 LEDs....and every car has at least 150 LED now.
Now LED has drawn in million dollars of investment in order to produce the most efficient, most efficacy solid state Light with best reliability, High power LED is normally classified with a definition of being driven by 1Watt power, most of the powerful LED were manufactured by world largest player Cree, Nichia, Lumileds, Avago Liteon, Light house Edison and Osram.
They represent the best bunch of people who can product the brightest LED in the world.
Now most of the LED was made with some traditional way either place a LED chip on to a leadframe, PCB, ceramic and or premould leadframe by silver epoxy, this kind of process is dominate in the industry.
There may have 90% of the LEDs are made this way,
There is only less than 4% of the world best LED which is made by a gold tin Eutectic process. Flip Chip is only been utilized by Lumileds as they have a higher manufacturing cost due to lower UPH of high precision Flip Chip machine with high bonding accuracy +/-10 microns. And they have to bump a Gold bumps on the die surface. After the Chip is attached b such gold-to-gold process, there is a need to have underfill the chip, that underfill material service purpose of reinforce the rigidity of the bonds and to dissipate the heat of the chip.
Flux Eutectics process is quite common too in the HB LED manufacturing but the flux will definite affecting the bonds a few thousand hours of operation.
It seems everyone is working on the new ways to seeking a better manufacturing process for LED, as a LED light bulb such as Philips Master LED is 40X more expensive than a incandescent light bulb, a 30W incandescent light bulb can be just 1 dollar when we buy in quantity, A Philips Master LED is around USD40-50.00. That is a high initial cost for the household application.
A new cost effective manufacturing for LED is definite the top one prioritized project for most of the LED manufacturers and design houses.
The following is what we can find in the LED industry in 2011
A Silicon Wafer of 8” in diameter has been made with 2,000 cavities for next downstream process to place a LED chip of 1mm x1mmm using Direct Eutectic process. The Gold Ball bumping machine to bump the Gold wire on the wafer level.
A jetting pump to dispense yellow phosphor substance in a well controlled quantity at high speed of 100 units per second. After curing the silicone phosphor mixture then pass to a wafer level lens attachment with 8” diameter. At a placement of +/-15 microns, then cure it once more. Follow by singulation, test, sort and tape it on Tape and reel form.
This kind of 1 Watt LED may be sold at USD 0.90 dollar a piece… so a Light bulb of 20W will have approximately 20 pieces of such LED, and the cost of such light bulb will be around USD 20 dollar.
Not Until 1990 the RGB LED was made in mass production at a much reasonable price. Now, you can LED everywhere, and every home has at least 200 LEDs....and every car has at least 150 LED now.
Now LED has drawn in million dollars of investment in order to produce the most efficient, most efficacy solid state Light with best reliability, High power LED is normally classified with a definition of being driven by 1Watt power, most of the powerful LED were manufactured by world largest player Cree, Nichia, Lumileds, Avago Liteon, Light house Edison and Osram.
They represent the best bunch of people who can product the brightest LED in the world.
Now most of the LED was made with some traditional way either place a LED chip on to a leadframe, PCB, ceramic and or premould leadframe by silver epoxy, this kind of process is dominate in the industry.
There may have 90% of the LEDs are made this way,
There is only less than 4% of the world best LED which is made by a gold tin Eutectic process. Flip Chip is only been utilized by Lumileds as they have a higher manufacturing cost due to lower UPH of high precision Flip Chip machine with high bonding accuracy +/-10 microns. And they have to bump a Gold bumps on the die surface. After the Chip is attached b such gold-to-gold process, there is a need to have underfill the chip, that underfill material service purpose of reinforce the rigidity of the bonds and to dissipate the heat of the chip.
Flux Eutectics process is quite common too in the HB LED manufacturing but the flux will definite affecting the bonds a few thousand hours of operation.
It seems everyone is working on the new ways to seeking a better manufacturing process for LED, as a LED light bulb such as Philips Master LED is 40X more expensive than a incandescent light bulb, a 30W incandescent light bulb can be just 1 dollar when we buy in quantity, A Philips Master LED is around USD40-50.00. That is a high initial cost for the household application.
A new cost effective manufacturing for LED is definite the top one prioritized project for most of the LED manufacturers and design houses.
The following is what we can find in the LED industry in 2011
A Silicon Wafer of 8” in diameter has been made with 2,000 cavities for next downstream process to place a LED chip of 1mm x1mmm using Direct Eutectic process. The Gold Ball bumping machine to bump the Gold wire on the wafer level.
A jetting pump to dispense yellow phosphor substance in a well controlled quantity at high speed of 100 units per second. After curing the silicone phosphor mixture then pass to a wafer level lens attachment with 8” diameter. At a placement of +/-15 microns, then cure it once more. Follow by singulation, test, sort and tape it on Tape and reel form.
This kind of 1 Watt LED may be sold at USD 0.90 dollar a piece… so a Light bulb of 20W will have approximately 20 pieces of such LED, and the cost of such light bulb will be around USD 20 dollar.
In 2014, when this kind of process will becoming mature, and the cost of the Light bulb will be selling in Park’n, Welcome, Broadway, Fortress, Costco and or Wall Mart with Branded 7 W LEDs at USD5.00!
feverip
LED lighting Fixtures
A new technology building design should link up with all kinds of fascinating LED lighting. LED illumination is now a routine part of architectural design.
All lighting used for illuminating built-up environments, and mood creation, colour is one of the important stimulant to the brain for attraction, creating either warm or cold atmosphere with a simple touch of a switch or remote control. Where the integration of light sources and architectural elements is critical, is architectural lighting. Lighting can be functional or decorative for the purposes of creating ambience. Architectural lighting is used both indoors and outdoors. Most of those sophisticated drivers are crucial in architectural lighting. Especially outdoor architectural applications where fixtures are exposed to drastic temperature variations, LED performs better than other competing technologies, especially in cold temperatures.
Architectural fixtures are used in high-end homes and in retail environments such as malls, car parks and shopping centers.
HB LEDs and Hi power LEDs
High brightness LED is normally describing LED with Luminous Efficacy of more than 65-70 Lumens/Watt.
Most of the LED people s describing high power LED of more than 1Watt power Electrical power apply to the LED.
Except for applications that require very high lumen output, LED lighting is ideal for architectural applications that require design flexibility, that are in places where they are difficult to reach and maintain, or that require color. White light LEDs, however, have not produced enough lumen output to make them competitive with many general light sources other than as accent lights. Since 2006, most of the top LED technology leaders Cree, Nichia, Avago, Lumileds, Osram, Toyoda Gosei, Sharp and Citizen have been spending tremendous effort in producing high output LED, made a lot of patents of new process and material, breakthrough in producing more reliable cost effective LED with new aged manufacturing equipment. Thanks to the LED equipment suppliers that go in par in supplying the sophisticated assembly equipment with High UPH die bonder. The UPH has been treble in ten years and die placement accuracy is attaining the IC assembly class of 10 micron range.
In 2008, many high-brightness white LED fixture manufacturers have been beginning mass manufacturing. Depending on the investment climate in 2009, if the planned capacity creation takes place, LED lighting fixtures are likely to offer feasible energy-efficient alternate solutions.
Solid State Lighting using LEDs
Solid-state lighting offers options for single or multiple colors, including color changing. With digital multiplex controllers, it is possible to make light dance to music. This combination of digital media and lighting has led to new disciplines, so called architainment and mediatecture is bringing buildings with more functional and at the same time, stylish. The illumination is both interactive and controllable. The color-changing fixtures offered by the participants in this market require some customization and an investment in the control infrastructure. Since the lumen output of LED white light is not quite adequate for high-intensity white light applications, the most popular LED fixtures for architectural lighting are wall washers of different colors or in color-changing configurations, accent lights, path markers, steplights, and linear fixtures for cove lighting. The high-intensity color light applications are also possible with LEDs when a beam of intense saturated color light can light up walls as high as 400 feet. The efficiency and lumen output of cool white LEDs improved in 2007−2008, and white spotlights are used for accent lighting.
Market Trend
The LED illumination market in architectural applications is dominated by early adopters. Less than 5% of the potential architectural applications being specified in 2006 used LED fixtures. Around 9% in 2007, 14% in 2008. By 2012, Estimated almost 30% of the potential applications will have converted to LEDs.
Typical solid-state architectural lighting fixtures include:
· Accent lights
· Corridor lights
· Cove lights
· Door light
· In-ground lights
· Floodlights
· Flexible rope lights or festoon lights
· Pool and spa lights
· Path lights
· Steplights
· Spotlights
· Striplights
· Wall washers
Lighting Design
LED Lighting application has been elevated to being a chapter of architectural design. Although once considered a luxury, LED lighting design is now a routine part of architectural design. The building facade can become an interactive light source to reflect the mood, the weather, the occasion, a style, landmark, an Attraction and a unique presence in a crowded urban environment. Lighting using LED is not an industrial scale until recently that the LED manufacturing facilities become a cost justifiable level as the equipment is having the t output per dollar.
LED City
Lighting provides an added dimension of nighttime experience to architecture. Architects and city managers are aware of the importance of lighting to the image of a place to attract tourists and businesses. As cities vie to improve the business climate, lighting enhances the appeal of the urban environment. The urban look at night is an important aspect of this effort. Thus, many large architectural lighting projects are undertaken by local government agencies. There are a few LED cities which is not juts a gadget but also a true new way to promote the latest techimlogy to be adapted in the every day’s application. With Support form the LED makwers and local Government, these are the typcal LED City Raliegh, TianJin and Toronto.
In major municipal building exterior illumination, Car park, Traffic lights, street lamps are mostly been replaced with LED lamps.
Previously, large projects were beyond the scope of LED lighting, especially in applications requiring large lumen output. As LEDs have gotten brighter, especially since 2005, these projects have been within the purview of LED applications.
European Government influence
On December 8, 2008, EU Member States' experts endorsed the European Commission's proposals for a regulation progressively phasing out incandescent bulbs starting in 2009 and finishing at the end of 2012.The regulation (scheduled for formal adoption by the Commission in March 2009) targets lamps typically used in households - in particular incandescent lamps, halogen lamps and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) - by setting minimum energy efficiency and functionality requirements.Beginning in September 2009, all non-clear (frosted) incandescent lamps and all clear incandescent lamps at 100W and above will effectively be prohibited from sale. The staged phase-out process will then remove lower-power incandescent from the market as well.
An EU document entitled "Phasing out incandescent bulbs in the EU - Technical briefing" describes LEDs as "a fast-emerging technology, whose efficacy competes with that of CFLs. However, LEDs for room illumination are today only in the first phases of commercialization, and rare are those that fulfill all the expectations of the consumers in terms of light output and other functionalities. They are likely to become true alternatives to CFLs very rapidly."In the meantime, however, CFLs are the forefront the EU's plans to enhance the adoption of energy-efficient lighting.
The EU's decision has been applauded by the European lighting giants Philips and Osram, the world's two largest lighting companies.The effect of the EU's decision on LEDs is yet to be determined. On one hand, it could accelerate the adoption of LED lamps as customers look for energy-efficient lighting products that do not have the same deficiencies as CFLs.However, LED lamps in general have not yet reached the necessary price-performance point to compete effectively in the market. Pushing inferior or expensive products into the market could create a negative perception among consumers, which could be difficult to shake off. Nowadays a good quality LED replacement light buld is in the range fo USD50.00, and we seea lot of White BOX LED makes having their prodict selling in the range ot USD10.00, we do not know how long it could last and how fast the LED will be aged and losing their lighting performance over time.Another factor is that CFLs will be forced to improve rapidly, in turn reducing the advantage of switching to LEDs, although most people agree that LEDs will be the solution for most lighting applications in the longer term.
US Government influence
In US, it is suggested in 2012-2014 to phase out 40W-100W incandescent bulbs.
There is an act called Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA).
In EISA 2007, it doesn’t mean phasing out incandescent lamp but phasing in min. lighting requirements around amount of light delivered per unit of energy consumed. For the same lumen output, the minimum requirements represent a reduction of 25% over the incandescent technology in use in 2007.
If this rulemaking cannot produce savings that are greater than or equal to the savings from a minimum efficacy standard of 45 lumens per watt, effective January 1, 2020, then the Secretary shall prohibit the sale of any general service lamp that does not meet a minimum efficacy standard of 45 lumens per watt.
Overall Luminous Efficiency
Incandescent lamp is having Luminous Efficacy of 0.7%-5.1% depending on the design and wattage of the light bulb, Fluorescent light is having a much high efficiency such as 9-26W compact Fluorescent lamp is 9-11%. However, LED is in the range of 20-27% which is two time higher. Well, the technology is non-stopping, thousands of scientists are seeking on numerous way to increasing the lighting Luminous efficiency by employing the following improvement. The target of more than 60% is not a dream one day as we can see that there is huge R&D team has been working on.
Chip material
AC LED design
Packaging technology
Chip Design
Novel Process
Thermal management
Lead frame material
CTE balance
Phosphor efficiency
Phosphor spraying
Phosphor application
Material Studies
Driver design and power supply
Market Size.
Architectural lighting is the largest application for LEDs in illumination and will remain so throughout the forecast period. The vast majority of applications to date have involved color, and color will be a continuing growth driver for LED use, but white LEDs will become an increasingly important factor in future years. The percentage of white will increase from 19% in 2007 to 62% of the total revenues in architectural applications in 2012 if the brightness and market availability of white LEDs continue their progress along the projected trajectory.
LEDs have changed the way lighting designers view architectural lighting. The availability of color and the long life of LEDs have made it attractive for lighting designers to incorporate LEDs into their designs.
Increasingly, outdoor architectural applications, such as path lights, in-ground uplights, and steplights − all low-level white light applications – will be adopting LEDs. The lower cost of ownership will drive the growth for these applications.
For the higher-lumen-output applications, two factors will affect the rate of adoption. One is the lumen output of the devices and fixtures. There are many applications that require bright white light, such as floodlights, illuminating path lights, etc. The other factor is the energy efficiency of the fixtures – lumens per watt. The higher efficiencies, compared to alternative lighting technologies, will lower the cost of ownership in the fixture. As the price of white LEDs declines, the number of applications for architectural lighting, such as architectural spots and large-area wall washers, is likely to grow. If the luminous efficacy of LED fixtures gets better than 70 lm/W, LEDs will become competitive for their energy efficiency.
Market Structure
Architectural LED fixtures are specification-grade products with very few fixture models in volume production. Architectural lighting is not a mass market, but rather a semi-custom business in which lighting systems are often designed for particular projects. Many product ideas evolve in the process of custom projects executed by the fixture manufacturers. The fixtures are sold through specifiers and lighting design companies. These fixtures are always sold as a part of lighting systems that include drivers, control systems, and control software. There are many resellers in the market. The resellers offer after sales services for configuration, installation, and maintenance of lighting systems. As LED technology is new, the users need a lot of education and support.
In 2007, the market for architectural lighting fixtures was dominated by color and color-changing fixtures. However, in 2008 there were more outdoor architectural products using white LEDs, such as path lights, steplights, in-ground recessed lamps, and bollards. These fixtures are specification-grade and are sold in the higher price range. Architectural lighting companies reported more sales from projects than through sales of catalog products.
LED lighting is competing with other entrenched technologies, such as incandescent, Fluorescent and HID lamps, on the basis of the cost of the light fixture as measured in terms of lumens per dollar. In applications where color and color changing is an important issue, price per lumen may not be the most important criterion. Between the different LED fixture suppliers, the design of the fixture differentiates the competitors. LED architectural lighting fixtures have very little esthetic design component except for path lights, bollards, and some accent lights. However, the engineering design and reliability of the fixture is a competitive issue.
Lighting Fixture Players
In North America, Hubbell, Genlyte, Acuity, Cooper, Cree LED lighting solutions and Juno had a few low-key LED product introductions. The companies would like to introduce products that can have a wide range of market appeal. All the companies have started R&D efforts and have collaborated with LED start-ups for technology and will be seriously considering entering this market in the near future. Color Kinetics (now Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions), a dedicated LED company, is the largest player in the market and was bought by Philips, as was TIR. Color Kinetics, the leader in architectural color and color-changing fixtures, sells fixtures to end users and light engines to OEMs. The rest of the market consists of smaller companies such as Permlight, Lighting Science, and Nexxus.
In Europe, Zumtobel Group is the largest lighting fixture supplier, but it produces just a small volume of LED architectural lighting products, mainly in the form of accent lights and small spotlights. The other major players in this market are Artemide, ERCO, i-Led, Targetti, iGuzzini, Space Cannon, Martin Professional and Spectral.
Reference: Architecture Lighting companies
http://www.lightingdirectory.com/sub-cats/id/1/architectural-lighting
All lighting used for illuminating built-up environments, and mood creation, colour is one of the important stimulant to the brain for attraction, creating either warm or cold atmosphere with a simple touch of a switch or remote control. Where the integration of light sources and architectural elements is critical, is architectural lighting. Lighting can be functional or decorative for the purposes of creating ambience. Architectural lighting is used both indoors and outdoors. Most of those sophisticated drivers are crucial in architectural lighting. Especially outdoor architectural applications where fixtures are exposed to drastic temperature variations, LED performs better than other competing technologies, especially in cold temperatures.
Architectural fixtures are used in high-end homes and in retail environments such as malls, car parks and shopping centers.
HB LEDs and Hi power LEDs
High brightness LED is normally describing LED with Luminous Efficacy of more than 65-70 Lumens/Watt.
Most of the LED people s describing high power LED of more than 1Watt power Electrical power apply to the LED.
Except for applications that require very high lumen output, LED lighting is ideal for architectural applications that require design flexibility, that are in places where they are difficult to reach and maintain, or that require color. White light LEDs, however, have not produced enough lumen output to make them competitive with many general light sources other than as accent lights. Since 2006, most of the top LED technology leaders Cree, Nichia, Avago, Lumileds, Osram, Toyoda Gosei, Sharp and Citizen have been spending tremendous effort in producing high output LED, made a lot of patents of new process and material, breakthrough in producing more reliable cost effective LED with new aged manufacturing equipment. Thanks to the LED equipment suppliers that go in par in supplying the sophisticated assembly equipment with High UPH die bonder. The UPH has been treble in ten years and die placement accuracy is attaining the IC assembly class of 10 micron range.
In 2008, many high-brightness white LED fixture manufacturers have been beginning mass manufacturing. Depending on the investment climate in 2009, if the planned capacity creation takes place, LED lighting fixtures are likely to offer feasible energy-efficient alternate solutions.
Solid State Lighting using LEDs
Solid-state lighting offers options for single or multiple colors, including color changing. With digital multiplex controllers, it is possible to make light dance to music. This combination of digital media and lighting has led to new disciplines, so called architainment and mediatecture is bringing buildings with more functional and at the same time, stylish. The illumination is both interactive and controllable. The color-changing fixtures offered by the participants in this market require some customization and an investment in the control infrastructure. Since the lumen output of LED white light is not quite adequate for high-intensity white light applications, the most popular LED fixtures for architectural lighting are wall washers of different colors or in color-changing configurations, accent lights, path markers, steplights, and linear fixtures for cove lighting. The high-intensity color light applications are also possible with LEDs when a beam of intense saturated color light can light up walls as high as 400 feet. The efficiency and lumen output of cool white LEDs improved in 2007−2008, and white spotlights are used for accent lighting.
Market Trend
The LED illumination market in architectural applications is dominated by early adopters. Less than 5% of the potential architectural applications being specified in 2006 used LED fixtures. Around 9% in 2007, 14% in 2008. By 2012, Estimated almost 30% of the potential applications will have converted to LEDs.
Typical solid-state architectural lighting fixtures include:
· Accent lights
· Corridor lights
· Cove lights
· Door light
· In-ground lights
· Floodlights
· Flexible rope lights or festoon lights
· Pool and spa lights
· Path lights
· Steplights
· Spotlights
· Striplights
· Wall washers
Lighting Design
LED Lighting application has been elevated to being a chapter of architectural design. Although once considered a luxury, LED lighting design is now a routine part of architectural design. The building facade can become an interactive light source to reflect the mood, the weather, the occasion, a style, landmark, an Attraction and a unique presence in a crowded urban environment. Lighting using LED is not an industrial scale until recently that the LED manufacturing facilities become a cost justifiable level as the equipment is having the t output per dollar.
LED City
Lighting provides an added dimension of nighttime experience to architecture. Architects and city managers are aware of the importance of lighting to the image of a place to attract tourists and businesses. As cities vie to improve the business climate, lighting enhances the appeal of the urban environment. The urban look at night is an important aspect of this effort. Thus, many large architectural lighting projects are undertaken by local government agencies. There are a few LED cities which is not juts a gadget but also a true new way to promote the latest techimlogy to be adapted in the every day’s application. With Support form the LED makwers and local Government, these are the typcal LED City Raliegh, TianJin and Toronto.
In major municipal building exterior illumination, Car park, Traffic lights, street lamps are mostly been replaced with LED lamps.
Previously, large projects were beyond the scope of LED lighting, especially in applications requiring large lumen output. As LEDs have gotten brighter, especially since 2005, these projects have been within the purview of LED applications.
European Government influence
On December 8, 2008, EU Member States' experts endorsed the European Commission's proposals for a regulation progressively phasing out incandescent bulbs starting in 2009 and finishing at the end of 2012.The regulation (scheduled for formal adoption by the Commission in March 2009) targets lamps typically used in households - in particular incandescent lamps, halogen lamps and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) - by setting minimum energy efficiency and functionality requirements.Beginning in September 2009, all non-clear (frosted) incandescent lamps and all clear incandescent lamps at 100W and above will effectively be prohibited from sale. The staged phase-out process will then remove lower-power incandescent from the market as well.
An EU document entitled "Phasing out incandescent bulbs in the EU - Technical briefing" describes LEDs as "a fast-emerging technology, whose efficacy competes with that of CFLs. However, LEDs for room illumination are today only in the first phases of commercialization, and rare are those that fulfill all the expectations of the consumers in terms of light output and other functionalities. They are likely to become true alternatives to CFLs very rapidly."In the meantime, however, CFLs are the forefront the EU's plans to enhance the adoption of energy-efficient lighting.
The EU's decision has been applauded by the European lighting giants Philips and Osram, the world's two largest lighting companies.The effect of the EU's decision on LEDs is yet to be determined. On one hand, it could accelerate the adoption of LED lamps as customers look for energy-efficient lighting products that do not have the same deficiencies as CFLs.However, LED lamps in general have not yet reached the necessary price-performance point to compete effectively in the market. Pushing inferior or expensive products into the market could create a negative perception among consumers, which could be difficult to shake off. Nowadays a good quality LED replacement light buld is in the range fo USD50.00, and we seea lot of White BOX LED makes having their prodict selling in the range ot USD10.00, we do not know how long it could last and how fast the LED will be aged and losing their lighting performance over time.Another factor is that CFLs will be forced to improve rapidly, in turn reducing the advantage of switching to LEDs, although most people agree that LEDs will be the solution for most lighting applications in the longer term.
US Government influence
In US, it is suggested in 2012-2014 to phase out 40W-100W incandescent bulbs.
There is an act called Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA).
In EISA 2007, it doesn’t mean phasing out incandescent lamp but phasing in min. lighting requirements around amount of light delivered per unit of energy consumed. For the same lumen output, the minimum requirements represent a reduction of 25% over the incandescent technology in use in 2007.
If this rulemaking cannot produce savings that are greater than or equal to the savings from a minimum efficacy standard of 45 lumens per watt, effective January 1, 2020, then the Secretary shall prohibit the sale of any general service lamp that does not meet a minimum efficacy standard of 45 lumens per watt.
Overall Luminous Efficiency
Incandescent lamp is having Luminous Efficacy of 0.7%-5.1% depending on the design and wattage of the light bulb, Fluorescent light is having a much high efficiency such as 9-26W compact Fluorescent lamp is 9-11%. However, LED is in the range of 20-27% which is two time higher. Well, the technology is non-stopping, thousands of scientists are seeking on numerous way to increasing the lighting Luminous efficiency by employing the following improvement. The target of more than 60% is not a dream one day as we can see that there is huge R&D team has been working on.
Chip material
AC LED design
Packaging technology
Chip Design
Novel Process
Thermal management
Lead frame material
CTE balance
Phosphor efficiency
Phosphor spraying
Phosphor application
Material Studies
Driver design and power supply
Market Size.
Architectural lighting is the largest application for LEDs in illumination and will remain so throughout the forecast period. The vast majority of applications to date have involved color, and color will be a continuing growth driver for LED use, but white LEDs will become an increasingly important factor in future years. The percentage of white will increase from 19% in 2007 to 62% of the total revenues in architectural applications in 2012 if the brightness and market availability of white LEDs continue their progress along the projected trajectory.
LEDs have changed the way lighting designers view architectural lighting. The availability of color and the long life of LEDs have made it attractive for lighting designers to incorporate LEDs into their designs.
Increasingly, outdoor architectural applications, such as path lights, in-ground uplights, and steplights − all low-level white light applications – will be adopting LEDs. The lower cost of ownership will drive the growth for these applications.
For the higher-lumen-output applications, two factors will affect the rate of adoption. One is the lumen output of the devices and fixtures. There are many applications that require bright white light, such as floodlights, illuminating path lights, etc. The other factor is the energy efficiency of the fixtures – lumens per watt. The higher efficiencies, compared to alternative lighting technologies, will lower the cost of ownership in the fixture. As the price of white LEDs declines, the number of applications for architectural lighting, such as architectural spots and large-area wall washers, is likely to grow. If the luminous efficacy of LED fixtures gets better than 70 lm/W, LEDs will become competitive for their energy efficiency.
Market Structure
Architectural LED fixtures are specification-grade products with very few fixture models in volume production. Architectural lighting is not a mass market, but rather a semi-custom business in which lighting systems are often designed for particular projects. Many product ideas evolve in the process of custom projects executed by the fixture manufacturers. The fixtures are sold through specifiers and lighting design companies. These fixtures are always sold as a part of lighting systems that include drivers, control systems, and control software. There are many resellers in the market. The resellers offer after sales services for configuration, installation, and maintenance of lighting systems. As LED technology is new, the users need a lot of education and support.
In 2007, the market for architectural lighting fixtures was dominated by color and color-changing fixtures. However, in 2008 there were more outdoor architectural products using white LEDs, such as path lights, steplights, in-ground recessed lamps, and bollards. These fixtures are specification-grade and are sold in the higher price range. Architectural lighting companies reported more sales from projects than through sales of catalog products.
LED lighting is competing with other entrenched technologies, such as incandescent, Fluorescent and HID lamps, on the basis of the cost of the light fixture as measured in terms of lumens per dollar. In applications where color and color changing is an important issue, price per lumen may not be the most important criterion. Between the different LED fixture suppliers, the design of the fixture differentiates the competitors. LED architectural lighting fixtures have very little esthetic design component except for path lights, bollards, and some accent lights. However, the engineering design and reliability of the fixture is a competitive issue.
Lighting Fixture Players
In North America, Hubbell, Genlyte, Acuity, Cooper, Cree LED lighting solutions and Juno had a few low-key LED product introductions. The companies would like to introduce products that can have a wide range of market appeal. All the companies have started R&D efforts and have collaborated with LED start-ups for technology and will be seriously considering entering this market in the near future. Color Kinetics (now Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions), a dedicated LED company, is the largest player in the market and was bought by Philips, as was TIR. Color Kinetics, the leader in architectural color and color-changing fixtures, sells fixtures to end users and light engines to OEMs. The rest of the market consists of smaller companies such as Permlight, Lighting Science, and Nexxus.
In Europe, Zumtobel Group is the largest lighting fixture supplier, but it produces just a small volume of LED architectural lighting products, mainly in the form of accent lights and small spotlights. The other major players in this market are Artemide, ERCO, i-Led, Targetti, iGuzzini, Space Cannon, Martin Professional and Spectral.
Reference: Architecture Lighting companies
http://www.lightingdirectory.com/sub-cats/id/1/architectural-lighting
Friday, April 24, 2009
Houston, have we a problem?
It's, well, maybe not exactly common knowledge, but not exactly a secret that speechwriters do a lot of work which never gets used. Especially the political ones.On an election night, for example, a politician won't wait to see how the night unfolds and then tell his speechwriter to write something that fits. Instead, the speechwriter will work on at least two speeches - one for if the candidate wins, another for if the candidate loses.
There could be more speeches, too - if it's somebody running for Prime Minister of Canada, they'll want specific speeches for winning a majority, winning a minority government, losing with a minority, and so on. No stone can be left unturned. (A last-season episode of The West Wing showed just how ridiculous this can get, as Santos' chief speechwriter was given dozens of scenarios, including winning certain states, certain demographics, and so forth.)
It's not just about the elections, though. If Americans get kidnapped abroad and the CIA mounts a rescue mission, the President's speechwriters are given two assignments - one for if the rescue is successful, and one for if it isn't.
And now we finally get to the point of this post. Nearly forty years ago (only a few months to go), the Apollo 11 crew landed on the moon. One small step for man and all that. But President Nixon also had a speech ready for if the Apollo 11 astronauts were left stranded on the moon.
"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the Moon to explore in peace will stay on the Moon to rest in peace," would be my favourite of the lines excerpted in the linked article.
It's probably my occasional fascination with alternate history at work here, but I really enjoy seeing things like this. This is what would have really happened, try and imagine what would come next. More moon missions? A backlash against the space program? If so, only in America, or would the Russians keep theirs going?
Anyhow, something I thought was neat.
--Ryan
War is Peace
‘War is Peace’ is a central principle of the world Orwell describes in his classic novel ‘1984’.
We all know about Big Brother and DoubleThink and NewSpeak, but the parallels between the political philosophy of 1984 and today's coverging mobile Internet make for a quite interesting model: 3 super-states (device creators vs software / services providers vs operators) locked in perpetual battle over ‘The Disputed Territory’ (the Internet and content).What do you think?
Random 1984-related fact: apparently 43% of people who say they've read the book actually lie because they are embarrassed to admit they haven’t. If you haven’t read it, you should!
Anyway, check out Forum Oxford's 2009 conference
We all know about Big Brother and DoubleThink and NewSpeak, but the parallels between the political philosophy of 1984 and today's coverging mobile Internet make for a quite interesting model: 3 super-states (device creators vs software / services providers vs operators) locked in perpetual battle over ‘The Disputed Territory’ (the Internet and content).What do you think?
Random 1984-related fact: apparently 43% of people who say they've read the book actually lie because they are embarrassed to admit they haven’t. If you haven’t read it, you should!
Anyway, check out Forum Oxford's 2009 conference
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Monaco next week
Sammi will be in Monaco next week at the N***a Developer Summit. Look out for us keeping a low profile and ears to the ground... But it will be great to say hello to any of you who are there. Post a comment to this item if you want to meet up. -- Ben.
The disappearing i8910
Ok so we're a little late on this video clip but we thought it was so good we'd share it again. Can you guess how this is done? Answers in the comments section please!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The new News Scoop?
The tidings that NewsCorp is extending its relationship with MySpace users by launching 'Citizen Journalism' makes me glad I'm no longer a journalist. Or does it?
Will talented amateurs rise to the top, or will they already be gunning for media jobs? If someone posts an exclusive, how much do they get paid?
In time, this might actually redefine the meaning of 'scoop', as uReport looks like it might provide a structured way of capturing content from those MySpace community members lucky (or unlucky) enough to be able to say 'I was there'. While it will keep the News Desks at Fox pretty busy, I am sure it will be more interesting than reading a pile of press releases...
Will talented amateurs rise to the top, or will they already be gunning for media jobs? If someone posts an exclusive, how much do they get paid?
In time, this might actually redefine the meaning of 'scoop', as uReport looks like it might provide a structured way of capturing content from those MySpace community members lucky (or unlucky) enough to be able to say 'I was there'. While it will keep the News Desks at Fox pretty busy, I am sure it will be more interesting than reading a pile of press releases...
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The small ironies are the funniest
Pop quiz: how much do you remember of my journey to the Brantford General Hospital emergency room?
Probably more than I give you credit for. You might even remember that Dan went home and came back with some supplies to get me through the night.
What you likely don't remember is that those supplies included a book included in the package for the sole reason that he thought the book I wanted would be boring.
I never read that book. Never even really glanced at it.
This brings me to Sunday afternoon. Dan and I are in my bedroom, doing whatever it is we do (minds out of the gutter, thank you very much). I notice that this extra book is still sitting on my dresser, and hand it to Dan, seeing as it's his book and all.
We discuss the book, which is essentially answers to common medical questions such as "where does brainfreeze come from?". Dan suggests that I read it anyhow, and here's where I pick up the direct quote:
"Because it answers things like *reading off back cover* 'how do people in wheelchairs have sex?'! Or...*doing an amazingly good job at not bursting into laughter*...'can I lose my contact lens inside my head forever?'!"
"Does it really say that?"
"Yeah!"
I look, and see that it does in fact really say that (underline mine):
After a few minutes of uproarious laughter, we collected ourselves for long enough to realize that we should probably look at what the book says on that subject. So we do, and we find this:
Yeah. So I spent several hours overnight in an emergency room, only to learn that nothing was wrong and the worst-case scenario wasn't really that bad. Which I'd have learned much earlier if I'd even READ THE COVER OF THE BOOK DAN BROUGHT FOR ME TO READ.
Almost seems funny in retrospect.
-------------------
Also, since Dan beat me to talking about Omegle, here's my take.
I've had exactly two conversations on Omegle. The first was with somebody who claimed to be a 16-year-old Finnish girl. Immediately suspcious, I disconnected. Kinda regret that now.
My second conversation was actually much better, the guy refused to start off with an 'a/s/l' or any of the typical chat/Omegle openings, and instead we learned a fair bit about each other through a naturally-flowing conversation that lasted for half an hour or so.
He's an archaeology student at a college or university in Florida, somewhere near Miami. He's generally annoyed by people on Omegle for much the same reason Dan was. We talked a fair bit about the similarities and differences between Canada and the US, and he mentioned that he's considered studying at UBC. We must have talked about more, but it's been a week and I don't remember.
Why haven't I gone back on? I need a better opening line. Yes, a lot of people on Omegle are interested in sex, advertising their website/product, or just wasting your time. Sometimes all three at once. But there are plenty who aren't, and most of those conversations are the ones that start off awkwardly - "hey" "hi" "what's up?" "not much u?".
I need to think of something to say that will instantly grab the other person's attention - make them realize that I'm actually interested in having a real conversation with them. And ideally make them laugh. Suggestions are welcome.
--Ryan
Probably more than I give you credit for. You might even remember that Dan went home and came back with some supplies to get me through the night.
What you likely don't remember is that those supplies included a book included in the package for the sole reason that he thought the book I wanted would be boring.
I never read that book. Never even really glanced at it.
This brings me to Sunday afternoon. Dan and I are in my bedroom, doing whatever it is we do (minds out of the gutter, thank you very much). I notice that this extra book is still sitting on my dresser, and hand it to Dan, seeing as it's his book and all.
We discuss the book, which is essentially answers to common medical questions such as "where does brainfreeze come from?". Dan suggests that I read it anyhow, and here's where I pick up the direct quote:
"Because it answers things like *reading off back cover* 'how do people in wheelchairs have sex?'! Or...*doing an amazingly good job at not bursting into laughter*...'can I lose my contact lens inside my head forever?'!"
"Does it really say that?"
"Yeah!"
I look, and see that it does in fact really say that (underline mine):
After a few minutes of uproarious laughter, we collected ourselves for long enough to realize that we should probably look at what the book says on that subject. So we do, and we find this:
Yeah. So I spent several hours overnight in an emergency room, only to learn that nothing was wrong and the worst-case scenario wasn't really that bad. Which I'd have learned much earlier if I'd even READ THE COVER OF THE BOOK DAN BROUGHT FOR ME TO READ.
Almost seems funny in retrospect.
-------------------
Also, since Dan beat me to talking about Omegle, here's my take.
I've had exactly two conversations on Omegle. The first was with somebody who claimed to be a 16-year-old Finnish girl. Immediately suspcious, I disconnected. Kinda regret that now.
My second conversation was actually much better, the guy refused to start off with an 'a/s/l' or any of the typical chat/Omegle openings, and instead we learned a fair bit about each other through a naturally-flowing conversation that lasted for half an hour or so.
He's an archaeology student at a college or university in Florida, somewhere near Miami. He's generally annoyed by people on Omegle for much the same reason Dan was. We talked a fair bit about the similarities and differences between Canada and the US, and he mentioned that he's considered studying at UBC. We must have talked about more, but it's been a week and I don't remember.
Why haven't I gone back on? I need a better opening line. Yes, a lot of people on Omegle are interested in sex, advertising their website/product, or just wasting your time. Sometimes all three at once. But there are plenty who aren't, and most of those conversations are the ones that start off awkwardly - "hey" "hi" "what's up?" "not much u?".
I need to think of something to say that will instantly grab the other person's attention - make them realize that I'm actually interested in having a real conversation with them. And ideally make them laugh. Suggestions are welcome.
--Ryan
Earth Day's The Green Generation
A movement that begun 39 years ago, Earth Day is again commemorated today to promote awareness and remind us to appreciate this place we live in called Earth. It aims to forward campaigns and movements toward preserving what we have left in the environment.This year, the Earth Day Network also starts The Green Revolution campaign. It is a two-year campaign that proceed until the 40th Anniversary
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Urban Time's Women Icons Revealed
Late last month, Urban Time announced the five winners of its search for new icons which represents the ideal youth for Urban Time.The new women icons came from different universities and schools from Metro Manila. They were Miki Hahn from La Salle College International, Rachel Rustia and Stephanie Sol, both from University of Asia and the Pacific, Portia Silva of Ateneo De Manila University, and
Osram is claiming a record for luminous flux and efficacy from an LED driven at 350 mA.
Osram said that its development engineers have achieved new records for the brightness and efficiency of white LEDs in the laboratory July 2008
Under standard conditions with an operating current of 350 mA, brightness peaked at a value of 155 lm, and efficacy at 136 lm/W.
White prototype LEDs with 1 mm2 chips were used. The light produced had a color temperature of 5000 K, with color (x,y) coordinates at (0.349, 0.393).
Under standard conditions with an operating current of 350 mA, brightness peaked at a value of 155 lm, and efficacy at 136 lm/W.
White prototype LEDs with 1 mm2 chips were used. The light produced had a color temperature of 5000 K, with color (x,y) coordinates at (0.349, 0.393).
As shown in the graph, the LEDs can be driven at 1.4 A, and produce up to 500 lm.
Osram says that the key to success was a perfectly matched system of optimized chip technology, a highly advanced and extremely efficient light converter (phosphor) and a special high-performance package.
Rüdiger Müller, CEO at Osram Opto Semiconductors, commented: "It was the successful combination of Osram know-how in different fields that led to these new records in efficiency and brightness. Starting with the light converter we will be gradually moving the new developments into production." Osram says it has already applied for patents for the technologies that lie behind these records. That was July 2008, 4 months later Cree had an annmouncement
Cree R&D achieves 161 lm/W for high-power LED (20 Nov 2008)
Although not available in production LEDs, this level of performance indicates LED technology has still not reached its peak.
Cree, the US-based manufacturer of LEDs, LED chips and lighting fixtures, has reported its latest “hero” result for a high-power white LED.
The white LED, containing a 1 x 1 mm chip, had an efficacy of 161 lm/W, which is the highest value reported in the industry to date.
The device had an output of 173 lumens, and a color temperature of 4689K. The tests were conducted under standard LED test conditions (meaning an instantaneous rather than steady-state measurement) at a drive current of 350mA, at room temperature.
It is crucial to remember that this level of performance is not yet available in production LEDs. However, Cree says that it is shipping millions of 100+ lumen lighting-class XLamp LEDs.
source:LED magazine
Saturday, April 18, 2009
On "Omegle"
I highly recommend the website Omegle if you want to talk to strangers when your bored and lonely.
Sometimes you find creepy people. Sometimes you find true philosophers. Sometimes you find 'bots'. But all the time, you find entertainment!
Here's some fun examples!
Conversation #1
Me: Hi!
Conversation #2
Upon further reflection, Omegle is a waste of time, full of perverts and spam-bots.
Sometimes you find creepy people. Sometimes you find true philosophers. Sometimes you find 'bots'. But all the time, you find entertainment!
Here's some fun examples!
Conversation #1
Me: Hi!
Stranger: im man looking for a ciber sex on msn.. do you want?
Me: I should warn you... I'm the same gender as you.
Your conversational partner has disconnected.
Me: I should warn you... I'm the same gender as you.
Your conversational partner has disconnected.
Conversation #2
Stranger: FRANCE, I HEARD YOU WERE TOUCHING MY SISTER, YOU BASTARD. I'LL SHOOT YOU, I SWEAR.
Me: I'm Canada!
Stranger: CANADA
Me: That's me!
Me: Wait... YOU ARE FRANCE!
Stranger: I AM NOT
Me: What were you doing touching your sister?
Stranger: I-I COULDN'T HELP MYSELF
Conversation #3
Stranger: boob ass wiener
Me: I know you are, but what am I?
Stranger: in the closet?
Conversation #4
Stranger: Hi!
Me: hello
Stranger: With just "hello" you've started out as the first normal conversationalist I've had...
Stranger: most people either swear at me or try to cyber...
Me: me too
Stranger: and therefore, you're boring... Goodbye!
Your conversational partner has disconnected.
Me: I'm Canada!
Stranger: CANADA
Me: That's me!
Me: Wait... YOU ARE FRANCE!
Stranger: I AM NOT
Me: What were you doing touching your sister?
Stranger: I-I COULDN'T HELP MYSELF
Conversation #3
Stranger: boob ass wiener
Me: I know you are, but what am I?
Stranger: in the closet?
Conversation #4
Stranger: Hi!
Me: hello
Stranger: With just "hello" you've started out as the first normal conversationalist I've had...
Stranger: most people either swear at me or try to cyber...
Me: me too
Stranger: and therefore, you're boring... Goodbye!
Your conversational partner has disconnected.
...
Upon further reflection, Omegle is a waste of time, full of perverts and spam-bots.
Honestly, I'm ashamed to admit I tried it.
--
D. Phillips
Anon
D. Phillips
Anon
Friday, April 17, 2009
Better than I expected
When somebody sent me a link to passiveaggressivenotes.com this morning, I immediately knew exactly what to expect just by looking at the URL.
It sounded exactly like the perfect address for an fmylife-style website for people to anonymously complain about the annoying habits of other people in their lives - housemates, co-workers, what have you - preferably in the form of strongly-worded letters beginning with "Dear _____".
I figured I'd get a few laughs from the best of the best of the site, then be able to blog about why I don't like the concept. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that passiveaggressivenotes.com:
a) has absolutely no relevance to my complaints about Internet anonymity leading to the breakdown of social relationships, and;
b) is sort of awesome.
The actual principle behind the site is that people send in photographs of real-life passive-agressive notes they've stumbled across in their apartment building, workplace lunchroom, or wherever. You have to wade through a lot of crap, but some of the notes are actually pretty funny. Including the one that's currently at the top of the first page (if you're reading this later, look for one involving people named Dave).
A nice way to waste some time on the Internet. As if I haven't already given you enough of those.
--Ryan
Rockwell's Free Yoga & Pilates Weekend at Powerplant Mall
Rockwell presents "A Weekend of Fitness" as part of its Summer Series. Come and join the Free Yoga & Pilates classes at Powerplant Mall this April 25 & 26, 2009 at Plaza Drive, Power Plant Mall.The open-air yoga and pilates classes shall be conducted by Manila's top yoga and pilates studios including Bikram Yoga, Pulse Yoga & B+B Studio Philippines (Pilates)!. Classes are free of charge but have
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
That's Numberwang!
Speaking of things I rarely talk about here, British comedy.
Say what you will, but there is a difference between Brits and Americans (including Canadians) when it comes to comedy - and it's not just the accents.
Trying to boil it down as simply as possible, the major difference is timing. Think of your favourite American sitcom. Now try and picture any scene from that sitcom with the laugh track removed. There sure are a lot of bizarre pauses, aren't there?
American comedians/comedy characters are aware they're being funny, and structure their dialogue accordingly.
In Britain, on the other hand, the actors realize they're being funny - but the characters don't. If you laugh too long at a particular joke, you're going to miss three or four more. It makes the whole thing more enjoyable, at least in my opinion.
Additionally, British humour generally involves a level of absurdity we don't really see in North America all that often. Take, for example, Mornington Crescent, the game where the game itself is the joke, as opposed to (as it would be over here) a vehicle for jokes. Along the same lines, Numberwang:
Another advantage to British comedy is that they don't run anything into the ground. Numberwang is a great premise, but could easily be overdone - and would be, were it on Saturday Night Live or anything else over here. Instead, there were exactly three 'episodes' of Numberwang, plus two spinoffs which had one episode each - Wordwang, and the German-language Das Ist Numberwang. With so little to fill, the writers were able to keep every instance funny.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Something new I'm doing now. Previously, if I had something extremely minor to blog about, I'd either end up ignoring it entirely, save it for another post with a few other tidbits, or post it on its own anyhow.
From now on, these tiny posts will be attached to the bottom of regular posts, following a line of tildes.
Back when I was studying for a midterm, I found something slightly amusing in a textbook. Last night, while writing an open-book final, I think I topped that:
To be fair, he does go on to explain this point and it sort of makes sense. But still, I find it unlikely that anybody, upon watching the plane hit the second tower, started screaming "I KNEW WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN INVESTIGATING THE HEART AND STROKE FOUNDATION! I TOLD THEM!".
Along the same lines, couldn't it be said that one of the lessons learned from the recent pirate hijacking of an American ship is that International Talk Like A Pirate Day might eventually come under fire from the political correctness police?
Actually, it's not the same at all - at least with mine, you can see the flow of logic.
--Ryan
Say what you will, but there is a difference between Brits and Americans (including Canadians) when it comes to comedy - and it's not just the accents.
Trying to boil it down as simply as possible, the major difference is timing. Think of your favourite American sitcom. Now try and picture any scene from that sitcom with the laugh track removed. There sure are a lot of bizarre pauses, aren't there?
American comedians/comedy characters are aware they're being funny, and structure their dialogue accordingly.
In Britain, on the other hand, the actors realize they're being funny - but the characters don't. If you laugh too long at a particular joke, you're going to miss three or four more. It makes the whole thing more enjoyable, at least in my opinion.
Additionally, British humour generally involves a level of absurdity we don't really see in North America all that often. Take, for example, Mornington Crescent, the game where the game itself is the joke, as opposed to (as it would be over here) a vehicle for jokes. Along the same lines, Numberwang:
Another advantage to British comedy is that they don't run anything into the ground. Numberwang is a great premise, but could easily be overdone - and would be, were it on Saturday Night Live or anything else over here. Instead, there were exactly three 'episodes' of Numberwang, plus two spinoffs which had one episode each - Wordwang, and the German-language Das Ist Numberwang. With so little to fill, the writers were able to keep every instance funny.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Something new I'm doing now. Previously, if I had something extremely minor to blog about, I'd either end up ignoring it entirely, save it for another post with a few other tidbits, or post it on its own anyhow.
From now on, these tiny posts will be attached to the bottom of regular posts, following a line of tildes.
Back when I was studying for a midterm, I found something slightly amusing in a textbook. Last night, while writing an open-book final, I think I topped that:
One of the less obvious lessons from the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States was to ask more probing questions about charities.
To be fair, he does go on to explain this point and it sort of makes sense. But still, I find it unlikely that anybody, upon watching the plane hit the second tower, started screaming "I KNEW WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN INVESTIGATING THE HEART AND STROKE FOUNDATION! I TOLD THEM!".
Along the same lines, couldn't it be said that one of the lessons learned from the recent pirate hijacking of an American ship is that International Talk Like A Pirate Day might eventually come under fire from the political correctness police?
Actually, it's not the same at all - at least with mine, you can see the flow of logic.
--Ryan
Monday, April 13, 2009
Them's fightin' words
Over the past few months, I've developed a bizarre fascination with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).I don't have the faintest idea why.
Yes, I'm a sports fan in general. But the sports most analogous to UFC are boxing, which I've never liked, and pro wrestling, which I haven't liked since I was much, much younger. So what is it about UFC?
(To digress for a moment, the sport itself is called 'mixed martial arts' or MMA. UFC is a company that puts on MMA matches. But because they're the biggest MMA company, and they try to avoid using the term MMA, a lot of people only know the sport as UFC. Since calling all MMA 'UFC' would be like calling all hockey 'NHL', I'm going to assume it makes more sense to call the sport 'MMA'. So I will.)
It might be something in the sport's roots - I didn't really get interested in it until I learned about the history. The UFC was started in 1993 as a way to answer age-old questions about who would win a fight between a boxer and a judo guy, or a sumo wrestler and a karate practitioner. The end result seemed to be that the more popular or recognizable a certain fighting style was to the public, the less effective it really was.
Over time, UFC fighters began to pick up on the more effective techniques, and the question became less 'what sort of fighting works best?' and more 'who is the best fighter?' - less of a spectacle and more of a competition. Now it's perceived as a legitimate sport - they get stories in the KW Record and other papers fairly often (there was one in today's Record which was the impetus for this post), and UFC's welterweight (max. 170-pound) champion, Georges St. Pierre, was the Canadian Press Male Athlete of the Year for 2008. So that's sosmething.
(And make no mistake, it *was* a spectacle in the early days - here's a video of a sumo wrestler losing the very first fight in UFC history - and a tooth - to a kickboxer.)
My main problem with MMA/UFC might actually be the fans. Most people who either are or admit to enjoying MMA seem to think that it's the greatest thing ever and anybody who doesn't think so doesn't know what they're talking about. It's not. A fight is just as likely to be boring as it is to be entertaining, and I can't imagine why anybody would pay $50 (I think that's the going rate for a UFC show) when there's a strong chance there won't be anything exciting on the program.
Any sport can be dull, and I can definitely see how the action-oriented UFC, even at its dullest, would appeal to the hyper-aggressive sort of person that would be bored by, say, baseball. No sport is for everybody, but most UFC fans seem to forget that.
It's also kind of weird how the UFC is so popular, and other MMA companies - many of which offer their shows on regular television - aren't. UFC has the most money, and arguably the best fighters - but aren't we just taking their word for that last part?
Regardless, I still find it entertaining. Even if I'm not quite sure why.
--Ryan
CTIA Las Vegas - postmortem
Here we go again, slot machines, cigarette smoke, bling, flamboyant cars, stretch limos - yip, we have arrived in Las Vegas. Born and bread in tranquil Sweden, Las Vegas is still a shock to the system every time I arrive at LAS (10 visits late), yet there is a certain thrill to it. This year was slightly different however, the downturn has an iron grip of the global economy and here we are in Capital of money attending one of the largest trade shows in the world, nobody knew quite what to expect, I was positively surprised.
Was there less people - absolutely, was that a bad thing - absolutely not! Companies are clearly taking the global downturn serious and as a result shipped in their most senior executives to show clients and partners that they do indeed care. This presented a tremendous opportunity to talk to the right people both on and off the show floor.
If you attended you probably spotted us, Samsung Mobile Innovator and Samsung Application Store had two great pods within the beautiful Samsung booth. We met with a vast number of exciting new and established companies who attended our booth and we had a chance to discuss the opportunities that are being created through the Samsung Application Store and Samsung Mobile Innovator. We wish you all the best with the ventures and look forward to seeing and supporting all of you at innovator.samsungmobile.com.
Next stop is TechEd, the Microsoft developer conference in Los Angeles on May 11-15, we hope to see you all there!
Until then good luck with your products and services and please register and get in touch with us at Samsung Mobile Innovator and see how we can help your solution getting more exposure.
Cheers
Martin Tannerfors
Samsung Mobile Innovator
Was there less people - absolutely, was that a bad thing - absolutely not! Companies are clearly taking the global downturn serious and as a result shipped in their most senior executives to show clients and partners that they do indeed care. This presented a tremendous opportunity to talk to the right people both on and off the show floor.
If you attended you probably spotted us, Samsung Mobile Innovator and Samsung Application Store had two great pods within the beautiful Samsung booth. We met with a vast number of exciting new and established companies who attended our booth and we had a chance to discuss the opportunities that are being created through the Samsung Application Store and Samsung Mobile Innovator. We wish you all the best with the ventures and look forward to seeing and supporting all of you at innovator.samsungmobile.com.
Next stop is TechEd, the Microsoft developer conference in Los Angeles on May 11-15, we hope to see you all there!
Until then good luck with your products and services and please register and get in touch with us at Samsung Mobile Innovator and see how we can help your solution getting more exposure.
Cheers
Martin Tannerfors
Samsung Mobile Innovator
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Where all the lights are bright
So let's talk downtown.
For all the grief I give downtown Brantford, I have to admit that it's come a long way. Even in the not-quite-three years I've been living in or near downtown, I've seen drastic improvements. Normal Brantfordites actually come downtown for entertainment now, rather than hide from it.
But that's not to say it's perfect. The south side of Colborne is still home to silhouette people (although Laurier and the Y are looking to change that), Williams is the only business that can survive in Market Square, and well I still wouldn't want to sit on one of the Victoria Park benches.
So this week, when I saw a couple different downtown-related initiatives, I was thrilled.
For one, the City of Brantford has put up an online survey asking students for their input on downtown. It's actually worth your time to fill out, as they ask some fairly specific questions. They even give you a spot to list exactly what businesses you'd like to see downtown that aren't already there (I suggested a movie theatre and a used bookstore). On top of all that, there's a random draw for a prize of some sort!
Additionally, the City is looking at expanding the bus terminal, one proposal calling for a new farmers' market at the same location.
Part of this is necessary. The Brantford bus terminal isn't a terminal so much as a kiosk with a Tim Horton's counter. If it's cold, windy, or rainy, odds are you'll be stuck outside waiting for your bus. The staff can't do anything more helpful than give you a transit map. An expanded terminal would...well, it would give you a place to wait for your bus in inclement weather.
Not quite so sure on the farmers' market proposal. I've only been to the existing one a handful of times, but I don't think they're exactly bursting at the seams capacity-wise. Plus I can't imagine parking being as good near the bus terminal, and considering how many people come from distant parts of Brantford or beyond, that could create a problem.
Still, there's reason for optimism. I have only vague memories of what downtown was like for the first little while I was in Brantford, but I'm positive it's improved since. As the school keeps expanding, the City keeps up their hot streak of good ideas to get people downtown, and silhouettes keep disappearing, downtown Brantford is going to have a renaissance.
--Ryan
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