Back to the future: IT goes analog
W 영어생각/IT's REAL!!!2009. 1. 5. 12:21
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November 03, 2008 | ||||||||
Tired of ultra-modern designs, these companies have utilized more unique, design-savvy looks to help their products survive in one of the fastest-developing and most competitive industries around. In the past, form followed function when it came to IT products, with the most important aspect of a product being the technical specs. PCs have grown notorious for this function-focused perspective, as size and weight had to be given priority with monitors and keyboards. Because of these limitations, consumers were left with little choice other than gray or gray. But recently, designers of major computer manufacturers have started to break that paradigm.
Its oval-shaped laptop case has the look of a luxury handbag, with an alligator leather exterior, inset Swarovski crystals and a sleek metal handle. The firm sets itself apart from others in the tech set by emphasizing luxury, tradition and texture. According to the company, you can even order a laptop specifically tailored to your taste. If you favor diamonds, more diamonds you will get. Although the laptop’s specifications are equal to those of any other highly efficient machine, the price tag can be up to 10 times bigger, approximately $10,000 to $20,000. Online orders are taken, but you can only see the real thing at department stores in New York, Paris and Dubai. Common brands such as HP are also moving toward bolder designs. In August, HP gave designer Vivienne Tam the job of giving their new laptop an artistic touch, to coincide with New York Fashion Week. Tam put pink peony blossom patterns on a red background, interlacing the product with her fashion sensibility. This laptop will go on sale worldwide next year. Desktop markers are also following the trend. LG recently introduced the Black Picasso 2 as the successor to last years’ release. On the PC’s outer casing, there is an embossed waterwork that looks as if sculpted by an artist. Dell started selling the Studio Hybrid mini desktop PC series in August. The eco-friendly computers come in a variety of colors, but perhaps their most unique feature is that their outer surface is made of bamboo, to complete the green image. Miniature IT products have long appealed to more fashionable sensibilities. Unlike laptops, which took a while to become fashionable, miniature IT product have focused on design above price or technology from the beginning. The most obvious example is the iPod, which has grown to become a cultural icon and a strong lesson in how design translates into sales. The latest product out in Korea that stimulates the analog senses is iRiver’s Mplayer, with its popular Mickey Mouse shape. The new Mplayer Eyes version includes LED lights that act as Mickey’s eyes. The company’s other MP3 player, the Spin, has added a peculiar sense of touch, with a clacking sound when you turn the wheel, in a bid to stimulate all of a user’s senses. The People, iRiver’s PMP, attempts to recreate the dial functionally and design of 1970s and ’80s analog radios. “Our main focus was recapturing the analog sense of past electronic products through tactile and auditory additions,” said Kim Kyung Ryul, marketing director of iRiver’s manufacturing company ReignCom. In June, Samsung Electronics released a new MP3 player, Yepp S2, that resembles a sleek pebble. Far removed from the familiar square designs of the past, the Yepp has a comfortable, minimalist feel. And local firm Cowon will be releasing the chic S9, with a contoured hand grip. “The design of mobile products has arrived at the point where it can compete with fashion,” said Cowon public relations representative Park Min-hee. |
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Forget the diet, fat’s all in the genes
W 영어생각/IT's REAL!!!2009. 1. 5. 12:15
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November 22, 2008 | ||||
Kolata came to Korea to participate in the World Women’s Forum recently. She’s a science reporter for The New York Times and the author of “Ultimate Fitness: the Quest for Truth about Exercise and Health,” which argued that regular exercise might not be all that it’s cracked up to be. Her new book, Rethinking Thin, argues against strict dieting. Kolata recorded the clinical trials held by three American universities’ research centers for obesity. Three hundred and sixty people weighting over 100 kilograms (220.5 pounds) each were placed in two groups. One went on a low-carb, high-protein diet and the other took up a traditional low-calorie, low-fat diet. After six months, all the participants had become slimmer but as time passed, they got fatter and after two years, they were back where they started. Neither diet had led to better health. Kolata notes that one’s genes are a major influence on weight and health, describing studies of adopted kids whose weight runs parallel with that of their biological, not their adoptive, parents. The author is thin and always has been. She did not interpret the scientific evidence to rationalize her weight. She said she lost the 5 kilograms that she gained after she gave birth. Her husband is also skinny, and likewise their two kids. “If I were fat, people would criticize me for writing such a book, thinking I wrote to justify my size,” she said. |
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[NEW RELEASES]Michael Jackson
W 영어생각/IT's REAL!!!2009. 1. 5. 12:10
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December 29, 2008 | ||||
But listening to this 35-track best album, I got to admit, I was tapping my foot and nodding my head. As the “king of pop” Jackson has released several best-of albums already, but this is the first whose tracks are hand-picked by his Korean fans. It has also been released in limited numbers. This makes it the album to get for local Jackson fans, or just for those who love pop. As expected “Billie Jean” is the No. 1 track as Koreans’ all-time Jackson favorite, followed by “Beat It” and “Black or White.” More softer tunes like “You Are Not Alone,” “Man in the Mirror,” and “You Are My Life” provide nice little breaks between the strong beats. Michael Jackson “King of Pop (The Korean Limited Edition)” Label: Sony Music Genre: Pop |
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Pop idols dominate the charts in 2008
W 영어생각/IT's REAL!!!2009. 1. 5. 12:07
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December 29, 2008 | ||||||||
Big Bang’s “Haru Haru (Day By Day)” topped online music site Dosirak’s chart for six consecutive weeks this year, becoming the most popular song in 2008. Wonder Girls trailed behind with “So Hot,” which sat at No. 1 for five consecutive weeks this year. Big Bang, a five-member boy band, enjoyed that honor last year. Their song “Last Goodbye” stayed at the top spot for six straight weeks and “Lie” held the place for five weeks in 2007. In another indication of their popularity this year, Big Bang and Wonder Girls were picked as the people’s favorite artists in a recent survey by Gallup Korea.
These made-to-order pop groups differ from those in the 1990s in that they’re popular among a wide range of age groups, not just people in their teens. Today’s pop idol groups present songs with melodies and lyrics that can easily be sung and memorized. Plus, many of them go for retro styles that older generations can relate to. This is why they enjoy a nationwide fan base. This year’s Korean pop scene also ramped up the hooks to grab listeners’ attention. Chart-toppers heavily featured catchy, repeated melodies and lyrics that made the tracks play over and over in your head all day long, whether you wanted them to or not. Lyrics like “I want nobody nobody, but you” in Wonder Girls’ “Nobody,” “I’m crazy, so crazy” in Sohn Dam-bi’s “Crazy,” and “Baby, one more time,” in Jewelry’s “One More Time” have catapulted these songs to become big crowd-pleasers at company parties, talent shows and karaoke bars. Experts say the overwhelming prevalence of these addictive little ditties can be attributed to the digitalization of the music industry. Compared to the past, when we were limited to hard copies like CDs or cassettes, there so are many ways to tune in these days - such as via MP3s, ringtones or a little thing known as the Internet. This means songs have to fight to get noticed. “More and more people listen to music casually, without much thought. Thus, music producers have to come up with something hotter and catchier to get attention and trigger interest,” said Lim Jin-mo, a pop music critic. One composer who declined to be named said producers are often asked to come up with addictive hooks. “Instead of looking at the overall structure and flow, people tend to look for that one catchy line or melody.” While some experts are concerned about a decline in the overall quality of Korean music, others say this should just be thought of as a trend. “After all, addictiveness is what we want from all music,” said music critic Park Eun-seok. |
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Six steps to the end of the world
W 영어생각/IT's REAL!!!2008. 12. 27. 11:27
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‘If global warming skeptics still exist, this book should be stuffed in their Christmas stockings as reading material for the New Year.’
December 20, 2008 | ||||
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change under the United Nations released a report in 2007 that said average global surface temperatures could rise between 1.1 to 6.4 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100. Six degrees? You might wonder if that’s such a big deal. It’s smaller than the range of the highs and lows of a typical day at this time of year. But environmental journalist Mark Lynas’ new book “Six Degrees” underlines the significance of those six degrees using research materials garnered from Radcliffe Science Library at the University of Oxford. There is an enormous amout of research information referenced in Lynas’ book indicating what kind of impact global warming could have on the planet, from Tanzania’s corn harvest to snowfall in the Alps. The author’s sense of urgency and his shock at the way research results are quickly forgotten, or ignored, underscores the tale. While contemplating how to let the whole world know about this, he came up with the degree by degree guide to the globe’s future. If the globe’s average temperature rises by one degree, disaster begins on the mountains and fields. The soil under arable land will be exposed due to drought and there will be landslides following the polar icecap melt. Two more degrees higher will result in more disastrous droughts and floods all over the world, since it takes longer for the summer monsoons to dissipate. Also, as carbon dioxide, one of the main causes of global warming, is absorbed into the ocean, the water turns acidic. An increase of three degrees will cause desertification even in the wet Amazon regions and a four-degree rise will unlock the waters in the glaciers. After a five-degree hike, the world will be almost unrecognizable, an inhospitable land for humans. Even the glaciers of the North Pole will melt away and as people crowd into habitable areas, war will break out as people fight for space. With a six-degree increase, most life on Earth will become extinct. The author emphasizes that we should not let the average temperature of the globe rise more than three degrees. Anything more than that will send the Earth into a vicious cycle of self-sustaining environmental destruction. As the soil in the tropical rainforests warms up, bacteria from dead plants will be released, which will lead to greater amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere. Siberia’s permafrost will melt, which will lead to increased carbon and methane emissions. Consequently, methane hydrate discharge from the warm ocean will worsen and the world will be confronted by catastrophe. Models show that this disastrous scenario will unravel uniformly, but the solutions don’t seem clear. As an alternative to the cap and trade system, which makes it possible for developed nations to buy CO2 emission rights from developing nations, the author points out that developed countries discharge far more CO2 than developing nations. He also warns that if we neglect environmental problems because of the global economic crisis, we will witness a worst-case scenario. In other words, if it is not environmentally sustainable, we cannot expect the long-term survival of the economy. Published last year in English and recently translated into Korean, this is a shocking and profoundly moving read, one that outlines the future of our planet in the harsh light of cold, scientific facts. If global warming skeptics still exist, this book should be stuffed in their Christmas stockings as reading material for the New Year. Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet Author: Mark Lynas Genre: Science and nature Publisher: Sejong Books By Lee Ji-yong JoongAng Ilbo [estyle@joongang.co.kr] |
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Teen tunes get the rap from censoring body
W 영어생각/IT's REAL!!!2008. 12. 27. 11:11
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December 16, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Christmas shoppers were busy browsing through the CD and DVD section at Kyobo Book Center in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, one recent weekday, hunting for the latest albums by their favorite artists. But among the classical and Korean pop music shelves, one section was remarkably less active. In fact, there was just a lone, middle-aged man looking through the season’s offerings. Other buyers were put off by the sign in big, red tape: “Cannot Be Purchased by Those Under 19.” Korean record shops have had this special section since 1997, in accordance with the Youth Protection Law. Korean authorities categorize albums that contain songs with what they consider sensational or lewd material as albums that shouldn’t be sold to people under 19.
But there was a rare sighting this time. At the top of the shelf were the latest albums by two major artists in Korea, possibly two of the most famous and successful pop singers in the country: Dong Bang Shin Gi, a boy band also known as TVXQ, and Rain. TVXQ’s fourth album, “Mirotic,” has sold more than 482,000 copies as of Nov. 30 since its release in September, making it the best-selling album since Seo Tai-ji put out his seventh album in 2004. Not only that, TVXQ won the Grand Award, one of the most prestigious awards in Korea’s pop industry, at the Golden Disk Awards last Wednesday. Rain, an award-winning singer-cum-actor, released his fifth album, “Rainism,” in October, two years after his previous album. His return to the local pop scene made headlines, as he has focused on his career abroad for the last couple of years. He was in the Hollywood movie “Speed Racer” this year. Just last month, the Commission on Youth Protection, under the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, categorized TVXQ’s Mirotic and Rain’s Rainism as “harmful material for youths,” along with 108 other recent songs.
The Korea Media Rating Board began to rate songs in 1999 in line with the revised Youth Protection Law. The job was transferred to the Commission on Youth Protection in 2006. The songs categorized as harmful materials for young people cannot be broadcast before 10 p.m. If they are not labeled according to the law, the record producers or music shop owners face fines or even imprisonment. But in the decade since the rating system was put into operation, top acts have not been affected. In Rainism, the lyrics that troubled the commission’s radar were “my magic stick that is rolling in your trembling body.” The members of the commission reckon the “magic stick” symbolizes a penis.
“Rain was working on his dances using a stick and that is how the phrase ‘magic stick’ came out,” Rain’s management company J.Tune Entertainment is quoted as saying. “It wasn’t the writer’s intention to imply anything provocative, but the commission has taken the lyrics on its individual discretion.” But J.Tune Entertainment decided to accept the commission’s ruling and released a “clean version” of Rainism with revised lyrics. As for Mirotic, the commission said the general mood of the song is highly suggestive and could have a negative impact on teenagers. But such an inarticulate explanation has both TVXQ’s producers and, of course, the fans furious. “We will make a clean version in accordance with the commission’s administrative order, but since we cannot fully accept the ruling, we plan to make a provisional disposition with the relevant court to nullify the administrative order,” said an official with SM Entertainment, TVXQ’s management company.
If SM Entertainment makes the provisional disposition, it would mark the first time the music producer has filed a claim against the authorities’ rating decision. Meanwhile, TVXQ performed the clean version of the song at the Golden Disk Awards last week. Lyrics such as “I got you” were changed to “I chose you” and “I got you under my skin” to “I got you under my sky.” Immediately after the commission’s decision came out, TVXQ fans put up angry postings on the message board of the commission’s Web site (www.youth.go.kr). It’s been more than two weeks since the ruling was announced and a week after it came into effect, but the fans are still leaving such messages. “You guys say you’re working for us, but how come you’re forbidding us the songs and singers we love,” Seo Han-ol wrote on the board. “When we listened to the song, we didn’t have the ‘weird thoughts’ you had. I guess different people hear it differently, but few people hear it the way you did,” Kim Haeng-seon, another Web user, wrote. At Agora, a major online discussion forum run by Daum, more than 15,959 people have signed a petition against the commission’s decision. The latest incidence has triggered heated debate over the measuring stick used for rating music. Critics point to the effectiveness of the rating as it comes out weeks, even months, after the release dates of the albums. “TVXQ’s album has sold more than 400,000 copies already. Plus, they’ve performed on TV many times. What’s the point of the rating at this point?” an official with a record company said, refusing to be named. In response, the commission says its bigger goal is to red flag sensational media in general. “There are three rounds of deliberation in total. It takes at least 26 days for the rating to take effect,” said an official with the commission. “We went ahead with our screening, hoping to present a social standard that can put a break on provocative materials.” But reining in the spread of the song’s original versions online remains a challenge. The commission has ordered portal site operators to see if the songs rated as over-19 only are properly labeled and kept from teenagers. But one can still find their songs and music videos of the “unclean” version in the blogosphere. The commission says it entrusts the job of online control to portal site operators. But controlling files that are posted on a real-time basis isn’t an easy task for the operators. The limited number of rating authorities is another problem. While about 30,000 new songs come out every year, there are just 11 members in the commission, excluding several other monitoring officials and outside experts. Opponents of the commission’s rating decision also underscore the issue of freedom of expression and creativity. “This ruling will limit the artistic freedom of music producers,” said Seong Wu-jin, a music critic. “It’s like pre-release censorship has been reborn.” This system was in place from the 1960s to 1990s when more than 380 Korean songs were banned for reasons like “alarming ideology,” “demoralization” and “Japan-oriented.” In 1996, the song “Sidaeyugam,” loosely translated as “Regrets of the Times,” by Seotaiji and Boys, a popular boy band in the 1990s led by Seo Tai-ji, was also banned. The incident led to mounting public criticism and eventually to the demise of the pre-release censorship policy. “Since the kind of harm they talk about is so subjective, they must present realistic standards,” said Kim Jak-ga, a pop music critic. Concern about provocative material in the mass media has alerted some conservative parents. In the latest incident, singers Lee Hyo-ri and T.O.P. kissed during their performance, triggering a heated debate online. The kiss was pre-meditated, their management companies said. Despite the ongoing controversy, the Commission on Youth Protection will have another round of talks this Thursday on some 80 new songs. If the members decide to rate some of them as harmful material for youths, another batch of CDs will soon find a new home on the red-taped shelves. By Kim Hyung-eun Staff Reporter / Jung Hyun-mok JoongAng Ilbo [hkim@joongang.co.kr] |
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Return
W 영어생각/IT's REAL!!!2008. 12. 23. 13:29
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December 17, 2008 | ||||
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Sejong of the seas
W 영어생각/IT's REAL!!!2008. 12. 23. 13:20
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December 23, 2008 | ||||
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〕 n.1【그리스신화】 (Zeus신이 딸 Athena신에게 주었다는) 방패
2 보호;후원, 주최, 지도
under the aegis of …의 보호[후원] 아래 Aegis(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegis)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Aegis" (pronounced /ˈiːdʒɨs/) has entered modern English to mean a shield, protection, or sponsorship, originally from the name of the mythological protective shield of Zeus. The name has been extended to many other entities, and the concept of a protective shield is found in other mythologies, while its form varies across sources.
The concept of doing something "under someone's aegis" means doing something under protection of a powerful, knowledgeable, or benevolent source. The word aegis is identified with protection by a strong force with its roots in Greek mythology, adopted by the Romans; there are parallels in Norse mythology, and in Egyptian mythology as well, where the Greek word aegis is applied by extension.
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W 영어생각/IT's REAL!!!2008. 12. 23. 13:16
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December 15, 2008 | ||||
At last weekend’s International Skating Union Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final, Kim Yu-na’s first international senior competition on home ice, it was difficult to overstate the pressure and expectations under which she performed. With all due respect to other competitors in other disciplines, the event was built up in such a fashion that it was Kim and then everyone else, world champions or former Grand Prix winners be damned. But Kim couldn’t quite deliver for the home fans, finishing second after a mistake-filled free skate on Saturday. She managed 120.41 points for a total of 186.35. Her archrival, Mao Asada of Japan, had a better free skate, scoring 123.17 points to finish at 188.55. Kim led Asada by 0.56 points after Friday’s short program but couldn’t hold on to the narrow advantage. Before her free skate, Kim looked unusually tense. And though she had a clean start, Kim managed only a single rotation on her triple lutz, normally her strong jump, for the second straight day and then fell on her triple salchow in the latter part of her program. Kim led the field in program component score, which assesses choreography and interpretation among others, but couldn’t overcome her miscues on the jumps. Blame it on the pressure, or the flu she said she’d picked up two days earlier - but the bottom line is Kim chose the worst time to have her worst performance of this Grand Prix season and Asada was the better skater. “I am disappointed that I made mistakes in my first event in Korea,” Kim said. “But this was also a great learning experience for me. I am happy that I won a medal at home.” Asada, second to last to skate before Kim, put pressure on the Korean by nailing the difficult triple axel (three and a half rotations in the air) twice early in her routine. She was the only female competitor to land two triple axels here. Asada later fell on another triple jump, but had a clean skate the rest of the way. “I am very happy that I was able to do two triple axels,” Asada said. “But after landing my second one, I was only concentrating on my next jumps. In the end, I had the feeling of accomplishment.” This was Asada’s first Grand Prix Final crown since 2005. In the past two finals, she had finished runner-up to Kim. “It’s wonderful to have a rival like Yu-na,” Asada said. “We motivate each other and I’d like to keep having this motivation of each other.” Kim failed in her bid to become only the second female skater to win three straight Grand Prix finals. She said she wasn’t thinking much about the three-peat, but explained it was the pressure of trying to win at home that affected her. “On Friday, the fans were a lot more raucous and passionate than I’d anticipated and that really surprised me,” Kim said. Kim cried in disappointment after Friday’s mediocre short program. But she was more ebullient on Saturday, smiling throughout her press conference. “On Friday, I was too wound up before my skate and when it was finished, tears just started flowing,” Kim explained. “But now, I am just relieved everything is over.” Fortunately for figure skating aficionados, there were other disciplines, too. In the men’s events, American Jeremy Abbott claimed his first Grand Prix Final with a flawless free skating performance on Saturday. Abbott successfully executed all of his jumps to score 159.46 points in the free skate and 237.72 overall. Abbott trailed Japanese skater Takahiko Kozuka by more than five points after the short program but Kozuka’s miscues in free skating gave him only 140.73 points for 224.63 total points. The excited Abbott said: “To be honest, I didn’t think I was going to win. I am blown away and very, very happy. I am proud of my overall performance.” American Johnny Weir was third with 215.50 points overall. In pairs, Pang Qing and Tong Jian of China leapfrogged two teams to win the title. They scored 125.25 points in the free skate and ended with 191.49 points overall. This is their first Grand Prix Final victory after two third-place finishes. “Korea is our lucky place,” Tong said. They had won the Four Continents Championship, also held here, in February this year. “We had great support from spectators here and I think we had our best program over the past year.” Their compatriots, Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, had 119.88 in the free skate and finished runners-up at 188.22. The overnight leaders and defending champions, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany, slipped to third after a mistake-laden free skating performance gave them only 114.95 points, for an overall score of 185.09. Ice dance world champions Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France picked up their first Grand Prix Final title with 156.10 points. They scored 95.75 points in Saturday’s free dance to edge out Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin of Russia, who scored 93.62 points in the free dance for a total of 152.95. “This was the best competition we’ve done so far,” Schoenfelder said. “It was hard today because Isabelle was sick all day [battling a stomach virus] and lost a bit of strength. But we tried to show more emotions.” American duo Meryl Davis and Charlie White were third with a total of 148.04 points. |
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December 23, 2008 | ||||
Park Jeong-suk, 43, a resident of Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, started her day early yesterday by driving to an E-Mart branch near her home. Greeting Park was the newly opened self-service E-Mart gas station. After waiting with 10 other cars for around 30 minutes, she became the station’s first customer. “The price here is about 100 won ($0.08) less per liter than other gas stations around here. Waiting is no trouble with prices like these,” said Park. It took under three minutes for Park to swipe her credit card to pay - there are no cashiers - and fill her car with gasoline. “I work in sales so I spend around 300,000 won to 400,000 won per month on gas. I am so glad that an inexpensive gas station like this opened near my home,” she said. Shinsegae-owned E-Mart became the first local retailer to open its own self-service gas station after the government pushed for lower fuel prices by improving retail efficiency. The company said that even with a small margin, it will retain inexpensive prices. E-Mart’s gas stations, beginning with its Guseong-dong branch in Yongin, will sell gas for 80 won to 120 won less per liter below the national average by eliminating extra services and complimentary gifts like tissues or water. This means if a customer fills up with around 50,000 won worth of gasoline (around 42 liters), the price at E-Mart’s gas stations will be about 4,000 to 5,000 won cheaper than its full-service counterparts. “A self-service gas station next to a discount store will be very convenient for customers in addition to the merit of the cheaper cost,” said Lee Kyung-sang, head of E-Mart. Lee added, however, that it would be difficult to say that this discounter/gas station system will have any effect on stabilizing overall consumer prices because there are only 20 or so E-Mart branches that have enough nearby land to build gas stations. However, as with Park, the public response appears to be enthusiastic. As of 3 p.m. yesterday at the Guseong-dong branch, 170 drivers got out to fill up their own cars. Around 5,800 liters of gasoline in total were sold. “Because I’ve been so burned by this year’s crazy gasoline prices, even a 10 or 20 won difference is good news,” said Im Du-yeon, 54, who filled up with 61,000 won worth of gas. |
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