A Pilotless Rescue Plane for Mt. Everest.

If a New Zealand company has its way, the next rescue on Mount Everest may take place without the presence of any human rescuers. It will not be yetis who do this but an unpiloted, full-size alpine rescue helicopter. It has been six years in the making at TGR Helicorp Ltd. They call it the Alpine Wasp and claim it will be able to operate at altitudes up to and beyond 30,000 feet. This would mean that you could be saved even if you were to be struck down on the summit of Everest (29,028). The project is the company’s response to Everest Rescue Trust’s “Rescue on Everest Challenge,” a call for designing, building and operating a self-funding rescue helicopter service for the extreme altitude regions of Nepal. As part of the plan, an alpine rescue base will be established at Namche Bazaar in the Everest vicinity, complete with aircraft hangar and rescue facilities, a prosthetics facility for porters and Sherpas, as well as a frostbite prevention facility that will provide clothing and footgear to those who need them. Everest Rescue Trust, which hopes “to help other people all over the world,” has also launched rescueoneverest.org, an official website with information and regular updates on its Everest project. The Alpine Wasp will be capable of airlifting up to two sick or injured climbers at a time. “I’m excited to be part of a project that will benefit the Nepalese people in so many ways,” said the Goodwill Ambassador for the Everest Rescue Trust. “It’s terrible to see porters and Sherpas without the proper equipment in the high mountains, and as well as helping the locals who have already lost limbs to frostbite, the Trust is planning to equip them properly too, free of charge.” (Vertical Magazine, February 2; Radio New Zealand, February 4)

A case for redesign of web sites

Did you know that there are over 80 million web sites on the World Wide Web?

Did you also know that almost 40 million sites existed before 2003?

Hence the case for redesign of web sites.

Technology is the single most important criteria to consider for redesigning your existing web site. Advanced multimedia tools enhance visitor experience and add to the 'stickiness index', the average time that a visitor spends on your web site.

Bandwidth is probably the second most important factor. World over, ISP's are providing high speed internet access. ISDN is getting more popular for home users and buildings are getting wired to provide 'internet on the tap'.

Cost effectiveness and lower internet access rates are making people spend more time on the web. Hence an opportunity to build an online community and an online brand identity.

E-Commerce is getting more popular and more affordable. Online payment gateways for processing credit card payments are being offered by more and more banks and financial institutions in the region. Make your site a storefront and a profit centre.

Content Management Systems are now a must to deploy. New sites all come with their own content updation tools enabling site owners to manage their sites and keep them up to date and up to speed, inhouse.

Competition may yet be another reason for you to consider redesign of your web site. Be on top of your industry by having a site that best represents your business image.

Search Engine Friendly is probably the most important factor as far as I am concerned for redesigning your web site. New sites do not normally use the frames concept and all content is 'meta tagged' for increasing frequency of keywords that search engine index while 'crawling your site'.

As usual, my advice is that when you are ready and convinced that you need to get your web site a face lift and perhaps a body lift, contact the best people in the business.

Panasonic 3D Camcorder

Panasonic’s 3D plasma sets get just as much credit as the other 3D TVs at the show, but we chose their 3D camcorder for our Best of CES round up simple because nobody else has shown one yet. While production-quality 3D cameras have been around for a while (see: Avatar), Panasonic will be one of the first to bring 3D video to the consumer level when this camcorder launches in fall 2010 for $21,000.

Apple iPod

It’s a tragic misconception that the iPod was the first mp3 player on the market. There were many, the most notable being the MPMan and Creative’s RIO line. But all of them used flash storage, and as a result could barely hold a single album. The iPod changed that and allowed you pocket half your music collection (if not all of it). Its initial success was probably driven by the popularity of illegal download services like Napster, but then the iPod’s ecosystem evolved and iTunes evolved into the most successful online music store. It revolutionized the music industry, by showing how people like to enjoy their music.

Hrithik – the streetsmart, carefree “J” in Kites

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Kites is probably the hottest film of the season and with all the hype going around about the movie, you would love to know the latest gossip. Hrithik’s character in ‘Kites’ is called “J” and he’s a streetsmart, carefree young dude that’s now found himself on the list of Mexico’s most wanted convicts.

He is then taken to the hearts of Mexican desert and is left to die a horrid death. There’s only one thing keeping him alive is the urge to find the love of his life Natasha (Barbara Mori). Natasha is the love of J’s life & she turned everything upside down when he met her. In a flash she swooped in and changed the man J used to be. But now all’s not well as the Natasha is engaged to another man even though she is the love of J’s life.

This film will be released in Hindi, English and Spanish and this is not the usual hindi sing and dance routine film. The movie is targeted towards western audiences as well and is considered as a global film by everyone on their team.