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Insurance Settlements

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr. and Kevin Quinley, et al.



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Effective Approaches for
Settling Cases

Insurance Settlements (previously known as Insurance Settlement Handbook) opens long-locked doors to insurance claims departments, giving you an insider’s look at the settlement process. Discover in days what most plaintiff’s attorneys take years to learn. Veteran claims personnel reveal how to:

*

Demonstrate to the adjuster that you know what you are doing
*

Determine when and what to say for maximum impact
*

Help the adjuster sell your client’s damages to his superiors
*

Draft effective demand letters
*

Evaluate soft tissue injuries
*

Prove pain and suffering
*

Break cases free from common logjams
*

Get realistic offers from adjusters
*

Counter common insurance settlement tactics
*

Value cases using traditional insurance company techniques
*

Obtain top dollar

Insider tips from seasoned adjusters, claims managers, and top plaintiff's attorneys are loaded into this two-volume book. Just a few of the effective approaches for settling include:

Damages

“Adjusters will pay an extra $500 to $1000 for pain and suffering for every day spent in a hospital (excluding diagnostic time). Most attorneys fail to request this sum.”

Valuation

“During case evaluation, most insurance carriers will first calculate their exposure at what they call ‘dripping wet,’ without other considerations like prior injuries, comparative negligence, contribution by other defendants, amount of insurance available, etc. This formula is expressed as follows…”

Investigation

“Policy limits demands which are designed to determine the policy limit amounts are frequently counter-productive. Seldom will the demand result in divulgence of the policy limits. A more productive approach is to simply…”

Negotiations

“The supervisor and adjuster will not be moved because you think this claim is ‘different’ or you are ‘going to file a complaint.’ You will either have to bring your demand within the norm or justify more.

Bad Faith

“Often defense counsel will refuse to produce certain documents in the claim file, or other company documents. Insist the defendant provide an itemized list of each document and form in the file, along with sufficient descriptions of each document. You will need this information to support a motion to compel production of the documents.”

Coverage Disputes

“Coverage questions involving only the policy issued by the carrier involved are often troublesome to the plaintiff because the plaintiff will never be notified of the coverage dispute. The plaintiff’s notice will probably be by inference, when no settlement offers are forthcoming.”

Settlement Authority

“The bigger the exposure, the more levels through which the files must pass. At each level, the person reviewing the file will be judged in part by the quality of the file that is allowed to move upward.”

Evaluation

“In reality, frequently no evaluation at all is done by the carrier until a demand for settlement is made by the plaintiff. The carrier’s offer is more a reaction to the demand than an independent evaluation.”



This comprehensive insider's guide to the insurance settlement process, Insurance Settlements gathers the experience of more than 25 veteran claims managers, attorneys, medical experts, adjusters and others, and turns it to your advantage. Learn how to settle more efficiently and for top dollar. The latest two-volume edition now includes a helpful CD-ROM containing 131 digitized forms, as well as searchable full-text of the book.

The latest update of Insurance Settlements includes:

*

Aspects of claims frequently questioned by adjusters
*

How to deal with adjusters, from veterans on both sides of the bargaining table
*

Solutions to common settlement problems, from learning policy limits to dealing with novice adjusters
*

How adjusters view claims, complete with red flags

Updated annually. ISBN 0-938065-53-X Book price: $129.00

B7

Reviews

"Your insurance books How Insurance Companies Settle Cases and Insurance Settlement Handbook really provide the practical tools needed to put it to insurance companies and negotiate reasonable settlements."
— E.L. Brock

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bluearrow.gif (273 bytes) More Insurance & Settlement Publications

Updated 03/23/09


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credit card settlement

Credit card debt reduction analysis to help learn how to eliminate your credit card debt.
Bankruptcy Alternatives / Debtor's Options
Credit Card Debt Reduction & Settlement FAQ
Call for Credit Card Debt Settlement help right now! - 800-351-3301

17. What is the different between a debt workout and a debt consolidation for reduction or elimination of credit card debt and other unsecured debt?

1. For the context of this discussion I refer to a credit card debt workout as a negotiated settlement of credit card debt. For example if you owed $5,000 on a credit card and made an agreement with the credit card company to pay $2,000 instead of $5,000 as settlement in full on the debt, this would be a credit card debt workout. Firms who perform this type of work may identify themselves as debt management, debt reduction, debt relief, debt workout, debt settlement or a host of other names inferring they help with debt even sometimes including debt consolidation. However, I define debt consolidation as a reorganization of the debt through a credit counselor or taking a debt consolidation loan to pay of the debts in full. Other FAQ’s on this site address each of these debt elimination options individually.



17. Who is eligible for a debt workout to get out of credit card debt?

1. Creditors agree to debt reduction arrangements where they feel a settlement of the debt will be in their best interest. In most cases they come to this conclusion because the person requesting the debt negotiation appears to be a legitimate candidate for bankruptcy. Knowing that in most bankruptcy cases they would receive nothing, they opt to take a discounted settlement on the debt rather than receive zero dollars in a bankruptcy.



17. What kinds of people appear to be bankruptcy candidates to the creditors?

1. 1. People who have shown an inability to pay their debts as evidenced by their failure to make payments for several months on their credit cards and other obligations.

2. People who do not have assets to protect such as equity in homes and cars.

3. People whose current or future income would not allow them to reorganize their finances either through a Chapter 13 or a plan outside of bankruptcy.



17. How do the creditors find out about this information

1. When you applied for credit, in most cases, you authorized the creditor to inspect your credit report when necessary. As part of the collection process in determining proper resolution option for your debt most creditors will run a credit report. The creditor obviously knows of your own debt payment history with them. The credit report will allow them to see how you are treating all of your other creditors. For example if you have ten credit card accounts and are current with all of the others they will make the assumption that you are capable of paying them as well. On the other hand if you were delinquent with all of your other credit card debts it would seem to indicate that you do not have the ability to pay anyone including that particular creditor.



17. How could they find out about my income and assets?

1. As a starting point they will use the application that you used to obtain the credit card in the first place. Beyond that, although there are some public records and some information on a credit report. For even more data you will have to provide the creditor with this information yourself. Some creditors will never ask for this information, others will ask for it before any debt reduction negotiation begins and others will ask for it depending upon the status of the debt reduction negotiation.



17. What would trigger them insisting on my income and asset information as a part of the debt settlement negotiation?

1. Imagine that after only seeing a credit report and some preliminary information the creditors make what you might consider a high debt settlement offer such as 75 cents on the dollar. In order to persuade them to take a debt settlement less than their initial offer they might demand further evidence of your financial hardship including financial statements indicating income and assets. Then, with evidence in hand proving the person’s lack of ability to repay the debt, to the creditor may consider a debt reduction allowing a pay off of the debt in a much lower range.



17. Would a typical credit card debt account accept to pay off the debt?

1. Most of credit card debt accounts settle in a range of 30 to 50%. Be aware that some credit card debt accounts may settle considerably higher reaching into the 75 to 80% range while in rare cases credit card debt accounts can be settled in the 20 to 30% range. In very rare cases I have seen debt solutions agreed to for as little as 5 to 10% or as much as 90 to 95%.



17. What would determine differences in the debt reduction amounts?

1. While a person’s own financial situation would have an important effect on debt reduction figures the next most important factor would be the internal debt settlement policy of the creditor. Prediction about the internal policies of these creditors cannot be made on their size or the amount of the debt necessarily, but they are consistent in their own policies. For example MBNA, American Express and Citicorp may all be major players in the industry and all of a large size but their policy on debt settlements are quite different. On the other hand the way American Express treats each of their own customers individually is fairly consistent in terms of their own internal debt settlement policies. Therefore someone who works with these creditors everyday would know what to expect from each individual company when putting together a debt management plan.



17. Do credit card debt settlements need to be made all at once to achieve debt elimination?

1. With most settlements you do need pay off the each individual credit card debt all at once in a lump sum by paying the creditor the reduced debt settlement figure they have agreed to with your debt negotiation firm. There are two significant exceptions that debtors should be aware of. First is that in some cases the creditors will arrange a short payment plan, especially with larger amounts of credit card debt. These plans might range any where from three to six months to pay off the credit card debt. The other exception comes in the form of special debt management or debt reduction companies, which arrange to stretch debt settlement plans out of a period of one to four years. These debt relief companies will be discussed later in this article.



17. How does this type of credit card debt workout affect someone’s credit?

1. It depends on the status of the debtor’s credit before the debt workout. Let’s imagine that credit report scores run on a scale of one to 10, one being the best. Only ranks of one and two are good enough to walk into most local banks to get a loan or credit card. Someone who has done a credit card debt settlement would be considered would be near a six on this scale immediately after the pay off of the credit card debt settlement. For someone who started as a one or two this would be a dramatic devastation of their credit. Anyone with good credit should consider the debt workout as an option very seriously before undertaking it, as his or her credit will be essentially destroyed. On the other hand, if an individual already shows multiple accounts on their credit report that have been charged off by creditors they may already have a credit score of approximately nine on a scale of one to ten. For these people settling the charge off accounts through debt settlement would actually improve their credit. This does not mean it will make their credit good, it just means it will improve it from very very bad to only plain bad.



17. Can a person achieve these credit card debt settlements on their own or do they need to hire a debt reduction professional to get out of the credit card debt?

1. While it is certainly possible for someone to achieve a credit card debt settlement on their own I do not recommend it anymore than I would recommend somebody taking out their own appendix. In the first place creditors do not take the situation nearly as seriously when a debtor calls to make a settlement as when a debt relief professional, such as a bankruptcy attorney or debt management firm calls to make a debt settlement. An individual would not know how to negotiate a debt settlement or what a proper debt settlement would be. A debt management professional working in this field would know most individual creditors including what their standard acceptance offer would be. In order to achieve the proper credit card debt settlement it is important to understand the proper way to fill out certain financial forms, most individuals do not know how to do this properly. A debt reduction professional also knows what to say, what not to say, what to ask for and what, to a creditor, would be a ridiculous request. Credit card debt settlements are best achieved when the creditors standard operating procedures and formats are followed. An individual would have no idea how to go about following such debt solution procedures. It is harder to negotiate one of your own credit card debt accounts because of the emotions involved when negotiating for yourself. Even amongst lawyers it is said that the lawyer that represents himself has a fool for a client. This is the case for either a lawyer or non-lawyer negotiating debt settlements on their own behalf. When someone else is negotiating for you the calls from the collector and letters end up going to the debt management professional you have hired to work for you making the entire debt settlement process less stressful. It is disturbingly common for debt collectors to try and do things, which may be industry tricks or potentially fraud in order to get you to pay off debt in full. Some of these things may include getting you to reveal information about yourself you may have no obligation to reveal or having you to send money you have been told would be settlement of the debt in full only to find they have lied and simply taken the money on account.



17. What if the creditor initiates a credit card debt settlement offer directly to the debtor?

1. In most cases the first debt settlement letters coming from the creditors are initial attempts to make contact the debtor combined with a debt settlement offer that the creditor deems high, but certainly one the credit card company would be happy to accept. A typical case would be a creditor offering a settlement of 75 or 80 cents on a dollar. In almost all cases debt settlement can be achieved for less than the offer made in these initial contact letters from the credit card companies.



17. What if I have gotten a series of letters from the credit card company and the offer keeps getting better, at what point should I take it as a viable debt elimination solution.

1. This answer depends on the creditor. A debt reduction professional working in this field would know the answer based on the specific creditor. With certain creditors I found when the offer gets low enough, although better settlements can be achieved, when one looks at the fees to pay the debt reduction professional and the difference in the debt settlements the end result is fairly close. In these cases I have personally told clients to except offers and make sure they followed the proper procedures. Although I must say those cases are quite rare.



17. How long does the card debt settlement process take?

1. A normal credit card debt settlement case might take three to nine months. If someone wanted to expedite the situation it could be shortened to one to three months. Someone wishing to stretch things out could find the time extended to twelve to eighteen months. Some special debt management and debt reduction firms can even lengthen the process to four years or more.



17. Why would someone want to stretch the credit card debt negotiation process out longer?

1. In order to get more time to get debt settlement funds accumulated. For many people the only options to get out of debt are four-year settlement times or bankruptcy.



17. Are there any downsides to lengthening the credit card debt negotiation process?

1. 1. As time goes on interest builds on the outstanding credit card debt. Even if the credit card debt ends up being settled for 50% interest building at 20% on the total outstanding credit card debt still means a significant increase in what you will pay as a debt reduction settlement.

2. At some point you will want to begin rebuilding your credit. This process cannot and should not begin until all of the old credit card debts have all been settled.

3. Laws, your own personal situation or creditor policies can change so that a credit card debt settlement, which might be archived now, can no longer be reached in the future.

4. The longer things go after the credit card company has started litigation in the court system the more likely it becomes that a creditor will refuse to participate in your debt settlement plan and you must settle a credit card account for more than you might want to or you will face a court hearing and its consequences such as garnishment.



17. How do these debt settlement firms work to get you out of your credit card debt over a term of years?

1. First they access your own financial situation to determine if you would be a good candidate for their debt settlement program. Be aware that some of these debt reduction firms will try to get you signed up because that makes the debt management firm money, not because it truly represents the best debt solution route for you. To help figure out what might be best for you to reduce debt I have written a set of pre-qualification questions for various debt options.



17. Suppose the debt settlement option does work best for me and it’s what I want to do to pay off the credit card debt.

1. Together with the debt settlement firm you will establish a master plan to help deal with the credit card debt including how long the debt elimination process might take, and how much money you will need to make the credit card debt reduction plan work.



17. Who do I pay to get out of my credit card debt and when do I pay it?

1. This varies with each debt management company. All credit card debt reduction plans will provide both for payment to the creditors and payment to the debt settlement firm. Payment to the debt relief firm can be on a flat fee basis calculated as a percentage of the total debt or a percentage based on the money saved through debt settlements. Payment of these debt reduction fees can be paid up front, over time, or when debt settlements are reached. Money to pay the creditors can be kept by the debtor until it may be needed or held in escrow by the debt negotiation firm. In many cases these debt settlement funds build up by the debtors adding to them each month.



17. Is it better to accumulate credit card debt settlement funds on my own or allow the debt management firm to keep them in escrow for me?

structured annuity

structured settlements | lawsuit advances | mortgage notes | lottery payments
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Sell structured settlement annuity
Structured Settlements, Annuity Payments
and Lottery or Prize Winnings.

PPI Cash was founded in 1993 to provide financial alternatives to recipients of deferred payments like:

* Structured Settlement Payments
* Insurance Settlements
* Annuitized Prize Winnings and Lottery Payments



* Annuity Payments
* Note Holders

Structured Settlement recipients and lottery winners have relied on our customized services for years. We have helped thousands of people achieve their financial goals by offering Customized Payment Acceleration Programs to those who cannot be serviced by traditional financial institutions. PPI will advance cash on payments paid by annuities, lawsuit and personal injury structured settlements, and more.

Your Analysis
Why We Say, Cash Now

Many individuals holding certain types of assets, such as Lottery Winnings and Structured Settlements, have an immediate need for a lump sum payment instead of being paid over a number of years.

Whether you are looking for a cash payout on structured settlement like an insurance settlement paid by annuity or lottery or prize winnings, we offer flexible and individually tailored plans to meet your specific financial goals.
Settlement Factoring Vs Settlement Brokers who Structure Settlements

Structured settlements are agreements to pay an amount over time. We do not structure settlements, we factor the future payments to offer a present day value lump sum. If you are seeking counsel regarding establishing a structured settlement, please consult your attorney for references.

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Accelerate your settlement payout. Cash in some or all of your annuity.
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life insurance settlements

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Life Settlements - Learn. Empower. Succeed.SM

Life Insurance Settlements, Inc. (LIS) is one of the largest and most experienced brokers in the life settlement industry, as well as the number one choice for financial professionals seeking solutions for their Senior client life settlement needs. Our accomplished knowledge of life settlements, combined with solid relationships with multiple funders is used as an advantage; one that virtually offers your client one of the largest market values for their life insurance policy. We will negotiate the highest settlement offer on behalf of you and your client.

The senior management team at our home office has been involved in the life insurance secondary market since 1993. This experienced team of experts understands the needs and expectations of the financial planning and life insurance industries as they apply to our core competency—life settlements. LIS provides the tools, support and education necessary for the financial or insurance professional to offer these as a complimentary service. This formula has helped our partners build a significant profit center without changing their current business plan.


View the new Life Settlements presentation from LIS. You will need the Free Macromedia Flash Player to view this file. If you need to download the player, you can do so by clicking here

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Senior Settlements - To sell or not to sell?

Clearing Up Common Misconceptions About Life
Settlements

Life Settlements - An Idea Whose Time Has Come

The Producer's Role In a Life Settlement

Converting a Term Policy for a Life Settlement

The Secondary Market for Life Insurance is Poised to go
Mainstream - Are You Ready?
> view more
more>>

January 12: The 43rd Annual Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning

January 24: The International Forum Annual Meeting




For Broker Use Only – Not for use by general public.
The LIS website is currently not approved in the state of Oklahoma.

© 2006 LISettlements.com. All Rights Reserved. Site Design by Exclusive Concepts, Inc.

life insurance settlement

Call Advanced Settlements Today At 1-800-561-4148
"New" Click Here to view our Life Settlements Impact Video
Click Here to visit the Life Settlements Learning Center
Click Here to get CE Credits


Pat Summerall


Advanced Settlements, Inc -- Keystone Players in the Life Settlement Marketplace

Advanced Settlements, Inc. has earned a reputation as one of the leading life settlement brokers in the nation. We work with financial professionals whose clients include affluent seniors seeking a sensible exit strategy from unwanted life insurance policies. In addition to having earned our status as an early adopter in an emerging market of life settlement companies, we have assumed a leadership role in delivering the necessary tools for financial professionals to successfully participate in life settlements. In this regard, (1) we offer a turn-key service that leads financial professionals through each step of the transaction; (2) we act as their advocate when negotiating with funders (providers) to pursue the highest possible settlement for the client's policy; (3) we provide free errors and omissions (E&O) coverage on each transaction; and (4) we offer marketing support.

Many seniors have chosen to donate unwanted life insurance policies to charitable organizations and for that reason we also work with charities who own donated life insurance policies that may be about to lapse or have become burdensome to maintain.

Industry "Thought Leaders"

In addition to maintaining a sizeable market share in a highly-competitive industry, we have also positioned ourselves as "thought leaders" in our space. Because we recognize that the life insurance settlement solution is still in the introductory stage of the product life cycle where substantial resources are required to educate the marketplace, we have invested in efforts to serve the needs of financial professionals who want to learn more. In addition to delivering continuing education (CE) presentations and authoring the industry's first series of white papers for use by financial and insurance professionals, we also contribute articles to a variety of trade publications. Many of the articles we have written on the topic of life insurance settlements have appeared in publications such as The CPA Insider (published by the AICPA), Wealth Management Insider (published by the AICPA), The Journal of Structured Finance (published by Institutional Investor, Inc.), National Underwriter, Senior Market Advisor, Agent Sales Journal, Health Insurance Underwriter, FPA Solutions Magazine (published by the Financial Planning Association) , and the California Broker.

Consumer Advocacy & Marketplace Education

Advanced Settlements is committed to educating financial professionals, consumers and non-profit organizations about the availability of this exit strategy from unwanted policies and how life settlements provide value to senior consumers. As advocates for what is considered a pro-consumer product, Advanced Settlements encourages seniors and elders to collaborate with their team of financial professionals to determine whether a life settlement can assist them in achieving their financial or charitable goals.

If you belong to one of the following groups, we look forward to working with you in maximizing the cash value of unwanted or underperforming life insurance policies:
Agents/Brokers Estate Planners
Attorneys Financial Professionals
CPA’s Charities


Our Track Record as a Marketplace Leader

• We have transacted more than $6.5 billion in policy face value (from Jan 2001-December 2008).
• We have built trusted relationships with many of the nation's largest insurance brokers and financial
professionals.
• We work with more than 25 highly-capitalized institutional funding sources in pursuing the highest
possible offer.

When to consider a Life Settlement

• When the insured is 70 years of age or older
• When a policy is lapsing or being surrendered
• When there is a need for new life insurance, annuities, or long term care
• When the insured has outlived the beneficiaries
• When there is an estate tax change
• When a charitable organization who owns a donated policy cannot maintain premium payments.
• When there is a change in the health status of the insured.
• When there is a retiring key-man or a company / partnership selling
• When there is a liquidation of assets due to bankruptcy

The primary target audience for Advanced Settlements, Inc. is an insured who is generally 70 years of age or older, has a life expectancy of less than 12 years, and has owned a life insurance policy with a face value of $250,000 or more for not less than 2 years.

Although our Web site is a one-stop Life Settlement Portal designed to answer most questions about this emerging industry and its impact on consumers, financial and legal professionals, we encourage you to call our Life Settlement representatives who will be happy to explain how we can assist you in obtaining the most favorable competitive offer for your client's life policy.

Member of the Life Insurance Settlement Association.

Wherever the phrase Advanced Settlements appears in the text of this web site, such phrase is a reference to Advanced Settlements, Inc.

If you have any questions about the Advanced Settlements website please contact Nikolas Adams a t
1-800-561-4148 ext. 1103 or email at nadams@advancedsettlements.com

AS-1

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This ad is intended for insurance and financial professionals only, and not for use for the general public. This advertisement does not apply to variable life settlements. Variable life settlements are settled through our BD affiliate. Life Settlement amounts are based on numerous factors. Actual results will vary. According to our internal statistics, the average purchase price obtained by viators through Advanced Settlements, Inc. (from January 1, - August 31, 2008) is approximately twenty-two percent of the face amount of a qualified life insurance policy. Some or all of the proceeds of a life settlement may be taxable under federal or state income tax laws. Advice from a professional tax advisor is recommended. The number of bidders for a policy may be limited; proceeds from sales of similar policies may vary and may be subject to claims of creditors. Receipt of proceeds may impact eligibility for government benefits and entitlements. Prior to sale, the insured should consider the continued need for coverage, impact to estate plans, availability of insurance, cost of comparable coverage or tax implications. There may be high fees associated with the sale of a life settlement. Securities offered through securities licensed representatives of NFP Securities, Inc., a Broker/Dealer and Member FINRA/SIPC. Advanced Settlements is an affiliate of NFP Securities, Inc. and a subsidiary of National Financial Partners Corp., the parent company of NFP Securities, Inc. Advanced Settlements, Inc. (or its principals) is an authorized broker or producer in all states where life settlements are regulated, except Montana.Pat Summerall and his experience with life settlements may not be representative of other clients. Mr. Summerall’s representation does not imply or guarantee any particular performance returns. Mr. Summerall was compensated for his endorsement.Location and mailing address: Advanced Settlements, Inc., 2101 Park Center Drive, Suite 220, Orlando, Florida 32835. phone: 1-800-561-4148. The Advanced Settlements, Inc. Website is currently not approved in the states of Oklahoma. If you have any questions about the Advanced Settlements website please contact Nikolas Adams at 1-800-561-4148 ext. 1103




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Movie

Film
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Movie" and "Moving picture" redirect here. For other uses, see Movie (disambiguation), Moving Pictures and Film (disambiguation).

World cinema
African cinema
Asian cinema
East Asian cinema
South Asian cinema
Southeast Asian cinema
West Asian cinema
European cinema
Latin American cinema
North American cinema
Oceanian cinema


A 16 mm spring-wound Bolex H16 Reflex camera, a popular introductory camera in film schools

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects.

Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating — or indoctrinating — citizens. The visual elements of cinema gives motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue.

Traditional films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement.

The origin of the name "film" comes from the fact that photographic film (also called film stock) had historically been the primary medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion picture, including picture, picture show, photo-play, flick, and most commonly, movie. Additional terms for the field in general include the big screen, the silver screen, the cinema, and the movies.Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Theory
2.1 Language
2.2 Montage
2.3 Criticism
3 Industry
4 Associated fields
5 Terminology used regarding film
5.1 Preview
5.2 Trailer
5.3 Film, or other art form?
6 Education and Propaganda
7 Production
7.1 Crew
7.2 Technology
7.3 Independent
7.4 Open content film
7.5 Fan film
8 Animation
9 Venues
10 Future state
11 See also
12 Notes
13 References
14 External links


History
Main article: History of film

Preceding film by thousands of years, plays and dances had elements common to film, scripts, sets, costumes, production, direction, actors, audiences, storyboards, and scores. Much terminology later used in film theory and criticism applied, such as mise en scene (roughly, the entire visual picture at any one time). Moving visual and aural images were not recorded for replaying as in film.

Near the year 1600, the camera obscura was perfected by della Porta. Light is inverted through a small hole or lens from outside, and projected onto a surface or screen, creating a moving image, but it is not preserved in a recording.

In the 1860s, mechanisms for producing artificially created, two-dimensional images in motion were demonstrated with devices such as the zoetrope, mutoscope and praxinoscope. These machines were outgrowths of simple optical devices (such as magic lanterns) and would display sequences of still pictures at sufficient speed for the images on the pictures to appear to be moving, a phenomenon called persistence of vision. Naturally the images needed to be carefully designed to achieve the desired effect, and the underlying principle became the basis for the development of film animation.

A frame from Roundhay Garden Scene, the world's earliest film, by Louis Le Prince, 1888

With the development of celluloid film for still photography, it became possible to directly capture objects in motion in real time. Early versions of the technology sometimes required a person to look into a viewing machine to see the pictures which were separate paper prints attached to a drum turned by a handcrank. The pictures were shown at a variable speed of about 5 to 10 pictures per second, depending on how rapidly the crank was turned. Some of these machines were coin operated. By the 1880s the development of the motion picture camera allowed the individual component images to be captured and stored on a single reel, and led quickly to the development of a motion picture projector to shine light through the processed and printed film and magnify these "moving picture shows" onto a screen for an entire audience. These reels, so exhibited, came to be known as "motion pictures". Early motion pictures were static shots that showed an event or action with no editing or other cinematic techniques.

Ignoring Dickson's early sound experiments (1894), commercial motion pictures were purely visual art through the late 19th century, but these innovative silent films had gained a hold on the public imagination. Around the turn of the twentieth century, films began developing a narrative structure by stringing scenes together to tell narratives. The scenes were later broken up into multiple shots of varying sizes and angles. Other techniques such as camera movement were realized as effective ways to portray a story on film. Rather than leave the audience in silence, theater owners would hire a pianist or organist or a full orchestra to play music fitting the mood of the film at any given moment. By the early 1920s, most films came with a prepared list of sheet music for this purpose, with complete film scores being composed for major productions.

A shot from Georges Méliès Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) (1902), an early narrative film.

The rise of European cinema was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I when the film industry in United States flourished with the rise of Hollywood, typified most prominently by the great innovative work of D.W. Griffith in The Birth of a Nation (1914) and Intolerance (1916) . However in the 1920s, European filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein, F. W. Murnau, and Fritz Lang,in many ways inspired by the meteoric war-time progress of film through Griffith, along with the contributions of Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton and others, quickly caught up with American film-making and continued to further advance the medium. In the 1920s, new technology allowed filmmakers to attach to each film a soundtrack of speech, music and sound effects synchronized with the action on the screen. These sound films were initially distinguished by calling them "talking pictures", or talkies.

The next major step in the development of cinema was the introduction of so-called "natural" color. While the addition of sound quickly eclipsed silent film and theater musicians, color was adopted more gradually as methods evolved making it more practical and cost effective to produce "natural color" films. The public was relatively indifferent to color photography as opposed to black-and-white,[citation needed] but as color processes improved and became as affordable as black-and-white film, more and more movies were filmed in color after the end of World War II, as the industry in America came to view color as essential to attracting audiences in its competition with television, which remained a black-and-white medium until the mid-1960s. By the end of the 1960s, color had become the norm for film makers.

Since the decline of the studio system in the 1960s, the succeeding decades saw changes in the production and style of film. New Hollywood, French New Wave and the rise of film school educated independent filmmakers were all part of the changes the medium experienced in the latter half of the 20th century. Digital technology has been the driving force in change throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century.

music

Music
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Music (disambiguation).
The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with Europe and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.
Performing arts
Major forms

Dance · Music · Opera · Theatre
Minor forms

Circus Arts · Magic · Puppetry
Genres

Drama · Tragedy · Comedy · Tragicomedy · Romance · Satire · Epic · Lyric


Music is an art form whose medium is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. The word derives from Greek μουσική (mousike), "(art) of the Muses".[1]

The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance), through improvisational music to aleatoric forms. Music can be divided into genres and subgenres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and occasionally controversial. Within "the arts", music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art, and auditory art.

To people in many cultures, music is inextricably intertwined into their way of life. Greek philosophers and ancient Indians defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies. Common sayings such as "the harmony of the spheres" and "it is music to my ears" point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to. However, 20th-century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music, saying, for example, "There is no noise, only sound."[2] According to musicologist Jean-Jacques Nattiez, "the border between music and noise is always culturally defined—which implies that, even within a single society, this border does not always pass through the same place; in short, there is rarely a consensus.… By all accounts there is no single and intercultural universal concept defining what music might be, except that it is 'sound through time'."[3]Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 Prehistoric eras and antiquity
1.2 Western cultures
2 Non-Western Classical traditions
3 Performance
3.1 Aural tradition
3.2 Ornamentation
4 Production
4.1 Composition
4.2 Notation
4.3 Improvisation
4.4 Theory
5 Cognition
6 Sociology
7 Media and technology
7.1 Internet
8 Business
9 Education
9.1 Non-professional
9.2 Academia
9.3 Ethnomusicology
10 Music therapy
11 See also
12 References
13 Further reading
14 External links


History
Main article: History of music

Prehistoric eras and antiquity

The development of music among humans must have taken place against the backdrop of natural sounds such as birdsong and the sounds other animals use to communicate.[citation needed] Prehistoric music is the name which is given to all music produced in preliterate cultures.[citation needed][4]Ancient music can only be imagined by scholars, based on findings from a range of paleolithic sites, such as bones in which lateral holes have been pierced: these are usually identified as flutes,[5] blown at one end like the Japanese shakuhachi. The earliest written records of musical expression are to be found in the Samaveda of India and in 4,000 year old cuneiform from Ur.[citation needed] Instruments, such as the seven-holed flute and various types of stringed instruments have been recovered from the Indus Valley Civilization archaeological sites.[6]

India has one of the oldest musical traditions in the world—references to Indian classical music (marga) can be found in the ancient scriptures of the Hindu tradition, the Vedas. The traditional music of China has a history stretching for around three thousand years. Music was an important part of cultural and social life in Ancient Greece: mixed-gender choruses performed for entertainment, celebration and spiritual ceremonies; musicians and singers had a prominent role in ancient Greek theater In the 9th century, the Arab scholar al-Farabi wrote a book on music titled Kitab al-Musiqi al-Kabir ("Great Book of Music"). He played and invented a variety of musical instruments and devised the Arab tone system of pitch organisation, which is still used in Arabic music.[7]

Western cultures

During the Medieval music era (500-1400), the only European repertory which has survived from before about 800 is the monophonic liturgical plainsong of the Roman Catholic Church, the central tradition of which was called Gregorian chant. Alongside these traditions of sacred and church music there existed a vibrant tradition of secular song. From the Renaissance music era (1400-1600), much of the surviving music of 14th century Europe is secular. By the middle of the 15th century, composers and singers used a smooth polyphony for sacred musical compositions. The introduction of commercial printing helped to disseminate musical styles more quickly and across a larger area.

Allegory of Music, by Filippino Lippi

The era of Baroque music (1600-1750) began when the first operas were written and when contrapuntal music became prevalent. German Baroque composers wrote for small ensembles including strings, brass, and woodwinds, as well as choirs, pipe organ, harpsichord, and clavichord. During the Baroque period, several major music forms were defined that lasted into later periods when they were expanded and evolved further, including the fugue, the invention, the sonata, and the concerto.[8] The music of the Classical period (1750-1800) is characterized by homophonic texture, often featuring a prominent melody with accompaniment. These new melodies tended to be almost voice-like and singable. The now popular instrumental music was dominated by further evolution of musical forms initially defined in the Baroque period: the sonata, and the concerto, with the addition of the new form, the symphony. Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are among the central figures of the Classical period.

In 1800, the Romantic era (1800-1890s) in music developed, with Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert as transitional composers who introduced a more dramatic, expressive style. During this era, existing genres, forms, and functions of music were developed, and the emotional and expressive qualities of music came to take precedence over technique and tradition. In Beethoven's case, motifs (developed organically) came to replace melody as the most significant compositional unit. The late 19th century saw a dramatic expansion in the size of the orchestra, and in the role of concerts as part of urban society. Later Romantic composers created complex and often much longer musical works. They used more complex chords and used more dissonance to create dramatic tension. With 20th century music, there was a vast increase in music listening as the radio gained popularity and phonographs were used to replay and distribute music. The focus of art music was characterized by exploration of new rhythms, styles, and sounds. Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, and John Cage were all influential composers in 20th century art music.

Jazz evolved and became a significant genre of music over the course of the 20th century, and during the second half of that century, rock music did the same. Jazz is an American musical art form which originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. The style's West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note.[9] From its early development until the present, jazz has also incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music.[10] Jazz has, from its early 20th century inception, spawned a variety of subgenres, ranging from New Orleans Dixieland (1910s) to 1970s and 1980s-era jazz-rock fusion.

MSN

MSN
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Internet service provider and Internet portal. For the instant messaging service known colloquially as "MSN", see Windows Live Messenger. For other uses, see MSN (disambiguation).
The Microsoft Network

URL www.msn.com
Commercial? Mixed
Type of site Portal
Registration Optional
Owner Microsoft
Created by Microsoft
Launched August 24, 1995
Alexa rank #6
Current status Active


MSN (The Microsoft Network) is a collection of Internet services provided by Microsoft. The Microsoft Network debuted as an online service and Internet service provider on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 operating system.[1]

The range of services offered by MSN has changed significantly since its initial release in 1995. MSN was once a simple online service for Windows 95, an ambitious experiment at interactive multimedia content on the Internet that was ahead of its time, and one of the most popular dial-up Internet service providers.

Microsoft used the MSN brand name to launch and promote numerous popular web-based services in the late 1990s, most notably Hotmail and Messenger, before reorganizing many of them in 2006 under a new brand name, Windows Live. MSN's Internet portal, MSN.com, still offers a wealth of content and is currently the 6th most visited domain name on the Internet.[2]Contents [hide]
1 MSN, the Internet service provider
1.1 MSN Classic
1.2 MSN 2.0
1.3 Less ambitious attempts
1.4 In recent years
2 MSN, the Internet portal
2.1 Internet Start
2.2 MSN.com
2.3 Windows Live
3 Other services known as "MSN"
3.1 Hotmail
3.2 Messenger
4 Affiliated services
4.1 Cross-branded services
4.2 International services
5 See also
6 References
7 External links


[edit]
MSN, the Internet service provider

[edit]
MSN Classic

MSN Classic sign-in screen

The concept for MSN was created by the Advanced Technology Group at Microsoft, headed by Nathan Myhrvold. MSN was originally conceived as a dial-up online content provider like America Online, supplying proprietary content through an artificial folder-like interface integrated into Windows 95's Windows Explorer file management program.

Then officially known as "The Microsoft Network," the service launched along with Windows 95 on August 24, 1995. MSN was included with Windows 95 installations and promoted through Windows and other Microsoft software released at the time. Product support and discussion was offered through the MSN service, as well as information such as news and weather, basic e-mail capabilities, chat rooms, and message boards similar to newsgroups.

Open access to the World Wide Web was not originally included in the classic MSN service, but Internet access was quickly offered through Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser, which was available as a download from the MSN service or as part of the Windows 95 Plus! package.

[edit]
MSN 2.0

The MSN Preview was a mock premiere event, with host "Michael"

Anna Faris in the MSN Preview

Feature demo in the MSN Preview

MSN 2.0 Program Viewer

In 1996, in response to the increasing relevancy and rapid growth of the Internet, Microsoft renamed its existing MSN service to "MSN Classic" and created a new version, called "MSN 2.0," which combined access to the Internet with web-based multimedia content in a new program known as the "MSN Program Viewer." The service was promoted to existing MSN subscribers beginning October 10, 1996; the general release followed on December 10, 1996.[3][4]

Microsoft promoted MSN 2.0 with a series of advertisements and promotional materials describing the service with the phrase, "Every new universe begins with a big bang." The company offered the initial release of the new MSN 2.0 service on a CD-ROM that it sent to MSN subscribers in the fall of 1996. When inserted, the CD-ROM opened to the ambitious and flashy MSN Preview, an interactive video-based experience that introduced current and prospective subscribers to the new version of MSN and described the features of the MSN 2.0 software.[5]

The "MSN Preview" was formatted as a guided tour of a mock premiere event for the new MSN. It was hosted by a witty and sarcastic character named "Michael" who welcomed viewers outside of a theatre and then guided them through the theatre to meet several other characters, each of whom represented one of the channels of MSN 2.0's "On Stage" area, which was designed as the main platform for interactive multimedia content in MSN 2.0.[5]

A handful of uncredited actors appeared in the MSN Preview, including then-unknown actress Anna Faris,[6][7] who represented "Channel 5," which was described as "media, zines, attitude"; it was targeted at college-age members. The preview also included its own jazz and pop music loop that played during the installation process.[5]

Once installed, members accessed MSN content through the MSN Program Viewer, which was essentially an animated, stylized and streamlined interface on top of an Internet Explorer 3.0 web browser. When members signed in, they would be presented with a several different "Channels," which were essentially categories for the various types of content available on MSN. These channels included new services such as MSNBC, a news web site that began as a partnership between Microsoft and NBC; and Slate, an online magazine focused on politics and current events; both were available to all Internet users, and both are still active, many years later.[3]

Interactive multimedia content was presented in a TV-like format, dubbed MSN shows, as part of the "On Stage" section. The many shows and sites included an interactive online nightly game show called "Netwits," a snarky web site addressing women's issues called "UnderWire," and a regular celebrity interview and web-surfing session called "One Click Away." These new destinations supplemented web-based MSN services such as CarPoint and Expedia, which were branded as "Essentials." An additional "Communicate" section was based around e-mail, chat rooms, and news groups, while a "Find" section was dedicated to searching MSN content and the rest of the Internet; it also provided a calendar of upcoming events and new shows on MSN.[3]

The new content made extensive use of multimedia and interactive features, including Visual Basic scripting and early implementations of Macromedia Shockwave Flash (originally called "FutureSplash") for animations.[8]

While the MSN shows approach was unique and innovative, the content was not easily accessible by members with low-end computers and slower dial-up connections. High-speed Internet access was not widely available at the time, and some users subscribed to monthly dial-up plans that limited the number of hours during which they were allowed to access the service. The MSN 2.0 software was also unstable and would often quit unexpectedly.[9]

In addition to MSN 2.0's speed and stability issues, existing MSN subscribers were concerned the transition to MSN 2.0 would break up communities that were established via the MSN Classic message boards and chat rooms.[10] Their concerns were confirmed when Microsoft announced plans to close the entire MSN Classic service. As a result of all these issues, a web site called The Official msNOT Hate Site originated as a negative response to the new MSN 2.0 software. The site claimed Microsoft patently ignored feedback from concerned members and censored anyone who spoke out against the upgrade; it further charged the company's handling of the transition to MSN 2.0 was "insensitive and ethically questionable."[9] Microsoft denied it attempted to silence those who expressed concern about the upgrade.[11] The site also mocked the music loop that played during the MSN 2.0 installation process because it repeated the phrase "too stupid to stop."[9]

Ultimately, the ambitious use of web-based and interactive multimedia content on the Internet during 1996 and 1997 proved to be ahead of its time, and the MSN 2.0 service was not as successful as Microsoft initially hoped. The company returned to the drawing board for its next MSN release.[12][13]

[edit]
Less ambitious attempts

Game

Game
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Game (disambiguation).

Tug of war is an easily organized, impromptu game that requires little equipment.

The Card Players, a 1895 painting by Paul Cézanne depicting a game of cards.

A game is a structured activity, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more concerned with the expression of ideas. However, the distinction is not clear-cut, and many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports/games) or art (such as jigsaw puzzles or games involving an artistic layout such as Mah-jongg solitaire).

Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both. Many games help develop practical skills, serve as a form of exercise, or otherwise perform an educational, simulational or psychological role. The requirement for player interaction puts activities such as jigsaw puzzles and solitaire "games" into the category of puzzles rather than games.[1]

Attested as early as 2600 BC,[2][3] games are a universal part of human experience and present in all cultures. The Royal Game of Ur, Senet and Mancala are some of the oldest known games.[4]Contents [hide]
1 Definitions
1.1 Ludwig Wittgenstein
1.2 Roger Caillois
1.3 Chris Crawford
1.4 Other definitions
2 Gameplay elements and classification
2.1 Tools
2.2 Rules
2.3 Skill, strategy, and chance
2.4 Single-player games
3 Types of game
3.1 Sports
3.1.1 Lawn Games
3.2 Tabletop Games
3.2.1 Dexterity/coordination games
3.2.2 Board games
3.2.3 Card games
3.2.4 Dice games
3.2.5 Domino and Tile games
3.2.6 Pencil and Paper games
3.2.7 Guessing games
3.3 Video games
3.3.1 Online games
3.4 Role-playing games
3.5 Simulation
4 See also
5 Further reading
6 Notes
7 External links


Definitions Look up game in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.


Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein was probably the first academic philosopher to address the definition of the word game. In his Philosophical Investigations,[5] Wittgenstein demonstrated that the elements of games, such as play, rules, and competition, all fail to adequately define what games are. He subsequently argued that the concept "game" could not be contained by any single definition, but that games must be looked at as a series of definitions that share a "family resemblance" to one another.

Roger Caillois

French sociologist Roger Caillois, in his book Les jeux et les hommes (Games and Men),[6] defined a game as an activity that must have the following characteristics:
fun: the activity is chosen for its light-hearted character
separate: it is circumscribed in time and place
uncertain: the outcome of the activity is unforeseeable
non-productive: participation is not productive
governed by rules: the activity has rules that are different from everyday life
fictitious: it is accompanied by the awareness of a different reality

Chris Crawford

Computer game designer Chris Crawford attempted to define the term game[1] using a series of dichotomies:
Creative expression is art if made for its own beauty, and entertainment if made for money. (This is the least rigid of his definitions. Crawford acknowledges that he often chooses a creative path over conventional business wisdom, which is why he rarely produces sequels to his games.)
A piece of entertainment is a plaything if it is interactive. Movies and books are cited as examples of non-interactive entertainment.
If no goals are associated with a plaything, it is a toy. (Crawford notes that by his definition, (a) a toy can become a game element if the player makes up rules, and (b) The Sims and SimCity are toys, not games.) If it has goals, a plaything is a challenge.
If a challenge has no “active agent against whom you compete,” it is a puzzle; if there is one, it is a conflict. (Crawford admits that this is a subjective test. Video games with noticeably algorithmic artificial intelligence can be played as puzzles; these include the patterns used to evade ghosts in Pac-Man.)
Finally, if the player can only outperform the opponent, but not attack them to interfere with their performance, the conflict is a competition. (Competitions include racing and figure skating.) However, if attacks are allowed, then the conflict qualifies as a game.

Crawford's definition may thus be rendered as: an interactive, goal-oriented activity, active agents to play against, in which players (including active agents) can interfere with each other.

Google.

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Sony

Sony
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sony Corporation
ソニー株式会社
Founder(s) Masaru Ibuka
Akio Morita
Headquarters Minato, Tokyo, Japan[1]
Area served Worldwide
Key people Sir Howard Stringer
(Chairman) & (CEO)[1]
Ryoji Chubachi
(President) & (Electronics CEO)
Industry Consumer electronics
Entertainment
Products Audio
Video
Televisions
Communications and Information Technology
Semiconductors
Electronic components
Motion Picture
Music
Online Business
PlayStation
Services Financial services
Market cap US$ 35Billion (2009)
Revenue ▲ US$ 100 Billion (2009)[2]
Operating income ▲ US$4 Billion (2008)[3]
Net income ▲ US$ 10 Billion (2009)[citation needed]
Total assets ▲ US$ 190 Billion (2009) 3trillion y
Total equity ▲ US$ 30 Billion (2009)
Employees 180,500(as of 32 March 2008)[1]
Subsidiaries List of the subsidiaries
Website Sony.com
This article contains Japanese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of kanji and kana.


Sony's current CEO and chairman Sir Howard Stringer

Sony Corporation (ソニー株式会社 Sonī Kabushiki Gaisha?) is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world's largest media conglomerates with revenue exceeding US$99.1 billion (as of 2008).[1] Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, video, communications, video game consoles, and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Its name is derived from sonus, the Latin word for sound.[4]

Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through its five operating segments—electronics, games, entertainment (motion pictures and music), financial services and other. These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal business operations include Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Ericsson, and Sony Financial Holdings. As a semiconductor maker, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders. The company's slogan is Sony. Like no other.[5]Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 Origin of name
2 Notable Sony products, technologies and proprietary formats
3 Management
3.1 Mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures
3.2 Manufacturing base
4 Controversy
4.1 Fictitious movie reviewer
4.2 Digital rights management
4.3 Advertisements
4.4 Legal
4.5 Batteries
4.6 CCD
5 Environmental record
5.1 Improvement efforts
5.2 Green TV
5.3 Criticism
6 See also
7 References
8 Further reading
9 External links


[edit]
History

Masaru Ibuka, the co-founder of Sony

In 1945, after World War II, Masaru Ibuka started a radio repair shop in a bombed-out building in Tokyo. The next year, he was joined by his colleague Akio Morita and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K.,[6] which translates in English to Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. The company built Japan's first tape recorder called the Type-G.[6]

In the early 1950s, Ibuka traveled in the United States and heard about Bell Labs' invention of the transistor.[6] He convinced Bell to license the transistor technology to his Japanese company. While most American companies were researching the transistor for its military applications, Ibuka looked to apply it to communications. Although the American companies Regency and Texas Instruments built the first transistor radios, it was Ibuka's company that made them commercially successful for the first time. In August 1955, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering released the Sony TR-55, Japan's first commercially produced transistor radio.[7] They followed up in December of the same year by releasing the Sony TR-72, a product that won favor both within Japan and in export markets, including Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Germany. Featuring six transistors, push-pull output and greatly improved sound quality, the TR-72 continued to be a popular seller into the early sixties.

In May 1956, the company released the TR-6, which featured an innovative slim design and sound quality capable of rivaling portable tube radios. It was for the TR-6 that Sony first contracted "Atchan", a cartoon character created by Fuyuhiko Okabe, to become its advertising character. Now known as "Sony Boy", the character first appeared in a cartoon ad holding a TR-6 to his ear, but went on to represent the company in ads for a variety of products well into the mid-sixties.[6] The following year, 1957, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering came out with the TR-63 model, then the smallest (112 × 71 × 32 mm) transistor radio in commercial production. It was a worldwide commercial success.[6]

University of Arizona professor Michael Brian Schiffer, Ph.D., says, "Sony was not first, but its transistor radio was the most successful. The TR-63 of 1957 cracked open the U.S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics." By the mid 1950s, American teens had begun buying portable transistor radios in huge numbers, helping to propel the fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units in 1955 to 5,000,000 units by the end of 1968. However, this huge growth in portable transistor radio sales that saw Sony rise to be the dominant player in the consumer electronics field[8] was not because of the consumers who had bought the earlier generation of tube radio consoles, but was driven by a distinctly new American phenomenon at the time called rock and roll.

Sony's headquarters moved to Minato, Tokyo from Shinagawa, Tokyo around the end of 2006.[9][10]

Flickr

Flickr
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Flickr
URL Flickr.com
Commercial? Yes
Type of site photo/ video sharing and Photo/Video networking
Available language(s) Chinese (traditional)
English (original)
French
German
Italian
Portuguese (Brazilian)
Spanish
Korean
Owner Yahoo! Inc.
Created by Ludicorp
Launched February 2004
Alexa rank #30[1]
Current status Active


Flickr is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community platform. In addition to being a popular Web site for users to share personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers as a photo repository.[2] As of November 2008, it claims to host more than 3 billion images.[3][4][5]Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Corporate changes
3 Features
3.1 Organization
3.2 Organizr
3.3 Access control
3.4 Interaction and compatibility
3.5 Filtering
3.6 Licensing
3.7 Map sources
4 Controversy
4.1 Censorship
4.2 Virgin Mobile ad copyright
4.3 Yahoo! Photos
5 The Commons
6 See also
7 References
8 External links


[edit]
History

Flickr was developed by Ludicorp, a Vancouver-based company that launched Flickr in February 2004. The service emerged out of tools originally created for Ludicorp's Game Neverending, a web-based massively multiplayer online game. Flickr proved a more feasible project and ultimately Game Neverending was shelved.[6]

Early versions of Flickr focused on a multiuser chat room called FlickrLive with real-time photo exchange capabilities. There was also an emphasis on collecting images found on the web rather than photographs taken by users. The successive evolutions focused more on the uploading and filing backend for individual users and the chat room was buried in the site map. It was eventually dropped as Flickr's backend systems evolved away from the Game Neverending's codebase.

Some of the key features of Flickr not initially present were tags, marking photos as favorites, group photo pools and interestingness, for which a patent is pending.[7]

In March 2005, Yahoo! acquired Ludicorp and Flickr. During the week of June 28, 2005, all content was migrated from servers in Canada to servers in the United States, resulting in all data being subject to United States federal law.[8]

On May 16, 2006, Flickr updated its services from beta to "gamma", along with a design and structural overhaul. According to the site's FAQ, the term "gamma", rarely used in software development, is intended to be tongue-in-cheek to indicate that the service is always being tested by its users, and is in a state of perpetual improvement.[9] A further connotation, more specific to photography and the display of images, is that of gamma correction. For all intents and purposes, the current service is considered a stable release.

In December 2006, upload limits on free accounts were increased to 100MB a month (from 20MB) and were removed from Pro Accounts, permitting unlimited uploads for holders of these accounts (originally a 2GB per month limit).[10]

In January 2007, Flickr announced that "Old Skool" members--those who had joined before the Yahoo acquisition--would be required to associate their account with a Yahoo ID by March 15 to continue using the service.[11] This move was criticized by some users.[12]

On April 9, 2008, Flickr began to allow paid subscribers to upload videos, limited to 90 seconds in length and 150MB in size.