Paraparaumu. 21 May 2008 - Political Stock Markets are a virtual stock market, where participants express their expectations about future events through the buying and selling of virtual shares. Several prediction markets relating to different issues about economic and political developments are offered together. The new service starts under http://esm.forecast4u.co.nz/ with topics like the National Elections in New Zealand or the Estimation of Property Growth for June 2008.

The "Wisdom of Crowds" is considered to outperform expert knowledge in areas like topicality as well as width, depth and references of knowledge. A principle of prediction markets, as of any electronic exchange, is that those who buy cheap and sell at a higher price benefit.

Practical evidence suggests that prediction markets are at least as accurate in forecasting events as other instruments used by polling institutes on similar demographic groups. This concept, part of a field of study called collective intelligence, is the ideal tool for market and event forecasts. The closer a participant's forecast matches the real event, the more the value of the virtual account rises. This stimulates forward strategies and therefore using quality information and experience in these virtual investments is paramount. The Political Stock Markets also rewards closely matching expectations when dealing with rate fluctuation and diligence.

Electronic Stock Markets (ESM)
The prediction market is based on the "Electronic Stock Market Technology" (ESM) developed by ECCE TERRAM. It is based on theses by Friedrich von Hayek, who in 1974 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. From Professor von Hayek's findings it derives that more accurate prediction of future events can be made if people trade shares about them with the opportunity to obtain a profit. Frank Simon, Managing Director of ECCE TERRAM: "ESMs in the form of prediction markets provide surprisingly accurate results for opinion research and serve as a prognostics instrument to generate forecasts". The user's interest in trading shares and the chance for personal gain as well as the opportunity to create accurate forecasts bind the user into the online service and increase traffic to the website. The technology starts from a base different to traditional opinion research. Interviews, polls and e-votes use questions like "how would you vote?" The Electronic Stock Markets ask "what do you expect the outcome to be?"� Traders therefore buy and sell based on their expectation of the outcome. These reflect in the prices at which shares trade. The system can then, based on the share price, calculate forecasts.

ECCE TERRAM has used prediction markets already in the run up to the German federal elections of 1998 with great success, achieving the second best forecast after Allensbach, one of Germany's leading public opinion poll institutes. In recent years ECCE TERRAM has organised more than two dozen prediction markets on a great variety of events. ECCE TERRAM Ltd, located in Paraparaumu, has started since May 2008 to offer Electronic Stock Markets to the New Zealand and Australian Market based on the 12-year-experience with this tool.

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Attend a Seminar on How to Cash in on the Seven Trillion Dollar Travel Industry.

For details, contact Salvador Ortiza at sortiza@yahoo.com or visit http://www.quickbooking.gttrends.net.

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The ECCE TERRAM Internet Services company will go to Las Vegas to present its Photo2lab Software Suite on the main photo trade fair PMA, which will take place from 31 January to 2 February 2008. Integrated into the Photo2lab Software Suite is the HDX4 Photo Manager of HDX4 GmbH. This is a HDX4 Photo SDK for professional picture optimisation.

Dortmund. Jan 21st, 2008. - HDX4 GmbH has specialised in the development of software all about the topics of burning and multimedia. A suitable tool for digital photography is the SDK HDX4 Photo Manager, which other companies can license to upgrade their own software with new functions. SDK includes the two modules HDX4 Natural Enhancement and HDX4 Upscaling, both proprietary developments from the technology laboratories of HDX4 GmbH.

A distinctive feature of the HDX4-modules is that they can help to turn any snapshot into a really professional photograph – it only takes a mouse click. So far, photographers rather used trial and error to adjust brightness, contrast and colours; now the software can detect imperfections of pictures and corrects them without need for further user intervention. Frank Simon of ECCE TERRAM: "Thanks to the HDX4-functions, dark pictures with low contrast and matt colours are definitely a thing of the past. Suddenly, the sky prints perfectly blue and details, which were in the shade become visible again."

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The project, Ethanol & Orphans, is looking for celebrities who think it is a good idea and who will endorse the project.  The project sponsor is the not-for-profit charity, Our Family Orphan Communities, Inc. 

The Ethanol & Orphans project is currently underway in Vietnam where we will be building a cellulose ethanol refinery and using the profits to build:
 - a Self-sustaining, high-tech, green Community for street orphans where they will be raised in families with surrogate parents and grandparents, given care, skills (job, computer, familiy/life) and supplemental education.
 - a Medical clinic supported by the profits from the refinery so those who cannot afford it can still receive treatment.
 - more care for disabled children (who are still today being born with birth defects from Agent Orange which was used in the war in the 60's and 70's) so they can learn to be self-sufficient even with disabilities.

We are looking for people who care about:
 - improving the environment
 - using less petrochemical fuels
 - helping developing / third world countries to improve
 - street children living barely surviving
 - disabled children who need assistance
 - providing medical/dental care for those who cannot afford it
 - protecting food sources (we will use sugarcane for the refiery, NOT grains)
 - providing education for children, the future leaders of their country
 - and more humanitarian projects

The celebrities will be asked to speak about our project when they can, and to allow us to use thier comments/picture/name in our website and promotion materials.

For complete details about the project, see: http://www.orphancommunities.org
For questions, write to us at: info@orphancommunities.org
 
Please forward this to others who you know will be interested in supporting this project.

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What do Ethanol and Orphans have in common? 
ANSWER: Vietnam and Liberia. 

This is where ethanol refineries will be built and the profits used to build medical clinics and self-sustaining communities where orphans and disabled children are raised in families.

Our Family Orphan Communities, Inc., is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization that has a mission statement “to design and create modern, self-sustaining, high-tech, family style communities in which orphans live with surrogate parents and grandparents in a family setting, receive quality education, learn practical family living and job skills, future oriented high-tech skills to prepare them for their future and for leadership roles in their country.” The funding for the initial construction of the Orphan Community and Medical Clinic will come from the earnings of an “economic engine” business – such as an Ethanol Refinery that will in itself provide many jobs and other benefits to the host country.

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Swiss security software specialist Langmeier launches Backup 3.2. 
Small and practical like a Swiss Army knife, this application will run backups reliably in the background.

Pfäffikon SZ. August 3rd, 2006 – Our daily lives and routines increasingly depend on information stored on computer our hard drives: Contracts and contacts, appointments, e-mails, spread sheets, presentations and digital photos. A total or partial loss of such information is equivalent to a major disaster for business users and increasingly, for home users too. The simple reason why such catastrophes happen is the lack of backups and if backups have been made they can be out of date or faulty. The Swiss data security developer Langmeier said: “The launch of Backup 3.2 puts special emphasis on making routine backups easier and avoiding backup errors”.
 
In cases of theft, fire or flooding insurance money will cover in most cases the purchase of replacement equipment, though usually not the cost associated with recovering the data. It is an often overlooked fact, that the data is much more valuable than the PC or hard drive. A virus or a defect on the hard disk can quickly cause havoc. In that case, recent versions of files may have been affected and earlier backup versions are required. That is why it is so important to run backups on a regular basis with history and version tracking. According to “Langmeier Backup” the software was developed with the objective to overcome barriers to running backups by making the routine simpler and automatic, running in the background and avoiding interruptions in the work routine on the PC or network. The backups can also be stored to any location on the computer, the network which Windows can recognize as a drive or to an ftp server over the internet, where the application can also apply 256Bit encryption. The backup data can be accessed at these locations at any time, using a file path resembling the original, which makes the backup files usable.

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Photo service Software Developer announced to publish ‘Transfer Ordering Network’ Protocol during Photokina 

Setting up a digital photo processing service in store or online is becoming easier with ready made software solutions. Large central labs offer these to tie in their customers, while specialist developers like ECCE TERRAM sell software components that increase the services independence and negotiation power.

Oldenburg. 26 July 2006 – Today the vast majority of photographs taken are digital. Online photo services converting digital images into traditional photographic paper prints in familiar 6×4" (10x15cm), prints are increasingly profitable. Compared to home inkjet prints, pictures on photographic paper tend to look much 'richer', and are vastly more durable with regard to handling by sweaty fingers, humid environments, and fading in daylight. Such services cater for business with new photographic gift items and product ideas. The specialist internet software developer ECCE TERRAM will be presenting the latest off the shelf, modular software solutions for online photo services, web portals, photo labs and purchasing associations at the international Photokina exhibition in Cologne in September 2006, including releases currently being prepared. As a Photokina highlight, the company will also publish its complete ‘Transfer Ordering Network’ protocol for free usage.

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La Copa Mundial es el mayor evento masivo del mundo. Es fascinante ver como la Copa Mundial de Fútbol apasiona a la gente. Según datos aportados por la Agencia Federal de Trabajo en Núremberg Alemania, el Mundial de Fútbol 2006 creó unos 50000 empleos adicionales en el país anfitrión. Pero también en otros países la copa es una bendición para el comercio, las agencias de viajes y restaurantes. Toda una gama de productos, mucho más allá de la camiseta en los colores del equipo favorito, son lanzados al mercado. Por ejemplo una empresa de Internet especializada en álbumes impresos de fotos propias vende en Alemania un libro de la copa mundial que imprime por pedido combinando fotos y textos de la FIFA con fotos propias de quien lo ordena. 

Viajé la semana pasada desde Inglaterra a Alemania a visitar un partido de la Copa Mundial. Fue una experiencia única en muchos aspectos. Como en ninguno de mis viajes anteriores aproveché los avances de la segunda generación de la Web como parte de la vida cotidiana. Primeramente, al buscar el vuelo me encontré con la nueva meta-búsqueda de viajes operada por Mobissimo. Esto de ninguna forma se compara a una agencia de viajes. Hace una búsqueda combinada de los 160 sitios de información de viaje más relevantes, presentando ésta en una lista clara e interactiva, de donde se pueden efectuar las reservas. Sobresale por el concepto de búsqueda por actividad llamada “activity search”, donde se puede buscar un viaje por lo que se desea hacer, por ejemplo “ir a esquiar desde Londres con cuatro persona de tal fecha a tal fecha”… y el “TravelConcierge” encontrará las opciones más atractivas. Yo sólo necesitaba ir de Londres a Leipzig y Mobissimo me encontró la conexión más conveniente y económica, ya que incluye también las principales línea aéreas económicas.

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La copa mundial vista a través de los aficionados

Los aficionados del fútbol alrededor del mundo están invitados a mostrar sus mejores fotografías de la Copa Mundial de Fútbol en la comunidad Web de http://www.fotoalbumdefutbol.com. El objetivo de los organizadores es crear desde ahora y hasta el final del mundial el "Mayor Álbum de Fotos de Aficionados de la Copa Mundial de Fútbol” en la Web. Los organizadores son amantes del fútbol y miembros de la nueva comunidad de Internet llamada miaplaza, donde la afición global puede intercambiar en un ambiente amigable: chats, fotos y mensajes libres de spam.

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VSO Software announces the release of Image Resizer, freeware that resizes and converts images between different formats. This handy application is a useful tool for anyone who wants to store digital pictures on a PC and wants to email them, move them easily from one folder to another or to free up space on the hard drive.

Toulouse. April 28th, 2006 -- In one click, Image Resizer by VSO Software resizes pictures or changes their format as desired: the reduced file size enables faster loading, improved pictures management and saves storage space. Image files which are smaller in size are more easily sent by email, something difficult to do with the original file size. It is also the perfect tool for webmasters or people wanting to publish images on the internet.

Image Resizer handles images in all popular formats: bmp, jpeg, gif, png and can converts them at the preferred resolution (from 320x200 to 1600x1200, including even Ipod photo and video, Sony PSPS, HDTV and DVD). The images will adjust automatically to the size of the desktop or to the source used to display them.

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