Cars And The Media – Interest In Cars Gets Into Top Gear

Whether it is Clarkson, James May, Richard Hammond, Vicki Butler-Henderson, or any other media car reviewer or online amateur, it seems as though everyone has an opinion on what the best cars to be driving (or seen to be driving) are.Looking back, it seems as though just a couple of decades ago, there were only a few real mainstream magazines on the shelves, most notably Motor magazine which merged with AutoCar, and Performance Car which then became Car magazine; now it is difficult to escape the mass of car magazines which fill the shelves of the nation’s newsagents.The current best selling car magazine, Top Gear was first published in 1993 as a spin off to the Top Gear TV series, which first came into being in 1977 as a 30 minute BBC Midlands TV programme, which reviewed new car models and covered other car-related issues such as road safety, classic cars and motorsport. Since this time, the two biggest mainstream UK Car programmes, Top Gear and Fifth Gear, have become important parts of media car culture in Britain.Over recent years there has been a change in the way that cars have been dealt with by journalists in the media. As time has gone on, and following a major revamp in 2002, Top Gear has moved away from a standard journalistic show and focused on a more light hearted and quirky based entertainment style of programming. The actual motoring information provided on the show has been decreasing, as global ratings have been increasing.It still remains one of the most entertaining shows on TV and provides essential viewing to both petrolheads and millions of non car enthusiasts alike. However, with the inclusion of celebrity challenges, outrageous stunts and challenges, and the regular destruction of caravans, the focus these days is very much on entertainment and personalities rather than cars.Fifth Gear was originally intended as a replacement for Top Gear, which went into a period of lull around the start of the century following Clarkson’s departure before being cancelled. But the new programme on Five was launched just as the BBC announced they would bring back a new modified 60 minute version of Top Gear. Although achieving nowhere near the viewing figures that the Clarkson lead show has managed, Fifth Gear is generally less outrageous and more of a straightforward informative motoring show.Now interest in motoring has also gone online, with Top Gear being the most pirated TV show in the world, beating programmes like Lost and Desperate Housewives. The BBC reported that one video of Clarkson achieved 938,000 downloads on YouTube before they asked for it to be removed. Even interested non-journalists are now able to find videos and offer advice through car forums, motoring blogs [http://www.motoraddicts.com/blogs], general car sites and the many online owners clubs.With the future looking rosy for professional motoring journalists both on TV and in print, and as the public appetite becomes increasingly voracious to get involved in the action, and sites provide more interactivity, it is hopefully only a matter of time before we get fully immersive interactive super car test drives with a background commentary by Clarkson.

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Computer Office Furniture – Innovative Solutions for The Office

Computer office furniture has been in use for a very long time. Present day computers are quite sleek and trendy to look at. They have the best appearance and so does the furniture. They are totally sleek and are designed to hold the various essentials of the computer. The crisp and sleek look of the modular computer office furniture is the main attraction. When it comes to colder regions and the regions where the humidity is high, it’s essential to store the servers, books or digital equipment in proper furniture.The internet provides abundant information on the various ranges of products available, which will open up a sea of opportunities for the consumer. Most websites provide user reviews and ratings also. So it is best to surf through a forum and firm up your design and position. Computer office furniture is a combined term used to refer to computer tables, computer chairs, racks, CPU extension area, printer desks and the like. Computer accessories have also been stored in computer furniture.Computer office furniture also houses the mouse, keyboard, and monitor which are an integral part of a desktop computer. The furniture should be flexible and user friendly because it has to provide electrical outlets for various power devices that act as peripheral to a desktop or laptop computer. When it comes to the office desk, a tackboard should be attached to the computer office table which enables the user to make a note or draw a graph without searching for an available conference room. The modular furniture style is the talk of the interior design industry. The modular design encompasses both style and utility. Utility without style or style without utility is either a tasteless or costly combination. They are very attractive and help in setting up a positive tone in the office.Computer office furniture has given the office a new look with its appearance. Most corporate offices are upgrading to the use of such furniture for their office interiors. There are offices that have space constraints and find it difficult to manage the work area to accommodate many employees. Moreover, this furniture will help with better space planning as well. There are other additions that would help them to make efficient use of the space. When covering corners and sides, there will be enough space for leg movement. Several corporate offices have incorporated computer office furniture for their various departments.New age technology calls for innovative measures. The use of computer office furniture has brought about better utility in the organization of the office. The office space looks more defined with the use of such furniture. Working efficiency increases and it also boosts the morale of the employees. Most of the manufactures have state of the art technology measures for crafting the best computer office furniture. There are a lot of websites that promote the usage of such furniture for the office.

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The Golden Age For Software Testing In China

The China’s Computer Market 2008 Forecast Report has been released recently. It showed that in the first three quarters of 2007, the software industry in China has registered sales revenue of $50 billion, up 23.6% on pcp, accounting for 10.95% of the entire electronics and information industry’ sales revenue. As the software market matures, people have higher and higher expectations over software features, quality and reliability. In October 2005, Ministry of Labour and Social Security formally listed computer software product tester (software test engineer) as one of the new professions. In only two years’ time, software testing has become a powerful dark horse in the software industry.Steadily rising status “In the early 1990s, software industry was still at an infant stage in China. Most software projects were very simple, the whole code writing and development process could be handled by one person. As industry competition intensified, software companies were gradually evolving from one-man-band small shops to software engineering co-operations. Although division of labour could improve software development efficiency and functional varieties, it also lead to increasing number of bugs between modules and deteriorating qualities,” said Mr Wang Yazhi from CONCEPT Information Technology Ltd, a major software development company in Beijing. Quality impairment would not only damage a software firm’s competitiveness, it could also lead to massive economic loss for software users or even personal injuries, such as medical accidents.As China’s software enterprises continue to prosper, the importance of software testing has also been increasingly appreciated by software companies. Many large and medium software companies have begun recruiting professional staff to take care of software testing. Ms Ran Chunjuan, a former testing manager in Wuhan Superidea Technology Ltd, said that “in Superidea, the ratio between software testers and developers is 1:4. Although this is still well behind the international best practice of 1:1, it is still a great improvement from 1:8 a few years ago.”Industry experience appreciatedIn addition to lifting the number of software testing staff, many companies are demanding higher staff quality as well, especially in areas of professional testing experience and thinking ability. “A tester without professional training can still work out 3-5 testing methods, but not necessarily detect bugs. Even if bugs are discovered, he might not be able to express the problems in proper languages, which could increase developers’ workload. Those well-trained testers can work out 10-20 testing methods, such as boundary value analysis, equivalence classes and cause-effect diagrams, to maximally discover any bugs. Professional testers can also articulate testing documents in standardised languages, thus improving the recovery rates of software problems,” said Mr Liu Fei, a former testing manager in Qualcomm. Many companies in China have now established independent testing departments, working along with R&D departments.As companies’ software testing knowledge deepens, work scope for testing staff is expanding from system testing phase to unit testing and integration testing phases. “This requires software testers to have in-depth knowledge about the businesses a product is involved in,” said a testing manager from Founder Group, one of China’s largest software companies, “for example, when we test software for banking applications, we have to first understand the specific users in the bank. Some operators only use keyboards in the office, but if we don’t know about this and design it as a mouse-friendly control, banks will not buy, it no matter how well the software works.” Therefore it could be forecast that the status for software testers who possess technical experience and customer demand knowledge will further enhance.A sellers’ market”The software testing industry is at a growth stage,” said Prof Zheng Renjie, a software testing expert. The current hot market for software testers is mainly due to the rapid development in software industry itself, “companies are demanding better quality software, which has in turn stimulated demand for software testers. But talent supply and talent training are lagging behind the dramatic changes in market demand, hence a telent shortage.”At present, software testing talent shortfall in China has exceeded 200,000, and it is rising to the 300,000 threshold. According to statistics, total software tester supply from nationwide IT training institutions is less than 10,000 per year, thus it can be foreseen that the testing talent shortage could last another 5-10 years. At the same time, talent shortage has given leverage to tester remunerations. According to a remuneration report from 51Job.com in China, starting salary for software testing engineers ranges from $400 – 650 per month, and it could increase to $1200 – 1650 for engineers with 2 to 3 years’ experience, higher than the remuneration for many developers with similar service years. As the talent supply shortage continues into 2008, software testers’ remuneration is looking for more gains.Education and trainingThe shortage in software testers in China has not only lifted the remuneration levels, not also created a boom for educational and training institutions. Even two years ago, several prominent IT professional training institutions had realised the importance of software testing positions, and organized a few domestic and international software testing experts to co-develop training courses, which have successfully cultivated lots of software testing talents in the past two years. Currently in China, apart from overseas recruitment and company internal training, external professional training is also an important channel for producing software testers, amounted to 12% of total talent supply. As companies are paying more attention to labour costs control, more professional talents are expected to come from external training institutions.While professional IT training is booming, tertiary education institutions also began to test the water. In August 2007, the first software testing education forum was held in Shanghai by various government bureaus and universities, explicitly marking “software testing” a core area in software engineering courses in China. But Dr Chen Honggang, who had been involved in development and testing of projects such as Windows95, Internet Explorer 4.0/5.0 and SQL Server 2000, commented that although universities can ease some pressures on software testing talent educations, based on overseas experience, professional training will still be the main channel for supplying software testing talents.

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