TEHRAN, Iran — Tehran residents say authorities have moved to limit Internet access ahead of expected anti-government protests to deny the opposition a vital means of communication.
They said Sunday they were unable to access e-mail and that the government's blockage of opposition Web sites have been tightened.
It was not immediately clear whether the limited access was nationwide or limited to Tehran.
Separately, authorities have told journalists working for foreign media organizations not to leave their offices to cover the street protests expected Monday.
Dec. 7 is a traditional day for rallies marking the killing of three students during a 1953 anti-U.S. protest. It has served as a day for pro-reform protests since the 1990s.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
UK internet shoppers to spend £4,000 a second
Record day expected as office workers spend lunch-time shopping from their desks
The internet will be jammed with traffic tomorrow lunchtime as millions of shoppers log on to do their Christmas shopping, making it the biggest spending day ever in the cyber market.
Eager gift buyers are expected to spend £4,000 per second throughout the day on this year's must-haves, which include iPhones, Susan Boyle's debut album and the new Harry Potter Half-Blood Prince dvd.
"It's the biggest day in terms of sales – the first Monday in December is the big day as most people have been paid," said David Smith, director of operations at IMRG, the industry body for online retailers, which predicts that consumers will spend £350m tomorrow, almost 10% up on last year.
The majority of sales are likely to be made by office workers taking advantage of faster broadband speeds at work – with traffic expected to spike between 9am and 10am and again at lunchtime on what is referred to as cyber Monday.
A recent survey by the moneysaving website VoucherCodes.co.uk calculated that businesses would lose £1.4bn a week between now and Christmas as a result of reduced productivity, with 70% of employees spending time shopping for gifts instead of working. The research found that a fifth of workers spent 10 hours a week in shopping online.
"Everyone decides what they are going to buy over the weekend then goes to work on Monday, gets on the computer and makes their purchases," said Andy Street, managing director of John Lewis, which expects sales of £4.5m on the day – five times more than a normal Monday.
Marks & Spencer, which has taken on extra staff in its warehouses and call centres to handle the expected surge in orders, expects more than 3.5 million people to log on to its website tomorrow. Last year Amazon received 1.4 million orders in 24 hours – the equivalent of 16 every second – on 8 December, its busiest day of the year. This year the giant online operation is anticipating its busiest Christmas on record with sales expected to increase by up to 35%, with the iPod Touch and Joseph Joseph chopping boards among the bestsellers.
There is less obvious discounting on the high street. Last December store groups had to move their sales forward after a collapse in consumer confidence hit revenue following the banking crisis. Increasingly, retailers are offering online-only promotions and stealth reductions of up to 50% through popular websites such as VoucherCodes.co.uk which promote the special internet deals and printable coupons from the likes of Argos, Tesco and Comet.
James Carter, who runs vouchercodes, said the number of deals available though the site had increased by almost 90% this year. "Retailers use us to bring forward sales and generate interest from consumers," he said. "Shoppers are much more savvy now." Current deals include 25% off Monsoon orders and 20% at Dorothy Perkins.
IMRG said consumers had not been put off shopping online by the recent Royal Mail strikes.
While the crowds on high streets and in shopping centres across the UK will not peak until the final Saturday before Christmas, internet sales do so earlier to factor in delivery times.
Consumers are now as happy buying clothing and homeware online, with M&S and Next among the most searched for, whereas previously consumers stuck to safe online purchases such as books, fridges and TVs.
The internet will be jammed with traffic tomorrow lunchtime as millions of shoppers log on to do their Christmas shopping, making it the biggest spending day ever in the cyber market.
Eager gift buyers are expected to spend £4,000 per second throughout the day on this year's must-haves, which include iPhones, Susan Boyle's debut album and the new Harry Potter Half-Blood Prince dvd.
"It's the biggest day in terms of sales – the first Monday in December is the big day as most people have been paid," said David Smith, director of operations at IMRG, the industry body for online retailers, which predicts that consumers will spend £350m tomorrow, almost 10% up on last year.
The majority of sales are likely to be made by office workers taking advantage of faster broadband speeds at work – with traffic expected to spike between 9am and 10am and again at lunchtime on what is referred to as cyber Monday.
A recent survey by the moneysaving website VoucherCodes.co.uk calculated that businesses would lose £1.4bn a week between now and Christmas as a result of reduced productivity, with 70% of employees spending time shopping for gifts instead of working. The research found that a fifth of workers spent 10 hours a week in shopping online.
"Everyone decides what they are going to buy over the weekend then goes to work on Monday, gets on the computer and makes their purchases," said Andy Street, managing director of John Lewis, which expects sales of £4.5m on the day – five times more than a normal Monday.
Marks & Spencer, which has taken on extra staff in its warehouses and call centres to handle the expected surge in orders, expects more than 3.5 million people to log on to its website tomorrow. Last year Amazon received 1.4 million orders in 24 hours – the equivalent of 16 every second – on 8 December, its busiest day of the year. This year the giant online operation is anticipating its busiest Christmas on record with sales expected to increase by up to 35%, with the iPod Touch and Joseph Joseph chopping boards among the bestsellers.
There is less obvious discounting on the high street. Last December store groups had to move their sales forward after a collapse in consumer confidence hit revenue following the banking crisis. Increasingly, retailers are offering online-only promotions and stealth reductions of up to 50% through popular websites such as VoucherCodes.co.uk which promote the special internet deals and printable coupons from the likes of Argos, Tesco and Comet.
James Carter, who runs vouchercodes, said the number of deals available though the site had increased by almost 90% this year. "Retailers use us to bring forward sales and generate interest from consumers," he said. "Shoppers are much more savvy now." Current deals include 25% off Monsoon orders and 20% at Dorothy Perkins.
IMRG said consumers had not been put off shopping online by the recent Royal Mail strikes.
While the crowds on high streets and in shopping centres across the UK will not peak until the final Saturday before Christmas, internet sales do so earlier to factor in delivery times.
Consumers are now as happy buying clothing and homeware online, with M&S and Next among the most searched for, whereas previously consumers stuck to safe online purchases such as books, fridges and TVs.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Internet Engineers (Toronto and GTA)
Seeking: Internet Engineers
The Opportunity:
The chance to become a key team member and/or team leader of brilliant online software developers, marketers and bloggers who are together creating a “Global Online Media Channel” – for the people by the people. The opportunity to share in the long-term financial wealth and social health of this altruistic project. Our team currently owns approximately 400 matching domain names which start with the name major economic cities around the world. We estimate we have approximately 90% of the top 400 economic global cities covered with our powerful domain portfolio. We are already aligned with one of the most respected charities in the world.
We Are Seeking:
Internet Engineers, software architects, developers, Web 2.0/ online & offline viral marketers. You must be willing to turn your effort, into results in the form of online GREEN/SUSTAINABLE/HEALTH/WELLNESS” web traffic and profit.
It would be considered and asset if you are familiar with the concepts of “Wikinomics”, “Crowd Sourcing” and Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” -- then chances are you will be in a better position to accelerate our vision.
Your Passion is Key:
Your personal passion is essential to drive the success of this project.
You must possess a strong passion for helping to save our planet through the promotion of “GREEN/SUSTAINABLE/HEALTH/WELLNESS” news, blogging, healthy debate as well as influencing consumers around the world to support sustainable products (including new, used and homemade products) services, charities and organizations that truly help the people of our planet live, greener and healthier, less impoverished and more fulfilling lives.
Compensation:
Compensation is in the form of negotiated wages and equity (shares of the company), and/or profit sharing model. Ultimately the team we create will all have opportunity to design the company compensation plan, based on “rewards for performance” concepts. To be perfectly clear there is no monetary compensation for this opportunity at this time.
Work From Home?:
You will work mainly from the comfort of your own home. However we will keep our team focused and aligned through MSN instant messaging, online collaboration tools, phone conference calls and periodic meetings in person at locations throughout the GTA. Currently our team is focused in west Toronto but because of our goal to leverage technology, you could live anywhere in the world as long as you can afford to invest time and possibly a few dollars for the cost of a long distance call. We expect to be able to cover costs of long distance calls within approximately 2 months.
Full Time or Part Time Work?:
Full time or part time roles are available. Please keep in mind that you must be able to financially support yourself until such time that this project earns you enough income to support you. If you are retired, or already financially secure, and feel like giving back to people and the planet, and joining a talented, passionate, exciting team, then this opportunity could be a good fit for you.
To Apply:
Please reply to this craigslist advert with a resume, list of qualifications, cover letter explaining why you are interested in this opportunity and how you help you can contribute to the success of the project. Please put the words: "GLOBAL ONLINE ALTRUISTIC MEDIA CHANNEL" in the subject line. You are also welcome to submit questions and comments.
After You Apply:
For those candidates that appear to be a solid fit with our team in terms of skill set and passion we will contact you by email and via phone. We will let you know more about the project, including other team members, details of our powerful 400 + global web domain portfolio asset, existing alliances and more.
Final Notes:
Please understand that we will not be able to contact all candidates that apply. However we thank you in advance for your time.
Wishing you all Success, Health and Good Karma!
The Opportunity:
The chance to become a key team member and/or team leader of brilliant online software developers, marketers and bloggers who are together creating a “Global Online Media Channel” – for the people by the people. The opportunity to share in the long-term financial wealth and social health of this altruistic project. Our team currently owns approximately 400 matching domain names which start with the name major economic cities around the world. We estimate we have approximately 90% of the top 400 economic global cities covered with our powerful domain portfolio. We are already aligned with one of the most respected charities in the world.
We Are Seeking:
Internet Engineers, software architects, developers, Web 2.0/ online & offline viral marketers. You must be willing to turn your effort, into results in the form of online GREEN/SUSTAINABLE/HEALTH/WELLNESS” web traffic and profit.
It would be considered and asset if you are familiar with the concepts of “Wikinomics”, “Crowd Sourcing” and Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” -- then chances are you will be in a better position to accelerate our vision.
Your Passion is Key:
Your personal passion is essential to drive the success of this project.
You must possess a strong passion for helping to save our planet through the promotion of “GREEN/SUSTAINABLE/HEALTH/WELLNESS” news, blogging, healthy debate as well as influencing consumers around the world to support sustainable products (including new, used and homemade products) services, charities and organizations that truly help the people of our planet live, greener and healthier, less impoverished and more fulfilling lives.
Compensation:
Compensation is in the form of negotiated wages and equity (shares of the company), and/or profit sharing model. Ultimately the team we create will all have opportunity to design the company compensation plan, based on “rewards for performance” concepts. To be perfectly clear there is no monetary compensation for this opportunity at this time.
Work From Home?:
You will work mainly from the comfort of your own home. However we will keep our team focused and aligned through MSN instant messaging, online collaboration tools, phone conference calls and periodic meetings in person at locations throughout the GTA. Currently our team is focused in west Toronto but because of our goal to leverage technology, you could live anywhere in the world as long as you can afford to invest time and possibly a few dollars for the cost of a long distance call. We expect to be able to cover costs of long distance calls within approximately 2 months.
Full Time or Part Time Work?:
Full time or part time roles are available. Please keep in mind that you must be able to financially support yourself until such time that this project earns you enough income to support you. If you are retired, or already financially secure, and feel like giving back to people and the planet, and joining a talented, passionate, exciting team, then this opportunity could be a good fit for you.
To Apply:
Please reply to this craigslist advert with a resume, list of qualifications, cover letter explaining why you are interested in this opportunity and how you help you can contribute to the success of the project. Please put the words: "GLOBAL ONLINE ALTRUISTIC MEDIA CHANNEL" in the subject line. You are also welcome to submit questions and comments.
After You Apply:
For those candidates that appear to be a solid fit with our team in terms of skill set and passion we will contact you by email and via phone. We will let you know more about the project, including other team members, details of our powerful 400 + global web domain portfolio asset, existing alliances and more.
Final Notes:
Please understand that we will not be able to contact all candidates that apply. However we thank you in advance for your time.
Wishing you all Success, Health and Good Karma!
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