Skywatch #1

Somebody said that if the sky is somewhat like this in Russia, it will be icy cold there. I wonder if it's true.

It's summer in Down Under and the sun sets more or less around 7PM. This is just past 6pm on the way home from dining out. It was a lovely day for us after feeding the ducks at the park.

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Skywatch # 1

My first skywatch is much the same with the featured lesson but with a moon instead. I didn't quite capture the halo but there was indeed a halo on the moon that night.

More skywatchers here.

Vertical Market

What is that? I heard that several times, I don’t understand what it is but I have an assumption. Assumption which is very far from what it is really meant.

Helpful wiki said:

A vertical market is a group of similar businesses and customers which engage in trade based on specific and specialized needs. Often, participants in a vertical market are very limited to a subset of a larger industry (a niche market). An example of this sort of market is the market for point-of-sale terminals, which are often designed specifically for similar customers and are not available for purchase to the general public.

The activities of participants within any given vertical market are typically similar in that they aim at solving the same or similar problems. These markets are typically competitive, due to the overlapping focuses of the products and services that are provided to the customers.

The single defining characteristic of the participants in a vertical market is competition within a well-defined segment.

A vertical market is a market which meets the needs of a particular industry: for example, a piece of equipment used only by semiconductor manufacturers. It is also known as a niche market. [1]

A horizontal market is a market which meets a given need of a wide variety of industries, rather than a specific one: for example, word processing software.

I worked for a company that is in vertical marketing - meat industry, carpet, retail (hardware), etc.

My Machine

As a consultant, I was issued a laptop machine. That’s given – I will visit the client’s site, so I need my machine with me. It will also allow me to work from home sometimes – which I did when the air conditioning here in the office was not working and it was summer.

The downside though is, it is stone heavy. I have fair meters to walk up to the station and the road is very steep (I’ll take a photo sometime). Its slope is almost 90 degrees. I slipped twice on my way down – first on New Year’s eve, I hurt my knee and torn my pants, second was yesterday - I only fell on my hands, I use them for support. I had a bit of pain on my wrist though.

I’m planning of wearing rubber or running shoes on my way to and fro the office and just put on my work shoes here. Or I really have to look for shoes that will support me or I just need to be more careful. It’s either one or the other. Lolz.

Still, my machine is heavy and it’s giving me pains – on the back.

Understanding Jargons

Seriously, I have very vague information technology know-how. I know how to navigate in the client setup of the system and thankfully, the database structure is very easy to access and manage so I always play around with it. My officemate said, I’m breaking in the data because I get errors that they don’t which sometimes, I myself doesn’t even know the reason why. I just love playing around with it.

Anyway, I heard of the terms server – linux, microsoft, etc. Then, there’s the term bugs. Oh, I’m pretty limited with them. Thanks to the net, if there’s something that I want to check, it’s always very reliable. I get more than what I am looking for although at times, it doesn’t really answer my question. If more, it just confuses me all the more.

Here’s one that’s funny. I don’t know what white paper means. Our sales person send an email regarding the microsoft new solutions which we already have and it was in white paper. What the ball, is white paper? Coupon bond? Lolz.

So, here’s wiki’s answer to my question:

A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that often addresses problems and how to solve them. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions. They are used in politics and business. They can also be a government report outlining policy.

This term maybe common to everybody but not to me. I am not that exposed so, sorry folks, it’s my first time.