22% of time spent online on social media sites

Nielsen reports that the time spent by users on social media sites has reached 22% of all online time. More than 400 million active users spend a total of more than 16 billion minutes on social networking site Facebook per day, says Facebook VP of Technical Operations Jonathan Heiliger. YouTube has also announced that users upload 24 hours of video on every minute. The conclusion: where the users are for sure the marketeers will follow. It’s more and more important for companies to capitalize on this usage and markets.

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O strategie politica gresita

Cand spui ca renuntare la cota unica, cresterea cotei unice sau o majorare a TVAului ar fi fost mult mai daunatoare decat o reducere temporara a salariilor si pensiilor, o decizie cu un impact politic important asupra capitalului tau electoral, iti asumi o declaratie de o gravitate politica importanta pentru electoratul tau. Cand opozitia reuseste sa iti puna bete in roate si sa impiedice decizia asumata, sa vii pe urma si sa alegi imediat majorarea TVA-ului, aceeiasi majorare pe care tu acum cateva saptamani o blamai, inseamna ca nu mai ai deloc de verticalitate politica. Decizia cea mai corecta? Demisia si iti mentii afirmatia “Da, era o decizie grea sa reduci salariile si pensiile, ramanem de parerea ca e cea mai buna solutie actuala, nu ati vrut, oferim posibilitatea formarii unui nou guvern”. As fi fost foarte curios daca PNL ar fi avut redus TVA la 10% si cota unica la 10% sau PSD ar fi introdus impozit forfetar (aici nu am dubii ca nu ar fi facut asta) si care ar fi fost efectele unor astfel de “masuri”. Nu ramane decat un joc de imaginatie al istoriei…

Cu o opozitie care trece peste orice demers democratic avut la dispozitie (eg. folosirea motiunii de cenzura) si contesta fiecare lege pe care tu o initiezi pentru corectarea problemelor (asa cum le intelegi tu ca si coalitie care a obtinut guvernarea) pentru a iti bloca activitatea in mod repetat, cu un parlament care in 2010 nu a initiat sau emis nici o lege proprie (verificati aici) sau care demite un guvern de frica falsificarii alegerile in plina criza economica pentru a le contesta oricum (evident la Curtea Constitutionala), evita sa aprobe procedurile pentru codurile juridice, nu initiaza reforma parlamentului, poate e mai bine sa lasi puterea pentru o perioada, mentii o majoritate considerabila in parlament si ii lasi sa dovedeasca cat de capabil sau incapabil sunt. In cel mai rau caz, decontul il va face electoratul la alegerile urmatoare.

Daca continuam tot asa nu ajungem decat sa sarim pe loc peste ceea ce este o mocirla in care ne afundam din ce in ce mai mult… Da, ne putem imprumuta sa traim in continuare la fel, dar nu trebuie sa uitam ca de fapt imprumuturile si consumul banilor pe care nu i-am avut, ne-au adus aici. Am citit ca numai dobanzile la imprumuturile deja contractate vor ajunge la 3% din PIB anul viitor si asta daca nu mai imprumutam alti bani acum… Imprumuturile sunt pentru cei care au ce exporta, altfel avem numeroase exemple in jur…

… iar noi nici macar nu avem frumoasele plaje ale Greciei.

Cand esti indatorat, esti mai ieftin si sunt numeroase interese straine si chiar locale, dornice de a cumpara ce a mai ramas al statului roman la preturi de criza economica.

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Twitter will stop the external shorten URL services

In a somehow, not surprise move, Twitter announced pre-announced that they will soon allow only the use of their shorten URL services. The only negative aspect i find to this action is that we will not be able to have central management for all the shorten links used across various webs through a service like bit.ly and we will have the dashboards separately (twitter vs. others). I guess this means also the start of a new type of applications for the web, eg. those that will centralize the shorten URL links statistics from various web applications.

On another note, i also noticed that Google started to track more and more clicks from their search results under the “reason”: to improve search results quality. I think this is a new move of the web 2.0 sites to increase their tracking of user behavior activities in order to have better paralytics for their ad serving systems. This proves that having your main source of income an ad-based system is obliging you to be more invasive over the user privacy in order to sell more ads. Tz tz tz ….

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Programmers tax exemption is now extinct

In effort to cut surmounting deficit, Romanian government decided to remove the tax exemption for programmers. More exactly, programmers will now be charged 16% of their wage income. The tax exemption was initiated in 2004 in order to promote the Romanian IT industry and fight back the “brain drain” to Western Europe and US.

Later edit: the tax exemption is still in place for programmers

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Bad day for the Romanian software industry

A bad update on the Romanian antivirus BitDefender virus database has locked down literally thousands of users worldwide. It appears that an update on the BitDefender antivirus database has triggered the software to quarantine or delete critical Windows files making the computer unbootable. With the competition and the interest in the field, this will have a huge impact on the brand of BitDefender as major sites are already starting to pickup the story. Official acknowledgment is here.

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