Friday, September 25, 2015

Assessing the Quality of a Chinese Training Spear (Knowing the Process)


(updated at 13:13 hrs)

In a previous post, one of our associates discussed about the way of the Chinese spear (the qiang).   He later asked us to publish a brief post on how to assess a Chinese training spear before purchasing it.

The assessing process begins by knowing the factors (aka the point) for assessing the spear.

Lets assess your spear.

We are presuming that the material preference for the staff is wood.

Assess the singularity of the staff by examining the quality of the wood  in regards to its sturdiness and its weight.  Check for wood mites and possible loose fragments of wood.   Inspect the straightness and the  weight distribution of the staff.

Examine the spear head in terms of the quality of the metal, the balance, the shape, the fastening screw and the weight.


Examine the connectivity between the spear head and the staff in reference to its singularity and the weight distribution..


Assess the "feel" of the spear by lifting the spear upward to see if you can "lift" and "flick" the spear with one hand (while using the whole body).

After performing those steps, are you planning to stay with your current spear or are you planning to upgrade to a better one?


Comments From The Compass Desk
There are more factors (points) to assessing the quality of the spear,  we will updated this post later


'It is by scoring many points (factors)  that  one conclude the right choice before the  actual decision in a rehearsal in their own mind;  it  is  by  scoring few  points  that  one  conclude the incorrect choice before the actual event  in a rehearsal  in their own mind.  The choice which scores many  points  will be the better decision;  the  choice which  scores few points will not  be the decision,  let  alone the  choice which scores no  points  at  all.  When I make observations on the  basis of this,  the outcome of the decision becomes apparent."   (Paraphrased from Roger Ames's Sunzi's The Art of Warfare)

Side Notes
We did not add the factor of "sharpness of the spearhead"  for the obvious reasons.

#
In our world of justice-based law and order and automatic firearms, why is it important to practice the spear- an near-obsolete implement?

Metaphysically, good spear exercises have emphasized the "conscious"  unison of the body, the qi and the spirit in each and every specific movement regardless of the strategic sequence of the movements.

Whether it is a direct thrust or a coordinated sequence of figure eight slashing movements, the spear player must focus on being personally "centered" while centering one's self  to the singularity of the situation before implementing a decision.

While some pseudo spear exercises emphasized the twirling movements and the chopping movements, the technicalities of an authentic spear exercises are focused toward the vertical directness of the spear's slash and thrust movements.  ... 

Some martial art systems have always emphasized the spear as an technical extension of the Chinese double-edged straight sword.  Connecting the movements of the sword to the spear is another subject that my associate at Cook Ding Kitchen is qualified to talk about.

While this perspective is more of meta-psychological driven than a philosophical talk, understanding how to assess an object or a situation is the significance point of this post.

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Tuesday, September 22, 2015

More of More IPTV Trends (Summer 2015) 3 of 3



More Trends
Study: US, apps and YouTube drive long-form mobile viewing
IPTV News
Mobile screens are regularly being tapped for streaming longer-form video, according to a new survey published today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

LTE sub base to hit 1.4bn before 2016
IPTV News
ABI Research estimates that there will be nearly 1.37 billion 4G LTE subscribers worldwide by year-end 2015, up from nearly 650 million in 2014. ABI Research ...

7% of US households have OTT without pay-TV
IPTV News
New industry research from Parks Associates finds that in 2015, approximately 7% of all US households, or 8.4 million households, subscribe to broadband and ...

IPTV Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends ...
MarketWatch
The report includes cross-segment analysis of the global IPTV market and provides ... The end-users segment includes in-depth analysis and forecast of IPTV ...

Wi-Fi to Carry up to 60% of mobile data traffic by 2019
IPTV News
New research has forecast that Wi-Fi networks will carry almost 60% of smartphone and tablet data traffic by 2019, reaching over 115,000PB (Petabytes) by ...

51% of US pay-TV subs want unlimited DVR storage
IPTV News
51% of pay-TV subscribers are very interested in having unlimited space to store DVR recordings, according to new research from Parks Associates. Currently ...

IPTV CDN market worth $12210.3 million by 2020
WhaTech
IPTV CDN market categorizes the global internet protocol television CDN market by type as video and non-video content, by service, by end-user & by region.

Global Set Top Box Market Trends Till, 2015 to 2022: Grand View ...
PR.com (press release)
The set top box market constitutes technologies such as satellite Direct-To-Home (DTH), Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), and Direct Terrestrial Transmission.

Digitalsmiths: Over 32% of cable subs are 'on the fence' about cord ...
FierceOnlineVideo
According to a new Digitalsmiths study, 32.4 percent of current cable, satellite and IPTV subscribers say they're "on the fence" about keeping their service and ...

TV's popularity 16% lower among younger viewers
IPTV News
A new 'Truth about Youth' study, commissioned by UK marketing body Thinkbox, shows that TV's popularity as a form of video consumption drops a vertiginous ...

Multicultural viewers drive OTT adoption in US
IPTV News
A new Horowitz Research study reveals that US multicultural viewers are more likely to have made over-the-top (OTT) an integral part of their viewing lifestyle.

#
Rising Adoption of Carrier Ethernet Services Drives the Global ...
Press Release Rocket
Future growth in the market will be driven by the increasing usage of online applications (apps) such as online gaming and IPTV (Internet Protocol Television), ...


Research and Markets: The IPTV CDN In-House Service Market ...
Business Wire (press release)   
The services provider type segment considered in the report consists of Peer-to-Peer (P2P), Free IPTV CDN, Telco, and traditional commercial IPTV CDN.


Research and Markets: Digital TV World Databook 2015: Digital TV ...
Business Wire (press release)
IPTV revenues reached $19.8 billion in 2014, up by $10 billion on 2010. For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/shd5s2/ ...

Domestic Mobile TV Market Undergoing Rapid Change on Verge of ...
BusinessKorea
The mobile IPTV segment, which has led the growth of the market, is likely to lose its competitiveness due to the halt of the supply of terrestrial broadcasting ...

SVOD drives UK digital video market to new heights
IPTV News
The total UK digital video market grew by an impressive 55% over 2014 to reach over £600 million, almost 4 times the level of 2011, according to a new report ...


FY-2015: Inflection point for DTH companies in India?
Indiantelevision.com
IPTV is still at less than an infancy stage in the country. If DTH companies can sustain, innovate in technology and offerings and grow from here, FY-2015, and ...

#


Smart TV market to grow at a CAGR of 20.37% by volume over the ...
CMO
This TV allows users to install and run advanced applications based on specific platforms, but should not be confused with an IPTV that only provides access to ...

Report: Internet set to usurp TV adspend in key markets
IPTV News
The Internet will be the biggest advertising medium in 12 key markets (together representing 28% of global adspend) by 2017, according to

48% of North American broadband homes have SVOD
IPTV News
By the end of last year, North America already had 50.6 million SVOD homes – or 38.8% of TV households and 48.1% of fixed broadband homes, according to a ...

TV content consumption drives mobile video traffic and 4K set viewing
WhaTech
Specialist IPTV systems integrator focusing on service providers and enterprises. CombiTel offers unmatched value to its clients based on its unique mix of skills ...

UK mobile connection speed jumps 28% to become world's best
IPTV News
The UK boasts the world's fastest average mobile connection speed at 20.4 Mbps, a 28% increase from the previous quarter, according to Akamai's First Quarter, ...



Miscellaneous 
Perception TV looking to raise new funds
Telecompaper (subscription)
Multi-screen IPTV platform Perception TV is looking for new funding as it transfers its operations from central London to a new site at Chiswick Park, reports ...

Sky subs growth comes from NOW TV
Advanced Television
By March 31st 2015, there were 16.6 million households subscribing to pay-TV via satellite, cable or IPTV, up from 15.6 million in the same period in 2014.

“India will be a huge broadband market over the next 3 years:” Rajiv ...
Indiantelevision.com
The satellite versus cable versus IPTV is probably the biggest war in the broadcast universe, where three different ways of delivering live TV compete with each ...

New fixed-line based internet will provide speeds up to 60Mbps
Whowired Korea
However, those subscribers have had limited access to high-quality services such as IPTV since the current VDSL line is based on lower speed connections ...

SEACOM: “Scaling network traffic is a constant battle”
IPTV News
Mark Tinka: Delivering video over mobile networks is going to continue to be a challenge, particularly if the quality of the video needs to be high (HD or better).


Monday, September 21, 2015

More Summer 2015 IPTV Trends


# Viewership
Ofcom: TV viewing plummets 12% among kids
IPTV News
According to UK regulator Ofcom, TV viewing among children aged 4-15 has fallen dramatically by 12% from 2 hours and 14 minutes a day in 2013 to 1 hour ...

1/3 stop streaming instantly if confronted by poor quality
IPTV News
Nearly a third of viewers will abandon a poor quality experience immediately, according to a new report from Conviva. The report found that this is especially true ...

Catch-up on some work: 19% watch TV at the office
IPTV News
The UK is a nation of TV addicts, according to new research that reveals we spend more than seven full weeks a year in front of the telly, which adds up to a ...


95% of OTT subs unwilling to let advertisers near their data
IPTV News
95% of consumers using catch up services are unwilling to allow media companies to share their personal data with a third party, according to the findings of the ...


Advertisers using 2X more TV audience data for campaigns
IPTV News
Advertisers are increasingly using TV audience data to better inform their digital video campaigns and produce more cohesive cross-channel advertising ...

Millennials 3 times more likely to choose OTT over multichannel
IPTV News
According to a new study, 75% of Millennials have access to an OTT SVOD service and are three times as likely to have an OTT SVOD service and no ...

Record pay-TV subscriber losses in US
Broadband TV News
SNL Kagan estimates the US cable, DTH and IPTV platforms collectively shed more than 600,000 video subscribers in the three months ended June 30, falling ...

US cord-cutting reaches record levels in Q2 2105
Rapid tv news
... the combined multichannel video subscribers served by Verizon's FiOS and U-verse IPTV services were flat at 11.7 million at the end of the second quarter, ...

Nine-tenths of US pay-TV firms bleed subs in Q2 2015
Rapid tv news-18 hours ago
Explore in depth (8 more articles)

Operator OTT services: cable killers or Netflix killers?
Telecompaper (subscription)
Content is mainly offered over their own networks (DVB-C, DVB-S, IPTV, DVB-T), but in most cases also over the internet ('over the top'). In terms of content, they ...

Significant digital churn for top 10 pay-TV services in US
IPTV News
The informitv Multiscreen Index shows that the top 10 pay-TV services in the United States lost over 400,000 digital television subscribers between them in the ...


# The Dao of the Marketplace
As Media Markets Splinter, There's One That Thrives
MediaPost Communications
And until the emergence only recently of TV available online via the Internet, a/k/a IPTV or over the top (OTT), they had no alternative. But now, whether ...

Signs of the times? Cable and satellite companies lost nearly half a ...
Digital Trends
In addition, Digital TV subscriptions from Internet Protocol TV services (IPTV) also fell 62,000 in the US and 9,000 in Canada in the second quarter. Related: ...

Viewer choices, reviews, ratings affect streaming media
Examiner.com
Over the Top (OTT) delievers video, television and other services over the internet rather than via a service provider's own dedicated, managed IPTV (Internet ...

Subs may have drained, but Q2 pay-TV ARPU rises
Rapid tv news
"The subscriber losses in the second quarter were across all of the pay-TV platforms, including cable, satellite and IPTV,” said Jason Blackwell, director of the ...

Rising 4K STB market set to aid pay-TV operators
Rapid tv news
Across the Atlantic, French broadband and IPTV service provider Free has turned to Broadcom to deploy a 4K/Ultra HD Android TV STB. The new device is ...


Detachable tablet market set to grow 91% in next five years
IPTV News
While the overall tablet market contracts in 2015, 2-in-1 so-called 'detachable tablets' are taking off. According to a new Strategy Analytics' Tablet & Touchscreen ...

Tablet screens expanding — market primed for iPad Pro
IPTV News
According to a new Strategy Analytics' report, large screen sizes are gaining favor as the Tablet transforms into a productivity device, with shipments growing ...

Global multiscreen TV & video market size, share, development ...
WhaTech
However, the speculation over net neutrality, limited allowable conglomerate between network owners and over the top (IPTV/OTT) TV providers, and stringent ...


The Slow downfall 
Top US pay-TV providers lose big in Q2 – again
Rapid tv news
As for telcos, they added 4,000 IPTV subscribers in 2Q 2015 - compared to 284,000 net additions in 2Q 2014. Telco net adds in 2Q 2015 were the fewest in any ...

US pay-TV subs down, ARPU up
Advanced Television
“The subscriber losses in the second quarter were across all of the pay-TV platforms, including cable, satellite, and IPTV. However, going forward, we believe ...

Smart TV market to grow 2015 at a CAGR of 20.37% by 2019
Mobile Commerce Press
This TV allows users to install and run advanced applications based on specific platforms, but should not be confused with an IPTV that only provides access to ...

Tripleplay IPTV platform proves precious to Chinova Resources
AV Magazine
He added; “We needed a seamless IPTV solution that allowed us to deliver entertainment to all of our sites that was scalable and high quality; as the camp grew ...

Internet set-tops in 21% of US broadband homes
IPTV News
According to a new analysis from TDG, Internet set-top boxes (iSTBs) such as Apple TV and Roku are now present in 21% of US broadband households, ...

Signs of the times? Cable and satellite companies lost nearly half a ...
Digital Trends
In addition, Digital TV subscriptions from Internet Protocol TV services (IPTV) also fell 62,000 in the US and 9,000 in Canada in the second quarter. Related: ...

Brazilian pay-TV struggles to reach 20MN subs
Rapid tv news
... reached 7.7 million subs by July. IPTV is growing and has added almost 40,000 subs since January, but is still residual, accounting for 136,000 subs in total.

Canadian Cord-Cutting 6 Times Faster This Year Than Last
Huffington Post Canada
Boon Dog co-founder Mario Mota says that's because these two providers are getting subscribers to sign up to their internet TV, or IPTV, services, such as Bell's ...

#  Other Matters 
When Cable Broadband Was a 'Channel'
Multichannel News (blog)
Today, it's all about managed IPTV services and over-the-top video, including waves of subscription-based on-demand offerings and a growing batch of live TV ...


#  New  Trends
8K TV shipments to approach 1M by 2019
IPTV News
The advent of 8K broadcasting in Japan for the 2020 Olympics is expected to spur a new round of resolution increases, even though shipments have not yet ...


Wednesday, September 16, 2015

The Passing of a Colleague


Smartie was always around to assist us in our various strategic analysis sessions by providing a "pragmatic" perspective .   

She was also a great listener and was never judgmental.  

Being the consummate team player, Smartie never complained and always understood the positives and the negatives of launching a startup.    :)





Friday, September 11, 2015

An Update on The Moscow Rules

(updated on 09.13.15  15:15 hrs) 

It has been awhile since we discussed the basics of extreme competitive strategies and field survival strategies.

#
Following is an update on our previous Moscow Rules post:

The original list were said to have contained 40 different rules, and may never have existed in written form; former agent Tony Mendez wrote “Although no one had written them down, they were the precepts we all understood … By the time they got to Moscow, everyone knew these rules. They were dead simple and full of common sense…”.
  1. Assume nothing.
  2. Technology will always let you down.
  3. Murphy is right.
  4. Never go against your gut.
  5. Always listen to your gut; it is your operational antennae.
  6. Everyone is potentially under opposition control.
  7. Don’t look back; you are never completely alone. Use your gut.
  8. Go with the flow; use the terrain.
  9. Take the natural break of traffic.
  10. Maintain a natural pace.
  11. Establish a distinctive and dynamic profile and pattern.
  12. Stay consistent over time.
  13. Vary your pattern and stay within your profile.
  14. Be non threatening: keep them relaxed; mesmerize!
  15. Lull them into a sense of complacency.
  16. Know the opposition and their terrain intimately.
  17. Build in opportunity but use it sparingly.
  18. Don’t harass the opposition.
  19. Make sure they can anticipate your destination.
  20. Pick the time and place for action.
  21. Any operation can be aborted; if it feels wrong, then it is wrong.
  22. Keep your options open.
  23. If your gut says to act, overwhelm their senses.
  24. Use misdirection, illusion, and deception.
  25. Hide small operative motions in larger non threatening motions.
  26. Float like a butterfly; sting like bee.
  27. When free, In Obscura, immediately change direction and leave the area.
  28. Break your trail and blend into the local scene.
  29. Execute a surveillance detection run designed to draw them out over time.
  30. Once is an accident; twice is a coincidence; three times is an enemy action. (taken from Ian Fleming’s novel Goldfinger)
  31. Avoid static lookouts; stay away from chokepoints where they can reacquire you.
  32. Select a meeting site so you can overlook the scene.
  33. Keep any asset separated from you by time and distance until it is time.
  34. If the asset has surveillance, then the operation has gone bad.
  35. Only approach the site when you are sure it is clean.
  36. After the meeting or act is done, “close the loop” at a logical cover destination.
  37. Be aware of surveillance’s time tolerance so they aren’t forced to raise an alert.
  38. If an alert is issued, they must pay a price and so must you.
  39. Let them believe they lost you; act innocent.
  40. There is no limit to a human being’s ability to rationalize the truth.
source: http://blog.spymuseum.org/the-moscow-rules-still-rule/#comment-628

Click here for our perspective of the Moscow Rules and click here on a past post on the Phoenix Rules


Comments From the Compass Desk 

By being mindfully perceptive enough, one should be able to identify the gaps and the psychological perception flaws within the Moscow Rules. 

One can only guess that it works for those who spent their time drinking volka by the gallons while competing against "remedio" strategists.  

In an extreme Darwinian situation, which approach would you preferred to use - Using the Moscow Rules while living for the moment or Assessing the Big Tangible Picture (BTP) methodically while being mindful of the "concealed" influencing factors - before deciding on any strategic move?

There is a technical weakness with each approach.   Whether one is are to able to deduce that distinction point is a different story. 


... In the realm of extremity, there are some field strategists who usually live off some sort of misguided set of principles without ever understanding the configuration of the Big Tangible Picture (BTP). Their survival-ability is frequently based on the 
"chance" factor and rarely ever knowing whether he/she is ahead or behind the situation.

In the case of the Big Tangible Picture (BTP), the patient strategists who are ahead of "The Big Tangible Picture" curve, usually preferred to understand the configuration of the situation before delineating the ranking of choices.  The approach enables them to make a more efficient choice.



--- eof
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Monday, September 7, 2015

Labor Day Means Hamburgers, Beer and Other Food for Most People

 

Drink some beer.  ... How about a root beer float? 



Eat some burgers.

In some instances, there will be people drinking some tea.


and other food of their choice.  

While consuming your meals, reflect on the past and the present achievements of the laborers. 

Review on the tangibility of their achievements.  . . .  Salute to them for their contributions with your positive thoughts and your favorite beverage.

Happy Labor Day!
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Thursday, September 3, 2015

Tuesday, September 1, 2015