Sell Boron Carbide

Boron carbide, with black crystal powder form, is one of the hardest man-made materials. It has MOHS hardness of 9.36 and microscopic hardness 5,400 - 6,300kg/mm2, which is next to diamond. Its density is 2.52g/cbm and the melting point is 2,450oC.The bor
http://buy-or-sell.org/Chemicals/Sell-Boron-Carbide-MqVd0QPV/

Taking a Page From the Book of Flight

By Phil Berardelli
ScienceNOW Daily News
27 November 2007

Researchers have used a computer program that simulates avian evolution to design a better flying machine. With further refinements, the contraption's offspring someday might flit like bats or birds.

For centuries, scientists and inventors have been attempting--nearly always unsuccessfully--to adapt the graceful beatings of a bird's wings for mechanical flight. A flapping craft would have two main advantages over planes and helicopters: It could stay airborne over a wide range of speeds and would be more maneuverable, achieving both without sacrificing aerodynamic efficiency. Such abilities could be particularly useful for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the lightweight aircraft the military increasingly employs for low-altitude reconnaissance.

Researchers from Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris embarked on a unique strategy to apply the secrets of bird flight. They created a program called an evolutionary algorithm that essentially "evolves" a birdlike creature from scratch, refining designs that work and tossing those that don't. The team then appropriated the most successful designs from the algorithm to create a simulated UAV. The simulation achieved a birdlike energy efficiency flying at speeds between 10 meters and 12 meters per second, the researchers report in the December issue of Bioinspiration and Biomimetics. Based on the tests, the team has built a mechanical prototype with the goal, says biologist and lead author Emmanuel de Margerie, of improving wing designs based on further refinements from the algorithm.

Evolutionary roboticist Inman Harvey of the University of Sussex, U.K., praises the team's artificial evolution approach. It allows the exploration of designs "that a human designer might not have considered venturing into," he says. Still, the team's findings are limited, says research engineer Robert Michelson of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. He notes, for example, that the simulated UAV the researchers developed is only efficient at relatively high speeds; at lower speeds, flight efficiency drops dramatically. And despite its advantages, flapping flight has its share of kinks. The bouncing reduces the value of the craft as a camera platform, says Michelson, and flapping can place large strains on wings. So far, these "have been the long poles in the creation of flapping-wing micro air vehicles," he says.

ABS Plastics Fairings For Motor Cycles

We need to buy ABS plastics parts / fairings for motor cycles like these in photo for Suzukis. Kindly contact us without delays = OK !!
http://buy.buy-or-sell.org/Automobile/ABS-Plastics-Fairings-For-Motor-Cycles-Jq0id7eC/

Cyber Monday Shopping Traffic Breaks Records, Sites

Judging from the early returns, this year's "Cyber Monday" looks to be another record-breaker. Internet content delivery player Akamai reported that peak traffic to U.S. retail sites during Cyber Monday -- the first Monday after Thanksgiving -- increased 30 percent from last year, reaching 4.6 million global visitors per minute. Akamai's early findings may bear out predictions from retail industry association Shop.org that 72 million Americans would shop online on Cyber Monday this year, up 18.6 percent from last year. Likewise, online metrics firm comScore has projected online spending to surge past $700 million, which would set a new record. The firm reported $608 million in online consumer spending last Cyber Monday, a 26 percent increase from the year before. By 10 a.m. EST yesterday morning, per-minute Internet traffic had already exceeded last year's peak, which didn't come until 2 p.m. EST, according to Akamai. As heavy as the traffic was, Monday might still be a prelude to things to come. comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement that his firm's projected figure for Cyber Monday "would make it the heaviest online shopping day on record." "We can expect to see even stronger days ahead as the 2007 shopping season progresses into December," Fulgoni said. Accordingly, eBay subsidiary Shopping.com, which is already reporting a 28 percent increase in traffic this Cyber Monday compared with last year, is looking forward to what it calls "Green Monday," the second Monday in December. Piggybacking on procrastinating shoppers, "Green Monday" in recent years brought Shopping.com increased revenue and traffic, CEO Josh Silverman said in a statement. Retailers across the board have been heavily promoting their online stores this holiday season. More than 72 percent planned some promotion specifically for Cyber Monday, up from 42.7 percent last year, according to Shop.org. Offers include product-specific discounts, one-day sales and free shipping.
Sales up, but sites down? Record site traffic might be a victory for the marketing departments, but IT gets a mixed report card, according to Keynote Systems, a research firm that measures Web site performance. Just as on Black Friday, many e-commerce sites buckled under the weight of the traffic, which created significant slowdowns in product search and checkout. Brick-and-mortar retailers suffered the biggest problems, according to Keynote, with Toys "R" Us' site experiencing slowdowns of up to 300 percent, JCrew.com's transaction processing slowing by up to 400 percent, and Costco's site performance flagging by as much as 500 percent in periods of peak traffic. Yahoo's hosted shopping service, which Keynote does not track, also hit major snags due to heavy traffic. Yahoo hosts the e-commerce services for many smaller retailers, who found that their shopping cart services were unable to process transactions yesterday afternoon. Shortly after noon yesterday, Yahoo posted an acknowledgement on its Small Business site that shoppers had been receiving a "system unavailable" message when trying to checkout on some merchants' sites. At 9:51 p.m., Yahoo reported that after some reconfiguration, all merchants could process transactions, but some could expect slower-than-usual site performance. This morning, at 2:06 a.m., Yahoo reported that the issue had been resolved and that it was "actively monitoring all systems involved." Yahoo's problem may have been an anomaly, but Keynote's research suggests that the strain of heavy traffic on site performance is not, with site slowdowns also having taken place on Black Friday. However, even with Black Friday's difficulties, enough of the day's shoppers held on through the checkout process to post impressive numbers. Online shoppers spent $531 million on Black Friday, up 22 percent from last year, comScore has reported. On Thanksgiving, online retail spending rose 29 percent from last year to $272 million. The company also said that for the first 23 days of November (ending on Black Friday), online retail spending reached $9.36 billion, up 17 percent from the same period last year. And the hottest product segment so far this shopping season? Sales of video games, consoles and accessories are up 134 percent from last year, propelled in large part by hot items like the Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation 3 and Halo 3, according to comScore.

Sell Nicotinic Acid

Appearance: White or off-white crystal or crystalline powder.
http://buy-or-sell.org/Chemicals/Sell-Nicotinic-Acid-80QyWyPd/

Gene Therapy Did Not Kill Patient, Study Finds

By Jocelyn Kaiser
ScienceNOW Daily News
26 November 2007

Federal regulators have given a green light to a gene-therapy arthritis trial that was halted last summer after a patient died. New tests indicate that the therapy played no role in the death. The decision comes as a relief to gene-therapy researchers who had worried about a potential new setback for their field.

The trial conducted by Targeted Genetics Corp. was shut down after the 24 July death of 36-year-old Jolee Mohr of Taylorville, Illinois, who received a gene-therapy injection to treat her rheumatoid arthritis in one knee 3 weeks earlier (Science, 3 August). At a September meeting of the federal Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC), experts noted that Mohr apparently died mainly from a fungal infection called histoplasmosis that her immune system was unable to fight off (ScienceNOW, 17 September). Mohr's immune system may have been compromised by an arthritis drug she was taking, Humira, which blocks an inflammatory molecule called tumor necrosis factor %26alpha; (TNF-%26alpha;). The protein produced by the gene therapy is also a TNF-%26alpha; blocker, and if it spread beyond Mohr's knee, the combination with Humira may have left her vulnerable to the fungus.

That did not happen, according to Targeted Genetics. The company points to new test results from an investigation by the company and outside researchers, which were presented at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting earlier this month. The level of TNF-%26alpha; blocker detected in Mohr's blood with a binding assay was "well within the normal range expected" from the dose of Humira she was taking, says President and CEO H. Stewart Parker. The new tests also ruled out the idea that the gene-therapy vector, adeno-associated virus, replicated in Mohr's body. Although DNA from the vector turned up in other tissues, the amounts were extremely low. Today, the company announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has lifted the hold on the trial.

Others agree that the case is closed. "It does not look like the gene therapy played a role to the best of our knowledge," says physician Kyle Hogarth of the University of Chicago in Illinois, who treated Mohr and took part in the investigation. However, Hogarth questions whether it makes sense to enroll patients who are already taking TNF-%26alpha; blockers in the study, because it's difficult to distinguish between the effects of the gene-therapy product and the drugs. Parker disagrees, noting that rheumatologists say "there is a significant unmet need" for treatments for patients with joints that do not respond to the systemic drugs.

The company now plans to resume the trial of 127 patients but will not give a second dose to as many as 35 awaiting patients if they have a fever, as Mohr did. "We are being conservative," says Parker. She says the only change to the informed-consent document will be to note the earlier death. RAC will issue its final conclusions about the case at a meeting next week. RAC Chair Howard Federoff of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., declined to comment in advance of the meeting.

Sarong, Elastic Back With Coconut Shell Toggle

Looking for Sarong long with elastic back with coconut shell toggle to fit up to 100cm bust. Range of colours %26 designs should be available to choose from, preferably Indonesian style printsAlso looking for short half size sarong skirt with tie or toggl
http://buy.buy-or-sell.org/Apparel/Sarong-Elastic-Back-With-Coconut-Shell-Toggle-KDMhc2Ee/

Brand Clothes

We need jeans, shirt, hat, watches everything for french customersThanks a lotSamples to begin container if the product is great
http://buy.buy-or-sell.org/Apparel/Brand-Clothes-UkiF04Mj/

Untangling an Artistic Spider Web

By Matt Kaplan
ScienceNOW Daily News
19 November 2007

Argiope spiders are the Picassos of the arachnid world, weaving exquisite zigzag and spiral patterns into their webs. And like any masterpiece, the designs draw a crowd. A new study reveals that insects and other prey prefer the stylish silk to more humdrum netting, but that predators, too, are more likely to pay a visit.

Scientists have been trying to decipher the purpose of patterned Argiope webs since they were first spotted in 1889. Some have suggested that the designs lure prey or deter predators, whereas others have argued that they function as a sort of detour sign that prevents birds from flying into the webs. But evidence for these theories has been lacking.

So biologists Ren-Chung Cheng and I-Min Tso of Tunghai University in Taichung, Taiwan, set up shop at a forest edge meadow in the country's Nantou County. The researchers installed cameras in front of various webs and collected more than 700 hours of video over a 2-month period. Their target was Argiope aemula, commonly known as the St. Andrew's cross spider because of the white "X" it weaves. The team filmed 56 webs with decorations and 59 without them.

The disparity had significant consequences. Decorated webs intercepted 60%26#37; more insects than the nondecorated ones did, the researchers report in the November/December issue of Behavioral Ecology. But the patterns also increased the risk of predation. Of the 18 recorded wasp attacks, two-thirds were against spiders with patterned webs. "This suggests that decorations are acting as a lure, drawing the attention of both prey and predators," says Tso, who notes that the increased risk of predation may explain why not all Argiope aemula spiders decorate. Such tradeoffs have been observed in other species--chorus frogs, for example, chirp loudly at night to attract mates, yet the calls also lure garter snakes--but this appears to be the first example of the phenomenon in a structure an animal builds.

As to why creatures find the Argiope webs so alluring, entomologist En-Cheng Yang of the National Taiwan University in Taipei notes that many insects such as honey bees have an innate preference for symmetric patterns. "It is very likely that the shape of the St. Andrew's cross gives a strong visual stimulus to insect predators and prey, but further neuroethological study is needed to clarify this mystery," he says.

Sell Kitchen Design

Synchronized with cutting edge technology, we are using 20-20 design to finish kitchenDesign for our clients.
http://buy-or-sell.org/Business_Services/Sell-Kitchen-Design-5BCR5nvu/

Sell Lift

We can supply electric glass lift switch series, handheld glass lift series, electric glass lift series, door suit page series, shake series.
http://buy-or-sell.org/Automobile/Sell-Lift-_DLR0VL9/

Sell ATV-Trailer

Features:1) Size: 2,800 x 1,550mm2) Finish: power coated or galvanized3) Wheel: 145R124) Side height: 30cm5) Load: 500kg6) Lights: DOT/E-mark7) Eye mesh floor with rampPacking: carton
http://buy-or-sell.org/Automobile/Sell-ATVTrailer-vuoeEtsO/

Second Hand Machines And Instruments For Venetian Blinds AMD Vertical Blinds

We are looking for tools and machines-manual or automat for production venetian blinds-aluminium slats, or vertical-textile
http://buy.buy-or-sell.org/Agriculture/Second-Hand-Machines-And-Instruments-For-Venetian-Blinds-AMD-Vertical-Blinds-yuh9UtRy/

Buy Rapes From China O The Other Countrys

I am representative of European companies industries. My partners looking for next products: Non Food Oil, non refined for use as fuel. Preferable Raps. 8. 500 tons per month, 100. 000 tons per year. To start a contract as soon as possible. Contract term:
http://buy.buy-or-sell.org/Agriculture/Buy-Rapes-From-China-O-The-Other-Countrys-Nf_2Mck4/

Buy Black Annealed Binding Wire

Black annealed binding wire 18g %26 20g.
http://buy.buy-or-sell.org/Agriculture/Buy-Black-Annealed-Binding-Wire-eHjY7nyD/

look for Cooperation on Sweater Factory

Looking for genuine investors from European Countries only, to invlove in manufacturing sweaters / T- shirts in Bangladesh.I am in possession of 1.5 acre of industrial plot with brand new 03 sheds recently constructed, measuring 95 f
http://buy-or-sell.org/Apparel/-look-for-Cooperation-on-Sweater-Factory-I_sSobc4/

Sell Chlorophacinone

Very effective, a single dose of a 50mg/kg bait killing rattus norvegicus from the 5th d. it is normally incorporated as 50-250 mg/kg bait.
http://buy-or-sell.org/Agriculture/Sell-Chlorophacinone-kHg5bvOq/

Sell Corn silk

Corn silkAlso known as maize silkcorn silk (also known as maize silk), are popular for a variety of problems, including prostate disorders, a diuretic as well as for bedwetting and obesity.Zea mays is an effective remedy for various ailments, and this n
http://buy-or-sell.org/Agriculture/Sell-Corn-silk-ab-6eiXI/

Sell Railway Accessory

We can supply high quality of various railway components such as fish plates, variousbolts, etc.
http://buy-or-sell.org/Agriculture/Sell-Railway-Accessory-swivu2Tm/

Microsoft to Roll Back the Clock on ActiveX

Microsoft is making what's old, new again, thanks to a plan announced this week to revert to an earlier way its Internet Explorer browser handles ActiveX (define) controls. In April 2006, the company changed the behavior of how IE dealt with ActiveX controls as part of its legal wrangling with patent firm Eolas Technologies. According to plans unveiled this week, however, coming months will see Microsoft turn back the clock and make ActiveX control activation behave as it did prior to 2006. The move will again streamline ActiveX control activation for Internet Explorer users. Currently, ActiveX controls that are loaded directly into HTML using the %26#60;object%26#62;, %26#60;embed%26#62;, or %26#60;applet%26#62; tags trigger a so-called "Click to Activate" notification in IE5, IE6 and IE7. That change came about through a longstanding spat between Microsoft and Eolas, which had sued the software giant over a patent relating to plug-in and applet technology. Now that the two have settled, the year-old change in ActiveX behavior will soon no longer be required, Microsoft said. "It%26#146;s important (and cool) to note that this change will require no modifications to existing Web pages, and no new actions for developers creating new pages," Pete LePage, senior product manager at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post. "We are simply reverting to the old behavior. Once Internet Explorer is updated, all pages that currently require 'Click to Activate' will no longer require the control to be activated. They%26#146;ll just work." Microsoft settled with Eolas in August, ending a legal dispute that dated all the way back to February 1999. At that time, Eolas, a spin off from the University of California, brought a lawsuit against Microsoft charging patent infringement. Eolas holds U.S. Patent No. 5,838,906, which was issued in 1998 and is titled "Distributed hypermedia method for automatically invoking external application providing interaction and display of embedded objects within a hypermedia document." Microsoft first suggested the "Click to Activate" approach to get around the Eolas patent in December 2005. Not every use of ActiveX controls required a change. The patent does not cover instances when users inject ActiveX controls via a JavaScript -- as opposed to an embedded HTML tag. Accordingly, IE does not currently include a "Click to Activate" notification for those instances. LePage also said the new ActiveX behavior will first be made public in December, as part of the Internet Explorer Automatic Component Activation Preview, which is an optional preview release. It will also be included in the IE7 version that is part of the pre-release versions of Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3. Microsoft intends to roll the update into an IE update in April 2008, which will be available to all Microsoft Update users. The Eolas patent never directly affected Netscape or Mozilla based browser users. Those browsers use something called the Netscape Plugin Application Interface (NPAPI) that uses a different approach than ActiveX to call a plug-in.

Online Ad Spending Expected to Double by 2011

U.S. companies will continue to increase Internet ad spending, though the disruptive effect of the credit squeeze has caused analysts to back off slightly from earlier projections, according to a new study. The report, issued by analyst firm eMarketer, projects online ad spending to reach $42 billion by 2011, more than doubling from the estimated $21.4 billion this year. Those numbers are slightly down from eMarketer's previous estimates of $21.7 billion in spending for 2007 and $44 billion for 2011. Under the revised projections, online ad spending for 2007 is expected to increase 26.7 percent from the $16.9 billion spent last year. By contrast, advertising spending on all media is only expected to increase 2.1 percent. "Don't expect any large growth in total media," eMarketer's David Hallerman told InternetNews.com. "The shift away from traditional media is accelerating." The study, which was conducted in partnership with with market researcher TNS Media Intelligence and Advertising Age, defines traditional media as TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. Internet ad spending remains poised for substantial growth. The top 100 U.S. advertisers as calculated by Ad Age are still allocating less than 4 percent of their total advertising budget to digital media, Hallerman said. The shift of ad spending from traditional media to the Internet among major advertisers was one of the key trends the study identified. Hallerman cautions that percentage growth changes can be deceptive, as they are bound to taper off as an industry builds mass. While "Internet's total growth is going to be decelerating," he said, the digital share of the advertising pie will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Hallerman offered no predictions on how large that share will become down the road. The study found that search advertising will remain the strongest of digital ad spending through 2011, holding steady around 40 percent. Spending on display ads also is projected to remain at around 20 percent, followed by online classified spending at about 17 percent. The biggest proportional gainer will be rich media, driven by video ads, which is expected to jump from 8 percent this year to 13 percent in 2011. Hallerman admitted that eMarketer's estimates may be conservative in areas where businesses models are still developing, and said he expects to revise his projections in rapidly developing sectors like video. "I think we're going to see some of the largest growth in video ads on televisions stations' Web sites," he said.

Technical Analysis: Breakdown

The S%26amp;P 500 (see chart below) broke a three-day trading range to the downside today and continued on through its 200-day average. The best hope for the bulls at this point is that 1466 holds, which would match the mid-October decline off the Oct. 31 high. If that goes, 1440-1450 should prove strong support. Seasonality and commercial futures traders remain firmly in the bulls' camp, but uncertainty over the subprime mess is giving traders plenty of reason to sell first and ask questions later. We've now had three 90% downside volume days on the NYSE since Oct. 19; we had five in the summer swoon. As happened in August, the best "all clear" sign at this point would be a 90% upside day to signal that selling pressure has been exhausted. Until that happens %26#151; and we get some signs of stability from the financial sector %26#151; the floor belongs to the bears. A good first sign of strength for the S%26amp;P would be to get back above its 200-day average at 1483 and to reverse today's breakdown by climbing back above 1490. Paul Shread is a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) and member of the Market Technicians Association.

Salesforce.com Scrambles To Halt Phishing Attacks

Want to know why Symantec spent $350 million to acquire data loss prevention firm Vontu? Salesforce.com just found out why. Salesforce.com is doing damage control after a gullible employee inadvertently revealed a customer contact list to a phisher, which has, in turn, allowed the scam artists to engage in targeted phishing attacks against Salesforce's customers. In a letter sent to customers yesterday and posted on Salesforce.com's home page, Executive Vice President Parker Harris informed customers that a Salesforce.com employee had been the victim of a phishing scam that allowed a customer contact list to be copied. "To be clear, a phisher tricked someone into disclosing a password, but this intrusion did not stem from a security flaw in our application or database," he wrote. User gullibility is most often the cause of such breaches and, apparently, was the case here as well. The phisher got away with first and last names, company names, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers of Salesforce.com customers and related administrative data belonging to Salesforce.com. The result is these customers have been receiving bogus e-mails that looked like Salesforce.com invoices, but are not. These are what some security experts refer to as "spear phishing," since they are targeted at a specific victim. Salesforce.com did not say who the targets are, but the Washington Post reports that SunTrust Bank and Automatic Data Processing (ADP), one of the nation's largest payroll and tax services providers, are among the targets. In his letter, Harris said "a very small number" of customers who were contacted by the spear phishers revealed their Salesforce.com passwords to the phisher. He also said that in recent days, a new wave of phishing attempts that included attached malware files, like key loggers, was being aimed at a broader group of customers. Chenxi Wang, principal analyst for security and risk management at Forrester Research, said this threat will only increase. "Phishers are getting more sophisticated: their attacks have gotten a lot more targeted than the old days, where phishing was typically more random and ad-hoc," he said in an e-mailed comment to InternetNews.com. "Targeted phishing attacks promise more return profit. I anticipate that we%26#146;ll see more targeted phishing attacks in the future." Salesforce.com is taking a number of steps to address the problem, including monitoring and analyzing logs to alerts to customers who have been affected, consulting with security vendors, going after fraudulent sites, reinforcing security education and tightening access policies within Salesforce.com and evaluating new security technologies. The company is holding an educational Webinar on Thursday to discuss changes and best practices. Randy Abrams, director of technical education for antivirus firm ESET Software, reiterated a familiar mantra in his job as an educator: train your staff well. "Employees with access to sensitive information need to be well trained on social engineering attacks," he said in an e-mailed comment to InternetNews.com. "It would be a very good idea for companies to start phishing their own employees. I'm not talking about stealing bank account or other information. I'm talking about tricking them into entering their usernames and passwords for corporate accounts when they clearly should not. This approach identifies the people who most need the education," he added.

Tech Stocks Dodge Financial Woes

A much stronger than expected jobs report that showed little in the way of wage pressures did little to right the struggling financial sector on Friday, but strength in the tech sector eventually dragged blue chip stocks higher by the close. The banking sector ended the day 1.6% lower on weakness in Merrill Lynch and Washington Mutual, but Citigroup recouped much of its losses by the end of the day on a Dow Jones report that the financial giant will hold an emergency board meeting this weekend. Fears about Citi's credit market losses were behind Thursday's steep stock market plunge. Also helping the financial sector finish off its lows were comments by famed fund manager Bill Miller that financial stocks will outperform other sectors over the next five years. Stocks posted early gains after the Labor Department reported an October jobs gain of 166,000 and 0.2% wage growth, both better than expected, but a Wall Street Journal report that suggested that Merrill may have tried to cover up credit market losses soon had stocks on the defensive once again. E*Trade also continued its weakness, losing another 8%. But strength in the tech sector, which ended the day less than 2% from a multiyear high, helped the Dow and S%26P 500 erase their losses by the close. Tech stocks gained on better than expected quarterly results from a number of names, including CA, Western Digital, RadiSys and Synaptics. Sun Microsystems and Cisco Systems, both of which will report their results next week, also rose. Baidu continued to live up to its reputation as the Google of China, gaining 6% to close above $400 a share for the first time. But Glu Mobile, Silicon Image, Opnet, Insight Enterprises, Ditech Networks and Maxim fell on their results. The Nasdaq rose 15 to 2810, the S%26P added 1 to 1509, and the Dow rose 27 to 13,595. Volume rose to 4.29 billion shares on the NYSE, but declined to 2.47 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 17-15 margin on the NYSE, and 15-14 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 44% on the NYSE, and 66% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 96-268 on the NYSE, and 94-284 on the Nasdaq.

Cisco Seeks Next Billion-Dollar Idea

Cisco has launched a contest that promises to make for some very happy winners.

The Cisco I-Prize is a global competition the company said is designed to help it find the next billion-dollar opportunity. The main requirement is that teams must use Cisco's collaboration technologies to develop their projects. The winning team will get an employment contract with a $250,000 signing bonus and up to $10 million in funding over three years to develop the business.

One aspect of the I-Prize venture that's not a surprise is Cisco's willingness to invest in new ideas; it's one of the most acquisitive tech companies around.

Still, at first glance it might seem odd that Cisco sees the need to make such a large, structured outreach effort for new ideas. After all, the tech industry is littered with venture capital events, startups and entrepreneurs constantly pitching new ideas. But Silicon Valley veteran analyst Tim Bajarin said it makes sense.

"I actually think it's a very smart move," Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, told InternetNews.com. "The key reason you do this as a contest is that it lets you (Cisco) create the rules that strategically meet the needs of the company and grow its business."

Indeed, the company said one of the premises of the I-Prize contest is that ideas "have the potential to bring in at least $1 billion revenue to Cisco over a five- to seven-year period, and submissions must use the IP network as a platform."

And though Silicon Valley and other tech hot spots across the U.S. are swimming with new ideas, Bajarin said he wouldn't be surprised if the winner comes from outside this country. "The probability of it coming from the U.S. might be less than 35 percent given the global reach of engineering innovation."

Marthin DeBeer, senior vice president of Cisco's emerging technologies group, said in a statement that inventors and entrepreneurs in various parts of the world don't have access to funding but have excellent ideas. "We want to give those innovators an outlet and a means to develop their dream."

Submissions are due between now and Jan. 15. Once chosen, up to a hundred semifinalists will present throughout February a more detailed report on the market opportunity and technology that define their proposed businesses. And between March 15 and April 30, the finalists will present their business plans to a judging panel of "industry luminaries" and Cisco senior executives using Cisco's TelePresence teleconferencing system.

Cisco isn't the only tech outfit extending beyond its boundaries. Microsoft last month announced the Startup Accelerator Program, which gives designated startups access to technical and marketing resources inside Microsoft.

Technical Analysis: Chips, Banks Are the Ones to Watch

Little has changed from our last update a week ago: the market put in a credible bottom just in time for the strongest part of the year historically and has built on that base nicely since. But with sentiment mixed, the Nasdaq and S%26amp;P facing some critical tests and some key indexes continuing to lag, the year-end period could continue to be choppy.

The market's strength in the next few months will likely have much to do with the ability of the financial and semiconductor sectors (see first two charts below) to right themselves from their own mini bear markets. Both are hovering near their August lows and will need to turn up sharply if the broader market is to have much of a chance of a significant advance.

In short, the bulls have the advantage, but they need broad participation to pull it off.

The 10-year-yield, meanwhile, returned to neutral after today's rate cut (see third chart below). 4.5% has become a fulcrum here; whichever side of that line the 10-year trades on will say much about the bond market's perception of where the economy is headed.

Paul Shread is a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) and member of the Market Technicians Association.