Space Shuttle Preps for Station Visit

With just 16 missions on the books until the shuttle program ends, NASA is prepared to resume construction of the International Space Station after a six-month hiatus in shuttle flights. The launch of space shuttle Atlantis, originally planned for March, is now targeted for liftoff at 7:38 p.m. EDT on Friday. Forecasters were predicting an 80 percent chance that the weather would allow the shuttle to launch on time.

The mission was delayed to allow time to repair the shuttle's fuel tank, which was blasted by hail during a freak storm in late February.

"After many months of hard work, Atlantis is finally ready to fly," said Stephen Payne, a shuttle launch manager at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The hailstorm left Atlantis' tank with more than 4,200 dings, dents, gouges and pits in its foam insulation, which is needed to prevent ice formation after the tank is filled with cryogenic propellants for launch. Ice could break off and damage the shuttle's heat shield during launch.

As NASA learned after the fatal 2003 Columbia accident, the foam itself presents a potentially deadly hazard as well. The shuttle was destroyed when superheated gases blasted inside the structure as the ship flew through the atmosphere for landing.

The heat shield had been broken during launch by a piece of foam insulation that fell off and hit the ship's wing. The accident claimed the lives of all seven crewmembers aboard.

Lessons Learned

Mindful of Columbia's demise, NASA set about repairing Atlantis' damaged tank, which ultimately entailed flying workers from the tank manufacturing complex outside New Orleans to Florida, to hand-spray a section of foam near the top of the tank. That area, which is exposed to the elements as the shuttle sits on the launch pad, was most heavily damaged by the hail.

Engineers took extra precautions to test repair techniques before fixing the tank, which managers say has only a slightly higher risk of foam loss during launch than an unblemished tank.
"All our testing today indicates that will not happen," said shuttle program manager Wayne Hale.
NASA can't afford too many more lengthy delays. The shuttle fleet was returned to flight after the Columbia accident for the sole purpose of finishing construction of the space station, which is about half-built.

At least 13 missions are needed to haul the rest of the major components to the outpost, and managers would also like to fly two missions with spare parts and supplies before the fleet is retired in 2010.

A final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope completes the shuttle program's flight schedule.
All Eyes on Atlantis
Despite the three-month postponement in Atlantis' flight, managers say there is ample time to complete the station before the shuttles stop flying.

"We're flying these flights as rapidly as it's reasonably possible to do it, but we fully intend to keep all of our safety practices in place," Hale said. "We cannot let schedule drive us to do something dumb."
Atlantis' mission is key to preparing the orbital complex for the arrival of partner laboratories built by Europe and Japan that have been awaiting rides to orbit for years. The shuttle will deliver a new set of power-producing solar wings and a rotary joint so they can track the sun.

The crew also needs to retract an older solar panel that will be moved to another part of the station next year.

The last shuttle crew in December faced similar tasks and encountered major problems folding up the array. Two astronauts made an unplanned spacewalk to painstakingly shake the panel, which repeatedly jammed on guide wires. Ultimately, they were able fold it, accordian-style, into its storage box.

Atlantis' flight is planned for 11 days, but NASA is allowing two contingency days in space to handle unexpected difficulties.

Readying the Crew

The crew is light on previous spaceflight experience, with four of the seven astronauts flying for the first time, but heavy on preparations.

"We've spent a long time training for this mission," said Atlantis commander Frederick Sturckow. "The crew is very excited to be in Florida."

The astronauts arrived on Monday to begin preparations for Friday's liftoff. Meteorologists are predicting an 80 percent chance weather will be suitable for launch.

Joining Sturckow on the flight deck will be pilot Lee Archambault, flight engineer Steven Swanson and astronaut Patrick Forrester. Lead spacewalker James Reilly and astronauts John "Danny" Olivas and Clayton Anderson, who will be seated on the mid-deck for launch, complete the crew.
Sturckow and Reilly have flown twice before and Forrester once.

Anderson will stay aboard the station to replace NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who has been in orbit since December. She originally was to come home with the next shuttle crew, but with Atlantis' delay, NASA decided to switch ferry flights.

Despite the late start in the shuttle program's 2007 launch calendar, managers hope to complete four flights this year, including a December delivery of Europe's Columbus module.

Virtual Man Helps Guide Doctors

Scientists have created a computer program that's able to turn medical images into a full dimensional view of a patient's body — inside and out. The CAVEman (it's rendered in a virtual reality room known as a CAVE) will provide not only a three-dimensional view of a body and its organs but also show systems in motion, such as the beating of a heart.

The technology could give doctors or medical students the opportunity to investigate disease or try new treatments on a living system, without opening up an actual person.

"We can render a whole new scenario that would look like what you would experience if you had a patient," said Christoph Sensen, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and director of the Sun Center of Excellence for Visual Genomics at the University of Calgary, Alberta.
The system has two main components: the computer model that renders the full-dimensional body and the virtual reality environment.

The model is based on images from basic anatomy textbooks. Graphic artists used those images to create animations of various body systems, including the organs, the blood vessel network and the nervous system. The model serves as a kind of generic template of the human body.
This model can be customized to a particular person when merged with medical images. For example, a doctor can combine CT scans or MRI's of a patient's heart or kidney with the model and see the person's organs within the virtual body.

Viewing takes place in the CAVE, a room about 33 feet by 33 feet square. Animated images are projected onto three of the four walls, plus the floor. The viewer wears special glasses equipped with shutters that flicker on and off, allowing each eye to see only one image at a time. This creates the optical illusion of dimension.

A sensor in the eyeglasses works with a tracking device on the computer to locate the viewer, should he walk around the virtual body. A joystick allows the viewer to do things like rotate the body or make menu selections.
Because the system requires the expensive, virtual reality room, Sensen and his team also developed a program that works on a laptop. The dimensionality remains, but immersion is lost. "I think it's a tremendous effort to build such a model. Before this, there were some simple models of the human body available for animation purposes in the movie industry, for example," said Anton Koning, research scientist in the department of bioinformatics at the Erasmus Medical Center, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

But this is only a start, he said, pointing out, "The real challenge comes when mapping data on that body."

For example, if a researcher wanted to show all of the tissue in which a certain gene or protein is expressed, showing one may be fairly straightforward. But revealing multiple genes becomes complicated. The information overlaps and may not be visually intuitive to the viewer, said Koning.
Sensen and his team have finished the adult male model and are currently working on finishing the female version. After that, they will complete a model of a child as well as other organisms, including mice and rats.

They are also spinning off a company based on the technology and plan to announce its existence sometime this summer.

Reliance Smart launches lifetime validity at Rs 222 !

Reliance Communications on Wednesday launched lifetime validity on its GSM service at Rs 222 with a start-up talktime of Rs 10.

Launching the product here today, Reliance Communications President (Personal Business) S P Shukla said the Rs 222-lifetime validity would be available in eight circles where its smart service was available.


Hidden Charges
Shukla said subscribers recharging with Rs 222 lifetime validity would have to use a talktime of Rs 75 every 60 days in order to stay active.The company also introduced classic range of GSM handsets prices at Rs 1234

Top sites don't work in multiple browsers

ONE of the basic rules of good web design is that websites should work for people using different browsers. However, many companies — including some with award-winning sites — are ignoring this accepted practice.

According to our reviews, there are widespread browser compatibility problems on IR websites today. They range in severity, but most are due to sites favoring proprietary technologies and not being designed to recognized international web standards.

Making matters worse, at least one website awards program has recently given top honors to sites that are defective. This calls into question the validity of the awards since they recognize companies that are snubbing up to a third of their online audience.

Companies whose websites do not work in multiple browsers risk alienating users and damaging their credibility. Investors who experience sites that don't work properly in their preferred browser are likely to perceive that the company uses unreliable technology and that it lacks expertise.

The negative impression is aggravated if the problems are not fixed for extended periods, or when users are technologically sophisticated and know that the company is not following standards and managing its website properly. Informed users may even conclude that a company is mismanaging its money if it unveils a new site that isn't compatible with multiple browsers.


Firefox, I.E. 7.0 put compatibility back on agenda
Cross-browser compatibility has always been a standard part of good web design and development. However, due to the almost complete domination of the browser market by Microsoft's Internet Explorer many web managers and developers have neglected cross browser testing.

However, with the introduction in 2004 of the new Firefox browser, many companies will find that their sites don't look or function the same way in the new browser as they do in Internet Explorer. This is because Firefox adheres to the standards of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the standard-setting body for the Internet. As such, it does not support Microsoft and other proprietary coding that web developers may use on their sites.

Since its release in November 2004, Firefox has rapidly grabbed market share, with global share in January 2006 estimated at about 11%, according to Onestat. In the U.S., the share is 12.55% while in Canada it is 18.43%. Other surveys put Firefox's share as high as 30% in Finland and 25% in Germany.

Even mighty Microsoft has taken notice. It is working on an unscheduled upgrade of its Internet Explorer browser to compete with the superior functionality of Firefox. Furthermore, in its upcoming Internet Explorer 7.0 browser, Microsoft plans to support W3C standards more completely than in the past. The result is that sites designed for the vagaries of Internet Explorer 6.0 may not work properly in the new browser, as described in this checklist put out by the company's browser team.

It's important to take note that even though it's overall share is low, Firefox users make up a highly influential segment of the Internet population. Part of Firefox's demographic dovetails with that of online investors and opinion leaders. These users are well educated, earn high incomes, are early adopters of new technologies, and typically have the capability to influence others through blogs and other media.

However, one should not make the mistake in thinking browser compatibility is all about Firefox and Internet Explorer. There are other browsers that may have problems viewing your website. They include Apple's Safari browser, Nestcape Navigator and the less well-known Opera. Also increasingly important is software for mobile devices and for disabled users.


Award-winning IR sites fall short of best practice
Our reviews in recent months confirm that problems are widespread. Among the sites experiencing severe problems are some that have recently been honored in awards programs. This raises serious questions about the validity of the awards and the expertise of the evaluators.

Take Edison International as an example. In February 2006, the company was recognized for having the "Most Innovative & Trendsetter IR Website" by the IR Global Rankings, a program run by a Brazilian outfit called MZ-Consult that is backed by the local Sao Paulo offices of ADR sponsor J.P. Morgan, audit firm KPMG and law firm Linklaters.

Edison International has a Flash-heavy investor relations website that is slow and cumbersome in Internet Explorer. In Firefox, however, the site is utterly unusable.

Another example is British American Tobacco, which has won many awards for its IR website. In 2005, it was ranked #1 in the United Kingdom by MZ-Consult in its IR Global Rankings & Awards.

But there's one rather significant detail the evaluators seem to have missed about BAT. Its site did not work in Firefox the same way it did in Internet Explorer. The screenshots below show how pages on the site are jumbled and the left navigation does not work in non-Microsoft browsers.

The result is that BAT's site is unusable for a significant segment of the online population because it is not standards compliant. More importantly, the company does not seem to be reviewing its site regularly in multiple browsers, because this problem persisted for several months — not what you would expect of a best practice IR website.

Another of MZ's award-winning sites, that of Brazilian bank Unibanco, has similar problems. The site's navigation scheme is corrupted in Firefox, which effectively renders the site unusable.

The Unibanco situation has an added twist because the site is only three months old. To the astute user, this suggests that despite widespread publicity of the need to design websites to international standards, the bank and/or its vendors are either ignorant or negligent.

More broadly, many IR websites that use Thomson Financial's products are not properly supporting Firefox users. Three common issues are:

• Firefox does not support Windows Media Player's proprietary technology so users may prefer RealPlayer. Yet Thomson Financial does not support both players equally.
• In some Thomson webcasts, an automatic compatibility test incorrectly identifies Firefox as an old version of Netscape and issues a false warning that the webcast cannot be played properly.
• Many Thomson sites use improper coding that results in within-page links that do not work properly.

Even when sites are properly designed and coded, users of other browsers may have problems viewing content that requires a plug-in. Firefox users may have to reinstall Flash and Java before the browser will render content formatted in these technologies.

Web managers should anticipate potential problems when providing Flash and Java content by providing HTML versions of the same content by default, and by using detection code and help features when plug-ins are required.

More attention to IR websites needed

Browser compatibility problems are symptomatic of a wider neglect of web-based communications by IR and other communications professionals. Managing an IR website effectively is a difficult and complex task. It requires skill, attention to detail and a keen understanding of the audience. Most of all, it takes a commitment to building effective relationships with investors and shareholders.

The Web is growing more complex and sophisticated at a very rapid pace. Investors are able to access the Internet through a growing number of devices, from handhelds to super large screen monitors. New technologies are changing the way in which information is published and distributed, including RSS for news and XBRL for financial data.

The Web is also being increasingly recognized and relied upon by regulators to ensure equal and more effective access to information for all market participants.

All of this means IR departments need access to competent consultants, web developers and service providers. They need to make someone in the department responsible for managing and coordinating all aspects of the IR website. At large companies with many shareholders, this is a full-time position, even when parts of the site are outsourced to vendors.

Yes, it costs money and it's difficult to measure the value. But the reality today is that most investors spend more time interacting with a company's IR website than any other type of contact with the company. A site that doesn't work in all browser software, or which fails to meet the needs of investors in other respects, is an indication that the company doesn't value its shareholders.

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Does your website have a bad attitude ?

Although you might not think so, investors can tell a lot about your company's attitude towards them simply by visiting your website.

In most cases, companies come across either as service-oriented and welcoming, or they givthe impression of being aloof and disinterested. In some cases companies look incompetent, in which case pity or disdain may be the common response from users.

Since a website visit is an interaction between the user and your company on the user's terms, it is near impossible for you to hide the truth about your true attitude towards investors. Either you are focused on their needs or you are not. There's no middle ground.

Some companies think they are doing a good job pretending to be service oriented. Their sites are set up with the sole purpose of putting a barrier between them and their shareholders and investors. The objective is to rebuff people, not to engage them. They are soon found out.


IR and the Internet both involve relationships
The practice of investor relations by its very definition involves building and reinforcing relationships. The Internet, meanwhile, is very much a relationship medium.

The experience people have on your website has the same impact as if they were interacting with your company in person or on the phone. Being rude, offhanded or simply uninterested is a recipe for trouble.

In face-to-face meetings between people, communication is about more than the substance of what is said. Much of the communication is unspoken, embedded in things like context, tone and body language.

The same applies online. In fact, Web users are much less tolerant in their online interactions because the experience is impersonal. They are interacting with a website, not a human being with whom they can reason or feel empathy. When things go wrong their reactions are stronger, more hostile and less constrained by the usual social restraints of interpersonal communication.


Think like your user
Investors can interpret your attitude towards them from a large number of individual experiences during their visits to your site. They notice things in the site's design, structure, navigation, usability and content that they interpret as evidence of your attitude towards them and other stakeholders.

In many cases, companies and investor relations departments don't realize what messages they are giving investors on their websites. This is because their websites are not a priority. They are not managed proactively or strategically. Sites often are outsourced and forgotten about.

The best way to avoid making a bad impression on investors and shareholders is to think like them. Put yourself in the shoes of your website's users and ask what is it that they want.

Only by putting your audience's needs ahead of all others — including your own — can you achieve a reasonable level of certainty that you are portraying your company and department positively to investors.


Measuring your site's attitude
There are hundreds of ways that a website can signal your company's attitude toward investors. Some of the more obvious ones are:

• Incomplete contact information;



• Ignoring inquiries or being unhelpful in email correspondence;



• Offering inadequate shareholder services information and resources;



• Not designing web sites around the needs of users;



• Failing to recognize international users;



• Making investors work to find information that should be easily available;



• Failing to properly identify downloads;



• And probably the worst offense of all, treating people differently based on their profession or perceived importance to the company.
  
  
  
  
  

You can measure your website's online attitude as we do as part of our IR website evaluations. We also show our clients how their sites' service attitude compares to that of more than 500 other companies and the average of their sector.

If other companies in your industry or peer group have a bad online attitude towards investors, then it might be a good investment to improve your site's attitude to attract investors and reinforce relations with current ones.

Of course, there is no point in trying to look as though you are interested in attracting and retaining shareholders if you actually are not. If management at your company doesn't have much regard for investor relations, then it will show in one way or another.

However, if your department is interested in building strong long-term relationships with investors, then it is time to test your IR website's attitude. Right now your website might well be giving someone the wrong impression.

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