If you have the WD (Western Digital) My Book Live NAS and it is very slow there is a way to make it fast again

If you have the WD (Western Digital) My Book Live NAS and it is dog slow, it is not your router or network setup

in the pursuit of sales WD has overburdened this device that runs on a basic processor.

How to make it fast again

  1. disable twonky service
  2. disable remote access (are you really going to use that?)
  3. do not update to the latest firmware it makes things much worse.
Greetings from Bratislava ;)




Interesting project to bring 250 years of a swiss newspaper online


The Cantonal & University Library of Lausanne selects Geneza’s MediaINFO


The Cantonal & University Library of Lausanne selects Geneza’s MediaINFO to bring 250 years of the 24 Heures newspaper online.



http://www.geneza.com/news.php#bcu

Mitt Romney drives a european car made in Bratislava, Slovakia

Mitt Romney with Slovak/German beauty

Republican candidate who lost the presidential elections, the car rides produced in Bratislava, Slovakia.

He was so sure victory that he had not prepared a speech after the defeat. Republican Mitt Romney struggled for many years to become the U.S. president, is now trying to cope with the fact that his dream is over.

After the election, the 65-year old politician withdrew from public life. Last week it he visited president obama in his new black Audi Q7. It is not clear whether he bought it after the election.

It seems that now the Audis are made here and exported everywhere, and that seems to surprise most people. This was confirmed by a spokesman for Volkswagen Slovakia Vladimír Machalík (Audi really belongs to Volkswagen).

"Model Audi Q7 is produced only in Slovakia and exported to all over the world. The United States is our third largest market, where is between nine and 10 percent of our production. "I did not know about our famous customer.


Vienna as a business hub: Baroque ain’t everything

Vienna as a business hub: Baroque ain't everything

Published on Bratislava

WHO would swap the baroque splendour of Vienna, its Spanish riding school and Hofburg palace, for bourgeois Geneva or even post-Communist Prague? Alas, more and more companies locating a regional headquarters for central and eastern Europe (CEE) tend to now put good communications and an internationally-minded labour force ahead of grand opera and Sachertorte. That includes The Economist, which moved its regional office from Vienna to Geneva in 2008.To be sure, Vienna is still the regional hub. At the last count, 303 companies have their CEE headquarters in Vienna, 14 more than two years ago. But during that period eight companies pulled out, or were lost through mergers. And firms no longer just look to Vienna's west, where  Munich, London and Amsterdam loom large, but east—to Bratislava, Budapest, Prague and Warsaw. Between them, these four cities now boast 80 regional headquarters, according to a study by Wolf Theiss, a consultancy.Vienna has not played its cards well recently, says Leo Hauska, whose public relations firms fronts for Headquarters Austria, a local initiative. Take infrastructure. The expansion of Vienna airport has been dragging on since 2004 and may not even be completed by mid-2012, the latest new target date. Worse, Austrian Airlines, the national carrier, has been bought by Lufthansa and is likely to see its hub shifted to Munich—a heavy blow ...

(via EasyRSS | Make it simple & elegant!)

Nokia hires the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra to help create 25 new classical tunes.


Nokia decided to bring a fresh perspective to their ringtones by hiring the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra to help create 25 new classical tunes. The original audio pieces were designed by the in-house Sound Design team, then recorded with members of the orchestra. The ringtones, which are said to resemble something you could hear in a video game or a movie, will become available in upcoming device models over the next few months, and onwards into the new year. Some can be found already preinstalled on the new Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820. Aleksi Eeben from the Sound Design team at Nokia, said:
The 25 original pieces, called ‘miniatures’ were composed by five Nokia Design in-house sound designers. We started exploring the idea through contemporary classical and film music, However, the final result was original pieces that are distinctively ring tones: they are short, and they all have a functional sounds element.
Check out the video below to see the making of the new symphony orchestra ringtones:

The Adventures of Terka & Jeffko: Miletička!

The Adventures of Terka & Jeffko: Miletička!: So, as promised in last month's Naschmarkt post , here is a post devoted to Miletička, Bratislava's (semi) outdoor produce market. It's a wo...

The Adventures of Terka & Jeffko: Miletička and mushrooms update!

The Adventures of Terka & Jeffko: Miletička and mushrooms update!: So, in my  post in September about Miletička , Bratislava's outdoor farmer's market, I lamented the lack of more exotic produce, like figs, ...

Slovakia gains as manufacturers transfer jobs from western to central Europe

FT says:

The economic gloom seeping out of western Europe is creating increasing difficulties for the small and open economies of central Europe – with both Hungary and the Czech Republic now in recession.
However, Slovakia, the smallest and most open of the three countries, is powering ahead, notching up 2.7 per cent annual GDP growth in the second quarter, thanks largely to the European motor industry.
Vladimir Vano, chief economist at Volksbank Slovensko, took a look at why Slovakia is outperforming its peers, and found that the the good results (industrial production is rising by an annual 10.1 per cent) are largely the result of outperformance in two sectors – cars and electronics.
“The overall growth can be credited to a handful of major Slovak industrial sectors, such as production of transport vehicles (+42 per cent year-on-year) and production of electrical equipment (+10.3 per cent year-on-year),” he wrote in a report.
Slovakia is benefiting because it largely specialised in these two sectors as it has integrated with the rest of the EU. As the economic crisis bites, manufacturers are looking to shave costs, and Slovakia’s cheap but qualified workers, as well as the large level of previous investments in both sectors are luring manufacturers to shift still more productive capacity to Slovakia.
Slovakia has the world’s highest per capita car production with three large factories owned by Germany’s Volkswagen, PSA Peugeot Citroen of France and Kia, the South Korean group, as well as a raft of parts suppliers. This year investments of about €1bn in expanding production lines are starting to take effect, further boosting output.
“…even industries facing sluggish or declining demand try to streamline their costs by making higher use of their facilities in cheaper CEE countries, while downsising more radically those with a higher cost base, usually in western Europe,” writes Vano.
This is one area where being in the eurozone is actually helping a country. Many investors are choosing Slovakia over Hungary and the Czech Republic because it is a member of the common currency, which takes away currency risk. Other CEE countries have seen their currencies sag against the euro, but swings in the forint, zloty and koruna have been quite wild, adding an element of uncertainty to investment decisions.
Source: Volksbank
Vano says that the backbone of Slovakia’s performance has been its improvement in net exports. “In 2011, Slovakia recorded its best foreign trade surplus on record, to the tune of €2.4bn (3.5 per cent of GDP). With imports slowing faster than exports, the trade surplus jumped to an identical amount during just the first half of 2012 (€2.5bn). That means a staggering 161 per cent increase from the same period last year, and a more than four-fold jump in the second quarter alone.”
Source: Volksbank
The question is how long Slovakia can keep up its strong performance, especially as domestic demand, retail sales and government investment all show signs of stagnation or slump, and the government is continuing to tighten the fiscal screws to keep the deficit and public debt under control?
Source: Volksbank
Real GDP growth should slow in upcoming quarters as figures for upcoming quarters will be compared to the high base of late last year. The slowdown in western Europe should also be a drag on the economy – but Slovakia will still be doing fairly well.
Martin Balaz, an analyst with Erste Group, says: “We expect Slovak economy to slow down in the next quarter due to slowing industrial production, which has been the main driver of GDP growth this year. Slovak as well as eurozone sentiment indicators (PMI, IFO, ZEW) also point to a slowdown. In spite of this, Slovak economy is likely to record growth of 2 per cent for the year.”

The label eastern europe is dead.


This is no less according to the economist! http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2012/07/%E2%80%9Ceast%E2%80%9D-dead?fsrc=gn_ep&google_editors_picks=true Well done but we could have told you this since 2003 Central europe is a much more appropriate term that is still in common use in Germany as mitteleuropa

Best hotel in the world is in Bratislava!

According to major travel collossus Expedia
http://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-best-hotel-according-to-expedia-users-2012-6
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Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

Slovakia’s economy will grow at a considerably faster rate this year than was originally expected


Slovakia’s economy will grow at a considerably faster rate this year than was originally expected, according to the Finance Ministry which improved its prediction for GDP growth from 1.1 percent in its February 2012 assessment to 2.5 percent now, based on what the ministry said is better than expected economic growth in the first quarter and partly by an improving external environment, the SITA newswire reported on June 15. The Finance Ministry also stressed that significantly more tax revenue cannot be expected from this higher growth rate. “The structure of economic growth will have little impact on tax revenue, whereas the growth will continue to be primarily driven by foreign trade,” said the ministry, as quoted by SITA, adding that Slovakia’s labour market and household consumption will revive only gradually. The ministry said that next year the economy will grow at a slightly slower pace than it predicted in February. The GDP growth estimated at 2.6 percent is 0.1 percentage points less than originally estimated in February and reflects the consolidation package prepared by the government which should decrease next year’s state deficit below the Maastricht criterion of 3 percent of GDP. In 2014, the Finance Ministry expects economic growth to accelerate to 3.9 percent and in 2015 to slow down to 3.7 percent, SITA wrote. Source: SITA

IBM moves more jobs to bratislava Slovakia from Rochester USA.

"The work is being moved offshore to places like Bratislava, India, China, Philippines, all around the world," Conrad said. "This is frankly, what IBM calls its re-balancing. They're re-balancing from here in the United States and moving the work out of the country."


Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4

A warning from the the early 80es...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=jNgfIH5pyxg#t=2817s

A political awakening...

It seems that more than ever the Slovak public does not tolerate corruption even at levels that are not particularly higher than other european countries... This is actually a hopeful sign.

The relationship with the Private Equity group Penta and Mikulas Dzurinda and Robert Fico is likely to sooner or later end the political careers of both.

What is remarkable however is that the scandal neither involves particularly large sums in a time where billions are given to banks in the west nor institutionalised  . The real surprise is how "old world" this scandal is. This is not to belittle the scandal, but there are some hopeful signs in that there are more and more people who are making a difference in this small republic. 15 years ago this scandal would not have come to light. The press seems to be doing its job at a time where much of the intellectual and investigative press in the USA and re of EU is in terminal decline for monetary reasons while . The Slovak-canadian journalist Tom Nicholson is to be congratulated for his persistence in bringing information about this case to light.

Also this scandal should lead to reform of the judiciary. It seems to make the position of reformers in SDKU (the pro-business party) much stronger with perhaps the departure of Mikulas Dzurinda from active politics, and a female new guard led by Zitnanska the campaigning judge who did good work in raising the standards of public life. Similarly it is to be hoped that Robert Fico's involvement with the scandal will create a rennaisance inside Smer, bringing to the fore untainted and more forward looking people.

The young people one meets in Bratislava certainly give one the hope that within 10 years the dream of very clean politics by most realistic standards is achievable.

Slovakia, Poland, the Euro,

Slovakia is essentially a mini Poland but fiscally and currency-wise more like Finland, because Slovakia uses the euro, has lower state debt than Finland, and a population that generally has very little private debt. The banks lend money derived from local deposits and are healthier than their western counterparts.

Slovakia adopted the euro in 2009 did suffer a recession that year, but comparable to the one that hit the neighbouring Czech Republic, which kept its koruna independent currency. Large foreign investors such as Volkswagen, PSA, Kia, say they decided to expand operations in Slovakia because there was no currency risk with the destination markets.

Keeping an independent currency may be a desperate stabilisation tool for a country that is crisis hit and uncompetitive, but for Slovakia the currency union helps its exports and further economic integration with Austria and Germany.

In Poland the zloty’s sudden decline is putting economic growth at risk as it squeezes the 700,000 Poles – part of a nascent middle class – who took out mortgages denominated in foreign currencies, mostly Swiss francs. So far, people are making their payments, but as the zloty continues to fall against the franc there is a growing worry that it could choke off consumer spending.

Such a fear does not exist in Slovakia as there are no mortgages denominated in foreign currencies so this significant risk that is a problem for both Poland and Hungary does not exist in Slovakia...

The next election is unlikely to produce an anti-business government as even the left is committed to Slovakia's integration with the eurozone.