SERI KEMBANGAN: Malaysian businesses should register a “.my” domain for their websites to protect their intellectual property and cement their standing as a Malaysian company on the Internet, said .my Domain Registry, the sole registrar for the web address suffix.
“The .my domain tag is unique as it is also a word,” said director of .my Domain Registry Shariya Haniz Zulkifli.
“This makes it an attractive end to a web address. Local companies should get their domain name quickly, lest it be snatched up by a ‘cybersquatter.’
“Some cybersquatters do it to profit from the trademark by selling it back to the company we believe are the rightful owners,” she said.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, a body partly designed to arbitrate domain name dispute cases, the number of these kind of cases has increased by 8% since 2007.
Bursa Malaysia also recently issued a directive requiring all companies listed on the KLSE to have a corporate website.
According to a survey conducted by the national exchange in May, 80% of Malaysian public limited companies have set up websites.
“Out of that 80%, about half have registered websites on the .my domain,” she said.
“We are now reserving domain names for companies who have yet to register until Oct 31, which will give them time to sign up and prevent cybersquatting.”
To encourage companies and individuals to register, .my Domain Registry is having a promotion for all levels of the .my domain name which includes .com.my and .net.my.
The company is currently offering a 50% discount for both registration or renewal until Sept 4.
.my Domain Registry is an agency under the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry and is regulated by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission.
Source: The Star Online
KUALA LUMPUR: Firefly will increase flights on its Ipoh-Singapore route from Sept 1 because of strong demand.
Firefly marketing and communications head Angelina Fernandez said in a statement that the carrier would be increasing its
flight frequency from four times a week to daily.
The carrier was confident that the additional flights would stimulate more travel and growth prospects between Ipoh and Singapore, she added.
She said prices for a one-way ticket start at RM88 and the travel time was about one hour and 20 minutes.
Source: The Star Online
PUTRAJAYA: All government hospitals, clinics and selected private hospitals will be stocked with Tamiflu, the anti-viral drug to treat influenza A (H1N1).
Private clinics would also be allowed to obtain stocks from relevant suppliers, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail Merican said.
He, however, warned medical practitioners not to use anti-viral drugs as a preventive measure because this could result in the virus developing resistance to medication.
Pharmacists have also been told not to dispense Tamiflu without a prescription.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, meanwhile, said that not all people who had flu-like symptoms need to be tested for A (H1N1).
YOKHAMA, Japan - Nissan unveiled its new EV today and while the car looks pretty good, the name could use some work.
It's the LEAF (Nissans' capitals, not ours), a name, the company says, that signifies the battery-electric 5-seater's ability to mimic leaves, which purify the air, by "taking emissions out of the driving experience" and thus "purifying mobility."
Ah well, they may need better copy writers, but Nissan did hand us a pretty sharp car.
And in what the automaker hopes is a prophetic pairing, the new electric car was unveiled as part of the grand opening ceremonies for Nissan's new, high-tech headquarters building in Japan's semi-official zero emissions city.
Leading the Charge
The whole thing points to Nissan's determination to be the global leader in advanced tech electric vehicles.
The five-seat, electric-blue LEAF hatchback is to be launched in select U.S. and Japanese markets late next year. The limited-market compact is to be followed in 2012 by the global introductions of two new, and smaller, subcompact EVs.
Nissan's quest for leadership in the mass EV market shouldn't be evasive if the Leaf (we're gonna drop those capital letters) lives up to its performance billing - a top speed of 90 mph, a range of 100 miles per charge with a sub 30-minute recharge where quick-charging stations are available, and cushion-compressing acceleration that will launch it from zero to 30 mph faster than an Infiniti G37, thanks to 207 lb-ft of torque from its 80 kilowatt (107 horsepower) electric motor.
Price Leader
To the degree that price matters, Nissan's also got a big edge in the EV world. Pricing hasn't been announced, but the company insists the leaf will be "affordable" with pricing equivalent to a well-equipped C-class (compact) car.
That's a European compact, though, and they're a lot better equipped, and more costly, than compacts in the U.S. So figure $28,000 to as much as $35,000 - not super cheap but less than the five-place Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid due in 2011.
Mitigating things a little will be the government tax credits in Japan and the U.S. that are available to purchasers of EVs.
We don't know the Japanese program, but in the U.S., a fully-electric car like the Leaf would qualify for a $7,500 tax credit - as log as Congress keeps the program funded. That would knock the actual ownership cost down considerably.
The Leaf's price, however, probably doesn't include the $10,000 lithium-ion battery pack.
Lease or Buy?
Nissan's global approach will be to sell the car but lease the battery pack, a concept that Nissan believes will make buyers more comfortable with a new technology by keeping the manufacturer responsible for battery reliability and performance and for upgrading their cars with new-generation batteries as and if improvements in EV batteries are made.
The approach in the U.S, where consumers might be leery of buying a car but having to lease an essential part of its powertrain, may be different, though. Nissan hasn't made a decision but may chose to simply lease the entire package here, said Andy Palmer, Nissan's senior vice president and head of product planning.
The idea that users wouldn't own the vehicles and would have to turn them back after the lease was up is a tactic that hurt GM and other trial EV makers in the California in the late 1990s, when lessees wanted to buy their vehicles and couldn't.
Nissan doesn't see it as much of a problem today, said Palmer, in part because leasing is such a common concept now.
We expect Nissan also would be quite willing to sell the cars after an initial lease - as long as the buyers were willing to continue leasing the batteries.
Decisions on the sales - or leasing- method as well as on U.S. pricing, will be made closer to the leaf's late 2010 launch, Palmer said.
Nissan officials say pricing was held down in part by developing the entire powertrain, including the laminated lithium-manganese battery pack - arguably the most expensive single component on the car - in-house with an eye toward affordability.
Launch of the Leaf EV next year will make Nissan the first major automaker in modern times to put a full-service battery-electric car into dealerships for retail sales.
The company will beat General Motor's Volt plug-in hybrid and possibly be head of Fisker Automotive's exotic and limited-production Karma plug-in, and while Japan's Mitsubishi and Subaru both launched EVs for sale to fleets in Japan last month, the cars are smaller, lower-speed, "city cars" with far less range than the 100 miles-per-charge Nissan claims for the leaf.
Murano Meets Megane
The concept unveiled today is pretty much what the production car will look like next year, sans the exotic paint and high-end interior appointments unique to concept and show cars.
Shiro Nakamura, Nissan's global design chief, told us in an interview after a private preview showing of the concept, that the Leaf, while all-Nissan in concept and technology, borrows a smidgen of design language from partner Renault's popular Megane compact, most notably in the notched hatch.
The elongated but curiously bulbous headlamp assembly designed for looks and airflow, the extremely short nose (there's no engine to hide) and the sharply delineated flanks and wheel cutouts are all Nissan, though. The Leaf seems to share a bit of the styling that went into the Murano crossover utility vehicle - no shocker when you learn that the leaf's chief designer (chief Leaf designer?) also headed the Murano design team, according to Nakamura.
Range Anxeity
Nissan knows that selling an EV - no matter how good the car may be -is dependent on making customers comfortable that the car will serve their needs and won't run out of juice and leave them stranded.
It's called the "range anxiety" phenomenon and to help assuage fears, Nissan first developed a car that can take you up to 100 miles between charges - sufficient for a 50 mile one-way trip if there's no charger at the other end - and also is working with governments and utilities around the world to promote installation of chargers.
The Leaf is designed with two charging inputs - one for a standards 110- or 220-volt line and one for a fast-charge system - so that owners can "fill up" at a variety of places.
Nissan's work with governments and utilities is to encourage them to alter permit and zoning rules to make it easy for private patties to install commercial chargers on streets, in public and private parking lots and in apartments and private residences.
Nissan also is urging utility companies to seize the opportunity and install public chargers in their service regions to help get the infrastructure started.
So far, the company has agreements with governments and utilities in nine regions in the U.S. - mostly on the West Coast and in Arizona - and, either alone or as part of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, in Israel, Denmark, Portugal, Singapore, Monaco Ireland and parts of Australia and England.
Connectivity
To further help do away with charging anxiety, Nissan has equipped the Leaf with a communications system that enables drivers to communicate in real time with a special information center to find out where the closest chargers are, which ones are open and operating, and whether they have fast of slow chargers.
The system also highlights in real time on the Leaf's standard navigation system screens the one-way and round-trip travel ranges the car can achieve before needing a battery charge, and sends signals to a driver's cell phone or PDA when a car plugged in to at a home or public charger is topped up and ready to go.
Now all they gotta do is get people to install the chargers, and to buy the cars.
