We talked to North America’s leading In Situ Leach (ISL) uranium mining engineers, and had them explain exactly how ISL worked. Most of the significant ISL operations in the United States were designed and/or constructed by these engineers. They explained how ISL mining is really just reversing the process of Mother Nature.

“Blossom” is what underground uranium miners called the crystals forming on the tunnel walls. Because the ore was in contact with air inside an underground mine, and as ground water moved slowly against the mine’s walls, a visible crust of uranium crystals would precipitate, or blossom along those walls. Making the uranium soluble doesn’t require a lot of oxygen and water because oxidization is a natural process. Adding more oxygen to the groundwater found in, and around, a uranium-mineralized orebody is the principle upon which present-day In Situ Leach (ISL) uranium mining is based.

Eons ago, the uranium was soluble and moved, on or below the surface, with the ground water. “In roll front uranium deposits the uranium was transported into the area through the natural groundwater system and precipitated from solution due to some reducing environment,” explained Harry Anthony, Chief Operating Officer of Uranium Energy Corp. Often, the reducing agent was something organic, such as coal, deep-seated oil and gas deposits, or hydrogen sulfide gases. In its reduced form, the uranium crystals are insoluble. “It will precipitate as a coating on the existing sand grains of the sandstone,” added Anthony. “As more water containing uranium sweeps through this area, and encounters this reducing environment, more uranium is precipitated until there is a sufficient concentration to make it a commercial deposit.”

After the geological team has delineated a company’s uranium “roll front” deposit and determined it is of economic value, the company must turn to its ISL design engineers to complete the “mining” process. While it takes stellar geologists such as David Miller of Strathmore Minerals, Bill Sheriff of Energy Metals, or William Boberg of UR-Energy to accumulate large, proven uranium-mineralized holdings, as they have done in Wyoming, New Mexico, Texas or elsewhere, each must turn to their engineers to extract the uranium from those sand grains and process them to produce an economic quantity of uranium oxide, or U3O8. The overwhelming majority of ISL facilities, designed in the United States, were engineered by Harry Anthony, Doug Norris and Dennis Stover.

Trained as a mechanical engineer, Harry Anthony has been involved with more than ten ISL uranium operations from Union Carbide’s Palangana in 1976 to Uranium Resources’ Bruni, Benavides, North Platte, Kingsville Dome and Rosita ISL projects. Anthony’s consulting work has taken him to ISL projects in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the Czech Republic. Dennis Stover is best remembered for designing Smith Ranch in Wyoming, now owned by Cameco Corp. With a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, Dr. Stover helped develop the first commercial alkaline ISL project in south Texas for Atlantic Richfield and helped develop an additional five small ISL operations in south Texas. Also a chemical engineer by training, Doug Norris’s paths have crossed with both Stover and Anthony. He helped build the Highland and Smith Ranch ISL operations in Wyoming, and designed Mestena’s Alta Mesa ISL operation in south Texas.

HOW DOES ISL MINING REVERSE MOTHER NATURE?

“In its natural, reduced environment, uranium exists as a solid in the +4 valence,” Anthony explained. “In the mining stage, we are reversing Mother Nature’s process by adding oxygen, oxidizing the uranium from a valence of +4 to a valence of +6.” The uranium was oxidized at one time, but then reduced by Mother Nature. By drilling wells into the ore zone, circulating the water and adding oxygen to it, the uranium is made soluble again.

Is it really this simple? Yes and no. Energy Metals Chief Operating Officer Dennis Stover outlined the process, “You’re simply adding, into the injection well, gaseous oxygen, just pure oxygen, but you’re doing it under the water level in the well. The natural pressure, created by that column of water above the injection point, allows the oxygen to dissolve into the water so that there’s no free gas being put into the well.”

Stover compared the oxygen dissolved in the liquid to the carbon dioxide dissolved in a bottle of soda. The soda remains clear, dissolved in the liquid, when stationery. “But when you shake it up, the gas will break out,” added Stover. “The pressure that’s available that lets you dissolve the oxygen is determined by the amount of naturally occurring water pressure that’s on the uranium deposit.” Stover explained that if the deposit is 100 feet below the water table, you can dissolve a certain amount of oxygen. “If the uranium deposit is 200 feet below the water table, or twice as deep, you can dissolve twice as much oxygen.”

Historically, ISL mining evolved from acid leaching to leaching with sodium bicarbonate or sodium carbonate. “Most people add only carbon dioxide in dissolved oxygen at this point,” Stover explained. “There’s a chemical relationship between carbon dioxide gas, bicarbonate, and the carbonate ion. The host rock typically contains calcium carbonate or sodium carbonate minerals.” By adding the carbon dioxide, Stover said, “It will lower the PH of the solution just slightly.” That enhances the solubility of the naturally occurring calcium carbonate.” According to Stover and the other experts, the addition of carbon dioxide is an effective replacement for the previously added bicarbonate ion.

The goal is to get the uranium out of the sandstone and soluble. “We’re accelerating Mother Nature and making the uranium soluble again,” said Doug Norris, engineering manager for Uranium Energy. “When it’s soluble, we can just pump it out of the ground. But it is dissolved in the water like salt in sea water. You can’t see it, but it’s there.”

“MINING” THE URANIUM

ISL “mining” and processing the uranium is a very simple process. It’s a water treatment plant with hundreds of water wells. There are two types of wells: injection and production. The water plus reagent (oxygen, carbon dioxide) is injected into the ground via water wells. Outside the United States, where environmental regulations may be less restrictive, an ISL’s aquifer may be bombarded with harsh acid leaching. On Harry Anthony’s engineering services website, he describes the process he observed in the Czech Republic, “Over 4,100,000 tons of H2SO4 (sulfuric acid), 270,000 tons of HNO3 (nitric acid), 100,000 tons of NH3 (ammonia), and 25,000 tons of HF (hydrofloric acid) were consumed by the mine.”

It would be nearly impossible to get an ISL project permitted in the United States using these chemicals to leach the uranium. The water quality division, within a state’s Department of Environmental Quality (DQE), demands restoration to background, which is about where the groundwater was before ISL mining began. “The less things you add, the less you have to reclaim at the end of the process,” Doug Norris pointed out. “The more stuff you add trying to get it out of the ground, the more you have to clean up.”

Dennis Stover explained how the fluids presently used came about, “Historically, most ISL operations had a great deal of difficulty with plugging or fouling of their injection wells due to the precipitation of excessive amounts of salts.” He pointed out that the chemistry miners were using in conventional milling operations didn’t work in ISL mining. “Because they had very high concentrated salt solutions, they were trying to accelerate everything,” Stover told us. “When you take those concentrated solutions and put them underground, Mother Nature is not always happy. Other salts that were present in the rock would dissolve, solutions would become supersaturated and they would precipitate out. The wells would plug up.”

Some of the early U.S. operations tried to enhance their production, for example, by using ammonia to enhance the pH of their water. “They forgot that ammonia is easily locked up by clay and almost impossible to get back to background,” explained Norris. “It’s pretty reactive and doesn’t occur that much in nature.” Norris would give anyone using ammonia during the mining procedure, “a 95 percent chance of having a very bad time.” Why, we asked? Norris responded, “It’s bad from the fact that nobody has been able to successfully clean up a site that has used ammonia.”

Norris explained that sometimes you have to add a carbonate source, such as carbon dioxide “to stabilize the dissolved uranium as uranyl dicarbonate.” Norris said, “The uranium is in a solid state in the ore, as Mother Nature left it. We oxidize it and turn it into uranyl dicarbonate.” What goes to the processing plant is called lixiviate, the dissolved uranium in its ionic form. According to Anthony, “Today, most ISL mining operates at neutral pH, and the uranium is complexed as a dicarbonate.”

Water is circulated through the injection wells with the expressed purpose of separating the uranium coating the sandstone. Each time you circulate the water through the orebody, you are capturing some of the uranium. Each pass through is called a pore volume. “It’s like filling up a bucket of sand with water,” explained Anthony. “Once you have the bucket full of sand, you can still pour in water. The amount of water you can pour in until you just bring it up to the top of the sand is termed a ‘pore volume.’ Pore volume is the interspatial volume.”

In Anthony’s models for operating an economic ISL plant, he calculates 20 pore volumes (PV). Porosity, or the spaces in between the sand particles, where the water can travel (permeability), helps determine how much uranium can be recovered. “It takes about 20 PV to 30PV to recover the highest percentage,” said David Miller, who was Cogema’s chief ISL geologist in the United States, before becoming President of Strathmore Minerals. “But, as the price of uranium keeps going higher, it may be economic to recover a higher percentage of the orebody. Maybe 40PV to 50PV will be possible with the direction the prices are moving. Of course, your average processed grade will go down. A few years ago, you would want to shut wells off at 15 parts per million (ppm), but now you might want to run them at 10ppm. At $50/pound uranium, you may be able to run at 7 or 8ppm.”

Typically, an ISL operation should recover about 70 percent of the uranium in the ore, under the 20PV to 30PV scenario. However, in the case of the Czech Republic’s Diamo project, once Europe’s largest uranium mining operation, only 55 percent was recovered. Clearly, the more uranium recovered with the least number of pore volumes, the lower the operating costs. Trying to recover more uranium is only possible if you have the plant capacity. Because of the rising price of uranium, we would expect more companies to attempt to recover a higher percentage of uranium. Miller warns, however, “You will not make your production quota if your plant is ’sized’ at a certain gallons per minutes at a certain grade to meet your annual production. If you lower the average grade and fail to increase your flow rate, your annual production will decrease.”

James Finch contributes to StockInterview.com and other publications. Get your free subscription and receive the latest articles by James Finch by visiting www.stockinterview.com. Write to James Finch at jfinch@stockinterview.com. Information about Harry Anthony is available at hanthony.com

Mouth Swab Drug Test

Drug examination has grown into a frequent problem around the earth. Many companies execute drug screens on newly working people or active employees to assure a drug-free environment at workplace.

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Okay, you did it! You earned your Cisco Certified Network Associate certification.

Now what?

People who pass the CCNA exam fall into one of three categories. You may be just entering the IT field you may be working on the LAN side and want to move to the WAN side (that’s where I was when I passed the CCNA), or you may already work on the WAN side of the network, and you want to move up the ladder.

One way or the other, you’re going to have to face the dreaded job interview. Some CCNAs do really well in interviews, and some don’t. I’ve been on both sides of that interview, and I have a few pointers for you to be one of those who do well and get that job.

Be confident, but not cocky. The CCNA is a great certfication to have it’s where we all start. Do not walk into the interview thinking you know everything because you have a CCNA. (I’m a CCIE and am the first to admit I certainly don’t know everything.)

Answer questions confidently if you don’t know the answer, that’s no sin. If you prepared for your CCNA the right way — getting hands-on experience and understanding tougher topics like binary math and NAT — you’ll be fine.

Do not stop studying the day you pass the exam. Knowledge that you don’t use quickly becomes forgotten. It’s okay to take a day or two off and celebrate, but you have to get back to work after that. Keep reviewing your CCNA topics, and get started on your first CCNP exam. I’ve seen too many newly-minted CCNAs who quickly forgot everything they learned for the exam because they stopped studying right after they passed.

Prepare for the interview like it’s another CCNA exam. Because it is. Except there won’t be any multiple choice.

Start preparing for the interview BEFORE you take the exam. How do you do that? Study for the exam the right way. Get some hands-on experience, either in a class or on your own rack of equipment. Get a quality Cisco education. Ask questions of those already in the field. By doing these things now, you’ll come across as a quality candidate on the big day.

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.
For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, visit the website and download your free copies. You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass the CCNA exam with The Bryant Advantage!

If you give a person the opportunity to shine, they will shine. Some of these American Idol contestants are just regular folk, with regular jobs and have now been given a huge stage to pour out their talent. Chris Daughtry worked at a service desk, but onstage his singing talent spills out on us like a waterfall. Unchecked emotion and pure passion constantly flows out of the guy. Isn’t it amazing that these Idols are just like you and me? The difference is that they have been given an opportunity to showcase their talent.

We all have hidden talents. We all have life long dreams. Sometimes we catch ourselves dancing and singing in the mirror. Some of us love to paint or crack stupid jokes. Some of us ask ourselves, “What if?” We all have our passions. We all have our doubts. We all allow fear to invade our dreams. So take a cue from the Idols and realize that if they can do it, so can you. Never, ever give up on your dreams. Never believe that you aren’t good enough. Whether it’s singing, dancing, acting, painting, or being the world’s greatest business person, don’t ever give up.

Take your talents and unleash them on the world. Unbridle your passion and let it set you free. Have you got some life goals? Right now might be a good time to start setting those life goals and realizing them. Life rewards action. You might even discover talents you never knew you had! It’s time now. Time to start believing in yourself. Unleash those passions, inject yourself with a large dose of love and show the world what you can do.

You too can be the next American Idol.

Please consider this article for your website, blog or ezine. Permission to reprint if by-line stays intact and
links are activated on the Internet.

Terry Vermeylen is one of those rare people that is passionately driven to help others unlock their own barriers toward fulfillment, meaning and purpose. He is the founder of http://www.mylifechanges.com/, an Internet value identification and goal setting enterprise.

Years ago (c. 1983) before I joined a gym, I tried various exercise programs to keep fit. With my meager budget at the time, my options were rather limited. I tried running at the high school track since that was a cost-free activity. I forced myself out on to the hot asphalt track for a couple of weeks one summer, but eventually gave up because it was too monotonous and my knees started getting sore from the constant pounding.

I then decided to invest in a Precor rowing machine, which I purchased from a local sporting goods store. It set me back about $235, but I felt it was worth it since I desperately wanted to get in shape. Rowing machines were also quite the rage back then and I wanted to get in on the action too!

I used the Precor rower religiously for a while. After all, I had sunk a good portion of my savings into it! The machine itself was rather simply constructed and as a result, there wasn’t much that could malfunction or break on it.

Of course it did squeak like the Dickens and also left ugly black scuffmarks on my carpet. I eventually put a piece of scrap carpet under it to protect my carpet. I also got blisters on my hands from the “oars” and eventually started wearing my winter gloves to protect my hands.

Now fast forward to the 21st century. Rowing machines have really come a very long way since my primitive Precor machine! They use some of the very same technologies that are also employed in the top-of-the-line elliptical trainers. Features found on higher end ellipticals are also found on many rowers today such as magnetic resistance systems that are smooth and quiet. They also have heart rate monitors either built in to the handle grips or via wireless chest straps and a Polar interface. And of course, they have consoles that display distance, time, and calories burned just like most elliptical trainers.

So which is the better piece of fitness equipment? Let’s take a look at some criteria that should be used when evaluating any piece of exercise equipment:

*Safety – rowing machines are relatively safe, but care must be used in learning the proper exercise form. Unfortunately, many people don’t use proper form when using a rowing machine and put undue stress on their lower backs. Like an elliptical trainer, a rowing machine is low impact, but since the legs are flexed and extended, this puts stress on the knees, which could be uncomfortable for people with knee problems.

*Ease of use – as with safety, learning the proper use of a rowing machine is vital. Unlike an elliptical trainer, where its use is fairly intuitive, a rower requires proper instruction and practice in its use. There is more coordination required between the lower and upper body when using a rower. However, this shouldn’t deter you from using a rowing machine. Just take the time to ask for instruction from a qualified staff member or trainer at your health club or gym.

*Quality of workout – a rowing machine can provide a great cardio-vascular workout. It helps to monitor you heart rate and stay within the appropriate target zone for your age, condition, and training objective. As with an elliptical trainer, the involvement of both the upper and lower body can provide all around muscle toning.

*Affordability – rowing machines parallel elliptical trainers in price range. Like ellipticals, they span the gamut from cheap models to top-end, commercial grade units costing several thousand dollars. And like ellipticals, you typically get what you pay for. So avoid the cheap stuff unless you want the grief and aggravation that goes along with it!

Rowing machines and elliptical trainers are both very worthy pieces of exercise equipment. If you have the luxury, then why not use both? Cross training by switching up between the rowing machine and elliptical trainer will keep your body challenged while keeping your workouts fresh and enjoyable.

And what about that Precor rowing machine I bought back in 1983? It’s still sitting in my storage closet. And what about Precor? Well, they went on to invent the first elliptical trainer 12 years later in 1995.

Rich Rojas writes unbiased Elliptical Trainer Reviews and articles on health and fitness. Subscribe to the EllipticalHome.com newsletter and receive a Free 4-Day minicourse on Getting Started With Elliptical Training.

According to Matthew Marotta, President of Datacraft Solutions, “If American manufacturers labor costs were free, administrative costs would still make them the high cost competitor.” Joining Marotta at the AME Boston 2005 Annual Conference is Kevin Sumstine, former director of Corporate Purchasing, Planning, and Logistics for dj Orthopedics. The two Lean manufacturing leaders will address, “Best of Breed Lean Electronic Supply Chain Best Practices.”

This presentation will highlight the latest technology for utilizing electronic kanban within the factory floor as well as with customers and suppliers. Electronic kanban systems combined with unique scheduling tools, dramatically reduces inventory levels, increases turns, enhances supplier/customer relationships and improves the accuracy of manufacturing schedules. This presentation focuses on implementations of these systems at a number of lean and non-lean companies and will show the dramatic results obtained.

Datacraft Solutions’ mission is to be the Lean Manufacturer’s indispensable partner in building trusted and efficient inventory replenishment networks. Marotta clearly states, “Where the right amount of defect product is delivered to the right place at the right time in the right quantity at the lowest possible cost.”

The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) is facilitating communities of like minded companies who are dedicated to implementing Best Practices within their Kanban / Consumption based replenishment process. Datacraft Solutions provides a best of breed kanban automation system via the web with services focused around Kiazen events that enable our partners of all sizes to gain a global competitive advantage when implementing a mission critical process within their organization.

Sumstine has a professional experience has been in Manufacturing, Purchasing and Planning functions within both Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Industries. He has had responsibilities for Continuous Improvement Programs targeting operational improvement activities, company-wide cost savings programs and supply chain management enhancements.

For more information about the Association for Manufacturing (AME) Excellence Boston conference visit http://ame.org/Events/2005/Boston/

Datacraft Solutions www.datacraffsolutions.com Matthew Marotta 800-819-5326

# # #

Tsunami is a Japanese term that describes a large seismically generated sea wave which is capable of considerable destruction in certain coastal areas, especially where underwater earthquakes occur.

In Japanese, “Tsunami” means “Harbor Wave” or “Wave In The Harbor” It is now internationally accepted as the term that defines a “Seismic Seawave.”

In South America, the term “Maremoto” is frequently used to describe a Tsunami.

Tsunami is pronounced: (sue-NAM-ee)

Tsunami’s have been incorrectly referred to as “tidal waves.” A tidal wave is a non-technical term for a shallow water wave caused by the gravitational interactions between the Sun, Moon, and Earth (high water is the crest of a tidal wave and low water is the trough).

Tsunami’s are formed by a displacement of water. This can come from the slippage of the boundaries between two tectonic plates, volcanic eruption, under-water earthquake, or even landslides.

Out in the open ocean, Tsunami’s might only be 1 meter in height, but as it reaches the shore in shallow water, it can rise to heights of 15-30 meters or more. Think about how a normal wave comes into a shore: the water moves away from the shore and then comes crashing back. This movement “heightens” the destruction power of a Tsunami.

Tsunami’s can also reach speeds ranging from 400 to 500+ miles per hour… about the same speed as a jet airliner.

The enormous energy that a Tsunami can possess allows it to travel across entire oceans. They often proceed as an ordinary gravity wave… having a 15 to 60 minute intervals.

From a destruction perspective, Tsunami’s have cost not hundreds of thousands, but millions of human lives over the recorded history of Earth.

Sources: U.S. Geological Survey & Pacific Tsunami Warning Center

Resource Box:

Joe Upsurge is a freelance writer and author with a personal interest in Tsunamis and other seismic wave research.

The aspiring factors in the land of Egypt may prove to be a beneficial business opportunity to all kinds of people; the country is very efficient in developing real estate business. Property in Egypt is available at a very nominal price and so it is a profitable option for investors.

The land is now being found by new tourists and holds a great historical relationship with the western country’s with the background of ancient trading ties. The government in Egypt has removed the payment of tax on land; as a result, plots of lands are available at very reasonable prices.

The Dubai-based company of Emaar has committed to pay huge sums of multi-millions of dollars to enhance the business of real estate in Cairo. A good level of advancement can be observed especially among the middle class rental sector, you can use this opportunity to expand you property ownership and collect good revenues in the form of rents. This system prevails in places like Cairo and Alexandria as well as many coastal resorts.

Therefore, the rising shadow of Egypt attracts the local market for the purpose of resale, as well as tourism cash. Property investment in Egypt is a lucrative offer since tourism in this country is expanding steadily. You can construct in Dahab and own a land in this area to keep your property ownership business flourishing.

Enterprise mobility – It’s more than connecting on the go.

The new Nortel vision of mobility redefines the possibilities for communication and collaboration in dynamic, distributed enterprises. It’s a surprising but very real statistic: 50 to 70 percent of office space is unoccupied during normal business hours (International Telework Association and Council). Where are these people? Some are elsewhere in the building or visiting another company site. Others are working at home or on the road. With the widespread adoption of telecommuting, wireless and various other “virtual office” technologies, this trend will only increase. How can companies ensure that time and distance do not become barriers to productive collaboration? What’s the best way to enable geographically dispersed teams to work together in ways that are natural, convenient and effective?

Ever since the adoption of the cellular phone in the 1980s, and the surge in wireless everything in the ’90s, businesses have answered these questions with various “mobility” technologies (http://www.sbc-one.com/mobility/index.php), such as in-building wireless LANs and cellular phone service. But as we take stock, halfway through yet another decade, enterprises have only scratched the surface of the ever-expanding possibilities. As key standards and technologies mature and new innovations reach the market, it’s time to raise the bar on what constitutes real mobility for the dynamic, distributed enterprise.

Enterprise mobility must make network boundaries invisible to the user.

Some vendors would have you believe that if you can wander around the premises with your laptop or PDA, you have arrived… or that mobility is achieved if you simply have wireless communications of some sort. But in reality, this is far too narrow a definition. Sure, wireless communications enable people to get away without losing touch, but is the wireless device the only way your users want to connect when away from their desks? Chances are, even guests in your own conference rooms or visitor offices are offered only wired Ethernet access to the Internet. Enterprise mobility should extend seamlessly beyond the boundaries of your company’s buildings. Users should be able to roam across town, on the road, or around the world anywhere within the reach of a LAN, MAN or WAN. And users should be able to connect in many ways when they are away from their offices such as via wireless LANs (WLANs) (http://www.sbc-one.com/products/large/applications/mobility/wlan2200.php), from an Ethernet jack in a hotel room over DSL or cable modem connections from home, or someday with WiMax.

Enterprise mobility should be more than just having some way to connect when you’re away.

Today, people carry a host of portable communication devices laptops, pagers, PDAs, multi-mode cell phones, two-way radio phones, etc. That’s fine and well if you don’t mind juggling a smorgasbord of electronics. Just watch business travelers unloading their pockets and briefcases at airport security, and it’s easy to see that we’ve traded some inconvenience for convenience.

Enterprise mobility should be about more than discrete mobile services. It should be more than carrying a device for e-mail and Web access, another for voice calls and another for urgent alerts. Mobility should capitalize on unified applications and multi-purpose access enabling users to not just connect, but fully engage, from afar. A consistent, quality user experience requires converged business applications that users can easily access in many ways both wired and wireless.

Enterprise mobility must be secure everywhere. It does seem like a paradox; the very openness that makes mobility applications useful would seem to make them equally vulnerable. You need free and easy flow across unsecured environments yet stringent protections against unauthorized or malicious access.

Enterprise mobility can resolve these challenges with a full array of security solutions that are easy to deploy and inter-operate seamlessly with existing network components such as routers, firewalls and existing authentication mechanisms. Collectively, these three elements point to a new model of communicating and collaborating across the dynamic, multilocation enterprise: a consistent, reliable, secure communications experience – anytime, anywhere and on whatever device you are using.

Towards a new vision of enterprise mobility

If we can embrace this broader perspective of mobility, enterprises really will achieve their stated goals of improving productivity, reaching new markets and delivering superior customer care. The technology enablers are here or on the very close horizon. Here’s a sampling in the table below.

Capitalizing on these technologies, we can redefine the possibilities. Let’s take a closer look at the three key dimensions of a new vision of enterprise “mobility”.

Enterprise Mobility Dimension #1

Eliminate network boundaries (or at least make them invisible to users).

Real mobility must span wired and wireless domains.

The new vision of mobility encompasses three classes of bandwidth:

> Wired bandwidth to the user’s desktop, enough bandwidth to support highspeed
Internet access, IP Telephony and multimedia applications

> Wireless WAN bandwidth, available just about anywhere, embracing enterprise WLANs, public WLAN hotspots, campus and metro wireless mesh networks and 2G and 3G public wireless services

> Nomadic bandwidth a combination of wired and wireless options for occasional, on-demand use by outof- office users, who may be at home, in a hotel or at enterprise and public WLAN hotspots

Edholm’s Law of Bandwidth observes that bandwidth in each of these categories increases over time yet retains a constant relationship (Phil Edholm, IEEE Spectrum, July 2004). The major implication is that the more plentiful and economical bandwidth becomes, the more applications naturally migrate from the desktop to mobile campus workers, teleworkers and road warriors.

To be useful though, basic connectivity for these applications must be natural, convenient and simple for end users, whether they are connecting on wireless or wired devices. This ideal capitalizes on the growing trend toward devices that have multiple connectivity options, such as public wireless/WLAN dualand tri-mode operation, wired Ethernet and even dial modem in a single device.

At Nortel, we’re already making it as simple as possible to use these different modes for wired and wireless connectivity. For the path of last resort dial modems a method is provided that makes it easy to select the most costeffective number to call based on dialing phone number.

The goal is a seamless experience that transcends traditional network boundaries. Users can roam from floor to floor in a building or campus, across the city and around the world. Wherever they roam, they enjoy non-disruptive voice, data and multimedia sessions, with little or no noticeable impact as they move around or cross networks. Dynamic network analysis transparently determines the most applicable connection point for data, voice and multimedia sessions.

You can achieve this ideal in progressive stages.

The first step toward this goal is a scenario whereby WLAN data and IP Telephony users can roam across subnet boundaries in a campus environment. IPsec mobility uses IPsec VPN sessions/tunnels that support a persistent IPsec connection. The connection doesn’t “break” when the user roams between enterprise WLANs, WLAN hotspots and public wireless services.

The next step comes with the emergence of dual-mode wireless smart phones and voice-enabled PDAs complementing public wireless and WLAN capabilities. When loaded with IP Telephony or multimedia clients running over IPsec VPNs, these devices will enable on-premises users to set up and receive sessions over the public network or an enterprise WLAN.

The final step is for seamless WLAN/public wireless roaming services based on IP networking and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). With this approach, enterprises can either use their own IP Telephony or unified communications system or subscribe to a hosted offering from a service provider.

On the wired side, true mobility embraces IP Telephony to simplify and enhance the user experience across network domains, enable new levels of convergence and profoundly change the way employees, partners and customers communicate.

Enterprise Mobility Dimension #2

Provide a consistent, highquality user experience.

Unified communications simplify today’s patchwork of devices and services.

Mobility today is delivered in a highly fragmented world of multiple devices, multiple phone numbers, multiple mailboxes, multiple security procedures, device-dependent interfaces and disjointed communication applications (such as telephony, IM and conferencing). This scenario is further complicated by the proliferation of mobile devices, ranging from smart phones and PDAs to tablet PCs and laptops, running under a handful of different operating systems. The new vision of mobility establishes a consistent quality of experience across these various devices, with “unified” communications that:

> Integrate presence across a broad range of activities and user devices, such as phones, PCs, laptops and PDAs

> Converge asynchronous communications (such as e-mail, voice mail, short message services) and synchronous communications (such as IM, voice, video and application sharing)

> Enrich mobile communications with voice and multimedia capabilities

“Engaged” applications redefine the possibilities for collaboration and customer care.

With the attributes of unified communications in place, applications can engage, not just connect. The network can deliver critical and time-sensitive information precisely when, where and how users need it. For example, imagine your customer support center being able to locate and engage the specialist that can best meet the client’s needs, drawing on a geographically distributed pool of specialists. Imagine a supply chain management application that brings the right people together anytime, anywhere to resolve a supply or delivery issue. Or a collaboration application that makes it easy for dispersed creative teams to spawn new innovations.

The pivotal glue for this vision is SIP a signaling and control protocol for initiating sessions between and among users, regardless of the media being used. SIP enables communications sessions to understand and preserve “presence” attributes associated with a person’s location or activities. When SIP is embedded in business telephony, users can connect over any device anytime, anywhere.

Here are some other examples of unified communications available today or being rolled out:

> Speech-activated voice mail, e-mail and fax handling by phone. Handsfree access to messages allows mobile workers to remain productive while away from the office.

> Web-based messaging and personal mailbox administration. Users can access messages and manage their personal mailbox from any Internet browser.

> Voice portals. Hands-free access delivers any information on the intranet, including pricing, supply, product and financial data.

> Speaker verification/passwords provide hands-free user authentication or another level of security.

> Access to Web portals from public PCs (no client software required) provides unified mail retrieval; voice mail, fax and e-mail handling; booking and handling of conference bridges; and multimedia collaboration with personal call routing rules.

> Location services offer location-based authentication and privileges, locationbased presence and I/O management (such as using a PDA to control display of detailed images on a nearby highresolution monitor).

Applications such as these make it intuitive and easy to use mobility applications applying technology to drive ever closer to recreating the in-person experience.

Uses are not just connected and engaged. They’re in control.

The frenetic culture of the Internet Age brainwashes us to believe that we must be constantly available to everyone, all the time. The notion is that collaboration and connection must be instant, on demand or else productivity will suffer. In reality, this kind of neverending connectivity can stifle the very productivity it purports to create. When employees can be interrupted at any time, gone is the focused opportunity to research and reflect, conduct private meetings with important clients and dedicate one’s focus to the task at hand.

Where mobility does have the potential to over-run its users, our vision of mobility gives users dominion over exactly how and when their communications follow them and when they leave them alone.

End users enjoy a high degree of control as to how their presence is communicated (or hidden), and how incoming sessions are handled based on caller, media used, time of day and ultimately even on location. They have tremendous flexibility to customize their communications to suit their work requirements, schedule and preferences.

With our vision of unified communications, users have a single control panel from which to access directory information, launch and/or receive multimedia sessions, participate in multi-party calls, initiate IM or application sharing sessions, track the availability of coworkers (via presence) and manage their availability (via personal agents).

About the Author

Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that enhance the human experience, ignite and power global commerce, and secure and protect the world’s most critical information. Nortel delivers innovative technology solutions encompassing end-to-end broadband, Voice over IP, multimedia services and applications, and wireless broadband.

Great website! You have done your work, now how to get traffic flowing to your site. A stampede of visitors sounds very good doesn’t it? A beautiful site without traffic is dead. A little secret I have learnt on my journey is that some poorly developed sites get great traffic and you ask how they do it?

Traffic comes from various sources, the main one being the search engines. We can examine the ways to get traffic and the inherent drawback if it is not done properly.

1. Search engines

These are the major way to get traffic. By submitting your site to Google and yahoo, you have set the ball rolling to getting great traffic. But often times ( and this is the part the SEO fail to tell you) , submitting your site means just that submitting.

First, it make takes weeks and months to get your site indexed by the major engines. So in the meanwhile get busy submitting to all the other engines you can , you stand a greater chance of being indexed and listed.

When you do get indexed by the major engines unless you are a niche marketer and or your site is well optimized and able to keep up with the ever changing algorithmic rules of the engine, you will not rank too highly.

Not ranking highly affects how many traffic you get. After all, how many people search through results to #3,876,456, and trust me that is a real page rank number. So maybe its time to look at other options if the search engines fail you the first time around.

2. Linking

Who’s linking to you. Linking plays an important role in determining your page rank. How important is still the subject of debate. The fact is there are two types of link techniques considered by the engines. One way back links and reciprocal links. Now which one is better is also a hot topic, but it might just be that one way incoming links to your site has more weight. At least with the search engines current logarithms. That does not mean reciprocal linking does not work, and in fact since it is easier to get, might be your initial starting point with links.

Whichever method you choose, ensure that you link to reputable sites and avoid site with a lower pr value than yours. Make sure the content on the site is relevant to yours as it gives added boosts to your sites ratings.

One quick way to get links is from link partners wherein an automated system is set up to link subscribers. There are monthly fees, and be advised that to pay large amounts of money to persons who will just use a link farm to produce your links makes no sense. If you are going to use it make sure you keep your monthly cost down.

While this methods of garnering links works well, there is talk that the engines are not looking favourable on it. But then again there is always talk. The trick is to keep you eyes and ears open for new developments with the search engines.

At the end of it all, can you get traffic from the link method you will choose?. If so, then choose what works for you. If there was one magic and correct way, then there would not be so many self help books on SEO and search engine algorithms. They are many sites who do not rank high on the search algorithms but do quite well because they get their traffic from link partners.

3. Buy Traffic

When all else fails or like many in addition to, you can purchase traffic. Simply enter web traffic into Google and see the results. There are both free and paid traffic hosts.

The free ones are quite good if you have the time to view someone else’s’ site, and I have personally used some and have tracked the stats. But sometimes it takes viewing up to 5 sites to get one visitor to you. Another drawback can be that the person only want enough credits so that they can get their own visitors, so they do not really visit your site as so as to check your merchandise, they simply load your page. This does not help you sell.

Traffic sites sell traffic to you as country specific, global, targeted and untargeted. The more targeted the visitor the more likely your chance to convert into a purchasing customer. The cost of the traffic package will vary depending on the type of traffic bought. Do not spend unnecessarily high amounts on traffic that may very well be an automated system ‘visiting’ your site. Do your research of these sites carefully before buying plans. Keep the amount low and if necessary spend it around different traffic sites. it is less like that you will lose all your money that way, and if one is ripping you off, chances are(we hope!) not all of them will.