Some Cool stuffs

2008-06-23T14:08:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

Get your @Live.in id now

2007-11-29T20:58:00.001-08:00

Get your @live.XX addresses for India, Philippines and Spain

Microsoft is offering email ids with @live.In. Just go here to get these Windows Live IDs.
These are in addition to hotmail.com addresses already available in these regions.
and now both of these offers 5Gb of email space !!

Highest Waterfalls of the world

2007-11-28T21:06:00.001-08:00

Name(s) (foreign)	Location	Source/River	Height
Name(s) (foreign)	Location	Source/River	Feet	Meters
Angel (Salto Angel)	Canaima Nat'l Park, Venezuela	upper trib. of Rio Caroni	3,212	979
Tugela	Natal Nat'l Park, South Africa	Tugela River	3,110	947
Utigord (Utigordsfoss)	Norway	glacier fed	2,625	800
Monge (Mongefoss)	Marstein, Norway	Mongebeck	2,540	774
Gocta Cataracts	Chachapoyas, Peru		2,532	771
Mutarazi (Mtarazi)	Nyanga Nat'l Park, Zimbabwe	Mutarazi River	2,499	762
Yosemite	Yosemite Nat'l Park, California, U.S.	Yosemite Creek	2,425	739
Espelands (Espelandsfoss)	Hardanger Fjord, Norway	Opo River	2,307	703¹
Lower Mar Valley (Østra Mardolafoss)	Eikesdal, Norway	Mardals Stream	2,151	655²
Tyssestrengene	Odda, Norway	Tyssa River	2,123	647²
Cuquenan (Salto Kukenan)	Kukenan Tepuy, Venezuela	Cuquenan River	2,000	610
Sentinel	Yosemite Nat'l Park, California, U.S.	Sentinel Creek	2,000	610
Dudhsagar	Goa/Karnataka, India	Khandepar River	1,969	600
Sutherland	Milford Sound, New Zealand	Arthur River	1,904	580
Kjell (Kjellfossen)	Gudvanger, Norway	Gudvangen Glacier	1,841	561
Kahiwa	Molokai, Hawaii, U.S.	Unknown	1,750	533
Takkakaw	Yoho Nat'l Park, B.C., Canada	Takkakaw Creek	1,650	503
Ribbon	Yosemite Nat'l Park, California, U.S.	Ribbon Stream	1,612	491
King George VI	Guyana	Courantyne River	1,600	488
Upper Mar Valley (Mardalsfossen)	nr. Eikesdal, Norway	Mardals Stream	1,536	468
Kaliuwaa (Sacred)	Pahu, Hawaii, U.S.	Kalanui Stream	1,520	463
Della	Strathcona Provincial Park, B.C., Canada	Della Lake	1,444	440
Gavarnie	nr. Lourdes, France	Gave de Pau	1,384	422
Cachoeira da Fumaça (Glass or Smoke)	Chapada Diamantia Nat'l Park, Brazil	—	1,378	420
Giessbach	Bern, Switzerland	Giessbach River	1,312	400
Krimmler	Hohe Tauern Nat'l Park, Austria	Krimmler Ache	1,250	381
Vettis (Vettisfoss)	Jotunheimen, Norway	Utla (Trib. Mörkedola)	1,215	370
Papalaua	Molokai, Hawaii, U.S.	Kawai Nui Stream	1,200	366
Tin Mine	Kosciusko Nat'l Park, Australia	Tin Mine Creek	1,182	360
Silver Strand (Widows' Tears)	Yosemite Nat'l Park, California, U.S.	Silver Strand Creek	1,170	357
Honokohau	Maui, Hawaii, U.S.	Honokohau Stream	1,120	341
Wallaman	nr. Ingham, Australia	Wallaman Creek	1,001	305
Spray Stream (Staubbachfalle)	Lauterburnnental, Switzerland	Staubbach Brook	984	300
King Edward VIII	Guyana	Courantyne	850	259
Gersoppa (Jog)	Western Ghats, India	Sharavati	830	253
Hunlen	British Columbia, Canada	Atnarko River	830	253
Basaseachic (Salto Basaseachic)	Barance del Cobre, Mexico	Piedra Volada Creek	812	246
Waipio	Kauai, Hawaii, U.S.	Kekee Stream	800	244
Kaieteur	Guyana	Potaro (trib. Rio Essequibo)	740	225
Kalambo	Tanzania/Zambia	Kalambo River	726	221
Wollomombi	nr. Armidale, Australia	Wollomombi	722	220
Feigum	Lusterfjord, Norway	Feigumelvi	715	218

1. Unofficial (estimated) height. Subject to revision.

2. Incorporated in hydroelectric scheme. Greatly diminished flow.

Microsoft TV, Coming soon to India

2007-11-25T21:52:00.001-08:00

Microsoft and Reliance Communications have signed a 500-million-dollar deal to launch India's first high-definition Internet TV service, executives from both firms said.

The Internet protocol Television (IPTV) will start early next year in 30 cities including the financial hub of Mumbai and the capital New Delhi, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and Reliance Communications Chairman Anil Ambani told reporters Monday.

"The IPTV will bring in a digital home concept in a world-class manner," Ambani said. "Until now television was a broadcast one-size-fits-all experience. IPTV offers subscribers more choice, control and convenience."

"The IPTV technology is in its initial stages of growth. In one year, we expect the US and India to be the fastest-growing markets for this technology," Ballmer said.

"In the coming years, all the world's information and technology will turn digitalised. Whatever can be digitalised, will be digitalised."

India's movie industry, including the widely known Bollywood, produces the most films worldwide annually.

More than 30 cable news and scores of entertainment channels have sprung up in the past decade as the country eased restrictions that had favoured a state-run broadcaster.

About 71-million homes in the country of 1.1 billion people already have television, and 61 percent of them have pay TV, mainly through cable and satellite, according to industry figures.

Reliance Communications, India's second-largest telecom firm, owns and operates the world's largest Internet connectivity infrastructure, 165,000 kilometres (102,000 miles) of fibre-optic cable that spans India, the US and Europe.

The service will use Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV software, a press release said, adding it was the Seattle-based firm's first exclusive deal for such services abroad.

The IPTV core planning team will be based in California while a research unit will be based at Hyderabad .

Both executives declined to give details on what content would be available or pricing levels.

What Is GERD ?

2007-10-26T00:08:00.001-07:00

GERD stands for Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease. "Gastro" refers to the stomach. Esophageal refers to the esophagus , the tube that carries food from the mouth to the stomach. Reflux means to back-up or flow backwards. GERD is a condition in which partially-digested food in the stomach backs up into the esophagus.

Partially digested food contains a strong acid. It also contains powerful enzymes that break down food. When acid and enzymes come into contact with the esophagus, they cause irritation, inflammation, pain, and other symptoms.
The stomach lining has a special protective layer that protects the stomach from acid attack. However, this protective layer does not exist in the esophagus, making it vulnerable to damage from stomach acid and digestive enzymes.

Many people think that heartburn (or acid indigestion) is a separate disease. It actually is one symptom of GERD. Heartburn is an unpleasant burning sensation under the breastbone that usually occurs after a meal.
Most individuals with GERD also have hiatal hernias , which make it easier for stomach contents to reflux into the esophagus. A hiatal hernia occurs when part of the stomach bulges into the chest cavity through an opening in the diaphragm . The diaphragm is a sheet of muscle that separates the stomach cavity from the chest cavity.

Facts About GERD

One 1 in every 4 Americans, or about 60 million people, experience heartburn at least once a month.
Almost 15 million people have heartburn each day.
Heartburn is very common during pregnancy. More than 50 percent of pregnant women have it occasionally and 5 per cent have it daily.
About 80 percent of people with GERD have a hiatal hernia, which makes heartburn and other symptoms more likely.
Hiatal hernias are very common, affecting about 15 percent of Americans. Yet only a small number of people with hiatal hernias have any symptoms.

Nice To Know:

Is GERD a new disease?

GERD is a relatively new term for recognized conditions commonly called "acid indigestion, " "heartburn," "reflux," "reflux esophagitis, " and "hiatal hernia." Doctors started using the term "GERD" in the 1980s because it better describes the real problem - reflux of irritating stomach contents into the esophagus. GERD is becoming the preferred medical term for these conditions.

Many people have never heard the term GERD and are not aware that GERD can have potentially serious health effects.
Doctors may still use other terms for conditions which actually are symptoms of GERD.

Nice To Know:

Q. What is heartburn, anyway? How does eating certain foods make the heart burn?

A. Heartburn has nothing to do with the heart. It's a popular term for the burning sensation that occurs behind the breastbone, right in the area where the heart is located. The esophagus also runs through the same region of the chest. It carries food from the mouth into the stomach, where a strong acid and enzymes help to digest it. When stomach contents back up into the esophagus, the acid and enzymes cause irritation and inflammation. That's the burning sensation in heartburn.

How to Hack Megaupload

2007-10-18T03:32:00.001-07:00

Two ways to fool megaupload........please try out any one of this two ways and download from megaupload without any trouble.........
IMPORTANT
If you have problems in downloading from sexuploader or megaupload then install the Alexa-Megaupload Toolbar. Once you have installed this toolbar you'll never get the country download limit message!!This toolbar supports only internet explorer… GET THE Megaupload Toolbar here-: http://www.uploading.com/?get=E70MQH4N
Download this toolbar this toolbar has no spyware or viruse I checked it out with spyware doctor.and it is just about 400kb. if you don't like it just uninstall it. JUST TRY IT TRUST ME MATE.
MEGAUPLOADER IS GREAT COMPANY AND NOT GOING TO DO NEGATIVE MARKET.YOU CAN TRUST THERE TOOLBAR.THIS TOOLBAR IS APROVED BY US CYBER LAW
OR
Megaupload and sexuploader have many problems but "i found a way to pass over this IP-block stupidity. go to www.guardster.com and clik the buton named "Access the Free Proxy" at the bottom of the page. Then, copy and paste the link in the box and click "I agree and wish to surf anonymously"
l maked test.. this web page is working
1. step www.guardster.com click
2. step select to Access the Free Proxy and click
3. step Address: http:// remove and copy megaupload link and paste here
4. step
Options: No Cookies - No Scripts (X) - No Images - Hide Referrer
Hide User Agent - Hide Title - Hide Header
......
remove (X) from (No Scripts) it must clear
and click "I agree and wish to surf anonymously" ...now Megaupload download page will opening .. it is opening little slow but download very faster.. You can make to download between 100 KB/s and 25KB/S speeds..

Cute Nissan Pivo 2

2007-10-09T22:26:00.001-07:00

Nissan Pivo 2 Conceptcar

TOKYO (AFP) — Japan's Nissan Motor Co. on Friday unveiled a new version of its egg-shaped Pivo concept car that can drive sideways and has a small robot to assist with navigation or calm down angry drivers.
The Pivo 2 three-seater electric car has wheels that can turn 90 degrees for easy parallel parking.
Like its predecessor, which was unveiled two years ago, the new Pivo has a cabin able to revolve 360 degrees, eliminating the need to reverse.
A round-eyed robot head sitting on the dashboard has cameras that can tell when a driver is getting sleepy.
"You look tired. There's a coffee shop 500 metres ahead on the left," it told a driver with drooping eyelids during a recent demonstration.
It can also nod or shake its head, helping to improve the mood of irate or glum drivers.
The car has "by-wire" technologies that use electric signals in the steering and braking.
Unlike the first Pivo, it has no axles. Instead it has four separate electric motors, allowing the wheels to turn further than a conventional car.
The Pivo 2 will be exhibited at the Tokyo Motor Show near the capital from October 27.

Onam: Carnival of Kerala

2007-08-23T23:51:00.001-07:00

High Spirited Festival

Late August or early September marks some high-spirited celebrations down south. People in the southern Indian coastal state of Kerala go crazy over the state festival of Onam, with ten days of feasting, boat races, song, dance and merriment.

The Origin of Onam
Onam or Thiruonam originated as a joyous annual reminiscence of the golden rule of King Mahabali, a mythical king, who ruled Kerala a very long time ago. It recalls the sacrifice of the great king, his true devotion to God, his human pride and his ultimate redemption. Onam welcomes the spirit of a great king, and assures him that his people are happy and wish him well.

The Legend
Facts and fables blend as Kerala celebrates this royal return, year after year with the festivities of Onam. Legend has it that the gods plotted against Mahabali to end his reign. For this they sent Lord Vishnu to earth in the form of a dwarf Brahmin. But before being trampled down to the netherworld, Vishnu granted the king's sole wish: To visit his land and people once every year.

The Custom
A flower carpet called 'Pookalam' is laid in front of every house to welcome the advent of the vanquished king, and earthen mounds representing Mahabali and Vishnu are placed in the dung-plastered courtyards. Traditional rituals are performed followed by a lavish feast called 'Sadhya'. Onam also means new clothes for the whole family, sumptuous home-cooked delicacies on plantain leaf and the lingering aroma of the sweet Payasam.

The Spectacle
Spectacular parades of caparisoned elephants, fireworks and the famous Kathakali dance are traditionally associated with Onam. It's also the season of many cultural and sport events and carnivals. All this makes Onam-time a perfect period to visit this coastal state, touted as "Gods Own Country". No wonder the Government of Kerala has declared this time every year as Tourism Week.

The Grand Boat Race
One of the main attractions of Onam, is the 'Vallamkali' or boat races of Karuvatta, Payippad, Aranmula and Kottayam. Hundreds of oarsmen row traditional boats to the rhythm of drums and cymbals. These long graceful Snake Boats called 'Chundans' are named after their exceedingly long hulls and high sterns that resemble the raised hood of a cobra.

Then there are 'Odis', the small and swift raiding crafts adorned with gold tasseled silk umbrellas, the 'Churulans' with their elaborately curled prows and sterns, and the 'Veppus', a kind of cook-boat. This traditional village rivalry on watercrafts reminds one of ancient naval warfare.

Thousands throng the banks to cheer and watch the breathtaking show of muscle power, rowing skills and rapid rhythm. These boats - all pitted against their own kind - rip through the backwaters of Kerala in a tussle of speed.

Onam is For All
Although this festival has its origin in Hindu mythology, Onam is for all people of all class and creed. Hindus, Muslims and Christians, the wealthy and the downtrodden, all celebrate Onam with equal fervor. The secular character of Onam is peculiar to this land where unity had always coexisted with diversity, especially during festivals, when people come together to celebrate life's unlimited joys.

Download BitTorrent Files through Your Browser without a Client Installed

2007-08-20T00:01:00.001-07:00

Let's say you're sitting in an Internet cafe or public library computer, and you want to download a file using BitTorrent. Most likely, a BitTorrent client like µTorrent or Azureus hasn't been installed so you might think you're out of luck.

There are actually two things you can do at this point. If you want to schedule a download to your home computer remotely, you can use µTorrent's WebUI feature to control µTorrent over the Internet. You can manage all aspects of downloading a BitTorrent file using WebUI.

Alternatively, if you want to download a file to a public computer where there are administrative restrictions on installing additional software, you can use BitLet. It's a completely browser-based BitTorrent client and probably the simplest way yet to download torrents.

All you need to do is point to a torrent file's URL and hit "Download torrent" to get started. For instance, let's say we want to download Lawrence Lessig's book Free Culture in PDF format.

The URL to the torrent can be found on Legaltorrents. Just paste it into the URL field, hit Download, and select the directory where you want to save the ebook. Then the download will start automatically. You can even resume downloads.

The only troublesome thing about BitLet is that you need to have Java installed and enabled in your browser for it to work.

Search Engine Market Share

2007-07-24T09:19:00.001-07:00

Yahoo Takes More Market Share From Google

Aliso Viejo, CA based Net Applications announces June 2007 world wide Search Engine Market Share results. Yahoo, for the second consecutive month, has regained search engine market share at the direct expense of Google.

Yahoo climbed back to 12.16% market share, and the last time they had that much share was back in September of 2006. But, at that time Yahoo was on the decline in market share. Google's US search market share has dropped to 51.53%. Net Applications has not recorded two consecutive months of search engine market share losses for Google until now.

It's intriguing to note that the comeback in Yahoo's market share coincides with the return of Jerry Yang as CEO. There may be no correlation at all, but if Yahoo keeps surging back, Yang may join Steve Jobs in the new 'hero' class of CEO. At the same time, Yahoo has promoted Susan Decker to President. Decker headed Yahoo's Advertiser and Publisher Group, and is responsible with Yang for Yahoo's strategic direction. They seem to have their strategic priorities lined up properly after several years of missteps.

For these and additional global market share results, click here

How to write a Good Resignation letter

2007-07-24T03:10:00.001-07:00

A change in job is an important time in one's career. While you may have written a great acceptance letter to your future employer stating your intent to join, it's equally important to leave your current employer on a positive note.

Writing a professional resignation letter would ensure that people remember you when you leave and the employers keep their gates open, in case you decide to come back in the future.

Here are some things to keep in mind when composing a resignation letter.

State your intention clearly

There is no need for lengthy explanations, you can simply state that you are resigning from your position to pursue other interests or opportunities. Keep it brief, but respectful, and mark the letter to your direct supervisor with a copy to the Human Resource manager.

6 good reasons for a job switch

Mention things that you would want to negotiate

Your resignation letter should provide a structure for your meeting with your boss. You can politely state what you deserve, such as a payout that was pending, vacation time, or any bonuses that were supposed to come your way.

Don't be overtly demanding, as you still have an exit interview to state your needs.

List down your current projects and completion dates

Your boss may not know the details of all the projects you are currently working on. It is your responsibility to remind him of the same. Provide a list of projects and their expected dates of completion, if there are any tasks that may not get completed within your notice period, explain the backup plan that you have in mind. As far as possible, finish the job and don't leave projects half completed.

Offer to train your replacement

You could also recommend colleagues who can take up your responsibilities, to your boss.
Share resumes of qualified candidates or recommend a valued co-worker for your position.

Also, mention your willingness to put in a few extra hours to train your replacement. Proofread your letter for errors and save a copy for your reference before sending it out.

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna to your job

Farewell e-mails

By the time you finish serving your notice period, the word about your resignation would have spread around. So there is no need for sending out a sobbing e-mail, or one which boasts of your accomplishment.

Just 'thank everyone' for their support and provide your contact details (personal e-mail ID and phone number).

A sample letter:

Dear Mr Sharma,

I would like to resign from my job with immediate effect. I have taken this decision to pursue another opportunity that would act as a catalyst in my career.

I would be serving a one month notice starting tomorrow and would like to be relieved of my responsibilities by February 15, 2007. I would like to thank you for your support and insights that made my stint a great learning experience.

I am currently working on the following projects:

Conducting market research for our proposed product -- slated to be completed by end of this week.
Studying the sales trends for the last six months and providing a report -- slated to be completed by February 8.

I would like to discuss the following when we meet:

My pending bonus for the current financial year.
Vacation time and its adjustment with the notice period.

I would like to recommend a few team members for my position and would be happy to train and support my replacement.

Please let me know of a convenient time to meet and discuss the same.

Yours sincerely,
Amit Sharma
Designation & department

So, when you realise that it's time to say goodbye, do it in style and make a positive exit!

'Launch Wave' of Microsoft Products Coming in 2008

2007-07-16T22:29:00.001-07:00

Feb. 27, 2008 promises to be one of the most important dates in Microsoft's 33-year history, as it will release a host of major new products, including Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.

The announcement of what it calls the "2008 Global Launch Wave" was made today by COO Kevin Turner at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver.

Currently, Windows 2008 is in beta 3 testing, with an expected release to manufacturing date (RTM) of this November, according to Redmond magazine columnist Mary Jo Foley, who blogs about Microsoft for ZDNet. Windows 2008, formerly code-named "Longhorn", is Microsoft's first new server operating system since Windows Server 2003.

Visual Studio 2008, formerly code-named "Orcas", is at the beta 1 stage, with beta 2 expected this summer, and an RTM of late this year or early next year.

SQL Server 2008, code-named "Katmai", is at the Community Technology Preview stage.

Turner made the launch announcement at the keynote address opening the conference. After recapping the massive wave of launches in Microsoft's fiscal year 2007, which ended July 1, Turner told the audience: "We're going to announce more big dogs today."

The products will launch together on Feb. 27, 2008 at an event in Los Angeles, followed by hundreds of other launch events worldwide.

As a result, Turner told the sold-out conference: "I see one thing in FY '08. I see money. I see monetization." And, he added, that vision extends to the partner ecosystem, predicting that "hundreds of billions of dollars will be available to you through monetization of these products."

Windows Server 2008 has been in development significantly longer than the other two products. Its forerunner, Windows Server 2003, was unveiled in April 2003. Longhorn's first publicly-stated schedule was for RTM in 2005. Since then, it's been plagued by delays, and even to meet the 2008 ship date it's had numerous major features stripped out.

Visual Studio and SQL Server development have fared better. VS 2005 was released in October 2005, while SQL 2005 shipped a month later.

source http://redmondmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=8800

MSDN bot

2007-07-16T07:18:00.001-07:00

A new way to search the MSDN library, You just need to add MSDNBuddy@hotmail.com to your MSN messenger (Sorry, this wont work with your Yahoo or windows messengers ), and start searching.

This is a little MSN live agent (bot) which helps you find information on the MSDN website.

Here is an example of how to start with.

After you enter your first comment, it will send you two options Whether to do a simple search or a complete search.

After entering the search option, again it will prompt you to enter the search string.

if you want to continue searching, then press 'Y' and continue

How to Become a Microsoft MVP

2007-07-11T05:12:00.001-07:00

Every 3 months, a new round of MVPs are announced. So I thought I'd take a moment to write about the "Unofficial" Criteria for selecting an MVP. It is important to note that this is just my opinion, based on my experience dealing with the MVP Program... as well as a hefty helping of common sense.

MVPs are Microsoft's "volunteer army". They support the community in numerous ways that Microsoft couldn't even begin to deal with. The best way to build a quality brand is to encourage customers to support other customers. It's cheaper too ;). If Microsoft can give you better access to product teams and free software to keep you happy, it doesn't cost them much. If they had to pay salary and benefits to every member of the community, their software would be nowhere near as successful. Don't think MVPS are the supporters of Microsoft, they are really the Critics of Microsoft, who help them in improving their products.
Microsoft MVPs are an important public face on the company. To that end, the company is obviously going to want some kind of control over what that face presents to the public. So they're pretty selective on who they award an MVP to.
If you look at the MVPs out there, Microsoft's selection criteria typically mirror their criteria for selecting employees. Again, with good reason - these people will be granted a high level of interaction with the product teams. They don't want someone dealing with the people they pay who will be disruptive to productivity. This is why many prominent Microsoft MVPs eventually get hired into the company.

So, if you want to become an MVP, here is my list of DOs and DON'Ts. They've worked well for me, although admittedly sometimes I don't follow my own rules.

DON'T be rude, vulgar, or disrespectful in your communication with other community members. Swearing, while OK during coding sessions and casual conversation, should NEVER be used in communication that will be read by many. It is uncouth and represents an extreme lack of control and judgement.
DON'T be in it just for a title. If you're looking to be the king of some imaginary social hierarchy, forget it. The MVP Program has been around a long time, and the Microsoft employees assigned to foster community and build the program will see right through you.
DON'T stop following these rules after you become an MVP. The honor is re-awarded yearly, and lots of people slack off and get dropped. As my daddy always said "I brought you into this world, I can take you out."
DON'T be a spoiled brat if you don't like a decision Microsoft made. The Visual Basic MVP petition fiasco is a prime example. Microsoft wants responsible adults as part of their program, even if they are young.
DON'T cause PR problems for Microsoft. It takes several good deeds to become an MVP, but one PR issue could send you packing. Taking them to task on an issue is one thing, but if Microsoft has to clean up a PR mess, you'll probably get taken out with the trash.
DON'T be elitist just because you've been in the industry for a while. You won't be around forever, and someone younger than you will eventually take your place. In this industry, you can be relevant one day, irrelevant the next.

DO be courteous every time you deal with a fellow member of the community. Give them the respect they deserve as a person. (This works well in life, too.)
DO interact in the community in more than one way (web blogging in and of itself doesn't get you in, you should also be involved in the newsgroups or Forums or something)
DO take extra time to understand Microsoft's position on decisions, and speak respectfully on those issues.
DO have an opinion on things going on in the tech world. Take some time to establish yourself on an authority in a subject area, and then expand your reach into other areas.
DO be genuine in your desire to help others. Microsoft's corporate culture is aimed towards the betterment of society. If that's not the center of your personal culture, you'll never be seriously considered.
DO exercise good judgement as often as possible. Rule of Thumb: Anything that will be indexed by a search engine should be well thought out before posting. Think ahead about whether you want that opinion associated with your name a year from now.
DO think of new ways to fill in the gaps Microsoft leaves in the community. If you have a crazy idea... try it out. You never know when you'll be mentioned in the next executive keynote.
DO evaluate your communication skills constantly. The better you can relate Microsoft's message to others, the more Microsoft will interact with you.
DO be consistent with your community work. You can't help out 4 or 5 people a year and expect to be an MVP.
DO look out for your other community members, and encourage others (especially young people).

And, a note to anyone younger than 25 - stick with it. There isn't an age requirement, so I wouldn't be surprised if a 12 year old put there somewhere could smoke all these old guys ;).

Hopefully, that helps some aspiring MVPs out there. We're always looking for new blood.

Source : http://weblogs.asp.net/rmclaws/archive/2005/04/03/396941.aspx

Microsoft Looks To Dodge Visa Limits With Canadian Software Center

2007-07-06T05:40:00.001-07:00

The company says the new center will allow it to "recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S." and station them near its Washington headquarters.

By Paul McDougall, InformationWeek
July 5, 2007
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=200900554

Among the more vocal advocates for the defunct immigration reform bill was software maker Microsoft. The company, led by chairman Bill Gates, has long argued that the U.S. needs to raise caps on the number of visas it grants each year to foreign high-tech workers.

The immigration bill would have doubled the number of so-called H-1B visas, but it died in the Senate last week. Now, Microsoft appears to be taking a different tack.

The company on Thursday said it would open a new software development center in Canada this fall and stock it with "highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S." Microsoft said it plans to open the center in the vicinity of Vancouver, B.C. -- about a two-hour drive from its Redmond, Wash., headquarters.

Only a handful of other, major Microsoft software development facilities -- in Ireland, Denmark, and Israel -- are located outside the U.S. Microsoft maintains an office in Toronto primarily to oversee Canadian sales and marketing efforts.

Microsoft did not disclose how much it expects to invest in the Vancouver site. A company spokesman said the facility will initially house 200 workers, "with room to grow." The spokesman said the Vancouver workers would likely develop software for the full range of Microsoft's products.

Microsoft in a statement said the Vancouver center would attract workers "from all parts of the world."

"The Vancouver area is a global gateway with a diverse population, is close to Microsoft's corporate offices in Redmond, and allows the company to recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S.," Microsoft said.

Virtually all major U.S. tech firms have been pushing for a relaxation of limits on the number of foreign high-tech workers allowed into the country, arguing that the U.S. faces a shortage of such individuals. Conversely, worker groups such as the Programmers Guild claim that no such shortage exists and say tech vendors simply want to import cheap labor.

Microsoft's spokesman said the timing of Thursday's announcement is not directly related to last week's demise in the Senate of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, which would have roughly doubled the current 65,000 H-1B visa cap. "It's not a direct response, but we're being upfront about the fact that immigration issues factored into the decision," said the spokesman.

With a software center in Vancouver, Microsoft could bring programmers from India and other low-cost countries to North America and place them within a two-hour drive of Redmond without having to obtain H-1B visas for them, assuming the workers could obtain Canadian employment authorization. It would also offer a place for Microsoft to station foreign workers already in the U.S. whose visas are close to expiration.

Microsoft's spokesman said the Vancouver center would be staffed with "a mix" of Canadian-born workers and workers from other countries.

In March, Gates told the Senate that he would like to see the H-1B visa cap eventually increased to 300,000. But with no cap raise imminent, Microsoft is looking north. The big question: will other U.S. tech giants follow suit?

Google loses "Gmail" trademark case

2007-07-05T23:01:00.001-07:00

A court in Germany today banned Google from using the name "Gmail" for its popular webmail service following a trademark suit filed by the founder of G-Mail.

Daniel Giersch (33), started using the name G-Mail in 2000, four years before Google released "Gmail".

"Google infringed the young businessman's trademark that had been previously been registered," said the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in its judgement.

"As far as the Hanseatic Higher Court is concerned, the legal situation is unambiguous to the extent that it has not allowed an appeal to the Federal Court of Justice," said Giersch's lawyer Sebastian Eble, from the office of Preu Bohling & Associates.

The lawyer claimed that it was It is a legendary victory, because for many Daniels fighting "Googliaths," confidence and financial means run out in the long course of battle.

The battle for the trademark has dragged on for three years and has been fought in a number of State jurisdictions.

Google has filed lawsuits against Giersch in Spain, Portugal and Switzerland.

"Google has announced, at least in writing, to 'fight' my client abroad for as long as it takes before he drops the legal claims lodged in Germany," Eble confirmed.

But a court in Switzerland threw out Google's case and now Giersch will file a suit to prohibit Google from using the name in that country.

"I have made it clear since the beginning that I will never sell the name," Giersch said. "It is my sole intention to realise my idea for a hybrid mail system. I am absolutely convinced of its success. Neither "G-mail" nor myself are for sale."

After the Google lawsuits have ended, Giersch hopes to focus his energies into the further development of "G-mail," which he touts as a new "standard of communication on the Internet."

"My hybrid mail system 'G-mail' is an ingenious blend of innovative and well-tried communications solutions," he said. "It
is subject to the principles of the sanctity of the post. Google, on the other hand, scans the content of e-mails to blend in adverts. Criticism about this from data protectors that Google has to deal with harms my business. My employees and I are involved in mix-ups on an almost daily basis."

source: http://pressesc.com/01183582507_gmail

Beijing is also the Virus Capital Now

2007-07-04T23:57:00.001-07:00

According to UK-based managed security services companyNetwork Box, Beijing accounts for 40 percent of all viruses that passed though the company’s servers in June, and 5.25 percent of detected spam.

This compares with slightly lower percentages for cities in countries noted for having a malware problem. Moscow was second for spam with 5.12 percent, Seoul third with 3.58 percent, Turk in Turkey fourth with 3.4 percent, and London in fifth place on 2.47 percent, statistics that are likely to be skewed to some extent by the company’s UK-based customer base.

But it is in the area of virus distribution that Beijing outpaces other cities in the Network Box figures. Its 40 percent score contrasts markedly with much smaller scores for other locations. Not all of these are prominent – the obscure town of Wattleup near Perth in Australia comes is number 2 in the chart, with 3.68 percent of viruses. Madrid in Spain is third with 2.48 percent, Taipei In Taiwan fourth with 2.35 percent, and Henan in China fifth on 1.71 percent.

“There is a real danger of Beijing becoming public enemy number one for global malware. The increases we are seeing are probably down to illegal software that can’t be patched. With the rise of compromised machines and botnets, this could have far wider implications for global internet security,” said Network Box Managing Director Simon Heron.

China has for some time been notorious for its malware and hacking problem. It has variously been accused of officially-backed information warfare against the US, and of leading on every malware count experts can think up to measure the menace. More recently, crackdowns have started to reduce the volume of spam, some have reported.

Source : http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?NewsID=9373

How Google's Page Rank works?

2007-07-03T07:49:00.001-07:00

General Information regarding page rank and back links

The first thing that should be understood is the way Link Back can make your site be in the top 10 search results in Google's search engine. Due to the fact that there are a multitude of websites with a similar density of keywords, Google will select the web pages according to their page rank. The page rank of a website is given by the number of back-links it receives. From here we draw the conclusion that a rise in the number of back-links will increase our page rank and therefore a better position in Google's search engine. But what is a back-link? Any link pointing from one website to another is considered by Google as a recommendation for the target website, so the more recommendations (back-links) you have the more important your website will become for Google and thus your website will be noted with a bigger page rank.

In the last two years the attitude of search engines regarding indexed pages has changer radically- from the appearance of sandboxes to the reassessing of back-links. From here derived the necessity of knowing exactly what needs to be done in order to catch a better place in the top when speaking of search engines. This website ( Link Back WEB DIRECTORY ) appeared due to these new changes and we hope that it will help you for FREE to obtain a better position related to search engines.

Back-Links and Google Page Rank short introduction

Why Google, why page rank, why back-links, why web directory? The answer is very simple: with millions of sites available for any kind of information/services/ products etc. appeared the problem of choice and efficiency from here the growth in utilization of search engines. Obviously an algorithm was needed in order to provide the user results that would be as close as possible to his search, without the necessity of looking at thousands of web pages that contain the words specified in the search engine. Therefore Google took on the "page rank" method. Everybody knows it and there are millions of webpage about the so called calculation formula of the page rank, in which back-links are the only factor that determine the page rank of a web page.

The formula is PR(A)=(1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))

-PR()= Page Rank of a webpage; example PR(Index.php) is the rank for the Index.php web page.

-T1.....Tn= all the pages considered by Google as back-links to your web page

-C()= the number of links that point out from the pages considered by Google as back links to your web page

-d= correction ratio with a positive value between 0 and 1, used by Google for corrections on the page-rank. In free translation this means that the more back-links that point to our web page and the higher the rank of the pages that contain the back links to our web page, the higher rank our web page will obtain.

It seems pretty simple ...but it's not quite as it seems. It's just like the definition of the back link "Back Link = a Link in one direction implied from the existence of an explicit link in the other direction"....something abstract and pretty confusing.

Let's take things one by one and just see what should be done in order to appear in a better position in search engines.

Increase Google Page Rank!

Rank It's very important to have a high page rank, but we are rushing again...if we are talking about a new website subscribed at Google it will be placed in "Google Sandbox", a testing category that will not promote the site as a result on the search of the Google search engine. The Google staff says that the website remains in the "Sandbox" a minimum of 60 days in order for Google to count exactly the number of back links and their accuracy. This routine prevents the appearance of new sites with high PR that might have been made artificially and therefore irrelevant.

Lets suppose that we have spent the minimum 60 days trial period in the Sandbox and in this period Google found 20 back links pointing to our webpage, the calculation formula was applied and our webpage resulted with lets say PR 2...what is to be done now? Simple...we take a look at the formula PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn)) and we will see that we need back-links due to the fact that the PR (page rank) is directly proportioned with the number of back-links.

The easiest solution might seem to subscribe our website on any available forums, in all web directories, to participate in all the link exchange programs etc. but we will only discover that the effort was not worth it , our PR will still be 2. Nothing has changed, even more, if we will use Google's link query link:www.mysite.com we will detect that the number of indexed links has remained the same. And here will start the confusion and the number of questions about how this actually works. So, is this formula correct? Why didn't the number of links indexed by Google didn't grow? And especially what has to be done in order to not only grow the number of back-link but to also have them taken into consideration?

Increase back-link to your site and make Google take them into consideration!

Google does not consider as indexed back-link every referral to your website, so what worked 2 years ago now is worthless.

this kind of links are not helpful now as to regards to the modification of your website's PR. Now Google needs a third identity in order "to confirm a link":

thus Google can confirm the link (recomandation), and also the words found in the indexing context are the keywords found in the third website, so they are more relevant from the search engine's point of view than the ones found in your own website. You can have and agreement with the third website regarding the keywords.

Very important is that we pay attention to the following: if links, like the ones illustrated bellow, are too numerous they can be considered as spam and this may end up in your total exclusion from the search engines. With our website this can't happen, but please be very careful when trying to do this.

So up to this point we have solved the problem of how to make our back-links be taken into consideration, but we still have to solve the problem with growing their number and implicitly grow our page rank. Now lets see!

We created this website specially for growing the back-links' number and we do this, just as we explained on the first page, by using two methods: 1. Back-links, page rank and keywords ANALYSIS and 2. Back-link rotation & Google-Bot detection.

PAGE RANK, BACK LINK, BACK LINKS distribution by PAGE RANK, HEADERS and KEYWORDS ANALYSIS

In order to see what you have done good and what not, what is taken into consideration by Google and what isn't, Link Back offers a complete analysis of your website in order to have a clear and and comparing view (that is why it has been built on the structure of a web directory) on how Google indexes, searches and attributes your website rank, etc. This way you can see your website's position in a search engine.

Detailed analysis of the back-links that point to your website and the page ranks of the pages where these are originated from. This way you can see how many of your back-links come from pages with PR 0, PR 1....PR 10

Analysis by comparison of your website with other domain related websites regarding page ranking, back-links, keywords, meta, etc. This way you can be up to date with last page rank change and the determining factors and also the evolution in time of the page rankings and back-links.

Logs of the google-bot's visits on your website and a complete analysis of it's reaction to your website.

Detailed analysis on keywords, meta, headers, etc in comparison (if necessary) with other pages from the same category (the most often found word, words in their order of appearance in keywords search etc)

The relevance of keywords.

A good thing to do if you make a new website or already have one is to make a list of maximum 10 words very closely related to the product or service offered by your website, and put them in the order of their importance. This list can be taken from our website through the analysis of similar websites, or by keyword marketing (the study referring to the keywords that have pointed most frequently to a website in a similar area of activity as your own. A very important thing to know is that these words sometimes are more important than the PR of the webpage its self. /p>

Thus it is possible that a webpage containing in the URL, title, description and content an identical word as the one found in your webpage, but in a grater number this webpage will be posted before your webpage even if your PR is bigger by two points. So it is quite very important to have the keywords in your URL, meta and even in the content of your webpage, but carefully, not with a presence over 3-4% because otherwise it will not be taken into consideration.

Back-Link Rotation and GOOGLEBOT Detection

Let's start by explaining what Google-bot detection means. Search engines like google.com use programs called spiders or bots that have the soul role of visiting your website and indexing its content (meta, headers, words, back-links, etc). So it's very important to detect the web pages visited by these bots and also the time of the visits because in this way we can have important information as: what percentage of the website has been already indexed, the most visited web page, meaning that this page is the most relevant, etc. We will mostly use the detection of the Google-bot and the back link rotation engine in order to be compatible with Google's policies regarding the exchange of hyperlinks.

What is the idea exactly?

Let's say we have 4 websites that participate at the back link rotation, website A, website B website C and website D. In order to consider what page rank every website has available we will consider website A with Page Rank (PR) PR0, website B PR3, website C PR6 and website D PR0. Obviously the website with the highest PR has also got to have high feedback. Thus we will make a list in the order of every website's Page Rank and we will use a signifier for the number of appearances (PR+1). So the list will be:

site A, site B, site B, site B, site B, site C, site C, site C, site C, site C, site C, site C, site D

So we will have website A once, website B four times, website C - 7 times and website D once. We will go through this list step by step, from the first record to the last, and when it will end we will start all over again in order to establish the hyperlinks as it follows:

- websites B, C, D simultaneous hyperlinks towards website A and Link Back web directory

- Link Back web-directory - all the links corresponding to the links from websites B, C, D towards website A - the links will change after one visit of the Google-bot (website A appears only once in the list- it's the beneficiary of the back links)

- websites A, C, D simultaneous hyperlinks towards website B and Link Back web directory

- Link Back web-directory - all the links corresponding to the links from websites A, C, D towards website B - the links will change after four visits of the Google-bot (website B appears four times in the list- it's the beneficiary of the back links)

- websites A, B, D simultaneous hyperlinks towards website C and Link Back web directory

- Link Back web-directory - all the links corresponding to the links from websites A, B, D towards website C - the links will change after seven visits of the Google-bot (website C appears seven times in the list- it's the beneficiary of the back links)

- websites A, B, C simultaneous hyperlinks towards website D and Link Back web directory

- Link BackLink Back web-directory - all the links corresponding to the links from websites A,B,C towards website D - the links will change after one visit of the Google-bot (website D appears only once in the list- it's the beneficiary of the back links)

This is for only 4 websites, but imagine it not for 100 but for 1000 websites. You will find yourself in the position where all the websites in the directory and all the pages of the directory itself will point to your website. This is the ideal situation in which we have numerous links and it won't be spam, also the advertisement and presence on other websites in different contexts.

All codes are generated automatically and are 100% free of spam or clocking. The subscription to the back link rotation program is optional, you can benefit from the analysis alone if you do not wish to participate in the back link rotation program.

Back-Link Rotation Program has started

Link Back rotation program has started. Every site that participates in the Back-Link Rotation Program will benefit from 990 distinct ip links. In order for the program to be in accordance with the latest indexing rules from Google, the rotation will be made inside categories and related categories from the same geographical regions. All links generated are automated and each website that participates to Link-Back Rotation System will benefit from links from all compatible sites for at least 365 Google bot visits per year (enough for a +1 or +2 in your page rank per year)

The general plan would be:

Features in analysis:

1. Google-bot detection

Google-bot detection serves in logging all Google-bot visits made to your website in order for you to have a clear image on the way your website is indexed, and especially if all of your website's pages are indexed, number of accesses on each page, the frequency of display, the type of the Google-bot that made the visit (content-bot, link-bot etc) and other important aspects.

The phases are:

and

Click here for the code that needs to be inserted in your webpage

2. Google-bot analysis

Complete and detailed Google-bot activity on your site:

in this way you have the following information:

a. If all the pages of your website are visited by the Google-bot and if your website is entirely indexed.

b. Most visited webpage- the webpage within your website with the highest relevance

c. The detection of the Google-bot type according to it's IP address (crawl for index, crawl for links, etc)

For this option to be available and to function you need to have the Detect Google-bot button activated.

Click here to obtain the code that needs to be inserted in your webpage.

3. BACK-LINKS indexed by Google

You can have a complete image on the results of your actions that mean to grow the number of back-links (link exchage, paid links, etc)

You can also benefit from a complete analysis made on these links.

Due to the large quantity of data that needs to be processed for the detection of the back-links, crew for new links is made daily, weekly, monthly. The default setting is for monthly rapport. If you wish to have a daily or weekly rapport please click here for the code

4. Back-links by page rank

The formula is PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))

-PR()= Page Rank of a certain page; example: PR(Index.php) is the rank of the Index.php webpage

-T1...Tn= all the webpages that are considered by Google as being back-links to your website

-C()= the number of links pointing out from the web pages considered by Google as being back-links to your website

-d= correction ratio with a positive value between 0 and 1, used by Google for corrections on the page-rank.

It is very important to have information on the distribution of the back-links by rank.

Due to the large quantity of data that needs to be processed for the detection of the back-links, crew for new links is made weekly, monthly or every three months. The default setting is for a rapport every three months. If you wish to have a weekly or monthly rapport please click here for the code.

Microsoft Fan Names Daughter "Vista"

2007-07-02T23:05:00.001-07:00

Where are all the Microsoft fanatics? Oh, they're around, and one of them has just named his daughter "Vista." If she was a boy, she was going to have the initials DOS. No kidding.

Two months ago, one of my colleagues posed a question about the location of the elusive Microsoft fanatics. One of the company's most important groups of fans is its Most Valuable Professional program, a group of Microsoft experts that use, evangelize and champion the company's technologies.

Evidently, that evangelism sometimes reaches interesting levels, as MVP Bil Simser's daughter Vista Avalon Simser shows. If you're wondering, Avalon was the code name for the Windows Presentation Foundation, the graphical subsystem of .NET 3.0. If she was born a boy, the first name would have been Dev, short for developer, and the initials would've been DOS. But alas, a girl "would have be an upgrade," and so Vista was born.

I wonder if there are any kids named iPod or Linux out there. There's at least one geek who named his kid 2.0 instead of Junior.

Of course, Vista's name opens itself up to endless humor, such as having her own personalized gear, future upgrades in the form of service packs, that unlike the operating system she was actually ahead of schedule, that when she turns 16 she'll have problems with drivers and crash, and of course this gem in the comments: "Vista is asking your permission to see her boyfriend. Allow or Disallow."

Source : http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/07/microsoft_fan_n.html

Search Engine Optimization Improving Your Page Rank in Google

2007-07-01T02:09:00.001-07:00

As long as you're not doing it deceptively or fraudulently, there's nothing wrong with trying to improve your site's search engine rankings. This is what search engine optimization (SEO) is all about.

Do You Crawl Here Often?

Improving your site's search engine rankings is a slow process because it depends on how often search engines crawl your site, and that may happen as seldom as every few weeks there's no set schedule.

There are two basic techniques for improving a page's ranking.

The first is to ensure that the page has good content and good keyword density. This should be a no-brainer,you should already be creating your pages this way if you want AdSense to display relevant ads. Watch for missing keywords, though try to figure out what people are really searching for and make sure your page gets included in the search results.

The other technique is to get highly ranked pages to link to your page. This increases the relative importance of your own page, especially if the anchor text of the link (the text that the user clicks to activate the link) contains keywords relevant to your site. While this technique works especially well with Google, where the popularity of a page is a fundamental part of the PageRank formula, all search engines use incoming links as an important ranking tool. Note that the reverse can also be true: Incoming links from poorly ranked pages especially those that have been removed from search engine indexes due to overt attempts at page-rank manipulation will drag down the page's ranking.

As you might imagine, obtaining high-quality incoming links to your site can be a challenge. You can try to initiate a link swap with the other site, whereby you both agree to link to each other's sites the classic "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" situation. But link swaps only work if both parties feel they have something to gain from the relationship.

Of course, if you have unique, useful content, other sites will start linking to yours without any prompting on your part. This can be a mixed blessing, however, because you have no control over the quality of those incoming links.

How to remove blogger Navigation bar

2007-06-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

Log on to you blogger account, click the Layout link and choose the "Edit HTML" option, now copy and paste the following code inside the template

#navbar-iframe {
height:0px;
visibility:hidden;
display:none
}

Make your XP look like Vista

2007-06-24T09:01:00.001-07:00

Hey, even if you can't get your hands on Vista until next year, you could still make your XP look and act like Microsoft's next OS.

I found lots of tools for converting your existing Windows XP Interface to Vista interface, the best and the safer tool is Vista Transformation Pack. I have installed it on many times on different machines and it worked like a charm, the only problem i faced was, after the "windows updation" some of the existing looks changed from Vista to XP, the main notable change is with the Boot Screen, it changed from Vista to XP.

Vista's new Aeroglass interface isn't just window dressing, it also helps you find data faster and move more quickly between open windows. Luckily, you can add many of Vista's shiny, bright interface elements to XP. For example, Vista will list a file's properties and other metadata in a pane at the bottom of Explorer windows. The freeware utility InfoTip Extension lets you beef up the pop-up info tips you see when you hover over a file icon, customizing the information that appears and even displaying the contents of a text file. Unfortunately, this utility was designed for older versions of Windows and a few of its features don't work in XP. Also, it provides no extra information for MP3, WMA, WMV and other music and video files (which arguably already have pretty good info tips). But, hey, it's still more convenient than opening a file's Properties dialog box.
Vista's new features will also show you a thumbnail preview of open files and applications when you hold the pointer over each taskbar button. Microsoft's Alt-Tab Replacement PowerToy already gives you the keyboard equivalent: after you download and install the program, simply hold the <Alt> key and press <Tab>, as you normally would to switch between running apps, and you'll see a thumbnail preview of each app in succession, though you won't see a preview if the app is minimized. If, for some reason, you don't want the Microsoft version, try TaskSwitchXP and Alt-Tab Thingy--two freebies that do much the same thing, and throw in some extra features as well.
For a very Mac-like way to switch applications, try the US$10 shareware program WinPlosion. As with Mac OS X's Expose feature, moving your pointer to a designated corner will cause all open windows to display in a zoomed-out view; click one to restore the previous view, but with the targeted window in front.
If you're looking for some of the transparency that Vista's interface uses, you can buy tools that apply various see-through effects to Windows (such as the US$20 Actual Transparent Windows from Actual Tools). But, why bother? Freeware can do most of the same tricks sans cost. If you want only your taskbar to have a degree of transparency, check out Transbar from AKSoftware. On the other hand, if you want transparency only for your application windows, the free PowerMenu not only handles that task, but also makes windows stay on top of all others, minimizes them to the taskbar with a single click and changes their processing priority to suit your preferences. If you want to apply transparency to windows and to the taskbar, Vasilios Freeware's TransApps can do both--but little else. Finally, the aforementioned Alt-Tab Thingy can ghost any inactive window so that it becomes partially transparent and also invisible to mouse clicks (the clicks pass through to whatever is underneath). The window returns to full opacity and normal behavior once it becomes active again.
To apply Vista's cool new glasslike sheen to your windows, look no farther than the granddaddy of skinning utilities, WindowBlinds from Stardock, or the equally capable StyleXP from TGT Soft. These programs cost US$20 each and offer a free trial. Last, but not least, you can obtain Desktop Sidebar, a free version of Vista's sidebar feature that displays weather information, stock quotes, RSS feeds and other timely information.

Firewalls Comparison

2007-06-24T08:22:00.001-07:00

1.1 How Does Your Firewall Rate?
At this site they test all the major firewalls using leak-tests. Now outbound leak-testing is only one criterion for assessing firewall performance indeed some would argue that inbound protection is more important. My view is that both are important as are user friendliness, resource usage, software compatibility and resistance to termination by hostile agents. That said Comodo, Jetico and ZoneAlarm Pro top he list while the Microsoft XP SP2 firewall get the wooden spoon. ZoneAlarm free was another notable poor performer.

Product		Product Score	Level of Anti-leak Protection
	Comodo Firewall Pro 2.4.18.184FREE	9475	Excellent
	Jetico Personal Firewall 2.0.0.28 beta	9375	Excellent
	ZoneAlarm Pro 7.0.337.000	8600	Very good
	Lavasoft Personal Firewall 2.0.1019.7604 (700)	8500	Very good
	Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0.0.119	8375	Very good
	Online Armor Personal Firewall 2.0.1.190	8000	Very good
	System Safety Monitor 2.4.0.617 beta	7975	Very good
	Jetico Personal Firewall 1.0.1.61 FreewareFREE	7750	Very good
	Privatefirewall 5.0.8.11	7625	Very good
	Ghost Security Suite [BETA] 1.110	7500	Very good
	Dynamic Security Agent 1.0.8.8FREE	7375	Good
	Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2007 15.30.1151	7000	Good
	F-Secure Internet Security 2007 7.01.128	6625	Good
	Outpost Firewall PRO 4.0 (1007.591.145)	6550	Good
	ProSecurity 1.30	6500	Good
	BlackICE PC Protection 3.6.cpv	5750	Poor
	Sunbelt Personal Firewall 4.5.916	5200	Poor
	Look 'n' Stop 2.05p2	4800	Poor
	Safety.Net 3.61.0002FREE	4000	Poor
	Norton Internet Security 2007 10.2.0.30	3100	Very poor
	PC Tools Firewall Plus 2.0.0.25FREE	2625	Very poor
	Avira Premium Security Suite 7 build 98	2450	Very poor
	SensiveGuard 1.06FREE	2350	Very poor
	Sygate Personal Firewall 5.6.2808FREE	2350	Very poor
	McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006 8.0	2325	Very poor
	Blink Personal Edition 3.0.8.1496FREE	2250	Very poor
	ZoneAlarm Free 7.0.302.000FREE	1500	Very poor
	CA Personal Firewall 2007 3.0.0.196	1000	None
	Outpost Firewall Free 1.0.1817.1645FREE	1000	None
	BitDefender Internet Security 10.108	750	None
	Norman Personal Firewall 1.42	750	None
	Panda Antivirus + Firewall 2007 6.00.00	650	None
	Filseclab Personal Firewall 3.0.0.8686FREE	500	None
	Ashampoo FireWall Pro 1.14	500	None
	AVG Anti-Virus plus Firewall 7.5.431	500	None
	Windows Firewall XP SP2FREE	0	None

http://www.matousec .com/projects/ windows-personal -firewall- analysis/ leak-tests- results.php

1.2 Utilities that Work with Vista
If you use Vista you will already have discovered that many of your favorite freeware and shareware utilities won't work with Vista. At this site they list many utilities that will work. Note: despite the site's name, a good proportion of the products listed are non Vista. Many are also commercial shareware not freeware.
http://www.freevist afiles.com/

1.3 Free Web Based Applications
In recent issues I've mentioned how web based application may one day replace some of the programs currently running on your PC. Here's a list of just some of the products and services available.
http://tinyurl. com/2dztm8 (cogniview.com)

1.4 The Great Defrag Shoot-out
One of the best comparative reviews of defragment utilities I've seen. I don't agree with all the author's comments but hey, everyone is entitled to their opinion.
http://donnedwards. openaccess. co.za/2007/ 04/great- defrag-shootout- part-1.html

1.5 How to Permanently Wipe a Hard Drive
Most users are aware they can securely erase files and drives using free utilities like "Eraser" [1] and "Boot and Nuke" [2] that overwrite the data multiple times. At this site [3], suggested by subscriber Chris Price, they show how you can securely wipe a drive using a little-known feature built into many hard drives.
http://www.heidi. ie/eraser/
http://dban. sourceforge. net/
http://blogs. zdnet.com/ storage/? p=129&tag=nl.e622

1.6 Portable Software Lists
There are lots of these lists; none is complete but here are two of the best. The first covers free software while the second includes commercial products as well.
http://www.portable freeware. com/
http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ List_of_portable _software

1.7 Free Online Services Offer RoboForm-like Functionality

1.8 How to Reduce Your Spam

1.9 Free Service Monitors Website and Server Uptime and Performance

TOP FREEWARE AND SHAREWARE UTILITIES

2007-06-24T05:32:00.001-07:00

1.1 How to Mute Unwanted Website Sounds
Internet Explorer allows you turn off all webpage sound from the Advanced tab within Tools /Internet options however I find this very inconvenient as sometimes you want to listen to web audio. Firefox doesn't even offer an audio mute option at all but there is a free Firefox extension called Stop AutoPlay [2] that is designed specifically for the job. It works by adding a browser button that rather conveniently allows you to play or mute at will. It doesn't stop Flash sound files but if you use FlashMute in addition to Stop AutoPlay you have a pretty complete solution to all unwanted web sound.
[1] http://www.indev. no/?p=projects# flashmute Freeware, Windows 98-XP, 233KB
[2] https://addons. mozilla.org/ en-US/firefox/ addon/1765
1.2 Compress Your Files to the Max
ZIP may the most common algorithm for compressing files but it's far from the most effective. The Open Source 7-ZIP for example offers higher compression for most files but there are specialist archive formats that offer higher still., KGBArchiver V1.21 proved to be a competent well implemented archiver offering 10 different levels of compression using the PAQ algorithm. Archives are created in .kgb format. It also can create self extracting archives, supports ZIP, has drag and drop, a right click context menu and a few other niceties. It's not really a substitute for WinZip or IZArc but a specialist product aimed at those seeking to compress files down to the smallest possible size. Here are the results along with some other popular archive formats for comparison:

At its default setting KGBArchiver performed competently but on average, no better than WinRAR or 7-ZIP. At its "extreme" setting it did a great job at compressing plain text files but struggled to squeeze anything more out of the other file types. The 5.5MB .exe file took nearly 7 minutes and a similar time to extract while by comparison WinZip did it in 4 seconds and WinRAR in 9. Furthermore KGBArchiver consumed computer's entire CPU and memory resources while compressing. So is it worth it? Not for most users. However sysadmins and archivists with large text files to store (and plenty of CPU time) should at least check it out. Freeware, Windows 2000-Vista, 1.02MB
http://kgbarchiver. net

1.3 Free Portable Media Player Tops Its Class
The KMPlayer" that can either be run from a thumb drive or installed. It supports numerous formats including DVD playback. It comes with a whole batch of inbuilt codecs and support for external codecs as well. In the audio area it supports AC3, DTS, LPCM, MP2, MP3, Vorbis, AAC, WMA, ALAC, AMR, QDM2, FLAC, TTA, IMA ADPCM, QCELP, EVRC, RealAudio and more while with video you can play DivX, XviD, Theora, WMV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VP3, VP5, VP6, H263(+), H.264(AVC1), CYUY, ASV1/2, VQ1/3, MSVIDC, Cinepak, MS MPEG4 V1/2/3, FFV1, VCR1, FLV1, MSRLE, QTRLE Huffyuv, Digital Video, Indeo3, MJPEG. To have these features available on a thumb drive is quite extraordinary. Freeware, Windows 98-2003, 12.3MB.
http://www.kmplayer .com/forums/ index.php
http://www.kmplayer .com/forums/ showthread. php?t=4704<= Link to download
1.4 Using a USB Drive as a Laptop Replacement
Regular contributor "Briard" takes a break from the world of Linux and instead explores the potential of Windows flash drive computing.
http://www.techsupp ortalert. com/briard_ in_usbland. htm
1.5 Symantec Norton 360:
15 day trial, Windows XP - Vista, 49.4MB.
[1] http://www.symantec .com/norton360/
[2] http://www.pcpro. co.uk/reviews/ 110678/norton- 360.html
[3] http://reviews. cnet.com/ internet- security- and-firewall/ norton-360/ 4505-3667_ 7-32330411. html
[4] http://www.techsupp ortalert. com/review- norton-360. htm

2.0 SECURITY PATCHES, SERVICE RELEASES AND UPDATES
2.1 Microsoft Security News
In the last month a new series of JavaScript related flaws were discovered in Internet Explorer [1]. These flaws could be exploited even if fully patched version of IE 6 and 7 and allow a hostile website to take control of an affected PC. A related flaw was also found in Firefox. As of today these flaws remain unpatched.
These flaws highlight yet again that you cannot rely on regularly applying Windows and other vendor updates to protect your computer when surfing. Always surf in sandbox or with your browser running with reduced rights. See item 2.6 below.
Patch Tuesday the 12th of June saw the release of six security updates from Microsoft, four of which were rated "Critical." The critical updated covered flaws in Windows, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and Microsoft Mail. Another flaw rated "moderate" affected Vista systems and could allow "non-privileged users to access local user information data stores including administrative passwords contained within the registry and local file system."
Further details of the June updates can be found here [2]. All the updates are distributed automatically via the Microsoft Update Service. Dial-up users in particular need to be aware that these updates are large files and you will need a considerable period of time online for them to download successfully. If you have any doubts whether you have received the updates, then visit the Microsoft Update Service [3] now.
[1] http://lists. grok.org. uk/pipermail/ full-disclosure/ 2007-June/ 063712.html
[2] http://www.microsof t.com/technet/ security/ bulletin/ ms07-jun. mspx
[3] http://update. microsoft. com (Requires IE5 or later)

2.2 Firefox Updated to V2.0.0.4
Mozilla released a performance and security update for Firefox on the 30th of May. The new version 2.0.0.4 has better Vista compatibility and fixes five security flaws one of which was rated as "critical." Also released were the corresponding updates for the older Firefox V1.5, Thunderbird and the SeaMonkey Suite. To my knowledge there are no current exploits in circulation that utilize these flaws however, it is essential that you update now as the malware developers routinely reverse engineer security updates to identify flaws to exploit in unpatched machines. Users with automatic updates enabled should have had the new version automatically delivered and installed. You can check by selecting Help / About from within Firefox. If your version number is less than V2.0.0.4, then update manually from here [1]:
http://www.mozilla. com/firefox/
2.3 No More Updates for Firefox V1.5
Support for the old V1.5 version of Firefox was discontinued by Mozilla at the end of May. V1.5 users should upgrade to V2 as soon as possible any newly discovered flaws in the old version will not be patched. Starting from June 7th users with the automatic update service enabled will be advised of the upgrade. Other users should upgrade manually here:
http://www.mozilla. com/en-US/ firefox/
2.4 Serious Flaw in Yahoo Messenger
A critical buffer overflow flaw was discovered in the popular Yahoo Messenger instant messaging product. The flaw could allow a hostile website to take full control of a vulnerable PC. The flaw affects all versions of Messenger from 5.5.0 through to 8.0.0. All users should upgrade immediately to version 8.1.0.401 available from here [1].
[1] http://messenger. yahoo.com/
2.5 New QuickTime Security Patch Underscores Need to Keep Programs Updated
A patch for QuickTime 7.1.6 was released by Apple on the 29th of May to cover a Java Extensions flaw that could allow a PC to be compromised by simply by visiting a hostile website. Affected systems include Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP2, OS X v10.3.9 and v10.4.9. The Windows patch can be downloaded from here [1]. This flaw highlights the need for users to keep all the software on their PC up-to-date not just Windows and Office. You can easily check all your products by using the free service Software Inspector service [2] over at Secunia.
[1] http://www.apple. com/support/ downloads/ securityupdatequ icktime716forwin dows.html
[2] http://secunia. com/software_ inspector/
2.6 How to Protect Your PC Against Hostile Sites, Browser Flaws
Recent reports from Google [1] and Sophos [2] have highlighted the rapid increase the number of hostile websites. These sites use flaws in popular browsers as well as Windows to secretly infect anyone who happens to accidentally visit them. Keeping all your products up-to-date reduces your risk of infection but increasingly these hostile sites are exploiting new or unpatched flaws to attack visitor's computers. It's not hard to protect your PC against these threats: surf from within a sandbox such as Sandboxie or alternatively run your browser with reduced rights. To help you I've written a short how-to guide [3] that's now on my website. If you are not yet using these protective techniques I strongly recommend you read this guide and adopt its recommendations.
[1] http://googleonline security. blogspot. com/
[2] http://www.secureco mputing.net. au/news/53424, number-of- infected- web-pages- soar.aspx
[3] http://www.techsupp ortalert. com/safe- surfing.htm
2.7 Goggle's Security Blog Hints at the Future
Found this blog [1] quite informative, particularly the observation about the potential vulnerability of virtualization based security products. With the appearance of this blog and the recent purchase of the company that makes the GreenBorder sandbox, it looks like something is definitely brewing at Google in the security arena. Then there's the recent announcement of Google Gears [2], a toolkit that allows developers to modify their online applications to work offline as well. My guess is that Google is working on a secure browser for its online apps that also allows offline access through the Google toolbar. Maybe I'm not guessing, just fantasizing :>)
[1] http://googleonline security. blogspot. com/
[2] http://code. google.com/ apis/gears/-

2.8 The Best Windows Backup Software
If you have been looking for a backup program, this is the one.
http://www.backup- software- reviews.com/

2.9 The Best Spyware Detector
If you use Ad-aware or SpyBot you will be surprised just how more effectively SpySweeper detects and protects your PC from Spyware, Trojans, keyloggers and other malicious products. That's why it won the prized "Editor's Choice" award from PC Magazine and is rated "outstanding" by Gizmo Richards, editor of the highly regarded Support Alert newsletter. Spyware has become so serious you can't afford less than the best protection. Install it now before it's too late.
http://www.webroot. com/wb/products/ spysweeper/ index.php? rc=1132

2.10 The Best Remote Access Software
Read the full review here:
http://www.pcsuppor tadvisor. com/best_ remote_access_ software. htm

2.11 The Best Free Kids Craft Projects
Keep your young children engaged and amused with healthy, creative arts and craft activities that won't cost you a cent. Free newsletter packed with easy kids craft projects.
http://kidscraftwee kly.com/

3. 0 OTHER USEFUL STUFF

3.1 Good Deals on USB Flash Drives
[1] http://tinyurl. com/2ck8wx (compuplus.com)
[2] http://www.newegg. com/Product/ Product.aspx? Item=N82E1682022 7145
[3] http://www.buy. com/prod/ kingston- 2gb-datatraveler -usb-2-0- flash-drive/ q/loc/101/ 202743330. html
3.2 Free Utility Helps Your PC Conserve Power
[1] http://co2saver. snap.com/
3.3 Good Guide to Modern Website Design
[1] http://www.webdesig nfromscratch. com/current- style.cfm
[2] http://f6design. com/journal/ 2006/10/21/ the-visual- design-of- web-20
3.4 Useless Waste of Time Department
Here's a great way to mindlessly fritter away a few minutes of your life. Check this site where you can read how others are currently frittering away theirs :>)
http://twitter. com/

Run Windows Vista, Office 2007 Together Without Installation.

2007-06-24T05:14:00.001-07:00

Too lazy to install the new Office 2007 or Windows Vista on your machine ? Worried that the new software might break existing stuff on your computer or may not work at all ? Here's something for you - Windows Vista cum Office 2007 inside Windows XP.

Microsoft today released a free combo VHD edition of Windows Vista and Office 2007 Professional which includes Publisher, Excel, Outlook, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, and Word.

You can download this all-in-one package from Microsoft Download Center and run it on your Windows XP computer without making any modifications by using the free Microsoft Virtual PC software.

Start the Virtual PC software and just open the Windows Vista cum Office 2007 image - the software will run independent of your existing XP SP2 setup and will not alter or install anything on the computer.

Excited ? There's a small catch - though the Office 2007 / Vista image file is free, it is a bit bulky (~2 GB to be exact) and requires addition 10 GB of free hard drive space for running smoothly inside the Virtual PC software.

If you think your Broadband connection can take the load, get the Office 2007 cum Vista installer from microsoft.com/ downloads/ (file available in VHD image format).

Vista CD - Hacked :- Three Guys On Vista DVD

2007-06-22T09:10:00.001-07:00

Who are these three guys appear on the Vista DVD

These are not the Pics of Bill gates, some other fellows.

Backup Restore Outlook Express

2007-06-19T02:48:00.001-07:00

Step 1: Copy message files to a backup folder

Step A: Locate the Store folder

1.Start Outlook Express.

2.Click Tools, and then click Options.

3.On the Maintenance tab, click Store Folder.

4.In the Store Location dialog box, copy the store location. To do this, follow these steps:

a. Put the mouse pointer at one end of the box under the Your personal message store is located in the following folder box.
b. Press and hold the left mouse button, and then drag the mouse pointer across the Your personal message store is located in the following folder box.

c. Press CTRL+C to copy the location.

5.Click Cancel, and then click Cancel again to close the dialog box.

Step B: Copy the contents of the Store folder

1.Click Start, click Run, press CTRL+V, and then click OK.

2.On the Edit menu, click Select All.

3.On the Edit menu, click Copy, and then close the window.

Step C: Create a backup folder

1.Right-click any empty area on your desktop, click New, and then click Folder.

2.Type Mail Backup for the folder name, and then press ENTER.

Step D: Paste the contents of the Store folder into the backup folder

1.Double-click the Mail Backup folder to open it.

2.Right-click inside the Mail Backup folder window, and then click Paste.

Step 2: Export the Address Book to a .csv file

Important Make sure that you follow this step if you use multiple identities in Outlook Express.
Microsoft Outlook Express 5.x and Microsoft Outlook Express 6.0 use a Windows Address Book (.wab) file to store Address Book data. The individual data for each identity is stored in a folder by user name within the .wab file that is used.
The only way to separate the Address Book data for different identities is to export the data to a .csv file while you are logged in as a specific identity. If the .wab file becomes dissociated from the user identities, the data can be exported only as one total. In this case, the data cannot be exported folder by folder.
There is another reason to export the .wab file to a .csv file. If the .wab file not exported to a .csv file, but the .wab file is shared with Microsoft Outlook, the addresses are stored in the personal folders (.pst) file in Outlook. When you export the file to a .csv file by using the File menu in Outlook Express, the correct contacts are exported. However, if the Address Book is shared with Outlook, you cannot use the File menu option to export from the Address Book. This option is unavailable.
To export the Address Book to a .csv file, follow these steps:

1.On the File menu, click Export, and then click Address Book.

2.Click Text File (Comma Separated Values), and then click Export.

3.Click Browse.

4.Select the Mail Backup folder that you created.

5.In the File Name box, type address book backup, and then click Save.

6.Click Next.

7.Click to select the check boxes for the fields that you want to export, and then click Finish.

8.Click OK, and then click Close.

Step 3: Export the mail account to a file

1.On the Tools menu, click Accounts.

2.On the Mail tab, click the mail account that you want to export, and then click Export.

3.In the Save In box, select the Mail Backup folder, and then click Save.

4.Repeat these steps for each mail account that you want to export.

5.Click Close.

Step 4: Export the newsgroup account to a file

1.On the Tools menu, click Accounts.

2.On the News tab, click the news account that you want to export, and then click Export.

3.In the Save In box, select the Mail Backup folder, and then click Save.

4.Repeat these steps for each news account that you want to export.

5.Click Close.

How to restore Outlook Express items

Note To restore items when you use multiple identities in Outlook Express, you may have to re-create the identities before you follow these steps. Repeat each step as needed for each identity.

Step 1: Import messages from the backup folder

1.On the File menu, point to Import, and then click Messages.

2.In the Select an e-mail program to import from box, click Microsoft Outlook Express 5 or Microsoft Outlook Express 6, and then click Next.

3.Click Import mail from an OE5 store directory or Import mail from an OE6 store directory, and then click OK.

4.Click Browse, and then click the Mail Backup folder.

5.Click OK, and then click Next.

6.Click All folders, click Next, and then click Finish.

Step 2: Import the Address Book file

1.On the File menu, click Import, and then click Other Address Book.

2.Click Text File (Comma Separated Values), and then click Import.

3.Click Browse.

4.Select the Mail Backup folder, click the address book backup.csv file, and then click Open.

5.Click Next, and then click Finish.

6.Click OK, and then click Close.

Step 3: Import the mail account file

1.On the Tools menu, click Accounts.

2.On the Mail tab, click Import.

3.In the Look In box, select the Mail Backup folder.

4.Click the mail account that you want to import, and then click Open.

5.Repeat these steps for each mail account that you want to import.

6.Click Close.

Step 4: Import the newsgroup account file

1.On the Tools menu, click Accounts.

2.On the News tab, click Import.

3.In the Look In box, select the Mail Backup folder.

4.Click the news account that you want to import, and then click Open.

5.Repeat these steps for each news account that you want to import.

6.Click Close.

URINARY TRACT INFECTION MORE IN WOMEN

2007-06-12T01:59:00.001-07:00

What is urinary tract infection?

The urinary tract is made up of the parts of the body that produce, store and get rid of urine. These include the kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra.

The kidneys make urine. Urine flows from the kidneys down tubes called the ureters. These tubes bring urine to the bladder. From the bladder, urine exits the body through the urethra.

A urinary tract infection (UTI) is an infection of any part of the urinary tract. It is caused when bacteria invade the urinary tract. Bacteria on the skin or in the area near the anus can enter the urinary tract from the urethra and move up the urinary tract, sometimes as far as the kidneys. Women have a shorter urethra than men, which makes it easier for women to get a UTI. In rare cases, infection can spread by the blood to the urinary tract from other parts of the body.

What are the symptoms of urinary tract infection?

Urinary tract infections can make you feel as if you need to urinate often. They can also make urinating painful. Sometimes, only small amounts of urine come out. At other times, you might not be able to control the flow of urine.

The urine may look cloudy or may have a foul smell. It may contain blood or pus.

If the UTI is in the kidneys, you may have fever and back pain.

What tests are needed?

Your physician may want to perform a test on your urine. This is called a urinalysis. You will need to provide a clean catch urine sample. The steps for getting a clean catch urine sample are:

Clean area around the vagina or penis
Begin to urinate
Stop urinating
Position clean cup to catch urine
Release 3 or 4 ounces of urine
Stop urinating
Remove and cap cup
Finish urinating

Your sample will be tested to see if you have a UTI.

Some tests can be done in the physician's office, but others may have to be sent away to a lab. Final results will take a few days but treatment will usually start straight away.

What treatment is needed?

Most UTIs are treated with antibiotics. Antibiotic capsules or pills are usually taken by mouth each day for a few days.

For difficult-to- treat infections, antibiotics may be given by a needle into a vein. Physicians also sometimes treat these infections with antibiotics taken by mouth for weeks instead of days.

If you are given antibiotics, take them as prescribed. Do not stop early even if you feel better.

If you get a lot of UTIs, your physician may want to study your urinary tract more closely. This can be done with ultrasounds, X-rays or other scans. These tests can find problems that make you more likely to get a UTI. Some of these problems can be treated with surgery.

Do drink 6 to 8 glasses of water each day. Drinking water helps prevent and get rid of a UTI. Drinking cranberry juice can also help
Do tell your physician if you take birth control pills (the contraceptive pill). Some antibiotics can make birth control pills less potent
Do call your physician if you get a rash or hives. You should also call if you have any difficulty breathing

Recovery time

Symptoms should go away in a few days. If they do not, tell your physician.

What can be done to stop it from happening again?

Drink six to eight glasses of water a day can reduce the risk of UTI.

Women can lower their risk of UTIs in a few ways. One is to urinate just before and just after sex. Another is to avoid using a diaphragm or spermacide. These can raise the risk of UTIs. Women who get UTIs often may therefore want to use birth control pills instead of a diaphragm.

For women, wiping from front to back after using the toilet reduces UTIs. Douches and sprays can raise the risk of getting a UTI. Avoid their use. Showers may be better than baths for some women. Wear cotton underwear and avoid tight pants to prevent UTIs.

In general, try to urinate frequently. When urinating, be sure to empty your bladder completely. These actions will help keep the urinary tract clear.

If you develop UTIs often, your physician may give you antibiotics to prevent infection.

Asthma

2007-06-12T01:50:00.001-07:00

Overview

Is this topic for you?

This topic provides information about asthma in teens and adults. If you are looking for information about asthma in children age 12 and younger, see the topic Asthma in Children.

What is asthma?

Asthma makes it difficult for you to breathe. This can happen only every now and then, or in more severe cases, every day. Asthma may also last throughout your life (a chronic disease), but you can control it through treatment with medications.

Asthma makes it difficult to breathe because it can cause inflammation in your bronchial tubes, which carry air to the lungs. The inflammation usually starts slowly, but over time it can make the muscles that line the bronchial tubes get tight (bronchospasm) . This can cause a blocking or narrowing of your airways, making it difficult to breathe. This is known as an acute asthma episode (also called an attack, flare-up, or exacerbation) .

Acute asthma episodes can happen rarely or often and be mild or severe. Most often, you can take care of symptoms at home by using an asthma action plan, which is a written plan that tells you which medicines you need to use and when you should call a health professional. If you have a severe acute episode, you may need urgent care. These acute asthma episodes can even cause death, but that is rare.

Even if you have few acute asthma episodes, you still have inflammation in your airways that needs treatment. If the inflammation is not controlled, asthma could lead to permanent changes in the bronchial tubes and harm your lungs.

Although there is no cure for asthma, with treatment you can control your symptoms and prevent further damage to your lungs.

What causes asthma?

We don't know what causes asthma. But here are some of the things that can cause the inflammation in your airways that can lead to asthma and acute asthma episodes:

Asthma may run in families (inherited).
In some people, immune system cells release chemicals that cause inflammation in response to certain substances (allergens) that cause allergic reactions. Studies show that exposure to allergens such as dust mites, cockroaches, and animal dander may influence asthma’s development. 1 Asthma is much more common in people with allergies, though not all those with allergies get asthma.
Some experts believe that there are more cases of asthma because of pollution and less exposure to certain types of bacteria or infections. 2 As a result, children's immune systems may develop in a way that makes it more likely they will also develop allergies and asthma.

What are the symptoms?

Symptoms of asthma can be mild or severe. You may have no symptoms; severe, daily symptoms; or something in between. How often you have symptoms can also change. Symptoms of asthma may include:

Wheezing, which is a loud or soft whistling noise that occurs when the airways narrow.
Coughing.
Chest tightness.
Shortness of breath, which is rapid, shallow breathing or having a hard time breathing.
Trouble sleeping.
Tiring quickly during exercise.

Many people have symptoms that become worse at night (nocturnal asthma).

How is asthma diagnosed?

No one test can diagnose asthma. Your health professional will diagnose asthma using spirometry, as well as your medical history, a physical exam, and lab tests.

Spirometry measures how quickly you can move air in and out of your lungs and how much air you move. The test can help your health professional decide whether asthma is causing your airflow to decrease and by how much. The test can also show how well your lungs work when you're not having asthma symptoms and measure how well your lungs respond to treatment with medication.

While taking your medical history, your health professional will ask about your symptoms and when they occur. A physical exam will not find signs of asthma unless you are having symptoms. Your health professional will listen to your chest for signs of reduced airflow in the bronchial tubes and will look for signs of sinus problems or allergies.

A chest X-ray may be done to see whether another disease is causing your symptoms. Blood tests may show that you have allergies that could cause asthma episodes. If your health professional thinks you may have asthma related to allergies, skin testing may be done to identify them.

You will need routine checkups with your health professional to keep track of your asthma and decide on treatment.

How is it treated?

You can treat asthma with medications, especially inhaled corticosteroids, which prevent or control airway inflammation, and beta 2 -agonists, which make the airways larger (dilate). You usually work with your health professional to form a daily treatment plan and an asthma action plan. These plans help you to:

Control airway inflammation and prevent asthma episodes.
Identify and treat early symptoms of episodes.
Avoid things that make symptoms worse, such as cigarette smoke or allergens (triggers).
Know when emergency help is needed.

Herbal Treatment Effective For Recurring Urinary Tract Infections

2007-06-12T01:46:00.001-07:00

A common herbal extract available in health food stores can greatly reduce urinary tract infections and could potentially enhance the ability of antibiotics to kill the bacteria that cause 90 percent of infections in the bladder. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center, in a series of experiments in mice, believe they have also discovered why many urinary tract infections in the bladder return even after treatment with antibiotics.

They found that some bacteria hide in cells lining the bladder, where they cannot be reached by antibiotics. But they also found that forskolin, an extract from the Indian coleus plant, flushes out hiding colonies of bacteria, making them susceptible to antibiotic treatment. "After customary antibiotic treatment, the vast majority of the bacteria are either killed by the antibiotics or eliminated during urination," Abraham said. "However, there are small numbers of bacteria that survive antibiotic treatment because they sneak into the lining of the bladder, waiting for the opportunity, after antibiotic treatment, to come out and start multiplying again." The researchers found that forskalin has the ability to force the bacteria out of their niches and into the urine, where they can be killed by antibiotics. Abraham said that forskalin's action makes intuitive sense, since the herb is known to rev up certain cellular activity. This heightened activity in the bladder causes the specialized pouches to "flush out" their contents -- in this case, the hiding E. coli. "This herb has been used in Asia for centuries for a wide variety of ailments," Abraham said. "However, one of its constant uses has been for treating painful urination."

Today, forskalin is added to bodybuilding products and marketed for its ability to increase lean body and bone mass, as well as to increase testosterone levels. The herb also has been claimed to be an effective weight-loss aid.

Latin Name : Coleus forskohlii Family : Lamiaceae Sanskrit Name : Makandi Common Name : Coleus, Mainmul, Karpuravali Parts Used : Roots Coleus forskohlii is part of the mint family of plants and has long been cultivated in India, Thailand and parts of SE Asia as a spice and as a condiment for heart ailments and stomach cramps. The roots of the plant are a natural source of forskolin, the only plant-derived compound presently known to directly stimulate the enzyme adenylate cyclase, and subsequently cyclic AMP.

Cyclic AMP levels cause several physiological and biochemical effects such as : - Inhibition of platelet activation and degranulation. - Inhibition of mast cell degranulation and release of histamine and other allergic compounds. - Increased force of contraction of the heart muscle. - Relaxation of the arteries and other smooth muscles, vasodilation. - Increased insulin secretion. - Increased thyroid function (and therefore metabolic rate). - Reduced adipose assimilation and increased lipolysis of fats.

ACTION : Anti-glaucoma, Anti-platelet, Bronchospasmolyltic , Cardiotonic, Hypotensive, Anti aging, Anti allergic, Smooth muscle and arterial relaxant, Antiasthmatic.

Popular (Ayurvedic) Herbal Supplement (Triphala) Hinders Growth Of Pancreatic Cancer Cells

A new study from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute suggests that a commonly used herbal supplement, triphala, has cancer-fighting properties that prevent or slow the growth of pancreatic cancer tumors implanted in mice. The study found that an extract of triphala, the dried and powdered fruits of three plants, caused pancreatic cancer cells to die through a process called apoptosis -- the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted or unneeded cells. This process often is faulty in cancer cells. Results of the study, are being presented in a late-breaking session at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, April 14-18, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Triphala, one of the most popular herbal preparations in the world, is used for the treatment of intestinal-related disorders. It is typically taken with water and thought to promote appetite and digestion and to increase the number of red blood cells.

"We discovered that triphala fed orally to mice with human pancreatic tumors was an extremely effective inhibitor of the cancer process, inducing apoptosis in cancer cells," said Sanjay K. Srivastava, Ph.D., lead investigator and assistant professor, department of pharmacology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "Triphala triggered the cancerous cells to die off and significantly reduced the size of the tumors without causing any toxic side effects."

Dr. Srivastava and colleagues fed mice grafted with human pancreatic tumors 1 to 2 milligrams of triphala for five days a week and then compared tumor size and levels of apoptotic proteins in the tumors to a control group of mice that received normal saline only. They found that the mice that received triphala had increased levels of proteins associated with apoptosis and significantly smaller tumor sizes when compared to the control group. Triphala-treated tumors were half the size of tumors in untreated mice. Further testing revealed that triphala activated tumor-suppressor genes, resulting in the generation of proteins that support apoptosis, but did not negatively affect normal pancreatic cells.

"Our results demonstrate that triphala has strong anticancer properties given its ability to induce apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells without damaging normal pancreatic cells," said Dr. Srivastava. "With follow-up studies, we hope to demonstrate its potential use as a novel agent for the prevention and treatment of pancreatic cancer," said Dr. Srivastava. Pancreatic cancer is the fifth-leading cause of cancer death in the United States and is one of the most aggressive cancers, with an extremely poor prognosis.

Magnetic levitation

2007-06-11T07:59:00.001-07:00

Magnetic levitation is the use of magnetic fields to levitate a (usually) metallic object. Manipulating magnetic fields and controlling their forces can levitate an object.
In this process an object is suspended above another with no other support but magnetic fields.
The electromagnetic force is used to counteract the effects of gravitation. But it has also been proved that it is not possible to levitate using static, macroscopic, `classical' electromagnetic fields.
The forces acting on an object in any combination of gravitational, electrostatic, and magnetostatic fields will make the object's position unstable.
The reason a permanent magnet suspended above another magnet is unstable is because the levitated magnet will easily overturn and the force will become attractive. If the levitated magnet is rotated, the gyroscopic forces can prevent the magnet from overturning.
Several possibilities exist to make levitation viable.
It is possible to levitate superconductors and other diamagnetic materials, which magnetise in the opposite sense to a magnetic field in which they are placed.
A superconductor is perfectly diamagnetic which means it expels a magnetic field (Meissner-Ochsenfel d effect). Other diamagnetic materials are commonplace and can also be levitated in a magnetic field if it is strong enough.Diamagnetism is a very weak form of magnetism that is only exhibited in the presence of an external magnetic field.
The induced magnetic moment is very small and in a direction opposite to that of the applied field. When placed between the poles of a strong electromagnet, diamagnetic materials are attracted towards regions where the magnetic field is weak.
Diamagnetism can be used to levitate light pieces of pyrolytic graphite or bismuth above a moderately strong permanent magnet. As water is predominantly diamagnetic, this property has been used to levitate water droplets and even live animals, such as a grasshopper and a frog.
Superconductors are perfect diamagnets and when placed in an external magnetic field expel the field lines from their interiors (better than a diamagnet). The magnet is held at a fixed distance from the superconductor or vice versa. This is the principle in place behind EDS (electrodynamic suspension) maglev trains. The EDS system relies on superconducting magnets.
A maglev is a train, which is suspended in air above the track, and propelled forward using magnetism. Because of the lack of physical contact between the track and vehicle, the only friction is that between the carriages and air. So maglev trains can travel at very high speeds (650 km/h) with reasonable energy consumption and noise levels

yPen

2007-06-11T07:55:00.001-07:00

yPen - An Online Text Notebook, Simple but Useful

Do not confuse yPen with sophisticated notebook applications like Google Notebook or the more feature-rich Zoho Notebook.

yPen, like other online clipboards, is just a quick tool for creating text notes online inside a neat and minimal interface.

No registration or browser add-ons required - just type (or copy-paste) the text in the available space and it stays there forever.

You can access your text notes via a unique URL. And there's no save button, everything you type is automatically saved.

yPen is different from other note-taking applications in the sense that it sports a tabbed interface and therefore several text clippings can be entered on the same webpage organized as tabs (equivalent to sections or pages in Microsoft OneNote 2007)

For developers, yPen also has an API to create or read yPen notes inside your application or widget.

http://ypen. org/

Others:

mynoteIT:http://www.mynoteit .com/index. php

Notefish: http://www.notefish .com/

GoogleNoteBook: http://www.google. com/notebook/

Notezz: http://www.notezz. com/

Stikkit: http://www.stikkit. com/

Yahoo!Notepad:Yahoo

ZohoNotebook: http://notebook. zoho.com/ nb/login. jsp

Recover Data from a Scratched CD

2007-06-11T07:42:00.001-07:00

While compact discs (CDs) are remarkably durable, it’s nearly impossible to prevent scratches and scuffs from occurring from time to time. The resulting damage can be either a skip in your favorite Bob Marley track or, in the case of data CDs, the loss of that spreadsheet you worked on for two weeks. Don’t despair—repair! While commercial CD repair kits and CD refinishing machines are available, you may be able to repair the damage on your own with products you already have.

Steps

Clean the disc. Even if a CD isn’t actually scratched or scuffed, dust, oil, and other surface contaminants can prevent it from playing properly. Thus cleaning the disc should always be your first move. Run warm water over the damaged disc to remove dust. If there is stubborn dirt or grease on the disc, gently rub it with your finger while you are washing it, and use a gentle detergent or liquid soap (with the water) or rubbing alcohol (in place of water). Anytime you rub or wipe a CD, you should do so by starting at or near the center of the disc and rubbing straight outward toward the edge to prevent further scratching. Shake the water off and let the disc air-dry (do not dry it with a towel or cloth, and don't sun-dry it either).
Try to play the disc. Many times a good cleaning is all that is needed. If, however, problems persist after cleaning, try to play the disc in a different CD player. Some players handle scratches better than others; computer CD drives tend to be best.
Burn a new disc. If you can get the CD to work in one CD player—especially your computer’s—but not in others, try burning a new disc. The CD burning utility on your computer may be able to read the CD well enough to produce a perfect copy. You may wish to try this even if the CD doesn’t play correctly on the computer.
Locate the scratch. Actually repairing the disc will be easier if you can figure out where the offending scratch is. Visually inspect the CD’s playing surface for scratches or scuffs. Scratches that run perpendicular to the CD’s spiral—that is, those that run generally from the center to the rim—may not affect playing at all, and in any case are generally less damaging than those that roughly follow the direction of the spiral. If there are several scratches, but the CD only skips in one or two places, you may be able to approximate the location of the offending scratches based on which track skips. Keep in mind that the first track of a CD begins near the center, and the direction of play proceeds outward to the edge.
Polish the CD. Though counterintuitive, polishing a disc can repair a scratched CD by removing some of the outer plastic coating and thus making existing scratches shallower. A number of common household products can be used to polish the CD, but toothpaste—especially y baking soda toothpaste—and Brasso are probably the most tried-and-true. You can also use a fine grit polishing compound that's used for cars or hard finishes. Apply a small amount of toothpaste (must be paste, not gel) or Brasso to a soft, clean, lint-free cloth: an eyeglass-cleaning cloth works well. Gently rub the cloth on the scratch or scuff in a non-radial motion, start at the center and rub to the edge and go around in strokes. Rubbing in a circular motion can cause small scratches that throw off the laser tracking system in the player. Try to focus your efforts solely on the scratch or scratches you’ve identified (if possible). Polish in this manner for a couple of minutes, reapplying Brasso or toothpaste to the cloth as necessary. Be careful not to apply much pressure, although you will still be able to feel the cloth gently scratching the CD as it polishes.
Remove polishing product from disc. If you used toothpaste, rinse the disc thoroughly with warm water and let dry. Make sure to remove all of the toothpaste and let the disc dry completely before trying to play it. With Brasso, wipe off excess product and let the rest dry. Then, using a clean cloth, gently wipe disc again.
Test the disc. If the problem persists, polish again for up to 15 minutes or until the scratch is almost completely buffed out. The surface around the scratch should begin to look shiny with many tiny scratches. If you still don’t notice any difference after polishing for a few minutes, the scratch may be extremely deep, or you may be polishing the wrong scratch.
Wax the tracks. If polishing doesn’t work, apply a very thin coat of Vaseline, liquid car wax, neutral shoe polish or furniture wax to the CD’s playing surface. Wipe excess off using clean, soft, lint-free cloth in a radial (inside to outside) motion. If using wax, follow manufacturer’ s instructions (some need to dry before you wipe them off, while others should be wiped off while still wet).
Test disc again. If the wax or Vaseline does the trick, burn a new copy of the CD immediately. The waxing method is only a temporary solution.
Bring the CD in to get refinished. If the disc still doesn’t play correctly, bring it in to a music store (especially one that sells used CDs) or a DVD rental store and ask if they can repair the disc for you. Many of these businesses have CD refinishing machines that do a remarkable job, and they’ll probably charge you less than five dollars to repair the CD.
You can buy a disc scratch-remover at game stores like game-stop. Don't worry, it works for all types of cds. It'll work like magic.

Tips

Severely damaged CDs may not be repairable. Very deep scratches will probably require an industrial-quality machine to repair, and cracks or scratches that reach the CD’s foil may render a CD forever useless. As a matter of fact, the Compact Disc Eraser (www.DiscEraser. com) adopts this method to securely destroy old or confidential CDs and DVDs. A great device to have if your backup or personal discs become outdated or no longer needed.
To determine if the foil layer of your CD is scratched, hold the CD up to a fairly bright light and see if any pinholes are visible. Holes in the foil layer of a CD are generally not repairable, even for a professional.
Practice repairing scratched CDs that you don’t care much about before you set out to repair your favorites.
It’s a good idea to create a backup of any data disc before damage occurs.
If a CD is scratched but continues to play correctly, make a backup, but don’t bother trying to repair it yet.
Make sure the disc is indeed scratched. If the disc is not visibly scratched, the problem likely lies elsewhere. Other problems could be surface dirt or a malfunctioning CD player. The steps above should help you to clarify where the problem is.
Deep gouges are not repairable. However, because of the way redundancy is used in the data on the disc and the way the data are distributed along the spiral track, cleaning a disc area away from a scratch can improve data recovery; a number of smaller defects distributed along the track can be as bad or worse than one larger defect.
The polycarbonate bottom layer of the disk acts as a lens, which focuses a larger patch of laser light down to a smaller size needed to see the track on the data layer. This lets the laser look through some small imperfections on the plastic surface which are much larger than the track on the data layer. Removing a lot of plastic can affect the refractive property of the lens making the data unreadable. This means that even a visibly scuffed or spider-web of scratches may play well because, though the defects are visible to your eye, the laser sees around/through them. This is why waxing can help. A repair doesn't have to look perfectly polished to work.
If the disc has important data on it, your best choice is probably to pay the money to get the disc repaired professionally before you try to repair it yourself. That way, you can make sure you don’t damage the CD any further in your repair attempts.
A number of CD cleaning and repair kits are available for sale, but many users report that these don’t work any better than Brasso, and they’re far more expensive.
To remove deep or stubborn scratches quickly, try using a dry “Mr. Clean Magic Eraser”. This is a sponge impregnated with a micro abrasive. Use light pressure, wiping from the center of the disk to the outside edge just as described with other polishing methods. The repaired area can be buffed until shiny using the other polishing or waxing techniques described.
If you have a lot of discs to repair, you might want to buy a CD refinishing machine. These can cost as little as $25, but highly effective industrial machines cost anywhere from $300-6,000.
If all else fails, try the freezer. The theory is that the scratches will shrink. This could take a few hours (music CDs) to days (videogame discs).

Warnings

If you hold the CD up to a bright light to check for holes in the foil layer, remember not to stare at the light for long. A 60-100 Watt bulb should be more than enough to see pinholes in the foil layer. Do not use the sun!
Keep in mind that it is possible to further damage a CD if you do this incorrectly (i.e. if you apply too much pressure while polishing or rub the CD in a circular motion).
To prevent damage to your CD player, make sure CDs are completely dry and free of excess polishing products or waxes before you attempt to play them.
If you are using Brasso, make sure to do so in a well-ventilated area, and avoid breathing in the fumes. Always read the safety instructions and warnings on any chemical product as many (such as rubbing alcohol) are flammable and / or can cause skin, eye, or respiratory irritation.
When touching the CD do not use a circular pattern (like when a CD is spinning). Go from the inside to the outside in a perfect line so you prevent data loss.
When polishing the disc, make sure the surface upon which the disc is laid is flat and firm but not hard or abrasive. Data is stored on the foil or dye layers on the top of the disc (label side) and the protective top layer is very thin by comparison to the polycarbonate plastic bottom layer you will polish. The thin top layer can easily be scratched or perforated. If this happens the data is lost forever as it is not repairable by any means. Pressing on disc upon too soft a surface may crack it or cause it to delaminate.
Don't touch the cd, or you'll leave finger prints, causing it to get dirty again, and that may cause the CD to skip a track or pause. Hold it by the hole in the middle.

How to Recover Data from the Hard Drive of a Dead Laptop

2007-06-11T07:38:00.001-07:00

Method 1

Purchase a "Laptop Hard Drive Adaptor Kit" to allow you to plug your laptop hard drive into a standard PC (2.5 TO 3.5 inch IDE HDD).
Find a functioning standard PC that can read the file system that was on the laptop. One would need Windows 2k/XP or a Linux distribution to read an NTFS/FAT file system, whereas only a Linux distribution can read the EXT3 file system.
Open up the case and add the laptop drive with adaptor kit as a secondary HDD. Be sure that you have set this drive to either Cable Select, or Slave, depending on the configuration of the system, and the available IDE ports.
Copy the data you need from the laptop drive to the main drive of the PC, or consider using removable storage for small files.

Method 2

Purchase or cannibalize a 2.5" USB 2.0 or Firewire drive enclosure.
Find a functioning standard PC with an open USB port (or firewire port, as applicable) that can read the file system that was on the laptop. One would need Windows 2k/XP or a Linux distribution to read an NTFS/FAT file system, whereas only a Linux distribution can read the EXT3 file system.
Plug it in, wait for the tones (and/or mount it if that is necessary in this system)
Copy the data you need from the laptop drive to the main drive of the PC, or consider using removable storage for small files.

Tips

You can find the adaptor kits on eBay by searching the terms in quotes in step 1. They cost less than $10 with shipping.
You may also put the laptop drive with adaptor kit into an external drive enclosure if you have one.
You may need to adjust the primary/slave jumper settings on the hard disks (both laptop and PC).
When you are finished, the laptop drive can be secured in the PC case and left as a secondary disk on the PC, if you don't need it for anything else.

Warnings

Don't despair if you are not able to read the contents of the drive. Check your connections, be sure that the drive was detected in BIOS, and try again.
In Linux, be sure to mount the file system as read-only before attempting. NTFS file systems can only be opened by default in read-only mode, without additional packages.

Asus P535 tri-band PDA

2007-06-11T07:33:00.001-07:00

Asus debuts Tri-band PDA phone

Asus India has entered the communication segment with the launch of its P535 tri-band PDA phone in India.

The P535 tri-band PDA phone features full wireless functionality, Global Positioning System (GPS), and a high quality auto-focus camera, all in one compact form factor, says Asus.

And, the PDA phone is targeted at business professionals and high-end technology users, according to the company.

Andrew Tsui, Managing Director of Asus India, said, "We now aspire to successfully enter the communications segment with the introduction of the P535 PDA phone, which will complement our 3C philosophy of providing products in the computers, communications, and consumer electronics space."

The P535 offers push email, Internet access, and off-site synchronization of calendar and contact information over wireless or mobile GPRS networks. With the P535, users can view and edit Office documents as well.

The phone features an integrated auto-focus 2.0-megapixel camera that doubles as a business card scanner; Asus' proprietary Secret Folder software through which users can encrypt and protect sensitive information; and the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system.

Other features include a 2.8-inch display, 256MB Nand Flash ROM and 64MB SDRAM memory, 2.5 to 5 hours of talk time, Bluetooth version 2.0, USB 1.1, MiniSD card slot, and 2.5mm Audio Jack.

The P535 PDA phone is available for around Rs 37,800, along with a one-year warranty through Neoteric Informatique (Asus' distributor) . The company has announced an inaugural offer of a free 1GB Mini SD card with every P535 purchased.

Protect Earth

2007-06-11T06:50:00.001-07:00

For the first time since life evolved, one species is now altering the physical, chemical, and biological features of the planet on a geological scale. Scientists tell us of a litany of ecological disasters—climate change, toxic pollution, species extinction, marine depletion, deforestation— the depressing list can paralyze one with hopelessness and despair. Fear can motivate immediate action in the short-run, but hope can be sustained.
And that hope rests on all of us.
Remember some things u got to do to save this earth:

1. Never Add To the population. We all like children, but remember there are more than enough human beings, do not add any more. And if you add to the population, u actually do two wrong things- one is you are going to make ur child suffer on a bad earth and also ur child will be an additional burden for the resources.
2. U can marry, but please do not add to the population. Please plant a tree instead. and marry if it is only really required. Marriages are a burden, please live ur life alone. and do all things to protect earth.

3. Never use any resource more than required
4. Try and live simple lives, just stop ur cars, use public transport. Use bike only if ur work demands it, but do bike pooling too. those who have cars do car pooling.
5. Be simple, as simple as possible.
6. First preference should be environment protection, all other things come later. Since without the earth there is no human rights, women rights, child rights etc. And without earth there is no use of ur money. So protect earth today.
7. I see many friends not switching off their computers even at night, since i can see their Gmail accounts still glowing. This is bad. Please switch off ur computer, television, and all equipments when not in use. do not put anything on standby mode. Please use CFL bulbs and tubelights instead of normal bulbs.
8. Use bucket water to take bath, never use a shower. never leave ur taps open.
9. As far as possible take cold water baths, never use hot water to take bath. Cold water is good for ur body and also saves energy.

10. Be a vegetarian as far as possible. try to eat less meat.

11. never use light in the mornings, use minimum electricity.

12. travel only if necessary, use telephones and Internet to communicate, don't move around undauntedly.

13. dont conduct seminars and workshops if not required. seminars and workshops add to global warming and is a waste of time. most of the seminars speak the same thing. so have a programs only if required.

Remember, I am speaking based on ground realities,

Kerala and Karnataka coast has already seen two to three Sea Intrusions two weeks back before monsoon. And all the sea intrusions are due to global warming.

the coasts are getting eaten up very fast.

if the current rate continues, within next five years the NH 17 and NH 47 will soon be under the sea and soon the maps of Kerala would have to be redrawn. remember Kerala is mostly below sea level in many places.

this will result in serious human rights issues. many of our friends on the coast will become refugees in their own land.

do u want to see this happen?

tsunami could kill only 20,000 people, but remember this will kill millions and also displace many from their homes. this is the way nature will evict people. all CRZ and CMZ will be meaningless when the sea will share borders with the western ghats in about 10 yrs from now. it is serious.

In many other places it is going to serious drought. like bangalore will suffer for drinking water and people will have to migrate. let us stop this destruction.

so please please do ur bit if u care for your own people around the world.

take care

have a green day

Climate changes

2007-06-11T06:07:00.001-07:00

Climate change poses an unprecedented threat to the world and its wildlife, from rare species to the landscape itself. Some of the planet's most breathtaking features now face an uncertain future, as this gallery from Conservation International testifies.

Frogs and toads are declining worldwide due to a mysterious fungal disease epidemic. In the Andean tropical mountains, scientists have documented the extinction of 67 percent of Tropical American harlequin toads. Evidence shows that climate change has increased the occurrence of the fungal disease killing these frogs. As Alan Pounds, a leading researcher of the amphibian decline, has said: “The fungus is the bullet that killed the toads, but climate change pulled the trigger.”

Gulf of Chiriqui, Panama

Hydrocoral was declared extinct before scientists even had given it a name. In 1991 it was thought to be gone forever as a result of a massive ocean warming event in 1982-83. A small colony was rediscovered in 1993, but was then killed by a subsequent ocean warming event. The status of this species is uncertain.

Northwest South Africa

Aloe dichotoma, the quiver tree, is declining across much of its range due to warming and drying. This unique species was used by the San or “Bushman” people to craft quivers for arrows. Its succulent branches are nearly hollow but it hasn't been able to hold enough water to stave off climate change.

Monteverde Cloud Forest

The cloud forest in Monteverde, Costa Rica is changing: clouds are moving higher up mountain slopes and conditions are drying. One species, the golden toad (Bufo periglens), is already extinct. Many other amphibians have undergone huge declines. Birds are migrating upslope, and toucans from lower elevations are driving resplendent quetzals to higher and higher elevations by preying on their nests.

Antarctic

There has been a 10-fold crash in the krill population in the Antarctic since 1950, likely due to decreases in the algae krill feed on. The algae grow on the underside of sea ice, but as sea ice melts due to climate change, there is less algae krill to form the base of the Antarctic marine food web, so species from whales to penguins are at risk due to krill population declines.

Raja Ampat Islands

Raja Ampat's marine habitats naturally experience some of the largest ocean temperature variations in this region. To date, however, they have exhibited an exceptional resilience to the stresses associated with climate change. These marine habitats, particularly the coral reefs, are therefore likely to be some of the most resilient in the region. They provide refuge for marine wildlife and will be central to the repopulation of species in nearby areas that prove less resilient to climate change.

Pacific Islands

Coral reefs have been compared to underwater rain forests: they are full of life. Twenty percent have been destroyed; another 60 percent are severely threatened by climate change. Losing reefs is equal to losing about $375 billion dollars yearly and will jeopardize the food and economic security of about 30 million people. Since most coral reefs are found in tropical waters of developing countries, people already in poverty will be most affected.

The Amazon

The frequency of natural fires is increasing in the Amazon due to longer and more severe droughts throughout this massive region. In turn, the future of many plant species that are rare throughout the Amazon is under threat. Scientists predict that if current trends in climate change continue, 43 percent of representative plant species now living in the Amazon will disappear in 80 years.

Papua New Guinea

New Guinea’s extraordinary tropical montane biodiversity wilderness, as well as its extensive coral reefs, will suffer serious impacts from global climate change, including rising sea levels, sea water warming, atmospheric warming, erratic wind patterns, and altered rainfall patterns. Some impacts already are evident. In 1997-98, drought encompassed the entire island and small fires quickly spread throughout the dry flammable forests, giving the indication of having an untold effect on wildlife.

Nepal

Glaciers around the world are shrinking at a dramatic rate. Rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers in parts of India, Nepal, and China will cause flooding and avalanches. As climate change progresses, and meltwater from glaciers disappears, the loss of agricultural productivity dependent on this water source will affect the food security of more than one-sixth the world’s population living in valleys below major mountain ranges.

China

Ten percent of the world’s population, about 643 million people, live in coastal areas. Coastal areas are at great risk from sea-level rise, which is projected to increase dramatically – anywhere from one to six meters – this century. Coastal cities, agriculture, livelihoods, and infrastructure will be affected. China is among 10 countries with the largest number of people vulnerable to sea level rise.

The Congo

Populations near the equator are subject to severe swings in precipitation, resulting in flooding and drought cycles. This will affect local production negatively, especially in subsistence sectors at low latitudes.

How to make Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla or Opera your default browser

2007-06-11T02:53:00.001-07:00

Changed your mind about which browser you want as your default browser -- the browser that opens when you click on HTML files, when you type an URL into the Windows "Start | Run" input box, etc.?

During the installation process, both Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator browsers will ask whether you want them to be your default browser. Here's how you could change the default browser once a browser is installed on the system:

Internet Explorer: 6.x, 5.x, 4.x

Mozilla: Firefox 1.x, Firebird 0.x, Mozilla 1.x

Netscpae: 7.x, 4.x

Opera: 7.x

Internet Explorer 6.x and 5.x:

Select "Tools | Internet Options" from the main menu in Explorer.
Change to the "Programs" tab.
Check the "Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default browser" option.
Click "OK".
Close all Explorer windows and restart the system. Once the system comes back up, restart Explorer.
When the "Would you like to make [Internet Explorer] your default browser?" prompt appears, click "Yes" to make Explorer the default browser.

Internet Explorer 4.x:

Select "View | Internet Options" from the main menu in Explorer.
Change to the "Programs" tab.
Check the "Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default browser" option.
Click "OK".
Close all Explorer windows and restart the system. Once the system comes back up, restart Explorer.
When the "Would you like to make [Internet Explorer] your default browser?" prompt appears, click "Yes" to make Explorer the default browser.

Mozilla 1.x:

Select "Edit | Preferences" from the main menu in Mozilla.
Change to the "Navigator" tab/section.
Click the "Set Default Browser" button.
Click "OK".
Close all Mozilla windows (for best results, restart the system). Finally, restart Mozilla.

Mozilla Firefox 1.x:

Select "Tools | Options" from the main menu in Firefox.
Change to the "General" tab/section.
Check the "Firefox should check to see if it is the default browser when starting" option.
Click "OK".
Close all Firefox windows (for best results, restart the system). Finally, restart Firefox.
When the "Would you like to make [Firefox] your default browser?" prompt appears, click "Yes" to make Firefox the default browser.

Mozilla Firebird 0.x:

Select "Tools | Options" from the main menu in Firebird.
Change to the "General" tab/section.
Click the "Set Default Browser" button.
Click "OK".
Close all Firebird windows (for best results, restart the system). Finally, restart Firebird.

Netscape 7.x:

Select "Edit | Preferences" from the main menu in Netscape.
Change to the "Navigator" tab/section.
Click the "Set Default Browser" button.
Click "OK".
Close all Netscape windows (for best results, restart the system). Finally, restart Netscape.
When the "Netscape 7.x is not currently set as your default browser. Would you like to make it your default browser?" prompt appears, click "Yes" to make Netscape the default browser.

Netscape Navigator/Communicator 4.x:

Open the prefs.js file located in [Communicator installation directory]\users\[profile name] (for example: C:\Program Files\Netscape\users\prefs.js) using a text editor.
Make sure that the following line exists and has the value false. If it does not exist, insert it at the end of the file.
user_pref("browser.wfe.ignore_def_check", false);
Save changes to the file and close it.
Close all Communicator windows and restart it.
When the "Would you like to make [Communicator] your default browser?" prompt appears, click "Yes" to make Communicator the default browser.

Opera 7.x:

Select "File | Preferences" from the main menu in Opera.
Change to the "Default Application" tab.
Check the "Check if Opera is default browser on startup" option.
Click "OK".
Close all Opera windows (for best results, restart the system). Finally, restart Opera.
When the "Would you like to use Opera as your default application for viewing web pages?" prompt appears, click "Yes" to make Opera the default browser.

Download YouTube videos

2007-06-09T01:52:00.001-07:00

Orbit Downloader isn't just any ordinary download manager; beyond standard features like pause and resume, it's also extremely well-suited to downloading video files. For that reason, it's being called a "rich media downloader". What does that mean exactly?

Almost any kind of video or music content that you can see or hear in your browser can be downloaded using Orbit.
Videos that are streamed using the Real (rstp://) and Windows Media (mms://) protocols along with Flash videos on sites like YouTube and Dailymotion can all be easily downloaded with Orbit. Files hosted on sites like Rapidshare and Megaupload are also supported.
Orbit works with all major browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Maxthon. The best part is that it's completely free.
To download a video embedded in a webpage, just hover your mouse over it, and a small button with the word "GetIt" will appear. Click on it, and you'll see a bunch of options for saving the video.

If you're trying to download a YouTube or other Flash video, select "Get FLV Video" and choose a directory to save it to. If it's a RealVideo file, choose "Get Streaming Media File" and so on. That's all there is to it.
Orbit Downloader has basically beaten the forthcoming version of RealPlayer,which also supports easy downloading of content from video sharing sites, to the punch and surpassed its capabilities to boot.
Download Orbit Downloader

Convert PDF without Adobe Acrobat PDF writer

2007-06-09T01:47:00.001-07:00

Nitro PDF Desktop 1.77 Nitro PDF Desktop provides basic PDF-creation and editing capabilities at a fraction of the price of Adobe Acrobat Standard. Nitro PDF automatically places buttons in three popular Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) for single-click conversion to PDF, convert to PDF and e-mail, and program-specific settings. It also lets you convert printable files to PDFs by right-clicking on them in My Computer or Windows Explorer. (Price: $99, File Size: 20 MB, 30 day Trial available)
ScanSoft PDF Converter Professional 3 Convert PDF to word document, PDF to Excel and a handy single-click process that lets you fill out any PDF form. In addition to the main application, the setup installs two other modules, PDF Create! Assistant and PDF Converter Assistant. PDF Create! Assistant lets you batch-convert selected files and file types to PDF, while PDF Converter Assistant handles file conversions from PDF, and can be used to tweak file settings prior to converting.
There are tons of free alternatives available and some claim to as powerful as Acrobat Distiller.
1. OpenOffice - Directly print documents to PDF without any third-party plugin.
2. PrimoPDF - A completely free PDF Converter Tool. You can print to PDF from virtually any Windows application. This is a full application and not a trial version. There are no watermarks in the PDF files.
3. PDFCreator - Creates a virtual printer that will print all formats to PDF from any application.
4. Cutewriter - CutePDF Writer installs itself as a "printer subsystem". With it you can create a PDF by combining various text and image files, or edit an existing one. You can also combine or extract PDFs, and add backgrounds, letterheads, and forms to them. Basic security options include password protection and watermarks.
5. PostScript-to- PDF converter - Very powerful but for geeks. ps2pdf is a work-alike for nearly all the functionality (but not the user interface) of Adobe's Acrobat Distiller product: it converts PostScript files to Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Many users report that the combination of ps2pdf with Acrobat is superior to using a generic PostScript viewer (psview or ghostview), particularly for documents with many pages where the navigational support in PDF files reduces the overhead involved in navigating conventional PostScript documents.
6. Adobe CreatePDF - A free service from Adobe that allows you to convert MS office documents to PDF online. You upload the file to Adobe webserver or point a webpage URL and the resulting PDF is sent to you by email or can be downloaded directly from Adobe site. PS2PDF is another similar service - upload a postscript compatible file to and then click on the resulting link that contains the generated PDF.
Note that the free Adobe service limits each PDF to 100MB and 50 uploaded pages, and it times out after 10 minutes of processing per file, a limiting factor if you work with complicated files containing high-resolution images.
7. A little technical solution: Use AFPL Ghostscript to create PDF and GSview to view and edit PDF files.
8. PDF995 - The pdf995 suite of products - Pdf995, PdfEdit995, and Signature995 is a complete solution for your document publishing needs. It provides ease of use, flexibility in format, and industry-standard security- and all at no cost to you. Its easy-to-use interface helps you to create PDF files by simply selecting the "print" command from any application, creating documents which can be viewed on any computer with a PDF viewer.
9. FPDF is a PHP class which allows to generate PDF files with pure PHP, that is to say without using the PDFlib library. The advantage is that PDFlib requires a fee for a commercial usage. FPDF requires no extension (except zlib to activate compression) and works with PHP4 and PHP5.
10. NovaPDF - Converts any type of printable document (DOC, XLS, PPT, HTML, EML, TXT..) into PDF files. Password protect the PDF files you create with 40-bit and 128-bit encryption levels, set different printing resolutions (from 72 dpi to 2400 dpi), NovaPDF support shared network printing. Supports ZIP and JPEG compression methods. You can define different profiles, each with its own settings for page size, resolution, fonts, compression, document info and save settings. NovaPDF also provide PDF SDK for integrating PDF print functions in software applications.
11. PDF Online PDF Online (formerly goBCL / goHTM) is web-based server solution that offers free document conversion into PDF and HTML formats. Create PDF for free, PDF software programming, PDF toolkit, convert to PDF and HTML, PDF converter, PDF api, PDF SDK / COM and PDF server batch process. PDF Online lets you submit documents from your web browser. PDF Online then processes your document and, within minutes, generates and emails you an accurate PDF or HTML (complete with JPEG files) representation of your document.
PDF, or Portable Document Format, is a unique, cross-platform file format that allows for precise representation of documents. There are certain advantage of PDF over other document formats. By converting to PDF, you can rest assured that your users will see your documents exactly as you intended, with all the fonts, formatting, and graphics intact. Rapidly becoming the de facto standard for electronic document distribution, PDF also enables you to add features like security, bookmark navigation, web optimization, and more.

Convert Web Pages into a Scrapbook

2007-06-09T01:46:00.001-07:00

HP Smart Print 2.0 has released a free IE add-on for saving webpages as Adobe PDF files. It also gives you the option to print content from several websites into one PDF file.

Unlike other HTML to PDF convertors which install as a virtual print driver on your system, this HP PDF utility is built on the lines of a "scrapbook" application.

With the smart selection mode turned on, your cursor on the webpage converts into a crosshair - select portions of the webpage that you would like to save as PDF and they are automatically added to the clippings bin on the right.

Once you are done selecting the objects that have to saved as PDF, click the print button and you get an option to either send the printing job to your physical printer or save that as an Adobe PDF file locally.

The addon will automatically determine the best layout that wastes the least amount of paper. If you don't like the layout, change it manually. You can even resize objects.

HP Web Printing | Download IE Add-on [7.4 MB]

NEW IT-forms

2007-06-08T07:38:00.001-07:00

Source : Rediff

The Income Tax department has come out with eight new tax return forms. Of these, the ITR-1 (Income tax returns-1) and ITR-2 (Income tax returns-2) forms are most relevant for salaried individuals.

These two forms have come into effect from May 14, 2007, for filing tax returns for the financial year 2006-07.

ITR-1 is applicable to those individuals who have earned only salary and interest income during the financial year. ITR-2 is applicable to those who have other types of non-business incomes, such as income from house property, capital gains, etc.

Note: Those individuals claiming deduction on interest on housing loans would be required to file ITR-2 only.

Neither of the forms require the taxpayers to prepare the controversial cash flow statement (a statement of your income and expenditure for a year). The new forms have been made annexure free. What this means is you are not required to attach any documents to the tax return. Not even Form 16!

You will have the following options to file your tax returns:

Online filing of returns by those who have a digital signature. Such taxpayers will not be required to file a paper return.
Online filing of returns by those who do not have a digital signature. Such taxpayers will be required to submit a one-page duly signed verification form, Form ITR V, with the concerned income tax office.
Manual filing of paper return form.
Manual filing of bar coded return form.

Now, let's look at the important features of the ITR-1 and ITR-2 forms.

ITR-1

ITR-1 is relatively simpler and similar to the Saral Form, the Form 2D. Two versions of ITR-1 have been introduced. One is two-pager and the other is a three-pager. The only difference between these two versions is the latter is more spacious than former. Content-wise, both versions are identical.

Since you do not have to attach Form 16 to the tax return form, you will need to fill in certain details that appear in your Form 16 here.

One important aspect of the new form is that taxpayers are required to mention the amount of certain types of high value transactions carried out by them. These transactions are already being reported to the tax authorities through Annual Information Return filed by various agencies such as banks, credit card companies, mutual funds, RBI, property registrars, etc.

This section should be carefully filled in. Incorrect reporting of such transactions may trigger scrutiny of your tax return by the Income Tax department.

Under this section, the taxpayers are required to mention the transaction amount of the following:

Nature and value of transaction

Remarks

Cash deposits totalling Rs 10 lakhs or more in a year in any savings account.

The important point here is that this clause is applicable if the total of all cash deposits during the financial year in a saving account is Rs 10 lakh or more.

Payments totalling Rs 2 lakhs or more in the year made against bills raised in respect of a credit card.

The important point here is that this clause is applicable if the total of all payments during the year for a credit card is Rs 2 lakh or more.

Let me explain: if you have used three credit cards during the FY 2006-07 and you pay a total of Rs. 1.9 lakhs against the first credit card, Rs. 1.4 lakhs against the second credit card and Rs 50,000 against the third credit card, then you need not report anything since you did not pay Rs 2 lakhs or more against a single credit card.

However, in FY 2006-07, if you pay total Rs 2.2 lakhs against the first credit card, Rs 2.7 lakhs against the second credit card and Rs 1 lakh against 3^rd credit card, then you need to mention an amount of Rs 4.9 lakhs under this item. This is the total amount of payments against those credit cards whose total payment is Rs 2 lacs or more!

Payment of Rs 2 lakhs or more for acquiring units of a mutual fund.

This clause is applicable only if the amount of a single payment towards acquiring units of a fund is Rs 2 lakh or more.

Payment of Rs 5 lakhs or more for acquiring bonds or debentures issued by a company or an institution.

This clause is applicable only if the amount of a single payment towards acquiring bonds or debentures of a company is Rs 5 lakh or more.

Payment of Rs 1 lakh or more for acquiring shares issued by a company.

This clause is applicable only if the amount of a single payment towards acquiring shares issued by a company is Rs 1 lakh or more. This would cover payment of Rs 1 lakh or more made for IPO application or for obtaining shares under ESOP scheme.

Purchase property valued at Rs 30 lakhs or more.

This clause is applicable only if the value, as considered by registration authorities at the time of purchase, of any immovable property bought by the taxpayer is Rs 30 lakh or more. The clause is not applicable if the transaction value is less than Rs 30 lakh.

Sale of property valued at Rs 30 lakh or more.

This clause is applicable only if the value, as considered by registration authorities at the time of sale, of any immovable property sold by the taxpayer is Rs 30 lakh or more. The clause is not applicable if the transaction value is less than Rs 30 lakhs.

Payment of an amount or amounts aggregating to Rs 5 lakhs or more in a year for bonds issued by the Reserve Bank of India.

This clause is applicable if the aggregate of all payments towards purchase of RBI bonds exceeds Rs 5 lakh in a financial year.

ITR-2

ITR-2 is more comprehensive and seeks more detailed information.

Some of the important schedules in ITR 2 are:

Schedule S on salary income

This requires the taxpayers to divide their salary income into:

1. Salary (Excluding all allowances, perquisites and profit in lieu of salary)
2. Allowances exempt under Section 10 such as HRA, LTA, conveyance, medical reimbursement, etc.
3. Allowances not exempt such as shift allowance, special allowance, taxable portion of HRA/ LTA, etc.
4. Value of perquisites in the form of rent free accommodation or interest free loans, etc.
5. Profits in lieu of salary

The amount of items 2, 4 and 5 is generally mentioned in the Form 16 itself. However, many taxpayers will have to work out the amounts under items 1 and 3 by themselves. The amount under the first head would include only the basic salary. The amount under the third head would include gross salary as mentioned in Form 16 minus amounts under 1 and 2.

Schedule HP for Income from House Property

Taxpayers are required to mention the full address of each of the properties owned by them. They are also required to mention the name and the PAN (mentioning of tenant's PAN has, however, been kept optional) of the tenant.

A detailed computation statement is required to be filled in for each of the properties owned by the taxpayer. The form enables the taxpayers to fill in the details of upto two residential properties. If a taxpayer owns more than two houses then s/he may have to attach an annexure to provide complete details.

Schedule CYLA for current year losses adjusted

Details of income after set off of current year losses are required to be furnished in a tabular format. For most taxpayers this would apply since the setoff of loss from properties (arising due to interest on housing loan) against salary income has to be shown in this schedule.

Schedule AIR for transactions reported through annual information return

This is the same as what we discussed for ITR-1in the table above.

To summarise

~ What taxpayers would like the most is the fact that the tax returns are annexure free.

~ Enhanced use of technology would help the tax department to find the tax evaders more easily. Honest taxpayers may benefit since tax rates may go down if the compliance level increases.

~ The two-paged ITR-1 is relatively simpler. However, the six-paged ITR-2, which would be applicable to all the individuals owning a house, is relatively complex. Those filing ITR-2 are more likely to seek professional assistance in preparing their tax returns.

Upload Files on Wikifortio - Rapidshare Style File Hosting Service and No waiting time

2007-06-08T07:33:00.001-07:00

Wikifortio is a free file uploading service like Rapidshare or YouSendit that alllows users to upload and share files upto 100 MB in size.
Wikifortio has one advantage over Rapidshare - there's no waiting time and the site is free of any popup or under advertising.

The file begins to download almost immediately when the recipient clicks the download link. The site is now used for hosting and distributing software from GiveawayOfTheDay. com.
WikiFortio.com - Store your big files on-line.
There's however a downside - uploaded files are automatically deleted from Wikifortio servers after five days. And the website makes no mention about the developers and their business model.

DivShare is an online file hosting service like Rapidshare or Megaupload but offers some very unique advantages:
» The uploaded files stay online forever. [Rapidshare deletes the file after some period of inactivity]
» You can upload unlimited number of files and each file size can be as large as 200 MB. [Rapidshare has a 100 MB limit]
» The interface is pretty clean, very fast and intuitive.
» DivShare automatically creates an image gallery of all the pictures that you upload to their web servers.
Now, here's some great news for bloggers, especially those who are on the Wordpress platform.
You can host your files on DivShare and link them in your blog posts. That saves precious storage space on your server and since the files will be served from DivShare, you save on those monthly bandwidth bills as well.
Co-founder David Altschul just informed that DivShare has launched a Wordpress plugin that allows you to upload files directly from your "Write a Post" page to your DivShare account, and insert them into your post with a single click.
Wondering what's their business model ? Not sure but are already using Adsense to monetize their website and who knows, a pro version may be in the works for uploading files even greater than 200 MB.

http://www.divshare .com/

Google unveils 'Google Gears'

2007-06-08T07:25:00.003-07:00

The company plans to make the Gears technology available for free as "open source" software, meaning other developers are free to use and enhance the software in their own products

Google Inc. said on Wednesday it had created Web software that runs both online, and offline, marking a sea change for the Internet industry by letting users work on planes, trains, spotty connections and even in the most remote locations.

The technology, called Google Gears, would allow users of computers, phones and other devices to manipulate Web services like e-mail, online calendars or news readers whether online, intermittently connected to the Web or completely offline.

Google plans to make the Gears technology available for free as "open source" software, meaning other developers are free to use and enhance the software in their own products. The technology also allows developers to build Internet search and indexing of Web pages into their own software applications.

http://gears. google.com/

FAQ: http://code. google.com/ support/bin/ topic.py? topic=11628

New Windows Live Writer is Here

2007-06-08T07:23:00.001-07:00

Microsoft today released a new version of Windows Live Writer 1.0 (beta 2). This WYSIWYG blog editing software is a vast improvement over the previous version and a must-have upgrade.

There's an inline spell checker (so readers will complain less about spelling errors), support for HTML tables and a reminder option that will make sure you don't post stuff without adding appropriate titles and categories / tags.

Blogger users will love the support for labels. Wordpress fans can now compose static pages or add new categories right inside WLW without logging into Wordpress Dashboard.

Like Microsoft Word or Excel, you have a new "Paste Special" function that lets you copy-paste stuff into WLW with or without formatting.

Your old plugins will still work in the new release of Windows Live Writer. The Temporary Post issue now occurs only if you enable Web Preview for your blog posts.

Writer synchronizes drafts on your blog with changes you make when you're offline, so you don't have to worry about reconciling different versions.

There's another useful change - Windows Live Writer now allows you to upload images without applying borders or drop shadows, something which was not possible with the previous version.

The new Vista style look-n-feel of the WLW interface is also very refreshing.

Unfortunately, Blogger users will still have to depend up Picasa or Blogger Web Editor for uploading pictures since the Blogger Picture API is not yet integrated with Windows Live Writer. Expect that to change in the coming release.

Download WL_Writer.exe [5.4 MB]

Most Useful Windows Live Writer Plugins

Wish to enhance your blogging experience with Windows Live Writer ? Here are some very useful plug-ins that will supercharge your copy of Windows Live Writer.

Blog This - This is like the Tumble bookmarklet for quick blogging - select some text on a web page in IE or Firefox and click the Blog This button - it will launch a new blog post prepopulated with the title, text snippet and URL of the current webpage.

Insert Video - Use this to quickly embed video clips from YouTube, Google Video or Myspace Videos into your blog posts. Just type the URL of the video and the plugin will generate the code for you.

Flickr4Writer - If you are a Flickr member, this plugin will help you browse your Flickr photos and insert them into your blog posts.

Social Bookmarks - Add social bookmarking icons (like digg, del.icio.us, furl, yahoo!) in your blog posts that will allow readers to save or share your articles on these social sites.

Screen Captures - This is like an offline version of Picnik Screen Capture. Specify a webpage URL and this plugin will insert a screenshot of that page in your blog post that you can later resize or apply image effects.

Syntax Highlighter - Recommended for geeks and developers who frequently share code on their blogs. This plugin will highlight the code syntax and language specific keywords in various colors.

WebSnapr - Allows you to insert thumbnail images of web pages in your blog posts similar to ones that you see on Alexa or Snap.com

Insert Code - It formats a snippet of text in a number of programming languages such as C#, HTML or JavaScript. Makes the source code more readable.

For additional Windows Live Writer plugins, please visit the Live Gallery and the excellent WLWPlugins.com. Want to write your own Windows Writer Plugin ? Try this useful guide by Keyyan Nayyeri (uses C#).

Why is fuel used in airplanes different from those used in motor vehicles?

2007-06-08T07:21:00.001-07:00

Aviation turbine fuels are used for powering jet and turbo-prop engine aircraft. Kerosene was used to fuel the first turbine engines. Kerosene-type fuel was chosen as having the best combination of properties.
As the primary function of aviation turbine fuel (jet fuel) is to power an aircraft, energy content and combustion quality are key fuel performance properties. Other significant performance properties are stability, lubricity, fluidity, volatility, non-corrosivity, and cleanliness. Besides providing a source of energy, fuel is also used as a hydraulic fluid in engine control systems and as a coolant for certain fuel system components.
However, compared to a kerosene-type fuel, other type fuels like used in motor vehicles were found to have operational disadvantages due to their higher volatility:
Greater losses due to evaporation at high altitudes.
Greater risk of fire during handling on the ground.
Crashes of planes fuelled with wide-cut fuel were less survivable.
Lighter (less dense) fuels, such as gasoline, have higher heating values on a weight basis: whereas heavier (more dense) fuels, like diesel, have higher heating values on a volume basis. Since space is at a premium in most aircraft, the amount of energy contained in a give quantity of fuel is important. A fuel with high volumetric energy content maximises the energy that can be stored in a fixed volume and thus provides the longest flight range.
There are currently two main grades of turbine fuel in use in civil commercial aviation: jet A-1 and jet A, both are kerosene type fuels. There is another grade of jet fuel, jet B which is a wide cut kerosene (a blend of gasoline and kerosene) but it is rarely used except in very cold climates.
Jet A-1 is a kerosene grade of fuel suitable for most turbine engine aircraft. It is produced to a stringent internationally agreed standard, has a flash point above 38 degrees centigrade (100 degrees Fahrenheit) and a freeze point maximum of minus 47 degrees Centigrade.
Jet A is a similar kerosene type of fuel, produced and normally only available in the U.S. It has the same flash point as Jet A-1 but a higher maximum freeze point (minus 40 degrees centigrade).
Jet B is a distillate covering the naphtha and kerosene fractions. It can be used as an alternative to jet A-1 but because it is more difficult to handle (higher flammability) , there is only significant demand in very cold climates where its better cold weather performance is important.

How is the computer's speed measured

2007-06-08T07:19:00.001-07:00

Two important factors that determine the speed of a computer are the amount of data that the Central Processing Unit can process in a given period of time and the CPU's clock speed.
The speed at which a CPU executes instructions is called the clock rate.
Every system contains an internal clock that regulates the rate at which instructions are executed and synchronizes all the various computer components. The CPU requires a fixed number of clock ticks to execute each instruction.
The faster the clock, the more instructions the CPU can execute per second. Clock speeds are expressed in megahertz MHz or gigahertz GHz. Mega means million and hertz means times per second, 200 MHz is 200 million times per second (and 200 GHz is 200 billion times per second).
The internal architecture of a CPU has as much to do with a CPU's performance as the clock speed. One common architecture is parallel processing. For example, while an instruction is being executed, the next instruction can be fetched from memory and decoded.
Instruction Prefetching is another idea where the CPU fetches the next instruction beforehand and places it in a queue for the execution unit to use the same.
The overall speed of a computer is also affected by the speed and size of the instruction/ data bus. The instruction/ data bus is the pathway for data communications between the computer's CPU and the various components in the computer.
The computer's bus has a certain size or width called the data path which is measured in bits and the speed of the bus is measured in MHz.
The larger the bus width and/or the faster the bus speed, the more data that can travel on it in a given amount of time.
Another factor affecting the speed is the size of the primary memory and cache. Increasing the size of the primary memory will speed up the performance if you run several applications at the same time or work with large files and documents. Cache is a small amount (normally less than 1 MegaByte) of high-speed memory residing on or close to the CPU. Cache memory supplies the CPU with the most frequently requested data and instructions.
Finally, effective interfacing of Input-Output devices to the CPU also increases the speed. Systems today use direct memory access (DMA) hardware wherein I/O device acts as a master and transfers large number of data to/from memory without intervention by the CPU

How does Rechargable Battery works

2007-06-08T07:06:00.001-07:00

Electrochemical cells and batteries are identified generally as primary and secondary batteries. The primary batteries cannot be easily or effectively re-charged electrically and hence are discharged (used) and discarded. The electrochemical reactions in primary cells are not easily reversible. When the battery delivers current (during use) the active materials undergo changes and the active materials slowly will become inactive because the discharged active materials can't deliver current. In secondary batteries (example., lead-acid) the reactions are said to be reversible because once the battery is used, the inactive materials can be converted back to active materials by re-charging and the battery will be again ready for use.
These systems are also called as `storage batteries'. (example., lead-acid, nickel-cadmium) In the primary category, for example., zn-carbon cells, the anode is zinc and cathode is manganese dioxide. During discharge (when battery in use), the simplified reaction can be written as (the actual electrochemical process is more complicated)
Zn + 2 MnO{-2} ZnO + Mn{-2}O{-3}
Discharge (delivers current)
The discharged products (right hand side) cannot be formed back into original active materials (left hand side) by passing current in an opposite direction (charging). It is said to be `irreversible'
Where as in secondary batteries, for example., lead-acid, the active materials can be formed back after discharge (use) and it will be ready for use again after charge.
Pb + PbO{-2} + 2H{-2}SO{-4}
Technically some primary batteries can be recharged for several cycles but may not deliver full capacity and may have poor charge retention after recharge. Generally the cells are not designed for that type of use. The life of a secondary battery (lead-acid or nickel-cadmium) may vary from 200-1200 cycles (one cycle represents one discharge and charge) depending on its design parameters.

Avoiding allergens

2007-06-08T06:59:00.001-07:00

There are plenty of steps you can take to cut down on allergens in your home. Time to open the windows and get cleaning...

Some basic rules
Take the following immediate actions to cut down on allergens in your home:

Keep your home dry and well ventilated.
Open windows regularly and keep vents open, particularly in kitchens and bathrooms. A useful guide is to open windows for at least one hour, twice a day.
However, if you suffer from hay fever, you should keep the windows closed as much as possible during the peak of the pollen season.
Don't dry clothes indoors, especially in your bedroom or living room.
If you have central heating, turn it down by a few degrees.
Increase the ventilation if your home is very humid - a dehumidifier might help.

House dust mites
Household dust is a great breeding ground for house dust mites and may also contain animal dander and mould or mildew spores. There are various ways to keep a lid on house dust mites:

Choose wooden or other hard vinyl floorings instead of carpets, and fit roller blinds, which can be wiped clean, rather than curtains.
Remove cushions, soft toys and other fabric accessories.
Avoid indoor houseplants, as they are also dust traps.
Don't use woollen blankets or feather bedding in your home. Try synthetic pillows and acrylic duvets instead.
If you can, buy a high-filtration vacuum cleaner. Most standard cleaners stir up dust as you clean and release most of the dust back into the air in your home.
Always wipe surfaces with a clean, damp cloth, as dusting will just spread the allergens further.

The most beneficial action you can take is to buy barrier covers for your bedding
The most beneficial action you can take is to buy barrier covers for your bedding. These are designed to prevent house dust mites and their tiny droppings escaping from your pillows, mattresses and duvets. They are made from a soft micro-porous material, which is comfortable to sleep on. And wash your sheets, duvet covers and pillowcases once a week in a hot wash (60ﾃつｰC), then iron your sheets and bedclothes with a hot iron, which will help to kill mites.
If your child is unhappy about giving up soft toys, machine wash them instead in a hot wash once a fortnight. Then place the toys in the freezer for 24 hours after which they should be thoroughly dried.
On a final note, acarosides are chemicals that kill house dust mites. They are expensive and only offer temporary benefit, and the dead mites still have to be removed from carpets and furnishings by intensive vacuuming.
Pets in the home
Another priority is to remove pets from the home. If this is too traumatic, then try the following:
Keep pets outside as much as possible or limit them to one room only, preferably one without carpeting.
Don't allow pets into bedrooms, as dander can remain airborne for long periods. The cat dander allergen can also be carried on clothing to school or work.
Wash your pets regularly - fortnightly if possible.

Female animals produce less allergen and castration will reduce the production of allergen by male cats and dogs.
If you are allergic to cats and are visiting the home of a cat owner, ask them not to dust, sweep or vacuum on the day you arrive. Disturbing the dust could make your allergy worse as stirred-up cat allergen can remain in the air for over 24 hours. You might want to take anti-histamine medication if entering a cat-inhabited home.

How to relax

2007-06-08T06:57:00.001-07:00

Eat healthily. Sugar and caffeine are your enemies, as they both cause severe ups and downs, upsetting your body's ability to regulate energy. Instead of sugary, carbohydrate loaded snacks (like cookies or granola bars), eat fresh fruits and whole grain breads or crackers (sugar-free) . Make sure you get plenty of protein, like that found in chicken, lean beef, whole grains, and low-fat dairy.

Find a quiet place when you are feeling overwhelmed. Even the stall of a bathroom will work if you have no other place to go.

Close your eyes and picture your own personal paradise. Put yourself there and imagine the setting. What do you see around you? Is there a breeze? What do you hear--birds? Waves? Water? Imagine yourself thoroughly enjoying every moment here in your special place.

Breathe. Inhale deeply, counting to five, then exhale slowly, counting to five. Do this ten times.

Relax in bed. Take a bath, play soft music, and lay down in bed. Read a book and clear your mind of all the stress and rush of the day.

Avoid people who are constantly angry or complain. Stress can be contagious, so avoid transmitters.

Stop engaging in behaviors that make you feel guilty. Seek help from a professional if necessary, but don't allow destructive behavior to sabotage your life and your health. Guilt is a potent source of stress, so get rid of the source of guilt by behaving yourself.

Exercise every day. You don't need to work out like a body builder or celebrity. At least twenty minutes (or more, if you like) every day of moderate activity, like walking or bike-riding, is the best known, scientifically proven way to significantly reduce stress. Walk on a treadmill every day for twenty minutes, take the stairs instead of the elevator, and park a little further away from the entrance to stores. You will be amazed at how much easier you overcome stress when you exercise regularly.

Learn to prioritize. Make a list of tasks you must accomplish that day. Put the most important things at the top and list every task in descending order of importance. Learn to be proactive and take care of things before they become a problem, then your time will be more productive and you will feel less stress.

Draw a warm bath, light candles around your tub, dim the lights, add bubbles, lavender, or just keep the water plain.

You can curl up on your couch with a blanket, and a good book, maybe even a cup of tea, cocoa, or coffee.

Do yoga; it relaxes your body, and helps clear your mind.

Go to your local spa for a great massage. You will feel so great afterwards.

Lay on your bed or sofa, have some soft music playing in the background (or nature Cd's) and listen to ocean waves, waterfalls, or birds.

Go for a walk. If you live near a park with a fountain, or near a beach or lake, the calming sound of water will soothe you. Just a regular walk will also relax you.

If you can, go swimming, either at your local pool, a friend or relatives home, or in a lake. Swimming is great for reducing stress.

Do the activities or hobbies that relax you (fishing, sewing, singing, painting, taking photographs) , whatever it is that keeps your mind off the things that normally stress you out, or things that you just need a break from every now and then.

Adding a Windows Administrator Account from Command Prompt

2007-06-08T06:52:00.001-07:00

Warnings

Doing this stuff on a computer other than yours is illegal, so don't do it on someone else's, unless you have been given the permission to do so.
Don't even think about trying this at school. Really, that's just stupid. Not to mention it's not cool to get expelled because you pulled a skiddie hacker stunt.

Information on Windows Hacking. This is for learning purposes only.

Steps

When the computer starts up, hold down F8 before you see the "Windows Starting" screen. This will bring you to a screen with choices. Your best bet will be "Safe Mode with Command Prompt". You can then do as you wish.
dialogue will appear: you're going to want to go down to the bottom and select "All Files". Then you are going to name the file: Batch.bat. After that, go to where you saved it, and open it. That will open up Command Prompt.
However, if the computer has notepad blocked, you can easily go to any web page and then go to "View>View Source". That will easily open up Notepad.
After that, you will be able to do as you wish inside command prompt. Here is how to add or delete accounts:
- Add Account: C:>net user USERNAME /add
- Delete Account: C:>net localgroup Administrators# # Another way is to open up notepad, (if its not blocked), and type in "command.com" . Then goto File->Save As. A USERNAME /ADD

Tips

Don't be dumb, and mess up someone else's computer. Only do anything like this if you need access to the root of Windows. It was written for learning only. Also, don't try anything unless you know something about DOS.

Howto use WiFi

2007-06-08T06:34:00.001-07:00

Warning: Using default settings, a wireless router allows anyone with any knowledge to easily connect to your network and use your internet connection and do what they will with your computers. But there are safe ways to use these devices. Enabling encryption, turning off ssid broadcasting, Mac address filtering, and changing your router's password are a must. High speed internet is a must. Buy the wireless router and any other necessary devices to connect to the router, such as pcmcia cards for laptops, usb devices, etc.

Steps

Make sure your internet connection is working directly from your modem prior to connecting your router.
Hook your router up as per instructions. Any wired computers will plug into the LAN connections and one cable will go to the modem.
Log into the router using a wired computer with the ip address that is provided in the manual. Most are 192.168.0.1. Inputting this address in your browser's address window should get you there. Default login is "admin" , passwords vary, so check your book.
Turn on WPA-PSK encryption so that the data from your computer is encrypted and not visible by your neighbor.
Change the default router access password so that only you can logon.
Turn off SSID broadcasting as this tells anyone passing by with a wireless device that you have a connection available; also name SSID what you want. You will use this name when connecting from your wireless device.
Mac address filtering allows only your computer(s) to connect to your network so enable this as well. Finding your Mac address of your network device(s) is done by starting a command prompt window and typing "ipconfig/all" without the quotes. A typical Mac address is 00-06-5B-04- B4.
Click enable Mac address filtering, then type your computer's Mac addresses in and save.
WAN connection type will most likely be set to DHCP and should work fine at this setting for most applications.
Fire up your computer with the wireless device installed... .You did type the Mac address for this device, right?
Start wireless setup wizard in WindowsXP and it will walk you through connecting to your router. Use manual settings and check the box for wpa at the bottom. Remember that wpa-psk key/password you made earlier? You will input it here. SSID name will also be entered here.
If you have more than 1 computer and you would like to enable share files, click start>my network places then if you are using a Windows XP, on the side toolbar click "set up a home or small office network" and follow the steps with every computer
If all went smoothly you will now be able to safely connect wirelessly.

Tips

Don't ever connect a wireless router without doing the above safety settings. By default they are setup "loose" so that they get the fewest tech support calls. A central location of where you are most likely to use your wireless devices is desireable.

Warnings

If you don't do the MAC address filtering or put a encryption then you computer is vulnerable to hackers because they can put files into your shared documents, print out of your printer (if you shared the printer) or they can do illegal stuff and get you fined.

How to Access Data of a Password Protected User in Windows XP in Case the PC Fails to Boot

2007-06-08T06:33:00.001-07:00

You may come across a situation in which your windows XP PC fails to reboot, and the most accepted solution to that problem is to re-format the Hard Disk. Before formatting, you should backup your files. If your computer is password protected, you won't be able to access them from outside, so here is a method for getting around this.

Steps

Boot the machine from Windows XP bootable CD.
At the setup screen, select R to repair using Recovery Console.
Now the console program will prompt you to select the Windows folder (eg. C:\WINDOWS) where the Windows is installed (you need to enter a number from the list of folders shown to you).
Type 'HELP' (without single quotes) and press enter for available commands. This is like a DOS program, but some features are not available.
Change the current directory to the user's directory where you want to backup.
Type 'CD "C:\Documents and Settings\X"' (without single quotes) and press enter. Where X is the username.
Now the current directory will change to "C:\Documents and Settings\X".
Now change the directory to Desktop by entering 'CD Desktop' (without single quotes) and press enter to go to the desktop folder.
Type 'DIR' (Without single quotes) and press enter, you will be listed all the available files in Desktop.
Type 'COPY a.doc D:\BACKUP' (without quotes) and press enter, where a.doc is a file available in Desktop and the folder D:\BACKUP available to copy the files.
As in step 7,8,9,10 you can backup other folders like "My Documents", "My Music", etc.
Note that you cannot use wildcards for COPY. I.e, you cannot copy all the files in a folder at once. You must copy one file by one.

Tips

Before doing this, try changing the password to blank so that you can access the data from another machine to easily drag and drop to copy your data.

Warnings

Any data not backed up will be permanently deleted when you re-format the hard drive, so make sure you back up any thing you want to keep.

Things You'll Need

A bootable Windows XP CD

How to Install RAM

2007-06-08T06:30:00.001-07:00

These instructions will assist you in installing memory (RAM) into your computer.

Steps

Find out what type of RAM is required for your computer(EDR, DDR ...)
Find out the speed of your Memory and the speed upto which the Mother board support. Make sure that your board supports that much of RAM and free slots are available. (Read the Motherboar manual)
Purchase RAM online or from an outdoor unit.
Open your computer case (this may require a screw driver; usually a Phillips-Head. or else u can use a nail cutter)
Once you have the case open, you need to locate the RAM slots on your motherboard. Most RAM slots are located on the top of the motherboard, on the right-hand side. You should see something in the computer that is similar to what you bought at the store.
Push the clamps OPEN to release the memory (if there is RAM already in there, which there may or may not be, depending on whether you're building a computer or altering an existing one). Remove old memory.
Look at the new memory and survey the motherboard memory slots. They should have a notch in each memory slot.
Line the notch on the motherboard up with the notch on the new memory.
Press gently but firmly until claps close completely. Once you have done this, the memory should be installed correctly.
Turn on the computer.
Once you have successfully booted the system, turn the machine off again and put the side panel back on the computer.
VOILA! You have just installed new RAM.

Tips

If you are getting a beep when you turn on the computer, you have either installed an incorrect memory type, or you have installed the memory incorrectly. If this is a computer that you purchased at a store, you should contact the store or the manufacturer of the computer to find out what the beep code means.
If you hear anything other than a single beep lasting one second, check your motherboards' documentation for an explanation of beep codes. Beep codes are a warning system when one or more components fails the POST (Power On Self Test), and is usually due to malfunctioning or incompatible hardware.
If you are adding more RAM (not replacing), make sure there are enough RAM slots. Often you need to buy the exact same RAM as you currently have. Also, having a pair of 512MB is often cheaper than replacing a 512MB with a 1024MB.
A good website to use is the crucial memory website http://www.crucial. com/ as they have a memory advisor tool which tells you how much and what type of ram your computer takes . you can also buy memory from here

Warnings

These instructions are for Desktop computers, not Laptops.
Make sure to discharge any possible static buildup before touching RAM; it is extremely sensitive to ESD (Electro-Static Discharge). Do this by touching something metal before touching your computer

Gizmo Project

2007-06-06T05:38:00.001-07:00

This free VoIP software lets you place phone calls to other users anywhere in the world and call landlines and mobile phones for a fee. You can also set up free conference calls.

Gizmo's interface is compact and rectangular, with tabs on the top just below the Menu bar and a series of ancillary commands like Chat and Add Contact available at the bottom ( very similar to skype) . There are very few differences between Gizmo's design and its biggest competitor's, and a little originality could've gone a long way here.

Calling Cards

Upon registration, your account will be credited with 0.25 cents. If you need additional calling cards, you can buy it directly thru online.

The second option is thru references, you can send emails to invite your friends

Download Now

Why do the doctors prescribe some medicines to take before food and some after food

2007-06-06T03:28:00.001-07:00

When we take a medication, it is absorbed from various parts of our gut — some get absorbed in the stomach, some pass through the stomach into the intestines and get absorbed there.
The most important reason for timing a medication that is taken orally is to maximise its absorption so that more of the medication goes through the stomach into the blood.
Many medicines get absorbed better when food is not present and hence are taken on an empty stomach (an example is the hormone thyroxine which must be taken first thing in the morning). A few actually get absorbed better when food is present — an example of this is the antibiotic azithromycin. Some drugs are taken specifically with or after food because this may reduce the side effects of the drug on the stomach.
For example pain medications and certain antibiotics all can irritate the lining of the stomach and therefore are best taken with or after food. Some drugs work in the wall of the stomach to reduce the absorption of food and this is the desired therapeutic effect — an example of this is the anti-diabetic drug called acarbose.
This drug must be taken with the first bite of food. Similarly other oral anti-diabetic drugs and the injection insulin are taken before food because that is when they need to act — just after you eat a meal. The long and short of it is that the timing of a drug has important effects on its absorption, action, potency and even side effects and it is a good idea not to leave the doctor's office without being sure when you should be taking your medicine