Facebook Sneaks Up on BlackBerry Users  

Posted by BlognThings in

BlackBerry owners may have noticed a new icon appearing on their devices in the past week: a link to Facebook. Some T-Mobile smartphones are getting the icons whether or not customers want them. Facebook spokespeople say users can still decide whether to download the software, but to privacy groups the unwanted icons spell intrusion, reports the San Jose Mercury News. • The Facebook link can be hidden but not deleted, a move that recalls the Beacon advertising system fiasco. Facebook says no information is shared among companies, but the head of the Center for Digital Democracy isn't sold: "It illustrates a basic problem over at Facebook, which is their need to fatten their bank account is confounding their need to protect the privacy of their members."

Source --> Facebook Sneaks Up on BlackBerry Users

K-Lite Codec Pack 3.5.7 Full / Corporate / Standard / Basic  

Posted by BlognThings in

This Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. You should be able to play all the popular movie formats and even some rare formats. The K-Lite Codec Pack has a couple of major advantages compared to other codec packs: It it always very up-to-date with the latest versions of the codecs; It is very user-friendly and the installation is fully customizable, meaning that you can install only those components that you really want; It has been very well tested, so that the package doesn't contain any conflicting codecs; It is a very complete package, containing everything you need to play your movies; and has different packages. Full contains even more codecs. It also has encoding support for various formats. This package is for power users and people who do their own encodings.


Latest Changes:
- Updated ffdshow to revision 1627
- Updated Haali Media Splitter to version 1.7.359.22
- Added Monkey's Audio source filter (DCoder)
- Removed Monkey's Audio plugin for DC-Bass Source
- This fixes playback of .ape files
- Added Haali Muxer tool
- Minor changes

Download Basic Pack now --> K-Lite Codec Pack 3.5.7 Basic
Download Standard Pack now --> K-Lite Codec Pack 3.5.7 Standard
Download Corporate Pack now --> K-Lite Codec Pack 3.5.7 Corporate
Download Full Pack now --> K-Lite Codec Pack 3.5.7 Full

Nokia N95 Review  

Posted by BlognThings in


No, it wasn't the Wi-Fi, the excellent browser, or even the 5 megapixel camera that wowed me. It wasn't the FM tuner, the Symbian operating system, or the media player accompanied by Nokia's media controller accessory. It was the TV-Out feature that made me think that this "phone" changed the game.

Nokia calls the N95 a multimedia computer; I call it a lifestyle accessory. And more so than devices such as Treos and BlackBerries, the N95 could be the start of manufacturers understanding what people want to do, and putting it in a package that looks good in the office, as well as out on the town.

The N95 is just that cool. I was left with that impression when I first saw it at CES back in January, so I jumped when I was asked to review the device.

Overview

The N95 is the flagship multimedia computer/smartphone device by Nokia. Offering a drool-worthy list of features, it's designed to do a lot in an extremely pocketable package.

And, at the same time, the Symbian OS and accompanying PC Suite software tend to give a soft edge to the cutting edge features found within the N95.

In my time with this device, I battled with it as a smartphone, and marveled at it as a regular phone. I "found" reasons to use the camera and Wi-Fi; and saw the reactions from others around me who gave reasons why such a device is both good and bad.

But when all was said and done with the N95, I gathered a level of respect for Nokia that I had not had before. And even more than that, I figured out what I need in my own personal computing device.

Read entire review from source --> Nokia N95 Review

Britney Spears Checks Into Hotel with Dude Named Adnan  

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Just when you think she has bottomed out, Britney Spears finds a way to take her love for attention from celebrity photo agencies to an entirely new level!

Spears reportedly spent parts of Saturday night and Sunday morning holed up in a Beverly Hills hotel room - along with a celebrity news photographer who regularly covers the troubled pop star. A paparazzi romance? Goodness, Britney.

According to reports, the pair was in Spears’ room at the Peninsula Hotel until the early morning hours of Sunday. The celebrity photographer, whose first name is Adnan, departed the hotel at 6 a.m. Sources say Spears left around 9 a.m.

But when contacted by Us Weekly, the photographer denied a romance, saying, “We are just friends. She was just upset, pretty much about everything.”

According to celebrity photo agency Splash News, the singer’s “wild date” began on Saturday night with Adnan, who works for the Finalpixx photo agency, handing Britney Spears his business card at a gas station after he heard she “liked” him.

“After discussing the possibility of him coming into her house she said that her house was too dirty and that she would rather go to a hotel,” Splash reports.

“So they changed cars and she went back to her house to freshen up while Adnan parked down the road and waited. She then came out in her car and they left.”

Britney was reportedly wearing a leopard print dress and ripped fishnet tights as they arrived at The Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, hand in hand. Sexy!

As of Sunday afternoon, a source says Britney Spears back was at her Beverly Hills home with her two children, Sean Preston and Jayden James.

Desperate to bring attention back to herself after Casey Aldridge got Jamie Lynn Spears pregnant? Just lookin’ for some lovin’ or a friend? Who knows with Brit!

Source --> Britney Spears Checks Into Hotel with Dude Named Adnan

Top 10 Culinary Schools  

Posted by BlognThings in


1. The Culinary Institute of America
Hyde Park Campus, Hyde Park, NY

2. Texas Culinary Academy
Austin, Texas

3. Institute of Culinary Education
New York, NY

4. Johnson & Wales University
CAMPUS: Charleston, SC

5. DCT - Swiss-European Culinary & Pastry Chocolate Art Center
Vitznau-Lucerne, Switzerland

6. Johnson & Wales University
CAMPUS: North Miami, FL

7. Scottsdale Culinary Institute in Arizona
Scottsdale, Arizona

8. Sullivan University
Louisville, KY

9. International School for Culinary Arts and Hotel Management
Philippines

10. The Art Institute of Houston
Culinary Arts Program, Houston, Texa

Amazon sells 17 Wiis per second  

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SEATTLE (AP) -- Amazon.com said Wednesday its 2007 holiday season was its strongest to date, with Nintendo Wii game systems and the "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" DVD among its top-selling products.

The online retailer said it sold about 17 Nintendo Wiis per second when the product was available. The fifth Harry Potter movie led DVD sales, followed by "Planet Earth: The Complete BBC Series" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

Other products that sold well included Garmin GPS systems, the Apple MacBook and KitchenAid stand mixers.

Amazon.com's (AMZN, Fortune 500) said it experienced its strongest holiday sales on Dec. 10, as customers ordered more than 5.4 million items, or 62.5 items per second. The company shipped products to more than 200 countries, with more than 3.9 million units sent on its peak day.

Source --> Amazon sells 17 Wiis per second

Police: Six people found shot dead in rural Washington  

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(CNN) -- Authorities have ruled out murder-suicide in the deaths of six people whose bodies were found Wednesday in a rural area outside Seattle.

The victims all appeared to have have shot, and may have been dead since Christmas Eve, said King County Sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart.

Deputies have not made any arrests. But nearby residents did not have to worry about "someone running loose," said another sergeant, Jim Laing.

The six people were found dead in and around a house on a residential property in Carnation, about 20 miles east of Seattle, Urquhart said.

The house sits among a cluster of residences on the edge of woods.

A colleague of one of the victims came by to check on the family Wednesday morning after the victim didn't show up for work, Laing said.

The colleague called deputies, who initially found the bodies of two adults and a child inside a house on the property.

In all, deputies found a man and a woman in their 50s, another man and woman in their 30s, and two children: a 6-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy, Urquhart said.

Authorities have not yet been able to determine how the victims were related and who lived at the house.

Source --> Police: Six people found shot dead in rural Washington

Verizon Voyager- The iPhone Killer?  

Posted by BlognThings in


What do you do if you want to have the cool Apple iPhone, but have Verizon instead of AT&T? Here's the answer! They're calling it the iPhone killer, it's crisp, clean and stocked with all kinds of great features...and it's on the Verizon network starting in November.

The Verizon Voyager is the coolest phone since the iPhone to appear on the cellular landscape. It's cheaper than the iPhone, more versatile in it's features, and it's ready to take the cellular world by storm.

The upcoming LG Voyager will sport a jumbo touch screen, along with a QWERTY keypad hidden beneath the flip. Also included in the package: Verizon's V Cast Mobile TV and a two-megapixel camera.

Verizon Voyager will also come with a very clean looking Flash-powered touch screen, anionted with a set of icons along the bottom of the display screen, just like the iPhone.

The icons and menus move, slide, and shrink as you touch-tap the screen. It's a refreshing difference from the boring, static menus you'll usually find on most Verizon phones.

You can compose text messages on the touch display, although you'll have to use a 12-button virtual keypad to do so.

Opening the Voyager reveals its QWERTY keypad, along with a internal LCD (not a touch pad. From this setup, you can get to your e-mail accounts, plus do instant messaging, access V Cast music (with a microSD expansion port that will allow for up to 8GB of audio and video storage), and about eight streaming channels of V Cast's Mobile TV.

There's also support for stereo Bluetooth headsets, as well as a two-megapixel camera for on-the-go pictures. All in all, it's a very cool phone. Watch for it, coming soon!

Source --> Verizon Voyager- The iPhone Killer?

Chevrolet Volt generates surge of traffic on Web  

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Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News

The Chevrolet Volt is slowly consuming Lyle Dennis' life.

A year after casually launching a blog devoted to General Motors Corp.'s ambitious efforts to build a battery-powered Chevy, Dennis, a neurologist from Suffern, N.Y., has become a cyber-celebrity of sorts.

"I just wanted to do anything I could to make it happen, and I thought it might be fun to have a blog," Dennis said. "I didn't expect all this. It can be challenging."

His Web site, GM-Volt.com, gets about 100,000 visitors a month, he said. More than 7,400 people have signed a waiting list he's compiling that he says he'll send to the company to convince it that there's a market for the product.

The car, which is still years and some significant scientific advancements away from becoming reality, is developing a quirky, cult-like following in cyberspace. The Volt is also showing up on other Web sites, forums and social networking pages such as Facebook.com.

One site even claims to be taking pre-orders for the vehicle, though the operation has no link to GM or its dealers. Since GM hasn't even started building the car, paying someone for a spot on any waiting list is a bad idea. GM spokesman Rob Peterson said the automaker is aware of that site and looking into it to ensure that would-be buyers aren't cheated out of money.

Read entire article from source --> Chevrolet Volt generates surge of traffic on Web

AUTOMOBILE MAGAZINE Names the Audi R8 Automobile of the Year  

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The winners are featured in the pages of the February 2008 issue of AUTOMOBILE MAGAZINE, available on newsstands beginning January 2, 2008.

2008 Automobile of the Year: Audi R8

Audi’s first foray into the sports car arena impressed the editors with its depth of abilities, which include straight-line speed, deep reserves of power, generous suspension travel, laser-like directional stability, and the surefootedness of all-wheel drive. The R8’s glass-encased, 420-hp, 4.2-liter V-8 engine has the sound of a traditional Italian supercar. Editors called it a great real-world sports car in the vein of the Porsche 911, but with the exotic presence of a Ferrari.

“The R8 absolutely captivated the automotive world this past year,” said Jean Jennings, President and Editor-in-Chief of AUTOMOBILE MAGAZINE. “It propels Audi into a whole new league of driving dynamics, and it emphatically caps Audi’s steep ascent from the somnambulant lull in which it languished in the early 1990s. The R8 is a thrilling new sports car from a company that’s stronger than it’s ever been.”

Design of the Year: Audi R8

The arresting R8 features a bright metal blade on its side, an unmistakable and dramatic design feature shared with no other car. For Design of the Year, AUTOMOBILE MAGAZINE looks for innovation, style, beauty, engineering, dynamics, heritage and public approbation, and editors noted that the R8’s design is outstanding in almost every way.

“We honor the designers and the engineers who have so perfectly realized a truly civilized grand touring coupe,” said Design Editor Robert Cumberford. “It is far more comfortable than cars of equal performance, and it features a highly focused environment for the driver but a relaxed and more open space for the passenger.”

Read entire article from source --> AUTOMOBILE MAGAZINE Names the Audi R8 Automobile of the Year

Home prices post record decline  

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By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Home prices fell 6.7 percent in October, compared with a year ago, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller 10-city home-price index. It was the largest drop recorded since the index began in 1987.

It marked the 10th consecutive month of price depreciation and 23 months of decelerating returns.

"No matter how you look at these data, it is obvious that the current state of the single-family housing market remains grim," said Robert J. Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets, in a statement.

Case-Shiller's 20-city index fell 6.1 percent. Shiller noted that 11 of the markets in the 20-city index posted a record fall.

"This is just the beginning," said Peter Schiff, a Darien, Conn.-based investment adviser known for his bearish views of the housing market. "Pressure is there for much, much lower prices."

According to Schiff, one factor that will drive prices lower is a change in buyer psychology. "The prices that existed were completely artificial, a function of speculators who are no longer in the market," he said. "Some buyers thought they were going to get rich."

Today, however, that demand has all but disappeared. "More people want - or have - to sell," said Schiff, "because prices aren't going up, so buyers have to look at the actual cost of owning a home."

Read entire article from source --> Home prices post record decline

ATI Radeon™ HD 3800 Series  

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ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series – Key Features

* PCI Express® 2.0 – Get ready for the most demanding graphics applications with PCI Express 2.0 support, which allows up to twice the throughput of current AMD PCI Express cards.
* Incredible Microsoft® DirectX® 10.1 performance – You’ll be blown away by life-like graphics from the latest DirectX® 10.1 games, with stunning 3D graphics and shading effects.
* 320 Stream Processors – More than enough horsepower to support the most demanding graphics applications.
* ATI CrossFireX™ multi-GPU – Upgrade to even greater 3D performance quickly and easily thanks to plug-and-play ATI CrossFireX technology with up to quad-GPU support.
* Unified Video Decoder – View and manipulate the latest Blu-ray and HD DVD content with a dedicated hardware video decoder that leaves your CPU free to perform other tasks.
* Ultimate Image Quality – Performance that rivals high-end HD-DVD and Blu-ray players on displays with resolutions that exceed 1080p – up to 2560x1600.
* Integrated Digital Outputs – Enjoy your digital content the way you want to, with built-in HDMI that includes 5.1 surround audio for big screen entertainment.
* More Processing Performance per Watt – Get up to twice the Gigaflops per watt of previous generations of high-end AMD GPUs.
* ATI PowerPlay™ Technology – power saving features that reduce power consumption at idle or during low-usage
* Runs Cool and Quiet – With a smaller chip designed to use less power, your system can take advantage of high-end Windows Vista® features while running more efficiently and quieter than ever.

See entire Reviews for 3870 & 3850 from AnandTech --> ATI Radeon HD 3870 & 3850: A Return to Competition

Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX (768MB)  

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Reviewed by: Rich Brown
Edited by: Matthew Elliott
Reviewed on 11/8/06 Release date: 11/8/06 We've been waiting for the GeForce 8800 GTX since we first got wind that Nvidia's next-generation 3D card would be out before the end of this year. It's everything we'd hoped it would be. For a suggested street price of $599, the GeForce 8800 GTX brings tremendous processing power to current-generation games. It's also the first card to market that will support all of the 3D gaming-related features of Windows Vista and DirectX 10. The initial release of next-gen games is a bit far off. The poster child, the 3D shooter Crysis, is set to debut in March 2007, and even that game might not put all of the next-gen bells and whistles into play. Still, the GeForce 8800 GTX is so powerful, even compared to ATI's fastest dual card combination, that there's no reason to spend roughly $1,000 on a pair of Radeon cards when you can outperform them with a single $600 GeForce 8800 GTX. That and the fact that Nvidia has finally caught up to ATI's image-quality advantages earn Nvidia's newest card our Editors' Choice award for high-end 3D graphics cards.

Because of design changes in the GeForce 8800 GTX chip's new architecture, we need to consider some of this card's specs differently than we have in the past. The basics are the same. The GeForce 8800 GTX has a core clock speed of 575MHz, and it comes with 768MB of DDR3 RAM clocked to 900MHz with a 1,800MHz data rate. That memory rate is a significant uptick compared to the 800MHz RAM in Nvidia's last flagship card, the GeForce 7950 GX2. But one of the main differences in the GeForce 8800 GTX's architecture lies in how we consider its pipelines.

In the past, we've said that a 3D chip has X amount of pixel pipelines and Y pipes for shader calculations. But because of the new specifications of DirectX 10, the GeForce 8800 GTX employs what's called a unified architecture. In other words, no pipe is geared toward a particular task. Instead, the GeForce 8800 GTX comes with 128 stream processors, which can dynamically process whatever info is thrown their way. This means that if your card is processing a shader-intensive scene, it can tap from more of the pipeline pool to process that image, rather than being capped at 24 or 48 pipes because some of the other pipes are set aside for geometry only. This capability should give game designers much more flexibility in how they design games, knowing that if they can balance the workload properly, they can pump a lot of processing power into a given calculation.

Read entire Review from source --> Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX (768MB)

EBay goes far to fight fraud -- all the way to Romania  

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By Ian Wylie, Special to The Times
December 26, 2007
RAMNICU VALCEA, ROMANIA -- This small industrial center in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains is not Albena Spasova's favorite destination. Driving the twisting highway makes her ill. Once she arrives, danger lurks.

U.S. Secret Service agents escort her, for her safety. Over the last two years, they have kept watch on dozens of trips, some lasting weeks, others months, as she has spent long days foraging through case files with local police and long nights holed up in one of the town's few hotels, with her windows locked.

"You don't know who to trust there. You can't use the hotel phone line. When you step outside, you can spot the local hackers in their cars, circling around," said Spasova, 33. "The Secret Service agents always book my accommodation and make sure I'm in a room next to them."

Ramnicu Valcea is an improbable capital of anything, but this obscure town is a global center of Internet and credit card fraud. And Spasova is an accomplished online fraud buster, helping to take down cyber-crime gangs across Romania. She isn't an FBI agent, though, nor a Romanian police officer.

Spasova works for EBay Inc.

No one, it turns out, does Internet auction fraud like the Romanians. Bulgarians specialize in intellectual property theft; Ukraine is a leader in online credit card crime; the Russians have a profitable niche in Internet dating fraud.

But when it comes to online auctions, particularly for big-ticket items such as cars that can yield $5,000 a scam, Romanians own the game. Romanian police estimate that cyber-crime is now a multimillion-dollar national industry, as important to organized criminals here as drug smuggling or human trafficking.

Read entire article from source --> EBay goes far to fight fraud -- all the way to Romania

ASUS P5NSLI: Core 2 Duo and SLI on a Budget  

Posted by BlognThings in


"Engineering is the art or science of making practical."

This quote by noted writer and practicing engineer Samuel C. Florman describes our initial thoughts about the ASUS P5NSLI motherboard. There has been much fanfare over the past few weeks surrounding the release of Intel's impressive Core 2 Duo lineup of processors. Up until now the only motherboards available that supported this CPU series have been sporting chipsets from Intel or VIA. (ASUS also offers the P5N32-SLI Deluxe SE which has Core 2 support, although that uses the older nForce4 chipset.) In fact, we are just now seeing additional Intel chipsets such as the 945P, 945G, 946PL, and 865 being launched, with the G965 and Q965 products on their way in September. After the wave of 975X and P965 products introduced at launch we are witnessing these products maturing from a performance viewpoint. Everyone has been wondering if, when, and what type of chipsets NVIDIA and ATI would bring to market to support Core 2 Duo.

We are over a week away from the official launch of the NVIDIA nForce 590SLI Intel Edition and will have to wait at least a month before seeing the ATI RD600 based motherboards. In the meantime, the first nForce 570SLI Intel Edition motherboard has been released and is for sale at this time. We just received the ASUS P5NSLI board a couple of days ago and immediately started testing it. Our testing is by no means complete but we did want to provide some early information on the board along with a few select benchmarks. We will be utilizing this board in an upcoming comparison article and will publish a performance review in the near future once we have completed benchmark testing.


The ASUS P5NSLI motherboard is based on the recently announced nForce 570SLI Intel Edition SPP (C19-A3) and MCP (MCP51-A2) chipsets. If these chipsets sound familiar they should, as the chipsets are based on the earlier nForce4 SLI XE for Intel Edition products. The SPP had been revised slightly to ensure full Core 2 Duo support along with minor performance enhancements. Our first impression of the motherboard was very good as the layout of the board is clean and well organized for an SLI capable system. The initial stock performance results of the board show it to be competitive with the Intel P965 and 945P solutions while offering a price target around US $115.

The chart above lists the standard feature set available when utilizing the NVIDIA 570SLI for Intel SPP and MCP chipsets. The 570SLI SPP enables full support for X16 PCI-E or dual X8 PCI-E graphics card configurations, up to four X1 PCI-E devices, 16GB memory addressability, and native DDR-2 667MHz memory support. The 570SLI MCP enables support for 8 USB 2.0 ports, HD Audio with S/PDIF connectors, Gigabit Ethernet support, 5 PCI slots, 4 SATA 3.0Gb/s ports, and 4 IDE devices.

Read entire Review from source --> ASUS P5NSLI: Core 2 Duo and SLI on a Budget

DVDFab Platinum 4.0.3.0 Final  

Posted by BlognThings in


DVDFab Platinum is all you need to backup DVDs. DVDFab Platinum 3 is brand new, is completely rewritten, is based on 5 years of DVD copy software development.
DVDFab is simply the easiest way to copy a DVD movie. Just insert the movie and a blank DVD then press Start. Your entire movie - including menus, trailers and special features - is copied to a single DVD with just one click, and everything happens automatically.
Backup your entire DVD - including menus, trailers, and special features - onto one or multiple discs.



Changes in DVDFab Platinum 4.0.3.0 (Dec 26, 2007):
* Merry Christmas!
* New: Added support for a new copy protection as found on "Rush Hour 3", (US).
* New: Added support for a new CORE X2 protection as found on "Next", (R2, Czech). The new CORE X2 is really hard to beat, but DVDFab can handle it now.
* New: Improved DVD structure cleaning module. Now DVDFab output is more compatible with other DVD programs.
* New: Improved PathPlayer to determine some special paths.
* New: Added more protection info in "Settings -> Info" window.
* New: Added support for Microsoft ZUNE and Xbox 360. Please note you need have installed Windows Media Player 11 to use the feature.
* New: Added devices "ZUNE, NDS, Xbox 360 and PS3" to navigation bar.
* New: Updated A/V codecs for "DVD to Mobile".
* New: Updated language files.
* Fix: "Clone" mode may fail when copying data DVD in certain cases.
* Fix: A corrupt data problem when copying chapter range of "Main Movie".
* Fix: A crash problem when clicking "Settings" button in certain cases.
* Fix: A crash problem when using command line interface.
* Fix: A problem that encoding speed slows down to zero in certain cases, for "DVD to Mobile".
* Fix: A "process failed" problem when using h264 2-pass encoding, in certain cases for "DVD to Mobile".
* Fix: Several minor problems.

Download it now --> DVDFab Platinum 4.0.3.0 Final

Barack Obama still faces doubts  

Posted by BlognThings in


BY MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

Wednesday, December 26th 2007, 4:00 AM



WASHINGTON, Iowa - Barack Obama's soaring, inspirational message seems to work its magic on most voters in his audiences, sending them off with a warm and fuzzy we-can-change-the-world feeling.

Not Stan Potratz.

"There's just an air of eloquent naivete about him," Potratz, 62, said after a town hall meeting here last week.

Even as Obama has drawn virtually even with Hillary Clinton in some early-state polls, he still faces doubts from would-be supporters on whether he can deliver on his vision.

In a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, Iowa Democrats regarded Clinton as the stronger leader, by 36% to 28%, and the more experienced, by 45% to 9%. But 56% valued a new direction and new ideas even more.

Read entire article from source --> Barack Obama still faces doubts

Young Joc: Bad Boy rapper a fugitive  

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DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER AND WIRES

Wednesday, December 26th 2007, 11:30 AM
Yung Joc was one of this year's break out stars.

Bad Boy rapper Jasiel Robinson, better known as Yung Joc, failed to show up at his arraignment Wednesday on a felony charge of carrying a concealed weapon and was considered a fugitive, a prosecutor said.

Joc, was accused of attempting to take a loaded semi-automatic gun onto a Delta Air Lines flight Sunday and was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, police said.

Cuyahoga County assistant prosecutor Gayle Williams said Robinson is considered a fugitive and she planned to request a warrant for him.

Robinson's attorney, Stanley Jackson Jr., was apologetic and said Robinson was out of town on personal and family obligations. Jackson has said his client maintains his innocence.

Robinson was arrested early Sunday at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport at a standard security checkpoint as he was heading to a departing flight. Police found a semiautomatic handgun and ammunition in his carryon bag. He told police he did not know the weapon was there and was released Monday on $50,000 bond.

Read entire article from source --> Bad Boy rapper a fugitive

Touch cube points to future toys  

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Andrew Fentem has worked on innovative human computer interfaces for some time, after beginning his career in military research and development, specifically missiles.

His work today is part-art, part hobby, part business venture.

His latest creation, the Fentix Cube, is generating a lot of interest from toy manufacturers and buzz on the internet, based on a few clips he put on YouTube.

"Because of absurd level of interest generated by YouTube everyone wants the device," he says. "I'm being bombarded by toy firms from Korea."

A small plastic cube with playful lights, it could be mistaken for a mass market throwaway toy manufactured by the million in the Far East.



But the colourful exterior masks a combination of innovative technologies that have propelled Apple's iPhone and Nintendo's Wii to huge success this year.

The cube contains a large battery, an array of LEDs and crucially three accelerometers which can detect the pitch and yaw of the device, and sensors on the inside surface for touch control.

Read entire article from source --> Touch cube points to future toys

The Manga Bible  

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If manga is "cinematic" (as so many theorists love to say), then what kind of cinema would it be? In the case of The Manga Bible, the inspiration seems to come from Hollywood's big-budget adaptations of epic books. After all, what book is more epic (or controversial) than this one? This picture-story Bible has its fair share of sharp, dynamic artwork, focusing on the action-adventure elements of the Good Book: bloody wars, stunning miracles, and larger-than-life kings and prophets. But like so many visual adaptations of literature, it falls short at the most important part: telling the story. This volume is little more than a clip show featuring the Bible's Greatest Hits, overlaid with so much text that it defeats the point of pictorial storytelling. Is this truly a manga Bible, or just a series of bullet-point summaries with illustrations?

The greatest challenge in adapting the Bible is that it is not really a single book: it is a collection of books, essays, poems and letters, arranged in rough chronological and thematic order. That alone makes it difficult to dramatize, and so we see The Manga Bible taking plenty of artistic license, especially with the Old Testament—events are re-arranged for better historic context (Moses narrates the entire book of Genesis, for example), other events are recounted as flashbacks, stand-alone stories are inserted as interludes, and less story-driven books are omitted entirely. (Proverbs? Ecclesiastes? The minor prophets? See you guys later.) The life of Jesus is easily the most focused part of this book—after all, the source material has four different versions of his story—but like everything else, it's edited and summarized to the point of having almost no depth.

Read entire article from source --> The Manga Bible

The Google Mini - A look at Google's entry-level search appliance  

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Since the arrival of AnandTech's very own Google Mini, Google has issued several updates to this little blue box. We're taking a look at Google's present-day Mini to provide up-to-date insights on this search solution for small-to-medium-sized businesses. The Mini product line currently sports four different licenses, ranging from $1,995 for the ability to search through 50,000 documents, to $8,995 for a machine that will handle up to 300,000 documents. Buyers can opt for an extra year of customer support, which will raise the price by $995. The Google Mini's hardware is identical, regardless of which license one chooses, and all the license plans offer full functionality.


Google's updates to the Mini resulted in a physically smaller enclosure and quite a few new features, some of which we will discuss specifically later in this article. We also investigated the benefits of the Mini's integration with Google Analytics, and to top it off, we did some benchmarking to see exactly how the Mini performs.

Read entire Review from source --> The Google Mini - A look at Google's entry-level search appliance

Egypt to copyright pyramids  

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CAIRO (AFP) - In a potential blow to themed resorts from Vegas to Tokyo, Egypt is to pass a law requiring payment of royalties whenever its ancient monuments, from the pyramids to the sphinx, are reproduced.
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Zahi Hawass, the charismatic and controversial head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told AFP on Tuesday that the move was necessary to pay for the upkeep of the country's thousands of pharaonic sites.

"The new law will completely prohibit the duplication of historic Egyptian monuments which the Supreme Council of Antiquities considers 100-percent copies," he said.

"If the law is passed then it will be applied in all countries of the world so that we can protect our interests," Hawass said.

He said that a ministerial committee had already agreed on the law which should be passed in the next parliamentary session, while insisting the move would not hurt Egyptian artisans.

"It is Egypt's right to be the only copyright owner for these monuments in order to benefit financially so we can restore, preserve and protect Egyptian monuments."

However, the law "does not forbid local or international artists from profiting from drawings and other reproductions of pharaonic and Egyptian monuments from all eras -- as long as they don't make exact copies."

"Artists have the right to be inspired by everything that surrounds them, including monuments," he said.

Read entire article from source --> Egypt to copyright pyramids

Fruity Loops Producer Edition 7.02  

Posted by BlognThings in


"FL Studio, formerly known as FruityLoops, is a fully featured, open-architecture music creation and production environment for PC. No extra software is required to produce any style of music, as the complete set of instrument and studio tools is included in the cost of the package. With the included plugins, sounds and tools the user can create complete songs, as well as backing tracks, loops and sizzling beats. Completed songs can be saved to WAV, MP3 or MIDI or .ZIP or native project formats (.FLP).

FL Studio utilizes MIDI and DirectSound (internal mixing), 16-bit 44KHz stereo output, and 32-bit floating-point internal mixing. You'll also get support for VST plug-ins, as well as individual panning, volume, pitch, mix, resonance, and cutoff on each note. New in FL7 are Parametric EQ2, Edison WAV editor/recorder and Love Philter. Version 7 now supports track-based sequencing. Pattern Clips present sequence data in the method as Audio and Automation Clips.Edison replaces the Wave Editor."

What is FL7?
FL Studio is a fully featured, open-architecture music creation and production environment for PC. No extra software is required* to produce any style of music, as the complete set of instrument and studio tools is included in the cost of the package. With the included plugins, sounds and tools the user can create complete songs, as well as backing tracks, loops and sizzling beats. Completed songs can be saved to WAV, MP3 or MIDI or .ZIP or native project formats(.FLP).

Instruments
Make virtually any sound. FL7 includes 13 virtual synthesizers covering acoustic/synthetic bass, electric guitar and plucked string simulation, sampler tools including piano, general sample playback, and beat-slicing, and a range of synthesis techniques (subtractive, modelling, FM, granular and additive).

Audio Recording & Editing
Capture audio from a single vocalist right through to a full symphony orchestra. FL7 can record up to 64 simultaneous tracks of audio#. The Playlist workspace can contain an unlimited number of audio tracks and allows you to arrange discrete audio events in any order, and position the creative process dictates with complete flexibility. Audio tools allow the ability to time-stretch, pitch-shift, beat-slice, chop, edit and creatively destruct audio. FL7 also introduces Edison, a fully featured mastering wave editor and recorder. FL Studio supports WAV, MP3 and OGG formats.

Sequencing
Record musical performances and ideas in the most logical way. FL7 functions as both a pattern and track based sequencer depending on user preferences. Tools include an unlimited track Step-sequencer, an industry-leading Piano Roll and Automation Clips. FL Studio supports MIDI and input from all standard Controllers.

Arranging
Determine your own project design. In FL7, you decide how your project will be laid out. Unlike the competition, FL7's Playlist is a totally flexible and virtually unbounded space where Note Pattern, Audio and Automation data can be arranged, and edited to suit your creative ideas and workflow.

Mixing/Mastering
The most powerful mixer in its class. FL7 includes an industry-leading 64 stereo track mixer. Each track can include up to 8 effects and can also be routed to any of the other 64 tracks or one of 4 dedicated 'send' channels. The 44 included effects plugins span Compression, Delay, Distortion, EQ, Filtering, Phasing, Flanging, Chorus, Vocoding and Reverb. These will take you from the creative broad-brush effects like reverb, through to the minutia of the mastering process with multiband compression/limiting and parametric EQ.

Download source --> Fruity Loops Producer Edition 7.02

ReGet Deluxe 5.2 Build 327 RC  

Posted by BlognThings in


Enjoy the last word in speed of downloading - ReGet Deluxe! Wherever you have a dial-up (modem) connection to the Internet or super-fast cable or ADSL, ReGet Deluxe will fully utilize the bandwidth of your connection and download files in a blast! With many features aimed at improving the download experience and dramatically increasing download speeds, ReGet Deluxe is the tool of choice for power users and heavy downloaders.

Download it now --> ReGet Deluxe 5.2 Build 327 RC

Key Source --> ReGet Key

Mitt Romney seeks neighborly reception in N.H.  

Posted by BlognThings in

By ALEC MACGILLIS
The Washington Post
December 26. 2007 12:06AM



Wes Burke does not really know Mitt Romney as the multimillionaire corporate turnaround whiz or savior of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics or presidential candidate with the reputation for changing his mind. He knows him as the guy who, on a visit to Burke's Wolfeboro home one Sunday, noticed water running high behind the dam on the property and then offered to go with Burke to fix the broken pump.

"He's a real person," said Burke, sporting an Indian headdress after leading a Cub Scout meeting at the Mormon temple where Romney often worships.

Romney enjoys a home-field advantage in the New Hampshire Republican primary. He served four years as governor of Massachusetts, giving him exposure to the state's voters via the Boston television stations many of them watch, and his family has had for the past decade a house on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee.

Yet gauging the depth of this advantage is no easy task, because Romney's relationship with New Hampshire is fraught with complexity. Many New Hampshire voters have mixed feelings about Massachusetts, an ambivalence that Romney may or may not be spared given that as a Republican he was fighting against his state's prevailing political tide. Then there is New Hampshire's uncertain relationship with its regular summer visitors, including a thriving community of Mormon vacationers on the Winnipesaukee.

Finally, there is Romney himself, who in his family background (roots in Michigan and Utah) and personal style (corporate power suits and nary a dropped "r") is hardly the prototypical New Englander. On the trail here, Romney seems at times almost to play down his local connections, casting himself more as a generically American business executive who just happens to have lived in the area the past few decades.

Read entire article from source --> Mitt Romney seeks neighborly reception in N.H.

Zoo Tiger Escapes, Kills Visitor  

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A tiger escaped from its cage at the San Francisco zoo today and killed a visitor, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Two other visitors were attacked during the rampage, but they survived. The extent of their injuries was not immediately known. Police shot the tiger dead as it attacked patrons of a zoo cafe. Officials aren't sure how the tiger escaped. • Officials had first thought as many as four tigers were on the loose, but they later found three of them never left their pen in the center of the zoo. The attack comes a year after one of the zoo's Siberian tigers, Tatiana, mauled a keeper during a public feeding.

Source --> Zoo Tiger Escapes, Kills Visitor

Nero Ultra Edition 8.2.8.0 Released!!  

Posted by BlognThings in


Nero 8 is a software solution that brings the digital world to your PC with features that make it fun and easy to create multimedia projects with high-quality, professional results. Create MP3 mixes and edit vacation videos in High Definition format. Share content around the world with simple Internet upload functions. Burn a disc with just one click, and then enjoy it in any room in your house with versatile streaming features. Rest easy knowing your data is safe in the event of a system crash or a damaged disc. Nero 8 lets you live the digital life with cutting-edge technology and world-class features.

Using Nero 8 Ultra Edition you can now create and edit, convert and share, rip and burn, backup and protect your digital media, all from one easy-to-use interface!



New and Improved Features
· New easy-to-use and intuitive NeroStartSmart
· One-click import and share to/from online communities
· Playback on AVCHD and Blu-ray (BD-AV) video
· Backup files to CDs, DVDs, HD DVDs and Blu-Ray discs
· Convert DVD files to play on your iPod or PSP and other portable devices
· Optimized for Windows Vista



The following applications are included in Nero 8:
• Nero Mobile – Media Center for Mobile Devices (Included in the Retail version of Nero 8 only)
• Nero Home 3 – Media Management System
• Nero Scout – Database Technology
• Nero StartSmart 8 – One-Click Project Launcher
• Nero Burning ROM 8 – Expert CD and DVD Burning
• Nero Express 8 – Easy Interface CD and DVD Burning
• Nero WaveEditor 4 – Audio Editing and Recording
• Nero SoundTrax 3 – Professional Audio Mixing
• Nero Vision 5 – Video Editing and Authoring
• Nero Recode 2 – The World’s Fastest Video Converter
• Nero ShowTime 4 – DVD and Multimedia Player
• Nero MediaHome 3 – UPnPTM Streaming Solution
• Nero ControlCenter – Simplified Customization and Configuration
• Nero PhotoSnap – Photo Editing
• Nero PhotoSnap Viewer – Photo Viewing
• Nero CoverDesigner 3 – CD and DVD Label Design
• Nero BackItUp 3 – Complete Backup Solution
• Nero ImageDrive 3 – Virtual Drive Setup
• Nero DiscSpeed 4 – Improve Optical Drive Performance
• Nero DriveSpeed 3 – Complete Optical Drive Control
• Nero RescueAgent – Improved File Recovery
• Nero BurnRights – Easily Deployable Burning Rights
• Nero InfoTool 5 – Drive and Disc Analysis
• InCD 5 – Packet Writing Solution
• SecurDisc Viewer – View SecurDisc protected files

Download it now --> Nero Ultra Edition 8.2.8.0 Released!!

Keygen from source --> Keygen

Personal bankruptcy filings soar  

Posted by BlognThings in

Nathan Hurst / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- The number of southeast Michiganians declaring bankruptcy is skyrocketing.

Through October, the number of Chapter 7 personal bankruptcies filed in Detroit's federal bankruptcy court jumped 63 percent compared with the first 10 months of last year. With two months of 2007 filings still to be reported, there already are 4,700 more Chapter 7 filings this year than for all of 2006.

Financial experts say the reasons for the recent ramp-up in bankruptcy filings are well-known to many Michiganians.


"It's definitely about the bad economy and housing market," said Natasha Swoish, manager of bankruptcy counseling and education services at GreenPath Inc., a Farmington Hills-based credit counseling service. "Especially from the Detroit area, we're seeing a lot of people coming in because of foreclosure. It's a last-ditch effort to try and save their homes."

Swoish said GreenPath's counselors work with those in debt to set up plans with creditors, rather than defaulting or seeking bankruptcy protection. But lately, she said, that option of last resort has become necessary for those out of work and swimming in debt.

According to court records, 19,345 individuals or married couples filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy through October, the latest month of data available from the Eastern District of Michigan bankruptcy court, which covers Detroit, Flint, Saginaw and Bay City. That compares with 14,650 for all of last year.

The number of Chapter 13 filings, which allow consumers to reorganize their debt through a court-managed payment plan, stood at 9,902 through October, compared with 8,344 through October of last year.

Read entire article from source --> Personal bankruptcy filings soar

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