Email etiquettes

We all frequently use email for various personal and professional purposes. I find some use full points for improving effectiveness of our email communication.

1. If you are sending an email to multiple people, put their email addresses in the BCC field and your own email address in the To: field. No one likes to share their private email address with strangers.

What should we do For Age of Pugnacity

Now a days every one is confused for ongoing grouping and declarations of each group. Each one declares him selves on right path. Recently i found an email by my friend. Its attachment emphasizes to stick to Quraan for guideline in this age. It is only way to put our mind on way of prosperity.

click on urdu text in image to enlarge it

Letter to bill gates

Dear Mr Bill Gates,

This letter is from Banta Singh from Punjab. We have bought acomputer for our home and we encountered some problems, which I want to bring toyour notice.

1. After connecting to internet we planned to open e-mail account and whenever we fill the form in Hotmail in the password column, only ****** appears, but in the rest of the fields whatever we typed appears, but we face this problem only in password field. We checked with hardware vendor Santa Singh and he said that there is no problem in keyboard. Because of this we open the e-mail account with password *****. I request you to check this as we ourselves do not know what thepassword is.

Ages of human civilization

Computers in stone age

Googly office environment

Innovative bag strings

Introducing vista

Loosing concentration

Jump down

Just joking

After land rover and range rover now here is sky rover

Invisible woman

Not ladies first but Bike first

Test for Punjab group of colleges

I found an interesting and inspirational test report for punjab group of colleges.

Sale of devil's tools

It was advertised that the devil was going to put his tools up for sale. On the date of the sale, the tools were placed for public inspection; each tool being marked with its sale price.

They were a treacherous lot of implements... Hatred, Envy, Jealousy, Deceit, Lying, Pride, and so on.

Laid apart from the rest was a harmless looking tool, that appeared to have been heavily used, and was priced very high.

"What is the name of this tool?" asked one of the purchasers, pointing to it. "That is Disappointment," replied the devil.

"Why have you priced it so high?"

"Because it is more useful to me than all the others. I can pry open and get inside people's hearts with that when I cannot get near them with my other tools. Once I get inside, I can make them do what I choose. It is badly worn because I use it on almost everyone, since very few people know that it belongs to me."

Never get disappointed! Keep your head up keep the faith!

10 ways to improve your office etiquette

We spend one-third of our working lives at the office. The people we work with can affect our productivity and our careers, and vice versa. Practicing office etiquette makes the place and the workday just a bit more bearable.

1: Watch the volume of your voice

Keep your voice at a reasonable level. Other people are trying to work, and your voice may distract them. Besides, do you really want them to overhear what you're saying? If you have something personal or otherwise sensitive to discuss, consider doing it in a private office or conference room.

And now also care ringtone manners

Manners are always a sensitive and prevailing aspect of any society. These dictate matching, contrasting sense in dress, accessories, and items. Along with growing use of mobile tones in our daily life. It is also required to pay attention on ring tone manners.
Imagine that you are on your own or some one else marriage ceremony and a very desperate or sad ring tone is sung by your mobile. As a result every one will notice it and will convey unsaid messages.
Similarly if you are with a patient or on a funeral and a ring tone of pop, rock or bhangra category comes out of your cell. It will be a critical situation.
Similarly some old people who may not operate the mobile well, feel nervous when a tone of latest song comes out of their cell phone. And of course that very tone is set by one of their grandchildren or some other beloved child.
Situation becomes more worst when loud ring tone is heard during prayers.
So along with mobile manners we have to add ring tone manners also. Choose ring tone according to your age, environment and situation.

Reciting holy Quraan without understanding

Why do we read Quraan, even if we can't understand a single Arabic word????

This is a beautiful story.

An old American Muslim lived on a farm in the mountains of eastern Kentucky with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Quraan. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could.

One day the grandson asked, "Grandpa ! I try to read the Quraan just like you but I don't understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book.
What good does reading the Quraan do?"

Life is a gift

There was a blind girl who hated herself just because she's blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He's always there for her. She said that if she could only see the world, she would marry her boyfriend. One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her and then she can see everything, including her boyfriend. Her boyfriend asked her, "now that you can see the world, will you marry me?" The girl was shocked when she saw that her boyfriend is blind too, and refused to marry him.

Her boyfriend walked away in tears, and later wrote a letter to her saying.

"Just take care of my eyes dear."

Hackers hit white house email archive

According to a story by the Financial Times last week, US officials have confirmed that the White House email archives were attacked several times in recent months. The report said the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force, a new unit established in 2007 to tackle cybersecurity, detected the attacks on the White House, and also traced the attacks back to servers based in China.

The quoted source said each time the attack was detected, new defenses were put in place: "It is constant cat and mouse."

Overall, the attackers apparently only had access to the unclassified White House computer network. Nonetheless, the data could still have value.

The unnamed official quoted within the report speculated that the cyberattacks might follow the "grain of sands" approach allegedly used by Chinese intelligence. That involves parsing through often low-level information to find a few nuggets.

Rock eating bateria

Bacteria can leach small amounts of valuable metals from otherwise useless ore, researchers have found.

These mineral-crunching microorganisms are a type of bacteria that use minerals as their source of energy. When the life-forms break down the matter through metabolism, they squeeze out metal ores or concentrates combined with sulfur in a process called bioleaching.

The method is emerging as an increasingly important way to extract valuable minerals when conventional methods such as smelting can't do the job cheaply enough, experts say.

Development is also being spurred by the electronics industry's brisk global demand for copper.

"Certain microbes react to metal ions and help copper be leached out of low-quality ore," said Masaru Tomita of the Institute for Advanced Biosciences at Japan's Keio University.

Selected wild life images of 2008

I have liked a lot following two images selected from best images of wild life 2008.

Clonning of frozen mice

Using cells from dead mice frozen for 16 years, a team of Japanese geneticists has successfully created healthy clones of the dead animals.

The breakthrough could pave the way for resurrecting extinct animals, such as the woolly mammoth, from frozen remains, experts say.
"We have demonstrated that even frozen animal tissue can be used to produce clones," said Teruhiko Wakayama, a geneticist at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan.
For their cloning process, Wakayama and his colleagues drew dead brain and blood cells from the frozen mice. The researchers injected the nuclei from the dead cells directly into unfertilized mouse eggs, creating embryos.

is oldest Hebrew Text Is Evidence for Bible Stories?

What may be the oldest known Hebrew text, found on a hilltop above the valley where David is said to have battled Goliath, could lend historical support to some Bible stories, archaeologists say.

The 3,000-year-old pottery shard with five lines of text was found during excavations of the Elah Fortress, the oldest known biblical-period fortress, which dates to the tenth century B.C.

It is the most important archaeological discovery in Israel since the Dead Sea Scrolls, according to lead researcher Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology. His team believes the text may provide evidence for a real-life King David and his vast kingdom, the existence of which has been long doubted by scholars. Carbon-14 dating of olive pits found at the archaeological site, as well as analysis of pottery remains, also place the text to between 1000 and 975 B.C., the time King David, head of the Kingdom of Israel, would have lived. "This means that historical knowledge of King David could pass from generation to generation in writing—and not just as oral tradition."

Apnay

Hamein to apnoan nein mara, Ghairoan mein kahan dam than
Aur hadian wahan tootean, jahan hospital band tha
Jis ambulance mein dala, us ka petrol kam tha
rikshay mein bithaya, k us ka karaya kam tha
Doctor nein uthaya, nars mein kahan dam tha
jis bed pay litaya, us kay neechay bum tha
End

pakistani politicians mapped

Some one send me SMS

• Agar pakistan kay awam mein aqal hoti to?
• Qazi hussain ahmed peshawar mein pista bechta
• Chaudri behansoan ka dhood bechtay
• Fazal ur rehman kisi school ka chokidar hota
• Sheikh rasheed muree pindi bus ka condector hota
• Nawaz shareef branderth road par loha bechta
• zardari nawabshah kay jangloan mein oont charata
• Mush rifle lai kay national bank ka guard bana hota
• Altaf bhai kisi bus mein manjan bechta

I liked the personality mapping.

Animal species near to extinction according to Red List 2008 of Threatened Species

An extinction crisis continues to ravage the planet's animals and plants, according to the new Red List of Threatened Species. Roughly 38 percent of the world's known species are near extinction, according to a comprehensive survey done to create the 2008 Red List of Threatened Species.

There are 44,838 species on the 2008 Red List, compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Thirty-eight percent of Red List species are close to extinction, with 25 percent of all mammals on the verge of oblivion. The Red List is an annual "health check of the planet.

For the 2008 list, for the first time, every known amphibian, mammal, and bird was assessed.Species unlucky enough to make the list are grouped into eight categories, from "least concern" (low risk of extinction) to "critically endangered" (extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the near term).

Earthwatch® Fellowships

Earthwatch is now accepting applications for 2008–2009 student and educator fellowships. Earthwatch fellowships allow teachers and students to get out of the classroom and head into the field. Fellows learn about cutting-edge research and conservation efforts, develop professional skills, and make a difference for our environment. Know someone who should apply? Nominate a teacher or student! From the words of past fellows, learn what a fellowship is like, and find more information, deadlines, and applications on the Earthwatch website.

Red flags you may unintentionally be giving off in interviews

Not getting calls back from your interviews? There may be something more subtle in your behavior that could be causing prospective managers to say, “No, thank you.”

We’ve all heard about, and I’ve written about, things that you should avoid doing in interviews. But there are some things that you should avoid that you may not even know you’re doing.Here are some:

Dwelling on your certifications

It’s admirable that your e-mail signature is followed by 37 initials indicating the certs you’ve racked up. But try not to let a listing of your certs be the centerpiece of your qualifications. While you think this might be telling the interviewer how knowledgeable you are, it really may be telling her that you’ve spent more time studying and taking tests than you have in dealing with the technology in the real world. When you overemphasize your certs, an interview may think you don’t know how to use the technology in a practical sense.

Grey Wolf in snow

Wolf in winter always inspires me. It has a grace. may be it is effect of many movies that i have seen about mysteries of wolves and vampires. :)

Lion rides horse

A lion rides a horse in a circus show as part of celebrations to mark National Day, the 59th anniversary of the founding of communist China.

The circus is one of many events held during the week-long holiday, which has seen millions of people flooding China's tourist destinations, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Cable Stayed bridge

Opening ceremonies are held on the newly constructed Megyeri Bridge, which crosses the Danube between Buda and Pest, the west and east sides of Budapest.

The cable-stayed bridge, which spans 6,109 feet (1,862 meters), is part of a ring road, the MO, north of the Hungarian capital. It is expected to reduce traffic on the Aprad bridge by 20 percent, according to the Budapest Times.

Android

Android is a software stack by Google, for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. This beta version of the Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications on the Android platform using the Java programming language.
Android will ship with a set of core applications including an email client, SMS program, calendar, maps, browser, contacts, and others. All applications are written using the Java programming language.

Video glasses: the long transition from sci-fi to reality

Mobile TV is one of those technologies that’s been rattling around for a good few years without yet making much impact. The problem it always comes up against is that mobile gadgets are meant to be small, but screens have to be big enough for comfortable viewing.
Video glasses are one potential solution, and judging from the evidence on display at CES this year it won’t be long before they provide an inconspicuous, comfortable way of watching TV and DVD while on the go.
Previous attempts have generally been bulky, odd-looking and the picture size and quality has been little better than you would get from a mobile phone. The Lumus glasses pictured above are not exactly indistinguishable from standard shades, but you wouldn’t get laughed at on the train.

How to guard against ID fraud threat

Despite the Revenue’s huge blunder in losing millions of our personal details, there are still ways that families can protect themselves. Millions of families have been put on red alert against the risk of identity fraud after tax officials lost the personal details of 25m people.Europe’s biggest loss of confidential information sparked a nationwide search for two computer discs containing the addresses, National Insurance numbers, bank account numbers, and sort codes, of families receiving child benefit.There are fears the details, lost by Revenue & Customs, could be a goldmine if they fall into the hands of criminal gangs. Fraudsters could use the information to steal people’s identities, open bank accounts and take out loans or credit cards in their name.

Are you agree with such out sourcing

Be on safe side. Offshore out sourcing may turn on to following conditions. :)

best practice when editing an e-mail before replying

Tips on how to delete an item permanently, useful websites and e-mail etiquette

Windows: to delete an item permanently (eg, file), use Shift + Delete (bypassing the Recycle Bin).
Outlook: when setting the date for the current month, just type in the date and Outlook will automatically do the rest. Eg, to make an appointment for August 20 just type 20 in the date section of the start time and Outlook will set it as Mon 20/08/2007 (or whatever is your preferred format).

Inbox stress

Ten simple steps to remaining calm and in control of your e-mail

Over the past few weeks there have been studies showing how stressed many people have become by the daily barrage of e-mails. Often, as my own study found, this stress is self-inflicted by a tendency towards e-mail addiction.
When our own Dr Thomas Stuttaford succumbed and threw his hand in the air, it prompted me to look again at how you can reduce e-mail stress. As he said in his artcle, How strangers cause us stress: “Stress is reduced when someone is master of their own fate” — something many feel is impossible with e-mail.
But is it? Here are ten ways to control your inbox. The key is to be utterly ruthless about what you send and receive, and prioritise how you spend your time at the inbox.

EMail Horror stories

E-mail can be a very efficient way of distributing information but mistakes can be embarrassing, if not disastrous

As Hallowe’en approaches here are the top five e-mail horror stories we have seen and the ways to avoid them happening to you.
Telling all your resellers and partners who they are competing against
An organisation sent out product information and put everyone’s names in the “Cc” box. The address list took up most of the e-mail but the company also revealed all their partners to each other.
The moral: create a group list or use “Bcc” for the names.
A client who preaches sustainability and efficiency and sent nine attachments amounting to 11MB
There were no instructions about what to do with them and much of the information was available on their website.
The moral: send a link rather than the entire file.

MS Word — Top Ten tips

Useful tips and tricks that will make working with Word documents quicker and easier. Here are the main features of Word that can be used to save time:

1 Inserting the file path name in the footer: go to View/Headers and Footers/Insert AutoText menu, clicking on the down arrow of that box.
2 Use AutoText to enter a frequently used phrase or insert an object, eg, a logo: Insert/AutoText, highlight the text/object, then select AutoText. Type the keyword that you will use for this to appear, and select the “Add”’ button (or type Alt+F3). To insert, go to Insert/AutoText and pick the word from the dropdown list, or choose AutoText and pick from the whole list.
3 Formula — to add to columns in a table. With the cursor in the bottom cell of the columns (or row), click on Table/Formula.

MS PowerPoint — Top Ten tips

Hot tips to ensure that your next visual presentation is slick, dynamic and has real impact

1. Slide design
Find the most appealing template — http://www.freeppttemplates.com
2. Slide Master
Format the whole presentation: View/Master/Slide Master or hold down the shift key as you hover over the mini-icons at the bottom left and click on the Normal view which becomes the slide master view.
3. WordArt
To jazz up the text boxes (eg, straplines).

5. Outline view
To produce a single slide that contains a summary of titles of the key slides, switch to the Slide sorter view (View/Slide sorter) and hold down the Ctrl key and select the key slides. From the Slide Sorter toolbar click Summary Slide.

How to write a CV

Make sure your CV makes a good first impression

YOU know that you're a star but without a knock-out CV no-one else will believe you. Here’s how to impress and write yourself into a better job.
1. The nuts and bolts. The edited highlights of your working life should be no more than two pages long, says Andy Sharman, the head of recruitment for UK and Ireland at Procter & Gamble. “Less than two (full) pages suggests that you don’t have enough experience,” he says. Acceptable cheats include easy-on-the-eye spacing and increasing the font size.
2. Avoid vague statements. “Quite often people start with a profile — a short statement setting out who they are — but we see an awful lot that fall into generic phrases,” says Lorna Froud, the head of careers at Oxford Brookes University. “ ‘I am an excellent team worker’ is meaningless without evidence to back it up.”
3. Be concise. “It’s not War and Peace,” says Steven Kirkpatrick, the managing director of Adecco Staffing. Recruiters who have to plough through hundreds of CVs don’t enjoy flowery prose. Use active verbs and bullet points to ensure that every sentence counts.

How to change career

Most of us gaze in wonder at those bold souls who leap from career to career, but it’s not as difficult as it appears

As the career changers we speak to have invariably found, your dream job can be very different to the one you start out in. Working lives are getting longer, so while being a kung fu instructor might not be your cup of tea, if you’re bored, unhappy or harbouring a secret ambition, read what the experts have to say.
1. Is it just a rut? Put things into perspective, says Catherine Roan, the managing director of Careershifters.org. The right job might be the one you’re in. “People come to a workshop and say, ‘Gosh, I’ve actually got a really good job’. It’s easy to get frustrated with politics or parts you don’t like.” You might need to address aspects of your work and not your whole career.

How to get a promotion

Knowing where you want to go and being flexible about getting there will serve you better than blind ambition

Earning a promotion is a complex affair. Matters such as pay and benefits begin to look easy compared with manoeuvrings your way up (or sideways) through the ranks. Look around you before you jump at a new opportunity – a new job title could be the least important of many considerations, according to our experts. 

1. Put yourself out.
There’s more to a job than a 12-line description, Simon Copeman, the acquisition and alliance manager at 3M UK and Ireland, says. “I’m looking [to promote] someone who does a pretty good job... but also someone who comes up with solutions. Someone who has taken the initiative within their current role [and] has managed new experiences outside the strict job description.” 

How to get a pay rise

If you’re working your socks off and still being paid peanuts it’s time to take the bull by the horns and get negotiating

Colleagues call you ace, you always look busy and the chief executive knows who you are thanks to some smart moves at the office Christmas party. But have you done enough to earn yourself a raise? Not on that evidence. Here’s what it really takes to make the perfect pitch and boost your pay packet:
1. The bottom line.
“You have to know why you think that you are worth that much – however much you’re asking for,” says Professor Binna Kandola, a senior partner at Pearn Kandola, a business psychology firm. Then ask yourself why you are worth that much to your boss. Addressing the issue from his or her perspective will allow you to formulate a more persuasive pitch.
2. Do your homework.
It’s important to understand what the salary norms are for the job role and industry that you are working in, says Jo Causon, director of marketing and corporate affairs at the Chartered Management Institute. This means comparing roles and activities, not job titles within the company, she says. “There’s no reason why you cannot ask your HR department ‘how is my role benchmarked?’ ”

Produce lacking factor policy

There are always some factors lacking among a person or nation. The creator of policy notices these factors among the environment where he goes. He high lights these factors in his own personality. This provides him a significant boost and upper hand among such lacking subjects.
As an example I would like to mention the case that he produced in Saudia. There he observed that most Saudi class around him was with smart hair cut. They were not use to adopt a hair style with long hears. So policy creator adopted a long hair style and produced a significant effect on community there.

Show expectation/put responsibility policy

It is a wonder full policy for achieve an objective from some one. The some one may be your subordinate, officer, your child, brother/sister or a public dealing person in an office. Mostly may be the case that the subject will not carry out the job that u want but surely he will not go totally against it. And will support a little.

I will give an example that in a public dealing office, if u got some problem there. Then you may go to a responsible person and ask him that u want his guideline to solve the problem. Once he will feel that u expect from him to help u, he will get involved and will play a good role to solve the problem.

In my class while in school I often observed that many lacking behind students produced good results when teachers showed expectations from him.

World biggest polished diamond

In photo is the world's 20th largest rough diamond. In the proper hands the 478-carat stone could become the biggest polished, round diamond in history and weigh some 150 carats. Experts say the stone is of top-quality color and clarity and could fetch tens of millions of dollars. Miners unearthed the stone at Gem Diamonds' Letseng mine, a facility in which the Lesotho government holds a 30 percent share.

i know i will never hear the dukhi atma saying that ..

I know i will never hear Mr. zardari saying that i did a mistake. What a confused and dispersed personality he is. Simple is that he has no regards of his values and his own personality. Asking for BB's investigation in UNO at one side and lightly flirting with an important leader there before media, are two different behaviors. Only indicates his dual thinking. We all are ashamed of being the citizens of a country whose president is Mr. Zardari.

wall papers fro national geograhic

Do nots at your initial interview for job

The initial interview with the hiring manager is not the place to ask the following questions:
How many vacation days would I get? If you’re already thinking about time off and you haven’t even gotten the job yet, then what does that say about your work ethic? True, benefits like vacation days play a very important part in the worth of a job, but this first interview is not the place to ask. Wait until a second or third interview, or when the actual job offer comes, to ask.
Do you require overtime? Same with this question. It’s absolutely valid, but hold the question until later. Instead, ask “What’s an average day like here?”
What kind of health benefits do you have? Again, getting the answer to this question is a must, just not at this time. If you ask it in the initial interview, not only are you implying that you would settle for any job as long as your next root canal was covered, but some companies don’t even like to release that information until they have a serious candidate.

Neck Exercises

The neck is given special attention by the yoga practitioners, since they realize that it plays a large role in health and vitality.

The neck is important for two main reasons. Firstly, since the nerves from the neck go to the eyes, ears and brain, a spinal misalignment in the neck can cause vision and hearing problems, as well as problems such as headaches and poor sleep. Secondly, since major blood vessels pass through the neck to the brain, a neck misalignment can put pressure on the blood vessels and reduce the blood flow to the brain. This is a very common cause of chronic fatigue.

Learning to Breathe Correctly

We do deep breathing while asleep. Hence a simple way to learn how to breath properly is to simulate sleep. Lie down, close your eyes, relax the whole body, drop the chin and imagine that you are asleep, thus letting your breathing become deeper and deeper.

In Yoga deep breathing, you start filling the lower part of the lungs first, then you fill the middle and upper part. When exhaling you first empty the upper part of the lungs, then the middle, and last of all the lower part.

This process, however, is not divided into three separate actions. Inhalation is done in one smooth continuous flow just as one might pour water in filling a glass. First the bottom is filled, then the middle, and finally the upper portion. But the process itself is an uninterrupted one. Inhalation should be done in one continuous operation both the inhalation and the exhalation. Do it slowly and in a most relaxed manner. No effort or strain should ever be exerted. This is very important. Keep mouth closed.

Eye Exercises

The yoga practitioners attach special importance to eye exercises, for two reasons.

Firstly, a lot of eye problems in later life are due to a loss of tone in the eye muscles. These muscles become rigid, and this loss of elasticity reduces the ability of the lens of the eye to focus at different distances. It also causes the eyesight to become weaker. These exercises tone the eye muscles up and keep them elastic. If you already have eye problems when you begin these exercises, you will find your eyesight improving after a few months.

Secondly, any eye tension present will tend to produce a general feeling of tension, due to the eye's connection to the brain via the optic nerve. What happens is that eye tension produces an increase in the nerve impulses in the eye muscles. This increase in nerve impulses travels along the optic nerve and bombards the brain, causing a general feeling of tension and anxiety. The eye exercises will reduce tension in the eye muscles, as well as reduce general tension.

Traditional Breathing Techniques

We will look at some traditional breathing techniques. The purpose is not to suggest rigid techniques that needed to be followed blindly. Knowledge of these methods may be more important than the explicit directions themselves. The methods are subject to some variations. These helps you to establish and practice healthful rhythms. You may also gain additional insights into the nature of the breathing processes, and how to attain additional relaxation through them.

The Complete Breath

Most of us use three or four kinds of breathing. These may be called high, low and middle breathing and complete breathing. The complete breath is a combination of high breathing, mid breathing and low breathing.

A Breathing Exercise for Good Posture

This is an excellent exercise for the waistline or a weak back, but even more for stooped shoulders. It should be taught to all children at home and at school to counteract their tendency to slouch, for slouching, in addition to being ugly, develops a bad and unhealthy posture as it prevents the lungs from expanding as they should. It is a great exercise for beginners along with alternate nostril breathing described below.

Stand straight with feet together. Put your hands behind your back and interlock the fingers, palms upward. Now turn the palms down. This will automatically give a twisting movement to your elbows.

Inhale deeply, then bend forward, while exhaling, at the same time raising the arms until they are stretched out. Do not bend the elbows, which should remain straight throughout. Keep your head down, trying all the while to swing your arms a bit higher and higher.

Remain a moment in this position, holding your breath; then slowly return to the standing position without unlocking your fingers. Repeat the whole exercise two or three times.

Another version is done in a kneeling position. The procedure is the same, except that here you bend over until your forehead touches the floor.

Speed Speaks

It is wounder full to catch the speed moment of this perfect machine.

How to lose money without even trying

Getting into the music download business is the dot-com equivalent to buying a professional football team. As business investments go, it's a cinch to lose money. Even Steve Jobs would advise against it.
Just how grim are the prospects? Consider the Napster transaction from earlier this week. The struggling online music store was sold for less money than it brought in last year. For those keeping score, Napster's full-year fiscal 2008 sales (ending 31 March) topped $127 million. It sold to American consumer electronics chain Best Buy for $121 million on Monday. Investors bailed on Napster long before management did; the company's market cap has remained well below sales for most of 2008 as sales continued to slip quarter after quarter.

Nokia takes on Apple with 'all you can eat' music

A phone that lets owners download an unlimited number of tracks and keep them indefinitely aims to rein in the iPod.

Nokia is aiming to take on the might of Apple's iPod by releasing a phone that will allow owners to download an unlimited amount of music for a fixed fee.
The world's largest handset manufacturer has signed a deal with Carphone Warehouse to distribute its new "Comes With Music" phone, which will give owners access to about 2.1 million music tracks and goes on sale in October.
Owners of the Nokia's new phone will be able to download an unlimited number of songs from the world's three largest record labels — Universal, Sony BMG and Warner — for a year. The music can be played on the customer's phone and computer.

Craigslist: a triumph of nerd values

The founders of the popular – and controversial – classified advertising website have built a $5 billion giant without selling out.

Craig Newmark oversees a classified advertising website that spans the globe and is used by tens of millions of people every day. He drives a scruffy seven-year-old Toyota Prius and he goes to work only a couple of days a week. Jim Buckmaster is his business partner, responsible for the day-to-day running of an organisation that Wall Street estimates is worth about $5 billion (€3.5 billion). He lives in a modest, rented apartment not far from the company’s global headquarters, a rickety 19th century house tucked between a pizza restaurant and a junk shop in San Francisco. Even by the laidback standards of the Californian city’s sandal-wearing, Frisbee-tossing dotcom industry, the duo behind Craigslist could be considered a little odd.

In the flesh, however, this odd couple of self-proclaimed nerds seem as American as apple pie. Newmark, 55, is short, stocky, bald and wears glasses. Buckmaster, 46, is tall and slim, with lustrous brown hair and the good looks of a mature model. As befits liberal San Francisco tech entrepreneurs, both have goatees.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin is pre-disposed to Parkinson's

Sergey Brin said he has a genetic mutation which increases his chances of contracting the degenerative disease

Sergey Brin, one of the co-founders of Google, has revealed that he has a genetic mutation which increases his chances of contracting Parkinson’s disease.
Writing on a personal blog that was launched yesterday, Mr Brin, 35, said he made the discovery following a genetic test.
He wrote: “The exact implications of this are not entirely clear,” but added: “Nonetheless it is clear that I have a markedly higher chance of developing Parkinson's in my lifetime than the average person.”
Parkinson’s diseases is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that impair functions such as speech and movement. Mr Brin said that studies have shown that his likelihood of contracting Parkinson’s disease in his lifetime may be 20 percent to 80 percent.

Google prepares to launch HTC Android phone

The new phone powered by Google is set to launch tomorrow, ready to face off against Apple’s iPhone in the run up to Christmas.
The long-awaited smart phone, called “G1”, will be manufactured by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC and will be available exclusively on T-Mobile in the UK.
The mobile, already dubbed the “G-phone,” will run on Android, Google’s new software for mobile phones. It will be launched in New York tomorrow afternoon, and will be available in the US next month. It is anticipated that the phone will be available in British stores by November.
The G1 is expected to cost about $199 (£108), which would be around the same cost as basic 8GB version of the iPhone.

Google, notoriously secretive about any of its new technology, is refusing to comment on the phone before its launch. But leaked photos and videos of the expected device, along with screenshots released by the search giant, show that the device is likely to have a touchscreen like the iPhone but also a slide-out Qwerty keyboard.
The phone is expected to have as built-in GPS (global positioning system), a tilt sensor for gaming, and a camera. It is thought it will be able to run Google's range of web applications, including Gmail, Google Docs and Google Maps, and will likely also feature Google's new web browser, Chrome.

How not to fight the US

DEVIATING somewhat from his usual mantra — that fighting terrorism is in Pakistan’s own interest — President Bush recently laid the ‘responsibility’ of fighting terrorism at Pakistan’s doorstep. This raises questions about the terms on which Pakistan joined the war.

In democracies, such questions are decided in parliament. But unfortunately, in Pakistan, most wars have been fought under one or the other military ruler. The decision to join the current war was also taken by Gen Musharraf on the spur of moment. Since then a pall of secrecy has surrounded the terms of engagement. The official line is that Pakistan joined the war in its own interest. In reality, the war was godsend for Gen Musharraf especially when Pakistan was dubbed as America’s ‘non-Nato ally’ in the war.

A GPS to Augment Your Entire Reality

Your cell phone will provide the important linkage between the real world and the digital universe.


“Press F1 for help.” When you’re working in a computer program and you get stuck, you can press a button and a handy guide pops up alongside whatever you’re puzzling over to clue you in. Wouldn’t it be great if real life worked that way? Out on the town, you could look at a restaurant, press a button, and get advice on whether the staff is surly or what wine to order.

The Future Is Now for Rechargeable Laptop Batteries

A space-age battery is about to revolutionize portable computing.

You’re 35,000 feet up, a few hours into a cross-country airplane journey. Having dutifully worked on some office memos, you finally get around to watching the DVD of Murder on the Orient Express on your laptop. But just as Detective Poirot is revealing whodunit, the screen goes blank. Your laptop’s batteries have run out of juice.

It’s a common enough scenario because rechargeable battery technology has failed to keep pace with other improvements in computers. While the number of electricity-hungry transistors that can be squeezed onto a silicon chip has doubled about every two years over the past few decades, it took more than 20 years (from 1970 to 1990) to double the amount of energy that rechargeable batteries can store per pound.

Now portable-energy start-up ZPower aims to strike a blow for frustrated laptop owners everywhere with a rechargeable battery that the company claims will offer 20 to 40 percent more computer time per charge than do the current champs of rechargeable technology, lithium-ion batteries. ZPower’s batteries also offer the advantage of being immune to “exothermic decomposition” (also known as “bursting into flames”), a problem that has prompted the recall of millions of lithium-ion batteries worldwide, not to mention some spectacular YouTube videos.

ZPower’s batteries use silver- and zinc-based electrodes. Silver-zinc batteries are not technically new; because they are so good at storing electricity, they were used in NASA’s Apollo spacecraft of the 1960s and 1970s. The technology wasn’t widely adopted back then because those silver-zinc batteries could be charged only a few times before they stopped working—not a problem for a 10-day mission to the moon, but a real deal breaker for mobile electronics.

ZPower has made improvements that allow its silver-zinc batteries to be recharged as often as lithium-ion batteries. And when the batteries do reach the end of their useful life, the silver and zinc can easily be recovered and recycled into new batteries, reducing environmental impact. On the downside, the batteries operate at a voltage different from that of lithium-ion batteries, meaning that laptop makers have to tweak their computers to work with the new batteries. ZPower is collaborating with computer component suppliers to develop laptop power systems that can handle both lithium-ion and silver-zinc batteries and says the first silver-zinc battery–­powered laptop is due out in early 2009.

How It Works
One big problem with traditional silver-zinc batteries is that as each cell is drained and recharged, zinc dendrites (shown as irregular objects in the diagram above) can form within the zinc anode (shown in green). These dendrites can distort the shape of the anode and can migrate through it, eventually piercing the membrane (yellow) that separates the zinc anode from the silver cathode (not shown, for clarity). If the membrane is pierced, the cell will short-circuit and die. To solve this problem, ZPower introduced polymers (shown as red balls) into the zinc anode. The polymers inhibit dendrites from growing and block their migration inside the anode, reducing the likelihood that the membrane will be pierced.

Could an Inner Zombie Be Controlling Your Brain?

If you had to sum up the past 40 years of research on the mind, you could do worse than to call it the Rise of the Zombies.

We like to see ourselves as being completely conscious of our thought processes, of how we feel, of the decisions we make and our reasons for making them. When we act, it is our conscious selves doing the acting. But starting in the late 1960s, psychologists and neurologists began to find evidence that our self-aware part is not always in charge. Researchers discovered that we are deeply influenced by perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and desires about which we have no awareness.

heir research raised the disturbing possibility that much of what we think and do is thought and done by an unconscious part of the brain—an inner zombie.

20 Things You Didn't Know About Bees

1. There are 16,000 species. Most are solitary insects; only about 5 percent are social bees, the most common being the honeybee. As many as 80,000 of them colonize a single hive.

2. Drones—the male honeybees—live only for mating with the queen. If there is a shortage of food in the hive, the workers kick their lazy, gigolo asses out.Worker bees have strictly regimented roles, including that of undertakers

3. To die for: When drones mate, they die afterwards from a ruptured abdomen. Sex detaches their endophallus, which gets stuck inside the queen.

20 Things You Didn't Know About Robots

1. “Robot” comes from the Czech word robota, meaning “drudgery,” and first appeared in the 1921 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). The drama ends badly when the machines rise up and kill their creators, leaving a sole lonely survivor.

2. They say it was an accident. The first known case of robot homicide occurred in 1981, when a robotic arm crushed a Japanese Kawasaki factory worker.

3. More than a million industrial robots are now in use, nearly half of them in Japan.

4. Archytas of Tarentum, a pal of Plato’s, built a mechanical bird driven by a jet of steam or compressed air—arguably history’s first robot—in the fifth century B.C.

20 Things You Didn't Know About Nothing

1. There is vastly more nothing than something. Roughly 74 percent of the universe is “nothing,” or what physicists call dark energy; 22 percent is dark matter, particles we cannot see. Only 4 percent is baryonic matter, the stuff we call something.

2. And even something is mostly nothing. Atoms overwhelmingly consist of empty space. Matter’s solidity is an illusion caused by the electric fields created by subatomic particles.

3. There is more and more nothing every second. In 1998 astronomers measuring the expansion of the universe determined that dark energy is pushing apart the universe at an ever-accelerating speed. The discovery of nothing—and its ability to influence the fate of the cosmos—is considered the most important astronomical finding of the past decade.

Herpes drug inhibits HIV in patients infected with both viruses

Researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), McGill University have discovered how a simple anti-viral drug developed decades ago suppresses HIV in patients who are also infected with herpes. According to Dr Gotte, HIV/herpes co-infection rates are very high and carry significant health burdens for those patients who are already coping with HIV. "In co-infected individuals, HIV disease progression is enhanced by the presence of herpes," he explained. The NIH team discovered that in the presence of herpes virus, acyclovir actually attacks HIV directly and is able to suppress its reproduction.

Sight as you age

The lens consists mostly of water and protein and when the protein clumps, it clouds the lens and reduces the light that reaches the retina. The clouding may become severe enough to cause blurred vision. Most age related cataracts develop from protein clumping.

A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye that affects vision. Most cataracts are related to aging. Cataracts are very common in older people. A cataract can occur in either or both eyes. It cannot spread from one eye to the other. In a normal eye, light passes through the transparent lens to the retina. Once it reaches the retina, light is changed into nerve signals that are sent to the brain. The lens must be clear for the retina to receive a sharp image. If the lens is cloudy from a cataract, the image you see will be blurred.

Although most cataracts are related to aging, there are other types of cataract:

• Secondary cataract: Cataracts can form after surgery for other eye problems, such as glaucoma. They also can develop in people who have other health problems, such as diabetes. They are sometimes linked to steroid use. 

• Traumatic cataract: Cataracts can develop after an eye injury, sometimes years later.

• Congenital cataract: Some babies are born with cataracts or develop them in childhood, often in both eyes. These cataracts may be so small that they do not affect vision. If they do, the lenses may need to be removed.

• Radiation cataract: Cataracts can develop after exposure to some types of radiation.

As we age, some of the protein may clump together and start to cloud a small area of the lens, this is a cataract. Over time, the cataract may grow larger and may cloud more of the lens, making it harder to see.

Researchers suspect that there are several causes of cataract, such as smoking and diabetes. Or, it may be that the protein in the lens just changes from the wear and tear it takes over the years.

How can cataracts affect one's vision?

Age-related cataracts can affect one's vision in two ways:

One; clumps of protein reduce the sharpness of the image reaching the retina. The lens consists mostly of water and protein and when the protein clumps up, it clouds the lens and reduces the light that reaches the retina. The clouding may become severe enough to cause blurred vision. Most age related cataracts develop from protein clumping.

When a cataract is small, the cloudiness affects only a small part of the lens. You may not notice any changes in your vision. Cataracts tend to grow slowly, so vision gets worse gradually. Over time, the cloudy area in the lens may get larger, and the cataract may increase in size. Seeing may become more difficult. Your vision may get duller or blurrier.

Second, the clear lens slowly changes to a yellowish/brownish colour, adding a brownish tint to vision.

When are you most likely to have a cataract?

The term 'age related' is a little misleading. You don't have to be a senior citizen to get this type of cataract. In fact, people can have an age related cataract in their 40s and 50s. But during middle age, most cataracts are small and do not affect vision. It is after age 60 that most cataracts steal vision.

The risk of cataract increases as you get older. Other risk factors for cataract include:

• Certain diseases such as diabetes.

• Personal behaviour such as smoking and alcohol use.

• The environment such as prolonged exposure to sunlight.

What can one do to protect his vision?

Wearing sunglasses and a hat with a brim to block ultraviolet sunlight may help to delay cataract. If you smoke, quit it. Researchers also believe good nutrition can help reduce the risk of age related cataract. They recommend eating green leafy vegetables, fruits and other foods with antioxidants.

If you are age 60 or older, you should have a comprehensive dilated eye exam at least once every two years. In addition to cataract, your eye care professional can check for signs of age related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and other vision disorders. Early treatment for many eye diseases may save your sight.

The most common symptoms of a cataract are:

• Cloudy or blurry vision.

• Colours seem faded.

• Headlights, lamps, or sunlight may appear too bright. A halo may appear around lights.

• Poor night vision.

• Double vision or multiple images in one eye. (This symptom may clear as the cataract gets larger).

• Frequent prescription changes in your eyeglasses or contact lenses.

These symptoms can also be a sign of other eye problems.

The symptoms of early cataract may be improved with new eyeglasses, brighter lighting, anti-glare sunglasses, or magnifying lenses. If these measures do not help, surgery is the only effective treatment. Surgery involves removing the cloudy lens and replacing it with an artificial lens.

A cataract needs to be removed only when the vision loss interferes with your everyday activities, such as driving, reading or watching TV.

Sometimes a cataract should be removed even if it does not cause problems with your vision. For example, a cataract should be removed if it prevents examination or treatment of another eye problem, such as age related macular degeneration or diabetic retinopathy. It is not as dangerous if it is been cared and treated well.

The debt-stress connection

Gas and food prices are sky-high, the stock market is down, and the housing market is in the doldrums. But can worrying about the health of your bank account really make you sick?

Graphic designer Joshua Lurie-Terrell, described himself as an easy going person. That is, he did until the market started tanking and he and his wife lost half of their retirement savings. "I never let stress run my life before. But ever since money got tight, I've found that I'm a prisoner to it," he says. He worries that if he fills up the gas tank, he won't be able to afford the movies on the weekend, or if he keeps paying for health insurance, he won't be able to get his wife the birthday present she wants.

You can built it as you like

Say thanks that you do not have it in your home

Say thanks that you do not have it in your home, else it was going to be a lethal weapon