Halo cloud over Moscow creates UFO buzz

Finally, indisputable proof of UFOs.

Well… indisputable proof of clouds, anyway. The appearance of a giant circular cloud over the city of Moscow got some dumber UFO enthusiasts buzzing recently.

A large white cloud in the shape of a circle — or as it’s being called a “halo cloud” — was spotted over the Russian capital last week. Someone decided to take a video of the halo cloud, uploaded it to YouTube and — voila’ — instant phenomenon.

Just because of a circular cloud? Of course. All the elements are there.

Grainy and shaky video footage. An “unexplained” hovering circular formation cast against a dreary, gray sky. The female voice of a concerned-sounding Russian newscaster emanating from the car radio.

And on top of all these requisites, there’s the obligatory weatherman saying that it’s not a UFO, rather it’s just a cloud. Sure….

Anyway, it all follows a well-trod path. Video uploaded to YouTube. It gets watched hundreds of thousands of times (soon to be millions). And screaming headlines further the sensation.

Our favorite headline so far comes from the popular tech website, Gizmodo. “Ominous cloud formation has Russians fearing an alien attack,” they write.

Of course, when you read the story, they don’t mention anything about fearful Russians at all. Instead they acknowledge — right away — that it’s a cloud. But, you can’t resist the headline.

Love the different YouTube descriptions of the same video as well. There’s “Stargate Portal Opens Above Moscow!” and “Doomsday sign or UFO? Strange circle in Moscow.”

From : features.csmonitor.com

Technorati Tags: Cloud,Moscow,UFO

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Beijing to become world's largest Wi-Fi city

Beijing is to become the world's largest Wi-Fi city by 2011, according to reports.

Residents of the Chinese capital will have access to free Wi-Fi in both the main city areas and the surrounding districts.

The news was announced at the Wireless City Summit 2008, where Zhang Yu, Deputy Director of Beijing's Information Technology Office, revealed his Wi-Fi plans.

Beijing's central business district was initially equipped for this year's Beijing Olympics, but a poor signal meant that many could not log on.

Free Wi-Fi

The city does currently have a generous amount of free Wi-Fi spots, with one of Beijing's top universities, Tsinghua university, playing host to 500 hotspots.

Pilot schemes in the districts of Xuanwu, Chongwen, Chaoyang, Shijingshan, Daxing and Pinggu are already in place, but this will be extended by 2011 to cover the whole of Beijing.

Source : techradar.com

Technorati Tags: Wi-Fi,Largest,City,Technology

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'Dark Knight' has record opening

Holy opening weekend, Batman!
"The Dark Knight," the long-awaited superhero sequel from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, sold an estimated $155.3 million in tickets this weekend, setting a record for biggest three-day take and cementing the primacy of superhero movies at the cineplex.

Batman's haul surpassed the bar set last year by "Spider-Man 3" by $4.2 million and set the pace for what turned out to be the top-grossing overall box office weekend in U.S. history, with an estimated $253 million in ticket sales. The previous top weekend was a $218 million take two years ago, when "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" opened.

" 'The Dark Knight' overshadowed everything, but a rising tide lifts all ships," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracking company Media by Numbers. "This was just a great weekend for the entire industry."

The weekend's No. 2 film, Universal Pictures' ABBA musical "Mamma Mia!," brought in $27.6 million, followed by Sony Pictures' holdover "Hancock," starring Will Smith, at $14 million.

Batman's latest triumph means that three of the top five opening weekends of all time now belong to comic book-inspired films. The original "Spider-Man," which brought in $118.4 million in its 2002 opening weekend, ranks No. 5 overall.

Despite huge expectations going into the release, the Caped Crusader's sixth film was massive by practically any measure. The PG-13 movie set the record for top single-day receipts on Friday, hauling in $67.85 million on a record 4,366 screens, according to Media by Numbers.

The Bat-buzz was off the charts going into Friday -- fueled by the success of the previous Batman installment, 2005's "Batman Begins" (also directed by Chris Nolan), and because "The Dark Knight" is the last film appearance of Heath Ledger, who plays the Joker. Ledger died in January at age 28 of an accidental drug overdose.

Nationwide, showing after showing sold out, with lines stretching around city blocks in some cases.
In Santa Monica on Saturday night, eight high school buddies bought tickets for the 11 p.m. show more than 2 1/2 hours before the previews began. They did so, said Holden Foshag, because they'd been unable to get tickets the night before.
"It was totally sold out," said Foshag, a basketball player who will enter his senior year at Santa Monica High School in the fall. "I just have to see this movie," he said.

Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., said the 2 1/2 -hour-long picture is on pace to smash the record for top opening-week take in the United States as well. He expects it to bring in $220 million through Thursday. No movie has ever brought in over $200 million domestically in a single week. If "The Dark Knight" does, that total would exceed the estimated $180 million that Warner Bros. spent to make the film.

"Not only will it crush the record, but we'll probably exceed the entire gross on the last Batman movie in the first five days," Fellman said, brushing off quibbles that, adjusted for ticket price inflation, "Dark Knight" actually fell slightly short of Sony Pictures Entertainment's "Spider-Man 3" in total ticket sales.

The average movie ticket in 2008 costs $7.08, compared to $6.88 a year ago. That means "Dark Knight" sold approximately 21.94 million tickets, compared to 21.96 million for the web slinger.
Whether Batman can do as well overseas seems less clear. "Dark Knight" debuted this weekend in 20 markets, including Brazil, Mexico and Australia. While it led in the markets it opened in, it didn't set the all-time record for a weekend in any of them. It has not yet been released in most of Europe, Japan and South Korea.

Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, president of international distribution at Warner Bros., said the Batman franchise tends to play stronger in the U.S. "It's a nuance of the Batman franchise," she said. "Spider-Man would have played stronger."

The previous best U.S. opening weekend for a Bat-pic was "Batman Forever," which brought in $52.8 million in 1995. The top grossing installment of all time was "Batman Begins," which totaled $205.3 million in the U.S. and $372.4 million worldwide.

Notably for a film heavy on costumed muscle-men, pyrotechnics and Bat-gadgets, 48% of the audience for "The Dark Knight" were women, according to Warner Bros., a much higher percentage than for previous installments of the Gotham guardian's saga.

For "Mamma Mia!" the ratio was completely different. Three out of four attendees were women, and many of them had seen the Broadway musical by the same name. According to Nikki Rocco, president of domestic distribution for Universal Pictures, the release was intended as a bit of counter-programming to "Dark Night."

"This has worked out exactly as we planned it," she said. According to Media by Numbers, "Mamma" set the opening weekend for a musical, squeaking past "Hairspray" by about $140,000.

But for Jaimie Geller of Pacific Palisades, "Mamma Mia!" was of little interest. Passing up the song and dance routine, she stood first in line, along with her husband, to see a 10 p.m. showing of "The Dark Knight" on Saturday in Santa Monica.
"I don't really care about Batman," she said. "I came here to see Heath Ledger."
ken.bensinger@latimes .com

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Source: latimes.com

Technorati Tags: movie,news

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Helpful Tips For Creating A Niche Resume

If you are willing to apply for a job vacancy then it is better to create a good resume. If you are creating a resume then try to make is as different as possible. If you are planning to know the ways to create a niche resume then you should know some important factors that should mentioned in the resume. At the same time, you should also know something that you should not mention in the resume.

If you browse the internet then you will be able to get lot of websites that will help you to know more about the creation of resumes. Most of the websites will contain general information like formatting the resume and many more. Majority of the advices on resume making will focus on professional work experience, education qualification, and other important skills. However, these are not the important factors that should be considered while creating a niche resume.

It is better for you to know that a niche resume will help you to get noticed. Therefore, the chances to get an interview call will increase with the help of a niche resume. If you have a poor form of resume then it will not help you to get an interview call. If you get an interview call with poor resume then you are lucky. It is always advisable to prepare a niche resume rather then depending on your luck. It is important that you manage to get an interview call. If you don’t get an interview call then you will not be able to get a job.

You will come across lot of companies that will go through the resume in detail. These companies would prefer to have a resume that has details like skills and achievements. If you have achieved something that is related to the filed that you are planning to work then you should not forget to mention that in the resume that you create.

If you are willing to qualify for the job then you should create a resume that can meet the requirement of the recruiters. Most of the job websites will have information about the job requirements. You should create a different resume for each and every job opening. If you create a resume according to the recruiter’s requirements then your chances of getting the job will increase. You will be surprised to know that a resume will work as your face. Getting a job is also dependent upon the quality of resume.

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Source: blog.globalpitch.com
Posted By: IndoSourceCode

Technorati Tags: tips,job,resume

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Microsoft chief scrambles in egg attack

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was forced to duck for cover during a talk he was giving at a university after an irate student stood up, shouted abuse and hurled three eggs at him.

The incident, which was captured on video, took place at Budapest's Corvinus University on Monday.

Ballmer had just began speaking when a man wearing a white shirt emblazoned with the hand-painted slogan: "Microsoft = Corruption", stood up and started shouting at the American visitor.

"Give back the money of the taxpayers!" he yelled, before launching three eggs at the stunned Microsoft boss.

Ballmer winced defensively as the first egg flew past him, hitting the whiteboard. He then ducked for cover behind the desk at the front of the lecture theatre as man - later identified as an IT student - let fly with two more eggs.

The student, who was sitting in the middle of the room, five rows from the front, then voluntarily left his seat and was escorted away.

Ballmer watched in stunned silence, a rare spectacle for a man who likes to cavort around the stage in a high animated fashion as he rams home his message.

But the usually unflappable Ballmer quickly regained his composure.

"It was a friendly disruption," he said, with a grin. "That broke my train of thought."

The attack is apparently being linked to controversy over Hungarian Government deals and tenders, which critics say favour Microsoft and lock out the competition.

At least Ballmer was able to dodge the missiles.

Ten years ago, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates was attacked by two members of Belgium's notorious "entarteurs" or pie throwers, who evaded security and mashed four fresh cream tarts into his face.

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Source: smh.com.au
Posted By: IndoSourceCode

Technorati Tags: microsoft,egg attack

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400 may lose First Data jobs

(Omaha World-Herald (NE) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 17--About 400 highly paid Omaha programmers will lose their jobs this year when First Data Corp. outsources some of its software programming work, probably to Argentina and Brazil.

Several employees said the reductions were announced last week. They spoke only on the condition they not be named, because they could lose their severance pay or lose their jobs immediately.

Officials at First Data, which went from a publicly traded company to a private company in a buyout last year, declined to comment on specifics of the layoffs, including the number of people affected.

The employees said they were told that 80 percent of the people in production programming stood to lose their jobs, which the workers said would be about 400. The first may be gone by the end of July; all probably will lose their jobs by the end of 2008.
Each is to work at what was called "knowledge transfer" -- training others how to do the job -- for about two months as a condition of receiving severance pay, said the employees.

"You train someone to take your job," one person said.

Severance pay will be based on salary and years of service, workers said. For example, someone getting $60,000 a year with five years at the company would get six months pay and benefits. Somebody making $120,000 and with five years at the company would get a year's salary and benefits.

Another 50 or 60 people will be shifted from First Data's payroll to that of Accenture, an international consulting company First Data has hired to manage the outsourced work.
First Data is a third-party processor, meaning it does credit card and other electronic payment processing for card-issuers such as banks and retailers.

The production programming unit codes and maintains the software that controls the processing of financial transactions, that updates cardholder records and that prints and mails cardholders' bills, as well as prints and embosses the cards themselves.
First Data confirmed in a statement that it would cut jobs. Employees affected will be considered for other jobs in the company, the statement said.

The company said last year it would outsource some of its information technology work as a way to reduce costs. The announcement came with the purchase of First Data, then a publicly traded company, by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a New York investment group.

Other parts of the companywide cost-saving initiative include consolidating 12 U.S. data centers into three. Omaha already has one and would get another in the restructuring.
First Data is taking a number of "technology initiatives," the company said, referring to the development of new products and services.

One example: Being able to walk into a Starbucks and touch a code on your cell phone to order and pay for your usual morning order.

First Data has met with stiff competition in recent years from other third-party processing companies and a shift by major card-issuers, such as the country's biggest banks, to do their own processing.

The coders who face losing their jobs to outscourcing said that sort of innovation was laid out in last week's meeting.

--Contact the writer: 444-1081, virgil.larson@owh.com

To see more of the Omaha World-Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.omaha.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

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Source: tmcnet.com
Posted By: IndoSourceCode

Technorati Tags: programmer,job

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Indonesia ends ban on YouTube over film

Indonesian Internet providers have stopped blocking YouTube and other file-sharing Web sites showing an anti-Islam film made by a Dutch politician after complaints from Web users.

The online service providers said Friday they will instead try to block access to individual pages on the sites carrying Geert Wilders' short film.

"It is like removing cancer from the body without making the patient die," Information and Communication Minister Mohammad Nuh told reporters.

On Tuesday, the government in the world's most populous Muslim nation ordered Internet service providers to block YouTube, MySpace and other sites, but savvy surfers had little trouble circumventing the ban.

In an editorial, The Jakarta Post newspaper said the ban "sent a disturbing sign that the president and his advisers are not only dumb, but also dangerous. It shows a mind-set that takes us back a decade to the era of censorship."

Wilders' film intersperses scenes of recent terror attacks with verses from the Quran, Islam's holy book, and speeches from Islamic extremists calling for attacks on non-Muslims. The film has been condemned as racist and misleading by governments around the world.

source : news.yahoo.com

Technorati Tags: youtube,film,indonesia

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Sony/BMG Under Investigation for Software Piracy

A small software company has accused major label Sony/BMG of software piracy, in a reversal of the normal orientation of piracy cases between major labels and the rest of the world.

PointDev, which makes Windows administration software, claims that a raid on Sony/BMG servers revealed that as much as 47 percent of the software used by the company can be considered to have been pirated under French law, according to Zeropaid's Google translation of the initial report:

We are not interested in an amicable settlement. It is not just a question of money but more importantly in principle. The rate of software piracy in the company is very high. According to the Business Software Alliance, a association of the major publishers in the market, 47 percent of programs used in the company would be [unlawful] in France...

The Business Software Alliance raid that uncovered the programs on Sony/BMG's servers was apparently triggered by Sony IT worker's request for assistance with a program called Ideal Migration. When the PointDev tech support person tried to help, he or she seems to have discovered that the key provided by Sony/BMG was pirated.

Sony/BMG apparently asked La Provence not to pick up on the story, which, of course, it did. The case will surely provide no small amount of glee to file sharing activists and RIAA boycotters as it unfolds.

01net (in French); via Zeropaid and Techdirt

source : blog.wired.com

Technorati Tags: sony,investigation,piracy

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10 stories that could be April Fools... but aren't

It's here again, the day when jokers set out to make fools of the rest of us. But not every bizarre story is a hoax. Here is a round-up of some of the day's seemingly spoof news stories which are actually true (and one that isn't).

1. A new pay-per-view funeral service scheme is being launched today. The Daily Mail says the scheme at Southampton Crematorium allows mourners to grieve from home by watching proceedings online.

2. A turtle is addicted to nicotine. He became addicted after picking up the smouldering butts in his owner's garden, in Kouqian, China, and sulks if he doesn't get his fix. The Daily Express, which picked up the story from Chinese news agency Xinhua, includes a gob-smacking picture of the turtle doing a rather good impression of Dot Cotton.

3. The menopause is caused by the age-old battle between wives and mothers-in-law, reports the Times. As long as 50,000 to 300,000 years ago, competition for food in a family unit was a battle won by the younger women who fed their offspring, which led to the older women losing their ability to breed. With food hard to find, mothers-in-law tended to help rear the grandchildren rather than have more children themselves.

4. An injection that allows women bigger and better orgasms by increasing the size of the mysterious G-spot is being launched in the UK, says the Sun. The £800 collagen jab takes less than half-an-hour and is given under local anaesthetic.

5. School desks and chairs are to be enlarged to meet the needs of the UK's ever-heavier schoolchildren, reports the Express. On average British children are a centimetre taller than they were 10 years ago, and there are more obese youngsters, so desks supplied to UK schools will reflect this.

Stolen from a busy aquarium

6. Wind turbines or solar panels built by UK companies anywhere in the world could count towards Britain's renewable energy targets under controversial government proposals, according to the Financial Times.

7. You will soon be able to have a tattoo on your teeth, reports the Sun. Steve Heward, the dentist who started the craze in the US plans to set up in Britain.

8. The traditional Chinese martial art T'ai Chi can help control diabetes, reports the Daily Mail. Apparently, researchers have found the flowing movements and deep breathing involved can result in a fall in blood sugar levels.

9. A thief walked out of a busy Norwegian aquarium with a crocodile that was over two feet long, says the Independent.

10. Drinkers have been banned from calling barmaids "love". An outraged Daily Star says new discrimination laws mean landlords that allow punters to chat up staff could be hauled before a tribunal and face unlimited fines.

And finally, a genuine spoof. Have you heard the one about the penguins that can fly? A BBC camera crew filming a colony of Adelie penguins were astonished when they did something "no other penguins can do" and took to the Antarctic skies. Go to BBC iPlayer to see the "footage".

source : news.bbc.co.uk

Technorati Tags: april,fools

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Mininova to Launch BitTorrent Video Streaming

The popular BitTorrent site Mininova is currently Beta testing BitTorrent powered video streaming. The new streaming feature allows users to watch videos instantly, streamed from .torrent files.

The new feature will be integrated into the featured torrents section, which lists all the distributors taking part in Mininova’s content distribution platform.

The Open Source “swarmplayer” which is used for the video streaming service is developed in collaboration with the Tribler team from the Technical University Delft and Free University Amsterdam. Tribler is also working together with the BBC and several other European broadcasters, and they recently received a $22 million grant for P2P research from the European Union.

The swarmplayer has also been demonstrated for a 100+ audience of media industry insiders in Geneva at the European Broadcaster Union event on Open Internet TV this week. The streaming magic comes from replacing the tit-for-tat algorithm with Give-to-Get. Tribler project leader Johan Pouwelse stated after his keynote speech at the conference: “the attitude of several key media stakeholders in Europe are shifting and they are now exploring P2P on a serious scale.”

Mininova is still looking for people to test the streaming service, as Erik writes: “We are looking for people who would like to be in the first testing group who test the software, report suggestions and bugs you find. Please reply in this topic if you want to participate in this closed beta.”

Mininova already has a music streaming feature for their content distribution platform, based on the Java applet developed by Bitlet. The site currently has over 300 premium publishers, and Mininova’s CEO Niek told TorrentFreak last month that they will focus on extending and improving their content distribution service.

“Publishers will see more distribution options in the near future, and users will be able to find featured content easier. Our plan is to offer the most sophisticated and scalable distribution service of the future. Functionality of “regular” torrent files will of course be kept as it is now.”

Over the past months we have seen more and more P2P streaming alternatives. One of the main problems seems to be that it is practically impossible to make a high quality video streaming service profitable because of the immense bandwidth costs but P2P streaming solves this problem.

source : torrentfreak.com

Technorati Tags: torrent,bittorrent,video

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Vista Ultimate SP1 vs. OS X Leopard 10.5.2 vs. Ubuntu 7.10

Without a doubt, in the face-off between Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, the platforms' strong and weak points contribute to the subjective superiority of one product over the others. The top operating system is ultimately a combination of marketing and consumer perspective. But once in a while the three platforms are thrown in the same arena together against a common challenge. It is the case of CanSecWest Vancouver 2008 where the security of Windows Vista Ultimate Service Pack 1 RTM, Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.2 and Ubuntu Linux 7.10 will be tested in a hacking contest. Essentially hackers will have two days at their disposal to own one of the three boxes made  available by the conference's organizers for a shoot at no less than $25,000 worth of prizes.

"This year's contest will begin on March 26th, and go during the presentation hours and breaks of the conference until March 28th. The main purpose of this contest is to present new vulnerabilities in these systems so that the affected vendor(s) can address them. Participation is open to any registered attendee of CanSecWest 2008. Once you extract your claim ticket file from a laptop (note that doing so will involve executing code on the box, simple directory traversal style bugs are inadequate), you get to keep it. You also get to participate in 3com / Tipping Point's Zero Day Initiative, with the top award for remote, pre-auth, vulnerabilities being $25k," revealed Dragos Rui, the organizer of CanSecWest Vancouver 2008 via Security Blanket.

Hackers will be able to take turns, 30 minutes each at three machines, namely VAIO VGN-TZ37CN running Ubuntu 7.10; Fujitsu U810 with Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 and a MacBook Air with Mac OS X 10.5.2 Leopard. Rui stated that the first contestant to hack a box gets to keep it.

"These computers are REAL and FULLY patched. All third party software is widely used. There are no imitation vulnerabilities. Any exploit successfully used in this contest would also compromise a significant percentage of Internet connected hosts. Instead, players choose to use their exploits here, at CanSecWest PWN2OWN 2008. All successful exploits will be turned over to the appropriate vendor and patched before details are made public," Rui added.

source : news.softpedia.com

Technorati Tags: vista,osx,ubuntu

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24 Great Niche Galleries

CSS galleries can be a great source of inspiration, but if you’re looking for something in particular they can be a bit of a nightmare. They can also be a little repetitive, you’ll often find the same design repeated on many of the galleries.

Since niche galleries have a tighter focus it allows them to be more detailed when adding sites to the gallery, and although they don’t update as often the quality usually makes up for it. Given their focus the same design is a lot less likely to be featured on more than one of the niche galleries.

This is not to say the general galleries are going away, they provide a steady steam of inspiration, but when you’re looking for something in particular niche is nicer.

Below you’ll find a list of niche galleries, that focus on things from color schemes, to layout, and specific content types.

Color Schemes

Light On Dark
http://www.lightondark.com

Light on Dark is a showcase of well designed & coded web sites with light text on a dark background.

Online since January 2006, with approximately 1,000 items of inspiration.

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Layout

Design By Grid
http://www.designbygrid.com

Design By Grid is a resource to promote websites designed with grids, and the tools and techniques used to make websites with grids. You’ll find a gallery of great grid based designed, as well as links to tutorials and invaluable tools for anyone designing with grids.

Online since May 2007, with approximately 100 items of inspiration.

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The Horizontal Way
http://www.thehorizontalway.com/

Most websites display their content vertically, making the user scroll down the page. In some rare cases however the website can be laid out horizontally making users scroll to the right instead, The Horizontal Way is showcase for just these sites. You won’t see to many of these sites, but if you do ever need to design a site that scrolls horizontally, this is the place to go for inspiration.

Online since November 2006, with approximately 40 items of inspiration.

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No Resolution
http://www.cssliquid.com

There has long been a discussion on whether websites should be fixed in width or adjust to the size of the users browser. All arguments aside, see some great examples of fluid and elastic designs at No Resolution (formally called CSS Liquid). You’ll also find some resources and tutorials to help you make you next design fluid, or you can use some of the open source templates.

Online since November 2005, with approximately 300 items of inspiration.

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Content

I Heart Blogs
http://www.iheartblogs.com

I Heart Blogs is a showcase of well designed and well written blogs.

Online since February 2008, with approximately 40 items of inspiration.

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eduStyle
http://www.edustyle.net

eduStyle is a web design gallery dedicated to higher education websites and powered by higher education web design professionals.

Online since January 2007, with approximately 700 items of inspiration.

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Carted Up
http://www.cartedup.com

Carted Up is a showcase of online stores, beautifully designed, and easy to operate.

Online since October 2007, with approximately 50 items of inspiration.

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Feed My App
http://www.feedmyapp.com

A showcase of web based applications.

Online since June 2007, with approximately 2,500 items of inspiration.

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Size

Full Single
http://www.fullsingle.com

Sometimes all you need is one page to convey our message, Full Single is a showcase of full websites that fit in a single page.

Online since January 2007, with approximately 200 items of inspiration.

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One Page Folios
http://www.onepagefolios.com

Collection of one page portfolio by designers and developers.

Online since April 2006, with approximately 850 items of inspiration.

Geographic

CSS Design Yorkshire
http://www.css-design-yorkshire.com

Although not exclusively dedicated to the region, this gallery showcases web sites created by css web designers in the Yorkshire region of England.

Online since October 2006, with approximately 2,000 items of inspiration.

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Oriental Gallery
http://oriental-gallery.com

For those designing for an oriental audience it may be helpful to view websites designed by oriental designers. Differentiated not just by language Oriental designers have different culture and experience than western designers.

Online since 2007, with approximately 60 items of inspiration.

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Content Management Systems

WP Cube
http://wpcube.com

A showcase of the best designed Wordpress sites.

Online since December 2007, with approximately 300 items of inspiration.

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We Love WP
http://www.welovewp.com

Those Wordpress users really like their CMS, another showcase of Wordpress powered sites.

Online since June 2007, with approximately 350 items of inspiration.

We Love TXP
http://www.welovetxp.com

Not be left out users of TextPattern showcase their best sites.

Online since July 2007, with approximately 450 items of inspiration.

LoopPress
http://www.looppress.com

Had to sneak in one more Wordpress showcase.

Online since November 2007, with approximately 400 items of inspiration.

Web Development Frameworks

Drupal Sites
http://www.drupalsites.net/

A directory that lists websites powered by the open-source content management system Drupal.

Online since November 2005, with approximately 2,000 items of inspiration.

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Happy Codr
http://happycodr.com

A showcase of websites built using the Ruby on Rails web development framework.

Online since November 2006, with approximately 700 items of inspiration.

Other

LogoPond
http://www.logopond.com

User submitted gallery of logos, with a hand selected collection of the best logos.

Online since July 2006, with approximately 20,000 items of inspiration.

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IllyPads
http://www.illypads.com

A showcase of the best user submitted illustrations.

Online since March 2008, with approximately 100 items of inspiration.

CSS Princess
http://cssprincess.com

Website designed by Female designers are showcased at CSS Princess.

Online since July 2006, with approximately 200 items of inspiration.

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Launching Soon Pages
http://launchsoon.com/gallery.php

A new gallery that showcases placeholder pages, for websites that have not launched yet.

Online since February 2008, with approximately 10 items of inspiration.

Business Cards
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailypoetics/sets/72057594104389710/

A collection of inspiring business card designs.

Online since April 2006, with approximately 700 items of inspiration.

Colour Lovers
http://www.colourlovers.com

COLOURlovers gives the people who use color - whether for ad campaigns, product design, or in architectural specification - a place to check out a world of color, compare color palettes, submit news and comments, and read color related articles and interviews.

Online since December, 2004, with approximately 1,000,000 items of inspiration.

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Elements of Design
http://www.smileycat.com/design_elements/

Elements of Design is a different type of web design showcase focusing on specific aspects of web design. It is brought to you by the Smiley Cat Web Design Blog.

Approximately 600 items of inspiration.

I’m sure there are a number of deserving niche galleries that I’ve missed, leave a comment and I’ll keep the list updated.

Gallery inspiration counts as at March 2008.

source : mostinspired.com

Technorati Tags: web,design,gallery

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King of spam pleads guilty, faces 26 years in prison

The notorious spammer authorities dubbed "the king of spam" is facing a possible 26-year jail sentence after pleading guilty in Seattle on Friday to charges of fraud and tax evasion.

Robert Soloway, 28, had already been found guilty of spam charges in several civil cases -- Microsoft won a $7.8 million judgment against him in 2005 -- but had avoided paying fines in those cases. The criminal charges to which he pleaded guilty on Friday followed his arrest in 2007 by the U.S. Justice Department.

He was arrested on criminal charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice in May 2007.
In a 2005 discussion group post, Soloway bragged, "I've been sued for hundreds of millions of dollars and have had my business running for over 10 years without ever paying a dime regardless to the outcome of any lawsuits."
That year, Soloway raked in more than $300,000 from his spam operations, according to his plea agreement.

Soloway has avoided fines in the past, but this time around he may not be so lucky. In addition to the jail time he now faces, he has also agreed to discuss his financial assets while being monitored by a lie detector.

While there have been hundreds of spam prosecutions in the United States, it is extremely rare for spammers to face criminal charges, and those involved in the matter say that Soloway's case could serve as a deterrent to other spammers.

In an interview last month, Microsoft senior attorney Aaron Kornblum said he thought the prosecution would make other spammers think twice. "There have not been a large number of criminal CAN-SPAM prosecutions in the U.S.," he said. "This is significant."

Soloway is set to be sentenced on June 20. The prosecution had been seeking $700,000 in damages when Soloway was first charged nearly a year ago.

source: infoworld.com

Technorati Tags: spam,spammer

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Forget MinWin and Microsoft Singularity - Download the Open Source Cosmos OS Microkernel

Forget about MinWin and Microsoft Singularity. You can now download the open source Cosmos operating system. MinWin is of course the kernel of Windows 7, the next version of the Windows platform and the successor of Windows Vista. Throughout 2007,
Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Eric Traut and his teams have labored to strip the Windows kernel of all dependencies in order to create a low footprint code for Windows 7.


Singularity is an operating system project from Microsoft research that has reached Version 1.0 stage and was shipped to selected company partners. Nothing more than a research operating system prototype, Singularity is in fact a non-Windows platform written in C, C++ and C#. In this context, MinWin, the Windows 7 kernel, and Singularity have almost nothing in common.

At the same time, the Cosmos open source microkernel is very close to Singularity. "Officially is it the 'C# Open Source Managed Operating System', but we just go by Cosmos. In fact, the name Cosmos was chosen before any meaning was attributed to it. Later we decided by chance what the letters stood for. Thus it is also Cosmos, and not COSMOS or CosmOS," reads a message on the FAQ page for Cosmos.

Cosmos is in fact closely connected with Microsoft, while at the same time having nothing to do with the Redmond company. The C# Open Source Managed Operating System is the creation of Chad Hower, a former Microsoft Developer and Platform Evangelism, and currently Microsoft Regional Director. But at the same time, Cosmos is an independent open source product, licensed under BSD. Hower has revealed that the current bit version is heading for the Wii, One Laptop Per Child and even the iPhone.

"Who doesn't want to build their own OS? Cosmos provides all the legos and lets you forget the hard parts of writing low level kernel pieces, and unlike other OS's does not force you into C++. Use C# (or any .NET language), plug the legos that you need, and build your shell," the team revealed.

source : news.softpedia.com

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Programming tutorials... BACK..!!

Hello All..
From now on, i will (again) support both IT news and programming tutorial. Of Course its free for all.. Just wait..
:)

Thanks..




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Why Leopard Isn't Better than Vista

Apple's newest operating system is at best an evolution from predecessor Tiger. Some of the criticisms leveled at Windows Vista apply to Leopard. Seriously.

I bought my copy of Leopard on Saturday from the local Apple Store. Granted, I've only used the software for two days, but it has made a remarkably fast first impression. There is much to like about Leopard, but this cat scratches—oh, am I wounded.

What's bugging me about Leopard is what bugged me about Vista eight months ago:
* Feature or UI changes made without really good reasons
* Application compatibility problems
* Diminished performance compared to the predecessor operating system
* Irksome sense the software shipped before being really ready

I tested Leopard on a MacBook Pro that Apple provided for testing Aperture: 2.4GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, 256MB graphics accelerator and 160GB hard drive. I kept the notebook longer for Leopard testing. No doubt someone will ask for the loaner back as soon this post is passed around Cupertino.

My problems with Leopard started fairly quickly. Apple's pre-Leopard launch marketing exacerbated the problems, because it so increased expectations about those 300 new features. Apple's past practice of delivering more than promised gave some confidence about Leopard. Sure, there are some truly whiz-bang enhancements, with some of the seemingly smallest having big impact (example: users can from the main Spotlight search window type in definitions to find words in the dictionary). But compatibility and performance problems are causing me way too much trouble.

Some quick examples: * The new Apple Mail can no longer delete messages from my personal domain's IMAP server; they're piling up in the inbox
* Leopard is incompatible with my version of Cisco VPN. I did hunt down a compatible upgrade
* Safari crashes ... often enough
* Outlook Web mail works sometimes in Safari, but usually just hangs; it's A-OK in Firefox
* Internet connection is sluggish and routes slowly (connected through an Apple AirPort router); performance is speedy by comparison on Windows Vista or Tiger

Interface changes add unnecessary complexity to the operating system. Another added complexity: Like Microsoft, Apple has added new and annoying security prompts to the operating system. This morning, I downloaded an updated NewsFire RSS reader and got a warning popup asking if I really wanted to open this application—because it came from the Internet. Maybe Apple's user interface designers should watch their own TV commercials: "Security."

I'm going to give Leopard another day, but already I'm thinking about switching the MacBook Pro back to Tiger. Isn't that a story told and retold about Vista, where people went back to XP? It's a story other Leopard adopters may tell.

My point: Leopard is no better than Vista, in the sense that some—perhaps many—of the same migration complaints and problems apply. Windows' visibility and exponentially large number of applications amplify its complaints. There are more potential problems to have with Windows compared to Mac OS X. Besides, Microsoft is the successful company so many people love to hate. Criticism is easy, and it's frequent.

Leopard's problems would be a whole lot bigger if more businesses used Mac OS X. I'm simply one consumer user. By the way, I had no serious problems (other than Cisco VPN) migrating to Leopard's two predecessors, Panther and Tiger. My user experience, while anecdotal, shows the problems that can come as an operating system adds on features and its supporting ecosystem of software increases. Those 300 new features have their price in increased complexity and compatibility problems.

By the way, Cover Flow is the one Leopard feature I really like. Cover Flow lets me scan through documents without opening them, which is hugely convenient. But the one compelling feature won't be enough to stick with Leopard, particularly if personal and professional e-mail problems persist. By comparison, Vista's shakedown is largely over. I have little to complain about and lots more to like about Vista than I did in February.

source: microsoft-watch.com

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UK Schools warned to avoid a Microsoft deal

The UK computer agency Becta is advising schools that are considering moving to Microsofts School Agreement subscription not to sign licensing agreements with Microsoft because of alleged anti-competitive practices. The agency reminds schools they are legally obliged to have licensed software, but suggests they use instead what is known as quot; perpetual licensing quot;, which gives the permanent right to use the software and requires no ongoing payments beyond the purchase price. The advantage to schools in using a subscription service such as Microsofts is the smaller, annual payments. However, a spokesman for Becta emphasized that that Microsoft required schools to have licences for every PC in a school, whether they use the software or not.

The government agency has complained to the Office of Fair Trading, saying talks with Microsoft have not resolved quot;fundamental concerns quot; about academic licensing and about Office 2007 and the Vista operating system. The agency hopes that by referring the case to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), quot; Microsoft will move promptly to address the issues raised quot;. If schools have already signed up with Microsoft, Becta says quot; they should consider their renewal and their buyout options quot; alongside any findings the OFT may make.

Source : neowin.net

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Office and Vista: Can’t we give Microsoft some props?

Microsoft posts its best fiscal first quarter in years and Wall Street cheers. But the angst goes on.




* Derrick Shields at SeekingAlpha asks how can Microsoft stay competitive. The common refrain: The days of Office and Vista are numbered. We’ve heard this before–repeatedly for a decade. Wake me up when these units combined only make about say about $2 billion combined. In the first quarter (Techmeme) the client division (Vista, XP) and business division (Office) had combined operating earnings of $6.05 billion.
* Ben Worthen at the WSJ.com’s Business Technology blog notes that corporate IT departments are funding Microsoft’s Google chase. The argument: Microsoft’s enterprise sales are driving the software giant’s quest to become an advertising juggernaut. You don’t say. Call me crazy but didn’t Office and Windows fund a bunch of new ventures like SQL, Silverlight, Sharepoint and Xbox? If you have a cash cow you milk it to find new growth.
* Matt Asay at CNET’s Open Road blog wonders why open source hasn’t put a dent into Microsoft. Matt asks: Who wins in the stand-off between open source and proprietary software? And when? My answers: No one wins the stand off since it’s not a zero sum game. As for the when: Much longer than anyone can imagine.

Simply put, a lot of folks spend so much time bitching about Vista and Office that they overlook one key point: Folks are buying this stuff.

On Microsoft’s earnings conference call CFO Christopher Liddell said:

Clearly we are very happy with the client division overall. As you’ve seen since we launched Vista, the revenue growth has been in excess of 20% three quarters in a row, so the overall [headline] number, very good.

In terms of the premium mix, also very happy about that. Now, in this case, premium mix brings in both Vista and XP premium sales as well, and that’s tracking in the mid-70s, so 75% for the quarter, and that compares to I believe 59% in the equivalent quarter last year, so up 16 points year over year. So we’re very happy with the adoption of Vista Premium and also happy with the old XP Media sales as well.

The other thing I’ll point to is on the client annuity agreements, which is probably the best leading indicator we can think of of people’s intention to adopt, that’s still very early in the adoption cycle for businesses, but the volume licensing portion of our business was up 27% in the client area, so that’s a very good leading indicator from our point of view.

And sort of finally, as a wrapper, year-to-date sales are now 85 million units for Vista. That compares to about 45 million for XP over the same period, so almost twice as much.

It was a similar song and dance for Office.

At some juncture Windows and Office will naturally reach the end of their dominance, but don’t hold your breath. And by time Windows and Office lose their mojo they will have funded a bunch of new businesses that may surprisingly pick up the slack.

source: blogs.zdnet.com

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The Pirate Bay To Bring Back OiNK

The Pirate Bay is currently working on an OiNK replacement in an attempt to bring the hundreds of thousands of music albums back online that disappeared during the raid. The replacement will be released within a week and on the BOiNK.cd domain.

BOiNK will be a little different from OiNK. For instance, the tracker will be public and it will start out with a lot less torrents than OiNK had when it was raided. The success of BOiNK will mainly depend on the former OiNK community, who will be asked to upload their old OiNK torrents.

The most important thing about BOiNK is perhaps the message it sends out to the IFPI and the BPI: It shows that that if you stop one tracker, others will pop up days after. It is a hydra. Call it a slap in the face if you want.

BOiNK will probably be ready in a few days. People from the Pirate Bay, Mininova, TorrentFreak and even the recently arrested (and released) OiNK admin are currently at The Oil of the 21st Century conference where they are - among other things - discussing filesharing, culture and copyright related issues.

BOiNK is a Pirate Bay only project, OiNK and other BitTorrent sites are not involved.

In the meantime, please stay away from scam sites that pretend to be related to OiNK. All they will do is take your money and run away. As soon as there’s an approved donation campaign (if there will be any) we will report it here.

Brokep from the Pirate Bay working on BOiNK.

source: torrentfreak.com

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Microsoft slashes Xbox 360 price in Japan

TOKYO - Microsoft is slashing Xbox 360 prices in Japan by about 13 percent as the price war among video game consoles heats up around the world ahead of the key year-end shopping season.

The Xbox 360 console will sell in Japan for 34,800 yen ($304) beginning Nov. 1, down from 39,795 yen ($348), the U.S. software maker's Japan unit said Monday in a statement.

A more basic version of the machine now selling for 29,800 yen ($261) will go for 27,800 yen ($243), according to Microsoft Corp.

Last week, Sony Corp. cut the price of its PlayStation 3 game console in the U.S. It had already announced similar price cuts in Europe and Japan.

The top-line PlayStation model, with an 80 gigabyte hard drive, now costs $499 in the U.S., down from $599. That effectively eliminates the lower-end model, which has a 60-gigabyte drive and sold for $499. A new low-end model with a 40-gigabyte drive will go on sale Nov. 2 for $399.

The big winner in game consoles recently has been Nintendo Co. with its Wii machine, which has a wandlike remote.

Nintendo, the Kyoto-based manufacturer of Pokemon and Super Mario games, has not announced any price cuts for the Wii, which is already cheaper than Xbox 36o or PS3.

The Wii now sells for $250 in the U.S. and 25,000 yen ($219) in Japan. The Xbox 360 costs $350 in the U.S.

Nintendo has chosen a different strategy from Sony and Microsoft, with their more expensive machines, and has been trying to woo novices with brain teasers, sport games and virtual pets, instead of the usual shooter and role-playing games.

Since Wii went on sale late last year, Nintendo has shipped 9.3 million units around the world, with supplies barely keeping up with demand. By the end of this fiscal year in March 2008, Wii global shipments are expected to reach 22.3 million.

So far, Sony has sold 5 million PlayStation 3s. The game console went on sale late last year in Japan and the U.S. and in March in Europe.

Microsoft has sold 11.6 million Xbox 360 machines in the last two years.

source: news.yahoo.com


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