pestetot

2010-11-30T15:02:00.001-08:00

Love of hate acts as an axis, procreate and pay your taxes

2010-11-30T13:43:00.000-08:00

Start. I never do anything twice, but walk around in circles on winter Saturday afternoons. I am PacMan your captain, enjoy the ride to the Chocolate Factory. Don't forget to bring your own fireworks, lightning bulbs and let's make blowfish's explode. It's as easy as ABC or 123 or whatever. Press Shift+Windows to see the cocoon of a brand new day rising, bouncing forward dense like toy soldiers lined up to shoot the moon goodbye for tonight. I like eating tiny pixels, drinking naked colours in the backgrounds of our Calvinistic youths storming undressing milliseconds. In the big picture, you pop like popcorn on a Friday movie night with friends and pets and technologically manipulated dreams. What a splendid internal organic universe, you have evolved, time is on your side you fool.
So are you a banana or not?

2010-07-18T20:18:00.003-07:00

am urcat pe Sion, si te-am gasit, erai cu parul in lacrimi corporatiile au murit in ele si de ele au ramas doar scheletii de fier si secundele cand ma cautai pe bicicleta cu valuri. pastrati linistea si nu calcati iarba.

2010-07-18T20:18:00.001-07:00

fields of paper butterflies and wind in your hair
/unstuck
pinpoint a new location in your mind: Japanese garden in blossom
/teleport
soundrops in the enchanted valleys of Berlin
/return

2010-07-18T20:17:00.008-07:00

the cascading laughs and pixelated dreams, continuously rebuild and forge your life into small daily snapshots of who you are.
the sand drops and the stillness of your highways are marching forward, like a present for you, ungrateful traveler into this unknown, mad tomorrow.
you only stop for seconds, and then race forward, unaware of the millions, undiscovered thoughts and people to be tamed.
just keep exploring

2010-07-18T20:17:00.007-07:00

ar trebui sa fiu recunoscator, pentru starea de revolta continua, pentru cat de invers sunt toate. tot ce trebuie sa faci e sa stai pe loc. peste politici, glume proaste, branduri colorate aiurea de un advertiser beat si consumatori fara frane.

2010-07-18T20:17:00.005-07:00

linia vocilor noastre urmeaza acelasi ritm, aceeasi directie, pentru ca am avut rabdare sa ne cunoastem, sa radem ca si cum nimeni nu era in jur. te-ai intors ca sa iti dai seama ca ai timp, si ca oricat de grav ar parea totul, fuga dispare, totul sta pe loc. raman doar vocile noastre dansand impreuna, in aceeasi directie, si acelasi timbru, si acelasi ritm.
cine naiba ii mai asculta pe cei care tipa?

2010-07-18T20:17:00.003-07:00

ce mai inseamna acum totul? e adevarat, stii? ce iti doresti asta obtii eventual…dar pierzi altceva, poate nu pierzi, doar ramane undeva in urma. Tu esti tot tu, numai ca in alt loc cu alti oameni, cu alte panorame. In rest nimic nu se schimba, marea e tot acolo, doar ea a ramas undeva in urma pentru tine, nu si pentru ea. Poate e fericita sau poate nu, poate e fericita pentru ca nu e fericita si isi doreste asta. Doar ca nu o sa afli niciodata.

Prietenii, vama, senzatia ca nu ai nimic, de facut sau de pierdut, un soi de inertie dulce amara, nebunia verii, sa razi din toata inima, the nothing box din care ies cele mai bune idei.

Ce e mai important decat sa stai pe loc, macar pentru o secunda, sa opresti totul din fuga nebuna…

e o roata pamantul, cu stele si apa
dai click si e gata, esti tu din nou.

2010-07-18T20:17:00.001-07:00

te grabesti printre oameni de sticla, din orasul de sticla, fara sa pasesti, ti-e teama sa nu le strivesti gandurile.
ai inventat atatea nume de strazi, ai schimbat vise, ai fost budist si ateu, zambete rontunde, zambete patrate, consumatori consumati, zilele pline de idei si de vara.
ai ales 1000 de lucruri, cativa prieteni, adidasi care te duc unde vrei, stelute in ochii ei si din seara aia din vama in care parea ca toata lumea te stie.
stiai odata sa aranjezi tot universul dupa bunul tau plac, acum mai stii?

2010-07-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

desculti,ne-am astupat urechile, cu casti
si porii
si-am pornit sa dezarhivam lumea.
dostoievski si statui verzui din belgia,
keep walking.

2010-06-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

must...start...running.

her red dress and the quiet pendulum in the livingroom.

tasted bright spices out of an endless cave.

escape.

the fall will be here soon and I am turning japanese.

you need to complicate my simplicity.

2010-06-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

And we've set our sails and rushed into this world like madmen... Soft voice whispers in the background "all the bridges that you've burnt will come back one day and haunt you"... I have now become invisible, all your footsteps crush a million sand particles, transforming memories and all I see is the open road ahead.

-But...I've written this world for us...

I looked around and there was no one left, and everyone had put their invisibility capes on.

Where are you rushing to? Gold and diamonds stopped existing you fool. Since you stopped in the middle of the road, with this strange look on your face, the world started revolving, it does make you kinda dizzy doesn't it? Only these thoughts left.

2010-06-18T16:16:00.001-07:00

She was stuck in the middle of the market without knowing what was the reason why she was standing there. He promised her that he will be honest with every little second of his life, converse shoes, flashing lights, wandering cab drivers, and he kept on writing, and moving like a perpetuum mobile, there was no hidden purpose like for some people you know they just want to get richer without doing the smallest effort without moving a single feather of their wings, and you know that wealth only attracts more wealth. Her perception during that day changed for ever and she starting writing more about the things she loved, sound of trains when you are going to meet someone dear, writing like there was no tomorrow and embracing all the bells around, dancing with this crazy crazy world.

He brought her flowers and seemed like he walked 1000 miles from a country so far away, no one could have ever break that silence and distance since he had moved at the end of the world only expecting the unknown, people warned him that this would happen, you have to do it...you cannot just wait for things to simply unveil themselves to you, and he remembered about the weird indian friend who was eating with his hands and which people were judging and laughing about, without even trying to understand the incredible distance this guy has traveled to simply be there without appreciating the infinite strangeness of this life. He knew at some point a decision had to be made but not now.

She smiled and started her photography classes taking mind pictures about all the people she met on the street, and realized it's instinct that would make her come alive again, and that only by going deeper and deeper she would find another soul. He couldn't understand a single thing anymore. He had been exposed and had to move on.

2010-06-18T12:51:00.001-07:00

Her thoughts have spilled all over this city and me...like a dragon's breath impregnating every single intention of movement with images from a past that used to be a present.
her steps were soft and made no sound when passing the Bloemendaal sands, she just went about and returned to that safe place in her mind.
-You remind me of someone, he said
- Someone from your past?
- Someone from the past.
The circus had started these days and everyone was asked to remember the secret passwords to go in, even the city bums remembered it...and whispered it down the streets.
- You need to let go of your fears, she said
- It's not as easy as it seems...
- It is, just move forward and hear all the sounds around you.
- I hear the tram very often, people walking and animals from the zoo, I live very close to the zoo.
- I think it's time to go now.
- You always interrupt our conversations in the most abrupt way.
- That's only because time is passing like a madman.
Photography classes had started, every single picture meant so much, and it was such a pain to fit in everything that was behind a single shot...He knows no one has time to devour what was behind it, they are just watching them because it makes them feel more human, or feel something at all.
He thought everyone was too practical and full of surprises for him to move on. What if he would just stand still, and let everything revolve around. Suddenly all the movement had stopped and he felt alive...The guy driving a rickshaw was weird but full of life, everyone felt threatened by it, his strange black glasses and his intention to go nowhere at all were creepy to them, as if the most important thing in life was to have everything arranged, arranged marriage, arranged holidays, arranged smiles and words.
She smiled and let herself out of the bed talking about our cactus and our cat and all the zillion people and films she had seen that day...this really is the most quiet city in the world sometimes isn't it?

reteta

2010-05-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

Parca cumva, in loc de o inima,

Mi-au crescut mai multe inimi,

In triunghiuri, ca niste cai lactee

Si cuvinte irosite degeaba.

Mergem mereu acolo unde ne asteapta cineva,

In rest laitmotive, si treceri ca niste umbre pe strada.

Tales From The Golden Age

2010-05-13T21:56:00.001-07:00

Ala negru de era tacso

2010-05-12T08:36:00.000-07:00

Stereoscopic Images Inspiration

2010-05-11T08:28:00.000-07:00

Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopic or 3-D imaging) is any technique capable of recording three-dimensional visual information or creating the illusion of depth in an image, that's the Wikipedia definition. This type of image is getting quite popular, so I decided to create a collection of stereoscopic samples, which the technique that can be explained by overlapping our left and right eyes usually do about an image.

The parallax is the horizontal distance between the left and right image that appears in the objects relative to the observer, is responsible to make these images look 3d, That is why the stereoscopic cameras takes the snapshots using two lenses.

via DPUF.

tic tac

2010-05-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

iPad

2010-05-11T06:39:00.001-07:00

The Days When Men Were Men And Tables Were Boats?

2010-05-07T08:25:00.000-07:00

Europa văzută de români

2010-05-04T05:37:00.001-07:00

http://www.codres.de/2010/05/europa-vazuta-de-romani

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Release Date: July 27

2010-05-04T05:16:00.001-07:00

Blizzard Entertainment have announced that the physical retail edition of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty will be released, (mostly) worldwide, on July 27th for the PC and Mac. A downloadable digital release directly from Blizzard's store will follow shortly thereafter.

"We've been looking forward to revisiting the StarCraft universe for many years, and we're excited that the time for that is almost here," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Thanks to our beta testers, we're making great progress on the final stages of development, and we'll be ready to welcome players all over the world to StarCraft II

Channel paper bag

2010-05-04T05:03:00.001-07:00

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir - 'Lux Aurumque'

2010-04-29T06:57:00.001-07:00

Artist recreates a masterpiece using a single pen

2010-04-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

NASA | New Eye on the Sun Delivers Stunning First Images

2010-04-29T06:44:00.001-07:00

Ultimate 2010 Summer Movie Trailer

2010-04-29T06:30:00.001-07:00

The Dubai Fountain - Baba Yetu

2010-04-29T06:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.lumosity.com

2010-04-29T05:22:00.000-07:00

Your Brain Is Your Main World Interface

Some of you may remember the series of posts in which I made a comparison between a human being and a computer, and I’m talking specifically about how to keep the best version of yourself. For the sake of the game, let’s pretend again you’re like a computer. In this case, your brain will be your main world interface. (It’s not the CPU, as some of you may think. The CPU is just processing information, and that is only one cognitive function among many others the brain has, like attention, flexibility and so on).

So, everything you feel, think, imagine and create, everything would go through this interface. If this interface will be broken, your sensations, thoughts and memories would be severely affected. If this interface will become faster, wider and slimmer, your sensations will be more vivid, your thoughts will be more complex and your memories will be accessible much easier.

Now, let’s take this a little further. Let’s pretend you’re much more than a computer. You’re an airport. Thousands of planes are going in and out to this airport. Some of the planes are carrying sensations, some of them are carrying information and some of them are carrying thoughts or memories. Some of the planes you send out are carrying words or gestures, and they land on other airports.

In this case, your brain is your main control tower. It dispatches sensations, thoughts and memories and creates complicated storage structures and algorithms. It keeps all the traffic going on in good conditions. And it does that by constantly monitoring the incoming flow of planes, the available departure lanes, the weather, the remote airports availability, the flight schedule and maybe a thousand of other parameters.

Imagine what happens if this control tower fails at some point. Plane crashes. Colliding sensations. Erratic words going out to other airports. Missing pieces of information from other airports, because their planes will never land. Total damage. And you don’t need a severe failure to observe a significant decrease in brain performance. It suffices to have just a lazy control tower operator and you’ll start noticing delayed responses, crowded landing lanes, rushing takes-off and so on. I’m sure you’ve been there: saying what you didn’t want to say, remembering stuff when you don’t need it anymore or experiencing sudden talking blocks.

Hopefully, you have a better idea now about how important your brain is for your overall functionality as a human being. And still, this metaphor is just a feeble image of what your brain does. It also monitors your energy levels sending stimuli of hunger (that would be the equivalent of re-fueling the planes), it does long-term planning (equivalent of upgrading the equipments and planes) or makes estimations (learning by example, for instance, after a plane collision).

OK, I get the feeling that you know why you need to keep your brain in good shape. Let’s start talking about the how.

How To Train Your Brain

First of all, let me tell you that I was in search for something similar to Lumosity for a long time. When Lucaino Passuelo posted a tweet about how cool Lumosity is, I clicked to see what it’s all about. (It’s not the first time when Luciano, who blogs brilliantly at litemind.com, is pushing my limits. Last time he did it, I ended up on the first page of Delicious, Digg and a few other social media outlets, after I wrote my first huge list post: 100 Ways To Live A Better Life).

After a few clicks (or touches, since I was more attracted by the iPhone version) I confess I was totally sold out. Lumosity is a collection of scientifically designed “brain games”, which are challenging various areas of your cognitive process: from flexibility to attention, and from speed to memory. The best way to explain Lumosity is “fitness for your brain”. If you exercise regularly you already know all the benefits: your body tends to be slimmer, you walk steadier, you’re more aware, your muscles are always ready to act, you detox faster and so on. Well, those are the exact benefits you should expect from a brain exercising routine too. You’ll think faster, you’ll increase your attention and memory, you’ll be more flexible, reacting better to environmental changes, and so on.

These brain games I’m going to talk about are hosted at Lumosity.com but there is also an iPhone version. I personally prefer the iPhone version and I think that being a digital nomad plays a huge role in this decision. Games are also structured as courses, or series of various games mixed together in sessions. The iPhone version features such a course with 35 sessions. One neat thing about the iPhone version is that you can set up alerts and you’ll be notified at the time of the next session. Total time spent on such a session is between 4 and 7 minutes. Of course, you can play the games individually and I do this all the time. But I would recommend doing the session first, it seems there is a certain progression which will tune in your brain faster if you that.

Another cool thing about Lumosity is that you can evaluate your progress, by using a proprietary metric, the so called BPI, or Brain Power Index. Citing from Lumosity website, “Brain Performance Index (BPI) is a measure of your performance in a given cognitive function. You can use BPI to track your performance, and compare your ability in one cognitive area to another. An increase in BPI indicates improvement. An increase of more than 200 points represents a substantial improvement of about 1 standard deviation.”

http://www.lumosity.com

http://tumb.la/nevver

2010-04-28T08:38:00.001-07:00

http://tumb.la/nevver

Ten free apps to install on every new PC

2010-04-28T05:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2010/04/22/ten_essential_freeware_windows_apps/page4.html

Online gaming statistics

2010-04-28T05:28:00.001-07:00

Via: Online MBA

FLV, MP4, 3GP, VOB, WMV Player - Final Media Player

2010-04-28T05:23:00.000-07:00

from finalmediaplayer.com

The free player that just works. Get Final Media Player if you are tired of messing with codecs or tired of seeing the dreaded "Windows cannot open this file" error message. Download and install Final Media Player and you will be able to play 3GP, ASF, AVI, AVM, AVS, DAT, FLV, IFO, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG, NSV, OGM, RM, RMVB, TP, TS, VOB, WMV and many other more or less obscure video formats!

lang lang playing flight of the bumblebee...on an iPad

2010-04-28T04:46:00.000-07:00

Shell Helix Ultra Transparent Car

2010-04-28T04:35:00.001-07:00

3D Masterpiece Ad by Samsung Electronics

2010-04-28T04:10:00.000-07:00

The Cardboard Box That Fits Anything Perfectly

2010-04-28T04:07:00.000-07:00

An invention that might eliminate almost all of the wasted space in a cardboard box.

How brilliant is this? Designer Patrick Sung's Universal Packaging System is meant to precisely fit anything that needs shipping. The individual cardboard sheets are scored with a triangle pattern that can either be fitted to an oddly shaped object, or formed into a custom fitted cardboard box:

Potentially massive savings would result from all the extra shipping space saved--cutting down on how much space each package takes up, and therefore the number of gas-guzzling trucks needed during shipping.

There's just a few niggles. For one, would anyone really put up with the added hassle of folding a custom-sized box, given all the added complexity? And two, the space savings issue might be more complicated than it seems: If people pack things in oddly shaped boxes, there's every possibility that these all don't fit together well enough to actually save space. (That's why square-shaped boxes are so efficient.) But still, with a few tweaks--such as printed guidelines for easily creating boxes of different size--this could be the cleverest thing since the Puma shoebox redesign.

Pacific Blue Chip

2010-04-28T03:27:00.001-07:00

Avoiding common data-interpretation errors

2010-04-28T02:29:00.000-07:00

They say "statistics lie," but they don't. People do.

Well, that's a little harsh. Sure some people intentionally skew numbers and selectively pull data, but most folks misinterpret data by accident.

Why do you care if you're not a scientist? Because you collect data about your business all the time — web traffic, revenue sources, expenses, customer behavior — and make decisions based on your (mis)understanding of that data.

Here's a few basic mistakes I encounter constantly.

Statistics don't tell the whole story

It's easy to boil a data set down to a single number, like an average. Easy — and often shortsighted.

Single numbers feel powerful; you feel able to wrap your mind around a lot of data. Sometimes that is indeed useful, but it can also obscure the truth.

Consider Anscombe's Quartet, four graphs that have identical statistical properties, yet clearly represent four distinct processes:

Since the statistics are identical in each case, it's clear that statistics alone don't describe what's actually happening with the data.

The true story of each graph:

The process is mostly linear. The best-fit line is handy in describing the relationship, but there are other possibly-random factors at work as well.
The data are perfectly related, but not linear. Applying typical linear statistics is just wrong.
The data are perfectly linear, with one outlier. Probably the outlier should be ignored, and the best-fit line should reflect the other points.
The data don't vary at all in the x direction, except for an outlier which probably should be ignored. All the standard statistical numbers are useless.

Lessons:

Processes can't be boiled down to a single number.
Blindly applying statistics doesn't explain what's happening.
Charts can help.

"Average" is often useless

You can't open an analytics tool without being attacked by averages: Average hits/day, average conversion ratios, average transaction size, average time on site.

Trouble is, the average is often not only useless, but misleading. Take "average time-on-site," a typical web analytics metric. It's important enough in Google Analytics that it appears on the top-level site information dashboard, as shown in this real example from my blog:

Of course it's better if a visitor spends longer on a site because it means they're engaged.

Is 1:33 good? Actually that's the wrong question. The true story becomes clear when you break this single number into pieces:

The "average" time-on-site of 93 seconds is useless when trying to explain user behavior. The correct way to think about time-on-site is:

Most visitors "bounce" off the site without really looking at it.
About a third of the visitors stayed long enough to read some articles.

Furthermore, the way you optimize #1 and #2 are completely different:

Bouncing can indicate that the traffic source is poor (i.e. we attracted eyeballs, but they weren't the right eyeballs) or the landing page was poor (i.e. we attracted the right eyeballs, but we failed to lure them into reading further).
Getting a few minutes of time on a blog is already "success." Trying to get someone to stay even longer (e.g. 10 minutes instead of 5) probably isn't useful. So the better question is: How do we get more people into this category, rather than trying to "increase the average" in this category?

So not only is the average value 1:33 useless in describing reality, it's useless in deciding what to do next.

Lessons:

The simple "average" is often meaningless.
Using a single number to describe a process obscures the truth.
Using a single number to describe a process prevents you from learning how to improve and optimize.

The dangers of "Top 10" and "Others"

Whether it's a cover article in Cosmo or a web analytics report, people love to read "Top 10" lists.

Top lists can be useful. For example, here are the origins of search engine traffic to my blog:

There are several "other" search engines (e.g. Ask and AOL), but the traffic doesn't amount to a hill of beans (as we say in Texas). It's useful to cut those out of the chart because they're just noise.

The trouble starts when "Other" isn't so trivial. The following chart is a real report from a board meeting I was in years ago (only the names and layout have been altered):

Looks fine. But later I was poking around the data myself and decided to add a category for "Others":

Some people call this the Long Tail — a pattern wherein a few big players are far larger than any other single player, but when you add up all the little players they collectively match or — as in this case — tower over the big players.

If you discover a Long Tail in your data, there's several ways to react. Consider the case of having a Long Tail in sales of your product line, as with iTunes and Amazon who have a few blockbuster hits plus a long tail containing millions of products that sell infrequently. Here are four opposing viewpoints of how you could approach the situation:

The Long Tail is too expensive to sell into because it requires reaching a lot of people, each of whom don't give us much money, so it won't be cost-effective.
The Long Tail is the least expensive way to sell because it means reaching under-served markets, which means cheap ads and hungry customers.
Addressing the Long Tail means we have to be all things to all people, and that means we're unfocused. Instead, let's try to be #1 at one thing.
Trying to be #1 at anything is hard, and often the spoils go to those with the most money, not to the smartest or most passionate. Rather than fight the 800-pound gorilla, let's address the rest of the market that gorillas ignore, but which contains a ton of potential business.

No one of these views is automatically correct. For example, iTunes gets most of their revenue from the big players (contrary to "common" knowledge), but other companies like Beatport make millions of dollars off the Long Tail of niche music markets (electronic music, in their case).

The only wrong thing is to ignore your "Others" column.

Lessons:

"Top 10" lists can hide important data.
Any time you truncate data you must first be certain you're not throwing away important information.
Data patterns like the "Long Tail" aren't "good" or "bad" per se. There are usually many equally-viable ways for you to react.

Metrics and statistics "rules" cannot be applied blindly

Consider the following (intentionally unlabelled) chart:

It's tempting to start making observations:

The average value is 57. (But you already know this is crap, right?)
The value is generally increasing as we move to the right.
Some data is missing. Maybe they should be discarded.

Unfortunately, even these basic observations are assumptions, and could be wrong depending on context. Consider these scenarios:

These are a student's test scores over time. The student was failing and not turning in assignments. However, in the middle of the period the student hired a tutor. Results improved, and by the end of the class the student had mastered the material.This student should probably be awarded an A or B because of the clear improvement and steady results at the end of the year when tests are hardest. The student should not receive a grade of 57 — the average.
Each result represents a survey of one person on the effectiveness of a certain advertisement.The "zero" rating from subjects #2 and #4 is real data, and it's a bad sign. This could indicate something drastically wrong with the ad, for example being offensive. We need to dig in with those participants and learn more about this failure.In general the average value — including the zeros — is probably a useful indication of the ad's overall effectiveness. It's curious that the results "improved" so much in later trials since the participants were supposed to be randomized. This may indicate a bias in the test itself.

An interesting result of #1 is that in order to obtain a useful "average" value we ought to throw away almost all our data points! The opposite is true with #2.

The point is that the context for the data determines how the data is interpreted. You can't blindly apply a "rule," such as which data points can be ignored.

Lessons:

You have to interpret results in context, not blindly apply formulas.
Form a theory first, then see whether the data supports or invalidates your theory.

Formulas are not a substitute for thinking.

Like any tool, statistics is useful when used properly and dangerous otherwise. Like any algorithm, garbage in yields garbage out.

Yes this means "metrics analysis" is harder than it looks. Yes this means you have to take time with your data and verify your thought process with others.

But what's the alternative? Thinking about your processes incorrectly and then wasting time on senseless "solutions?"

Final lesson: Since metrics are hard and take time and effort to get correct, don't attempt to measure and act on 100 variables. Pick just a few you really understand and can act on, and optimize with those alone. You're more likely to make a genuine, positive change in your business.

Source

Android passes iPhone in U.S. traffic

2010-04-28T00:44:00.000-07:00

We saw this one coming, but I did not think it would happen so soon. In AdMob’s latest March report, Android has surpassed the iPhone and accounts for a greater share of smartphone requests in the United States. AdMob does not represent the traditional view of market share (based on the number of handsets sold), but their reports still provide some insightful data.

Android now accounts for 46% of AdMob's U.S. traffic.

Android now accounts for 46% of U.S. smartphone share, while iPhone OS slid to 39%. A greater percentage of Android apps are offered for free so more developers have turned to ads in order to monetize their work.

Google recently acquired AdMob, but the deal is far from done. The FTC is still negotiating with Google, but it looks like our government will try to block the proposed acquisition.

Android highlights from the report include:

Two Android devices, the HTC Dream and HTC Magic, collectively represented 96% of Android traffic in September 2009. Seven months later, 11 devices represented 96% of Android traffic in the AdMob network.
In March 2010, Android traffic share on the AdMob network was divided relatively evenly between the three primary versions of the Android OS: Android 1.5 (38%), Android 2.0 / 2.1 (35%) and Android 1.6 (26%).
Motorola was the leading Android manufacturer with 44% share of traffic in March 2010 due to the success of the Droid and CLIQ. HTC was a close second with 43% of requests, followed by Samsung with 9%.
The Android platform has experienced significant growth in monthly traffic over the past year. Android traffic has grown at a compounded monthly growth rate of 32% per month, going from 72 million requests in March 2009 to 2.0 billion in March 2010.
Two Android devices, the HTC Dream and HTC Magic, collectively represented 96% of Android traffic in September 2009. Seven months later, 11 devices represented 96% of Android traffic in the AdMob network.
The Motorola Droid was the leading Android handset in March 2010 and generated 32% of worldwide Android traffic. The Google Nexus One only generated 2% of Android traffic in March 2010.
The top Android devices vary by country. The top three devices in the US were the Motorola Droid, HTC Dream and Motorola CLIQ. In comparison, the top three Android devices in the UK were the HTC Hero, HTC Dream and HTC Magic.

AdMob

Taiwanese Lin Yu Chun Sings Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" LIVE

2010-04-27T15:43:00.000-07:00

Two Players Score The Same Goal With Overhead Kick - Sebastian Romero & Marco Perez

2010-04-27T15:36:00.000-07:00

Here is one for the dubious goals panel; a remarkable double overhead kick for Gimnasia La Plata against Boca Juniors in the Argentine league. As the ball loops up off a defender, Sebastian Romero (on the left) and Marco Perez both have the same idea

19 Tips Every Windows 7 User Needs to Know

2010-04-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

Your OS drives your whole PC experience, so it's your job as an enthusiast to keep it in a high state of tune

Twist cap carefully. Only pour into Maximum PC-approved computer tanks.

After installing a new OS, most people just jump right in and start driving it through all their favorite applications and games. Makes sense, right? The operating system, after all, should be a background player in the computing experience—a means to an end, with the end being web surfing, content editing, and wanton destruction in the first-person shooter of one’s choice.

The problem, however, is that most people, even a lot of self-described power users, never take the time to really tune the new OS, exploring its menus and setting up the interface for the fastest, most convenient operation based on personal preferences. And as operating systems offer more and more user controls, it’s the curious, performance-minded enthusiast who has the most to gain from tuning an OS to his or her liking.

It’s been about six months since Windows 7 hit the market, so we figure most of our readers have made their upgrades. For those who’ve made that jump, we present a bottle of our favorite Windows 7 tips, each designed to help you extract the very last bits of convenience and GUI-navigating performance from your own personal dream machine. And if you haven’t yet upgraded to Win7, we trust you will after reading this article, as its core features—let alone its actual Lab-benchmarked performance—kicks Vista and XP ass.

We close out our tuning session with a tip designed to supercharge the process of installing the OS. By loading Windows 7 onto a USB key, and making that key a bootable drive, you can do an end-run around slow optical-drive technology and install your OS in (pardon the pun) a flash.

It’s time to get started. Park your computer, but don’t shut down. This is one PC tune-up that can only be done with your engine running.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Committed Mouse Abolitionists

Let’s kick off this power-user party with keyboard shortcuts—tricks every enthusiast should memorize when mastering a new OS. We’re confident the following time-saving keystrokes will save you precious neural processing cycles, and make your mouse jealous with neglect.

Alt + P

In Windows Explorer, this shortcut activates a preview pane of your selected file, be it an image, sound, or video document. This panel is great for previewing images in your photos directory, obviating the need for fancier third-party software.

Windows + Up and Windows + Down

If a window isn’t maximized, pressing the Windows + Up arrow key will make it fill your entire screen. Windows + Down arrow will minimize that active window.

Windows + Shift + Up and Windows + Shift + Down

Hitting these three keys will vertically stretch an active window to the maximum desktop height (the width of the window, however, will stay the same). Pressing Windows + Shift+ Down will restore the window to its previous dimensions.

Windows + + and Windows + -

Pressing the Windows button with either the plus or minus key activates the Magnifier, letting you zoom in on the entire desktop or open a rectangular magnifying lens to zoom in on (and out of) parts of your screen. You can also customize the Magnifier to follow your mouse pointer or keyboard cursor.

Windows + Left and Windows + Right

These two shortcuts will make your active window fill up exactly one half of your screen—depending on which arrow key you use. And once a window is fixed to one side of the screen, you can repeat the shortcut with the same arrow key to flip it to the other side.

Windows + Home

This shortcut minimizes every open window on your desktop except the active window. Pressing this shortcut again restores all the minimized windows.

Windows + T

Like Alt + Tab (still our all-time-favorite Windows shortcut), Windows + T cycles through thumbnails of your open programs via the Taskbar’s peek menu.

Windows + E

Automatically opens up a new Explorer window to show your Libraries folder.

Windows + P

Manage your multiple-monitor setup more efficiently with this handy shortcut. Windows + P opens a small overlay that lets you configure a second display or projector. You can switch from a single monitor to dual-display in either mirror or extend-desktop mode.

Windows + Shift + Left and Windows + Shift + Right

If you’re using two or more displays—and you are, aren’t you?—memorize this shortcut to easily move a window from one screen to the other. The window retains its size and relative position on the new screen, which is useful when working with multiple documents.

Windows + [Number]

Programs (and new instances) pinned to your Taskbar can be launched by hitting Windows and the appropriate number key. Windows + 1, for example, launches the first application in the taskbar, while Windows + 4 will launch the fourth.

Windows + Space

This combo performs the same function as moving your mouse to the bottom right of the Taskbar: It makes every active window transparent (save faint outlines) so you can view the desktop underneath.

Track Your Actions with Problem Step Recorder

To aid their development of Windows 7 beta versions, the Microsoft engineers built in a diagnostic tool called Problem Steps Recorder that combines screen captures with mouse tracking to record your actions. You can launch this program from the Start Menu by typing psr.exe in the search field. Hit the Record button and the applet tracks your mouse and keyboard input while taking screenshots that correspond with each new action. When you stop recording, your session is saved to an HTML slide show recreating your steps, to which you can add comments and annotations. This tool is insanely useful if you need to create a tutorial for a computer-illiterate relative. Hi Mom, hi Dad!

Master Your New Font Manager

Font management is much improved in Windows 7. The Add Fonts dialog is history, and in its place is new functionality within the Fonts folder itself. First, the folder now shows font previews via each font file’s icon (visible with Large or Extra Large icon views). Second, fonts from a single set will no longer show up as different fonts; they’re now combined as a single family, which can be expanded by double-clicking the icon. Third, you can now toggle fonts on and off by right-clicking a font icon and selecting the Hide option. This prevents applications from loading the font (thus saving memory), but still keeps the file retained in the Font folder. Finally, Windows 7 includes a new fancy, free-flowing font called Gabriola that shows off the advanced antialiasing, text rendering, and “stylistic alternate” font flourishes afforded by DirectWrite (Microsoft’s API for 2D text rendering) and OpenType.

Next Page: Windows 7 Tips continued >>

Launch Games with Keystrokes

One of our biggest annoyances with Windows Vista was the Games Folder, aka the Gaming Grotto, aka the Gaming Ghetto. In Vista, Games for Windows titles and other game shortcuts automatically install to this directory, which you can only access with a Start Menu shortcut. This scheme prevents you from starting a game from the Start Menu search bar (aka the power user, keyboard-only method). Indeed, while you can launch any other application by mashing the Windows key, and typing its name in the Start Menu field, this isn’t the case for games installed to Vista’s Games Folder. Well, this oversight is fixed in Windows 7, and the universe is now home to slightly less evil.

Burn a Spittin' Image

You can quit messing around with ostensibly free, malware-infected burning software, because Windows 7 comes loaded with a DVD and CD ISO burning application. Just double-click your image file and Windows will start a tiny program window to help burn your disc. It’s a bare-bones app, but it works!

Become More Wordly with Hidden Wallpapers

Besides its default desktop wallpaper, Win7 includes desktop backgrounds catered to your region (which is identified when you first install the OS). We Americans, for example, get six 1900x1200 images showing off National Parks and beaches. However, if your tastes run more international—don’t worry, we won’t hold that against you—you can grab wallpapers for other regions from a hidden folder. Type globalization in a search of your C: drive. The only result should be a folder located in the main Windows directory, and you should only be able to see ELS and Sorting folders nested here. Now search for MCT in the top-right search bar. This will display five new unindexed folders, each corresponding to a different global region. Browse these folders for some extra themes and wallpapers specific to Australia, United Kingdom, South Africa, and Canada.

Take Control of UAC

Despite good intentions, User Account Control pop-ups were one of the most annoying aspects of Vista, and thus UAC became a feature that most of us immediately disabled after a clean install. UAC in Windows 7 displays fewer warnings, but you can also fine-tune its notification habits by launching the UAC Settings dialog from the Start Menu. Just type UAC in the Start Menu search field and click the result. We find that setting the bar to just one tick above “Never notify” provides a comfortable balance between mindful security and incessant, Alice Kramden–caliber nagging.

Calculate Your Mortgage and Other Math Tricks

The reliable Calculator applet has been beefed up to do more than just basic arithmetic. You can now toggle between Standard, Scientific, Programmer, and even Statistics modes. In addition, the Options menu lets you pull out many new automated conversation tools, such as Unit Conversion (e.g., Angles, Temperature, Velocity, and Volume) and Date Calculation (e.g., calculate the difference between two dates). More templates give you the ability to crunch gas mileage, lease tipping points, and even mortgage estimates (yeah, right!) based on any variables you input.

Reveal All of Your Drives

If you use built-in memory-card readers in a 3.5-inch drive bay or on your desktop display, empty memory card slots will not show up as drives in My Computer. But that doesn’t mean they’re not still there. To reveal hidden memory card slots, open My Computer. Press Alt to show the toolbar at the top of the screen, and go to Folder Options under Tools. Hit the View tab and uncheck the “Hide empty drives in the Computer folder” option.

Use Devices and Printers to Quickly Dig into Hardware

Tired of switching between Device Manager, Properties menus for your devices, and the Start Menu to manage and use printers, digital cameras, mice, and other peripherals? Windows 7 comes to your rescue with its Devices and Printers dialog. Open Control Panel and select View Devices and Printers from the Hardware and Sound category. Right-click a device icon in Devices and Printers to configure the hardware, create shortcuts, troubleshoot, view properties, and run programs. Devices and Printers can save you a lot of effort. For example, when you use it to manage your computer, you have one-touch access to 12 different Control Panel and Explorer interfaces. And when you use a Windows 7–specific driver that supports Device Stage, Devices and Printers uses thumbnail art of the actual device, as shown.

Next Page: Windows 7 Tips continued >>

Calibrate Your Notebook's Text and Color

After doing a clean install of Windows 7 on a notebook, the first thing you should do is tune and calibrate ClearType text and Display Color. Windows 7 includes two built-in wizards that run you through the entire process, pain-free. Launch ClearType Text Tuning by typing cttune in the Start Menu search field and opening the search result. You’ll go through a brief series of steps that ask you to identify the best-looking text-rendering method. For Display Color Calibration—useful if you’re using Windows 7 with a projector or large-screen LCD—search and launch dccw from the Start Menu. It’ll run you through a series of pages where you can adjust the gamma, brightness, contrast, and color of the screen to make images look their best.

Control AutoPlay Settings Like a Megalomaniacal Tyrant

Windows 7’s version of AutoPlay, like its predecessors’, lets you specify what to do with media types when you connect an external drive or insert a disc. Sure, you may have hated AutoPlay in Windows XP, but Win7 provides you with reasons to take a fresh look. As in Vista, Win7 lets you configure AutoPlay settings by media type, but you should poke around for more tweaking options. Open Control Panel, select Hardware and Sound, and then select AutoPlay. By default, Win7 uses AutoPlay for all media and devices; this can be unchecked, and from there you can personalize AutoPlay actions like a madman. Note that each type of media—music CDs, DVDs, software and games, media files, blank media, and video discs—offers you choices based on Windows utilities as well as third-party programs. Choose your favorite app as an AutoPlay default, or to keep the traditional pop-up AutoPlay menu, select Ask Me Every Time.

Solve External Hard Drive Hassles with Convert.exe

Windows 7 prefers hard disk drives that use the NTFS file system: Its integrated backup program cannot back up files from or to drives that use the older FAT32 file system. So, if you select a drive that uses FAT32 as the backup location, Windows 7 displays an error message. FAT32, a leftover from the days of Windows 98, works with both MacOS and Windows (which is why most external hard disks use this file system by default), but it lacks the features needed to fully support Windows 7 backup. Use Convert.exe to solve this problem. Open a command-prompt session and use the following command to change your external hard disk’s file system:convert x: /fs:ntfs (replace x with the actual drive letter of your external hard disk). Convert.exe will check your external hard disk for errors, verify there’s enough space for conversion, and then convert with abandon. While this theoretically will not destroy your data, we recommend you back up your files first.

Convert WMC Recordings for Use with Vista and XP

Windows Media Center (WMC) improved in the jump from Vista to Windows 7—you’ll find better integration of cable, broadcast, and Internet TV in the program guide, better support for widescreen displays, and a refined user interface, among other changes. But if you want to share your recordings with Windows XP or Vista users, or use the dozens of recording and file-conversion utilities made for those versions of WMC, you’re sort of screwed, as Windows 7 no longer uses the DVR-MS file format for recording. Instead, it uses WTV (Windows TV), and WTV files can’t be used by older versions of WMC or Windows Media Player.

You can, however, convert a TV recording from WTV to DVR-MS by using the conversion utility provided in Win7.

TV recordings are stored by default in the Public Recorded TV library. Open the library, right-click the recording, and select Convert to DVR-MS Format. At the end of the conversion process, the Recorded TV library contains both your original .wtv file as well the .dvr-ms conversion. The .dvr-ms file can be used with programs designed for Windows XP and Windows Vista Windows Media Center, and can be played on Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player in Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Command Windows 7 to Generate an Energy Report

As a power user, you may be concerned with power consumption, making the command-line utility powercfg.exe a must-see. To create a report on your PC’s energy appetite, press the Windows key and type cmd in the search box. Right-click cmd and select Run as Administrator. Now, select the box and type powercfg –energyat the command-line prompt, and hit Enter. Powercfg will run for about 60 seconds, then generate a report called energy-report.html in C:\Windows\system32. This report will notify you of anything in your computer that is keeping the CPU cycling, thus burning power and sucking notebook batteries dry. After you run the report, you’ll likely find that USB devices never entered Suspend state. While you might think the power consumption of a USB key is pretty insignificant, if it prevents the CPU from cycling off, that device can really hit where it hurts—in your battery’s nards.

Cling (Desperately) to Vista's Taskbar

Let’s start with the bad news: Windows 7 eliminates the option to use the classic grey Windows 2000–style Taskbar. You’re also committed to the modern version of the Start Menu. But the good news is that you can still tweak the Taskbar to make it run like it did in Windows Vista, replacing the program icons with the names of each open app. Right-click the Taskbar and hit Properties. Check the “Use small icons” box and select “Combine when Taskbar is full” from the drop-down menu under Taskbar buttons. You still get the peek-view thumbnail feature of the Taskbar, and inactive programs remain as single icons, but open programs will display their full names.

Next Page: Windows 7 Tips continued >>

Exile Programs to the System Tray

All active programs show up as icons on the Taskbar, whether you want them to or not. While this is useful for web browsing or word processing, your taskbar can get cluttered with icons you would normally expect to be hidden away, like those for Steam or a chat client. You can, however, keep active instances of these programs hidden away in the System Tray/Notification Area by right-clicking their shortcuts, navigating to the Compatibility tab, and selecting Windows Vista under the Compatibility Mode drop-down menu. Just be aware that this only works for programs that would previously hide away from the Taskbar in Vista.

Manage Your Jump Lists

The Jump List, a list of shortcuts to files or tasks for a particular Start Menu or Taskbar item, is one of the most significant improvements in Windows 7. Each time you open a file or website, or run a task with a program that supports Jump Lists, Windows 7 stores the shortcut to the file, website, or task for reuse. Unlike Windows XP, however, Windows 7 doesn’t group these shortcuts into a single location. Instead, it stores shortcuts for each program’s files, websites, or tasks in a separate shortcut list—aka the Jump List. To see the Jump List for a program in the Start Menu, simply click the right-arrow icon. To see the Jump List for a program icon on the Taskbar, right-click the icon. Windows eventually removes items from the Jump List when it runs out of space, but you can override this. To make any Jump List item a permanent entry, highlight it and click the pushpin icon (reverse this process to unpin it). And if the idea of leaving an icon trail of all your recent history disturbs you, you can disable Jump Lists entirely: Right-click the Start Menu, choose Properties, and uncheck the two boxes under Privacy.

Organize Your Taskbar and System Tray

The programs that you pin to your Taskbar can be moved around to any order you want, whether they’re just shortcut icons or currently active applications. The Taskbar, if unlocked, can also be dragged to latch to the left, right, or even top of your desktop. As shown below, Windows 7 improves side-docked Taskbar support with better gradient rendering and shortcut support. It really works well if you’re using a widescreen monitor. Just as the Taskbar icons can be rearranged at will, the icons in the System Tray (actually called the Notification Area) can be dragged and set to any order, as well. Hidden Icons can be dragged back into view, and you can hide icons by dragging them over the white triangle, and dropping them into the Hidden Icon well—much easier than working through the Notification Area Customization menu.

Accelerate Your Start Menu

The Start Menu hasn’t changed much from Vista, but there are some notable improvements. The behavior of the power button has been changed to Shut Down, as opposed to Hibernate, which was the asinine default in Vista. But you can also change the button default to do other actions. Right-click the Start Menu, and choose Properties. From the Power Button Action drop-down, you can choose a new default button behavior. If you hit the Customize button, you’ll enter a world of opportunities that help you control what the Start Menu displays. Most options are turned off, but you may want some on, like the option to display recorded TV files, a feature that’s new in Windows 7. Also be aware that Start Menu items should be set to “Display as a link” if you want them to open up Jump Lists.

Arrange Files by Type, Month, Artist, and Other Options

Windows Vista introduced the concept of using the Details folder view to group files by criteria such as name, date modified, type, size, and other options. These choices are still available in any folder by right-clicking inside the folder and selecting them from the options menu. But Window 7 does Vista one better with its new Libraries scheme, which enables you to view the contents of multiple file locations in a single logical folder. And as you’d expect, each Library comes correct with contextual file-arrangement options that vary according to what’s being viewed. For example, in the Pictures library, you can choose from Day, Rating, Tag, and Month. For videos, maybe arranging by Length, as in our screenshot, is most relevant. You get the point.

Pin Folders to Favorites and Start Menu

Explorer’s Jump List shows your seven most frequently visited folders, but you can manually bookmark some favorites to the top of the list by pinning folder locations. Just right-click any folder—either on your desktop or from an open instance of Explorer—and drag that folder icon to the Explorer shortcut on the Taskbar. You’ll see a message that reads “Pin to Windows Explorer” before you release the mouse button. The folder will appear under a Pinned section of the Jump List, and you can remove it by clicking the “Unpin from this list” icon on the right side of the panel. You can also right-click and drag a folder directly to the Start button to pin that folder to the general Start list.

Next Page: Put an OS in Your Pocket >>

Put an OS in Your Pocket

How to load Windows 7 onto a bootable USB key

To complete your Windows 7 power-user experience, you may consider dropping the whole darn OS onto a USB drive. Whether you carry it around in your pocket or toss it in a desk drawer, it’s a perfect boot disk for emergency installs—including those times when you’re working with a netbook or some other computer that lacks an optical drive. Even better, your install times will be significantly reduced, thanks to your key’s flash memory—we shaved off minutes from our total install time.

Here’s how to create a schmancy-fancy boot key for either Windows 7 or Vista—but not for other OSes, so please don’t try! We’ve run a truncated version of this article in the magazine before, but because it was so incredibly popular—and so germane to this feature story—we’ve decided to share it again, this time with more detail and screens.

1. Format Your USB Key

Plug in your USB key and back up any existing data stored on it. You’ll need to format the key (thus erasing existing data) before you can make it a bootable device. We used an 8GB key, but a 4GB key will also work.

2. Partition that Key in CMD

Open up a command prompt as an Administrator. You can do this by searching for cmd.exe in your Windows/System32 folder, right-clicking the executable, and selecting “Run as administrator.” Alternatively, type CMD in the Start Menu search field and activate the command prompt using Ctrl + Shift + Enter.

You should now be under C:\Windows\system32 (assuming your Windows partition is the C drive). Typediskpart in the command line to enter the Disk Partition command-line tool, which lets you format and create partitions on active disks. Now type list disk to reveal a list of all your active disks, each of which is associated with a number. Make a note of which one is your USB key, based on the capacity. In this screenshot, our USB drive is Disk 2.

3. Format Away (Command-Prompt Style)

It’s now time to enter a load of commands to properly partition the key, and format for the NTFS (did you know this stands for “New Technology File System”?). In succession, enter the following—and type carefully, Jimbo!

Select Disk # (where # is the number of your USB disk. We typed Select Disk 2 for this job)

Clean (this removes any existing partitions from the USB disk, including any hidden sectors)

Create Partition Primary (creates a new primary partition with default parameters)

Select Partition 1 (focuses operation on the newly created partition)

Active (sets the partition to active, informing the disk firmware that this is a valid system partition)

Format FS=NTFS (formats the partition with the NTFS file system. This may take several minutes to complete, depending on the size of your USB key)

Assign (this gives the USB drive a Windows volume and next available drive letter, which you should write down. In our case, drive “L” was assigned)

Exit (quits the DiskPart tool)

4. Copy Windows DVD to a Desktop Folder

Insert the Windows 7 installation DVD into your drive, and view the files that it contains. Copy all of the files to a folder on your Desktop. We put the disc contents in a folder named Windows 7.

5. Turn Your Key into a Bootable Device

Now, go back to your command prompt, running it as an Administrator. Using the CD command, navigate your way to the folder where you placed the Windows disk ISO files. Your command line path should look something like C:\Users\USERNAMEHERE\Desktop\Windows 7\ if you followed our lead on folder placement. Now type the following commands:

CD Boot (this gets you into the boot directory)

Bootsect.exe /nt60 L: (this assumes L is the drive letter assigned to your USB key from the previous step)

In case you’re wondering, Bootsect infuses boot manager–compatible code into your USB key to make it a bootable device. Also be aware that if you’re currently running 32-bit Windows Vista or 7, Bootsect will only work if you use the files from the 32-bit Windows 7 install disc. The Bootsect executable from the 64-bit version will not run in 32-bit Vista. Don’t forget it!

6. Load the USB Key with Your Install Files

Copy all of the extracted ISO files into the USB drive. You don’t need to do this from the command prompt. Just drag and drop the files from the Windows 7 folder into the USB drive using Windows Explorer. We also recommend copying your hardware drivers onto the same key so the installation wizard can find them.

Your USB key is now all ready to go! Plug it into your target system and make sure you enter the BIOS (typically by hitting F2 or F12) to temporarily change the boot order to allow booting from the USB key before your primary hard drive or optical drive. Now, when you plug the key into a machine, your system should automatically begin speedily downloading setup files off of the USB key and entering Windows 7 installation.

DEVON WORKS watches, Tread 1 Concept

2010-04-27T15:14:00.001-07:00

The new CONCEPT wristwatch from Devon Works with WIRELESS battery charging. The just announced timepiece is comprised of four 2-micron thin belts each operated by an individual microstep electric motor.

Next Version of Windows Home Server

2010-04-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

from Windows Home Server Blog by Dave Berkowitz

Many of you may already know that Microsoft has been hard at work on the next version of Windows Home Server. We are excited to announce today that the beta of this next version (code name “Vail”) is now available. We invite everyone to check it out by downloading the software from the Microsoft Connect site. (English language builds are available now). We are releasing this Vail beta with one express goal: to solicit yourfeedback!So what’s new and exciting in this next version? Although we’re still in the midst of development work (and things may change), we can say that Vail includes feature improvements in four key areas:Extending media streaming outside the home or officeMulti-PC backup and restoreSimplified setup and user experienceExpanded development and customization tools for partnersCheck out a short demo of some of the new features here.

Before we go too much further, however, we want to pass along a couple of very important hardware-related tips on installing the Vail Beta:

In Vail, we’re moving to a new underlying server platform that will only run as a 64-bit OS. We do not recommend running Vail on a 32-bit PC or existing Windows Home Server systems (even 64-bit Home Server systems) because there may be compatibility issues with some OEM drivers.
Since it is still in ‘beta,’ please install the Vail code on a secondary computer as opposed to existing Windows Home Server v1 OEM systems (not even 64-bit systems) If you do install the beta on an existing system, you may experience a number of problems, including the inability to run WHS v1 add-in applications (even those provided by OEMs). Installing on a secondary machine will help ensure the best possible user experience, and we would like your feedback on what this scenario is like.
Installation of the Vail OS on a PC will also require users to wipe all data from that PC or device.
The hardware requirements for Vail call for a 1.4 GHz x64 processor, 1 GB RAM, and at least one160 GB hard drive. Full details and additional requirements will be posted on the Microsoft Connect download site.

Also, if you are a developer, this beta includes a new software development kit (SDK) that gives developers and partners even more ways to customize the OS and add new functionality and services to Windows Home Servers. Download the SDK here.

So after you check out all of the great features in this public beta, you’ll probably want to know when the final version of Vail is going to ship. We’re not ready to discuss delivery dates yet. We want to ship the best possible product, and as that old commercial went (sort of), “we will ship no Windows Home Server before it’s time.”

Give Vail a test run today!

- Dave Berkowitz, Senior Communications Manager

A Tiny Apartment Transforms into 24 Rooms

2010-04-27T14:57:00.001-07:00

Axe showerpooling

2010-04-27T14:40:00.001-07:00

It's not just environmentally friendly, it's all kinds of friendly!

Highway to Hell - Ukrainian Folk Version

2010-04-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

Cloud computing

2010-04-27T06:44:00.000-07:00

• A standardized IT capability (services, software, or infrastructure) delivered via the Internet in a pay-per-use and self-service way.

Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like a public utility. It is a paradigm shift following the shift from mainframe to client–server that preceded it in the early 1980s. Details are abstracted from the users who no longer have need of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them. Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption and delivery model for IT services based on the Internet, and it typically involves the provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources as a service over the Internet. It is a byproduct and consequence of the ease-of-access to remote computing sites provided by the Internet.The term cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the cloud drawing used in the past to represent the telephone network, and later to depict the Internet in computer network diagrams as an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it represents. Typical cloud computing providers deliver common business applications online which are accessed from another web service or software like a web browser, while the software and data are stored on servers. Most cloud computing infrastructure consists of reliable services delivered through data centers and built on servers. Clouds often appear as single points of access for all consumers' computing needs. Commercial offerings are generally expected to meet quality of service (QoS) requirements of customers and typically offer SLAs.

Google Version 2.0 The Calculating Predator

2010-04-27T06:32:00.000-07:00

This is the first time someone has made a detailed study of the major patents held by Google and has extrapolated the company's possible business strategies. Traditionally, it has been difficult to get to grips with what Google is. The company is not specifically secretive; rather, it is unforthcoming about its aims, plans, strategies and ambitions. "Provide access to the world's knowledge" is about as focused an articulation of mission as one can get from the Google people. No big PR puffs; no in-depth briefings. And, from a quick outside perusal, the company seems to dabble in all sorts of technology areas and buy up all sorts of high-tech companies, which makes measuring progress or evaluating strategic orientation somewhat difficult.

Stephen Arnold, in this successor to "The Google Legacy", concentrates on analyzing Google's potential via a study of the company's intellectual property (patents). Google is a company of engineers and mathematicians, not a company of sales, promotion and legal wizards. Mathematics is the foundation of Google's wizardry and, as analysed by Arnold in this new study, the Googleplex is a wondrous construct that gives Google a major competitive advantage in a wide variety of possible fields: enterprise services and computing, web and enterprise search, publishing, banking, advertising, telecommunications. The Googleplex can crunch, analyse and extrapolate rapidly, intelligently and economically from extremely large quantities of data. The owners of such a machine can test and probe a variety of markets, and their existing base income from advertising gives them billions of dollars to use in their probes and explorations. "Innovation at Google is the fuel needed to power the Googleplex and to satisfy Google's hunger for ever more powerful, capable systems and software," explains Arnold. "Google, unlike Amazon or Yahoo, is built on mathematics, not engineering".

This major new study of Google concentrates on deriving information about the company from an analysis of its key patents. These patents are often difficult to discover, since Google rarely files under the Google name; an exhaustive hunt of some of the key Google technical staff is required in order to unearth many of the patents held by Google. "I have a keen awareness of Google's transformation from a search company to a digital Exxon or Wal*Mart," writes Stephen Arnold in the current study. "These are companies that operate at a scale that their competitors cannot easily match. If Google can continue its upward trajectory, it will emerge as a genetic variant of the multi-national corporation or what I call a supra-national enterprise."

Who should read this new analysis?

Google's potential is great, and The Googleplex is certainly not destined to remain an engine solely for crunching data in the fields of search and advertising.
The list of those who need to understand Google and its potential includes:

investment analysts, financial advisers
search and software developers
suppliers of corporate IT services and software
banking and financial companies
telecommunication suppliers
publishing and information industry strategists
government advisers and analysts

Link to file

http://www.norc.ro/

2009-02-08T12:47:00.001-08:00

http://www.norc.ro/

Adevarata Enciclopedie A Prezentului. Mic Tratat Pentru Generatia Tatuaj

2009-01-03T12:07:00.000-08:00

ALCOPOP - Industria spirtoaselor a avut ani de-a randul mari probleme sa-si atraga o clientela de varsta cat mai frageda. Dar tocmai grupa copiilor intre noua si doisprezece ani, cu un mare potential de cumparare, se lasa greu cucerita de spirtoase: "Papa, asa de rau ma arde whiskey-ul pe gat" era una din scuzele tipice cand micutul strengar nu-si bea paharelul pana la fund. Si atunci cineva a descoperit alcopopurile, cu adevarat potrivite pentru copii, deoarece sunt dulci si nu ard pe esofag.

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