Dozens of Philippine rivers destroyed by pollution: official

MANILA  ( 2008-04-02 13:00:25 ) : 

Fifty rivers in the Philippines have been destroyed because people are using them to dump their rubbish, leaving some ecologically dead, an official said on Wednesday.
Of the country's 421 major rivers and 20 large river basins, 50 are "highly degraded because of man's abuse and neglect," Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Joselito Atienza said in a statement.
"History tells us that rivers have played an important role in the country's economic growth. Yet, we have disregarded this and continue to dirty our rivers and lakes by turning them into giant septic tanks and trash bins," he added.
One of the ecologically dead rivers is the Pasig which bisects Manila. The government has been relocating thousands of squatters from its banks, but those who remain "continue to throw their domestic waste into the river," he said.
Atienza said 53 percent of the pollution in Philippine rivers is due to domestic waste.
"In the face of climate change, it is important that Filipinos should now adopt water conservation as a way of life," the official said, urging them to plant trees.
"Trees moderate water flows by absorbing large amounts of water during heavy rainfall and releasing it gradually during the dry season.

Malaysia's Mahathir urges PM Abdullah to resign

KUALA LUMPUR  ( 2008-04-01 15:54:35 ) : 

Veteran ex-leader Mahathir Mohamad on Tuesday urged Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to resign following disastrous election results.
Abdullah, president of the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), is facing increasing calls to quit from party leaders.
"I ask (Abdullah) to resign," the former prime minister, who ruled Malaysia for 22 years, told a gathering of at least 2,000 UMNO members.
The focus of the meeting was to analyse the March 8 election results but it turned out to be a platform to demand Abdullah's resignation.
UMNO members criticised Abdullah and the alleged influence son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin, who is a deputy leader of the powerful UMNO youth wing, has over him in decision-making.
"Anyone else would have already resigned but (Abdullah) has no shame," Mahathir, who picked Abdullah to succeed him October 2003, told a cheering crowd.
Mahathir said Abdullah had ignored the will of the people, while the veteran's son, Mukhriz, a lawmaker, echoed the call for Abdullah to go.
"To bring about (reform), the top leadership has to be held responsible. The prime minister must gracefully withdraw," Mukhriz said.
He urged UMNO members to speak out and not be intimidated.
"Be brave, if you love your country and speak out," he said. "We have been told to keep quiet but I ask you now to stand by my side."
Abdullah, 68, has claimed a mandate to rule despite unprecedented election losses, but observers say he is on borrowed time.
Senior lawmaker Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah had said he would challenge Abdullah's leadership if he received enough support.

Bush and Australian PM in talks to reinforce security links

 

WASHINGTON  ( 2008-03-28 10:16:11 ) : 

US President George W. Bush and Australia's new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd are set for talks on Friday expected to reinforce their security alliance despite Canberra's upcoming partial troop pullout from Iraq, officials said.
This is the first White House meeting for Rudd, who ousted Bush's friend and staunch Iraq war ally John Howard in November elections on the back of a pledge to pull 550 combat troops out of southern Iraq by the middle of the year.
Australia will still have about 1,000 military personnel in and around Iraq, including a 110-strong security detachment in Baghdad and personnel for aircraft and a warship based outside Iraq.
"The most important thing" is for the leaders to establish a good personal relationship and, in their public comments, to make it clear that bilateral ties are "strong and will endure under new leadership in Australia," said Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley ahead of the meeting.
Speaking to reporters, Hadley sidestepped a question on the prospect of US prodding Rudd on any further Australian troop deployment.
Hadley would only say, "Australia has been a terrific partner."
The longstanding US-Australian alliance is expected to come under severe test under the Rudd-led government after more than a decade of intimate ties during the stewardship of Howard, who had positioned Australia as among Washington's top three or four allies, experts say.
"Australia could become a more qualified or, in certain circumstances, even a reluctant actor in the American-led 'long war' against international terrorism," said a recent report by the Hawaii-based Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.
The Rudd government will push for multilateral regional security dialogues and mechanisms in Asia, said Australian National University professor William Tow, who was commissioned by the center to prepare the report.
This "may force the United States to adjust its own long standing bilateral security approaches in the region on such key issues as trade and arms control," he predicted.
Aside from Australia, the other US treaty allies in Asia are Japan, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines. Singapore, a strong supporter of US military presence in the region, allows American forces use of facilities in the island state.
Bush and Rudd had spoken on the phone earlier this month on the need to remain committed in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the importance of East Asian regional security, Bush spokesman Gordon Johndroe had said.
Australia has nearly 1,000 troops serving in the violence-ridden southern part of Afghanistan and has no immediate plans to add more troops.
Aside from security, Bush and Rudd are expected to discuss the turmoil in Tibet, climate change, and trade and investment issues as well as the upcoming Nato Summit in Bucharest, where the two leaders will be among participants, diplomats said.
Rudd would visit Beijing as part of his 17-day trip that would begin in Washington.
During his stay in Washington, he is scheduled to give a talk at the Brookings Institution and meet members of the US Chamber of Commerce to highlight the need to increase bilateral trade, officials said.
Both the countries have a four-year-old free trade agreement with two-way trade in goods and services totalling 44 billion dollars last year.
Among other officials, Rudd will also meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Chris Pirillo's Gnomepal - Drupal For The Masses

 

If you’ve tried working with open source CMS Drupal, and you’re not a full time developer, chance is you encountered problems. In fact, chance is that you completely gave up on it because it’s so damn complex; dozens of interdependent modules are needed for certain features, and not all modules are working well with the latest version of Drupal…in the end, you need to roll up your sleeves and dive into the code yourself, which is something not many are willing to do.

Chris Pirillo has a solution: he started a project which he calls Gnomepal (the name was announced on Twitter and is literally minutes old,) which should take Drupal and turn it into a CMS which is much easier to use and is modular in the sense that it offers readymade packages for various purposes; for example, a photo gallery, a Digg-like site and the like. This is a group effort; everyone that wants to participate can join in. Check out what Chris has to say about the idea himself.

While I do applaud Pirillo on a brave idea, I must say that it seems a bit too idealistic to me. Sure, everyone would like to have a great, powerful CMS which requires no programming knowledge, but it’s a very, very tough goal to achieve. You want proof? Just look at thousands of available CMS systems out there, and find the perfect one. That’s right, it doesn’t exist: if you want simplicity, you lose on power and features; if you want power and features, then there’s not way it’s going to be simple.

In any case, we’ll be watching, and hopefully we’ll have something more tangible to look at soon.

Consultation process over portfolios enters final phase

ISLAMABAD: The consultation process over formation of federal government, the allocation of ministries and portfolios has entered into final phase, the sources said.
In first phase the federal cabinet will comprise 22 to 23 members, said Ahmed Mukhtar of PPP while talking to newsmen outside Zardari House on Thursday.
He said that there were no differences among the coalition parties over the allocation of ministries and portfolios.
The phase of allocation of ministries and portfolios will be started after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani will get the vote of confidence on March 29, said Information Secretary of PPP Sherry Rehman.
Talking to newsmen here Sherry Rehman said that consultation with coalition partners over some issues was underway.
In first phase, the federal cabinet will comprise 22 members, she said.

Motorola to Split Into Two After Phone Sales Slide (Update5)

March 26  -- Motorola Inc. plans to split into two companies next year amid pressure from billionaire investor Carl Icahn to break off the money-losing mobile-phone business that it pioneered 25 years ago.

One company will focus on handsets and the other will sell network equipment, cable TV set-top boxes and two-way radios -- businesses that are profitable and growing faster. The board is looking for a new chief executive officer for the phone business, Motorola said in a statement today.

The decision buys time for Chief Executive Officer Greg Brown to revitalize the handset unit before the split. Icahn has said the division is undervalued and demanded that it be separated with new management. Before today, Motorola stock had fallen 56 percent in the past two years as customers snapped up phones from Apple Inc. and Nokia Oyj.

``If they had been forced to sell it off, shareholders would have been forced to accept a bargain basement price,'' said Richard Windsor, a Nomura International analyst in London who recommends holding on to the stock. The move is ``the one that makes the most sense for shareholders.''

Brown said on a conference call that he and Chief Financial Officer Paul Liskawill stay with the network equipment business. Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola said it wants the split to be a tax-free way to create two independent, publicly traded companies.

Stock Gains

Motorola rose 13 cents to $9.89 at 12:07 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Icahn didn't return a call seeing comment. He owns about 6 percent of Motorola's stock and is the No. 2 shareholder.

Motorola lost market share in phones last year after failing to come up with a hit successor to its Razr, which created the category of slim phones when it was introduced in 2004. The Razr, which initially sold for $500, lost its cachet. While all its main rivals boosted sales in the fourth quarter, Motorola's phone shipments plunged 38 percent.

The breakup will accelerate a recovery in the handset business and provide ``clarity of direction'' for customers and employees, Brown said. The company said on Jan. 31 that it would consider splitting off the unit.

`Unique Product'

``The Razr was so successful as a unique product that it masked a lot of the underlying problems,'' said Michael Walkley, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. in Minneapolis. ``Once Razr sales started to fade, their cost structure wasn't competitive, especially now that they don't have the right products for the market.''

Motorola would be valued at about $8 a share without the handset business, American Technology Research analyst Mark McKechnie in San Francisco said today in a note. Brown wouldn't comment on the market value of the phone unit.

``Each company would benefit from improved flexibility, a capital structure more tailored to its individual business needs and increased management focus,'' said Brown, who took over after Ed Zander stepped down at the start of the year.

He declined to comment on the effect on earnings or what will happen to the Motorola brand name. Motorola has shed businesses in tough times before, including its Freescale chip division in 2004.

Handset Losses

The handset business lost $388 million last quarter. The networks and set-top box unit had a profit of $192 million on 11 percent sales growth, while the unit making radios and scanners had a profit of $451 million and a 35 percent revenue increase.

Motorola made 19 acquisitions in two years to bolster the units. Its purchase of Symbol Technologies Inc. last year for $3.9 billion made it the biggest seller of handheld scanners with built-in computer features to track goods.

Apple stepped up competition in handsets with the introduction of its Web-browsing iPhone in June. The company sold 2.3 million of the devices in the holiday quarter. Motorola's Razr sequel sold 1.5 million units in that period.

``Software is becoming more important in the mobile-device business,'' Brown said in an interview, referring to applications such as Web browsing, mapping and music. ``We have traditionally been strong in design as a corporation and quite innovative. I think that innovation needs to extend itself into broader experiences and consumer applications.''

DynaTac

Motorola started selling the world's first commercial mobile phone, the DynaTac, in 1984, after gaining regulatory approval for the device the year earlier. It created the first prototype for the product in 1973.

The phone acquired further cachet in 1987, when fictional financier Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, used it to make deals in the movie ``Wall Street.''

In 1996, Motorola introduced the $1,000 StarTac, among the first handsets to flip fully open. After its appeal faded, the company lost its No. 1 position in 1998 to Nokia, whose candy- bar-shaped phones won over customers in Europe and Asia.

To revive sales, Motorola brought in Zander in 2004. He introduced the Razr later that year.

The device, which sold more than 110 million units, helped Motorola cement its position as the second-largest handset maker and fend off Asian competition until last year. Samsung Electronics Co. took over the No. 2 spot from Motorola in the second quarter with its sleek Sync and BlackJack devices. Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd. may steal the No. 3 position this year, demoting Motorola to fourth, analysts say.

Microsoft catches social networking religion. And most folks are wondering where Facebook will land in this mess. The larger question: Is there a business hook here somewhere?

Yup, I hear the crickets too.

Social networking remains a consumer thing. And to the blogosphere it’s an opportunity to work in a Mark Zuckerberg quip, toss in Google as a reference and navel gaze a bit about the “conversation.”

But there has to be a corporate use in here somewhere.

Tuesday’s news that Yahoo is supporting OpenSocial and Google is stepping away to assure “neutrality” and interconnect social apps is a big deal. OpenSocial can now forge ahead as a real standard. Meanwhile, Microsoft has also entered the social network standard game (boy this all sounds familiar after awhile) and launched its own initiative. The gory details are fortunately rounded up by Techmeme.

I can’t help but think that this neutral OpenSocial foundation is a good thing for the enterprise. Perhaps enterprise apps will hook into OpenSocial. Perhaps vendors–beyond Oracle and Salesforce.com–will flick to the effort. Perhaps corporations will become more social.

Until then, however, there isn’t much of a huge plan when it comes to businesses.

Last week, I spoke to Joe Kraus, Director of Product Management at Google, about the enterprise implications of OpenSocial. Even though OpenSocial will be “forever free and open” there’s a lot of work to do before this becomes even slightly interesting to the enterprise.

Among the highlights of my conversation with Kraus:

• Social networking is the new black. Most killer apps are social by nature–email, IM and photo sharing for instance. Companies have been slow to adopt these uses–beyond email of course.
• Social networking isn’t a destination site. It will branch out through the entire Web. How will corporations handle this branching out process?
• Enterprises will adopt social standards like OpenSocial to embed third party applications. The rub: “These applications will need policies around them,” says Kraus. Simply put, a lot of social applications are frivolous–throwing sheep, awarding virtual beers (what’s the point folks?) and poking people. Surely, there’s a business function here somewhere.
• How do you tighten up social applications? “Social applications are loose in consumer land,” says Kraus. “We expect them to become much tighter in enterprise land.”
• What’s the model? Consumer social applications are built around advertising. In the corporate world that model won’t fly. What exactly will corporations license?
• Whatever develops in the socialprise will begin with CRM. “Salesforce and Oracle both see the opportunity, but CRM is a social application to begin with,” says Kraus.

Spears delivers 'Mother's' highest ratings

A guest appearance by Britney Spears on Monday gave the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" its highest rating ever.
"Mother" spiked to a series high 4.5 preliminary rating among adults 18-49, even as the rest of the CBS comedy lineup fell from last week's record-setting return to original episodes.
Critics were relatively impressed. "Britney the Trainwreck showed how she can still be Britney the Performer," wrote the Associated Press. "Spears proved she can act every bit as well as she can sing," wrote the New York Daily News.
The second week of strong "Mother" ratings (10.6 million, 4.5/12) assures the one-time bubble comedy will be renewed for the fall. "Mother" was the fourth-highest-rated show of the evening, and CBS won the night (averaging 12.5 million, 4.4/11).
At 10 p.m., "CSI: Miami" was the first major broadcast network drama to return with post-strike original episodes. "Miami" easily won the 10 p.m. hour and outperformed its previous season average by 7% (15.8 million, 4.8/12).

2008 Workplace Resolutions

MICROSOFT ASSESSMENT & PLANNING BETA PROGRAM HAS CONCLUDED

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Solution Accelerator is an integrated platform with tools and guidance that make it easier for you to assess your current IT infrastructure and determine the right Microsoft technologies for your IT needs. It offers easy inventory, powerful assessment and actionable recommendations for Windows Server 2008, Windows Server Hyper-V, Virtual Server 2005 R2, Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid), System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Windows Vista, and 2007 Microsoft Office. The popular Windows Vista Hardware Assessment readiness tool will be integrated into this platform.
This automation tool helps IT professionals and consultants like you establish a clearer understanding of your infrastructure, desktop and virtualization needs through network-wide assessment of your assets including desktops, laptops, servers, applications and network devices. Actionable recommendations are provided through the auto-generated migration proposal reports and documents.
In addition, the new MAP user interface also offers a "resource center" where users can download other relevant tools and useful resources such as white papers and technical guidance from Microsoft and other sources from the IT community.

Australia cancels cricket team’s tour of Pakistan

SYDNEY: Australia’s newspapers have claimed that the Australian cricket team’s tour of Pakistan has been cancelled. However, if the ICC investigates the security arrangements in Pakistan through independent sources then there may be any chance of the tour.

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'Idol' Shocker! Another Truth Bared!

Aparticipant in a CBS competition series once worked as a stripper at a club in New York City, performing for its mostly male clientele!

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Crews to Move 9/11 Survivors Staircase

NEW YORK -- Tom Canavan saw the stairs through the smoke after tunneling out of debris that buried him when the World Trade Center's south tower collapsed. The sun fell on a section of gold awning that led him down the stairs to safety on a nearby street.

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Even in Victory, Clinton Team Is Battling Itself

For the bruised and bitter staff around Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Tuesday's death-defying victories in the Democratic presidential primaries in Ohio and Texas proved sweet indeed. They savored their wins yesterday, plotted their next steps and indulged in a moment of optimism. 'She won't be st...

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Money rates firm; rupee flat

In the currency market, the rupee was flat at 62.86/89, compared with Tuesday’s close of 62.86/90.

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ANP crowned, MMA dethroned in Frontier

The Feb 18 general elections have rendered severe blows to some parties like PML(Q) and MMA or more precisely JUI(F) and the election results were something of a gust of a pleasant wind for some other parties like PPPP, PML(N) and ANP.

read more | digg story

The closure of roads in Bara and Jamrud tehsils

armed followers of Ameer Mangal Bagh Afridi's Khyber Agency-based Lashkar-i-Islam

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Taliban and US in race to woo future govt

Does the latest announcement by the spokesman for the Taliban movement to end the unilaterally announced ceasefire in tribal areas, after accusing the government of targeting their people, indicate that the Taliban consider themselves out of the undeclared race with the US to woo the future government in Pakistan?

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Egypt was trying to persuade Hamas to accept a truce

Deputies of Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman met with officials from the Islamic militant Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad in the city of el-Arish in the Sinai peninsula, security officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to discuss activities of the intelligence services.

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Blast hits recruiting center on Times Square

NEW YORK - A small bomb caused minor damage to an empty military recruiting station in Times Square early Thursday, shaking guests in hotel rooms high above "the crossroads of the world."

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Troop depression on rise in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON - U.S. troop morale improved in Iraq last year, but soldiers fighting in Afghanistan suffered more depression as violence there worsened, an Army mental health report says.

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Hot Clip of a Hot Item: Penn + Petra

We hit you with scoop of this new couple earlier, but play the video above to get an even more intimate look at love in bloom. As in, the night's Best New Item Sean Penn and Petra Nemcova leaving Elton John's Oscar party to a flurry of flashbulbs, in the wee hours.

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Christian Makes for Fierce Runway Finale

"It's crazy, but, hello, did you have a doubt?"So opined the self-proclaimed obvious winner of the fourth season of Project Runway, 21-year-old Christian Siriano, whose final collection of neutral-toned, extravagantly detailed and slightly androgynous couture proved to be just the effort the outspoken designer.

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FBI admits it violated Americans' private records in 2006

WASHINGTON - The FBI acknowledged Wednesday it improperly accessed Americans' telephone records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006, the fourth straight year of privacy abuses resulting from investigations aimed at tracking terrorists and spies.

read more | digg story

Can Colombia cross into Ecuador in hot pursuit of rebels?

In what was labeled a "hot pursuit" mission, Colombian forces crossed into Ecuador and killed more than a dozen FARC guerrillas March 1.

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Comparison of headspace GC sensitivity depending on dilution

This application note details a study in which Class 3 solvents — water, DMSO and DMF — were analyzed by headspace GC using DMI as the dilution solvent. Researchers found that there were no components that could achieve a particularly good sensitivity when using DMI, compared to when using other dilution solvents.

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Pakistani court clears ‘corrupt’ Bhutto widower

The move could improve relations between Pakistan's U.S.-backed president and the party set to lead its new government.

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China's Military Budget Reported at $59 Billion

BEIJING, March 4 -- China announced Tuesday that it will again sharply increase its military spending this year, budgeting a 17.6 percent rise that is roughly equal to last year's increase.

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Live Video Coverage

Breaking News Live Video Editor's Note: You may receive an error message or color bars and a tone in between live feeds. Due to the nature of live events, you may need to reload this page, press the play button to start the video feed or wait a few moments until the video begins.

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CHAIRMAN JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF, US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Admiral Michael Mullens, Chairman Joint chiefs of Staff, US Department of Defense, called on President Pervez Musharraf in Rawalpindi here today.

read more | digg story

Russia, China block UN Iran resolution

VIENNA: Russia and China on Tuesday scuttled a Western attempt to introduce a resolution on Iran's nuclear defiance at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, diplomats said.

The decision appeared to be the result of lingering unhappiness by the two world powers about not being informed earlier of plans for such a resolution.

It came a day after the U.N. Security Council imposed another round of sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. Iran defiantly vowed to continue its nuclear program, which it insists is aimed only at generating power.

Moscow on Monday had threatened not to back the new U.N. sanctions against Iran unless the West gave up its IAEA resolution plans.

Then on Tuesday it signaled that it was ready to back such a document if it was given substantial input in drafting it before deciding later in the day that it was against it after all, said the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was confidential.

Asked why Russia and China were opposed, one of diplomats said Moscow decided to withdraw its support "on principle" and Beijing, which often takes a cue from Russia on the Iran nuclear dispute, followed suit.

A senior Western diplomat said the decision to scrap plans for a resolution was jointly taken by the six powers taking the lead on engaging Iran on its nuclear program — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

He said the six felt that new U.N. Security Council sanctions passed Monday to punish Iran had sent enough of a message.

Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker - All Promotions: Chris Ferguson Challenge

Track Team Full Tilt Poker Pro Chris Ferguson’s progress as he works his way from $0 to $10,000. Watch for daily updates of the Challenge.

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Vista Capable sticker lawsuit gets class-action status

It looks like that little lawsuit over "Vista Capable" stickers on PCs could now be about to get quite a bit bigger, as a federal judge has now bestowed class-action status on the suit, which accuses Microsoft of misleading marketing. More specifically, as the AP reports, the suit alleges that the "Vista Capable" stickers slapped on PCs during the 2006 holiday season created an "artificial demand" for the computers, and "inflated prices for computers that couldn't be upgraded to the full-featured version of Vista." As we've seen, those stickers even took in at least one higher-up at Microsoft itself, who has made his thoughts on the program quite well known. While things are still obviously in the early stages, the law firm that filed the suit is now looking for others that feel they've been burned by the stickers, and ComputerWorld has the details on you can get involved at the link below.

Anxiety rises on Delta-Northwest deal

Delta (DAL) and Northwest Airlines (NWA) still can’t get together. The carriers are close to agreeing on a merger, but plans continue to be hung up on the question of pilot seniority, The Wall Street Journal reports. Pilots at the two carriers can’t agree on a formula for determining how their ranks will be combined. The standoff, which stems from pilot anxiety about career advancement — no one wants to get stuck flying regional jets — caused top execs at the two companies to break their silence on the talks. Northwest said for the first time that it is “prepared to consider positively a transaction” that’s good for workers, investors and passengers. Delta, engaging in a bit of posturing, told workers in a memo that no “potential transaction meets all our principles” at the moment.

The waiting is making Wall Street anxious. Investors have sent shares in Delta and Northwest down 14 percent since Feb. 7, when a deal appeared imminent. Still, observers expect the merger to happen, because a combined carrier would be more robust in the face of rising energy prices and tough competition. “We will eventually get an agreement,” airline consultant Julius Maldutis tells Bloomberg television. He says that despite the problems now, he expects to see a merger announced “over the next several days.”

World powers mull changes to Iran nuclear offer

BRUSSELS: World powers are mulling whether to reformulate an offer to Iran to persuade it to suspend uranium enrichment, even as they discuss new UN sanctions, an EU diplomat said Wednesday.
"The package of incentives for Iran could be repackaged to make it more attractive, but that does not mean we are going to add things to it," he added.
On Monday, officials from the major powers -- UN Security Council permanent members the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia, plus Germany -- discussed a new report on Iran's nuclear activities and possible next steps.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has, for more than 18 months, been trying to persuade the Islamic republic to suspend uranium enrichment in exchange for a vast package of political, trade and economic incentives.
As he held out this diplomatic carrot however, pressure has mounted at the UN Security Council, which has slapped two sets of sanctions on Iran and is in the process of preparing a third.
Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.

Follow the Leader

The New York Times and USA Today lead with new national polls that show voters think Sen. Barack Obama has a better shot at beating Sen. John McCain. In both polls Obama beat out Sen. Hillary Clinton by a significant margin for the first time (extra credit goes to the NYT for mentioning USAT's survey). In the NYT/CBS poll, 54 percent of Democratic voters said they would want to see Obama nominated compared to 38 percent who preferred Clinton, while the USAT/Gallup poll shows a 51-39 percent lead for Obama. USAT's poll shows Republicans agree with Democrats that McCain would have an easier time if he were to face off against Clinton.

The Los Angeles Times leads with a plan by Senate Democrats to change the bankruptcy law in order to give judges the authority to change the terms of a mortgage. Under the terms being discussed, a judge would be able to reduce a mortgage or its related interest rates, during bankruptcy proceedings. The country's lenders, largely backed by Republicans, are deeply against this proposal and contend that it would force them to increase mortgage rates in order to cover the added risk. "If this proposal becomes law, it will amount to a new tax on homeowners," the chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association said. The Wall Street Journal leads its world-wide newsbox with the suicide bomber that assassinated a top Pakistani Army general in a day that saw the first major outburst of violence since the elections. He was the most senior military officer to be assassinated in recent times. The Washington Post leads locally but off-leads a look at how Obama's rise is due in large part to his speeches and general oratory skills, which is opening up a new line of attack from his opponents. Not since Franklin D. Roosevelt "has a presidential candidate been propelled so much by the force of words," says the Post.

Polaroid To Abandon Instant Film Products

Polaroid Corp., which introduced its first instant camera in 1948, is officially getting out of the instant film business, announcing today that once it produced enough film to last through 2009 it would shutter its last facility that makes the iconic develop-as-you-watch prints.
Like other companies long successful and entrenched in the film-making business, Polaroid has had its ups and downs in the digital age. It filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2001 as it tried to pursue a digital imaging future and was acquired by a private investment firm called the Petters Group in 2005. They stopped making instant film cameras for consumers a year ago.
As a result of this latest decision, the company is closing two production facilities in Massachusetts and laying off about 150 workers.
Now the company's name and famous logo appears on digital cameras, photo printers, and even LCD TVs. Its inkless digital photo printer introduced at CES has captured some early praise, although the market for home photo printers is uncertain.

Yahoo Board to Spurn $44B Microsoft Bid

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Yahoo Inc.'s board will reject Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6 billion takeover bid after concluding the unsolicited offer undervalues the slumping Internet pioneer, a person familiar with the situation said Saturday.
The decision could provoke a showdown between two of the world's most prominent technology companies with Internet search leader Google Inc. looming in the background. Leery of Microsoft expanding its turf on the Internet, Google already has offered to help Yahoo avert a takeover and urged antitrust regulators to take a hard look at the proposed deal.
If the world's largest software maker wants Yahoo badly enough, Microsoft could try to override Yahoo's board by taking its offer - originally valued at $31 per share - directly to the shareholders. Pursuing that risky route probably will require Microsoft to attempt to oust Yahoo's current 10-member board.
Alternatively, Microsoft could sweeten its bid. Many analysts believe Microsoft is prepared to offer as much as $35 per share for Yahoo, which still boasts one of the Internet's largest audiences and most powerful advertising vehicles despite a prolonged slump that has hammered its stock.
Yahoo's board reached the decision after exploring a wide variety of alternatives during the past week, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press. The person didn't want to be identified because the reasons for Yahoo's rebuff won't be officially spelled out until Monday morning.
Microsoft and Yahoo declined to comment Saturday on the decision, first reported by The Wall Street Journal on its Web site.
Yahoo's board concluded Microsoft's offer is inadequate even though the company couldn't find any other potential bidders willing to offer a higher price.
Without other suitors on the horizon, Yahoo has had little choice but to turn a cold shoulder toward Microsoft if the board hopes to fulfill its responsibility to fetch the highest price possible for the company, said technology investment banker Ken Marlin.
"You would expect Yahoo's board to reject Microsoft at first," Marlin said. "If they didn't, they would be accused of malfeasance."
But by spurning Microsoft, Yahoo risks further alienating shareholders already upset about management missteps that have led to five consecutive quarters of declining profits.
The downturn caused Yahoo's stock price to plummet by more than 40 percent, erasing about $20 billion in shareholder wealth, in the three months leading up to Microsoft's bid.
Seizing on an opportunity to expand its clout on the Internet, Microsoft dangled a takeover offer that was 62 percent above Yahoo's stock price of just $19.18 when the bid was announced Feb. 1. Yahoo shares ended the past week at $29.20.
Led by company co-founder and board member Jerry Yang, Yahoo now will be under intense pressure to lay out a strategy that will prevent its stock price from collapsing again. What's more, Yang and the rest of the management team must convince Wall Street that they can boost Yahoo's market value beyond Microsoft's offer.
Yahoo's shares traded at $31 as recently as November, but have eroded steadily amid concerns about the slowing economy and frustration with the slow pace of a turnaround that Yang promised last June when he replaced former movie studio mogul Terry Semel as Yahoo's chief executive officer.
This isn't the first time that Yahoo has spurned Microsoft. The Redmond, Wash.-based company offered $40 per share to buy Yahoo a year ago only to be shooed away by Semel, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person didn't want to be identified because that bid was never made public.
Yahoo now may want that Microsoft to raise its price to at least $40 per share again. That would force Microsoft to raise its current offer by about $12 billion - a high price that might alarm its own shareholders.
Microsoft's stock price already has slid 12 percent since the company announced its Yahoo bid, reflecting concerns about the deal bogging down amid potential management distractions, sagging employee morale and other headaches that frequently arise when two big companies are combined.
Although it isn't involved directly in the deal, Google is the main reason Yahoo is being pursued by Microsoft.
Yahoo has struggled largely because it hasn't been able to target online ads as effectively as Google.
Microsoft believes Yahoo's brand, engineers, audience and services will provide the company with valuable weapons in its so far unsuccessful attempt to narrow Google's huge lead in the lucrative Internet search and advertising markets.
As it examined ways to thwart Microsoft, Yahoo considered an advertising partnership with Google - an alliance long favored by analysts who believe it would boost the profits of both companies. It was unclear Saturday if Yahoo's plans for boosting its stock price include a Google partnership, which would probably face antitrust issues.
A Microsoft takeover of Yahoo would also be scrutinized by antitrust regulators in the United States and Europe. The antitrust uncertainties could be cited as one of the reasons that Yahoo's board decided to spurn Microsoft.

Vista SP1 - Day 1

Although the code has been finalized, Windows Vista users won’t start to get their hands for a few weeks. I’ve been fortunate to be sent the SP1 installer files, along with a complete copy of Vista with SP1 integrated into it. It’s time to fire up a test system and see what happens.
Given the fact that my ZDNet blogging colleague George Ou had some pretty negative experiences with installing SP1 (one machine seems to have eaten a dirt sandwich, which another is ill after having taken a few bites) I demonstrated great restraint in not throwing caution to the wind and installing the update straight onto my main work system. Instead I chose a test system that’s reserved for these kinds of things.
For those interested in such things, here’s the spec of the system:

On Monday the 4th of February Microsoft announced that Windows Vista Service Pack 1 had been released to manufacturing.

* Pentium 950D processor (3.4GHz)
* 4GB of RAM
* 250GB Maxtor hard drive
* 32-bit Windows Vista Ultimate
This system scores a 4.5 on the Windows Experience Index. The Windows Vista installation on this system is relatively fresh and the system is very reliable when in use at present. The system in up-to-date on all patches.

Installation

For this first test I decided to apply SP1 to the existing installation - the way that most people will be taking their SP1 pill. I carried out no preparatory work prior to installing SP1 (that would be cheating). The installation was carried out off the CD that I was sent by Microsoft.
I can report that the installation went without a hitch. The process took 52 minutes (from running starting to run the installer to getting back to a usable Windows desktop). The system rebooted five (yes, you read that right, 5) times.

Pak counters US report; nukes safe

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Ministry Wednesday rejected a US intelligence report that "vulnerabilities exist" in the military's control of its nuclear weapons. The report in its annual threat assessment said the situation in the country had "not seriously threatened the military's control of the nuclear arsenal, but vulnerabilities exist."

Foreign ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq said there should be no concern. "Pakistan's nuclear assets are safe. There should be no cause for concern over hypothetical scenarios which have zero probability," he told a weekly briefing.

He also rejected criticisms in the Western media of Pakistan's record in tackling militancy. "What Pakistan has done to counter the challenge of al-Qaeda and terrorism is well known. We do not need to repeat that. Pakistan has given more sacrifices than any other country in this war," he said.

Answering a question on the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project, the spokesman said the negotiations on the project were under way. He said there were reports that Indian minister will visit Iran but later it was rescheduled and now Pakistan is also waiting fresh date for the visit.

Regarding reduction in the bus or train service between Pakistan and India, the spokesman said a meeting between the officials of the two countries will be held on February 13 and 14 only to merge non-commercial routes, adding that there is no plan to reduce the bus service.

Answering a question about any observer from Israel, the spokesman said, as Pakistan has no diplomatic relations with Israel, therefore, there is no possibility to receive any observer from that country.

To a query about denying visa to members of International Republican Institute (IRI), the spokesman clarified that visa of some of the officials working in Pakistan was going to expire but after the elections, therefore, there is no question of denying visa to any member of the IRI.

The spokesman said as Pakistan's membership to Commonwealth is suspended, therefore, there is no question of any observer from Commonwealth.

To a question, he said the government has issued visas to over 500 observers from different countries to observe the election being held on February 18 and not a single visa to any observer has been refused.

"About 500 foreign observers from different countries including USA and EU requested visa, for the forthcoming general elections and their requests have been processed and issued visas," said Muhammad Sadiq.

The spokesman giving details of the foreign observers said European Union has increased the number of its observers from 70 to 110 while Democracy International of USA has also been sending 35 observers while four observers are from OIC.

When Information Isn't Enough

Hackers and cybercriminals are not just interested in stealing your personal information; they want control of your computers as well. Attackers may use "zombies", which are viruses that gain remote access and control of personal computers, to make a large number of PCs work together to form a "botnet". If attackers had to pay for the networking resources required to generate the amount of spam and phishing attacks they create, it would be costly. By gaining control over a large number of individual PCs, without the users' knowledge, cybercriminals save money and mask their identities. Cybercriminals then use the botnets to distribute spyware, spread viruses, attack networks, and scam computer users with spam and phishing attacks that are designed to get victims to give up their credit card, banking and other personal information.

Common Sense Internet Safety for Your Family

As a parent, you have the opportunity to limit and even control the type of exposure your family encounters through the Internet.

First, decide what types of site you would like your children to visit and those you would like to avoid. Bookmark for your children those sites that you find are appropriate for their age and interests. Talk to your children about why you feel some sites are inappropriate. For example, some sites may ask for personal information that similar sites do not. Explain to your children why it’s important to be cautious about giving out personal information. Also, if you feel it’s ok for your children to engage in social networking sites, monitor their pages and offer suggestions that will help them steer clear of schemers and other criminals.

Like so many Internet risks these days, zombie PCs represent a complex threat.

Cybercriminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are utilizing a variety of nefarious tools and tricks to do their dirty work. As mentioned earlier, one common vector of infection is via an infected email attachment, which, if not detected and removed by your anti-virus protection, can lead to a zombie infection. Here's how it might happen - opening an infected email attachment can install the malicious software, which can then open a port on your PC (if not protected by a firewall) to allow a hacker to utilize it to send or infect your PC with spyware (if not protected by anti-spyware software).

See the Print

When you go to print something, you probably go to File, Print, choose all of the settings you want and then click on the Print button to get the process going, am I right? Well, what if your print job is going to take a long time? You don't want to have to sit there and wait on it, do you? But then again, when you come back, wouldn't it be nice to be able to check the status of it? If that sounds good to you, there is a way to do it. Here's how!

Once you click on the final Print button that gets everything going, an icon will appear in the bottom right hand corner of your taskbar (the same place where the clock icon sits). You can then double click on that icon to see the progress of your print job. The icon looks like this (only much smaller), depending on the kind of printer you happen to have:

how to change a file extension

file extensions are a big part of our computing lives and every file we work with has its own special extension and format. So, if you've ever needed to change an extension and you're not sure how to do it, keep reading to find out!

First, let's go over some examples. You may have even experienced these before. Maybe you have a document that is in an .htm (HTML) format, but you'd like to view it under a .txt (text) extension. Or, maybe one of your friends e-mailed you a picture, but instead of it being a JPEG format like you're used to, it was sent as a GIF or maybe even as a PDF. So, how can you change those to be the formats you want? It's pretty easy, so let's get to it!

First, you need to make sure your system is set up to allow file extension changes. To check on that, go to your Start menu, choose Run, type in "explorer" (without the quotes) and click OK. Once the new window opens, go to the Tools menu and click on Folder Options. Next, choose the View tab and find the option that says "Hide extensions for known file types." Make sure that is unchecked and then click OK. Now, you're all set!

Next, go to the file you want to change, right click on it and choose Rename. You can then rename the file with the new extension you prefer. Once you're done, just hit the Enter key on your keyboard and it will be saved. Then you can go and open the file again, but this time, it will be the way you want it!

Why Am I Back There Again?

Have you ever scrolled a long way through an MS Excel worksheet and, while you were looking around, hit an arrow key to move? If so, you found yourself right back where you started, didn't you?

What happened?

I mean, you were a hundred lines down and now you're right back at the top.

Don't panic! You're not hallucinating, the program isn't malfunctioning and you didn't do anything wrong.

Here's the deal: Scrolling (with either the scroll bars or the mouse wheel) is simply changing the view on the screen, but not actually selecting new cells.

In fact, if you pay attention to the selected cell outline, you'll find that it scrolls out of sight, staying right where it was.

So, when you hit an arrow key (or the Enter key), you take the selection of the original cell and move it only one cell away. The program then zips the view back to the cell you just selected, giving you the sense that something went wrong.

If you want to select a cell in the current view, you'll need to use your mouse to select it. That will keep the view right where you put it.

On the other hand, you could use this to your advantage to "take a look around" while scrolling. You can then hit an arrow key to zoom right back to the location you left, completely skipping having to scroll back!

Either way, now you know what's going on and you'll hopefully find Excel's movements a little less mystifying

Creating E-mail Folders

Do you receive countless e-mails on a daily basis? Are some of those e-mails interesting, important or just something you would like to come back to later? If so, wouldn't you like to categorize them, without having to mark them as Old, Keep As New, Unmark, Unread, etc.? Or, what if you accidentally deleted some of them? Or, even worse, lose them. I mean, who has time to deal with all of that?!

Well, now you can make new folders to manage and organize all of your e-mails. That way, you won’t have to flood your Inbox and all your other folders with uncategorized e-mail. Cool, huh?!

For instance, I made a folder called "WorldStart" for all of their articles and updates. I put all of the articles and newsletters I receive from WorldStart in that folder. That way, I don’t have to go searching for them in all of my other e-mail folders. I can go right to that folder and find everything I need. It’s all in one place! So, if that sounds like something you'd like to do as well, keep reading. Below you will find instructions on how to do that in AOL, Yahoo! and Gmail. Okay, let's get started!

Movie Organizer

I have some great news for everyone who regularly checks out these weekly download articles! This week's just so happens to be a program that helps you organize all of the movies you may have on disk (for example, CD/DVD-R/RW). To be honest, I never really thought about using a program like this until I took a phone call here at the office from someone looking for a piece of software that could organize their movie collection.

My first thought was to just use MS Excel or even a text document program, but my thoughts were really basic in ways of organizing those records. I didn't realize there was software out there that does an outstanding job at this very thing. And better yet, it's all free!

The program is called Movie Organizer and it's from a company called OXD. Basically, it's a database with tons of categories to help you organize your media. Movie Organizer gives you, the user, a mind blowing number of categories and fields in which to input information about your media. You can even go out to MOOD (Movie Organizer Online Database) and download information about your movies to include with it.

You don't need to save the input data to the same database either. You can create a new database for any specific needs you have. All of the editable fields and databases also make the Movie Organizer very searchable. In fact, you can add search criteria to help you narrow down your search.

Here's an example of how this tailored search works. Say you want to find all the movies with John Candy in them. You would start by opening the Search menu, go to Search, select "actor" from the pull down menu in the searchable field and type in Mr. Candy's name. The search will look through that category to find all the John Candy movies and put them in a list.

Seasoning Mixes

You should know by now that I’m always looking for new recipes! Well, I happened to run across this Web site that is full of seasoning mix recipes and I just couldn’t wait to share it with all of you. I am a huge fan of seasoning mixes. From the pre-made pot roast mixes to my favorite poultry seasoning, nothing can make me happier than having a new seasoning mix to test out in my kitchen!

Navigation on this site is super simple! The entire page is basically an index. All you have to do is click on the name of the seasoning mix you want the recipe for and you will be taken to its page. There you will find the recipe and a link that directs you back to the main index of seasoning mixes.

I was surprised to see Colonel Sanders secret herbs and spices, KFC's chicken seasoning mix, Taco Bell's meat seasoning, several Emeril spice mixes and Mrs. Dash’s table seasoning here. I’m really itching to try them and see how they compare!

I was also very excited to see that there were two recipes a piece for Herbs de Provence and poultry seasoning. I know Poultry Seasoning 2 is very close to the one I love. Also, I just got a brand new spice rack for Christmas and I’ve been dying to test it out!

I also urge you to check out the vanilla sugar recipe! They provide two ways of making it: with vanilla extract and vanilla beans. Plus, you can use the extract version to make lemon sugar, almond sugar or even mint sugar, all of which are great in teas, baked goods and even icing.

I think you're sure to find a seasoning mix here that you will like. Whether you want to try new things or need to make a filler mix, because you ran out of your favorite seasoning, it's all here.

Infrastructure Planning and Design Guides

The Infrastructure Planning & Design guides are the next version of Windows Server System Reference Architecture. This series aims to clarify and streamline design processes for Microsoft infrastructure technologies, each addressing a unique infrastructure technology or scenario. These guides compliment product documentation by exposing and focusing on infrastructure design options
Released guides in series include:
Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization delivers applications that are never installed, yet securely follow users anywhere, on demand. It dramatically improves IT efficiencies, enables much greater business agility, and provides a superior end-user desktop experience. This guide enables you to plan the infrastructure required for meeting your application virtualization service goals.
Selecting the Right Virtualization Technology  guide helps you learn which Microsoft virtualization technology or technologies you should use for specific customer scenarios and then leverage the appropriate IPD guides.
Windows Server Virtualization (for Windows Server 2008 virtualization and Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1) guide discusses how to plan your customers' server virtualization environment by determining requirements for the guest operating systems, applications, and services; capacity and performance requirements; and overall planning and design issues.

Harnessing the Power of Virtualization for Dynamic IT

The potential for information technology to drive business success has never been greater. Advances in software, devices, and networks are transforming the way companies streamline communications, automate processes, and enable employees to access the information and capabilities they need to respond to new opportunities.

At the same time, the complexity of IT has never been higher. Business success increasingly depends on providing mobile employees with easy access to corporate computing resources. People who use instant messaging, social networking sites, and other relatively new communications technologies at home expect to use similar tools at work.

The result is a growing number of contradictory requirements: ease of access vs. security and compliance; performance vs. cost; innovation and agility vs. reliability and continuity. For IT professionals, the real challenge is resolving the tension inherent in trying to create an infrastructure that provides both the flexibility to enable employees to drive business success and the control to protect corporate resources, maintain compliance, and provide continuity.

Helping companies find the right balance is one of Microsoft's most important priorities. To do that, we are focused on technology innovation that will enable companies to build systems that have the flexibility and intelligence to automatically adjust to changing business conditions by aligning computing resources with strategic objectives. This is a vision we call Dynamic IT. Virtualization technologies that provide powerful new tools for creating more efficient, flexible, and cost effective IT systems will provide a critical foundation for bringing this new vision to life.

In previous executive emails, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer discussed advances that are revolutionizing communications, improving productivity, and transforming the way companies use information. Because you are a subscriber to executive emails from Microsoft, I want to share my thoughts about virtualization with you. As senior vice president of Microsoft's Server and Tools Business, I know that virtualization is helping IT departments reduce costs and improve business continuity and compliance, and I believe that over the long term, it will have a significant impact on the way businesses run IT. It is still early for this important technology--ultimately, virtualization will play an important role in improving business agility by making IT systems more flexible and more responsive to changing business needs.

Understanding Virtualization

Virtualization is an approach to deploying computing resources that isolates different layers--hardware, software, data, networks, storage--from each other. Typically today, an operating system is installed directly onto a computer's hardware. Applications are installed directly onto the operating system. The interface is presented through a display connected directly to the local machine. Altering one layer often affects the others, making changes difficult to implement.

By using software to isolate these layers from each other, virtualization makes it easier to implement changes. The result is simplified management, more efficient use of IT resources, and the flexibility to provide the right computing resources, when and where they are needed.

There are different types of virtualization. Machine virtualization uses software to create a virtual machine that emulates the services and capabilities of the underlying hardware. This makes it possible to run more than one operating system on a single machine. On servers, this approach is called server virtualization; on end-user PCs, it is called desktop virtualization.

Application virtualization separates the application from the operating system, reducing conflicts between applications, which can simplify deployments and upgrades. Presentation virtualization enables an application on a computer in one location to be controlled by a computer in another.

There is also storage virtualization, which lets users access applications and data without having to worry about where they are stored. And network virtualization allows remote users to tap into a company network as if they were physically connected.

Virtualization is not new. IBM first introduced virtual machine technology for mainframe computers in the early 1960s. Microsoft Windows NT included a virtual DOS machine. Virtual PC was introduced by Connectix in 1997 (Microsoft acquired Connectix in 2003). EMC's VMware introduced its first product, VMware Workstation, in 1999. Softricity introduced SoftGrid, the first application virtualization product, in 2001 (Microsoft acquired Softricity in 2006).

Currently, industry analysts estimate that fewer than 10 percent of servers are virtualized, despite the fact that virtualization has been around for many years. But its significance is growing as companies have introduced products that target today's high-volume, low-cost hardware. Now, more and more companies are using server virtualization to save money by consolidating the workload of several servers onto a single machine.

Virtualization: A Foundation for Dynamic IT

As important as server virtualization can be in reducing costs, saving money is just the beginning of the value that virtualization offers. At Microsoft, we believe that virtualization will play a significant role in enabling companies to create IT systems that are not only highly efficient, but that have the self-awareness to adapt automatically as business conditions change.

By separating the layers of the computing stack, a virtualized IT environment makes it possible to quickly deploy new capabilities without having to configure components. In a virtualized environment, testing requirements and application compatibility issues are reduced, processes are easier to automate, and disaster recovery is easier to implement.

In the data center, virtualization not only supports server consolidation, but it enables workloads to be added and moved automatically to precisely match real-time computing needs as demand changes. This provides greater agility, better business continuity, and more efficient use of resources.

On the desktop, application virtualization reduces management costs. And when the operating system, applications, data, and user preferences are all virtualized, it makes it possible for users to access the computing resources they need anywhere, from any machine. The result is tremendous flexibility for employees and greater efficiency and agility for IT departments.

The Importance of Integrated Management

In a virtualized environment, a comprehensive management approach that provides the ability to monitor and track physical and virtual resources becomes critical. To achieve Dynamic IT, management solutions must also provide the foundation for automating the allocation of resources as business conditions change. It is the combination of virtualization technologies running across computing layers and orchestrated by a single set of management tools that provides the foundation for Dynamic IT.

Microsoft System Center delivers management software that enables IT professionals to manage all of their computing resources--both virtual and physical. System Center provides provisioning, monitoring, and back-up tools for virtual and physical environments across desktops and servers, and operating systems and applications. System Center enables companies to capture information about their infrastructure, policies, processes, and best practices so they can automate operations, reduce costs, and improve application availability.

Dynamic IT from the Server to the Desktop

Although virtualization has been around for more than four decades, the software industry is just beginning to understand the full implications of this important technology. Server virtualization to consolidate multiple machines into a single server is the most common form of virtualization in use today but it is still very early in the adoption cycle. At Microsoft, we believe that in the coming years, sever virtualization will become ubiquitous. Adoption of other forms of virtualization is just beginning, too, and their potential value remains largely untapped.

To help make this valuable technology more accessible, Microsoft is delivering innovations that make virtualization more affordable and less complex. We also are actively working with industry partners to develop new products and services that will unlock the power of virtualization for companies of all sizes.

Already, virtualization products from Microsoft and our partners are helping companies match computing capabilities to business needs. Imagine, for example, if your employees could access their personalized desktop, with all of their settings and preferences intact, on any machine, from any location. Or if workloads running on the servers in your data center automatically redeployed to respond to a sudden surge in demand for a specific capability. Or if your entire infrastructure could restore itself instantly following a catastrophic power outage.

Today, using existing Microsoft technologies, these Dynamic IT scenarios are already possible. Tomorrow, they will be the norm as we continue to bring new innovations in virtualization and systems management to market that help companies build truly dynamic infrastructures, from the server to the desktop.

Paid URL Inclusion

There are many ways to promote your website and one of the
most efficient ways is to use search engines. Search
engines are the first stop for most people trying to find
information, services, and products online. Because of
this, it is essential that your website appears quickly in
search results.
The Internet contains numerous search engines, some of
which offer what is known as "paid inclusion." This means
that you pay the specific search engine an annual fee for
your web page to be included in their index.
Of course, every search engine already has an automated
program commonly called a "spider" that indexes all the web
pages it locates online, and it does this for free. So
whether you pay or not, your web page will eventually be
indexed by all Internet search engines, as long as the
spider can follow a link to your page. The major issue is,
then, how quickly your page is indexed.
A search engine that offers a paid URL inclusion uses an
extra spider that is programmed to index the particular
pages that have been paid for. The difference between the
spider that indexes pages for free and the spider that
indexes only pages for a fee is speed. If you have paid for
inclusion, the additional search engine spider will index
your page immediately.
The debate over paid URL inclusion centers around the
annual fee. Since the regular spider of these search
engines would eventually get around to indexing your web
page anyway, why is a renewal fee necessary? The fee is
necessary to keep your pages in the search engine's index.
If you go the route of paid inclusion, you should be aware
that at the end of the pay period, on some search engines,
your page will be removed from their index for a certain
amount of time.
It's easy to get confused about whether you would benefit
from paid inclusion since the spider of any search engine
will eventually index your page without the additional
cost. There are both advantages and disadvantages to paid
URL inclusion, and it is only by weighing your pros and
cons that you will be able to decide whether to spring for
the extra cash or not.
The advantages are obvious: rapid inclusion and rapid
re-indexing. Paid inclusion means that your pages will be
indexed quickly and added to search results in a very short
time after you have paid the fee. The time difference
between when the regular spider will index your pages and
when the paid spider will is a matter of months. The spider
for paid inclusion usually indexes your pages in a day or
two. Be aware that if you have no incoming links to your
pages, the regular spider will never locate them at all.
Additionally, paid inclusion spiders will go back to your
pages often, sometimes even daily. The advantage of this is
that you can update your pages constantly to improve the
ranking in which they appear in search engines, and the
paid URL inclusion spider will show that result in a matter
of days.
First and foremost, the disadvantage is the cost. For a ten
page website, the costs of paid URL inclusion range from
$170 for Fast/Lycos to $600 for Altavista, and you have to
pay each engine their annual fee. How relevant the cost
factor is will depend on your company.
Another, and perhaps more important, disadvantage is the
limited reach of paid URL inclusions. The largest search
engines, Google, Yahoo, and AOL, do not offer paid URL
inclusion. That means that the search engines you choose to
pay an inclusion fee will amount to a small fraction of the
traffic to your site on a daily basis.
Google usually updates its index every month, and there is
no way you can speed up this process. You will have to wait
for the Google spider to index your new pages no matter how
many other search engines you have paid to update their
index daily. Be aware that it is only after Google updates
their index that your pages will show up in Google, Yahoo,
or AOL results.
One way to figure out whether paid URL inclusion is a good
deal for your company is to consider some common factors.
First, find out if search engines have already indexed your
pages. To do this, you may have to enter a number of
different keywords, but the quickest way to find out is to
enter your URL address in quotes. If your pages appear when
you enter the URL address but do not appear when you enter
keywords, using paid inclusion will not be beneficial. This
is because your pages have already been indexed and ranked
by the regular spider. If this is the case, your money
would be better spent by updating your pages to improve
your ranking in search results. Once you accomplish this,
you can then consider using paid inclusion if you want to
speed up the time it will take for the regular spider to
revisit your pages.
The most important factor in deciding whether to use paid
URL inclusion is to decide if it's a good investment. To
figure this out, you have to look at the overall picture:
what kind of product or service are you selling and how
much traffic are you dependent on to see a profit?
If your company sells an inexpensive product that requires
a large volume of traffic to your site, paid inclusion may
not be the best investment for you; the biggest search
engines do not offer it, and they are the engines that will
bring you the majority of hits. On the other hand, if you
have a business that offers an expensive service or product
and requires a certain quality of traffic to your site, a
paid URL inclusion is most likely an excellent investment.
Another factor is whether or not your pages are updated
frequently. If the content changes on a daily or weekly
basis, paid inclusion will insure that your new pages are
indexed often and quickly. The new content is indexed by
the paid spider and then appears when new relevant keywords
are entered in the search engines. Using paid inclusion in
this case will guarantee that your pages are being indexed
in a timely manner.
You should also base your decision on whether or not your
pages are dynamically generated. These types of pages are
often difficult for regular spiders to locate and index.
Paying to include the most important pages of a dynamically
generated website will insure that the paid spider will
index them.
Sometimes a regular spider will drop pages from its search
engine, although these pages usually reappear in a few
months. There are a number of reasons why this can happen,
but by using paid URL inclusion, you will avoid the
possibility. Paid URL inclusion guarantees that your pages
are indexed, and if they are inadvertently dropped, the
search engine will be on the lookout to locate them
immediately.

Web-based software

Every day more and more of what we have traditionally relied on downloadable software to do can now be done with Web-based applications. Full applications can now be run in a browser, accessible from any computer. Does that mean software downloads will go the way of the dinosaur? Check out this week's collection of our most popular Webware and decide for yourself.

If you have a favorite site or Web-based application, be sure to nominate it for inclusion in the second Webware 100.

The Top 10 most popular downloads remains largely unchanged this week, with one lone exception of archiving tool WinRAR moving into the 10 spot after jumping three places. In the Top Movers, popular FTP client SmartFTP leads the pack after leaping seven spots to No. 25.

Use your line-drawing skills to defeat monkeys with fancy fezzes and axe blades in this week's game pick "Chalk." In music, we've got gritty new tracks from Detroit vintage rock duo The White

Internet-linked suicides fear in Welsh town: police

LONDON: Police are investigating a string of suicides in a Welsh town possibly linked by an Internet death cult spread via an online social network, reports and officials said Wednesday.
The latest death occurred last Thursday, when 17-year-old Natasha Randall was found hanged in her bedroom in Bridgend, south Wales, and followed the suicides of six young men in the local area over the last year.
Detectives are in particular probing links via an online social networking site, reports said.
"What worries me is that when you start entering a virtual world, as these young people are doing on this site, you lose the reality of loss," Madeleine Moon, MP for Bridgend, told British radio.
She voiced concern over reports that the suicides may have been motivated by a desire by the youths to have their names on online memorial pages, or "walls".
The first death was last January, when 18-year-old Dale Crole hanged himself in a disused building. In February, David Dilling, 19, was found hanged near his home, followed by Thomas Davies, a friend of the two dead men.
In August, 17-year-old Zachary Barnes was found hanged, while last month 20-year-old Liam Clarke, a friend of Crole, was found hanged in a Bridgend park. A friend of Clarke, Gareth Morgan, 27, was found hanged this month.
Police say they are carrying out a "thorough investigation" including probing computers used by the dead youngsters.

HOW RED TAPE BECAME 'GOTCHA CAPITALISM'

If you're like most Americans, you feel you're getting screwed all the time. When you open your monthly bills, rent a car or sign up for pay television service, you hear that tiny voice inside saying "Watch out!" You're not paranoid. You're merely paying attention. Hidden fees cost the average American consumer nearly $1,000 a year, $5 or $10 at a time, new research shows.

For the past two years, I've been writing about the kinds of 21st century headaches that lead to consumer paranoia and compiling them in the Red Tape Chronicles. In response, more than 50,000 of you have left comments on the blog. Sometimes you criticize me and my conclusions, sometimes you cheer me, but most of the time you come to share your complaints about unfair companies and government policies. In the past year I've heard from a father whose daughter ran up a $10,000 cell phone bill, a man who lost his entire $179,000 retirement fund to a hacker and countless others who paid hundreds of dollars in surprise bank overdraft charges.

In the face of this tidal wave of complaints, I set out to scrutinize the issue of unfair fees, taxes and contracts, and I found something you probably already know: Corporate cheating not only hurts your wallet every day, it is assaulting our way of life. The results of that research were recently published by Random House in a book I wrote titled “Gotcha Capitalism,” which is now available in bookstores and online. You can read a free excerpt of the book today on msnbc.com. Other excerpts will follow later this month.

Fundamentally, “Gotcha Capitalism” is a story about the death of the price tag, about the constant bait-and-switch tactics that layer on fees and surcharges long after we’re in a position to bargain over them. It’s about rampant false advertising, about the explosion of small print and asterisks and about the seeming disappearance of federal authorities working to keep our marketplaces fair. It's about a threat to our economic system, which was designed to reward good companies with innovative products, low prices and smart employees, but now benefits cheating companies who hire the best liars and create the most misleading ads and confusing fine print.

I know all these fees -- and all the resulting phone calls, letters and other hassles -- can be a depressing topic. But there's good news: You don't have to take it anymore. You have each other.

The Internet is a powerful tool that consumers can use to find each other and share tips and tricks about getting around red tape and getting justice. It can also be used to expose unfair companies and their bad habits. And, of course, it can be used to call attention to a problem, which can lead to media interest and sometimes congressional hearings and news laws. In the last year, several unfair credit card company practices were stopped, largely because consumers complained and Congress began to listen.

I want to thank each and every person who has taken the time to leave a comment on the Red Tape Chronicles over the past two years. In some way, all of you have contributed to “Gotcha Capitalism.” Some Red Tape readers will even find excerpts of their submissions in the book.

And I would like to invite anyone who's ever felt cheated by their cable company, Internet provider, 401-k administrator or anyone else to do one powerful thing: complain. And keep complaining. Do so politely, but don't put up with poor treatment. Complain to the clerk and then to a manager. Write an e-mail to the corporate office. Complain on the Internet, on this blog and on others like it, such as Consumerist.com and RipOffReport.com. Or make your own Web site and send it to your friends. By speaking up and making your complaints public, two things will happen. You will often get your money back. But more important, you will be placing a vote for a return to fairness, to a true market economy where companies can afford to be fair and the best firms win. You will be sending the message that "gotchas" just won’t be tolerated.

Got some Red Tape you want untangled? Or just want to blow off steam?