PALIN MITENK BLOG

By Jenni Murray

Slave to technology: Jenni's BlackBerry must be by her bedside to recharge, give her messages and wake her up


To the untrained eye, it might appear we are witnessing an outbreak of unprecedented sexual liberation in the homes of the rich and famous.

Last week, I read with goggle eyes the admission by TV presenter Amanda Holden that there's always a three-way love-in in her bed. Then came the news that Barack Obama and his wife make room in their marriage for a third party, too.

Closer inspection reveals this is not some kind of saucy re-tread of Abigail's Party, but actually evidence of technology reaching into the most intimate corners of our lives: for they are all talking about their BlackBerry handheld computers

Now, there are many people who would traduce such miraculous machines, and offer dire warnings that they could spell the end to human interaction, not to mention putting marriages at risk, especially when they are taken to bed at night and pored over like some precious newborn babe.

But, quite honestly, my immediate reaction was: 'Doesn't everybody do it?'

Where else would you keep your precious electronic pet which needs to be nurtured throughout the night?

That's why my BlackBerry sits by my bed every night slurping in the electricity, to be sure of giving me perfect service the next day. And just like a baby, its every squeak must be attended to.

It might be the little alert it sounds when you get a text message, or a call from the son in Australia who desperately needs funds transferring from one bank account to another.

Or it could be the other son who's spending a year in France and might be in trouble, needing maternal assistance right now!

It could be someone asking you, even at a late hour, to do some work. Or it might just be the alarm going off in the morning to wake you. It serves so many purposes.

Him indoors thinks my passion for this little gadget verges on lunacy. I think he's jealous, as I tend to communicate with it rather more than I do with him.

His face takes on a stony demeanour when I sneak a peek after the little red light has warned me I have an email during dinner. But, frankly, he only has himself to blame.

I was once a technological Luddite, going along with the then editor of Newsnight in the late Eighties who became so frustrated with the new computers that had been installed in the office, he tore out all the plugs and re-introduced the typewriter.


Gadget fan: Jenni admits she feels lost without her BlackBerry

But my partner, David, insisted. He's an electronics engineer and computer genius. It was ridiculous to resist the march of technology, he warned, then bought me my first laptop. And, slowly, I was seduced.

In the years that followed, into my possession came not one but two computers, then a mobile and then, oh heaven, the Blackberry.

It's instant communication, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, doing exactly what we women like doing best, chatting to our friends.

All of which explains why the worst thing that's happened in my recent history was losing this miracle gadget.

You see, it contains all the information I need to negotiate my life. Contacts, notes and the codes for picking up train tickets. And that's how I lost it at a station.

I was in such a kerfuffle that I must have left it on the ticket machine. I'd planned to edit an article on it while travelling (so useful!). When I got on the train, I fumbled in my bag and my heart could not have sunk further when I couldn't find it.

I borrowed someone else's BlackBerry to call David, sobbing with despair. 'Ah,' he said, with more glee than I felt was decent, 'I gather you've lost your phone'.

It turned out someone wonderful and honest had found it, called 'home' in the contacts list to inform us, and taken it to lost property. That man restored my faith in human nature, but how I missed my little friend for the whole week it was away.

I know I'm not alone in this obsession. Nor do I deny that tinkering with a BlackBerry incessantly in the bedroom may be a barrier to communication - of all kinds - with the person to whom you're close enough to have a real conversation.

I have, I confess, been irritated by a friend whose new boyfriend texted and called her repeatedly during an all-girl dinner of ours. She didn't ignore him, even though we hinted she should. But then, reader, she married him.

And now they do talk, face-to-face, thanks to the BlackBerry. So there.


source: dailymail

Golfer Harry Green of Oldham, Greater Manchester with his hi-tech style buggy which helps him carry on playing golf after he was paralysed from the waist down in an industrial accident


Watch a video of the special golf buggy in action, click here...


Golfer Harry Green thought his playing days were over after an industrial accident left him paralysed from the waist down.

But the 60-year old is back in the swing after spending his life savings on a James-Bond style golf buggy which enables him to play a full 18-hole round.

The specially made £16,000 hi-tech Otto Bock Para Golfer machine has special tyres to avoid damaging the greens and a unique ejector style seat which props Harry into an upright position to take his shot.

Retired construction engineer Harry, of Oldham, Greater Manchester who has been paralysed for three years, said: 'It's fantastic to be back on the course playing golf again.

'It's given me a new lease of life and was worth every penny. Even just to get me back on the course to drive around would be good, but to actually play is just brilliant.'

Harry was self-employed with his own business when the accident occurred in July 2006 as he was constructing new mezzanine floors at Wynnstay Hall in Wrexham with a team.

Harry fell backwards10ft through a gap on the second storey, breaking his spine in three places, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.

He also fractured his skull in two places, broke every rib on his right hand side and suffered a punctured lung.

He spent eight weeks in intensive care and spent a further four months in a rehabilitation unit before he was finally allowed home.

But, confined to a wheelchair, Harry had sell his business and wife Susan, 56, gave up her job as a cashier to become his full-time carer.

Harry said: 'I didn't realise I was paralysed, I thought I would be ok. It was Susan who told me about six weeks later. I didn't believe it at first. I was already ordering golf shoes and was busy planning my next game.

'It didn't really hit me until I came home and I was the only one in a wheelchair.'


On the green: Mr Green now has the freedom to roam the golf course with his new gadget


Sports-mad Harry was devastated when he had to give up his membership at Wernerth Golf Club in Oldham, where he had been a member for ten years.

Harry, who was once an 18 handicap and had taught his wife to play, said, 'I really loved sports. I've always played football and gone swimming but I missed the golf the most.

'I found it relaxing and a good way to get the fresh air and to meet new people.'
Then Harry found out about the golf buggy from a physio and after taking delivery of his new machine regained his membership at the club.

He drives to each hole to take his shot, using a pole to retrieve the balls, but always plays with a partner as the machine is unable to access the bunkers.

Harry said: 'It's like a golf buggy, but it's better as it's gets me on the grass, it's designed to that the tyres don't damage the grass. Then the seat lifts me up so I can stand, take my shot and move onto the next hole.

'It does affect my game a lot, I can't hit it as far because my stance is off and my swing, but it's not going to stop me, I can still normally par the hole.

His wife Susan said: 'It may seem expensive but you can't put a price on someone's happiness. It is wonderful to see Harry happy again doing something he loves.'


source: dailymail

The austere interior of Cao Cao's tomb. He ruled the Kingdom of Wei from 208 to 220 AD.

Chinese archaeologists have found what could be the tomb of Cao Cao, a skilful general and ruler in the third century who was later depicted in popular folklore as the archetypal cunning politician.

Archaeological officials say Cao's 8,000 sq ft tomb complex, with a 130ft passage leading to an underground chamber, was found in Xigaoxue, a village near the ancient capital of Anyang in central Henan province.

Historians say Cao Cao's outstanding military and political talents enabled him to build the strongest and most prosperous state in northern China during the Three Kingdoms period in 208 to 280 AD, when China had three separate rulers.


Several agate decorations (l) were found in the 1,800-year-old tomb in central Henan province (r)


Experts say the male was Cao, who died at age 65 in 220 AD, the elder woman his empress, and the younger woman her servant.


The report said among the relics found were stone paintings featuring the social life of Cao's time, stone tablets bearing inscriptions of sacrificial objects, and Cao's personal belongings.

Tablets carrying the inscription 'King Wu of Wei', Cao's posthumous title, were seized from people who had apparently stolen them from the tomb, the report said.

'The stone tablets bearing inscriptions of Cao's posthumous reference are the strongest evidence,' archaeologist Liu Qingzhu, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted as saying.

'No one would or could have so many relics inscribed with Cao's posthumous reference in the tomb unless it was Cao's.'

He was the final chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty, before going on to form his own state during the political turmoil of the Three Kingdoms period. He died in 220 AD in Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han dynasty, and was posthumously named Emporer of the Wei state that he founded.

His father was the adopted son of the chief eunuch of the imperial court and Cao was a minor garrison commander before rising to prominence as a general when he suppressed a rebellion, which threatened the last years of Han rule.

Characters based on Cao are depicted as shrewd and unscrupulous villains in traditional Chinese operas and in one of China's best-loved historical novels, 'Romance Of The Three Kingdoms'. In the fictionalised account, Cao says: 'Better for me to wrong the world than for the world to wrong me.'

The common saying in Chinese 'speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives' is the equivalent of the English expression 'speak of the devil'. Cao was also a prolific poet.

From the tomb complex, the bones of three people and more than 250 relics have been unearthed in nearly one year of excavation work, Chinese archaeological officials were quoted as saying. The bones were identified as the remains of a man aged about 60 and two women, one in her 50s and the other between 20 and 25 years.


A stone with engraved-paintings that depict life in China nearly 2,000 years ago


Experts say the male was Cao, who died at age 65 in 220 AD, the elder woman his empress, and the younger woman her servant.


The report said among the relics found were stone paintings featuring the social life of Cao's time, stone tablets bearing inscriptions of sacrificial objects, and Cao's personal belongings.

Tablets carrying the inscription 'King Wu of Wei', Cao's posthumous title, were seized from people who had apparently stolen them from the tomb, the report said.

'The stone tablets bearing inscriptions of Cao's posthumous reference are the strongest evidence,' archaeologist Liu Qingzhu, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted as saying.

'No one would or could have so many relics inscribed with Cao's posthumous reference in the tomb unless it was Cao's.'

Among the relics found were stone paintings featuring the social life of Cao's time, stone tablets, and Cao's personal belongings which had the inscription 'personal belongings frequently used by King Wu of Wei.'

Archaeologists believe it is likely there will be many burial sites in the surrounding area.

The tomb was discovered in December last year when workers at a nearby kiln were digging for mud to make bricks.

The discovery was not reported and local authorities knew of it only when they seized stone tablets carrying inscriptions from some tomb raiders.

Historians say Cao Cao's outstanding military and political talents enabled him to build the strongest and most prosperous state in northern China during the Three Kingdoms period in 208 to 280 A.D, when China had three separate rulers.

His rise to power came during the waning years of the Han Dynasty. He was also described as a talented poet.

His father was the adopted son of the chief eunuch of the imperial court. Cao was a minor garrison commander who rose to prominence as a general when he suppressed a rebellion, which threatened the last years of Han rule.


source: dailymail

Google said users would get results as they were produced

Google has introduced so-called "real-time web" results into its search engine.

It means that Google will display information from news organisations, blogs and platforms, such as Twitter, as soon as it is published.

Google said it was "the first time" that a search engine had integrated the real-time web into its results page.

The feature will also be available on phones, such as the iPhone and handsets running the Android operating system.

"Our users will get the results as they are produced," said Google fellow Amit Singhal at an event in Mountain View in California.

"There is so much information being generated out there that getting to you relevant information is the key to a product like this."

Google announced that it would now index status updates from Facebook and all public information from MySpace. Earlier this year, it also struck a deal with Twitter to index messages or "tweets".

The real-time data will be displayed in a constantly updating stream within the normal results page.

The firm also showed off a visual search tool called Google Goggles that allows a user to take a picture with a mobile phone to perform a search.

The tool compares the image against a stored database and then returns relevant information.

"It represents our earliest efforts in computer vision," said Vic Gundotra, vice president of engineering at the same event.

He said Goggles could also be used to read barcodes to retrieve information.


source: news.bbc.co.uk

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL - NOVEMBER 16: NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-129 lifts off of launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center November 16, 2009 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The astronauts are scheduled for an 11 day mission to deliver vital equipment and supplies to the International Space Station.

















CANAVERAL, FL - NOVEMBER 16: In this photo provided by NASA, NASA mission managers monitor NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-129 from firing room four as it lifts off of launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center November 16, 2009 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The astronauts are scheduled for an 11 day mission to deliver vital equipment and supplies to the International Space Station


credit photo: Gettyimages

By Doug Gross, CNN

"The question Artsutanov asked himself had the childlike brilliance of true genius. A merely clever man could never have thought of it -- or would have dismissed it instantly as absurd. If the laws of celestial mechanics make it possible for an object to stay fixed in the sky, might it not be possible to lower a cable down to the surface, and so to establish an elevator system linking earth to space?" -- Arthur C. Clarke, 1979, "The Fountains of Paradise"

(CNN) -- It sounds like science fiction. And it was.

Now, 30 years after "2001" author Arthur C. Clarke wrote about an elevator that rises into outer space, serious research is happening all over the world in an effort to make the far-fetched-sounding idea a reality.

The benefits of a fully realized elevator would make carrying people and goods into space cheaper, easier and safer than with rocket launches, proponents say, opening up a host of possibilities.

Restaurants and hotels for space tourists. Wind turbines that provide energy by spinning 24 hours a day. A cheaper, easier and more environmentally friendly way to launch rockets.

Scientists envision all of the above -- possibly within our lifetimes.

"Space elevator-related research is valid, but there are hurdles to overcome," said David Smitherman, a space architect at NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center.

This week in the Mojave Desert, three teams of engineers are competing for $2 million offered up by NASA for anyone who can build a prototype of an elevator able to crawl up a kilometer-high tether while hauling a heavy payload.

"We haven't had any winners yet, but we truly do expect to have at least one winner, probably more [this year]," said Ted Semon, spokesman for The Spaceward Foundation, which has run the competition for the past several years.

Most models for an elevator into space involve attaching a cable from a satellite, space station or other counterweight to a base on Earth's surface.

Scientists say inertia would keep the cable tight enough to allow an elevator to climb it.

The inspiration for researchers to pursue a space elevator started, as many scientific advances have, in the fantastical world of science fiction.

In Clarke's 1979 novel "The Fountains of Paradise," he writes about a scientist battling technological, political and ethical difficulties involved in creating a space elevator.

In the years that followed, Clarke, who died last year, remained an outspoken advocate for researching and funding the elevator.

Others are now carrying the torch.

"Space elevator research is important because it is a way to build a bridge to space instead of ferrying everything by rocket," said Smitherman, who has conducted research and published findings on the effort.

"Look at the cost and efficiency of a bridge versus a ferry on Earth and then look at the cost and inefficiency of the rocket ferries we use today and you will see why so many people are looking for a 'bridge' solution like the space elevator."

Microsoft is among the sponsors an annual space elevator conference, and teams in Japan and Russia are among those working to turn the theory into reality -- even if they all admit they have a long way to go.

Even the most avid proponents of the research admit there are big hurdles that need to be overcome.

The first, scientists say, is that there's currently not a viable material strong enough to make the cables that will support heavy loads of passengers or cargo into orbit. According to NASA research, the space elevator cable would need to be about 22,000 miles long. That's how far away a satellite must be to maintain orbit above a fixed spot on the Earth's equator.

"Right now, if you use the strongest material in the world, the weight of the tether would be so much that it would actually snap," said Semon, a retired software engineer. He said the super-light material would probably need to be about 25 times stronger than what's now commercially available.

In a separate competition, his group offers a prize to any team that can build a tether that's at least twice as strong as what's currently on the market.

Another issue, scientists say, is how to keep the cable, or the elevator itself, from getting clobbered by meteorites or space junk floating around in space. Some suggest a massive cleanup of Earth's near orbit would be required.

And then there's the cost. Estimates are as high as $20 billion for a working system that would stretch into orbit.

Many think it would be private enterprise, not a government, that would spring for the earliest versions of the elevator.

Professor Brendan Quine and his team at York University in Toronto, Canada, think they have the answers to at least some of those problems.

They've built a three-story high prototype of an elevator tower that would rise roughly 13 miles (20 kilometers) -- high enough to escape most of the earth's atmosphere.

"At 20 kilometers, you still have gravity; you're not in orbit," Quine said. "But for a tourist, you can see basically the same things an astronaut sees -- the blackness of space, the horizon of the Earth."

In the stratosphere, the tower also could potentially be used to launch rockets, he said. The most expensive and energy-sucking part of any space launch now is blasting from the ground out of the atmosphere.

Constructed from Kevlar, the free-standing structure would use pneumatically inflated sections pressurized with a lightweight gas, such as hydrogen or helium, to actively stabilize itself and allow for flexibility. A series of platforms or pods, supported by the elevator, would be used to launch payloads into Earth's orbit.

Quine acknowledged that the prototype is just a first step toward realizing the elevator and that several more prototypes are needed to fine-tune details.

He estimated that the cost of the basic tower would be about $2 billion -- the equivalent of a massive skyscraper in places like New York -- and that the technology to build it could be ready in less than 10 years.

He said a more advanced -- and expensive -- elevator tower could be built to go higher into the stratosphere.

But for the purposes of actually ferrying everyday people into space, 20 kilometers makes the most sense, Quine said.

"The tower might be economically viable if you're able to transport 1,000 people a day to the to of it for about $1,000 a ticket," he said. "At the top, you'd probably want amenities -- hotels, restaurants. It could be a very pleasant experience, in contrast to zero gravity, which makes many people sick."

For now, advocates of making the elevator a reality say they'll keep at it. They'll continue reminding themselves that they wouldn't be the first to turn what started as an outlandish idea into good science.

"Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction," Clarke once said. "They may be summed up by the phrases: One, it's completely impossible. Two, it's possible, but it's not worth doing. Three, I said it was a good idea all along."


source: cnn.com

By Tariq Malik

NASA's Mars rover Spirit is suffering a new bout of amnesia, one that comes after months of being stuck in deep Martian sand.

The 6-year-old rover's latest memory lapse occurred Oct. 24 and came more than six months after a series of four other amnesia events earlier this year. During the events, the plucky rover failed to record science observations in the part of its flash computer memory that stores information overnight when other systems are powered down.

"We still don't have information about what causes these amnesia events," said rover project manager John Callas at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., in an update.

In the latest event, Spirit did not use its flash memory between Oct. 24 and Oct. 27. The rover does have an alternate memory system in which to store data, but must beam that information home to Earth before entering an overnight sleep period, mission managers said.

Callas said engineers are weighing Spirit's amnesia problem to determine how it may affect day-to-day operations for the long term. Aside from the memory glitch, the rover is in good health and communicating with Earth.

"If they are intermittent and infrequent, they are a nuisance that would set us back a day or two when they occur. If the condition becomes persistent or frequent, we will need to go to an alternate strategy that avoids depending on flash memory," Callas said. "We would only get data collected the same day and any unsent data from an earlier day would be lost. The total volume of data returned by the rover is expected to be about the same."

Meanwhile, the new memory lapses will likely further delay NASA's efforts to extricate Spirit from its Martian sand trap. The rover has been mired in deep sand since April, unable to move.

An independent team of robotics experts is currently reviewing recent NASA tests that used a ground-based version of Spirit to come up with escape plan for the stuck rover on Mars. NASA has mounted a "Free Spirit" campaign to come up with ways to free its beloved rover.
NASA launched Spirit and its robotic twin Opportunity in 2003 on a mission to explore Mars. The rovers landed in different parts of the planet in January 2004 and spent more than five years roving across Mars and uncovering clues to the planet's watery past.

While engineers try to free Spirit, its robotic twin Opportunity is headed toward a giant Martian crater called Endeavour. Earlier this month, Opportunity spotted a Martian meteorite dubbed Shelter Island on the heels of another space rock find — called Block Island — in September. The rover used its onboard instruments to study both meteorites.

Initially built for a 90-day mission, the two rovers have received repeated life extensions. Spirit is the older of the two rovers and has spent five years and nine months exploring Mars.


source: foxnews.com

By Breeanna Hare, CNN

(CNN) -- If you harbor a bit of angst over Facebook friend requests gone unanswered, a surprise "defriending" or being deserted by your Twitter followers, you're not alone.

Elaine Fogel has amassed more than 500 connections on LinkedIn, a professional networking Web site, by extending invites to those who appear to fit her wide array of career interests.

"Ninety-nine percent of the time, people just say yes," she said.

But then came "this one woman" who Fogel encountered on one of the 40-plus discussion groups she belongs to on LinkedIn. The woman offered interesting opinions, so Fogel sent her an invitation to join her network.

"She sent an e-mail saying, 'I only connect with people I know, and hopefully our paths will cross one day,' " said Fogel, of Phoenix, Arizona, her voice still carrying notes of disbelief. "I read that, and I said, 'Oh, my God, I've been rejected.' "

Fogel echoes other users who have felt the twinge of hurt and surprise from social media rejection. Some may think hers is an overreaction -- it happened online, with a woman she didn't know -- but recent research shows that our "digital egos" can bruise as easily as we do in person. In fact, rejection online may have the potential to sting even more.

"People tend to think that these relationships are trivial and not very deep, but this is what we're moving towards, having a lot of our communications play out over the Internet," Purdue University social psychologist Kip Williams said. "That's the way it's becoming; this is how we interpret our worth. People care how many [online] friends they have."

Or, increasingly, how many Twitter followers they have. This year, a third-party service launched Qwitter, which allows Twitter users to determine who's stopped following them and which tweet may have turned them off.

Experts say rejection on social networks can hurt worse than an in-person snub because people are usually more polite face-to-face than they are online.

"I think the thing that is often clearly worse online is when it's relatively anonymous, and people use that as a cover and are more cruel than they would be otherwise," said Jean Twenge, a San Diego State psychologist who has studied the way social networking affects personality development.

Online rejection also doesn't lessen the physical reaction we have to emotional pain.

"Pain is divided into two components," said Baldwin Way, a UCLA researcher who studies the way human brains respond to social rejection.

"If you put a red-hot poker on your arm, one part of your brain says, 'This pain is on your arm,' and the other part says, 'Ow, that hurts' and is less concerned with where it is and more concerned about the emotional meaning of it," he said. "That [second] part also seems to be activated when someone's left out or excluded and rejected."

To Way's surprise, that neurological reaction holds true even when the rejection comes in a digital form, lacking the real-world body language, vocal intonations and other aspects that can influence the way rejection is perceived and felt.

"If you'd asked me a few years ago if you'd get the same effect online as you would in person, I'd say no way," Way said. "I thought doing something in person would have stronger effects than doing something online, but interesting data has come out in the last few years that show mental representations are just as powerful as the real thing."

These data include Williams' "cyberball" studies, which ask a participant to play a virtual ball-tossing game with two other icons. In one study group, the participant plays the game for the entire six minutes, but in the second group, he or she is included for only a fraction of that time and then ignored. The second group reports feelings of anger and lower levels of self-esteem.

Whether participants believe they're playing with humans doesn't appear to affect their feelings of rejection.

"Even when people get rejected by the computer, they feel bad," Twenge said.

Kenneth Loflin, a student who participated in Williams' study, got so frustrated by his fellow players that he gave the computer screen an offensive gesture.

"I'm a people person, and I like people to like me," he said.

The study also affected the way Loflin interacts online. Out of the 1,200 friends he has on Facebook, 400 of them he doesn't really know, many of them being friends of friends.

"I thought about defriending them, but I didn't want them to feel how I felt" during the "cyberball" game, Loflin said.

By contrast, Bruce Hammond doesn't have a problem giving the rejection slip to Facebook hangers-on.

"For the most part, the people that I'm defriending are the people that I don't have a relationship with: the people I haven't talked to in 15 years," said Hammond, 30, of Chicago, Illinois. "I don't let someone know if I'm going to defriend them. I just do it."

Similarly, Hammond doesn't expect any of his Facebook contacts to let him know before giving him the ax. If someone rejected him in real life, he would ask why the person felt that way, but when the relationship is online, his thinking changes.

"If I come on [Facebook] tomorrow and see I have 425 friends instead of 426, I'm not going to go through my list and see who did it and be upset with them," he said.

Cecilia Sepp, a Washington, D.C.-area consultant, said she avoids the issue entirely by limiting her online network to about 100 friends.

"I don't have a problem with defriending because I don't accumulate [enough] to have a high number," Sepp said.

"When I first heard that defriending was beginning on social networks, it was through a blog post by someone who was shocked that this person had defriended them because they didn't understand why," she said. "The person wanted to know had they done something, had they said something, should they ask, 'What did [I] do?' "

Sepp believes that online "defrienders" should extend the courtesy that Fogel's LinkedIn rejecter gave her: an e-mail explanation.

"You have no facial expression online; you have no tone of voice online; it's very easy to misinterpret phrasing in an e-mail. You have to be very careful about your wording and be more explicit with people when you're making or removing connections," Sepp said. "That's why it's so important to connect with people that you actually know."


source: CNN.com

CNN) -- The group that controls top-level domain codes for Internet addresses is poised to permit non-Latin language codes for the first time in its history.

"It's the single biggest change in 10 or 15 years," said Rod Beckstrom, CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

The board of directors of the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will vote on the proposed protocol for Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) -- those represented by local language characters -- Friday at its meeting in Seoul, South Korea.

The change, which has a target implementation date of November 16, would allow Web addresses in Cyrillic, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese and others.

"This is one of the most exciting developments for the users of the Internet globally in years," said Beckstrom. "IDNs will enable the people the world over to use domain name addresses in their own language."

Beckstrom said support for the change is strong around the world and that all objections had "been handled."

"So I think it's just extremely probable, and we're really excited to move forward with that," he said.

And if, as expected, it does move forward, it means that Web surfing is about to get easier for about half of the world's 1.6 billion Internet users.

"There are over 40 million users in the Arab world," said Wael Ghanim, Google's product and marketing manager for the Middle East and Africa, "and this number is expected to increase in the coming days, which in turn makes the Arabic language one of the strategic languages through which a lot of companies, for instance Google, are interested in."

But some worry that the change could lead to more miscommunication.

"If Korean is used during the international communication, foreigners won't be able to understand and won't be able to read it well enough, so there could be some problems in communication," said South Korean Internet user Chang Yong-woong.

But others see the IDNs opening the Internet to a much broader population.

"If they can make this technology work, and people can use their own language to enter in addresses, I think that that would really expand the practical applications of the Internet," said Chinese Internet cafe owner Zhang Zhiming.

"People from different walks of life and different age groups could get more engaged with it."

One question that has not yet been resolved, however, is how people in countries that use the Latin script will be able to access Web sites with Korean, Hindi or Arabic domain names.

ICANN doesn't have an answer to that, but is confident a new technology will fill that gap soon.


source: CNN.com

By Alan Duke, CNN

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- The Internet's most popular search engine should get smarter about music, as Google updates the algorithms that power its searches this week, a company spokesman said.

"You don't have to know what your looking for," Google's Jennie Johnson said.

"If it looks like they're looking for a song, we're including in the regular search result links to hear songs from partners," Johnson said.

Contrary to techie rumors, Google is not launching a music download service, but it will give music searchers a direct link to commercial sites that do offer songs for sale.

Only sites that have licensing deals with artist labels and music publishers will be included in the links that "take you to a music discovery service," she said.

Those partners include -- but are not limited to -- iLike and Lala, she said. "Links to explore further, including Pandora and Rhapsody artist pages, will also be packaged in the music search results," she said.

The song download sites will not pay Google for driving traffic their way, she said.

"It's not like we get a fee," she said. "The value to us is really realized through better search."

There will be no new search box or hyperlink on Google's famously sparse homepage, because the change will be built in to every search request, Johnson said.

You don't even need to know the name of a song or artist to find the music in your head.

"They can enter some fragments of the words," Johnson said. "If it matches a song, there's a good chance that we're going to give you a song for that result."

One wrinkle that may take time to work out is nonmusic search terms that may seem like a song, she said.

This launch, which is only in the United States for now, is "the beginning step" that will allow Google to "refine how people are digging into it," Johnson said.

"You can expect to see it improved," she said.

Google's music search enhancements address an area that is important to a large number of Web users, she said.

"Two of the top 10 queries in the United States are music-related," she said.



source: cnn.com

By Barbara Liston / Cape Canaveral

With the future of the space agency up in the air, NASA can certainly use the good p.r. that will flow from Wednesday's picture-perfect test launch of its Ares I-X prototype rocket, which is being designed to replace the aging space shuttle and ignite a new era in human space exploration. Mission managers took quick advantage of changing weather conditions to blast the rocket through a small hole in upper-level clouds that passed briefly over Launch Pad 39B.

Pencil-thin and taller than any other working rocket in the world, Ares I-X — a simulated version of what the Ares I and its Orion crew capsule will look like; for testing purposes, it's made up mostly of spare shuttle parts and a mock segments — lifted off at 11:30 a.m. The rocket's first and upper stages separated on schedule, approximately two minutes into the flight. And early indications are that the more than 700 onboard sensors did their job by streaming back to Earth a treasure trove of data to validate Ares computer models, information to be used in tweaking the final design. Ares I-X got off the ground just 30 minutes before the launch window closed for the second day in a row.

The lead-up to the launch had already produced a YouTube moment. On Tuesday, in the minutes before the expected takeoff, engineers were scheduled to pull on a lanyard to yank off a little red sock protecting a probe atop the rocket's nose. The yank cleared the probe, but the sock caught on something at the top of the rocket, something an amused NASA spokesman later insisted hadn't occurred in 500 practice runs. It took nine minutes of mostly close-up, viral-video-quality tugging before the dangling sock released, even as engineers debated whether the snafu amounted to a launch-canceling problem.

Wednesday's launch marked the first time in more than 40 years that NASA has tested a prototype of a new rocket system to take passengers beyond Earth orbit. Ares I is part of a family of new rockets in NASA's Constellation program, which was propelled by former President George W. Bush's 2005 space initiative to go to Mars or back to the moon. Ares would be equipped to fill in for the aging space shuttle — which is planned for retirement in 2010, although scheduled shuttle flights are likely to extend into 2011 — on missions to the International Space Station.

Regardless of the success of the $445 million flight test, the significance of the 327-ft. rocket is uncertain. A report delivered to the White House on Oct. 22 from the Human Space Flights Plan Committee said the Constellation program's goals were underfunded. The committee, headed by Norman Augustine, retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp., concluded that NASA needs another $3 billion a year to pursue meaningful human space exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Facing a $1.4 trillion federal deficit, even NASA's most ardent supporters in Congress, who represent some of the 60,000 jobs associated with the agency, acknowledge that additional funding will be hard to come by.

Alternatives offered up by the Augustine committee include stimulating a competitive commercial space industry in hopes that it might eventually result in lower launch costs. In deciding which direction to go, the Augustine committee warned of "perpetuating the perilous practice of pursuing goals that do not match allocated resources."

That ground was covered by earlier Administrations, from which sprang the inherently dangerous design of the space shuttle in the 1970s. Budget cuts and compromises led to the critical mistake of designing the shuttle to fly horizontally but launch vertically, leaving the ship helpless and without any abort option right after launch if something went wrong.

The Ares, with its Orion capsule sitting atop a rocket, returns NASA to the Apollo model, which went into retirement in the 1970s having never lost a capsule crew in flight. (The program did have its disasters, though: the Apollo 1 crew perished in a launch-pad fire and Apollo 13 suffered an oxygen-tank explosion and power failure on its way to the moon.) Shaped like the Apollo capsule but three times larger, the Orion can be reused up to 10 times. The Ares I and V, vertically stacked launch vehicles, make use of reusable solid rocket boosters.

The Ares' Orion crew capsule includes a launch abort system, which is scheduled to undergo the first of three tests next year. The abort system involves three separate motors to pull the capsule away from the rocket, to provide directional control and to separate and jettison the entire launch abort system so the capsule can parachute back to Earth.

source: Time.com

By Dan Fletcher

In an Oct. 26 blog post, Max Kelly, Facebook's head of security, announced Facebook's policy of "memorializing" profiles of users who have died, taking them out of the public search results, sealing them from any future log-in attempts and leaving the wall open for family and friends to pay their respects. Though most media reports claimed this was a new Facebook feature, a spokeswoman for the company told TIME that it's an option the site has had since its early days.

The company decided to publicize the policy because of a backlash caused by a new version of the site's homepage rolled out Oct. 23, which includes automatically generated "suggestions" of people to "reconnect" with. Within days of the launch, Twitter users and blog posts from across the Web complained that some of these Facebook suggestions were for friends who had died. "Would that I could ...," complained a user on Twitter before ending her tweet with the hash tag #MassiveFacebookFail.

"We understand how difficult it can be for people to be reminded of those who are no longer with them, which is why it's important when someone passes away that their friends or family contact Facebook to request that a profile be memorialized," Kelly said in the post. To discourage pranksters, Facebook does require proof before sending a profile down the digital river Styx. Family or friends must fill out a Facebook form, including a link to an obituary or other information confirming a user's death, before the profile is officially memorialized. Once that is completed, the user will cease showing up in Facebook's suggestions and certain information like status updates won't show up in Facebook's news feed, the stream of real-time user updates that is the site's centerpiece. If relatives prefer not to have the profile stand as an online memorial, Facebook says it will remove the account altogether.

Better publicizing memorialized profiles is an attempt by Facebook to answer lingering privacy concerns. Canadian privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart investigated the company in July and issued a report that asked Facebook to explain certain areas of its privacy policy, including policies regarding the profiles of deceased users. In response, the company promised to issue a new privacy policy that better articulates how user information is treated postmortem and offered the commissioner an outline of its memorializing policy, nearly three months before the blog post explained it to users. Spokeswoman Anne-Marie Hayden says the privacy commissioner was "quite pleased" with Facebook's response to the office's concerns and says the commissioner will review the detailed version of the site's new policy, expected in late October.

Facebook's attempt to clearly state its policy is prudent, as other social-networking sites have struggled with the question of users' deaths. MySpace in particular has had a difficult time with digital rubbernecking — during the site's heyday, a handful of well-trafficked blogs specialized in matching MySpace profiles directly to obituaries and posting the pairings online for all to see. By sealing profiles to family and friends and removing profiles from search results, Facebook assuages users' fears that they'll be fodder for online voyeurs in the event of their untimely demise — and hopefully will put the issue to rest.


source: time.com

An American student is arrested in Egypt, and manages to send a brief text with a single word - "ARRESTED" - which is picked up around the world, and leads quickly to his release, helped by a lawyer hired by his university back in the US. In Britain, the prime minister's office decides people should be able to find out what their premier is doing; as of today, more than 2,000 people do. During an interview at the SXSW festival in March, audience dissatisfaction with Sarah Lacy's interviewing style with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg spills over into silent but powerful discourse among the audience: one calls it a "train wreck". People fleeing from fires in California say where they are; that proves more useful and timely than official goverment information.

The common factor? Twitter, the free (at present) service which lets you send a 140-character message, or "tweet", to a site where anyone can read it, though it will only be sent directly to those who have chosen to "follow" you (though if you want, you can pick and choose who you allow to follow you). Twitter's first prototype was built in two weeks in March 2006 and launched publicly that August. It has only been a company since May 2007, but its growth has been explosive - so much so that it constantly struggles to keep running as a growing number of people sign on, sending more and more tweets.

One of the first questions people ask is "what is Twitter for?" As with any social network, the answer is the same: whatever you make of it. Some think that its immediacy makes it ideal for spreading news. Others find it useful to ask questions of their peers; still others, for following what people or topics they're interested in. The BBC and the Guardian, for example, already offer Twitter services for breaking news (check out the Guardian Technology Twitter feed). It will be surprising if IBM does not offer a Twitter service with results from the All-England Tennis Club Championships in July.

Hitwise, the web measurement company, notes that traffic to Twitter has risen eightfold in the past year, more than doubled in the past three months and up 60% in the past month. By Hitwise's measure, it's only ranked 439th in social networks - outside the mainstream - but Heather Hopkins, senior Hitwise analyst, adds quickly that: "Twitter's size is notoriously difficult to measure as there are so many access points (mobile phones in particular)."

That is a key point. Measurement companies like Hitwise tend to rely on browser-based metrics to see where samples of people are going. But whereas Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Habbo Hotel are only usable through a web browser, Twitter has broken free of the web; its text message-length "tweets" can be received on a mobile phone or other device. You don't have to visit the web page to use Twitter; in fact, doing so may be one of the slowest ways of using the service. And many of the systems that are built around Twitter use web pages to interface directly to its database (via a published API). Twitter didn't respond to a request asking how many active users and how many tweets are sent each day; but it's a safe guess that both are in the millions. TwitDir, a Twitter directory, suggests there are now 1.05 million Twitter users - up from 518,000 in October.

With Twitter thus poised to enter the mainstream, we offer here our list of the best tools presently available on, and built on, Twitter. As ever, this is a moving target: within months we expect there will be even better ones. And we will watch our Twitter feeds for your responses and suggestions

First steps

Twitter.com obviously. You don't need to sign up; you can watch the flow of messages from a particular user at their username (eg Guardian Technology's, which is at twitter.com/guardiantech). However, Twitter only becomes useful once you can sift through the huge volume of posts. Signing up is free and you're not obliged to follow anyone, or post anything, or let anyone follow you.

Next steps
You can follow Twitter at the website, but that's inefficient. Smartest moves: get a program for your PC, Mac or Linux box to watch the flow.

Windows
Madtwitter; Twitteroo; Twitterlicious

Mac OS X
Twitteriffic

Linux
Deskbar; Twitux

Mobile phones
Twittter for iPhone; Twitterberry (for BlackBerries); hahlo.com (iPhone and others)

Firefox
Tweetbar

Finding people
Whoshouldifollow.com answers that simple question. Given your username, it will look for other users with some overlap with the people you follow, and suggest them as people for you to follow. Add some of the names there and then repeat the process, and you'll quickly build up a large network.

Twitdir.com, a directory. Find people, and quickly see the top 100 most-followed and busiest twitterers.

Twitterholic.com, the top users and accounts: choose, then repeat as above.

Searching and organising
Summize.com, search for a word or phrase across the entire Twitter feed. Interested in Scotland? Explosions? Burma? Plug the search in and view the results; or take an RSS feed, which will automatically update when new tweets match your search.

Quotably.com creates threads of discussions between people.

Terraminds.com, another search engine, for users or phrases.

Tweetscan.com, search by user and time.

Twitterlocal.net finds twitterers near you.

Sharing
Twitthis.com, lets people looking at your site or blog share the URL via Twitter.

Twitturly.com, what's being most linked-to and talked about?

Tweetmeme.com, what sort of topics are being discussed?

Visualise
Twittervision.com, real-time Google Maps mashup showing where the latest tweets are being posted.

Twitterverse, tag clouds based on the messages flowing through twitter.

Twistori.com, love, hate, think, believe, feel, wish: what people are saying where the tweets use those words.

Twittearth.com, processor-heavy, but fascinating, visualisation of tweets, put onto a spiralling globe.

Tweetwheel.com, which of your friends are already following each other?

Miscellaneous
Tweetspeech, Yahoo Pipes module that converts (incoming) tweets to speech, playable via RSS.

Tweeterboard, a "leaderboard" of who the busiest, most popular, most chatty users are.

Twitter fan wiki, lots more Twitter information and applications.

Twittersnooze.com, hit the "snooze button", briefly, on verbose friends.

Twitter balloon, your tweets superimposed on an image of your choosing.

Latest Scores, latest football scores, as tweets.

twerpscan.com, avoid followers who befriend everyone: may be spammers.


source: guardian.co.uk

AKQA's Tom Bedecarré tells Media140 London delegates of the exciting opportunities Twitter can bring to businesses and brands

Keynote speaker, Tom Bedecarré, chief executive of the creative agency AKQA, opened the Media140 London internet conference this morning with the question "Why Twitter?", and one of his answers was to be in touch with the "zeitgeist". For him, Twitter is like a wire service.

He said: "I travel a lot between our six offices and it helps me stay in touch, and lets me stay in touch, with what is happening. I follow a lot of people and in my job I have to know what the zeitgeist is.

"The world is split between Twitter haters and Twitter lovers and I am fascinated with Twitter haters. Lots of journalists love to write about Twitter haters. Since Ashton Kutcher got a million followers and it became famous, a lot of people hate it. But journalists particularly hate it, and maybe this is because Twitter may be a threat to journalism. So the best way to get a headline in a newspaper for a brand, is to get a study on how rubbish Twitter is.

"When I ask my clients: 'Are you in social media?' And the answer is: 'I don't have time'. Or they answer: 'Oh my God, I just got on Facebook and now I have to do Twitter?' Some journalists talk to me and say, 'I was on it for an hour and I don't get it. And I even wrote two tweets.' Well.

"One important question is, how to understand the change from a push model to a collaborative discussion. I find that clients struggle with that change. The good thing is, whatever is new and interesting gets a lot of attention. For a brand, last year it was the iPhone application, this year it is the Facebook page ...

"Twitter is used for a lot of different things – that is one of the interesting things about it. People are creating business opportunities, use it to communicate with friends, publish something or tell the people out there about a brand. This is why I don't understand Twitter haters. There is something really exiting about Twitter. This is going to be a platform that will lead to great ideas."

Media140 London is a one-day conference which sets out to explore the impact of Twitter and real-time social media on agencies, marketers and brands. The conference in London is dedicated to brands, and the event will also travel to India, Italy and Australia.


source: guardian.co.uk

By John Brandon
Foxnews.com

Has Microsoft learned a lesson from Windows Vista?

The Vista operating system, which shipped in early 2007, sold reasonably well but ran slowly and was plagued by hardware problems. The successor is called Windows 7. It comes out Thursday, and it should make your PC quicker, smarter, and more fun.

Windows 7 is an attempt to fix Vista's problems — meaning technical issues as well as the public's perception —and give Microsoft Windows a much need PR boost. Just one example: Vista has something called "User Account Control," a term that sounds a bit ominous and translates as a barrage of security warnings for common tasks, even installing well-known software like Apple iTunes. In Windows 7, these prompts are nearly absent, and Microsoft argues that security is even tighter.

"The biggest problem with Vista is that it had been delayed many times, so drivers were a mess, which made it very unreliable — although eventually this got fixed," says Rob Enderle, a consumer analyst with Enderle Group. "Drivers" are bits of code that tell an operating system how a piece of hardware works, and they're notoriously unreliable.

"Vista was relatively slow, particularly for gaming, and required a lot of extra hardware to feel acceptably quick and many games wouldn’t even run on it initially," Enderle continues. "Combined, this made the OS painful to use for many. Most of this, particularly the drivers, was eventually fixed, but the impression had already been made that Vista was unreliable."

But Windows 7 is more than just a Band-Aid for your struggling computer. In fact, there are quite a few hidden gems that will appeal to business users, mobile mavens, accountants, gamers, and Web surfers alike. Here’s a rundown of the eight best.

1. Smarter windows
One cool Microsoft feature borrows some DNA from the Apple iPhone. In Windows 7, when you click on any window's title bar and shake it, every other open window goes away. This reduces the clutter on your screen, letting you focus on the one window you care about. Shake it again and the other windows reappear. Microsoft calls it Aero Shake, and it also lets you clear off the desktop completely. Just move the mouse to the lower right of the screen to hide all the open windows and get your bearings back.

2. More-detailed graphics
Next year, developers will start releasing games built on DirectX 11, a game engine that provides more detailed graphics. DX11 is an integral part of Windows 7. It supports a technique called tessellation borrowed from CGI movies to add tons of detail without slowing gameplay. Games that will support DX11’s improved graphics include "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat" and Dirt 2 – and they'll ship this year, not some distant point in the future.

3. A TV Guide for Internet videos
The Windows Media Center program lets you connect your cable or satellite television feed to your computer and record shows, and in Windows 7, it's vastly improved. One impressive improvement is Web TV Channels, a way to find streaming Internet video sites and view popular clips without any fuss. Microsoft includes Media Center in all versions of Windows 7 except the starter version.

4. A hundredfold speed boost
Some technology fans think "DirectCompute" is the most revolutionary part of Windows 7. It's a technology that controls where computers do their calculations, moving some math-heavy processing onto the graphics card. This could result in as much as a hundredfold speed increase in, say, photo and video editing, and could lead to faster computing overall.

5. Massive monitors
Ever considered linking up to three monitors together to make one colossal screen? It's useful for tradeshows — or anyone who absolutely must have the largest screen possible — and Eyefinity in Windows 7 makes it possible. A first for Windows 7, Eyefinity requires the ATI 5870 graphics card, which costs $379, but the tech will probably trickle down to other hardware shortly.

6. 64-bit computing
Microsoft sold a separate version of Vista for computers that used 64-bit processors, meaning they can access massive amounts of memory and perform certain calcuations substantially faster. Want tons of memory? You've had to go out of your way to track down that 64-bit version. The latest laptop and desktops now ship with 64-bit processors, however. So nearly every version of Windows 7 includes both the 32-bit and 64-bit version — and can support all the memory you want.

7. Faster startups
Windows 7 boots much faster than Windows Vista. In my tests using a Lenovo S20 Workstation PC, Windows 7 booted about twice as fast as Windows Vista. Windows 7 is also snappier when resuming from a sleep state after the screen has dimmed; in fact, it's almost instantaneous.

8. Touch computing
With a touchscreen PC, you can swipe your fingers across your computer screen to browse through images, click buttons, and scroll through lists. You'll need a touch-screen monitor, of course, but Microsoft argues that using your hands to sort through data is much more intuitive than pointing and clicking.

Do these features warrant an upgrade? Absolutely – especially since Windows 7 not only provides the latest OS bells and whistles, but fixes most of the problems with Windows Vista

Microsoft Windows 7 is more than just a band-aid to patch over the flawed Vista operating systems. In fact, there are quite a few hidden gems that will appeal to business users, mobile mavens, accountants, gamers, and Web surfers alike. Here’s a few of the operating system's highlights.

Wallpapers

Windows 7 includes a bevy of wallpapers and themes – many you might actually use. Some highlight architectural images, some landscapes, and some just have wacky characters. All make it easy to add a little personality to your PC.

User Account Control

Windows 7 lets you tweak the options for security prompts, a scourge from Windows Vista. Vista's notorious "User Account Control" feature translated into a barrage of security warnings for common tasks, even for users installing well-known software like Apple iTunes. In Windows 7, these prompts are nearly absent, and Microsoft argues that security is even tighter.


64-Bit Computing

With Windows Vista, Microsoft offered a separate version for computers that use a 64-bit processor. These PCs can access massive amounts of RAM, well over the 4GB maximum for 32-bit computers. With Windows 7, every version except Home Basic includes both the 32-bit and 64-bit version. The latest laptop and desktop computers typically now ship with a 64-bit processor.


Games for Windows

Windows 7 supports games such as EA BattleForge that work with the more advanced DirectX 11. DirectX is a programming tool for game designers; the newest version (only in Windows 7) borrows a technique called tessellation from CGI movies to add tons of detail without slowing gameplay.


Internet TV







Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer 8, included with Windows 7, runs faster and is more standards compliant.




Jumplists

Windows 7 offers "jump lists," an easy, one-click way to launch applications. When you click on an icon in the Windows taskbar, you will see a jump list that includes any open windows as well as some convenient links.





Windows Media Player

The Windows Media Player 12 application now supports many more video formats, including several popular formats for high definition video files such as AVCHD and XVID.


Aero Shake

In Windows 7, when you click on any window's title bar and shake it, every other open window goes away. This reduces the clutter on your screen, letting you focus on the one window you care about. Shake it again and the other windows reappear. Microsoft calls it Aero Shake, and it also lets you clear off the desktop completely, as in this image. Just move the mouse to the lower right of the screen to hide all the open windows and get your bearings back.


source: Foxnews.com

NEW YORK — Microsoft Windows 7 is a slick, much improved operating system that should go a long way toward erasing the bad impression left by its previous effort, Vista.

If you've been holding off on buying a new computer, Microsoft Windows 7 will be a good excuse to get back into the game. And if you've been weighing a Mac versus a Windows PC, then you should know that "7" pushes the scales on the Windows side. Windows is now easier to use and better looking than it was before, while maintaining its core advantage of cheaper, more diverse hardware.

However, most PC users should not take the release of Windows 7 as a call to action, or feel that they have to run out and buy the software for use on a computer they're planning on keeping. The upgrade will most likely not be worth the time or money, much less the effort of hosting a Windows 7 "launch party" as Microsoft suggests.

Windows 7 will come in several versions. The one aimed at U.S. consumers is Home Premium, which will cost $120 if bought as an upgrade to XP or Vista. You can buy it as a download or on a disc. Beginning on Oct. 22, it will come installed on new PCs.

Here are some of its highlights:

— The taskbar — the strip of icons usually found at the bottom of the screen — now does more than show which programs are running. You can also stick icons for your favorite programs on it, to launch them quickly. It's fast and convenient, combining the best features of the old Windows taskbar and Apple's Dock.

— File folders can now be organized into "libraries." You can have a photo library, for instance, that gives you quick access to pictures in folders spread out over your hard drive, or even several hard drives. This is great because many applications don't automatically put files into Microsoft's My Documents and My Photos folders, and tend to deposit content in their own folders. The new arrangement also makes for easy backups.

— Like Vista, Windows 7 will ask you twice if you really want to make changes to your settings or install programs, for the sake of security. But Windows 7 does it less often, and the prompts can be turned off.

— Windows 7 can sense if you use more than one finger on your touch pad or touch screen, allowing for neat tricks such as spreading your fingers to zoom into a picture, just like on the iPhone. This is isn't revolutionary per se — computer manufacturers have bolted multitouch sensing on previous versions of Windows. But it does make it easier for them to include advanced touch capabilities, and many of them are planning to do so. That is what could really revolutionize how we use computers. I've tried laptops and desktops with touch screens, and found it nice to be able to directly tap links and buttons, bypassing the touch pad and mouse.

— For a lot of users, the step up to Windows 7 will also mark a transition to a 64-bit operating system. That means computers will now be able to use a lot more Random Access Memory, or RAM, for better performance in demanding applications such as video editing. Vista and XP came in 64-bit versions in addition to the regular 32-bit versions, but the XP version was never popular, and the Vista version became mainstream only last year. But 64 bits will be standard on Windows 7, installed on nearly all new computers.

Windows XP users have a lot more to gain by going to Windows 7. Vista introduced some great features, such as fast searches of the entire hard drive, that of course are present in 7 as well. Unfortunately, upgrading an existing PC from XP to 7 is not easy.

After upgrading, users will have to reinstall all their programs and find their files in the folder where Windows 7 tucks them away.

They may also have hardware problems. I found an old HP laser printer no longer worked with Windows 7. This isn't really Microsoft's fault or, specifically, a problem with the new operating system — HP just doesn't provide a 64-bit driver for that printer. A driver is a program that tells a piece of hardware how to work with an operating system.

If you do upgrade, I would still recommend tackling that transition head-on by installing the 64-bit version of Windows 7, which doesn't cost more. Microsoft recommends a minimum of 2 gigabytes of RAM to run it.

If your computer runs Windows Vista, I think it's hard to justify spending $120 for an upgrade. The new features are nice but hardly must-haves. For daily e-mail and Web surfing, they won't make much of a difference. Vista was much maligned when it arrived in early 2007 for being slow, buggy and annoying. Now, it really isn't that bad, because updates have fixed a lot of the problems.

However, if you bought a Vista-based computer after June 25, you should be eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 7 from the manufacturer, and I suggest taking advantage of it. Your computer likely already is running 64-bit software, so there should be no problems with drivers, and the upgrade is much easier than one from XP. Windows 7 can keep your installed programs and your files in their old folders.

In weeks of testing the final version of Windows 7 on five computers, I encountered only one serious glitch. The backup function simply didn't work on one computer. The error message was obscure as always, and troubleshooting on Microsoft's Web site provided no solution. I ended up using third-party backup software. Given that regular backups are essential for a home computer, one can only hope that this will be an unusual problem that gets fixed promptly.

Another disappointment is that Windows 7 doesn't seem to improve boot-up times. In my tests, it took slightly longer to get going on Windows 7 than with XP or Vista on the same computer. I don't think this should be a major issue, though — instead of shutting your computer down, use "sleep mode" instead. This function has improved a lot since XP, and most computers take about 10 seconds to wake up.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about Windows 7 is that it's inspiring computer manufacturers to try new things, and reviving old ideas like touch-enabled "tablet" PCs. It's breathing new life into the computer market. It just won't do much for old clunkers.


source: Foxnews.com

Twitter, which was created by a 10-person startup in San Francisco called Obvious, is a heady mixture of messaging, social networking, “microblogging” and something called “presence,” shorthand for the idea that people should enjoy an “always on” virtual omnipresence.

Twitter's rapid growth made it the object of intense interest and a fair amount of ridicule, as it was derided as high-tech trivia or the latest in time-wasting devices. But its use in Iran in the wake of the disputed presidential election of June 2009 to organize protests and disseminate information in the face of a news media crackdown brought it new respect.

“Twitterers” or "tweeters" send and receive short messages, called “tweets,” on Twitter’s Web site, with instant messaging software, or with mobile phones.

When a user is logged in through the Web or a cellphone, it asks one simple question, “What are you doing?” Users answer in 140 characters or fewer. While some of these tweets have the profundity of haiku, most are mundane, like “Sure is pretty out tonight” or “My eyes itch. I am very aggravated.”

Unlike most text messages, tweets are routed among networks of friends. Strangers, called “followers,” can also choose to receive the tweets of people they find interesting.

Read More...

The company has no discernible revenue and, as of mid-2009, about 60 employees. Biz Stone, a Twitter founder, said at the time that the company had no plans to begin widely running ads until 2010, although it was experimenting with running advertisements on its Web site. In September 2009, the company was set to raise about $100 million of new funding that would value the company at around $1 billion.

In its short history, Twitter has become an important marketing tool for celebrities, politicians and businesses, promising a level of intimacy never before approached online, as well as giving the public the ability to speak directly to people and institutions once comfortably on a pedestal.

But someone has to do all that writing, even if each entry is barely a sentence long. In many cases, celebrities and their handlers have turned to outside writers — ghost Twitterers, who keep fans updated on the latest twists and turns, often in the star’s own voice.

It is not only celebrities who are forced to look to a team to produce real-time commentary on daily activities, but also politicians like Ron Paul, who have assigned staff members to create Twitter posts and Facebook personas. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign used Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

In 2009, people in Iran and Moldova created their own searchable tags on Twitter to organize protests against their governments and share information with each other and the world. In April, Moldovans used the network to rally more than 10,000 young people against their country's Communist leadership. And in June, Iranian opposition supporters angry over presidential election results used Twitter and other forms of new media to share news on rallies, police crackdowns on protesters, and analysis.

With the authorities blocking text-messaging on cellphones, Twitter has become a handy alternative for information-hungry Iranians. While Iran has also tried to block Twitter posts, Iranians are skilled at using proxy sites or other methods to circumvent the official barriers.

On June 15, a State Department official e-mailed Twitter to request a delay in scheduled maintenance of its global network, which would have cut off service while Iranians were using Twitter to swap information and inform the outside world about the mushrooming protests around Tehran.

Twitter complied with the request and briefly postponed its upgrade. The episode demonstrates the extent to which the Obama administration views social networking as a new diplomatic tool. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talks regularly about the power of e-diplomacy, particularly in places where the mass media are repressed.

Twitter was also in the news in July, when a hacker made internal company documents public after breaking into an employee's e-mail account. And in August, it was shut down for much of a day by a two-pronged cyberattack that security experts said was aimed at a blogger from the Republic of Georgia; it was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the 2008 conflict between Georgia and Russia.


Source: nytimes.com

By AP / MARCIA DUNN
rocket moves slowly to launch pad 39B from the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009
John Raoux / AP

(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) — NASA's lofty new rocket arrived at the launching pad Tuesday for a test flight next week that comes at a time when the future of the country's spaceflight program is up in the air.

It's the first time in 34 years that a rocket other than the space shuttle has stood at Launch Pad 39-B. NASA modified the pad for this rocket, which is supposed to eventually carry astronauts to the moon.

But the White House may scrap those plans. A panel of aerospace experts that provided President Barack Obama with a list of possible exploration options is issuing its final report later this week.

The experimental Ares I rocket — taller than the Statue of Liberty — spent all night traveling from the hangar to the pad. The four-mile trip took more than seven hours.

The test vehicle will blast off next Tuesday on a 2 1/2-minute ballistic flight to demonstrate how the partial first stage performs. It's costing NASA $445 million.

Thin and exceptionally tall at 327 feet, the Ares I-X looks like what will carry astronauts into orbit, possibly by 2015. But much of it is a mock-up, and no person or payload will be on board.

The shuttle, by contrast, is 184 feet tall. The Saturn V rockets that carried men to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s were a record-setting 363 feet.

Shuttle program manager John Shannon said the Ares I-X is safe enough to launch even though Atlantis is just 1 1/2 miles away on the other pad. The impact zone if there is a launch explosion "just barely clips by" the pad holding Atlantis, he said.

He noted that there's proven technology in the Ares' first-stage booster. It's the same type of solid rocket booster used to propel space shuttles.

The booster will parachute into the Atlantic and be retrieved for analysis. The rest of the rocket — all false pieces weighted with ballast — will crash, uncontrolled, into the ocean.

The rocket is rigged with hundreds of sensors.

"My personal opinion is that if we really thought that I-X was going to have a problem, that we're not ready to launch it, even on a test flight," Shannon said late last week.

Atlantis, meanwhile, is scheduled to lift off Nov. 16 on a delivery mission to the International Space Station. On Monday, NASA delayed the shuttle flight four days to improve the chances of launching the Ares I-X next week. The same team at Kennedy Space Center will handle both launches.

"It's neat to see where we're going next, what the next step will be, and that when we stop flying the shuttle at some future point, that it's not the end, but we'll have the beginning," Atlantis' commander Charles Hobaugh said from the shuttle pad.

Six shuttle flights remain, all to the space station, and should be completed by the end of next year.