j a m s h a i d

Forbes Reports Billionaire Boom

2006-03-10T11:20:00.000+04:00

A worldwide economic boom has yielded a record number of dollar billionaires in the past year, according to Forbes.

Their number rose by 15% to 793 with India taking the lead in Asia and new Russians lining up to fill the gap left by jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Microsoft’s Bill Gates tops the list for the 12th year running at a net worth of $50bn (£29bn).

The combined net worth of the 793 is $2.6 trillion and US billionaires account for just under half the amount.

TOP FIVE BILLIONAIRES

Bill Gates (USA, Microsoft) - $ 50bn
Warren Buffett (USA, investor) - $42bn
Carlos Slim (Mexico, industrialist) - $30bn
Ingvar Kamprad (Sweden, Ikea) - $28bn
Lakshmi Mittal (India, steel) $23.5bn

“A billion just isn’t what it used to be,” said Luisa Kroll, Forbes magazine’s associate editor, revealing the 20th annual list in New York.

But she noted the figures were conservative estimates for different reasons.

A very positive spreadsheet could indicate a desire to sell a business, she told reporters, while somebody about to divorce might seek to downplay their worth.

According to the 2006 list:

the youngest billionaire is a Lebanese woman, 22-year-old Hind Hariri, who inherited $1.4bn from her assassinated father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri
India’s 23 billionaires have a combined net worth of $99bn, surpassing former Asian leader Japan’s 27 billionaires with their total worth of $67bn
Russia’s 33 billionaires now have a combined wealth of $172bn, based largely on oil and gas prices, compared to a total of $68bn for oil-rich Saudi Arabia’s 11 billionaires.

‘Whiff of inflation’

“Russia continues to astound us,” said Ms Kroll, as seven new billionaires were recorded from that country.

Khodorkovsky, the former Yukos chief executive convicted of fraud and tax evasion last year, is now in a Siberian prison which allows its inmates to earn less than a dollar a day.

However, Forbes estimates he “still has somewhere below $500m”, said Ms Kroll.

While New York has the highest number of resident billionaires with 40, Moscow is second with 25, and London comes third with 23.

Steve Forbes, Forbes’ chief executive and editor-in-chief, attributed the global rise in the number of billionaires to an economic boom.

“The global economy has been growing the last two years at rates not seen since World War II, fuelled by a commodities boom with a whiff of inflation,” he said.

Source: Forbes
Via: BBC News

"How to use Outlook to backup your Gmail account"

2006-03-09T23:41:00.000+04:00

With all the recent talk of Gmail accounts being deleted, this is a very helpful guide that you can use to easily backup your Gmail.

To use your Gmail e-mail account in Outlook, you must first make sure POP3 support is enabled in Gmail, and then you can add it to Outlook.

Log in to your Gmail account
At the top of any Gmail page, click Settings
In the Mail Settings window, click Forwarding and POP
In the POP Download section, select Enable POP or all mail or Enable POP only for mail that arrives from now on
Click Save Settings.

Next, we’re going to configure Outlook:

In Outlook, on the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts
Click Add a new e-mail account, and then click Next
Click POP3, and then click Next.

Under User Information, do the following:

In the Your Name box, type your full name the way you want it to appear to other people
In the E-mail Address box, type your e-mail user name followed by @gmail.com

Under Server Information, do the following:

In the Incoming mail server (POP3) box, type pop.gmail.com
In the Outgoing mail server (SMTP) box, type smtp.Gmail.com

Under Logon Information, do the following:

In the User Name box, type your full e-mail address, including @gmail.com
In the Password box, type your password
Select the Remember password check box

Click More Settings

On the General tab, under Mail Account, type Gmail
Click the Outgoing Server tab, and then select the My outgoing server (SMTP)
requires authentication check box
Select Use same settings as my incoming mail server
Click the Advanced tab, and then under Server Port Numbers for both Incoming server (POP3) and Outgoing server (SMTP), select the This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL) check boxes
Change the Outgoing server (SMTP) port number to 465
The Incoming server (POP3) port number should change automatically to 995 when you select the This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL) check box
Click OK

To verify that your account is working, click Test Account Settings. If there is missing or incorrect information, such as your password, you will be prompted to supply or correct it. Make sure your computer is connected to the Internet.

Click Next, and then click Finish.

Notes * Do not select the Log on using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) check box. * Unless specified by Gmail, all server and address entries are typed in lowercase letters.

(via Microsoft)

Now, you’ll want to export all those emails you just downloaded into one singly, tidy file:

1. On the File menu, click Import and Export. 2. Click Export to a file, and then click Next. 3. In the list, click Personal Folder File (.pst), and then click Next. 4. Click the folder that contains the messages you want to back up. If the folder contains a subfolder that you want to include, select the Include Subfolders check box, and then click Next. 5. Under Save exported file as, click Browse, and then specify a name and location for your backup file, for example, Mail Backup. 6. If you back up a .pst file that you have backed up to before, click one of the following:

Replace duplicates with items exported Existing data will be overwritten with the information in the file being exported. Allow duplicate items to be created Existing data will not be overwritten, and duplicate information will be added to the backup file. Do not export duplicate items Existing data will be kept, and the duplicate information in the folder will not be copied to the backup file. 7. Click Finish.

(via Microsoft)

Now, go to Box.net, and set up a free online storage space (1GB is free, and 15GB is for a nominal fee). In all likelihood, your .pst email backup file is less than 1GB. Simply upload this file to your Box.net account. Your Gmail backup is now safe and you can now forever access it and load it into Outlook the event of a horrific Google crash.

Source: Betapundit

The 4th Dimension

2006-03-09T16:19:00.000+04:00

The Tesseract (or HyperCube) is mathematical prediction of what cube might look like in 4D Space. An old story tells us how to keep our money safe from robber that exists only in two dimensions (sheet of paper): simply just put it in square safe. 2D robber won't be able to reach it... but if another 3D cruck wanted the gold, he would simply take the gold out of the sqaure not even touching the safe walls. On the other hand, to keep gold out of reach from 3D robber you would need a cube safebox with walls on all 6 sides...now the gold is secure.. but imagine another robber bursting from 4th dimesnion just to steal our gold! He would be able to take the gold from inside the box safe bypassing all the walls, simply taking the gold from inside. In this situation hypecube safebox would become usefull, if we had one... Hardly imaginable, but here are few explanations how to understand 4D cube mathematics, or simply view or rotate your own Hypercube or other 4d structures.

Strange Crustacean Discovered

2006-03-09T00:24:00.000+04:00

Scientists just announced the discovery of this strange new crustacean 900 miles south of Easter Island. According to a report in the journal of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, divers first found the creature last year at a depth of 7,540 feet. From the Associated Press:
Scientists said the animal, which they named Kiwa hirsuta, was so distinct from other species that they created a new family and genus for it. The animal is white and just shy of 6 inches long — about the size of a salad plate.

In what (the French Institute for Sea Exploration's Michel) Segonzac described as a "surprising characteristic," the animal's pincers are covered with sinuous, hair-like strands.

It is also blind. The researchers found it had only "the vestige of a membrane" in place of eyes, Segonzac said.

Links

Blackberry/Treo Killer: Nokia E62

2006-03-08T10:42:00.000+04:00

(Picture is of E61)

Features:

runs on Symbian 9.1 and S60 3.0
both GPRS and EDGE for data
GSM bands 850/1900
Bluetooth 1.2
screen is 240x320, 256,000 colors, TFT
miniUSB instead of Nokia’s usual PopPort
Push email (like the Blackberry)
USB Mass Storage Mode, so you can mount your phone as a hard drive
QuickOffice for viewing/editing Word/Excel/Powerpoint
Screen Export feature lets you run Powerpoint presentations off the E62 with compatible projectors

[ Read More ]

Jet-Powered VW Beetle

2006-03-08T10:22:00.000+04:00

Ron Patrick wanted a VW Beetle with a jet engine (hey, who doesn't?). But he also wanted to be able to drive it on the open road, rather than just on a closed airport runway surrounded by fire engines and EMT crews. His solution? A dual-engine vehicle, with a normal VW motor for day-to-day transportation, and a GE T58-8F helicopter turboshaft engine converted to run as a jet, to get through rush-hour traffic. All we know is we don't want to be caught behind Patrick when he flips the switch on this one. That, and how much will he charge to add this little trick to our ride?

Source: Engadget

Finally: Real Origami Photo!

2006-03-08T00:57:00.000+04:00

runs a “variant” of Windows XP (and can run other x86-compatible operating systems)
7-inch screen
Price? “Under a $1,000.”

Microsoft Alexandria? Origami?

2006-03-08T00:51:00.000+04:00

Click on the below picture of Origami (not confirmed) and you will notice an icon labelled "Alexandria" on the top right of the device's desktop, also on the right side of the current window title bar.

Is it another secretive Microsoft product or something related to Windows Media Video subscription system used in Vongo?

1GB USB 2.0 Watch

2006-03-08T00:24:00.000+04:00

Features of the Mr.Gadget 1GB USB 2.0 Executive Watch (Limited Edition):

- 1GB Data Capacity
- Ultra fast USB 2.0 data transfer rate, USB 1.0 compatible
- Stainless Steel construction
- Japanese Citizen Precision Movement
- USB cable included
- Plug and Play with most Windows and MAC operating systems
- 5 year warranty

System requirements of the Mr.Gadget 1GB USB 2.0 Executive Watch:

- IBM compatible Desk PC, Notebook PC, Mac
- USB port: Support USB version 1.1 or 2.0
- Hard Disk Free Space: approximately 10MB
- OS Support: Win 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP, Mac OS

Want to Buy? Go to Mr.Gadget
or try Amazon.com: Hot Watch Deals

Origami Photo

2006-03-07T15:01:00.000+04:00

Also See: Origami Update

8GB Samsung cell-phone

2006-03-07T10:18:00.000+04:00

Samsung will launch a Windows Mobile cell-phone that packs an 8G-byte hard-disk drive, hitting European markets in the second half of 2006, the company has said.

The SGH-i310 is a candy-bar form factor handset that looks similar to the i300 hard-disk drive phone launched by Samsung last year.

That phone was centred around mobile music and the new handset also includes a music player in addition to dual speakers, an amplifier and Bluetooth stereo link. The music player supports the MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV and Ogg music file formats.

Other features include a 2-megapixel digital camera, Bluetooth printing and a video output connector. [ Read More ]

How Quick is Your Mind?

2006-03-07T10:14:00.000+04:00

Try this test to find out: Cognitivelabs

Sony's PS3 delayed

2006-03-07T10:04:00.000+04:00

What?

"the console would likely not be available in the US until early 2007, following a holiday launch in Asia."

why?

"An article in Variety claims that issues relating to the chips controlling the Blu-ray drive are causing the delay."

and?

"Xbox 360 console would be a year ahead of its largest competitor, which could be a problem for Sony", Sony deserves it, how long do I have to wait for it?

[ Read More ]

Just 30minutes to hack Mac OS X

2006-03-07T09:53:00.000+04:00

Gaining root access to a Mac is "easy pickings," according to an individual who won an OS X hacking challenge last month by gaining root control of a machine using an unpublished security vulnerability.

On Feb. 22, the Sweden-based Mac enthusiast set up his Mac Mini as a server and invited hackers to break through the computer's security and gain root control, which would allow the attacker to take charge of the computer and delete files and folders or install applications.

Participants were given local client access to the target computer and invited to try their luck.

Within hours of going live, the "rm-my-mac" competition was over. The challenger posted this message on his Web site: "This sucks. Six hours later, this poor little Mac was owned, and this page got defaced."

The hacker who won the challenge, who asked ZDNet Australia to identify him only as "Gwerdna," said he gained root control of the Mac in less than 30 minutes. [ Read More ]

"Strange Google Links"

2006-03-07T02:32:00.000+04:00

The other day while I was procrastinating from doing things I should have been, I found several interesting google links I have never seen before...

http://www.google.com/intl/xx-hacker/why_use.html

http://www.google.com/intl/xx-hacker/

This one is strange, everything is in "hacker speak" , and all the links work and keep that same encoding of the words...

http://www.google.com/3.html

This one is just old. It makes reference to indexing 3 billion pages. Rumor has it they are way passed that number.

http://www.google.com/lucky.html

Reminiscent of the old google, I'm not really sure what this one is.

http://www.google.com/default.reg

http://www.google.com/google_rsearch.reg

These two are just strange because they are registry files for internet explorer settings. I wouldn't expect to see that in the google root directory.

http://www.google.com/ig/currentcomm/current_links_module.html

This one is only interesting because of the reference to the online file backup account...

http://www.google.com/ig/current

This is funny because this looks like their new customized home page...

http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=km&tab=di&ie=UTF-8

This is another interesting encoding of the google page

http://www.google.com/sitemap.xml

Maybe this isn't a big deal, but I was surprised to see this xml sitemap in their root.

http://www.google.com/mozilla/google.xul2

I have never seen this before, so I thought it was strange. Looks like it is for a mobile device or something...

http://www.google.com/ie_rsearch.html

This one looks like what shows up in the IE sidebar at times. Maybe thats what the above one was for too?

http://code.google.com/webstats/2005-12/elements.html

If you like numbers, I just thought this was an interesting break-down of the pages they index and elements of those pages.

http://www.google.com/moms/

http://www.google.com/moms01/

http://www.google.com/googlefriends/may1998.html

http://www.google.com/translate_t

http://www.google.com/googleviewer/loading.html

http://www.google.com/ig/resetprefs.html

These don't really do anything, just interesting or strange pages I found.

update:

Here are some more weird languages, thx Tekai for this

http://www.google.com/intl/xx-bork/

http://www.google.com/intl/xx-elmer/

http://www.google.com/intl/xx-piglatin/

Source: The guy who sent it to me & pipesnetwork

Oscars 2006 Winners!

2006-03-07T02:28:00.001+04:00

Best picture

Winner: Crash

Brokeback Mountain

Good Night, and Good Luck

Munich

Capote

Best director

Winner: Ang Lee - Brokeback Mountain

Steven Spielberg - Munich

Paul Haggis - Crash

Bennett Miller - Capote

George Clooney - Good Night, and Good Luck

Best original screenplay

Winner: Crash

Good Night, and Good Luck

Match Point

The Squid and the Whale

Syriana

Best adapted screenplay

Winner: Brokeback Mountain

Capote

The Constant Gardener

A History of Violence

Munich

Best actress

Winner: Reese Witherspoon - Walk the Line

Dame Judi Dench - Mrs Henderson Presents

Felicity Huffman - Transamerica

Charlize Theron - North Country

Keira Knightley - Pride and Prejudice

Best cinematography

Winner: Memoirs of a Geisha

Batman Begins

Brokeback Mountain

Goodnight, and Good Luck

The New World

Best actor

Winner: Philip Seymour Hoffman - Capote

David Strathairn - Good Night, and Good Luck

Heath Ledger - Brokeback Mountain

Joaquin Phoenix - Walk the Line

Terrence Howard - Hustle and Flow

Best film editing

Winner: Crash

Cinderella Man

The Constant Gardener

Munich

Walk The Line

Best foreign language film

Winner: Tsotsi (South Africa)

Don't Tell (Italy)

Joyeux Noel (France)

Paradise Now (Palestinian territories)

Sophie Scholl - The Final Days (Germany)

Sound editing

Winner: King Kong

Memoirs of a Geisha

War of the Worlds

Best music (song)

Winner: It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp - Hustle and Flow

In the Deep - Crash

Travelin' Thru - Transamerica

Lifetime Achievement Award

Director and writer Robert Altman

Best sound mixing

Winner: King Kong

The Chronicles of Narnia, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Memoirs of a Geisha

Walk The Line

War of the Worlds

Best music (score)

Winner: Brokeback Mountain

The Constant Gardener

Memoirs of a Geisha

Munich

Pride and Prejudice

Best art direction

Winner: Memoirs of a Geisha

Goodnight, and Good Luck

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

King Kong

Pride and Prejudice

Best documentary feature

Winner: March of the Penguins

Darwin's Nightmare

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Murderball

Street Fight

Best documentary short subject

Winner: A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club

God Sleeps in Rwanda

The Mushroom Club

Best supporting actress

Winner: Rachel Weisz - The Constant Gardener

Michelle Williams - Brokeback Mountain

Frances McDormand - North Country

Amy Adams - Junebug

Catherine Keener - Capote

Best make-up

Winner: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Cinderella Man

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

Best costume design

Winner: Memoirs of a Geisha

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Mrs Henderson Presents

Pride and Prejudice

Walk The Line

Best animated short film

Winner: The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation

Badgered

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello

9

One Man Band

Best short film

Winner: Six Shooter

Ausreisser (The Runaway)

Cashback

The Last Farm

Our Time is Up

Best animated feature film

Winner: Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Howl's Moving Castle

Corpse Bride

Best visual effects

Winner: King Kong

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

War of the Worlds

Best supporting actor

Winner: George Clooney - Syriana

Jake Gyllenhaal - Brokeback Mountain

Paul Giamatti - Cinderella Man

Matt Dillon - Crash

William Hurt - A History of Violence

Origami Update

2006-03-07T02:28:00.000+04:00

Here are the latest updates about Origami:

origami will indeed be a Mobile PC running Windows XP

origami will run XP Tablet PC Edition.

will be unveiled at the Cebit technology fair that takes place in Hanover, Germany from 9-15 March.

will use Intel chips

the actual device will look more like the basic black box that Microsoft showed off at WinHEC last year (pictured above)

Intel is scheduled to unveil more details on 7 March at its Developer Forum in San Francisco.

expected to cost less than $1,000

Related Post: Portable Media Device: Origami

Product sites: Origami Project

Intel Origami Website

A List Of Excellent Free Game Downloads

2006-03-07T02:27:00.001+04:00

Adventures of Fatman: An excellent and well-produced adventure game, in the style of the old Lucasarts ones. Recently released as freeware.

Beneath a Steel Sky: Created by Revolution Software back in 1994 for the Amiga and the PC and based on Dave Gibbons' artistic vision, this is a perfect free download. A cult classic nonetheless.

Room War: A very small first person flyer-shooter, that (in my case at least) proved to be extremely addictive. Decent 3d graphics and a lot of Alienware-advertising textures.

Porrasturvat: Throw people off a stair. A production that is considered an absolute classic, as long as you know what scene, the demoscene is.

Grand Theft Auto: Yes, the same that spawned the GTA: San Andreas smash hit. It is offered for free, along with GTA2 and Wild Metal, by the beautiful, magnificent, generous and over-all good guys of Rockstar!

Cedric and the Revolution: An adventure. Follow the link, read the review and (if interested) download it. Simple as that.

Halo Zero: HALO in 2d? Yes. HALO in 2d. Oldschool gaming with a French contemporary touch...

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The best and funniest text adventure ever created, was written by the late and much beloved Douglas Adams, and is offered in an enhanced and free version by the BBC.

The Ur-Quan Masters: This is basically the classic Star Control 2, only enhanced and with much better graphics (and deeper storyline etc). The name-change was due to legal reasons. Of course.

Dofus is a MMO. Almost a MMORPG, but more tactical, thus a MMOTRPG. Still, it looks great, plays better and it's free.

Air Hockey: Obvious. Air Hockey.

Cirque de Zale: A 2d, 3rd person point-and-click adventure. Very good humor, nice graphics and quite easy. Very easy actually. Still a weird, funny little game.

Heroquest: The old (classic some might argue) MB and Games Workshop board game on PC. Quite entertaining and doesn't cost a thing.

FreeCiv: Remember Civilization 4? Well, FreeCiv isn't nearly as good, looks dated and simple, but it's free. And it is Civ (FreeCiv, but still...)

War Rock: Shoot people in the head.

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory: Shoot more people in the head.

Bloom: Be a flower! Or something like that, in a beautiful and innovative game.

Dink Smallwood: The well known freeware, zelda-like RPG. Formerly a commercial game.

Hacker: Be a Hacker in a (I believe, I guess, I don't really know) rather realistic game.

Star Wraith 2: A space shooter created in Dark Basic. Rather basic, but good fun. They actually used to sell this game(!). Apparently a Star Wraith 1 must have existed too.

Apprentice: Already reviewed by me. Read the review. Then enjoy it (the game that is, not the review, which is quite enjoyable too. Anyway. You know what I mean...)

S.W.I.N.E.: I guess most people refer to it as SWINE, and believe it is a very good RTS(for a freeware at least).

Defender of the Crown: The old arcade-strategy-action classic by Cinemaware, is now being brought back to you by Cinemaware. Wow!

Eye of the Kraken: An amazing, strange and funny-at-times 3rd person adventure. It's a full blown former-commercial production.

No-Action Jackson: Another adventure, only not a professional one. It is excellent though. Great cartoon graphics, good dialog, good jokes, Lucasarts style and a plot that has to do with (pen and paper) RPGs.

Anarchy Online: The well known commercial, contemporary MMORPG. Well, part of it is free. Go play with the big boys.

DOOM, the roguelike: Combine ascii graphics, Rogue dungeon-based gameplay and the Doom atmosphere and this is what you get.

T2002: Or, to be more precise, Turrican 2002. Get it? Go get it now!

Source: gnomeslair

Apple iPod Hi-Fi Review

2006-03-07T02:27:00.000+04:00

PCMAG.COM has reviewed Apple iPod Hi-Fi and has a 4.5.

Click here to read the review.

The Man With The Amazing Brain

2006-03-07T02:25:00.001+04:00

I was astonished to read about Tammet. He can recite the number Pi to its 22514th digit !.

Below is an article about him and his abilities from Wikipedia.

Daniel Paul Tammet (born January 31, 1979) is a British autistic gifted with a facility for mathematics problems, sequence memory, and natural language learning.

He was born with congenital childhood epilepsy. His autism was a result of a series of seizures as a young child.

Experiencing numbers as colors or sensations is a well-documented form of synaesthesia, but Tammet is unique in how specific his mental imagery of numbers is: he claims that in his mind each number up to 10,000 has its own unique shape and feel, and he can "sense" whether a number is prime or divisible, and "see" results of calculations as landscapes in his head.

Tammet holds the European record for remembering and recounting pi, recounting it in a several-hour session to its 22514th digit. [1]

Professor Allan Snyder at the Australian National University said of Tammet: "Savants can't usually tell us how they do what they do. It just comes to them. Daniel can. He describes what he sees in his head. That's why he's exciting. He could be the Rosetta Stone." He can speak at least English, French, German, Spanish, Lithuanian, Icelandic, and Esperanto. He likes Estonian very much because it is so special and rich in vowels. He has even changed his second name to Estonian-based word Tammet, which comes from the Estonian word Tamm meaning oak. Tammet is making a new language called mänti. Mänti has many features related to Finnish and Estonian.

He was the subject of a documentary in the UK titled The Boy With The Amazing Brain that was broadcast on Five on May 24, 2005 (also broadcast under the title "Brain Man"). It showed highlights of his feat of recalling pi as well as his meeting with Kim Peek, another individual who is famous for having savant skills. In one emotional moment of the show, Peek hugged Tammet and told him "some day you may be as brilliant as me."

Tammet claims he can learn a new language within a week. For the documentary film about him, Tammet was challenged to learn Icelandic. Within seven days he was conversing well enough in Icelandic to undergo a live television interview about his skills, and chat freely with the hosts. He is a keen and improving golfer. [Read More]

Porsche unveils fastest car yet

2006-03-07T02:25:00.000+04:00

"The sixth-generation 911, which with its 3.6 litre engine delivers 480bhp, is set to go on sale in June for 115,000 euros ($138,000; £79,000)."

Dubai is on limelight

2006-03-07T02:24:00.002+04:00

There's more than one Dubai drama playing out on the world stage these days. Besides the fracas over whether U.S. ports should be overseen by Dubai Ports World (see BW Online, 3/6/06, "The Real Shipping News") the emirate is gaining widespread attention and generating buzz in architecture, design, and real-estate circles. Dubai, one of the seven United Arab Emirates, is engaged in a building boom of epic proportions.

By the beginning of the next decade, relatively tiny Dubai -- it's smaller than Canada's Prince Edward Island, and has a population of about 1.4 million citizens -- will be home to an astonishing number of superlative architectural projects. These include Earth's tallest skyscraper, the first luxury underwater hotel, and a man-made archipelago of private, residential islands (yes, the biggest development of its kind) that will resemble a map of the world when seen from above.

Most of Dubai's ambitious building projects are in planning or early construction stages. The emirate's current skyline is dotted with cranes. According to the most recent study published by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Dubai's construction and building sector contributes 12.2% of the emirate's non-oil GDP and has grown annually at an average rate of 27%.

......[ Read more ]

Don't forget to check the slideshow

Source: Business Week

IE7

2006-03-07T02:24:00.001+04:00

Check out the Internet Explorer 7 website: http://www.ie7.com/

A great idea :)

Firefox rocks !

update 3/4/06: Firefox gets 150 million downloads

Info About PS3

2006-03-07T02:24:00.000+04:00

Sony had said that PS3 will be released in this spring but little is known about it. I am sure many others like me who are planning to buy one would like to know more about its features and costs.

I found a very informative article at 1UP.com which sheds some light about Sony's PlayStation 3. It contains details about the system itself, the speculations and the games of PS3.

Link: http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3148332&did=1

Download Thousands Of Songs, LEGALLY

2006-03-07T02:23:00.001+04:00

"StationRipper^TM allows you to Record Internet Radio Stations and broadcasts."

Pros about it

Splits up internet radio songs to single MP3 files

naming by bandname and song name

Downloads album art.

Can search for songs and bands that stations have been playing.

Fast connections can get thousands of songs a day.

Cons

quality is relatively not good

low bit rates, most stations doesn't exceed 128bps

the program can't figure out the beginning and end of songs

all stations doesn't release ID3 song info

Is it really legal as they claim, after all we are copying songs from the radio stations without any permision? It's same as downloading songs from P2P networks. But few care anyways about its legality.

If you want to try click here to download it.

Amateurs Crack German WWII Ciphers

2006-03-07T02:23:00.000+04:00

One of the three unsolved complex ciphers encoded by a new version of German Enigma machine in 1942 has been cracked by online amateur cryptologists. It has been solved using a code breaking-software run on a grid of home computers linked through internet. This attempt was started by Stephen krah who is interested in cryptography and open source software. The project named "Project M4" by Krah has 2,500 participants now.

The encrypted cipher which doesn't make any sense is,

"NCZW VUSX PNYM INHZ XMQX SFWX WLKJ AHSH NMCO CCAK UQPM KCSM HKSE INJU SBLK IOSX CKUB HMLL XCSJ USRR DVKO HULX WCCB GVLI YXEO AHXR HKKF VDRE WEZL XOBA FGYU JQUK GRTV UKAM EURB VEKS UHHV OYHA BCJW MAKL FKLM YFVN RIZR VVRT KOFD ANJM OLBG FFLE OPRG TFLV RHOW OPBE KVWM UQFM PWPA RMFH AGKX IIBG"

and the cracked cipher after translation to English is very informative,

"Forced to submerge during attack. Depth charges. Last enemy position 0830h AJ 9863, [course] 220 degrees, [speed] 8 knots. [I am] following [the enemy]. [barometer] falls 14 mb, [wind] nor-nor-east, [force] 4, visibility 10 [nautical miles]."

It is believed that Enigma machine was "the backbone of German military and intelligence communication". During the war, British team of codebreakers based in Bletchley Park were trying to decipher Enigma ciphers. They decoded thousands of these encrypted messages using early computers inorder to "head off U-boat attacks.

The unsolved cipher no.2 is,

"TMKF NWZX FFII YXUT IHWM DHXI FZEQ VKDV MQSW BQND YOZF TIWM JHXH YRPA CZUG RREM VPAN WXGT KTHN RLVH KZPG MNMV SECV CKHO INPL HHPV PXKM BHOK CCPD PEVX VVHO ZZQB IYIE OUSE ZNHJ KWHY DAGT XDJD JKJP KCSD SUZT QCXJ DVLP AMGQ KKSH PHVK SVPC BUWZ FIZP FUUP"

You can join the deciphering team in the Project M4 by allowing your computer to be used by the project.

I am always fascinated by cryptography and infact I attempted to make a program which would encrypt a message. I know the real cryptography involves lots of mathematics but I used a very simple method. Here is the screenshot of it:

The cryptogram of this line looks something like this;

UAO1#19A:1Z1/0DAW1[CT0[1>B;1D1SBEA41BBBB

LAX1Z0@060?0,1FCMB&AQA@1*1JCT0?1UA"1,1=CK0K

1^AV1M1W121BA2A,1V1(A*1]1.AQ1-17CMB4A 030&AZ0A060!B:B+BE1&AQBGB+A^C:1+C,0K0T1J1 0G0>1(1R1JB]A*C/BYA50RAFB(1N0!060PB]B$BZ1

(A-B-1IC]0)AB050CCCBB140X0BA7B8A$C0J1:1)1EB

+ACC=0,0AAE050=0.BGB2B,1:A1!AWB,0,C-CBA+1]

1DB-000\B6AA1K19A-1TCDB-0,0$C%A.B20!B^BCA

Can anybody decipher this?;

MAG1%1AA(1G1.13B7AL0YA$1J1C0,A70GA>CRBV1)1TC?A\

0N1KC!AUA*C218A(121AC

A/AI1/1VA#161"1-0[AH0DB)CZA5ACB1A

0F0#0MC*CQBQ121=070O1*C.0,0+0NC4C/BF0]B9A!C"0T0R

C4C4B]1-C"B,15BKA[05B%A+C#C"B$0KBJA

A$C+BF000NBDA*C&CZA

W1^0=BZAQ0)0LB1ACC*C=BE1:1'A$BZBIA8C:1ZC+05AN0\

0ACXB/1K1?0W0S1J141 1MCN0(BF1J1906C41OAM0;0>

0&C91K0/0(B5CUA!0202B%C

QB'A116B1A!0&0Y0CC

Underwater Photos

2006-03-07T02:22:00.000+04:00

Amazing underwater photos by Jean Philippe Trenque, winner of BBC's Photographer of the year 2005.

Tiny Mandarin Fish

Swirling Shoal

Shark

Lionfish preying on Glassfish

What Is Love?

2006-03-07T02:21:00.001+04:00

Love is...

Being happy for the other person when they are happy.

Being sad for the other person when they are sad.

Being together in good times and bad times.

Love is the source of strength.

Love is...

Being honest with yourself at all times.

Being honest with the other person at all times.

Telling, listening, respecting the truth and never pretending.

Love is the source of reality.

Love is...

An understanding which is so complete,

That you feel as if you are a part of the other person.

Accepting the other person just the way they are

And not trying to change them to be someone else.

Love is the source of unity.

Love is...

The freedom to purse your own desires,

while sharing your experiences with the other person.

The growth of one individual along side of

and together with the growth of another individual.

Love is the source of success.

Love is...

The excitement of planning things together.

The excitement of doing things together.

Love is the source of the future.

Love is...

The fury of the storm.

The calm of the rainbow.

Love is the source of passion.

Love is...

Giving and taking in daily situation.

Being patient with each other needs and desires.

Love is the source of sharing.

Love is...

Knowing that the other person will always be with you,

regardless of what happens.

Missing the other person when they are away,

but remaining near in the heart at all times.

love is the source of security.

LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE

Rare Giant Squid Caught

2006-03-07T02:21:00.000+04:00

A giant squid measuring 8.62m is on display at London's Natural History Museum after being caught by a trawler off the coast of Falkland Islands. Such huge squids are very rare and are found at ocean "depths of 200-1000m". Largest squid ever seen measured 18.5m and was found in 1880. They can weigh as much as 1000kg.

Source: BBC News: Giant squid grabs London audience

Study more about squids at Wikipedia

Gates Unveils Vista Editions

2006-03-07T02:20:00.001+04:00

There will be six different versions of Windows Vista (previous code name Longhorn) which is expected to be launched by end of 2006. The versions are organised by what you are planning to do with your computer. So they are:

Vista Business

Vista Enterprise

Vista Home Basic

Vista Home Premium

Vista Ultimate

Vista Starter

Vista Ultimate is my choice, because it has all the features of Home and Business editions all in one package. I am planning to lots of stuff my computer, so this the perfect choice for me. Although, I am also thinking to install a version of Linux in my PC for practicing programming in C++ but don't know which one would be the best for a newbie like me.

By the way, I used to be a PROGRAMMER. I used to program in Visual Basic 6.0, made a couple of programs and then realized how limited it is so I started learning C++. Had to stop because of my O Level exams. After the exams I don't know why I didn't resume and lost interest. Hopefully I will resume after installing Linux and programme in that.

Links: Windows Vista Website

The Godfather: The Game

2006-03-07T02:20:00.000+04:00

I have seen the GodFather movie more than 4 times and still would like to watch it again. I love that movie. I become very happy to know that the company Electronic Arts (EA) who has developed game of The Godfather, is going to release it on 21 march in US and 24 march in Uk. I hope to get it and start playing as soon as possible.

The game has 130 venues, you can personalize the main character to look like you and 75% of the game is based on the movie. 15% on the orginal novel and the rest on additional materials.

It is an "interactive remake of the classic movie" and the user takes the role of mobster and gradually works his way up to the ranks of the Corleone family.

Sounds very good.....

My other favourite games are:

Hitman Contracts

Half Life 1 & 2

Counter Strike

Call of Duty 1 & 2

Battle Field 2

Freedom Fighter

NFS Most Wanted (currently playing, trying to beat rival no.4)

Link: The Godfather: The Game website

Click here to read more about it.

Best Moments In Life

2006-03-07T02:19:00.001+04:00

To fall in love.

To laugh until it hurts your stomach.

To manage for a vacation at some pretty place.

To listen to your favorite song in the radio.

To go to bed and to listen while it rains out.

To leave the shower and find that the towel is warm.

To clear your last exam.

To find money in a pant that you didn't use last year.

To laugh without reasons.

To hear accidentally that somebody says something good of you.

To wake up and realize it is still possible to sleep a couple of hours.

To hear a song that makes you remember a special reason.

To make new friends.

To be part of a team.

The first kiss.

To feel butterflies in the stomach every time that you see that person.

To pass a while with your best friends.

To see people that you like, feeling happy.

To use a sweater of the person that you like.

See an old friend again and to feel that the things didn't change.

To have somebody that tells you that he/she loves you

Birdflu

2006-03-07T02:19:00.000+04:00

Look At This Lucky Guy !

2006-03-07T02:18:00.000+04:00

Once again, about sleep.

This vitnamese man has never slept - not once for the past 33 years. But he is not using any drugs, which I mentioned in my earlier post. It happened after he got a fever in 1973. He is suffering from insomnia, or lets say he is "benefiting" than "suffering". He lives a healthy life, does more work than others and he is famous too! (dubbed as "creature of the night")

Read more about it: http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=12673

Some beautiful sayings

2006-03-07T02:14:00.000+04:00

Today a good friend of mine sent me these nice sayings about life. Enjoy reading them:

Never tell your problems to anyone...20% don't care and the other 80% are glad you have them. -Lou Holtz

Never explain yourself. Your friends dont need it and your enemies wont believe it. -Belgicia Howell

Forgive your enemies, but never, never forget their names.-John F. Kennedy

You must experience and accept the extremes. Because if the contrast is lost, you lose appreciation; and when you lose appreciation, you lose the value of everything. -Philippos

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. -Ann Landers

Being sad with the right people is better than

being happy with the wrong ones.-Philippos

Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too. -Will Smith

If your problem has a solution then...why worry about it? If your problem doesnt have solution then...why worry about it? -Chinese Proverb

Laugh when you can, apologize when you should, and let go of what you can't change. Kiss slowly, play hard, forgive quickly, take chances, give everything and have no regrets. Life's too short to be anything but happy

The ultimate measure of man is not where

he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Pain never really goes away; you just elevate and get used to it by growing stronger. -Philippos

You have to take the good with the bad, smile with the sad, love what you've got, remember what you had, learn from your mistakes, but never regret, people change, things go wrong, but remember life goes on!

Always put yourself in the other's shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the person too.

Sometimes the people who hurt us the most are people who were hurt more than us. -Philippos

Our tears are what happens when it rains deep inside our hearts and we cannot hold the rain any longer. -Philippos

I like to pretend that everything's alright. Because when everybody else thinks you're fine, sometimes you

forget for a while that you're not.

"Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us." -Thomas Paine

The things that made me stronger are the ones that didnt let me sleep at first. -Anonymous

Have a Nice Day......

Leaked Photo of Google Data Storage

2006-03-07T02:12:00.000+04:00

Also Read this: Google Leaks Details of Unlimited Storage

Welcome

2006-02-20T21:09:00.000+04:00

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