Friday, July 13, 2007

Microsoft holds firm on Xbox 360 pricing

Microsoft on Tuesday said it will hold firm on pricing for its Xbox
360 game console, defying widespread expectations that it would respond
to a price cut by rival Sony for the PlayStation 3.

Instead, Microsoft voiced confidence that a slate of upcoming titles
targeting both hard-core and casual gamers would be strong enough to
give it the lion's share of consumer dollars in the coming months.

"We have no desire, no need, to react to anything the competition has done," Shane Kim, head of Microsoft Game Studios, said in an interview.

"We feel really great about the Xbox 360 momentum right now. Customers are voting with their wallets; it's not just about console units. We feel great about how we're doing."

On Monday, Sony cut the price of the PlayStation 3, which competes against the Xbox 360, by $100, or 17 percent, in the United States in an effort to boost flagging sales.

That means the machine, which has a 60-gigabyte hard drive and a
Blu-ray high-definition DVD player, costs $500, or $20 more than the
high-end Xbox 360 Elite that has a 120-gigabyte hard drive but no built-in high-definition DVD player.

Microsoft also has a "premium" Xbox 360 with a 20-gigabyte hard drive
that sells for $400, and a "core" version with no hard drive that costs
$300.

Sony's cut also came days after Microsoft said the number of
broken Xbox 360s was "unacceptable" and that it would book a charge of
up to $1.15 billion for repairs and warranty extensions.

Microsoft also said it had shipped 11.6 million consoles worldwide by the end of June, missing its target of 12 million.

In the United States, Microsoft has sold about 5.8 million consoles, compared to 2.8 million for Nintendo's Wii and 1.4 million for the PS3, according to data from NPD Group.

Kim said the decision not to cut prices was unrelated to Microsoft's
goal of making the Xbox business profitable in its 2008 fiscal year,
which just started.

Since launching the original Xbox in late 2001, Microsoft
has spent billions of dollars fighting Sony's dominance in the industry
yet has shown little, if any, profit.

"It's really not about meeting the profitability goals. We
feel very confident that we'll meet the profit goals with our strategy
that is already in place," Kim said.

Kim pointed to a lineup of games coming out later this year, including Microsoft's highly anticipated Halo 3, Grand Theft Auto IV from Take-Two Interactive Software and Madden NFL 08 from Electronic Arts.

"This year, that perfect storm arrives again," Kim said. "And the Xbox
360 is the only platform you'll be able to play all three of those
titles on."

Microsoft also hopes to attract more casual gamers with two new casual
games for later this year. One is a multiplayer "party game" based on
its "Viva Pinata" franchise, and the other is based on the movie trivia board game "Scene It?"

Nintendo's Wii has outsold the Xbox 360 and PS3 this year due to a design and price aimed at drawing in casual gamers.

Kim also said the Xbox Live online service, which allows players to
compete online and download movies and games, had 7 million users and
would expand to 10 million in one year. He said Walt Disney would start
making some of its movies available on the service.

"Xbox Live continues to just be a huge boulder rolling downhill that is gathering momentum," Kim said.

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Distributed by Hasan Shrek, independence blogger. Also run online business ,internet marketing solution , online store script .
Beside he is  writing some others blogs for notebook computer , computer training , computer software and personal computer

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Changing market for Oracle database debut

New releases of Oracle's core database software come around about as
often as presidential elections. So it's no surprise that the company
is spending a good chunk of Wednesday explaining to the world why its
new 11g software was worth the wait.

Oracle 11g is
focused on supporting fast-moving businesses and the hundreds of
terabytes of data they accumulate, said Bob Shimp, Oracle's vice
president of product marketing. It supports faster application
deployments and is more efficient at using storage than previous
releases, he said.

The database business itself isn't
known for rapid change. Oracle, despite years of work--and many large
acquisitions--intended to build its software applications business,
still draws nearly 70 percent of its revenue from database software, as
it did more than a decade ago.

What has changed is how companies use that software. New drivers for
database sales include more widespread use of imaging--maps, medical
images, photos and videos--that companies continue to accumulate, along
with storage and management of RFID data, said Shimp.

Taken collectively, "content management" is one of the main catalysts
for expanding database sales, said Andy Mendelsohn, senior vice
president of server technologies at Oracle. In 11g, such unstructured
data can be stored and retrieved more quickly than in previous
releases, and it can be encrypted, said Mendelsohn.

Still, there's been lots of hand-wringing this week over whether
Oracle's customers are willing to make the move to 11g. The main Oracle
user group said that of the customers it has surveyed, 35 percent plan
to upgrade within a year of 11g's release, and 53 percent plan to wait
"a few years" until they upgrade.

While those figures may sound low, at least when viewed in comparison
to consumer-focused software, they're actually very high for
big-ticket, complex business software, Mendelsohn says. "Thirty-five
percent in a year is actually about double the rate we've seen with
past releases," he said.

Upgrading database software is a notoriously slow and painful process,
said James Governor, an industry analyst with RedMonk. "There is often
a lag (between database release and adoption), and it depends on the
customer set."

"It's hard for us to predict the upgrade cycle. We're optimistic,"
Oracle's president Charles Phillips said during a press conference on
Wednesday in New York.

Regardless, given Oracle's share of the database software
market--nearly 50 percent according to Gartner--even a relatively low
percentage of upgrades represents big money. Oracle remains the largest
database seller, despite strong competition from Microsoft and IBM.
Open-source alternatives, like MySQL continue to gain ground as well.

"One reason it's great to see the release of 11g is that all the buzz
has been around the new applications-based business model. But the real
heart of the Oracle franchise remains its relational database products.
The database business is paying for a lot of change," said Governor.

Under the covers

Oracle said 11g introduces a number of big changes. One, called Real
Application Testing can shorten the time needed to test new software
applications against the 11g database, and make it easier to get those
applications up and running. "It's a matter of days...versus months and
months today," said Mendelsohn.

While 11g doesn't include a quantum leap in features over previous
releases, it does pack some key advances over 10g, he said. One feature
is compression of all data so that it takes less storage space. Oracle
10g included compression, but not for all data types, Mendelsohn said.
Compression could be an important feature for companies managing large
amounts of imaging data, for instance.

Another feature, called Data Guard, lets companies more easily switch
over to standby copies of data in the event of an system failure.

Oracle didn't immediately announce pricing for 11g. A company
representative said that information would be available within a few
weeks.

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Nintendo wants you to get fit with new game

New Nintendo Wii title encourages exercise: At E3 in Santa Monica, Calif., Nintendo executives show off Wii Fit,
an upcoming game designed to get people on their feet and evaluate
their exercise. The game will come with a new accessory, the Wii
Balance Board, which will measure a player's movements.

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Universal, Google are game for 'Bourne' deal

Web sites,
Search,
Google

Universal Pictures and Google announced a new online game, The Ultimate Search for Bourne with Google,
that uses such Google tools as Search, Maps, Images and YouTube and
serves as a promotional vehicle for the upcoming action feature The Bourne Ultimatum.

The third Bourne film, which stars Matt Damon and opens August 3, features a Google placement.

The game, inspired by all three Bourne
films, launches Monday (July 16) in seven countries and incorporates a
sweepstakes element. Players will assume the identity of a former CIA
operative as they track rogue agent Jason Bourne across three
continents and solve clues that bring them closer to uncovering
Bourne's identity. The game can be played at www.google.com/bourne until the film's release and will include exclusive clips from Bourne Ultimatum.

It is Google's second online game tied to a film release. The first involved Sony Pictures' The Da Vinci Code.

Universal worked with Web design and marketing firm Big Spaceship to build the Bourne game, which is part of a promotional partnership with Google that did not involve any money changing hands.

The product placement--a screen shot of a Google search--emerged from
the discussions between Universal and Google about the game but
occurred in a scene that already called for an online search, studio
executives said.

Google will promote the game through search results related to the film
and through its millions of users' customized iGoogle home pages.

Volkswagen, whose new Touareg 2 is featured in Bourne Ultimatum,
will be providing the sweepstakes grand prize--a 2008 Touareg 2
designed to the top-of-the-line specifications of the car seen in the
movie. MasterCard, which is integrated in the game, will award one
player a $1,000 MasterCard gift card each of the 15 weekdays that new
clues and active game play are provided to Web site visitors. Other
prizes include $25,000, 10 Apple iPhones and four trips to the winners' choice of New York, Paris, London, Madrid or Tangier--all cities featured in the film.

The game will launch in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, the U.K. and France.

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Going from killer app to major Web platform

What do Facebook, Second Life, Google and Salesforce.com have in common?

They all started out as applications that evolved into Web platforms, enabling developers
to create more compatible programs and companies to build businesses
off the platform ecosystem. This is the wave of the future, company
executives said in a panel on Thursday at Fortune magazine's
first iMeme: Thinkers of Tech conference, an event striving so hard for
chicness that it opened with a lesson on how to operate the Herman
Miller Aeron chairs filling the room at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in San
Francisco.

"The Internet is the new operating system. The
killer apps of the Internet are becoming platforms that are creating
communities of innovation," said Marc Benioff, chief executive of
customer-relationship management specialist Salesforce.com. "This is a
whole new chapter in our industry."

"The power of the
platform is it makes your core offering more valuable," he said.
Platforms are able to extend into new markets by being open to outside
developers, he said. For instance, application development that Thomson
Financial and Dow Jones did on Salesforce.com suddenly made his company
"a huge player in the financial services market," he said.

"We replaced (business-software provider) Siebel (Systems); they never
made the leap from killer app to platform," Benioff said. "If you don't
make that leap, you don't become a major player like an SAP or an
Oracle."

When apps flooded Facebook
Sitting
next to dot-com veteran Benioff, whose company offers hosted business
software as a service over the Internet, was 23-year-old Mark
Zuckerberg, who started the popular Facebook social-networking site in
his college dorm room less than four years ago. Facebook's move to open
the site up to outside developers and to allow anyone, not just college
students, to use the site has led to a surge in membership registrations.

"The
most natural way for people to communicate and the most efficient was
through" friends and acquaintances online, said Zuckerberg. "To us,
opening up the platform was just the next step in developing this
theory."

"We're going to give you all the same tools that we give ourselves; treat your apps the same as ours," he added.

That
move quickly paid off. Thousands of applications have been released for
Facebook since late May when the company opened up the platform. "It
has certainly grown a bit faster than we had originally expected. We
thought there would be a lead time," he said. "That whole process got
condensed to about a week."

Within one week the first new
application had a million users, while more than half of the users have
added an application to their Facebook page, Zuckerberg said.

"We're
going to be constantly pushing the envelope," he said. "There is still
a lot of stuff we need to do with developers, a lot more controls we
can give to people."

Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google, said she agreed with Zuckerberg that platforms often happen naturally in technology companies.
That was the case at the search engine, which offers advertising
systems that enable anyone with a Web site to make money off that site.
And Google distributes gadgets--third-party applications that people
can put on their Google home page and other sites, she said. Google
also has made it easy for developers to create mashups and overlay
other data on top of it. For example, Google has released Google Gears,
a browser-side plug-in that makes it easier for people to develop Ajax
applications that can run offline.

But Google may even go further than just releasing developer tools, according to Mayer.

"We
just have so many ideas that we can't implement...so it makes sense to
open it up. The coup de grace would be letting people build on our
platform, on our servers," she said. That idea is complicated and thus
"something we're interested in, but we haven't made many advances on"
it, she added.

Philip Rosedale, chief executive of Linden Labs, which produced the Second Life virtual reality environment, said Second Life and Facebook are popular because they give people a new environment to interact in that they are comfortable with.

"It
seems that a lot of the platforms out there allow us to do things we
can already do in the real world...and let us do them extremely fast."

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Meanwhile, at the E3 shadow conference...

Games,

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--The luxury suites housing the E3 Media and
Business Summit provide a professional atmosphere, polished demos and
catered hors d'oeuvres. Down the road at Gamecock Media's
"anticonference," things couldn't be more different.

Here
at the Hotel California, a combination indoor-outdoor beachfront lodge
popular with the surfer set (and fans of the Eagles), the uniform of
choice is flip-flops and a T-shirt. The stereo is playing a steady
stream of Led Zeppelin, the grills are serving up hot dogs, and the
coolers are packed with cans of Bud Light and trendy energy drinks. But
it's more than an afternoon party by the Southern California coast. For
independent game publisher Gamecock, which has rented out the entire
hotel, this is business.

When the Entertainment Software
Association, organizer of the sprawling E3 confabulation at the Los
Angeles Convention Center, announced that the 2007 edition would be restructured
into a quieter, invitation-only affair, many game industry insiders
expressed relief that they'd no longer have to deal with the
60,000-plus attendees and over-the-top marketing displays.

But
there were plenty of skeptics, too, and the Austin, Texas-based
Gamecock was one of the most vocal. The young company, formally
established last September, was so critical of E3's more stoic
reincarnation that its team decided to create a "shadow" conference in
protest.

The
reason, according to Gamecock chief operating officer Rick Stults (he's
also the chief financial officer), is that the new E3 focuses entirely
too much on the biggest names in gaming--and their allegedly
unfortunate tendency to forsake original and innovative games for
repetitive sequels and movie tie-ins that were created to be sure sells.

"We feel that E3, what it was, is no longer," Stults said, "which from
our perspective is the games and the developers. You don't need to have
this stuffy, corporate kind of invite-only event."

Gamecock
has titled the gathering Expo for Interactive Entertainment,
Independent and Original, or E.I.E.I.O. for short. Showcased in the
Hotel California's suites are nine upcoming console and PC titles and
the developers behind them, and they're a colorful bunch. Gamecock
considers itself the industry's equivalent of an indie record label or
film distributor, so the games understandably tend to be a little bit
edgy, a little bit artsy, and potentially controversial. And Gamecock
distinctly avoids publishing anything with a II or a III in the name.

"We take a little bit of a risk by going for original titles," Stults
said, referring to sequels' reputations as lower-quality stabs at
making a few extra bucks. "(In big-publisher gaming) and even in the
movie industry, it's a little too sequelized."

"Thank God Gamecock came around," said Chad Barron, a producer for Red Fly Studio, whose game Mushroom Men,
an artistically inclined title depicting a war between edible and
poisonous mushrooms, will be released by Gamecock. "The first thing
they said is, 'We don't want something that's a sequel. We want
originality.'"

According to Barron, the company's hallmark is
its willingness to let developers guide themselves by creativity rather
than rolling out prefabricated successes based on industry trends.
"Gamecock's just like, 'Hey, we love this idea, you guys run with it.'
We're not handheld by big publishers."

The end results, as showcased at E.I.E.I.O., are hardly your typical first-person shooters and car chases. There's Insecticide, a detective action-adventure game in which all the characters are bugs; Hail to the Chimp, which is sort of like Mario Party
with a distinctly political slant (one level of the game is all about
which player can stuff a ballot box the fastest); and fantasy
role-playing game Dungeon Hero, which takes place literally underground.

Indeed,
considering the criticism of the "new E3" as lacking in new
announcements and exciting developments, the gaggle of offbeat titles
at E.I.E.I.O. has been a breath of fresh air for some E3 cynics. Mushroom Men even elicited a nod in Thursday's edition of USA Today. "I think people are excited about our lineup just like we are," Stults said.

The
free-hot-dogs-and-beer setup has also turned some heads. "We always try
to do something where we find a venue that our company and our
development teams can have fun, but also the kind of environment that
they can properly talk about their games. (The developers) got their
own suites, their own rooms," he said. "People can kind of go in at
their own pace, grab a burger, have a drink."

That's not
all. As another means of promoting their game developers Thursday
night, the company has rented out a local dive bar for a late-night
rager that will likely be quite different from the evening receptions
at sushi restaurants and wine bars that some of the bigger publishers
have planned. Then, on Friday afternoon, at the counterculturally
significant hour of 4:20 p.m., Gamecock will hold "E3 Up in Smoke," a
mock funeral procession for the original, more inclusive conference of
yore. Following that is, naturally, another party.

Big game
publishers and E3 insiders might find the Gamecock guys and their "Up
in Smoke" antics irrelevant, irreverent, or just plain irritating. The
indie developers at E.I.E.I.O., however, point to the diversity and
depth that independent film and music have provided to their respective
industries over the past few decades.

Anyone, they said,
can consider the tongue-in-cheek "anticonference" to be a sign of the
video game business' maturation. "Gamecock's not just taking a few
risks, they're taking all the risks," said Red Fly Studio designer Ryan
Mattson. But ultimately, he said, it helps the little guys. "Where we
are right now is a sign of that (success)."

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Web leaders: Search is just the beginning

Google has a very broad mission, and it's getting broader all the time.

The company's Web site says: "Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

But people get only a small fraction of their information from Google today--a number the company wants to increase, said Sheryl Sandberg, Google's vice president of global online sales and operations, speaking on a panel at the Fortune iMeme conference in San Francisco on Thursday.

"If you ask a very heavy Google user...what is the percentage of information you received today from Google?" the answer will be only around 5 percent, she said. "We think there is a long way for us to go."

So Google is getting into the business of offering hosted software--things like Gmail, Docs & Spreadsheets, and Calendar--in order to help people create and organize information and communicate and collaborate online, she said. "These things fall into our broad mission" of providing access to information.

But Google is not turning into an enterprise software company, Sandberg asserted.

"We didn't want to sell expensive things with large teams of consultants to businesses," she said. "Yes, we provide products and services to enterprises. But we're not an enterprise software company like Oracle and Siebel (Systems). We are looking for places where people are not getting information we think they need."

Asked how Microsoft views Google's threat to its enterprise business, Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president and chief advertising strategist at the software giant, said "We certainly look at all the competitive products." But he added that Microsoft Office has a "fairly popular position" in the enterprise market, with 500 million users.

"We're trying to figure out what else do those folks need; what are they missing?" he said. "Right now there is a lot of excitement about Web applications...we are kind of all headed in the same space. You're going to see our products more Web-enabled."

Microsoft is investing in providing software tools that make it easier for people to use the Web, such as a suite of applications like e-mail, instant messaging and search, as well as interactive TV and online gaming advertising, he said. He conceded that the company was coming from behind on search and online advertising, but boasted that the Windows Live image search and maps are better than rivals. "On the whole, we've closed the gap quite a bit," he added.

Meanwhile, Yahoo aims to offer a large repository of all kinds of online content and has been busy signing partnership deals with entertainment companies and newspapers to offer their copyrighted material, said Jeff Weiner, executive vice president and head of Yahoo's consumer business.

Yahoo needs to do more to jump on the social media front, he said. "We have tremendous potential and the question is how we tap it. Yahoo e-mail is...one of the largest dormant social networks in the universe, and it's our job to activate it."

Weiner also said he fully backs co-founder Jerry Yang in his new position as chief executive. Yang replaces Terry Semel, who stepped down last month after being criticized for failing to do enough in the face of slowing revenue growth and a sliding stock price.

"Yahoo as a network needs to become more open. Yahoo as a company needs to take on more of a platform approach. Jerry Yang is the ideal leader to make that happen," he said.

Jim Lanzone, the chief executive of Ask, was put on the defensive when the moderator said he tried to use Ask recently but then found himself habitually returning to his preferred search engine.

"The good news is that while it would be good to have you, the key to our growth is that we don't really need you," Lanzone said.

Ask's internal measure of user activity shows that the frequency of use and the percentage of return users have "spiked" since the company relaunched with a new user interface last month, he added.

During a question-and-answer session, the executives were asked how they justified operating in countries like China where they are asked to cooperate with censoring of the Internet.

"It was a hard decision for the company. We decided it was important to enter the Chinese market," said Sandberg. "We believe it was the right decision because we made a lot of information (available) that wasn't available before."

"Complying with the laws is a good thing for shareholders," said Mehdi. "Hopefully, (we can) change the world with those products by educating people."

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Distributed by Hasan Shrek, independence blogger. Also run online business ,internet marketing solution , online store script .
Beside he is writing some others blogs for notebook computer , computer training , computer software and personal computer

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TrustedPlaces Links with Facebook and Launches New Features by Sokratis Papafloratos

TrustedPlaces is pleased to announce that Facebook's growing
membership will now be able to "roam" directly onto the TrustedPlaces
site. The Company is also announcing a number of new features namely:
capability for members to create video reviews; the launch of a
syndication widget; and the introduction of richer business information
for their listings. These improvements mark a noticeable enhancement to
the service offering, placing the company at the leading edge of
product development in its field.

TrustedPlaces is a vibrant social network site, based in the UK but
with an international membership, providing peer reviews on members'
favourite lifestyle locations. Originally based on London venues, its
growing passionate, global community share their opinions on what's
great and what's to be avoided in their area and city. The site is now
growing rapidly and nearing 5000 member reviews on restaurants, bars,
pubs, clubs, cafes and much more. These are now spread across 301
cities in 35 countries.

TrustedPlaces received its first round of funding earlier this year
from HOWZAT Media, the investment fund set up by the entrepreneurs
behind Cheapflights - the leading flights search engine.

The product improvements include:

* Linkage with Facebook
Facebook is the fastest growing social network for over-25s in the UK.
Now members of Facebook can seamlessly 'roam' onto TrustedPlaces,share
content and relationships across the two communities, without having to
register for a separate account This presents a shift from the
traditional walled-garden approach of previous generation online
communities and allows TrustedPlaces to tap into an exponentially
growing, global community of 22 million members.

* Ability for TrustedPlaces members to upload video reviews Video is a
hot topic for local search right now and TrustedPlaces is enabling its
members to share experiences of their favourite places through this
rich medium. To kick the service off TrustedPlaces is combing the video
capability with one of the things they do best - getting people who
socialise online to meet in the real world and enjoy some of the things
about which they're passionate. The recent 'gastro- tour" of Borough
Market is a case in point and is accompanied by a mouth watering video
clip.

* Launch of the TrustedWidget that allows reviews to be syndicated
across different sites. In the current spirit of open standards the
company is now enabling the export of content from TrustedPlaces with
the addition of the TrustedWidget, which is a novel web application
that allows anyone to specify an area or city, pull the latest reviews
created by the TrustedPlaces community and easily display the content
on an external blog or website.

* Improved interface and richer information for every listed business.
The addition of an updated core database, which allows users to view a
place's phone number, website, nearest transport links, a sample
photograph and a list of special features, now renders the service a
complete city guide in its own right.
Sokratis Papafloratos, TrustedPlaces CEO and co-founder commented on
the recent changes :

'When we started TrustedPlaces nearly a year ago, we promised to our
members that we would listen to their feedback and continue to evolve
TrustedPlaces with their views serving a guiding compass. The recent
changes go a long way towards addressing some of the most common
requests we've had and, at the same time, throw in a few pleasant
surprises. These mark the beginning of a very active summer for us with
a number of further improvements along the way.'
Reflecting on the wider industry trends and how they are affecting
smaller social networks he added that:

'We're witnessing a key change in the way people use web applications;
embrace social networking; create and share content. However, gaining
and retaining a user's loyalty depends on the quality of the product
offering more than ever. The barriers between services are coming down
and technology is enabling content to travel across sites more easily.
We actively embrace this change - the Facebook linkage and
TrustedWidget development demonstrate that and indicate the direction
of further TrustedPlaces development.'

About the Author

Sokratis Papafloratos is the co-founder of TrustedPlaces, along with
Walid Al Saqqaf. Previously he headed up European Operations for
Wideray, a Sequoia-funded mobile startup with offices in London and San
Francisco. Prior to that role, he lead global technology integration
and marketing programmes for the Vodafone Group. He holds a MEng in
Electronic Engineering from the University of York.

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Everything You Need To Be Cognizant About Backpack by Bernardita Riza R. Quejano

We have all seen backpacks but just what are they made from and
where do they originate from. Although people had been shoulder packs
neighboring on their reverses for many years it was not until the
1910's in the USA was the name backpack open. Prior to the overture of
the word these types of loads were more commonly referred to as either
a pack or a packsack, whilst in Britain these were referred to as
rucksacks. The word rucksack derives from a German word "der rucken"
which actually means back in English. In some fresh countries they are
known as haversacks whilst the British Military Forces refer to them as
Bergen's. This name originates from the manufacturers name Bergan and
in most cases you will find that the frame is out to the baggage
compared to those used today by hikers, mountain climber etc.

However today the backpack is truly more often seen being used by
students as a way of carrying all the utensils and materials that they
need for school or college each day. The one chief difference between
this type of backpack and those use for hiking etc., are that they do
not contain a rigid frame, additionally will have far fewer pockets on
them. Also a lot of these types of backpacks come with safety features
including level-headed panels so that the wearer can easily be seen
especially at blackness when traveling to and from school. Many
universities and universities today now peddle their own rucksacks
which have been emblazoned with their logo upon them. In harmony to
prohibit any contour of serious injury to the wearer these backpacks
come with shoulder straps that are well padded and the back area of
them has been reinforced to maintenance fix the weight of the heavy
books that many rats will hunger to carry during the school day.

People will generally use a backpack when they need to carry heavy mass
for any extended course of continuance. The reason for this is that a
customer's shoulders are actually better suited to bearing any time of
additional weight for extended periods of juncture than the manuss are.
Such backpacks as the Osprey Atmost 65 and new rabid* light version
which is ideal for extended hiking outings are extremely utile. They
allow a cat to carry weights of up to 70kg's freely as it allows for
most of the mass to be offloaded onto the padded hip belt so this
formerly lets the take on strops to do the job of actually stabilizing
the load whilst being carried. Not only does this mean that someone is
more able to haul expecting loads comfortably, but with any type of
baggages now available it helps to improve a identity's balance as well
as making them much more adroit as the weight has archaic placed nearer
to the center of their own body mass..

About the Author

none

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10 Blogging Mistakes Bloggers Should Avoid by Rose DesRochers

I have come across a number of blogs where beginners bloggers not
yet familiar with blogging have made the same common blogging mistakes.
Do you make these mistakes with your blog?

Background Music - This is one of the most complained about features on
a website or blog. Don't put music files on your blog that run in the
background. Give the visitor the option to turn the music off.

Screen Size Width -Design your site for all screen resolution. When
designing your blog be sure to test it out in various screen sizes.
Avoid making the assumption that all your visitors are viewing at the
same screen resolution. Horizontal scrolling is one of those usability
nightmares. There is nothing worse than having to scroll horizontally
on a page just to read the content.

No Alt Attribute- Provide the alt description text with the images you
post on your blog whenever possible. Spider bots cannot read images.

Disabling Right Click - Don't disable right click on your blog. No
Right Click can very easily be bypassed and most internet uses know how
to bypass it. Disabling right click does not prevent your images from
being stolen. Determined visitors will either disable JavaScript on
their browser or retrieve the file from a search engine cache or the
source code of your blog.

Blog does not display the same in all browsers- View your blog in many
different browsers. Browershots.org is a free service that generates
screenshots of your blog on a wide number of browsers. Enter your web
address and click "Make Screenshots." It takes about 30-40 min.

Too Much Advertising- Adding a massive amount of advertisements on your
blog is a huge mistake. There is nothing wrong with a few appropriately
places ads, but don't let it become over bearing. Limit the ads to no
more than two or three.

Too Much on a blog. Some bloggers believe they need to have all the
bells and whistles. Keep it simple. Too much on a page can slow down
the loading time. The same can be said for large images. When someone
attempts to load the page, it will take an excessively long time to
load. I have been driven away from many blogs that took a long time to
load or froze my computer.

Using Copywritten images without permission- This one can get you in a
heat of trouble. Obtain permission before using an image. Copyright
infringement is the unauthorized use of someone else's copyrighted
material. Giving credit does not mean that you are not infringing on
copyright or does it mean that you have permission to use that person's
work. If you intend to use someone's copyrighted work on your blog be
it a photo, cartoon or article, you must obtain the author's written
permission.

Hotlinking to images- Don't hotlink to images. Hotlinking is when you
link to an image on someone else's server instead of saving the image
to your computer and uploading it to your blog. When you link to an
image directly, you are using up that websites bandwidth. This does not
cost you anything, but it does cost the website that you're stealing
the bandwidth from.

Non descriptive Posting Titles- When creating titles for your post be
sure to make them descriptive. Use keywords in your post titles. The
post title is vital for search engine optimization. Consider the words
that a potential reader will be using to search in Google to find the
information you're posting about. Use the Overture Keyword Popularity
Tool to access the WordTracker database and see what terms are being
searched for.

For blogging support, advice, tips, tricks and hints to assist you in
not only improving your blog, but your blogging experience as well
visit Blogger Talk Blog Community and Blogger Forum.

About the Author

Rose DesRochers is a published poet and freelance writer. She has
been writing poetry for more than 20 years. Rose DesRochers is also the
founder of http://www.todays-woman.net , a supportive online writing community for men and women over 18 and http://www.bloggertalk.net a community where bloggers connect.

Visit her blog at http://rosedesrochers.todays-woman.net

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Distributed by Hasan Shrek, independence blogger. Also run online business , mlm coder, internet marketing solution , online store script .
Beside he is  writing some others blogs for notebook computer , computer training , computer software and personal computer

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Oracle readying 46 security patches for DB, server products

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 1:04 pm
Categories: Patch Watch, Hackers, Zero-day attacks, Microsoft, Browsers, Oracle, Cisco, Rootkits, Vulnerability research, Responsible disclosure, Spam and Phishing, Spyware and Adware, Botnets, Exploit code, Data theft, Open source, Pen testing, Metasploit, Passwords
Tags: Security, Oracle Corp., Vulnerability, Patch Management, Server, Ryan Naraine
Database and server giant Oracle is planning to ship patches for a total of 46 vulnerabilities next Tuesday (July 17) as part of its quarterly Critical Patch Update release process.

The patches will cover potentially severe holes affecting Oracle
Database, Oracle Application Server, Oracle Collaboration Suite, Oracle
E-Business Suite and Applications, and Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise.

Oracle Database is affected by 20 of the 46 holes, including a new
security fix for Application Express. Two of these vulnerabilities are
considered remotely exploitable without requiring authentication.

Oracle Application Server is affected by four vulnerabilities. Three
of these will be carry a high-risk rating because they can remotely
exploitable without authentication.

Oracle said 14 of the patches will cover holes in the Oracle
E-Business Suite and Applications (six are considered critical) and
three patches will deal with flaws in Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise
PeopleTools.

So far in 2007, Oracle has released patches for a whopping 133 vulnerabilities.

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Home Based Online Business by Keith Landr

I am always on the look out for new easy ways to earn money online. I've
tried several different methods and have struck out with most of them. However I
am here to tell you today that I have finally found one that is actually working
for me. I discovered a way to make money online with my own home based online
business with very little cost to me. Now I am not making a killing with this by
no means but the extra income is a great help. The best part of all is I
practically do nothing at all. The website does all the work for me. If this
sounds good to you follow this link to your own online business. http://www.keith-landry-online.com

About the Author

I an a 32 year old husband & father of 4 wonderful boys. I work as a
equipment operator in the construction business. I enjoy surfing the internet
for new ways earn extra cash and write these article to share my finding with
others.

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Windows feed readers

There are dozens of RSS readers available, from dedicated feed readers to Web
browsers with integrated RSS support. Here are some of the more popular ones.

Product	Type	Supports	Licence
Amphetadesk	Standalone reader	RSS	Freeware
Bloglines	Web-based service	RSS	Freeware
FeedDemon	Standalone reader	RSS, Atom	Shareware
KlipFolio	'Clipping' application	RSS	Shareware
NewsDesk	Standalone reader	RSS, Atom	Freeware
NewsGator	Outlook add-in	RSS	Shareware
Opera 7.5	Standalone browser	RSS	Shareware
Pluck	Internet Explorer add-in	RSS, Atom	Freeware
RssReader	Standalone reader	RSS, Atom	Freeware
Sharp Reader	Standalone reader	RSS, Atom	Freeware
SlimBrowser	Browser (requires Internet Explorer)	RSS	Freeware
Tristana	Standalone reader	RSS, Atom	Freeware

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Will Facebook give Google a run for its money?

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 6:31 pm
Categories: Google
Tags: Google Inc., Facebook, Garett Rogers

Valleywag doesn’t think so,
but I have a feeling there could be a surprise around the corner if
Facebook continues to grow at this same pace. With users comes money
for companies smart enough to figure it out.

Americans may not know what kind of phenomenon Facebook has become
here in Canada, but everyone I know (or once knew), minus the few still
using ICQ and Netscape Navigator, have a profile. It is even a popular
and successful way for people to plan (and find out about) things like
10 year highschool reunions. Even the Facebook inbox is becoming the
preferred method of communication between some friends.

Noticeably missing from Facebook is a way to search the internet.
That could be the only thing stopping people from setting it as their
home page in their browser. If Google could partner with or purchase
Facebook, I don’t see there being much of a problem, however,
ignorance of its popularity could cost Google if deal isn’t
struck soon.

So, maybe the company won’t be as successful in capitalizing
its users as Google was, but they certainly have potential to hurt them
if the service becomes as popular in other countries as it has here. I
would be interested to hear from people in other countries with regards
to how popular the service has become. Also, do you think there could
be problems for Google if Facebook partners with a competing search
company?

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Distributed by Hasan Shrek, independence blogger. Also run online business , mlm coder, internet marketing solution , online store script .

Beside he is writing some others blogs for notebook computer , computer training , computer software and personal computer

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The market adoption proves the “why” of Rich Internet Applications

Posted by Ryan Stewart @ 6:51 pm
Categories: Rich Internet Applications
Tags: Web, Microsoft Silverlight, Internet, Internet Application, Market Adoption, Ryan Stewart

When smarter people than me start talking about Rich Internet
Applications I’m always a happy camper. In this case it’s Michael Coté from RedMonk
who recently got a tour of Silverlight from Microsoft and wrote up an
interesting perspective on the Rich Internet Application space. I
enjoyed his definition of what an RIA is because I think we’re
all still trying to define it:

My simple sieve consists of three parts:

Is it something trying to act like a web application (only better!), including connecting to and interacting with the web?
Is it trying to go beyond standard web application UI technology using something more than Ajax?
Did you have to download a browser plugin or other runtime?
Answering “yes” to more than less of those, you probably
have an RIA. Sure, that’s not a tried-and-true method, but
it’s something more than the other method that works 100% of the
time, “I’ll know it when I see it.”

It’s a long post but worth reading because Coté gets into the why
of Rich Internet Applications, which is something that not everyone
seems to get. Most people acknowledge that RIAs look better, but in
some cases that prettier UI doesn’t translate into a better user
experience. In those cases, everyone loses. All of us, Microsoft,
Adobe, ect, want RIAs to make the web experience better. And as
Coté starts to brainstorm, that can happen in a lot of different
verticals.

It could be video, where both Flash and Silverlight make the web
better. It could be retail applications that help stores lure customers
with better advertising and a more fun commerce experience. It could be
any site on the web that wants to use RIA technologies to differentiate
themselves from their competitors. Or it could even be the enterprise,
which is something Adobe is starting to talk more about.

Here’s the key: Because these technologies are all still very
new, we don’t have a lot of examples to point to to say
“this works.” But people are using them. Look at Pownce, the Nike+ site, the British Library, or Finetune.
The market is going to ultimately decide whether or not these sites
increase traffic/add brand loyalty/create a better user experience. But
so far the trend seems to be that more sites and
companies are leveraging RIAs. I think that means that in large part
people are happy with their RIA investments, but in the near future as
we get more data and metrics on these RIAs, we’ll be able to talk
more about concrete examples.

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Distributed by Hasan Shrek, independence blogger. Also run online business , mlm coder, internet marketing solution , online store script .

Beside he is writing some others blogs for notebook computer , computer training , computer software and personal computer

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A Messy Transition: Practical Problems With 32bit Addressing In Windows

From our Windows Vista performance guide:

Except in a few cases where 64-bit code is clearly faster, the primary purpose for Vista x64's existence is to resolve the problems of 32-bit addressing space, and we're just not at the point yet where even most enthusiasts are pushing that limit. Once applications begin to push the 2GB addressing space limitation of Win32 (something we expect to hit very soon with games) or total systems need more than 4GB of RAM, then Vista x64 in its current incarnation would be a good choice.

For some time now we have been mentioning the potential problems that are likely to result from the switchover from 32bit(x86) Windows to 64bit(x64) Windows. Due to a multitude of issues, including Windows' memory management, the basic design of the PC architecture, and consumer support issues, there is no easy path for mass migration from 32bit Windows to 64bit Windows. As a result we have been expecting problems as consumers begin to make the messy transition.

We published the above mentioned guide on February 1st, expecting the fall/winter 2007 games to be the ones to push the 2GB addressing space limitation of Windows, and it turns out we were wrong. It turns out that two weeks after we published the above article, THQ published Supreme Commander, a RTS with a massive appetite for resources. It can be simultaneously GPU limited and CPU limited, which is why it's a standard benchmark here for our performance articles, it's also memory limited in more than one way: it's hitting the 2GB barrier of 32bit Windows.

An artifact of the design of 32bit processors and the 32bit API for Windows, the 2GB barrier is a cap on how much addressing space (related to but not equivalent to memory usage) a single application can use. This isn't a bug but rather the result of how hardware and software was created so many years ago, and while everyone has known this barrier will inevitably be hit, as we'll see there are several reasons why it can't simply be moved or bypassed. Meanwhile hitting it involves affected applications crashing for what can appear to be no good reason, and understanding why the 2GB barrier exists and what can be done will be important for resolving those crashes.

On a personal note, I am a semi-casual player of real time strategy(RTS) games and I've been playing Supreme Commander lately. This is a different kind of article, it's a record and the result of my own efforts to resolve why I was having crashing issues with Supreme Commander. With no intended disrespect towards THQ or the game's developers (Gas Powered Games) we could have not possibly asked for a better example of the 2GB barrier in action. It's exactly the experience we believe many people will have as they hit the 2GB barrier, mainly those power users who use large monolithic applications such as games or multimedia tools. This is an article on what the problem with the 2GB barrier is, what kind of experiences a user may expect when hitting it, and what can be done to fix it.

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's discuss memory management in Windows. Understanding the problem with Supreme Commander requires understanding what the 2GB barrier is, why it's there, and what makes it so problematic.

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Distributed
by Hasan Shrek, independence blogger. Also run online business , mlm coder, internet marketing solution , online store script .
Beside he is
writing some others blogs for notebook computer , computer training , computer software and personal computer

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RSS and blogging

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Or Rich Site Summary. Or RDF
(Resource Description Framework) Site Summary. It all depends who you ask.

Really Simple Syndication is probably the best description of RSS in action.
RSS is a way for one site to allow publication of some of its content on other
sites – very much in the way some newspaper columnists have their articles
syndicated across national or international publications. RSS lets anybody with
a smattering of HTML skill syndicate the content on their site, content which
may be in the form of news feeds, event listings, headlines, discussion
summaries, newsletter articles and so on.

RSS was originally developed by Netscape programmers in the late 1990s, but
it's only in the past year that its popularity has begun to blossom, riding the
blogging wave.

'Blog' is short for weblog. If you've missed the phenomenon, blogs are the
self-published journals which have popped up all over the Web, mostly on
personal sites but also gaining prominence on very public sites. In the US
presidential race, for example, the early front-running Democrat candidate,
Howard Dean, grabbed attention and a lot of followers via his Blog For America .

RSS lets bloggers, amongst others, get their words out to a broader audience.