Is it time to fire Steve Jobs ???

Investors expressed concern today regarding the latest reports about options grants made to Apple Computer's enigmatic chief executive officer Steve Jobs. New reports about Apple's options backdating have investors concerned about how much CEO Steve Jobs knew. But analysts doubt Jobs will have to step down. The Financial Times reported that Apple's board gave Jobs 7.5 million stock options in 2001 without the approval of the company's board, and said the company later falsified documents that purportedly showed a full meeting of the board had taken place to approve the options grant. The newspaper also reported that Jobs later surrendered the options without exercising them.

Shares of Apple (Charts) fell about 1.1 percent Thursday afternoon on the news after sliding as much as 2.3 percent earlier. NOTE: This comes a day after an online legal publication.


Steve-Apple Story
Apple, more so than many other companies, is a firm that is widely associated in investors' minds with its CEO. Jobs, who co-founded Apple, left the company in the mid-1980s and Apple hit a rough patch shortly thereafter. Jobs returned in 1996 and took over as interim CEO a year later. Since then, he has been widely credited with making the company relevant again with products such as its iMac computer and the ubiquitous iPod media player and iTunes online store.

My Intuition
Despite the fact that Jobs' name has surfaced more prominently in the most recent accounts of Apple's options problems, Wall Street analysts largely shrugged off the news and said that it's highly unlikely that Jobs would be forced to leave Apple.

"Any time a CEO is at risk of being, for lack of a better word, forcibly removed, then investors should be concerned. But do I believe that Steve Jobs' job is at risk? That's an unequivocal no," says Jonathan Hoopes who is an analyst with ThinkEquity Partners.

To that end, Apple said in a press release in October that "in a few instances, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was aware that favorable grant dates had been selected, but he did not receive or otherwise benefit from these grants and was unaware of the accounting implications" and added that independent investigators "found no misconduct by any member of Apple's current management team."

So ... Steve survives [for now ;-)]

World’s first keychain phone

The concept of the V-Phone is that it's a small portable device that you can take anywhere and your phone number will follow you, as well as the added benefit of inexpensive VoIP minutes.



Price
Calling plans for the V-Phone are identical to their traditional service offerings. It costs $15 per month for 500 minutes, $25 for unlimited residential service and $35 for business use. The V-Phone isn't a replacement for a traditional Vonage phone line. In fact, if you are currently a Vonage customer with an existing Vonage number, you have to order a separate Vonage phone number for the V-Phone. Vonage doesn't offer the ability to have a single phone number married to both. This would actually be a nice feature - simply take the V-Phone when on the road and your home phone calls are automatically routed to your laptop/PC when you plug in the device.

Conclusion
Though arguably a cellphone can do the same exact thing (carry your phone number). You could argue that the V-Phone lets you make calls using inexpensive VoIP minutes instead of expensive cell minutes. However, many cellphone service providers offer a large bucket of minutes or even unlimited plans for a fixed price, which negates VoIP's advantage over cellphones. With this in mind, you have to wonder why a person would even need the Vonage V-Phone !!! I will say V-Phone could come in handy if you make a lot of international phone calls since cell phone calls to international destinations are still outrageously expensive.
Click Here for more information

Gaint Squid Filmed For The First Time

A Japanese research team has succeeded in filming a giant squid live -- possibly for the first time -- and says the elusive creatures may be more plentiful than previously believed.

The research team, led by Tsunemi Kubodera, videotaped the giant squid at the surface as they captured it off the Ogasawara Islands south of Tokyo earlier this month. The squid, which measured about 24-feet long, died while it was being caught.

"We believe this is the first time anyone has successfully filmed a giant squid that was alive," said Kubodera, a researcher with Japan's National Science Museum. "Now that we know where to find them, we think we can be more successful at studying them in the future."

Giant squid, formally called Architeuthis, are the world's largest invertebrates. Because they live in the depths of the ocean, they have long been wrapped in mystery and embellished in the folklore of sea monsters, appearing in ancient Greek myths or attacking the submarine in Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."

The squid, a female, was not fully grown and was relatively small by giant squid standards. The longest one on record is 60 feet.

Kubodera and his team had been conducting expeditions in the area for about three years before they succeeded in making their first contact two years ago. Last year, the team succeeded in taking a series of still photos of one of the animals in its natural habitat -- also believed to have been a first.

Until the team's successes, most scientific study of the creatures had to rely on partial specimens that had washed ashore dead or dying or had been found in the digestive systems of whales or very large sharks.

Kubodera said whales led his team to the squid. By finding an area where whales fed, he believed he could find the animals. He also said that, judging by the number of whales that feed on them, there may be many more giant squid than previously thought.

"Sperm whales need from 500 to 1,000 kilograms (1,100-2,200 pounds) of food every day," he said. "There are believed to be 200,000 or so of them, and that would suggest there are quite a few squid for them to be feeding on. I don't think they are in danger of extinction at all."

Courtesy: AOL Click Here!

MySpace tops Yahoo for first time

HighLights
• MySpace recorded 38.7 billion U.S. page views in November
• Yahoo recorded 38.1 billion U.S. page views in November
• A one-month change could represent an aberration
• Yahoo: Page views diminished by new tools that enhance use

The online hangout MySpace got even more popular in November, beating Yahoo in Web traffic for the first time, a research company said 13Dec2006. News Corp.'s MySpace recorded 38.7 billion U.S. page views last month, compared with 38.1 billion for Yahoo Inc., according to comScore Media Metrix. MySpace's growth was 2 percent over October and triple the 12.5 billion recorded in November 2005.

ComScore warned, however, that a one-month change could represent an aberration. Furthermore, Yahoo's page views could be diminished by the company's growing use of Ajax technology for maps, e-mail and other services. Ajax is a set of tools that speeds up Web applications by summoning snippets of data as needed instead of pulling entire Web pages over and over.

Fox Interactive Media ranked sixth at 73.8 million, including 57.2 million for MySpace. Unique audience is a measure of how many people visit in any given month; page views reflect how often they come back and how long they stay.

Including other Fox properties such as IGN Entertainment Inc., comScore said Fox had 39.5 billion page views in November. In a statement, Peter Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive Media, credited strong traffic at game site IGN.com due to the release of Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Co.'s Wii video game consoles.

Does Microsoft Own RSS?

If you've added headlines from a news site to My Yahoo, or subscribe to blogs on a site like Bloglines, you've used RSS, a technology that's growing increasingly popular for distributing headlines and articles from blogs, news websites, and more. But now, two recently published patent applications reveal, Microsoft (MSFT) is claiming it invented RSS.

Microsoft executive Don Dodge, while not involved in the patent applications, says he suspects the filings were made to defend the company against "patent trolls". (The filings were made shortly before Microsoft announced plans to build RSS technology into its upcoming Vista operating system.) Still, if granted, the patents would give Microsoft a legal cudgel to wield against other companies using RSS.

That's a long shot, however: "Prior art," the patent-law term for earlier examples of the technology in use, should be easy to show, since RSS has been around for years. The most likely outcome will be that Microsoft's patent is rejected - and no one else will be able to patent RSS, either, keeping the technology free for everyone to use.

I DID IT !!!

Folks...finally I tasted the MCSD soup...
YEssssss... I passed the final Microsoft Certification in the MCSD series...
[stands for Microsoft Certified Solution Developer]
And My CEO, CTO congratulated me !
And My parents are here... :-)
This feels like WOW!!!!!!!! [I feel like the guy with the Victory Sword...Click on the image for a BIGGER pic...]

Thank You GOD!

ps: The SOUP tasted damn gud!

Nintendo - a new approach towards GAMES!

By now, you probably know the Wii's big hook: the controller. Instead of having to struggle with dual thumbsticks and a myriad of buttons, the Wii controls games with a simple device that resembles a remote control. The wireless unit, using internal sensors, translates your wrist and hand movements into onscreen actions.

Nintendo Wii

For example, if you're playing a baseball game, you'll swing the control like a bat. Tennis? Wave it like a racket. A shooter? Aim it at the onscreen target and pull the trigger. (A sensor bar subtly sits atop or below your TV to capture your movements.)

Click Here for more info!

Courtesy: Kiran

2 ZUNE and not 2 IPOD ?

Microsoft is opening up its arms to the music industry as it launches its new portable music player against rival Apple's iPod.


Microsoft's new Zune media player, which goes on sale today, is aimed directly at Apple's wildly successful, music industry-changing iPod. But what is gonna make it shine in the MARKET???

"Company breaks from Apple with promise to pay music producers a royalty for each music player sold."

"Under the terms of the deal, first reported by The New York Times, Microsoft will pay Universal a flat fee for each $250 Zune it sells. "

The revenue shortfall has made music executives anxious to find new ways to increase their slice of the digital music pie. Microsoft too is eyeing the market with the launch of Zune and its online music service Zune Marketplace. Although this isn't Microsoft's first foray into digital song downloads, this is the first time that it's rolled out an MP3 player meant to compete directly with the iPod. But Microsoft faces a tough battle. Apple has a lock on 75 percent of the market for portable music players, according to market research firm NPD Group.

BUT ... there are a couple of problems... one being: One of the reasons why YouTube is so popular is because anyone can post a video and share it with everyone immediately. In contrast, before a Zune user can share music, they have to find a friend who also owns a Zune player.

"That's going to be a slow transition," said Shawny Chen, a research analyst for Current Analysis.

She expects Zune to win over some consumers but doesn't expect it to attract a huge following this season, partly because of the sharing feature, but also because Microsoft is targeting a narrower audience.

Whereas Apple offers a range of music players - from its $79 shuffle to its higher-end video iPod - there's only one Zune option, and it's aimed mainly at college-aged buyers, she said.



To be sure, the iPod isn't flawless. Some consumers have been frustrated by its battery life while others have complained that some screens scratch too easily.

And while Apple dominates the market for portable music players, a survey conducted by technology firm ABI Research early this month suggests iPod users could be won over by rival products.

Fifty-eight percent of iPod users planning to purchase a MP3 player said they would consider buying Zune, according to the survey of 1,725 respondents.

As the battle plays out, one thing's for sure: Microsoft is in the digital music business for the long haul.

More more information check this link out.

4 down ... one more to go... :-)

Ok... itz blog time ...

Having achieved an MCAD (Microsoft Certified Applications Developer) which requires THREE MS certifications), today I passed the 4rth test...
I am heading towards the fifth, after which I achieve the MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer) status... Hopefully I make it...

Microsoft ... U just made my day!!!

Hey folks ...
me is back after a very longgggggggggggg break!
So...Today I took my Microsoft certification and earned an MCAD (stands for Microsoft Certified Application Developer - U take... like freaking THREEEEEE tests to get this one!)...yAyyyyyyyy....This is something for me to party!


In The Path Towards Success...

Money Matters ... America's RiCheST!!!

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, left, and Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett top Forbes' list of richest Americans.






For the first time, Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans consists exclusively of people worth $1 billion or more. As a group, the people who made the rankings released Thursday are worth a record $1.25 trillion, compared to $1.13 trillion last year.

In the billionaire-athon, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson pole-vaulted to No. 3 from 15 in last year's ranking, finishing behind the mainstays at Nos. 1 and 2: Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (Read the list)

Adelson is now estimated to have $20.5 billion, Buffett $46 billion and Gates $53 billion. Gates has held the No. 1 spot for the last 13 years while Buffett has been No. 2 every year since 1994 except 2000, when Larry Ellison of Oracle Corp. held that spot.

Adelson's expanding net worth is related in no small part to his decision to open a casino two years ago on the island of Macau, an emerging gambling haven off the southeastern coast of China. Profits are growing rapidly thanks to the Las Vegas Sands Corp.'s Macau casino. Adelson personally and through family trusts controls 60 percent of the company.

Forbes estimates Adelson earned about $1 million an hour over the past two years. In the second quarter alone, the Sands Macau property saw net revenue jump to $310.4 million, up from $205.1 million a year ago. To tap the demand from gamblers in Asia going forward, the Sands Corp. plans a second property on Macau and a casino in Singapore.




The two GOOGLE Inc. founders were also big earners. Sergey Brin (right) and Larry Page (left) gained about $13 million a day over the last two years, according to Forbes. That puts them in 12th and 13th place, up from a tie at 16th place last year.

Page and Brin also share the distinction of being, at 33 years old, the two youngest people on the list and two of only eight who are younger than 40.

The list was led off by technologists, such as Gates, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Dell Inc.'s Michael Dell and Ellison, and rounded out by five members of the Walton clan who have fortunes amassed from sales by the world's largest retailer.

For a detailed list check out here...

Pope praises slain Italian nun

Pope Benedict XVI praised an Italian nun for pardoning her killers as she lay dying from an attack in Somalia that may have been linked to worldwide Muslim anger over his recent remarks about Islam and violence.


Some are asked to give the supreme testimony of blood, as it happened a few days ago to the Italian nun, Sister Leonella Sgorbati, who fell victim to violence.

This nun, who for many years served the poor and the children in Somalia, died pronouncing the word 'PARDON,"' the pope told pilgrims during his traditional Sunday noon appearance. He said "This is the most authentic Christian testimony, a peaceful sign of contradiction which shows the victory of love over hate and evil."

HATE...
Rosa Sgorbati, an Italian missionary who worked in a pediatrics hospital in Somalia under her religious name Sister Leonella, was slain in Mogadishu Sept. 17, the day that Benedict said he was deeply sorry his remarks had offended Muslims.

What he said...
"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war" ...

"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." ...

Face on Mars

NASA started it all back in 1976 with an image of an interesting mountain on Mars and a caption that described it as appearing to have eyes and nostrils.

The feature known as the Face, along another skull-like feature and pyramid-looking hills in the vicinity, are in an area called Cydonia in the Arabia Terra region.
It is a transition zone between the southern highlands and the northern plains, and it contains wide valleys and ancient remnant mounds, called massifs, of many shapes and sizes. The massif that became the infamous "Face" was first seen in a photo taken on July 25, 1976 by NASA's Viking 1 Orbiter.



Thirty years later, the "Face on Mars" still inspires myths and conspiracy theories.
New images from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter will confirm for many that the features are natural, while no doubt offering tantalizing "clues" to others of an ancient intelligent civilization at work.

The spacecraft's High Resolution Stereo Camera provides data the researchers turn into color perspective views, which simulate the scene as though you were flying high over the region in an aircraft.

NASA scientists thought it looked like a human head, and although they knew it was just an illusion, the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory issued this caption:

"The speckled appearance of the image is due to missing data, called bit errors, caused by problems in transmission of the photographic data from Mars to Earth. Bit errors comprise part of one of the 'eyes' and 'nostrils' on the eroded rock that resembles a human face near the center of the image. Shadows in the rock formation give the illusion of a nose and mouth. Planetary geologists attribute the origin of the formation to purely natural processes."

LATEST INFORMATION

Other photographs of the Face taken more recently show that from different angles, it does not look much like a face.

ESA scientists are interested in the geology of the region. Landslides and broad debris aprons show how the heavily eroded surface has changed over time, helping them piece together the real Martian past.

The easy way to get Salmon, Fight a Kick boxing Bear lol

kick boxing bear!

Incredible Machine...

If you are interested in DESIGN view this!



If you cannot view in the player try --->
here...

Gulf oil discovery may be bigger than Alaska's Prudhoe Bay!

Geoscientists may have made the biggest oil discovery in 38 years off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas.
It could be the biggest domestic oil find in 38 years, but production is years away, and even then it won't reverse America's growing reliance on imports or have any meaningful effect at the gasoline pump.

A group led by "Chevron" has tapped a petroleum pool 270 miles south of New Orleans -- and almost 4 miles beneath the ocean floor -- in a region that could hold as much as 15 billion barrels of oil, or more than Alaska's Prudhoe Bay.

The proximity of the Gulf of Mexico to the world's largest oil-consuming nation makes the discovery extra attractive to the industry. However, analysts said the find could bring pressure on Florida and other states to relax limits they have placed on drilling in their offshore waters for environmental and tourism reasons.

Chevron estimated that the 300-square-mile region known as the lower tertiary, a rock formation that is 24 million to 65 million years old, contains between 3 billion and 15 billion barrels. The upper end of that range would be enough oil to expand the country's reserves by 50 percent. But the first drop of oil from the lower tertiary isn't expected to hit the market until at least 2010, and at best it will only slow the decline in annual U.S. production.

Challenges...
While the industry was mostly upbeat about the potential of this new discovery, it also acknowledged some challenges, including a dearth of rigs capable of drilling in such deep water and the long lead times required to drill and complete deep-water wells.

The U.S. consumes roughly 5.7 billion barrels of crude-oil in a year, while its reserves currently exceed 29 billion barrels, according to the U.S. Energy Department. To put that into perspective, Saudi Arabia's reserves are believed to exceed 250 billion barrels.

The well was drilled in the Walker Ridge area of the Gulf, 175 miles off the coast of Louisiana. It is an area the industry has been exploring for about five years.

San Ramon, California-based Chevron said the well set a variety of records, including the deepest well successfully tested in the Gulf of Mexico. Chevron said the well was drilled more than 20,000 feet under the sea floor.

Japan's Princess Kiko has boy...YAY finallyyyyyy

Japan's Princess Kiko has given birth to a son, likely postponing a long-running debate over whether Japanese law should be changed to allow women to succeed to the throne - info from the imperial palace. (In the Pic: Princess Kiko, accompanied by husband Prince Akishino, arrives at a Tokyo hospital.
)

The boy is third in line to the throne, after Crown Prince Naruhito and Kiko's husband, Prince Akishino.

When the government previously proposed changing the law, polls showed that an estimated 70 percent of Japanese approved. Once Kiko's pregnancy was announced, however, public opinion switched, with Japanese saying it would be easier for Kiko to bear a son and resolve the succession issue for now.

Reigning empresses have been rare in Japan, usually serving as stand-ins for a few years until a suitable male could be installed. The last reigning empress was Gosakuramachi, who assumed the throne in 1763, according to AP.

Debate over the succession law was divisive and emotional. Some conservatives proposed a revival of concubines to produce imperial heirs, and others argued that allowing a woman on the throne would destroy a precious Japanese tradition.

If we destroy our planet will science find a new one?

Scientists are exploiting one of Einstein's predictions to find Earth-like planets around other stars -- planets that might even support Earth-like life. Let the evacuation plans begin!





WHAT
A way to spot Earth-size planets orbiting distant stars. Traditional techniques can't find small, rocky planets. But a new strategy called gravitational micro-lensing uses the bending of light to detect those elusive ersatz Earths. With it, astronomers have already found four new planets.

WHY
To determine whether we are alone in the universe. We're much more likely to find life on a rocky planet than on a gas giant like Jupiter -- and if the human race needs to find a new home in the future, rocky exosolar planets will probably be our destination. Also, some scientists theorize that small, solid planets outnumber gas giants (10:1 is a conservative estimate), but until now they couldn't test that hypothesis.

WHERE
All across the globe. A loose network of astronomers point their telescopes at the center of our galaxy, where they can see many stars at once. Because gravitational-microlensing events happen over the course of 10 to 40 days, research teams on different continents record data as dawn -- and the end of viable observation time -- approaches for their cohorts.

WHO
Two international teams of scientists, based in Chile and New Zealand and assisted by hundreds of volunteer astronomers, look for microlensing events across huge swaths of sky. They alert each other of probable events by Web and e-mail.

How many planets have been found?
Around 200. Most have been spotted by looking for wobbles in a star's motion that are caused by the gravitational attraction of a planet. But since this method preferentially finds huge planets that orbit close to their suns, it's turned up mostly "hot Jupiters."

Can I help in the Planet search?
ABSOLUTELY!... if you live south of 35 degrees north latitude (Memphis, Tennessee) and own a telescope with a 10-inch aperture equipped with a CCD detector. Readers interested in joining the effort should contact Andrew Gould at gould@astronomy.ohio-state.edu.

Ford names new CEO

Struggling No. 2 automaker says Bill Ford Jr. will be succeeded as CEO by Alan Mulally, from Boeing.

ALLAN MULALLY
Ford Motor Co. Tuesday surprised the auto industry by tapping senior Boeing executive Alan Mulally as its new chief executive officer, succeeding current CEO Bill Ford, who will stay on as chairman. Mulally was most recently executive vice president at Boeing.


Bill Ford, the 49-year-old great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, was making a smart move but that more would be needed to halt the slide in market share for the nation's No. 2 automaker.


Upon taking over as CEO in 2001, Ford pledged that the company would take a leadership role in environmental issues. Under his watch, Ford introduced the hybrid Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner SUVs and announced plans to create hybrid versions of cars like the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan sedans.

BILL FORD

Meanwhile, sales of some of its most profitable vehicles, like the recently redesigned Explorer and Expedition SUVs, have fallen. Despite a redesign that improved the vehicle's ride and handling, sales of the Explorer have tumbled about 31 percent this year.

The automaker said last week that it wanted to sell its Aston Martin line - the car made famous in the James Bond movies - to free up funds to invest in its other brands amid a sharp downturn in sales.

Ford declared last month it was cutting production plans and said 10 North American plants will be shut for extended periods much of the rest of the year as it tries to cut costs and deal with slumping sales of its light trucks.

BlackBerry Pearl ... SWEET

The BlackBerry Pearl features a digital camera and a slot for a MicroSD mini-disc to store songs, photos and video games. Say what you will about the new BlackBerry Pearl, and some undoubtedly will complain of cramped keyboards and other tradeoffs. Its creator, Research In Motion Ltd., has taken a truly gutsy stab at designing a tiny mobile device that can do it all.

The Pearl, named for its glowing navigational trackball, is the first BlackBerry geared more fully toward consumers. It's the first with a digital camera and a slot for a MicroSD mini-disc to store songs, photos and video games -- the sort of recreational functions that RIM has stoically deemed nonessential or even counterproductive for the corporate user market.

RIM is launching the Pearl through T-Mobile USA. The normally $300 device will go for $200 with a two-year contract and $250 with a one-year contract.

Weighing just 3.2 ounces, the candy bar-style phone is a palm-friendly 2 inches wide, 4.2 inches tall and 0.6 inch thick. By contrast, the RAZR and its non-flip cousin, the SLVR, both weigh about 3.4 ounces and are roughly equal to the Pearl in width and thickness. And despite its smallness, the Pearl's screen measures nearly 2.2 inches diagonally, or just 0.4 inch less than on a full-sized Blackberry.

All that's missing, acknowledges RIM co-founder Mike Lazaridis, is GPS location tracking and Wi-Fi capability. But again, compromises are what it's all about in this pursuit of little gizmo nirvana. If you can't handle it, feel free to carry a laptop.

Blackberry users ... ALERT!

Microsoft designs a school system...

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has famously called high schools "obsolete" and warned about their effect on U.S. competitiveness. Now, his company has a chance to prove that it can help fix the woes of public education.

After three years of planning, the Microsoft Corp.-designed "School of the Future" opened its doors , a gleaming white modern facility looking out of place amid rows of ramshackle homes in a working-class West Philadelphia neighborhood.

The company didn't pay the $63 million cost -- that was borne by the Philadelphia School District -- but shared its personnel and management skills. About 170 teens, nearly all black and mainly low-income, were chosen by lottery to make up the freshman class. The school eventually plans to enroll up to 750 students.

Students -- who are called "learners" -- use smart cards to register attendance, open their digital lockers and track calories they consume. They carry laptops, not books, and the entire campus has wireless Internet access.

Coool isn't it?

Snooping Bosses...

Think your employer is checking your e-mail, Web searches and voice mail? You're probably right ;-)...When one of his employees phoned in sick last year, Scott McDonald, CEO of Monument Security in Sacramento, Calif., decided to investigate. He had already informed his staff of 400 security guards and patrol drivers that he was installing Xora, a software program that tracks workers' whereabouts through GPS technology on their company cell phones. A Web-based "geo-fence" around work territories would alert the boss if workers strayed or even drove too fast. It also enabled him to route workers more efficiently. So when McDonald logged on, the program told him exactly where his worker was--and it wasn't in bed with the sniffles. "How come you're eastbound on 80 heading to Reno right now if you're sick?" asked the boss. There was a long silence--the sound of a job ending--followed by, "You got me."

For every employer who lets his staff know they're on watch, there are plenty who snoop on the sly. A general manager at a computer outfit in the Northeast wondered about a worker's drop-off in productivity. Using software called SurfControl, the manager saw the man was spending an inordinate amount of time at an innocently named website. It turned out to feature hard-core porn. The worker was conducting market research for his escort service, a venture for which he soon had plenty of time after he got canned. "I don't give a rat's rear what they do at home," says the manager, who wishes to keep his and his company's name private. "But what they do at work is all my business."



Lesson To Be Learned...
Work While You Work...
Play While You Play... (My dad used to say this to me)

Europe's spacecraft hits the moon

Image provided by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corp shows the impact of Europe's first spacecraft to the moon. Europe's first spacecraft to the moon ended its three-year mission Sunday by crashing into the lunar surface in a volcanic plain called the Lake of Excellence, to a round of applause in the mission control room in Germany.

Hitting at 2 kilometers per second(!!!) , the impact of the SMART-1 spacecraft was expected to leave a 3-meter-by-10-meter crater and send dust kilometers above the surface.

Launched into Earth's orbit by an Ariane-5 booster rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, in September 2003, SMART-1 used its ion engine to slowly raise its orbit over 14 months until the moon's gravity grabbed it.

SMART-1, a cube measuring roughly a meter on each side, took the long way to the moon -- more than 100 million kilometers instead of the direct route of 350,000 to 400,000 kilometers.

But the European Space Agency did it for a relatively cheap €110 million ($140 million).

The spacecraft has also been taking high-resolution pictures of the surface with a miniaturized camera.

PS
Talk About Smart People...

"Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin dies...

Almost the whole world might have seen this guy on "DISCOVERY"...playing around with deadly animals like crocodiles, snakes ...

Steve Irwin, 44, died on 4-sep-2006 when a deadly stingray barb pierced his chest.


Irwin's manager John Stainton said Irwin was being videotaped diving on a reef off Australia's northeast coast for a television show and the video tape shows him (Irwin) pulling a deadly stingray barb from his chest just before he died. He is survived by his American-born wife, Terri, and their two children, Bindi Sue, 8, and Robert (Bob), 3.


Man...that was a horrible death... (There is a saying..."The Good Die Young...")

End of Agassi...

Andre Agassi wasn't the only one in tears after his final U.S. Open match Sunday. His 21-year career, that included eight Grand Slam titles, ended in that match. He leaves with 60 singles titles, including a career Grand Slam, one of only five men to have won each of the sport's premier events -- something his great rival, Pete Sampras, never did, Roger Federer hasn't managed, and players such as John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors didn't accomplish, either.

Andre Agassi received a standing ovation of nearly 10 minutes after his final match.


He lost to 112th-ranked Benjamin Becker (7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-5) in the third round at the U.S. Open.

Andre Agassi bid an emotional farewell to tennis fans Sunday as he lost his final match at the U.S. Open. There was barely a dry eye in the house when Agassi gave a heartfelt postmatch speech. In fact, with the last big draw in the field now gone, CBS officials were all but inconsolable.

And there was the liberating sense of excitement, of knowing he has more time to devote to his wife, Steffi Graf, and their two children; of knowing there are no more flights to catch, no more practice sessions, no more injections to dull the searing pain of an irritated sciatic nerve. That's why, for Agassi himself and the 20,000 or so fans who honored him with a raucous, four-minute standing ovation in Arthur Ashe Stadium after the match, it truly did not matter all that much what Sunday's outcome was.

What he said in the end...
"Well, I was sitting there realizing that I was saying goodbye to everybody out there, and they were saying goodbye to me. It's saying goodbye. It's a necessary evil. But we were getting through it together. That felt amazing."

"I don't take pride in my accomplishments. I take pride in the striving."
-- Andre Agassi

My comments...
Lets NOT forget this legend...

Agassi, 36, still in form!

Buoyed by a cortisone injection, along with a raucous, sellout crowd that boosted his spirits when things looked bleak, Agassi kept his final tournament going by beating eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 7-5 at the U.S. Open. Andre Agassi won a dramatic fifth set after blowing a two-break lead in the fourth set.

Andre Agassi and 23,700 or so of his closest friends went through all sorts of highs and lows, as he built a big lead then faced a sudden deficit, as he looked set to extend his career then teetered on the verge of ending it.

Through all that, through nearly four hours of thrilling tennis, Agassi -- 36 years old and burdened by a bad back -- held up better than the kid across the net.

When it was over, they shook hands at the net, then embraced. Baghdatis wished Agassi good luck. Agassi asked Baghdatis (who struggled with cramps during the last few games of the fifth set ) if he was OK. And Agassi was quick to thank the fans who sure are enjoying quite a ride right along with him at Flushing Meadows. It's a parade that will go down in annals right alongside Jimmy Connors' run to the 1991 Open semifinals at 39.


Baghdatis finished with 86 unforced errors, 39 more than Agassi, an eight-time major champion and one of only five men with a career Grand Slam. Because Agassi went only 8-7 this year before the Open, he's unseeded, which is why he had to face someone ranked as highly as Baghdatis so early.

Not only did they put on quite a show, but Agassi also provided the day's signature moment even before swatting a ball: After a morning practice session, he autographed a teen's forehead with a marker, making sure the final "i" was dotted.

How about a $10,000 tip on a $26 tab !

The regular customer eating dinner at the end of the bar always tipped well -- $15 or so on $30 tabs. The $100 tip two weeks ago was a nice surprise, but the amount he left bartender Cindy Kienow this week left her stunned. On the check, the tip read: $10,000.

The restaurant is in the final stages of verifying that the tip is a valid charge, said Rhodri McNee, vice president of operations for JS Enterprises, owner of the Hutchinson Applebee's.

Kienow said that while she always talks with the man when he comes in -- usually about current events or the weather -- she can't think of anything that would have prompted the huge tip. His tab for the night had only been $26.

"We'd just talk across the bar. He's a really nice guy. I hope he comes back in so I can tell him thank you, because the other day I was kind of dumbfounded," she said.

"I'd like to take care of my parents, since they always took care of me," she said. "But I feel like he wanted me to buy something for myself, and there's a Jeep that I've had my eye on for a while."

Guys...10,000 bucks tip... (gulp...)

Madden scores $100 million hit

Electronic Arts Inc.'s latest Madden football video game grossed more than $100 million in its first week, the biggest launch in the franchise's 17-year history and the latest sign of an improving outlook for the industry.

EA, the world's largest video game publisher, said consumers snapped up more than 2 million copies of "Madden NFL 07" in its opening week, up 12 percent from last year's game launch. The Madden game is the flagship franchise for the Redwood City-based game maker, with new versions each year ranking consistently as a best seller. To date, more than 53 million copies of the game have been sold.

Microsoft Corp. said its Halo 2 game reached $125 million in sales within the first 24 hours in 2004 -- robust interest in the Madden game is a welcome development in a year where game makers are struggling amid a video game console transition period.

Still, the success of the latest Madden game illustrates how lucrative the video game industry has become. Its opening-week gross sales rivals some of this year's biggest movie box office draws: "The Da Vinci Code" movie, for instance, drew $102 million in its first week, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

Just crossed another hurdle...

Took the THIRD microsoft certification today...oh I passed...
I felt just great...
Looking forward for the next...
I hope I'll get done with all of these...
To The Next Step...
asap!

An Older, Wiser EBay, Growing Patiently

LAS VEGAS EBay's big buying binge was the talk of its fifth annual user convention here this week, which pulled 15,000 sellers from around the world eager to learn what the Internet auction giant plans to do next.







"We are going to test different approaches with Yahoo over the next several months,"
sayz eBay CEO Meg Whitman.





While eBay Inc. is showing signs of a middle-age crisis, with slowing growth and a sliding stock price, company executives seemed almost giddy as they outlined plans to use their recent acquisitions to move beyond auctions -- into communications, advertising and financial services.

Wall Street has remained skeptical that eBay can recoup the $2.6 billion it spent last fall to acquire Skype, a young company that provides Internet-based calling services but brings in relatively little revenue. It was eBay's second major purchase last year, following its $620 million acquisition of Shopping.com. But chief executive Meg Whitman told convention-goers that she believes Skype's calling service will boost trade on eBay much the same way PayPal's payment service did after eBay bought that company several years ago.

EBay executives spent a fair amount of time talking up Skype; PayPal; and Shopping.com, the comparison-shopping service that eBay bought to expand its online marketing and advertising repertoire. They also tried to reassure their key customers -- the more than 1 million people who earn part or all of their living selling on eBay -- that auctions remain their core focus.

What struck me most about eBay's convention this year is how smartly and intensely the company is trying to improve online shopping by integrating new forms of advertising, payments and communication. EBay may not be growing as fast as it was, but it is growing shrewdly -- and in ways that are likely to have a major impact on the future of e-commerce.

Jetliner pilot locked out of cockpit after toilet break...

The pilot of a Canadian airliner who went to the washroom during a flight found himself locked out of the cockpit, forcing the crew to remove the door from its hinges to let him back in!

The incident occurred aboard a flight from Ottawa to Winnipeg on Saturday. The regional jet, capable of carrying 50 people, was operated by Air Canada's Jazz subsidiary.

Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stewart said that with 30 minutes of the flight to go, the pilot went to the washroom, leaving the first officer in charge. But when he tried to get back into the cockpit, the door would not open.

"The door malfunctioned ... this is a very rare occurrence," Stewart said, adding that the crew's decision to remove the door had been in line with company policy.

A report in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper said that for about 10 minutes "passengers described seeing the pilot bang on the door and communicating with the cockpit through an internal telephone, but being unable to open the door."

Stewart said the paper's report was "a bit dramatic" and stressed that at no time had the plane or passengers been in danger. She did not say how many people had been on board.

Now imagine yourself in a situation like this as a passenger.... ;-)

Is RFID tracking you?

Most of the CS guys might know about this info...but this is meant for the ones who dont...


Radio frequency identification has been heralded as a breakthrough in tracking technology, and denounced as the next Big Brother surveillance tool.
RFID sounds futuristic: A transmitter smaller than a dime embedded in everything from a T-shirt to human skin, communicating data over a short distance to a reading device.



Before
The technology has been around for decades -- the British used it to identify aircraft as friend or foe during World War II, and factory warehouses have used it more recently to make shipping more efficient.

Today ...
Today, it can be used to identify missing pets, monitor vehicle traffic, track livestock to help prevent disease outbreaks, and follow pharmaceuticals to fight counterfeit drugs. Many of us start our cars using RFID chips embedded in the ignition key.

RFID chips, injected under the skin, can store a medical history or be used to control access to secure areas. The next generation of passports and credit cards are hotbeds for RFID. It could make bar codes obsolete.

However, hackers and analysts are exposing potentially serious problems. Hackers could disable a car's RFID anti-theft feature, swap a product's price for a lower one, or copy medical information from an RFID chip.

Can an identity be stolen?
Most RFID chips or tags are passive, meaning they contain no battery power and can transmit data only when zapped with a reader. Active tags, which are more expensive, can carry some battery power.

Prices for the chips can range from several cents to a couple of dollars apiece, depending on the application and whether they are ordered in bulk. The cost has limited RFID's appeal. To compete with barcodes, RFID chips need to be priced at under a penny each. The cost is gradually coming down, though.

The storage space is extremely small, typically about 2KB, and the data on the tags can be read by equipment from a few inches to several feet away -- and sometimes a bit farther.

A group of hackers at the 2005 DefCon technology convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, used an antenna attached to an RFID reader to scan the information on a tag nearly 70 feet away. RFID proponents downplayed the demonstration, saying the apparatus was impractical and wouldn't work if the information on the RFID tag were encrypted, which is more often the case.

RFID near you ...
Despite these concerns, others say there are huge benefits to using RFID.

"At least 30 million people carry an RFID tag on them every day in their car keys or in their access control card to get into their office building or to buy gas or to pay a toll," wrote RFID Journal's Roberti. "Everywhere RFID has been rolled out in the consumer environment, consumers have overwhelmingly embraced it."

One new consumer application is in credit cards. Consumers could simply wave a credit card containing a passive chip at an RFID reader to pay for their purchases.

The controversy and discussion about RFID technology will not end anytime soon. But both sides agree that a sizable dose of debate is needed to hammer out the kinks. Meanwhile, the technology is appearing in an increasing number of places -- though even if you look around, you still might miss it.

GM unveils new diesel

General Motors Corp. will introduce a new V-8 turbo-diesel for its light trucks such as pickups and SUVs after 2009.




The company has offered diesel engines on its larger heavy- and medium-duty pickups, as well as on its commercial vehicles, which have different emission rules than the better-selling light-duty trucks.

While higher gasoline prices have led to more than half the vehicles sold in Europe being powered by the more fuel-efficient diesel engines, Americans have been slow to embrace the technology. Less than 1 percent of the 17 million cars and light trucks sold in the United States use diesel.

DaimlerChrysler is the only other automaker to offer diesel engines in cars and light trucks for the U.S. market that will meet tighter environmental regulations taking effect here in 2007.

In June Daimler announced that a diesel 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee would be available early next year, and it had previously publicized diesel offerings for its luxury Mercedes brand. Ford Motor has limited its diesel offerings to its super-duty pickups to date.

Did he do it or Not? Is he Crazy or Not???

John Mark Karr believes he killed JonBenet Ramsey even though "he is not the killer," sayz Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy.

In California, Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Cerena Wong sealed documents, including the arrest warrant, in the child pornography case. Wong acknowledged that Karr is "newsworthy" but said sealing the documents protects his right to a fair trial. The privacy rights of minors involved in the case also need to be protected, she said.

Shackled at the wrists and ankles, Karr appeared in a blue jail uniform with a white undershirt. He appeared calm during most of the hearing but grew agitated when prosecutors refused to return a photo to him -- a copy of the last known photograph of JonBenet Ramsey and her mother, Patsy.

"John Karr sincerely believes he killed JonBenet Ramsey, there's no question in his mind about that," Lacy said. She said Karr still believes, even now, that he killed the young girl even though evidence points to someone else.

"The way he told the story (of how JonBenet died), the DNA would have been his and it was not," Lacy said. "He is not the killer." However, she explained, experts in the case said that the sample found in the young girl's underwear was a mixed sample, as were the samples taken from Karr without his knowledge. The experts wanted a clean sample from Karr and didn't want to compare a mixed sample with a mixed sample, she told reporters in a news conference about the case.

To get such a sample, they would have needed Karr's permission, and they didn't want to tip him off that he was under investigation, she said. Lacy has been sharply criticized for detaining and arresting Karr. "The decisions were mine," Lacy said Tuesday. "The responsibility is mine and I should be held accountable for all decisions in this case."


What do u say guys??????????

Google boss joins Apple's leadership

Google boss Eric Schmidt has been appointed to the board of directors of Apple Computers in a move that points towards a possible alliance between the two IT giants!!!

Schmidt joined Google from Novell, where he was chairman and CEO. He was also formerly chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems and a member of the research staff at the Computer Science Lab at Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre.

Apple CEO Steve jobs said: "Eric is obviously doing a terrific job as CEO of Google, and we look forward to his contributions as a member of Apple's board of directors."

Schmidt also sits on Google's board, as well as the Princeton University board of trustees.

Lets C what happens after the alliance.... :-)

Gas may be headed back near $2

Hmmm...sounds great isnt it???

Industry analysts see prices between $2 and $2.50 by Thanksgiving 2006!
The recent drop in prices at the pump could pick up steam, driving gasoline sharply lower in coming months.

So far the average cost of a gallon of gas peaked this year at $3.036 on Aug. 10 and has come down largely due to diminishing hurricane fears.

Rretail gasoline prices of around $2 a gallon by Thanksgiving were certainly possible, although not likely since crude prices would need to drop by about $20 a barrel to have that effect

The price of gasoline's main component, crude oil, has also been falling in recent days. Crude oil, accounting for about half the price of gasoline, closed below $70 a barrel Tuesday for the first time since June-20-2006

one-year anniversary of the day Hurricane Katrina...

President Bush, marking the one-year anniversary of the day Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, promised a "better and more effective response" in the event of another hurricane, saying the catastrophic storm exposed government failure at "all levels."

Speaking at the oldest public school in New Orleans, Bush also said he supports legislation that allows tax-preferred industrial zones to promote more investment and new laws that would enable Louisiana to collect more revenue from oil companies drilling offshore so the state could invest in wetland protection to safeguard New Orleans's levees.

In a theme he has returned to several times since the storm, Bush chronicled the severity of Katrina, the costliest disaster in American history. He said the hurricane caused "flooding on a biblical scale" and "perhaps the greatest dislocation of American citizens since the dust bowl of the 1930s." He said the debris from the storm was "more than any previous disaster."

Today, he repeated that he takes "full responsibility for the government's response" and that the government has looked at both what was right and what was wrong with its response.

The Moment...

At 9:38 a.m. Central Time, they knelt for a moment of silence to mark the first breaching of the New Orleans' levees, which were built to protect the city from precisely the kind of flooding it suffered.

Residents held public and private vigils throughout the city and the region to mark the anniversary, news agencies reported.

The president began the day by meeting with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in a neighborhood where the houses are still stained with high-water marks from the flooding. They had breakfast at Betsy's Pancake House.

U.S. waistlines continue to grow!!!

The gravy train -- make that the sausage, biscuits and gravy train -- just kept on rolling in most of America last year, with 31 states showing an increase in obesity.

Mississippi continued to lead the way. An estimated 29.5 percent of adults there are considered obese. That is an increase of 1.1 percentage points when compared with last year's report, which is compiled by Trust for America's Health, an advocacy group that promotes increased funding for public health programs.

"Populations are not equal in terms of experiencing these health problems," saya a doctor... "Low-income populations tend to experience all the health problems we worry about at greater rates."

Indeed, the five states with the highest obesity rates -- Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Louisiana and Kentucky -- exhibit much higher rates of poverty than the national norm.

The five states with the lowest obesity have less poverty. They are Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Note:
The government equates obesity with a body mass index, or BMI, of at least 30. Someone who is 5 feet 4 would have to weigh 175 pounds to reach that threshold.

The report says those health costs are in the billions of dollars annually. Citing a 2004 report, the advocacy group said $5.6 billion could be saved when it comes to treating heart disease if just one-tenth of Americans began a regular walking program.

So guys & gals...be cautious when it comes to fast food!!!

Gas Prices Record Steepest Decline

The declining prices of crude oil and ethanol combined with rising gasoline supplies have brought a bit of welcome relief at the pump as the summer driving season draws to a close.

Average gas prices have dropped about 15 cents in the past two weeks, to $2.87 per gallon nationwide and $2.99 in the Washington metropolitan region. The gasoline monitor surveys more than 6,000 stations nationwide every two weeks.

The decline, based on a survey , is the largest drop since November, when prices fell 18 cents after the price increases that followed hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

In recent weeks, ethanol prices have dropped to about $2.30 a gallon. Worries over supply have largely subsided as oil companies have made the transition.

World's oldest person dies!

Maria Esther de Capovilla, believed to be the world's oldest person, died at the age of 116!!!

Three of Capovilla's five children -- Irma, Hilda, and son Anibal -- are still alive, along with 12 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren

Born on September 14, 1889 -- the same year as Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler -- Capovilla was married in 1917 and widowed in 1949.

Robert Young, senior consultant for Gerontology for Guinness World Records, said Elizabeth Bolden of Memphis, Tennessee, now appears to be the oldest person alive.

"Guinness World Records will have to make an official announcement from London," he said. "For all practical purposes, the next oldest person is going to be presumed to be Elizabeth Bolden. She is 116, but she was born 11 months after Capovilla."

Capovilla was confirmed as the oldest living person on December 9, 2005, after her family sent details of her birth and marriage certificates to the British-based publisher. Emiliano Mercado Del Toro, of Puerto Rico, retains the title as oldest man at 114.

She always ate three meals a day and never smoked or drank hard liquor. "Only a small cup of wine with lunch and nothing more," tells her daughter Irma .

Do u really waannaa live that long????????

Apple initiated "silent" recall of batteries

Apple Computer Inc. recalled 1.8 million of its laptop batteries because they pose a fire hazard, a move that follows a similar recall last week by Dell Inc. of 4.1 million batteries, some of which ignited while in use.

On the flip side of the coin, Dell Inc.'s recall of 4.1 million notebook computer batteries could cost Sony Corp. anywhere from ¥10 billion to ¥ 50 billion ($85 million-$430 million), hurting the Japanese electronics maker's short-term earnings and its brand image.

Dell (Charts), the world's largest personal computer manufacturer, announced Tuesday the biggest recall in its 22-year history, saying the lithium-ion batteries made by Sony could smoke and catch fire.

Sony is screwed
Sony estimated costs related to the Apple and Dell recalls will total between $172 million and $258 million.

...So guys if u have a 12-inch iBook G4/ 12-inch PowerBook G4/15-inch PowerBook G4 with corresponding Battery model numbers:A1061/A1079/(A1078 and A1148) & bought it October 2003 through August 2006...better get a replacement from "apple" @ https://support.apple.com/ibook_powerbook/batteryexchange/

Pluto no longer a planet!

Kids...get ready to update yourself...for what we learned in our third grade...that there are 9 planets in the solar system ...
Leading astronomers declared on AUG-24-2006 that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight!

Members of the 6th General Assembly of International Astronomic Union vote on a resolution for planet definition in Prague.

Now there is a 12-planet solar system with eight classical planets and three bodies including Pluto in a new and growing category called "plutons" - Pluto-like objects - plus a former asteroid, Ceres collectively called "Dwarf Planets"

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured Pluto and its moon Charon in this image.
After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930.

Textbooks and classroom materials will now have to be reworked, even as some aspects of the new decision are still being worked through.

Pluto has been demoted to a class of objects that has not yet been named. They would include celestial bodies orbiting a star that are large enough to pull themselves into a round shape but not large enough to clear their orbital paths of other objects. Pluto's orbit is largely decided by the much larger Neptune, which is what disqualifies it from being a planet.

Somewhat confusingly, both Pluto and 2003 UB313 will also be part of a larger group of objects known as dwarf planets. Dozens of objects will be part of this new group, which will be distinguished from the new, unnamed category of objects because dwarf planets are scattered more widely around the solar system. Ceres, for instance, which is between Mars and Jupiter and has long been thought to be an asteroid, will be considered a dwarf planet.

Now UB313 is the largest dwarf planet...doesnt it sound cool ;-)

Hybrid vehicles make economic sense

Some hybrid cars will make up for their premium cost because of higher gas prices and tax credits from the U.S. government on the more fuel efficient vehicles according to a study.

Hybrid cars and trucks, which get improved mileage in city driving by running on a combination of gas and electric power, cost between $1,200 and $7,000 more than traditional versions of the same vehicles.

In another study , auto industry tracking firm CSM Worldwide cited higher gas prices as one factor driving a shift toward more efficient six-speed transmissions.


Current Scenario
Assuming vehicles were driven 15,000 miles per year and gas was priced at $3 per gallon, owners of the Toyota Prius and Ford Motor Co.'s Escape Hybrid would break even within three years. Buyers of the Saturn Vue Green Line from General Motors Corp., the Toyota Camry and the Civic Hybrid from Honda Motor Co. would break-even within six years!

Study forecast that automatic six-speed transmissions would account for 60 percent of the U.S. car and truck market by 2012, up from less than 5 percent today.

Future ...
GM has already announced plans to shift to a new family of six-speed transmissions for upcoming models. Three-quarters of the new cars from GM, the world's No. 1 automaker, would feature the six-speed transmission by 2012.

Hybrids currently account for 1 percent of new car sales in the United States. But Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., the hybrid market leader, sees its annual hybrid sales topping 1 million units soon after 2010!!!


Source: Edmunds.com

Scientists Offer Proof of 'Dark Matter'

This composite image depicts the "bullet cluster" formed by galactic collision, with hot gas in a bullet shape shown in red and areas of dense matter in blue. Most of the matter in blue area is "dark," according to the astronomers' analysis

For decades, many scientists have theorized that the universe is made up of nearly undetectable mysterious substances called dark matter and dark energy. But until yesterday (22-aug-2006) there was no proof that the subatomic matter actually exists.

After studying data from a long-ago collision of two giant clusters of galaxies, researchers now say they are certain dark matter does exist and plays a central role in creating and defining gravity throughout the universe.

While the scientists are still not sure exactly what dark matter is, since they have yet to identify it in a laboratory, they said that the workings of the universe cannot be explained without it.

The breakthrough came using data from NASA's orbiting Chandra X-Ray Observatory and involved information from what researchers called the most massive release of detected energy in the universe since the big bang.

Scientists said that the "bullet cluster," formed by a collision between an enormous cluster of galaxies more than 3 billion light-years away and a smaller galaxy cluster, demonstrated the existence of dark matter. In effect, the collision stripped the dark matter away from visible matter. Once stripped, dark matter was clearly identified by the strong gravitational pull that it exerted.

The super-hot gases have qualities that typically would have become the seat of any new gravitational fields, cosmologists say, but instead they went with the stars. That could happen, Maxim Markevitch (Team member, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., ) said, only if dark matter separated from the gases and collected with the stars.

Wireless robots may float above the Earth!

Former NASA manager Bob Jones has a lofty idea for improving communications around the world: Strategically float robotic airships above the Earth as an alternative to unsightly telecom towers on the ground and expensive satellites in space.

He envisions a fleet of unmanned "Stratellites" hovering in the atmosphere and blanketing large swaths of territory with wireless access for high-speed data and voice communications.

Tethered flights of a prototype -- which cost about $3 million to build and is about one-fifth scale model of the planned commercial airships -- are scheduled later this month in this Mojave Desert city, about an hour's drive north of Los Angeles.

Unlike the cylindrical shape of a traditional blimp, a Stratellite has a broad, tapered nose like a shark. The solar-powered dirigible will carry a payload of radio and digital devices.

Cell towers are hampered by line-of-sight limitations and limited range. Geostationary satellites suffer from the quarter-second it takes a signal to travel out 22,300 miles and back -- insignificant in one-way TV transmissions, but terrible for two-way Internet computer communications.

Jones believes his solar-powered, helium-filled Stratellites _ so named because they would hang in the stratosphere -- could replace unsightly cell towers and cost less than satellites. Because of the airship's altitude according to Jones, its radio equipment can cover an area the size of Texas!!!

Russian solves historic math problem, shuns prize

A reclusive Russian won an academic prize recently for work toward solving one of history's toughest math problems, but he refused to accept the award -- a stunning renunciation of accolades from his field's top minds.



Grigory Perelman, a 40-year-old native of St. Petersburg, was praised for work in the field known as topology, which studies shapes, and for a breakthrough that might help scientists figure out nothing less than the shape of the universe.

But besides shunning the medal, academic colleagues say he also seems uninterested in a separate, $1 million prize he might be awarded for his feat. It had proved a theorem about the nature of multidimensional space that has stumped people for 100 years.

Three other mathematicians -- another Russian, a Frenchman and an Australian -- also won Fields honors this year. They received their awards from King Juan Carlos to loud applause from delegates to the conference. But Perelman was not present.

If his proof stands the test of time, Perelman will win all or part of the $1 million prize money. In 2000, the institute announced bounties for seven unresolved, historic math problems, including the one Perelman tackled.

Two weeks ago, academics began analyzing Perelman's work, which draws heavily from a technique developed by another mathematician, Richard Hamilton of Columbia University. The institute says it could conceivably share the money.

Dudeeeeeeeeeeeeeee u must be kidding!!!

Oldest living former U.S. president receives heart pacemaker

Gerald Ford, the oldest "living" former U.S. president, is 93 years old!!!


Former President Gerald Ford has received a cardiac pacemaker and is in stable condition at the Mayo Clinic, where the procedure was done.



Over the past few days, Ford, 93, has been evaluated and undergone a series of tests at the clinic that resulted in the implantation of the device, which is intended "to enhance his heart's performance".

The nation's 38th president was admitted to the clinic last Tuesday for testing and evaluation. Ford was hospitalized in 2003 after suffering a dizzy spell while playing golf in 96-degree heat.

Ford is the only president to have held office without being elected by the voters to the presidency or vice presidency.

He became then-President Richard Nixon's vice president in October 1973 after Spiro Agnew resigned and pleaded no contest to bribery, conspiracy and extortion.

Ford assumed the presidency in August 1974, after the Watergate scandal forced then-President Richard Nixon from office. He then pardoned Nixon. Ford narrowly lost the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter.

How about that?

Tiger Woods is unstoppable right now!!!

Tiger Woods convincingly won his 12th major on Sunday by dominating the field in the PGA Championship. The only thing that threw Tiger off his game was when that old guy from the PriceWaterhouseCoopers commercial chided him for his propensity to curse on the course.

Above ----> Tiger Woods, shown here with wife Elin Nordegren

Really, what was the story with the old guy in those omnipresent PWC ads? For those who didn't watch the broadcast, there were a series of commercials in which an old man in a white hat and gray cardigan counseled a multiethnic stream of young golfers who found themselves in the woods. The old-timer was prone to Yoda-esque bits of wisdom such as, "Thinking -- always a good idea, my young friend," and "One of the things that golf teaches you, my young friend, is that hate doesn't work." The commercials' central conceit is that "the lessons of golf are the lessons of life." Perhaps.

Still, I was mostly left wondering where the old guy kept materializing from. Does he only play with young kids? Or is he a caddie-ghost that simply appears in the woods, a kind of Bags-Under-the-Eyes Vance? Very strange.

Evolution of Desktop Computers...

Got this one from a friend(Nirmal) ...Interesting :-)

1984 - 1986

January 1984: Macintosh System 1

April 1985: Macintosh System 2

November 1985: Microsoft Windows 1.0

November 1985: Microsoft Windows 1.0

January 1986: Macintosh System 3

1987 - 1989

March 1987: Macintosh System 4

1987: Macintosh System 5

December 1987: Microsoft Windows 2.0

December 1987: Microsoft Windows 2.0

April 1988: Macintosh System 6

1990 - 1994

May 1990: Microsoft Windows 3.0

May 1991: Macintosh System 7

August 1992: Microsoft Windows 3.1

August 1992: Macintosh System 7.1

1995 - 1997

March 1995: Macintosh System 7.5

August 1995: Microsoft Windows 95

July 1997: Mac OS 8

1998 - 1999

June 1998: Microsoft Windows 98

July 1998: KDE 1.0

October 1999: Macintosh System 9

2000 - 2001

October 2000: KDE 2.0

September 2001: Mac OS X 10.1

October 2001: Microsoft Windows XP

2002 - 2006/7

November 2005: KDE 3.5

Mac OS X 10.5

Microsoft Windows Vista