KEEP YOUR ROUTER UP-TO-DATE
Your choice of ADSL router can make a huge difference to the actual speed of your connection. We recently saw different routers connected to exactly the same 8Mb/s ADSL line that varied in speed by as much as 3Mb/s – nearly half the available bandwidth of the line.

Most ISPs will sell or recommend specific models, and in some cases, even specify the firmware revision that offers the best speeds on their network. If you don’t have a recommended model, and you’re wondering whether your router is to blame for slovenly speeds, there’s still a few things you can do.

It’s critical that you keep your modem/router up-to-date with the latest ADSL standards. Many people have had problems with their modems when their ISP upgraded their DSLAM to ADSL2+, because they needed new firmware to achieve the maximum speeds.

With Telstra expanding its ADSL2+ coverage, you should check your router’s spec to ensure it’s compatible with the standard. When people move from 8Mb/s to ADSL2+, a non-compliant modem will only work at a reduced speed.

Most routers introduced within the last year or two should be capable of ADSL2+, but it’s clearly a good idea to consider upgrading your hardware every time you upgrade your connection. It’s also worth upgrading your router firmware regularly – check your router manufacturer’s site for updates.

A lot of the difference between routers comes down to the chipset – Whirlpool maintains a wiki of router and modem information that can help troubleshoot speed issues that arise from modem/router causes.

FINE-TUNE YOUR MTU SETTINGS
One of the more technical obstacles to broadband clipping along at its expected rate is a setting called the maximum transmission unit (MTU).

When your PC requests data from certain websites, they use Path MTU Discovery to check what size packets to send back to your computer. If the site can’t check what size packets to send, it reverts to the default of 1500, but if any of the gateways or routers along the path have a smaller MTU the data packet will be dropped.

You can tweak the MTU settings on both your PC and your router, but you must ensure you use the same figure on both. iPrimus offers what they call an MTU eyechart that can help you identify whether you have MTU issues – check their instructions here. DSL Reports provides a clear guide on how to adjust MTU at www.dslreports.com/tweaks/MTU. Whirlpool is another source of advice – you can ask people using the same ISP and/or modem about the settings that work best.

The free Speed Guide TCP Optimizer will determine the optimal MTU and other settings for your XP machine. Make sure you back up the Registry before changing anything.

ASK FOR INTERLEAVING
If you can’t solve an electrical interference problem, asking your ISP to switch on interleaving might improve the performance of your connection.
Excessive noise on your line can cause packets of data sent over your connection to corrupt, leading your router to re-request the data, which affects your overall data throughput.

Interleaving takes those data packets and hacks them into smaller pieces, leaving your router to reassemble them. “Interleaving can significantly improve stability and speed by correcting errors that would normally cause a loss of sync and reduction in speed,” said Zen’s Phil Long.

But while iinet and Internode, for example, offer interleaving for their customers as a customisation option, other major ISPs such as Telstra and Optus don’t. If interleaving is such a great idea, why don’t all ISP’s offer it?

“The downside is that latency is sacrificed, which may be seen as a problem for some online games,” explained Long. Interleaving can reduce the maximum throughput of the line, and slow down data transfers, although anecdotal evidence on internet forums suggests many people find their connections still achieve the same speeds after interleaving is applied.

If you’re suffering from an erratic connection, talk to your ISP to see if it can switch on interleaving on your line.

REPLACE YOUR FILTERS
ADSL filters and line splitters are a surprisingly common point of failure for home broadband connections. These seemingly innocuous little devices separate the low-end frequencies required for voice calls from the high-end frequencies needed for your ADSL connection. However, the poorly made freebies dished out by some ISPs are prone to fail, leading to excessive noise interfering with the speed of your connection.

In addition, filters that are adequate for ADSL may not be optimal for ADSL2/2+ – a spokesperson for Netcomm told us that you may get only two thirds of your possible speed. Ditch any old filters you have and buy new ones that meet the ADSL2+ standard – look for AS/ACIF S041:2005 and Telstra RCIT-0004 certification on the packaging.

But before you pop down to Officeworks and buy a job lot of filters, there are a few basic checks to perform first. Make sure there’s a filter fitted to every socket in the house where there’s telephony equipment attached – be that the telephone in the back bedroom, the Foxtel box or a fax machine.

The filter should plug directly into the wall socket. If you have a two-way splitter coming off the wall socket (to serve a phone and a fax machine, for example), make sure the filter is plugged in before the splitter.

A tell-tale sign that one of your filters has gone wonky is noise on the line when you’re making voice calls. Zen Internet provides a comprehensive guide to testing your ADSL filters at www.pcauthority.com.au/links/129broad2, but it essentially involves plugging each filter into your boundary termination socket in turn to eliminate the faulty unit.

If you’ve ever wondered what the inside of an ADSL microfilter looks like and why some are better than others, the UK-based ADSL nation website provides a terrifyingly detailed example, and while there’s no Australian site evaluating filters, Whirlpool’s filter recommendations are a good place to start.

Alternatively, you could invest in a central splitter. This is usually done when all other methods of getting a reliable ADSL connection have failed, and involves paying a technician around $150 to install a splitter on the telephone line before the first phone point in the property.

A central splitter means that you don’t need filters for phone lines in your house, but your ADSL modem can only be connected to the specific phone point created at the central splitter for the ADSL modem.

WATCH OUT FOR AR7 ROUTERS
Can’t understand why your ADSL line doesn’t hold a connection? Don’t worry, neither could thousands of others until diligent work by an ISP technical support team discovered a fault with the Texas Instruments’ AR7 chipset, found in many brands of ADSL router.

In short, the AR7 routers were found to be the common factor among customers who reported that their connection kept dropping every few minutes, making video streaming and online gaming nigh-on impossible. It seems the chipset has a problem dealing with electrical noise on the line.

The AR7 isn’t ADSL2+, so if your high speed broadband connection works, it’s unlikely you have to consider the AR7 as a possible speed hurdle.

Finding out whether your router contains the AR7 chipset is no picnic. Router manufacturers often neglect to specify which chipset is built into their equipment. You’ll find a list of some of the models containing the AR7 chipset at www.linux-mips.org/wiki/AR7

Does this mean you should throw out your AR7-based equipment? Not necessarily. Some manufacturers, such as Netgear, have released firmware updates that have reportedly solved the problem. Check your router’s software interface to see if there are any firmware upgrades available for your model.

If that fails, borrow a non-AR7 router to see if that improves the reliability of your connection, before investing in new equipment.

How to measure your broadband speed
Determining the true speed of your internet connection isn’t as easy as you may think. There are several, often contradictory, measures of your ADSL connection speed. These include:

Sync speed (or line rate)
This is the speed at which your router connects to the local telephone exchange – the theoretical maximum speed your line could achieve in perfect conditions with a following wind and a deadly virus wiping out your entire neighbourhood. This is the figure that pops up in the little bubble in the Windows System Tray when you first connect to your router.

Attenuation and noise
Attenuation and noise regulate the maximum throughput you’ll receive on your connection. Attenuation is a measure of how much signal is lost through your connection.

Line attenuation is a measure of how healthy the wiring is, and Telstra can perform a signal qualification test that should give you some idea of what speeds you can expect.

Signal attenuation is about the quality of connection through your modem, and it changes constantly. Noise is generated by electrical interference, whether from telephony devices or other causes.

The ratio of signal to noise (SNR) determines ADSL sync speeds. SNR margins are set at the DSLAM, and only your ISP can adjust them.

Throughput
This is the “true” speed of your connection – taken by measuring the actual rate at which data is downloaded and uploaded. Naturally, this is slower than the sync rate and often well below the mythical ‘up to 24Mb/s’.

Sites such as www.speedtest.net will accurately determine your actual throughput. If you’re running your router off an extension socket, try performing a speed test and then connect your router to the house’s master socket and run the speed test again to see how much speed you’re losing.


source:pcauthority

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Everything you need to know about maxing-out your broadband connection, including interleaving, fine tuning MTU settings, firmware updates, ADSL filters and splitters,and that old chestnut - electrical noise in your wiring
A recent Choice Computer survey found that, although broadband users are much happier than their dial-up counterparts, only 26% of ADSL users and 42% of ADSL2/2+ users never experience slow connections.

While there’s often little you can do to improve the physical speed of the line entering your house – especially if you don’t live in a cable area – it’s entirely possible to add 2 to 3Mb/s to the speed of your connection by following some of the measures offered here, substantially improving the throughput of most home ADSL connections.

TEST YOUR TV
You’d probably have replaced your router, rewired the house and spent Dame Edna’s wardrobe budget on your ISP’s technical support line before deciding your TV was to blame for your faltering broadband connection.

But TVs are just one of the innocent-looking culprits that could have a catastrophic effect on your connection. Satellite set-top boxes, microwave ovens and even Christmas lights can put the brakes on your broadband.

It’s generally the power supply – a capacitor that’s gone a bit leaky and started to emit more electrical noise than it used to. A slightly faulty power supply in a television or set-top box can degrade the performance of your line.

The electrical interference can severely hamper the speed of your ADSL connection. PC Authority saw just how debilitating such interference can be in a demonstration showing how an ADSL connection running at 3.8Mb/s was reduced to only 700Kb/s when a nearby fluorescent lamp with a faulty power supply was switched on. One poor Whirlpool forum member even had his ADSL connection keel over each time he opened his fridge door – possibly caused by a faulty light.

So how can you tell if your home electronics are murdering your bandwidth? It isn’t easy, largely because the device with the leaky power supply will probably still be functioning perfectly normally. It’s often a case of trial and error: switching equipment on and off, one by one, until you find the one that’s doing the damage to your connection.

One handy tip is to tune an AM radio to 627KHz and listen for crackling when you turn the device on, as this is a sure sign of excessive electrical interference.

However, it might not even be your equipment that’s dragging your broadband down. We’ve heard of a faulty television affecting broadband services in a 200m radius.

Avoid Extension wiring
Wiring is the number one connection issue; a lot of people suffer simply because of poor wiring in the house. The standout piece of advice from all the experts we’ve spoken to is to plug your ADSL equipment into the Boundary Termination socket – the main point in your home that the cable leads into, and that all other sockets daisy-chain from.

Placing the modem or router on an extension leaves it at the mercy of the internal wiring and, in the same way broadband speeds decrease significantly the further your house is from the local telephone exchange, the same applies in your own home.

However, the boundary termination socket is often awkwardly located in the lounge, and many a domestic dispute has arisen from a desire to place in full view a wireless router that looks like the offspring of Dexter and a Dalek, not to mention the NAS drives, games consoles and other devices that require a physical ethernet connection to the router.

Hooking your router to an extension socket is, therefore, often a necessary compromise. If you must use an extension socket, make sure the wire stretches no further than 3m. Use the estimate of expected line speed, based on your distance from the exchange, as a good indicator of how badly internal wiring may be affecting your connection if your router is plugged into an extension.

If you look at the speed of your router and it’s considerably less than expected, it’s clear something’s going wrong in the home.

If you’re noticing a significant drop-off, check the extension wiring – make sure no tacks have been hammered through the cable, for instance.

“If your DSL equipment is connected to the Boundary Termination socket then the quality of the cabling plays a huge part in the sync speed that can be obtained; the higher the quality cable the better,” said Phil Long, Zen Internet’s technical support manager. “Running network cable around your house can be simplest, but could be messy or impractical.”

TWEAK YOUR WI-FI
With draft-n offering a maximum data rate around 300Mb/s, your wireless router should deliver a few megabits of broadband around your home with ease. However, anyone who’s set up a wireless home network will know that isn’t always the case.

802.11n may mean you can now access your wireless network down the bottom of the garden, but it could also mean next-door’s signal is ringing loud and clear in your living room, potentially interfering with your signal.

The excellent NetStumbler (a free download from www.netstumbler.com/) will reveal which Wi-Fi channel your neighbours are using, allowing you to set your router to a different channel using its web interface. Be aware that your wireless router may offer a weaker or even non-existent signal on certain channels, so a brief trial-and-error session is wise to achieve the optimum speed.

Peter Habib, from Telstra, emphasised the importance of placement: “the location of the WiFi device will affect the speed a customer experiences. The range and quality of wireless connections is affected by having to pass through large metal objects like a steel door, large amounts of water (like a fish tank) and even nearby electromagnetic devices. These electromagnetic devices can include televisions, radios, cordless telephones and microwave ovens to name a few. Finally, high density objects like floors, ceilings and walls can also affect the travel of the WiFi signal.”

If you’ve followed our experts’ advice and plugged your Wi-Fi router into the boundary termination socket in the lounge, but now can’t get a decent signal in the back bedroom, a booster may be your best bet. Our tests have shown that a 5dBi omnidirectional antenna can provide an 80% boost in coverage and performance at distance.

Alternatively, wireless repeaters or HomePlug devices may provide a more consistent connection. “Avoid connecting them to surge protectors, as performance can be significantly affected,” warns Zen’s Phil Long.

GET DIAGNOSED
Your ISP almost certainly knows a lot more about your connection than you do. For that reason, your ISP's tech support should be your first port of call if you're running into speed issues. ISP support staff may be able to see detailed histories of your line’s maximum and average speed, faults and uptime to help identify when and where problems start. They may be able to spot, for example, that your connection slumps at 5pm every day.

While the range of diagnostic tools available to each ISP varies, and some of the more useful data is only available to Telstra, it's still a good bet when it comes to diagnosing hard-to-pin-down problems and your ISP can tweak far more settings than you can.

One thing they're likely to suggest is something you can do at home before calling them: an isolation test.

Put simply, an isolation test removes all telephone interference, and then adds back devices one at a time to find problems. It's normally used to identify why ADSL isn't working, but in concert with speed testing can help find slow portions of your home setup. First disconnect all phone equipment. Then connect your modem to the boundary termination socket, using the shortest possible cable – no more than three metres in length.

Restart the modem and test speed, then switch cables and check speed again. You can continue testing, switching out a single item each time. Try a second modem, other phone sockets around the home and, finally, adding back each of your phone devices.

Sort your system
Surprisingly, the ISPs we spoke to said that your system – and particularly the software you run – is one of the common causes they see for broadband slowdown. The culprits all download in the background, whether they are malicious interlopers or programs you've installed.

iPrimus recommends that you “keep your computer system free from viruses and spyware and checking for background running programs such as file sharing programs.” and an Optus spokesperson added that slow speeds can also be “related to the software running on the customers computer – for example peer-to-peer and other programs that use up bandwidth can sometimes be the cause of slower speeds.”

Most ISPs offer a deal on security software, and there are free products that provide protection, so there's no excuse for a compromised system.

Perhaps paradoxically, software is also a recommended solution for broadband speed problems. Some software gives you easy access to Windows settings that would otherwise require registry hacking, and some just add a cosmetic lustre to your speed.

You could, for example, try adding a firefox extension called FasterFox, which makes better use of your bandwidth through pre-fetching and gives you easy access to many of the tweakable settings of your network connection.

If you have XP, try Unblocka. Input your upload and download speeds, which you can obtain from your ISP, and Unblocka 'tunes' your settings to improve speed. Last but not least, install a good adblocker to prevent adverts from downloading to reduce their bandwidth-sucking effect.


continue Part 2

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Here?s a simple 3 minute tweak (XP Pro only) that will increase your broadband speed.

By default (even with QoS disabled) Windows XP reserves up to 20 percent of your connections bandwidth. To override this reserve take the following steps.

Make sure you Log on as Administrator, not as a user with Administrator privileges.

* Start-> Run-> type gpedit.msc
* You will see [Local Computer Policy]
* Expand the [Administrative Templates] branch
* Expand the [Network] branch
* Highlight [QoS Packet Scheduler]
* Double-click [Limit Reservable Bandwidth]
* Check [Enabled]
* Change [Bandwidth limit %] to 0 %
* Click [Apply] [OK]

* Restart

Effect is immediate.

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I’ve got to hand it to the company who made the G4 Slim mouse. It can’t have been easy to make the world’s thinnest laptop mouse, or at least the world’s slimmest so far.

The G4 is a 5mm piece of plastic and metal that can fold up into a very flat slot. In fact, it is so flat that it can fit inside the PCMCIA slot of the laptop, which is one that I don’t use while the laptop is being transported.

This makes the G4 one of the most compact computer mice, and it comes with a retractable USB cable as well. This has a touch scroll pad in the middle of two left and right mouse buttons.

The G4 slim mouse is a plug and play feature that is compatible with both PC and Mac laptops. Not only that, this G4 Mouse is an optical mouse that is state of the art.

The G4 Slim mouse comes with a leather pouch and mouse pad, and is available for about $69.99 on the Slim mouse site.

source:Gadgetextra

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1. create a new sheet in openoffice.org Calc (spreadsheet)

2. enter this formula in a cell :

=game()
and validate (validation button or enter)

3.the cell will display "say what?"

4. Enter this formula:

=GAME("StarWars")

5. a new window will open with a little game star war game.

6. But if you type again this formula, the cell will return the display "oh no, not again!"

7. to be able to play again, you need to close the file, close openoffice.org and the QuickStarter, and then make the same.

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1. Select About in Help menu.

2. Press 'T' on the Keyboard.

Also if you click the u Torrent Logo in about, a music is played

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1.Israel makes palestinian schoolgirls sexually promiscuous by selling them aphrodisiac bubble-gum

"Palestinian authorities uncovered Israeli efforts to spread a special kind of gum that contains sexual hormone between Palestinians. The authorities requested laboratory tests on the gum which were conducted in Cairo. Those tests showed that the gum contains progesterone which is responsible for sexual arousal and also prevents pregnancies. Palestinian authorities confiscated 200 tonnes of gum in the city of al-Khalil alone. The Washington Post claimed in report that if it asked a chemistry professor in the Hebrew university to examine the gum. His tests were negative, however the paper also reported that the majority of Palestinians believe the conspiracy. It quoted one Palestinian saying that it was possible to send a space ship to Mars then it is possible to manufacture a 'sexual gum' it is after all a war." (report by Mohammad Dalbah mentioned by middle east analyst Daniel Pi on his book pes)


2.Alien Reptiles are dominating the World


According to BBC Reporter David Icke, reptilian humanoids are the force behind a worldwide conspiracy directed at manipulation and control of humanity. He contends that most of the world's leaders, from William Jefferson Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and George W. Bush to members of the British royal family, are in fact related to the 7-foot (2.1 m) tall, blood-drinking reptilians from the star system Alpha Draconis.

According to an interview with David Icke, Christine Fitzgerald, a confidante of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, claims that Diana told her that the Royal Family were reptilian aliens, and that they could shapeshift. David Icke and others have claimed that U.S. President George W. Bush and his family are part of this same bloodline.

Icke claims, based on his exploration of genealogical connections to European royalty, that many presidents of the United States have been and are reptilian humanoids. In his view, United States foreign policy after September 11 is the product of a reptilian conspiracy to enslave humanity, with George W. Bush as a servant of the reptilians. He also theorizes that the reptilians came to Earth from the constellation Draco.


3.Wingdings font has a secret message of approval to kill Jews


Wingdings is a font included in all versions of Microsoft Windows, with a history of controversy. In 1992, only days after the release of Windows 3.1, it was discovered that the character sequence "NYC" in Wingdings was rendered as a skull and crossbones symbol, Star of David, and thumbs up gesture. This could be interpreted as a message of approval of killing Jews, especially those from New York City. Microsoft strongly denied this was intentional, and insisted that the final arrangement of the glyphs in the font was largely random. (The character sequence "NYC" in the later-released Webdings font, in turn, is rendered as eye, heart, and city skyline, which could be interpreted as "I Love New York City". Microsoft has stated that this is intentional.)

An urban legend that spread after the September 11, 2001 attacks was that if the sequence "Q33NY" is typed in Wingdings, the Q becomes an aircraft, the threes become lined documents (which resemble skyscrapers), the N becomes a skull and crossbones, and the Y becomes the Star of David. The resulting graphics look like an aircraft preparing to impact the World Trade Center, with a message of death for those of Jewish faith. The "NY" stands for New York, and "Q33" allegedly was the designation of one of the aircraft. However, the theory that this has any valid non-accidental connection with the attacks falls apart under scrutiny: the terrorist attacks were not specifically directed at Jews, and none of the aircraft used on that day bore the designation of Q33. Another suggestion was that "Q33" was a reference to a bus route, typically alleged to be at the World Trade Center itself, or to one of the airports involved. In reality, bus route Q33 serves LaGuardia Airport, and none of the hijacked aircraft took off from or were heading there.

Various other combinations of Wingdings characters are alleged to have special significance by conspiracy theorists


4.Stephen King killed John Lennon


Steve Lightfoot's book "Lennon Murder Expose" suggest his theory with "strong" evidence from government codes in the bold print headlines of Time. His website's introduction reads: "Contrary to all reports about a lone drifter named Mark David Chapman who allegedly shot John Lennon in the back December 8, 1980 you'll find ample evidence in the back issues of Time, Newsweek, and US News and World Report magazines to suggest otherwise. Namely, that John Lennon was, not only politically assassinated, but that Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and, you'd better sit down, horror novelist Stephen King are the three people who can be proven guilty of the crime. King being the real murderer and Chapman but a look-alike, paid actor misleading you with an absolute hoax, the media in tow."

"The evidence, specifically, is government codes in the bold print headlines of Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report magazines that were printed shortly before, during, and after the night of December 8, 1980. Hints in the headlines that you won't find anywhere else that plug into John Lennon's assassination with up to 70% frequency at times. These government codes, which read like gallows humor; «Thinking About John Lennon...Johnny Comes Marching Home...Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, Ouch, Ouch...The Job Richard Nixon Really Wanted...Blasting the Opposition...America Needs A Poet Laureate...Maybe...Heeding Those Subtle Signs...Magazine Maze...All the Presidents Magazines...». These codes include the killer's face and true identity printed three and two months before the crime replete with headlines describing the then yet to come crime scene: «One Great Big Zippo Lighter...Perils of Pyrokinesis». Pyrokinesis means fire and movement, and a man at night with a gun ablaze, crouched in a raincoat looks like a great big cigarette lighter. Subtle but dramatic codes."


5.The Early Middle Ages (614–911 AD) never occurred. Year 2007 is actually 1710


The Phantom time hypothesis is a theory developed by Heribert Illig (born 1947) in 1991, which suggests that the Early Middle Ages (more precisely, the period 614–911 AD) never occurred, meaning that all artifacts attributed to this period are from other times and that all historical figures from this period are outright fabrications. The vast majority of historians believe this theory to be wrong.

The basis of Illig's claims is the paucity of archaeological evidence that can be reliably dated to this period; perceived inadequacies of radiometric and dendrochronological methods of dating this period, and the over-reliance of medieval historians on written sources. For Western Europe, Illig claims the presence of Romanesque architecture in the tenth century as evidence that less than half a millennium could have passed since the fall of the Roman Empire, and concludes that the entire Carolingian period, including the person of Charles the Great, is a forgery of medieval chroniclers, more precisely a conspiracy instigated by Otto III and Gerbert d'Aurillac.

The theory also stems from the belief that during the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Europe (1582 AD), while compensating for a ten day discrepancy in the old Julian calendar, many dates were falsely (or ineptly) recalculated as the new system created a thirteen day discrepancy. The original mathematical blemish was attributed to the Julian year being 1.3 minutes too long (which is commonly agreed as factual).


6.Paul McCartney is dead. The current is just a lookalike


The supposed death of Paul McCartney, a member of the Beatles, was the subject of a rumour that began circulating in October 1969. Proponents of the theory, which is commonly referred to as the Paul is dead hoax, claim that McCartney died in a car crash in late 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike before the recording of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The supposed "clues" are given throughout the post-1966 Beatles material in the form of peculiar album covers, possible symbolism in strange lyrics, and backmasking. The rumour started when radio DJ Russ Gibb received a call from a listener who claimed that McCartney had died and the Beatles (namely John Lennon) had sprinkled clues throughout the Beatles' albums for fans to pick up on. The rumour quickly died down in 1970 after McCartney revealed himself to be alive on the cover of Newsweek magazine. However, some theorists still maintain that Paul is dead and the Paul McCartney who played with Wings and in the Super Bowl is the same lookalike who played with the Beatles after Revolver.



7.NASA Faked the Moon Landings


Apollo Moon Landing hoax accusations are claims that some or all elements of the Apollo Moon landings were faked by NASA and possibly members of other involved organizations. Some groups and individuals have advanced alternate historical narratives which tend, to varying degrees, to include the following common elements:

# The Apollo Astronauts did not land on the Moon;
# NASA and possibly others intentionally deceived the public into believing the landing(s) did occur by manufacturing, destroying, or tampering with evidence, including photos, telemetry tapes, transmissions, and rock samples;
# NASA and possibly others continue to actively participate in the conspiracy to this day.

Enthusiasts of this theory claim that:
# The astronauts could not have survived the trip because of exposure to radiation
# The photos were altered: the Crosshairs on some photos appear to be behind objects, rather than in front of them where they should be
# The quality of the photographs is implausibly high.
# There are no stars in any of the photos, and astronauts never report seeing any stars from the capsule windows.
# Identical backgrounds in photos that are listed as taken miles apart.
# The moon's surface during the daytime is so hot that camera film would have melted.
# No blast crater appeared from the landing
# The launch rocket produced no visible flame.
# The flag placed on the surface by the astronauts flapped despite there being no wind on the Moon.

Many commentators have published detailed rebuttals to the hoax claims. According to a 1999 poll conducted by the The Gallup Organization, what Gallup termed an "overwhelming majority" of the US public, some 89 percent, did not believe the landing was faked, while 6 percent did and 5 percent were undecided.

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Design by Tracie Andrew

If you want to see the other t-shirt designs - check them out at Flickr. You have to join the group (yes, that even confused me) but there were a lot of cool designs to choose from.

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1. Hair: Do you put effort into making your hair seem cool? Don't. All cool kids put zero effort into their hair. When it's messy, you do nothing. When it gets long, you never under any circumstances PAY for a haircut! There is nothing more uncool than paying somebody to cut your hair. You can either do it yourself, or occasionally push the hair out of your face with your fist. Using fingers shows effort and that's simply uncool. Some people put a lot of effort into making their hair look unkempt; however, that effort shows and oftentimes you're left looking considerably less cool. Oh, and shave every third Tuesday, but not with a blade, with a stick.

2. Clothes: Hey, when did you buy that outfit you're wearing? Did your answer start with a "two thousand"? Because if so, you're not cool. The clothes you wear today should be the ones you wore in seventh grade. The smaller, the more worn down, the better. Is your shirt so thin you can see your nipples through it? Great. Now you're getting somewhere, nerd. The shirt you wore to sixth-grade PE is a great start. How about a sports team that doesn't exist anymore? Anything Quebec Nordiques or Vancouver Grizzlies=instant cool.

3. Demeanor: Do not speak loudly. No cool person speaks loudly. Say few, small words, but every once in a while drop a really big one just to show you've got the capability, but you're just too cool to use it. Example:

GIRL: Hey.
YOU: Sup.
GIRL: I've never noticed you before. I like your shirt--PE, huh? It's cute.
YOU: Sup.
GIRL: I like your hair--is that effort I see?
YOU: You know it ain't, bitch. Sesquipedalian.
GIRL: *SWOOOOON*

Shakespeare once wrote, "To thine own self be true." However, you should focus on Shakespeare's more subtle philosophical points about dressing up as people and acting like characters. Cooler characters.

written by: ch staff

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People seem to enjoy "before you die" lists -- such as "places to see before you die" and "things to do before you die." This list of board games to play before you die doesn't include the classics -- Chess, Checkers, Monopoly, etc. -- or even modern classics like Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne.

Instead, this list includes 10 mostly hard-to-find games which provide unique gameplay experiences, all of which are worth tracking down to play at least once. (All of the links will take you to the game's entry at BoardGameGeek.com.)

1. Polarity

For 2 to 4 players, designed by Douglas Seaton, most recently published by Temple Games (originally published in 1986).

The pieces are magnetzied and players must balance them carefully, "resting" them on the magnetic field created by other magnets already on the board. When the magnets snap together, that's a bad thing. It's also a bad thing when someone bumps the table, because that will cause magnets to snap together.

Vendor's Site

2. Ice Cube

Published by Milton Bradley in 1970.

Each player has an actual ice cube which melts as this game progresses. Avoiding the "warm bath," "hot head" and "salt shower" will help.

Vendor's Site

3. Axiom

For 2 players, designed by Michael Seal, published by Seventh Seal in 1988.

The man I believe to be the ultimate collector of offbeat games, Frank Branham, calls this abstract gem "the best 3D game ever designed, and one of the most visually impressive.

Vendor's Site

4. Die Schlacht der Dinosaurier

For 2 to 4 players, designed by Roger Ford and Stephen Baker, published by Schmidt Spiele in 1993.

The bits are incredible for this game -- dozens of large, detailed dinosaurs -- even if some people claim that humans never really rode dinosaurs. Baker has designed some other fantastic adventure games worth trying at least once: HeroQuest, Battle Masters and Space Crusade. He also had a big role in developing the brilliant HeroScape.

Vendor's Site

5. Confusion

For 2 players, designed by Robert Abbott, published by Franjos Spieleverlag in 1992.

Confusion lives up to its name because at the start of the game, players don't know where their own pieces can move -- only their opponent's.

Vendor's Site

6. Maneater

For 2 to 5 players, designed by R.A. Nadeau, Nick Young and Richard MacRory, published by Footloose Productions in 1976.

This game could be subtitled "Jaws: The Board Game." Swimmers -- completed with detachable legs -- try to avoid sharks. One player controls the shark, while others take care of the swimmers. The shark player secretly writes down his move, then the swimmers roll a dice to move before the shark's plan is revealed.

Vendor's Site

7. Pangaea: The Evolution Game

For 2 to 6 players, published by Pyramid Publishing in 1986.

Players start as lungfish and attempt to evolve into humans while avoiding the mouths of hungry dinosaurs as continents drift around the board.

Vendor's Site

8. Nuclear War / Nuclear Escalation

For 2 to 6 players, designed by Douglas Malewicki, published by Flying Buffalo in 1965.

In this game (and a 1983 expansion, which can also be played on its own), players use nuclear weapons and propoganda to try to win control of the world.

Vendor's Site

9. Tales of the Arabian Nights

For 1 to 6 players, designed by Eric Goldberg, published by West End Games in 1985.

"This is actually several games in one" is how the BoardGameGeek.com entry for this publication begins. There are elements of a roleplaying game, a quest game and a merchant game.

Vendor's Site


10. CrokinoleFor 2 or 4 players, a public domain game.

Crokinole is the only game on this list that's readily available -- but a good board does cost more than $100. Players flick wooden discs arcoss a smooth surface in a game not unlike shuffleboard and curling. Playing on a beautiful Crokinole board is a delightful experience.

Vendor's Site

by:Erik Arneson,

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They're not called cyber athletes for nothing. Here's how people who play video games for a living stay in winning shape.

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There are dozens of ways to boost your productivity, and we tell you plenty. But have you ever just looked at that and said “Gee, I just don’t have time to do that” or you just don’t want to use some new alpha beta whatchamacallit. Lucky for you, there are some simple everyday things you can do to make doing whatever easier and faster.

1. Sort Bookmarks - This might take a little time if you already have a lot of bookmarks, but it will help you find the site you want faster.

2. Save Passwords - If you have your own computer (not shared) then tell your browser to remember your passwords. Not typing in your username and password can save you a lot of time.

3. Use a RSS Reader - Stop visiting 20 different sites just to read your favorite blogs and the news. Use something like Google Reader (online) or a NewsGator product (iPhone, Mac, PC, Online.) Check out MakeUseOf Poll asking readers for their favorite RSS Reader.

4. Backup / Sync Your Bookmarks - If you have any more than one computer (work and home) then you know it’s hard to keep the bookmarks on both the same (find a site, copy the address, and send yourself an e-mail). An easy way around this is to simply sync your bookmarks with an add-on for your browser. For Firefox, there’s Foxmarks and Weave, and for IE users there’s Chipmarks.

5. Use GreaseMonkey - GreaseMonkey (What is Greasemonkey?) is a small Firefox add-on that lets you run userscripts that do various things on various sites, many of which can help a lot. OK, I’ll admit this makes you reboot your browser and you install a Firefox extension, but all of the userscripts don’t restart your browser.

6. Stealth Kiwi - If you’re not big on self control, let Stealth Kiwi do it for you. It blocks all “recreational” websites, but allows you to take a 10 minute break every hour. (GreaseMonkey)

7. Google Inline MP3 Player - So you found the MP3 of what you need (lecture, song, speech, etc.) but you don’t need to download it or you just want to make sure it is what you think it is. Google Inline MP3 Player automatically uses Google’s flash player to play the MP3 file inline. (GreaseMonkey)

8. AutoPagerize - Search. Scroll to the bottom. Click next. Repeat. Wouldn’t it be much faster to just have all of your search results on one auto expanding page? Luckily there’s AutoPagerize which does just that. (GreaseMonkey)

9. Organize Your Desktop - Alphabetize, or sort manually, but put your desktop icons in some order so you can find your application without looking all over the screen.

10. Keep Your Start Menu Organized - Keep your start menu organized (Linux does this for you, and Macs have the dock) by manually making folders and moving files to fit your needs or just use Tidy Start Menu or SMOz (both for windows). MakeUseOf also has a nice piece on Start Menu Alternatives for


11. Use An Application Launcher - Application launchers make launching applications a lot faster and easier than hunting down that elusive icon. Simply type fir hit enter and poof! You have opened Firefox. If you have a Mac the best option is QuickSilver, for Linux users there is the excellent Do, and for Windows users there is Launchy and Enso. Yes, I know you have to download and install something, but trust me it is well worth it.

12. Be Able to Manage All Open Windows - If you have open 15 different windows and your task bar / dock is overflowing, don’t be afraid to extend it a bit (as in pulling your task bar up for a second row or shirking the dock) to see all of your open windows.

13. Use an Online Calendar - Services like Google Calendar and localendar are great not only for keeping you organized, but sharing your schedule and collaborating. They can be used for a public calendar or collaborating with co-workers or family members.

14. Use an E-Mail Client - If you have any more than one e-mail address, use an e-mail client to keep everything together. There are dozens, including Mozilla Thunderbird (incl. lots of excellent addons) or the online Zenbe. Both keep your address book and e-mail in one place.

These are just a few of the many methods to boost your productivity without installing a bunch of software and using 42 different websites to check your email. How about you? How do you boost your online productivity? Can you add anything to this list?

written by:ben

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No head. From Sports Illustrated

"OMG! I forgot to put her finger back in"

Is she's about to devour her friend?

So what's wrong with this girl's arm?

Ok, how many hands do you actually have Lady Guineviere?

Need an extra hand?

Nice stomach on the "Before" picture

World's smallest waist - Maxim Mexico

The only cereal that makes you white

Yeah, nice legs

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If you have a blog, website, or forum, with a minimum PageRank 1 or Alexa rank under 2,000,000 (2 million), you could earn more money from your website beyond Google Adsense contextual ads. I have recently joined Ask2link.com (http://www.ask2link.com/refer/azreen) to enable advertisers to buy ad space on my website. Ask2link.com provides secure, easy, and fast checkout flow so you could get your text link ads or banner ads live within 2 minutes after online payment. Platforms supported include PHP, Ruby on Rails, Perl, ASP, JSP, and hosted blogs at Blogger.com or Wordpress.com . They also provide you with the ability to customize the 'nofollow' tag tag when you sell your ads. This may affect your ad sales, though.

If you would like to monetize your blog or website, you could visit Ask2link to learn more. Ask2link is a search engine marketing company that specializes in selling text links and banner ads. Advertisers, you may want to think about spending your marketing budget beyond PPC(Pay-per-click) such as Yahoo Search Marketing, MSN AdCenter, or Google Adwords. Why?

Static HTML links can bring you targeted traffic, bring you more organic search traffic, and also potentially improve your search engine rankings (SERPs), and you could increase your website traffic or sales. It also has uses in search engine reputation management. Search engine reputation management companies also use various SEO techniques to fight negative publicity. Start advertising now in "http://www.stanford-postdoc.org" as part of your SEO or online marketing campaign. You could now purchase static text links or banner ads on my website by following on the links below:

Buy links now on "http://www.arenlabs.com"

https://www.ask2link.com/buy_ad/22016ddac99c40c0a3ba

Buy vertical Banner ads now on "http://www.arenlabs.com"

https://www.ask2link.com/buy_ad/148f42d7887e46050f3e

Buy horizontal Banner ads now on "http://www.arenlabs.com"

https://www.ask2link.com/buy_ad/d56596cde153b9f22fa0

And no matter whether you are SEO beginner, expert, SEO consultant, or search engine marketing company, you could also try Ask2Link as SEO tools as they are one of the companies that offer SEO services.

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Firefox 3 is out! awesome! Oh wait, half my add-ons don't work now...Garbage. Here's a simple way to make Firefox2 add-ons run on Firefox 3, even if they have compatibility problems. Basically, you just edit a text file, it's really quite simple. All you need to do is to save the add-on on your computer and do a little tweaking. Make a small change to the version in the file editor, and the add-on is ready for installation.


written by:hacknmod

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If you’re lucky enough to own an iPhone, you are probably aware of what a unique piece of equipment it is. It can perform many functions and it is, to say the least, a sophisticated and intricate electronic device—but it is not self-cleaning. And like all electronic devices, in order for it to perform at maximum efficiency, it needs to be kept clean. Cleaning your iPhone is by no means a complicated procedure, but it is one that should be done slowly and carefully. There are certain precautions you should be aware of, but perhaps most important, it is not something that should be done in a rushed manner or haphazardly. Take your time, do it right, and your iPhone will reward you for the TLC you show it.

What You Will Need:

• Microfiber or other similar lint free cloth.
• Cool water
• iPhone
• Safe and quiet spot

The Cleaning Process:

1. Disconnect all USB cables from your iPhone. The iPhone should never be cleaned while it is attached to a computer or any other device.
2. Turn your iPhone off. To do this, depress the “sleep/wake” button (if you do not know where this button is, refer to your iPhone instruction manual). After about 3 to 4 seconds a red slider will appear on the screen. With your finger, drag the red slider across the screen. Your iPhone should now be off. Again, if you are having difficulty with this procedure, refer to your instruction manual.
3. Dampen (Dampen, not soak!) the corner of a soft microfiber cloth with a trickle of water (Some people prefer distilled because it carries less impurities). Never apply water or cleaning solutions directly to your iPhone.
4. With the damp corner, gently wipe the iPhone, paying special attention to the touch screen, but avoid wiping the ports. If your screen is especially dirty, you should attempt to remove surface dirt with a soft brush or compressed air first as you may inadvertently drag the dirt across the screen and cause scratching.
5. Once your phone has been cleaned to your satisfaction, use the dry portion of the cloth to remove any moisture that remains on your phone.
6. When your iPhone is completely dry turn it back on by depressing the “sleep/wake” button. The “Apple” logo should appear on the screen.
7. Depending on how much you use your iPhone, this cleaning process can be done daily, or every couple of days or weekly, in order to keep your iPhone looking its best and performing well.

Additional Tips and Advice

• Before attempting to clean your iPhone, always refer to your user’s manual to make sure you are familiar with all the features and recommendations pertaining to your iPhone, including any manufacturer precautions with regard to cleaning.
• Your iPhone should come with its own cleaning cloth, in which case, we recommend that you use their cloth, and follow any recommendations provided with the cloth, for cleaning your iPhone.
• NEVER use any type of commercial or chemical cleaners on your iPhone—not even plain soap! The only thing you should dampen your cleaning cloth with is PLAIN WATER.
• Again, be very careful not to saturate your iPhone with water—the cleaning cloth should barely be damp—or you will damage your iPhone.
• If your iPhone does sustain water damage and will not turn on (or acts erratically when it is turned on) contact Apple iPhone Customer Support immediately to find out what can be done to remedy or repair the situation.
• You may want to consider purchasing an iPhone case to help keep your iPhone clean and minimize the frequency of regular cleaning.
• NEVER attempt to clean the iPhone touch screen (or any other part of the iPhone) with any kind of liquid or aerosol cleaners, especially ones containing alcohol, ammonia or other abrasive ingredients. These common household cleaners (including window cleaners such as Windex®) can damage the sensitive touch screen!
• Of course, you should NEVER immerse your iPhone in water, but also be careful to keep your iPhone out of excessively moist or damp environments (i.e. indoor pool areas, health club saunas or steam rooms, steamy shower rooms, etc.),. Excessive moisture can damage the delicate inner workings of the iPhone. If your iPhone does get wet, unplug all cables, turn the iPhone off and allow it to dry out completely. After it is dry, try to turn it on and see if it works. If it does not turn on, or acts erratically when it does, contact Apple customer support to see what can be done to remedy the situation. You can contact customer support by using the contact information provided with your iPhone materials, or by going to their website.

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Some Windows Vista errors are caused by corrupt system files causing instabilities, but troubleshooting these problems manually can be almost impossible. Thankfully, Vista includes a "System File Checker" application that will verify the integrity of core system files.

There are 2 types of scan, a verification and a scan/repair mode. The former will only check the files without repairing them automatically, the latter will fix any errors it finds.

To begin, load the command prompt by starting "cmd" from the run box (Press WINDOWS KEY + R to access this):

Then, type in one of the following commands (followed by the enter key) depending on the type of scan you wish to perform:

• sfc /verifyonly - To verify any corrupt files only.
• sfc /scannow - To verify and fix any corrupt files.

This will then start the scan and inform you of any files that require fixing:

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sometimesredsometimesblue.com

click the link! tell me if there any simpler site than this!

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Download Wallpaper:
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Download Wallpaper:
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Download Wallpaper:
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Download Wallpaper:
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Download Wallpaper:
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Download Wallpaper:
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Download Wallpaper:
800x600
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1280x1024




Download Wallpaper:
800x600
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1280x1024




Download Wallpaper:
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Download Wallpaper:
800x600
1024x768
1280x1024

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Web application Glasnost simulates BitTorrent downloads on your computer to determine whether or not your internet service provider (ISP) is throttling your BitTorrent transfers. It does so by measuring the difference between your regular download speed and your BitTorrent download speed, testing against different ports and other variables to get a better idea of what exactly is being throttled. The tool is aggregating the results of the test, which the site is publishing to encourage greater transparency among ISPs. If your ISP turns out to be throttling your BitTorrent traffic, you can still avoid the throttling if you know the right tricks.

Glasnost [via TorrentFreak]

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Blank Canvas Gmail Signatures is a Firefox add-on that automatically inserts HTML signatures into your Gmail messages letting you select which signature you want to use, thanks to a tag system, from four presets that you can freely edit.

All you need to use is a minimal preparation with HTML, and if you don’t have this, Blank Canvas Gmail Signatures provides you a simple and basic introduction to HTML coding language

Let me show you how to use it:

* First of all you need to be registered to Firefox Add-ons. Once you are registered, just install the add-on and restart Firefox.


* Now the only thing to do is to open Gmail and compose a new message.


* Just below the “send” button you will see three other buttons. Good, this is the add-on!!



*The first button allows you to choose which signature set to include in the message. You can create four signatures, so that you can have a signature for work, one for your friends and use the others as best as you think.



*The second button allows you to create a new signature, or to modify an existing one.



*The third and last button shows you a list of options, where you can rename the four tags that match the different signatures for you to easily recognize them.



*When you click the button to start making a new signature you will see two boxes over the email message field: the first box is where you have to write your signature in HTML language, and the second box is where you can see the real-time preview of what your creation will look like.




Thanks to Blank Canvas Gmail Signatures you can now have a very cool HTML Sigmature for your Gmail account. And it’s very simple to use, so everyone can use html signature in his e-mail.

For more information, or to discuss this add-on, please see the forums here

The extension is obviously free to download and install.

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What is the Firefox Browser?
Straight from Mozilla: "Firefox is a free, open-source web browser for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X and is based on the Mozilla codebase. It is small, fast and easy to use, and offers many advantages over Internet Explorer, such as the ability to block pop-up windows."

My Experience with Firefox
Let me tell you my own personal experiences about Firefox. I was a diehard Internet Explorer user for many years, until I realized that more and more people were using the Firefox browser. I tend to be the last one to jump on the trend wagon, so I came late to the Firefox party.However, now that I've been using Firefox for a while, I can't believe I stuck with IE for so long.

Basically, Firefox is a searcher's browser. There's so many features that Firefox offers: tabbed browsers, advanced bookmark manager system, live bookmarks, security, etc.,that it's become an essential tool in my web search toolkit. Do what I did: tell yourself that you'll try Firefox for a week before you give up on it, and I can almost guarantee that you'll be as happy as I am about this browser.

Firefox Browser Security
One of the most popular features of Firefox is the fact that it's a very secure browser. Internet Explorer by its very nature is not going to be secure no matter how many nifty patches you're able to download from the Microsoft site, because IE is integrated with Windows. What does this mean? It means that if Internet Explorer is compromised, that your operating system, most likely Windows, is going to be compromised as well. That's why hackers love IE, because they can make their hacker cake and eat Windows too (lame metaphor, but go with me here.).

Firefox and ActiveX
In addition, Firefox doesn't like ActiveX, which is a huge source of general PC crash problems, and Firefox won't let spyware and adware automatically install when you visit various websites.

Firefox Free Popup Blocker
Firefox's popup blocker is one of the best out there. When I was using IE, I got popups no matter what I did, and some of them did in fact crash my browser.

Firefox Tabbed Browsing
The tabbed browsing feature of the Firefox browser is something I didn't know I couldn't live without. Microsoft has released a tabbed browsing toolbar, but it doesn't have the same features as Firefox,and frankly I'm spoiled for Firefox now. Tabbed browsing allows me to open dozens of Web sites all at the same time if I wanted to,and it's cut down considerably on my work time, making it more productive.

Firefox and Web Search
One of my favorite things about the Firefox browser is the ability to search multiple search engines and Web sites from within the Firefox toolbar. You can learn more about this in my article titled Add Search Engines to Your Firefox Toolbar.

Firefox Live Bookmarks
Firefox's Live Bookmarks feature enables content on the Web to come to you, instead of the other way around. This is because of RSS, a technology that is deceptively simple but has changed the way many people find what they're looking for on the Web. Firefox will let you know if a Web site has an RSS feed by placing a small orange square in the bottom right-hand corner or address bar of your browser. Simply clicking on that square subscribes you to that particular site's "feed", and you will be automatically updated within the Firefox browser whenever that site is updated with fresh content.

Try the Firefox Browser for One Week
When I decided to use Firefox, I told myself that I would give it one week and then go back to what was familiar. At the end of that week, I was hooked. If you would like to try Firefox, I suggest that you do the same in order to really get a feel for what this browser can do. You can download the Firefox browser for free, and it is extremely easy to install.

source:Wendy Boswell

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These guys would definitely be contenders if toddler tossing was an olympic sport

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I know for most of you this is a very simple tip, but I've received a number of requests for understanding what will make this screen go away for good, because otherwise it loads up every time you start up your computer.

There's a small checkbox at the bottom left hand corner of the Welcome window. Removing the checkbox from this will prevent it from reappearing at startup next time.

If you want to get back to the Welcome Center, just go to Control Panel, System and Maintenance. You could also just type welcome into the start menu search box

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1. BiteNova (formerly known as “Bi-Torrents”, BiteNova is a free Torrent site with a spartan look and fast searching format.)


2. Demonoid.com is back online! After legal conflicts in April of 2008, they have reestablished themselves outside of the USA, and have resumed torrent operations. Demonoid is still a private community, and members are held liable for any leeching that their invited friends do in this community. If you are lucky enough to get a Demonoid membership, invite your friends carefully, lest you lose your own membership.


3. YouTorrent.com Still in beta testing format, this new torrent site claims to be the largest legal torrent search engine today. Accordingly, the result sets are much smaller than the "pirate" counterparts, but definitely try this site for yourself.


4. Bitsoup. Bitsoup is a growing favorite amongst P2P downloaders. As the trend towards private torrent sharing continues, you will need to signup and join as a member to participate in the Bitsoup swarm.


5. Torrentportal.com


6. Torrentscan.com (a "meta-search" engine, which is a search engine that searches other search engines)


7. Isohunt.com. September, 2007: Isohunt is barring American users from connecting to American torrent trackers. American users, however, can still use Isohunt to find torrents, and connect to third party trackers.


8. Torrentspy.com. March 24, 2008: Torrentspy has voluntarily closed its doors. Instead of conforming to the American court mandates to change their privacy policies, the Torrentspy team has opted instead to cease operations. A sad day for downloaders everywhere.


9. Torrentz.com


10. Torrents.to


11. Snarf It! (born from previous Suprnova influences)


12. Torrentmatrix.com


13. Mininova.org has 190,000 torrents indexed as of April, 2007. Mininova is the successor to Suprnova, one of the original big torrent databases of the Web.


14. FileMP3.org


15. Torrentreactor.to (Torrentreactor has made a comeback from a hijacking and an uncooperative hosting service. They have moved to a different server setup and a Tonga country domain outside the USA. Read the details on their home page.)


16. Torrentbox.com FYI: like Isohunt, Torrentbox is being sued by the MPAA as of February 28, 2006. The days for this fine search engine may be numbered.


17. BTjunkie


18. TorrentTyphoon.com (a unique bittorrent meta-search engine that searches several of the most popular sites. Unfortunately, it does not do a good job categorizing the torrent files themselves)


19. Yotoshi.com


20. The Pirate Bay (Pirate Bay, by readership size, is the most popular torrent search site today. Pirate Bay has an immense database of 600,000+ torrents, the largest database at this time.)(May 31, 2006: The Pirate Bay has been shut down by Swedish authorities. Details are available on the Pirate Bay home page.)(June 2006: The Pirate Bay has restarted operations, now that the police have duplicated the PB hard drives for forensic purposes. Enjoy this database while it is still around, folks!)


21. bittorrent.com (the official Torrent website by Bram Cohen, the designer of the Python BitTorrent format.)

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Question: "How Do I Speed Up My Torrent Downloads?"

Increase download speeds by opening TCP port 6881, the "dedicated lane" for torrent file downloads.

Answer:

August, 2008

If you are a Bit Torrent downloader, you know what slow download speeds are like...frustrating and annoying, to say the least. Instead of getting your music or movie within a couple of hours, your software predicts it will take 2 to 4 days.

Now, while many of the speed factors involved are out of your control, there is at least one thing you can do at your receiving end to improve this speed. It is called "Port Forwarding", or "opening your specific TCP ports". This is how it works.

1) That blue or green network cable coming out of your computer/modem/router is actually a busy highway comprised of 65,536 tiny electronic lanes (yes, over sixty-five thousand little lanes for your electrons). Each lane is called a "port", and each port is designed to allow only specific types of information through. Many ports are assigned in a semi-standardized way. Here are some example port assignments:

* HTML pages: port 80
* FTP file transferring: port 21
* World of Warcraft: port 3724
* POP3 email: port 110
* MSN Messenger: port 6901 and ports 6891-6900
* Everquest: port 1024
* Bit Torrents: port 6881


2) Bit torrents, by default, first look for port 6881 to enter/exit your computer. If port 6881 is closed for whatever reason, torrents then go to port 6882, then 6883, and so on, until it eventually tries port 6999 before giving up.

3) Every ISP, and every home router, can optionally block any of these ports with the intention of preventing hackers and controlling the network.

4) If you tell your own personal router and firewall at home to open (aka "forward") port 6881 and port 6882, then your bit torrents will find their way into your computer that much faster. Sometimes up to 5x faster.

Yes, opening ports does increase the possibility of getting hacked by unwanted bad guys, but there are means to reduce that threat while still getting fast torrent download speeds.

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A bunch of really cool and dead-simple tools to add a “WOW” factor to your images. We have mentioned most of them already, here I wanted to put the better ones together.

beFunky - This is by far my favorite tool. With beFunky you can take any of your photos and turn it into a cartoon like drawing. You can either convert it into a black and white sketch drawing or into a colorful animated painting.


And that’s not all, it also lets you do the same for videos. Check out the video below.



Rasterbator - Looking for DIY-style wall-sized poster? Got plenty of spare printer ink? Check out Rasterbator. This tool lets you take any image and convert it into a huge (up to 20 meters), awesome looking, rasterized wall poster. It’s a free, easy to use piece of software and the whole procedure won’t take you more than 5-10 min (well, not incl. poster printing and putting it on your wall). Available both online and as a downloadable program.


MagMyPic - Fun website where you can turn pics into cool magazine covers. Quite handy in case you’re looking for a quick way to spice up your profile page.


ImageMosaicGenerator - Here you can get a mosaic version for any image you submit. Mosaic will be created out of randomly selected images from Flickr. Depending on the colors of your image, you may see very different results. Some turn out pretty well, some not so good.


Graphita - Graphita is a quick online app that lets you add some fun to pics by using captions, funny objects, speech bubbles, notes, doodles and more. All of this in an intuitive drag’n drop interface.

Photo2Text - Photo2Text is a simple web tool that lets you convert images to text files and download them to your computer. Simply upload your image, adjust brightness, choose characters to be used, and get it back as a text file (.TXT).


source:aibek

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It makes sense for the Hollywood green-lighters to scavenge from a successful game series. They know that great games have a great following, and so it's almost a guarantee that fans will flock to see it. Isn't it? Not if it's a celluloid backwards-violation of mauled plot and cheap action. Here's our list of the worst ever:

1/The film: Tomb Raider

The premise: Action-packed archaeological adventure with a stunning leading lady.

The problem: On paper it was perfect - it was Indy in a padded bra. Unfortunately director Simon West clearly spent the entire production time grappling with the concept of 'excitement', whilst Jolie just scowled around presumably thinking she was playing the bad guy. A truly dull climax involving CGI stone monkeys that you could wink to death - and Rimmer from Red Dwarf hamming like a piggery - did nothing to save it.

In a line: That old Lara Lucozade ad was miles better.

2/The film: Silent Hill

The premise: Horrific tension and blinding fear in a town atop the depths of hell.

The problem: Oddly enough, the quandary here is sticking too closely to the game. We have the same town, the same monsters, the same kerrazy story (with a 'K', no less), but it just doesn't work on screen. In the game, the tension is ramped up because you actually become the character - easily overlooking the iffy dialogue, March-Hare plot and formulaic puzzle solving. In an overlong gorefest with characters you can't care about though, it just all winds up incredibly staid.

In a line:Sean '02' Bean haplessly strapped into a gruesome muddle.

3/The film: Doom

The premise: Shrieking hellfire as monsters from Hades descend upon mankind.

The problem: Silent Hill adhered to its computerised roots like clingy poo, and was a clammy mess because of it. This was no less so, even though the only thing it shared with its source material was a BFG. Doom was originally a story about a lone marine fighting the hordes of hell, not some weak guff about zombifying viruses. Think that one's been done before, actually... Oh and the script, acting, and general production were all shod-tastic, which didn't help much.

In a line: "His ass went to one galaxy, and this films credibility went to another."

4/The film: Resident Evil

The premise: When Racoon City descends into face ripping, brain munching chaos, survival becomes a gruesome and hellish battle.

The problem: Another example of Character names being just about the only thing transferred onto the silver screen intact, including anything remotely frightening. It tries to cram in a whole series' worth of lore into one film, and the end result is a sinking dog-pile that Milla Jovovich just can't keep afloat, let alone her supporting players, who amble about namelessly for CV-boosting 'acting experience'. And we don't mean the zombies.

In a line: Like watching the 'opening door' loading screens from the original.

5/The film: Street Fighter: The Movie

The premise: A seething, gritty, street level brawl to be the best in the world.

The problem: An indescribable shambles of a film that deserves to float between cultish reverence and wonderful pity forever. The main problems here are a royal butchering of every character from source, and a tone that merrily jumps from serious envisioning to frivolous parody. At one point, a fight moves onto a tiny model city, at which point the two combatants begin making Godzilla noises. Mental.

In a line: Kylie Minogue's in it. 'Nuff said.

6/The film: Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

The premise: A battle as old as time itself; an unruly war for our realm of existance.

The problem: Primarily that it was the sequel to an equally dismal mound of tripe. Plot and characterisation - usually seen as vital tools of filmmaking - were eschewed in favour of hurriedly cut fight scenes from start to finish, willy-mess dialogue, and gratuitous 'two girls rucking in a mud pit' exploits. Smoke and mirrors were lovingly served up by the worst special effects this side of a Garfield movie.

In a line: A sequel is scheduled for a 2010 release. Woop.

7/The film: House of the Dead

The premise:Murderous, blood-curdling action, battling for survival in hell's abode.

The problem: Uwe Boll. The German director with the kiss of celluloid death seems to be on a blind-sighted mission to film the worst, piss-ridden tripe of all time. This was his first big Hollywood effort at ruining cinema, and managed convincingly with the help of a shocking script, nonsense plot, hackneyed acting and prevalent 'ain't it cool' bullet-time bumming. This is so bad that rumours abound about Boll capitalising on a 'The Producers' style tax break.

In a line: Based on a game with a monster called 'Karl' in it.

8/The film: Super Mario Bros.

The premise: Everyone's favourite portly plumber saves the princess, and saves the world.

The problem: That it had precisely bugger all to do with the game. If slight plot massaging is needed to kneed game into film, fair enough - but when the end result is a knotted up ball of senseless drivel, surely it's best just not to bother? Introducing the real world New York to a source story of questionable sanity gave it the need to ground the plot in some stupid quasi-reality, and the resulting dark atmosphere was completely at odds with Mario's day-glo, happy-fun-time origins. Almighty crap.

In a line: Bob Hoskins says of the directors: "their arrogance had been mistaken for talent."

9/The film: Alone in the Dark

The premise: Chilling scares in the long, dark, night.

The problem: In theory, AitD's spooky premise lends itself quite well to the big screen. Alas, this was a helter-skelter of disappointment as Boll cleverly decided to transform haunting thrills into mind-numbing heavy metal gunfights. Christian 'The Germans are coming!' Slater signed on to add some thespian prowess, as did Tara '_insert drunk joke here_' Reid - both looking like they wanted to be there about as much as the studio's accountants.

In a line: If you went to the cinema to see this, you probably would have been...

10/The film: Bloodrayne

The premise: Vampiric action, slashing crimson and sex appeal into a deadly cocktail.

The problem: With Derren Brownian mind control, our man Uwe Boll managed to somehow wrangle up Ben Kingsley and Michael Madsen, clearly signing them to this pedestrian piffle without telling of his previous game-to-film shams. The usual Boll traits (sinful acting/script/production etc) all come together nicely to head-smashing effect, and without the rigmarole of sticking to the source material another hand-cranked poo factory was able to come into being.

In a line: Prostitutes were hired to keep production costs down. Need we say more?

by:t3

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There are a number of add-ons for Firefox that clone Opera’s Speed Dial feature. There is one add-on with a different twist. Most open your tabs in this fashion, but Fast Dial does something different.

This extension will replace your “about:blank” page with a panel of thumbnails of your favorite web sites. To add sites to the page, all you do is click on an empty cell, assign a URL and click OK.

You can also add sites by right-clicking on the bookmark for them and selecting “Add to Fast Dial”. (you can do this on open tabs too!)

Where does this come in handy? Well let us say you are hitting Ctrl+T to open a new window. You are no longer greeted by an empty window. Instead you have a window with your own personal favorites list inside. Fast Dial is a unique bookmarking extension that I think a lot of people will get a lot of use out of.

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There are three additional scripts you can add to Firefox though that promise to make it even more customized to suit your needs.

* Gmail Redesigned Label Extender
* Gmail Redesigned Label Extender w/Auto Hover
* Gmail Redesigned: Hide Labels, Chat, Invite Friend

Remember before you get started with any of these, you will need to pick up the Stylish add-on for Firefox

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If you want to test an explorer shell plugin or registry hack without having to log off, more technical users will usually just kill the explorer.exe process in Task Manager. Windows Vista has another way to do the same thing that you might not be aware of.

Alternate Close Explorer Method

Open the Start menu and then hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys at the same time. Right-click on an empty area of the menu, and you'll see a new option called "Exit Explorer"

The taskbar should completely disappear, and any open folder windows if you are using default explorer settings.

Classic Close Explorer Method

Pull up Task Manager with Ctrl+Shift+Esc and then right-click on explorer.exe in the process list, and choose End Process.

Restart Explorer

Use Ctrl+Shift+Esc to bring up Task Manager, and then go to File \ Run and type in explorer into the run box.

The start menu will re-appear, but you might notice a few tray icons will be missing until you log off and back on. (or restart those applications)

The only real benefit to using the alternate method is that Explorer has a chance to properly shut down, rather than just killing the process which could screw things up. Also, it's fun to know these hidden tricks =)

by justin

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There are four common kinds of email hoaxes:

1. Fake Photos (Hands of God, sharks eating helicopters, monster cats)
2. Chain Letters (threats, requests, promises of money)
3. Mythical Stories, (public warnings, shocking narratives, outlandish claims)
4. Outright Scams ("phishing" and phone schemes attempting to access your finances)


In all cases, your response should routinely be:
a) Be skeptical.
b) Resist the urge to click the link or forward the message.
c) Do your homework and confirm the message.

1. For email stories, photos, and chain letters: do not forward the email. Even if the nature of the email story makes it seem urgent and time-sensitive, resist the urge to forward it. As compelling as that mermaid photo or that Microsoft promise of $400 can be, take 10 minutes and confirm it first. You will save yourself embarassment in front of your savvy friends, and you will help stop the spread of damaging email rumors.

2. For emails that ask you to confirm your bank or ebay identify: never respond or click the link. A legitimate bank would never ask for your identity via an email link. Instead: immediately close all browser windows, and then use either a newly-launched browser, or pick up the telephone, and check your bank personally to confirm the identity request. This kind of cautious response is very important to thwart these clever email scammers. Whenever you receive a "phishing" email (fake email attempting to lure you into giving your eBay or bank account and PIN), NEVER click on the link. These scammers are trying to lure you into typing your account number and password!

Here are suggested places to confirm suspicious emails:

Free resources for researching/confirming an email's authenticity:

1. Phishing and Email Scams (banking, eBay, Paypal)
2. The Top Reported Email Hoaxes and Viruses This Month
3. The Top 25 Urban Legends This Month
4. Current "Netlore" Hoaxes and Myths
5. The Top Fake Photos This Month
6. Snopes: Scam and Phishing Schemes Report
7. The Straight Dope: Search The Myth Archives
8. CIAC Hoaxbusters
9. "Google" the Email Subject


source:Paul Gil

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this picture was taken when bush visit beach volleyball game in Beijing Olympic.

"nice ass you got there!"

"It's my lucky day!"

"how do i do?"

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School for viral video ? Yes, there are school like that.Want to know what it takes to make a popular web hit? watch this video..

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Finding free photos to use on your blog that don't have stringent copyright restrictions can be challenging. The following five websites offer free photos that bloggers can download to use on their blogs. Make sure you check the copyright restrictions on any photos you use on your blog. Some of the free photos on these sites could require you to provide attribution (which you should do anyway), notify the photographer of your use of their photo or more. Always follow the copyright and creative commons licensing rules related to any photo you use on your blog and obtain any necessary permissions.

1. Stock Xchange
Stock Xchange is a great resource for finding free photos to use on your blog. Different photos have different restrictions, so be sure to check the copyright and attribution requirements before you use a photo. Stock Xchange also includes many photos that are available for a fee.

2. Flickr
Flickr is growing in popularity everyday. To find free photos that are available for use on your blog, begin by searching using creative commons license. Be certain to provide attribution and link back to the source.

3. morgueFile
MorgueFile has a large selection of free photos that you can use on your blog. Typically, you'll need to ask for permission and link back from your blog post to the source.

4. Dreamstime
Dreamstime provides a good selection of royalty free stock photos as well as images available for a fee (as low as $0.26).

5. FreeFoto
FreeFoto offers over 100,000 free photos that you can use on your blog. Typically, you'll have to provide attribution and link back to the source. Most photos include a small watermark in the lower righthand corner of the photo that says "FreeFoto.com" which is fairly unobtrusive.


source:Susan Gunelius

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There’s a new player in town, Ask2link - that will allow you to make extra money from your website. why you should join Ask2link ? just read their message below..

Dear Bloggers and Webmasters,

As a blogger or webmaster, you probably use Google AdSense, Ad-Brite, Kontera, Text-Link-Ads, PayPerPost, etc, to monetize (i.e: make money) from your blog or website.

More and more visitors stumble upon a website through search engines and social media web applications. This chart from Google Analytics for one of our portfolio of websites show the importance of search engines in driving traffic.


We are an Internet advertising startup consisting of a small team of marketers and engineers with years of experience at Microsoft, Netscape, Yahoo!, and eBay. We are working on a platform that will help you easily make more money from your website. We believe that our offering will provide complementary (and much needed) features for web advertisers, and at the same time provide a venue for average bloggers and webmasters to make money.

We accept anyone in the world, as long you have a valid PayPal account.

Thanks,

Ask2Link.com Team

sign up now here

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This article describes different situations in which Firefox may hang and what you can do to correct the situation and to prevent its recurrence in the future.

Hang loading first window

A Firefox hang while loading the first browser window may be caused by hyper-threading. A feature on some Intel Pentium 4 processors, hyper-threading is designed to improve performance, but it can also cause Firefox to hang.

If your computer has an Intel Pentium 4 processor and you use Windows 2000 and XP, you can disable hyper-threading for Firefox:

1. Right-click the shortcut icon you use to start Firefox.
2. Select Properties.
3. Select the Compatibility icon.
4. Select Run this program in compatibility mode.
5. In the drop-down for compatibility mode, select Windows 98/Windows ME.
6. Click OK.
7. Restart Firefox to see if the hanging has gone away.

Hang loading every window

The SwitchProxy Tool extension checks for updates each time a new window is opened. This is a known issue.

If you use SwitchProxy Tool, you can disable it to see if hanging is prevented:

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click the Tools menu and then select Add-ons. The Add-ons dialog appears.
2. Select the Extensions panel. The list of installed extensions is displayed.
3. Select SwitchProxy Tool.
4. Click Disable.
5. From the menu at the top of the Firefox windowbar, select File and then select the Exit menu item.
6. Restart Firefox. Open several new windows to see if Firefox no longer hangs.

Hang downloading files or saving images

Firefox may hang when downloading files if your download history has grown too large. To fix this issue, the following steps clear the download history:

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click the Tools menu and then select Clear Private Data.... The Clear Private Data dialog appears.
2. Deselect all boxes except Download History.
3. Click Clear Private Data Now. The download history is cleared.
4. Download some sample files to see if the hanging has stopped.

Hang opening the History menu or the History sidebar

Firefox may hang when using the Go menu, History sidebar, or other features if your browsing history has grown too large. To fix this issue, the following steps clear the browsing history:

1. At the top of the Firefox windowr, click the Tools menu and then select Clear Private Data.... The Clear Private Data dialog appears.
2. Deselect all boxes except Browsing History.
3. Click Clear Private Data Now. The browsing history is cleared.
4. With the browsing history cleared, Firefox features such as the Go menu and the History sidebar should perform faster.

To prevent a recurrence of this issue, you can configure Firefox to retain a smaller browsing history:

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Tools menu, and select Options.
2. Select the Privacy panel.
3. In the Keep my history for at least XX days text box, enter a value that is less than the current one. This value defines the number of days that Firefox retains browsing history; a lower figure should result in less retained browsing history.
4. Click OK.

Hang loading websites

Automatic proxy configuration file

If you're using an automatic proxy configuration file (PAC), Firefox may hang when you attempt to load sites that don't exist or that you haven't opened recently. To determine if you use an automatic proxy configuration file:

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Tools, and select Options.
2. Click the Advanced icon.
3. Click the Network tab.
4. Click Settings. The Connection Settings dialog appears.
5. If Automatic proxy configuration URL is selected, you are using an automatic proxy configuration file. Do not disable this setting, which will prevent you from accessing the Internet. Instead, provide this link to your network administrator.
6. Click Cancel.

Duplicate Session Restore files

Firefox may be be slow to respond or hang if multiple copies of its Session Restore file have been created:

1. From the menu at the top of the Firefox window, select File and then select the Exit menu item.
2. Open the Firefox profile folder.
* To find your profile folder, see Profiles.
3. Locate and delete the sessionstore.js file and any copies, such as sessionstore-1.js, sessionstore-2.js.

Plugins

Sites that use plugins such as Java, Adobe Reader, or Flash can cause Firefox to hang. For information on troubleshooting plugins, and on determining whether a plugin is causing your problem, see the Troubleshooting plugins article.


Hang switching tabs

Spybot S&D's "Immunize" feature can add a large number of entries into the Firefox cookie configuration file. This can cause slowdown while switching tabs.

1. Open Spybot S&D
2. Click the Immunize icon on the left side of the window.
3. Right-click in the Immunization list and choose Deselect all from the context menu.
4. In the Firefox section, put a check mark next to each item.
5. Click Undo at the top of the window.

Hang after prolonged use

Firefox may hang if left open for long periods of time. To fix the issue, restart Firefox. If you regularly leave Firefox open so that you return to where you left off, you may want to use Firefox's Session Restore feature. When you exit the program, Firefox can remember your open windows and tabs. When you restart Firefox, you can optionally reload those windows and tabs.

To enable Session Restore:

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Tools menu, and select Options.
2. Click the Main icon.
3. From the When Firefox starts drop-down, select Show my windows and tabs from last time.
4. Click OK.
5. Firefox is now configured to remember your windows and tabs. You can close Firefox without losing the currently opened web pages, which may prevent Firefox from hanging.


Hang deleting bookmarks folder

Trying to delete a bookmarks folder that contains many bookmarks and multiple levels of subfolders can cause Firefox to hang. To work around this problem, delete unwanted bookmark subfolders in small steps.

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Proximity Based Geek Lovin’ 8-Bit Dynamic Life Shirt, is a long name for a t-shirt but it the coolest t-shirt i ever seen. the heart in the chest indicate how close you are to your loved one. it is recommended to people who are in love and at the same time wanna look cool.

"Buy one of these glowing shirts for yourself, and gift one to your significant other (boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, fembot 2000…). During your normal activities two and a half pixelated hearts will light up on your shirt. Hey… you’re depressed and in need of a recharge. But get within hugging distance of your significant other wearing the matching shirt and suddenly the hearts on both of your shirts start to light up until you’re fully powered up. Go too far astray from the source of your affections and you’ll drop back down to two and a half hearts again. Got it?"

just, with $24.99 each you can light up your love!

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This commercial for Calvin Klein's Secret Obsession has been banned by all TV network stations because they feel Eva Mendes is too sexy in the ad. and i think i see tits there! correct me if I'm wrong!

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I have recently joined Ask2link.com) to enable advertisers to buy ad space on my website. Ask2link.com provides secure, easy, and fast checkout flow so you could get your ads live within 2 minutes.

If you would like to monetize your blog or website, you could visit Ask2link to learn more. Static HTML links can bring you targeted traffic and bring you more organic search traffic. Start advertising now in "http://www.arenlabs.com" as part of your online marketing campaign. You could now purchase static text links or banner ads on my website by following on the links below:

Buy text links ads now on "http://www.arenlabs.com"

Buy Banner ads now on "http://www.arenlabs.com"

Buy Banner ads now on "http://www.arenlabs.com"

so what you waiting for, try Ask2link! make money now!

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Yes for those of you who still have no clue about Cuil.com well you are already falling behind! Cuil have been crawling the web for more than a year but it officially launched itself few days back. The engineer of Cuil's algo, stats, development is the same engineer of Google and hence the buzz about this new kid in the block. Within two days since its inception Cuil averaged at 121 per week in Alexa, thus making it one of the most fastest rising competition of Google and Yahoo!

It is quite obvious that Cuil is and will be a big deal in the near future and a lot of people will be using it for their advantage. So if you searched your site and haven't seen your site in the Search engines results page then don't lose hope!

Because you can submit to Google's Evolution: Cuil.com by simply clicking this link and filling up the form or by going to Webmaster's Info page in Cuil . Within two or three days your site should be crawled.

source:digitalpoint

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"Bogel,Melayu,Anwar Ibrahim,Permatang Pauh,Gadis Seksi,MRR2" those are the famous keyword right now in Malaysia, which i suggest to Malaysian Blogger who wanted a nice amount of traffic to their blog. what can you do, just blog about those keywords and submit it to Digg or Reddit.

why i pick those word?

Bogel - in english this word is "naked" and people love to see other people naked right, so do malaysian.

Melayu Boleh - most famous word on malaysia porn scene.

Anwar Ibrahim - Malaysia future prime minister?

Permatang Pauh - where do Anwar Ibrahim will compete in election.

Gadis Seksi - erm, "sexy" + "girl" = love to see

MRR2 - crack again? after spend RM70 million people money!

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Vista is the first version of Windows to include a non user-customizable startup sound. This is played while the Pearl (or Orb) animates. By default, the sound either plays or it doesn't. Changing this sound cannot be done using the Sound control panel. Instead, follow these steps:

1) For best results, boot out of Vista and into an alternative OS, such as XP. (This is assuming you dual boot.)

2) Locate the file "imageres.dll" in Vista's System32 folder. For instance, E:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll. Copy that file into a different location, i.e. your desktop.

3) Download ResHacker.

4) Open ResHacker. Open the imageres.dll file in ResHacker.

5) Find the folder that reads "WAVE" and expand everything below that.

6) Right click 1033 (this could have a different name depending on your locale), and click Replace Resource. Click "Open file with new resource", and find the wave file you want to replace it with. Once you're done, in Resource Type, type "WAVE", in Resource Name type "5051", and under Resource Language type "1033" (or whatever number you have). Once done, click Replace.

7) Click File, then click Save. Now you can copy this file to Vista's System32 folder. Keep the imageres_original.dll file ResHack left behind in case you want to revert back to the original sound.

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Entrecard provides a unique way for you to market your blog. It's purpose is to bring bloggers (and website owners) together through advertising widgets. The following information will teach you how to get started with Entrecard and how to use it to drive traffic (and possibly revenue) to your blog.

What is Entrecard?



Entrecard is a free advertising exchange network. Users can advertise their own Entrecard ad on any blog in the Entrecard network for free for a certain number of days. Ads are paid for through Entrecard Credits that users earn by visiting other blogs in the network and dropping off their "cards" at those blogs through a special Entrecard widget, which appears on every participating blog in the network.

To get started with Entrecard, simply sign up on the Entrecard website. Once your account is activated, click on the "Get Code" tab to copy the code for the specific widget you want to use on your blog. Simply paste that code into a widget on your blog and you're ready to go.

When you join Entrecard, you'll have the opportunity to create your own 125x125 business card. This card will also serve as your ad when you advertise on another site in the network. You can change your card's appearance at any time. Remember, this card is your ad, so try to create something that users will click when they see it.

How Do I Earn Credits to Pay for Ads through Entrecard?

Every participating Entrecard member will display a special Entrecard widget on their blogs. That widget includes an icon for Entrecard members to click on to drop off their virtual card. You earn one Entrecard credit for every virtual card you drop at other sites in the network. You also earn one credit for every card another user drops off at your site.

When someone drops a card off at your site, their card will appear in your Entrecard in-box. If you'd like, you can simply click on that Entrecard in your in-box to visit that user's site and reciprocate by dropping your card off, thereby earning another Entrecard credit for you and the other person.

You can also earn Entrecard credits when another person advertises on your blog and pays you with the credits they've earned.

How Do I Place My Entrecard Ad on Other Websites?

To advertise on other sites, you'll simply navigate to the "Campaign" section of your Entrecard inbox and find the blog within the network where you want to advertise. Simply click on "advertise" under that site's card. Once the owner of that site approves your request, your ad will appear on that site for 24 hours for each advertisement slot you buy with your Entrecard credits.

How Do I Pay for Entrecard Ads?

To advertise on another site in the Entrecard network, you'll have to pay with credits in an amount equal to twice the number of cards dropped off on that site each day. In other words, if 10 cards are dropped off on that site each day, you'll have to pay that user 20 Entrecard credits to place your ad on that site. Remember, each ad you pay for is displayed for 24-hours. You can pay for as many 24-hour units that you want, however, each site can only have 9 ad units in its qeue. Once the 9-days in the site's advertising queue are filled, you'll have to wait until another unit opens up to purchase additional ads. The cost to advertise and the wait time are shown under each users' card within the "Campaign" section of the Entrecard site.

Placing Other Entrecard Users' Ads on Your Blog

You have the option to approve or reject any ad that another Entrecard user submits to you. It's important to visit the sites of anyone who asks to advertise on your blog to ensure the content is appropriate to your audience before you approve it (you don't want to offend your readers).
The Benefits of Using Entrecard

Entrecard is a great tool to increase traffic to your blog. If your goal is to increase page views, than Entrecard is a great choice.

The benefits of Entrecard are:

* Earn money: Increased page views can lead to indirect blog monetization. Some of those people coming to drop off their business cards might click on another ad on your blog, which means money in your pocket.

* Gain loyal readers: As other Entrecard members visit your blog to drop off their cards and earn Entrecard credits, some of them might discover they like your blog and come back again.

* Increased word-of-mouth marketing: As more and more Entrecard members see your blog when they drop off their cards, they might remember your site and suggest it to a friend or family member who would be interested in your content.

* Higher Alexa, Google and search rankings: Increased page views can help boost your Alexa or Google ranks, which will help your blog posts appear higher in search rankings bringing in more targeted traffic.

* More (or higher paying) direct advertising opportunities: Increased page views can make your blog look more attractive to more advertisers as well as higher paying advertisers who may become interested in directly advertising on your blog.

Bottom-line

While Entrecard is very good at increasing the traffic to your blog, a lot of that traffic will come simply to drop off their own cards then leave, simply trying to earn credits for future advertising (which may not be on your blog).

It's also important to understand that Entrecard can require a significant time investment to be useful. You need to spend time earning credits before you can advertise on another site. Hopefully, your ad will generate traffic that will convert to more meaningful traffic to your blog from people who will become loyal readers.

Many Entrecard users want to advertise on the highly trafficked sites to generate a lot of additional traffic. Alternatively, many users take the time to select sites within a specific niche to drive targeted traffic to their sites. That means less traffic will be generated, but there is a greater chance for the traffic that does come from your ad to return to your blog again and again.

Bottomline, Entrecard is good at increasing page views but not necessarily good at increasing the amount of loyal readership to your blog. Watch your blog stats and see what people are doing when they visit your site through Entrecard. Then review your goals for your blog and determine how you can use Entrecard to help you meet those goals. As with any blog marketing or monetization opportunity, it's important that you align your efforts and results with your short and long term goals for your blog to determine where your time and money is best invested.

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To show Windows Vista "super hidden" files, that is, those files that are normally hidden from the user, you'll need to accesss the registry editor.

To turn on (or off) super hidden files: (make sure you backup the registry before making changes)

* Click the Start Button, type "regedit" (Registry Editor) in the search box, and press Enter

* Click Continue to get past the User Account Control hurdle

* On the left panel, double-click to navigate to the key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

* On the right panel, double-click on Superhidden

* In the Value Data box, change the value to "1"

* Click OK

* Exit the Registry Editor

* Restart your machine for the changes to take effect

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SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the process of designing the web site in such a way that it would be able to attract search engine spiders and improve a site’s ranking. This article provides links to the best SEO Tools found on the Internet. It will help you to find out how to optimize your website, what you should use to improve the quality of backlinks, what keywords you should use on your web-pages, and how to move up your position in search engines.

Google Ranking Tools

Advanced Google Search Methods - this is a tool is to search Google in many special ways. A useful resource for search engine optimization (especially keyword research) among other things.

Google Datacenter Watch Tool is a tool that lets you do a search on Google at all the different datacentres. Note, that at this time there are 700+ known Datacenters.
Google Rank Position shows Google rank position, PR, number of entries indexed, DMOZ and Google Dir status.

Google Rankings check the ranking of a web page in Google


Yahoo Ranking Tools
Yahoo Search Rankings is a free online SEO tool to check the position of your website in the search engine of Yahoo.

Alexa Tools

Alexa Page Ranking allows you to cut and paste a number of domains. Get the 3 month Alexa Ranking. If you want to check Alexa Ranking for a number of sites, you can browse your harddrive and provide a list of domains.

Alexa Rank Check is a tool that let you check the Alexa Rank and Google PageRank for up to 10 websites in one go - perfectly for site comparisons. Please note that the best possible Alexa Rank is 1 and the best possible Google Pagerank is 10

Alexa Ranking Find out how your web site traffic stacks up against all your competitors! This is one of the most accurate freely available tools to find out how well your site ranks up against millions of other sites on the Web.
Alexa Related Rank Check tool to check several Alexa ratings at once. This could be useful when checking out your competition.

Page Rank Tools

Datacenter Quick Check checks all Google datacenters for BackLinks, PR and Ranking of keyword.

Future PageRank Tool will query Google’s various data centers to check for any changes in PageRank values for a given URL. Usually all data centers will output the same, but if queried during an update, you might get a glimpse of any upcoming changes in your chosen URL’s PageRank value.

Page Rank Tool will query and return the Google PageRank values for submitted URL from various Google datacenters. Usually all returned values are the same, but when there’s an update going on, you will be able to watch out your Page Ranks closely.

Compare Search Engine Ranking Tools

Dogpile Search Comparison gives you the top results from Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

Google vs Yahoo Graph looks at the results from Yahoo and Google, finds the similarities and then gives you a graphical display of what results are in both search engines. This illustrates that optimizing your site for both engines is not a very easy thing to do, but not impossible.

Google-Yahoo-Ask Search search engines differ more than you think. Compare Google, Yahoo, and MSN with one search.

Myriad Search is a search engine that combines Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask Jeeves in one screen. You can modify the individual influence of each search engine in the results.

Thumbshots Ranking is a fun way to learn about search engines and optimizing a site’s ranking.

Yahoo vs Google compares top 100 search results from Google and Yahoo!

Combo Search Engine Ranking Tools

Search Engine Placement Check is a verification tool that checks if your site is in the top three pages of a search engine result for a specific keyword. It’s important to be in the top 3 pages of a search result because most people using search engines don’t go past the 3rd page.

Search Engine Positioning check your Search engine positioning (SERPS) on Yahoo, Google, All The Web. MSN and Hotbot. Just enter your keyword/keyword phrase into the “Keyword” submit box, then enter your URL into the field labeled “Your URL” and specify the “Page Depth” this variable tells the spider how far to go page wise before giving up trying to find your rank. If you are not in the serps within “X” specified pages then the message “There is no information for your query” will come up. It doesn’t really mean there is no information for your serps, it just means that you don’t rank for that keyword within your specified page depth.

Search Engine Ranking Report Enter your own keywords (one phrase per line) and domain to find out where your domain ranks for a set of keyword searches.

Related Page Rank Tools

Backlink Checker counts the Page Rank of your backlinks. To use it, just enter your URL and Google API Key. If you don’t have an API Key, you can fine one at www.google.com/apis. They are free and very easy to get.

Google PageRank Calculator - enter the “Number of Links From Each Page” that links to the page in question to get a Page Rank estimation.

Google PageRank Prediction attempts to determine a future Google PageRank value of a particular site. The tools does several calculations to come to this figure.

Google PageRank Report checks the Google PageRank values for the list of URLs.

Multi DC PageRank Checker will query the varios Google Data Centers to check for any changes in PageRank values for a website.

PageRank Lookup allows you to check the Google PageRank values of multiple URLs at once. A time-saver for keeping tabs on you and your competitors’ PR values.

PageRank Search allows you to search Google using any keyword(s) you wish. It will then return, in order of Google relevance, the sites associated with those keywords. Each result displays a graphical bar with the PageRank of that particular site.

Keyword Suggestion Tools

Free Meta Keywords Tool analyzes the meta keywords of your competition. Use the tool to see what keywords your competitors are embedding in their meta keywords tags and then research these keywords using other freely available tools including the Overture keyword suggestion tool, WordTracker and Keyword Discovery.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool - use it to get new keyword ideas. Pick one of the tabs below and enter keywords or URLs that are relevant to your business.

Google Keyword Suggestions helps you choose relevant and popular terms related to your selected key term. Simply enter a key term and this tool will query information from several Google searches, which it will use to determine popular and re-occurring terms used by websites in the same industry.

Google Suggest - as you type, Google will offer suggestions. Use the arrow keys to navigate the results.

Keyword Popularity Tool gives similar data, including search figures from the previous month. It also adds statistics for average searches per hour, day, week, projected figures for the next 12 months and then also a figure to see how searches may look in 3 years from now.

Keyword Research Tool helps you research appropriate words and phrases to include in your webpage’s body text to aid in promotion. Simply enter the sort of word of phrase you wish to be found under, and the tool will suggest some additional words and phrases you can think about using.

Keyword Suggestion Tool is a handy little tool will show you the results of your query from both Wordtracker and Overture for determining which phrases are searched most often. Enter a search phrase below to see how often it’s searched for, as well as get suggestions for alternate (but similar) keywords.

Search Term Research is an invaluable research tool that will tell you what users are searching for and help you find the right keywords to target.

Website Keyword Suggestions tries to determine the theme of your website and provides keyword suggestions along with keyword traffic estimates.

Keyword Tools

GoogleDuel Original a popularity contest using the Google search engine. Enter two words, names, or phrases, and find out which one occurs on more pages on the web. For example, try cat vs dog.

Keyword Density is useful for helping webmasters and SEOs achieve their optimum keyword density for a set of key terms. It will analyze your chosen URL and return a table of keyword density values for one-, two-, or three-word key terms. In an attempt to mimic the function of search engine spiders, it will filter out common stop words (since these will probably be ignored by search engines).

Keyword Density Analyzer will crawl the given URL, extracting text as a search engine spider would. It then removes common stopwords (and calculates what percentage of the total text is stopwords) and analyzes the keyword density of the one word, two word and three word keywords the the text. This tool also calculates the noun density and the verb density, that is; the ratio of the total number of nouns or verbs on the page to the total number of words.

Keyword Density Analyzer is a keyword density and word depth calculator.

Keyword Density Analyzer is important since search engines use this information to determine the theme of your website, the perfect keyword density will help archive higher search engine positions. This tool is useful for helping webmasters achieve optimum keyword distribution.

Combined Keyword Suggestion Tools

Combine Words is a tool to create combinations of keywords for use in a Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing Pay Per Click PPC campaign.

Domain Tools

DNS Report is a test that provides comprehensive information about the specified domain that may verify DNS ‘health’ or identify problems or issues. Common uses: find problems with a domain, verify Mail Servers, Query a specific DNS server.

Bad Neighborhood Checker checks link pages and reports if there are links to bad neighborhoods.

Browser Screen Resolution Checker shows what your web page looks like with the viewer’s monitor set to different screen resolutions.

C Class Backlink Analyzer Tool investigates the links pointing to a website (backlinks), and groups them according to the C-Class IP addresses they come from. For example, if one backlink comes from 53.25.14.5 and another comes from 53.25.14.6, they would be grouped together. Backlinks coming from the same C-Class IP are most likely hosted by the same company, which may lower the site’s search engine ranking.

Class C Checker allows you to check if some sites are hosted on the same Class C IP Range. This Class C Checker may be used if you own several cross-linked sites - it may be more efficient (for SEO purposes) to host them on different Class C IP ranges (this is only an advice, not a must do). And if you’re going to get new links from different sites - check if they share the same class C IP range.

Domain Age Tool displays the approximate age of a website on the Internet and allows you to view how the website looked when it first started. It also helps you find out the age of your competitor’s domains, older domains may get a slight edge in Search Engine Rankings.

Domain Dossier investigates domains and IP addresses.

Domain Stats Tool helps you get all kind of statistics of your competitor’s domains. The statistics include Alexa Taffic Rank, Age of the domains, Yahoo WebRank, Dmoz listings, count of backlinks and number of pages indexed in Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, Msn etc. It will probably help you figure out why some of your competitors are ranking better than you.

HTML Header Viewer shows the exact HTTP headers that a web server is sending with a HTTP response. This can be useful if you need to know what cookies are being set or where any re-directs are going to, along with other details such as mime-type.

HTTP / HTTPS Header Check allows you to inspect the HTTP headers that the web server returns when requesting a URL. Works with HTTP and HTTPS URLs.

IP Address Report check for a duplicate Class C block or Class C subnet IP address in a list of websites, these can be either hosted affiliate and internet marketing sites or potential reciprocal link exchange partners.

Redirects And HTTP Headers Checker checks your server headers and the HTTP result codes it returns. It will follow any redirects it finds along the way, whenever possible. With this tool you can check to see how your server is redirecting and if your server is returning 404 for URLs which do not exist.

Search Engine Friendly Redirect Checker help you determine if the redirect you have created is Search Engine Friendly.

What Is My IP Address shows the IP of your computer or routers.


Exchange Link SEO Tools

Free Reciprocal Link Checker with pagerank calculation and web thumbnails. Put your website or weblog home page URL in the input box and a little spider will read the html code and check for the broken links. The spider splits links in two categories, internal, from the same host, and external, outgoing link to different domains. Once you have put your start URL the bot will visit your website and follow all links checking for their status. When finish you will see a report showing all the bad links found, not only 404 status.

One Way Link Verify generates a detailed report on many search engine-related factors for that page. Requires a Google API Key.

Online Free Reciprocal Link Checker just input the link to search for (the link towards your site), and the listing of the websites where you have done link trades. The spider will crawl one by one each of this addresses looking for links towards your website within your’s link partners html code. You must put the exact address where your link should be found. The crawler doesn’t follow links inside frames, javascript, flash or going through server script.

Site Link Analyzer analyzes a given web page and return a table of data containing columns of outbound links and their associated anchor text. If a hyperlink is represented by an image, the image’s alt attribute will be included as the anchor text.

Link Popularity Tools

Link Popularity Checker is one of the best ways to quantifiably and independently measure your website’s online awareness and overall visibility. Simply put, link popularity refers to the total number of links or “votes” that a search engine has found for your website.

Backlink Anchor Text Analyzer will help you determine the backlinks of your website and link text used by your backlinks to Link to your wesbite.

Link Appeal will calculate the desirability rating of having a link on the URL you specify. This calculation includes factors such as PageRank, number of outbound links and the overall percentage of links to html. It is intended as a guideline for evaluating whether you should ask for a link on a certain page or not.

Site Analysis Including Link Popularity generates a complete site analysis e.g. amount of backlinks, indexed sites, Google PageRank and also if your domain is listed in DMOZ and Yahoo directory.

Link Popularity Checker tells you how many websites are linking to yours. Website popularity is an important factor in your search engine ranking. The more popular your site is, the better it will be ranked on the search engines.

Link Popularity Tool checks the number of pages that link to you in AlltheWeb, AltaVista, Google, HotBot, MSN Search, and Yahoo!, as well as check for your site’s presence in DMOZ and Zeal.

Link Popularity Checker and Link Quality Assessment is a tool to find out the necessary statistics on your links and your competitor’s links.

Link Popularity Check using this script you can revise detailed statistics of backward links for one domain in the most popular directories and search engines.

Backlink Tools

Backlink Check Tool is a tool is to check your backlinks and the anchor text used in those backlinks.

Toolbars

Google Toolbar For Firefox add buttons to the toolbar to search your favorite sites. Bookmark frequently visited pages and access them from anywhere. Search smarter with instant suggestions. as you type in the search box. Share web pages with friends via blog, email, or SMS. System requirements: Windows XP/2000 SP3+, Mac OS X 10.2+, or Linux, Firefox 1.5+.

Google Toolbar For IE Block annoying pop-ups. Fill out web forms with one click. Translate pages into English instantly. Check your spelling in webmail messages, and more. System requirements: Windows Vista/2000/XP, Internet Explorer 6.0+.

Mozdev GoogleBar project was initially created to address the widespread desire in the mozilla community for the Google toolbar to support the Netscape 7, Mozilla, and Firefox web browsers. In the past, the Google toolbar was only available for IE on windows. While we are in no way affiliated with Google inc, our current release emulates all of the basic search functionality of the toolbar, allowing users to easily access almost all of Google’s specialty searches (some of which are not yet supported by the original Google toolbar!) from one convenient toolbar. However, because the developer community for Firefox is so vibrant, we have decided not to implement features found in other extensions (such as form fill) or built into Firefox (such as the popup blocker). If you are looking for AutoFill, you may find the AutoForm or AutoFill extensions useful.

PR Toolbar Widget For Macintosh requires Mac OS X 10.3 or higher. Internally it’s built with JavaScript, PHP and AppleScript. Works for HTTP sites, does not work (intentionally) for HTTPS, FTP, etc.

Search MSN Toolbar helps you start a search from any Web page, see instant previews of maps and more from any Web page, personalize your Web experience with custom buttons. Requires Internet Explorer 6.0 or later.

Yahoo Toolbar For Firefox helps you make the Web a safer place - Pop-Up Blocker stops pop-ups in their tracks. It allows to quickly search your bookmarks, from Toolbar or Yahoo! Search. Personalized buttons get you to your most used sites in 1 click. Built in Web Search helps you find whatever you want fast. Yahoo! Mail alerts lets you know when you’ve got new mail.

Web Site Optimization Tools
Poodle Predictor is a tool that attempts to give you an idea of how your site will show up in the search-engine results, before it’s too late, and they have already cached it. This helps you avoid making mistakes that will either prevent your site from getting a decent listing, or will show a useless description of you site in the search-engine results.

Advanced Meta Tag Generator provides you with fields for 19 different mata tags and generates the meta code for you.

Cache.it not only searches and finds the cache pages; it also gives you a graphic view of the results over a period of time (from the first day of your research until now). Additionally, it shows you the site pagerank.

Code to Text Calculator - to avoid diluting your keyword relevancy you should design pages with as little code bloat as possible. Check the percent of your page that is comprised of text with this too.

Copyscape searches for copies of your page on the Web.

Google Banned Tool uses two methods to check to see if a URL you enter is in the Google database. Its a great way to check to see if you have been banned by Google for various reasons. If your site is quite new, you may also not show in the Google database. This tool is aimed towards people who think that they have been punished.

Meta Tag Generator generates a search engine friendly Head Tag for your web site. Keep your meta tags free of information that only slows down a search engine robot crawl.

Title and Meta Tag Generator Create your sites meta tags instantly to help achieve higher search engine ranking. Includes title tag, description, abstract, keyword, and robot meta tags. You can read the Meta Tag Description page for an explaination of the meta tags created by our meta tag generator.

Search Engine Spider Simulator is a tool that simulates a Search Engine by displaying the contents of a webpage exactly how a Search Engine would see it. It also displays the hyperlinks that will be followed (crawled) by a Search Engine when it visits the particular webpage.

Similar Page Checker allows you to determine the percentage of similarity between two pages. The exact percentage of similarity after with a search engine may penalize you is not known, it varies from search engine to search engine, Your aim should be to keep your page similarity as low as possible.

Web Page Analyzer will read the page you specify, and put it through a few basic tests to see if qualifies as ’search-engine-friendly’ for the phrase you specify. It then gives a report on the good, and the bad points of the page in SEO terms.

Code Validation

Atom & RSS Feed Validator is a validator for syndicated feeds. It works with RSS 0.90, 0.91, 0.92, 0.93, 0.94, 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0. It also validates Atom feeds. Despite its relatively simple nature, RSS is poorly implemented by many tools. This validator is an attempt to codify the specification (literally, to translate it into code) to make it easier to know when you’re producing RSS correctly, and to help you fix it when you’re not. The validator also supports the IETF standard Atom format for syndicated feeds.

W3C Markup Validation Service is a validator that checks the markup validity of Web documents in HTML, XHTML, SMIL, MathML, etc. If you wish to validate specific content such as RSS/Atom feeds or CSS stylesheets or to find broken links, there are other validators and tools available.

source:techmagazine

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its time for IE to step down...

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If you have noticed that the speed of your system is very slow with windows vista then today tip is very useful for you to increase the performance of windows vista. There is some default setting in vista which is used to manage the write caching on disk. By default windows enabled the write caching on disk but the advanced performance setting is disabled.

Follow the given steps to configure the advance performance setting in Windows Vista:

To enable this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.

First right click on My Computer icon then select the option Manage.


Here small windows will appear with title Computer Management, now select the Device Manager option, then locate the SATA Disk under the Disk Drives.


Here select the enable advanced performance sittings on the SATA disk.


Now click on Ok button to apply the setting and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.

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cartoon by : Adam McCauley

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One of the accessibility features in Windows is called "Mouse Keys", and it will let you control the mouse movement with the number pad on the keyboard. By doing so, you can move the mouse pointer a single pixel at a time if you want… it doesn't get any more precise than that.

Open up Control Panel and then click on Ease of Access…

Then click on "Change how your mouse works"

Then click on "Set up Mouse Keys"

Now you can configure the Mouse Keys to your liking, the most important setting being to "Turn on Mouse Keys". Once you've turned on the option, you can toggle Mouse Keys on and off with Alt+Shift+Num Lock (using the left alt/shift).

Once it's been activated, you can use the arrows on the number pad to move the mouse. Sadly there's no good way to take a screenshot of the mouse moving a single pixel at a time.

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1. Social networking

It might seem like nothing more than a pipe dream but making money as you trawl through profiles of friends, prospective and ex boyfriends and girlfriends is actually a reality. Yuwie, an upstart social networking enterprise, offers to pay its users as they increase the page impressions of their public profiles, upload photos to share and refer others to join in the fun. All of this is achieved by a proportionate payment structure that sees around half of the website’s advertising revenue – its chief source of income - distributed directly to its user base.

Admittedly it’s still early days but with around half a million registrations to date and no shortage of testimonials, Yuwie looks like the real deal.

2. Blogging

There are two ways to make cash through blogging: either by earning commission from advertising banners placed alongside a blog of your own or by engaging in the (slightly dubious) practice of “sponsored” blogging. An array of third party tools is available in the case of the former option; Google’s AdSense remains one of the more popular solutions. Just establish yourself a decent blog, configure the ads and see what happens. Sponsored blogging on the other hand is an altogether more calculated affair, with specialists such as Blogitive and PayPerPost providing a platform through which companies essentially contract bloggers to post favourable content about their products in exchange for cash. Unethical, granted, though nonetheless undoubtedly fruitful for those subtle enough to get away with it.

3. Message boards

Every message board - both small-time niche operation and gargantuan general interest community alike - relies on posts from its members in order to sustain user interest. Newly-created forums are particularly dependent on regular contributions in order to encourage conversations and attract the registration of new members. This, of course, is where you come in. In exchange for a nominal fee of anywhere between £0.01 and £0.10 per post, message board administrators frequently advertise externally for “ringers” to sign up to their endeavours and get the ball rolling. Popular recruiting grounds include webmaster-talk and Digital Point.

4. Stock photography

If you’ve a keen eye for an impressive frame, or even just some half-decent camera kit at your disposal, selling pictures to any one of the plethora of stock photography agencies scattered across the web represents a sure-fire method of generating an income online. The likes of iStockPhoto and Fotolia offer budding photographers the incentive of earning potentially significant sums for their snaps on a per-download basis in exchange for their other royalty payment rights. Predictably, the most sought-after depictions are of a fairly mundane nature – think three-quarter view angles of pretty women dressed in suits – though equally inevitable is the high demand in some quarters for photographs of an altogether more risqué nature…

5. Surveys

As inglorious a means of making money online as you’re ever likely to find, completing market research surveys for cash is time-consuming, invasive and very, very dull. It also happens to be very effective. Opportunities in this field are virtually endless too, with literally thousands of research groups vying for your time and attention. Perhaps the most well known of these is YouGov, whose methodology involves obtaining responses from an invited group of internet users at prices ranging from £0.50 to £2.00 per survey completed. Registration is free and relatively painless, though if you are planning on going down this route, you would do well to create another email account solely for the purpose of survey completion – your personal details are going to be getting bandied around an awful lot

6. Games

Believe it or not, it is possible to make money simply by playing computer games. Second Life, one of a range of so-called massively multi-player online games, allows users to both buy in-game currency called Linden dollars (a name derived from its creator, Linden Labs) and later exchange any amount amassed within the game back into real-world funds. Ailin Graef made the headlines in 2006 having claimed that her in-game avatar, Anshe Chung, had generated enough resources to allow her to be classified as a millionaire in reality. Other prospects include Moola, which claims to pay players over five million pounds for the straightforward task of winning thirty of its games in a row. Perhaps tellingly, the grand prize is yet to be claimed.

7. Freelancing

If you have a talent – be it for writing, graphic design or even programming - online freelancing will allow you to exploit it for a handsome profit. Services such as Elance and oDesk advertise outsourced remote working opportunities on behalf of thousands of companies and allow members to sign up to assignments according to their desired criteria. Naturally, there’s a catch - said services also take a cut of up to 15 per cent of your potential earnings. Depending on your skills and availability though, there is a lot of money to be made in this fashion, with the fastest-growing fields - like document translation - paying the best rates.

8. Poker

Likely the most controversial inclusion in this list, the online poker world is awash with sob stories of empty wallets and broken dreams from people of all walks of life who just didn’t know when to quit. If you feel like having a go at making some big bucks through gambling, extreme caution is urged. Quite apart from the fact that players need a fair degree of skill in the game to get anywhere, starting small is crucial – only bet what you can afford to lose with a smile. If you are skilled - and lucky - the potential rewards are vast, with some players regularly earning in excess of £1,000 per day. But, remember, the pitfalls are even greater. Texas Hold ‘Em is by far the most popular variant of the game – get some free practice via MSN Games.

9. Selling

A method as old as the internet itself, hawking wares through virtual auctions and shops provides a quick income boost for many students, enabling unwanted Christmas to be disposed of with ease. The obvious starting points are eBay and Amazon Marketplace , though classifieds websites such as Ad Trader are proving increasingly popular. Those of you looking to secure revenue on a more long-term basis will need to source in-demand products and be able to sell them at a mark-up on the price that you yourself paid. One example is “vintage” clothing – cheap clothes with retro appeal are available in abundance at charity shops and can easily be sold to other fashionable students online at a higher price.

10. Doing something crazy

Most truly spectacular success stories of making money online don’t involve any of the aforementioned routes at all. Instead, they showcase brazen opportunism that flies in the face of all logic and reason. Take Alex Tew’s MillionDollarHomepage from 2005 for instance – a website set up with the sole intention of selling pixels at one US dollar apiece to advertisers in order to fund its proprietor’s university degree. On paper it was a ludicrous concept – of course it was - but a 21 year-old Tew soon found himself a certified millionaire. So too did the founders of Doggles, an internet business devoted to selling goggles… for dogs. The point is that, just as in the “real” world, originality paired with good business acumen may potentially reap far greater rewards than any supposedly tried-and-true method of generating cash that you might care to mention. So be creative.


James F Thompson

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The last decade has been particularly interesting in the world of Technology. We have seen Java become mainstream, we saw Google come of age, Linux became mainstream server OS and the Open Source movement took off. This article is not about technology but rather the resource sharing peer-to-peer technology which have impacted the way technology has evolved. Today, this technology is the most used in the world, in terms of internet bandwidth consumed - about 60%. In the future, P2P will consume about 90% of the world’s internet bandwidth, a situation which most ISP’s are trying to overcome. There are arguments both ways - some say they are management nightmares for ISP’s, technologists say that they are the biggest breakthroughs and organizations like RIA and MPAA would prefer a world without most of them. However, all in all, it is here to stay.

Sometimes, some companies are trendsetters and they impact the evolution of technology, which is where the VC’s put their money and companies their R&D efforts. Let’s look at the Top 6 technological breakthroughs in P2P technology over the last decade, in no particular order -


1. Usenet
2. eDonkey
3. BitTorrent
4. Skype
5. MetaASO Mermaid
6. Faroo




Usenet was conceived by Duke University students Tom Trustcott and Jim Ellis. I quote from Wikipedia, “Usenet is distributed among a large, constantly changing conglomeration of servers which store and forward messages to one another. These servers are loosely connected in a variable mesh. Individual users usually read from and post messages to a local server operated by their ISP, university or employer. The servers then exchange the messages between one another, so that they are available to readers beyond the original server.” The most commonly used feature of Usenet is its capability of Binary Attachments. Any news item could contain files and this feature is used to transfer files between people around the globe.


The eDonkey network (also known as the eDonkey2000 network or eD2k) is a decentralized, mostly server-based, peer-to-peer file sharing network best suited to share large files among users and to provide long term availability of said files. In practical terms, it is mostly used to share video files, full music albums and computer programs. Like most file sharing networks, it is decentralized, as there is not any central hub for the network; also, files are not stored on a central server but are exchanged directly between users based on the peer-to-peer principle. (source - Wikipedia) Though Napster was the most famous P2P network of its time but it was closed down due to legal lawsuits. eDonkey is a commercial software while there are other free softwares like eMule, Kazaa and Limewire which are used by users which work on similar principles.


BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer program developed by Bram Cohen and BitTorrent Inc and used for uploading and downloading files via the bitTorrent protocol. BitTorrent was the first client written for the protocol. Other clients are Azureus and uTorrent. When you want to share a file you have to create a Torrent file for it and register it with a Tracker Website. Then you can post the torrent on any website or share it with your friends who can add the Torrent file to a BitTorrent client, which will then download the file for you. The process of creating a torrent is a bit involved and hence softwares like eDonkey are preferred over BitTorrent by most users. For example in eMule you can drop your file into the client and you will get a link which you can directly share with your friends.


Skype is a P2P Voice-Over-IP software created by Niklas Zenstromm and Janus Friis. It allows users to call their friends over the internet. It was the first VOIP software which worked in a P2P fashion without using any central servers. It also allows calling PSTN numbers through its client for a small charge. It was innovative in many senses, for example, it used a Distributed Hash table for authentication and authorization.


MetaASO Mermaid is the only item in this list which is not the name of a software but rather the name of a product suite. It contains about 20 products of which 5 have been released. It was created in 2002 by Aditya Yadav and his friends from IIT’s, MIT and Stanford. These softwares are used to broadcast News, real time video, web conferencing and other things. These softwares absolutely don’t use any servers and can concurrently by used by a billion people around the globe. Mermaid is for real time global broadcasts what Skype is to Internet Telephony.


FAROO is a program, that implements web search based on peer-to-peer technology. After the program is downloaded and installed, the searcher becomes part of a world wide distributed search engine. Every web page visited is automatically included in the index of the search engine. The ranking of search results is based on a distributed usage statistics of the web pages visited by FAROO users. Faroo is doing to search what Kazaa & eDonkey did to file sharing.


Conclusion:

One thing that one can draw from the above is that to create truly global systems, one has to move away from client/server models, which means that website based systems cannot serve the global population and the above softwares are an indication of the things to come. Each is special in their own field but the trend is to create global software systems that cross the boundaries of operating systems, locations and devices.


source:Shāyon

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this is a video from National Geographic which feature a throat singing performance from Mongolia. and the unique about the man in this video was his voice!

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most of use know ms paint and i bet not all of you use it because there's more cool software like Adobe Photoshop and others.But not all of you know the ms paint tricks. See the undocumented feature of ms paint vids here..

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Foxkeh's monthly wallpapers reflecting all four seasons in Japan. Choose from calendar or no-calendar versions for your desktop! Note that holidays are not included in these calendars.

here august edition of Foxkeh wallpaper,name "apparatus gymnastic".

there are 3 types of wallpaper-with calendar start on Sunday, with calendar start on Monday and without calendar which you can download it here

this is must have! for Firefox die hard fan!

how about Firefox theme? see it here

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you use "adsblacklist" to increase your adsense earning by using competitive ad filter on adsense. its a simple step by Go to Adsblacklist, Sign Up, put in your URL and keyword, click generate. You will then get an extensive list of 200 sites to block in your AdSense competitive ad filter.

Now go to your Adsense account, Click on Adsense Setup, Then click on competitive ad filter, copy and paste the websites you were giving from Adsblacklist . Now wait till Adsense blocks those sites.

now, don't worry on getting a low clicks! 1 cents or 10 cent!

here i wanna share with you the list that i generated from adsblacklist!

adsblacklist - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: adsblacklist

gud luck guys!

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"welcome to Obama for america"-Barackobama.com

Today i accidentally drop by to Barack Obama website. I know all Americans, are waiting to get a new president and Obama is the favorite candidate. and for your information,if you type Barack Obama in google you will get 56,000,000+ result. Its a big number, and how famous is Obama right now in the internet. so i decided to do a SEO experiment to see how "Barack Obama" keyword can improve the volume and traffic to my website. because of SEO also target the different kind of search, not just by keywords. I put an image of obama in this post, because image search is also an important aspect on SEO.

"nice Obama"

"half naked Obama"

"cool Obama"

so i just wait, whether the traffic to my site will increase or not in 24 hours. it just an experiment! simple one! i just wanted to know whether there is "Obama impact" or not.

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another innovative product for your iPhone!

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Interesting stuff from Guinness World Record!

HIGHEST-SELLING GAME ON THE PLAYSTATION

Sales of 10.85 million untis make the original Gran Turismo the highest-selling game on the PlayStation.




LONGEST RUNNING ACTION ADVENTURE SERIES

The Legend of Zelda is the longest running action adventure series of all time. The first game was releases in 1986 on the NES. The most recent is Phantom Hourglass released on the DS in 2007.




MOST SUCCESFUL FILM BASED ON A VIDEO GAME
The first Tomb Raider (USA, 2001) movie grossed $274,703,340 at cinemas worldwide making it the most successful film based on a video game.




FIRST GAMING CLAN TO LEGALLY BIND THEIR PLAYERS

The success of Counter-Strike inspired the first ever gaming clan to legally bind their players to the clan. The clan, SK Gaming, subsequently became the first clan to have a player bought out of their contract when Team NoA bought Ola “elemeNt” Moum for an undisclosed sum in May 2004.


BEST-SELLING FIRST PERSON SHOOTER OF ALL TIME

Half-Life as sold over 8 million copies worldwide making it the best-selling first-person shooter of all time. With sequels and spin-offs the franchise has sold over 16 million copies (not including sales from The Orange Box).

BIGGEST-SELLING GAME ON THE XBOX

Halo 2 was the biggest-selling game on the Xbox with over 9 million copies sold.




Weird and Wonderful Records
A selection of some of the more crazy world records from the world of video games...


LONGEST PRISON SENTENCE FOR PLAYING A VIDEO GAME

In September 2002, the UK’s Faiz Chopdat was jailed for four months for playing Tetris on his mobile phone on a plane. Nobody has been jailed longer for playing a video game.


SMALLEST VIDEO GAME DANCE MAT


The smallest DDR mat in the world measures 10 cm (4 in) wide by 11.5cm (4.5 in) long and weighs just 20 g (0.7 oz) and is the world’s first hand-held dance mat to be played with the fingers.


FIRST VIDEO GAME SERIES TO INSPIRE A BALLET

The first video game to inspire a ballet was Dragon Quest.


MOST EXPENSIVE FLIGHT SIMULATOR COCKPIT

Australian trucking tycoon Matthew Sheil has spent the last eight years constructing a flight simulator cockpit based around the Boeing 747-400. To date the project has cost $300,000 Australian dollars (£132,000) – it is the most expensive home-made flight simulation cockpit in the world.


MOST PROLIFIC VIDEO GAME CHARACTER


Mario has appeared in 116 distinct titles (not including remakes or re-releases) making him the most prolific video game character of all time.


FIRST CONSOLE IN A NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONSPIRACY

In December 2000, it was reported that the FBI and US Customs were investigating the shipment of up to 4,000 PlayStation 2 consoles to Iraq. As they were designated video game systems, rather than hardware, it was rumoured that this allowed Saddam Hussein to avoid UN sanctions prohibiting the sale of computer hardware to Iraq. It was speculated that the consoles could be adapted for use as guidance systems for long-range missiles.


ONLY SENSORED SPORTS GAME


BMX XXX is the only extreme sports game to have been censored. Featuring several nude BMX riders, this was modified in the PlayStation 2 version to include black bars covering exposed body parts. Ironically, the version on the family-centric GameCube remained unchanged. BMX XXX was originally part of the Dave Mirra series, until Dave realised the nature of the content and requested his name be removed.

“HOTTEST” FEMALE FIGHTING GAME CHARACTER

In an internet poll of serious martial artists who also happen to play fighting games, the character of Nina Williams, from Tekken, was voted the “hottest”. The barely-clad blonde was admired for her fighting skills and fashion sense. Nina is the only female character to have appeared in every version of Tekken, and also starred in her own spin-off game, the 2005 PlayStation 2 title Death by Degrees

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Scribd has the biggest document collection, but it’s not focused on professional documents alone. It’s more like a virtual document library, where anyone can freely upload and share any kind of text documents (jokes, facts, stories, legal, presentations, etc.). Although, there is a good deal of useless stuff, it still has lots of legal forms and document templates

Gazhoo - Unlike Docstoc, Gazhoo is a marketplace for legal, financial and business documents, case studies and research papers. Mainly it’s a place to buy and sell professional documents. However, with the exception of few scarce document types (i.e. market research papers) most of the listed documents are free. So, it’s a pretty good resource as well.

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The Google Web Search - dark blue redesign (vC) user style adds a ‘bit of blue to the otherwise white and bland Google background. To use this style, you will need to install the Stylish extension for Firefox. Also as the designer points out on the page, this style only works for google.com. To make it work for other countries, use a plain text editor to search for “google.com” and replace all occurrences with “google.co.uk” or whatever you use.

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"Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee". I think most of us had use and download the free sotware. Some of free software is so popular and million of people use it like Winamp and AVG Antivirus Free. the best source for you to download the free software is Download.com and AppHit.com. Here i make a list of most popular free software that you can download and use it.

AVG AntiVirus Free 8.0.138a1332
YouTube Downloader 2.1.6
Firefox 3.1 a1
IrfanView32 v4.20
Ad-Aware 2008
WinRAR
Adobe Reader 9.0
Download Accelerator Plus 8.6.5.2 Beta
Winamp Full 5.54
Spybot - Search and Destroy 1.60.30
K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 4.1.0
BitComet
uTorrent 1.8 rc6
CCleaner 2.10.618
PC Inspector File Recovery 4.0
OpenOffice.org 2.4.1
PowerDVD 8.0.1830
WinZip 11.2.8094
Skype 3.8.0.144
Nero Burning Rom 8.3.2.1
Picasa 2.7 Build 37.49
Yahoo! Messenger 9.0.0.1389 beta
Windows Live Messenger 8.5.1302
LimeWire 4.18.3
Opera 9.51
SeaMonkey 1.1.11
VLC Media Player 0.8.6i
Hamachi 1.0.2.5

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OK, not at the speed of light, but noticeably faster than before. Here are a few steps to making your firefox browser a little faster. Firefox comes preset for dial-up users, but can be optimized for better performance if you have a faster connection. This is for users with at least a broadband connection.

Things You’ll Need:

• Firefox browser
• High speed connection (not dial-up)

Step1

Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return.

Step2

Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Step3

Alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

Step4

Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it recieves.

more tips for firefox here


This is great basic tutorial is posted by, Framp882. Thanks!

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This PDF explains how to get up and running with bit torrent technology efficiently. It shows how to battle ISPs throttling bit torrent speed and other ways to get the best optimization of your bandwidth.

This is a step by step tutorial guide on setting up uTorrent. It details all the steps from downloading to optimizing your settings. Many people have used Bit Torrent and think they are running with optimized settings, even then, it is advised to read through this guide and see what you may have missed to better optimize your settings.

Download:
Increase Your Torrent Speed, A Practical Guide (pdf)

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