If you are gonna bring it to Service Center, then you are gonna pay for something that is not worth for it. These are some things that you can actually fix it. I would suggest you with this little application. Don’t worry, if you doubt with it because you don’t need to install it into your computer. The great advantage is that it is a portable application. It will help you clean up your computer. The application will search for any unneccessary files in the system and automatically remove all of them. So you won’t need to worry. Just to warn you that it is not an antivirus app. Thus no virus will be killed with it and it can’t even detect any virus in your computer. It is used only to remove unneccessary, duplicated files and other scripts which are no longer use by your system. Try it out!

Reference: FIFA.com

A recent trend in performance appraisal is called 360-degree feedback, a process  that uses multiple raters, including self-rating, as a way to increase awareness of strengths and weaknesses and guide employee development. The appraisal group may include supervisors, coworkers, and customers, as well as the individual, thus providing appraisal of the employee from a variety of perspectives.

In many cases, the ability to produce data and information is outstripping employees’ ability to process it. One British psychologist claims to have mentioned a new mental disorder caused by too much information; he has termed it information fatigue syndrome. Information technology is a primary culprit in contributing to this new “disease.”

However, managers have the ability to encounter the problem and improve information quality. Firstly the suppliers of information technology and CIOs need to ensure to collaborate with employees to identify the kinds of questions they must answer and the kinds of data and information they really need. Specialists are often attracted with the volume of data a system can produce and overlook the need to provide small amounts of quality information in a timely and useful manner for decision making. Top executives should be actively engage in setting limit by focusing the organization on key strategies and on the critical questions that must be answered to pursue those strategies.

Reference: New Era of Management

Click here to view the embedded video.

Business intelligence (BI) is an umbrella term that refers to a variety of software applications that analyze a company’s data and extract useful insights to help managers make better strategic decisions. Business intelligence includes activities such as data mining, which searches out and analyzes data from multiple sources across the enterprise, and sometimes from outside sources, to identify patterns and relationships that might be significant, as well as online statistical analysis, querying, and reporting. Many managers like getting BI information via a business performance dashboard because it provides a user-friendly way to view and navigate through information.

Line authority means that people in management positions have formal authority to direct and control immediate subordinates. Staff authority is narrower and includes the right to advise, recommend, and counsel in the staff specialists’ area of expertise. Staff authority is a communication relationship; staff specialists advise managers in technical areas. For example, the finance department of a manufacturing firm would have staff authority to coordinate with line departments about which accounting forms to use to facilitate equipment purchases and standardize payroll services.

For example, an activity-based costing system might list the costs associated with processing orders for a particular product, scheduling production for that product, producing it, shipping it, and resolving problems with it. Because ABC allocates costs across business processes, it provides a more accurate picture of the cost of various products and services. In addition, it  enables managers to evaluate whether more costs go to activities that add value (meeting customer deadlines, achieving high quality) or to activities that do not add value (such as processing internal paperwork). They can then focus on reducing costs associated with non-value-added activities.

Reference: New Era of Management

Here is a very interesting tool for you to manage huge files. The software has been very famous to those who host movies and music videos online. Since most hosting servers do not allow to upload files (max 200MB), hjsplit is used to split those files into smaller size and upload onto server. With hjsplit, you can split either movies, iso images or whatever you want to split. Beside splitting, you can also join the files which are being splitted and many more useful tools.

For more information, http://www.freebyte.com/hjsplit/

Just one click of the mouse and you are the fan.

Hurry up and be a fan of Kv.

“My dear knights whom I love, always remember this: whether you seek for a vision, or do humble service as monks, or fight to right wrongs. Whatever you do, your aim must be to make yourself useful to the world by the work for which you are best fitted.”

~By King Arthur

I have been reading the books, “King Arthur and His Knights” in these days and I am very much moved by the above quote. That is really impressive.

Installing wine is very easy that it is all in your finger tips.

But the problem is removing it. It sometime very difficult to uninstall from your PC. And you will find out that the program is still in your computer even though you have already removed it. So, here is a very simple, but yet effective tool for you to remove “Wine”.

Please note that in the following commands there should be no spaces in the path, particularly between $HOME/ and .whatever.

• rm -rf $HOME/.wine

Also the uninstaller does not remove menu and desktop entries. To remove all Wine-created menu entries run the following commands.

• rm -f $HOME/.config/menus/applications-merged/wine*

• rm -rf $HOME/.local/share/applications/wine

• rm -f $HOME/.local/share/desktop-directories/wine*

• rm -f $HOME/.local/share/icons/????_*.xpm

http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#head-9893ae50079ca7a959258f0bc9a17aaf2e69b391

Studies of steroids began in the early 1800s with the discovery of cholesterol in human gallstones. The structure of cholesterol and other steroid molecules was determined in the 1910s and 1920s by Adolf Windaus [German: 1876-1959] and Heinrich Wieland [German: 1877-1957]. By 1932, it was clear that steroids share a common structure consisting of four rings of carbon atoms, with various side groups.

The synthesis of steroids, beginning in the 1930s, let to widespread medical use of the compounds, particularly cortisone, a steroid hormone discovered in 1935. Anabolic steroids, derived from testosterone beginning in 1958, are used by some athletes to gain weight and build muscles but have harmful side effects, particularly in young people. The International Olympics Committee banned their use in 1974.

When the Altair was introduced in January 1975 as a do-it-yourself kit for hobbyists, Roberts hoped to sell 800 machines a year. Within three months, he had a backlog of 4,000 orders.

In addition to being the first mass-produced personal computer, the Altair was the first computer with an open architecture. This allowed inventors to design add-on devices such as memory cards and printers.

Roberts sold MITS in 1977 and went on to become a physician. Altair’s success inspired people to design competitive machines. It launched the personal computer industry, which has transformed almost every aspect of modern life.

You have put me Top of the World.

Einstein assumed that physical laws remain the same for both the moving observer and the stationary one, including observer and the stationary one, including that the speed of light is the same for both. These simple assumptions have great consequences, called the special theory of relativity. Time merges with space, objects shrink in the direction of motion, the speed of light in a vacuum cannot be exceeded, and mass can be converted into energy or energy into mass.

By 1915, Einstein had worked out the consequences for one observer accelerating with respect to the other. He assumed that gravity is the same as the force that keeps a body moving in a straight line (ignoring friction or other forces). This leads to the general theory of relativity, which implies that gravity results from mass causing space to curve.

Inside plumbing was a feature of several early civilizations, most notably the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro on the Indus River in what is now Pakistan, about 2300 B.C.E., where indoor toilets were common. A few hundred years later, indoor plumbing was available in a large palace on Crete. A Chinese palace with a toilet using running water dates from about 100 B.C.E. But during Roman times and the Middle Ages in Europe, interior common waste disposal relied on a ceramic or metal bowl called a chamber pot, which was later emptied outside.

Toilets that used water to flush away wastes were built near the end of the 16th century by John Harington [English: 1561-1612], who installed one for Queen Elizabeth I. People of the time ridiculed the idea. In the 18th century, however, the English once again began to build flush toilets. A wooden and metal device patented by Joseph Bramah [English: 1748-1814] popularized the idea both on land and at sea. In 1885 the ceramic toilet began to be manufactured. A popular myth is that the toilet was invented by Thomas Crapper [English: 1836-1910], but he only made minor improvements in design.

In 1650, Otto von Guericke developed an air pump that produced a vacuum. Guericke, and others using similar pumps, demonstrated that sound does not travel and fire goes out in a vacuum, but light, electric charge, and magnetic force easily pass through one. In the 19th century, experiments with electric charges passed through a vacuum led to the discovery of X rays and subatomic particles.

Understanding subatomic particles, however, changed the way the vacuum is viewed. Paul A.M. Dirac [English: 1902-1984] in 1928 established that each particle has an antiparticle. When the two meet, they vanish into energy. The 1927 uncertainty principle of Werner Heisenberg [German: 1901-1976] permits a particle-antiparticle pair to appear briefly in a vacuum and then disappear with no energy involved, and since then the gravitational effect of such virtual particles has been detected. Thus, the vacuum seethes with rapidly appearing and disappearing particles.

Resources: Barrow, John D. The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the latest ideas about the origin of the universe.

Inquiry into Plants, consisting of nine books, described and classified plants. Theophrastus noted the great diversification among roots, leaves, flowers, and other plant parts. For instance, he saw that some kinds of plant have numerous roots while others have single taproots, and that some kinds have small insignificant flowers while others have large colorful flowers.

The second work, Growth of Plants, consisted of six books and focused on plant physiology. Theophrastus said that plants come into  being in various ways-from seeds, runners, or broken branches, for example-with some plants using several methods. He discussed the effects of wind, soil, and other environmental influences on plant growth. For instance, he noted that plants grown too close together often do poorly because they must compete for insufficient nutrients.

Note: Classification of organisms began with Aristotle and was continued by Theophrastus, who organized and described over 500 kinds of plants that grew along the Mediterranean and Atlantic shores.

Scientific interest in the sap began with Charles de La Condamine [French: 1701-1774] and Francois Fresneau [French: 1703-1770], who traveled up South American rivers looking for trees that natives called caa-ochue (“weeping wood”). The material didn’t get the name “rubber” until 1770, when Joseph Priestley noticed that it rubbed pencil marks off paper.

At first, use was limited by two problems: natural rubber becomes sticky in the heat and cracks in the cold. Many expermenters addressed these problems but it wasn’t until Charles Goodyear developed a method called vulcanization in 1839 that reliable rubber products could be made and the rubber industry became important.

Chemical studies began with Michael Faraday, who in 1826 discovered that rubber is a hydrocarbon. Later, chemists determined that this hydrocarbon is a polymer, its molecules composed of long chains of smaller molecules, or monomers. Knowledge about rubber chemistry encouraged efforts to make synthetic rubber, but early products were of limited usefulness. The first successful synthetic rubber was neoprene, created around 1930 by Wallace Hume Carothers. The demands of World War II stimulated the synthetic rubber industry and by the 1960s, more synthetic than natural rubber was being produced.

Experimenting in 1875, Bell noticed that variations in the amount of current moved thin pieces of metal in his apparatus. He redesigned the device to use the sound to vary current; at the other end, the changing current reproduced the sounds. This simple device was patented by Bell in 1876 as the telephone.

Bell and his assistant Thomas Watson [American: 1854-1934] soon improved the telephone by using a diaphragm to move permanent magnets that altered levels of current. The sample apparatus was used to send and to receive sounds. In 1882, a version with a sending mechanism held near the mouth and a receiver placed on the ear was introduced. Bell’s telephone system connected a small group of phones to a central operator who signaled individual phones to indicate incoming calls. Each phone had its own pattern of rings, but picking up any receiver allowed anyone in the group to participate in the call, a system known as the “party line.”

Improvements included the first way to send several calls at once over the same wire (1887), a mechanical switching system to replace central operators (1892), the rotary dial telephone (1896), and automatic switching system (1912). In 1983, the first cellular telephone networks in the United States allowed subscribers to use wireless battery-powered telephones.

How it works!

Ordinary telephones connect to a local exchange with copper wires carrying electric current. Exchanges are usually linked by fiber optics, transmitting messages as light. Distant exchanges may use microwaves to communicate via artificial satellites. Cell phones connect with microwaves to local towers joined by fiber optics to the network.

Matthew Boulton [English: 1728-1809] became the first to patent a steam engine for a special purpose in 1786, a device for stamping out coins. In 1814, the steam-driven printing press was introduced in London. The first of several steam tools designed by James Nasmyth [English: 1808-1890] was the 1839 steam hammer, used also as a pile driver for bridge construction.

All early steam engines were large and heavy, and thus not easily moved into remote locations, such as mines or tunnels. In 1849, the steam engine began to be used to compress air, and thereafter smaller, more portable and lightweight compressed air tools became common in mining and construction work. Large tools that continued to use steam power directly well into the 20th century included the steam shovel and a heavy device used to smooth roadbeds, the steamroller.

In 1900, Reed, who had distinguished himself during 25 years as a military physician, was asked to head a commission to study yellow fever. This disease killed more Americans during the Spanish-American War of 1898 than were killed by the enemy. Yet no one knew what caused “yellow jack” or how it spread.

Reed first tested and disproved the theory that yellow fever is caused by a bacillus bacterium. He then designed experiments to test two other theories. One theory proposed that yellow fever spreads from person to person through contaminated clothing or the air. The second theory, proposed by Cuban physician Carlos Finlay, said the disease is transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti. Reed’s experiments proved that this mosquito carries, but does not cause, yellow fever. In 1901, Reed and his long-time associate James Carroll [American: 1854-1907] proved that the cause is something so small that it cannot be seen through a light microscope-making yellow fever the first human disease known to be caused by a virus.

Note: The first vaccine against yellow fever was introduced in 1937 by Max Theiler [South African-American: 1899-1972].

Many submersibles have become famous. In 1960, the Trieste, called a bathyscaphe instead of a submersible, built by Auguste Piccard, set the world’s record for an ocean dive, 35,800 feet (10,912 m).

The Alvin is a three-person submersible built in 1964 that is  still working today, although in 1973 it received a titanium hull to allow it to dive to 13,000 feet (4,000 m). It was built by the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research and its first missions were military, but it is now operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and used for science, including research on plate tectonics. Alvin is best known for investigating deep undersea vents where extremely hot water flows into the ocean, and where there are life forms found nowhere else on Earth.

Understanding improved after devices that measure temperature, air pressure, wind speed, and humidity were invented in the 17th century. But the key observation came in 1821, from William Redfield  [American: 1789-1857], who observed that a storm called a hurricane-now defined as a tropical storm with steady winds over 74 mph (119 kph)-formed a giant counterclockwise spiral. Redfield collected data from many storms after that and, in 1831, published his conclusion that all major storms on the coast of North America are similar whirlwinds. Such storms are characterized by very low pressure at their center, which causes air to move inward. The Earth’s rotation turns that inward movement into a spiral.

The nature of storms was explained further in 1920 by Vihelm Bjerknes [Norwegian: 1862-1961] who discovered that storms begin where warm and cool air masses meet at a line he called a “front”. During World War II, high-flying American pilots noticed a stream of air, now called the jet stream, that flows from west to east. This is also the front between warm and cool air, so movement of the jet stream determines much weather and the location of storms.

Not all storms, however, are caused this way. Thunderstorms usually begin as great updrafts caused by warm, moist air rising from heated soil. As air rises, it cools, and rain or hail begins to fall downward, producing downdrafts to conflict with the updrafts. If the winds become very strong, they twist themselves into the tight spiral called a tornado.

The idea of a utilitarian closable pin was lost after the fall of the Roman Empire, although jeweled brooches sometimes used closable pins. In 1842 a patent was filed for a U-shaped pin with a protective hood for use with shawls and diapers, but it was never manufactured.

Walter Hunt [American: 1796-1859] invented the modern safety pin in 1849. According to most accounts, Hunt had patented many inventions and owed money to the artist who drew the plans. Hunt promised the artist an invention to pay off his debt. After playing with some wire for a while, he created a springy, hooded safety pin and assigned the artist its patent.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The first artificially produced vaccine was developed by Louis Pasteur in 1881. He made the vaccine from weakened anthrax bacteria taken from the blood of diseased animals and injected it into 24 healthy animals. Another group of healthy animals did not receive injection. After two weeks, Pasteur injected all 48 animals with living anthrax bacteria. Those that had been vaccinated were unharmed but within two days all the other animals were dead or dying of anthrax.

A vaccine stimulates a body to produce proteins called antibodies. The antibodies create immunity to the disease. For instance, a measles vaccine creates immunity to measles.

Today, several methods are used to make vaccines. Some vaccines, like Jenner’s use an organism similar to that causing the disease. Others, like Pasteur’s, are produced from weakened or inactivated microorganisms. Certain vaccines against viruses use only the viral compounds that prompt production of antibodies.

In the early 1990s, scientists demonstrated that vaccines can be created from the DNA of microorganisms. The first human tests of a DNA vaccine began in 1995, for the virus that causes AIDS. The tests had disappointing results but were followed by test of other potential DNA vaccines.

In the 1980s, there was no easy way to share data on the Internet. Berners-Lee developed software that included three procedures that control how data is transmitted between computers via the Internet: HTML, HTTP, and URL. HTML (hypertext markup language) codes documents to create Web pages. HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) is a system for transferring documents. URL (universal resource locator) addresses documents with the familiar www.address. This software opened up the Internet; it enabled anyone with the computer capability to navigate the Internet and easily find and retrieve information.

Berners-Lee had the first Web server (a computer that holds Web pages) in operation on his computer by 1990. He made the software available on the Internet, available to anyone who wanted it. Use grew by leaps and bounds, particularly after the introduction in 1993 of browsers, which are programs that allow computer users to click-and-jump from one Web site to another. Other innnovations have been added since, and more are in the works, including voice-enabled software that lets people use their voices to surf the Web.

In 1740, Abraham Trembley [Swiss: 1710-1784] discovered a tiny green animal with a cylindrical body and flexible tentacles around a mouth at the top. When Trembley cut the animal in half horizontally both halves survived; the top half grew a new bottom and the bottom half grew a new top. Trembley continued to experiment, making all sorts of cuts. For example, with a series of vertical cuts in the head region he created a creature with seven heads. He compared his creation to Hydra, the many-headed monster slain by Hercules.

Carolus Linnaeus thought Trembley’s comparison was appropriate and in his classification scheme gave the name Hydra to the little green animals.

In 1768, Lazzaro Spallanzani described regeneration in earthworms, snails, salamanders, and frogs. Another organism whose regenerative powers have been investigated in great detail, beginning in the early 1800s, is the planarian, a small flatworm.

Among mammals, regeneration is limited. No mammals can regenerate lost limbs or tails, but some regeneration of internal tissues is possible. For example, if part of a human liver is lost to desease or surgery, the rest of the liver grows larger to handle the functions of the lost part. Much research is currently being conducted on regeneration of human tissue, with the hope that in the future it will be possible to return damaged eyes, spinal cords, and other organs to their proper function.

In 1898, Marie Curie, one of many physicits who studied Becquerel’s new radiation, discovered that another element, thorium, also produces such energy. She named the energy “radioactivity”. Ernest Rutherford recognized that there are two different kinds of radioactivity, which he called alpha and beta after the first two letters of the Greek alphabet. A third form, found in 1900, is gamma radiation, after the next Greek letter. Several physicists, including Becquerel and Curie, soon demonstrated that beta radiation is a stream of electrons.

Rutherford, working with Frederick Soddy [English: 1877-1956], determined the cause of radioactivity early in the 20th century. Heavy atoms such as uranium and thorium are unstable, like blocks piled too high. After a while, a piece of the atom is tossed out, like a block falling off the pile. Ejecting an alpha particle (helium nucleus) or a beta particle (electron) changes the radioactive element into a different element. Often several particles must be lost before the atom enters a stable state. Gamma radiation-short wave-length electromagnetic waves-is energy lost during the change.

Source: The Blackbirch Encyclopedia of Science & Invention

The national telegraph network fortified the ties between East and West and contributed to the rapid expansion of the railroads by providing an efficient means to monitor schedules and routes . Furthermore , the extension of the telegraph , combined with the invention of the steam-driven rotary printing press by Richard M. Hoe in 1846 , revolutionized the world of journalism . Where the business of news gathering had been dependent upon the mail and on hand-operated presses , the telegraph expanded the amount of information a newspaper could supply and allowed for more timely reporting . The establishment of the Associated Press as a central wire service in 1846 marked the advent of a new era in journalism .

In 1800, Humphry Davy noticed that inhaling nitrous oxide relieves pain-and provokes laughter. He called it “laughing gas” and suggested that it might be useful during surgery. In 1815, Davy’s pupil Michael Faraday discovered that ether has a similar effect on pain.

The first use of a gas as an anesthetic during surgery occured in 1842; Crawford Long [American: 1815 - 1878] painlessly removed a tumor from a patient’s neck after the patient sniffed a towel dampened with ether. The first public demonstration of ether anesthesia, by William Thomas Green Morton [American: 1819 - 1868], took place before a group of surgeons in 1844.

Nitrous oxide and ether continue to be used, but scientists have discovered many additional anesthetics including the widely used sodium thiopenthal, halothane, and trichlorethylene. Some anesthetics are administered by masks, as the patient breathes; others are given intravenously or applied to the skin to block sensation in a localized part of the body.

Near the end of the 18^th century, children sometimes played on a two-wheeled hobbyhorse propelled by pushing their feet on the ground. In 1790, a French count built an adult version that he called the celerifere (“quick strike”), which was briefly popular with the nobility. After the French Revolution and reign of Napoleon I, Joseph Nicephore Niepce [French: 1765-1833], better known as the creator of the first photographs, redesigned the celerifere, which then (1816) became generally popular in Paris. Enthusiasm increased when an 1818 version was manufactured that could be steered by turning the front wheel.

Between pushes, a person balanced a celerifere without his or her feet touching the ground. In 1839, a Scottish blacksmith designed a version using treadles and levers, similar to the levers turning the wheels of a steam locomotive, that carried power to the back wheel as the rider balanced. French inventors had a better idea, which was to develop a speed advantage by using the foot to turn a crank handle that was attached to the front wheel. With each foot pushing a crank half way around, the pedal was born in 1861. Pedals turning in a relatively small circle rotated the much larger wheel, and the vehicles were called velocipedes (“swift-footed”). Since the ratio of pedal radius to front wheel radius determined speed, versions with very larger front wheels are developed. But the giant front wheels made the velocipede unstable and accidents were common.

Also, only riders with long legs could reach the pedals.

In 1869, manufacturers began to use chains to allow a rider placed between the wheels to pedal the velocipede. In 1885, the safety bicycle, manufactured by the Rover Company in England, became the standard, with two equal-sized wheels and pedal power transmitted by a covered chain to the back wheel. Air-filled rubber tires were invented in 1888 and gears became available as early as 1890.

Bicycles prepared the way for automobiles, especially by necessitating better roads. People trained as bicycle mechanics became the inventors of the automobile, and bicycle manufacturers switched to making cars.

In the latter part of the 20^th century, the sport of bicycle racing led to many improvements in bicycles. The environmental movement promoted the use of bicycles as clean, energy-efficient transportation. Specialized bicycles were developed for riding on trails and up mountains.

Source: The Blackbirch Encyclopedia of Science & Invention

Published: 1989

An amazing book that I ever read.

The book focuses on how to make better your life and relationships by using mind, body and soul to its fullest, focusing first on dependence, then independence, finishing with interdependence. He used great real life examples of how his life, family and work have benefited from these 7 habits.

The first person to understand how a body orbits Earth was Issac Newton. In 1687, Newton described how a ball fired from a powerful cannon could, in the absence of an atmosphere, be put into Earth’s orbit. Newton’s idea was correct, but the technology needed for an artificial Earth satellite was not available. In the 1880s, Konstantin Tsiolkovskii [Russian: 1857-1935] studied the problem. He proposed that rockets propelled with liquid fuels could loft a satellite into Earth’s orbit. In the 1930s, scientists in the United States and Germany developed such rockets.

After World War II, when German rockets were used as weapons, scientists felt ready to attempt an artificial satellite. American and Russian groups announced launches as part of an international project. The Russians succeeded first, launching the Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957.

Few recognized at first how useful satellites could be. In 1960, however, the earliest satellites for observing weather, aiding navigation, facilitating communication, and spying were placed in orbit. Today we rely almost completely on satellites for weather forecasting; for guiding airplanes, ships, and some cars; and for carrying television and telephone signals. Since 1962, space-based telescopes have become essential tools of astronomy. Other satellites, starting in 1972, inventory Earth’s resources.

The first satellites traveled in orbits a few hundred miles above Earth, passing around the planet in about 90 minutes. Many of the most useful satellites of today are geosynchronous-they travel about 22,000 miles (35,000 km) above the equator, orbiting once in 24 hours so that they remain above the same location on Earth.

Although most artificial satellites orbit Earth, scientists have also put satellites in orbits around other planets, the Moons, and asteroids.

Source: The Blackbirch Encyclopedia of Science & Invention

Note: Please give some time to connect the player with server.

Click HERE to go.

1. Restart your computer, and then press and hold F8 during the initial startup to start your computer in safe mode with a Command prompt.
2. Use the arrow keys to select the Safe mode with a Command prompt option.
3. If you are prompted to select an operating system, use the arrow keys to select the appropriate operating system for your computer, and then press ENTER.
4. Log on as an administrator or with an account that has administrator credentials.
5. At the command prompt, type %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe, and then press ENTER.
6. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer to a functional state.

Reference: Microsoft

There is an open house of Singapore Institute of Technology from 20 – 21 March 2010 @ MOE HQ. SIT offers 2-year degree programmes that are focus in many industries. For more information, Click Here.

To those who are interested to visit, the location map is as follow.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Firstly, show your palm, centre finger bend and put together back to back. Secondly, the rest 4 fingers tips to tips. Games begin, follow the below arrangement, 5 finger but only 1 pair can split.

Try to open your thumb, the thumb represent parents, it can be open because all human does go through sick and dead.  Which are our parents will leave us one day.

Please close up your thumb, then open your second finger, the finger represent brothers and  sisters, they do have their own family which is too they will leave us too.

Now close up your second finger, open up your little finer, this represent your children.  Sooner or later they too will leave us for they got they own living to live.

Nevertheless, close up your little finer, try to open your fourth finger which we put our wedding ring; you will be surprise to find that it cannot be open at all.  Because it represent husband and wife, this whole life you will be attach to each other.

Real love will stick together ever and forever

Thumb represents parents
Second finger represent brothers & sisters
Centre finger represent own self
Fourth finger represent your partner
Last finger represent your children

Click here to view the embedded video.

• Start menu
• Run
• Type cmd.exe

Please type the following and press Enter in the command prompt -

• ipconfig/flushdns
• ipconfig/release
• ipconfig/renew
• exit

Many Chinese legends and beliefs are associated wth nature . Thus , they have the Sun God , the Moon Goddess , the Fire God , the Earth God , the deities of Heaven and Water , and certain legendary animals with supernatural powers , such as the dragon .

The Sun and the Moon

One delightful legend states that a goddess gave birth to ten suns which she bathed every day to make them shine brightly . On each day only one of the suns worked while nine rested . But on one disastrous day all the suns went to work and appeared in the sky . The earth was in deadly danger until an archer shot down nine of the suns .

Another popular legend relates that a beautiful goddess , Chang-E dwells on the moon . It appeared that in about 2500 B.C. a great man name Hou Yi was given the peach of immortality , but before he could eat it , his wife Chang-E stole it and flew to the moon . Some believed that Chang-E was turned into a toad soon after she reached the moon . Since the astronauts did not find a goddess there , the latter story must be a more reliable one !

The Dragon

Other nature myths include those about dragons , phoenixes and unicorns .

Dragon myths exist in the West as well as the East , but whereas the Western dragon is usually associated with danger and evil , the Chinese dragon is revered . In both cases , the dragon represents supernatural strength and power , and was probably created by primitive people to explain natural forces and agents of destruction .

In China the dragon was associated with the Emperor . Legend states that the dragon was encased in a shell of stone and rock and took two thousand years to hatch . There were many species of dragons – for example , the Long , the Li , and the Jiao .

According to the Book of Changes , the legendary founder of China , Fu-Si , was transformed into a dragon and he lived in the sea for a thousand years . Perhaps this is why the dragon is said to rule the oceans . Many tales are related of how Na Zha , a legendary deity , battled with the Dragon King of the China Sea . Yet another story widely believed through the centuries is about the encounter between the Eight Immortals and the Dragon God of the sea . Also , the Monkey God is said to have obtained his magical weapon from the Dragon King .

Chinese geomancers believe that the dragon has its hidden home underground and houses built on dragon sites are consiered geomantically superior .

The Phoenix

The phoenix is said to have the head of a pheasant , the beak of a swallow , the neck of a tortoise and a plumage of five beautiful colours . It was believed that phoenix apeared only when rulers were just and the people were good .

In ancient China , the phoenix symbolised the beauty and virtue of the Empress , just as the dragon symbolised the power of the Emperor . The phoenix is a yin or femal symbol , whereas the dragon is a yang or male symbol .

It is recorded that the phoenix was first seen in 2693 B.C. and again in 1035 B.C. On this occasion the Emperor was so pleased that he named officials and different state departments after birds .

The Unicorn

The unicorn is also considered an auspicious animal and a symbol of longevity . It is said to have a scaly body between that of a horse and a lion , hairy legs and cloven hoofs . Male and female unicorns are called qi and lin respectively . The male has a horn protruding from its head , but the female is hornless .

The unicorn appears to mankind only when a sage is about to be born . Thus it symbolises benevolence and wisdom . It is associated with longevity because it was believed that the animal could live to a ripe old sage of one thousand years .

Legend has it that the unicorn first appeared before Emperor Fu-Si on the banks of the Yellow River .It was also said to have appeared at the times of the birth and death of Confucius . One soure even claims that Confucius was conceived after his mother stepped into the footprint of a unicorn

The Tiger

The tiger symbolises magisterial dignity and uprightness , strength and virtue . It is the only non-legendary animal popularly endowed with mythical powers .

In ancient China the tiger was often painted or sculptured on walls to symbolise military prowess or spiritual conquest over evil spirits . The title of ” White Tiger ” was given to Yin , a general of the Emperor of the Zhou dynasty , for his skill and courage.

Benchmarking is a means by which an operation can assess and improve its environmental, social and economic performance quantitatively. Benchmarking indicators establish the measures that need to be recorded by an operation. It is essentials that collecting benchmarking should involve practical, everyday measures such as the volume of water used in a year as shown by an operation’s water bills and the amount of electricity used.

Benefits of benchmarking

Environmental and social benchmarking will:

• Demonstrate contribution to protection of local and global environmental quality;
• Retain existing customers and attract ones;
• Improve profitability through greater efficiency and less waste;
• Provide a sound basis for environmental reporting to stakeholders;
• Attract ethical investment;
• Improve business-to-business opportunities and outcomes;
• Improve relations with government regulators;
• Enhance relations with local communities;
• Motivate employees.

The Eearthcheck Benchmarking system

The Earthcheck Benchmarking system is a simple web-based application (www.ec3global.com/products-programs/earthcheck/) which empowers operators to input data needed to carry out the assessment and reporting process and which allows the operators to track their performance annually in relation to baseline and best practice within the sector and implement improvements accordingly. The Earthcheck system, which was developed by the STCRC in March 2001 to simplify and standardize environmental and social benchmarking, offers a low-cost entry point in the journey to become sustainable. To do this the STCRC drew on a research team from over 17 universities to compile case studies and national reference data to create an adaptable tool that can be plugged in or purchased to allow an organisation to monitor and reduce its environmental impact. The Earchcheck Benchmarking system can assist an organisation to reduce cost in area like energy consumption, waste production and resource conservation by monitoring and reporting outputs.

]]> http://www.knowledgevilla.com/home/2010/02/news-update/feed/ 0 http://www.knowledgevilla.com/home/2010/02/the-pros-cons-of-being-an-entrepreneur/ http://www.knowledgevilla.com/home/2010/02/the-pros-cons-of-being-an-entrepreneur/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:48:57 +0000 admin http://www.knowledgevilla.com/home/?p=751 Pros

• Independence: When you own your own business, you do not have to follow orders or observe working hours set by someone else.
• Satisfaction: Turning personal skills, hobbies, or other interests into your own business can be very satisfying.
• Financial reward: Through hard work, the sky can be the limit. Countless small businesses have grown into large companies that have produced fortunes for their owners.
• Self-esteem: Knowing you created something valuable can give you a strong sense of accomplishment, thus heightening your self-esteem.

Cons

• Business failure: Many small business fail. You risk not only loosing your money but also the money invested in your business by others.
• Obstacles: You will run into problems that you will have to solve by yourself. You may face discouragement from family and friends.
• Loneliness: It can be lonely and even a little scary to be completely responsible for the success or failure of your business.
• Financial insecurity: You are not guaranteed a set salary or any benefits.
• Long hours/ hard work: You will have to work long hours to get your business off the ground.

My Gosh,

That’s what it shows for the whole day whenever I log into my Cpanel. Very angry now. So annoying.

Click here to view the embedded video.

http://www.knowledgevilla.com/ftp_shared/Everythings/home

Charles Joseph ‘Buddy’ Bolden was an innovative but unrecorded cornettist in New Orleans , who has been described as ‘the first man of Jazz’ ( c. 1901 ). ‘Jelly Roll’ Morton and Louis Armstrong are associated with New Orleans jazz . Morton was arguably the originator of the blues ( a type of slow , sad music ) . His jazz orchestrations , which were published in around 1905 , were the earliest in book form . Louis Armstrong was a trumpeter and singer who pioneered a new style of jazz that centered on improvisational solos . As a young man he played the cornet on Mississippi riverboats . In 1922 , he joined the Chicago-based band of Joseph ‘King’ Oliver and soon he was leading his own bands .

In the 1920s , Jazz spread to larger US cities , such as New York and Chicago . The bands were enlarged with saxophones and additional trumpets and cornets . Swing , a type of popular dance music that uses a large band , developed from jazz in the 1930s . Important bandleaders during this era were Paul Whiteman , Benny Goodman , Glenn Miller and Count Basie .

Bop , with its smaller bands and rhythmic innovations , developed in the 1940s . Key figures were Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker . During the late 1940s and 1950s a new form of jazz emerged – cool jazz , as played by Stan Getz and Miles Davis .

People did not have personal computer, compact disks or mobiles. They did not know about the quasars or the cloning of mammals.

Last 100 years ago,

People did not have television, air-con, antibiotic, or spiral-bound notebooks. They did not know about DNA or the Pluto which is the outermost planet in our solar system.

Last 500 years ago,

People did not have photographs, electric power, bicycles or thermomethers. They did not know about bacteria, blood circulation, or moons around other planets.

Last 1,000 years ago,

People did not have printed books, clocks, eyeglasses, or guns. They did not know about capillary action, the origin of fossils or the causes of solar and lunar eclipses.

Bows have more uses than launching arrows. Wrapping the cord around a shaft and pushing the bow back and forth rotates the shaft at high speeds. This idea was used, probably starting about 8000 B.C.E., for drilling holes and starting fires with friction.

About 400 B.C.E. two adaptations of the bow were introduced. In Italy, Greek inventors developed a large bow pulled by teams of soldiers that could launch heavy stones or spears-the catapult. Catapults sent missiles over walls or even though them. In China, a smaller, handheld device employed a heavy arrow, called a bolt. The user cocks the bow (perhaps using a pulley for added power) and can unleash at will. By the 1^st century C.E., the crossbow was known in Greece and Rome. In the middle ages, improved crossbows were so deadly that the Church tried to outlaw them.

After guns were introduced, however, bows and crossbows gradually ceased being used as weapons of war. Today they are mainly used in target shooting or for hunting deer and other large game.

Among the many services, Google Analytic and WordPress Stats are some of the top useful services. I at first, used the Google Analytic that you can see on the right column of my blog. That wigdet is showing just a 1% of what google offers. There are actually a lot more behind. You can actually see the number of new visitors, return visitors, page viewed, IP addresses, visitors’ locations, browser information, top referrals, ISPs (internet service providers) and so on.

As for the WordPress Stats, I currently cannot provide the full functions of what it is since I am new to this service. But it works very much the same as google analytic except no IP address, ISPs and browser information are not mentioned.

Anyway, it is really useful to have at least one analytic service. With that, you can track where your visitors are coming from and what your visitors are looking from your website or blog. By then, you can offer their needs and therefore the site become famous or popular. It is even more useful for e-commerce sites, since the developer can actually set their target markets and offers what the target market is focus on.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Of significance to all definitions of tourism are concepts of space (i.e. travel away from a ‘home’ location or region) and time (i.e. the time spent away from a home location). Yet because of the capacities of people to travel further and faster as a result of improvements in technology, changes in accessibility and increases in personal wealth, the boundaries that are selected as determinants of what constitutes short-term travel are increasingly fluid. For example, in order to improve the collection of statistics and improve understanding of tourism, the United Nations and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) recommended differentiating between visitors, tourists and excursionists (daytrippers). The WTO (1991) recommended that an international tourist be defined as;

a visitor who travels to a country other than that in which he/she has his/her usual residence for at least one night but not more than one year, and whose main purpose of visit is other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the country visited.

and that an international excursionist (e.g. cruise ship visitors) is defined as

a visitor residing in a country who travels the same day to a country other than that in which he/she has his/her usual environment for less than 24 hours without spending the night in the country visited and whose main purpose of visit is other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the country visited.

• where are we now? – check (monitor or evaluate)
• where do we want to get to? – plan
• how do we get there? – do (action)

The strategic plan is therefore the document which is the output of a strategic planning process and which serves to guide future directions, activities, programmes and actions. The outcome of the strategic planning process is the impact that the process has on the organisation, its activities and its environment, including the various stakeholders. Such impacts are then monitored and evaluated through the selection of appropriate indicators as part of the ongoing revision and readjustment of the organisation to its environment. Strategic planning therefore emphasizes the process of continuous improvement as a cornerstone of organisational activity in which strategic planning is linked to management and operational decision making, with the three key mechanisms required to achieve this being;

1. a planning framework which extends beyond organisational boundaries and focuses on strategic decisions concerning stakeholders and resources
2. a planning process that stimulates innovative thinking and provides a capacity to adapt to environments
3. an organisational values system that reinforces commitment to the organisational strategy.

Why Web FTP?

Answer is very simple. It is intended for those who cannot use FTP software (because of installation failed or other reasons). And Web FTP is simple but yet fast and secure.

Web FTP is strong?

To answer honestly, it is not. Through this application, you can edit, copy, move, download, upload files to your ftp server. But the uploading allows maximum file size of up to 2 MB only. It doesn’t even allow mp3 files. If you are uploading scripts and documents, it is no problem for you.

Why should I use?

Web FTP is for your second choice. If you can install and use FTP software, it is perfect. But if you are not able to use FTP software, I recommend Web FTP. It will allow you to edit your documents fast and secure and even to download and upload files. Navigation is not difficult, using it is easier than using an email. So, try it if you haven’t. I believe you will like it.

• Tax return laws generally prohibit any disclosure of information gathered on state tax returns.
• Criminal justice system laws generally have requirements about who can access particular forms of data gathered about you in conjunction with a law enforcement activity. This means that not all information is automatically public, but, of course, some may be. You are familiar with the “Police blotter” reports in your local newspaper, for example. These laws also generally require that information gathered about you in law enforcement activities be accessible to you, so that you can amend the information or correct it if it is wrong. The disposition of the case is usually required to be recorded, and most states require reporting law enforcement information in promptly standard formats. Some states, such as California, require that police blotter information becomes protected when it is no longer current.
• School records laws generally allow students and their parents to inspect school records and to challenge them if they are inaccurate or incomplete. Schools are limited in their ability to disclose information to third parties. This is why you must ask to have your transcripts forwarded when another education institution requires them.
• General fair information laws limit the data that a government can collect and keep. These laws usually allow you to inspect the data and challenge it if you believe it inaccurate. State governments may be restricted in their ability to disclose information to third parties.
• Election laws may limit the disclosure of voter registration data, making it available to candidates for election mailings, but not to a marketing organisation to sell other products.
• Motor vehicle registration laws may limit the disclosure of vehicle registration, identification card, and/ or drivers license data to authorized personnel.

Source: Protect your Digital Privacy.

The idea of nanotechnology was introduced in 1959 by Richard Feynman [American: 1918-1988]. He envisioned making devices by joining as few as 7 atoms-about 2 nanometers. Feynman was inspired by the miniaturization introduced in the U.S. space program in 1958, and by microprocessors (computer chips), also invented in 1958. Soon, tiny motors and other devices-still hundreds or thousands of nanometers in size-were built. Some became commercially useful, embedded in such devices as automobile airbags or switching networks for telephones.

The word nanotechnology was coined in 1974, but the first real advances near atomic levels came in the 1980s. The scanning tunneling microscope (STM), invented in 1981, provided the break-through. The STM can image individual atoms. A modification called the atomic force microscope (AFM) can also move them-demostrated in 1989 when researchers spelled “IBM” with 35 xenon atoms. In 1985, physicists also began to use paired lasers as pincers to handle individual atoms. Using technology developed for etching transistors into silicon chips, scientists at the University of California at Berkeley created the first electric micromotor in 1988, not from single atoms, but at a nanometer scale.

In the 1990s, chemists began to fabricate complex molecules that self-assemble from simpler molecules. Also in 1990, several groups of chemists announced successful creation of molecules that replicate themselves. In 1994, Leonard Adleman [American: 1945- ] created a computer equipped with a memory and stored program consisting of single molecules, albeit giant molecules, of DNA. Another giant molecule, the carbon molecule called a nanotube-especially an elongated buckyball-showed that it had many properties that could be exploited in nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology grew rapidly at the start of the 21st century. A modified AFM became an inkjet printer that sprays individual molecules into nanoscale designs. Workers used silicon-chip technology to fabricate “nanowires” a few hundred atoms in diameter that they then combined to make transistors only 20 nanometers across. Biochemists crafted a form of DNA with a metal conductor running along the middle of the molecule, creating a nanoscale combination that could be called “intelligent electronics.” In 2000, the University of Michigan started a center to apply nanotechnology to medicine, aimed at cell manipulation with tools smaller than the cells themselves.

Source: The Blackbirch Encyclopedia of Science & Invention

Businesses use a number of techniques to try to produce that perfect implementation. Some of the techniques are simple ideas in complex implementations: keep track of what the customer did in previous visits and make guesses about what the customer does next. That’s what Amazon.com’s Recommendations process does.

Some sites use intricate processing that reviews that action you have just performed on the Web site and tries to present what you find most pleasing. The successful business uses a number of tools to engage in interactions with the user. The following list presents 10 reasons businesses might want to engage in personalization:

1. Provides the customer with convenience and save his or her time.
2. Allows the vendor to become a trusted source, building loyalty, customer retention and sales.
3. Enables a comprehensive, integrated, and intelligent customer communication strategy.
4. Allows the vendor to proactively present the customer with contextually relevant offers creating the potential to transact with each and every customer.
5. Provides a 360-degree view of the customer relationship, helping to better understand customer needs and habits.
6. Allows the vendor to focus on retention rather than acquisition, which is much more cost effective and dramatically increases customer lifetime value.
7. Offers faster and more accurate response rates to measure future sales.
8. Provides up-sell and cross-sell opportunities, driving additional revenue.
9. Creates a competitive advantage, building barriers of entry for new businesses.
10. Allows a more cost-effective way of doing business, improving sales and customer satisfaction.

Source: Software and Information Industry Association eBusiness Division Whitepaper: Conect with your Customers

The idea behind IM is simple. When you send someone an email, you don’t know when you will get a reply. Your friend might not check their messages, or might not use that email address anymore. With IM, however, a program on your computer tells you when a friend is online. You can then send a message to your friend, who can type a reply instantly. To do this, you need an IM program, such as AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger or Windows IM.

IM is already hugely popular in the USA, where people spend five times more time online than in Europe. However, IM is starting to take off in the UK, with over 3,000 people signing up to MSN Messenger alone every day. Worldwide, AIM, the IM service provided by AOL is by far the most popular. It has 195 million users who send about 1.6 billion messages every day. ICQ, which is owned by AOL, has about 140 million messengers, and MSN and Windows IM put together have about 75 million users.

The advantages of IM are obvious, but there is one very important disadvantage. You can only contact someone on the same network as you. If your friend is using AIM, and you are using MSN, you cannot talk to each other. This makes IM less useful than it should be. Imagine if you could not send an email from Hotmail to Yahoo. However, things look like they will change soon.

In general, the future looks bright for IM. Many programs also allow you to have voice conversations, have video conferencing – this means you can see the other person using a webcam – and also let you swap pictures, music and other files.

So, perhaps we’ll all soon be asking someone’s age, sex and location (ASL), and laughing out loud (LOL) when they say something funny. See you later! (CU L8er)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here are a few of the clear tricks Dave’s deskbar performs :

1. It lets you run searches not just for Google, but for 140 different Web Sites, including Yahoo, Amazon, Ebay, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), and a hard of the other search engines.
2. It has a wizard that guides you through setting up your own custom searches. Dave suggests using a custom search for your company’s intranet, although you can use one to automatically search any web sites you’d like.
3. The blank search box isn’t actually blank-insteadc, it displays the date and time, so you can hide your system clock and save some valuable screen space.

Dave’s deskbar works with Window 95 or later and Internet Explorer 5.5 or later ; you can’t install it from any other browser . Check it out at www.dqsd.net.

If this behavior is threating your sanity , consider installing and running AdAware , a free program that attempt to detect & delete software that’s surreptitiously installed itself on your computer ( http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download ).

AdAware not only nixes pop-up launchers , but it also kills off spyware , software that companies can secretly place on your hard drive in order to track your behavior online . Spyware is generally not condoned by legitimate businesses , but file-sharing services have a history of deploying it .

Many attempts have been made to overcome this problem and they have all failed . The fear of foreign influence and domination rules out the universal acceptance of any one of the existing major languages . Aware of this difficulty , many linguists have constructed artificial languages which could have no possible political overtones . They have argued that a language of this sort would perform much the same service as Latin did in the Middle Ages .

Although linguists succeeded in making their artificial languages extremely simple so that they would be easy to learn , their attempts seemed dommed from the start . The reason for this is that there is no real incentive to learn an artificial language . There is nothing to guarantee that everybody is willing to make the effort ; there is no assurance that the learner will have any adequate return for his toil . When people today undertake to learn a foreign language they are not interested in only speaking it . Mastery of a language makes available to the learner a great deal of worthwhile literature and many current publications . This is the biggest stumbling-block of all for the artificial – constructed tongue . Having no literature of its own , all it can offer is a limited number of translations which are valueless in themselves . Nor can it acquire any literature ; for it would have to be used for a great many generations before this could become possible . Moreover , constant use over a long period would bring into being many national dialects and the language would thus defeat its own purpose .

Another serious objection is the fact that a language is shaped by use and not by design . It is a living thing which is forever growing and changing . It takes hundreds of years before it can acquire richness and depth . In an artificial language , however , the meanings of words are rigidly defined . Inflexibility makes for an absence of subtlety , so that no really fine meaning can be conveyed .

Though this quality might be admirable for scientific publications , it greatly impedes the development of any significant literature . Latin was ideal in this respect , for it was a ‘dead’ language with a literature ; an artificial one is “dead” from the start . This makes it likely that existing language barriers will remain with us for a very long time .

In the movie, Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the American Geogolist say the White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt):  “People have RIGHT to know that.” And yes, I am strongly agree on that. We have right to know what is happening around us. The Earth is our home, it is where we are born and a place we will rest in peace. So, we should at least know what is happening to our home.

Exactly the same as in the Christian Legend, goverment has built the very big ship which can carry selected people, animals and some treasures so that we can continue our human race during the dark period and bring all the stories of the past to the youngsters. But I oppose with that idea. It works very well because it is movie. As in reality, they are more like dreaming. When the world really comes to its end, it takes million of years to transform itself to become a place which is suitable for living things to live. So, our youngsters are not going to survive till this period and even if they can, who knows how they are going to start the world again ? It is a mystery.

I just crazy on this song. Can’t stop listening it 24/7. I, myself don’t know why.

In addition, the Gmail servers scan all incoming attachments and block executable files , even if they are enclosed in a compressed file format like .zip , .tar or .gz . Google also blocks any incoming messages with .exe files attached and bounces them right back to where they came from.

Since most people rarely, if ever , need to exchange executable files for legitimate reasons , this limitation shouldn’t be a problem for us . If we do want to send an .exe file , however , consider burning it to a CD and snail-mailing it to its destination , or posting it on a Web site .

To answer the question , we must go back about two-hundred years , to the beginning of the United States . The states approved a Constitution for the country in 1788 . But they could not decide where to build the permanent capital . Northern states did not want the capital in the south because of slavery . The southern states did not want it in the north . Several places were proposed , but Congress could not agree no one .

Then Thomas Jefferson of Virginia invited Alexander Hamilton of New York to dinner to discuess the dispute . Two congressmen from Virginia were also there . The four men talked politics .

Southern votes had defeated a bill in Congress that Mr.Hamilton wanted very much to be approved . It would have required the federal government to pay the money owed by the states for fighting the war to gain independence from Britain .

The two Virginia congressmen agreed to change their votes against the bill . And Mr.Hamilton agreed to find northern votes to support a proposal to build the capital along the Potomac River between the states of Virginia and Maryland . That is how Congress agreed to build the capital in a federal area on land provided by the two states .

A year later , officials announced that the city would be called Washington , in honor of the country’s first President , George Washington . The later federal area would be named the District of Columbia . Columbia had become another name for the United States , one that was used by poets and other writers . The name came from Christopher Columbus , the explorer who sailed from Europe across the Atlantic Ocean to the Western Hemisphere .

Today , Washington, D.C. is known to those who live in the area as the District .

Sigmund Freud argued that we repress early memories , presumably because they are painful . Although we do not have access to them , he maintained , they are still present in the brain and can thus affect our psychological well-being . Cognitive psychologists , in contrast , argue that early memories are simply not stored in any format that we can access . This may be primarily because we lack language during infancy , so memories must be recorded nonverbally . Finally , neuroscientists note that the hippocampus , an area of brain involved in forming memories , matures fairly early in life . Thus , they believe early memories must be shipped off to the neocortex-an area involved in higher-level cognitive processes-for long-term storage . Because the neocortex is relatively immature until the toddler or preschool period , it stands to reason that young children would have relatively poor long-term memories . All of these explanations apply only to facts and events that can be consciously recalled . Little is known about memories acquired unconsciously , such as learning how to toss a ball . These memories seem to remain intact later in life , although how they are retrieved is a mystery.

By Charles Nelson ,
At the University of Minnesota
A neuroscientist and child psychologist .

Google is a cute name , but does it mean anything ? The thing that stands out most on the Google home page is the company’s colorful signature . Which raise the question : Why does this search service sound like it’s named after a Muppet ?

In fact , ” Google ” is an adaption of the word googol , which is the number 1 followed by one hundred zeroes , and brings to mind the stupendously large number of Web pages that it searches.

Incidentally , the word googol was coined around 1938 by the 9-years-old Milton Sirotta , the nephew of mathematician Edward Kasner . 

Case Sensitivity

Does Google care if I capitalize my search words?

No . Some search engines , including these on many intranet ( private Web sites ) , are case-sensitivity , meaning they search for your therms based on how you capitalize the words . In a case-sensitive word , the query ” ALFERD HITCHCOCK ” wouldn’t find Web pages containing the term ” Alferd Hitchcock ” , ” alferd hitchcock ” , or ” aLfeRD HitChcOcK”.

Google , on the other hand , doesn’t care about capitalization . If you search for Pugs , pugs , PUGS , or even PuGs , you get the same results . So give your pinkies a rest and type your queries in all lowercase letters.

Because humans have such a poor understanding of randomness , it is very difficult for us to produce randomness on our own . Try this yourself . On a computer keyboard , type a long string of random characters . As you type , you will notice that it is difficult producing data that would be considered truly random . Chances are you will have many asdf and uiop sequences in your typing .

To make matters worse , the harder you try to be random , the more predictable you become (e.g.,you might purposely avoid any redundancy or obvious patterns and as a rusult create other predictable patterns ) . Consider the ” guess-which-hand ” game . Put an object in one of your hands , place both hands behind your back , and ask a child to guess which hand the object is in . At that point , their guess will be somewhat random . Play it again and this time their guess is largely based on the result of the last game (e.g., if they correctly guessed the left hand last time , they might try guessing the left hand again next time ) . On the other hand , they might be smarter and expect you to switch so they guess the right hand . Play the game repeatedly and you will see patterns develop in both your selection and the child’s response .

If you give someone a handful of pennies and ask them to spread the pennies out randomly on a table , you will find that at first glance , most people seem capable of arranging the pennies in a manner that looks random . But , often if you look closely , there is some pattern that defines the randomness ( e.g., although the pennis look randomly arranged , the space between each panny might actually be the same ) . In our attempt to create randomness , we will fall back to some pattern .

Our lack of randomness is evident in our passwords . We tend to use words close to our personal lives or our environment . We pick numbers and words that mean something to us rather than selecting from the entire range of avaliable words . We might try to open a dictionary to a random page and pick a word , but even where we open the book or what part of the page we select from has bias .

America’s first private commercial bank , then Bank of North America , was chartered by Congress on December 31 , 1781 . The Bank of New York and the Bank of Massachusetts followed in 1784 , but all these banks were local and limited . In December 1791 , national banking originated with the first national bank , which opened its main office in Philadelphia . In 1816 , the second national bank was chartered for twenty years . Meanwhile state banks began to proliferate throughout the country .

The late 1800s saw an emergence of investment banking houses that promoted mergers in railroads , utilities , and factories and provided the capital for expansion . Commercial banking also flourished , but after a high rate of bank failures , the Federal Reserve System was established in 1913 to correct deficiencies in existing banking legislation on the national and state levels . The Federal Reserve Act set the foundation for modern banking .

Other trends and inventions had also helped make it possible for Americans to vary their daily diets . Growing Urban populations created demand that encouraged fruit and vegetable farmers to raise more produce . Railroad refrigerator cars enabled growers and meat packers to ship perishables great distances and to preserve them for longer periods . Thus , by the 1890′s , northern city dwellers could enjoy southern and western strawberries , grapes , and tomatoes , previously avaliable for a month at most , for up to six months of the year . In addition , increased use of iceboxes enabled families to store perishables . An easy means of producing ice commercially had been invented in the 1870′s and by 1900 the nation had more than two thousand commercial ice plants , most of which made home deliveries . The icebox became a fixture in most homes and remained so until the mechanized refrigerator replaced it in the 1920′s and 1930′s .

Almost everyone now had a more diversified diet . Some people continued to eat mainly foods that were heavy in starches or carbohydrates , take advantage of previously unavailable fruits , vegetables and diary products to achieve more varied fare .

Ambigram: A word or words that can be read in more than one direction , such as rotated or reflected (SWIMS, MOM).

Anagram: Letters from one word rearranged to form another word (act versus cat).

Ananym: A pseudonym made by reversing a name (James versus Semaj).

Antogonym: A single word that has conflicting meanings (dust , as in remove dust versus dust , to add dust , as in dusting for fingerprints).

Antonym: Two words with opposite or near opposite meanings (up versus down).

Autoantonym: Same as an antagonym.

Autonym: A word that describe itself (mispelled is mis-spelled ; noun is a noun).

Capitonym: A word that changes meaning when capitalized (Polish versus polish).

Contranym, Contronym: Same as antagonym.

Exonym: A place name that foreigners use instead of the name that locals use (Spain versus Espana).

Heteronym: Words that have the same spelling but different meanings or pronounciation (produce , read , convert).

Homographs: Same as heteronym.

Homonym: Words with the same pronunciation or spelling but different meanings (reign and rain).

Homophone: Words that are pronounced the same but spelled differently (flu versus flew).

Hypernym: The type of one word in relationship to another (bird is the hypernym of robin ; animal is the hypernym of bird).

Hyponym: The specific type of one word in relationship to another (robin is a hyponym of bird ; cat is the hyponym of animal).

Oronym: Similar to a homophone but made up of a series of words (ice cream versus I scream ; kiss the sky versus kiss this guy).

Pseudoantonym: A word that appears to have a meaning opposite of its actual meaning (inflammable , unloose).

Synonym: Two words that have the same or nearly the same meaning (build and assemble).

Anger can have a detrimental effect on physical and emotional health . It is often a signal that something needs to be dealt with and if left unchecked , anger can lead to violence . Therapists sometimes teach their clients to express their anger in a physical way by hitting cushions or screaming out . Sometimes , however , this can have the effect of strengthening the angry feelings , so it is far better to change your irrational beliefs and then try and resolve the matter in a practical way .

The Queen liked nothing more than being surrounded by clever and eligible noblemen at court . There were men such as Burghley , Raleigh , Leicester and Essex , who were given important appointments . Elizabeth also chose people from the middle class , like Walsingham and Cecil , as advisers . Perhaps William Cecil was her greatest minister . It was to him alone that she confided her innermost secrets . One of her main problems was to keep the peace between Protestants and Catholics . She favoured Protestants but was mainly concerned in keeping peace between the two religions .

Many in England , especially Protestants , wished that she would marry so there could be an heir to the throne . Elizabeth was too crafty to make a decision . She liked to consider offers from princes abroad , but kept them waiting . King Philip of Spain , a staunch Catholic , would have given anything to become King of England . ” Even Cecil , her favourite Englishman , thought he had a chance . But the Queen knew that war was expensive , and that by keeping foreign suitors in suspense , war could be avoided .

Meanwhile , Elizabeth’s cousin Mary , a Catholic , had become Queen of France and Scotland . She was a threat to Elizabeth , for with enough support from the Spanish and French , she hoped to be Queen of England . At length , Elizabeth signed her cousin’s death warrant and she was killed .

King Philip then decided to invade England . His ships , heavily laden with soldiers , poured out of Spain and sailed up the English Channel . Known as the Spanish Armada , it was defeated by the smaller and faster English ships , then blown by a gale onto rocks . The Queen struck a medal on which was engraved , ” God blew with His Wind , and they were scattered ” .

At the age of 70 , Elizabeth died without marrying . Mary’s son , James Stuart , King of Scotland , then also became King of England .

The lack of order , however , does not guarantee that something is random . A sequence is noly random if there is no way it can be reproduced given any circumstances or information ( e.g., the value of Pi appears random but there is a specific method used to reproduce those digits ).

It is difficult to actually determine if a sequence is truly random ; therefore we look at several properties of a sequence to determine its randomness :

1. Even Distribution An equal probability of distribution over the entire set of data .
2. Unpredictability Any one piece of data has no relationship to any previous data and provides no information about the data to follow.
3. Uniqueness It would be extremely rare to randomly produce the same sequence of data more than once . The longer the sequence , the more unique it becomes .

These three properties deem random data impossible to guess , therefore making randomness a vital element for strong passwords .

Unfortunately , completely random passwords are very difficult to remember and even if we could remember them , creating them would be a complicated task .

If a business wants to sell its products internationally , it had better do some market research first . This is a lesson that many companies – including some large American corporations – have learned the hard way .

Sometimes the problem is in the name . When General Motors introduced its Chevy Nova into Latin America , it overlooked the fact that No va in Spanish means ” It doesn’t go .” Sure enough , the Chevy Nova never went anywhere in Latin America .

Sometimes it’s the slogan that doesn’t work . No company knows this better than Pepsi-Cola , with its ” Come alive with Pepsi ! ” campaign . The campaign was highly successful in the United States , and Pepsi translated its slogan literally for its international campaign . As it turned out , Pepsi was pleading with Germans to ” Come out of the grave ” and telling Chinese that ” Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave”.

Other times , the problem involves pictures and packaging . A smiling , round-cheeked baby has helped sell countless jars of Gerber baby food . So when Gerber marked its products in Africa , it kept the picture of the baby on the jar . When Gerber didn’t realize that in many African countries , the picture on the jars show what the jar has in it .

Even cultural and religious factors – and pure coincidence – can also be involved . Thom McAn shoes have a Thom McAn ” signature ” inside . To people in Bangladesh , this signature looked like Arabic script for the word Allah . In Bangladesh , feet are considered unclean and Muslims felt the company was insulting God’s name by having people walk on it .

]]> http://www.knowledgevilla.com/home/2009/10/the-wrong-stuff/feed/ 0 http://www.knowledgevilla.com/home/2009/10/a-happy-journey-starts-like-that/ http://www.knowledgevilla.com/home/2009/10/a-happy-journey-starts-like-that/#comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:35:37 +0000 admin http://knowledgevilla.com/?p=464 Click here to view the embedded video.

She used to sing that song to tease me (because I don’t like that song). But I am getting used to it and miss her whenever I hear that song.

One reason is because they were named by Spanish explorers . However , there are other reasons also .

San Diego was the first Spanish settlement in California . Spanish soldiers built a fort there in 1769 . The settlement was named for San Diego de Alcala , a Spanish saint , or holy man . Americans have called San Diego the birthplace of California .

As the Spanish soldiers moved up the coast , they found other places that would made good settlements . One of these is ” Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula .” In English it means ” Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula . “

Porciuncula was a Roman Catholic church in Italy linked with Saint Francis of Assisi . He was the founder of the Franciscan Order of religious workers and priests . Franciscan Priest Juan Crespi gave the area that name . Today it has a much shorter name : Los Angeles or just ” L.A.”

Another city with a Spanish name is San Francisco . The first explorer to give the area that name was , in fact , not Spanish but Portuguese . In 1595 , Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeno named part of the California coast ” Puerto de San Francisco . ” Or , Port of Saint Francis . Later , the Spanish discovered the great harbor where the city of San Francisco was later built . A small settlement near the present city was called Pueblo de San Francisco .

After the war between Mexico and the United States in 1846 , Americans called the growing city San Francisco . A small island in the harbor was given the old Spanish name , Yerba Buena .

Being able to determine the location of our visitors is a powerful tool . After all , if we know our Graceland Vacation site is absurdly popular in Japan , we might consider adding some new pics . But Google’s geographic location service isn’t perfect . In fact , there are several weakness :

• The location service is based on the ISP ( Internet Service Provider ) not the actual visitor . In many cases , the ISP is located in a different location than then visitor’s own computer .
• The location service examines the information registered with the IP address . This registration information could be incorrect .
• ISPs economize by pooling their traffic together and dumping it onto the Internet at a central location . That evens even if the visitor and Web Surfer are located in a specific city , the computer that connects these surfers to the Internet might be somewhere else .

As a general rule of thumb , the geographic information that Google uses is likely to be close to reality , but not exact . It’s highly likely that the country is correct , but the specific city may not match that of the actual visitor .

Work stress

 It has been suggested that work is the biggest cause of stress in the western world today . The pace of change in the way we work has never been as great . People have to cope with new information technology , longer working hours and short-term contracts . A job is no longer for life . As job insecurity increases , people are more likely to remain in a job that is perhaps safe but not necessarily suited to them .

Family and relationship stress

People experience high levels of stress in their relationships . From marital conflict and difficult children to alcoholism and violence the problem are wide and varied . These issues need to be properly addressed otherwise the consequences can be serious , leading to separation , divorce and family breakdown .

The stress of bereavement

The loss of a loved one is a devastating life experience . When we lose someone close , it is natural to go through a process of mourning . The emotions and stages of the grieving process will vary from person to person . First there is the initial shock of the loss and at this time it is common to experience a feeling of numbness . Anger , guilt , and despair follow as the reality of the loss deepens . This is followed by recovery as the person accepts the bereavement and begins to rebuild their life . It is important to acknowledge the grief and talk to someone close .

The stress of Financial problems

Financial problems obviously cause an enormous amount of stress . The loss of a job , an addition to gambling or mounting bills can lead to family tensions . Ignoring the problem will only make matters worse . When faced with money worries , it is important not to panic . Instead talk to your debtors and set realistic budget .

The stress of Change

Changes in our life , however big or small , whether positive or negative , can create stress . Major life changes such as starting a new job , getting married or moving house can challenge our abilities to cope . This is particularly true if we experience too many changes in a short period of time . Although change is an inevitable part of life , it makes sense to plan ahead . Whenever possible do not take on too much at once .

Environmental stress

Our environment is a big factor in the cause of stress . We have to contend with crowded trains , noisy traffic and polluted cities . These conditions can lead to health-related problems such as asthma , allergies and migraine headaches . We cannot easily escape the environment we live in . However , healthy eating , exercise and regular breaks can help us to better cope with the stresses and strains of city life .

When a person believes demands made of them exceed their ability to cope they will experience stress .

The technical name for these demands is ” stressors ” and the resulting wear and tear on the body is the stress .

We may think of stress as a relatively new phenomenon ; in fact , it has been with us for millions of years . Many years ago when men and women lived in caves life-threatening situation occured on a daily basis . Cave dwellers hunting for food were regularly exposed to physical dangers from other predators or the environment in which they lived .

Faced with a threat the body reacts immediately – there is a rush of adrenaline , heightened muscle tension , faster heart rate and raised blood pressure . Blood pumps to the muscles and brain causing the body to become alert and as strong as possible for , in order to survive , a hunter would have to respond either by fighting the threat or running away from it . This is called the ” flight and fight response ” and is activated whenever a person is faced with an emergency . Physiologist Walter B Cannon first described it over 100 years ago .

The flight or fight response is still experienced by people today and is , of course , appropriate whenever we are faced with a real emergency . However , unlike our ancestors , we are rarely faced with such life-threatening situations . Screaming children , nagging bosses and work deadlines are very unpleasant but hardly life-threatening . The problem is that nature does not know this and will prepare the same fight or flight response . This leave the body in a high state of arousal which it is a unable to utilise .

So if everyday pressures mount up and a person is in this state for long periods of time , their body soon suffers and the experience becomes distress .

Pronounced STEHG-uh-NAH-gruhf-ee, from Greek steganos, or “covered,” and graphie, or “writing,” this method of protecting data involves hiding a secret message within an ordinary message and extracting it at its destination. Steganography takes cryptography a step farther by hiding an encrypted message so that no one suspects it exists. Ideally, anyone scanning your data doesn’t know it contains encrypted data.

Sniffing

Stealing data off a computer connection by capturing all the characters that come over the connection is called sniffing. This requires that the hacker have physical access to the network you are on. To capture useful information such as credit card numbers or site passwords, a sniffer would probably be connected to the part of a network that a Web site is on rather than the part of the network your home PC is on.

Protecting Against Malicious Attacks

As a general rule, you should visit only those Web sites you trust. This is because while surfing the Web you may subject your PC to an attack from a malicious Web site. This can happen when that site sends your browser instructions to execute in a form of ActiveX controls and JavaScripts.

However, it would be no fun to always visit the sites you know, and never try something new. Kids and others might also use your machine and go to places you hadn’t considered. For that reason, you should configure your browser to help protect your machine against malicious attacks. The following settings are recommended for Microsoft Internet Explorer:

• Prompt for downloading signed ActiveX controls
• Disable unsigned ActiveX controls
• Disable ActiveX controls not marked as safe
• Enable running ActiveX controls and plug-ins
• Enable ActiveX controls marked as safe for scripting
• Set Java permissions on high safety
• Disable script debugging
• Warn about invalid site certificates

Reference

Protect your DIGITAL PRIVACY (Survival Skills for the information age)

During the opposition of 1894 a great light was seen on the illuminated part of the disk, first at the Lick Observatory, then by Perrotin of Nice, and then by other observers. English readers heard of it first in the issue of Nature dated August 2. I am inclined to think that this blaze may have been the casting of the huge gun, in the vast pit sunk into their planet, from which their shots were fired at us. Peculiar markings, as yet unexplained, were seen near the site of that outbreak during the next two oppositions.

The storm burst upon us six years ago now. As Mars approached opposition, Lavelle of Java set the wires of the astronomical exchange palpitating with the amazing intelligence of a huge outbreak of incandescent gas upon the planet. It had occurred towards midnight of the twelfth; and the spectroscope, to which he had at once resorted, indicated a mass of flaming gas, chiefly hydrogen, moving with an enormous velocity towards this earth. This jet of fire had become invisible about a quarter past twelve. He compared it to a colossal puff of flame suddenly and violently squirted out of the planet, “as flaming gases rushed out of a gun.”

It is one of the very interesting book that I have ever read. Honestly, I haven’t finished reading that book. But I can’t stop reading it and just wanna know what is next, next and next. So, I would like to encourage you to read that book, too. If you are not interested about science and all the robots and planets, then this book is not for  you. Because I can definitely tell you that you will get bored. Anyway, why not download and browse it ??? At least you can spend your (boring) spare time and familier with a store that you can share with your friends later on.

To download, right-click on the link below and choose the “save link as”. Then you can save it in your computer and it becomes your own. Enjoy !_!

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/3/15/887714/The%20War%20of%20the%20World.pdf

Note: If you find out that the link is broken, please let me know immediately. Thanks a lot.

Honeypot typically run on a single computer that mimics the activity and breadth of an entire network, even down to emulating the details of a specific operating system, such as Linux, Windows, Mac OS, Solaris, or HP-UX. Although a honeypot looks and behaves just like a real network, it often offers several easily exploitable flaws to encourage the hackers to waste their time exploiting this fictional network.

To learn about the various honeypots currently used by businesses, visit these sites:

Tiny Honeypot http://www.alpinista.org/thp

Net Facade http://www.22.verizon.com/fns/netsec/fns_netsecurity_netfacade.html

Symantec ManTrap http://www.symantec.com

The Deception Toolkit http://www.all.net/dtk/download.html

Many honeypots are freeware and include source code so you can study how they work and even contribute some ideas of your own. A honeypot is valuable as a surveillance and early-warning tool. While it is often a computer, a honeypot can take other forms, such as files or data records, or even unused IP address space.

~ Contributed by spooky.

The wireless network world is not nearly this secure. In fact, it is not secure at all. Disassembling your network packets and transmitting them wirelessly means that anyone within reach can see them. A wily attacker could join or passively monitor your network from a mile away with a high-gain antenna, and you would never see him.

The drawbacks of WEP (802.11b)

The IEEE specifications for 802.11a/b/g all provide a form of encryption called Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). WEP operates at the Media Access Control layer (MAC) layer or the Data Link Layer, between the physical layer (radio waves) and the Network Layer (TCP). Most WEP products implement a 64-bit shared key, 40 bits of which are used for the secret key and 24 bits for the initialization vector (IV). The key is installed at the wired network AP and must also be entered into each client.

Anyone who knows the secret key (unless you’re the only user on the network, this key is shared, so it’s not all that secret) can participate in a WEP network. Secret keys are generally either plaintext words or somewhat longer combinations of hexadecimal numbers.

There are two major problems with WEP:

• Encryption is handled at the Data Link Layer, so if you connect to a WEP network with your notebook, the communication between your notebook and the access point is encrypted. All packets are decrypted at the access point and sent from there in the clear.
• Other computers that also have the secret key for this WEP network can read all packets sent to and from your computer. The secret key is a “shared” key, which means that all devices that encrypt packets must use the same key, making the key even easier to deduce. Once you are connected to a WEP network, you can do the packet sniffing you want with a tool like Ethereal.

A team of cryptographers from the University of California at Berkeley, as well as several other groups have identified weaknesses in the way that WEP keys are generated and used, effectively making the number of bits in the key immaterial. Even though many manufactures have added extra bits to the key length, up to 152 bits, the longer key length provides minimal protection, because WEP is not a well-designed cryptographic system. I (spooky) will post more about WPA in next coming posts.

So why would you want to use WEP on your wireless network at all? Consider it a first line of defense. While it is definitely possible to crack its keys and gain access to a WEP network, someone who is looking for free wireless access will choose an open network when given the choice. However, you must take stronger measures.

Consider not using WEP at all. There are other alternatives that provide stronger encryption and authentication and I will discuss more about it. However, if you want an easy going setup, WEP is your way to go or you ticket. To keep your WEP network as secure as possible, keep these guidelines in mind:

Make your secret key difficult to crack. Once a hacker has captured enough frames from your encrypted network, he needs to run a tool to guess your secret key. There is no different from a hacker running crack against a password database. The more complex your key, the less likely a standard dictionary attack will crack it. Choose a long, complex key that utilizes non-alphanumeric characters. If you can, use hexadecimal strings. Use the longest key that your hardware will support. If you have access points and clients that support 128-bit WEP, by all means use it. However, some implementations of WEP have weaknesses that allow attackers to recover the key even without mounting a dictionary attack.

Change your secret key often. WEP key attacks rely on two methods: a dictionary attack or the collection of large amounts of frames data in order to deduce the secret key. Obviously, you provide less of a chance for an attacker to break your key when you change it often. However, this option becomes more cumbersome with large networks, giving you the classic key-distribution problem.

Use WEP in combination with other security measures. If your network uses equipment from a single manufacture, you may able to take advantage of nonstandard security features. Cisco and Proxim, for example, support rapid WEP key rotation and dynamic rekeying. If all of your clients can take advantage of these features, use them. You should also consider whether the various IP tunneling or VPN solutions will fit into your network infrastructure.

Several security measures that come standard with many access points are almost useless in protection your wireless network.

Disabling SSID broadcast

This creates a “hidden” network by causing the access point to suppress the broadcast of SSID information. In order to join a network with SSID broadcast disabled, the client must manually enter the SSID. If you don’t know the SSID, you can’t join the network. In reality, Kismet and other wireless network scanners can easily pick up the SSID by monitoring traffic from clients of the “hidden” network.

MAC address filtering

Most access points allow you to set up a list of allowed network cards by entering their MAC address. If the access point sees a MAC address that is not on the list, it will not allow that device to associate. So only authorized network cards can join the network. In reality, Kismet and other wireless scanners can easily pick up MAC addresses by monitoring client traffic on the wireless network. Spoofing a MAC address is very easy under Linux and other operating systems, allowing easy access to the network.  Also, wireless network cards can be easily stolen. The MAC address filter only authenticates a device, so anyone can use it.

IP address filtering

Similar to MAC address filtering, this technique allows you to set up a list of allowed IP addresses that can send TCP/IP traffic on the network. Other machines may be allowed to associate with the access point, but they would not be able to participate in any TCP/IP network. So only known IP addresses are allowed to communicate on the network. In reality, any network sniffer or analyzer, such as Ethereal or tcpdump, can easily find IP addresses in use on any given network. Spoofing IP addresses is even easier than spoofing MAC addresses.

Reference

• Security of the WEP Algorithm (http://www.issac.cs.berkeley.edu/issac/wep-faq.html)

~ Contributed by Spooky

Here is the presentation about Google Wave. At first, I don’t really excited about it but after watched for half an hour, I just can’t stop to know more about that. I am crazy to nearly all Google’s Product and one of the very crazy Google fun. So, if you are also a Google Fun, don’t miss that. Google Wave is also one of the greatest product come out from Google.com.

From Profit-building strategies.

The business idea you‘ve been discussing with a friend sounds better and better. The next step seems obvious: “Let’s work on it together.”

A hand shake, a glow of good fellowship and you’re off. But do you have a winning combination? Perhaps. Unless the business relationship is carefully spelled out, you could end up losing money— and your friend.

Case in point: Two friends bought a piece of property. They got it at a good price and looked forward to a handsome profit.

Then an emergency arose.

One partner had to sell before the agreed upon time. The two had only vaguely discussed that possibility and started arguing about what procedures to follow procedures that should have been clearly spelled out before they applied for the mortgage.

The situation was finally resolved. But only after each partner had incurred needless legal expense and lost a longtime friend.

The situation can be just as touchy when using a friend’s professional services. “The fee seemed high,” said a publisher who hired a friend’s law firm to draft  a book contract, “ but I was reluctant to challenge it because I didn’t want my friend to think I was cheap.”

Without a doubt the publisher would have discussed the fee with a stranger and probably would have gone elsewhere had the matter not been resolved to his satisfaction. But since, he was dealing with a “friend,” he was silent. Now the friendship is clouded because he feels he’s been taken.

Beware when friendship distorts the “mutuality of respect and advantages” in the business relationship, warns Professor Stuart L. Meyer, who teaches courses in new ventures and entrepreneurship at Northwestern University Graduate School of Management .Once friendship gets in the way of business , you could find yourself facing many problems.

Like the publisher, you might not apply critical standards to a friend as you apply them to someone you know only through business. As a buyer, you might expect special price breaks from your friends; as  a supplier , you might expect unwavering loyalty from your friends.

This doesn’t mean you should never do business with friends. But you must exercise caution. As Professor Meyer implies, requirements of friendship must take second place to requirements of sound business practices.

Going into business with friends. The key here is to keep the channels of communication open. You can usually resolve potential conflicts if you anticipate and discuss them. People often break up because they don’t understand each other’s expectations or needs.

There is no substitute for the paper describing the deal between you and your friend. It needn’t be a formal contract; a letter of agreement is sufficient. But that letter should cover the scope of the project, time-table, and remuneration, where the work will be done, and procedures for settling disputes, such as appeal to a mutually respected third party.

If either of you deviates from the agreement— for example, there’s an unexpected delay in completion or an extra charge for some service or material—you should tell the other immediately. Never presume friendship lets you do something you wouldn’t do with a stranger.

One consultant always drafts a letter of agreement when he works with friends. “If they say, “We’re friends, let’s just shake on it,’ I tell them the letter will protect both of us. If they still won’t sign, I might not work with them.”

Can customers be friends?

Top sales people often say their customers are their friends. The kind of friendship they mean doesn’t include after-hours social contact. It’s cultivated during business hours only. If it leaves the office at all, it’s only as far as the lunch table.

Smart salespeople know that too much friendship in a salesperson-customer relationship can turn into a disaster.

Another expensive consequence of putting friendship first is that you may have difficulty doing what comes naturally—asking for leads, because you don’t want to put pressure on the friendship. Thus, an important source of possible new business could be lost.

All salespeople have occasionally differences with their customers over the size of orders, product conditions upon delivery, service or performance, payment schedules. A good salesperson works hard to resolve those differences. That requires bluntness and straight hard talking.

Lending money to friends.

When a friend asks for business loan, he or she is putting you into a difficult position. Lending money to a friend’s corporation is especially hazardous.

Wesley Geer worked for Oceans West Development Corporation. Ken Farquhar was his immediate superior, majority stockholder and president. One day Farquhar confided to Geer that he needed $2000 to meet the payroll.

Wishing to save his own job— and the friendsip –Wiseley gave the cash to Farquhar who then used some of it for payroll and the rest for other corporate debts.

Geer thought he’d protected himself when he asked for a promissory note with “both signatures” on it. Farquhar gave him his signature followed by  a dash and the name of the company.

Time passed, and Geer founded himself suing for his money. When he obtained a judgment against both the corporation and Farquhar individually, Farquhar appealed, claiming he’d signed the note as a corporate officer and therefore wasn’t personally liable for repayment of the note.

But the court found that the note was ambiguous. Farquhar hadn’t indicated he was signing in a representative capacity and Geer hadn’t seemed to it that Farquhar signed as an individual. In such ambiguous situations, said the court, the intention of the parties’ controls. The Supreme Court decided that Geer had intended Farquhar be individually liable.

Geer was lucky. Farquhar had wanted to sign as a corporate president, but he didn’t clearly say so. Had he made that clear, Geer would have had the almost impossible task of trying to collect from a failing company.

The message is clear. Protect yourself by being specific.

~ Contributed by spooky.

While we blame other people, we usually do little to fix the situation. So we keep the problem.

Fred says, “I haven’t got any friends. Nobody understands me!” That’s avoiding responsibility. While Fred blames everyone else, he’ll have a lot of lonely Saturday nights.

Mary says, “I know I’m miserable. It’s my mother’s fault.” That’s a recipe for more misery. Blaming your mother doesn’t help.

Whenever you fail at something, ask yourself, “Was I partly responsible for this? How can I make sure this doesn’t happen again?” These are questions successful people ask themselves.

It’s Not What Happens To You; It’s How You See It

Case 1: John Foppe was born with no arms. He holds a masters degree in communication and he gives presentations to companies and schools around the world. He never asks, “Why was I born without hands?” He asks himself: “What am I going to do about it?”

Everything you do with your arms – comb your hair, count your money, steer a car – he does with his feet. It’s fun to eat with John in a Chinese restaurant. While other diners are eating with knives and forks -figuring chopsticks are too hard – John handles chop-sticks like a champion – between his toes!

Says John, “I accept who I am. Without the challenges I have had, I wouldn’t be the same person.”

Case 2: Tony Christiansen is a qualified surf lifeguard, a champion swimmer, a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, a speedway and racing car champion, a qualified pilot, a successful businessman and a father of three children. Tony has no legs. He lost them in a railway accident when he was nine.

Tony’s philosophy? Never say, “I can’t.”

So long as you believe something in your life is a disaster,
it will unfold as a continuing disaster.

Let’s say your Dad suddently announces to the family, “I’ve got a new job. We’re all moving to Peru!”

You say, “Oh no! I’ll lose all my friends. My life is ruined! Where can you get a decent hamburger in Peru?” As long as you think that your life is in ruins, you will be miserable.

Then one day you change your point of view. You decide, “This is an adventure most kids never get! I’ll get to learn Spanish. I’ll learn to eat different food! Maybe my friends can come and visit me!”

You change your attitude and it changes your life.

In a nutshell:

Every “disaster” in your life is not as much a disaster as a situation waiting for you to change your mind about it.

Other metals also hardened copper. Tin-poor Egyptian smelters made bronze with copper and arsenic ore. Today corrosion-resistant bronze is made with copper and aluminium. Soon after the end of the Bronze Age – about 1000 B.C.E. in Greece and the Middle East – another alloy of copper was discovered. A small amount of copper smelted with zinc ore produces a large amount of a bright gold metal that is easily worked into many shapes-brass. Brass became the first choice for coins as well as for many ornamental purposes. It remains popular for the latter.

And what if you accidentally locked yourself in there for an hour? You’d be saying, “What smell?”

What’s the principle here? That we get used to whatever environment we’re in.

If you don’t smoke, and no one around you smokes, you never even think of smoking. But if all your friends smoke, and you hang out in smoky bars, you get used to it. Sooner or later you’re smoking!

If your friends tell lies, in the beginning it worries you. After a while, you get used to the fact that some people tell lies. Hang out with them long enough and you begin telling lies.

Hang out with miserable people, you become miserable – and you think it’s normal! Mix with critical people, you become critical – and you think it’s normal.

If you hang out with friends who are happy and motivated, then you become happy and motivated – and you think that is normal.

Don’t kid yourself that you aren’t affected by your friends.

If your family or friends are negative and miserable, then you will need to find some positive, happy friends. Somewhere in your life, you must have some positive company – or the pessimists will drag you down – and you won’t even know it’s happening.

In a nutshell:

Every day we are affected and infected by the people and attitudes around us. Sometimes we need to take action – or change friends – while we can still say, “Something smells around here!”

Click here to view the embedded video.

I just wanna let her know that I love her so much and very much that she could never be compare with anyone or anything. I just wanna give her a happy & peaceful life and together with her for my whole lives (not life) and never be apart.

A technology for sending large amounts of data over the same lines used for local phones. DSL is a relatively low-cost way of providing broadband connections, but it does have some technical complications (including limitations on how far away from the phone switch a subscriber can be), which means not everybody can use it.

E-mail Spoofing

Practice of sending an e-mail that has a forged sender address, generally to disguise the actual sender or to create mischief for a business.

Encryption

The conversion of data into a form, called a “ciphertext,” that cannot be easily understood by unauthorized people. Decryption, however, is the process of converting encrypted data back into its original form so it can be understood.

eXtensible Markup Language (XML)

A specification for documents enabling designers to create formatting commands that enable the definition, transmission, validation, and interpretation of data between applications and between organisations.

Firewall

A combination of specialized hardware and software designed to keep unauthorized users from accessing information within a computer network.

2. Customers are always right. Although you are doing right and they are wrong, you may need to apologize to them if necessary. The apology is not for them, but for you. It would help you build many good images during internship and even working in the real world. Because, you may likely to face with them one day by any chances.

3. Be approachable for any of the senior staffs in the office. They will not call two times just to teach you one simple thing but it could be unsolvable problem for you.

4. Be careful while communicating with customers. Because some of them know that you are new staff and they likely have intention of cheating on you.

5. Don’t wait until they call and teach you new things. Nobody is gonna call you personally just to teach you. You need to be smart to be able to learn from them. So, How??? See carefully when they are doing. On 3rd or 4th time, you may ask them to let you do and check after you have done that. If they don’t allow doing, don’t get angry first (coz if you do, you will know nothing). Help them on their works. Then you will familiar with what they are doing and have a draft idea.

ActiveX Controls from Microsoft are a method of running programs, called scripts, either on the server or on the user’s Windows-based computer, as a response to accessing a Web site. Because ActiveX scripts can be run on the user’s computer, they can be easily used by those with malicious intent to deliver viruses, hostile programs, or simply to acquire information that has been stored on your computer, such as your e-mail address, information about your internet connection, what kind of machine or programs you are using, and so on. An ActiveX control, unlike a Java applet, has no limitations on what it can do, so it has much greater privacy implications.

Bandwidth

The information-carrying capacity of a network connection. Usually measured in bits per second (bps); a typical modem line carries 56,000 bits per second (56kbps), a typical large Web site has a T3 line, with 45 million bps (45Mbps), while a few ultra-high-end trunk lines carry up to 6 billion bps (6Gbps).

Computer fraud

Computer-related crimes involving deliberate misrepresentation, alteration, or disclosure of data to obtain something of value, usually for monetary gain.

Cookie

Pieces of text placed in a file or files on your computer’s hard drive by a Web site you’ve visited. Some cookies (called “persistend cookies”) may be used to identify you the next time you access the site by storing your password for you. Others may store information about the contents of your shopping cart. Cookies cannot identify an individual user specifically unless the cookie data is attached to personally identifiable information collected some other way, such as via an online registration form. Cookie data may include such information as a credit card number, the particular size or weight of a part ordered, or a password.

Sardar: India ..

Boss: which part?

Sardar: What ‘which part’? Whole body was born in India .

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2 sardar were fixing a bomb in a car.

Sardar 1: What would you do if the bomb explodes while fixing.

Sardar 2: Dont worry, I have one more.

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Sardar: What is the name of your car?

Lady: I forgot the name, but is starts with ‘T’.

Sardar: Oh, what a strange car, starts with Tea. All cars that I know start with petrol.

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Sardar: U cheated me.

Shopkeeper: No, I sold a good radio to u.

Sardar: Radio label shows Made in Japan but radio says this is ‘All India Radio!’

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Tourist: Whose skeleton is that?

Sardar: An old king’s skeleton.

Tourist: Who’s that smaller skeleton next to it?

Sardar: That was same king’s skeleton when he was a child.

Before we learn about AMADEUS system, I wanna share with you what AMADEUS is about. AMADEUS is one of the global distrubution system which provide travel information and guides to travel agents, hotels, cruises, tour operators and many destination management companies. AMADEUS is also the leading and largest booking system in the tourism industry among the others (which are ABACUS, GALILEO, and SABRE). So, now we start from the very basic terms.

Let say, you are the tour consultant and you receive a call from customer, “Yes, I like to know whether there is availibility seat on 11, September 2009 from Singapore to Bangkok ?”. Knowing nothing about the AMADEUS system, it is really hard to find the correct fare and availibility of the airlines’ seat.

The question obviously mention that we need to know the availitity of seat on 11, September 2009 from Singapore to Bangkok. First you need to know the code of the airlines and cities. You may be able to find it by googling, you don’t actually need to know the code of AMADEUS system to find the code of airlines and airports/cities codes.

Here is the code to check the availitity of seat with SilkAir on 11, September 2009 from Singapore to Bangkok…

AN11SEPSINBKK/AMI

Explanation

AN       – to code to check for certain date

11SEP – 11 september

SIN      - three letter code for singapore

BKK     – three letter code for bangkok

/A        - code used before the airline code

MI        - two letter code for SilkAir

“Your parrot has too much hook in it’s beak, what you have to do is file it’s beak back and it will be able to talk just fine. You’ve got to be careful not to file it too far though, because if you take too much off the bird will drown the first time it has a drink.”

The parrot owner asks how much the pet shop guy charges to do this beak modification and he says $100. So the parrot fancier decides he’ll do it himself.

A week or so later they bump into one another in the street. The pet shop guy enquires how the parrot is and whether it is talking yet? The parrot owner says “the parrots dead”. Pet shop guy says “I told you not to file the beak back too far, did he drown when he had a drink?”.

Ex-parrot owner says “Shit no, he was dead before I got him out of the vice!!”

“My son Kent,” says one, “has made quite a name for himself in the home-building industry. He began as a carpenter, but now owns his own design and construction firm. He’s so successful in fact, in the last year he was able to give a good friend a brand new home as a gift.”

The second man, no to be out done, tells how his son began his career as a car salesman, but now owns a multi-line dealership. “Norm’s so successful, in fact, in the last six months he gave his friend two brand new cars as a gift.”

The third man’s son, Greg, has worked his way up through a stock brokerage, and in the last few weeks has given a good friend a large stock portfolio as a gift.

As the fourth man arrives at the tee, another tells him that they have been discussing their progeny and asks what line his son is in.

“To tell the truth, I’m not very pleased with how my son turned out,” he replies. “For 15 years, Chico’s been a hairdresser, and I’ve just recently discovered he’s gay. However, on the bright side, he must be good at what he does because his last three boyfriends have given him a brand new house, two cars, and a big pile of stock certificates.”

” Hi, is Tony home?”
” No, he went to the store.”

“Well, you mind if I wait?”

” No, come in.”

They sit down and the friend says “You know Nora, you have the greatest breasts I have ever seen. I’d give you a hundred bucks if I could just see one.”

Nora thinks about this for a second and figures what the hell – a hundred bucks. She opens her robe and shows one. He promptly thanks her and throws a hundred bucks on the table.

They sit there a while longer and Chris says “They are so beautiful I’ve got to see the both of them. I’ll give you another hundred bucks if I could just see the both of them together.”

Nora thinks about this and thinks what the hell, opens her robe, and gives Chris a nice long look. Chris thanks her, throws another hundred bucks on the table, and then says he can’t wait any longer and leaves.

A while later Tony arrives home and his wife says “You know, your weird friend Chris came over. “

Tony thinks about this for a second and says “Well did he drop off the 200 bucks he owes me?”

This is being really nitpicky , but a diet is whatever you eat and drink on a normal basis . If you’re tying to lose weight , you should say you’re going on a weight-loss diet , because everyone has a diet-even people who are trying to gain weight .

I’m going on a low-fat diet to try to lose weight so I can fit into my old cheerleading uniform .

Disc/Disk

The words are synonyms . For reasons unbeknownst to me , the preferred spelling for CDs , CD-ROMs , and the “cushions” in your spine is disc , and the preferred spelling for floppy and hard drives is disk .

After he fell off a ladder , my father had a slipped disc .
I saved my limerick about Swiss cheese on a disk .

Economic/Economical

Economic isn’t a word for thrifty-that’s economical . Economic just refers to money and wealth ; it doesn’t judge how much money is involved . (Your car is not economic , though it may be economical.)Your economic resources are how much money you have . If you’re being economical , you’re being careful with your money .

The country is in an economic crisis because it can’t pay its debts to the United Nations .
She has an economical lifestyle , preferring to buy things only when they’re on sale .

The noun that means “someone who depends on someone else” can be spelled either dependent or dependant . The adjective , meaning reliant , can only be spelled dependent .

My three dependants eat me out of house and home.
I am dependent on coffee to get me through the morning.

Desert/Dessert

The desert is that dry , hot place with cacti and lots of sand.If you desert somebody , you leave him by himself . Dessert , the food you eat after a meal , is so luscious that it gets an extra “s” .How to remember this one ? You always want two desserts , hence “s” appears twice . I don’t know about you , but I’d rather not spend more than one day in the desert.

It figures that our car’s air conditioning would break while we’re in the middle of a desert.
What do you mean there’s no dessert ? I have been craving chocolate ice cream all day .

Dieing/Dyeing/Dying

You’ll probably never have use for the word dieing , which means to use a specialized device ( a die ) to stamp or cut . Dying is what happens at the end of your life , and you are dyeing if you’re adding dye to something-like your hair or your clothes . I always wondered whether I was tie-dyeing or tie-dying .. now I know .

Yesterday , I was dieing sheet metal .
I’m afraid the hamster is dying .
At this time tomorrow , I’ll be dyeing my hair purple .

And most people have already got used to Paying and Paying (PAP).

Not only do you have to pay, you Pay Until Bankrupt (PUB).

If that’s not enough, somebody still Purposely Wants to Dig (PWD) and get
more from you.

So what more can you do when you are in the Money Only Environment (MOE) ?

With the current Mad Accounting System (MAS), you are forced to Pay the Sum Ahead(PSA),

Which will leave some people Permanently Owing Some Banks (POSB) .

And forced to live on the Loan Techniques Always (LTA) system.

When you fall sick and happen to be admitted to a Money Operating Hospital
(MOH),
You might be able to use your Cash Prior to Funeral (CPF) fund.

If you are out of luck, you may meet doctors who Never Use Heart (NUH) to
treat you, And you will be Sure to Give up Hope (SGH).

To help ease the traffic, motorists have to pay Cash On Expressway (COE).

If that doesn’t help, they can always Eternally Raise Prices (ERP) on the
roads.
If you don’t own a car, you can always make a Mad Rush to the Train (MRT) , OR get squashed in a bus Side By Side (SBS).

Lastly, under all these pressures, there are not many places we can relax,
Not even the good old place we used to go because it has become
So Expensive and Nothing To See Actually (SENTOSA)!!!

Note: Retrieved from forwarded mail.

“A counselor is an attorney . A councilor is a member of a city council or some other council or law-making body ,” says writer LeAnn R. Ralph . Further , she adds that when you go to a lawyer , you’re seeking legal counsel , not legal council . A counselor may aslo be someone who offers guidance or psychological help.

I’m seeing a counselor to help me overcome my fear of vegetables.
The councilor resigned after two years on the job .

Couple/Few/Several

A couple is only two , never more . A few is any small number above two . Several is an unspecified small number that’s more than two .

I only got a couple of hours of sleep last night.
I get cranky if I go more than a few days without a massage.
My cat has signed off her whiskers several times by sticking her face too close to a candle.

Data

Data is a plural word – so you can’t say “the data is” ; you have to say “the data are.” The singular form is datum .

The data show that random acts of kindness are on the rise.

Caller: Hello, can I speak to Annie Wan (anyone)?

Operator : Yes, you can speak to me.

Caller: No, I want to speak to Annie Wan (anyone)!

Operator: You are talking to someone! Who is this?

Caller: I’m Sam Wan (Someone). And I need to talk to Annie Wan
(anyone)! It’s urgent.

Operator : I know you are someone and you want to talk to anyone!
But what’s this urgent matter about?

Caller: Well… just tell my sister Annie Wan (anyone) that
our brother Noe Wan (no one) was involved in an accident.
Noe Wan (no one) got injured and now Noe Wan (no
one) is being sent to the hospital. Right now, Aver Wan (everyone) is
on his way to the hospital.

Operator: Look if no one was injured and no one was sent to the
hospital, then the accident isn’t an urgent matter!

You may find this hilarious but I don’t have time for this!

Caller: You are so rude! Who are you?

Operator: I’m Saw Lee (Sorry).

Caller: Yes! You should be sorry. Now give me your name!!

All the best,
Sam Wan

Mr. Bean: Yesss!!! (jumps in joy)
Doctor: Did you understand what I just told you?
Mr. Bean: Yes of course, do you think I’m dumb?
Doctor: Then why are you so happy?
Mr. Bean: Because that proves that I have a brain!

2) MR. BEAN WHILE IN GRADE SCHOOL:
Teacher: What is 5 plus 4?
Mr. Bean: 9
Teacher: What is 4 plus 5?
Mr. Bean: Are you trying to fool me, you’ve just twisted the figure,
the answer is 6!!

3) WHILE IN A DRUG STORE:
Mr. Bean: I’d like some vitamins for my grandson.
Clerk: Sir, vitamin A, B or C?
Mr. Bean: Any will do, my grandson doesn’t know the alphabet yet!!

4) AT AN ATM MACHINE:
Friend: What are you looking at?
Mr Bean: I know your PIN no., hee, hee.
Friend: Alright, what is my PIN no. if you saw it?
Mr. Bean: four asterisks (****)!

5) Marriage:
Friend: How many women do you believe must a man marry?
Mr. Bean: 16
Friend: Why?
Mr. Bean: Because the priest says 4 richer, 4 poorer, 4 better and 4 worse.

6) CHATTING WITH HIS FRIEND:
Friend: How was the tape you borrowed from me, is it Ok?
Mr. Bean: What do you mean ok, I thought it’s a horror film. I didn’t
see any picture.
Friend: What tape did you take anyway?
Mr. Bean: Head Cleaner.

7)DEATH OF HIS MOTHER:
Mr. Bean:(crying) the doctor called, Mom’s dead.
Friend: condolence, my friend.
(After 2 minutes) Mr. Bean cries even louder
Friend: what now?
Mr. Bean: my sister just called, her mom died too!

MR. BEAN ATTENDING A MEETING:
Colleague: Sorry I’m late. I got stuck in an elevator for 4 hrs
because of a power failure.
Mr. Bean: That’s alright, me too…I got stuck on the escalator for 3 hrs.

9) Spelling lesson:
Mr. Bean’s Son: Dad, what is the spelling of successful….is it one
c or two c?
Mr. Bean: Make it three c to be sure!

” Love can neither be created nor be destroyed; only it can transfer from One girlfriend to another girlfriend with some loss of money “

First law of Love:

” A boy in love with a girl, continue to be in love with her and a girlin love with a boy, continue to be in love with him, until or unless any external agent (brother or father of the gal) comes into play and break the legs of the boy. “

Second law of Love:

” The rate of change of intensity of love of a girl towards a boy isdirectly proportional to the instantaneous bank balance of the boy andthe direction of this love is same to as increment or decrement of the bank balance. “

Third law of Love:

” The force applied while proposing a girl by a boy is equal and opposite to the force applied by the girl while slapping.”