Friday, July 31, 2009

Skype no More?

All the free phone calls and video conference around the world will soon dissapear if Ebay (Skype Owner) lost its legal battle for its key software technology.

"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A legal battle has put the future of Skype in jeopardy, according to eBay, which owns the online communications system.

If Skype loses the right to use a key part of its software and can't create an adequate replacement, "Skype's business as currently conducted would likely not be possible," eBay said in its quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

There is no sign of Skype disappearing soon -- a relief to the more than 480 million registered users who have video or telephone conversations online through the technology.

But the battle with Joltid, the company that created the piece of technology at issue, shows no sign of being resolved anytime soon, either.

A trial is scheduled for June 2010, eBay said in the SEC filing."

With Skype you can make free calls over the Internet. Skype – the whole world can talk for free

Free Skype-to-Skype calls on your mobile. Get the new 3 Skypephone mobile.


Read More:Cnn
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Honda Recalling 440k cars for Airbag Defect




You would think that an Airbag would be one of the most important safety feature in a car. So when Honda finds out that theirs is not safe, it's recalling lots of its cars.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co said on Friday that it is recalling another 440,000 vehicles -- including some of its best-selling Accord and Civic models -- for a potentially lethal airbag defect.

Honda said that the airbag inflators in some of its top-selling sedans can rupture because of too much air pressure causing metal fragments to shoot through the airbag and strike vehicle occupants.

Read the whole story: Reuters,CNN Sphere: Related Content

No Free Lunch at the White House


The day after Obama hosted prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley by giving out free beers, report comes out that four CEOs had lunch with Obama at the White House last month but they had to pay for their lunch.



"Four of the most powerful business leaders in America arrived at the White House one day last month for lunch with President Barack Obama, sitting down in his private dining room just steps from the Oval Office.

Around the table with Barack Obama that afternoon were Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox Corporation; Muhtar Kent, CEO of The Coca-Cola Company; AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson; and Honeywell International CEO Dave Cote.

But even for powerful CEOs, there’s no such thing as a free lunch: White House staffers collected credit card numbers for each executive and carefully billed them for the cost of the meal with the president.

The White House defended the unusual move as a way to avoid conflicts of interest. But the Bush administration didn’t charge presidential guests for meals, one former official said, and at least one etiquette expert found the whole thing unseemly – suggesting it was a serious breach of protocol."


Read more:Politico Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Virtual Assitant Job Market is Booming

Imagine being able to work from your own home, doing a job you love, and
getting paid handsomely for doing it. Wouldn’t that be great?

Well, the good news is that this is not just a fantasy. It is a prospect that is
well within your reach. Today, millions of people worldwide have established
highly-successful careers as freelance professionals. Writers, designers,
programmers and many other home-based consultants have discovered that
freelancing offers the perfect combination of freedom, creativity, flexibility
and profitability.


Click. Work. Collect
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iPhone Owners latest update: Virus

iPhone users who text should be on the alert today because of a possible virus.

Forbes.com is reporting that iPhones could receive a single square text character Thursday afternoon, which could be the start of a viral infection.

Two researchers say they’ve discovered flaws in the iPhone’s software which can easily be hacked. They plan to show how it works today.

Security experts say the only sure way to avoid this virus is to turn off your iPhone.

There’s no word of a patch from iPhone maker Apple.

iPhone SMS hack details:
How does the SMS hack work?
Firstly, this hack does not requirreleae the victim to download any file. The attacker only needs to know the victim’s phone number. Miller says the attack is enabled by a serious memory corruption in the way the iPhone handles SMS messages. For the attack to work, an attacker must send hundreds of SMS control messages (different from regular SMS messages) and only the initial SMS will be seen. This attack works on both the iPhone and the Andoid. What does the iPhone SMS hack do? This hack can allow the attacker to make calls from your iPhone, steal your data, send text messages, and also spread the attack to other iPhones in your address book.

How to recognize and avoid the iPhone virus
If you get a strange text message containing any square box, even if it’s from a recognized number you may be the victim of the iPhone virus.
You have two choices:

1.Put your iPhone in Airplane mode: Go to Settings -> Airplane Mode and slide the button to Off.

2.Hold down the power button, and slide to turn your iPhone off.

The only thing we can do now is wait for Apple to release a patch. We expect Apple to release the iPhone 3.1 update by September, but hopefully this exploit causes them to release it earlier.
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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Tanning Bed May Cause Skin Cancer




We've all heard that UV exposure from this fake sun can lead to skin cancer, but now new research has identified tanning as even more dangerous than first thought. International cancer experts have moved tanning beds and other sources of ultraviolet radiation into the top cancer risk category, saying they are as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas. They add that anyone who's started toasting at the electric beach before the age of 30 has increased their risk for skin cancer by 75 percent. Tanning bed users are also at risk for eye cancer.

Previously, skin cancer rates were highest in people over 75, but now doctors are seeing more and more cases in women in their 20s. It's not just tanning beds you have to worry about, it's UV radiation from the sun too. So if you want a tan, go for bronzers, sunless self-tanning lotion, or spray tans. They'll give you the glow without the risk. If you do enjoy being out in the Summer sun, just protect yourself with sunscreen.
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Organic Food Only Helps Us Shrinks Our Wallet




After years of organic food boom around the world, the jury is out that the only difference between organic food and the ordinary counterpart is the price!

Organic food is no healthier, study finds - Science - Reuters: "LONDON (Reuters) -Organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over ordinary food, according to a major study published Wednesday. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said consumers were paying higher prices for organic food because of its perceived health benefits, creating a global organic market worth an estimated $48 billion in 2007. A systematic review of 162 scientific papers published in the scientific literature over the last 50 years, however, found there was no significant difference." Sphere: Related Content

Sony Offers 1 Million Free Ebooks


Sony just announced that owners of the Sony Reader can now access over 1 million free, out of copyright and public domain eBooks from the Google Books library. Sony first announced this deal with Google earlier this year, but at that time, it only offered about 500,000 free books. Barnes & Noble, which announced its eBook store and forthcoming hardware eReader last week currently features about 500,000 free books from Google, while Kindle: Amazon's
can read free books from Project Gutenberg, but doesn't offer compatibility with the ePub format that Google prefers. Amazon currently offers about 300,000 books.



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Microsoft and Yahoo Join Forces

It took almost a year but finally Microsoft and Yahoo join their paid advertising program to try to catch up with Google.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Microsoft and Yahoo reached a long-awaited partnership Wednesday in a bid to challenge Google's dominance in online search.

Under the 10-year deal, Microsoft will integrate Yahoo search technology into its existing Web search platforms. Microsoft's new search tool, Bing, will power Yahoo sites. Yahoo will sell premium ads on both sites.

Microsoft and Yahoo will share revenue on traffic generated on Yahoo's network.

The deal will allow Microsoft to "create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company," said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft chief executive, in a statement.

It was a partnership that was a long time in the making. Microsoft's (MSFT, Fortune 500) search market share has been slipping for more than two years, and the company has struggled to make its online advertising unit profitable. Meanwhile, Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), once the search market leader, dropped to a distant second place behind leader Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) by 2007. Sphere: Related Content

Monday, July 27, 2009

Free 3 Months Amazon Prime!

It's back, and you still don't need to buy anything.

1. Click here to add any textbook
2. Proceed to checkout and sign up.
If you already have Prime or have done a trial, you probably can't get the trial.

"Qualify for Amazon Prime free for 3 months when you order any eligible textbook and enjoy the benefits that come with membership.
There's no obligation--cancel anytime before your free trial is over and you will not be charged the $79 annual fee. Offer valid through October 16, 2009"

If you wait until October, you can have Prime free through Christmas! Sphere: Related Content

'Cash-For-Clunkers’ Plan Detail

Okay people it's time to PIMP YOUR RIDE! Here are the requirements :
  • Your vehicle must be less than 25 years old on the trade-in date
  • Only purchase or lease of new vehicles qualify
  • Generally, trade-in vehicles must get 18 or less MPG (some very large pick-up trucks and cargo vans have different requirements)
  • Trade-in vehicles must be registered and insured continuously for the full year preceding the trade-in
  • You don't need a voucher, dealers will apply a credit at purchase
  • Program runs through Nov 1, 2009 or when the funds are exhausted, whichever comes first.
  • The program requires the scrapping of your eligible trade-in vehicle, and that the dealer disclose to you an estimate of the scrap value of your trade-in. The scrap value, however minimal, will be in addition to the rebate, and not in place of the rebate.
  • Almost 16,000 U.S. auto dealers have applied to participate in the “cash-for-clunkers” vehicle trade-in program, or about 80 percent of the nation’s new- vehicle retailers, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.

    The government is trying to help jump-start slumping auto sales through the program, giving consumers new-vehicle credits of as much as $4,500 for turning in older cars.

    Consumer Incentive

    The $1 billion in federal subsidies may spark 250,000 new car sales, U.S. lawmakers have said. They’re betting the clunkers effort will help spur purchases by consumers who weren’t otherwise in the market for a new car.

    John Bailey, 26, said he traded in a car two days ago for a new Chevrolet Cobalt. Bailey, of Manassas, Virginia, said he wouldn’t have traded in his 1994 Oldsmobile had it not been for the cash-for-clunkers plan.

    “It’s a great incentive for consumers,” said Bailey, who works in the shipping and receiving department of a semiconductor manufacturer.

    Cash for clunkers will end Nov. 1 or when the $1 billion in subsidies expire, whichever occurs first. Congress must decide later this year whether to approve legislation extending it into 2010.

    “With the tremendous public interest leading up to today, we anticipate that the $1 billion in funding for the cash for clunkers program will go quickly,” John McEleney, chairman of the McLean, Virginia-based National Automobile Dealers Association, said in a statement today.
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Sunday, July 26, 2009

Kari Callen shocked America's Got Talent audiences



"I've never had a boyfriend, I've never been in a relationship." Remember Susan Boyle from the Britain Got Talent? This time is not coming from Susan Boyle, it's Kari Callen.

Kari Callen, 43, a radiology technician from Seattle, was born with a cleft lip and palate sang "Somewhere (A Place for Us)" tonight at the America's Got Talent show.

Cleft lip (cheiloschisis) and cleft palate (palatoschisis) (colloquially known as harelip), which can also occur together as cleft lip and palate, are variations of a type of clefting congenital deformity caused by abnormal facial development during gestation. Note that harelip is now considered as a derogatory term[citation needed]. A cleft is a fissure or opening—a gap. It is the non-fusion of the body's natural structures that form before birth.
(wikipedia)

Kari proves that all you really need is a stage and a dream.

Watch her outstanding performance below:



Title of the song: Somewhere (A Place for Us)

There's a place for us,
Somewhere a place for us.
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us
Somewhere.

There's a time for us,
Some day a time for us,
Time together with time to spare,
Time to look, time to care,
Someday!
Somewhere.
We'll find a new way of living,
We'll find a way of forgiving
Somewhere.

There's a place for us,
A time and place for us.
Hold my hand and we're half way there.
Hold my hand and I'll take you there
Somehow,
Someday,
Somewhere!

Source:Blogoncherry Sphere: Related Content

MacBook Laptop + 8GB Apple iPod $999

Amazon has deal on Apple MacBook / Pro

Hurry before promotion ends!Offer good through 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, July 25, 2009, or while supplies last.

This go-anywhere notebook also features a 13.3-inch glossy widescreen display, excellent video processing power from the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics chip, 2 GB of installed RAM (with a 4 GB maximum capacity), and an integrated 802.11n Wi-Fi LAN that provides compatibility with older 802.11b/g routers as well as the faster throughput of Apple's Airport Extreme. It also includes an 8x combo Superdrive for burning dual-layer DVDs as well as CDs.
Preloaded with Leopard and iLife '08
The biggest Mac OS X upgrade ever, the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system features over 300 new features, including:

  • Time Machine, an effortless way to automatically back up everything on a Mac
  • A redesigned Finder that lets users quickly browse and share files between multiple Macs
  • Quick Look, a new way to instantly see files without opening an application
  • Spaces, an intuitive new feature used to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them
  • A brand new desktop with Stacks, a new way to easily access files from the Dock
  • Major enhancements to Mail and iChat

Laptop specs:
* Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26 Processor* 2GB DDR3 Memory* 160GB 5400 RPM Serial Ata Hard Drive* Backlit Keyboard* NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphicso Mini DisplayPort* SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)* Gigabit Ethernet port* AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi wireless networking (Wireless N)* Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)* 58-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery (up to 7 hours runtime)* 13.3" LED-backlit glossy widescreen display (1280x800) with iSight camera* Mac OS X Leopard [upgrade to Snow Leopard for $10] Sphere: Related Content

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Economic Depression in Economic Recession

During an interview and subsequent speech this week Summers cited a decline in Google searches for “economic depression” as a sign that the US economy is on the mend (and we promise we’re not making this up.)

“You look at how frequently people are talking about depression. (Compare) six months ago vs. now, it’s not a term you hear anymore,” Summers said. “I reject the view that the stimulus bill has not worked.”

“Take one example as an indicator: Google searches for the term “economic depression” were up fourfold from their pre-crisis levels…Now…such hits have returned to normal levels.”

Notably Google searches for “economic depression” have surged over the last 24 hours, with the term appearing in the top 10 searches made by users on Google in the United States.

“We pledged at the time the Recovery Act became law that some of the spending and tax effects would begin almost immediately.,”“We also noted that the impact of the Recovery Act would build up over time, peaking during 2010 with about 70 percent of the total stimulus provided in the first 18 months. Now, five months after the passage, we are on track to meet that timeline. “ Sphere: Related Content