Technology for positive

OPEN-SOURCE IDENTITY MANAGEMENT

2009-09-10T21:51:00.000-07:00

Open Identity Guide
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How To Talk To People: Better Communication Skills

2009-09-04T23:18:00.000-07:00

Communication Skills:
How To Talk To People: Better Communication Skills
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Quick Tips On Dieting

2009-09-04T23:12:00.000-07:00

General Nutrition:
Quick Tips On Dieting
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100 Essential Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers

2009-09-02T23:55:00.000-07:00

There are new web 2.0 tools appearing every day. Although some of these tools were not originally meant for use in the classroom, they can be extremely effective learning tools for today’s technology geared students and their venturesome teachers. Many of these teachers are searching for the latest products and technologies to help them find easier and efficient ways to create productive learning in their students. More and more teachers are using blogs, podcasts and wikis, as another approach to teaching. We have created a list of 100 tools we think will encourage interactivity and engagement, motivate and empower your students, and create differentiation in their learning process.

Interactivity

Use these tools to actively involve students in the classroom.

1. Wordpress.org A free and open source software that makes personal publishing as easy as word processing. Make your life and your students’ life easier by keeping a classroom or subject blog.

2. Flickr A nice tool to get a stream of images on any topic. Make content available to your students only.

3. Yapa Capa! A free blackboard for teachers & students. Teachers can create assignments and tests, which are scored and analyzed and share other teachers tests as well.

4. Quizlet More than just flashcards and very easy to use. Get students started on good study habits.

5. Tizmos It’s a place to put thumbnails of sites. Very useful to construct if you want students to go to certain places only. It can also cut down on random searches.

6. Joomla A podcast site by Kyle Mawer & Graham Stanley on using digital games in teaching & language learning.

7. Today’s Meet Encourages the students to use the live stream in the classroom to make comments, ask questions, and use that feedback to make presentations and lets teachers sharpen their points and address student needs.

8. Simple Solver Very easy to use tool for collaborative projects, brainstorming and problem solving. Students will enjoy using this for group discussions.

9. One True Media A blast for doing presentations. Use your photos you can download directly from Flickr and you can even use sound too.

10. Ediscio Another collaborative flashcard tool. This one gives you learning statistics.

11. Xtra Normal For creating text to speech animated movies. A useful tool for social development.

12. Cmap Tools Build interactive, collaborative mind maps with text, video, and weblinks. Used by many high school teachers and college professors advanced for advanced project work and EAP writing.

13. Photo Peach Have students create themed stories and leave comments for each other. Used by teachers for some time now.

14. WordSift Used for vocabulary and English, you and your students can analyze text and get information about the vocabulary in it.

15. Overstream A free tool that allows you to add subtitles to online videos. Gives teachers the URL and the embed code.

16. Phasr You can visually illustrate a sentence with this tool. Students type a sentence and then look for a Flickr image to go with each word.

17. Shidonni A virtual world for young children. They can create imaginary worlds and animals, play games and interact with each other.

18. Sliderocket Create a stunning-looking PowerPoint-style multimedia presentation which can then be viewed and shared online. A great way to introduce topics in the classroom.

19. eyePlorer Use this tool to develop digital literacy. Used by a number of teachers from preschool to high school seniors.

20. The Speech Accent Archive This tool can be used for any linguistics project. You will see sets of speech samples from all around the world.

Engagement

Students using these tools will engage in gaining knowledge of the subjects they are studying instead of being passive listeners.

21. Go!Animate Takes story telling using online cartoon strip makers a little bit further by allowing students to spark life into characters and create short animations. A super tool to foster creativity and engage students.

22. English Cafe Many teachers recommended this for adult ESOL learners. A fun site for facilitators to explore and contribute too.

23. Animoto Teachers and their students can upload pictures and sounds and create professional looking videos which can then be downloaded and shared online. Promote enthusiasm to less exciting tasks such as extended writing and practicing oral pronunciation.

24. Box.net You can easily share files using this tool. It is very easy for students to use as well.

25. Google Video Allows users to search, upload, and share videos online for free. There is even an educational category providing hour long videos.

26. Penzu Keep an online journal using this site. This can be useful for both students and teachers.

27. Kinder Site Projects A great resource for Kindergarten teachers. Find educational games, songs & stories made especially for kindergarteners.

28. Smilebox Especially good for class blogs, this tool has some nice templates. Classmates can share photos or save them for their own projects.

29. MakeBeliefsComix Encourage writing, reading , and storytelling. With this tool, students can create online comics.

30. SimplyBox Research can help students learn more about the subjects they’re studying. Teachers can help them to think "outside the box" with this tool.

31. Hot Potato An easy tool that’s free to educators. Build your own crosswords, matching exercises, short answer multiple-choice, and jumbled sentences. Makes homework prep a breeze.

32. Tweet Scan More and more teachers have been experimenting with this tool in real time agreement to support vocabulary development.

33. Shwup With way cool effects, students can build video slideshows with their photos. They can then be embedded into a blog or downloaded as a MP4 video.

34. Diigo Education Any annotations you make on a web page can be saved and sent to students or colleagues. This tool is popular among teachers because it offers the ability to create accounts for a whole class and it protects the students’ privacy.

35. Jamendo A good way to add some music to a class blog. It can also be helpful to introduce music while working with lyrics in the classroom.

36. Bookr Students and teachers can create their own photo book using this fun tool. Search for images, add text, and get it published.

37. Chalksite A system built for teachers, students, and parents providing teachers with an easy to use central point where they can communicate with students and parents, post assignments and grades, send messages, and manage a website for their courses.

38. Wizlite Allows you to highlight text just like on real paper. Find a page on the Internet and share it with students or classmates.

39. Eyespot: Neat site where users can actually create video mixes online and share them with others. You can add up to 100 clips or photos to a movie as well as add transition and video effects.

40. Tag Galaxy A nice way to search through Flickr images. Just type in your tag and watch as numerous images appear.

Motivation

These tools will highly motivate students to participate in assignments.

41. Voki Allows students to create wacky avatars then record themselves speaking. Some teachers have found it to be a fantastic way to assess speaking in the target language.

42. Glogster Students can create multimedia online posters or “glogs which can then be shared on the internet. This tool can be used to assess both writing and speaking.

43. Delicious Social bookmarking site where users can save bookmarks and organize them with tags. Add friends to your account and keep track of bookmarks left by each friend.

44. Tokbox A fun way to get students talking via video-mail. You can also use it for creating class presentations and you can even talk live.

45. Mayomi A free flash-based mind mapping tool that lets you map out ideas, projects, research topics, or anything else that can be dug into. Great for students when it comes to writing essays.

46. Mashface Upload a photo of a famous individual, then uses a webcam to add your voice and lips to that person. This could be perfect for getting into the mind of a famous person being studied in history or other subjects.

47. Advanced Survey Teachers can create customized subject survey introduction and conclusion pages. Post to your blog and even put the logo on every page.

48. Mind 42 A free mind map maker with an emphasis on the collaboration. Google instant messenger is built in and if you are a Wikipedia fan there is also an option to attach an article.

49. Slidestory This tool allows you to record a narration with your slide show. Post on the web for students or classmates to see.

50. Comiclife A very intuitive comic creator with a free trial and a modest purchase price. It’s lots of fun and great for those reluctant writers.

51. Ted.com A series of talks by a variety of striking people. The goal is to bring people from the worlds of technology, entertainment, and design together.

52. Writeboard A place to create shareable, web-based text documents. Write solo or collaborate with others.

53. Vimeo this video-hosting site has a clean interface, includes HD video uploads, and videos can be kept private. A respectful atmosphere lets you & your students’ creativity thrive.

54. Yugma A free web collaboration device that lets you instantly connect to students and colleagues all over the internet. A way to communicate and share content and ideas using any type of application or software.

56. Ning.com This site allows you to create your own social network; consider using this as a private social network with your students.

57. Podcasting Tools A well-done overview about the process of making a podcast. Learn from the beginning to the end and everything in between.

58. CAST UDL Book Builder This wonderful and free online tool allows you to create your own interactive "books" to help young readers learn reading strategies to build comprehension. Enter your own text, images, and hints.

59. VoiceThread Online presentation site that lets you attach audio and video. Other users can leave audio and video comments.

60. Citebite Useful for reading comprehension, reading a specific portion of text, or even for highlighting a literary device within a text or poem. Students will no longer waste time, announcing, "I can’t find it!" or return to school saying they couldn’t do the homework!

Empowerment

Using these tools will empower you to teach students to take ownership of their own projects.

61. Wikispaces Create a public, online wiki for free. This is great for group assignments and class collaborations.

62. Twitter We all are pretty familiar with Twitter. Teachers are trying this out more and more with their students to instantly post and receive short messages.

63. Bloglines A good aggregator tool for skimming the titles of blog posts from many different blogs.

64. Wordia Get video word definitions from here or upload them on your own. Find out how everyday people use the English language.

65. ToonDoo A web application that allows students to create their own comic strips. Highly motivational, it allows students to express themselves in a more creative way.

66. JayCut This is not just a video-hosting site. You can actually edit your uploaded video and store it online.

67. Issuu Lets you upload office or pdf documents and turn them into a collage type album with pages that turn. Students will love this for their special assignments.

68. Apture Makes learning and finding information easier since it is in linear form. Your information’s deeper meaning occurs with richer context in a shorter time frame. This relevant content remains within your classroom site.

69. NetVibes Fairly simple web based aggregator that allows you to collect all of your RSS feed on a single web page. Bring together your favorite media sources with online sources.

70. Class Blogmeister This blog site was set up specifically for educators and students. There are a number of privacy controls that are already built-in.

71. Wetpaint Another popular wiki-creation site. Students are held accountable by being able to see who changed what, and automatically reverse any changes.

72. ArtRage 2 You and your students can paint with thinned oils, use wet or dry markers, soften the pencil and control the hardness of the crayon, and much more.

73. bubble.us This easy and free online tool allows you to brainstorm ideas, save your mind map as an image, share with students, and create colorful mind map organizers.

74. Adobe Connect Now Have a 3 person or site conference with this online conferencing system. You can share files, use a whiteboard, and create audio and video.

75. Asterpix Create an interactive video through the use of hyperlinking. Add more information to your video for students to access when they play it back.

76. 80 Million Tiny Images Visual dictionary of Google images that presents a visualization of nouns in the English language. You can also label the images.

77. Carbonmade: Your Online Portfolio One fabulous way for art or photography students to create a free online portfolio to share work in your class, share with other students, or even submit as an online collection for competitions or college admissions.

78. Zoho Creator An way to make an online database application that can be used for surveys, inventories, data collection, and much more.

79. Calendar Hub Teach organizational skills to your students by using these calendars in class. They will enjoy being able to take responsibility for their own time management by creating their own calendar.

80. EtherPad It’s easy to use and no password is needed. A shared notepad that lets you store your revisions and synchronize with others.

Differentiation

These tools allow students to use different learning styles. Students who are visual learners can read information; auditory learners can listen to information on podcasts.

81. Gabcast Use this application for podcast creation and hosting sites. You or your students can even use your cell phone to record the podcast.

82. Dabbleboard Make whiteboard drawings and graphic organizers in an online space you can share with others. Since more than one computer can work on the whiteboard at a time, students in multiple locations can add to the board at the same time.

83. Anki This is what is called a spaced repetition system (SRS). It can help students remember things by intelligently scheduling flashcards. This helps when trying to learn a lot of information at one time.

84. edublogs A free blog-hosting site for educators and students of all ages.

85. GoogleEarth Satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings put the world’s geographic information at your fingertips. Students can see the world from a different point of view which makes learning interesting.

86. Fleck Put sticky notes and annotations onto existing web pages and share them with others. You can tell students exactly what you want them to do on a page and point out instances.

87. Kwout Capture part of a webpage and embed it onto any other site, while keeping links in the image active. Students will love this for individual assignments.

88. Fliggo Create your own free video site. Allow only the class or students you wish. Have complete control of the privacy of your site for the use of you and your students.

89. FURL A web page storage site that gives teachers and opportunity to save personal favorite sites in an online archive. You can also search, via tags, the archives of others.

90. Blogger Said to be one of the best online blog creation sites for classrooms. User friendly and privacy features are now available.

91. Wordle Turns any given text into a word cloud then picks out the most common words and give them prominence by increasing their size. Behind this simple concept lies many possibilities for use in the classroom.

92. Apple’s Podcasting in Education K-12 teachers wanting to know how podcasting will enhance the learning environment should first take a look at this site. The main page gives a quick and easy overview of podcasting in the classroom, and provides the steps for podcasting.

93. Befuddlr Add some fun to your pictures by making them into puzzles using this free site. This easy-to-use, free site offers choices of flickr picture groups to choose from.

94. Many Eyes A take on the power of human visual intelligence to find patterns. Use this tool to create great discussions and debates in your classroom.

95. Big Universe Now, your students can create their own picture books with just a few clicks. Or if you want, you can read countless other books written by students. They also offer publishing of students’ writing.

96. Funnelbrain Create flashcards for studying in a variety of courses from basic to advanced. Take flashcard one step further by using collaboration, and also choose the next cards based upon correct or incorrect answers.

97. DarkCopy A text editor for free writing. This is for those teachers and students who enjoys the simplicity of a typewriter, and wants to increase productivity by focusing only on writing.

98. WiZiQ Virtual classroom application that is fully equipped with 2-way audio, text chat, whiteboard, PowerPoint and PDF document sharing capabilities.

99. Boostcast A user owned and generated video base that you control. Create and manage your own video site with your own chosen name and customized access and features.

100. Gliffy Research shows that graphic organizers promote strong thinking skills and comprehension for all age groups. assign groups to create study guides using this collaborative tool.

If you want to see what many teachers and students will be doing in the next couple of years, we suggest you try some of the above tools. It’s clear that Web 2.0 has some real educational value that teachers enjoy implementing in their classrooms.

SOURCE.onlinedegree.net
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Yahoo Set to Give Competition to Twitter

2009-09-02T21:21:00.000-07:00

Yahoo has quietly announced Yahoo Meme microblogging service in English after its soft launch in Spanish and Portuguese. Similar to few microblogging services like Tumblr, Twitter, Pownce and others, Meme is currently in an invite-only mode. Once the account is created after receiving invitation, users get a blank blog for micro-sharing text, images, music, videos or mash up of all these things.

Registration is simple and gives a Meme URL based on Username like http://meme.yahoo.com/Username. That s just like Twitter and Facebook offers Username URLs.

Meme s setting panel has minimal options like Meme title, 100 character Description, avatar/photo and notifications. Along with that, Meme also offers page layout customization with Themes. On the Meme page, users can post text, photos, videos and all together for sharing with other users. Just like Twitter and Tumblr users do, Meme users can search for other users using the Find option on the top of the page and Follow them to receive their Meme updates.

Meme users can have threaded conversations in the Comment option under every meme post. Also, users can repost the Memes of other users just like Tumblr offers Reblog . At this stage, the Meme service looks very basic and lacks bunch of other features that other competing services into micro-sharing offer. Just like Twitter Trends, Meme has a Popular option that shows Memes posted by users recently.

Below are few screenshots of Yahoo! Meme service from Paul Papadimitriou that gives a sneak preview of the Meme interface.

source.techtree

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL TIPS

2009-09-01T02:20:00.000-07:00

technology for positive

Using Technology to Differentiate Instruction

2009-09-01T00:37:00.000-07:00

One of the major benefits of using technology in the classroom is the ability to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of every student in every lesson. Just as every student grows and develops at different rates, they learn in different ways and at different speeds. Technology makes it possible to pace lessons appropriately for each student’s learning level and can be used to promote learning in the multiple intelligences.

Below you will find website suggestions that address the different learning styles in your classroom with the help of technology:

Verbal-Linguistic
These learners enjoy learning through speaking, writing, reading, and listening. In the classroom setting these students shine when given tasks such as taking notes, researching, listening, reading for information, and writing. Websites to encourage learning for Verbal-Linguistic students: 1. http://wordle.net Allow students to express themselves creatively with words

2. http://ed.voicethread.com Capture student voices with audio, text, pictures, and video

3. http://zoho.com- A free online word processor, and presentation tool

4. http://gcast.com- Students can podcast (voice recording) online.

5. http://kerpoof.com – Students can create stories or mini-movies

6. http://www2.shidonni.com- Students create animated stories

7. http://tickatok.com Students can create stories and turn them into a book

8. http://pbskids.org/wordworld A world where words come alive

9. http://readwritethink.org 52 interactive activities related to reading, writing, and speaking

10. http://speakaboos.com Students can read stories online, record their own story and play literacy games
Logical-Mathematical

These learners love numbers, reasoning, and problem solving. These students enjoy measuring, calculating, and organizing data. In the classroom students will shine when given tasks such as collecting data, conducting experiments, solving problems, predicting, classifying, and sequencing. Websites to encourage learning for Logical-Mathematical students:

1. http://zoho.com- Spreadsheet and data collection tools

2. http://ed.voicethread.com Capture a sequence of events in an experiment or during problem solving

3. http://emeraldisland.com A virtual world where students can experiment and problem solve

4. http://sciencecomics.uwe.ac.uk/index.php Comics about science experiments, and problem solving games

5. http://toytheater.com/index.php Math, reading, music and art puzzles

6. http://sciencemuseum.org.uk/launchpad/launchball- Logic puzzle games

7. http://mathplayground.com Students practice math skills and engage in logic games

8. http://mathtv.org Students watch a series of video word problems for math, watch a step-by-step video solution and work on follow up problems
9. http://iknowthat.com- Games that make students think: science, language arts, math, and thinking games

10. http://enlightenme.com/enlightenme/superthinkers A site the encourages critical thinking and problem solving

11. http://knowitall.org/hobbyshop A hobby shop full of logical-mathematical activities

12. http://mrsp.com- A storybook site that celebrates reading and books Continue

Visual-Spatial

These learners learn best visually and organize their thinking spatially. They are drawn to information that is presented visually. These students love to illustrate projects, color-code, and create visuals for projects. Websites to encourage learning for Visual-Spatial students:

1. http://kerpoof.com -Students can draw and create picture stories

2. http://www2.shidonni.com- Students create a character and illustrate a world

3. http://xtranormal.com- Students create and direct their own movies

4. http://knowitall.org/artopia Students interact with online painting, media arts, sculpture, and theater

5. http://doink.com Students can create animations to illustrate a concept or story

6. http://eyeplorer.com- Shows information visually on a color wheel to help students discover relations in any topic

7. http://flickr.com A picture sharing website

8. http://picnik.com – Edit photos add effects, fonts, shapes, and frames

9. http://arkive.org Students can view photos of thousands of animals

10. http://animoto.com/business/education Create videos with pictures

11. http://glogster.com/edu Create online posters to visually display knowledge
Bodily-Kinesthetic

These learners benefit from physical activity, hands-on tasks, and constructing things. These students are able to express ideas through movement. They like to act, manipulate objects, operate the mouse, take pictures, and be involved physically in a project. Websites to encourage learning for Bodily-Kinesthetic students: 1. http://play.ekoloko.com- A virtual world that taps into mouse manipulation, typing, and manipulating objects on the screen

2. http://emeraldisland.com- A virtual world that requires mouse manipulation, typing, and manipulating objects on the screen

3. http://secretbuilders.com An enchanting virtual world where students can interact with historical figures

4. http://arsights.com Augmented reality site that lets students manipulate Google Earth objects by using a web cam and print out. As students move the paper, the virtual model on the screen adjusts accordingly

5. http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid Another augmented reality site that shows students a digital hologram of smart grid technology

Musical/Rhythmic

These learners learn best through auditory experiences. They enjoy making songs, rhythms, and patterns. These students will appreciate displaying knowledge with audio and video recorders. Websites to encourage learning for Musical/Rhythmic students: 1. http://gcast.com- Students can create podcasts

2. http://toytheater.com Students interact with music, sounds, and patterns

3. http://viddler.com Record video with a webcam

4. http://playmusic.org Students explore and interact with music

5. http://kids.audible.com Download and listen to audiobooks

6. http://capzles.com Create timelines with audio and video

Interpersonal
These learners enjoy interacting with other students. They enjoy discussions, cooperative work, and social activities. These students will love web 2.0 tools that allow them to interact with others on projects. Websites to encourage learning for Interpersonal students:

1. http://play.ekoloko.com- A virtual world that allows students to interact and work on solving problems together

2. http://emeraldisland.com- A virtual world that encourages students interaction for the common goal of saving Emerald Island from PiRats who want to take over the green world.

3. http://secretbuilders.com An enchanting virtual world where students can interact with historical figures

4. http:tutpup.com A site that lets students practice spelling, and math facts against other students from around the world in real time

5. http://ed.voicethread.com Students can use Voicethread to complete projects together. It also provides the ability for students to interact and comment on other student’s Voicethread projects.

6. http://twitter.com Create a personal learning community within your classroom, encourage students to share learning experiences and new information.

7. http://glogster.com/edu A web 2.0 tool that allows students to create together and comment on other students Glogs.

8. http://www2.shidonni.com Students create an imaginary world and interact with other classmates virtually. They can create worlds and stories together.

9. http://think.com Students can work on projects together, interact with other students and view other student’s learning space

Intrapersonal

These learners learn best through meta-cognitive practices. They enjoy thinking about their thinking and reflecting on learning. Allow these students to think about what they are learning with reflective tools such as blogs and wikis that can be shared with others later.

Websites to encourage learning for Intrapersonal students:

1. http://think.com Students can blog about their learning

2. http://wetpaint.com A wiki where students can reflect on their learning

3. http://pbwiki.com A wiki where students can create and reflect on their learning

4. http://eyeplorer.com- Students can search a topic of interest and take notes about their learning right within the Eyeplorer website 5. http://kerpoof.com Students can record and think about learning through story creation
Naturalist

These learners learn from interactions with the environment they enjoy field trips that involve observation of the world around them. These students will enjoy activities that incorporate nature. Websites to encourage learning for Naturalist students:

1. http://earth.google.com- Students can explore the earth with satellite imagery, maps, terrain, and 3D buildings.

2. http://google.com/sky- Students can explore the universe including the solar system, constellations, galaxies, and the moon.

3. http://kbears.com Students explore nature, animals, and the earth through a fun interface

4. http://arkive.org Students learn about thousands of animals and their habitats

5. http://switcharoozoo.com Students create animals, build habitats and learn about wildlife

6. http://play.ekoloko.com- A virtual world that puts students in charge of their own environment

7. http://emeraldisland.com- A virtual world that encourages students interaction with a virtual environment where they keep the planet green.

8. http://nationalzoo.si.edu Students can view live video of animals, view photo galleries, and visit exhibits

9. http://wdl.org/en Students can take a virtual field trip around the world and through time

10. http://vistazoo.com Students can create virtual tours of the world by combining pictures, video, audio, and objects in 3-D

The multiple intelligences can be met and enhanced through the use of technology. Many technologies overlap and address several of the intelligences at once. With a little creativity and planning, you can create rich lessons that will meet your student’s needs and let them learn at their own pace and level.

source.theapple.com

www.techposi.blogspot.com

upload easy (file sharing made easy)

2009-08-29T02:22:00.000-07:00

http://s4ve.as

What is s4ve.as?
s4ve.as is an easy way to quickly share any file, anywhere, with anyone. Never worry about email attachment limits or FTP to quickly send large files to colleagues, friends and family.

How do I know when my link will expire?
Your link will redirect you to the file's landing page where you can see what date/time the link will expire.

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how to map a network drive

2009-08-28T21:49:00.000-07:00

How to Map a Network Drive

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how to make own web server

2009-08-28T21:46:00.000-07:00

How to Make Your Own Web Server

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Flickr tops TIME's list of Best 50 Websites of 2009

2009-08-27T21:41:00.000-07:00

The hottest thing on the Internet is not social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter, but Flickr-the popular photo-sharing portal - and the proof is: it has topped TIME's list of the best 50 websites this year.

One of the noticeable trends in this year's list, which was released this week, was on-demand video services, like YouTube, Vimeo and US services Hulu and Netflix.

However, the top two in the list were related to photographs, with California Coastline following Flickr at the second spot.

Third in the list was bookmark website Delicious, while community weblog Metafilter stood at the fourth place.

Popurls, the mashup of the web's most visited social news sites and portals, grabbed the fifth spot in the list.

Twitter ranked sixth and Facebook came 31st in the list, while YouTube and Hulu came at 12th and 14th place in the list.

TIME's list of 50 Best Websites of 2009 is:. Flickr

2. California Coastline

3. Delicious

4. Metafilter

5. popurls

6. Twitter

7. Skype

8. Boing Boing

9. Academic Earth

10. OpenTable

11. Google

12. YouTube

13. Wolfram|Alpha

14. Hulu

15. Vimeo

16. Fora TV

17. Craiglook

18. Shop Goodwill

19. Amazon

20. Kayak

21. Netflix

22. Etsy

23. PropertyShark.com

24. Redfin

25. Wikipedia

26. Internet Archive

27. Kiva

28. ConsumerSearch

29. Metacritic

30. Pollster

31. Facebook

32. Pandora and Last.fm

33. Musicovery

34. Spotify

35. Supercook

36. Yelp

37. Visuwords

38. CouchSurfing

39. BabyNameWizard.com's NameVoyager

40. Mint

41. TripIt

42. Aardvark

43. drop.io

44. Issuu

45. Photosynth

46. OMGPOP

47. WorldWideTelescope

48. Fonolo

49. Get High Now

50. Know Your Meme (ANI)

SOURCE.YAHOONEWS

Google adds translation to Docs

2009-08-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

Google continues to move language translation into more and more of its products. On Thursday, it became a feature of Google Docs, letting anyone do an on-the-spot translation into one of 42 languages.

The new feature, tucked away in a settings menu, has the smarts to automatically detect in which language the original document is written. It then opens the translated version in a new window, allowing you to compare and contrast the two side by side, more easily checking whether the translation has bungled any words or phrasing.

This new version can then either replace the original or be saved as a copy, though Google makes no visual indication in your document source list that its contents are in another language.

Over the last six months, Google has been quite busy adding translation to its other products, including its Gmail and Friend Connect services.

In Gmail's case, users can translate entire messages into one of Google Translate's supported languages; however, this feature must first be enabled in Gmail's Labs settings menu.

The translation implementation in Friend Connect is a little more interesting, as it's able to unify the language on any comment thread, regardless of how many languages in which the user comments are written.

source.news.cnet
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Burglars using Facebook, Twitter to find targets-report

2009-08-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

Facebook users enthusing about an upcoming holiday or a recently purchased high-tech gadget may not just be telling their friends but also potential burglars, warns an insurance company.

A survey of 2,092 social media users by British-based Legal & General found nearly four in ten, or 38 percent, of people using social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter post details about holiday plans and 33 percent details of a weekend away.

"Coupled with the finding that an alarmingly high proportion of users are prepared to be 'friends' online with people they don't really know, this presents a serious risk to the security of people's home and contents," said the insurer.

In a report called "The Digital Criminal," Legal & General said people used social media sites to connect with people who were essentially strangers, which could provide potential thieves with vital, personal information.

To test how readily people accepted 'friends' online, Legal & General's survey, conducted by European market researcher Opinion Matters, involved sending out 100 'friend' or 'follow' requests to strangers selected at random.

Of those 13 percent were accepted on Facebook and 92 percent on Twitter -- without any checks.

But despite these new 'friends,' the survey found that nearly two-thirds, or 64 percent, of 16-24 year olds shared their holiday plans, with younger users the most likely to give away information about their whereabouts.

Men were found to be quite relaxed about giving personal information online, with 13 percent including their mobile number on their profile compared with 7 percent of women. Nine percent of men also posted their address compared to 4 percent of women.

"This reaction could result in a complete stranger potentially being able to learn about a person's interests, location and movements in and out of their home," said Legal & General.

Reformed burglar Michael Fraser, who appears in BBC's "Beat The Burglar" series and helped Legal & General prepare the report, said this kind of information was being used by professional burglars to establish a list of targets.

As well as information about trips away, people were posting party photos showing the interiors of homes and also chatting about their cool new purchases and presents.

"I call it "Internet shopping for burglars." It is incredibly easy to use social networking sites to target people, and then scope out more information on their actual home ... all from the comfort of the sofa," said Fraser in a statement.

"There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that burglars are using social networks to develop relationships with people to identify likely targets."

source.reuters
think positive

Imran Khan joins Twitter family!

2009-08-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

Twitter mania is on in Bollyvilla! The latest addition to the brigade is Aamir Khan's one-film-wonder nephew Imran Khan who joined the social networking site a couple of hours ago.

Karan Johar welcomes the actor on Twitter: hey tweeple...welcome @1mrankhan on twitterworld!! he debuts today....

Imran Khan's twitter account contains a single tweet saying, "And now I have twitter...".

thanks.hindustantimes

think positive

CLOUD COMPUTING

2009-08-26T23:55:00.000-07:00

sun Cloud Computing Primer

Sun Cloud Computing | Table of ConTenTs Table of ConTenTs Cloud Computing at a Higher Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Why Cloud Computing?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Clouds: Much More Than Cheap Computing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 IT Efficiency on a Whole New Scale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Faster, More Flexible Programming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Compelling New Opportunities: The Cloud Ecosystem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 How Did Cloud Computing Start?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Harnessing Cloud Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Use the Cloud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Leverage the Cloud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Build the Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Be the Cloud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Public, Private, and Hybrid Clouds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Cloud Computing Defined. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cornerstone Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 The Architectural Services Layers of Cloud Computing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Software as a Service (SaaS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Platform as a Service (PaaS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Inside the Cloud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Virtualization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 5 Operating System Virtualization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Platform Virtualization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Network Virtualization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Application Virtualization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Sun Cloud Computing | Table of ConTenTs Software Deployment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Software Packaging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Machine Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Sun’s Cloud Philosophies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Open Source and Interoperability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Comprehensive Product Portfolio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Enterprise-grade Systemic Qualities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Efficiency/Economy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Reliability/Availability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Density/Scalability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Agility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0 Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New Sun Technologies Relevant to the Cloud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Virtualization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Modular Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Open Storage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 3 What You Can Do. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Copyright 1994-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sun Cloud Computing | 3 > Cloud CompuTing aT a HigHer level Cloud CompuTing aT a HigHer level in many ways, cloud computing is simply a metaphor for the internet, the increasing movement of compute and data resources onto the Web. but there’s a difference: cloud computing represents a new tipping point for the value of network computing. it delivers higher efficiency, massive scalability, and faster, easier software development. it’s about new programming models, new iT infrastructure, and the enabling of new business models. For those developers and enterprises who want to embrace cloud computing, Sun is developing critical technologies to deliver enterprise scale and systemic qualities to this new paradigm: Interoperability — While most current clouds offer closed platforms and vendor lock-in, developers clamor for interoperability. Sun’s open-source product strategy and Java™ principles are focused on providing interoperability for large-scale computing resources. Think of the existing cloud “islands” merging into a new, interoperable “Intercloud” where applications can be moved to and operate across multiple platforms. High-density horizontal computing — Sun is pioneering high-power-density compute-node architectures and extreme-scale Infiniband fabrics as part of our top-tier HPC deployments. This high-density technology is being incorporated into our large-scale cloud designs. Data in the cloud — More than just compute utilities, cloud computing is increasingly about petascale data. Sun’s Open Storage products offer hybrid data servers with unprecedented efficiency and performance for the emerging data-intensive computing applications that will become a key part of the cloud. These technology bets are focused on driving more efficient large-scale cloud deployments that can provide the infrastructure for next-generation business opportunities: social networks, algorithmic trading, continuous risk analysis, and so on. Sun Cloud Computing | 4 > WHY Cloud CompuTing? Why Cloud Computing? “The rise of the cloud is more than just another platform shift that gets geeks excited. It will undoubtedly transform the IT industry, but it will also profoundly change the way people work and companies operate.” —The Economist, “Let it Rise,” 0/3/08 Clouds: much more Than Cheap Computing Cloud computing brings a new level of efficiency and economy to delivering IT resources on demand — and in the process it opens up new business models and market opportunities. While many people think of current cloud computing offerings as purely “pay by the drink” compute platforms, they’re really a convergence of two major interdependent IT trends: IT Efficiency — Minimize costs where companies are converting their IT costs from capital expenses to operating expenses through technologies such as virtualization. Cloud computing begins as a way to improve infrastructure resource deployment and utilization, but fully exploiting this infrastructure eventually leads to a new application development model. Business Agility — Maximize return using IT as a competitive weapon through rapid time to market, integrated application stacks, instant machine image deployment, and petascale parallel programming. Cloud computing is embraced as a critical way to revolutionize time to service. But inevitably these services must be built on equally innovative rapid-deployment-infrastructure models. To be sure, these trends have existed in the IT industry for years. However, the recent emergence of massive network bandwidth and virtualization technologies has enabled this transformation to a new services-oriented infrastructure. Cloud computing enables IT organizations to increase hardware utilization rates dramatically, and to scale up to massive capacities in an instant — without constantly having to invest in new infrastructure, train new personnel, or license new software. It also creates new opportunities to build a better breed of network services, in less time, for less money. Sun Cloud Computing | 5 WHY Cloud CompuTing? “By 2011, early technology adopters will forgo capital expenditures and instead purchase 40% of their IT infrastructure as a service . . .. ‘Cloud computing’ will take off, thus untying applications from specific infrastructure.” —Gartner Press Release, “Gartner Highlights Key Predictions for IT Organisations and Users in 008 and Beyond,” /3/08 it Efficiency on a Whole new Scale Cloud computing is all about efficiency. It provides a way to deploy and access everything from single systems to huge amounts of IT resources — on demand, in real time, at an affordable cost. It makes high-performance compute and high-capacity storage available to anyone with a credit card. And since the best cloud strategies build on concepts and tools that developers already know, clouds also have the potential to redefine the relationship between information technology and the developers and business units that depend on it. Reduce capital expenditures — Cloud computing makes it possible for companies to convert IT costs from capital expense to operating expense through technologies such as virtualization. Cut the cost of running a datacenter — Cloud computing improves infrastructure utilization rates and streamlines resource management. For example, clouds allow for self-service provisioning through APIs, bringing a higher level of automation to the datacenter and reducing management costs. Eliminate overprovisioning — Cloud computing provides scaling on demand, which, when combined with utility pricing, removes the need to overprovision to meet demand. With cloud computing, companies can scale up to massive capacities in an instant. For those who think cloud computing is just fluff, take a closer look at the cloud offerings that are already available. Major Internet providers Amazon.com, Google, and others are leveraging their infrastructure investments and “sharing” their large-scale economics. Already the bandwidth used by Amazon Web Services (AWS) exceeds that associated with their core e-tailing services. Forward-looking enterprises of all types — from Web .0 startups to global enterprises — are embracing cloud computing to reduce infrastructure costs. The New York Times needed to convert million articles and images in its archive (from 85 to 980) to PDF. Their Internal IT said it would take them seven weeks. In the meantime, one developer using 00 Amazon EC simple Web service interface instances running Hadoop (an open-source implementation similar to MapReduce) completed the job in 4 hours for less than $300. —open.blogs.nytimes.com, “Self-service, Prorated Super Computing Fun!” //07, open.blogs.nytimes.com/007//0/self-service-prorated-super-computing-fun/ Sun Cloud Computing | 6 WHY Cloud CompuTing? Faster, more Flexible programming Cloud computing isn’t only about hardware — it’s also a programming revolution. Agile, easy-to-access, lightweight Web protocols — coupled with pervasive horizontally scaled architecture — can accelerate development cycles and time to market with new applications and services. New business functions are now just a script away. Accelerated cycles — The cloud computing model provides a faster, more efficient way to develop the new generation of applications and services. Faster development and testing cycles means businesses can accomplish in hours what used to take days, weeks, or months. Increase agility — Cloud computing accommodates change like no other model. For example, Animoto Productions, makers of a mashup tool that creates video from images and music, used cloud computing to scale up from 50 servers to 3,500 in just three days. Cloud computing can also provide a wider selection of more lightweight and agile development tools, simplifying and speeding up the development process. The immediate impact will be unprecedented flexibility in service creation and accelerated development cycles. But at the same time, development flexibility could become constrained by APIs if they’re not truly open. Cloud computing can usher in a new era of productivity for developers if they build on platforms that are designed to be federated rather than centralized. But there’s a major shift underway in programming culture and the languages that will be used in clouds. What’s the Next Web Stack? Sun Cloud Computing | 7 WHY Cloud CompuTing? Today, the integrated, optimized, open-source Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl/Python (AMP) stack is the preferred platform for building and deploying new Web applications and services. Cloud computing will be the catalyst for the adoption of an even newer stack of more lightweight, agile tools such as lighttpd, an open-source Web server; Hadoop, the free Java software framework that supports data-intensive distributed applications; and MogileFS, a file system that enables horizontal scaling of storage across any number of machines. Compelling new opportunities: The Cloud ecosystem But cloud computing isn’t just about a proliferation of Xen image stacks on a restricted handful of infrastructure providers. It’s also about an emerging ecosystem of complementary services that provide computing resources such as on-ramps for cloud abstraction, professional services to help in deployment, specialized application components such as distributed databases, and virtual private datacenters for the entire range of IT providers and consumers. These services span the range of customer requirements, from individual developers and small startups to large enterprises. And they continue to expand the levels of virtualization, a key architectural component of the cloud that offers ever-higher abstractions of underlying services. Sun Cloud Computing | 8 WHY Cloud CompuTing? How did Cloud Computing start? At a basic level, cloud computing is simply a means of delivering IT resources as services. Almost all IT resources can be delivered as a cloud service: applications, compute power, storage capacity, networking, programming tools, even communications services and collaboration tools. Cloud computing began as large-scale Internet service providers such as Google, Amazon, and others built out their infrastructure. An architecture emerged: massively scaled, horizontally distributed system resources, abstracted as virtual IT services and managed as continuously configured, pooled resources. This architectural model was immortalized by George Gilder in his October 006 Wired magazine article titled “The Information Factories.” The server farms Gilder wrote about were architecturally similar to grid computing, but where grids are used for loosely coupled, technical computing applications, this new cloud model was being applied to Internet services. “In this architecture, the data is mostly resident on servers ‘somewhere on the Internet’ and the application runs on both the ‘cloud servers’ and the user’s browser.” —Eric Schmidt in ‘Information Factories’ by G. Gilder Both clouds and grids are built to scale horizontally very efficiently. Both are built to withstand failures of individual elements or nodes. Both are charged on a per-use basis. But while grids typically process batch jobs, with a defined start and end point, cloud services can be continuous. What’s more, clouds expand the types of resources available — file storage, databases, and Web services — and extend the applicability to Web and enterprise applications. At the same time, the concept of utility computing became a focus of IT design and operations. As Nick Carr observed in his book The Big Switch, computing services infrastructure was beginning to parallel the development of electricity as a utility. Wouldn’t it be great if you could purchase compute resources, on demand, only paying for what you need, when you need it? For end users, cloud computing means there are no hardware acquisition costs, no software licenses or upgrades to manage, no new employees or consultants to hire, no facilities to lease, no capital costs of any kind — and no hidden costs. Just a metered, per-use rate or a fixed subscription fee. Use only what you want, pay only for what you use. Cloud computing actually takes the utility model to the next level. It’s a new and evolved form of utility computing in which many different types of resources (hardware, software, storage, communications, and so on) can be combined and recombined on the fly into Sun Cloud Computing | 9 WHY Cloud CompuTing? the specific capabilities or services customers require. From CPU cycles for HPC projects to storage capacity for enterprise-grade backups to complete IDEs for software development, cloud computing can deliver virtually any IT capability, in real time. Under the circumstances it is easy to see that a broad range of organizations and individuals would like to purchase “computing” as a service, and those firms already building hyperscale distributed data centers would inevitably choose to begin offering this infrastructure as a service. Harnessing Cloud Computing So how does an individual or a business take advantage of the cloud computing trend? It’s not just about loading machine images consisting of your entire software stack onto a public cloud like AWS — there are several different ways to exploit this infrastructure and explore the ecosystem of new business models. use the Cloud The number and quality of public, commercially available cloud-based service offerings is growing fast. Using the cloud is often the best option for startups, research projects, Web .0 developers, or niche players who want a simple, low-cost way to “load and go.” If you’re an Internet startup today, you will be mandated by your investors to keep you IT spend to a minimum. This is certainly what the cloud is for. leverage the Cloud Typically, enterprises are using public clouds for specific functions or workloads. The cloud is an attractive alternative for: Development and testing — This is perhaps the easiest cloud use case for enterprises (not just startup developers). Why wait to order servers when you don’t even know if the project will pass the proof of concept? Functional offloading — You can use the cloud for specific workloads. For example, SmugMug does its image thumbnailing as a batch job in the cloud. “We really don’t want to operate datacenters anymore. We’d rather spend our time giving our customers great service and writing great software than managing physical hardware.” —Don MacAskill, CEO, SmugMug Sun Cloud Computing | 0 WHY Cloud CompuTing? Augmentation — Clouds give you a new option for handling peak load or anticipated spikes in demand for services. This is a very attractive option for enterprises, but also potentially one of the most difficult use cases. Success is dependent on the statefulness of the application and the interdependence with other datasets that may need to be replicated and load-balanced across the two sites. Experimenting — Why download demos of new software, and then install, license, and test it? In the future, software evaluation can be performed in the cloud, before licenses or support need to be purchased. Build the Cloud Many large enterprises understand the economic benefits of cloud computing but want to ensure strict enforcement of security policies. So they’re experimenting first with “private” clouds (see section .4), with a longer-term option of migrating mature enterprise applications to a cloud that’s able to deliver the right service levels. Other companies may simply want to build private clouds to take advantage of the economics of resource pools and standardize their development and deployment processes. Be the Cloud This category includes both cloud computing service providers and cloud aggregators — companies that offer multiple types of cloud services. As enterprises and service providers gain experience with the cloud architecture model and confidence in the security and access-control technologies that are available, many will decide to deploy externally facing cloud services. The phenomenal growth rates of some of the public cloud offerings available today will no doubt accelerate the momentum. Amazon’s EC was introduced only two years ago and officially graduated from beta to general availability in October 008. Cloud service providers can: • • • • Provide new routes to market for startups and Web .0 application developers Offer new value-added capabilities such as analytics Derive a competitive edge through enterprise-level SLAs Help enterprise customers develop their own clouds If you’re building large datacenters today, you should probably be thinking about whether you’re going to offer cloud services. Sun Cloud Computing | Cloud CompuTing defined public, private, and Hybrid Clouds A company may choose to use a service provider’s cloud or build its own — but is it always all or nothing? Sun sees an opportunity to blend the advantages of the two primary options: Public clouds are run by third parties, and jobs from many different customers may be mixed together on the servers, storage systems, and other infrastructure within the cloud. End users don’t know who else’s job may be me running on the same server, network, or disk as their own jobs. Private clouds are a good option for companies dealing with data protection and service-level issues. Private clouds are on-demand infrastructure owned by a single customer who controls which applications run, and where. They own the server, network, and disk and can decide which users are allowed to use the infrastructure. But even those who feel compelled in the short term to build a private cloud will likely want to run applications both in privately owned infrastructure and in the public cloud space. This gives rise to the concept of a hybrid cloud. Hybrid clouds combine the public and private cloud models. You own parts and share other parts, though in a controlled way. Hybrid clouds offer the promise of on-demand, externally provisioned scale, but add the complexity of determining how to distribute applications across these different environments. While enterprises may be attracted to the promise of a hybrid cloud, this option, at least initially, will likely be reserved for simple stateless applications that require no complex databases or synchronization. > Cloud CompuTing defined “It’s one of the foundations of the next generation of computing. . .. It’s a world where the network is the platform for all computing, where everything we think of as a computer today is just a device that connects to the big computer we’re building. Cloud computing is a great way to think about how we’ll deliver computing services in the future.” —Tim O’Reilly, CEO, O’Reilly Media Sun Cloud Computing | Cloud CompuTing defined Cornerstone Technology While the basic technologies of cloud computing such as horizontally scaled, distributed compute nodes have been available for some time, virtualization — the abstraction of computer resources — is the cornerstone technology for all cloud architectures. With the ability to virtualize servers (behind a hypervisor-abstracted operating system), storage devices, desktops, and applications, a wide array of IT resources can now be allocated on demand. The dramatic growth in the ubiquitous availability of affordable high-bandwidth networking over the past several years is equally critical. What was available to only a small percentage of Internet users a decade ago is now offered to the majority of Internet users in North America, Europe, and Asia: high bandwidth, which allows massive compute and data resources to be accessed from the browser. Virtualized resources can truly be anywhere in the cloud — not just across gigabit datacenter LANs and WANs but also via broadband to remote programmers and end users. Additional enabling technologies for cloud computing can deliver IT capabilities on an absolutely unprecedented scale. Just a few examples: Sophisticated file systems such as ZFS can support virtually unlimited storage capacities, integration of the file system and volume management, snapshots and copy-on-write clones, on-line integrity checking, and repair. Patterns in architecture allow for accelerated development of superscale cloud architectures by providing repeatable solutions to common problems. New techniques for managing structured, unstructured, and semistructured data can provide radical improvements in data-intensive computing. Machine images can be instantly deployed, dramatically simplifying and accelerating resource allocation while increasing IT agility and responsiveness. The architectural services layers of Cloud Computing While the first revolution of the Internet saw the three-tier (or n-tier) model emerge as a general architecture, the use of virtualization in clouds has created a new set of layers: applications, services, and infrastructure. These layers don’t just encapsulate on-demand resources, they also define a new application development model. And within each layer of abstraction there are myriad business opportunities for defining services that can be offered on a pay-per-use basis. Software as a Service (SaaS) SaaS is at the highest layer and features a complete application offered as a service, ondemand, via multitenancy — meaning a single instance of the software runs on the Sun Cloud Computing | 3 inside THe Cloud provider’s infrastructure and serves multiple client organizations. The most widely known example of SaaS is Salesforce.com, but there are now many others, including the Google Apps offering of basic business services such as e-mail. Of course, Salesforce.com’s multitenant application has preceded the definition of cloud computing by a few years. On the other hand, like many other players in cloud computing, Salesforce.com now operates at more than one cloud layer with its release of Force.com, a companion application development environment, or platform as a service. platform as a Service (paaS) The middle layer, or PaaS, is the encapsulation of a development environment abstraction and the packaging of a payload of services. The archetypal payload is a Xen image (part of Amazon Web Services) containing a basic Web stack (for example, a Linux distro, a Web server, and a programming environment such as Pearl or Ruby). PaaS offerings can provide for every phase of software development and testing, or they can be specialized around a particular area, such as content management. Commercial examples include Google App Engine, which serves applications on Google’s infrastructure. PaaS services such as these can provide a great deal of flexibility but may be constrained by the capabilities that are available through the provider. infrastructure as a Service (iaaS) IaaS is at the lowest layer and is a means of delivering basic storage and compute capabilities as standardized services over the network. Servers, storage systems, switches, routers, and other systems are pooled (through virtualization technology, for example) to handle specific types of workloads — from batch processing to server/storage augmentation during peak loads. The best-known commercial example is Amazon Web Services, whose EC and S3 services offer bare-bones compute and storage services (respectively). Another example is Joyent whose main product is a line of virtualized servers which provide a highly scalable on-demand infrastructure for running Web sites, including rich Web applications written in Ruby on Rails, PHP, Python, and Java. > inside THe Cloud A key attraction of cloud computing is that it conceals the complexity of the infrastructure from developers and end users. They don’t know or need to know what’s in the cloud — they only care that it delivers the services they need. But those who choose to build clouds for private use or as a business in itself have critical technology decisions to make in abstracting and managing underlying resources. This section takes a closer look at the key architectural attributes and underlying technologies of virtualization. Sun Cloud Computing | 4 inside THe Cloud virtualization Virtualization is a cornerstone design technique for all cloud architectures. In cloud computing it refers primarily to platform virtualization, or the abstraction of physical IT resources from the people and applications using them. Virtualization allows servers, storage devices, and other hardware to be treated as a pool of resources rather than discrete systems, so that these resources can be allocated on demand. In cloud computing, we’re interested in techniques such as paravirtualization, which allows a single server to be treated as multiple virtual servers, and clustering, which allows multiple servers to be treated as a single server. As a means of encapsulation of physical resources, virtualization solves several core challenges of datacenter managers and delivers specific advantages, including: Higher utilization rates — Prior to virtualization, server and storage utilization rates in enterprise datacenters typically averaged less than 50% (in fact, 0% to 5% utilization rates were common). Through virtualization, workloads can be encapsulated and transferred to idle or underused systems — which means existing systems can be consolidated, so purchases of additional server capacity can be delayed or avoided. Resource consolidation — Virtualization allows for consolidation of multiple IT resources. Beyond server and storage consolidation, virtualization provides an opportunity to consolidate the systems architecture, application infrastructure, data and databases, interfaces, networks, desktops, and even business processes, resulting in cost savings and greater efficiency. Lower power usage/costs — The electricity required to run enterprise-class datacenters is no longer available in unlimited supplies, and the cost is on an upward spiral. For every dollar spent on server hardware, an addition dollar is spent on power (including the cost of running and cooling servers). Using virtualization to consolidate makes it possible to cut total power consumption and save significant money. Space savings — Server sprawl remains a serious problem in most enterprise datacenters, but datacenter expansion is not always an option, with building costs averaging several thousand dollars per square foot. Virtualization can alleviate the strain by consolidating many virtual systems onto fewer physical systems. Disaster recovery/business continuity — Virtualization can increase overall service-level availability rates and provide new options for disaster recovery solutions. Reduced operations costs — The average enterprise spends $8 in maintenance for every $ spent on new infrastructure. Virtualization can change the serverto-admin ratio, reduce the total administrative workload, and cut total operations costs. Sun Cloud Computing | 5 inside THe Cloud operating System Virtualization The use of OS-level virtualization or partitioning (such as LPARs, VPARs, NPARs, Dynamic System Domains, and so on) in cloud architectures can help solve some of the core security, privacy, and regulatory issues that could otherwise hinder the adoption of cloud computing. For example, OS virtualization such as that provided by Solaris™ Containers makes it possible to maintain a one-application-per-server deployment model while simultaneously sharing hardware resources. Solaris Containers isolate software applications and services using software-defined boundaries and allow many private execution environments to be created within a single instance of the Solaris OS. Each environment has its own identity, separate from the underlying hardware, so it behaves as if it’s running on its own system, making consolidation simple, safe, and secure. This makes it possible to reduce the administrative overhead and complexity of managing multiple operating systems and improve utilization at the same time. platform Virtualization Platform virtualization allows arbitrary operating systems and resulting application environments to run on a given system. There are two basic models for this system virtualization: full virtualization, or a complete simulation of underlying hardware, and paravirtualization, which offers a “mostly similar” model of the underlying hardware. These are implemented as Type hypervisors, which run directly on hardware, and Type hypervisors, which run on top of a traditional operating system. Each of the top virtualization vendors offers variations of both models. It’s important to realize that there are design and performance trade-offs for any model of system virtualization. Generally, the more abstract the OS is made from the underlying hardware, the less hardware-specific features can be accessed. Increased OS abstraction can also increase the potential for performance reduction and limitations. network Virtualization Load-balancing techniques have been a hot topic in cloud computing because, as the physical and virtual systems within the cloud scale up, so does the complexity of managing the workload that’s performed to deliver the service. Load balancers group multiple servers and services behind virtual IP addresses. They provide resource-based scheduling of service requests and automatic failover when a node fails. While hardware balancers may outperform software-based balancers, their flexibility is always limited. Engineers end up either writing software that interacts with hardware via a suboptimal user interface or using a large number of computers to solve the problem. A significant challenge in cloud computing networking is not just the provisioning of individual virtual network interfaces to a given virtual environment, but also the increasing need of cloud infrastructures to offer a more complicated virtual private datacenter, which provisions a set of different system roles and the logical interconnections between those roles. Sun Cloud Computing | 6 inside THe Cloud Application Virtualization There is also a software angle to “containers” within the cloud. The Web container technology implemented in the cloud greatly impacts developer productivity and flexibility. The Web container is the part of the application server that manages servlets, JavaServerTM Page (JSP) files, and other Web-tier components. But not all Web container technologies are created equal. Apache Tomcat, for example, is a popular open-source Web container technology, but it has limitations for developers who want to go beyond Web-tier applications. If an application needs to use persistence, clustering, failover, messaging, or Enterprise Java Beans (EJBTM), these capabilities have to be added to Tomcat one by one, whereas the GlassFish™ Project provides an integrated collection of Java EE containers that delivers all of these capabilities. Today, most cloud computing offerings concentrate on platform virtualization, and the developer chooses the OS and development platform. But increasingly public clouds and certainly private clouds will offer higher-level development environment programming abstractions. Over time, we might expect the level of abstraction that the developer interfaces with to move gradually upward as more functionality percolates down into the platform. software deployment With cloud computing offering increasing abstraction of the underlying hardware, a related, but separate, set of decisions must be made concerning how the software and applications are deployed on cloud infrastructure. The cloud computing model is flexible enough to accommodate applications of all types and sizes, at all phases of development and deployment. Cloud architectures can be the delivery platform for monolithic, proprietary applications such as ERP and CRM; the development and deployment platform for a new breed of lightweight, dynamically typed applications built on open source software; or a source of IDEs and testing resources. Software packaging The software-based packaging of software components, data, server and storage pools, and other cloud resources makes efficient resource allocation, re-use, and management possible. The packaging system is essentially a software delivery mechanism that simplifies and accelerates the installation of everything from operating systems to applications to end-user data. The image packaging system (IPS) for the OpenSolaris™ OS, for example, makes it possible to create images and install, search, update, and manage packages in the image. The IPS can also be used to create custom packages and repositories and to publish and manage packages to the repositories. Increasingly, cloud operators and datacenters are moving away from installing systems software on each server, choosing to deploy golden images on farms of servers. In any case, basic software configurations must be provisioned on the system resource pools. Sun Cloud Computing | 7 sun’s Cloud pHilosopHies machine images Increasingly, a similar image-based deployment model is becoming the primary mechanism for deploying application development payloads on virtual resource pools. Machine images contain user-specific applications, libraries, data, and associated configuration settings and are hosted within the cloud. Perhaps the best-known examples are Xen images. This model of deployment is the basis of Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), which are built around a variety of kernels. You can select among a range of public AMIs (preconfigured, templated images) or build your own custom/private AMI. Most AMIs are built on some form of Linux, such as Fedora or Ubuntu. They’re easy to modify and share, and tools are provided by Amazon. Paid AMIs can be created by ISVs and stored on Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). Amazon Machine Images are available for OpenSolaris (3-bit) and Solaris Express (3-bit and 64-bit) operating systems. > sun’s Cloud pHilosopHies It’s Sun’s goal to combine the systems and software to build a cloud, the architectural expertise to maximize cloud capabilities, and the technologies to take cloud computing to a higher level. Our approach is to deliver all the components that enterprises, developers, and end users need to build cloud environments, through our own or partners’ offerings. open source and interoperability While some clouds are closed platforms with vendor lock-in, Sun’s open-source philosophy and Java principles are the basis of our strategy: providing interoperability for large-scale computing resources and distributing applications across multiple cloud infrastructure components. Ideally, users of cloud computing would be able to move their applications among a variety of standardized providers who offer open-source interfaces to common services. Today, most clouds are proprietary, and even where the components offered are open source, cloud operators cultivate significant lock-in through their underlying services, such as storage and databases. Private clouds created by individual enterprises certainly have the advantage of offering (and requiring) adherence to corporate standards, but even here the desire for enterprises to be able to “flex” their private clouds with public-cloud capacity on demand calls for increasing levels of open standards to emerge in the cloud computing milieu. Think of the existing cloud islands merging into a new, interoperable “Intercloud.” The Intercloud would take the basic concept of the Internet up another level, essentially a global cloud of clouds, united by a set of protocols and software, yet segmented (for security and predictability) into clusters and “intraclouds.” Sun Cloud Computing | 8 sun’s Cloud pHilosopHies Sun is working toward the vision of the Intercloud by expanding research and development efforts in four key open-source areas: Software — Providing the open-standards-based tools that developers and architects need to build agile services that can be deployed in the cloud — from Sun’s Web stack to software elements from other vendors Systems — Delivering compute, storage, and networking systems that interoperate with each other and integrate with systems from other vendors, whether they’re based on AMDTM, Intel®, or SPARC® architectures Microelectronics — Pushing the envelope for chip multithreading (CMT) and multicore computing; moving to ever-higher compute densities within the cloud Services — Supporting development efforts through a broad range of professional services, network services, and value-added service offerings from partners (ISVs, OEMs, channel partners, and systems integrators) Comprehensive product portfolio Sun is specially positioned to bring cloud computing to fruition because we have a top-to-bottom solution to support the entire stack — from microprocessors (and servers) offering unique multithreaded power/performance capability to innovative Open Storage solutions to a full complement of application development software technologies, including virtualization, identity management, and Web .0 programming platform tools. Sun products are integrated across all the layers of technology involved and can be integrated with standards-based technologies from other vendors. And many of Sun’s products and technologies are on-ramps to cloud computing, including virtually all of Sun’s server and storage systems, the Solaris OS, the ZFS file system, the Sun xVM portfolio, and Sun Ray™ desktops. enterprise-grade systemic Qualities The unpredictable nature of cloud computing workloads requires that clouds be architected for extremely high levels of efficiency, service-level availability, scalability, manageability, security, and other systemic qualities. Initially, cloud computing platforms are attractive for their low-cost development and deployment capabilities. But as firms increasingly use cloud platforms for actual production environments, they will require enterprise-level SLAs. Maximizing systemic qualities requires integrating the development of these qualities into the design process of large-scale architectures. For cloud computing, the focus of systemic qualities is different from the host-based, client-server models and Web-based models of the past. In some ways the challenge to achieve systemic qualities is more complex. On the other hand, if these architectures are properly designed from the beginning, this can contribute to, and not challenge, the achievement of systemic qualities. Sun Cloud Computing | 9 sun’s Cloud pHilosopHies Sun has introduced a number of innovations that deliver enterprise-grade systemic qualities in cloud computing architectures. These innovations are primarily in the areas of efficiency and economy, reliability and availability, density and scalability, agility, and security. Efficiency/Economy • Pioneered the “green”-computing movement with energy-efficient CoolThreads™ technology and the use of printed circuit boards using far less hazardous materials — which has saved companies hundreds of millions of dollars in energy costs alone • Low-cost innovator with offerings that span datacenter design, hardware, OS, and software components; leading advocate of open-source software; using virtualization technologies in all aspects of product design and development in order to achieve greater power efficiencies Enables large numbers of servers to function more efficiently and saves costs on energy, cabling, HVAC, and so on; minimizes capital expenditures (infrastructure owned by the provider) • Reliability/Availability • Service-level availability through the built-in RAS features of the Solaris OS and OpenSolaris OS and sophisticated hardware-level availability features from failover to clustering to dynamic reconfiguration • Reliability by way of multiple redundant sites, which makes it suitable for business continuity and disaster recovery density/Scalability • Extremely high density; large number of cores per rack and transactions per rack unit • Cloud nodes in the form of Sun™ Modular Datacenter systems and the Sun Constellation System cloud computing environment; virtualization and dynamic reconfiguration for efficient scaling on demand without having to engineer for peak loads Agility • Multiple hardware architectures to customize systems to workloads • Multitenancy, enabling sharing of resources (and costs) among a large pool of users, allowing for: — Centralization of infrastructure in areas with lower costs such as real estate and electricity — Peak-load capacity increases without engineering for highest possible load levels Sun Grid Engine software to request and reserve resources for specific amounts of time (see sun.com/software/gridware.) • Sun Cloud Computing | 0 neW sun TeCHnologies relevanT To THe Cloud Security Typically, security improves with the centralization of data and increased security-focused resources, so cloud computing raises concerns about loss of control over certain sensitive data. Accesses are typically logged, but accessing the audit logs themselves can be difficult or impossible. Sun addresses the challenges with a range of innovations. For example: • The Solaris 0 OS includes Process and User Rights Management, Trusted Extensions for Mandatory Access Control (MAC), and the Cryptographic Framework and Secure By Default Networking that allows developers to safely deliver new solutions, consolidate with security, and protect mission-critical data. Sun Identity Manager software is the market leader, delivering the only complete user-provisioning and metadirectory solution that enhances enterprise security. The Java Composite Application Platform Suite (Java CAPS) contains everything an enterprise needs to develop and deploy an SOA platform for the reuse of existing applications, the delivery of new services, and enabling legacy and packaged applications to rapidly integrate within an existing infrastructure. The suite is SOA-based, is fully integrated, and delivers a rich set of integration and composite application capabilities, including business process management (BPM), industryleading messaging, rich transformation, and a broad array of connectors. Sun is positioned in the Leaders Quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Web Access Management for our governance, reporting, and compliance software, providing controlled and role-based access management to back-line resources or federated partner services, based on unique-ID, role, IP-address, group, or perasset entitlements. • • • Sun Cloud Computing | > neW sun TeCHnologies relevanT To THe Cloud neW sun TeCHnologies relevanT To THe Cloud virtualization Sun is one of the few companies with the ability to address all of the different kinds of cloud virtualization: hypervisor (Sun xVM Server), OS (Solaris Containers), network (Crossbow), storage (COMSTAR, ZFS), and applications (GlassFish and Java CAPS technologies). As a vertically integrated system company with two decades of experience in virtualization technologies — from the Network File System (NFS) that Sun introduced in 985 to Dynamic System Domains, chip multithreading (CMT), and Solaris Containers — Sun has the experience and expertise to take virtualization a new level. Our virtualization platform is the Sun xVM portfolio, which provides comprehensive virtualization capabilities, interoperability across heterogeneous environments, and integrated management of both virtual and physical resources. Sun xVM Server is Sun’s datacenter-grade, Xen-based, bare-metal Type- hypervisor that uses the enterprise-scale Solaris Operating System as the OS core (as opposed to a restricted Linux core), providing access to OS-level network virtualization/optimization. xVM Server includes both the hypervisor and the relevant management infrastructure to monitor and manage the running of multiple different OS guests, including Windows, Linux, and Solaris guest operating systems, on a single physical server at the same time. It also provides live migration and works well with VMware and Microsoft virtual machines. That makes xVM Server an excellent foundation for larger virtualization solutions, which can then be managed and orchestrated by xVM Ops Center software, Sun’s virtualization management product. But unlike other Type- hypervisors using a bare Linux core, xVM Server is built within a Solaris OS container providing unique hardware capabilities: multithreaded CPUs, 0GbE links, and quality-of-service control to improve I/O performance. xVM Server is also able to extend the advanced technologies in the Solaris OS, such as ZFS, Predictive Self-Healing, DTrace, advanced networking, and security to Windows and Linux guests (in addition to any Solaris guest instances). Additionally, unlike other virtualization platforms, Sun xVM Server draws on open-source and community involvement through the OpenSolaris and OpenxVM communities to provide an open and interoperable offering. Sun xVM Server, coupled with Sun’s OpenSolaris project, provides the most innovative and advanced building blocks for cloud infrastructure: • • • • • • Network virtualization with Crossbow Storage virtualization based on COMSTAR and ZFS OS virtualization based on Solaris Containers Virtualization based on OpenxVM Device and location independence, enabling users to access systems regardless of their physical location or type of access device (PC, PDA, mobile phone, and more) Desktop virtualization via Sun xVM Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Sun Cloud Computing | neW sun TeCHnologies relevanT To THe Cloud modular systems Large-scale datacenters are using increasingly modular approaches to provision and manage pools of standard servers, storage systems, and network resources. Points of delivery (PODs), for example, provide environments that are optimized for specific workloads, such as HTTP or HPC, or specific capacities, such as numbers of users or transactions. They encapsulate storage, networking, management, and servers. The POD hardware platform layer consists of compute hardware, networking, and storage. The availability and scalability requirements and the service tier that the hardware is intended to support often drive the specifications of the servers. Applications can scale independently. As applications need more resources than are available in a POD, additional PODs can be added, providing more capacity. Both horizontal and vertical scaling can be used as appropriate for each application. One example of a POD is the Sun Customer Ready HPC Cluster, a platform that allows IT organizations to deploy a standard set of preintegrated servers, switches, and storage devices with rack-at-a-time granularity. These HPC clusters can be built out of standard rackmount servers, such as the Sun Fire™ X450 server, or Sun Constellation Systems built with Sun Blade™ X6000 series blade modules. The Sun Constellation C48 racks (four Sun Blade X6000 systems) offer 7 TFLOPS from 768 cores, but with 7% improved power efficiency. Systems such as this, while providing unprecedented power efficiency, are typical of extreme power density associated with cloud computing datacenters. Thus, most cloud datacenters reject traditional underfloor cooling, opting for more efficient overhead services and hot isle/cold isle layouts. Another well-known example of POD design is the Sun Modular Datacenter S0, a comprehensive datacenter delivered in a shipping container. The 0-foot enhanced container can be loaded into almost any transportation system and delivered to a customer’s site, ready to be installed by Sun or a Sun partner. Inside is an integrated power, cooling, and rack system that can be populated with any 9-inch rackable, front-to-back-cooled equipment that fits the customer’s specific computing needs. The Sun Modular Datacenter has proven to be ten times faster to deploy than a conventional datacenter. Plus, it reduces capital expenses with incremental expansion capabilities, and it provides four times higher density per rack compared with a typical datacenter — with 40% lower cooling costs in one-eighth the space. open storage Open Storage enables cloud computing to be done at a lower cost and at larger scale than traditional, proprietary storage. Open Storage is about using industry-standard components, including x64/x86 servers as storage controllers and flash memory, to accelerate low-cost, high-capacity disk drives, with enterprise-class open-source software to deliver inexpensive, high-capacity, highly scalable architectures. Sun Cloud Computing | 3 neW sun TeCHnologies relevanT To THe Cloud Open Storage also enables new architectural models for data management. With the open-source storage stack running on industry-standard hardware, including x64 and SPARC systems, we’re able to get the data closer to the processors. This simplifies data-intensive computing by eliminating the need to move data around a network. Devices or servers that fit this model include Sun Fire X4540 servers, which are available in to 48-TB configurations, all in a 4RU platform with four-core x64 processors. Shared JBODs benefit from the Open Storage stack and enable highly available storage architectures. Open Storage enables enterprise-class architectures to be built out of industry-standard components. Customers, developers, and consumers can download this stack and build their own storage appliances. But those customers who would rather buy a fully integrated storage appliance can choose the Sun Storage 7000 family of unified storage systems. Following the Open Storage model, these systems are built out of industry-standard servers, leverage the capacity advantages of industry-standard SATA II drives, and integrate flashbased SSDs in a hybrid storage model, all with a simple-to-use and elegant user interface. By leveraging general-purpose hardware and software, a new breed of system becomes possible. For example, the Sun Storage 7000 line has the ability to observe what’s going on inside storage devices at a level that has previously not been possible. Open Storage provides a new and unique business model as well. Capabilities such as snapshot, replication, and compression are all included and there are no additional costs for the data services. This open source stack also includes protocols such as NFS, CIFS, iSCSI, and FC. Open Storage architectures benefit from innovation in the information technology industry. Being built on industry standard components enables quicker adaptation of new processors and new interconnects (such as GigE and 0GigE), as well as incorporating new technologies like flash-based SSDs. Sun’s breakthrough Sun Fire X4540 series data servers are redefining storage density. By integrating state-of-the-art server and storage technologies, the Sun Fire X4500 server delivers the performance of a four-way x64 server and up to 48 TB in 4U of rack space. This system also delivers incredibly high data throughput (about three times that of competitive systems) for about half the cost of traditional solutions. “[The Sun Fire X4500 server ] is the Web 2.0 server. . . . I really think it is the category of the future. Now companies can get hardware like this and build next-generation applications.” —Tim O’Reilly, CEO, O’Reilly Media Sun Cloud Computing | 4 WHaT You Can do Moreover, Sun’s storage servers are the vanguard of refactoring storage into generalpurpose server appliances. They combine a server with disk, networking capabilities, and native metadata and query capabilities. Specialized software enables these generalpurpose systems to provide high-performance data services, making possible computeon-storage strategies for avoiding the high-latency movement of extreme-scale data for data-intensive clouds. > WHaT You Can do As you can see, cloud computing changes everything. It abstracts the software application platform from the underlying hardware infrastructure, freeing developers and users from becoming locked in to specific hardware. In cloud computing, the user’s data and software execution are in the cloud (a.k.a. the Internet). With a singular vision—The Network Is The ComputerTM—and the research, product portfolio, and communities that this vision has created, Sun is uniquely positioned to help enterprises build and use cloud computing deployments. This is a vision that everyone can participate in. So here’s how you can help continue the development of this architecture and take advantage of cloud computing: • Evaluate your business and technology requirements – Sun can help, by conducting a Cloud Computing Workshop or Datacenter Assessment sun.com/service/assess. A few key questions to help you get started: — What are the different layers at which you might leverage cloud services — Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS)? — What are the business models under which you would operate and use the cloud — public, private, hybrid? — What are the different types of applications you want to put into the cloud — Web, HPC and analytics, regulated applications? • Join the Sun Cloud API community at http://kenai.com/projects/suncloudapis to join the discussion and influence the direction of Sun’s open APIs for the cloud. Sign up for the Sun Cloud public beta sun.com/cloud and start building and testing your applications and services in the cloud. • Sun Cloud Computing | 5 Cloud CompuTing aT a HigHer level © 009. Sun Microsystems Inc. All rights reserved. Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Java, Solaris, OpenSolaris, ZFS, xVM, Sun Ray, CoolThreads, JavaServer, EJB, GlassFish, Sun Fire, Sun Blade, MySQL, Sun Startup Essentials, and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the US and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. AMD and Opteron are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices. Intel is a trademark or registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. Information subject to change without notice. Lit. #GNHT4877-0 03/09 Sun Cloud Computing | 6

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How To Clear Your Internet History in Firefox

2009-08-25T03:35:00.000-07:00

How To Clear Your Internet History in Firefox on Howcast

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Four Steps To Personal Growth

2009-08-20T23:08:00.000-07:00

Four Steps To Personal Growth on Howcast

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Desktop Crashed - windows explorer fixes

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BEST BACKUP METHODS

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Video Lighting Tutorial – Three Point Lighting

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Video Lighting Tutorial – Three Point Lighting

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sign out of gmail remotely

2009-08-20T01:04:00.000-07:00

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BACKUP FIREFOX

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Increase The Life Of Your Hard Drive

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How to Retrieve a Lost Windows Password

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How to Use Twitter On Your Cellphone

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2009-08-18T02:37:00.000-07:00

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Control Your Computer With A Webcam

2009-08-18T02:30:00.000-07:00

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How To Create a Wireless Network At Home

2009-08-18T02:00:00.000-07:00

How To Create a Wireless Network At Home on Howcast

You Will Need

* A computer with wireless capability
* A high-speed modem, like a DSL or cable modem
* A wireless router
* A broadband internet connection

Step 1: Confirm that your computer is wireless

Make sure your computer is configured to go wireless. If it doesn’t have a wireless network card already installed, you’ll need to buy one.

Step 2: Install a broadband connection

If you don’t already have one, get a broadband internet connection, along with a high-speed modem (like a DSL or cable modem). Your internet service provider will probably supply the modem. This is how you access the internet.

Step 3: Buy a wireless router

Buy a wireless router, which allows you to share your modem’s connection to the internet over radio waves. A new router will likely broadcast on the latest, fastest standard, but if your computer or wireless card is older, make sure it’s compatible with your router.

Step 4: Turn off all hardware

Turn off all your hardware, including your computer, modem, and router.

Step 5: Connect your wireless router to the modem

Connect your modem to your wireless router according to your router’s directions. Most likely you’ll simply remove the cable originally connecting your modem to your computer and connect it to the port on the back of your router labeled “internet,” “WAN,” or “WLAN.”

Step 6: Make a temporary connection

Take the network cable included with your modem and connect your computer to one of the open slots on the back of the router. This will be only a temporary connection.

Step 7: Power up

Turn on your modem and let it boot up. Then plug in your router’s power supply. Finally, turn on your computer.

Step 8: Find configuration address

Open your web browser. Enter the internet address needed to configure the router, which should be included in your router’s instructions. Once you’ve entered the address, enter the password, if any, listed in the manual. You should now see a configuration menu.

tips:When you’re done setting up the router, change the default administrator password needed to access the configuration menu.

Step 9: Change the SSID

Change your network’s default SSID, which is the name you choose to call your network. It can be anything you want, though for security reasons you might not want to pick anything that locates you exactly, like your street address or apartment number, because the name often can be seen by people within range.

Step 10: Configure your security settings

Configure your security settings, which will include choosing between two kinds of protection, WEP or WPA access. You’ll need to set a password that will be required to access the network. Choose one that’s a mix of numbers and upper- and lowercase letters.

Step 11: Save your settings

Your network is now basically secure. Save your settings. If you wish to increase your security later, consult your router’s instructions on how to turn on something called MAC address filtering, which restricts which actual computers can get on your network.

Step 12: Connect wirelessly

It’s time to go wireless—disconnect your computer from the router. Open the wireless network connection menu on your computer. Enter the SSID and password you chose to connect to your network.

Step 13: Connect other computers

Bingo! Now you can surf in style. Connect any other computers you want to the network. If you’re experiencing trouble, consult your router’s manual for troubleshooting tips.

thanks.howcast

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Internet Explorer 8

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Download HD Youtube Videos - NO Software

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USTREAM.TV

2009-08-16T23:41:00.000-07:00

Ustream.TV is the live interactive video broadcast platform that enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly and easily broadcast to a global audience of unlimited size. In less than two minutes, anyone can become a broadcaster by creating their own channel on Ustream or by broadcasting through their own site, empowering them to engage with their audience and further build their brand. Click here to start a broadcast now or learn more about broadcasting.

Ustream's one-to-many live interactive video encourages broadcast-to-viewer and viewer-to-viewer interaction, empowering a much more engaging experience for everyone involved.

With Ustream's interactive broadcast functionality, viewers can personally interact directly with whoever is broadcasting -- including personalities like their favorite musician or politician. Ustream viewers can watch specific broadcasts, explore our networks ranging from music, talk shows, sports and politics to discover a world of interesting new broadcasts, or review our past broadcasts.

Ustream opens up a new world of possibilities and experiences to broadcasters and viewers alike, which the pre-recorded static video that's predominated the Internet to date just can't provide. Today, people are Ustreaming everything including:

* Major political events such as debates, speeches, rallies
* Talk shows
* Entertainment events such as premieres and 'red carpet events'
* Music showcases of their favorite music, of their own band's performances, and live jam sessions
* Conference sessions
* School and business events and training
* Sporting events at college and high school level
* Personal milestones such as holiday gatherings, weddings, grade school events, parties, even births
* Interactive games for viewers to watch or join

Have you always dreamed of speaking to the world but don't have the training or experience to become a professional broadcaster? Do you feel you're destined to be watched and adored by millions of people? Well, if you have a webcam and an Internet connection, Ustream.tv will allow you to start living your dreams.

Ustream started with U.S. Army Officers John Ham and Brad Hunstable who wanted to provide a new way for deployed soldiers to communicate with their families. Before Ustream, soldiers could only use a telephone or instant messenger to talk with their loved ones, limiting their contact to only one person at a time. Officers Ham and Hunstable partnered with Dr. Gyula Feher, and in the summer of 2006, they released Ustream, a "live, interactive video broadcast platform" that allowed soldiers to communicate with friends and family simultaneously across the globe [source: Ustream].

The idea is pretty simple: Provide a common area for a person to broadcast him or herself and allow the broadcaster and viewers to communicate instantaneously. According to the Ustream Web site, it allows "anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly and easily broadcast to a global audience of unlimited size."

Since 2006, Ustream has grown exponentially and moved from a service that helps soldiers stay in touch with their families to an outlet for hundreds of thousands of people to discuss and showcase everything from current world events to the joy of newborn puppies. In fact, the site hosts more than 10 million viewers a month and between 10,000 to 15,000 individual broadcasts every day [source: Ustream]. It requires no downloads and can be embedded just about anywhere.

Are you already dusting off your webcam in preparation for your big debut? Well, before you start sending yourself down the information superhighway, let's take a look at how this service works.

The Power of Interaction

Ustream was founded with the idea of bringing people together, so it's not surprising that it provides an interactive experience for its users. Individual audience members can communicate directly with the host and each other in a variety of ways, which means that the viewers of a show can actually influence the direction of its content.

The most common form of interaction between a host and his or her audience is through the various chat and messaging options Ustream provides. During a broadcast, viewers may have the choice to chat in a standard IRC (Internet relay chat) instant message format, similar to AIM or GTalk. People can also use their Twitter IDs to log in to ongoing social streams by clicking the "T Social Stream" button on the top of the chat box. These chatting options provide Ustream users with an open forum, allowing them to communicate with each other and the broadcaster in real time. By granting hosts and their viewers so much freedom to interact, Ustream fosters the creation of interactive online communities, and broadcasts have the ability to become uniquely intimate, engaging events for everybody involved. However, chats are optional, and some broadcasters may choose to avoid them completely.

Instant polls are another way broadcasters can interact with their audiences. At any point during a broadcast, a host can create a poll by clicking the "poll" button in the upper-left corner of the screen. The questions and answers are written by the host and can be about anything. Regardless of the topic, polling the audience allows hosts to gain a more thorough understanding of the consciousness of their listeners, allowing them to refine the content of their broadcasts.

Although it's much more indirect, one of the most vital methods of interaction between a host and his audience is establishing and adhering to a schedule. After all, the audience isn't going to just sit around and wait for broadcasts. Virtually all shows with any sort of community follow a strict schedule with clearly defined broadcast times.

Click over to the next page to see how recent political events brought Ustream unprecedented success and which celebrities use the service to connect with their fans.

Who Uses Ustream?

Ustream is a place where anybody can broadcast their opinions, interests, video game skills or even their puppies, kittens or termites. Many groups and organizations use Ustream to expand or enhance their services. Numerous radio stations, including Fox News Radio and Air America, use Ustream to stream their broadcasts live, providing a free visual alternative to the radio. CBS has a live breaking news feed on Ustream, and local news stations from across the globe stream their broadcasts to the Internet with the service.

Ustream has also become a popular destination and outlet for famous people. From politicians to actors and musicians, Ustream provides a new way for celebrities and their fans to interact, and their presence has brought millions of additional visitors to the site.

In 2008, for example, Ustream went political, and it was a huge success. Just about every candidate running for president broadcasted from Ustream at some point during their race, from Barack Obama and John McCain to Libertarian candidate Mike Gravel [source: Reuters]. But the biggest boost for Ustream came from the Republican National Convention (RNC) in September.

Approximately 7 million people watched the RNC conference via Ustream. They watched the RNC proceedings directly from the Ustream site, individual blogs, their MySpace or Facebook pages as well as countless various news and political Web sites. It was a huge event for Ustream, and aside from giving a massive traffic boost to the site, it helped many people understand the differences between Ustream's live, streaming service and a prerecorded video outlet like YouTube. It also paved the way for the 7.7 million people who streamed President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address in January 2009, although there were multiple Web sites providing live streams for that event, not just Ustream. Still, Ustream was the most popular choice, as more than half (3.8 million) used the service for the event [source: Reuters].

Political candidates are not the only famous people who frequent Ustream, however. Many celebrities, from A to Z-list status, use Ustream to promote their projects and connect with fans. Ashton Kutcher, Snoop Dogg, Miley Cyrus and Perez Hilton all broadcast shows of one kind or another. (Ashton Kutcher hosts a one-man show where he cracks jokes and replies to comments from viewers, and Snoop Dogg chats with his audience and basically just smokes marijuana.) Regardless of whether you're watching the Jonas Brothers read letters from their fans or P. Diddy frequenting New York night clubs, you'll probably find someone or something that catches your interest.

Although it might not be the most popular video broadcasting Web site out there (that honor goes to Justin.tv and its plethora of live sporting events), Ustream provides a unique service for a constantly expanding user base [source: TechCrunch]. It offers viewers thousands of different programs across a wide range of topics. Ustream's video categories include:

* Live (featured programs currently broadcasting)
* Mobile (broadcasts from mobile devices)
* Sports
* Entertainment
* Gaming (covering everything from video games to poker)
* News
* Animals
* 24/7 (shows that are always live and broadcasting)

Each category has multiple subcategories (Entertainment/Comedy, Animals/Dogs, Music/Rock). The diversity of Ustream's content ensures that if you're looking for something to watch, you can find a show you're interested in, or, if you're broadcasting, potential viewers can find you.

Ustream's service, however, is not without its downsides, the most obvious of which is its inconsistent internal search engine. Its results are sporadic and indicate that Ustream has no ability to weed out content not related to a specific search. To complicate matters further, the broadcasters who create the shows are the ones to source and tag the programs, and they often link wildly inaccurate search tags to their broadcasts in the hopes of attracting more viewers. A search for "Shiba Inu" (Ustream's most popular broadcast is the Shiba Inu puppy cam, with, as of May 2009, close to 15 million total page views) brought up only six results. There were two Shiba Inu cams, one eagle cam, a drawing program, a local news broadcast and a show about computers. A subsequent search for "Shiba Inu" returned identical numbers, but different content. The two Shiba cams were still there, but the results also included a comedy broadcast, a video-blog, a radio station, another local news broadcast and a mixed martial arts show.

If you're new to Ustream, your best option probably is to just click on a subcategory you're interested in and continue searching until you find what you're looking for. It might take a little while to find something you like, but once you do, it's easy to locate the program again. Just hit the blue "Follow" button above the broadcast window, and it will be stored under your community settings on the top of the screen. As long as you're logged in, you can easily sort through your favorite programs. Also, Ustream provides links to similar broadcasts, so once you've found something you like, it's easy to find other broadcasts you'll enjoy.

Broadcasting Live from Ustream

As long as you have a webcam and a reasonably fast Internet connection (a minimum upload speed of 320 kbps is recommended), all you need to do before kicking off your broadcasting career is to sign up for a free Ustream membership [source: Ustream]. Simply hit the "Sign Up" button on the homepage to get started. From there, you'll have to decide on a login name and password and choose whether you want to tie your new Ustream broadcasts to your Facebook page. Ustream also allows you to use your OpenID (a single username and password used for all your online identities) with your new account if you want to. You can even choose to import your email contacts and/or Twitter followers, which is great if you want an easily accessible list of people who might be interested in checking out your show.

If you want to get started right away, you can simply name your show and hit the "Broadcast Now" button. Then, all you have do is decide if want to broadcast immediately, broadcast and record, or record and broadcast later. Your other alternative is to head over to the "Save My Show" option, which will allow you to select the settings for your new endeavor. You can upload a show logo, choose your show's category and subcategory, enter a description and even create search tags so people can easily find your new program.

Your options don't end there, however. After you get past the basics, you'll have an array of tabs and options to choose from. You can change or refine just about any aspect of your new show, including everything from the size, color and font of your text in the "Design" tab to scheduling a specific time for your broadcast by selecting the "Schedule" tab. You can even adjust your audio quality and video resolution if your broadcast is jumpy or you're experiencing a lag. To make sure you don't get overwhelmed, Ustream also offers tips and tricks to help you select appropriate titles and categories to ensure that your show finds an audience.

One of the more important options is the ability to password-protect your broadcasts. If you're planning on becoming the next Internet celebrity, this option is probably not for you. However, if you're broadcasting a more private event, such as a wedding, you might want to limit who has access to the show. Colleges often use this option for online courses and student projects, giving students the ability to review professors' past lectures and critique each others' work, all while remaining in an isolated school environment [source: EDUCAUSE].

THANKS.howstuffworks

Best free backup apps

2009-08-14T02:35:00.000-07:00

Free utility backs up frequently changed files

Most users have learned to regularly save documents while they are creating them. While this prevents you from losing your work, it has the disadvantage that each time you save you write over the previous version and so can't go back to an early revision. You can get around this by using different file names each time you save but an easier way is to use the free FileHampster program that automatically time stamps and stores copies each time you save. Furthermore, it allows you to annotate each copy so that your revision versions are fully documented. I tried it and it works well though I suggest you watch the quick start tutorial before using. There are some nice plug-ins too, including one that allows you to use a third party dif program such as WinMerge to view the differences between versions. Overall I was quite impressed. Yes, there are other programs around that perform a similar task but FileHampster is as powerful as any yet is among the easiest to use. Freeware, Windows 2000 and later with .NET V2.0 Framework, 1.1MB
http://www.mogware.com/FileHamster/

How to back up your data online cheaply

The best course of action you can take to ensure that your important documents, pictures, videos, spreadsheets and other data files are protected, is to make regular backups. Having a recent, trustworthy backup available means that you can recover from just about any eventuality, be it a virus attack, hard disk failure, flood, hacker attack, or the theft of your entire PC.

There are lots of choices when it comes to backup media. You can copy your files to CDs, DVDs, external hard drives, tape, USB sticks, another computer on your LAN, or another hard disk or partition within the backed-up computer itself. While all of these methods offer a great deal of protection against some of the major threats, they won't offer total protection unless you take the backup off-site. Otherwise, floods, burglary, fire or theft could easily mean that you lose not just the original computer but all of your backups too.

There are two possible solutions to the problem. One is to ensure that you always store your backup media away from your main computer. Just take the tape, DVD, external drive etc to a friend or neighbor, or perhaps leave it at the office for safekeeping. You can always turn on the encryption feature in your backup program if you're concerned that your friend or workmates will be tempted to pry into the content of your files. However, carrying backup media around the neighborhood is time-consuming and irritatingly low-tech, and inconvenient if you need to restore a file or refresh a backup and the media isn't at hand.

An alternative solution is to back up electronically to an online location via the internet, so that all your files are instantly off-site but remain permanently accessible if you need access to them.

Specialist providers of online backup services are plentiful, and can easily be found with Google, but they're not particularly cheap. FirstBackup [1], for example, charges more than $34 a month for storing up to 10 GB of data from a single PC. Mozy [2] is cheaper, at $4.95 a month per PC for virtually unlimited storage.

Both services come with client software that's automatic and very easy to use; just install it on your computer, tell it where your important files are stored, and the software will take care of backing them up whenever they change.

Restoring files is just as easy. And crucially, you can easily restore files to a different PC rather than to the one that was backed up. Vital if you're attempting to rebuild your digital life after your PC gets stolen or you manage to drop your laptop down the stairs.

But there are alternatives to the traditional online backup service including some good free options:

If you don't have much data to back up, some of the online backup services will give you a free account. The aforementioned Mozy, for example, offers free accounts with 2 GB of storage that never expire. If your key files consist mainly of documents and spreadsheets rather than MP3s and videos, 2 GB might well be enough. If you do have MP3 and video files too, but they don't change very often, you could always keep those files on DVDs or an external drive, kept off-site and refreshed every few months, and just use a free Mozy account for files that change frequently.

Free webmail services offer lots of email storage space for free. For example Gmail [3] offers 5 GB as does Hotmail [4] while Yahoo! [5] offers nominally unlimited storage.

You can use this storage by sending your backup data to your email account as a zipped attachment to an email. To get back your data login to your webmail account and access the attachment directly or resend it back to a mail account on your own PC. Note though, that you will be limited by the maximum email attachment size allowed by your ISP or webmail provider.

Gmail is particularly suited to online backup because of the availability of a freeware program called the Gmail Drive Shell Extension [6]. This is a wonderful piece of Windows software that creates a virtual disk drive that maps to a Gmail account. Just use Windows Explorer or any Windows application to drag a file to your virtual drive, and in reality it gets copied to your Gmail account as an attachment to a dummy message. Drag the other way and you can instantly retrieve a file from its online location.

The only problem with the Gmail Drive Extension is that Google isn't terribly keen on it, because that's not what Gmail is supposed to be for. So it could stop working at any time if Google decides to flex its technical or legal muscles. That said, it currently works really well.

Another option is to rent space on a web server. Such space is normally intended for websites but there are no rules that dictate that you can't use the space for backup instead. It's cheap too: for example, Blue host [7] charges $6.95 a month complete with a domain name. For that, you get 300 GB of storage, and access via web, ftp and SSH (secure shell).

You can send and receive files easily to your hosted server via a standard FTP program. If you don't have one of those, Filezilla [8] is excellent and it's a free download.

And so long as you store your backup files above the Web document root (htdocs on most servers), your files won't be accessible via the Web and so there's no chance that someone could type a crafty URL into their web browser and access your files.

Hopefully, you're now inspired to re-visit your current backup solution and perhaps consider doing all or part of it online. But before you do, here are two more things to consider.

First, it's always a good idea to encrypt your backup so that, if someone does hack into the server, they can't read your files. You can encrypt simply and easily using the password protection feature in an archiving program like WinZip or use a dedicated program such as the free program TrueCrypt [9].
Second, test your backups regularly. Download a few sample files from your online location and make sure that you can access them. Ideally, do the test from a different PC, just to make sure that everything still works correctly.

If you would like more online storage options check out the "Today's Best of Breed" link [10], which contains pointers to various internet sites that offer free online storage. There are some great ideas in there.

[1] http://www.firstbackup.com/
[2] http://mozy.com/
[3] http://www.gmail.com
[4] http://www.hotmail.com
[5] http://www.yahoo.com
[6] http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm
[7] http://www.bluehost.com
[8] http://filezilla-project.org/
[9] http://www.truecrypt.org/
[10] http://todaysbestofbreed.wordpress.com/2007/09/19/dont-forage-terrabytes-of-free-storage-online/

How to backup Outlook and Outlook Express.

Good tutorial covering the most common versions of Outlook. It shows you how to restore from backup as well.
http://www.sitedeveloper.ws/tutorials/outlook.htm

Best free Outlook Express backup utility

Support Alert by Ian Richards, April 20, 2006

This title has been held for some time by Majik's excellent OEBackup, however I've been really impressed by PicoBackup Outlook Express Edition. It's tad more complex to use than OEBackup but offers many more features including integrated CD/DVD burning, disk spanning, encryption, ZIP compression and the ability to backup multiple users. Freeware, Windows 98 and later, 3.37MB.
http://www.picobackup.com/pboe/index.html

Gizmo stands corrected

Support Alert by Ian Richards, April 20, 2006

In the March issue I incorrectly stated that the free MozBackup extension was no longer being developed. This is not the case; in fact, a new version is currently being prepared. I could claim this error was due to over-work, not enough sleep or even extra-terrestrials planting strange thoughts in my mind. The reality is I simply goofed.
http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/

How to back up, restore and move Outlook Express email

Support Alert by Ian Richards, March 16, 2006

There's no need to spend a cent on this; just follow this Microsoft Guide. Some of these pages use ActiveX so you may have to browse them with Internet Explorer rather than Firefox or Opera.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/270670

source.windowssecrets

INSIDE OF WORKING Hard Disk

2009-08-14T01:30:00.001-07:00

think positive

How To Kiss With Confidence

2009-08-14T01:16:00.000-07:00

How To Kiss With Confidence on Howcast

Step 1:

If you have bad breath, It doesn’t matter how confident you are, or how great a kisser. Brush your teeth beforehand if you can, or at the very least pop a breath mint.

Step 2:
Find reasons to touch the person during the date—tap their forearm, brush a hair out of their eyes, take their hand. If they’re receptive to your touch, you’ll feel more confident about attempting a kiss later.

Step 3:

Pick a private spot. Kissing someone can be anxiety-provoking enough without having an audience.

Step 4:

As you lean in for a kiss, touch the person’s chin or cheek. This makes your intentions clear, and gives them one more out. If they begin to close their eyes, they’re waving you in.

Step 5:

Begin kissing your partner, paying attention to the clues they are sending. Progressively heavy breathing, parting lips, and tongue action mean that they are really into the kiss—so continue with confidence!

thanks.howcast

think positive

Google First Production Server

2009-08-10T01:45:00.001-07:00

think positive

Windows 7 seven First Official Video

2009-08-10T01:36:00.000-07:00

think positive

download songs

2009-08-10T01:29:00.000-07:00

download 1000 songs free

think positive

swin flu

2009-08-08T02:13:00.000-07:00

Swine Flu Info

Swine Flu H1N1 What is swine flu? • Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by Type A influenza viruses that causes regular outbreaks in pigs. Swine flu viruses have been reported to spread from person-to-person, but in the past, this transmission was limited and not sustained beyond three people. • Is the current swine flu virus contagious? • Various international agencies (US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, World Health Organization) have determined that this swine influenza A (H1N1) virus is contagious and is spreading from human to human. WHO has escalated the world Pandemic Phase from Phase 3 to Phase 4 (in a 6-scale Phase), indicating that a worldwide pandemic due to swine flu H1N1 is possible. • What are the signs and symptoms of swine flu in people? • The symptoms of swine flu in people are similar to the symptoms of regular human flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people have reported diarrhea and vomiting associated with swine flu. In the past, severe illness (pneumonia and respiratory failure) and deaths have been reported with swine flu infection in people. Like seasonal flu, swine flu may cause a worsening of underlying chronic medical conditions. • • How does swine flu spread? • Spread of this swine influenza A (H1N1) virus is thought to be happening in the same way that seasonal flu spreads. Flu viruses are spread mainly from person to person through coughing or sneezing of people with influenza. Sometimes people may become infected by touching something with live flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose. • • How are human infections with swine influenza diagnosed? • To diagnose swine influenza A infection, a respiratory specimen would generally need to be collected within the first 4 to 5 days of illness (when an infected person is most likely to be shedding virus). However, some persons, especially children, may shed virus for 10 days or longer. Identification as a swine flu influenza A virus requires sending the specimen to a hospital laboratory for testing. • • How can someone with the flu infect someone else? • Infected people may be able to infect others beginning 1 day before symptoms develop and up to 7 or more days after becoming sick. That means that you may be able to pass on the flu to someone else before you know you are sick, as well as while you are sick. • How long can an infected person spread swine flu to others? • People with swine influenza virus infection should be considered potentially contagious as long as they are symptomatic and possible for up to 7 days following illness onset. Children, especially younger children, might potentially be contagious for longer periods. • Is there a vaccine for Pandemic Flu? • Because the virus is new, there will be no vaccine ready to protect against pandemic flu. Vaccine against Swine Flu virus H1N1 needs at least 6-12 months to be produced. Seasonal flu vaccine or past flu immunization will not provide protection. • • Are there medicines to treat swine flu? • Yes. The US CDC recommends the use of oseltamivir (Tamiflu®) or zanamivir (Relenza®) for the treatment and/or prevention of infection with these swine influenza viruses. Antiviral drugs are prescription medicines (pills, liquid or an inhaler) that fight against the flu by keeping flu viruses from reproducing in your body. If you get sick, antiviral drugs can make your illness milder and make you feel better faster. They may also prevent serious flu complications. For treatment, antiviral drugs work best if started soon after getting sick (within 2 days of symptoms). • • • What surfaces are most likely to be sources of contamination? • The virus can be spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with the virus and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth. Droplets from a cough or sneeze of an infected person move through the air. The virus can then be spread when a person touches respiratory droplets from another person on a surface like a desk, doorknob, child’s toy or phone handset and then touches their own eyes, mouth or nose before washing their hands. • How long can viruses live outside the body? • We know that some viruses and bacteria can live 2 hours or longer on surfaces like cafeteria tables, doorknobs, and desks. Frequent handwashing will help you reduce the chance of getting contamination from these common surfaces. • What can I do to protect myself from getting sick? • Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it. Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective. Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. The virus can spread this way. Try to avoid close contact with sick people. If you get sick with influenza, stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them. • • • • What is the best way to keep from spreading the virus through coughing or sneezing? • If you are sick, limit your contact with other people as much as possible. Do not go to work or school if ill. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. It may prevent those around you from getting sick. Put your used tissue in the waste basket. Cover your cough or sneeze if you do not have a tissue. Then, clean your hands, and do so every time you cough or sneeze. • • What is the best technique for washing my hands to avoid getting the flu? • Washing your hands often will help protect you from germs. Wash with soap and water or clean with alcohol-based hand cleaner. When you wash your hands -- with soap and warm water -- that you wash for 15 to 20 seconds. When soap and water are not available, alcohol-based disposable hand wipes or gel sanitizers may be used. You can find them in most supermarkets and drugstores. If using gel, rub your hands until the gel is dry. The gel doesn't need water to work; the alcohol in it kills the germs on your hands. • • What should I do if I get sick? • If you live in areas where swine influenza cases have been identified and become ill with influenza-like symptoms, including fever, body aches, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, or vomiting or diarrhea, you may want to contact their health care provider, particularly if you are worried about your symptoms. Your health care provider will determine whether influenza testing or treatment is needed. If you are sick, you should stay home and avoid contact with other people as much as possible to keep from spreading your illness to others. If you become ill and experience any of the following warning signs (next 2 slides), seek emergency medical care. • • In children emergency warning signs that need urgent medical attention include: • • • • • • Fast breathing or trouble breathing Bluish skin color Not drinking enough fluids Not waking up or not interacting Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough Fever with a rash • In adults, emergency warning signs that need urgent medical attention include: • • • • • Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen Sudden dizziness Confusion Severe or persistent vomiting Household Cleaning, Laundry, and Waste Disposal • • Throw away tissues and other disposable items used by the sick person in the trash. Wash your hands after touching used tissues and similar waste. Keep surfaces (esp bedside tables, surfaces in the bathroom, children’s toys, phone handles, doorknobs) clean by wiping them down with a household disinfectant according to directions on the product label. Linens, eating utensils, and dishes belonging to those who are sick do not need to be cleaned separately, but importantly these items should not be shared without washing thoroughly first. Wash linens (such as bed sheets and towels) by using household laundry soap and tumble dry on a hot setting. Avoid “hugging” laundry prior to washing it to prevent contaminating yourself. Clean your hands with soap and water or alcohol-based hand rub right after handling dirty laundry. Eating utensils should be washed either in a dishwasher or by hand with water and soap. • • •

15 second search tips: Fill in the Blanks - from google

2009-08-07T05:17:00.001-07:00

15 second search tip: Currency Conversion from google

2009-08-07T05:15:00.001-07:00

15 second search tips: Area Codes from google

2009-08-07T05:14:00.000-07:00

15 second search tips: Real Estate and Housing grom google

2009-08-07T05:13:00.000-07:00

15 second search tips: Public Data from google

2009-08-07T05:12:00.000-07:00

Orkut trick

2009-08-07T05:07:00.000-07:00

Using Forms in Google Docs

2009-08-06T03:38:00.001-07:00

Learn to use orkut promote

2009-08-06T03:29:00.000-07:00

Street View for mobile

2009-08-06T03:24:00.000-07:00

How to Repair Laptops

2009-08-06T00:22:00.000-07:00

Although any number of errors can occur that can impede normal operation of your computer, repairing your laptop may not be quite as difficult as you may think. There are a handful of more common problems that should always be troubleshooted first for a laptop and likely will lead to the normal operation of a laptop once these issues are repaired--whether it is a battery problem or display malfunction. Typically repair of any one part requires only a few steps.

Things You'll Need:

* Replacement battery External monitor Phillips screwdriver Replacement LCD display

#

Examine the laptop carefully and check for the obvious. Check the AC power adapter and make sure it is plugged into the wall and providing power to the laptop. Try switching power outlets. The problem may not be a lack of battery power or the AC power adapter connection but rather the power outlet itself.
#
Step 2

Check the laptop battery. How old is the battery? After a number of full charges--usually 1,000 for modern batteries--the battery will start to significantly lose charge and may need to be replaced. Shut off the laptop, flip it over and find the outline on the bottom, at the bottom back edge of the computer. Although laptops differ, there should be a sliding mechanism to the left or right of the battery outline that, when activated, allows the user to pop out the old battery. Slide a new battery in until it clicks snugly into place.
#
Step 3

Plug in your laptop into an external monitor to see if your current laptop LCD display is functioning properly. Use a VGA cable. Turn on the external monitor and see if it displays the contents of your laptop's desktop. If it does, the problem lies with your laptop LCD display.
#
Step 4

Replace the LCD display of your laptop. Before doing so, shut the computer down, remove the AC adapter and remove the battery once more. Use a Phillips screwdriver and remove the screws surrounding the perimeter of the bezel that encloses the LCD display. Pop these screws out and then carefully peel off the bezel, starting at one corner and working slowly.
#
Step 5

Unscrew the screws located on the metal brackets. There are two metal brackets, one on each side of the monitor display. These brackets can be seen only after the bezel is removed.
#
Step 6

Unplug the inverter cable. This cable leads directly into the inverter beside it. The inverter cable can be found just below the display, at the bottom center of the computer. It can be seen only after the bezel is removed.
#
Step 7

Slide out the old display carefully after the cable is disconnected. Then, slide the new display in. Reattach the inverter cable. Replace the screws back into the metal brackets on the side of the display enclosure, and then fix the bezel back over the display. Replace the bezel screws, and then turn on your computer to use your new LCD display.

source.ehow

Microsoft gets personal on Windows 7 "show stopper" bug

2009-08-05T23:49:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has gotten personal in responding to reports of a "show stopper" bug in Windows 7 capable of delaying the planned roll-out, which starts Thursday.

The company has blamed a chip-set controller issue rather than a critical bug in the Windows 7 chkdsk /r tool that could cause a memory leak capable of causing your PC to seize up and crash.

Windows 7 customers have been advised to update their chipset drivers to the current driver supplied by their motherboard manufacturer.

That came after Steven Sinofsky, the president of Microsoft's Windows division, took on those who had used blogs and online forums to jump on Windows 7 and the Microsoft development and testing process.

Sinofsky said Microsoft hadn't reproduced the crash or experienced any crashes with chkdsk on the stack reported in "any measurable number."

He appeared to take particular issue, however, with descriptions of a "critical bug" and "showstopper" in Windows 7, of bugs being "out of place" and comments Windows 7 would have to be delayed. The code is to be released to MSDN and TechNet subscribers Thursday and OEMs a few days later, with the official launch planned for October 22.

"While we appreciate the drama of 'critical bug' and then the pickup of 'showstopper' that I’ve seen, we might take a step back and realize that this might not have that defcon level," he said.

"Bugs that are so severe as to require immediate patches and attention would have to have no workarounds and would generally be such that a large set of people would run across them in the normal course of using their PC."

Sinofsky said Microsoft would continue to look for, monitor, and address issues as they arise if required but: "So far this is not one of those issues." ®

source.tehregister.co.uk

How To Quit Smoking

2009-08-04T23:00:00.000-07:00

How To Quit Smoking on Howcast

You say you want to feel better, live longer, and even have a little extra cash on hand? Easy. Just quit smoking.
You Will Need

* Paper and pen
* Gum and lollipops
* Willpower
* Calendar
* Nicotine gum
* Prescription drug
* Hypnosis

Step 1:

Ready yourself. Make a particular day your quit day. Don’t deviate from this plan.

Psych yourself up by making a list of all the reasons to quit—you’ll be healthier, develop fewer wrinkles, have nicer breath, save money, and you won’t be subjecting people to second-hand smoke.

Step 2:

Write down your smoking triggers. When you drink? After dinner? With coffee? Knowing what prompts you to smoke can help you quit.

Step 3:

List all the health risks associated with smoking—such as stroke, heart disease, several types of cancer, ulcers, diabetes, eye diseases, and osteoporosis.

Remind yourself that there are more than 4,000 chemicals in cigarettes, some of which are used in insect and rat poisons!

Step 4:

Tell your friends and family about your decision. They can encourage you, plus you’re less likely to back out if others know your goal.

Step 5:

Call your state’s stop smoking line for free advice, nicotine substitutes, and a plan.

Step 6:

Buy lots of gum or lollipops. When you have a craving for a cigarette, suck on a lollipop or chew some gum.

Step 7:

Keep busy so your mind doesn’t start craving a cigarette. Begin a project or new hobby.

If you experience severe withdrawal—with symptoms such as intense cravings, tension, irritability, headaches, drowsiness, or trouble sleeping—consult your physician about the possibility of using a nicotine patch.

Step 8:

Keep going. Mark your achievements on a calendar: one day smoke-free, one week, one month, and so on. Use your calendar as motivation.

Step 9:

Be prepared for difficult situations or even relapses. If you relapse, start the process over.

Step 10:

If willpower isn’t working for you, ask your doctor if you might be a good candidate for a prescription drug that may help you quit – like Zyban, also known as the antidepressant Wellbutrin.

Some people swear by hypnosis; that’s how Courteney Cox, Billy Joel, and Drew Barrymore kicked the habit.

Step 11:

Enjoy a healthier, happier and better-smelling life.

More than 400,000 deaths in the U.S. each year are caused by smoking-related illnesses.

source.howcast

Advantages to Building a PC Computer

2009-08-04T22:06:00.000-07:00

Advantages to Building a PC Computer -- powered by eHow.com

source.ehow

What is a Hard Drive?

2009-08-04T22:05:00.000-07:00

What is a Hard Drive? -- powered by eHow.com

source.ehow

What is a CPU?

2009-08-04T22:04:00.000-07:00

What is a CPU? -- powered by eHow.com

source.ehow

What is a Computer Motherboard?

2009-08-04T22:03:00.001-07:00

What is a Computer Motherboard? -- powered by eHow.com

SOURCE.ehow

How to Dress for a Job Interview - Men

2009-07-27T02:51:00.000-07:00

1.Know the company you will be interviewing with, and research the industry that it's a part of to familiarize yourself with the universal dress code. Ask a friend at the company or stake out the front door to find out what current employees wear on the job.
2.Go in a suit and tie to any company that's part of a more formal industry, such as banking or law. Choose a basic black, dark gray or dark navy suit, a matching tie and black leather lace-up shoes. Borrow anything that you may be leery of investing in well in advance to ensure that it's clean and fits well.
3.Opt for dressy casual attire for a company that you know doesn't expect suits. Pressed khakis or slacks, a clean, ironed button-down shirt, a belt and a leather loafer will serve you well.
4.Match the belt to the color of your shoes. Choose black if your outfit consists of dark grays, navys, browns or black. Opt for dark brown if you'll be wearing tans, muted pastels or medium toned colors.
5.Polish or clean your shoes the night before your interview. Scuff marks on your shoes reveal a lack of forethought and attention to detail.
6.Keep interview accessories professional. Take a briefcase or nice leather- or vinyl-bound portfolio to carry résumé, references or other pertinent documents. Leave tattered manila folders or college logo folders at home.
7.Avoid cologne or aftershave that may overpower the interviewer. Place your watch in your pocket once you make it to the front door so that you're not tempted to look at it during the interview.

sourch:ehow

How to Get Dial-Up Internet Access

2009-07-27T02:45:00.000-07:00

1.Step 1

Buy a computer that has a modem or add a modem to your existing computer. Most Internet service providers require at least an Intel 386 processor (or a Macintosh of any vintage) and a 14.4-Kbps modem. Most new computers will easily satisfy these requirements.
2.Step 2

Make sure your modem is properly installed, and connect it to the near-est phone jack using a phone cord.
3.Step 3

Look on your computer's desktop for an icon that bears the name of an Internet service provider. If you find one, double-click on the icon and follow instructions to install the software and activate your account.

4.Step 4

If you can't find an icon and you use Windows, open the Start menu and choose Settings, then Control Panel. In the window that appears, double-click the Internet Options control panel. Click the Connections tab, then click the Setup button at the top of the window.

5.Step 5

On a Mac, look for the Internet Setup Assistant in the Apple menu.

6.Step 6
If your computer doesn't come with Internet software, look in the yellow pages under 'Internet' for Internet service providers in your area.

7. Step 7

Look for special offers from large, commercial ISPs on television, in newspapers and in the mail.

8. Step 8

Contact a provider and request installation software.

9. Step 9

Once you've received the software, follow the instructions on the pack-age to install the program and set up your account.

How To Get Six Pack Abs in 3 Minutes Workout, This WORKS!!!!

2009-07-25T03:14:00.000-07:00

install printer without driver

2009-07-25T02:44:00.000-07:00

How to Install Printer Drivers Without a Disc -- powered by eHow.com

How to Use Twitter

2009-07-24T00:38:00.000-07:00

Using Chat in Gmail

2009-07-23T02:18:00.000-07:00

Stay Organized with Gmail | eztechtips.com

2009-07-23T02:17:00.000-07:00

Composing Mail in Gmail

2009-07-23T02:15:00.000-07:00

How to Use Gmail : Overview of Gmail Interface

2009-07-23T02:14:00.000-07:00

using gmail part1

2009-07-23T02:11:00.000-07:00

SUBMIT A VIDEO FROM GAMIL

2009-07-23T02:01:00.000-07:00

Like many of us nowadays, I get a lot of email. So much email that going on vacation can be a little scary because I know I'll have a mountain to wade through when I get back. A few messages I receive each day are time-sensitive or very important — but only a few. Lots of my mail can wait a few hours or a few days or even a few weeks, or in the case of that mailing list I've always meant to unsubscribe from, forever.

Thankfully, Gmail has a lot of features that keep me organized, from filters to archiving to keyboard shortcuts to Tasks, as well as a whole bunch of Labs features, like Superstars. I've developed my own system for dealing with all my incoming mail, but I'm always curious to hear about how other people manage their messages.

If you're a Gmail expert and an organizational wizard, we want to see how you do it. So submit a short video at youtube.com/gmail to showcase your tips and tricks for managing your inbox. Submit a great one by August 15th, and your video could end up in our Help Center, our forum, or even on this very blog. And if you aren't into making your own video, check out the videos that others have submitted and let us know what you like.

You can discuss these videos in the official thread in our new forum. The Gmail Help Forum isn't just about "help" -- it's also a great place to connect with other Gmail users and share tips and tricks. We recently gave it a complete makeover, so if you haven't been there in a while, check it out.

Top 5 Ways to Cut Printer Waste

2009-07-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

5. Conserve Energy

Your printer may not seem like a huge energy drain, but multiply it by an entire office full of printers, and all of the large office buildings in the country, and the energy use becomes substantial. One of the best ways to reduce your printer consumption is by purchasing an energy-efficient printer.

The most energy-efficient printers reduce energy usage, cut costs and help prevent paper waste. Look for a printer with the Energy Star label, which means that it has met the U.S. government's requirements for energy efficiency.
Many newer printers come with a power-save feature that puts the printer into sleep mode when it's not in use. Power-save makes your printer more energy efficient by shutting it down at night, on the weekends or whenever it's been sitting dormant for a certain period of time. If your computer does not have a sleep mode, turn it off or unplug it whenever it's not in use. Just turning your printer off at night can cut its annual energy cost by $30 or more [source: APS].

4. Recycle, Reuse

Don't buy new ink and toner cartridges each time you run out. You'll condemn all of those used cartridges to centuries spent sitting in landfills. Buy recycled toner cartridges and remanufactured ink cartridges. Refill your cartridges instead of buying new ones. If you absolutely have to get new cartridges, drop off the old ones at a cartridge recycler. Many business retailers and printer companies have print-cartridge recycling programs in place.

Buy only recycled paper, and recycle the paper you use. Make sure everyone at your company has an easily accessible recycling bin near his or her desk and printer.

If you accidentally print pages that are blank or have minimal text on them, turn them over and stick them back in the printer to be used again. Or, cut those pages into small pieces and use them as scrap paper. You can even use padding compound to make your own scratch pads.

3. Conserve Ink

Unless you're printing out an important document for a client or presentation, use the draft setting in your computer's print options. Printing in draft mode will not only use less ink, but it will also print more quickly. You won't even notice the difference in quality.

You also don't need to print in color every single time. Color ink is more expensive than black ink is. Change your printer properties to print in grayscale, and you'll save money on color cartridges.

You may not realize it, but most fonts are big ink wasters. Ecofont is a new type of font that conserves ink by omitting parts of each letter. The slightly holier font doesn't affect readability, but it can cut back how much you spend on ink.

When your printer sends a message that it's low on ink, ignore it. Manufacturers want you to run out and buy a new ink cartridge before your ink has run out. Don't do it. Have a refill on hand, but wait until the quality of your printed page starts to deteriorate before replacing the ink. You should be able to print dozens more pages, even after your ink has supposedly run out. You can also get more life out of each toner cartridge by shaking it up when it's running low.

2. Use Paper Wisely

You don't have to stop printing entirely, but you can make better use of your printer paper. If you haven't already noticed, each piece of paper comes with not one, but two sides. Why not use both of them? By changing your printer settings to double-sided, you'll immediately cut your paper consumption in half.

Another great way to conserve paper is by using all of the available space on a sheet. Trim your margins back by changing the settings on your page setup. Just reducing your margins from 1 inch to 0.5 inch can cut several pages off a large document. One report by Penn State University found that the university could save 72 acres (291,373 square kilometers) of forest and more than $120,000 a year just by reducing margin settings throughout the campus [source: UC Davis]. You can also fit more onto each page by changing your Word preferences to print multiple pages per sheet.

Adjusting your font can also help you get more out of each page. Reduce the font size, or download the new EverGreen font, which is designed to maximize the number of words that can be squeezed onto each page without affecting readability.

The Web is a particularly notorious paper waster. How many times have you printed out a 30-page document, only to find that 20 of those pages consisted of ads and empty space? You can help reduce waste by previewing documents from the Web before you print them and selecting only the range of content you want to print. If you don't want to sift through each Web page yourself, download software that eliminates Internet print waste. GreenPrint analyzes every page of every Web document you send to the printer and gets rid of ads, logos and empty pages for you.

1. Think Before You Print

The best way to conserve paper and ink is to not print in the first place. If you don't absolutely have to print something, don't do it. Convert documents to PDF form and e-mail them. Save your documents on your hard drive or portable drive instead of printing them. And have your computer set reminders for you or send them to your personal electronic device instead of printing hard copies of your calendar or events.

Web pages are among the biggest paper wasters. Sometimes a single Web page can produce 30 or more pages when printed. Get in the habit of reading pages online instead of printing them.

Also don't print drafts of documents to proofread them. Do your editing right on the computer. Word has a handy "track changes" feature that makes it far easier to edit documents on the computer than on paper. If you find pages hard to read on your monitor, increase the display size to more than 100 percent.

sourse:ehow

Top 5 Energy-efficient Computers

2009-07-21T21:42:00.000-07:00

For many consumers buying a new computer, it's all about speed and power. But for a growing crowd, the energy-efficient design of the computer is increasingly important. Luckily, there's help sorting through the options.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Energy Star program has set up green computing criteria, and compliance with these requirements earns systems the Energy Star label. To gain Energy Star compliance, computers must use an energy-efficient power supply, operate efficiently in power saving modes (standby/off, sleep and idle modes), and also provide power management features (along with information about how to use those features). If all the computers that are sold in the United States met Energy Star requirements, we could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 2 million cars and save about $2 billion annually on energy costs [source: Energy Star].
In addition to the Energy Star label, EPEAT (Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool), run by the Green Electronics Council, rates computers based on more than 50 energy-efficient criteria including everything from what materials were used in the system and its packaging to its energy conservation and end-of-life management. It's a three-tiered rating system -- gold, silver and bronze -- and computers ranked by EPEAT are also Energy Star compliant.

Until you're in the market for a new system, using your system's power settings (for instance, programming a sleep mode or turning the machine off and unplugging it) is a smart way to conserve energy. But when it's time to upgrade your system, consider going green. And don't forget to recycle your outdated system.

5: Dell Studio Hybrid

Dell calls the Studio Hybrid its greenest consumer desktop, and both Energy Star and EPEAT give it the thumbs up. The Studio Hybrid's 87-percent-efficient power supply meets Energy Star's 4.0 green computing standards, and EPEAT gives the system its highest rating, gold.

The Studio Hybrid is 80 percent smaller than a typical desktop computer and uses about 70 percent less power than most standard desktop computers. The computer's packaging is made from 95-percent-recyclable materials and comes with less printed documentation -- 75 percent less by weight (all documentation is made available online instead) [source: Dell].

For an additional charge, you can personalize it with a bamboo sleeve. And when you're ready to upgrade, the Studio Hybrid comes with its own system recycling kit.

4: Dell OptiPlex

Dell's OptiPlex line is a solid choice for professionals looking for an expandable, scalable desktop. It's also an energy-efficient workhorse -- the OptiPlex is Energy Star 4.0 compliant and carries an EPEAT gold rating.

It's not only the computers that are going green at Dell -- the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ranks Dell in the top five in the latest EPA Fortune 500 Green Power Challenge [source: EPA]. Dell is committed to reducing its desktop and laptop energy consumption by up to 25 percent by 2010 through the use of integrated Energy Smart technologies, including energy-optimized hardware and software. Since 2005, the OptiPlex's energy efficiency has improved by about 50 percent [source: Business Wire].

3: Lenovo ThinkCentre M58 / M58p

Like their green brethren, ThinkCentre desktops are Energy Star 4.0 compliant and have earned the EPEAT gold rating.

What makes the ThinkCentre especially green? Systems using their power-management tools can reduce energy consumption by 69 percent [source: Lenovo]. Lenovo estimates that energy savings translate into a cost savings of $40 on your yearly electricity bill. And it's not just dollars saved, it's CO2 emissions reduced, too. The ThinkCentre is designed to reduce CO2 emissions by 575 pounds (261 kilograms) per desktop every year, which is about the same as if 185 gallons (703 liters) of gasoline went unused [source: Lenovo].

2: Apple 17-inch MacBook Pro

For those in the market for something small and shiny -- and green -- take a look at Apple's 17-inch MacBook Pro. This laptop boasts Energy Star 5.0 compliance and a gold EPEAT rating. The MacBook shines when it comes to reducing environmental impact. It's made out of glass and aluminum (both recyclable materials); is free from mercury, arsenic, PVC and brominated flame retardants; and it uses 35 percent less consumer packaging than its predecessor.

Apple estimates that the 17-inch MacBook uses about 1,499 pounds (680 kilograms) of CO2e (Carbon Dioxide Equivalence, which measures the CO2 emissions potential during a specific period of time) total through its entire lifespan, from production and transportation to consumer use and recycling [source: Apple].

Prefer to work on something larger than a laptop? Apple's iMac is an integrated desktop -- an all-in-one system -- that also rates the Energy Star label and EPEAT gold. When you're ready to upgrade, take advantage of Apple's product take back and recycling programs.

1: Toshiba Portege R600

The Toshiba Portégé laptop line has earned Energy Star 4.0 compliancy and EPEAT's gold rating -- not only did it receive EPEAT's highest rating, the Portégé R600 ranks No. 1 in the gold category. Additionally, Greenpeace named the Portégé R600 the greenest laptop computer in 2009 in its second annual "Green Electronics: The Search Continues" survey.

Toshiba rates its products against an idea it calls Factor T, a mathematical formula the company created to assess a computer's consumer value against its environmental impact over its expected lifetime. High consumer value and low environmental impact equal the biggest energy efficiency.

Toshiba itself has set a company goal to double its environmental efficiency by 2010. Toshiba uses components with low-power consumption technology. Component and part suppliers that want to work with Toshiba must comply with a 22-point environmental performance survey before collaborating with the company.

source:ehow

yahoo

2009-07-21T21:23:00.000-07:00

Yahoo unveiled a redesigned Yahoo.com front page on Tuesday, billing it as the Web portal's most significant redesign ever. Taking a cue from Google's iGoogle, the new page is gives users a way to personalize Yahoo.com so they can check in with other sites, such as Facebook or Gmail using a brand-new "My Favorites" section. Yahoo has built Web widgets that link to more than 65 other sites. These can all be added with a simple point and click, but users can add their own Web sites too and edit the layout of the front page.

The redesigned front page is leaner and more contemporary looking, featuring less advertising than its predecessor. For example, Yahoo has scrapped its "Marketplace" section, which featured links to advertising. Users in the U.S. should start seeing links to the new homepage when they visit Yahoo.com, starting Tuesday (If you're not offered the page, you can check it out by visiting this page) and it will roll-out in the U.K., France, and India over the next week.

A new version of Yahoo.com for mobile users is set to launch next week. Spain and Mexico are slated to get updated sometime next month. The new design has already been beta tested by tens of thousands of users, and the new design should be available worldwide by early next year, said Tapan Bhat, Yahoo's senior vice president of integrated consumer experiences. "What we are doing over here is making users at the heart and the core of Yahoo."

thanks.pcworld

First Windows7 RTM code available August6

2009-07-21T21:20:00.000-07:00

In an announcement late Tuesday afternoon, Microsoft product evangelist Brandon LeBlanc did not reveal the precise date in which Windows 7 would release to manufacturing. He did state, however, that the first availability of the final code will come Thursday, August 6, for independent software and hardware vendors, and also for MSDN and TechNet subscribers (English language version only).

Volume license customers will be next to see availability the following day, if they subscribe to Software Assurance (SA), said LeBlanc. Those without an SA license must wait until September 1 to download their copies.

Gold certified partners will be next to download Windows 7 on August 16. Non-English language copies will be available on October 1. This news does mean that Microsoft's analysts' meeting scheduled for July 30 will likely be devoted to the Windows 7 RTM, which will very likely have happened by that date. OEMs will receive their copies of images for installation to new PCs beginning two days following RTM date, said LeBlanc, again without revealing the precise date.

google health record

2009-07-21T04:04:00.000-07:00

Do you have medical records gathering dust in a pile somewhere? As a doctor and nurse on the Google Health team, we've both had a lot of experience working directly in the healthcare system, with all the bills, insurance forms and other paper documents that come with it. We know from firsthand experience how burdensome all of these documents can be and we would like to reduce the unnecessary use of paper in patient care. As a step in that direction, Google Health recently added a feature which allows patients to upload scanned paper documents to their Google Health profile for safe storage and easy sharing.

One of the most important documents you may want to store and share in Google Health is an "advance directive." An advance directive allows you to determine your end-of-life wishes so that your family and doctor can honor them if you get sick and are unable to communicate. The decision to sign an advance directive is an important and personal one, and Google Health now makes it a little bit easier. Google Health is now working with a leading advance directive provider, Caring Connections, that provides a free, downloadable form customized for all 50 states. To complete your form, download it, print it out, complete it, scan it, and upload it to Google Health. Once you've uploaded the signed form, Google Health makes it easy to share it with your caregiver.

We hope someday we'll move beyond paper, but until then Google Health can help you store your paper medical records electronically, including an advance directive, in one safe place.

Now displaying images in messages from your contacts

2009-07-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

When an email references external images, Gmail usually doesn't display them automatically. Instead we show placeholders and present you with the option to "Display images below" or "Always display images from" that sender.

We do this to help protect your privacy from spammers, who can use images and links to verify that your email address is real.

But often the messages you get with images are from friends or family and there's no reason to worry about your privacy — you just want to see the photo of your newborn niece or the invitation design they're sending you. So, in these cases, we've decided to start displaying images by default. Now, whenever someone you've emailed at least twice sends you a message containing images, you'll see them right away. Note that we picked this threshold of two messages to start with, but we may tweak it if it doesn't seem right going forward. And we only display images by default for authenticated messages (using SPF or DKIM). Gmail and other big mail providers usually authenticate their mail, but other services might not, so it's possible you'll get an email from one of your contacts where images aren't displayed by default.

If you prefer to go back to the way things were, you can choose not to display images from certain senders or from anyone. To disable images from an individual sender, click "Don't display from now on" under the "Show details" link of an email from them with images. To disable images from everybody, select "Ask before displaying external content" under "External content" on the general Settings tab.