NASA crashes rocket, satellite into moon in search for water

(CNN) -- NASA crashed a rocket and a satellite into the moon's surface on Friday morning, a $79 million mission that could determine if there is water on the moon.

An artist's rendering shows the LCROSS spacecraft, left, separating from its Centaur rocket.

NASA televised live images of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, as it crashed into a crater near the moon's south pole.

NASA officials said it appeared to be a "successful impact."

Minutes before its impact, the satellite guided a rocket into the Cabeus crater in an effort to kick up enough dust to help the LCROSS find whether there is any water in the moon's soil.

The Centaur upper-stage rocket impacted the moon shortly after 7:30 a.m. ET, and the satellite followed it four minutes later.

The LCROSS carried spectrometers, near-infrared cameras, a visible camera and a visible radiometer to help NASA scientists analyze the plume of dust -- more than 250 metric tons' worth -- for water vapor.

The orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter watched and photographed the impacts. Meanwhile, hundreds of telescopes on Earth focused on the moon, hoping to catch a glimpse of two plumes.

he Cabeus crater lies in permanent shadow, making observations inside the crater difficult.NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, who watched the event at a public event at the Newseum in Washington, said there was a lot of interest in the NASA mission."We had families ... literally coming in off the street" to watch, she said on NASA TV. iReport: Did you watch?NASA had encouraged amateur astronomers to join the watch parties."We expect the debris plumes to be visible through midsized backyard telescopes -- 10 inches and larger," said Brian Day at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. Day is an amateur astronomer who is leading education and public outreach for the LCROSS mission.Ames Research Center -- which led the mission -- hosted an all-night event, featuring music and food before broadcasting NASA's live transmission of the lunar impact.Other science observatories and amateur astronomy clubs across the country hosted similar events. "The initial explosions will probably be hidden behind crater walls, but the plumes will rise high enough above the crater's rim to be seen from Earth," Day said.Data from previous space missions have revealed trace amounts of water in lunar soil. The LCROSS mission seeks a definitive answer to the question of how much water is present. NASA has said it believes water on the moon could be a valuable resource in the agency's quest to explore the solar system.LCROSS launched with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 18

Learning to Play Omaha Poker

In this article I will give you the basic to playing Omaha Poker, If you are already established with Texas Hold'em you should already understand the basics of Omaha. However beware if you are a Hold'em player as there are some pitfalls which are pointed out towards the end of the article.

How to Play Omaha.

Omaha is played in pretty much they same way as hold'em but with several differences, the main and most obvious difference being that the player is dealt 4 hole cards with which to make the best hand rather than 2 in poker. You can use any of your 2 hole cards and any 3 of the boards 5 cards to make the best hand. Hands are ranked in the same way as Hold'em (Royal Flush being best down to High Card being worse)

Omaha is not Hold'em

This is the most important thing to remember when converting from Hold'em. Being dealt 4 cards doesn't give you an 2 extra hands it gives you 6. Omaha is much more variant and bad beats can be a very common occurrence, Just because you are ahead on the flop and you know it, there will still be many outs for your opponents. Also being Dealt AAKK doesn't necessarily mean you are powering ahead of your opponents preflop. Imagine you have Ac Ad Ks Kd and you hit the flop of 3c 4d 7c you may think you have the nuts, but really there are so many potential hands out their such as flush and straight draws, 3oak and 2 pair even hitting an A on the river will only give you 30ak against so many more powerful hands. Also an important thing to remember is if a pair appear on the board their is a very high chance of someone hitting a fullhouse or 4oak. Straight flushes are also a very high possibility in Omaha games.

Also you must use at least 2 of your hole cards, for example the board see's 4 clubs come up and you have the Ac and the rest of your cards hold no value. You do not hit a flush at all. This can lead to many curious hands, another example being Q K Q K 10 are showing on the board and you have A J, you hit a straight, if another player has A K they' don't hit a full house just three of a kind (KKK) with Ace Kicker. This can be a strange rule to get used to especially if you come from a Hold'em background where you don't need to play any of your cards.

Other Versions of Omaha

Hi/Lo - Two separate pots are available to win . The lo pot is where you have the five lowest cards made from 2 of your cards and 3 on the board (the best hand being A2345) flushes, straights, pairs etc don't count for the lo pot. Assuming the other player can beat the lo pot winner with his 5 best cards he will win the high pot.

Start out at the small tables when playing omaha $0.02/$0.05 are best if your just starting out. Play around with Pot limit and fixed Limit (quite rare to fine players here) tables, as well as Hi/Lo tables. New players may not be as comfortable playing Hi/Lo tables straight away (so this might be a good way to exploit them!)

Split or Join MP3 Files with No Quality Loss

Whether you are a music collector or work in radio broadcasting, using the MP3 format is almost unavoidable. The MP3 standard is quick, light on resources, convenient and widely compatible among literally thousands of applications.

MP3 is lossy, meaning that every time you compress data, the sound quality slightly degrades. If you save a track from a CD into an MP3 file with high bitrate, you will probably not notice any loss of audio quality. If, however, you try to modify the MP3 audio and save it over and over in the same MP3 format, then pretty soon you will notice that the quality of the audio worsens.

But what if you already have a pile of MP3 files that you need to handle? Do you always have to face the quality degradation?

Fortunately, there are tools that can perform certain tasks with MP3 files without affecting the sound quality. In fact, you can only perform a handful of things without affecting MP3 quality: you can cut big files into smaller chunks, join small files into a single one, trim files or remove silence, and edit ID3 tag information.

Direct MP3 Splitter Joiner by http://www.mp3-splitter-joiner.com/ is made specifically to handle MP3 files with absolutely no loss of quality. The product helps podcast producers, MP3 collectors, radio staff, professional narrators, and just about everyone else who has to have the best possible quality to perform lossless manipulations with MP3 files.

Splitting big MP3 files into a set of smaller files is easy with Direct MP3 Splitter Joiner. You can split one or more large MP3s into smaller files of equal size, but that’s not all that Direct MP3 Splitter Joiner is able to do! You can let Direct MP3 Splitter Joiner to split big files into chunks of the same play length, or the same byte size, or the same number of pieces. Direct MP3 Splitter Joiner can handle CUE files, allowing MP3 album splitter functionality. The smaller files are handy when you need to put them to a Web site or email them to a friend.

Joining a number of smaller MP3 files into a single file is equally easy. Direct MP3 Splitter Joiner overcomes the 1 GB size barrier, allowing you to create huge files to burn onto a DVD. Thanks to the lossless mode of operation, you can join and split a single MP3 file several times with absolutely no degradation of quality!

Direct MP3 Splitter Joiner also supports trimming the MP3s and removing silence. All operations are completely automated, and all you need to do is pointing Direct MP3 Splitter Joiner to a file or a folder that contains the MP3 files to process. The tool will do the rest completely automatically.

Direct MP3 Splitter Joiner is capable of reading and editing ID3 tags, and recognizes MP3 files in every possible format, including variable bitrate, MPEG1, MPEG2 and MPEG 2.5 Layer3. The drag and drop interface makes using Direct MP3 Splitter Joiner simple and straightforward. Direct MP3 Splitter Joiner is just an amazing tool! Download your free demo copy from

http://www.mp3-splitter-joiner.com

/ and enjoy lossless MP3 editing!

Windows Vista – An Overview

After a gap of nearly 5 years, Microsoft released the latest version of Windows which is named as Vista. With a name change from Longhorn to Vista, the stable version of Windows is expected to be released during November 2006. The beta version of this software is already available as a free download. If you have a lot of patience or a very high speed internet connection then you can download Vista which is nearly 2.5 GB in size.

Microsoft promises that Vista will have plenty of new features which includes updated graphical user interface (GUI), Windows DVD Maker – a new creation tool for multimedia – and totally revamped audio, print and networking sub-systems. Vista will make use of peer-to-peer technology to make file sharing between networked computers easier. With the inclusion of Virtual PC in Vista, Microsoft claims that running previous versions of Windows simultaneously on the same machine will not be a problem.

The developers can make use of the Net Framework version 3.0 introduced in Vista. This version is claimed to be easier to work with than the traditional Windows API.

The most common criticism of Windows XP is its unstable security and its inability to protect the system from buffer overflows, viruses and malware. The stated goal of Vista is to improve the security considerably and make the system protected from the invasion of malwares and virus threats.

Vista comes with improved performance of Windows Shell, easier and faster search functions, a sidebar resembling Apple’s Spotlight, desktop gadgets for applets, the latest version of Internet Explorer – the controversial web browser of Microsoft -, Windows Media Player 11, specialized User Account Control, built in Firewall to control and monitor outgoing and incoming traffic, Windows Defender, a Windows version of anti-spyware and Windows mail which will replace the existing Outlook Express.

Microsoft claims Vista will help in improving the performance of the PC in certain key areas which includes starting up, response to user actions, and waking up. The start up is going to be very quick and while background processing of scripts and applications are executed, the other desired tasks can be performed by the users.

The new sleep state provision in Vista has combined features for standby mode, data protection and low power usage during hibernation.

If you want to try Vista on your desktop computer then your system should have a processor which should be at least 800MHZ speed, 512 MB RAM and have the latest version of any good graphic card capable of executing DirectX version 9 or above. This is only a minimum requirement. For optimum results a better processor – above 1.2GHZ is needed.

Dr. Software Can Help Keep Your PC Healthy

There are many things that can affect your PC’s performance. From viruses and spyware to hidden errors and missing application files, there is no end to the possible culprits that could be slowing your computer down. To find any one culprit could take you hours upon hours of searching your hard drive and you might not even be successful. Added to that, is the fact that there could be more than 200 reasons why your computer is not performing like it used to.

With numbers like these, you might begin thinking that it is impossible to keep your system running lighting fast and error free, but with the right Dr. Software, you can keep your system operating glitch free without lifting a finger or manually searching your hard drive.

Dr. Software is software that routinely scans your hard drive and operating systems for errors and nasty bugs that can slow it down. If the software finds any bugs or errors, these errors and bugs are fixed and removed immediately before they can cause problems. Not only does this keep your PC performing like new, it can save you a great deal of money because hidden errors are responsible for major computer glitches that often require professional tech help.

Hidden errors occur when a program or application starts to run improperly due to lost operating files or holes in the way that data is stored. This happens when you add programs and delete programs. Hidden errors can also occur when you download hidden and harmful software like spyware and adware. These programs can operate without you knowing it and can compromise your system.

Some of the symptoms associates with hidden errors can include slow responses to your commands, program glitches, pop-up error screens, loss of data and system crashes. While all of these problems are annoying, some can get so severe that they result in a fatal error.

Instead of letting these problems add up until they become annoying, unbearable or result in a total system failure, Dr. Software helps to eliminate any trouble that you may experience from hidden errors. This software fixes errors that cause problems, fixes corrupt files, prevents hidden files from causing harm, and helps you avoid formatting and rebooting errors without you having to think about it.

And you can use this software for a fraction of the cost that you would shell out to tech professionals. Unlimited access to repairs costs as little as $20 per month, $60 per year and $130 for life. Now, that’s a big difference than what you pay for in-house technical service. In fact, you could pay for your doctor software for a lifetime just by avoiding one in-home technical call. All of those technical fees avoided equal more money in your pocket and a smooth-running, error-free personal computer for you and your whole family to enjoy.

And if you don’t think your PC has hidden errors on it, think again. Did you know that research conducted by a leading software company has revealed that more than 94% of computers have hidden errors on them only after one month of operation? In fact, it is not uncommon for computers to have more than 200 hidden errors. That in itself is reason enough to take advantage of all that Dr. Software has to offer.

But even if you’re still doubtful, most Dr. Software companies offer free hidden error scans so that you can see exactly what is happening with your computer before you purchase protection. It only takes a few minutes to download and perform the scan, and once finished, you will be amazed by how many hidden errors it turns up.

So, if you are experiencing slow execution times, program glitches, system shutdowns and data loss, perhaps you should see if hidden errors are to blame with a free Dr. Software hidden error scan. After all, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose except those pesky hidden errors.

Create Icons for Vista Applications with Ease

Icon Lover is a powerful editor for creation and editing animated and static icons and cursors. With this editor, you can easily create and modify icons of any size and color as well as manage icon libraries and image lists. It also allows you to create images with multiple layers. In addition to the classic set of drawing instruments, Icon Lover has the Effects Studio enabling you to use such visual effects as opacity, drop shadow and many others. Moreover, you can simultaneously apply effects to a great number of icons. It also supports most of the existing image formats and can convert from any to any of them, so it's easy to create icons from images. With these features, Icon Lover is at its best for nice, smooth icons for Vista.

Another advantage of Icon lover is that it can solve the problem, most of the companies face while creating design for Vista applications. Vista doesn't support 16-bit DLLs anymore. This means that all 16-bit DLL and ICL files are no longer useful for uploading icons to API. Well, you can't change Vista's inner architecture, but you can use Icon Lover to transform 16-bit DLLs to 32-bit ones. The program works smoothly with both 16-bit and 32-bit DLLs and can convert them from one to another. Now your old DLLs can be converted and applied to run on Vista and vice-versa - 32-bit DLLs can be transferred to 16-bit ones for use on another OS.

Icon Lover has been created by graphic designers for graphic designers and thus, all much-requested functions are delivered in a friendly interface. With this editor, your work will be as convenient as never before. What's more, in case you don't have time to go through the whole editing process, you can simply use Icon Lover to download icons from the Internet, and get a ready-made solution. Use Icon Lover to create the finest icons for apps and sites to make them very attractive. Please, visit http://www.aha-soft.com/iconlover/index.htm for a free trial.

Choosing A Free Spyware Remover

These are some of the most powerful and popular spyware removers which are widely available. All of them are completely free for download from their official websites and for personal use.

Advanced Spyware Remover (ASR): This software from Evonsoft protects your system against and removes numerous malwares such as stealthy spyware, aggressive adware, system hijackers, tracking cookies, keyloggers, dialers, etc. It also scans and lists the contents of key areas of the Registry and System. The new version even includes a Quarantine Manager. Available for download free of cost at www.evonsoft.com/download.htm/

STOPzilla (http://www.stopzilla.com/): STOPzilla is very powerful in protecting against phishing and ID Theft. It features Real-Time Spyware and Adware protection, Integrated Cookie and History cleaning, Integrated Home Page Hijacker protection and a Popup protection. The ZILLAsmart technology automatically checks for updates on a daily basis, and support is free 24/7 via live chat, email or a toll free number.

AD-aware Personal (http://www.lavasoft.com/: A product from Lavasoft, this spyware removal software provides advanced protection from known data-mining, aggressive advertising, Trojans, dialers, malware, browser hijackers, and tracking components b detecting known and unknown variants of malware by using the Code Sequence Identification (CSI) technology. It scans fixed and removable drives, memory and Windows registry.

Spy Cleaner Lite (http://www.spycleaner.net/): Programs and applications that automatically install themselves on your system are identified and removed by Spy Cleaner. It scans for traces of recognized adware modules in the DAT files, registry and temporary Internet files. After the search, it provides you with a log file.

Spy-Ad Exterminator Free: The software scans for and deletes, ignores, or quarantines your system’s memory, hard drives, and registry for spyware, adware, worms, hijacks, keyloggers, IE Toolbars, etc. Has up to 20,000 malwares in database, which can be updated online.

Disspy Lite: The Disspy Lite scans memory, registry, cookies, files and folders and removes all detected malwares such as keyLoggers, Hijackers, Dialers, Spyware, Adware, Browser Helper Objects, Spyware cookies, aggressive advertising and other malware. All removed files are quarantined for restoration when needed, and users can choose to be alerted whenever a newer database version is available for download. Download available at http://www.hdesk.com/new/Download.12.0.html/

Free Spyware Scanner (www.spyscanner.net): This spyware remover has a huge database of spy components which infects the system, and offers remarkable features such as options for scanning your drives and Registry, updating online, and saving the last, best system set-up as a backup, and the option of saving log file of the scan result and file deletion for future reference.

AdDriller (www.cdmworld.com): AdDriller scans and cleans over 30,000 now malwares. It also includes features such as like active monitoring and HEX Viewers besides removing adware, spyware, malware, Trojans etc, and new features such as scheduling, scan depth, messenger services enable and disable.

Malware Sweeper (http://www.malwaresweeper.com/): This remover not only scans your registry and drives for known adware modules and Spywares, but for your active memory ad components, which are not stored on your hard drive and last only as long as the computer is powered up. It also removes bundled spyware components from Kazaa, Morpheus, audiogalaxy, grokster, Limewire, Imesh, Gnutella.

adware

Adware Software

Nasties can be Installed on your computer without your consent, spyware software monitors or controls your computer use. Your operating system (like Windows or Linux) may offer free software “patches” to close holes in the system that spyware could exploit. So it tends to be when "ware" is short for "software"; sometimes it's pretty tricky to define exactly what kind of software it includes and what these programs do.

A browser hijacker is software that hijacks browsers (and does some other nasty things). By free software like screensavers or P2P file sharing programs which you download, such as Kazaa. Worse, no one piece of software will protect you from the above.

Companies add adware to their software – usually freeware and shareware – to pay for programming costs. Spyware is a type of software that collects information from your computer and sends it to a third party without your knowledge or permission. For many years now, marketing companies have been taking advantage of us by writing programs and sneaking them into software downloads without our permission so they can force us to view there advertisements for products.

He had hijacked some 500,000 computers, though these computers (known as zombies) could be used for malicious activity they were used to plant adware – or software which caused advertisements to pop-up on the infected computers.

Free

If you are adware free then you can carry on without a care in the world, Your money will still be in your pocket and your computer will be running safely. Have you ever visited a peer-to-peer file sharing site and downloaded games, movies or just about any files from these free sites. The following is a guide on how to remove spyware, adware, and pop-up ads using FREE tools ready to download anytime.

If you are a updated Windows OS user you pull up your task manager system information screen and see that your system is running at 100%, then you are infected with spyware because your system always needs a little free space in order to process information, which is why your system slows down when you have spyware on it. 10 years ago you could probably have run no Internet security applications and still have come out after a browse of the Internet with a virus and malware free computer, but this situation is no longer apparent. Don’t just download programs that are free, or sound too good to be true.

This program is usually bundled with the Kazaa file-sharing program, as well as other free software programs.

Remove

You do not have to deal with this anymore, you can actually remove spyware and adware, and you can remove it for free. The best way to remove spyware and adware are to download spyware removal tools. Here are four methods to remove or simply avoid adware and spyware without spending a dime on the latest "anti-virus" software.

"These fraudulent programs foul machines, undermine productivity and in many cases frustrate consumers' efforts to remove them from their computers. Lawmakers are recognizing the problems and the invasion of privacy that these marketing companies are causing and are working on laws to make them outlawed, but until that day comes the best we can do is educate ourselves about PC security and how to protect and remove spyware from our computer systems. Here are some methods to detect spyware and adware and remove or merely avoid the adware and spyware and not outlay a dime on the most recent "anti-virus" software, such as Spyware Nuker.

There are many software programs available designed to remove Viruses, Spyware, Adware and other nasties from your computer. If your computer get infected with it then you must try to remove it with any good anti- spyware program, some of them can be freely downloaded from the internet.

Anti-spyware

An effective anti-spyware program will detect and remove all possible infected files. The following is a list of the top three players in the free anti-spyware software game:. Microsoft Anti-Spyware is quickly increasing in popularity but is currently in Beta stages.

Two of the biggest things that these Anti-Spyware programs accomplish for you are that they help in protecting your online privacy and they help make your computer run a lot better. Second of all, it’s the most downloaded and used Anti-Spyware program from the Clickbank digital download network. On December 8, 2004 Webroot, an award winning anti-spyware solution provider, released a press release identifying the ten most significant emerging spyware and adware threats.

Being an employee of an anti-spyware developing company, I guess I know this matter well enough to point that out. The first thing you will want to do is make sure you have the newest, most up-to-date anti-spyware scanning program on the market.

9 quick and easy ways to speed up your computer!

Many people are interested in making the most of their hardware. So here are 10 simple tips on how to make your Windows XP computer run faster without having to purchase additional hardware.

1. Defrag Disk to Speed Up Access to Data

One of the factors that slow the performance of the computer is disk fragmentation. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. To speed up the response time, you should monthly run Disk Defragmenter, a Windows utility that defrags and consolidates fragmented files for quicker computer response.

* Follow Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter

* Click the drives you want to defrag and click Analyze

* Click Defragment

2. Detect and Repair Disk Errors

Over time, your hard disk develops bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing difficult or even impossible. To detect and repair disk errors, Windows has a built-in tool called the Error Checking utility. It’ll search the hard disk for bad sectors and system errors and repair them for faster performance.

* Follow Start > My Computer

* In My Computer right-click the hard disk you want to scan and click Properties

* Click the Tools tab

* Click Check Now

* Select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box

* Click Start

3. Disable Indexing Services

Indexing Services is a little application that uses a lot of CPU. By indexing and updating lists of all the files on the computer, it helps you to do a search for something faster as it scans the index list. But if you know where your files are, you can disable this system service. It won’t do any harm to you machine, whether you search often or not very often.

* Go to Start

* Click Settings

* Click Control Panel

* Double-click Add/Remove Programs

* Click the Add/Remove Window Components

* Uncheck the Indexing services

* Click Next

4. Optimize Display Settings

Windows XP is a looker. But it costs you system resources that are used to display all the visual items and effects. Windows looks fine if you disable most of the settings and leave the following:

* Show shadows under menus

* Show shadows under mouse pointer

* Show translucent selection rectangle

* Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop

* Use visual styles on windows and buttons

5. Disable Performance Counters

Windows XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC’s performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good idea.

* Download and install the Extensible Performance Counter List (http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/existing/exctrlst-o.asp)

* Then select each counter in turn in the ‘Extensible performance counters’ window and clear the ‘performance counters enabled’ checkbox at the bottom button below

6. Optimize Your Pagefile

You can optimize your pagefile. Setting a fixed size to your pagefile saves the operating system from the need to resize the pagefile.

* Right click on My Computer and select Properties

* Select the Advanced tab

* Under Performance choose the Settings button

* Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change

* Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.

7. Remove Fonts for Speed

Fonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance, trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require.

* Open Control Panel

* Open Fonts folder

* Move fonts you don’t need to a temporary directory (e.g. C:\FONTBKUP?) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will gain.

8. Use a Flash Memory to Boost Performance

To improve performance, you need to install additional RAM memory. It’ll let you boot your OS much quicker and run many applications and access data quicker. There is no easiest and more technically elegant way to do it than use eBoostr (http://www.eboostr.com).

eBoostr is a little program that lets you improve a performance of any computer, powered by Windows XP in much the same way as Vista’s ReadyBoost. With eBoostr, if you have a flash drive, such as a USB flash thumb drive or an SD card, you can use it to make your computer run better. Simply plug in a flash drive through a USB socket and Windows XP will use eBoostr to utilize the flash memory to improve performance.

The product shows the best results for frequently used applications and data, which becomes a great feature for people who are using office programs, graphics applications or developer tools. It’ll surely attract a special attention of laptop owners as laptop upgrade is usually more complicated and laptop hard drives are by definition slower than those of desktops.

9. Perform a Boot Defragment

There's a simple way to speed up XP startup: make your system do a boot defragment, which will put all the boot files next to one another on your hard disk. When boot files are in close proximity to one another, your system will start faster.

On most systems, boot defragment should be enabled by default, but it might not be on yours, or it might have been changed inadvertently. To make sure that boot defragment is enabled:

* Run the Registry Editor

* Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction

* Set the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y.

* Exit the Registry

* Reboot

Accessory Computer

A home away from home is a great thing, so why not have an office away from the office too?The spare room or a quiet corner can be a perfect place for productivity. To outfit your workspace, you might need to invest in some new hardware like a second computer, a bigger monitor or a high-quality printer. Once you've got your home computer set-up, you'll need to connect it to the Internet or network it to other computers and peripherals in the house. With a good grasp of the facts and a firm idea of your work habits, you'll be ready to make sensible choices for your home-made office.

• The Computer. Not everyone needs the same level of performance in a home office computer. You might use your computer primarily for word processing and email which requires little processing power. On the other hand, you may want more power to run database analysis, large spreadsheets or graphics applications. The type of work you do and your work load will determine whether you need a computer with a lot of brawn or just a little.

• Processor. A computer's processor or central processing Unit (CPU) is the engine that powers the device. The speed of the processor is called the clock speed which measures how fast the processor can carry out instructions. Speed is measured in MegaHertz (MHz) and is one measure of a computer's power. A typical home office Windows PC should have at minimum a 500 MHz processor. A power user would probably prefer 800 MHz or higher. If you know your computing needs are modest, and you want to save some money, an older machine with a slower processor is worth considering. When looking at an Apple Macintosh, keep in mind that you can't simply compare processor speeds with Windows machines, as the two types of computers have different system designs. Macs generally have lower processor speeds in MHz but don't let that fool you. Newer Macs like the iMac can definitely keep pace with PCs.

• Random Access Memory (RAM). When the computer is turned on, RAM is used to hold the operating system, applications and data that you're currently running. Information in RAM is rapidly available to the processor. When RAM fills up, the computer slows down because it now has to retrieve information from the slower hard drive. Imagine documents on your desk in front of you, readily at hand when you need them. But when your desktop is full, you have to file and retrieve documents elsewhere, which takes more time. The amount of RAM you need is influenced by the type of applications you use. Graphics programs like Adobe PhotoShop or Illustrator use a fair bit of memory. Word processing and spreadsheet programs use somewhat less memory. Users who like to multi-task and prefer having multiple applications running simultaneously will definitely want plenty of memory. More memory gives you a larger "workspace" and makes your computer perform faster with fewer glitches. A typical user needs at least 64 MB of RAM with 128 MB becoming the norm. In virtually all computers, you can expand the memory as you need more.

• Hard Drive. This is the computer's filing cabinet where all your applications and data are permanently stored. Most users can fit many years of productivity into a 6 to 10 GB hard drive. If you need to store a lot of information like several years of business records or image catalogues, then you may want a more spacious hard drive. Luckily, a bigger hard drive won't cost you that much extra. Alternately, you could invest in a removable storage drive.

• Expansion. It never hurts to get a system with room to grow, especially if you foresee your home office needs evolving. Find out how many RAM slots a system has and what the maximum amount of RAM is. Adding expansion cards to your system for 3D graphics or ethernet will increase the functionality of your computer. Look for a system with two or three free expansion slots and room for additional disk drives.

KARIM matmour

Festival panafricain 2009 ALGERIE

Nokia lance la première compétition baptisée “Bil3arabi”

Le leader mondial de la téléphonie mobile, Nokia conjointement avec l’ouverture de Ovi Store vient d'annoncer la compétition «Calling All Innovators “Bil3arabi” » (Par Maroua T)

Cette compétition propose aux développeurs de transférer leurs meilleures applications en langue Arabe à Ovi Store, elle permet également aux consommateurs de les utiliser sur leurs téléphones Nokia.

Pour ce projet, Nokia offrira 125 000 dollars et aidera les gagnants à distribuer leurs applications via Ovi Store. La compétition a commencé le 2 juin sur le site Internet www.callingallinnovators.com/Bil3arabi, et le contenu peut être transféré à Ovi Store jusqu’au 30 Octobre de l'année en cours. Ainsi les gagnants seront annoncés le 7 Décembre 2009.

La compétition Nokia “Calling All Innovators “Bil3arabi” » pour développeurs de contenu en Arabe est ouverte à tous ceux qui ont des idées courageuses et un talent formidable. Nokia offre de nouvelles opportunités aux développeurs locaux, qu’ils soient novices en la matière ou programmeurs expérimentés et leur propose de soumettre leurs applications en langue Arabe pour n’importe quelle catégorie d’Ovi Store (Applications and Widgets, Vidéos, Personnalisation, Jeux, Audio, Flash & Active idle widgets), avec une attention spéciale à l’Innovation Internet, Flash, et les jeux pour téléphones portables, indique un communiqué de Nokia.

Le gagnant du grand prix recevra 100 000 dollars, un emplacement de qualité pour son application au haut de la page d’Ovi Store pendant 4 semaines, ainsi qu'un voyage payé pour exposer l’application gagnante lors d’un événement Nokia. L’application gagnante sera aussi examinée par Nokia pour une éventuelle intégration à de futurs téléphones.

Le gagnant de la seconde place recevra, quant à lui, 25 000 dollars, et un emplacement pendant 3 semaines, sur une page pertinente de Nokia Ovi Store. Pour les dix meilleures participations restantes, elles recevront le “Judge’s Choice Award”. Ceci offrira à chacun d'eux une adhésion d’un an au Forum Nokia Launchpad qui leur assurera un accès à des ressources et supports exclusifs, leur permettant ainsi d’accélérer le développement d’applications pour téléphones portables, et d’augmenter leur visibilité en tant que programmeurs dans le monde de la télécommunication mobile.

"Nous sommes très fiers d’introduire le premier concours développeurs de contenu arabe. Le Moyen-Orient ainsi que les personnes qui parlent la langue Arabe de par le monde constituent un grand groupe de consommateurs, et nous recherchons des développeurs qui nous aideront à offrir aux consommateurs ce qu’ils recherchent", a déclaré Eddy Rizk, Directeur Général Nokia Afrique du Nord. Avant d'ajouter "grâce à Ovi Store, Nokia offre aux développeurs une opportunité unique de publier leur contenu avec une part de revenu de 70% et une distribution mondiale"

Un messengerPhone avec clavier complet

L'équipementier mobile Alcatel vient d'annoncer 00 One Touch Tribe est un téléphone portable équipé d'un clavier physique pour la messle lancement prochain de son premier mobile doté d'un clavier "azerty" complet. Le OT-8agerie.

Dévoilé au mois de mars dernier, le d'OT-800 One Touch Tribe, s'adresse principalement aux jeunes qui souhaitent garder le contact par e-mail, par chat ou encore par MMS et SMS. Il s'agit d'un terminal compatible GSM, GPRS, EDGE et WAP. Il est doté d'un écran LCD affichant 262 144 couleurs dans une résolution 240 x 320 pixels (non-tactile), d'un lecteur multimédia et une radio FM RDS.

Ce téléphone tri-bande est également équipé d'un appareil photo 2 mégapixels, lecteur MP3, AAC et MPEG4, et du navigateur Internet Opera mini (full html). Il est, par ailleurs, doté d'un répertoire de 500 contacts ainsi que de l'enregistreur vocal.

Concernant la taille de sa mémoire interne, elle est de 20 Mo, étendue de 4 Go à l'aide d'un emplacement microSD et synchronisée via USB ou Bluetooth. Ainsi, le terminal possède une capacité de 850 mAh, elle procure jusqu'à 9 heures d'autonomie en communications et jusqu'à 450 heures en veille.

Le Alcatel OT-800 Tribe sera disponible en 3 coloris (rose violine, vert acide, gris titanium) pour le début du mois de septembre.

La plate-forme d’ATM Mobilis a explosé dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi où quelques 800.000 SMS ont été reçus par les candidats au Baccalauréat 2009. En effet, ce sont 400.000 messages qui ont été enregistrés durant la première heure du lancement de l'opération.

Rappelons que le premier opérateur de téléphonie mobile, Mobilis, a permis à des milliers de lycéens de connaître les résultats du BAC, une opération qui a été reconduite pour la quatrième année consécutive avec un franc succès. Ainsi, après le succès de l'opération résultats BEM 2009 qui a enregistré plus de 600.000 SMS et des pics de 350 messages/min, Mobilis a réussi cet autre test sur sa plate-forme grâce à la mobilisation de ses équipes qui ont pris toutes les dispositions techniques pour assurer un meilleur trafic de l'envoi et de la réception des SMS.

En collaboration avec l'office national des examens et concours (ONEC), la consultation exclusive des résultats avant leur affichage au niveau des lycées dans la matinée de jeudi passé s'est faite, souligne-t-on, par l'envoi d'un SMS portant le numéro d'inscription au 6262, un message qui est suivi instantanément d'une réponse contenant le numéro d'inscription du candidat, sa moyenne et la mention obtenue.

Des appels illimités pour seulement 1000 dinars de rechargement

Wataniya Telecom Algérie continue son offensive commerciale et annonce la mise en place d’une nouvelle formule d’appels sur l’offre « Plus » avec toujours plus de gratuités et plus de liberté.

L’été est là et depuis le 8 juillet dernier, « Plus » adopte une nouvelle formule valable à vie. En effet, Nedjma indique que pour tout rechargement de 1000 dinars effectué sur l’offre prépayée « Plus », le client bénéficie d’un mois d’appels illimités vers Nedjma 24H24 à compter de la date de rechargement.

Lancé depuis déjà quelques mois, « Plus » est une offre prépayée qui propose au client différentes formules : 1000 DA, 2000 DA et 4000 DA d’appels illimités pour satisfaire toutes les bourses. L’un des avantages exclusifs offerts par PLUS est la possibilité pour le client d’utiliser le crédit rechargé (1000 DA, 2000 DA ou 4000 DA) afin d’effectuer des appels vers les autres réseaux au tarif le plus bas du marché en plus de la gratuité.

Commander un CD gratuit ( dernière version de linux 9.04 )

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Piratage : la France, premier pays à légaliser la coupure de l'accès à Internet

C'est fait. Le projet de loi Création et Internet, censé lutter contre le téléchargement illégal, a été adopté hier soir par l'Assemblée nationale… en présence de seize députés. Voulu par Nicolas Sarkozy, élaboré par le ministère de la Culture, défendu par l'industrie audiovisuelle, le texte instaure un dispositif antipiratage sans équivalent dans le monde. Il fait de la France le premier pays à légaliser la coupure de l'accès à Internet, pour punir le téléchargement illicite de contenus protégés. Malgré les innombrables amendements proposés par l'opposition et certains membres de la majorité, le texte n'a pas fondamentalement changé depuis son passage au Sénat. Il conserve d'ailleurs les mesures phares du projet de loi initial : un gendarme du Web sera bien créé, et les adeptes du piratage s'exposeront à une « riposte graduée » allant de l'avertissement à la déconnexion pure et simple. Voici les grandes lignes du dispositif antipiratage, adopté hier soir 2 avril (1), dont on imagine bien mal comment il va être appliqué… La Hadopi aux commandes. Une Haute Autorité pour la diffusion des œuvres et la protection des droits sur Internet (Hadopi) va être créée pour orchestrer la lutte contre le téléchargement illégal en France. Il s'agit d'une autorité administrative, dont le président sera nommé par le gouvernement et non élu parmi les membres de sa direction, comme cela était prévu au départ. C'est elle qui récupérera auprès des fournisseurs d'accès l'identité des internautes soupçonnés de téléchargement illégal, qui signera les avertissements à envoyer et qui décidera de la sanction à infliger aux pirates récidivistes. Elle n'est pas soumise au contrôle d'un juge, au gand dam des détracteurs du texte. La détection des pirates. Ce sont les ayants droit (détenteurs des droits d'auteur d'une œuvre) qui repéreront sur Internet les adresses IP des ordinateurs qui auront permis de télécharger ou de poster des œuvres protégées. Ils utiliseront notamment des leurres sur les réseaux de peer-to-peer. Après avoir collecté ces adresses, ils auront six mois pour saisir la Hadopi, qui se chargera d'identifier les titulaires des connexions Internet correspondantes auprès des FAI. Premier avertissement par e-mail. Si les ayants droit repèrent une adresse IP qui a été utilisée « à des fins de reproduction, de représentation, de mise à disposition ou de communication » d'œuvres protégées, le titulaire de la ligne recevra un premier avertissement par e-mail. Celui-ci sera envoyé par son FAI mais signé par la Hadopi. Il indiquera à l'abonné la date et l'heure de l'infraction constatée, sans nommer le contenu de l'œuvre téléchargée, par souci de « discrétion ». L'abonné pourra contacter la Hadopi pour avoir plus de précisions. Le courriel rappellera aussi à l'abonné qu'il est tenu de sécuriser sa ligne et l'aiguillera vers une liste de logiciels de sécurité. Second avertissement. Si un nouveau téléchargement est constaté depuis la même adresse IP dans les six mois qui suivent, l'abonné recevra un second avertissement par e-mail et par lettre recommandée. A ce stade, il ne pourra pas exercer le moindre recours s'il n'est pas l'auteur des faits qui lui sont reprochés. Il ne pourra le faire qu'une fois la sanction prononcée. La coupure. En cas de récidive dans l'année qui suit, la Hadopi pourra ordonner au FAI de déconnecter la ligne incriminée, pendant une durée variant de deux mois à un an. La Haute Autorité pourra proposer une « transaction » à l'abonné et réduire la durée de la déconnexion (à une période comprise entre un et trois mois) s'il s'engage à ne pas recommencer. La coupure sera effectuée dans les 45 à 60 jours suivant la notification de la Hadopi. Seul l'accès à Internet sera coupé si l'abonné dispose d'une offre triple-play (Internet, téléphone, TV). Pendant la suspension, l'internaute n'aura pas à payer la part de l'abonnement correspondant à l'accès à Internet ; les FAI seront donc maintenant obligés de détailler les prix de leurs forfaits triple-play. L'internaute ne pourra pas s'abonner auprès d'un autre FAI pendant la période de suspension, il sera sur « liste noire ». Contester la sanction. L'internaute aura 30 jours pour contester une décision de déconnexion de la Hadopi, en exerçant un recours auprès d'un juge. Les modalités de ces recours seront précisées plus tard par décret. Des logiciels de sécurité « agréés ». La Hadopi publiera la liste des fonctions requises pour qu'un logiciel de sécurité soit considéré suffisamment efficace pour protéger une ligne Internet. La responsabilité d'un internaute ne pourra pas être engagée s'il a installé un de ces logiciels. Ce qui laisse penser que ces logiciels transmettront ou stockeront des données relatives à l'utilisation de la ligne, d'où leur qualification de « mouchards » par les anti-Hadopi. Ces outils de sécurité seront payants. La loi ne précise pas s'ils seront multi-plates-formes ni leur action exacte… Des sites bloqués par les FAI. La loi autorise désormais un juge à ordonner à un FAI de prendre « toutes mesures propres » à stopper la communication d'un contenu protégé par le droit d'auteur. En clair, un FAI pourra bloquer l'accès à un site hébergeant un contenu protégé si un ayant droit porte plainte au tribunal. Plus besoin de demander à l'hébergeur de retirer le contenu. Des offres légales plus visibles. Le Centre national de la cinématographie doit préparer avant le 30 juin 2009 des « portails de référencement » pour améliorer la promotion des catalogues de contenus audiovisuels légaux sur Internet. Par ailleurs, la loi stipule que les DRM (verrous numériques) disparaîtront uniquement des contenus commerciaux vendus à l'acte et non au forfait. Une sortie plus rapide en DVD. Un film pourra sortir en DVD au minimum quatre mois après sa sortie en salles (contre six mois actuellement). Mais des exceptions sont possibles en fonction du contrat d'acquisition de droits. Le délai pourra même être réduit à trois mois si le film n'a pas bien marché au cinéma. En revanche, rien n'est encore fixé s'agissant de la vidéo à la demande sur Internet (VOD). La filière audiovisuelle dispose d'un mois à compter de la promulgation de la loi pour trouver un accord. Sinon, la VOD sera soumise au même régime que le DVD. (1) Le texte doit encore passer en commission mixte paritaire (sénateurs et députés) le 9 avril avant d'être définitivement adopté, mais il ne devrait pas y subir de grandes modifications. Il pourra aussi passer au crible du Conseil constitutionnel, si celui-ci est saisi sur le sujet. A lire aussi : le feuilleton de la loi antipiratage et les réactions.

Bientôt la fin des clips musicaux sur YouTube ?

La musique n'a plus droit de cité sur YouTube en Allemagne. Trois semaines après la branche anglaise du site de partage de vidéos (en savoir plus), c'est au tour de sa petite soeur allemande de supprimer l'accès aux clips musicaux pour les visiteurs du site. En cause, comme en Angleterre, un désaccord avec l'organisme chargé de récolter les royalties dont doivent s'acquitter les diffuseurs de musique.

La GEMA, équivalent allemand de notre Sacem, demanderait trop d'argent à YouTube pour que le modèle économique du site de Google soit viable. D'après Variety, YouTube devrait en effet verser 12 centimes d'euros pour chaque visionnage d'un clip par un visiteur. Le site a donc préféré bloquer l'accès de tous les clips de sa plate-forme aux internautes allemands.

Et la France pourrait être la prochaine sur la liste. La Sacem « pourrait prendre des mesures sévères » si le site ne parvenait pas à un accord sur le versement des royalties, annonce ainsi Catherine Kerr-Vignale, membre du directoire, dans un entretien à E24.fr. L'organisme envisage même des « actions judiciaires » ! « Nous établissons des constats afin de montrer que notre répertoire est utilisé par YouTube », ajoute ainsi Catherine Kerr-Vignale.

Contrairement à ses voisines anglaise et allemande, la Sacem ne réclame pas de versement par vidéo vue, mais « un pourcentage bas des recettes publicitaires totales du site », sur le modèle des accords déjà signés en France avec Dailymotion et Deezer, notamment.

Mozilla annonce Firefox 3.6 pour 2010

Jeudi 2 avril 2009, 19h37

La fondation Open Source vient de lever le voile sur les toutes premières informations relatives à la prochaine version de son navigateur. Annoncée pour début 2010, Firefox 3.6 (nom de code : Namoroka ou Firefox.next) fournira selon Mozilla de meilleures performances d'exécution que la version 3.5, notamment lors du lancement du navigateur ou encore de l'ouverture des onglets. D'autres évolutions toucheront à la personnalisation de l'interface, ainsi qu'à l'intégration avec l'OS et le bureau du poste de travail - en vue de faciliter le développement et le déploiement d'applications Internet riches.

Google négocierait le rachat de Twitter

Stratégie

Il y a seulement deux jours, cette annonce serait passée pour un poisson d'avril, comme celle qui affirmait que NewsCorp se portait acquéreur de Twitter pour 750 millions de dollars. Mais cette fois, la rumeur semble plus crédible. Elle proviendrait en tout cas de « deux sources différentes proches du dossier » comme l'écrit le site TechCrunch à l'origine de la nouvelle.

Google aurait entamé des négociations pour le rachat de Twitter. Bien qu'aucun montant ne soit évoqué, on sait que Twitter a refusé en novembre dernier une offre de 500 millions de dollars de la part de Facebook. Twitter est actuellement valorisé à 250 millions de dollars. Le rachat se ferait pour partie en cash et en actions Google.

Google démentait en mars être intéressé

Une information qui a tout de même de quoi surprendre puisque Google a officiellement démenti début mars être intéressé par cette opération. On sait que l'intox fait partie intégrante de ce genre de négociation. Car une chose est certaine, Twitter dispose aujourd'hui du meilleur moteur de recherche en temps réel. Un véritable joyau que des sociétés comme Google ou Microsoft  auraient tout intérêt à posséder. (Eureka Presse)

Pour en savoir plus :
Relation client : Twitter intégré à Salesforce.com cet été
Google n'est pas candidat au rachat de Twitter
Twitter serait valorisé 250 millions de dollars
Qui sont les utilisateurs de Twitter ? 
Twitter à la recherche de son modèle économique

, ZDNet France