Bypass registration at various websites with BugMeNot

Many news, review, download websites require mandatory login, even though you seldom visit them afterwards. Instead of registering for every site, use BugMeNot tool to avoid registration and browse the site.

Many sites are using OpenID concept, where users can register once and use the same ID across various sites such as Blogger.com, Wordpress.com and other sites.

But not every site uses this OpenID concept; they instead force us to register at their site. The problems in sharing data we face is first security, our information may not be safe at these sites. The sites may just harvest the details and sell it to others or the site may be vulnerable and our information might get stolen. Also, we seldom visit that site often and we may feel a registration is unnecessary. It is a headache even to keep track of all the user names and passwords.

Without a registration, however, we cannot comment or read the articles. So, to avoid registration in those sites which you don’t feel comfortable and also to browse the site, just use BugMeNot, a simple bypass tool.

Welcome Screen at BugMeNot.com

Click BugMeNot.com or http://bugmenot.com and enter the site that requires a registration in the welcome screen shown as above. It will give you a set of user ID and password to access that particular site. For example, I typed Forbes.com and found out the following username and password.

Temporary Login Information for Forbes.com

I have a membership at Forbes.com, but I checked the above username and password combination, it works.

BugMeNot provides this information so we can access these sites without any problem in a “Public” mode and without registering for the site. They have a Firefox extension here or you can bookmark the above link. If you have too many Firefox extensions and don't want to have another one, then you can use this bookmarklet and drag it to your bookmarks (I keep it in the Bookmark Toolbar in Firefox for easy access). So, when you visit a site that requires a login, just click the bookmarklet, it opens a new window with the username and password for that site. I also tried it for Digg.com, it gave the following message.

Site Blocked

This site has been barred from the bugmenot system for the following reason: community site - guests can still view everything

Which is very good, we don’t need a login for browsing a community site that is open for public view. But if you want to comment and rate, then you should have a login. As far as other sites, we can use BugMeNot tool to avoid registration.

How to turn your blog in to an OpenID

OpenID is a decentralized authentication system by which you can log-in to many websites with a single user ID generated by authorized OpenID issuers. It creates a unique URL as your username to login at various sites.


Currently if you want to leave any comment or participate in any blogs or websites, you have to register for every single one of them. This becomes tedious, as you have to remember your username and password for every site.

OpenID, on the other hand, is an alternate and simpler method: Instead of sharing all your information for every site, OpenID lets you just register once and use the same ID with every blog and website you visit.

OpenID was invented by LiveJournal but it's currently used as an open standard under the Apache Software Foundation.

This article will tell you how to open a new OpenID account and also how to use your blog or website URL as your OpenID.

1. Create an OpenID.

Many sites are offering OpenID registrations, some of them are LiveJournal, Vox, AOL, MyOpenID, VeriSign Labs and many others. Just visit any site and get an OpenID account. It's very straightforward: just your name, address, e-mail and password details. I have two OpenID accounts from AOL and MyOpenID, and both were easy to register.

Once you have this account ready, they will give you a Web address (URL) to use in the future. For example, in MyOpenID, there will be something like http://xxx.myopenid.com, where xxx will be replaced by your name of choice.

So you can visit blogger.com, LiveJournal.com, Technorati.com and many others. When they ask you to enter or register for an account, you can just use this OpenID URL as your account. Once you enter this URL, the site you are visiting will communicate with the OpenID server and confirm your registration. No need to enter a separate user name and password for the site. The first video shows how it is done.

2. Point your own site at your new OpenID

The above method creates an OpenID with a specific provider, but in some cases you want the URL to point your blog or website instead. Instead of http://xxx.myopenid.com, you would prefer your blog http://www.yourblog.com as your OpenID. It can be easily done with the following method:

Just type or copy the following HTML and paste it in your blog's HTML portion:



In the first link, in the openid.server href, enter your OpenID server URL as shown in the table below. And in the second link, in the openid.delegate, enter the Open ID URL you obtained from step 1.

OpenID Provider - Server URL

LiveJournal http://www.livejournal.com/openid/server.bml

Vox http://www.vox.com/services/openid/server

VeriSign https://pip.verisignlabs.com/server

MyOpenID http://www.myopenid.com/server

That’s it, no need to enter a username and password in blogger.com, LiveJournal, Ma.gnolia, Zooomr, Wikitravel etc. -- all you need is the OpenID URL. Not many sites have embraced this technology as of yet, but I am sure they will in the future.

Give it a try -- it will help you navigate the blog world with ease.

Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice

Canadian researchers find a simple cure for cancer, but major pharmaceutical companies are not interested.

Researchers at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada have cured cancer last week, yet there is a little ripple in the news or in TV. It is a simple technique using very basic drug. The method employs dichloroacetate, which is currently used to treat metabolic disorders. So, there is no concern of side effects or about their long term effects.

This drug doesn’t require a patent, so anyone can employ it widely and cheaply compared to the costly cancer drugs produced by major pharmaceutical companies.

Canadian scientists tested this dichloroacetate (DCA) on human’s cells; it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells and left the healthy cells alone. It was tested on Rats inflicted with severe tumors; their cells shrank when they were fed with water supplemented with DCA. The drug is widely available and the technique is easy to use, why the major drug companies are not involved? Or the Media interested in this find?

In human bodies there is a natural cancer fighting human cell, the mitochondria, but they need to be triggered to be effective. Scientists used to think that these mitochondria cells were damaged and thus ineffective against cancer. So they used to focus on glycolysis, which is less effective in curing cancer and more wasteful. The drug manufacturers focused on this glycolysis method to fight cancer. This DCA on the other hand doesn’t rely on glycolysis instead on mitochondria; it triggers the mitochondria which in turn fights the cancer cells.

The side effect of this is it also reactivates a process called apoptosis. You see, mitochondria contain an all-too-important self-destruct button that can't be pressed in cancer cells. Without it, tumors grow larger as cells refuse to be extinguished. Fully functioning mitochondria, thanks to DCA, can once again die.

With glycolysis turned off, the body produces less lactic acid, so the bad tissue around cancer cells doesn't break down and seed new tumors.

Pharmaceutical companies are not investing in this research because DCA method cannot be patented, without a patent they can’t make money, like they are doing now with their AIDS Patent. Since the pharmaceutical companies won’t develop this, the article says other independent laboratories should start producing this drug and do more research to confirm all the above findings and produce drugs. All the groundwork can be done in collaboration with the Universities, who will be glad to assist in such research and can develop an effective drug for curing cancer.

You can access the original research for this cancer here.

This article wants to raise awareness for this study, hope some independent companies and small startup will pick up this idea and produce these drugs, because the big companies won’t touch it for a long time.

Man Says Home Depot Fired Workers For Catching Thieves

Home Depot fires its employees after they help the police catch shoplifters.

A former Home Depot employee, Steward said the company fired him and three other workers because they helped police catch several suspected shoplifters in May.

The Home Depot has a policy that states that associates cannot accuse, detain, chase or call the police on any customer for shoplifting. According to one of the fired employees, they are not consistent with the policy.

These four workers according to the Midwest City Police helped them catch suspected shoplifters as they tried to run from a store with lawn equipment. But since they violated the Home Depot policy, they were fired by the company.

Stewart said there was one incident when he saw a guy steal a lawn mower, and he told the loss prevention guy at the Home Depot, Shields (Boulevard) store. The guy told Stewart instead to tell the shoplifter to have a good day as he leaves the store.

Stewart was befuddled with the loss prevention guy’s explanation and also with the termination letter he received from Home Depot, when all they did was help the company catch the shoplifters.

"We saw them with the merchandise. We saw them run out of the store. I never kept my eyes off of them. Then when we asked them for a receipt, and that's when they dropped the merchandise and they kept running. One guy still had a chainsaw while he was running, and that's when the cops tackled him," he said.

The Home Depot termination letter said Stewart and the others were fired because "he pursued and assisted in the apprehension of suspected shoplifters."

Stewart said all did was inform the police which he had done before. He helped the police catch another person eight months ago and he received a commendation letter from Home Depot, for catching the guy who tried to steal $2,500 worth of wire.

On the top of the letter, written in bold letters was "Great job, Bob."

Home Depot officials said Eyewitness News 5 an e-mail saying that they have "standard operating procedures in place for situations like this," and that "from time to time, we find inconsistent execution in our stores."

They did not respond to this case however, why they fired these four for helping the police catching the shoplifters.

Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes was diplomatic in not blaming the Home Depot but said without the workers helping them, they would not have caught the shop lifters. Clabes also said, he is considering giving the four men letters of appreciation for helping catch the suspects.

It is a ridiculous policy, I try to look at different angles to see any justification in Home Depot’s actions, and I don’t see any. Do you see any good reason for Home Depot’s firing its employees?

U.S. teen starts new school in rural Cambodia

Map of Cambodia. Photo courtesy State.gov

A teen from New York after reading about the hardships of growing up in Cambodia, started a fund raiser and collected enough money to open a new school in rural Cambodia in just one year.

Rachel Rosenfeld, 17, started this new school today in Cambodia amidst her American family and Cambodian villagers. The school R. S. Rosenfeld School is named after her. The school has five computers and Internet access for 300 primary school students in a small village, Srav Khvav of Siem Reap province, home to the famous Angkor Wat temple complex.

She did learn about the poverty and hardship of the children in this village from a local newspaper article last year. She was horrified to hear that many young girls end up being prostitutes. So, she decided to raise money to start a school there and educate the children.

While she started collecting donations to relieve their sufferings, she had to endure hardships herself; she suffered from stomach disorder almost all of last year and couldn’t attend classes because of it.

But despite the setback, she sent out fundraising letters, sold T-Shirts and offered naming rights for several structures in the building. She collected $52,000 and in addition received $10,000 from the World Bank. Also Asian Development Bank contributed $13,000 toward the Rosenfeld’s project.

Rachel spoke today to the Associated Press about this project:

It makes me feel great to know that I was able to help so many people…Just seeing everyone so happy (today). It meant a lot to me."

The local children wearing the Cambodian School uniform, white shirts and navy pants welcomed her and her family when they arrived for the school opening. She was accompanied by her parents, grandparents and her brother and sister.

Rosenfeld in her speech encouraged the children to aim high and said the following:

If I could build this school, then each of you can set goals for yourselves that you can reach."

Ung Serei Dy, an education official from Siem Reap province, was very happy with Rosenfeld’s efforts and said that this school is very important for the future of the community.

Queen Elizabeth Goes YouTube Way

Queen Elizabeth II and the English Royalty have started a special channel at YouTube to broadcast the main royal events. The channel named Royal Channel is already in the top 40 most viewed channels in YouTube.

The English monarchy wants to adapt to the modern ways, have started a channel called “The Royal Channel”, the official channel of the British Monarchy.

It was started this October, but only now it has gained prominence when it was announced that Queen Elizabeth II, Her Royal Highness will make her annual Christmas broadcast to wish her subjects, happy holidays.

The Queen began her annual Christmas broadcast on television for the first time in 1957 and now 50 years later she is adopting the new broadcast media, YouTube. You can watch her original Christmas broadcast in 1957 here at YouTube.

You can either get e-mail updates whenever the Royal Channel gets updated with new videos or you can subscribe to Royal Channel podcasts via iTunes.

So far they have 18 videos in this new Royal Channel, most being the main events in royal history, the past 100 years. They don’t allow comments and embedding at other sites, you have to visit their channel to view the videos.

Will the new channel discuss the court proceedings of the Princess Diana’s or will we get new updates of Prince William and Prince Harry? Definitely not, for that you have to settle for other commoners’ channel.

Egypt wants to copyright pyramids

Egypt is planning a pass a copyright law, which requires anyone to pay Egypt in royalties whenever they reproduces its pyramids or any building structures connected to the pharaohs.

The Egypt government wants to pass this copyright law so as to collect revenues in order to maintain the thousands of sites from the era of the Pharaohs according to Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Hawass told the Associated press:

The new law will completely prohibit the duplication of historic Egyptian monuments which the Supreme Council of Antiquities considers 100-percent copies…It is Egypt's right to be the only copyright owner for these monuments in order to benefit financially so we can restore, preserve and protect Egyptian monuments."

Hawass said if the law is passed then it will be applicable to all the countries in the world and will help protect their interests.

Currently, many of the Egyptian structures are used in Las Vegas in Luxor Hotel, the pyramid, sphinx and other structures. Also, a pyramid like structure can be seen in near Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

Hawass said this law will be passed in the next parliamentary session, though the law affects worldwide it won’t affect the local artisans. Also, the law would not forbid any other artisans who profit from drawings and other reproductions of pharaonic and Egyptian monuments as long they don’t make replicas of the originals.

He was asked whether Luxor Hotel should pay royalties to Egypt, he replied that Luxor is not an exact copy despite having a shape of the pyramid. He said its interior doesn’t match the actual pyramid's interior.

The opposition daily news Al-Wafd had earlier wanted Luxor to pay a slice of their profits to the original city of Luxor in Egypt. They said thirty five million tourists visit the reproduction in Luxor city in Las Vegas, whereas only six million visit the real Egyptian city.

Samir Farag, head of Luxor town council in southern Egypt, home of the Valley of the Kings, said it will be difficult for them to forbid others from using the pyramid shapes and copying them. He told the Associated press: "tourists going to Las Vegas doesn't affect our city's business."

Any copyright law is normally valid for 70 to 100 years worldwide, how can Egypt claim Pyramids as its own? People may go to Luxor hotel but only for gambling purposes, most of them know where the real pyramids are, in Egypt alone. If there is a problem of maintaining the pyramids, there are special international agencies that can help them out like the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Dashing Finns were first to skate 5,000 years ago

Bone Skates. Photo Skatingaheadofthecurve.com

Scientists say the Finnish were the first ones to skate on ice about 5,000 years ago. They used skates made from animal bones as a necessity rather than for sports activities.

Scientists speculate that Southern Finland must have been the likely home of skating based on the analysis of the shape and distribution of lakes in central and northern Europe. They said the Finns had the most to gain from traveling on the ice and most probably used skating for their daily use rather than for sports.

The bone skates were radio carbon dated and found to have originated about 3,000 B.C. The researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University wanted to know why people started to use skating and where they began doing ice skating.

Federico Formenti and Alberto Minetti of the university’s Institute of Biophysical and Clinical Research into Human Movement started this research to answer the above two questions by testing their theories.

Dr. Formenti believes that the central and northern European parts were under severe cold weather 5,000 years ago, so he doubts that this skating might have developed as a hobby. He thinks the early residents might have used skating to limit the energy required to go from one place to another.

To test this theory they made ice skates modeled on 23 ancient skates that are currently in the British Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Then they used volunteers to test them at an ice rink in the Alps.

After a day getting used to the bone blades, the volunteers had their heart rates, oxygen intake and skating speeds measured so that their energy consumption and the efficiency of their skating could be calculated.

These results were fed into a computer and interpolated over 240 journeys of 10 km (6 mile) distance each. The scientists found that Finnish had the most to gain from skating, they could have saved 10 percent of people’s energy (based on the terrain at that time) compared to 3 percent in Norway and 1 percent or less in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands.

Based on this theory, the Finns must have invented skating for hunting and trading purposes and not for recreation.

Google creates Knols, a Wikipedia like reference site

The official Google blog announced a new project, named Knols or “units of knowledge”, that is available only for a limited number of users. It will have Wikipedia like pages, but will be created with reference links from one author.

Google started this Knols project yesterday and is in private beta stage. The link for Knol is here but we can’t access it unless we have an invitation from Google. The participants will write reference pages on topics in which they have more knowledge and expertise.

Google will provide a creation tool for users, where they can edit the article and create references for their article either links or other research papers. A screenshot of a typical Knols page is shown here.


Click here for the entire page view.

It is very detailed similar to Wikipedia, but unlike Wikipedia where many users can edit the page, only one author can edit this page. Users can rate the page and leave comments.

Google said it will index these pages faster and report it higher like it does for Wikipedia. So in many cases if the articles are seen more, then Knols articles will appear in the front page even surpassing pages from Wikipedia and other reference sites like Squidoo.

Authors can choose whether Google can post ads in their pages or not. If they allow ads, Google will share a major part of the ad revenues generated with the author.

Google said it will not be involved in editing articles only the authors.

Many are saying if Knols become successful then for other sites like Squidoo, Mahalo it will be the end because they rely on Google search results. If Google gives preference to Knols articles then it will be a big problem for them. Even Wikipedia might be affected by the search results.

What is your opinion is Google Knols good for us or Wikipedia is sufficient enough?

Apple to launch iPhone in Japan

Apple Inc. is negotiating with a premier Japanese mobile phone carrier to launch its iPhone in Japan. The main stumbling block for this deal is subscriber revenue sharing between the two.

NTT DoCoMo spokesman, Shuichiro Ichikoshi, said today that its President Masao Nakamura met recently with Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs. However, he declined to provide further information about the launch details or the deal.

The Wall Street Journal believes that Jobs and Nakamura discussed launching the iPhone in Japan.

NTT DoCoMo has nearly 53 million subscribers in Japan, so if this partnership goes through, it gives Apple a great chance at reaching its goal of selling 10 million iPhones by 2008.

However, DoCoMo is facing intense competition from two other mobile carriers in Japan -- KDDI Corp., and Softbank Corp., which are promoting their products aggressively.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is trying to get the same percentage of subscriber revenue from DoCoMo that it does with other phone carriers in the U.S. and in Europe. This may be the stumbling block between the two companies, as DoCoMo might not go for it. If this deal doesn’t go through, reports indicate Apple may negotiate with Softbank.

Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock declined to comment.

Apple previously said it will launch iPhones in Asia in 2008, but has not provided specific dates and information about its partners.

Apple is also reportedly negotiating with China’s biggest mobile service provider, China Mobile, to launch iPhone in that country. China Mobile has more than 350 million subscribers.

Asia is a massive market for Apple's iPhone and it would be foolish for the company to ignore it. If Apple approaches their markets wisely, it will likely have no problem surpassing its goal of selling 10 million phones.

UNICEF Photo of the Year 2007 - Afghani Child Bride

UNICEF Photo of the Year. Photo courtesy UNICEF.de.

The American photographer Stephanie Sinclair is the winner of the international photo competition “UNICEF Photo of the Year”. Her photo shows vividly the exploitation of children.

The girl in the photo looks very innocent in this picture, yet highlights the growing problems of exploitation of children in this world and is aptly named the “UNICEF Photo of the Year” 2007.

This photo taken by Stephanie Sinclair shows a wedding couple in Afghanistan, the bride, Ghulam is only 11 years old, and the groom, Mohammed is 40 years old.

Millions of girls are married very young worldwide. According to UNICEF, there are about 60 million young women worldwide who were married before they come of age, half of them in South Asia.

UNICEF Patroness Eva Luise Köhler at the award ceremony in Berlin said, most of these child brides are forever denied a self-determined life.

Ghulam’s parents said they gave the daughter away because they needed the money. The Groom promised that he will send the girl to school, but many doubt his claim. The women in Ghulam’s village Damarda in Afghanistan’s Ghor province say the men don’t want educated women. So, most likely Ghulam will not be schooled and end up getting children very soon.

Stephanie Sinclair not only saw Ghulam like this but also saw many young girls getting married to much older men. So she wanted to raise awareness by taking this picture. The official minimum age for girls getting married in Afghanistan is sixteen but many break the law without getting punished like Mohammad in this example.

According to UNICEF, in the Indian state of Rajasthan, 15 per cent of all wives are less than 10 years old when they get married. In some Asian and African regions, poor families consider girls as burdens and treat them as second class citizens, and most of them are given away in the form of marriages like the above. Most of these girls are exploited and abused.

In an Egyptian survey, one third of child brides said they were beaten by their husbands. UNICEF said the young brides are under pressure to prove their fertility as soon as possible. But the risk for girls between the ages of 10 and 14 not to survive pregnancy is five times higher than for adult women. Every year, about 150,000 pregnant teenagers die due to complications – in particular due to a lack of medical care, let alone sex education.

Stephanie Sinclair will be publishing a book on the topic of child marriage based on her experience so far.

Also see the runner up photos in the link, they are equally disturbing.

Read the book “Kite Runner” or see the movie, it talks about some of the issues discussed here, it is not just fiction in Afghanistan.

Will foreign countries' presence in Afghanistan and the billions being spent there stop this abuse? I hope so but I doubt it.

Google Knows How Late Your Flight Is Running

Google has announced a new flight-tracking service available through their search engine. Just type in the flight number and you get updated on its current status and whether it's running late.

I think Google's flight status announcement is a good service, and it's very easy to use -- just type in the flight number on the Google search page. As soon as you type in the info, you get detailed flight status instantly without having to go to the airline's website.

You can search this from your desktop, iPhone, Palm, Windows mobile -- wherever you can use Google search. You can also use this in Google Toolbar, just type the number in the small window and it will give the corresponding results.

For example, if you type Qantas 73 in Google search page, it will provide the following results:



The first line tells you whether your flight is on schedule or arriving/departing late. The second line gives you the arrival and departure time. These results are provided to Google via their collaboration with flightstats.com.

The Google search team is saying they will now focus on a new tool to allow passengers to search for lost luggage (they are kidding of course).

FireWire speeds set to quadruple to 3.2 Gbps

The speed of FireWire will quadruple next year from 800 megabits per second to 3.2 Gbps and allow fast and secure high definition television signal transfer via cables. Also more power will be transferred to devices with this new standard compared to USB.

USB and Firewire are the two main competing products; the former is preferred by Intel and Microsoft and the latter by Apple and audio video enthusiasts. With this new announcement, Firewire will leapfrog USB standards many times over.

Last week, the 1394 Trade Association announced the S3200 electrical specification for Firewire. As a result, it will boost Firewire speed from the maximum 800 megabits per second to 3.2 Gbps (25.6 Gigabytes per second). Existing cables and connectors will work fine with the new standards, so no new connections are needed.

The 1394 Trade Association's executive director, James Snider, said in a statement. "The S3200 standard will sustain the position of IEEE 1394 as the absolute performance leader in multipurpose I/O ports for consumer applications in computer and CE devices,"

The association hopes to have the S3200 specification ratified by early February, and we can expect new computers and devices will have this new standard by next year.

The statement also said the S3200 standard is superior to eSATA, a competing standard used in hard drives and PC’s alike. Firewire is faster than eSATA and also eSATA cannot provide electrical power to devices like Firewire.

When compared with USB, S3200 is also faster and provides more power to devices than USB 2.0, so you can charge devices and transfer data quickly.

"The association also said that FireWire would soon be able to operate over cable television coaxial cables, and said S3200 would make the standard fast enough to move uncompressed high-definition television signals over long distances at a lower cost than HDMI, the current standard for HD connections."

Here is another good article about Firewire and the new standard 3.0 USB is developing.

So, downloading HD Movies via Apple TV or TiVo and watching them on a TV will be easy with this new FireWire standard. You can also recharge devices quickly with Firewire.

Charity Giving through Google Checkout

Google Checkout for Charities. Photo Courtesy Google.

If you either want to donate for charities or accept donations for charities, then Google Checkout is the best payment method. With Google Checkout, there are no transaction fees and costs, so all the donations can be used for charity purposes only.

Google Checkout for Non-Profits were started recently to make it easy for both donors as well as charities.

For charities, it provides an easy platform to accept credit card payment without any transaction fees and costs. For example PayPal charges 3.5% fees for any charges made, whereas Google Checkout charges nothing for the charities. So, the charities can use these extra funds to help their causes.

For the buyers, Google Checkout protects all the credit card data, passes only the funds and provides an option for the buyer to send selective information such as addresses and e-mail address. So you can remain anonymous if you don’t want to share your e-mail address with the Seller. You can also get more savings via Google checkout here.

You can see some of the charities here which uses Google Checkout and if you like you can donate money for these charities, Americares, UNICEF, March of Dimes, Global Fund for Children, Make a Wish foundation and many other charities.

Using Google Checkout, you can donate $35 to buy a water pump for Action Against Hunger, fight global warming with Clean Air-Cool Planet, and help kids achieve their dreams through The Global Fund for Children.

And best of all, every cent goes to the charity organization.

If you need any help in setting up Google Checkout, you can contact me any time.

iPond - The iPod speaker that comes with built-in fish tank

iPond - iPod speaker with built in fish tank. Photo courtesy Engadget.

The iPond, a speaker for iPod, also has a built in fish tank. It is sold for AU$70 in Sydney Australia. This iPond is sold out in some places in Australia but has created an outrage among animal activists and aquarists.

The iPond has a tiny fish tank, up to 15 times smaller than the recommended size by the aquarium. But the consumers don’t seem to mind they are buying this product in large numbers and are selling out in some places in Australia.

This product is sold in the pet stores across Australia. Users can play their iPods through a speaker built into the bottom of the brick shaped fish tank. Pets Paradise, one of the pet stores, is selling Siamese fighting fish with the iPond.

The fighting fish are native to South-East Asia and have a "labyrinth lung" that allows them to take in oxygen from air. Typically they live in puddles and rice paddies.

Though it may look cool for kids and others alike, it is not cool for the fish.

According to Melbourne Aquarium, this Siamese fighting fish requires a minimum tank size of 10 liters, whereas iPond provides only 650 milliliters (0.65 liters).

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) wants this iPond to be banned, the reason being the tank is too small for a fish to thrive with adequate oxygen supplies and a clean environment. Since this is a small enclosure there will be high temperature fluctuations and may pose a danger to the fish.

Animal Liberation Victoria's Noah Mark was very vocal against this product and considers this as a torture tank for the fish. He said fish is a social creature that experience pain and boredom, putting them in this tank is equivalent to putting one in a torture box.

Acoustics expert Jason Gedamke said the music sounds will easily escape into this tiny fish tank and it will be like putting a fish tank on top of a loud speaker.

Marketing manager for the Pets Paradise and Pet Goods Direct chains, Alyse-Grace Robertson, said so far they received only one complaint about iPond and says fish seemed to flourish inside the tank.

Apple was asked about this product, they said they will talk only about Apple products and not about third party products.

I hope this product becomes a fad soon. The fishes or any other living creature needs to be in a natural environment where they can thrive well not in a place where human assumes them to be. In my opinion, they should put the inventor on top of a speaker and make him or her live for a few days.

If this iPond is offered in your marketplace, will you buy this product?

Steve Jobs At Home In 1982

The picture shows the modest beginning of Steve Jobs, Apple Co-Founder. It may have started that way but it ended well for him following the success of Apple with products like iPods, iPhone, iMac, Leopard OS etc.,






Steve Jobs could have easily given up, but he didn’t. He persevered and became successful despite being fired by his own company and had a cancer to battle as well.

This picture of Steve Jobs is from the book, The Bigger Picture: Thirty Years of Portraits by Diana Walker.



He says about the home:

This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.”

The video shows his inspiring speech at Stanford University graduation ceremony.

The excerpts from the book, “The Bigger Picture”:

As a White House photographer through five presidential administrations, Diana Walker enjoyed incomparable access to the world's major movers and shakers. Many of those portrayed are notables in politics, industry, science, entertainment, and the arts—from Ronald Reagan to Bob Hope to Steve Jobs; from Eartha Kitt to John Travolta to Princess Diana and Prince Charles; from Mikhail Gorbachev to Hillary Clinton to George W. Bush. But Walker also immortalizes the quiet heroism and everyday joys of people who would otherwise remain anonymous and their stories untold—co-workers, homeless people, disaster survivors, and many others.

US Cops Test Israeli Gun That Shoots Around Corner

The Akron, Ohio Police force has purchased special guns from Israel that can extend around corners and shoot without harming the police officer. It has a video monitor that can see around the corner and can aim and focus on targets.




The video shows how the "Corner Shot" guns work in complex environments.

The Akron Police department received these “Corner Shot” guns from Israel on a test marketing basis after the manufacturers met with the Mayor Don Plusquellic of Akron recently in a trip to the U.S.

This “Corner Shot” guns allows officers to load their sidearm into an expandable arm that extends around a corner. It can bend at 90 degree angles from the middle. The Corner Shot has a small video monitor that can see the target around the corner and can fire rounds at the target, while keeping the police officers out of harm's way.

Captain Mike Shearer was one of the officers who used this gun and was impressed with its performance. In a shooting exercise, he was able to shoot easily at multiple targets via the monitor without having to expose himself.

Shearer told WKYC TV station that he was able to see the targets better than naked-eye observation, and the monitor in the gun shows a crosshair to aim at the target, making it easy for the shooter. He said this gun will be a useful tool for the Akron Police Department.

Here in this video the police are testing the "Corner Shot" guns.

One Corner Shot system costs between $5,000 and 10,000 depending on additional attachments such as laser sighting or a flashlight.

The manufacturers will open a distribution center in Northeast Ohio soon to distribute these weapons for other police departments in the nation.

New Google Toolbar 5 for Internet Explorer

Google introduces a new version of Google Toolbar 5 Beta for Internet Explorer. It has many new features and updates that will take your browsing experience to a new level.


The video shows some of the key additions to Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer. These additions are not available for Firefox but will be released very soon.

You can download the new version here. To see the full updates and new features click this link.

The buttons appear large and provide more information than previous ones, as you can see from the YouTube gadget shown below. When you click the small arrow you will see the list of videos without going to YouTube's site.



The autofill feature has been updated so that once you fill-in personal information and password, you can carry around the information wherever you go -- it will be stored on Google's main server. Once you log-in and give permission to Google, you can retrieve the data wherever you login.



The notebook feature has been updated also. Suppose you want to copy a recipe item: You can select it and click the bookmarks in the toolbar, it will copy the contents in your notebook. No need to copy and paste.



You should check out the Google Toolbar if you are not doing so already. You will find it handy for various tasks on the Web. In my opinion, it is one of the best productivity tools available. I haven’t seen any other tool that do so many jobs in one place.

Firefox fans have to wait unfortunately, but the current Google Toolbar version is not bad either.

Check Your Website for URL Hygiene

A Government website.

If you have a website or planning to have one in the near future, then you should have a clean and clear URL. Here is a good blog that lists the dos and don’ts of an URL or web address.

For example in the picture shown, see the URL from the government, look how many folders they have listed in the URL address, if somebody had to type this manually it will irritating to the user and most likely will never return to the site. So, the main aim is to have a user friendly web site.

Seth Godin, the marketing guru gives the following tips when you design your website.

1. Never use long names, short names are better, like this one for example: DON'TUSEALLCAPSMUSHEDTOGETHER.COM. This one is not there on the internet, but there is a website named Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.com:

2. Instead of using www as a prefix you can omit from now on. For example Hubpages can be reached with either http://www.hubpages.com or just http://hubpages.com. So when you ask your visitors, use the second notation, it is easy to remember and follow.

3. Some URLs might look good for your web company but it may not mean much to the public. It is like a dress you wear, you may think it looks good, but you are not the one seeing it.

Also read about web design usability at Useit.com by Jakob Nielsen.

If you have any tips about the URLs either as a website owner or as a user please leave a comment so others can follow.

Michael Schumacher turns taxi driver to catch his flight

Michael Schumacher.
Photo Courtesy. Grandprix.com

Michael Schumacher, seven times Formula One World Champion, became a taxi driver briefly to drive his family to the German airport so as to catch the flight on time. He managed it successfully and gave a healthy tip to the taxi driver.

Michael Schumacher had a successful career, has won World Cup Formula car racing championship seven times. Now he can add the title of Germany’s fastest taxi driver to his impressive resume.

The retired champion was with his family on a trip to the village of Gehuelz, near Coburg in southern Germany. After the trip, he and his family found they had only a limited time to reach the airport according to the Muenchner Abendzeitung newspaper.

The taxi driver the family had hired said it will be difficult for him to take the family to the airport on time. So Schumacher took over the taxi driving duties from the driver and drove himself to the airport.

He managed to reach the airport and caught the flight on time.

The taxi driver didn’t mind Schumacher driving his taxi to the airport. He said to Reuters:

It was crazy having Schumi driving, with me in the passenger seat,"

Schumacher was generous to the taxi driver after the ride gave him a 100 Euro tip in addition to the 60 Euro taxi fare.

The taxi driver will never forget this trip for a long time. The taxi company can use Schumacher to endorse their company.

Google shows real-time solar power statistics

Google Solar Project Logo.
Photo Courtesy Google


Google displays real-time statistics of how much electricity it generates from solar panels installed on its main building. So far, it has generated more than 610,000 kilowatt hours of electricity since June.

Google is currently involved in an ambitious plan to provide renewable energy at a cost cheaper than coal. As part of the first step, it installed hundreds of solar panels on its Googleplex building in Mountain View, California.

The solar installation is expected to break even in seven-and-a-half years after which it will be able to generate electricity for free. Here is a video link about this solar project.

In this link, Google shows the daily statistics of how much power it generates. It generated 644 kilowatt-hours of electricity yesterday. The peak in the graph shows the time when there is maximum sunlight. This generated electricity can provide power to the following:

• 402 dishwasher cycles
• 1,373 hairdryers for 15 minutes
• 536 coffee makers for an hour
• 2683 alarm clocks for 24 hours
• 234 loads of laundry
• 5,366 hours of flat-screen TV watching


Solar Electricity Generated at the Googleplex

Though this power generation seems to be small, it is a great start; this installation, when fully operational, will provide electricity for approximately 1,000 California homes in a year or provide power to meet 30 per cent of Google’s peak electricity needs at its headquarters.

If other companies do the same, and if solar panels are installed in empty land areas or deserts, the project will generate additional power.

Scientists discover how to make robots walk on water

South Korean scientists have found a method to walk or bounce of water without sinking from observing water strider insects. They plan to devise robots that will mimic the water strider’s behavior in water.




Water strider is one of the fastest moving insects in the world. It can travel up to 100 times the length of its body in just one second equivalent to 400 miles per hour in human terms. It can jump into water and walk on the surface without sinking.

Researchers from South Korea’s Seoul National University have analyzed the water strider and have discovered a way by which they can create robots that can behave the same like the strider.

The water strider uses its long legs to help evenly distribute its tiny body weight. The weight is distributed over a large area so that the fragile skin formed by surface tension supports the bug on the water.


Water Strider Insect

The researchers found that the strider had water repellent legs and with further analysis they were able to find at what speeds the insect hits the water and able to remain afloat in the water.

The researchers were able to find theoretical speeds at which any water repellent sphere can walk or bounce on water without sinking.

They will build such robots in the near future. However, similar robots have already been developed by Carnegie Mellon University. They have developed a small spider robot shown in the video and also in the picture below and demonstrated how they walk in water like the strider.



The Korean scientists expect the robot to inspect or monitor water quality in small pools of water or they may use it for spy applications.

The video shows some of the robot creations inspired by nature.

Google Search for Recipes Only

Strawberry Cheesecake. Photo courtesy Cooking.com

This article will help you find the best recipes on the web. I have found a place where you can search interesting recipes from a collection of a wide variety of food sites. Of course you can easily guess which place that will be, it is Google as usual.

There is a subdivision of Google search where you can find specific recipe results with images. The general search also turns up similar results but you have to navigate a number of pages before you can find specific recipe results.

Visit this search page, Google Recipes Search, it is a customized version for recipe search. You can enter specific requirements for your recipes such as what type of Cuisine, Main ingredient, Course, Prepartion time, Meal Type, Ingredient, Language etc. Once you choose the right mix, Google will give you recipes based on those choices.

Here is an example of Chocolate Cheesecake recipes. And if you have tried an Indian meal you should check this Biryani meal -- it is really awesome food to have. You will see a short list of recipes with images and links, much better than navigating hundreds of pages.



I hope you find this interesting. Please find a favorite item from the above search link and post the link here so other users can check it out.

Google Search provides twice the sitelinks

Google Search has improved its search results via a feature called Sitelinks. It had this feature before but it has added more related links to the results.

Google added Sitelinks feature recently, which provides related links to the site you are interested in under the main search results.

Google mentions about this Sitelinks feature as follows:

“The links shown below some sites in our search results, called Sitelinks, are meant to help users navigate your site. Our systems analyze the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they're looking for.”

For example if you searched “The Museum of Modern Art”, Google would have returned a result something like this before.

The site links are the links you see under each result. Before Google showed some important links you may be interested in that site. But now it has added more links related to that particular site, so you will have a wide variety of options to choose from. Instead of going to the main link you just hit the related Sitelinks and go there directly. It helps save navigation time. And the improved Sitelinks feature appears as follows:

Click here to see this new feature.

Currently the Sitelinks for every site is done automatically but later they may allow the site owners to provide the Sitelinks information themselves.

Scotland spends $250,000 for a new slogan: 'Welcome to Scotland'

Scotland spent six months of research and $250,000 to create a new slogan, “Welcome to Scotland” to boost tourism. This new slogan replaces the old slogan, “the best small country in the world”.

The new slogan, “Welcome to Scotland”, was revealed today in a grandiose manner and fanfare but so far all it has received a response of shock and disbelief from the public.

This new slogan will replace the Scottish airport signs that says “the best small country in the world”. The new slogan will also be available in posters along with the local Gaelic language translation, “Failte gu Alba”.

The posters will include a number of images representing the various walks of life in Scotland. It will have a boy looking at the exhibit at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, a man in a raincoat walking in Edinburgh city and a picture of Inverness.

The new slogan project took six months to create and cost the Scottish tax payers $250,000 according to the Times of London article.

Some have criticized this campaign for lacking any character.

Antia Califano, senior consultant with 2012 London Olympics logo creator Wolff Ollins told the Times of London:

It all fails to convey the spirit of the place, the emotion. If the purpose of branding is to create an emotional connection, they are not doing that."

Even if they had asked a child to come with a slogan and give him or her a chocolate bar would come up with a better slogan. Politicians are the same breed wherever they live it seems.

Do you Google Docs & Spreadsheets?

If no, then you should, it offers an Office suite like programs and provides one of the best collaborative features, that is free for everyone. If you are working on a magazine or if you are sharing some documents with your client, then Google Docs provides an excellent solution.

Google Docs was officially launched October 2006, since then its users have been steadily increasing and have reached 500,000 unique visitors every month based on Alexa figures.

Google Docs has an office suite of applications similar to Microsoft Office, has Documents (Word), Spreadsheets (Excel) and Presentations (PowerPoint). Google Docs may not be comprehensive like the Office, but still has the essential programs and more programs will be added soon.

The video shows some of the highlights of Google Docs, instead of sending files as mail attachments several times back and forth, one can share it online and edit documents anytime, any computer (or Operating systems), and anywhere. You can either make the document for view purposes only or you can allow others to edit the documents. There is no software to download just an internet connection is required.

I use Google Docs with my clients; it helps us both to view and edit the documents anytime. The clients can check up the inventory levels, tracking information, invoice amounts etc., instead of updating them with a new email attachment several times.

Gmail + chat + AIM = Awesome

Google announced today that Gmail chat will work seamlessly with AOL’s chat service AIM. Gmail users can sign into their AIM accounts via Gmail Chat. In the chat, click options and you will see the sign in AIM feature.

Once you enter your AIM ID and password, it will bring all your AIM friends into Gmail and you can chat freely within the Gmail service. AIM chat will have all the features you get from Google Talk chat, it will have chat history, automatic sorting of favorite buddies etc. Initially this will be available in English version only, but later it will add other languages.

This is another great feature, earlier today they added few more features that will color label your folders, and you can search all the messages in the folders by the touch of the button as shown below.

And you can also add filters from each message you receive, directly from the message itself. Choose the message and click options and you will see “filter messages like these”.

If This World Were a Village of 100 people

Imagine if you could turn the current world’s population to a community of 100 people and find out how the resources in this world are distributed among them. This forms the basis for the Miniature Earth Project and the video highlights that data. Even if you convert this data into percentage wise, it will show similar numbers instead of people numbers.

The data was originally published on May 29, 1990 under the title “State of the Village Report” written by Donella Meadows, who died in February 2000. The Sustainability Institute, through Donella’s foundation, is now carrying forward her ideas and projects.

The text shown in the video is based on Donella’s but has been modified to include the latest statistical data. The data has been gathered from many publications of UN, PRB and others by The Miniature Earth website.

Here are some data from the video which will make us wonder about the current state of affairs in this world:

• The sex of the population is distributed evenly 50 Women and 50 Men. But that ratio is getting affected by countries like China and India, who prefer more male babies than females and leading to infanticide.

• 47 live in the Urban area, but for agricultural we need more rural areas, which is declining in large numbers. Some are converting food products for biofuels, so we may have problems providing enough food products in the future.

• 9 out of 100 are disabled.

• 33 are Christian faith based, 18 are Muslim, 14 are Hindus, 16 are Atheists, 6 are Buddhists and 13 practice other religions.

• 43 out of 100 live without proper sanitation, which leads to many deaths and 18 have no proper water sanitation

• 14 can’t read and 7 have education of second grade.

• 12 have a computer and only 3 have an Internet Connection.

• Total spending on defense $1.12 Trillion dollars, but spent only $100 billion on development aid.

• If you have a bed, fridge, closet and a roof over your head, you are richer than 75 percent of the world. If you have a bank account you are richer than 35 percent of the population.

• 18 people live on just $1.00 per day and 53 people live on just $2.00 per day (Half the world’s population).

Should we praise our leaders for the above achievements?

Via: Labnol.org.

Gandhi: Seven Blunders of the World that Leads to Violence and Wars

Mahatma Gandhi pictured in 1931. Photo Courtesy Wikipedia

Mahatma Gandhi during his last days used to allocate at least one hour for his grandson, Arun Gandhi. Probably he wanted his grandson to keep continuing his good works or keep doing the right things in the future after he is gone.

Mahatma Gandhi gave a written note, “Seven Blunders of the World” list, to his grandson Arun, just before he was assassinated on the final day. The list shows the primary factors that contribute to violence and wars in this world.

The Seven Blunders are:

· Wealth without work

· Pleasure without conscience

· Knowledge without character

· Commerce without morality

· Science without humanity

· Worship without sacrifice

· Politics without principle

This list grew from Gandhi's search for the roots of violence over the years. He calls these acts as passive violence. He wanted his grandson and others to avoid these seven blunders if they wanted to prevent violence in this world.

Arun Gandhi later added the eighth blunder, “Rights without responsibilities.

Stephen Covey also referred these Seven Blunders in his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” and said all the blunders have to do with social and political conditions, and the antidote of each of these "deadly sins" is an explicit external standard, or something based on natural principles and laws, not on social values. He claims that "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" help one avoid these seven blunders.

We can see all the violence that is happening around us, a majority of them can be attributed to these blunders.

E-Mail Icon Generator and Encrypting Your E-mail Address for Websites, Blogs

Most of the spam mails you receive are not because of your friends sending you CC e-mails; it is rather due to Spam bot, which scans for e-mail address in webs, blogs and other sites. We usually denote e-mail addresses with this HTML code: mailto:example@gmail.com. The spam bot reads this mailto code and adds it to its database from which it keeps sending you junk mail one after another.

How to avoid this e-mail spam?

1.) By placing an image of your e-mail address as shown below:

There is a simple method to create this image, you can also do it yourself, but in Nexodyne E-mail Icon Generator, it creates an image of your e-mail address with a few easy simple steps. Click here, and enter your e-mail address. It will create an image as shown above.

If you have Gmail, Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo, AOL it has customized e-mail images, but if you want to use your company’s e-mail address then you can create your own custom images.

This method just creates an image but if you want your users to click that image and send an e-mail then you have to use the following encryption method.

2.) By encrypting your e-mail address in websites:

It is done by E-mail Riddler by DynamicDrive.com. I have been using this for a long time.

You will get the following code:

You just place this code where you will put your mailto:example@gmail.com. And to have the image in your e-mail address, go to the above source code “Document.write" and replace the src=”yourimage.gif” with the image you obtained from method one.

This way you will be able to protect all your e-mail addresses in blogs and websites and avoid spam messages.

The video shows the above two methods.