Wonderful Thoughts A weblog about latest news and reveiws on technology,science,computing,software and autoblog. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 1 823

Articles from Wonderful Thoughts

Get your @live.com email id now 2007-11-06 23:15:28 Windows Live has opened up registration for Windows Live with @live domains. There was quite a hype about this domain and many tricks had been unearthed earlier to  sign up for @live.com domains. Liveside has confirmed that @live.com domains are now available. Technorati tags: @live.com, windows live, live domains, live email Copyright © 2007 Techie Buzz. All rights reserved. From:Techie Buzz ...

If Only This Were Available In Canada 2007-11-06 18:05:04 A few weeks ago I was contacted by a representative from M80/DirecTV about their NASCAR Hotpass Service. The man made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse … but I did. Why? Because I live in Canada. The offer? Watch the last 10 races of the NASCAR season using NASCAR Hotpass for free. My immediate thought was, “Are you kidding me? Where do I sign up?”. But alas, I don’t live in the US of A. Instead, I live in Canada where DirecTV isn’t available - legally anyway. The deal was that DirecTV would hook me up with Hotpass, and I could write about my Hotpass experience - good or bad - on my blog. Not a bad deal, eh? You know, they would have to be pretty confident in their product to offer up such a deal to someone who has such a vast audience as I (23 at last count) and who could really write something bad about their product. So I looked into what they have to offer the general public and I found that they have a pretty good thing here with this Hotpass ...

Bloggers find ways to speak out in Pakistan 2007-11-06 15:20:50 With the “state of emergency” declared by Pervez Musharaf in Pakistan, commentators in the US are asking the sorts of questions they should have asked several years ago. Does the US really have meaningful influence over Musharaf’s government? Is Musharaf really committed to fighting extremism, or is he simply clinging to power? Should we be worried about Pakistan transferring nuclear weapons to other states? These questions don’t seem to be bothering the Bush administration, which has taken no major steps towards cutting military aid towards Pakistan, even though it seems clear that Musharaf is far more enthusiastic about silencing those obvious threats to national stability - supreme court justices, lawyers and human rights activists - than he is in tracking down Taliban and other extremists. Or perhaps, as the Guardian argues, the US and UK are simply impotent in the situation and have been forced to admit they’ve got little or no control over their &ldq ...

New Dublin Core in X/HTML spec available for comment 2007-11-06 05:28:39 DCMI has announced the availability for public comment of a proposal for a new version of the specification which describes how to encode DC metadata using the <meta> and <link> elements of HTML and XHTML. Comments should be sent to the DC-ARCHITECTURE mailing list. This document is based explicitly on the DCMI Abstract Model, so it specifies a subset of the constructs and components of the DCAM description model which the syntax supports how each of the supported constructs and components of the DCAM description set are "encoded" using HTML/XHTML elements and attributes Also, the document is an X/HTML meta data profile document, and it contains a link to an XSLT transform which acts as a "profile transformation" in the sense specified by the W3C GRDDL recommendation, and outputs an RDF/XML representation of the metadata. (The XSLT is currently work-in-progress and liable to change.) http://dublincore.org/documents/2007/11/05/dc-html/ex26/ http://www ...

Jimmie Johnson Almost Shoots Himself In The Foot 2007-11-06 02:35:07 OK, I’ve got to give credit where credit is due and Jimmie Johnson deserves credit for Sunday’s win in Texas. He could have easily sat back in second and let Kenseth have the lead in the closing laps of the race, but he didn’t. Instead, Jimmie put it on the line and went after Kenseth for the lead getting his car sideways in the process and hurting his Championship chances.Not only that, but Kenseth go his car way loooose once and almost took out Jimmie right there in the corner but, by some freakish act of the God that Hendrick Motorsports worships to, Matt was able to hold onto his car and not collect Jimmie in what would have most likely been a race ending, and perhaps Championship ending, wreck. Wow.Jeff Gordon had a good run, but not as good as Jimmie’s. Jeff now sits second in the standings and it is looking like that elusive 5th Championship will remain unwon for yet another seasonOh, I’m not writing Jeff off by any means, and I won’t until th ...

TwitterPoster - mapping UK usage of Twitter (almost) 2007-11-05 22:13:39 Via a post from Alan Levine I noticed TwitterPoster and in particular TwitterPosterUK.  (No, I wasn’t simply looking for myself (*) - how very dare you!) TwitterPoster provides a "provides a visual representation of the degree of influence of the Twitter users" based simply on the number of followers that a  person has (I think).  It also makes quite a nice picture.  The mouse-over text for each Twitter user’s image also shows their geographic location (based on the information held in that user’s profile on Twitter).  Quickly scanning the poster suggested, superficially, that Brighton seemed to feature quite highly in the UK list. (*) I appear mid-table if you are really interested From:eFoundations ...

Taiki - a sleek concept from Mazda 2007-11-05 21:34:01 Here is Mazda’s vision of the future - the Mazda Taiki. The latest concept which was unvieled at the 40th Tokyo Motor Show, is an evolution of the Nagare design theme. Looks like a bird about to fly. This front-engine rear-drive sports car of the future features a revolutionary next-generation rotary engine and enhanced aerodynamic performance. Mazda also showed off the new Mazda Atenza - soon to be introduced in Japan and the new Mazda Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid.From:Auto Blog - Auto Lah ...

6 Tips To Make A Good Blog Post Better 2007-11-05 17:21:20 This is a guest post by Ramkarthik of Blogging Tune. He gives tips on blogging, and making money online. He is also a freelance writer for hire. If you want to guest post on this blog please contact me. Magnetic Headlines "First Impression Is The Best Impression" You can get your readers attention by using magnetic headlines . If the headline is impressive, 50% work is over. But when you have a magnetic headline, you should also give the headline’s worth. If I write a blog post "Warning: The information in the post will make you earn $1000/day" and if I don’t provide any valuable information, then the readers are not going to return the next time to your blog just by reading the headline. So fulfill the hype that you have created. Give Quotes Quotes will provide value to the post. Don’t create your own quotes but add the ones which people know. In my last paragraph I have given a quote which everyone knows. Quotes will give your post a professio ...

Windows Vista Gadgets 2007-11-05 17:09:11 Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system includes support for widgets on every desktop. Windows widgets are permanently docked in a sidebar, providing up-to-date information and easy access to small tasks throughout the day. In this article I will walk you through the major components of a Windows Vista Sidebar gadget including major differentiating features, best practices, and tips for widget packaging and distribution. Note: Microsoft calls its widgets “gadgets” in an attempt to avoid more legal battles with Apple. I refer to Microsoft Gadgets for Windows Vista Sidebar as simply “widget” throughout the article to keep things simple. The short version Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets are mini-applications powered by familiar web technologies. The Sidebar has three main views and user interactions — docked, flyout, and floating — for rich widget interactions. Your widgets are downloaded to the user’s desktop, unpacked, and executed in a l ...

Use Firefox Extensions In Flock 2007-11-05 16:26:36 Flock has recently release a update to their social browser which has features such as People in the Browser which allows you to reach to friends from multiple networks and stay connected to them all the time. You can also now easily share photos and videos, text and your favorite links with other easily. More than a year and half ago when Flock was first released I had written about using Firefox extensions in Flock Browser. Though the convertor does not work any more you can still access a list of around 1500 Firefox extensions that can be used in your Flock browser. Well if you are not using Flock you should definitely give it a try and enjoy all the best resources for social networking from within your browser. Technorati tags: Flock, Firefox Extensions, Flock Extensions, Social Networking Browser Copyright © 2007 Techie Buzz. All rights reserved. From:Techie Buzz ...

OpenBSD 4.2 2007-11-05 07:19:05 click to enlarge Well, because of the fresh OS-install, I also swapped a 9GB SCSI-disk on an Adaptec 2940 for a 180GB one (I never knew they existed!) on an Adaptec 29160N SCSI-card. And about the drive… well, I have that one for ages already and thought it was an 18GB-drive. That’s how I bought it also… but when I partitioned the drive I became suspicious and after googling I found out that it’s a 180GB-drive instead of an 18GB one… It’s old but unused (and therefore probably has quite some life left in it), like a lot of my stuff ^_^ With my fileserver on OpenBSD 4.2 I guess I finished the OS-upgrade-cycle for now. My workstation now runs Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon, my old powerbook now runs Leopard and my media center still runs Vista, although the way I use the latter I guess it’s the worlds most bloated MP3-player… I really should do something about that one day. *^_^* From:geek technique ...

OpenID - questions for the community 2007-11-04 12:30:42 raise awareness (why is OpenID of interest?);     discuss issues (what are the problems with OpenID?, how can it be implemented?);     help to influence practice and inform policy at both institutional and national levels. We are ending the day with a panel session and we have built plenty of time into each of the speaking slots to allow for questions and discussion.  Delegates be warned… we want this day to be as interactive as possible! To that end, we’ve been thinking about the kinds of questions and issues that we’d like to see discussed during the day.  Here’s our list, grouped into 4 broad areas: How does OpenID complement our existing ‘identity technology’ approaches?  Does OpenID meet any requirements that are unmet by other technologies – are there gaps in our current service provision that OpenID might help fill? Do we have specific educational community requirements or challenges (from the perspec ...

Big Frickin’ Deal 2007-11-04 11:54:11 Carl “Eddie Haskel” Edwards clinched the very last Busch Series title this weekend even though there are still two races remaining. So what. Really, so what? Did we expect anything less? With Roush/Fenway behind him during his full-time run at the Championship it is no wonder he won. It is the same as Kevin Harvick in the Richard Childress car last year. Big Frickin’ Deal.What I think is more impressive is that David Reutimann is currently in second - in a Toyota prepared by Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) no less. That is impressive, considering the difficulties this start-up team has faced all year at the Cup level.What is even more impressive than that is the fact that the car owners, Roush/Fenway, of Carl Edwards are not leading in Car Owner Points. In fact, they are third behind second place Joe Gibbs and first place Richard Childress. Why are these owners leading in the points but not in the driver category? Because they have had more than one driver drive their ca ...

Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World 2007-11-04 10:58:59 An advanced copy of OCLC’s latest membership report, Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World, dropped heavily on my desk a while back (in recognition of the fact that I was one of the people interviewed during its preparation).  I’m not 100% it was technically an advanced copy by the time it had traveled across the Atlantic but anyway… This OCLC membership report explores this web of social participation and cooperation on the Internet and how it may impact the library’s role, including: The use of social networking, social media, commercial and library services on the Web How and what users and librarians share on the Web and their attitudes toward related privacy issues Opinions on privacy online Libraries’ current and future roles in social networking. As with previous OCLC membership reports, there is a lot of very useful material here, not just the results of surveying over 6000 people, but the contextual information and opinion that goes ...

Close Multiple Tabs At Once In Firefox 2007-11-03 23:32:19 This leaves a lot to be desired. Now what if you want to close tab 5, 8 and 9 and leave the rest of them open. For this you would have to close the individual tabs one at a time. Multiple Tab Handler is a Firefox extension which saves you the efforts of closing individual tabs. With the extension you can select multiple tabs and close them at once. It works just like file selection where you click and hold the Ctrl key while selecting the tabs you want to close with the mouse. This is a very good extension indeed and I recommend it to all of you who are using Firefox. What other useful extension do you use for Firefox, do let me know through your comments. Technorati tags: Firefox extensions, close multiple tabs, multiple tab handler, Firefox, How To Copyright © 2007 Techie Buzz. All rights reserved. From:Techie Buzz ...