I was reading the Tor Forge blog and sometimes a book title just catches your eye – Lawrence Watt-Evans’ “A Young Man Without Magic” is one of these.  Even better is the title of the sequel, “Above His Proper Station” (out November 2010).  These titles have a Regency-era fantasy feel to them, and I think the watercolour style used for the cover of the first book fits the title beautifully.

Unfortunately for me, the first book has just been released in hardcover and I can’t justify spending the money on it – will have to wait until it’s released in mass-market paperback.  I am very tempted by that cover though.

Blurb from Amazon:

Anrel Murau is a scholar, a young man with no magical ability even though he is the son of two powerful sorcerers. Anrel’s lack of talent bars him from the ruling classes, but he is content to be a simple clerk.
Upon returning to his childhood home after years of study in the capital, Anrel finds his friends and family held under the thumb of the corrupt local lord. When this lord murders a dear friend, Anrel finds that although he’s not a sorcerer, he is not without other means to demand justice.

If he can survive life on the run, that is.

Carrying only his sword, a few coins, and his wit, Anrel must leave behind everything he has ever known, trust himself to unexpected allies, and outmaneuver leagues of enemies who will stop at nothing to keep his dangerous ideas from ever being heard. Magic and intrigue collide in a swashbuckling tale of daring escapes, beautiful witches, and one quiet young man’s rise to hero—or traitor. Nothing will ever be simple for Anrel again, as his personal quest may provide more peril for those he holds dear.

Has anyone read this (or any other books by the author)?

Twitter made its way on to the web just 3 years ago and has exploded to become a world wide success. The question is
what is twitter? and why is it become so popular?

Twitter is simply a micro or “mini” blog that consists text messages or “tweets” of just 140 characters which are posted
on the users profile and accessible to the individuals list of “follwers” or subscribers. The reason for its popularity
is just as simple as it’s premise, users find it easy to adopt, which has helped it amass approximately 5 million users world wide.

Early on the Twitter wave of popularity was championed by a number of celebrities, Ashton Kutcher to name but one,
which made the general public’s interest even more fevered. The consumption would soon reach a astronomical heights and
soon the commercial world acknowledged Twitters impact and its ability to reach customers. So now that Twitter seems
to have taken over, much like the invasion of the body snatchers- but in this case its our time that has been stolen in favour
of a utopian text based society, whats next for the Twitter phenomenon? Developers have been churning out new applications
for Twitter daily with everything from extended tweets to creating your own personalised twitter templates and there seems to be
no end in sight. Jack Dorsey and his team have just launched a new mobile payment company but be assured this is only the begining!

Thea and Ana at The Book Smugglers have kicked off their annual Smugglivus extravaganza with guest posts and giveaways galore.  It’s only the first week and they’ve already had some very interesting posts.  I can’t wait to see what else they have planned for the rest of the month.

Speaking of which, two more working weeks until the holidays!  Well, until my holidays start, anyway.  I am counting down the days.  And it may be slightly sad, but one of the reasons I am so looking forward to the holidays is that I will finally have enough time to read the recent Diana Gabaldon. I know it came out back in September and I was so excited about it, but it is one hefty tome, and I just haven’t found the time to sit down with it.  So that is definitely on my list of holiday reads – I haven’t planned what else I’ll be reading though.  Any suggestions?

And finally, Juliet Marillier has confirmed that the title of her next Sevenwaters book (squeee) will be “Seer of Sevenwaters” (the working title was “Song of the Island”).  And the heroine will be Sibeal.  It’s due out December 2010 – that will be an excellent Christmas present for next year.

With the advent of new modes of communication, such as Facebook, language and social interaction have gone through a major change, says an expert.

Recently, the New Oxford American Dictionary picked the Facebook term “unfriend” as 2009 Word of the Year. Ananda Mitra, professor and chair of the Department of Communication, has now revealed how technology influences language and social interaction.

“We have to remember that the most important technology of communication is indeed language, and it is through the manipulation of the symbols that make up the language of a culture that we define the culture. Thus all elements of a cultural system influence the fundamental technology of language,” Mitra said.

“The tools we use to improve our quality of life, from the rake to clear the fall leaves to the Smartphone to unfriend those we do not want on Facebook, all influence how we make sense of the world around us. As such these tools would necessarily influence language.

“Over the history of human civilization as new tools have been introduced we have had to find ways to name them. The printing “press” borrows the name from the wine “press,” just as the word “eyeglasses” mirrors the material used to make the tool, although very few eyeglasses are now made of glass. We need to label the tools and as such technology influences language and words,” Mitra added.

When asked, what was the equivalent to “unfriend” before Facebook, Mitra said, “The idea of unfriend is closest to what my colleague and friend Professor Michael Hyde would call the opposite of acknowledging someone’s existence. Drawing on the work of philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, Professor Hyde urges us to ponder the fundamental question: “Where art thou?” and the responsible answer of “Here I am.” The unfriend option is equivalent to saying, “Here I am NOT!” “There can not be an offline equivalent to unfriend because the process occurs at a discursive level where it is much easier to say the “NOT” via silence which is much more difficult to do in the offline mode, where the equivalent would have to be an overt act of rejection – someone holding out their hand to shake and you actually not only not shaking it, but pushing it back. Unfriending is a more of a deliberate act than simply ignoring, but it is basically pushing back and “deleting” a relationship via a keystroke. Again, drawing on Professor Hyde’s work and Levinas, it is “social murder.” Mitra even explained how has “friending” on Facebook has changed society and social interactions.

“The changes have been profound because the process of friending has transcended some of the traditional barriers of interaction. For instance, the notion of geography has been transformed and spatial location is certainly no impediment to maintaining a friendship on Facebook. In fact, that would be considered the strength of Facebook,” Mitra said.

Mitra added, “The length of time that it takes to make and maintain friendships has also changed. With a click of a button one becomes a friend and become privy (usually) to all the details of an individual. Finally, Facebook has offered a voice to many who might not have been able to make friends in the offline setting. These are the ones who were the “uncool” kids in high school. Now with the offline distance in space and time these are the ones who are most in need for the friendship but could also be the ones who are most often unfriended. Our biases can continue on Facebook as they do offline.”

Covering subjects ranging from reputation to national ID card schemes, from DNA collection to online safety of children, is ‘Virtual Shadows’ (www.vivagroupindia.com ), a recent publication that is ‘small enough to fit in your pocket and read on the train when you are on your way to work,’ as the author Karen Lawrence Öqvist describes.

“The subject space of the book is vast, because in the information society that we are all a part of today, we are connected and sharing, which surfaces significant concerns regarding our privacy. The book is like a ripple on the ocean, giving you a sensation of the vastness of what lies underneath without going into any depth,” she adds, during the course of a quick email exchange with Business Line.

“I have over 20 years experience in IT and during the day I work in information security as a consultant,” reads the ‘about’ page in her blog www.virtualshadows.com  “In my spare time I do loads of outdoor activities, that is when I am not publishing or studying for my MBA.”

Excerpts from the interaction, in which the author focuses on two key issues, viz. reputation and identity.

You talk about identity and reputation in your book…People often tell me that in order to protect your reputation that you should not have an online presence. You should not have a Facebook profile, MySpace or Linked In profiles. In effect online you should be invisible. If you are not there you cannot be damaged, can you?

This opinion is not without foundation. After all what you do online will inevitably over time enable you to build one or more online reputations. There is a distinct relationship between your identity and reputation since, first, what you do in your life both online and offline has an impact on your reputation (professional, personal etc.) and, second, it is by building your reputation that you create for yourself an identity, almost a type of personal branding.

Then it is true that what you do online can cause people to judge you in a negative way? For example, when you apply for a job?

Yes and no, in fact the consequences can be positive or negative. It is positive if it reaffirms what you have stated about yourself. If it does not, e.g. there are photos of you half naked and drunk on your MySpace profile, then this information has the potential to be damaging to what you want to achieve today or tomorrow and doubtless in your professional life, both online and offline. Digital information has a persistence value i.e. it never goes away.

Is one right in assuming that the safest bet is to be invisible online?

My opinion is no, it is not. Being invisible online is no longer an option. Why do I say this? Well, being invisible was fine yesterday, however this is changing. If you don’t have a ‘positive’ online presence it can prove damaging to your career in this new information society that we are all a part of today. In this world if you don’t exist online, if you are invisible then you have no reputation, nothing that proves what you have stated about yourself. In fact in the future having no reputation online could be as, if not more, damaging to your career than to have a bad online reputation. Let us take an example.

Imagine if head hunters are ‘Googling’ for you when you apply for a job. Today this has become common practice. Take an example of three types of applicants, each type presenting excellent cvs, sharing experience and academic achievements:

1. Applicants have an online presence. MySpace profile, no privacy controls enabled so it is open for browsing to the head hunter. They twittering with their ‘friends’, and nature of communications indicates that the applicant has an ‘attitude’ problem. There are revealing photos. The findings do not reflect what was claimed in the cv.

2. Applicants have no online presence. They are invisible.

3. Applicants have an online presence. They are active in technical forums, they have a Facebook profile, but the privacy controls are enabled so the head hunter can’t get in. They are professionally networked via Linked In. They have a profile that reflects their achievements on the cv along with recommendations from existing and ex-colleagues (also on Linked In) on their good work on their profile. Their online presence confirms a solid applicant for the post.

Now what if there are 200 applicants for a single post. Which applications will get eliminated first from the process? In all likelihood it will be all applicants of type (1), because this applicant type appears to have an attitude problem and could be unreliable.

Now which applicant types will the headhunter want to meet? Most probably the third applicant type because the headhunter has found evidence that supports what the applicant has claimed on their cv.

Then what about the invisible applicants? They also have a great cv and no damning evidence online. The answer is simple; it depends on how many suitable applicants have already been shortlisted for an interview. It is quite likely that the headhunter is already spoilt for choice and doesn’t feel motivated to waste time with these applicants.

You mentioned that it could be better to have a bad reputation rather than be invisible?

Yes. Not now in today’s society, but I believe that in the future the selection process could become even more interesting. Today’s generation would have grown up as a part of the information society and with different perceptions on privacy and reputation than what our generation has today. When this generation becomes the headhunters of tomorrow, they will throw the invisible applicants in the bin first; because they have no evidence of a social or professional network, alas no reputation to speak of. Hence for the headhunters of tomorrow if you are one of the invisible applicants, you just will not exist.

Is a national identity card a good thing?

This question I get asked quite often, and my response is normally “it depends.” It depends on the intentions of the government for its implementation, the culture of the country, the politics… there are lots of factors.

ID cards are in use in one form or another in virtually all countries of the world. The type of card, its functions and integrity vary enormously. While several countries have official, compulsory, national ID cards that are used for a variety of purposes, many countries do not. One good example is Sweden where the ID card is not compulsory but to live and work in the country without one is almost impossible, as it is the official means with which to present your personal ID number that is requested in many everyday transactions. Nonetheless it is successful and Swedish residents today could not imagine living in a society without it. A national ID card with a unique identifier has proved to be very convenient. (The Swedish personal ID number is represented as the date of birth of the holder with an extra four digits, even numbers for females and odd numbers for males, in the format ‘YYMMDD-xxxx’.)

Are there many countries that have a national ID card like Sweden?

No, not many countries are like Sweden and proposals to establish national ID cards have sparked protests in countries around the globe. The UK, the US, Australia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Portugal and Hungary are examples where any attempt to introduce a national identity scheme has failed. In some cases, such as the attempted introduction of the Australia Card in 1987, has lead to a near collapse of the initiating government.

Why then is this topic so sensitive? And why do governments still persist on introducing identity schemes despite strong public resistance?

Let us take the second question first. What is so cool about national identity schemes that make governments feel impelled to keep trying?

In fact from a practical perspective a national ID scheme has many advantages for the citizen: if there is a common level of privacy expectations in the implementing country; and this is enforced with privacy law that establishes the rights of the data subject.

Such an example can be provided by Sweden whereby every newborn is provided with a personal ID. This is used throughout their lives. This unique identifier has in recent years facilitated the linking of health records, which means that if you end up in accident and emergency one day, by checking your personal ID the staff treating you are able pull up your health records and make better informed decisions, so as to have a better chance of saving your life in extreme situations. This brings to mind really important issues concerning a national identity card scheme, and back to the first question on the sensitivity of this topic.

If your country implemented an ID card scheme, your personal data contained within the card – that could incidentally include biometric data – needs to be stored in a database somewhere. This could be one database, or undoubtedly once fully integrated with other systems, (e.g. healthcare, banks, etc., everywhere where you need to confirm your identity) many databases. The question you should be asking yourself is two-fold:

1. Do you trust your government authorities to implement the appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction or accidental loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access? Remember once databases are connected there is potential for one person with the ‘golden key’ to access everything on you.

2. And, do you trust your government to have the right intentions concerning the use of your personal data, both today and in the future?

In fact this is the underlying reason why governments are failing to implement successfully national identity schemes even if an explicit right for privacy is acknowledged as a right in the initiating country, and even if this is enforced with privacy law protecting the rights of the data subject. The citizen, i.e. the data subject, it appears does not trust the government to do the right thing.

Did Sweden succeed because they had perfect government administration processes and good intentions?

Not completely. They have not been perfect when it comes to securing the personal data of its citizens; their administrative processes are not perfect.

So, what is different?

Well one fact is that the population of Sweden is only nine million; this makes it technically simpler, than for other countries such as the UK with a population of 64 million to implement such an initiative. Still the primary explanation could be more fundamental and linked to the culture. It is nothing to do with numbers, or with how good the government has been in securing their citizens’ data. It seems that years of a socialistic government have given Swedish citizens the feeling that the government cares for them. If you ask a Swedish if they trust the government with their personal data, they may look a bit confused. For them it is an odd question, of course they trust the government, even if the government does sometimes get it wrong. This is different from other countries, such as the UK where trust is a big issue.

What is your next book about?

Well I have two in the pipeline. The book that I’m researching now will dive into the privacy landscape in different countries around the world, including India. For each country I have a local researcher that is an expert in security and privacy. This is because in my experience many privacy issues are driven by the local culture, politics, etc., of the country, so a local researcher is crucial in order that the context is understood before judging why things are the way they are. The second book I haven’t started yet so I am not ready to share details.

**

InterviewsInsights.blogspot.com

People use online social networks such as Facebook to express and communicate real personality, instead of an idealized virtual identity, says a new research.

Psychologist Sam Gosling at The University of Texas at Austin said: “I was surprised by the findings because the widely held assumption is that people are using their profiles to promote an enhanced impression of themselves.”

The expert added: “In fact, our findings suggest that online social networking profiles convey rather accurate images of the profile owners, either because people aren’t trying to look good or because they are trying and failing to pull it off. These findings suggest that online social networks are not so much about providing positive spin for the profile owners,” he adds, “but are instead just another medium for engaging in genuine social interactions, much like the telephone.”

To reach the conclusion, Gosling and a team of researchers collected 236 profiles of college-aged people from the United States (Facebook) and Germany (StudiVZ, SchuelerVZ). The researchers used questionnaires to assess the profile owners actual personality characteristics as well as their ideal-personality traits (how they wished to be). The personality traits included: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness.

In the study, observers rated the profiles of people they did not know. These ratings were then compared to the profile owners’ actual personality and their ideal-personality. Personality impressions based on online social network profiles were accurate and were not affected by profile owners’ self-idealization.

Accuracy was strongest for extraversion — paralleling results of face-to-face encounters — and lowest for neuroticism. Those findings were consistent with previous research showing that neuroticism is difficult to detect without being in person.

“I think that being able to express personality accurately contributes to the popularity of online social networks in two ways,” says Gosling.

“First, it allows profile owners to let others know who they are and, in doing so, satisfies a basic need to be known by others. Second, it means that profile viewers feel they can trust the information they glean from online social network profiles, building their confidence in the system as a whole.”

Newspaper publishers will now be able to set a limit on the number of free news articles people can read through Google, the company has announced.

Go here to read more

The last day of November (yes, I am very aware of how inactive my blog has been for the past month) and it is absolutely freezing.  I wonder if we’re in for snow this year?

Anyway, a few posts around the blogosphere that have caught my eye lately:

Ilona Andrews posted about the difference in writing styles between her Kate Daniels and Edge books – it’s a lot more than just first-person v. third-person POV.  Fascinating stuff.  I also love the note about how her Samhain SF novella “Silent Blade” was written in the style of a Harlequin Presents (or M&B to us UK readers) – no wonder it felt so familiar!

On tor.com, their art director, Irene Gallo, posted about The Covers that Got Away, that is, covers that for some reason didn’t make the final cut.  We’re not talking the small tweaks we tend to see for most covers; instead, the two examples she gives are radical redesigns.  I adore the original Charles de Lint cover with a skeleton puppet – I’ve never read his books but that cover would have definitely caught my attention.

And finally, not blog-related but certainly book-related, Borders UK went into administration last week (note that they are a completely separate company from the US operation).  I’m not entirely surprised by this – the last time I went in there, their ground floor was crammed with non-book displays, which left me wondering who they were targeting.  I mean, if I wanted plush toys or jewellery boxes, I certainly wouldn’t have thought of going to Borders!

Sad news, however, not just for the employees who must be pretty much in limbo now, but also for readers.  I remember when Borders was the best place to get American imports in London – now, with the internet allowing you to purchase a wider variety of books for lower prices (and possibly more quickly too), it was probably a losing battle.

Waterstones is now the only specialist bookstore chain in London – and yes, I am all for supporting local independents, except there aren’t actually any near me!  Note to self: must go more often to Charing Cross Road.

Sarebbe una bella idea, for­se l’unica per combattere quel veleno che ammorba il calcio: i cori contro la dignità dell’uo­mo, siano o meno razzisti è soltanto il sofismo di chi vuo­le nascondersi dietro a un di­to.

È l’idea che il presidente dell’Inter, Massimo Moratti, ha avuto in previsione di quel­lo che potrebbe succedere sa­bato prossimo, in Juventus-In­ter, e cioè sentire ripetuto al­l’infinito «E se saltelli, muore Balotelli».

Sarebbe una bella idea, ma José Mourinho, l’allenatore più pagato del mondo, è retri­buito anche per conoscere i re­golamenti e, estremizzando il concetto, per dire no anche a chi lo paga: «Se decido io che l’Inter deve lasciare il campo, perdo 3-0 a tavolino.

E forse La Russa dovrebbe spiegare, anche a se stesso, perché una persona debba dire qualcosa che non pensa, soltanto per­ché lo fa in compagnia di tan­te altre.

Fonte:

http://www.corriere.it/sport/09_novembre_29/valdiserri-balotelli-cori-razzisti-mourinho_7f392bf4-dcbf-11de-8223-00144f02aabc.shtml

Il golfista americano è uscito di strada ed è andato a sbattere contro un idrante e un albero – Tiger Woods è rimasto seriamente ferito in un incidente stradale in Florida, nella mattinata americana.

Secondo quanto riporta il quotidiano on line ‘Orlando Sentinel’, il n° 1 del golf mondiale è uscito di strada ed ha colpito un idrante, finendo la sua corsa contro un albero.

In estate Milan e Inter li hanno ceduti: è stata davvero una grossa perdita’

Escono a testa alta gli azzurri di Mallett contro gli All Blacks: a San Siro festa per 80mila

Fonte:

http://www.datasport.it/?body=news;idnews=8105

mietere vittime (due milioni di morti nel 2008) e a infettare

nei paesi in via di sviluppo ma anche in quelli “ricchi”,

compreso il nostro: si stima che siano oltre 33 milioni le

persone che vivono con l’Hiv in questo momento (di cui 2,5

milioni di bambini), quanto gli abitanti di un medio stato

europeo, e che ci siano almeno due milioni e mezzo di nuovi

I dati del rapporto 2008 di Unaids, il

programma congiunto delle Nazioni Unite su Hiv e Aids, diffusi

alla vigilia della Giornata mondiale dell’Aids che si celebra

il primo dicembre, fotografano una pandemia tutt’altro che

debellata e che necessita di nuove campagne informative e

Perche’ il rischio, specie nei paesi piu’ avanzati, e’ la

sottovalutazione del virus: il test si fa sempre meno, e dei

180.000 sieropositivi nel nostro paese, si stima che uno su

quattro non sappia di esserlo, ritardando cosi’ le terapie e

soprattutto diventando un veicolo inconsapevole di contagio.

La seconda iniziativa “Tutti entro il 2010″, lanciata

nel 2005 dal vertice mondiale delle Nazioni Unite, aveva

l’obiettivo di raggiungere un accesso universale alla

prevenzione, al trattamento e alla cura di Hiv e Aids entro il

2010, tuttavia, secondo il rapporto 2008 dell’Unaids, la

maggior parte dei Paesi non riuscira’ a centrare l’obiettivo.

Fonte:

http://www.agi.it/estero/notizie/200911291207-est-rt10016-aids_33_mln_malati_nel_mondo_e_aumentano_gli_inconsapevoli

La Trenkwalder vince LA partita, rincorrendo per 30 minuti, acciuffandola per poi gettarla alle ortiche e rivincerla nuovamente, con tanto cuore e un pizzico di fortuna in più di Rimini, dato da una maggiore lucidità nei momenti decisivi.

Prestazioni a cinque stelle per Smith e Fultz da una parte e di Edi (19 silenti rimbalzi oltre a 20 punti) e di un Bennerman con classe sopraffina, che dimostra tutta la sua bontà.

Il pallino rimane riminese e come un elastico continuo il vantaggio oscilla senza discostarsi mai sino agli 8 punti di vantaggio, Rimini prova la fuga ma Reggio risponde con un super Fultz e con qualche sortita di Smith.

Salutate la capolista canta il pubblico reggiano, ma per una volta, ci sentiamo di dire che vince soprattutto il basket.PAGELLETrenkwalder Reggio Emilia: Verri 6, Smith 9, Kudlacek 5.5, Melli 6, Marigney 6.5, Boscagin 6, Fultz 9, Frosini 6.5, Viglianisi ne, Pugi 6, Ancellotti ne.Riviera Solare Rimini: Scarone 6.5, Ebi 8 , Moreno ne, Borglia ne, Zanus Forte 5.5, Myers 7.5, Bennerman 8, Bernard 5.5, Gurini 6.5, Eliantonio ng, Pecile 5.5.MVPRobert Fultz e Jamar Smith: Se non fosse per la prestazione balistica del primo Reggio non avrebbe raggiunto i supplementari, se non fosse per l’USA Reggio non avrebbe vinto.

Fonte:

http://www.basketnet.it/news/117702/vincono_la_trenkwalder_ed_il_basket__rimini_cade_a_testa_alta

Golf, World Cup va a fratelli Molinari, vittoria storica Italia

SHENZHEN, Cina (Reuters) – I fratelli Francesco ed Edoardo Molinari hanno riportato oggi una storica vittoria per l’Italia, aggiudicandosi la World cup di golf al centro di Mission Hills.

Edoardo Molinari, vincitore la scorsa settimana del Dunlop Phoenix in Giappone, dividerà il premio da 1,7 milioni di dollari con il fratello.

Thomson Reuters is the world’s largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms.

Fonte:

http://it.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idITMIE5AS02H20091129

According to a latest study, Wikipedia lost 49,000 of its volunteer editors in the first three months of 2009 and the site could face major problems ahead.

In the first three months of 2009, Internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia ‘lost’ 49,000 of its volunteer editors, according to a university research.

Over the same period in 2008, just 4900 people, who voluntarily amended and updated the information on the website, had stopped contributing.

Felipe Ortega, from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, who carried out the study, believes the site could face major problems ahead.

He said: “If the negative trend is maintained for too much time, say one or two years, eventually the project could enter a problematic phase.” However, Wikimedia UK, a chapter of the organisation that operates Wikipedia, has denied that it means the site is struggling. It says that it is seeking more expert contributors.

“We’re trying to engage a bit more at the moment with people who are very knowledgeable, people who are experts, so working with museums was the obvious next step,” the BBC News quoted Michael Peel of Wikimedia UK, as telling the Times newspaper. Peel is confident that the knowledge website will continue to run smoothly.

He added: “Wikipedia is definitely not dying. It’s freely licensed, which means that content that has been added will be there forever.”

Google has apologised for a racist caricature of Michelle Obama that became the top result for users searching for images of the US First Lady.
Anyone typing “Michelle Obama” into Google Images this morning was presented with an altered photo depicting the US president’s wife with animal features.
However, the California-based Internet giant distanced itself from this by posting a message above the offensive photo.
The note states, “Sometimes our search results can be offensive. We agree,” directs users to a page explaining the technology giant’s policy on “disturbing” search results, The Telegraph reported.
The message makes it clear that the Michelle Obama image is not endorsed by Google, but indicates that the company will take no action to have it removed.
“Google views the integrity of our search results as an extremely important priority,” it states.
“Accordingly, we do not remove a page from our search results simply because its content is unpopular or because we receive complaints concerning it.” it added.
“We apologise if you’ve had an upsetting experience using Google. We hope you understand our position regarding offensive results,” it ends.
Google search result rankings are determined by complex algorithms that take into account a number of factors. A powerful element in the calculations is how many other sites on the Internet link to an image or web page from the search term text.
This means it is possible for mischievous web users to artificially inflate a search ranking in a process known as “Google bombing”, although this usually requires the coordinated efforts of thousands of people, the report said.

One usually thinks that he/she will receive same services with the certain range of price, which type of host it doesn’t matter. This is not a fact. Basically, one will not find differences in the web hosting but if one will carefully analyze there will be a vast difference between each one of them. Some of which are not adequate to user’s business. There are several hosts charging $10 a month for a particular package which one can get at the rate of $5a month with other hosting provider.
Mentioned below are 3 of the steps following which one can end up on an ideal hosting selection.
1. Deciding one’s Price range:
Price is the top most concern. One can spend anything to meet his/her requirements ranging from a few dollars a month to a few hundred. There is no one but the user who knows about his/her requirement and about his/her budget. One should consider it. Here one should find providers offering shared and dedicated hosting solutions. It is quite crucial to know the actual disparity among the two. Normally, it is shared web hosting is more inexpensive as compare to dedicated hosting. In the case of shared hosting their will be several web sites on the same server making it quite affordable for each individual.
Due to this reason only a large amount of individuals and businesses began with shared hosting and its reliability and consistency is increasing day by day due to which several businesses have raised on the basis of price and reliability. One can get web hosting prices generally in the range of $5 to $30 a month. If one will talks about Dedicated hosting then the user will have all the right to exploit entire resources. User will command the web server according to the available resources. When it comes to this type of hosting it will differ in both the price and services. It can be from $99 a month to a huge amount of $300-$400 a month. Certainly, here one will enjoy a reliable service and command over content and customization area.
2. Deciding one’s Needs:
What is the requirement of the user? However, one cannot deny the fact that web hosting has become quite affordable and competitive over the last few years but one should first search out the answers of few of the basic questions. Is user’s requirement is the 100% uptime i.e. 24/7/365 or just the modest uptime i.e. 99.9% which one can find at a cheap price as per the standardization of industry in comparison to a SLA (Service Level Agreement). What is user are Criteria regarding support? Does the requirement is 24/7/365 email support or in addition to it phone support? Loss of potential data is a topic which is quite crucial but generally overlooked by the user. Does user should ensure that his/her web host offers back up / restore services or rather an option to ad it or which one can buy on additional cost. Several user’s take it easy as it is automatic but one should mind it that without proper inquiry and involvement in the package it is not going to be accomplish. Requirement of quantity of email accounts and databases can be the other criteria. If the user possesses employees then the probability is that they would like individual email accounts for the use in interoffice and external communication. While user is opting for a strategy to run an e-commerce shopping cart or rather a community forum of any sort then requirement of one or more databases is must.
Normally, email accounts are standard but several hosts demands additional amount for databases and/or limit as per their business structure. Next, important aspect is the amount of disk space and data transfer required by the user? Now a day’s disk space and data transfer are available quite cheap. It is the Performance, features, reliability, and customer service for which the user is paying. For instance, if in the future user feels requirement of graphics resulting in large data base then it is not bad to have much disk space in advance because user may not feel its importance in beginning but it can be fruitful with respect to future strategy.
3. Accomplishing one’s Homework:
After considering above steps one should go for the research mode. The step deals with the outlook of providers. User should start his/her research from host’s own web site. The web site of several companies has a section called “about us” through which one can inquire about their background/history and a synopsis regarding their products, services, infrastructure etc. one should also go through their terms and policies regarding privacy and service. No doubt, one should be aware of the depth of the lake in which he/she is diving into. This is because several problems may arise later on if the user do not have the in depth knowledge of his/her concern host. By going through these policies one may have insight knowledge on restrictions between providers and which direction one should proceed by avoiding any trouble as per changing scenario. There are several companies delivering a customer testimonial and FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page in addition to it. User can consider Testimonials as a source of providing useful information about kinds of web sites being hosted and the way the company is delivering services to its present customers. If FAQ page delivered by the company is accurate then one can solve majority of problems in a very simple manner, whether the problem is related to sales or technical doesn’t matter. Certainly, one of the crucial ways to conclude research on the concern host is to charge them with questions/need which may not be apparently answered.
Thus at the end we can say that there are literally hundreds of specific needs that any one company or individual requires while searching for web hosting services. The problems and solutions are so much that even a book can be written on it. Thus the above given is a fundamental foundation of steps that will help user in beginning with good success.

Donc voilà. Il y a tellement de bons tutos pour Photoshop, que je ne peux tous les mentionner sans en oublier. Or donc (je trouve ça classe de dire “or donc”), je viens just now à l’instant de créer PSDay. Un blog mentionnant tous les bons tutos que je croise. Petit plus, vous pouvez faire un tri par langage, chose que beaucoup de gens attendaient, visiblement… (français ou anglais, pour le moment, mais d’autres viendront… Espagnol, polonais… ) Juste un clic sur l’image vous permettra d’accéder directement aux tutos. C’est une espèce de banque de tutoriels. Vains Faktory restant mon blog principal, bien entendu, vous y trouverez toujours des ressources. Comme d’hab’…

C’est ici que ça se passe : http://psday.wordpress.com/

Rupert Murdoch has spent months complaining that Google is ruining the newspaper business, and now he wants to do something about it.

But, his proposal is a gamble, and one that could hurt News Corp instead of helping it.

Murdoch is considering removing News Corp’s news from Google’s Web search results, and is talking to Microsoft Corp about listing the stories with its Bing search engine instead. Microsoft would pay for the privilege, sources have told Reuters, but it was not clear how much.

If Murdoch pulled this off, he will likely be followed by other newspaper publishers looking for ways to make money when all the old ones are waning in the digital age.

Newspaper owners resent Google because the Internet company makes money from the advertisements that it displays next to news search results.

News Corp’s proposal is a way to get a cut of the action. Risks include destroying ad revenue most news websites depend on if traffic goes down because Google users can’t find the stories. It’s also not clear how regulators would feel about such a move.

“You’re immediately cutting off audience,” said Jeff Jarvis, media blogger and author of the book “What Would Google Do?”

Google brings as much as 14 percent of incoming traffic to News Corp’s U.S. news websites, including the New York Post and Fox News, Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay estimated.

If News Corp blocked access to Google, he wrote in a note to investors, it would hurt only News Corp.

Many people find their news on Google, which has 65 percent of the U.S. search market according to comScore. Newspaper publishers whose websites depend on advertising sales want lots of visitors, and need Google to supply them.

Google provides news organizations about 100,000 clicks a minute, said company spokesman Gabriel Stricker. “Each of those visits offers a business opportunity for the publishers to show ads, win loyal readers and sell subscriptions,” he said.

Making Microsoft’s Bing search engine the only way to look for news would slice away visitors and lower the amount of money news websites could charge advertisers.

There is little chance people will abandon Google, which has become such a giant that its name is also a verb.

“Consumers do not expect search engines to be exclusive,” Forrester analyst Shar VanBoskirk wrote. “If they can’t find something through search, it may as well not exist.”

Net-savvy: Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf

Social networking website Facebook has a new member — former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who has signed up to “connect” with the youth of his country.

Musharraf’s page, which was created a month ago but made public recently, already has over 27,000 fans.

The former military ruler, currently living outside Pakistan, has posted a video, in which he says why he chose Facebook to interact with youth.

“Welcome to my Facebook page, which I launched about one month back. I am extremely encouraged by the positive, enthusiastic response that I received.

It is my pleasure to be interacting with all of you,” Musharraf said in the video message.

“The youth is extremely concerned, I may even say extremely disturbed about what is happening in Pakistan, what has happened in Pakistan in the past, and why it has happened that way and also what is the future of Pakistan.

“The page has several little-known details about Musharraf — such as the fact that India Today magazine ranks alongside Economist, Newsweek and Time among his favourite journals.

Or that westerns, World War II films and historical epics like Ben Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Spartacus and Gladiator are among his favourite movies.

Musharraf lists ghazals and pre-Partition film songs as his favourite music and Noor Jehan, Mehdi Hasan, K L Saigal and Mukesh as his favourite singers.

He has also uploaded photos on his page, including one taken at the Taj Mahal during his summit at Agra with former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

His favourite quotations include Napoleon’s strategic decision-making philosophy, that every decision is “two-thirds analysis, and one-third leap in the dark.

He wrote: “I feel trying to expand the two-thirds analysis leads to ‘paralysis through analysis’ (Nixon’s quote), and expanding the one-third leap in the dark leads to recklessness, endangering oneself and others.

Striking the right balance is the true art of decision-making. His other favourite quote is by historian Stanley Wolpert: “Few individuals significantly alter the course of history.

Fewer still modify the map of the world.

Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three.

“In his video message, Musharraf explained he chose Facebook to air his views because he was “thinking how I could contribute my bit towards quenching.

“The thirst of (the) youth, especially on their concerns about Pakistan. The only way I thought possible was to develop a connectivity with all of you.

I need to collectivise this, collectivise so that I can answer to all of them through one medium, which is the connectivity of Facebook.”

Members have been asked to “engage constructively” and have been warned that “uncivil posts will be removed or edited.”

Political observers believe Musharraf has chosen not to return to Pakistan since mid-April as he is worried by a raft of legal and police cases registered against him.

However, in the “personal information section”, Musharraf wrote: “Since my retirement as President of Pakistan in August 2008, I have been keeping myself busy with a global lecture series.

“Besides the lectures, I find time to meet well wishers and friends. After many years of a regimented daily routine, I am able to spend quality time with my family. I also find time to play golf, tennis and bridge.

Comments are piling up on Musharraf’s page.

Amin Bhaila, a Facebooker, wants to know “of all the things that you had done in your tenure, which thing still bothers you the most?”

Waseem Akhter says, “We all love you, the young generation (is) waiting for you to join the politics of Pakistan in order to change it and kick out all these corrupt politicians.

CLIMATE CHANGE HACKED: A cyclist riding past the cooling tower of a coal-fired power plant. Hackers posted controvercial e-mails of climate change researchers on the Internet, sparking a fresh debate on whether human action is responsible for the phenomenon

Computer hackers have broken into a server at a well respected climate change research centre in Britain and posted hundreds of private e-mails and documents online stoking debate over whether some scientists have overstated the case for man-made climate change.

The University of East Anglia, in eastern England, said in a statement Saturday that the hackers had entered the server and stolen data at its Climatic Research Unit, a leading global research centre on climate change. The university said police are investigating the theft of the information, but could not confirm if all the materials posted online are genuine.

More than a decade of correspondence between leading British and U.S. scientists is included in about 1,000 e-mails and 3,000 documents posted on Web sites following the security breach last week.

Some climate change sceptics and bloggers claim the information shows scientists have overstated the case for global warming, and allege the documents contain proof that some researchers have attempted to manipulate data.

The furore over the leaked data comes weeks before the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen, when 192 nations will seek to reach a binding treaty to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases worldwide. Many officials including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon regard the prospects of a pact being sealed at the meeting as bleak.

In one leaked e-mail, the research centre’s director, Phil Jones, writes to colleagues about graphs showing climate statistics over the last millennium. He alludes to a technique used by a fellow scientist to “hide the decline” in recent global temperatures. Some evidence appears to show a halt in a rise of global temperatures from about 1960, but is contradicted by other evidence which appears to show a rise in temperatures is continuing.

Jones wrote that, in compiling new data, he had “just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (i.e., from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline,” according to a leaked e-mail, which the author confirmed was genuine.

One of the colleague referred to by Jones Michael Mann, a professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University did not immediately respond to requests for comment via telephone and e-mail.

The use of the word “trick” by Jones has been seized on by sceptics who say his e-mail offers proof of collusion between scientists to distort evidence to support their assertion that human activity is influencing climate change.

“Words fail me,” Stephen McIntyre a blogger whose climateaudit.org Web site challenges popular thinking on climate change wrote on the site following the leak of the messages.

However, Jones denied manipulating evidence and insisted his comment had been taken out of context. “The word ‘trick’ was used here colloquially, as in a clever thing to do. It is ludicrous to suggest that it refers to anything untoward,” he said in a statement Saturday.

Jones did not indicate who “Keith” was in his e-mail. Two other American scientists named in leaked e-mails Gavin Schmidt of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, and Kevin Trenberth, of the U.S. National Centre for Atmospheric Research, in Colorado did not immediately return requests for comment.

The University of East Anglica said that information published on the Internet had been selected deliberately to undermine “the strong consensus that human activity is affecting the world’s climate in ways that are potentially dangerous.”

“The selective publication of some stolen e-mails and other papers taken out of context is mischievous and cannot be considered a genuine attempt to engage with this issue in a responsible way,” the university said in a statement.

Associated Press Writer Meera Selva in London contributed to this report

A file picture of Chrome creators

Google believes that the Chrome OS will effectively act as a gateway to the web, allowing users to store their filed and documents on remote servers rather than storing in hard disks.

Ever imagined a computer system without a hard disk drive? Well, soon there will be such systems that will need just a few gigabytes of storage, allowing users to store their documents, photos and videos on remote servers through Internet.

At least, that seems the vision of Internet giant Google, which recently demonstrated its new operating system — Chrome OS.

The operating system, which Google believes will revolutionise computing, effectively acts as a gateway to the web, allowing users to store their filed and documents on remote servers rather than storing in hard disks.

Users can access their emails, documents or social networking sites by clicking on application tabs in the browser— like interface and use panels at the bottom of the desktop to send an instant message or view a video, The Telegraph reported.

Computers can boot up faster and get connected with web in just seven seconds through the operating system, termed the “cloud computing” approach, it said.

“We want Chrome to be blazingly fast,” said Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management. “We want it to be like a TV — turn it on and it’s booted up.”

“Chrome will run only on computers that use flash memory solid state drives instead of conventional hard drives.”

“Over the past few years, people have been spending more and more of their time online doing more and more powerful things, and we wanted to build a fundamentally different computing experience built for the way we use the web today,” says Mr. Pichai.

“With Google Chrome OS, we’ve made computing faster, easier and safer than ever before.”

But some experts say Google could find it difficult to persuade consumers. Users will not be able to install their own software or applications on Chrome OS devices — so that means no iTunes, no Skype and no Tweetdeck.

“There’s no doubt that Chrome OS looks fast, but it’s fairly limited in terms of its functionality,” says Annette Jump, an analyst with Gartner. “A lot of work needs to be done to convince consumers that this operating system will be useful to them.”

Another problem Chrome OS faces is its reliance on always-on web connectivity, which might be possible in large cities, with good mobile phone network coverage and plenty of Wi—Fi hotspots, but in rural areas, or on a flight, Chrome will be hobbled.

Google has also released the code to the operating system in the hope that developers would build new products, services and applications, in much the same way as they build apps for the iPhone, or Google’s mobile phone operating system, Android.

Web surfing is becoming more like channel surfing as television shows, movies and music videos pour onto the Internet.

That’s why pointing people to their favourite TV episodes and flicks may be the next big opportunity in web navigation.

Former Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone hopes to lead the way with Clicker.com, a free service debuting on Thursday.

Clicker scours through an index that includes 400,000 TV episodes, 50,000 music videos and roughly 30,000 movies that are part of Netflix’s streaming library or Amazon.com’s video store.

It will vie against at least two similar sites as well as video search services offered by Internet heavyweights Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL.

Ganz aktuell gibt es schon wieder eine Web-Warnung, und zwar eine Warnung vor Abzocke & Betrug!

Man schaue hier: www.tutsi.de!

Es hört nicht auf! Immer wieder lassen sich die WWW-Kriminellen Neues hinsichtlich Webabzock-Fallen einfallen!

Mein Dankeschön geht an den Betreiber des o. g. Blogs für seine aktuelle Web-Warnung! Es ist zu hoffen, dass das ganz viele User lesen mögen!

Here is a video that I produced for Heavenly Mt Resorts opening day. Ski conditions were amazing thanks to the hardworking snowmakers (check the 2 previous entries below to see first hand). Chris Stamey shot some amazing footage a the village, a bunch of it wasn’t even used in the edit, you will be seeing it in upcoming productions for Heavenly. I was up on the hill shooting the on mountain footage this year, last year I had a severely sprained ankle that kept me off the slope until January…not a good thing to have when your profession is to get out in the mountains.

-Dane