Bridge to Nova: January 2006
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Google China tricks

Until Google patch this, hopefully this would works inside china too.

Chinese web users can see full, uncensored results for their Google search by replacing "&meta=" with "&meta=cr%3DcountryBR" in the URL. Once the string is replaced, the censorship will not affect the results.


Link ( Test )

Thanks to Digg!
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Well, I really like this program. This program ( Microsoft Chat v 2.5 ) could create comic character according to chosen words in your conversation. So, you can see yourself like comic character.

I recommend you to download and try this program. I guarantee you that there is no spyware as this is from Microsoft.

The cutiest thing about this program is that it even create story title for your chat. Have fun!

The screenshot is that just me playing. It seems that both parties need to use Microsoft Chat v 2.5 to work.

If you want more info, you can go here.

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I told you guys yesterday about Google explanation for their decision to filter results in Google's China. Now I just found out from theregister( they are really fast finder :D ) that Google had to change their FAQ of Does Google Censor search results.

The original answer of Google before their China decision is as here:



After their China decision is here ( I take a screenshot, even though I am sure u can see directly on Google's site ):



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Blu-ray official website


Sony blu-raydisc has got an official website. It contains information about titles going to release, supported partners, technical specifications and other news. Blu-ray will hit the shelves in late 2006.

I found out two websites, so I am not sure which one is the more official than other.

Anyway, if you want to know the titles and more entertaining website, you should visit this one. ( LINK )

If you just want to view more technical specifications website, you should surf here. ( LINK )

This is Blu-ray at a glance:

BD-ROM Single Layer Capacity 25GB

BD-ROM Double Layer Capacity 50GB

BD-R/BD-RE Recordable Capacity 50GB or 6-9 HOURS of HD

Industry Support 160+ Companies

Additional Features Interactivity and internet

Backward Compatible YES

Laser Blue (405nm)

Cost EFFICIENT

Video/Audio Codecs MPEG2, VC-1, Dolby digital


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Well, first when I found out on the net that Google is giving limited ( filtered ) search results in China, I am really suprised. Why? So many whys are going on around the globe.

But I read on Google's official blog, it says:

Our continued engagement with China is the best (perhaps only) way for Google to help bring the tremendous benefits of universal information access to all our users there.



As of now, that's the way it is, that's the way we ( all people on earth ) have to be. But one day, I hope Chinese Government may change their decisions for the sake of their people and any search engine robots could freely crawl everywhere.

Until then, I have to agree with what Google said because it is very reasonable:

Filtering our search results clearly compromises our mission. Failing to offer Google search at all to a fifth of the world's population, however, does so far more severely. Whether our critics agree with our decision or not, due to the severe quality problems faced by users trying to access Google.com from within China, this is precisely the choice we believe we faced. By launching Google.cn and making a major ongoing investment in people and infrastructure within China, we intend to change that.


My opinions are based on what Google said on its official GoogleBlog.
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Ever wonder most frequently used word?



If you ever wonder what words are being used most frequently, this website has got a really exciting answer. You can even search how much your interest word score.

For your quick reference ( As of Jan-27-2006 ):

No, no, sex is only 1236
news is 677

How it works? This is very simple for now:

WordCount™ is an artistic experiment in the way we use language. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonness. Each word is scaled to reflect its frequency relative to the words that precede and follow it, giving a visual barometer of relevance. The larger the word, the more we use it. The smaller the word, the more uncommon it is.

WordCount data currently comes from the British National Corpus®, a 100 million word collection of samples of written and spoken language from a wide range of sources, designed to represent an accurate cross-section of current English usage. WordCount includes all words that occur at least twice in the BNC®. In the future, WordCount will be modified to track word usage within any desired text, website, and eventually the entire Internet.


Why don't you visit wordcount.org yourself and have some fun?
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GoDaddy bully?

I just read this at digg and I couldn't stop myself helping this guy. This guy is just a student, who has been bullied by GoDaddy. He has been billed $44 for the domains he didn't get. Let's make justice everywhere.
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Flying cars really exist?


Trust me, I don't want to believe this. But I couldn't deny it either. How can this happen? Is it just Google's Earth mistake?

Where is this car? I am sure you don't belive it. You just think it just a hoax. Here(LINK) you can download Google's Earth file and see yourself. Tell me what is that if not flying car.

This is I quote from theregister.co.uk
According to our Oz photo interpretation bureau (Clinton Bird), the vehicle in question is at an altitude of three of four metres and doing about 80 knots. Which rules out a rocket-powered project, and we can see no evidence of the Wankel-powered turbofan outrigger engines favoured by the Moller Corporation


Updated: After I have read gearthblog, I will agree with one of those comments' posters that Harry and Ron are on vacation. Many of you, Muggles, might not belive this. :D

Source : theregister.co.uk
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Way to download Yahoo! Music Video that u watch


We all watch Yahoo! Music Video, don't you? Some of our favourite artists attract us to watch more than once. Sometimes it's pity that we need to wait for buffering time and there is crapy due to our internet connection. How can we solve this? Wouldn't it be nice if we could download the movie we want with highest quality available and watch it later again and again?

Here I found out how to do. This is their tutorial for how to acheive this.

Navigate to Farando Barajo’s page and download the OS dependant versions of LyFOX: OSX, Windows, and Linux. Unzip to your desktop and double-click the LyFOX application.

The clean interface provides one user input field. In the search box at the top of the window, enter an artist of your choice and click ‘Search’. LyFOX - modeled after the pkLauch Greasemonkey userscript - qeuries the Yahoo music music videos for the matchin artist and returns a list of available music videos.

In the list of available music videos, highlight the clip you wish to download and select the ‘More Info’ drop down menu at the bottom of the window. The MMS information box will display the ‘Artist’, ‘Title’, [Video] ‘ID’, and most importantly ‘MMS’. Copy the MMS:// URi and open the VLC media player to download.


If you want to convert your downloaded files for your ipod, they still got another tutorial for it. Read there.

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Why iPod is always a winner?


I just wandering around digg and found this one quite interesting. This is what I am thinking for some time. Why creative can't kill iPod? Why cheap mp3 players still behind iPod?

Nothing lasts forever, certainly some day the iPod/iTunes duo will be challenged and soundly defeated. That day isn’t today and unfortunately, if you’re Microsoft, it isn’t even this year.


There are a million iPod killers floating around. Some feature more capapcity, some feature more gizmos, and some feature lower price points. None of the iPod killers are actually doing any iPod killing because they’re too busy trying to be more iPodish than the iPod.


Source : Apple Matters
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Sony Takes Aim At Dell Notebooks

To snare market share from Dell and boost its channel presence, Sony has begun offering $500 trade-in bonuses on Dell notebooks and paying solution providers additional spiffs.

The move also reflects the love-hate relationship between Sony and Dell.

Suprisingly, Sony is testing a new promotion, where they will give you a $500 dollar Sony credit towards a Sony VAIO for your trade-in.

Sounds confused? Just steal your grandpa's old dell laptop and take it to Sony, they will pay you $500 to buy a brand new VAIO.

My only thought is that when someone uses a $500 off coupon towards a Sony VAIO, Sony will most likely lose money on that sale. While, this may not be a catastrophic catch, it could become one if this program actually gains popularity.

I’m not sure how well this will work, as the only way to grow rapidly, much like Dell has in the past, would be to aim at the business and I.T. folks, the people that generate 90% of Dell’s sales. We’ll see how far Sony will go with this.

Source : CRN

via digg
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Mininova first birthday!

When SuprNova went offline, many BitTorrent fans found themselves orphaned and forced to seek alternatives to the once great BitTorrent source. Some goes to torrentspy.com and many torrent search engines pop up around the net. But most torrent fans missed the flavor of suprnova.org.

Some fans found themselves in an identical situation and vowed to fix the situation. They then launched Mininova and the rest is history. This was one year ago.

This year, Mininova has earned its reputation as the cutting edge in public BitTorrent indexing sites. It now boasts a large fan base.

At the mininova's blog, written by Niek said,

"What was the reason for mininovas huge growth?

Was it the simple layout?

The perfect timing after SuprNovas shutdown?

The many revolutionary and advanced features?

The forum with its great community?"


But after newnova.org launches, mininova design has been changed. Many of suprnova.org fans, including me, prefers newnova.org with no exception. Anyway, we are on the same side.
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After I have read this article from cnn, I think no one would be stupid enough to pay $1,800 for the standalone Blu-Ray player while they could get PS3 (with built-in Blu-ray drive) with only around $500.

There wasn't universal consensus, though. Some predicted the price would be closer to $450, others said they wouldn't be surprised if it was as high as $600. $700 was mentioned by a couple of developers, though even they said the number seemed unreasonable. And one game maker felt Sony would try to stay in line with Microsoft, offering the PS3 for just $399.


Microsoft support for HD-DVD is a big loss for Blu-ray. Surely, Sony and their supporters of Blu-ray might need to adjust price if they don't want this war to be alike Betamax.
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According to Macrumors.com, they only need to serve 32 GB with AJAX during the keynote adress, if they didn't use AJAX, they would need to serve 6 times as much data, 196 GB!!!!


We peaked at approximately 103,000 simultaneous web visitors and 6,000 IRC viewers during the Keynote speech and transmited over 32 GB of data in a three hour period. If not for the efficiency of the MacRumorsLive AJAX update system, the same webcast would have required approximately twice as many servers and would have had to transfer almost 6 times as much data (196 GB).


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39 megapixel camera!


And just when 12 megapixel cameras were starting to become all the news, Hasselblad's new H2D-39 D-SLR is the first true 39 megapixel digital camera in the world. It is based on Hasselblad's existing H2 digital camera and is compatible with the company's H System lenses and V camera lenses. Prices are up to $40,000.

While I got suprise about this much high resolution and price, some said like this:

Every fashion magazine is pretty much shot on medium and large format and not 35mm. Madison Ave/Times Square billboards are shot with large formats also.

Its like video cameras. While you may buy a $2000 video camera, professionals for TV and film use $70,000 camera with a $30,000 lense (some lense cost more than the camera).


Source : DailyTech
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World's smallest helicopter!


First I thought this is just a fine product of photoshop. But I was wrong. This is real. You can get it for $35,000.

It can Carry On average a 70kg (155 lb.) pilot.It can fly approximately 1 hour on a 5-gallon tank of fuel.Its Engine is Two-stroke, air-cooled, 125cc, horizontally opposed. Two-cylinder.Its also radio controlled…Four independent engines enable normal flight to continue with one engine out. Emergency landing under full control is possible on two engines. Ballistic parachute provided above the mast.


How high will it fly? Is it really safe? blah, blah, blah, ..., Got a lot of questions? Check here.
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Google.com has been user's favorite search engine for quite few years now. Since Google.com started developing new services for its users, it's user base grew. Nowadays there is no nobody that would have not heard of Google.com. For more than a year, Google.com has been ranked (according to Alexa.com) as the 3rd biggest website in the world, right behind MSN.com and Yahoo.com. According to Alexa.com, less than a week ago, Google.com took over the 2nd place in the world, beating MSN.com.

Source : Digg
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Google start 2006 with Google Pack!


In just a few clicks, users can easily discover, install and maintain software to surf the web faster and safer, communicate better, and effectively manage information.

Google Pack offers programs that meets Google’s high software standards and are considered best in their class, including:

Adobe Reader 7
Ad-Aware SE Personal
Google Desktop
Google Earth
Google Pack Screensaver
Google Talk
Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer
Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar
Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition
Picasa

Google Pack also includes Google Updater, a new tool that intelligently downloads, installs and maintains all the software in the Google Pack. Google Updater alerts users when updates and new programs become available and ensures each program is always up-to-date. Google Updater can also be used to monitor the status of installation, run software that’s been installed, or easily uninstall software.

Users can easily select which programs they want to install. For programs already installed on a computer, Google Updater checks whether the latest version is running. If not, Google Updater will install the latest version.
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New applications of adsense need valid phone numbers


You can apply for Google Adsense from now on only if you provide a valid phone number. New Adsense applications will not be accepted if they do not provide valid phone number. Google then verifies the phone number automatically.

This Phone verification PIN is kinda like the Address verification PIN that is mailed by post to each AdSense publisher when earnings have reached $50 on their account. The Address PIN is to verify publisher contact address and is sent by snail mail.

Phone verification is completely automated - you'll only need to key in a 6-digit personal identification number (PIN) using your touch-tone telephone.

When you're ready to verify your number, click the link provided in the email you received from Google AdSense. This link will bring you to the Phone Verification Setup page, from which you'll be able to initiate the call or set a convenient time for our system to call you. Have your PIN ready - the number of PIN entry attempts is limited.

Go to Google
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Write Now, Send Later ( Emails )

Have you ever dream about sending an email to yourself or your friend at a future date like on 14th February 2008? You don't need to dream anymore as your dreams come true! There are several email services make it possible.


Here is a list of emailing services that I liked.

Mail to the Future - allows you to send mail to yourself or others at a specified date and time in the future. But requires registration and they wrote In order to use Mail to the Future, your browser must send us a cookie that contains an encoded password. Luckily, if you have an email account somewhere, it's very easy to get such a cookie. Discontinued


FutureMe - No registration needed made this my favourite service. Specify the email address, subject, message and the date to be sent in the future. The drop menu shows the last year as 2036 ( Will they last that long? ). You can also keep the email private or as an anonymous public one. They have a sense of humor as they wrote this in their copyright statement : if you steal anything, we will sic a pack of cute angry girl lawyers on you. for real.


FutureMail - Use FutureMail to send yourself reminders, notes, or any information you want to have in the future. You can even share your future items in a public RSS feed or your own FutureMail Blog. You can specify your time zone and select an hour along with your message date! This makes FutureMail much more useful for daily reminders!


I am sure there are many other services out there or will come out later. From three of these services, I recommend you to use futureme. That is simple, easy and the best of all : NO REGISTRATION.
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Happy New Year!

It’s 2006 and most sites do a year end review of what they have done, but since I am new in blogging, I’ll just skip that and dive right into some new content for 2006.

With all of the problems Google is having with click fraud lately (read this months Wired magazine for a good article about it), it’s possible that an account can be banned at anytime.

I am trying very hard to find other contexual ads except adsense and ypn, I still can't find acceptable ones. Now I am trying allfeeds. Hopefully, I may settle with it. Let's see!

I wish all of you to have a brand new happy year!
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Well readers, my fans, it's here - the last day of 2005. You guys are so great for being the fans of my blog.

The goal for this post is to thanks all of you and promise you that I will improve my blog in the grand ol' 2006. So, let's get started!

Happy 2006 everyone!
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