Selasa, 12 April 2011

Sony Vegas Pro 10 -

22.06 William W

Vegas Pro 10 overview
The Vegas Pro 10 collection integrates two powerful applications that work seamlessly together to provide an efficient and intuitive environment for video and broadcast professionals. This comprehensive suite offers the most robust and progressive platform available for content creation and production. With broad format support, superior effects processing, unparalleled audio support, and a full complement of editorial tools, the Vegas Pro 10 collection streamlines your workflow. From acquisition to delivery, from camera to Blu-ray Disc™, the Vegas Pro 10 collection delivers exactly what you need to produce outstanding results.

Precise editing tools
Edit SD or HD video with drag-and-drop functionality, mouse and keyboard trimming, and ripple editing. Features include ProType titling technology, multicamera editing tools, 32-bit floating-point video processing, customizable window layouts, color-coded snapping, HDV/AVCHD/RED/SDI/XDCAM support, A/V synchronization detection and repair, and automatic frame quantization.

More about video editing
Professional 32- and 64-bit workflow
The Vegas Pro 10 interface provides a fully customizable workspace for accomplishing a wide range of production requirements. Dock multiple windows across multiple monitors and save your layouts to fit specific editing tasks, nest Vegas projects within the timeline, customize and save keyboard commands, and use application scripting to automate repetitive tasks. Systemwide media management produces maximum efficiency.

Stereoscopic 3D editing
Create stereoscopic 3D projects utilizing the same workflow we’ve provided for 2D media! Vegas Pro 10 provides the ability to import, adjust, edit, preview, and output stereoscopic 3D media — all using industry-standard professional delivery formats including single or dual files with side-by-side, top/bottom, or line-alternate encoding. Anaglyphic monitoring and output are also supported.
More about 3D editing & delivery

Vegas Pro 10 Announcement Video
Watch our video highlighting the new features of Vegas Pro 10. The 3D version linked below is optimized for red/cyan 3D glasses, but additional options are available on our YouTube Channel.
Watch in 2D | Watch in 3D

Superior audio control
Use unlimited tracks, 24-bit/192 kHz audio, punch-in recording, 5.1 surround mixing, effects automation, and time compress/expand. Apply customizable, real-time audio effects like EQ, Reverb, Delay, and more. Expand your audio processing and mixing options with supported third-party DirectX® and VST audio plug-ins. Use the Mixing Console for precise audio control.
More about audio production

Broad format support
Vegas Pro 10 software natively supports the newest professional camcorder formats including XDCAM, NXCAM, AVCHD, and RED. Vegas Pro 10 software also includes support for still images greater than one gigapixel in resolution. Use Pan and Scan to create a stunning movie sequence from these large pictures while maintaining HD resolution.
More about capture and import

Powerful Blu-ray Disc authoring
Burn movies to Blu-ray Disc™ directly from the Vegas Pro timeline for high-definition delivery. Use DVD Architect Pro software (included with the Vegas Pro collection) to author DVDs or Blu-ray Disc media with multiple video angles, subtitles, multiple languages, and special features. Preview and test your work in real time. Apply Brightness and Contrast, Auto Levels, Crop, and Anti-Flicker filters. Set CSS and Macrovision® copy-protection flags for masters.
More about Blu-ray Disc authoring
Learn as you go with easy Interactive Tutorials

Vegas Pro 10 software has a comprehensive help system, as well as detailed interactive tutorials that provide walkthrough demonstrations of common features and functionality. These tutorials provide an easy step-by-step method of learning the product and the workflow necessary to complete most common tasks.


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MIB 3 News

22.02 William W

Will Smith and Josh Brolin Are Men in Black … Suits from MIB 3 Set

Take a gander at your first look at Will Smith and Josh Brolin on the Bronx, New York set of “Men in Black 3″ yesterday. In the sequel, Smith’s suave, wisecracking MIB character Agent J goes back in time where he meets a young Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones’ character, now played by Josh Brolin as a younger man) and must save the world from an alien menace or some such. You know how this thing goes, it ain’t exactly brain surgery. Expect more Tomfoolery, lots of sight gags, and if the first two movies are any indication, shockingly shoddy CGI.

The film also stars Alice Eve, Emma Thompson, Nicole Scherzinger, Rip Torn and Johnny Knoxville. Barry Sonnenfield, who directed the first two films in the series, returns behind the camera for the third time around.
“Men in Black 3″ saves the world from the scum of the universe one more time on May 23 2012.


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Windows 8

22.00 William W

Windows 8 M1 Build 7850 Leaks to the Web

Windows 8 leak season is in full swing and today we’ve learned that a leak of an early Milestone 1 build of Windows 8 has been posted to a BetaArchive FTP site. So far, the build is only available to private members, but is said by many to be legitimate and will soon be available to the public through the wonderful, albeit sometimes shady, world of torrent sites. The build is listed as:

6.1.7850.0.winmain_win8m1.100922-1508_x86fre_client-enterprise_en-us.iso – 2.45 GB

Windows 8 has already passed Milestone 2 and is said to be nearing M3 with a beta to come later this fall. While many sites confirm the authenticity of the build, I would not recommend any users rush out to download and install this one especially as your main OS. Keep in mind this is an older build (possibly September 2010), so many Windows 7 elements may be present.


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Rosie Huntington-The new cast member of Transformers

21.56 William W

Apparently the folks at CinemaCon (formerly ShoWest) think so highly of Michael Bay’s latest eye candy Rosie Huntington-Whiteley that they’ve awarded the former Victoria’s Secret lingerie supermodel the coveted “Female Star of Tomorrow” award.

Okay, so “coveted” is probably a bit of a stretch, especially when the winner of this year is a first-timer whose first movie hasn’t even come out yet. And from what I’ve seen, Huntington-Whiteley pretty much stands around gawking prettily as giant alien robots battle it out around her. Plus, she dresses way too respectable for someone who is supposed to be filling the “sexy eye candy” role formerly filled out oh-so-nicely by the fired Megan Fox. What’s up with the power suits, Rosie?

In case you were wondering, Chris Hemsworth won the male equivalent of the reward. I’m guessing he’s probably not all that enthused with being lumped in the same winner’s category as a former underwear model, but I could be wrong, especially if they LITERALLY lumped him in the same room with her. She is quite fetching, after all.

Source : http://www.beyondhollywood.com/transformers-rosie-huntington-whiteley-is-your-female-star-of-tomorrow/


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Harry Potter 2 Interview

21.50 William W

Some new footage from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was shown at Cinema Con, and afterwards Potter producer David Heyman sat down with Cinema Blend to talk about what from the novels is going to be included in the film, and what will be changed. Their conversation included some pretty specific spoilers about the end of the film, but presumably most people have already read the books; so giving away story details isn’t as big of a deal as it might be normally.

If you’re one of the people who haven’t read the books, and who would like to see Deathly Hallows: Part 2 without any idea of what it has in store, then you should probably not read this article. Or, you know, do it anyways and then bitch about how stuff was given away in the comments section. Either way is good.

Spoilers ahoy…

The major changes that take place between the book and the film seem to be in the way the Battle of Hogwarts is presented. While it is confirmed that the big, destructive battle is still how the story will climax, the locations and specifics will play out a little differently. When Snape and McGonagall have their confrontation, it happens in the Great Hall, rather than in some anonymous corridor. A bigger deal is made of Snape’s final confrontation with Harry as well. It seems that the goal of the filmmakers was to stay true to the spirit of what happens in the book, but make it hit harder, boom louder, and resonate more from a character perspective.

Heyman says, “ … like you saw in the footage today, the statues coming to life [during the Battle of Hogwarts] — that’s not in the book. It’s quite a percussive ending, and we wanted to have some good magic.” He added, “Snape’s role in the film is minimal, and it was minimal in the second half of the book, and yet you wanted to have the emotional investment when you see his past story [the memory Harry views in the Pensieve]. We wanted to build that up in order for it to have its emotional impact.” It sounds to me like they’re focusing on all the right things. I’m not doubtful that they could actually improve on Rowling’s ending by ramping up the action and playing up the big moments more than she did in her prose.

Heyman’s comments about Snape and the Pensieve confirm some very important things that will be included in the film as well. We will get the flashback sequence of Snape’s memories that explains his seemingly traitorous actions in the previous installments and allows for another chance at seeing the dearly departed Albus Dumbledore up on the big screen.

Heyman says of these sequences, “ … what I love about these films, what I love about the books, is that all the action, adventure and magic, what means most to me is the character stuff, the slow stuff. I love having the time to tell the story. I’m really happy about breaking the book into two films, it gives us the time to really spend time with the characters and have the moments such as the flashback, Dumbledore at King’s Cross. If we had done it as one film, we would have lost the Snape flashback.”

This is an interesting look at what the people behind the scenes of the Potter movies were thinking about when they decided to make Deathly Hallows into two films. If Heyman is to be believed, then the decisions they’re making when adapting the books deal with story and character first, and financial logistics second. Personally, I would have been upset if they had excised the bits about Snape’s past. By the end of the books he becomes probably the most interesting, complicated character of the series, and to downplay that would have been a real shame. Plus, with this two-film structure, we got to watch Harry and Hermione have that cute little dance number in Part 1. I think they made the right choices.

The full interview goes on to talk about makeup effects used in the film’s epilogue, their thoughts on fan reactions to the films, and why they went about doing the series with multiple directors. It can be read here.


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Rio

21.44 William W

Blue Sky Studios has been a reliable producer of family content for 20th Century Fox, but I can't say I love their movies the way I love, yes, Pixar. And while that may seem an unfair comparison to make, they're certainly all playing in the same sandbox, and they're competing for the same family dollars.

Every studio wants to have a company they can turn to for this story of movie, and it's an important part of the business model for a modern movie studio. With Blue Sky, they've built their brand on the back of their very successful "Ice Age" series, and having one go-to franchise that does almost unbelievable business each time out allows them to try different things. I think "Robots" has some major story problems, but I like the way they designed that world. In adapting "Horton Hears A Who," they did a nice job of creating a Dr. Seuss world on film. They work within the general "family film" genre, but they've tried several different visual styles and they don't seem to just tell the same story every time out.

With "Rio," their latest movie, they've told a very simple story against a backdrop that allowed them to make some big exciting choices with the soundtrack, and they've included just enough sophistication about the setting of their story that I feel like it nudges a simple film into the "better than expected" category. Rio is a thrilling place to set a story because it is a world of haves and have nots, and it is a dangerous and beautiful city. For a film aimed at a family audience to even acknowledge the existence of the favelas seems sort of brave, but to actually set much of the movie there and to try to capture some of the diversity of the city in a movie like this… that's surprising. And admirable.

Even the film's opening scene tackles the notion of the export of exotic animals for pets, something that is a real-world problem, and uses it as a way of bringing the Cerulean macaw Blu (voiced by Jesse Eisenberg) into the life of a little girl in Minnesota, who grows up to be Linda (voiced by Leslie Mann), a bookstore owner. She and Blu are happy tucked away in their warm little bookstore, secure in their daily routine, until Tulio (voiced by Rodrigo Santoro) shows up one day. He's a bird expert from Brazil, working to preserve the species that Blu belongs to. Seems Blu is the last living male that anyone knows about, and they've found a female named Jewel (voiced by Anne Hathaway) in Brazil who they want to mate Blu with.

Blu is over-pampered, stifled from having been raised by Linda, and he's never flown in his life. Jewel, on the other hand, is a wild animal, and from the moment she and Blu meet in a laboratory setting, she's working to escape. The way their relationship plays out probably won't shock anyone who has ever seen a movie before, but both Eisenberg and Hathaway bring considerable energy and charm to their roles, and they are matched by the human story between Santoro and Mann. When Blu and Jewel are stolen, it kicks off these parallel adventure stories, and along the way, there are characters voiced by Jamie Foxx, Will.i.Am, Tracy Morgan, George Lopez, and most notably, Jemaine Clement as a villainous cockatoo named Nigel.

The film's soundtrack is exactly what you'd want from a film set in South America, very mainstream but with enough authentic local energy to make it feel genuine. The movie opens and closes with the same basic musical number, and it's incredibly infectious, immediately inviting. The movie has a warmth to it that is very direct and that works for audiences of vastly different age and experience. This was only my three-year-old's second movie in a theater, and he enjoyed it all, sitting quietly and reacting well to the various thrills and laughs. It helps that it's such a bright and colorful film, because even with the 3D glasses on, it's a very vivid visual experience. The designs are very broad, very cartoony, and not remotely aiming for reality, which excuses the way they clean things up a bit. Even sanitized for kids, the rougher parts of Rio definitely reflect the way things really are, and Fernando (Jake T. Austin) is a street kid who is the audience's way of seeing just how hard it is for some people in that country to scratch out a living.

Blue Sky's Carlos Saldanha has been a major part of that company's movies for a pretty much their entire existence. He's a co-director on the first "Ice Age," a co-director on "Robots," and he directed both the "Ice Age" sequels as well. With "Rio," it feels like this filmmaker (who was born in Rio himself) has made something with that extra added bit of personal passion, and maybe that's why I found it to be one of the most enjoyable things the studio has made. It feels effortless, like they just let it rip, and I can see why the film's enjoyed such massive openings around the world. I have a feeling it's going to do fantastic business over spring break as families in the US get their chance to see it next weekend.


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Casio Atomic Watch

21.35 William W

I've seen so many watches lately that record and display all sorts of data that I'd forgotten what a watch is really for: to tell you the time. But how do you make sure your watch has the right time? With Casio's atomic time watch, you don't need to worry about it.

The watch receives radio signals from five atomic clocks across the world, thus ensuring that your watch will tell you the correct time for the next 30 million years. Other features include the usual multiple alarms (4), timer, stopwatch, and solar power!

Source : http://www.thegadgetbox.com/


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Death

21.33 William W

Confusius Thinking About Death

Zilu asked Confucius, the renowned ancient Chinese philosopher:
‘May I ask what you think about death?’
‘You may ask,’ replied Confucius, ‘but if you still don’t understand life, why do you want to know about death. Leave thinking about death for when life is ove


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Struggling Butterfly

21.32 William W

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.
The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.
Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.
What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If we go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!

Source :http://www.inspirationalstories.com/struggling-butterfly/


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The Carpenter

21.26 William W

Building Your House

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house-building business to live a more leisurely life with his wife and enjoy his extended family. He would miss the paycheck each week, but he wanted to retire. They could get by.
The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but over time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career.
When the carpenter finished his work, his employer came to inspect the house. Then he handed the front-door key to the carpenter and said, “This is your house… my gift to you.”

The carpenter was shocked!

What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently.
So it is with us. We build our lives, a day at a time, often putting less than our best into the building. Then, with a shock, we realize we have to live in the house we have built. If we could do it over, we would do it much differently.
But, you cannot go back. You are the carpenter, and every day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Someone once said, “Life is a do-it-yourself project.” Your attitude, and the choices you make today, help build the “house” you will live in tomorrow. Therefore, build wisely — starting now!

Source : http://www.inspirationalstories.com/building-your-house/


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PS 3 - Review

21.24 William W

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- With its Cell processor engine, Blu-Ray DVD drive and beefy hard drive, the PlayStation 3 is unquestionably a powerhouse of a video game system. And forget about Elmo, this is the item that consumers will be sparring over as the holidays get closer.

But cut through the hype, and the desire for the newest, flashiest gadget and the product is not as compelling as it might seem. The PS3, for all its power, feels incomplete at launch. And that could leave some consumers, who have shelled out $500 or $600 for the system, depending on the configuration they choose, feeling put out.


"Resistance: Fall of Man" is among the most visually spectacular of the PS3's launch titles.

Want more video game news and commentary? Click the orc.
The potential for greatness is certainly there, but there are fundamental mistakes in execution that prove annoying. Take the initial user experience, for example: When you bought a PlayStation 2, it was a pretty simple process. You paid the store, took the PS2 home, plugged it in and started playing. Things aren't so simple this time.

Once you've plugged in and configured your PS3, you'll have to update the system software. Some (but not all) launch games will include that system update, which means the process will take 5 minutes or so. If not, you'll download and install the upgrade from the internet (as I did). This method takes more than 10 minutes. It's frustrating, especially having spent this much.

The money does buy something: The PS3 is the first system to fulfill the promise of being a true digital centerpiece of the living room. There's little you can't do with it. Watch high-definition movies. Listen to music. Surf the Internet. Chat with friends. And, naturally, play games.

Those system updates allow Sony (Charts) to add functionality down the road. The PSP portable gaming system Sony introduced last year has benefited greatly from system upgrades and there's every reason to believe the PS3 will as well. (But they're still a pain for day one users.)

The dashboard menu structure is similar to the PSP's. Navigating between the areas that let you launch a game, movie or music, along with the Sony Network (the online service which allows you to download trailers and buy add-ons for games) is all pretty easy.

The only part that could cause confusion for some is the settings field. If nothing else, Sony is thorough in letting you choose how you want to set up your PS3 -- but there's such a thing as TOO thorough. Quick: do you want your audio CD output frequency to be 48 kHz or 44.1 kHz? You get the point.

Eye Candy
Graphically, the PS3 is a tour de force. No, not better than Microsoft's Xbox --yet. But you quickly sense the greater potential of the PS3. It will ultimately be a question of how long it takes developers to learn to exploit what the system has to offer.

If you've got a high definition set, you're certainly in for a treat. And if you're one of the few to have a TV with 1080p high-def resolution, you'll be in heaven. 1080p is the PS3's sweet spot. It's the most detailed video available today -- and PS3 games plan to make the most of it. Launch title "NBA 07" is the best initial example, with detail as fine as the pores on player's skin. But expect no visual detail to be too minor.

For the majority of owners, though - those who only have a regular TV set - it's a slightly different story. The PS3 still looks good, but not awe-inspiring. Ultimately, it's a matter of the software. "Resistance: Fall of Man," for instance, looks fine in regular resolution. Electronic Arts' (Charts) "Need for Speed: Carbon"? Not so much.

Controlling games is pretty close to what PlayStation veterans are used to. The major shift this time is Sony has included a motion sensor in its controller (which has been redubbed the Sixaxis). In "NBA 07," for instance, twisting the controller will let you juke around an opposing player.

The problem is that the motion doesn't feel natural here, as it does with the Nintendo Wii. Perhaps as developers get more used to the feature, they'll be better able to incorporate it into their games. Initially, though, you get the impression they were caught off guard when the feature was announced -- and rushed to find some way to include it.

Gone also is the rumble effect from the controller -- an omission that has upset many Sony loyalists. Personally, I miss the shaking. The feeling of a slight rumble in your hands as you fired a virtual weapon added to the fun.

As for the much-touted Blu-Ray disc player, it's a nice addition, but it's almost immaterial if you don't have a top-of-the-line television set. For standard TV owners, it's just a player for more expensive movies -- and likely won't appeal. But it could be an ace up the PS3's sleeve in the years to come.

Online gaming, a big battleground for the current generation, unfortunately couldn't be tested yet. Microsoft (Charts) has big momentum with its widely celebrated "Xbox Live" system, which could be difficult to overtake -- even though the PS3 will not charge users for online play, as Microsoft does.

Looking forward
Compounding these shortcomings has been the PS3's unimpressive launch, including a tepid lineup of games and an embarrassing snafu that caused problems with its much-touted "backward compatibility," or the ability to play old games.

But the PS3 is far from a bad machine. It has the potential to be all the PS2 was and more. And remember: the console wars aren't won or lost at launch. They're marathons that usually don't start to shake out for two or three years after all the new systems are on the market. To count Sony out this early would be foolish.

The question is: If you're somehow able to find a PlayStation 3 on a store shelf this year, is it worth buying one? Sadly, the answer is not yet. The system is too expensive for what most people will get out of it -- and the initial slate of games don't offer enough innovation or thrills to justify the purchase.

Wait until prices drop $100 or even $200 -- and until there are a few more good games available - before you consider making the plunge.

Source : http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/15/commentary/ps3_review/index.htm


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The Vision of a Prayer

21.20 William W

The Vision of a Prayer
A Christian monk earnestly prayed that a vision of Jesus Christ might be revealed to him. After praying for many hours, the monk heard a voice telling him the visionwould occur the next morning at daybreak. Before the first rays of dawn appeared the following morning, the monk was on his knees at the altar.
A fierce storm was brewing, but the monk paid it no heed. He watched and prayed and waited for the vision. As the storm broke in great fury, a soft knock came at the door. Interrupted in his devotions, the monk turned away from the altar to open the door. He knew some poor wayfarer was seeking shelter from the raging storm. As he turned toward the door, he caught a glimpse of the vision for which he had prayed.
Torn between his desire to stay and experience the vision—one that he felt would last but for a moment—and his desire to help a brother in distress, the monk quickly decided that duty must come first. Upon opening the door, he gazed into the bright blue eyes of a small child who had apparently lost her way. She was tired, shivering from the cold, and hungry.
The monk gently reached out his hand and led the child into the warm room. He placed a bowl of milk and some fresh bread before her and did everything he could think of to make her comfortable. Warm, fed, and comfortable, the child fell asleep in a chair.
Then, with a heavy heart, he turned back toward his altar, fearing that the vision had vanished. To his joy and surprise, it was there—clear and bright and shining with radiant glory! As the monk gazed rapturously upon the precious vision for a long time, he heard a voice gently speak: “If thou had not attended to my little one, I could not have stayed.”


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21.14 William W

SONY ERICSSON XPERIA PLAY

Need a super-efficient, full-featured smartphone? And what if it also had real game controls? You've got it. The Xperia™ PLAY. A PlayStation™ Certified Android™ smartphone that lets you immerse yourself in the games you want.

The latest Google™ apps on your Android mobile
Never get lost again. Explore cities and sights with 3D maps. Use Google Voice Search™ to call, text and more. With your Xperia™ PLAY Android mobile, there's no need to type. Just speak. Want more? Get the apps you need from Android Market™.

"So, is this the PlayStation™ phone?"
Once a fantasy. Now a reality. The first PlayStation™ Certified Android smartphone gives you incredible graphics, great sound and real game controller. This phone is not actually named "the PlayStation™ phone" though - we call it Xperia™ PLAY.

Xperia™ PLAY - geared up for immersive gaming
What's your thrill? Slide out the controls of your Xperia™ PLAY and get behind the wheel of a race car. Or jump into a street fight. Challenge your friends: Xperia™ PLAY supports multi-player gaming. In addition to the pre-loaded games, you'll find an ever-growing selection of additional titles available for download.


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21.12 William W

The iPad 2 is the second generation of the iPad, a tablet computer designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. Sometimes referred to as the "iPad 2nd Generation," it serves primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games and web content. Available with black or white bezels, the Foxconn-manufactured iPad 2 has a lithium-polymer battery that lasts up to 10 hours, a new dual core Apple A5 processor and VGA front-facing and 720p rear-facing cameras designed for FaceTime video calling.
Apple unveiled the device on March 2, 2011, began selling it by website and retail stores on March 11, and released it in 25 other countries on March 25. Apple announced that the iPad 2 will be released in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and other countries in April 2011.


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Selasa, 05 April 2011

Trees that Wood

22.27 William W

Trees That Wood
by: Author Unknown, Source Unknown

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Once there were three trees on a hill in the woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when the first tree said, "Someday I hope to be a treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and precious gems. I could be decorated with intricate carving and everyone would see the beauty."
Then the second tree said, "Someday I will be a mighty ship. I will take kings and queens across the waters and sail to the corners of the world. Everyone will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull."

Finally the third tree said, "I want to grow to be the tallest and straightest tree in the forest. People will see me on top of the hill and look up to my branches, and think of the heavens and God and how close to them I am reaching. I will be the greatest tree of all time and people will always remember me."

After a few years of praying that their dreams would come true, a group of woodsmen came upon the trees. When one came to the first tree he said, "This looks like a strong tree, I think I should be able to sell the wood to a carpenter" ... and he began cutting it down. The tree was happy, because he knew that the carpenter would make him into a treasure chest.

At the second tree a woodsman said, "This looks like a strong tree, I should be able to sell it to the shipyard." The second tree was happy because he knew he was on his way to becoming a mighty ship.

When the woodsmen came upon the third tree, the tree was frightened because he knew that if they cut him down his dreams would not come true. One of the woodsmen said, "I don't need anything special from my tree so I'll take this one", and he cut it down.

When the first tree arrived at the carpenters, he was made into a feed box for animals. He was then placed in a barn and filled with hay. This was not at all what he had prayed for. The second tree was cut and made into a small fishing boat. His dreams of being a mighty ship and carrying kings had come to an end. The third tree was cut into large pieces and left alone in the dark. The years went by, and the trees forgot about their dreams.

Then one day, a man and woman came to the barn. She gave birth and they placed the baby in the hay in the feed box that was made from the first tree. The man wished that he could have made a crib for the baby, but this manger would have to do. The tree could feel the importance of this event and knew that it had held the greatest treasure of all time. Years later, a group of men got in the fishing boat made from the second tree. One of them was tired and went to sleep. While they were out on the water, a great storm arose and the tree didn't think it was strong enough to keep the men safe. The men woke the sleeping man, and he stood and said "Peace" and the storm stopped. At this time, the tree knew that it had carried the King of Kings in its boat.

Finally, someone came and got the third tree. It was carried through the streets as the people mocked the man who was carrying it. When they came to a stop, the man was nailed to the tree and raised in the air to die at the top of a hill. When Sunday came, the tree came to realize that it was strong enough to stand at the top of the hill and be as close to God as was possible, because Jesus had been crucified on it.

The moral of this story is that when things don't seem to be going your way, always know that God has a plan for you. If you place your trust in Him, He will give you great gifts. Each of the trees got what they wanted, just not in the way they had imagined. We don't always know what God's plans are for us. We just know that His ways are not our ways, but His ways are always best.


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22.18 William W


Introducing the first professional grade tablet. The BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet

  • All the videos, games, and apps the real Internet has to offer with built-in support for Adobe Flash
  • True multitasking lets you use more than one application at a time, just like you would on your desktop PC
  • Groundbreaking speed and power with a blazing fast, multi-core processor
  • Crystal clear pictures and video brought to life through an HD display and two HD videos cameras
  • Goes anywhere with an ultra portable design that's less than an inch thick and weighs under a pound
  • Works with your BlackBerry smartphone providing access to your email, calendar, and BlackBerry® Messenger


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DotA 2

22.13 William W

“What is Dota 2?” Dota began as a user-made modification for Warcraft 3 and has grown into one of the most played online games in the world. Following in the tradition of Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Portal, and Alien Swarm, Dota 2 is the result of Valve hiring the community developers who built the mod and giving them the chance to finally build a full product out of their idea with the help of a professional team of developers and artists at Valve.

As for the gameplay, it’s a little hard to describe. The camera is set in the traditional RTS perspective, but it wouldn’t be fair to call Dota an RTS. And while each hero starts at level 1, and many times hits the level cap of 25, it wouldn’t be fair to call it an RPG.

Lots of people have tried to assign various genre names to Dota, but we think Action RTS is probably the most descriptive. And while we don’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out what genre the game is inventing, we can’t stop playing it internally and we’re pretty excited to show everyone how we’re doing.

This site is where you can come to follow us along as we build the game. The first four images we shipped with the initial announcement are just the start of us showing you our work as we build it. We’re all looking forward to getting more of the game in front of you all.

Source : www.dota2.com


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Firefox 3.6 - Newest Version

22.11 William W

What’s New in Firefox 3.6
Firefox 3.6 is built on Mozilla's Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering platform, which has been under development since early 2009 and contains many improvements for web developers, add-on developers, and users. This version is also faster and more responsive than previous versions and has been optimized to run on small device operating systems such as Maemo.

Available in more than 70 languages - get your local version.
Support for a new type of theme called Personas, which allow users to change Firefox's appearance with a single click.
Protection from out-of-date plugins to keep users safer as they browse.
Open, native video can now be displayed full screen and supports poster frames.
Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness, and startup time.
The ability for web developers to indicate that scripts should run asynchronously to speed up page load times.
Continued support for downloadable web fonts using the new WOFF font format.
Support for new CSS attributes such as gradients, background sizing, and pointer events.
Support for new DOM and HTML5 specifications including the Drag & Drop API and the File API, which allow for more interactive web pages.
Changes to how third-party software can integrate with Firefox in order to prevent crashes.
Developers can find out about all the changes and new features at the Mozilla Developer Center.

Source : http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.6/releasenotes/


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Confirmation of Facebook Closing

21.54 William W

Shocking news came from Facebook. The biggest social network in the face of this earth will be preached immediately closed within two months by the owner, Mark Zuckerberg. As quoted from weeklyworldnews.com, Sunday (09/01/2011), history of Facebook, which has 500 million users worldwide will soon be over on March 15, 2011.

“Facebook is completely excessive, I must end all this madness. All the pressure is now managing this company has ruined my life,” Zuckerberg said in a statement as claimed weeklyworldnews.com.

Statement Zuckerberg allegedly reinforced by Avrat Humarthi, vice president for Technical Affairs up. “After 15 March, everything will be closed. If you want to look back at your photos, we recommend immediate download from the internet. You will never again take it up our cap,” he said.

Still according to claim that site, Zuckerberg assess its decision to close up very heavy. But he felt that the best way for everyone.

“Frankly, this is the best way. Without up, people will go out and create friendshipsthat’s true. It is always a good thing,” he said.

Until now, the only site weeklyworldnews.com who wrote stories is about going to the closing up. There is no official media reported, because the site is only weeklyworldnews.com. The content is far from the truth. And it is proven right, until today, Facebook, the biggest online social network, has not been closed yet.

Source : http://www.coffetoday.com/facebook-will-be-closed-within-2-months/908099/


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WikiLeaks

21.51 William W

WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more than 1.2 million documents within a year of its launch. WikiLeaks describes its founders as a mix of Chinese dissidents, journalists, mathematicians, and start-up company technologists from the United States, Taiwan, Europe, Australia, and South Africa. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its director. The site was originally launched as a user-editable wiki, but has progressively moved towards a more traditional publication model and no longer accepts either user comments or edits.

In April 2010, WikiLeaks published gunsight footage from the 12 July 2007 Baghdad airstrike in which Iraqi civilians and journalists were killed by an Apache helicopter, as the Collateral Murder video. In July of the same year, WikiLeaks released Afghan War Diary, a compilation of more than 76,900 documents about the War in Afghanistan not previously available for public review. In October 2010, the group released a package of almost 400,000 documents called the Iraq War Logs in coordination with major commercial media organisations. This allowed every death in Iraq, and across the border in Iran, to be mapped. In November 2010, WikiLeaks began releasing U.S. State department diplomatic cables.
WikiLeaks has received praise as well as criticism. The organisation has won a number of awards, including The Economist's New Media Award in 2008 and Amnesty International's UK Media Award in 2009. In 2010, the New York City Daily News listed WikiLeaks first among websites "that could totally change the news", and Julian Assange received the Sam Adams Award and was named the Readers' Choice for TIME's Person of the Year in 2010. The UK Information Commissioner has stated that "WikiLeaks is part of the phenomenon of the online, empowered citizen". In its first days, an Internet petition calling for the cessation of extra-judicial intimidation of WikiLeaks attracted over six hundred thousand signatures. Supporters of WikiLeaks in the media and academia have commended it for exposing state and corporate secrets, increasing transparency, supporting freedom of the press, and enhancing democratic discourse while challenging powerful institutions.

At the same time, several U.S. government officials have criticized WikiLeaks for exposing classified information and claimed that the leaks harm national security and compromise international diplomacy. Several human rights organisations requested with respect to earlier document releases that WikiLeaks adequately redact the names of civilians working with international forces, in order to prevent repercussions. Some journalists have likewise criticised a perceived lack of editorial discretion when releasing thousands of documents at once and without sufficient analysis. In response to some of the negative reaction, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed her concern over the "cyber war" against WikiLeaks, and in a joint statement with the Organization of American States the UN Special Rapporteur has called on states and other actors to keep international legal principles in mind.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks


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Opte Project

21.46 William W

Visualization from the Opte Project of the various routes through a portion of the Internet
The Opte Project is a project started by Barrett Lyon that seeks to make an accurate representation of the extent of the Internet using visual graphics.
Opte (pronounced op-tee) originated from the Latin word Opti, meaning Optical.

The name originated from the project creator Barrett Lyon and the fluid nature of the name opte.org made it stick.
The project was started in October 2003 in an effort to provide a useful Internet map with open source code. Lyon believes that the network mapping can help teach students more about the Internet. It can also be used to visualize sites of disasters in the world, citing the significant destruction of Internet capabilities after a disaster.

Additionally it can be used as an important gauge for the growth of the Internet and the areas of growth.
The images themselves are featured at the Boston Museum of Science and The Museum of Modern Art.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opte_Project


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Fibre Optic Will be Ready to be Used by 2012 in Indonesia

21.43 William W

The construction of a 50,000 kilometer fiber optic cable that will crisscross the entire archipelago, delivering better and cheaper data and voice services, should be finished by 2012, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tifatul Sembiring said on Wednesday.

So far 40,000 km of the cable, stretching across Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan, has been built, Tifatul said.

The government has tendered the project out to a number of telecommunications companies that are building sections and will retain ownership of their respective parts of the cable.

“We only have to build the remaining 10,000 km to connect the nation,” he said.

The cost of building the rest of the system, mainly in eastern Indonesia, would be about Rp 5.3 trillion ($590 million), Tifatul said.

The fiber optic infrastructure will improve voice and high-speed data traffic nationwide, and will lower the prices consumers pay for telecommunication services, particularly in eastern Indonesia, he said.

Tifatul was speaking on the sidelines of the first day of the Infra structure Asia 2010 conference in Jakarta, which was reserved for small groups before today’s plenary sessions.

The government is waiting for state-owned PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia to finish construction of the Mataram-to-Kupang section of the cable, which should be completed next year.

After that, links to Ambon, North Maluku and Papua will be built, eventually forming a ring that will connect all the provinces of Indonesia.

The government is also planning to connect the cable to East Timor and run a link from Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, to Darwin, Australia.

“At the [World Movement for] Democracy forum in Bali, Xanana Gusmao, the prime minister of East Timor, requested this [link] from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,” Tifatul said.

The connection to Australia “is important so that we have an alternative overseas connection,” Tifatul said, pointing out that it would provide backup if the main overseas link went down.

“It will prevent trouble, such as when an earthquake in Taiwan occurred in 2006 that cut our connection,” he said.

Currently the country’s main international fiber optic link routes through Singapore to Taiwan and then to the United States.

The new link to Darwin will connect to Sydney and then to the United States.

PT Bakrie Telecom, the company that will build the 1,200 km cable from Kupang to Darwin, said it was still doing preparatory work on the project and it would cooperate with Australian telecom company Telstra and domestic investors to develop the project.

“We will start the project as early as 2012,” said Rakhmat Djunaidi, the director for corporate services at Bakrie Telecom, a unit of the Bakrie group


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The World's First Laptop

21.39 William W

As the personal computer became feasible in the early 1970s, the idea of a portable personal computer followed. A "personal, portable information manipulator" was imagined by Alan Kay at Xerox PARC in 1968, and described in his 1972 paper as the "Dynabook".
The IBM SCAMP project (Special Computer APL Machine Portable), was demonstrated in 1973. This prototype was based on the PALM processor (Put All Logic In Microcode).
The IBM 5100, the first commercially available portable computer, appeared in September 1975, and was based on the SCAMP prototype.
As 8-bit CPU machines became widely accepted, the number of portables increased rapidly. The Osborne 1, released in 1981, used the Zilog Z80 and weighed 23.6 pounds (10.7 kg). It had no battery, a 5 in (13 cm) CRT screen, and dual 5.25 in (13.3 cm) single-density floppy drives. In the same year the first laptop-sized portable computer, the Epson HX-20, was announced. The Epson had a LCD screen, a rechargeable battery, and a calculator-size printer in a 1.6 kg (3.5 lb) chassis. Both Tandy/RadioShack and HP also produced portable computers of varying designs during this period.
The first laptops using the flip form factor appeared in the early 1980s. The Dulmont Magnum was released in Australia in 1981–82, but was not marketed internationally until 1984–85. The $8,150 ($18,540 in current dollar terms) GRiD Compass 1100, released in 1982, was used at NASA and by the military among others. The Gavilan SC, released in 1983, was the first computer described as a "laptop" by its manufacturer From 1983 onward, several new input techniques were developed and included in laptops, including the touchpad (Gavilan SC, 1983), the pointing stick (IBM ThinkPad 700, 1992) and handwriting recognition (Linus Write-Top, 1987). Some CPUs, such as the 1990 Intel i386SL, were designed to use minimum power to increase battery life of portable computers, and were supported by dynamic power management features such as Intel SpeedStep and AMD PowerNow! in some designs.


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10 Most Expensive Laptops in The World

21.32 William W

10. Acer Ferrari 1100: $3000
Acer Ferrari laptop is built just like the Ferrari car. It’s built with ultralight design that wear resistant carbon fiber chassis. The laptop is built using AMD Turion X2 Dual Core CPU, 4 GB of RAM and of course all other features like Wifi. With the good specification of hardware, it’s hoped that it will get the maximal speed like Ferrari car. It’s a worthed buying with $ 3000. The reason to buy this most expensive laptop usually for the performance and of course for appearance.

Acer Ferrari 1100
9. Dell M6400: $3000
This notebook that coming from Dell is very powerful. It’s featured with Intel Core 2 Quad Core Extreme Edition Processors. The reason of using this laptop is for ripping complex analysis that need large data and graphics memory as the laptop have 16 GB of 1066 MHZ DDR 3 Memory for data as well as 1 GB of graphics memory. You won’t think that this laptop is the same as the low priced dell in all aspect. The price of this notebook reaches $3,000. Just provide that amount of money to buy this laptop.

Dell M6400
8. Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV660: $3500

The special thing about this laptop is can handle HD DVD. The laptop is powered by 2.0 GHZ Core 2 Duo, 240 GB RAID 0 HDD and Nvidia GeForce Go 7600. This is the first laptop computer that utilize with HD DVD player with 17 inch screen in 1920 x 1200 resolution. The price is quite expensive but you will think it’s worth of money because of the good design and the entertainment. Just provide $3,500 and you can take this laptop home.

Toshiba Qosmio G35 AV660
7. Lenovo ThinkPad W700DS: $4500
The special thing about this laptop is the secondary pull out display that can be drawn from the main dispaly. It makes this laptop different from normal 17 inch laptop. The additional dispaly is very useful for excel and CAD programs. The display itself is also very high in quality. This laptop is equipped with 2.53 Ghz Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9000, 4 GB RAM, Dual 250 GB 5200 RPM Hard drives. The price is $4,500.

Lenovo ThinkPad W700DS
6. Alienware Area 51: $5000
This laptop is dedicated for the game lovers. This laptop is sophiticated in hardware design with stylish and sleek casing design. The laptop is using Intel Core 2 Extreme Packs with Nvidia Geforce 9800M GT in dual SLI Configuration with 1 GB in graphic performance. This laptop has 1 TB of storage in high speed RAID 0 configuration. The storage is equipped with a smart bay system that can record HD TV and film with the built in TV tuner. For $5,000 this laptop is very reasonable in price.

Alienware Area 51



5. Rock Extreme SL8: $5000
This laptop is claimed to be the world’s fastest laptop computer with specs of Intel Core 2 Quad Processor, NVIDIA 9800 GPUs in SLI and 8GB of RAM. Equipped with blue ray that can display in high definition. You must be proud to own this prestige laptop. The price is $5,000 and I think it’s very reasonable price compared to its feature.

Rock Extreme SL8
4. Voodoo Envy H:171: $8500
If You want a high performance laptop that already optimized you should consider this laptop. The laptop is already optimized so will be maximal in performance. The specifications of the laptop are Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor, 4 GB of RAM, twin Nvidia Quadro FX Go 2500M graphics chipset, 1.3 Megapixel webcam, dual 250 GB hard diskk, 7 in 1 memory card reader, dual layer DVD RW drive and high resolution 17 inch 1920 x 1200 display. The special thing about this laptop is the casing that can be chosen from 14 tattoos options available. The price of this laptop is $ 8,500.

Voodoo Envy H171
3. Ego for Bentley: $20,000
From the image of this laptop, you will surely think that this is not a laptop for men. The authenticity of bentley logo make this laptop very stylish and worhty to carry match with the bentley car that also driven by the owner. The laptop can match the color of the Bentley car. This laptop usually bring by rich women that can spend $20.000 just for fashion purpose. For your intention this laptop just use 64 bit for vista and 160 GB Hard Disk.

Ego for Bentley
2. Tulip E-Go Diamond: $355,000
The laptop has an image as “most luxurious laptop in the world”. And I guess it’s true. The reason is because the laptop is designed with a touch of chrome in unique women bag shapre. The grip of the laptop can be replaced with white gold and diamonds. The price of this laptop can reach $355,000. Don’t ask about performace as this is the same as usual laptop. It’s just 12 antiglare screen display, 2 GB of RAM, 160 GB Hard disk, integrated webcam, bluetooth 2.0 and DVD burner. You should be rich enough to spend $355,000 for just a laptop.

Tulip E-Go Diamond
1. Luvaglio One Million Dollar Laptop: $1,000,000
The title says it all. You should own $1 million to own this laptop. This laptop is made to order and you will get your own design and specification. You can also order from what kind of material your laptop will be made. You can choose from wood, metal or iron. This laptop is also designed so the owner can upgrade the hardware themself. This laptop is equipped with 128 solid State drive, MP3 player, built in USB stick and equipped with “integrated screen cleaning feature”.

Do you want to own one of these expensive laptops?? GET A JOB :D

Source : http://www.mostexpensivelaptop.net/


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21.27 William W

The computer will be used by the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and will be ten times faster than today's most powerful system.

Two systems will be built for the super-computer by IBM. The first is Sequoia, a 20 petaFLOP/s (quadrillion floating operations per second) system based on future BlueGene technology. This will be delivered starting in 2011 and deployed in 2012. The second is an initial delivery system called Dawn, a 500 teraFLOP/s (trillion floating operations per second) BlueGene/P system, being delivered in the first quarter of 2009. Dawn will lay the applications foundation for multi-petaFLOP/s computing on Sequoia.


To put the size of the computer into perspective, if each of the 6.7 billion people on earth had a hand calculator and worked together on a calculation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it would take 320 years to do what Sequoia will do in one hour.

NNSA administrator Thomas D'Agostino said, "These powerful machines will provide NNSA with the capabilities needed to resolve time-urgent and complex scientific problems, ensuring the viability of the nation's nuclear deterrent into the future. This endeavour will also help maintain US leadership in high performance computing and promote scientific discovery."

Source : http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/03/09/234614/World39s-biggest-computer-built-for-US-nuclear-department.htm


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Samsung 9 Series -Thinnest laptop in the world

21.22 William W

Samsung has announced their new 9 series range of laptops in CES 2011 in LAS VEGAS. This laptop is synonymously called as the MacBook Air wannabe. But the stunning Samsung 9 laptop looking to give the wafer thin MacBook Air a run for its money.

With the duralumin machine barely troubling the scales at 2.89 pounds and the machine measuring just 0.68 inches thick, it’s matching the Apple MacBook Air in all aspect of the shape, although the Samsung packs a more ports and power, and comes with a backlit keyboard.
Although there’s no optical drive onboard, the wee fella bristles with Ethernet, HDMI, and USB connectivity, plus a headphone jack and two 1.5-watt speakers and a sub-woofer for hip-hop bass test too. It has a 400 nit LED-backlit display, while inside can be found a brand new Core i5 2537M processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB SSD storage.

This Samsung 9 series has an price sticker of around $1,600 so it is known that beauty comes with a price. This is an powerful piece of equipment with killer looks to it. The release date is not confirmed yet.


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21.19 William W

The World's Worst Viruses

"As far as what [virus writers] can do, the sky is the limit," says April Goostree, virus manager for McAfee.com. "In the antivirus industry, we never say 'never' anymore. Because as soon as you do, you are going to be proven wrong. It's anybody's guess about what the next virus will do."

Here's a look at ten of the most malignant viruses and worms of all time.

10. Surreptitious Sircam
Sircam appeared in July 2001 on PCs running Windows 95, 98, and Me. The worm appeared in e-mail in-boxes with an attachment; the body of the message was in Spanish or English. Typical greetings included "Hi! How are you?" and "Hola como estas?" If you launched the attachment, Sircam installed itself on the infected computer, then grabbed random documents and sent them out to e-mail addresses it captured from your address book. It also occasionally deleted files and filled the infected computer's hard drive with gibberish. Visit Symantec's Security Response for instructions on how to remove Sircam.

9. Red Raider
Code Red burned brightly in the summer of 2001, infecting hundreds of thousands of computers--mainly on corporate networks. Code Red slithered through a hole in Internet Information Server (IIS) software, which is widely used to power Internet servers, then scanned the Internet for vulnerable systems to infect and continue the process. The worm used contaminated PCs as weapons in denial of service attacks--flooding a Web site with a barrage of information requests. The original target was the official White House Web site, but government officials changed the site's IP address to thwart the attack.

The worm exploited a weakness in the IIS software (which has since been fixed with a patch from Microsoft) that allowed an intruder to run arbitrary code on a victimized computer. Multiple variants of this worm now exist. Visit Symantec's Security Response for instructions on how to protect your system from Code Red.

8. Bad Benjamin
Benjamin--a new breed of worm--was let loose in May 2002, and it affected users of the popular file-sharing program Kazaa. The crafty worm posed as popular music and movie files. Kazaa users thought they were downloading a media file to their machines, but they got the imposter instead. It then set up a Kazaa share folder and stuffed it with copies of itself posing as popular music and movie files, which other Kazaa users would download. It congested the system's network connection and would ultimately fill up a hard drive. Visit Symantec's Security Response for instructions on how to remove Benjamin.

7. Numbing Nimda
Nimda (also known as the Concept Virus) appeared in September 2001, attacking tens of thousands of servers and hundreds of thousands of PCs. The worm modified Web documents and executable files, then created numerous copies of itself. The worm spread as an embedded attachment in an HTML e-mail message that would execute as soon as the recipient opened the message (unlike the typical attached virus that requires manual launching of the attachment). It also moved via server-to-server Web traffic, infected shared hard drives on networks, and downloaded itself to users browsing Web pages hosted on infected servers. Nimda soon inspired a crowd of imitators that followed the same pattern. Visit Symantec's Security Response for the Nimda removal tool.

6. Tennis Anyone?
The Anna Kournikova (or VBS.SST@mm) worm, appearing in February 2001, didn't cause data loss, although in the process of boosting the profile of its namesake, the Russian tennis player, it did cause embarrassment and disruption for many personal and business users. The worm showed up in Microsoft Outlook users' e-mail in-boxes with an attachment (supposedly a picture of Kournikova). The attachment proved hard to resist. The result? Clicking the bogus attachment sent copies of the worm via e-mail to all addresses found in the victim's Outlook address book. Kournikova also brought about a number of copycat variants. Visit Symantec's Security Response for instructions on how to remove Kournikova.

Most worm creators have never been identified, but a 21-year-old Dutchman, Jan de Wit, admitted to unleashing this worm. The admitted virus writer is appealing a 150-hour community service sentence handed down in September 2001 by a judge in the Netherlands.

5. (Expletive Deleted) Explorer
The Explorer.zip worm appeared in the summer of 1999, following in the footsteps of Melissa. The worm deleted Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files and randomly altered other types of files. Like Melissa (see below), Explorer traveled via e-mails that appeared to be from someone the recipient knew. The message included a file that, if activated, showed a fake error message to the user. Unlike Melissa, this virus did not use Outlook to gather e-mail addresses. Instead, it watched the in-box of the infected computer and then sent automatic replies to senders, using the same e-mail subject as the original message.

4. Maniacal Magistr
Magistr is one of the most complex viruses to hit the Internet. Its victims, users of Outlook Express, were hooked by an infected e-mail attachment. The virus, discovered in mid-March 2001, sent garbled messages to everyone in the infected user's e-mail address book. Attached were files pulled at random from the infected PC's hard drive plus an executable file with the Magistr code. This virus was not as widespread as many others, but it was very destructive. Magistr overwrites hard drives and erases CMOS and the flashable BIOS, preventing systems from booting. It also contained antidebugging features, making it hard to detect and destroy. Visit Symantec's Security Response for instructions on how to remove Magistr.

3. Malevolent Melissa
The Melissa virus swamped corporate networks with a tidal wave of e-mail messages in March 1999. Through Microsoft Outlook, when a user opened an e-mail message containing an infected Word attachment, the virus was sent to the first 50 names in the user's address book. The e-mail fooled many recipients because it bore the name of someone the recipient knew and referred to a document they had allegedly requested.

So much e-mail traffic was generated so quickly that companies like Intel and Microsoft had to turn off their e-mail servers. The Melissa virus was the first virus capable of hopping from one machine to another on its own. And it's another good example of a virus with multiple variants. Visit Symantec's Security Response for instructions on how to remove Melissa.

2. Klez the Conquerer
The Klez worm, which blends different virus traits, was first detected in October 2001. Klez distributes itself like a virus, but sometimes acts like a worm, other times like a Trojan horse. Klez isn't as destructive as other worms, but it is widespread, hard to exterminate--and still active. In fact, so far, no other virus has stayed in circulation quite like Klez. It spreads via open networks and e-mail--regardless of the e-mail program you use. Klez sometimes masquerades as a worm-removal tool. It may corrupt files and disable antivirus products. It pilfers data from a victim's e-mail address book, mixing and matching new senders and recipients for a new round of infection. Visit Symantec's Security Response for instructions on how to remove Klez.

1. Love Hurts
LoveLetter is the worm everyone learned to hate in spring 2000. The infection affected millions of computers and caused more damage than any other computer virus to date. Users were infected via e-mail, through Internet chat systems, and through other shared file systems. The worm sent copies of itself via Microsoft Outlook's address book entries. The mail included an executable file attachment with the e-mail subject line, "ILOVEYOU." The worm had the ability to overwrite several types of files, including .gif and .jpg files. It modified the Internet Explorer start page and changed Registry keys. It also moved other files and hid MP3 files on affected systems. Visit Symantec's Security Response for instructions on how to remove LoveLetter.

Source : http://www.pcworld.com/article/103992/the_worlds_worst_viruses.html


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