My Little Business

Ultimate List of Free Windows Software from Microsoft

2007-08-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

WINDOWS XP GOODIES

Agent components provide animated characters (Genie, Merlin, Peedy, Robby & "Custom") to appear during specific help or instruction. (Support FAQ)

Alt-Tab Replacement in addition to the icon of the application window you are switching to, you see a preview of the page.

Calculator Plus also performs many types of conversions.

ConferenceXP enables you to see & hear others in a virtual collaborative space, called a venue. You collaborate on an electronic whiteboard or PowerPoint presentation, send messages and more.

Feeds Plus is an Internet Explorer 7 add-on for RSS pop-up notifications.

FolderShare keeps important files at your fingertips - anywhere. All file changes are automatically synchronized between linked computers, so you always access the latest files.

GroupBar desktop tool offers enhanced window management capabilities in a taskbar-like setting. Through simple drag-and-drop operations on window tiles within the bar, users can create lightweight, transient grouping relationships that allow them to perform certain higher-level window layout functions on multiple windows at once.

Location Finder turns a regular WiFi enabled laptop, Tablet or PC into a location determining device without the addition of any separate hardware. Location Finder uses WiFi access points - or reverse IP lookup when WiFi is not available - to center and display the person's location on the Windows Live Local.

MapCruncher converts existing maps into an online format that's easy to use as Virtual Earth. PDF and raster maps can be converted just by clicking on corresponding landmarks on the user's map. (Support: Website)

My Font Tool converts your handwriting into a TrueType font, making typed text appear written by hand.

Open Command Window Here adds an "Open Command Window Here" context menu option on file system folders, giving a quick way to open a command window.

Power Calculator graphd and evaluated functions as well as performs many conversions.

Scalable Fabric task management system. A central focus area, defined by you, contains windows that behave in the traditional way. When you drag a window into the periphery, it becomes smaller and continues to get smaller the closer you get to the edge of the screen. This makes it possible to keep windows open all the time, and change "minimize" to mean "return to the periphery". (Support: Website)

Snip IT can email selected text within Internet Explorer.

Taskbar Magnifier magnifies part of the screen from the taskbar.

TIME ZONES: There are two programs that help deal with multiple Time Zones: Premium Time Zone requires genuine Windows XP, the Standard Time Zone program does not. (Support: Working with Time Zones)

Tweak UI gives access to system settings not exposed in the default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.

USB Flash Drive Manager backup & restore files to/from a USB Flash Drive device.

Virtual Desktop Manager manages up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar

Virtual Machine is Microsoft's Java Virtual Machine for Internet Explorer, allowing you to view java applets on Web pages.

Webcam Timershot takes and saves pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam.

Windows Live Writer blogging authoring tool

XML Notepad 2007 provides browsing and editing XML documents. (Support: Design Doc)

XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack enables you to view, generate and index XPS Documents.

ZoomIt is screen zoom and annotation tool for technical presentations that include application demonstrations.

EBOOKS READER

eBooks Reader offers digital versions of printed books using ClearType technology.

Optional Reference & Dictionaries

Encarta Pocket Reference

Foreign Language Translations
English --> French
French --> English

English --> German
German --> English

English --> Italian
Italian --> English

English --> Spanish
Spanish --> English

Text-to-Speech Packages
English
French
German

UTILITIES

ActiveSync synchronization of Outlook information, Office docs, pics, music, videos and applications from your desktop to Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs & Smartphones.

Clear Cache Feature for Internet Explorer - automatically deletes all temporary Internet files, cookies, and history files. This was developed to programmatically clear these files when a corrupt entry caused errors with Internet Explorer.

ClearType Tuner fine tunes the ClearType technology via the Control Panel, making it easier to read text on your screen. A necessity for LCD screens (portables and flat screens) -- Or try it On-Line. [Bonus = Consolas ClearType Font Pack]

Color Control Panel Applet adds a new "Color" item to the control panel, providing viewing and editing color management settings.

Desktop Language Settings changes language, keyboard, and regional settings for Windows, Internet Explorer, and Office.

Desktop Search 3.0 helps you to find, preview, and use your documents, e-mail, music, photos, and other items. (Support KB917013)

Internet Explorer History Protocol Handler Add-in indexes the history of the web pages you have browsed using Internet Explorer. (Support KB918998)
UNC/FAT Protocol Handler Add-in indexes your shared network directories and FAT drive(s) allowing you to easily find your specific content. (Support KB918996)

Font Properties Extension adds several new property tabs to the fonts dialog box. (Support: Website)

ISO Recorder Power Toy makes images of CDs & DVDs to create ISO images.

Keyboard Layout Creator create & modify keyboard layouts.

MSN Search Toolbar software and components.

Mount ISO Files Virtually - this tool allows ISO image files to be mounted virtually as a CD/DVD device.

RoboCopy GUI - GUI for Command Line Utility ROBOCOPY

SequoiaView - Treemap visualization of hard drive's contents. (Utilityapproved by the PowerToys group)

SyncToy helps copy, move, and synchronize files with digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. (Support: How to . . .)

System Configuration Utility (msconfig) has been updated with a Tools Tab. The System Configuration utility automates the routine troubleshooting steps used when diagnosing system configuration issues. (Support: How to MSCONFIG & How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting)

Terminals is a "tabbed" terminal services/remote desktop client used for controlling multiple connection simultaneously.

Transliteration Utility (TU) tool for transliterating one natural language script to another (like Serbian Latin to Serbian Cyrillic or Latin to Inuktitut). Plus, it can be used to create, edit, debug, and test natural language transliteration modules used to convert one script to another. (Support: How to . . .)

Tweakomatic utility that writes Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) scripts enablimg you to retrieve and/or configure Windows and Internet Explorer settings locally or remotely.

User State Migration Tool (USMT) migrates user files and settings during large deployments by capturing desktop, network and application settings as well as a user files, and then migrates them to a new Windows installation. (Support: Homepage)

Virtual PC is a powerful software virtualization solution that allows running multiple PC-based operating systems simultaneously on one workstation. (Support: Technical Overview)

VirtualWiFi abstracts a single WLAN card to appear as multiple virtual WLAN cards to the user. The user can then configure each virtual card to connect to a different wireless network. Therefore, VirtualWiFi allows a user to simultaneously connect his machine to multiple wireless networks using just one WLAN card.

Windows SteadyState is designed for schools, libraries, Internet Cafes, and other public locations.

Wntipcfg This GUI tool gives you information about your IP configuration.

SUPPORT & TROUBLESHOOTING

Bootvis - Microsoft states this tool is not available, but they still "support it". Bootvis "was" a performance tracing and visualization tool designed to help identify performance issues for boot/resume timing while developing new PC products or supporting software.

Change Analysis Diagnostic tracks Windows OS changes

COMDisable tool, views, disable or enable a list of available COM ports.

DebugView monitors kernel-mode and Win32 debug output on your local or networked TCP/IP computer.

Desktop Heap Monitor examines usage of a WIN32 subsystem that has an internal heap area known as "desktop heap". When running large number of programs, "Out Of Memory" error messages appear when you attempt to start new programs or try to use programs that are already running, even though you still have plenty of physical and pagefile memory available. (Support: KB126952)

DiskMon logs and displays all hard disk activity.

DLL Online Help Database - helps identify DLL version conflicts.

Fiddler is an HTTP Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP traffic between your computer and the Internet. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP Traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data. (Support: HTTP Debugging)

Guided Help (depending on the problem) can automatically guide you through various steps to perform some diagnostic tasks yourself. (Support: How to . . .)

Kernel Memory Space Analyzer helps expert debugging engineers analyze crash dump files.

MDAC Component Checker helps you determine installed version information and diagnose installation issues with the Microsoft Data Access Components (Support: MDAC Website)

Memory Diagnostic tests the Random Access Memory (RAM) on your computer for errors. (Support: Users Guide)

Network Diagnostics for Windows XP tool (xpnetdiag) analyzes information about your network connectivity to help troubleshoot common connection problems. (Support: KB914440)

Portmon monitors and displays all serial and parallel port activity on a system. Advanced filtering and search capabilities make it a powerful tool for tracking down problems in system or application configurations.

PortQry Command Line Port Scanner is a command-line utility that troubleshoots TCP/IP connectivity issues by reporting the port status of TCP and UDP ports on a computer you choose. For details, see KB310099 and description. (Description of Microsoft Port Numbers & All Port Numbers)

Port Reporter logs TCP and UDP port activity on a local Windows system by running as a service logging which ports are used, which process is using the port, if the process is a service, which modules the process has loaded and which user account is running the process. (Description of Microsoft Port Numbers & All Port Numbers)

Port Reporter Parser Tool is a log parser for Port Reporter log files. Port Reporter Parser has many features that can help you analyze Port Reporter log files.

Process Explorer shows information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.

Process Monitor shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity.

Product Support's Reporting Tools and Premier Services Reporting Utility (Alliance version) facilitates the gathering of critical system and logging information used in troubleshooting support issues. There are 8 specialty versions, one for each of the following support scenario categories: Alliance, Directory Services (not for NT 4.0), Networking, Clustering, SQL, Software Update Services, MDAC and Base / Setup / Storage / Print / Performance. (Support: Blog Article & Overview)

Sysinternals Troubleshooting Utilities zipped into a single file containing the individual troubleshooting tools and help files.

User Mode Process Dumper (userdump) dumps any running Win32 processes memory image (including system processes such as csrss.exe, winlogon.exe, services.exe, etc) on the fly, without attaching a debugger, or terminating target processes. Generated dump file can be analyzed or debugged by using the standard debugging tools.

User Profile Deletion Utility (Delprof) deletes all data that is stored in a user profile including desktop settings, favorites, program-specific data that is contained in the Application Data folder, and the contents of the My Documents folder.

User Profile Hive Cleanup helps with slow log off and unreconciled profile problems ensuring that user sessions are completely terminated when a user logs off when using Roaming Profiles or locked profiles as implemented through the Shared Computer Toolkit.

Video Decoder Checkup Utility helps determine if an MPEG-2 DVD video decoder is installed, and whether it's compatible with Media Player 10 or Media Center Edition.

Windows Installer CleanUp Utility can remove a program's configuration information if experiencing installation (Setup) problems.

Windows Support Tools are intended for use by Microsoft support personnel and experienced users to assist in diagnosing and resolving computer problems.

SECURITY, ANTI-SPYWARE & ANTI-VIRUS

Baseline Security Analyzer includes a graphical and command line interface that can perform local or remote scans of Windows systems. MBSA will scan for common security misconfigurations in the following products: Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, IIS 5.0 & 6.0, SQL Server 7.0 & 2000, MSIE 5.01 and later, and Office 2000, 2002 & 2003. MBSA also scans for missing security updates, update rollups and service packs published to Microsoft Update. (Support Tool: Visio Connector for MBSA 2.0, MBSA Homepage)

Malicious Software Removal Tool checks for infection by specific, prevalent malicious software (including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom) and helps to remove the infection if it is found. (Updated on the second Tuesday of each month.)

Promqry and PromqryUI detects if a network sniffer that is running on a computer. If a system has network interfaces in promiscuous mode, it may indicate the presence of a network sniffer running on the system.

PromqryUI provides a Windows graphical interface that can be used to detect network interfaces that are running in promiscuous mode.

Promqry is a command line tool that can be used to detect network interfaces that are running in promiscuous mode.

Windows Defender protects against pop-ups, slow performance and security threats caused by spyware and other potentially unwanted software.

Windows Live Safety Center - Web service designed to ensure the health of your computer with free scanning tools helping get rid of unwanted software.

OFFICE APPLICATIONS

Office Accounting 2007

Word 5.5 for DOS - Huh?

EXPRESS EDITIONS FOR DEVELOPERS

SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2005 with Advanced Services

Visual 2005 Web Developer

Visual Basic, C#, C++, & J#

MULTIMEDIA

CD Slide Show Generator can view images burned to a CD as a slide show.

"Decades" Auto Playlist Pack include dozens new auto playlists to organize your music by decades-from the 1940s through the new millennium.

Device Manager Software Development Kit (SDK) works with devices that support the new Media Transfer Protocol (MTP).

Easy Camera Calibration Tool determines a camera's internal parameters (focal length, aspect ratio, radial distortion, etc.). The technique only requires the camera to observe a planar pattern shown at a few (at least two) different orientations. Either the camera or the planar pattern can be freely moved. The motion need not be known. (Support: Website)

GroupShot creates a composite image from a series of photos. The photos must be of the same scene, taken from the same point of view within a short period of time. (Support: Help, Website & Channel 9 Video)

HTML Slide Show Wizard creates an HTML slide show of your digital pictures.

Image Resizer resizes one or many image files with a right-click. (Support: How to . . .)

JetStream Image Editor with cut and paste tool, based on sequential curve growing with interaction. (Support: Website)

Media Audio 9 Lossless to PCM Converter - command line tool converts files encoded using Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless back into the original PCM WAV format.

Media Bonus Pack: utilities, PowerToys, visualizations, skins, sound effects, and much more. (Net Install Version)

Media Capture capture uncompressed AVI video files with mono, stereo, 5.1, or 7.1 channels of audio, with up to 24 bit resolution and sampling rates up to 192KHz.

Media Encoder provides support for high-quality multichannel sound, high-definition video quality, new support for mixed-mode voice and music content, and more. (Support: Introduction to . . .)

Media Encoder Studio Edition for video professionals, focused on the creation of high-quality, offline encoded content.

Media Mono to Multichannel Wave Combiner 9 Series - command line tool will combine 2, 6 or 8 mono WAV files into an audio-only AVI file that can be used as a source with the Windows Media Encoder 9 Series.

Media Player Software Development Kit (SDK) introduces a range of new features and functionality for customizing the Player and Player Control.

Media Professional Exhibitor intended for playback at full-screen resolution at all times. All transport and playlist controls appear on a (required) second monitor allowing for a theatrical viewing experience.

Media Transfer Protocol Porting Kit introduces the new Media Transfer Protocol (MTP), which enables you to manage content on any portable device.

Movie Maker create, edit, and share home movies easily with drag-and-drops. [Fun Packs: Winter 2002 & 2003 - Creative Audio, Titles, Custom Effects and Transitions] (Support: Blog Posting)

Photo Info allows photographers to add, change and delete common "metadata" properties for digital photographs from inside Windows Explorer. (Support: FAQ)

Paint.Net originated as a Computer Science senior design project at Washington State University, and is still developed by the two alumni Rick Brewster and Tom Jackson who now work for Microsoft. Don't forget the Free Paint.Net Plug-Ins!

Photo Story create slideshows using your digital photos. With a single click, you can touch-up, crop, or rotate pictures. Add stunning special effects, soundtracks, and your own voice narration to your photo stories.

Producer 2003 for users of PowerPoint 2002 & 2003, includes improved audio and video quality, better synchronization, and presentation-sharing tools.

RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer for serious photographers. Organize and work with digital RAW files in Windows Explorer, providing thumbnails, previews, printing, and metadata display for RAW images. (Support: White Paper)

TweakMediaPlayer gives access to advanced settings for the library, CD burning, and full-screen mode. Adjust music queuing in the library, automatic volume leveling for burning audio CDs, full-screen animations, and much more.

Video Cube loads an AVI movie file as a volume, and play back the movie sampling space and time in different ways. It also provides a single cutting plane for interactively viewing single spacetime slices of the video. (Support: Video Cubisum)

GAMING

3 Degrees connects people into a small group, so you can do fun things together. Throw animations to each others' desktops with winks. Listen together to a shared playlist created from music that you own with musicmix.

Carioca Rummy Card Game is a fun form of Contract Rummy popular in Argentina and Chile.

Game Voice Share Talk strategy to your teammates. Talk trash to your opponents. Game Voice brings the power of voice to games, whether you're online, on a LAN, or offline. (Support: How to . . .)

Match-Up! Similar to the game "Concentration", test your memory and matching skills while racing against the clock.

SafeDisc - When running a restricted user account with fast user switching under Windows XP, some games will not start correctly. The game requests that the original disk be placed in the drive, even if it is already present.

XBox 360 Controller & Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows XP & Windows Vista & Windows XP 64 & Windows Vista 64 (Support: Documentation)

All Microsoft Free Game Demos

HARDWARE

Fingerprint Reader - DigitalPersona Password Manager 2.0 (Support: How to . . .)

Keyboard - IntelliType 6.1 for Windows XP & Windows Vista and Windows XP 64 & Windows Vista 64

Mouse & Trackball - IntelliPoint 6.1 for Windows XP & Windows Vista, Windows XP 64 & Windows Vista 64 (Support: How to . . . ) -- New Habu Mice

Webcams - LifeCam 1.21 for Windows XP & Windows Vista

SCREENSAVERS & THEMES

4 the Dogs (Patas) - Four themes with "mans best friend."

BlueScreen of Death Screen Saver (BSOD) Who say's Microsoft doesn't have a sense of humor?

Brazilian Beaches (Praias do Brasil) - Four of Brazil's famous beaches: Florianopolis, Buzios, Jericoacoara e Fernando de Noronha.

Brazilian Carnival Three types of parties according to regions: Olinda, Salvador and Rio de Janeiro.

Chinese New Year Theme Pack 2006.

Christmas Theme.

Creativity Fun Pack PowerToys automatically select images for your Desktop or Screen Saver.

Danish Spring & Summer themes by photographers from the Nordic countries.

Desktop Wallpapers from Microsoft Employees: Michael Swanson & Mikhail Arkhipov's 1920 x 1200 (16:10 aspect ratio "widescreen") and 1600 x 1200 (4:3 aspect ratio "standard"), Peggi Goodwin's Gorgeous Nature Images (various resolution) and three from the Exchange Server Team.

Dungeon Siege Screensaver from the magical Land of Ehb.

Egypt Nile Theme.

European Union Flags Screensaver.

Final Fantasy XI Desktop Theme.

Flight Simulator X Screensaver

Historical Monuments of Quebec Theme.

Holiday Snowflakes Screensaver.

Ireland Desktop Theme by Failte Ireland and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

Italian Pasta Theme Pack.

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth Skin for Windows Media Player 10 The skin was created in partnership with Electronic Arts and designed by The Skins Factory.

MSN Screensaver personalize your screensaver with background photos, news and weather information from MSN or any RSS feeds from websites you choose.

Nunavut (Canadian Arctic Region) - Desktop Theme

New Zealand Bliss A special Queen's Birthday 2005 edition (Preview Samples)

Office Dinosaur Screensaver. Share the Microsoft Office Dino's pain as he dances his way through one embarrassing technological difficulty after another.

Ontario Canada - Desktop Theme

Plus! Dancer LE enables you to experience the fun of entertaining dancers that groove to beats of the music that's playing on your desktop.

Cobey See Cobey get down to Hip Hop!
Evan & Michele Spice up your desktop with the sexy Argentinean tango.
Scooby-Doo See Scooby-Doo do the Scooby Shuffle!

Portuguese Discoveries Theme Pack produced in cooperation with Protugal's National Library - Ministry of Culture.
Ree Ree Khao Sarn, the traditional Thai children's game includes colorful wallpaper,icons and animated screensaver with sound, demonstrating children play.

Royale Noir: "Secret" internal Microsoft XP Theme.

San Fermin Desktop Theme is specifically designed for the Spanish speaking community.

Security Screensavers two screen savers remind us of basic security practices -- Ten Immutable Laws of Security, & Ten Immutable Laws of Security Administration.

Theme Quebec.

TimeDimension Screensaver futuristic "clock" by Brazilian designer Hans Donner

Valentine's Day Screensaver celebrates (duh) Valentine's Day.

Video Screensaver includes sample movie footage of countries all over the world.

Windows XP Screensaver.

Windows Vista Theme for Windows XP.

Winter Fun Pack 2004 for Windows XP Installer.

Winter 2006 TechNet Scripting Games Screensaver.

World of Warcraft Skin for Media Player 10 - Blizzard's official World of Warcraft skin.

Xbox Screensavers, Desktops & Media Player skins.

Zune Desktop Theme.

Turn Off Unnecessary Windows XP Services

2007-08-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

[Check out Why windows takes so long to start up., when you're done with this article.]

Turning off unnecessary services in Windows XP can greatly reduce your exploit risk, while improving system performance. It's a good time to inject that often there are all sorts of "download optimizers" and other cute programs that vendors like to push on users. Most of the time, installing such things slows your computer down at best. It could subject you to potential security risks. The first rule is "If you don't know you need it, you probably don't."

Unnecessary services don't just subject you to security risk. They also slow down the operation of your computer. So, don't get lazy here and think you can just deal with the infections later. Go ahead and turn that junk off and recapture your system from these resource hogs. You get to services by going to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, then Services. You should see a long list of services, some running and some dormant. Use this checklist to help determine which services you can live without.

If you don't know how to find Windows Services in Windows XP, click on Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, and Services. Below is a simple step by step to finding and changing your services on Windows XP. Keep in mind that your view settings may make your's appear slightly different, but will be the same basic path.

Click on start, then click on Control Panel.

In Control Panel, click on Administrative Tools

In Administrative Tools, click on Services.

Choose the service you wish to modify.

Once you select the service you wish to modify, you have several buttons to turn the service off immediately, drop down choices to disable a service, make it autmatic, or make it manual.

Windows XP Pro (and Home); Stuff to turn off:

Each service is listed as it is in Microsoft's WIndows XP Professional. These should be similar in Microsoft's XP Home as well. Under each is the definition given in the Services Manager.

Alerter
Notifies selected users and computers of administrative alerts. If the service is stopped, programs that use administrative alerts will not receive them. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: I don't want my personal computer telling me anything, ever. Shut up and work! There's few things I find more annoying than a computer constantly wanting to interact with me while I'm using it to do work or entertain myself. A computer is a tool, not a friend or work companion. No Hal, I don't want to talk to you. Perhaps there's a software vendor that can give you a compelling reason why you need this service, but for most home and SOHO PC use it's just an unnecessary service taking up resources and providing risk. Unless you are running a product that requires this service, disable it.
Application Layer Gateway Service
Provides support for 3rd party protocol plug-ins for Internet Connection Sharing and the Internet Connection Firewall
Comment: Do you want to share your internet connection? That's an article waiting to be written. Let me be clear. Since you can buy a router for $50 or less, and Windows does an awful job routing, using a computer to gateway your other computers to the internet is just stupid. "What about firewalling and admission control?" Well, that's not going to be done through the built-in internet sharing tools. So, we''re not talking about that. If you use a personal computer to gateway your other computers to the internet (and calling it a server doesn't change the reality), you are wasting resources. Buy a $50 router, or a $1000 router for that matter. But, buy a discrete device that is designed to do the job. Use hardware based firewalling (OK, it's all based on software - but I mean a boxed solution, not software installed on a PC that's prone to lose autonomy). And, what about all those cute third-party firewalling tools that plug in to this thing? Man, give me a break. If it runs on top of your Windows installation, it's not a real firewall. Unless this is required by a product you think is necessary, disable it.
Automatic Updates
Enables the download and installation of critical Windows updates. If the service is disabled, the operating system can be manually updated.
Comment: There's only two options that may make sense with this service. You should either set it to disable or manual. I'd disable it. Automatic Updates is designed as a tool to aid Microsoft in controlling their product. Props to Microsoft for trying to protect their product from piracy. But, some updates have been known to cause problems. Use it when you need it, and disable it when you don't, unless you're too lazy to do updates on your own. Don't you wonder why all the computers in big, well managed networks don't run Automatic Updates? It's mostly because managers of big networks create their own update policies. If you more completely understand the thinking that goes into deciding whether or not to distribute an update, you could better administer your own PC. Either turn it on and assume the risk, or turn it off and regularly visit Mircosoft's update and news page (discussed more below).
Background Intelligent Transfer Service
Uses idle network bandwidth to transfer data.
Comment: This is one of those tools they require you turn on to enable Automatic Updates. Think about it. It connects your PC to the internet or network and works behind your back to do stuff you didn't explicitly tell it to do. It sounds like a great tool to help hackers collect data from your PC and slowly seep it back to their lair. Unless it's immediately required, disable it. It you use it and then go for some time with no need to use it, disable it. If you can't remember to keep your PC updated with the latest security fixes, you'll need it.
ClipBook
Enables ClipBook Viewer to store information and share it with remote computers. If the service is stopped, ClipBook Viewer will not be able to share information with remote computers. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: So, you want to copy stuff to your clipbook and allow remote computers to access it? I don't. There may be a software vendor that requires this service to run. I've yet to find it useful. I suggest you disable it.
Computer Browser
Maintains an updated list of computers on the network and supplies this list to computers designated as browsers. If this service is stopped, this list will not be updated or maintained. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: If you are on a network with other computers, and need to see them, this may be a useful tool. Otherwise, disable it.
Cryptographic Services
Provides three management services: Catalog Database Service, which confirms the signatures of Windows files; Protected Root Service, which adds and removes Trusted Root Certification Authority certificates from this computer; and Key Service, which helps enroll this computer for certificates. If this service is stopped, these management services will not function properly. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: It is very necessary if you are passing certificates for networking. Unless you are in a large corporate network where connections are managed through authentication, this is unnecessary; disable it.
Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Coordinates transactions that span multiple resource managers, such as databases, message queues, and file systems. If this service is stopped, these transactions will not occur. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: Extremely few personal computers will require this service. If you use it, you may want to review the reasons it is being used. Unless you are accessing network filesystems and databases, disable it.
DNS Client
Resolves and caches Domain Name System (DNS) names for this computer. If this service is stopped, this computer will not be able to resolve DNS names and locate Active Directory domain controllers. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: It's typically good to leave this on.
Error Reporting Service
Allows error reporting for services and applications running in non-standard environments.
Comment: Erorr reporting is very useful, if you know what to do with the errors or you are running software that adjusts based on error reporting. This is that annoying "feature" in Windows that constantly pops up wanting to ship information about your software failures to Redmond. People promise me it helps find problems and solutions. I've mostly seen problem reports that you could as easily search out yourself. If you're advanced enough to use this, you'll likely use a search engine just as well. Chances are, the best thing for you to do is disable it.
Help and Support
Enables Help and Support Center to run on this computer. If this service is stopped, Help and Support Center will be unavailable. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: I don't find this service useful, other than sucking up resources. If you know how to use Google, I'd disable it.
Human Interface Device Access
Enables generic input access to Human Interface Devices (HID), which activates and maintains the use of predefined hot buttons on keyboards, remote controls, and other multimedia devices. If this service is stopped, hot buttons controlled by this service will no longer function. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: Whether or not you should disable this service, depends on other services you need. If you don't know, turn it off and see if it breaks anything. It says that it deals with hotkeys, however all the system hotkeys that most of us enjoy aren't controlled by this service, they are built into the core OS. Control C, for example, to copy and Control V to past, do not stop working when you turn this service off. It seems this has more to do with specific hotkeys that a software vendor may want to insert into their installed program or internet product. Until you see a reason for it, I'd turn this one off. Personally, I consider relying on such services to be lazy programming. But, there may be good reason for using it if it's more efficient.
Indexing Service
Indexes contents and properties of files on local and remote computers; provides rapid access to files through flexible querying language.
Comment: To date, nobody has shown me real system performance improvements with this technology. Keep in mind, I'm limited in this conversation to Windows. Indexing is very useful. Indexing databases is very useful. Indexing your computer isn't very useful at all. Typically, if you are on a network, you know where on a network to find your chosen data. If you are not on a network, there's no real performance enhancement to this service that justifies the complexity and resource use. Chances are good you should disable it.
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service
Manages CD recording using Image Mastering Applications Programming Interface (IMAPI). If this service is stopped, this computer will be unable to record CDs. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: Obviously, there may be some usefulness leaving this service as manual, if you have a CD burner installed. If you don't, disable it.
Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) / Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
Provides network address translation, addressing, name resolution and/or intrusion prevention services for a home or small office network.
Comment: This tool does a great job of complicating my internet connection and slowing down transactions. It's not likely this tool is sophisticated enough to make a major impact in your system's performance. You should disable it.
Messenger
Transmits net send and Alerter service messages between clients and servers. This service is not related to Windows Messenger. If this service is stopped, Alerter messages will not be transmitted. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: Turn this thing off! It's a simple kit for anybody that can connect via any network to your computer to access your system and do things you don't want them to. Disable it.
Net Logon
Supports pass-through authentication of account logon events for computers in a domain.
Comment: Unless you need this to operate inside a domain, it's likely not necessary or useful. If you are using a home or SOHO PC and don't have a local domain based network, disable it.
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Enables an authorized user to access this computer remotely by using NetMeeting over a corporate intranet. If this service is stopped, remote desktop sharing will be unavailable. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: Do you really want a built in tool to share control of your desktop over your network connection? There are better tools for doing this kind of work, if needed. If someone you buy software from insists you let them use this tool to help you install it one time, then enable it and disable it immediately afterward. For typical use, you should disable it.
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Manages and controls Remote Assistance. If this service is stopped, Remote Assistance will be unavailable. Before stopping this service, see the Dependencies tab of the Properties dialog box.
Comment: Refer to NetMeeting. If you don't want to share control of your computer through your network, disable it.
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator
Manages the RPC name service database.
Comment: There are some network programs and protocols that require this to be turned on. Chances are you could just turn it off and see if you break anything. If you are using a single PC in your home or SOHO, it's likely just a security risk. If you don't know you need it, disable it.
Remote Registry
Enables remote users to modify registry settings on this computer. If this service is stopped, the registry can be modified only by users on this computer. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: Seems self-explanatory. You can enable this service to help remote people or programs change your registry. Great hacker tool if you can't secure it. Disable it.
System Restore Service
Performs system restore functions. To stop service, turn off System Restore from the System Restore tab in My Computer->Properties
Comment: This is almost useless if you ever have a problem with damaged drives, corrupted data, or malware. It uses a lot of resources and isn't useful for most people. You can turn it on before you install a big piece of software. This service allows you to backup to a previous system should you mess your's up with an installation of software or a modification to your system settings, usually registry damage. To improve system performance and take the minor risk of not being able to make your computer work like it did yesterday, disable it.
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Enables support for NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) service and NetBIOS name resolution.
Comment: Very few people use NetBIOS at home. This is the Windows built-in protocol for simple networking. You may need it. Otherwise, disable it.
Telephony
Provides Telephony API (TAPI) support for programs that control telephony devices and IP based voice connections on the local computer and, through the LAN, on servers that are also running the service.
Comment: If you use telephony, you probably use discrete devices or proprietary services that don't rely on this service. However, you do need this servive if you use a modem to connect to the ineternet. If you don't specifically need the Microsoft Telephony service, disable it. If you use a modem to connect to the internet, leave it enabled.
Telnet
Enables a remote user to log on to this computer and run programs, and supports various TCP/IP Telnet clients, including UNIX-based and Windows-based computers. If this service is stopped, remote user access to programs might be unavailable. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: There's just not a circumstance where I can imagine that turning this service on is a good idea. Unless you need to let people telnet into your computer and have a really good reason for doing so, disable it.
Terminal Services
Allows multiple users to be connected interactively to a machine as well as the display of desktops and applications to remote computers. The underpinning of Remote Desktop (including RD for Administrators), Fast User Switching, Remote Assistance, and Terminal Server.
Comment: As I've said above, there's better tools for remote desktop administration. The idea of Terminal Services is to allow remote desktop administration of a system, like the user was on the actual console. In almost all circumstances you should disable it.
Themes
Provides user experience theme management.
Comment: Themes are cute and bloated. Enabling themes is not a good way to increase performance, but you may think it's neat. If you aren't addicted to cute desktop eye candy, disable it.
Uninterruptible Power Supply
Manages an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) connected to the computer.
Comment: Unless you are using a UPS on your computer and it has the capability of managing the system, disable it.
Upload Manager
Manages synchronous and asynchronous file transfers between clients and servers on the network. If this service is stopped, synchronous and asynchronous file transfers between clients and servers on the network will not occur. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: If you are not in a local network sharing data (files and/or services), disable it.
Windows Time
Maintains date and time synchronization on all clients and servers in the network. If this service is stopped, date and time synchronization will be unavailable. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: Sometimes it works. Unless you are really needing your time to sync to something running a Windows time server, disable it.
Wireless Zero Configuration
Provides automatic configuration for the 802.11 adapters
Comment: Unless you use 802.11 devices, disable it.
Workstation
Creates and maintains client network connections to remote servers. If this service is stopped, these connections will be unavailable. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Comment: If you are not in a local network sharing data (files and/or services), disable it.

If you turn off all the services suggested above and try to use Automatic Updates via WindowsUpdate.Microsoft.com, you will likely see a message something like this:

Windows Update cannot continue because a required service application is disabled. Windows Update requires the following services:

"Automatic Updates enables detection, downloading, and installation of critical updates for your computer.

Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) enables faster, restartable downloading of updates.

Event Log logs Windows Update events for troubleshooting. To ensure that these services are enabled:"

It's easy to just go back to Services, and turn these services on as you need them. An operating system shouldn't need daily updates to run. And, the more services you run, the more likely you are to need updates. See a circle here? Occasionally, a little laziness won't kill you. Though you could just go to Technet (Microsoft's only support for IT professionals) and get all your news and update files with descriptions of their efficacy and safety, you may occasionally just want to veg out and let Microsoft do the work for you. You should still read each update and decide for yourself whether it makes sense. Some of them are flat out bad news. But, turning up these services for a few minutes to run Automatic Updates may be a shortcut to periodic updates.

So, let's look at the services they want you to turn on.

Automatic Updates
Background Intelligent Transfer Service
Event Log

I haven't a clue why you need Background Intelligent Transfer Services to run so you can go to a website, download, and install service packs. But, you can turn it, and the others, on and then turn it back off when you are done. It's just three services.

If you turn off all the services suggested above and try to use Automatic Updates via WindowsUpdate.Microsoft.com, you will likely see a message something like this:

Windows Update cannot continue because a required service application is disabled. Windows Update requires the following services:
Automatic Updates enables detection, downloading, and installation of critical updates for your computer.
Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) enables faster, restartable downloading of updates.
Event Log logs Windows Update events for troubleshooting. To ensure that these services are enabled:

So, let's look at the services they want you to turn on.

Automatic Updates
Background Intelligent Transfer Service
Event Log

If you take a minimalist's point of view to running both software and services on your computer, it will perform faster and more safely than it will if you just randomly load anything anyone tells you to. To better secure your PC, stick to a mindset that if you don't absolutely need a service running right now, you should just turn it off.

For those of you that break stuff when you turn off services I suggest are unnecessary.

If you turn off all the stuff that blatantly doesn't have anything to do with the network, you should be fine. Then, turn off one thing at a time that you /think/ doesn't support your network connection. If you lose your connection, turn the service back on. Next, and this part is very important, make sure your network settings are accurate and set for "on" so you can reconnect. You should find out how your PC connects to your local network before you get started and document it. But, anything you turn off that breaks something needs to be carefully examined and documented (write it down somewhere).

Just because you turn a service back on, doesn't mean your broken software will magically start working again. For example, remember the issue of using a computer in your network to manage your connection? If that's how you connect, you'll have to reconfigure that connection to get online if you kill it by killing a service. Likely, Computer Browser will cause this kind of problem. Also, just enabling the service doesn't turn it on. You need to manually restart it, since the start, enable, stop, settings go into action on bootup. So, if you don't want to wait til your box reboots, you'll need to manually turn off the service if you want it disabled, and manually turn it on if you want to enable it (and see if that given service is your problem).

What about System Restore? Well, I don't like it. If I had a dollar for every time someone fouled up their PC, ran system restore, and were amazed that all wasn't suddenly happy sunshine, I'd have a really nice vacation home. I realize it makes life easier for newbies that randomly screw stuff up and can't be hassled with learning the things they use. But, for most cases, it's a great tool for virus and worms to avoid capture. You delete them, they have a backup switch to recapture control through the restore program. Many antivirus programs don't work properly when you have this feature enabled. You can leave it on if you're a fan. Perhaps it makes you feel good, like it would make everything right again if you had it around. But, it won't save you from a serious problem. Backups and safe computer practices will.

You need to learn enough about your PC to run a functional backup and restoration of your critical data. If you can't do this, you're just waiting to lose everything.

Don't be afraid to learn more about your PC. It's one thing to run through a checklist of stuff I suggest you don't need. But, it's not a guarantee that I address every concern for every user. With a few hours here and there of learning now, you'll save yourself a lot of frustration later. The things I learned about Windows five and six years ago still serve me today. The things I learned about networks running Unix systems serve me every day, no matter what operating system I may run.

Enjoy learning; it's the first line of defense against bad software and broken PCs.

[Check out Why windows takes so long to start up., when you're done with this article.]

Why windows takes so long to start up.

2007-07-06T04:24:00.000-07:00

Most of us have had a brand new computer at one time. It's a great feeling. You boot up windows and within 30 seconds you are surfing the net, checking your email, or playing your favorite game. 10 months down the road things aren't so nice anymore. You power up your computer and it seems to take forever to load.

Even when you are careful about what you install it seems that each day it takes longer for it to boot. It's not your imagination - and there are a couple of good tips to keep your boot time short and sweet.

As always - backup your system before you start any of this. If you make a mistake you might need to restore from backup

Update (09/08/2006) - There has been some controversy about the prefetch folder. I think this issue needs to be looked into. I did have a reputable source for this information: It was the "Windows XP Annoyances" book by O'Reilly. Page 210. Titled "Keeping an eye on prefetch"

1. The prefetch cache

The first tip I want to talk about is the windows prefetch. Windows XP has this feature that loads commonly used programs - at boot time.

Here is how it works: Yesterday you used MS Word, and Duke Nukem 3D. Today you boot your system to check e-mail. It sees parts of these two programs in the prefetch folder and loads them into memory before windows completes the boot process. The benefit is faster application launch times. If you really wanted to use MS Word, it would pop up really quick when you double clicked on it.

The problem is most people have been running windows for years, and the prefetch gets clogged with stuff that you almost never use. Windows takes forever to boot because it is prefetching a 1.0 copy of Napster, and you just want to check your email before you have to go to work.

What can be done about it? Well there are a few things we can do to tweak the prefetch cache. One method is to disable it partially, and this can be done quite easily.

Simply browse to the windows folder (Ex: C:\Windows) and under there you should see the prefetch folder. Go into the prefetch folder and delete all the files (Careful! It should look like this c:\windows\prefetch) And here is a screenshot of one if you still have questions

The first thing to note is the next reboot will be slow. This is because windows needs to relearn the prefetch for system files. Subsequent boots will run much faster since the sludge of programs has been removed, and only new ones are in the cache.

The trouble is that it will only help you for a while - until the prefetch gets clogged up again. We need to edit a registry key to tweak it. Open regedit and browse to this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

Under this key you should see a value named: EnablePrefetcher

It has 4 possible values:

0 - Disabled : The prefetch system is turned off.

1 - Application : The prefetch only caches applications.

2 - Boot : The prefetch only caches boot system files.

3 - All : The prefetch caches boot, and application files.

We don't want to disable it entirely. This would actually make boot times *longer*. This is because this feature is also used to speed up the loading of boot files. That is why we are going to pick the number 2 option. It allows us to keep the advantage of caching system files, without continually clogging the system up with applications.

Set the value to 2 and reboot.

The 2nd time you boot it should boot much faster. Remember that the side effect is that launching individual applications once windows has loaded will now be slightly slower.

2. Hard drive fragmentation

Over time your hard drive will become fragmented. An over simplified explanation of fragmentation is when your files and folders are not all stored in the same spot. For example lets say you had a large movie file. If it were fragmented the first 5 megabytes are at the beginning of the hard drive, and then next 5 are at the end. It takes longer for windows to read the file than it would if it were all in the same spot. The point is that if each file is stored in a linear fashion, and the drive does not have to move all over the place to read it - it will load faster. XP has a built-in defrag tool, and it is simple to run. Open "My Computer" right click on the boot drive, and go to properties. Now click on the tools tab.

Click "Defragment Now" and the following window should appear:

Before you click on the "Defragment" button you want to close all applications and be aware that it might take hours to complete. If you leave something running it might keep windows from completing the defragment operation.

Click on the defragment button and you can walk away. Or you can watch it defrag your hard drive:

3. Disconnected network drives

I am using networked drives all the time. If you have ever put your machine on a network and connected to a shared drive, this can slow you down too. If you have a drive that is still mapped, but cannot be reached it will slow down windows during boot time. This is because windows will wait...wait...and wait some more for the remote server to respond. To clean these out open "My Computer" and go to the tools menu. Click on "Disconnect Network Drives" It will open a window that looks like this:

Click on the drives you no longer need, and click OK.

4. Spyware & Adware

These can have a big impact on your start times. If your PC gets loaded with spyware, it spends a large portion of its boot time making sure those pesky programs are loaded and ready to throw popup adverts at you all day. To check and clean your system of spyware there are three free programs that I highly recommend:

1. Microsoft Windows Defender

2. Ad-Aware

3. SpyBot Search And destroy

5. File and Printer Sharing

One other item that can significantly impact is the "File and Printer Sharing" feature within windows. Obviously, if you are sharing your printer, or folders you don't want to disable this - so this tip is not for you. If you never use it, then why waste your time waiting for it to load?

Here is how to turn it off:

Go into the control panel. Click on "Network Connections"

Now right click on "Local Area Connection" and click on properties

Uncheck the "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks"

Click OK, and reboot.

That wraps up our windows startup optimization.

16 Hidden Windows XP Goodies

2007-05-21T10:33:00.001-07:00

1. Installer music: Start > Run > “C:\Windows\system32\oobe\images\title.wma” > Ok

2. Hibernate: Start > Turn Off Computer… > press Shift key to change the “Stand By” button to “Hibernate”

3. Hidden Devices: Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager > select “View” and Show hidden devices

4. Character Map: Start > Run > “charmap.exe” > Ok

5. Clipboard Viewer: Start > Run > “clipbrd.exe” > Ok

6. Dr Watson: Start > Run > “drwtsn32.exe” > Ok

7. IExpress Wizard: Start > Run > “iexpress.exe” > Ok

8. Old Windows Media Player 5.1: Start > Run > “mplay32.exe” > Ok

9. ODBC Data Source Administrator: Start > Run > “odbcad32.exe” > Ok

10. Object Packager: Start > Run > “packager.exe” > Ok

11. System Monitor: Start > Run > “perfmon.exe” > Ok

12. Network shared folder wizard: Start > Run > “shrpubw.exe” > Ok

13. File siganture verification tool: Start > Run > “sigverif.exe” > Ok

14. System Configuration Editor: Start > Run > “sysedit.exe” > Ok

15. Driver Verifier Manager: Start > Run > “verifier.exe” > Ok

16. Windows for Workgroups Chat: Start > Run > “winchat.exe” > Ok

See more articles on this topic:

List of the keyboard shortcuts that are available in Windows XP

2007-05-21T07:34:00.000-07:00

General keyboard shortcuts

•	CTRL+C (Copy)
•	CTRL+X (Cut)
•	CTRL+V (Paste)
•	CTRL+Z (Undo)
•	DELETE (Delete)
•	SHIFT+DELETE (Delete the selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin)
•	CTRL while dragging an item (Copy the selected item)
•	CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item (Create a shortcut to the selected item)
•	F2 key (Rename the selected item)
•	CTRL+RIGHT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word)
•	CTRL+LEFT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word)
•	CTRL+DOWN ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph)
•	CTRL+UP ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph)
•	CTRL+SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Highlight a block of text)
•	SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text in a document)
•	CTRL+A (Select all)
•	F3 key (Search for a file or a folder)
•	ALT+ENTER (View the properties for the selected item)
•	ALT+F4 (Close the active item, or quit the active program)
•	ALT+ENTER (Display the properties of the selected object)
•	ALT+SPACEBAR (Open the shortcut menu for the active window)
•	CTRL+F4 (Close the active document in programs that enable you to have multiple documents open simultaneously)
•	ALT+TAB (Switch between the open items)
•	ALT+ESC (Cycle through items in the order that they had been opened)
•	F6 key (Cycle through the screen elements in a window or on the desktop)
•	F4 key (Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer)
•	SHIFT+F10 (Display the shortcut menu for the selected item)
•	ALT+SPACEBAR (Display the System menu for the active window)
•	CTRL+ESC (Display the Start menu)
•	ALT+Underlined letter in a menu name (Display the corresponding menu)
•	Underlined letter in a command name on an open menu (Perform the corresponding command)
•	F10 key (Activate the menu bar in the active program)
•	RIGHT ARROW (Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu)
•	LEFT ARROW (Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu)
•	F5 key (Update the active window)
•	BACKSPACE (View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer)
•	ESC (Cancel the current task)
•	SHIFT when you insert a CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive (Prevent the CD-ROM from automatically playing)
•	CTRL+SHIFT+ESC (Open Task Manager)

Dialog box keyboard shortcuts

If you press SHIFT+F8 in extended selection list boxes, you enable extended selection mode. In this mode, you can use an arrow key to move a cursor without changing the selection. You can press CTRL+SPACEBAR or SHIFT+SPACEBAR to adjust the selection. To cancel extended selection mode, press SHIFT+F8 again. Extended selection mode cancels itself when you move the focus to another control.

•	CTRL+TAB (Move forward through the tabs)
•	CTRL+SHIFT+TAB (Move backward through the tabs)
•	TAB (Move forward through the options)
•	SHIFT+TAB (Move backward through the options)
•	ALT+Underlined letter (Perform the corresponding command or select the corresponding option)
•	ENTER (Perform the command for the active option or button)
•	SPACEBAR (Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box)
•	Arrow keys (Select a button if the active option is a group of option buttons)
•	F1 key (Display Help)
•	F4 key (Display the items in the active list)
•	BACKSPACE (Open a folder one level up if a folder is selected in the Save As or Open dialog box)

Microsoft natural keyboard shortcuts

•	Windows Logo (Display or hide the Start menu)
•	Windows Logo+BREAK (Display the System Properties dialog box)
•	Windows Logo+D (Display the desktop)
•	Windows Logo+M (Minimize all of the windows)
•	Windows Logo+SHIFT+M (Restore the minimized windows)
•	Windows Logo+E (Open My Computer)
•	Windows Logo+F (Search for a file or a folder)
•	CTRL+Windows Logo+F (Search for computers)
•	Windows Logo+F1 (Display Windows Help)
•	Windows Logo+ L (Lock the keyboard)
•	Windows Logo+R (Open the Run dialog box)
•	Windows Logo+U (Open Utility Manager)

Accessibility keyboard shortcuts

•	Right SHIFT for eight seconds (Switch FilterKeys either on or off)
•	Left ALT+left SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN (Switch High Contrast either on or off)
•	Left ALT+left SHIFT+NUM LOCK (Switch the MouseKeys either on or off)
•	SHIFT five times (Switch the StickyKeys either on or off)
•	NUM LOCK for five seconds (Switch the ToggleKeys either on or off)
•	Windows Logo +U (Open Utility Manager)

Windows Explorer keyboard shortcuts

•	END (Display the bottom of the active window)
•	HOME (Display the top of the active window)
•	NUM LOCK+Asterisk sign (*) (Display all of the subfolders that are under the selected folder)
•	NUM LOCK+Plus sign (+) (Display the contents of the selected folder)
•	NUM LOCK+Minus sign (-) (Collapse the selected folder)
•	LEFT ARROW (Collapse the current selection if it is expanded, or select the parent folder)
•	RIGHT ARROW (Display the current selection if it is collapsed, or select the first subfolder)

Shortcut keys for Character Map

After you double-click a character on the grid of characters, you
can move through the grid by using the keyboard shortcuts:

•	RIGHT ARROW (Move to the right or to the beginning of the next line)
•	LEFT ARROW (Move to the left or to the end of the previous line)
•	UP ARROW (Move up one row)
•	DOWN ARROW (Move down one row)
•	PAGE UP (Move up one screen at a time)
•	PAGE DOWN (Move down one screen at a time)
•	HOME (Move to the beginning of the line)
•	END (Move to the end of the line)
•	CTRL+HOME (Move to the first character)
•	CTRL+END (Move to the last character)
•	SPACEBAR (Switch between Enlarged and Normal mode when a character is selected)

Microsoft Management Console (MMC) main window keyboard shortcuts

•	CTRL+O (Open a saved console)
•	CTRL+N (Open a new console)
•	CTRL+S (Save the open console)
•	CTRL+M (Add or remove a console item)
•	CTRL+W (Open a new window)
•	F5 key (Update the content of all console windows)
•	ALT+SPACEBAR (Display the MMC window menu)
•	ALT+F4 (Close the console)
•	ALT+A (Display the Action menu)
•	ALT+V (Display the View menu)
•	ALT+F (Display the File menu)
•	ALT+O (Display the Favorites menu)

MMC console window keyboard shortcuts

•	CTRL+P (Print the current page or active pane)
•	ALT+Minus sign (-) (Display the window menu for the active console window)
•	SHIFT+F10 (Display the Action shortcut menu for the selected item)
•	F1 key (Open the Help topic, if any, for the selected item)
•	F5 key (Update the content of all console windows)
•	CTRL+F10 (Maximize the active console window)
•	CTRL+F5 (Restore the active console window)
•	ALT+ENTER (Display the Properties dialog box, if any, for the selected item)
•	F2 key (Rename the selected item)
•	CTRL+F4 (Close the active console window. When a console has only one console window, this shortcut closes the console)

Remote desktop connection navigation

•	CTRL+ALT+END (Open the Microsoft Windows NT Security dialog box)
•	ALT+PAGE UP (Switch between programs from left to right)
•	ALT+PAGE DOWN (Switch between programs from right to left)
•	ALT+INSERT (Cycle through the programs in most recently used order)
•	ALT+HOME (Display the Start menu)
•	CTRL+ALT+BREAK (Switch the client computer between a window and a full screen)
•	ALT+DELETE (Display the Windows menu)
•	CTRL+ALT+Minus sign (-) (Place a snapshot of the entire client window area on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing ALT+PRINT SCREEN on a local computer.)
•	CTRL+ALT+Plus sign (+) (Place a snapshot of the active window in the client on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing PRINT SCREEN on a local computer.)

Microsoft Internet Explorer navigation

•	CTRL+B (Open the Organize Favorites dialog box)
•	CTRL+E (Open the Search bar)
•	CTRL+F (Start the Find utility)
•	CTRL+H (Open the History bar)
•	CTRL+I (Open the Favorites bar)
•	CTRL+L (Open the Open dialog box)
•	CTRL+N (Start another instance of the browser with the same Web address)
•	CTRL+O (Open the Open dialog box, the same as CTRL+L)
•	CTRL+P (Open the Print dialog box)
•	CTRL+R (Update the current Web page)
•	CTRL+W (Close the current window)

29 Useless Services are no longer required. (Windows XP SP2)

2007-05-20T13:25:00.000-07:00

An operating system is made up of various components that work with each other. The OS isn't just one object - it's a collection of smaller objects, each of which performs a different task. Their conjunction is what makes an "operating system". Windows calls these components "services", Linux calls it "daemons" and so on. Each service in Windows is essentially, to put it in a simpler way, an application that stays running in the back doing its job when required. Now each service takes up some memory, which isn't good if your system has a low amount of memory (like 256MB or less). Fortunately, not all of the default services are required by all users, so you can turn some of them off to free up some memory.

In this guide, we'll take a look at the default set of services that come with a fresh installation of Windows XP with Service Pack 2. We'll tell you the ones that you don't need and try to tell you why, so you can disable them without any problems. Each service has three options: automatic, manual and disabled. Automatic is essentially "run at startup"; Manual is a service that is started only when required; Disabled is when a service doesn't start at all. Based on the type of a user you are, there are different settings to recommend, but we'll take the safe route and tell you to disable the services that won't cause important features of your Windows to stop working. If you're comfortable with trying out stunts, you can go ahead and disable some of the other services that aren't mentioned here. If something stops working, you can just turn the service back on - there's no permanent effect. Also, since this is a guide to unneeded services that can be disabled, we won't list the services that are already disabled after Service Pack 2 (like Alerter and Messenger) in an effort to keep the list as simple as possible.

One more thing you have to note is that this list is primarily aimed at home users, so we'll be taking out most of the intranet/network related services that don't affect Internet connectivity. If you're using an office workstation with a proper server and all that jazz, you shouldn't be reading this guide.

To enable or disable services, go to Start -> Run -> and type "services.msc" and hit Enter.

Computer Browser

"Maintains an updated list of computers on the network and supplies this list to computers designated as browsers."

Contrary to what it may sound like, disabling this service still allows you to browse a network in your office. And of course, you don't need this at home. Disable it.

Distributed Link Tracking Client

"Maintains links between NTFS files within a computer or across computers in a network domain."

This one sounds useful, but only if you often create files on one computer, shortcuts to those files on another computer, and then move the original files around the network. Not many people do so. In fact, not many people even have NTFS on their Windows for some orthodox reason. Not required on FAT32, at home or even at work if your scenario doesn't match with the description. Disable it.

Error Reporting Service

"Allows error reporting for services and applictions running in non-standard environments."

I.e. "Send system information to Microsoft." No thanks. Disable it.

Help and Support

"Enables Help and Support Center to run on this computer."

This is okay to leave as-is if you hit F1 a lot, but if you almost never need to use the built-in help features (as opposed to just Googling for the problem - always a better option), then disabling this service would be a good idea. Now the problem is that the service automatically gets turned back on when required even if its disabled, so keeping it disabled is actually a better option to keeping it on automatic.

Indexing Service

"Indexes contents and properties of files on local and remote computers; provides rapid access to files through flexible querying language."

Use AvaFind (link to review) and/or Google Desktop Search instead. Just disable it - no questions asked.

Net Logon

"Supports pass-through authentication of account logon events for computers in a domain."

Useless for single machines or even most networks out here that don't actually have a domain. Disable.

NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing

"Enables an authorized user to access this computer remotely by using NetMeeting over a corporate intranet."

As a general rule of thumb, avoid any combination of "remote" and "internet/intranet". If you don't want people to use NetMeeting to connect to your computer and see your desktop over the Internet/Intranet, disable this please.

Network Location Awareness (NLA)

"Collects and stores network configuration and location information, and notifies applications when this information changes."

And how is that going to help you? Disable it.

Network Provisioning Service

"Manages XML configuration files on a domain basis for automatic network provisioning."

Not necessary for home and/or simple networks. Disable.

Performance Logs and Alerts

"Collects performance data from local or remote computers based on preconfigured schedule parameters, then writes the data to a log or triggers an alert."

There are other, more efficient ways of tracking performance of your machine(s) than using this service, if at all you need to do so. Most home users will never need it. Disable it.

Portable Media Serial Number Service

"Retrieves the serial number of any portable media player connected to this computer."

Unless you use some 100% Windows Media based/compatible ("PlaysForSure") portable audio/video device and Windows Media Player, this service is useless. iPod and regular flash based MP3 player users don't need it. Disable it.

QoS RSVP

"Provides network signaling and local traffic control setup functionality for QoS-aware programs and control applets."

This is an interesting concept to give more bandwidth to applications that request it, unfortunately, not many actually do this QoS thing, so it doesn't make sense to enable it. You can use cFos Speed for better bandwidth prioritization that actually works.

Remote Desktop Help Session Manager

"Manages and controls Remote Assistance."

Remote Assistance should be avoided. Disable this service.

Remote Registry

"Enables remote users to modify registry settings on this computer."

We'll let you guess this one out...

Secondary Logon

"Enables starting processes under alternate credentials."

This offers the "Run As" option to limited user accounts to be able to temporarily run some applications as an administrator (after entering the password, of course). Standalone machines usually have just one account with administrator access and other accounts, if any, are also usually administrators. You should keep this service only if your limited users often need to run applications with admin access, otherwise disable it.

Security Center

"Monitors system security settings and configurations."

That thing that pops up and tells you when your firewall is down, your anti-virus is out of date, or automatic updates are turned off. Personally, I like the alerts because then I know my anti-virus was unable to download its updates. I don't really bother with the firewall and my automatic updates are always on. If you've never needed or received any alerts on these events, this service can be disabled. The feature doesn't offer any protection by itself - it is only a monitor. Not really required.

Server

"Supports file, print, and named-pipe sharing over the network for this computer."

Only if you share files on a network would this be required. If you disable the Server service, you may still be able to access other shares, so you won't be entirely unconnected. Decide and disable if not required.

Smart Card

"Manages access to smart cards read by this computer."

How many of you actually use smart cards with your computer? Disable this.

SSDP Discovery Service

"Enables discovery of UPnP devices on your home network."

Most people don't have any UPnP devices on the network, so this service is useless. Do not confuse this with standard PnP (Plug-n-Play), which remains unaffected if this service is disabled.

System Restore Service

"Performs system restore functions."

I prefer trying to manually troubleshoot and fix, or reinstalling Windows in case of a fatal problem. I've never felt comfortable with using System Restore to "restore old versions of files" and all that, so I keep it disabled. It frees up memory and a good amount of disk space as well.

TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper

"Enables support for NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) service and NetBIOS name resolution."

Nobody uses NetBIOS anymore. Get over it. Disable this.

Themes

"Provides user experience theme management."

For performance reasons (or if you're just bored of all Blue), you may want to use the classic Windows 2000-style interface. You can switch to it from the Desktop Properties dialog, but there's no reason to have the service running if you're not using Luna / Default Blue, so disable it. Remember: if you're using the Luna / Default Blue interface, this service is necessary.

Uninterruptible Power Supply

"Manages an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) connected to the computer."

If you don't have a UPS, you don't need this service. If you have a UPS that you use independent of the computer (i.e. without automatic turn off etc.), you don't need this service. Even if you do have a UPS that requires installing its own software for power management, this service is not required. Use it only if your UPS connects to your PC via a COM port and automatically gets Windows to work with it (not many).

Universal Plug and Play Device Host

"Provides support to host Universal Plug and Play devices."

Works along with the SSDP service that we doubt you require. Don't know what UPnP is? Disable this.

WebClient

"Enables Windows-based programs to create, access, and modify Internet-based files."

Not a very popular feature. Disable it. If some features in Internet Explorer don't work for you, then you may need it. But then, why are you using IE, again? Huh?

Windows Time

"Maintains date and time synchronization on all clients and servers in the network."

I've kept this on. In fact, I'm so particular about having the correct time on my system, I've actually increased the update frequency from weekly to daily. If you don't share the same enthusiasm as me, you can disable this service. You can use a freeware, third party, on-demand time sync utility that will not need this service to be running, saving you memory.

Wireless Zero Configuration

"Provides automatic configuration for the 802.11 adapters"

I don't have any WiFi devices or networks to get on to, so I've disabled it. If you don't have any WiFi, do the same.

WMI Performance Adapter

"Provides performance library information from WMI HiPerf providers."

Nobody is really sure what to do with this thing. I've never needed it, and it's unlikely that you ever will. Off with it.

Workstation

"Creates and maintains client network connections to remote servers."

If your're sharing files and folders over a network, leave this on. If not, disable it. This is not needed or even utilized in a standalone PC. This doesn't affect Internet connectivity.

That's it. These are the 29 services that "are no longer required." You can get rid of on your Windows XP SP2 system to free up some memory and CPU and gain some performance out of it. We haven't thought about doing a similar guide for Windows 2000, but if you guys really want one, do post comments asking for it. Have a nice evening and a very happy new year!

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Get ready for 24-hour living

2006-11-21T06:32:00.000-08:00

by Graham Lawton

SO MUCH to do, so little time. Between a hectic work schedule and a thriving social life, Yves (not his real name), a 31- year-old software developer from Seattle, often doesn't have time for a full night's sleep. So he swallows something to make sure he doesn't need one. "If I take a dose just before I go to bed, I can wake up after 4 or 5 hours and feel refreshed," he says. "The alarm goes off and I'm like, let's go!"

Yves is talking about modafinil, a stimulant that since its launch seven years ago has acquired a near-mythical reputation for wiring you awake without the jitters, euphoria and eventual crash that come after caffeine or amphetamines. Yves has been popping modafinil on and off for the past three years and says it is "tremendously useful". "I find I can be very productive at work," he says. "I'm more organised and more motivated. And it means I can go out partying on a Friday night and still go skiing early on Saturday morning."

Modafinil is just the first of a wave of new lifestyle drugs that promise to do for sleep what the contraceptive pill did for sex - unshackle it from nature. Since time immemorial, humans have structured their lives around sleep. In the near future, we will, for the first time, be able to significantly structure the way we sleep to suit our lifestyles.

"The more we understand about the body's 24-hour clock the more we will be able to override it," says Russell Foster, a circadian biologist at Imperial College London. "In 10 to 20 years we'll be able to pharmacologically turn sleep off. Mimicking sleep will take longer, but I can see it happening." Foster envisages a world where it's possible, or even routine, for people to be active for 22 hours a day and sleep for two. It is not a world that everyone likes the sound of. "I think that would be the most hideous thing to happen to society," says Neil Stanley, head of sleep research at the Human Psychopharmacology Research Unit in the University of Surrey, UK. But most sleep researchers agree that it is inevitable.

If that sounds unlikely, think about what is already here. Modafinil has made it possible to have 48 hours of continuous wakefulness with few, if any, ill effects. New classes of sleeping pills are on the horizon that promise to deliver sleep that is deeper and more refreshing than the real thing. Further down the line are even more radical interventions - wakefulness promoters that can safely abolish sleep for several days at a stretch, and sleeping pills that deliver what feels like 8 hours of sleep in half the time. Nor is it all about drugs: one research team even talks about developing a wearable electrical device that can wake your brain up at the flick of a switch.

To some degree, we are already adept at controlling sleep. Most people in full-time work deprive themselves of sleep during the week, deliberately or otherwise, and catch up at the weekend. We often augment our sleep-suppressing powers with caffeine, nicotine or illegal stimulants such as cocaine and amphetamines. We are also highly dependent on substances that help us sleep. According to some estimates, 75 per cent of adults suffer at least one symptom of a sleep problem a few nights a week or more. In 1998, a team from the Henry Ford Health Sciences Research Institute in Detroit, Michigan, published a study revealing that 13 per cent of adult Americans had used alcohol to help them get to sleep in the previous year, and 18 per cent had used sleeping pills (Sleep, vol 21, p 178).

Despite the enormous resources that we pour into getting good sleep and wakefulness when we want them, most of the drugs at our disposal are crude instruments at best. The vast majority of sleeping pills - known in the business as hypnotics - are simply "knockout drops" that put you in a state almost like sleep but without its full restorative properties. "Hypnotic-induced sleep is better than no sleep, but it isn't natural sleep," says Stanley. With their addictive nature, the drugs we use to keep us awake, such as coffee and amphetamines, are even worse. In combination with our clock-watching lifestyles, these sleep and wake aids are driving ever more people into what Foster calls the "stimulant-sedative loop" where they need nightly help getting to sleep and daily help staying awake.

Modafinil has changed the rules of the game. The drug is what's known as a eugeroic, meaning "good arousal" in Greek. It delivers natural-feeling alertness and wakefulness without the powerful physical and mental jolt that earlier stimulants delivered. "There are no amphetamine-like feelings," says Yves. And as Yves' way of taking it shows, being on modafinil doesn't stop you from falling asleep if you want to.

In fact, its effects are so subtle that many users say they don't notice anything at all - until they need to. "I wouldn't say it makes me feel more alert or less sleepy. It's just that thoughts of tiredness don't occur to me," says Yves. "If there's a job at hand that I should be doing, I'm focused, but if I'm watching a movie or something, there is no effect."

People who take modafinil for medical reasons usually take just enough of the drug in the morning to see them through the day, but it also seems to be able to deliver sustained wakefulness - for a couple of days at least. "The military has tested sequential dosing," says Jeffrey Vaught, president of R&D at Cephalon, modafinil's Pennsylvania-based manufacturer. "It works for 48 hours or so, but eventually you need to sleep."

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about modafinil is that users don't seem to have to pay back any "sleep debt". Normally, if you stayed awake for 48 hours straight you would have to sleep for about 16 hours to catch up. Modafinil somehow allows you to catch up with only 8 hours or so. Well before Cephalon took an interest in the drug, French researchers discovered this effect in cats back in the early 1990s (Brain Research, vol 591, p 319), and it has since been found to apply to humans too.

“I wouldn't say it makes me feel more alert or less sleepy. It's just that thoughts of tiredness don't occur to me”

So how does modafinil work? "No one really knows," admits Vaught. He says that Cephalon thinks it understands the drug, but is keeping the details under wraps. What is clear is that, like other stimulant drugs, modafinil prevents nerve cells from reabsorbing the excitatory neurotransmitter dopamine once they release it into the brain. The difference is that it somehow does so without producing the addictive highs and painful crashes associated with most stimulants. A number of independent studies suggest that this might be because it also interferes with the reuptake of another neurotransmitter, noradrenalin.

However it works, modafinil is proving hugely successful. Since it hit the market in 1998, sales have been climbing steadily - from $25 million in 1999 to around $575 million in 2005. Cephalon insists that the drug is for treating "medical" sleepiness caused by diseases such as narcolepsy and sleep apnoea.

Even so, it's clear that modafinil is becoming a lifestyle drug for people like Yves who want off-the-peg wakefulness. "At first I got it from a friend, and then I got diagnosed as a narcoleptic online," says Yves.

All the indications are that modafinil is extremely safe. The drug can have side effects, most commonly headaches, but up to now there have been no severe reactions, says Vaught. In fact, it is hard to find anyone with a bad word to say about modafinil, except that there may be unseen problems down the line as the drug becomes more widely used. "I think it's unlikely that there can be an arousal drug with no consequences," says Foster. In the long run, it is possible that casual users might have to keep upping their dose to get the same effect. Stanley has similar worries. "Is it a potential drug of abuse?" he asks. "Will it get street value? We'll see."

Cephalon does not seem to be worried. Modafinil's success has spurred it to develop a successor, armodafinil. The company is also developing other eugeroics - one experimental drug called CEP-16795 switches off the H3 histamine receptor, which appears to be one of the molecular switches that controls the sleep-wake cycle. However, Vaught claims that the original will be a tough act to follow. "Modafinil is very effective and very safe," he says. "How do you beat it?"

There are ideas as to how. Last year, Sam Deadwyler of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, reported the results of an experiment with a drug called CX717. The findings suggest that modafinil won't have the field to itself forever.

Deadwyler kept 11 rhesus monkeys awake for 36 hours, throughout which they performed short-term memory and general alertness tests (Public Library of Sciences Biology, vol 3, p 299). At that level of sleep deprivation, a monkey's performance would normally drop to the point where it could barely function at all, but Deadwyler found that CX717 had remarkable restorative powers. Monkeys on the drug were doing better after 36 hours of continual wakefulness than undrugged monkeys after normal sleep. When Deadwyler imaged their brains with functional magnetic resonance imaging, (fMRI), he found that the drug maintained normal activity even in severely sleep-deprived individuals. The results build on those of an earlier, small-scale trial on 16 men that found CX717 could largely reverse the cognitive decline that comes with 24 hours of sleep deprivation (New Scientist, 14 May 2005, p 6).

Soldiers get high

CX717 belongs to a class of drugs called ampakines, which subtly ramp up brain activity by enhancing the action of its main excitatory neurotransmitter, glutamate. Cortex Pharmaceuticals of Irvine, California, which developed CX717, originally saw the drug as a cognitive booster for people with Alzheimer's, but it is its potential to counter the effects of sleep deprivation that is attracting the most attention.

Later this year, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), based in Arlington, Virginia, will put CX717 through its paces as a wakefulness promoter for combat. In an experiment designed to mimic the harsh demands of special ops, investigators will push 48 volunteers to the limit - four consecutive nights of hard work with only 4 hours of recovery sleep in between. "They'll go from being tired to exhausted to crashing," says Roger Stoll, Cortex's chief executive. For some of them, however, the ordeal will be softened by regular doses of CX717. DARPA hopes the drug will counteract the sleep deprivation.

The trial should help answer some outstanding questions about CX717's potential. "We don't know yet if it eliminates feelings of sleepiness," says Stoll. "The early signs are that people function better, their brain is a little more hyped. But we haven't tested sleepiness directly." As with modafinil, the evidence suggests that people struggle to tell if they're on the drug or not, and that hasn't turned out to be much of a problem for modafinil.

Whatever the outcome of the DARPA trial, CX717 won't be the last word on eugeroics. Stoll says Cortex has similar but more powerful molecules up its sleeve. Thought they are being developed mainly as memory enhancers, some may turn out to be powerful wakefulness promoters too. Industry giants GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly have ampakine programmes of their own, and at least one other company, Arena Pharmaceuticals of San Diego, California, has declared an interest in wakefulness promoters, though it hasn't released any details of its research.

When and if those drugs come through, the US military is sure to be interested. DARPA is one of the most active players in the drive to conquer sleep, setting up and funding much of the basic research on wakefulness. The army and air force have research programmes too.

It's easy to see why DARPA is interested. "We make the assumption that soldiers are going to be sleep-deprived," says DARPA neuroscientist Amy Kruse, who runs the agency's sleep-deprivation research programme. "We want to know what we can do to bring them back up to the level they would be at if they had a good night's sleep."

When DARPA talks about sleep deprivation, it really means it. Soldiers on special ops sometimes have to be awake, alert and active for 72 hours at a stretch with only minimal rest. That's like starting work on Monday morning and not stopping until Thursday. "Three days, that's when they really start hurting," says Kruse.

The military has a long history of using caffeine and amphetamines to get its people through. It has now added modafinil to the list, and is clearly interested in CX717. And Kruse says she is confident that there is lots of room for further improvement.

Last year, a DARPA-funded team led by Giulio Tononi at the University of Wisconsin Madison discovered a strain of fruit flies that gets by on just a third the normal amount of sleep. The "minisleep" mutant carries a change to a single gene, encoding a protein involved in potassium transport across cell membranes. Intriguingly, defects in potassium channels are associated with reduced sleep in humans, particularly in the autoimmune disease Morvan's syndrome, one symptom of which is chronic sleeplessness. What that suggests, says Kruse, is that new drugs designed to latch onto potassium channels in the brain could radically alter the need for sleep. There are also likely to be other molecular targets in the brain just waiting to be exploited, she says.

“I'm the guy who puts sleep-deprived pilots in a plane, gives them drugs and says, did it work?”

DARPA is meanwhile pursuing other strategies to conquer sleep deprivation. At Yaakov Stern's lab at Columbia University in New York, DARPA-funded neuroscientists have used fMRI to image the brains of sleep-deprived people, to find out which regions are affected when you are very tired. Then they used a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) machine - routinely used to switch localised brain regions on and off - to switch off those areas and see if that reversed the effects.

"This is all proof of concept," says Stern. "It's hard to imagine a sleep deprived pilot using TMS," not least because the machines are too bulky to fit in a cockpit. "The next step is to apply TMS before or during sleep deprivation to see if it blunts the effect. That has more of a shot at a lasting effect." Stern says his team is also looking into a new technique called DC brain polarisation, which has similar brain-boosting effects to TMS but uses DC current instead of magnetism. The beauty of this "poor man's TMS" is that the equipment is significantly smaller and cheaper - it could even be incorporated into headgear that gives you a jolt of wakefulness at the flick of a switch. And then there's always neurofeedback - training people to activate the brain regions that get hit by sleep deprivation, effectively willing themselves awake.

The military isn't just interested in wakefulness. It also has a keen interest in the other side of the coin. John Caldwell works at the US Air Force Research Laboratory in San Antonio, Texas. He has spent most of his career testing the effects of stimulants, including modafinil, on pilots. "I'm the guy who puts sleep-deprived pilots in a plane, gives them drugs and says, did it work?" he says. He has also done a handful of studies on sleep aids - testing the best way to help night pilots sleep well during the day, for example. In recent months Caldwell has become aware that there is a quiet revolution going on in sleep medicine. "There's a new idea out there," he says. "Drugs that change sleep architecture."

Sleep researchers have known for over 50 years that sleep isn't merely a lengthy period of unconsciousness, but consists of several different brain states (see Diagram). How those states are put together to build a full night's sleep is called sleep architecture.

Catching the slow waves

In the past, says Caldwell, sleeping pills were designed not to mess with sleep architecture, although they generally do, suppressing the deepest and most restorative "slow-wave" sleep in favour of shallower stage 2 sleep. Now, though, modifying sleep architecture is seen as the way forward. There are two new drugs in the offing that significantly increase the amount of slow-wave sleep. One of them, gaboxadol, made by Merck, is in phase III clinical trials and could be on the market next year. To Caldwell these drugs hold out the promise of a power nap par excellence. "Maybe you can make a short period of sleep more restorative by filling it with up with slow-wave sleep," he says.

Much like modafinil, gaboxadol and the other slow-wave sleep promoter - Arena Pharmaceuticals' APD125, currently in phase II - are the start of something bigger. For more than 35 years, sleeping pills have been a one-trick pony. If you wanted to send someone to the land of nod, there was only one way of doing so - targeting the neurotransmitter GABA, which is the brain's all-purpose dimmer switch. Old-fashioned hypnotics such as barbiturates and benzodiazepines work by making neurons more sensitive to the soporific effects of GABA. It's also why alcohol makes you sleepy. Even the newer, cleaner sleeping pills, such as the market leader Ambien, work through the GABA system.

Manipulating the GABA system is a sure-fire way of putting people to sleep, but it has its problems. One is that the brain adapts to the drugs, which means that most cannot be taken for more than a few days without losing their potency. The effects often linger well into the morning, making people feel groggy and hung over. Many are also addictive.

What's more, sleep quality has rarely been considered. "In the past we would take a hypnotic and say, does it put you to sleep?," says Stanley. "That's a pretty inexact way of dealing with it. In that respect, alcohol is a good hypnotic." Now, however, there is a recognition that there is much more to sleep than the GABA system. Last year the first non-GABA sleeping pill came onto the market - the first new class of hypnotic for 35 years. Rozerem, made by Japanese firm Takeda, mimics the effects of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin. Nor is it the only one. There are at least three other new classes of hypnotic that don't go anywhere near the GABA system. And though gaboxadol works through GABA, it hits a type of receptor that has never been targeted by drugs before.

According to Stanley, there is even more scope for improvement. "It is possible that pharmaceuticals will allow you a condensed dose of sleep," he says, "and we are not that far away from having drugs that put you to sleep for a certain length of time." He predicts you could soon have tablet combining a hypnotic with an antidote or wakefulness promoter designed to give you a precise number of hours' sleep. "A 4, 5 or 6-hour pill."

We seem to be moving inescapably towards a society where sleep and wakefulness are available if not on demand then at least on request. It's not surprising, then, that many sleep researchers have nagging worries about the long-term impact of millions of us using drugs to override the natural sleep-wake cycle.

Stanley believes that drugs like modafinil and CX717 will tempt people to overdose on wakefulness at the expense of sleep. "Being awake is seen to be attractive," he says. "It's not cool to be asleep." Foster has similar worries. "It seems like that technology will help us cope with 24/7, but is coping really living?" he asks. Others point out that there are likely to be hidden health costs to overriding our natural sleep-wake cycles. "Pharmaceuticals cannot substitute for normal sleep," says Vaught.

Still, even the doubters admit that to all intents and purposes we are already too far down the road of the 24-hour society to turn back. For millions of people, good sleep and productive wakefulness are already elusive, night work or nightlife a reality, and the "stimulant-sedative" loop all too familiar. As Vaught puts it, "We're already there." So why not make it as clean and safe as possible?

Netscape: the Calacanis effect

2006-11-21T06:25:00.000-08:00

Jason Calacanis said, last week, that he was leaving AOL because Jonathan Miller, AOL's ousted CEO, was one of the only business mentors he'd ever had. Loyal, touching, but maybe also rather opportunistic. Valleywag has obtained the internal traffic stats for Netscape.com, the unit which AOL gave Calacanis to run. The numbers are brutal: in the middle of June, before Calacanis overhauled Netscape's front page, the property commanded over 130m pageviews per week. Within two months, traffic had declined nearly 70%. The details, after the jump. (Hey, Digg folk. Some pics of the man himself, and adoring ladies, on Valleywag's Kevin Rose page.)

Jason Calacanis had great success with weblog titles such as Engadget, Joystiq and Autoblog, which he and his partners sold to AOL for about $25m. Moved over by his new employers to revitalize Netscape.com, a languishing internet portal, he picked a typically radical solution.

He'd been obsessed by Digg.com, a news site in which the community submits stories and votes the best to the top of the page. One of Jason's great strengths is his shamelessness: a willingness to spot good ideas, copy and improve them, fast. He'd offered to buy Digg for $4m, and been turned down; his solution for Netscape was to steal Digg's model, and some of their star contributors. Classic Calacanis.

Except Netscape visitors, most of whom only stuck with the neglected portal out of habit, were the worst subjects possible for Jason's radical experiment. Traffic the week of June 18th, before the Netscape team remade the front page, was 137m pageviews. The following week, as Netscape decommissioned areas such as news and weather, it declined to 115m. The new front page, a clone of Digg.com, went live on June 29. The first full week after the change, traffic had plummeted further, to 72m pageviews. The Comscore numbers, which help advertisers allocated their budgets to different internet properties, mirror this decline.

Calacanis has resigned from AOL ostensibly out of loyalty to Miller, and, having founded Silicon Alley Reporter and Weblogs, Inc., he probably also has several startup ideas. Part of the truth, for sure. Valleywag's more cynical theory: he messed up Netscape.com, and used Miller's departure as cover.

Update: Jason puts the blame, or at least some of it, on a migration of Netscape email users to AIM.

Ephebophilia: it's today's word, and it matters

2006-11-20T07:01:00.000-08:00

Carol Sarler

When is underage sex under age?

Given the fussing and carrying-on, you would think the poor man had advocated massed orgies with infants. He hadn’t. All that happened was that Terry Grange, the Chief Constable of Dyfed-Powys and spokesman on child protection for the Association of Chief Police Officers, suggested greater clarity in the labelling of sex offenders: for instance, he says, it is incorrect to say that those who have sex with underage teenagers are paedophiles — and if we say they are, we risk overestimating the scale of the problem of paedophilia.

With predictable fury, Michele Elliott, the director of the children’s charity Kidscape, rounded on the policeman’s wish to reclassify those who have sex with youngsters between 13 and 16: “He is saying they are not paedophiles and they bloody well are.”

If Miss Elliott would care to borrow my dictionary, she would discover that they bloody well aren’t. A paedophile is defined as one who is sexually attracted to children; children are defined as those between birth and puberty. What our teen fanciers are, in fact, is ephebophiliacs: adults attracted to postpubescent adolescents.

Now I grant you ephebophilia is not a word that would sit easily in a News of the World headline but the distinction is actually important.

The reason for the revulsion felt for paedophilia is not just sympathy for the trauma suffered by the child, nor a judgment of the abuse of imbalanced power, even though both are real enough. It goes deeper; it goes to the defiance of a law of Nature, whereby to have sex with somebody who has not reached sexual maturity is to have sex with somebody who is, if you will, not “ready”.

By contrast, to have sex with somebody who has passed the age of puberty is merely to defy a law of Man — and a pretty arbitrary law at that. We cannot agree between one border and the next at what age a boy or girl is emotionally developed enough to give informed consent: Malta and The Netherlands think 12, Canada and Italy weigh in at 14, cautious Greece holds out for 15 and the good burghers of Iceland go as high as 17.

A lad in Dover with a girlfriend of 15 may not have his wicked way, but if they hop a ferry to Calais they’ll be fine. Meanwhile, in some American states not only may you have sex at 13 but you may marry at the same age, allowing for the theoretical absurdity that a man could marry in, say, New Hampshire but should he bring his bride to old Hampshire for their honeymoon he could be imprisoned for statutory rape.

Quite why it is 16 in the United Kingdom is not clear. To my knowledge no studies have been done to show that the Canadians pay for the laxity of 14 with posses of the psychologically disturbed teenagers that we are spared by our relative strictness.

Sooner or later, one imagines, at least the Europeans will have to come to some agreement. Yet for all that I’d give teeth to be the fly on the wall at that particular European Union committee, this is not, for the moment at least, an argument in favour of changing our own age of consent.

It is certainly the case that we shall one day need to reconsider; unenforceable laws are a waste of paperwork, and only last week a YouGov poll showed a third of British girls already thumbing their noses at this one by engaging in sexual activity below the age of 16. (This applies to only half as many boys below the age of 16, though no doubt that’s less for want of trying than the convention that insists that no self-respecting 14-year-old girl would be seen dead with a boyfriend of her own age.)

It is also the case that there are heartening signs from elsewhere that one can lower the age of consent while preserving safeguards; for instance, although Malta allows for consent at 12, it rises to 18 if the older partner has any authority over the younger. Predatory teachers, priests or care-home workers must therefore keep their grubby hands to themselves.

Furthermore, when it comes not to the seriously predatory but to a young couple where one is perhaps 18 and the other 14, the law has far less to do with whether they choose to have sex than does peer habit: when I was young my circle enjoyed a group dumping of virginities at around 16 or 17; these days, for many, it has just shifted forward by a couple of years.

Nevertheless, it is safe to assume that for the time being most of us will continue to prefer that there is a legal stalling process, however slight, that might encourage some young people to cautionary second thoughts — and given that the age of consent currently coincides with the age until which we try to force some education into their heads, it is very probably in their better interests to keep it.

But then, the lambasted Terry Grange wasn’t arguing to change it, either. He was simply asking a society already unhealthily in thrall to paedophilia to think twice before using the word. He correctly points us to a difference between the tabloid nation’s favourite bogeyman, a kind of latterday Fagin beckoning a crooked finger through kindergarten gates, and the excited hormones of a young man in the close presence of a buxom, bosomy come-hither girlie who, in other cultures and, indeed, at other times in this one, he would be perfectly entitled to embrace.

As long as the law is the law, he deserves a smacked paw if he gives in to his excitement. But he does not deserve the same opprobrium as the bogeyman — and nor do we deserve that our police forces’ time be needlessly spent in his pursuit rather than that of the far rarer, but far more dangerous, bogeyman proper.

The Relics of Mu

2006-11-20T06:54:00.000-08:00

It seems that most every culture has a legend of a great society, ripe with wealth and wisdom, which is lost to the sea. To westerners these are the stories of Atlantis or Thule. To many of the peoples of the South Pacific it is Lemuria or Menehune. To Asians it is called Mu, and was home to people who could fly and who drank an elixir that would cease aging.

After years of searching, and combing the Pacific for a possible lost land that could have been the root of one of these legends, it is clear that there is no extra continent in the sea. However, in 1986, a SCUBA diver, Kihachiro Aratake, diving off the coast of the island of Yonaguni-jima discovered something that may lend credence to the existence of Mu or Lemuria. On the sea floor he found vast geometric structures cut out of the rock. There was evidence of stairs, and improbable angles in the stone. He marked the location for future divers, and in the intervening years these undersea ruins have come to be known as the "Yonaguni Monuments".

Efforts to date the monument are derived from the last time the area was above sea level, which would have been approximately 8,000-10,000 years ago– about 3-5 millennia before Egypt's pyramids were erected. If the monuments were indeed built by humankind, it would require some dramatic revisions to the accepted chronological history of humanity.

Not far from a set of cliffs called "Iseki Point", the main structure of the Yonaguni Monuments lies under about two hundred feet of water. It is about 240 feet long, 90 feet wide, and 45 feet tall. There appear to be clear cut stairs, and to many there are distinct similarities to ancient buildings found on Okinawa, or even heiau temples on Hawaii. Various structures surround the main building, and they seem to stretch out into a road spanning approximately 311 miles leading to Okinawa and its neighboring islands.

But as clearly defined as the structures are to some, there are others who disparage the tale of the Yonaguni Monuments. No chambers or entrances have ever been found into the monuments, and no tools have been found in the vicinity to clearly indicate human involvement. Many assert that the formations can be attributed to erosion or coral settlements. The sharp angles and lines in the stone may be the result of the way the stones erode– breaking off at right angles. One can look to the cliffs above the sea to observe that the regional stone tends to erode in a way that leaves naturally sharp angles.

Perhaps the most reasonable theory, however, is one which suggests that the mounds of stone are natural features that were carved and shaped into terraces by early man. This theory adequately explains the lack of entrance into the monuments, and the apparent post holes and etchings made in the rock.

Because of the submerged location and the strong currents in the area, the Yonaguni Monuments have proved difficult to properly study; though the area has become a popular site for SCUBA tours. Researchers have not yet found conclusive evidence implicating either erosion or humanity as the source of these shapes, so the investigation and debate regarding the nature of the Yonaguni Monuments continues.

Wallpaper made out of post-it notes

2006-11-19T06:31:00.000-08:00

In collaboration with Sirkka Hammer

A wallpaper consisting of four layers of varying grey tones on a bright primary backing. Each layer is perforated in a grid format and backed with a tacky adhesive similar to ‘post-it’ notes. Pixelnotes is inspired by the way we work within a space. The walls become functional, an integrated noticeboard that documents our activity within the room. Pixelated formations and shapes develop according to our patterns of use.

Winner: 2nd Prize, ‘New Walls, Please!' competition

January 2004

I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work the counter at mcdonald's

2006-11-19T06:05:00.000-08:00

by scott heiferman (12/00)

background:

5/94: graduated from the university of iowa
5/94-4/95: "interactive marketing frontiersman" at sony
4/95-10/99: founder/ceo i-traffic (acquired by agency.com 10/99)
10/99-10/01: chairman, i-traffic (an agency.com company)
10/00-10/00: counterperson, mcdonald's (4th & broadway, nyc)
more about me

why i got a job at mcdonald's:

i spend a lot of time with bankers, lawyers, internet freaks, corporate wonks, and other people living strange lives. as a good marketing guy, that's a bad thing. and as a practicing anti-consumerist, that's a bad thing. i got a job at mcdonald's to help get back in touch with the real world. also, after over 6 grueling years in the internet whirlwind, i wanted to experience a profitable, well-oiled, multi-billion-dollar machine. and i deserved a break today.

how i got the job:

i walked in, filled out an application, and was interviewed. i was truthful. in my interview, the manager (ralph) asked if i can handle a fast-paced, intense environment. i said yes. he looked at my resume and asked about my current part-time job as chairman at i-traffic. i said, "it's an internet thing." he said "ok" and then asked me for my waist size.

a few observations:

1. people like the "dollar menu". the dollar menu consists of about a dozen items at mcdonald's that sell for a dollar. not 99 cents, but one dollar. most of these items had had existed elsewhere on the menu for about a dollar. mcdonald's has done a good job of keeping their menu relatively simple and short, but people clearly respond to the ultra-simplicity of the dollar menu. most people weren't primarily ordering from the dollar menu because they were overwhelmed by the wider menu, but because they perceived it to be the best value. someone call john stossel... but the dollar menu isn't always the best value. interestingly, "dollar stores" preceded mcdonald's "dollar menu" --- it's fun to see "blue chip" kellogg-trained marketers from mcdonald's borrow strategy from sleaze-level marketers.

2. $5.75 ain't much. $5.75/hour X 40 hours/week X 52 weeks/year = $11,960. that's before taxes are taken out. some people said it was disrespectful for me to take a job at mcdonalds --- i didn't need the money, and they thought that i was making fun of people that work there. the opposite is true: i gained a bucket of respect for people that bust their butt for such low pay. it's one thing to scan past stats about americans that make $12,000 per year -- or read about them in the paper. but, to actually work a tough fry-heaving, mcnugget-wielding 6-hour shift --- and get home smelling like those fries and mcnuggets -- and realize that you only made about $30 that day... that's a serious eye-opener. interpret as you see fit.

3. i was never told to treat customers well. correction: i was never told by management to treat customers well. before i started the job, i had read on the mcdonald's website that "our crewmembers make each customer feel like a welcomed guest." i had even noticed a few months before that mcdonald's even went so far as to change their logo & tagline to feature the message "we love to see you smile." i expected to be specifically, officially instructed to smile and make customers feel like a welcomed guest. well, as any patron of a manhattan mcdonald's knows, there ain't much feel-good from the counter staff. my co-workers were downright rude to customers. i got funny looks from my co-workers when i was friendly with customers. they must not have seen the logo or tagline or website.

4. nobody thanked me. i worked hard. i got paid peanuts. i even ate mcdonald's food during my break (deducted from my pay). it was intense: the cash register was complex, people want their food NOW, the lines get deep, the mcflurry must be made just right. i was trying hard and i was doing an ok job. now, i've been the leader/manager for most of my life. i've had plenty of crap jobs, but i've been the boss for the past few years. i faithfully read my fast company magazine and my harvard business review. i've been taught countless times the value of a leader/manager showing appreciation for people's effort. however, my instinct has often been that showing appreciation really isn't too necessary for good people. they just take pride in a job well done --- and, anyway, they can read my mind and see the appreciation. well, from day 1 at mcdonald's, i was yearning for someone there to say "thanks". even a "you're doing ok" would suffice. but, no. neither management experience -- nor reading about management --- teaches this lesson as well as being an under-appreciated employee.

5. most of my mcdonald's co-workers did their jobs much better than i ever could. they just seemed quicker. they had various talents and intuition that i don't have.

6. the fry basket burns skin.

i got burned.

other

i got paid.

crain's called me a couple days before i started at mcdonalds. they were doing a story on post-acquisition internet ceo's in new york. i told them that i was starting a job at mcdonald's and didn't say much else. i let them take my picture after i got off work one day. they put a strange spin on the piece. most annoying were the people who thought that this was a publicity stunt.

Execution of a teenage girl

2006-11-18T08:29:00.000-08:00

A television documentary team has pieced together details surrounding the case of a 16-year-old girl, executed two years ago in Iran.

On 15 August, 2004, Atefah Sahaaleh was hanged in a public square in the Iranian city of Neka.

Her death sentence was imposed for "crimes against chastity".

The state-run newspaper accused her of adultery and described her as 22 years old.

But she was not married - and she was just 16.

Sharia Law

In terms of the number of people executed by the state in 2004, Iran is estimated to be second only to China.

In the year of Atefah's death, at least 159 people were executed in accordance with the Islamic law of the country, based on the Sharia code.

Since the revolution, Sharia law has been Iran's highest legal authority.

Alongside murder and drug smuggling, sex outside marriage is also a capital crime.

As a signatory of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, Iran has promised not to execute anyone under the age of 18.

But the clerical courts do not answer to parliament. They abide by their religious supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, making it virtually impossible for human rights campaigners to call them to account.

Code of behaviour

At the time of Atefah's execution in Neka, journalist Asieh Amini heard rumours the girl was just 16 years old and so began to ask questions.

To teach others a lesson, Atefah's execution was held in public

"When I met with the family," says Asieh, "they showed me a copy of her birth certificate, and a copy of her death certificate. Both of them show she was born in 1988. This gave me legitimate grounds to investigate the case."

So why was such a young girl executed? And how could she have been accused of adultery when she was not even married?

Disturbed by the death of her mother when she was only four or five years old, and her distraught father's subsequent drug addiction, Atefah had a difficult childhood.

She was also left to care for her elderly grandparents, but they are said to have shown her no affection.

In a town like Neka, heavily under the control of religious authorities, Atefah - often seen wandering around on her own - was conspicuous.

It was just a matter of time before she came to the attention of the "moral police", a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, whose job it is to enforce the Islamic code of behaviour on Iran's streets.

Secret relationship

Being stopped or arrested by the moral police is a fact of life for many Iranian teenagers.

Previously arrested for attending a party and being alone in a car with a boy, Atefah received her first sentence for "crimes against chastity" when she was just 13.

Although the exact nature of the crime is unknown, she spent a short time in prison and received 100 lashes.

Atefah was soon caught in a downward spiral of arrest and abuse

When she returned to her home town, she told those close to her that lashes were not the only things she had to endure in prison. She described abuse by the moral police guards.

Soon after her release, Atefah became involved in an abusive relationship with a man three times her age.

Former revolutionary guard, 51-year-old Ali Darabi - a married man with children - raped her several times.

She kept the relationship a secret from both her family and the authorities.

Atefah was soon caught in a downward spiral of arrest and abuse.

Local petition

Circumstances surrounding Atefah's fourth and final arrest were unusual.

The moral police said the locals had submitted a petition, describing her as a "source of immorality" and a "terrible influence on local schoolgirls".

But there were no signatures on the petition - only those of the arresting guards.

Men's word is accepted much more clearly and much more easily than women

Mohammad Hoshi,
Iranian lawyer and exile

Three days after her arrest, Atefah was in a court and tried under Sharia law.

The judge was the powerful Haji Rezai, head of the judiciary in Neka.

No court transcript is available from Atefah's trial, but it is known that for the first time, Atefah confessed to the secret of her sexual abuse by Ali Darabi.

However, the age of sexual consent for girls under Sharia law - within the confines of marriage - is nine, and furthermore, rape is very hard to prove in an Iranian court.

"Men's word is accepted much more clearly and much more easily than women," according to Iranian lawyer and exile Mohammad Hoshi.

"They can say: 'You know she encouraged me' or 'She didn't wear proper dress'."

Court of appeal

She was my love, my heart... I did everything for her, everything I could

Atefah's father

When Atefah realised her case was hopeless, she shouted back at the judge and threw off her veil in protest.

It was a fatal outburst.

She was sentenced to execution by hanging, while Darabi got just 95 lashes.

Shortly before the execution, but unbeknown to her family, documents that went to the Supreme Court of Appeal described Atefah as 22.

"Neither the judge nor even Atefah's court appointed lawyer did anything to find out her true age," says her father.

And a witness claims: "The judge just looked at her body, because of the developed physique... and declared her as 22."

Judge Haji Rezai took Atefah's documents to the Supreme Court himself.

And at six o'clock on the morning of her execution he put the noose around her neck, before she was hoisted on a crane to her death.

Pain and death

During the making of the documentary about Atefah's death the production team telephoned Judge Haji Rezai to ask him about the case, but he refused to comment.

The human rights organisation Amnesty International says it is concerned that executions are becoming more common again under President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad, who advocates a return to the pure values of the revolution.

The judiciary have never admitted there was any mishandling of Atefah's case.

For Atefah's father the pain of her death remains raw. "She was my love, my heart... I did everything for her, everything I could," he says.

He did not get the chance to say goodbye.

10 best extensions for Firefox 2

2006-11-18T06:29:00.000-08:00

The latest major update of Mozilla Firefox incorporates functionality from the most popular extensions for the previous version. So, what will the future bring? To use the potential features of the next version of Firefox today, install the Firefox 2 extensions that won the hearts of Download.com editors Seth Rosenblatt and Peter Butler. And if you haven't tried Firefox yet, download it here.

FoxyTunes

Why bother switching to another application to manage your music player when you've got this extension? This summer's update to version 2 added a host of Web functionality, such as searching for artists, photos, lyrics and albums on a variety of sites.

Click here to learn more and download FoxyTunes.

Tab Mix Plus

Don't like the new close button on each tab? Do you miss the multiple rows of tabs when they exceeded the width of your screen? This add-on can change those settings and almost everything else associated with tabs. Use your scroll wheel to browse through open tabs, or control tab switching via mouse gestures.

Click here to learn more and download Tab Mix Plus.

MR Tech Local Install

Not only will this extension-manager extension give you comprehensive control over all aspects of your add-ons, it can override the MaxVersionNumber of older extensions that haven't been updated for version 2. It's worth installing for the "Restart Firefox" functionality alone.

Click here to learn more and download MR Tech Local Install.

Download Statusbar

Download Statusbar takes the idea of the Download Manager, sticks it in a minimizable toolbar, and then tacks on some cool functionality. From the full mode, you can rename or delete downloaded files, or copy the source URL to the clipboard. Mini-mode changes the app to an unobtrusive progress monitor, with the full mode a click away.

Click here to learn more and download Download Statusbar.

ForecastFox

With this option-laden weather-monitoring plug-in, you can choose between Celsius or Fahrenheit, create different location profiles and adjust when and how the extended forecast appears. There also are customizable icons, optional labels, day and night settings, and ForecastFox even differentiates between today's forecast and current conditions.

Click here to learn more and download ForecastFox.

All-in-One Sidebar

Firefox users who get accustomed to this wonderful extension rarely go back to the clunky default Firefox add-on window. From one clickable and customizable sidebar, you can access your history, bookmarks, downloads, extensions and themes, as well as an endless amount of content via other extensions.

Click here to learn more and download All-in-One Sidebar.

IE Tab

Extremely useful for those sites that require Internet Explorer and for testing purposes, this add-on loads any Web page as IE would display it, in the Firefox browser. A simple button in the Firefox status bar quickly and easily switches sites to IE and back. You also can specify some sites to always open with IE Tab.

Click here to learn more and download IE Tab.

Firefox Showcase

Despite some strong competition from Tab Catalog, this tab-thumbnail extension still gets our pick for its strong customization options and ability to show collections of tab previews in a variety of browser locations. One neat tip: clicking the scroll wheel on a thumbnail magnifies it.

Click here to learn more and download Firefox Showcase.

StumbleUpon

As a social networker, bookmarker and site reviewer rolled into one, this extension wears many hats. "Stumbling" takes one click, and interactive icons make rating sites a cinch. Combined with the topic chooser, the additional one-click features give Web surfing a useful unpredictability TV just can't match.

Click here to learn more and download StumbleUpon.

Ook? Video Ook!

This extension for downloading embedded media is preferable to similar add-ons because it lets you go bananas with video. It offers one-click downloading, and it can save videos in their native formats--Flash video, WMP or MOV. Also, it saves YouTube videos with their original file names or those of your choosing--not some nonsensical code.

Click here to learn more and download Ook? Video Ook!

The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups

2006-11-17T11:06:00.000-08:00

In the Q & A period after a recent talk, someone asked what made startups fail. After standing there gaping for a few seconds I realized this was kind of a trick question. It's equivalent to asking how to make a startup succeed—if you avoid every cause of failure, you succeed—and that's too big a question to answer on the fly.

Afterwards I realized it could be helpful to look at the problem from this direction. If you have a list of all the things you shouldn't do, you can turn that into a recipe for succeeding just by negating. And this form of list may be more useful in practice. It's easier to catch yourself doing something you shouldn't than always to remember to do something you should. [1]

In a sense there's just one mistake that kills startups: not making something users want. If you make something users want, you'll probably be fine, whatever else you do or don't do. And if you don't make something users want, then you're dead, whatever else you do or don't do. So really this is a list of 18 things that cause startups not to make something users want. Nearly all failure funnels through that.

1. Single Founder

Have you ever noticed how few successful startups were founded by just one person? Even companies you think of as having one founder, like Oracle, usually turn out to have more. It seems unlikely this is a coincidence.

What's wrong with having one founder? To start with, it's a vote of no confidence. It probably means the founder couldn't talk any of his friends into starting the company with him. That's pretty alarming, because his friends are the ones who know him best.

But even if the founder's friends were all wrong and the company is a good bet, he's still at a disadvantage. Starting a startup is too hard for one person. Even if you could do all the work yourself, you need colleagues to brainstorm with, to talk you out of stupid decisions, and to cheer you up when things go wrong.

The last one might be the most important. The low points in a startup are so low that few could bear them alone. When you have multiple founders, esprit de corps binds them together in a way that seems to violate conservation laws. Each thinks "I can't let my friends down." This is one of the most powerful forces in human nature, and it's missing when there's just one founder.

2. Bad Location

Startups prosper in some places and not others. Silicon Valley dominates, then Boston, then Seattle, Austin, Denver, and New York. After that there's not much. Even in New York the number of startups per capita is probably a 20th of what it is in Silicon Valley. In towns like Houston and Chicago and Detroit it's too small to measure.

Why is the falloff so sharp? Probably for the same reason it is in other industries. What's the sixth largest fashion center in the US? The sixth largest center for oil, or finance, or publishing? Whatever they are they're probably so far from the top that it would be misleading even to call them centers.

It's an interesting question why cities become startup hubs, but the reason startups prosper in them is probably the same as it is for any industry: that's where the experts are. Standards are higher; people are more sympathetic to what you're doing; the kind of people you want to hire want to live there; supporting industries are there; the people you run into in chance meetings are in the same business. Who knows exactly how these factors combine to boost startups in Silicon Valley and squish them in Detroit, but it's clear they do from the number of startups per capita in each.

3. Marginal Niche

Most of the groups that apply to Y Combinator suffer from a common problem: choosing a small, obscure niche in the hope of avoiding competition.

If you watch little kids playing sports, you notice that below a certain age they're afraid of the ball. When the ball comes near them their instinct is to avoid it. I didn't make a lot of catches as an eight year old outfielder, because whenever a fly ball came my way, I used to close my eyes and hold my glove up more for protection than in the hope of catching it.

Choosing a marginal project is the startup equivalent of my eight year old strategy for dealing with fly balls. If you make anything good, you're going to have competitors, so you may as well face that. You can only avoid competition by avoiding good ideas.

I think this shrinking from big problems is mostly unconscious. It's not that people think of grand ideas but decide to pursue smaller ones because they seem safer. Your unconscious won't even let you think of grand ideas. So the solution may be to think about ideas without involving yourself. What would be a great idea for someone else to do as a startup?

4. Derivative Idea

Many of the applications we get are imitations of some existing company. That's one source of ideas, but not the best. If you look at the origins of successful startups, few were started in imitation of some other startup. Where did they get their ideas? Usually from some specific, unsolved problem the founders identified.

Our startup made software for making online stores. When we started it, there wasn't any; the few sites you could order from were hand-made at great expense by web consultants. We knew that if online shopping ever took off, these sites would have to be generated by software, so we wrote some. Pretty straightforward.

It seems like the best problems to solve are ones that affect you personally. Apple happened because Steve Wozniak wanted a computer, Google because Larry and Sergey couldn't find stuff online, Hotmail because Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith couldn't exchange email at work.

So instead of copying the Facebook, with some variation that the Facebook rightly ignored, look for ideas from the other direction. Instead of starting from companies and working back to the problems they solved, look for problems and imagine the company that might solve them. [2] What do people complain about? What do you wish there was?

5. Obstinacy

In some fields the way to succeed is to have a vision of what you want to achieve, and to hold true to it no matter what setbacks you encounter. Starting startups is not one of them. The stick-to-your-vision approach works for something like winning an Olympic gold medal, where the problem is well-defined. Startups are more like science, where you need to follow the trail wherever it leads.

So don't get too attached to your original plan, because it's probably wrong. Most successful startups end up doing something different than they originally intended—often so different that it doesn't even seem like the same company. You have to be prepared to see the better idea when it arrives. And the hardest part of that is often discarding your old idea.

But openness to new ideas has to be tuned just right. Switching to a new idea every week will be equally fatal. Is there some kind of external test you can use? One is to ask whether the ideas represent some kind of progression. If in each new idea you're able to re-use most of what you built for the previous ones, then you're probably in a process that converges. Whereas if you keep restarting from scratch, that's a bad sign.

Fortunately there's someone you can ask for advice: your users. If you're thinking about turning in some new direction and your users seem excited about it, it's probably a good bet.

6. Hiring Bad Programmers

I forgot to include this in the early versions of the list, because nearly all the founders I know are programmers. This is not a serious problem for them. They might accidentally hire someone bad, but it's not going to kill the company. In a pinch they can do whatever's required themselves.

But when I think about what killed most of the startups in the e-commerce business back in the 90s, it was bad programmers. A lot of those companies were started by business guys who thought the way startups worked was that you had some clever idea and then hired programmers to implement it. That's actually much harder than it sounds—almost impossibly hard in fact—because business guys can't tell which are the good programmers. They don't even get a shot at the best ones, because no one really good wants a job implementing the vision of a business guy.

In practice what happens is that the business guys choose people they think are good programmers (it says here on his resume that he's a Microsoft Certified Developer) but who aren't. Then they're mystified to find that their startup lumbers along like a World War II bomber while their competitors scream past like jet fighters. This kind of startup is in the same position as a big company, but without the advantages.

So how do you pick good programmers if you're not a programmer? I don't think there's an answer. I was about to say you'd have to find a good programmer to help you hire people. But if you can't recognize good programmers, how would you even do that?

7. Choosing the Wrong Platform

A related problem (since it tends to be done by bad programmers) is choosing the wrong platform. For example, I think a lot of startups during the Bubble killed themselves by deciding to build server-based applications on Windows. Hotmail was still running on FreeBSD for years after Microsoft bought it, presumably because Windows couldn't handle the load. If Hotmail's founders had chosen to use Windows, they would have been swamped.

PayPal only just dodged this bullet. After they merged with X.com, the new CEO wanted to switch to Windows—even after PayPal cofounder Max Levchin showed that their software scaled only 1% as well on Windows as Unix. Fortunately for PayPal they switched CEOs instead.

Platform is a vague word. It could mean an operating system, or a programming language, or a "framework" built on top of a programming language. It implies something that both supports and limits, like the foundation of a house.

The scary thing about platforms is that there are always some that seem to outsiders to be fine, responsible choices and yet, like Windows in the 90s, will destroy you if you choose them. Java applets were probably the most spectacular example. This was supposed to be the new way of delivering applications. Presumably it killed just about 100% of the startups who believed that.

How do you pick the right platforms? The usual way is to hire good programmers and let them choose. But there is a trick you could use if you're not a programmer: visit a top computer science department and see what they use in research projects.

8. Slowness in Launching

Companies of all sizes have a hard time getting software done. It's intrinsic to the medium; software is always 85% done. It takes an effort of will to push through this and get something released to users. [3]

Startups make all kinds of excuses for delaying their launch. Most are equivalent to the ones people use for procrastinating in everyday life. There's something that needs to happen first. Maybe. But if the software were 100% finished and ready to launch at the push of a button, would they still be waiting?

One reason to launch quickly is that it forces you to actually finish some quantum of work. Nothing is truly finished till it's released; you can see that from the rush of work that's always involved in releasing anything, no matter how finished you thought it was. The other reason you need to launch is that it's only by bouncing your idea off users that you fully understand it.

Several distinct problems manifest themselves as delays in launching: working too slowly; not truly understanding the problem; fear of having to deal with users; fear of being judged; working on too many different things; excessive perfectionism. Fortunately you can combat all of them by the simple expedient of forcing yourself to launch something fairly quickly.

9. Launching Too Early

Launching too slowly has probably killed a hundred times more startups than launching too fast, but it is possible to launch too fast. The danger here is that you ruin your reputation. You launch something, the early adopters try it out, and if it's no good they may never come back.

So what's the minimum you need to launch? We suggest startups think about what they plan to do, identify a core that's both (a) useful on its own and (b) something that can be incrementally expanded into the whole project, and then get that done as soon as possible.

This is the same approach I (and many other programmers) use for writing software. Think about the overall goal, then start by writing the smallest subset of it that does anything useful. If it's a subset, you'll have to write it anyway, so in the worst case you won't be wasting your time. But more likely you'll find that implementing a working subset is both good for morale and helps you see more clearly what the rest should do.

The early adopters you need to impress are fairly tolerant. They don't expect a newly launched product to do everything; it just has to do something.

10. Having No Specific User in Mind

You can't build things users like without understanding them. I mentioned earlier that the most successful startups seem to have begun by trying to solve a problem their founders had. Perhaps there's a rule here: perhaps you create wealth in proportion to how well you understand the problem you're solving, and the problems you understand best are your own. [4]

That's just a theory. What's not a theory is the converse: if you're trying to solve problems you don't understand, you're hosed.

And yet a surprising number of founders seem willing to assume that someone, they're not sure exactly who, will want what they're building. Do the founders want it? No, they're not the target market. Who is? Teenagers. People interested in local events (that one is a perennial tarpit). Or "business" users. What business users? Gas stations? Movie studios? Defense contractors?

You can of course build something for users other than yourself. We did. But you should realize you're stepping into dangerous territory. You're flying on instruments, in effect, so you should (a) consciously shift gears, instead of assuming you can rely on your intuitions as you ordinarily would, and (b) look at the instruments.

In this case the instruments are the users. When designing for other people you have to be empirical. You can no longer guess what will work; you have to find users and measure their responses. So if you're going to make something for teenagers or "business" users or some other group that doesn't include you, you have to be able to talk some specific ones into using what you're making. If you can't, you're on the wrong track.

11. Raising Too Little Money

Most successful startups take funding at some point. Like having more than one founder, it seems a good bet statistically. How much should you take, though?

Startup funding is measured in time. Every startup that isn't profitable (meaning nearly all of them, initially) has a certain amount of time left before the money runs out and they have to stop. This is sometimes referred to as runway, as in "How much runway do you have left?" It's a good metaphor because it reminds you that when the money runs out you're going to be airborne or dead.

Too little money means not enough to get airborne. What airborne means depends on the situation. Usually you have to advance to a visibly higher level: if all you have is an idea, a working prototype; if you have a prototype, launching; if you're launched, significant growth. It depends on investors, because until you're profitable that's who you have to convince.

So if you take money from investors, you have to take enough to get to the next step, whatever that is. [5] Fortunately you have some control over both how much you spend and what the next step is. We advise startups to set both low, initially: spend practically nothing, and make your initial goal simply to build a solid prototype. This gives you maximum flexibility.

12. Spending Too Much

It's hard to distinguish spending too much from raising too little. If you run out of money, you could say either was the cause. The only way to decide which to call it is by comparison with other startups. If you raised five million and ran out of money, you probably spent too much.

Burning through too much money is not as common as it used to be. Founders seem to have learned that lesson. Plus it keeps getting cheaper to start a startup. So as of this writing few startups spend too much. None of the ones we've funded have. (And not just because we make small investments; many have gone on to raise further rounds.)

The classic way to burn through cash is by hiring a lot of people. This bites you twice: in addition to increasing your costs, it slows you down—so money that's getting consumed faster has to last longer. Most hackers understand why that happens; Fred Brooks explained it in The Mythical Man-Month.

We have three general suggestions about hiring: (a) don't do it if you can avoid it, (b) pay people with equity rather than salary, not just to save money, but because you want the kind of people who are committed enough to prefer that, and (c) only hire people who are either going to write code or go out and get users, because those are the only things you need at first.

13. Raising Too Much Money

It's obvious how too little money could kill you, but is there such a thing as having too much?

Yes and no. The problem is not so much the money itself as what comes with it. As one VC who spoke at Y Combinator said, "Once you take several million dollars of my money, the clock is ticking." If VCs fund you, they're not going to let you just put the money in the bank and keep operating as two guys living on ramen. They want that money to go to work. [6] At the very least you'll move into proper office space and hire more people. That will change the atmosphere, and not entirely for the better. Now most of your people will be employees rather than founders. They won't be as committed; they'll need to be told what to do; they'll start to engage in office politics.

When you raise a lot of money, your company moves to the suburbs and has kids.

Perhaps more dangerously, once you take a lot of money it gets harder to change direction. Suppose your initial plan was to sell something to companies. After taking VC money you hire a sales force to do that. What happens now if you realize you should be making this for consumers instead of businesses? That's a completely different kind of selling. What happens, in practice, is that you don't realize that. The more people you have, the more you stay pointed in the same direction.

Another drawback of large investments is the time they take. The time required to raise money grows with the amount. [7] When the amount rises into the millions, investors get very cautious. VCs never quite say yes or no; they just engage you in an apparently endless conversation. Raising VC scale investments is thus a huge time sink—more work, probably, than the startup itself. And you don't want to be spending all your time talking to investors while your competitors are spending theirs building things.

We advise founders who go on to seek VC money to take the first reasonable deal they get. If you get an offer from a reputable firm at a reasonable valuation with no unusually onerous terms, just take it and get on with building the company. [8] Who cares if you could get a 30% better deal elsewhere? Economically, startups are an all-or-nothing game. Bargain-hunting among investors is a waste of time.

14. Poor Investor Management

As a founder, you have to manage your investors. You shouldn't ignore them, because they may have useful insights. But neither should you let them run the company. That's supposed to be your job. If investors had sufficient vision to run the companies they fund, why didn't they start them?

Pissing off investors by ignoring them is probably less dangerous than caving in to them. In our startup, we erred on the ignoring side. A lot of our energy got drained away in disputes with investors instead of going into the product. But this was less costly than giving in, which would probably have destroyed the company. If the founders know what they're doing, it's better to have half their attention focused on the product than the full attention of investors who don't.

How hard you have to work on managing investors usually depends on how much money you've taken. When you raise VC-scale money, the investors get a great deal of control. If they have a board majority, they're literally your bosses. In the more common case, where founders and investors are equally represented and the deciding vote is cast by neutral outside directors, all the investors have to do is convince the outside directors and they control the company.

If things go well, this shouldn't matter. So long as you seem to be advancing rapidly, most investors will leave you alone. But things don't always go smoothly in startups. Investors have made trouble even for the most successful companies. One of the most famous examples is Apple, whose board made a nearly fatal blunder in firing Steve Jobs. Apparently even Google got a lot of grief from their investors early on.

15. Sacrificing Users to (Supposed) Profit

When I said at the beginning that if you make something users want, you'll be fine, you may have noticed I didn't mention anything about having the right business model. That's not because making money is unimportant. I'm not suggesting that founders start companies with no chance of making money in the hope of unloading them before they tank. The reason we tell founders not to worry about the business model initially is that making something people want is so much harder.

I don't know why it's so hard to make something people want. It seems like it should be straightforward. But you can tell it must be hard by how few startups do it.

Because making something people want is so much harder than making money from it, you should leave business models for later, just as you'd leave some trivial but messy feature for version 2. In version 1, solve the core problem. And the core problem in a startup is how to create wealth (= how much people want something x the number who want it), not how to convert that wealth into money.

The companies that win are the ones that put users first. Google, for example. They made search work, then worried about how to make money from it. And yet some startup founders still think it's irresponsible not to focus on the business model from the beginning. They're often encouraged in this by investors whose experience comes from less malleable industries.

It is irresponsible not to think about business models. It's just ten times more irresponsible not to think about the product.

16. Not Wanting to Get Your Hands Dirty

Nearly all programmers would rather spend their time writing code and have someone else handle the messy business of extracting money from it. And not just the lazy ones. Larry and Sergey apparently felt this way too at first. After developing their new search algorithm, the first thing they tried was to get some other company to buy it.

Start a company? Yech. Most hackers would rather just have ideas. But as Larry and Sergey found, there's not much of a market for ideas. No one trusts an idea till you embody it in a product and use that to grow a user base. Then they'll pay big time.

Maybe this will change, but I doubt it will change much. There's nothing like users for convincing acquirers. It's not just that the risk is decreased. The acquirers are human, and they have a hard time paying a bunch of young guys millions of dollars just for being clever. When the idea is embodied in a company with a lot of users, they can tell themselves they're buying the users rather than the cleverness, and this is easier for them to swallow. [9]

If you're going to attract users, you'll probably have to get up from your computer and go find some. It's unpleasant work, but if you can make yourself do it you have a much greater chance of succeeding. In the first batch of startups we funded, in the summer of 2005, most of the founders spent all their time building their applications. But there was one who was away half the time talking to executives at cell phone companies, trying to arrange deals. Can you imagine anything more painful for a hacker? [10] But it paid off, because this startup seems the most successful of that group by an order of magnitude.

If you want to start a startup, you have to face the fact that you can't just hack. At least one hacker will have to spend some of the time doing business stuff.

17. Fights Between Founders

Fights between founders are surprisingly common. About 20% of the startups we've funded have had a founder leave. It happens so often that we've reversed our attitude to vesting. We still don't require it, but now we advise founders to vest so there will be an orderly way for people to quit.

A founder leaving doesn't necessarily kill a startup, though. Plenty of successful startups have had that happen. [11] Fortunately it's usually the least committed founder who leaves. If there are three founders and one who was lukewarm leaves, big deal. If you have two and one leaves, or a guy with critical technical skills leaves, that's more of a problem. But even that is survivable. Blogger got down to one person, and they bounced back.

Most of the disputes I've seen between founders could have been avoided if they'd been more careful about who they started a company with. Most disputes are not due to the situation but the people. Which means they're inevitable. And most founders who've been burned by such disputes probably had misgivings, which they suppressed, when they started the company. Don't suppress misgivings. It's much easier to fix problems before the company is started than after. So don't include your housemate in your startup because he'd feel left out otherwise. Don't start a company with someone you dislike because they have some skill you need and you worry you won't find anyone else. The people are the most important ingredient in a startup, so don't compromise there.

18. A Half-Hearted Effort

The failed startups you hear most about are the spectactular flameouts. Those are actually the elite of failures. The most common type is not the one that makes spectacular mistakes, but the one that doesn't do much of anything—the one we never even hear about, because it was some project a couple guys started on the side while working on their day jobs, but which never got anywhere and was gradually abandoned.

Statistically, if you want to avoid failure, it would seem like the most important thing is to quit your day job. Most founders of failed startups don't quit their day jobs, and most founders of successful ones do. If startup failure were a disease, the CDC would be issuing bulletins warning people to avoid day jobs.

Does that mean you should quit your day job? Not necessarily. I'm guessing here, but I'd guess that many of these would-be founders may not have the kind of determination it takes to start a company, and that in the back of their minds, they know it. The reason they don't invest more time in their startup is that they know it's a bad investment. [12]

I'd also guess there's some band of people who could have succeeded if they'd taken the leap and done it full-time, but didn't. I have no idea how wide this band is, but if the winner/borderline/hopeless progression has the sort of distribution you'd expect, the number of people who could have made it, if they'd quit their day job, is probably an order of magnitude larger than the number who do make it. [13]

If that's true, most startups that could succeed fail because the founders don't devote their whole efforts to them. That certainly accords with what I see out in the world. Most startups fail because they don't make something people want, and the reason most don't is that they don't try hard enough.

In other words, starting startups is just like everything else. The biggest mistake you can make is not to try hard enough. To the extent there's a secret to success, it's not to be in denial about that.

Notes

[1] This is not a complete list of the causes of failure, just those you can control. There are also several you can't, notably ineptitude and bad luck.

[2] Ironically, one variant of the Facebook that might work is a facebook exclusively for college students.

[3] Steve Jobs tried to motivate people by saying "Real artists ship." This is a fine sentence, but unfortunately not true. Many famous works of art are unfinished. It's true in fields that have hard deadlines, like architecture and filmmaking, but even there people tend to be tweaking stuff till it's yanked out of their hands.

[4] There's probably also a second factor: startup founders tend to be at the leading edge of technology, so problems they face are probably especially valuable.

[5] You should take more than you think you'll need, maybe 50% to 100% more, because software takes longer to write and deals longer to close than you expect.

[6] Since people sometimes call us VCs, I should add that we're not. VCs invest large amounts of other people's money. We invest small amounts of our own, like angel investors.

[7] Not linearly of course, or it would take forever to raise five million dollars. In practice it just feels like it takes forever.

Though if you include the cases where VCs don't invest, it would literally take forever in the median case. And maybe we should, because the danger of chasing large investments is not just that they take a long time. That's the best case. The real danger is that you'll expend a lot of time and get nothing.

[8] Some VCs will offer you an artificially low valuation to see if you have the balls to ask for more. It's lame that VCs play such games, but some do. If you're dealing with one of those you should push back on the valuation a bit.

[9] Suppose YouTube's founders had gone to Google in 2005 and told them "Google Video is badly designed. Give us $10 million and we'll tell you all the mistakes you made." They would have gotten the royal raspberry. Eighteen months later Google paid $1.6 billion for the same lesson, partly because they could then tell themselves that they were buying a phenomenon, or a community, or some vague thing like that.

I don't mean to be hard on Google. They did better than their competitors, who may have now missed the video boat entirely.

[10] Yes, actually: dealing with the government. But phone companies are up there.

[11] Many more than most people realize, because companies don't advertise this. Did you know Apple originally had three founders?

[12] I'm not dissing these people. I don't have the determination myself. I've twice come close to starting startups since Viaweb, and both times I bailed because I realized that without the spur of poverty I just wasn't willing to endure the stress of a startup.

[13] So how do you know whether you're in the category of people who should quit their day job, or the presumably larger one who shouldn't? I got to the point of saying that this was hard to judge for yourself and that you should seek outside advice, before realizing that that's what we do. We think of ourselves as investors, but viewed from the other direction Y Combinator is a service for advising people whether or not to quit their day job. We could be mistaken, and no doubt often are, but we do at least bet money on our conclusions.

Thanks to Sam Altman, Jessica Livingston, Greg McAdoo, and Robert Morris for reading drafts of this.

How to Choose a Health Insurance Plan

2006-11-17T10:55:00.000-08:00

These days, landing in the hospital for even a few days can decimate
your savings account. That's why it's extremely important to consider
the cost, the benefits, and the extent to which your family's health
needs are met when choosing insurance. Research the various plans
that are available, and determine how specifically tailored they are to
your family's health needs and financial abilities, to decide on a plan
that is best suited to your lifestyle.

Instructions

STEP 1: Sign on with the health insurance provided by your employer: It is likely to be the cheapest option you can find. Your employer's carrier may have more than one option for you to choose from (HMO, preferred). If you're self-employed or if your company doesn't offer insurance, you'll have to search for your own insurance.
STEP 2: Assess your needs, taking into account your current use of health care and your medical expenses for the near future, and decide what services are most important to you and your family. Ask about dependents' coverage. Factor in how much you can afford to spend on monthly premiums and co-payments. If you're single and healthy, your health plan needs will be very different from those of a family with three young children.
STEP 3: Compare benefits and coverage of key items like monthly premiums, deductibles, co-payments, co-insurance rates, costs for seeing out-of-network providers, preventive care, physical exams, immunizations and the like. Other services that are of interest to your family could include fertility services, mental health coverage, nursing care and long-term care.
STEP 4: Ask lots of questions: Are your current providers part of this plan? Do you need referrals for specialist visits? How easy is it to change doctors? What hospitals and facilities can you use as part of the plan? What are the procedures for having emergency room treatment approved?
STEP 5: Find out if benefits are limited for preexisting conditions, or if you have to wait for a period of time before you're fully covered. Some plans may completely exclude coverage of preexisting conditions.
STEP 6: Research whether there is a fair appeals process available if the company denies treatment, and if these appeals are reviewed by an external, independent agency. Is there a high turnover rate among doctors in the plan? Check if the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA.org) accredits the plan; the Pacific Business Group on Health (HealthScope.org) also offers information on health plans.
STEP 7: Pick a plan that best matches your needs and priorities based on thorough research. Read all materials and call the health plan representative or conduct Internet research to get any information you are missing. Discuss pre-existing conditions and flexspending plans before making a decision.
STEP 8: Investigate long-term care insurance. The rising cost of health care and elderly care can demolish your savings if you are incapacitated for long. The best time to buy it is when you hit your 40s.

Overall Tips & Warnings

If you're switching plans through your employer, ask when the next open enrollment period will occur. Give yourself at least two months in which to conduct and complete your research of health care options.
If your employer doesn't provide health insurance, investigate professional associations that offer members the opportunity to join a health plan.
Take into consideration any upcoming medical expenses, such as surgery, dental work or a new baby.
Take convenience into consideration: Will you have to file claim forms? How close are doctors, hospitals and pharmacies to your home? How often are you permitted to change doctors? Ask if a telephone nurse advice line is offered, particularly if you have young children who tend to get sick at odd hours.
Find out if the plan you're reviewing surveys its members to determine how satisfied they are with the services provided. If it does, ask for the information. See how member satisfaction rates. You should also take note of whether the plan offers a toll-free number for assistance. Test it out before you join.
Ask your primary care physician how easy it is to get referrals for specialists on certain plans. He or she can also tell you how easy it is to find a specialist, which hospitals and types of preventive care the plan covers, and what the claims and utilization review process is like.

7 Pains You Should Never Ignore

2006-11-17T06:52:00.000-08:00

These common aches could very well be nothing. Or something far, far worse

Most of the time, it's good that the little Vince Lombardi sitting on our shoulder tells us to shut up and play through the pain, otherwise we'd never get anything done. On the other hand, there are a few instances in which we can actually talk ourselves out of existence.
That's what happened to NBC reporter David Bloom. While covering the war in Iraq from his specially outfitted armored vehicle, he began to feel pain behind his knee. He reportedly sought out medical advice by satellite phone, decided not to follow the advice -- "Go to a doctor" -- popped a few aspirin, and kept right on going. Three days later, Bloom died of a pulmonary embolism caused by deep-vein thrombosis. He was 39.
The ache that Bloom blew off is one of seven pains that no man should ever ignore. And no, this isn't negotiable.

1. Sudden Groin Pain

Not as severe as a shot to the crotch, but pretty close. Sometimes accompanied by swelling.
The condition: Odds are it's something called testicular torsion. Normally, a man's testicles are attached to his body in two ways: by the spermatic cords, which run into the abdomen, and by fleshy anchors near the scrotum. But sometimes, in a relatively common congenital defect, these anchors are missing. This allows one of the spermatic cords to get twisted, which cuts off the flow of blood to the testicle. "If you catch it in 4 to 6 hours, you can usually save the testicle," says Jon Pryor, M.D., a urologist with the University of Minnesota. "But after 12 to 24 hours, you'll probably lose it." Another possible cause of the pain in your pants: an infection of the epididymis, your sperm-storage facility.
The diagnostics: A physical examination, possibly followed by an ultrasound. Antibiotics can stifle an infection. And if your testicles are doing the twist?
A surgeon will straighten the cord, then construct artificial anchors with a few stitches near the scrotum.

2. Severe Back Pain

Similar to the kind of agony you'd expect if you'd just tried to clean-and-jerk an armoire. The usual remedies -- heat, rest, OTC painkillers -- offer no relief.
The condition: "If it's not related to exercise, sudden severe back pain can be the sign of an aneurysm," says Sigfried Kra, M.D., an associate professor at the Yale school of medicine. Particularly troubling is the abdominal aneurysm, a dangerous weakening of the aorta just above the kidneys. But don't worry; eventually, the pain subsides -- right after your body's main artery bursts. A less threatening possibility: You have a kidney stone. More pain, but you'll only wish you were dead.
The diagnostics: A CT scan using intravenous radiopaque dye does the best job of revealing the size and shape of an aneurysm. Once its dimensions are determined, it'll be treated with blood-pressure medication or surgery to implant a synthetic graft.

3. Persistent Foot or Shin Pain

A nagging pain in the top of your foot or the front of your shin that's worse when you exercise, but present even at rest. It's impervious to ibuprofen and acetaminophen.
The condition: It's probably a stress fracture. Bones, like all the other tissues in your body, are continually regenerating themselves. "But if you're training so hard that the bone doesn't get a chance to heal itself, a stress fracture can develop," explains Andrew Feldman, M.D., the team physician for the New York Rangers. Eventually, the bone can be permanently weakened.
The diagnostics: Radioactive dye reveals the fracture in the x-ray, and you'll be told to stop all running until the crack heals. Worst case, you'll be in a cast for a few weeks.

4. Sharp Pain in the Abdomen

All the metaphors apply -- knife in the gut, bullet in the belly, skewer in the stomach -- except this attack is from within.
The condition: Take your pick. Since the area between your ribs and your hips is jam-packed with organs, the pain can be a symptom of either appendicitis, pancreatitis, or an inflamed gallbladder. In all three cases, the cause is the same: Something has blocked up the organ in question, resulting in a potentially fatal infection. Exploding organs can kill a guy. See a doctor before this happens.
The diagnostics: If the pain is in your lower-right abdomen and your white-blood-cell count is up, says Dr. Kra, it's probably appendicitis (out comes the appendix). Pain in your upper abdomen with high white blood cells usually spells an inflamed gallbladder (goodbye, gallbladder). And if it hurts below your breastbone and certain enzymes in the blood are elevated, then pancreatitis is probably the culprit. (The pancreas stays, but a gallstone may be blocking things up. If so, the stone and the gallbladder may have to come out.)

5. Transient Chest Pain

Not a type of pain that strikes only homeless people, but a heavy ache that comes on suddenly and then goes away just as quickly. Otherwise, you feel fine.
The condition: It could be indigestion. Or it could be a heart attack. "Even if it's very short in duration, it can be a sign of something serious," says John Stamatos, M.D., medical director of North Shore Pain Services in Long Island and author of Painbuster. Here's how serious: A blood clot may have lodged in a narrowed section of a coronary artery, completely cutting off the flow of blood to one section of your heart. How much wait-and-see time do you have? Really, none. Fifty percent of deaths from heart attacks occur within 3 to 4 hours of the first symptoms. You're literally living on borrowed time.
The diagnostics: A blood test checks for markers of damaged heart tissue. Treatment: angioplasty or bypass.

6. Leg Pain with Swelling

Specifically, one of your calves is killing you. It's swollen and tender to the touch, and may even feel warm, as if it's being slow-roasted from the inside out.
The condition: Just sit in one place for 6 or more hours straight and wait for the blood that pools in your lower legs to form a clot (a.k.a. deep-vein thrombosis, or DVT). Next thing you know, that clot will be big enough to block a vein in your calf, producing pain and swelling. Unfortunately, the first thing you'll probably want to do -- rub your leg -- is also the worst thing. "It can send a big clot running up to your lung, where it can kill you," warns Dr. Stamatos.
The diagnostics: A venogram, in which dye is injected into the vein and then x-rayed, is the definitive way to diagnose DVT. They'll try to dissolve the clot with drugs, or outfit vulnerable veins with filters to stop a clot before it stops you.

7. Painful Urination

Relieving yourself has become an exercise in expletives. Also, you could swear (and you do) that your yellow stream has a rusty tint.
The condition: Worst case? Bladder cancer, according to Joseph A. Smith, M.D., chairman of the department of urologic surgery at Vanderbilt University. The pain and the blood in your urine are symptoms of this, the fourth most common cancer in men. Smoking is the biggest risk factor. Catch the disease early, and there's a 90 percent chance of fixing it. Bladder infections share the same symptoms.
The diagnostics: It's a sick joke, but true nonetheless: They'll diagnose by process of elimination. Urinalysis first, to rule out bugs, followed by inserting a scope to look inside the bladder. A tumor will be treated with surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy.

What Are The Good BitTorrent Search Engines?

2006-10-30T06:46:00.000-08:00

As of October 30, 2006, the 5 Best Bit Torrent search engine sites are listed below. This list is selected from hundreds of reader votes, and voted on each week by a small panel of torrent download users.

The criteria used to evaluate these torrent sites: breadth and depth of database, database currency, ease of use and searching, speed of access, general integrity of files, information provided about the files, information provided on the torrent P2P community, price of membership, and readers' comments.
Warning: while P2P file sharing technology is completely legal, many of the files traded through P2P are copyrighted. Unless you live in Canada where citizens are shielded from P2P copyright lawsuits, then downloading P2P files may put you at risk for a civil lawsuit in any other country.

These lawsuits usually take the form of class-action suits, filed against groups of users who are logged as blatantly copying and distributing copyrighted materials. Recently, the MPAA and RIAA, along with the governments of England and Australia, took several thousand users to court, demanding that they pay thousands of dollars in copyright infringement penalties.

Your Internet Service Provider may, at their discretion, release their logs of your downloading activity to potential copyright plaintiffs. The more megabytes you download, the more you risk being sued by the MPAA, RIAA, and other pro-artist groups. Please keep this risk in mind before you use any of the following Torrent search engines below.

Torrentscan.com
(a search engine that searches torrent search engines)
Torrentspy
(Recently, this site went through a facelift, and it is winning over many new subscribers.)
Isohunt
(This Canadian database has managed to stave off the threat of one MPAA law suit. Alas, the site is now again being sued by the MPAA as of February, 2006. The site owner is a true libertarian, and needs financial help mounting a defense against the MPAA. Read the details at the Isohunt home page. This is an outstanding torrent database, and P2P users are cheering for its continued success and operations.)
The Pirate Bay
(Pirate Bay, by readership size, is the most popular torrent search site today. Like Isohunt, Pirate Bay has an immense database of the latest torrents.)

(May 31, 2006 update: The Pirate Bay has been temporarily shut down by Swedish authorities. Details are available on the Pirate Bay home page. This is a sad day for torrent users everywhere.)

(June 2006 update: The Pirate Bay has restarted operations, now that the police have duplicated the PB hard drives for forensic purposes. Enjoy this database while it is still around, folks!)
Torrentreactor.to
**Special Mention: Torrentportal
(Torrentportal has been recommended by many reader emails this May.)
**Special Mention: Seedler
(was a former member of this list, and has recently become a renewed reader favorite.)

Polyphasic sleep for dummies

2006-10-24T05:51:00.000-07:00

Some of the biological argument presented in this article may not be entirely suitable and convincing for teenagers, esp. those who slept polyphasically through their biology class. Let's then reword it all in baby language. Experience shows that "for dummies" sections are most popular and most effective in conveying the message. Disclaimer: the models presented below are used for illustration only and are a remote approximation of real processes occurring in sleep

Alarm clock is bad for you

A metaphor that may help you get some sense of what alarm clocks do to sleep is a comparison of NREM-REM cycles to your PC. During the day, while learning and experiencing new things, you store your new data in RAM memory. During the night, while first in NREM, you write the data down to the hard disk. During REM, which follows NREM in the night, you do the disk defragmentation, i.e. you organize data, sort them, build new connections, etc. Overnight, you repeat the write-and-defragment cycle until all RAM data is neatly written to the disk (for long-term use), and your RAM is clear and ready for a new day of learning. At waking up, you reboot the computer. If you reboot early with the use of an alarm clock, you often leave your disk fragmented. Your data access is slow, and your thinking is confused. Even worse, some of the data may not even get written to the disk. It is as if you have never stored it in RAM in the first place. In conclusion, if you use an alarm clock, you endanger your data. If you do not care about your intellectual performance, you may want to know that there are many biological reasons for which using alarm clocks is basically unhealthy. Those run beyond the scope of this article. Many people use alarm clocks and live. Yet this is not much different from smoking, abusing drugs, or indulging in fat-dripping pork. You may abuse your brain with alcohol for years, and still become president. Many of mankind's achievements required interrupted sleep. Many inventions were produced by sleepy brains. But nothing is able to change the future as much as a brain refreshed with a healthy dose of restful sleep.

You cannot sleep polyphasically without an alarm clock

Your whole sleep cycle can be explained with the clock and hourglass model. Deep in your brain, your body clock is running on a 24 hours cycle. Every 24 hours, the clock releases a sleepy potion that puts you to sleep. If you try to sleep at wrong hours, without the sleepy potion, you may find it very hard to fall asleep. All insomniacs suffers from the lack of sleepy potion. If they go to sleep too early, before they get their fix of sleepy potion, they will toss and turn. Often for hours. You need to listen to your body clock to know when it is the right moment to go to sleep.

Yet the sleepy potion produced by the body clock is not enough to put you to sleep. The brain also uses the hourglass of mental energy that gives you some time every day that you can devote to intellectual work. When you wake up, the hourglass is full and starts being emptied. With every waking moment, with everything your brain absorbs, with every mental effort, the hourglass is less and less full. Only when the hourglass of mental energy is empty, will you able to quickly fall asleep.

To get a good night sleep, you need to combine two factors:

your body clock must be saying "time to sleep"
your hourglass of power must be saying "no more mental work"

If your sleepy potion tries to put you to sleep but your hourglass is full, you will be very groggy, tired, but you will not fall asleep.

If, on the other hand, you try to sleep without the sleepy potion while the hourglass of power is empty, you may succeed, but you will wake up very fast with your hourglass full again. That will make sleeping again nearly impossible.

Insomniacs go to sleep before the body clock releases the sleepy potion. When you wake up early with an alarm clock, you can hardly get to your feet because your body is full of sleepy potion, which begs you to go back to sleep. When you are drowsy in the afternoon, your hourglass of mental power might be almost empty. A quick nap will then help you fill it up again and be very productive in the evening. If you drink coffee in the morning, it helps you charge the hourglass and add some extra mental energy. But coffee combined with the sleepy potion produce a poisonous mix that engulfs your brain in sickly miasma. If you try to drink coffee to stay up in the night, you will feel like a horse kicked you in the stomach. That's the acme of a criminal attack on your brain's health.

Here is why polyphasic sleep will never work naturally:

in the morning, if you are fresh and rested, your sleepy potion is cleared and your hourglass is full of mental energy, you are not likely to fall asleep. Trying to take a nap at that time is a waste of time. You will waste time for nap preparations. You will waste time trying to fall asleep
in the afternoon, if you hourglass is getting empty, you may be able to take a nap. That's ok. Your nap will be short because the sleepy potion is not there
in the evening, your sleepy potion is still not there. If you took an afternoon nap, your hourglass is almost full of energy. If you try to take another nap, you will be staring at the ceiling. You will waste your time again
in the night, your sleepy potion is released. Napping should be easy, but if you fall asleep, you will not wake up. Not naturally. You will need an alarm clock. You may manage to recharge your hourglass fast, but the sleepy potion will make you groggy and tired. You may need a double alarm or a loud alarm, or some help from your Mom (if she ever agreed to this polyphasic insanity). You will fight and struggle. You will never wake up naturally. Not while the sleepy potion is in action

If you decide to sleep polyphasically. You will have to use an alarm clock. Otherwise you will not wake up in the night. Once you use the alarm clock, you will be sleep deprived. That will make your hourglass conveniently drained of energy. Empty hourglass will make napping easier indeed. But it is the hourglass that determines your mental powers. With the hourglass empty, you will be nothing more than an empty-headed zombie.

To generate naps at equal intervals, you would have to kill the 24-h circadian component of sleepiness. You would have to kill your body clock, and prevent the release of the sleepy potion. That is not possible. The sleepy potion will be released every 24 hour and make you sleepy; however, much you fight it. The shortest natural night sleep rarely goes beneath 3 hours. Many biphasic sleepers can do well on 4 hours. Yet most adolescents may need 7 or 8 hours of night sleep to function optimally.

In healthy sleep, daytime naps are either impossible or very short. If you track your sleep with SleepChart freeware, you will see it on your own. You will see how naps tend to cluster at night time (which may be midday for you). That's exactly what polyphasic guru Dr Stampi observed with solo sailors. Remember, that for the picture to be true, you should avoid alarm clock, which naturally, is not possible in polyphasic sleep. Yet even on a forced schedule you will see regular patterns of naps being longer and more frequent at nighttime (each time your relax your discipline, oversleep, etc.). The daytime naps will be shorter, esp. at subjective evening hours (which may be midnight for you).

Body clock training has its limits

I hear it again and again that all biological reasoning is of no consequence because the body can always adapt to training and pressure, and that science has not yet studied successful polyphasic sleepers. Here is a reply based on the clock&hourglass model:

body clock is controlled by genes, and we do not know pharmacological factors that could significantly affect body clock period. Polyphasic sleep would require shortening the body clock period six-fold!
body clock phase can be shifted with light, activity, melatonin and other factors, but the length of the period in which sleepy potion is released is hard to control. Drugs can reduce the impact of sleepy potion, but this should be avoided, as this affects the sleep stage cycles (i.e. not all your PC data may get written to the hard disk and get defragmented)
the speed with which the hourglass of energy is emptied can be affected by drugs (e.g. caffeine); however, faster hourglass would produce more sleep (instead of less), while slower hourglass would make multiple naps even less possible
science have not studied successful polyphasic sleepers because they do not exist (although there are as many claimants to the title as there are UFO spotters)
polyphasic sleep in laboratory conditions is possible if the alarm clock is used to interrupt natural sleep. Entrained free-running polyphasic sleep is not possible in healthy individuals

Summary

Healthy body clock runs a 24 hour cycle. This cycle will make you sleepy during the subjective night (which can be midday too). This is why you won't be able to wake up from your nap in your subjective night without an alarm clock. Alarm clocks are unhealthy. They prevent sleep from fulfilling its function. The choice is yours: either (1) sleep polyphasically or (2) sleep naturally and let your brain develop its full intellectual potential.

If someone tells you he is doing naps every four hours, and that the naps last 20 min. and that he wakes up naturally, you can safely fire back: "I have seen Loch Ness monster too". That will bring it home.

Disclaimer: before you offend anyone, be sure you are not dealing with someone who is affected by a sleep disorder. For example, narcoleptics fall asleep many times during a day. But that is a result of a damage to their sleep control system. It is a disease and it badly affects their productivity and their life. Narcoleptics are always sleepy.

Top 10 Headphones Reviewed

2006-10-04T04:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a list I have compiled of headphones that I have used over the past two years. I have owned at one point or another all of these headphones at one time. As most web designers know it is very very important to have good headphones seeing as more often than not it’s just you and your laptop plugging away with html, php, flash, etc. So without further adieu here is what I have experienced with each of these bad boys.

Bose Triport

Price: $149.99

I’ll confess when I first saw these headphones I thought, how could these cone looking headphones produce good sound at all. However, I decided against my first instinct and bought a pair. Along with being Bose, as most audio gurus will tell you is slightly overrated in terms of sound, I had my own doubts. However I was pleasantly surprised. First off they are ultra comfortable on your ears because they are so lightweight and the padding they use is soft and not too suction-like. Secondly, unless you have unusually large ears, they earphones should fit around your entire ear which blocks out quite a bit of sound and produces very good sound quality.

Sound Quality:

On the Alicia Keys song that I used, if you’ve never heard her sing she has a very rich voice that covers a tremendous range, these headphones performed excellent against her raspy voice, trebles were good, bass was good, mid-range was sweet sounding. I’d say you can’t go wrong with these headphones at all.

Cons:

If I had to point out one design flaw with these headphones I would say that the plastic ring connecting the two earphones is not extremely durable. Bose did make an improvement over their first Triport which just had cheapo plastic, and added a nice neoprene sleeve over this new edition Triport which gives a more quality feel and increases durability.

Dorkiness Factor:

I’m not sure these headphones would exactly get you girls but you won’t be made fun of either. I mean if Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat can sport them on national TV why can’t you (oh, wait I’m not in the NBA and shoot I’m not famous either, crud).

Recommendation:

For all the reasons I listed above, I do believe that for the money these are a great pick and you can’t go wrong with these headphones. If you want to be blown away with the sound I’d recommend listening to Brian McKnight with this pair of phones.

Bang & Olufson A8

Price: $159.99

Perhaps my favourite headphones of all time these are the perfect low profile headphones that fit easily into your pocket with amazing sound quality. Trust me I’ve owned all of these headphones and this one is by far the one I would take with me if I could only take one. The best song to listen to with these headphones is “The Blower’s Daughter” by Damien Rice, first of all this song is one of the best songs of all time, second you can even hear the background studio noise because the headphones are THAT good. I would venture to say that Bang & Olufson makes the best sounding headphones. If they ever came out with a noice canceling headphone it would blow the water out of everything out in the industry right now.

Durability:

I’d say they are more durable than most headphones because of the metaal earbands with the rubber lining. The only problem that I have had with them is I once dropped them in water and they stopped working for awhile, so as long as you don’t do something like that I think you’ll be fine.

Design Aesthetics:

The A8’s are low profile so no worries there. I’d say the only time I felt most like a dork was when I kept telling people to listen to my headphones and compare them to their stock ipod headphones.

Recommendation:

One of the two pairs of headphones that I use pretty much everyday, the A8’s are perfect for my walk to work (through downtown San Francisco) and are perform just as well at home. If you want a high performing, great sounding, durable campanion to your IPOD I would get these hand’s down.

Bose Quiet Comfort 2 - Acoustic Noice Canceling

Price: $349.99

Before I go onto my review of these headphones and everyone goes on to talk about how great these headphones are I must say that I too think they are GOOD headphones as well. Here is a statement that I’ll standby 100%, the Bose Triports that only cost half the price of the Quiet Comforts have a much better sound than these headphones. Most people will contest that these phones sound better but the way to actually test the sound quality is to sit in a quiet place and listen to both the Triports and the Quiet Comforts, the difference is staggering. From the trebles to the bass the Triport is just able to produce a crisper sound, you can just feel the singer’s voice and the vebratto.

Durabilty:

These headphones will stand the test of time. They are much better constructed than the triports and will be able to take a beating. The head band that connects the two earphones is about 3/4 of an inch wide and very very durable, you definitely get the same tough/industrial feel that you get with the Sony DJ headphones reviewed here as well. The only part you will be changing out is the batteries most likely.

Sound Quality:

As discussed before, for the price, the sound quality is a bit lower than expected. I believe that people often confuse good quality sound with the noise canceling that the Quiet Comforts provides. The Quiet Comforts do provide excellent noise canceling, I can testify to this, as I wore them on an airplan and couldn’t hear the engine or that typical airplane buzz at all. If I were looking into the market to buy a pair of noise canceling headphones I would definitely go with these bad boys.

Recommendation:

Don’t get me wrong I like these headphones for noise canceling I just have a hard time recommending the Quiet Comforts just based on sound quality. I would say if you are traveling in airplanes, trains, or on a whole in noisy environments a lot then these are actually really good headphones to buy because of their effectiveness blocking out sound. I would say if you are a consultant that hops on a plane more more than 4x a month this would be my pick for headphones.

Shure E3C - Sound Isolating

Price: $179.99

The two pairs of in-ear headphones that I bought were the Shure E3C’s and the Ultimate Ear super.fi 5 Pro’s and though I don’t like to bash another product I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that the Ultimate Ear’s and miles better than the Shure’s. There is definitely a reason that 90% of the professional music community uses the Ultimate Ear headphones. Though I’m not a huge fan of in-ear headphones if I had to recommend a pair of headphones it would be the Ultimate Ears. Ok, ok but this is a review of the Shure E3C’s, they are cheap. Quite simply, these headphones, at the E3C level, are Sony Fontopia’s for a higher price with a better in ear foam bud, and I might argue that the Fontopias are better. I once again used the Alicia Key’s song “If I ain’t got you” as a good song to test these headphones out. What I found was that the when her pitch got higher the E3C’s sounded very tinny and almost hurt my ear from the badly balanced treble. I chose a song with a lot of range because on a whole it is unfair to judge in-ear headphones on their bass performance, it’s just not going to be there with any of them.

Recommendation:

If you work out don’t buy these headphones. The main reason I say this is because when you’re running if you hit that wire at all it will reverberate back into your headphones and will be very disturbing. Though this is true with most in-ear headphones, in fact if you’re working out just buy cheapo headphones or if you want better sound go buy the Bang and Olufson’s they will work perfect. In fact I can’t recommend these headphones at all in light that the Ultimate Ears are available and are exponentially better in my opinion.

Sony MDR-EX71SL Fontopia Headphones

Price: $49.99

If you’re looking for the most bang out of your buck and a good trooper of a pair of headphones these are it. For in-ear headphones they are very good. These headphones aren’t tinny and handle bass very well when I tried playing some 50 cent on them while working out. Probably the second most important characteristic about in-ear headphones asides from sound quality is the foam earbuds that come with the earphones. The Sony Fontopia’s come with 6 pairs and they should fit most people’s ears comfortably, if you can handle in-ear headphones without headaches. Sidenote: check to make sure that you can handle in-ear headphones before you buy them, it is a very different feel than regular headphones you may be used to. Most people that don’t like in-ear headphones either get headaches when they wear them or the ear foam buds don’t fit in their ears.

Recommedation:

Buy if you are looking for those headphones to get your from point A to point B. Perfect for the train ride commute that is less than an hour. Don’t buy if you are planning on using these guys for hours on end while doing homework or web designing it’ll give you a headache or your ears will start throbbing…ok yours might not but mine did. This isn’t a Fontopia thing, it’s an in-ear headphone thing, though like I said in-ear works for some people just not me and I’ve owned some pretty good in-ear phones which right now my sister is enjoying (she loves in-ear headphones and CAN wear them for hours on end). Good buy if you like in-ear headphones, not super expensive and provide good value.

Sony MDR-700DJ Studio Monitor Series

Price: $149.99

This is a pair of headphones I hold near and dear to my heart. Always by my side, the MDR DJ700’s were made famous by the 1000’s of DJ’s that swear by these headphones. Don’t believe me, go out this weekend to your nearby club and see what headphones the DJ is sporting, it’s the 700’s guarnteed. These headphones are quite simply a perfect balance of sound quality, durability, design aesthetics, comfort, and overall feel.

Sound Quality:

This time I gave these headphones the full test. When I first bought these headphones it was because of the incredible hype around them that existed, but still I waited awhile, a long while. Finally after a particular hard day at work I broke down and ordered them off of Amazon ($83 bucks right now) and I wasn’t disappointed. The sound is incredibly rich. When I say rich I mean the bass is complete, soft when the drums are lower, crisp when it’s a cymbol, just nice and balanced. You will never flinch because the sound is too high-pitched or uncomfortable with these phones. I guess I can’t say more than these headphones are just balanced, however if you do buy them make sure to use the extra adapter and listen to them through your receiver. Oh, now that is amazing, the extra power that using the 8mm brings is such off the hook.

Durability:

By far the most durable of all the headphones reviewed. Double enforced head band, metal components, half the reason that DJ’s use these headphones is because they are soo durable. You can throw them around (did that), sit on them (that too), and overall do everything you aren’t supposed to do to them and they will keep on ticking.

Recommedation:

For anyone that will be listening to music for longer than an hour at a time. That’s calling all you engineering students out there, web designers, programmers, and anyone else that spends more time on their computer than they should. As far as design aesthetics these headphones are beautiful, we’re talking the Jessica Alba of headphones. I know that there are now more expensive new generations of this headphones and better DJ headphones out there, but there is a reason these headphones have become a classic.

Ultimate Ears super.fi 5 Pro

Price: $249.99

Best in-ear quality headphone brand out there. Great fit with the foam pads (very important with in-ear headphones), great sound quality. I love the range of the super.fi 5 Pro’s and would definitley recommend giving a bit more money to but this version over the cheaper version. I know easier said than done, I had to skip a few meals and eat to ramen for the month of September, but I can now say it was worth it. Ultimate Ears was a brand started by a sound engineer in the music industry and it shows in pretty much the entire product. If you are into heavy bass or trebles these headphones will cover the range of music easily and well. To test the bass out I listened to a lot of down tempo, drum and bass, stuff and can say I could easily pick out snare drums and different bass drums. Surprisingly, also, after wearing these headphones I didn’t have a headaches because the fit with the foam pads was so secure.

Recommendation:

Yep, I recommend these headphones as an alternative to noise canceling headphones and as the best in-ear headphones around for the money. If you are debating between Shure and Ultimate Ears I would recommend the super.fi Pro 5’s, or just Ultimate Ears in general.

Apple In-Ear Headphones

Price: $39.00

Don’t buy these headphones. Ok now that I’ve gotten that out of the way let me tell you why. I bought these headphones so that I could use them to work out but they performed so terribly that I had to return them the day after. First off the ear buds don’t fit correctly, and though I did manage to get them to fit for a second of two they will definitely fall out during a short run. In addition the sound quality is no better than your typical Apple Ipod stock headphones and realistically I wouldn’t even accept these headphones as a gift.

Bang and Olufson Form 2

Price: $99.99

Aesthetically I’m not sure about these headphones at al as they are black and someone spaceship like, however musically they perform very well. Since you can try these out at the apple store, to test the sound quality, I would first listen to the Alicia Keys song “If I ain’t got you” any of the other headphones and then listen to these headphones. Eventhough they may not block out the sound very well because of their ear phone design the quality is top notch.

Recommendation:

I’m not sure I can recommend this as a buy because for $100 this is a bit over priced. I see this pair of headphones as a tweener between a really good pair of headphones and your stock headphones. I would suggest you save your money and buy the Bang and Olufson A8’s or the Bose Triport’s if you are thinking of spending this kind of money on headphones.

Apple Ipod Ear Phones

Price: $29.00

The stock ear phones that come with ipod are actually probably the best stock ear phones that you will ever get. They are stylish durable, produce decent sound, and overall are a good pair of headphones if you don’t want to spend anymore money. They will however not block out any sound and if you do ride the train or are in an airplane your music will be competing with the outside noise and airplane engine.

And that concludes my headphone review (I swear I thought this article would never end, I just about wore out my keyboard). If you found this article helpful I’d be much appreciated if you would digg this article.

Getting Your Pirated Films to Your Living Room

2006-09-27T09:46:00.000-07:00

Written by Karl Bode

As we mentioned Monday, there's a push from hardware vendors like Netgear & D-Link to provide consumers with devices that can stream the content they've downloaded from their PC to their living room, stunted in part by the delay of getting the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard to market. Apple meanwhile promises their iTV service will do the same thing starting in 2007, and Microsoft offers their solution now with their Xbox 360 Media Extender. There's obviously a slew of home-brew options available as well, from modding a first-gen Xbox to MythTV - but the real money will be made by offering a simple device aimed at Joe User.

However thanks to DRM and other industry fears there remains disconnects when it comes to how well many of these mainstream solutions work. Netgear and D-Link's solutions still use 802.11g, making them impractical for users who move a high-volume of high definition content. Microsoft's solution requires the purchase of an Xbox360; impractical for non-gamers. Apple hopes to grab the common man's attention in this market.

But telcos, cable providers, and DBS providers are getting into the game as well, and probably have the best shot at cornering the market, provided they don't shoot themselves in the foot by offering crippled units. Over the next several years AT&T users will get either U-Verse IPTV service or the hybrid DSL/DBS Homezone device. Verizon recently unveiled their multi-room DVR, which the company promises will someday allow the transmission of media from PC to living room.

Now today we're noticing that DirecTV is teaming up with Intel to create the "DirecTV Plus HD DVR" (not to be confused with the new HR20-250), a device that will tie your DirecTV service to a Viiv enabled PC. The company announced yesterday that software updates will turn existing DVRs into digital media adapters. This is coming from a company that for the longest time has forced users to update their DVRs via copper phone line, instead of letting them simply use the included ethernet jack.

The question with all of these services is just how locked down they'll be as the companies struggle with digital rights management. Will customers only be able to view DRM'd content? Will the units allow customers to browse all Internet content freely, or only content from marketing partners (the current case with AT&T's Homezone)? The simplest solution, offering the greatest freedom to consumers, will obviously bring home the mainstream streaming crown. What's your preferred solution?

46 Things I Wish My Mom Taught Me About Money

2006-09-27T08:04:00.000-07:00

By Lisa Laprade

Back in the day when I was growing up, my mom taught me all of those
little things that any young lady should know: How to sew a button on a
shirt, knit a scarf, clean a house from top to bottom, and so on. I
thought she had covered everything, but she left out two things that
ended up being of great importance- cooking and money.

As I approach 40, I still can’t make my way around a kitchen, but I did teach myself to make a mean macaroni and cheese, as well as quite a bit about money and finance. Personal finance can sometimes seem maddingly complex, but it doesn't have to be; knowledge of some basic principles will make your life much, much easier.

The Very Basics

Spend Less than You Earn.
This may seem like a bit of common sense to many, but it really is an issue when it comes to trying to save money. The term “Champagne Taste on a Beer Budget” comes from this area of finances, as there are hundreds of thousands of folks that just spend way more money than they bring in, with the help of credit cards, car payments and other personal loans from financial institutions that see you as nothing more than a dollar sign. Cutting spending habits and/or aiming for a large pay increase are the only two options available to help you.

Pay Yourself First.
Financial expert David Bach, author of Start Late, Finish Rich tells everyone to throw out the dreaded “family budget” for this simple reason: It doesn’t work- if it did we’d all be doing it and we’d all be rich. According to Bach, as long we all save a percentage of our pay each month, what the rest is spent on really doesn’t matter. If you “Pay Yourself First”, meaning that before you sit down to pay your monthly expenses, pay yourself in savings/retirement the equivalent of one hour per work-day (or 12.5%) before anything else.

Buying a House/Mortgages

Get Pre-Approved for a Mortgage before You Begin House Hunting.

When you put in a bid on a house, the seller looks at more than the amount you are willing to pay. The seller will give more consideration to a lower bid amount that is already pre-approved by the bank than a higher bid without definite financial backing.

Pay Your Mortgage First. Sure, your credit can go through the
ringer, but you’ll at least have a roof over your head. Many
first-time buyer programs require you to attend classes taught by
financial experts, and this is one of the first things they will tell
you.

Always Try to Pay More than the Minimum Mortgage Payment.
By paying one additional principle and interest payment (mortgage payment minus any escrow payments) onto your mortgage balance each year, you will knock 7 years off the life of your note. It all adds up- to a lot!

Credit & Debt

Don’t Try to Keep Up with the Joneses.
Yes, the Joneses next door might have a colossal house, landscaped backyard with a kidney-shaped, in ground pool and two 9-series BMW’s parked in the driveway, but they also might have $40,000 in credit card debt and owe on their three cars. Giving into social pressures as an excuse to buy elaborate items is nothing short of silly.

Pay Off Credit Cards Before Other Debts.

The world of compounded interest is alive and well within the credit card industries. While these companies love it when you only pay the minimum, paying a more than the minimum, no matter how much, is better than nothing at all.

Know that Credit Scores Affect More Than Interest Rates.
If your score is less than 620, not only will you pay significantly more money for mortgages and other types of loans, but also more for your insurances. Your car, life and auto policy premiums will all reflect your credit. An adverse score may also keep you from leasing an apartment, or getting your dream job.

Keep Credit Card Balances Below Half of the Credit Limit.

Credit cards below the 50% mark create higher marks on credit reports than those past the half waypoint of the limit. Continuously “maxing-out” you credit cards is considered to be almost as bad as a few late payments.

Always Pay Credit Card Bills on Time.
Not only will you have to pay a late fee (as much as $35) for not making your credit card payment on time, but that new fee could put you over your credit limit, which would, in turn, warrant another fee added to your balance. And don’t forget that your interest rate will most likely increase after all of these tiny instances, which will take it even harder for you to get rid of the balance.

Education

Community College Credits Transfer to Big-Name, 4-Year Universities.
By hitting the college books at a close to home locale, not only are you saving money on the courses, you’re saving a bundle on room & board. After an associate degree is attained from your local CC, transfer the credits to your dream school- your bachelors degree will contain the name of your beloved higher learning institute, and you’ll have saved over $50,000.

Take Advantage of National College Savings Programs for FREE Money.
U-Promise, among others, is a medium between corporate moneymakers looking for tax breaks and you, the consumer looking for ways to save money for college for yourself or your kids. Take advantage of it, but don’t be sucked into buying items that you won’t use, don’t need, or are more expensive than you normally buy. If you habitually buy the soda brand that’s on sale at the supermarket, don’t not-buy it because of the U-Promise tag- it’s just not worth it.

General Spending

Avoid the 20% “Fool’s Tax”- Don’t Buy a Brand New Vehicle.
As soon as you drive a brand new vehicle off the lot, it’s value drops 10-15%. Depending on the make and model of the car, the depreciation will continue to drop an additional 10% by year’s end and each year after for the next two years. By purchasing a previously owned or leased vehicle either a year or two old, you’ll still have a quality auto with available warranty while letting someone else take the major financial hit.

Buy Certain Everyday Items Used.

DVD’s, CD’s, books and sports equipment can each cost significantly less bought used than if purchased new. If you don’t have a good used book or CD shop nearby, there are thousands of them on the Internet. Of course, you’ll need to calculate shipping and handling into the price to be sure if you’re truly saving money.

Don't Waste Too Much Time with Coupons.
Take, for example, coupons. Although these little slips of paper can add up to save you a few dollars a week (ever more if you shop at a store that offers “double coupons”), ask yourself a few questions before busting out the scissors. First, do you need it? Second, is it something that you and/or your family will use? Thirdly, is there a comparable item, possibly generic, that’s cheaper without the coupon? If you were planning on buying an item and have a coupon, great! But if not, don’t even bother- it’s money spent on something you don’t need, which is considered to be a waste.

If you NEED to Buy Designer Clothes, Buy them Second Hand.

Clothes do not increase in value, no matter what anyone tells you. The only millionaires that sport the brand name gear are those who designed it. Celebrities and those in the public eye that are wearing a particular name across their chest are being paid to do so and more than likely received the clothing for free. The designers are hoping that you’ll see your favorite star in their brand and run out and buy some for yourself.

Always Shop Off-Season.
When you want a new patio set, buy it towards the end of the summer (after the 4th of July) and you’ll pay roughly half of what you would have at the beginning of the season. The same goes for clothes and shoes, including for the kids. By stocking up during clearance time, you can save yourself a bundle of cash over purchases at peak times.

Health

Don’t Skimp on Healthcare.
Of all the ways to save money on monthly expenses, cutting your healthcare is the worst idea. Saving a few hundred dollars a year is hardly worth having to pay $50,000 in medical bills a few years down the road.

Prescription Coverage Is a Must.
Even if your doctor has given you a clean bill of health, you just don’t know what could happen- and with the rising costs of medicine, you very well be stuck with $200 of necessary meds at any given moment.

Insurance (Auto & Homeowners)

Ask for Discounts.
Many insurers won’t volunteer discounts like multi-policy, safe driver and good-grade deductions on your premium, but will be “reminded” when you mention it, so don’t be afraid to ask.

Don’t File Small Claims on your Homeowners or Auto Insurance Policy.
Too many small claims on a policy (at or slightly above the deductible) will send up a red flag to your insurer- when renewal time comes around, you might just get a cancellation notice in the mail.

Higher Deductibles on Home and Auto Policies are Usually a Good Idea.
You want to try to save these types of insurance for the “big stuff” like a fire (on either), not a smashed window that will cost less to repair than your deductible (see previous entry). You can figure on about a 25% savings when raising your deductible from $500 to $1,000.

Shop Around for New Auto and Homeowner Insurance Every 3 Years.
Your car is getting older, so the cost to replace it is dropping. Ergo, some parts of your insurance premium should be dropping to coincide. However, some insurers don’t look at it this way and insist on increasing your premium. Shopping around for a new insurance company and policy from a fresh-eyed agent might just yield a lower payment for you.

Investing

Don’t Even Bother Trying to Pick and Choose Stocks.

Picking stocks for the sake of picking stocks is a poor investment decision, to say the least, as 80% of fund managers can't beat the S&P after expenses. If you’re going to buy into funds, you need to keep the costs low from every possible angle. Warren Buffet, investment guru, suggests ETFs and index funds to individual investors wanting to maximize their money.

Keep Some of Your Investments in Liquid Assets.
You’re going to need to keep some of your investments somewhat close to home in case of an emergency, like in a Certificate of Deposit or other no-risk investment.

Check out Commission Rates for Potential Financial Advisors.
Some financial products out there come with high costs and commissions- paid by you, the investor, to the fast talking advisors who sell them. The high commissions involved can unfortunately steer some advisors to sell some unworthy products, leaving you, the investor, alone and out in the cold. Ideally, you don't pay a commission to a financial advisor, at all; instead, hire for a fee-only planner.

If You Don’t Understand an Investment Product, Avoid It.

Not understanding where your money is going to go doesn’t mean that you’re stupid. Don’t try and act like you know what’s going on when you really don’t; in the end, you could lose money-and then you’ll be stupid.

There’s a Big Difference between Saving and Investing.
While saving money is something that should be done regardless (rainy day savings, retirement, etc.), investing should be done when you are relatively debt-free, especially when it comes to credit card debt. The 18% annual interest paid by you on credit card balances will be hardly made up for in any investment opportunity.

Life Insurance

When Applying for Life Insurance, Answer all Questions Honestly.

Paying a bit more now to accommodate for your skydiving hobby is much better than having your family’s claim on your policy denied when your chute doesn’t open.

Buy Life Insurance with the Hopes of Never Using it
Life insurance should be purchased to help care for your dependants in the unfortunate event of your untimely passing- and that’s all. Mortgage payments, groceries and a college fund should be the goals, not making your family millionaires.

Keep Life Insurance and Investments Separate
The commissions and fees for “Whole Life” life insurance policies can rack up quickly- and guess who’s paying for it? (Hint: It’s not the insurer). Buy yourself about 5 years salary worth of term-life insurance and take the difference from what you would have paid for a whole policy and invest it into some index funds or ETFs.

Loans & Borrowing Money

Shop Around for the Best Interest Rates and Terms.
Not all financial institutions are created equal, and no two offer the same rates and terms on similar loans.

Never, Ever, Under Any Circumstances Take a Cash Advance on a Credit Card.

Not only will you pay a ridiculous interest rate on the cash you withdraw, you’ll pay fees- and interest on those fees- for the remaining years on your new, giant–sized, credit card balance.

Stay Away from Cash Advances/Payday Loans.
At a national average fee of $18 per $100 borrowed for each 2 week period , the annual interest rate calculates well into the triple digits. To put it another way: it’s cheaper to borrow money from the Mafia.

Retirement

Don’t Count on Social Security.

By the time the tail-end of the baby-boomers retire in about 25 years (the last of this generation was born in 1968), there isn’t a very good chance that social security will be paying out as much as we have paid in. A solid back-up plan, like a tax-deferred IRA or 401K will help to keep you from living in a shelter.

If Your Employer Matches 401K Invesments, Absolutely Get the Entire Match.
This is FREE money that your employer is giving to you towards your retirement, but they won’t give a dime out until they see you putting money in it, too. Plus, 401K paycheck deductions are usually pre-tax, so you're getting even more free money. And you can raid this money before retirement, without penalty, when you buy your first house.

Getting a Part-time Job for Retirement Helps More than Your Finances.

Besides the fact that you can make up to $17,000 per year without having your Social Security check docked, getting out and earning an income, seeing people each day and basically being a money-making member of society will help your health, happiness and well being (in addition to your wallet!)

Don’t Cash Out Your 401K When You Change Jobs.
No matter how tempting it may be to pay off that credit card balance or car loan, you need to pretend that your hard-earned, 401K-money was never yours to begin with. Otherwise, be prepared to pay heavy taxes and penalties, and work until your dying day.

The Feds Give Tax- Breaks for Retirements Savers. The amount that you put away for retirement in an IRA is tax deferred up to a certain amount each year. This means that your money is “hidden” from taxes on your annual income-for now, anyways. You pay the taxes on any money withdrawn from the account only when you retire- and by then your tax rate will probably be minimal, anyway.

Savings

Saving Money is a Positive Habit, not a Negative Burden. Parents who save money have children who save money, as long as the parents make a positive impression when it comes to the savings part. A habit can also be considered an addiction-and an addiction to watching your hard-earned money grow is not a bad one, either ;-)

Save 10 Cents From Every Dollar you Make.

The 10% rule has been around since my mom’s mom, I think that it was just misplaced along the way. If I would have saved just 10 cents from every dollar that I ever made, well…wow.

Always have an Emergency Fund Available Equal to 3 Months Pay.
Just in case of illness, auto accident or you’re the victim of corporate downsizing, the 3 month rule should be enough for you to get through without having to dip into any long-term investments.

Taxes

Get Receipts for All Charitable Donations.

Tax deductions come in many shapes and sizes, but none quite as comforting as the one you get for charitable donations. When you head out to donate your used clothing, furniture and knick-knacks, bring them inside of the building and ask for a receipt. Keep all donation receipts together, make sure they total over $500- (anything under that doesn’t require receipts) and come April, you’ll have an extra tax deduction.

Keep a Travel Log of All Work-Related Miles Driven in Your Car.
Any mileage traveled for work-related purposes above and beyond what you normally travel is eligible for a tax deduction. If you normally travel 30 miles each way to work, and a meeting takes you 50 miles away from home, you can deduct the difference in mileage, or 50 miles-30 miles= 20 miles.

If You're in a Serious Pinch: For a Fee, the IRS will “Finance” Your Tax Bill.

Although it’s not the greatest option, it is one if you’re in a financial bind on April 15. By contacting the IRS with a written plan (like $100 monthly until your debt is settled), it will still cost you some serious fees, penalties and interest, but at least you won’t have the feds knocking down your door.

One Final Tip

Money is Important, but It Ain’t Everything. Health and happiness are the most important things in life, but that doesn’t mean that you should be foolish with your money. Fighting and worrying about money aren’t going to solve any problems and could, in fact, destroy your health and happiness. A bit of planning, a common goal and some serious focus will help lay the building blocks for a strong and sturdy financial future.

Top 10 Ways to Earn with Google Adsense without Creating Your Own Site

2006-09-26T06:44:00.000-07:00

List of websites where you can display your Google AdSense ads
If you don’t have a blog or website to use adsense ads and earn revenue , no need to build one. There are many services that share 100% adsense earnings with users.This is a list of sites where AdSense publisher can use their own AdSense IDs to earn money.

1. Simpy

Simpy is a social bookmarking site.

Simpy has support for Google AdSense as a third party. Each Simpy member has his/her main page on Simpy (e.g. jaleel77 ). Every Simpy member can now enter his/her Google AdSense Id into Simpy, and his/her page will immediately start showing ads with his/her Id. All earnings from such ads go to members, as their Ids are used to display ads .

2. Digital Point Forums

Digital Point Forums is a forum site for webmasters.

This forum displays one advertisement in the upper right area as well is inline when viewing a thread. We use Google AdSense to automatically serve relevant ads for the content on the page. Google pays AdSense publishers on a per click basis as well as per impression.

If a user has an AdSense account, they have the ability to credit their account with the ads served on threads they start or participate in.

3. ArticleMuse

Articlemuse.com is a news article directory.

Sharing Ads Position: The Google Ads beside the main content of the article.
Sharing Ratio: Your ads will be displayed in any articles you have submitted 100% of the time till the end of 2006!

4. XpressIdeas

Xpress Ideas is an article directory.

If you have a Google Adsense ID, you can enter that ID when you register on the site. The Google Ads in the middle of the article will have YOUR Google Adsense ID in, meaning that if anybody who clicks on those ads, even on OUR site, YOU get the revenue!

5. Cybersist

Cybersist is place to share your photos and blog, free webmail, file storage and more.

Your Google ads will be displayed in 7 different locations on your public blog and photo pages. Those ads are specifically optimized to allow better penetration of the ads. Any click on those ads will generate a revenue for you through AdSense.

6. TagTooga

TagTooga is a free directory that anyone can edit.

It is easy to use TagTooga.com to earn advertising revenue. There are two ways to do it:

(1) Link to TagTooga.com. Traffic sent from your link will display Google Ads using your Adsense ID.

(2) Create your own category/tag pages.

7. ForuMatrix

ForuMatrix is a news posting site.

The posts you will make, will display 100% your Adsense Banner. No time limits or banner rotations. It’s simple, your Posts with your banners always

8. Flixya

Flixya is a video sharing site.

Start sharing your videos from Youtube, Google Video, Daily Motion, and other video sharing sites. Our revenue share program is split 50-50. You will make 50% of the Google Adsense revenue generated by the videos you submit. The more traffic your video drives, the more ads will be displayed, and the more money you will make.

9. Swicki

Swicki is a site that allows you to create custom searches

After you have saved your ad program preferences, ads will immediately begin appearing on your swicki’s results pages.
For each active ad program on your swicki, you’ll be credited with 50% of the ad impressions and clicks. The balance will be credited to Eurekster.

10. Senserly

Senserly.com is a content hosting website

Senserely.com is to provide a place for honest Google AdSense publishers to legitimately increase their daily earnings. As soon as you register, this basically becomes your website, with your AdSense blocks displayed next to your content, and you'll be able to write articles, reviews, and stories about your knowledge and experience with AdSense or any topic you feel confortable with, as well as read, ask questions, and exchange information with other AdSense publishers.

A faster Windows XP? Here’s how!

2006-09-20T09:21:00.000-07:00

A recent study of our team on how to better our Windows XP systems comissioned to create an eBook on the subject for the main team at MPortela led us to investigate a countless number of details on how to better your performance and machine.

Some of the working tweaks you can do to your Windows XP can really be a blessing to your system’s speed. So I thought about sharing with you the safe tweaks on how to have a faster Windows XP. As a disclaimer do the following tweaks at your own risk, however they were all tested and are in use by most of our team members and friends.

A. DISABLE INDEXING SERVICES

Indexing Services is a small little program that uses large amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This system process indexes and updates lists of all the files that are on your computer. It does this so that when you do a search for something on your computer, it will search faster by scanning the index lists. If you don’t search your computer often, or even if you do search often, this system service is completely unnecessary. To disable do the following:

1. Go to Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Double-click Add/Remove Programs
5. Click the Add/Remove Window Components
6. Uncheck the Indexing services
7. Click Next

B. OPTIMISE DISPLAY SETTINGS

Windows XP can look sexy but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources. To optimise:

1.Go to Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Click System
5. Click Advanced tab
6. In the Performance tab click Settings
7. Leave only the following ticked:
- Show shadows under menus
- Show shadows under mouse pointer
- Show translucent selection rectangle
- Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
- Use visual styles on windows and buttons

C. SPEEDUP FOLDER BROWSING

You may have noticed that everytime you open my computer to browse folders that there is a slight delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers everytime you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing significantly:

1. Open My Computer
2. Click on Tools menu
3. Click on Folder Options
4. Click on the View tab.
5. Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box
6. Click Apply
7. Click Ok
8. Reboot your computer

D. IMPROVE MEMORY USAGE

Cacheman Improves the performance of your computer by optimizing the disk cache, memory and a number of other settings.
NOTE: This program is shareware and some features require activation.
Once Installed:

1.Go to Show Wizard and select All
2.Run all the wizards by selecting Next or Finished until you are back to the main menu. Use the defaults unless you know exactly what you are doing.
3.Exit and Save Cacheman
4.Restart Windows

E. OPTIMISE YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION

There are lots of ways to do this but by far the easiest is to run TCP/IP Optimizer.

1. Download and install
2. Click the General Settings tab and select your Connection Speed (Kbps)
3. Click Network Adapter and choose the interface you use to connect to the Internet
4. Check Optimal Settings then Apply
5. Reboot

F. OPTIMISE YOUR PAGEFILE

If you give your pagefile a fixed size it saves the operating system from needing to resize the page file.

1. Right click on My Computer and select Properties
2. Select the Advanced tab
3. Under Performance choose the Settings button
4. Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
5. Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.

Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.

G. SPEEDUP FOLDER ACCESS - DISABLE LAST ACCESS UPDATE

If you have a lot of folders and subdirectories on your computer, when you access a directory XP wastes a lot of time updating the time stamp showing the last access time for that directory and for ALL sub directories. To stop XP doing this you need to edit the registry. If you are uncomfortable doing this then please do not attempt.

1. Go to Start and then Run and type “regedit”
2. Click through the file system until you get to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem”
3. Right-click in a blank area of the window on the right and select ‘DWORD Value’
4. Create a new DWORD Value called ‘NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate’
5. Then Right click on the new value and select ‘Modify’
6. Change the Value Data to ‘1′
7. Click ‘OK’

H. MAKE YOUR MENUS LOAD FASTER

This is one of my favourite tweaks as it makes a huge difference to how fast your machine will ‘feel’. What this tweak does is remove the slight delay between clicking on a menu and XP displaying the menu.

1. Go to Start then Run
2. Type ‘Regedit’ then click ‘Ok’
3. Find “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\”
4. Select “MenuShowDelay”
5. Right click and select “Modify’
6. Reduce the number to around “100″
7. This is the delay time before a menu is opened. You can set it to “0″ but it can make windows really hard to use as menus will open if you just look at them - well move your mouse over them anyway. I tend to go for anywhere between 50-150 depending on my mood

I. IMPROVE XP SHUTDOWN SPEED

This tweak reduces the time XP waits before automatically closing any running programs when you give it the command to shutdown.

1. Go to Start then select Run
2. Type ‘Regedit’ and click ok
3. Find ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Control Panel\Desktop\’
4. Select ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’
5. Right click and select ‘Modify’
6. Change the value to ‘1000′
7. Click ‘OK’
8. Now select ‘HungAppTimeout’
9. Right click and select ‘Modify’
10. Change the value to ‘1000′
11. Click ‘OK’
12. Now find ‘HKEY_USERS\ .DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop’
13. Select ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’
14. Right click and select ‘Modify’
15. Change the value to ‘1000′
16. Click ‘OK’
17. Now find ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ System\CurrentControlSet\Control\’
18. Select ‘WaitToKillServiceTimeout’
19. Right click and select ‘Modify’
20. Change the value to ‘1000′
21. Click ‘OK’

J. IMPROVE SWAPFILE PERFORMANCE

If you have more than 256MB of RAM this tweak will considerably improve your performance. It basically makes sure that your PC uses every last drop of memory (faster than swap file) before it starts using the swap file.

1. Go to Start then Run
2. Type “msconfig.exe” then ok
3. Click on the System.ini tab
4. Expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus sign
5. Click on new then in the blank box type”ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1″
6. Click OK
7. Restart PC

K. ENSURE XP IS USING DMA MODE

XP enables DMA for Hard-Drives and CD-Roms by default on most ATA or ATAPI (IDE) devices. However, sometimes computers switch to PIO mode which is slower for data transfer - a typical reason is because of a virus. To ensure that your machine is using DMA:

1. Open ‘Device Manager’
2. Double-click ‘IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers’
3. Right-click ‘Primary Channel’ and select ‘Properties’ and then ‘Advanced Settings’
4. In the ‘Current Transfer Mode’ drop-down box, select ‘DMA if Available’ if the current setting is ‘PIO Only’

See more articles on this topic:

The Best Computer Upgrade Ever

2006-09-12T05:51:00.000-07:00

Forget about a faster processor. Splurge on a bigger screen

By Paul Boutin

Whether you're a PC or Mac user, the humongous 24-inch iMac that Apple unwrapped on Wednesday drives home a point: Speed is good, but spread is better. For the past year, I've been working at two offices. Office A has a fairly new 17-inch Mac I bought so I could crank out more freelance work without having to turn off iTunes. But lately, I find myself making the longer trek to Office B to use an older, slower machine. Why? Because a generous Office B colleague updated the slowpoke with a 23-inch monitor.

Speed freaks are stoked that Intel has finally replaced its aging Pentium processors with a speedier design called Core 2. Apple went for broke and stuffed the new iMac with a dual-core Intel processor and a 24-inch monitor. But it'll cost me $2,000-plus to buy my dream machine. PC users get a choice: Dell will sell you a Core 2-powered PC for $1,200 or a 24-inch flat-panel monitor for around $700. If you're feeling stymied by your computer, buy the monitor now and wait until Windows Vista comes out to upgrade the rest of your PC. You'll get more Core 2 for your money by then, and you'll already have a panoramic screen to let Vista live up to its name.

Don't be fooled by all those Intel commercials: A faster CPU isn't always the best upgrade. Dell hawks its Core 2 Duo PCs as the "ultimate multimedia and gaming experience." What bigger multimedia buzz is there than a giant screen? I'm not a gamer, but I spend a lot of time with Word, Excel, Firefox, and iTunes. I watch a lot of YouTube by day and often slide a DVD into my desktop machine at night. I'm fascinated by Google Maps and Google Earth. For these applications, a faster processor doesn't really help. But you know what's better than a million pixels of Google Earth? Two million pixels of Google Earth.

Prima donna software developers who get anything they want have traditionally awarded themselves second, third, and even fourth monitors. You could cite the industry studies that find increased productivity among multiple monitor users, or you could just accept the formula of computer graphics veteran Jon Peddie: "Can't have too many pixels." Besides, flat-panel displays have gotten so big and so cheap that you no longer need to cable together four screens. Just buy one big one. Thirty-inch mega-monitors first appeared two years ago for $3,300. Today, you can get one for $1,800 that puts more than 4 million pixels on one panel, equivalent to three or four 17-inch monitors or two HDTV screens. A 20-inch model with close to 2 million pixels is only $350.

Apple's Web site flogs a third-party study by Pfeiffer Consulting that concludes 30-inch monitors aren't a luxury. "When working on a computer, we lose much more time than we realize through user-interface manipulations," Pfeiffer's researchers wrote—even if we're handling only e-mail and Web pages and not Photoshop. I dismissed the report as marketing collateral, but after a few weeks at my own widescreen I've reached the same conclusion—it's surprising how much more work I crank out lately. Co-workers praise my newfound motivation. The truth is, I can finally see what I'm doing.

While a faster processor lets you do what you've been doing more quickly, extra display space lets you do things that were previously unthinkable. I can put two versions of an article side by side, editing one while eyeballing the other. I used to squeeze two shrunken windows onto a smaller screen or flip between edit and review windows. That doesn't compare to editing and reading both at actual size at the same time.

A screenshot of the layout on my wide-screen monitor

I bought a faster computer for Office A so I could juggle multiple windows and apps more quickly. On Office B's 1600 x 1200 pixel screen, I don't need to juggle at all. I've even got extra turf to keep background tasks onscreen. If I get an instant message while on deadline, I can scan it in my peripheral vision without moving my hands on the keyboard. If I need to reply, I don't have to shove my work aside. I can keep an eye on inbound e-mail while writing and click to zap an annoying song from iTunes without fumbling for the application. I've even squeezed an analog clock and a weather widget into a spare corner so I needn't remember to check them.

With everything in plain sight and within reach, my computer's desktop finally looks like a real desktop. That wouldn't be possible if it weren't almost the same size as one. Rewriting this article at home on my 17-inch screen, I feel cramped and frustrated. What PC makers call a desktop has been closer in size to the back of a book. Isn't it about time you threw away the book and sprawled out a little bit?

Game Boy system still hanging in there

2006-08-31T07:04:00.000-07:00

We are in the golden age of portable video games. Nintendo’s DS Lite keeps delivering innovative new software, attracting an audience that didn’t previously have much interest in games. Sony’s PlayStation Portable has stumbled, but it’s still a solid alternative for players who want handheld versions of their favorite console games. And sooner or later, Microsoft is bound to come out with a portable Xbox.

Add in all the games that are available for cell phones and personal digital assistants, and you never have an excuse to be bored while waiting in line at the DMV. And we haven’t even mentioned the granddaddy of handheld game devices: Nintendo’s Game Boy.

Seventeen years after its introduction, the Game Boy is still hanging in there. Sure, it’s been through a lot of changes, as the chunky, black-and-white original has slimmed down into the credit-card-sized, color Game Boy Micro. But it’s outlasted three generations of home consoles and helped keep Nintendo afloat even as the company’s GameCube struggled.

The greatest threat to the Game Boy is that it’s likely to finally be superseded by Nintendo’s own DS. But the DS plays Game Boy cartridges — so even if you can’t buy the actual hardware, the Game Boy abides. And publishers continue to release new games for the old warhorse — although the offerings can be inconsistent.
“Summon Night: Swordcraft Story," by Irvine, Calif.-based Atlus U.S.A Inc., combines good old-fashioned dungeon-crawling with the whimsical humor that’s becoming an Atlus trademark. In the game, which retails for $29.99, you assume the role of a kid (a boy named Cleru or a girl named Pratty) who aspires to become a “craftlord,” a master weapon builder.

To find material for your weapons, you must venture into your friendly neighborhood labyrinth to kill monsters and steal their loot. After you’ve forged a weapon, it’s off to the arena to compete against one of your fellow “craftknights.” It’s lively, fast-paced action, and the challenge of forging and improving your weapons is rewarding. Eventually, you’ll stumble across a conspiracy involving the powerful craftlords and the mysterious death of your father, rounding out a satisfying role-playing adventure.

B-Daman, for those of you who don’t watch Saturday morning cartoons, is a nifty little tabletop game in which two robots shoot marbles at each other. It has inspired comic books, anime and now a video game, "Battle B-Daman,” also by Atlus. In the game, which sells for $29.99, you play a kid named Yamato who, naturally, sets out to become the greatest B-Daman player the world has ever known. (He was also raised by cats until he was 6, which is indicative of the sort of goofy comedy that permeates this game.)

The fights are too simplistic — mostly, you’re moving left and right, trying to shoot your opponent while avoiding his marbles — and there’s not enough variety from one battlefield to the next. Still, it’s kind of addictive, and you may feel compelled to keep fighting just to collect all the cool doohickeys you can add to your robot.

Every few months, someone notices the popularity of “casual games” — like chess or solitaire — and whips up a compilation for those of us who want something like that for the Game Boy. It’s a great idea, and it’s too bad they almost always screw it up. THQ's latest offering for the Game Boy — “Games Explosion!” — is the latest such failure.
You’d think it would be easy to program the old logic puzzle Mastermind, for example, but here they’ve made the pegs so small you can’t tell what color they are. There are equally inept translations of bowling, darts, checkers, sudoku and a dozen other games; you can easily find far better versions for your cell phone. “Games Explosion!” — which sells for $19.99 — does offer the only commercially available simulation, as far as I know, of tic-tac-toe, which may set a new standard for the lamest game ever published.

Rap Lyrics Translated / Rapping For Dummies / How to Rap for Dummies

2006-08-31T06:33:00.000-07:00

Have Fun:

Lyrics:

First things first, I poppa, freaks all the honeys

Dummies - playboy bunnies, those wantin’ money

Those the ones I like ‘cause they don’t get nathan’

But penetration, unless it smells like sanitation

Garbage, I turn like doorknobs

Heart throb, never, black and ugly as ever

However, I stay coochied down to the socks

Rings and watch filled with rocks

TRANSLATION:

As a general rule, I perform deviant sexual acts with women of all kinds, including but not limited to those with limited intellect, nude magazine models, and prostitutes. I particularly enjoy sexual encounters with the latter group as they are generally disappointed in the fact that they only receive penile intercourse and nothing more, unless of course, they douche on a consistent basis. Although I am extremely unattractive, I am able to engage in these types of sexual acts with some regularity. Perhaps my sexuality is somehow related to my fancy and expensive jewelry.

Lyrics:

And my jam knock in the Mitsubishi

Girls pee pee when they see me, Nava-hoes creep me in they tee pee

As I lay down laws like I lay carpet

Stop it - if you think your gonna make a profit

TRANSLATION:

I enjoy playing my music loudly on my car stereo. Apparently, women enjoy this also because they become sexually aroused when they see me driving. Oddly enough, when I visit the Native American reservations, some of the more sexually promiscuous Indian women attempt to seduce me in their homes. Their intent is to divest me of my earnings. Such actions are unacceptable.

Lyrics:

Don’t see my ones, don’t see my guns - get it

Now tell ya friends Poppa hit it then split it

In two as I flow with the Junior Mafia

I don’t know what the hell’s stoppin’ ya

I’m clockin’ ya - Versace shades watchin’ ya

Once ya grin, I’m in game, begin

TRANSLATION:

Understand this fact: you can have neither my money, nor my weapons. I suggest that you inform your peers that we engaged in violent sexual acts. Currently, I am rapping with my associates, the Junior Mafia. I’m having some difficulty understanding why you refuse to approach me. I am attempting to make eye contact with you through my expensive glasses, and as soon as you respond with a smile, I will approach you.

Lyrics:

First I talk about how I dress and this

And diamond necklaces - stretch Lexuses

The sex is just immaculate from the back I get

Deeper and deeper - help ya reach the

Climax that your man can’t make

Call and tell him you’ll be home real late

Let’s sing the break

TRANSLATION:

I prefer to open the conversation with light banter about my wardrobe and jewelry, then I like to discuss my collection of expensive cars. This is more than enough to convince you to have sexual intercourse with me. I am able to insert my penis further into you when I enter you from behind. Furthermore, you will be able to reach orgasm. I understand this to be a problem with your current sexual partner. He needn’t be concerned about your whereabouts. Please phone him and inform him that you won’t be home for a while. By the way, please sing the chorus of the song for me also.

Lyrics:

She’s sick of that song on how it’s so long

Thought he worked his until I handled my biz

There I is - major pain like Damon Wayans

Low down dirty even like his brother Keenan

Schemin’ - don’t bring your girl ‘round me

True player for real, ask Puff Daddy

TRANSLATION:

Your current love interest no longer wishes to hear your fabrications about the length of your member. After I had sexual intercourse with your woman, she became enlightened as to the proper way it is supposed to be performed; violently and immorally. It would be in your best interest to keep your woman away from me as my sexual prowess is very strong. If you are unconvinced, ask Puff Daddy.

Lyrics:

You - ringin’ bells with bags from Chanel

Baby Benz, traded in your Hyundai Excel

Fully equipped, CD changer with the cell

She beeped me, meet me at twelve

TRANSLATION:

Despite the fact that you attempted to win her at her doorstep with bags full of expensive clothes and a car (the lower end model Mercedes Benz which you financed by signing over your current vehicle) containing an expensive stereo and a cellular phone, your woman has contacted me through my pager indicating that we should rendezvous at midnight.

Lyrics:

Where you at? Flippin’ jobs, playin’ car notes?

While I’m swimmin’ in ya women like the breast stroke

Right stroke, left stroke what’s the best stroke

Death stroke - tongue all down her throat

Nuthin’ left to do but send her home to you

I’m through - can ya sing the song for me, boo?

TRANSLATION:

You, on the other hand, jump from job to job, barely able to maintain payments on the Mercedes Benz you purchased for your woman. Meanwhile, I continue to engage in sexual intercourse and commit lewd osculatory acts with your women. My only remaining option is to request that she leave my home and return to you because I have reached orgasm and no longer have a need for her presence.

Lyrics:

So, what’s it gonna be? Him or me?

We can cruise the world with pearls

Gator boots for girls

The envy of all women, crushed linen

Cartier wrist-wear with diamonds in ‘em

The finest women I love with a passion

Ya man’s a wimp, I give that ass a good thrashin’

TRANSLATION:

The ultimate decision rests with you. Whom do you choose as your sexual partner. I can take you on cruises around the world. I will dress you in the finest jewelry and footwear. You will be envied by women worldwide in your fine clothes and jewelry. There is a special place in my heart for beautiful women. I will defeat your man in an altercation because he is effeminate.

Lyrics:

High fashion - flyin’ into all states.

Sexin’ me while your man masturbates.

Isn’t this great? Your flight leaves at eight.

Her flight lands at nine, my game just rewinds.

Lyrically I’m supposed to represent.

I’m not only the client, I’m the player president

TRANSLATION:

You will be dressed in finest clothes on the runways of Paris. I will fly you to every state to shop for fine clothes and jewelry. You will enjoy sexual intercourse with me and your man will be forced to pleasure himself through manual stimulation. What a life! I’ll return you to LaGuardia in time to catch your 8 o’clock flight. The timing is perfect because I have scheduled a date with a second woman who arrives at the same gate at 9 o’clock. I’ll seduce her in the same way that I seduced you. I rap well and I am a positive reflection of my home town. Not only am I a sexually deviant, misogynistic, immoral, wealthy, male prostitute, but I also sit on the board of directors of the organization that governs others of my kind.

Concurrency is easy

2006-08-30T06:13:00.000-07:00

We understand concurrency
A deep understanding of concurrency is hard-wired into our brains. We react to stimulation extremely quickly, in a part of the brain called the amygdala, without this reaction system we would die. Conscious thought is just too slow, by the time the thought "hit the brakes" has formed itself, we have already done it.

On a motorway, I mentally track the positions of dozens, or hundreds of cars, this is done without conscious thought. If I couldn't do this I would probably be dead.

The world is parallel

If we wish to write programs that behave as other objects behave in the real world then these programs will have a concurrent structure.

This is why we should program in a concurrent programming language

And yet most often we program real-world applications in sequential programming languages. This is uncessarily difficult.

By programming in a language what was designed for programming concurrent applications (like Erlang) concurrent programming becomes a lot easier.

Erlang programs model how we think and interact

We don't have shared memory. I have my memory, you have yours, we have two brains, one each, they are not joined together. To change your memory I send you a message, I talk or wave my arms. You listen, you see, your memory changes, but without asking you a question or observing your response I do not know that you have received my messages.

This is how it is with Erlang processes. Erlang processes have no shared memory. Each processes has its own memory. To change the memory of some other process you must send it a message and hope that it receives and understands the message.

To confirm that another process has received your message and changed its memory, you must ask it (by sending it a message). This is exactly how we interact.

Sue: "Hi Bill, my telephone number is 45 67 89 12"
Sue: "Did you hear me?"
Bill: "sure, your number is 45 67 89 12"

These interaction patterns well-know to us, from birth onwards we learn to interact with the world by observing it and by sending it messages and observing the responses.

People function as independent entities that communicate by sending messages

That's how Erlang processes work, and that's how we work so it's very easy to understand an Erlang program.

Erlang programs are made up of lots of little processes all chattering away to each other - just like people.

An Erlang program is made up of dozens, possible thousands or even hundreds of thousands of small processes - all these processes operate independently. They communicate with each other by sending messages. Each process has a private memory. They behave like a huge room of people all chattering away to each other.

This makes Erlang program inherently easy to manage and scale. Suppose we have ten people (processes) and they have too much work to do, what can we do? get more people. How can we manage these groups of people, easy just shout instructions at them (broadcasting).
Erlang processes don't have shared memory, so there is no need to lock the memory while it is being used. Where there are locks, there are keys, and when there are keys the keys will one day get lost and what happens when you loose a key? - you panic.

Distributed software systems with locks and keys always go wrong.

If somebody dies other people will notice

I I'm in a room and suddenly keel over and die, somebody will probably notice, well at least I hope so. Erlang processes are just like people, they can on occasions die. Unlike people when they die they shout out in their last breath exactly what they have died from.

Imagine a room full of people, suddenly one person will keel over and die and just as they die, they say "I'm dying of a heart attack" or "I'm dying of an exploded gastric wobbledgog". That's what Erlang processes do. One process might die saying."I'm dying because I was asked to divide by zero", another might say

"I'm dying because because I was asked what the last element in an empty list was"

Now in our room full of people we might imagine there are specially assigned people whose job it is to clear away the bodies. Let's imagine two people Jane and John. If Jane dies then John will fix any problems associated with Jane's death. If Jane dies then John will fix the problems. Jane and John are linked together with an invisible agreement which says that if one of them dies the other will fix up any problems caused by the death.

That's is how error handling in Erlang works, processes can be linked together. If one of the processes dies, the other process gets an error message saying why the first process dies.

That's basically it.

That's how Erlang programs work.

What we've learnt so far

Erlang programs are made of lots of processes. These processes can send messages to each other.

These message may or may not be received and understood. If you want to know if a message was received and understood you must send the process a message and wait for a reply.

Pairs of processes can be linked together. If one processes in a linked pair dies the other process in the pair will be sent a message containing the reason why the first process died.

This simple model of programming is part of a model I call Concurrency Oriented Programming. You can read more about this here.

The Myth About Homework

2006-08-28T03:59:00.000-07:00

Think hours of slogging are helping your child make the grade? Think again

By CLAUDIA WALLIS

Sachem was the last straw. Or was it Kiva? My 12-year-old daughter and I had been drilling social-studies key words for more than an hour. It was 11 p.m. Our entire evening had, as usual, consisted of homework and conversations (a.k.a. nagging) about homework. She was tired and fed up. I was tired and fed up. The words wouldn't stick. They meant nothing to her. They didn't mean much to me either. After all, when have I ever used sachem in a sentence--until just now?
As the summer winds down, I'm dreading scenes like that one from seventh grade. Already the carefree August nights have given way to meaningful conversations (a.k.a. nagging) about the summer reading that didn't get done. So what could be more welcome than two new books assailing this bane of modern family life: The Homework Myth (Da Capo Press; 243 pages), by Alfie Kohn, the prolific, perpetual critic of today's test-driven schools, and The Case Against Homework (Crown; 290 pages), a cri de coeur by two moms, lawyer Sara Bennett and journalist Nancy Kalish.
Both books cite studies, surveys, statistics, along with some hair-raising anecdotes, on how a rising tide of dull, useless assignments is oppressing families and making kids hate learning. A few highlights from the books and my own investigation:
• According to a 2004 national survey of 2,900 American children conducted by the University of Michigan, the amount of time spent on homework is up 51% since 1981.
• Most of that increase reflects bigger loads for little kids. An academic study found that whereas students ages 6 to 8 did an average of 52 min. of homework a week in 1981, they were toiling 128 min. weekly by 1997. And that's before No Child Left Behind kicked in. An admittedly less scientific poll of parents conducted this year for AOL and the Associated Press found that elementary school students were averaging 78 min. a night.
• The onslaught comes despite the fact that an exhaustive review by the nation's top homework scholar, Duke University's Harris Cooper, concluded that homework does not measurably improve academic achievement for kids in grade school. That's right: all the sweat and tears do not make Johnny a better reader or mathematician.
• Too much homework brings diminishing returns. Cooper's analysis of dozens of studies found that kids who do some homework in middle and high school score somewhat better on standardized tests, but doing more than 60 to 90 min. a night in middle school and more than 2 hr. in high school is associated with, gulp, lower scores.
• Teachers in many of the nations that outperform the U.S. on student achievement tests--such as Japan, Denmark and the Czech Republic--tend to assign less homework than American teachers, but instructors in low-scoring countries like Greece, Thailand and Iran tend to pile it on.
Success on standardized tests is, of course, only one measure of learning--and only one purported goal of homework. Educators, including Cooper, tend to defend homework by saying it builds study habits, self-discipline and time-management skills. But there's also evidence that homework sours kids' attitudes toward school. "It's one thing to say we are wasting kids' time and straining parent-kid relationships," Kohn told me, "but what's unforgivable is if homework is damaging our kids' interest in learning, undermining their curiosity."

Kohn's solution is radical: he wants a no-homework policy to become the default, with exceptions for tasks like interviewing parents on family history, kitchen chemistry and family reading.
Or, in a nation in which 71% of mothers of kids under 18 are in the workforce, how about extending the school day or year beyond its agrarian-era calendar? Let students do more work at school and save evenings for family and serendipity.
Bennett and Kalish have a more modest proposal. Parents should demand a sensible homework policy, perhaps one based on Cooper's rule of thumb: 10 min. a night per grade level. They offer lessons from their own battle to rein in the workload at their kids' private middle school in Brooklyn, N.Y. Among their victories: a nightly time limit, a policy of no homework over vacations, no more than two major tests a week, fewer weekend assignments and no Monday tests.
Why don't more parents in homework-heavy districts take such actions? Do too many of us think it's just our child who is struggling, so who are we to lead a revolt? Yup, when it comes to the battle of homework mountain, we've got too many Indians and not enough sachems.

The Infant Grammarian. The genius of baby talk

2006-08-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

By Emily Bazelon

My 3-year-old son, Simon, sees no point in the to be verb. "This my Superman costume," he says. "Where my Batman boot?" I've always assumed he's just making a small-child's mistake, and if I don't correct him, that's mostly because it's too much bother. According to a new book by the Yale linguist Charles Yang, however, Simon is mirroring the grammar of a different language. Hebrew doesn't bother with is or are. When kids leave out the subject in the sentence "Where going?" they're thinking like a speaker of Chinese, which drops topic words in some contexts.

Like almost everything in linguistics, Yang's idea stems from Noam Chomsky's theory that the human capacity for language is innate. Chomsky identified a "universal grammar," meaning a way language generally works, that humans are born with. Other linguists argue that the distinctions among languages can be described by a few dozen rules, or parameters, that involve binary choices: In English you state the subject; in Chinese you sometimes don't. And so, Yang argues in his new book, The Infinite Gift: How Children Learn and Unlearn the Languages of the World, that the mistakes Simon and his peers make aren't the processing difficulties of an immature brain. They're the trial and error children go through as they discard the structure of other languages in favor of their own. "Only the grammar actually used in the child's linguistic environment will not be contradicted, and only the fittest survives," Yang writes.

The idea is a clever one. But aspects of it have met with skepticism since other linguists started working in this area years ago. Most children have the rudiments of English grammar down by their third birthday, even if they don't use it. And research has shown that they are surprised and put off when adults mimic childlike speech. Ask your 2- or 3-year-old "Want go school?" and he's likely to make a face at you. "Kids seem to know they're speaking funny and differently from adults," says Paul Bloom, a psychologist at Yale who thinks the errors of baby talk are about short attention span and poor articulation, not parameters or grammars.

Still, Chomsky praised Yang's work and book via e-mail, and Yang's ideas may explain some of the speech patterns of small children. And he reinforces a point that there's other support for: Children carry the tools of speech with them and can sort out the finer points of language with less intervention than many parents think. To be sure, not every speech delay or error falls within the spectrum of normal development. But for most kids, the mistakes they make at age 2 will be gone by age 4. Whether they're on the early or late side of that window is probably meaningless.

Consider this example of handicapping a child's speech development: In her book The Nurture Assumption, Judith Rich Harris tells the story of a 1933 experiment that a psychology professor and his wife conducted on their child. The couple wanted to see if a chimpanzee baby reared with a human one would act like the human. So they brought a 7-month-old chimp, Gua, to live with their son, Donald, when he was 10 months old. Gua didn't much copy Donald. But Donald started barking for food like Gua. At 19 months, most American children can say more than 50 words and are beginning to form phrases. At 19 months, Donald could speak only three words. At that point, Gua went back to the zoo. And Donald went on to learn to talk—well enough to earn admission to Harvard Medical School.

Harris also points out that the hearing children of deaf couples learn to speak fluently. And immigrant children learn the language of the country they live in and speak without an accent, even if their parents speak to them at home only in their own native tongue. "Parents do not have to teach their children the language of their community; in fact—hard as it may be for you to accept this—they do not have to teach their children any language at all," Harris writes. Kids need to hear speech to learn it, but they don't necessarily need to hear it at home. And they don't need their parents to correct them. The effort we put into teaching our own children to talk—speaking clearly and in short sentences, praising their early words, monitoring their grammar—are, as Harris puts it, "a peculiarity of our culture." Linguist Steven Pinker has studied societies in which parents rarely talk to their infants and toddlers other than to scold or make a demand. Their 2-year-olds are behind on language compared to Western kids, but by age 4 they catch up.

So, what about the questions your child's pediatrician asks each year: At 2, how many words does he know? At 3, how complex are his sentences? It's going too far to dismiss all of this out of hand. My children's former pediatrician wonders about the empirical support for the age-based markers of speech development, but he figures that it's a good thing to encourage parents to engage their children and stimulate their developing neurons. There are other benefits to early speech: Simon is hugely strong-willed, so it was an enormous relief when he could express his wishes verbally. I may not always like what he has to say, but I prefer the words to incoherent wails of frustration.

Some parents address this problem creatively. Before their children can talk, they teach them to sign words like milk and more. I admire them. But I'd never be organized enough to join in. And while I'm all for neurons firing away (who isn't?), the intense focus on young talkers often seems to me overblown. "She has so many words!" we coo about precocious toddlers—code for "she's smart" or "you're smart too, since you're her mother." Then there's all the comparing of notes about how much or how well our children speak compared to other children. But if early speech is more like a party trick than a measure of intelligence or aptitude, then the cooing and the comparisons generate more anxiety than light.

I like Yang's book for making me listen differently to Simon's odd sentence constructions and for its laid-back message. "You will see that children are infinitely better at learning languages than we are," he promises in the first chapter. "And you will see that the 'errors' in their speech are inevitable and will go away in due time." I don't have to feel like a slacker for overlooking Simon's faulty English grammar. Instead I can marvel that he was born knowing how to learn Chinese. Lucky baby, to have a human mind.

The Top 10 Craziest Science Stuff you didn't know

2006-08-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

You can Hypnotize Chickens

A chicken can be hypnotized, or put into a trance by holding its head down against the ground, and continuously drawing a line along the ground with a stick or a finger, starting at its beak and extending straight outward in front of the chicken. If the chicken is hypnotized in this manner, it will remain immobile for somewhere between 15 seconds to 30 minutes, continuing to stare at the line.

You can have an erection once dead

A death erection (sometimes referred to as "angel lust") is a post-mortem erection which occurs when a male individual dies vertically or face-down – the cadaver remaining in this position. During life, the pumping of blood by the heart ensures a relatively even distribution around the blood vessels of the human body. Once this mechanism has ended, only the force of gravity acts upon the blood. As with any mass, the blood settles at the lowest point of the body and causes edema or swelling to occur; the discoloration caused by this is called lividity. Sorry, no photo for this one!

Your hand can have a life of it's own

Alien hand syndrome (or Dr. Strangelove syndrome) is an unusual neurological disorder in which one of the sufferer's hands seems to take on a life of its own. AHS is best documented in cases where a person has had the two hemispheres of their brain surgically separated, a procedure sometimes used to relieve the symptoms of extreme cases of epilepsy. It also occurs in some cases after other brain surgery, strokes, or infections. The HAND is after you!

Don't laugh too much, it can kill you

Fatal hilarity is death as a result of laughter. In the third century B.C. the Greek philosopher Chrysippus died of laughter after seeing a donkey eating figs (hey, it wasn't THAT funny). On 24 March 1975 Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King's Lynn, England, literally died laughing while watching an episode of The Goodies. According to his wife, who was a witness, Mitchell was unable to stop laughing whilst watching a sketch in the episode "Kung Fu Kapers" in which Tim Brooke-Taylor, dressed as a kilted Scotsman, used a set of bagpipes to defend himself from a psychopathic black pudding in a demonstration of the Scottish martial art of "Hoots-Toot-ochaye". After twenty-five minutes of continuous laughter Mitchell finally slumped on the sofa and expired from heart failure. His widow later sent the Goodies a letter thanking them for making Mitchell's final moments so pleasant.

A weapon could make you Gay

Gay bomb is an informal name for a potential non-lethal chemical weapon, which a U.S. Air Force research laboratory speculated about producing. In one sentence of the document it was suggested that a strong aphrodisiac could be dropped on enemy troops, ideally one which would also cause "homosexual behaviour". So that's how they got Saddam!

It's true, Men can breastfeed

The phenomenon of male lactation in humans has become more common in recent years due to the use of medications that stimulate a human male's mammary glands. Male lactation is most commonly caused by hormonal treatments given to men suffering from prostate cancer. It is also possible for males (and females) to induce lactation through constant massage and simulated 'sucking' of the nipple over a long period of time (months).

Bart Simpson's Tomacco (half tomato, half tobacco) was possible

A tomacco is originally a fictional hybrid fruit that is half tomato and half tobacco, from the 1999 episode "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)" of The Simpsons; the method used to create the tomacco in the episode is fictional. The tomacco became real when it was allegedly produced in 2003. Inspired by The Simpsons, Rob Baur of Lake Oswego, Oregon successfully grafted a tomato plant onto the roots of a tobacco plant, which was possible because both plants come from the same family.

It's OK to have a third nipple

A supernumerary nipple (also known as a third nipple) is an additional nipple occurring in mammals including humans. Often mistaken for moles, supernumerary nipples are diagnosed at a rate of 2% in females, less in males. The nipples appear along the two vertical "milk lines" which start in the armpit on each side, run down through the typical nipples and end at the groin. They are classified into eight levels of completeness from a simple patch of hair to a milk-bearing breast in miniature.

You can die on the Toilet

There are many toilet-related injuries and some toilet-related deaths throughout history and in urban legends. In young boys, one of the most common causes of genital injury is when the toilet seat falls down while using the toilet. George II of Great Britain died on the toilet on 25 October 1760 from an aortic dissection. According to Horace Walpole's memoirs, King George "rose as usual at six, and drank his chocolate; for all his actions were invariably methodic. A quarter after seven he went into a little closet. His German valet de chambre in waiting heard a noise, and running in, found the King dead on the floor."

Picking one's nose and eating it might be healthy

Mucophagy (literally mucus-eating, also referred as picking one's nose and eating it) is the consumption of the nasal mucus, boogers, and other detritus obtained from nose-picking. Some research suggests that mucophagy may be a natural and even healthy activity, which exposes the digestive system to bacteria accumulated in the mucus, thereby helping to strengthen the immune system.

So what crazy science stuff do you know? Comment it!

The Top 10 Reasons to Be a Librarian

2006-08-08T15:26:00.000-07:00

By Martha J. Spear

As a high school library media specialist, I have the good fortune to work with, and sometimes mold, young people. If I’m lucky, I discover what they do after graduation. Recently, one of my favorite students informed me that after earning her humanities degree at a tiny private college, she was pursuing a master’s degree in museum studies. Congratulating her, I jokingly said, “Watch it. That’s awfully close to a master’s in library science.” She laughed and said: “Oh, I’d never do that.” Somewhat defensively, I replied, “You could do worse.”

Long after this brief conversation, I wondered, where did we, as librarians, go wrong? Why is there such an onus on this profession that a bright, young person would choose, well, any career but that of librarianship? I think it’s sad. Librarianship has much to offer, and I think we can do better in promoting our profession. Toward that end, I present my top 10 reasons for being a librarian.

10. Ever-changing and renewing

The single thing I like most about being a librarian is that it is, to paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, a moveable feast. I’ve been employed in academic, public, and school libraries in three different states working in technical services, public services, and classrooms, and with street people, teachers, and young adults. I’ve booked psychics, mountain climbers, rock musicians, and landlords for programs. I teach, catalog, book talk, advise, troubleshoot, demonstrate, connect s-video cables, and shelve . . . in a single day. What I learned in my master’s program bears little resemblance to what I actually do in my library today. Yet the principles remain; and, through conferences, professional literature, and networking, I hold my own. If the new books don’t excite me, the new technologies do. Most importantly, I learn something new every day. Can you say that about working at McDonald’s?

9. Romance

Okay, so I may be stretching things a bit here. I married a librarian. (For the record, we met in a singles group; but our paths would have crossed in local library circles eventually, I’m sure.) My case may be extreme, but there is help for the lovelorn in libraries—either in the wonderfully interesting colleagues we meet (see reasons #2 and #7) or in the books and resources libraries offer.

8. Useful skills

I did not enter library school with a soaring heart. I viewed the degree less as graduate school and more as a kind of trade school. Truthfully, my library education was both. I learned the value of organization (I finally put my massive LP collection in alpha order by artist). I discovered the importance of collection development, equal access to resources, and intellectual freedom. I learned valuable skills in locating and using information that serve me to this day, whether I’m helping a patron write a paper on the Manhattan Project or figuring out the best place to buy a teakettle online.

7. Great conferences

Librarians host good conferences. I love the hustle and bustle of ALA Annual Conference. I consider my state conference to be so necessary to my mental well-being that I often pay my own way. My husband’s ties to the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions have taken us to Nairobi, Tokyo, Havana, and elsewhere. What better way to see the world and recharge the professional batteries? Conferences are blessed events, and you don’t have them when you work at Wal-Mart.

6. Time off

Librarians may not get great pay, but we do generally receive liberal vacations. As a public librarian, I got six weeks off and as a school media specialist . . . well, you don’t want to know. In any case, these vacations have made it possible to visit Paris in April, and Beijing in September, and to spend five weeks in Scandinavia. And when I’m not away, I’ve been able to repaper my hallway, paint the family room, and put in a patio.

5. A job with scope

As a child, when people asked me what I wanted to be, I have to admit I never said librarian. Although I used and enjoyed libraries, it never occurred to me to actually work in one. I did say that I wanted a job with scope. I am not sure what I meant by that then, but I know what it means now. It means being a librarian. I do dozens of different things every day. It’s not a desk job and it’s anything but routine. When you work with people, changing technologies, and always-new resources, how could it be?

4. It pays the rent

As a librarian, I will never get rich. However, it has allowed me to live alone (without the dreaded roommate), subsist moderately well, and be employable in different markets and in changing times. I have made a living as a librarian for almost 25 years and I’m not on the street corner selling pencils yet.

3. Good working conditions

I’ve worked in factories where I stood on my feet for nine hours. I’ve worked in kitchens where I came home smelling of puréed peas. I was a production typist where my derrière routinely fell asleep, not to mention my brain. In a library, you’re clean, dry, warm, and working with people who are generally happy to be there.

2. Cool coworkers

I love librarians (also see # 9). We are intelligent, cultured, well-read people who bring a myriad of skills, backgrounds, and interests to the job. Most of my fellow librarians, myself included, have degrees and/or work experience in other areas. I backed into librarianship after realizing that a major in English and German wasn’t going to make me very employable. I know librarians who are former attorneys, truck drivers, teachers, and factory workers. This experiential, intellectual potpourri makes for an interesting mix. And librarians are readers. The conversational gambit “Read any good books lately?” is met with a din around librarians.

1. Grand purpose

As librarians, we support the freedom to read. We champion the right to access information for all people, regardless of race, creed, religion, or economic disposition. Libraries are everyone’s university. These may feel like clich‚s to the converted (us librarians), but they remain truisms.

In sum, I feel very much like Evelyn Carnahan in the film The Mummy. To refresh your memory, our leading lady is in the midst of describing—and defending—what she does for a living to a roguish male. They have been drinking.

Evelyn: Look, I—I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O’Connell! But I am proud of what I am!

Rick O’Connell: And what is that?

Evelyn: I am . . . a librarian!

I couldn’t have said it better.

This article originally appeared in American Libraries, October 2002, p. 54–55

HDTV Myths

2006-07-30T05:05:00.000-07:00

Plasma TV sets start out bright and beautiful, but burn out to an early death. Every single high-definition television program looks equally crisp and gorgeous. The higher resolution of a 1080p high-def set means that your shows and DVDs will always look better than on a more ordinary 720p set.

Are these gospel truths about HDTV? Nope. Just a sampling of the many popular factoids, half-truths, and myths that can make choosing and enjoying a high-def television set complicated and confusing--and in some cases, needlessly expensive.

To help dispel these myths, we consulted an A-team of HDTV experts. The challenge: Identify and debunk troublesome, costly, and all-too-prevalent misconceptions about high-definition TV--from the basics of broadcasting to the arcane secrets of hardware. We lay out the facts you'll need to have at your disposal in order to make the right decisions. Armed with this information, you'll know just what to expect when you take the HDTV plunge. For more of these tips, see PCWorld.com.

"An HD set is all you need to get high-def programs."

In our dreams! To experience the vibrant images and the Dolby 5.1 sound of true high-definition TV, you need several things--and an HD-ready set (a display that can accept HD-format input and display it at a minimum of 720 lines of progressive-scan or noninterlaced video) is just one of them.

First, a show needs to be shot in high definition, and that may not be the case, even when a show claims that it is. For example, although TNT's digital channel presents Law & Order reruns in high definition, early episodes weren't shot in HD; as a result, in those episodes, you see a 4:3 standard-def show that is stretched and scaled up to high-def size. It doesn't look great.

Second, the program must be transmitted in high def by a station that you can receive either over the air or from your cable or satellite provider. ("Shown in high definition where available" doesn't mean it's available to you.)

Third, you need an HD receiver to process the signal. A set that has a built-in ATSC digital tuner can display over-the-air HD broadcasts with nothing more than a good antenna. ATSC, which stands for Advanced Television Standards Committee, is the group that defined the 18 formats of the coming digital TV system, only six of which are considered high definition. (And by the way, there is no such thing as an HD antenna--there are just antennas.) If your HDTV set comes with picture-in-picture, you won't get high-def-picture-in-high-def-picture unless your set comes with two ATSC tuners.

An HD-ready set lacks such a tuner, so you'll need either a set-top box with a tuner or an HD box from your cable or satellite service. Regardless of the box you get, you need to make sure that you're feeding its digital output into your HD-ready set.

Finally, you must tune your HDTV set to a high-definition channel showing actual HD content. Picking up the analog transmission from your local affiliate on your high-def cable box won't result in delivery of a show in HD.

"The higher the screen resolution, the better the image quality of an HDTV."

Most HDTV sets today are 720p displays, but a few vendors are beginning to offer 1080p sets--either LCDs or rear-projection, micro-display (LCD, LCoS, DLP) models. As yet, no 1080p plasmas are available (though some have been announced in very large sizes). These sets will clearly do the best job of handling 1080p content--when it arrives. But today's HDTV shows are shown in either 720p or 1080i format: Nobody broadcasts in 1080p because of bandwidth issues. Movies may someday be available in 1080p on optical media, but Hollywood hasn't settled on the next-generation hardware standard (Blu-ray or HD-DVD), much less chosen a content format.

Lack of 1080p content is one reason some vendors are holding off on introducing 1080p sets. But those that are selling 1080p sets point out that some HDTV is broadcast in 1080i, and that such content arguably looks better on a 1080p set because less scaling is involved. (On the other hand, 720p content has to be scaled up for a 1080p set.) Here again, though, the capabilities of the human eye come into play: You'll probably notice the superior resolution of 1080p only if you sit very close to the set--or have an extremely large set.

"You have to relinquish the fluid motion of a CRT screen when you move up to HDTV."

Not at all. You can purchase a high-definition CRT set--and you'll save a lot of money if you do, because they cost less than LCD and plasma-screen televisions of similar size. But in doing so you'll lose the sleek, flat-panel chic of a plasma or LCD set. If you want that slim profile, however, be aware that LCDs have trouble rendering fluid motion as a result of their somewhat pedestrian response times. Plasma and DLP screens aren't susceptible to this technological weakness.

"Burn-in will wreck your plasma HDTV within a year."

The plasma display has advanced since the days when most of us saw plasmas only at airports, where constantly switched-on screens showing formatted flight information suffered from burn-in--ghost images that linger on screen despite no longer being transmitted.

Today, vendors rate the life expectancy of high-quality plasma TVs at 60,000 hours. That works out to more than 20 years of use if you watch eight hours a day, 365 days a year; it's also about the same lifetime claimed for LCDs and CRTs (the latter are similarly prone to burn-in because, like plasma TVs, they depend on phosphor-based displays).

What changed? Phosphors and gas mixtures in the new plasma panels greatly reduce the risk of burn-in, and some sets use burn-in-prevention software. "If you're not worried about burn-in for your CRT, you shouldn't worry about it for your plasma TV," says the Society for Information Display's Larry Weber.

"Bright LCDs look beautiful everywhere, and they use much less power than plasma or CRT sets do."

It's true that LCDs are bright, which makes them a good choice if you watch TV in a brightly lit room. But if you're inclined to turn down the lights for your rendezvous with Entourage or Medium, you probably don't want the brightest set on the block, and plasmas and CRTs offer superior color capabilities without introducing the response-time (and associated motion artifacting) issues that have long plagued LCDs.

As for power consumption, a study by Japan's Green Purchasing Network--an organization dedicated to promoting environmentally friendly purchasing by consumers, business, and government--concluded that the power consumption of similar-size plasma, CRT, and traditional LCD displays in real-world viewing situations is practically the same. However, the coming generation of LCDs that use LED backlighting, while expected to deliver significantly better color, will consume roughly twice as much power as traditional LCDs of the same size.

"Standard-definition TV is unwatchable on HDTV."

This is a case of hyperbole, not outright fabrication. True, standard-def programming will never look as good as HD programming on an HDTV because of scaling issues. But vendors are toiling to better the SD experience on their HD sets, and the success of these efforts varies between vendors and sets. So if you're expecting to watch standard-definition TV on an HD set, make sure that you do your own taste tests.

These may not be the only myths you'll encounter in your quest for the perfect HDTV--and you can't trust everything you hear (or see) in a showroom. So careful research is essential before you pay for what's likely to be the most expensive TV set you've ever bought. And that is the gospel truth.

Using home equity loan to buy a car

2006-07-21T02:29:00.000-07:00

Q. Dear Dr. Don, We are looking to buy a used car and trying to think of a better way to finance the purchase. I found out that we could take out a second mortgage, which is tax deductible, to finance the car purchase versus getting a straight car loan. Is this a good idea? Thanks.

A. Dear Tamara,
For people who have a fair amount of discipline in how they manage their finances, a home equity loan or home equity line of credit (HELOC) can make perfect sense as a way to finance a car, new or used. If you're struggling with large credit card balances or have problem credit, a home equity loan might not be right for you.

Not everyone can make use of the mortgage-interest deduction when filing his or her income tax return, but if you're using the deduction now on your first mortgage, odds are you'll be able to use it on your home equity loan, too. IRS Publication 936, Home Mortgage Interest Deduction 6, lays it all out. Talk to a tax professional if you're still not sure.

By being able to deduct the interest expense, you reduce the effective rate of interest on the loan. The interest expense on a conventional auto loan isn't tax-deductible. As I write this, Bankrate's national average for a HELOC is 8.09 percent and 7.8 percent for a home equity loan. The national average for a three-year auto loan on a used car is 8.88 percent. If you're in the 25-percent marginal federal income tax bracket the effective rate on the HELOC is about 6 percent.

A HELOC is a variable-rate loan, and the interest rate is normally tied to the prime rate. Since the prime rate moves in lock step with changes in the targeted federal funds rate, and that rate has been rising steadily for more than two years, it takes a bit of courage to sign up for a HELOC to finance your car.

In contrast, a home equity loan will have a fixed interest rate, and the loan payments are self-amortizing, meaning the payments are large enough to pay the interest expense and pay off the loan over the life of the loan. In the early years of a HELOC, its required loan payments are interest-only, and you have to have the financial discipline to make principal payments, too.
You can use the Bankrate rates home equity rates search tool to comparison-shop for a loan or line of credit.

A car is a depreciating asset. You don't want to take 10 years to pay off the loan on a car that you'll drive for five years. Regardless of which loan you choose, plan on paying off the used car over the time you expect to own it. That way you'll have some equity in the car when you go to buy its successor.

Atlanta car loan fraud ring busted

2006-07-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

Six Atlantans were arrested July 12 and two others already in custody have been named in connection with a car loan fraud ring operating under the name "Xquisite Empire" that bilked lenders for $2.4 million.

William Marshall, 39, and Kenneth David Harvey, 38, both of Atlanta, who are alleged to be the leaders of the conspiracy, are already in custody on unrelated charges. Arrested today were: Dartez Daniels, 37, Sheena Mullins, 22, Keyomo Butler, 35, Tara Brown-Ferrell, 35, Sheer Godfrey-Fields, 34, and Melissa Fields, 35, all of Atlanta.

Beginning in early 2002, Marshall and Harvey allegedly created a scheme to defraud lenders by fraudulently obtaining 224 high-end luxury vehicles valued at $11.2 million, using more than 50 so-called "straw" purchasers to buy or lease the vehicles. Marshall and Harvey created a company called "Xquisite Empire," which ostensibly was in the rental car business, but had no legitimate income from rental cars.

Marshall and Harvey allegedly supplied straw purchasers with false credit information, which the straw purchasers subsequently listed on loan applications. Marshall, Harvey, and others instructed each straw purchaser to buy as many cars as possible within a 30 day period to prevent prospective lenders from learning about the straw purchasers' true liabilities through seeing the most recent loans relating to fraudulent purchases appear on credit reports.

In return, Marshall and Harvey paid the straw purchasers fees for obtaining the vehicles. Marshall and Harvey took possession of the vehicles, turning them over to others who wanted to conceal their ownership of the vehicles. When the payments to the lenders stopped, and the lenders tried to repossess the vehicles, the straw purchasers did not know where the vehicles were. Only Marshall and Harvey knew who the actual possessors were.

"This fraud scheme was based on luxury cars and lies," said U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias. "The conspirators allegedly designed the scheme to rapidly and fraudulently acquire large numbers of luxury vehicles through straw purchasers. The defendants then sold the cars to others who were unknown to the original lenders, leaving the lenders with very little recourse."