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Tuesday 22nd May 2007

Index




Basic Computer User



I recently had reason to try to upload a large file (268 meg) to my web site for a customer to download the next version of BizMan. After nearly a dozen attempts I gave up. Melissa from Web National (who hosts the JFYS web site) then sent me this link http://transferbigfiles.com/Default.aspx


"Trusted" Web sites can no longer be trusted
more


Engin and Nokia offer free un-timed mobile calls
Users can now make free calls from their Nokia N95 mobile phones with Australian broadband phone service provider, Engin.


A Dozen Ways to Boost Your Business
Want to cut costs, improve communications, reduce paperwork, and say bye-bye to administrative headaches? In today’s tip, we’ve got 12 technologies that can rocket your small business ahead of the competition. more


Microsoft to buy Web ad firm for US$6B
The all-cash deal tops a dramatic one-month consolidation spree across the online advertising market sparked when Google agreed to buy DoubleClick for US$3.1 billion. more


Hardware vendors struggle with Vista
Partners claim it will be several years before the Vista ’ecosystem’ is ready. more


LG.Philips develops hair-thin display
Joint venture LG.Philips LCD on Thursday said it had developed a full-color, four-inch display that’s barely thicker than a human hair.


Office 2007 left unprotected in update snafu
Office 2007 users running Windows Vista may not have realized that their systems had not received several of this month’s patches, Microsoft said last week when it acknowledged that its security update services had failed to deploy the fixes. more


The impending Internet address shortage
Sometime in the next six years, the Internet will run out of space. more

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Advanced Computer User



TK Maxx security blunder will cost US$8.3B
45 million customers’ cards at an estimated US$186 each. more


Analyze Data in a Cinch
Excel’s PivotTables and charts can be intimidating, but don’t fear! We’ve got a step-by-step guide to using them to easily analyze your data in today’s tip. here


Virtualization: Real trouble for servers?
Technology to help companies make more efficient use of computers is crimping demand for some machines, forcing strategy shifts for IT giants. more


Businesses still cautious on Vista
Despite a rosy picture painted by Microsoft, uptake for large businesses could be as low as 1 percent, according to Gartner analyst.


Three scenarios for Microsoft’s open source threat
From peace in software to blowing up in Microsoft’s face, here’s where this brinkmanship could lead. more


The Mac way to do Windows
Parallels is an extraordinary accomplishment, allowing you to run Windows and Windows applications on the Mac. However, it’s still got a couple of flaws. more

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Health



The optimum sitting position was determined in 1953 by J. J. Keegan MD. An angle of 135 degrees between the body and thighs placed the least stress on the back. His research has recently been validated by a group of scientists at Woodend Hospital in Aberdeen, Scotland. more


...a recent analysis... ...discovered that the more onions and garlic people ate, the less likely they were to develop common cancers...


"Sicko" Is Completed and We’re Off to Cannes!

May 17, 2007

Friends,

It’s a wrap! My new film, “Sicko," is all done and will have its world premiere this Saturday night at the Cannes Film Festival. As with "Bowling for Columbine" and “Fahrenheit 9/11," we are honored to have been chosen by this prestigious festival to screen our work there.

My intention was to keep “Sicko" under wraps and show it to virtually no one before its premiere in Cannes. That is what I have done and, as you may have noticed if you are a recipient of my infrequent Internet letters, I have been very silent about what I’ve been up to. In part, that’s because I was working very hard to complete the film. But my silence was also because I knew that the health care industry -- an industry which makes up more than 15 percent of our GDP -- was not going to like much of what they were going to see in this movie and I thought it best not to upset them any sooner than need be.

Well, going quietly to Cannes, I guess, was not to be. For some strange reason, on May 2nd the Bush administration initiated an action against me over how I obtained some of the content they believe is in my film. As none of them have actually seen the film (or so I hope!), they decided, unlike with “Fahrenheit 9/11," not to wait until the film was out of the gate and too far down the road to begin their attack.

Bush’s Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, launched an investigation of a trip I took to Cuba to film scenes for the movie. These scenes involve a group of 9/11 rescue workers who are suffering from illnesses obtained from working down at Ground Zero. They have received little or no help with their health care from the government. I do not want to give away what actually happens in the movie because I don’t want to spoil it for you (although I’m sure you’ll hear much about it after it unspools Saturday). Plus, our lawyers have advised me to say little at this point, as the film goes somewhere far scarier than “Cuba." Rest assured of one thing: no laws were broken. All I’ve done is violate the modern-day rule of journalism that says, “ask no questions of those in power or your luncheon privileges will be revoked."

This preemptive action taken by the Bush administration on the eve of the “Sicko" premiere in Cannes led our attorneys to fear for the safety of our film, noting that Secretary Paulson may try to claim that the content of the movie was obtained through a violation of the trade embargo that our country has against Cuba and the travel laws that prohibit average citizens of our free country from traveling to Cuba. (The law does not prohibit anyone from exercising their first amendment right of a free press and documentaries are protected works of journalism.)

I was floored when our lawyers told me this. “Are you saying they might actually confiscate our movie?" “Yes," was the answer. “These days, anything is possible. Even if there is just a 20 percent chance the government would seize our movie before Cannes, does anyone want to take that risk?"

Certainly not. So there we were last week, spiriting a duplicate master negative out of the country just so no one from the government would take it from us. (Seriously, I can’t believe I just typed those words! Did I mention that I’m an American, and this is America and NO ONE should ever have to say they had to do such a thing?)

I mean, folks, I have just about had it. Investigating ME because I’m trying to help some 9/11 rescue workers our government has abandoned? Once again, up is down and black is white. There are only two people in need of an investigation and a trial, and the desire for this across America is so widespread you don’t even need to see the one’s smirk or hear the other’s sneer to know who I am talking about.

But no, I’m the one who now has to hire lawyers and sneak my documentary out of the country just so people can see a friggin’ movie. I mean, it’s just a movie! What on earth could I have placed on celluloid that would require such a nonsensical action against me?

Ok. Scratch that.

Well, I’m on my way to Cannes right now, a copy of the movie in my bag. Don’t feel too bad for me, I’ll be in the south of France for a week! But then it’s back to the U.S. for a number of premieres and benefits and then, finally, a chance for all of you to see this film that I have made. Circle June 29th on your calendar because that’s when it opens in theaters everywhere across the country and Canada (for the rest of the world, it opens in the fall).

I can’t wait for you to see it.

Yours,

Michael Moore

P.S. I will write more about what happens from Cannes. Stay tuned on my website, MichaelMoore.com.


How honey can help wouds heal... here


Powerful Video Showing How Drugs Harm Children here


Are your overweight fellow-passengers going to kill you? more

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Other



Well, well, well! The media attention on Scientology certainly has sky-rocketed lately. There is an interesting video clip here that exposes some more of the reasons behind the hullabaloo.


Most organic materials can be used in a compost pile, although you’ll need a well maintained mix of browns and greens - browns are carbon-rich materials such as wood chips, leaves and straw, while greens are nitrogen-rich, such as kitchen scraps and grass cuttings. Things like tea bags, banana peels, apple cores and egg shells are excellent; however try to stay away from meat, dairy products and high-fat foods.
©Copyright Quartile Research. All Rights Reserved.


Tips to double your gas mileage... here


Watergate Without the Break-In here


The Peck-Away Theory of Getting Things Done

By Robert Ringer

Like all busy people, I can never hope to get around to getting everything done that I’d like to do. As a result, I have a tendency to work on many projects simultaneously - especially if they’re tedious in nature. This runs the gamut from moneymaking projects of major importance to organizational and tidying-up tasks.

For example, if I have to review and make revisions to a contract, I might work on it a half-dozen times a day, 10 to 15 minutes at a crack. Since I intensely dislike this kind of work, it’s hard for me to find - or make - the time to do it from start to finish in one sitting.

While I’m working on the contract, I might also be running “Disk Cleanup" or “Defrag" on my computer. And then I might listen to, and take notes for, a CD that needs editing, perhaps in segments of 15 to 20 minutes. From there, I might work on another draft of an article such as this one. And so on.

In a way, I guess this makes me a bit of an enigma, because I’m usually a very focused person. I always have one major project that I spend a majority of my time on each day, and I’m relentless about following such projects through to conclusion.

What I do, however, is take periodic breaks from my main project and peck away at anywhere from five to 10 other projects. The result is that a project I may never have “found" the time to do all at once ends up getting completed over time.

My approach to pecking away at projects is somewhat related to a Japanese strategy for achieving goals. The strategy I’m referring to is known as kaizen, and is summed up well in Lao Tzu’s oft-heard observation, “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with the first step."

So, I guess my Peck-Away Theory is really another way of “making the time." It’s just that I make the time to do many things rather than just one. You might want to give it a try and see how it fits on you. It’s not for everybody, but it’s worked out very well for me.

[Ed. Note: Take a gigantic step toward achieving all your personal and professional goals - faster than you ever imagined - with Robert Ringer’s best-selling personal-development program. And sign up for his Voice of Sanity e-letter here.]
From the http://www.earlytorise.com newsletter
[Early to Rise Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007]
If you’d like to subscribe to Early to Rise or suggest it to a friend, please visit: here


The ventriloquism’s pretty good and the script writing’s great. Nina Conti at the Albert Hall: here


This battle between Buffalo, Lions and Crocodile was filmed in Kruger National Park here


Dear Avaaz friend,

The Iraqi Parliament has a chance to block the handover of Iraqi oil to multinational companies. Help them resist.

Amidst rising bloodshed, President Bush has told the Iraqi Parliament they have till the 31st of May to pass a flawed oil law that could give multinational companies unprecedented control of Iraq’s oil fields. But some Iraqi leaders are resisting -- and they need our help.

Two weeks from now, members of the Iraqi Parliament -- including Sunni, Kurdish and Shia leaders -- are planning to read Avaaz’s petition of solidarity from the floor of Parliament. They say this statement of global support for Iraqi sovereignty will strengthen the resolve of their colleagues to face down Bush and big oil companies by opposing this law. So sign the petition today--let’s make 100,000 voices heard in Iraq’s Parliament before they vote: here

Our simple message: we support Iraq’s sovereign right to its own oil. Revenue from oil should be distributed fairly to the Iraqi people. And the Iraqi national parliament should decide this without foreign influence.

Oil accounts for 70% of Iraq’s national income. The proposed oil law would give multinational companies broad control of those revenues for three decades -- a deal more generous than any in the Middle East. In most countries, oil corporations perform services under contracts with governments. In Iraq, foreign companies would sit on the national council that gives out the contracts.

Here’s how the head of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, Hassan Jum’a Awwad, put it:

"Iraq is passing through the most difficult of times, because all and sundry are hounding it and covet a share of its riches. Everyone knows that the oil law does not serve the Iraqi people, and that it serves Bush, his supporters and the foreign companies at their expense."

It’s a rare sign of hope to see Iraqis coming together on anything, but this law is bad enough to unite almost everyone. Iraqis are asking for our help. Let’s tell them the world supports their right to set their own future. Sign on and help us reach 100,000 voices before they present the petition to the Parliament: here

In peace,

Ricken, Graziela, Paul and the Avaaz Team


Time to reform political donations in Australia
Our system of political donations is in urgent need of reform - as huge donations from powerful organisations and individuals are undermining and damaging our democratic process.

Millions of dollars are donated from corporations, tobacco companies, the gambling lobby and developers that are used to gain access and influence – as well as pay for costly, drawn-out election campaigns. It’s not surprising that money buys access to politicians - and this means wealthy donors can influence government decisions, which often benefit the donor at a cost to the wider community.

Recent changes to our electoral laws have made secret donations even easier - with no public disclosure required for up to 18 months after they have been received.

While countries like New Zealand, Canada and the UK have acted to limit election funding, Australia has moved in the opposite direction – making electoral funding less, not more, transparent. Our parties are engaged in an increasingly US-style fund-raising race which puts commercial interests ahead of research evidence and community support.

As legislative reform is long overdue, we are joining other public interest groups in calling for a national summit and a parliamentary inquiry in NSW to commence the process of review and reform.
More on this issue at www.democracywatch.com.au and www.democracy4sale.org/
Email NSW political parties LEADERS to support a parliamentary inquiry and a national summit on political donations. Below are the e-mail addresses of the leaders of the ALP, Liberal, Greens, Christian Democracts and the Shooters Party thepremier@parliament.nsw.gov.au; barry.ofarrell@parliament.nsw.gov.au; verity.firth@parliament.nsw.gov.au; robert.brown@parliament.nsw.gov.au; F.Nile@parliament.nsw.gov.au; lee.rhiannon@parliament.nsw.gov.au


Down home with Kate Ceberano here

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