Microsoft is launching its Kodu video game design tools to the PC in the hopes of igniting interest in computer programming among children ages nine and up.

Developed by Microsoft Research, Kodu launched last spring on the Xbox 360 as a learning tool that taught the basics of game development. Kids could use it to build game characters and the worlds where they live. They can easily morph the terrain of a game level and create logic loops that show the consequences of what happens after a trigger event. Matt MacLaurin, a director of the Redmond FUSE (Future Social Experiences) Lab and creator of Kodu, said in an interview that Kodu has been downloaded more than 200,000 times for use with the Xbox 360.

Now the PC version has been launched in a beta test. MacLaurin is more optimistic that schools will be able to adopt the PC version on a larger scale, since they don’t need an Xbox 360 anymore and because they can now export their data to share it with anyone. The PC version can be used with a mouse and keyboard, while the original version worked with a game controller.

MacLaurin said the tools introduce kids to programming, design, and math skills. And it does so in a way that doesn’t put kids to sleep. Anyone can create a game within minutes of trying it out.

Kodu users have been able to share their creations on Xbox Live Community Games Channel. MacLarin got the idea for Kodu from his daughter. When she was three years old, she watched MacLaurin’s wife browse her Facebook page. He realized that most kids interacted passively with computer content, not knowing they can create their own worlds. It took a couple of years to create Kodu. Almost a year after its release, 60 educational institutions are using it to introduce children to programming.

In Victoria, Australia, Kodu has been introduced in a pilot program at 26 schools. MacLarin estimates kids have created hundreds of thousands of games with Kodu. Fan sites such as Kodux.com share information among creators.
Dean Takahashi

That Facebook message, sent last fall between co-workers at a large U.S. financial firm, rang true enough. Alice had, in fact, attended a picnic with Bob, who mentioned the outing on his Facebook profile page.

So Alice clicked on the accompanying Web link, expecting to see Bob's photos. But the message had come from thieves who had hijacked Bob's Facebook account. And the link carried an infection. With a click of her mouse, Alice let the attackers usurp control of her Facebook account and company laptop. Later, they used Alice's company logon to slip deep inside the financial firm's network, where they roamed for weeks. They had managed to grab control of two servers, and were probing deeper, when they were detected.

Intrusions like this one — investigated by network infrastructure provider Terremark — can expose a company to theft of its most sensitive data. Such attacks illustrate a dramatic shift underway in the Internet underground. Cybercriminals are moving aggressively to take advantage of an unanticipated chink in corporate defenses: the use of social networks in workplace settings. They are taking tricks honed in the spamming world and adapting them to what's driving the growth of social networks: speed and openness of individuals communicating on the Internet.

"Social networks provide a rich repository of information cybercriminals can use to refine their phishing attacks," says Chris Day, Terremark's chief security architect.

This shift is gathering steam, tech security analysts say. One sign: The volume of spam and phishing scams — like the "LOL is this you?" viral messages sweeping through Twitter— more than doubled in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008, according to IBM's X-Force security research team. Such "phishing" lures — designed to trick you into clicking on an infectious Web link — are flooding e-mail inboxes, as well as social-network messages and postings, at unprecedented levels.

An infected PC, referred to as a "bot," gets slotted into a network of thousands of other bots. These "botnets" then are directed to execute all forms of cybercrime, from petty scams to cyberespionage. On Tuesday, authorities in Spain announced the breakup of a massive botnet, called Mariposa, comprising more than 12 million infected PCs in 190 countries.

Three Spanish citizens with no prior criminal records were arrested. Panda Security, of Bilbao, Spain, helped track down the alleged ringleader, who authorities say has been spreading infected links for about a year, mainly via Microsoft's free MSN instant messenger service.

"It became too big and too noticeable," says Pedro Bustamante, senior researcher at Panda Security. "They would have been smarter to stay under the radar."

What happened to Bob and Alice, the picnickers at the financial firm, illustrates how social networks help facilitate targeted attacks. As a rule, tech-security firms investigate breaches under non-disclosure agreements. Honoring such a policy, Terremark used pseudonyms for the affected employees in supplying USA TODAY with details of what happened at the financial institution.

Investigators increasingly find large botnets running inside corporate networks, where they can be particularly difficult to root out or disable. "Social networks represent a vehicle to distribute malicious programs in ways that are not easily blocked," says Tom Cross, IBM X-Force Manager.

Koobface gold mine

The attacks run the gamut. In just four weeks earlier this year, one band of low-level cyberthieves, known in security circles as the Kneber gang, pilfered 68,000 account logons from 2,411 companies, including user names and passwords for 3,644 Facebook accounts. Active since late 2008, the Kneber gang has probably cracked into "a much higher number" of companies, says Tim Belcher, CTO of security firm NetWitness, which rooted out one of the gang's storage computers.

"Every network we see today has a significant problem with some form of organized threat," Belcher says. The Kneber gang "happened to focus on collecting as many network-access credentials as possible."

Stolen credentials flow into eBay-like hacking forums where a batch of 1,000 Facebook user name and password pairs, guaranteed valid, sells for $75 to $200, depending on the number of friends tied to the accounts, says Sean-Paul Correll, researcher at Panda Security. From each account, cyberscammers can scoop up e-mail addresses, contact lists, birth dates, hometowns, mothers' maiden names, photos and recent gossip — all useful for targeting specific victims and turning his or her PC into an obedient bot, Correll says.

On the high end, the Koobface worm, initially set loose 19 months ago, continues to increase in sophistication as it spreads through Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social networks. At its peak last August, more than 1 million Koobface-infected PCs inside North American companies were taking instructions from criminal controllers to carry out typical botnet criminal activities, says Gunter Ollmann, vice president of research at security firm Damballa.

In another measure of Koobface's ubiquity, Kaspersky Labs estimates that there are 500,000 Koobface-controlled PCs active on the Internet on an average day, 40% of which are in the U.S., 15% in Germany and the rest scattered through 31 other nations. "The personal information employees post day-by-day on Facebook is turning out to be a real gold mine," says Stefan Tanase, a Kaspersky Lab senior researcher.

Facebook, the dominant social network, with 400 million members and therefore the biggest target, says recent partnerships with Microsoft and security firm McAfee to filter malicious programs help keep compromised accounts to a small percentage. "We are constantly working to improve complex systems that quickly detect and block suspicious activity, delete malicious links and help people restore access to their accounts," says spokesman Simon Axten.

Still, social networks have grown popular because they foster open communication among friends and acquaintances, which plays into the bad guys' hands, says Eva Chen, CEO of anti-virus firm Trend Micro.

"These new communication platforms are where people go, so that's where the hackers are going," Chen says.

Meanwhile, discussions about restricting workplace use of social networks and training employees to be more circumspect are just beginning to percolate at venues like the big tech security trade show here this week sponsored by RSA, the security division of EMC. "Most larger businesses simply ask employees to watch their time spent on social-networking sites," Ollmann says.

A noisy attack

Each infected PC in a corporate network represents a potential path to valuable intellectual property, such as customer lists, patents or strategic documents. That's what the attackers who breached Google and 30 other tech, media, defense and financial companies in January were after. Those attacks — referred to in security circles as Operation Aurora — very likely were initiated by faked friendly messages sent to specific senior employees at the targeted companies, says George Kurtz, McAfee's chief technology officer.

The attack on the picnicking co-workers at the financial firm illustrates how targeted attacks work. Last fall, attackers somehow got access to Bob's Facebook account, logged into it, grabbed his contact list of 50 to 60 friends and began manually reviewing messages and postings on his profile page. Noting discussions about a recent picnic, the attackers next sent individual messages, purporting to carry a link to picnic photos, to about a dozen of Bob's closest Facebook friends, including Alice. The link in each message led to a malicious executable file, a small computer program.

Upon clicking on the bad file, Alice unknowingly downloaded a rudimentary keystroke logger, a program designed to save everything she typed at her keyboard and, once an hour, send a text file of her keystrokes to a free Gmail account controlled by the attacker. The keystroke logger was of a type that is widely available for free on the Internet.

The attackers reviewed the hourly keystroke reports from Alice's laptop and took note when she logged into a virtual private network account to access her company's network. With her username and password, the attackers logged on to the financial firm's network and roamed around it for two weeks.

First they ran a program, called a port scan, to map out key network connection points. Next they systematically scanned all of the company's computer servers looking for any that were not current on Windows security patches. Companies often leave servers unpatched, relying on perimeter firewalls to keep intruders at bay. The attackers eventually found a vulnerable server, and breached it, gaining a foothold to go deeper.

A short time later, the attackers were discovered and cut off. One of Bob's Facebook friends mentioned to Bob that the picnic photos he had sent had failed to render. That raised suspicions. A technician took a closer look at daily logs of data traffic on the company's network and spotted the vulnerability scans.

Terremark's Day says two or three collaborators, each with different skill sets, most likely worked together to pull off the attack. "They were noisy about how they went about this," Day says. "Had they been quieter they would've gotten much further."
By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY

Vista is far from perfect but it’s possible to make it a little more perfect and a little more useful by downloading and installing some free utilities for it. If you have no idea where to start or which programs to look for, here are some that will get you well on your way.

These are not listed in any particular order but are grouped by category.

Vista Optimizers

Vista may not operate the way you want, right out of the box and besides removing some startup entries, these programs will do their best to optimize and configure Vista to operate the way you want and not the way Microsoft thinks you want it to operate.

Tweak VI, this program is designed to optimize your processor, hard drive access and various other features to make Vista just a little faster. There is an “Auto Optimize” button that will take care of it for you but note that could turn off some of the more advanced features that you may actually use. Thankfully, it has a built in “Settings Restore” feature in case you don’t like the changes it makes. Available in both free and pay versions.

Advanced Windows Care is another tweaking program but of a different nature. This is kind of an “all-in-one” optimizer, malware immunizer/scanner and junk file/registry cleaner. It works as advertised and is very effective at immunizing against many common malware threats (mostly spyware and malicious cookies) and the registry cleaner not only deletes errant entries but can also “repair” and “optimize” entries that are not functioning as they should be. It will also help you optimize your startup programs. Available in both free and pay versions.

CCleaner is a rather simple utility but is nonetheless effective. It’s sole purpose is to clean out junk files and errant registry entries, however, it can only delete registry entries and cannot repair them. I have found it best to run Advanced Windows Care first to repair and delete entries and use CCleaner to catch anything that Advanced Windows Care may have missed. Completely free but the author accepts donations.

After running these utilities there are probably gaps all over your hard drive from programs, files and registry entries being deleted. Windows Vista may be smarter than previous versions of Windows when it comes to maintaining the integrity and placement of files but it still rates below that five year old jar of mayonnaise sitting in the back of your refrigerator.

Instead, use Auslogics Disk Defrag to close those gaps and optimize file access. Defragging should be part of at least a monthly maintenance cycle, Vista has one built in but it is about as useful as a rotting sandwich. Completely free.

Security Software

Did you know that you don’t have to be shanghaied into buying those expensive security suites? Well, you don’t. Many home users can use a bevy a free utilities available for download to protect their computers at no cost. Note, most of these programs are free for personal use only, charities and non-profit organizations are eligible to download discounted versions of the full programs, anyone falling outside of those categories much purchase the full version of the program at full cost.

AVG Free Edition is one of the better known free anti-virus solutions. And why not? The program is lightweight, effective against most threats and features some of the best detection rates among free anti-virus programs. Features an easy to understand interface and is best suited for home users only.

Spybot S&D, free malware protection, it’s a spyware scanner, it’s free but it’s not as effective as it used to be. I’m afraid that to get decent spyware protection these days, you’ll actually have to buy a program but Spybot is better than nothing.

Adaware SE Personal, spyware scanner only, does not offer active protection but removing spyware after the fact is, once again, doing something, instead of nothing. There are paid versions of the program that offer active scanning and infection prevention systems.

Vista Firewall Control is basically an easier to use GUI front for the built-in Vista Firewall. It will turn on the “two-way” protection of the firewall which is off by default and notify you of which programs already have firewall permissions and which ones are requesting it. This one is offered in free and several tiers of paid versions.

Fun Utilities

Up to know it has been a list of “serious programs” to protect and optimize your system but do little to add to the “fun factor” and your computer should be fun to use. Hopefully these will fit the bill and make you look forward to logging on every day or at least, more often.

Rocket Dock provides a Mac OSX-like dock on your screen. It can be positioned at the top, bottom or on either side of the screen. Settings include running application indicators, zoom effects, minimize effects and minimize applications to the dock among many others. It can be configured to suit each individual user. Free but the author accepts donations.

Iconoid has one purpose, if you are a “file pack rat” and don’t care much for organization, it’s likely that your desktop is a cluttered mess. This is a problem if you like nice desktop backgrounds so hide those unsightly icons until you need them. Iconoid will do just that, set it to always hide the icons, start with windows, hide when started, the choices are endless.

Switcher provides another piece of Mac OSX to Windows Vista users. You may know of the “Expose” feature of Mac OSX which tiles running application windows across the screen so you can easily select the one you need. Vista has the “Windows Tab” feature for 3D flip but this is a less effective method. Switcher tiles open windows across your screen just like “Expose” on Mac OSX would. It even has a search feature so if you have a lot of applications open all you need to do is type its name.

Alternative Browsers

Honestly only a novice’s novice uses Internet Explorer and while there may be instances that you need to use it there is no excuse for using it all the time.

Firefox is probably the most popular “alternative” browser but what makes it unique is that there are tons of “add-ons” and themes to customize it to your liking, you can even make it look and function just like Internet Explorer, except without all the exploits.

Opera, what can I say about it, it’s cross platform for both Windows and Mac, it’s fast but not nearly as customizable as Firefox is.

Then there is Safari, it’s fast too but is quite buggy under Windows and it uses Mac OSX cleartyping instead of what’s native to Windows and the text appears slightly “blurred.”

Alternative Office Suites

Why pay for Microsoft Office when there is a free alternative that gives you most of the functionality present in Microsoft’s program?

There’s really only one free alternative to Microsoft Office being OpenOffice. It’s an office suite, it’s free, the only thing it lacks is an email client. There are also several “online” office suites like Google Docs but I prefer running local programs, maybe it’s just me.

File Sharing

Be careful when file sharing as this is a gray area of the law but there are still many legal ways to use a file sharing program.

FrostWire and LimeWire are two of the best file sharing programs on the planet, their only fault is that they aren’t the best at torrent downloads (though that is supported) and lets be honest here, torrents really aren’t that great unless you have a few hours to wait for a relatively small download. LimeWire has both paid and free versions where FrostWire is an open source version of LimeWire, how they got away with that I will never know.

Photo Editing

PhotoShop may be the standard but for most of us that’s a bit of overkill and some excellent photo editing software can be had for free.

First there is Paint.NET which was meant as a replacement for Windows Paint and is actually maintained by some of the original developers who worked on Windows Paint. Needless to say Paint.NET is far and above Paint with support for layers, unlimited undo, thumbnail browsing of open images, it’s like a “lite” version of PhotoShop. Paint.NET was listed in the top 20 products of 2007 at PCWorld. For most basic tasks and for those who are tired of Paint, Paint.NET will make your day.

Second there is PhotoPlus which is a lot more like PhotoShop with many of the same features, just in a slightly different layout. While it is free, you must register the program online to get a free serial number and you must do this for all copies that you want to deploy. There are also several paid versions of PhotoPlus but if you’re going to buy PhotoPlus you may as well spend that $80 on PhotoShop Elements.

Last but not least is Picasa and while it’s not an editor as such, it does do basic tasks such as cropping and removing red eye but this program’s primary function is to scour your hard drive for photos and organize them in a manner that is easy to understand. It has been compared to iPhoto on the Mac and dare I say that it comes pretty close.

Audio Editing

For those of us that would like to turn our music collection into a few ringtones or the aspiring Podcaster, you don’t need to drop lots of cash on an audio recording/editing program, you don’t even need to drop any cash at all.

Audacity is a free audio recording and editing program though sometimes it doesn’t play nice with newer hardware and it may be hit or miss as to whether it works fully with your system or not. Most should be fine, however.

The program is very basic and offers recording and playback but for import or export of MP3 files requires the LAME encoder. I feel that this should have been built in to the program. The LAME encoder is not hard to get working but it’s just an extra step that irritates/annoys me.

To get a really good audio editing program or compete with professionals, you’ll have to buy one.

Media and playback utilities

While all versions of Windows include Windows Media Player you will find this very limiting as it doesn’t support very many codecs and while there are plugins to make others work with it, it’s still quite limited in what it can do. Here are some media utilities that you may find useful.

Ashampoo Clip Finder is a program that you download and install to your desktop and once you have done so this enables you to search the most popular video sites such as YouTube, DailyMotion, MyVideo and others. After you’ve found the clip you are looking for it will either let you watch the clip or download it to your computer for permanent use.

VLC Media Player is a cross platform audio/video media player. It is lightweight and the user interface is very simple to use and it plays just about every audio or video format in existence.

DVDShrink is designed specifically to compress your purchased DVDs to your hard drive and then optionally burn them to a DVDR, DVDRW or DVDRW DL (dual layer) disc. Yes, it lets you create your own personal archived DVD collection in case something happens to the originals or just keep the files on your hard drive and watch the movies any time you please. Nero must be installed to enable automatic burning of backed up DVDs. To enable automatic backup copy burning, a full version of Nero must be installed.

Burning Utilities

CDBurnerXP and DeepBurner are two free programs you can use to burn DVDs or CDs but the free versions of these programs are very limited. They can be used to do basic data backup and burn bootable ISO or drive image discs but cannot be used to burn, say, the backup files from a DVD stored on your hard drive. DeepBurner offers a slightly more fully featured pay version but if you’re going to pay for one you may as well turn your sights towards Nero.

System Utilities

Speedfan is a very simple program that reads and reports the temperature(s) of the various components of your computer. Any component that has a temperature sensor on it will be reported, this is primarily used to check the temperature of your processor, motherboard and graphics card but in some cases other components have monitoring as well. It can also check the SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) status of your hard drive. Hard drives “know” how healthy they are and this information is reported transparently to the operating system but utilities like this are required to check the status. However, this is a bonus and is not intended to replace true SMART monitoring software and none of the good ones are free.

CPU-Z will tell you what type of processor you have, the speed it is currently operating at, voltage status, memory type/size/configuration, motherboard manufacturer and other system information that is otherwise not accessible. This software is good for helping you decide on what kind of memory and how much you can install in your system.

Belarc Advisor is a PC Auditing utility that will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about your computer. Everything from operating system version, installed updates, programs, licenses, hardware and what drivers are currently installed will be found by Belarc. If Belarc can’t find it then you don’t have it.

Activation Backup and Restore (ABR) (located near the bottom as ABRbeta3.zip) has one very simple purpose. When the installed operating system on your computer is activated at the factory, the manufacturer probably used an “OEM activation kit” which may or may not match the COA (Certificate of Authenticity) sticker on your computer. If it does match then there will be few problems but if it doesn’t, the operating system may have trouble activating when you use the serial number located on it. The only solution then is to call Microsoft and get another key. ABR will backup your “OEM activation” and after you have reinstalled will either overwrite the current “bad” activation and replace it with the original OEM activation or will just activate the operating system even if you didn’t enter the serial key. Use of a flash drive is required with this utility as that is where it will store the backup activation sequence.

You may have already be using or have heard of some of these programs but I hope you enjoyed this collection of programs for Vista. There were programs that I would have liked to put in here but for one reason or another did not make the list this time. Look for a follow up to this post in the future.

My love for electronics has familiarized me with a lot of gadgets and accessories, including computer hardware and software. So, when an avalanche of enthusiasts flooded the Internet with the view of investigating what the latest Microsoft Windows has in stock, I couldn’t resist the urge to look. I have never been a fan any sort of beta software (past or present). And I may never be. The simple reason for this is that I have always loved my software to be a ‘completely’ finished product. Not just Beta 1, 2, or 3!

My adventures with Windows 7 Beta and Release Candidate were merely out of curiosity. Nothing serious! Tired of hearing friends and family members showering all kinds of accolades on it, I decided (rather belatedly) to see things for myself. And, I was not disappointed. Though, I must also admit that I didn’t jump over the moon.

First and foremost, my several days of scrutiny have shown me that Microsoft Windows 7 (Beta and Release Candidate) is a good operating system. Not at all fantastic; but very good! I uploaded and tested all three versions: Ultimate, Professional, and Home Premium. But since this is only a beta version, Microsoft can still make whatever alterations it likes, before bundling them out on October 22. By the way, that date is indeed my own birthday; so, I would want it to be a good day not just for me—but also, for everybody—including Microsoft.

Like the Windows Vista before it, the Ultimate version of this new Windows 7 is the full monty! It contains every feature of the operating system. It also seems to include all the drivers that I needed during the period I spent testing it. I noted that it loads quickly and runs both clean and fast. But before going into the details of my findings, let me quickly mention that the overview of my hardware specification is given at the end of this summary—together with Microsoft’s own stipulated minimum system requirements.

Using a bunch of multi-tasking software (designed for Vista and for Windows Server 2008), I did my best to push the limits of Windows 7, but it seemed to withstand the shots pretty well. I was impressed by this—given the fact that the software is still an initial/beta release. Remarkably, both the Ultimate and the Professional versions of Windows 7 could run older software, if the user switches the compatibility mode to Windows XP mode. I tested this feature satisfactorily; and my only complaint is that this useful feature is lacking in the Home Premium edition of the O/S. This means that some of your older software and peripherals, which ran smoothly on both Windows XP and Vista, might be rejected by the Home edition of this new Windows 7.

Another important feature that I used in the Ultimate and Pro versions, but which are also missing in the Home edition is the Backup utility. This offered me a complete PC backup: by cloning my system’s hard disk. Everything was fine—even with my external drives. All the booting times were short. The only problem I noticed here was that this backup utility does not work with any hard drive, which is formatted using the FAT system.

Also, the Graphical User Interface seems to breathe new life into monitors. Everything was as clear as crystal—just like I was using a glossy high definition monitor. And, there are several image and menu adjustment options in this arena. Again, the issue of disc burning has gotten advanced, but smoother. It is much easier now. The same applies to the intuitive Device Troubleshooting feature, which Microsoft painstakingly crafted into din.

From network connectivity to media center entertainment, and down to both security and accessibility options, the improvements in Windows 7 are really plausible. The Windows Bit Locker and Drive Encryption options are a beauty to behold. However, I will not praise the O/S too much at this time, because all the things that I used to test it are the software and peripherals designed for either Vista or XP. I do not have any one specifically made for Windows 7 yet. And, only when they become available and are satisfactorily tested; would I conclude that this O/S does not hog-down system resources. Moreover, I am pleased given the fact that Microsoft is on schedule with this particular release, and it performs creditably even at its pre-release beta state.

Finally, if the signs I saw are anything to go by, then, I would say that this Windows 7 is a good O/S. But intending buyers of the Home edition should note that some useful options available in both the Professional and the Ultimate editions are missing from it. Pay attention to the version you choose, if backups are high in your agenda. Do as well, if you wish to run some of your older peripherals and software on this brand new O/S.

Before wrapping-up, the following is an overview of the specifications of the PC I used in my tests. Note that I used 1TB (i.e. 1024GB) Seagate External Drives as well. For any application, variations in hardware may produce significant variations in software performance.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 Processor (4 x 3.00GHz)
8GB (i.e. 8192MB) 1333MHz DDR3 RAM/Memory
1.5TB (i.e. 1536GB) SATA II Seagate Ultra Hard Disk/Drive
Two NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT 1024MB PCI Express Graphics Cards (2048MB SLI)
Samsung Sync Master T240 24” TFT Monitor
7.1 Surround Harman/Kardon Loudspeakers

Meanwhile, Microsoft recommended these minimum specifications:

1GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1GB RAM (32-bit) / 2GB RAM (64-bit)
16GB available disk space (32-bit) / 20GB (64-bit)
DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Meanwhile, bear in mind that running software on those machines, which only meet the minimum specifications may hamper certain functionalities; and thus, not yield optimum results. Both Microsoft and all other software manufacturers are aware of this.

 1. Heaven on earth is a choice you must make, not a place you must find

 2. We are judged by our actions, not our intentions.

 3. “The key to change… is to let go of fear.”-Rosanne Cash

 4. “A good life is: learning, earning and yearning.”- Christopher Morley

 5. “Success doesn’t come to you…you go to it.”Marva Collins

 6. “Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.” Earl Nightingale

 7. “Success is a journey, not a destination.” Ben Sweetland

 8. “I believe the greater the handicap, the greater the triumph.” John H. Johnson

 9. “Success is not permanent. The same is also true of failure.” Dell Crossword

 10. It is easy to get to the top after you get through the crowd at the bottom. Zig Ziglar

 11. “When a man is willing and eager, the gods join in.” Aeschylus

 12. “Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.” Woody Allen

 13. Act as though it is impossible to fail.

 14. “Be self-reliant and your success is assured

 15. Choice, not circumstances, determines your success

 16. Confidence is the companion of success.

 17.  “He who does not tire, tires adversity

 18. If you would live your life with ease; do what you ought, not what you please.

 19. In order to succeed, you must first be willing to fail

 20. Many a man owes his success to his first wife and his second wife to his success.

 21. So far the only successful substitute for brains is silence

 22. Success always occurs in private and failure in full public view

 23. Success comes before work only in the dictionary

24. “Success is not access to excess.”

25. Keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final.”Roger Ward Babson

26. “Meet success like a gentleman and disaster like a man.”

27. “To respond is positive, to react is negative.”

28. “Defeat never comes to any man until he admits it.” Josephus Daniels

29. “The secret of success is constancy to purpose.” Benjamin Disraeli

30. “I buy when other people are selling.” J. Paul Getty

31. “Success as I see it is a result, not a goal.” Gustave Flaubert

32. “Failure is success if we learn from it.” Malcolm Forbes

33. “On the pinnacle of success man does not stand firm long.” Goethe

34. “Self-trust is the first secret of success.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

35. “We will either find a way, or make one!” Hannibal

36.  “Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom.” Euripides

37.  What you project you infect -Darren Scott Monroe

38.  it’s not about doing 5000 things but 5 things 1000 times -Darren Scott Monroe

39.  “Time Tells All Truths” -Darren Scott Monroe

40. FAIL= False Acceptance in Lies -Darren Scott Monroe

41. Sadness is watching Ignorance in Captivity-Darren Scott Monroe

42. Within our thoughts lie excellence and execution-Darren Scott Monroe

43. To be Aware is to be Alive - Darren Scott Monroe

44. There are no new idea’s only new expressions of new ideas Darren Scott Monroe

45. You are only as great as What You Create. Create Greatness -Darren Scott Monroe

46. Deal in specifics and your business will grow infinitely-Darren Scott Monroe

47. Your credibility outweighs your earnings infinitely-Darren Scott Monroe

48. No Value No Business -Darren Scott Monroe

49. “Great souls have wills; feeble ones have only wishes.” Chinese Proverb

50. “People do not lack strength; they lack will.” Victor Hugo

51.  “Will is character in action.” William Mcdougall

52. “Never let defeat have the last word.” Tibetan Proverb

53. “There is no victory at bargain basement prices.” Dwight David Eisenhower

54. “There are many victories worse than a defeat.” George Eliot

55. “Success demands singleness of purpose.”Vince Lombardi

56. “We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat.” Queen Victoria

57.” Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open.” Thomas Dewar

58. “It’s not the situation. It’s your reaction to the situation Robert Conklin

59. “Live with passion.” Anthony Robbins

60. “Attitude determines altitude.”

61. I can alter my life by altering the attitude of my mind

62. Attitudes are contagious. Are yours worth catching?

63. The control center of your life is your attitude

64. There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes. William John Bennett

65. “The only disability in life is a bad attitude.”Scott Hamilton

66. Yesterday I dared to struggle. Today I dare to win.

67. The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success

68. Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed

69. Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.

70. The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen

71. It is on our failures that we base a new and different and better success

72. You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one

73. The depth of your mythology is the extent of your effectiveness.

74. The depth of your mythology is the extent of your effectiveness. (2nd time)

75. The depth of your mythology is the extent of your effectiveness (3rd time)

76. To fly, we have to have resistance.

77. Nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content

78. To succeed, we must first believe that we can

79. Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can

80. Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly

81. Work for something because it’s good, not because it stands a chance to succeed.

82. Integrity is so perishable in the summer months of success.

83. Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm

84. A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position

85. “Victory is sweetest when you’ve known defeat.”

86.  “Victory is sweetest when you’ve known defeat.”

87. “The road to success is always under construction”

88. To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.”

89. “Success comes in cans; failure in

90. “For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.”

91. “Success is a ladder that cannot be climbed with your hands in your pocket”

92. “Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”

93. “Success is in the details.”

94. Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm

95. “Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it.”

96. Patience, persistence & perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success

97. The best way to succeed in this world is to act on the advice you give to others

98. Motivation will almost always beat mere talent.

99. Victory belongs to the most persevering.

100. If you’re thinking of debt, that’s what you’re going to attract

101. “The only limits in our life are those we impose on ourselves.”

All the experts agree that the most-asked, and most important question in ECommerce is:

"Where do I find products to sell online?"

The answer is simple: RESEARCH. However, while the answer may be simple, the actual research is not. It's extremely important to work with only Genuine, Factory-Authorized Wholesalers of the products you want to sell. If you don't, you'll pay too much for your products, and your competition will beat you every time. Finding those GENUINE Wholesalers is a lot harder than it may seem.

The Scammers know where you Search:

  world wide brands

·         The major Search Engines contain literally thousands of web sites run by Scam Artists who CLAIM to be real Wholesalers, but are NOT. They simply get in between you and the real Wholesaler, and raise your wholesale prices. They're very good at looking like real Wholesalers, and they fool a lot of people. They know they're cheating you, and they don't care.

·         There are also dozens of "wholesale lists" and "wholesale directories" in the Search Engines. Their sites look very convincing as well. They make outrageous promises and sell junk "lists and directories" full of useless and outdated information at cheap prices. However, ALL THEY REALLY WANT is your personal contact information, so they can SELL your personal information to thousands of other internet marketers and "coaching" programs that will rip you off for thousands of dollars.

·         REAL Factory Authorized Wholesalers generally do not advertise in the Search Engines. These are large Wholesale companies, and they don't believe it's worth their time and effort to advertise to small home-based business owners. They WILL work with you if you can find them, though.

For these reasons, looking for Wholesale Suppliers in the Search Engines is a waste of time. The Scammers know you're searching there, and that's where they focus their efforts. The real Wholesalers aren't there to begin with.

REAL Product Sourcing Research:

We are in the Wholesale Research and Verification business. Product Sourcing is what we do, full time.

We do the Product Sourcing Research, so you don't have to.

Over the past seven years, we have Researched tens of thousands of companies that claim to be Wholesalers.

Some companies we've Researched are real Wholesalers, and some are not. When we find Wholesale Suppliers that are real Wholesalers, we Research them even further. Our Full-Time Research Team talks personally with each and every one of them, to determine whether they are a good fit for our database.

We have very high standards, and even many companies who are real wholesalers don't "make the cut" to get listed in our database. Our Researchers' ONLY job is to qualify more and more legitimate Wholesale Suppliers who will agree to work with Home-based Internet Business Owners like you. Our staff works on that Research five days a week, all year 'round.

Here's How We Do It:

Step 1: Raw Materials

·         We buy specialized raw contact lists of thousands of manufacturers and wholesale suppliers from large Lead Generation companies like Dunn & Bradstreet and InfoUSA. These raw data lists cost thousands of dollars each. The raw data is new and different each time. Each time we purchase raw leads, we choose 6 product markets to research, such as Sporting Goods, Baby Products, Electronics, etc. Each time after that, we choose 6 new categories.

When we buy this raw data, there is no way to know which of these companies is willing to Drop Ship, Light Bulk Wholesale, Liquidate, provide Instant Wholesale Buys, or even work with Home-based Internet Businesses at all. It is simply a huge amount of RAW CONTACT DATA on companies who make and wholesale products.

·         We also attend the largest and most diverse Wholesale Trade Shows across the entire United States. Wholesale Trade shows are a great place to interact personally with large numbers of companies who may be willing to Drop Ship and/or Light Bulk Wholesale for your Home-based Internet Business.

There are hundreds of these shows every year, but only a few of the really big ones matter. The small ones are little more than glorified flea markets, which are not suitable places to find Manufacturers and Wholesalers for a continuous source of products to sell online. Because of that, we don't waste our time sitting around our local area waiting for dozens of cheap "gift and trinket" shows to come to us. We travel the country, from Atlanta to New York to Las Vegas to Los Angeles and more, meeting the REAL Players in this business at the REAL Wholesale Trade Shows. As a result, we bring back thousands of leads for our Research Team to follow up on.

There is NO other source of information in this business that can honestly claim to use both these methods to their full potential as extensively and effectively as we do!

Step 2: Initial Contact

We have our own in-house Research Team and Call Center. Our own Researchers know exactly the kind of Wholesale Suppliers you need for your Home-based Internet Business. Those Researchers telephone each and every Wholesale Supplier we find on our purchased Contact Lists and at Wholesale Trade Shows, over and over if necessary, until they speak to someone at each Wholesale Supplier.

Then they ask a series of questions that determines whether each company might be a good fit for our database. Each day, our Researchers review information with each other on those Suppliers.

Step 3: Qualification

Our in-house Research Staff then places a return call to each of those potential Suppliers who are approved by our Research Supervisor, and talks to those companies at length. If a Wholesale Supplier meets with our Researchers' initial approval process, they must fill out an extensive questionnaire. Then the Researchers verify the answers to those questions.

If that verification meets our approval, our Researcher will call them again with a final round of questions. Then the Researcher will do a final check into the company's background.

Once we decide that a Wholesale Supplier passes all of our more than twenty qualifications, they must submit and certify that they information they provided to us was accurate. Then, the suppliers are passed through one final verification process by the Research Manager to ensure final compliance for our database.

Step 4: Final Processing

Finally, we load all of the verified Wholesale Supplier's product line, brand name information and contact details into our database and make the new supplier LIVE in our database.

As you can see, we are VERY serious about the quality of the information our company provides. We are NOT just some guy sitting in his basement, selling a worthless list of Search Engine Returns that took him an hour to put together. This full time Research is WHAT WE DO FOR A LIVING every day. It's our business. Our families, and the families of our employees depend on the quality we put into our work. We do not compromise that quality for any reason, ever!

·         This is why our Founder, Chris Malta, is eBay Radio's choice as their Product Sourcing Editor.

·         This is why we are the most trusted, respected and popular Product Sourcing experts for Home-based Internet Business on the Internet.

·         This is why we are invited to speak at eBay's National Convention every year, and invited on to teach about Product Sourcing at many national seminars and events.

·         This is why we write and Host Product Sourcing Radio every week.

·         This is why everyone from USA Today to Yahoo Finance is talking about us.

Because we do it right. Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tools will save you a tremendous amount of time and money, and give you millions of product choices for your EBiz.

We do all that tremendously time-consuming Product Sourcing Research, so you don't have to!

But That's Not All...

Knowing WHAT to sell is just as important as knowing WHERE to source it. If you don't know what people are BUYING online, you won't be successful in SELLING online. Worldwide Brands' Product Sourcing Tool does a complete Market Research Analysis every time you search on a product. Our tool INSTANTLY tells you:

·         On a 0% to 100% Scale, how well each product you search for will sell.

·         How many people are searching the Internet for your products.

·         How many other people are selling your products.

·         Who your competitors are, and what their Advertising says.

·         What other variations of your product searches are selling well online.

·         Which Search Engine Keywords are the most popular for the products you want to sell.

Worldwide Brands hosts the World's ONLY Complete Solution...
There is nothing else like the Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing solution anywhere in the Product Sourcing market. We pioneered legitimate Home EBiz Product Sourcing research and information in 1999, and we continue to be the indisputable top choice in the market today. There is no other wholesale information on the Internet that even begins to come close to what Worldwide Brands offers.

world wide brands

 The New Wireless Without Worries

You may think you have WiFi Wireless Security, but if you're operating a on a wireless network at home, or place of business, you are susceptible to being broken into and having important information stolen or destroyed. It doesn't require any sophistication for someone to easily crack your security, any individual can download free tools off the Internet) and access everything that goes across your network. Unfortunately, that includes your passwords, emails, personal information, credit card numbers, etc.


Your WiFi wireless security network is like walking around with walkie-talkies... Everybody is listening.


The best four (4) WiFi Security Tips and six (6) WiFi Myths.

If you're at home, at work, or at a public access point and you're using a wireless network to get on the Internet, you must understand no matter how convenient it is to be mobile and wireless, there is a price being paid. Your WiFi wireless is leaking your information and whatever you send or receive can be viewed by anyone that has wifi capability within the vicinity. That means someone can read your emails, see your passwords, see what online bank you use, and see information and forms which you fill out on online (and that's just for starters).

There is a vast amount of information available on the Internet on wireless security and it's available for any Ton, Dick, or Harry. Go ahead. Try searches like "cracking wep", "cracking wpa", and "wireless security". You'll find plenty of technical information and proof that no off the shelf wireless products are secure. After you've read about how insecure wireless is, don't forget to come back here and see how we can secure your wireless for you.

Wireless Without Worry

Attention all Brokers - Associate Brokers - Agents - and all your clients. After eighteen years in real estate, fifteen of those years as Broker/Owner of First American Realty Group, L. C., I am now your Online Security Authority.You read that right... do yourself and your clients a favor. If they're not important enough, do it for your children and your clients children. You want to maintain a presence all year round in your clients face 24/365 - protect their children. David C Ballard

At Google, we believe that ads are a valuable source of information — one that can connect people to the advertisers offering products, services and ideas that interest them. By making ads more relevant, and improving the connection between advertisers and our users, we can create more value for everyone. Users get more useful ads, and these more relevant ads generate higher returns for advertisers and publishers. Advertising is the lifeblood of the digital economy: it helps support the content and services we all enjoy for free online today, including much of our news, search, email, video and social networks.

That's why Google has worked hard to create technology that makes the advertising on our own sites, and those of our partners, as relevant as possible. To date, we have shown ads based mainly on what your interests are at a specific moment. So if you search for [digital camera] on Google, you'll get ads related to digital cameras. If you are visiting the website of one of our AdSense partners, you would see ads based on the content of the page. For example, if you're reading a sports page on a newspaper website, we might show ads for running shoes. Or we can show ads for home maintenance services alongside a YouTube video instructing you on how to perform a simple repair. There are some situations, however, where a keyword or the content of a web page simply doesn't give us enough information to serve highly relevant ads.

We think we can make online advertising even more relevant and useful by using additional information about the websites people visit. Today we are launching "interest-based" advertising as a beta test on our partner sites and on YouTube. These ads will associate categories of interest — say sports, gardening, cars, pets — with your browser, based on the types of sites you visit and the pages you view. We may then use those interest categories to show you more relevant text and display ads.

We believe there is real value to seeing ads about the things that interest you. If, for example, you love adventure travel and therefore visit adventure travel sites, Google could show you more ads for activities like hiking trips to Patagonia or African safaris. While interest-based advertising can infer your interest in adventure travel from the websites you visit, you can also choose your favorite categories, or tell us which categories you don't want to see ads for. Interest-based advertising also helps advertisers tailor ads for you based on your previous interactions with them, such as visits to their websites. So if you visit an online sports store, you may later be shown ads on other websites offering you a discount on running shoes during that store's upcoming sale.

Our advertisers and publisher partners have been asking us for a long time to offer interest-based advertising. Advertisers need an efficient way to reach those who are most interested in their products and services. And publishers can generate more revenue when they connect advertisers to interested audiences.

This kind of tailored advertising does raise questions about user choice and privacy — questions the whole online ad industry has a responsibility to answer. Many companies already provide interest-based advertising and they address these issues in different ways. For our part, we're launching interest-based advertising with three important features that demonstrate our commitment to transparency and user choice.

• Transparency - We already clearly label most of the ads provided by Google on the AdSense partner network and on YouTube. You can click on the labels to get more information about how we serve ads, and the information we use to show you ads. This year we will expand the range of ad formats and publishers that display labels that provide a way to learn more and make choices about Google's ad serving.
• Choice - We have built a tool called Ads Preferences Manager, which lets you view, delete, or add interest categories associated with your browser so that you can receive ads that are more interesting to you.
• Control - You can always opt out of the advertising cookie for the AdSense partner network here. To make sure that your opt-out decision is respected (and isn't deleted if you clear the cookies from your browser), we have designed a plug-in for your browser that maintains your opt-out choice.

Some people like to overcomplicate everything.  When you finish talking to them you're more confused than when you started.

Internet experts are often the worst about this.  They have dozens of different ways to get started and 1001 principles you must understand.

Running an internet business doesn't have to be that way.  There are 5 important keys...that are right...only 5.

If you want to make good money online while living a lifestyle you enjoy, these are the key issues.

Just about any online system can make you successful if you have a lot of money to invest and 80 hours to work it every week, but that most definitely is NOT what I want. This is all about having an Internet Lifestyle and the money that goes along with it.

I'm sure you've read eBooks about marketing online that leave you more confused than where you started. They list a few dozen different steps or principles. And it seems they just keep you running in circles not knowing what to do with your online business.

Forget about it. When you understand a subject, you can make it simple. Here are the five principles of being successful in your business. Write all 5 out and post them on a post-it note right to your computer monitor. Type them up and post them on your fridge.

Quote them till they're memorized. Tattoo them on your arm.

OK, that last one may have been going a little too far, but you get the point.

If you want an Internet Lifestyle business, KNOW these keys. LIVE these keys.

Key #1: Choose the Right Market Idea

Find out what people are already looking for online. Then sell it to them. Too many beginners ask the wrong question. They say, "I Have this product, how do I sell it?"

Wrong question! A much better question is, "I have this list of potential of customers I can easily reach, what should I sell them?"

It seems everyone is looking for a market where there isn't any competition. That may have been possible 10 years ago, but it's not today. No matter what market you enter, you will have competition.

In fact, if I don't see any competition in a market I get really nervous.

It means all the competitors most likely couldn't build a successful business. The best case scenario is when you find a market with a lot of competitors who all do a poor job. Then you know you have an open market.

Since you're going to have competition, you have to figure out what your unique advantage is. Why should a customer choose you over all the other options available to them?

Key #2: Prolific Product Development

Don't build a business on only one product. Develop multiple products and services for your audience. Which one is safer, earning $50,000 a month from one product or earning $5,000 a month from 10 different products?

Go for the base hit instead of the home run on each product. It's hard to tell which product is going to be the big winner, but if you've developed 10 products one or two of them is much more likely to become that big home run winner for you.

But the problem is how do you develop all these products? You have to develop a system to do them quickly. Research your market to find out what they want. Create it quickly. Get it out there and selling. Do it again.

Key #3: High Conversion Made Simple

Traffic eventually ends up at whoever has the highest conversion.

They can bid the most on the PPCs. They can afford to hire the most effective team for promoting their site. They're the ones everyone wants to promote as an affiliate.

That's why a majority of the business books I end up recommending to clients are copywriting books. If there was one skill you could learn that would almost guarantee the success of your internet business, it would be copywriting.

If you can sell, you can create profitable online business. If you can't sell your way out of a paper bag, it's going to be tough making ANYTHING you do profitable.

You have to sell yourself. You have to sell traffic on visiting your site. You have to sell people on joining your list. You have to sell people the products or services you're offering.

If you don't want to have anything to do with selling, you're in the wrong business (although we are talking about automated selling - not in person selling and rejection).

Key #4: The Truth about Traffic

Let's now do a little correct to that big question on every marketer's mind. "How do I generate more traffic?"

Wrong questions produce wrong answers. And it's not just traffic you want at your site. A much better question is, "How do I generate more BUYERS at my website?"

It's not the traffic that's important. It's the quality of the traffic. Let's say one site gets 100,000 visitors a month and another one only gets 500. Who is more successful? You can't tell from just that stat. W

What if we add in that 100,000 visitors a month are coming from a site such as Digg which generates traffic quickly that is often quite unresponsive to any offer? And what if the site generating 500 visitors was a real estate agent who focused only on selling million dollar homes to relocating executives?

So that's why you must quit focusing on "generating traffic" and start focusing on generating more buyers. So how can we send more buyers to our website?

Key #5: Create Systems That Do the Work for You

Your next step in leverage is bringing in team members. As a small Internet Lifestyle business you may never want a single employee.

It can all be done by outsourcing. Need someone to manage your own customer support ticket system? Outsource it.

Need someone to do modify your website or do your daily marketing activities, bring on a virtual assistant from anywhere in the world. Need someone to track down experts for your interview products? Create a step-by-step system for it and hand it off to your assistant.

Don't like writing your own emails? Have a team member do it for you. Absolutely everything in the business can be turned into a system. Some projects are more difficult than others to hand off, but all of them are doable.

Right now I have over 70 systems documented in my business, including such activities as writing blog posts, creating press releases, submitting to social sites, setting up new autoresponders, mailing out my print newsletter, handling the customer ticket system, and finding JV partners.

Is every one of these used every day? Definitely not. Mailing out my print newsletter is only done once a month for example. Although other mailings are done at times with the same system.

Terry Dean

When someone follows you on Twitter, it’s possible to then Tweet him/her back with an automated, direct message (DM) response. There are different schools of thought on whether this is a good practice, and it’s an issue well worth considering - an automated response, if sent, is the first impression you make on a new follower.

Tweet Later, the auto responder service that I used, certainly makes it easy. Enter your auto response DM, make a couple clicks, and you’re good to go. The service encourages you to make your DM a simple greeting or a non-promotional message focused on the follower. Good advice.

For about six months I used an auto-DM, but eventually decided it ditch it. My reasons -

• Twitter users are amazingly different. A one-size fits all auto-DM was beyond my ability to write.
• People rarely replied to my auto-DM
• I rarely reply to or even read auto-DMs sent to me
• Even though sending the right kind of auto-DM is a polite gesture, I sensed its value is washed away in the flood of far more meaningful Tweeting.

Is it worth responding individually every time someone follows you? Probably, but I’m hoping someone does a TwiTip on Twitter time management, because I don’t know where I’d find the time to do it.

If you decide to auto-DM …

• Do not try to promote yourself or sell something. Twitter is not a direct mail marketing model. You can’t afford to tick off 97 people to get 3 orders. The negative Tweet backlash will kill your credibility.
• Consider who is likely to follow you. If you use Twitter for personal and business chat, your message needs to appeal to everyone.
• Use a little restraint. Don’t say, “I’m SURE we’re going to become lifelong friends!!” when you obviously don’t have the slightest idea who you’re talking to.
• Think about why you are sending it. In my case, it was simply to be polite. If you’re using the DM to spark conversation or cultivate a relationship, there are better ways.

Microsoft still isn't making any promises, but it doesn't think you'll have to wait until January to buy a PC running Windows 7

At the Microsoft TechEd conference now taking place in Los Angeles, Microsoft senior vice president Bill Veghte said: ""We're tracking well to deliver Windows 7 in time for holiday availability based on the groundswell of feedback we received from the partner ecosystem, customers and through our own internal testing from pre-beta to now," reports the Wall Street Journal. 

Previous statements have been limited to "within three years of Vista" -- and that was held back so as to miss the Christmas shopping season. (Not every PC manufacturer would have been able to ship before Christmas, which was seen as not providing a level playing field. However, Microsoft did make Vista available to businesses in November 2006.)

Veghte also said that "large customers including Del Monte Foods and window maker Pella Corp planned to deploy Windows 7 early". Companies typically wait until the first Service Pack appears after 12-18 months, since this provides some assurance that major bugs have been shaken out.

Windows watchers have long assumed that Windows 7 will ship this year, with some estimates much earlier than others. That's reasonable based on the quality of the public beta code and the fact that Microsoft has said there will only be one RC (release candidate) version, not two or three.

Microsoft, however, always repeats the "ship when ready" mantra, partly because the final stages are beyond its control. It depends on the PC manufacturers to sort out their own Windows 7 installations and get PCs into the retail channels.

The next important date to be announced will be the "Windows 7 free" date: Microsoft tells customers that it will provide a "free" (plus shipping costs) upgrade to Windows 7 for anyone who buys a PC after a certain date, to encourage them to buy rather than wait.

Frankly, it should make that date now. In fact, it would be a great idea to offer Windows 7 to everyone who ever bought a Vista PC, but it's not going to happen. It would enrage the shareholders who are hoping Windows 7 will kick off an upgrade cycle that is going to boost the Windows Client division's declining profits.

Update: Microsoft can do RC to RTM in two months, and OEMs can do RTM to the shelves in two months, so the earliest date for Windows 7 would be around September 1. If Microsoft assumed three months instead of two (because it's not rushing) then it could still make November 1. That makes the date Acer gave -- Oct 23rd -- plausible. It could be earlier, but Ed Bott tells me the US holiday shopping season starts by November 1, so it probably won't be later. Unless something goes wrong.

There are a huge number of computer games these days - and when it comes to choosing good computer kids games it's time to become pretty picky. It's important to find games that are fun and challenging, but also it's important to find games that do not have inappropriate themes or content for kids.

Here is a list of some great computer kids games for 2009 - any of them are great for extensive game play, and are mentally challenging and - oh yes, they're fun too:

1. Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy - There are a good number of Nancy Drew computer games, this one is the most popular of them for the year. The game involves the disappearance of a groom that is supposed to show up at his wedding in the castle. Players work to solve the mystery and there are a number of ghostly surprises along the way. Fun stuff - especially for Nancy Drew fans.

2. The World of Goo - What a strange name! And - it is a bit of a strange game as well but is also great fun. The "goo gobs" have personalities and are used to build structures that are necessary to win any of the games. Pretty much unlimited game play with this one, and the challenges are quite a bit of fun.

3. Monopoly Here and Now - Seventy years and counting - Monopoly is still a mainstay in the game closet of any household. This is based on the original Monopoly game but has a fun and modern twist to it to make it much more interesting. This one is a favorite of adults as well.

4. Crazy Machines 2 - This is basically a mind puzzle game - working out how to build contraptions to solve problems. It's quite interesting and fun - and it really gets you thinking! Practically unlimited ways to solve any of the problems, so the game play is unlimited as well.

5. SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition - Although this is more of a game for teens and adults, some older kids would enjoy this as well. This version in the lineup of SimCity games is the best yet, allowing players to combine cities that they have built into a huge metropolis and play within it. If you're at all interested in SimCity, you will love this game.

The computer kids games listed above are not geared toward very young children, but are perfect games for kids around 10 and older.

Below is a list of some trends or ideas that I think will surface or grow in 2009. Note, these are not ranked.

1. Clouds Reduce the Effect of the Recession
   The US Government just announced that the US has been in a recession since December 2007. To most people, this is simply stating the obvious. Many in the Cloud Computing field have been touting how moving to the Cloud can lower high Capital Expenditures (CapEx) and shift this to Operating Expenditures (OpEx). Coupling that with a pay-for-what-you-use, use-only-what-you-need model, and Cloud Computing becomes a panacea for extending the runway of your business. Prudent companies are slashing budgets and looking to weather the turbulent market for as long as possible. Those companies that are heavily dependent on advertising will be seeing the effects of cash hording in Q1 and Q2 of 2009. Utility-based spending is a shift in mind-set that could potentially slow the freefall and domino effect we are currently experiencing.
   Recently, I heard about a similar type of idea that could potentially help the sales of hybrid or electric cars. One of the primary barriers that is preventing users from purchasing “green” cars is the high cost associated with a purchase. If the auto industry were to adopt a cell phone business model where you pre-buy your electrical charges and the cost of the car is “subsidized” through the use of recurring and predicable revenue, users might more readily opt for a purchase (at a discounted price). However, several infrastructure changes would be required in order for such a pricing-shift to take place, meaning that charging stations would have to be abundant (and possibly government subsidized as well). In the long term, building the green infrastructure would reduce the US dependence on foreign oil, establish new businesses and competition for charging station infrastructure and move towards bettering the environment. While not exactly the same, similarities can be drawn between this idea and the shift from self-hosted servers to Cloud Infrastructures. CapEx is reduced (e.g., green cars become less expensive to buy/no need to purchase servers that are under-utilized) and costs are moved to OpEx (e.g., charging your car when you need to/paying for only the infrastructure you use).
2. Broader Depth of Clouds
   Cloud Computing providers are leapfrogging each other with new features and offerings. This will continue in 2009. GoGrid was the first to provide a wide assortment of Windows Server Clouds (Windows Server 2003 at launch and later Windows Server 2008). Towards the end of the year, Amazon’s EC2 announced the availability of Windows Server 2003. Microsoft jumped into the ring as a Cloud Platform with Azure. By far, AWS is leading the field by offering a wide array of Cloud services (EC2 – Cloud Infrastructure/ S3, SimpleDB, CloudFront, & SQS – Cloud Extenders). Their footprint continues to deepen as well. But sometimes it’s not bad being #2. GoGrid is a Cloud Infrastructure provider with Cloud Extenders (with GoGrid Cloud Storage) with an emphasis on mirroring standard IT infrastructure services with a focus on ease-of-use through a GUI and programmatic control through an API. Microsoft will be launching their own Cloud Infrastructure in 2009 as well as a variety of Cloud Applications (e.g., Exchange). Google will extend its Cloud Platform with services for storing and serving large files, larger dataset management, pay-for-use enhanced usage and new runtime languages (beyond Python). RackSpace made its move at the end of 2008 with SliceHost and Jungle Disk acquisitions; look to them putting all of the pieces together in 2009. I am seeing the trend towards a broader range of services by several large players. This may confuse the market in the first half of 2009 as IT organizations struggle to figure out the best Cloud solution and how to put it all together as a financially and technologically viable strategy.
3. VC’s, Money & Long Term Viability
   With the credit market increasingly tight, if not non-existent, VC’s, Angel funders and other investors will be faced with some tough decisions. The Dot-Com era allowed for almost anybody to get money for business plans that were essentially vapor-ware. Web 2.0 was slightly better, you had to have a viable business strategy, an established user base, and well on the path to monetization to receive funding. Even with that, there was no guarantee of survival. Many Web 2.0-ers are now shutting shop, despite the fact that they are loved by many. Web 3.0 will present a much steeper hill to climb from a funding perspective. I have spoken to a few investors and VC’s recently (as the Economy imploded) and they still seemed to be somewhat optimistic, but very cautious. But it is their job to keep a positive outlook as they look for the next best thing. With Cloud Computing services gaining even more momentum, this is a good market for funding. But the VC’s and others are really doing their due diligence this time through (are they finally learning from their mistakes over the past 10 years?). Cloud Infrastructure providers will not be the ones receiving the scarce capital, I don’t think. And SaaS providers are a dime a dozen (not in a derogatory way). The SaaS market will continue to grow (not as quickly as previously, I don’t think), in fact, the first Quarter of 2009, we may see a dip as some SaaS organizations actually go under, unfortunately. I think that Cloud Aggregators (those who work to provide integrated Clouds and management services around them) will be ripe for additional funding. For Cloud Platform providers the outlook is a bit trickier as frequently they are dependent on public run-time languages or maintaining proprietary code to keep momentum. I think the smaller providers may see an influx of capital in order to remain competitive, if not survive.
4. Partnerships Galore & Weeding Out of Providers
   Strategic alliances and partnerships are critical to any business success. Not only do you increase exposure to other audiences but also provide more innovative and robust services in the process. GoGrid recently announced partnerships with RightScale, Appistry and GigaSpaces to name a few, with several others coming in 2009 (GoGrid Partners). We will see several new alliances within the Cloud Computing space but this is where my crystal ball is a bit hazy. Cloud Aggregators will be the big movers here and they really have to be. Aggregators need to ensure their own fiscal viability by broadening and diversifying their offerings. If a provider is too attached to EC2, for example, and if Amazon decides to develop functionality that mirrors that of the Aggregator and offer it for free or at a fraction of the cost, the Aggregator will struggle to remain competitive. Aggregators will be core to driving standards and interoperability (#7 below) as they will have much deeper insight into the workings of each of their partners. If they can’t remain ahead of the curve, a big fail whale is on the horizon. Tied to #3 above ($$$), those providers who can’t remain solvent or make smart decision or even monetize in a clean, clear way will go under. Obviously I don’t wish this on any provider, but it is inevitable. I won’t make any predictions but several Cloud providers are for sale or seeking funding to keep their lifeline healthy.
5. Hybrid Solutions
   Not every corporation or business is looking to the Cloud as the next sliced bread. While the Cloud can be the catalyst for a potentially more sound IT and financial strategy, it will not solve every IT challenge. There are some IT infrastructures that must remain in a private datacenter or running on dedicated, bare-metal servers. Database intensive environments may not be conducive to exclusively residing within the Cloud. This year, GoGrid launched the 1.0 version of  Cloud Connect as a way to allow for these types of hybrid (dedicated servers connected to Cloud servers) solutions. Others are calling Hybrid Infrastructure “Cloudbursting.” I expect that some of the strategic partnerships coming in 2009 will include other hybrid solutions of this nature. In fact, they may give way to full mirrored failover or redundancy solutions where traditional infrastructures are mirrored within the Cloud, sharing common datastreams to ensure near-real-time availability of data and services.
6. Web 3.0
   Web 3.0 is upon us. I have long thought that it will be all about Integration and Standards (#7 below). I have written about “mashups” and integrations as being a large component of Web 2.0. Web 3.0 will make these integrations much more seamless and go well beyond that of simple visible shared data applications. What we saw with mashups was essentially proof-of-viability and with some experimentation thrown in. Like a strategic partnership, successful integrations are critical to the furthering the power of the Cloud. In 2009, we will see integrations taking place at a much lower level of IT. Data integrations will remain as they are fairly established. Infrastructure integration and companies offering this as a solution, either as consultation or aggregation of technologies, will drive the innovation of Web 3.0. These integrations will help create new and unique SaaS and even PaaS offerings to the market. The hurdle here will be in the explanation and usability of said solutions.
7. Standards and Interoperability
   While Cloud Computing seemed like the New World in 2007 and the Wild West in 2008, it has now been colonized and settlements established. 2009 will be that of Civil Engineering. The development of standards and interoperability between the varying levels of Clouds is inevitable. It is also tied directly to the needed adoption by the Enterprise. Without clearly defined standards, best practices and even open interoperability, further adoption of the Cloud will slowed dramatically. Just as Phone Number Portability was an important factor in reforming the telcos during the 1990’s and early 2000’s, I believe that Cloud portability (enabled only through guaranteed standards and interoperability) will be a movement in mid to late 2009. Everyone has “agreed to agree,” and now are making inroads towards standards, a reality. It will be important that the big players in the space (e.g., Amazon, Microsoft, Google) become involved. IBM has tossed their hat into the Cloud ring by announcing a Cloud Computing Certification called “Resilient Cloud Validation” (but only if they collaborate with IBM). Without these big players’ participation, there will be 2 types of clouds (standard and non-standard) and/or companies that provide filters or converters to allow for Cloud Portability.
8. Staggered Growth within the Cloud
   I will go out on a limb here as say that there will be tremendous growth within the Cloud. But that is an easy prediction to make. The Cloud encompasses so much that it would be difficult to really see a stagnation or shrinkage. SaaS will expand (perhaps not as rapidly as previously) and offerings by other layers within the Cloud Pyramid will deepen and broaden. Because of the complexity of building up Cloud Infrastructures (from a provider perspective), the Infrastructure layer will take a less steep growth curve as compared to Platform Clouds and Application Clouds will beat the previous two layers out as well. Cloud Aggregators will come and go, and Cloud Extenders will evolve and become more intertwined with other Cloud layers. 2009 will also see the increased visibility of Private Clouds, especially within the Enterprise, until standards and security concerns are met within Public clouds.
9. Technology Advances at the Cloud Molecular Level
   There is probably a new layer to the Cloud Pyramid that needs to be added, one that resides at the “molecular” level. Chip makers such as Intel, are making plans on enabling Cloud-optimized CPU and other types of chips to allow for a more unique control of built-in switches. They are extremely interested in many of the open and proprietary virtualization technologies out there (Xen, VMware, Virtual Iron, etc.) and are strategizing on how to make their chipsets more compatible and efficient for use in the Cloud. Obviously, their vision is to have all Cloud infrastructures running with “Intel Inside” stamped on them. Many Cloud Computing providers, including GoGrid, already hook into chip-level switches and controls to make better use of the processors. Dell, HP and IBM will most certainly release servers specifically designed and configured for running optimized Clouds. Since all Clouds are powered by physical hardware and as advances are made further propelling Moore’s Law into the stratosphere, Clouds will become more powerful and able to take the place of traditional servers even more readily.
10. Larger Adoption
    If one factors in many if not all of the items mentioned previously, the obvious conclusion is that Cloud adoption will be significant in 2009. The Enterprise will move beyond simply testing the waters and just using the Cloud for project work. Private Clouds will help with their acceptance and the undeniable call for cost-savings through reduced CapEx will be too loud to be ignored. My gut also tells me that Government will play a much larger role as well. In 2008 I spoke with a person from the French government whose mission it was to bring the Cloud to their government infrastructure. This is only the tip of the iceberg. With the 2008 US Election, Barack Obama proved how critical an online presence is to furthering the concept of “change.” The Obama-Biden Technology Agenda points to the obvious importance of Technology, especially with the appointment of a Chief Technology Officer for the US Government.  And, as always, Web 3.0 and Startups will remain on the bleeding edge of hosting technology yet conserving cash for a sunnier day (ok, it can be a bit “cloudy”).

It’s always fun trying to gaze into a crystal ball and predict the future. When peering into it for perspective and predictions on Cloud Computing, a “cloudy” crystal ball is a bit of an oxymoron. Cloud Computing is no longer a just a “newfangled” movement but rather an established IT and business strategy that will be critical to all companies regardless of business models.

Turns out Facebook wasn’t always called Facebook. It originally launched as TheFacebook on thefacebook.com with Zuckerberg claiming he was “Founder, Master and Commander, Enemy of the State”. It didn’t become Facebook.com until 2005 when the fledgling site bought the domain for $200,000 from aboutface.com a web and intranet directory software company

Over 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States with all those people spending a whopping 5703 years (3 billion minutes) on the site each day.

The website is built on PHP-MySQL and is the second most-trafficked PHP site in the world

In April 2006, revenue was rumored to be over $1.5 million per week

The company already rejected a $975 million offer for the site

Facebook is valued at 8 billion according to Peter Thiel

It currently hosts over 1.7 Billion photos

Facebook is the 5th most valuable US Internet company, yet with only $150 million in annual revenue.

With this success, Zuckerberg (founder), Moskowitz and Hughes moved out to Palo Alto for the summer and rented a sublet. A few weeks later, Zuckerberg ran into the former cofounder of Napster, Sean Parker. Parker soon moved in to Zuckerberg’s apartment and they began working together. Parker provided the introduction to their first investor, Peter Thiel, cofounder of PayPal and managing partner of the Founders Fund. Thiel invested $500,000 into Facebook.
Debrain

The Top Ten Computer Trends for the 21st Century

1.   Computers will become powerful extensions of human beings designed to augment intelligence, learning, communications, and productivity.

2.   Computers will become intuitive---they will "learn," "recognize," and "know" what we want, who we are, and even what we desire.

3.   Computer chips will be everywhere, and they will become invisible-embedded in everything from brains and hearts, to clothes and toys.

4.   Computers will manage essential global systems, such as transportation and food production, better than humans will.

5.   Online computer resources will enable us to download applications on-demand via wireless access anywhere and anytime.

6.   Will become voice-activated, networked, video-enabled, and connected together over the Net, linked with each other and humans.

7.   Computers will have digital senses-speech, sight, smell, hearing-enabling them to communicate with humans and other machines.

8.   Neural networks and other forms of artificial intelligence will make computers both as smart as humans, and smarter for certain jobs.

9.   Human and computer evolution will converge. Synthetic intelligence will greatly enhance the next generations of humans.

10.  As computers surpass humans in intelligence, a new digital species and a new culture will evolve that is parallel to ours.

Copyright © 1990-2008 Dr. James Canton & Institute for Global Futures^SM All Rights Reserved

The Internet is regarded as the best place to do everything such as finding entertainment, shopping, or research, there’s still the danger of anonymity. You may find yourself in another persons shoes, literally.

One example of the evils of the Internet is Phishing, which is a criminal method of obtaining your most personal information for the benefit of the evildoers. Some of their methods are stealing your password, credit card details, or even your identity.

It’s easy to avoid being victimized by phishing. Here are some helpful advice on protecting yourself from these criminal activities.

DON’T give your personal information to anyone.

This is the most basic guide in avoiding phishing. This mostly applies to e-mail, private messages on bulletin boards/social networks or chatting with your online friends. They have identity thefts in social networking sites in which the criminal took advantage of the identity to obtain sensitive or personal information from other people.

If an e-mail message asks you to give your name, e-mail, password, credit card number, address, never reply to it, even if it seems like it’s important. It might be one step to identity theft. So never, ever, give your personal information to anyone.

Create strong passwords

Simple phishing is to crack passwords of accounts. The easier the password you have on your account, the easier it will be cracked. A combination of numbers and letters is the ideal password for those who want their accounts to be protected.

Use secure online payment services

In shopping online, you have to determine if the payment service is secure. This is easy since you can research about how secure the payment service is on search engines or from friends. Remember that you will give your credit card number and other valuable information so it’s better to have some background knowledge than none at all.

Avoiding fake websites

Web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer have anti-phishing measures which detect fake websites. These fake websites could lure you into giving them your personal information and use them against you or for their own benefit. Some fake websites require you to which automatically give them your username and password. Double check if the URL is correct just to be sure you’re in the right place.

Killing the spam e-mails

In most e-mails, there is a spam filter which automatically sends your spam in a different folder to be dealt with later. Spam e-mails are very dangerous and should be deleted immediately. The usual indication of spam is that it entices you to look inside with the subject and is usually from a person you don’t know.

The Internet isn’t the safest place in the world, even if you think you’ve covered all the bases. As long as you’re lurking in there, the possibilities of crime are endless. So the key is just to be very careful.

Reproduced from computerspot.net

Computers have become almost an appliance at home.  Even children are familiar with computers and use them for various reasons.

Children are attracted to computers because they consider it as a toy.  They usually think that computers are for gaming and multimedia purposes.  Some think that it’s for educational purposes.

If you are planning to buy a computer for your kid, choose wisely.

You can consider the following 10 tips below to buy the right computer for your kid:

1. Know your kid’s computing needs

Make sure that you know your kid’s computing needs.  The computer that you kid needs may be used for research, homework, multimedia or gaming.

2. Buy an affordable computer

Once you know your kid’s computing needs, you can now have the option to choose the features and specifications for the computer.  With this, you will be able to buy an affordable computer that meets your kid’s computing needs.

3. The computer unit must be strong and can withstand pressure

Some kids think that computers are toys and may carelessly handle the computer unit.

4. Get a computer unit with free bundled software

Choose software that can teach your kids history, geography, reading, and more.  There are computer store shops that offer great deals of computer package with free bundled software.

5. Make sure that the computer unit is user friendly and easy to operate

This would make it easy for kids to use and handle the computer with care.  Like for example, younger kids would not find it hard to turn off the computer unit by themselves.

You can ask a computer technician to configure it for you or if you are knowledgeable enough with computers, you can configure your kid’s computer.

6. Consider buying a screen protector for the computer

Too much glare from the computer can cause eye problems and headaches for your kids.  It is better to buy a screen protector to help lessen this possibility.

You can also configure the computer monitor’s brightness level to make sure that it will not be irritating to your kid’s eyes.

7. Consider the storage capability

Although the computer unit is solely for the kid’s use, it would be better if you buy a storage media that can store more information and programs.

8. Make sure that the computer is Internet ready

It would be best to choose a computer unit that can be easily connected to the Internet.  Your kids may want to browse and research online for their homework or projects.

9. Install a security program

A security program like web filtering software can protect your kid.  This would prevent your child from unknowingly accessing a malicious or pornographic website.

10. Make sure that the computer unit has warranty

You will always have peace of mind if your kid’s new computer has at least 1 or 2 years warranty.

Warranty assures the buyer that if the unit is defective or gets damaged later on, he or she can expect support from the seller or manufacturer of the computer unit.  That would make the computer unit cost effective.

Reproduced by computerspot.net