Bekin F5L001 Laptop Cooling Stand 0 comments

Notebook and laptops discharge large amounts of heat and much of ican be felt directly in our own laps.The Bekin Laptop Cooling Stand is designed to protect your laptop by keeping it cool at all times.This makes working on your laptop for a long period of time more comfortable.The cooling stand relies on a single fan and the natural flow of heat and air circulation to suck warm air from the bottom of the laptop. The high capacity fan is powered by the laptop's USB port and sits in the middle of the cooling stand, causing hot air to be channelled through the left and right sides from the computer. Moreover, the gentle slope of the stand rises the screen's height and reduces wrist and neck strain.

Link: www.amazon.com

Social Network use by the Adult Americans on the rise: Surveys 0 comments

Adult Americans who use the internet are joining social networks at a rapid rate and the number with an online profile has quadrupled in the past three years, according to a new survey.
Thirty-five percent of US Web users aged 18 or older have a profile on a social network such as Facebook, Myspace or Linkedln, the Pew Internet and American Life Project Survey Found.This is a significant increase from eight percent in 2005.While the number of online adult.Americans loggin onto social networks is rising, they laged behind the number of online American teens who do so, the Washington-based Pew Research Centre said in report released on Wednesday,
Sixty-Five percent of online Americans aged 12 to 17 years old use social networks,it said.Adults, however, still make up the bulk of American users of social network websites because they make up a larger portion of the US population than teens.

Windows Worm Hits 8.9 Million Pcs 0 comments

The Conficker worm, which caused havoc on Windows PCs in October 2008, came back last month to strike more than 3.5 million PCs in 24 hours under a new name, The Worm, dubbed Conficker, Downadup, or Kido, spreads via a vulnerability that Microsoft patched in October 2008.Once a machine, it sets up an HTTP server and resets a machine's System Restore point to stop administrators from deleting it.The worm contains the usual Trojan package that allows the controller to download new files from their own server.But in an unusual twist, the malware generates hundred of seemingly random domain nams to scan for updates, making it much harder to track the one used by the malware writer.
The worm resurfaced earlier last month, infecting Windows workstations and servers and causing a variety of problems for users, with infections skyrocketing to 8.9 million PCs by the later half of January 2009.

China Internet Users Soar to 298 Million 0 comments

The number of internet users in China jumped nearly 42 percent to 298 million by the end of 2008 from the previous year, cementing the country's position sa the world largest internet population,the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) said.
The number of mobile web surfers surged 113 percent cent to 117.6 million in 2008 and mobile internet is expected to grow explosively in the next few years after the recent issuance of third generation (3G) license, the state-run agency said
The internet penetration rate in China has risen to 22.6 percent, slightly higher than the world's average of 21.9 percent,CCNIC said in a recent report.
In addition, the number of internet news readers has risen to 2.34 million and websites have become crucial area for publicity, the report said.

Weekend Clock 0 comments

If you are like m you will surely love it when the weekend starts and you will wait for it eagerly. Now your wait will be more enjoyable thanks to the Weekend Clock. Yes! When the weekend just ended you will surely b stressed and you will not enjoy the fact that you have so much to wait but as time passes you will become more eager for time to pass. This can only make time pass faster. Even if the Weekend Clock is not yet available we do know that it will cost around $30. There are 2 colors that you can choose: black or white. I particularly like the black one but that is just up to personal taste.

iPhone Earrings? 0 comments

Well, I have seen a lot of people that are crazy about their iPhone so this interesting piece of jewelry might appeal to them. We are talking about the iPhone earrings, which basically look like a small iPhone. The good news is that they only cost $22, which is not at all that much. To make everything even better, these earings are a lot cheaper than the actual mobile phone - media player. If you can not buy an iPhone maybe some iPhone earrings would help out.

Education is why we need this $835m bail-out, says First Lady 0 comments

Applause: Mrs Obama tells education department staff that teacher layoffs must stop

MICHELLE Obama has made her first solo speech as first lady, choosing education for her first foray into government policy.

She stressed the need for more spending on schools and teachers and promoted her husband's $825 billion stimulus package.

"Imagine what we can do with millions of dollars more investment in this area," she said. "We can expand opportunities in low-income districts for all students, particularly for students with disabilities," she told 350 staff gathered for a pep talk.

She said President Obama's plan would prevent layoffs and education cuts, create jobs and make college more affordable.

"With these investments that we hope to make through this stimulus package, we'll be able to prevent teacher layoffs and education cuts in hard-hit states. We need to keep teachers in the classrooms throughout this time."

Her speech was met with enthusiastic applause as she said she and Mr Obama were committed to giving children an outstanding education.

Mrs Obama, who was joined by education secretary Anne Duncan, started by saying: "I'm a product of your work," in a reference to her education in Chicago. "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the public schools that nurtured me and helped me along.

"And I am committed, as well as my husband, to ensuring that more kids like us and kids around this country, regardless of their race, their income, their status, the property values in their neighbourhoods, get access to an outstanding education."

Her appearance was the first of several scheduled at government agencies over the coming weeks. As a former hospital executive, she is thought to want to make the often criticised US health care system the top of her agenda.

With two young daughters, Sasha and Malia at school in Washington DC, she is also passionate about improving education standards.

Mr Obama has told Republicans he will scale back some of his spending plans to get his stimulus package approved by the Senate.

"We're going to be trimming out things that are not relevant to putting people back to work right now," Mr Obama said. He said he would remove those proposals which were not directly aimed at creating jobs.

Republicans had threatened to derail the stimulus Bill, which will be voted on this week. Mr Obama wants the money released by the middle of the month. In an interview with NBC he admitted that if his multi-billion-dollar rescue package does not work he would be out of a job at the end of four years.

"If I don't have this done in three years then there's going to be a one-term proposition," said Mr Obama.

Apple In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic Review 0 comments

Apple is once again trying its hand at the in-ear headphone market, trying to compete with some of the higher end earbuds currently available. The Apple In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic is their second attempt to bring us a set of in-the-ear headphones that rival the quality and tech-worthiness of the iPod/Touch/iPhone. Apple’s original in-ear headphones were, according to many, ill-fitting and produced lack luster sound. Apple’s latest iteration has supposedly not only fixed those issues but also added greater functionality with the remote and mic system. Added at twice the price of the original.



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As with almost everything Apple produces, the presentation is very well done. But I find it humorous that the packaging for the headphones is larger than the packaging for either the Touch or Nano. It seems they could have included everything in half the volume.




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Package Contents

* Apple In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic
* Carrying case
* Three sets of silicone ear tips (small, medium, large)
* Two replacement mesh caps
* Apple stickers
* Users guide




Features

* Two separate high-performance drivers
* Integrated in-line remote control and microphone
* New sleek design
* Great case





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Apple has not only redesigned their new earbuds appearance but the audio electronics within. Their new earbuds are definitely nice looking, competing in look with many of the high-end headphones by Shure, Etymotic, and the like. According to Apple, each earbud contains two separate high-performance drivers — a woofer (to handle the bass and mid-range) and a tweeter (for the high-frequency). These dedicated drivers are engineered to help produce accurate, detailed sound throughout the entire audio spectrum. For the most part, this type of dual driver design is typically only found in earbuds starting at twice the price.

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The In-Ear Headphone’s remote control packs three buttons and a built-in mic in a very small, yet functional package. The button in the center allows for the single-click (pause/resume playback), double-click (skip a track), and triple-click (reverse tracks) features similar to the Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic. The two buttons on either end control volume up and down. According to my research, full remote functionality (center button) only works on the latest iPods and all iPhone models. The volume buttons only works on the most recent iPods (120GB classic, 4th generation nano, and 2nd generation Touch) as well as Apple’s latest aluminum unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros. If you have an older iPod or Macbook, the headphones enable you to hear audio, but all of the fancy functionality and microphone features do not work.

I really like the remote and its functionality a lot. As long as you have one of the new iPods or iPhone, it comes in handy and provides you excellent control of your device while packed away. The remote is intuitive and its shape makes it easy to use based on touch alone. It is placed high on the right earbud cable. It takes a bit to get use to its placement.

I tested the mic with my wife’s iPhone and it worked well enough. The people I talked to said they could hear me clearly. I attempted to use the mic with my second generation Touch using Fring, a multi-messaging application capable of connecting to a Skype account. I was not able to make the application connect, so I have not tried the mic as a voice input. However, I will continue to attempt to make this work.

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Within each earbud is a stainless steel mesh cap that protects the precision acoustic components from dust and debris (earwax). The mesh filter is removable, enabling you to clean it.

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Apple also includes an extra set of the mesh caps as a spare so you can use the earbuds while you clean and dry the used ones.

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As with many in-the-ear headphones of the day, Apple includes small, medium, and large frosted silicone eartips to (hopefully) achieve a snug, comfortable fit. Apple includes a small, well-thought out, pill shaped case for the silicone tips you do not use. There is enough room within to put the extra mesh filters so you do not loose them. I doubt I will carry the eartips and extra filters with me but it is nice having a case to keep all the extras in.

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Apple also includes a nicely made storage case for the headphones. The earbuds fit into the case pretty well but you do have to get the coiling just right to easily click the top to the base of the case. The case is well sized and slips easily into a pocket or purse.
Comfort

I tried each of the silicone eartips multiple times and failed to achieve a good comfortable fit. The earbuds were continuously falling out of my ears and just would not stay in my ear canal. Definitely more of a frustration than anything else.

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Sound Experience



When I was able to seat the earbuds correctly in my ear canal, the sound quality was okay. I have read many reviews and articles that praise these earbuds as a great sounding, incredible bang-for-the-buck, but I will have to disagree. They did not produce enough bass for my tastes and the upper end is over stated.

Overall, I have been incredibly disappointed with Apple’s In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic. I conducted my usual earbud test (one week on my bus ride commute to and from work and one airplane trip) on them and was very happy when I was able to stop using them. I am glad I had the chance to try these earbuds because of their sleek, compact look and great reviews were calling my name, but in the end I am going back to either my old Etymotic ER6i or Future Sonics’ atrio m5.

Two children should be limit, says green guru 0 comments

COUPLES who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment, the government’s green adviser has warned.

Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government’s Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. He says political leaders and green campaigners should stop dodging the issue of environmental harm caused by an expanding population.

A report by the commission, to be published next month, will say that governments must reduce population growth through better family planning.

“I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate,” Porritt said.

“I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible. It is the ghost at the table. We have all these big issues that everybody is looking at and then you don’t really hear anyone say the “p” word.”

The Optimum Population Trust, a campaign group of which Porritt is a patron, says each baby born in Britain will, during his or her lifetime, burn carbon roughly equivalent to 2½ acres of old-growth oak woodland - an area the size of Trafalgar Square.

The British population, now 61m, will pass 70m by 2028, the Office for National Statistics says. The fertility rate for women born outside Britain is estimated to be 2.5, compared with 1.7 for those born here. The global population of 6.7 billion is expected to rise to 9.2 billion by 2050.

Porritt, who has two children, intends to persuade environmental pressure groups to make population a focus of campaigning.

“Many organisations think it is not part of their business. My mission with the Friends of the Earth and the Greenpeaces of this world is to say: ‘You are betraying the interests of your members by refusing to address population issues and you are doing it for the wrong reasons because you think it is too controversial,” he said.

Porritt, a former chairman of the Green party, says the government must improve family planning, even if it means shifting money from curing illness to increasing contraception and abortion.

He said: “We still have one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in Europe and we still have relatively high levels of pregnancies going to birth, often among women who are not convinced they want to become mothers.