23/04: Marketing Explained!

A Professor explained Marketing to MBA students

•   You see gorgeous girl in party, you go to her
    and say that I am rich, marry me. That's Direct Marketing
  
  
•   You attend party and your friend goes to a girl and tells her that
    "He is very rich, marry him" - That's Advertising.
  
  
•   Girl walks to you and says that you're rich, can u marry me?
    "That's Brand Recognition"

16/04: Couple Sleeping - It happens all the time!

22/03: Google Chrome takes lead from Internet Explorer

StatCounter, which compiled the figures, said Chrome took the lead on Sunday, when office workers were using their own computers instead of ones controlled by corporate IT departments. Google introduced its browser only three years ago, touting it as a faster alternative to established rivals.

22/03: Feeding The Homeless BANNED In Major Cities All Over America

What would you do if you came across someone on the street that had not had anything to eat for several days?  Would you give that person some food?  Well, the next time you get that impulse you might want to check if it is still legal to feed the homeless where you live.  Sadly, feeding the homeless has been banned in major cities all over America.  Other cities that have not banned it outright have put so many requirements on those that want to feed the homeless (acquiring expensive permits, taking food preparation courses, etc.) that feeding the homeless has become "out of reach" for most average people.  Some cities are doing these things because they are concerned about the "health risks" of the food being distributed by ordinary "do-gooders".  Other cities are passing these laws because they do not want homeless people congregating in city centers where they know that they will be fed.  But at a time when poverty and government dependence are soaring to unprecedented levels, is it really a good idea to ban people from helping those that are hurting?

This is just another example that shows that our country is being taken over by control freaks.  There seems to be this idea out there that it is the job of the government to take care of everyone and that nobody else should even try.

But do we really want to have a nation where you have to get the permission of the government before you do good to your fellow man?

It isn't as if the government has "rescued" these homeless people.  Homeless shelters all over the nation are turning people away each night because they have no more room.  There are many homeless people that are lucky just to make it through each night alive during the winter.

Sometimes a well-timed sandwich or a cup of warm soup can make a world of difference for a homeless person.  But many U.S. cities have decided that feeding the homeless is such a threat that they had better devote law enforcement resources to making sure that it doesn't happen.

This is so twisted.  In America today, you need a "permit" to do almost anything.  We are supposed to be a land of liberty and freedom, but these days government bureaucrats have turned our rights into "privileges" that they can revoke at any time.

The following are some of the major U.S. cities that have attempted to ban feeding the homeless....

Philadelphia

Mayor Nutter recently banned feeding homeless people in many parts of Philadelphia where homeless people are known to congregate....

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has announced a ban on the feeding of large numbers of homeless and hungry people at sites on and near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Mayor Nutter is imposing the ban on all outdoor feedings of large numbers of people on city parkland, including Love Park and the Ben Franklin Parkway, where it is not uncommon for outreach groups to offer free food.

Nutter says the feedings lack both sanitary conditions and dignity.

Orlando

Last June, a group of activists down in Orlando, Florida were arrested by police for feeding the homeless in defiance of a city ordinance....

Over the past week, twelve members of food activist group Food Not Bombs have been arrested in Orlando for giving free food to groups of homeless people in a downtown park. They were acting in defiance of a controversial city ordinance that mandates permits for groups distributing food to large groups in parks within two miles of City Hall. Each group is allowed only two permits per park per year; Food Not Bombs has already exceeded their limit. They set up their meatless buffet in Lake Eola knowing that they would likely be arrested as a result.

Houston

Down in Houston, a group of Christians was recently banned from distributing food to the homeless, and they were told that they probably would not be granted a permit to do so in the future even if they applied for one....

Bobby and Amanda Herring spent more than a year providing food to homeless people in downtown Houston every day. They fed them, left behind no trash and doled out warm meals peacefully without a single crime being committed, Bobby Herring said.

That ended two weeks ago when the city shut down their "Feed a Friend" effort for lack of a permit. And city officials say the couple most likely will not be able to obtain one.

"We don't really know what they want, we just think that they don't want us down there feeding people," said Bobby Herring, a Christian rapper who goes by the stage name Tre9.

Dallas

Dallas has also adopted a law which greatly restricts the ability of individuals and ministries to feed the homeless....

A Dallas-area ministry is suing the city over a food ordinance that restricts the group from giving meals to the homeless.

Courts dismissed Dallas’ request for a summary judgment last week, saying the case, brought up by pastor Don Hart (in video above) may indeed be a violation of free exercise of religion, as protected by the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the blog Religion Clause reported.

In the court filing, the ministry leaders argue that their Christian faith requires them to share meals with the homeless (Jesus did!) and that the requirement that even churches and charities provide toilets, sinks, trained staff and consent of the city keeps them from doing so.

Las Vegas

A few years ago, Las Vegas became the first major U.S. city to specifically pass a law banning the feeding of homeless people....

Las Vegas, whose homeless population has doubled in the past decade to about 12,000 people in and around the city, joins several other cities across the country that have adopted or considered ordinances limiting the distribution of charitable meals in parks. Most have restricted the time and place of such handouts, hoping to discourage homeless people from congregating and, in the view of officials, ruining efforts to beautify downtown and neighborhoods.

But the Las Vegas ordinance is believed to be the first to explicitly make it an offense to feed “the indigent.”

That law has since been blocked by a federal judge, and since then many U.S. cities have been very careful not to mention "the indigent" or "the homeless" by name in the laws they pass that are intended to ban feeding the homeless.

New York City

New York City has banned all food donations to government-run homeless shelters because the bureaucrats there are concerned that the donated food will not be "nutritious" enough.

Yes, this is really true.

The following is from a recent Fox News article....

The Bloomberg administration is now taking the term “food police” to new depths, blocking food donations to all government-run facilities that serve the city’s homeless.

In conjunction with a mayoral task force and the Health Department, the Department of Homeless Services recently started enforcing new nutritional rules for food served at city shelters. Since DHS can’t assess the nutritional content of donated food, shelters have to turn away good Samaritans.

Can you believe that?

The bureaucrats are officially out of control.

In America today, it seems like almost everything is illegal.

One church down in Louisiana was recently ordered to stop giving out water because it did not have a government permit.

Well, I don't know about you, but I sure am going to give a cup of cold water to someone if they need it whether I have a permit or not.

It is as if common sense has totally gone out the window in this nation.

Over in New Hampshire, a woman is being sued for planting flowers in her own front yard.

This is the kind of thing that makes me glad that I have moved to a much more rural location.  People in the country tend to be much more relaxed.

Sadly, those that love to micro-manage others continue to get the upper hand in America.  Back in January, 40,000 new laws went into effect all over America.  The politicians continue to hit us with wave after wave of regulations and laws with no end in sight.

All of this is making America a very unpleasant place in which to live.

Source: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/
feeding-the-homeless-banned-in-major-cities-all-over-america

04/10: iphone 4S

iPhone 4S:

A5 chip inside, same as the one in the iPad 2

up to 7x faster graphics than previous iPhone

up to 2x faster

Dynamic light rays ("god rays") that are rendering in real time on the iPhone 4S

now 8 hours of talk time on 3G

iPhone has stainless steel band with two antennas already

now can intelligently switch between two antennas to transmit and receive

2x as fast data download

Now with iPhone 4S, it's a world phone with both GSM and CDMA

8MP sensor (3264x2448)

33% faster capture too.

iPhone 4S claims 0.5 seconds between shots

03/10: Massive HTC Android Vulnerability Leaves Security Expert "Speechless"

"I am quite speechless right now," begins Artem Russakovskii over at Android Police as he posts about a "massive" security flaw in HTC Android devices that allows malicious hackers to access phone numbers, GPS, SMS, email addresses and more.

The affected devices include EVO, 3D, 4G and Thunderbolt and apparently the flaw goes so deep that the guys at Android Police are discovering new issues with each new test or examination:

What Trevor found is only the tip of the iceberg - we are all still digging deeper - but currently any app on affected devices that requests a single android.permission.INTERNET (which is normal for any app that connects to the web or shows ads) can get its hands on:
- the list of user accounts, including email addresses and sync status for each last known network and GPS locations and a limited previous history of locations
- phone numbers from the phone log
- SMS data, including phone numbers and encoded text (not sure yet if it's possible to decode it, but very likely)
- system logs (both kernel/dmesg and app/logcat), which includes everything your running apps do and is likely to include email addresses, phone numbers, and other private info...

Even worse, for apps that only need one type of information, like the Internet permission, this vulnerability still grants access to other areas of the device (like location, logs, even battery stats, just to name a few).

Basically, it sounds as if you're using one of these HTC Android devices, you've been walking around with your fly undone and a big "eff me over" sign on your back.

The security research is ongoing and we'll update with any fixes or security patches that get issued. The only way this gets fixed is an update from HTC itself, says the guys at A.P. [Android Police]

Watch Video >> 

Read More & Comments >>

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5845867/massive-htc-android-vulnerability-leaves-security-expert-speechless

02/06: TotalFinder - making your transition to a Mac more convenient

For years, I've been mainly working on Windows and was very comfortable with the Windows Explorer functionality.  When I made a switch to my new Macbook Pro, the Finder (Mac alternative to Windows Explorer) took some time to get used to.  However, I noticed a few fundamental features missing on the default Mac OS X Finder which made it very frustrating at times.  This was the case until I checked out TotalFinder. 

The following are some features of TotalFinder that will make your transition from Windows to Mac much easier.  As such, it is an essential replacement for the existing Finder.  The 14 day trial gives you plenty of time to try out these new features as well.  

Introducing Tabs on TotalFinder

Similar to your browser, the new Tab feature allows you to have multiple tabs open. Features of these tabs are similar to your browser as well. You can rearrange them, switch between them quickly, and detach them by using dragging the tab outside the dialog box. Here's a screen-shot of the tabbed feature in TotalFinder. 

Unlike Windows Explorer, the annoying feature of the default Finder is that it mixes folders and files.  This feature allows you to keep your folders on top, followed by your files.  It makes it behave similar to Windows Explorer.  

Cut and Paste Files

The last feature I want to discuss is very important for me.  When I needed to organize my files and folders, I've always wondered why we can't cut and paste files on Mac OSX.  On Windows, we had the option to cut your files, navigate to the desired folder and paste them.  It simply moved the desired files without  the need to use the terminal or to have another window open.  TotalFinder solves this problem on a Mac by allowing users to cut and paste files in a similar way.  This will also make your transition to a Mac much better. 

Overall, I think TotlaFinder is a great tool to help with a smoother transition from Windows to Mac. To find out more about TotalFinder and to try it out, please goto http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/

18/01: How to add hotmail to iPhone 4.

Great new to all Hotmail users who own an iPhone!

Microsoft has finally enabled Exchange ActiveSync for Hotmail, which will allow you to add Hotmail on your iPhone mail application. It will be be similar to GMail, Yahoo, etc. On iPhone 4, it will show up in the 'All Inbox' section. 

You will also be able to sync your Hotmail contacts and calendars. Be careful when importing contacts. If you multiple accounts, you may end up with a lot of duplicates.

Follow these simple steps to Add your Hotmail account to your iPhone.

Step 1: On your iPhone, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > and create a  new Micorsoft Exchange account.

Step 2: Fill out the information as follow:

• Email: your email address
• Domain: leave empty
• Username: your email address
• Password: your password

Tap Next when you’re done entering this info.

Step 3: Hotmail will verify your account. Once it’s done verifying, enter m.hotmail.com for the server info and hit Next.

Step 4: Select what you want to sync from your Hotmail account (Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and tap Save.

 You are done.  If you have a live.com email address, it may not work. 

22/12: Most pirated movies of 2010

According to TorrentFreak, the Oscar-winning mega-blockbuster was downloaded from torrent websites an amazing 16,580,000 times. That represents a 33% increase in download activity from last year's top-pirated film, Star Trek, which was downloaded just under 11 million times.

Here's the full list of the 10 most pirated films and number of downloads as recorded by TorrentFreak:

1. Avatar / 16,580,000
2. Kick-Ass / 11,400,000
3. Inception / 9,720,000
4. Shutter Island / 9,490,000
5. Iron Man 2 / 8,810,000
6. Clash of the Titans / 8,040,000
7. Green Zone / 7,730,000
8. Sherlock Holmes / 7,160,000
9. The Hurt Locker / 6,850,000
10. Salt / 6,700,000

26/07: US government legalizes iPhone 'jailbreaking,' unlocking

The U.S. government on Monday announced new rules that make it officially legal for iPhone owners to "jailbreak" their device and run unauthorized third-party applications. In addition, it is now acceptable to unlock any cell phone for use on multiple carriers.

According to The Associated Press, the government approved a handful of new exemptions to a federal law that prevents the circumvention of technical measure that prevent users from accessing and modifying copyrighted works. The report noted that every three years, the Library of Congress' Copyright Office authorizes exemptions to ensure existing law does not prevent non-infringing use of copyrighted material.

In addition, another exemption was approved that would allow all cell phone users to unlock their device for use on an unapproved carrier. Currently, Apple's iPhone is available exclusively through AT&T, but unlocking it can allow for voice calls and EDGE data speeds on rival carrier T-Mobile.

Other exemptions announced Monday allow people to break protections on video games to investigate or correct security flaws; allow college professors, film students and documentary filmmakers to break copy protection measures on DVDs to embed clips for educational purposes, criticism, commentary and noncommercial videos; and allow computer owners to bypass the need for external security devices (dongles) if the hardware no longer works and cannot be replaced.

The warranty-voiding jailbreak process allows users to run software not approved by Apple, which has no plans to allow users to install third-party applications downloaded from outside its sanctioned App Store. Hackers have created their own custom applications -- many free, and some for purchase from an alternative storefront known as Cydia.

Apple has been criticized for its strict control over the iPhone App Store, requiring that all applications be approved before they are made available for download. The company has defended this practice, stating that it keeps faulty and potentially dangerous software from being made available, as well as banning unsavory content such as pornography.

In April, Jobs cited an unsanctioned pornography store available for the Google Android platform as a reason to not support unsigned applications. "That's a place we don't want to go," Jobs said, "so we're not going to."

In addition to allowing access to legitimate third-party software, both free and paid, through services like Cydia, jailbreaking can also be used to pirate App Store software, one major reason why Apple has fought the practice.

Hackers have been hard at work on jailbreaking iOS 4 since it was released in June. Though the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G have been exploited, the iPhone Dev Team has continued their efforts toward both jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone 4. With Monday's decision by the U.S. government, their efforts are now considered legal.

Source: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/07/26/
us_government_legalizes_iphone_jailbreaking_for_unauthorized_apps.html