Are You a Facebook or Twitter Addict? -edited

Read how the first Internet Facebook bully was sent to prison:

‘Facebook bullies ruined my life: As the first internet bully is sent to jail, the story that will terrify every parent’ -By Kathryn Knight -Last updated at 1:56 AM on 01st October 2009 -DailyMail.co.uk

Now I’m sure I’m not a Facebook addict—because I’m not urban and affluent—I’m just an urban hermit:

‘Facebook and Twitter users are more likely to be urban and affluent than the rest of the US population, according to a new Nielsen study, while MySpace aficionados tend to have lower incomes. People in the top third of the income bracket are 25% more likely to use Facebook than those in the bottom third, who, conversely, are 37% more likely to use MySpace than those top-thirders.

‘The social networking audience overall is growing, with about half of Americans visiting one of those sites last year. But it’s also trending older. Another recent study shows that Twitter and Facebook have become less popular in colleges and high schools, and more popular among the 55+ demographic, ComputerWorld notes. Over the past six months the number of Facebook users age 55 or higher has exploded 513.7%.’
—Kevin Spak SOURCE: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9138627/Facebook_Twitter_users_are_affluent_and_urban_study_showsComputerWorld

NASA Contest

For all aeronautics geeks, here’s your chance to be rich or famous:

Do you have an idea for a prize challenge?

We are now formulating plans for new prize challenges with the help of engineers and scientists throughout NASA – and we would like to consider ideas from private industry, outside organizations and the public as well. Deadline is November 8, 2009.

All submissions become public domain information. Ideas that are submitted may be used in whole or in part in formulating new NASA prize challenges. Submissions will be posted on this website as we receive them. Providing your name is optional and names and affiliations of those making submittals will not be posted publicly.

See instructions to submit ideas.
› View NASA Call for Prize Concepts
› View NASA Call for Prize Concepts Form

UP Isko Flood Volunteers

UP Diliman Sagip Isko needs food for its volunteers pls coordinate with Sheena 09065097207

– Sincerely, Brian K. Ong
Councilor
University Student Council (AY 09-10)
University of the Philippines, Diliman

poch –Hey, volunteers get hungry too.

Dumb Gang Shooter Kills Baby

I would like to attach a picture of Andrew to this but I think it unethical for the family:

‘A 4-month-old baby boy was fatally wounded in a gang confrontation as he was being fed in a parked car in Los Angeles, police said. Andrew Garcia was rushed to a local hospital where he died. A pregnant family friend who was feeding Andrew was wounded. A teen with criminal connections, also shot, was standing close to the car when a gang member fired six times with a shotgun, police said. The infant was “caught in the middle,” a police spokesman told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s a disturbing crime scene.”’
—Mary Papenfuss Source: Los Angeles Times

See how dumb the shooter was? You shoot close range in a crowd, you don’t use a shotgun. And guess what exact internet game is reminded here?
Right! Grand Theft Auto!

Choice Between 2 Evils?:

Windows is ‘awful’ but Mac OS users is a ‘club of snooty, self-satisfied cooler-than-thou’:

‘Anyone who wants a computer faces an unpleasant choice: Mac OS or Windows. Now, Windows is “awful”— buggy, at times barely functional. But one expert would rather assign himself to Microsoft purgatory than join the club of snooty, self-satisfied cooler-than-thou Mac users. “Stop showing me your iPhone,” Charlie Brooker writes for the Guardian. “Stop stroking your Macbook. Stop telling me to get one.”

‘Still, he would never recommend Windows. “No one has ever earnestly turned to a fellow human being and said, “Hey, have you considered Windows?” It’s this lack of buzz Microsoft is now laughably trying to fight with videos entreating consumers to throw Windows 7 launch parties—yes, you read that right. Microsoft’s tone-deafness reaches a new low with the videos, but Brooker still prefers the “clumping, clueless, uncool, crappiness of Microsoft’s bland Stepford gang to the creepy assurance of the average Mac evangelist.”’ —Nick McMaster SOURCE: Guardian (UK)

6 People for 1 Job –Worst Ratio? -edited

The New York Times says this is the worst ratio since 2000:

‘Even as the US pulls out of the recession, the ranks of the out-of-work have swelled to 14.5 million people, leaving six jobless people vying for every available job—the worst ratio since the Labor Department began keeping track in 2000. “There’s too much uncertainty out there,” says one economist who says with no surefire source of growth in sight, businesses aren’t hiring. —Polly Davis Doig Source: New York Times

Now I don’t think Newsweek agrees with that saying that:

‘The unemployment rate in July for recent college graduates: 8.2%
That’s down from 8.4% in June, which was the highest it had been since July 1982.
One year ago it was 5.9%.’ -Newsweek sep 21- 09

Here’s another contradictory view:

‘Many U.S. small businesses are optimistic about growth and see the economy improving in three to six months, according to a survey released on Friday. Four out of five small businesses are pursuing a moderate or aggressive growth strategy, expanding into new markets and producing more revenue among existing customers, according to the survey by Chase Card Services, the credit card division of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
‘Only 5 percent said they were not looking to grow business aggressively, according to the survey, which questioned 168 chief and senior executives from the annual Inc. 500/5000 list of fastest-growing small companies between September 10 and September 14.
‘Three-quarters of the companies said they believe the U.S. economy and their business will be doing better in three to six months. Some 27 million small businesses operate in the United States and are responsible for roughly 40 million jobs.’ –Reuters

Tip for jobseekers –visit AdminSecret, a great resource.

Worst Philippine Flood Since 1967 –update

Update as of Sep 30:

‘Typhoon Ketsana slammed central Vietnam today, flooding towns and villages and killing at least 32 people. Roughly 170,000 people were evacuated before the storm hit. State-run TV called it the worst storm the country had seen in more than three decades. Meanwhile, the death toll in the Philippines climbed to 246, Reuters reports. Officials there estimate the economic damage at nearly $100 million. —Rob Quinn SOURCES: Reuters, AFP

‘At least 240 people are now confirmed dead in flooding in the Philippines after more than 90 new deaths were reported in Manila. Moreover, 375,000 have been displaced by the disaster, more than double earlier official figures. As government officials appeal for international help, a BBC correspondent says getting supplies to the refugees has taken priority over search-and-rescue operations.’ —W. McCahill SOURCE: BBC

When the middle our ground floor started flooding last Saturday afternoon, I sensed trouble –our streets never flood- even at that time.
Then power went out at 4pm in Paranaque. When it wasn’t back by 11pm, I sensed disaster and prayed for others:

‘Rescuers plucked bodies from muddy floodwaters and saved drenched survivors from rooftops today after a tropical storm tore through the northern Philippines and left at least 106 people dead and missing. It was the region’s worst flooding in more than four decades. The government declared a “state of calamity” in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces.

‘Tropical Storm Ketsana roared across the northern Philippines yesterday, dumping more than a month’s worth of rain in just 12 hours—16.7 inches in all—resulting in landslides and flooding that left at least 83 people dead and 23 others missing. TV footage showed drenched survivors still marooned on top of half-submerged passenger buses and rooftops in the suburbs of Manila. Some dangerously clung on high-voltage power lines while others plodded through waist-high flood waters.’ Source: Associated Press

To all those who gave and will give donations, we hope you reap your rewards!

Google Hits Back at Microsoft

‘Google hit back at Microsoft today, defending the security of its new Chrome Frame plug-in and claiming that the software actually makes Internet Explorer (IE) safer and more secure.

‘”Accessing sites using Google Chrome Frame brings Google Chrome’s security features to Internet Explorer users,” said a Google spokesman today. “It provides strong phishing and malware protection, absent in IE6, robust sandboxing technology [in IE6 and on Windows XP], and defenses from emerging online threats that are available in days rather than months.”‘ Computerworld -

This was my earlier post:

I’ve been waiting for this to happen and now at last, a tech giant is accused by another one:
Microsoft does not recommend that Internet Explorer users install Google Chrome Frame, in order to avoid having more security issues.
Details — Emil Protalinski –arstechnica.com

Russia vs. Mac Users

A network of Russian spammers hasn’t only infected Mac owners; they also made them very cheap:

‘Mac users, beware: the Russians are after you. A notorious network of spammers in the country pays hackers 43 cents for every Mac they infect with fake software, an investigator says. At a security conference in Switzerland, the researcher laid out a specific scheme to get Mac users to install malware in the guise of a video player. The Russian spammers still mostly go after Windows, but the Mac threat is a disturbing new trend, notes ComputerWorld.

“‘The growing evidence of financially-motivated criminals looking at Apple Macs as well as Windows as a market for their activities, is not good news,” blogs Graham Cluley at Sophos. “Especially as so many Mac users currently have no anti-malware protection in place at all.”‘
—John Johnson Sources: ComputerWorld, Sophos.com

Is This Reporter Another Jackass? -updated

So there were broke three major stories with the help of leaks. One leak which may have helped the White House, left the Pentagon “frankly disgusted’’:

‘In the past few days the New York Times and Washington Post broke three major stories with the help of leaks: John Edwards’ readiness to declare paternity, Stanley McChrystal’s blunt assessment of the Afghanistan war, and Barack Obama’s intervention in the New York governor’s race. For Post media columnist Howard Kurtz, they all raised questions of propriety and influence. “None acknowledged the elephant-in-the-room question of whose agenda was being advanced through these leaks,” he writes.

‘The Edwards article, on page one, may have been stoking interest in an upcoming book, while Bob Woodward’s McChrystal exclusive, which may have helped the White House, left the Pentagon “frankly disgusted.” The New York story may be most shocking of all: “senior administration officials” speaking “on condition of anonymity” were able to knife David Paterson without any attribution. For Kurtz, it’s another case of journalists “erring on the side of keeping readers in the dark about those pulling the strings offstage.”
—Jason Farago SOURCE: Washington Post

George Jahn tipped the press of info that what could have been a ‘leverage and a way to see if the Iranians kept their word in a future deal’. So is this reporter another jackass?:

‘Yesterday’s surprise announcement at the G20 summit of the existence of a hidden Iranian nuclear enrichment facility wasn’t the way President Obama planned to handle the information, Politico reports. His hand was forced by a reporter who learned of a letter in which Iran notified the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency in Vienna of the previously undisclosed site under construction since 2005 in a mountain near Qom.

‘AP reporter George Jahn broke the story yesterday morning, but he is thought to have tipped off western officials to its existence earlier, prompting Obama to share the information with heads of state in Pittsburgh, and go public. He’d have preferred to keep the information private ahead of next week’s international talks with Iran. “We would have been better off not announcing and keeping it as leverage and a way to see if the Iranians kept their word in a future deal,” an analyst tells Politico.’ —Caroline Miller Source: Politico