martes, 29 de mayo de 2007

Piano playing kids

Couldn't help laughing at this child playing piano!!



YouTube link
And this is another sweet kid, playing piano for real.



Source: link to YouTube
 
 
Tags: kids, playing piano, funny, cute

advertisement8.jpg

advertisement1.jpg

advertisement4.jpg

advertisement6.jpg

advertisement7.jpg

advertisement5.jpg

advertisement3.jpg

advertisement2.jpg

ads4.jpg

notplasticbag-210-1.jpg

03.jpg

notplasticbag-210.jpg

Creative Ads.

Shopping bags are the most useful everyday accessory. Advertisers have used it in different ways to make it attractive. Some of the most creative miniature traveling billboards are presented here for your entertainment. Click on the image to view bigger photos. Apart from bags some other interesting and creative advertisements are presented in next page. The pictures were collected from various internet sources and I have included link to the source wherever I could find one.


 

PhotoSource


















A print of a cup of Folgers coffee was placed on top of manhole covers in New York City, USA. Holes on the print allows the steam to come out. Wordings around the cup reads 'Hey, City That Never Sleeps. Wake up." from Folgers.





Unicenter Shopping Mall in Buenos Aires, Argentina for Valentine's Day.



A giant mirror was built that allowed passersby to stop and look at themselves wearing Indivi clothes at a shopping mall in Tokyo.



advertisement for a job recruiting company in Berlin, Germany



From South Africa for the advertisement of glass and window cleaner I.C.U.





Sources: hemmy | pepperjamblog | kucau | funny blog

domingo, 27 de mayo de 2007

The Machine is Us/ing Us : Web 2.0 Explained

This YouTube release titled "Web 2.0" in just under 5 minutes by Dr. Wesch, an anthropology professor at Kansas State University might look like a technical document but it is nice on how it is being presented. It is a beautifully produced history and explanation of the Internet and the implications for the future which can be considered both a piece of art and a scientific paper.



If your creative bugs are trying to get out in similar ways, information on how Dr. Wesch prepared this video might be of interest:

The video was created by me (Michael Wesch), working alone from my house in St. George, Kansas. I used CamStudio for the screen captures and Sony Vegas for the panning/cropping/zooming animations...
If you want to download the video in higher quality versions you can download them here:
Windows Media File (55 MB)
Quicktime File (96 MB)

sábado, 26 de mayo de 2007

Bloody Passwords ...

Passwords... yea they are headache for most of us to remember. And worst of all, these days you have to have tons of them - for almost every websites. I got a video from this lady (Natalie) explaining how you get jumbled with passwords.



Here is her YouTube page. If you have some time to spare, you can see/listen some more of her interesting talks!
This might be what Natalie was talking about: A news video from CNETTV.



Some blogger's reaction in next page.


Natalie got some replies too ...



 
And this guy has problem with user names (Reply to Natalie):



Well, it is not you alone who are responsible for the password problem. Here is another funny clip about the Password Hell (a bit long: five and half minutes).



This cartoon guy has one solution to the password problem:

jueves, 24 de mayo de 2007

25 SIGNS YOU MAY BE CANADIAN:

1. You're not offended by the term "HOMO MILK".
2. You understand the phrase "Could you pass me a serviette, I just dropped my poutine, on the chesterfield."
3. You eat chocolate bars, not candy bars.
4. You drink Pop, not Soda.
5. You know that a Mickey and 24's mean, "party at the camp, eh!!!"
6. You don't care about the fuss with Cuba. It's a cheap place to go for
your holidays, with good cigars .
7. You know that a pike is a type of fish, not part of a highway.
8. You drive on a highway, not a freeway.
9. You have Canadian Tire money in your kitchen drawers.
10. You know that Casey and Finnegan were not part of a Celtic musical
group.
11. You get excited whenever an American television show mentions Canada.
12. You brag to Americans that; Shania Twain, Jim Carrey, Celine Dion & Mike Myers are Canadians. ... also , Alex Trebec, David Foley, Matthew Perry etc.etc.
13. You know that the C.E.O. of American Airlines is a Canadian!
14. You know what a toque is.
15. You design your Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
16. You know that the last letter of the English alphabet is always
pronounced "Zed".
17. Your local newspaper covers the national news on 2 pages, but requires 6 pages for hockey.
18. You know that the four seasons mean: almost winter, winter, still
winter, and road work.
19. You know that when it's 25 degrees outside, it's a warm day.
20. You understand the Labatt Blue commercials.
21. You know how to pronounce and spell "Saskatchewan".
22. You perk up when you hear the theme song from 'Hockey Night in Canada'.
23. You are in grade 12, not the 12th grade.
24. "Eh?" is a very important part of your vocabulary, and is more polite
than, "Huh?"
25. You actually understand these jokes, and forward them to all of your
Canadian friends! Then you send them to your American friends just to
confuse them!
I copied and pasted the above contents (to be frank) from this funny site by Bert. There are much more funny pictures, video and things you will appreciate. I loved the A Single Sheet of Paper too. There are other thing I am yet to explore.

jueves, 17 de mayo de 2007

gkn-mission-everest.jpg

bear-everest-gliding.jpg

mount-everest.jpg

First person to fly over top of the world

Bear Grylls climbed Mount Everest at the age of 23 in 1998 and became the youngest British climber to scale it. That was a British record. He was not satisfied by the record and he was lured by the highest peak to fly higher and create a new world record!

To the news reporter covering flying over the top of the world Grylls said: "The propeller, oxygen bottle and all the other equipment strapped to my back weighed more than 120kg (264lbs). It took me three attempts to get off the ground but when I was finally in the air, I noticed the crowd of people sitting on the ridge clapping and cheering," .
"On 14 May 2007, Grylls and his fellow pilot and inventor of the parajet engine, Giles Cardozo, took off from the small Himalayan village of Pheriche, which lies at an altitude of 4,400m (14,435ft) about 20 miles (32km) south of Mount Everest in eastern Nepal," the news report said.
It is great to see the incredible videos and pictures of the mission in the official mission homepage.

miércoles, 16 de mayo de 2007

yahoo-storagemeter.jpg

Webmail - Unlimited Storage in Yahoo

News on 27 March 2007 announced the unlimited storage capacity of Yahoo. Today I was welcomed by the following screen when I was logging in it.

Well, it seems it is happening for sure. Despite this big upgrade, the attachment sizes are still limited to 10MB for free accounts. I am wondering if it will bother a general user? 10MB is somewhat small when you talk about unlimited storage space. If you are compled to make maximum use of it there are software like HJsplit , a small and free software that allows you to cut a big file into small parts which can be sent as attachments in separate emails. But one needs to take considerable amount of time to send gigabytes of data with a free account.
One biggest disadvantage these email services have is that you have to log in frequently. They erase all of the emails if you fail to log in for some specified time depending upon the provider. In the long run, it's nice that "unlimited space" is available, but common users like myself wouldn't be able to make much use of the available space. I've had gmail for well over a year and have barely scratched the surface of my available space and I've made strides to fill it up. I have all sorts of backed up data in there. I don't know what I will do with the unlimited space!
If you want to compare different offers other email providers have visit thisnice comparision of web based emails in wikipedia website.
If you think Yahoo is the only one to offer unlimited space and create all these hypes then you are wrong. rediff one of India's largest email service provider has started offering unlimited storage some time back and aol is offering such service since August 2006 (Please comment if there are any others too).

US Military says YOU SUCK

I don't like talking about politics. That doesn't fall in any of my interest but still I enjoy reading news. Well, this post is not really a political writing it is rather about internet and its freedom.

I was always told that US is the most democratic country in the world and they enjoy the ultimate freedom. Today there was a news about US Military Blocking Web site Access to its soldiers with funny reasons to back up the ban.

Commander Jeffrey Gordon, spokesman for the Department of Defense, pointed out that the regulation is intended primarily to prevent military Internet connections from being clogged with uploads or downloads of data-rich files such as video clips. The ban is also meant to guard against infiltration by malicious or spying software hidden in files created by hackers.
Gordon says that the bottom line is bandwidth, which is the most important consideration. They have to make sure the network is reliable. Restrictions were imposed on MySpace, YouTube, and other Web sites after a usage study showed they were the most visited by soldiers.
Hey, US doesn't have sufficient bandwidth for its military! What about other countries?
Banned websites include video-sharing sites - YouTube, Metacafe, iFilm, StupidVideos, and FileCabi; social networking sites - MySpace, BlackPlanet, and Hi5; music sites - Pandora, MTV, 1.fm, and Live365; and the photo-sharing site, Photobucket. We have to be aware of the malicious or spying software hidden in files too!

youtube-sucks.jpg

lunes, 14 de mayo de 2007

01-1.jpg

Anonymous Blogger and the Secret Diary

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs is a satirical blog by an anonymous writer channeling Apple's chief executive. If you are in ayway (even remotly) interested in Apple product like iPod, Mac computer or looking to get an iPhone you will surely love to read the posts and get a good laugh.
The Secret Diary that started last year with daily stream of unfiltered satirical entries lets techies revel in their never-ending fascination of their own industry, and be entertained at the same time. The guarded identity of the blogger has fueled the guessing game in the industry. Some tech journalists and former Apple marketing staffers are popular choices in the guessing games.
link: The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs | news: Businessweek Article

domingo, 13 de mayo de 2007

art-king-watermelon.jpg

rolypolywatermelon.jpg

watermelon.jpg

watermelon-zen2.jpg

watermelon-baseball.jpg

watermelon-horse.jpg

meloncino-cestino1.jpg

foto-anguria-80.jpg

chinesewatermelonsculpture02.jpg

watermelon2-787391-1.jpg

watermelon-tango.jpg

watermelon-zen.jpg

watermelon-carving.jpg

watermelon2-787391.jpg

square-watermelon.jpg

Fed-up with the winter: At last the watermelon season has come!!

It was a harsh winter and I am fed-up with the snow and cold. It feels great to go out in shorts and t-shirts and take a gulp of watermelon on the way.
Inspired by the taste and freshness of I thought of writing about watermelon. But I didn't have anything special to write about. I searched internet and found some cool watermelon arts. Lets see how people turn it to a form of art.
First article that caught my eyes was the picture of square watermelon in crazy aunt purl's site. At first I thought it was a photoshoped picture but when I read the article it really is amazing how people can grow square watermelon.

Then comes the art. It is incredible how people can transform it to shapes of flowers, people and other things that do not constitute a watermelon.


Loved this grumpy old man!
Some Chinese artists have made various forms in watermelon.There are whole lot of shapes and figures in watermelon cover in this site.








 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Now the arts involving watermelon (no watermelon involved!).

Watermelon toy for your kids.

Watermelon art in oil
If you are interested to see more of watermelon arts you can visit this beautiful collection of 6 galleries.
 
Tags: watermelon art, photo

sábado, 12 de mayo de 2007

Walking around : some photos

Last week when I was walking around I took some pictures. I want to share them with you.
The first picture is from a bench ad in a bus stop. The bolt was placed such that it goes through its head.

Talking about ads, I found another unique ad in a cycle stand. I was walking by and saw a different kind of bike attached to cycle stand: with square tires. It was locked all right but it was not a bike to ride around in the summer. It was an ad of an website. You have to figure-out the website yourself. It sure is nice way to advertise as long as the parking space people don't take it away.

The next photo I took was of a small branch from the bush near my house. One tiny branch has sprouted out to welcome the spring. I liked the this combination:

Tags: photo

martes, 8 de mayo de 2007

Birth of a Parrot

There are 33 pictures of a baby parrot, from freshly hatched to its achieving a full set of feathers in this photo collection. It is cute to see all the stages of a parrot childhood.

Via | bith of a parrot

nike-logo.jpg

firefox-logo-1.jpg

fedex-logo.jpg

microsoft-office-logo.jpg

apple-logo.png

Most Creative Logos

Logos are the most creative designs of graphic art. We recognize many company or brands by the uniqueness/creativeness of their logo.
This compilation of 56 Most Creative Logos is really colorful and interesting to see and appreciate.
Among the big collection of most interesting logos, the ones I like most are: Fedex's arrow hidden in between E and x, Firefox, Nike and Apple logos.

Tags: logo, graphic design

lunes, 7 de mayo de 2007

Buttons and buttons everywhere

You never get tired of pushing the buttons in your TV remote control. Kid's remote controlled toy car or a room AC or even the bombings in Iraq and Afganistan are all done by buttons. It seems like everything comes with buttons these days. When I post this post the software I am using will ask to push "OK" button to confirm my decision (as if computer are much smarter than the users themselves).
I was looking around and found Bill DeRouchey's blog dedicated to History of the Button and it was a nice read. The history of OK button is interesting.

OK, that was easy. I may have finally figured out which is my favorite button.
The OK button. .... OK? OK.
found via | button history

Naked man glued to exercise bike during theft

In Johannesburg, South Africa a gang stripped a South African man before gluing him to an exercise bicycle while they ransacked his house.

The victim was then forced to strip, after which he was superglued to the seat of an exercise bicycle, his hands were superglued, as were his feet and then his mouth was superglued shut.
Anybody thief around? :-)
news source

Come on ... Click Click Click

People find different ways to waste their time in internet. In one of such sites click click click you can click as much as you can for your country. I clicked 99 times for my country Canada and found that I was the only one in Canada to click today. It is ranked 30th in the list.

Chile is ranked 1st in the list with 134,353,954 clicks (at the time of this post). It might be fun for some people but I think it is waste of time and will surely wear out your mouse soon!!
Via

sábado, 5 de mayo de 2007

Another Search Engine

With the big brother Google around and big players like MSN and Yahoo trying their best to remain in the internet search market, starting a new search engine requires nothing less than a perfect algorithm. As a general user I always wish I had an option when I search the web and somebody would come from nowhere to beat the giant G.

When I came across TigerTom Search I was expecting a competition to Google. But the result was not what I expected. First I searched "lorla" and it was nice of the search engine to give this blog the first position. But it was sad that it couldn't recognize "Canada". What I got was "This result has been filtered out" (see screenshot below). Hey! it is not Iran or Syria! But the Google does recognize the country and listed ads about mortgages. On top of that there was no "Images" or "News" about Canada in tigertom.org.ukworld.

I don't know if the goal of the website is providing its user with a better search result or not. Or it may be because it is in betastage.

Well, for me it seems this site just proved that Google is unbeatable!
This is Sponsored Post

A Noble Mission

Youth are the pillar of society and these pillars are being crumbled by drugs, alcohol and gang-culture. Boat Angel Outreach Centers are established around the world to help these mis-guided youth to guide them to the right path.

According to Rev. David Crawford, 5,000 people sleep on the streets in the Los Angeles area and they are vulnerable to various negative influences like drugs, alcohol etc. Boat Angel Outreach Centers help the these people to get a better life.

Youths go through a one year Bible School & Ministry Training program and multiple daily services. The school program inclues running three miles six day a week, attend high school and Bible School, and two to three hours of church and worship services daily. In addition to the two to three hours of church and worship services daily they are taught choreography to reach out with hip-hop and break dancing. Every summer these youth go on the road on outreaches across the United States.

In Wikieup, AZ, they have acquired a land and plans have been drawn up to construct a permanent 5,000 square foot building with an estimated cost of $200,000 which will be a sanctuary for misleaded youths in the society.

Boat Angel Outreach Centers are run by the help of generous people who donate used cars, boats, boat houses etc. Car Donations and other donations will help the Outreach Centers to achieve the noble goal to help those who can't help themselves.

If you want be of some help in this great work you can send your check to:
BoatAngelOutreachCenter
1745 N. Ashbrook Circle, Mesa AZ 85213
Note: This is a Sponsored Post

The Police and their greatest reunion release

The Police entered the public eye during the punk era of '80s but this group was never truly punk. All these years they have gone through a rollercoaster trip from ?80s stadium kings, fall into antagonism and recent reunion. Which is reflected in this months issue of the MOJO magazine (based in the UK) featuring an exclusive interview with the reformed The Police who are back with a world tour.



The album, The Policeis the compilation of greatest hits released by The Police on June 5, 2007 to accompany their reunion tour. It contains 28 songs spanned over two discs, a mixture of hits and fan favorites. The album debuted at number 11 on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling about 58,000 copies in its first week.

When you click on the adjacent poster, you will be taken in The Police banner where you can watch their videos, get track list / jukebox, news about their tour and ringtones. You can also participate in contests and win prizes that can let you win a trip to New York and there is also an option to send the link to your friends tell about these offers.

Please click on Police Cd to go and view an awesome banner where you can watch The Police's videos, listen to tracks from The Police's new 2 cd hits collection, enter to win a trip to NYC to see The Police in concert and even view details about their current world tour.

All of their songs are masterpiece in the album but "Driven To Tears" has always been my favorite and it was the first song I listened from the CD:
... Hide my face in my hands, shame wells in my throat
My comfortable existence is reduced
To a shallow, meaningless party
Seems that when some innocents die
All we can offer them is a page in a some magazine
Too many cameras and not enough food
'Cause this is what we've seen
Driven to tears ...
This is a great release. I have got my copy! What about you?

User Submitted Green News

With all the environment related problems and global warming, conservation of environment has gathered much attention these days. People are more concerned and worried in keeping the nature in the natural environment or restoring the role of nature in this environment.

Last week, a new social networking site for environement friendly people is setup for submiting pages to grow green news. In addition to web pages, the registered users can submit photos and videos to the stories.

The voting system as in other social networking sites are called Growing and popular stories "grow" higher than the others. If members like the story and think that the story is relevant and interesting they can help it grow in its popularity by voting for it. The members can discuss the submitted stories and tell how good it is or how worthless it is (if it is so!). After certain growth, they are promoted to the frontpage as the Top Stories which can eventually be picked up by the main site.

The submission process has 3 steps. First I had to enter the link, then in the second step the details like title, tags, category and description. Unlinke other similar sites, in addition those regular details there is an option to upload a photo, embed YouTube video, and enter trackbak.

They also have a shortcut that can be used as a bookmark for easy submission. But the shortcut could only get the URL of the page submitted. I think, they need to work on getting at least the title and some details like photos from the post.

It is a nice start and I love the neat green layout. This site has given me a feeling that I am missing some greener side in this blog. I am thinking of writing some "Let's Go Green" posts in future.

Car and other insurance resources

It is illegal to drive without an insurance in most of the places. Knowing a few things before applying for a car insurance can be helpful in reducing the insurance rate you can get. A simple theory in insurance rate is that good drivers pay less and bad drivers continue to pay for their driving habits.

Before applying for a car insurance, first thing is to get are the letters from the previous insurance company. The insurance experience might be very useful in lowering the insurance rate. You might also need a driving licence valid for the place you are living. In Canada, people living in British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan might not have much choice as the government provides the insurance, but for other places my experience tells that one needs to do a bit of market research before deciding on going for a particular company.

Thriftyscot.co.uk provides details on getting a competitive rate and gives some guidelines to cut the cost of your car insurance. The website is also a very helpful resource in getting other insurances like home insurance and life insurance.
Note: This is sponsored post

Accoona: Aiming High

After three years of development and refinement of its tool, Accoona Corp., a pioneer in artificial intelligence search technology, is finally going public.

A venture in a internet search business in not an easy task. When key players like Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask are competing among themselves to get higher chunk in their share of 90% search world, new players need to come with somthing exceptionally better. It is to be seen if Accoona can capture some big chunks in the huge market.

Some of Accoona's main strengths lie in the partnerships with European and Chinese markets since its creation in February 2004. Its big business index comprising of some 13 million North American, 18 million European and 11 million Chinese businesses can also be considered a big asset. Accoona has also developed a unique, online-based lead generation business model called Exchange Place, where advertisers can acquire real-time, qualified and verified consumer leads through a competitive bidding process.

It would certainly be a good thing if we have much better choices around when we need to find something in the vast cyberspace. Good luck to Accoona!

The Art of Sending Flowers

Understanding the meanings of common kinds of flowers is very important when you send flowers to someone, because human beings perceive flowers with different feelings and implications.

Type of flower signify the feeling you express to the receiver. Roses are often interpreted as signifying passionate love and deep friendship. Lotuses, peonies and lilies are considered symbols of courtesy, tenderness and loyalty. Orchids means noble beauty and maturity while sunflowers mean youth, eagerness and a promising future.

Knowing what type of flowers the receiver likes helps in choosing the type of flowers one can send. Best flower for newly married couple might be red roses and peonies, to wish them love and a happy marriage. The best suited flowers for a bride are lilies, orchids and roses.

Age also plays important role in deciding the type of flowers to send. In birthday parties, for a youngster, roses and ivies will suit her best. However, for middle-aged people, orchids can be chosen and for elderly people small pot plants might suit best. When visiting your friend's house for a New Year occasion, you should bring flowers with the meaning of luck such as daffodils or primroses.

Sending flowers to sick people is also very popular but requires more caution. You can send them flowers, which have delicate scents, such as roses or lilies. You should avoid flowers or plants, which may cause allergy or have a strong smell.

Colours have many special meanings as well. Red means eagerness; white means pure and innocence; yellow means wealth, green means youth, sky blue means peace and violet means nobleness.



In some countries, apart from type of flower and color, the number of flowers also matters. Chinese people always send flowers in even numbers and when seeing off a female friend, they never send her a sole flower. In Germany, you shouldn't send your friend's wife a red rose and in France, they usually don't give daisies to their friends because they think daisies mean grief. Besides, in some western countries, they never send 13 or 15 flowers because they think that means bad luck.

I hope this short guide will be helpful in deciding the type, color, and numbers of flowers to send to your loved ones.

Printers, health, and cartridges

In a latest news, laser printers are more harmful than smoking cigarettes. According to BBC, the Queensland University of Technology scientists have called on ministers to regulate these kinds of emissions. They say some printers should come with a health warning. The researchers carried out tests on more than 60 machines and found one-third were found to emit ultra-tiny particles of toner-like material, so small that they can infiltrate the lungs and cause a range of health problems from respiratory irritation to more chronic illnesses.

Whatever may be the case, we can't live without printers in the current time. The best option seems to opt for inkjet ones. But the quality of inkjet can't beat that of laser printer.

Climate Change

Many natural disasters in the current time can be attributed to the climate change and global warming. The term "global warming" might be technically correct but I can't really care about global "warming" when the temperature outside is -30 degrees Celsius. "Climate Change" is a better way to talk about the the global climate crisis. I think "climate crisis", or "climate chaos" might convey better meaning on what the earth is experiencing.

I came across a nice online channel creating awareness in climate change and in making the world a better place. It has a nice collection of videos on news, views, energy policies, and recent efforts in creating awareness and contributions in minimizing climate related problems.

I watched a video on the official launch of the "greenest city in
America" contest. A fleet of Yahoo sponsored hybrid taxis were to be given the the winner city to create awareness on the issues of climate change. The contest will be helpful in generating a sense of responsibility in an individual or an organization to deal with deteriorating environment. Carbon emission from vehicles may be a small portion of the greenhouse gases as compared to forest fires and industrial emission but it sure is the best way to create awareness among individuals. These are the same people who can control other sources of other greenhouse gases.

The desire and motivation to be more climate friendly is also dictated by cost factor. As of current, the hybrid and energy efficient technology are costlier than the conventional technology. To bridge this imbalance, policy level changes should be enforced to motivate individual users to use environment friendly technology.

Understanding mortgages

A long-term loan for property, and the buildings on the property, is called a mortgage. Lending institutions such as banks and mortgage companies are the largest mortgage lenders, but some credit unions offer long-term loans. Sometimes a seller will finance the home they are selling and some mortgages are assumable from the current homeowner.

Paying back the capital

Most mortgages generally require down payments as a firm commitment from the buyer to the lender of the buyer's intention to repay the loan. Some lenders will offer mortgages for 97% or 95% of the value of the property. The borrower, then, is required to make only a 3% or 5% down payment. Generally, when a mortgage is made with less than a 20% down payment, mortgage insurance is required.

Paying back the loan, you can either pay a little at a time as you go or pay it all off at the end which are explained as follows:

Repayment mortgages - Each monthly payment pays off a little of the underlying debt, as well as interest on the loan. At the end of the term the mortgage is cleared.

Interest only mortgages - With this type of mortgage, you pay-off the interest on the loan but not the capital. At the end of the mortgage term you are expected to repay the capital, how you fund this is your business.

Endowment Mortgages - You use an endowment policy to provide life insurance and save funds to repay the loan at the end of the term (usually 20-25 years). In the 1980s endowments were very popular and heavily marketed by lenders. However, many people were not told of the investment risk. This was mis-selling and lenders faced huge claims for compensation. As a result, endowment mortgages have declined sharply in popularity. Relatively few endowments are sold today but there are still millions of policies yet to mature.

Paying the interest

As in cases of other debts, you have to pay interest on mortgages. Howerver, there are range of options to pay the interest.

Variable rates - This means you pay the going rate on your loan. The mortgage rate changes every time interest rates change or, as in most cases, the overall effect of any interest rate changes is calculated once a year and payments are altered accordingly. Whatever kind of mortgage you start with, it is likely to change to variable rates at some point.

Fixed rates - The interest rate is fixed for the period agreed - often two to five years. These are ideal for budgeting or if you think rates might increase. You do not benefit if rates fall, and will face penalties if you try to quit.

Be aware of very low rates as they can be used to trap you into paying over the odds at a future date. So one has to check how long you will have to stay with the lender before you can switch without penalty.

Capped rates - These are fixed, but if rates fall you pay the lower rate. Such deals can be a good for budgeting.

Cash back deals - This is when lenders offer money back if you take out a particular product. However, nothing comes free in life and cashback mortgages may be weighed down with hefty penalty charges if you later want to switch lender.

Discounted rates - Under this type of mortgage the borrower is offered a discount off the lender's variable rate. The rate paid will fluctuate in line with changes in the variable rate. The discount applies over a set term.

Bad Credits

Lenders divide customers into two classes namely good and bad. The good credit holders get low rates and friendly terms. The bad credit holders get high fees and ugly rates. Bad credit mortgages, or subprime loans, were created for borrowers with varying problems, such as a bad credit score, insufficient credit or employment history, nontraditional credit, unverifiable income, or inadequate savings. Lumping them all into the same category forced some borrowers to pay higher rates than they deserved. Today, however, borrowers with a just a few credit dings can find better terms for their bad credit mortgage or debt consolidation loan. Understanding bad credit mortgages pricing can save you a lot of money.

Pizza sized $1 Million Coin

The giant coin is the size of an extra-large pizza, weighs 100 kilograms - or around 220 pounds - is 53 centimetres in diameter, over 3 centimetres thick, is hand crafted and is guaranteed to be 99.999 percent pure gold. And since the cost of that precious metal fluctuates, it's actually worth more than its million dollar asking price.

This CAD$1 Million dollar coin is the world?s highest denomination coin currency, the nearest one weighs only 31 kg (68 pound) called ?Big Phil? to honor the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and also has a smaller value of CAD$150,000.
Source: 1,2

viernes, 4 de mayo de 2007

The Mist - does it scare?

I am really scared of horror movies! I hate movies with a lot of blood. But suspense and thrillers with a horror touch is sometimes entertaining. I prefer novels to movies when it comes to horror and movies to books when it is a comedy.

I have read some of Stephen King's novels and they really have nice plots and smooth flowing story line. When I saw the trailers of his upcoming movie, "The Mist", the suspense was thrilling rather than horrifying. After seeing the trailers I was left wondering what I would do when I was in that situation. I guess, I have to make it an exception in my preference to see it.

The new science fiction/horror flick, The Mist by Stephen King, is directed and adapted for the screen by Frank Darabont. Starring Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher, Laurie Holden, Toby Jones, William Sadler, Frances Sternhagen and Jeffrey DeMunn the movie will be in theatres on Nov 21st.

Yesterday at a press conference in New York, Stephen King is quoted as saying "Frank wrote a new ending that I loved. It is the most shocking ending ever and there should be a law passed stating that anybody who reveals the last 5 minutes of this film should be hung from their neck until dead."

That is the horror writer's horrifying warning!

Terry Tao at UCLA - Top Scientist

Terry Tao is considered as a greatest scientist in the modern time.

miércoles, 2 de mayo de 2007

Record Setting Cable Car to be Constructed

A 4.4 kilometers long cable car that runs from the 2,182m high Whistler Mountain to the 2,440m high Blackcomb Mountain is planned to be completed by December 2008.


The company hired to build the cable car, Doppelmayr of Austria, says it will set two world records, one for distance between two pillars supporting the cable - 3,024 meters - and one for height over a valley - 415 meters.
In the official website there is a very neat presentation highlighting these two record breaking features of the cable car.


As Vancouver and the Whistler-Blackcomb region have been selected to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, this is one of the many new infrastructures being constructed in the area.
Via
 
Tags: cable car, mountain, winter olympics

martes, 1 de mayo de 2007

Nice and Free Software : Text Magician

I had a really big text file and I didn't know how to open it. Then I found this small software developed by David Pye. It helped me to divide the file into smaller pieces so I can keep open them and play around with. Apart from splitting files it can do lot of other useful things with text files.
It is a simple interface with all options squezed in one small GUI. It looks like the following screenshot without much menus and toolbars.


This software can be used to edit text files the easy way. Join or split files while adding, deleting or replacing text, change to upper or lower case, capitalise all words or the start of all lines, add text to the start or end of lines, remove leading or trailing spaces, add or remove blank lines, remove text blocks, alphabetise lines in file(s), split files at specified lines or text or into a specified number of files, works on multiple files and on files of unlimited size. I wrote this for my own use after I couldn't find a program to do what I wanted, it's extremely easy to use with a simple interface.
Some of the tasks it can do are listed as follows:

1. Remove leading spaces and tabs.
2. Remove trailing spaces.
3. Remove all blank lines.
4. Add a blank line after each line.
5. Capitalize the first letter of each line.
6. Capitalize the first letter of each word.
7. Capitalize all text.
8. Make all text lower case.
9. Sort the lines in the file(s) alphabetically.
10. Remove text from the start of each line.
11. Remove text from the end of each line.
12. Remove text from everywhere in the file(s).
13. Add text to the start of each line.
14. Add text to the end of each line.
15. Add text in a new line after each line.
16. Remove a block of text.
17. Replace text everywhere.
18. Join multiple files and include dividers.
You can also split a file in the following ways:-
1. Into a specified number of files.
2. Every X number of lines.
3. Split at the end of specified text.
4. The first 17 editing functions can also be included when splitting a file.
The software can be downloaded from the developer's site.
Tags: text edit, file split, text, freeware