Diamonds No More

CBS News

A plasma television is a girl's new best friend, says a U.S. study that found three out of four women would pick a plasma TV over a solitaire diamond necklace.

According to the Women's Watch: Girls Gone Wired survey, women are increasingly passionate about technology. The modern woman prizes cellphones, iPods and digital cameras over fancy shoes, holidays and even the iconic little black dress.

Fifty-six per cent of women said they would opt for a plasma television over a weekend holiday in Florida. Another 86 per cent said they would prefer a new digital video camera to a pair of designer shoes. The iPod narrowly edged out a little black dress.

The survey, which questioned 1,400 women and 700 men aged 15 to 49, found that women were making gains on the technology consumer front, owning on average 6.6 devices. Men maintained a slight lead, having on average 6.9 gadgets.

Four out of every five women in the study reported that they felt comfortable using technology and another 46 per cent said they were confident performing their own computer troubleshooting.

The survey, released Tuesday by market researcher Teenage Research Unlimited for the women's U.S. cable Oxygen network, said that women expected to make more use of digital cameras, cellphones, e-mail, camera phones, text messaging and instant messaging over the next five years.

Pre Employment Drug Screening

Top 10 Worst URL Flops

1. A site called "Who Represents" where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is
www.whorepresents.com

2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
www.expertsexchange.com

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.penisland.net

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
www.therapistfinder.com

5. Then of course, there's the Italian Power Generator company…
www.powergenitalia.com

6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales:
www.molestationnursery.com

7. If you're looking for computer software, there's always
www.ipanywhere.com

8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is
www.cummingfirst.com

9. Then, of course, there's these brainless art designers, and their whacky website:
www.speedofart.com

10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at
www.gotahoe.com

MTV, Google deal makes video AdSense

Google has enlisted Viacom's MTV Networks in an ambitious expansion of the Internet giant's advertising network and video portal, the companies said Sunday.

The deal calls for Google to begin testing at the end of the month the insertion of video into Google's targeted advertising system, AdSense, from hit Viacom-owned series like Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants."

If the arrangement works, Google could allow any number of content companies to utilize the service, splitting ad revenue between them as well as the Web sites chosen to carry the clips, which are 2-4 minutes in length.

The Google-Viacom alliance represents a reaction to the unfolding sea change in video content distribution, which is rapidly transitioning online as broadband connections become more pervasive and new players like YouTube are becoming destination sites.

It also represents an evolution for AdSense, which relies primarily on text and images in its ubiquitous system, which reaped $2.7 billion in revenue last year for Google.

MTV Networks will allow Google to experiment with clips from three of its shows, including "SpongeBob," "Laguna Beach: The Real O.C." and "The MTV Video Music Awards." The clips essentially will promote those shows and be embedded with mini-ads as well that MTV Networks will sell to third parties.

In addition, the deal will put a wide range of full-length episodes of MTV Networks content on Google's video portal for $1.99 each, including Comedy Central's "South Park" and MTV's "Jackass." MTV Networks has a similar arrangement with Apple's iTunes.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

How One Man Tricked 600 Million People Into Jumping At The Same Time To Alter Earth Orbit

Yesterday, six hundred million people were supposed to jump simultaneously. World Jump Day is a designated day where everybody in the world jumps at once to knock the earth into a new orbit.

The scientific background of the whole idea is a bit shady, but here it is anyway

For a person to jump off the surface of the Earth, Newton´s Third Law guarantees that the Earth will feel a reaction force equal and opposite to the force generated by jumping. This then to an excellent approximation cancels the impulse of the force generated on impact. The only effect of 6 billion jumping human beings will be lots of sore kneecaps and a few stress lines in concrete all over the world, and the Earth´s days changing ever so slightly in duration.

Dr. Hans Peter Niesward, from the Department of Gravitationsphysik at the ISA in Munich claims that on this day "Earth occupies one of the most fragile positions in its orbits for the last 100 years." According to the site, the shift in orbit will "stop global warming, extend daytime hours and create a more homogeneous climate."

Niesward's theory has at least one major flaw: Niesward doesn't really exist. He is a character created by Torsten Lauschmann, a German-born artist living in Scotland. Lauschmann — a live performer, filmmaker, DJ and photographer — may be best known for his work "Misshapen Pearl," described as a "phenomenological investigation of the streetlamp's function in our consumer society."

In 2005, Lauschmann encouraged scientists and bloggers from around the world to discuss World Jump Day.

"He thought it would just circulate among friends, but it quickly seemed to morph. Within weeks it was global — people in Australia were talking about it on the radio," said Neil Mulholland, a reader in contemporary art theory at Edinburgh College of Art. "The more it was discussed, the more people joined the site, and it crashed several times."

The site now claims to have just under 600 million jumpers registered for the cause. But will people jump out of environmental activism or a commitment to the bizarre? Is the jump as important as the buzz it's created?

The folks at madphysics.com have constructed an anti-World Jump Day manifesto, complete with equations drawn up to dispute the validity of Niesward's — or Lauschmann's — theories.

Supposedly based on "seismographic recordings ranging from impacts of comets to the simultaneous movement of the audience at the 2002 World Cup Final," the site uses graphs, bell curves and diagrams to support its hypothesis and directs the user to several prestigious science and environmental sites, none of which mention World Jump Day or support any of its assertions.

One word of caution: The site tells those of us living in the eastern part of the United States to jump at 6:39:13 because we are five hours behind GMT, but that is not true in July. Because of daylight savings time, Lauschmann has a part of the United States that jumped an hour early.

(Based on articles from GeekLife, MadPhysics, GameShout and Google News)

www.worldjumpday.org/

Deux t�tes de technologie cr�ent UFOs faux, font effrayer la ville enti�re

Craigslist posters robbed at gunpoint in Walnut Creek

An advertisement on the Craiglist.org Web site led to an armed robbery in a Walnut Creek Target store parking lot Sunday night, Lt. Mark Covington of the Walnut Creek Police Department reported.

According to Covington, the victims, who were from the Livermore-Pleasanton area, posted some hooded jackets for sale on the Web site. They arranged to meet with the suspects to sell the jackets at the Walnut Creek Target store at 1871 N. Main St.

At about 8:20 p.m. the two suspects, both Asian males about 16 to 19 years old, arrived in the parking lot in a black Lexus. One of the suspects then pulled a silver handgun and pointed it at one of the victims, reportedly saying "This is how we're going to do this."

As the suspects made off with 11 jackets, they flashed a gang sign and said, "This is West Pittsburg," according to Covington.

The suspects left in the Lexus and were last seen driving out of the south driveway of the Target store, Covington said.

The first suspect, who was the driver, was described as 5 feet 6 inches tall, 130 pounds, and was wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans and a gold "grill."

The second suspect was described as 5 feet 8 inches tall, 145 to 150 pounds, and was wearing a white ball cap with the word "Vietnamese" on it and a white T-shirt. He carried a silver semi-automatic handgun with brown grips.

The suspects' vehicle was described as a black Lexus four-door with paper plates.

No injuries were reported. The investigation is ongoing and police have not yet located the suspects, Covington said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Walnut Creek Police Department at (925) 943-5844.

In an apparently unrelated incident approximately three weeks ago, San Jose police reported a series of armed robberies by a suspect posing as a seller or buyer on the Craigslist.org Web site.

That suspect was described a black man between the ages of 18 and 25, standing 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet tall, weighing between 140 to 160 pounds with a "thin but muscular build."

Gli Americani non desiderano essere amici con qualcuno
Computers Software Discount Best Prices Desk Top Dell

Google To Report Invalid Clicks To Advertisers

Google has officially announced on it's blog that it's now starting to report invalid clicks http://adwords.blogspot.com/2006/07/estimating-invalid-clicks.htm

They also offered official explanation why and how they are doing it.

"You can now run Campaign Performance and Account Performance reports featuring the number and percentage of invalid clicks that have been determined to be invalid and automatically filtered out by the AdWords system.

You are not charged for these clicks – the system's sophisticated detection and filtering techniques have identified these as invalid clicks and prevented them from being charged to your account. Read our FAQ about how Google detects invalid clicks to learn more about this process.

When running a Campaign Performance or Account Performance report, you can select columns within the Advanced Options section to include data about the number of filtered invalid clicks for the reporting period, as well the percentage of invalid clicks within the total number of clicks for the reporting period.

Please note that data for invalid clicks is only available for reports dated January 1, 2006 to the present, and that this data is not available for hourly views.

Here's how to run a report with data on invalid clicks:

Log in to your AdWords account.Click on the Reports tab and then on the Create Report link.For 'Report Type,' select Campaign Performance or Account Performance from the pull-down menu. Choose your 'View' from among the available options (note that hourly views are not available for invalid clicks reporting).Select the 'Date Range' for your report by using the time span. Data for invalid clicks reporting is available from January 1, 2006 onwards. For Campaign Performance reports, select which campaigns to include by choosing the radio button for All campaigns or the radio button for Manually select from a list ( to hand-pick your campaigns for inclusion). Within 'Advanced Options,' click Add or Remove Columns.Check the column option boxes for Invalid Clicks (for the number of invalid clicks filtered during the reporting period), and / or for Invalid Clicks Rate (for the percentage of clicks filtered out of your total clicks during the reporting period). Select any other data you want included in this report by clicking the appropriate boxes and adding filters if desired. Note that reports with data for invalid clicks can't include data for ad distribution.Enter a unique Report Name and check the box to save your settings as a template if you want to re-use them in the future.For 'Scheduling and Email,' schedule your report to run at regular intervals if you want it automatically generated; provide an email address for delivery if desired; and then choose your preferred report delivery format (.csv, .csv for Excel, .tsv, .xml, or .html). Click Create Report."

Weird USB Gadgets You Did Not Know Existed

USB Snowman - always a fun and timeless winter activity - building a snowman. Of course you always need the right kind of snow to easily roll-up the snowman parts. The wet heavy stuff works so much better than when it's really cold and you have only the dry powdery snow mixture.

In the spirit of winter fun we offer a snowman that requires zero powder - just a nice warm USB connection. Complete with a little hat and scarf, just plug in and watch the belly glow. A great desktop addition, sure to put you in a happy mood. The LEDs glow through 4 color changes.

Also has these features.

• USB-powered mini glowing Snowman with LED light
• LED cycles through 4 colors
• A great holiday gift
• Power Supply: 5V/1A, Standard USB
• Dimensions: 2.15" dia x 4.5" high
• Compatible with PC, MAC, SUN, and Playstation2
• No software or battery Required

USB Sushi Disks - never again will you have to choose between having sushi or having a USB memory drive--thanks to the USB sushi drive. These USB drives are hand-made-in-Tokyo sushi replicas. The convincing USB sushi drive comes in several flavors.

USB Fan - soft, safe nylon blades circulate steady stream of cool air

• Quiet motor will not disrupt you when working
• No batteries, plugs into USB port
• No switches - virtually nothing to break, just plug it in to use
• Small enough to take anywhere
• Unit Dimensions 2.6" L x 0.5" W x 11.0" H
• 1 year warranty

USB Beverage Chiller - the CoolIT USB Beverage Chiller is the only way to keep your drink cold while you're at your computer. And it looks cool on any desktop!

The next must-have computer accessory is here. With the USB Beverage Chiller at your side, you can keep your beverage chilled and stay at your computer longer.

Just seconds after plugging the chiller into your computer's USB port (no external outlet needed), the coldplate chills to 45 degrees Fahrenheit, the perfect temperature for keeping your beverage chilled.

• Plugs into your computer's USB port
• Coldplate chills to 45 F
• Keeps your beverage cold