My top choice:
1. Jingle Bell (Love the ebullient rhythm ^^)
2. Silent Night (I heard Charlot Church sang when I was a teenager, so great, she's like an angel)
3. We wish you a Merry Christmas (Open heart to everybody)
4. Santa Clause is coming to town (Will he visit me this year? I've waited for 20 years)
5. Jingle Bell Rock (Funny song I heard latest)
What your choices? Let everyone know ^^ (post in comment)
Best Wish for You! ^.^
Google:
1. Bebo
2. MySpace
3. World Cup
4. Metacafe
5. Radioblog
6. Wikipedia
7. Video
8. Rebelde
9. Mininova
10. Wiki
This result makes me suprised! I don't think that 'Bebo', ... is the most popular keyword!
Top characters using Live Search:
1. Ronaldinho
2. Shakira
3. Paris Hilton
4. Briney Spears
5. Harry Potter
6. Eminem
7. Pamela Anderson
8. Hilarry Duff
9. Agelina Jolie
(from Internet)
2.When a child is born-Il Divo
4.We wish you a Merry Christmas-Ashanti
6.Christmas Medley-X-Mas Medley song
7.Little drummer boy-W.Houston ft B.K.Brown
8.Santa Clause is coming to town-All 4 One
9.All i want for Christmas-Disney's Child
10.Jingle Bells rock-Bobby Helms
11.Last Christmas-Kenji Astro ft As One
13.Donde Esta Santa Claus-Disney's Child
15.Auld Lang Syne-Tradition Carol song
16.What child is this?-Tradition Carol symphony
All in http://musicontheblog.blogspot.com/
Oops, long time I didn't talk to you, my dear visitors!
Now, I think you decorated your trees? Prepared the Turkey with some wines ^^ to warm your family and make your home more beautiful covering with white snow everywhere!
My country (esp my area: HCMC) doesn't have that things, the air is not so cold (a little cool) and snow never fall.
But I still want to enjoy Xmas holidays, I prepare to send greeting cards to my friends with all nice wishes inside ^^
Should I go somewhere to have dinner? KFC for example ^^.
Anyway,
Enjoy your lifes,
Make everything fine,
Forget the pains and lies,
Open your world with smiles.
Mike
From Sheri & Bob Stritof
Painless Shopping Tips
Have you waited til the last minute to get that special gift for your spouse? Here are some last minute shopping tips to help you make your shopping trip a bit more painless.
- Make a list of your gift ideas and possible stores that may have them.
- Call ahead to see if items are available.
- Consider shopping when the stores first open or the last hour that they are open.
- If you spouse is deployed, let the stores ship the items for you.
- Shop at online stores and take advantage of their gift wrapping and shipping options.
(from http://marriage.about.com/od/gifts/qt/shopping.htm)
Meaningful Expressions of Affection
Here are some suggestions to get your own creative juices flowing so that your love for one another will go on forever:
- Make sure you say "I Love You" at least once each day to your spouse.
- Write unexpected love notes.
- Give your mate an unexpected hug, a surprisingly romantic kiss, or a teasing tickle often.
- Be spontaneous and surprising with winking at each other, whisking your spouse away for an unexpected weekend alone, star-gazing together, taking a walk in the rain with one another.
- ...
See All : http://marriage.about.com/od/loveandromance/a/iloveyou.htm
TuneUp Utilities makes Windows faster, more secure, and comfortable. All important aspects of system configuration, security, cleaning and maintenance are combined under a modern graphical user interface.
SeaMonkey is the new name of the formerly known Mozilla Application Suite. SeaMonkey is a free, cross-platform internet suite, whose components include a tabbed web browser, email and news client, Pop-Up Stopper, HTML editor, and an IRC client.
Download:
Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.0.7 for Windows (11.9 MB)
Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.0.7 for Linux (13.3 MB)
A list of issues to look out for during the upcoming holiday season and beyond.
Author: Andre Muscat
Piracy
During the Christmas period, companies are at higher risk of having one or more employees copy copyrighted material onto their network. This can be for a number of factors. Employees will figure that security will be more lax, with the possibility of multiple administrators on holiday thus risking more than usual, figuring they can get away with copying or downloading illegal material without getting caught.
During Christmas time a lot of people buy presents for each other. In the tech industry especially, but even in any other industry it is likely that a good deal of these presents will be some kind of electronic gadgets. Gadgets that are likely to be able to copy and carry a good deal of data, such as mp3 players, portable video players, cameras, and portable storage. Eager to try these devices out, employees are likely to bring them to work with them.
Spamming and Social Engineering mails are also a possible source of piracy. Illegal software vendors might try selling illegal copies of software at low prices, portraying the low price as a big Christmas discount making the deal seem more legitimate.
Strong Passwords
Before leaving for Christmas holidays, it is essential to ensure that any computers which will be left running have strong passwords. During the Christmas holidays machines are more likely to suffer attacks.
Malicious persons will likely be on holiday as well, thus having more time on their hands to perform targeted attacks.
Attackers will figure that security is probably quite lax as administrators too go on holiday. This would be the perfect time to run brute force attacks which are not likely to be detected or acted upon until after the next year, plenty of time to cover tracks and set a stronghold on the hacked machine.
Administrators absence
As administrators take holidays there are numerous aspects that have to be considered and secured. The security of the network must still be handled efficiently, even with the decreased administrator to users ratio or even, in some cases, complete administrator absence.
Automatic updates. During the holiday season, viruses and Malware are more likely to be on the rise as virus writers take break from their respective work places and find themselves with more free time. Thus it is essential that, in the administrators absence, antiviruses continue running, scanning the network and updating themselves with the latest virus definition files.
As administrators are away from work, or a small percentage of administrators are left to cope with a large work load, systems must be in place to automatically monitor the network situation and alert administrators when things go wrong. During the holiday season it is essential that such tools support notifications not only through email system but also through mobile technologies such as SMS. This is crucial as email checking might suffer as people tend to be more socially active during this time of the year.
Company Shutdown
As companies shut down for the Christmas period, it is essential that not only the personnel go on shutdown but also the non essential services.
Wireless is one such service that, unless it is really needed during a company shutdown, it should be switched off. Wireless is a favorite attack vector as it gives a direct opportunity to gain access to the internal network infrastructure without having to physically break into the company building itself. As an example, the technology allows an attacker to park his car next to the company building and use wireless technology and software to sniff out communication packets, and possibly also use weak passwords to gain access to the operating environments susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks like shares, unpatched operating systems and more. When not needed, especially during a Christmas shutdown, wireless should strictly be turned off.
Further to Wireless, any service and servers which are not required during the Christmas shutdown should also be disabled if they are not going to be used. This will ensure that, if the organization is targeted, hackers will have the minimum number of attack vectors available to them.
Ref: http://www.eimagazine.com/xq/asp/sid.0/articleid.A2E3D650-5469-4DAD-9C7F-BC3739D836B4/qx/display.htm
Physical Security
During the Christmas period, generally one would find less people at work places because most people would be enjoying Christmas holidays. Such a situation might lead insiders with bad intent to try to access restricted information, feel safer and might consider acting on it during this low period. Thus it is imperative to ensure critical servers which have crucial information are physically secure. Administrators should ensure server rooms are securely locked before leaving for holidays. Same goes for network switches, wireless equipment and any other device which might provide an entry point to secure networks.
Administrator computers should be considered as critical computers which also need to be physically secure just like servers. Furthermore, hard disk content should be encrypted. If hard disk content is left unencrypted and the only security is relied upon the login procedure, people with ill intend who have access to the administrator computer could easily extract the hard disk, connect it to another computer and possibly copy passwords or implant torjans and sniffers to allow easier future network penetration.
(from windowsecurity.com)
Zoom Player was originally conceived to fill a void in Multimedia playback. Prior to Zoom Player, playing media files on the PC was either overly simplistic for the Power User or overly cryptic to the common user.
Zoom Player tries to both simplify the playback experience for the common user, while giving the Power Users all the tools and interfaces they may require to manipulate their playback environment to their exact specification.
To that end, Zoom Player employs a slick and simple user interface, combined with easy to access features while at the same time providing advanced control dialogs over every feature imaginable.
Download:
Zoom Player Standard 5.00 RC3
Zoom Player Professional 5.00 RC3
Zoom Player WMV Professional 5.00 RC3
Eyeglasses today are fashion accessories, as stylish as purses and belts. In fact, you'll find familiar names - Calvin Klein and Bill Blass to name just two - on your choice of frames these days. So don't fret if contact lenses irritate your eyes. Instead, scope out the latest fashion frames to give your face a fresh look.
What Types of Lenses Are Available?
As technology advances so, too, do eyeglass lenses. In the past, eyeglass lenses were made exclusively of glass. Today, most eyeglasses are made of high-tech plastics. These new lenses are lighter, do not break as easily as glass lenses, and can be treated with a filter to shield your eyes from damaging ultraviolet light.
The following modern eyeglass lenses are lighter, thinner, and more scratch-resistant than glass lenses or the older, common plastic lenses.
Summary: Ideas to help you keep your eyes safe when at work or play.
(from http://www.rnib.org.uk)
A free blogging service started by a rap radio station, Skyblog has MySpace beat in France—and is looking to expand in Europe and the U.S.
by Dan Carlin
It started as a lark four years ago. French rap radio station Skyrock, operated by Paris-based media group Orbus, launched a free blogging service to give listeners a way to talk back and get to know each other. The response was beyond management's wildest expectations: Skyblog now attracts a remarkable 2.85 billion page views a month, putting it fourth among all Web sites in France and No. 1 in the coveted 15- to 24-year-old age range, according to researcher comScore.
Skyblog isn't just about mouthing off, either. The hip-hop flavored site has become a major moneymaker for Orbus, pulling in profit margins of 20% to 25% on $6.4 million in advertising revenues last year, the company says. This year, Orbus—which is 70% owned by AXA Private Equity (AXA)—figures online revenues will double, and by 2008, they should equal or exceed those generated by the radio station.
"The Skyblog phenomenon has been tremendous," says Delphine Gatignol, an analyst with comScore Europe who follows French media. With Skyblog, Skyrock has become a leading example of an Old Media company making a smart transition to the Internet world.
A Raft of Innovations
What's more, the success of Skyblog has thrust the company—whose radio market was limited to France—into a whole new realm. Skyblog already has 27% market reach in France, compared to just 5.5% for powerhouse social-networking site MySpace (NWS). Now, Skyblog is poised to launch sites in Spanish, German, and English, taking its business elsewhere in Europe and even to the U.S.
To be sure, MySpace is a tough rival. It has the deep pockets of News Corp. behind it, and already claims 7% reach across Europe, vs. 4.2% for Skyblog. But MySpace also hasn't found it easy to expand from its initial U.S. footprint. In Europe, it faces rivals such as Bebo, Yahoo! 360 (YHOO), and Skyblog (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/11/06, "MySpace: No Free Ride in Europe"), while in Korea powerful Cyworld still rules the roost (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/11/06, "In Asia, MySpace Clones Stalk Cyberspace").
Skyblog is holding its ground in France thanks to a raft of innovations. Though it started out with basic blogging, the site has since added free e-mail (SkyMail), instant messaging (Skyrock Messager), and cell-phone downloads (Skymobile). These enhancements have helped Skyrock Chief Executive Officer Pierre Bellanger build a genuine Web community that keeps users on the site. In turn, that increases advertising opportunities and strengthens brand loyalty.
"Keeping [users] within a site is crucial," says Benjamin Lehmann, an analyst with Jupiter Research in London. "The more time they spend there, the more ads you can send. And to challenge MySpace, a site has to let users do more."
Product-Centered Blogs
Skyblog also has established close relationships with marketers. Many of the radio station's marquee advertisers, such as McDonalds (MCD), Coca-Cola (KO), and Nike (NKE), also advertise on Skyblog. Now CEO Bellanger is pushing further, into a model he calls "conversational marketing"—essentially product-centered blogs that create incentives for users to talk about a brand, create content, and spread awareness of a product. So far, he says, Skyblog has created about 15 such sites for select advertisers.
One example: Neutrogena (JNJ) launched a Skyblog site called "Visibly Clear" on which users, competing for prizes, were invited to share their skin care and beauty secrets via blog diaries and videos. Although the content was all user-generated, the discussion revolved around Neutrogena's "Visibly Clear" beauty products, which helped generate buzz about the brand and drive traffic to the company's official site.
Analysts say this sort of interactive advertising might presage the new face of online marketing. "Advertisers want to see a model that leverages viral marketing effects," says Lehmann. That may be an area where Skyblog can excel despite its relatively limited global reach. MySpace and Facebook, both built around profiles, have experimented very little with interactive advertising, says Lehmann.
Playing for Big Stakes
Although companies such as Volkswagen and Coca-Cola have MySpace profiles, their effect on product sales is hard to quantify, he notes.
And today, the stakes for control of the European social-networking market are rising. A recent report from U.S. market research firm eMarketer predicts advertising on social networking sites will more than double from $445 million to roughly $1.1 billion worldwide next year.
"Right now there isn't any one global social networking site, they're all successful in individual markets" says Debra Williamson, the author of the eMarketer report. Skyblog hopes to break that mold.
Carlin is a reporter in BusinessWeek's Paris bureau.
The Baltic states' answer to Starbucks, Double Coffee is the region's largest coffee shop chain
by Jason Bush
If there's one thing that symbolizes the social and economic transformation of the former Eastern Bloc, it's the coffee shop. Fast-growing economies, rising incomes, and changing lifestyles mean that networks of coffee shops are now becoming as much a part of the culture in Moscow, Kiev, or Riga as they are in New York or London. It's a trend that has meant runaway success for Double Coffee—the Baltic states' answer to Starbucks (SBUX).
Founded in Riga in 2002 by Latvian entrepreneurs Sergei Pushnoy and Nick Ustinov, Double Coffee has taken the three Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia by storm. With 45 outlets, it's already the region's largest coffee chain. Last year, the company's Latvian business, with 500 employees, churned out revenues of 4.7 million euros ($5.9 million). The group's overall sales were 9.5 million euros ($12 million) last year, which is expected to rise to 15.8 million euros ($20 million) in 2006.
Its rapid growth testifies to the huge gap in the market that previously existed for midrange cafés catering to everyone from students to businessmen. As well as 50 different types of coffee, the cafés also serve cakes, cocktails, breakfast, and snacks. "The main idea is that we aren't just selling coffee, we're selling the atmosphere," says Ustinov. "What we can offer is better quality. Because we're very big, we can put a lot of money into quality control and service," he adds, explaining why Double Coffee has proved such a hit.
BAPTISM BY FIRE
Pushnoy came up with the idea after living for eight years in Moscow, where Starbucks-style chains have become a major phenomenon in recent years, first appearing there in the mid-'90s. As marketing manager of a Moscow cinema, Pushnoy was surprised at how much money the cinema's cafés made—more even than its bar and restaurant.
That revelation gave him the idea of trying out the coffee-shop idea back in his native Latvia. He teamed up with Ustinov, a friend since his teens. Pushnoy's years in Moscow, including a stint in the metals trade, gave the budding entrepreneur a baptism by fire in the harsh world of Russian business. His partner, a graduate of the Stockholm School of Economics then working in the IT industry, brought experience of Western business culture to the company.
It proved to be a successful combination. Originally, the two friends planned to establish a chain of just five or six cafés only in Riga, with a total investment of around $300,000. But the business just kept growing. It proved so popular that within a year, Double Coffee expanded into neighboring Lithuania, entering Estonia in 2004, and Ukraine in 2005.
And the growth won't stop there. Now it's planning to add another 50 outlets over the next two years, mostly in Ukraine—a huge new market where the café culture has only recently begun to take off. It's also negotiating with partners in Poland and the Czech Republic, with a view to launching the Double Coffee brand through master franchise agreements. "Mostly we're looking not at Old Europe but at New Europe, because Old Europe is full of restaurants and it will be much harder to compete there," says Ustinov.
Bush is BusinessWeek's Moscow bureau chief.
Edited by Rose Brady
Unlike other discount carriers, Ryanair has stayed profitable by charging for every little bit of service
by Kerry Capell
Ryanair Holdings PLC (RYAAY) CEO Michael O'Leary makes no apologies for his penny-pinching. Want to check luggage? You'll pay up to $9.50 per bag for the privilege. Free drinks and snacks? Forget about it. Even a bottle of water will set you back $3.40. It's not just passengers who have to cough it up. Flight crew buy their own uniforms, and staff at Ryanair's spartan Dublin Airport headquarters must supply their own pens. After a customer sued Ryanair for charging $34 for the use of a wheelchair, the company added a 63 cents "wheelchair levy" to every ticket. Says O'Leary: "You want luxury? Go somewhere else."
Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) inspired O'Leary to bring the first discount carrier to Europe. Now as the best U.S. discounters have fallen on hard times, it's Ryanair that is emerging as the model for how to run a low-cost airline. Southwest, JetBlue Airways (JBLU), AirTran Airways (AAI), and others have seen fuel and expansion costs take a big bite out of profits. At the same time, the majors, after years of struggling, have finally gotten their costs under better control and are often matching or beating the discounters on price.
To compete, U.S. low-fare carriers have taken the opposite approach of Ryanair, adding perks such as leather seats, live television, and business class. "All the low-cost carriers' costs have gotten a little out of control," says Tim Sieber, general manager of The Boyd Group Inc., an Evergreen (Colo.) aviation consultant.
CELL-PHONE MODEL
Not so at Ryanair. The short-haul carrier is making fistfuls of money, even as it slashes fares. Despite a 42% hike in fuel prices, Ryanair's profits for the six months ended Sept. 30 soared 39%, to $422 million, on sales of $1.6 billion.
O'Leary's secret? He thinks like a retailer and charges for absolutely every little thing, except the seat itself. Imagine the seat as akin to a cell phone: It comes free, or nearly free, but its owner winds up spending on all sorts of services. Last year, Ryanair gave away 25% of its seats, a figure O'Leary thinks he can double within five years. In the not-too-distant future, he wants all seats to go for free.
What O'Leary loses in seat revenue, he figures he'll more than make up by turning both his planes and the Ryanair Web site into stores brimming with irresistible goodies, even as he charges for such "perks" as priority boarding and assigned seating.
Outrageous? You bet, but the strategy is working. Although its average fare is $53, compared with $92 for Southwest, Ryanair's net margins are, at 18%, more than double the 7% achieved by Southwest. "Ryanair is Wal-Mart (WMT) with wings," says Nick van den Brul, an aviation analyst at Exane BNP Paribas in London.
O'Leary has plenty of clever new ways to make money. He has turned his planes into giant billboards, displaying ads for such companies as Vodafone Group (VOD), Jaguar, and Hertz. Soon, ads will also stare each passenger in the eye when their seat back trays are up. Once in the air, flight attendants hawk everything from scratch-card games to perfume and digital cameras. Upon arrival at some out-of-the-way airport (you may think you're landing in Paris, but it is actually Beauvais, 43 miles north of the City of Light), Ryanair will sell you a bus or train ticket into town.
Ryanair uses its Web site, with 15 million unique visitors each month, to boost ancillary revenues. The company gets commissions from sales of Hertz rental cars, hotel rooms, ski packages, and travel insurance. For the year ended Mar.
(Read More...)
Capell is a senior writer in BusinessWeek's London bureau
With Dean Foust in Atlanta
ZoneAlarm Security Suite is an easy-to-use, comprehensive solution that provides all-in-one PC protection, integrating Zone Labs' award-winning firewall with antivirus, privacy protection, Web site filtering and instant messaging security.
What's New
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award-winning antivirus engine which provides significantly enhanced virus
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updates hourly when needed, significantly reducing the chances your PC will be
hit with quickly spreading viruses and other malware.
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