A ridiculous hair style is now the least of Amy Winehouse’s problems.
According to the singer’s father, Mitch, the Grammy-winner has been diagnosed emphysema; he fears she could be “dead in three months.”
“The doctors have told her if she goes back to smoking drugs it won’t just ruin her voice, it will kill her,” Mitch told Great Britain’s The Daily Mail.
Amy Winehouse has a choice: Breathe properly or continue to do drugs.
Winehouse was taken to the hospital last week for tests after she fainted at home in London.
“With smoking the crack cocaine and the cigarettes her lungs are all gunked up,” Mitch said. “There are nodules around the chest and dark marks. She’s got 70 percent lung capacity.”
We hope you’re listening, kids. Don’t do drugs.
This program is designed to help you read any of your passwords that are covered by the asterisks.
One of the most frequently asked questions about Accessible Search is: What can I do to make my site rank well on Accessible Search? At the same time, webmasters often ask a similar but broader question: What can I do to rank high on Google Search?
Well I’m pleased to tell you that you can kill two birds with one stone: critical site features such as site navigation can be created to work for all users, including our own Googlebot. Below are a few tips for you to consider.
Ensure that all critical content is reachable
To access content, it needs to be reachable. Users and web crawlers reach content by navigating through hyperlinks, so as a critical first step, ensure that all content on your site is reachable via plain HTML hyperlinks, and avoid hiding critical portions of your site behind technologies such as JavaScript or Flash.
Plain hyperlinks are hyperlinks created via an HTML anchor element <a>. Next, ensure that the target of all hyperlinks i.e. <a> elements are real URLs, rather than using an empty hyperlink while deferring hyperlink behavior to an onclick handler.
In short, avoid hyperlinks of the form:
<a href=”#” onclick=”javascript:void(…)”>Product Catalog</a>
In preference of simpler links, such as:
<a href=”http://www.example.com/product-catalog.html”>Product Catalog</a>
Ensure that content is readable
To be useful, content needs to be readable by everyone. Ensure that all important content on your site is present within the text of HTML documents. Content needs to be available without needing to evaluate scripts on a page. Content hidden behind Flash animations or text generated within the browser by executable JavaScript remains opaque to the Googlebot, as well as to most blind users.
Ensure that content is available in reading order
Having discovered and arrived at your readable content, a user needs to be able to follow the content you’ve put together in its logical reading order. If you are using a complex, multi-column layout for most of the content on your site, you might wish to step back and analyze how you are achieving the desired effect. For example, using deeply-nested HTML tables makes it difficult to link together related pieces of text in a logical manner.
The same effect can often be achieved using CSS and logically organized <div> elements in HTML. As an added bonus, you will find that your site renders much faster as a result.
Supplement all visual content–don’t be afraid of redundancy!
Making information accessible to all does not mean that you need to ‘dumb down’ your site to simple text. Making your content maximally redundant is critical in ensuring that your content is maximally useful to everyone. Here are a few simple tips:
- Ensure that content communicated via images is available when those images are missing. This goes further than adding appropriate alt attributes to relevant images. Ensure that the text surrounding the image does an adequate job of setting the context for why the image is being used, as well as detailing the conclusions you expect a person seeing the image to draw. In short, if you want to make sure everyone knows it’s a picture of a bridge, wrap that text around the image.
- Add relevant summaries and captions to tables so that the reader can gain a high-level appreciation for the information being conveyed before delving into the details contained within.
- Accompany visual animations such as data displays with a detailed textual summary.
Following these simple tips greatly increases the quality of your landing pages for everyone. As a positive side-effect, you’ll most likely discover that your site gets better indexed!
Mozilla security chief Window Snyder (left) has confirmed the existence of a serious code execution vulnerability in the brand-new Firefox 3.0 browser.
Snyder’s confirmation follows a public warning by TippingPoint’s ZDI (Zero Day Initiative) that the flaw could lead to PC takeover hijacks if a user simply surfs to a rigged Web site with Firefox.
On the Mozilla security blog, Snyder said the bug impacts Firefox versions 2.x and 3.0:
This issue is currently under investigation. To protect our users, the details of the issue will remain closed until a patch is made available. There is no public exploit, the details are private, and so the current risk to users is minimal.
At Mozilla we appreciate any report of security issues because that is how we make the browser stronger and more secure. The best way to keep Firefox users safe is to report the issues directly to Mozilla as TippingPoint has chosen to, and to wait to release details until a fix is available.
As previously reported, the vulnerability was sold to TippingPoint ZDI a few hours after Mozilla’s shipped the final release of Firefox 3.0.
Atlantis is an innovative, no-nonsense word processor carefully designed with the end-user in mind. Compact, fast-loading, but still powerful and efficient, Atlantis will be the perfect companion for a wide range of your word processing tasks, – from simple to most complex.
It does not matter if you are a novice or a power user, Atlantis has the tools you will ever need to compose highly professional documents. Using a most original and practical Control Board, you will create and manage all components of complex documents with unparalleled ease: sections, fields, headers & footers, newspaper columns, bulleted & numbered lists, styles, bookmarks, footnotes & endnotes, etc, all are a breeze with Atlantis.
Both the Safeguard and Backup Files features make sure that you work under extremely safe conditions. Private documents can also be encoded and secured: you can save them to a proprietary COD file format using powerful 256-bit encryption technology.
The Atlantis AutoCorrect and Spellcheck-As-You-Type features combine with a unique typing assist, the Atlantis Power Type, to dramatically simplify your word processing life.
The Atlantis interface is entirely customizable: menus, toolbars, hot keys, colors and sounds can all be adjusted to suit your own requirements. What’s more, Atlantis is a fully portable word processor. You can install Atlantis to a memory flash drive, and Atlantis will travel with you wherever you go.
And much-much more for you to discover…
Download
http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en/downloads.htm
Interacting amiably with family and friends is a super stress reducer. Instead of the mind working overtime on worries and problems, it is occupied with thoughts of other things and other people. There is less mental capacity left for anxieties and self-doubt.
“Friendship improves happiness and abates misery by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.” - Marcus Cicero (BC)
Good friendship is healthy but it isn’t easy for everyone. Getting people to like you is the starting point, and that should be fairly easy to do. People have a basic need to be liked themselves. Show interest, appreciation, and kindness. Smile. Praise given out sincerely is a great act of friendship. Be a good listener and try to see the good, not the bad qualities in people. These actions will usually be returned to you, sooner or later.
“The only way to have a friend is to be one. . . A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
As a friend, try to let an unfavorable incident or remark fly right over the top of your head. We all blurt out something stupid or do something regrettable at times, and it’s so nice when the other acts as if it never happened. This is a dear friend.
“The rule of friendship means there should be mutual sympathy between them, each supplying what the other lacks and trying to benefit the other, always using friendly and sincere words.” - Buddha (BC)
Using any relaxation tips you may have picked up over the years is a great way to deal with the stresses in your daily life.
Sometimes, when you’re feeling stressed out, having someone tell you to relax or “chill out” is more annoying than anything else. But it’s advice you should take to heart, especially if you are having a bad day - or week.
Here are 7 tips that will help you relax when you’re feeling stressed.
- Take a Warm Bath : Soaking in a tub full of warm water can work wonders when you’re feeling stressed. The warm water relaxes you physically, loosening tight, stiff muscles. And, as a result, you relax mentally as well.
- Read a Good Book : One of the best ways to deal with a stressful situation, especially if the stress is caused by something you have no control over, is to not think about it. And one of the easiest ways to get your mind off things that are bothering you is to read a good book.
You can read the latest best seller that you’ve been looking forward to. Or, if you don’t think you will be able to concentrate on anything new, choose an old favorite that you’re already familiar with. - Listen to Some Music : It’s a proven fact that soothing music can be relaxing. The type of music you choose is entirely up to you. Buy a CD or cassette featuring soft, modern ballads, gentle classics, smooth jazz, or New Age music. When you feel stressed, pop the music into the player and let the music carry you away.
- Take a Deep Breath : Something as simple as taking a couple of deep breaths can work wonders. So, the next time you feel stressed, take a few slow, deep breaths. And, if you can, add a full body stretch. Stretching and yawning are also relaxing.
- Try Aromatherapy : Certain scents have been found to have a calming, relaxing effect on the human body. One of those scents is lavender.
You can buy lavender candles at a health food store or online, and place them around your home or office. Whenever you’re feeling stressed, burning a lavender candle can help you relax.
Just make sure your lavender candles are made with essential oils. - Try Visualization : The things you visualize or imagine can actually have an effect on your mood.
The next time you are feeling stressed, take a moment to close your eyes and imagine that you are somewhere more relaxing, like on a beach. Imagine that you can feel the cool breeze against your skin, and hear the ocean waves.
If you’re stressed about a situation, like giving a speech in front of a large crowd, close your eyes and visualize yourself giving the speech, and everything going perfectly.
Visualization can help you feel calmer, and better able to deal with whatever has you feeling stressed in the first place. - Spend Time Outdoors : Sunlight and fresh air have remarkable abilities to heal our spirit. Often something just as simple as taking a short walk around the block can help reset our priorities. Even yard work can be relaxing if approached from the right frame of mind.
The ballots are in for the best selling cell phone (on a global basis), according to Krusell, the Swedish manufacturer of carrying cases for portable gadgets.
The Krusell list is based upon the number of pieces of model-specific mobile and smart phone cases that have been ordered from Krusell during September 2006.
According to the comany, this list is unique due to the fact that it reflects the sales of phones on six continents and in more than 50 countries around the globe.
When you look at the rankings (after the break!) what’s interesting, at least globally, is how the mobile phone market has boiled down into what we call in marketing parlance a “three-horse race.”
In other words, out of all the companies that have tried their luck in this market (and many are still trying), three (and only three) companies have established themselves as the mobile phone market leaders in the eyes, ears and pocketbooks of the gadget-buying consumer audience.
(We take no demographic for granted here.)
Which three? You will find out in a moment. (Patience …)
Now, without further ado, let’s get to get to the rankings of the top 10 selling cell phones. The envelope please:
1. Sony Ericsson K790i/K800i
2. Sony Ericsson K750i/D750i/W800i
3. Nokia 6230/6230i
4. Sony Ericsson W810i
5. Motorola RaZr V3/ V3i /V3c
6. Nokia N73
7. Nokia 5500
8. Sony Ericsson P990
9. Nokia 6280/6282
10. Motorola Krzr K1
Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola (looks like the combination of Sony and Ericsson from two cell phone companies into one is paying off …)
She’s close to moving out of The Hills and into the Valley.
Now there’s more good news for Hollywood’s most beloved train wreck.
Officials say they will not file charges against Britney Spears stemming from a 2007 incident in which she drove over the foot of a celebrity news guy while speeding out of the doctor’s office where she received collagen injections, natch.
The reasoning? The only way the dude’s foot could have been where a celeb news video showed it to be was if he himself had put it there.
Deputy district attorney Joseph Shidler told the press:
“We have no evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the suspect, Ms. Britney Spears, was at all aware that the victim’s foot had in fact been struck by the vehicle. There was much commotion and noise at the time and there is no proof that the suspect was aware of what had happened.”
MENACE TO SOBRIETY: Britney Spears puts motorists and pedestrians at extreme risk as she takes to the streets of Southern California in this 2007 file photo.
The Deputy D.A. added “The only way the victim’s foot could have been where the video indicates was by the victim placing it in that location.”
With this legal monkey off her back, Britney is free to once again terrorize greater Los Angeles County at will, should she feel a craving for Starbucks.
For millions of people Google is an indispensable search tool that they use every day, in all facets of their lives. From work or school, research, to looking up movies and celebrities to news and gossip, Google is the go-to search engine.
But instead of just typing in a phrase and wading through page after page of results, there are a number of ways to make your searches more efficient.
Some of these are obvious ones, that you probably know about. But others are lesser-known, and others are known but not often used. Use this guide to learn more about, or be reminded of, some of the best ways to get exactly what you’re looking for, and quickly.
- Either/or. Google normally searches for pages that contain all the words you type in the search box, but if you want pages that have one term or another (or both), use the OR operator — or use the “|” symbol (pipe symbol) to save you a keystroke. [dumb | little | man]
- Quotes. If you want to search for an exact phrase, use quotes. ["dumb little man"] will only find that exact phrase. [dumb "little man"] will find pages that contain the word dumb and the exact phrase “little man”.
- Not. If you don’t want a term or phrase, use the “-” symbol. [-dumb little man] will return pages that contain “little” and “man” but that don’t contain “dumb”.
- Similar terms. Use the “~” symbol to return similar terms. [~dumb little man -dumb] will get you pages that contain “funny little man” and “stupid little man” but not “dumb little man”.
- Wildcard. The “*” symbol is a wildcard. This is useful if you’re trying to find the lyrics to a song, but can’t remember the exact lyrics. [can't * me love lyrics] will return the Beatles song you’re looking for. It’s also useful for finding stuff only in certain domains, such as
educational information: ["dumb little man" research *.edu]. - Advanced search. If you can’t remember any of these operators, you can always use Google’s advanced search.
- Definitions. Use the “define:” operator to get a quick definition. [define:dumb] will give you a whole host of definitions from different sources, with links.
- Calculator. One of the handiest uses of Google, type in a quick calculation in the search box and get an answer. It’s faster than calling up your computer’s calculator in most cases. Use the +, -, *, / symbols and parentheses to do a simple equation.
- Numrange. This little-known feature searches for a range of numbers. For example, ["best books 2002..2007] will return lists of best books for each of the years from 2002 to 2007 (note the two periods between the two numbers).
- Site-specific. Use the “site:” operator to search only within a certain website. [site:dumblittleman.com leo] will search for the term “leo” only within this blog.
- Backlinks. The “link:” operator will find pages that link to a specific URL. You can use this not only for a main URL but even to a specific page. Not all links to an URL are listed, however.
- Vertical search. Instead of searching for a term across all pages on the web, search within a specialized field. Google has a number of specific searches, allowing you to search within blogs, news, books, and much more:
- Movies. Use the “movie:” operator to search for a movie title along with either a zip code or U.S. city and state to get a list of movie theaters in the area and show times.
- Music. The “music:” operator returns content related to music only.
- Unit converter. Use Google for a quick conversion, from yards to meters for example, or different currency: [12 meters in yards]
- Types of numbers: Google algorithms can recognize patterns in numbers you enter, so you can search for:
- Telephone area codes
- Vehicle ID number (US only)
- Federal Communications Commission (FCC) equipment numbers (US only)
- UPC codes
- Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airplane registration number (US only)
- Patent numbers (US only)
- Even stock quotes (using the stock symbol) or a weather forecast regarding the next five days
- File types. If you just want to search for .PDF files, or Word documents, or Excel spreadsheets, for example, use the “filetype:” operator.
- Location of term. By default, Google searches for your term throughout a web page. But if you just want it to search certain locations, you can use operators such as “inurl:”, “intitle:”, “intext:”, and “inanchor:”. Those search for a term only within the URL, the title,
the body text, and the anchor text (the text used to describe a link). - Cached pages. Looking for a version of a page the Google stores on its own servers? This can help with outdated or update pages. Use the “cached:” operator.
- Answer to life, the universe, and everything. Search for that phrase, in lower case, and Google will give you the answer.
