Panos Ipeirotis, a computer scientists working at New York University,attack on his Amazon web service using Google Spreadsheets and Panos Ipeirotis checked his Amazon Web Services bill last week - its was $1,177.76 !
He had accidentally invented a brand new type of internet attack, thanks to an idiosyncrasy in the online spreadsheets Google runs on its Google Docs service, and he had inadvertently trained this attack on himself. He calls it a Denial of Money attack, and he says others could be susceptible too.
On his personal blog Ipeirotis explained that it all started when he saw that Amazon Web Services was charging him with ten times the usual amount because of large amounts of outgoing traffic.
As part of an experiment in how to use crowdsourcing to generate descriptions of images, he had posted thumbnails of 25,000 pictures into a Google document, and then he invited people to describe the images. The problem was that these thumbnails linked back to original images stored on Amazon’s S3 storage service, and apparently, Google’s servers went slightly bonkers. “Google just very aggressively grabbed the images from Amazon again and again and again,” he says.
After analyzing traffic logs he was able to determine that every hour a total of 250 gigabytes of traffic was sent out because of Google’s Feedfetcher, the mechanism that allows the search engine to grab RSS or Atom feeds when users add them to Reader or the main page.
After speaking with Google representatives, Ipeirotis believes that the company is trying to balance user privacy with a desire to present fresh content. It seems that Google doesn’t want to store the information on its own servers so it uses Feedfetcher to retrieve it every time, thus generating large amounts of traffic.
“Google becomes such a powerful weapon due to a series of perfectly legitimate design decisions,” Ipeirotis wrote in a blog posting on the issue.
Facebook has made another minor change to users’ Timeline profiles, incorporating a new design for Friend listings that include both a person’s name and profile photo, making it easier for other users to make new connections via their existing connections.
The update appears to have rolled out over the past 24 hours, ensuring that when a user visits their friend’s Facebook profile, the Friends box immediately draws the their attention:
Before, friends were listed but a user had to mouseover the person’s image to view their name on the resulting popup.
You could argue that Facebook’s new design has elements of Microsoft’s Windows Phone/Metro interface, a layout that is both simple but effective at encouraging users to click through to other people’s profiles and expand connections.
Facebook recently increased the size of Timeline profile images, just days after Google updated Google+ profiles to sport a larger photo. It appears that Facebook has been working to make the most of images on the social network, helping with the identification of its users and driving interaction between them.
Dhaka, Apr 29 (bdnews24.com) -- Schools and most businesses remained closed in the capital, Dhaka, as an 18-party opposition alliance led by BNP enforced a daylong general strike across the country amid reports of explosions and detention of opposition activists on Sunday.
On Saturday, BNP announced the general strike to continue its pressure on the government to get M Ilias Ali back as the opposition accuses government agencies of 'abducting' him from a Dhaka street on Apr 18.
Ilias Ali, a BNP organising secretary and the Sylhet chapter chief, went missing along with his driver apparently from Mohakhali area from where police recovered his abandoned car.
After enforcing three days of nationwide general strike last week, BNP chief Khaleda Zia gave the government a Saturday deadline to return Ilias Ali. Otherwise, she had threatened to launch a tougher anti-government movement.
As Ilias Ali was not returned by Saturday, BNP called the spell of shutdowns for Sunday and Monday.
Sunday's strike began with explosions of three crude bombs near a BNP procession, led by the party's joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi and central committee member Mostafizur Rahman Babul, in front of its Naya Paltan headquarters.
There were no immediate reports of any casualties from those explosions.
But the blasts prompted police to briefly detain a number of demonstrators including Rizvi, Babul and BNP's student wing leaders 'Nishita' and 'Urmi'.
Labour Party chief Mostafizur Rahman Iran was also detained when he tried to enter the BNP office around that time.
Later, they were released.
Reports of more explosions were reported from other parts of the city.
Three bombs exploded at Mugdapara.
Explosions of another five bombs were reported in front of Mirpur Bangla College when police dispersed a procession by Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal.
Jamaat-e-Islami, BNP's key ally, brought out processions in support of the strike at Rampura and Mirpur.
Like previous shutdowns, law enforcers on Sunday kept the BNP office under siege. Even though some senior leaders including the party's acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir have taken position there, most of the other leaders were not being allowed to get close to the office.
Venting frustration over the police action, Fakhrul said, "The government is not allowing the opposition to demonstrate peacefully. They have turned the country into a prison."
"We are urging the government again to return Ilias Ali and his driver to their families," the BNP leader said, claiming that they are sure from media reports that the government has a hand behind their disappearances.
Long-distance buses remained inoperative but train, launch and planes are operating normally.
Traffic on the streets in Dhaka remained thin even though many buses, auto rickshaws, taxis and private cars were seen plying.
The House of Representatives has approved CISPA with a vote count of 248-168. The bill is now headed for the Senate. President Barack Obama will be able to sign or cancel it pending Senate approval.
Initially slated to vote on the bill Friday, it decided to pass it Thursday after approving a number of amendments.
The snap vote took place after Congressional legislators approved a number of amendments to CISPA. Apart from cyber and national security purposes, the bill would now allow the government to use private information obtained through CISPA for the investigation and prosecution of “cybersecurity crime,” protection of individuals and the protection of children. The new clauses define “cybersecurity crime” as any crime involving network disruption or hacking.
CISPA was introduced in the House last November. Since then, a number of amendments have been adopted. Critics chided the bill, saying its broad wording could allow the government to spy on individual Internet users and block websites that publish vaguely defined ‘sensitive’ data. The White House issued a statement Wednesday saying President Barack Obama would be advised to veto the bill if he receives it.
Windows 8 is a radical departure from anything Microsoft has done before. When you try it for the very first time, it feels a bit like stepping out onto ice. It is so slick as to be slippery. Commands and icons and apps and menus glide on and off screen and things zoom in and out of its Metro interface in a near vertigo-inducing fashion. Getting your feet beneath you is tricky.
But as you learn your way around the interface, instead of slipping you begin to glide. As your intuition and muscle memory overtake your need to reason out your actions, it becomes a wonderful and efficient way to navigate actions and data. There are still rough spots that can send you tumbling, but the consumer preview is already a far better product than the developer preview that came out in September. By the time the final version ships later this year, it's clear that Windows 8 is going to be a remarkable, daring update to the venerable OS. It is a departure from nearly everything we've known Windows to be. You will love it, or hate it.
I love it.
Gestures This Consumer Preview is a Pre Beta Release of the Windows 8 Full Version. If any one want to install it today then they can use it for about 9 months as it will expire sometime in January 2013 (may be 15th).
The gestures are transcendant. Actions are pushed to the edges of the screen, where you can get at them with your thumbs and they don't take up too much screen real estate. Swipe from the right and the Charms launch (Microsoft refers to the icons in the right-hand side menu as Charms) to help you easily navigate from wherever you are back to the Start screen, Settings, Search, Share, and Devices. That's very literally the broad strokes, but the little touches are what make the difference. After you tap Settings, for example, your current app's settings appear where that icon was, automatically positioning your thumb or mouse where it needs to be. It's a great productivity touch.
It's Windows reimagined and reinvented from a solid core of Windows 7 speed and reliability. It's an all-new touch interface. It's a new Windows for new devices. And it's your chance to be one of the first to try it out.
And gestures have been greatly enhanced and refined to perform complex tasks. For example, you can swipe from the left edge of the display to control your running apps, but that's just the beginning. Depending on how you complete that gesture, you can swap which app is running full screen, run one in a minimized quarter screen view (this is great for apps like music or IM) called a Snap state, or view all the apps you currently have open. You can even grab an app and drag it down to the bottom edge of the screen to quit it. And now, the Metro Start screen always lives in the bottom left corner—it's a memory of the vanquished Start button. Even in the standard Windows Desktop mode, all of these features are there.
Windows is betting a lot on touch. Which is smart. Touch and gestures are the fast-approaching future of user interface. They are simply another way to access and manipulate data. But of course touch is not completely there yet. There are some actions where you will want an input device. So Windows 8 hedges. It lets you go both ways, touch or mouse and keyboard input. Or a combination thereof. (And yes, there's a stylus option too.)
But Windows 8 has made those actions corollaries, by and large, so that you don't have to learn how to do the same things two different ways. If you know how to do something with a gesture, you should be able to accomplish the same thing with a mouse, even though the action is slightly different. While touch works on the edges, mousing is designed to take place in the corners.
So, for example, if you move the mouse to the top right corner of the screen, a ghost-like vision of Charms appears. Drag down from there, and the Charms window appears in full just as it would from a right edge swipe. The logic is that you are going to want to use your mouse for various things on the edges, like scrolling, which the Charms should not obscure. And you want to be able to move your mouse there, without accidentally bringing Charms up. Similarly, Start is always in the lower left corner regardless of input method.
A New Look and Order If you aren't familiar with the Metro interface from the developer preview, the biggest change you'll need to get used to is seeing apps take over the entire screen. While you can run multiple apps at once in the background, and even run apps off to the side in a Snap screen, the focus is on one app at a time.
And it really is all app. There are no top side menu bar buttons in Metro. There is no application chrome (the borders and bars and buttons that surround an application's window) whatsoever, for that matter. You can pull up an App Bar by dragging up your finger from the bottom of the display, or by right-clicking with a mouse to access many of the controls that would typically be found in a menu bar. But they are absent until you want them to appear. And that is quite nice.
Semantic Zoom is wonderful. This was demonstrated in the developer preview, but it wasn't working. Now it is. You can pinch the Metro start screen to zoom out from the tiles so that they all minimize on screen. This makes it easy to navigate across them so that if you want to move quickly from one app on the left side, to a pinned website on the far-right, you can do that nearly instantly without having to scroll and scroll and scroll. While there aren't many apps to choose from yet on Windows 8, once you have a ton of tiles (and you will) this is going to be a great feature.
It also helps with organizing your apps. Metro begs for adjusting and personalizing on the Start screen, which is basically an app launcher. You can arrange things in all sorts of ways there. You can move tiles from one group to another, rearrange them in a group, or move whole groups. You can name your groups to keep them organized. For example, I named one of mine "stuff that I will never use" and moved it over to the far right. But once you load up that screen with lots of stuff, it gets harder to move things in a full-screen view. So Semantic Zoom makes it very easy to rearrange everything quickly and efficiently.
Now that there are actually a few Metro apps, the Snap state already feels like a vital interface element. It lets you run apps in a minimized, but visible, mode in what's basically a sidebar on the left-side. I loved using the Music app in this way. I can imagine it will be great if you are watching live video of, say, a baseball game while focusing on a work spreadsheet in your main window.
Personalization was quite nice. Microsoft has added the table stakes to the consumer preview (you can adjust colors and set pictures for the lock screen, for example). But more dramatic is how the company is angling that personalization to be reflected across all of your devices. Change your profile photo on your slate at home, and it will also change on your desktop machine in your office. Connect to Flickr with Windows Live on your desktop, and your photostream will show up in the Photos app on your slate. In short, the things you do on one device are reflected everywhere. The device is a mere gateway to your data, after all, and so once you personalize that data, you can keep it consistent wherever you go.
Application
And then there are the apps. Microsoft has bundled several of its own Metro apps with Windows 8 consumer preview, and you'll be able to download more from the built-in Store. It still feels pretty barren, although it has been beefed up substantially since the developer preview. But let's look at what comes with it.
Internet Explorer 10 has been greatly enhanced and is simply delightful in Metro. The version of Safari running on my iPad feels primitive in contrast. The full screen version is incredibly responsive, it moves with a natural momentum when you scroll quickly, and slows down as if by friction or gravity. Zooming and panning are great. And using gestures, swiping left or right, to go forward and back just makes sense. It makes navigation very seamless, too. Tap the address bar, for example, and your frequently visited and pinned sites appear at the top of the screen. If you tend to visit the same places over and over again, this makes for a great way to get around the Web.
One downside is that browser plug-ins do not work in IE 10 for Metro. Go to Hulu, and where you should see Flash video instead there's just a gaping black box. Yet Microsoft is trying out a relatively clever way to have its cake and eat it too. Clicking on an icon in the IE 10 App Bar launches IE 10 in the Desktop mode, where everything is supported. Sure it's a mere two-click operation, but it's a little weird. It's unproductive. While it makes sense for people using Windows 8 on a touchscreen, if you are only using it on a laptop or desktop computer that isn't touch capable, this is a chore.
The People app is like a contacts mash-up. Not only does it list your address book contacts, but if you connect services like Facebook and Twitter you'll even see live updates from those people under a "What's New" heading (or in their individual contact listing). If you're a Windows Phone user, you're familiar with this already. You can also pin people to your Start screen and see their Tweets and Facebook status updates right on the start screen. It's integrated with the Mail and Messages apps, so you can pretty seamlessly fire something off, long form or short.
The Music app is fairly well done, but could use some polish. It is both a player and a storefront. I found the former worked better than the latter. (The Zune branding, contrary to reports, isn't completely dead. When you buy something, you confirm the purchase through Zune Music.) While I enjoyed being able to access and control playback no matter where I was and what I was doing, the storefront experience was still relatively rough. While it's convenient to have store items appear right in the app, I found browsing it inelegant and it seemed better suited to discovery than finding something specific. It beats iTunes, but that bar's so low you'd have to dig to get to the top.
The Mail app may be the most vital improvement from the developer preview, but it too still needs some work. It lets you run multiple accounts, and has some neat features (emoji!). Most useful is the ability to send large files via SkyDrive rather than as an attachment. I also liked having it run in the Snap mode so that I could keep tabs on email while doing other things. But it felt more like mobile mail than a desktop client. While Metro is certainly tablet-optimized, this app made me want to swap into desktop mode in order to see more of my inbox at once, and swap folders more easily.
The SkyDrive account worked well, though. You can choose which files to upload with a single click, and it was fast and responsive. Compared to Dropbox, it's nice to use an app that gives you a visual interface of your remote files.
The apps for Maps and Weather, both of which are powered by Bing, are simply beautiful. They work well, and of course you can pin your Weather tile to the start screen so that you get live weather updates.
Other apps include Finance, Xbox Games, a Camera app, Video, Messaging, and a Remote Desktop—a Metro style way to browse another system.
I hope you will like the video and want to install it on your PC. So here is the hardware configuration required for Consumer Preview.
Windows 8 Consumer Preview works great on the same hardware that powers Windows 7:
Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
Graphics card: Microsoft Direct-X 9 graphics device or higher
To use touch, you need a tablet or monitor that supports multi-touch
To access Windows Store and to download and run apps, you need an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768
To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768
If you’re having doubt that Consumer Preview will be able to run your currently using apps or not; then you can download this tool to check. This tool is from Microsoft itself.
Just download the tool and check for compatibility issues. It will tell you which apps will work and which will not. If some programs need updates then the tool will indicate that too.
Note: Microsoft says that MSE will not work in Consumer Preview. Consumer Preview has Windows Defender installed by default. Now Windows Defender will not only defend spyware but it will take care of virus and other malwares also. So you don’t need MSE. But still if you ant to use MSE then a latest version can do the work.
Hello to all of my friends. Happy Bengali New Year to all of you! Its 1419 now! 14th April was the First day of New Bengali Year. In the first day of Bengali New Year, Bengali peoples enjoys a lot. Most of them wears new traditional dresses like Punjabi, Payjama & Lungi for boys or Mans and Sharee or Salwar & Kameez for Girls or Womens.
The first day of Bengali New Year is called "Pohela Boishakh". It is a great Festive day for the peoples who lives here. Bangla New Year's festivities are closely linked with rural life in Bengal. Usually on Pohela Boishakh, the home is thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned; people bathe early in the morning and dress in traditional clothes. They spend much time of the day visiting relatives, friends and neighbours. Special foods are prepared to entertain guests. This is one rural festival that has become enormously big in the cities, especially in Dhaka. Do you want to know more about it? Go here!
We the Bangladeshi people again proved that we have the power to show the world what we can do. The spectacular boys and girls of UODA drew this ''alpana'' throughout the night before pahela baishakh. I went there at 2:00pm to be part of one of the biggest record of our country with my camera. 3 lakh square feet drawing, the longest street art of the world and hopefully the labour of our brothers and sister will get into the record book of GUINNESS WORLD RECORD. I love my country and respect those people who has given the labor and showed patience during the process of world record. I break into the roof without being seen by the security guards and i could manage only 7 pictures before i was seen in the CC TV in the control room. The guards caught me. But i was the happiest man on the earth at that moment. [somehow managed to get away from the guards..... :P ]
But in this year (Bengali-1419, English-2012) Bengali peoples proved that they have the ability to show the world that what they can do? The spectacular boys and girls of UODA drew this Largest alpana (motif) of the the world. It is longest than ever! It is approximately 3.5 lac square feet long and drew in the both side of the road! It is too amazing to see that, all the student's worked so hard at night and show us their creativity. Salute for them on behalf of me!
Here is a video I found on the YouTube and that is showing this Largest Alpana of the world!
People of all walks of life late into the night watch university students paint the largest alpana (motif) in the world on both sides of the Manik Mia Avenue in the capital. On the eve of Bangla New Year, five eminent artists coordinated the 350,000 square feet motif representing the folk culture of Bangladesh.
Till now it is the longest and largest alpana (motif) of the world!
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One of the most powerful tools in all of the modern desktop browsers is the ability to add extensions. Extensions allow the browser to do things that it can't do on its own - everything from simple tasks to advanced options. When it comes to desktop extensions, the limits are generally left up to the mind of the creator.
Up to this point, extensions haven't been all that widely adopted in the mobile world. In the cases of browsers that actually have extension support, the experience lacks much to be desired and it just doesn't compare to what desktop browsers have to offer. Until now.
Opera has released a beta build of its Mobile browser which adds support for extensions. Not mobile-specific extensions, either - this build brings support for the full array of desktop extensions. With that said, there are a few caveats to be aware of.
Firstly, just because you can install the extension in Opera Mobile, doesn't mean that it's going to work correctly. As the Opera blog points out, certain extensions (like Speed Dial extensions) are simply not supported, while extensions that use keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures probably won't work as they should. Because of all the potential issues, it's not entirely certain that the extensions functionality will end up in future releases of Opera Mobile. If all goes well during its time in Opera Labs, however, it's likely that we will see this functionality end up in the release version of the software.
Since this is still a very early test build (it's really designed for developers, but there's no reason to let them have all the fun) it's still a little rough around the edges, but if you're ready to give it a shot, hit the source link to grab the download.
The Anonymous collective has vowed to target British Government sites every week, bringing them offline by overloading them with traffic.
So-called “hacktivists” were able to launch their cyber attack on Saturday night despite announcing it days in advance, raising questions about the effectiveness of Whitehall internet security.
The British branch of Anonymous – a loose global collective of computer hackers who often target law-enforcement websites – first advertised “#OpTrialAtHome” last Monday.
The Anonymous hacking network uses as a logo the mask from the comic V For Vendetta
A poster featured the photos of three British citizens who have been sent to the US to face trial – Gary McKinnon, Richard O’Dwyer and Christopher Tappin – together with the slogan “Fight extradition”.
It included the address of the Home Office website and the direction to “charge ya lazers” on Saturday at 9pm GMT.
Supporters would understand this to be an order to join in a “distributed denial-of-service attack” on the website, in which thousands of computers are used to send a flood of requests to visit the victim’s homepage, causing its servers to buckle under the demand.
At the appointed hour, Anonymous Twitter feeds ordered followers to “fire your Laz0rs”, and soon reported “Tango Down” as the target was hit.
Screenshots showed that the Home Office website was inaccessible from 9pm and service was reportedly patchy until Sunday morning.
A Home Office spokesman said: “The Home Office website was the subject of on online protest last night.
“This is a public-facing website and no sensitive information is held on it. There is no indication that the site was hacked and other Home Office systems were not affected.
“Measures put in place to protect the website meant that members of the public were unable to access the site intermittently.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and take measures accordingly.”
The activists also brought down the Downing Street website at about 10.30pm, but a spokesman for the Prime Minister said it only lasted for a “couple of minutes” and there was no suggestion of it being hacked into. The Ministry of Justice denied the hackers’ claims that its website had also been taken offline.
Anonymous explained on Twitter: “It’s a digital protest which is different [from] hacking. UK want their government to listen. We can do it as long as it takes.
“Selling your citizens to foreigners is not acceptable! We are Anonymous, we do not forget, we do not forgive.”
Another message from the group said: “EXPECT a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) every Saturday on the UK Government sites.”
LOS ANGELES - Authorities say actress Amanda Bynes has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after she grazed a sheriff's patrol car.
The 26-year-old actress was arrested around 3 a.m. Friday in West Hollywood.
The Los Angeles County sheriff's department says that Bynes attempted to pass a patrol car making a right turn when she hit it. Deputies who arrested her suspect she was drunk at the time.
Bynes is being held on $5,000 bail. Her publicist, Melissa Raubvogel, did not immediately return a call and an email from The Associated Press.
The actress appeared in the 2010 film "Easy A" and the Nickelodeon series "What I Like About You."
Deputies say there was paint damage to both cars, but no one was injured.
Have you received an email from "Helen Smith (Ms.) CPA" at "AMERICAN MEGA MILLIONS LOTTERY" telling you that "your email address won in the second category" or something similar, and to contact "Mr.PHILIPS GEORGE" to collect your winnings? It is a scam. No legitimate, legal lottery notifies winners via email (see footnote) The scammers may change the names and details, but it is still a scam! There are plenty of other clues... such as a phone number in Philadelphia (area code 215) yet an address in Waco, Texas!
Below is another example of a fake lottery; this email claims to be from the "AMERICAN MEGA MILLIONS LOTTERY".
Although the most important clue is that no legitimate lottery will ever email a winner, there are many other signs that this is a fraud. We have highlighted some of these in the email below, not the least of which are:
Email address ballot: There is no such thing as a "computer ballot system" or "computer email draw". No one, not even Microsoft has a database of email addresses of the type or magnitude they suggest.
Terrible spelling, punctuation, syntax and grammar - Scammers apparently don't know how to use spell checkers. We assume they dropped out of school before that class. They use almost excessive and random CapItaLiZAtion. They often can't even spell "February" or know that "22th" ought to be "22nd". These scammers usually write at the 3rd grade level. Being non-native English speakers, they also often get first names and surnames (last names reversed), so you will frequently see names like "Mr. SMITH JAMES.", instead of "Mr. James Smith", along with the peculiar usage of periods (full stops) and spaces or the lack thereof. Real lotteries also proofread their emails and look and read more professional.
Using free email account: The scammer is writing to you from a FREE email account (Yahoo, Hotmail, Excite, AIM, Gmail, etc.). Don't you think a real organization would use its own email, its own domain and website?
Keep Confidential - Real lotteries THRIVE on publicity - they don't want you to keep anything secret - the publicity causes people to buy more tickets. there is NO risk of "double claiming" because they can validate where the ticket numbers were sold. The scammer want you to keep quiet because they don't want the police or ConsumerFraudreporting to hear about them! It should read: "For our own security, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential until we have finished scamming you!"
Email notification: NO REAL LOTTERY SENDS AN EMAIL TO NOTIFY WINNERS. Period. Full-stop. End of story. There mere fact ALONE that you received an email saying you won a lottery is proof that it is a scam.
Here is a typical scam lottery winning notification.
Actual scam email (One example - the scammers constantly change names, dates and addresses!):
AMERICAN MEGA MILLIONS LOTTERY.
17740 Preston RD, Dallas, Texas 75252.
AMERICAN MEGA MILLIONS Are Affiliate of MEGA Millions Jackpot
Attention,
CONGRATULATIONS: YOU WON $2,500,000.00.
We are pleased to inform you of the result of American Mega Millions Lottery, which was held earlier this month. Your e-mail address attached to e-ticket number: 25-64-46-74-11 (03-07), with Prize Number (match 8): 0073627169 drew a prize of $2,500,000.00. (Two Million Five Hundred Thousand, American Dollars Only) This lucky draw came first in the 4th Category of the Sweepstake.
You will receive the sum of $2,500,000.00 from our authorized bank. Because of some mix-up with sweepstake prizes, including the limited time placed on the payment of your prize of $2,500,000.00 we advice that you keep all information about this prize confidential until your winning prize of $2,500,000.00. (Two Million Five Hundred Thousand, American Dollars Only) have been transferred to you by the authorized paying bank. You must adhere to this instruction, strictly, to avoid any delay with the release of your winning to you in person. This program has been abused severally in past, so we are doing our best to forestall further occurrence of false claims.
This sweepstake was conducted under the watchful eyes of 8,000 spectators. Your e-mail address attached to e-ticket number: 25-64-46-74-11 (03-07), was selected and; it came out first by an electronic-ballot draw from over 250,000 e-mail addresses (personal and corporate e-mail addresses). This program is sponsored by CFI to compensate faithful internet suffers around the globe. Congratulations for becoming one of the few lucky winners.
With your permission, your e-mail will also be included in the next sweepstake of 200 Million American Dollars. You must claim your prize: $2,500,000.00. Not later than 7-days from the moment you receive this e-mail. In order to avoid unnecessary delays with your claim from the bank; please contact your claims officer below, and quote your winning and personal information now, and in all your correspondence with the claims officer. Here is the contact information:
Claims Manager:
Mr.PHILIPS GEORGE
American Mega Millions Lottery Claims Department
300 South 5th Street, Waco, Texas 76701
E-mails: ammlphilips@aol.com
TEL/FAX: 001 215 326 2589
Furnish them with the following:
VERIFICATION FORM:
1.) FULL NAME:
2.) AGE:
3.) SEX:
4.) ADDRESS:
5.) ZIP/POSTAL CODE:
6.) STATE/PROVINCE:
7.) COUNTRY:
8.) PHONE:
9.) OCCUPATION/POSITION:
10.) COMPANY:
11.) EMAIL ADDRESS:
12.) E-TICKET NUMBER:
(Including amount won and how you intend to receive the amount you won).
Failure to provide the above details might result to the disqualification of your winning so kindly adhere to the simple instructions
As Google continues to roll out new social features across its portfolio of websites, today the company has announced that it has launched two new widgets for Blogger account owners, allowing them to place a +1 button and a Google+ badge directly on their website.
The widgets have been added to users’ Blogger dashboards, providing a one-click solution for blog owners, something that Google hopes will not only connect writers with their readers but help their posts spread across its networks.
The +1 button for blogs is the equivalent of a Facebook like, serving as a way to provide feedback to the writer without having to comment. Once embedded, readers can click the +1 button and will then be asked whether they wish to share the post with their friends or with the wider web.
The clicking of the +1 button will also show a mark against articles Google’s Search results, serving as a form of recommendation for friends who are looking for content.
Google has also launched a Google+ badge widget, connecting a user’s Blogger account to their Google+ profiles. The badge serves as an easy way for readers to add the blog owner to their Circles and grow their reader base by pushing content to the service.
Google requires user’s to blog using their real name to utilise their personal Google+ but does say that those who use a nickname can set up a Google+ Page and connect that instead.
To add the gadgets, Google recommends:
Select “Add a Gadget” from the “Layout” tab of Blogger, and select them from the list of gadgets under “Basics”. You’ll need to copy your Google+ ID (personal or Page) to configure the brand badge gadget for your blog.
Many websites will already have a form of the +1 button available, but today’s launch sees Google actively pushing its social service to the millions of Blogger blog owners that may have not be actively using the service.
Slowly but surely, Google is connecting different collections of users from its services to its social network. It will only drive visits to Google+, but whether people will use it beyond sharing Blogger posts is another matter entirely.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The tornado hurtled toward the nursing home. Physical therapist Patti Gilroy said she saw the swirling mass barreling down through the back door, after she herded patients into the hallway in the order trained: walkers, wheelchairs, then beds.
"It wasn't like a freight train like everybody says it is," said Gilroy, who rounded up dozens to safety at Green Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. "It sounded like a bomb hit. And we hit the floor, and everybody was praying. It was shocking."
Texas Army National Guard Cpl. Brock Fischer of Charlie Troop, 3-124 Cav., searches a vehicle in front of a tornado damaged home Tuesday, April 3, 2012, in Forney, Texas. Tornadoes tore through the Dallas area Tuesday, peeling roofs off homes, tossing big-rig trucks into the air and leaving flattened tractor trailers strewn along highways and parking lots. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
The National Weather Service said as many as a dozen twisters touched down in a wrecking-ball swath of violent weather that stretched across Dallas and Fort Worth. The destructive reminder of a young tornado season Tuesday left thousands without power and hundreds of homes pummeled or worse.
As the sun rose Wednesday over the southern Dallas suburb of Lancaster, one of the hardest hit areas, it was clear that twisters had bounced in and out of neighborhoods, destroying homes at random. Vehicles were tossed like toys, coming to rest in living rooms and bedrooms.
At one house, a tornado had seemingly dipped into the building like an immersion blender, spinning directly down through an upstairs bedroom and wreaking havoc in the family room below before lifting straight back up and away. A grandfather clock leaned slightly but otherwise stood pristine against a wall at the back of the downstairs room that was filled with smashed furniture and fallen support beams.
Despite the intensity of the slow-moving storms, only a handful of people were hurt, a couple of them seriously, and no fatalities were reported as of late Tuesday.
The Red Cross estimated that 650 homes were damaged. Around 150 Lancaster residents stayed in a shelter Tuesday night.
"I guess 'shock' is probably a good word," Lancaster Mayor Marcus Knight said.
The exact number of tornadoes won't be known until surveyors have fanned across North Texas, looking for clues among the debris that blanketed yards and rooftops peeled off slats.
April is typically the worst month in a tornado season that stretches from March to June, but Tuesday's outburst suggests that "we're on pace to be above normal," said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Bishop.
An entire wing at the Green Oaks nursing home in Arlington crumbled. Stunning video from Dallas showed big-rig trailers tossed into the air and spiraling like footballs. At the Cedar Valley Christian Center church in Lancaster, Pastor Glenn Young said he cowered in a windowless room with 30 children from a daycare program, some of them newborns.
Ten people in Lancaster were injured, two of them severely, said Lancaster police officer Paul Beck. Three people were injured in Arlington, including two Green Oaks residents taken to a hospital with minor injuries, Arlington Assistant Fire Chief Jim Self said.
Gilroy said the blast of wind through Green Oaks lasted about 10 seconds. She described one of her co-workers being nearly "sucked out" while trying to get a patient out of the room at the moment the facility was hit.
Joy Johnston was also there, visiting her 79-year-old sister.
"Of course the windows were flying out, and my sister is paralyzed, so I had to get someone to help me get her in a wheelchair to get her out of the room," she said.
In one industrial section of Dallas, rows of empty tractor-trailers crumpled like soda cans littered a parking lot.
"The officers were watching the tornadoes form and drop," Kennedale police Chief Tommy Williams said. "It was pretty active for a while."
Most of Dallas was spared the full wrath of the storm. Yet in Lancaster, television helicopters panned over exposed homes without roofs and flattened buildings. Residents could be seen walking down the street with firefighters and peering into homes, looking at the damage after the storm passed.
Hundreds of flights into and out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field were canceled or diverted elsewhere Tuesday. About 500 flights remained grounded Wednesday, airport officials said.
The storms knocked out power for thousands. Utility Oncor said nearly 14,000 homes and businesses, mainly in the Arlington area, still had no electricity early Wednesday.
Meteorologists said the storms were the result of a slow-moving storm system centered over northern New Mexico.
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Dixon reported from Lancaster. Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant, Terry Wallace and David Koenig in Dallas, Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Angela K. Brown in Fort Worth and Robert Ray in Lancaster contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Panos Ipeirotis, a computer scientists working at New York University,attack on his Amazon web service using Google Spreadsheets and Panos Ipeirotis checked his Amazon Web Services bill last week - its was $1,177.76 !
