Installing Ubuntu 8.10 - Step by step installation guide with screenshots

Installing Ubuntu 8.10 - Step by step installation guide with screenshots at My Web ~ Articles, Downloads, Games, Linux, Windows, Technology, Tutorials, Tips,and More...

Linux Ubuntu installation step-by-step

In this lesson, you learn about how to install the Ubuntu Linux step-by-step from LiveCD



More about Ubuntu guide you can visit this site:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Installing-Ubuntu-8-10-97417.shtml

Window XP 100 Tips Trick

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Windows Xp 100 Tips Tricks

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12 Types Of Anti-Spyware Programs

You can try out each program and get the best choice to protect your computer from the possible threats.

In the market there are many anti spyware and ad ware programs like Ad-Aware SE Pro, Counterspy, Trend Micro, Spy Sweeper, AntiSpy, Spy ware Doctor, PestPatrol, etc. available in the market. Each program has its own identity and method to access the internet. The anti-spyware company’s offers free download or it offers for free trial for certain period of time. There are many free antispyware are also available online for free trial with self-update.

You can try out each program and get the best choice to protect your computer from the possible threats. There are many anti-spy ware programs available for free. There are many free games and video or peer to peer sites also contents various spy wares. It is not advisable not to access the system. Many freeware have give virus or malicious things as gift with the installation.

1. Lavasoft’s Ad-aware SE pro 6. It can give you many good features where we can’t find it in other products.

2. Spy Sweeper launched upgraded version 5.2 with many updates for the customers. The Spy Sweeper 5.2 runs quickly, custom or full sweeps in record time.

3. Spyware Doctor promise real-time blocking and protection features.

4. The Norton Internet Security 2007 offers triple security against antivirus, firewall, and antispyware and. It also gives anti Spam, privacy, and parental control.

5. AVG Anti-Spyware offers the free services as well as the paid one. It gives 30 day trial version.

6. CounterSpy runs in the background and protect from spyware and ad ware.

7. McAfee is an effective anti-virus product. It is user-friendly and provides many different forms of support.

8. Trend Micro Anti-Spyware has unique features. Trend Micro Anti-Spyware covers all types of spyware or ad ware components.

9. The Anti-spy provides customize solution. It can automatically start scanning as defined time.

10. CA Anti-Spyware 2007's active shields recognized and blocked spyware.

11. CyberDefender AntiSpywareis identify and defense invasive spyware on your computer.

12. The Spy Sweeper is user-friendly. Spy Sweeper one of the favorite amongst the anti-spyware tools.

Apart from this there are many anti-spyware available in the market. All have different features and compatibilities.

Download Free AntiSpyware

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBiz.com

Officials: Obama chooses energy, enviro posts

President-elect Barack Obama intends to round out his environmental and natural resources team with a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and three former Environmental Protection Agency officials from the Clinton administration.

The president-elect has selected Steven Chu for energy secretary, Lisa Jackson for EPA administrator, Carol Browner as his energy "czar," and Nancy Sutley to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Democratic officials with knowledge of the decisions said Wednesday.

Obama plans to name the four to the posts in the coming weeks, barring unforeseen developments.

Still unclear is whom Obama will tap for interior secretary.

Officials close to the transition said support for John Berry, the director of the National Zoo and a former assistant secretary at the Interior Department, was growing. But these officials also said Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva and California Rep. Mike Thompson were still in the running.

The Democratic officials who disclosed the selections spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal names that have not been made public.

Among these posts, Browner's stands out because it's a new White House position.

She is expected to coordinate the various agencies that play a role in energy and environmental policy, especially on issues such as climate change that don't fit nicely in the silos of the federal government. Those agencies could include the EPA and the Transportation, Energy and Interior departments.

Six weeks before his Jan. 20 inauguration and little more than a month since his election, Obama has chosen much of his Cabinet and top White House staff. He has only a few key posts left to fill: national intelligence director, the secretaries of housing, labor, education, transportation and agriculture and the U.S. trade representative.

Obama scheduled a news conference on Thursday in Chicago to name former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle as his secretary of health and human services. That choice has been known for some time.

On Wednesday, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who has been mentioned as a possible labor secretary, was in Washington meeting with Obama's transition team. Her spokeswoman, Liz Boyd, would say only that the governor discussed the president-elect's economic stimulus plan.

As for his environment and natural resources team:

• Chu was one of three scientists who shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1997 for work in cooling and trapping atoms with laser light. He's a professor of physics and molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and has been the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 2004, where he has pushed for research into alternative energy as a way to combat global warming. It is the oldest of the Energy Department's national laboratories, doing only unclassified work, and in recent years under Chu has been at the center of research into biofuels and solar technologies.
• Jackson, who would be the first black person to lead the EPA, is a former New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection commissioner who worked at the federal agency for 16 years, including under Browner when she was Bill Clinton's EPA chief. Jackson is a co-chairman of Obama's EPA transition team, and currently serves as chief of staff to New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine. A New Orleans native, she grew up in the Lower Ninth Ward, the area stricken by Hurricane Katrina. She holds chemical engineering degrees from Tulane University and Princeton University.
• Browner, who served as EPA chief for eight years under President Bill Clinton, will become Obama's go-to person in the White House overseeing energy issues, an area expected to include the environment and climate matters. Now chair of the National Audubon Society and on the boards of several other environmental groups, Browner has been leading the Obama transition's working group on energy and environment.
• Sutley, the deputy mayor for energy and environment in Los Angeles and the mayor's representative on the Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, is the first prominent gay to earn a senior role in Obama's new administration. She was an EPA official during the Clinton administration, including being a special assistant to the EPA administrator in Washington. She also previously served on the California State Water Resources Control Board and was an energy adviser to former Gov. Gray Davis.

The Associated Press

PKS respects all religions

Medan, (ANTARA News) - The Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) adheres to the principles laid down in the "Constitution of Medina" which include respect for all religions, the party`s leader said.

"Although we practice our own faith piously, we subscribe to the Constitution of Medina whereby we must respect all religions and faiths. This is PKS`s political culture," PKS President Tifatul Sembiring said here Friday night.

He said there were three points in the Constitution of Medina that were of great significance to Indonesian state and nationhood.

The first point called for respect for all religions, and a guarantee that all members of the community can worship in accordance with their respective religion and faith.

These principles were practiced by the Prophet Mohammad when he was the leader of Medina. The prophet consistently allowed people of other religions such as Christians, Jews and others to live in peace and worship in their own ways.

The second point was a common commitment to accept and respect the enactment and enforcement of laws that were binding on all members of the community.

The third point was a common commitment to defend the nation`s interest and honor against any external threat or attack.

In faithfully practicing Islamic shariah, PKS cadres did not need to fear being labeled unpatriotic as long as they carried out the principles of the Constitution of Medina, Sembiring said.

"Where religion is concerned, PKS sticks to the principle of `lakum dinukum waliyadin` (your religion for you, my religion for me) while always respecting other religions," he said.

PKS proved its nationalism when in November 2004 it provided humanitarian aid to predominantly Christian victims of an earthquake in Nabire, Papua, he said.

"PKS`s nationalistic action earned the sympathy of many Nabire residents although they were Christians," Sembiring added
(Antara News)

HDX, a notebook computer or a portable TV?

The premium HDX16 has a built-in TV tuner, a sharp 16-inch display and plenty of high-end components. Despite its size and capability, it weighs only 3.2 kilograms. (JP/Zatni Arbi)

Back in the mid 1980s, IBM, Toshiba, NEC and a few other makers of IBM-compatible PCs began selling portable computers with a hinged display that people could carry with them from place to place in their bags.

That was when we became familiar with the term “laptop”.

A laptop computer was much larger than an A4-size writing pad. It was quite heavy, too.

The term notebook was coined later around the time a U.S. brand called Zeos started being advertised in computer magazines. Notebooks were supposed to be portable computers that had been reduced in size to fit into a briefcase.

At that time, despite their large size, laptops had quite teeny-weeny screens. In addition, they were all monochrome LCDs. (Remember that those were the days when the user interface was text-based).

We were all quite happy we could use a laptop as a glorified typewriter replacement — all that was required was MS or PC DOS and WordPerfect and a box of 5.25-inch or 3.5-inch floppy diskettes.

In those days, few could envision watching live TV for many hours at a stretch on one of those laptop computers. But, today, it is no longer a dream; you can watch TV broadcasts the whole day in your office cubicle as if you were relaxing in your own living room.

Courtesy of Hewlett-Packard (HP) Indonesia, I had three weeks to enjoy a brand new HP HDX16, a premium notebook that could keep you captivated for months.

I reported in this column a couple of weeks ago that HP now pays really serious attention to the style element of its notebooks in an effort to make them stand out in the crowd. The HDX16 is as impressive in the list of its technical specs as in its beauty. It has many of the upper-caste components, making its US$2,199 price tag fairly reasonable.

Here is a list of the critical components: Intel Centrino 2 platform with a Core 2 Duo T9400 processor running at 2.53 GHz; 4 GB of DDR2 memory; 320 GHz hard disk spinning at 5400 revolutions per minute (RPM); a 16-inch BrightView Infinity widescreen LCD; a Blu-Ray ROM; Wi-Fi a/g/n and Bluetooth; lots of lighted touch buttons; and a pair of Altec Lansing speakers with HP Triple Bass subwoofer.

The processor has 6 MB of L2 cache memory. Of course, to match the hardware, HP, not surprisingly, has chosen Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium.

With such top-notch components under the hood, it is not surprising that this notebook performs with flying colors. Although, given its focus on digital entertainment, it may not be the best machine for games or heavy-duty movie editing, but it is certainly close enough.

The specs on the box also list that the notebook has an integrated DVB-T/analog TV tuner. I could not test the DVB-T, but the analog tuner using the included antenna produced reasonable display quality.

There is a cable connector for TV cable reception, too, which raises display sharpness and color quality significantly. HP also throws in two remote controls — one for the notebook and the other for the Media control.

The keyboard is extremely close to my ideal: Each of the caps is covered with a chrome-like layer. HP has chosen the right material to ice the keycaps so that they do not get smudged as quickly as the “piano-like” keycaps. The separate numeric keypad on the right has keys that are narrower than the main keyboard, but they are still as usable.

Of course there is an integrated Webcam, too.

HP uses NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with a 512 MB dedicated memory for the graphics subsystem. By default, the characters on the screen are comfortably large (even for me).
If HP had wanted to equip it with the latest technologies, it would have to include a 7200 RPM hard disk and DDR3 memory instead of the 5400 RPM and DDR2. However, as it is now, this notebook is already among the top-end units.

HP has also added a very thoughtful feature to the standard touchpad: Right above the panel there is a button to deactivate the pointing device. You must know how frustrating it is to have the pointer jumping all over the place as you inadvertently touch the pad. I think this toggle button should be made standard on every touchpad.

Strangely, despite its size and long list of features, the HDX16 is not as heavy as you might have guessed. HP managed to pack everything in a notebook weighing only 3.2 kilograms.
The HDX16 has a bigger sibling, the HDX18, which has an 18-inch display, and a whopping $2,999 price tag. Unfortunately, I did not have the detailed specs, and I do not know whether it will be available here, either.

A rather serious complaint that I have is that the chromed touchpad panel itself is not slippery enough to let the fingertips glide smoothly over it.

A glossy finish is very smudge-friendly, as you already know. The good thing is that the graphic artwork printed on the notebook’s body and cover, as well as its gray color, tones down the marks left by oily hands.

It’s too bad though that HP put the audio port on the front side; an area where the plugs are vulnerable to accidental elbow action.

Still, this is one of the notebooks that managed to make me feel sad as I said goodbye to it and put it back in its box for the courier to pick up.

PKS : Partai Keadilan Sejahtera Pemilu Pilkada 2009: The rise of Jemaah Tarbiyah and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS)

PKS : Partai Keadilan Sejahtera Pemilu Pilkada 2009: The rise of Jemaah Tarbiyah and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS)

Toshiba Satellite M300: Style evolution

Toshiba adds beauty to its mainstream Satellite line of notebooks. The M300 provides great performance, average battery life and a beautiful metallic effect on its exterior. (JP/Zatni Arbi)

If my memory serve me correctly, I bought my first notebook in 1996 just before I was about to go on a 12-day trip to Australia.
I thought I would need a notebook to enable me to write my reports during the trip so I would not forget the details. Like virtually all first-time notebook buyers back then, I chose a Toshiba Satellite. Because of my limited budget, I bought a Toshiba Satellite 100CS.
It ran on a 75 MHz Pentium processor. I still have it on my shelf today. It may still be in a working condition, but I dare not try to power it up. The dual-scan screen is already damaged.
Besides, there is a huge crack on the top cover near the right hinge. The plastic material has become brittle with age, and -- you guess it correctly -- the crack actually happened because of my bad habit of placing a stack of books and magazines on top of the notebook. Only Panasonic's Toughbooks could have survived such an abuse.
For many years, Toshiba notebooks generally came in dull gray or black colors. But this has just changed.
"In the past, Toshiba focused on durability and technology, but now we have added style to our design tenets," said Gunawan Nugroho, president director of PT Techking Enterprises Indonesia, a company that focuses on the retail sales of Toshiba notebooks in Indonesia.
To ensure that Indonesian customers are aware of the new shift toward style, Toshiba has even appointed actress Luna Maya as their brand ambassador for the local market. New advertisements on LCD TVs, notebook PCs and home appliance products now feature the actress.
And the Satellite M300 is a testimony of the new thrust into style. I recently had a chance to play around with a brand new unit for one week; and I was pleasantly surprised.
With a high-gloss finish covered with beautiful stripes, called Fusion Finish, the M300 is certainly a head turner. Similar to what HP has done to its latest notebooks, Toshiba uses molten resin to transfer a metallic pattern to the mold. It shatters the notion that one notebook looks no different to the next.
A newcomer in the mainstream notebook market, the M300 has a 14.1-inch display. I think this is the right size for a traveling information worker, as a 13.3-inch notebook is too small and a 15-incher is too bulky. In the case of the M300, not only the size is ideal, the quality of the LCD panel is also excellent.
The M300 seems to be business-oriented, although the DVD direct control icons along the top of the keyboard give the impression that it is also ready for entertainment. You only have to touch it slightly with your fingertips to activate the lighted icons. And, the Harman Kardon speakers produce powerful and enjoyable audio.
Wi-fi, Bluetooth, WebCam, memory card reader, USB ports and other standard notebook arsenals are there. If you press the Fn key, a panel will appear on top of the display screen that tells you what the function keys will do.
For example, to turn off the touchpad temporarily, you can use one of the Fn combinations. I like this feature, as sometimes the imprinted symbols on the keycaps are too small or too vague to discern.
The touchpad, by the way, is textured. It feels nice under the fingertips. It is easy to slide your finger over it, and it doesn't get as smudged as other exterior panels.
What I like, too, is the separate row on the right end of the keyboard where you find the Home, PgUp, PgDn and End keys.
There is a downside to having a shiny and glossy exterior. The panels, and especially the palmrest, get smudged very easily. Toshiba throws in a piece of soft wiping cloth in the box, but you will still have to spend some time cleaning up smudges. (It is a good exercise, as it builds a stronger relationship between you and your notebook. It will remind you not to put it under a pile of magazines like I did to my Satellite 100CS.)
A couple of other minor complaints include the relatively long boot time. Most probably this is caused by the "bloatware" that Toshiba notoriously throws into the hard disk of every new notebook.
A trial version of Microsoft Office 2007 is also included. You can download a third party utility from the Web to get rid of the software stuff that you do not want, which will shorten the boot time. Once Windows Home Basic is running, the performance will not disappoint.
Personally, I do not like the black lacquered, piano-like key caps as they also get smudged easily. But this seems to be the trend. I first saw a keyboard like this on a Lenovo IdeaPads U110. Fortunately, the keyboard of the M300 is quite comfortable to use.
There are a lot of LED lights on the notebook, including the Satellite logo, the touchpad and the DVD control icons. They can be a nuisance if you are trying to work beside your sleeping spouse, who happens to prefer a totally dark bedroom.
More seriously is perhaps the thumbwheel audio volume control that has no minimum or maximum stop. You can turn the volume control to the left or to the right forever and you will have no idea how loud the audio is. I did not find any on-screen display to indicate the actual audio level.
For around Rp 13 million -- and Toshiba still accepts rupiah despite the fluctuating exchange rates -- this is an attractive notebook that also delivers great Intel Core 2 Duo performance.
The Toshiba Satellite M300 feels very solid. Its parts blend together very well, like the spices in a tasty rendang dish. This notebook is very high on my list of recommendations.

(thejakartapost.com)

Creative Brilliance in Advertisement | 67 Pics | Yeeeeee

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Aa Gym: Marriage Must Not Glamor

Abdullah Gymnastiar (AA Gym), the daughter of first marriages made with a simple concept. Aa Gym want to give an example, if marriage should not be celebrated with glamor.

It was delivered Aa Gym time to review the preparation of the daughter in marriage DaarulJannah Cottage on Saturday (22/11/2008). "Everything we make with simple like food," said Aa done.

In the wedding tomorrow, said Aa latest life there will be 22 food stands from traders in the area around Gegerkalong. "We have cooperation with the traders to five feet in Gegerkalong. Menu food is simple and ordinary," he said.

Later, the word Aa latest life stand, men and women will be made separately. include the stand guards. For guests male guardian of men, women delegates for the guardian of women.

Found in separate places, the Head of Public Relations Foundation daarut tauhiid, Farihin Abdul Fatah said the food is presented in the stand-food stand is people know the ball, for example, cake, to tutug oncom. Food for the officials and other guests will not be distinguished.

Detikbandung sentinel, the stands is equipped with the name and identity of traders.(detik.com)

The Secrets of Google Adsense 2008

It is no surprise that Google Adsense still remain the top favorable income source for most Webmasters. However, as Google implement changes to the advertisement format and behavior, there were considerably a number of Webmasters who are upset about these changes that eventually reduces their earnings.

In order to stay unaffected by the constant changes enforced by Google, a Webmaster has to go back to the basics – creating value to the users. This article will illustrate how you can go about creating valuable content and eventually, pulling in at least hundreds dollars from Google Adsense.

First, the most important factor is to attract the right type of traffic. It makes no use having 100,000 regular visitors per day to your site as compared to 50,000 unique and first-time visitors. Most regular visitors will not click your advertisement. This explains why most blogs with most of its traffic coming from bookmarks do not perform using Google Adsense.

There is only one type of traffic that convert the best for Adsense earnings – Search Engine traffic. Most clicks on the advertisement are triggered by first-time visitors especially if they were referred from search engines. Therefore, in order to increase your earnings for Adsense, focus on Search Engine Optimization. Some of the proven optimization techniques include titles shortening, keywords allocation, article submission and social bookmarking for gaining links popularity.

Another critical impact is the advertisement format. Despite all the various school of thoughts, the most effective format is one that is able to blend into your content and appears natural (in terms of content, colors and fonts). Advertisement placed in boxes also perform better than when they were in the rectangles. Advertisements that are placed above fold also did a good job attracting clicks. However, you should limit the advertisement to 3 unit per page. Anything more than that will make your page looks unprofessional and low value.

One very useful tip to increase your Adsense earnings is to use the horizontal link unit. This type of advertisement appears like navigation menu and thus, making up most of the clicks in an average site. Most of my sites generate over 70% of my income from this particular type of advertisement format.

To summarize, there are only two things to worry about – Traffic and advertisement format. Once you can get the right type of traffic flowing into your site, you can then focus on capturing the clicks from the traffic by displaying natural advertisement.

Article Source: http://www.1888articles.com/author-robert-thomson-5539.html

Effective Internet Advertising

Free internet advertising is one very important method for promoting your products and services to thousands of free ads. You've probably found this article because you did a search for "free advertising" on an internet search engine. If you have taken the time to research search engine placement, methods of obtaining a high search engine ranking, or Internet advertising, you have probably heard of Google Adwords.

Two of the most popular and successful advertising techniques on the Internet are pay per click campaigns and natural search engine optimization campaigns. If your company is not competing at the level it should be, perhaps it is time you looked into focusing more of your time and efforts into Internet advertising techniques that are successful. You will not only get the best results with a carefully designed system for generating Internet advertising for your blog, but you will also be able to sustain good results over a long period of time, which is what serious business and successful entrepreneurship is all about.

With a good well designed selling system in place, not only will you be able to get the best results while generating Internet advertising for your blog, but success will be virtually guaranteed. This difference with blog advertising rates is important because in the print media world, ad rates can not go below a certain point because if they do, the publication will cease to be profitable. In the print media, space is limited by the cost of production which keeps ad rates high and makes the balance of content versus advertising critical to the financial success of any print publication that relies on advertising.

Free internet advertising makes it easy for you to put free ads on several of the premier quality web sites whenever you want, for free. You know that you are visiting the forum merely for the free advertising for your website but it is better not to make this obvious if you want other members to react well to your advertising. Internet forum etiquette demands that you spend a little time "lurking" ie logging in at the forum and reading previous and current threads before you even think of starting to use the forum for advertising.

Whether you write your own articles or pay a ghostwriter to write your articles for you, the combined cost of creating and distributing your article is far less than the value of advertising that you will receive in exchange for the reprint use of your article. When you write articles that are consistent with the topics that your potential clientele will read, you are able to consistently target the people you need to reach with your advertising. If an advertiser is already paying 20 cents per click and your blog Internet advertising rate card charges them what works out to about 5 cents per click and there is a promise of the same or an even better conversion rate, you have won over that advertiser.

I have been paying for traffic and one of the best sources of targeted traffic is through pay per click search engines (PPC) or pay for placement search alternatives like Google adwords or Yahoo Sponsor Listings, formerly Overture. Google adwords and Yahoo Sponsor Listings are the kings of pay per placement search engines. And if you are in a highly competitive niche, the cost per visitor in pay per click search engines is pumping up day by day.

Islam 101- What is Islam?

This short article is the first in a seven part series called Islam 101. As the name indicates, this series of articles is meant to, Insha Allah, give a brief, succinct overview of some of the basic beliefs of Islam.

So what exactly is Islam? The name itself comes from the root word “salam” which means “peace” in Arabic. “Islam” actually means “submission”, which is understood as submission of the human being’s will to the will of God. So, a complete definition for the word Islam would be “submission to God in order to obtain peace.” And a Muslim, coming from that same root word s-l-m, is a person who submits himself to God in order to obtain peace.

How do we submit ourselves to God? The answer is that it is not easy, it is extremely difficult. To submit yourself to God means putting your own natural human desires on the back shelf when they conflict with God’s desires. It means caring more about the next life than this one. It means desiring the intangible good of the hereafter more than the material things of this world. It means conquering our inner pride, loving the things that God loves and hating the things that He hates. It’s a tall order for a mere human.

Islam is more than just a religion that one should think about once a week; Islam is an entire way of life. Islam gives guidance for every aspect of a person’s life, including what food to eat, what clothes to wear, and how to act as a mother, father, brother, sister and member of society in general. It’s all inclusive, or at least it should be. If all people perfectly submitted their wills to God’s we would have a near utopian society.

Human beings need structure in their lives, which is observable in day to day activities. There are 5 pillars of Islam which provide that crucial structure to a person’s life. These 5 pillars are the foundation of an individual’s religion, without them there can be no Islam, but they are only the bare minimum requirements.

The first is the shahada, or the declaration of faith. It is when a person says and believes that there is no deity worth of any type of worship except for God, and that Muhammad is His messenger. The second is the prayer which should be performed a minimum of 5 times each day. The third is zakat which can be thought of as a tax to feed the poor and purify your money. The fourth is fasting for the entire month of Ramadan from sunrise to sunset each day. Last but not least, the fifth is the hajj which is the pilgrimage to Mecca. The hajj should be performed at least once in a person’s life if they are able.

There is so much more that can be said on this topic, but we will leave it here until next time. Thank you for reading and God bless!

BACK TO LEADERS' BUSINESS

U.S. President George W. Bush greets President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia as he arrives at the North Portico of the White House in Washington, on Friday. President Bush invited leaders of the G-20 community to Washington for a weekend summit to discuss the world economy and the current condition of the financial markets. (AP/Lawrence Jackson)

Review: Posh Sony Ericsson X1's options overwhelm

What kind of smart phone can $800 buy? The luxe Xperia X1 from Sony Ericsson. At this price, it probably appeals only to recession-resistant gadget lovers, but it says something about what some gadget makers think the rest of us would want if money were no object.In this instance, what you get is more sleek sheath than intelligent innards. Its glut of options makes it pokey and difficult to navigate.Out of the box, the device is pure eye candy, with a black or silver metal-and-plastic body, crisp 3-inch touch screen and slightly curved QWERTY keyboard that slides out smoothly with a satisfying click. The X1 has minimal included memory, so you'll need a sizable microSD card if you want to access lots of songs, videos and photos on it; I used a 4 gigabyte card during my testing, which was enough for plenty of content.But even before I turned it on, I started to get nervous about the whopping number of choices I'd have to make. I felt more confused about the phone's operations than excited about the freedom to use it as I pleased.When the phone goes on sale on Nov. 28 at Sony Style stores and on the Sony Style Web site, it will come unlocked, so I had to pick a network to test it with. In the U.S., you can slide in a SIM card for AT&T or T-Mobile and it should work with their 3G networks; I used AT&T.Then, there was the assortment of 11 buttons on the X1's face, including a center button that can select items or work as an optical joystick, which scrolls with a finger swipe. I often used the buttons for starting and ending phone calls, but tended to forget about the rest of the controls, including the joystick.Beyond the button bounty, you can navigate the X1 by tapping its screen with your finger or with a stylus. The stylus was often the best way to go, as the device's many options are often presented in small text that is difficult to accurately jab at with an index finger.The X1 uses Windows Mobile 6.1 as its operating system, but Sony Ericsson developed a variety of customized enhancements that run on top of it. Most notable is the stylish panel interface, which consists of up to nine small rectangles you can customize and use to view different applications or media on the device in different ways.The panel idea is cool, and it's a nice way to differentiate the X1 from the slew of touch-screen phones that have been released this year, since each rectangle leads to a variety of options, instead of just a single application. I used panels for conducting Google searches, listening to the built-in FM radio and checking out the songs and videos I stored on the X1.However, the panel interface still sits atop Windows Mobile, which offers its own methods for listening to tunes or watching videos. I couldn't understand why anyone would want so many options.That said, the inclusion of Windows Mobile does mean that if you're familiar with it you won't have much trouble navigating the X1 once you find and click the "Start" tab in the upper right corner of one of the panels. Business users can synchronize the phone with their PCs and get e-mail from their Microsoft Outlook account pushed straight to the phone - something that can make it difficult to switch to a more consumer-friendly phone like the iPhone or the G1, which uses Google Inc.'s Android operating system.And there are several cool features on the X1. Though the iPhone has a larger screen, the X1's touch screen sports a sharper resolution. As such, videos look quite good, and I had fun watching some clips of "The Simpsons." You can also stream some content from the Internet, such as videos from YouTube, and adjust video sizes to make lesser-quality clips look more palatable.The X1 also has a standard headphone jack, which is becoming increasingly common on smart phones and makes a big difference to music fans like myself.Surfing the Web is easy on the X1, and, as with videos, online content looks very good on the screen. The phone includes the Internet Explorer Mobile and Opera Mobile browsers, and I did appreciate having more than one option here.The built-in 3.2 megapixel camera takes good photos and can also be used for videos. Phone calls sounded impressively clear - for $800, they'd better. The phone also has a video calling option but it's not currently supported in the U.S. by T-Mobile or AT&T.Still, my issues with the X1 often overshadowed the fun. Many times it seemed fairly slow to open applications or complete actions, displaying the multicolored Windows processing icon while I waited.Even without slowdowns, it usually took me several steps to complete a simple action. When I wanted to change the panels on the device, I had to click a little tools icon, click the panel I wanted to change, click it again to confirm I really did want to alter it, choose a new panel, and click again to select it. After all this clicking, I could barely remember what I was trying to do in the first place.The X1 is a gorgeous device. But even if you can afford it, dealing with its overabundance of choices would, in the words of Dewey Finn from "School of Rock," test your head and your mind and your brain, too.(AP)

Official Google Blog: Google Sites now in 38 languages

Official Google Blog: Google Sites now in 38 languages

Is Barack Obama's Presidency Going to be Good or Bad for Internet Marketers?

There are positive and negative aspects of Barack Obama's new economic plan. Some parts of the plan should help us out as internet marketers. There are other parts that might hurt us. First, let's start with the best news...we internet marketers are a resourceful bunch and we'll probably make sure that everything goes well for our future no matter what.

That reminds me...before I go on, I will stick my opinion where it may or may not belong. Both candidates said "The American people are innocent victims of this financial disaster"...um, are you kidding me? I can't think of a more dangerous thing to say. No one had guns to their heads when they signed those home loans! When American citizens completely stop taking responsibility for their own actions, as the candidates encouraged, then America loses its advantage as the superpower in the world. I know they were trying to win votes, but that's just irresponsible.

My audience — internet marketers and entrepreneurs — will take care of themselves. They don't WANT the government to take care of them. That's how it should be and it's that very attitude that makes them successful and independent to begin with. If everyone thought like an entrepreneur, we, er, the country wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.

Okay, back to economic policy. The most exciting thing for internet marketers in Obama's new economic plan is the deployment of what politicians are calling Next-Generation Broadband. With this plan, Obama wants to bring broadband to every community in America. Overall, this should eventually bring the costs of broadband internet down across the nation. Also, the internet users that are still on dial-up will likely switch over to faster internet, meaning more chances for them to stay on your site instead of clicking away because your graphics are taking too long to load. This happens with flash sites. Overall, with this plan implemented, more of America should spend even more time online, meaning more chances for you to make a sale.

There are a couple of other parts of Obama's economic plan that could turn into positives depending on your market niche. Part of the Obama plan is to issue an emergency energy rebate for $1,000. This rebate is said to be a type of "down payment" for Obama's long-term plan to give middle-class families at least $1,000 per year in tax savings. I'm sure you have heard this statistic: The personal savings rate here in the United States is the lowest that it has been since the Great Depression. We've turned into a society of instant gratification. As much as we would love many for Americans to put this extra $1,000 towards savings or debt, I believe most everyone will continue to spend this extra income on whatever they want. So that means there's an extra $1,000 each year that families could use to make even more online purchases.

Another positive in Obama's plan is the tax relief for small businesses and start-up companies. Obama wants to eliminate all capital gains taxes for these businesses in order to encourage the creation of more jobs. Since we work online, most of us don't owe capital gains taxes, but some of us might. A better positive for most all internet marketers is the proposed "Making Work Pay" tax credit which promises a $500 credit to almost every worker in America, which looks like it will include self-employed small business owners.

O.K., now for the negative aspects of Obama's plan: All through the debates you have heard Obama say that nobody making less than $250,000 per year will see a tax increase. He has even been quoted saying that these people should all see a tax cut. Well, what if you are making more than $250,000 per year? What tax increases will we see? Not all of us internet marketers are making $250,000 per year, but the ones that have turned the internet into a career rather than just a side job or hobby usually do pretty well. The sad thing is that we usually worked daunting schedules for years in order to enjoy a little of this "getting ahead". Now this group of superachievers is being targeted as a cash machine. Obama has said on camera "It's time for folks who make over $250K to pay their fair share". It makes me want to throw up.

Lucky for us, there hasn't been a politician in all of history that kept all of his or her promises.

Now, there is one last part of Obama's plan that I see as a potential negative for internet marketers. He wants to "simplify tax filings for middle class Americans." With this plan, Obama wants to make it so that millions of Americans can get their taxes done in less than five minute. They want to have the IRS use the info it gets from employers and the banks in order to give taxpayers the option of simple pre-filled tax forms that they can simply verify, sign, and return. As internet marketers, we know that there are a lot of tax benefits that come from being self-employed. Some of us work very hard in order to find as many tax deductions that we can. And others pay CPAs big money in order to find even bigger deductions.

If middle class Americans are given the option of getting pre-filled tax forms, I believe a huge majority of them will take it out of laziness, and a large number of these Americans will miss out on tons of legal tax breaks that they could receive for their families. Obama says that this plan can save Americans up to $2 billion in tax preparer fees. But I sit here and think to myself about how much some people save when they do have professionals file their taxes. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I think that this could be construed as a perfect plan for the government to issue a lot less refund checks to American citizens. And my main point of negative for this part of Obama's plan is less money for middle class American to spend at your site.

So, what will Obama's economic plan do overall for your business? Well, I believe we could see some spikes in sales, but then again, we see spikes in sales all the time, anyway. It seems to me that overall there are really less positives than negatives with Obama's plan, but regardless, I blieve sales should remain normal during the Obama regime.

There will always be a small percentage of entrepreneurs in America, and the economy will be fine in the long run and we will figure out for ourselves how to thrive in the short run, in a good or a bad economic climate. Real business minds always rise above the zeitgeist.

Govt, media blamed for bombers' martyrdom

Thousands of people packed the burial processions of the three Bali bombers amid tight security Sunday, with critics slamming the government for allowing public sympathy for the executed terrorists to boil over.

The executions of Amrozi and his brother Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, and Imam Samudra were carried out after a series of delays that gave militants the opportunity to publicly voice their sympathy and stage rallies in support of the men.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the country's largest Muslim organization, denounced the three bombers as nothing but terrorists.

"They didn't die as syuhada (martyrs). Those who kill others can never die as martyrs unless they are at war in the name of religion. But we are not at war so we must not kill others," said MUI chairman Umar Shihab.

Critics blamed the increased support for the three terrorists on the government's months of indecisiveness, sympathetic media coverage and politicizing of the issue by certain groups.

"It's all the government's fault. First, it announced it would execute the three men soon, but then delayed it several times, allowing for wide media exposure that played up these men's toughness and persistence," said political expert Fachry Ali.

The time given by the government, he went on, allowed TV stations, which viewed the upcoming executions as a highly profitable event, to broadcast details of the bombers' activities and opinions -- including their rejection of government help, their isolation cells, and their books -- for weeks on a hourly basis.

This garnered sympathy not only from Muslim radicals but also from those who had initially denounced them, Fachry added.

"And the government remained silent and made no counter arguments against such arousals of sympathy for the bombers. The most dangerous impact is it allowed massive mobilization of people to their burial sites and once again invited huge TV coverage for them," he said.

Setara Institute director Hendardi blasted the executions as mere politicking, saying it was a stunt to show off President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's tough stance against terrorism.

"But the aftermath of the executions proves otherwise -- rather than acting as a deterrent against terrorist attacks, it instead creates sympathy," he said.

Amrozi, 47, Mukhlas, 48, and Imam Samudra, 38, were executed by firing squad shortly after midnight early Sunday near their prison on Nusakambangan Island for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

The terrorists refused to be blindfolded before being shot, and cooperated fully with the firing squads, said Attorney General's Office spokesman Jasman Panjaitan.

"They were very cooperative and did not resistance at all. The families were also cooperative and sincere," he said.

A crowd burst into tears and shouts of "Allahu Akbar!" (God is great) at the sight of two black crows over Tenggulun village in Lamongan, East Java as a helicopter carrying the bodies of Amrozi and Mukhlas landed in a nearby field. Many there believed the birds were "sent from heaven to take the men's souls".

"God is great, God is great! God is showing his greatness. I'm so happy," a supporter, sobbing uncontrollably at the sight of the birds, was quoted as screaming by AFP.

Similar religious fervor and grief were on show in Imam Samudra's hometown of Serang, Banten.

A detailed account of how the bombers were executed

Wednesday, November 5: the three convicted bombers are informed they will be executed within three days.

Friday, November 7: The bombers are put in isolation cells.

Sunday, November 9, 12:15 am: After being tied to posts and offered blindfolds, which they refuse, the bombers are shot in their hearts by police firing squads.

1:00 am: The men's bodies are brought to a clinic for autopsies, after being declared dead at the execution site.

5:45 am: Prosecutors hand the bodies over to helicopter crews to deliver them to their home villages in East Java and Banten.

Source: Attorney General's Office

PREVENT VIRUS ATTACK YOUR FLASHDISK (Indonesian Version)

Salah satu cara pencegahan agar komputer kita tidak terserang virus adalah dengan mencegah terjadinya eksekusi terhadap file virus. Salah satu caranya adalah melakukan pencegahan penularan virus melalui flashdisk.

Untuk melakukan pencegahan, kita bisa menggunakan salah satu fitur yang ada di Windows XP yaitu Local Security Setting.

Adapun cara kerjanya adalah memproteksi komputer dari eksekusi terhadap semua file *.exe. Sehingga bila kita membuka file yang ada di flashdisk dan tanpa sepengetahuan kita ternyata menjalankan file virus, maka proses eksekusi tersebut akan di proteksi atau di batalkan.

Adapun langkah-langkahnya adalah:

1. Pilih Start >> Control Panel
2. Pilih Administrative Tools >> Local Security Policy
3. Pilih Software Restriction Policies >> Additional Rules
4. Pada Additional Rules klik kanan >> pilih New Path Rule…
5. Pada kolom Path, pilih Browes pilih dimana drive flshdisk berada, misal di I:\
6. Pada kolom Security Level, pilih Disallowed
7. Pilih OK dan Restart komputer

Google CEO And Obama Get Cracking On Economy

Economists and Wall Street types sent two clear messages this week in one simple statement: President-elect Obama needs to get his financial team working on the present crisis ASAP. The underlying message there is, obviously: Bush’s team is asses over elbows on this, and we can’t wait until January 20.

Sure enough, as the stock market plunges again upon news of jobless rates—6.5 percent—and “layoffs” become the latest buzzword in Silicon Valley instead of trendy mashed-up neologisms, Obama is meeting today with a 17-member panel dubbed his Economic Transition Team.

Taking his place among an elite braintrust with a combined net worth as startling as the lengths of their economic resumes, Google CEO Eric Schmidt almost seems like a token representative of the tech industry. Still, he’s a far cry from the blank stares of Bernanke and the glistening panic-and-bail-out forehead of Paulson.

And why not? He’s done pretty well managing Google, and at this point all suggestions—except for hiring more Bear Sterns masterminds—for the Fed are welcome. Schmidt’s presence on today’s panel is interesting in light of a resounding “hell no” from the Obama campaign trail as to whether he was throwing his hat in the political realm. At the time, people were more inclined to view him as a consideration for Obama’s Chief Technical Officer, a position for which Steve Ballmer (not on the panel) and Vint Cerf also have been considered.

The meeting may also be a final audition for Lawrence Summers, the former Treasury Secretary who oversaw the dotcom bust between 1999 and 2001, who’s being reconsidered for that position. But Summers is perhaps better known for his graceless exit from Harvard after suggesting girls just can’t do math. Presumably a certain level of sexism does not outweigh his renowned brilliance as an economist.

Summers’ presence on the panel is telling in that the presence of the other lead-contender for Treasury Secretary—New York Fed chief Tim Geithner—was not requested (or couldn't make it) for this meeting. Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker is there, alongside the teleconferencing Warren Buffet, who apparently had more pressing issues preventing him from attending in person.

Here’s the complete list of the 17 people Obama has enlisted to save America economy.

David Bonior (former Congressman)
Warren Buffett (Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway)
Roel Campos (former SEC Commissioner)
William Daley (JP Morgan Chase; Former Commerce Secretary)
William Donaldson (Former SEC Chairman)
Roger Ferguson (CEO of TIAA-CREF and former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve)
Jennifer Granholm (Governor of Michigan)
Anne Mulcahy (CEO of Xerox)
Richard Parsons (Chairman of the Board, Time Warner)
Penny Pritzker (CEO, Classic Residence by Hyatt)
Robert Reich (University of California, Berkeley; Former Dept of Labor Secretary)
Robert Rubin (Chairman, Citigroup; former Treasury Secretary
Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google)
Lawrence Summers (Harvard University; Managing Director, D.E. Shaw; Former Treasury Secretary)
Laura Tyson (Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley; Former Chairman, National Economic Council; Former Chairman, President’s Council of Economic Advisors)
Antonio Villaraigosa (Mayor of Los Angeles)
Paul Volcker (Former Fed Chair)
(http://www.webpronews.com)

Menteng students overjoyed with Obama's win

Obama... Obama... Obama... We love you!" yelled hundreds of students from all grades in a Menteng elementary school in Central Jakarta on Wednesday, as they watched results come in for the U.S. presidential election.

Students and teachers were overjoyed to suspend classes, gather in a 1,500 square meter ballroom and witness how a former student of the school became elected the next president of the United States.

Headmaster Kuswadiyanto said the teachers and students had been starting their school day differently during the past few days.

"Every morning before lessons start, we've been praying for Barry, hoping for him to win the election," Kuswadiyanto said, as quoted by kompas.com.

As tallies on the television screen grew and confirmed Obama's win, all the students expressed their happiness by running around, scattering all over the place, dashing out of the ballroom and roaming the schoolyard even though rain was pouring down.

Obama's victory was also their victory. They were proud that the one-time Menteng student had became the leader of the most powerful country on the planet. "I want Obama to come here so we can talk with him," said Ajo, a fifth grader.

The teachers said the school would pray for Obama again on Thursday. "We want to express our thankfulness, so we will continue praying for him.... Today we are just enjoying this victory with the students," Kuswadiyanto said. (and)
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/11/05/menteng-students-overjoyed-with-obama039s-win.html

How to Clean the Registry

In the beginning Windows' registry consisted of two files totalling around 5mb in size. Today it consists of at least 12 files with the Software file itself being 30mb or bigger in size. As the size of the registry has exploded, so has the trash and clutter in it. It may seem like a daunting task, but cleaning the registry properly can fix system problems, speed your computer up, and make it run more efficiently. I have spent many years developing and refining thousands of procedures to do just that. I could share these methods of hunting down the trash with you and let you find them and delete them by hand, but if you were to sit down at your computer right now and work nonstop, you would still be busy with them a week from now when the next issue of Ray's Computer Tips arrives. By then your registry would have new clutter and you would have to start all over again. To make registry cleaning easier on everyone, I wrote a program called RegVac Registry Cleaner (http://regvac.com/regvac.htm) to perform those procedures. It has been so successful that several companies have asked me to model their registry cleaners after RegVac and even more have copied processes that first debutted in RegVac. The first place RegVac cleans is the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT section (the Classes Vac in RegVac does this). This section contains settings for the classes of Windows. Think of a huge box full of snakes and you will get an idea of how complicated and interwoven it is. It is so complicated that many registry cleaners bypass it or simply perform surface scans of it. RegVac uses over a hundred processes to follow each tentacle of each class deep into this area and make sure that they abide by the rules. Next RegVac validates the entries in 22 lists with 7 different methods (the FilesList Vac does this). This is a minor part of RegVac but the bulk of most other registry cleaners even though they usually do not clean all 22 lists. Another part of RegVac, the Software Vac, which is unique to RegVac, finds old software sections in the registry and provides a way to remove that software's entire branch. Other registry cleaners only remove a few entries in this area often leaving huge portions of the registry that do nothing but take up space and get in the way. Even more trash can be discovered in hundreds of stashes used to store data you will never use. Most registry cleaners do not even touch these. The Stash Vac lists these stashes and lets you go through and select which ones to empty out. Please use caution when using the Stash Vac because some of the items listed there may be important. For example, one folder in the Stash Vac lists places where data for international keyboards are stored. You probably will never use the data for Bulgarian keyboards, so you can remove it, but if you live in the US you may experience problems after removing the United States 101 keyboard. The items that you can safely remove are usually obvious. Last but not least, when cleaning the registry, you should look for broken links to files on the computer (this is what the Bad Link Vac does). If a file is referenced in the registry but it does not exist on your hard drive, that is a good indicator that something is wrong. Many programmers start out writing a registry cleaner thinking all it has to do is check for these broken links and remove them. In fact, that is all many registry cleaners do. Even though that is all they do, they often don't do it correctly. If you check the results of such scans, you will find out that many of the broken links are really good links. I spent several months refining this part of RegVac so that as far as I know it is 100% accurate. Despite this, please realize that some software enter broken links in the registry and require them to be there in order for them to run. RegVac skips the ones it knows about, but you still need to be careful with this part of RegVac. RegVac has six more tools that clean even more areas: the Add/Remove Editor, the System Config Utility, the OpenWith Editor, the AutoComplete Editor, the Junk Keys Editor, and Registry Backup, Pack, and Restore. Many of you already use RegVac but if you don't, you can downloaded a free 30 day trial of RegVac at http://regvac.com/regvacz.exe. For more information about RegVac Registry Cleaner go to http://regvac.com/regvac.htm. If you like RegVac, you can purchase it for only $29.95. All future updates are free. Keep the Windows registry clean and running smoothly with RegVac Registry Cleaner.

http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_4123.shtml

Honda shows wearable device that helps you walk

Imagine a bicycle seat connected by mechanical frames to a pair of shoes for an idea of how the new wearable assisted-walking gadget from Honda work.

The experimental device, unveiled Friday, is designed to support bodyweight, reduce stress on the knees and help people get up steps and stay in crouching positions.

Honda envisions the device being used by workers at auto or other factories. It showed a video of Honda employees wearing the device ad bending to peer underneath vehicles on an assembly line.

Engineer Jun Ashihara also said the machine is useful for people standing in long lines and r people who run around to make deliveries.

"This should be as easy to use as a bicycle," Ashihara said at Honda's Tokyo headquarters. "It reduces stress, and you should feel less tired."

To wear it, you put the seat between your legs, put on the shoes and push the on button. Then just start walkg around.

In a test-run for media, this reporter found it does take some getting used to. But I could sense how it supported my moves, pushing up on my bottom when I squatted and pushing at my soles to help lift my legs when I walked.

The system has a computer, motor, gears, battery and sensors embeded in it so it responds to a person's movements, according to Honda Motor Co.

Pricing and commercial product plans are still undecided. Japan's No. 2 automaker will begin testing a prototype with its assembly line workers later this month for feedback.

The need for such mechanical help is expected to grow in Japan, which has one of the most rapidly aging societies in the world.

Other companies are also eyeing the potentially lucrative market of helping the weak and old get around. Japan is among the world's leading nations in robotics technology, not only for industrial use but also for entertainment and companionship.

Earlier this year, Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp. showed a Segway-like ride it said was meant for old people.

Japanese robot company Cyberdyne has begun renting out in Japan a belted device called HAL, for "hybrid assistive limb," that reads brain signals to help people move about with mechanical leg braces that strap to the legs.

Honda has shown a similar but simpler belted device. It has motors on the left and right, which hook up to frames that strap at the thighs, helping the walker maintain a proper stride.

That device, being tested at one Japanese facility, helps rehabilitation programs for the disabled, encouraging them to take steps, said Honda official Kiyoshi Aikawa.

Honda has been carrying out research into mobility for more than a decade, introducing the Asimo humanoid in 2000.
(AP)

Plan for Ending the War in Iraq

Inadequate Security and Political Progress in Iraq: Since the surge began, more than 1,000 American troops have died, and despite the improved security situation, the Iraqi government has not stepped forward to lead the Iraqi people and to reach the genuine political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the surge. Our troops have heroically helped reduce civilian casualties in Iraq to early 2006 levels. This is a testament to our military’s hard work, improved counterinsurgency tactics, and enormous sacrifice by our troops and military families. It is also a consequence of the decision of many Sunnis to turn against al Qaeda in Iraq, and a lull in Shia militia activity. But the absence of genuine political accommodation in Iraq is a direct result of President Bush’s failure to hold the Iraqi government accountable.

Strains on the Military: More than 1.75 million servicemen and women have served in Iraq or Afghanistan; more than 620,000 troops have completed multiple deployments. Military members have endured multiple deployments taxing both them and their families. Additionally, military equipment is wearing out at nine times the normal rate after years of constant use in Iraq’s harsh environment. As Army Chief of Staff General George Casey said in March, “Today’s Army is out of balance. The current demand for our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeds the sustainable supply and limits our ability to provide ready forces for other contingencies.”

Resurgent Al Qaeda in Afghanistan: The decision to invade Iraq diverted resources from the war in Afghanistan, making it harder for us to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden and others involved in the 9/11 attacks. Nearly seven years later, the Taliban has reemerged in southern Afghanistan while Al Qaeda has used the space provided by the Iraq war to regroup, train and plan for another attack on the United States. 2007 was the most violent year in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001. The scale of our deployments in Iraq continues to set back our ability to finish the fight in Afghanistan, producing unacceptable strategic risks.

A New Strategy Needed: The Iraq war has lasted longer than World War I, World War II, and the Civil War. More than 4,000 Americans have died. More than 60,000 have been injured and wounded. The United States may spend $2.7 trillion on this war and its aftermath, yet we are less safe around the globe and more divided at home. With determined ingenuity and at great personal cost, American troops have found the right tactics to contain the violence in Iraq, but we still have the wrong strategy to press Iraqis to take responsibility at home, and restore America’s security and standing in the world.

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/iraq/

Jakarta celebrates the Menteng Kid’s victory

Jakarta shared the anxiety and the joy of the U.S presidential election won by new Indonesian darling Barack Hussein Obama on Wednesday.

It was a special day for students of Obama’s former school SDN Menteng 01, Central Jakarta, who gathered at the school’s hall to watch the final results pour in. Several pictures of Obama during his school years there were prominently displayed.

A 15-minute silence has been held here every day since Monday to allow the students to pray for Obama’s victory.

“Every day we have something different to pray for, but since Monday we have prayed for him,” said principal Kuwadiyanto.

Obama, or Barry as he was affectionately called during his time in Indonesia, enrolled in the school — then named SD Besuki — as a third-grader in 1968. He previously attended the Fransiskus Asisi Catholic School, also in Central Jakarta.

Obama’s historic election as the next U.S. president was a dream come true for his supporters in Indonesia.

“I think it’s good motivation for the children to study hard and set their dreams high,” Kuwadiyanto said.

Israella Dharmawan, Barry’s former teacher at Fransiskus Asisi and an avid follower of the U.S. election, said she was proud and touched by Barry’s win.

“I hope to see him become a good president and keep his campaign promises,” she said, adding he was good, cheerful and easygoing as a young boy.

“I remember he once wrote two stories titled ‘My mother, my idol’ and ‘I want to be a president’,” she said.

Obama’s former classmates at SDN Menteng 01 also recalled the times they spent at Café Pisa, Menteng, with the now U.S. president-elect.

Obama moved to Indonesia at the age of six with his mother Ann Dunham and his Indonesian stepfather Lolo Soetoro. He lived in Jakarta from 1967 to 1971.

In the rest of the capital, Jakartans cheered the election of Anak Menteng (the Menteng Kid) as America’s first black president.

“Though I am not an American, I am very happy to hear that a child who studied in Menteng will be the next U.S. president,” Sugiyono, a taxi driver, said after hearing radio reports of Obama’s win.

The U.S. Embassy and USINDO organized a U.S. Election Day event at the InterContinental Hotel’s Grand Ballroom. Most of the guests were non-Americans.

“It’s no longer a U.S. election,” one guest said. “It looks like an international election. People all over the world are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the election.”

Among U.S. Ambassador Cameron R. Hume’s invited guests were presidential spokesmen Dino Patti Djalal and Andi Mallarangeng, former ministers Emil Salim and Alwi Shihab, members of the House of Representatives, scholars, journalists and diplomats.

Despite their busy schedules, the British, Swiss, German, Austrian, Brazilian, Mexican, Jordanian, Tunisian, Palestinian and Singaporean ambassadors turned up to witness the historic moment.

Enda Nasution, who chairs the Obama for Indonesia society, celebrated Obama’s victory with 300 members of the group, which was founded over the Internet.

“It’s great to be part of history. No one thought Obama would win the U.S. presidency,” Enda said. (jakartapost)