Pithaly

"We are now at the level where the president has to get involved. We are now at the point where we have to worry about the barter system. We have to start being concerned about whether trades clear in the system.

It's a crime that all of this could have been avoided. But it wasn't.

And now they have to accept that some very big banks are going to go bankrupt. If they don't get ahead of it, the banks that go under will be the biggest ones in the country.

That needs to be prevented.

I don't think they understand that.

I don't think they have the courage, the knowledge, or the conviction to do what they have to do." Read more on this article...

At first glance, you say "She cannot be a Wall street analyst!". She is, and a good one at that.

This is what she has to say today (17th March 2008):

"The problems at Bear Stearns may be unique, but U.S. financial stocks nonetheless have further downside of as much as 50%, according to Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Meredith Whitney."

“On the basis of book value, most banks do not appear expensive as they trade near price to book multiples of the 1990-1991 credit cycle,” she said in a note. “However on the basis of tangible book value, banks look expensive and are trading well above tangible book value.”

"Merrill Lynch, UBS and Citigroup will be the worst hit. Lehman brothers shares are already down 30 per cent in pre-opening trading."

Ms Whitney, Forbes’s second-highest-ranked stock picker for 2007, set off the biggest stock market decline in the US since August with a note on Citigroup.

The analyst who downgraded Citigroup, which led to a broad stock market sell-off in November, said she had received several death threats, the Times of London reported Saturday.

"Clients are not pleased with my call and I have had several death threats," she added. "But it was the most straightforward call I've made in my career and I am surprised my peer analysts have been resistant. It's so straightforward, it's indisputable." Read more on this article...

Around 2001, two environmental groups called Toxics link and Vatavaran based in Delhi, did a study on the contents of these chemical colours and published its results in a fact sheet on Holi. This research revealed that Holi colours come in three forms; pastes, dry colours and water colours.[1]

The pastes contain very toxic chemicals that can have severe health effects as follows:

Black contains lead oxide and can cause renal failure.
Green contains copper sulphate and can cause eye allergy, puffiness and temporary blindness.
Silver contains aluminium bromide which is carcinogenic.
Blue contains prussian blue which can lead to contact dermatitis.
Red contains mercury sulphate which is highly toxic and can cause skin cancer.[2]

The dry colours, commonly known as gulals, have two components – a colourant that is toxic and a base which could be either asbestos or silica, both of which cause health problems. Heavy metals contained in the colourants can cause asthma, skin diseases and temporary blindness.[3]

Wet colours, mostly use gentian violet as a colour concentrate which can cause skin discolouration and dermatitis.

These days, Holi colours are sold loosely, on the roads, by small traders who often do not know the source. Sometimes, the colours come in boxes that specifically mention For industrial use only.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi


Safe Holi colours:

Make your own colours!

The good news, however, is that it is possible to make simple natural colors in one’s own kitchen.

These simple recipes for making natural colours were also freely distributed as part of the Safe Festivals campaign, and children were taught how to make colours through lecture demonstrations in schools.

Here are a few things one can do at home:

* Mix haldi powder with besan for a lovely yellow.
* Slice a beetroot and soak in water for a deep pink.
* Boil Marigold or Tesu flowers in water for yellow colour. The other easy way to get a yellow liquid colour is to soak peels of pomegranate (Anar) overnight.
* For an orange red paste, henna leaves (mehndi) can be dried, powdered and mixed with water.

http://www.kalpavriksh.org/f1/f1.4/GAholi1 Read more on this article...

[Elaine: I amended this chart to show important banking moments. This is amazing. It shows clearly that our banking system is insolvent. This graph should be posted on all front pages, it is more important than peccadillos of our ruling elites running after expensive whores. This is them running after Miz Risky, the biggest Whore of them all.]

UBS puts the banks total losses from the subprime fiasco at $600 billion. If that's true, (and we expect it is) then the Fed is out of luck because, at some point, Bernanke will have to throw in the towel and let some of the bigger banks fail. And when that happens, the stock market will start lurching downward in 400 and 500 point increments. But what else can be done? Solvency can only be feigned for so long. Eventually, losses have to be accounted for and businesses have to fail. It's that simple.

Roubini has been right from the very beginning, and he is right again now.

http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.com/ezmoneymatters/2008/03/roubinis-nightm.html

http://benbittrolff.blogspot.com/2008/03/really-scary-fed-charts-march.html Read more on this article...

This is possible only for certain stereo tracks. When the vocals are exactly the same on both stereo channels, you can remove them by “subtracting” one channel from the other. This works for many studio recordings, where the vocal track is mixed exactly in the center.

To do this in Audacity:

1. Import your stereo file into Audacity.
2. Open the track menu (click the arrow next to the track title), and choose “Split Stereo Track.”
3. Select the lower track (the right channel) by clicking it in the area around the mute/solo buttons.
4. Choose “Invert” from the Effects menu.
5. Using the track menus, change each track to “Mono.”

Press the Play button to hear the results. If you are lucky, the voice will be gone but most of the other instruments will be unaffected, just like a karaoke track. You can use the Export commands in the File menu to save the results.

If the vocals are not exactly the same on both stereo channels, there are some other techniques or optional plugins you can try. Please see our Vocal_Removal Wiki page for more details. Read more on this article...

"In our view, derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal."

That warning was in Buffett's 2002 letter to Berkshire shareholders. That was 2002.

Wall Street didn't listen to Buffett. Derivatives grew into a massive bubble, from about $100 trillion to $516 trillion by 2007.

Data on the five-fold growth of derivatives to $516 trillion in five years comes from the most recent survey by the Bank of International Settlements, the world's clearinghouse for central banks in Basel, Switzerland.

The BIS is like the cashier's window at a racetrack or casino, where you'd place a bet or cash in chips, except on a massive scale: BIS is where the U.S. settles trade imbalances with Saudi Arabia for all that oil we guzzle and gives China IOUs for the tainted drugs and lead-based toys we buy.

To grasp how significant this five-fold bubble increase is, let's put that $516 trillion in the context of some other domestic and international monetary data:

U.S. annual gross domestic product is about $15 trillion
U.S. money supply is also about $15 trillion
Current proposed U.S. federal budget is $3 trillion
U.S. government's maximum legal debt is $9 trillion
U.S. mutual fund companies manage about $12 trillion
World's GDPs for all nations is approximately $50 trillion
Unfunded Social Security and Medicare benefits $50 trillion to $65 trillion
Total value of the world's real estate is estimated at about $75 trillion
Total value of world's stock and bond markets is more than $100 trillion
BIS valuation of world's derivatives back in 2002 was about $100 trillion
BIS 2007 valuation of the world's derivatives is now a whopping $516 trillion

"There's nothing intrinsically scary about derivatives, except when the bad 2% blow up." Unfortunately, that "bad 2%" did blow up a few months afterwards, even as Bernanke and Paulson were assuring America that the subprime mess was "contained."

Bottom line: Little things leverage a heck of a big wallop. It only takes a little spark from a "bad 2% deal" to ignite this $516 trillion weapon of mass destruction. Think of this entire unregulated derivatives market like an unsecured, unpredictable nuclear bomb in a Pakistan stockpile. It's only a matter of time.

The fact is, derivatives have become the world's biggest "black market," exceeding the illicit traffic in stuff like arms, drugs, alcohol, gambling, cigarettes, stolen art and pirated movies. Why? Because like all black markets, derivatives are a perfect way of getting rich while avoiding taxes and government regulations. And in today's slowdown, plus a volatile global market, Wall Street knows derivatives remain a lucrative business.

And it takes place outside normal business channels, out there in the "free market." That's the wonderful world of derivatives, and it's creating a massive bubble that could soon implode.

By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
Last update: 7:31 p.m. EDT March 10, 2008

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/derivatives-new-ticking-time-bomb/
story.aspx?guid=%7bB9E54A5D-4796-4D0D-AC9E-D9124B59D436%7d&print=true&dist=printTop
Read more on this article...

(For other news from the Reuters Global Mining Summit, click on http://www.reuters.com/summit/GlobalMiningandSteel08?pid=500)

LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - Soaring gold prices are likely to breach $1,500 an ounce in 2008, the chief executive of Canada's Yamana Gold Inc said on Tuesday.

"There is a good chance we will see it before the end of this year," Peter Marrone told the Reuters Global Mining Summit in London.

Gold was quoted at $977.50/978.40 at 1245 GMT.

It hit a record high of $991.90 on March 6, a rise of 19 percent since the end of 2007, driven by inflation fears, a weak dollar, record high oil, expectations of further rate cuts in the United States and tight supplies.

Marrone said the current environment formed "a perfect storm" for higher gold prices, which would need to rise to more than $2,000 in adjusted dollars to match the previous nominal peak of $850 set in 1980. (For summit blog: http://summitnotebook.reuters.com/) (For more on the Reuters Global Mining Summit see [ID:nN10455170] (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Rory Channing).

http://africa.reuters.com/metals/news/usnL11325529.html

Read more on this article...

11th March 2008 Update: Infrastructure shares look good. Market in a bounce. Recoup losses.


10th March 2008

There is no doubt left in my mind that a bear market is underway. Other than short covering in the Sensex, a 50 basis point interest drop in the USA (which itself would have very little positive effect on the market) and considering that we are still highly coupled to the world financial situation (if not its economical situation), I think we are now headed to the Mid August '08 lows when the Sensex was 14,000.

To this effect, I sold off a few minor midcap holdings today at approx. average 20% loss as energy release.

The reason for this minor sell-off if I may call it that, is the fact of what I now term as the :Inverted Sparrow Head", a technical term that I have invented(!). Wild as it may sound, but I have seen at the beginnning of the bull run, a bollinger band formation which I call "Compression" shaped by a narrow bollinger, which becomes pincered and shaped like a walnut- breaker) leading to a huge initial expansion of the share price (in the shape of a "Sparrow Head"), and then the formation of a "Beak", which leads to some consolidation, and once agin into a larger expansion.

The slope of the beak has many times indicated the bullishness of the next move. for example, in the case of a pharma co., the slope of the beak was upwards, which lead to a huge upmove subsequently.

Currently, many shares have now an "Inverted Sparrow Head" exactly inverse of that formed during the bull run. The 'Beaks of many shares is now not horizontal, but pointing downwards. This implies that after trading for a short time within the narrow bollinger, a large break-out has to occur downwards, and keeping in line with the overall market heading towards 14,000.

The double (long term and short term) bollinger buy signals (first on the daily charts, and then on the weekly charts) would be the first indication that one could risk a purchase. A single bollinger band on the daily charts as has occured today in SBI), may lead to a price closer to the upper bollinger, but no more, unless further confirmation of the long term bollinger is also available. The prime principal of "Safety of Capital" (and not mazimising of profits) applies to the bear phase, so it is prudent to only make purchases on double bollinger band buy signals on the Weekly charts and not on the daily charts and hope that they are not false signals. Such signals still seem to have some time to be generated.

It pays to be very stock specific this time, and also to purchase for the longer term, leaving the shorter term buys in Sensex scrips and not in mid caps. That does not mean, however, that we should totally lose track of the mid caps sectors, andhence miss out the quick 25% rise from bottoms.

The one sector, which is not exotic (like solar cells) and which is bound to do well in the future is Infrastructure. To maximise profits one needs to look at the fundamentally good and emerging midcaps in this sector.

Two such midcaps, I feel, are GMR Infra and J P Associates. I'm sure there are more. So, a strategy would be to inddenitfy fundamentally good emerging mid cap scrips, which have a running business, and whose projects are soon to go on-stream (as is the case of GMR Infra with their Air port projects, and take a purchase decision on double weekly bollinger and buy signals with about 25% of the total investment you intend to do in a particular scrip so that a false signal is downplayed.

Short term plays may be done on commodity scrips like ONGC and yes, SBI.

HNI individuals should book some of their long term profits now, and channel the money into gold ETFs.

Kakstearns Read more on this article...

^XAU


"When investors are focused on meeting a threshold like $1,000 an ounce for gold, a sell-off of
upto 15 percent is likely once the goal is achieved."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/yourmoney/chi-ym-marksjarvis-0309mar09,0,432614.column

(But with a 2 year target of $ 2,000 an ounce). Wave 1 likely to complete at around $ 1,400 to 1,500 an ounce).
Read more on this article...

You can see clearly that we are on the brink of breaking the trendline that has effectively held the bottom for five years for the second and final time. Once broken, the DJIA won't just retest the January low, it should, in all likelihood, drop to the 50% retracement or lower.

But that's not all. The rally out of the January low overlapped the November low twice. That eliminated the first decline in November as a wave 1. Instead it is an A. It follows that the decline that we are starting is (iii) of C, which may extend considerably further than the 50% retracement. That raises some interesting possibilities. And we are just at the brink of discovering them.

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article3901.html

Read more on this article...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7073131.stm Read more on this article...

It's interesting to read history. Here is what three of India's top technical analysts had to say in January 2008 (!!)

If what they claim to be true technical analysis, then history has proved it so terribly wrong, should the entire method needs to be thrown into the sea?

Not really. The fact is that it is very difficult to have a foresight on turning points in markets as well as in history, by mere procedural analysis. The emtire process is a combination of fundamentals, technicals and human behavior all rolled into one, finally creating ONE insight.

What did I say in October?

"The sensex has peaked and will crash in January 2008."

And this is what I'm saying now.

"The sensex will bottom out in September 2008, albeit with some bear rallys in between".

Read...!!

"How will 2008 be? To know what the charts indicate, The Smart Investor gets three technical analysts to predict what's in store for the current year. Neowave analyst Milind Karandikar, stock market consultant and analyst Devangshu Datta and Orpheus Capitals CEO Mukul Pal predict the market in 2008. Read on to know more. . . "


1. Milind Karandikar

January 07, 2008

This puts the Sensex target at around 27,000 mark. The breakout could be as big as 2.618 times the largest leg, leading to a mind boggling figure of 39,000. Even if we keep aside this over-optimistic view, the target of 27,000 could be achieved and that too most probably in the first half of 2008. ......

2. Devangshu Datta

January 07, 2008

Summing up, the first eight months of 2008 should be positive, and there's no technical signals suggesting that the market is due for a major correction. Intermediate corrections should find support and peter out around 5,600 levels. Breadth looks good and relatively smaller stocks could outperform. ......

3. Mukul Pal

January 07, 2008

After Sensex 20,000, the market expectations are for 30,000, but I don't see the Sensex extending beyond 24,000 this year with the benchmark making a decade high this year.
This year, the BSE Capital Goods index should move its last leg up to complete the cycle trend the sector started in 2002. The index should complete the last leg up from current 20,000 levels to 25,000. ......

To read the complete article, visit:

http://ia.rediff.com/money/2008/jan/07bspec.htm

End of Post Read more on this article...

Guys, here's my take on the markets. The article below does resonate much of my thinking, and also gives reasonable levels. A word first, on this bullish-bearish thingy though.

Yes, we have broken the DAILY chart 200 DMA, not the WEEKLY chart, (in fact, we have just broken the 50 DMA on the Weekly charts, but this could recover very fast after a steep decline, like it happened in June '06 and never again till now), and may continue to ride below that zone say for a month or so.

The article states that this is an Elliot wave 4 correction. Now, Elliot wave counts are very complex and many times the count has been proven wrong, but seeing the structure of the sensex, it seems more like a rounded top rather than a vertical blow-out aswould be expected in an Elliot wave 5. So at the moment, I would accept this as a wave 4 correction. In which case, the good news for LONG term holders is that on completion of wave 4 the final bullish wave 5 will start. (That may take some time though!)

Next, on the DAILY and the WEEKLY charts the market is terribly oversold. I have never seen the WEEKLY Stochastics in such oversold regions (approaching 0) in the last four years. Earlier, a WEEKLY buy signal, (and there have been very few such opportunities ie., once a year, giving a lot of credo (is this a word?) to the fact that a buying opportunity really takes place once or twice a year. (As shown on the chart, May '05, July '06, April '07 and now, when the signal appears, the buying opportunity for '08.) which implies a wait of another 6 to 8 weeks on the WEEKLY Sensex or Nifty, confirmed with early buy signals in the daily charts sometime before that. Sentiment at that stage would still be very BEARISH and would turn BULLISH only after the cream 25% to 30% of the rise has taken place.

From this virtual ground zero levels, there has to be a technical bounce-back! Exactly how high would it go, is a matter of conjecture, but could be as high as 18,000. Again, reaching that level may take some time (and 'm speaking in terms of months).

Before it gets there, there is some bad technical news. The next support after 4900 (which has been broken), is 4300 on the Nifty. That means one has to be ready to sit through another fall of 600 points on the Nifty and hope that holds. That's the point when we will see the real blood bath. This is merely bruising, since long term investors are still in considerable profit.

Having said that, the potential to correctly guage the entry point if you exit now has a very low probability, since the level of FEAR will be so great at that point, that only extremely fool-hardy and contrarian persons (like me!) will even think of entering.

So, the long term strategy is to HANG IN THERE and this may mean for over a year. After all, as a long term player, your interest is to catch the greatest rise, which will take place in the 5th minor wave of the 5th major, (provided it is not truncated by some DISCONTINUITY which is the prime cause of not being able to predict anything in the markets), and the indices at that time would be of the "shock-and-awe" type.

As the article mentions, and rightly so, only a break of Nifty 4000 (gulp!) would declare this as a LONG TERM BEAR MARKET.

As I had mentioned earlier, (and this seems to be coming true now), is that every developing nation has to go through a depression (read a bear market), before a secular BULL can start.

One would need to sit out the hell that is going to happen to the world markets in September '08.

Do read the blog post below this, where Roubini has listed out the 12 stages of economic hell. (Quite akin to the 12 days of Christmas!)

Next post: Another very interesting person to follow. Ms. Meredith Whitney.


Quote, courtesy DNAINDIA: Both the Sensex and Nifty appear to be tracing out an Elliot Wave-4 correction CHENNAI: Technically, indices have fallen enough to cleanse the excesses created during the earlier rally. The key ones such as the Sensex and the Nifty have corrected from deep overbought levels in the monthly time frame and have nearly reached the oversold zone. Benchmark indices have also reached extreme oversold region in the daily and weekly time frames. Hence, technically, the correction that was required has been accomplished with the fall on Monday. Markets have hit crucial support levels in both the indices and have staged an intra-day bounce off those levels. It would be crucial for the indices to hold above the intra-day lows recorded on Monday for a sustainable recovery to materialise in the short-term. A breach of these lows could lead to the test of the next major support levels in these indices. In the Sensex for instance, a drop below Monday’s low of 16951 could lead to the test of 16390-16500 range. In the Nifty, the support levels are at 4900-4950, followed by 4240-4300. Though these support levels may appear scary from current levels, the long-term uptrend will not be affected even if these levels were to be tested. Both the Sensex and Nifty appear to be tracing out a Wave-4 correction (in Elliott Wave parlance) to the earlier rally and the next segment of uptrend would take these indices to new heights. As there is a case for a lot of churning and base-building to happen before the next leg of uptrend begins, we may not see new highs in the index in a hurry. The long-term uptrend would be under threat if the Sensex closes below 15000 and the Nifty below 4000. From a short-term perspective, the scenario is ripe for a sharp technical rally and those who are holding short positions may tighten stop loss or take partial profits. Traders may also wait for short-term “buy” signals and take long positions for a quick 12-15 per cent bounce in the index. The key here would be risk control and entry at the opportune levels. http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1146698

End of Post Read more on this article...

Consider this: Step one has yet to finish.

"Step one is the worst housing recession in US history. House prices will, he says, fall by 20 to 30 per cent from their peak, which would wipe out between $4,000bn and $6,000bn in household wealth. Ten million households will end up with negative equity and so with a huge incentive to put the house keys in the post and depart for greener fields. Many more home-builders will be bankrupted.

Step two would be further losses, beyond the $250bn-$300bn now estimated, for subprime mortgages. About 60 per cent of all mortgage origination between 2005 and 2007 had “reckless or toxic features”, argues Prof Roubini. Goldman Sachs estimates mortgage losses at $400bn. But if home prices fell by more than 20 per cent, losses would be bigger. That would further impair the banks’ ability to offer credit.

Step three would be big losses on unsecured consumer debt: credit cards, auto loans, student loans and so forth. The “credit crunch” would then spread from mortgages to a wide range of consumer credit.

Step four would be the downgrading of the monoline insurers, which do not deserve the AAA rating on which their business depends. A further $150bn writedown of asset-backed securities would then ensue.

Step five would be the meltdown of the commercial property market, while step six would be bankruptcy of a large regional or national bank.

Step seven would be big losses on reckless leveraged buy-outs. Hundreds of billions of dollars of such loans are now stuck on the balance sheets of financial institutions.

Step eight would be a wave of corporate defaults. On average, US companies are in decent shape, but a “fat tail” of companies has low profitability and heavy debt. Such defaults would spread losses in “credit default swaps”, which insure such debt. The losses could be $250bn. Some insurers might go bankrupt.

Step nine would be a meltdown in the “shadow financial system”. Dealing with the distress of hedge funds, special investment vehicles and so forth will be made more difficult by the fact that they have no direct access to lending from central banks.

Step 10 would be a further collapse in stock prices. Failures of hedge funds, margin calls and shorting could lead to cascading falls in prices.

Step 11 would be a drying-up of liquidity in a range of financial markets, including interbank and money markets. Behind this would be a jump in concerns about solvency.

Step 12 would be “a vicious circle of losses, capital reduction, credit contraction, forced liquidation and fire sales of assets at below fundamental prices”.

In all, argues Prof Roubini: “Total losses in the financial system will add up to more than $1,000bn and the economic recession will become deeper more protracted and severe.” This, he suggests, is the “nightmare scenario” keeping Ben Bernanke and colleagues at the US Federal Reserve awake. It explains why, having failed to appreciate the dangers for so long, the Fed has lowered rates by 200 basis points this year. This is insurance against a financial meltdown."

From:
http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini/5/5/

End of Post Read more on this article...

My second custom animated video.
Hope you hate it.
What's more to be said?

Beef was not an important part of the American diet before the Civil War. Cattle were not indigenous to the Americas, so you could not find cattle in the New World until the Spanish introduced them into in Mexico in 1540. In the 18th century, the Spanish and French colonist began to raise cattle. As the railroads developed, they used trains to transport to herds from San Antonio to New Orleans. However, this industry collapsed because of the cold winter, and 90 percent of the herds were wiped out.

Eventually, technology, animal husbandry, and barbed wire changed the industry. In 1871, a Detroit meat packer named G. H. Hanharmand brought refrigeration railway cars west, transforming the industry. Slaughterhouses had been set up in the Midwest for shipment of meat back to the east where the appetite for beef was beginning to develop. After the Second World War, beef became a symbol of American prosperity. Americans were eating 62 pounds by 1952, 99 pounds by 1960, and an all time high of 114 pounds in 1970. Nowadays, that rate is increasing everyday.

Read more on this article...

I created my first animated video today as a Valentine for my wife, Nash. Hope y'all like it. It merges "Lotus Feet" by fusion guitarist John McLaughlin and flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia of Shakti, with a dance by Beatte Gatscha and Madlen Werrer.



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Re-blogged from:

http://www.cduniverse.com/browsecat.asp?style=music&cat=53&cart=674732400

via:

http://www.bonamassablog.us/archives/2008/02/cd_universe_blu.html

Don't care much for this sales rating business, but it does serve as a good list to see what people are hearing. Ok, there's one John Mayall!

Tops Blues Sales

1. Stevie Ray Vaughan Solos, Sessions & Encores (2007)
2. Joe Bonamassa Blues Deluxe (2003)
3. Roomful Of Blues Raisin' A Ruckus (2008)
4. Mike Bloomfield / Al Kooper / Steve Stills Super Session (1968) Remastered
5. Omar Kent Dykes On The Jimmy Reed Highway (2007)
6. Ronnie Earl Hope Radio (2007)
7. Eva Cassidy Songbird (1998)
8. Savoy Brown Street Corner Talking (1971)
9. Johnny Winter Live Bootleg Series Volume One (2007)
10. Freddie King Texas In My Blues (2007) Remastered
11. Gary Moore Close As You Get (2007)
12. Stevie Ray Vaughan Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble (2002)
13. John Mayall Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton (1966) Remastered
14. Etta James At Last! (1961) Remastered
15. Blues Brothers Briefcase Full Of Blues (1978) Remastered
16. Kenny Wayne Shepherd 10 Days Out... Blues From The Backroad (2007) With DVD
17. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Live From Austin, Texas (1983)
18. Joe Bonamassa So, It's Like That (2002)
19. Arc Angels Arc Angels (1992)
20. Dion Son Of Skip James (2007)
21. Paul Kossoff Kossoff/Kirke/Tetsu/Rabbit (1971)
22. Joe Bonamassa Sloe Gin (2007)
23. Joe Bonamassa New Day Yesterday: Live (2005)
24. Joe Bonamassa Had To Cry Today (2004)
25. Savoy Brown Looking In (1970)
26. Ronnie Earl Heart And Soul : The Best Of Ronnie Earl (2006) Remastered
27. Joe Bonamassa You & Me (2006)
28. Buddy Guy Alone & Acoustic (1981)
29. Derek Trucks Soul Serenade (2003)
30. John Mayall In The Palace Of The King (2007)
31. Junior Wells Hoodoo Man Blues (1965)
32. Eva Cassidy American Tune (2003)
33. Robert Randolph Colorblind (2006)
34. Phantom Blues Band Footprints (2007)
35. Dave Hole Rough Diamond (2007)
36. Bettye Lavette The Scene Of the Crime (2007)
37. Ana Popovic Still Making History (2007)
38. Watermelon Slim Wheel Man (2007) Digipak
39. Platters All-Time Greatest Hits (2002)
40. Muddy Waters Muddy Waters At Newport 1960 (1960) Remastered
41. Stevie Ray Vaughan Blues At Sunrise (2000)
42. Joe Bonamassa New Day Yesterday (2000)
43. Isley Brothers Inside You / The Real Deal (2007) England; Remastered; United Kingdom
44. Larry Mccray Larry Mccray (2007)
45. Long John Baldry Everything Stops For Tea England
46. Robert Randolph Unclassified (2003)
47. Stevie Ray Vaughan Greatest Hits (1995)
48. Eric Clapton From The Cradle (1994)
49. T-Bone Walker Complete Imperial Recordings 1950-54 (1991)
50. Joe Henderson Page One (1963) Remastered

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10. Get Local Time: Type in What time is it followed by any city to get the current time.

9. Track Flight Status: Enter the airline and flight number to find out the departure time and estimated arrival for any flight.

8. Convert Currency, Metrics, Bytes and More: Google has a built-in converter calculator. You can enter quarter cup in teaspoons, seconds in a year, 5 US dollars in Euros and countless others.

7. Search for Pages That are “Better Than,” “Similar to,” or “Reminds me of”: Enter “better than keyword” or “similar to keyword” to find Web pages you never knew existed.

6. Use Google as a Free Proxy: Enter cache:website.com to view a Web page that’s been blocked from the computer you’re using.

5. Remove Affiliate Links From Product Searches: To avoid seeing search results from certain sites, enter –site:website.com.

4. Find Related Items: Enter ~ before any search term to find related items as well.

3. Find Music and Comic Books: Enter -inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wma|mp3) "Band or comic book name" to find music files and comic books.

2. See Images of People, Objects, Etc.: Type in a search term, and click on images to see photos of the results.

1. Search for Faces: If you’re looking for a photo of a person named Rose, and don’t want to see photos of the flower, add &imgtype=face to the end of your image search. It will show you only images of faces.

From lifehacker End of Post Read more on this article...

PandaLabs, Panda Security's laboratory for detecting and analyzing malware, has detected 2 new worms, Nuwar.OL and Valentin.E, which use the topic of St. Valentine's Day to spread.

"Year after year we see the appearance of several malware strains that use St Valentine's Day as bait to attract users", explains Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs. "This indicates that cyber-crooks are still reaping the benefits of this technique and many people still fall into the trap."
Nuwar.OL arrives on computers by email with subjects like "I Love You Soo Much", "Inside My Heart" or " You In My Dreams". The text of the email includes a link to a website that downloads the malicious code. The page is very simple and looks like a romantic greeting card, with a large pink heart.

Once it has infected a computer, the worm sends out a large amount of emails to the infected user's contacts, in order to spread. This also creates a heavy load on networks and slows down the computer.

Valentin.E is very similar to this. Like the Nuwar worm, it spreads by email in messages with subjects like "Searching for true Love" or "True Love" and an attached file called "friends4u". If the targeted user opens the file, a copy of the worm gets downloaded on the user's computer.

The malicious code installs on the computer as a file with the .scr extension. If the user runs it, Valentin.E shows a new desktop background to trick them, while it makes several copies of itself on the computer. Then, the worm sends out emails with copies of itself from the infected computer to spread and infect more users.

Providing tips to avoid falling victim to one of these malicious codes, PandaLabs suggests users not to open any emails or run attached files that come from unknown sources. They also advise not to click any links included in email messages, even though they may come from reliable sources. Instead, they recommend type out the link in the address bar.

PandaLabs recommends staying on alert for files that claim to be Valentine's greeting cards, romantic videos, etc. Read more on this article...

Read more on this article...

Bink and Smacker RAD video tools

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Rad_Video_Tools

Load > Click "Convert a file" > No > Output type > AVI > Convert

End of Post Read more on this article...

Extract audio with FLV Extract

Download YouTube videos using http://keepvid.com


Use FLV Extract to extract AVI and MP3 files form downloaded YouTube .FLV videos.
FLV Extract is an excellent tool. It will easily extract both the video and audio (And timecode data if you need it) from an FLV file. If you extract the video, it will be stored in the AVI container and the audio will be stored as a regular VBR MP3 file.

The AVI extracted using FLV extract, is not compatible with Windows Movie Maker.

Use Pazera Free FLV to AVI Converter 1.1 to convert the extracted AVI file to a format understood by Windows Movie Maker. Use video codec "DivX low motion", and click check box "do not copy audio stream" to get a silent DivX.

Import DivX video, in Windows Movie Maker, import MP3 file, and create your own .wmv video which is suitable for uploading to YouTube.
End Of Post Read more on this article...

KakStearns:

Saved from a dramatic 500 point fall in the DOW by the 0.75% cut, man!


C, here is my current chart analysis: (Indian market):

Short term supports:

16527, 200 day moving average line. Trading downside of this, will put us in an intermediate bear market, within the long term bull market.

18581.6, 100 day moving average. Market must start to trade above this, for investors to enter.

Daily (Proprietory Intelligent Technical analysis indicator), indicates another 2 weeks before the first buy signal can appear. (Investors need to enter only on the third buy signal).

Daily Stochastic Oscillator indicates no buy signal yet from oversold regions.

On balance volume is still higher than that in Mid Sept. 2007

Daily Bollinger Bands. Have not shown any buy signal yet!


Long term supports:

50 day moving average line at 16,090 was violated, and then there was bounce-back. Indicates continuation of bull run as of date.

100 day moving average is at 14125.6

200 day moving average is at 10075.

Technically, we would be in a long term bull market only of violation of 10,075, by which time all would be lost.

Bullish bearish indicator shows that we have touched bottom, or almost touched bottom, and if we are still in a bull run, then this is a BUY opportunity, of the kind last seen in Mid August 2007, and early March 2007, the only two times in 2007 which were BUY opportunities. Persons who bought at these levels and held, are not in loss, at worst, at par.

Long Term Intelligent Technical Indicator shows another three weeks or so, before a BUY signal, which means it would be a confirmation of the Daily Intelligent Technical indicator buy signal expected in two weeks time.

Long term Stochastics indicates that a long term buy signal will occur in 4 weeks time.

In summary:

1. We are still in an intermediate and long term bull market, with this being an intermediate correction, provided 16,500 is not violated.

2. A technical buy signal will be generated in two weeks time, but it's better to wait for confirmation for another two weeks.

3. For a month, DO NOTHING.

4. A new intermediate bull run will have new leaders.

5. Possible good value stocks are ( in my opinion), Unitech, Suzlon, Hindustan Lever, BPCL (BPCL at somewhat lower levels), and ITC. Confirmation of Bollinger Band buy signals awaited.

6. We are right on the long term upward trend line. It may violate due to excessive pessimism now, to a max. of 14,300 or so, but remain there for a very short time, to enable investors to capitulate. That would be the best buying opportunity, if it is to occur. Read more on this article...

Arguably the finest wah-wah this side of Hendrix. Photos from Flickr, music from Pithaly's rare collection.

Read more on this article...

KaksStearns FREE MARKET DIGEST
(For educational purposes and private circulation only)


Here is something to digest in retrospect. On 2nd November 2007 I had written the trailing long mail, claiming that a top had been formed, and the reasons why:

It's 20th January 2008 today and an article dated 18th January 2008 now confirms that indeed the long term bull market topped out in October 2007. Of course, they have more data (from November 2007 to January 2008) to support their arguement, which I did'nt.

"Bottom Line: Probability is very high that the bull market top arrived in October 2007 and that we are now in a bear market that will continue for another year or more, possibly until mid-2010. Until we have evidence to the contrary, remember that bear market rules apply."

You can read the full article here; (which has some very alarming charts), showing indeed a bear market has started.

Quote:

"In China, the world’s fastest growing economy, the Central Bank is combating inflation with higher interest rates and other measures aimed at tightening credit. Furthermore all indications are that a major market top in China has already taken place - a variety of Chinese stocks climbing 200% in one day during the month of October was a sure sign of a major market blow off top.

While all eyes are focused on the U.S. markets and the looming recession, a stealth Bear market is taking place elsewhere. Above a two year chart of the heart of the emerging markets, Hong Kong’s HANG SENG Index. The index has lost 6000 points in the last three months, down from 32000 to 25800. A close below 25000 will hasten the move down to the 20000 level and will constitute a 30% retrenchment.

The evidence strongly suggests that the emerging market phenomenon witnessed over the last few years is over."

With the S&P at 1333 or so today, the four year cycle chart predicts a low of 750 by mid 2010.

Most Corporate CEOs in the USA now agree that the USA is indeed in a recession. All hopes of recovery etc. are over now. The bear must play out.

Rumours abound at such times, due to fear. In fact, one may expect a rally before the flames die out. Some are claiming a crash on 28th Feb 2008.

So did I make any money out of my convictions? No. But I indeed saved a lot of market losses, by investing in other avenues available. It's virtually impossible for retail player in cash to make money in a bear market.


KaksStearns

================================================

On Nov 2, 2007 3:08 AM, kaks wrote:

KaksStearns FREE MARKET DIGEST
(For educational purposes and private circulation only)


I know I may be putting my foot in my mouth, by going against the "experts", but I do think that a top has been formed and we are in for a violent fall.

The Dow cracked 360 points tonight. Citibank is down 6% with a lot of guys being sacked. (when Citibak breaks $30, runs for the hills. It was $ 41 yesterday, and today a 6% fall).

All this, just two days after a drop in interest rates by 0.25%. compare that with the euphoria last time when interest rates were dropped 50 basis points.

Now, the contrarian contrarian view. Conventional wisdom would say that money would rush to emerging markets if there is a drop in the DOW. Somehow I don't think that that is a rule. With oil at $96, fears abroad that the sub-prime mess is much larger, (an old story, but who listens :), a history of violent falls in emerging markets (not slow secular bear markets, the fact that a whole lot of fresh investors many of whom have not seen the crash of 2000 having entered the market, (I know this for a fact), the sheer sense of "happiness" on the rise of the sensex, (A girl at a bank smilingly cautioned me not to wish for a violent fall in the sensex since so many people had made money, i.e, read that as being long in futures, that .... she left that unsaid, and I completed it for her.), the feeling that because the Indian economy is doing so well then the market must obey fundamentals and rise, strangely the fact that markets do not always follow fundamentals is ignored!, the small red lines forming on the sensex, (they are always small at first), oil at $96, repeated, since the effect of that will be really bad and affect fundamentals, the very important fact that a huge amount of complacency has been built up that no matter what, every correction is to be treated as a rising bottom, the non-sale of real estate in India, the crash in real estate prices in Shezen district, China, where guys call out to you to buy property like pani puri wallahs on the road, the imminent danger of a collapse of China stocks, the rising rupee, which has created a Catch-22 situation for the Indian govt, and in fact for the rest of the world's currencies, with Europe about to, if not already in a recession because of this, the fact that the capitalisation of RPL at 280 is more that the total capitalisation of ALL Indian refinery comanies, BPCL, IOL, HPCL, etc (Businessline paper)!! I mean, what the...!!

Ok, there's more:

On the other side, what's there to temper all this? India is a growth story. Sure. With Larsen and Toubro at a PE of 75 (!!) take a guess where that could land up.

A small hiccup now, can prove to be bronchial pneumonia for the market now. A small hint of a slow down, and wham!, there blows the extreme optimism. Sigh. How many times does the world have to learn the same lesson again and again, that it is never different this time.

Let's see how things unfold!


KaksStearns Read more on this article...

Joe

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at Rythmn House & St. Andrews Auditorium and venue on the concert days.


http://www.oranjuice.net/news/view/17?CAKEPHP=96b3e77729aa28fc16c263b00592f9e4

http://www.bookmyshow.com/ Read more on this article...

Launchy is the most efficient way to open files, folders, websites, and
programs on your computer. Nobody likes to hunt through the start menu to
find an application, just to find that the application is hidden under some
obscure folder named after a company you have never heard of! Instead,
Launchy is a smart search program which tries to guess which program or file
you are looking for and will launch it when you hit the enter key. It is only
visible when you hit the alt+space key combination; otherwise it hides in the
background. Once you have used it for a few days, it becomes an indispensable
You can also configure Launchy to index more than the programs in your start menu,
such as folders, mp3s, docs, pdfs, avis, etc.

Awarded SourceForge.net Community 2007 award.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=132975&package_id=146049

End of Post Read more on this article...

Update:

Seems that the newspaper have used a pic from the 1990 Belgium sighting. Here's the original Belgium "Dorito: sighting 17 years ago.









I'm not a UFO fan or anything like that, though the mystery that there may be other life on other planets does fascinate me. I confess I have a huge collection of SF novels collected over the years!

Some UFO sightings do draw a lot of attention, especially if the UFO has been photographed, and confirmed that it is not a fake. The UFO sighting filmed by the Italian astronomer was pretty amazing, and so I blogged about it.

There's news today of a flurry of sightings, of what's being called the "Dorito" UFO, and seems someone has actually filmed a 10 minute shot of the low-flying giant craft.

The still photo above is amazingly clear, and does not represent any known experimental craft, nor was any sound heard. I'm waiting for more news on this!

Read the original full story dated 1st December 2007 in the "ExpressStar" here.
End of Post Read more on this article...

The experience with Shock4way freeware 3D mutiple desktop cube has been, well, a little dissapointing. When run in Mojopac, there is a possibility of a hang, probably due to some sort of memory clash. The search for a stable multiple desktop led to this gem: Virtual Desktop.

Virtual Desktop is open-source, free and stable. What's more, you can have any number of deskops and switch easily from one to another. As a bonus, you can literally drag an application from one desktop to another. It's stable, I virtually (heh) guarantee that!

http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtual-desktop/
End of Post Read more on this article...

Paint.NET is free image editing and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

If all you want is a quick image retouch, Photoshop is overkill. Paint.NET, on the other hand, is an open-source freeware editor with all the essentials, including tools to crop, rotate, resize images, adjust colors, and create collages.

Paint.NET supports common image formats--JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, and others--but not high-resolution RAW files. There are enough basic and intermediate effects and features to keep image-tweakers happy, though the red-eye removal tool is notably weak; those images may require manual attention.

End of Post Read more on this article...

Read more on this article...

Maybe the first app. that I will install in Mojopac 1.8.0.0. That would make my Mojopac install in Windows a portable operating system residing on my hard disk, where I could gather all the nice apps. I've been discovering and intend to use. Finally nuke Windows to have a fresh install, heh. How's that! Yeah, cool, but make sure that you install DOTNET 2.0 framework in Mojopac for those apps. that need them such as Tudomo and Windows Live Writer.

Tag your tasks, e.g. @Calls, @Home
Filter, on tag, heading, date, state or any combination!
Search-as-you-type
Use the heatmap, to identify stale actions
Undo/redo anything
Print
Change the state, Is your task an action? next action?, Waiting for?
USB-ready, - take it with you!
Auto-save, auto-update, focus on your work

http://download.tudumo.com/TudumoSetup.exe
End of Post Read more on this article...

Vectorization (aka tracing) is the process of converting a raster image to a vector image.
Raster images are pixel-based, whereas vector images are represented by geometric shapes such as lines, circles and curves. Vector art is useful because it allows you to scale an image without making it blurry or pixelated. The site is currently tuned for tracing logos and photos.
Lots of possibilities, starting with your signature!

http://vectormagic.stanford.edu/
End of Post Read more on this article...

For years we have been struggling with search engines which do not understand implicitly what we are trying to ask. Google merely throws up a set of links based on key words. All that is set to change now, thanks to True Knowledge, a search engine which supposedly throws up real answers to both human and machine questions.

An an example, check out the video for the answers to the question "Is Jennifer Lopez single?" in Google as well as True Knowledge. It's very interesting. This potentially opens up hours of play.

It's still in Beta and you need to register.

http://www.trueknowledge.com/
End of Post Read more on this article...

Download updated 8th November 2007

The Desktop Cube effect for Linux is extremely popular because people love eye candy, but the choices for Windows are much less interesting. The latest utility to give this effect for Windows is surprisingly fast, and works on both XP and Vista.

I have 2 drawings, Excel, and Wincommander open in the cube, which gives me great flexibility!

Download Shock4Way3D exe

Download Shock4Way3D portable

End of Post Read more on this article...

www.haltadefinizione.com

Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece "The Last Supper?" at 16 billion pixels - 1,600 times stronger than the images taken with the typical 10 million pixel digital camera. Why?? heh. End of Post. Read more on this article...

Update: MojoPac 1.8.0.0 released. 10th Nov. 2007

1. Improved performance on flash drives
2. Running MojoPac on host with limited mode access
3 Ability to run MojoPac on the host computer without an external USB drive


Mojo Experience

Your experience using Mojopac is exactly as if you are using an ultra portable PC (your MojoPac device) and docking it to a computer (the Host PC you are plugged into).

Your MojoPac PC is running from your portable device, but it is borrowing the resources (screen, processor, CD/DVD drives, internet connection, printers, etc.) of the Host PC. In other words, MojoPac is your real PC (your applications, settings, data), and any computer it is connected to is being used as a utility to run MojoPac.

Creating a MojoPac PC: Creating a brand new MojoPac PC takes less than 3 minutes.

• Plug your portable storage device (such as an iPod or a USB Flash or Hard Drive) into any Windows XP PC. Download MojoPac from our website and install it onto the device.
• Once you have installed MojoPac, you can log into this MojoPac PC you created (which is running from your portable device), and bring up your newly created MojoPac desktop (MojoView). What you see is similar to a brand new Windows XP PC, and behaves exactly the same.
• You can now install your applications from MojoView. The applications installed in the MojoView will be available for you on any PC you would connect and run MojoPac.

Using a MojoPac PC: You can plug your MojoPac enabled device to any Windows XP computer (Host PC), and you will immediately be presented with your personal applications, files and environment - and it looks exactly like a standard PC experience. In your MojoPac PC view (MojoView), installing applications is similar to installing applications on any PC - simply load the application installer CD/DVD, or download the application installer from the web and proceed as you would on any normal PC. In fact, in your MojoView, your "C" drive represents your MojoPac device, NOT the Host PC. So applications install in the right place automatically, no extra steps required.

MojoPac lives side-by-side with the Host PC: When you bring up your MojoPac PC after plugging your device into a Host PC, the Host PC will keep running as it was before the connection. You don't need to change the Host PC's settings, install anything on it, or close any of the applications that were running on it. Even more importantly, you can go back and forth between your MojoPac PC view and your Host PC view - you can work on both PCs at the same time, and operate both environments simultaneously. Using your MojoPac toolbar (MojoBar) you can easily toggle back and forth between the host PC view and your MojoPac view. Each presents you with whatever personal preferences and environments you have chosen for that system and MojoPac will never alter the settings or status of the host PC.

Go to source >>

http://www.mojopac.com/portal/content/hellomojo.jsp

Read more on this article...

Have you ever wanted to remove Windows components like Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer, Messenger...How about not even to install them with Windows ? Requires .NET Framework 2.0. There's a vLite for Vista too.

http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html

nLite is a tool for permanent Windows components removal and pre-installation Windows configuration. After removal there is an option to make bootable image ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines.
With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install does not include, or even contain on cd, the unwanted components.

Features

* Service Pack Integration
* Component Removal
* Unattended Setup
* Driver Integration *
* Hotfixes Integration **
* Tweaks
* Services Configuration
* Patches ***
* Bootable ISO creation


* - Textmode (CD Boot) and normal PnP
** - hotfixes with white icons, *KB*.exe, including update packs
and Internet Explorer 7
***- supports generic SFC, Uxtheme, TcpIp and Usb Polling patching.

nLite supports Windows 2000, XP x86/x64 and 2003 x86/x64 in all languages.
It needs .NET Framework 2.0 in order to run... Check if you have it already, maybe on some of your CDs before downloading if your connection is slow.
Read more on this article...

Samsung + Bang and Olufsen = Hi Fi speakers + amazing earphones.
4 gb memory.

http://www.serenatamobile.com/

End of Post Read more on this article...

Interactive web radio.

http://musicovery.com/

End of Post Read more on this article...

During routine observations of the cosmos, Italian astronomers have recently spotted and tracked on video an Unidentified Flying Object or UFO.

End of Post Read more on this article...

Music is like alcohol.

Ranges from very sweet Port, to Rose, to sherry, to the dry white, to highly over-rated champagne, to fine single malt scotch, to the most delicious +100 proof cognac, to the extremely fragnant cashew Feni of Goa, and the brilliant, (and in my opinion), the finest wine in the world, Mahua, made of the small white Mahua flowers found in West Bengal, drunk freshly distilled, warm from the distillery, sitting in the open mud courtyard in the Adivasi forest at midnight.And then there are the exotic local flavours such as Tequila, Vodka and of course the Britney Spears and the Paris Hilton of alcohol, for the current generation, Bacardi. Not to speak of the fabulous medical wines of India, like Drakasav ("Drak"=grapes, "asav"=wine), the famous fermented rice beer of West Bengal, of which I have partaken so often, sitting in the warm afternoon, with my friend, a matka-full (matka= a large clay water storage vessel, about 10 litres in volume), 3/4 full of freshly extracted rice beer, a couple of snacks, partaken by the very poor santhals (tribal folks). We sit in the cool shade of a tree, on a charpoy, and spend a leisurely 3 hours sipping away 7 litres of rice beer from mud cups, occasionally decanting from the matka. Time passes slowly. Very slowly, and as the sun sets, it's time to head back home on our bicycles. Night arrives, with her purple legion, heh. We roll back to civilisation, with the bright lights, and the constant clamour which surrounds occupied areas. Oh yes. Where was I? Yes. Alcohol is like music. hic. See and hear the equivalent of Indian country liquor. A brash, harsh, 100 proof stomach lining remover. The Pioneers of Punk.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2316500855086732828

Read more on this article...

Looks like the pressure of Micro$oft Open xml format, which has been recently put up to International vote and opposed by Brazil, is being pipped by IBM, by releasing it's suite in ODF format.

Lotus has always been a compact and efficient office suite, and I've been using Lotus 123 since, let's see, 1988!

Download the free components here.

Equally important, is the breaking news that Google has added a presentation software to its online suite.

Google Presentations launched as part of Google Docs & Spreadsheets... or now just “Google Docs,” as some of the logos already read. If you have a Google Account you can go start a presentation by clicking New -> Presentation, or by switching to the Upload tab to convert an existing PPT file.

Simultaneously, OpenOffice 2.3 has also been released today. End Of Post Read more on this article...

Leafletter (Beta)

It does not get richer and more web 2.0 than this. I mean you can literally create a "mini website" just in your browser (something akin to tiddlywiki, a wiki which can be edited in a browser), and you can then "post" the flash-based content anywhere! In blogs, on social networks, wherever. It has 36 standard layout, and its wigitiness allows you to change the layout anytime merely by dragging and dropping.

Yes, that's what it is. A flash-based tiddlywiki, heh.



Photographic and graphic portfolios, and advertisements seem to have the greatest potential, but the possibilities are really limitless.

"Leafletter is the "revolutionary" way for anyone to create a portable, interactive "little web site" ("Leaflet") using nothing but a web browser. You can easily distribute Leaflets to social networks, blogs, and other web sites.Use Leaflets for everything from portfolios to marketing materials. It's simple and it's free."

Check out these samples;

http://www.leafletter.com/Showcase.php

Read more on this article...

See the finished result in the left column. Neat!

Why not mash a few blogger feeds, and then make a "description only" Twitterfeed, which would show up on a "Twitter" account? . That would be a neat way to access all the blogs that you read from one Twitter account. the Twitter feed itself could be posted on your blog.

Step 1: Blog feed: This is an example of a blogger atom blogfeed.

http://xxxxblogspot.com/atom.xml

(You could use the automated feedburner feed too, but that would require the blogger to activate the feedburner feed in blogger.)

Step 2: Create a new twitter user at twitter.com

(or use your existing one)This twitter user is going to be the one posting your blog entries - twitterfeed needs to know your chosen twitter username and password so it can post your blog updates to your twitter account.

Your Twitter account would be:http://twitter.com/mashedblogs

Step 3: Get an OpenID from https://www.myopenid.com/

e.g., xxxx.myopenid.com

(OpenID is a way for individuals to create identity online and use it anywhere OpenID is supported. OpenID means the elimination of multiple user names and passwords and a smoother, more secure, online experience.)

Step 4: Login to twitterfeed using your OpenID.

Step 5: Enter the URL of the blog's RSS feed, and how often it should post to twitter. Both RSS and Atom feeds are supported. Posts need to contain publish dates in order for our server to know what's new. Feeds requiring authentication will fail.

Step 5: Create a new Twitter feed:

http://pithaly.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Step 6: Add another blog feed:

http://theothermy.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Step 7: WAIT!

The Twitterfeed server will check the blog feeds.

I wait! (11.51am). It works!! Twitterfeed even shortens the url for you.

---------

Popular sites which accept OpenID:

Only a tiny fraction of Web sites--mostly blogs like WordPress, (through a plug-in), Technorati, AOL, LiveJournal and its clones, Digg and SixApart sites, and individual blogs--now accept OpenID credentials.

Check out this link for sites which support OpenID: http://www.openiddirectory.com/

Maybe the biggies like Google and Yahoo will also support it one day. Social networking sites are beginning to migrate to OpenID.

If you want a more secure OpenID, consider Vidoop. It's in Beta and by invitation.

This post through Windows Live Writer Beta 3.

Read more on this article...

If you want to soup up your blog posts, by using common windows fonts then here is an easy three-step method that I've adopted. This does not require any heavy weight blogging clients, but merely requires simple html, the sort of which can be easily done in any html editor. (I recommend Editplus, 'cause it's one of the best, is free, and never expires).


Step 1:

Wrap your text in the html snippet as shown. Use common fonts which are available in Windows.



( Replace the [ ] by < > )

The font size can be changed by changing the % size. similarly, you could change the font colour by spanning the text by:

[font color="#ff6600"]test[/font]


( Replace the [ ] by < > )

You would need to type out the above snippet, because for some unknown reason, Blogger strips off the font-family part of the code!)


Step 2:

If you want to add emoticons to your posts WITHOUT uploading images (!!), then merely add the following snippet just before your text. (The position has been shown by an * before the text in this case just before "test" in the line above).

You can use the emoticons listed at the end of the post, instead of the "smile_tongue.gif" in the above exapmple.


* [img src="http://picturelli.com/images/emo/smile_tongue.gif" valign="absmiddle" alt=":-P" border="0" /]

( Replace the [ ] by < > )


Step 3:

If you want to give a coloured background to your text, then add this html snippet hust BEFORE the text, in this case, just before "test".

**

That's it! This opens up infinite possibilities!!


Here are two examples: One with the background highlighted, and one without.
(Note that I've tried to use a "digifaceWide" font which has been installed on my PC, and while it displays fine on my PC it will NOT on others, unless they have installed the same font! Still, a lot can be done with the usual Windows fonts by changing the color and size, not to speak of the many enhancements that CSS can bring.

Example 1:

test

Example 2:

Test

If you want to bold or italicise something, merely enclose it by this html snippet, deleting what you do not need, or alternatively, use the Blogger composer to span a word or a para of text. ( Don't block any customised code and change the font through Blogger! It will strip off your custom code!)

[span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"]test[/span]

( Replace the [ ] by < > )

Do note that when you post in Blogger, ensure that the post screen is in "html" mode. Do NOT use the Blogger composer for fonts if you are adopting this method. Do the entire html in Editplus or another html editor only.


I said it was easy, and it really is! Have fun!!


A List of emoticons for you to use:

smile_smile.gif
smile_wink.gif
smile_tongue.gif
biggrin.gif
smile_cool.gif
smile_lol.gif
smile_wub.gif
smile_wink.gif
smile_devil.gif
smile_rolleyes.gif
smile_rolleyes.gif
smile_undecided.gif
smile_sad.gif
smile_crying.gif
smile_blink.gif
smile_ohmy.gif
smile_huh.gif
smile_unsure.gif
smile_thumbdown.gif
smile_thumbup.gif
smile_mad.gif
smile_punk.gif

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