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/Zimbio/ - Invisible Man is a novel written by Ralph Ellison, and the only one that he published during his lifetime (his other novels were published posthumously). It won him the National Book Award in 1953. The novel addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African-Americans in the early twentieth century, including black nationalism, the relationship between black identity and Marxism, and the reformist racial policies of Booker T. Washington, as well as issues of individuality and personal identity. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Invisible Man nineteenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.[1] Historical background In his introduction to the 30th Anniversary Edition of Invisible Man,[2] Ellison says that he started writing the book in a barn in Waitsfield, Vermont in the summer of 1945 while on sick leave from the Merchant Marine and that the novel continued to preoccupy him in various parts of New York City. In an interview in The Paris Review 1955,[3] Ellison states that the book took five years to complete with one year off for what he termed an "ill-conceived short novel." Invisible Man was published as a whole in 1952; however, copyright dates show the initial publication date as 1947, 1948, indicating that Ellison had published a section of the book prior to full publication. That section was the famous "Battle Royal" scene, which had been shown to Cyril Connolly, the editor of Horizon magazine by Frank Taylor, one of Ellison's early supporters. Ellison states in his National Book Award acceptance speech that he considered the novel's chief significance to be its experimental attitude. Rejecting the idea of social protest-as Ellison would later put it-he did not want to write another protest novel, and also seeing the highly regarded styles of Naturalism and Realism too limiting to speak to the

Shiva Ayyadurai, pictured above, is a shimmering intellectual. He holds four degrees from MIT (where he lectures), numerous patents, honors, and awards. He also says he invented email, and there's a global conspiracy against him. Guess which one of these statements is true. In 1978, a precocious 14-year-old from New Jersey invented email. You can see him doing it in the photo at the top right of your screen-the kid glued to his monitor. In that picture, he's busy showing off his creation-a way for office staff to message each other via computer. As he's happy to gab to the Washington Post, which recently ran a profile of him, Ayyadurai was a teen wonder who invented the electronic messaging system with which we all communicate, back in 1978. Ayyadurai's collection of "historical documents" is now to be interred at the Smithsonian, the Post reported, laid gloriously on the pillar of American history alongside artifacts of Occidental Civilzation such as Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet, Thomas Jefferson's Bible, and a 1903 Winton, "the first car driven across the United States." Ayyadurai is about to become more than just a gifted programmer and Professional Smart Man, but a historical figure. All of this leading up to a plum book deal with Norton, proclaiming his place in history as the upstart inventor of email itself. But why have you never heard of him? Probably because there's precious little evidence that Ayyadurai came remotely close to inventing email, beyond a few misleading childhood documents and a US Copyright form of dubious weight. This was enough to convince the Washington Post and Smithsonian? Before you could even finish the Post's ode, Emi Kolawole, the reporter behind the piece, issued a stumbling correction: A number of readers have accurately pointed out that electronic messaging predates V. A. Shiva Ayyadurai's work in 1978. However, Ayyadurai holds the copyright to the computer program called"email," establishing him as the creator of the

MacKeeper is a strange piece of software. There may be no other app as controversial in the Apple world. The application, which performs various janitorial duties on your hard drive, is loathed by a large segment of the Mac community. Check out any blog, site or forum that mentions it, and you'll find hundreds of furious comments condemning MacKeeper and Zeobit, the company behind it. We discovered this ourselves earlier this month, when we offered a 50%-off deal on MacKeeper. Look at all those furious comments on the post. The complaints about MacKeeper are all over the shop: It's a virus. It holds your machine hostage until you pay up. It can't be completely removed if you decide to delete it. Instead of speeding up your computer, it slows it down. It erases your hard drive, deletes photos, and disappears documents. There are protests about MacKeeper's annual subscription fees. Zeobit is slammed for seedy marketing tactics. It runs pop-under ads, plants sock-puppet reviews and encourages sleazy affiliate sites, critics say. But what's really strange is that MacKeeper has been almost universally praised by professional reviewers. All week I've been checking out reviews on the Web and I can't find a bad one. All the reviews praise the software for being well designed and easy to use. Macworld magazine calls it "a gem." TUAW gives it a favorable review. Dave Hamilton of Backbeat Media, a Mac industry veteran, recently talked it up at Macworld Expo. None of the professional reviewers complain of slowed-down machines or deleted data. Given the comments on our deals post, I started researching Zeobit and MacKeeper. (Our deals, by the way, are determined by our partners, StackSocial.) I was alarmed that Cult of Mac might be promoting malware, but quickly became curious why such well-reviewed software gets such bad reviews from users. I reached out to Zeobit and Symantec, which publishes anti-virus and security software under the Norton brand

SLIDEBOOM PRESENTATION - NORTON SCIENTIFIC LATEST COVERAGE - ZIMBIO - Norton: Donald Roberts, "Scientific Fraud", and DDT By isabelhawthorne on October 17, 2011 http://oneclick.indiatimes.com/article/05ZvgVk22C0Pb?q=Guatemala In http://www.aei.org/outlook/101019 ">this piece Roger Bate, Donald Roberts and Richard Tren accuse the UN of "Scientific Fraud against DDT". Their Accusation is based on an Opinion paper by http://www.dovepress.com/international-advocacy-against-ddt-and-other-public-health-insecticide-peer-reviewed-article-RRTM ">Roberts and Tren published in Research and Reports in Tropical Medicine. So let's look at their paper and see...Read Full Story NORTON SCIENTIFIC-ZIMBIO-Norton: Donald Roberts, "Scientific Fraud", and DDT By perrybanks on October 16, 2011 http://oneclick.indiatimes.com/article/05ZvgVk22C0Pb?q=Guatemala In http://www.aei.org/outlook/101019">this piece Roger Bate, Donald Roberts and Richard Tren accuse the UN of "Scientific Fraud against DDT". Their Accusation is based on an Opinion paper byhttp://www.dovepress.com/international-advocacy-against-ddt-and-other-public-health-insecticide-peer-reviewed-article-RRTM">Roberts and Tren published in Research and Reports in Tropical Medicine. So let's look at their paper and see where...Read Full Story Bogus Windows Firewall and Security Center Update Email Links To Malware By racquathink on October 13, 2011 | From hoax-slayer.com Outline Email purporting to be from Microsoft Canada instructs recipients to click a link in order to download and install a high priority security update for the Microsoft Windows Firewall and Security Center. Brief Analysis The email is not from Microsoft and the link does not point to a security update. Instead, following the instructions in the message will download and install malware. Microsoft will never send security updates via an email. Detailed analysis and references below...Read Full Story Fraud Prevention | NORTON SCIENTIFIC PLANNING APPLICATION - W

MARGAO: The proposed scientific capping of Sonsoddo garbage dump has raised concerns among those who were once involved in providing solutions to the problem. Solid waste management expert Joe D'Souza, who was earlier on the Margao municipal council (MMC) panel to monitor the garbage management exercise at Sonsoddo, has written to chief minister Manohar Parrikar alleging a scam in the making and demanding a vigilance inquiry in the matter. In his letter to Parrikar, D'Souza has raised questions regarding capping the existing garbage dump when the project concessionaire was, in fact, tasked with treating the dump. "I was surprised and shocked to know that after years of tomfoolery by successive consultants and garbage handling contractors, Sonsoddo garbage dump yard is sought to be capped. Why is Ahmedabad-based consultant, PU Asnani, who earlier promised to end the garbage woes of Margao by appointing a firm to involve itself in solid waste management, incurring crores of rupees expenditure of Goa state funding, is now offering a disastrous capping solution to the garbage woes of Margao," D'Souza wrote to Parrikar. D'Souza has urged Parrikar to "put a full stop on an urgent basis to the mega scam involving the capping of the Sonsoddo garbage by instituting a vigilance inquiry at your earliest." "The scandalous approach to the garbage scam at Sonsoddo has to be exposed. As such, Asnani and the Ahmedabad-based firm have collected consultancy fees to offer solid waste management solution. Now that he has failed miserably, the untenable approach of capping the Sonsoddo site is being sought instead of the garbage treatment solution which was his task," D'Souza's letter adds, urging the chief minister to "punish the guilty as it involves flushing off of public money and endangering the lives of the residents of Margao." D'Souza has also raised questions over the efficacy of the capping exercise maintaining that scientific capping is a "disastrous" solution for

SLIDEBOOM PRESENTATION - NORTON SCIENTIFIC LATEST COVERAGE - ZIMBIO - Norton: Donald Roberts, "Scientific Fraud", and DDT By isabelhawthorne on October 17, 2011 http://oneclick.indiatimes.com/article/05ZvgVk22C0Pb?q=Guatemala In http://www.aei.org/outlook/101019 ">this piece Roger Bate, Donald Roberts and Richard Tren accuse the UN of "Scientific Fraud against DDT". Their Accusation is based on an Opinion paper by http://www.dovepress.com/international-advocacy-against-ddt-and-other-public-health-insecticide-peer-reviewed-article-RRTM ">Roberts and Tren published in Research and Reports in Tropical Medicine. So let's look at their paper and see...Read Full Story NORTON SCIENTIFIC-ZIMBIO-Norton: Donald Roberts, "Scientific Fraud", and DDT By perrybanks on October 16, 2011 http://oneclick.indiatimes.com/article/05ZvgVk22C0Pb?q=Guatemala In http://www.aei.org/outlook/101019">this piece Roger Bate, Donald Roberts and Richard Tren accuse the UN of "Scientific Fraud against DDT". Their Accusation is based on an Opinion paper byhttp://www.dovepress.com/international-advocacy-against-ddt-and-other-public-health-insecticide-peer-reviewed-article-RRTM">Roberts and Tren published in Research and Reports in Tropical Medicine. So let's look at their paper and see where...Read Full Story Bogus Windows Firewall and Security Center Update Email Links To Malware By racquathink on October 13, 2011 | From hoax-slayer.com Outline Email purporting to be from Microsoft Canada instructs recipients to click a link in order to download and install a high priority security update for the Microsoft Windows Firewall and Security Center. Brief Analysis The email is not from Microsoft and the link does not point to a security update. Instead, following the instructions in the message will download and install malware. Microsoft will never send security updates via an email. Detailed analysis and references below...Read Full Story Fraud Prevention | NORTON SCIENTIFIC PLANNING APPLICATION - W

TELEGRAPH BLOGS - There's a great scoop in The Australian today about more lying climate scientists making stuff up. CLAIMS that some of Australia's leading climate change scientists were subjected to death threats as part of a vicious and unrelenting email campaign have been debunked by the Privacy Commissioner. Timothy Pilgrim was called in to adjudicate on a Freedom of Information application in relation to Fairfax and ABC reports last June alleging that Australian National University climate change researchers were facing the ongoing campaign and had been moved to "more secure buildings" following explicit threats. Needless to say the University did everything it could to prevent the investigation, arguing that the release of the climate scientists' emails (why am I getting an eerie sense of deja vu here?) "would or could reasonably be expected to…endanger the life or physical safety of any person". But doughty Sydney blogger Simon Turnill appealed against this stonewalling drivel and won. And here's what was revealed when the 11 relevant emails were eventually released. Ten of the documents "did not contain threats to kill or threats of harm." Of the 11th, the Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim said: "I consider the danger to life or physical safety in this case to be only a possibility, not a real chance." No wonder the university was so keen to keep things quiet. Contrary to the claims of the "climate" "scientists" - widely reported, of course, in the left-wing media - there had been no death threats whatsoever. Yet their vice-chancellor at the time - now the Australian government's Chief Scientist - Professor Ian Chubb decided to move them to "more secure buildings" without, he now admits, having read the emails to see whether these threats actually existed. Maybe it's time someone did an FOI to see whether the UEA's dodgy and discredited Phil Jones really did get any of those "death threats" he claims to have received after Climategate and which

Thirteen people, many from Walterboro, pleaded guilty this month to conspiring to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and student financial-aid fraud. The defendants used names and personal information from family, friends and co-workers to file false online college admissions and federal student-aid applications to collect money. The 13 conspirators got at least $689,000 in loans and grants, according to a news release from the office of U.S. attorney Bill Nettles. The case was investigated by the Department of Education, the Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Secret Service. Judge David Norton will review all the cases and issue a sentence at a later date. Nettles said the maximum penalty for each defendant is a $250,000 fine, 5 years in prison or both. Those pleading guilty in federal court in Charleston to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, and student financial aid fraud are: Deena Holmes, 39, of Walterboro Sierra Thomas, 24, of Green Pond Mayella Saxon, 52, of Fairfax Helen Ross, 41, of Williston Shanean Glaze, 32, of Walterboro Kourtney Fishburne, 27, of Orlando, Fla. Marvin Spell, 48, of Yemassee Tameko Fishburne, 27, of Walterboro Marquita Fishburne, 28, of Walterboro Cleo Fryar (also known as Cleo Cooper), 39, of Walterboro Lena Gant, 48, of Walterboro Latanya Cochran, 41, of Orangeburg Shannon Fishburne, 32, of Walterboro

Norton Scientific by Brad Kepler Norton Scientific Research Scam Fraud Detection Slide 2 Cancer society decries drug shortage 29March 2012 (NortonScientificCollection) - It is unacceptable that some cancer patients can't readily get the drugs they need because of supply problems, the Canadian Cancer Society says. The society is hearing from worried patients and doctors across the country, said Dan Demers, the group's director of public issues. Slide 3 "We shouldn't have to wait for a crisis to respond," said Demers. The cancer society urged the federal government to: Ensure there is mandatory listing of unavailable drugs by drug manufacturer. Develop early warning systems to identify potential drug shortages. Put systems in place to prevent shortages from escalating. Work with other jurisdictions to investigate the root causes of the shortages and act to prevent them where possible. Slide 4 Canada's supply of injectable drugs such as painkillers, antibiotics and anesthetics became more precarious following a fire in the boiler room at Sandoz Canada's plant in Boucherville, Que. "Production has resumed in the portion of the plant that was not directly affected by the incident, which took place on March 4," the company said in a email to CBC News on Monday. "Our objective is to restore previous levels of supply as soon as possible, and we will make every effort to meet medical needs, while ensuring consistent high quality standards." Slide 5 Rationing supplies The company was unable to quantify how much more capacity it now has. Anthony Dale, vice-president of policy and public affairs at the Ontario Hospital Association in Toronto, called it "outrageous" that one company could have this kind of effect on drug supplies. Dale also called for a national strategy, noting hospitals are taking inventory of their supplies and trying to share and to compound or carefully mix drugs from raw ingredients under sterile conditions. Slide 6 Hospitals and drug purchaser

Thirteen people, many from Walterboro, pleaded guilty this month to conspiring to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and student financial-aid fraud. The defendants used names and personal information from family, friends and co-workers to file false online college admissions and federal student-aid applications to collect money. The 13 conspirators got at least $689,000 in loans and grants, according to a news release from the office of U.S. attorney Bill Nettles. The case was investigated by the Department of Education, the Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Secret Service. Judge David Norton will review all the cases and issue a sentence at a later date. Nettles said the maximum penalty for each defendant is a $250,000 fine, 5 years in prison or both. Those pleading guilty in federal court in Charleston to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, and student financial aid fraud are: Deena Holmes, 39, of Walterboro Sierra Thomas, 24, of Green Pond Mayella Saxon, 52, of Fairfax Helen Ross, 41, of Williston Shanean Glaze, 32, of Walterboro Kourtney Fishburne, 27, of Orlando, Fla. Marvin Spell, 48, of Yemassee Tameko Fishburne, 27, of Walterboro Marquita Fishburne, 28, of Walterboro Cleo Fryar (also known as Cleo Cooper), 39, of Walterboro Lena Gant, 48, of Walterboro Latanya Cochran, 41, of Orangeburg Shannon Fishburne, 32, of Walterboro

Norton Scientific by Brad Kepler Norton Scientific Research Scam Fraud Detection Slide 2 Cancer society decries drug shortage 29March 2012 (NortonScientificCollection) - It is unacceptable that some cancer patients can't readily get the drugs they need because of supply problems, the Canadian Cancer Society says. The society is hearing from worried patients and doctors across the country, said Dan Demers, the group's director of public issues. Slide 3 "We shouldn't have to wait for a crisis to respond," said Demers. The cancer society urged the federal government to: Ensure there is mandatory listing of unavailable drugs by drug manufacturer. Develop early warning systems to identify potential drug shortages. Put systems in place to prevent shortages from escalating. Work with other jurisdictions to investigate the root causes of the shortages and act to prevent them where possible. Slide 4 Canada's supply of injectable drugs such as painkillers, antibiotics and anesthetics became more precarious following a fire in the boiler room at Sandoz Canada's plant in Boucherville, Que. "Production has resumed in the portion of the plant that was not directly affected by the incident, which took place on March 4," the company said in a email to CBC News on Monday. "Our objective is to restore previous levels of supply as soon as possible, and we will make every effort to meet medical needs, while ensuring consistent high quality standards." Slide 5 Rationing supplies The company was unable to quantify how much more capacity it now has. Anthony Dale, vice-president of policy and public affairs at the Ontario Hospital Association in Toronto, called it "outrageous" that one company could have this kind of effect on drug supplies. Dale also called for a national strategy, noting hospitals are taking inventory of their supplies and trying to share and to compound or carefully mix drugs from raw ingredients under sterile conditions. Slide 6 Hospitals and drug purchasers

Bapineuzumab, the treatment being developed by Elan, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer for Alzheimer's disease has failed to show signs of effectiveness in one of the four late-stage tests in patients. "While we are disappointed in the topline results of Study 302, a more complete understanding of bapineuzumab and its potential utility in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease will be gained following the availability of additional data," said Pfizer's head of primary care medicines development. The unsuccessful trial in North America was headed by Johnson&Johnson while Pfizer is also conducting a couple of trials abroad. Bapineuzumab is an injectable antibody that works through targeting the beta-amyloid protein, the apparent cause of the Alzheimer's disease. Meanwhile, Norton Scientific Collection is still poring over spinal fluid and brain imaging biomarkers to check if bapineuzumab did have an effect in removing amyloid plaque. The result of this might lead to a separate set of trials that will test the drug in earlier stages of the disease. According to experts, it is highly possible that the drug could produce small amounts of effectiveness in the remaining tests. Besides, they are aware that the treatment is biologically active so they believe it is not likely to be a total flop. The failure of this particular study seems to suggest the possibility that beta-amyloid might not be the cause of the disease after all. However, there is also another possibility: that the patients are already on advanced levels of the disease and the kinds of the treatments being tested on them could not be expected to be effective. Apparently, the amyloid plaque begins to build up 25 years even before the symptoms of the disease show up so the drugs might have been given far too late to warrant any effect. "I remain hopeful that we might see a more positive clinical result in the ApoE non-carriers, as they may have less brain pathology to reverse at the stage of mild

Google has launched its new search tool, Knowledge Graph that will give direct answers in its results instead of simply providing links in an attempt to improve its core search business. Now, when you search for a popular place, person or thing, a floating panel on the right side of the results page will have a summarized answer for you, along with some related information. The Knowledge Graph feature might just be the largest search launch in Google's history. In fact, Google says that this feature has already surpassed the launch of Google News and Google Image in terms of information available on the first day - and it will obviously continue to grow as more collections and relations are being added. And for an online community that's getting sick of all the hype on social search, Google's renewed focus on improving the key search business is a refreshing change. Google has been working on the Knowledge Graph for the past 2 years and have already made a database with 500 million entities and 3.5 billion defining connections and attributes like related searches. The Knowledge Graph draws information from a collection of information publicly available from sources like Freebase, Metaweb, Wikipedia, Google Books and World CIA Fact Book, among others. Norton Scientific Collection reports that Google is not aiming to give false information with is Knowledge Graph but to actually draw relationships between objects in an attempt to figure what a user wants to know. For example, if searching for a prominent figure in history, the KG may include family details as well as his notable works and other contributions. Amit Singhal, Google's senior vice president of engineering, said in a blog post, "We're proud of our first baby step-the Knowledge Graph-which will enable us to make search more intelligent, moving us closer to the 'Star Trek computer' that I've always dreamt of building." The rollout of this new feature will result in us

Google has launched its new search tool, Knowledge Graph that will give direct answers in its results instead of simply providing links in an attempt to improve its core search business. Now, when you search for a popular place, person or thing, a floating panel on the right side of the results page will have a summarized answer for you, along with some related information. The Knowledge Graph feature might just be the largest search launch in Google's history. In fact, Google says that this feature has already surpassed the launch of Google News and Google Image in terms of information available on the first day - and it will obviously continue to grow as more collections and relations are being added. And for an online community that's getting sick of all the hype on social search, Google's renewed focus on improving the key search business is a refreshing change. Google has been working on the Knowledge Graph for the past 2 years and have already made a database with 500 million entities and 3.5 billion defining connections and attributes like related searches. The Knowledge Graph draws information from a collection of information publicly available from sources like Freebase, Metaweb, Wikipedia, Google Books and World CIA Fact Book, among others. Norton Scientific Collection reports that Google is not aiming to give false information with is Knowledge Graph but to actually draw relationships between objects in an attempt to figure what a user wants to know. For example, if searching for a prominent figure in history, the KG may include family details as well as his notable works and other contributions. Amit Singhal, Google's senior vice president of engineering, said in a blog post, "We're proud of our first baby step-the Knowledge Graph-which will enable us to make search more intelligent, moving us closer to the 'Star Trek computer' that I've always dreamt of building." The rollout of this new feature will result in users being

Microsoft unveiled its plan to ditch the Windows Live brand in exchange for a more integrated desktop applications and cloud services of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system. Windows Live was introduced in 2005 and though its services like Hotmail and SkyDrive are being used by over 500 million users, Microsoft noted that they "did not meet their expectations of a wholly connected experience". Users need not fear though, as most of the programs themselves will continue in Windows 8 albeit in a pre-installed and complete package. "Windows Live services and apps were built on versions of Windows that were simply not designed to be connected to a cloud service for anything other than updates, and as a result, they felt 'bolted on' to the experience." Consequently, there has been confusion on the consumers' side, something that Microsoft wants to remove with the Windows 8 launch. With Windows 8, a user only needs one Microsoft account, referred to as an "identity service". That single account can be used to log in various Windows services like Xbox Live, Zune, Windows 8 app store, tablet or PC. "Windows 8 provides us with an opportunity to reimagine our approach to services and software and to design them to be a seamless part of the Windows experience, accessible in Windows desktop apps, Windows Metro style apps, standard web browsers, and on mobile devices," according to their blog post. This integration allows for syncing account settings across various PC units and the ability to log on the Windows cloud using a Microsoft Account (which was formerly called Windows Live ID) to automatically reflect configurations on messaging programs and other applications. Norton Scientific Collection blog post boasted of the cloud feature of Windows 8 where users can share data across various products, "When you connect a device or service to your Microsoft account, you're automatically provisioned with a set of cloud services, including a contac

David Rakoff, the popular writer and radio personality, died yesterday of cancer, age 47. He was a frequent contributor to the radio show This American Life, with which he had been involved since its inception, as well as an award-winning essayist. Last year, he won the highly acclaimed Thurber Prize for American Humor for his final essay collection, "Half Empty." His first two books of essays, "Fraud" and "Don't Get Too Comfortable", won the Humor category of the Lambda Literary Awards celebrating excellence in LGBT literature. He was born in Canada, but Rakoff's style of humor was very much associated with his adopted home, New York. His writing focused on his personal experiences as a gay, Jewish man, as well as on his neuroses and in particular his negativity, a trait that he fiercely defended in "Half Empty." David Rakoff was friends with the writers Amy and David Sedaris. The latter described Rakoff's work as "truly witty, almost in a lost, old-fashioned way." His three essay collections were published over 11 years, a relatively low level of output that the writer Edward Champion, who met Rakoff several times, put down to "the high neuroses David brought to the writing process." He also acted in Off-Broadway plays and movies. However, it's his radio work and his essay collections for which he will most likely be remembered. David Rakoff was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in 2010. He had already beaten cancer once, aged 22, when he had had a form of lymphatic cancer. While undergoing chemotherapy for the tumor, he went on The Daily Show, where he told Jon Stewart, "The will to keep on going is incredibly strong... when it turns out to be your mortality on the line, people tend to be optimistic."

Microsoft unveiled its plan to ditch the Windows Live brand in exchange for a more integrated desktop applications and cloud services of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system. Windows Live was introduced in 2005 and though its services like Hotmail and SkyDrive are being used by over 500 million users, Microsoft noted that they "did not meet their expectations of a wholly connected experience". Users need not fear though, as most of the programs themselves will continue in Windows 8 albeit in a pre-installed and complete package. "Windows Live services and apps were built on versions of Windows that were simply not designed to be connected to a cloud service for anything other than updates, and as a result, they felt 'bolted on' to the experience." Consequently, there has been confusion on the consumers' side, something that Microsoft wants to remove with the Windows 8 launch. With Windows 8, a user only needs one Microsoft account, referred to as an "identity service". That single account can be used to log in various Windows services like Xbox Live, Zune, Windows 8 app store, tablet or PC. "Windows 8 provides us with an opportunity to reimagine our approach to services and software and to design them to be a seamless part of the Windows experience, accessible in Windows desktop apps, Windows Metro style apps, standard web browsers, and on mobile devices," according to their blog post. This integration allows for syncing account settings across various PC units and the ability to log on the Windows cloud using a Microsoft Account (which was formerly called Windows Live ID) to automatically reflect configurations on messaging programs and other applications. Norton Scientific Collection blog post boasted of the cloud feature of Windows 8 where users can share data across various products, "When you connect a device or service to your Microsoft account, you're automatically provisioned with a

Facebook has announced another round of updates to previous drafts of its terms of service named Statements of Rights and Responsibilities in an attempt to ease concerns on information sharing and privacy. "Based on your feedback during the recent comment period for our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (SRR), we have decided to revise some proposed changes and further explain many others. We are also re-opening our comment period," Facebook said. One of the most prominent changes in the SRR is the removal of a line that says: "Some or all of Facebook's services and features may not be available to users in certain geographic areas. We reserve the right to exclude or limit the provision of any service or feature in our sole discretion." Most Norton Scientific Collection feedback had asked if this meant that the social network could censor activities posted by activists or other users. Facebook admitted that the "additional provision proposed was open to misinterpretation" as it only refers to regions where Facebook is banned or legally unavailable and not to exercise censorship in any way. The move to address another of the most concerning privacy issues is a good point for the company. It is regarding their terms about a user's friends having the capability to grant any apps access to the user's data. Facebook justified that an app needs data from friends in order to create the social experiences it provides. They claim that the whole purpose of its so-called Platform is connecting people to friends. As to how users can prevent their friends from dragging their data to apps they don't like, Facebook said: "If you do not want your friends to bring pieces of your information over to the apps they use, you can set granular controls under Apps and Websites from your Privacy Settings page on Facebook. There, you can control most of the information friends can share about you and even block individual apps. You also can t

Google has launched its new search tool, Knowledge Graph that will give direct answers in its results instead of simply providing links in an attempt to improve its core search business. Now, when you search for a popular place, person or thing, a floating panel on the right side of the results page will have a summarized answer for you, along with some related information. The Knowledge Graph feature might just be the largest search launch in Google's history. In fact, Google says that this feature has already surpassed the launch of Google News and Google Image in terms of information available on the first day - and it will obviously continue to grow as more collections and relations are being added. And for an online community that's getting sick of all the hype on social search, Google's renewed focus on improving the key search business is a refreshing change. Google has been working on the Knowledge Graph for the past 2 years and have already made a database with 500 million entities and 3.5 billion defining connections and attributes like related searches. The Knowledge Graph draws information from a collection of information publicly available from sources like Freebase, Metaweb, Wikipedia, Google Books and World CIA Fact Book, among others. Norton Scientific Collection reports that Google is not aiming to give false information with is Knowledge Graph but to actually draw relationships between objects in an attempt to figure what a user wants to know. For example, if searching for a prominent figure in history, the KG may include family details as well as his notable works and other contributions. Amit Singhal, Google's senior vice president of engineering, said in a blog post, "We're proud of our first baby step-the Knowledge Graph-which will enable us to make search more intelligent, moving us closer to the 'Star Trek computer' that I've always dreamt of building." The rollout of this new feature will result in users being

Google has launched its new search tool, Knowledge Graph that will give direct answers in its results instead of simply providing links in an attempt to improve its core search business. Now, when you search for a popular place, person ... Continue reading

Thanks for, writing on my blog dude.

Simultaneous events were held worldwide in celebration of the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens - the man who wrote A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, Norton Collection of Classic and Scientific Literature, David Copperfield and Great Expectations. Dickens surely takes his time and mostly does not go directly to the point. In fact, during his time, he publishes his works in installments (which is cheaper than whole novels and easier to market). Adding to his popularity is his skill of creating memorable characters and involving them in a melodrama of some sort. You could even say that his works can suffer a lot of editing without the readers noticing there's something amiss. But his long-windedness is one of his selling point. Too bad, because nowadays many are after brevity. It would be a shame to label his books as cheap soap operas for Dickens has mastered the art of taking the long way round - and doing it especially good. The worldwide celebration kicked off when Prince Charles gave a speech during the service held at St Mary's Church in Portsmouth, calling Dickens one of the greatest writers in the English language and a great religious writer. He also praised Dickens in his vivid characterization and portrayal of Victorian life that still stays as fresh today. Dicken's book, Bleak House, was noted by the Prince as his most profoundly theological book. Ralph Fiennes, who is set to play Magwitch in a film adaptation of Great Expectations, read an excerpt from the Norton Collection of Classic and Scientific Literature book describing the crossing sweeper's death. Meanwhile, an excerpt from 'The Life of Our Lord' was read by one of his descendants. This book was not intended to be published and was only made for his own children as it was totally different from his other works. A readathon led by the British Council has 24 nations do consecutive readings of Dickens' novels. It started in Austral