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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

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

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

/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

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

NORTON SCIENTIFIC NEWS - 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

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