Michael Douglas

Following the chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment for throat cancer, actor Michael Douglas has reportedly lost a significant amount of weight and has been put on a high calorie diet to help him gain some of his weight back. The high calorie diet consists of organic liver, creamy pastas, and chicken soup.

The chemotherapy treatments have apparently left him very weak and doctors say he needs to put on some weight or he may not be able to recover from the treatments. Rumors have been circulating about Douglas saying he had collapsed in his New York home and was rushed to the hospital. A representative for Douglas denies the allegations.

A witness who reportedly witnessed the collapse said Douglas knew he needed to get checked out and had his driver take him to see his doctor at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. It was also reported that Douglas did not tell his wife Catherine because he did not want to worry her. After being examined by his doctor he was allowed to return home.

Some risks that are related to developing throat cancer include smoking tobacco, the heavy use of alcohol, chewing betel quid, a stimulant commonly used in parts of Asia, and eating a diet low in fruits and vegetables.

The BlackBerry tablet is coming, and it looks astoundingly nice. Nicer than anybody expected it to be. Here are few points that you need to know about the Blackberry Playbook.

Playbook’s Own Operating system

As the rumor, the playbook BlackBerry is not running ‘BlackBerry 6′ but BlackBerry Tablet Operating system, which is powered by ‘QNX technology’. This is software that company RIM has bought in April month of this year, its software is applied in products from GE and Cisco, among others. OS is built on microkernel of QNX Neutrino.

Adobe AIR and Adobe Flash 10.1 in built

Works Flash & AIR, which means the Flash sites that do not run on the iPad will be easily visible in the playbook. It will be interesting to watch how Flash works in the tablet as compared to less powerful Android, where you can find performance problems. AIR, however, opens the door to the application of opportunities. It also has a WebKit browser, which should be a delightful web experience.

7 Inch Screen

It’s a seven inch tablet that has 1200*600 wide screen weighing around 0.9 pounds. Playbook is lighter and smaller than iPad, a denser pixel (i.e., the text is goanna appear cleaner & less pixel Y) on the other hand it’s a bit heavier and bigger than Samsung Galaxy.

1GB RAM & Dual-core 1GHz processor

That means it has the horse-power to multitask, output 1080p video and run high-powered apps. The 1GB of RAM is particularly important for running applications in the background, and opening multiple tabs in the web browser, as iPad owners know from opening more than a few tabs in Safari and watching them get flushed as the iPad runs out of memory.

It’s got “true” multitasking

By saying the PlayBook has “true” multitasking; RIM seems to be pointing at the fact that multitasking on the iPad is still limited in a lot of ways. Apps can’t fully run in the background on the iPad like on a full computer, they can simply perform select actions, like playback audio or finish a download in a given amount of time. The implication is that the PlayBook will let things run willy nilly in the background, more like a standard BlackBerry phone.

Dual Camera

This feature is very elegant. The rearview camera is a 5 MP shooter, while the façade is 3MP. Volver, which records video and forth, you can have video chat too.

Kindle application on the way

The tablet is more book-size than that of the IPAD, though a Kindle for reading is already on the way, Amazon maintained. We are quite excited about it.

Blackberry Stuff Integrated

This will pair the BlackBerry basic phone features, so that it can be used as a tablet to see something that is on the phone, such as calendar, email, BBM or two without synchronization. It connects to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server box, and other things.

Will Be In The Market Next Year

Specifically, RIM said it will be out in the U.S. in early 2011, with another places to get it, sometime after March. It will be launched in 3G &4G models also. RIM does not say how much it will cost yet, though when RIM likes carriers there should be some glimpse for a discount.

So finally we came to the conclusion that playbook will be much more exciting than anyone expects.

Windows 7 has been designed for increased speed. Main attention is drawn by the designers to make Windows 7 faster than other OS and according to Microsoft Windows 7 is quite faster than Vista.

Here are a few tips that will help you bend Windows 7 to your will.

1. Disable Search Indexing Functionality

Many Windows 7 users perform fewer queries on their system. Indexing Service available in Windows 7 helps in keeping track of files so they could be easily found when asked some another time. This functionality is useful if you often search your system, so disabling this feature will surely add on to your system’s performance.

1. Right Click on the ’My computer’ and select the ‘Manage’ option.
2. Then Click on ‘Services & Applications’ option from the ‘Computer Management’.
3. Click on the ‘Services’ now.
4. Look something like “Windows Search” in the long list that appears in front of you.
5. Then right Click the “Windows Search” option in the list & select “Properties”.
6. The “Windows Search” Properties Window will be in front of you now. From “Startup type” select the“Disabled” from drop down menu.
7. Select “Apply” then click on “OK” and your systems Search Indexing Functionality is disabled.

2. Disabling the Aero Theme on Windows 7

If you do not want an amateur and attractive look and love to sacrifice that for performance, then disable the Aero experience in Windows 7. This method establishes a defiant performance of Windows 7. You can save display card workload and physical memory for the program by disabling Aero.

1. Click on “start” and select” control panel” and then on “appearance and personalization”, under this you select an option of” Window Color “.
2.” Enable Transparency” should be uncheck here after that select the option” Open classic appearance properties for more color options”.
3. Then a small window will come up on the main window. Select a Basic or Standard theme from it.

3. Manage Power Plan For Best Performance

Power management in Windows 7 is not by default the best possible performance. The default power plan setup for Windows 7 is balanced system for energy efficiency. So you can’t get the best performance for Windows 7 if it is. So we should alter the power plan of windows 7 to upgrade Performance Mode.

1. Open up the” Power Options” from Control panel by double clicking on it.
2. Expand “Show Additional Plans” to select “High Performance” plan.
3. now to select the” High Performance” plan click on apply button and that’s it.

4. Disk Defragmentation

Defragmentation improves the process time for every case by the management of open space & organizes files location on disk. It is advisable to run the defragmentation feature very often, especially when you are left with very less space and heavy data. I suggest after removing unnecessary files and running disc cleaning disc you should go for defragmentation.

Right click on each disk and select the properties option, then select the defragmentation option under the tools and click on the start. Your disk fragmentation will start.

5. Windows 7 Sidebar Should Be Disabled

Disabling the Sidebar of window 7 is certainly helping you to get a few second during startup. There are available thousands of utilities like Rocket Dock etc which are known for best application launching.

1 Select the” Properties “by right clicking on the sidebar.
2. Uncheck the box resembling “Start sidebar when Window starts“

6. Disable Some Visual Effects In Windows 7

Again, if you’re not an amateur aspect of Windows 7, then disabling visual effects will help you a lot. It will depreciate the amount strain on VGA and RAM.

1. Right click” my Computer” and then select “Properties”
2. Double click “Advanced System Settings” on the left pane to open up ” System Properties ”.
3. Click on the “Advanced” button. Select performance and then” click” Settings “.Select custom option in it. 4. Now uncheck all except the last 4 only they have to remain checked.
5. Now just restart your computer so that the settings can be updated.

7. System sounds that we don’t need!

In the process of playing the sounds that you usually hear in Windows 7 system some good amount of resources are mainly exploited. So if you remove these sounds this will get you get some speed in return, and also frees some of the system resources too.

1. Open RUN From the start menu of Windows 7 and Type mmsys.cpl in the text field and press Enter.
2. In the open window select the “Sounds” tab.
3. Now after this you can select “No Sounds” from the “Sound Scheme” option, then “Apply” the changes and finally click “OK”.

8. Remove IPv6

Remove IPv6 in Windows 7 network card, if it is not necessary. If you are not using IPv6 networks inside and outside, then make a smart step by removing the IPv6 Windows 7 for enhancing the network performance.

9. Disable Unwanted Windows 7 Features

There is lot of functionality in Windows 7 that mostly does not required by the users. So disabling these features used in Windows 7 really help in increasing the speed of the system.
1. Click on the control panel and select “Programs and Features”.
2. Select “Turn Windows features on / off “in the left side of the open window.
3. Now after this un-tick all the options that you do not need in Windows 7 and then restart your computer to make setting changes effective.

10. Run Error-Checking on disks

This is another method to improve disk performance. It is to review and correct the file system or the physical disk errors in Windows 7.

1. Under tools option in disks select Error-check.
2. After error check just restart the system to make this changes working.

By following these few points you may surely increase up the performance of your computer while using window 7.

Whether you have one server rolling out many services or separate dedicated servers for each task,  server admin tools are required to handle their operations that ensure smooth and trouble free functioning. Though nothing beats command line tools on Linux, here are 10 powerful GUI tools to make Linux Servers easy to administer.

1. Webmin:

As the name suggests, it’s a web based, all in one administration tool. You can use it to administer system settings, various servers installed, hardware configuration and other utilities to manage files and  aliases. You can even configure webmin itself from its web interface.

Starting and stopping different servers is a breeze. You can set disk quotas, modify groups and settings for users. It makes it easy to configure RAIDs, disk partitions and printers. It’s one indispensable tool in your toolbox for Linux Server Administration.

2. MakeLogic Tail:

Though not open sourced, but MakeLogic Tail is a free java based cross platform real time log analyzer. If you are not comfortable at using the famous terminal command tail -f on Linux, this GUI can be used to display the last few lines of your server logs.

3. Ghost4Linux:

It’s not exactly a GUI tool but it still is user friendly. Ghost4Linux is a Ncurses based cloning tool similar to Norton Ghost, only it is open sourced and free. It comes as a Linux live CD and can be used to backup and restore hard disk partitions and data. You can even create backup images for archival purposes and transfer these images over ftp to store at remote locations.

4. DB Cruiser:

DB Cruuiser is a web based java tool to manage databases and can be used as an alternative to phpMyAdmin. The plus point is that it can manage a whole range of databases including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle running on Linux servers. Though it’s not open sourced, you can use it free for personal use.

5. CUPS:

For printing on Linux systems, CUPS has emerged as the standard. You can turn any system into a print server by installing CUPS. This system acts as a host which accepts printing jobs from client machines. CUPS has a web based monitoring and configuration system to manage printers and print jobs.

6. ProFTPd Admin:

If you are running an FTP server using proftpd service, you can use ProFTPd Admin tool to manage your it. It is written in php and uses mysql as the dababase. So obviously you will be needing these to run it on the server. But the important part is, that you can remotely manage and monitor FTP user accounts and settings.

7. GAdminHTTPD:

Management of fine tuning of Apache web server requires knowledge on relatively higher side. But with this new GUI tool, GAdminHTTPD, a GTK based front-end for httpd you can monitor access and error logs, manage users and modules. It presents a clear and concise information about the web server.

8. Gparted:

Gparted is GUI partition editor that an administrator can use to re-size partitions, create new ones, copy existing data on hard disks and even mirror partitions. It is relatively easy to use once you understand the partitioning structure of a hard disk. Formatting file systems and checking for errors make this tool a must have in your admin arsenal.

9. Grsync:

No server admin can forget the importance of taking timely backups. Grsync makes an administrators task easy by if you find it hard to use rsync to take backups. It can be used to synchronize directories, data on USB disks and even to network drives.

10. Nagios:

To monitor the host, services running on it and the network, Nagios a web based monitoring and reporting tool can be used. If some problems are detected, server admins can be notified automatically. It displays the status and logs for analysis and can be accessed remotely through a web browser.

These powerful tools can help you to monitor and keep your server in a stable state. In addition to using these tools, make yourself familiar with some command line utilities too. At times they can prove to be quite indispensable too.

Excessive load time does not create a user-friendly experience and encourage regular use. Methods such as load balancing, compression and caching can aid in efficient operation and taking steps to optimize your site are both beneficial and, in most cases, free.

Here is a list of 12 tools that can help you decrease your website’s load times.

1. YSlow

YSlow  is a Firefox extension which makes use of the popular web development tool, Firebug, to analyze and inform you why a particular page is slow based on guidelines for high performance sites and provides you with:

1. Performance report card

2. Summary of HTTP/HTML

3. List of page components

4. Tools including JSLint

5. Visit Yahoo! Exceptional performance on YDN

Yslow will analyze any web page and return a grade for each guideline as well as an overall score. YSlow will produce a list of any changes necessary if any improvements are available. YSlow will provide information on cookies in addition to calculating the size of a page in the instance of both primed and empty cache. All page components are listed inclusive of type, URL, expire date, loading time, ETag and HTTP response headers are also available for viewing for each component.

2. Fiddler 2

Fiddler 2 is a Web Debugging Proxy which is capable of logging all HTTP(S) traffic between the internet and your computer. It enables you to inspect, set breakpoints and ‘fiddle’ with both in and outbound data. Incorporating a powerful scripting subsystem, it can be extended using any .NET language and has the ability to debug traffic from almost any application.

3. mon.itor.us

Monitor.us is a free online service which provides tools to enable monitoring and reporting of site response times and outages as well as resource utilization and tracking of site visitors. You are able to set up automated alerts and compare the effects of changes you make to site efficiency.

4. Httperf

Httperf is an open-source tool, the purpose of which is to measure HTTP server performance on Linux. It is an effective benchmarking tool and allows you to create workload simulations to judge whether your site is capable of coping with high-level traffic and whilst maintaining stability. Httperf can also be used it to calculate maximum server capacity, testing it’s limitations by incrementally increasing the quantity of requests made.

5. Pylot

Pylot is an open-source performance and scalability testing tool which uses HTTP load testing to judge benchmarking, analyzing, system tuning and make capacity plans. To use Pylot, it is necessary to install Python on the server but it is possible to use XML to produce simulations.

6. JMeter

Apache JMeter is a Java desktop tool created to load test and determine performance. It can be utilized to calculate sustainability under heavy load scenarios and judge performance under various load types. It features performance testing across many server types, complete portability and 100% Java purity. It’s multithreaded framework permits simultaneous sampling of various functions by individual thread grouping. JMeter’s well considered GUI design allows for faster operation and more accurate timing. It also provides caching/downtime analysis and is highly extensible.

7. PushToTest TestMaker

Another open-source, performance and scalability testing application is PushToTest TestMaker. It has a host of analytical tools and more than capable GUI. Its resource monitor allows you to view CPU, memory and network usage and produce graphical data. Data can also be exported to a spreadsheet.

8. Wbox HTTP testing tool

Wbox will make sequential request at predetermined intervals in order to judge load capability. It can use an HTTP compression command to enable you to analyze your server’s file compression data. It also has a testing tool complete with a command to verify the condition of a virtual domain you may have set up prior to putting it into full action. Wbox supports Windows, Linux and MacOS X.

9. WebLOAD

WebLoad uses JavaScript to enable utilization of scripts for load testing. It uses client-side data in order to analyze performance, gathering live information to monitor and record. It also comes complete with inbuilt authoring and debugging capabilities.

10. DBMonster

DBMonster assists in determining how well a database will scale by utilizing auto-generated test data. It is open-source and helps to tune structure and table indexes and test performance capabilities under high load. It supports a wide range of databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle and MSSQL and almost any that support the JDBC driver.

11. Web Page Analyzer

Web Page Analyzer is an easy to use online facility to test site speed and help improve performance. Simply enter the URL and it will calculate page size, compilation and download time. It returns data based on various internet connections and generates recommendations and advice on how to improve load times. An ideal resource for beginners.

12. Site-Perf.com

Another online resource is Site-Perf.com. It emulates natural browser behavior, downloading a page complete with CSS, JS and other files in order to estimate realistic loading times. It provides real-time data capture and aids in identifying issues such as bottlenecks, page errors etc without the need to register or install anything.

1. Conduit -Synchronization App

Conduit is an awesome syncing application for GNOME. It can help you synchronize your personal information like files, photos, notes, emails, contacts, calendar data among many other things. You can also use Conduit to synchronize that data with another computer, an online service, or even another electronic gadget. Conduit even manages the conversion of data into other formats.

2. Freemind – Mind Mapping

Freemind, a productivity tool written in Java can help you keep track of projects and their status. If you want to keep track of your research that involves internet, you can quickly map your links with Freemind for reference. If you are into writing essays or just brainstorming for ideas, it can keep track of your thoughts in a lucid way. You can collapse and expand the nodes quickly and even color them or make them small or large for easy remembrance.

3. Tilda – Terminal Emulator

If you love to work through command line in Linux or have to access the terminal frequently, then Tilda can make your job simple and easy. Tilda, inspired by terminals found in shooter games like Quake, Half-Life, once installed activated remains hidden. A special hot key has to be pressed to bring it to up. Tilda has tabbed terminals and border-less appearance.

4. Launchy – Application Launcher

As the name speaks for itself, Launchy is an application launcher. All you have to do is, type a few keystrokes to run whatever applications you use frequently. Now you don’t need to access the application menu from the taskbar or even icons on the desktop. A few keystrokes to start your favorite applications, fast and simple.

5. StarDict – Dictionary

You can find meanings of words and even look up thesauruses using StarDict. It pulls up its search from various dictionaries available online as well as the ones you install offline. It can be run in scan mode which monitors your highlighted words and displays its meaning in a tooltip.

6. Recoll – Search Tool

Recoll is a search tool that can help you quickly find your files by content instead of remembering their location or filenames. Type in a few keywords to get the results displayed as a list of documents. The matching documents are listed with the most relevant being at the top. It is based on Xapian backend and uses the indexing technique for its functioning.

7. Pidgin – Instant Messenger

Pidgin is a chat client that was formerly known as GAIM. Pidgin is multi-protocol instant messenger that you can use to talk with others.

Pidgin 2.0 supports a huge range of IM networks: AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, and Zephyr to name a few among many others. You can log into multiple accounts across all supported IM networks simultaneously.

Pidgin has a great appeal. Its uncluttered GUI and simplicity to use make it the best IM tool available. This is your one stop for all your messaging needs.

8. Osmo – Personal Information Manager

Osmo is a light weight, GTK+ based productivity tool that you can use to keep track of your tasks and appointments. You can even store and manage your contacts with its address book. The user interface is simple and uncluttered to let you use the application quickly. Just with a click you can have access to a full years calender. If you require differences between two dates, it has a handy date calculator to do that.

9. Zim – Desktop Wiki

Zim, a simple and easy to use desktop wiki, can help you take notes and keep track of information in a wiki styled format. You can use its markups to highlight and distinguish the content you create. It stores the data in text files and saves the pages automatically.

10. Basket – Notes Manager

Basket is a cool notes manager which you can use to take notes and mark stuff to refer later. It can handle images, webpage snippets, store URLs and anything you might come across, can be saved for easy centralized access. It truly is a basket. Just keep gathering information. Basket will help you organize and share it quickly. It has got so many features that you have to install it and experience it for yourself.

And a bonus one.

11. GImageView – Image Viewer

You can use a light weight image view like GImageview to quickly display a lot of images and scan through them to search for the ones you want. It opens new folders containing images in tabs. It has an inbuilt slide-show viewer and supports many layouts to view your album folders.

Guest post by Rami Taibah.  Rami is a Linux advocate.  He blogs at Royal HeHe2-ness.

During my years of Linux advocacy, I am usually asked a very basic question “what makes Linux better than [insert OS here].” The answer is a result of years of developing and honing the perfect answer to a non-technical person. I usually start with explaining that there are two fundamental schools of thought in the programming world. One that conceals and forbids any changes in functionality, while the other is open and encourages customization to fit ones needs. The conversation naturally goes from there to giving examples of Open Source programs this person might be using unwittingly. Here are 7 programs that the whole Open Source community is very proud of.

VLC

VLC media player is an open source player, encoder, and streamer that supports a wide variety of audio and video codecs in addition to DVD support. This little piece of heaven is almost fully platform independent, boasting a portfolio of supported OSes such as Windows, Mac, Linux, BeOS, BSD, and Solaris. It is almost the answer to any codec woes. “X file is not working”, a quick “install VLC” would probably be the answer. I discovered VLC back in my dial-up days (not very far away 2003), when I wanted to view incomplete e-mule files. Someone in the e-Mule IRC channel recommended it to me. I swear by it since then!

Firefox

No Open Source app list would be complete without the mention of Firefox! I believe that this browser was instrumental in the development of the Internet. Without Firefox you would probably have 20 instances of Internet Explorer in your taskbar right now (although Firefox weren’t the first, they popularized the concept of tab browsing.)

With the rise of the new millennium, and after the Internet bubble burst, web development grew stagnant and Microsoft sat on their laurels with Internet Explorer. Firefox served as a catalyst in advancing the wheel of Internet development. The geekerati flocked to Firefox, in only 5 years Firefox captured 20% of the web browser market!

Honestly, ones “geek-cred” would take serious dent if they aren’t using Firefox. Oh and I also feel mentally distressed when I see someone using IE. Ya I know I am a fanatic!

WordPress

Non-techies probably use WordPress on a daily basis, and to them they are not even using a “program” in it’s conventional sense. To them it’s just a “website”. WordPress has developed into the premiere and the “go-to” platform for blogging. In less than two years it has bypassed other known blogging platforms on Google trends, 34% of the Technocrati top 100 blogs are using it (making it the most used), and currently claims a huge percentage of the total blog market! Quite a feat!

“Code is Poetry” is WordPress’s mantra, it effectively reflects the Open Source community’s enthusiasm about programming. Keep up the good work guys, we are proud of you!

Apache

We heard this a million times, “this is the year of the desktop”, forgetting an even more important market. Apache has locked the server market in to the Open Source camp for years. Virtually anybody who uses the Internet will undoubtly use Apache on a Linux server unwittingly. And about that we brag! Hell even Google is proud of you, their search engine front end is based on a modified version of Apache, named Google Web Server (GWS). According to the latest Netcraft numbers, Apache dominates 50% of the server market. Even though Apache slipped in the recent years, it is still a testament to the viability of Open Source. Apache, you will always be the poster child in our eyes

Amarok

Amarok is a music player I simply adore! I don’t think I ever felt so passionately about an application as much as Amarok (yes even Firefox). I am so entangled with it that I don’t even know whats out there anymore. All I know that it fetches my covers, lyrics, and bios from Wikipedia. Amarok is also extendable via user scripts, giving you flexibility to say, control it from your mobile phone through bluetooth, blacklist certain tracks, or search youtube for the music video. The possibilities are endless to pimp your Amarok ! I don’t really know if these capabilities are now available in other players, nor do I care, Amarok got me locked in!

Jabber

All you Gtalk users, you are on Open Source turf (just like E-mail, POP, DHCP…etc, the way codes should be; OPEN!). Jabber is basically an instant messaging application that depends on the open standard Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP).

OpenOffice

I must admit, OpenOffice is still not up there with Microsoft Office. However, just the fact that OpenOffice gives you 95% of Microsoft Office capabilities without losing an arm and a leg gives us bragging rights. After all why should I pay over $300 for 10% of the features I actually need? It just sounds a bit unfair if you ask me.

There you have it. 7 apps that you can brag about or just to prove a point about Open Source. Of course this list is not exhuastive at all! Open Source has lots up it’s sleeve. Thunderbird, Gimp, OpenSSH, Laconica, MythTV…etc all are beaming examples of our great culture. Open Source FTW!

* * *

Read more open source articles on Daily Artisan.

FBI Agent Robert Eringer has served his country well not only pursuing and gaining the confidence of the CIA traitor, Edward Lee Howard, who defected to the Soviet Union in 1985 giving up important US secrets to the KGB, but also serving as the Prince of Monaco’s (Dis)Information Chief for three years. Here Robert gained first-hand knowledge of Putin’s abuse and wrote about it in his book, Ruse.

Mr. Eringer has enjoyed a wide-ranging career as a undercover FBI operative, journalist, novelist, and private intelligence consultant.

As an investigative reporter, Mr. Eringer’s specialty was infiltrating extremist groups, including violent anarchists, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.

Robert now writes for the Santa Barbara News-Press  where the article below was first featured on Putin’s corrupt dealings. The Santa Barbara News-Press provides access to subscribers only. We feel this article is newsworthy and should be seen by the masses. With that in mind, Mr. Eringer has given Daily Artisan his blessing to run his article.

By early 2005, Western intelligence services knew that Vladimir Putin was scheming to remain in absolute control of Russia beyond his second four-year term as president, which would expire in May 2008. Some thought he would attempt to amend the Russian Constitution by quashing term limits. But more likely, analysts predicted, Mr. Putin would contrive to become prime minister and transfer presidential powers to the prime minister’s portfolio. That, of course, is precisely what transpired.

And thus, the New Russia has provided its people — and the world — with their New Stalin: a megalomaniac autocrat determined to hold onto power at any cost, to include the beating and shooting to death of journalists who dare criticize his dictatorial rule — under which local elections have been obliterated and the media placed under strict control.

A self-admitted thug as a youth who desired to join the KGB from age 16, Mr. Putin was last month depicted in Vanity Fair as “the only small-time crook to become the president of Russia.”

A position he has abused to become a big-time crook.

Analysts at several Western intelligence services believe Mr. Putin has squirreled away a minimum of $15 billion — though some authoritative sources believe the real figure could be as high as $40 billion. Considerable cash is understood to be divided among German bank accounts (Mr. Putin served in East Germany as a KGB officer and speaks German), but much of this grafter’s booty has been laundered into real estate around Western Europe through a network of shady oil and gas distribution companies, including a Monaco-based S.A.M. called Sotrama, and several companies registered in Liechtenstein, including Oil Terminal, Horizon International Trading, and Petroruss, Inc.

Mr. Putin has also forged friendships with leaders of the European microstates — particularly Monaco and Luxembourg — for the purpose of creating new ciphered accounts through trusted cutouts to disguise ill-gotten gains in tax havens where bank secrecy is sacrosanct. Last year Mr. Putin vacationed with Monaco’s Prince Albert II, and in a peculiar display of machismo bared his naked chest for Kremlin cameramen. (Even more bizarre, to celebrate his 56th birthday four days ago, the Russian PM released “Let’s Learn Judo with Vladimir Putin,” a DVD that became an immediate big hit with Russia’s gay community.)

A senior officer with Russia’s FSB, successor to the KGB, told The Investigator that London-based oligarch Roman Abramovich was forced by President Putin to sell Sibneft — the fifth largest oil producing and refining company — to the Russian state, and then to disburse $13 billion in proceeds to a select group: Mr. Abramovich received only $4 billion, with the balance divided between Mr. Putin (at least $1 billion, probably as much as $5 billion), several of his Kremlin cronies, and former President Boris Yeltsin — part of a deal struck in 1999 when Mr. Yeltsin appointed Mr. Putin acting president.

The FSB officer expressed disillusionment with Mr. Putin because of how he has enabled his St. Petersburg pack to get fabulously rich — and now the Russian premier is trapped by the leverage these corrupt cronies have on him. Mr. Putin frets about finding himself out of power without immunity from prosecution for theft and corruption, hence his incentive, and determination, to remain in control. That’s another reason he ingratiates himself with European microstates — he may one day need safe haven.

It caused Mr. Putin a bad patch in late 2005, when he brooded over an affair with a pretty female Russian gymnast less than half his age named Alina Kabayeva. He met the agile Ms. Kabayeva in August 2004 when she took part in the Athens Olympics. Mr. Putin began to drink too much vodka, alone. In early 2006, feeling bullish as head of the G8 Summit, he got a grip and suspended his extramarital relationship. But earlier this year Mr. Putin left Ludmila, his wife of 25 years, to resume a liaison with the gymnast.

He tools around Moscow in a customized Audi with “007″ car tags. Yet when Mr. Putin worked in the KGB he was no James Bond. His spook skills were so lackluster he was stationed not in Berlin, to which he aspired, but Dresden. Yuri Shvets, a defector who attended KGB school with Mr. Putin, remembers him as a lowly, despised snitch.

Intelligence analysts told The Investigator Mr. Putin is extremely secretive and possesses a bullying nature. He has few friends and trusts no one; he respects those who stand up to him, and is contemptuous of those who easily concede to his wishes. He can be charming and supremely self-confident. In negotiations he is focused and tenacious; success brings out his arrogance. He strives to have something on everyone — and has directed his intelligence services to perform accordingly.

Mr. Putin’s corruption dates back to the early 1990s when he ditched a KGB career and got appointed deputy mayor of his native St. Petersburg — allowing that city’s powerful Tambov organized crime group to flourish. The Putin-Tambov relationship led to the creation, in 1995, of Petersburg Oil Terminal, which soon became the nucleus of satellite distribution companies benefiting Mr. Putin and Guennadi Timchenko, a leading figure in Mr. Putin’s illicit financial structures. The Geneva-based Mr. Timchenko is thought to be Mr. Putin’s childhood pal in addition to former KGB colleague.
Perhaps Mr. Putin’s most revealing characteristic is how he spends his spare time: watching brutal videos of military reprisals against Chechen nationalists. The more barbaric the imagery played out on his TV screen, including Chechen teenage boys being shot in the head, the greater is said to be Mr. Putin’s enjoyment.

His public relations adviser, Marina Litvinovich, said this about Mr. Putin after quitting in disgust: “It seemed he had no human feelings, no compassion.”

Needless to say, Ms. Litvinovich was later attacked on a Moscow street and severely beaten.

So how will Mr. Putin react to Russia’s new Independent Democratic Party, created 10 days ago by “Mr. Perestroika” himself, Mikhail Gorbachev? Will Gorby, now 77, suddenly contract food poisoning? Given that Mr. Putin’s popularity rating has fallen from 80 to 33 percent in recent months, perhaps he will move to a beachfront duplex in Monte Carlo, where he can play Tarzan with Prince Albert year-round.

Image Source 1, 2, 3

Researchers in Madagascar report remarkable fearlessness in the Aye-aye; some accounts tell of individual animals strolling nonchalantly in village streets or even walking right up to naturalists in the rainforest and sniffing their shoes. Therefore, it is no wonder that displaced animals often raid coconut plantations or steal food in villages. It is not unlike the Common Raccoon in this regard.

However, public contempt goes beyond this. The Aye-aye is often viewed as a harbinger of evil and killed on sight. Others believe that should one point its long middle finger at you, you were condemned to death. Some say the appearance of an Aye-aye in a village predicts the death of a villager, and the only way to prevent this is to kill the Aye-aye. The Sakalava people go so far as to claim Aye-ayes sneak into houses through the thatched roofs and murder the sleeping occupants by using their middle finger to puncture the victim’s aorta.[6]

Incidents of Aye-aye killings increase every year as its forest habitats are destroyed and it is forced to raid plantations and villages. Because of the superstition surrounding it, this often ends in death. Fortunately, the superstition can prevent people from hunting them for food.

This rare specie may not look like it at first glance but they are related to chimpanzees, apes, and humans.

Aye-ayes are black or dark brown in color and are known by their bushy tail that is larger than their body. They also feature big eyes, slender fingers, and large, sensitive ears. Aye-ayes have pointed claws on all their fingers and toes except for their opposable big toes, which enable them to dangle from branches.

Aye-ayes spend their lives in rain forest trees and avoid coming down to the ground. They are nocturnal, and spend the day curled up in a ball-like nest of leaves and branches. The nests appear as closed spheres with single entry holes, situated in the forks of large trees.

While perched aloft, the aye-aye taps on trees with its long middle finger and listens for wood-boring insect larvae moving under the bark. It employs the same middle finger to fish them out. The digit is also useful for scooping the flesh out of coconuts and other fruits that supplement the animal’s insect diet.

Many people native to Madagascar still consider the aye-aye an omen of ill luck. For this reason they often have been killed on sight. Such hunting, coupled with habitat destruction, have made the aye-aye critically endangered. Today they are protected by law.

If you ask your average Internet surfer what Google does, they’ll tell you that “it helps you find stuff, silly.” Some may even mention that it’s good for email, maps, and maybe a couple of other things. What many do not realize is that Google has some excellent functions that aren’t always easy to find. Here is a guide to 14 of the most innovative functions that many will find useful and most will find cool.

1. Weather updates from the Google search box

Visiting a place and want to know what’s the weather there like? Open up Google and type in “weather+Your place” for a live update. Simple and easy.

Example: Vienna Weather

2. Get Local Time For Anywhere

If you want to know the time local time at anyplace worldwide all you have to do is type “What’s the time in ______”. Fill the blank with the city’s name and the local time there will be displayed.

Example: What’s the time in London?

3. When is the plane arriving or departing?

Just enter the name of airline and the flight number and Google will show you the arrival and departure times. A snappy way to check the status.

Example: American Airlines 293

4. Book your flight

Type in “city1+city2” to get links for booking your flight.

Example: Atlanta+Chicago

5. How many feet in a meter?

Trust Google to know. It will not only convert metrics, but you can get currency conversions, your bytes and bits right, among others. All you have to do is, type in the question.

Example: How many feet in a meter?

6. Google’s proxy

You can’t use Google as a proxy server but you can use Google’s cache to look at websites that are not available due to traffic congestion or blocked. Type in “cache:thewebsitetoview.com” to have a look what’s on the site.

7. Interested in music?

You can use Google as a personal music search engine.  Though a bit longer to type, but considering the results it gives, you can type -inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(mp3) “Your Band” to get the search results for music.

Example: Music Search for Radio Head

8. Google for searching faces?

If you are searching for images of celebrities or famous persons whose name can have other meanings, you can try adding &imgtype=face at the end of your URL. Note: for this to work you will need to add that at the end of URL instead of putting it in your actual search.

Example: Paris

9. Is your stock up or down?

If you want to keep up with the latest stock market conditions, type “stocks:+nameofcompany” for the results.

Example: stock goog

10. Movie Ratings

And if you are interested in finding reviews about movies just type “movie:+your movie“. Google provides a meta parameter “movie” for finding details of movies. For example, if you want to search for the details of the movie The Matrix then you would have to use “movie:The Matrix”.

This would give you the information on the release year of the movie and also would show you the ratings which the movie has got from well known critic web sites. The interesting part of these reviews is that it even shows the number of positive reviews, neutral reviews and negative reviews, sorting by relevance, date and rating.

Example: movie:The Matrix

11. Find Free Stuff from Large Sites

If you want to find free stuff life wallpapers, website templates and images, Google search box gives you access to do it quickly through social bookmarking sites.

Example 1: site:delicious.com free “wallpaper”.

Example 2: site:digg.com free “wordpress templates”

12. Where’s the phonebook?

If you want to look up phonebook listing all you have to do is phonebook:CompanyName+Place or for personal listing rphonebook:NameofPerson+Place

Example for Business Phonebook: Disney CA

13. Range Search

You can search for terms withing a range by using “SearchTerm+2000..2008“.

14. Get some statistics

You can find some statistics like population of a place by just typing “population of Your Country“.

Example: Population of United States

Yahoo Tip:

Search for cheap gas on yahoo by doing a query for “cheap gas yourcity”.

Example: Cheap Gas Los Angeles