Author: Serkadis

Just recently, we wrote about how a ridiculous ruling by the Australian Copyright Tribunal, boosted the royalty rates that gyms needed to pay if they played any music covered by the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA). In some cases it went from less than $1 per class to $1 per participant per class. At the time, we noted that gyms were switching to music that wasn’t part of PPCA, and apparently that includes swapping out popular songs for cheap cover versions. This is, of course, similar to what happened years ago with various music video games when record labels and bands demanded too much money to be in the games. Eventually, they figured out they were doing more harm to themselves by shutting themselves out of a market, but it’s not clear if the PPCA is ever going to realize that.

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Google is on a quest to recreating the world inside Google Earth. It’s not satisfied with just the oceans and mountains, it wants everything to be in 3D. For a while now, cities have gotten some of the attention as well and Google, with the help of the community, is recreating the cities of the world in three dimensions. Once a city is complete enough, Goo… (read more)

Beating the buzzer, Ron Artest, now a superstar, helped beat Phoenix Suns. The Los Angeles Lakers were seen in a difficult position after Kobe Bryant’s shot rebounded but Artest never left things hanging as his last second buzzer shot helped them for a clear win, with a score 103-101. The LA Lakers now have a lead of 3-2 in the Western Conference Finals.

Even thought Bryant had scored 30 points with 11 rebounds and nine assists, in the last, Artest was to be tagged as the hero, even after the last scoring basket being just the second basket all night. The scoring basket was a rebound, being a difficult one by Bryant, but Artest quickly reacting rolled into the lane, grabbing the ball and throwing a hideous shot, which ended up scoring for the Lakers.

“That was a Lucky Shot”, shouted Phoenix striker.

Things changed at the Staples Center when opponent team’s Jason Richardson threw a three pointer with only 3.5 seconds to spare. The crowd was already angry as Artest missed the baskets quiet a few time as they shouted to ask him to spot shooting.

But then after, Artest, had the whole stadium running his name. It was stunning and surely unbelievable as the buzzer rang with Artest’s ball inside the basket.

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Dropbox has proven a very popular cross-platform file syncing service. Its simplicity has enabled it to stand out from the crowd and the swiftness with which it adopts new platforms and devices, having recently been made available for Android and iPad devices, has also made it universal. And things are getting better, an upcoming version brings one of… (read more)

Shannon Price’s husband, former child star Gary Coleman is hospitalized and in critical condition. He is in a “serious medical problem” according to his family.

Gary Coleman, 42 years old, was admitted in Utah Valley Regional Medical Center to the Provo facility Wednesday after going through surgery for head trauma. He got in a fall from his home in Santaquin, 55 miles south of Salt Lake City. The family did not want to release further details about the Gary’s current condition.

Shannon Price and her father released a statement to KUTV-TV on Thursday and said that Gary Coleman was taken to the hospital and ask for prayers from supporters saying, “we hope those prayers are answered and that Gary will be able to recover and return home soon.”

This is the third time for Gary Coleman to be hospitalized this year. First he suffered seizures that occurred during a TV interview on the Insider. He also had a heart surgery last fall and that the surgery became complicated due to pneumonia. He is suffering with a kidney disease.

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Grammy winner Alicia Keys confirmed today that she and her producer boyfriend, Swizz Beatz are engaged to be married and expecting their first child together.

Musicians Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys have been together since 2008. This will be the first marriage and child for the 29 year old Grammy winner Alica Keys. Swizz Beatz on the other hand, has two other children from previous relationships.

The engagement was announced after Alicia Keys, 29, and her 31-year-old fiance, real name Kasseem Dean or most popularly known as Swizz Beatz, attended the Black ball in London, in aid of Keys’ Keep a Child Alive charity. Their representatives told People.com that the couple “are expecting a baby and are engaged to be married in a private ceremony later this year.”

Alicia Keys is a famous American singer and songwriter. She has won 12 Grammys in her music career and she recently appeared as a mentor on “American Idol” a few weeks ago. Swiss Beatz is a famous American record producer, DJ, and rapper who has worked with Jay-Z, Gwen Stefani and Beyonce, etc.

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Paramore vocalist Hayley Williams is creating a big buzz over twitter because her topless photo has been allegedly uploaded to twitpic.

Hayley William’s nude photo was already removed but many people have already seen it. Her pose in the photo was like staring seductively into the camera, and was tweeted out to her 600,000+ followers of Twitter Thursday. The twitpic quickly got over 5,000 views before being removed, going completely viral. Some people downloaded it so it’s still in the web.

Many of her fans commented on her topless photo saying “WTF,” “OMG,” or “R U Crazy!?” Then she claims that her account was hacked, she tweeted, “well… my night just changed drastically. got hacked.”

But many people do not believe that her account was really hacked. There are possibilities that she uploaded the wrong photo or she meant to send it in a direct message. Or maybe it’s some kind of publicity stunt?

What do you think? Was she hacked or was it a trick to boost her publicity? Let us know in the comments.

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Mozilla has released the fourth update to the recently launched Jetpack SDK. Four new high-level APIs have been introduced in Jetpack SDK 0.4 and several other bigger features. Some of the APIs and changes planned for the 0.4 release have been deferred to the upcoming Jetpack SDK 0.5, scheduled to come about a month from now.
read more)

First thing that you will need to know about the airplane is it’s parts. An airplane is more than a propeller, a wing and an engine.

The body of airplane is called the fuselage, which holds the pilot and the passengers, along with the baggage.

The empannage is the tail of the airplane and it consists of horizontal and vertical stabilizers. The horizontal and vertical stabilizer and parts of the wing are movable to provide the pilot means to control the airplane.

The Basics on how to control an Airplane. Generally, the different movements of your controls would cause the corresponding movements in the airplane.

Pulling the control wheel towards you will raise the elevator, which in turn would force the tail down and nose up. Doing this will serve more lift than gravity and in turn will let the airplane climb. To help produce the extra lift the air needs to climb, add additional power from the engine. You will need to use the throttle control.

Pushing away the throttle control wheel away from you would lower the elevator, forcing the nose down and tail up. This reduces the the lift and gravity makes the airplane descend.

The rudder pedals control the movement of the plane in the same way as the rudder of a boat. Pushing the right rudder pedal produces movement to the right likewise the left pedal produces same movement to the left.

Turning the control wheel enables you to raise or lower either the right or left wing which enables the plane to turn faster than using only the rudder.

These are the basics of flying an airplane. Remember that if you are not an expert, do not fly an airplane without professional help. Unless, of course, if unexpected events would need of it.

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YouTube has never been just about the videos but about the community around them as well. With hundreds of millions of users, though, the community can get pretty crowded and less than useful. YouTube is now introducing a new tool that should help even video creators with millions of followers to interact with them. With Google Mo… (read more)

Google has officially announced its acquisition of mobile advertising startup AdMob. The acquisition was held off for more than six months as the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigated the possible monopoly implications of the deal. Google owns the largest online advertising network in the world and, at the time, AdMob was the largest mobile advertiser… (read more)

YouTube, the online video sharing giant, on which the Government of Pakistan had imposed a Ban, went back online in Pakistan after the IT Ministry lifted the restrictions. YouTube was amongst the 1,200 URLs, which were blocked access after a row about the “blasphemous” content on the Internet. YouTube is the 3rd most searched or visited page from Pakistan and enjoys great customer database which results to billions of dollars in revenue.

An official word from the ministry included:

“YouTube has been unblocked but the links to sacrilegious content would remain inaccessible in Pakistan.”

Even after the ban was lifted, some 550 URLs on the site remained blocked along with the other 1200 URLs. Internet Service Providers continued to block material leading to such URLs. The clampdown started after a Facebook user organized a contest to draw the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), naming it draw Mohammad Day. This sparked the Muslim community, which took to roads and protested upon which the Lahore High Court ordered Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to block all such content.

Traffic to YouTube amounted to 25 percent which later increased by another 8 percent after the ban was lifted. Muslims continue to protest as they wait for the hearing to proceed on Monday regarding Facebook ban.

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While courts in nearby Norway rejected attempts to force ISP Telenor to block The Pirate Bay, the story appears to be quite different in Denmark. There, Telenor (which had been Tele2) was ordered to block The Pirate Bay, followed by a higher court upholding the block. Now, the Danish Supreme Court has weighed in and again insists that it’s perfectly fine for courts to demand an ISP totally block a website.

Apparently the ruling hinged on a questionable bit of Danish copyright law that makes an ISP liable for the content sent by users, because “the ISP makes temporary copies of small fragments of the copyrighted work as IP packets pass their routers.” Of course, if you read the law that way, that puts tremendous liability on any ISP. It seems wholly unreasonable to interpret the law that way — and, in fact, some point out that this appears to go against EU law. The article also notes that the questionable clause in Danish copyright law that puts this burden on ISPs was written by a guy who (you guessed it) now works for the recording industry. Funny how that works.

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Homebrew coder Popolon has recently released a new version of MsxDS, a MSX/MSX2/MSX2+ emulator for the Nintendo DS. Check out the what’s new in version 0.83 after the jump.
 
Download: msxDS v0.83 (http://dl.qj.net/nintendo-ds/emulators/msxds-v083.html)

Last Thursday, The former child star, Gary Coleman was said to be in a serious medical condition in a Utah hospital after injuring his head. Janet Frank, a spokeswoman for Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo does not want to reveal any information regarding his condition, but stated that Coleman’s family can answer questions regarding what happened. However, the family didn’t want to discuss further about his condition.

The actor is best known for his role as Arnold Jackson in the American sitcom, Diff’rent Strokes. He has congenital kidney disease caused by Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis. A Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis is an autoimmune disease where in there is destruction and alteration of the kidney which causes stunted growth. He had undergone kidney transplant and requires daily dialysis. This is a sad situation for Coleman since his health problem is getting serious. Only recently, he was reported that he had seizure after the set of “The Insider”.

Gary Coleman was married to Shannon Price. It was a secret ceremony and she even was the one who proposed to him. Coleman says, “I don’t have issues with age, I have issues with intelligence…She’s more intelligent then I am and that’s what matters to me.” Price says, “He was really sweet and I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t grow up with Diff’rent Strokes. I actually didn’t like watching TV when I was younger.” The couple married secretly on August 28, 2007 on a Nevada mountaintop after meeting on the set of one of Coleman’s movies. The ceremony was extremely intimate. Coleman says, “Nobody was around but the minister, preacher, the videographers, the photographer, the helicopter pilot and us. That was all that was there. There was nobody else.” However, they divorced just after eight months of their marriage. Price says that Coleman has temper tantrums whereby he “stomps the floor and yells, ‘Meehhhh,’ and starts throwing stuff around…He bashes his head in the wall, too.”

Coleman’s life has been miserable since he has many financial, legal problems and emotional problems. He was even arrested because he was reported about domestic violence.

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It’s been a while since we’ve seen a project from the German tuning firm Novitec Rosso, but they have now released their Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. Upgrading Ferrari supercars for years now, Novitec brings us this finely tuned package with several performance and cosmetic changes. The cornerstone of the Novitec Rosso Ferrari program is a power increase and even sportier exhaust note with the ECU tuning and a stainless steel exhaust. Modified electronics allow the 5.7-liter Ferrari V12 to boost the power to 565 hp and 609 Nm of torque. At the track, this allowed the Maranello’s 612 Scaglietti to run from 0 to 100 km/h in less than 3.9 seconds, and accomplish an amazing top speed of more than 325 km/h.

For the Ferrari exterior styling, Novitec Rosso added 20-inch alloy rims wrapped in Pirelli P Zero high performance tires in the front, and a 21-inch rim and tire combo at the rear. Enhancing the look even further are a set of black tail lamp covers, reflectors, and side markers to give it a stealthier look. Inside the Novitec Ferrari you will find tailor made seats with leather trim and a variety of flat-bottom steering wheels.

[Source: carscoop]

Source: Fancy Tuning – the latest car tuning news

Based on the strength of its new models, Volkswagen predicts that 2010 sales in South Africa will rise twice as fast as the market.

David Powels, VW’s managing director in South Africa, said that deliveries in South Africa are expected to rise by 42% to 75,000 vehicles this year when compared to the 52,800 units sold in 2009. Meanwhile, the South African market overall is expected to increase by 20% in 2010 to 310,000 vehicles. There was an earlier forecast for sales of 290,000 cars. VW is relying on demand for the new Polo Vivo compact and Amarok pickup truck to achieve its goal of growing faster than the market. Last year, VW had overtaken Toyota Motor Corp.’s sales to become the biggest carmaker in South Africa. Notably, car demand has risen in the first quarter as economic growth accelerated to an annualized 4.6%, from 3.2% in the past three months, due to gains from the mining and manufacturing industries.

[via autonews – sub. required]

Source: Car news, Car reviews, Spy shots

The new Nissan Juke will go on sale in the UK this September. With a price that starts from £12,795, the Juke will directly rival the superminis, such as the Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Corsa and VW Polo, even if the Juke is larger and offers more features as standard.

At the entry level, the Juke offers a petrol engine that delivers 115bhp — making it more powerful than the 1.6-liter unit fitted in the Note. The 1.5 dCi unit, the only diesel engine in the range, generates 108bhp. Diesel Jukes are priced from £15,145. Both engines are exclusively available with front-wheel drive. An optional CVT gearbox is offered for petrol models however both are fitted with manual ‘boxes as standard. Continued after the jump!

The top-of-the-range Juke is equipped with a new 187bhp direct-injection petrol unit, available with both front- and all-wheel drive. The front-drive model has a six-speed manual ‘box, while the all-wheel drive variant has a CVT ‘box with a torque vectoring system — a first for a car in this segment. The all-wheel drive is priced from £19,995.

Customers may choose from three trim levels: Visia, Acenta and Tekna. Being offered as standard equipment are the following: 16-inch alloy wheels, air-con, sports seats ESP and six airbags. The Juke is designed in the UK at Nissan’s Paddington Design Centre.

The model is given SUV styling proportions, making it significantly wider and longer than a Micra. It measures 1570mm high, which means that it’s only 30mm taller. For its interior, the car’s fascia is much more conventional than the exterior. Its most prominent feature is the center console, which is painted the same color as the body and is believed to have been inspired by the fuel tank from a motorbike.

[via autocar]

Source: Car news, Car reviews, Spy shots

As the European markets become unpredictable due to the incentive programs ending or being phased out, France’s Citroen (which is part of carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen) is relying on the strong growth in China, Citroen managing director Frederic Banzet told Reuters.

The effect of the global economic crisis on the auto industry has made it necessary for government to provide incentives to raise new-car sales. But these incentives have to end and as that is happening, carmakers are turning to emerging markets to sustain their growth. Banzet describes the environment to be “more uncertain than predictable.” However, he noted that China and the South American markets are exceptions since the company clearly sees continuing growth in those countries.

[via autonews – sub. required]

Source: Car news, Car reviews, Spy shots

Tom Cruise or Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in real life was born on July 3, 1962. Is Tom Cruise dead? The popular actor and film producer will be surely missed by his fans once the “spreading news-Tom Cruise dead” is proven true! The famous actor has made every of his movie a hit. Almost every film he appeared at has achieved blockbuster status having a box office revenue totaling $100-million or more in the U.S.

Tom Cruise is still alive and the “Tom Cruise dead” news is just a rumor. No official announcement or report has been released proving that Tom Cruise died. This could be just part of the promotion of his upcoming movie with Cameron Diaz. Knight and Day is an action comedy film starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. It was in “Vanilla Sky” filmed in 2001 where the two celebrities starred together on-screen.

Tom Cruise has been a nominee for three Academy Awards and triumphed three Golden Globe Awards. His pilot main role was the 1983 film Risky Business that is described as “A Generation X classic, and a career-maker” for the actor. Tom Cruise also played the role of a heroic naval pilot in a successful 1986 movie Top Gun Tom Cruise continued in this genre playing a secret agent in a series of Mission: Impossible action films in the 1990s and 2000s. Tom Cruise also starred in many other successful films such as Jerry Maguire (1996), Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004) and War of the Worlds (2005).

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