Alexa Chung splits with Arctic frontman Alex Turner

Last updated at 1:49 AM on 31st July 2011

Alexa Chung is nursing a secret heartache after breaking up with Alex Turner

She may be the darling of the fashion world but presenter Alexa Chung is nursing a secret heartache – she has split from her boyfriend of four years, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner.

Rumours of romantic trouble first surfaced earlier this month when Alexa and Alex were in London for the iTunes Festival at the Roundhouse in Camden.

He was performing with his band, whose hits include A Certain Romance and Brianstorm, while she was presenting. But the couple weren’t seen together off stage.

At the time, they denied an imminent split but now friends say the relationship is over.

Alexa, 27, has moved out of the apartment they shared in Williamsburg, New York, while 25-year-old Alex is on a world tour with the Arctic Monkeys until January.

‘Alexa has moved all her stuff out and is concentrating on getting her American TV career back on track,’ says a source.

‘Alex has gigs in America next month, but none of them are on the East Coast.

'Then he is planning a UK tour. They are very busy and have grown apart, but want to keep the news quiet.’

Alexa’s spokesperson said: ‘Sadly Alexa and Alex have split, although they remain close.’

They way they were: Alexa seen here with Alex back in May in the East Village, New York. She has moved out of the apartment they shared

View the original article here

How to Create a Bootable Mac OS X USB Disk

This article will allow you to learn the necessary steps for creating your own bootable Mac OS X Leopard (or Lion) image on a USB memory stick. This might be needed if your Mac needs a reinstall or a “Repair Disk” procedure and it has problems reading the bundled Install disc. To use this tutorial a second Mac computer with a working SuperDrive or a Mac OS X Install disc DMG file will be needed.

If you ever had problems with your Mac OS X installation you know that the first thing you should do is to check the startup volume using Disk Utility.

After the check has ended and, if the errors exceed a certain level of seriousness, the Disk Utility application will require you to restart your Mac and use its Mac OS X Install disc counterpart.

Other users may have to reinstall OS X altogether, but will find, or already know, that their SuperDrive (a CD/DVD reader and write combo drive) is not functioning properly and it will not be able to read the Install disc.

Although this might happen to Mac OS X Leopard users due to faulty hardware, the vast majority of problematic SuperDrives will be encountered inside Snow Leopard running Macs.

This is due to the updated SuperDrive firmware included in either the Install disc or the software updates one has to install to reach the latest version of OS X, namely 10.6.6.
This can be fixed by flashing the SuperDrive’s stock firmware using free command line tools that one can find for free online (I will write about this process also, but at a later time because this article only focuses on allowing you to create your own alternative USB boot disc).

If you are reading this last bit of information with skepticism, than you should know that it happened to me too. Despite all my tries to make it work properly, the SuperDrive kept on munching any inserted DVDs and just popped them out in about twenty seconds.

The workaround to this issue was to create my own Leopard bootable USB memory stick. I am not suggesting a Snow Leopard bootable stick mainly because there are lots of users that have decided to buy the cheaper, Upgrade version, which I have not tested and, therefore, I’m not sure if it will work properly once written to a USB disk.

And now, here are the exact steps you should follow in order to obtain a fully bootable Leopard (or Lion) Install disc.

Step 1 (If you already have the Leopard install disc DMG file you can skip to Step 2)

Launch Disk Utility (you can find it inside /Applications/Utilities). Here select the Leopard Install disc in the list of drives on the left and click on the New Image menu entry at the top of the window. A save message will appear where you will have to select the Desktop as a destination.

Step 2

After Disk Utility has finished creating the Leopard DMG, insert your USB stick and erase all data and reformat the disk. To do this select the USB in the list of drives on the left and, after clicking on the Erase tab on the right side of the window, choose the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format and click the Erase button beneath.

Step 3

After the USB has been reformatted, download the SuperDuper app from HERE and launch it. Once SuperDuper starts, you will only have to select the DMG in the Copy drop-down menu, your USB memory stick on the right and hit the “Copy Now” button.

One can also use Disk Utility for this task but creating a bootable USB stick failed 2 out 4 times when copying the DMG to the stick (with the exact same settings each time). Creating the bootable stick using SuperDuper proved to be the perfect way to do it because it worked each of the 4 times I tested it.

The steps above can also be used to create a bootable Mac OS X Lion USB by using the InstallESD.dmg image you can find inside the Lion installer (named “Install Mac OS X Lion.app”) downloaded from the Mac App Store.

To locate the InstallESD.dmg right click the Lion installer, select the “Show Package Contents” entry, go inside the “Contents” folder, and from there into the “SharedSupport” folder. Inside this folder you can find the InstallESD.dmg you can use to create your own bootable Mac OS X Lion USB stick. To do so, go to the third step described above and use the InstallESD.dmg as the DMG to be copied to your USB disc.

That’s it! Once the process ends you will have a fully bootable Leopard (or Lion) USB disk that you can use as an alternative to the Apple’s DVD Install disc that comes bundled with all Macs.

To use your newly created bootable disk you will have to restart the Mac, press and hold the OPTION key until the Startup Manager appears. Here, select the Mac OS X Install disk using your keyboard arrows and press return to start from the selected drive.

If you have any questions or any problems while following the above steps, leave a comment and I will get back to you with an answer as soon as possible.

View the original article here

Truly Random 1.72 (Trial)

Truly Random is fulfilling all you random needs! Truly Random uses high quality pseudo random generator or true random numbers from a sound card.

Truly Random is a software that generates passwords and numbers. By using the mask feature you can configure your random string or number very precisely, you may even generate lotto numbers.

You can also automatically remove duplicate random strings or numbers, save to file, copy passwords to the clipboard, generate pronounceable passwords or remove common words from generated passwords, using a built in English dictionary.

With the math parser, you can use your own mathematical formulas to adjust the distribution, interval and/or range of the random numbers generated. The generator can handle both bell curves and fractions.

Here are some key features of "Truly Random":

· High quality pseudo random generator
· True random numbers from a sound card
· The mask feature lets you can configure your random string or number very precisely, you may even generate lotto numbers
· Remove duplicate random strings or numbers
· Save to file
· Copy passwords or numbers to the clipboard
· Generate pronounceable passwords
· English dictionary, to remove common words from generated passwords
· Uses the latest in artificial intelligence technology, to check the quality of the random input sound.
· Built in math parser.
· Bell curves.
· Random fractions.

Requirements:

· Works better with a sound card.

Limitations:

· 30-day trial
· Nag screen

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

Other:
· About 20times speedup inn pseudo-random and virtual-random generators.
Fixed bugs:
· Mask errors could cause the program to hang, fixed.
· Some incorrect error messages when pressing abort, removed.

View the original article here

AutoHotkey 1.1.01.00 (GPL)

Customize your keyboard, joystick, and mouse with an open source scripting language (AutoHotkey) that is backward compatible with AutoIt v2. AutoHotkey it includes a quick-start tutorial, an automatic script writer (macro recorder) that records your keystrokes and mouse clicks, and a comprehensive help file.

Automate almost anything: Send keystrokes & mouse clicks; launch programs / documents; work with the clipboard, registry, & soundcard settings. In addition to its automation features described below, AutoHotkey excels at hotkeys, able to make virtually *any* mouse/joystick button, keyboard key, or combination into a hotkey.

AutoHotkey it can also individually disable or override Windows' own shortcut keys, such as Win+E and Win+R. It may also help alleviate RSI; for example, it can create substitutes for Alt-Tab using keys, mouse wheel, or buttons.

With AutoHotkey, you can:
· Automate almost anything by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks. You can write a mouse or keyboard macro by hand or use the macro recorder.
· Create hotkeys for keyboard, joystick, and mouse. Virtually any key, button, or combination can become a hotkey.
· Expand abbreviations as you type them. For example, typing "btw" can automatically produce "by the way".
· Create custom data entry forms, user interfaces, and menu bars. See GUI for details.
· Remap keys and buttons on your keyboard, joystick, and mouse.
· Respond to signals from hand-held remote controls via the WinLIRC client script.
· Run existing AutoIt v2 scripts and enhance them with new capabilities.
· Convert any script into an EXE file that can be run on computers that don't have AutoHotkey installed.

Here are some key features of "AutoHotkey":

· Change the volume, mute, and other settings of any soundcard.
· Make any window transparent, always-on-top, or alter its shape.
· Use a joystick or keyboard as a mouse.
· Monitor your system. For example, close unwanted windows the moment they appear.
· Retrieve and change the clipboard's contents, including file names copied from an Explorer window.
· Disable or override Windows' own shortcut keys such as Win+E and Win+R.
· Alleviate RSI with substitutes for Alt-Tab (using keys, mouse wheel, or buttons).
· Customize the tray icon menu with your own icon, tooltip, menu items, and submenus.
· Display dialog boxes, tooltips, balloon tips, and popup menus to interact with the user.
· Perform scripted actions in response to system shutdown or logoff.
· Detect how long the user has been idle. For example, run CPU intensive tasks only when the user is away.
· Automate game actions by detecting images and pixel colors (this is intended for legitimate uses such as the alleviation of RSI).
· Read, write, and parse text files more easily than in other languages.
· Perform operation(s) upon a set of files that match a wildcard pattern.
· Work with the registry and INI files.

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· Added support for instance variables in class definitions, using simple assignment syntax.
· Added new built-in variables: A_ScriptHwnd and A_PriorKey.
· Added new built-in functions: GetKeyName(), GetKeyVK(), GetKeySC() and IsByRef().
· Added new sub-command: WinGet, OutputVar, ProcessPath.
· Added the capability to specify a window by process name or path: ahk_exe %Name%.exe or ahk_exe %FullPath%.
· Optimized ProcessName sub-command of WinGet.
· Changed SetTimer to use A_ThisLabel if Label is omitted.
· Updated ComObjConnect() to support using an object in place of a function name prefix.
· Improved ComObjConnect() to allow the prefix/object to be updated without first disconnecting.
· Improved parsing of continuation sections to allow expressions like (x.y)[z]() without escaping "(".
· Replaced the method used to store script text in 32-bit compiled scripts; now consistent with 64-bit.
· Fixed detection of AltGr in the active window's keyboard layout (on Unicode builds).
· Fixed SendInput app...

View the original article here

Kim Cattrall: Leaves Sex and The City behind for new film Monica Velour

By Chris Sullivan

Last updated at 12:35 PM on 29th July 2011

When Kim Cattrall was a 17-year-old innocent in Hollywood, making her debut in a film called Rosebud, she was called to one side by the director, Otto Preminger and told she reminded him of Marilyn Monroe.

Then came the punchline. ‘Not in your looks, of course, but in your lack of talent’, he said, and strode away. 

For the devastated Cattrall, it was a career-defining moment — although he had intended to fatally wound rather than provide her with helpful advice.

Poles apart: Kim Cattrall in Meet Monica Velour, in which she plays a former star of adult movies who is reduced to dancing in a sleazy strip club

‘Actually, he was right,’ she says now. ‘I was terribly na?ve and not at all glamorous, with wild hair, scruffy jeans, and no make-up. It dawned on me that my looks were going to be every bit as important as my acting ability. It made me realise that maybe I needed to dress up a bit.’

This paid off years later when, at 41, she was to win one of the most glamorous roles on offer and make her name, and fortune, as the man-eating New Yorker Samantha Jones in Sex And The City.

But this was only after building up an acting cv that would have put the long-dead Preminger’s ridicule to shame.

It was still, however, a huge challenge when she was offered her latest role, as a bloated, ageing, former star of adult movies, whose looks have gone west, and bosom has dropped south, lives in a haze of drink and drugs in a trailer park, and is reduced to dancing in a sleazy strip club where the customers call her grandma.

The Sex and the City girls: Cattrall played man-eater Samantha Jones

Meet Monica Velour is a far cry from Sex And The City. ‘I had to think about it long and hard,’ she says. ‘Then I thought, “I’m not interested in being a sex icon for ever”. So I uglied down .

‘I had to put on 20lb for the role and I loved it. I ate rubbish meals and McDonald’s and chips and puddings and just everything. I got a spare tyre round the middle and wore clothes to match.

Now she’s back to her glamorous self. Sitting in a Soho hotel suite she is back to her normal weight, but is still curvaceous and wears a dress that fits like a glove. Her make-up is restrained and complements a face untainted by either botox or surgery.

Kim Cattrall has a career defining moment when a director said she reminded him of Marilyn Monroe for her 'lack of talent'

What is refreshing is that, unlike her co-star and great rival in SATC, Sarah Jessica Parker, she is not a slave to her appearance.

She seems comfortable in her skin — and she would need to be to play Monica.

‘When I filmed the first strip scene, I was surrounded by proper dancers, as extras,’ says Cattrall. ‘They’d all looked after their bodies, they knew how to move, and it made the contrast with me all the more obvious. 

‘Part of the scene was all the jeering Monica had to put up with. By the end, I fled to my dressing room and cried my eyes out. I’m not made of stone.’

After years of making films that didn’t set the world alight, when she was offered Sex and The City, she still turned it down three times.

Kim Cattrall says she is not interested in turning herself into a Barbie doll and trying to compete with younger actresses

‘I started reading the original book by Candace Bushnell, and I threw it across the room. I found it so depressing — about women who are ready and men who are running,’ says Cattrall. ‘I thought, “How can they make a series of half-hour programmes about this? And make it comedy, too?” 

‘So I kept saying no until a friend asked me to meet Darren Star, the show’s writer and producer, as a favour. 

‘He persuaded me to at least have a screen test. They had already hired someone else to play Samantha Jones, but they let her go when I signed up. 

‘I don’t have any regrets. Samantha gave me a life after 40. She was so powerful, so positive.’ 

She adds: ‘Sex And The City has given me the financial security to do films like Meet Monica Velour. Early on in my career when I did a film called Tribute with Jack Lemon, I asked him: “How do you have longevity in this business?”

‘He said: “You take risks.”

And no one can doubt that taking on the role of the multi-layered Monica was one of those risks. To her credit, Cattrall succeeds beyond expectation.

‘The most difficult thing was to find Monica’s  dignity,’ she says. ‘She smokes she drinks; she’s from the South, so the voice had to be huskier than mine. 

‘I eventually found a masseuse who had just the right voice. I was paying her $250 a week just to listen to her speak!’

Like many of the women she has played she is tough, independent, and supremely confident. She has been divorced twice and had another marriage annulled but says she considers divorce not a detriment but an action taken by an independent woman, one who decided to have a career instead of children.

Cattrall is comfortable in her skin and wants to follow the likes of Helen Mirren who aren't afraid of playing their age

But she does not shy away from the actuality of her profession. ‘The highs are great but the lows are: Can I pay my rent or not? Am I good enough? Am I pretty enough, smart enough, young enough?’ says Cattrall.

She won’t, however, try to compete with younger actresses by going in for the obligatory expensive uplifts.

‘I am not interested in being a Barbie doll and turning myself into a sausage for the next 20 years. I want to follow actresses like Helen Mirren and Judi Dench who have lines on their faces and aren’t afraid of playing their age.’

She adds: ‘Me saying yes to Monica got it made and that made me extremely happy. And I will keep going for as long as possible. That would be great.’

Meet Monica Velour is out now on DVD.

View the original article here

Horrid? Henry's just goo-some

By James O'brien

Last updated at 12:18 AM on 29th July 2011

Horrid Henry: The Movie (U)

Verdict: Not big and not clever

For anyone whose life has not been touched by one of the 16?million Horrid Henry books sold in Britain alone, our eponymous hero is best regarded as a latterday Dennis the Menace.

The flatulent bogey-lover’s first foray into film boasts a mostly British cast of almost ludicrous pedigree, and has optimistically set it sights on cornering the post-Potter market.

Brothers at war: Perfect Peter (Ross Marron) Horrid Henry (Theo Stevenson) Moody Margaret (Scarlett Stitt)

The sub-Roald Dahl plot is initially promising, as we meet recidivist Henry (Theo Stevenson) and his parents (Mathew Horne and Siobhan Hayes) in a garish suburban world reluctantly shared with a hilariously supercilious younger brother Perfect Peter (Ross Marron) and blighted further by obnoxious neighbour and arch-enemy Moody Margaret (Scarlett Stitt).

It is when we get to school that things begin to unravel, both for Henry and, alas, the film itself.

As the star around which the Purple Hand Gang (Beefy Bert, Aerobic Al, Rude Ralph and sundry other cartoonish alliterations) revolves, Henry embarks upon a campaign of mischief which ultimately sees his teacher Miss Battleaxe (Anjelica Huston) sacked by headmistress Miss Oddbod (Rebecca Front).

Three decades fewer on the clock would doubtless lighten my perspective, but the slapstick here seems gauche, while the script fails to provide the game young cast with much in the way of character or comedy.

Not even a villainous masterclass from Richard E. Grant as rival headmaster Vic Van Wrinkle can lift the air of forced jollity.

It is Wrinkle’s evil designs upon Henry’s school that propel the rest of the plot and, after an avalanche of bodily-function jokes and goo, Henry and co. contrive to save it by appearing on a TV game show.

Younger viewers will no doubt be more impressed than parents, but a bona fide family film this, categorically, is not.

Neither, unfortunately, is it close to the quality that the combination of cast and source material should have delivered.

View the original article here

Softpedia Giveaways 2011: 20 Licenses for PostworkShop Artist Edition

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July 30th, 2011, 11:01 GMT| By Ionut Ilascu

Technological progress has managed to change the way art is expressed, and yesterday’s easel and paint brush have been traded for digital tools. Our giveaway this week is for PostworkShop Artist Edition; we have 10 licenses to spare, in exchange for crafty comments.

The lines you drop at the bottom of this article simply have to be relevant to the application and the features it makes available. You can compare it to similar tools or express your experience with the demo version of the application which lets you become familiar with most of the options.

Even if it is not the richest in features, the $49 Artist Edition of PostworkShop does not fall short of styles or photo effects. Besides the 400+ built-in styles for drawing, graphics, sketches, acrylic painting or watercolor, the possibilities are expanded by blending them and creating new layering effects.

Taking a gander at the feature list or presentation on the developer’s website might send off users less skilled in digital imaging and photo painting; but the difficulty in handling the application is resumed to clicking on the right layers and blending them together in a creative way. So all you need to obtain unique results is a sharp eye for the fine arts.

Your chances to win one of the 20 free codes are only as good as your comment. So make your remarks as honest and witty as possible.

You have a week to post your message, until Friday, so that you can also test the program and form a pertinent opinion of it. Don't forget that we need a valid contact email address

For a full list of the software featured in our giveaway campaign you can check this article on a weekly basis, keep an eye on the weekly giveaway tag or receive the info by following the Softpedia Giveaway Twitter account.

Note: The winners will be picked from the comments section of this article, and will be contacted in 5 days after the giveaway expires. They will have to provide their full name in private (when required) in order to collect their prize. No other information except for your comment and the alias / nickname you provide will appear online.

We urge you to not double post and, most importantly, be original because pasting from different sources on the Internet will get you kicked from the giveaway campaign.

Copyright © 2001-2011 Softpedia. Contact/Tip us at Read by 1,425 user(s) | Link to this article
Comment #1 by: archip87 on 30 Jul 2011, 11:18 GMT

after you've finished with your work you can start PostworkShop Artist Edition

Comment #2 by: Luis on 30 Jul 2011, 11:31 GMT

Simplesmente divinal , muito bem elaborado , facil e pratico

Comment #4 by: asrielrusdyawan on 30 Jul 2011, 12:34 GMT

Please count me in for the Giveaway! I like to have this tool to enhance my skill in image editing.

THX, LJBU!

Comment #5 by: ararobotic on 30 Jul 2011, 12:35 GMT

Thanks for the Giveaway Sir. Please count me in.
Best Regards.

Comment #7 by: Arslan on 30 Jul 2011, 12:54 GMT

Crafty mean:
1. Skilled in or marked by underhandedness, deviousness, or deception.
2. Chiefly British. Skillful; dexterous.

So Imaging is my quality and i just can't understand why this will go to wrong hands. I want to draw,paint,colour and design etc so i need it or should i say i deserve it. no matter what.If i don't win at least one license then all and each of you will have to answer me at the day of judgement.So instead of going all that trouble just simply give me what i truely deserve.Thanks in advance

Comment #8 by: Mohan on 30 Jul 2011, 13:00 GMT

Art is the expression of feelings, the way it is expressed has changed dramatically with the lapse of time. It has came into existance way back in primitive era. We can still find the traces of it in ancient caves. From caves it made it's way to canvas and from canvas to desktop, in this age of rapid communication, it has served as a basic tool for design, apart from a hobby art has wide scope and applications. The way it has made the way from different medium, tools used for expressing them have also changed from stones, brush to paint application. I still remembers the way i used to create the drawing on simple paint application which comes preinstalled on my OS. Oh God how horrible it was. Totally digital, it doesn't look like a real art at all. A perfect art application should promise a digital representation of a real picture, so the success totally depends how intelligent the application is. Hope postworkshop will go long way as far as new demands and expectations are concerned.

Comment #9 by: TechSupporter on 30 Jul 2011, 13:06 GMT

When you need an easy application to get stunning and unique effects plus the most artistic manipulations for your graphical needs, PostworkShop will help you to appear like an art?s master.
Outstanding results at your fingertips.

Comment #10 by: Azhar on 30 Jul 2011, 14:06 GMT

This is the software that I like, he can edit images / photos, this could make pictures / photographs we become adorable,,, for those who like to edit edit the images using this software ...

Comment #11 by: Jim on 30 Jul 2011, 14:21 GMT

It is a wonderful software for designing and imaging of arts.

Comment #12 by: Sudip on 30 Jul 2011, 14:40 GMT

Just what I need to unleash my inner artist. Please count me in.

Comment #13 by: witwoj77 on 30 Jul 2011, 15:32 GMT

Best contest with a very good program, I recommend it to anyone.

View the original article here

Rebecca Black’s Debut Album Drops in August

Get ready for some “fun fun fun.” After the release of her second single and, admittedly, proving to the entire world that she too can carry a tune, Rebecca Black is getting ready to release her debut album. It drops in stores in August.

In an interview with MTV News, the YouTube sensation says that she was extremely nervous about “My Moment,” her second single, thinking that it could never top the song she became famous with, “Friday.”

She also wanted to prove that she wasn’t just some teen girl auto-tuned into sounding like a singer: she really has the chomps to try and make it big in the industry.

Her debut album, which is yet to receive a name, will hopefully prove that for once and for all.

“The song was written for me,” she says of “My Moment,” which is officially the lead single off her debut album, out in stores next month.

“And it really fit what was going on and all of the bully and hate topic is in right now with songs, and so it fit that as well. It’s a very inspiring song,” Black adds.

After “Friday,” which was dubbed by major music publications the best worst song ever put out, Rebecca had a lot to prove, including that she was a genuine singer and not just a YouTube chick everybody could make fun of.

“Again, I wanted people to able to take me seriously because I felt like this would be the right thing to do. I wanted to start building what could be a really great career, but this industry, it’s so unpredictable,” Rebecca says in the same interview.

“You could be the big thing for a month or four months, and then kind of fall off the face of the planet. And I felt my whole team kind of felt like it was a great way to put me here for an amount of time,” she adds.

See Rebecca explain her choice of a first single in the video below. 

View the original article here

Zookeeper review: Talk about animal magic

By James O'brien

Last updated at 12:18 AM on 29th July 2011

Zookeeper: (PG)

Verdict: Slapstick animal charm

Rating:

Zookeeper Griffin Keyes (Kevin James) values job satisfaction and the animals that create it far more than he does material rewards.

This would not be a problem, were he not in love with beautiful bimbo Stephanie (Leslie Bibb), who values material rewards more than anything.

Kevin James stars in the Zookeeper with Jackie Sandler - and they share this scene with a huge gorilla

Five years after she blamed his lowly status for rejecting his proposal, Stephanie sashays back into still smitten Griffin’s life with the possibility of reviving romance — if he finds lucrative employment.

So far so romcom, especially given the presence of Kate (Rosario Dawson), a zoo colleague to whose beauty and obvious affection Griffin is apparently blind.

Yet there is nothing formulaic about what follows. Dismayed at their keeper’s woeful mating efforts, the animals decide to teach him their own — and reveal the ability to speak.

Thus a dizzying array of vocal talent — Sylvester Stallone as a misogynistic lion; Cher as his wise wife, to name but two — instruct Griffin in the arts of romance: dog, bear, monkey and lion-style.

The ensuing slapstick has more than a touch of the curate’s egg, but James’s deft comic touch ensures more hits than misses.

Unambitious it may be, but there is plenty of childish humour and, thanks to Dawson’s perfectly-judged performance, just enough story to satisfy grown-ups of a sentimental disposition.

View the original article here

Secret Garden Party 2011: Blondie, Leftfield, Vintage Trouble and Mystery Jets

By Jody Thompson

Last updated at 9:59 PM on 28th July 2011

It was possibly around the time that I was crossing my arms to make a man dressed as the rabbit from Donnie Darko change direction. Or perhaps it was when I had to make a 'bunny ears' sign with my fingers to make him follow me so that I could graduate from a 'reality test' set at the start of the festival that I realised I was totally under the spell of the Secret Garden Party yet again.

A four-day fantastical al fresco fandango founded in 2004, it was my seventh year at a bash which has just got better and better over the years to maintain its position as the best event of its kind in the UK, if not the world.

A magical mix of music, art, surreal sights, non-stop parties and carefully orchestrated chaos, it's the friendliest festival on the planet, to the extent even rubbish is at a minimum as everyone clears up after themselves in true courteous community spirit.

High energy: Leftfield headlined the Secret Garden Party on the Saturday night this year and got the massed festivalgoers rocking

Set in the stunning Capability Brown landscaped grounds of a mansion near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, as soon as you step foot on site you are transported away from everyday life into a wonderland of bacchanalian revellery in which it truly feels like you're part of a unique - if dysfunctional - family with your fellow gardeners.

Attention to detail is everywhere, from the lack of branding from sponsors to the unique gourmet food stalls (thanks in particular to the delicious offerings from the Goan Fish Curry stall), to the festival goers themselves pulling out the stops to dress up.

This year's theme was Origins And Frontiers, but it could be interpreted however you wanted. Mostly, girls were resplendent in wood fairy-esque flower head garlands with lashings of glitter and brightly-coloured wigs. That pretty much went for the men too.

Some of the best costumes on site rather inexplicably included three men dressed as the Jamaican bobsled team, complete with sled, and someone dressed as a men at work roadsign, complete with shovel. How he managed to get into or out of the portable toilets remains unclear.

There are mind-bending, thought-provoking, or smile-inducing sights at every step. A giant sequinned sculpture of the word 'YES' floats in the lake near a giant dragonfly in the centre of the water on an island on which dozens of people dance under the midday sun as swans glide by.

Tide is high: Thousands packed before the main Great Stage to sing along to Blondie for one of the highlights at the festival near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire

A few more steps, and a tree has branches filled with bird cages stuffed with clocks, while another's trunk has been yarn bombed with a giant knitted jumper - all the better for hugging.

A stage floats at the side of the lake packed with people dancing as people row lazily past in boats. Some braver souls strip naked to swim with the moorhens.

A mysterious giant glitter arrow hangs above a dark corridor next to a stall selling Kigu costumes, giant animal suits that are the latest craze in Japan. A midnight meander down the zigzagging alley lit with neon stripes eventually and unexpectedly disgorges you into a full-blown rave, where mansize pandas threw shapes next to ladyshaped dogs and dinosaurs.

A short hokeycokey away is the Dance Off stage, built to resemble a wild west saloon with a boxing ring as the area of combat between two fleet footed competitors, and where the roars of the crowd dictate who has the best steps.

A wander across site past giant swings hanging in the trees brings you to the Collosillyum, an enormous ampitheatre made of a straw bales and scaffolding which houses a round-the-clock party. At one point as we walk past, an MC is encouraging brave souls to crowd surf across the dancing masses using actual surfboards and at other times, the SGP Mud Wrestling Federation was in full swing.

In a far-flung corner of the site, the Artful Badger area is a magical, fairylit copse which saw dancing to a souped up version of Frankie Laine's Ghost Riders In The Sky at 2am on Sunday morning.

Just magical: The four day bash is unlike any other festival in the UK - if not the world

Near the tent where I had undertaken my 'reality test' on Friday - sample questions from the men dressed as psychedelic scientists from the Inevitable University 'What is more real? Red or blue? Unicorns or vampires?' - is the Asstrology tent, where apparently, a quick feel of a bottom can help predict the bearer's future.

We could have listened in to expert lectures from the likes of Bad Science academic Ben Goldacre at the Guerilla Science and The Forum tents too, launched ourselves into a huge ballpit soundtracked by jungle and dubstep, posted a letter to anyone on the site via the Secret Postal service or chilled at Chai Wallahs for acoustic music and a shisha.

However, experiencing your end of days at It's Your Funeral as a ceremony is conducted around you as you lay in a six foot deep hole in the ground was a bit too dark a concept perhaps - and the naked rave we witnessed perhaps a bit too free.

You could ground yourself in other ways however at The Source, a sanctuary on the edge of the site where a whole manner of holistic treatments were on offer.

Party lovers: Revellers at the Secret Garden Party are a rather unique breed too

I decided against a gong bath, reiki or an Ayurvedic Rope Massage and instead went for a spot of Zero Balancing, a gentle hands-on therapy based on principles of osteopathy and acupressure that claims to fix body and mind.

I spent a blissful half hour getting my troublesome back, neck and shoulders sorted in the open air under the sun to the sound of ducks quacking and a Bob Marley singalong on the main stage - thanks to the expert hands of London-based practitioner Lynne Carpenter.

My friend Rachel meanwhile visited the Pink Pamper Parlour's secret salon where she could have got a complete facial and aromatherapy body scrub, but plumped for a henna tattoo of a badger.

Yes, she'd been totally SGPed too...

One of the stand-out highlights was the shamanic burning of the giant dragonfly in the centre of the lake on Saturday night as dozens of fire jugglers surrounded the shore and hundreds of neon balloons where sent floating skywards before a massive firework display. It was phenomenal.

Another was a paint fight between a crowd of hundreds packed in front of the mainstage on Sunday evening. As if everyone wasn't colourful enough, after organisers had handed out hundreds of bags of powdered pigment, people were wandering around with their whole bodies in lurid shades of pink, purple, green and blue as a multi-hued haze hovered above.

Oh yes, and there was music.

Friday saw an uplifting set despite the rain from eccentric indie pop stalwarts Guillemots, with a satisfying surprise appearance from Belgian art rockers Das Pop before a wonderful closing set of wistful indiepop from Mystery Jets.

Closing ceremony: A huge powder paint fight, along with a ritual burning of a sculpture in the middle of the lake, have become SGP traditions

Saturday afternoon saw The Correspondents get the afternoon off to a swinging start before Blondie had the thousands massed at the main Great Stage singing along to One Way Or Another and The Tide Is High. It was left, ahem, to Leftfield to get the whole field bouncing to their booming electronic beats backed by some astonishing graphics on the big screens.

Some of the best musical treats however were to be found on the smaller stages. The Crossroads provided one of my favourite discoveries of the weekend, the fantastic Vintage Trouble at 1am on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

A modern soul-funk outfit from Hollywood, huge-voiced frontman Ty Taylor put in one of the most amazing performances of the weekend, and at one point was literally swinging from the rafters of the voodoo blues-styled canvas marquee with the crowd whooping and hollering in a frenzy below.

Divine harmonies wafted by the beautiful Where The Wild Things Are stage as Muscle Shoals, Alabama duo The Secret Sister sang their rootsy country melodies surrounded by a proscenium arch made entirely of tree branches on Sunday afternoon.

Alabama 3's (mostly) acoustic set was perfect for those chilling out on a perfect English summer afternoon after exerting themselves playing crazy golf, croquet or giant Buckaroo and Hungry Hippos. Their acoustic version of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart featuring the massive soul stylings of singer Aurora Dawn in tribute to Amy Winehouse caused the hundreds watching, rapt, to suddenly all get something in their eye...

The wonderful Bees then put the smile back on everyone's faces with their limb-bothering sunshine tunes including personal favourites Wash In The Rain, Chicken Payback and A Minha Menina.

Motown legends Martha Reeves And The Vandellas meanwhile rounded things off on Sunday night with the apt Heatwave after a day of unbridled sunshine, leaving the temporary inhabitants of the SGP sunburned but with fried synapses soothed - ready - as they'd ever be - to head back into the real world.

And how do you feel heading back home after a weekend of such festivities? Your face literally hurts from smiling. That's the secret spell of SGP. Roll on next year...
 

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Breaking up with Blake: Amy Winehouse to release album from beyond the grave charting turbulent split from husband

By Lara Gould

Last updated at 10:36 PM on 30th July 2011

Her first two albums charted her rise from obscurity and her struggle to find love with the man who would become her husband.

Now Amy Winehouse's posthumous third album will give a blow-by-blow account of the tumultuous years that followed, telling of the marriage and divorce from drug addict Blake Fielder-Civil.

It maps her decline into alcohol and drug addiction that contributed to her death last Saturday.

Lovers: Blake Fielder-Civil with Amy Winehouse pictured in 2007

A spokesman for Amy's family said that throughout last year she had been working on a follow-up to her last release, 2006's critically acclaimed Back To Black.

'Amy always had a notebook on her and would write down lyrics and ideas,' he said. 'People who have heard the new songs say that they are very, very good and that they are as autobiographical as ever.

'The period after 2006 was when Amy went through the most emotional upheaval, with Blake going to prison and then their divorce.'

Fielder-Civil, 33, was jailed for seven months in 2008 after an attack on a pub landlord. The two-year marriage ended in divorce in 2009.

'In loving memory': A bottle of Vodka is left among the tributes outside the home of Amy Winehouse after the singer died yesterday of a suspected drug overdose

'Your in our hearts': Tributes tied to the fence near Winehouse's Camden home

Amy, who died aged 27 at her ?1.8 million North London home, had been working on the third album with Miami-based producer Salaam Remi throughout the last year. She had recorded up to a dozen songs during a working trip to Jamaica.

Most of the songs are demos, for which Amy penned lyrics and laid down a backing track. Sources said it was likely they would be released next year, using Amy's vocals or contributions from friends, with proceeds going to a charity set up by her father Mitch to help others struggling with addiction.

Mr Remi, who co-produced Back To Black, said the new album was still a 'work in progress'.

Heyday: Since her death, Winehouse's second album, Back To Black, has topped the charts in 17 countries

Meanwhile, Amy is said to have been worth ?6 million when she died, much of it in companies overseen by her father. Industry insiders now put that fortune at ?10 million – and rising – because of lucrative tours before her death and sales after it.

One said: 'We are seeing the creation of an international cult around Amy. The fortune it creates could top ?60 million or more.'

Since her death, Back To Black has topped the iTunes charts in 17 countries.

Britain's Official Charts Company said Amy could have seven songs in this week's Top 40.

View the original article here

Weekend Reading: XCOM Could Be the Contemporary Strategy Game

I was always a strategy gamer first and one of the biggest complaints I have when looking at the current gaming landscape is that there are less and less big strategy titles coming out as the years pass me by. And, if the statements of one studio executive are to go by, the situation might become even worse in the near future and most strategy linked game titles might come to describe action-oriented video games.

Here's the full quote from Christoph Hartmann, who is the president of XCOM creators 2K Marin at the moment: “The ‘90s generation of gamers all love Xcom and we own the IP, so we thought OK, what do we do with it? Every studio we had wanted to do it and each one had its own spin on it. But the problem was that turn-based strategy games were no longer the hottest thing on planet Earth. But this is not just a commercial thing – strategy games are just not contemporary.”

I can vouch for the fact that, being born in 1983 and introduced to gaming in the first years of the last decade of the 20th century, I worshiped at the altar of UFO: Enemy Unknown, the first of the X-Com video game and the best of them all.

In a lot of ways the mix between turn-based strategy battles, resource management and light role playing has not been equaled since.

And I understand how the people at 2K Games thought that they could use some of the concepts seen in that game and the name to create a new experience, set in another time frame and using mainly the mechanics of the third-person action and shooter mix.

But I don't get why they don't use a different name for the game they are creating and reserve the use of XCOM (as they write it) or X-Com (as I remember it) for another set of games that update the mechanics of the strategy genre and try to push it forward, try to make it contemporary with the games we see today.

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The Only Way Is I Quit: Amy Childs leaves TOWIE after bosses veto her plan to appear on Celebrity Big Brother

By Jody Thompson

Last updated at 2:19 AM on 30th July 2011

The Only Way Is Essex star Amy Childs - arguably the most popular character on the reality show - has apparently quit after bosses nixed her plan to appear on the relaunch of Celebrity Big Brother.

Amy, 21, has made no bones of her career ambitions and was offered a rumoured ?200,000 to appear on the new Channel Five version of the reality show.

But ITV2 chiefs put their foot down as they don't want TOWIE stars appearing on other reality shows. 

Ambitious: Amy Childs, pictured left on Thursday on This Morning with Brian Dowling and Imogen Thomas, is said to have quit The Only Way Is Essex over her career plans

A source told today's Sun newspaper: 'The Only Way Is Essex is a community show. It stars TOWIE people, not Big Brother wannabes - it's new and fresh. 

'It's bizarre that Amy wants to do a show that was axed last year for being out of date. It's sad she's leaving - viewers like her. But no-one is bigger than the show.'

There has yet to be any comment from Amy or her manager Claire Powell at CAN Associates. 

Fan favourite: The reality star, seen here at the ITV studios in London last week, is said to have fallen out with TOWIE bosses over her plan to go on Celebrity Big Brother

Rumours first surfaced in May that Amy was leaving the show that made her famous.

Then, she took to her Twitter page to deny the reports and wrote: 'For future records I am not leaving towie.'

It had been said she wanted to pursue her own show after feeling overshadowed by newcomers Gemma Collins and Joey Essex.

Amy, who introduced the vajazzle to the nation, idolises Katie Price and has previously said she wants to be 'bigger than Jordan.'

The Only Way Is Exit? Amy, (L) with co-stars Sam Faiers and Jessica Wright

TOWIE is due to start filming soon and bosses want to show to become even bigger.

It already has an average audience of 1.4 million, a devoted online following and a Bafta audience award.

Last week, it was reported that bosses are pushing for the 'scripted reality' show to be on for 48 weeks a year like medical soaps Casualty and Holby City.

If the plan comes off, it would start after Christmas.

The third season of The Only Way Is Essex meanwhile is due to start on ITV2 in the autumn.

View the original article here

Genome Architecture Variations Underly Differences in Humans

The results of a new study on the genetic makeup of humans appear to indicate that subtle, little-studied differences between the fundamental architecture of individual genomes may be responsible for the genetic variation of our species.

Thus far, researchers believed that point-by-point mutations called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) were the cause of these differences, but the new work indicates that this is not the case.

SNP have been studied extensively over the past few years, as they constitute the first place geneticists look when they are trying to detect the root cause of diseases. Numerous treatment targets have already been identified through these studies.

While the scientific community has been focusing on these mutations, the large-scale structural variations that the human genome display were largely left unstudied. These differences manifest themselves through a variety of ways.

These include additions or omissions of long DNA sequences, duplications and reversals of said sequences, and other large-scale changes that affect the genome. The study indicates that these changes play a fundamental role in the genetic differences between individuals.

“Our observations suggest that structural variations are more specific to individuals than single nucleotide polymorphisms are,” a team of scientists at the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) writes.

The experts, led by researcher Jun Wang, published the results of their analysis in the July 24 issue of the top scientific journal Nature Biotechnology, Wired reports. The group explains that large-scale changes are more difficult to detect than SNP on account of the technologies we use for such studies.

Most DNA sequences methods rely on breaking long strands of DNA apart into smaller pieces, and then trying to piece them back together. This is far cheaper and faster to do, and this is why observing large-scale variations is nearly impossible using existing apptoaches.

“One reason you’ve heard more about single nucleotide polymorphisms, that they’ve come to the fore even though they’re a more minor form of variation than these structural variants, is that they were easier to see,” Yale University bioinformaticist Mark Gerstein comments.

“Structural variations are a very hot topic. They’re probably the major form of variation in humans,” adds the expert, who was not a part of the current investigation.

In the new study, Wang and his team compared structural variations in the genomes of 106 people that were selected from the 1000 Genomes Project. Previously, the team used a proprietary technique of analyzing genome architecture in panda bears.

“Defining structural variations will be of considerable importance for future analyses of personal genomes,” the team concludes.

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Cell 211: This jailhouse rocks!

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 8:31 AM on 15th July 2011

Verdict: Brutal but captivating

Rating:

Terrific prison movies don’t come along every year. Nor do gripping thrillers with a startlingly original central idea. Just as rare are foreign language films that are well-paced, tightly plotted and deliver a memorable story with rounded characters, brilliantly acted, to a mainstream audience.

Cell 211 is all these things. The hero is rookie prison guard Juan (Alberto Ammann).

He has taken the job because his last gig in a slaughterhouse didn’t work out, and he needs money because his pretty wife (Marta Etura) is six months pregnant. He’s a nice, handsome, open-faced chap, like a taller James McAvoy.

Staying alive: Alberto Ammann plays Juan, a warder who is caught up in a prison riot with thuggish inmates in the Spanish thriller Cell 211

He’s shown round a Spanish jail by two more experienced, cynical colleagues. With characteristic keenness, Juan has turned up a day early to find out how they cope with the high-security prisoners. ‘This will give him an idea,’ smirks one of the old timers.

The prison is in poor repair, and a lump of falling masonry from the ceiling knocks Juan out. The warders drag him into a bunk in an unoccupied cell — 211 — and go to find help.

By unfortunate coincidence, a prison riot breaks out.

The older jailers realise their lives are in danger and escape. Juan wakes up to find himself a lone symbol of hated authority in a uniquely dangerous situation.

So he rids himself of shoelaces, wallet and wedding ring — all potentially fatal evidence that he’s not a prisoner — strides into a public area, and tries to pass himself off as a recently admitted murderer.

It’s a situation deliciously fraught with suspicion and menace. Can this innocent, with no tattoos or street credibility, really pass himself off as a criminal? Will he remain on the side of the authorities, and help quell the riot? Or will he ‘go native’ and join the convicts?

At first, the film resembles a straightforward good-versus-evil action thriller — essentially Die Hard in a prison, with Juan a resourceful hero, impressing, befriending and occasionally daring to confront the intimidating, scary Malamadre (Luis Tosar), the bald, seemingly psychotic alpha male among the prisoners, a swaggering dictator who sounds like Lee Marvin gargling with gravel. He’s the most frightening screen presence since Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs Of New York.

The tension between Juan and Malamadre is the lynchpin of the film, and both actors are as expert as Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush were in The King’s Speech.

Juan knows his best hope of staying alive is to remain tight with Malamadre. The bright but uneducated Malamadre comes to realise that Juan is a shrewd tactician, unlike the morons who are his usual sidekicks.

But then the riot takes on unexpected dimensions. There is a political angle, for the prisoners take hostage some unpopular Basque terrorists.

The authorities fear an invasion by police might trigger murders of the ‘political’ prisoners, with nationwide repercussions.

Other factors include the prison authorities’ incompetent public relations and the kneejerk violent reactions of certain warders. Juan becomes uncomfortably aware the prisoners have legitimate grievances.

He also finds himself cruelly compromised — and brutalised — by his own desire to  stay alive.

Terrifying: The film features one of the scariest bad guys in years, played by Luis Tosar (far right)

Be warned that this film is not for the squeamish. Wrists and a throat are slashed, an ear is sliced off, and there are stabbings and shootings galore.

But this is not the kind of slick, cynical violence we’re used to seeing in Hollywood films; it is shot for maximum realism and shock value, and it has a sickening power.

Like all the best prison melodramas, the movie places a decent, sympathetic character in a believable situation where conventional morality no longer applies.

However extreme his reactions, Juan remains a sympathetic protagonist — far more so, to my mind, than Malik, the slippery anti-hero of this film’s French counterpart, A Prophet — and the movie neatly avoids the usual, optimistic Hollywood cliches.

For there have been similar situations before. You may remember Tim Robbins struggling for survival among brutish inmates in The Shawshank Redemption, as an innocent man jailed for murder.

Johnny Depp was also memorable as Donnie Brasco, an undercover cop finding himself increasingly in sympathy with gangsters he was supposed to be bringing to justice.

Cell 211’s descent into nightmare and moral chaos also evokes memories of two Scorsese films: Gangs Of New York and Shutter Island. Despite these echoes, director Daniel Monzon and co-writer Jorge Guerricaechevarria (adapting a novel by Francisco Perez Gandul) ensure that the storyline remains on a logical yet constantly surprising route.

Authenticity is maintained despite the numerous plot-twists, because the quality of acting is remarkably high, and some smaller roles are played by some extremely menacing real-life prison inmates.

The film-makers wisely resist the temptation to make Juan a classically upright Hollywood hero. In taking a more pessimistic direction, the film comes across as infinitely  more realistic.

The way the film shows a young man being drawn into violence and coming to terms with some very uncomfortable aspects of his own masculinity reminded me of Fight Club, another film that uses extreme violence to make pertinent points about the human condition.

Cell 211 won eight Goyas — the Spanish Oscars — and is about to be given a Hollywood remake by writer-director Paul Haggis, whose politically correct track record (Crash, In The Valley Of Elah) suggests he  will make it a good deal  more conventional and, I  fear, preachy.

One thing you can depend on is that it won’t have the courage or innovative spirit of the Spanish movie — and I bet they give it a softer ending. I would strongly recommend you to seek out the original.

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My Screen Recorder Pro 3.3 (Trial)

My Screen Recorder Pro will help you capture the screen activity from your computer to a video fie.

My Screen Recorder Pro helps you record your PC desktop screen activity to AVI, WMV or Flash files. This advanced screen capturing tool can capture anything you see on the computer screen, including the entire desktop, windows, menus, cursors, and even video with sound.

You can use My Screen Recorder to develop videos to demonstrate features of a Website, software product, for creating movies used in user training or any other task that requires capturing desktop activity.

You can also speak into the microphone while recording is in progress to include audio with the recorded video.

My Screen Recorder also helps you organize your recordings into Personal Folders for easy management.

The program is easy to use, you can select from a framed area capture or full desktop recording. You can adjust the video quality settings to reduce file size, use custom cursors and more.

Here are some key features of "My Screen Recorder Pro":

· Record what happens on your screen and create to AVI, Flash or Windows Media (WMV) format
· Create tutorials and presentations
· Record the entire desktop, a desktop region or a specified window
· Schedule screen recordings to automatically start and stop at a specified time
· Automatically launch and record a particular URL at a specific time
· Use the Screen draw feature to make diagrams or highlight important items
· Auto Task feature allows you to convert and publish recordings while continuing to work on other tasks
· Create time-lapse screen recordings
· Make WMV recordings suitable for a streaming server
· Split and join screen recordings
· Automatically create HTML pages for your web site with embedded screen recordings
· Balance size and quality by fine tuning frame rate, audio quality, compressors and more
· Script and integrate My Screen Recorder Pro using its command line interface
· Record either monitor of a two monitor system, or create a single recording showing both monitors
· Organize your screen recordings in easily accessible folder shortcuts
· Generate and distribute self-contained and self-playable executables.

Requirements:

· 300 MHz Processor
· Minimum 256 MB RAM
· Minimum 100 MB of Hard Disk Space on installation drive
· PC microphone is optional

Limitations:

· Watermark on all recorded files
· 30 days trial
· Nag screen

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· Draw on screen while you record: Allows you to highlight and grab attention with drawing effects on the screen as you record.
· Create MP3 Audio: Record audio from microphone, line-in or speakers and save it to standard MP3 format.
· Remembers previous recorded settings: Start screen recording using hotkey with same dimensions which you have selected previously.

View the original article here

Japanese Man Arrested for Possession of Malware

A 38-year-old Japanese man was arrested for storing a virus on his computer without a legitimate reason, marking the first enforcement of the country's new anti-malware legislation.

Last month, the Japanese parliament gave a favorable vote to a revision of the Penal Code that added offenses related to the creation, distribution and possession of malware.

Under the new law, which went into effect on July 14, malware writers can receive prison sentences of up to three years and fines of up to 500,000 yen (US$6,200).

Furthermore, people who acquire or store malware on their computers with no legitimate purpose, face two years imprisonment and fines of 300,000 yen.

The Daily Yomiuri newspaper reports that Yasuhiro Kawaguchi, 38, was arrested last Sunday, at his house in Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture, by officers from the Metropolitan Police Department.

Investigators had reason to believe that Kawaguchi released and possibly created a trojan that infected over 2,000 users.

The piece of malware was designed to steal all images found on the infected machines and send them over the Internet. The high number of files caused some machines to freeze when the trojan ran its payload.

Prosecutors were only able to charge Kawaguchi with possession of malware because he admitted to storing the malware on his computer. Other charges might be added later depending on what the evidence gathered at his house reveals.

"Thanks to the revised Penal Code, we were able to take quick action, preventing the virus from causing more harm" a senior MPD official told the Daily Yomiuri.

Another Japanese virus writer was sentenced on Wednesday to two and a half years in prison. At the time of his arrest, in August last year, the new legislation was not in place and prosecutors charged him with destruction of property instead.

View the original article here

The Violent Kind: Low budget biker mess

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 1:38 AM on 22nd July 2011

The Violent Kind (18)                                                              

Verdict: The violent cruel, surely 

Rating: A turkey

Few weeks pass without some new brutalised shambles being offered to audiences.

This week’s effort is a low-budget biker movie which starts out in a city with its thuggish, dope-smuggling heroes joyfully  beating up some rivals for reasons that are never explained.

The violence, voyeuristically directed by the aptly named ‘Butcher Brothers’ (their real names are Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores), moves to an even more sordid rural location.

The Violent Kind: Low budget and low in entertainment

In turn the bikers are terrorised, demonically possessed and horribly tortured by assorted overacting weirdos, who turn out to be an advance party of wacko rockabilly aliens from outer space.

There’s absolutely no one to care about here.

The acting is abysmal, and the gloating depiction of violence is hard to take, unless you’re extremely thick and perverted.

Bikers and blood: The Violent Kind

For anyone with taste and an I.Q. of over 50, this latest, exceptionally deranged and incoherent example of torture porn is the pits.

It doesn’t even have the sick, defiantly primitive sense of humour that made last week’s nastiest offering, Hobo With a Shotgun, just about bearable for the first five minutes.

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Scammers Exploit Attacks in Norway

Scammers have already started exploiting people's interest into yesterday's deadly attacks in Norway's capital, Oslo, and the island of Utoya.

Events that get international coverage, whether natural disasters, tragic accidents, terrorist attacks, etc., are favorite topics for scammers as they provide a large pool of potential victims.

An explosion that killed seven people and injured 15 others in downtown Oslo yesterday, and the subsequent shooting of tens of youths at a Utoya camp, have shocked Norway and the world.

Reports about the changing death toll and the suspect arrested following the attacks are still coming in and are quickly propagated via social media websites like Twitter or Facebook.

Unfortunately, this offers a good opportunity for scammers to take advantage of the tragedy. Security researchers from Sophos warn that at least one viral scam is currently spreading on Facebook by advertising a video of the Oslo blast.

"The message spreading across thousands of people's walls on Facebook reads: [URL] [Video] OSLO Security Camera Captures Blast! [Video] OSLO Security Camera Captures Blast!" warns Sophos Senior Security Advisor Chester Wisniewski.

Opening the link takes users to a page asking them to click on "Jaa" in order to see the video. "Jaa" means "share" in Finnish and people who click on the button will post the same message on their own wall.

The end goal is to trick users to participate in "surveys" in exchange for the promised content. Each victim who agrees to do this earns money for the scammers.

While this particular scam is spreading on Facebook, users should also watch out for other types of attacks, like search engine black hat SEO, particularly on Google images. These schemes usually direct users to scareware websites that push fake antivirus programs.

View the original article here

Okdo All to Png Converter Professional 4.2 (Demo)

Quickly convert your files to png using Okdo All to Png Converter Professional. You can batch convert any document, PDF, image, website etc to png with ease. The program can convert with high output quality and very fast speed. It supports various formats as doc, docx, docm, xls, xlsx, xlsm, ppt, pptx, pptm, txt, rtf, pdf, htm, html, url, jpeg, jpg, png, emf, wmf, bmp, pcx, jp2, j2k, gif, tiff etc.

Here are some key features of "Okdo All to Png Converter Professional":

· It is a standalone program which does not need Adobe Acrobat software support.
· Simultaneously convert massive different format files to png once to save time.
· Support the encrypted PDF.
· Separately convert each page of PDF to one image.
· Use AdobeReader to convert PDF to image.
· Convert all the pages of PDF to one image.
· Convert Pdf to png with retaining the original text, image, graphics, formatting of PDF.
· Set the framework size of the loaded htm, html,website.
· Use pagination to output Word/RTF original content.
· Support merge multiple sheets of Excel to convert.
· Set the image watermark.
· Set the output image page size.
· Automatically extract the url address to convert from the input character strings.
· You can add the whole folder to convert.
· Save List: Save the converted files to a list.
· Load List: Load the saved list files directly to convert.
· You can set to open the output folder when conversion finished.

Limitations:

· Converts up to 3 files
· Watermark on the output file
· Does not support batch conversion
· Nag screen

View the original article here

Katy Perry shows off new blonde hair after accidentally going ginger

By Sarah Bull

Last updated at 7:24 PM on 22nd July 2011

She called her accidental ginger hair style an 'epic fail' on Twitter,

So it's no wonder Katy Perry looked so delighted as she showed off her newly-blonde tresses during an interview on MTV News yesterday.

The 26-year-old singer beamed as she appeared on the show wearing an unusual striped asymmetric dress.

New look: Katy Perry showed off her new blonde hair during an interview on MTV News yesterday

Katy, who is a natural blonde, has spent years maintaining her hair as a dark brunette, even dyeing her eyebrows and eyelashes to match.

However, after deciding she wanted to change her dark hair to a lighter blonde shade, Katy was told by hairdressers the process would have to be done in two stage.

So, for the past few weeks, Katy has been sporting strawberry blonde locks, and tweeted fans she wasn't too impressed with her new look.

Excited: Katy looked delighted with her newly-lightened tresses

Sexy in stripes: Katy is also excited about being nominated for nine awards at the MTV Video Music Awards

She wrote: 'So I didn't get to the exact color (sic) I wanted from being black for so long! 2get to goal I have 2b GINGER for 3WKS.

'If I don't wait 3wks, I'll end up w/no hair or a #pixie90scutw/abarretteinthefront It's okay, I'll get to my secret color(s) soon! #patience.'

Meanwhile, Katy expressed her delight on her Twitter page after being nominated for an astonishing nine MTV Video Music Awards.

Purr-ty: Last month, Katy had ginger hair as she launched her new fragrance in Toronto, Canada

Process: Katy had strawberry blonde hair as she completed the transition from jet black hair to blonde

Katy, who is up for prizes including Video of the Year, Best Female Video, and Best Pop Video, tweeted: 'OMG! I just got word that I'm nominated for 9 MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS!!! I'm kinda speechless/nervous/turned on! NOW it's up to YOU to VOTE!'

She later added: 'I can't sleep...I'm so excited... It feels like every birthday/christmas/first kiss I ever had. Thanks so much for believing in me. I owe u.'

However, Katy faces stiff competition from British singer/songwriter Adele, who is hot on her heels with seven nominations.

Adele, whose album 21 is the best-selling record of 2011 so far, is up in categories including Best Pop Video for her hit track Rolling In The Deep.

Natural: Pictures of Katy before she was famous reveal how she looked before her trademark black locks

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Deprecated Google Toolbar Is Keeping Users from Upgrading Firefox

Google has decided to discontinue the Google Toolbar for Firefox. It hasn't said much about it, but it did reveal that it will no longer be updating it and that it will be incompatible with future versions of Firefox.

The toolbar is already incompatible with Firefox 5 and this is causing some problems for Mozilla, which is trying to get people to upgrade from Firefox 4, the last version that supports the toolbar.

Mozilla is worried that a lot of toolbar users are sticking with Firefox 4 or Firefox 3.6 in the hope that the toolbar will eventually be updated, since Google hasn't really advertised the fact that it's deprecating the tool, or for fear of losing their data.

Mozilla held a meeting to discuss what steps can be taken to encourage people to upgrade and to help them get their data out and present them with alternatives to features in the Google Toolbar.

"We know that a large amount of users are not taking update offers to 5+ due to Google Toolbar incompatibility," Mozilla wrote.

"Many users likely expect a new version of Google toolbar to be released and marked compatible," it said.

The latest version of the Google Toolbar actually works with Firefox 5, even newer versions like Firefox 8, but it is marked as incompatible so it can't be installed in these browsers, unless you also install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter extension for Firefox, which can force install add-ons.

Mozilla already has measures to prevent extensions from being marked incompatible, even though they would work with newer versions of Firefox, especially now with the new rapid release schedule, by updating add-ons in the Mozilla repository automatically, if they pass certain tests.

The Google Toolbar add-on though is hosted by Google so Mozilla can't do anything about this. Firefox 4 is no longer supported so there's nothing Mozilla can do about it, but there is a security update for Firefox 3.6 coming in a week or two.

The group is thinking about what measures could be implemented to help users migrate from the Toolbar especially since it will be one of the last updates to the Firefox 3.6 line. [via Cnet]

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Ellie Goulding and Graham Coxon make hay down on the Farm

By James White

Last updated at 9:00 AM on 22nd July 2011

  Rating:

Saturday and as the sun beat down on the superb working Merton Farm site south of Canterbury, thousands of revellers were enjoying the laid-back vibe at this family-friendly event.

For children there were circus skills workshops and science experiments while for their parents there was the comedy tent featuring several stand-ups of note including Phil Kay, Holly Walsh and Robin Ince.

There was music to suit all tastes – ranging from folk to rap. Having grown quickly from a small local festival, the 2011 line-up boasted some big names.

Main event: Ellie Goulding wows the crowd on Saturday night at Lounge on the Farm in Canterbury

After announcing earlier in the year that he was ending The Streets, Mike Skinner gave a storming performance at what will be one of their last festival gigs before The Streets call it a day in October.

At the main stage the young crowd went for Katy B and her mega hit On A Mission and later Xample provided the perfect soundtrack for an upbeat summer’s evening with Watch The Sun Come Up and Kickstarts.

The headliner was Ellie Goulding who enchanted fans with such hits as Starry Eyed and Guns and Horses.

Great venue: Music fans gather around the main stage at the sun-kissed event

The gig was something of a home-coming for the 24-year-old who spent two years studying drama at the city’s University of Kent, and the crowd response to her every word was nothing short of ecstatic.

However, for those of a more head-banging persuasion, the evening’s highlight was Blur guitarist Graham Coxon on the Meadows stage who blew the roof off with Freakin’ Out.

Sunday was a more relaxed vibe - as you’d expect from the festival’s name - with Echo and the Bunnymen marking a successful end to this year’s festival.

LOTF attendance has grown in six years ten-fold to more than 10,000 visitors this year, but it has lost none of the small festival feel, with cowsheds being utilised for dance fans and a late-night silent disco for those not ready for their tents.

And the use of local producers to provide varied and delicious foods from burritos to a hog roast meant this had the feeling of a community affair.

On the weekend Glastonbury’s Michael Eavis declared festivals would be ‘finished’ in three or four years, the organisers of this eclectic and value-for-money event issued a stinging riposte.

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Bing Now Powers Yahoo Search in Six More Countries

Yahoo has announced that it has transitioned more of its local search properties over to Bing, switching from its own search engine technology to Microsoft's. This is another step in a big agreement between Yahoo and Microsoft for Bing to power Yahoo Search.

The two companies have reached a deal a couple of years ago in which Microsoft engaged to provide Yahoo with search technology and infrastructure, as well as power search ads, in return for a cut of the ad revenue Yahoo gets from its search engine.

The move started in the US, where Yahoo switched over to Bing last year and the two companies have been working to do the same in other countries as well.

Earlier in the year, Australia, Mexico and Brazil joined the list of countries where Yahoo had transitioned over.

Granted, it's not that big of a list, there were only the US and Canada on it at that point.

But things are moving, Yahoo has now transitioned six more countries to Bing.

"We’re excited to share some more news today as we move ahead with additional markets," Yahoo announced.

"In fact, just this week Yahoo! transitioned certain back-end functions for Yahoo! Search over to Microsoft’s search platform in New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela," it said.

Notably, Yahoo was unable to convince Yahoo Japan, which is a stand alone company in which Yahoo has a large stake, to switch over to Bing.

Instead, Yahoo Japan went with Google, giving the company a de-facto monopoly on web search in the country.

"As always, our top priority is to provide a quality transition experience and we are working closely with local teams to understand the specific needs of each country," Yahoo said.

"We will continue to keep you updated as we expect to transition additional countries across Europe and Asia in the coming months," it added.

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Beginners:

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 1:40 AM on 22nd July 2011

Beginners (15)                                                                      

Verdict: Too cute by three-quarters

Rating:

Writer-director Mike Mills made a likeable cult comedy in Thumbsucker (2005).

His second venture, Beginners, is a backward step: decently acted but so uneventful and underpowered that it will stretch the patience of mainstream audiences.

It’s almost worth watching for a modestly charming performance by Ewan McGregor as a youngish man perplexed but sympathetic when his father (Christopher Plummer, equally impressive) comes out as gay at the age of 75.

Beginners: Ewan McGregor with Christopher Plummer, who plays his father, who reveals his homosexuality on his 75th birthday

But Mills doesn’t delve deep into character, and his movie takes such care to be non-judgmental that it strays into preciousness.

Plummer’s gayness manifests itself in a liking for colourful cravats and a forced joviality around other homosexuals.

You’d never guess that sexual impulses are involved; in this movie, it’s a deliciously quirky lifestyle choice, roughly equivalent to taking up bowling in silk pyjamas.

Good start but hard to follow is the verdict on Beginners

The film is even less daring as a gut-wrenchingly twee romance develops between McGregor’s sadness-obsessed cartoonist and a depressingly personality-free French actress (Melanie Laurent).

As that relationship fizzles, so does the movie as a whole. It turns into a bland, self-pitying bore — coy and creepily self-absorbed.

I can imagine this finding an appreciative fringe audience at the Sundance Film Festival, where being non-judgmental and liberal has taken the place of religious belief, but as a commercial prospect its prospects are — let’s try to be polite and non-judgmental about this — extremely limited.

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Stem Cells May Help Control Cancer

The development of cancer and a host of other diseases is controlled by certain genes, which are either turned on or off to promote or inhibit progress. Researchers in the United States have just recently finished mapping a DNA modification in stem cells, whose power could be harnessed for new cures.

University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) experts completed the first genome-wide mapping of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC). This is a modification in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that is often referred to as the sixth nucleotide.

DNA is made up of four letters, or nucleotides, called adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C) and thymine (T). RNA substitutes one of these letters for uracil (U). These are the five known letters, and 5hmC is colloquially referred to as the sixth.

What is remarkable about this molecule is that it's most often found in genes that are active, or turned on. Now that the new map is complete, experts know where 5hmC is found in the genome at all times.

Controlling this molecule could enable researchers to develop new ways of keeping cancer in check, in addition to other conditions where gene expression dictates the course of development. Granted, it will take a few years for this to happen, but at least now experts have something to go on.

The investigation was conducted by scientists at the UCLA Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. Details of the work are published in the July issue of the medical journal Genome Biology.

The paper explains that 5hmC is formed following a process called DNA methylation, during which a single methyl group is added to cytosine. After this process concludes, an extra hydroxy group is added to the nucleotide as well.

This newly developed hydroxymethyl group can then switch certain genes on or off. It is conceivable that future therapies against a wide array of conditions could rely on forcing this switch to turn genes favoring the development of a condition off.

“Any way you can control genes will be hugely important for human disease and cancer. Cancer is generally a problem of genes being inappropriately turned off or mutated, like tumor suppressors genes, or genes that should be off getting switched on,” Steven E. Jacobsen explains.

The expert is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and a professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology at the UCLA Division of Life Sciences. He says that the new work provides geneticists with a map of where 5hmC is located in the genome.

“That is important to know, because it helps you to understand how it is functioning and what it's being used for,. We had known that DNA could be modified by 5hmC, but it wasn't clear where on the genome this was occurring,” he concludes.

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Android Went Up 634% YOY in the UK in May

Google's mobile operating system, Android, managed to score an impressive growth on the UK market since last year, a recent report from comScore shows.

The research firm notes that Android has secured no less than 26.7 percent market share in the UK back in May 2011, topping Symbian and nearing the first position on the smartphone segment in the country, currently held by iOS.

When compared to the same month a year ago, Android's increase is more than impressive: 634 percent.

A number of more than 4.7 million users chose Google's Android operating system over the past year, pushing the platform up in the charts.

The number of UK users that had a smartphone in May this year was also significantly higher than a year ago, with 42 percent in May 2011, compared to only 27 percent during the same month last year.

“The rising adoption of smartphones in the UK has created a very competitive landscape for the top 3 mobile operating systems, Apple, Google and Symbian,” the research firm notes.

As stated above, Apple's iOS platform was placed on the first position on the market in the UK in May, with 27.1 percent market share, only 0.4 percentage points in front of Android.

Nokia's Symbian platform was placed on the third position during that month, with 22.5 percent of the market. However, since the Finnish giant announced plans to move away from the Symbian OS, it was expected that the platform would lose significant ground.

Android is getting ready to take the lead on the market in the UK, as it does in various other markets around the world as well.

Only about a week ago, Google announced that it was activating 550,000 devices each and every day, and that a number of over 130 million devices were sold since the first Android phone arrived on shelves.

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Windows Live Integration Comes to Android, iOS, Windows Phone

One of the new features that mobile application developers can take advantage from when designing their software is the ability for users to access Hotmail, Messenger, and SkyDrive from their handsets as long as these run under Android, iOS, or Windows Phone.

Redmond-based Microsoft has just announced that a new release of their Windows Live developer platform was made available, and that it brings the said enhancements into the mix.

To be more precise, the new release was meant to offer Live users the possibility to easily enjoy access to their accounts while on the go, and also to benefit from integration with applications that they often use on their mobile devices.

According to Microsoft, developers will benefit from easy-to-use tools that will enable them add the new functionality with their mobile software.

Moreover, users will also enjoy easy access to the new features, as they would need to sign into their Windows Live account only once, and then Messenger and SkyDrive will be available on their devices, along with fast access to email.

Developers interested in the matter should know that Microsoft promises a streamlined process, courtesy of:

- Lightweight application setup process which requires no server-side code.
- Mobile optimized sign-in and user consent experiences
- Providing code samples which illustrate the key steps in building a mobile application that access a user’s cloud data.

In a recent post on the Windows Live blog, Microsoft provides a wide range of details on how things work, and also offers coed samples for developers interested in integrating the new functionality with their applications.

Moreover, the company promised additional samples in the near future, so as to make it easier for devs to take advantage of the new feature.

“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback that developers would like to see more code samples that show how to access data from Hotmail, Messenger, and SkyDrive from their favorite programming languages and platforms,” Dare Obasanjo, lead program manager, Messenger Connect Platform, explains.

“Rest assured that your feedback has been heard, and we’re working on providing a larger breadth of code samples as we speak.”

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Look Hugh's crooning now

By Baz Bamigboye

Last updated at 2:09 AM on 22nd July 2011

Versatile: Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman is planning to give a series of concerts in London during breaks from starring in the film version of Les Miserables.

Shooting on the movie, which is being made by Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper, will begin in the UK next February.

Hugh will play the central role of former convict Jean Valjean.

The actor has just completed a short run of his In Concert show at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, accompanied by two Broadway performers and a 17-piece orchestra.

The cracking show, developed by director Warren Carlyle and producer Robert Fox, saw Jackman giving a tour de force performance, singing classic numbers from Oklahoma!, Carousel, Dreamgirls and the Peter Allen catalogue.

He also delivered a haunting version of Over The Rainbow, joined by Olive Knight of the Walmajarri people in Wangkatjungka, Western Australia, and two gentlemen on didgeridoos.

At a matinee I attended this week, Hugh’s 11-year-old son, Oscar, took to the stage to play the didgeridoo, too.

‘I wanted to create a show where I can’t wait to do it,’ Hugh told me backstage.

He found he had a window of opportunity after filming on the next Wolverine film was put back to October.

He and his associates had already developed an earlier version of the concert, but the Mark II model is more substantial and reveals the actor to be a consummate showman.

No stranger to performing: Hugh Jackman (left) sung with Neil Patrick Harris during the 65th Annual Tony Awards in June

Hugh explained how he watched Frank Sinatra’s old Las Vegas shows.

‘I loved that “anything can happen”, relaxed feel about Sinatra — and viewing Peter Allen’s tapes also taught me a lot,’ he said. ‘We’re planning to do some Sunday night concerts when I’m in London in the spring.

‘We’re looking for the right space, and the idea is to do the shows when I’ve got time off from Les Miserables. I just want them to be fun,’ he told me, adding jokingly: ‘I feel like I should have a whisky in my hand, like Dean Martin, and then get Robbie Williams to come on and join me.’

Hugh said he expected to perform his concert show on Broadway in October next year.

He told me he met director Hooper for a three-hour audition for Les Mis. ‘I got cast early, because there was another movie I could do and I didn’t want to wait and get to November to find I had no movie at all. I told them that and I eventually got it.’

The stage version is completely sung through with no spoken dialogue. ‘That’s not going to work on film, so there’s now dialogue and songs,’ said Hugh. ‘Tom’s take on the film is very exciting.’

Hooper is still in the early stages of casting and is working with Working Title and Cameron Mackintosh on other roles.

Paul Bettany has met Hooper about playing the Inspector Javert role. Although Russell Crowe is also keen, my sense is that — ultimately — Bettany will prevail.

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