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• reliable web development services
• reliable web design services
• reliable web hosting services
• e-commerce services
• content management system
• reliable graphics design. . .
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• Microsoft Media Player shreds your rights: 'Think DRM was bad already? Think I was joking when I said the plan was tostart with barely tolerable incursions on your rights, then turn thethumbscrews? Welcome to Windows Media Player 11, and the rights get chippedaway a lot more.'
• Microsoft DRM To Get Even Tighter: 'I think I'm going to wait for Windows Media Player 12 to come out, whichreportedly will include DRM that doesn't let you listen to your music atall. All the major recording labels are on board with this format, so we mayfinally get a realistic alternative to iTunes without the clumsy Mac-likeinterface. Plus, it won't cost much more per track than the average iTunessong now. There will also be more visualizations included to help youimagine what the music you're playing actualy sounds like.'

• ETNL is an Offshore Outsourcing Company
• that offers Software Development Services
• Web Designing services, Digital Language
• SEO Services, Software Development. . .
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In the echo of the Supreme Court’s resounding affirmation last week of the rights of individuals to a fair trial, of the limits of the power of the executive, and of a system of checks and balances—in other words, the principles on which our country was founded, ill-defined war or no—this 230th anniversary of the independence of our country seems especially dear. So I like to turn back to the source of much of that dearness, as well as to look around for some other words of inspiration. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in the last letter of his life, ten days before his death:

May it [the Declaration of Independence] be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.

The emphasis, of course, is mine.

FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA TONIGHT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HANFORD CA

57 AM PDT WED OCT 4 2006

...FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA TONIGHT...

.A COLD...WINTER-LIKE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM OVER THE PACIFIC ISFORECAST TO MOVE INTO CENTRAL CALIFORNIA TONIGHT THROUGH THURSDAYBRINGING THE THREAT OF THE FIRST SIGNIFICANT SNOW TO THE SIERRA.AREAS FROM NORTH OF KINGS CANYON TO YOSEMITE WILL HAVE THEGREATEST THREAT OF SIGNIFICANT SNOW BEGINNING THIS EVENINGAND CONTINUING AS SNOW SHOWERS THROUGH MUCH OF THURSDAY ATELEVATIONS ABOVE 6000 FEET.

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FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA LATER THIS

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HANFORD CA846 PM PDT MON OCT 2 2006

...FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA LATER THISWEEK...

.A COLD...WINTER-LIKE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM OVER THE PACIFIC ISFORECAST TO MOVE INTO CENTRAL CALIFORNIA WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHTHURSDAY BRINGING THE THREAT OF THE FIRST SIGNIFICANT SNOW TO THESIERRA MOUNTAINS. AREAS FROM NORTH OF KINGS CANYON TO YOSEMITEWILL HAVE THE GREATEST THREAT OF SIGNIFICANT SNOW BEGINNINGWEDNESDAY EVENING AND CONTINUING AS SNOW SHOWERS THROUGH MUCH OFTHURSDAY AT ELEVATIONS ABOVE 6000 FEET.

CAZ096-031200-/O.CON.KHNX.WS.A.0015.061005T0200Z-061006T0200Z/SIERRA NEVADA FROM YOSEMITE TO KINGS CANYON-846 PM PDT MON OCT 2 2006

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FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA LATER THIS

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HANFORD CA513 AM PDT TUE OCT 3 2006

...FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA LATER THISWEEK...

.A COLD...WINTER-LIKE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM OVER THE PACIFIC ISFORECAST TO MOVE INTO CENTRAL CALIFORNIA WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHTHURSDAY BRINGING THE THREAT OF THE FIRST SIGNIFICANT SNOW TO THESIERRA MOUNTAINS. AREAS FROM NORTH OF KINGS CANYON TO YOSEMITEWILL HAVE THE GREATEST THREAT OF SIGNIFICANT SNOW BEGINNINGWEDNESDAY EVENING AND CONTINUING AS SNOW SHOWERS THROUGH MUCH OFTHURSDAY AT ELEVATIONS ABOVE 6000 FEET.

CAZ096-031800-/O.CON.KHNX.WS.A.0015.061005T0200Z-061006T0200Z/SIERRA NEVADA FROM YOSEMITE TO KINGS CANYON-513 AM PDT TUE OCT 3 2006

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FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA LATER THIS

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HANFORD CA445 PM PDT TUE OCT 3 2006

...FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA LATER THISWEEK...

.A COLD...WINTER-LIKE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM OVER THE PACIFIC ISFORECAST TO MOVE INTO CENTRAL CALIFORNIA WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHTHURSDAY BRINGING THE THREAT OF THE FIRST SIGNIFICANT SNOW TO THESIERRA. AREAS FROM NORTH OF KINGS CANYON TO YOSEMITE WILL HAVETHE GREATEST THREAT OF SIGNIFICANT SNOW BEGINNING WEDNESDAYEVENING AND CONTINUING AS SNOW SHOWERS THROUGH MUCH OF THURSDAYAT ELEVATIONS ABOVE 6000 FEET.

CAZ096-041100-/O.CON.KHNX.WS.A.0015.061005T0200Z-061006T0200Z/SIERRA NEVADA FROM YOSEMITE TO KINGS CANYON-445 PM PDT TUE OCT 3 2006

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FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA LATER THIS

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HANFORD CA1046 AM PDT TUE OCT 3 2006

...FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA LATER THISWEEK...

.A COLD...WINTER-LIKE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM OVER THE PACIFIC ISFORECAST TO MOVE INTO CENTRAL CALIFORNIA WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHTHURSDAY BRINGING THE THREAT OF THE FIRST SIGNIFICANT SNOW TO THESIERRA. AREAS FROM NORTH OF KINGS CANYON TO YOSEMITE WILL HAVETHE GREATEST THREAT OF SIGNIFICANT SNOW BEGINNING WEDNESDAYEVENING AND CONTINUING AS SNOW SHOWERS THROUGH MUCH OF THURSDAY ATELEVATIONS ABOVE 6000 FEET.

CAZ096-040000-/O.CON.KHNX.WS.A.0015.061005T0200Z-061006T0200Z/SIERRA NEVADA FROM YOSEMITE TO KINGS CANYON-1046 AM PDT TUE OCT 3 2006

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FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA TONIGHT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HANFORD CA944 AM PDT WED OCT 4 2006

...FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA TONIGHT...

.A COLD...WINTER-LIKE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM OVER THE PACIFIC ISFORECAST TO MOVE INTO CENTRAL CALIFORNIA TONIGHT THROUGH THURSDAYBRINGING THE THREAT OF THE FIRST SIGNIFICANT SNOW TO THE SIERRA.AREAS FROM NORTH OF KINGS CANYON TO YOSEMITE WILL HAVE THEGREATEST THREAT OF SIGNIFICANT SNOW BEGINNING THIS EVENING ANDCONTINUING AS SNOW SHOWERS THROUGH MUCH OF THURSDAY AT ELEVATIONSABOVE 6000 FEET.

CAZ096-050045-/O.CON.KHNX.SN.Y.0011.061005T0200Z-061006T0200Z/SIERRA NEVADA FROM YOSEMITE TO KINGS CANYON-944 AM PDT WED OCT 4 2006

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FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA TONIGHT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HANFORD CA158 PM PDT WED OCT 4 2006

...FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA TONIGHT...

.A COLD...WINTER-LIKE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM OVER THE PACIFIC ISFORECAST TO MOVE INTO CENTRAL CALIFORNIA TONIGHT THROUGH THURSDAYBRINGING THE THREAT OF THE FIRST SIGNIFICANT SNOW TO THE SIERRA.AREAS FROM NORTH OF KINGS CANYON TO YOSEMITE WILL HAVE THEGREATEST THREAT OF SIGNIFICANT SNOW BEGINNING LATER THIS EVENINGAND CONTINUING AS SNOW SHOWERS THROUGH MUCH OF THURSDAY ATELEVATIONS ABOVE 7500 FEET.

CAZ096-050500-/O.EXT.KHNX.SN.Y.0011.061005T0700Z-061006T0100Z/SIERRA NEVADA FROM YOSEMITE TO KINGS CANYON-158 PM PDT WED OCT 4 2006

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FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA LATER THIS

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HANFORD CA233 PM PDT MON OCT 2 2006

...FIRST WINTER-LIKE SYSTEM TO MOVE INTO THE SIERRA LATER THISWEEK...

.A COLDER, WINTER-LIKE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM OVER THE PACIFIC ISFORECAST TO MOVE INTO CENTRAL CALIFORNIA WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHTHURSDAY BRINGING THE THREAT OF THE FIRST SIGNIFICANT SNOW TO THESIERRA. AREAS FROM NORTH OF KINGS CANYON TO YOSEMITE WILL HAVE THEGREATEST THREAT OF SIGNIFICANT SNOW BEGINNING WEDNESDAY EVENINGAND CONTINUING AS SNOW SHOWERS THROUGH MUCH OF THURSDAY ATELEVATIONS ABOVE 6000 FEET.

CAZ096-030400-/O.NEW.KHNX.WS.A.0015.061005T0200Z-061006T0200Z/SIERRA NEVADA FROM YOSEMITE TO KINGS CANYON-233 PM PDT MON OCT 2 2006

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I've always owned Canon cameras and was looking around for a new small digital camera and decided on the Canon SD500.  I haven't had a small camera for a few years - the last being a Canon S100 (the original digital Elph/Ixus) which I enjoyed using.  My goal with this camera is to be a companion to my digital SLR mainly for use when carrying the SLR isn't practical, so this is more of a backup camera.

First, the basics.  The SD500 is small.  It's about the size of a deck of cards.  Small doesn't mean featureless though, it has a resolution of 7.1 megapixels and a 3x optical zoom.  Storage is via an SD card.

What's in the box?  Just the basics that you would expect, a USB cable, battery and an A/V cable.  There isn't an included cases which is a shame as the camera looks like it could get scratched easily and it would be nice to have something to protect the large LCD on the back of the camera.  Canon do sell an accessory kit though which is highly recommended as it includes a case and a battery which can often be purchased for less than the cost of the battery.

Canon include a 32 megabyte SD card with the camera which will store just 9 photos at the highest resolution and quality. A 1 gigabyte card will hold about 360 images.

The camera is pretty easy to use with an intuitive menu system operated with the buttons on the back of the camera.  When turning the camera on you'll be greeted with an irritating noise from the internal speaker, thankfully this can easily be disabled in the customization menus, which also allow you to change the noise made when a photo is taken (a shutter sound is just fine thank you) and the background picture displayed when turning the camera on - not a feature I'd ever care about.  Startup time is good, the camera is ready to be used almost straight away, which wasn't the case for earlier models.  The LCD displays is large and bright and gives a good impression of the final output of a photo.

The camera has a 3x optical zoom and a digital zoom which much to my surprise was disabled by default on the camera.  I've never been a fan of digital zoom and it's nice to see Canon encouraging people not to use it by disabling it by default.  It's far better to zoom and crop on a computer than it is on the camera.

Picture quality is impressive so far.  I haven't taken many pictures yet, but I have no complaints with the output.  The camera supports USB2.0 so transfers to a computer are nice and fast - just as well with the size of the files produced.

There are a few features I want to also mention:

Stitch assist mode.  This is a great feature.  When activated the camera gives you the option of taking photos from left to right or right to left; after the first photo is taken the result is shown on the LCD display, but shrunk so you can frame your next shot against the previous shot. The camera does not attempt to stitch the photos together for you, but guides you so that you can see what you've taken so far and don't miss part of the panorama you are shooting. 

Scene assist mode.  There are a number of presets pre-programmed with general styles of photo such as 'night' 'portrait' etc.  The camera adjusts the settings automatically to be the best for that style of shot.  Useful for quick photos that you don't have time to manual configure settings.

That's it for my first thoughts; I'll post some more once I've used it a bit more. 

COMMUNITY WARNING SYSTEM MESSAGE

From: Contra Costa County Health Services

Today at 11:00 AM the Contra Costa County Community Warning System will conductits monthly siren test as conducted every first Wednesday of the month. Thesirens will sound for 90 seconds for testing purposes only. In case of an actualemergency, the sirens will sound for 3 minutes. For your information. (HORMAN)ABNNNN

For more information contact:Contra Costa Health Services Tel: (925) 260-6262

[eof]
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Over the past year or so we've seen a definite increase in the number of questions we get about open source content management and portal software at NetRelations. I'm not quite sure of the reason for this trend, but nevertheless it's refreshing to see people beginning to 'think different' in the otherwise very Microsoft-dominated country that Sweden is.

It may be a welcome change, but I find choosing a CMS incredibly difficult, and evaluating them is very time consuming and often frustrating. There are hundreds of options, one worse than the other. To date I have never come across a CMS that doesn't have serious flaws. Even if a CMS looks good at a glance, once you start digging deeper you will always encounter problems with usability, accessibility, and front-end code.

Content Management Systems

A couple of times in the past I have asked my readers for CMS suggestions, but it's been a while now. Last time we ended up using Plone, which was a real pain to work with. I don't know if the situation has improved by now (it's been three years), but just thinking about working with it gives me a stomach ache. So we want to look at other options, and I'd like to ask what you all think.

We've been looking around for a while and two of the very few systems that look like they could be worth spending more time with are ModX and Drupal. Their approaches to content handling are quite different, so they would most likely suit different kinds of clients.

The first thing I would like to get some input on is how good ModX and Drupal really are. I'm thinking both for developers who will need to customise the CMS to fit the clients' needs and for the end users who will work with the admin interfaces to create content and structure sites. I'm looking for answers to the following questions:

• How easy (or hard) are ModX and Drupal to develop for?
• How easy (or hard) is using them to create content and administer websites?
• Are there any problems creating fully standards compliant and accessible websites with either system? Do they allow full (and I really mean full) control of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript or do they contain uncustomisable black boxes?
• Are their admin interfaces reasonably accessible? If not, can they be made accessible?

That's one bunch of questions. Next, the vague topic of 'portals'.

Portal Software

Some large organisations are asking about open source portal software to use instead of commercial solutions like IBM WebSphere (WPS) or Microsoft Sharepoint (MOSS). I have some experience with both WPS and MOSS, and while making a public-facing website based on either system standards compliant and accessible is achievable with a bit of work, fixing the interface presented to a logged-in user seems more or less impossible. In other words, to be better than either of those two in the web standards, accessibility and usability departments should be really easy.

It seems that most open source portal platforms are Java based. Liferay, JBoss Portal, and Apache Jetspeed are some. They all seem like incredibly complicated pieces of software that are beyond my capability to understand. That has got me thinking... would it be possible to use Plone or Drupal as a portal? Yes, I know I complained about Plone being hard to develop for earlier, but compared to others it is pretty good at web standards and accessibility.

Does anyone reading this have experience from open source portal software? The questions I'm looking for answers to are the same as for the content management systems.

Their standards aren't our standards

As a sidenote it's pretty fascinating to note that when CMS and portal software vendors boast about 'Standards compliance', 'Open standards', and 'Interoperability' they do not mean what you might think they mean.

To them, those terms have little to do with the front-end, so having a 'Standards compliant, interoperable' portal solution does not mean that it outputs valid HTML and CSS and will work in any browser. Instead, it means it will run on any server that means the requirements. Huge difference.

To summarise this little call for input: any suggestions, hints, and recommendations on open source content management and portal software are welcome.

Add 456 Berea Street to your Technorati favorites.

Posted in Content Management.

EARLY SEASON WINTER-LIKE STORM POSSIBLE FOR THE NORTHERN

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SACRAMENTO CA

50 AM PDT TUE OCT 3 2006

...EARLY SEASON WINTER-LIKE STORM POSSIBLE FOR THE NORTHERNSIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS THIS WEEK...

.A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM DEVELOPING OFF THE COAST OF NORTHERNCALIFORNIA WILL CONTINUE THE TREND TOWARD COOLER AND MOREUNSETTLED WEATHER ACROSS THE REGION OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS. AFEW SHOWERS WILL BE POSSIBLE AS EARLY AS THIS AFTERNOON...HOWEVERA BETTER CHANCE OF MORE ORGANIZED PRECIPITATION WILL OCCURWEDNESDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT EXTENDING INTO THURSDAY AS THE LOWPRESSURE SYSTEM STRENGTHENS AND MOVES CLOSER TO THE REGION. WHILETHE EXACT TRACK OF THE SYSTEM IS STILL UNCERTAIN...IT APPEARS THATTHERE WILL BE A GOOD CHANCE FOR ACCUMULATING SNOW AT THE HIGHERELEVATIONS OF THE NORTHERN SIERRA SOMETIME DURING THE MID-WEEKPERIOD.

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David Burnett talks to the New York Times on what cameras he uses and why he mainly shoots digital now - he's another Canon 20D user.  The article is interesting, but the audio slideshow is much more interesting.  He explains that he uses a number of different cameras depending on the type of photo he's going for and on the slideshow there's a few examples.

I love my 20D, but it's not a camera that I can use all the time, it's just too big, so I also have a Canon SD500 which I've mentioned before.  I'll get different types of photos from each camera; I can't do the same things with the SD500 that I can do with the 20D, but I can take it places a 20D just isn't appropriate.  It's hard to be inconspicuous with a large SLR camera and buy the time I've tweaked the settings the moment is lost.  The SD500 I use for more spontaneous photos, I don't mess with the settings, just accept the defaults and let the camera deal with the situation and most of the time it does a great job, probably better than I could have done manually.  Take this as an example - that was shot at dawn directly into the rising sun with the SD500 and captured the scene exactly as I wanted it.  The 20D on the otherhand lets me get photos like this, which the SD500 wasn't able to manage (subjects lit entirely by candle light on a moving boat).  The SD500 also shoots video, a feature I never thought I'd use as I've always prefered still shots, but I found a few instances when video captured a scene much better than a still image could.  The 20D as you'd expect from an SLR doesn't capture video.  Different tools for different jobs.

The New York Times also has some tips on digital photography, nothing really new to me there, but it might be off interested to any just getting into digital.

I'm test driving the Google AdSense system here at Universal Rule, to see how the technology works. There is no way enough traffic to make any kind of income from the ads, but it is interesting to have a look at the AdSense system. How it works and what kind of information it provides.
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EARLY SEASON WINTER-LIKE STORM POSSIBLE FOR THE NORTHERN ...

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SACRAMENTO CA410 PM PDT MON OCT 2 2006

...EARLY SEASON WINTER-LIKE STORM POSSIBLE FOR THE NORTHERN SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS THIS WEEK...

.A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM DEVELOPING OFF THE COAST OF NORTHERNCALIFORNIA WILL CONTINUE THE TREND TOWARD COOLER AND MOREUNSETTLED WEATHER ACROSS THE REGION OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS.A FEW SHOWERS WILL BE POSSIBLE AS EARLY AS TUESDAY...HOWEVER ABETTER CHANCE OF MORE ORGANIZED PRECIPITATION WILL OCCUR TUESDAYNIGHT INTO THURSDAY AS THE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM STRENGTHENS ANDMOVES CLOSER TO THE REGION. WHILE THE EXACT TRACK OF THE SYSTEM ISSTILL UNCERTAIN...IT APPEARS THAT THERE WILL BE A GOOD CHANCE FORACCUMULATING SNOW AT THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS OF THE NORTHERN SIERRASOMETIME DURING THE MID-WEEK PERIOD.

ANYONE PLANNING TRAVEL TO THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS OF THE NORTHERN SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS THIS WEEK SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR COLD AND SHOWERY WEATHER. ALLOW FOR EXTRA TRAVEL TIME AS THE WET ROADS WILL BE SLICK...AND IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THERE MAY BE SOME ACCUMULATING SNOW NEAR THE PASS LEVELS ON WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY.

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