Gates Richest for 13th Year

Microsoft founder Bill Gates ranked No. 1 for the 13th straight year, according to Forbes' list of billionaires.

Forbes' Rich List :

1. William Gates III (Microsoft)
   
• $56.0 billion
2. Warren Buffet (Investments)
• $52.0 billion
3. Carlos Slim Helu (Telecoms)
   
• $49.0 billion
  
4. Ingvar Kamprad (Ikea)
• $33.0 billion
5. Lakshmi Mittal (Steel)
• $32.0 billion
6. Sheldon Nelson (Casinos)
• $26.5 billion
7. Bernard Arnault (Louis Vuitton)
• $26.0 billion
8. Armancio Ortega (Zara Clothing)
• $24.0 billion
9. Li Ka-Shing (Diversified)
• $23.0 billion
  
10. David Thomson (Media)
• $22.0 billion

The Five Flavours of Vista

After six years of waiting Microsoft finally launched Windows Vista with five flavors, designed for specific target markets.

Vista Home Basic is designed for those who want the latest version of Windows - without the frills. There will be no fancy interface or added benefits.
Vista Home Premium is designed for those who want the latest version of Windows - with added frills of the cool interface. It also come with wireless capabilities, Media Center (for recording and watching TV) as well as picture, music and video capabilities.

The other two Business versions of Vista are Vista Business and Vista Enterprise. Vista Business is designed for the office with networking capabilities, scanning and faxing features, as well as encryption abilities and Tablet usage. Business also comes the cool Vista interface. Vista Enterprise for large organizations and is not available as an off the shell product.

Vista Ultimate is the best Vista you could ever have - it combines both Business and Home Premium features together - except the Enterprise.

Source : HWM Magazine

22 Ways to Reduce Computer Eyestrain

As usual when I am surfing the Internet, I found a quite interesting articles which I thought would be helpful for all of us. The Lighting Blog posts 22 tips for reducing headaches, neck aches, or other symptoms of eyestrain at the computer.
The first and most obvious solution is to take more breaks, but the post also dives into other useful areas, like proper lighting, better hardware, and a higher level of workplace humidity (to help your dry eyes). If eyestrain and headaches are a common occurrence at your job, these tips may be able to help cure what ails you.

Click here to read.

Game to Movie

Kane and Lynch, the stars of Eidos' upcoming (and not to mention unreleased) action game Kane and Lynch: Dead Men are all set to make their Hollywood debut after Lionsgate Films acquired the rights to the franchise.


Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a dark and gritty tale of two men bound by circumstance as they wait on death row for their final sentence. One is a flawed mercenary, the other a medicated psychopath. The two are forced to embark on a violent and chaotic journey, hating each other every step of the way. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a story driven, fully co-operative third person action shooter title, with intuitive crew mechanics, heavily populated destructible real-world scenarios, a volatile partnership and brutal attitude.

Source : Tech2

Faces of Microsoft Windows

It started out as an API that third parties could use to develop graphical applications. It was originally called "Interface Manager"

They released the first version of Windows that could display more than one application at a time. It was 1987 - Almost 20 years ago we were introduced to Windows 2.0

Still - Most applications were still being written for DOS. Microsoft kept plugging away. The 386 processor was released by Intel, and provided a hardware opportunity for real multitasking. People started hearing about Windows 386, which became what we now know as Windows 3.0

Microsoft hit a milestone with 3.0 - Released in early 1990, it sold over 10 million copies. It became the most popular graphical user interface ever made.
Everything really took off with Windows 3.1 - 3 Million copies were sold within the first 2 months of its release.

Chicago was the code name for Windows 95.

With great fanfare Windows 95 was released in August of 95

In the mean time, Windows NT was evolving in the corporate world. It wasn't really until Windows 2000 that consumers got a taste of this much more powerful operating system.

Microsoft had made a few fumbles along the way. After Windows 98, they released Windows ME - an abomination!

Finally, in 2001 - Microsoft was able to bridge the gap, and close the books on the Win 9x line of the operating system. Windows NT was now at the core of their flagship consumer operating system - Windows XP.

Windows XP has been extremely popular. Last check - 80% of Windows based PCs are running Windows XP. We have waited for almost six years for a new version of Windows. The time is now.
Microsoft - its been a great ride so far. Lets hope Vista would make a great success.


Source : IntelliAdmin

Apacer Handy Steno AH320

It looks nice and decent price. So what's the cool thing about this thumb drive?


The AH320 comes with the new proprietary Apacer Compression Explorer (ACE), a software
enabling file compression on the flash drive. It can provide up to 5X the original capacity of the
drive, with a maximum performance of 10MB/sec (read) and 3MB/sec (write).
1. Increase flash drive storage space
ACE simply compresses files, and not expand the drive's capacity. Compression rate depends
on the type of file being compressed, and the official rates as claimed by Apacer are as follows:

File Compression

txt 50%
exe 40%
bmp 19%
pdf 67%
wav 81%
jpg 84%
doc (text only format) 22%
ppt (text only format) 31%
ppt (text + photo format) 79%

2. Drag and drop ease of use
ACE is simple to use with no complicated interface. To compress files, just drag and drop the
file(s) to the flash drive directory. It is that easy!
3. Password protection
The file security, implemented via a password prompt, is activated when the Handy Steno
flash drive is plugged in. ACE not only compresses files, but can also secure your personal
data.
4. Preset directory settings
When files are dragged and dropped into ACE, the compressed files can be saved into the
directory you choose. This directory can easily be set or changed.

Nokia Announces USB Charger

Nokia is finally offering a USB charger adapters that will work with any Nokia phone.

The world is finally changing. After most phones (like most Windows mobile handsets and recent ones from Motorola and LG) have started offering standard USB chargers and China trying to make it compulsory to include USB ports in all phones. Nokia seems to have realized this and is offering a truce: a charger that plugs into the USB slot on any PC, laptop or Mac, and recharges from there.

There are two models available, a 2mm one (CA-100) and a 3.5mm one (CA-70). No word on the price or availability, however. There are lots of such third-party cables available out there, but this one is the official one.

Source: Tech2