Millions of us have grown comfortable with XP and don’t see a need to change to Vista. It’s like having a comfortable apartment that you’ve enjoyed coming home to for years, only to get an eviction notice. The thought of moving to a new place — even with the stainless steel appliances, granite counter tops, and maple cabinets (or is cherry in this year?) — just doesn’t sit right. Maybe it’ll be more modern, but it will also cost more and likely not be as good a fit. And you don’t have any other reason to move.

That’s exactly the conclusion people have come to with Vista. For most of us, there’s really no reason to move to it — yet we don’t have a choice. When that strong desire to stick with XP became obvious in spring 2007, major computer makers such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard quietly reintroduced new XP-based systems (but just to business customers, so as not to offend Microsoft). Come June 30, however, even that option goes away.

So what to do? Let Microsoft decide where your personal and enterprise software “lives”? Or send a loud and clear message that you don’t want to move?

We’re going for the loud-and-clear option. Join us, and tell Microsoft that you want to keep XP available indefinitely. Not for another six months or a year but indefinitely.

And ask your friends and colleagues to join in, too. Just point them to SaveXP.com for a quick link to this page. And if you’d like to publish our countdown animation on your Web site to help promote this petition, e-mail Executive Editor Galen Gruman for the code snippet.

Don’t think Microsoft will listen? Consider this: Although Microsoft denies that anything is wrong with Vista or that most people don’t want it, the company has already postponed XP’s demise by six months. That’s a start, but it’s not good enough.

Microsoft doesn’t have to admit failure; it can just say it will keep XP available indefinitely due to customer demand. It can take that opportunity to try again with a better Vista, or just move on to the next version that maybe this time we’ll all actually want.

There is a precedent for that, too: In many respects, Vista is like the Windows Millennium Edition that was meant to replace Windows 98 in 2000 but caused more trouble than it was worth. At that time, Windows 2000 was promising but didn’t support a lot of hardware, so users were stuck between two bad choices. Without admitting Millennium’s failure, Microsoft quietly put Windows 98 back on the market until the fixed version of Windows 2000 (SP1) was available. Microsoft needs to do something like that again today.

Make your voice heard to Microsoft. Sign our petition to save XP today. It will be presented to Microsoft.

Radiohead offered their new material in download only form, and you can pay as much as you like for it, from 0,01 to 100 GBP.

download/buy history:In Rainbows

This is a great breakthrough, a cornerstone of new direct artist – fan relation, without the interference and margins forced by record companies. No more priests any more, from now on we are going to have a direct contact with our idols.

And Radiohead truly deserves and gets idolatry. Their eyeopening music and lyrics being just a part of a new era, triggered with the download only direct relation with fans, 1,2 million of them, only in two days, paying average price of 4 GBP per download, proved that there is a Jigsaw Falling into Place.

Or few millions of them, to be more exact.

I was already a huge fan of Peter Gabriel, dating back from his Genesis years, and due to this soundtrack, over the time, I’ve collected numerous Real World issues, and continued to discover the rest of the world outside. But I’ve never came across Djivan Gasparian.

Than I ran into pirate CD store in Mostar (BA) where I found his CD named “Armenian Fantasies”. I’ve piled it into car CD changer and, since there were 9 other CD’s, it took some time till I listened to it.

It happened during one night ride to Zagreb, at the very entrance of Vrbas canyon (between Jajce and Banja Luka). It was autumn, late evening, and my spirits were rather low, when Djivan started with his Douduk.

I can not describe the feeling I’ve experienced, as I was transported to another dimension. The combination of the canyon everlasting sorrow and Armenian absolute sadness went directly into my head and I felt it all: the eternal love cry, Turkish genocide, Stalin’s madness, New World Order, and all love songs of the world piled up together in one concentrated – pure melancholy, The Grief.

That was it, music so sad that it made me happy.

listen to: Romance

I’ve added here one song from the Armenian Fantasies CD, named “Armenian Romance”, the same one Gabriel used for the opening of Passion. It is rather large file (33 MB) but I am sure you’d rate it worthwhile. Although I am not affiliated with and I do not know the quality of compression (and credit card protection), You can download album very cheap at mp3sugar.com, for only 0,65 US$, Real World music site seems to be absolute crap and useless. Also you could find nice Djivan’s tunes on Gladiator Soundtrack.

“Our members have one thing in common: they all want spam to stop,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder of Project Honey Pot and CEO of Unspam Technologies, Inc. “Aided by the vast amount of data our community of volunteers has helped gather, as well as the top legal minds in the anti-spam world, we are bringing this fight to the spammers. This suit will make them slither out from under the rocks where they’re hiding.”

Project Honey Pot is represented in the suit by Jon Praed of the Washington, D.C.-based firm the Internet Law Group. Mr. Praed and the ILG make a living putting spammers out of business and have been responsible or some of the leading anti-spam prosecutions including Verizon Online v. Alan Ralsky, AOL v. CN Productions, and AOL v. Cyber Entertainment Network.

“Project Honey Pot’s community-based approach has been critical to developing a suit of this scope,” explained Mr. Praed. “It is important to remember that this is a group of volunteers who have pooled their resources in order to gather the data necessary to go after the worst spammers in the world. This is literally the Internet community as a whole standing up and saying, ‘We’re sick of spam, and it’s high time we do something about it!’”

This suit represents the first time U.S. law has been used to challenge the practice of email harvesting, something CAN-SPAM imposes enhanced penalties for. Harvesting is the use of spidering programs to trawl the Internet stealing email addresses. While the practice is the primary way spammers build their email lists, without the data gathered by Project Honey Pot it has been a challenge for anyone to bring a suit against harvesters.

“If you’ve engaged in spamming or harvesting in the last two years, then chances are you’re on our radar screen,” explained Mr. Prince, “and you should sleep a little less well tonight.”

And then I found out that they took their web imagery efforts to the higher spiritual level. Late Holly Father, Pope John Paul 2nd was famous for sending first e-mail message from Vatican, and I can imagine how difficult it was to introduce this new technology to the orthodox. Unfortunately, according to their web sites, they haven’t learned much about the medium ever since.

Visit John Paul II site

AdmiNUNstrator dedicated a portion of Vatican Web to Pope John Paul, absolutely puzzled out from 95 images, that, when uploaded creates trashy scenery upon which Holly Father walks. But you’ll find it very difficult to walk that way, even impossible, if you are using anything than Internet Explorer, since you would be sieged by intrusive JavaScript popups, and you’d find it hard to wiggle your cursor back to safety.

Even in Internet Explorer it would be a blessing ti find the exact pixel where link is hidden, but in Firefox or Opera – the site is unusable!

I am a big fan of John Paul II, and I find it even more offending to the memory of him, to have inaccessible and unusable web site, dedicated to the person who spent whole his life promoting other values.

Watching the mob going after the wrecked ship and its cargo on Devon beach one could confirm that English are the same Balkans as we here. Maybe just a little bit better organized (they are already selling on eBay and eBay does not like Balkans). The police, authorities and media are frantic about the “despicable” behavior of scavengers, introducing laws and powers that hadn’t been used for a century.

BBC news

The worst revelation for the English media was that their citizens were acting like the ones from Asia, Africa or Balkans, obviously forgetting that people are people, and it is just the environment that makes them do this or that.

Remember New Orleans and Katrina aftermath, there was more inhumanity there than in Sarajevo siege.

Well dear all, welcome to the dark side, let me introduce you to a sad fact that all of you do have it in you, you were just fortunate enough to be in organized environment which you took as granted. Let me assure you, environment changes! Often! Take my word for it.

And be prepared to reveal the real you, the real human beast.

The group that evolved from synthpop, gave birth to post rock (Wikipedia: recognized as forerunners to the post-rock genre), made some of the most beautiful pieces of music and dissolved in peace, leaving behind an astonishing beauty that’ll last as long as there are brains behind ears.

I grew up together with Talk Talk, in every possible way. I started with their first album in 1982, at the time when I listened to Duran Duran, Human League and Spandau Ballet. I got the album as a Beside of a tape, and it took me some time till I made it Aside. I don’t even remember what was on the other side (and the reason why I got the tape in the first place).

Beginning

At their beginning the Group was one of the many “New Wave” synthpop youth, but through never ending atmosphere of “The Party’s Over” one was able to foresee the way the band is going to develop. I listened to the album for more than a year in order to replace it with “Such a Shame” fascination.

Transition

Their second album “It’s my Life” (issued in 1984.) I managed to buy only in late 90’s and then it was already rather late for it (the latter albums run over it). I would connect a large period of time to “Such a Shame” which was one of the best songs of the year and a real knock out. While other “New Wave” groups vanished into obscurity or into, Talk Talk continued to develop.

Listen to TALK TALK: Such a Shame

Elevation

Their next album “The Colour of Spring” (1986.) gave paste to transition process and served as a elevation to something absolutely new in music, although it was very successful bearing few hit singles. I connect it to the best years of my life and a border to the adult world where I finally entered, together with Talk Talk.

Listen to TALK TALK: April 5th

Among the big hits (Give it Up & Life’s What You Make it), who, unlike many other hits from the charts still sound very good, I choose 4nd song from the CD, the one that is reflecting the minimalism of Mark Hollis and the group. There is no sound extra or in a wrong place, really beautiful peace of art.

Revelation

I grew up with “Spirit of Eden” (1988.), mentally and musically. Fascinating album, composed from silence, pauses and, what at first appears to be – unsynchronized harmonies. Glorious guitar, heavenly vocals and hell’s harmonica definitely made me a Talk Talk zombie. I do not even think about going back to the other side and I am happy that I am not the only one.

Listen to TALK TALK: The Rainbow

It is very difficult to select a single song from one of my most favorite albums ever. The Rainbow is opening piece and it show a glimpse of what can be find in other pieces. I uploaded it mainly because harmonica, which starts at 7:00 and which is one of the best pieces of performing. Unfortunately it does not last for long but there is plenty of it on other pieces on CD.

Absolution

“Laughing Stock” (1991.) is a glorious album, unfortunately their last, but they are certainly going to last in the hearts and mind of their followers even after the sound carriers stop carrying their music. Mark Hollis managed to issue one excellent solo album, the one which is often played in my player.

The report, commissioned by the United Nations as part of its International Day of Disabled Persons, will make depressing reading for anyone committed to the idea of equal web access for all.

Multiple failings

KEY SHORTFALLS

• 93% failed to provide adequate text descriptions for graphics
• 73% relied on JavaScript for important functionality
• 78% used colours with poor contrast, causing issues for those with colour blindness
  98% did not follow industry web standards for the programming code
• 97% did not allow people to alter or resize pages
• 89% offered poor page navigation
• 87% used pop-ups causing problems for those using screen magnification software

I’ve started a little campaign on SU network, hoping it can do some benefit to the real world. Here is the message I send to 24 stumblers, hoping the number will grow.

Sorry for intrusion, but the tragedy is happening every day in Darfur, Sudan. Maybe there is something SU network can do to help the innocent victims. Please do not close your eyes!

Sign the Petition

The more signatures we have, the more support we can report to the media. The ongoing Darfur Genocide is no accident, no local tribal conflict. The genocide is the brutal plan of three men in the Sudanese national Government — President Bashir, Vice-President Taha, Security Chief Gosh. Now they are spreading their system of terror to other African countries, including Chad and the Central African Republic . Yet our governments continue to cut deals with them – deals they repeatedly break. It is time for the US and European governments to stop appeasing genocide. We call on our governments to fully support the International Criminal Court to indict the perpetrators of genocide, and to help ensure their arrest. It is time for justice, because only justice can bring peace.

Darfur’s genocide has too often been attributed to a faceless Sudanese Government or the Janjaweed. But the truth is that a few individuals designed, implemented and continue to perpetuate this horror…

It is time to name their names. Human rights experts agree that the architects of this genocide are Sudanese President Bashir, Vice President Taha and Security Chief Salah Gosh. They have orchestrated mass rape, murder, starvation, and genocide, and now they are threatening to spread that terror beyond Darfur, into Chad and other nearby countries.

With your support, Darfurgenocide.org will run the first ads publicly shaming these war criminals. Click below to see the ad:

Don’t Close Your Eyes!

Please help us put a name and face on the evil behind this genocide. Shaming these men will pressure the international community to stop offering these criminals handshakes and deals while the people of Darfur continue to die under their grip. What’s needed now are international indictments and arrests. Only this kind of justice can bring real and lasting peace to Darfur.

Click here to endorse and support these ads:

Support!

For Bashir, Taha and Gosh, it is time for handcuffs, not handshakes.

Take Action!

Zagreb Concert

Not many of you, outside former Yugoslavia have had opportunity to hear anything about or from Leb i Sol, Macedonian rock group who used to create and play beautiful music with a lot of etno and jazz elements, long time before etno was even discovered by the general public (or Peter Gabriel, whatever suits you). Group is made out four excellent musicians, each one a royalty with his own instrument.

The Band

Band was formed in 1976. and issued their first album Leb i Sol in ‘77. and soon they became the biggest rock group in former Yugoslavia, no matter that their music was far from being commercial. They toured in Europe, even in United States, together with Big Country, back in 1982. and were always famous for their live performances. Group split in 1996. and they haven’t played together ever since. All members had their solo carriers, especially Vlatko Stefanovski, who even had international success with Duško Tadić.

Gabaret Tavitijan – Garo – a drummer, originally from Armenia is one with the most stamina after the late Bonzo, having excellent technique, especially with 7/8 rhythm. His rhythm is so contagious that you simply cannot avoid clapping, tapping or nodding.

Nikola Dimuševski – Koki – keyboard, songwriter, composer, if he had opportunity to play in any group in Western Europe he would certainly be bigger than some of the notorious keyboard masters. Visit Kokan’s Home Page

Bodan Arsovski – electric and acoustic bass, master of rhythm and sound, his relation to the instrument often causes euphoria amongst the audience – has very successful solo carier with his band EZGIJA – visit his Home Page.

Vlatko Stefanovski – the one and only, no matter if it is Gibson Les Paul, Fender Stratocaster or acoustic guitar. A true royalty – you can preview samples of his geniality if you pay a visit to Vlatko’s Home Page.

Concert

Three hours of pure energy radiated from the stage, made by the artists who obviously enjoyed every minute, tributed by frantic Zagreb audience who were fully rewarded for bands’ 11 years of absence. I was uncontrollable happy during the whole performance, with my mouth wide open in a smile and hands up in the air, keeping the rhythm and trying to give something back to the band.

Fabulous atmosphere, brilliant performance, symbiosis of mutual joy delivered songs: Aber Dodje Donke, Uči Me Majko Karaj Me, Kumova Slama, Jovano Jovanke, and others, together with three encores – brought out all material prepared for the show (the band even had to repeat short version of Uci Me Majko) and left me completely cleaned and renewed for the next couple of days.

Useful link: Leb i Sol

In order to prolong the feeling I bought both their Double CD and DVD, recorded live, few weeks earlier during the concerts in Macedonia, but the sound and emotions from the concert itself is difficult to reproduce. These I do carry within.