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Member Content
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Monday, 30 June 2008 21:30 |
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Google finally decided to pull the plug on the Adsense referral program and has started sending out emails to Adsense users. We at nosum.net, have decided to stop using this product a long time ago! They weren't very effective and would often publish the same ad continuously for a number of page views. They do not give any specific reason but it is safe to assume that the ineffectivness and difficulty in generating revenue for the user, are definitely the causes. Referrals is one of the five products that Google Adsense offers, others include Adsense for Content, Adsense for Search,Video units and Adsense for Mobile content. Here's the email from Google: ______________________________________________________________ Hello,
Thank you for participating in the AdSense Referrals program.
We’re writing to let you know that we will be retiring the AdSense
Referrals program during the last week of August. We appreciate
your patience during this transition and here are some alternative
options to consider:
* Google Affiliate Network: As part of the integration of
DoubleClick, the DoubleClick Performics Affiliate Network will now
operate as the Google Affiliate Network for advertisers targeting
users located in the United States. Similar to the AdSense
Referrals program, the Google Affiliate Network enables publishers
to apply for advertiser programs and get paid based on
advertiser-defined actions instead of clicks or impressions. For
further details, please visit:
www.google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork.
* AdSense for content ads: If you have less than three AdSense
for content ad units on a page, you may wish to replace the
referral ad units with standard AFC ad units.
If you currently use referral ads, either to promote Google
products or offerings from AdWords advertisers, AdSense Referrals
code will no longer display ads beginning the last week of August.
We encourage you to take the following steps before the product is
retired:
* Remove the referral code from your site(s): Please take a
moment to remove all referral code from your sites before the last
week of August, so you can continue to effectively monetize your
ad space.
* Run and save all referrals reports on your desktop: Create
and save all reports related to the referrals program on your
desktop, so you continue to have access to your valuable campaign
information
Why is this happening?
We're constantly looking for ways to improve AdSense by developing
and supporting features which drive the best monetization results
for our publishers. Sometimes, this requires retiring existing
features so we can focus our efforts on the ones that will be most
effective in the long term. For this reason, we will be retiring
the AdSense Referrals program. If you have any additional
questions, please visit our Help Center:
http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=14882
Sincerely.
The Google AdSense Team
------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------
Email preferences: You have received this mandatory email service
announcement to update you about the retirement of an AdSense
feature.
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
______________________________________________________________
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Wednesday, 18 June 2008 12:28 |
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While the rest of the country focuses on illegal immigration from south of the border, an immigration story of a different kind is happening inside the U.S. and in poor countries throughout the world. The use of H1B and H2B visas to bring in foreign workers in the tech and science fields and as laborers and in manufacturing, respectively, has led to a huge underground business of defrauding hopeful immigrants out of thousands of dollars and is largely unregulated by Homeland Security. One such scam shop was recently exposed but it is only one of thousands operating around the world. The wait for an H1B visa is long and the process arduous. Yet the applicants wait patiently for the chance to come work in the United States and positively contribute to the fabric of the nation. Less well known than the tech focused H1B visas are H2B visas. This visa category was used to bring in foreign workers on oil rigs and in factories. Shady recruiters have moved to using this category to defraud the poor with promises of U.S. citizenship. Recently, Indian workers protested in front of the Capitol after paying $20,000 to recruiters to secure their visas and a promised green card. Such a practice is devestating for the workers and their families left back home trying to pay the heavy debts to local strongmen who loaned them the money. The repercussions for the workers and their families are similar to those of Indian farmers who have been committing suicide in larger number after being unable to pay back loans. These workers and their families may be facing such a situation. The U.S. government should keep a registery of all fradulent recruiters and refuse to accept any documents submitted through them. Recruiters should be required to pay a sizable fee to register with the government as a legitimate broker in order to stop such abuses. Visas issued to workers should make the terms of the visa very clear and use the native language if possible to avoid any confusion. Finally, any recruiters found to be in violation of such terms should face jail time and stiff penalties as well as being blacklisted to ensure they can never swindle future workers. Finally, the most important piece of this puzzle is improving the conditions in the home countries so that the economy there can provide jobs and a rising standard of living. These recruiters should not be allowed to engage in such trickery and implementing the above steps will go a long way to eradicating this deplorable practice.
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Monday, 16 June 2008 13:12 |
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Hi, my name is M and I have $70,000 in student debt. How is this possible? I didn't go to an ivy league school and I didn't even live on campus! What I did was go to graduate school. Education is supposed to be the great equalizer, supposed to help you get a leg up on life and forever leave that paycheck-to-paycheck experience you had while in school. Now that I have graduated, I am beginning to feel the noose that is student loans upon my neck. This debt is so overwhelming at times, I feel the stress creep upon me and I can't even breathe. I did what I was supposed to do. I stayed out of trouble, went to school, worked hard and didn't get sidetracked by boys. And yet, I feel I'm being punished. I didn't have health insurance while in school because it was out of my price range. I didn't get help with food or housing. The most I got from the government was my $200 back in taxes. Sometimes I feel like I should have taken the easy way out, should have gone wild, had a couple of kids and have the government give me housing, money for food and schools fall all over themselves to give me scholarships and grants, all the while praising how "brave" I am and how I'm such an example to the youth. Instead, I live with four other people, scrape my pennies, contemplate selling my car and sending out hundreds of resumes and cover letters that apparently never see the light of day. So I work in an administrative capacity in a job I like, but which I know can never begin to cover my student loans, and try to work as hard as possible so I can hopefully get a raise or promotion sometime soon. It seems our priorities are backwards in this country when we expect the youngest, with the least experience or job potential, to shoulder such a load of debt or be priced out of higher education altogether. There is a true meritocracy building in this country, but not the kind we idealize. There are simply those children with rich parents who can buy them the education of their dreams and everybody else, who fights for the scraps and spends a lifetime paying off debt that prevents them from ever being able to enjoy the higher status that their education gave them. I would love to see higher education not used as a divider but go towards the models used by other countries; namely where those children who test high are given an opportunity to study at the best institutions at no cost. I fear the elites are too entrenched in America to ever allow us to move to such a system and as a result, education will remain a golden ring that everyone aspires to, but that few can ever reach.
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Monday, 16 June 2008 00:00 |
The Washington Post is doing an excellent series of articles on the crisis gripping the American economic market. The series, The Credit Crunch, explains very well how the cycle started and how each step of the process made the situation worse for the average American. The subprime mortage lending fiasco is the central character of the drama and is the focal point for the unfolding of the credit market and other lending. Businesses are having difficulty getting banks to back investments and the government had to buy bad loans to guarantee banks and lending companies from going under. The national disaster is a lesson for everyone individually. People are taking on too much debt, saving too little and living on credit for day to day purchases. It is time to do the hard work of creating a budget, paying down debts and delaying gratification for the latest gadgets and toys. The hardest pattern for many of us to break is entertaining ourselves and our friends. Being young, we want to go out to the latest movies, eat at a nice restaurant and show our dates or friends a good time. A great solution to this conundrum would be to scour the home pages of the cities you live in. Often, cities promote free or low cost activities going on that you can take advantage of to save a few bucks. Many events are time specific and have the added bonus of getting you to discover what you have around you that no one in another place can take advantage of. The national economy is still in for a hurdle. The economic rebate checks sent out by the government are mostly being used to pay off debt or buy some small items. We cannot count on the goverment to bail us out and relieve us of our obligations. Set a plan and work to achieve it. This is the best advice for any financial problem and is a great way to get anything else you want in life too. |
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Sunday, 15 June 2008 01:55 |
Movies:1. The Incredible Hulk based on the comic book superhero Hulk, was released this weekend and was received surprisingly well by the critics. This version of Hulk based movie sticks to the book (or comics in this case) as compared to the Ang Lee's (2003) version of "Hulk". Although CGI seems to have gotten very small upgrade from the 2003 version, the throw-back references to the old TV show made it a decent movie. Summary of the reviews: - Rotten Tomatoes: 64% - Movies.com: B- - Entertainment Weekly: B- - Filmcritic.com: 3 stars/5 More Information: Genre: Action/Fantasy Starring: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth Director: Louis Leterrier HD Trailer Video Review by IGN 2. The Happening, M. Night Shyamalan's latest movie is about a father that is trying to escape an apocalyptic event. As expected and not so subtly hinted by the trailer, this movie also has a twist. The twist is that.. just kidding, the critics however weren't kidding with the bad acceptance of the movie. Summary: - Rotten Tomatoes: 20% - Movies.com: C-
- Entertainment Weekly: C
- Filmcritic.com: 1 star/5 More Information: Genre: Drama/Sci-Fi Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Zoo Deschanel, John Leguizamo Director: M. Night Shyamalan HD Trailer Video games: 1. Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriots, a First Person Shooter (FPS), is the fourth game of the Metal Gear Solid franchise. MSG4 is a an exclusive Playstation 3 station game which was released on June 12th, 2008. Summary: - Gamespot: 10/10 - Gamedaily: 8/10 - IGN: 10/10 - Gamespy: 4.5 stars/5 More Information: Genre: Stealth Action Publisher: Konami Music: 1. Tha Carter III by Lil Wayne is his fifth solo album and final chapter of the Tha Carter series. This album has some of the biggest A-list artists like Jay-Z, T-Pain, Robin Thicke, Busta Rhymes, etc. Summary: - Metacritic.com: 84/100 - Rollingstone: 4.5 stars/5 - Billboard.com: Good More Information: Genre: Rap 2. Flavors of Entanglement by Alanis Morissette is her seventh album. Summary: - Metacritic.com: 64/100 - Rollingstone: 3.5 stars/5 - Billboard.com: Good More Information: Genre: Rock
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Wednesday, 11 June 2008 11:37 |
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Steve Jobs introduced the next iteration of Mac OS X which will be called "Snow Leopard" during his keynot address at WWDC 2008. Features highlighted so far are: - Takes advantage of multi-core processors and parallel programming and are calling it "Grand Central". Nvidia's CEO recently commented on usage of thier CUDA technology for GPU acceleration by Apple. Grand Central however, would probably include CPU and GPU. - Support modern hardware with OpenCL (Open Computing Language) - Supports both Server and Client - Supports ZFS - Expected to ship some time next year - no support for PowerPC Click here for more details on Snow Leopard server. It is very interesting that Apple has taken the decision to tightly integrate these acceleration technologies with the operating system. Multi-core CPUs would help in parallelizing computation and handle more peripherals as each core can support multiple threads. The GPU contains stream processors which are not full blown processors like Intel or AMD processors but are cores that are very effective for small specific tasks. One won't be able to run an entire OS like they could on a multi-core CPU but these cores can produce tremendous performance for specific tasks, especially pixel "pushing". For a programming model perspective, the GPU can be viewed as hundreds of small cores that can run thousands of threads in parallel. This external core acceleration so far has been the domain of specific scientific applications and is not utilized in home or office PCs. Now, we can generally agree that acceleration is "good", it's time to speculate in which areas would CPU/GPU acceleration actually help. It is pretty clear that almost every area would benefit but there are some in which we would be able to notice a huge performance increase. - Applications like Microsoft Office/OpenOffice would get a huge bump in areas such as diction/grammar intellisense, editing graphs, etc. with the processing offloaded to the extra cores. - Obviously graphics intensive applications like Photoshop, Gimp, etc would see a decent bump in speed. The extra CPU cores will help in managing and feeding data effectively to the GPU threads. - Video and audio editing. HD video playback. - Video conferencing although it will probably be limited by network speeds. - Web browsing. If you believe it wouldn't require a lot of processing power then you just have to open multiple tabs in your browser with flash. The best possible thing they can do is to support old systems. By "old", i mean systems that are a year or two years old which are very capable of acceleration and contain the hardware that is necessary. For example, a person who bought a Macbook pro last year which has Intel Core 2 Duo, a multi-core processor and a 8600M video card which supports GPU acceleration. Let's also remember that external acceleration does not end with just the CPU and GPU; anything in the system with a processing core is game! (More uses for PhysX cards maybe?). What are your thoughts about this? Links: Screenshots of Snow Leopard GPGPU
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