Blog Day 2005

Today is Blog Day 2005. But what is Blog Day? Well Blog Day, the brain child of blogger Nir Ofir, was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On that day Bloggers recommend other blogs to their blog visitors. With the goal in mind, on this day every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. In this way, all Blog web surfers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, previously unknown blogs. So, for the occasion, I've gone on and...

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The Hobbit

Last night, I finally finished reading "The Hobbit" by J.R.R Tolkien, the tale of Bilbo Baggins and his greatest adventure. And what a read that was. I have to thank my dear friend Saqf again for giving me this amazing book and encouraging me to read it right away. You rock man! I totally enjoyed every bit of it. My imagination ran wild; middle earth was recreated in my brain with every tiny detail; I took the trip with Bilbo, the hobbit, Gandalf and their dwarve friends over and under hills, through forests, across rivers and all over middle earth....

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Show in Downtown Tunis

Yesterday we went to downtown Tunis for a walk and to check out some books at Al Kitab bookstore. We found Habib Bourguiba street closed to cars and lots of people were gathering in front of the Municipal Theatre there. It turns out the Municipality of Tunis had organized a show by the students of the National School of Circus Arts (2 of whom appear in the photo above). We stopped and watched for a while, it was really cool and nice. These guys are very talented and in really good shape. After the show, there was a Rai...

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The Sopranos Promotion

The BBDO ad agency proposed to protrude fake arms and legs from the trunks of taxicabs — right next to bumper stickers hyping the new season of the HBO megahit "The Sopranos". HBO had rejected the macabre promos — but the cable giant itself insisted that it is still considering whether to use them to hawk the show's sixth season, debuting in March. I think this is a very cool idea. I really like it. [Via: 2:48AM]...

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10% Increase in Prices of School Books

For the new academic year, a rise of 10 per cent is expected in the prices of books in Tunisia. La Presse, the daily Tunisian newspaper, reports that the increase in the prices of books is due to the improvement of quality of paper and layout. A team of pedagogues appointed by the Tunisian Ministry of Education revised the books and classes for the new academic year and have made some changes to make the books look "more attractive" for students. Belgacem Lassouad, the director of the national teaching center, said that in order to improve the quality of the...

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Damn Find & Replace!

Today was a really shitty day! I woke up, still in a good mood from yesterday's meetup, and I thought I'd get online to check my emails and read the comments left on my blog. I did that and all was cool. And then I found this one blog spam comment in one of my old posts. So, I did a search by the title of the post, which was about the Adobe acquisition of Macromedia. For some reason the search returned many results, so I wanted to search again and narrow it down, only instead of writing in the...

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After the 6th Tunisian Blogger Meetup

We just came back from the sixth Tunisian blogger meetup in Sidi Bou Said. This meetup was organized on a very short notice and barely 2 weeks after the last one in Kelibia, and as not many people confirmed their attendance, we were afraid there'd only be 3 or 4 people present. Surprisingly and luckily, it was a great success and 12 people showed up. We sat in a corner in the beautiful Sidi Chebaane Café, drinking tea with pine nuts and some soda, talking about so many things, and having lots of fun. Other than the regular Tunisian...

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International Amateur Film Festival in Tunisia

Tunisia will be hosting the second edition of the International Amateur Film Festival starting from August 27 until September 3. Organized by the Tunisian Federation of the Amateur Scenario Writers in conjunction with the Ministry of the Culture and the Safeguard of Heritage, the Festival will include an international contest of amateur films as well as conferences and workshops. The jury of the contest is formed of distinguished international personalities such as famous Egyptian director Charni Rached, Senegalese director Modibo Diawara, Tunisian producer Hassen Daldoul, Venezuelan director Litchy Athualpa and Belgian director Greta Van Beptein....

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Sperm Donor Reality TV Show

Billionaire television producer John de Mol, behind the pioneer show Big Brother, will test the limits of reality TV with a program in which a woman searches for a potential sperm donor to conceive a child. His new TV station Talpa, launched earlier this month, confirmed it will air a program called "I want your child ... and nothing else!". "The plan is that we visit potential donors and -- of course on camera -- decide which man is most suitable," the 30-year old woman who will feature in the program said in an interview with De Telegraaf newspaper. "Afterwards...

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Whatever Happened to Arabia.com?!

Today, I thought I'd check out Arabia.com, the portal that once was regarded as the jewel of Arab portals. So much money was thrown into it, with round after round of funding, and investment after investment, the biggest being from Prince Waleed Ibn Talal of Saudi Arabia. They got into everything from news, to free email, to instant messaging, to mobile logos and ringtones, to forums, to marketplaces, to offering internet connections... the long list goes on. And they recruited a huge team of people from all fields, both in Amman and Dubai, making them the biggets Arab internet company....

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Google Talk

As expected, Google have jumped into the instant messaging and voice-over-IP arena with a new product called Google Talk. I've downloaded it and played around with it a bit and tried chatting to a friend through it. I like its minimalist interface and how it directly finds people who are on your email contact list and are online using Google Talk. The chat interface is very simple and it's simply all about text. There are no emoticons, nudges, winks, and all those other flashing and jumping things that other messengers have. It just gives you plain text, although it does...

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The Phantom Of The Opera

Yesterday, we watched the movie interpretation of "The Phantom Of The Opera". I've been wanting to watch it for a long time after all the good reviews I read about it on other blogs. I'm a big fan of movie musicals, such as "Moulin Rouge", "Chicago" and well from my childhood days "The Sound Of Music". These movies mix two of my favourites arts in a beautiful way: cinema and music. Back to "The Phantom Of The Opera", it's a great movie. But how can it not be with such musical splendor and a great story behind it! Eman and...

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6th Tunisian Blogger Meetup

Well, ok, I know it's a bit too quick to have another one already, I mean this is the third meetup in less than a month, but well it's the summer season and we all wanna have fun :) Some Tunisians abroad, as well as non-Tunisian bloggers should be making it to this blogger meetup, so that should be cool. The suggestion, it seems, is for Friday 26th at Sidi Chebaane Café in Sidi Bou Said. As usual, I've created a page for this event here. So you can confirm if you're coming from there or by leaving a comment...

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Magnetic Cards to Enter Mosques in Tunisia: Not True!!!

While checking Google News today, I found a rather weird and alarming bit of news about Tunisia, taken from a site called Jihad Unspun. The article claims that Tunisian Muslims must now carry magnetic ID cards to enter mosques for prayers. It says, "According to Al-Hadi Mehanna, Tunisia’s new interior minister, any one wish to pray in a Mosque will have to apply and obtain a personal magnetic card." And they go on with crazy details about how these cards will be issued and used. Jihad Unspun state their source for this information as a certain Arabic online site called...

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Touch And Feel 3D TV

Imagine watching a football match on a TV that not only shows the players in three dimensions but also lets you experience the smells of the stadium and maybe even pat a goalscorer on the back. Japan plans to make this futuristic television a commercial reality by 2020 as part of a broad national project that will bring together researchers from the government, technology companies and academia. The targeted "virtual reality" television would allow people to view high-definition images in 3D from any angle, in addition to being able to touch and smell the objects being projected upwards from a...

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The Market

This morning, while out shopping for some stuff, we passed by the Market in La Marsa. It's an indoor market where you can buy fruits, vegetables, meat, chicken, honey, herbs, and a bunch of other stuff. vegetables, meat, chicken, honey, herbs, and a bunch of other stuff. You can even find some pets sometimes like squirrels, hamsters, birds...etc. I loved how all the different fruits, with their rich and beautiful colours looked together side by side. It was like a carnival of colours painting an amazing portrait. Everything looked so fresh, juicy and very delicious. Something else I really loved...

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links for 2005-08-20

Button Maker Free Blog button maker and generator. (tags: button maker generator blog free) Ten Easy Ways to Improve Your Resume A guide to nicer, cleaner, more readable resumes. (tags: resume cv improvement job work) How To Build A Computer Guide to building your own computer. (tags: build computer hardware guide) CSS Property Index All CSS Properties Listed Alphabetically. (tags: css property properties list index) BullshitJob Bullshit Job Title Generator. (tags: job humour bullshit title generator) OpenCola Soft Drink How to make your own soft drink. (tags: opencola soft drink cola)...

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Reading "The Hobbit"

As the reading section on the right column of my blog shows, I'm reading "The Hobbit" by J.R.R Tolkien. First of all, a big thank you to my dear friend Saqf for this wonderful gift. I'm enjoying every second of it :) It's taking me a bit longer than it usually does for me to read a book because I barely find time to sit down and read these days. Anyway the book has truly sucked me in and I love it. The story is really cool and catching, and my imagination is working on overdrive. Something I find really...

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links for 2005-08-19

Metro Arts and Architecture A selection of the world's best metro, subway or underground stations. (tags: metro subway underground station design list bestof selection art architecture) Top 10 Google Maps implementations Essential top tools and resources based on Google Maps. (tags: googlemaps map implementation tool resource bestof list) Blogger for Word You can now post from Microsoft Word to your Blogger blog. (tags: blogger microsoft word blog) Lingup - The Language Exchange Network Practice with native speakers and improve your language skills. (tags: lingup language exchange network penpal social) Walk Sydney Streets Photos Alan, a 91 year old, walks...

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"The Last Legion" Filming in Tunisia

Just a few days ago, filming started in Tunisia on The Last Legion, a Dino De Laurentiis movie produced by Martha De Laurentiis and Raffaella De Laurentiis, and directed by Doug Lefler. The movie stars Colin Firth, Sir Ben Kingsley and Indian beauty Aishwarya Rai. "The Last Legion" is an independently financed film produced in partnership with Tunisian Tarak Ben Ammar of Quinta Communications and British co-producers Chris Curling and Phil Robertson of Zephyr Films. Part fact, part legend, "The Last Legion" is an epic adventure based on acclaimed author Valerio Massimo Manfredi's international best-selling 2003 novel of the same...

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links for 2005-08-17

IT Companies and their names How some big IT companies got their names. (tags: it company name) Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know Interesting list of things you likely didn't know. (tags: strange list things stuff unknown) Useless Skills Guides to learning a bunch of useless skills. (tags: guide useless skills skill learn) The Coolest Guinness World Record Ever 1073 people from Microsoft & Unisys playing Counter-Strike 1.1 simultaneously. (tags: guinness world record microsoft unisys counterstrike) FlickrLicio.us - Babes of Flickr A blog with photos of girls taken from flickr. (tags: babe girls photography flickr) The Tao Of Programming...

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Erotic Images Can Turn You Blind

Researchers have finally found evidence that erotic images make you go blind. The effect is temporary and lasts just a moment, but the research has added to road-safety campaigners’ calls to ban sexy billboard-advertising near busy roads, in the hope of preventing accidents. The new study by US psychologists found that people shown erotic or gory images frequently fail to process images they see immediately afterwards. And the researchers say some personality types appear to be affected more than others by the phenomenon, known as "emotion-induced blindness". "We think there is essentially a bottleneck for information processing and if a...

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links for 2005-08-16

Run OS X on your PC Hackers have found a way to run OS X on a PC. (tags: hacker hack apple os pc) Google to offer free WiFi? Om Malik predicts the rise of GoogleNet. (tags: google googlenet wifi free) Walken 2008 Christopher Walken for U.S. President 2008. (tags: christopherwalken walken president usa us 2008) Top 25 Technology Quotes I like this one: "Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window." by Steve Wozniak (tags: technology quotes list) 7 Mistakes for your First Week Blogging I agree with all these 7 points, and I think they...

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Internet Access on Tunisian Trains

The Tunisian national railway company (SNCFT) has announced that it is now providing internet access on board its long distance trains. Passengers can now surf the web at a low cost from the comfort of their train cars. This new service was made possible through a new venture financed by the National Solidarity Bank, a microcredit institution which provides young university graduates with low interest rate loans of up to 33,000 dinars to help them set up their own business ventures. SNCFT transports more than 35 million passengers yearly, 5 million of them on long distance trains. I think this...

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Babies On U.S. No-Fly List

Infants have been stopped from boarding planes at airports throughout the United States because their names are the same as or similar to those of possible terrorists on the government's "no-fly list." The government's lists of people who are either barred from flying or require extra scrutiny before being allowed to board airplanes grew markedly since the September 11, 2001, attacks. Critics including the American Civil Liberties Union say the government doesn't provide enough information about the people on the lists, so innocent passengers can be caught up in the security sweep if they happen to have the same name...

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Dentist Urgently Needed

Ok, it's really about time I go to a dentist. I've been trying to avoid this for a long time now. I've been ignoring the bits and pieces of teeth that have been falling apart every now and then. I've been gobbling up painkillers to try and get over the head-splitting toothaches. But now with small holes starting to form and at least 3 of my teeth surely in need of that painful root canal treatment I've already tried once before, I think it's time I go to a dentist as soon as possible before things get even worse. I...

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Dead Boss Joke

A guy phones up his Boss, but gets the bosses' wife instead. "I'm afraid he died last week." she explains. The next day the man calls again and asks for the boss. "I told you" the wife replies, "he died last week." The next day he calls again and once more asks to Speak to his boss. By this time the wife is getting upset and shouts, "I'VE ALREADY TOLD YOU TWICE, MY HUSBAND, YOUR BOSS, DIED LAST WEEK! WHY DO YOU KEEP CALLING?" He replied laughing, "I just love hearing it..." looooool... Very funny......

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After The 5th Tunisian Blogger Meetup

Yesterday we had the fifth Tunisian blogger meetup in Kelibia. The meetups keep getting longer and longer; yesterday's meetup started at 10AM, when we met in the Abou Nawas Hotel parking, and went on to midnight. By the time, we got home, we just headed straight to bed. There was no way we could blog about it, lol... It was a really great meetup and so much fun. The best one up to now. Kelibia is so beautiful and El Mansourah restaurant, the place we met, had lunch and swam in, is just breathtakingly amazing. 10 people made it...

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Digital Marathon 2005 in Bizerta

Bizerta’s ancient historical harbour is hosting the first edition of the marathon of digital creation this week. The event is organized within the framework of the first session of the ancient harbor’s festival. It is also intended to set the tone in the Bizerta region for Tunisia's hosting of the WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) this November. The festival’s program includes internet workshops, digital photography sessions, discussions of web content, and classes on Information and Communication technologies (ICT) . Some Tunisian websites will also be reviewed. [Source: Tunisia Online]...

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5th Tunisian Blogger Meetup Tomorrow

So, the fifth Tunisian blogger meetup is tomorrow in Kelibia. I can't wait to meet the old faces again and get to know the new people who will be coming. Adib asked us all to try and be there before noon so we don't lose our reservation in El Mansoura restaurant. As for getting there, some people already have their transportation arranged and are going directly to Kelibia from or through some other place. As for the people who are in Tunis, and who have cars or don't know how to go, I suggest that we meet in the Abou...

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Pakistani Restaurant in Tunisia

Thanks to Lea, an American student in Tunisia, whose blog I discovered today through Karim, I found what is most-likely the only Pakistani restaurant in Tunisia. It's in the back of Centre Dorra in El Menzah 6. Check the map here. Eman has been dying to eat some Indian food for quite some time now, and well I thought Pakistani food was close enough, so I surprised her by taking her to lunch there. It's a little place, but quite nice. They have a few posters of places in Pakistan on the walls and some flyers about some Pakistani cities...

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Bride & Prejudice

I just finished watching the movie Bride & Prejudice, directed by Gurinder Chadha, the same director behind Bend It Like Beckham. The movie is inspired by the Jane Austen novel "Pride & Prejudice", only it's done in bollywood style. Yep, it's just like those Indian movies, with all the singing and dancing and everything, just done in English. It's totally a Hollywood meets Bollywood movie. It turned out pretty nice actually, quite an enjoyable couple of hours. What I liked the most is the mix between hollywood and bollywood cinema styles. I also love how the director presents India and...

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links for 2005-08-11

7GHz Pentium? Japanese Man Overclocks a Pentium 4 670 to 7GHz. (tags: pentium overclocking japanese japan) Star Wars Wiki A wiki about everything Star Wars. (tags: starwars wiki) TIME's 50 Coolest Websites 2005 I'm not on the list yet, but I'm working on it :P (tags: time cool websites 2005) Nukephoto The comprehensive source for photographs of U.S. nuclear weapons systems. (tags: nuclear weapons systems photography usa) MSN Sandbox Where Microsoft puts up its betas, previews, prototypes...etc. (tags: microsoft msn sandbox beta preview)...

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The Tenth Planet

So it has been confirmed that our Solar system has a 10th planet which is larger than Pluto and nearly three times farther from the Sun as Pluto is. The new planet, temporarily designated 2003 UB313, is the most distant object yet seen in the solar system, 97 times farther from the Sun than the Earth is. It also is the largest body yet found orbiting in the Kuiper belt, the group of icy bodies including Pluto which orbit beyond Neptune. Like Pluto, it is covered by methane ice, and at its present distance is chilled to just 30°C above...

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Lost In Space Speech

Nearly everyone knows Neil Armstrong's famous “Small step for man, giant leap for man kind” speech that he delivered from the moon in 1969. What not everyone knows is that there was another speech! Though the July 1969 mission proved a success, President Richard Nixon's aides devised a contingency plan in case astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (and their lunar module) were somehow stranded on the moon. In a memo, drafted two days before the Eagle landed, aide William Safire provided Nixon with a short speech to be delivered "In Event of Moon Disaster." After making condolence calls to...

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Tunisian Fashion Week 2005

The first edition of "Tunisian Fashion Week" will be held in the coastal city of Hammamet from August 15 to August 17. Six Tunisian fashion designers will present their creations. Their summer collections will feature wedding dresses, inspired from Tunisia's traditional fashion heritage, as well as evening dresses. A number of television channels are expected to cover the event. "Tunisia Fashion Week" will also provide young creators with the opportunity to present their collections to the public in the company of more experienced designers. The second edition of the event is scheduled for February 2006. [Source: Tunisia Online]...

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Art Prankster Sprays Israeli Wall

Secretive "guerrilla" artist Banksy has decorated Israel's illegal West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. The nine paintings were created on the Palestinian side of the barrier. One depicts a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. Another picture shows the head of a white horse appearing to poke through, while he has also painted a ladder going over the wall. Banksy's spokeswoman Jo Brooks said: "The Israeli security forces did shoot in the air threateningly and there were quite a few guns pointed...

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Fifth Tunisian Blogger Meetup

So, upon the invitation of Adib, the next Tunisian blogger meetup will be held on Saturday, August 13th in Kelibia, or paradise as Adib likes to call it ;) The programme includes having lunch at El Mansoura restaurant, which is on the beach right next to the water, swimming in Kelibia's heavenly sea, soaking up some sun on it's beautiful white beaches, playing some beach soccer and drinking some tea with pine nuts at the Café in the fortress. So it's more like a Tunisian blogger day, and it's definitely not something you should miss. Now, as to how we'll...

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Dictionary Racism Against Arabs

Thanks to Eman for writing about this important issue. Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Collegiate Thesaurus has enlisted in the 3rd Edition an entry that reads: Entry Word: arab Function: noun 1: Synonyms VAGABOND, clochard, drifter, floater, hobo, roadster, street arab, tramp, vag, vagrant 2: Synonyms PEDDLER, duffer, hawker, higgler, huckster, monger, mongerer, outcrier, packman, vendor Source: Unabridged Merriam-webster (Subscription needed) When contacted about this, the Merriam Webster Dictionary staff argued that the most commonly-used sense of "Arab" has no true lexical synonyms. And that there are senses of "Arab" that have been used historically and are less than flattering. Assistant Professor of...

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Tuninter Plane Crashes In Mediterranean Sea

An ATR-72, a twin-engine, propeller-driven aircraft, operated by Tuninter, a subsidiary of TunisAir that operates internal and short-distance flights, crashed into the mediterranean sea, just off the coast of Sicily, yesterday afternoon. The plane had reported an engine problem around 3:20 p.m. and tried to make an emergency landing at Palermo's airport, but it went into the sea 20 minutes later, according to Italian air traffic control officials. The Tuninter aircraft was headed from Bari in southeastern Italy to the Tunisian island of Djerba, a popular destination for European tourists. Rescuers have saved at least 23 of the 38 people...

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Masturbation Cuts Cancer Risk

Men could reduce their risk of developing prostate cancer through regular masturbation, researchers suggest. They say cancer-causing chemicals could build up in the prostate if men do not ejaculate regularly. And they say sexual intercourse may not have the same protective effect because of the possibility of contracting a sexually transmitted infection, which could increase men's cancer risk. Australian researchers questioned over 1,000 men who had developed prostate cancer and 1,250 who had not about their sexual habits. Men who ejaculated more than five times a week were a third less likely to develop prostate cancer later in life. Hmmm,...

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links for 2005-08-05

Top 10 tech news stories of the past 10 years CNet compile a list of the top 10 news stories in technology from the past 10 years. (tags: top technology news 10 years) First Family of Windows Vista Viruses Unleashed Microsoft's newest operating system in beta only a week, but already leaky. (tags: microsoft windows vista virus beta) iTunes on Linux CodeWeavers' CrossOver Office 3.1 adds support for the jukebox and music download software. (tags: itunes linux codeweavers crossoveroffice music) Saw 2 Trailer The trailer for the sequel to horror movie "Saw". (tags: saw sequel trailer movie cinema saw2)...

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Russia’s Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered