donderdag 30 april 2009

Ethnic minorities in Britain

Which are Britain's largest ethnic minorities groups?

The largest ethnic minorities in Britain are those of Caribbean or African descent (875,000 people). The next largest ethnic groups are Indians (850,000 people) and Pakistani and Bangladeshis (650,000 people). Overal, ethnic minority groups represent just under 6 per cent of the population of Great Britan. The ethnic population has evolved from the substantial immigration of people from former British colonies in the Caribbean and South Asian sub-continent during the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, in the 1970s Britain admitted some 28,000 Asians expelled from Uganda and some 22,000 refugees from South East Asia.

Considerable numbers of Chinese, Italians, Greek and Turkish Cypriots, Poles, Australians, New Zealanders and people from the United States and Canada are also resident in Britain.

What are the most popular baby names?

Around the world people give their newborn babies a special name. Some call it "first name", others "christian name" or "given name". Even before the baby is born, both mother and father are going through enormous lists of baby names.

Every year lists are made that contain the most popular names around the globe. Please choose one of the options below to find out what they were in 2005-2006. We have listings for Flanders, the Netherlands, the USA and UK

Flanders

Popular Flemish names...

Boys
Milan, Wout, Senne, Seppe, Thomas

Girls
Lotte, Julie, Emma, Amber, Fleur

Netherlands

Popular names in Holland

Boys
Daan, Sem, Thomas, Milan, Tim

Girls
Sophie, Sanne, Lisa, Anna, Julia

USA

Boy names in the USA

1. Jacob
2. Michael
3. Joshua
4. Matthew
5. Ethan
6. Andrew
7. Daniel
8. Anthony
9. Christopher
10.Joseph

Girl names in the USA

1. Emily
2. Emma
3. Madison
4. Abigail
5. Olivia
6. Isabella
7. Hannah
8. Samantha
9. Ava
10.Ashley


United Kingdom


Boy names in the UK

1. Jack
2. Joshua
3. Thomas
4. James
5. Oliver
6. Daniel
7. Samuel
8. William
9. Harry
10.Joseph


Girl names in the UK

1. Jessica
2. Emily
3. Sophie
4. Olivia
5. Chloe
6. Ellie
7. Grace
8. Lucy
9. Charlotte
10.Katie

woensdag 29 april 2009

ICE = In Case of Emergency

Update: Although the idea of putting an emergecy number in your mobile makes sense, you should ALWAYS first put the ICE number on a piece of paper in your wallet. Thank you Bartek for clarifying that

Liebe Verkehrsteilnehmer,

die Retter und Ambulanzfahrer haben bemerkt, dass bei Straßenunfällen
die meisten Verwundeten ein Mobil-Telefon bei sich haben. Bei den
Einsätzen weiß man aber nicht,wer aus den langen Kontaktlisten zu kontaktieren ist.

Ambulanzfahrer haben also vorgeschlagen, dass jeder in seine Kontaktlisten die im Notfall zu kontaktierende Person unter
demselben Pseudo eingibt.
Das international anerkannte Pseudo ist:

ICE (= In Case of Emergency).
Unter diesem Namen sollte man die Person eintragen, welche in einem
Notfall durch Polizei, Feuerwehr oder erste Hilfe anzurufen ist. Sind
mehrere Personen zu kontaktieren, braucht man **ICE1, ICE2, ICE3, usw.

Leicht, kostet nichts, kann aber viel bringen. Bitte diese Meldung an

Freunde und Bekannte weiterleiten, damit dieses Verfahren weltweit
Anwendung finden wird!

dinsdag 28 april 2009

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic - a review

As you probably know, I won a new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the so-called "affordable" alternative to Apple's iPhone. Since I don't have an iPhone, I can only review the qualities of the Nokia.
- 350 euro might seem a lot of money (I would not pay it for a mobile phone) but if you are into that kind of technology, it is great value for money;
- the 3.2 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera delivers great results, much better than I had expected;
- the 8 GB micro SD card stores a lot of MP3 music files, and the powerful Stereo Surround Sound is amazing;
- the bluetooth function is very practical, now i can activate my phone with voice-control in my car
- navigation on the internet is also good, although I like the iPod Touch better;
- the large touch-screen is great, although it took me a while to learn how to dial without actually pushing buttons :)
- the only disadvantage is the battery. With my old Nokia I only had to recharge once every 2 weeks, but this little gagdet is a real battery consumer. Every 3 days I need to recharge, especially after using the bluetooth function or the internet connection.

Conclusion: a great mobile phone with lots of extra goodies, for an affordable price

Problem in Paint Shop Pro PSP X and XI

In Paint Shop Pro X and XI it is possible that the programme no longer wants to run. Most often you will get the folliwing error :

Buffer overrun detected!

Program Pro Photo XI/Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo.exe

A buffer overrun has been detected which has corrupted the program's internal state. The program cannot safely continue execution and must now be terminated.



Luckily there is a solution:

You probably did this during the reinstallation process, let's try clearing the cache once again.

A. Close Paint Shop Pro Photo XI if is currently open.
B. Go to Start | Run, Type appdata and click Ok.
C. Open the Corel folder.
D. Delete the following files:

ImageDB.db
LastDBFilter.PspCache
LastDBTreeSel.PspCache
thumbnails.db

E. Select the Paint Shop Pro Photo folder.
F. Select the 11 folder.
G. Delete the cache folder.
H. Close the open box.

This should do the trick: start the programme again and Corel PSP XI should work again

What is Smishing?

You have probably heard about spamming, scamming, phising...but now there is a new threat: SMISHING.

This is what Wikipedia writes :"In computing, Smishing is a form of criminal activity using social engineering techniques similar to phishing. The name is derived from "SMs phISHING". SMS (Short Message Service) is the technology used for text messages on cell phones."

Similar to phishing, smishing uses cell phone text messages to deliver the "bait" to get you to divulge your personal information. The "hook" (the method used to actually "capture" your information) in the text message may be a web site URL, however it has become more common to see a phone number that connects to automated voice response system.


"Smishing" is the name for a new kind of phising, that is not completely new and still on the rise: It is the practice of sending phishing come-ons and scams via SMS message. And spammers are apparently finding it an increasingly easier proposition to text a phishing message to you rather than to email it traditionally.

Why? Because what is the best way to disguise a phishing attempt so no one can tell where a request for personal information or a password really came from? Easy: Send it via text message.

Why's that? You've probably received hundreds or thousands of phishing emails and immediately saw all the signs that this was a scam:
- Images were broken,
- the "from" address was wrong,
- words were misspelled,
- links in the message were obviously directing you to phony websites.

There are dozens of things that phishers have to get right for an email scam to fool anyone, and that's apparently quite difficult to do. Making things even tougher, many of those emails are now blocked by ISPs and spam filters and never make it to their intended targets.

Those problems don't really exist at the SMS level: Very few SMS messages are blocked, and since they are composed entirely of text, no images required, it's often impossible at a glance to determine if a message is real or fake.

One popular smish threatens the user that he is about to be charged for something unless he cancels it, with a message like: "We're confirming you've signed up for our dating service. You will be charged €2/day unless you cancel your order by clicking here: phonysite.com." Of course there are no pending charges, and the site you're directed to is completely fake, its goal being to collect your credit card number (which you will helpfully enter in order to "cancel" the charges), or install a bit of malware on your computer (or even, someday, on your phone).

Smishing messages may instead direct you to call a toll-free number in order to complete or cancel some financial transaction, the only difference being that a human operator will handily take down your credit card or bank account number for you, to save you the trouble of typing it online. Of course, the number you called is phony, too.

What should you do if you receive a message you fear is a smish attack? The answer should be pretty obvious but bears repeating: Virtually no credible financial institution, utility, or other business will communicate with you via SMS with the exception of your cell phone provider.

If you don't recognize the website or phone number being sent to you? Don't call it.
If you're worried about an upcoming charge, contact the service provider or bank directly via means you know are legitimate and ask them directly about the message. They'll likely tell you what you already know: Just ignore it.


Source: ZDNET/Yahoo/Wikipedia

maandag 27 april 2009

Kinderwagenkino in Berlin

Seit April 2006 sehen Junge Familien mit Babys aktuelle Kinofilme in kindgerechtem Ambiente. Der vormals geliebte Kinobesuch lässt sich bei jungen Eltern mit Babys oft nur noch schwer realisieren. Dass die neuen Familien von der (Kino)Welt nicht automatisch abgeschnitten sein müssen, beweist das Babylon.

In Zusammenarbeit mit IKEA Berlin startete das Filmtheater gegenüber der Volksbühne seit dem 2. April 2006 die neue Programmschiene „KinderWagenKino“. An jedem Mittwoch um 11 Uhr können Familien mit ihren Babys einen aktuellen Kinofilm sehen – ohne Angst haben zu müssen, dass die Kleinen durch die Lautstärke oder Lichtreflexe gestört werden. Besitzer der IKEA-FamilyCard zahlen nur 5,- Euro Eintritt, die Partner 2,50 Euro.

Die Kinderwagen werden im Kino geparkt, an der Kasse gibt es kostenlos Windeln und im Kinosaal werden die Filme bei verminderter Lautstärke vorgeführt, damit die empfindlichen Babyohren nicht geschädigt werden. Der Saal ist während der Vorführung leicht beleuchtet. Und auch ein Wickeltisch ist vorhanden.

„Die Idee des Kinderwagenkinos hat sich in Ländern wie Schweden oder den USA bereits fest etabliert. Und mit IKEA Berlin ist ein familienfreundlicher Partner mit im Boot“, so Timothy Grossman, zusammen mit Tobias Hackel Geschäftsführer des Traditionskinos.

Anders Klintborg von IKEA Berlin ergänzt: „IKEA ist aus Tradition familienfreundlich. Wir lieben kleine Kinder. Und wir lieben großes Kino. Kinderwagenkino gibt es in Schweden schon lange. Höchste Zeit also, diese wunderbare Idee auch in Berlin zu etablieren.