This blog is meant for my own discretion and it is here not to intimidate anyone or whatever so ever.This is my own opinion on how I feel on things.On top of that I will host images,jokes,movies n many more.Feel free to give me ya comments on the issues of the events.So enjoy and have a fun time reading it.
Visitors (Since 010206)
About Me
Name::THE SAINT From::Singapore, Singapore
Straight forward,down to earth,patient,tolerant,loves to smile a lot,loves to indulge in interesting conversations, adventurous. View my complete profile
On the way to work, I realized that many people are getting so damn deaf that they had to BLAST the music in their ears.Sheesh!!Practically everyone around me in the train were like blasting to all sorts of music.Both young and old. I say I was in the train where at least 85% wants to be deaf imbeciles.At noon I went down to Tiong Bahru Plaza to post a cheque from MINDEF and came back.Than later in the afternoon close to the time I was about to leave I had to explain to someone why is she staying with a man who scolds her and hits her.Well she is so stubborn to understand and always give the most lamest excuses you could easily guess.Well I will update more on her later in the nite.Cuz I am so disappointed in her and her attitude.Acts like an 16th century woman.SO DISAPPOINTING!!!!Ok i wanna head off now...will update more later in the nite.
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Monday, April 30, 2007 ::
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26 April, 2007
New Blog coming soon!!!
Ok some of my frens have asked me to put up pictures of women and men who are good looking....so I decided to make a blog to the guys and gals in my blog for all to see.Each will have his/her name in my new blog and all will have the characters displayed in my blog.I will also put in personal comments on all chosen people.So here it is gonna be,Singapore's very own beautiful people.I was thinking of doing something like this long time ago and would like to have alot of people to participate in it.
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Thursday, April 26, 2007 ::
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25 April, 2007
Yesterday's tragic news at Bukit Batok
Wow I am astonished to have read the newspaper on the teenager that died in the canal.I use to see her and her frens around my neighborhood a couple of times but I was shocked to realized that this has happened to her. She is so young and moreover she was the only child in the family. I could feel the hurt the parents must be going through to lose someone they love so much.It's like losing part of ya limb.Wish to send my condolences to her family for their lost.Here is an advice I would like to give to every youngsters and even to their family,please do not try to do something like this as it may be very risky,the chances are slim no matter what the consequences are.It is not worth a life.Things lost could always be bought back but not a life. I remembered when I was a teen and when Bukit Batok was not fully developed in the the 80s' when I moved in there.Me and my frens use to walk those canals and we use to see turtles and other stuffs.But back than things were not as harsh as the conditions are as of today.I grew up with kids my age who were tougher than kids of today but it seems like kids of today do not know the potential danger that they are in for when the least they expect of it. Losing a best pal can be devastating to the incident that had happened yesterday as the memories will always haunt you for the rest of ya life.But there was nothing you could do about it as you have tried ya very best in saving ya pal.I would also like to tell the gal who was there that this is a lesson she must learn in life that not to take things for granted and be more careful next time.No one blames you for the things that has happened,just learn to forgive yourself and try to get over it.GOD BLESS N GOD SPEED.
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Wednesday, April 25, 2007 ::
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24 April, 2007
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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NEVER SAY
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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BE HAPPY
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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Looking at the qualities of a guy
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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No Regrets
Z
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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SPARE A THOUGHT
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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Qoutes if you mind
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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CAT O' ROL
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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Dimas practicing for National Day
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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DO I LOOK GOOD
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
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THE DAYS OF HAPPENINGS
Well on saturday after cleaning up my home, I took a train down to Sim Lim where I need to return the hard disk to the distributor as the hard disk was not functioning, Art,Azmi and Sky was there awaiting for my arrival.Went up to the place and had to give the hard disk and wait again for the hard disk to be return to me from the following week.Went to Art's place to help with his system,as need to reinstall the whole operating system for him.Stayed till about 2030hrs,than met Wendy at Tiong Bahru as she wanted to head home with me,she was asking me on how to get a loan from the bank as she wants to further her studies,I taught her the procedures in getting the loan as I once worked for Standard Chartered Bank and it is almost the same for every bank if you are trying to get a loan.Came home had my dinner and fell asleep.It was like almost 2330hrs.Well it is sunday morning,got out of bed and did some stuffs on my computer.After which I decided to go to meet Art again at his place in the afternoon.Came there and burn some CDs for him,also had to install and configure most of the things for sky,azmi and art.After things were done about 1930hrs,I had to rush to Ken's place and help him with the router installation.There were alot of problems to the installation and it seems so hard.As the laptops have problem accepting the login.So told ken that we would try another day and do it as it was getting late and I need to be back.Left his place about 2230hrs and reached home almost coming to midnight.Come monday morning and I went to work....sheesh had a bad day at work today as there were so many calls coming in to the IT department with regards to the problem at Pandan Garden as one of the switches was out.It seem that most of the people in Pandan Garden could not get their job done yesterday.There was like 115 calls or so received yesterday.It was so chaotic.I tried my best to handle most of the calls,handle coming close to 75 calls for the day.Sigh.....was so tired that I went home after that and had my dinner and fell asleep.Was extremely tired for the day.Was supposed to meet Wendy but slept through it.Got up about 4 in the morning and sat down and watch a movie....nice show,the title of the movie is I FEEL LIKE DAMCING.Quite inspirational.Went to bed again about 0630hrs and got up about 0745hrs for work.Hope that nothing goes wrong today as like yesterday.
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 ::
19 April, 2007
Resolving the problem of User32.dll and HHCTRL.ocx
CAUSE The Hhctrl.ocx file that is included in security update 928843 and the User32.dll file that is included in security update 925902 have conflicting base addresses. This problem occurs if a program loads the Hhctrl.ocx file before the program loads the User32.dll file. Microsoft has confirmed that this problem affects the following third-party applications. Program Version Manufacturer Realtek HD Audio Control Panel 1.41, 1.45, 1.49, 1.57 Realtek Semiconductor Corporation ElsterFormular 2006, 2007 Elster TUGZip 3.4 Christian Kindahl CD-Tag 2.27 Claremont Software Suunto Ski Manager 1.0.2, 1.1, 1.2 Suunto AVG Anti-Virus Control Center 7.5 Grisoft, Inc BMC PATROL 7.1 BMC Software, Inc BricoPack Vista Inspirat 1.1 CrystalXP Notes • If you receive a similar message when you use another program, install the update that is mentioned in this article. If we confirm that other programs are affected by this problem, we will update this article with more information. • This problem does not occur with version 1.64 of the Realtek HD Audio Control Panel. Pls remove the items in control panel,click on Add/Remove Programs and look for windows security update 928843 and windows security update 925902.Remove this and restart the computer and you will not see the message again,pls be reminded not to do a windows update with these security again.
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Thursday, April 19, 2007 ::
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18 April, 2007
College gunman disturbed teachers, classmates
President comforts Virginia Tech after student kills 32 and himself MSNBC and NBC News Updated: 9:29 p.m. ET April 17, 2007
BLACKSBURG, Va. - The gunman who shot 32 people to death before killing himself at a Virginia university was described Tuesday as a depressed and deeply disturbed young man whose “grotesque” creative writing projects led a professor to refer him for psychological counseling.
A day after the man, a 23-year-old senior English major, carried out the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, President Bush joined dozens of state and campus leaders to bring comfort to the students, faculty and staff of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
“This is a day of sadness for our entire nation,” the president said.
Thirty-three people were confirmed dead after the bloodbath Monday, including the gunman, whom police identified as Cho Seung-Hui (pronounced Choh Suhng-whee), of Centreville, Va., a resident alien who immigrated to the United States from South Korea in 1992. Nine students remained in hospitals in stable condition Tuesday, MSNBC-TV’s Tucker Carlson reported.
Col. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said investigators searched Cho’s room in Harper Residence Hall and took away numerous documents. He would not describe the nature of the documents but said there was no evidence that Cho had left behind a suicide note. The Washington Post, citing a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation, reported on its Web site Tuesday night that investigators had found a rambling and somewhat incoherent note in Cho’s dorm room.
“It’s sort of a manifesto” attacking rich, spoiled students, the source said.
A second note was found near Cho’s body, also containing obscenities and denunciations of “rich kids,” the source told The Post.
It could not immediately be determined when the notes were written.
In a court affidavit seeking the search warrant, investigators said that when they discovered Cho’s body Monday in the classroom building where most of his victims were killed, they also found a “bomb threat note ... directed at engineering school department buildings.”
Police said Tuesday that there had been bomb threats on campus over the past two weeks but that they had not determined a link to the shootings.
After the shootings, all campus entrances were closed, and classes were canceled for the rest of the week.
Parents ignored administrators’ requests to stay away for now and flooded into Blacksburg to be with their children, NBC News’ Don Teague reported. Every hotel room within miles of the campus was booked Tuesday.
Man alarmed instructors, classmates A Virginia Tech professor told NBC News that Cho’s creative writing was so disturbing that she referred him to the school’s counseling service, but he would not go. The professor, Lucinda Roy, the English Department’s director of creative writing, would not comment at length on Cho’s writings, saying only that in general they “seemed very angry.”
“I kept saying, ‘Please go to counseling; I will take you to counseling,’ because he was so depressed,” Roy said. But “I was told [by counselors] that you can’t force anybody to go over ... so their hands were tied, too.”
Fellow students in a playwriting class with Cho also noticed the dark and disturbing nature of his compositions.
“His writing, the plays, were really morbid and grotesque,” Stephanie Derry, a senior English major, told the campus newspaper, The Collegiate Times.
“I remember one of them very well. It was about a son who hated his stepfather. In the play, the boy threw a chainsaw around and hammers at him. But the play ended with the boy violently suffocating the father with a Rice Krispy treat,” Derry said.
Otherwise, Cho was a young man who apparently left little impression in the Virginia Tech community. Few of his fellow residents of Harper Hall said they knew the gunman, who kept to himself.
“He can’t have been an outgoing kind of person,” Meredith Daly, 19, of Danville, Va., told MSNBC.com’s Bill Dedman.
In Centreville, the suburb of Washington where Cho’s family lived in an off-white, two-story townhouse, people who knew Cho concurred that he kept to himself.
“He was very quiet, always by himself,” said Abdul Shash, a neighbor. Shash said Cho spent a lot of his free time playing basketball and would not respond if someone greeted him. He described the family as quiet.
Click for related content
* Previous deadly campus shootings * Share your photos of memorials * Share your condolences * MSNBC.com message board: Message for society?
Rod Wells, a postal worker, said that characterization of Cho did not fit the man’s parents, who worked at a dry cleaners. He described them as “always polite, always kind to me, very quiet, always smiling. Just sweet, sweet people.”
“I talk to particularly everybody here,” Wells told NBC News. “So I guess nobody had any intimation that he was like that. I don’t think the parents did, because they were quite the opposite.”
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry expressed its condolences, saying that there was no known motive for the shootings and that South Korea hoped the tragedy would not “stir up racial prejudice or confrontation.”
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Wednesday, April 18, 2007 ::
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17 April, 2007
PETROL, DIESEL PRICES ARE UP
Pump prices for petrol and diesel have risen by 10 cents a liter across the board. Citing rising costs,oil companies adjusted rates upwards yesterday.Diesel prices is now S$1.21/liter,while the petrol price ranges from S$1.632 to S$1.97 a liter - the highest so far this year - before discount.Shell's V-Power premium petrol.at S$1.97,is close to the price seen in 2005,when hurricane Katrina disrupted American oil supplies and sent prices soaring.
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Tuesday, April 17, 2007 ::
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Over-tinted car windows: Offences up by 3x
Thinking of tinting your car windows?Read on, because overdoing the tint can lead you to a hefty fine -or even a jail term. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) issued 382 summonses last year to motorists with illegally tinting vehicle windows - 3x the tally in 2005. Tinting is allowed,as long as the rear windows allow at least 25% of light to pass through,and the front windows and windscreen allow at least 70%.The rules are different in Malaysia:There,all the windows must let in half the light,while the windscreen must allow 75%. The LTA said that tinting violations here soared last year mainly because it had stepped up enforcement in response to the public feedback.People make many other illegal modifications to their vehicles,the most common being to the exhaust pipe.Wrong tint on the windows are the next common violation. All in,acted on 1,430 cases last year,about the same as the 1,416 cases in 2005.Figures in earlier years were as high as twice.Although you can replace the tailpipe of your car or motorbike with something snazzy from an accessories shop,it must meet requirements from the LTA and National Environment Agency. Other illegal modifications that the LTA has cracked down on pertain to lights - either the fitting of additional lights or unapproved decorative ones.Even stepping up the wattage of the headlights are not allowed.All in,about a dozen modifications have been outlawed. Most motorists know they cannot modify the engine and gearbox,and that the bodykit cannot protrude beyond the bumpers.But not many people know,for example,that disabling the switch that automatically turns on a motorbike's headlights is illegal.The switch became mandatory in 1997.Motorcyclist Tim Liu-McIntyre,38,said that this important safety feature make the motorcyclist more visible to other motorists. The editor in the Peak Magazine said he was riding with his headlights on in the day time even before it became mandatory."In bad weather,it's be suicidal not to,"he said.Another little known regulation requires that any car with the chassis deemed "badly damaged and beyond repair" be scrapped,the LTA said. Industry observers said motor insurers regularly auction off damaged cars which they deemed uneconomical to repair.However,some of these end up being repaired anyway - and sold to unsuspecting buyers.Mr Lee Nian Tjoe,29,editor of Torque motoring magazine,said"Off all the rules,this one is probably the least enforced." Motor trader Vincent Ng,42,said this was an undesirable practice as the vehicle's crash worthiness would have been compromised.The product manager of Honda agent Kah Motor said it would be ideal if the residual taxes paid on the damaged vehicle - especially one that is fairly new - could be transferred to a new car. Those caught making illegal modifications to their vehicles can be fined up to S$1000.00 or jailed up to 3 months.Repeat offenders face twice the penalty.If you are not sure what is allowed,call LTA at 1800-2255-582. News report from christan@sph.com.sg
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 ::
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When you encounter the illegal relocation in your computer
Problem: Whenever you start a computer there is an error message "RTHDCP.EXE-Illegal System DLL Relocation."The system DLL user32.dll was relocated in memory.The application will not run properly.The relocation occurred because the DLL c:\windows\system32\HHCTRL.OCX occupied an address range reserved for Windows system DLLs.The vendor supplying the DLL should be contacted for a new DLL. Solution:The error is caused by a conflict with the recent released of security update from Microsoft.Basically, 2 applications wants to occupy and use the same memory location.Details outlining the conflict along with the hotfix,is documented in Microsoft Knowledge base article here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935448
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Tuesday, April 17, 2007 ::
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16 April, 2007
BALLS OF STEEL-BUNNY BOILER
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Gas at the Museum
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Balls of Steel - Negs Urban Sports - Urban Sprinting
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Don't underestimate this kids
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Prangstgrup Subway Lectures
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Prangstgrup - Reach! A Lecture Musical Prank!!
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Balls of Steel - The Annoying Devil Clip 2 -Channel 4 Comedy
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Balls Of Steel - The Annoying Devil Clips - Channel 4 2005
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Skeleton Prank Video
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Skirt pranks
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Pranks On Hot Girls
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Mall Pranks
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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24 Payphone Pranks Hour 02
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Anthony's Farewell Dinner
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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My work environment Part 1
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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First steps to ending nighttime snoring
MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
MINNEAPOLIS -- Dave Barlow knew something about snoring. He worked as a physician assistant for a doctor who snored and whose patients had the same problem. And then, well, Barlow had an earful of noise most nights from his wife, Anne.
So when he heard about the Pillar System in 2005, he was intrigued. Three little polyester strands are injected into the soft palate to stop the vibration of soft tissue that may cause the distinctive buzz-saw sound familiar to bed partners everywhere. First, Barlow used the gun-like injection device to insert the three strands into his boss's mouth, and then he did the same thing for his wife.
Advertisement click here The doctor hasn't had much of a problem since. But his wife? Still snoring.
"It's a gamble," Barlow said of the Pillar System, which now has been used on about 23,000 snorers at a cost of $1,200 to $2,500 each. And that's the same with most of the sleep-related snoring treatments: Sometimes they work; sometimes they don't.
Often snoring can be an indication of apnea, which occurs when the tissues in the throat close completely many times in an hour, cutting off the flow of oxygen to the blood. It's potentially serious because it increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
But snoring alone -- when the soft tissues in the throat vibrate like a percussion instrument -- is largely an affliction for bed partners that can drive couples apart.
No wonder people are willing to pay out of pocket for everything from Breathe Right strips to open their nasal passages to the outpatient Pillar procedure.
But many doctors recommend steering clear of expensive or surgical treatments.
So what's a snorer to do?
• First, make sure you don't have sleep apnea, experts say. That might require an overnight sleep study at a clinic, where your brain waves, oxygen levels and breathing patterns will be monitored.
• Dr. Joan Fox, a sleep specialist at the Sleep Disorder Center in Minneapolis, said if you can't breathe through your nose, you'll breathe through your mouth instead, leading to snoring. So take care of allergies and other sinus problems first.
• Another option is a mandibular device, which looks like a mouth guard that pulls the lower jaw and tongue forward, opening up the throat. Doctors say that they should be individually fitted by a dentist or oral surgeon who specializes in them.
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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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PART 1: Two lives cut short
The families of 2 boys killed in a drug robbery want people to know they had loving hearts and bright futures
April 15, 2007
BY RUBY L. BAILEY and BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
The police arrived around 11 p.m. Earl Herron led them to the bodies.
On the living room floor of the house on Mansfield in Detroit were Darren Johnson, 11, and Orlando Herron, 13 -- Earl's younger brother. Both shot in the head. Both lying in their own blood.
Advertisement The boys were slain Feb. 23, police said, in a botched attempt to rob their cousin, 23-year-old Ronell Thompson, of drugs and money. Thompson, shot three times, survived.
But the horror of the children's slayings soon was buried under the fallout from investigative leaks about why the boys might have been targeted: Were they drug runners, working for their cousin? Had they stolen money from other drug dealers, who retaliated?
Top police brass publicly rejected both theories. Investigators say they still do not know why the boys were shot while others in the house were spared. For the families, the damage was done.
"I really couldn't believe all that was being said," Orlando's mother, Yvonne Lockhart, 36, told the Free Press. "I don't have anything to hide. My son just was over at his cousin's house. He was over there for winter break. That was it."
During an interview at her home, Allyson Howard's voice was a near-whisper, her eyes wet with tears, as she spoke of her son, Darren. An urn with his ashes sits atop the living room mantel with a Happy Birthday sticker attached by his 6-year-old sister, Armani. He was killed a few hours shy of his 12th birthday.
"How can people be so heartless like this?" said Howard, 31. "You just shot them -- for what?"
The day had started as a simple outing at Thompson's west side home -- a winter break visit to get haircuts, play video games, eat coneys and hang out. Thompson, who often cut family members' hair, was a big kid himself, relatives said, and he had a big draw -- a Sony PlayStation 3.
But Thompson also had a life adults in the families insist they never knew existed. Only later, the boys' mothers said, would they learn that some of their children had known for months about Thompson's drug dealing.
Six people have been charged with first-degree murder in the boys' deaths and are awaiting the continuation of their preliminary hearing on May 14.
Lockhart, Howard and other relatives, meanwhile, want Darren and Orlando to be remembered as the loving kids they knew. And they want to tell the stories that were not told when they died: the stories of unrealized potential, the inexplicable tragedy of lives cut short.
Darren was in only fifth grade, but he'd already mapped out his life. The day he died, he was looking forward to his birthday. A party and a new pair of Air Jordan basketball shoes awaited him.
Orlando, a Barry Sanders wannabe, planned to head home that evening to be with his siblings, play more video games and maybe talk to a girl on the phone.
"Y'all took two lives of ours," said LaChenna Herron-Ray, 34, whose son Jayvon Scarber also was in the house on Mansfield that night. "Two babies that didn't have nothing to do with nothing. Just there to have fun."
Orlando: Laid-back and playful
They called him O. He had a megawatt smile and bright eyes.
"He just brightened the whole room," said Herron-Ray, his aunt. Orlando wanted to be a pro-football running back. His favorite number was 20, the same one worn by former Detroit Lion Barry Sanders.
He was born into a large, tight-knit family -- the fifth of six children of Lockhart and Corey Herron Sr. The pair have been together for more than 20 years.
Orlando was so quiet that family members said it was easy to forget he was in a room and so laid-back it was hard to get him to go places. He lived for video games.
"You had to have a PS3 to get him out of the house," said his cousin Ebony Montgomery, 29.
When he left home for any length of time, it was usually for family trips with his siblings, often chaperoned by aunts or grandparents. He joined his aunt Hope Cotton and her three children on trips to Florida, Tennessee and amusement parks, including Cedar Point.
The cousins were close because they "were all raised together," Cotton said. "You would rarely see one without the others."
At 13, Orlando was starting to attract girls. He paid particular attention to his hair, trying to cultivate the waves the kids called 360s, a pattern that swirls 360 degrees.
Coming home from her job as a warehouse club cashier, Lockhart often found Orlando on the phone with one particular girl or playing video games.
"Did you do your homework?" Lockhart said she'd ask. If the answer was no, she'd tell him, "Get off the phone."
He was a seventh-grader at Brenda Scott Middle School in Detroit and known for his playfulness, a quality that endeared him to his teachers and classmates.
"He was well-loved by his class," said Attress Askew, his English teacher.
After school, he'd walk every day with his cousin, Jeremy Johnson, 14, who was in the eighth grade at the school, to Jeremy's house. They'd play video games until it was time for Orlando to go home.
"We just clowned around," said Jeremy, one of Cotton's children.
LaKia Fields, 13, said she could always turn to Orlando for advice. They lived on the same street for four years, before Orlando and his family moved, and still talked daily.
"He was just somebody I could talk to and get good advice from," LaKia said. "He was just a good listener. He was a fun person to talk on the phone with. He always kept me laughing."
More than anything, there was a sweetness about Orlando, said his maternal grandmother, Yvette Lockhart, 59.
Of her grandchildren, "He was the only one who would just walk up to an adult and hug them," Yvette Lockhart said. "He was always polite, always a smile on his face."
Darren: Ambitious and talented
Darren Johnson Jr. had plans. He'd graduate from high school in 2014, attend the University of Florida, become a teacher, get married, have kids and play in the NBA.
He was on his way. He'd recently gained some height and his thin frame was filling out.
"He thought he was cut," said his stepfather, DaShaan Warren, a WJLB disc jockey. "He was always flexing his muscles."
At a 2006 car show, he met Detroit Piston Rasheed Wallace and told him he intended to take Wallace down.
"He said, 'When I get in the NBA, I'm gonna block your shot,' " Warren said.
Darren was excelling at Coolidge Intermediate School in Ferndale -- so much so that he was on track to be promoted from fifth to sixth grade after winter recess. He'd just made the honor roll and was described as extremely popular with classmates.
"He really worked hard in class," said Darren's fourth-grade teacher, Linda Gostomski. "The kids really liked him, especially the girls."
He also loved to write. As part of a school assignment, Darren laid out his plans in a paper entitled "I Want to Be a Teacher."
"I will get married and have a family, so I can play with my kids," he wrote. He went on to detail his plan to get an apartment and noted: "You have to be responsible and you have to persevere."
In a letter of appreciation to Gostomski, he said: "I learned that if you do good things, good things happen. My goal in life is to be a good person and never do wrong things."
And on Mother's Day 2006, he wrote to his mother: "I love you. I will love you for who you are."
But mostly, Darren "was just a typical, active kid that liked to play," Howard said.
He loved spending time with his father, Darren Johnson Sr., and played mostly with his seven siblings, and his cousins, said Howard, who owns a salon.
Howard and Johnson Sr. split up several years ago.
"He just last year was able to spend the night at one of his friends' homes," his mother said.
Darren could cook Hamburger Helper and loved anything sweet. He also loved his mom's cooking. "Macaroni and cheese -- that was his favorite," she said.
He also liked to draw, especially pictures of basketball shoes like Nikes and Air Jordans.
By winter break, Darren was looking forward to his 12th birthday party, set for Joe Dumars' Fieldhouse in Shelby Township, the sports center owned by the Detroit Pistons' president.
"The last thing he said to me was, 'Don't forget my birthday,' " said Gostomski, whose classroom was right across from Darren's. "We both had February birthdays."
On Feb. 23, the day before he would have turned 12, Darren repeatedly called relatives, asking for birthday money that would get him closer to a new pair of Air Jordans.
Excited about the coming day, he also called his mother. He was at his cousin's house, playing video games.
It was exactly 5:07 p.m., she recalled.
"That would be my last time talking to him," Howard said.
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Box wines are worth toasting
Premium varieties replace cheap, sweet stuff April 15, 2007
BY LAUREN SHEPHERD
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Composer-turned-writer Steph Waller considers herself something of a wine connoisseur.
But she isn't seduced by the sweet smell of cork or the curve of a narrow glass neck. Instead, the California native swoons over a glass poured straight from the box.
Advertisement MMHA Waller is among a growing group of wine drinkers who are turning to the box rather than the bottle. With better wine varieties now available in boxes, wineries are attempting to give the category a new identity far from the rowdy boating trips and drunken fraternity parties that gave box vino its cheap, low-quality image.
The effort seems to be paying off. Box wine is now the fastest-growing wine category. According to data from AC Nielsen, three-liter box wine sales grew 44% in the past year, compared to a 3% gain in overall table wine volume.
"It's gaining tremendous acceptance by the consumer," said Ben Dollard, president of Pacific Wine Partners, a division of Constellation Brands. "It's just the tip of the iceberg."
Vintners have been doing a good deal of experimenting in the last few years. Wine even comes in plastic bottles and cans.
Although wine has been packaged in a box for some time, the new boxes aren't like the five-liter jugs of sweet, headache-inducing wines of the past.
Although those still are readily available, premium varieties on the market show a bit more complexity with hints of berry, apple or oak.
Of course, the premium entries are more expensive. For example, a Chardonnay can run $20 for a box that contains the equivalent of four bottles, whereas the lower quality five-liter boxes sell for between $6 and $10 for more than 6 bottles of wine.
The premium boxes are still a steal, however, because one quality bottle can cost $10 to $30 or more.
Box wine manufacturers can afford to charge less for quality when the packaging materials are far less expensive.
Morningstar analyst Matt Reilly said that bottling a $4 or $5 bottle of wine can cost $1, whereas a box can cost a tenth of that.
And of course, you can't beat the convenience. You can take a box of wine just about anywhere or you can leave it at home and not worry that it will go bad. Box wines stay fresh for as long as four weeks after they're opened because the boxes contain a vacuum-sealed bag that prevents the wine from being exposed to air.
"A box just kind of sits in the fridge and I don't have to think about it," said Waller.
Despite the advantages, Wall Street analysts and wine industry experts say it could still take some time before Wine Spectator-reading enthusiasts -- and the grocery stores and wine shops that cater to them -- can fully embrace the box.
"People are pretty nervous with taking that leap," said Barbara Insel, managing director and wine researcher at MKF Research. "People need to feel comfortable that their friends won't make fun of them."
For now, the new wines are attracting drinkers content with a glass a night at a value price. These drinkers may have outgrown the wine cooler college days, but are still less sophisticated than the tasting room aficionados.
According to a 2005 Constellation Brands consumer study called Project Genome, wine drinkers can be sifted into six different categories based on their preferences and attitudes about wine. Leslie Joseph, vice president of consumer research at Constellation Brands, said the research found that three-liter buyers mainly fit into the "image-seeker" category populated with younger males eager to be seen as trendy and hip.
"They're the people with the newest toys," Joseph said. And "they like to educate their friends."
The age range of the average box wine drinker has been changing, though, Insel said.
Most people assumed the new wine was mainly for the millennials -- drinkers who turned 21 after 2000 -- who were "looking for a cool new unpretentious way to drink wine," Insel said, "but baby boomers are buying it now."
The road to becoming an acceptable alternative to the bottle for younger and the older generations has taken years. To attract them, Dollard's brands -- producer of Black Box, Blackstone Winery and Hardy's wine brands -- focused on how to bring elegance to the box.
Dollard said he highlighted which region the wine was from, traveled to tastings around the country and started selling the product at smaller retailers to build word-of-mouth praise. Ryan Sproule, the founder of Black Box, said he specifically designed the box to appeal to well-heeled consumers. He said he chose a square, cube shape with a black background and printed a wine label directly on the box.
"You had some familiar wine things there," Sproule said. "The only reason no one had ever had done it in the U.S. was strictly the stigma of the package."
Although the wines can be found in major retailers like Wal-Mart and Kroger, many stores stock it in the same section as the lower-priced and lower-quality box wines of yesterday.
"That is the biggest problem we have," said Sproule. "It's a problem we don't necessarily have the best answer to."
To attract consumers willing to spend upwards of $15 on wine, premium box wines would ideally be shelved right next to their bottle counterparts.
"You see that a lot of times with new categories when you try to rebrand something," said Reilly.
Wine companies must invest in marketing campaigns to change perceptions of both stores and consumers, he said.
"There certainly is an educational aspect to it as well," Reilly said.
Reilly likened the emergence of the box to that of the screw cap, which finally has become more acceptable as an alternative to the cork.
"You will get consumers to accept it over the long run," he said. But in an industry where image is everything, "that takes time."
Even Waller, known among friends as the "Box Master" for her habit of bringing a box of wine to every party, isn't fully sold.
"If I'm going to spend $25 for a wine, I'm going to get a bottle," she said.
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Travelers stuck on the runway in Spirit plane
Delay at Metro typical of industry
April 11, 2007
BY JEWEL GOPWANI
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Computer problems at a U.S. Customs checkpoint at Detroit Metro Airport kept nearly 150 passengers from disembarking a flight from Cancun Monday night.
Depending on who you talk to, passengers waited anywhere from 90 minutes to two hours and 40 minutes with little information about what was happening.
Advertisement The wait is the latest case of airline passengers spending hours in parked planes in an overly taxed air travel system, in which airlines, security and air traffic controllers are trying to handle record numbers of travelers.
After Spirit flight 288 landed, travelers started to pull their bags from the overhead compartments and were told to wait a few minutes, said Ken Clein, an architect from Ann Arbor who was on the flight.
A few minutes turned into a half hour, which turned into an hour.
In the Customs area, officials working on overtime for the late-night flight had arrived expecting the flight to land at 11:38 p.m. But the plane landed 20 minutes early.
As passengers waited, Customs officials prepared to process passengers manually, said Ronald Smith, chief Customs and Border Protection officer.
Smith said that took about 50 minutes and passengers started to deplane at 12:30 a.m. Clein said the wait was about an hour longer than that, with passengers leaving the plane at 2 a.m.
Inside the plane, the crew opened the plane's forward door for fresh air. The planes toilets were working, but there was no running water in the lavatories, so passengers couldn't wash their hands, Clein said.
While frustrating and uncomfortable for passengers, the wait paled compared with other recent incidents of passengers trapped on planes.
In February, hundreds of passengers were stranded on JetBlue Airways flights for as long as 11 hours, when winter storms caused hundreds of flight cancellations.
In December, thunderstorms forced American Airlines and American Eagle to divert more than 100 flights bound for Texas, leaving thousands of passengers in planes.
"You put just a little bit of a glitch, like weather or Immigration, something that puts a wrench in the works, you're going to have these types of outcomes," said Dean Headley, associate professor of marketing at Wichita State University.
A hearing is slated for April 20 before a House subcommittee to discuss these issues. There have also been calls for a passenger bill of rights, which would limit how long passengers are kept on parked planes.
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Judge rejects NWA attendants' move to rescind pay cuts
April 13, 2007
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — A federal bankruptcy judge denied requests by Northwest Airlines flight attendants to reverse company-imposed pay cuts and award compensation for their lost wages.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper ruled today that there is no legal basis for the argument by the Association of Flight Attendants that wage cuts should be smaller because Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines Corp. is faring better than expected.The carrier entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2005.
Advertisement Gropper said reversing the wage and benefit cuts for flight attendants and other workers “would likely reverse much, if not all, of the financial improvement” the airline has had. That would undermine the very argument flight attendants were making that the cuts should be reversed in the first place, he wrote.
The union has said it is owed two claims worth a total of $2.4 billion, according to Gropper’s ruling, for lost wages as a result of the cuts. Gropper blocked that motion as well.
Northwest, which is Michigan’s biggest passenger air carrier, made cuts in July to save $195 million a year after it couldn’t reach an agreement with the flight attendants.
Those concessions and ones from other workers helped the airline, which reported a $301-million pretax profit in 2006, not counting bankruptcy expenses. Bankruptcy expenses gave it a loss of $2.84 billion.
On March 29, a federal appeals court left a strike ban in place that blocks flight attendants from striking unless they first exhaust the lengthy requirements of airline labor law.
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Samsung Electronics 1Q Profit Declines
By KELLY OLSEN AP Business Writer
Quarterly Profit at Infosys Up 70 Pct.
Circuit City Posts 4Q Loss
Buy AP Photo Reprints
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Samsung Electronics Co. said net profit fell for a second straight quarter amid declining prices for its mainstay computer chips, but expressed confidence Friday that market conditions will recover later this year.
Samsung, the world's largest memory chip maker, said it earned 1.60 trillion won ($1.72 billion) in the first quarter, down 15 percent from the same period last year as prices fell for chips as well as flat panel displays.
Sales for the Suwon, South Korea-based company during the three months ended March 31 rose 3.1 percent to 14.39 trillion won ($15.47 billion).
Samsung is also the world's top producer of flat-screen televisions using both liquid crystal and plasma displays. It ranks third globally in mobile phone handsets, and also produces other consumer electronics such as MP3 players and laptop computers.
In memory chips, Samsung manufactures both DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, chips used in personal computers, as well as NAND chips used in digital cameras and music players.
"DRAM and NAND prices fell too sharply over the first quarter to be offset by our cost reduction efforts," Robert Yi, Samsung vice president for investor relations, told analysts on a conference call. "Of course this is a problem faced by all DRAM and NAND producers, not just Samsung Electronics."
The result, the second straight quarterly profit decline, was worse than expected.
The average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires forecast that the company would post a net profit of 1.69 trillion won ($1.82 billion) on sales of 14.57 trillion ($15.67 billion).
Samsung said its liquid crystal display business was slowed by what it described as "sluggish demand for large panels and a continued drop in panel prices."
The bright spot was the company's telecommunications business as Samsung sold 34.8 million mobile phone handsets, a quarterly record for the company "despite the overall market shrinking more than a little on seasonality," Yi said.
Yi said prices for NAND chips are already improving and predicted there will be a supply shortage in the second half of the year. DRAM prices will likely stabilize by the end of the current quarter, he said.
Memory chip prices fell sharply from the same period last year, with DRAM chips sliding 26 percent and NAND plummeting 73 percent, according to Dongbu Securities' semiconductor industry analyst Lee Min-hee.
Lee agreed with Samsung's market outlook, saying demand for chips will rebound as computer makers take advantage of current low prices to upgrade memory capacity. An expected pickup in demand for Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista, will also contribute, he said.
"The memory business will recover in the second half," Lee said.
Shares in Samsung, which released earnings after the stock market opened, fell 0.5 percent to close at 601,000 won ($646). The shares fell as much as 1.5 percent and rose as high as 1 percent during the day.
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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Fewer than 50% buy U.S. vehicles
Domestics' retail market share falls
April 14, 2007
BY SARAH A. WEBSTER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Despite a good start to the year by General Motors Corp., fewer than half of American consumers -- 48.9% -- bought new cars and trucks in the first quarter this year from Detroit automakers, according to retail sales data provided exclusively to the Free Press by the Power Information Network.
Retail sales are purchases made directly by consumers in showrooms, and they exclude fleet sales to rental car companies, businesses and governments, which are typically sold in bulk at a discount.
Advertisement Industry experts view retail sales, which represent about three-fourths of the industry's 17 million sales, as one of the best measures of market demand and the future financial performance of automakers, because they are generally more profitable sales.
The new low point in Detroit's share of the retail market is the result of a long-term consumer move away from their brands that seems to have picked up speed since September, fueled by a housing market slowdown, high oil prices and shaken consumer confidence.
While GM had the strongest quarter among metro Detroit automakers, Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG lost important retail market share to foreign competitors -- led by Toyota Motor Corp., which managed to drop its incentives to below $1,000 per vehicle on average and still snap up a substantial number of new customers.
To be sure, this is not the first time that Detroit automakers have dipped below the 50% mark in retail sales. But if the trend continues, this might be the first full year that non-U.S. automakers take the majority of the U.S. auto market.
"I think, in the near term, both Chrysler and Ford will continue to lose share, and that aggregate loss will more than offset any possible gain by GM," said Tom Libby, senior director of industry analysis at PIN, a subsidiary of J.D. Power and Associates.
"I don't expect the domestics' share to move back up above 50% this year."
Still, the performance of GM shows arguable improvement. The world's largest automaker is stabilizing its retail performance, despite slashing its cash-back rebates and other discounts by an average of $500 per vehicle.
Automakers don't typically provide detailed information to the public on their retail sales, so PIN compiles estimates with sales information collected from more than 7,000 dealerships, which represent one-fourth of all retail sales.
Mark LaNeve, vice president of sales, service and marketing for GM North America, said GM's performance is better than the PIN estimate suggests. LaNeve said retail sales at GM were up half a percentage point in the first quarter. That performance, he said, likely will translate to a nearly flat retail market share because industry-wide retail sales are up an estimated 0.7%.
"We know our numbers for a fact," LaNeve said. "It was the first quarterly increase we've had in probably 18 months or so, and we think we held our own in a pretty tough market."
Although the numbers at Ford and Chrysler weren't nearly as encouraging, they're not giving up.
"It's still very early in the calendar year," Steven Landry, vice president of sales and field operations for the Auburn Hills-based Chrysler Group, said in an interview Thursday. "I think it's presumptuous to think that, as a group, we may finish below 50%."
Downward trend
Although Detroit could make a comeback, the domestic retail sales performance has been consistently on the decline for some time.
In 2005, Detroit's automakers had 54.5% of the retail market. By the end of last year, that had edged down to 50.1%.
Now, Detroit is down to 48.9%. That's a 1.2-percentage-point decline from the fourth quarter of 2006, and it's an even larger 2.1-percentage-point decline from the first quarter of last year.
These declines, measured to the tenths of a percentage point, might not seem like much. But each point of retail share keeps about one half of an assembly plant running.
Libby said even a half of a percentage point is considered an admirable gain in today's marketplace and a full percentage point is like "a huge mountain."
And Detroit, despite its best efforts, continues to lose mountains.
Behind the power shift
Ultimately, sales trends at just two automakers -- Toyota and Ford -- explain most of the power shift this year.
While most of the major automakers gained or lost a half percentage point of market share or less, Ford lost a full 1.1 percentage points and Toyota gained 1 percentage point.
Those numbers reveal just how tough the situation has become at Ford.
That's because the Dearborn-based automaker simultaneously increased its incentives, such as cash-back rebates and other discounts, by 44.6% or $1,342 per vehicle, during the period, to an average of $4,350 per vehicle, according to Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, N.J. Usually, big discounts such as those encourage consumers to shop and buy more. George Pipas, Ford's top sales analyst, said that Ford's declines, if they continue, could have implications for the company's turnaround plans, which already have called for shuttering 16 plants and eliminating 44,000 jobs.
"We know that one of the key assumptions in the Way Forward plan is to stabilize our retail market share," he said. "If we don't, then we maybe haven't gone far enough on our cost reduction."
That said, Ford's retail market share numbers provided by PIN include all of the company's six major brands, such as Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo, all of which have posted sales declines this year. But the company's Way Forward plan is based primarily on Ford's domestic Ford, Mercury and Lincoln brands.
Pipas said the number for those three brands has held steady at about 13% of U.S. sales. So that would support Ford Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally's recent comments to reporters at the New York auto show last week that "we are stabilizing our market share."
Contact SARAH A. WEBSTER at 313-222-5394 or swebster@freepress.com.
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
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14 April, 2007
Rowan Atkinson - Fatal Beating
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Saturday, April 14, 2007 ::
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Rowan Atkinson Invisible Man
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Saturday, April 14, 2007 ::
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Rowan Atkinson
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Saturday, April 14, 2007 ::
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Rowan Atkinson - Guys after the Game - Waiter Sketch
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Saturday, April 14, 2007 ::
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Rowan Atkinson With Friends Like These
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Saturday, April 14, 2007 ::
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Recent photos
Caught Rosemary in her messy self as she was so engrossed in her work.Tried so many times in the past to take her photo but so hard.She is a great woman I like talking to and she sits opposite of me.I would also talk to her buddy Eng Heng.Finally the messy look on her face has been captured by me.If you see this woman there is a reward.Message me to find out what the reward is.Hehe
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Saturday, April 14, 2007 ::
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PICTURES OF ANTHONY CHONG'S FAREWELL DINNER
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Saturday, April 14, 2007 ::
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13 April, 2007
Dirty Roll Call
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Friday, April 13, 2007 ::
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Not The 9 O'Clock News - Conservative Conference
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Friday, April 13, 2007 ::
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Rowan Atkinson: Pink Tights and Plenty of Props
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Friday, April 13, 2007 ::
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Rowan Atkinson Live: Welcome to hell.
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Friday, April 13, 2007 ::
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Anthony's Last Day at work
Ok now is the sad news.Anthony will be leaving the ITS team and it will be sad to see him go.Over the past one year I have gotten to know Anthony,well to be frank I will just come out and say it.Anthony is a very nice guy to work with,I mean I have seen the way he handles some users in the past,he also has the patience in things.Well to me he is a great guy to work with and he will be someone I will miss alot even I hardly talk much to him.He was very helpful and we did learn alot from each other in certain aspects.Anyway I also got to learn certain things from VMware which I have never come across in the past all thanks to THE MAN ANTHONY CHONG.But one thing we have in common is that we both like the Battlestar Galactica Episodes and I have been like giving him all the episodes that I have downloaded over skyone over the last few months. Today after work ITBP & ITS will be having a farewell dinner for him at the Royal Hotel where 18 persons will be attending.The dinner will be from 7.15pm onwards.I just wanna say I wish Anthony Chong all the best in his future endeavors,he has been a friend,teacher and a good colleague.I will miss his continuous burping and also all the wacky things he does and also the way he laugh....hehe..... "WARS MAY COME AND GO BUT MY SOLDIERS WILL ALWAYS REMAIN FAITHFUL"
Things will change once he is no longer here,and there will be only me,Dimas,Rajan, Irwan & Aref. Patrick will be getting another guy to come in to help us out.But like the saying goes when the going gets tough,the tough has to get going."
"BON VOYAGE MY FELLOW COLLEAGUE,GOD BLESS N GOD SPEED."
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Friday, April 13, 2007 ::
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Rowan Atkinson Amazing Jesus
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Friday, April 13, 2007 ::
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11 April, 2007
Are Cheap DVD Burners Worth the Trouble?
Just Any DVD Burner Will Not Do
It has been over a year since we last took a look at DVD burners. One reason for the delay is that there were few developments on which to report ever since the write speeds hit 16X. Manufacturers then focused on value-added features such as built-in disc labeling called LightScribe. Another reason is the incredibly cheap price level: It is absolutely possible to purchase a DVD burner for as little as $25. But there still are differences in quality.
There are various reasons why you might want to purchase a DVD burner for your PC. On one hand, it can serve as a versatile and inexpensive storage device, as recordable DVDs store 4.7 GB on single-layer discs or 8.5 GB of data onto double-layer media (DL). This provides plenty of space for storing your family pictures, wedding videos or other data. On the other hand, DVDs are the most popular medium for digital movies and audio. Most DVD players and recent car audio solutions support audio and video playback of various popular formats, and a single-layer DVD can hold over eight hours of DivX or XviD video in standard definition or 750 MP3 songs in 192 kb/s quality.
Another invaluable advantage is how DVD readers and writers probably are the most widely used storage devices today. Every new PC or notebook carries an optical drive and can at least read DVDs and CDs, and more and more computers have DVD writing capabilities. Rewriteable media allows users to re-record data many times instead of creating single-use DVDs (called WORMs - Write Once, Read Multiple). While DVDs are not extremely durable, the discs will store your data safely for several years. For very important data, we recommend redundant storage - even if your discs are kept in a safe place.
There are so many different DVD recordables and DVD writers. We recommend opting for branded products, especially the recordables, as we've already seen physical degradation of so-called no-name recordables only a few years after they were written. Storing data on a DVD is an irreversible process that burns physical marks into the dye layer(s), which is why we recommend relying on brands that you know and trust. Rewriteables utilize a phase-change recording layer, which can be altered approximately 1,000 times.
DVD Basics
There are DVD-ROM drives (Read Only Memory) and DVD burners (writers, recorders). Both read all types of DVD media, but only DVD burners write onto compatible discs. Data is read or written from or to the dye layer using a 650-nm wavelength. DVD-R by the DVD Forum was the first DVD standard, but it wasn't quite accepted by all device manufacturers, because it carried sectors which could not be written for the purpose of preventing illegal copies of copyrighted material. Some industry members them founded the DVD+RW Alliance, which developed its own standard. It's incompatible, but technically similar.
While the first DVD burner generations only supported one of the two standards, today's drives are capable of handling both (although only DVD-R products may carry the DVD logo) and there is no price difference between DVD-R and DVD+R anymore. Also, it doesn't matter which standard you use for data storage.
Single-layer discs are incredibly inexpensive and can be written in fairly quickly in five to six minutes at 16X write speed. The double-layer media (DL) is still somewhat expensive and requires at least 20 minutes to finish the 8.4 GB task. This is because the write speeds max out at 10X for DL, and the two layers have to be written consecutively.
Most DVD burners still use an UltraATA interface, but more and more devices come with modern Serial ATA interfaces. SATA has the advantage that you don't have to configure anything - just plug the device into an available SATA port. UltraATA devices require a jumper to be set to determine whether the drive runs in master or slave mode. Performance Basics
There are two different ways of operating drives that are based on rotating media. This can be at constant angular velocity (CAV) or constant linear velocity (CLV). Hard drives typically operate at a constant angular velocity, which means that the absolute velocity increases towards the outer areas of the rotating platter by maintaining a fixed rotation speed of e.g. 7,200 RPM. Optical drives such as CD or DVD drives utilize either the technology, or a combination of both technologies, called PCAV (partial constant angular velocity). And there is the option of running drives in ZCLV mode, which holds a certain speed for a given zone on the disc.
While rotation speeds are very important, vibration is a serious issue that requires attention. For this reason, many drives have vibration sensors, which throttle media rotation speeds in case of read or write failures.
Optical drives show considerably slower access times than hard drives. Typically, the laser unit is driven by a small motor, guided within a little concentric rail. The results are access times that are at least 10 times longer than with hard drives. But as many applications for DVD storage require sequential reading of information, access time can be considered secondary. Lightscribe
Labeling your own DVD is an interesting topic. The typical approach is to use a thin, permanent marker to write your title on the upper side of the DVD. This can be done with most DVDs you buy in retail channels. However, this doesn't look very professional. LightScribe is a technology that uses a drive's DVD laser unit that allows you to etch text or images onto the surface. As you can imagine, LightScribe requires appropriate recordable media and you have to insert your DVD upside down to be able to "lightscribe" it. More information can be found here.
LG GSA-H42L
LG's current DVD burner is called Super Multi GSA-H42L and it supports all DVD formats at up to 18X write speeds for DVD+R and DVD-R. It is also compatible with 6X DVD-RW and 8X DVD+RW. Double-layer discs can be written at 10X speeds. Last but not least, DVD-RAM is supported at 12X speed. CD speeds are supported at up to 48X (read and write).
According to LG's specifications, the burner's average access times are 140 ms for DVD-ROM, 175 ms for DVD-RAM and 120 ms for CD-ROM. The drive comes with 2 MB buffer, a buffer under run protection feature and it utilizes an UltraATA interface. The H42L supports LightScribe, whereas the GSA-H42N does not. We found the price difference to be small enough to justify the extra expense for the H42L with LightScribe.
The retail package comes with beige and black front panels for the drive, which allows the user to adjust its appearance to the color of the computer case. The drive is very quiet, but its DVD ripping speed was clearly too long, as Pioneer and Sony finished the same task 40% faster (11 minutes versus 27 minutes).
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Wednesday, April 11, 2007 ::
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05 April, 2007
fatbelly dance
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Thursday, April 05, 2007 ::
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Wow crazy frog
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Thursday, April 05, 2007 ::
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Crazy, lunatic, German Kid Freaks out
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Thursday, April 05, 2007 ::
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Pimp Slapped
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Thursday, April 05, 2007 ::
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Bad Landing
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Thursday, April 05, 2007 ::
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Crazy Bride
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Thursday, April 05, 2007 ::
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Funny Road Rage Prank
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Thursday, April 05, 2007 ::
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road rage
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Thursday, April 05, 2007 ::
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Shaun Micallef - Amish Road Rage
Posted by THE SAINT ::
Thursday, April 05, 2007 ::
