The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer for security reasons.
The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google’s systems. (more…)

WIRTSCHAFTS_BLATT-Mit dem Start des neuen Google-Handys und dem Auslaufen der Exklusiv-Vertriebsrechte für das iPhone werden die Karten im heimischen Mobilfunkgeschäft neu gemischt.
Google hat am Firmensitz im kalifornischen Mountain View das mit Spannung erwartete Google Smartphone Nexus One vorgestellt. Es gilt in der Branche als erster ernstzunehmender Herausforderer für das iPhone von Apple.

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PCWORLD -  Whether you’re a Windows vet or a relative newcomer, you can always use a trick or two for making things go faster. We’ve compiled our favorite time-saving tips for Windows XP, Vista, and 7. Print out this story and keep it on your desk.
Classic Windows Tips
Toggle between apps: Use Alt-Tab to switch open programs without touching your mouse. The oldest–and still the best–Windows timesaver.
Navigate app windows: Press Ctrl-Tab to cycle through an application’s windows (or through a Web browser’s tabs). First cousin of the tip above, and probably the most underrated tip ever.

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In 2009 audiences for online journalism continued to grow. In 2008, for the first time, more people reported getting their national and international news from the internet, rather than newspapers, and audiences to news sites continued to grow due to the launch of new sites, and it was continued growth in internet audiences overall, with new people discovering the internet’s advantages for convenience, speed and depth.
However, the professional online news industry is increasingly gloomy about its financial future.

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Galina writes about her adventures with Wohnbeihilfe (accommodation social help) and Austrian post-office.
Do you know somebody never making mistakes? It must be specie of artificial intellect. Humans simply need to miss a target now and then to guarantee one accurate shot.
I don’t claim to be possessor of absolute truth. Like any other mortal, I make wrong judgments on certain occasions in my search for true fact. I may be completely in the power of ego sometimes, feeling the world developed personal grudges against me.
But then change of tide brings ability for detached view and main condition for objectivity – inner piece. Unhappy people tend to be subjective and make those around them unhappy too. Those who steadily accumulate unhappiness: poor, sick, outcasts, drug-users, illegal immigrants, persons in refugee camps and prisoners – accumulate also enormous destructive force to strike back, subjected to uncontrollable aggression, which affects innocent people. Society must care more about deprived and downtrodden to improve general psychological climate and prevent murder, rape, robbing, domestic violence and suicide.
As I also witness certain deprivation, I started to use instinctively such instrument of defense as word to restore my equilibrium between good and evil. This instrument contains huge destructive and creative potential, in spite of mask of Internet gibberish it carries.
I always tried and would use every my word with consideration. (more…)

Journalists belong to special caste. Whoever starts on this thorny way, rarely change profession. The reason is simple: they are forced to proceed. Staff manager of any company apart from PR and news agencies, looking through professional history of applicant, may be alarmed by facts of his intimate affairs with mass media. Such a reputation considered to be seriously compromised. Every company and institution has something to conceal from public view. Many organizations dread of journalists, who demonstrate: first- certain level of literacy, and second- ability to prostitute this literacy, if something goes wrong. And in company sooner or later something always goes wrong. Therefore journalist, who wants to start new profession, must break wall of distrust toward person capable of collecting information and selling it. For mass media professionals there is no way back, as there is no way back for agents employed by a state to obtain secret information or individuals with serious criminal record. The journalism is as ancient as bodily prostitution, and has much in common with it.
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Nothing is more tormenting than longevity of empty days, for me and, I guess,  crucial for my future as author, many a time I found myself weeping in the cold kitchen feeling helpless, after pacing the room for hours, weeping because I could not easily express myself – in English. I registered then, that my inner verbal processes, especially during peak experiences, went on in Russian, though for a number of years I tried to bring myself into other language dimensions, excluding almost all information in my mother tongue from outer world: internet, live communications and books, that were too seductive to borrow and so easy to read – to devour one volume per day. Tension in expressing myself in foreign language exists in subtle forms and may cause deviations in meaning of what I am writing about, easiness of finding true words is especially important in writing a nonfiction book. Yesterday I felt myself completely defeated, knowing that my command of foreign language would probably never reach sufficient degree of flexibility. (more…)

Galina, don’t be skeptical about your wishes and dreams! They are like seeds thrown in soil and waiting for time to sprout and blossom.
Thus I cheered myself up going along one of Vienna streets, and gusts of cold wind threw raindrops in my face. As alien I peeped in luminous shop windows, observing Christmas candles and  people in their purchase amok. For me – solo as I was, Christmas meant only a few additional days of aggravated solitude.
I didn’t manage well, besides arrival of accommodation welfare was delayed for two months. So the very idea of buying Christmas presents sounded improper, when two-digit figure of my recent bank report swirled in my mind as epitome of all I possessed and achieved after years of struggle in Austria.
At last I entered bakery to warm myself up, and as middle-aged sales woman glanced at me questioningly, I felt obliged to buy the cake and registered automatically miscount in 40 cents.
I walked for ages, and now it was middle of nowhere. The buzz of traffic subsided, and road widened in avenue of poplars and mansions, running forward to rural districts.
One could see around small picturesque gardens, lawns with statues and fountains. Some houses were richly decorated with clay molding and wood carvings. (more…)