Skype is free and simple software that will enable you to make free calls anywhere in the world in minutes. Skype, created by the people who brought you KaZaA, uses innovative P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to connect you with other Skype users. If you are tired of paying outrageous fees for telephony, Skype is for you!

Skype is quick and easy to install. Just download it, register, and within minutes you can plug in your PC headset and call your friends on Skype. Skype calls have excellent sound quality and are highly secure with end-to-end encryption. Best of all, Skype does not require you to reconfigure your firewall or router and it just works!

Download: Skype 1.1.0.81
Homepage: Skype

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Trillian is a multi-network chat client that currently supports IRC, AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo! Messenger. It supports all of the features you've come to expect from a good IM client, including but not limited to docking, multi-line edit boxes, buddy alerts, multiple connections to the same medium, a powerful skinning language, easy importing of your existing contacts, skinnable emoticons, logging, "global" away/invisible features, and a unified contact list. It is completely free with no nag screens or built-in ads.

BetaNews  -  Download

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Just logged into my GMail account and discovered I have 50 invites to give away WOW, so anyone interested? Either leave me a comment here or send me an email and let me know with your email address and I'll pass one on :)

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To those of us who have children in our lives, whether they are our own, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or students...here is something to make you chuckle. Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to His own children. After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing he said was "DON'T!"

Don't what?" Adam replied.
Don't eat the forbidden fruit." God said.
Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey Eve..we have forbidden fruit!!!!!"
No Way!"
Yes way!"
Do NOT eat the fruit!" said God.
Why"
Because I am your Father and I said so!" God replied, wondering why he hadn't stopped creation after making the elephants. A few minutes later, God saw His children having an apple break and He was ticked!

"Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit?" God asked.
Uh huh," Adam replied.
Then why did you?" said the Father.
I don't know," said Eve.
She started it!" Adam said
Did not!"
Did too!"

DID NOT!"

Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own. Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.

BUT THERE IS REASSURANCE IN THE STORY!

If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give children wisdom and they haven't taken it, don't be hard on yourself. If God had trouble raising children, what makes think it would be a piece of cake for you?

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT!

1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.
2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.
3. Mothers of teens now know why some animals eat their young.
4. Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.
5. The main purpose of holding children's parties is to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own.
6. We childproofed our homes, but they are still getting in.

ADVICE FOR THE DAY: Be nice to your kids. They will choose your nursing home one day.

AND FINALLY:
IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF TENSION AND YOU GET A HEADACHE, DO WHAT IT SAYS ON THE ASPIRIN BOTTLE: " TAKE TWO ASPIRIN" AND "KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN"!!!!!

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1990: De Klerk dismantles apartheid in South Africa
The President of South Africa lifts the 30-year ban on leading anti-apartheid group the African National Congress.

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The UK Broadband market could see another high speed shake up from UK Online. The company has just announced plans to launch an 8 megabit broadband service in the UK.

With a massive upload speed of 8mb, the service comes with a somewhat limited upload speed of 400K yet has an impressive content ratio of 33:1. The service is capped at 500GB per month, and will cost only £39.99 per month. Cable rival Telewest offer a 4MB service for £50.00, which comes free of any caps on usage. UK Online will be offering new sign ups a free wireless ethernet router before the 21st February.

Chris Stening, manager of UK Online, said “We want to enable consumers to experience the benefits of Broadband 8000, anywhere in their home, with the freedom that WiFi provides. The 8Mb service is already proving extremely popular, and with this offer, we’re confident that even more customers will be tempted to try the UK’s fastest home Internet connection for themselves.”

UK Online are working with European ISP Easynet to 'un-bundle' the local loop, previously the bastion of ex-state telco BT. They claim that the service will be "available to over 4.4 million homes across the Britain by early 2005." UK Online claim to be the first company in the UK offering consumers 8mb broadband; how long before the rest start playing catch up?

View: Can I Get It? | UK Online Homepage

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Microsoft is to crack down on users running pirated versions of its operating system. While the company will still allow users to download security fixes, their options will be limited in the future. There are fears it could leave many extra computers open to attack if not all fixes are distributed and downloaded by most users.

The company's new authentication system - Windows Genuine Advantage - is due to be in place by the middle of the year. The program requires users to prove they have an authentic copy before they can obtain updates. Pirated copies will still be able to download security fixes, but only if the systems are set to do so automatically.

Microsoft insists it doesn't have any plans to make sure automatic update users are genuine - the checks will only be carried out on those manually visiting the Windows Update site. Russ Cooper, a senior scientist with Cybertrust Inc, warned that he eventually expected Microsoft to cut off access to all fixes for pirated copies. "The reality is that shareholders of Microsoft would like to see them get all the money they are owed," he said.


View: Microsoft | Piracy pages
View: AP Coverage

 

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The boss of a big company needed to call one of his employees about an urgent problem with one of the main computers. He dialled the employee's home phone number and was greeted with a child's whisper.

"Hello."

"Is your daddy home? " he asked.

"Yes," whispered the small voice.

"May I talk with him?"

The child whispered, "No."

Surprised, and wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked,

"Is your Mommy there?"

"Yes."

"May I talk with her?"

Again the small voice whispered, "No."

Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave a message, the boss asked, "Is anybody else there?"

"Yes," whispered the child, "a policeman."

Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee's home, the boss asked, "May I speak with the policeman?"

"No, he's busy", whispered the child.

"Busy doing what?"

"Talking to Daddy and Mommy and the Fireman," came the whispered answer.

Growing concerned and even worried as he heard what sounded like A Helicopter through the earpiece on the phone the boss asked, "What is that noise?"

"A hello-copper" answered the whispering voice.

"What is going on there?" asked the boss, now truly alarmed.

In an awed whispering voice the child answered, "The search team just landed the hello-copper."

Alarmed, concerned, and even more then just a little frustrated the boss asked,

"What are they searching for?"

Still whispering, the young voice replied along with a muffled giggle:

"ME."

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Microsoft has never released a service pack for Windows98 SE. But I made a Service Pack for Windows98 SE users. It contains all Windows98 SE updates from Windows Update site and more. It is a self-extracting and self-installing pack like Microsoft's update files. Thus, you cannot choice files individually. However, the pack installs only required fixes for your system. Uninstallation is possible from Add-Remove Programs. However, I don't recommend uninstallation of the pack, if you don't have any problem.

This is only for WINDOWS 98 SECOND EDITION ENGLISH. I highly recommend that you should backup your system before installing the pack. You must have at least 32 MB of RAM. It contains only operating system updates. It does NOT contain Internet Explorer 6, DirectX 9, Media Player 9 and their updates.

Download: Unofficial Windows 98 SE Service Pack 2.0 beta 3 @ MajorGeeks | Softpedia
View: Unofficial Windows 98 SE Service Pack Forum for help | What's New

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HERE'S the proof kids' favourite Mr Potato Head has crossed over to the dark fried - as he shows off his new Star Wars villain look.

Full story The Sun Newspaper

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Picasa, the Google-owned photo-sharing service, has gone live with version 2.0 of its software. The service's new edition includes some basic photo-editing tools, including the ability to brighten dark images; CD burning; integration with Blogger; a collage-generating tool; and the ability to send pictures easily through Gmail.

Google bought Picasa last summer and has many rivals in the online photography market. Yahoo! and Microsoft offer rival software, while there are also many online photo services. Users of the new version will be able to export their pictures from the software to many of these online services for printing.

Picture collections can also be password-protected and easily grouped together within the software so users can keep track of their images more easily. You can also make your pictures into a movie file or a screensaver.

View: Picasa | Reuters coverage

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Bart's PE Builder helps you build a "BartPE" (Bart Preinstalled Environment) bootable Windows CD-ROM or DVD from the original Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 installation/setup CD, very suitable for PC maintenance tasks.

It will give you a complete Win32 environment with network support, a graphical user interface (800x600) and FAT/NTFS/CDFS filesystem support. Very handy for burn-in testing systems with no OS, rescuing files to a network share, virus scan and so on. This will replace any DOS bootdisk in no time!

Download: Bart's PE Builder 3.1.3
View: Changelog
Homepage: Bart's PE Builder

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GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google GMail account, allowing you to use GMail as a storage medium.

GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to.

Download: GMail Drive 1.0.5
Homepage: GMail Drive

 

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After you install Windows XP SP2 and then try to run MSN Messenger, the input method editor (IME) may not respond or run as expected. Install this update to help resolve the issue. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Download: Update for Windows XP (KB890831)
News source: Microsoft

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