electronic music

Facebook is raising $100 million in debt, bringing their total capital raised to nearly half a billion dollars. This most recent round will be used to scale the service via another 50,000 or so servers. Facebook now has over 70 million active users and around 109 M monthly visitors – Compare that to Google, which operates at least a million servers (and is adding 500,000 per year, says Business Week), and Microsoft, which is adding 200,000 servers per year.

Facebook says that “less than 1,000? users have 5,000 friends today. There are around 70 million active Facebook users, so the number of users who are affected is around one thousandth of a percent.

Top free MP3 Applications alternatives to iTunes and WMP .

When it comes to software media players, computer users understandably follow what I’ll call the “path of least resistance” rule of life: they use what’s available on their computer out of the box.

This is a great article from Cnet. Its about music.

Media Jukebox has a somewhat generic name, but its feature list is anything but generic. iTunes users will immediately notice the layout of Media Jukebox is extremely similar to Apple’s player, but it’s the extra features that make Media Jukebox shine.

Winamp was once the king of Windows music players and continues to be an excellent all-in-one jukebox. It has support for multiple popular players including the iPod.

Winamp was once the king of Windows music players and continues to be an excellent all-in-one jukebox. It has support for multiple popular players including the iPod.

Kevin Fleming said the best application was winamp.

do you know you can customise the google earth application, and send links to people that have satelitte views, and pop up bubbles.

From the google earth bloggers >>

Now that Google Earth 4.3 has launched, we’re pleased to be realizing our goal of Google Earth being a canvas upon which all sorts of interesting data can be visualized. Now we’re moving more and more towards supporting data that is dynamic; if we want Google Earth to model the real Earth, we need Google Earth to be different every time you open it up.

This free typing tutor teaches you how to touch-type. Once you can touch-type you will not need to look at the keyboard to find the letters you want to type.

This is a great typing tutor tool, its professional, yet simple enough for the kids to enjoy.

Download TypeFaster-install.exe (1.81 MB)

• A clear indication of which fingers to use. This is the essence of touchtyping.
• A 3D typing game.
• Typing statistics and the option of practising the least accurate/slowest/custom keys.
• Keyboard is not a fixed size (resolution independent).
• Multi-user support.
• Teacher support (view student statistics).
• Interface for editing lesson files and game settings.
• Backspace support
• Right to left text support.
• Variable text size.
• Lesson files can be prose or poems.
• Lesson progress indicator.
• Completely free with full source code availability.

The Mobile Media Converter uses ffmpeg to convert MP3 / WAVE / WMA audio files to AMR files (Adaptive Multi-Rate Codec, *.amr) and vice-versa (AMR to MP3). Also, it can convert your WMV (except WMV ver.9) / MPEG video files to 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project, *.3gp) and vice-versa (MPEG to 3GP). The program has a very easy-to-use and simple GUI (Graphical User Interface) that helps even the most amateur user. Most of the times, the only data that you must enter is the input file(s) or just drag ‘n’ drop the input file! The 3GP and AMR formats are used by mobile phones for MMS, for video and sound recordings, etc.

http://www.miksoft.net/mobileMediaConverter.htm

The Google Sitemap Generator is a Python script that creates a Sitemap for your site using the Sitemap Protocol. This script can create Sitemaps from URL lists, web server directories, or from access logs. If you aren’t sure about any of this, you can check with your web hosting company. Here’s an overview of what you’ll need to do.

Download the Sitemap Generator program files. Extract the files to a local directory.
Create a configuration file for your site using the provided example_config.xml file as a template. Modify this file as needed for your site and save it.
Upload the necessary files to your web server.
Run sitemap_gen.py.
Add the generated Sitemap to your Google Sitemaps account.
Set up a recurring script. (optional)

SOURCED: the google webmasters help

Morgage and home loan calculators are provided free to assist you in assessing your borrowing needs and repayment requirements. When you look for a home loan, investment loan or refinancing, calculators will help you with your decisions. The information you enter in the X Inc Mortgage Calculators is not recorded, so your privacy and confidentiality is assured.

Please feel free to use any of these Morgage Calculators >>

More Morgage Calculators I have found helpful.

Extra Loan Repayments Calculator
Home Loan Calculators. How much can I borrow? Where can I afford to buy? Loan repayment calculator. Split loans simulator. Extra repayments. Lump sum repayments …
http://www.home-loans.com.au/calculators/

Loan Repayment Calculator
Loan Repayment Calculator. home loans. investment loans. mortgage calculators.

There are a number of different home loan and finance calculators which will give you a good guideline on various financial aspects relating to your home loan; different lending criteria between lenders and your circumstances will affect the results. For a more precise figure relating to your personal situation, contact your local home finance broker.

How much can I borrow?	What will my repayments be?	Stamp duty calculator
Compare two loans	Budget planner	Extra repayments
Income tax	Lump sum repayments	Principal interest
Where can i afford to buy?	Home loan savings planner	Combination / split loan
Credit card repayments	Term deposit / savings	Talk to a broker

Bank Errors In The Media

There are errors in your statements. Your bank is probably unaware of them. This software will find the errors and you will be refunded the money.

“It emerged that as many as 140,000 customers were wrongly charged debits tax totalling about $10 million. And errors in annual fee charges for some home loan products, including the popular National Choice Package, wrongly netted the bank a further $52 million. The mistakes hit 55,000 such products. NAB will reimburse all wrongly charged accounts and pay $18 million in lost interest. Mr Fahour has apologised.”
The Age

“We strive for quality in everything we do, but banking is done by humans and sometimes there are mistakes. (Head of corporate relations for National Australia Bank)”
Australian Financial Review

“The Bank has admitted that a large part of hundreds of interest charge calculations could be wrong…“Colonial State said the banks’ experts had looked at the disputed interest calculations, admitted there were errors …and were now looking at quantifying that overcharging.”
The Sydney Morning Herald

“The Bank of New Zealand, a subsidiary of the National Australia Bank, has sent letters to 1700 customers apologizing for overcharging fees on their deposit accounts. The bank said processing errors caused by a computer glitch led to the accounts being overcharged.”
Australian Financial Review

“The bank (National Australia Bank’s Irish subsidiary) revealed it had also reimbursed several customers undisclosed sums of money after the investigations uncovered a ‘system error’ which led to some borrowers being charged incorrect interest rates.”
Australian Financial Review

“The National Australia Bank has apologized to a leading economist who claimed extra fees on his loans were a “systematic rip off.” (The economist) discovered a $512 “overdraft/line service fee” wasn’t in his original mortgage contract, and a $288 charge when he closed the loan. He also challenged a $10 monthly account keeping fee when the contract said it was only half that.” A National Australia Bank spokesman…said the problem arose because the wrong code was put into the computer.”
The Sun Herald

“The giant ANZ banking group in Australia has agreed to pay compensation to certain customers…conceding that it had overcharged thousands of customers.”
The Australian

“The National Australia Bank’s Irish subsidiary will reimburse $302,000…following the findings of two investigations into overcharging on accounts”
Australian Financial Review

“It’s head of corporate relations (for National Australia Bank), Mr. Haydn Park, said…mistakes that were picked up by customers or their advisers were rectified…When someone comes to us and says ‘You’ve done something wrong, then we don’t quibble, we do something about it.”
Australian Financial Review

Picasa is a free software download from Google. Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. You can set Picasa so that “Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organised by date with folder names you will recognise.”

Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organised. I use to Picasa to organise at least 10GIG of photos, and it flicks through them with ease. Darren.

“Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips. And Picasa makes it a snap to share your pictures – you can email, print photos home, make gift CDs, and even post pictures on your own blog.” google

Number two telecommunications provider Optus unveiled its third-generation mobile service offerings, following bitter rivals Hutchison, Telstra and Vodafone into the high-speed arena. Optus officially launched services in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, the Brisbane central business district and airport, Adelaide airport and Perth airport. They are expected to be progressively offered to customers over the next two weeks. The company said it would offer a mobile instant messaging service in partnership with the Microsoft/Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd venture ninemsn and a notebook datacard that allows roaming across GSM, 3G and Wi-Fi networks.

The messaging service is being offered free of charge until 1 February 2006, from when it will be charged at 95 cents unlimited use per day or AU$5.95 unlimited for a month. The service is being launched with four capped plans ranging from AU$49 to AU$89 and five subsidised handsets, the Nokia N70, Nokia 6680, Samsung Z140, Samsung Z500 and Sony Ericsson K600i. Optus’ consumer managing director, Allen Lew, said the company would also offer a portal called MyZooNow whereby information would be updated and pushed to mobile handsets.

Optus and Vodafone finalised an agreement to build and operate a national 3G network on 19 November 2004. The initial build-out of more than 2,000 base stations covering the six major capital cities is scheduled for completion by March 2007, the companies said. Vodafone unveiled its service on 31 October, following Telstra in September and Hutchison in April 2003.