Mark Knopfler

Ares Destiny must be the let down of the year: not because the build up is particularly good, but because the drop down is so damn far. This is mediocre software with a lot of nasty surprises up its proverbial sleeve.

The first thing to note is that Ares Destiny is free – as long as you only actually look at the money side of things. It is based on the Ares 3.0 platform and you can download the full thing from the rather slick looking Ares Destiny website. The process of downloading doesn’t hurt one bit and it is really, really quick. So far so good.

Once we’re in there’s not a great deal to say. The interface is quite clunky and the whole thing moves quite slowly sometimes. Then there’s the ad ware.

The what? I hear you cry. Yes, it’s true: Ares Destiny is, for some unknown reason, shipped with the horrific and nasty Dealio. Dealio is a well known parasitic piece of software that masquerades as a ’shopping comparison’ engine; in fact it just serves pop ups to your screen when you least want them. Handy, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Such a shame that the designers and distributors have gone down this route.

Having just tried its hand at developing a digital music player, Microsoft is working on something new: digital furniture.

The company plans to unveil a touch screen computer today called Microsoft Surface, featuring a 30-inch screen embedded in an acrylic tabletop. The device’s electronic guts are hidden in the low-slung table’s thick pedestal.

At first glance, Surface is reminiscent of an old-fashioned arcade game table around which patrons played Pac-Man. But there is no joystick here, and no mouse or keyboard either. The device is controlled by touching the tabletop display.

Microsoft says this touch screen computer will allow people to “interact with digital content the same way they have interacted with everyday items such as photos, paintbrushes and music their entire life: with hands, with gestures and by putting real-world objects on the surface.”

For example, when a digital camera with Wi-Fi capabilities is placed on the display, the table recognizes the camera and, at a touch of the screen, downloads its photos and video clips. The digital pictures can be sorted and sized by “handling” them as if they were physical prints.

The device uses cameras under the display to detect touches, and unlike traditional touch screens it can handle multiple touches at the same time, said Jeff Gattis, the director of product management for Surface.

Similarly, Surface can read bar codes and identification tags embedded in objects like hotel chain membership cards.

Microsoft hopes this touch screen computer will someday be common in homes, but its first uses will be commercial. By the end of this year, Surface will appear in hotels, restaurants, retail stores and public entertainment sites, where it will serve as an information kiosk and handle things like basic customer service. Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, was scheduled to unveil the product today at The Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital” conference in Carlsbad, Calif.

“With Surface, we are creating more intuitive ways for people to interact with technology,” Mr. Ballmer said in a statement. “We see this as a multibillion-dollar category, and we envision a time when touch screen computers will be pervasive, from tabletops and counters to the hallway mirror.”

Microsoft also named several partners that will be among the first companies to use Surface, including Harrah’s Entertainment, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide and T-Mobile USA. The device’s cost was not disclosed.

Acai berries – what is it?

Acai berries are harvested as food. In a study of three traditional Caboclo populations in the Amazon region of Brazil, acai palm was described as the most important plant species because the acai fruit makes up such a major component of diet (up to 42% of the total food intake by weight) and is economically valuable in the region (Murrieta et al., 1999).

The juice and pulp of acai fruits (Euterpe oleracea) are frequently used in various juice blends, smoothies, sodas, and other beverages. In northern Brazil, açaí is traditionally served in gourds called “cuias” with tapioca and sometimes sugar. Acai has become a fad in southern Brazil where it is consumed cold as açaí na tigela (”açaí in the bowl”), mostly mixed with granola - a fad where acai is considered as an energizer. Acai is also widely consumed in Brazil as an ice cream flavor or juice.

As acai deteriorates rapidly after harvest, its raw material is generally only available outside the immediate growing region as acai juice or acai fruit pulp that has been frozen, dried acai, or freeze-dried. However, several companies now manufacture acai juices, other health drinks, and sorbets made from acai berries, often in combination with other fruits.

I loved my old version of Ares Vista Galaxy really quite a lot. It has been through a lot with me and I’ve had it since the start. It was with some reluctance that I decided to uninstall it, get on the web and grab a new and updated version. I haven’t needed to download Ares Vista since I last installed Ares Vista Galaxy, so I was in a bit of a quandary as to which of the snazzy new Ares Vista version I should get.

Of course I’d been to OfficialAres.com before. I wasn’t there to download Ares Vista but to read their excellent news section. This is a place where you can get all the cutting edge news stories before they hit the press. Their reporting is well written and unbiased. So with this experience of OfficialAres.com, I figured it might be a good place to start to find somewhere to download Ares Vista.

Fortunately, I was right. Their reviews section is quite simply awesome. Even if I were new to P2P filesharing and this was my first time trying to download Ares Vista, I would not have any trouble finding the right version (and, more importantly, steering away from the wrong version). The reviews are honest, clear, and they pull no punches. Ares Vista Ultimate was the version that I went for in the end.

In many ways the early years of Sarah Palin’s career mirrored the later ones quite closely. Then, as now, Sarah Palin is not a woman to back down; she is determined, dogged, and has an indefatigable desire to get her own way. Whether or not you agree with her policies (and many don’t), it is difficult not to admire this enigmatic hockey mom to five children. Surely a heroine for working mothers everywhere.

Sarah Palin’s first ‘real’ job as a politician was the office of town mayor of her home town Wasilla. A turbulent first year was accompanied by a hell of a lot of turning the town’s organization, tax structure and infrastructure on its head, starting by asking the Police Chief to get another job. Woe betide any man who gets in the way of Mrs Sarah Palin!

A second term was easily won as Sarah Palin won the re-election, getting 74% of the overall vote. The second term was markedly quieter than the first as Palin continued the good work she had started in the first.

Term limits prevented Palin from entering for a third term – a third term that you can’t help feeling she would have won, and the residents of Wasilla would have welcomed.

The internet is a great place on which to find information. Search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Altavista really make finding what you want really easy. What they can also do, unfortunately, is give unlimited platforms to unlimited numbers of people who want to write absolute rubbish. There is no regulation on the Internet and you have no idea as to the veracity of what you are reading and anyone with an agenda can spread lies and rumors.

When you’re looking for unbiased information on a viable home business opportunity like Wealth Masters International, for instance, you might type the Wealth Masters International key phrase into Google. Google will then give you thousands – if not millions – of pages all about Wealth Masters International. How do you know which is genuine?

You can’t, I’m afraid. But you can trust your gut feeling. If something seems just too positive or just too negative then you might be onto a fake; there’s simply no way of knowing.

The only way to be sure that you won’t be ripped off is to i) take everything that you read with a huge pinch of salt; and ii) do a lot of research: there is some reliable information out there regarding Wealth Masters International! Find it!

I’d never tried Salvia before this weekend, but all the media and news coverage convinced me that I should give it a go. I mean, if the newspapers are so concerned about it then it must be something pretty special, right? I don’t want to miss out on something spectacular, do I?

I surrounded myself with soft furnishings, pillows and other things that I could damage myself on if I toppled over. I laid on the floor so as to minimize the distance between my head and the floor if I needed to collapse. I decided to go ahead and try Salvia on my own even though I news – as always – that I should have someone there with my while I was under the influence. In retrospect what I did was perhaps quite dangerous but hey: let’s live on the edge.

The trip started almost as soon as I puffed on the pipe I had. The Salvia smoke tasted really bitter but I kept it in as long as I could manage. My head started to buzz and there was a strange blue tinge to the room. Hallucinations came and went and I started flying around the room.

The Salvia trip lasted a matter of minutes but it felt like hours. I can’t wait to try it again!

Recently I had my eyes opened to a rather wonderful book. It is a book that has been just sat on my shelf gathering dust. It is, I am afraid to say, a long time since I bought the book with the very best intentions. The book is Think and Grow Rich by the great Napoleon Hill.

I am a fairly pragmatic person, and, before I started being a little more open minded and honest with myself, I tended to dismiss the self-improvement mindset out of hand. How can a book make me a better person, I thought. Well, that was before I read Think and Grow Rich. Since then I am very aware of the power of literature and of thinking about and understanding very important concepts.

Chapter 11 is all about sex, if you’re interested. It was a good starting point for me, but, actually, I preferred some of the other chapters. Actually all chapters in Think and Grow Rich are worth reading.

Going into the book with the right attitude is the key, and with my defeatist attitude I didn’t get past chapter 1. I tried twice. Once my friend had encouraged me to open up and try again, I managed to get it all in. Think and Grow Rich is a great book.

I am truly in love with my iPhone. It’s not just that I like it a lot or find it useful, I actually love it. Sometimes I think I love gadgets more than I love people, but that’s another story (and probably one for my therapist rather than for a public admission). Given my true and enduring love, then, it is only natural that I would want to add a little extra to my friend with some iPhone accessories. Here are a couple of my favorites.

First and foremost – in the sense that this was the first of the iPhone accessories that I bought, and also that I feel this is the most important – is the case and screen protector. I would be truly devastated if my little friend got scratched on his lovely clear screen, so this really is a must.

Next is the Bluetooth headset. This is lands a place in a list of my favorite iPhone accessories because it makes me look like some kind of human-robot hybrid. It also allows me to take calls without restricting myself to putting my iPhone to my ear. All very useful.

There are loads of iPhone accessories out there. Some good, some bad, and many ugly.

Being an industry leader is hard, but leading is something that at least on person or group within the industry must strive to do. Without a leader – whether it be intentional or otherwise – the industry will stagnate and eventually die.

So it is with the music industry in its response to free music downloads. This is the major problem that currently faces the industry and, if they are to be believed, is threatening their very survival.

The strategic importance of free music downloads has increased over the past few years and, with services such as We7 and Spiral Frog offering free music downloads to all users and supporting their entire operation just with advertisements, there is emerging a distinct class of forward thinking leaders that are willing to meet the challenge head on. It is these innovators and industry leaders that will survive the perceived crisis, while those who insist on fighting it will soon be swallowed. Sony’s joint venture with We7 is the start of the truly huge companies realizing where the future lies.

The talent manager for rock band Nine Inch Nails – most famous recently for releasing their entire album as for free music downloads – summed it up thus: “I think free has been very important for a long time.”