.netWire Headlines: "The eagerly awaited v2.0 release includes a wealth of new features including a fully-integrated spell checker, fourteen new toolbar functions, and strengthened standards & security support."

MetaFilter:
Iran quake death toll hits 50,000. 150,000 survivors are homeless, hungry, and freezing. They really need your immediate help.
$110 can provide a tent for a family of five
$60 can provide drinking water to 30 people
$45 can provide space heaters to three families
$25 can provide blankets to a family of five
Mercy Corps has raised $188,397 so far, but this is far from enough.

After a long time, one post not around the earthquake.
Google Guy Says: "I think the bots took a break on Christmas day to chow down on some turkey or peanut butter balls or something, but about an hour ago I saw many of the bots groan, sit up, and roll out the door. Maybe they had too much candy or something, but it looks like they're out the door and back on their regular http diet now. There's still one bot lying here that was doing shots of amaretto last night; I'll nudge it a little and see if I can wake it up. "

Guardian: Death toll in quake may reach 50,000
"Government officials in Iran warned yesterday that the number of people who perished in Bam could reach 50,000, the highest toll from any earthquake for more than 25 years."

Guardian: Bush signals softer line on Iran
"The United States yesterday signalled a dramatic shift in its attitude towards Iran, a country previously branded by President George Bush as part of an "axis of evil". Mr Bush is willing to open a dialogue with the Islamic republic but would like to see some gesture in return, a senior US official said. "This is a chance for Iran to step forward," the official continued, but added: "The burden is on the Iranians.""

Reuters: Iran Earthquake Survivors Battle Cold
"BAM, Iran (Reuters) - Thousands of homeless Iranian earthquake survivors huddled against the cold early on Wednesday five nights after up to 50,000 people died in one of the worst natural disasters in a decade. Humanitarian aid poured into Iran as foreign rescue teams headed home after concluding no one could still be alive beneath the collapsed mud-brick houses of the southeastern Silk Road city of Bam. Nearly $500 million has been pledged by dozens of countries."

Reuters: Iran Quake Death Toll Seen Climbing to 50,000
"BAM, Iran (Reuters) - The death toll for Friday's earthquake in southeastern Iran may rise as high as 50,000, government officials told Reuters Tuesday. "We are expecting the death toll to reach around 50,000," a senior Interior Ministry official said. "If we consider that, on average, five people lived in each house we can say the death toll will reach 50,000." Another senior government official confirmed the projection."

BBC: New push to help quake survivors
"Relief teams in southern Iran are concentrating on caring for those made homeless by last week's earthquake, as hopes fade of finding more survivors."



CNN: U.S. planes hauling tons of supplies
"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military has conducted a dozen humanitarian aid missions to earthquake-ravaged Iran so far. The latest flight dropped off another shipment of supplies Monday."

As well as bloggers, Iranian IT companies are going to help too. Some of them helped after latest Iran's computer fair.

Great step by Iranian bloggers. They all are going to help the poor people. Thanks to all and sorry if I have noticed late.

Google Hacks is a collection of industrial-strength, real-world, tested solutions to practical problems. This concise book offers a variety of interesting ways for power users to mine the enormous amount of information that Google has access to, and helps you have fun while doing it. You'll learn clever and powerful methods for using the advanced search interface and the new Google API, including how to build and modify scripts that can become custom business applications based on Google. Google Hacks contains 100 tips, tricks and scripts that you can use to become instantly more effective in your research. Each hack can be read in just a few minutes, but can save hours of searching for the right answers.

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China View: Six-month-old infant rescued alive two days after Bam earthquake.
TEHRAN, Dec. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- A six-month-old baby was rescued alive two days after the devastating earthquake which ruined the southeastern Iranian city of Bam and killed more than 20,000 people, reported the Iranian news agency IRNA on Monday.

Telegraph: Ayatollah says Iran will rebuild quake site
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has visited Bam, where hopes of finding survivors from the earthquake which has killed more than 20,000 people are fading.

More photos on Persia Film.

Iranian bloggers will be gathering to help today in Tehran.

Allright, we lastly established a web site for gathering all information related to Bam's earthquake on http://www.iranemdad.com/ . Hamid did most of it and I did nothing actually.
Please, if you have more information, or you think something more is needed on the web site, please feel free to leave me a comment or send an email to Hamid.

Reuters: Hopes Dim of Finding Survivors in Iran Quake
"BAM, Iran (Reuters) - Hopes faded on Monday of finding more survivors from Iran's devastating earthquake amid fears the death toll could reach 30,000. Rescuers struggled to move mounds of rubble in freezing temperatures for a fourth day in the southern city of Bam but instead of survivors, they retrieved only the mangled remains of quake victims. "The SAR (Search and Rescue) will continue at least for one more day (until midnight Monday) when an assessment will be made to continue or not. After five days the chances of finding anyone alive are very slim," Alain Pasche of the U.N. coordination team told Reuters. The stench of death filled the devastated historical city. "I believe the toll will reach 30,000," said a government official in Kerman province where the quake struck on Friday. "Some outlying villages are even more badly damaged than Bam, they are 100 percent destroyed.""

REUTERS PICTURES: Iran rescue efforts reach critical stage

Latest injured people's list avaible on sarkhat.com/bam

Marin Independent Journal: Up to 40,000 might have died in Iran
"Officials fear many buried in rubble. BAM, Iran - Relatives and rescuers used everything from bare hands to bulldozers yesterday to retrieve victims of a powerful earthquake that crumbled vast swaths of this city of mud-brick buildings into powder and frost-chilled rubble, killing thousands of people."



IRIB News: Iranians ahead of govt in aid
"Tehran, Dec 28 - In a massive show of solidarity, ordinary Iranians are queueing up to donate food and clothing for the survivors of the devastaing earthquake in the southeast of the country. Without waiting for an official initiative, the people have spontaneously turned out at aid collection centres to hand over whatever they can to help the stricken city of Bam, where tens of thousands are feared dead."



IRIB News: IRNA reporter, family killed in Bam
"Tehran, Dec 28 - IRNA family lost a dear member Nabiollah Dehqan in the devastating quake in Bam."

The Doc Searls Weblog says: "Most of those links also have information about how to help. Let's give it. "
You help too please.

Many many news photos from Yahoo.

Please pay attention, there is need of more equipments, more medicine and more money right now in Bam. Please help these innocent people with making a donation on Red Cross Red Crescent. Via iranFilter.

Japan Today: Japan sends rescue teams to Iran.
"TOKYO — Japan sent an emergency rescue team to Iran on Saturday in response to Tehran's request after a powerful earthquake struck the southeastern city of Bam on Friday, government officials said."

Reuters: U.S., Iran Hold High Level Talks on Quake Relief
"CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - High level U.S. and Iranian officials put aside diplomatic differences to directly discuss humanitarian aid after the earthquake that killed tens of thousands of Iranians, a State Department official said on Saturday."

Guardian: World is pulling together for Bam
"As the world realises the full extent of the tragedy unfolding in Iran, all of our thoughts and prayers will be with those who died, were injured or lost loved ones in the earthquake in Bam. Current estimates suggest that up to 20,000 people may have lost their lives in the disaster and that up to 50,000 may have been injured; more than 60 per cent of the city has been destroyed. Thousands of people have seen their homes collapse."

Independent: Human tragedy forces US to rethink hard line
"If there is some small consolation to be had in the horrific loss of life from the Iranian earthquake, it is that the disaster is likely to strengthen the growing ties between Iran and the outside world and further rein in the US neo-conservative hawks itching to deal with the Tehran mullahs the way they dealt with Saddam Hussein."

Special Broadcasting Service: Iran President Visit Bam
"The death toll from the earthquake in south-eastern Iran is continuing to rise as the Iranian President Mohammad Khatami prepares to visit the stricken city of Bam."

List of injured people in major hospitals in Kerman, Zaran, Shiraz and Tehran.

The Associated Press lists top major earthquakes since 1923.

BBC: Firefighters join rescue effort
"Seven Hampshire-based firefighters have arrived in Iran, following a devastating earthquake."



AP: U.S. Rescue Teams Head to Iran Quake Scene
LOS ANGELES - Two elite rescue teams with experience searching for survivors amid the wreckage caused by terrorist attacks and natural disasters were headed to Iran on Saturday to aid the search for victims of a devastating earthquake.

Reuters: "Twenty thousand dead in Iranian quake"
"I have lost all my family. My parents, my grandmother and two sisters are under the rubble," said Maryam, 17. One grief-stricken old woman, her face covered with dirt, just kept saying: "My child, my child." Washington has no official ties with Tehran, but Bush said in a statement: "We stand ready to help the people of Iran."

They both have wished Iranians safety. Thanks Robert and Jeff.

It goes and goes and goes. More and more people are announced to be dead.

More pictures from BBC.

According to Iran Students News Agency, ISNA, United Nation has helped around 90,000 USD for the innocent people.
You can follow news using Second News, Iran page.



If you live in Iran, please help these people in any way you can.

"At least 4,000 people were killed and 30,000 hurt when a massive earthquake today completely destroyed the historic centre of Iran's fort city of Bam, launching a major international relief effort. Dozens of bodies littered the streets of the city, built almost entirely of mud brick and ill-equipped to withstand a big temblor, an AFP correspondent said." Read More . . .

CNN reports, a devastating earthquake may have killed at least 20,000 people in southeastern Iran, government officials told state-run media, as emergency teams scrambled to deal with the crisis.
I hope this would be a BIG LIE.

According to IRIB News, Quake topples historical Bam citadel, lastly it confirmed.



It is not there anymore.

Picture fron CNN Europe:

MSN Newsbot Coverage fixed link.
According to IRIB News, 60 percent of Bam houses are destroyed.
The only picture I found, from Reuters:

Around 6 hours ago, a deadly earthquake has striked Bam, an old historian city in Iran. The only official news agneyc which has covered the news till now has been IRIB News. And also Farsi one of the news.
MSN News Coverage.
Google News Coverage.
BBC reports:
"A powerful earthquake has rocked south-eastern Iran, causing many casualties, state radio reported. It said the tremor, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, was centred near the city of Bam in Kerman province. The city's historic quarter was destroyed and there were "very many" dead, local governor Mohammad Ali Karimi was quoted as saying. Telephone communication with several towns in the province has been cut off, and rescuers have rushed to the area. The earthquake occurred at 0528 local time (0158 GMT), Iran's official news agency Irna quoted the Tehran University Geophysics Centre as saying.""

Today has been the first day that I hadn't to read much using my RSS reader. Most bloggers were not blogging. See how it was that Weblogs @ ASP.NET only had 8 new items for me which had always 35+ so that I couldn't read them using my aggregator.
Merry Christmas and enjoy your holidays. We are not off here!

Slashdot reports, new MySQL v5.0.0 (Alpha) is out.

Google Doodles, Google holiday logos.

I have been reading about URL Rewriting last days and I saw this post yesterday. You might like it.

DocIndexer, full text search indexing for Windows files. Via HotLinks.

Nice to see it back.

"The ASP.NET 'Whidbey' data controls support a variety of rich data binding scenarios...Here's a sample of how you can use the with a control to display an RSS news feed from the MSDN Web site without writing any code."

Microsoft Watch: "After a false alarm last week, Microsoft has now made available to its MSDN subscribers the first beta of its Service Pack 2 for Windows XP."

CEWindows.NET Updates: "So you want to know about the future of the Pocket PC? Well there have been some recent hints that things are changing in Microsoft’s Mobile Devices Division’s ideas about what a Pocket PC is."
You want? Go through it then.

help.net reports that a new version of ToDoList is availble on Code Project.

It has been 2 days that I can't reach .net Weblog Archives 1.0 at activehead. What's wrong there? Any idea? Sometimes ISA errors, sometimes SQL errors and now empty site.

PC Magazine: "For those who want to talk on the phone hands-free in the car but don't want to wear a headset or earpiece of any type, the Sony Ericsson Bluetooth Car Kit HCB-30 is an intriguing option."

All first computers stories on Good Morning Silicon Valley.

"SQLite is an embeddable SQL database engine which can perform upto two times faster than PostgreSQL and MySQL for many common operations. With a small memory footprint and support for databases upto 2 terabyte, its an ideal option for embedded and small to medium-scale deployments." Read More . . .

Wow, thanks to Nick Bradbury for such a great link.
Logos OPML directory got good OPML files on his site with certain categories, I subscribed to Google News and PDA and some of science sites.
Hamed, you may like to subscribe PDA.

Hamed is asking to buy or not to buy. What do you think?

Scott Hanselman points to an article on .NET Developer's Journal, predicting technologies in 2004.

Here you can find a lot of RSS resources.
Also here you can a lot about weblogs.
Via HotLinks.

Julien Cheyssial lastly found a way to only remove dangerous HTML tags, this is what he needed.

Julien Cheyssial is looking for a way to strip HTML tags, here is the function I use in Second News:

Public Shared Function Remover(ByVal strInput As String) As String
   Dim strOutput As String
   strOutput = Regex.Replace(strInput, "<[^>]*>", " ")
   Return strOutput
End Function

Usage: Remover(Your string) and it returns what you expected.

Gartenberg asks: "Is Google the New Microsoft?".
I reply: "Why not?".
Via Scoble.

Microsoft Watch: "During the next few months, Microsoft will begin phasing out support for a number of its Windows flavors and related technologies."

BBC: "Free, open source software could help doctors and save money in poorer countries."

Congratulation to Nick Bradbury. It has been the best aggregator till now I have ever used.

Another web based RSS aggregator, this time from Feedster, MyFeedster.

Jane Perrone hunts down the figures whose weblogs have caused the biggest stir both in and outside the blogosphere.

BBC: "Tehran signs an agreement which allows tougher UN checks on its growing nuclear industry."
Congratuolation!

To all those who reading my weblog, please help Maedeh. She needs your help. Please post it all where ever you can. I think we still have time to help. Read More . . .

What is Google Print?
"Google's mission is to provide access to all the world's information and make it universally useful and accessible. It turns out that not all the world's information is already on the Internet, so Google has been experimenting with a number of publishers to test their content online. During this trial, publishers' content is hosted by Google and is ranked in our search results according to the same technology we use to evaluate websites."
Where to find out more information?
About Google Print (BETA) at Google.com.
You need more? Google Weblog.

Now, BBC Click Online on Blog Jam.
"The writing of online diaries, also known as blogs, has really taken off in popularity. Some of the biggest and best known web logs attract the kind of traffic that even big name e-commerce sites would be jealous of. Tayfun King went to find out more, met the Baghdad Blogger, and searched for ways of making money from blogs!"

Standing for what you believe in, regardless of the odds against you, and the pressure that tears at your resistance, means courage.
Keeping a smile on your face, when inside you feel like dying, for the sake of supporting others, means strength.
Stopping at nothing, and doing what's in your heart, what you know is right, means determination.
Doing more than is expected, to make another's life a little more bearable, without uttering a single complaint, means compassion.
Helping a friend in need, no matter the time or effort, to the best of your ability, means loyalty.
Giving more than you have, and expecting nothing but nothing in return, means selflessness.
Holding your head high, and being the best you know you can be when life seems to fall apart at your feet, facing each difficulty with the confidence that time will bring you better tomorrows, and never giving up, means confidence.

RSS 2.0 Framework for .NET.

Lockergnome: "Outlook 2003 Update: KB832333 enhances the junk e-mail filter in Outlook to help provide a higher level of protection against junk e-mail. As part of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to reducing junk e-mail, periodic updates will be provided to Outlook users. This update is optional and simply provides a more up-to-date definition of messages that are considered to be junk or not junk."

Yea, I do believe, RSS Rules.

Nima Naderi, is talking on Pendar, an old Persian website, and establishing of a new NGO for supporting persian websites.
Nima, give us more idea please.

Dan Gillmor, introduces a new browser based RSS aggregator. Fastbuzz.

Microsoft PressPass reviews past year and previews next year! Via Robert McLaws.

This article presents a Generic Graph Library, 100% C#. This library is an attempt to port the Boost Graph Library (BGL) from C++ to C#.

Top 10 Biggest Databases.

MetaFilter: "After it's admittedly dissapointing and rushed effort with Version 3 of their popular media player, the Nullsoft team seeks to make amends with their newest release, combining the stability of 2.x with the extras of Winamp 3, adding several new features while they're at it."

BBC News Online looks at how the former Iraqi leader was tracked down and captured at a farmhouse near Tikrit.

Saeed Pazoki, an Iranian blogger says:
"Hi Ali, I am sigend up tp BBC's Breaking news through email and yesterday I got this: "Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has been captured in Tikrit, Iranian news agency reports.""
Then, my yesterday news is confirmed. Thanks Saeed.

Nice one, one of my friends sent me a link to this forum. Seems Google's secret list can be revealed using this method.

According to Shargh Newspaper, IRNA, Iran News Agency, was the first news agency all over the world which published news of Saddam Hussein's arresting.
Nice to hear that!

Images released by coalition documents the capture of Saddam. And his profile.

Google Weblog: "Google is now using synonyms automatically on difficult searches. For example, when you search cooking octopus teacher cartoon it notes "By default, Google searches for variations of your search terms." and returns results with the word "teaching", not just "teacher"."

Here you go, a complete blogging system done by Hamed Banaei. Congratulation Hamed.
It is called Weblog.NET. It uses Windows Application, Web Service and Server Congrol technologies. Hamed! It looks too promising. Perfect for Persian bloggers. Also a guide for beginners.
Of what I can see breifly and it supports includes, multiple blog support, categories, comments, trackbacks, daily posting, archive and a lot that I can't see!
You need more!?

Nice to hear that, he seems has been arrested lastly.
Channel News Asia: "BAGHDAD : Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was captured before dawn on Sunday while sleeping at a house in his hometown of Tikrit, Governing Council member Mahmud Othman told AFP."

"Ever wonder if you could write your own project template to speed up your future development? For example, you get lot of e-commerce projects, you can build your own project template for e-commerce project and get a jump start in your future development instead of doing copy and pastes. This article shows how to do just that." Via .netWire Headlines.

Internet Magazine: "Angry Web users from Iran have been bombarding a weblog run by the World Summit on the Information Society, in an attempt to fight government censorship."

Thanks to Daily Summit.
We'll tell you why. Ahmad Motamedi, Iran's Minister of ICT, has been in the summit media centre, talking informally to Iranian journalists and bloggers. Farshad, editor of Gooya and Gooya news, challenged the Minister directly to explain why one of his websites is blocked (and is only available to Iranians via a proxy server sponsored by the US government). "We want to know what the limits are," he told the Minister. "You should tell us what causes a website to be blocked and how you make that decision." Apparently, the Minister accepted this argument and took the name of Farshad's website away with a promise to email him telling him why they had been blocked. He has said he will also provide explanations to other bloggers.
We are waiting to hear the reason.

BBC: "Iran's policy of blocking access to certain websites has been defended by the country's authorities at the UN digital summit."

Second News has been up for 8 weeks till now and it has been tested all over possible failures. Let me know what do you think of it? What do you expect a news aggregator? I know it's resources are few still, but we will add more very soon. What else do you need? RSS? Free news service? Or what?
Leave me comments please and let us improve it.

Congratulation to Nick Bradbury. I have been using FeedDemon for a time and it has been so far so good.

Google Weblog: "Christopher Clay reports that Google is testing out a new look."
I like it too!

Thanks Shahram for his great photos. And also ITIran.com writes more on the interview.

BuzzMachine: "The president of Iran mentions weblogs before the president of America."

Daily Summit and Ahmad Motamedi:
"Iran's ICT minister confronted. How does Ahmad Motamedi, Iran's minister for Information and Communication Technology (ICT), explain the huge number of websites censored in his country? "Sometimes mistakes happen," he said. Some mistake. In a rare interview, Mr Motamedi claimed that officially just 240 sites were banned in Iran and that no-one was punished for writing anti-government messages online. He had a harder time explaining the arrest of Sina Motallebi, the journalist and blogger held earlier this year."

Now, BBC has focused on the Google story I posted last two days.
"Iranian internet users have been venting their frustration at online censorship on a website devoted to the UN's digital summit in Geneva."

CNet: "Sterling Ball, a jovial, plain-talking businessman, is CEO of Ernie Ball, the world's leading maker of premium guitar strings endorsed by generations of artists ranging from the likes of Eric Clapton to the dudes from Metallica. But since jettisoning all of Microsoft products three years ago, Ernie Ball has also gained notoriety as a company that dumped most of its proprietary software--and still lived to tell the tale."

Check your position in the search engine of Google Monitor your ranking free of charge.

http://www.googlerankings.com/

Robert Scoble: "Here's my list of things that I believe advanced users need in Longhorn."

Dan Gillmor: "The invaluable Hoder is pressing the case for Iranian bloggers -- and, more generally, Iranian liberty."

Wired News: "OSLO (Reuters) - Iran's Shirin Ebadi became the first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize Wednesday and accused the West of using the September 11 attacks as a smokescreen to cover up human rights violations."

AFC: "Malaysia - IRAN international forward Mehdi Mahdavikia was named the AFC Player of the Year for 2003 on Wednesday, becoming the third player from his country to claim the honour since it was inaugurated in 1994."
Congratulation to all Iranians.

Google Guy, explains the differents between feed-based and crawl-based Froogle results.

Do you remember the old days? Via Anil Dash's Daily Links.

It seems redirection of Google.com to another page is caused by a trojan. I said in my last post, I don't have the problem.
But the Google's cache blocking was a real issue and it seems it has been solved according to what FarsTec and Update say.
Anyway nice to see Google free again!

Macromedia Flex (previously code-named Royale) extends the Macromedia MX platform by delivering a standards-based programming methodology for building the presentation tier of Rich Internet Applications. Flex is currently in Beta. Learn more about the Flex technology in the Flex Development Center.

PSS is now defined using RSS and Atom by Randy Morin. Via Scoble.

I just saw noticed that Hoder talking about same thing, Google cache seems really blocked! More on Stop.Censoring.Us which is dedicated to this subject. More from Hoder 1, 2 Also from The Daily Summit.
FYI: I don't see this in my own ISP.

According to Boing Boing, BlogShares is coming back with help of technologist, Jay Campbell.

Yes, you hear right, according to Update Blog, a Persian blog, another China like decision is being made here. An ISP, called Chapar.net, has blocked Google and redirecting Google.com requests to here (Shot). And after trying to use Google cache, they are redirected 90% of times to here.
FarsTec, another old persian blogger, has reported same thing: 1, 2. He says, 50 to 60 of his visitors has been reduced because Google's cache has been blocked.
Yourself judge, I won't!

Although two of major Microsoft related blogs has been chosen by PC Magazine as I reported in my previous post, Scoble doesn't like Longhorn Blogs and PDC Bloggers. His reasons might be true, but I myself like to visit group blogs, because they gave me many new things in just one click rather than many clicks.

PC Magazine, has given a review on blogging tools and has chosen some blogs. My lovely blog tool, .Text is not there though, but nice choice of blogs. Also TypePad has been chosen as the best.
Boing Boing, Dan Bricklin's Log, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, The J-Walk Weblog, Longhorn Blogs, Neil Gaiman's Journal, PatrickWeb, PDC Bloggers and Scripting News.

For sure, you all have used Second News already for seeking Iran's local news.
Local-News.net is a new website which gives same service for all over the world. It is a news aggregation service in general local news and sports news and also weather. Just get to it's web site, then run a search on e.g. Tehran. Then it will show you results. After clicking on the result, all the Local-News's pages will become local news.
Iran News, Iran Sports News, Iran Weather.

Do you know how to do mental arithmatics?
"All the mathematicians whose biographies are given in our archive exhibited extraordinary mental powers. In this article we look at a few mathematicians who have shown extraordinary powers of memory and calculating. We also look at a number of people who had no mathematical skills, usually no education, yet were able to display feats of mental arithmetical skills which astounded their contemporaries and today still astound us." Via HotLinks.

Have you ever wondered what is art? I have! And I searched the 'net and lastly found a nice article written by Dr. Ali Shariati. Those who live in Iran know him, it is in English. Read it here.

.NET Guy says, Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 is faster than VMWare. But did you try using it for Linux? Or just Windows 2003 Server?

eWeek: "Messaging and Collaboration editor Steve Gillmor sees RSS, Apple and Sun challenging Microsoft's Outlook business."

A new RSS aggregator done by Chris Pirillo using Macromedia's Flash. Via Scoble.

When is this Y! IM going to become secure? The best way is to use 3rd part softwares.

"The Blog Search Engine held a survey on blogging which was concluded on December 1, 2003. The 610 survey respondents were made up mainly of blog owners who have submitted their blog to the Blog Search Engine (over 2,800 blogs submitted) and other blog owners contacted through different channels. Here are the results of the survey."
I like one of the questions:
9. Where do you find the info or news that you blog about (please check all that apply)? Sites that I check regularly 68.5% Other blogs 58.9% Friends 54.3% News Sites and Online News Papers 47.7% Google News 33.8% Online Forums 25.6% Email News Alerts 22.8% Weird News Sites 20.8% Yahoo News 19% RSS News Aggregators 17.5% Moreover News 5.1% MSN Newsbot 0.7% Other 20.8% Other included newspaper, TV, magazine, life experiences, and cosmic rays from outerspace. Read More . . .

Have you ever wondered, what would you do if Internet goes down one day? It is possible, an nearly more than possible, that Internet goes down one day. Here you can find some ways on what to do next to Internet's down time.

Too bad, BlogShares is being sold. Someone who knows PHP can take care of it.

Mack D. Male: "The intent of Academic Longhorn is to show off Project Hurricane, the ASP.NET backend which the site is based upon, and to allow a place for students to connect, discuss and learn about Longhorn."

Web Businessmen: "Google, you are making anger. Please work only in one way so we can get on top!"
Why? I think it is better that Google is changing it's methods so search engine spammers, those whose work is only bringing ranks to pages which are useless, become confused. Google should dance to prevent cheaters. Not only every month but also every week. I think if a web site got the real content and only generates content, it's rank in Google won't change any day. Honesty is always the way.
Read More on BBC.

Hot Links. What it does? Simply, aggregates and indexes other link lists and take a shot from the link. Nice idea. Via Anil Dash's Daily Links.

Read what Zoheir says about jailing blogs. Related to what I posted yesterday about organizing blogs.

ESPN RSS Feeds. Subscribed!

Seyed Razavi: "I am sorry to announce that BlogShares will not be reopening after the current technical difficulties are resolved. Currently, the database server is dead and looks to be for the next few days."

Here we go, ILNA, an Iranian News Agency, says, Iranian bloggers are going to be organized, because they are not!!!
You see? Nothing in our country is organized, but blogs should be!

Nice, nice.
"When you want to upload a file to the dnj site or the .text blog admin, a real Windows file open dialog pops. Quite cool and a piece of functionality I wanted for one of my own apps. Getting that done was, thanks to COM, easier than I had anticipated."
Learn from Peter Gekko how to make it.

First Iranian International Web Festival finished yesterday. I am focusing on bloggers part because it was the most useful part. Seems they had many troubles, and although they had the most active part in the festival, they weren't awarded at all. Read more on their web site. Also: 1, 2, 3.

BBC: "Pirated versions of Microsoft's next operating system are on sale in Malaysia well before the official release date."
Longhorn is there!

Second News: "TEHRAN, December 2 (Mehr News Agency) -- World's strongest man, Hossein Rezazadeh, was officially announced by the Association International de la Presse Sportive (AIPS) Tuesday as one of the hopefuls for 2003 Best Sportsman title." Read More . . .

I changed Tech Guru's skin today. I am posting this specially for those who using aggregators reading my blog. Thanks to Christian Nordbakk for his great skin, HabaHaba. BTW, I made some changes.

Win Super Site: "Windows Server 2003: The Road to Gold". Via Lockergnome.

help.net points to a site with some free Windows Forms Controls.

Yea, Iranian bloggers are all there. Go and visit them. Here is a photo for those who don't attend. Also the Festival's blog. And photoblog's main page.

You remember I posted about Google Founders' blog? It is fake! Not a real one, I said that in my post, please pay more attention. Here and here.

Sorry, we had to do some sort of updates in our Windows box in the last day, that's why Second News was off for around a day.