Google charges for web programs... thanks to BBC.co.uk

Google charges for web programs

Dentists could get their own programs via Microsoft's software initiative.

Google has introduced a paid-for version of its web applications it hopes will be popular with small firms.

The paid version adds more storage, phone help and
guarantees of availability to the Gmail, calendar, word processing and
messaging package.

Industry analysts suggest the move is aimed squarely at Microsoft and its Office suite of programs.

At the same time BT and Microsoft signed a deal to create a marketplace of web-based programs for small firms.

'Brutal timing'

Google's new service costs $50 (£27 or 40 euros) for
every account and for this customers get phone support, a guarantee
that the online applications will work 99.9% of the time and 10
gigabytes of storage for each e-mail address.

The package of programs available includes e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, calendar and Google Talk.

By paying, users also get the option to turn off the adverts that usually populate the free versions.

The free version of this package was introduced in August 2006 and Google said that more than 100,000 businesses had signed up.

Google hopes that the chance to collaborate on key
documents via the web will prove popular to small firms who are more
used to e-mailing copies back and forth.

Analysts said the announcement was intended to give people an alternative to Microsoft's Office 2007.

"The timing is just brutal for Microsoft," said Rebecca
Wettemann, vice president of research at Nucleus Research. "It's
definitely a shot across their bow."

In related news Microsoft has revealed details of a
partnership with telecoms firm BT to create a marketplace for a series
of business programs designed for small businesses.

The subscription-based marketplace will host all the
programs itself and allow small businesses to use the different
applications as a service.

As well as generic applications such as payroll programs
the marketplace will also host niche applications designed for
particular types of small businesses such as dentists and estate
agents.

A spokesman for BT said it would be signing up software
firms to make the programs soon and that it was aiming to launch by the
summer.

TV RATINGS - 2/21/2007

TV RATINGS - 2/21/2007

>From PEX

Research by Jun Jun aska26ph2001@...
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/ABS-CBNKapamilyaPEXers2

Posted by cybermyx

AGB OVERNIGHT RATINGS
Wednesday - February 21, 2007

Sis 13.0
Homeboy 12.0

Yellow Handkerchief 19.6
Pilipinas Game KNB? 23.0

Eat Bulaga! 21.5
WoWoWee 23.7

Daisy Siete 19.4
Inocente De Ti 16.4

Muli 16.1
Princess Charming 15.2
Full House 16.4
Kapamilya Cinema 13.4

Jewel In The Palace 15.4
Pangako Sa 'Yo 9.8

24 Oras 26.8
TV Patrol World 22.3

Asian Treasures 31.2
Kapamilya Deal or No Deal 27.3

Super Twins 32.4
Maria Flordeluna 24.4

Bakekang 33.7
Sana Maulit Muli 27.1

Jumong 28.0
Maging Sino Ka Man 28.4

Starstruck 19.4
Princess Hours 19.8

Nuts Entertainment 14.0
Bandila 10.5

Pride and piracy... from YOUNGBLOOD of INQUIRER.net

YOUNGBLOOD
Pride and piracy
By Hans Pura
Inquirer
Last updated 01:05am (Mla time) 02/22/2007

I HAVE always known that buying pirated videodiscs is a crime. But because of the outrageous prices of movie tickets, buying bootleg copies of movies seems to have become socially acceptable. What used to be an embarrassing act is now being done by every Tom, Dick and Harry. Sometimes I see priests and even celebrities buying DVDs from the local dealer.

But who can blame them? Why spend P120 to watch a movie once when you can pay P50 to watch the same movie as many times as you want, at your convenience and in your own home? Why buy an original copy of a movie for P800 when you can buy an 8-in-1 DVD for P50?

We Filipinos are a pragmatic people. Many will say that the practical way to watch movies is through piracy. They seem to have a point. Why would a student like me buy original DVDs? I only get money by asking my parents and I'm surely not going to throw it away by buying overpriced products.

It's not surprising that the sales of original DVDs have dropped due to the proliferation of movie pirates. But what surprises me is that original DVD producers haven't done a thing to reverse the trend. If pirates can sell DVDs at affordable prices, can't the DVD producers do the same thing? If pirates can sell a DVD for P50, then I'm sure legitimate producers can also sell it at a price that is much lower than P800, considering that most movies make a lot of money.

Remember that infamous commercial, the one comparing stealing someone's things to buying pirated discs? The advertisement was meant to make you feel guilty. Its message was that the "legal" way to watch movies is going to the cinema.

Well, I have been doing just that for years already. I shell out a couple of hundred pesos a week just so I could watch current movies the "legal" way. I also make sure that I don't buy pirated DVDs of movies currently being shown in theaters.

But given the quality of movies being shown recently, I have been wondering whether to still watch movies in the theaters. Is it worthwhile to spend P100 to watch a non-substantial movie when I can just buy a DVD and give the difference to my church? It won't hurt the movie producers anyway since most bad movies make all the money.

I have been waiting for a certain movie musical ever since it started playing in the United States last Christmas. I wanted to watch it even more when it recently won the Golden Globe for best picture. It is the most-talked about movie in the United States and it still hasn't been shown here. But do you know that I can buy a clear copy of it anywhere where pirated DVDs are sold?

A large sum of money could have been earned by local theaters if only they had shown the movie before it was pirated. If I haven't bought a copy, it is not only because I'm supporting the movie but also because I love the movie industry. I am a movie enthusiast and movies are for me, the highest form of art. They are not just moving pictures but are also inspirations. I am not going to kill them by supporting pirates.

Stopping piracy is going to be tough. The entertainment industry must first convince the people to stop tolerating piracy. I know it looks impossible, but it can be done. They have started showing anti-piracy commercials but those efforts are futile. They should pursue the campaign by lowering the prices of movie tickets in theaters. Filipinos love to watch movies, but many have stopped going to the cinemas because it has become too costly. But if they can afford to watch movies again, then they will probably go to the theaters more often.

It would also help if Hollywood movies were brought to Manila faster. Nothing beats watching movies in a comfortable theater with a big screen.

But as soon as the entertainment industry is done with its job, the citizens should do the rest. We must never tolerate any form of piracy. We must work together to prevent the movie industry from dying.

Hans Pura, 17, is a senior at De La Salle Zobel.

Copyright 2007 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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TV RATINGS - 2/18/2007

TV RATINGS - 2/18/2007

TV RATINGS - 2/18/2007

From PEX

Research by Jun Jun aska26ph2001@...
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/ABS-CBNKapamilyaPEXers2
Posted by cybermyx


Sunday TV Ratings
February 18, 2007

Takeshi's Castle 12.0
It Started with A Kiss 10.4

SOP Rules 16.0
ASAP '07 17.4

Your Song 13.6
Magic Kamison 12.9
Lovespell Presents: Click Na Click 13.7

S-Files 10.2
The Buzz 16.4

Mga Kwento ni Lola Basyang 15.5
TV Patrol Linggo 20.6

StarStruck The Next Level 19.5
Goin Bulilit 21.0

Mel & Joey 21.4
Rated K: Handa Na Ba Kayo? 24.5

All Star K! 21.0
Sharon 12.7

Daddy DiDoDu 18.4
Sunday's Best 8.1
Sunday Night Box Office 12.0

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ABS-CBN IMPROVES THEIR RATING LAST SUNDAY, feb.18

ABS-CBN Channel 2 got a high percentage of 18.2 in the
AGB Nielsen Mega Manila Ratings last Sunday. This was
2.3% higher than GMA's audience share of 15.9%. The
said rating was in the scope of 11:45am-9:30pm.

ABS-CBN dominated the daytime ratings of the Sunday
game. The biggest winner was ASAP O7 ALIW THEATRE LIVE
which got 17.4% against SOP's 16%. Lovespell and Your
Song also had their victories against Magic Kamison
with almost 1% of differences. Kris' revelation about
her problems with husband James Yap made a landslide
win with 16.4% against S-Files which only got 10.2%.
TV Patrol Linggo had grasp higher rating than SFiles.
TV Patrol got 20.6%. It has also beaten GMA's Lola
Basyang (15.5%) & Starstruck (19.5%).

On the other hand, Goin Bulilit remains number 1 on
its timeslot with 21% of audience share.

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February 17, 2007 TV Ratings

14.4 Pilipinas, Game Ka Na Ba?

13.2 Takeshi's Castle





23.3 Wowowee

23.4 Eat Bulaga




16.3 Nagmamahal Kapamilya

12.2 Startalk

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Couple plan to tie the knot in graveyard

02/19/2007 | 04:49 PM

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PACIFIC, Mo. - It's not the traditional "till death do us part," but Scott Amsler and Miranda Patterson believe getting hitched in a graveyard is just thinking outside the box.

Come September, the Illinois couple expects to pledge their undying love among the dearly departed in this St. Louis suburb's city cemetery, even though those who approved the request are dead set against seeing it become a trend.

The wedding wouldn't be out of character for Amsler, 27, a computer expert for a financial company by day and rehabber of old hearses by night.

The graveyard, he said, just has a certain tranquility and thriftiness for nuptials the young couple insists will be small, private and traditional — except for the bagpipes, Amsler's refurbished hearse and the throng of eternally silent witnesses.

"People are going to think how they want. I don't actively try to convince people that my interests are normal or logical," Amsler said. "I'm not a freak or Satan worshipper or cult member. It just goes with our theme."

Deep down, the couple said, it just seemed right.

Amsler and Patterson, who recently moved to Collinsville, Ill., became an item not long after they met in November 2005 at a birthday party where Patterson, 21, was to have been the celebrant's blind date. Amsler showed up in a retooled hearse that caught Patterson's eye.

"I wanted a ride in it but I chickened out at the last minute," she said.

By their first date weeks later, on New Year's Eve, Patterson knew Amsler was the one. Not long afterward, she quit her factory job in Sullivan, Mo., and moved in with Amsler in Troy, Ill.

Amsler proposed last June, affixing to the side of the 1965 hearse — which the two call "Edgar" — a plate with a simple message: "Will you marry me?" Seconds later, the ring slid onto a crying Patterson's finger.

She received Edgar as an engagement gift and had only one stipulation: The wedding had to be outside, in a gazebo.

Her worries were laid to rest while she and Amsler drove to her dad's house. While traveling on Interstate 44, Patterson spotted a gazebo on a hilltop, only to find it was in a graveyard. No worries.

"The view was just gorgeous," she said. "I said, `This is where I want to get married.'"

When the couple called last fall for permission to use the three-acre cemetery, which dates to the Civil War, City Clerk Jo Ann Hoehne told them the local cemetery committee would have to decide.

"When I spoke to them, they were just a normal young couple who wanted to have a wedding some place they thought was nice and serene for a very small, intimate wedding," Hoehne said. "They weren't any cult group or anything like that."

Bill Hohman, a 71-year-old alderman on the cemetery panel, wasn't sure what to think.

"It's strange to me. This is kind of an unusual thing around here," he said of the country town where the roughly 5,700 residents "roll up the sidewalks at nine o'clock, and everyone goes to bed."

The committee last month signed off on the couple's request despite concerns about the appropriateness of the setting for the occasion — and fears that a burial might be scheduled for the same time.

Hohman, though, vows to introduce a measure to make Amsler-Patterson nuptials the last among this town's tombstones. "Once the horse is out of the barn, you have to have an ordinance," he said.

But Patterson said she and Amsler have respect for the living and the dead.

"We're not going to do anything stupid or horrible. We just want to have a wedding," she said.

"Some of the ladies I work with said, `Are you crazy? Why would you get married in a cemetery?' Does it matter where we get married, just as long as we get married?" - AP

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