Car insurance prices may fall for men but rise for women

The European Court of Justice is considering banning insurance companies from using gender to decide how much of a risk customers are.

If it does happen, it would mean young men would eventually see their premiums go down, and young women would end up paying extra.

But the AA is warning that, at least in the short-term, the confusion could lead to higher prices all round. At the minute, young women pay less because they are seen as safer drivers. Statistics show men in their late teens and early 20s are more likely to speed, to be involved in drink driving accidents, and to claim on their policies.

Higher premiums

The cost of car insurance is already rising across the board.

Last year, policies went up by an average of 33%. It was even steeper for young drivers who saw a 58% increase.

So now, a woman under 22 is looking at paying an average of £1682 a year. For a man of the same age, it’s another thousand pounds on top of that, £2750.

Cheaper for men?

The gaps tends to narrow to just a few pounds around the age of 30.
The court in Luxembourg is due to rule on this on March 1st.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) says a ban on gender pricing would hit young female drivers hardest. Their premiums could rise by an average of 25%, but it could be as much as 50% in some cases. Young men could eventually see their policies go down by around 10%.

“Not fair”

Ebeneezer Bolatiwa, a 21-year old student, says the idea of such a change is “brilliant.”

“The insurance policies now are too expensive, so I think this will benefit us,” he says. “Just because I’m a male, I don’t see why I should pay more.”

However his friend, 22-year old Charlotte Griffiths, is less impressed.

“It’s not fair really, because men have more accidents than women, which is why their price is higher in the first place, so there’s no reason why we should pay more,” she says.

‘Not good news’

Car insurance prices may be pushed higher warns Simon Douglas of the AA

There is still uncertainty about how any possible change would affect drivers like Ebeneezer and Charlotte. If this goes ahead, it would be like asking the insurance industry to rip up the rule book. There is talk of a three-year transition period, but companies are worried about the possibility the Court will order them to introduce unisex policies immediately.

The AA’s director of insurance, Simon Douglas says while not certain, it is very likely that gender-based pricing will be outlawed.

“In the short term, we don’t think this is good news at all for anyone,” he says. “If they can’t use [gender] they [insurers] are going to take on more risk. As a consequence, they’re going to put up their prices to mitigate that risk,” he warns.

Link to article: Insurance pricing to change soon, warns AA

Wikileaks continues to rock the political world by shedding light on conspiracies, corruption and cover-ups. The latest batch of diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks reveals what can only be characterized as a U.S.-led conspiracy to force GMOs onto European countries by making those countries pay a steep price if they resist.

The cable reveals the words of Craig Stapleton, the US ambassador to France, who was pushing the commercial interests of the biotech industry by attempting to force GMOs into France. In his own words (below), he expresses his frustration with the idea that France might pass environmental laws that would hamper the expansion of GMOs:

“Europe is moving backwards not forwards on this issue with France playing a leading role, along with Austria, Italy and even the [European] Commission… Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voice.”

Got that so far? His own words: “Retaliation” as a way to “make [it] clear” that resisting GMOs will have a price.

Stapleton goes on to say something rather incredible:

“Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits. The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory…”

As you read these words again, remember that these are the words of the U.S. ambassador to France who is suggesting the US “calibrate a target retaliation list” in order to “cause some pain across the EU” that must be “sustainable over the long term.”

The global GMO conspiracy is no longer a theory

Need we say anything more? This cable proves, once and for all, that there is a global GMO conspiracy where government operatives work in secret to push Monsanto’s GMO agenda while punishing opponents of GMOs and adding them to a “target retaliation list.”

This cable also proves that NaturalNews has been right all along about the GMO conspiracy, and that GMO opponents such as Jeffrey Smith are battling what can only be called an evil conspiracy to control the world’s food supply. It also proves that when Alex Jones talks about the global conspiracy to control the world food supply, he’s not just ranting. He’s warning about the reality of the world in which we now live.

As Jeffery Smith said today in a Democracy Now interview:

“We’ve been saying for years that the United States government is joined at the hip with Monsanto and pushing GMOs as part of Monsanto’s agenda on the rest of the world. This lays bare the mechanics of that effort. We have Craig Stapleton, the former ambassador to France, specifically asking the U.S. government to retaliate and cause some harm throughout the European Union.” (http://www.democracynow.org/seo/201…)

Military terms

Do you notice something about these words used by the US ambassador to France? “Calibrate a target retaliation list” sounds eerily familiar, doesn’t it? It’s the kind of language you might find tossed around in a military bombing war exercise.

That’s no coincidence: These government operatives quite literally consider themselves to be at war with the world, and they intend to conquer the world with their genetically modified poisons. They will do anything, it seems, to force-feed their deadly crops to the public.

Eight important realizations from these leaks

This Wikileaks cable brings up all sorts of issues that each might deserve a separate article, but here are the highlights of what comes to my mind on this issue:

Realization #1) Wikileaks is valuable for exposing the government lies in our world. Without Wikileaks, we never would have known about these cables which prove the existence of this GMO conspiracy.

Realization #2) US government diplomatic officials are working for the corporations! It’s just as we’ve described here on NaturalNews numerous times — Big Government is really just an extension of the most evil and most powerful corporations that now dominate our planet: The drug companies, the weapons manufacturers, the agricultural giants and so on. Here’s what Jeffrey Smith had to say about governments conspiring with Monsanto:

“In 2009, we have a cable from the ambassador to Spain from the United States asking for intervention there, asking the government to help formulate a biotech strategy and support the government — members of the government in Spain that want to promote GMOs, as well. And here, they specifically indicate that they sat with the director of Monsanto for the region and got briefed by him about the politics of the region and created strategies with him to promote the GMO agenda.”

Realization #3) The US is willing to retaliate against European countries if they try to block GMOs. This brings up the question: Why is the US so desperate to push GMOs on Europe? Clearly there is another agenda behind all this (maybe we’ll learn more in future Wikileaks releases).

Realization #4) No wonder the US government has declared war on Wikileaks because these dark secrets and “conspiracy notes” are never made public through any normal means. It takes a whistleblower to expose the true government corruption taking place in our world today.

Realization #5) The GMO conspiracy reaches to the highest levels of global control. This US ambassador Stapleton wasn’t just a nobody. He was, in fact, the co-owner of the Texas Rangers with former President George W. Bush! His wife, by the way, is George Bush’s cousin. This is a conspiracy involving the highest-ranking officials across multiple countries who are pushing a GMO agenda that’s poisoning people across the planet.

Realization #6) Governments are literally trying to kill their own people. It is widely known in the inner circles of power that GMOs are deadly, but governments keep pushing them anyway. As Jeffrey Smith explains in his interview with Democracy Now:

“…the person who was in charge of FDA policy in 1992, Monsanto’s former attorney, Michael Taylor, he allowed GMOs on the market without any safety studies and without labeling, and the policy claimed that the agency was not aware of any information showing that GMOs were significantly different. Seven years later, because of a lawsuit, 44,000 secret internal FDA memos revealed that that policy was a lie. Not only were the scientists at the FDA aware that GMOs were different, they had warned repeatedly that they might create allergies, toxins, new diseases and nutritional problems. But they were ignored, and their warnings were even denied, and the policy went forth allowing the deployment GMOs into the food supply with virtually no safety studies.”

Realization #7) The GMO conspiracy is always reframed as “science”. At one point in the leaked cables, Stapleton warns that in opposing GMOs, France would “roll back established science-based decision making.” The GMO conspiracy, you have to remember, is always hidden behind the term “science” so that anyone who opposes GMOs can be characterized as being somehow against “scientific thinking.”

All this gives science a bad name, of course, but I suppose that since the history of science is filled with arrogant scientists poisoning people in the name of science (mercury, vaccines, radiation, plastics, medications, etc.), we shouldn’t be all that surprised to observe this.

Realization #8) Spain has been a key co-conspirator to push the U.S. GMO agenda. Much of the conspiring taking place in the EU has been spearheaded by Spain, whose officials met personally with the head of Monsanto to plot their push of GMOs into Europe.

All of a sudden the Blackwater story adds up

This all reminds me of a story published a few months back by The Nation in which Jeremy Scahill exposed a link between Monsanto and the military contractor known as Blackwater. His article claimed that Monsanto had hired Blackwater spies to “infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.” (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/…)

Monsanto vehemently denied the allegation. I looked hard at covering that story at the time but could not substantiate the accusations to my satisfaction. However, given the new information gleaned from these leaked diplomatic cables — which blatantly state that the GMO conspirators plan to “calibrate a target retaliation list” — all of a sudden the Blackwater story adds up.

This is the verbage of a military-style retaliation campaign, and that’s exactly the business of Blackwater. Remember how Stapleton said the US needed to “cause some pain?” That’s Blackwater’s calling card!

Although these cables don’t prove any connection between Monsanto and Blackwater, they do lend credence to the idea that such a link is not only possibly, but perhaps even probable. It clearly deserves additional investigation.

Regardless of whether the Blackwater / Monsanto link is ever proven, what’s crystal clear from all this is that the global GMO conspiracy is very real and that GMO conspirators plot retaliatory actions against any nation that refuses to allow GMOs into their country.

The whole thing is then disguised as “science” so that anyone who opposes it can be branded as “non-scientific.” This is the same sick way in which vaccines are pushed, too: They’re called “scientific” even when they’re based entirely on scientific fraud (as are GMOs).

How governments really operate

Above all, what these Wikileaks cables really reveal is that government conspiracies are, of course, not only real but that they are taking place right now. Diplomats and ambassadors are, in effect, government thugs who engage in the most unethical actions, full of threats and retaliation, in order to serve the financial interests of their corporate masters.

That’s how the world really works, despite the Disney-like image portrayed by the mainstream media. Behind the scenes, the U.S. government is literally plotting with Monsanto to take over the world’s food supply. That is not an exaggeration. It’s not conjecture. It is a statement of fact based on the words of the government’s own operatives (who obviously didn’t know their words would ever be made public).

Through Wikileaks, we have been given a glimpse into the truth behind the Great Wall of government lies. And that truth, it turns out, is a lot uglier than most people could have imagined. (It’s no surprise to me, because I’ve seen things that most regular people have never witnessed. But to a regular Joe Blow working his J.O.B. and watching the evening news, the hard-core truth about the world is a bit too much to handle…)

Personally, I can’t wait to see what other dark secrets are buried in these Wikileaks cables. And it all makes me wish we had a Wikileaks for the FDA, too. Can you imagine all the dirty secrets that would come out of the FDA’s offices if we could read their emails? We need an FDA leaker.

The other thought that comes to mind is how much I wouldn’t want to be Julian Assange right now. His head is now the world’s most powerful bullet magnet… especially when government rifles are anywhere nearby. If the U.S. government would conspire to create a “retaliation target list” of nations that are merely resisting GMOs, can you imagine what they will do if they ever get their hands on Assange?

Read the leaked cables right here:
http://213.251.145.96/cable/2008/02…

and

http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2009/05/0…

(Note: These links may not be active for very long because the governments of the world are obviously trying to shut down all the websites that post this information. The truth, it seems, is just too dangerous to allow it to be openly published.)

How to turn all this around

Don’t let all this get you down. You can take action to help turn this around!

Action Item #1) Don’t buy GMO foods! Look for the non-GMO “Project Verified” label on foods.

Action Item #2) Urge lawmakers to oppose GMOs or require honest GMO labeling of foods.

Action Item #3) Help support the Institute for Responsible Technology and other non-profits working to oppose GMOs.

Action Item #4) Stay informed! Read NaturalNews and our Facebook GMO Dangers page (www.facebook.com/GMO.dangers) to stay up on this issue. The IRT (above) will keep you even more deeply informed on GMOs.

Action Item #5) Share what you know! Share videos, cartoons, articles and websites with your friends and family members who also care about protecting their health from GMOs.

Action Item #6) Don’t trust the government! They are pushing a GMO conspiracy. They don’t want you to have natural food, and the FDA is now being unleashed under the new food safety bill to destroy small farmers who tend to use non-GMO crops. Fight against government encroachment of our natural right to grow honest food. Support food freedom!

Learn more about GMOs

Get the truth from Jeffrey Smith at: www.ResponsibleTechnology.org

See the GMO page on NaturalNews: www.NaturalNews.com/GMOs.html

Join our anti-GMO page on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/GMO.dangers

Watch my Just Say No to GMO video! It’s now available in four languages:

English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnN6…
Chinese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz9s…
Spanish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mit-…
Polish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2FL…

Spread the word! Educate yourself and your friends about the dangers of GMOs.

Upload your own non-GMO videos (FREE) to our natural health video site: www.NaturalNews.TV

Just say NO to GMOs.

Link to article: Wikileaks cable reveals U.S. conspired to retaliate against European nations if they resisted GMOs

What’s your children’s privacy worth? Should they be subjected to fingerprinting just to take out a library book? That’s the question parents at a school in the UK are grappling with.

From the Telegraph:

Under the scheme, pupils swipe a bar code inside the book they want borrow then press their thumb on to a scanner to authorise the loan. Books are returned in the same way.The scheme is being trialled on junior classes at Higher Lane Primary in Whitefield, Bury, Greater Manchester.

Officials confirmed it is due to be extended to all pupils at the school, one of the areas largest primary schools, with 453 pupils aged four to 11.

School authorities defended the scheme on Thursday, and moved to reassure parents that the voluntary system, is heavily encrypted or coded and that no images of fingerprints would be stored.

But critics said they were “appalled” at the system, developed by Microsoft which is also being trialled in other parts of the country.

“This is quite clearly appalling,” said Phil Booth, national coordinator of NO2ID, a privacy campaign group.

Critics object to the fingerprint system because, in addition to being a waste of resources, it “conditions” children to hand over personal information.

Link to article: UK School Wants To Fingerprint Kids Who Take Out Library Books

In just a few days, Britain could elect an unprecedented coalition with a mandate for urgently-needed reform and the support of most voters – it’s democracy in action!

But a few partisan hacks want to hang onto politics as usual — and some of them own powerful tabloids. Hacks like billionaire Rupert Murdoch, whose Sun is pushing nasty hysteria about coalition government threatening Biblical disasters — working to ensure that Murdoch, not we voters, is the “kingmaker” in our country.

Britain is ripe for change — and not only in Westminster. In the next eight days, let’s turn the tide against the poisonous politics of our arrogant media moguls and their toxic tabloids, and demand that they treat Britain’s people and democracy with respect. An unprecedented popular outcry could shame them into piping down — sign the petition and forward this email now!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/the_kingmaker/?vl

40% of the British press is owned by Rupert Murdoch alone. Reinforced by a handful of media proprietors, editors and millionaire donors, his hacks have repeatedly sought to tip the balance of our democracy and to bolster their own power — we can’t let them succeed!

Politics as usual has failed to deliver. From reforming and cleaning up politics to building a green economy, and from the future of public services to the public finances — it’s time for real change, not just rearranging of the deckchairs.

It may have taken the spin doctors, millionaire donors and media moguls by surprise, but we, the voters, will decide the outcome of this election. So let’s unite for change and a better politics, and show that we, the voting public will decide our government. Take action now — click the link below, then forward this message before it’s too late!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/the_kingmaker/?vl

With hope and determination,

Paul, Alice, Iain, Ricken and the whole Avaaz team

PS In a poll sent out to all 380,000 members of the Avaaz network in the UK, 92% of us said we should run a campaign against media scaremongering and in support of a balanced, reforming parliament – and we’re teaming up on this campaign with 38 Degrees, the UK movement for people-powered change!

Sources:

http://www.newser.com/off-the-grid/post/448/will-murdoch-lose-britain.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7100966.ece

http://labs.38degrees.org.uk/headline/

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/election2010/2942670/Election-2010-The-no-win-nightmare.html

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/93eeac2c-4e16-11df-b437-00144feab49a.html

http://www.charter2010.co.uk/news/who-says-hung-parliaments-cant-be-effective

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/18/clegg-media-elite-murdoch-lib-dem

Don’t forget to take action now! Click here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/the_kingmaker/?vl

———————–

Support the Avaaz community! We’re entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way — donate here.

Link to article: The People vs Murdoch

A class action has been filed against AT&T DSL for being too slow. Specifically, the suit alleges that AT&T set the maximum rate customers could get at a level that was lower than the advertised rate. The company denies these claims but has opted to settle instead of going to court. You’re eligible to join if…

…you got AT&T DSL after March 31st 1994, and are either a current or former member. You have until July 1st to get on board.

To join and get more info, check out dslspeedsettlement.com.

Link to article: Join The Class Action Against AT&T’s Slothly DSL Speeds

A rather surprising article hit the front page of the BBC on Tuesday: the next generation of hard disks could cause slowdowns for XP users. Not normally the kind of thing you’d expect to be placed so prominently, but the warning it gives is a worthy one, if timed a bit oddly. The world of hard disks is set to change, and the impact could be severe. In the remarkably conservative world of PC hardware, it’s not often that a 30-year-old convention gets discarded. Even this change has been almost a decade in the making.

The problem is hard disk sectors. A sector is the smallest unit of a hard disk that software can read or write. Even though a file might only be a single byte long, the operating system has to read or write at least 512 bytes to read or write that file.

512-byte sectors have been the norm for decades. The 512-byte size was itself inherited from floppy disks, making it an even older historical artifact. The age of this standard means that it’s baked in to a lot of important software: PC BIOSes, operating systems, and the boot loaders that hand control from the BIOS to the operating system. All of this makes migration to a new standard difficult.

Given such entrenchment, the obvious question is, why change? We all know that the PC world isn’t keen on migrating away from long-lived, entrenched standards—the continued use of IPv4 and the PC BIOS are two fine examples of 1970s and 1980s technology sticking around long past their prime, in spite of desirable replacements (IPv6 and EFI, respectively) being available. But every now and then, a change is forced on vendors in spite of their naturally conservative instincts.

Hard disks are unreliable

In this case, there are two reasons for the change. The first is that hard disks are not actually very reliable. We all like to think of hard disks as neatly storing the 1s and 0s that make up our data and then reading them back with perfect accuracy, but unfortunately the reality is nothing like as neat.

Instead of having a nice digital signal written in the magnetic surface—little groups of magnets pointing “all north” or “all south”—what we have have is groups pointing “mostly south” or “mostly north.” Converting this imprecise analog data back into the crisp digital ones and zeroes that represents our data requires the analog signal to be processed.

That processing isn’t enough to reliably restore the data, though. Fundamentally, it produces only educated guesses; it’s probably right, but could be wrong. To counter this, the hard disks store a substantial amount of error-checking data alongside each sector. This data is invisible to software, but is checked by the drive’s firmware. This error-checking data gives the drive a substantial ability to reconstruct data that is missing or damaged using clever math, but this comes with considerable storage overhead. In a 2004-vintage disk, for every 512 bytes of data, typically 40 bytes of error checking data are also required, along with a further 40 bytes used to locate and indicate the start of the sector, and provide space between sectors. This means that 80 bytes are used for data integrity for every 512 bytes of user data, so about 13% of the theoretical capacity of a hard disk is gone automatically, just to account for the inevitable errors that come up when reading and interpreting the analog signal stored on the disk. With this 40-byte overhead, the drive can correct something like 50 consecutive unreadable bits. Longer codes could recover from longer errors, but the trade-off is that this eats into storage capacity.

Higher areal density is a blessing and a curse

This has been the status quo for many years. What’s changing to make that a problem now? Throughout that period, areal density—the amount of data stored in a given disk area—has been on the rise. Current disks have an areal density typically around 400 Gbit/square inch; five years ago, the number would be closer to 100. The problem with packing all these bits into ever decreasing areas is that it’s making the analog signal on the disk get increasingly worse. The signals are weaker, there’s more interference from adjacent data, and the disk is more sensitive to minor fluctuations in voltages and other suboptimal conditions when writing.

This weaker analog signal in turn places greater demands on the error checking data. More errors are happening more of the time, with the result that those 40 bytes are not going to be enough for much longer. Typical consumer grade hard drives have a target of one unreadable bit for every 10¹⁴ read from disk (10¹⁴ bits is about 12 TB, so if you have six 2 TB disks in an array, that array probably has an error on it); enterprise drives and some consumer disks claim one in every 10¹⁵ bits, which is substantially better. The increased areal densities mean that the probability of 400 consecutive errors is increasing, which means that if they want to hit that one in 10¹⁴ target, they’re going to need better error-checking. An 80-byte error checking block per sector would double the number of errors that can be corrected, up to 800 bits, but would also mean that about 19% of the disk’s capacity was taken up by overheads, with only 81% available for user data.

In the past, enlarging the error correction data was viable; the increasing areal densities offered more space than the extra correction data used, for a net growth in available space. A decade ago, only 24 bytes were needed per sector, with 40 bytes necessary in 2004, and probably more in more recent disks. As long as the increase in areal density is greater than the increase in error correcting overhead (to accommodate signal loss from the increase in areal density), hard drives can continue to get larger. But hard drive manufacturers are now getting close to the point where each increase in areal density requires such a large increase in error correcting data that the areal density improvement gets canceled out anyway!

Making 4096 bytes the new standard

Instead of storing 512-byte sectors, hard disks will start using 4096-byte sectors. 4096 is a good size for this kind of thing. For one, it matches the standard size of allocation units in the NTFS filesystem, which nowadays is probably the most widely used filesystem on personal computers. Secondly, it matches the standard size of memory pages on x86 systems. Memory allocations on x86 systems are generally done in multiples of 4096 bytes, and correspondingly, many disk operations (such as reading to or from the pagefile, or reading in executable programs), which interact intimately with the memory system, are equally done in multiples of 4096 bytes.

4096 byte sectors don’t solve the analog problem—signals are getting weaker, and noise is getting stronger, and only reduced densities or some breakthrough in recording technology are going to change that—but it helps substantially with the error-correcting problem. Due to the way error correcting codes work, larger sectors require relatively less error correcting data to protect against the same size errors. A 4096 byte sector is equivalent to eight 512 byte sectors. With 40 bytes per sector for finding sector starts and 40 bytes for error correcting, protecting against 50 error bits, 4096 bytes requires (8 x 512 + 8 x 40 + 8 x 40) = 4736 bytes; 4096 of data, 640 of overhead. The total protection is against 400 error bits (50 bits per sector, eight sectors), though they have to be spread evenly among all the sectors.

With 4096 byte sectors, only one spacer start is needed, and to achieve a good level of protection, only 100 bytes of error checking data are required, for a total of (1 x 4096 + 1 x 40 + 1 x 100) = 4236 bytes; 4096 of data, 140 of overhead. 100 bytes per sector can correct up to 1000 consecutive error bits; for the forseeable future, this should be “good enough” to achieve the specified error rates. With an overhead of just 140 bytes per sector, about 96% of the disk’s capacity to be used.

In one fell swoop, this change provides greater robustness against the problems caused by increasing areal density, and more efficient encoding of the data on disk. That’s good news, except for that whole “legacy” thing. The 512 byte sector assumption is built in to a lot of software.

A 512-byte leaden albatross

As far back as 1998, IBM started indicating to the hard disk manufacturing community that sectors would have to be enlarged to allow for robust error correction. In 2000, IDEMA, the International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association, put together a task force to establish a large sector standard, the Long Data Block Committee. After initially considering, but ultimately rejecting, a 1024-byte interim format, in March 2006, they finalized their specification and committed to 4096 byte sectors. Phoenix produced preliminary BIOS support for the specification in 2005, and Microsoft, for its part, ensured that Windows Vista would support the new sector size. Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 all support the new sector size. MacOS X supports it, and Linux kernels since September 2009 also support it.

The big obvious name missing from this list is Windows XP (and its server counterpart, Windows Server 2003). Windows XP (along with old Linux kernels) has, somewhere within its code, a fixed assumption of 512 byte sectors. Try to use it with hard disks with 4096 byte sectors and failure will ensue. Cognizant of this problem, the hard disk vendors responded with, well, a long period of inaction. Little was done to publicize the issue, no effort was made to force the issue by releasing large sector disks; the industry just sat on its hands doing nothing.

However, this situation clearly couldn’t go on forever.

The other big roadblock: the 2TB partition limit

In addition to the areal density problem making errors more likely, a second issue has raised its head. The partition table, which the on-disk structure that describes the number and sizes of the partitions on a disk, can only really describe disks that are 2 TB or less in size. The partition table stores the size of a partition as a count of the number of sectors in that partition, and this count is a 32-bit number. That means it can go up to a little over 4 billion, but no more. Four billion 512-byte sectors is 2 TB. This poses a big problem for any company wanting to sell a disk that’s bigger than 2 TB.

There are two solutions to this problem. Either change the partition table so it can store larger numbers of sectors, or change the size of a sector so that 4 billion sectors no longer limits the disk to 2 TB. For the first, there is indeed a new kind of partition format called the GUID Partition Table (GPT). GPT disks can have vast partitions, and would solve the problem neatly. Unfortunately, GPT disks can’t generally be booted using the conventional PC BIOS. To enable full support for GPT, the BIOS has to be replaced with EFI, the firmware standard used for Itanium machines, Intel Macs, and a rare handful of other PCs. The BIOS is a slow, complex piece of code that has its origins in the 1980s, but it has the one advantage of being ubiquitous. EFI has been around a number of years, it can be used with modern operating systems, and it has no problem with disks larger than 2 TB, but industry adoption has been extremely slow.

This situation is slowly changing. A few motherboards are available with EFI instead of the BIOS, the aforementioned Intel Macs already ship with EFI, and Lenovo is beginning to offer EFI firmware for certain lines as part of its Enhanced Experience programme. Lenovo machines with Enhanced Experience include EFI instead of the legacy BIOS, and as a result boast substantially improved boot times. Nonetheless, EFI remains rare.

This has left disk vendors with little choice but to take the other approach: increase the size of sectors. Though clearly something they have wanted to do for many years, they now have little choice if they want to keep offering ever larger hard disks. EFI, with its support for GPT, won’t be ubiquitous enough to be a viable option. 2³², 4096-byte sectors would allow hard disks up to 16 TiB, providing hopefully enough headroom to allow EFI and GPT to become mainstream.

WD’s Advanced Format

And so it was that last September (and it’s this that makes it a little surprising that the BBC and other outlets are talking about the issue now, but it’s one that certainly deserves the publicity), Western Digital announced its “Advanced Format” drives. Advanced Format drives use the 4096-byte sectors, 100-byte error codes, and a 40-byte gap as described above. However, to maintain compatibility with Windows XP, they pretend to use 512-byte sectors. As can be seen from the spec sheet (the drives with 64 MiB cache, model numbers ending in AARS or EARS) all use 4096 byte sectors internally) the sector counts even for the 2 TB drives are high; the 2 TB disk having just shy of 4 billion sectors.

This kind of deceit is a problem if software tries to write less than 4096 bytes at a time. To write 512 bytes out of 4096, the drive must read all 4096, update the 512 written bytes, and then write back all 4096 bytes (a process known as read-modify-write, RMW). That means more seeking and more disk activity, which is clearly going to perform worse than a 512 byte write on an old drive with true 512 byte sectors. But this isn’t such a problem since, as already mentioned, most disk activity occurs in multiples of 4096 bytes anyway. When writing 4096 bytes, the RMW cycle isn’t needed, as there’s no need to read data if it’s going to be overwritten anyway, so the performance impact is negligible.

The biggest problem is when the 4096 byte write straddles two sectors. When that happens, the situation is even worse as two RMW cycles are needed, one for each partially-written sector. However, as long as the partition starts on sector boundary, “almost all” subsequent writes will—due to the OS’s widespread use of 4096 byte writes—line up properly, so they won’t straddle multiple sectors and won’t need read-modify-writes.

And as luck would have it, the most widely used operating system in the world will always create partitions that don’t line up nicely. Single partition Windows XP systems will always make the first partition start on the 63rd 512 byte sector. If it was just one sector further on, then everything would line up nicely on these pseudo-512 byte sector drives. But as it is, Windows XP partitions on such a disk will have to suffer two RMW operations for almost every single write made to the disk. This is mitigated somewhat by many operations being multiples of 4096 bytes, so it’s only at the start and end of each operation that the read-modify-write is needed, but nonetheless the overhead is substantial.

The other big problem is disk cloning software. Just as with Windows XP, many disk cloning tools will write out partitions so that they don’t neatly line up with the 4096 byte sectors. These programs need to be updated so that the partitions they create will be properly aligned, and so that when migrating from a 512 byte to a 4096 byte disk, they slightly reposition the partitions to ensure proper alignment.

To that end, Western Digital has produced software to re-align partitions so that they all start on 4096 byte boundaries, thereby eliminating most of the RMW operations, except for the relatively infrequent smaller reads and writes. Split operations will still incur a sizeable penalty—10% slower, with an extra 5 ms latency—but shouldn’t be so frequent as to cause a major problem. Any system using Windows XP or created with disk cloning/system imaging software will need to run this software to achieve satisfactory performance.

Other hard disk vendors are committed to introducing their own Advanced Format drives by 2011, so similar software solutions are likely to appear soon. Non-emulated drives, however, appear to be further off. Except for that legacy annoyance, Windows XP, the software is ready, and has been ready, at least on the Windows side, since 2006. Indications are, however, that the hard disk vendors will be reluctant to ship “native” 4096-byte sector support until Windows XP is much less significant—2012 at the earliest, but worst case as late as 2014 (though enterprise parts might arrive sooner than that).

So, anyone putting a new hard disk in an XP machine, beware. There’s a very good chance it won’t work as well as you might expect. Just another reason why running an OS from 2001 perhaps isn’t such a great idea in 2010. These fundamental technologies might not change fast, but that doesn’t mean they don’t change at all.

Link to article: Why new hard disks might not be much fun for XP users

Customs and Border Protection agent Jesus Gomez checks a passport at the vehicle crossing at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in California.

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.

Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker.

The ID card plan is one of several steps advocates of an immigration overhaul are taking to address concerns that have defeated similar bills in the past.

The uphill effort to pass a bill is being led by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who plan to meet with President Barack Obama as soon as this week to update him on their work. An administration official said the White House had no position on the biometric card.

“It’s the nub of solving the immigration dilemma politically speaking,” Mr. Schumer said in an interview. The card, he said, would directly answer concerns that after legislation is signed, another wave of illegal immigrants would arrive. “If you say they can’t get a job when they come here, you’ll stop it.”

The biggest objections to the biometric cards may come from privacy advocates, who fear they would become de facto national ID cards that enable the government to track citizens.

“It is fundamentally a massive invasion of people’s privacy,” said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. “We’re not only talking about fingerprinting every American, treating ordinary Americans like criminals in order to work. We’re also talking about a card that would quickly spread from work to voting to travel to pretty much every aspect of American life that requires identification.”

Mr. Graham says he respects those concerns but disagrees. “We’ve all got Social Security cards,” he said. “They’re just easily tampered with. Make them tamper-proof. That’s all I’m saying.”

U.S. employers now have the option of using an online system called E-Verify to check whether potential employees are in the U.S. legally. Many Republicans have pressed to make the system mandatory. But others, including Mr. Schumer, complain that the existing system is ineffective.

Last year, White House aides said they expected to push immigration legislation in 2010. But with health care and unemployment dominating his attention, the president has given little indication the issue is a priority.

Rather, Mr. Obama has said he wanted to see bipartisan support in Congress first. So far, Mr. Graham is the only Republican to voice interest publicly, and he wants at least one other GOP co-sponsor to launch the effort.

An immigration overhaul has long proven a complicated political task. The Latino community is pressing for action and will be angry if it is put off again. But many Americans oppose any measure that resembles amnesty for people who came here illegally.

Under the legislation envisioned by Messrs. Graham and Schumer, the estimated 10.8 million people living illegally in the U.S. would be offered a path to citizenship, though they would have to register, pay taxes, pay a fine and wait in line. A guest-worker program would let a set number of new foreigners come to the U.S. legally to work.

Most European countries require citizens and foreigners to carry ID cards. The U.K. had been a holdout, but in the early 2000s it considered national cards as a way to stop identify fraud, protect against terrorism and help stop illegal foreign workers. Amid worries about the cost and complaints that the cards infringe on personal privacy, the government said it would make them voluntary for British citizens. They are required for foreign workers and students, and so far about 130,000 cards have been issued.

Mr. Schumer first suggested a biometric-based employer-verification system last summer. Since then, the idea has gained currency and is now a centerpiece of the legislation being developed, aides said.

A person familiar with the legislative planning said the biometric data would likely be either fingerprints or a scan of the veins in the top of the hand. It would be required of all workers, including teenagers, but would be phased in, with current workers needing to obtain the card only when they next changed jobs, the person said.

The card requirement also would be phased in among employers, beginning with industries that typically rely on illegal-immigrant labor.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn’t have a position on the proposal, but it is concerned that employers would find it expensive and complicated to properly check the biometrics.

Mr. Schumer said employers would be able to buy a scanner to check the IDs for as much as $800. Small employers, he said, could take their applicants to a government office to like the Department of Motor Vehicles and have their hands scanned there.

—Alistair MacDonald contributed to this article.

Write to Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com

Link to article: ID Card for Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan

With classes, homework, and projects–not to mention your social life–time is truly at a premium for you, so why not latch onto the wide world that Google has to offer? From super-effective search tricks to Google hacks specifically for education to tricks and tips for using Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar, these tricks will surely save you some precious time.

Search Tricks

These search tricks can save you time when researching online for your next project or just to find out what time it is across the world, so start using these right away.

1. Convert units. Whether you want to convert currency, American and metric units, or any other unit, try typing in the known unit and the unknown unit to find your answer (like “how many teaspoons in a tablespoon” or “10 US dollars in Euros”).
2. Do a timeline search. Use “view:timeline” followed by whatever you are researching to get a timeline for that topic.
3. Get around blocked sites. If you are having problems getting around a blocked site, just type “cache:website address” with website address being the address of the blocked site to use Google’s cached copy to get where you are going.
4. Use a tilde. Using a tilde (~) with a search term will bring you results with related search terms.
5. Use the image search. Type in your search word, then select Images to use the image search when trying to put a picture to your term.
6. Get a definition. If you want a definition without having to track down an online (or a physical) dictionary, just type “definition:word” to find the definition of the word in your results (i.e.: “definition: serendipity” will track down the definition of the word “serendipity”).
7. Search within a specific website. If you know you want to look up Babe Ruth in Wikipedia, type in “site:wikipedia.org Babe Ruth” to go directly to the Wikipedia page about Babe Ruth. It works for any site, not just Wikipedia.
8. Search within a specific kind of site. If you know you only want results from an educational site, try “site:edu” or for a government site, try “site:gov” and your search term to get results only from sites with those web addresses.
9. Search for a specific file type. If you know you want a PDF (or maybe an MP3), just type in “filetype:pdf” and your search term to find results that are only in that file type.
10. Calculate with Google. Type in any normal mathematical expressions to get the answer immediately. For example, “2*4″ will get you the answer “8.”
11. Time. Enter “what time is it” and any location to find out the local time.
12. Find a term in a URL. This handy trick is especially useful when searching blogs, where dates are frequently used in the URL. If you want to know about a topic for that year only and not any other year, type “inurl:2009″ and your keyword to find results with your keyword in URLs with 2009 in them.
13. Use Show Options to refine your search. Click “Show Options” on your search result page to have access to tools that will help you filter and refine your results.
14. Search for a face. If you are looking for a person and not just their name, type “&imgtype=face” after the search results to narrow your results to those with images of faces.

Google Specifically for Education

From Google Scholar that returns only results from scholarly literature to learning more about computer science, these Google items will help you at school.

1. Google Scholar. Use this specialized Google search to get results from scholarly literature such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, and academic publishers.
2. Use Google Earth’s Sky feature. Take a look at the night sky straight from your computer when you use this feature.
3. Open your browser with iGoogle. Set up an iGoogle page and make it your homepage to have ready access to news stories, your Google calendar, blogs you follow in Google Reader, and much more.
4. Stay current with Google News. Like an electronic clearinghouse for news, Google News brings headlines from news sources around the world to help you stay current without much effort.
5. Create a Google Custom Search Engine. On your own or in collaboration with other students, put together an awesome project like one of the examples provided that can be used by many.
6. Collect research notes with Google Notebook. Use this simple note-taking tool to collect your research for a paper or project.
7. Make a study group with Google Groups. Google Groups allows you to communicate and collaborate in groups, so take this option to set up a study group that doesn’t have to meet face-to-face.
8. Google Code University. Visit this Google site to have access to Creative Commons-licensed content to help you learn more about computer science.
9. Study the oceans with Google Earth 5. Google Earth 5 provides information on the ocean floor and surface with data from marine experts, including shipwrecks in 3D.
10. Learn what experts have to say. Explore Knol to find out what experts have to say on a wide range of topics. If you are an expert, write your own Knol, too.

Google Docs

Google Docs is a great replacement for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, so learn how to use this product even more efficiently.

1. Use premade templates. Use these 50 pre-made templates to track spending, keep up with your health, and much more.
2. Collaborate on group projects. Google Docs allows for real-time collaboration, so make easy work for everyone next time you have a group project due.
3. Use keyboard shortcuts. Use this handy list of keyboard shortcuts to save lots of time while using Google Docs.
4. Create online surveys for research projects. Quickly and easily create online surveys for any research project that requires feedback from others. The answers are saved to your Google Docs account.
5. Add video to your presentation. Learn how to seamlessly add video to your Google Docs page to really give your presentation or project a boost.
6. Use the school year calendar template. Have an easy to use school year calendar through Google Docs by following these instructions.
7. Create graphs from spreadsheets. Once you have populated a spreadsheet with data, you can easily create a graph. Google Docs allows for pie, bar, line, and scatter graphs.
8. Create a new document with shortcuts. Learn two ways to open a new Google Docs page with these tricks.
9. Right click to use save-as. Use the right click save-as option to save a Google Docs document on your computer.
10. Send invitations. School shouldn’t be all about work. Find out how to send party invitations using Google Docs.

Gmail

The super-popular Gmail is full of fun and fast ways to make your life and communications easier.

1. Use the Tasks as a to-do list. Use the Tasks available in Gmail as a way to stay on top of assignments, exams, and project due dates.
2. Use the Archive feature. One of the great features of Gmail is that it allows you to archive emails to get them out of your inbox, then you can use the search feature to find them if you need them again.
3. Highlight mail with labels. Use labels to mark your messages. You can find them easily while in your inbox and do a search for all the messages with that label after you archive them.
4. Never forget to attach a file. By signing up for the Labs, you can select to have the Forgotten Attachment Detector. This feature notices if you have typed something about an attachment in the body, but are sending without actually attaching anything–a great tool to save time and embarrassment.
5. Use keyboard shortcuts. Go to Settings and enable keyboard shortcuts so you can perform common tasks at the touch of just one or two keys.
6. Add multiple attachments. Use the Control (or Cmd on Macs) and Shift keys to select more than one file to attach to your email at one time.
7. Use the https option. Google recommends using this option if you use your Gmail in public places like a dorm or coffee shop to add an extra bit of protection to your Internet activities.
8. Incorporate Google Calendar and Docs on your Gmail page. Have access to recent documents used in Google Docs and get an agenda of upcoming activities you have on Google Calendar with small boxes added to your Gmail page. Go to Labs to select this option.
9. Add a “Waiting for Response” label. If you have emails in your inbox that you are holding until someone gets back to you, creating this label keeps you from forgetting to follow up on it later.
10. Use Canned Responses. If you find yourself writing the same type of email over and over, use the Canned Responses feature in the Labs to create a template that you you can use without having to type out the entire email every time.
11. Consolidate email accounts. If you have a Gmail account, an account through school, and any other account you are juggling separately, combine them all into Gmail to cut down on time spent checking all those accounts.
12. Use AIM in Gmail. If you use AIM to IM friends or partners on projects, add it to the chat feature already in Gmail to have access to both.

Google Calendar

Save yourself some time by keeping track of appointments, assignments, and more with Google Calendar.

1. Sync up with others using iCal or Sunbird. Google lets you sync your calendar with others using Apple iCal or Mozilla Sunbird.
2. Customize reminders. Set reminders in your Google Calendar so that you never forget an appointment again. Choose from email, pop-up, or SMS reminders and even set when the reminder comes.
3. Learn some basic keyboard shortcuts. Change from daily to weekly to monthly view, compose a new event, and more with these simple shortcuts.
4. Use Quick Add. Click on Quick Add and type the day and time and what you are doing to have the calendar create the event with the correct time and date.
5. Use multiple calendars. Create separate calendars for school work, personal information, important due dates, and more to stay ultra-organized.
6. Get a text message with your daily agenda. Keep up with all that you need to do for the day without ever having to log on to your Google Calendar.
7. Set weekly repeats for any day. The drop-down menu only offers M/W/F or T/Th options for repeating events. Go to “Every Week” and customize which days you want the event to repeat.
8. Get upcoming events while away from the computer. Check out #8 in this list to learn how to access your upcoming events via your phone.
9. Add events from Gmail. If you receive an email with event time and date information, you can easily add this event to your calendar by clicking “Add to calendar.”
10. Invite others. If you have events on your calendar that you want to invite others to join, just add their email address under Add Guests within the event.

Google Mobile

Whether riding the bus or walking to class, use Google Mobile to stay productive while away from your computer.

1. Sync your calendar. Never be far from your Google Calendar when you sync it to your phone.
2. Check your email. Keep your email right at your fingertips with Gmail for mobile.
3. Access your blog subscriptions. Keep up with your blogs and news feeds that you subscribe to through Reader right on your phone.
4. Use Google Voice to consolidate phone numbers. If you have a phone in your dorm or apartment, a cell phone, and any other phone numbers, consolidate them into one number with Google Voice.
5. Easily find friends. Find out where your friends are and even get a map with directions for how to get there with Google Latitudes.
6. Find out information easily while on the go. Whether you are looking for a great place to eat dinner, wondering what the weather is like, or want to know what the Spanish word for “bathroom” is, just text your information to Google (466453–spells Google on your phone) to get the answer texted back right away.
7. Access iGoogle. Get your iGoogle page formatted just for the smaller screen size of your phone.
8. Read your Google Docs. Have access to all your Google Docs items right on your phone.
9. Keep a to-do list on your phone. Use Google Tasks for mobile so you can access your to-do list any time–and check off what you’ve finished, too.
10. Never get lost again. Google Maps is an interactive program for most smart phones that offers tons of features so you will never have to be lost again.
11. Do a quick search anywhere. Find information with a Google search from your phone to impress your professors and your friends.
12. Access Google Books. Android and iPhone users can access Google Books on their phones.
13. Post to your blog. Use your mobile to post to your Blogger blog.

Google Chrome Tips and Extensions

If you are using the Google Chrome browser, then you will love these time-saving tips and extensions.

1. Use a “Pin Tab”. If you have multiple tabs open, use a “Pin Tab” to make the tabs the size of the little icon on the left side.
2. Don’t overlook Paste and Search and Paste and Go. These two features are available when you right-click to add a word or URL to Chrome and will save you an extra step.
3. Reopen a closed tab. Oops! If you didn’t mean to close that tab, just press Ctrl+Shift+T to reopen it.
4. Use the Chrome shortcuts. Open a new tab, see your history, maximize your window, and much more with these shortcuts.
5. Take advantage of the address bar. With Google Chrome, you can use the address bar to perform a Google search, quickly access pages you’ve already visited, and get recommendations for places to go.
6. Go incognito. If you don’t want to leave traces of where you were browsing, use incognito mode instead of having to go back and delete your history and cookies.
7. Use the bookmarks manager. Stay organized, rearrange bookmarks, search for bookmarks, add folders, and much more with the bookmark manager.
8. ChromePass. This tool will give you a list of all the password information stored in Google Chrome.
9. Save as PDF. Save any page as a PDF with this bookmarklet.
10. ChromeMailer. If you’ve lost valuable time when having to manually enter email information from a website because Google Chrome doesn’t support the mailto: function, then you will love this extension.
11. Google Chrome Backup. Back up your personal data, bookmarks, and more with this simple tool.

Google Books

Learn how Google Books can save you time and trips to the library with these tricks.

1. Search full text. Google Books offers full text for over 10,000 books, so look here the next time you are researching something at the last minute.
2. Use “About this book”. At the top left of the page of a book, clicking this link will give you helpful information such as the table of contents, related books, and a map of places mentioned in the book.
3. Create a personalized library. Click on “Add to my shared library” to start your own personalized library where you can label books to keep them organized for each class or project.
4. Find books in your college library. Each book in Google Books has a link to find the book in a library. It can tell you exactly where to look at your own school.
5. Use the Advanced Book Search. If you can’t find the book you are looking for, try the advanced search, which provides you with many more detailed options.
6. Access text books. Many text books are available on Google Books, so see if you can save a trip to the bookstore next semester.
7. Search for magazine content. Select Magazines in the Advanced Book Search to locate information from magazines.
8. Read the blog. Google Books is constantly evolving, so stay on top of all the latest news with the Inside Google Books blog.
9. Find books to supplement your assigned texts. Search by subject to see what books you may be able to read to get the extra leg up in your classes.

Handy Google Services and Apps

These other Google products will help you save time by offering you everything from alerts to online collaboration to help working with data sets.

1. Google Alerts. Sign up to get email notifications any time a topic you designate shows up in Google search results. This is a great way to stay current with a project or news story.
2. Google Desktop. Keep a clock, weather, news stories, Google search box, and more all within easy reach when you use Google Desktop.
3. Google SketchUp. If you need to draw 3D figures for class, use Google SketchUp to do so easily and free of charge.
4. Google Talk. This versatile app is more than just for IMs. You can switch to voice, do a video chat, and send texts, too.
5. Google Images. Google has an incredible image search feature that will provide you with tons of high-quality images you can use in presentations.
6. Google Translate. Don’t spend time looking up stuff in books, use Google Translate to get foreign words translated right away.
7. Google Wave. This brand new Google product shows great promise for anyone collaborating, but especially for those in school. Communicate, create documents, and more–all in real-time.
8. Google Finance. Business students can keep track of markets, news, portfolios, and more in one place.
9. Google Toolbar. Have easy access to Gmail, Google search, bookmarks, and more with this toolbar available for Internet Explorer and Firefox.
10. Picasa. Manage your photos and even incorporate them into your blogs and emails with Google’s streamlines photo manager.
11. Google Squared. Find facts and organize them with this search feature from Google Labs.
12. Google Fusion Tables. If you are working with data sets, then you will love this program that will allow you to upload data, create visual representations, and take part in discussions about the data.
13. Blogger. Create a blog as a part of a project or just to stay in touch with friends and family in an easy way.

Link to article: 100+ Google Tricks That Will Save You Time in School

Bored with your music and want to discover some new bands or singers? There are two main ways you can do that online. You can use services which create music maps, allowing you to explore artists similar in genre to the artists you already listen to. Or you can use music blogs and websites that showcase independent or up-and-coming artists, whether the music is being reviewed, or posted by the musicians themselves.

Some of these websites have a community built around them, which gives fans the opportunity to interact directly with these new talents.

Here is a list of 10 free sites to discover new music.

TuneGlue

TuneGlue is straightforward and easy to use. Put in the name of a musical artist you like in the search bar and before you know it, you’ll have a whole web of musical artists that are in one way or another, similar to the band you started with.

Using TuneGlue, you start out with 6 similar artists, and can continue to explore and expand on them. In the case of some artists, you can also find added information such as a small bio and a link to their website.

Music-Map

A less flashy alternative to TuneGlue is Music-Map. While TuneGlue only initially suggests 6 similar artists, Music-Map instantly reveals all the similar artists in their database, with the most similar musicians closest to the original search term.

Music Roamer

Music Roamer adds another dimension to music map sites, by not only providing suggestions of similar artists, but also allowing you to listen to music directly on their site. The songs are powered by YouTube videos, but it should be said, in our experience, all of the tracks were live versions, and not always of very good quality. They also provide links to purchase the mp3s from Amazon.

While listening to a song on Music Roamer, you can also explore similar songs, not just similar musicians, which definitely puts it a step ahead of Music-Map and TuneGlue.

Music Roamer gives you more freedom in manipulating the appearance of your results – including resizing images and controlling how many similar artists are included in the results.

Bloson

The simplest alternative to these first three websites is Bloson. Searching for any given artist will provide you with a list of similar artists, whose music you can listen to directly on their website, again powered by YouTube videos. The videos, however, are not live and are usually of much better quality than Music Roamer’s videos.

Zune

An alternative to Bloson is the Zune website, which you can benefit from whether or not you own a Zune.

This website is worth a mention because not only can you look up similar musicians, you have the added bonus of finding out which bands they were influenced by, as well as those they have influenced.

Other websites that you can use to discover similar music include Musicovery, TasteKid, Last.fm, Pandora and FineTune. A tip to getting a better user experience with FineTune is to use their Wii-player.

One Track Mind

Discovering new artists isn’t just about finding bands that are similar to musicians you already listen to. Blogs like One Track Mind have made it easy for musicians to share their music through a single platform, by submitting them to the site for review.

Music on One Track Mind is divided into four main genres: Indie, Electronic, Soul and Hip-Hop. Not only can you listen to posted songs, the song comes with a blog post about the artist, and you can also download the mp3 for free, and rate the song. The ratings are reflected in three criteria: originality, repeat listen potential and overall verdict.

The Hype Machine

Another music blog to keep bookmarked, which also includes mainstream music, is The Hype Machine.

The Hype Machine scours music blogs for the best in music reviews and blog posts that contain mp3 files to stream or download.

Music can be browsed by popularity, both based on interaction on their website or on Twitter, by listening to a constant stream of eclectic music, or by listening to a customizable station based on your taste, amongst other ways.

TheSixtyOne

Social music sites are another way to discover new music. TheSixtyOne is a great place to start if you’re looking for new talent. The site has under gone a recent and major revamp, which for previous users, could take some getting used to.

Luckily if you don’t want to do that – you can always access the old site design by going here.

Besides a total redesign with no remnants from the old site’s design, the categories have changed as well. Rather than dividing their music into genres, popular songs, and moods, it’s now categorized only by mood with mellow, party, trippy and funny on the list.

TheSixtyOne differs from One Track Mind in that artists and labels can post their own music to the site, albeit with limited uploads dependent on achieving certain ‘milestones.’

Listeners can add songs to their favourites, and the more popular a song is, the more likely it is to end up on the front page, or in the case of the new site, in the queue. The site is entirely community driven, with the users deciding what is popular and what isn’t, and in the process, earning ‘reputation points.’

While listening to songs, you can ‘heart’ them, share them and in some cases download them. TheSixtyOne also suggests similar songs to listen to.

Once you have been active enough on the site, you can listen to a station, based on your taste in music.

OurStage

If you’re more interested in the music and less interested in the community experience, a good alternative to TheSixtyOne is OurStage.

Simply choose one of their 42 stations, and listen to uninterrupted music from brand new singers and songwriters. You can also have a say in which songs end up on the OurStage charts, by taking part in the ‘judging’ process. After listening to two songs from the same genre, you can choose the song you liked more, and as they put it, save the world from mediocre music.

PureVolume

PureVolume is yet another interesting alternative to OurStage and TheSixtyOne. It features both signed and unsigned bands, in over 50 genres. You can browse music by popularity or by featured artists. All songs are available to stream, while some are available for download as well. Each band has an individual page where they can post band information, their songs, and users can comment or add songs and singers to their favourites. Bands can sign up for free and start promoting their music, but there is also a pro account for musicians with additional features, including the opportunity to be included in the featured artists.

PureVolume also has social media integration, where you can share the music you find on Twitter and Facebook.

Link to article: Top 10 Free Ways To Discover New Music Online

Twitter is a perfect democratic forum: If people don’t like what you have to say, they can vote with their fingers. With a quick click, choosing the unfollow or block features, your feed is forever removed from their life.

However, for businesses small and large, the goal of Twitter and other social media tools is to build relationships, not tear them down. To master the fine art of friending followers, here are five ways to not be annoying.

To encourage further dialog, and limit your customers’ searching frustration, include your website URL, email address, and telephone number (if appropriate) within your Twitter page.

When you’re participating online, the same rules apply. While it might be time consuming to respond on a regular basis, your social media success depends on your accessibility and ability to engage in conversation.

In other words, grab a cup or two of coffee every morning or night, and answer away. Your followers will commend your commitment, and they’ll respect that you’re listening.

It’s OK to sell on Twitter, but for some users they prefer a soft sell or a message that has some real value to them (such as a product discount).

To get some examples of how businesses effectively use the micro-blogging site, seek out some of the top companies on Twitter, such as @Zappos and @Starbucks, and learn from them.

Just like going to the gym, regular activity leads to results (and the good news is that you don’t have to break a sweat on Twitter, unless you’re tweeting on the treadmill, which I’ve been known to do).

There are few things more frustrating than a company that is online for a few days in a row, and then disappears for a few days at a time. Think of Twitter as a series of marathons, not a quick sprint to the finish line.

For example, if you try to entice people with tweets, such as this link leads to the “the funniest video ever” or the “cheapest product you’ll ever find,” you should be certain that their expectations are met.

If you send your followers astray too many times, they will stop believing what you have to say. Since trust is a must-have quality on the web, always tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Link to article: Top 5 Ways Not to Be Annoying on Twitter