It was just recently that I used to listen to the songs of this band, Casting Crowns. I heard this band before but never was on my mind that their songs were great.


Casting Crowns started six years ago. This GRAMMY, American Music and Dove Awardee and having 8-chart topping radio singles band remains focused on discipleship through music. With lead singer and songwriter Mark Hall’s 18 years in youth ministry, the band’s message remains rooted in the student services he has led on a weekly basis since 2001, at Eagles Landing Baptist church near Atlanta. The songs start as messages for his 400 teenagers and their families. With boldly honest, hard-hitting lyrics, the band continues to challenge, strengthen and pour into the body of Christ, giving listeners a fresh, relevant perspective on loving God and loving people.


The band is composed of seven talented musicians. Mark Hall – lead vocals, Juan DeVevo – guitar/vocals, Hector Cervantes – guitar/vocals, Chris Huffman – bass, Megan Garrett – piano/vocals, Melodee DeVevo – violin/vocals and Brian Scoggin – drums.


They released their albums on 2003 – Casting Crowns, 2005 – Lifesong, 2007 – The Altar and The Door, 2008 – Peace On Earth. And this year, they released their album entitled “Until The Whole World Hears”. Living life with a kingdom focus, a reaching-out, loving-the-world-like-Jesus-does purpose – is the focus of the band’s latest album.


This band offers not just great music and voice but also wonderful message on every song.

source: Casting Crowns

Who among you have no Facebook or Friendster account yet? Maybe none or almost none. Many people today get hooked into this social networking. They used it for communication, fun, games, etc. Of course, when we talk of social network, first thing that comes into our mind is Friendster or the more popular Facebook.


Why is it that more users prefered to use Facebook than Friendster? If I were to ask? Well, I’d say Facebook is really much better than Friendster. Why? It’s because Facebook is cleaner. Clean in a way that the ads were properly placed. Simpler design, but sophisticatedly developed. Has various applications, especially games which I think as what I had observed one of the reasons why Facebook has more users than Friendster. And of all the things I like the most is that it is rich in AJAX which makes it faster than Friendster because it does not need to load the whole page when a user takes a certain action. Although Friendster today is different than before, new layout, new applications and new owner actually because it was sold to a Malaysian tycoon but if compared to Facebook, I think it’s not enough. Maybe soon.


These were only based on my own opinions. You have your own choice. Besides, there are lots of choices out there. There’s MySpace, Twitter, Plurk and many more…

After their big hit last 2007, the Trio are back again bringing more fun and more casts. Alvin and the Chipmunks – The Squeakquel is the sequel of Alvin and the Chipmunks showed last 2007.


Alvin, Simon and Theodore were became world-famous pop sensations after they met frustrated songwriter named Dave Seville and impressed by their singing talents. Today, the trio must put aside music careers to return to school, and are tasked with saving the school’s music program by winning the $25,000 prize in a battle of the bands. But the Chipmunks unexpectedly meet their match in three singing chipmunks known as The Chipettes -– Brittany, Eleanor and Jeanette. Fun, romance and music explodes when Chipmunks and Chipettes meet.


No exact date mentioned when it will be shown in Philippines but this must be a much-awaited movie of 2010!

source: http://www.imdb.com

Apple introduces the world’s first Muti-Touch mouse. Multi-Touch in a sense that you can interact with your portable devices — all using gestures. And while it comes standard with every new iMac, you can also add it to any Bluetooth-enabled Mac for a Multi-Touch makeover.


Surface. Magic Mouse has smooth and buttonless appearance. The Multi-Touch area covers the top surface of Magic Mouse, and the mouse itself is the button. Scroll in any direction with one finger, swipe through web pages and photos with two, and click and double-click anywhere. Inside Magic Mouse is a chip that tells it exactly what you want to do. Which means Magic Mouse won’t confuse a scroll with a swipe. It even knows when you’re just resting your hand on it.


Laser-Tracking Engine. Magic Mouse uses powerful laser tracking that’s far more sensitive and responsive on more surfaces than traditional optical tracking. That means it tracks with precision on nearly every surface without the need for a mousepad.


Wireless. Magic Mouse connects wirelessly to your Mac via Bluetooth, so there’s no wire or separate adapter to worry about. It has reliable and secure connection up to 33 feet away.


Indeed, an another milestone by bringing gestures to the desktop with a mouse that’s unlike anything ever before.


For more information, visit www.apple.com.

Tags: apple, bluetooth, device, magic mouse, multi touch, portable

When I was still a student, I really don’t mind what’s next after school. What I did is just school-house-play-house-school. I don’t even think what if I finished school, what would I do? Is there a good job waiting for me? Or even asking myself can I land a job right after my graduation?


Well, luckily, I was so blessed that I got a job after I graduated. I worked first as a web developer for almost three months. It’s about three months also when I got hired as a programmer in a foreign based company. Although I can say that I had a good job right now, but having this kind of job is not easy. First, I must be able to familiarize the whole program, thousands of lines of codes actually, which is very difficult for me because you don’t know where to start. But again, this is a must so I must. Second is the shift schedule. We are having a day and night shift schedule so I had to make some adjustments because I am not used to of being nocturnal. Big adjustments over there actually.


But thinking of many people who are jobless today, I must say, “I love my job”. I have friends who are still hunting and hoping that someday they can have a stable job at last. I can fell the pressure on them, afraid of ending up into a jobless graduate. They said it was really hard and tiresome hopping from one company to another submitting resumes and waiting for their calls. Some say they need EXPERIENCED applicants but how can we get that experience if we don’t get hired? Confusing.


Sometimes I can say that being a student is much better than looking for a job. But this is the real world. We have no other choice but to live with it.

Tags: company, job, school, work

ChartDirector is a professional chart component for windows and web applications. It is available for .NET, Java, ASP, COM, VB, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, ColdFusion and C++ application.
It has many features. Among these are the following:

• Layering Architecture
  Enables you to synthesize the charts you want using standard chart layers.
• Comprehensive Chart Styles
  Pie, donut, bar, line, spline, step line, trend line, curve-fitting and more…
• Flexible Axis System
  Unlimited number of XY axes per chart. Automatic, semi-automatic and manual scaling. Linear, log, date/time and label-based axis. Configurable axis margins. Customizable axis labels.
• AJAX Enabled User Interactions
  Full suite of mouse events for chart objects. Customizable hot spots on charts. Pop-up tool tips, drill-down, drag to zoom and drag to scroll support. AJAX enabled for web applications so charts can be updated without page refresh.
• Browser Compatibility
  Produces charts in PNG, JPEG, BMP, WBMP, GIF and SVG. Viewable by virtually all browsers, including mobile and hand-held devices.
• and more…

For more information on ChartDirector, please login to www.advsofteng.com.

source: www.advsofteng.com

Tags: .NET, AJAX, ASP, C++, chart, ChartDirector, ColdFusion, COM, Java, Perl, php, Python, Ruby, VB

It was just last week that I started reading and studying on how to use this JavaScript library, Ext JS. Ext JS is a cross-browser JavaScript library for building rich internet applications. It includes:

• High performance, customizable UI widgets
• Well designed and extensible Component model
• An intuitive, easy to use API
• Commercial and Open Source licenses available

It supports all major web browsers including:

• Internet Explorer 6+
• FireFox 1.5+ (PC, Mac)
• Safari 3+
• Opera 9+ (PC, Mac)

I didn’t have much knowledge in JavaScript that’s why I really had a hard time in understanding what it’s all about. By now, I’m still familiarizing and continue reading it because I find it very good in web applications. For those who are also interested, please visit their website, http://extjs.com.

Tags: applications, Ext JS, FireFox, internet, Internet Explorer, JavaScript, library, Opera, Safari

Is it possible for a cellphone to recharge itself without any wires? We say, impossible but with Nokia, it will be.


Nokia has taken another baby step in that direction with the invention of a cell phone that recharges itself using a unique system: It harvests ambient radio waves from the air that were released from TV, radio and other mobile phone systems and uses the collected electromagnetic energy to create electrical current, then uses that to recharge the phone’s battery.


Currently Nokia is able to harvest all of 5 milliwatts from the air; the goal is to increase that to 20 milliwatts in the short term and 50 milliwatts down the line. That wouldn’t be enough to keep the phone alive during an active call, but would be enough to slowly recharge the cell phone battery while it’s in standby mode.


Nokia says it hopes to commercialize the technology in three to five years. Isn’t it amazing?

Source: http://tech.yahoo.com

Tags: cellphone, Nokia, Technology, wireless

Want to turn your ordinary table into a vibrant, interactive surface? Microsoft just got one for you. The Microsoft Surface. It’s the first commercially-available surface computing platform that provides effortless access to digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects. Today, it’s a 30-inch diagonal display in a table-like form factor that’s easy for individuals or multiple people to interact with in a way that feels familiar, just like in the real world.


Led by Microsoft, surface computing is a major advancement that moves beyond the traditional user interface to a more natural way of interacting with information. It features four key attributes:

• Direct Interaction
• Multi-touch
• Multi-user
• Object Recognition

Microsoft Surface uses cameras to sense objects, hand gestures and touch. This user input is then processed and displayed using rear projection.


For more information, visit http://www.microsoft.com.

Tags: digital, microsoft, microsoft surface, table

One year after failing miserably in the finals against Boston Celtics, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers did it this time. They finished a season with a 99-86 win over orlando Magic on Sunday night (Monday morning in Phil.) in Game 5 to win the 15th NBA title in franchise history.
This season was the fourth championship and first without his former teammate, Shaquille O’neal.
For Lakers coach Phil Jackson, this was title No. 10, moving him past legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach for the most by a coach in league history.
Bryant, the final’s MVP, lead the team with an averaged of 32.4 points, 7.4 assists, 5.6 rebounds and more than a dozen cold-blooded glares per game. Odom scored 17 points, Ariza had 15, Gasol 14 and 15 rebounds, and Fisher, whose two big 3s in Game 4 saved L.A., had 13 points.
Jackson, who once called Bryant “a selfish player” now sees the 30-year-old in a far different light. He said that Bryant now learned how to be a leader in a way in which people want to follow him. Bryant knew that he had to give to get back in return and becomes a giver rather than just a guy that’s a demanding leader.
On the other side, the Magic’s superhero, Dwight Howard had only 11 pts and took just nine shots. Rashard Lewis scored 18 points.
When the game ended, Howard didn’t move. As his teammates headed to the locker room, Howard stayed on Orlando’s bench and watched as the Lakers celebrated on the Magic’s floor.
Indeed, it was a great game for the Magic but it just so happened that the Lakers was the better team. It was a lesson for them to practice more in preparation for the next season.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/