The following is a post from Les T., the owner of Humor-Erotica @Google Groups

ITS A TRUE STORY…

THIS IS INDIA
IT’S WHERE YOU (non-Indians) CALL WHEN YOU
WHEN YOU HAVE A TECHNICAL PROBLEM
WITH YOUR COMPUTER

I’m now using Windows 7!!

You may recall the problems I had at the beginning of February when I was in contact with the manufacturer of my computer ….  Hewlett-Packard (hp) and spoke to a tech reps from India for about 20 hours trying to upgrade from Vista 64….

They (support at hp in India) managed to complicate things so badly that I finally was forced to reinstall Vista 64…

I spoke to at least 5 different people during this time….

They managed to install Windows 7 but all data and programs were gone! I had a back up drive that they used to try to reinstall everything but lost about 50000 pictures and all my video files (2000) and 10000 songs!!

Well… after much hesitation…. a long letter to the president of hp  (no response)…. and making an up to date backup on an exterior drive… copying my programs to a cd …. etc etc. etc. I decided to call them again last Friday!

This time I got hp support in Nova Scotia (just the luck of the draw)…talked to a tech rep there and explained the situation to him…

Much to my surprise…he told me that an upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 is easily done and the computer should have all data and most of my programs installed and ready to use after the upgrade!!!

He took over my computer, started the process, and told me to be patient for a few hours when someone from his office would call back to check up on the progress.

They called back after a couple of hours and again after another 3-4 hours. By then, all was finished and ALL my data was back and ALL my programs were operational!! (I never needed my backup).

They told me to try it out as some settings are sometimes wrong. The next morning at 10AM…another call from them…I had a short list of settings to change and that took less than 10 minutes!!

All that was left for me to do was download Windows Live email…. and it was automatic… my email addies with Sympatico were all back!!

The agent in Nova Scotia gave me the email addy to the president’s office and he will be hearing from me very soon….

I’m just waiting to be reimbursed for the money I paid to hp…. THEN, I’ll be writing a long long letter asking for compensation!

Tech support? Be very very careful who you speak with… My first clue was the first guy in India who took 2 hours just to take over my computer….I should have hung up after 10 minutes!!

On 18 February 1911, 23-year-old Frenchman Henri Pequet flew a 50 horsepower Sommer biplane from Allahabad to Naini carrying around 6,500
letters (The letters were marked “First Aerial Post, U.P. Exhibition Allahabad 1911“). The 13-minute journey was India’s first airmail flight and only the second in the world—a day earlier, American adventurer Fred Wiseman had taken off from Petaluma, California, and claimed first place.

One hundred years later, India Post will release a set of four commemorative stamps to mark the centenary, coinciding with a re-enactment of Pequet’s Allahabad flight and the launch of the Indipex World Philatelic Exhibition, starting on Saturday at Pragati Maidan in Delhi. Philatelists, stamp dealers, brokers and enthusiasts from more than 70 countries are due to attend the six-day event, which was last held in the Capital in 1997.

India has a rich history of philately. India Post is the largest postal system in the world and issues around 70-80 commemorative stamps a year as well as its regular (“definitive”) postage stamps—significantly more than the UK’s Royal Mail, which produces around 12-15, according to Devika Kumar of India Post. Since 1852, when the first postage stamp (known as the Scinde Dawk) was introduced in India, until the present day, India Post has faced the mammoth task of administering to the country’s 35 states and Union territories.

Though philately as a hobby was introduced by the British, it captured the Indian imagination with a tenacity that has outlasted the influence of its instigators and continues to be popular today. It remains the only hobby recognized as an Olympic sport. “It used to be the hobby of kings because it was expensive,” said Kumar. “But that idea is not so prevalent anymore.”

As deputy director general of philately at India Post, Kumar is one of the people who oversees the creation of Indian postage stamps from start to finish. It’s not an easy job.

In theory, anyone in India can apply to have a stamp made, although in practice only those personalities who have national or international renown are approved. Each stamp takes about 18 months to produce, from concept approval to printing. The approval of a theme for a commemorative stamp (the kind most commonly collected by philatelists) is ultimately made by the incumbent minister for communications, according to Kumar, but an advisory body exists to submit its recommendations on each proposal. The reasoning behind these choices can be political.

“Our job is a bit like that of a bamboo dancer—it’s a delicate balance,” said Kumar. “We have to make philately popular, but we shouldn’t indulge in mere gimmickry.” Unlike the UK or the US, where royal weddings or politicians are frequently the subject of commemorative stamps, India Post steers away from approving living figures.

This year, British dealer Stanley Gibbons says it expects to post higher-than- anticipated profits as a result of the sales of commemorative stamps celebrating the marriage of Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton—an unexpected boon for the company.

Kumar is wary of being populist, however. “We do get proposals for Sachin Tendulkar and so on, but we have decided not to do it,” she said. On the other hand, she admits that reaching out to children would be much easier if India Post were to take a more populist stance.

Indipex 2011 will be an opportunity for India Post to publicize its work, and a renovated museum of memorabilia is due to open at its headquarters at Patel Chowk in the Capital soon. Appealing to a younger audience is becoming more and more important. “From our point of view, what we are looking forward to is better networking of philatelists in India and abroad,” Kumar said. “We’d like to attract those groups who can increase the influence of philately as a hobby— it’s not centre stage any more.”

Dealer and collector Premchand Jaiswal’s collection of fiscal stamps from India’s princely states is one of the most important in the world. Jaiswal, whose two sons are also stamp dealers, is emphatic about the need to get young children excited about philately. But he also notes that the notion of buying stamps as an investment is becoming more popular all the time. “The prices are going up like nobody’s business,” he said. “Appreciation is normal in a good economy, but (stamps) are very good as an investment right now.

In 2008, after the financial crisis, the GB30 Rarities Index—a collection of classic British stamps that Stanley Gibbons recommends for investment—beat the Sensex. Though not as stable as gold prices, stamps began to look like a safe option in volatile markets, and their prices continue to rise steadily. “I don’t know if they will stay stable,” said Jaiswal. “A lot of people have started hoarding certain items, and this has been a problem recently. But I don’t see the prices coming down for the next five years.”

If you want to use bold fonts in Face Book Chat then type your message between two asterisk…

e.g . *xxxxx*

If you want an underlined message then type your message between two underscores…

e.g. _xxxxxxx_

Hope my article will add much fun to your Face Book chat.

Here are some interesting, but true facts, that you may or may not have known.

– The Statue of Liberty’s index finger is eight feet long.

– Rain has never been recorded in some parts of the Atacama Desert in Chile.

– A 75 year old person will have slept about 23 years.

– A Boeing 747′s wing span is longer than the Wright brother’s first flight (the Wright brother’s invented the airplane).

– There are as many chickens on earth as there are humans.

– One type of hummingbird weighs less than a penny.

– The word “set” has the most number of definitions in the English language: 192.

– Slugs have four noses.

– Sharks can live up to 100 years.

– Mosquitoes are more attracted to the color blue than any other color.

– Kangaroos can’t walk backwards.

– About 75 acres of pizza are eaten in in the U.S. everyday.

– The largest recorded snowflake was 15in wide and 8in thick. It fell in Montana in 1887.

– The tip of a bull-whip moves so fast that the sound it makes is actually a tiny sonic boom.

– Former president Bill Clinton only sent 2 emails in his entire 8 years o presidency.

– Koalas and humans are the only animals that have finger prints.

– There are 200,000,000 insects for every one human.

– It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery had in it to begin with.

– The world’s largest Montessori school is in India, with 26,312 students in 2002.

– Octopus have three hearts.

– If you ate too many carrots, you’d turn orange.

– The average person spends two weeks waiting for a traffic light to change.

– 1 in 2,000,000,000 people will live to be 116 years old.

– The body has 2-3 million sweat glands.

– Sperm whales have the biggest brains: 20 lbs.

– Tiger shark embryos fight each other in their mother’s womb. The survivor is born.

– Most cats are left pawed.

– 250 people have fallen off the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

– A Blue whale’s tongue weighs more than an elephant.

– You use 14 muscles to smile and 43 to frown. Keep Smiling!

– Bamboo can grow up to 3 ft in 24 hours.

– An eyeball weighs about 1 ounce.

– Bone is five times stronger than steel.

Hello Readers,

I have been bringing you news from various streams but I am sure this will give you a REAL SHOCK!!!

THIS IS VERY SCARY STUFF…

ELECTRONIC PICKPOCKETING
The latest in thievery technology

The Banks  are aware of this situation. Unfortunately, they offerred no viable solution or comment.

Maybe it’s time to go back to old-fashioned cash or cheques!!!???!!!

Have any of the you heard anything about it? Have any of you faces such a situation?…if yes, please post your comments.

It seems cumbersome right now, but give them time and I am sure someone will make it much more secretive.

Click here to see the video — THIS IS NO FALSE ALARM!

*#06#     :     For checking IMEI (ziinternational Mobile Equipment Identity) number.

*#7780#     :     Reset to factory default settings.

*#0000#     :     To view software version.

*#2820#     :     Bluetooth device address.

*#746025625#     :     Sim clock allowed status.

#pw+1234567890+1#     :     Shows if ur sim as any restrictions.

Beware! Your PC is not safe. Even a routine Internet search, especially for a hot topic, might lead your computer into the hands of hackers.

Not just dubious online advertisements and leading or attractive download offers, experts feel that usual search queries could expose your system to cyber criminals.

According to experts, in a testimony to the rising threat posed by cyber criminals, many Internet search results on latest skirmishes in the Korean peninsula led the users to links of malwares and fake anti-virus software.

Trend Micro, a leading network antivirus and internet content security software and services provider, in the wake of exchange of fire between North and South Koreas, found that some internet search results on the topic itself were hacked.

”…Within several hours of the cross-border incident, search results related to the subject of the clash, had been poisoned by scammers. Hijacks were detected for both English and Korean languages,” Trend Micro said.

The firm noted that the hijacked search results routed users to fake URLs, that directed users to download fake anti-virus applications which were infected by viruses.

Fake ActiveX control or a Flash Player update, were used to convince internet users that their computers have been infected by viruses.

Last week, North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells on a South Korean island, killing four persons and triggering an exchange of fire, as southern armed forces went on their highest state of alert.

The fake antivirus variant seen in this attack is detected as TROJ_FAKEAV.SMRY, and that the company was already blocking the sites hosting the malicious files.

The shelling, one of the worst incidents between the two countries in years, is being used by cybercriminals behind fake antivirus malware.

According to research reports, the increase of internet users globally, the spam is also increasing and it continued to grow between January and June 2010, with a brief lull during April.

According to reports, malicious URLs increased from 1.5 billion in January to over 3.5 billion in June.

North America sourced the most malicious URLs, while Asia-Pacific had the most victims of malware infections. The top URLs blocked by Trend Micro were adult websites, as well as sites that hosted malicious variants such as IFRAME code, TROJ_AGENT, and JS_DLOADR.ATF.

They just needed some leg room…

New research shows the great dinosaur die-off made way for mammals to explode in size – some more massive than several elephants put together.

The largest land mammal ever – a rhinoceros-like creature, minus the horn, that stood 18 feet (5.5 meters) tall, weighed roughly 17 tons and grazed in forests in what is now Eurasia. It makes the better known woolly mammoth seem a bit puny.

Tracking such prehistoric giants is more than a curiosity – It sheds new light on the evolution of mammals as they diversified to fill habitats left vacant by the dinosaurs.

Within 25 million years of the dinosaurs’ extinction – fast, in geologic terms – overall land mammals had reached a maximum size and then levelled off, an international team of scientists reports in the journal Science. And while different species on different continents reached their peaks at different points in time, that pattern of evolution was remarkably similar worldwide.

“Evolution can happen very quickly when ecology permits,” said paleo-ecologist Felisa A. Smith of the University of New Mexico, who led the research. “This is really coming down to ecology allowing this to happen.”

Anyone who frequents natural history museums knows that the end of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago ushered in the age of mammals, and that some of them were gigantic. But the new study is the first comprehensive mapping of these giants in a way that helps explain how and why their size evolved.

“We didn’t have a clear idea of how the story went after the extinction of the dinosaurs,” explained Nicholas D. Pyenson, a curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, who wasn’t involved with the new research. Previous theories suggested that species diversity drove increases in size, but the new study didn’t find that connection. “It suggests there’s a deeper explanation of how large body size evolves in mammals,” he said.

Mammals did coexist with dinosaurs, but small ones, ranging from about the size of a mouse to a maximum of a small dog. “We were pretty much the varmints scurrying around the feet of the dinosaurs,” is how New Mexico’s Smith puts it.

To see how that changed, researchers funded by the National Science Foundation collected fossil data on the maximum sizes attained by all major groups of mammals on each continent throughout their evolutionary history. How do they know the sizes? Smith said mammal teeth not only tend to preserve better than bones, but they correlate very well to body mass.

The largest was that 17-ton rhino-like Indricotherium, followed closely by an elephant-looking creature named Deinotherium in Africa, Smith said. Contrast them to modern elephants, which average about 3 to 5 tons.

The herbivores grew large first, perhaps because they had an advantage in eating the vegetation left flourishing after the plant-eating dinosaurs were gone. Just like with today’s lions and elephants, the largest carnivores, that came along a bit later, remained an order of magnitude smaller than the biggest prehistoric herbivores.

Why did mammal size level off?

Available land area and the earth’s temperature, Dr. Smith said. Ninety percent of the food mammals eat goes to maintaining their core body temperature, and the amount of food is related to the amount of land supporting a population. The biggest mammals evolved when a cooler climate meant lower sea levels and more land area. Also, bigger animals conserve heat better, a problem when temperatures rise.

Scientists debate if climate change or early humans eventually ended the age of giant mammals, something the new study doesn’t address.

Christmas, the season of gifts and travelling has people shopping over the internet day and night. Along with them are also the cybercriminals working hard to hack consumer information, their money and identities.

McAfee, the anti-virus software solution for home and business users warns of the scams that could sadden your holiday season.

It is called the “Eleven Scams of Christmas“…

1) iPad Offer Scams - Apple iPad is one of the most sought after gadget of the year and is one of top products on a shopper’s list. Taking advantage of this, scammers are announcing offers of free iPads. The consumers are asked to purchase different products and then provide their credit card number for the free iPad. Another scam is that it will make users take up a quiz to win a free iPad for which the consumers need to provide their cell phone number to receive the results. In actuality they are signed up for a cell phone scam that costs $10 a week.

2) Distress message scam - This is a travel scam which sends out SOS messages to phones of family and friends requests them to transfer some money as they are lost in an unfamiliar place and want to get back home. According McAfee labs the scam will rise in the travel season.

3) Fake Gift Cards - The recent Facebook scam is one such example of fake gift card scam. It offered free $1,000 Best Buy gift card to the first 20,000 people who signed up for a Best Buy fan page which helped cybercrooks to gain personal information of the users . They then used it to sell it to the marketers or use it as Id theft.

4) High-paying or Work-at-home jobs - These holiday job offer links promise you jobs by taking your personal information, such as your email address, home address and Social Security number to apply for a fake job.

5) Phishing SMS texts - This is also called as “smishing” where SMS messages appear to be sent from your bank or an online retailer saying that there is something wrong with your account and you have to call a number to verify your account information. Cybercrooks know that people are more vulnerable to this scam during the holiday season as consumers are doing more online shopping and checking bank balances frequently.

6) Suspicious Holiday Rentals - During peak travel times when consumers often look online for affordable holiday rentals, cybercrooks post fake holiday rental sites that ask for down payments on properties by credit card or wire transfer.

7) Recession scams - McAfee Labs has seen a significant number of spam emails advertising pre-qualified, low-interest loans and credit cards if the recipient pays a processing fee, which goes directly into the scammer’s pocket.

E-card scams - E-cards are a convenient and earth-friendly way to send greetings to friends and family, but cybercriminals load fake versions with links to computer viruses and other malware instead of cheer. According to McAfee Labs, computers may start displaying obscene images, pop-up ads, or even start sending cards to contacts that appear to come from you.

9) Low Price traps - Shoppers should be cautious of products offered at prices far below competitors. Cyber scammers use auction sites and fake websites to offer too-good-to-be-true deals with the goal of stealing your money and information.

10) Charity scams - The holidays have historically been a prime time for charity scams since it’s a traditional time for giving, and McAfee Labs predicts that this year is no exception. Common ploys include phone calls and spam e-mails asking you to donate to veterans? charities, children’s causes and relief funds for the latest catastrophe.

11) Dangerous Holiday Downloads - Holiday-themed screensavers, jingles and animations are an easy way for scammers to spread viruses and other computer threats especially when links come from an email or IM that appears to be from a friend.

Anyone who plans to resell a used computer memory device like a hard drive, memory card or a USB stick should be sure to use a special programme to wipe the storage device first.

Not doing so risks having your personal data reconstructed by prying eyes, warns German computer magazine, Computer Bild.

In a test organized by the magazine, experts purchased used storage devices and managed to reconstruct private data like bills, emails, contact data, addresses, tax declarations and photos.

That’s because, on Windows, when items are thrown into the wastebasket, they don’t really disappear from the device. Even formatting the hard drive does not get rid of the directory: the data can always be recovered with special programmes.

Thus, people need to buy special programmes to completely erase their mobile storage devices before they sell them on. In the magazine’s test of eight cleanup programmes, the free HDShredder 3.8 was the champion.

Nonetheless, wiping a drive takes time. All programmes needed one to two hours to write over a 140-gigabyte hard drive three times.