Typepad Antispam is a free tool to prevent comment spams for your blog just like Akismet. It is developed by Six Apart. It is available for Movable Type and Wordpress blogs.

For wordpress blog

1. Download the TypePad AntiSpam plugin.
2. Unzip the archive and upload to plugins directory under wp-content of your wordpress blog.
3. Deactivate the current Akismat plugin (if you’re using it)
4. Get an API key. If you don’t have it, you can get TypeKey account. (It is FREE)
5. Activate TypePad AntiSpam.
6. Enter the API Key.
7. Done!

The place contains some online learning materials and learning documentations about English learning.

• 听力特快 — Link

  Focus on: listening
  Description: for downloading VOA,BBC news etc.

• 洪恩在线 — Link

  Focus on: All
  Description: Hong’en ’s online material

• 中国英语网 — Link

  Focus on: All
  Description: the biggest English study website in China

• wtopnews.com — Link

  Focus on: listening and reading
  Description: Online Washington broadcast

• AP Video — Link

  Focus on: listening
  Description: some English short video like advertisements

• 旺旺英语学习网 — Link

  Focus on: All
  Description: a good personal English study website

• National Public Radio — Link

  Focus on: listening and reading
  Description: National Public Radio of the United States

• Scientific American — Link

  Focus on: listening and reading
  Description: Scientific American: provide the latest Science and Technology information

• VOA — Link

  Focus on: listening and reading
  Description: VOA offical website

• Google translate — Link

  Focus on: Translation
  Description: The free google tool which can translate some major languages into others

• WordSmith Dictionaries — Link

  Focus on: Dictionary
  Description: The online dictionaries

• Dictionary.com — Link

  Focus on: Dictionary
  Description: The online dictionaries

• The New York Times — Link

  Focus on: News
  Description: Get an American viewpoint on domestic and world news

• American humor — Link

  Focus on: Humor
  Description: English Comedy Central

• BBC English training — Link

  Focus on: English learning
  Description: Use the services provided by the world famous BBC to improve all aspects of your English

• BBC radio — Link

  Focus on: Radio, News
  Description: Listen free to numerous BBC radio stations - (humor, news, music etc.)

• British news — Link

  Focus on: News
  Description: Get a British viewpoint on domestic and world news

• Business Balls Acronym Dictionary — Link

  Focus on: Dictionary
  Description: Confounded by all those English acronyms your foreign colleagues use? Find them here!

• Armstrong-Hilton — Link

  Focus on: E-learning
  Description: A website where you can e-learning the English

• Business skills — Link

  Focus on: Business learning
  Description: Useful site to explore all aspects of business

• Free Dictionary — Link

  Focus on: Dictionary
  Description: Another free dictionary. Seems to load faster

• English training podcasts — Link

  Focus on: English training
  Description: Lots of listening in a variety of categories. Navigate through then click on “visit website” to download

• For English practice — Link

  Focus on: ESL training
  Description: English as a Second Language training website

• Pronunciation practice — Link

  Focus on: pronunciation practice
  Description: The world’s most visited pronunciation practice website.

• Mythweb — Link

  Focus on: story
  Description: Humorous renderings of the ancient stories

• Simplified Myths — Link

  Focus on: story
  Description: These are written for students and easier to read, also a section on China

• 泸江英语 — Link

  Focus on: Learning
  Description: The place we can learn more than English!

• Studio Classroom — Link

• 英语世界 — Link

• 普特英语听力- 英语听力的天空 — Link

(via fairyfish.net)

A model seen walking the runway during New York Fashion Week in this February 9, 2007 file photo.

New York was on Wednesday named as the world’s top fashion city for the fourth consecutive year, according to a survey by a U.S.-based language use group.

The Global Language Monitor, a non-profit group that tracks words and phrases in the media, on the Internet and throughout the blogosphere, compiles an annual list of the top fashion cities.

New York ousted Paris as the leader in the list four years ago, leaving the French capital jostling with London, Rome, and Milan for the other top positions in the list.

This year, Rome beat out the others for second place with Paris coming in third position, followed by Milan and London. Hong Kong was rated the top fashion city in South Asia, coming in 8th position overall.

Other notable rankings included Shanghai at number 14, Sydney and Melbourne at numbers 12 and 15 respectively, and the fashion quartet of South America — Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Buenos Aires.

Krakow, one of the largest and oldest cities in Poland, made it to No. 25, apparently because of its emerging status as a centre of neo-Bohemian influence.

“The ranking is surprising in a number of ways, most of which relate to the changing nature of the global fashion industry,” Millie Payack, a director of the Global Language Monitor, said in a statement.

“Cities that recently would have been considered fashion backwaters are now emerging as significant regional hubs.”

Following is the list of the top 25 fashion cities:

1. New York

2. Rome

3. Paris

4. London

5. Milan

6. Tokyo

7. Los Angeles

8. Hong Kong

9. Las Vegas

10. Singapore

11. Berlin

12. Sydney

13. Barcelona

14. Shanghai

15. Melbourne

16. Moscow

17. Bangkok

18. Mumbai

19. Santiago

20. Rio de Janeiro

21. Sao Paulo

22. Buenos Aires

23. Johannesburg

24. Dubai

25. Krakow

(Agencies)

Read more on Diesel’s Jighen

Features

• Prince of wales
• Double-layer
• Four pockets
• Zip closure
• Unlined
• Rear logo
• 100% Cotton

WordPress 2.5 was just released a few months ago and WordPress 2.6 has been in development for some time to be released very soon. Not only does WordPress 2.6 add more zing to a platform that has already won hearts and made blogging a wonderful experience, there are few features in WordPress 2.6 that many have requested and some that caused a little controversy.

Let’s get to know a few things about WordPress 2.6 that will definitely raise few eyebrows albeit a few of them in the wrong way.

Post Revisioning

I have been a Software developer for quite long now and know how important CVS or SVN is to maintaining different versions of a file. WordPress 2.6 brings the same functionality to posts where you can have different revisions for posts.

In lay terms this means that no matter how many times you make changes to the post, you will never have the “Oops, I did something wrong to the post” effect since you can always go back to a older revision of the post, and, let me add you have a cool feature where you can actually differentiate between your revisions to see what changes you made. (think wiki-like post revisions)

Tumble Your Posts

The one thing I have loved about Tumblr is the simplicity and ease of access. I simply select a link or a image and tumble it to my micro blog at Tumblr without having to go through a series of steps to actually post my content.

WordPress 2.6 is taking a new approach and adds in bookmarklets that will allow you to quickly post links and image ala Tumblr. (think “Press This”)

Speed Up of Admin Interface

There has never been a reason not to use the admin interface but that said with the versatility and flexibility of WordPress many people have taken advantage and built softwares that resist you from doing so.

To be quite frank, I hardly use the Admin interface except for approving and replying to comments and managing plugins and themes, but in doing that, I am definitely missing so many of the features that WordPress posting interface provides me with.

WordPress 2.6 makes use of Google Gears when available to speedup and cache static files that are loaded every time you visit your WordPress admin panel.

XML-RPC access now requires Admin Permission

XML-RPC for WordPress can be used by many software applications that allow you to post content to your blog without having to visit the admin panel. The most notable one I can point out to you is Windows Live Writer.

With WordPress 2.6, in new installations, the access to XML-RPC will be unavailable by default. This in short means that every user will have to go and manually enable XML-RPC to allow external applications to post to your blog. Dougal wrote a post about this recently. From his post on the APIs:

• The APIs will not be automatically disabled for sites upgrading from older versions. Since the APIs have previously been ‘on’ by default, they will continue to function.
• For new installs of WordPress 2.6 and later, there will be an option presented at install-time to enable the APIs. Or not. They seem to have removed that between Beta 1 and Beta 2.
• There will be options in the Write settings to enable or disable XML-RPC posting and Atom API posting individually.

Though this might appear to be a problem to som, personally I do not think that it is a inconvenience. Since users who want to use external applications will be able to do so with just a minor change in the settings and for the millions others who do not require it would never even bother with it. I definitely see this as a move to allow users the flexibility to do what they want to with their blogs without forcing them.

Activate Multiple Plugins at Once and Delete Plugins in Bulk

The one thing that went over my head with the earlier revisions of WordPress was that they allowed you to deactivate all the plugins but never allowed you to activate them at once.

Also deleting plugins was never a piece of cake as users had to manually login to their FTP to delete them. I did get around to writing a plugin that would allowed users to delete plugins they no longer used from the admin panel but never released it. With WordPress 2.6 both of the concerns are answered as it will not only allow you to activate bulk plugins but also provide you with the ability to delete plugins you no longer use.

I would love to see a feature where they allow users to deactivate plugins and keep a history of it and then allow users to reactivate the same plugins once again. I did end up writing a plugin for myself that kept a history of the the plugins it deactivated and then activated them while skipping those that caused a problem due to a newer version of WordPress version.

Move Your Config File to a Different Directory

Your WordPress config file contains information about things that are critical to your blog including access to your WordPress database. Though there are no known security issues with having your wp-config file in your root directory, WordPress 2.6 does allow you to move it to another directory.

Other Features

There are several other features to grab your attention and the few I talked about does not end the features you will get in the next major revision, here are some of the other things you should know about too;

• You can move your content directory from wp-content to any other place you want it to be. (This definitely will mean there are shorter links to your downloadable content or images)
• Better Theme Previewing.
• External JavaScript upgrades to TinyMCE, jQuery and jQuery UI.
• Customizable default avatars.

Well hopefully this should be the best ever version yet of WordPress, though I still look forward to getting more. Let me know your views and opinions about the latest and probably greatest version of WordPress.

Afterthought: Aaron Brazell over at Technosailor goes into greater details on some of items on the WordPress 2.6 list of changes and updates, including

• Shift Click selection of multiple checkboxes in the wp-admin
• More avatar options
• Page Templates of XML-RPC
• More “Press This” features
• Integrated Theme Preview
• Many other illustrated examples

(via Weblog Tools Collection)

Dating isn’t just a road to marriage — it’s spiritually good for you, too.

It’s Friday. You have a 7 p.m. date scheduled with someone you’ve had your eye on for a while—she’s smart, pretty, and funny. Just for kicks, you visit a fortune-teller for the inside scoop on your future with this girl. At first, the seer’s words lull you into what feels like eternal bliss: this date has great potential.

But she doesn’t stop there, and your steadily growing excitement is suddenly crushed like that scary bug you saw on the bathroom floor the night before. Apparently, after two years of relationship paradise, something will shift. Eventually, you will go your separate ways. Your once fluttering heart drops like a stone through your body.

Unfortunately for many singles, if someone could give us a damage/risk assessment for every possible date, we’d probably choose to remain at home alone in front of the TV instead of going out with anyone. Lurking behind the innocent question “Do you want to go for coffee?” lies the hope that this date will turn out to be a soul mate, that you will be compatible, and that you will build a future together.

Dating has spiritual value

Our culture’s obsession with marriage only furthers the idea that dating should be for the sake of marriage. This view of dating can easily make us forget that dating has spiritual value in and of itself. We need to stop focusing on its potential for marriage and accept its temporary nature. Dating can help us to grow spiritually — if we allow it to.

While it is not quite friendship and not quite marriage, dating shares similar qualities with both types of relationships. Through all of these relationships we learn about other people, and in turn about ourselves, who we are, what we like and dislike, and what it means to be in a good or not-so-good relationship.

The spark of intimacy that turns a dinner with a friend into a date is the same spark that holds the seeds of spiritual possibility.

Divine intimacy

Countless theologians and spiritual figures understand setting out on a spiritual path as waking up to the possibility of divine intimacy, an experience “sparked” in much the same way our interest in dating another person begins. Upon discovering God, Methodism founder John Wesley described his heart as strangely warmed, Catholic theologian Bernard Lonergan talked of suddenly falling in love and seeing the world anew, and the Persian poet Kahlil Gibran, urges that “when love beckons to you, follow him.” Hafiz, the fourteenth-century Sufi master and poet, described loving God as if a game of tag. In playing, God flirtatiously tags us as “It.”

As with divine love, going out on a date is like an invitation to mystery: the mystery being both the other person, as well as the depths within ourselves we have yet to discover. Dating encourages us to take leaps of faith into the unknown, to invest ourselves, even for a short time, in the idea of a relationship, in opening ourselves up to someone new, and in presenting ourselves in our best form.

There’s no denying that heartbreak is part of the deal, as it is with any relationship — marital, friendly, and even divine. No relationship comes with a guarantee, not even a godly one. A broken heart is not an indication that God is punishing us; it is the very human experience of knowing that we have loved, an experience foundational to spiritual growth, one that can lead to a deepening relationship with the divine, and a growing understanding within ourselves of what it means to love another.

Forget the need to know the future

If we allow it to, dating can encourage self-transcendence, asking of us that we forget the constant need to know the future, encouraging us instead to see another person as an end in themselves. Our contemporary dating sensibilities too often make us forget about the person before us in favor of the aisle we hope to walk down some time in the future. Rather than seeing our date as a person worth at least an hour of conversation, we instead subject them to our respective checklists and interview them as a means to another end: for the job as our future mate, forgetting the tried and true religious teaching of treating someone else as we would wish to be treated, as worthy of an investment of our time.

So, when 7 p.m. rolls around and your date comes by, reconsider your approach to the man or woman knocking on the door. We would do well to take the advice of that fourteenth century Sufi poet, and bask in the idea that at least for the night, we’ve been tagged as “It.” We are free to learn, share, and grow, whether it lasts the evening, or a lifetime.

I did not use SMS free service from web before. I just came across from hongkiat blog posted about Chawt, a free SMS sending service from online that let you sent 80 characters message to any number. It requires signup and you need to activate your account with the activation code that they sent to your mobile number. Once you activate, you can sent SMS to any number over 160 countries. Message comes from your mobile number when you sent from Chawt so that they can reply to you back. Try Chawt!

I. Overview of the Development of Global Digital Camera Market in 2006

(I) Current status

(II) Basic characteristics

1. Technology and industry chain

2. Product trend

3. Application trend

(III) Strategy of major vendors

II. Size and Structure of China’s Digital Camera Market in 2005

(I) Size and growth of the market

(II) Product mix

1. Structure of different imaging components and devices

2. Structure of different pixel levels

3. Structure of different optical zooming

4. Structure of product price segment

(III) Brand structure

1. Brand structure of overall market

2. Region - brand market structure

3. X X -Structure of brand market

(IV) Market structure

1. Structure of regional market

2. Structure of channel market

3. User market structure: demand for first-time purchase vs replacement

(V) Basic characteristic of the market

1. Stages of market development

2. Market concentration

3. XXX

4. XXX

III. Analysis of the Strategy for Leading Vendors in China’s Digital Camera Market in 2005

(I) Analysis of the marketing strategy for leading vendors ( Top5- 10)

1. Vendor A

(1) Development profile and overall commentary

(2) Brand / product positioning

(3) Channel architecture

(4) Analysis of salable/typical models

(5) Commentary and analysis of grand strategic adjustment

2. Vendor B

(II) Analysis of the strategy for growing vendors (2-3)

1. Vendor A

(1) Development profile and overall commentary

(2) Brand and product orientation

(3) Analysis of salable/typical models

(4) Analysis of the cause for fast growth

2. Vendor B

IV. Analysis of the Expected Purchase Behavior in China’s Digital Camera Market in 2006

(I) Brand preference

(II) Price preference

(III) Channel preference

(IV) Channel preference for information acquisition

(V) Demand for innovative functionality

V. Analysis and Forecast of the Trend of China’s Digital Camera, 2007- 2010

(I) Main factors influencing the development of future market

1. Socio-economic development

2. Policy environment

3. Complementary product

4. Competitive product

5. Industry chain and technology

(II) Analysis of the market growth trend

1. Product and technology

2. Market competition structure

3. Channel and terminal

4. Price trend

(III) Forecast for market size

1. Forecast for sales volume

2. Forecast for sales value

(IV) Forecast for market structure

1. Structure of product market

2. Structure of regional market

3. Structure of channel market

VI. CCID’s Recommendations

(I) Product strategy

(II) Pricing strategy

(III) Channel strategy

(IV) Service strategy

(V) Brand strategy

It’s a common challenge we all encounter at some point or another. We are so busy getting through the basic tasks of publishing, that we become less organized - and thus less productive. The time we’d dedicate to marketing our blog and building relationships with readers vaporizes as we try to dig out from under.

If you’d like to find more time to share your ideas with others and attract a greater number of readers, you need to become more productive. You can start with five easy steps.

1. Put your bookmarks on de.licio.us. In fact, dump everything you might need later into de.licio.us. Not only can you search your links much faster than using your browser’s built in tools, your bookmarks will be available anywhere you go.

2. Find an RSS reader or web-based service you like, load the sites you visit regularly, and get familiar with the interface. This is the single most effective think you can do to optimize your online productivity. You’ll spend less time loading sites and hunting for data — and more sorting what you need. Hint: Google Reader.

3. Unsubscribe. It’s easy to get caught up in the noise of Web 2.0. Do you really need pokes and superpokes on Facebook? Did you just blow an hour of daylight on Twitter? Dump it. Decide what’s important, and stick with it.

4. Get your projects organized. One great way is Basecamp — a no-nonsense planning and management system suitable for personal or group use. Set goals, share files and information, whiteboard — in short, make it happen. There’s a free version suitable for single projects. The Basic plan is $24/month, and is as much project management as most small businesses will ever need.

5. Many hands make the job easier — or at least give you a living knowledge-base. So network — but be smart about which one you choose. Facebook has a huge user base, but may offer more distractions that your personal productivity allows. If you’re building a professional network, consider LinkedIn. It is more focused on business and you will find that members are open to helping you with marketing questions.

These are just five tools. What are some of your favorites?

[via blogherald.com]