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Studies of the mental processes of chess grandmasters show that anyone can become expert in almost anything. It indicates that experts are made, not born.

But how do the experts in these various subjects acquire their extraordinary skills? How much can be credited to innate talent and how much to intensive training? Psychologists have sought answers in studies of chess masters. The collected results of a century of such research have led to new theories explaining how the mind organizes and retrieves information. What is more, this research may have important implications for educators. Perhaps the same techniques used by chess players to hone their skills could be applied in the classroom to teach reading, writing and arithmetic.

This is what a Russian News Pravda is reporting.

Our world is on the brink of another world war. It will originate August 22nd in the Middle East. The prediction was presented not by Vagna or Nostradamus but by an American political scientist Bernard Lewis in the acclaimed publication of Wall Street Journal. He is a man with close ties to the Bush administration as well as to the non-conservatives pushing for the radical solution of the ‘Iranian Threat.’

Marius Ducea has a great article on How to restore a hacked Linux Server. He provides a very practical baseline on how you should develop your own plan of action to restore a hacked Linux Server. These are the steps he recommends:

- Don’t panic. Keep your calm and develop a plan of actions
- Disconnect the system from the network
- Discover the method used to compromise the system
- Stop all the attacker scripts and remove his files
- Restore not affected services
- Fix the problem that caused the compromise
- Restore the affected services
- Monitor the system

I’ve a personal experience of restoring a hacked Linux Server. I agree with all of his recommended steps. Out of them, I think finding the method (security hole) used to compromise the system is most important, because if you don’t know this then the attacker can immediately use the same security hole to attack and compromise the system after you restore.

Apple MacBook and MacBook Pros are so hot that the owners have figured an undocumented use of these laptops. Now they’ve started to use them for frying eggs and bacons, and of course the bonus point is keeping the coffee warm by placing it on top of the MacBook power adapter.

With the help of lip-reader expert the Daily Mail have deciphered the vile stream of racial and personal abuse by Marco Materazzi, which led to the violent outburst of Zidane.

First Marco Matterazzi called the French star the Italian equivalent of ‘n*****’, and then insulted both his mother and his Muslim background by saying he is the ’son of a terrorist whore.

It had been revealed that earlier in the day that Zidane’s Mother is seriously ill. Wikipedia entry Zinedine Zidane is also suggesting the same thing as Daily Mail.

Both Zidane and Materazzi refused to comment on the incident. Zidane’s agent Alain Migliaccio said, Zidane told me Materazzi said something very serious to him but he wouldn’t tell me what. Reportedly, the deaf forensic lip-reader Jessica Rees was employed to analyze the video sequences with the help of an Italian translator. According to these reports, Materazzi spoke in Italian - a language understood by Zidane due to his time spent with Juventus F.C. - and first told him: "Hold on, wait, that one’s not for a nigger like you." As the players walked forward, Materazzi allegedly said: "We all know you are the son of a terrorist whore." Then, just before the headbutt, he was seen saying: "So just fuck off." According to Brazilian TV Rede Globo, a lip-reader claimed that Materazzi twice called Zidane’s sister a prostitute. Earlier claims about Materazzi having called his opponent a "dirty terrorist" have been denied by Materazzi, who reportedly said: "It is absolutely not true, I did not call him a terrorist. I’m ignorant. I don’t even know what the word means."

I’m not sure if Zidane’s response was justified but it’s certainly understandable. Some times verbal abuse causes more damage than physical assault.

Zidane wins the Golden Ball despite headbutting Italian player Marco Materazzi. I cheered for France yesterday and am a big fan of Zidane, but still think what he did was inexcusable and deserved a red card. I’d been thinking about that moment all day long, just wondering what might have Materazzi said to him!? I feel very sorry for Zidane that he had to end his career this way. I think his action cost France the world cup, but still think he’s one of the greatest players of our time and deserves the Golden Ball.

This is what happened yesterday

This is the guy - Marco Materazzi, who provoked Zidane

I’m using SkypeOut to call my family and friends for quite some time because it’s cheap, convenient and recently the voice quality got better. But I think I found a better alternative, it’s called JAJAH,  a new Internet Telephony service that also allows you to make cheap long distance calls and free calls to registered phone numbers. You might ask why we need Jajah when the Skype is doing so well. Yes, Skype is doing well but Jajah works little differently and I think much better. Here are the key differences:

• No need to download and install any software.
• You initiate a call from the web browser, input your number and the number you want to call. Jajah connects two standard telephone machines, whether they are landline or mobile, local or anywhere else in the world.
• You can make free calls to registered telephones in certain zones. For these free calls, they’ve a fair use policy which limits your free hours to about an hour a day.
• Here is the rate information

Yesterday I called home (Nepal) using Jajah and talked about 5 mins. for free. I was amazed by the ease of use and quality of voice, then I bought $10 credit and talked for about an hour. My $10 credit is still there but I used up the $3 they provide you for free.

I think Jajah takes the VOIP to a new level. The fact that there’s nothing to install , no headphones and microphones and being able to use the standard telephone sets makes it more appealing to regular and not so technically savvy users. If you need to make frequent long distance calls, I highly recommend you to give JAHAH a try.

Stephen Hawking, the famous British astrophysicist and best-selling author is asking How can human race survive the next hundred years? He asks:

In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?

As I write this I saw 18645 answers and no doubt there will be more. There’re all sort of answers. Some suggesting to “get rid or the nuclear weapons” where as others think ‘we’ll go underground or to other planets”.

Recently Hawking was here in Hong Kong and he spoke about finding new homes in outer space for human survival because he thinks some disaster might destroy earth. He says:

It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species, Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of.

All this reminds me of Year 2012, Wayne Chen is talking about.

A very interesting list of six most common, yet unfounded, causes of death that most Americans fear of. I think the list applies to Non-Americans as well.

Just the thought of dying of airplane crashes, shark attacks or being murdered makes us anxious but we tend to ignore the actual most common causes of death like tobacco, poor diet and physical inactivity or alcohol consumption.

Google Checkout is live. It’s a new service from Google that makes online shopping more convenient for shoppers and merchants. Shoppers can shop faster and merchants can integrate Google Checkout into their sites as an alternative payment processing method. Here is the quick video tour.

Royalty Free Stock Photography - Download 400+ quality royalty free stock photos for free. Note that these images range from 400kb to around 1.5mb, and are 1200 x 900 to 1600 x 1200. Very useful for web sites and blogs. You can post the photos without worrying about copyrights.

IP Subnetting made easy - a very good guide that explains IP Subnetting using simple graphical approach.

Learn Linux Command Lines and Shell Scripting - It’s a perfect guide for getting deeper into Linux command lines after my Getting Started with Linux Commands. This is what the author has to say about Command Lines:

I once heard an author remark that when you are a child you use a computer by looking at the pictures. When you grow up, you learn to read and write. Welcome to Computer Literacy 101. Now let’s get to work.