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If you are planning buy art supplies to quench your thirst for art and has been really getting it hard to find the right place to buy all your art needs. Then you should be resorting to the great medium called Internet for your needs. This is because you will not be able to find all art supplies in one place elsewhere except for finding it online. Ever since the internet revolution started people have switched their shopping preference to online and the same can be applied to when buying art or even kids art supplies. This is also because of the fate or fact that you will not get all the materials you would need on art materials elsewhere.

Although this can be a convenient option of buying any or Kids art supplies online but it would also turn out to be a profitable one too. This is because for example if you are planning to buy easels it would normally cost you around $300-$350 when you plan to buy them at the neighborhood art stores but the same easels would cost only $275 if you buy them online and you would also get it delivered at your home for free.

Computers are changing the way that we all do business. That should be obvious to anyone who’s looked at recent developments in the world of technology. If you are involved in the world of construction, then you should be up-to-date with the latest in takeoff software.

The basics of the program are just amazing. You can just do your designs through the software and it will make a professional blueprint from your information. Then you just have to change the little menus to make it better. You can shift the display to show different rooms or even build up material lists. These are some of the more complex ideas though. Just think about how nice it would be to calculate square feet when you are planning a job. Just type in the number and you’ll be able to have detailed and running estimations of all the little projects.

It’s obvious that you shouldn’t buy the software just to do square feet estimate programs. You can still do those through basic calculator functions. The idea is that they are just a small part of a much bigger program. If you can do these estimates that quickly, then think of all the other things that you can do.

It’s been more than five years since Apple’s iTunes store changed music retail by introducing single-track digital downloads. But it wasn’t until 2008 that most musicians and labels started to wonder out loud whether selling music by the track is good for their bottom lines.

Two of the year’s biggest rock acts, AC/DC and Kid Rock, insist that their albums only be sold whole. And since Apple only rarely allows this, neither act allows iTunes to sell its albums in the United States.

Despite the fact that iTunes is the largest music retailer in the country, neither act seems to have suffered for this decision. As of early December, Kid Rock’s “Rock N Roll Jesus” was the third-best-selling album of the year, according to Nielsen SoundScan. And it was sold only as a CD until almost a year after release, when Kid Rock granted Rhapsody the exclusive rights to sell it online in the States — as a full album. So far, the album has sold only 3,000 digital copies.

AC/DC released its new album “Black Ice” exclusively at Wal-Mart and has sold 1.6 million copies without any digital sales at all; it’s the fourth-best-selling album of the year.

Both of these success stories challenged the accepted gospel that iTunes is an essential part of music retail. Perhaps more surprising is that neither project appeared on file-sharing networks more frequently than most big albums, according to Eric Garland, CEO of the file-trading monitoring company BigChampagne.

“Check some of these artists that have hit singles versus their album sales, then compare it to what Kid Rock is doing,” Ken Levitan, Kid Rock’s manager, told the Wall Street Journal. He has called digital single sales the death knell of the music business.

FLIP SIDE

But there’s another side to the story. The year’s best-selling album is Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III,” at 2.7 million copies. Digital stores played a big part in that success: His “Lollipop” single alone sold more than 3 million copies. The second-best-selling album is Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends,” with 1.9 million units sold. More than half a million of those copies were sold on digital services.

Digital stores also helped Leona Lewis. The best-selling digital single of the year, according to Nielsen SoundScan, is Lewis’ “Bleeding Love,” which has sold 3.3 million tracks. The album it’s on, “Spirit,” is the eighth-best-selling album of the year, with 1.2 million copies sold, 140,000 of which came through digital channels. Counting every 10 tracks as an album, Lewis’ sales jump to 1.5 million without factoring in the sales of any other singles from “Spirit.” That’s on par with Kid Rock and AC/DC.

These results suggest that it’s possible to have a best-selling album either way. And the best approach may depend on the nature of the music itself.

“If there’s a body of work that the public wants, they will engage with it and purchase it,” says Universal Motown senior vice president of digital business development Cameo Carlson. “It’s about the consumer you’re going after and what story you’re trying to tell.”

Carlson is the executive behind the digital promotion of Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III.” She, too, was concerned that the popularity of “Lollipop” might harm Lil Wayne’s album sales but decided to embrace iTunes rather than fight it. Besides “Lollipop,” the label released five more tracks on iTunes before the album’s June 10 release to make sure fans could hear other songs.

She also took advantage of iTunes’ Complete My Album feature, which allows fans who buy a few songs from an album to purchase the remaining tracks at a prorated cost. It was one of the first times the feature was used in conjunction with such a massive prerelease campaign, and its success is striking: More than 10 percent of the album’s first-week sales were digital, up from less than 1 percent for Lil Wayne’s past titles. More than half of those digital sales came from fans using Complete My Album, making “Tha Carter III” the fourth-best-selling album on iTunes for the year.

Could Kid Rock and AC/DC have done the same?

“They’re leaving money on the table by not offering track sales,” Carlson says. “I don’t think that creating an economy of scarcity works. There have been a couple of examples that have been successful … people like to hope that part of the industry is still alive. But I personally think those two are anomalies.”

SUPERSTAR PULL

Carlson and other label execs say that the main reason Kid Rock and AC/DC did so well selling albums is that they’re established acts with loyal fan bases. That’s the same reason Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” sold well as a CD, even though it could be downloaded for free.

The results for emerging acts could look very different. Atlantic Records pulled from iTunes Estelle’s album “Shine” after it and the single “American Boy” showed hit potential. The album spent 17 weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 38, while “American Boy” was a top 10 iTunes download. But sales dropped when Atlantic removed singles from iTunes, and the label changed its tactics soon after.

Other executives believe that other acts could follow Kid Rock and AC/DC’s approach. “Kid Rock absolutely left transactions on the table by not being on iTunes,” BigChampagne’s Garland says. “But did he leave money on the table? I think that’s a tough case to make. Singles-driven acts must be in iTunes. For album-oriented career superstar artists, it’s a strategic question worth asking. But it’s not an easy call.”

Where iTunes fits into album sales strategies will almost certainly be one of the main topics of 2009 and beyond. “We’re still at a stage that will require a lot of experimentation,” says one major-label digital executive. “You’re going to see us experiment with a bunch of different things. I don’t think we’ve figured out exactly what approach we should take.”

Online encyclopaedia Wikipedia.com launched the ‘Wikipedia Academy’ here today in a bid to increase its popularity and to reach out to large number of rural masses in the country.

“This is the first in Asia after the launch of the first Academy last month in Germany” Wikipedia.com Founder Jimmy Wales told reporters in Chennai.

The Academy would be a community driven initiative among online users. “It would focus more on spreading education and supporting Wikipedia by contributing articles on it”.

Sue Gardner, The Executive Director of Wikimedia Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation which supports wikipedia.com, said “the Academy would be a voluntary organisation among online users to basically promote education through wikipedia.com”. She expressed the hope that the academy will have various chapters in India.

Wales told media later that the response they got after launching the academy in Germany was ”encouraging.” “It was launched in German language and we can see lot of contributors for that. The response was very good” Wales said.

However, he said though there were 277 million users for Wikipedia per month only very few users voluntarily involved themselves for editing or contributing of articles present on the website. “This Academy will also promote that.”

On Wikipedia being ranked fourth website by users worldwide after Google, Yahoo and MSN respectively, he said.

“We don’t want to be competitive with others (other website). The article present on our portal is purely on voluntary basis and we want that to continue.”

He also said that they will not allow any kind of commercials to be present on their website.

is settled. Reports that President-Elect Barack Obama is actually a Microsoft Zune user have been crushed last night by one of Obama’s spokesmen. “Not true, the President-Elect uses and iPod,” addressed the spokesman to Philadelphia City Paper - Neal Santos’ accusations.

It all started with a blog entry on the Philadelphia’s newspaper website of Santos saying that Obama “hopped on the machine next to me [at the gym] and broke a mean sweat while reading a copy of USA Today and listening to his Zune.” After that, Zune fans were “claiming the President-Elect as one of our own” thinking that “This is probably the best endorsement Zune could’ve gotten - for free.”

However, Apple iPod fans weren’t too happy with the news either, some of them even flaming in comments “I want my vote back!” During the campaign, Obama and now Vice-President-Elect Joe Biden, both claimed to use Apple computers and music players.

Now, with Obama denying of actually having a Zune, Neil Santos is saying, ” I don’t know for sure that it was his. It could belong to one of the many Secret Service dudes that were at the gym, Michelle, or even one of his daughters.”

On a lighter note, some commentators are still poking fun at the past election campaign, with one claiming he/she is John McCain saying “Obama’s not in for proprietary formats,” while another one claiming he/she is Sarah Palin asking “What’s a Zune?”

A number of people really want to use the latest in technology, but they just feel held back by a lack of understanding toward the programs. One of the best way for them to overcome this problem is to just get Microsoft Office training. Microsoft Office practically runs the world. If they get a good overview of the programs in the suite, then they will know how to build presentations, databases, and write. That should be all the basics that they really need.

This isn’t that easy for everyone though. Some people have rough schedules or face a tough drive to the local training center. They need a good way to train on their own schedule without leaving the home. This is where the Microsoft Office training CD comes into play. This is a way to teach them everything that they need to know while they are using the computer. If they can put the disc in the drive, then they are set. The CD contains lessons, examples, and simulations to walk them through all the little problems that they could face. Once it is all said and done, they should be just fine. If nothing else, it is a really great way to get them past any initial fear of technology.

Blockbuster has officially entered the “battle of the boxes” with the launch of its new set-top box yesterday. The box will serve movies to TVs over the Internet and is going against Netflix’s set-top box solutions (Xbox, Roku, and Tivo). Blockbuster’s MediaPoint box allows users to watch thousands of movies without the need of a monthly subscription.

To get the MediaPoint player, made by 2Wire, Blockbuster subscribers will have to pay a one-off $99 fee, which also includes 25 pre-paid movies. After that, users will have to pay between $1.99 and $3.99 for each DVD rented, without a monthly subscription fee. Netflix’s box also costs $99, besides your chosen monthly subscription. But unlike Blockbuster’s 2,500 “of the best, biggest and most current movies available“, Netflix offers its whole 10,000 DVD collection for rental through its box.

The major difference between the MediaPoint box and Netflix’s is that Blockbuster does “progressive playback” in comparison to Netflix’s streaming, meaning that the video quality is independent of you broadband’s connection speed. By progressively downloading the movie on the box (up to five movies storage capacity), Blockbuster’s solution can offer a much more consistent video quality. In comparison, Netflix’s service which can reduce the movie’s quality if your Internet connection slows down.

Spec-wise, Blockbuster’s MediaPoint can store up to five full length feature films (rented films must be viewed within 24 hours of downloading) and can connect to both SD and HD television sets. For the SD crowd, you can connect the MediaPoint to your TV with Composite A/V cables and if you have an HD TV you can use an HDMI cable. If none of the above matches you television set, you can use the box’s Component Video and Line Audio connections.

In terms of Internet connectivity, the MediaPoint box can use both wireless and an Ethernet cable from your router. For the full specs, check out MediaPoint’s user manual (PDF link).

The suicide of a Missouri teen could have been avoided had she not been tormented online by a mom who lived a few houses away, prosecutors said on Monday, describing the girl’s death as a tragedy.

The jury will begin deliberating on Tuesday in the federal case against Missouri woman Lori Drew, who is accused of posing as a teen boy on the MySpace social networking website to tease and humiliate 13-year-old Megan Meier, who later committed suicide.

Prosecutors told jurors that Drew, her daughter and a teenage employee created the profile in a plan to publicly embarrass Meier and get back at her for saying bad things about Drew’s daughter.

“The tragedy in this case is not just Megan Meier’s suicide,” U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien said in his closing arguments to jurors.

“It’s the fact that it was so preventable. If, as a 47-year-old woman Lori Drew was so upset that Megan Meier had called her daughter ugly or a lesbian, she could have gone over and talked to her mom and we wouldn’t be here,” he said.

Drew’s attorney, H. Dean Steward, also described Meier’s death as a tragedy, but he reminded jurors that Drew is not accused of homicide in Meier’s death.

“Please do not add to this tragedy,” he said. “This has been such a woeful, woeful case and there’s been so many tears here. Don’t add to it by going along with the government’s case.”

Drew, 49, is charged with conspiracy and accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information for the purpose of inflicting emotional distress on Meier.

She faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison if she is convicted on all of the charges.

The trial began on Wednesday, and jurors have heard the testimony of Drew’s teenage daughter and Ashley Grills, who was an 18-year-old employee of Drew and sent a final message on the day of Meier’s suicide in October 2006 that read in part, “The world would be a better place without you.”

Grills was not charged and testified after reaching a deal with prosecutors.

Drew did not testify in her own defense. But Tina Meier, the dead girl’s mother, testified that Drew knew her daughter took medication to handle her depression.

The case was tried in a federal court in Los Angeles because MySpace, the social networking site that was used to create the false profile of a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans, is based in the nearby city of Beverly Hills.

The trial is being closely watched by the burgeoning social networking industry.

Steward argued that the computer statute Drew is accused of violating was designed to stop hackers, not MySpace users.”When you look at the facts that you’ve heard and you listen to the elements of the law it doesn’t fit,” he told jurors. “And I submit to you it’s like trying to take a size 11 foot and fit it into a size 6 shoe.”

Internet criminals have been getting more “professional” for years, trying to run their businesses like Big Business to get better and more profitable at selling stolen data online. Now the bad guys of the cyber-underworld are exhibiting other unexpected traits: remarkable patience and restraint in stalking their victims.A new report by antivirus software vendor Symantec Corp. details a startling trend that highlights the inventive ways criminals are figuring out ways to make money online.

Hackers are sometimes breaking into online businesses and not stealing anything. Gone are the bull-in-the-China-shop days of plundering everything in sight once they’ve found a sliver of a security hole.

Instead of swiping all the customer data they can get their hands on, a small subset of hackers have concerned themselves with stealing only a very specific thing from the vendors they breach - they want access to the compromised companies’ payment-processing systems, and nothing else, according to the “Symantec Report on the Underground Economy,” slated for release Monday. Those systems allow the bad guys to check whether credit card numbers being hawked on underground chat rooms are valid, the same way the store verifies whether to accept a card payment or not.It’s a service the crooks sell to other fraudsters who don’t trust that the stolen card numbers they’re buying from someone else will actually work, and it’s good business.

The bad guys hardly touch anything. The customer data for that store’s clientele remains intact. They don’t install malicious software that turns the compromised machines into spam-spewing robots.

Think of it like taking a used car to a mechanic for an inspection before buying. Only in this case the mechanic’s a squatter who’s holed up illegally in some other guy’s shop and using his tools when no one’s around at night. And he cleans up spotlessly once he’s done.

“They treat these things fairly pristinely so they can maintain access,” Alfred Huger, vice president for Symantec Security Response, said in an interview.

According to Symantec, in the company’s yearlong look at 135 so-called “underground economy servers” - all public servers hosting mostly legitimate chat channels, with a few bad ones catering to cyber crooks - researchers determined that criminals have latched on to this tactic as a way to make money and self-police the underground.

Symantec said it didn’t find out which vendors had been compromised. The company says it didn’t get inside the compromised servers that carry even more secretive back-channel…onversations, because doing so would have broken the law.The Cupertino-based company’s researchers were only able to determine the trend is happening by looking at thousands of credit card numbers being checked every day - and either accepted or rejected - by shadowy groups online promoting that service and charging a fee. That fee is about $10 per card checked. Considering they’re typically checked in batches of 10 or more, the revenue can add up fast.

Researchers said that the high number of cards the groups were checking each day suggests that they either had long-term access to a few compromised vendors, or had a lot of compromised vendors under their control and would shift the credit-card-checking chores to different ones to avoid being detected.

Huger said the reason the criminals don’t raid the victim companies’ databases is it’s much lower risk to just check the card numbers on someone else’s computers, rather than to start taking stuff out, which gets noticed. Plenty of bad guys are still looting everything in sight, according to Symantec’s study. Researchers spotted $7 billion worth of stolen credit cards and bank accounts being sold during the yearlong project. That figure assumes the cards and accounts were completely drained by the crooks.The actual price for those cards and accounts could command on the black market was far less, however, because of the risk the buyer takes on in trying to extract money or make fraudulent purchases. Symantec estimated that the total value of the goods advertised for sale was more than $276 million during the time they were watching the servers from July 2007 to June 2008.

The report mostly underscores the trend that online criminals are adding more touches of professionalism to their businesses, like bundling packages of exploits together and selling them, or offering up programmers - like a company would hire a consultant - to write malicious code for other people.

Huger said the report just touched on the “low end” of the underground economy. The report emphasized that the potential bounty for hackers on the underground economy will only go up as “matures and operates more like a traditional business model.”…

Norway pledged funds Monday to stimulate public sector use of the free open source software OpenOffice to reduce its dependency on Microsoft Corp. and other major software producers.

Minister of Government Administration and Reform Heidi Grande Roeys said she was granting 2 million kroner ($285,000) to the national center for free software to adapt and promote OpenOffice for such government use as public reports, accounting and archives.

“I want to simulate increased competition in the market for office software. OpenOffice is a good alternative to the supplier owned programs in this area,” she said. “The problem is that the specialized programs and OpenOffice don’t always give optimum performance together. The grant is to solve that.”

OpenOffice is based on Sun Microsystems Inc.’s StarOffice software. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun released the source code of the programs in 2000 in hopes of challenging Microsoft Office’s market dominance by providing a free, open and high-quality alternative.

In April 2006, the Norwegian government announced a long term program to step up use of open-source software to reduce its dependency on computer giants like Microsoft.