YouTube 'Partner Grants' to Offer Money to Video Creators

With hopes of producing more high-quality content, YouTube is ready to provide financial support for some of its amateur auteurs. According to The New York Times, YouTube announced last Friday the creation of a $5 million Partner Grants program, which will provide some lucky YouTube users with stipends, ranging from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand dollars. So just how does a budding filmmaker get his or her hands on this cash? The details aren't clear, but YouTube is looking for work that appeals to both mainstream audiences and advertisers. If your video meets those requirements, YouTube will mysteriously "reach out" to you, and offer you the dough.

Will this program lead to 'David After Dentist 2: Root Canal's Revenge' or 'Charlie Bit Me... Harder'? That's more likely than the initiative leading to an Oscar winner. The site simply wants to help create content that will generate more hits, which, in turn, will attract bigger advertisers with more money and reach. That's fine by us -- as long as we get more videos of cute kids saying goofy stuff. [From: The New York Times]

Microsoft Looking For A Few Good iPad Users… To Study

Companies do all kinds of studies all the time for all sorts of reasons. Seeing as the iPad is currently one of the hottest devices on the market, it should be no surprise that companies want to know about how users are using it. Even if that company is Microsoft.

Yes, Apple’s rival has created a Facebook eventcalling for iPad owners to come to Microsoft’s Redmond campus between July 16 and July 21 for a study. Specifically, it’s Microsoft’s User Research group and they want people for chunks of two hours to apparently survey how they use the device. A follow-up note indicates that it’s student iPad users that Microsoft is specifically interested in here.

So what do they want to study about the iPad? Who knows. ZunePad? But as one commenter on the Facebook posting notes, “This gonna be a hard study, since most of the people who bought ipad are apple fanboys and apple regular customers their point of view is, um, damaged.”

Or maybe this is the secret to Microsoft’s second inception.

A “Microsoft gratuity item” is being offered in exchange for participating. Oh goody. Here’s to hoping it’s a Courier.

Here’s the description:

Microsoft User Research is looking for iPad owners for an upcoming study to get feedback. This study will be two hours long and will take place on the Microsoft Redmond campus with a number of dates and times between Friday, July 16th and Wednesday, July 21st.

In appreciation for your time, each participant will be offered a Microsoft gratuity item.

If you are interested, please respond to the questions below to uccoord@microsoft.com with the subject line “iPad”:

• Name/Age
• Phone Number
• Job Title/Company
• Are you employed full time?
-OR-
• Are you a student?
• Do you own an iPad?

NASA and Microsoft Let You Explore Mars Like Never Before

Microsoft Research and NASA have teamed up once again and brought the “most complete, highest-resolution coverage of Mars available” to WorldWide Telescope, Microsoft’s app which lets you explore space either through a zoom-and-pan interface or guided tours.

This imagery is the handiwork of a group informally called the Mapmakers, led by NASA’s Michael Broxton. Their job is to take satellite images from Mars and elsewhere in our solar system, and turn them into maps.

Yes, it sounds like every geek’s dream job, and having a name that sounds like something from a William Gibson novel doesn’t hurt, either. Director of Microsoft Research’s Earth Dan Fay has worked with Broxton to turn these images and maps into an immersive new experience for the Worldwide Telescope.

“NASA had the images and they were open to new ways to share them. Through the WorldWide Telescope we were able to build a user interface at WWT|Mars that would allow people to take advantage of the great content they had,” said Fay.

As far as what kind of imagery you can expect here, one example is a new dataset from the University of Arizona’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), which is a remote-sensing camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. These images are taken in an incredibly high resolution – each image is a gigapixel in size – and the team took all 13,000 HiRISE images and stitched them onto one map. This map, says NASA, is the “highest-resolution map of Mars’ surface ever constructed.”

WorldWide Telescope is available as a desktop application or a web client (which requires Microsoft Silverlight) over at www.worldwidetelescope.org.

Who is Bin Laden's lady love?

Actress Sugandha, who shot to fame after playing the memorable role of Shaleen in Imran Khan starrer JAANE TU YA JAANE NA, is back in news. Now-a-days she is being talked about as her upcoming film TERE BIN LADEN is near to its release. In this film, she is playing the role of Laden's lady love and will be seen romancing with him. Isn't it strange, Laden-Love-Romance?



In the film, she will be seen with Laden and she is very happy with this fact. According to her, ''I am playing the role of a girl named Zoya who is a make-up artist. She helps Laden to fulfill his dream which is to go to the U.S.A.'' Will Zoya be successful in helping Laden to fulfill his dream? Of this, we will come to know after watching the film.

Other than JAANE TU YA JAANE NA, Sugandha has also acted in films like MY NAME IS KHAN and LET'S DANCE. In MNIK, Sugandha had played the role of a reporter which was really appreciated by the audience. She says, ''After watching my performance in JAANE TU YA JAANE NA, Karan Johar casted me in MNIK.''


After JAANE TU YA JAANE NA, she never looked back. One after the other, we've seen many releases of hers. After TERE BIN LADEN, PATANG by Khushi Films is her next film which is an Indo-American project.

She is not only an actress, but she is a singer, lyricist, photographer and a trained Jazz and Salsa dancer too. She dreams of forming her own band.

Satisfied with her acting career so far, she says, ''I am really lucky to have been able to work in big production houses and with great directors. Now I am all set to be challenged as a dancer and an actress.''

Anushka Sharma tempted by DESI BOYZ?

Leggy Lass Anushka Sharma is going great guns in Bollywood. After delivering two back-to-back success in the form of RAB NE BANA DI JODI & BADMAASH COMPANY, it is believed that Anushka has bagged yet another pivotal role in a forthcoming film.

If rumour mills are to be believed then Anushka Sharma is the latest addition to the cast of Rohit Dhawan's directorial debut Desi Boyz, produced by Eros. For the uninitiated, Rohit Dhawan is David Dhawan's son.



Reportedly, Chitrangada Singh had been replaced by Lara Dutta. But Lara has apparently denied the film due to date issues and hence the pretty actress, Anushka Sharma has been roped in.

John Abraham and Deepika Padukone are playing the lead roles in the film. It looks to be a very promising cast. Let's see how the film turns up.

Failure of Kites pushes Hrithik Roshan back to Krrish 2

Rakesh Roshan has taken the failure of Kites very seriously and hence planning to hit back with a sequel of 2006 hit film Krrish starring his son Hrithik Roshan.

The father son duo has given three films together till now, which includes Hrithik?s debut movie Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai then Koi Mil Gaya and Krrish. All the three movies were highly appreciated and did a good box office business.

Rakesh had planned for a sequel of Krrish earlier too but it never materialized. However, the debacle of Kites has made him work on it very seriously to make Hrithik stand tall in the top list again. The earlier plan of Krrish 2 was mainly cancelled due to the extra special effects in Avatar, which was released at the end of 2009.

According to the sources, ?Roshans have already started meetings for the sequel of Krrish. They have taken the debacle of Kites very seriously. All the three films Rakesh made with his son Hrithik were big hits so they want to ensure the combination creates history again?.

The source added, ?After giving those hits, Rakesh wanted to take a break from direction and start producing films. Among all these, Rakesh Om Prakash Mehra was supposed to direct Krrish 2. They conducted several meetings for this but it got dissolved?.

However, whatever be the reason, the audience will get to see their favorite Indian superhero back on the big screen. This time, it is expected to be much entertaining than the first one.

Saif beats Vivek Oberoi to become the Bloodiest fighter

Saif Ali Khan has been rigorously training in the most complex martial arts for his role as a spy in Sriram Raghavan's Agent Vinod.

Saif's latest acquisition to amplify the scope of his action scenes will make our other action stars go green with envy. It would certainly disappoint Vivek Oberoi to hear that Saif has beaten Vivek into getting the Prince Of Persia action director Cedric Proust to do the stunts in Agent Vinod.

Vivek's producers planned to bring Proust for the sequel to Prince.

Confirming this development Agent Vinod director Sriram Raghavan says, ?Yes, Cedric Proust who has done many big Hollywood action films in Morocco did Saif's action scenes in Morocco and Afghanistan.

We plan to hire another leading action director for Saif's action scenes in England and an Indian one for the stunts in Delhi. In this way we hope to economize on the budget for action scenes without compromising on the quality of the action.?

Raghavan says too much money is wasted in Hindi films uncessarily blowing up cars and filming chase sequences.

Says the director, ?Let's face it. We don't have the budgets afforded to action scenes in the James Bond and Bourne films. But we can economize on the budget and still give the same caliber of stunts. For instance instead of a 9-minute car chase we can shoot for the chase for just 4 minutes with the same impact.?

Stunts, says Raghavan, are grossly misused in our films. ?We often splurge unnecessarily on action scenes. For example why do we need to go abroad to shoot action scenes when we have the location and infrastructure right here?

In my Johnny Gaddar we needed to shoot an action sequence in a train. We thought of going abroad. Then we settled for India.?

Sriram wonders why recent Bollywood's action sequences are not spoken about when so much money is spent on them. ?When we mention action why do we talk only about the train-robbery sequence in Sholay and the godown fight in Deewaar ? We need to stop treating fight sequences with the flamboyance of item songs.?

In Agent Vinod Saif will be doing the most rugged and realistic action.

Explains Raghavan, ?Saif plays a spy. His character needs to be trained for all kinds of crises. I want Saif to fight instinctively, not as though his moves have been pre-decided There will be a lot of the raw guttural bloody stuff.?

Dejected Rani Mukerji isolates herself from Bollywood?

Post the super-debacle of Rani Mukerji?s comeback vehicle ?Dil Bole Hadippa?, it seems that the actress has completely given up on the hope of getting back in action. The Bong beauty, who?s apparently been out of the filmi scene for quite a while now, has started behaving reclusive these days, as she?s almost stopped interacting with the industry?s who?s who, according to reports.
Although Rani is presently shooting for Rajendra Gupta?s much-awaited flick ?No One Killed Jessica? with Vidya Balan, buzz has it that the actress has really been trying to isolate herself from the filmdom of late.

Rani made a rare appearance at the opening of the designer store in the city, and agreed to be on Karan?s show that he hosts for Yash Chopra. Apart from that, the actress has apparently cut off all ties with her regular Bollywood contacts and she rarely steps out of her house, say sources.

?She goes to the studios only when required. Other than that, she has stopped communicating with all of us. I?ve tried to get her to come out for a movie or have dinner with us but she doesn?t respond,? said a source close to the actress.

Well, what a waste of talent, we must say!

new technollogy of cloth pressing only in pakistan

Shock Tv Pakistan - IS BACK PROMO - Appke Shauq Ko, Jhatka Hum Phirse Denge

Google Talks About Competition With Apple, Promises Chrome OS Systems This Year

Google and Apple aren't exactly Microsoft and Apple, but it's getting that way. These days, Google and Apple are looking like more and more like rivals, mostly because the two are grasping for the same market share in a break-out market. That said, Microsoft has the primary PC market locked down, with over 90% of the worldwide market share and it's unlikely that Apple will ever truly overtake Microsoft in that respect.

But in the mobile and handset OS markets, Apple and Google are aiming for the same group of consumers in a lot of ways. Apple's Steve Jobs hasn't taken to kindly to Google's advances, particularly considering the iPhone versus Android battle. Apple tends to think that Google came up in their business and tried to take over; not that there's anything wrong with that either way, but that's just Steve Jobs for you. But at a recent media/tech event in Idaho, Google's own Eric Schmidt confessed that he sees things differently.

He was quoted as saying that both companies "still have important partnerships in various businesses, and stressed that the market was big enough for both Google's Android and Apple's iPhone to be successful." Co-founder Larry Page also said that Google "had been working on Android a very long time, with the notion of producing phones that are Internet enabled and have good browsers and all that because that did not exist in the marketplace." He even stated that Jobs' assessment was "a little bit of rewriting history," which Jobs couldn't react to as he wasn't attending the event.

Honestly, the bitter competition between the two is good for business. iOS 4 and Android 2.2 are incredible operating systems, and with both trying to scale to the top, it's a nice outlook for consumers. In related news, Google said that Chrome OS was still on track for a release this year, and since there are only six months left, it's pretty safe to assume that we'll be seeing Chrome OS-based machines before Christmas. Better still, Chrome OS could reportedly end up on Tablet PCs eventually, which would definitely rival Apple's iPad. Talk about fueling the fire.

At 18, She's Already on Her Third Business

Most teenagers spend their free time at the mall. Diane Keng is busy running her third business venture and signing $100,000 investment deals.

Chances are, when you were 18, you were probably stressing over finals, trying to enjoy your "senior week," and maybe getting ready to embark on a new adventure incollege. Diane Keng is on her third business and signing $100,000 investment deals.

Keng, 18, is the co-founder ofMyWEBoo, a service that helps teenagers manage their online personas -- a normally frustrating task, as anyone with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Flickr and other social media accounts knows. If you want to make a status update or share photos or videoon one site and offer the same information on another site, you have to jump through the same hoops to get it up there, twice. MyWEBoo aims to make Internet use a little easier and more efficient.

The high school Keng just graduated from, located in Silicon Valley, encourages entrepreneurship. In fact, at least 10 of her classmates also started businesses before graduation -- and we're not talking kidswith lemonade stands or selling baseball cards on eBay.

We caught up with Keng during her last "free" summer, before things get really busy. This fall, she begins classes at Santa Clara University with a full-tuition scholarship -- while still running what she hopes will be Web 2.0's next big success story.

You're working on your third business. Your parents must be doing something right.

My parents have both been very supportive and encouraging. While my father has given me a lotadvice, in a way, my mom got me started on this. When I was a freshman in high school, my mom gave me $15 a week for an allowance, and [chuckling] I said, "I don't think that's fair." So my mom said, "Well, if you don't think it's fair, you should either get a job or find a way to make some money." And that got me thinking.

So what were these businesses that you started?

The first was a business where I designed and printed T-shirts. I knew all of the clubs at my school might need T-shirts. So I started going to all of the classes and clubs and told them about the business. I pointed out that I'm a local, that they know me, that they could trust me with their money and with this job. And I got a lot of business. But unfortunately, I only focused on the cost of the T-shirt. I didn't take in the cost of the manual labor. I spent hours designing and printing the shirts. I only made about a dollar extra on the shirts -- not a very good profit -- and after a couple months, I said, "This isn't going to work."

My second business specialized in helping companies figure out how to market to teenagers. We were studying the principles of marketing at school, and I had read how marketers were looking for trendsetters, and I thought, 'We're teenagers, we're in contact with teenagers, and we know what's cool and what's coming up. Why can't we do a better job in market research than the adults?'" And we came up with some great market research questions, and I think it was a cool idea that could have gone places, but then I started getting busy with the SAT, the ACT, finals, and it just kind of fell apart after that.

MyWEBoo has turned into a much more serious venture. You initially targeted other teenagers. Is that still true?

We were originally focused on teens and young adults. However, now we are aiming toward Internet users between 18 and 30, but it is not limited to just this target market. Anyone who uses more than three social platforms, or likes music, games or shopping, can all find MyWEBoo useful. We're creating drives that will be able to include shopping catalogs, full games, music and many others. This all started because my brother is a big fan of video games, and he wanted to have a place on the Web where all his video games could be in one place, and I chimed in, saying that nobody considers this a huge problem, but it is -- we all have four or five social media sites, and it would be nice to have one place to go where you could sign into them in one place, and then he came up with the idea of adding other Web services.

So is that when your dad became involved? He's a venture capitalist who invested $100,000 in your business?

Well, we presented our idea to him, to see what he thought, and he said, "Nice try, guys. But go back and rethink this and come back to me in a couple days." He liked the idea, but he saw a ton of holes in what we were doing, and so he wanted us to really think about our business model. But one day, he finally said, "This could make money. I will actually fund you now." And I know it's a lot of money, but when you think about it, $100,000 is college tuition right there. If I hadn't gotten a full ride at Santa Clara, that money would have been for college. And he had a lot of tough questions. He would ask things that only a businessperson would ask, like, "When will I get to see my money?" But he also wanted to know if we could handle the stress of running a business.

What do your friends say about you running a business? And I imagine your teachers were floored.

My friends? I've known most of them for years. We've been close since sixth, seventh grade. They still invite me to different events, and a lot of times, I can't make it, but I go out when I can. I think they're basically used to my business interests, and I don't think they're too irked by it, either. I just go out when I have time, and they're typically a lot more free than I am, so whenever I'm free, I give them a call. And my school was very supportive. My business teacher would send a mass e-mailing to all of the teachers, every time something big happened, so they'd know. And I'm a hard worker, 110 percent focused. I turned in my homework on time, and I was very good at scheduling times to make up tests. If I knew I'd miss a test, I'd make sure I was able to make it up, and I think my teachers were willing to let me because of the stuff I was doing.

You mean like going to the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, to network with venture capitalists?

Yeah.

And how did people treat you there? Were they amazed? I mean, here you are, a high schooler...

I don't think anyone knew I was in high school until a TV crew came in and started filming. I was blown away when The Wall Street Journal said they wanted to do a story on me, and thought, "Whoa, cool!" But apparently they're media partners with ABC7, because they called, and said, "We're going to be there in two hours. Get your team ready." And I thought, "Oh, my goodness -- OK." And then the camera came, and people got really excited. There was a huge traffic jam at our booth, and I think the event coordinator was a little upset about that. But that's when people started asking about us and when people heard I was in high school. I try not to give off that high-school vibe, because you never know what people are going to think. They might think, "great," but they might also wonder if I have the capabilities to handle this position.

And what advice would you give parents who want their kids to grow up to be entrepreneurs?

Well, my parents were very big on time management. They let me learn how to manage my time when I was little. My mom would try reverse psychology, and say things like, "If you don't have time to practice piano, I'm going to have to cut it off." I loved playing piano, so I'd say, "No, don't cut it off," and I'd manage to get everything done, and go have fun. I think a lot of it is not to pressure your kids. My parents never pressured me to go into business, and they didn't pressure me when I haven't done well. They've just been very supportive. Even with my badminton games in school -- I was on the varsity team. My mother went to every game. And she never says anything like, "You missed that shot." She just keeps clapping.

Name: Diane Keng
Company: MyWEBoo
Age: 18
Location: Cupertino, Calif.
Founded: 2010
Employees: 5
2010 Projected Revenue: Undisclosed, but projections show the company reaching profitability in 2011
Website: www.myweboo.com

Geoff Williams is a regular contributor to AOL Small Business. He is also the co-author of the bookLiving Well with Bad Credit.

PTA to Upgrade ‘Service Monitoring System’

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) will upgrade its system to monitor quality of emerging, cutting edge telephony and Internet services.

Emerging Internet technology broadband Wimax and expected upcoming telephony technology such as Third and Fourth Generation (3G and 4G) require highly sophisticated monitoring system in the future.

The CDMA IS-95/CDMA 2000 will be utilised as technology by wireless operators. Hence, the authority intends to bring advancements in its service quality mechanism.

Currently, the regulator monitors 2-2.5 GSM Cellular Service and landline services with its system including voice and data traffic.

Service quality monitoring is PTA’s regular activity aimed to ensure standard service of telephony and Internet services throughout the country. The authority’s state-of-the-art system monitors service quality as per its entire set standards and detect the level of the service separately in fourteens region of the country one by one. The present system makes calls and SMS in different areas and rated the service quality of the operator.

PTCL is Doubling DSL Speed in Phases

We had heard rumors of PTCL doubling broadband speeds for its DSL subscribers in March 2010. We were then told that PTCL may celebrate March 23rd, 2010 by doubling DSL speeds – however, plan got delayed due to capacity limitations then.

Lately, we have received reports from multiple ProPakistani readers that they are experiencing double speeds on their PTCL DSL connections.

We couldn’t arrange official viewpoint on this, however, confirmations from certain PTCL users are already available.

Based on sources’ information, we can predict that this doubling of speed will be carried out in phases, while doubling process is said to be completed till August 14th, 2010.

Currently, all users are experiencing double speeds in following patterns:

• 1 MB upgraded to 2 MB
• 2 MB upgraded to 4 MB
• 4 MB – we are yet to receive any confirmation for 4 MB to 8 MB up-gradation

Twitter , Facebook have greater impact on girls than boys

Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook have greater impact on girls than boys, a new survey has revealed.

The study, commissioned by National Family Week, surveyed 3,000 parents and 1,000 children across Britain, reported telegraph.co.uk Thursday.

The findings show that social networking had a bigger impact on girls than boys.

When asked to name what is most important for them, the top three choices for girls were popularity and having friends, followed by family, and then social networking sites.

However, the top three priorities for boys were family, followed by money and then popularity and having friends.

Just six percent of boys chose social networking, compared to almost 40 percent of the girls.

The study also revealed that parents over-estimate the role they play in their child's life.

Two third of the parents said they thought they were the biggest influence in their child's life, but only 49 percent of the children said the same.

src:inditop

Soccer champs Spain return home to rapturous welcome

Updated at: 0717 PST, Tuesday, July 13, 2010 MADRID: Spain's victorious World Cup squad returned to a heroes' welcome in Madrid with hundreds of thousands of fans cheering the team as they paraded through the capital's streets on an open top bus. People chanted "Campeones! Campeones! Campeones!" and waved red and gold Spanish flags at the players as the black bus crawled along a roughly eight-kilometre (five-mile) route through the city's main thoroughfares Monday amid scorching temperatures. Fans waved at the players from balconies while others climbed on trees to get a better view of the 23-man squad, which won the World Cup for the first time in Spain's history with a 1-0 extra-time defeat of the Netherlands on Sunday. "We can speak of there being several hundred thousand people," a spokeswoman for the mayor's office told media, while public television estimated that over one million people had turned out for the celebration. Real Madrid keeper Iker Casillas waved a Spanish flag with a black bull on it as the bus passed the central Cibeles fountain, while Barcelona midfielder Xavi simulated throwing the trophy at the jubilant crowd. Air force fighter jets flew overhead leaving the Spanish colours streaked in the sky. The parade ended at the esplanade near the riverside Puente del Rey, where the festivities continued officially until midnight. "I want to congratulate from the bottom of my heart these 23 players for this victory but behind them they had the united force of all Spaniards," Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said at a reception for the players at his official residence ahead of the victory parade. "They won this trophy but it belongs to all Spaniards and it is a win also for all players from previous generations who tried to win it. They won because they were the best, because they played as a team and they played cleanly." Spain won the 2008 European Championships but had never even reached a World Cup final before. Until this year the best Spain had managed was the quarter-finals. Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta, who scored the winning goal against the Netherlands just four minutes before the final whistle, presented the prime minister with a red team jersey signed by all the players. "Thank you for the welcome, I am very proud to be a part of this team and this little trophy is for everyone," Iniesta said at the reception after earlier thanking a German octopus for predicting the Spanish victory. Before meeting with Zapatero, Spain's King Juan Carlos also hosted a reception for the squad at his palace in Madrid where he thanked the team for making "our dreams a reality". "Thank you champions, on behalf of all of Spain and all Spaniards," said Juan Carlos who did not travel to South Africa as he is recovering from lung surgery. "This is a well-deserved triumph for an exceptional team." The squad arrived at Madrid's Barajas airport just before 2:00 pm (1200 GMT) on an Iberia plane that features Spanish flags flying from the cockpit windows. A huge cheer erupted from a crowd gathered at the airport when keeper Iker Casillas emerged from the plane with coach Vicente del Bosque and held aloft the golden trophy. The World Cup victory has brought a sliver of happiness to a country where around 20 percent of the active population is jobless, the highest rate in the 16-nation eurozone. For many along the parade route this was their second straight night celebrating Spain's World Cup win. Tens of thousands of people danced, cheered and set off fireworks in the Spanish capital overnight Sunday after the final whistle. Others imitated bullfighters and waved large Spanish flags over passing cars while chanting "Ole!" "Champions," wrote right-wing newspaper ABC on its front page below a photo of Casillas holding up the World Cup trophy, surrounded by his teammates. A sports newspaper said on its front page that Iniesta "scored the most important goal in our history" while another sports daily said his goal "lifted Spanish football to the highest possible level."