I was at home when I received a message on Skype. I get lots of random people adding me, I block almost all of them. I don’t like unsolicited messages, emails, or anything like that. This style of scam has been going on for years, do not fall for it. There is no money. If they send you money it will bounce when you transfer it, leaving you out of pocket. Do not think this one may be real. It is not, they are all lies. This may also be disguised as a business venture being able to benefit you, or someone who cannot claim their lottery prize as it needs to be deposited in an offshore account. All and any derivative of the above is a scam. I just want you to all be aware.

Here is a copy of the message I received:

Hello My Dear.May God bless you.

I am (Removed as is a real person), (Removed as is a real position of this person), I know it is strange contacting you in the first place since we don’t know each other before, but please do not be offended for the strange contact, I also believe that the net has made it easier for people in distance places to come together through electronic communication.  am about to tell you something very important and I Will like you to treat it very serious, it was because of what I am about to tell you that made me to contact you, now read attentively as I comprehensively explained.

There was a man in my ministry by name Late Mr Charles Catim and the wife Late Mrs Mary Catim, Both of them were active members of our church and was sincere and devoted Christians too.The husband died earlier before his wife joined him, may their soul rest in peace. Before the death of the wife Mrs Catim who died last, she revealed to me something very important and serious because of the trust she had on me as her pastor, according to her, there was a total sum of $10.000.000 million her late husband Mr Charles deposited in a Security Company here which he wanted to use for foreign investments, estate and hotel investments etc,before his sudden death as was caused by Political Crisis.His Wife Mrs Catim revealed this to me in case she did not survive her Deadly cancer sickness. She instructed me to make an arrangement with a Foreigner who will help their children in receiving the money in a safe Account and assist in transferring of this fund for the betterment of her two children, Charles and Abigail.

These two Children are now under my care and are worried to have the funds transferred and leave here as soon as the money is tranferred,the reason why they want the money transferred as you may asked is due to the instability of the country politically and the Children are afraid not to stay any longer here because of their parents greedy and envy Relatives who even want them dead in order to inherit all that their wealthy parents left for them.I hope you now get the picture of the reason why they want their legacy Out here and secured, please if this letter touches you and you are Willing to guide this money for the two orphans with honesty and sincere heart and for the fact that they have decided to leave here to secure their life and future, please respond immediately, the mother before she died said to me that 15% of the total money will be mapped out for anyone Who will assist in this noble safety and if there be any money to be spent During the process of having the money transferred an additional 5% percent Will be added to the initial 15% making it all together 20% for you.

I must be sincere to you that I am not after any percentage, you can take the 20% but all I need is your indication and willingness to be a Good Samaritan to these orphans and help them secure their inheritance.I am now old and will be happy if through me and your effort these children will get their Inheritance safe in your care. I am sending this mail to you with faith that their present condition will touch you, Please Mail me back immediately so as to open a telephone communication to help facilitate the quick transfer of the money.

Please reply me via my email address((real persons name)@live.com).

Thank you and May God bless you.

(real persons name)

Now as you can see this tugs on your heart strings, but it is all crap to screw you out of money. Don’t fall for it. Peace out, if you find any more of these, post them as comments.

Now I hadn’t used Visual Studio 2005, I hadn’t even used any of them since high school, and was a bit scared of what was going on, as the environment was completely foreign to me. However reading a few webpages on 2005, it was pretty much self explanatory, very similar to the original as the coding style hadn’t really changed, and I was back in action.

For the coding hobbyists and students and the like who can’t afford to be shelling out cash for the full version of Visual Studio, the express version is well worth the download.

If you are curious to see what the express version is lacking, (as it is a stripped down version), check out the wikipedia article,  or the official site.

Overall I was impressed. Impressed that Microsoft was finally beginning to feel the pressure from the open-source movement in such a way that they finally clicked that if they wanted more people programming in their language, they were going to have to have a free IDE. I was also impressed with the functionality, for something that is free and from Microsoft, it works quite well.

Just to let you know, yesterday Microsoft purchased a $240 Million stake in Facebook. How much was that stake you ask? Actually only a mere 1.6%. This has brought up Facebook’s believed value to 15 Billion. Bet they’re glad now they rejected the $1 billion offer from yahoo at the start of the year. I was actually left dumbfounded when I heard they had spent so little on such a small share, but there is many theories flying around. One thing I noticed is that they seem to now have their nose in the largest social networks online, i.e.. Myspace, Microsoft LiveSpaces and now Facebook. Most curious of questions going around is how did they beat google?

There’s quite a few good articles that delve further in depth into the matter, like the associated press article which I quite liked, and the wired article, which I also liked, and found quite informative.

Now I realise many of my readers have more than one place that they check their emails. I personally have two that I use frequently, and one that I use not as frequently, but still does occur. Now as most people would realise, you download it in one place, you don’t get it on the other. That is due to the nature of POP mail. There is one alternative that many people are unaware of. This is called IMAP.

IMAP works off a different system, one that gmail can utilise because of it’s large server space, (4.3 gig the last time I checked, and still growing), because it works off keeping a copy of your mail on the server. The IMAP service allows the user to download only the message headers and decide if they want to actually download the rest of the message and the attachments. IMAP was designed to overcome some of the issues that POP had. It allows a user to download the message headers and allows the user to decide whether or not to download the rest of the message, so therefore messages are kept on a server, and are only downloaded when a user requests them, and this is great for people who are constantly mobile.

Some advantages of IMAP over POP are:

• Folders for storing received and sent messages
• Freedom for user to download attachments at will
• Server-based searching and selection to minimize data transfer.
• Ability to append messages to a remote folder.
• Ability to set standard and user-defined message status flags.
• Support for simultaneous update and update discovery in shared folders.
• New mail notification.
• Ability to manipulate remote folders other than INBOX.
• Remote folder management.
• Support for folder hierarchies.
• When a client program performs any operation on a mailbox, the server will automatically include in its response notification of any new messages that have arrived since the last notification.
• IMAP’s ability to manipulate remote folders other than INBOX is fundamental to online and disconnected operation. This means being able to save messages from one folder to a different one, being able to access archived messages subsequently, and allowing for multiple incoming message folders.

So this can come in handy for many of you out there, and I highly recommend you check out the features of your new abilities in gmail, oh and just in case you are wondering, it is 100% free, you just have to enable IMAP in your user settings, then set-up your email client, and you are good to go!

For more information check out the HP press release.

“Microsoft, according to insiders at Toshiba owner of the HD DVD patents, claim that Microsoft is working on a brand new Xbox that will incorporate not only a new HD DVD drive but a large hard drive and new entertainment software that is a spin off from its struggling media centre offering.“

Now that sounds attractive. Now everyone knows that the PS3 has killed the Xbox in terms of sales. Microsoft has now realised they need to be giving people something that will entice them further and if this “insider” tip from Toshiba turns out to be true, it could be very beneficial for a lot of people.

Some of the features that this new console is meant to have are:

• Gaming (obviously)
• Wireless Networking
• 1080p playback
• *Possibly* HDTV tuner
• *Possibly* EPG capability
• *Possibly* a docking port for an mp3 player

Now these features are quite attractive. The article further goes on and talk about how it will have an open chassis system that will allow for the xbox to be slotted in to a HDTV screen over 40inch and also allow, now pause and be ready to be warmed by knowing that they actually considered this in a console, allow users to upgrade hard drives like users can on a pc. It will be a Christmas miracle if they do that.

Now as with everything cool, it’s not coming out yet, but it is projected to come out in late 2008, are at the latest 2009. Hopefully that is enough time to release this, I honestly believe it will make or break whether the Xbox will ever be successful, and if all these features come with it, I will be over the moon.

The full article can be read here.

The revolutionary new technology has been made possible by Hitachi developing the worlds smallest reading heads, which are about half the size of the current hard drives. However as with the previous post on the Western Digital drives reaching 3 terabytes, it will be a while before they are released commerically. Current projections are for 2011.

For a more detailed report, read the press release on the Hitachi site.

The MPAA hired Robert Anderson to help them bring down piracy. Now firstly, I will say, having worked in the DVD industry before, it is quite obvious the devastating effect that piracy has had on movies. They have lost a lot of money with the coming of the internet age. (however I still strongly believe that cable TV has also made a substantial impact on it, more specifically from my personal experience, but I would also believe that it would be a considerable factor in the rest of the world). Now to see the extent as to which these people have gone. They had a “hired gun” go in and compromise the security of another company in order to bring them down. Now the MPAA is denying all liability, as of course they would. I’m sure they have the contracts to prove it too. According to the article he was paid a lot of money, and promised that, “…if you can save Hollywood for us you can become rich and powerful.” Now that to me is an offer you just can’t refuse.

I’d highly recommend reading the full article on wired as it is pretty good. It goes on to talk about how he compromised the security of torrentspy, and his plans of how to bring them down.

Video game characters live in a three-dimensional world, but gamers have only been able to experience two dimensions… until now. The 3rdSpace® Vest from TN Games takes gameplay beyond sight and sound, creating spatial awareness of the world your characters inhabit. Unlike traditional force feedback devices that rumble or buzz, the 3rdSpace Vest gives you precise impact where it happens, as it happens. Get pounded with body slams, crushed with G-forces, and blasted with bullet fire.

Buying the vest online includes FPS Gaming Vest, air compressor, USB cable, power supply and 3rd Space Incursion game disc. They come in two sizes and also come in two colours, camo and black. They are currently shipping for US$169 and is only available on pre-order. The current expected shipping date is November 2007.

So as you can see, some hardcore gaming enthusiasts know exactly what they’re asking Santa for Christmas.

If you are interested make sure you check out the official site.