Google : Countdown to the New Year 2009

2009 is coming, are you ready? With a couple of weeks away from the New Year, many people should be busy planning their New Year’s resolutions, e.g. planning behavioral changes, career improvement, etc. To thank users for their support and usher in the new year with fun, Google wants to invite its supporters to do the countdown to 2009 by presenting daily tip and trick on how to use its various services and products.

Get some tips and tricks from Google. Join Google’s “Countdown to 2009” and Google will add in daily advice for users. For instance, on the 4th, Google introduced you how to convert between many different units of measurement with its search engine and on the 5th Google tell you how to limit your search to values within a specific numeric range.

This digital way of celebrating the New Year is quite delightful. As the clock ticks away the final minutes of the old year, users will be able to get some know-how of Google’s services besides enjoying the fun of counting down.


Thank you for reading.

Get Windows Vista SP 2 Service Pack 2 (Beta)

From Microsoft Download Center :

Windows Server 2008/Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) Beta is an update to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. It provides customer and partner feedback driven fixes into a single service pack, minimizing deployment and testing complexity.

In addition to all previously released updates, SP2 will contain changes focused on addressing reliability and performance issues, supporting new types of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards.

Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta apply to people, organizations, and technical enthusiasts who are comfortable evaluating prerelease software. This prerelease software is provided for testing only. Installation of Service Pack 2 Beta will result in Microsoft collecting information about the installation process, even if the installation is not completed. We do not recommend installing this software on primary or mission-critical systems. We recommend that you have a backup of your data before you install any prerelease software.

SP2 is an update to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista that addresses feedback from our customers and partners. By providing these fixes integrated into a single service pack, Microsoft provides a single high-quality update that minimizes deployment and testing complexity for customers.
In addition to all previously released updates, SP2 will contain changes focused on addressing reliability and performance issues, supporting new kinds of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards. SP2 will also continue to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage large installations of Windows Server 2008.

Service Pack 1 is a prerequisite for installing Service Pack 2. Please make sure that your system is running Service Pack 1 before you install Service Pack 2.
Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta - Five Language Standalone version can be installed on systems with any of the following language versions: English, French, German, Japanese, or Spanish.

From QTO :

Microsoft has released Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) Beta and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2) Beta as an update to Windows Server and Windows Vista. Now testers can try the new software update to see the difference.

Microsoft has released these through a Customer Preview Program (CPP) launched on TechNet and is intended for technology enthusiasts, developers, and IT Pros. For most customers, they advise waiting for the final release. Remember Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta is a prerelease software and provided for testing only. Microsoft will collect information about the installation process, even if the installation is not completed.

Download Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta now and see what goodies are in store. Since Service Pack 1 is a prerequisite for installing Service Pack 2, ensure your system is running Service Pack 1 before you install Service Pack 2. Download Windows Vista SP1 (which you should have got by now anyway) if you want to try SP2.

Windows Vista SP2 Beta fixes specific reliability, performance, and compatibility issues and has some new features like

* Adds Windows Search 4.0 for faster and relevant searches.
* Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack supporting recent Bluetooth Technology.
* Ability to record data on to Blu-Ray media natively.
* Adds Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify Wi-Fi Configuration.
* Enables exFAT file system to support UTC timestamps, which allows correct file synchronization across time zones.

• Downloads :

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta :

Rapidshare - Mirror - Free - Megaupload - Zshare (Uploading ...)

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 :

Rapidshare - Mirror - Free - Megaupload - Zshare (Uploading ...)

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Enjoy this Update.

Eid Adha Mubarak for ALL !

Today is Eid Al-Adha El Mubarak,

and on this important religious occasion,

the UPSOS Team congratulate the whole Islamic Nation.

Eid Mubarak.

An Extreme Desktop On Ubuntu ! [Video]

Here is a video of Ubuntu 6.10 with XGL and Kiba-Dock :



Ubuntu is one of the best Linux distributions, you can get it for FREE.
For more informations, read this post :

Ubuntu : a Free Operating System (Download or request a CD)

New Twitter account created ! You can Follow us now

Hello.
a New twitter account has been created,
so you can Follow us and get our updates using twitter.

The account is : http://twitter.com/upsos

A new gadget has been added to the blog to follow us directly over the blog !

New updates for twitter will be added soon.

We Get Into Google in Less Than 20 Minutes !

Hello and Welcome.

As you see, the previous post "Get "QuickPress" : a Cool WordPress Theme !" : got archived by Google in less than 20 minutes !

The secret is : Posting and Waiting ...

After you get a blog, just start posting, and remember to subscribe to : Google Webmasters Service. It is FREE and takes several minutes.
Also try to send a Sitemap to Google, follow this instructions :

1- You can use your Atom Feed as a Sitemap, the URL is :

http://upsosb.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Replace "upsosb" with your blog sub domain.

2- Do you know that Blogger generate a Sitemap for your blog ? the Sitemap URL is :

http://upsosb.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?orderby=updated

Replace "upsosb" with your blog sub domain.

3- Do you know that Blogger generate a Robots.txt for your blog ? the Robots.txt File is :

http://upsosb.blogspot.com/robots.txt

Replace "upsosb" with your blog sub domain.

You can use this tips to get into Google easily and rapidly. If we get other updates, we will post them on the blog ! Share your tips and experiments with us : Post them in comments.

Thank you and remember to Subscribe to our RSS feeds to get updates.




New Update : See this image : this post get archived by Google in minutes :

Get "QuickPress" : a Cool WordPress Theme !

From QTO blog :
Introduction :
QuickPress is a 3-column, widget-ready, SEO-optimized, Ad-ready, WordPress 2.6 compatible wordpress theme which is very useful for all types of bloggers. Its a premium theme for free use and with free lifetime support.





Download : Last version : QuickPress (v1.3.2) :
Rapidshare - Mirror.

• Why use "QuickPress" Wordpress Theme ?

3-Columns - three column templates help to accomodate, fit and blend content much better that 1 or 2 Column themes. The theme will also let you fit in advertisements, text links easily in any part of the sidebars. You can easily switch to 2-columns by removing the lower sidebars.

Widget Ready - Two widget ready sidebars are ready to be loaded with widgets. Simply go to Presentation>Widgets and load up you favorite widgets right into the sidebar. The current theme displays the Recent Articles RSS feed and Recent Comments widgets in 2 widget sidebars.

Fast Loading - Minimal clean code ensure the theme is fast loading as much as possible. Load up some default widgets, which are cached automatically and you still have a quick loading site.

SEO optimized - Theme has be designed make it as search engine friendly as possible to help you get more site traffic and higher search engine ranking for your articles.

Ad Ready - The template files have commented areas where you can easily add your advertisements and easily customise the template.

Gravatar ready - Choose gravatar dispay options from WP Admin.

Valid XHTML and CSS - The theme has been thoroughly checked for XHTML and CSS validity and its ready to go with any browser and platform.

Spam Free - the template has been checked to be free of any hidden links and bug codes.

Plugin Compatible - Tested and retested to support most plugins.

Browser Compatible - Tested on latest versions with IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari for compatibility and design issues.

Top navigation - Your own set of links, ads highlighted at the top of the page.

Free Lifetime Support - ask your queries and get them answered for free. We help you use and optimize QuickPress for as long as you use it.

FREE - like all Wordpress goodness,released under a GPL License. Why pay for premium themes, when you can get it for free.

• FAQ :

Can I convert it to 2-columns?

Simply remove the 2 small sidebars (l_sidebar and r_sidebar) from the sidebar code, and you got a single sidebar to deal with and 2 columns

Can I change the width of the sidebars?
Both the l_sidebar and r_sidebar are 170px wide with 5px padding to easily fit in a 160px wide skyscrapper ad. You can change the width of the sidebars in style.css. Reduce the r_sidebar and increase the width of l_sidebar by the same px.

I do not need to show Blogroll or About?
Simply remove the particular code from the sidebar.

Can I remove your attribution link?
You are required to keep the attribution “QuickPress theme by Quick Online Tips” in the footer as it is. You cannot delete or edit it.

Can I edit the template to suit my needs?
You can edit the css file to blend your content and suit your requirements.

Can I change the link colors?
Sure. see the “a” tags in style.css

How can I change the top navigation bar links?
Edit header.php and locate the “topbar” div tags where you can change the links or remove the bar as a whole.

How can I change you bottles image?
Edit sidebar.php and you willl find the image. Placing Adsense ads or your own rotating images is a good option.

Thank you, and enjoy this free cool theme !

How to Disable Google SearchWiki

From Google System blog :

Google SearchWiki lets you customize the search results by promoting, demoting and adding new pages. You can also annotate the results. Some people think that the new feature clutters Google's clean search results, without bringing too much functionality.



Google doesn't offer a way to turn off SearchWiki other than logging out from your Google account, but you can install a Greasemonkey script that hides the interface for this additional functionality. If you use Firefox, install Greasemonkey extension, restart the browser and the add the No SearchWiki script. Google's search results will look clean again, even if you are logged in.


The script also works in Opera, which has built-in support for userscripts. Just go to Tools>Preferences>Advanced>Content>JavaScript Options, choose a folder in the "User JavaScript files" box and then save the script in that folder.

Note that the script doesn't disable the SearchWiki interface for the results you've already promoted so you can restore their default position and you can still see the removed results at the bottom of the page. To undo your changes, you can use My SearchWiki Notes page.

Enjoy this Tip !