With more than half-a-dozen stages sprawled out across a Tennessee farm, knowing who's playing where at Bonnaroo can be challenging _ especially when those bands are frequently playing music by other acts.
Covers were popular at this year's festival. Aside from the Flaming Lips' fuzzy, full-length rendition of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon," here are a few of the most remarkable ones:
Weezer: MGMT's "Kids"
Tori Amos: …
One of the goals of Seattle-based RealNetworks' Web site is to allow "anyone who is interested in broadcasting media over the Internet to get the tools and servers to do that," said Marty Roberts, who heads up the RealServer product line at RealNetworks. "Our main users are businesses finding out how to use streaming media in enterprise or content creators interested in putting their medium on the Web."
Naturally, the site showcases many of the company's content creation tools, including higher-end versions of its popular RealPlayer software and streaming media servers, as well as third-party products such …
Byline: John Caher Staff writer
New York's top judge said the drug crisis threatens to sink the entire state in the quagmire of crime that has crippled the state's largest city.
"For years, this state has lived with the gradual deterioration of law enforcement in New York City largely due to the excessive burden carried by the New York City Criminal Court," said Chief Judge Sol Wachtler of the Court of Appeals. "Now, unless we take immediate steps, we will begin living with that same deterioration in other cities throughout the state."
Wachtler, in an 87-page state-of- the-judiciary message released for publication today,
called for 15 additional judges, more resources in every part of the criminal justice system, a comprehensive approach to dealing with the drug problem and mandatory life prison sentences for persistent …
Sri Lanka, May 24 -- Before presenting what Internet Society is, it is time to speak a little about Internet itself. Internet is made by interconnecting networks and these networks use mainly two protocols which are known as Transmission Control Protocol or popularly known as TCP and Internet Protocol or IP which are available free in the public domain. In other words, these are not propriety protocols with royalties.
What is a protocol one may ask? A Protocol is a standard something which is similar to grammar in a language. When we speak to each other, if the other person totally unknown to you can understand what each other says it is due to grammar.
Today many identify Internet as Web, though it is only a resource on the Internet. Email, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and World Wide Web (www) are some of the common resources on the internet. Due to loosely coupled architecture of internet, no one controls internet or owns internet.
When a host connects to Internet through an Internet Service Provider by way of a fixed line, through mobile network or a dial-up, that host becomes part of the Internet.
As mentioned earlier, Internet is a network of networks and networks are made of hosts or computers or digital devices such as mobile phones; even some household items such as refrigerators have the ability to connect to Internet today.
All of these hosts are identified on the Internet with a particular address which is similar to a postal address though made up of 'bits' since digital devices think in binary numbers. The Internet is at crossroads due to the exhaustion of presently used addresses.
These addresses are known as IP version 4 or 32 bit addresses; due to its 32 bits, the maximum number of addresses one could have is limited to 4 billion (the number is less than the total population of the world) and by the time this article is written, the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) which is responsible for IP addresses and one of those loosely coupled organizations important for Internet, has run out of the 32 bit addresses.
IANA has issued a statement stating that the last of these address blocks has been released to the relevant regional organizations. The Internet will transit from 32 bit addresses to 128 bit addresses in toto.
These are known as IP version 6 though some of the hosts have already been allocated 128 bit addresses.
The world had been getting ready for this eventuality for many years and many tests had been carried out to find out whether major networks of the world were ready for this transition and it is expected that the Internet will cross over from the 32 bit address space to 128 bit address space without even a single user knowing this.
Internet Top Level Domain (TLD) and Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLD)
Since the Internet addresses are made of numbers, humans find it difficult to remember them. Humans think in words rather than in odd-looking numbers which are separated by dots.
Each of these numbers is translated and stored dynamically by servers which are known as Domain Name Service Servers or DNS servers. These servers are known also as look-up servers. Many of us speak of .com, .org, .mil, .net, .gov and they are known as generic Top Level Domains or gTLDs.
Although some of the gTLD remained fixed for some time after the initial introduction, a new set of gTLD has been added after 2000 and is popularly used: .aero, .biz, .museum, .asia etc.
.lk, .uk, .jp and .us are known as Country Code Top Level Domains or ccTLD. Sri Lanka obtained its domain in 1990 and it celebrated its 20th year in June 2010.
Sri Lanka achieved a major milestone in 2010 as the seventh country in the world to have its domain names in both its official languages (Sinhala and Tamil) and the first in the world to get approval for two languages at the TLD level.
Internet today has more non-English speaking or Non-Roman Script users than the ones who speak English.
Most of these users come from South East Asia - from countries like China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Having Internationalized the Domain Names Service (IDNS), Sri Lanka has shown that she can technically stand shoulder to shoulder with other technically advanced nations such as the USA, Germany and Japan.
Published by HT Syndication with permission from Daily News Sri Lanka.
For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com
The draws have been made for the early rounds of the FootballAssociation competitions for the 2009-10 season.
Toolstation Premier sides Bitton and Larkhall Athletic have beenhanded home ties in the FA Cup extra preliminary round, againstNewport Isle of Wight and Shepton Mallet respectively.
Corsham Town and Keynsham Town face respective away trips toMilton United and Bridport.
The second qualifying round of the FA Vase sees Odd Down hostWelton Rovers and Corsham Town entertain Hallen.
Bradford Town are at Cheltenham Saracens and Keynsham Town areaway to Penryn Athletic.
WASHINGTON - The first clue that something had gone terribly wrongat Gallaudet University was the door to Eric Plunkett's dorm room. Itwasn't open.
Several students noticed, but it is likely only one person knewthe reason. Only one person knew why Plunkett, an ebullient 19-year-old freshman, wasn't inviting people into his room as he usually did,to hang out and talk about life at Gallaudet, the nation's premiercollege for deaf students.
That person, police say, bludgeoned Plunkett to death sometimearound Thursday, Sept. 28, probably with a chair in his room. Thebody was left behind the locked door.
In the days since, Plunkett's death has become a mystery. It hasspawned a tortured police investigation, and pierced the leafysanctum of Gallaudet, where generations of deaf students have come tolearn and bond with one another, to feel protected and free ofdiscrimination.
But most of all, it has turned the silent world of one Gallaudetstudent - Tom Minch, a well-known member of the deaf community inPortsmouth, N.H. - into a living nightmare.
Minch, 18, who came to Gallaudet nine weeks ago and formed a closebond with Plunkett, has gone from dreaming about being a lawyer tobecoming the chief suspect in his friend's murder.
Eight days ago, Minch was publicly mourning the death, assistingwith a memorial, and dedicating his Internet home page "in lovingmemory" to Plunkett. "MAY HIS SOUL BE IN HEAVEN!" it read.
Investigators questioned Minch last Tuesday, with an interpretercommunicating in sign language, and that evening arrested him on acharge of second-degree murder.
Mercy Coogan, a Gallaudet spokeswoman, said school officials weretold by police that Minch admitted the crime. But on Wednesday, justbefore a scheduled arraignment, prosecutors stunned a packedcourtroom by announcing they did not have enough evidence to chargeMinch.
"We really agonized about whether there was enough to go forward,and there wasn't," said Executive Assistant Chief Terrance Gainer ofthe Washington, D.C., police. Asked about the interrogation of Minch,he added, "If he had confessed, he'd still be in jail."
Minch remains a top suspect of the seven detectives and threeother officers who took over the investigation after the murdercharge was dropped.
At the same time, Minch has become the source of rampant anxietyand speculation at Gallaudet, which has roughly 2,000 students. Manyhere were stunned when the mild-mannered freshman was arrested. Butthey were also relieved to think the killer had been apprehended. Nowpeople don't know what to believe.
"Right now I feel like I'm on an emotional roller coaster," saidGallaudet's provost, Jane Fernandes, in sign language to a packedstudent assembly on Thursday, the morning after Minch was freed. Sheadded, with the translator's voice rising in tone, "I'm as frustratedas hell."
Murder is relatively rare at colleges: About 40 students have beenmurdered this year, but only three (including Plunkett) have died indormitories, according to Security on Campus Inc., a nonprofit groupthat tracks campus crime.
Yet these cases severely test the sense of safety on campus, wherestudents often feel protected from the outside. A murder-suicide atHarvard University in 1995 was a scarring experience for many there,not least because it involved two dormitory roommates.
Dan Carter, vice president of Security on Campus, said that in theinsular world of a college campus, homicides tend to be committed bymembers of the local community. Gallaudet, however, is supposed to bethe exception.
Walled off against some of the bustling and blighted neighborhoodsof northeast Washington, the campus is a haven for hearing-impairedstudents.
"Inclusive" is the buzzword here. Students speak to one anotherthrough eye contact, body language, and, of course, their hands,creating real physical intimacy in the dorms and classrooms. The onlynoises on most days are the tap of a shoe on concrete, the buzz of alawn mower, a siren in the distance.
Thursday, Sept. 28, was not like most days. Residents of CogswellHall kept waiting for Plunkett's door to open; after dinner, when itstill hadn't, a few friends went by and detected an "odor," said oneof them in an interview, declining to give his name. They alerted adorm resident assistant, who entered the room at around 8 p.m.Plunkett, a slight man who had cerebral palsy, lay inside. He hadbeen beaten around the head and neck, and there were no signs oflife.
Coogan, the university spokeswoman, was called around 9:30 p.m.and was tapped to join a "crisis management team" that has met dailysince then. At 1:30 a.m. the next day, she sent an e-mail to allstudents, including Minch, with the news of Plunkett's death.
"We felt people needed to know right away, before rumors started,"she said. Yet the speculation began almost instantly.
Thomas Green, for one, felt he knew the motive right away:homophobia. Plunkett had been the secretary of the Lambda Society, acampus association for gay and straight students that Green led. Thegroup has heard reports since mid-September of antigay slurs writtenon dormitory message boards and epithets hurled at some students.
"The university's just starting to see that there's discriminationon campus," said Green, a junior majoring in business.
But the theory that antigay violence triggered the murder seemsoff to others. Chris Soukup, the student body president, said thatbetween 10 and 20 percent of those attending Gallaudet are openlygay, and that the deaf community - whose members often struggle withissues of identity and acceptance - are welcoming to those who aregay.
Moreover, echoing the university's president, I. King Jordan,Soukup said that the notion of hate crimes is irreconcilable withGallaudet's image as a welcoming place.
"We have such a hard time saying this is a hate crime," saidSoukup, who speaks and signs. "If we labeled this a hate crime, thatwould open up the doors to everyone feeling they could or might bediscriminated against."
Police have not labeled the murder a hate crime but would notdiscuss their reasons. Gainer said they were now building a strongerbody of evidence and facts than they previously had. While decliningto place blame for the premature arrest of Minch, he said a"seasoned" detective had taken over the investigation.
Given the vacuum of information, Minch has been the focal point ofsuspicion on campus. Some students remember him acting sad and afraidafter Plunkett's murder; others said that he seemed unusually normal.Very little is certain. Police hope that forensic evidence willprovide some answers in the case, but until then the glare is onMinch.
At the school assembly Thursday, Fernandes surprised many in theaudience with the announcement that Minch had been suspended fromGallaudet and would not be coming back.
That news did not sit well with Sheila Monigan, among others. Afreshman from Methuen, she marched up to the front of the assemblyhall and, at the start of a question-and-answer period withFernandes, challenged the provost over the suspension, saying itviolated Minch's rights.
"We are more concerned about the safety of our students here, andwe're concerned about his safety," Fernandes said of Minch, referringto reports of threats against him.
Afterwards, Monigan said she was satisfied with the answer, sinceMinch's own safety was being taken into account. She said she feltsomeone had to stick up for Minch, and she felt comfortable doing so,being acquainted with him from the deaf community in New England.
In Portsmouth, where Minch was "mainstreamed" into the public highschool with hearing students, teachers and school officials wereperplexed by the news from Gallaudet. "He was just a regular, hard-working kid, with a great sense of humor," said Wendell Purrington,the musical director for several shows in which Minch performed atPortsmouth High School.
Minch, the son of deaf parents who are active in the hearing-impaired community in Portsmouth, was especially active in the highschool's theater program. He acted in several plays and played thelead in an original play, "Denmark Vesey Plans a Revolt" - the storyof an attempted slave rebellion in South Carolina in 1822 - and was alove interest in a production of "Bye Bye Birdie."
"During `Birdie,' I'd tell him, `You have to learn the tenor parta little bit better,' " Purrington said. "We'd laugh and smile andhave a big joke about it."
He and others hope to hear soon from Minch, who is now secludedwith his family. Attempts to reach him and the family wereunsuccessful. Monigan, too, said she spoke at the school assembly toremind people that there are two sides to every story, every mystery.She said she hoped there would not be two tragedies here as well.
"I'm angry because there are two lives that may be wasted here,"she said. "Eric is forever gone. And Tom, if he's guilty, his futureis wasted as well."
DEPARTMENT store Debenhams offered some cheer for shoppers as itsignalled the recent surge in cotton prices may have peaked.
The chain is hopeful that prices for commodities such as cotton,which have rocketed in the past year, could fall back in a move thatwould ease some of the pressure on consumers and the margins ofretailers such as Debenhams.
The chain added that its underlying profits increased 4.5% toPounds 129.2m in the 26 weeks to February 26, despite flat same-store sales as it concentrated on higher-margin private label anddesigner brands.
It gave no indication about its current trading performance butunderlined its improved prospects by reporting its first dividendsince 2008.
Numerous retailers including HMV, Mothercare and Currys and PCWorld-parent Dixons Retail have warned on profits as they havestruggled to pass on rising prices to cautious shoppers.
This week it emerged that the official rate of inflation droppedto 4% in March from 4.4% the previous month as retailers put on morediscounts.
Debenhams, which has 167 stores in the UK and Ireland, said itwas encouraged by strong sales from ranges from designers such asJonathan Saunders, Preen, and Jasper Conran. It claimed to havegrown its share of the womenswear, childrenswear, cosmetics andperfume markets.
Sales through its internet arm Debenhams Direct rose 82%. Bestsellers included Egyptian cotton towels, Christian Lacroix perfume,Thorntons chocolates, and remote-control helicopters.
