That means, your contact list is the same whether you log in with your alias or with your account name. You will be able to receive IMs directed to both your main account and your alias. If you have an ID that you don’t like anymore but have a lot of contacts associated with it, you don’t need to abandon it. You can just create an alias for it and pass that as your contact information for future friends.

Now, the procedure….

• Log in to your account at http://pulse.yahoo.com
• Just beneath the top Search button, you should see a navigation bar with a link – “Account Information”. Click on it.
• You will be able to confirm your identity by logging in again. Do that
• Locate the link “Manage Your Yahoo! Aliases” under the “Account Settings” group box and click on it
• You should now see a page called “Manage Your Yahoo! Identities”
• Click the Add an alias link and create your alias

That’s it! You’re done. You will now be able to log in with your alias and your old password and use the Yahoo services just as if you were logged in with your main account.

A few more things to remember:

Once you create an alias, you will be able to select which identity you want to use every time you start a conversation in Yahoo Messenger, before the first line is written.

The identity selected by default is your main account. Be careful with this. If someone from your contact list that has you recorded in his/her list with your main account and has the option “Ignore Anyone Who is not on my Messenger list”, contacting that person as an alias will result in your message not being received.

No doubt, you can have a small glimpse of someone’s personality by knowing his favourite places for hanging out. Each bar has its own decorations, its own playlist, a stable client base and a certain theme that does not usually change (at least in my city).

The two pubs where I hang out the most are both decorated with paintings, guitars and various objects. Each table is framed by a different set and hides its own story. You just have to see it. So call your best friends, head over to your favourite pub, grab some beer and some smokes and while you’re relaxing and having a good time, take a look around you! What do you see?

Now, where do you sit?

18 and life…

In this competition, students from all over the country showcase their own personal projects which consist of software applications or web pages that they developed at home over the last year. I participated with Xpression News 3, the latest version of my news publishing script that was not yet officially launched.

This is the third time I participate at InfoEducatie. I also participated at the 2007 and 2008 editions but this edition was the most important for me.

I had my software evaluated by top professionists (doctors, professors, Google engineers, Microsoft representatives)

I had the chance to discuss everything IT related with lots of smart and enthusiastic people. I learnt a lot of things that will help me develop better products and I also made new friends that know how to have fun (yes, programmers).

I learnt how important it is to know how to sell your ideas.

I learnt how an AntiVirus works from a kid that’s 3 years younger than me.

I found out how some members of the jury got to be successful computer engineers at companies such as Google or Microsoft. I realized that if I’ll stay in Romania PUB is the university that I must go to.

I learnt a new song on guitar: “Falling Slowly” (Thanks to the Sanctus3D dude)

I learnt that the real poets are the ones that travel around the country or even around the world, with a guitar, a digital camera and a cheap car and not the ones that write childish poems about things that they never experienced (for those who know).

I remember the weak sound the guitar playing Hotel California, echoing in the dark, on the hills… she got the Mercedes Benz… such a lovely face bathing in the rays of the full moon, such a beautiful voice. I remember laying there just listening to her, watching her faint red light held between the guitar strings and the smoke that blew in the cold night.

Overall, this was an amazing experience, both professional and social. Also, it was the perfect way to unplug from the stress that surrounds me at home. I came in 7nth.

And so we went on a 11 hour bus journey from Constanta (Romania) to Istanbul (Turkey).
Of course, the actual journey was quite hard to take. We left my hometown at about 2pm and headed for the southern border with Bulgaria. Outside it was extremely hot (around 38 degrees Celsius) and the AC was barely noticeable. The good thing is that we had no traffic jams until the border.

At about 5pm we left Romania through the checkpoint “Vama Veche”. The first 20-30KM in Bulgaria were made on a completely empty road with at least as many bumps and holes as the Romanian road. For 30 minutes or so we didn’t encounter a single other car. It looked to me like the country was deserted. Also, 30KM inside Bulgaria, Romanian radio channels could still be received. One thing that I did like when I entered Bulgaria was the field of Wind Turbines. Dozens of them producing clean green energy. I like that. In my entire country I saw only ONE wind turbine. Quite sad…

After an hour in Bulgaria the road started to get a little more circulated. We passed through a region known as Southern Dobrogea or The Quadrilater which, for a brief period, was part of Romania. I enjoyed the sights of the mountains that were along the Black Sea. Varna looks like a nice city as seen from the mountains but when we descended into it, it had a shade of grey to it that reminded me of how Constanta used to look right after the fall of communism.

We continued our road through Bulgaria following the shore of the Black Sea towards the south, towards the Turkish border. At 8pm we stopped at a Bulgarian gas station. This was the ONLY stop we had in 11 hours! Not a good thing if you need to use the restroom more than once a day. At the place where we stopped, a few hundred kilometers into Bulgaria, we paid in lei (the currency of Romania) and the staff spoke Romanian which is no way an international language. I was impressed.

After that, we departed again. A mountainous road full of tight turns followed. The driver we had was a mad man or stupid so to speak. With one hand on a bottle of soda, one on a juicy tomato dripping on the floor and an elbow on the wheel, he ran through that area at 110KM/hour. About 4hours out of 11 were spent driving on the left side of the road.

At 11pm we reached the border with Turkey, somewhere in the heart of the mountains. Because we were exiting the European Union, I was expecting a more severe checkup at the checkpoint. We spent about 30 minutes in there. I got my visa and finally, we were aligned in two separate lines with our luggage in front of us so that the customs officers can check the contents. What a joke that was. They made us go to all that hassle but actually, no real control was made. Just some guy was going from person to person and briefly looking at the contents of the bags (that were opened) and at bags themselves (if they were closed):

“What do you have there?” – “Notebook computer!” – “Oh, ok”

At about 2am the next day we reached Istanbul. From here I will continue in a future article.

•  Shared – your account (website, emails, logs) is stored on a computer (virtual or physical) with other clients of that provider. You only have access to your root folder (usually /home/<account_name>/) and you can’t edit the configuration.  Resources (RAM, CPU) are shared between the other clients that are located on that server. This is probably the most cost effective choice when you only have to host a small/medium website (~500 visitors a day) and don’t desire special PHP/CGI settings. The price for this plan ranges from 2$/month to about 20$/month. But you can get good hosting for about  5$/month. I recommend FodyHost.
   
• Virtual Private Server - A virtual server is basically a virtual computer which is emulated by a software program installed on a real (physical) computer.  A virtual computer behaves exactly as a real one. It has its own operating system, it can run  its own programs and can have its very own “hardware” configuration. The software on the host computer that manages the virtual machine  allows the owner of the machine to edit its configuration by adjusting the RAM memory that will be reserved by the host computer. Virtual HardDisks, Optical Units and other components can also be added. Web hosts generally set up VPS’s for clients who wish to resell web space (start their own web hosting company), own a large web site that requires more hardware resources or run other kinds of server software. Prices can range from 5$/month (see MiniVDS) to 200$/month. For a cheap, stable experience, I advise you to check out Mosso (starting from 10$/Month).
   
• Dedicated Server - This is a real (physical) computer. Your web host will give you full access to it. Be means of a control panel, you will be able to remotely perform maintenance tasks on this computer (restart it, install Operating Systems, etc) . The most expensive solution (over 50$/month) best fits the profile of the client that wishes to host a very large web site (thousands of visitors per day), a video/audio streaming server or a gaming server.

As usual, telephone lines went down and stupid people started to call the emergency number 112 just to ask details about the earthquake, not having any real emergency. So far, there are no reports of damage or any human loss. Of course, the lousy TV stations broadcasting news here are exaggerating it all and low IQ presenters are barely hiding the excitement of a live earthquake behind a dramatic expression.

People are now thinking at possible aftershocks of higher intensity. However, officials are assuring us that this earthquake is not similar to the one that affected Italy on April 7th, 2009.

This subject has been on my mind for a few years now. I’m not a driver yet but I’m going to acquire a driver’s license in June. Since I don’t own a car, I spent some time on the Internet looking for offers, getting an idea on prices and technical characteristics.

The idea of driving a gas powered vehicle doesn’t thrill me. In my opinion, this technology is old and inefficient, it is a technology that should slowly die over the next years, not progress. Of course, the interests in the petroleum industry continue to be very high, which may be a cause for the slow development of cars that use alternative means of propulsion.

Sadly, that’s not the only reason the electric car has such a weak reputation. A simple Google search can confirm that. There are few producers that make this kind of vehicle and most of them are anonymous names. A name that stood up was Tesla Motors who produced the first electric roadster. My question here would be: Why the hell would you start production with a race car? Why would you do that? Ok, it has great capabilities… Take a look at the specifications.

That’s almost a race car. Now, can you guess the starting price? Little over 100,000$. Yeah, who will buy that? Even if your house is made of money bricks and you want something that fast, you wouldn’t throw your money on that. There are cheaper alternatives that run on gas, pollutant gas.

On the other hand, there are the producers that nobody ever heard of. The Internet is full with poorly conceived websites of such makers. They also produce cars way too expensive for their performances. Most of these cars can’t go longer than 50 miles (80 Km) without needing a recharge. The average top speed ranges between 15-40 mph (24-64 Km/h), the power is low, not to mention the design, which doesn’t always resamble a car.

Chevrolet promises their first electric model in 2010. No price yet. Who knows how many digits will it have. In my opinion, car manufacturers with reputation should invest in research for developing an affordable electric car. Wether it will use batteries or hydrogen, it must be cheap for eveyone to afford it. We are running out of petrol. That’s a matter of only a few decades. They should stop working on huge tank-like gas cars that are a disaster to the environment and work on the future.