LIBERTY RESERVE OWNER ARRESTED & WEBSITE NOT FUNCTIONING AT THE MOMENT

Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk, 39, on Friday was arrested in Spain as part of a money laundering investigation performed jointly by police agencies in the United States and Costa Rica. 


Costa Rican prosecutor José Pablo González said Budovsky, a Costa Rican citizen of Ukrainian origin, has been under investigation since 2011 for money laundering using a company he created in the country called Liberty Reserve. 

Local investigations began after a request from a prosecutor’s office in New York. On Friday, San José prosecutors conducted raids in Budovsky's house and offices in Escazá, Santa Ana, southwest of San José, and 
in the province of Heredia, north of the capital. 

Budovsky's businesses in Costa Rica apparently were financed by using money from child Indecency websites and drug trafficking. 

New York conviction, According to records from the U.S. Justice Department, on July 27, 2006, Budovsky and a partner identified as Vladimir Kats were indicted by the state of New York on 
charges of operating an illegal financial business, GoldAge Inc., from their Brooklyn apartments. 

They had transmitted at least $30 million to digital currency accounts worldwide since beginning operations in 2002. 

The digital currency exchange, GoldAge, received and transmitted $4 million between Jan. 1, 2006, and June 30, 2006, as part of the money laundering scheme. 

Customers opened online GoldAge accounts with limited documentation of identity, then GoldAge purchased digital gold currency through those accounts; the defendants' fees sometimes exceeded $100,000. 

Customers could choose their method of payment to GoldAge: wire remittances, cash deposits, postal money orders or checks. 

Finally, the customers could withdraw the money by requesting wire transfers to accounts anywhere in the world or by having checks sent to any identified individual. 

Budovsky and Kats were sentenced to five years in prison for engaging in the business of transmitting money without a license, a felony violation of state banking law, but got probation.

Lets keep our fingers crossed and pray that funds in Liberty Reserve would be made available to various account holders.

source: ticotimes.net

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BB announces the BlackBerry Q5 for emerging markets

The start of the BlackBerry Live 2013 annual conference in Orlando, USA, saw the announcement of the BlackBerry Q5 - a QWERTY device for emerging markets.

The Blackberry Q5 revolves around a 3.1-inch touchscreen and one of BlackBerry's classic physical QWERTY keyboards, which they are so proud of. The screen has an unusual resolution of 720 x 720px - the same as on the Q10, but this time it's an LCD unit. Inside the BlackBerry Q5 there's a dual-core 1.2Ghz CPU and 8 gigs worth of storage. There's a microSD slot to expand that, but the battery is not removable.

The new BlackBerry Q5 will be available in selected markets in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia (including the Asia Pacific region), and Latin America, with availability beginning in July. The smartphone will be offered in black, white, red and pink.

Another announcement that came from the today's keynote is that the BlackBerry 10.1 update is now ready to seed to the BlackBerry Z10 (later this month in the US). Not only that, but starting today, Skype will be available to all users who update their Z10s to v10.1.

Credit: GSM ARENA

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AIRTEL INTRODUCES SINGLE RECHARGE CARD FOR VOICE AND DATA PLAN

Leading telecommunications operator, Airtel Nigeria, has introduced a dual-purpose single recharge card for both voice and data services on the network that will allow customers to recharge for both services with only one recharge card. 



The Single Recharge Option, another first in the industry by Airtel, is available in both physical and electronic recharge formats. The physical recharge card comes in N100, N500 and N5000 denominations, while the electronic pin (paper) option are available in denominations of N100, N200, N500, N1000, N2000 and N5000. 

For the Single Recharge, the old process of recharge for the Airtel voice service still suffices as customers are to dial *126* followed by the Recharge PIN and then #. However, to subscribe for data service on the same recharge card, customers will need to dial *143* followed by Recharge PIN and #. 

The Single Recharge Option also attracts applicable bonus rates for data subscription depending on the amount of airtime purchased. 
When customers load between N100 and N500, they will enjoy 60% data bonus while subscription of N1, 000 to N5, 000 attracts for 30 percent data bonus. 
Speaking on latest innovation, the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, Airtel Nigeria, Deepak Srivastava, said the latest recharge option further buttresses the company’s commitment to continually offer Nigerians innovative products tailored to provide them a whole world of value and convenience. 

He pledged Airtel relentless drive to deliver fresh and cutting-edge telecoms technology so to ensure that its customers continue to enjoy first-rate products and services, adding that Single Recharge is another great reason to be on the Airtel network, especially coming at a time when Mobile Number Portability (MNP) allows customers to move over to Airtel for the conveniences that it offers its customers. 

“The Airtel Single Recharge is simply a double victory for our customers because we have single-handedly, eliminated the multiple processes of recharging or subscribing for voice and data services separately, by merging the two procedures to produce a single and seamless recharge process for both services using a single step. This is not only unique but revolutionary, and can only come from a network that has got Nigerians proudly covered”, he said. 

The Airtel Single Recharge, which is for both prepaid and postpaid customers, also provides additional advantage for data customers as it totally eliminates the process of subscribing for data using USSD or SMS codes.

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GOOD NEWS!! SEND FREE SMS TO ANY NETWORK USING MTN

Today i bring Good news to all MTN users!!! You can now send free sms to all networks in nigeria using below Trick. 


After typing ur message, whenever you want to put recipient's phone number, just start the number with plus, e.g +08064026574. 

It is tested and confirmed with 0.0kobo! Even if you have credit, MTN will not deduct your Credit! 
Note:- You can Send Free SMS to any Network using this Trick. Enjoy it while it last.

 Click  for daily Tips on your Facebook page!

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Photoshop Basics: How to set up Photoshop

Before you start using Photoshop you should set it up properly. Don’t worry if you don’t understand what all the options mean, just follow the guidelines below for starters. With time and extensive use the meaning of all those fancy and (apparently) complex options will fall into place and you will know exactly what you want. You have to start somewhere, right?

General Preferences

Let’s start by going to Edit > Preferences > General (Ctrl+K).

General

Uncheck “export clipboard” and leave the rest as default.

Interface

Here you can also leave as default but you may want to temporarily check “show channels in color” to see them in color and maybe better understand the way RGB channels work. But you will want to uncheck this option eventually because it will make channel evaluation difficult.

File Handling

I usually uncheck “Ask before saving layered TIFF files” because it is annoying to have the warning pop up every time stating that using layers increases file size. I also choose “Never” from “Maximize PSD and PSB file compatibility” popup menu. But if you are using your files across multiple versions of Photoshop or other Adobe Suite products you may want to leave this to “Always” or “Ask”.

Performance

• Memory usage
  This depends on your available RAM but I usually let Photoshop use 70% of total available memory. This is enough for my system to do multitasking and not choke if I have other apps open simultaneously.
• History & Cache
  The only thing you should change is “History States”. This option is very important because it determines how many history states you have available when editing a file (that is how many ctrl+Z or steps back you can go). 500 is a fairly right amount but be careful of maxing it out (1000) because it will require more RAM and it will increase your scratch file size (we will get to that next).
• Scratch disks
  Scratch disks are disks where your scratch files are stored. But what is a scratch file? Well, a scratch file is usually a file on your hard-disk where Photoshop stores history states (remember them from above?), cache levels and other information about your working documents. As you continue to edit your images the scratch file size increases. So you should select as primary scratch disk a fast, large hard-drive (other than the one the operating system is installed). A Solid State Drive would be great, but a defragmented hard-disk with 20+ Gigabytes will be enough for most of your tasks.
• GPU Settings
  You should definitely check “Enable OpenGL Drawing” if your graphic card allows it. That is, if the option is grayed out you probably don’t have a good enough graphic card or your drivers are missing or they are old in which case you should update your GPU drivers. This is not essential for working with Photoshop but it sure makes navigation and editing smoother and more eye-candy.

Cursors

• Painting cursors
  Go with the “Full size brush tip option” and check “Show crosshair in Brush Tip” as this increases your precision when painting.
• Other cursors
  Leave it to “Standard”. You can press Caps Lock to bring up the precise cursor.

Transparency & Gamut

Here you can leave the default settings.

Units & Rulers

Because I mainly use Photoshop for the Web I set “Rulers” to “pixels”. But if you are working with files for print or other medium you can change the “Rulers” to the other measuring units available. Be aware of the “New Document Preset Resolution” option. You should leave “Print Resolution” at 300 pixel/inch but you can change the “Screen Resolution” to 80 pixels/inch if you are working with images for Web display and raise it up to 250 pixels/inch if you are working with images that will have multiple future destinations ( print, web, video editing etc.).

Guides, Grid & Slices

Here you can leave the default settings.

Plug-ins

The only notable change you can make here is to check “Additional Plug-Ins Folder” and select your plug-ins folder. How is this going to help you? If you use lots of plug-ins you can install them in different folders ( other than the default plugins folder ) and select only the folder with plug-ins you need that day or that week. The thing is that the fewer the plug-ins, the faster the start-up.

Type

Here you can leave the default settings.

3D

I don’t use 3D on a regular basis so I can’t give you proper advice about how to set up this effectively, but on the rare occasions that I work with 3D the default setting work just fine.

Color Settings

Color settings is a very important thing to set up right because your entire workflow is affected by it. These settings establish the way Photoshop treats your images so you should be careful and set it up properly. Go to Edit > Color Settings (Ctrl+Shift+K).

The first thing you should do is click the “More options” button which reveals some advanced settings.

• Working Spaces
  Here you can choose in what color space you will be working. I suggest you leave “Gray” and “Spot” as they are and also leave CMYK at “US Web Coated SWOP v2” unless you have specifications from your printing service. The RGB is set to default at “sRGB IEC61966-2.1” and it should work fine if you edit images only for the web. However, if your images will have multiple future destinations ( video editing, print, etc. ) you should choose either ”Adobe RGB(1998)” or “Pro Photo RGB” color space. What is a color space? Well, when you work in a color space, your image will be displayed using all the colors available in that color space. sRGB is a smaller color space than others, so your image will look less smooth and poorer in color variation than it would look if you have displayed your image on Adobe RGB or Pro Photo RGB because the last two are larger color spaces and thus contain more color nuances. If you are interested in the subject you can check this Wikipedia article. Follow this general rule: If your images are for the Web only than choose sRGB. Otherwise go with AdobeRGB or Pro Photo RGB.
• Color Management Policies
  Here you set up the way Photoshop treat the profile mismatches and images with missing profiles. My advice is to leave “CMYK” and “Gray” to “Preserve Embedded Profiles” and “RGB” to “Convert to Working RGB”. This setting will convert an image with and existing or missing profile to your working profile ( your working profile will be the color space you selected from the dialog above this one ). Also you should check “Profile Mismatches” “Ask when Opening” and leave the other two options unchecked. This is useful when you are working in a smaller color space and the image you open has a larger color space Because the conversion will discard some color information you should be aware of it when it will happens. As a rule of thumb convert to working RGB only when your working RBG is Adobe RGB or Pro Photo RGB and the image you’re converting has an sRGB or an unknown color profile.
• Conversion Options
  Leave the “Engine” to “Adobe(ACE)” but if you are working mainly with photos then I recommend that you change the “Intent” to “Perceptual”. This will preserve the color relations in a photo when converting it to another color space and that is important for photography. If you are working only with charts or logos this is not something you want for your pictures.
  After you’re done changing the options you should save your settings for future use and for in-between applications color management compatibility. By saving your settings you ensure that the same color settings are applied throughout other Adobe apps (Bridge, Dreamweaver etc).

Those are the basic settings you should set before starting to use Photoshop. You could tweak the keyboard shortcuts and menus (Edit> Keyboard Shortcuts) but if you are a newbie to Photoshop I suggest you leave those unchanged until you are more comfortable with the program and you have developed certain workflows and habits. Try experimenting for yourself and observe how various settings affect your images but always return to the safe options which you know for sure work for you unless you know precisely that you want something else.

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Mark Zuckerberg: 28 Little-Known Facts

Most of us know Mark Zuckerberg as the CEO of Facebook, but there are a lot of interesting facts about this young billionaire that you all must know.

Born : May 14, 1984

Age : 28

1. Type @[4:0] in a Facebook comment, and Mark Zuckerberg's name will appear.

2. As a teenager Mark was an aethist.

3. Mark's father Edward Zuckerberg enrolled Mark in a graduate computer course at a nearby college. When his father accompanied Mark to the college at the first class, the instructor looked at Edward and said, pointing to Mark, "You can't bring him to the classroom with you." Edward informed the instructor that his son Mark was the student.

4. Mark and his sisters loved to play pranks. Once, Mark and his sister Randi pulled a prank on New Year's Eve of 1999 that was memorable for Mark Zuckerberg. During that time, everyone was upset about Y2K, which was the theory that a bug in a computer data programming would ruin many of the computerised systems of the world when the year turned to 2000. Mark knew that his parents were apprehensive about Y2K, so he, with his sister, waited until exactly midnight and then shut down the power in their house so as to make his parents think the fears about Y2K had actually come true.

5. Mark, along with his classmate, at Phillips Exeter Academy wrote a music program called Synapse. The program used artificial intelligence to analyse a user's music listenting habits and used that information to recommend other music.

6. The program got a lot of favourable reviews that both AOL and Microsoft showed interest in buying it for around $1 million. Also, they wanted to hire Mark to develop it, but he would have to drop out of school, so he refused.

7. He joined a Jewish fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi. At a party one Friday night, Mark met Priscilla Chan, a Chinese American from Boston. They would later begin dating. Priscilla Chan later expressed her first impressions of Zuckerberg : "He was this nerdy guy who was just a little bit out there."

8. To be able to communicate with his girlfriend Priscilla Chan's family members, Zuckerberg started to learn Chinese in 2010.

9. At the beginning of the sophomore year, Mark developed Course Match, the program that enabled students/users to decide what college courses they wanted to opt for based on what other students at their school were choosing.

10. He also invented Facemash, a program that was created with the purpose of finding out who was the most attractive person on campus. However, this was more like the pranks he used to play as a child.

11. The domain name Facemash.com, the predecessor to Facebook that Zuckerberg built in 2003, was sold in 2010 for $30201.

12. In 2009 Mark Zuckerberg wore a tie for the entire year as a symbol of how serious and important the year was following the recession that began in 2008.

13. In 2011, Zuckerberg turned vegetarian and said he would only eat meat of animals that he killed himself.

14. Zuckerberg's first car was a Subaru Forester SUV.

15. Mark Zuckerberg is also on Twitter as @finkd where he has over 230,434 followers but has posted only 19 tweets in the last three and a half years.

16. Blue is Mark Zuckerberg's favourite colour, as evident from Facebook's design.

17. By the time he turned 13, he had already created a basic computer network for his family dubbed "Zucknet," which allowed the computers in the family and his father's dental offfice to send messages to each other by pinging.

18. Zuckerberg has also created a few computer games. Once, he developed a computer version of the game Monopoly based on his middle school and a version of the game Risk based on the Roman empire.

19. Zuckerberg's pet dog Beast is a Puli, a type of Hungarian Sheepdog.

20. Zuckerberg placed a big whiteboard in the hallway of his dormitory suite. Mark would use it to brainstorm with symbols and codes for software. In the words of one of his roommates, Dustin Moskovitz: "He really loved that whiteboard. He awlays wanted to draw out his ideas, even when that didn't necessarily make them clearer."

21. Mark Zuckerberg's interest in programming developed when his parents gifted him the book C++ for Dummies.

22. Mark Zuckerberg has about 50 patents in his name. The first of which was issued in November 2004 for the technology behind the Synapse Media Player.

23. The number of people on who have Mark Zuckerberg on their Google+ circles is roughly half of the number of users who have subscribed to his status updates on Facebook.

24. His favorite musicians include Daft Punk, Lady Gaga, Shakira and Rihanna.

25. His favourite quotations: "Fortune favors the bold," by Virgil, Aeneid X.284; "All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up," by Pablo Picasso; "Make things as simple as possible but no simpler," by Albert Einstein.

26. There are conflicting viewpoints about Zuckerberg's years at Harvard University. The movie "The Social Network" portrays him as both a genius and as someone who was always socially handicapped, and desperate to find a way into the social elite at Harward. However, Zuckerberg rebuffs those claims saying he never wanted to be part of the social clubs at Harvard and never used his computer skills to impress women around him.

27. Mark's interest in computer programming was quite visible at the very early age. By the time he was in middle school, he was already using computers and writing software for them.

28. Eduardo Saverin, one of the four co-founders of Facebook had provided the $1000 seed capital to start Facebook.

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RIM SET TO MAKE BBM AVAILABLE FOR ANDRIOD & IOS DEVICE SOONEST...

We’ve got some exciting news designed to make it easier for you to connect with your entire mobile social network. BlackBerry plans to make BBM, our wildly popular mobile messaging service, available for the first time to iOS® and Android™ users this summer, (subject to approval by Google Play and the Apple App Store, as applicable). This means that, once available, you can welcome your friends and family using these other mobile platforms to connect over BBM and share in the Team BlackBerry love. 



As we’ve chronicled on our Inside BlackBerry blog for some time now, BBM set the standard for mobile instant messaging with fast and reliable service and an added layer of engagement with delivered and read statuses. You’ve shared with us your stories about how BBM has kept you connected when it mattered most to you. Upon release of the multi-platform BBM service, you can broaden that real-time connection to friends and colleagues on other supported mobile platforms. 

In the first version of multi-platform BBM, iOS and Android users are expected to be able to experience the following BBM features: 

The immediacy of BBM chats 
Multi-person chats 
Voice note sharing 
BlackBerry Groups, where BBM users are able to set up groups of up to 30 people and share calendar, photos, files and more 

The team here at BlackBerry has definitely been working hard to bring the much-adored BBM experience to a wider group of mobile users. In a recent press release at BlackBerry Live 2013, Andrew Bocking, Executive Vice President, Software Product Management and Ecosystem, at BlackBerry had this to say: 

“For BlackBerry, messaging and collaboration are inseparable from the mobile experience, and the time is definitely right for BBM to become a multi-platform mobile service. BBM has always been one of the most engaging services for BlackBerry customers, enabling them to easily connect while maintaining a valued level of personal privacy. We’re excited to offer iOS and Android users the possibility to join the BBM community.” 

BBM Quick Facts: 
* More than 60 million monthly active users 
* More than 51 million daily active users who are connecting with friends or colleagues an average of one and a half hours every day. 
* BBM users send and receive more than 10 billion messages each day, nearly twice as many messages per user per day as compared to other mobile messaging apps 
* Almost half of BBM messages are read within 20 seconds of being received; indicating how truly engaged BBM customers are 

Today, BlackBerry also announced BBM Channels, a new social engagement platform within BBM that will allow customers to connect with the businesses, brands, celebrities and groups they are passionate about. BlackBerry plans to add support for BBM Channels as well as voice and video chatting for iOS and Android later this year, subject to approval by the Apple App Store and Google Play. If approved by Apple and Google, the BBM app will be available as a free download in the Apple® App StoreSM and Google Play store. Additional details about system requirements and availability will be announced closer to the launch. 

That’s some pretty big news, indeed!!! 

Source:- www.blackberry.com 

Be sure to share your thoughts below.

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