Teenage Obesity – The Silent Killer

Obesity continues to rise with about 15% of the target audience being teens. With both parents working in a fast-paced world teens often have to make their own food choices. Most of them prefer “junk food” they can grab while watching television or playing video games. Lack of physical activity largely contributes to the growing problem.

Teenage obesity usually leads to adult obesity. While it is rare that teens experience the health problems associated with obesity, they need to be aware that those problems are likely to appear at some point in their life. Studies have shown that severely obese young females could lose an average of four to eight years off their normal life expectancy. For males in the same age group the numbers are much higher at twelve to twenty years.

Teenage Obesity And Discrimination
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Teens who are obese face ridicule from their peers. During the teenage years physical beauty is of great importance. Youth magazines flaunt petite girls along with muscular, well built males. The clothing market directed at the youth generally does not offer fashionable clothing for obese teens. This alone can lead to low self-esteem.

The most popular girls and boys are nearly always small and attractive. Studies have shown that the overweight teen is more likely to be the subject bullying and name-calling. This can lead to social withdrawal, unhappiness, and can even go as far as causing mental illness. Teenage obesity often leads to teenage depression. Depression is listed as one of the top causes for teen suicide.


Teenage Obesity – The Solution
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Parents have a responsibility to teach and guide their children, including teaching them proper nutrition. Eating habits that are formed during the teen years are likely to carry over into adulthood. Offer healthy snacks such as yogurt, popcorn, nuts, low fat chips, and fresh fruit. Avoid fried foods at meals and offer as many fresh vegetables as possible. Discourage sugary drinks and teach the importance of plenty of water.

Encourage your teen to stay active. Give them chores such as helping in the garden or washing the car. Take family hikes on local nature trails or visit the zoo. Bicycling and swimming are other family oriented activities which can help to reduce a sedentary lifestyle.

One final note to make is to always show your love. Encourage your teen to make the right choices and give them your full support. Be a good role model and focus on providing the proper nutrition at your family meals. Encourage activity and plan family outings that involve some sort of physical participation. Understand that teenage obesity needs to be addressed early in life in order to prevent complications when they reach adulthood.

Desktop Linux hurts Microsoft

Linux has kept a big chunk of the server business out of Microsoft’s hands. But in 2008, Linux will hurt Microsoft on the desktop. Here’s how.

A new computing platform
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Thanks to Moore’s Law and evolving application needs, a new computing platform arrives every 10 years. Mainframes in the ’50s, minicomputers in the ’60s, PCs in the ’70s, microcontrollers in the ’80s, PDAs and cell phones in the ’90s and now sub-$400 - soon to be sub-$300 notebooks.

Small and light enough to be carried everywhere, these sub-notes provide Internet access, PDA functionality and basic mail and document creation functionality at a rock-bottom price. Asustek is expected to build 1,000,000 Eee sub-notes in Q1 ‘08 alone. Asustek’s competitors are just getting warmed up.

What can Microsoft do?
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Microsoft has gotten fat on the $50 Windows tax it charges PC manufacturers. But on a razor-thin margin vendors can’t afford Windows.So they’re going with Linux. If Asustek sells 5 million Eee’s, and their competitors sell another 5 million, several million consumers will be introduced to desktop Linux for the first time.And millions of copies of Windows and Office won’t be sold.

Microsoft will skate in ‘08
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For all the attention Apple gets for its growing market share, the Linux-based sub-$400 notebook/sub-$200 desktop unit sales will be several times as large in 2008. Even combined this won’t hurt Microsoft in 2008, thanks to the growing migration to Vista.

2009 is a different story. 25 million Linux desktops will take a bite out of Microsoft sales - one that Wall Street will certainly notice.

The Storage Bits take
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Microsoft’s days as a de facto monopoly are coming to an end - and not a moment too soon. Increasingly desperate attacks on Linux will intensify, but how does Microsoft go after Wal-Mart?

Popular "'Medical myths'" Busted

Some claim drinking eight glasses of water a day leads to good health, while reading in dim light damages eyesight.Others believe we only use 10% of our brains or that shaving legs causes hair to grow back thicker.

But a review of evidence by US researchers surrounding seven commonly-hold beliefs suggests they are actually "medical myths".Some are utterly untrue, while others have no evidential proof, the British Medical Journal reports.Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis hunted medical literature for evidence on each claim.They found no evidence supporting the need to drink eight glasses of water a day.

Medical myths
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>> In fact, studies suggest that adequate fluid intake is often met by drinking juice, milk, and even caffeine-rich tea and coffee.Data also suggests drinking excessive amounts of water can be dangerous.

>> The belief that we only use 10% of our brains appears to be completely untrue.

Studies of patients with brain damage suggest that damage to almost any area of the brain has specific and lasting effects on mental, vegetative and behavioural capabilities.Brain imaging studies also show that no area of the brain is completely silent or inactive.

>> And the belief that hair and fingernails continue to grow after death may be an optical illusion caused by retraction of the skin after death.

The actual growth of hair and nails requires a complex interplay of hormonal regulation not present after death.

>> Again, illusion may be to blame for the belief that shaving hair causes it to grow back faster, darker, and coarser, report author Rachel Vreeman told the BMJ.

The stubble resulting from shaving grows out without the finer taper seen at the ends of unshaven hair, giving the impression of thickness and coarseness.

>> Again, expert opinion is that reading in dim light does not damage your eyes. And there is little evidence to support the banning mobile phones from hospitals on the basis of electromagnetic interference.

>> Finally, eating turkey - and the tryptophan amino acid it contains - does not make people especially drowsy.

Indeed, turkey, chicken and minced beef contain similar amounts of tryptophan.

The researchers explained: "Any large meal can induce sleepiness because blood flow and oxygenation to the brain decrease, and meals rich in protein or carbohydrate may cause drowsiness. Wine may also play a role."

Dr David Tovey, editor of Clinical Evidence journal, said: "The difficulty is it is often hard to disprove a theory."On the flip-side, absence of evidence does not necessarily mean absence of effect."Where reliable evidence becomes really important is in helping people make serious decisions about harms and risks."Many of these 'myths' are innocuous. However, we are still finding evidence that runs contrary to current practice and what we expect."He gave the example of the relatively recent U-turn in advice over sleeping positions for babies to cut cot deaths.
Experts now recommend babies are positioned on their backs when sleeping to reduce the risk of sudden infant death.

The Post 40 "IT" Syndrome

With just 3 years of experience and at the age of 25, I used to make more money than my neighbour who at the age of 45 used to make after some 15-20 years of experience in a nationalised bank. This of course doesn’t make me more intelligent or smarter than him, but it is just that the industry (dot com) I chose was new, which demanded more youngsters who possessed the latest Internet skills.

There are pros and cons in both the work industries. In the conventional industry, you know where your job starts and where it ends, you know the time frame for getting promoted or to get a salary hike, you know whom you should report to, and there is nothing new you need to think or do or suggest everyday to prove your presence felt. The pressure is less, and life is kind of planned well!

In the modern IT industry – most of the times you don’t know where you job starts and where it ends and when & at what time it ends, you will never know when you will be promoted, when you will be demoted, or when you will be sacked, you never know whom to report and whom you should not, and you need to give new ideas everyday, and push yourself to prove your presence felt. The pressure is more, and the life is never planned.

If money & a better life style are the only criteria then choosing the latter industry is a better option. But if you want to have a healthy, long & stress free life then choosing the former industry is a better idea.

Recently I spoke to an unmarried 32- year-old IT guy who earns 50 k a month. I asked him what is your savings in your bank he said 40 k, I asked him what is your investments – he said nil. And I spoke to a married banker with 2 kids with 20 years of experience making 18 k a month. He said he has 4 lakhs in the bank, has invested in 2 flats, has invested in 2 children, and is looking forward for a retirement with a handsome PF. Of course there is a major difference in the lifestyle they both lived – which includes the number of times they ate out, the number of times they visited a multiplex or shopping mall, owning a car, and wearing branded garments. But everything else remained the same!

So what is the post 40 IT syndrome I am talking about? Though we think that the IT industry has done a lot for the benefits of the people, it has screwed people’s life equally. First and the foremost it has screwed people’s back – by making them travel in those buses in the name of transport, and secondly they have screwed people’s sleep by making them work in odd hours! Yeah, people enjoy those things when young thinking effort leads to success, but then what if all the money you made is spent on your health related problems later?

These days the people in their 30s, who started their career coding a decade back hate to do the same. They aspire for leadership posts like Project Management, where in they can work less and guide more. There is a strict competition here, and not all who did coding can be project managers, even though the industry is expected to boom multifold in the coming years. Moreover the IT firms prefer to hire younger people, with latest knowledge & expertise than people with experiences. This becomes easier for them as the youngster are hard working, full of energies, and don’t mind taking peanuts as salary.

By the age of 40 the people who took up IT as their career will undergo a major shift in their thought process and lifestyle. They will be unsure about what they need in their life, what they want in their life, and whether they chose a right kind of career in their lives. Money won’t be the criteria – because by that time – they would have understood the uselessness of it. And this particular set of people will move towards spirituality or religiousness in a major way!

Today's Choice Of Songs

Tum Jab se
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aisa kabhi hua nehin
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kiska raasta dekhe
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Its the ARTs that takes the cake here

Scientifically any woman is a bag full of bones, blood, flesh, and excreta. But the moment we think about women like Aishwarya Rai or our own girl friends we feel elated about an all-new concept called beauty, which sounds very unscientific. I donot think there would be enough scientific justification as to why a particular man falls in love only with a particular woman, and why a particular group of people get along with each other quite nicely where as they fail with some other group of people.That is where science stops and Arts begin….. and where the Arts that cuts the ICE.

Lets come to the point.I like to read astrological predictions everyweek but when i discuss anything related to astrology with any of my friends they would ask me for the scientific justification for my belief in astrology.I have also noticed that in
many books written on astrology, the author struggles to refer to many scientists who believed in astrology. They do it may be to convince the readers about the greatness of astrology and to increase the credibility of their approach towards astrology. They also mention how scientific astrology is – right from the placement of planets in the horoscope to how mind influences the lines on our palms – and how scientifically it is used for predicting human lives.

It is very true that the present generation of pseudo intellects expects some strong scientific base to accept any subject, which doesn’t have clear-cut logic. But I strongly feel that the very effort to combine sciences and arts together is wrong. They exist on different planes where science can take you till the door, while Arts can take you beyond.

Take a rose to a scientist and peep into his eyes – and he will say calyx, corolla, androecium & gynaecium. And take the same rose to your beloved and peep into his/her eyes – you will see only love!

Adobe Photoshop is a scientific tool, which is used for designing purposes. Anyone can learn the usage of this particular software with in 2 days. You can explore the menu, and study what result each function can produce. But then only a creative person can produce something worthy out of this scientific tool, and this creativity isn’t science – it is an art. And give any tool to this creative person – he will come out with a beautiful design. Creativity doesn’t come out of a science lab - it comes out of the heart! The same holds true with any musicians, singers, moviemakers, writers, and astrologers.

Go to a psychiatrist if someone ditches you in love. All that he can do is give you sleeping doses. He neither can make you feel better nor could he help you come out of it. But psychologists can bring you out of your emotional pain in a couple of sittings – and psychology is again arts and no science. Man is an emotional animal, and for him to live a better life it is art that can help him more than science.

Nitrous Oxide can make you laugh for a while, but there is no scientific medicine to make you happy, content and blissful. Hence Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s meditation course is known as Art of Living and not Science of Living. (I neither have attended the course, nor am I marketing his course – it is just an example).

There are many things in life, which we need to believe and trust with closed eyes, or I should say just for the heck of it. There need not be any strong logic or scientific evidences behind them. That simply doesn’t mean they don’t exist - Existence of God is one among them and working of astrology is another.

Your Behaviour is the secret to your Quality of Life

Let's not brand anybody as good or bad. if you operate from a lower state of consciousness, then your actions may not be proper. if you operate from a higher state of cons-ciousness , then your actions may be different.

Our inner states of consciousness are constantly changing. So depending upon your state of being, your inner state correlate to your actions. We should constantly look at our behaviour, at the state we are in within. This also helps us in softening the other's inappropriate or erratic behaviour. The erratic behaviour may be due to their states of being.

More than any amount of attitudinal change, it is behavioural change that enhances the quality of life. Without behavioural change, there is no real change. Behaviour change alone brings about true change.

Its highly acclaimed that we have to be calm and serene irrespective of situations. Only such an individual is closer to enlightenment who remains calm. The greatest discipline is in keeping our minds calm in spite of external turbulent situations. This is the core teaching of the Gita as well.

A Zen master was asked about the secret of his being always happy. He replied: "When i wake up in the morning, i ask myself whether i want to be in heaven or hell. Then I decide to be in heaven. The moment i decide to be in heaven, i create heaven in every moment of my life".

if you want to be happy, first decide to be happy. Ultimately it is your decision. And the moment you decide, things will be very different.

The law of three is a beautiful teaching. The first law states that you make your effort... it is called ‘A' force. Every action has equal and opposite reactions. The moment you make positive action, invariably a negative force will come into the picture. Then a second force, ‘B', comes into focus. if you continue to put in efforts, then the third force ‘C' will descend and support the effort. Grace will descend. What we perceive as negative will start supporting our endeavour to be positive.

Until that time we need to have patience and perseverance. The choice we make in our lives is that we let ourselves come either from commitment or complaint. invariably we find that the people who are powerful are those who operate from commitment. And those who are powerless, always ope-rate from complaint. Your state of being will be powerful if you operate from commitment.

Another dimension is to operate from selflessness. When we do something that is selfless, we find unknown forces mysteriously strengthen our hands. Patanjali who was a great yogi says: "Do something good... be in the path of goodness, and... you will find forces that mysteriously help you". We look at life from our structure of thoughts and, therefore, find the world imperfect.

A selfish person does not understand the language of the selfless person. Every monk, for instance, is invariably criti-cised because all enlightened masters wake up people from their slumber, which is seen as disturbing. Let us learn to operate from what is beyond our own selves

Google building own version of Wiki

GOOGLE is building its own version of communally-constructed online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which consistently ranks among the most visited websites in the world.

The internet search powerhouse is inviting chosen people to test a free service dubbed "knol", to indicate a unit of knowledge, vice-president of engineering Udi Manber said in a posting on Google's website on Friday.

"Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it," Manber wrote.

"There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it.'"

While Wikipedia lets visitors make changes to its online pages, trusting that people with accurate information will correct errors and misleading entries, Google is inviting people to author their own articles.

Pictures of authors will be displayed on their knol web pages, according to a sample provided by Google.

"We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content,'' Manber wrote.

"Books have authors' names right on the cover, news articles have bylines, scientific articles always have authors; but somehow the web evolved without a strong standard to keep authors' names highlighted."

Google hopes knols will be written on all conceivable topics and says it has no plans to edit or endorse content. Editorial responsibility will rest with authors, whose reputations will be at stake, according to Manber.

While Wikipedia merges topic entries in single articles, knols written on the same subjects will remain separate and "compete" for the attention of visitors, who will be able to give online feedback.

Knol authors will have the option of letting Google post ads on their pages and sharing in the revenues.

Google is the world's most used internet search engine and a proven master at mining revenue from online advertising targeted at those making queries and using its free web-based services.
Luring Wikipedia users to its own community-created online encyclopedia promises to be another rich vein of ad income for the search giant.

More than a third of US internet users consult Wikipedia, according to findings released earlier this year by The Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Wikipedia is consistently ranked among the world's top 10 most popular websites by internet research firms Hitwise and comScore.

File Sharing Opens Users to Identity Theft

Surprise! When you share files on your computer with the teeming masses on the Internet, you might be sharing more than just music and video files. Numerous peer-to-peer users are learning, the hard way, that file sharing is a quick and easy way to open yourself up to identity theft.

The story isn't at all new, but the Wall Street Journal is bringing it into better focus, with specific examples and an indication that this trend is exploding. One man pleaded guilty last week to stealing tax forms, credit reports, and loan applications from more than 50 people, through the file-sharing program LimeWire. He then used the info to open credit accounts in those people's names, the usual form that identity theft takes. In September, Citigroup lost more than 5,000 Social Security numbers because one of its employees was using LimeWire and shared the wrong network. Ditto for Pfizer in June, which lost 17,000 employee records the same way.

Finding this stuff online isn't hard. Search any P2P network for hot-button words like "taxes," "resume," or "loan," and you'll come across personal information in seconds. It's also easy to misconfigure your computer to inadvertently share this information. One or two clicks is normally all it takes to share the entire contents of your hard drive instead of a specific directory intended for sharing. And no, all the security software in the world won't help you if you make a mistake like this.

What should you do? For starters, don't use P2P at all if you don't know what you're getting into. As the WSJ notes, using a computer dedicated solely to file sharing is a potentially good solution; just keep anything you don't want shared off the PC altogether. (It also goes without saying that you shouldn't share copyrighted material, either, but that's a lecture for another day.) Some networks are safer than others; certain P2P apps, like BearShare, no longer allow DOC or PDF files to be shared at all. On the other hand, in my experience, LimeWire is the network most likely to turn up private information.

The full story also has information on corporate software that can help protect you by monitoring what you're sharing, called Tiversa.Check out More on Tiversa Here ...

Today's Choice Of Songs

tere chehre se nazar nahi
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Tu Is Tarah Se Meri Zindagi Mein
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Rahi Tha Main Awara
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tere mere honton pe
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Saathi - Saathi Koi Bhoola
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The Magic of Music...

Hello Friends ,

I have this question echoed thousand times a day "Why do i listen to music ?" , have this puzzled u guys also ?? .. i always wonder , what exactly attracts me towards music .. is it the sound ? the melody ? the presentation ? the voice ? ... and i am still thinking for a answer. I feel, different people try to find different things in music, according to one's mood he may find peace, sanity, calmness, sadness, joy so on ...I often feel that the feeling wich one gets from music is the reflection of his own mind. In raag marwa i see sadness , i see a lover who is deprived of his beloved , but that is my idea... you may have a different picture of it and its perfectly fine, afterall music is about creativity. Different musicians have seen something or other in their music, which they brought into life with their medium of expression may it be singing or playing any instrument etc.. its all directly related to your psychology.. Music surely has a large & invisible impact on one's personality, it has un-imaginable potential. For some people music is a form a worship, some people its a mediun to relax, some people its a form to divert their mind , for some people its a case of studying it, some people do it just for the sake of earning.

What have inspired music to take such a divine form and existence in this world ?? .. Wht is music ? .. Well for me its everything ... music is not only an art of expression, its also a feeling, i guess my soul is stuck in this body just to hear some music, some more of music and some more and more of music. Here my body is acting as a medium between my soul & music , thus infact its keeping me alive, such is the power of music. If God would have to ask my soul , whats your reason for staying behind ? .. i guess tht's the answer .. it simply wants more music ..

The irony is such that , the more and more u get to music the more you are hungry for it and incase u don't get it , you are still hungry for it. In such a case what to do ? .. How do u go about this insatiable thirst ? .. i guess by converting yourself into music would do the trick. Such a person would be a really happy soul on this earth, because he is living in true sense, whole world would call him insane, mad .. but they dont realise he is the most clever person around .. who is so strong and dedicated that he goes ahead on the path he choose to walk irrespective of the people & critisicm around him, how many of u can actually do it ? .. huh ?

Music is not only set of notes n rhythms , its a way of living, for some its life ... Those of you who have discovered their love of music are really lucky .. well what abt rest huh ??..hahahaha .. i hope they too get lucky soon.What more to write now ... what more description of music to catch in words , words too have a limitation and after its only the feeling.. So go ahead, listen n enjoy music .. music need not be specially classical .. different people have different tastes .. it may vary from jazz to pop , but all are under one roof called music. Music is a feeling which can only be understood by feeling it.... i am sure u would find it really charming and more addictive than drugs.It better to be carzy in music than doing nothing in life.. look at my state, physically i may be doing so many things, i am studying, i am meeting new people, discovering new things , experiencing life .. but mentally i am into music ... indirectly its like being a living dead. Still my advise to people is , fall in love with music once and u would not need to find anything more beautiful in ur life.


Music - Live It.....

Melodious Songs

Chandni Raat Main
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Roz roz ankhon tale
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Saathiya tune kya kaha
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Roja Jaaneman
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Mere Haath main tere haath
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Joy Is Your Very Nature, Make It Sustainable

What is joy about? Joy is definitively not about anything, because joy is not something that you do; joy is something that you become. If you do not disturb the basic process of life within you, joy is a natural outcome. Joy is not an achievement, joy is your original state.

In yoga, we are looking at a human being as a strata of five bodies. In the original termino-logy, we say Annamaya, Manomaya, Pranamaya, Vignanamaya and Anandamaya Koshas — physical, mental, energy, etheric and joy or bliss bodies. Bliss body is not the appropriate word. The deepest core of you is not joy. But it is the non-physical. As that which is non-physical can neither be defined nor described, we are referring to it from the context of our experience. When we are in touch with this non-physical dimension our experience is blissful and thus the term bliss body.

Most do not know joy because their physical, mental and energy bodies are not in alignment. The core of you is joy, over that there are four layers. If they are properly aligned, an overwhelming expression of joyfulness will naturally happen. People may achieve this state in different ways, but it doesn't last. Now we are looking at the technology of keeping these three bodies constantly aligned so that joyfulness is not an accidental happening; joyfulness becomes a normal condition, a natural way of living for you. A sustainable state.

In yoga, Brahmanand means that Creation is joy. What you see as the physical, mental, or physical energies is just the surface; the deeper core, the source of creation, is joyfulness. If the Creator is joyful, sitting somewhere in heaven — what is the point? The Creator or what you refer to as the source of creation is not sitting somewhere else. If you look at your own body, from the moment of birth to now, how much it has grown, and this growth did not happen because of any external stretching, this happened from within; the source of creation is constantly in function.

The source of Creation is within you right now. That is joyfulness. Once this fundamental force of Creation finds expression in your life and you allow it to move out, joyful is the only way you can be. If you are not entangled with the modi-fications of your mind, joyfulness is a natural way. Misery is experienced not through externalities but through losing control of your mind. Outside situations can cause physical pain; suffering and misery are always created in the mind. When you were a child, you were joyful by nature. You did not need much to be joyful. Somebody had to make you miserable, that was your condition. But today, somebody has to make you joyful. People are hoping that someday, somebody will come and make them joyful.

If you depend on the outside to bring joy to you, only by accident you will be joyful, not by intent. Outside situations never happen 100 per cent the way you want it. Not one person in this world is exactly the way you want them to be; not your husband, not your wife, not your parents, not your children, not your friends, no one. So when this is the reality, at least this one person — you — must be the way you want to be.

If you are the way you want yourself to be, the natural choice is joy. What we are talking about as Inner Engineering or inner sciences is not seeing joy as something that you have to attain, but seeing joy as the very basis of your life. If you get in tune with your own basic existence, joyful is the only way you will be.

Today's Choice Of Songs

Gaazab ka hai din
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Neele Neele Ambar Par
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Jeevan ke Din
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Zindagi mil ke bitayenge
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The Hidden Risk Of File-Sharing

Many of the hundreds of millions of people around the world who swap music, movies and other digital content on their personal computers over the Internet have inadvertently put themselves at risk of identity theft.

Users of popular file-sharing services such as LimeWire have found themselves victims of identity theft when their personal information was inadvertently shared on a so-called peer-to-peer network. And recent high-profile breaches via these networks have put thousands of people's financial information at risk. The problem typically arises when users set up file-sharing software and create a folder for their downloads in the same location as their personal files.

Precise data on the incidence are hard to come by, in part because personal information can be accessed many different ways, and victims may not think to blame their file-sharing activities. But identity-theft experts say the problem is real and growing.

The risk from file-sharing "will get worse before it gets better," says Don McGillen, executive director of Carnegie Mellon CyLab, an initiative of the university in Pittsburgh that develops computer-security technology.

In the latest incident, a Seattle man this week pleaded guilty to charges of identity theft for using LimeWire to steal tax forms, credit reports and student-loan applications from the computers of more than 50 people. He used the information to set up phony credit accounts to buy merchandise online.

Citigroup in September confirmed that it was looking into a data breach where the names and Social Security numbers from 5,200 customer accounts were inadvertently leaked by an employee using LimeWire. And in June, Pfizer said the names and Social Security numbers of 17,000 current and former employees were leaked after the spouse of an employee downloaded file-sharing software onto a company laptop. Both companies say they aren't aware of any identity theft linked to the breaches, but they have offered the affected employees or customers free credit monitoring.

In another case involving charges of identity theft, computer crime and racketeering against a group in the Denver area, the final defendant pleaded guilty last week to racketeering. The group had used LimeWire to access several financial records and used the money from their practices to buy methamphetamine, according to the indictment.

"Once the meth addicts have discovered it, it is in widespread use" for identity theft, says Tom Sydnor,director of the Center for the Study of Digital Property with the Progress and Freedom Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Regulators, identity-theft experts and the file-sharing services themselves acknowledge the growing risk and are taking steps to address it. Last month, the House Oversight and Government Reform committee sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission urging it to expand its focus on file-sharing to protect users from identity theft. At least one company, Tiversa Inc., Cranberry Township, Pa., is offering products to monitor the sharing of files online. And LimeWire and other file-sharing services say they are seeking to limit how files are shared. Many identity-theft experts, however, say the steps are inadequate or confusing.

File-sharing allows users to swap personal files on their hard drives -- from music files and videos to documents and PDFs -- via a peer-to-peer network (often called a P2P). Users download software from one of a number of services that operate on these networks, with names like BearShare, Kazaa, Morpheus and LimeWire. The software then lets users access one of several P2P networks. Once users are connected to the network, they can search for and download copies of files that other users have shared from their hard drives -- even users of other software that use the same network.

P2P networks are often disparaged by critics for enabling users to illegally download copyright material. P2Ps first came to national attention in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the original version of Napster battled litigation from the music industry. The possibility of identity theft wasn't really on the radar then. But now, the newer applications such as LimeWire -- which unlike Napster don't house a database of files on their own servers, in an attempt to avoid copyright litigation -- have led to a surge in popularity. At any given time, as many as 12 million people world-wide are logged on to P2P networks, according to Tiversa, and 450 million copies of P2P software have been downloaded.

With growing use has come growing abuse, say identity-theft experts. But trying to pinpoint when inadvertent disclosure occurred is extremely difficult for law-enforcement agencies, says John Lynch, deputy chief of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section with the U.S. Department of Justice. Identity theft on the Internet can come from several sources, including leaked files on a P2P network, an online phishing scam or a hacked credit-card company, Mr. Lynch says.

Here's how inadvertent file-sharing often starts: When a user sets up the software for the P2P service, one of the first steps is to create a folder for the files the user will be downloading. Often, the user will place that folder within the computer's "My Documents" folder -- where people also typically put their personal files, including tax returns or other financial documents. Depending on how the user set up the program, all the files in the "my documents" folder or whatever convenient host folder was chosen -- and all of the subfolders -- are then available to others in the network.

Someone who searches a network for, say, "tax return" may be able to download a copy of those personal files off other users' computers. If a user has a company laptop, or has access to company files on their home computer, these files can get leaked, too -- even from the corporate server, Tiversa says.

Even tech-savvy users often don't have a clear understanding of how this works and how to protect select files on their computers, say identity-theft experts. The P2P services' software can be confusing, these experts say, and sometimes users think they have limited the sharing of their files, when in fact, they haven't.

Each service requires different steps. Consumers can try to consult with their software provider, but some are located overseas, identity-theft experts say. And even some experts disagree on the correct steps to use. A recent report from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reviewed several online sources that offered instructions on how not to share files on P2P networks, and said most of the instructions were dated and inaccurate.

But for people who do want to use P2Ps, some experts advise reserving a separate computer just for file-sharing.

LimeWire -- one of the most popular P2Ps with an estimated 50 million users -- says confusion is mainly a problem for neophyte users. Mark Gorton, chairman of LimeWire, says the company doesn't track how much inadvertent sharing goes on, but he says the company has been tweaking the software to make it easier for people to avoid inadvertent sharing. For instance, he says that in the latest version of LimeWire, users are no longer able to share their entire C drive. The company has also added a warning icon that tells users how many files they are sharing and will show them a list if they click on it.

Another popular P2P service, BearShare, has had trouble in the past with users inadvertently sharing files. In 2006, BearShare was bought by a unit of iMesh Inc. as part of a larger settlement between the Recording Industry Association of America and BearShare creator Free Peers Inc. Talmon Marco, president of iMesh, says that the current iteration of BearShare helps to curb inadvertent sharing: Users can swap only media files, such as those for music or movies. Other files, such as PDFs, Word documents or text documents can no longer be shared.

Marty Lafferty, chief executive for the Distributed Computing Industry Association, questions the significance of file-sharing in the total cases of identity theft. Still, he says, the organization is developing best practices for the industry with regards to inadvertent file-sharing. For example, the DCIA is advising its members to rework their programs' warnings to make it clearer when users are sharing files that they might not intend to, says Mr. Lafferty.

Tiversa offers a consumer product that monitors customers' file-sharing, for an annual charge of $24.95. If a group of files that might contain sensitive information has been designated to be shared, the company will alert the customer and explain how to stop the sharing. Tiversa can also tell the user whether a shared file has been downloaded by another user.