July 30, 2008

Happy Independence Day Vanuatu

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 Vanuatu, a Pacific island nation, is celebrating its Independence Day today.

Full Name Republic of Vanuatu

Capital City Port Vila (on the island of Efate)

Area 860,000 sq km, 332,046 sq miles

Population 200,000 +

Time Zone GMT/UTC +11 ()

Languages Bislama (official), French (official), English (official)

Religion Christian (84%), animist (16%)

Currency Vatu (VT)

Electricity 230V 50HzHz

Electric Plug Details Three Pin (Flat)

Country Dialing Code +678

The Republic of Vanuatu is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago is located some 1,750 km east of Australia, 500 km north-east of New Caledonia, west of Fiji and south of the Solomon Islands. It was named New Hebrides during its colonial period.
Vanuatu is only 2.5 hours flying time North East of Brisbane and 3.5 hours from Sydney, Australia. It’s a little over 2 hours from Auckland, New Zealand.
There are regular flights from New Zealand, Honiara, Australia, Noumea and Fiji.

History
Many of the islands of Vanuatu have been inhabited for thousands of years, the oldest archaeological evidence found dating to 2000 BC. In 1605, the Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernández de Quirós became the first European to reach the islands, believing it to be part of Terra Australis. Europeans began settling the islands in the late 18th century, after British explorer James Cook visited the islands on his second voyage, and gave them the name New Hebrides.
In 1887, the islands began to be administered by a French-British naval commission. In 1906, the French and British agreed to an Anglo-French Condominium on the New Hebrides.
During World War II, the islands of Efate and Espiritu Santo were used as allied military bases. In the 1960s, the ni-Vanuatu people started to press for self-governance and later independence; full sovereignty was finally granted by both European nations on July 30, 1980. It joined the UN in 1981, and the Non-Aligned Movement in 1983.

Politics
The parliament of Vanuatu is unicameral, and has 52 members; these are elected every four years by popular vote. The leader of the main party in the parliament is usually elected Prime Minister, and heads the government. The head of state, the President, is chosen every five years by the parliament and the presidents of the six provincial governments.

Provinces
Since 1994, Vanuatu has been divided into the six provinces of Malampa, Penama, Sanma, Shefa, Tafea and Torba. The main Islands within these provinces include:
Banks and Torres (Torba), Espiritu Santo (Sanma), Maewo and Pentecost (Penama), Malekula, Ambrym (Malampa), Epi, Efate (Shefa), Erromango, Tanna and Aneityum (Tafea)

Geography
Vanuatu is an archipelago of 83 islands, of which two — Matthew and Hunter — are also claimed by the French overseas department of New Caledonia. Of all the 83 islands, 14 have surface areas of more than 100 square kilometers, from largest to smallest: Espiritu Santo (3956 km), Malakula (2041 km), Éfaté (900 km), Erromango (888 km), Ambrym (678 km), Tanna (555 km), Pentecôte (491 km), Épi (445 km), Ambae or Aoba (402 km), Vanua Lava (334 km), Santa Maria (328 km), Maéwo (304 km), Malo (180 km) and Anatom or Aneityum (159 km).
Most of the islands are mountainous and of volcanic origin, and have a tropical or sub-tropical climate. The nation’s largest towns are the capital Port Vila, which is situated on Efate, and Luganville, on Espiritu Santo. The highest point in Vanuatu is Mount Tabwemasana, at 1879 m (6158 ft), on the island of Espiritu Santo. There are several active volcanoes in Vanuatu, including Yasur on the island of Tanna, one of the world’s most accesible volcanoes, as well as several underwater ones.

Ecology
Vanuatu is recognized as a distinct terrestrial ecoregion, known as the Vanuatu rain forests. Vanuatu is part of the Australasia ecozone, which also includes neighboring New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, as well as Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand.

Economy
The economy is based primarily on subsistence or small-scale agriculture, which provides a living for 65% of the population. Fishing, offshore financial services, and tourism (with about 60,000 visitors in 2005), are other mainstays of the economy. Mineral deposits are negligible; the country has no known petroleum deposits. A small light industry sector caters to the local market. Tax revenues come mainly from import duties and a 12.5 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) on goods and services.

Demographics
Vanuatu had a population of 205,754 (July 2005 estimate from the CIA World Factbook). Most of the population is rural, though Port Vila and Luganville have populations in the tens of thousands. Most of the inhabitants of Vanuatu (98.5%) are native Melanesian, or Ni-Vanuatu, with the remainder made up of a mix of Europeans, Asians and other Pacific islanders. A few of the islands are Polynesian outliers. About 2,000 Ni-Vanuatu live and work on New Caledonia.
Land, from the perspective of native New Hebrideans, was not something that could be owned. And therefore it could not be sold. It is held in trust by families, from one generation to the next, as has been the tradition for many since before Christ was born. One might give away, or sell the use of land, but not the land itself.

Europeans, however, take an entirely different viewpoint. By the mid 1960’s European settlers claimed ownership of almost 30% of the county’s land mass. There are places around Santo where more land was claimed than existed – unless one measured a fair distance underwater.

Settlers had, for the most part, cleared land to grow coconuts – copra being the mainstay of the economy for some time. But as the price of copra fell, planters began to look at alternatives. With the idea of expanding into cattle production, planters began clearing jungle adjoining their properties. This led to immediate protests in Santo and Malekula from local villagers who objected strongly to yet more of their ‘custom’ land being pilfered.

The objections grew and natural resentment that started at the end of W.W II sparked the formation of political parties. One the one hand were French backed parties such as the supposedly custom-oriented Nagriamel movement. Led by the colourful, Charismatic Jimmy Stevens, it claimed to protect Melanesian’s claim to traditional lands. On the other hand, in 1971 when Stevens petitioned the U.N. for early Independence of the archipelago, the Anglican Minister Father Walter Lini formed the Anglophone backed Vanua’aku Party.

As the country became more politicised, the (minority) Anglicans joined the Vanua’aku Party, but the (majority) French fragmentised. Many mixed race and educated Melanesian Francophones considered themselves more French than Melanesian and were adamantly opposed to the British declared aim of early Independance. Some wanted the Condominium to remain, whilst others simply wanted the British out and France to annex the country entirely. This division amongst the Francophones and the added confusion of Jimmy Stevens push for Santo autonomy (with Malekula and Tanna making similar overtures) was the stage upon which the first general election was set.

After enough wrangling and accusations to fill several books, in November 1979, Father Walter Lini’s Vanua’aku Party emerged the clear winner. But being the winner did not mean everyone agreed. It should be remembered that the archipelago is made up of over 80 islands and over 113 languages.It is one of the most culturally diverse countries on earth. Trying to govern it had given the Condominium more grief than it could have imagined. With virtually no preparation for Independence under the British/French rule, Father Walter Lini was not going to have an easy time of it.

The French are notoriously possessive about their colonies, but despite their objections, Independence was set for mid 1980. However in May of that year, just a few weeks prior to the end of Condominium rule, an insurrection on Tanna split the island in two. One faction supported the new government while the other supported the French. In Santo, Jimmy Stevens seized the opportunity to blockade the airport, run the police from their small station and declare Santo independent of the about to be born country of Vanuatu, and raised the flag of the independent country of Venerama.

If pandemonium was thought to exist during the Condominium, then it reigned sovereign for the next few weeks. France would not agree to British troops intervening and French troops did nothing. Jimmy Steven’s men were armed with only bows and arrows yet they held the about to be born country to ransom. Father Walter Lini was given virtually no support from the exiting colonial powers, except verbal sympathy and assurances that all would be taken care of. With Independence Day fast approaching, Lini was clearly at a political impasse. Officially he could do nothing because Vanuatu was not yet his to govern. However, he asked the politically and racially nuetral Papua New Guinea troops to step into what the world farcically began to call, the Coconut War.

There are many in depth political treaties and historical documents written on the Coconut War. Although it was not an amusing situation for an ill prepared country struggling with the pangs of birth, the events surrounding this ‘War’ are perhaps best understood in the light of recent colonial history and Melanesian culture. A short, witty and very readable account, by Sydney journalist Richard Speers titled the “The Coconut War” is available through Penguin books or from most libraries.

It was a strange war, of words and diplomatic double talk, bows and arrows and Francophone shrugs. It ended suddenly when Steven’s son was shot and killed as hesat in the rear of a utility that ran through a PNG troop roadblock. Following Steven’s statement that he had meant no-one to be harmed, he surrendered and was arrested. Documents came to light that clearly indicated the French administration had played a double game. Whilst officially backing Lini as the duly elected representative of the people of Vanuatu, they had secretly supported the secessionist citizens and Jimmy Stevens.

On midnight June 1980, the French and British flags were lowered for the last time, amidst tears and brave salutes and the flag of the Republic of Vanuatu was raised in celebration at the birth of a new nation, finally freed of the colonial yoke. The vast majority of French nationals left Vanuatu, who were compensated by their lost lands by the French Government, and land ownership reverted entirely to indigenous ni-Vanuatu.

Today, land is leased long term (60 years or so) to expatriates wishing to develop it. Those plantation owners who stayed found that little had really changed, for they were given first option on tland they already occupied, at very resonable prices. A residential block lease in Port Vila, for example, costs about A$60.00 per year. The economic gap left by the Colonial governments and French settlers was soon filled by other nationalities and new economic aveneues such as tourism. And perhaps most importantly, at least for the people of Vanuatu, they are now able to take pride in traditional cultures that had long been downtrodden by Colonial authority.

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April 28, 2008

Free Word .doc to Acrobat .pdf conversion download freeware online

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Want to make a pdf file ? Cannot find any free pdf making software ?

Adobe Acrobat Reader can only open PDF files, but you cannot make PDF files using it. And Adobe Writer professional costs a lot of money. So, here is a list of free options to make PDF files from Word .doc documents or any file which can be printed ( there is a software which acts like a printer and makes pdf files instead of printing )

If you want to just quickly convert a Microsoft Word DOC file to a PDF, then the easiest would be to use an online free Word to PDF conversion facility. Here is a bunch of good sites which convert WOrd files to Adobe Acrobat PDF files. (PDF might be required to some DTP printers, many university projects, etc)

Doc2PDF ( http://www.doc2pdf.net/converter/ )

Good site, Has the option to browse for the file, upload and convert. This service enables you to convert Microsoft (R) Word documents (.doc) into Adobe (R) Portable Document Format (.pdf) documents.
You can also convert Powerpoint and Excel files to PDF. Powerpoint files can also be converted to Flash. This service is free.

PDFonline Doc2Pdf ( https://www.pdfonline.com/convert_pdf.asp )

Similar to the previous one, but this dude has https which means a secure connection. So, if you ware converting some plans for a top secret nuclear warhead and don’t want it to fall into enemy hands, or if you just like all the security, use this site.

You need a working email address so that the converted file can be emailed to you. It is done quickly, the email comes with the PDF.

Supported Formats:
-MS Word (DOC) -MS Publisher (PUB) JPG, PNG
-MS Word (RTF) -MS Excel (XLS) BMP, TIFF
-MS PowerPoint (PPT) -HTML (MHT) WMF, EMF, GIF
-MS PowerPoint (PPS) -Text (TXT)

Fast PDF ( http://www.fastpdf.com/ )

Just upload the fiel, give your email address, and its ready. Fast PDF is a web-based service that lets you convert Microsoft Word documents to PDF! The PDF format makes it easy to share documents with others and ensures that they will look the way you intended. Using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader others can access your document regardless of their exact hardware or software.

Software download for MS Word to Adobe PDF (doc to pdf) 

Free software

Absolutely free software to convert Word files to PDF files

Primo PDF ( http://www.primopdf.com/ )

Primo PDF is a good software which is free too, to convert MS Word Files (.doc or .docx) to Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (.pdf)

Download Primo PDF free version now

Trial software (30 times evaluation version) http://www.pdf-convert.com/doc2pdf/index.htm 

Not free, but if you want to convert less than 30 Word files to PDF, this is a good “free” choice.

Free with Watermark ( http://www.word-to-pdf.com/  )

Demo version available, but puts a watermark on the page.

PDF conversion APIs http://www.pdfonline.com/ 

Absolutely free software to convert Word files to PDF files

Primo PDF ( http://www.primopdf.com/ )

Primo PDF is a good software which is free too, to convert MS Word Files (.doc or .docx) to Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (.pdf)

Download Primo PDF free version now

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April 19, 2008

Powerpoint 2007 Viewer : .pptx file not opening ? Problem solved

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Did you make a Powerpoint presentation in Microsoft Office 2007 with absolutely fantastic animations and mind boggling themes ? Then did you take it to another computer, ready to stun the entire audience with your brilliant presentation skills ?

Then what happened ?

Here are a few examples.

Jon Doe : I made an excellent presentation spending hours and hours. It was so good, I thought it was the best presentation I ever made. i used MS Office 2007 at home. When I finally took it to my class for the seminar presentation, it PowerPoint file just refused to open. I double clicked and it said ” Open With” and a dialog box came up asking me to choose the program to open this type of file ( .pptx )

The Cure

Bookmark this page FundaZone – Ideas, Tips and tricks on gadgets

Use this free software ” Powerpoint 2007 Viewer” (pptx file opener)

Download free Powerpoint 2007 pptx viewer software

With this software, you can open Powerpoint files made in Office 2007 in any computer (including Linux, Ubuntu, Kubuntu if you have Wine software)

It is an absoltely free software and just needs to be downloaded and installed in administrator mode ( main computer user mode )

Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer allows you to view full-featured presentations created in PowerPoint 97 or later versions.

The PowerPoint Viewer also supports opening password-protected Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.

Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer is a small application that enables PowerPoint users to share their presentations with people who do not use PowerPoint for Windows.

The PowerPoint Viewer allows users to view and print presentations exactly as they were created in the original program.

More download links

Some links might give faster download sppeds than others, so if you are in a hurry, try each link to see which is faster, so you still have time to rehearse your presentation. All the best for your presentation !!

Download free Powerpoint 2007 pptx viewer software

Major Geeks download Powerpoint 2007 viewer

This site is www.fundazone.com

Download Powerpoint 2007 Viewer link 3

This page is on FundaZone – Ideas, Tips and tricks on gadgets
Microsoft Powerpoint 2007 viewers page

CNET download Powerpoint 2007 viewer

From CNET download.com Powerpoint 2007 (slow download speed)

All the best for your presentation !!!

Tell me how it went. This site is www.fundazone.com

You would also want to converting Different Microsoft Office formats free  Free Word .doc to Acrobat .pdf conversion download freeware online.

Do you want an ultra cool email address personalised for who you are ? Mail.com has one such personalised email address @anything.com. Microsoft has Cool Hotmail – coolhotmail.com with personalized email addresses for India – check out the list

Speaking of microsoft, many people take advantage and float Nigeria 411 scams like this Fw: Microsoft -Don\’t miss this chance… ||| ITS  FAKE Don’t fall for such tricks

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January 23, 2008

Software Review : NetStat Live from AnalogX

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This is what they say :

Have you ever wondered just how fast your network connection is? Not just how fast the modem is connected at, but how much data you can actually get? Does your internet connection sometimes seem slower than normal? Forget hacking the registry or using counter-intuitive tools to get the information you want – enter the world of AnalogX NetStat Live (NSL)! NSL is a small, easy to use TCP/IP protocol monitor which can be used to see your exact throughput on both incoming and outgoing data – whether you’re using a modem, cable modem, DSL, or even local network! NSL doesn’t just stop there, it lets you see how quickly your data goes from your computer to another computer on the internet; it even will tell you how many other computers your data must go through to get there! But wait – there’s more! NSL also graphs your CPU usage of your system! This can be especially useful in identifying if your computer is what’s slowing things down, or if it’s your internet connection.

Well, its as good as it says. NetStat shows the current, average and maximum speed of your incoming and outgoing connections. It’s free and quick to download.

It even has a Tray Icon and a minimizes to tray. But the part I didn’t like was that it had to be installed. That caused an error in installation because I was not in administrator mode in this computer. And it doesn’t show your IP address if you are behind a proxy server.

It could also have been better with a stay on top option, but still it’s quite a neat little software to have around.

Download this handy software from  NetStat Live    (click here to download)

Tip : To install a software when not in administrator account, changing the installation directory from C:\Program files to anything else ( D:\Program files )  might work.

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January 9, 2008

Wordpress 2.4 is cancelled – going directly to 2.5

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Did you hear ? Wordpress 2.4 is cancelled ! Or skipped actually

Welcome Wordpress 2.5 !!! 

In light of the big changes happening in the codebase and admin section,
we're going to push back the next release to be aimed for early March.

This is the timeframe when 2.5 was originally schedule for, so we're
treating the originally planned 2.4 in December as a skipped release, as
a result of both the holidays and the large changes which we weren't
able to start on until late October.

There's some good stuff in the oven, and we don't want to rush it.

The new release shall be called 2.5. Various official docs and roadmaps
will be updated in due course.

--
Matt Mullenweg
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