Source: Slacker Radio Press Releases (http://www.slacker.com/company/pressreleases.jsp)

Shared by whenelvisdied
An interesting discussion of the role of "traditional media" in the wikileaks Afghanistan journal

That WikiLeaks went to the press with the Afghanistan war logs shows old-fashioned news organisations still have a role to play

Of all the questions raised by the Afghanistan war logs, perhaps the most intriguing is this: why would an organisation as independent-minded and disdainful of the traditional media as WikiLeaks seek out those very media as partners rather than going it alone?

My necessarily speculative answer is that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who's made a speciality of revealing embarrassing governmental secrets, learned something important earlier this year. That's when he briefly caused a sensation by releasing video of a US Apache helicopter firing on Iraqi civilians, killing (among others) a Reuters photographer and his driver.

The lesson: shocking material and a flair for public relations may be enough to get you noticed. But if it's credibility you want, then old-fashioned news organisations still have something to offer.

WikiLeaks made some 92,000 documents about the war in Afghanistan available to the Guardian, the New York Times and Der Spiegel a month ago, giving professional journalists time to sort, vet and craft narratives from jargon-laden field reports compiled by US officials.

The documents add sickening details to the broad outlines of what we already knew: that major elements of Pakistan's intelligence forces are in bed with the Taliban; that chaos and confusion in Afghanistan has led to civilian casualties; and that among the burdens the Afghan people must bear is a corrupt and ineffective government.

The Obama administration has lambasted WikiLeaks for releasing the documents, arguing that the situation has improved since 2009, when the most recent of the official reports were compiled. But no one has questioned the authenticity of the documents themselves, even if the reliability of the information contained therein appears to be of variable quality.

In effect, Assange chose to act as Daniel Ellsberg, the insider who leaked the Pentagon Papers the US government's own secret history of the Vietnam war to the Washington Post and the New York Times. But it was just a few months ago that Assange tried out the role of Ben Bradlee, the Washington Post executive editor who published those papers.

In April, you may recall, WikiLeaks uploaded two versions of the Apache helicopter video. One was an edited, 18-minute version that it titled Collateral Murder, which begins with a quote from George Orwell: "Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give the appearance of solidity to pure wind." The other, 39 minutes long, was raw footage with no commentary.

The American secretary of defence, Robert Gates, denounced the video as having been taken out of context. No surprise there. But as Raffi Khatchadourian notes in a profile of Assange published in the New Yorker, the media turned Gates's way within days of the release. And in fact, when you watch the video and listen to the Americans on board the helicopter, you can see that the crew members believed, rightly or wrongly, that they were firing on a legitimate target.

Even the comedian Stephen Colbert, in an interview with Assange, dropped his rightwing-blowhard persona momentarily to make a serious point, calling the edited version "emotional manipulation" and telling his guest: "There are armed men in the group. They did find a rocket-propelled grenade among the group. The Reuters photographers who were regrettably killed were not identified as photographers. And you have edited this tape, and you have given it a title called Collateral Murder. That's not leaking. That's a pure editorial."

(An aside for British readers not familiar with Colbert and thus puzzled at my quoting a comedian: it is a sad but undeniable reality that the two most incisive American media critics today may well be Colbert and his fellow fake anchorman Jon Stewart.)

Around the time that the video was released, hubris among the WikiLeakers was thick. In the New Yorker piece, we hear from a friend and supporter of Assange's, a Dutch hacker named Rop Gonggrijp, who smugly says that "we are not the press" and "the source is no longer dependent on finding a journalist who may or may not do something good with his document".

Yet here we are, several months later, and Assange is acting very much like an old-fashioned source, seeking out journalists even as he uploads the raw source documents to the web.

In the felicitous phrase of New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen, WikiLeaks is "a stateless news organisation". But as the New Yorker piece makes clear, Assange and his fellow activists are less interested in news than in making a political impact. And it is an organisation only in the loosest sense of the term. Given those realities, it makes sense for them to work with journalists rather than to posit themselves in opposition to the media.

"WikiLeaks was soaking, drowning in data," Rosen's NYU colleague Clay Shirky tells David Carr of the New York Times. "What they needed was someone who could tell a story. They needed someone who could bring accuracy and political context to what was being revealed."

What I am suggesting is not that old media have triumphed over the new. Rather, I'm simply pointing out that each has its place in the media ecosystem.

WikiLeaks, with its singleminded focus on casting about for whistleblowers and protecting their identity through encryption and secrecy, can obtain material that eludes established news organisations. And professional journalists can vet, make sense of and impart credibility to that material in ways that not all new-media ventures (at least not WikiLeaks) can.

The result is a powerful indictment of the war in Afghanistan and a major challenge to Barack Obama.

Back in character, Colbert asked Assange: "What is the purpose of letting the public know? It's like you're saying it's better to know than not to know. Have you not heard ignorance is bliss?"

It's way too late for that now.

With a hat tip to Bruce Webster, more cartoons for the weekend, this time from Jonathan Rosenberg's Scenes from a Multiverse:

Selection bias and confirmation bias (both old favorites in these parts, especially in connection with people's estimates about who says what, how often, and how long they've been doing it), all in one four-panel strip. And then a well-known problem in hypothesis testing that arises repeatedly in reasoning about language:

In the starkly simple form here, this is: if X then Y; Y is true; therefore X is true. That's just affirming the consequent, which is invalid as a general line of inference. Of course, if you discuss alternatives to X and what follows from them, and if you flesh out predict as something more interesting than mere implication, and if you take into account what would make X false, then maybe we can talk.

Looks like Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer has woken up to smell the same coffee I'm smelling -- that Apple is chasing HP to become the world's biggest PC maker, and now the MSFT top man has said he's gunning for the tablet market.

As the world waits for Ballmer's words to materialize as something with somewhat more than Zune's 1 percent marketshare, and iMac maker Quanta confirms it will make twice as many iMacs as it will make all-in-on PCs for HP, let's look at Ballmers wordage...

On Apple's storming uber-succesful iPad, Ballmer said, with great grace, "Apple has done an interesting job of putting together a product -- they've certainly sold more than I'd like them to sell."

Enchantee. Also enchanting is Microsoft's determination that Windows 7 tablets will become relevant once the company delivers a credible machine (assuming it can get hold of the components).

"They'll be shipping as soon as they are ready," Ballmer said. "It is job one urgency. No one is sleeping at the switch."

"We have got to make things happen. Just like we had to make things happen on netbooks, we have to with Windows 7 on slates. We're in the process of doing that as we speak."

Translation: Now Apple's shown us how, we're firing up the photocopiers. Or is that unfair?

This spring at Twitter's first developer conference Chirp the big splash was a forthcoming feature called Annotations. The feature will allow publishing software to annotate Tweets with a wide open variety of metadata, which could then be read and analyzed by other software. Annotations are going to be big, if and when they launch.

At Chirp it was said that the Annotations feature would launch in the second or third quarter of this year. Now the company's developer advocate, Taylor Singletary, said today on the Twitter developers list that it's not going to work out that way. "We haven't yet announced a release date," he said in response to an inquiry, "and it's still a ways in the future while we tackle some other projects."

Sponsor

We've got an inquiry in with Twitter asking what that means, but it seems clear that the company is slammed with technical challenges, has other priorities and wrongly estimated the roadmap for this very important part of the platform. (Update: see below.)

Here's how Annotations will work. It will allow publishing software to mark-up tweets with any kind of characteristic or namespace (local weather when and where a twit did tweet, for example) and any kind of value - cloudy with a chance of meatballs, for example. Twitter messages are fairly rich with metadata already and incredibly easy to analyze and build on top of, but Annotations would open that up so far the sky's the limit.

It's worth mentioning that Twitter's unveiling of Annotations at Chirp happened around the same time as, and was widely compared with, Facebook's launching of personalized content widgets and tentacles expanding all over the web, among other things. Facebook shipped its announced project, for better or for worse.

Twitter is Busy

In another email on the same list today, Singletary said that the processing of white-listing applications to ping Twitter's servers with a production-level frequency was clogged with backlog, growing more critical in its evaluations and being re-evaluated.

Numerous advertising technologies have been rolled out since Chirp as well. Annotations is a hugely ambitious strategy, and the squabbling over namespaces and standards was one that Twitter said it was going to let the market work out on its own. That made some people quite unhappy.

We've asked Twitter for clarification on the revised Annotations roadmap and will update this post with the company's response.

Update: A Twitter spokesperson responded to our inquiry and said that yes, Annotations will launch. "We'll still launch Annotations. The team that was working on Annotations is currently focused on our number one priority, which is site stability." No doubt Annotations could themselves pose scalability challenges. They could at least blow our minds, if not a series of related servers.

Below is an image of what each Tweet looks like under the hood right now, before annotations. (Click for full size view.) Each of those fields is powerful, but inflexible and defined by the company. Imagine a new one that's open to being defined however a publishing tool sees fit. That's the vision behind Annotations.

Photographer Sergey Larenkov uses computational rephotography (as shown above and explained here by Wired) to overlay extant WWII-era photographs on their corresponding modern settings. The results are both spooky and stunning:

The shots really do have to be seen large, so check out Larenkov's LJ page for the rest of 'em.

via gizmodo

Our continually updated list of all the best laptops available today.

Choosing the best laptop computer for you can be a tricky business, and the level of choice can be overwhelming.

There's no shortage of cheap laptops out there to choose from, but with new models bring released and almost immediately replaced by manufacturers, the choice is no easy task.

The lure of netbooks and the rise of the mini laptop are also huge factors for those looking for a new notebook, but each has their downsides.

• 15 best netbooks in the world today

That's why we've proured over our huge database of laptop reviews and picked out the best notebooks money can buy. We've picked out five of the best cheap laptop computers in each of four categories - the sub 400 and sub 600 price ranges as well gaming laptops and lightweight notebooks.

We've also picked out the most important information from each laptop review to help you choose at a glance - just click through to the main review to read more.

Think about your needs and your most important factor, be it laptop battery life, and the features which aren't worth spending money on. The most important part is to be honest about what you need, and you could save a fortune on getting the best laptop for you.

Acer Aspire 1410-74G25n - 299

Acer's Aspire laptops represent the company's consumer range, and the Aspire 1410-74G25n is a CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) laptop that offers fantastic value for money.

Performance isn't this laptop's strong point, but it isn't meant to be the laptop offers superb portability instead. At only 1.4kg, it's a pleasure to carry around. The small form factor makes it very easy to fit into almost any bag, but if you're after th slimmest machine possible, go for the Elonex Sliver instead.

The Aspire 1410-74G25n is put together well, and will provide good durability on the road. The shiny screen lid does quickly attract fingerprints and grime, but the mock brushed-aluminium palmrest inside doesn't, and looks and feels great.

The keyboard is very firm, but is also flat and therefore easy to get lost on when typing at speed. Unfortunately, the proximity of the touchpad to the keyboard makes it all too easy to brush against it while typing, causing irritating and erratic cursor behaviour.

The Aspire 1410-74G25n has the latest 802.11n high-speed wireless networking technology making it well suited to connecting to a router or hotspot at home or in a cafe and it's also the only laptop here to boast both VGA and HDMI out ports, offering good flexibility when connecting to external analogue and digital monitors.

The Acer Aspire 1410-74G25n sets a very high bar for the other laptops on test, and the excellent battery life will be a clincher for many buyers.

Read our full Acer Aspire 1410 review

Advent Modena - 339

Advent is PC World's in-house brand and comprises a range of affordable entry-level machines and the Advent Modena is a usable option for the first-time buyer and includes a bright and vibrant screen, but performance is poor.

The slim chassis carries the same basic design scheme we've come to expect from the Advent range, but its patterned glossy lid and matt-plastic interior create a nice contrast.

The plain black design is a little uninspiring, but doesn't detract too much from the sleek consumer styling.

At 2.5kg, the Advent Modena is easy to use around the home or on shorter journeys. With a depth of just 33mm, it slips easily into a carry case, so it's disappointing that the battery runs for just over two hours .

Surprisingly at such a low-price, high-speed wireless connectivity is provided by 802.11n Wi-Fi. An integrated camera is also in place, fitted above the screen, and lets you capture snapshots and even record video for easy online video messaging use.

Offering good usability, a great screen and ample storage at such a low price, the Advent Modena is sure to please first time buyers looking for an affordable and portable bargain.

Read our full Advent Modena review

Lenovo ThinkPad X100e - 355

Lenovo's ThinkPad range is known for offering arguably the best business laptops you can buy, but prices have traditionally been quite high. The ThinkPad X100e remedies this and brings effortlessly high-class corporate usability to the entry-level market.

The first thing you notice is how small the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e is. Weighing just 1.5kg, it easily fits into even the smallest luggage for regular travel use. The 226-minute battery life is bettered by the eMachines G525-902G16Mi but provides basic mobility.

Despite the low price, none of Lenovo's famed build quality has been lost. The matt plastics and rigid chassis provide ample resilience and will easily withstand the knocks of life on the move, while the plain black design is sleek and stylish.

ThinkPad keyboards are rarely bettered and the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e is no exception. Unusually for Lenovo it uses the isolated-key style with each key cut through a hole in the chassis. The board is also spill-resistant and is both spacious and responsive, making it by far one of the best at this price point.

While its mixed levels of power and small size make it more akin to a netbook than a laptop, there's no denying the sheer quality of the ThinkPad X100e. By offering the key strengths of more expensive machines at a cheaper price, this is a truly great ultraportable for the price.

Read our full Lenovo ThinkPad X100e review

eMachines G525-902G16Mi - 397

While eMachines is not the best-known brand, it provides a good range of entry-level laptops ideal for those on a budget.The eMachines G525-902G16Miis a highly likeable big screen laptop, but is unfortunately flawed by limited power and features.

With its striking 17.3-inch screen, this is a great choice for viewing movies and photos. As well as its size, the screen on the eMachines G525-902G16Mi is far brighter and more vibrant than its rivals, making it comfortable to view in all conditions. We found the Super-TFT coating inevitably reflective, however.

Disappointingly, graphics performance is very low, with only the most basic multimedia use possible. The integrated Intel graphics card quickly struggles with demanding video editing tasks, but basic photo editing is possible.

Where the eMachines G525-902G16Mi truly stands out is its solid build quality and great usability. While the matt-black chassis and textured lid provide a conservative appearance, they also make the laptop very resilient, ensuring you can let the family loose on it without too much fear of damage.

In short, the eMachines G525-902G16Miis very much a mixed bag. While its stunning screen and great usability are easy to like, the limited power and features mean many users may quickly outgrow this machine as their skills develop, so be sure to consider your future needs before buying.

Read our full eMachines G525-902G16Mi review

Acer Aspire 5542-304G32Bn - 399

The Aspire 5542-304G32Bn is a budget machine that packs in some unexpected features at a low price point. One of the stand-out features is the inclusion of a Blu-ray drive, a rarity for laptops at this price.

While the 1366 x 768-pixel screen resolution is not enough to take full advantage of the high-definition visuals, images are still crisp and the 15.6-inch LED backlit Super-TFT display provides rich and vibrant colours.

Other features also impress, including the 5-in-1 memory card reader and four USB ports, letting you easily connect external storage and peripherals.

The 320GB hard drive is enough for storing a large number of songs and videos, while leaving space for essential applications.

The only downside is the gaps between each key, which lets in dirt and other debris. The touchpad is one of the largest in this group, although easy to brush while typing. Thankfully there's a button for disabling the pad when not needed.

Overall, the Aspire 5542-304G32Bn is a feature-packed and highly usable laptop that is only let down by limited power and portability.

Read our full Acer Aspire 5542 review

Samsung R530 - 389

Not only is the Samsung R530 a great looking laptop, it also boasts great usability, performance and portability - and all at a very competitive price.We very rarely see laptops that have exciting designs at this price point, but the Samsung took us by surprise with its moody red and black lid and mock brushed-aluminium palmrest this is the sort of styling we would expect to see on a laptop costing significantly more.

Build quality is also decent and, although the chassis doesn't feel as substantial as the Acer Aspire 5732Z-443G32Mn, it's quite a bit lighter, making it a better travel companion.

Its battery life is also decent - at 244 minutes - and will keep you productive on the road for quite a while.

The keyboard is excellent, with the typing action proving surprisingly firm and the travel smooth. The touchpad is fast and responsive, and also features Samsung's now trademark lighting effects round the edge, which make it easy to use in low light conditions, such as the cabin on a plane.

The more we used the Samsung R530, the more we liked it. Performance is above average and the design and usability of the machine really endeared it to us.

If that wasn't enough, there's also decent portability chucked in for good measure, making this machine a good choice indeed.

Read our full Samsung R530 review

Dell Vostro V13 - 409

The Dell Vostro V13 us arguably the most handsome Dell has ever produced and what's more, you can buy it for under 500.

The Dell Vostro V13 feels great. It's eminently portable at 1.6kg, but the low weight, which edges it towards ultraportable territory, doesn't equate to a flimsy-feeling laptop. The back of the screen feels solid and shock-resistant, and the aluminium casing gives the Dell Vostro V13 a truly premium feel. We're also fans of the all-in-one case design, which looks both lovely and tidy.

The V13's portability isn't all encompassing, though. The battery is a clear weak point for anyone who spends a lot of time away from the mains, or would rather leave the charger behind. With the V13 loaded down by applications, it survived barely two hours on battery power alone; left with the screen on and nothing happening it managed four hours. Fairly respectable, but far short of what's frequently being achieved by cheaper netbooks.

But, performance issues aside, it's stunning to see such a good looking, well-made, cleverly designed laptop available for under 500. Indeed, if you have only the most basic computing needs, you could bag the lowest-end Dell Vostro V13 for a mere 359. Just don't forget to lie about how much it cost.

Read our full Dell Vostro V13 review

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge - 499

Lenovo's ThinkPad range has traditionally been aimed at the highend business market, but with a lower price and more accessible style, the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge now opens the brand to a wider market of consumers.

A choice of Intel and AMD processors are available, with the unit we tested being powered by a dual-core AMD chip. Performance of the LenovoThinkPad Edge is in line with the majority of CULV laptops on the market, suiting basic home and office use, but struggling with more demanding multi-tasking.

Graphics performance fares slightly better. The integrated ATI GPU delivers enough power for running complex multimedia presentations, as well as basic photo and video editing. Both VGA and HDMI ports are in place for connecting to larger screens at home or in the office.

The use of a glossy Super-TFT screen shows the consumer leanings of this laptop, as business machines traditionally use less reflective matt-finish panels. The 13.3-inch screen is suitably vibrant, with strong brightness levels, but is not quite as sharp as we would have liked.

By combining the quality and usability of more expensive models with the style and features of a consumer machine, the LenovoThinkPad Edge is another strong addition to the Lenovo range. The low-performance won't suit all needs, but this is a great machine for frequent travel use.

Read our full Lenovo ThinkPad Edge review

Acer Aspire Timeline 5810T - 560

Although the Acer 5810T boasts a large 15.6 inch screen, its light and thin build means that you won't be bogged down by this laptop when you're taking it out and about. The 5810T's body is an attractive metallic grey made out of plastic that while sturdy, is light enough to keep the weight of the laptop to around 2.4 kg.

The big feature of the 5810T is the large battery life. Acer is keen for this laptop to be used for 'all day computing'. Whilst it won't manage a whole day of heavy use away from a power supply, the 5810T can manage around seven hours which is still a fantastic length for a laptop's battery life.

Video playback, both standard and high-definition was very good, with the images reproduced clearly on the decent screen. The 5810T comes with a HDMI output, so if you have a high-definition TV you can play your video files though that. Although this is hardly an essential feature, it's certainly a nice one to have, and adds to the overall value of the laptop.

Overall this is a nice, reasonably powerful laptop, whose light weight and large battery life means it is a great companion for working on in the great outdoors.

Read our full Acer Aspire Timeline 5810T review

Dell Inspiron 1564 - 587

Dell has had an impressive track record over the past year, delivering one stunning consumer laptop after another. The Dell Inspiron 1564 continues this run of success by implementing cutting-edge technology in this powerful and well-rounded machine.

Built around a processor from Intel's Core i3 range, the Dell Inspiron 1564 among the most powerful entry-level laptops we've seen to date. Effortlessly outperforming all but the similarly specified Samsung R580, multi-tasking with even more demanding software is possible.

Despite using an integrated GPU a graphics technology traditionally associated with limited power Intel's latest onboard chip provides surprisingly powerful 3D performance, allowing high-definition (HD) video and even less demanding games to run with little effort.

The stunning 15.6-inch screen adds to the multimedia usability on offer. It is a very bright panel, and delivers fantastic colour reproduction and sharp images, ensuring movies, photos and games are shown with impressive clarity and vibrancy. While some rivals provide high-speed wireless and fixed access, an older and slower technology is used here. Speeds will suit basic home use, but it is worth bearing in mind before buying.

More pleasingly, storage is excellent. The 500GB hard drive will hold all your family's data with ease. Comprehensive support for flash storage cards is also provided. Continuing Dell's recent run of success, the Dell Inspiron 1564 is an impressively powerful and portable machine. While its limited network connectivity is disappointing, it excels in all other areas, making it one of the best entry-level laptops we've seen this year.

Read our full Dell Inspiron 1564 review

MSI GX740 - 999

We're big fans of the MSI GX740. By making sensible and realistic cuts think Core i5 instead of i7 processor, no Blu-ray drive, lack of full HD screen MSI has managed to deliver a laptop that boasts serious graphical prowess at a very competitive price.

The GX740 also looks great, and we're told by MSI this is the last model to feature the famous style, with the inbound GT660 demonstrating the way of things to come, so if you like the design we'd suggest you get stuck in before it's too late.

The graphical power here is formidable, and the latest games run as smooth as you'd like with settings up high.MSI has been using this design to great effect for quite a few years, it's neither garish nor boring, and we'll be sad to see it go.The relatively low weight and form factor of the GX740 make it very easy to carry around, not something often said about gaming rigs.

The lack of a Full HD screen may bother some, and images may not be sharp enough for the hardcore. The laptop maybe easy to carry, but realistically you'll be sprinting between power points thanks to a truly shocking battery life.

However, the MSI GX740 is one of the best priced, best looking gaming notebooks around. There's plenty of power under the hood for the avid gamer, while the Intel Core i5 processor provides plenty of performance for your average consumer.

Read our full MSIGX740 review

Alienware M11x - 1,184

TheAlienware M11x was launched as the world's smallest gaming laptop,offering a unique blend of graphical power and portability. A dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 335M graphics card has been used featuring 1024MB of video memory and proved stunningly powerful in our benchmark tests.

A 256GB Solid State Drive provides ample space for your content, as well as very fast access to your data. 802.11n Wi-Fi is included and connectivity is comprehensive with VGA, HDMI and a DisplayPort connection all in evidence.

Processing power is courtesy of a Consumer Ultra Low Voltage Intel chip, which is especially resource light on the machine's battery resulting in an impressive 414 minutes of mobile use. The downside is that everyday performance isn't particularly fast.

However, we found the laptop a pleasure to use and certainly fast enough, and we had no issues multi-tasking with various applications.

We are seriously impressed by the Alienware M11x. Not only is it the first of its type, but it succeeds in combining great 3D performance with everyday portability and usability at a competitive price.

Read our full review of the Alienware M11x

Alienware M15x - 1,422

The Alienware M15x is another fantastic gaming system which boasts very strong graphics power, excellent styling and fast everyday performance - and offers it all at an affordable price.

This isn't a laptop you'll want to travel regularly with, however. It weighs a hefty 4.3kg and offers just 164 minutes of battery power with a 9-cell battery on board, and so is much better suited for use as a desktop replacement system.

The 15.6-inch screen features a 1600 x 900-pixel resolution. It is very sharp and provides vivid colours. It isn't the brightest panel we've seen, however, and a shiny Super-TFT coating has been used, creating noticeable reflections in bright light.

The M15x is one of the best gaming laptops we've seen. Its great design is perfectly complemented by decent performance and it's also very reasonably priced not something we can say very often about gaming systems.

Read our full Alienware M15x review

Asus G73JH - 1,780

The Asus G73JH is an aggressively and uniquely styled machine that looks fantastic and boasts great performance for gamers. The laptop's striking design with angular lines and tactile matt finish is inspired by the F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Bomber, but there's more purpose to the design than looks alone

Where this machine justifies its price is in gaming performance. The DirectX 11-compatible ATi graphics card provides stunning 3D power for running the latest games and multimedia applications.

The 17.3-inch screen adds to its abilities. It's not the brightest panel around, but colour reproduction is excellent, with contrast especially impressing. Blu-ray movies using the integrated Blu-ray drive and games look great in particular.

We like the G73JH a lot. It's a great looking and uniquely designed machine that provides stunning performance, but for those who are watching the pennies at the moment a lot of us a similar experience albeit with not quite as much style can currently be found for cheaper elsewhere

Read our full Asus G73JH review

Rock Xtreme 790 - 1,990

UK-based Rock is well known for its high-performance gaming laptops and offers the latest components housed within generic chassis designs. The Rock Xtreme 790 brings Intel's Core i7 technology to the range and provides truly stunning levels of quad-core power.

Powered by an Intel Core i7 920 processor, performance goes beyond what you would expect from a laptop. Running at 2.66GHz, the CPU is backed by a staggering 6144MB of high-speed DDR3 memory and vastly outperforms every laptop that we've ever tested.

Graphics are provided by a top-of-the range Nvidia GPU for impressive gaming power. In a chassis this large, it is a shame that Rock hasn't used two cards in an SLI configuration, as the extra performance would have perfectly complimented the high-powered quad-core CPU.

The 17-inch Super-TFT screen has a 16:10 aspect ratio, rather than a 16:9 true widescreen design. Quality is excellent nevertheless, with sharp and vibrant images on offer. The panel is not as bright as we'd have liked, but it is still ideal for gaming and home entertainment use.

Overall, the Rock Xtreme 790 is a mixed bag. While performance is outstanding and is backed by strong usability and features, the lack of SLI-graphics is an odd omission considering the machine's size and price.

Read our full Rock Xtreme 790 review

Acer Aspire 1825 - 585

2010 is already proving to be the year of the tablet PC, with Apple's iPad leading the charge. The Acer Aspire 1825PTZ-413G25n is the latest such convertible, and while the bright and responsive touchscreen adds a fresh layer of usability, this hybrid is unlikely to tempt any iPad fans to convert.

With the screen in a normal upright position, the Acer Aspire 1825PTZ is a typical compact laptop. With a weight of just 1.7kg and a thickness of 35mm, this is an ultraportable laptop that can easily be slipped into a bag.

The chassis itself is firm in all areas, which gives the Acer Aspire 1825PTZ a semi-rugged feel. This laptop likely wouldn't survive a tumble from a desktop, but it can bounce around inside a rucksack all day with little complaint.

3D performance is provided by an integrated Intel graphics card, which lacks its own dedicated video memory and so leeches from the main system memory instead.

As a result, graphical performance is very basic. Watching video and simple photo editing is no problem, but more complex multimedia jobs such as video editing and gaming are beyond the Acer Aspire 1825.

Read our full Acer Aspire 1825 review

MSI X600 - 594

The MSI X600-055UK is the second machine we've seen from MSI's ultra-slim X-series range, following on from the smaller X340.

With a 15.6-inch screen, this machine is a more rounded package, while still providing excellent mobility. The 15.6-inch screen features a glossy Super-TFT coating, which is reflective in direct sunlight.

You'll find a mid-range ATi Mobility Radeon HD 4330 graphics card supporting the display. It provides the MSI X600-055UK with enough performance to handle basic graphics tasks with ease and you'll even be able to play older games.

As with the smaller X340, this machine uses an Intel CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) processor, but this is the first system we've seen to feature a CULV Core 2 Duo chip.

Running at 1.6GHz, and backed by 4096MB of DDR2 memory, performance is akin to regular Core 2 Duo processors, proving easily able to carry out intensive tasks and run multiple programs smoothly. Battery life is also good, letting you work for 248 minutes.

Providing excellent performance in a large yet thin and light chassis, the MSI X600 offers a great compromise between size and power. As with much more expensive systems, you'll be able to work on the move without resorting to a smaller and slower form factor

Read our full MSI X600 review

Apple MacBook Air - 1,174

The MacBook Air is an enigma. Its key strength is its lightweight, ultra-thin design making it ideal for carrying around with you. Yet it makes significant sacrifices to achieve this degree of style and portability.

Despite an inevitable speed boost, the Air is still the slowest machine in the Mac range. The entry-level model, with a 120GB hard drive and 2GB of RAM, has a processor running at only 1.86GHz. The high-end version boasts a 128GB solid-state drive instead of a hard drive and a 2.13GHz processor.

A welcome price cut brings the 1.86GHz model down to 1,149 from 1,271, and the 2.13GHz Air reviewed here is now 1,349, down from 1,761.

Although Wi-Fi is still its main means of connecting to networks or the internet, you now get a USB Ethernet adaptor in the box, should you need a wired connection. Trading power for portability and connectivity for convenience means the MacBook Air will never be a machine for everyone, but improved specs at a lower price can only be welcomed.

In short this is a refreshing update for the Apple MacBook Air that just oozes style.

Read our full Apple MacBook Air review

Fujtsu Lifebook P770 - 1,378

The Fujitsu Lifebook P770 is one of the first laptops we've seen with this new technology and we eagerly tested it out to see what difference the new low-voltage Core i7 processor would make. With a weight of just 1.5kg, the Fujitsu Lifebook P770 is an ultraportable laptop that is almost as light as a netbook. It's just as compact too, with a 12.1-inch screen and a chassis that's only 30mm thick. The Fujtsu Lifebook P770 can be slipped into a bag or case and carried around all day without weighing you down.

Intel's new ULV Core i7 processor is a hybrid of the two, which offers buckets of power, but also vastly improved battery life.The Fujitsu Lifebook P770 is powered by this Core i7 620UM processor and the results are truly stunning.

This is easily one of the most powerful low-voltage chips currently available, comparable in performance to Intel's standard Core i3 and top-end Core 2 Duo chips, and we could comfortably multi-task with a number of resource-intensive applications thanks to the dual cores and 4096MB of speedy DDR3 memory.

This is easily one of the most powerful low-voltage chips currently available, comparable in performance to Intel's standard Core i3 and top-end Core 2 Duo chips, and we could comfortably multi-task with a number of resource-intensive applications thanks to the dual cores and 4096MB of speedy DDR3 memory.

Read the full Fujtsu Lifebook P770 review

Toshiba Portege R600-149 - 1,526

Toshiba's Portg R600 range has been a favourite of ours for quite some time, thanks to its great usability and resilient, lightweight design. The Portg R600-149 is the latest model and it's hard to imagine finding a better business machine at this price.

As soon as you pick it up you're struck by just how light it is. At just 820g it feels as if there is nothing inside this machine. With slightly slimmer dimensions than the equally small Fujitsu LifeBook P770, this is a machine built for frequent and comfortable mobile use.

Performance is more pleasing. While this is the only laptop to use Intel's older Core 2 Duo technology, rather than the latest Core i5 and i7 processors, there is ample power on offer for most business use. Only more complex multitasking shows the limits of the older CPU.

The screen is driven by an integrated Intel graphics card, so performance is in line with the Fujitsu LifeBook P770 and falls far behind the Lenovo ThinkPad T410s. Image quality is strong and while colour and contrast are slightly muted, this is a very comfortable screen to work with.

Unless you need the latest cutting-edge features or the longest battery life, this is a fantastic travel partner and we like it a lot.

Read our full Toshiba Portg R600 review

In September 2009, the President announced that for the first time in history the White House would routinely release visitor records. Today, the White House releases visitor records that were created in April 2010. Today's release also includes several visitor records created prior to September 16, 2009 that were requested by members of the public during June 2010 pursuant to the White House voluntary disclosure policy. This release brings the grand total of records that this White House has released to well over half a million records. You can view them all in our Disclosures section.

We note that January 2010 records were inadvertently posted twice. That error has been corrected.

Norm Eisen is Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform

Toni Bowers at TechRepublic has written about a new syndrome that afflicts many of us. Symptoms include posting something compromising or embarrassing about ourselves online and then regretting it later. Sound familiar?

Since the advent of social media, there have been many horror stories of people losing relationships, jobs or even just face over inappropriate posts. A new study has shown that 54% of people under the age of 25 have posted something online that they later regretted. Over the age of 25, the number goes down to 27%. It is interesting to see the generation gap are older social media users more cautious?

It reminds me of when I first discovered email in the late 80's. Sometimes my fingers went faster than my brain and I hit the send button a little faster than wisdom would have warranted. Almost lost a friend over one of those indiscretions. How about you?

Read more of Curt's musings on entrepreneurship, management and technology

Microsoft received more money selling companies than it spent on acquisitions last year, Tech Flash reports. It spent $267 million to buy 5 companies in fiscal 2010, and sold 3 companies for $600 million.

Join the conversation about this story

E-newsletters allow a business to stay in touch with its customers on a regular basis. They give you the opportunity to establish yourself as a "thought leader" in your area of expertise, be that in designing toys for rare parrots or providing software to keep your personal finances straight. They are also a great way to create viral marketing, because if your customers find the information useful they may forward your e-newsletter to others, thereby helping you grow your customer base.

"Done right, they will give you a return far better than any other marketing strategy," says Tamara Gielen, an independent e-mail marketing consultant who has worked for such companies as Cognos, eBay, and OgilvyOne. "But success largely depends on two things: relevance and permission. Sending irrelevant messages to recipients who didn't give you permission to e-mail them will not only hurt your brand, it is also the fastest way to get blacklisted with the major ISPs. The last thing you want is to be perceived as a spammer."

So, how do you get permission, and how do you create relevant e-newsletters?

The following guide will cover how to get permission by building an opt-in e-mail list, how to create compelling content and attract readers, and how to choose an e-mail newsletter provider.

Dig Deeper: E-Mail Marketing Solutions

The first order of business is to build a quality list of customers -- customers who have given you permission to send them e-mail newsletters. "Collect this information wherever and whenever you are making a connection with a prospective customer," advises Eric Groves, senior vice president of global market development for Constant Contact, an e-mail and online marketing tool provider. If you have a store front, for example, have a sign-up book by the register and ask people to fill it out and include their e-mail address so that you can send them your e-newsletter. "There's been research done that if a local business asks a customer for their contact information, over 60 percent of the time they will give it to you," Groves says.

Collect e-mail addresses from your prospects and customers at a variety occasions, such as the following.

Use all offline channels you currently have to drive e-newsletter subscriptions, whether they be direct mail, advertising, catalogs, flyers, or feedback forms, Gielen says.

Be careful with rented lists. "Make sure the list owner sends the e-mail on your behalf. If the list provider promises to give you a list of email addresses, walk away. It's not worth the risk of getting blacklisted because the list is old, contains spam traps and lots of bad addresses," Gielen warns. Most email service providers, such as Constant Contact, won't even allow companies to import rented lists into e-mail newsletter products because it would violate terms of service, Groves says.

Remember that permission is important, so don't add an e-mail address to your list unless you have the owner's explicit permission to do so.

Gielen advises to use a double opt-in process when you're collecting email addresses in places other than your own website or when the email capture is part of a contest or sweepstakes. "Double opt-in means that you ask people to confirm their subscription before you add them to your list. That way, you can be sure that all the e-mail addresses that end up on your list are correct and the people on your list are truly engaged." she says. "On your own website, your Facebook page and your blog there's usually no need for a double opt-in process." Gielen says. However, she does recommend sending an email that welcomes the news subscribers, tells them what they can expect and how they can unsubscribe."

Dig Deeper: Finding and Using E-Mail Newsletter Templates

A successful e-newsletter consistently provides value to the recipient by offering relevant content to the readers. "It's not about you, but sharing what you know," Groves says. "If you do it well, recipients will forward it on to others."

Keep in mind that your customers may be solicited via e-mail with scores of offers every day. They eventually tune out the "buy from me" pitch. But they're more likely to read something that helps them become more knowledgeable about a subject that interests them. "Different content offering might include how-to guides that help readers get better at what they do, tips on how to get the most out of the product or service that you sell, background articles on topics that your readers find interesting, surveys, contests and sweepstakes, and promotions such as discounts or free shipping," Gielen says.

A restaurateur might have the chef send out tips on cooking, such as "What to do if you put too much salt in a recipe," Groves suggests. During the holidays, they might send out a newsletter item on what great wine goes with turkey for Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, a landscaper might write an article about plants that deer won't eat. "That's something people can use," Groves says. "They're going to take that and forward it to their friends and say, 'Check this out.' You're sharing knowledge and getting engagement. They already know what you sell."

How can you figure out what your target audience considers to be relevant content? "One way is by asking them on the sign-up form or via surveys and polls," Gielen says. "Another way is by analyzing their behavior. Which links do they typically click on? What kind of subject lines typically trigger them to open your e-mails?"

The articles in the e-newsletter should be brief, Groves advises. And there shouldn't be 42 different items. "A simple one-article newsletter is a fantastic tool," he says. In addition to articles, you might add a calendar of events that might interest readers and, perhaps a link to a promotional offer at the bottom. "If you're writing about California Chardonnays, you might say, 'Here is a real special Chardonnay that we just got in.' That's fine if it's all tied together."

Design for the Preview Pane
Once you have built your list and determined what kind of content your readers value, it's time to develop an effective template for your e-newsletter. The first thing to keep in mind is that most e-mail clients do not display images by default, Gielen says. "The top right two to three inches of your template is what people see in their preview panes, so if your template has mainly images in that area, most readers will not see anything in their preview pane," she says. "Make sure you design your template with this in mind." Think of the preview pane area as a teaser area, and use this area to grab the reader's attention. The information in this area should be compelling enough to make the reader open the e-mail, download the images, and scroll down for more information.

Keep Design Professional
Pick a layout that is going to look professional and render well. Groves says that Constant Contact has 400 different e-newsletter templates alone. You don't have to worry about how to create HTML, but you do need to look at the colors, create images, and think about layout so that it renders well. Most e-mail clients have images turned off as a default, so it's not necessarily a good idea to put a big company logo on the top of the image in the preview pane because it won't load, Groves says. Instead, have that logo lower on the page and just write the company name in regular text at the top of the screen. Choose colors that look weak and reflect your brand. Groves recommends two online tools, Color Cop and Color Schemer, which can help you choose colors. "You don't have to be a graphic artist," Groves says. Lastly, leave some white space for your readers so the e-newsletter doesn't look too dense and is easy on the eye.

Write a Compelling Subject Line
The subject line (and your sender name) is what convinces someone to open your e-mail, Gielen says. You can ask a question, state a benefit, or add urgency, as long as you don't try to deceive your readers. "You should keep your subject line short," she says. "Most readers see only five to seven words, or 50 to 60 characters, of your subject line, so your most important words should be right in the beginning." Also, make your subject line dynamic. Don't use the same subject line over and over again. Finally, tell, don't sell, what's inside. A subject line that tries to sell something is often perceived by readers as spam, and the chance they will delete your e-mail without opening it is much higher.

Choose an E-Mail Service Provider
Don't use Outlook to send out your e-newsletter. Apart from some very nasty deliverability problems you risk running into, you will not have any reporting for your e-newsletter whatsoever, Gielen says. Without the necessary reporting, how will you know how your e-newsletter performs?

There are a number of very good and affordable e-mail service providers out there, like Aweber, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, MailChimp, eROI, iContact and others. "By using an e-mail service provider, you won't have to worry about any of the logistics, you'll know exactly who opened and clicked and even creating a professional looking template will be a piece of cake," Gielen says.

Manage Your List
Each time you send out your e-newsletter, you'll find e-mail addresses that no longer exist or people that have unsubscribed from your list. It is of the utmost importance that you remove these e-mail addresses from your list before you send out your next e-newsletter, Gielen says. "If you don't, you risk running into legal problems, as well as being blacklisted." Remember the two rules of sending e-mail newsletters: relevance and permission. If a customer revokes their permission, you need to respect that. But, Groves says, next time the customer comes in to your store or makes a purchase, follow up and ask to make sure they didn't unsubscribe from the e-newsletter by accident.

Additional Resources

How to Write Effective E-Mail Newsletters
Tips from Web Market Central, a portal for interactive marketing professionals.

E-mail Marketer's Club
Discuss e-mail marketing trends, issues and tactics with other e-mail marketers.