Filed under: top10

NBA's 10 Highest-Paid Players

The formation of the Miami Heat super team has been the dominant NBA storyline for the past four months as fans weighed the merits of the game's best players joining forces to win a title. Two-time MVP LeBron James took the most criticism as even Dan Gilbert, the owner of his former team, called James selfish among other names in his infamous letter to fans.

James might be guilty of a few things in his move to Miami, but being selfish isn't one of them. James and new teammates Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all left money on the table this summer when they signed with the Heat thanks to the league's salary cap. James and Bosh will make $14.5 million apiece in salary this season, while Dwyane Wade's deal is worth $14 million. None of them are among the 20 top-paid players in the game.

 

No. 1 Kobe Bryant

Los Angeles Lakers

$24.8 million

Bryant is the NBA's top-paid player for the first time this season. The $83.5 million, three-year extension he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in April assures he will stay on top through the 2013-14 season.

 

No. 2 Rashard Lewis

Orlando Magic

$20.5 million

Lewis signed a $118 million, six-year deal as a free agent in 2007 after nine seasons with the Seattle SuperSonics. Lewis has seen his scoring average decline three straight years.

 

No. 3 Kevin Garnett

Boston Celtics

$18.8 million

Garnett's massive $126 million contract signed during his third season in the league was a major reason behind the NBA lockout that shortened the 1998-99 season. The Big Ticket was the league's highest-paid player for three straight years until Tracy McGrady took the title last season.

 

No. 4 Tim Duncan

San Antonio Spurs

$18.7 million

Duncan can make a strong case as the greatest power forward to ever play the game with four titles, two MVP awards and nine selections to the All-NBA first team. His current contract with the Spurs expires after next season.

 

No. 5 Michael Redd

Milwaukee Bucks

$18.3 million

The Bucks' sharpshooter has seen his last two seasons cut short by serious knee injuries. Redd's salary is likely to take a major haircut when his six-year, $90 million deal expires after this season.

 

No. 6 (tie) Pau Gasol

Los Angeles Lakers

$17.8 million

Gasol and Bryant are both under contract with the Lakers through the 2013-14 season. Gasol signed an extension during last season that added three years and $60 million to his existing deal.

 

No. 6 (tie) Andrei Kirilenko

Utah Jazz

$17.8 million

Kirilenko is nicknamed AK-47 for his initials and number with the Jazz (he was also born in Russia, home to the famous assault rifle). He fills up a stat sheet with rebounds, assists, steals and blocks, but his production hasn't matched the $86 million deal he signed in 2004.

 

No. 8 Gilbert Arenas

Washington Wizards

$17.7 million

Injuries and a suspension for bringing guns into the locker room forced Agent Zero to miss 80% of his team's games since signing a $111 million deal in 2008. His contract with three-plus years left on it might be the most impossible to trade in the league.

 

No. 9 Yao Ming

Houston Rockets

$17.7 million

Yao is one of the best centers in the game when healthy, but he was sidelined all of last season with a broken foot. Yao is in the final year of his contract with the Rockets and will have to prove he is healthy to command another big ticket contract.

 

No. 10 Zach Randolph

Memphis Grizzlies

$17.3 million

Randolph has had a checkered NBA career and never lived up to the $84 million, six-year deal he signed in 2004. He had his most success last season when he made his first All-Star team and led the Grizzlies to a 16-game improvement in the win column.

10 Women Who Changed the Way We Use the Internet

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg sure is getting a lot of press these days. Whether the media flurry surrounding the 26-year-old billionaire is due to  “The Social Network” — the newly released, unauthorized movie detailing Facebook’s creation — or Zuckerberg’s recent $100 million donation to Newark public schools, his notoriety is undeniable.

Along with other Internet hotshots like Larry Page and Sergey Brin (co-founders, Google), Chad Hurley and Steve Chen (co-founders, YouTube) and Jeff Bezos (founder, Amazon), Zuckerberg seems to be a member of an exclusive boys' club of online success stories.

But have you ever heard of Caterina Fake? What about Rashmi Sinha or Mena Trott?

They may not be as much in the spotlight as their male counterparts, but female Internet entrepreneurs are doing amazing things. Below, check out 10 female rock stars of the Internet and how they're changing the way we function online.

Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr and Hunch

Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr and Hunch

Popular photo sharing site Flickr helped to usher in the age of social networking by allowing users to upload original work, comment and communicate with one another. Fake has received many awards for her entrepreneurial spirit and was named one of the "Time 100" by Time Magazine in 2006.

 

  Elaine Wherry, co-founder of Meebo

Elaine Wherry, co-founder of Meebo

Along with two college friends from Stanford, Wherry co-founded Meebo, a free instant messaging program that supports and integrates various IM services (Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, Windows Live Messenger, etc.). With nearly 1.5 million log-ons every day, Nielsen Ratings named Meebo the fastest-growing instant messaging destination in the United States.

 

  Tina Brown, co-founder of The Daily Beast

Tina Brown, co-founder of The Daily Beast

Launched in 2008, Brown's site pioneered the idea of the news collective by relying equally on original journalism and aggregated stories. In the Daily Beast's second year, Time Magazine named it one of the top five news and information websites.

 

  Mena Trott, co-creator of Moveable Type

Mena Trott, co-creator of Moveable Type

Trott and her husband developed the Moveable Type publishing system from a spare bedroom in their house in 2001. Enabling the blogging boom, Moveable Type allows users to create various types and formats of blogs, changing how people expressed themselves online. Trott was also named one of PC Magazine's "People of the Year" in 2004.

 

  Dina Kaplan, co-founder of blip.tv

Dina Kaplan, co-founder of blip.tv

For the independent show creators out there, blip.tv is Mecca. A Web platform that allows producers to share and distribute their original shows, blip.tv lauds itself as the "next generation of television network," and splits all of its advertising profits 50/50 with producers.

 

  Rashmi Sinha, CEO and co-founder of SlideShare

Rashmi Sinha, CEO and co-founder of SlideShare

Sinha revolutionized the way information is shared with the creation of SlideShare, the world's largest presentation sharing web site. Launched in 2006, it was the only site that allowed individuals to create and upload slide presentations to the Internet, making them accessible anywhere, at any time.

 

  Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google

Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google

One of their initial 20 employees and the first female engineer hired by Google, Mayer is now responsible for determining when various Google services are ready for users. She is considered a major player behind the success of Gmail, iGoogle and Google Maps, and was the youngest woman to ever make Fortune magazine's list of the 50 most powerful women in the world.

 

  Gina Trapani, founding editor of Lifehacker

Gina Trapani, founding editor of Lifehacker

As the founding editor of Lifehacker, Trapani was the software and technology site's sole blogger and editor for nine months. Under her editorship (2005-2009), Lifehacker was nominated for Adweek's Blog of the Decade, and Fast Company named Trapani one of the Most Influential Women in Technology in 2009.

 

  Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post

Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post

Combining a news website with an aggregated blog, The Huffington Post transformed the way news is delivered and digested, and introduced the concept that blogs could be primary news sources. In 2009, Forbes awarded Huffington the number 12 spot of their first ever "Most Influential in Media" list.

 

  Lisa Stone, co-founder of BlogHer

Lisa Stone, co-founder of BlogHer

With over 25,000 individual blogs, BlogHer.com is a full-time community for women on the Web. The size and diversity of the forum create a unique space for women to come together and share information and trade advice.

10 Windows 7 Booster Apps

Windows 7 is a big improvement over Vista, and a pretty convenient OS in general—but it's by no means perfect. These 10 downloads improve Windows 7's looks, functions, and make it easier, safer, and more convenient to upgrade to.

10. Bring back the "classic" Start menu

Windows 7's Start menu is a powerful thing, offering program and file launching as you type and allowing for smart pinning of whatever you frequently access. If you're really attached to the Windows 2000/XP-style Start system, though, CSMenu restores a "classic" look to Windows 7 by installing a companion Start menu on your taskbar. Want to eliminate that new-fangled Start menu and use only your classic model? Grab StartKiller and wipe away all signs of progress—er, change.

9. Logon changer customizes password screens

You can customize a lot of your system's look in Windows 7, but the login/password screen remains fairly opaque and unchangeable. Tweaks.com offers a Logon Changer for Windows 7 that simply takes a JPG file (256K or less, so be sure to re-size and compress) and applies it to your logon background. If you don't mind doing a little registry hacking, there's a manual work-around for logon changing, but the Logon Changer is worth the install/uninstall if you know what you want to keep as your logon screen.

8. Create recovery discs for pre-installed Windows 7

If you moved up to Windows 7 by way of a new computer purchase, you may have found that getting a full Windows 7 disc, or even a system recovery disc, was an "option" that cost a good bit of extra cash. If you'd like to ensure you can save your system from common boot-up and system errors in the future, NeoSmart offers its own Windows 7 System Recovery Discs that can repair damaged files, restore System Restore points, and even pull in full backups for restoration. If you upgraded to 7 from a student discount package that only delivered a single .exe file, Download Squad explains how to make a DVD upgrade disc from student discount files.

7. Pull up incoming Gmail from the taskbar

If Gmail is your primary inbox, Gmail Notifier Plus not only subtly informs of you of new mail by changing its taskbar icon, but provides a subject line preview of new messages when you hover over its icon. You also get shortcuts to compose a new message, pop open your inbox in your browser, or head to any of your messages individually. Neat stuff, especially if you'd rather have a more firm control over when your inbox can have your attention—just close down Gmail Notifier Plus when it's time to get cranking.

6. Winfox makes Firefox work with Jump Lists

Support for Windows 7's helpful jump lists won't show up in Firefox until version 3.7. In the meantime, those who want to access their current tabs and most frequently visited sites can do so with Winfox, a helpful little add-on that you pin to your taskbar to access Firefox from. Copy Winfox to your Firefox program directory, install it, and pin the "Winfox" application to your taskbar. Now you can pin favorite pages to your jump list by dragging their tabs down, see the favicons of the sites you've got open, and get a read on how many tabs you're running in the Firefox icon.

5. Hulu Desktop Integration adds streaming TV to Windows Media Center

Windows 7's Media Center was impressive enough for Adam to bust out his Buster Poindexter headline, and the only thing you might say it's missing is better access to streaming television. Since Media Center just added CBS streaming, the one big hold-out is Hulu—which would deliver streaming shows from the likes of Fox, ABC, and NBC. Hulu Desktop Integration brings Hulu to Media Center with a clever little app. Launch the Hulu app from Media Center, and Media Center shuts down, opens the full-screen Hulu Desktop app, and then switches back to Media Center when you're done in Hulu. That's a nice thing, since because it uses the official channel to get at Hulu, the chances of it being locked out by Hulu are slim.

4. Add stacks to your desktop

Windows 7's taskbar is getting a lot of notice, and some say it's more useful than Mac OS X's Dock—except it's missing the very neat "Stacks" feature. Missing, that is, until you grab StandaloneStack or 7stacks, which both do a great job of creating blow-up menus of folders and apps from single icons on your taskbar. Add a storage folder or custom collection of shortcuts to your taskbar, and you'll never have to hunt down that "Computer" link in the Start menu again just to get to the right file.

3. Tweak hard-to-find settings

It's always a good idea to see what kind of settings you can change from your new OS' Control Panel, but Microsoft only lets you play with so many check boxes and sliders. Apps like Ultimate Windows Tweaker, along with XdN Tweaker, have been digging deep into the guts of Windows since Vista first arrived (and sometimes before XP showed up), and they let you seriously fine-tune your system. Want only certain Aero 3D effects on your desktop? Need to change Windows 7's window-snapping behavior? These apps have you covered. The hardest part is knowing when to say when on a settings-changing binge.

2. Make Alt+Tab switching more intuitive

The familiar Alt+Tab keyboard shortcut gained a little visual overhaul in Windows 7, but it still offers just basic window switching. VistaSwitcher, a more powerful app and window switcher, improves on it in just the right ways. Besides an intriguingly different look, the app supports keyboard shortcuts that let you minimize or tile windows from your Alt+Tab screen, close down programs or file windows in bulk, and, with a Ctrl+Alt+Tab press, switch only between the open windows of the particular program you're using, like a browser or image editor. Despite the name, VistaSwitcher works perfectly well on Windows 7.

1. Install all your necessary apps at once

The first few times you re-installed an operating system, it probably felt like an adventure, something fun, a test of your tech prowess. At this point, though, you might just want to skip the part where you spend an hour grabbing Firefox, Picasa, an anti-virus app, WinAmp, uTorrent, and other must-have apps from the net. Ninite is your ticket out of redundant installations. Head to the web site, check off the apps you need from a huge range of good, free software, and download the resulting customized installer app. Double-click, hit start, and do something constructive while Ninite installs everything you asked for in the background, with very few, if any, questions or prompts.

10 More Websites to Download Music for Free

If you like to see some reviews before downloading, you can test these 3 wonderful music blogs. If you want to download more quickly you maybe want to try the 10 websites below which are some more of the best ones to download music for free.

 

1. AirMP3.net

AirMP3

I have no idea how many songs are available to be downloaded, but there are at least top 150 artists and top 150 songs displayed on the site. Since the content of links is collected from other parties, some links may be not workable any more, listening to the music before downloading will be wise. But I do not like the Ads on AirMP3.

2. Archive

Archive

Archive is not only a website to download free old movies, but it also a great website to download free music. You can even listen and download the latest albums.

3. ArtistServer

ArtistServer

There are about 9,000 free songs for you to download, and there is new music for you to listen to. The songs are distributed into different genres, such as Classic, Country, Jazz, and so on. You can search music by the songs, the artists or the blogs. There are also about 260 MP3 ringtones for free downloading.

4. FMA

FMA

There are total 15 genres, including Pop, Rock, Jazz, and so on, among which there may be subgenres, such as Big Band/Swing, Free-Jazz, Jazz: Out and Jazz: Vocal for Jazz. And the music can be sorted by Artist, Album, Date, and so on.

5. Google Music

Google Music

Google Music is only available in China, but it should be one of the largest website for you to listen and download any music of all over the world.

6. iCompositions

iCompositions

You have to sign up before downloading, but you will be surprise to see how many MP3 songs are available for free downloading. You can also upload your own songs.

7. isound

isound

You can see which MP3s are downloaded today or which songs are played mostly. Since you can register and upload your own songs, there are many infamous MP3 songs for free downloading.

8. Jamendo

Jamendo

There are more than 25 thousand albums and about 100 thousand free music for you to listen and download. If you have your own songs, you can upload to Jamendo.

9. MP3.com

mp3dotcom

There are thousands of free music for you to download. You can see which MP3s are mostly downloaded and which ones are mostly played. You can sign up and upload your music if you are an artist.

10. Unsigned Band Web

unsigned Band Web

There are many kinds of songs divided into more than 70 categories for you to download, but it is a pity that the free music can’t be played online. Uploading your own music is available when you sign up.

10 Websites for You to Play Music according to Your Mood

Usually, there will be some happy music when the film scenario is happy, and there will be some sad music when the film scenario is sad. When I am happy, I will like to play some happy music, and when I am sad, I will also like to play some happy music, in order to cheer up.

So, how to find the right music for your mood? You can try the 10 websites below, which will let you play music according to your mood, and what's more, you can listen to all the music free and don’t need to sign up.

 

1. AUPEO!

Play Music according to Your Mood

The AUPEO! music is divided into 10 moods, such as Happy, Fun, Relaxing, and so on. You can’t select which music to play, but you can skip the current playing music. Besides English, AUPEO! also supports Italian, Spanish and Germany. You can listen to all the music without registration.

Go to AUPEO!

2. Google Music

Play Music according to Your Mood

As a matter of fact, it is Google China Music, since it is only workable in China. There are totally 17 kinds of moods including thousands of songs for your choice, and most of them are Chinese songs.

Go to Google Music

3. MeraMood

Play Music according to Your Mood

There are 11 kinds of moods for your choice on MeraMood, they are 70s, 80s, 90s, Dance, Ghazal, Light Music, Party, Patriotic, Religious, Romantic and Sad/Feeling Low. Most of the songs also can be watched as video from YouTube.

Go to MeraMood

4. Moodstream

Play Music according to Your Mood

You can manually fine-tune your mood in various terms, or select one of six presets, including excite, inspire, intensify, refresh, simplify and stabilize. Besides listening, you can also watching the images, but every track is only a part of a song, and the images are not clear enough.

Go to Moodstream

5. Moody Online Music Player

Play Music according to Your Mood

There are totally 16 kinds of moods, all of them are represented by colors. Just click on one of the colors, then you will listen to the related music, you can also open a smaller pop-up window.

Go to Moody Online Music Player

6. Musicovery

Play Music according to Your Mood

Musicovery only has 4 moods for your choices, they are Calm, Dark, Energetic and Positive. But there are 18 music genres of each mood for your choice. Musicovery is also available for Wii, Itunes and Nokia phone with SYMBIAN series 60. But for free account or guest, you can’t choose which music to play.

Go to Musicovery

7. MyMusicSource

Play Music according to Your Mood

Choose one style and then select your mood, there are many related songs for your listening on MyMusicSource, and there are lyrics for some songs.

Go to MyMusicSource

8. NexTune

Play Music according to Your Mood

Click the “Search” button, then you can select what music of what moods to listen. You can also search music by Genres, Artists, Styles, and so on. No need to sign up to play the music on NexTune.

Go to NexTune

9. Stereomood

Play Music according to Your Mood

Stereomood lets you listen to music according to your mood or activity, there are lots of songs for about 30 kinds of moods and about 30 kinds of activities. You can select the related music for different moods or activities from the search bar, and you can play all the result music one by one.

Go to Stereomood

10. YouLicense

Play Music according to Your Mood

YouLicense has 8 kinds of moods for your choice, they are Happy, Sad, Hypnotic, Romantic, Mysterious, Doubtful, Cool and Angry. Once you click one of those moods, the related music will be played on a new pop-up window.

Go to YouLicense

Among the above 10 websites, I often listen to English songs with AUPEO!, and listen to Chinese songs with Google Music. How about you? Which one is your favorite? Or do you have any other similar websites to play music according to your mood? Share with us by adding a comment.

Top 10 #Internet moments of the decade

 

YouTube's video revolution, led by accidental stars such as Susan Boyle, is among the Webbys' top Internet stories of the 2000s.

YouTube's video revolution, led by accidental stars such as Susan Boyle, is among the Webbys' top Internet stories of the 2000s.

The explosion of Craigslist's online classifieds. The death of Napster. The "Twitter Revolution" in Iran.

All big moments on the Internet. In fact, they're among the 10 biggest of the past decade, according to the Webby Awards.

The group that runs the awards -- itself an online institution for more than a decade -- on Wednesday released what it considers the 10 most influential Internet moments of the 2000s.

The list includes both high-profile moments and quieter events that would prove to be turning points in the years that followed. It does not rank the 10 in order of importance.

"That depends on who you are and what you're interested in," David-Michel Davies, the executive director of the Webby Awards, said. "The Internet is life in a way ... . What's the most important moment in the world is a broad question."

The staff of the Webbys is accepting nominations through December 18 for the 14th annual awards, to be handed out next year. They picked their finalists by going through annual awards they've handed out since 2000 and winnowing the list down.

Davies said it will be interesting to see how kind the next decade is to their decisions.

"Maybe in twenty years we'll look back and some of these might change," he said. "Something might become more important. I think history and time always give you more insight into what moments or sites or companies shaped the landscape."

In chronological order, here are the Webbys' Top 10:

• Craigslist expands beyond San Francisco (2000): When the free classifieds site broadened its reach into nine more cities, it began a major shift away from newspaper classifieds, according to the Webbys. Craigslist now hosts listings in more than 500 cities in 50 countries.

Google AdWords launches (2000): The Webbys say the launch of Google's self-service ad program opened up the online marketplace, allowed advertisers to better target their customers and, in short, "turned advertising on its head."

Wikipedia launches (2001): The free, open-source encyclopedia now has more than 14 million articles in 271 languages with 20,000 of those coming in the first year. The Webbys credit Wikipedia with being an early example of strangers from around the world coming together to collaborate on projects.

Napster shuts down (2001): Although the controversial file-sharing site bemoaned by many in the recording industry shut down in 2001, the Webbys note that it opened up the floodgates. Hulu, iTunes and other legal sites followed, as did downloading songs from less reputable sites and artists releasing their music exclusively online.

Google's IPO (2004): One of the largest stock offerings in history put the search engine on the path to becoming what the Webbys call "the most dominant and influential company of the decade." Gmail, YouTube, Google Earth, Google Maps and Android would all follow.

Online video revolution (2006): Faster bandwidth, cheaper camcorders and YouTube's use of Adobe's Flash 9 video player combine to make online video explode. "The trifecta led to a boom in homemade and professional content - the Diet Coke and Mentos guys, lonelygirl15, SNL's Lazy Sunday, and Sen. George Allen's "Macaca-gate" -- that has reshaped everything from pop culture to politics," the Webbys write.

Facebook opens up, Twitter takes off (2006): In September, Facebook expands from only college students to anyone older than 13. Almost overnight, social networking went mainstream. Less than a month later, Twitter's owners acquire the company, paving the way for the service to take off the following year.

The iPhone debuts (2007): It was released on June 29, 2007, and by the end of the weekend a half-million had been sold. The phone from Apple has inspired a slew of other smartphones and an app for just about every aspect of modern life.

U.S. presidential campaign (2008): The Internet "altered presidential politicking in 2008 much as television had forty years earlier," according to the Webby list. "Obama Girl" and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's controversial sermons helped shape the debate, social networking helped mobilize volunteers and voters and online fundraising shattered records.

Iranian election protests (2009): When Iran's power structure announced dubious results from its presidential election, the opposition took to social networking and the "Twitter Revolution" was born. The Web let protesters beam images from the chaotic country at a time when mainstream media outlets had been severely hampered. Twitter became so fundamental in spreading news of the protests that followed that the U.S. State Department asked the company to delay a planned shutdown for maintenance, the Webbys note.

Posterous theme by Cory Watilo