ONLINE dating "sad and flustrating"

ONLINE dating renews women's hope in love and sex but can be just as disappointing as the real-life dating scene, according to new Canadian research.

Susan Frohlick, an anthropology professor at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, says the women she surveyed gained a sense of empowerment from their online dating experiences.

But they still wanted the man to make the first move and expected him pick up the tab.

"Women are finding it as a useful tool to enter into the dating world, they find that it's safe, they find that they can be a little more bold than they would in face-to-face relationships," Ms Frohlick said of her survey, which looks at how women over 30 view online dating.

"But, at the same time, they are experiencing frustration because it does seem that the internet in many ways is just the same old bar scene."

Complaints include a preponderance of men who are looking for much younger women, as well as men who misrepresent their looks, interests or marital status, or who show little interest in moving the relationship offline, she said.

"There's not much of a difference between the virtual world and the real world," said Linda, 33, a Toronto professional who has used an online dating site on and off, three or four times for a few months each time.

"It's sad and equally as frustrating."

Linda says she knows it can work out, noting that a friend met her husband after spending more than two years on different websites, but she admits she's given up on the game.

"At least when you're in the bar, you know what they look like," she said, citing examples of meeting bald men whose profile pictures displayed a full head of hair.

"A lot more successful, attractive women are using these tools – I don't think the men match up."

Lori Miller, a singles and dating expert for www.lavalife.com in Toronto, says dating via the web can mimic the bar scene. But it also gives women the chance to approach and meet dozens of men while knowing a little something about them beforehand.

"You're literally thrown into the largest singles bar," she said.

"It is a lot of work, it is the luck of the draw just like being in that coffee shop and meeting the one."

Ms Frohlick's small survey, to be completed in April, is questioning up to 25 Canadian women about their online dating habits. She hopes it will become a pilot for a far larger survey of women across North America.

Russia launches its own GPS

RUSSIA successfully launched a rocket this week carrying the last three satellites to complete a navigation system to rival America's GPS.

The military-run GLONASS mapping system works over most of Russia and is expected to cover the globe by the end of 2009, once all its 24 navigational satellites are operating.

A space rocket blasted off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome on the steppes of neighbouring ex-Soviet Kazakhstan, from which Russia rents the facility.

"The launch was carried out smoothly at 10:32 p.m. (6:32 a.m. EST)," RIA news agency quoted a spokesman for the Russian space agency as saying. "We expect satellites to separate from the booster on the orbit at 2:24 a.m. (10:34 a.m. EST)".

Work on GLONASS — or Global Navigation Satellite System — began in the Soviet Union in the mid-1970s to give its armed forces exact bearings around the world.

The collapse of the Russian economy in the late 1990s drained funds and the plans withered, but President Vladimir Putin has ensured the project is now being lavishly funded from a brimming government budget.

Officials said GLONASS would mainly be used alongside the US global positioning system, which Washington can switch off for civilian subscribers, as it did during recent military operations in Iraq.

Pirate movies and pirated music

US rap was the most illegally-downloaded genre of music in 2007, with three number one hits featuring singer Akon appearing in the list of popular downloads.

The most frequently traded song on file-sharing networks was Party Like A Rockstar by Atlanta-based rap group Shop Boyz, according to the study commissioned by Wired magazine.

Other songs in the top 10 included Senegalese-American rapper Akon's collaboration with Snoop Dogg, I Wanna Luv U, Don't Matter by Akon and Bartender by T-Pain featuring Akon.

All three songs featuring Akon reached #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart during late 2006 and 2007. The Billboard charts are compiled from radio airplay and sales.

Tracks by US rap and hip-hop artists DJ Unk, Soulja Boy, Mims and Sean Kingston were also in the list. The only pop song included was Justin Timberlake's My Love.

Akon, T-Pain, Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake also appeared in the list of most-downloaded artists, a combination of illegal album and singles downloads.

British rock group Radiohead, who released their seventh album In Rainbows as a download in October, did not appear on either list despite appearing prominently on BitTorrent websites.
Most-traded movies

The film Resident Evil: Extinction – based on a popular videogame – was the most popular movie on file-sharing networks, according to the study.

Other movies in the list included Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End, I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry, Ratatouille and Superbad.

Surprisingly, one of the year's biggest blockbusters Transformers was only seventh-placed. Other box-office hits Spiderman 3 and Shrek The Third did not appear at all.

The most-downloaded TV show was Heroes, followed by Prison Break, the BBC's Top Gear, Smallville and Desperate Housewives.

The study was undertaken by BigChampagne Online Media Measurement and tracked consumption trends across major peer-to-peer file-trading networks including BitTorrent, Gnutella and eDonkey.

Peer-to-peer file-sharing (also known as P2P) is a method of sharing large files without a central source. Instead of files being hosted on a server and downloaded by several users, files are shared between users directly.

BitTorrent is currently the most popular form of P2P file-sharing.