The Medical Defence Union (MDU), which provides legal advice and assistance to medics, said it was aware of several cases where patients propositioned doctors through the sites – and said doctors should stay well clear. In one case, a female doctor was asked out for a drink by patient as she left the surgery.

She refused, but the patient continued the requests via Facebook and sent her a bunch of lilies, learning through the site that they were her favourite flowers. “The pitfalls posed to doctors using social networking sites by inadvertently breaching confidentiality or posting unprofessional content, such as photos, have been well documented,” said Dr Emma Cuzner, MDU medico-legal advisor.

“But doctors may be less prepared for patients using sites like Facebook to ask them out on a date.” She added that doctors must keep relationships with patients “on a professional footing,” saying; “This is in line with doctors” ethical duties not to pursue improper relationships with patients.”

Cannes-winning Taiwanese cameraman Mark Lee Ping-bing says in an interview published in A Poet of Light and Shadow – a collection of his still photographs that shooting in digital format takes away the artistry of camera work and lighting because you can immediately see your work on a display monitor and fix it – as opposed to waiting to develop the film. Lee, best known as a frequent collaborator with his countryman, director Hou Hsiao-hsien, also complained that digital technology allows filmmakers to fix flaws by computer afterward instead of doing things right on the set.

“Film is unknown, uncertain. It’s a chemical reaction. To be frank, it’s a little bit like painting. So if your technical skills and experience aren’t up to part, you’ll think that HD (high-definition digital video) is very easy to use,” Lee said in the book. “But HD is different. There is a monitor. It shows what you have shot. You’ll know if it’s a little dark in one part and you need to add a bit of light. Everything is on the monitor. Everything is OK if you have the monitor. All the expectation and the texture is gone,” he said.

Lee also denounced the practice of covering up visual flaws on computers. “Mybe there is a kid who knows about how to play computer games, or is sensitive to colour – they can get the job done. But if everything can be changed by computer, then this is not a form of art,” he said.

Lee said he didn’t enjoy shooting digital for Tran Anh Hung’s recent adaptation of Norwegian Wood, but the French-Vietnamese director insisted on it because he liked the outcome of his previous movie, I come with the Rain. He said the Japanese production company, Asmik Ace Entertainment Inc, also wanted to use film to portray the popular love story set in 1960s Tokyo.

Lee said he avoided looking at the display monitor when shooting Norwegian Wood. “I didn’t want to be affected, to be controlled by it,” he said. Besides the ease of transfer and computer manipulation, the digital format is also popular with filmmakers because it is significantly cheaper than film and allows them to experiment without worrying about cost.

Besides Hou and Tran, Lee has also worked with Hong Kong’s Wong Kar-wai and Ann Hui. China’s Tian Zhuangzhuang and Jiang Wen, as well as Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda. He won the technical grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000 for shooting Wong’s romance, In the Mood for Love. Kayo Yoshida, an executive at Asmik Ace Entertainment, declined to comment on Lee’s remarks.

A Poet of Ligh and Shadow was published in November.

“We’re adding something that many of you have asked for – the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload.” Zuckerberg said.

“To make this possible, we have focused on giving you the tools you need to share and control your information.” When Facebook launched in early 2004 as an online network for college students to stay connected, the model centered on sharing information with “networks” of school friends.

That online community model endured, being expanded to companies and geographic regions. About half of Facebook users are members of regional networks, with some regions encompassing entire countries, such as India and China.

“Some of these regional networks now have millions of members and we’ve concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy,” Zuckerberg said.

“The plan we’ve come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.” Facebook members will be asked to review and update personal privacy settings in a streamlined new format, according to Zuckerberg.

The feature has been available at the Google Translate service, but is becoming part of the California-based Internet firm’s popular main search engine.

“Now, when you search on Google for something in your own language, you can use this tool to search the web in another language,” Google technical lead Maureen Heymans and product manager Jeff Chin said in a blog post. “We’re integrating it fully into Google search, making it easier for you to find and read results from pages across the Web, even if they weren’t written in a language you speak.”

The tool can be found in a menu revealed by clicking on “Show Options” at the top of a Google search results page. Search keywords are translated into languages that appear relevant, such as French and Dutch for a query about Belgium, and webpages found are presented in the searcher’s language.

“We’ll algorithmically select the best language(s) to translate your search query into and then return you translated results from those pages,” Heymans and Chin said. “We’ll even display results from multiple languages.” Searchers can look for webpages written in any of 51 languages. The tool will display results from as many as five languages at a time, according to Google.

Gamers will experience a new level of immersion with recently released games such as Resident Evil 5, Dorderlands and Batman: Arkham Asylum when using the 3D glasses, claimed Asus. Also, with 15.6in LED backlit display (1,366×768 pixels), they will have plenty of screen space to surf the Web, watch videos and play games.

The notebook is powered by an Intel Core i7-720QM (1.6GHz) processor and has up to 4GB RAM. It also has an nVidia GTX 260M graphic processor for handling 3D games. To complete the overall gaming experience, it has a pair of built-in Altec Lansing speakers. The G51J3D notebook can be configured to include a DVD writer or a Blu-ray combo drive. It also features a 2-megapixel webcam.

Adamo’s new design raises the body of the notebook when it’s fully opened which pushes the keyboard at an angle so it’s more comfortable to use. This also helps in cooling the notebook. The machine’s tiny frame houses a 13.4in widescreen, a full-size keyboard and a touchpad that supports multi-touch.

The notebook, which is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo (1.4Ghz) ULV processor, has 4GB DDR3 RAM and a 128GB SSD (solid-state drive). It runs on Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit). The Adamo XPS retails for RM6,799. www.adamobydell.com

A clear plastic screen protector can help defend the laptop’s LCD against batter splatters, and a thin silicone keyboard cover can help keep loose ingredients from clogging up the machine. Putting electrical tape over the computer’s ports can keep out clouds of flour or sugar. Just be sure to leave the laptop’s air vents unblocked so that heat doesn’t build up inside and cause crashes and other problems.

Heat and consumer electronics don’t often mix well, so keep the laptop away from the stove, too. Although more expensive than a cheap laptop or netbook, a tablet or touchscreen computer may be more convenient for the kitchen. The idea of a kitchen computer has been around since at least 1969, with the expensive Honeywell H316 (pictured on the Computer History Museum’s site at www.computerhistory.org/collections/accession/X579.85).

A French touch-screen PC called the Qooq (qooq.com) is one of the more recent attempts at a dedicated kitchen computer.